Something About How Ford's Favorite Color Is Still A Color That He Could Only See Thanks To Bill.

I literally wrote this at 4-5am and if I don't share it now I probably won't share it ever so I'm sorry if this sucks lmao

The Bad Timing

It was an autumn evening in 1981 and you and Ford were on the sofa, cuddling.

"I loved you ever since you met me."

Ford tilted his head to look at his lover laying on his chest. "When I met you?"

"M-hm." Was all you said. Ford chuckled.

"Don't you mean 'When I met you'?"

You smiled, still not looking at him. "Nope. I meant when you met me." Then you finally looked at him. "Because if I loved you when I met you, it would be weird."

He was silent for a while, thinking. "I don't get what you mean, darling."

You chuckled. "It just feels right to say it that way."

This confused Ford even more but when he opened his mouth to ask, you gave him a look that said "Don't think about it that much." So he changed his mind and didn't ask anything. 'It must be something that doesn't make sense but they like anyway.' he thought. You had things like that, he got used to it. You actually thought him not everything has to be factually accurate and sometimes doing some things in the wrong way was more fun. Just like this sentence, although he couldn't see the appeal to it yet.

You planted a small kiss on his cheek and he kissed your head. You both savoured this moment of cuddling on the sofa on an autumn evening, while his mind wondered off to the day you met in the library.

~

While he was in the portal he thought about you every day. One day he remembered this moment and he smiled. He still couldn't figure why you said it that way. But it didn't matter anymore, did it? He was lost in other dimensions and he lost hope on going back to his own. By that time he thought you would've moved on and maybe found someone else. Even though he knew that was most likely the case, it still hurt him to think every time. He just hoped he could go back one day and reunite with you and his brother.

After he came back from the portal, he was expecting to see you, if you were still in Gravity Falls, maybe married and with kids, grandkids even. It would hurt him for sure, but also help him to get over you.

He decided to ask Stan about you. Maybe you were still here and he'd get to see you once again. But before he had a chance to ask him, he saw you.

You were right there, right in front of him, at the gift shop, rearanging some items. You had your headphones on and were humming the song you were listening to. You didn't notice him until you felt his gaze on you and turned to him. You smiled politely and took of your headphones as you approached him.

"Hi! You must be Mr. Pines' brother, right?"

He looked confused and surprised at the same time.

"I'm Y/N. Nice to meet you." You extended a hand to shake his hand. He waited for a while, like he was lost in thought. After a few seconds he finally snap out of it and shook your hand.

"Stanford Pines." His voice betrayed him and shook a little.

"Nice to meet you Mr. Pines." He mumbled something like "You too." before you excused yourself to get back to work.

He looked behind you. All his thoughts about this reunion was crashed. Because in no scenario he thought that you would not remember him. He also, in no scenario, did ever think that you would be the same age he met you.

He went down to his lab in a hurry. He needed to be alone. He couldn't understand what was happening. How did you not age at all? Were you not human anymore? Or were you ever a human or were you something else this whole time? A vampire, perhaps? Or had you find a way to stop aging? How come you didn't remember him? Did you act like you didn't know him on purpose? But it really was like you two were meeting for the first time back there.

Then it hit him. The thing you said over thirty years ago. The time he met you. You had loved him the moment he met you.

"Because if I loved you when I met you, it would be weird."

Your words echoed in his head as he finally understood it all. He met you thirty years ago, but you met him just now, at the gift shop.

You must have traveled back in time. You weren't from his time. You were from now, the year 2012.

So at the end of the day, you had no chance on getting back together. Not because you were married, not because you were over him, but because of something you both couldn't control: The bad timing.

If you’re being questioned about a murder by one of those hobbyist detectives. it is an absolute rule that you have to be washing the dishes or pruning some plants while talking, so that when they finally get around to asking a pointed question about where you were at the time of the murder you can freeze for a second with a knife in your hand. It’s enrichment for them you gotta understand. They thrive off of red herrings, it’s their favorite treat, so even if you have a rock solid alibi and weren’t involved with the murder at all you have to give them some reason to be suspicious of you. It’s what friends are for.

