Ask Outside Stars

Have you seen the ships of you and Fiddleford? I know you're married (I think) but it's fun, I promise!

Ford laughs at reading your ask, then slides it over to Fiddleford who snickers into his hand.

Ford: "The funny thing about that, is that Fiddleford and I did briefly court while in college."

Fiddleford: "No need to sound so old-fashioned, my friend."

Fiddleford grins conspiratorially and jabs his thumb at Ford.

Fiddleford: "He was my beau back at ol' BMU."

He then turns and smiles fondly at Ford.

Fiddleford: "We had fun, didn't we?"

Ford pats his oldest friend's shoulder.

Ford: "We certainly did."

His smile droops a little.

Ford: "But people change. We both wanted different things. I wanted to advance my education and expand the field of Unusuology, and Fiddleford wanted to settle down and start a family while working on his business."

Fiddleford: "We parted ways amicably. In fact, I have ol' Stanford here to thank for setting me up with Emma-May. She was in one of his classes."

Ford laughs.

Ford: "Goodness, the way you two first interacted was so adorable. Downright saccharine, even. Now I'm forced to watch it all over again, but this time with you and my own brother."

Fiddleford cuffs him over the back of the head and Ford laughs harder.

Hope it was filled with lots of shame and self reflection cuz that was not cool dude >:/

I've answered a similar ask here, but frankly, no. He's not doing any in-depth self reflection beyond thinking, "Damn. That was kinda crazy of me. I'm still the better choice, though."

Unrelated to my writing, BUT HOLY SHIT I HAVE AN INTERVIEW WITH NASA LATER THIS WEEK!!

I feel like Dipper when he found out who the author of the journals was.

Mostly he just feels burning humiliation at having been bested so thoroughly, and frustration at his weapons now being out of reach.

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Other Ford sat cross-legged atop burning, scarlet sand and nursed the injuries to his face. When he'd been tricked into the portal, he'd wound up in a bleak, lifeless dimension with desert sands that shifted like water and a cloudless violet sky overhead. His one and only consolation was that multiple rifts could be seen opening and closing sporadically across the horizon, so he wasn't out of options as far as survival went.

The wind whipped his hair around his face and stung his open wounds, but they were the least of his worries at the moment, as he'd certainly been through worse. No, what hurt more than anything was the humiliation churning in his gut at having been so thoroughly bested by a semi-domesticated variant of Bill, a literal infant, an elderly version of himself, and Stanley of all people.

He thought back to his own Bill and how different he was from the variant that called itself "Will". That Bill had been genuine in his kindness and charming and beautiful and funny and-

Other Ford shook the sand from his hair and stuffed those thoughts down, down, down where he couldn't reach them for the time being. He could admit, however, that he might have gone a little crazy back there. Had he honestly expected Bill to just up and come with him like that? Even now, a part of him still raged and hissed and spat in offense at being so cruelly rejected.

Maybe he'd see him again.

Drags my battered body out of the WIP trenches.

To celebrate my NASA application being forwarded to a hiring manager yesterday, I powered through and finished my WIP!

Related to this ask here:

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A Tale of Two Fords (13972 words) by Anonymous Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Gravity Falls Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Bill Cipher/Ford Pines Characters: Bill Cipher, Ford Pines, Stan Pines, Shape Shifter | Experiment #210 Additional Tags: Humor, Established Relationship, Jealousy, Non-Consensual Kissing, Non-Consensual Touching, Human Bill Cipher, Minor Violence, Parenthood, Pregnant Bill Cipher Series: Part 9 of Outside Stars Summary: Bill Cipher, now living as a human under the alias "William B.C. Pines", is two months pregnant with twins after adopting a magically baby-fied Shifty. His husband, Stanford Pines, has become a touch overprotective as a result. That protectiveness and paranoia ratchets itself up to new heights when a variant of Ford appears at the shack, introducing himself as being from Dimension ZW3-X. Unfortunately, this variant is still hunting down Bill Cipher. Can Ford keep Will's secret (and his family) safe from him?

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Me: *Glances at the 7k and still growing fic I'm writing about this exact premise*

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Will rubs his hand over his stomach, thinking about it for a moment.

Will: "Well, there was that one guy... we called him Other Ford. He picked the absolute WORST time to show up when he did. Do you have ANY idea how hard it is to be pregnant, while raising a shapeshifting infant, WHILE ALSO hiding your identity as Bill Cipher? I swear, I was going to go prematurely gray before he finally left."

Ford says nothing, but sits there with a stony glare on his face at the reminder of his doppelganger's surprise appearance.

Will: "Yeah, Fordsy didn't like him for... many reasons. I'll have to tell you the story sometime in depth."

Honestly?, I wouldn't be surprised if a descendant of Will and Ford's managed To summon Euclydia back from it's ashes.

Imagine their great great great x100 grandkid being born and suddenly Euclydia (now in planet form) is now back and alive after literally being disintegrated to nothing but a small Speck of dust and is now a neighboring Planet near earth.

