#ppbb au

Stanley Pines greets his twin a happy birthday! And nothing bad is happening at all ^w^ . . . Based off a scene in Pay Phone Birthday Blues by @dark-lord-of-awesomeness another banger btw ur so cracked fr

Ford, being crazy (/pos), decides to try and figure out who it was by trying to resurrect the skeleton. (Maybe my recent obsession over Dungeon Meshi is fueling this idea).

If it is successful or if Stan becomes a living skeleton is undecided.

Thank you for your time.

Man ya'll love making my angsty stuff even more angsty, huh!

Ford never figures out its Stan, Stan gets eaten, time moves on. The entity moves onto finding its next meal, and hey! Look at this twiggy science guy who's having panic attacks about seeing something horrible and getting wishy washy about calling his wife! Perfect for repeat calling torture!

Except Ford is there to rescue Fiddleford from becoming a meal, drawing the entity out enough and killing it through magical means in some high scifi magic battle. Ford, seeing this as the mega rare opportunity, is ready to dissect this thing! No telling when its incomprehensible corpse will stop existing on their plane of reality after all! got to get to it! Has a grand time traumatizing Fiddleford in a brand new way by cutting this thing up on the side of the road, then finding the remains of its previous meal still in its stomach (Fiddleford blinked and Ford was in a full hazmat btw). Its covered in grey goo, in immaculate condition, and hey! Look at all this shiny stuff!

Thats the poor souls soul :) Mushed up into pieces for easy digestion:)

Time to bring this guy back to life! Declares Ford, to Fiddlefords horror. Why? Well, who else has first hand experience in getting eaten by a creature like this! Imagine the possibilities! And they'll probably be greatful for a second chance at life! Favor for a favor, Ford gets first hand account of monster stomach, they get to be alive! Isn't that nice! And they have all this extra material, might as well use it to reconstruct a body, they have the soul right here after all just gotta piece it together! It'll be fun!

Ford has a grand time! Makes a fun forbidden necromancy circle, bones in the middle, using the corpse of the monster to add material, scooping as much of the soul out as he can find, and eh. its not great but as long as most of its there the rest will grow back! Time for forbidden magic! (Forbidden! Squeeks Fidds? Yes, so don't tell anyone you saw me do this says Ford, anyway)

Its gruesome! its bloody! Fords left with a naked human, covered in inhuman blood, coughing his brand new lungs out. Fords glee at it working lasts right up until he helps him sit up, wipes his face off, and gets hit with his own, confused and staring right back at him.

All good feelings are gone. its horror city now. This wasn't some stranger, this was Stanley, already dead and digested. Ford was almost careless with his twin brother's body, and while he was careful to find as much of the soul as he could he's hit with the fact that there wasn't a lot left, and that he just used the remains of an eldritch monster to recreate his twin.

All thoughts on inquiring about the digestive process are gone, replaced with the horror of remembering the repeated phone calls he got a month or so ago. Time to bundle Stan up and get him home asap, make sure Ford didn't mess up the reviving process.

Stan, meanwhile, is just. SO out of it. He was hot, then really tired, then it was very dark? He's pretty sure he died? Wasn't he calling someone? little more to him, but still not a fully functioning human soul.

BUT! Just like Dungeon Meshi, maybe Stan's got a little extra. Ford used the body and blood of a being that doesn't exist on the same plane of existence as humans to remake Stan. Maybe he's not quite all the way human anymore. Is he hungry for souls too? Has strange phasing abilities? Maybe his stomach is now a pocket dimension, keeps eating and eating and still hungry for more.

ford still gets a buncha calls but it’s a mystery tying back to a stranded payphone that looks like it got blown up

Then cue the postcard - Stan would still go, but no fight. No emotion.

Would ford notice? Especially with everything else going on?

HHHHHHMMMMMMMMMMMMmmmm.

I'm thinking... Ok, Stan either strong arms his emotions into positivity through pure stubbornness to the point where the Entity spits him out, or some random passing eldritch slayer of some sort yoinks him free last minute.

Either way, Stan's not as much of an emotionless husk as he is in the main fic, but he's still lacking in a lot of areas. All he's really got is fear and maybe some hystaria flavored joy and happiness.