🔺FOR SCIENCE AND REGRET!🔺

I made these cursed pages for Chapter 5 of Till Weirdmageddon Do Us Part [Bill Cipher x Female Reader], a totally normal(!) rom-com where you "accidentally" marry a triangle and now your life is held together with sarcasm, eldritch glitter, and emotional damage lasagna.

Font by: ~ Chloe ~ !!!

Check out the fic here: Till Weirdmageddon Do Us Part

Featuring: Poor decision-making, interdimensional marriage drama, passive-aggressive eggplants(?), Ford Pines experiencing seventeen emotions and repressing eighteen, Bill making inappropriate jokes, a reader with morals (not good ones), *cough cough* probably some smut along the way + ROMANCE (questionable)

Coffee and Conclusions [Stanford Pines x Reader] FLUFF

Tags: Fluff, Young!Stanford Pines, Pre-Portal incident, just Ford being a sleep deprived nerd

When you went to check on Ford, the laboratory down stairs was in a state of disarray- even more so than usual.

Papers filled with hurriedly scribbled scientific notations, equations, graphs, and triangles(?) Littered the floors. All sorts of machinery bits laid scattered from an unpturned basket of them. And Ford? He was paced around wildly, six fingers clutching a crumple stack of papers while mumbling to himself.

You called his name, and he stopped his pacing to shoot you a grin that could rival the sun in it's brilliance.

"Ah, Starling, there you are! What time is it? Did you get the parts I asked you to fetch for me?"

"I did, but, Stanford, what is all this?"

You strode closer to the chaos, the eye of the storm- Stanford Pines who gratefully took the box of parts you fetched from town.

"I am close to cracking the code- well, one of them. I can feel it! I'm drawing close to an astounding conclusion!"

"And probably a heart attack." You drawled, eying the empty cups of coffee stacked high on his work table.

"So long as it comes after the portal test run!" Ford joked.

You fix him a glare and he smiles abashedly.

"By next week, we should be able to initiate test runs and optimization checks for the portal!"

"Incredible," you whispered.

Your eyes drifted to the triangular structure that towered over the two of you. It was dim in the lab, but in less than a week, it would be lit up with otherworldly light, buzzing with energy- if what Ford was saying was true.

"This could be the answer to all our problems!" Ford beamed, fist balled up in the air triumpanthly.

A hand gently yet firmly snaked around your shoulders, you were pressed against Ford's chest. You're screaming internally as you caught the scent of fresh pine, coffee, and ink on him.

"That's great, but are you alright?" 

Now that you were closer to him, you noticed Ford's unruly appreance. His chocolate brown hair was tousled and sticking up in places, as if someone took a vacuum, tried- and failed- to tame it. There was a coffee stain on the untucked hem of his button-up, revealing a bit of the soft skin hiding underneath. There were even more ink stains on the cuffs of his sleeves. His eyes were blown wide with delight, a contrast to the dark shadows forming under them.

His smile was easy and wide as he looked at you, eagerly waiting for any sign of your approval. You swear you saw goddamn sparkles in his eyes just now.

Somehow, his haggard appearance made your heart quicken. Damn this fool for not taking care of himself and somehow manages to STILL be attractive!

"Oh noooo, you've drank to much coffee," you groaned, stepping back from him.

A part of you mourned the warmth of his body, but it was getting hard to think being that close to him. Besides, you needed to set him straight- he's running on fumes!

"Oh yes! Yes I have, but that's besides the point, my dear. I needed to chase a certain equation that's been puzzling me and Fidds for a while now. I simply can't sleep, not when the solution's at the tip of my tongue!"

His words were hurried, you barely registered them as the sound of his velvety smooth voice called you "My Dear".

Your cheeks flush and you sighed, running a hand through your warm face.

"Stanford Pines, you need to sleep, it's been two days!"

"Sleep? Perish the thought! I need at least 34 more hours, if we're being generous, to figure out a way to stabilize the anti-gravity compression cogs of the portal-"

Ford was about to launch into another rant when he ran into you with his pacing. He wasn't the most coordinated and self-aware whenever he was sleep deprived. So your face bumped his chest, making you stumble back.

"Oh! Sorry, starling, I am feeling... a little  indisposed right now."

The nickname made you melt. But that wouldn't do, you needed to put your foot down and make him rest.

