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Stanford opened his eyes to the hazy, colorful world of a dream. It had been quite a while since he had last experienced a dream. Recently, his mind had been occupied day and night by the images of a gateway connecting his world to greater dimensional planes. If he wasn't actively sketching, building, or archiving the mysteries of Gravity Falls, his partner Bill was in the driver's seat continuing their work while he rested.
They had been making great strides recently and their work was nearing completion. The physical framing of the portal was already bolted into place on the inner wall of his basement. It's large triangular frame with cryptic symbols encircled the hollow gap where the gateway would soon be.
Ford was excited for their long awaited first attempt at starting up the portal and, from the way Bill worked equally as tirelessly in his body while Ford's mind slept, he assumed Bill was as enthused as himself.
Ford knew he couldn't begin imagine the amazing possibilities out there. Entire universes as vast and unknowable as his own, founded on principles of physics never before realized. The discoveries, the knowledge, and perhaps- if he was lucky- some kind of understanding. He had always wished to uncover the deeper reasons behind the anomalies of this world and perhaps this portal would at long last reveal some of those answers.Stanford stood below a bright night sky like none he had ever seen before. This view into deep space was completely different from the one he had studied from the Earth. Unnamed, beautiful galaxies danced overhead, billions of light-years and eons from his own world. There wasn't a recognizable celestial body in sight.
"The stares are so beautiful," he observed, his mind in a state between remembering this wasn't reality and forgetting himself in a dream. "If only I had some paper, perhaps I could map some of these constellations."
He looked to his left, and then to his right.
His surroundings shifted in a blur and the open air filled with shadows. He suddenly felt smaller than ever before as two tall figures loomed over him, their silhouette blocking out large parts of the sky.
"You have to stop with this nonsense, son," a disembodied voice told him.
Ford chucked nervously.
"I don't know what you mean-"
"These stories have gone too far," the stranger said sternly. "We are taking you to see someone tomorrow."
Ford squinted, trying to make out any characteristics of the figure, but the glare blinded him. Before he could reply, he found his reality changing around him once more.
Suddenly, he was in a nightmare that he recognized. One he hadn't thought of in decades. It was an idea he had considered only once. The idea that his bullies taunted him with.
If only he could be rid of his extra fingers, he could fit in. That it wouldn't be too difficult with the right medical equipment. A swift cut and-
He quickly ridded himself of the thought. He had never taken action on it. Even so, suddenly found himself in a cold, sterile room with a looming figure trying to persuade him into something that terrified him.
"Just drink it once a day, and you will be like everyone else," the hazy figure assured him in a toothachingly sweet voice. It patronized him like a child.
"I- I don't need to be like everyone else," Ford replied shakily. "I don't want to."
That must have been the wrong answer because the quiet room split open in a matter of seconds. The sky filled with bursts of contorted red shapes and flickers of light. Something that he would have akined to fire filled his vision, but the sight boarded on the edge of what his mind could comprehend and hurt his eyes.
Screaming filled his ears. It grew louder and louder, with more and more voices joining every second. It pressed against the inside of his mind. He screamed as loud as he could, but it didn't make a sound. His brain pounded against his skull as if it was trying to escape until suddenly he blacked out. The stares above him went dark.Stanford woke up what he eventually realized was days later. He could feel his heartbeat in his ears and it only began to subside minutes later as he made his way to the kitchen and checked the date on his calendar.
His mouth felt like it had gone dry days ago and his stomach was so empty it made him nauseous.
How strange. He knew that he sometimes worked to the point of exhaustion, but it has never been this bad before.
He tossed some food together while his mind reviewed the sights and feelings in his dream. The more he thought about it, the less sense it made and the faster the memory began to fade from his mind's eye.
Not only did the dream not make sense, but he didn't understand why he had dreamt at all. Bill was meant to be continuing work on the gateway through Ford's physical form overnight. So why had he fallen into a dream instead? Had Bill left early and Ford's own body was now playing tricks on him?
Something didn't add up.Bill remained absent for days. Days turned into weeks. Weeks dragged into a month and then some while progress on the portal slowed to a halt.
Ford couldn't complete it without Bill's help, especially now that they were in the home stretch.
There were only a few more adjustments to make before the portal would be ready, and yet all momentum had been lost.
Ford waited for a while, but he soon grew impatient.
Usually Bill appeared on his own. Sometimes it took months at a time, but he would always return as if it was only the blink of an eye. Stanford sometimes wondered if Bill understood the Earthly conception of time at all.
Ford reluctantly redrew the summoning Zodiac he used to summon Bill the first time they met. If Bill doesn't show up soon, be had every intention on activating it. He decided to wait a few more days. Maybe he didn't want to look like he actually needed help.
One late evening, Bill popped up again as if nothing happened. Well, almost nothing."What's good, Sixer? Miss me?" Bill's cheerful voice suddenly burst through the air.
Stanford spun around.
"Bill! Where have you been? We had plans for a trial run and then you just disappear?"
