Stanley asked for help: The Convenience Store
Monday evening (Day 21)
Author Note: I am not Mexican or Catholic, so if someone who is either knows of a better prayer for Anna to be praying, please let me know and I will change it.
Stan stood with Dawn as the latter opened the door, still gushing out thanks for his actions earlier.
"Seriously, Mr. Pines. Thank you for helping me with this. If you ever need anything, name it. I swear-"
Stan groaned as the door opened and walked in. "I get it Dawn, but I am not asking for anything. Can you please stop thanking me and trying to pay me back? It's making me uncomfortable."
Dawn nodded as the two headed into the store to measure the equipment and inventory.
They worked together for an hour to take stock, with Stan deciding to take the Dancy Pants game (for the future gift shop area of the Shack), the slushy machine, the soda fountain, and the hot dog machine. As for the snacks, he was planning on taking every chip, pretzel, cracker, bottled drink, candy, and the like out. The loaves of bread, paper towels, diapers, birth control, and the like he was leaving for Fred.
As he and Dawn finished everything up, they met by the entrance to say goodbye.
"So should we meet up here tomorrow with Fred to go over the specifics of how we break the payment up?"
Stan nodded. "Yeah, sounds good. We can look at the exact prices the house and business are worth, how much each of us can contribute, and how much of this stuff we should leave behind to-
SLAM
"WHAT IS GOING ON!?"
Stan and Dawn swung their heads in the direction of the Dusk 2 Dawn's entrance to see a fuming Anna storming into the store like she was going to rip someone's head off. Both of them held up their hands in pacifying gestures as they backed away from her and each other in an attempt to prevent themselves from getting caught up in the crossfire between her and her unknown target.
As Anna stopped in the direction of Stan, Dawn let out the breath she had been holding. Stan, on the other hand, began to panic, trying to figure out what exactly he did to make her this mad. He only came to one, terrifying conclusion.
"Anna, what happened to Mary? Is she ok? What about Diego?"
Anna slightly softened at his questions but kept her steely gaze focused on him.
"My kids are fine, thanks for your worry. I'm asking about Dawn being scammed and you being involved!"
Stan felt relieved that the kids were alright, but then realized what she said and panicked again.
"I didn't scam her! The Northwests manipulated her bills to force her to sell both her parent's home and the business to them, on top of massive monthly payments for the next 10 years! When I found out, I offered to split the full amount with her so she wouldn't go bankrupt!"
Anna rolled her eyes at him. "Sure, you decided to spend a ridiculous amount of money on random women you never met with no ulterior motives whatsoever. Do you honestly expect me to believe that?"
Stan gulped as he realized that she was right. That was wildly out of character for him, and he wasn't sure how to get Anna to believe him in a way that didn't make her think he was trying to con her.
"You are a conman through and through. Every action is to help you and the people you care about. What are you trying to pull? Her into bed?"
"Stop it, Anna! He didn't ask anything for his help!"
Both of them turned to face Dawn. She had a frustrated look on her face as she stared at Anna.
"Stan has been nothing but kind and helpful to me. When Preston presented that bill, he was the first to help me pay it off. He even volunteered to come here and take stock of what's available so we have a better idea of how much we could get by selling the place and everything in it. He even offered to forgo what my parents left him in the will to help me.
"And when I kept thanking him for the next," she looked at her watch and did some math in her head before coming to a startling conclusion.
"Three hours thanking and offering him anything he wants in thanks? Wow, I did not realize it was going on that long. Anyway, Stan kept turning down those offers and saying I didn't owe him anything. He is not taking advantage of me.
"Stan is a good man. I will not have you speak ill of him!"
The store was quiet as Anna and Stan processed what she said.
Stanley wasn't used to being called a good man, and Anna wasn't used to the idea that someone like Stan would take such a huge risk for no payoff for a rando he just met.
SLAM
"Anna! Let me explain!"
The three people in the store turned to look at Fred, bent over and huffing as if he had just run a marathon. Eventually, he straightened himself up and looked at the three and their positions in the room.
"I missed the fight, didn't I?"
Anna sighed and stepped away from Stan before shooting Dawn and Fred looks of exasperation.
"Ok, I obviously don't have the full picture. So how about you tell me what happened at the will reading? All I got from Fred was that Dawn got saddled with a massive debt, and Stan offered to split it with her."
What followed was a drawn-out explanation of the specifics of the Duskrton's will, Preston's bill, and Stan's explanation of how he thinks the bill was so high.
In the end, Anna's murderous expression returns, but this time, it was aimed at a more deserving target.
"NORTHWEST! I AM GOING TO BURN THAT MANSION AND EVERY ONE OF THEIR BUSINESSES TO THE GROUND! I WILL FEED AULDMAN HIS OWN BLACK HEART! I WILL BREAK EVERY BONE IN PRESTON'S BODY OVER A WEEK WITH NO REST OR REPRIEVE!"
What continued was about 15 minutes of Anna ranting about what exactly she was going to do to the Northwests when she got to them. The stuff listed above was cherry-picked to be the mildest of her threats.
She had forgotten the others in the store, and they liked it that way. Dawn was backing away slowly like one would if you saw a bear walk into the park during a picnic. Fred was frozen in fear, his pants getting a stain in the front. Stan was mentally checking off each of her threats with his knowledge of her past and finding she had done each and every one of them before.
