I'm sorry this took so long. But when you look at the word counter, you'll understand why this took so long for me to write. A little creative liberties on the name of McGucket's son and his nickname, although it is a fairly reasonable name. Also, I might have married Pacifica's voice actor to McGucket, but that's only because I needed a name, and Pacifica tends to be a b!tch. Yeah, I'm sorry that this kind of became tenthousandish words, so I split it in to two parts. I'll update the second half a bit later.
Title: A Father's Failures
Summary: Snapshots of the life McGucket and his son lives in Gravity Falls before the day when everything they would care about would change reared it's ugly head.
Rating: K+
Genre: Family/Humour/Tragedy/Angst
Requested By: zZzBluesaphirezZz
Disclaimer: I don't own Gravity Falls.
"Daaaad!" A little voice whined.
"Yes Hadron?" McGucket senior asked, as he struggled with several boxes.
"There's nothing to do here!" He huffed.
The man set down the cartons he was struggling to carry in the hall of their new home by thefront door. Then, he turned to face his son. The little boy stood there with his hands on his hips, and lips in a puppy-dog pout. If his eyes were not covered by his shaggy brown hair, they would be begging for something interesting to do as well. Knowing the expression all to well, the man replied;
"You could always help me move our stuff in to the house."
"But that was the last of the stuff!" Hadron pointed out.
Fiddleford looked around in surprise. Sure enough, all of the other crates and what little furniture he and his twelve-year-old son had moved were now in their places. The back of his truck was empty, and the only things that remained were the two boxes on their front porch. The duo had just moved in to a relatively small house on the lake. It was situated in the even smaller town of Gravity Falls. So there was not much to arrange in the first place.
Knowing what trouble the curiosity of a little boy could bring, the older man decided that it would be for the best if he and his son found a way to keep busy for a while.
"Tell ya' what then? Let's go explore the town." He suggested.
"Alright." His son slowly relented.
The two of them made the relatively short walk to town. Fiddleford made sure to take note of all the street names as they walked, not wanting to get them lost during their first night in Gravity Falls. They passed a diner, the town's newspaper office, a dance studio, and many other buildings as they explored.
There was nothing overly interesting about the town though. It was a little run down, but that was the most of it. Even the citizens of the town seemed to be rather sleepy. Well at least they thought so until a lady dressed in pink came running down the street, screaming at the top of her lungs;
"Ghosts! Ghosts! There are ghosts in the diner and they're haunting the pie plate!"
She continued to scream at the top of her lungs, and frantically resumed running down the street. Father and son looked between each other, surprised by the lack of reaction from people. Some seemed a bit nervous, and decided to head to the diner and see for themselves, while others just shook their heads and resumed daily life.
"I wonder what that was all about..." The little boy wondered.
"Probably just the town's local crazy." The older man waved off, watching as a person holding a book run to the general direction of the diner. "Most small towns usually have one."
Interesting... They looked like the person who had advertised the job offer to him. Fiddleford had originally accepted the ad he had found in a newspaper, offering a decently paid job as an engineer. Seeing as there were no available jobs for an engineer in California, he and his son had come here for the summer to check out the town and the job. After all, with what was coming, he was going to need all of the money that he could possibly get.
"Are we really going to spend all summer in this place?" His son wondered, wrinkling his nose. "And why isn't mom with us?"
Fiddleford winced at this particular subject. They had agreed to call it some "time off" from each other, but he knew that it was more likely to end in a divorce. A divorce that would lead to a custody battle. And he would need all the money he could possibly get to fight against his wife's lawyers.
"We're just spending a little bit of time away." The man gently explained. "Think of this as our little summer adventure."
The little boy looked even more skeptical at this. It was the same answer he had received over and over again. He did not know what or why his parents would be hiding something from him! He just wanted to know why he would have to spend his time in a dirt-boring town that was full of crazy superstitious people!
"But what if no one from school remembers me in September?!"
Fiddleford gave a laugh at this and ruffled the boy's hair.
"I can assure you that won't happen. Besides, we'll make plenty of friends here!"
