Stanley asked for help: Shifty
"Hay! Is anyone in here? I'm Stanley Pines, Stanford Pines's twin brother, whom he disowned ten years ago! Do you want to get out of here?"
Stanley stood in the middle of that lab, waiting for any response. When none came, he decided to continue.
"If you want proof I'm not Ford, I can show you my hands. He has six fingers on each hand, while I only have five. I can also admit that you are smarter than me. He never was good at accepting that there were people better than him in anything book-related."
Still nothing. He then picked up a cat carrier with the door ripped off, placed it in the middle of the room, and sat on it.
"Ok, how about I tell you my life story until you come out? All right, it all started… a lifetime ago. 1960-something. Glass Shard Beach, New Jersey."
A Tale of Two Stans, but only the parts Stan tells and up until the postcard arrives in New Mexico.
"After I got the postcard, I dropped everything I was doing, got into my car, and drove from New Mexico to Gravity Falls, Oregon. When I arrived, it was the dead of winter, and the snow was thick on the ground. I had to leave the car 5 miles back on the road and walk the rest of the way to his home."
"You're not Ford."
Stanley bit down his knee-jerk reaction to recoil from the surprising voice and turned to face where it came from.
Slowly walking out of the shadows was a man in a lab coat and glasses with a Tennessee drawl. He looked skittish like he was ready to run at a moment's notice.
"No, I am not. What proved it to you? The fingers? The lack of intelligence? The storytelling skills?"
"The fact that you were willing to trust someone by sitting down in their space unarmed and letting them make the first move. Ford only seemed to trust me because I had no backbone and always folded to what he asked me to do." He then shakily held out his hand. "Fiddleford McGucket, your brother's research assistant. Ford left me in here months ago. Sorry for not revealing myself earlier, but I wanted to be sure you weren't your brother or planning to shoot me."
Stan nodded.
"I get it, and I think your daughter Mary is looking forward to seeing you again."
Fiddleford nodded excitedly and grabbed Stanley's collar. "Yes! Can you please let me out? I need to see her again!"
Stanley rolled his eyes at "Fiddleford."
"Fiddleford only has a son named Tate. I know because he wouldn't shut up about it to a friend of mine. You must be the shapeshifter mentioned on the clipboard in the observation room."
The shapeshifter froze before it began to narrow his eyes at Stan and blinked sideways. His form then began to ripple before turning into a massive spider.
"Well, now, how about you let me out before I string you up and devour you over a week?"
Stanley then smiled. "What about the rest of my story? Don't you want to know what happened to Ford? Also, if you kill me, you will never get out of here."
The spider glared at him with its eyes before backing off.
"Fine, continue your story."
Stanley nodded before frowning at the spider. "Is that your, how would you describe it, real form? Base form? Preferred form?"
The shifter kept staring before its form rippled again. This time it changed into a large maggoty-like creature about Stan's height, with one arm much more muscular than the other.
"This is my base form."
"Ok then, as I said, the first thing Stanford did when I got there was point a crossbow at my face and demanded to know if I was there to steal his eyes."
The Rest of A Tale of Two Stans and the last nine chapters of this story
"After getting a surprise shower and being dropped into this room, I called out for you, and now we're here."
The Shapeshifter continued to stare at Stanley as he had thought the entirety of the story.
"So your brother is trapped in another dimension?"
Stanley nodded his head.
"Yes, and the only thing that can bring him back had its instructions scattered and hidden. Do you know where either of the other two journals are?"
It scoffed. "I don't know where they are and wouldn't tell you even if I did know. He can rot in his prison as he left me to rot in mine!"
Stanly rolled his eyes at that. "Of course, another name to the Weregild list." He then looked up at the Shapeshifter. "Well, what should I call you?"
The shapeshifter scowled at Stanley before replying.
"Your brother called me Shifty."
"Really? Calling a shapeshifter Shifty? Why don't you name a werewolf Wolfy? Or a vampire Fangs? For someone who documented the weird and wild, he had no imagination."
The Shifter then threw up his hands in agreement. "I KNOW! I tried to get him to help me with a better name, but he thought that was a waste of time. He would rather just run experiments on me."
Stanley then smiled at the Shapeshifter. "So what would YOU like to be called then?"
The Shapeshifter then got a surprised look on his face, which soon turned to puzzlement. "I don't know. I have only heard ten names in my life. Your brother never let me leave this room, remember?"
Stanley then got an idea that. "Wait right here."
He then ran over to the door and banged on it several times.
"Hay Handwitch! Are you still there?"
"Yes, but if you want me to open the door-"
"Not yet! Do you know where you could find a baby names book?"
…
"Really? You are trapped in a room with a shapeshifter that a short while ago threatened to eat you and has a massive grudge against your brother! Why would you want me to leave you alone with it?"
"Because he might know something about the Journals! And even if he doesn't, I have to try and help. Please think of this like the Weregild I am paying the valley's residents. My brother wronged them, so I am paying off his debts until he returns.
"Please trust me?"
…
"Fine. But if he eats you, I'm collapsing the tunnels and permanently sealing this chamber! Be back as soon as I can."
With that, Stanley heard handsteps rapidly running off from the door. He then returned to the shapeshifter and sat in front of him.
"Ok, did you hear that?"
He nodded. "I can tell you my story in more detail as we wait if you are interested. I haven't told anyone before, and you made it look interesting."
Stanley smiled. "Go for it, kid."