Oh god that is actually so beautiful 😭 Like, legit no joke. Ignoring any potential spatial ramifications, I can picture Newclydia being a colorful ringed planet that shares a tandem orbit around the sun with Earth, the two planets always visible from one another (like how the moon is visible from Earth and vice versa).

In this hypothetical future, science and space travel has advanced so far that hopping from one sister planet to another is as easy as catching an uber to where you want to go, so Newclydians and humans mingle interchangeably to the point where it's just another every day occurrence to see your square-shaped neighbor on Earth watering his tuluips, or a human moving to Newclydia to study Interdimensional Paradigmn Theory taught by a red triangular professor. That human, sitting on a bench in the lecture hall between an oval with three eyes hovering in the air and another human dressed in traditional Newclydian garb, listens with rapt attention as the professor talks about "The Great Extinction Event" that preceded their planet's rebirth (aka, Euclydia being destroyed).

The professor then floats over to his desk and gestures to a glass box covered in a sheet.

"This is on loan from the Newclydian Interplanetary Museum as a personal favor to me from the curator, so I expect everyone to be very careful with this," he says.

Then, with a dramatic flourish, the professor rips away the cloth revealing the artifact inside the case. It's a ring, once tarnished with age but now polished back to a pristine shine by gentle, caring hands. A black stone is set into it and the students lean forward in their chairs, oohing and aahing at the sight of the small, almost invisible speck pulsing with light from within the gem.

"Is that what I think it is?" a pentagon from the back row asks, her voice quivering with excitement.

"Indeed," boasts the professor, his one eye crinkled with mirth as he adjusts his glasses. "This is the remnant of old-Newclydia, or 'Euclydia' as it was more commonly known. This is all that remains of a once great civilization, brought to ruin by catastrophe."

"What happened to it?" a different human asks, raising his hand.

"Historians and scholars aren't quite sure," the professor admits. "But several theories abound. Which is the perfect segue into our assignment today. In your own words, write a 2,000 word essay on what you think caused the destruction of Euclydia, based on your research and our previous presentations. Due by Monday."

Like, I'm saying this from my own experience as a fic reader wherein I've wanted to re-read a certain chapter and I can't remember the name of it because it's something like one word or an offhanded meta reference.

Would anyone like to see that for my multi-chapter fics? Like, each chapter would be named something like: "Will Wakes Up" and "A Stranger Comes to the Shack" and "Stan Deals With Ford and Will Stressing About Babies".

Sorry for the late reply on this! I haven't had anything in my strawpage for a while so this took me by surprise lol.

Anywho, I know I left the ending a bit vague intentionally, but here's essentially what happened.

(TL;DR Will is Bill, but just going by a different name)

When Bill was in the Theraprism, he spent so long there that the treatment plans ACTUALLY started working. He was becoming more patient, kinder, etc.

However, once he noticed what was happening, Bill decided that he didn't WANT to change. He needed to get the hell out before he "lost" more of himself. So, using his powers, he channeled every lesson he learned, every therapy session, every desire to be a better person into a small piece of himself that he tore out. Originally he was going to just destroy it, but then he realized there was an opportunity to be had.

We've seen how Bill can sort of arrange himself from pieces (like when he appeared in Dipper's dream when he was trying to find the code to McGucket's old computer), so that's what his new plan became. If he can get this little piece of himself out of the Theraprism, then he can just re-merge with it and be free! And if his plan failed, no big deal, because he at least got rid of the parts of him that were becoming a better person. It was a win-win!

So, when that little "pebble" of him was found and cast aside, it fell to Earth as a shooting star, drawn to Gravity Falls by the Weirdness Magnetism. The Axolotl, however, knew this was happening (being omiscent and all) and decided to intervene, giving that discarded piece a human body.

That piece became Will.

At the end of Outside Stars, when Will and Bill agreed to become one again, it was Bill accepting the lessons he'd learned from the Theraprism (essentially a metaphor for self-actualization). He decided to keep the name "Will" because it was a fresh start, but also a memento of what he'd finally embraced: the will to change, the will to live, the will to grow, the will to love.

(Related ask here.)

I love the mental image of Ford just BODYING some chump who thought he would be easy prey, so have this.

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Will made a sound that could only be described as a verbal keysmash as he bolted immediately from the Stanmobile (leaving the car door open behind him, much to Stan's frustration) and then leapt into the Gravity Falls public pool. When he popped back up to the surface like an eager cork, he took the time to just float on his back and sigh dreamily.

"Ahhh... I needed this."

"Agreed, this summer has been brutal," Dipper grimaced from where he sat at the edge of the pool, rubbing sunscreen up and down his skinny arms.

"Damn global warming," Stan chimed in with a shake of his fists. "You know it's all a big government conspiracy, right?"

"Stanley..." Ford sighed, visibly frustrated. "Climate change is a recognized environmental science-"

Stan simply continued on, ignoring him. "It's all those bigwigs on Wall Street. They're intentionally polluting the world so the temperature goes up and the glaciers melt, causing sea levels to rise so they can sell more beachfront properties."