You quirk a brow as Ford chuckled wearily, clearing his throat and stepping back. When he wasn't busy talking your ear off, you can see the lines of sleepiness painting his face.

And here it comes, the wave of exhaustion- the crash that often followed days and nights of drinking coffee like water. Ford yawned, a hand covered his mouth. You sighed, shaking your head fondly at your friend.

"Man, you were always like this. Even in college. Come up, you fool. Rest up, new ideas will come when you wake."

Without waiting for his usual protests, you grabbed your hand. It was always effective in silencing him. You grinned at him over your shoulder before dragging him up the stairs.

Stanford was always weak to when you held his hand- especially in college. It seems that trait survived years after graduation. Six fingers curled gently against your small hand as he finally surrendered to your nagging.

"I have jelly beans waiting for you upstairs, IF, you promise to eat something filling."

Ford beamed, the apples of his cheeks turning pink at your promise and touch.

Headshot

"I have missed you"

Ok but they didn't know this

would be their last time on the swing set together. Like, of course, they were talking about their future and how things would change soon. But "soon" didn't mean "tomorrow", or at least it wasn't supposed to. They thought they still had time. And even when Ford would eventually leave for university, he'd still be in contact with his family and his brother, so of course they would still come to their favorite hang out spot, if only for old time's sake. (A thing a lot of people seem to forget is that Ford very much didn't want Stan out of his life before the science fair. I don't think he even considered something like this a possibility, because why would he?)

There's something so profoundly sad about someone visiting their childhood favorite place for the last time without knowing it. But to think about how for the brothers it was not them having fun, or chatting or looking at the sea like they always used to. It was them talking about their futures (which had just recently become futures —plural instead of future —singular) that would very soon tear them apart, so much more than they thought it would.

Rating: Eventually NSFW (Maybe)

Type: Ongoing

Tags: Ford Pines/Reader, Female Reader, 70s Ford, Young Ford Pines, Nerdy Ford Pines, College, Classmates, Strangers to Friends to Lovers, Slow Burn, Smart Reader, Sarcastic Reader, Ford is a Tad Arrogant, Eventual Romance, Eventual Smut, ...maybe, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Backupsmore University, Reader is a Jack of All Trades

Chapter Word Count: 7,263

Stanford Pines was not interested in taking ‘Physics and Chemistry for Elementary Educators’. However, he had foolishly vowed to take every physics course Backupsmore offered, without fully realizing the implications.

Despite his reservations, he was a man of his word. 

When he walked into the classroom, ten minutes before class, he found that it had already filled up. Unsurprisingly, the majority of the students were women, with colorful planners laid out on the desk in front of them. They used multi-colored highlighters and were already looking over the syllabus, which Ford picked up on his way past the teacher’s desk.

The room was even decorated partly like an elementary classroom. There were ‘science vocabulary words’ on index cards in one of those displays with clear pockets hanging on the wall, along with colorful posters reminding of important scientific facts. There was a set that gave a rather rudimentary explanation of the scientific process. 

He had a choice between two empty seats. He didn’t figure either would be more pleasant than the last—elementary teachers likely wouldn’t make for very stimulating conversation.

Each table had four students sitting at it. The only two other male students were already chatting animatedly at tables with three women at each. It seemed like they all knew each other already.

Read on Ao3

notes: temporary character death

You were a little kid, when you’d first met him. But so was he. It had been a time before time, when many things did not yet exist, and even more were simply incomprehensible. 

Other kids always talked about Bill and his ‘weird’ eye. You didn’t really get it. Your mom told you to be nice to Bill, but you didn’t really know him. When you asked the other kids why he or his eye was weird, none of them knew what to say. And if they did, they all gave a different answer. You guessed their parents just told them he was weird. Maybe you were weird, too, then. You never really knew what to say or how to approach anyone, and it’d only become a problem when your parents asked you if you had any friends. That was the moment you had realised that you didn’t. 

You didn’t really know why you picked Bill, back then. You didn’t care about him either way. But you did liked his shoes. They were big, a cool colour, and they were squeaky when he moved. What was there not to like? That morning, you had asked your dad what you should ask when you wanted to play together with someone. He had said that, after school, you should get someone’s parents’ permission if you want to play after school. 

