I apologize for the delay! Graduate School is a major time eater! Anyway enjoy!~
Thirteen- A little Q & A
Gideon Gleeful let out a tired but urgent "Hey!" as Stanley made a final tug on the ropes that tied the young boy to a spare chair. Stanley simply gave him a long stare before closing the door to the closet. Gideon immediately began yelling, if weakly, that he would get his revenge. He was promptly ignored.
Stanley turned to Soos and nodded. "That'll hold him, at least until we sort out this mess."
The young handyman nodded his head and gave a quick thumbs up sign, "Oh yeah. That creepy little gnome kid won't be getting in our way."
A surprisingly loud yell echoed out of the closet then. "I am NOT A GNOME!"
"Could have fooled me!" Came Soos' reply with a small laugh, obviously said simply to taunt the little boy.
Stanley couldn't help a small grin, he was still VERY bitter about being hit with a Taser. And of course, that the little fool had almost let ANOTHER dream demon loose on their reality.
With another laugh Soos walked out of the room and motioned for Stanley to follow him. The older man did so, he was beginning to see why Stanford kept the younger man around, besides the job he needed him for.
The two eventually made it back to where the others had gathered, the living room. Chairs and stools had been dragged from the other parts of the house and were all gathered around the yellow armchair and dinosaur skull. The chairs and stools, save one, were all occupied by curious and anxious teenagers as well as Dipper and Mabel.
All of whom were firing off questions in rapid succession at a tired looking Stanford who sat in the yellow arm chair, with Fiddleford still held in willing captivity in his arms, and not letting him get a word in edgewise. The skull next to the chair was also empty.
Their seats had been saved for them.
Stanley noticed that both the containment unit and his first two journals had been placed on a little TV table that was set up in the middle of the assembly. His third journal was held in Dipper's hands, who was pointing at it and switching between talking excitedly to Stanford, Mabel, and the blonde girl who had come running in alongside the teenagers.
With a small flourish the now younger Pines brother sat on the skull while Soos took his spot eagerly. Everyone immediately quieted when Stanley sat, their attention captive.
"Oh, you all quiet down for him! I see how it is." Complained Stanford, he had a headache beginning to push at his temples from all of the commotion, and his rising worry about the return of the feds was not doing him any favors.
He had been trying to calm the room for the last few minutes, but nothing had worked. Then Stanley just walks in and suddenly everyone shuts the hell up.
Excuse him for being a bit bitter.
Stanford feels Fiddleford shift so he can look at Stanley easier and the old man quiets his internal grumbling. There are more important things to worry about.
"So, hello." Stanley watches as the whole group stares at him, staring at him as if he was some oddity in a zoo. The feeling is too familiar.
He clears his throat awkwardly and tries to think of what else to say, he wasn't the best conversationalist in general, but especially at the moment.
"Er…" He falters.
"Okay! I think things should be taken from the top!" Mabel says with a small clap of her hands, taking control of the room with an ease that Stanford felt very proud of.
The young girl motioned at Stanley and said, "Introduce yourself to the whole group please."
The researcher had to restrain both a laugh and a grimace, he suddenly felt like he was in school again. With Mabel as the teacher and this eclectic group of teenagers, children and old men as the class, ready to place final judgement upon him.
He cleared his throat and began again.
"Hello. I am Stanley Pines. The Author of the j-"
"AHHHHHHHHHH!"
The whole group turned in surprise to Dipper, who had let out a large excited yell. His cheeks flushed brightly and he coughed awkwardly.
"Sorry about that. J-just really excited."
Mabel patted her brother's back and motioned for Stanley to continue.
Stanley looked at him and coughed as well. "A-as I was saying. I-I'm the Author of these Journals."
Stanley motioned to both the books on the table and to the one held in Dipper's hands.
"I research- well, I used to conduct research here in these Oregon woods. My brother Stanford and, eventually, Fiddleford helped me in this, uh, endeavor."
"Wait. So you're the one who built that creepy underground lab with that crazy shape shifting monster inside?!" Wendy's eyebrows raised in realization.
"Yo man, that thing almost killed us!"
"Shape shifting-? Wait, you've been to my bunker?!" Stanley half rose out of his seat, Stanford and Fiddleford sharing his half surprised, half horrified look. Fiddleford more so, he had never gotten around to telling Staford the exact details of how he had gotten his laptop back. He knew his escape from blame was only temporary.