Fiddleford practically dragged himself home after his first day on the job. It was impossible! Inconceivable! There was no way that this could possibly work! After seeing what he had seen, Fiddleford was tempted to pack up his bags and leave with Hadron as quickly as possible. But, he needed the money, there was no other choice. He couldn't bare the thought of being separated from his son.
The man collapsed on the couch, not even bothering to take off his shoes. It gave a broken wheeze and practically bent under his slim build, but the man did not really care. His back ached, his feet ached, his everything ached after that first day! And there was going to be a tomorrow, and a day after that, and then a day after that- No wait, tomorrow was Sunday, no work then. But then there would be a day after that, and a-
"You're back!" Hadron eagerly said, poking his face above the man's feild of vision.
"Y-yeah, I'm back alright." Fiddeford agreed with his son.
"So how was your first day at work? What's your boss like?"
The man blew out a long breath at this, wanting to change the subject.
"It was, interessin' to say the least. Were you fine on your own today?"
"I'm twelve dad, I can stay home alone for a little bit." Hadron pointed out.
"Well, alright." He said, still feeling unsure about leaving his son alone while all those things ran around.
"The people here are a bit strange though." Hadron added as an afterthought. "Always trying to pass on urban legends to people."
If only they were just legends. Still, he tried to laugh off his son's remark.
"Yeah, it's just something they like to say to the tourists I guess. Make them buy the knick-knacks and such."
"I guess so..." The little boy trailed, thinking back to his first experiences. "Anyways, now that you're back we can try out your latest boat models like you promised!"
Just the very idea of getting up from his spot on the sagging couch made Fiddleford want to groan. He was so tired! But still, he didn't want to disappoint Hadron. He had made a promise. It wasn't fair for him to go back on it. He really wanted to spend a good amount of time with his son this summer, without his wife scoffing as she supposedly passed on his "nerd habits" to her son.
And besides, before he had discovered what his new job was really going to entitle, he had been wanting to see if the different engines he had made could compare to the ones normally put in toys. Simple, yet complex all at the same time.
And if he could find a better, more powerful-one, who knew what fortune could be made? Not only would it just benefit toys, it could help fuel an industry of smaller appliances, there were so many possibilities. Maybe even a little device to scare away those pesky gnomes that had chewed on his truck's tires...
"Sure thing." He agreed, ruffling the boy's hair. "Just give me a moment to get changed."
Soon enough, they were out on the rocky shore of the lake, preparing to set sail. Hadron whipped out the clipboard that had their list of things to brink.
"Provisions?" He asked.
"Check." His father replied, holding up the paper bags with their ham and cheese sandwiches.
"Sunscreen and bug spray?"
"Check?"
"Fishing nets?"
"Check?"
"Life jackets?"
"Check."
And so the list went on. All their boats, a speedometer that Fiddleford had built himself, the motors that they would place in the toy boats, his son's scientific calculator, and an excess amount of sharp number two pencils. Once they were certain that they had everything they needed, the duo set off on their adventure.
Fiddleford found a nice spot in the middle of the lake, just a little ways off shore from a tiny island. He and his son quickly began to test all of the different boats, marking down statistics and determining which had the best, most efficient engines. Soon, the summer sun sunk behind the horizon, and any people who had been out on the lake seemed to vanish like they had never been there.
Father and son paused for a moment to start on their late dinner, and watch what little remained of the Oregon sunset. Soon the stars came out, each standing brilliantly in the inky black sky. Hadron stared at them in what was most likely amazement between the messy locks of his hair.
"How come the sky doesn't look like this in Piedmont?"
"Because." He explained between mouthfuls of sandwich. "Piedmont is mainly suburbs, there is too much light pollution for the stars to be made out as easily."
"I like the sky here a lot better." His son quietly said.
"What's that I hear? You like something about Gravity Falls?"
"What?! No!" The little boy tried to deny. "It's just interesting is all!"
"Of course." Fiddleford smiled. "At least one of us likes it here."
They were quiet for a moment, until something caught the attention of the duo. Bubbles were rising from one side of the lake, next to the island they floated to. Curious, they both kept quiet as to not scare away what ever was making the disturbance in the water.
