Okay, so, this was from a random prompt/quote I found awhile back. Basically inspired this whole Au:

"When Something Fades in the Sunlight, Where did the Colors Go?"

And then I got . . . this out of all that. *shrug* enjoy, dudes!

)P.S.
I've figured out how all it all works, despite
what it says in the A`N below. That was back
when I was first figuring it out, and I didn't
want to really tweak it. *shrug*(

Drabble 21: Faded Colors, Darkened Sun

Sum:
Stanley Pines, masquerading as his twin brother Stanford, owner of the Mystery Shack,
Gravity Falls own Mr. Mystery . . . is blind. Blind ever since he was a little kid.
And yet . . . he doesn't act it, or even look it. When he mentions off-handedly
that he wasn't sure what to make of Mabels sweater for him, the colors all shades
of green, she grows upset, and he starts to grow paranoid that they'll guess his secret.

Universe:
Blind!Stanley Au

A`N:
Hm . . . not sure how he sees anything. In the Mindscape, leaving most-everything
shades of grey? By some other means of magic where he simply senses
everything around him? Not sure yet, need to work on this one a little.

Stanley stared at the thing before him. He wasn't sure what to make of the grey sweater, barely catching the subtle hints and variations of darker and lighter grey in it, barely able to make out the words that are said there. He couldn't help the frown that overtook his face as he tried and failed to puzzle out exactly what picture of message this sweater had.

"Grunkle Stan? What's wrong?" Mabel asks him with a pout. "Don't you like it?" she asks.

Stan quickly makes up an excuse. "Of course I do! I just, er," he quickly thought of something. "With these darn cataracts I'm having trouble making out what it says." he told her.

Mabel brightens again in an instant. "It's a 'Keeping Warm' sweater I made you. For when it gets chilly around here." she explained, handing it to him.

Stan stares down at it blankly for a moment, then smiles widely at his great-nieces face, staring into medium-grey orbs that he knows are brown, darker grey hair he knows is brown, too, just . . . a different shade.

"Thanks, sweetie. Now run along and play or something." he ruffles her hair and shoos her lightly away, going to hang the sweater somewhere in his closet.

He couldn't let her know . . . couldn't let ANYONE know his secret. As soon as Mabel is gone, Stan shuts his eyes and navigates quickly and easily upstairs and into his room, by memory, feel, sound, and simply sensing the objects around him. Only when he needed to solidify and picture an object in his mind did he really open his eyes.

Truth be told, Stanley Pines was blind. Been that way since he was a little kid. However, he always knew exactly what was going on around him; he could just, sense it, and over time, he would sometimes catch glimpses of stuff in a strange, grey-black-white way, where there were no other colors that he knew of; at least, he wasn't sure what the actually looked like, but if someone asked him, he instinctively knew the answer, if not the context behind it.

He'd never really seen color before, as he'd told Mabel awhile back about rainbows. That experience hadn't blinded him, just hurt his eyes made it so he really had to act blind for awhile, stumbling around and using a cane and knocking stuff over. Very frustrating, especially considering that he could still sense everything around him just fine.

He hung the sweater up, feeling it's thick, plush softness before turning around and heading back downstairs. There was only one more tour for today, and then he could rest and relax for a bit.

However, when Dipper came careening around the corner and straight towards Stan, who had paused when he heard the shouting, he didn't think; he acted. Eyes closed, he easily sidestepped and caught the little tramp before he tripped over his own feet. Dipper stared up at him in shock. Had he imagined it? How did Grunkle Stan do it?

Eyes open once more, Stan decides to forgo his "second sight" into the Mindscape or whatever allowed him to see the actual shapes of things, focusing instead on Dipper's voice and the sound of his breathing.

"Watch where you're going, kid." he grumped, lightly ruffling his hat and hair. "I'm not always gonna be conveniently placed to make sure you don't break your neck." a hint of affection slid through, and Stan cleared his throat before walking onwards.

