Archive of Our Own ^beta

Stanley typed yet another code into the laptop, being met with the blaring buzzer and the screen flashing red. This was totally something either his brother or Fidds would have done better than him at. Stanford was of course too busy trying to impress Fiddleford by making some big fancy sculpture or whatever to actually help with solving the mysteries of this town, and possibly learning who the author of the journal was. 

He banged his fists on the keys, yelling when he still couldn't figure out what the five letter code could have been. According to one of Ford's cryptology books, there were seven point two million five letter words.

"Why is this piece of junk so stupid?! I'm just tryna figure out why the heck this place is so mysterious and weird and who the author was! This should be what Sixer should be busy doin' not me! Of course he's too busy trying to get a boyfriend that he couldn't even remember what we've been trying to do all summer." 

He slammed his face on the keys and looked up at the screen, narrowing his eyes when it flashed red once again and the annoying buzzer sound rang out in the room from the computer. 

He hadn't slept in a few days, and his brother was somehow doing better than him with barely any more sleep than that. Of course he'd be doing great. Ford was always doing better than him. 

"I just wanna figure out who the author was....I'm not the stupid twin. I can figure this one out on my own. Even if I don't have an extra finger or a big brain for computers and robots and junk. I can solve one mystery on my own that isn't finding some crazy president that froze himself in candy." 

He yawned, then typed another couple of answers into the laptop. His eyelids felt like they were being weighed down with lead, and his hands were messing up the words more and more. He mumbled something about needing to stay awake and continue working, but dropped his head onto the laptop with a thud, sleep overtaking him in seconds. 

An shrill, ethereal laughter rang in his ears like a storm siren. He peeled his eyes open to find that he was shrouded in a nearly blinding light. He lifted his hands to shield his eyes, standing up and trying to see the moon beyond the incredibly bright light in front of him. He closed the laptop and picked it up, holding it under his arm and used his other to shield his eyes from the light. 

"What's goin' on? It's way too late for cars to show up at the shack..." 

He flinched, jumping back when he saw the moon blink. The world shifted instantly into black and white, as if the color was drained out of everything. It looked eerily similar to one of the old movies his Graunt Mabel made him and Ford watch every once in a while. In a moment, the world shifted into complete darkness, and seconds later flashed back to black and white. Now a giant floating pink axolotl, with an extra eye on its forehead slithered through the air towards the shack, stopping less than fifteen feet away from the child. 

It was the axolotl. 

"YOU! You tried to steal my graunt's memory! You helped the stupid sibling brothers take the shack!" 

He yelled, suddenly holding the laptop closer, as if that would stop this enormous amphibian if it wished to take the machinery. 

The axolotl smiled and instead of the usual goofy smiles most normal axolotls made, it was far too wide, and it didn't seem to meet the creature's eyes at all.

"My dear boy, it was only a job. I had no quarrel with you nor did I have a lasting partnership with the two who summoned me. It was simply an exchange of services. Unfortunately you two stopped me before I could get my payment. Trust me, I could have done so much more damage in her pretty little head if I truly had the motive to do so. But forget about her." 

It waved a clawed hand (definitely not a trait found in normal axolotls) in dismissal of the topic. It spun in the air and floated closer to him, all three of its eyes looking directly at him, even with no white of the eye to discern it in the two normal eyes, the third eye made it abundantly clear what it was looking at. It's elongated, almost catlike pupil stared intensely at the child. 

"You wish to learn the secrets of this town, of the world. You want to know why there's so much more weirdness here than anywhere else. You and your brother share this ambition. It's curious how similar the two of you truly are. Most twins I've witnessed are much more different from one another." 

It chuckled to itself, then gestured at the laptop. 

"Dear child, you haven't even gotten close. I can always help you, you know. I'm a being of pure energy. I know everything there is to know in the universe. If we make a deal...I can give you a very helpful hint for what that code might be. I only ask for a small favor in return, to be discussed at a later date. You don't always have to always feel like the lesser twin, child."

Stanley bit his lip, chewing on the skin for a few moments. It was too good. He couldn't trust this...fish frog thing. It didn't show any sign of being trustworthy, especially after entering his aunt's mind and attempting to steal a memory. But...his brother was always so good at solving mysteries and figuring out why weird things happened, even without him. He wasn't smart, he could barely be considered strong, and he was kind of useless. If he figured this out on his own, or mostly on his own, then he'd be worth at least some admiration or some sort of praise. 

