He couldn't see, couldn't hear, couldn't feel, or taste, or touch. There was nothing there but blackness, and an infinite swarm of words writing themselves across his mind.
He didn't know what had happened, at first. He could barely remember his own name, Stanford, when the torrent had begun – there were just too many words, so many in so many different languages, all whirling and spinning and fighting to make room for themselves in his head, and he could barely think.
It was only after a line of words in familiar handwriting began that he realized what they meant.
Dear Diary! Hello, Diary! It's been so long, I've missed you, and I know you've missed me too! It's your pal Mabel!
Mabel. Mabel. His niece, a brown-haired girl with a bright bubbly smile.
Well, your pal Mabel and her poor nerd bro-bro! Dipper's writing this for me, since I make paper burst into flames by accident now!
And Dipper. His talented nephew, the boy he'd offered an apprenticeship to, who he last remembered so desperately helping him do his research, to reverse the strange transformations that had taken hold of the ten saviors of Gravity Falls.
So, things have been weird lately. I turned into a fireball flames fire, and I can fly now! And poor Dip-dop got turned into a tree, but now he can be two trees six trees at once!
The words scrawled themselves across his conciousness, glowing brilliantly like beacons as he struggled to focus on them, being written out even as he watched, and it was then that he finally realized what he had been… seeing, for lack of a better word, for so long.
The written word.
He'd been seeing what people had written down, be they in old hieroglyphs or cursive script, and regardless of who had written them. Why, it was no wonder he'd been so overwhelmed – there were thousands of years' worth of writing left over from ancient civilizations, as far back as Egypt, perhaps even farther, and he'd been seeing it all at once!
For a moment, he was brimming with excitement, at the possibilities, before his niblings' next written words brought him back down to earth.
Grunkle Stan was turned into a statue. Hs been put up in the town square, and the townspeople even put a sign there! It says "Stanley Pines, the hero of Gravity Falls." They wanted to put "in memory of" in front of that, but it just didn't seem right, you know?
His good mood vanished, and he focused on the grim words as they continued to be written.
Gideon Gleeful, the little boy who had worked with Bill before turning on him for Mabel, a living crystal ball.
Robbie, the boy that had been Dipper's rival, an eldritch abomination of contagious emotion.
Wendy, the girl who Dipper had a massive, undeniable crush on, a fox of ice, roaming the forest.
Pacifica Northwest, a girl who had taken refuge in the Mystery Shack during Weirdmageddon, turned into gold and nearly sold by her own parents.
Fiddleford, his old friend, forgotten save for a written description and an artist's interpretation of his current appearance.
And, finally, Ford himself.
Grunkle Ford… he doesn't even look like himself any more. He's a book now, full of writing from all over the world. We haven't been able to talk to him. We've tried.
And in the darkness of his word-filled mind, Ford couldn't help but… smile, for lack of a better term, at the irony.
I wanted all the knowledge in the world, and look where it got me.
I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry I couldn't find some way to stop it.
And then, finally, a glimpse of hope. Because he had all the written knowledge in the world at his fingertips.
If anybody can find a way to get us out of this mess… it's me.
And with this last drabble, Adjustment Period has come to a close! I will probably write more Zodiac Ten stuff in the future - I've got general plot figured out for at least one more important point in time in this AU, something preeeeetty important indeed. But for now, I've got other stuff I want to write. Hope you all enjoyed this!