Gravity falls/the back rooms. Stan finds it in his grifter days, and it sucks, but he figures shit out eventually and survives. Actually it’s better here- no Rico, no drugs, no people! But it also sucks, cause no people, no drugs, and no stores to pick up supplies. He has to scavenge- he really feels like a stray dog then. He survives the entities, long stretches without supplies, and everything in between. He manages.
Ford still meets Bill, of course, and Bill still desperately wants to come into the real world and take over, but he also wants it because the real world is the only universe with actual access to the backrooms, which is infinite and spans universes. (Something about the exits only existing on that certain plane and stuff, it’s not like Bill bothered explaining that to Ford- he keeps him in the dark the whole time like in canon.) Ford doesn’t find out about the backrooms until he’s trying to dismantle the portal, it malfunctions, and it chucks him into the backrooms- and right into his long lost twin!
Que a story I’m probably too lazy to write about Ford having everything he knows flipped upside down, having to rely on Stan for everything, Stan having to cope with Ford suddenly being there, taking care of him, having a second mouth to feed, and so much more.