Will shot him a finger gun from where he bobbed merrily past. Unhinged conspiracy theories aside, the rest of the afternoon passed pleasantly despite the heat. At some point Will had climbed out of the water to just relax on a poolside lounger while Ford joined him, the duo watching Dipper and Mabel team up to try and dunk Stan under the water. Will sat up and stretched.

"I'm gonna grab something from the snack shack. You want anything?" he asked.

Ford hummed in consideration for a moment before replying, "Just a bottle of water, please."

"Psh. Health nut."

As Will purchased the drinks and turned to head back to where Ford was waiting for him, he nearly bumped into some meat-wall of a man who stepped in front of him. "Hey! Watch it!"

The man, hair a golden blond with richly tanned skin and abs that you could grate cheese off of, threw his head back with a boisterous laugh.

"Fiesty. I like that. Where you heading, cutie?" he asked.

"Back to my husband," Will said pointedly. He peeked around the strange man's body and waved at Ford, who responded back with a wave of his own and a warm smile.

"What? That geezer? He rich or something?" the guy asked.

"None of your business," Will sniffed as he shouldered his way past.

Ford, having noticed the growing altercation, rose from his seat and met Will halfway there.

"Darling, is everything alright?" he asked, thirst forgotten.

"Yeah, just some rude jerk. Here's your water bottle, Fordsy."

Ford accepted the bottle gratefully and began steering Will back towards their seats when the stranger suddenly inserted himself into the conversation once more.

"Hey, old man, mind if I talk to your wife for a sec?" he asked in a tone that made it clear he wasn't actually asking.

Ford's face curdled like he'd bitten into a lemon and he replied, "Yes, I mind. And no, you can't talk to him. Leave us alone."

The stranger just laughed. "And what are you gonna do? Tell me war stories until I die of boredom? As if. How about you take a seat before you break a hip just standing there."

Will was about to intervene when Ford suddenly moved faster than a striking serpent. He'd grabbed the stranger's head and bodily slammed it against the pool storage wall. The stranger's skull made a hollow coconut sound against the biting concrete and he struggled like a worm on a hook to get away. Ford leaned down until he was close enough to hiss into the man's ear, "Listen well, you rude little child. When I let go, you are going to walk away and forget you ever saw William. If you don't, I'm going to use your face like a crayon to paint this wall red. Do I make myself clear?"

"C-Crystal," stammered the stranger.

"Good. I'm glad we've come to an understanding."

Ford stepped back, releasing his grip on the stranger's hair and the man staggered away, dazed and fearful of the "old man" who had bested him.

"That was so hot," Will swooned, practically throwing himself into Ford's arms once the stranger was out of sight.

Ford's aggressive demeanor instantly faded away to be replaced by stammering blushes and simpering smiles.

"W- well, I certainly couldn't let him talk about us like that. It was unbecoming," he replied bashfully.

"You know what else will 'be-cumming'? Me later when I get my hands on you-"

"Hey! Can it with the flirting you two!" Stan's voice bellowed across the water. "If you're gonna sit there making goo-goo eyes at each other, at least do it in private!"

Ford took an embarrassed step back and cleared his throat. "R- right, yes, apologies, Stanley."

what if in the chapter where ford finds out will is bill, what if the bullet fully missed and will just decided to book it, how would that go? Idk if anybody asked this yet but I just thought of it- :’D

I couldn't sleep last night so I just laid awake for a while in the darkness and plotted this scenario in my head. Enjoy! (CW: Gore and Death)

Shermie stood, half-frozen in the doorway, at the sight of Stan on his back on the floor, holding a squirming, giggling bug-baby in the air above his head while he made airplane noises. Ford and Will sat nearby on the couch, Ford deep in a book on childrearing and Will watching Stan roll around on the floor with his nephew.

Ford looked up from his book at the sound of Shermie’s arrival. “Ah, Sherman, perfect timing. I’d like you to meet your nephew: Shiftavius Bartholomew Pines the First. Shifty for short.”

At the sound of his own name, Shifty laughed and kicked his stumpy legs as Stan continued pretending he was an airplane. Shermie, however, stood there blinking like a shutter as his mind struggled to reboot itself. “Shif… Shifty? Is that the bug thing?”

“He is not a bug thing!” gasped Will, affronted. “He’s our son, and I would appreciate you treating him as such.”

Shermie’s eyes flickered from Shifty to Will to Ford and then back again. 

“I… is this what a member of your species looks like?” he stammered.

“Oh, hardly,” Ford scoffed. “Euclydians are a second-dimensional species that look like common earth shapes. Shifty there is a shapeshifter and thus far the only one of his kind I’ve come across.”

“Shape…shifter?”

Will the kids be triangles or will they have different shapes, Imagine one of their kids being a star and another being a crescent moon! That'd be cute,Their Euclydian forms are Literally shapes of space, Something Bill loved to look at as a child(and to this day too) all those eons ago.