Suddenly, the once calm water of the lake started to become choppy, the waves threatened to capsize the boat. Father and son shared a nervous look, wondering if they should leave. Then, the tremors began to start. They watched in awe as the island where the bubbles were began started to rise out of the water. To the man's horror, there was a huge, disfigured face on the side of the island, with a mouthful of huge, decaying teeth, and glowing yellow eyes.
"Run!" Hadron screamed in horror.
Fiddleford gave a scream of his own, and started to fumble with the motor of the boat, his fingers shaking as he tried to let them escape. The boat roared to life, and they began to escape the giant island head. But, it began to follow after them, floating over the water. It opened it's already gaping mouth, and several large teeth fell from it as it began to speak in an unearthly wail;
"Efil fo sorroh eht epacse dna htuom ym retne!"
"AAAAAAAAHHHH!" They screamed simultaneously.
"Etal oot si ti erofeb Sllaf Ytivarg morf nur!"
The island head grew closer, but they had not reached the shore yet. Hadron gave another shriek of fear, and latched on to his dad's leg, not caring how uncool that was. He squeezed his eyes shut, wanting the nightmare to end. Panicking now, Fiddleford started to do everything he possibly could to fend off the monster.
"Back!" He snarled, throwing things in it's mouth.
"Elgnairt eht tsurt ton od!"
Fiddleford picked up everything he could reach with his crying son latched on to his leg in a death-grip. Cameras, new boat models, the fishing nets, Hadron's scientific calculator. The man walked over, Hadron and all to pick up a shovel. Driven to protect his so , he hurled it like a javelin in to it's mouth. The monster gave a gutteral shriek as it stuck in to the roof of it's mouth, and it started to slow down. Eventually, it stopped all together.
There was a sudden thud, both McGuckets were sent hurling from the boat, and on to the shore of the lake. Too stunned to do anything, they lay there in the wet sand, taking in deep breaths of the lake air as they tried to remain calm.
"W-we made i-it." Fiddleford gasped.
"W-w-what was t-that?" His son cried.
The man fumbled to find some sort of scientific reason for it. It just, didn't make sense! The gnomes could be considered an odd species of animals at least, but this made no sense! There wasn't magic! Just science! Things weren't supposed to float! How did an island develop a face? Even as he thought this, Fiddleford felt something mocking him.
"I-I don't know..."
Fiddleford awoke the next morning, groaning in pain as his alarm clock went off. After last night, he really wanted to do anything but show up for work. This was just beyond his area of expertise on what to do. All his instincts told him to take Hadron and get out of this town forever, but the promise of a salary, and a reminder of what was to come were stronger. Loosing the custody battle would leave him with nothing. Considering all that he had left was Hadron, and the money for his education, that was not very much.
The man got up with a stretch, and wandered in to their kitchen. He turned on the coffee maker, and waited for it to make some. The man did not even bother to glance at his reflection. He already knew that his hair would be a mess, and he had fallen asleep in his "scientific study" clothes last night.
"Dad." A quiet voice from behind him said.
The man jumped in surprise, Hadron sat behind him at the kitchen table. He had not even realized that his son was sitting there he was so tired. The boy had books spread across all of the table, and was twiddling a pencil in his hand as he looked up at his father.
"Oh, sorry Hads, didn't see you there." He apologized.
"You didn't see that the coffee maker isn't plugged in either." His son pointed out.
Sure enough, it wasn't. The man cursed lightly under his breath, and plugged it in.
"What are you doing up this early anyways?" He inquired. "It's five in the morning Hads."
"I couldn't sleep." The boy admitted. "And I wanted to see you before you left for work."
"Well, you saw me." Fiddleford sighed, gesturing to his disheveled state.
"I don't think your boss will let you show up like that." Hadron fretted.
"You'd be suprised." He muttered. "But thanks for your concern."
Hadron yawned, not replying to his father's claims right away. Rubbing his eyes, he glanced down at all of his books and papers once more, remembering what he wanted to ask the man.
"Have you seen my scientific calculator anywhere?"
Fiddleford thought for a moment, and winced when he remembered what exactly he had done to the calculator. It was sunk in the lake with at monster now.
"Hads... I might have thrown it at the monster last night..."