"Relaaaax, Sixer. I'm a busy guy. Constantly projecting into this reality gets exhausting," he excused.
"Besiiides," he continued, "you don't need me all the time, smart guy! As long as you've followed the schematics, we're basically there."
Stanford let out a sigh and forced his shoulders to relax.
"It is true that we are nearly there," he agreed. Bill's lack of concern made Ford wonder if maybe he had been overthinking after all. "Regardless, if you are ready to do a walkthrough before our first test, we can go through it now. I can check off the safeties and prepare our first trial for later this week-"
"Yeah," Bill waved a flippant little hand, his eye not bothering to look at Ford, "you do that."
He began to float off when Ford kept into action.
"Hey, wait!" Ford exclaimed, "Don't disappear without saying anything! After all our work, don't you want to be there?"
Bill paused with one leg tossed over the other as if sitting on an imaginary cloud.
"Jeez, clingy much? You're doing fine. Let me know when it reaches full power."
Without another second's pause, he disappeared.
Ford sat back down with a sign.
Bill took his vacations, yes. But this wasn't like him.
Something else must be going on.Stanford waited another month. Fiddleford called a couple times, but Ford told him the project wasn't ready. He wasn't starting the portal up without going through everything with Bill a final time.
After everything, it didn't feel right to do this on his own. Or maybe he just didn't WANT to do this on his own anymore.
This was just as much Bill's project as it was his own. Maybe he was being uncharacteristically sentimental, but part of him wanted to share his triumph with the being who made it possible.Stanford once again opened his eyes to a foreign night sky. This time, he was standing on what appeared to be a flat disk of a work. Next to him sat a blobby little shape with a silly little hat and shoes far too big for his size. What Ford was looking at didn't fully translate from his eyes to his brain. His mind bended around the figure like he was looking at a 2d movie screen projecting a 3d image.
"The stares are so beautiful," the tiny creature squeaked from somewhere, his one little eye looking up at the sky. "... But my Ma and Pa said I shouldn't talk about them anymore."
Ford sat down next to the little creature.
"Why not?" He asked.
The creature squished down into itself, looking defeated.
"They say stars aren't real, but I don't understand why. I can see them right there."
Ford nodded without fully understanding.
"Sometimes people are scared of what they don't understand," Ford replied. He looked up at the stars.
When he returned his eyes to the little yellow creature, he saw Bill sitting there instead.
His black hat was tilted down over his eye.
"Scared," Bill scoffed, staring down at his own hands, "they don't know the meaning of the word. I should show them what it's like to be scared.
I should show them what I see and then maybe they will take out their fear on the rest of the world instead of me."
Stanford pondered Bill's words, trying to piece together their deeper meaning. There was something he was implying without saying, but Ford didn't understand what that was.
Bill had only ever told him one story about his homeworld, and that conversation had lasted less than 10 sentences.
Bill had said that a monster destroyed his home.
Ford knew well that fear can make a monster out of anyone....
There was still so much Ford couldn't begin to understand and before he knew it, the dream disappeared.Bill popped up in Ford's reality a week later. If having a hangover could happen to a being of higher power, then Ford would say Bill looked hungover. He had a pair of one-eyed sunglasses in the shape of a single red-star.
"What are you waiting for, Fordsy? Let's pop this baby from neutral into drive!"
Ford huffed, exasperated.
"Bill, where have you been?! I thought we were in this together. Are you still invested in this?"
Bill pulled his glasses down to reveal his eye over the top of his frames.
"Whoa, slow your roll there, Sixer. Why so hostile? What happened to all the poetic waxings about being your Muse? Have a little trust. After all, I've gotten you this far."
Ford rolled his eyes and picked up his journal. He flipped through its pages in a huff.
He felt conflicted. Yes, Bill showed him so many things. Not only in a scientific sense, but also through his company during Ford's research of Gravity Falls. He had been a companion, and yet a frustratingly inconsistent one. Things were going so well, and now suddenly it all felt disconnected. It had felt weird ever since...
Something clicked into place deep within his mind.
"Bill," Ford raised a brow, "is it draining to be in this dimension?"
Bill rolled his eye and crossed his arms.
"Only emotionally, Sixer. I'm a being of pure energy with no weakness."
Stanford shut his journal and set it down. He turned to face Bill.
"Do you ever dream?" he asked pointedly.
Bill froze, calculating.
"What are you trying to get at? Did you dream a little dream of me, Sixer? If so, I hope I looked good," Bill jested.
"Yes- well- No-," Ford felt heat rise to his cheeks. Bill always did have a way of getting under his skin and flustering him.
"I've barely seen you ever since a strange dream I had. I was sitting on this planer world beneath a distant spiral galaxy above-"
Bill looked away suddenly.
"I knew it!" Ford exclaimed, "Is that why you have been acting so weird? I thought it was my mind playing tricks on me but it wasn't my nightmare, was it? My dreams are rarely so vivid."
"You don't know what you're talking about," Bill brushed him off.
"It was yours, wasn't it?"
"Shut it!" Bill snapped suddenly.
