Chapter Text
─ ⋅ Oh, my darling, Six fingered man… ⋅ ─
Summary; A whole lot of what ifs in an alternate telling of gravity falls where morals aren’t so easily stuck to… and summer may just be able to last a little bit longer
Timeline; Born; July 15th 1952 - Stan getting kicked out; 1968 - Portal incident; 1979 - Twins arrive; 2012 | making Stan/Ford 73 on June 15th, 2025, and Mabel/Dipper 26 on August 31st, 2025
⋅ ─ Prologue; Father
| Ages; Caryn Pines, 21 - Filbrick Pines, 24 - Stanley, C. Pines, just born - Stanford, F. Pines, just born |
| Glass shard medical center, and hospital - 4:45 pm - 15th June - Glass shard beach, New Jersey |
Stanford, Filbrick, Pines - born at 4:25 pm on June 15th to Caryn and Filbrick Pines in the Glass shard medical centre, and hospital. Born a twin to Stanley, Caryn, Pines - however holding a rare birth defect of Central polydactyly, giving the young boy an ‘extra digit’ on each hand, and foot.
Stanley, Caryn, Pines - born at 4:37 pm on June 15th to Caryn and Filbrick Pines in the Glass shard medical centre, and hospital. Born a twin to Stanford, Filbrick, Pines - placed in the neonatal unit for an hour and 30 minuets due to difficulty breathing when born, however ended up fine afterwards and handed back to the parents along with Stanford.
Caryn was devastated when both of her boys ended up with something wrong with their birth, her little Stanley almost dying at the lack of air in his tiny lungs, and her Stanford labelled a freak by her husband for his extra finger… she was so relieved when she found Stanley to be ok, and for Stanford to be healthy, just happening to have an extra finger and it not affect him otherwise…
Her babies were ok, however Filbrick didn’t seem to share that sentiment, saying he hoped at least now he could breathe that Stanley wouldn’t be a freak - adding that he wished he could swap their middle names, not wanting his name attached to a ‘six fingered freak’… It made Caryn sick that he could ever refer to her darling boys that way, making him leave the delivery room.
However, as the boys grew up, Filbrick began to realise that maybe having his name attached to a smart ‘freak’ wasn’t so bad - might even be his ticket out of this dump of a town, so he began placing all his bets on Stanford. His prodigy. The son to make him rich.
The boys first day of high school set up for the rest of their next 4 years…
Ford sat silent at the table as his mother carefully cleaned his bruises, cuts, and scrapes all courtesy of the kids he shared his class with.
Despite the doctor’s absolute love (a bit too much love if you asked ford - he swears left and right that he heard the guy saying something about kidnapping him) of Stanford’s ‘hyper-ability’ as he described it, Ford hated it. He hated being the weird one, the one left out, the freak, the monster.
In years to come Stanford would spend his life dedicated to science, praying for just a sliver of his Fathers approval. He worked himself half to death, only remembering to eat or drink when he was told - which led to his mother’s increasing worry. Although his farther just continued with his usual dismissal of everyone, and everything besides money.
Filbrick Pines. The owner of the ‘Pines Pawn shop’ on the beach of crystal shards new Jersey, the man was always described as harsh, and almost impossible to impress. This was especially true with his children, most of the blame went to the younger of the twins, albeit 15 minutes but younger nevertheless, while the older sat with his face in a book, or writing about his findings on his latest project. However, both the boys felt the brunt of their father’s inability to show basic empathy, paired with his lack of emotional intelligence and the harsh realities of the 60s the boys weren’t given the best of childhoods.
Stanford was mostly subjected to silence, and dismissal from the man, while Stanley got some attention it was always negative. Including several beatings, and screams throughout his childhood, as their farther said, ‘this is how I was raised and I turned out fine’, despite it being the furthest thing from the truth the boys believed it. Afterall he was the only farther figure they’d ever know, how were they supposed to know what was and wasn’t ‘normal’…
It wasn’t like the two had friends to compare to…