Which, yeah Ford would notice. Maybe not right away, Stan's at the door, jumpy and smiley, but his eyes are brown and its-its fine. Stan's acting a little... off, but Fords on hour sixty something of being awake and its been ten years! People change, its fine.

Then they go to the basement, and Stan's reaction is a little lack luster, but, again, its fine! Stan doesn't understand what he's looking at, and its- its better this way. Ford can give him this book, and Stan will be on his way.

Here's the thing though. Stan's got some fuel in the tank, but he's still mostly empty, soul nothing more then scraps that either haven't had the chance to heal or maybe its in fear mode where it refuses to grow back so that something else doesn't come along or something. The reason doesn't matter, souls are tricky complex things after all, all that matters is that Stan's working on, again, a little bit of fear and maybe some fake happiness.

There's nothing left in him that cares about Ford. The only reason he came at all is internal logic says 'Ford calls, I come'.

So why? Should he take this book? Why should he care that its dangerous? Why should he risk his life and use his meager finances to help Ford out here? Is Ford going to reimburse him? Is Ford going to pay for this? Will this take off some of Stan's debt towards him? What does it matter that its risking the world? If Stan wouldn't understand, then explain it. Fords the smart one, it should be easy enough, and if it isn't, then Ford can take care of it.

Just a complete lack of interest on helping, or towards danger, or in Ford in general. And Ford is so, so angry, and Stan-

Stan isn't. He's not angry. He's a little scared, this all seems like a lot, but he doesn't have anger to use as a mask, so he just stands there nervously, smiling awkwardly at Ford as he gets angrier and can't match the energy.

And Ford can rage and scream and shake Stan as much as he wants, he's not going to get any other reaction besides what he has already.

At some point he's going to realize somethings wrong.

At some point he's going to shake Stan and ask (demand) what is wrong with him.

And Stan's not going to care to lie about it. He'll stand there, smiling awkwardly and jittering, and tell Ford all about how, a few months ago, some monster thing ate him! And it did! Eat him, that is, and now Stan's missing part of his soul? But its fine, because some wandering monster slayer said he'd probably be fine eventually and gave him some dodad that'll keep him mostly safe from other soul eating monsters that force you to call your brother a million times :) And actually he's better like this, because now he doesn't make a bunch of stupid decisions or risks and is working at getting a stable job and-

And now Fords horrified. His brother is missing his soul, and Ford just yelled in his face and screamed at him. No wonder Stan's so off, he's literally missing chunks of who he is.

(and now he knows who tried to call him, all those months ago. How many calls had there been? How many hours?

What if the eventual silence had come with a worse outcome)

Ford can't send him off like this. Not now that he knows he almost lost him, and not now that he knows Stan has a spiritual gaping wound. There's no telling what Bill could do to him like this, if anything, and now Fords got to save the world and fix his brother, but first he needs to make sure Stan can't get hurt and understands some of the dangers and-

Now its a no portal au, where Ford is going insane and Stan's on the edge of an anxiety attack every other second because he can't be anything else. Fords going into turbo paranoia mode, and no one is having a good time.

Nyehehehe >:)

The earlier Ford rescued Stan, the more emotions Stan would have had. Stan would still have other feelings besides terror and fear, but those two would be the strongest.

So in this scenario Stan would have flopped down, very winded from almost getting eaten then dragged through a magic portal, passed out, then woke up very skittish when Ford dragged him to get washed up. There wouldn't be any red flags for behavior yet, as Stan did almost get eaten and is too tired to really do more than follow Ford around and jump whenever someone talks, then lay down on the couch and pass out again.

So the big difference would be when Stan woke up in Fords bedroom. Instead of focusing on the toast and eating, he'd immediately start questioning where he was, who Fiddleford was, what he missed, and what happened to him. A bundle of nerves and terror, and it'd only get worse when Ford started getting worked up because then Stan would get terrified of Ford too. Stan's other emotions are either gone or muted, so instead of arguing Ford just makes Stan flinch and put as much space between them as possible, almost crying. When it finally clicks that he can't feel anything but fear he'd immediately start jumping to the worst conclusions and doom spiral about anything and everything, then scream when it looks like the Fords are going to leave him alone.

So instead of Stan idly following Ford around Stan would be clinging to Ford's arm, terrified of every little shadow and unknown, hyperventilating about his car, the entity, wondering how far he can push until Ford kicks him to the curb and he has to scramble to survive again. Instead of feeling recovered enough to go get his car fear would push him to get on the road asap before the Stanley Mobile and everything in it is gone, then instead of Ford hearing about Stan going to get his car and being homeless, Stan would have a panic attack in the hallway and burst into tears.