“Bill’s mom, can Bill play?” You’d ask who you would later get to know as miss Scalene.

“I don’t know!” She responded, in that slow, sweet tone people who spend a lot of time around young children naturally begin to emulate. “I think you should Billy ask that.”

“Oh. I thought his name was Bill! I’m sorry.” You called out, swaying a little from side to side. 

“It’s Bill,” he’d said. His voice was higher than you had expected. “But mom calls me Billy.”

“Oh,” you started again. “Can I call you that too?” You asked. 

“…Mm.” Billy had hummed. “Okay. I guess.” Even when he’d said the affirmative, he hadn’t sounded entirely convinced. He was hesitant to appear from next to his mom. 

“So. Do you wanna play, Billy?” He glowed a little brighter. 

He was quiet for a moment. You think his mom squeezed his hand. “Sure. But what?” 

You didn’t really have much experience playing with other kids, either. But you weren’t about to tell your new friend Billy that! You’d offered to play hide and seek together, to which he’d agreed. After just a little bit of time together, talking and playing came a lot more easily. 

You would play hide and seek together quite a lot. That was the first time you really came face-to-face with Billy’s mischievous side. He had advantages over you that you simply could not imagine. With his eye, that could see ‘every’ which way, was always able to spot you long before you bumped into him. Yours were always just fixed in a single direction, bumping into other shapes was normal and expected. Billy never did that. He could suddenly appear behind you, and you had no idea how he did it. If you ever found him, it was because he could no longer contain his laughter, or because of the squeaking of his shoes. 

For a while, this went fine. But you grew sick of losing all the time. You’d eventually stopped, swayed violently from side to side (a sight of great displeasure amongst your two dimensional race) and cried big, fat tears. Your purple glow diminished to a flickering.

“It’s not fair!” You mumbled out, and crossed your arms in front of your chest. “You always win, and I never, ever do. You’re cheating.”

“I’m not cheating!” He exclaimed a little too loudly, and you cried even harder. “It’s my eye,” he said and pointed at it. “It’s not my fault I can see things you can’t. I’m not cheating.” 

“…It’s still cheating if you’re not doing it on purpose,” you mumbled huffily. Not to mention, he had been way too happy beating you over and over and over again! You sniffle and loosen your arms. “Did you know people call your eye weird? Why is it like that?”

“Yes. Duh. I know people say that… And I dunno. Mom says it’ll be alright when I’m older.” You were too young to know to recognize or maneuverer around a touchy subject. “…Do you think it’s weird?”

“I don’t know yet,” you responded. “What else can you see? And do?” 

Billy told you about the stars. Whereas his parents had tolerated his talks about the stars, had found his enthusiasm for something they couldn’t see endearing and worrying in equal measure, you were fascinated by them. Perhaps exactly because you couldn’t see them, your interest had expanded. Bill and you would exchange drawings. He’d draw the stars for you, while you would show him what the world looked like to you, or other things. Sometimes, you drew the two of you together, too. 

Afterwards, the two of you had become inseparable. And, years later, when Billy’s parents had lost all hope in the possibility that his eye would change, when people started to fear him, you’d stuck by his side like glue. He had told you of his plan to show everyone the stars, and you’d practically vibrated with excitement. You had counted down the hours. 

And, like the rest of them, you had ended up smashed. Into. Pieces, scattered into nothing but the finest of dust, leaving behind a pile of static, writhing blood. Maybe, unlike the rest, you had felt a sliver of happiness when you died. Maybe you’d even gotten to see it. 

--

In another life, many, many, many years in the future, you had been a human. In this life, you were born with the same fascination for the stars, and granted the opportunity to study them to your heart’s content. Maybe the Axolotl had taken mercy on your soul, or something along those lines. You had a good life. A comfortable one. A life that was much, much happier than the one you had lived a trillion years ago. 

But you had a childhood imaginary friend. Perhaps a part of your traumatic past life had lodged itself so deeply in your soul that not even reincarnation had washed away all memories of it. You had a childhood imaginary friend named Billy, who was a floating little triangle with a big, glossy eye and cool shoes. As you grew older, he’d slipped from your mind, and the only remnant of his existence were some drawings you’d kept of him in a forgotten drawer in your room. 