Everyone was so distracted, that they failed to notice the ethereal glow emerging from the store. The energy was collected into two human forms that floated to the side. They began to have a whispered conversation on who should interrupt her, eventually deciding with both floating over slowly.
"Um, excuse me?"
"WHAT!?"
As Anna rounded on them, she and the rest of the store realized that the ghosts of the Duskertons were floating in front of them.
"Ma? Pa?"
"Um, is everyone else seeing that?"
"Dios te salve María, llena eres de gracia, el Señor es contigo. Bendita Tú eres entre todas las mujeres y bendito es el fruto de tu vientre Jesús. Santa María, Madre de Dios, ruega por nosotros pecadores, ahora y en la hora de nuestra muerte."
As the rest of the store began to panic at the figures, Stan just rolled his eyes.
"Note to self, contact Arnie about how to deal with newbie ghosts."
Ma and Pa continued to look nervously at Anna before Ma began to talk.
"I'm sorry to interrupt you, deary, can you please tone the murder down? It's very disturbing."
Pa nodded. "Yes, please. I'm all for making PRESTON SUFFER FOR HIS CRIMES AGAINST OUR FAMILY! It's the big reason we decided to stick around. But I think you might be going a little overboard."
…
"HAHAHA!"
The entirety of the store turned to look at Stan bent over with laughter. He eventually composed himself enough to point at Anna.
"You Scared GHOSTS! You were so murdery that ghosts who only exist on this mortal coil to get revenge on the same person as you asked you to tone it down!"
He eventually collapsed on the floor from his laughter. Anna then got a sheepish look on her face.
"Um, sorry? I'll leave him alone."
Ma shook her head. "Don't go that far; how about you stick with just breaking his legs and leaving him in the middle of the woods to be eaten by bears? Or tie him up and burn the mansion down with him inside?"
"Or bring him to us and let us have our REVENGE!"
Anna stepped back when Pa shifted into a hulking version of himself wrapped in flames.
Stan finally pulled himself together enough to stand up and head to the ghosts as they continued to talk to Anna.
"He really does have it coming, trying to force Dawn to sell to him without even trying to buy it off her legally. I don't even know why he didn't do that instead of going through the effort of sending someone in here to turn on all the facets, rig the toilets to keep flushing, turn on every light, open every cooler-"
"Wait, you saw them do all that? And it was on Preston's orders?"
The two ghosts nodded. "Yes, the grunt was using a walkie-talkie to stay in communication with Preston while doing it. We don't have any other evidence beyond our testimony though."
Stan sighed. "And even Gravity Falls court won't accept testimony from ghosts. I know, I checked after meeting Handwitch and the other denizens."
"I'm sorry, the OTHER DENIZENS?"
Stan turned to Dawn and Fred, who were having existential crises. Stan handled it with all his grace, sensitivity, and tact.
"Sure. Every single urban legend and myth is real and living in Gravity Falls, except it's all funhouse mirror versions of them. The witches only work with hands, the minotaurs are hypermasculine, and there are unicorn and leprechaun hybrids. I also have a shapeshifter running the Snack Shack that I'm thinking of adopting."
"Oh! That's how the Snack Shack works! I was wondering where you got such realistic props from."
Stan then smiled fondly when he answered Pa. "Yeah, Alex is really good at it. I don't know if it's something specific to his species or if he's special, but he has a photographic memory of faces and anatomy. Just hand him an animal book and he can turn into anything in it, and even mash them together to make new forms!"
Stan realized they were getting off-topic and tried to steer them back.
"As you heard earlier, Dawn, Fred, and I will split the trumped-up charges between us. We might still need to sell the store, but We MIGHT be able to get away with only paying the lump sum and not the monthly payments with interest so high Preston could afford to tear down and rebuild the building on the payments alone."
Anna finally shook herself out of the shock of both finding out ghosts were real and that SHE scared THEM and turned to Stan.
"Hay, why stop at splitting it three ways? I can throw some money into the pot, and we can also talk to the rest of the town. The more people that help pay for it, the more likely we can pay off Preston. We might even be able to get by with only selling the house."
Dawn was so shocked by what was going on, she whispered her reply.
"But I don't live here anymore. I don't want to run the store."
Anna turned to her with a kind smile. "Then let someone else run the day-to-day. If nothing else, it can be a big middle finger to Preston and the rest of the Northwests."
Ma and Pa looked at her with hopeful eyes.
"Do you really think you can keep the store?"
"Who would run it?"
Anna shrugged. "I don't know the answer to either of those yet, but we can try."
Stan's eyes then wandered over to Dawn.
"Well, I think this night has been exhausting for everyone, so how about everyone not named Duskerton leaves the store now? Goodnight."
Stan then grabbed the arms of Fred and Anna and led them out of the store, leaving parents and daughter to talk alone.
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I have decided to cap this series at 29 chapters, that way it will end with the year. I am not 100% happy with the in universe pasing and how I have been jumping from one idea to the next with no break, so when I do this again, I plan on setting up a timeline and outline from the start before writing my first chapter.
I have them all written up, and the final chapter is over 6k words.
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.
Starting December 1st, there will be three tiers
1$: get early access to the fanfic info dumps, I'll post them up to a month ahead of DevientArt as I make them.
$3: Get early access to my fanfics a week before I post them on FanFiction, AO3, or Tumbler.
$5: Exclusive Worldbuilding content. For December, you'll get a map of the casino Stan is making and a list of all the Caeser Cipher's decoded.
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