Ford closed his mouth and took a small step back. It had been quite a while since the last time Bill had snapped at him.
Bill turned away and floated over to the table of portal blueprints laying out.
"You have what you need to start the portal. I'll return once it's ready," Bill stated flatly.
"Bill," Ford began more calmly, trying to reach out to his partner.
Bill didn't look at him, but he didn't disappear abruptly either.
Ford tried his best to think about what to possibly say.
He was never the best with people. Why else would he be alone in a cabin in the woods? Why else would his whole life revolve around trying to get answers about anomalies and the unknown? Why else would Bill, someone from a completely different world, be the only one on the planet he felt understood him?
But despite all of that, what he needed was to reach out to Bill and, for once, just be human.
"If that was your nightmare, then... I'm sorry that happened to you," Ford said gently.
He always thought Bill was some grand being but maybe Bill was just... a person. With a home, and parents, and his own inner demons.
Ford had bullies who told him to self-mutilate his fingers so he might have a chance at fitting in. Maybe Bill didn't have a choice and his family made him change something that made him different.
That pain, external and internal... Well....
Maybe Bill WAS like him? On a level that was more than just intellectual. Maybe there was something real here?
But Bill stayed quiet for so long that Ford had half a mind to assume his attempt at connection was for naught. Maybe he should have stayed quiet about this whole thing. Maybe he had misunderstood all of this and he was grasping at nothing....
"Yeah," Bill said flatly. "Thanks, Sixe-uh... Stanford.... Whatever."
Ford smiled to himself, but Bill only disappeared.-----That good feeling didn't last for long. He started up the portal with spirits riding high and Fiddleford at his side. Less than two minutes later and Fiddleford said he quit and walked off.Ford fell asleep thinking about the line Fiddleford said once his head was back in the real world.
"Fear the beast with just one eye."
The beast... A monster.
Ford started at his ceiling.
Enough fear can make a monster out of anyone.Bill turned on him soon after. Ford couldn't believe he didn't see it coming. Stanley would have realized. Stanley would have never let this happen to him.His last ditch effort to fix his mistakes didn't go so well. Before he knew it, he was being pulled into the portal himself. It must be some kind of karmic justice that the last thing he saw before disappearing into his own portal was Stanley's terrified face.-----1 year after Weirdmeggeton and everything was going great. For the first time in ages, Ford and his brother were on good terms again, finally living out their dream into retirement, the way it should have always been.
Ford, and of course his brother even more so, were so excited to return to Gravity Falls soon and spend another summer with their favorite relatives.On Ford's first night back in Gravity Falls, he fell into a heavy sleep.
"Hey, Sixer!" a familiar voice greeted him.
"Bill!" Ford exclaimed. "I'm not interested in your manipulations any more! Whatever it is, you are gone and we are done- so get out of my head!"
Bill only laughed a cheerful yet somewhat tired laugh.
"Ah Fordsy, funny as ever. Don't stress, Sixer. You're just my phone call."
Ford looked around and found that although in a dream, it was only him and Bill standing in the forest near the Mystery Shack beneath a regular night's sky.
Ford relaxed ever so slightly at the familiar scenery.
"What do you mean, phone call?" he asked hesitantly.
Bill shrugged. "You know, a phone call. I'm going to be away for who knows how long sooo... I get a phone call."
Ford tilted his head.
"And you call me of all people?"
Bill rolled his eye. "I knew you would pick up."
Ford started to walk away.
"No. This isn't real. You're gone, and rightfully so. You got what was coming to you."
And then the last thing he expected happened.
Bill's hand caught Ford's outmost finger.
Ford paused in pure surprise. It had been a long time since they have had any physical contact. It felt so real that he almost believed it was really Bill. The one who helped him with his research, and played games with him, and talked with him when he had no one else.
"Just forget all of that right now. I don't have the time or patience to explain all of this to you, Sixer."
Bill then huffed and acted like someone was forcing him to talk with all the reluctance of a child being forced to apologize.
"I just wanted to say that I wish things could have gone differently. Out of every being I've met, and especially every human, you were the only one I could tolerate."
For only a moment, Ford wanted to believe that was true.
Bill let go of his hand and shrugged cheerfully.
"Who knows. Maybe I'll see you in the next life."
Ford's brows furrowed up in confusion.
"What do you mean- ?"
"Nothing. Bye, Sixer. Don't miss me too much!"Before Ford could process anything, he woke up abruptly in his own room in the shack.
It was just a dream, he tried to convinced himself. Just a dream. There was no way Bill was still out there... right?
A handwritten message on his hand suddenly caught his attention. The black marker used to write on his arm was still in his own hand.
"XOXO Bill" the message said, with a heart on the dot of the 'i' in Bill.
Ford sighed.
After all these years, he just couldn't get rid of that guy.
His family will to make fun of him for sure when he goes down for breakfast.
Even though everything went down in literal flames, Bill was the closest Ford ever got to feeling understood.
Maybe, despite everything, Bill felt the same way.