Hadron shuddered as he thought back to the floating island head. That was the reason why he could not sleep last night. Even if he did not plan on telling that to his dad.
"That's alright, I'll work on checking the boat calculations later."
"I'll get you another one when I'm in town today." He promised.
The man picked up the coffee pot, now that it was finished boiling. Without adding anything to it, the man drank a steaming cup, straight, black coffee. Hadron winced at this, wondering how anyone could stand to do something like that. But Fiddleford was used to the stuff, he had spent many long nights drinking nothing but as he invented.
Fiddleford set down the mug, and then picked up a briefcase that contained a few of his inventing things. He ruffled his son's hair, or at least tried to from the hat that it was always contained under.
"Bye son! Don't go anywhere near that lake, or in the forest! Stay safe! Don't trust anyone or anything suspicious!"
As Hadron watched his father quickly sprint out of the house with his coat, flapping behind him, he could not help but say;
"Only if you do as well..."
The second day at work was no easier. Nor was the third, or the fourth. The same applied to the sixth, and the seventh. Even the break he had on Sunday seemed more difficult than it really should have been. Now Fiddleford sat at the kitchen table, squinting through his glasses as he reviewed the outlines for some circuits.
They should have been child's play, they were only for Hadron's calculator after all. But for some reason, it would not work. According to the theory, it should have been perfectly functioning. But it wasn't! Perhaps there was some deficiency in the wires? Or the circuit board itself?
Fiddleford gave a sigh, he had promised Hadron that he would have his new calculator soon. But a week and a bit later was not sooner! They still had not been able to figure out the calculations of their little project. An ache started to form in his neck as he remained craned over the plans. The man pulled off his glasses, intending to polish them. But as he did, a sudden laughter rang through the air.
Fiddleford felt a shiver of fear run down his spine as the inhuman laugh rang through the room. Suddenly, the colour drained out of the room, and and with an obnoxious "pop" the strangest thing Fiddleford had ever seen in his short time in Gravity Falls appeared before him.
It was a triangle, no, more of a 2D pyramid with a single eye. It was a bright yellow, and wore a black bow tie and top hat. It had skinny black arms and legs, along with a single eye. It looked like something that Hadron might doodle on his math homework. Evidently, it was the one that was laughing.
This odd triangular being has appeared in my dreams for weeks...
Fiddleford gave another shiver as he recalled the words of his employer. This was not good.
"W-what are y-y-you?" The man stuttered, backing out of the kitchen.
The triangle vanished with a flash, and suddenly appeared behind the man, promoting him to back away from his only escape from the kitchen.
"Not what. "The triangle practically giggled. "Who!"
"Ummm... W-who are y-you exactly?"
The triangle grabbed his hand, and began to shake it. Giving what was presumably a wink, he introduced;
"Well I'm Bill, Bill Cipher, and I happen to be the current Master of the Mind, and I-"
The demon suddenly launched off on a long list of all the things he did, refusing to let go of the man's hand, even though he was trying to pull himself away.
"W-what do you w-want?"
"Oh, nothing that concerns you." Bill waved off. "Yet."
"T-then g-g-get out!" He stuttered.
The demon suddenly stopped his somewhat benign chatter, and fixed his eye on the man. Voice darkening, Bill slowly said;
"You know, you really ought to watch your tone. Who knows what little "accidents" could befall you and your little off-spawn."
Hadron.
"Y-you l-leave him o-out of this!" He stuttered. "This is obviously about my boss!"
"Obviously you say?" Bill wondered.
"What else could it possibly be? What kinda' twisted weirdo would have interest in some twelve-year-old kid that moved to Gravity Falls for the summer?"
"This twisted weirdo does..." The demon mused. "But I don't have to worry about them for another thirty human years or so. Of course, that's only the blink of an eye for me. Haha! Get it?! Eye?!"
"Yes, I g-get it. I've got a masters in engineering, I think I can figure out a pun!"
"Ha! Science!" Bill laughed, picking up the calculator he had been experimenting with. "Trust me, it ain't gonna' do you any good in Gravity Falls. No degree is going to prepare you for, I don't know, building a gateway to unimaginable power, or nearly causing the apocalypse."