"I thought I closed that bunker up tight?!"
"I told ya that monster was bad news!" Muttered Fiddleford.
Stanley turned to him and looked like he was going to argue before Stanford slammed his fist on the armrest of his chair, effortlessly gathering the attention of the room.
"Enough, we can argue about that another time. And we will."
Here he gave Dipper a look, who gave a sheepish grin in return at being correctly accused, before continuing.
"But right now there are more important things to worry about. Look, the short of it is that this is my genius brother, Fidds and I helped him investigate the weird stuff in this town and eventually helped him build a portal to check out other dimensions.
It backfired, and he got sucked inside instead. I then had to fake his death to keep the heat off my back- because I mean seriously, scientist suddenly disappears? Fingers will point to the brother with a criminal record first- and then I spent the last thirty years trying to get him back. And I finally did. There."
Stanford gave a grunt and then sat back, satisfied. The group blinked and looked at one another, murmurs beginning to rise up.
"This is sounding just like my fanfiction." Added Soos with a nod.
Nate, who sat beside Soos, eyed him and scooted closer to Lee.
"Yeah, we're going to need a bit more than that." Muttered Wendy.
Nate nodded as he began to lean back into his chair. "Yeah, like, what's with you holding that old fart McSuckit-WOAH!" The young man suddenly fell over to the ground. Hard.
"OW! Hey!" Nate gave Soos a glare, who had not so subtly tipped the chair over the rest of the way.
"Opps, sorry dude!" Soos grinned as he helped the guy back up, his grin and tone making it very obvious he wasn't sorry at all.
When Nate seated himself properly Lee promptly punched him in the arm while muttering a "Come on man." which just made Nate frown in response.
"What he was trying to ask is what's with, uh, you two? When was that, uh, a thing?" Asked Robbie quickly as he pointed to Stanford and Fiddleford, trying to cover up for his rude friend.
"Yeah, Wendy told us a bit about that on the way over but…yeah." Add Tambry, raising a brow.
Stanford cleared his throat and avoided looking at anyone, obviously awkward. Stanley was also at a loss for words by the random, to him considering the urgent situation, topic.
It was Fiddleford who sat up and addressed the group.
"We dated back then, and we're datin' again. That's all." He shrugged, the details weren't their business.
"Yeah! He's our new grunkle!" Added Mabel enthusiastically.
"Uh guys, I think there's more important things to be talking about!" Dipper cleared his throat and pointed to the first two journals and the containment unit, the box suddenly moves just a bit, as if in response to the sudden attention upon it.
Everyone jumps at the movement, instinctively aware of the malevolent presence held within.
"Right. So, let's fast forward things a bit then. What happened? Why were you just suddenly gone? And what the heck is that?!" Wendy leans on the back of the chair she's sitting on, taking charge, as she points to the box.
"I…" Stanley doesn't know where to begin, honestly.
Stanford huffs and takes the lead. "Alright, everyone listen up because there isn't a lot of time."
And so he, again, gives the best summary that he can, with several "personal" details kept to himself of course, with Stanley and Fiddleford adding in details when they see fit.
He tells them about their work together, how for several years they investigated the town, growing closer to become more than a research group. They had all become friends- and in Stanford and Fiddleford's case, lovers.
They had seen both danger and victory together, the mysteries of Gravity Falls and the world itself were theirs to find and unravel…
Until a certain yellow demon made himself known to Stanley. He had come to him in his sleep, posing as an admirer of his vast intellect and patron of scientific pursuit. He offered the scientist a "once in a life time opportunity".
Stanley sighs and rubs at his face. "I had felt so validated, so encouraged. He had said all the right words, tricked me into thinking he was simply looking to help. How could I have known?"
It had taken some convincing to get Stanford and, especially, Fiddleford aboard on the idea of letting Bill influence their work. Even more to agree to the portal project. But once they had finally gotten started things had ran smoothly, almost too smoothly.
Stanley became more and more invested in not just his newest project but also in Bill Cipher himself, who was more than happy to fill Stanley's ears with ideas.
So much so that he didn't have time to see that things were falling apart around him. He grew distant from the two people who had once been so close to him; didn't see how Stanford and Fiddleford had grown apart- and had disregarded Fiddleford's crazed warnings after the portal's first failed test had caused him to be partially sucked inside. After managing to pull him out he had spoken and moved like a man possessed.
