Chapter Text
Ford is deep within the Oregon forests, crouching down next to a patch of mushrooms with a flashlight in his mouth, sketching and writing out their characteristics and collecting samples to take down to the lab for testing. When he's done, he slowly stands up with a small groan, taking some breaths to steady his head. He goes to turn around but catches a glimpse of shine in the moonlight, his curiosity gets the better of him and he heads for the shiny object.
As Ford approaches the object, he discovers a shallow valley to the right of it, which means this thing must have crash-landed here. The object in question is much bigger than Ford anticipated; the object seemed spherical and can easily fit half the Mystery Shack inside and possibly more. But why is it here? Did it just get here?
Ford circles around it, digging as much of it out as he can with his hands before giving up and going back to get the proper tools. Once equipped, he uncovers most of the spaceship: It is slightly damaged and empty, and still warm. Whatever landed here must have done so earlier, but how come nobody heard it? Some sort of advanced technology? Manipulation of air molecules so no sound can be made? Whatever the case, Stanford was more than determined to find out.
Then, uncoordinated and crunching footsteps pipe up from behind Ford. Judging from the weight and speed of the sound, he instantly recognized it as Bill Cipher. The very being responsible for his trauma, worst of all his family's trauma; the physical manifestation of chaos, ruthlessness, and narcissism; an all-powerful and all-knowing dream demon... Now shoved inside an old mortal body and forced to live as his least favorite organism.
"Six..?" The groggy, all too familiar voice grumbles out from the dark. His shaggy, greasy hair shines along with all the bandaids and jewelry he always wears. He rubs the sleep out of his eye as he walks to Stanford.
"Cipher.. What are you doing awake?" Ford asks, leaning back slightly when Bill is too close.
"If you're gonna sneak out or whatever can you at least be quiet?"
"I wasn't sneaking out. I apologize for waking you, but you need to go back inside." Ford didn't want to deal with him while enjoying his alone time.
"And why would I do that?" Bill grins, "seems like what you're doing is preeetty interesting!" He chirps while examining the ship closer.
Ford was about to retort, but decides against it. Bill knows many interdimentional languages, and maybe he would recognize this one. He breathes out his nose and observes Bill. His now-human face is appropriately aged, and very expressive; eyebrows closely knit in concentration, a bright blue eye squints at the characters on the vehicle, lips pursed slightly, right hand on his chin. He was completely focused on the alien tech, does he know what it is?
"Ciph—"
"I got it!" Bill chimes and snaps his fingers.
Ford flinched when he snapped, "got what? Do you know what this is?"
"Nope," Bill throws his head back to look at Ford and gives him a cocky grin, how Bill can do that at that age is beyond him. Ford is visibly displeased and slightly disturbed.
"Then why—" He started coldy, again being cut off by Bill.
"Haha, I'm just kidding! It's a pod for individual exploration, I recognize these symbols from that one club I joined. Man it feels like eons since I've been there! What a throwback, am I right?"
"...Yeah." Like his own situation now, only Ford can't tell if Bill's being sarcastic or not.
Ford is starting to worry about why or how Bill recognizes the symbol, but maybe he was a part of it and broke off? Or let go? He hopes for the latter.
Bill starts to go around the space object, maybe looking for more inscriptions, or looking for something familiar. He brushes the dirt off of the ship with a gentleness Ford has rarely seen, the same look of concentration written on his face.
Bill's eye lights up when he spots something, "Hah, I knew it!!"
Ford quickly makes his way over to Bill. He sees a series of symbols plastered on the side of the ship in a similar looking font to the other symbol.
"What does it say?" Ford asks, admiring the height of the magnificent invention and what could possibly build such a beauty.
"Why should I tell you?" Bill retorts, still as stubborn and annoying as ever.
"Because I want to know." Ford spits back, hoping Bill will give up if he plays along.
"Why do you want to know?"
"Because I'm curious."
"Why?"
"Because it's a new anomaly I haven't documented yet, and I want to know more about it."
"Why is that?"
Ford's eye twitches, "because I need to know if it's a danger or not."
"Well you're in luck!" Ford breathed a sigh of relief, "this piece of junk belongs to an organization called the "Galactic Selection," or collection, those characters mean both so use it interchangeably I guess."
"A space organization?" Ford inquires, his curiosity growing, "What do they do? Who is the leader? What's their ultimate goal? How many members are there?"
"Woah, slow your roll Sixer! I know very limited information, I left that shithole the moment the opportunity arose."
Ford thinks for a bit, "Is it as bad as you're portraying it, or are you being dramatic? I need you to be serious and honest for this."
"You know I can't do that~" Bill teases, Ford gives him a stern glare, Bill chuckles and waves his hand dismissively.
"Okay okay, whatever. I can be, for now! Whaddya wanna know smart guy?"
