( OPEN ) if you talk enough sense then you'll lose your mind

[enciphers]

Who: Ford Pines and YOU!
Where: Starting at the beach and then wherever you want.
When: 15/09
Rating: PG
Summary: Ford arrives in Wonderland and proceeds to run around to make sense of it, feel free to run into him literally or otherwise.
The Story:

It's almost like slipping into a dream, one moment in the waking world and then the next in a dreamscape. Stanford has had plenty of experiences with sleep deprivation and falling asleep in strange places in the blink of an eye that it wouldn't be strange to him if that's what happened. The scenery that greets him certainly is something that could be right out of a dream: beautiful blue waters, the sandy beach that stretches on and on, the peaceful dock he's standing on. Calm and soothing. But this isn't the mindscape. Stanford would know if it was, it lacks its usual tells.

For one, this isn't Glass Shard Beach. Whenever he dreams of a beach, it's always that of his childhood home. And secondly, it simply looks too real. Just to be sure that he hasn't been unwittingly drawn into the mindscape, he tries to imagine and conjure up a familiar boat among the few small ones bobbing about next to the docks.

Nothing happens.

He's not asleep and now he's left standing there, frowning, as realisation rapidly dawns on him. If it's not a dream, it can only be one other thing.

"No," the word slips past his lips unbidden, a quiet whisper of dread that grows louder as he goes on. "No, no, no, not again."

He whirls around, scanning his surroundings wildly. There's nothing he sees that he recognises and more importantly, there's a lack of a certain someone who had been right behind him only mere seconds ago. His brother is gone and he's no longer in Gravity Falls, the wrecked remains of his house nowhere in sight. He's in another dimension and he knows it. There may not have been the usual flashy shows of portals or anything, but Stanford knows.

Something went horribly, horribly wrong. Did the portal malfunction? Is this a consequence to fully opening it again, causing dimensions to bleed together so subtly one just slips into another without noticing? It's entirely possible and it makes Stanford's stomach sink. He's alone and stranded in another strange dimension yet again after only just getting home. It figures.

He won't let this get to him though, this is just more of the same and he's been doing this for years. He needs to figure out what dimension he's currently in and whether or not any of his family members were also drawn in. So, after quickly checking if he still has his gun and the first journal, he picks a direction where it seems the most likely to find civilisation in and he starts running, intent on stopping the nearest person or creature for answers.

Comments

[enciphers]

Try and plug the thing up indeed. Ford gives his brother a very pointed look as Stanley pretty much makes his case for him. At least it shows that the analogy worked and that Stanley understands the portal a little better now. It's not a perfect analogy, there's so much more to the portal, but it's literally a hole and so the comparison is adequate enough.

"I think it works perfectly fine," he comments. Pointedly. But although he would like to scream at Stanley to drop it already, he stays quiet as Stan continues and he takes the information in. It's not like he doesn't get it, in those thirty years of being stuck between dimensions there were more moments than he could count where he would have given anything to go home.

Stranded in another dimension is not something he wants for his family.

But rebuilding the portal is simply not an option.

"One more time is all it could take, Stanley. There's no guarantee it will hold. That's not a risk we can afford to take!" It's becoming increasingly clear that Stanley won't listen to reason, just wanting to take the fate of the universe on a gamble. It's stupid blind faith. If hope is the only thing that Stan will respond to then fine, Ford changes tack.

"We do have other options. Dimensions don't generally pull people in like this. If I can find out what's causing it then I can reverse it. I have something to work with here."

[charlastan]

Stan rolls his eyes and crosses his arms. Ford can say that all he wants, but the truth is there's no guarantee the portal won't hold either. Sure it's a gamble, but sometimes you have to gamble the fate of the universe if it's going to save your family. Granted, he hasn't actually lived through getting the portal fully operational yet, but he already knows he has no regrets about it. He'd do it again in a heart beat, and he wants to in order to get out of Wonderland.