Dipper only stared after him, shrugged, and continued on. As Stan went about with his tour, he couldn't help but think back to his lack of sight. He knew the Shack well enough, inside and out, that he only ever really used his "second sight" thing for when he went into town, or when there was a lot of other people around. He only used it a little here and there on tours, just to make sure the group stayed together, more or less.

Afterwards, as he was starting to close up shop, he felt eyes on him. He ignored it and kept restocking the shelves. Wendy had left and he'd sent Soos home, and the twins were watching some sort of movie in the living room. He ignored the sound of the vending machine opening, then closing again. There are several seconds of silence as he went about his task.

He still felt eyes on him. He waited it out, counting the seconds. About forty seconds in, a hand clapped hard on his shoulder. Stanley yelped in surprise, spinning around and smacking whatever-it-was away, using his other sight swiftly. He frowned upon seeing his brother.

"What do you want, Ford?" he demanded, crossing his arms before bending over to collect the fallen merchandise.

"Are you okay, Stanley?" Stanford asks.

Stanley snorted, straightening up and returning to his previous task. "What makes you think I'm not?" he retorts.

"Well, I waved a hand in front of your face a few times, and you didn't even flinch or acknowledge it's presence."

". . ." Stanley didn't say anything, stunned, but continued stacking. He felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Lee," Ford started.

"Don't 'Lee' me," he growled, backing away. "I'm fine, alright? Just a long day." He set down the last of them and turned to head upstairs. Ford didn't try to stop him.

-~o0o0O0o0o~-

Whenever Ford was around, Lee felt like one of his stupid science experiments. His eyes were nearly burning a hole in his head. Having a sneaking suspicion on what it was about, he started using his other sight, seeing things in black, white, and all shades of grey more often than usual. It was pretty tiring, actually. It took a lot more energy than he thought to keep it up all the time.

It got to the point that he had to finally drop it, suspicions be danged. It had been a few days by then, and thankfully his brother seemed to have lost interest. Allowing him to relax and re-settle into his age-old routine.

Do things by memory and whatever he sensed around him, second sight for detailed or fast-paced things. In fact, everything was going just fine until . . . Mabel and Dipper convinced them all to go on a camping trip. Which, in and of itself, wasn't a completely bad idea. Some time to relax and hang out together. They'd decided to go to Scuttlebutte island, so as to have some privacy and a little adventure. Even Wendy and Soos were tagging along!

The moment they set foot in the campsite, Stanley felt a chill run up his spine. The spot had obviously been used before, and recently; a fire pit was dug and ringed by rocks, some logs had been chopped down to serve as seats, the brush cut back much more than the rest of the surrounding forest to form a small, grass clearing for tents. It wasn't like they were trespassing or anything . . . right?

As they continued to set up camp and gather firewood and other things, Stanley tried to shake the feeling that they were being watched. Listening and nodding along quietly as Wendy told of past camping trips with her family to this "secret" spot and so on. It got to the point that Stanford pulled him aside.

"Lee, what's wrong?" he asked.

"Whaddya mean?" Stanley shot back, shifting from foot to foot.

"That," Ford gestured to his obvious fidgety-ness. "You've been acting like the Jersey Devil was going to descend from the skies and drag us all to Hell ever since we got here. What gives?" he asked.

Lee shrugged, looking to the side; and at nothing. He wasn't using any sort of sight, and had been doing most-everything by feel up to this point. Seeing as he had been on rowing duty most of the way there, besides hauling some more of the heavier stuff, he'd been allowed to take it easy with his twin while the other four gathered wood and pitched tents.

"It might sound crazy, but this place just feels . . . wrong." Lee answered quietly, closing his eyes with a sigh. Nothing but hearing and his other related senses. No sight of any kind; in that moment, he felt something. It was pretty strong, and it seemed to be lurking just behind him. He extended his senses out further, reaching out to try and pinpoint where the mysterious thing was.