Which is better than not feeling anything, but now Ford has to help keep Stan calm (or as calm as he can be) or face a hyperventilating Stan and then hearing Stan go on about how he needs his car for when Ford gets tired of him and kicks him out, and how many people could be after him, etc.

Little bit of spoilers below the cut.

Well, since you asked so nicely :)

Cute huh. Hmmm. Ford, once it's determined Stan will never recover and doesn't really care to look after his own self interest beyond survival and making things easier for himself, bends over backwards to make sure he's never tempted to hit the road and live somewhere else, and also never really gives up that maybe someday Stan will go back to being himself. Gets a room set up for him, hashes out a contract once he realizes Stan's internal logic determines everything requires money so that Stan feels OK enough to make the space his own, and never stops trying to include Stan in things.

Stan doesn't care, but also doesn't care to refuse, so they'll go out and hike in the woods, go fishing, study anomalies, any kind of bonding activity Ford can think of. Eventually it's less as a hope to try and have Stan recover and more to ease his own troubles about Stan not doing anything outside of work, eating and sleeping, then waiting around to work again. Becomes twice as loud and emotional to make up for Stan's lack of reaction. Over time he stops hovering as much, but he does act as a barrier between Stan and anyone he thinks is trying to take advantage of the fact Stan will just do things people ask him to do if they pay him or he determines its not worth refusing. There was a grace period where Stan got the most boring but well paying job he could manage where no one realized they could give Stan five bucks to do about anything, several months to a year they took advantage of that fact, then never again once Ford caught wind of it and assaulted anyone he caught paying Stan five bucks to do menial tasks they were too lazy to do.

Sad things are way easier :) like I said, Fords sorta but never given up that one day Stan might get better, so he includes Stan in anything he can manage, including family meals, where he'll fill the silence by telling Stan all about his day or dreams, then ask Stan and enthusiastically respond to every bland 'ok' and 'Fine', trying to get more detail without trying to force Stan to respond like he would at the start.

Instead of a portal Fords spent 30 years researching souls trying to see if he can fix Stan's soul in other ways, but by the time the twins show up he's mostly resigned to the fact that Stan's never going to be the smiling criminal he loved, and just makes do with whatever scraps of ghost emotions Stan can muster. Freaks the twins out when he manages to get Stan to sorta smile at a terrible joke and explodes into cheers, or makes food so terrible Stan will wrinkle his nose and gets excited about it.

Stan is only acting with self preservation right now cause he has nothing else, so after the shock of being alive wears off the kinda Erdrich horror part of him wakes up and he kinda just leaves the Ford’s and goes hunting for very emotional souls. So now the Ford’s have to hunt down Stan across the country in Fiddleford’s old car, like the OG road-trip, except more high stakes because they have to stop Stan from sucking out souls like they’re smoothies from random people.

Maybe Bills also along for the ride as well(he wants the portal built and is gonna pester Ford about it till he stops goofing off) and he makes everything so much more complicated as he eggs on Stan to eat more people.

Wait, wait, wait what if Bill is the Winged Lion/demon and Stan mirrors Laios and eats his soul, aka Bills hat and last dimensional speck. Which gives Stan enough energy to fix the rest of his soul and give him emotions back.

Lets just make this a three way au lol, GF into PPBB into DM.

This got long, but here it is!

hey

idea

what if in PPBB they don’t have the sad angst bonding road trip? Ford said not yet so Stans like ok and then Ford forgets and Stan doesn’t really bring it up again

fords running around trying everything to fix his brother, Fiddlefords there??

but then a knock at the door, a truck, and a El Diablo, and a VERY surprised Carla

Ford never told Caryn that Stan’s with him so when cops or whoever find a red car sitting there for weeks or months Caryn gets a call that her baby boy is missing :( her little free spirit :(

Carla stays because of course she does - Fiddleford is there - but also there’s Stan? What’s wrong with him? she still didn’t have the full story just that he suddenly disappeared from the family and she brings up all the stuff from the past Ford has been ignoring in favor of wanting to talk to STAN when Stan is Stan. but instead everyone gets a summary of the last 10 years and the fact that an accident made him basically a walking corpse. There’s not really anything in there anymore that really living

for extra angst momma pines (Caryn) makes the trip up to yell at her boys and she finds her free spirit just…..not a free spirit and with zero filter or care about anything

