#borrower stan

Borrower Stan (from Gravity Falls Shorts chapter 19) created by @dark-lord-of-awesomeness

Soooo... A while back I talked about wanting to find a Borrower Crossover with Gravity Falls where one of the bros was turned into a borrower.

I had some ideas. So I'm gonna post them for folks to use, mostly with Stan falling face-first into Borrower-fication and ending up in Ford's care.

Starting with some general things.

Stan gets kidnapped/cursed while on the road and turned into a “borrower”. He is now small enough to fit in someone's hands and has mouse features. He is terrified because everything is so much bigger than him now.

He will never take his normal height for granted again.

After “moving in” with Ford, Stan gets a fancy dollhouse of some kind, or even just one of those things to make little model rooms, and turns it into his bedroom/private space. May start as a single room, then later gets the house so he can have more space that won’t risk any accidental injuries while he’s tiny.

He’s attached to it even after he gets turned back to normal. Possibly picks up dollhouse making as a hobby? They are surprisingly intricate and that turns out to be a little bit fun to get into.

Also, Shermie is the one with Stan’s car. It didn’t get wrecked or whatever. He got the call and picked up the car bc Stan was his brother. Their dad had been awful to him, but that didn’t mean they should just let it be lost. That they should brush him under the rug and pretend he was never there.

He planned to talk Ford into taking it so that he would have a car again but keeps forgetting to bring it up since it’s usually their Mom who calls them all.

That, or he has told Ford and now the whole family is quietly freaking out bc WHAT HAPPENED TO HIM?? Why is all his stuff still there? Why does it look like he was living out of it??

Now for the actual starting points, bc I had 3 of them.

@borrowedtimeandspace–

what if Stan can’t ever turn back? Literally fated to forever be a “pest” living in his brothers house. How would he feel? Would he leave? but now ford doesn’t have a search limited to the house anymore to find something as small as his pinky

also - would Bill ever do permanent damage to Stan (not just trauma) to try and convince ford if Stan somehow made it out of the basement?

would Bill ever put the matchbox outside?

Glad you liked matchbox mouse Stan:) just a little guy :))

If Stan was stuck forever, it would really depend on how Ford reacted on if he stayed with him or not. If Ford made it so that his house was Stanmouse friendly and made sure Stan had safe places to retreat to so that nothing like that happened again, still treated him like a person and such, then yeah Stan would stick around. As much of a burden as he'd feel like, he's also half an apple tall and so easy to get snatched by a bird. Fords house is safe, and Ford getting him food and materials doesn't even put a dent in his wallet. While Stan might have moments of feeling useless, the two of them would find things for him to do and help with, like detail work or something.

If Ford shot into panic mode and made it a whole thing, then Stan's gone. He'd tolerate it for a little while (especially if they learn Stan's stuck right after they finish dealing with Bill), but at a certain point he'd put his foot down about Ford treating him like glass and demand some changes. If Ford complies and acts like he does in the first part, then Stan will stay, but if he doesn't, then Stan's gone. Stan's not going to live in a little dollhouse for the rest of his life, he's a grown man who wants the freedom to make risky and dangerous choices, like climb the couch with his bare mouse hands.

Thing is, Stan's not going to go far, because, again, Fords house is safe (if annoying to live at) and Stan's a mouse. He'd make it to somewhere in town then be on constant alert so that he doesn't get eaten or stepped on, and avoid Ford like the plague with mixed success.

Its hard to avoid someone when they have magic and are actively looking for a mouse sized guy. Brotherly bonds at risk of irreparable damage if Ford goes dark about Stan's safety.

As for your other question, yes Bill would do permanent damage to stan so long as he's sure it won't kill him. Then maybe kill him on accident because he overestimated his own ability to hurt Stan or underestimated Stan's ability to get hurt. It's not because Bill wouldn't kill Stan, he just knows if he does Fords gonna start focusing on that and might tear the portal down entirely. Stan dying is a distraction, Stan hurting is a threat and incentive.

