I Have A Fic Idea That I'd Really Like To Write, And I Hope People Would Like To Read It, But I'm Too

mom said it's my turn to recontextualize prior gravity falls episodes into something sad 👓

It’s Stan’s 2nd time in prison and he is bored.

The food is edible, his cellmates are quiet and polite and even the guards treat him with the bare minimum of respect.

Needless to say, Stan hates it. 

Boredom means Stan has time to think about what could’ve been if he had been smarter, better and more like Ford.

If Stan had just known how to fix Ford’s project, maybe he’d still be someone worth keeping around.

With nothing better to do, Stan one day decides to visit the prison library and finds a few boxes full of engineering textbooks abandoned in a corner.

What if Stan could’ve fixed Ford’s project. Could it even have been possible?

Stan swallows hard and picks up the first book.

Meanwhile on the other side of the continent.

“Oh no no no.”

“What is it Fiddleford?”

“I donated the wrong books! All my notes and corrections were in there…”

Stan snorts as he keeps on reading. This McGucket fellow was hilarious.

The book by itself would’ve never kept Stan’s attention, but the notes, snarky remarks, blueprints for villainous contraptions and death rays? Now that’s the stuff!

Over the next months Stan devours one book after the other and when he finally gets released he’s allowed to take the boxes with him as a thank you for fixing and improving the prison’s new experimental computer system.

***

A couple of years later Fiddleford opens the door to a little robot stomping around on the front porch. Mechanical legs on a toaster body with googly eyes that Fiddleford suspects can see more meets the eye.

He kneels down to inspect the cute little fellow when it suddenly notices him, vibrates and starts to talk.

“THANK. YOU. FOR. THE. BOOKS. NERD.”

Fiddleford has no time to figure out what that means before a book shoots out from the slot and hits him right in the head.

“HA. HA. HA.”

The little bot laughs and explodes into fireworks.

Fiddleford watches the show in amazement and inspects his present.

Beginners Guide to Mechanical Engineering

But not any guide. His guide. The one he carried with him throughout college and kept improving upon whenever he could. 

Only now there are more notes added. Corrections to his corrections, complaints about his design choices and disagreements with his theories.

Oh, it’s on!

***

It takes a few days to find the person behind the little prank, an anonymous entrepreneur who is said to be self taught and on the verge of reinventing the world of computers and robotics as they know it. 

Things that people have also been saying about Fiddleford himself.

Fiddleford laughs in delight. He always liked a friendly competition!

So he sends his new rival a little killer robot of his own as a greeting.

***

If Stanford had known what asking his old college buddy to help him out with the portal would entail he would’ve thought twice about inviting him.

It’s not like he isn’t happy for Fiddleford. He clearly found a like minded individual with the same passion for destruction as himself but would it kill them to keep it quiet for once? Stanford is doing important work here!

[Besides if Stanford wanted to he could totally build robots as well. Better ones even. Fiddleford shouldn’t spend so much of his free time fighting with his rival when his best friend was right here!]

Stanford sighs as yet another explosion causes the ground to shake and feels something push against his leg. 

It’s a little possum-like robot bringing him a bottle of water courtesy of Fiddleford’s rival.

Apparently this mystery person felt bad about destroying Stanford’s house one time too many and gifted him this little helper as an apology.

Try as he might, Stanford is unable to hate the thing and lets it climb onto his lap.

“At least you want to keep me company, hm?”

He strokes the fake fur carefully and the robot rumbles in contentment. It feels nostalgic and he knows Stanley would’ve loved it.

Maybe Ford should call him.

I feel like I would have been diagnosed with OCD a lot earlier if the vast majority of screening questions (for mental illnesses in general) weren't based on the person's perception of their own behavior, in isolation. and what i mean by that is asking someone with OCD "do you wash your hands excessively?" is not a good question.

a person with OCD believes they are washing their hands the correct number of times. it's not excessive. we believe we're exhibiting best practices and helping to keep everything clean.

better questions might be, "does it seem like you wash your hands a lot more than your friends or family?" "do you get dry patches or cuts on your hands from washing your hands?" "do you find it deeply distressing, more so than how you've seen other people react, when you get something on your hands that you can't clean off right away?"

being asked "are you overly preoccupied with bugs, symmetry, and contamination?" also got "no" responses from me years ago in my life. what they didn't ask for, and didn't know, was what *exactly* I was doing in my day to day life that genuinely ate up my time and mental space to a concerning degree, but I *didn't know* that other people don't do this.