To his credit though, he does listen when Ford actually starts explaining where other options could come from. He still looks pretty skeptical, but he doesn't cut his brother off. Ford obviously knows more about how different dimensions work than he does; even Stanley can't argue that. And it sure sounds a lot better than just saying they'll find a way in an effort to pacify him.

"Makes about as much sense as anything else here, I guess." Stanley looks like he'd rather eat his fez than admit Ford might be right. "There've been some people around here sayin' it doesn't work like this, and that their usual ways of jumpin' from place to place don't work here."

He's heard a few interesting things by now - spells, magic beans - but they'd be a hell of a lot more interesting if any of them worked. But despite the odds, and despite all of the bad blood between them, Stanley's certain that anything Ford comes up with will do the trick, whether it's the portal or something else. And now that it sounds like he might actually be able to...

"...Fine," he finally says. "Knock yourself out. And if you can't reverse it, then we've got a solid back-up plan."

It's not a back-up plan Ford will be happy with, but it's the best they've got and Stanley's not going to give it up entirely. If he had his way it would be Plan A, but deep down he still has faith in Ford. It's the only reason he can budge at all.

[enciphers]

It might not be saying that he's right, but Stanley is conceding even if it's only a little bit and that's enough for Ford. Of course it's still frustrating that Stanley continues to disregard his warnings despite having had the danger explained to him in layman's terms. But that's his brother, forever bullheaded and selfish. He'd remain more irked if something that Stanley said didn't pique his interest so much. It actually eases his mind because it confirms a suspicion he's had.

If other people's methods of interdimensional travel won't work, then it's extremely likely that his design for the trans-universal gateway will also not work. Either because this dimension is locked in some way (and that is rather worrying) or because the very composition of this dimension is vastly different from their own. Both are a distinct possibility from what he's heard of Wonderland so far.

"Different dimensions mean different rules, the very laws of physics could be different here. If their ways don't work, the portal won't either."

So it's not actually a feasible back-up plan. But Stanford has had more than enough of all this portal talk and he makes a dismissive motion with his hand as he shakes his head to disregard the subject. Time to move on and then maybe he can go find somewhere to just sit down and rest for a little while. (Not sleep though. Not when he knows Bill is around. He'll stay awake as long as he can.)

"Anyway, I just wanted to let you know I'm here and that you should really talk to the kids." A pause before he remembers to add something. "Also, don't use my name again. Especially when you're in a different dimension."

[charlastan]

"You don't know that," Stanley counters. "You don't even know what their ways are. Or uh, were."

But he's mostly saying it to be contrary at this point, just for the sake of disagreeing. He doesn't know how any of this inter-dimensional crap works aside from the little he's learned about that dumb portal. They could go in circles for days that way though, so it's a little half-hearted at this point.

The kids are another problem entirely.

"Gonna have to now, since you ran into them first." Stanley sounds really put off by the fact that he's going to have to have this conversation at all. He can see it now, how annoyed they'll be that he lied to them. That part, he's unfortunately been through before.

He shrugs though, unconcerned about the identity mix-up - it's not like Ford's name is the first one he's stolen. "Yeah, yeah. Been here for a few months already though and I needed to keep up appearances with the kids, so pretty much the whole mansion knows me as you," he says, a little bit of amusement in his voice. "I won't keep introducing myself that way, but have fun clearin' that one up, Poindexter."

Stanley doesn't really care if any of the other Wonderland refugees think he's a liar or a horrible person - it's not like he's gonna see them again once he's out of this place. But he's also not dumb enough to advertise his crooked ways directly by openly telling everyone that he lied to them all and gave them the wrong name - that's basically painting a target on himself.

Maybe if things had gone a little better he'd be more willing to do it just for Ford's sake, but after Ford's been such a stubborn jerk about the portal, he can figure that one out himself. Sure, it's petty, but he likes to think he's entitled to a little bit of pettiness by now.