"Who is the leader?" Ford asks immediately.
"Ohh... that's a toughy! I vaguely remember someone talking about this "Pip" guy who recruited them and promised them great knowledge and comprehension or something."
Seductive deals. That didn't sound very good, "So is "Pip" looking for total destruction?"
"Not really. I think it's just a sappy, nerdy get-together for people who think knowledge is power."
Ford raises an eyebrow, "It is, though."
Bill rolls his eye, "I don't wanna hear it."
"Alright well, what's the purpose of this organization?"
"As I said, it's full of nerds who get their rocks off to gaining a new wrinkle in their stupid brains. Literally trillions and trillions of the most intelligent organisms from almost every planet in millions of universes are crammed into a metal box! At least the rooms and food were good, I'd say it's their only redeeming quality."
Ford was stunned. Trillions of the smartest beings all together? Travelling from dimension to dimension? It sounded like a dream he once had.
"...So.. Why did you join? You keep talking about it like it was prison, but you had to have been a part of it at some point to be in the know, right?"
"At some point, yes. The Axolotl recommended it to me and I had nothing better to do so I checked it out. It was okay at first, chatting with some of the cooler creatures and taking all the good snacks in the common room, and my room was personalized to fit me exactly! It was all pretty cool until I went to one of the meetings and this cricket guy was leading the discussion talking about—"Oh, last quarter we hit a new milestone on the project, this quarter let's work harder blah blah blah!
Ford listen closely to every detail, letting his active imagination run. As he listened to Bill ramble on about him and this other being's transactional relationship, he was startled by a faint rustle of grass and leaves surrounding them. He closes his eyes to zero in on the direction the sound is coming from, but it still sounds quiet and distant no matter how constant the movement is. He furrows his brows and puts a hand up to Bill's face to silence him, Bill responds back with an agitated "What are you doing," but stays quiet. Ford can hear a slightly louder noise from behind and quickly draws his gun and aims it at the blackness behind him. For many long minutes, it's just him, Bill, the night sky, and Mother Nature. After a decent pause, Ford lowers his gun.
"What? You paranoid again, IQ? I don't hear nothin." Bill quips as he picks his ears to be sure, and flicks away the wax.
At that moment, Bill gets a chilling feeling down his spine. He shivers and looks around frantically, still not used to human senses.
"Eugh.. What is this.. paralyzing feeling?! Why am I so suspensful??! And not in the good way!" Bill grips the bottom of his oversized shirt and steps closer to Ford.
"You'll get used to it, those feelings are usually correct so trust your gut." Ford informs, still listening for any sound.
"Well my gut says to get the fuc—"
"Shh!" Ford quickly shushes him and steps forward, gun drawn confidently.
Bill rolls his eye, Trust your gut, he says!
"Show yourself!" Ford commands, a much clearer rustling is upon them, Ford takes aim.
A long, branch like appendage makes an appearence in the moon's light. It pierces the soft ground with elegance, and soon more branching limbs were approaching. There were too many legs to be completely sure of what this entity even is, but if Ford can survive 30 years in different dimensions, if he can survive the literal apocalypse, if he can survive Bill, then he's pretty confident about his odds with a giant eldritch horror.
Ford and Bill back away slowly as the beast reveals itself. From what Stanford can make out, it's some sort of colossal spider with a horrific genetic mutation. The creature's head was littered with bulbous eyes as black as space, all staring daggers at Ford despite having no indication of such. The chelicerae rub together and the giant fangs shine in the light, making Ford swallow hard. He takes a deep breath in and steadies his hand.
"What are you doing here? What are your intentions?" Ford manages.
The spider doesn nothing, the chelicerae stop moving and Ford sucks in a breath and holds it for dear life.
Then one of the pedipalps gently tap on the ground. Does it want him to come closer? Is it sending a message? Ford keeps himself planted and tracks the taps.
"-. ---.... .- .-. --"
"NOHARM"
Ford exhales and lowers his gun, freeing his left hand, he cleared his throat and stepped forward.
"How did you end up here?" He asked calmly, not sure which eye he's supposed to look at, or if it's even okay to make eye contact.
"NOPOWER/DRIFTSPACE/GRAVITY"
"No power... What sort of fuel does it take?"
"ELECTRIC/35,000,000,000"
"Eh.. 35 billion volts??!"
The head barely nods. Where was Ford gonna get 35 billion volts of electricity?! Unless a thunderstorm happens to occur in the forseeable future, they were gonna have to find another source.
Bill states to nobody in a monotone voice, "If I had my powers, I could easily conjure up plenty of electricity."
"That would be helpful," Ford added.