"do you spend a lot of time cleaning?" -> no, it's not a lot. it's a good amount. why?

"do you become frustrated because it seems like no one else meets your organizational and cleanliness standards - do you often 'take over' for other people because they can't do it right - do new friends seem surprised by how strict you can be about your living space?" -> oh. yeah. yeah I get it now.

Finished

goth agent stone is something i've been spinning in my head for the past couple weeks... i've been into goth for, oh my god around a decade now (albeit on and off) so i hope you don't mind if i ramble some thoughts at you as a jumping off point? it's a bit of a niche headcanon so i'm delighted to share it with someone ;; this is a bit of a long one sorry so feel free to ignore it lol i won't be offended

i can imagine stone as having quite a corp goth lean: pinstripe pencil skirts, black trench coat over a suit, cat eye sunglasses, eyeliner!! that sort of thing. not all that different to what he usually wears, just... spookier! i can imagine him in a lot of black leather too, given the whole motorcyclist thing. robotnik might be similar but with more DRAMA. he's a supervillain he's got style he's got flair he's got ribcage patterns sewn into his jacket.

and since stone's someone who sews (and is clearly quite good at it) he'd have so much freedom!! can't find the perfect ruffly blouse? make one! in the '80s especially goth fashion was about hand me downs and DIY he'd be so at home

as for music!! that's the real heart of it. i can imagine them both enjoying the classic, 80s goth roots type of music but i've always pictured robotnik as having an industrial/metal/rock lean. stone feels like he'd be happy listening to whatever robotnik wants to listen to, honestly, as well as some of the dreamier stuff like cocteau twins. music to sway and yearn to.

but uhh anyway if you want a peek into goth culture i'd recommend watching or reading interviews with bands like specimen and fans at the bat cave or just on the street, there were a lot of news outlets that interviewed goths back when it was this really crazy new thing. i'm especially fascinated by the ones from the '80s but there's some excellent modern bands too :-3 and for a look into '90s and 2000s goth there's of herbs and altars' storytimes, please mind the content warnings on them because they're quite heavy but i credit dorian with getting me back into goth after i'd basically abandoned it in my teens.

i did a little happy dance when i saw you were thinking of looking into this stuff, i'm very passionate and this is really just scratching the surface. i could go on and on as all my friends are very aware ;; but i'll stop now. thank you so much if you read all this

Rambling is a love language and I would never ignore someone rambling at me. Feel free to ramble more, even! My DMs are open if you'd prefer!

This goes to everyone, actually. I am very very shy and socially awkward, but I ADORE IT when people talk to me about stuff they love. Everyone is welcome to! I love listening, as my girlfriend would tell you, and I love learning. No excuse needed, you can pop up like "hey I feel like talking about polar bears" and I'll pay attention.

That being said ohoho, this is great! Taking notes, taking notes, thank you so much! I can tell you've put a lot of thought into it. I do agree Robotnik would be far more dramatic with his clothes kinda like that scene in Megaming where he gets his evil outfit ready and I wouldn't be surprised if Stone is the one designing his outfits!

I can also picture this:

they're bonding

Obsessed with AO3 writers, who are a particularly fascinating subspecies of homo sapien.

Just thinking about how mullet Stan would sob if he knew his future. Just the most soulful, happy tears ever. He did it. He fixed the portal. He saved his brother. He saved the *world*. He has a family and they actually love him. He's old and on adventures with his twin and has a psuedo-son that he passes his business on to. He punched a pterodactyl in the face and fought zombies and seemingly destroyed a being that was as close to a god as he could imagine.

I’ve noticed that your fic ‘It’s A Good Day to Die (Again)’ doesn’t get as much love as Abandon My Eulogy, which is a shame because I love it so, so much!

I ended up doing some messy doodles for it lol. They are REALLY messy, and the first one is weird because I have never drawn anyone running before, but eh, I hope you like them!

AAAAAAAAAAAAA THESE ARE SO GOOD!!

Oh I LOVE the firework on,e, look at Stan’s happy little face!!! And the GNOMES

outstanding. THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!