Had gotten right in Stanley's face and warned him of "The Beast with Just one Eye."
Stanford took it as a founded warning.
Stanley chalked it up as a temporary psychotic break.
Fiddleford decided he was done with the "Mystery Trio".
He left the project, and grew even more distant with Stanford. Especially when he began working on the ray gun that he hoped would free him of his memories of the realm beyond the portal.
For his part Stanley kept working, continuing on alone to complete what had become his main objective: the portal. Arguments with Stanford had become a routine.
It was during a second testing of the infernal machine that Stan went down to the lab to try and have a civilized talk with his brother.
By the time that his twin's personal feelings of their relationship and his deteriorated love life came to Stanley's attention, he had become so much of Bill's disciple that he had jeered at him, ridiculed and riled his already emotionally compromised brother up further than he already was.
Stanley didn't remember turning the portal completely on, but by the time things had come to blows between them it was coming on to full power; the bright light filling the lab.
All it had taken was one well-aimed punch to push Stanley in range of the machine's pull, fear settled deeply into his stomach as he was sucked inside. His cries for Stanford, Bill, Fiddleford, anyone to help him all made in vain.
On the other side all he had seen were stars.
And then Bill.
Then only darkness.
Thirty years of darkness, and more stars.
Stanford had looked on in horror at what he had done, watched helplessly as the portal once more failed and broke down, shutting off on its own.
"I…that was a very long night." Says Stanford.
The whole room is quiet, stunned to silence.
Wendy opens her mouth and begins to ask a question, "But what-", but doesn't get the chance to finish her thought. Sirens can be heard in the distance.
A multitude of them.
Soos' eyes widen and he gets up out of his seat. "Oh man! We were so distracted by your tragic backstories that we totally forgot about the police!"
Panic begins to fill the room, all of the teens and preteens very understandably frightened of the consequences of being taken into federal custody.
Dipper looked at Stanley and Stanford. "What do we do?!"
"Can't we just make them forget about us or something?!" Muttered Mabel beside him, clutching at his arm while Pacifica grabbed onto her in turn.
Both Fiddleford's and Stanley's eyebrows rose at that, Fiddleford turned to Dipper. "Do you still have my ray gun?!"
It only took a moment for realization to pass over the boy's face.
"Y-yeah! Upstairs!"
"Go and get it! Now!"
Dipper raced off while Fiddleford sat up more fully in Stanford's lap and turned to Stanley.
"You know what to do?"
"I invented what to do. Of course!"
In record time Dipper was back with the ray gun in hand. Stanley directed him to follow him back to the lab and as they both descended Fiddleford spoke to the stunned and still panicking group. The authorities were getting ever closer, the lights of sirens and the sounds of helicopters telling them all they had almost no time left.
"Get down to the ground and cover your ears! Now!"
No one argued. Stanford and Fiddleford himself had just covered their own ears when large shock waves of mind-erasing power could be felt emitting from the totem pole next to the Shack. The powerful technology hidden within spreading the ray gun's influence to the entire surrounding area. Birds forgot how to fly, insects became dazed, an unfortunate gnome forgot his entire life and would spend the rest of his days thinking he was a leprechaun.
And most importantly, the whole squadron of federal agents suddenly stopped in their tracks. Their reasons for pursuit suddenly wiped from their minds via the power of Fiddleford's invention, leaving blank bewilderment and disorientation in its wake.
Everyone in the room was still recovering when Stanley and Dipper came back up the elevator. Stanley now had on shoes and his proper lab coat, he grabbed some papers off of a counter- which turned out to be a small stack of drawings made by Mabel- so to pretend he held important reports while Dipper went off to the others.
After finally gathering his wits Stanford got up from his chair, finally letting Fiddleford down to stand on his own. He made his way over to the front of the Shack and watched, with Dipper and Mabel beside him, as Stanley finished up directing the federal agents away from them.
"-well what are you waiting for?! A kiss on the cheek?! Move out!"
With much grumbling and confusion the authorities left, when they were gone Stanley let out a sigh of relief and wandered back inside. He couldn't help a small grin though- this wasn't the first time he had manipulated the law away from him and it felt oddly good to do it again-and directed it toward his brother and the twins as he walked toward them.
"Now, where were we?"
"Telling a room full of teenagers and children about why there's a demon in a box- and a creepy southern kid in the closet."
"Ah yes, let's get to it then! There's no time to waste!"