When you had doodled him again once, many years later, the shape was in line enough with his current appearance to allow him a portal of view into your life. He hadn’t been able to explain what it was that drew himself to you. Why he started to infiltrate your dreams, merely to watch from a distance. The design of your mindscape, the big, starry expanse spanning out above it, had felt familiar to him. The desire to watch you go about your day and do the boring, mundane things that every meatbag does every single day. But when he finally decided to show himself in one of your dreams, it had all clicked into place.

“Billy!” You’d exclaimed happily. “Huh… I haven’t thought about you in forever. It’s been a really long time.” It was something in your eyes and the way you’d said it, that had jolted him back all that time. He’d almost forgotten about you. Forgotten your name, and what you’d looked like. Only vague memories of happiness had remained in contrast with the sight of your corpse. “But you look a bit different from what I remember. Well, a dream’s a dream, right?”

“Y…Yeah, well, ahahaha!” It wasn’t often that Bill was thrown off-balance, and it’d made him a little sick. His mind jumped between destroying you from the inside out then and there, and cradling you into a little pocket dimension he could fit in the palm of his hand for the rest of his eternity. “You’ve changed, too, kid. Like you said, a lot of time has passed. So! What are you up to now, huh?” 

Bill knew from the moment he set his eye upon you, that he’d have a soft spot for you. It was dangerous. You weren’t like those others, who he could grow amused with for a little bit, toy around with and, eventually, discard without a second thought. No. The two of you went waaaay back, and he’d already seen you die once before. 

Could he really let that happen again? 

Talking about a single bill book page under here

The thing about this page is, for something that was supposedly ripped out, it doesn't really contain anything that strikes me as needing.... to have been... ripped out.

Sure, he talks about being lonely here and maybe that could be embarrassing to him, but it's not like he hasn't talked about being an outcast before, his entire about page has a section dedicated to his trials and tribulations with his peers when he was younger.

Additionally, there's many times in the journal where he seems to have written something he feels he shouldn't have. Though ripping that thing out isnt usually his method of choice. He much prefers to scratch things out.

Why couldn't the page have existed like this? Or even, if the entire thing truly is too embarrassing to have in your journal, why did you write it there in the first place?

It seems to me that the only reason this page was included with the other Bill pages was to set up the narrative of Ford's loneliness. (That within Journal 3 proper isn't really needed, because one can already ascertain that...). Doyalist reason? Sure, Alex is trying to set up his story. Watsonian reason? Naturally you turn it around and see it as Bill trying to set up his own story.

This page's existence in general isn't the only beef I have with it though. While we're meant to accept it on the basis that he ripped this out, Ford engaging with personal feelings, especially negative ones like this in such a blatant way is... unusual. I'd say he's much more prone to distracting himself away from that sort of thing with his work.

For the journal especially, this page would have to take place pretty early, as it's supposed to be pre-Bill. Which is weird, considering a later page in the original J3...

Of course, like I said, we the audience can understand Ford is lonely. And I'm not trying to say he doesn't know it himself, but he does not engage with it.

The thing about this page though, is that it's much more than just a single spot where Ford's own loneliness is mentioned. It's a turning point for the way Ford writes. Prior to Fiddlefords arrival, Stanford takes a few pages to introduce himself, then everything following is either an anomaly page or the occasional muse page. Like I said before, it's all very work-focused.

After Fiddleford comes to town, Ford is forced to feel the full extent how lonely he's truly been, and he starts to write a lot of pages of his and Fiddleford's adventures together, including his feelings during. (insert everyones favorite lines here:)

But he also starts to write about something else...

Over

and over

and over

again...

Fiddleford's renewed presence in his life really opened some mental-block floodgates in Ford's mind. From experience, sometimes you really aren't faced with how truly lonely you are until you are provided with some respite from it.

Again, I would like to say, it's not that I think he wasn't lonely before. He definitely was, and it's certainly part of why Bill was able to target him. But would he have written it out like that at that point in time? In the journal no less?

I dont really think so. I think he was doing everything in his power not to think or feel it.

And writing it down isn't really what I'd call conducive to that.