Just over there, behind that thicker stand of fir trees. Something was watching and waiting. It made Lee uneasy. Not only could he sense things around himself, he could usually sense the emotions of those around himself. Much easier when it was with people he knew, who were family. Sometimes, people would be simply radiating with some emotion or another, or a whole slew of them.
He could always sense things like that from a long ways off. Helpful when avoiding angry mobs and the police. And guys named Rico who wanted to kill you.

Suddenly, something cold and wet collided with his face. He cried out and stumbled back, flailing and opening up his second sight. Just in time to trip over a root and topple over.

Wendy stood frozen across the campsite, Mabel and Dipper cracking up near the tents while Soos chuckled a little, though he looked a little more sheepish. Stanford grinned off to the side, holding up an empty packet of water balloons.

Sputtering, Lee rose to his feet, hackles raised and stomping angrily over. "Y-you little-!"

"That's what you get for spacing off, Lee." Ford returned with a smirk, throwing a towel at him when he was close enough.

"I outta punch your lights out." he grumbled, stomping over and taking a seat on one of the logs, drying off with the towel.

"It's your own fault for drifting off mid-conversation. Had you been paying attention, you would've noticed when Wendy missed her shot at your handyman friend." Stanford countered wit ha laugh. He gained a slightly more serious look as he took a seat next to his twin.

"Lee, please, I've known you long enough to tell when somethings' bothering you." he said quieter, watching as the foursome's water-fight wandered further and further from the campsite.

Stanley remained silent, thinking. "I just have a bad feeling about this place. Every since stepping into the clearing, I feel like we've been watched, but I can't tell exactly where from." he admitted.

Ford frowned in thought. "Like. . . like the time we tried traversing deeper in the cave where we found the Stan'owar?" he asked.

Stanley shrugged. "Not exactly . . .I just realized that the place was about to come down. Real fun, having to try to convince and drag your sorry butt outta there." he chuckled a little at the jab, nudging his brother in the side.

Ford didn't laugh. "We coulda died that day, if you hadn't gotten us somewhere safer. As it was, we lost the flashlight and it took the better part of a day for anyone to find us. And yet . . . how did you do it?"

Stanley only eyed him. "Do what?" he asked.

"You pulled us into a spot where the cave-in would reach, and it was pitch-black. I couldn't see a thing, and we hadn't even gone that way yet. How?"

Stanley shifted his gaze to the side. The kids, Soos, and Wendy had moved among the trees, talking, shouting, and laughing. "Don't know, got lucky, I guess." he replied quietly. It sounded feeble even to him.

A scream rang through the stillness. Both Stans' lurched to their feet, racing towards where the cry sounded. Instead they were met with Soos, Wendy, and Mabel, crashing into eachother.

"Where's Dipper?!" Stanley demanded, climbing back to his feet. Mabel jumped into his arms, tears streaming down her face.

"It-it got him . . ." she cried, clinging to his shirt and leaving him little choice but to hold her. Not like he minded or anything.

"What did?" Ford demanded. Mabel only whimpered and hid her face in Stanley's shirt, shaking her head.

"I-I dunno dudes," Soos offered up.

"There's Dipper!" Wendy suddenly shouted, pointing towards the trees. Dipper floated out. His eyes glowed with an ethereal light, a similar aura hovering around him, distorting everything behind and around him. As he entered the clearing, the skies darkened as clouds came in, heavy winds blowing, rain starting to fall. The aura seemed to spread, overtaking the entirely clearing.

The sounds were far off; time seemed to slow; like a movie in slow motion save for themselves.

"This happened to Mabel once before," Wendy hissed quietly to the others. "She got possessed at that old convenience store. After the ghosts left, she was alright, though." the unspoken message was clear enough.

Don't hurt him.

"What do you want with us, spirit?" Ford demanded.

Possessed-Dipper frowned, rising a little higher and floating closer. "You should not be here!" he thundered, voice deep and menacing.

Okay, so, *looks around, steps hesitantly forward* I am back. Sortof. Feeling much better than a few days ago. Thankfully. Please review!