The shapeshifter pulled over two large rocks for him and Stanley to sit on. Stan found the rock much more comfortable than the cat carrier.
"OK, I have been inside this lab for as long as I can remember. Ford said he found my egg when excavating it. After I hatched, he immediately put me in a cat carrier and brought me into the lab. He then proceeded to experiment with an experiment on me. Blood work, reflex tests, showing me pictures, and seeing how close to the depicted creature I could form. He never let me leave the lab, never let me see anything he disapproved of me shifting into, and he always kept me in a cage. Even when I began to talk, and he realized I was intelligent, he kept me like that. He moved me to that large cage when I got too big for the cat carrier you're sitting on.
"I constantly asked to be allowed to see the outside world, more images than just small herbivores and his face."
"Wait, Ford did all of that but never once let you see his face?"
"No, he didn't. His assistant Fiddleford never saw me as anything other than an animal or demon." He then clenched his large hand into a fist and gave a mocking laugh. "Hen, I don't know which was worst. The assistant seeing me as an animal and treating me as such, or the professor seeing me as an intelligent being but still treating me as a pet!"
The Shapeshifter brought his fist down on the ground beside him with enough force to make a dent.
"Eventually, I heard that they were considering keeping me in those cryotubes behind us just because of the potential I had for danger! I had done nothing to them, and they all decided to lock me away forever!
"I decided to escape. I waited until only Fiddleford was here before breaking out of my cage and subduing him. I tied him up and hid him in a closet. I then took his form and made my way through the observation room. Suppose I found your brother and tried to convince him to give me his journal. With the forms in there, I could make sure that no one could ever imprison me against my will ever again!
"Unfortunately, he figured out what was going on. He then tricked me into one of those tubes and froze me. I don't know what happened after that."
Stan nodded at the end of the story. It was worded to make himself look as good as possible, but Stanley wouldn't judge him.
"Well, as soon as the Handwitch returns with that baby name book, we can talk about you leaving here."
The Shapeshifter looked hopeful at him. "Really?"
"Sure, but we must figure out what you will do next. I know you want to gain as many forms as possible, but what do you want to do beyond that?"
The shapeshifter froze before scratching his head.
"I don't know. I don't even know what the outside world is like."
Stanley then threw on his showman grin and jumped up on his feet.
"Then do I have a deal for you!"
"NO!"
Stanley stepped back at the sheer venom in the Shapeshifter's voice.
"Everyone has been dictating what I should do with my life since I hatched. From now on, the only person that decided what I do is ME!"
Stanley held up his hands in a placating gesture. "Ok! I was going to suggest a few suggestions on what you could do. Maybe offer to let you stay in the Shack if you would help run it by leading a few tours in my form."
The Shapeshifter then froze and looked at him with a curious expression.
"You would willingly let me take your form and let people think I was you? Aren't you worried I might take the opportunity to ruin your life?"
"HA! You cannot ruin my life any worse than I ruined it myself." He then got a serious expression on his face. "Just don't pretend to be Fiddleford again. I am trying to find him and don't want you mudding the waters about what sightings are you and which are him."
"Deal!"
The two then shook hands, and the world turned red.
A siren whaled as a rumbling sound was heard through the room.
"What's going on?"
"I don't know! I only got out of the pod last week! I have never seen anything like this in my six months of life!"
"Wait, you're not even a year old yet?"
Eventually, the rumble and siren stopped, and the lights returned to normal. The speaker above the door then squawked.
"Sorry about that. I hit the wrong button when trying to turn this on. Now, I got the book. How do you want to get this to the shapeshifter?"
Stanley sighed and placed a hand over his face in annoyance. "Just open the door; we're both coming out. And before you say anything, he went from the egg to a cat carrier to an iron cage to the cryo-tube. He deserves to go outside. He isn't even a year old, even if we don't consider the cryo-stasis."
…
"Fine, I'll open the door. But I'm turning him into a newt if he tries anything."
With that, the decontamination door opened, letting Stanley and the shapeshifter walk into the observation room where the Hand Witch was waiting.
"Here's that book of baby names you wanted."
Stanley took it from her with a quick thanks before handing it over to his new friend.
"Here you go, a book filled with names. Pick whichever one you want for yourself. If you don't like any of them in this book, we can look through some others later."
The Shapeshifter then took the book and began to look through it as the three exited the observation room and moved through the puzzle room (disarmed by the Handwitch). Crawling through the tube while reading was more challenging, but he found a way. Once they reached the bunker, he closed the book and handed it back to Stanley.
"Thanks, I think I know what I want to be called now.
"How about Alex Heirsh?"
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To celebrate the "Book of Bill," I have decided to make this a Gravity Falls summer! This means I plan to post a chapter of this fanfic once a week, every Friday morning until
August 30th. I have almost 20 pre-written chapters, so I don't know when this will stop.
I have a if you want to support me and my New Year's resolution of posting one fanfic of 2k words or more weekly. This is also being posted on , AO3, and Tumbler.
Remove all the spaces from the URLs to get them to work.
: : / / w w w . user?u=10132890
. c o m : : / / w w w . s/14051718/1/luz–appreciation–week–2022–from–1228248
AO3: : / / works/52823413/chapters/133608991
Tumbler: : / / w w w . blog/brianedner
I am also doing fanfic info dumps, like wiki articles that go one episode at a time, with some compilations at the end on specific topics sorted by episode.
Fanfic info dumps here: : / / w w w . 1228248/gallery