When it comes to being presented with the option of using the memory gun, I've always written Stan as more unwilling. My Stans will weigh the pros/cons but tend to prefer to remember the bad times because then he'll know how to react if it happens again (*double checks causes its been a while since I've reread it* example: Wayward Dimensions and Pines Adrift). That includes trauma like being locked in the trunk but excludes the canon doing it to save his family.

It's a personal opinion I share/project onto him. I don't regret anything I've done and I wouldn't change/forget anything in my past because then I'd be a different person. Butterfly effect and all that.

But a Stanley that becomes involved with Fidds' cult - whether willingly or not - can also be super interesting to explore.

While I don't ship them, it would be hard to avoid some semblance Fiddauthor (cause let's be honest its so obviously in canon. The dude lives in Palo Alto. (Which I had to look up to see how close it was to Stanford University while writing Behind the Screen despite the fact I live nearly right next door) and leaves his wife/kid to spend time with Ford in the middle of nowhere. Not to mention the Christmas gifts. Anyway going off topic).

When I think of a story focused on Cult Fidds, I honestly can't see anyway where it ends up a happy ending for Fiddlestan.

There's the obvious Fidds erases the portal thinking he's Ford.

He erases both Ford and the portal.

He erases Stan's self to mold him into Ford.

Stan willingly asks for help to forget his past and it turns into some kind of stockholm situation cause he keeps remembering.

Stan asks for help and chooses to forget Ford and joins the cult.

There's just so many routes and not one of them that's not toxic in some way. The power balance is always in Fidds' favor.

None of them would be happy without outside help of Ford somehow finding his way back (either on his own or the younger twins starting up the portal) and beating the shit out of them both until they come back to their senses.

It's so interesting to think about, but I don't think I'd ever be able to do Cult Fidds justice in my writing. Writing cult leaders is hard (when I was writing Behind the Screen, Ford was originally supposed to be more actively evil and not just the main face for Bill to puppet. But clearly that didn't happen lol).

It basically just boils down to him not falling for the trap in the first place.

Zeph would be able to supply him with a timeline of when he dissappeared, so he'd be able to plan accordingly.

He'd either go a different way of tracking the guy down (something I don't have the brain power to think of atm), or he'd go the route Serra takes and gives his name to Stan as a precaution so that he can't be bound by anyone else. Therefore making it so that Extra Hortum never even needs to happen.

If he went the name route, Stan's command would be so vague that Jimmy's basically only bound by name and still could do whatever the fuck he wanted. And after releasing him, Jimmy would insist on paying him back for helping cause ya know, Fae rules. Stan would just ask for the bell back cause he'd grown attached to it and was kinda pissed it was gone. Lol