"NOTALONE/FRIENDHERE2"
Both Ford and Bill would be lying if they said that they weren't a little unnerved at that. Bill sees an eye in the darkness behind the entity, peeking from right behind its front legs. He barely makes out an outline before the creature shows itself. It looks very similar to a standard raven, but larger and reflected light like an oil spill. It also had a pair of thin antenna, a serrated beak, longer and darker toes, and a protruding eye in between it's side facing eyes.
Ford and Bill step back, the creature makes a noise that Ford thinks is it clearing its throat. When the creature talks, it has a very similar accent to earth ravens when they vocalize speech, just with it's own dialect and tone instead of just putting words together.
"I am capable of no calamity. I come for one thing, certainly. I seek knowledge, so does my chelicerae, you see?"
It was a bit weird to see such a vibrant, 5 foot bird, but Ford found it beyond fascinating, "I- I see, are you planning on staying for a little while then?"
"Yes, if you will yeild."
"Of course! I am a scientist myself, and opportunities like this don't occur very often."
"If so? I digress; we discuss our dynamics, yes?"
"Yes!" Ford beamed.
Bill was getting tired of their nerdy talk, but he had to admit, seeing Ford get excited over things stirred something in him that he thought he smothered already. He used to be the one to put such a bright smile on his naive face, he was the one to tell him about the universe and all the creatures he's encountered over the trillions of years he's been alive, he was the one to blow his mind, to make his eyes shine so admirably and exuberantly.
But, Bill supposes he can hand the position to someone else. It's not like they'll ever best him anyway.
"Okay Cipher, let's go back now." Ford turns around and Bill is ripped from his thoughts. The spider's branching legs slipped out of sight as the raven followed suit.
"Are they leaving?" Bill asks, not sure if that's a good or bad thing.
"No, not yet. They are settling somewhere for the night, and we should too." Ford states plainly, walking slightly behind Bill.
Bill hums in response as they make it down to the lab to end off the night.
In the morning with Dipper and Mabel: Dipper is sitting up on his bed hunched over and scribbling in the blue journal from the Mab-3L dimension. Mabel is still sound asleep in a pink cat sweater she finished the night before, snoring very proudly and splayed out in a way that Dipper swears can't be comfortable.
It's their first day back in Gravity Falls, and Dipper was more than prepared to uncover more of its hidden secrets. Dipper makes his way to his sister and shakes her to consiousness.
"Mabel! Wake up, it's already 9 am!"
"Mmmh.. no. 5moreminutes..." She mumbles, rolling to her side as she drifts back to sleep.
"Come oonn, Mabel! You said we would go on a mystery hunt first thing we get to Gravity Falls!!"
"Okay just, gimme a minute.." Mabel stirrs, playfully pushing Dipper's face away and barely supporting herself on her arms, her face covered in thick curly hair. Dipper was already putting his shoes on and gathering his things, Mabel moves her hair out of her face and giggles lightheartedly as she gets out of bed and stretches her limbs.
"What's so funny?" Dipper asks, raising an eyebrow at his twin.
"Nothing- I'm hungry, let's go see if Grunkle Stan is awake!" Mabel chirps as she slips on her shoes and a few bracelets and heads down to the kitchen.
Stanley is happily dancing and flipping pancakes in the kitchen, being mindful of the Pitt Cola in his hand. He has a massive stack, of both fluffy and crispy, golden pancakes; his pancake skills were refined and perfected while out at sea, just for his favorite neice and nephew. Despite Ford's unbiased opinion, it was worth the weeks of frozen pancakes for days on end.
Thunderous and fast footsteps pound down the stairs, followed by a sliding sound and youthful giggles. Mabel is the first to make it to the table, proudly calling out in victory and raising both fists in the air, breathing a bit labored. Dipper is breathing much heavier and groans but sits down with the same radiant smile as his sister.
"Who's ready for some pancakes?!" Stan announces while putting the giant stack of pancakes in the middle of the table, both twins cheer and immediately grab a pancake from the top. Not even waiting for a plate or syrup or anything, Stan laughs.
"Woah, slow down tigers! Haven't even gotten your plates yet!" He gets out two plates and forks and sets them down, then goes back for the syrup and sets that down too.
Both twins exclaim, "Thanks Grunkle Stan!"
"You're welcome kids! Now imma go find your other grunkle and make sure he's properly nutritionized too." He says as he walks out of the kitchen, both kids giving a noise of acknowledgement, and heads for the vending machine.
Stanley punches in the code and steps in. Stanford has always been absorbed in his work, so much so that he's almost gotten in trouble for "ignoring" their Ma and Pa when he was called for dinner. Even on the Stan O' War II, Ford still had difficulties putting a pause on whatever he was doing, as if his research would disintigrate or he would forget everything as soon as he puts it down, so Stan had to crack down on this habit. Although progress is infinitesimal, it's still progress nonetheless.