Well, worst case scenario Bill really did take care of that rodent problem, and now its time for FrakenStan, mini edition, where Ford remembers he can use magic and locate Stan that way, or finds Stan's tiny body whit a 'Whoopsie :)' note. Now Fords reviving Stan with tiny tools and tweezers, not thinking at all to use the same crystals he's using to shrink his materials to shrink himself. It funny for Bill in that its hilarious, but its also the reason Bill didn't want to kill Stan, in that now Fords distracted with this, and, as much as Bill hates it, Ford cares about Stan, so as much as Bill would love to kill him, he's also trying to convince Ford to open the portal, and a bargaining chip isn't as useful when its dead.

Or Ford never finds Stan at all and has a mental break about it, which, again, is funny for Bill, but not what he wants.

No one's happy (Except Bill, who thinks this is funny, but is also ughing about Ford obsessing over his dead mouse brother)

Best Case, Bill leaves Stan there, and Ford finds him the next time he wakes up. Not likely, as Stan might not make it that long, and Bill's unlikely to leave Stan and more likely to do a whole video 'haha, look who was over here the whole time!' photos/video.

Now Bill still has a tiny tied up Stan, but Stan's also so out of it he's not as fun to traumatize.

Hmm. Thinking... Probably carries Stan around while doing a Ford focused Puppet hour. Bill's very obviously talking to Ford but also Stan's just. There. No or the barest attention drawn to him, while Bill's just monologing. Stan's either poking out of his pocket or like, duct taped to his front.

Front row seat and all that.

Probably does some water boarding to 'hydrate' him, does a photo shoot of Stan in precarious or dehumanizing situations (animal cage, plate of 'cheese' (if Ford even has cheese), maybe tries to get Stan to run a makeshift maze, or just has him tied up in one, face down on a mouse wheel, in a jar he's filling with water (for hydrating), on a yo-yo, held over a rat trap, held over any animal mouth, held over Fords mouth, etc).

How much each 'scene' escalates greatly depends on if Stan's dissociating still. Stays passed out for the entire Puppet hour, gets a wake up with the water boarding, might twitch a little during the mouse photo shoot, might start responding at the end of their time together, when Bill's shoving him back in the match box to find a new hiding place.

I'm personally a big fan of dramatic irony and (funny) miscommunication, so I'm just imagining Fidds not realizing they're related (and Stan avoiding mentioning any family, especially not his twin) so when Ford shows up, absolutely ecstatic at being able to study this new anomaly, everyone is caught completely off guard.

Thank you! I’m kinda glad so many people like the idea behind this little lark! (Even if I don’t plan on writing it out myself. I’m already juggling 2 other gf aus rn.) It’s nice to know that I’m not the only one who thinks they would be fun to read/mess around with.

Fidds definitely suspects that something is connecting Stan and Ford at the start just because the resemblance is too strong to be just from chance. I mean, they’re twins and the odds of some random stranger on the streets looking just like your roommate from college are pretty low in the first place. So he’s pretty sure the two are related in some way.

I’m also of the opinion that Fidds does know that Ford has two brothers and not just one.

Like, Ford and Stan spent the entirety of their childhoods and almost all of their teenage years together. I feel like there’s no way he could have completely omitted Stan’s existence from his roommate while cramming as many credits as possible into his college schedule. He may not have told Fidds that they were twins, but I don’t think he can have fully pretended that Stan never existed in the first place.

He may have been vague about the things from their childhood/teenage years but he didn’t try to wipe Stan from his own history.

Fidds might suspect that Stan is Ford’s missing brother but he would also believe they could be cousins instead. Until he gets some form of confirmation about it.

The most he’d probably be able to pry out of Stan before Ford shows up is that he was homeless/a drifter and that he (probably) didn’t think his family would have cared much about him maybe being missing. (Which makes Fidd’s heart go out to the poor guy because ouch man. That’s gotta sting…) Except for his Ma. She might file the missing person's report if Pa didn’t try to stop her.

And Stan wouldn’t suspect that the “Stanford” that Fidds was talking about might be his brother because, after all, the name isn’t that unusual. There are probably plenty of guys named Stanford out there. Just like there are plenty of guys named Stanley!

It’s not until his dorky brother practically breaks down the door in his excitement that he realizes he should have asked more questions about the anomaly guy.

Scales are fun to play around with! Though I do prefer the smaller scales than the original Borrowers stories have. They’re a little big for me in those stories.

(BA smols are at a 1:19 scale)