Stan puts his hands on his hips, looking at Ford somewhat quizzically, when he realized Ford was still pondering on some sort of mystery. He was even more confused, when Ford decided to approach the camp sight quietly, sneaking up on the tent.

Stan had no qualms with law breaking, that was for sure, but he really didn't see a point to this and it was definitely going to be easy getting caught. With whatever he was doing...

Ford crept up on the old tattered tarp tent as silently as he could manage, fairly easy on the soft wet ground, and let his hands hover over the top of it. After a moment of hesitation, he quickly pulls back the tarp, and both Ford and Stan- and the two kids in the tent- quickly gasp and rear back.

The two children bolt.

"No, wait!" Ford found himself briefly caught off guard, but quickly rushes after them with Stanley right behind him.

It had taken a moment for the information in Ford's head to catch up with the situation, his mind quickly running over all of the more probable things first, before finally coming to the far more accurate and far more impossible conclusion. A copy machine, that could copy living things.

They pursued the two Dipper clones, his mind putting together the obvious. How long had they been out here? It's been months already since Dipper and Mabel had returned home, almost an entire year rather. They'd survived that long, with campfires and water proof shoes and tents? Had it always been just the two of them, or were there more that had been lost along the way? He gravely hoped not. The situation was bad enough as it was.

The two clones ran as fast as they could, hands interlocked, the both of them looking up in fear as thunder rolled and it threatened to pour again. In their panic they'd abandoned their tarp. They couldn't so much as risk tripping now, with the ground soaked and squelching beneath their feet.

"I don't-" Stan huffs as they try to catch up to the children, who were quite agile with plenty of practice navigating these woods, "-Why are they running?"

"I don't know, but it doesn't matter. We need to catch them before it starts to rain again." Ford says, "They won't survive getting wet."

"What do you mean they won't survive getting wet?"

"They're photocopy clones," Ford says, "They're nothing but paper and magic, they dissolve into nothing when they get wet. It's astonishing, I've never seen any last this long. The potential information to be gained from this is amazing, how are they maintaining enough energy to live if they don't have the ability to eat or drink? What memories do they maintain, do they have the capacity to learn and become their own people? Ordinary paper degrades fairly quickly, what does this say about the physical limitations on their life spans?"

"Stop it." Stan says flatly, before gesturing, "Split up, take the left, I'll take the right, make them think they lost us and when we can get them from the sides."

The two split off from each other, darting off into the trees, just far enough away to see but not be seen.

Three and Four finally come to a stop after a few minutes, looking around, clinging to each other in the open away from the dripping trees.

"O-Okay," Three finally says after a moment, "We just... We'll pack our things and move south. That's cool, it'll work."

"What?" Four says, startled, "I don't want to leave Gravity Falls."

"Well we can't stay here now that someone knows. We've talked about this," Three gestures widely, "A barren desert climate in the middle of nowhere, where it rarely rains..." His determined, confidence falters with his gesture, the both of them feeling sick at the idea.

Suddenly Ford and Stan burst through the trees, snatching the two children up and causing them to shout out.

"Wait wait!" Three shouts, Four interjecting with, "Please don't dissolve us!"

"What? Why would we do that?" Stan asks, caught off guard, looking to Four.

It's quite for a moment, as the two children slowly unscrunch themselves, peaking out from behind their hands. They were clearly very genuinely terrified, judging by their expressions alone, and they looked up to Stan and Ford who peered back down at them with concern.

And for another few minutes no one spoke still. Three and Four slowly looked down, and then to each other as if to ask if they each had the same thoughts, before finally it broke. Three was the first to go, face contorting up as if he were going to cry, but of course he didn't. He couldn't. Four seemed surprised at Three's reaction, taking a moment to ponder on this himself before finally following suit.

Neither were upset they were relieved.

Stan and Ford looked to each other, having no words, as the kids relaxed and curled up in their arms, trying to get as close as possible. They headed off, toting the children back to the shack. It would be best to get inside before it rained; these two needed a real bed and some company.