Carla showing up would be exactly what happens if a certain event didn't happen next chapter that I won't spoil. Fords not gonna remember the car on top of doing everything he can to help Stan and having his heart broken by the empty husk of his brother not acting anything like stan, and Stan's never gonna bring it up again as long as Fords putting up with him. Stan's just :l standing whereever Ford puts him and going through the motions to stay alive (also unable to figure out how leave due to reasons explained next chapter).

So here comes Carla, with Stan's car! It was not stolen. He's sorta got a flash of happiness there before he lost it. Having his car means now he has a place to live once Ford kicks him out. That's convenient. Back to doing what he needs to live. At this point Stan's still got crime instincts because crime=money so they keep finding Stan taking money from Fiddleford and Carla to give to Ford so he can keep staying there.

This would kinda be when Carla finally realizes something is Up with Stan. At that point she's seen Stan, got angry she had to bring his car up when he's fine, gets cold shouldered by him becoming he doesn't care but it looks like he's being aloft, then finds him full on stealing from her. Blows up about it, blows up about Stan not even acting like this is a problem, then blows up at Ford when he doesn't blow up! He just gets sad when she tells him?! Wtf is wrong with you guys? Then Ford and fidds explain that Stan's just going through the motions, and motions demand crime for money and Stan got into an 'accident'. Then it's very clear that Stan's got nothing going on, and she feels sorta bad? About yelling at him? But he doesn't care and that makes it worse.

And in the meantime it's family fun with Stan as he casually anwsers questions with the shortest saddest answers. Whyd he leave before graduating? Dad kicked him out. Where's he been? Driving around trying to make a fortune. Where did he live before this? Car. Stan doesn't go into crazy detail because why bother but it's enough to make everyone upset about what they hear.

And oh man. Momma Pines drives over because she's so upset neither of them told her Stan was there (and had been in an accident? Tell your ma theses things! Why's she hearin it from Carla!) And then. There's Stan. Who doesn't care that this is the first time he's seen his mom in ten years and barely does anything or responds and when he does it's just to strip away all the lies he'd been telling her over the years about how he's been fine. And sure she probably knew he was lying but it's one thing to know and another to hear it straight from his mouth.

What if while the Fords are scrambling to fix our boy Fiddleford ends up suggesting "...What if we just... ASK Stanley how he would fix his feeling if he wanted to" and it's just. They end up. Receiving a LIST of all the times he's felt something similar tp his current "symptoms" and how he "fixed it" each time

He felt far away and disconnected from his body on the road? (He was disacossiating after a particularly gruesome "job") Getting into fights or even sh for adrenaline.

He felt like his feelings were all bottled up and buried in a big icky untangleable knot in his chest? Alcohol. Lots of Alcohol. (...He probably didn't wake up the same place he fell asleep that night)

He felt like everything was pointless and nothing really mattered and even moving would be a waste of time? ...Phone call.

Point is they get a horrifying STEP BY STEP WALKTHOUGH to what appears to be SEVERAL mental illnesses and a CONCERNING amount of vices in one casual remark

...And they have to try each "solution" at least a little bit anyway, just to see if it works

👍

Oh man oof. Because I could see one of the Fords idly mentioning maybe trying non magic means to help his emotions, and trying to keep Stan engaged by asking him what he thinks they should try. Then looking at him teary eyed as he casually mentions things he does when he felt similar.

And the thing is Stan's not going to get into the nitty gritty, he's bare minimuming through life right now, doesn't care to really get into it unless they ask for clarifying details. And they will, because their two scientists and one hovery twin brother who don't know the meaning of slow down, so he'll start by saying he drank, then go drink alcohol at some bar, then go drinking alcohol at the cheapest place he could to film the empty void inside him because when he was drunk at least he could feel something, and then he'd wake up with exciting new problems like 'where am I' and 'who's screaming'.

And now Ford knows in detail the horrible life of Stan, because he asked and sorta took advantage of the fact his brother doesn't care enough to lie about it. It's something he could avoided, could have gotten the spark notes on, but decided he needed to hear every horrible detail.