Paying no mind to Bill's possible foreshadowing, Fiddleford tried to reach for the calculator he had been working on, but he suddenly found that he couldn't reach it from the demon. And in the blink of an eye, it felt like he was a wimpy kid on the playground all over again, practically swimming in his too-big inventors' clothes, having everything held out of his reach, being tormented to no end.
"Give it back!"
"Why should I?" The demon inquired as he rearranged the circuitry of the calculator, no doubt breaking it beyond any repair possible.
That classic line only brought on more of those unpleasant childhood memories. Fiddleford gritted his teeth, doing his best to shut out all of the bullying. That was all the past, it was beyond him and he had more important things to dwell on.
"I know what your worst memories are." Bill said as he fulled the wires out of the calculator.
"Looser."
"Nerd!"
"MCSUCKIT!"
"I know every last one of your little secrets." The All-Seeing Eye continued as he fiddled with the paths.
"I belive that this particular model of my robot has the force of a small atomic bomb, nearly enough to flatten' a whole city if programmed to do so. With it, there would be no one who would dare threaten you..."
"How legal is this?"
"Enough to make the FBI's most-wanted man in America. But I need the money, my son has to go to school, I want his future to be better than mine is."
"You'll still be doing our government a great service. We'll take six."
"I know you biggest fears as well."
"You better start saving up to get a lawyer nerd. Oh, that's right, once I divorce you, there'll be no way that you can afford them."
"... We've reached our verdict, and custody has been awarded to Jackie McGucket née Buscanto..."
"Say farewell to Hadron nerd! Tata!"
"D-dad! I don't want to go with her!"
"I'm s-s-sorry Hadron, t-that's just how it worked o-out."
"I hate y-you!"
"I hate me too..."
"And if you don't play by my rules, then you're going to find your stay in Gravity Falls awfully short."
"W-what don't you k-know?" Fiddleford sobbed, as horrible images of terrible memories and fears swam before his eyes.
"Well, I don't know if you'll be willing to make a deal with me." Bill lied.
"A w-what?"
The demon rolled his eye, this guy wasn't very quick on the uptake when it came to Gravity Falls lore. Then again, he had only been living in the town with his son for a week or so.
"A. Deal." Bill slowly explained. "If you do something for me, I'll help ya' out. Think of it as the genie in the bottle thing, minus the three wishes. And happy ending. "
"W-what could you possibly do?"
The demon's bow tie twisted in to what could be considered an even larger grin.
"Well, I could prevent all that. Your fears and such. Your crazy female's still going ta' divorce you, I doubt you'd want to change that. But I have ways of ensuring that you get to keep your little off-spaw- I mean son. You wouldn't have to worry about loosing him whether it be to some crazy monster or your wife."
"Y-you could do t-that?" Fiddleford hopefully asked.
"I know everything about everything, it shouldn't be too difficult to bribe a lawyer and alter a few minds." The demon boasted.
The idea seemed almost too good to be true. In fact, it was too good to be true. Fiddleford felt practically giddy at the idea of it, but the only thing holding him back was the idea that the... Dream-demon, wanted something in return. What could he possibly want? Did souls exist? Did a dream-demon have any use for a soul?
"What would I have to do?" The man wondered.
"Nothing much. Just keep working with your boss, help build whatever it is they need for their experiments and so on. Most importantly, you can never leave Gravity Falls."
"Never? Why? What if-"
"Someone gets the idea to clone the perfect boy-band and a twelve-year-old girl kidnaps them with their weirdo friends? A secret society if formed in order to silence those who know too much? You'll deal with it as it heads your way."
"But-"
"Take it or leave it. It's not my life I'm potentially ruining."
"Alright, I'll do it!" The man relented.
Bill handed him back the poor scientific calculator that he had been tormenting. To the man's suprise, it actually looked fine after being torn to pieces. The demon offered him a hand, which was now surrounded by bright blue flames. The man looked at his hand hesitantly for a moment, having no desire to quite literally get burned. But the reminder that this was for his son steeled his resolve.
Shaking the demon's hand, he firmly stated;
"It's a deal."
End of Part One