"I can't. I have no idea what you'd get out of a deal with me and I really don't want to know. I'm not desperate enough to need your help. I have plenty of time to figure this out. Nothing will stop me from figuring out what the author was doing, who he was, and figuring out this laptop." 

He flinched as he saw the axolotl's smile waver for a second, then widen even further than before. 

"That's alright little one. I have all the time in the world. You on the other hand...will run out. I'll be here if you come to your senses." 

It swam through the air, away from Stan. Once it was in front of, and silhouetted in the moon, turned around to face the child once again. 

"Would you like to know what you'll do in...about three seconds?"

It shifted, like claymation putty into Stanley's silhouette, his eyes and facial features prominent with an extra eye and six frills. It screamed, waving its arms like a puppet. 

 Stanley shot up, screaming and waving his arms in the same puppet like manner the axolotl predicted. He gasped for air, dropping his arms and clutching his chest as he slowly recounted the event, and realized it was all in his dream. 

"It was just a dream...man that thing is creepy. I don't need its help. I'm fine on my own. Ford's able to go off and do his own thing, but I can too. I'm not just the dumb half of a pair. I can do this alone." 

He took the laptop and went inside. Sleeping on the roof was gonna show itself in really bothersome ways later. Especially how he was lying down. He shuddered, remembering his great aunt just earlier the previous day complaining about back pain from sleeping in a slightly off position. 

In the kitchen, Ford was making some sort of protein shake-nutrition-meal replacement-drink thing. It looked and smelled pretty gross. Stanley went for a safe, normal, cup of orange juice instead. Mabel was baking pancakes with an obnoxious amount of food coloring and luster dust. It looked like a fairy was blended up into a pancake and then plastered with a whipped cream cat face and sprinkles on top.

"Woah bag check for Stanley's eyes! Nothing? Dang you didn't sleep at all last night did you? No more sleeping on the roof. Your parents would kill me if you got the mosquito bite disease thing. And I'd be really bummed if you fell off and hurt yourself just because you wanted a little more quiet." 

His aunt smiled, decked out in her sweater of the day (how she wore those in the Oregon summer heat was just another one of Gravity Falls' mysteries) and flipping pancakes. She looked at the boys and her smile faltered. 

"You doing okay? If you need to talk about anything, I'm here for you. Make sure to get some real sleep tonight unlike last night." 

Ford poured himself a glass of his groundbreaking 'breakfast-ina-cup' and grimaced looking at his twin's state. 

"Oh man what happened to you? I thought you were gonna actually sleep last night, not stay awake all night working on the laptop. Are you okay? You've been sleeping even less than I have lately. I think the laptop's making you go crazy." 

He looks at his brother, squinting at him. 

"You should totally try some of this! It'll wake you up and you won't need to eat breakfast or lunch 'cause it has enough protein, calories, and nutrients for almost a whole day!"

He announced proudly, trying to convince his brother to try his concoction that smelled like it was made in some sort of lab. It looked worse than their great aunt's worst attempt at cooking. 

Stanley leaned back, cringing at the look of the drink, not to mention the smell. It smelled green and beige, two colors that no child, let alone Stanley Pines found appetizing. 

"No, I'm good poindexter, that looks like it's gonna come to life and eat me in my sleep. In a bad way." 

He shuddered, downing his glass of orange juice and setting the cup back down a little more forcefully than he needed to, resulting in an over the shoulder look from his Graunt that made him repeat the action, much lighter. 

"You know you can eat normal food every once in a while right? No amount of fancy nerdy drinks is gonna replace an actual meal. Even if it looks and tastes like baby vomit." 

Mabel put two plates of glittery, pinkish-reddish pancakes in front of the two boys. One was decorated to look like a cat, the other...an axolotl. 

"Gotta agree with Stanley on this one. You need real food, even crush projects need you to eat more than a funky smoothie. You can drink your little potion too if you want but you're not going back to working on your project until you eat something that isn't through a straw." 

She pats both boys on the back and goes back to making more pancakes. She lovingly called them 'mabelcakes' when she added her own twist to them, glitter and food coloring shockingly, was not enough to make a pancake a 'mabelcake' 

Stanford groaned, pouting down at the plate in front of him. His breakfast drink would have had more benefits to him than this glimmering mess on his plate. 

"But my drink already has everything I need! I don't need concerningly discolored pancakes when this is already more than good enough. I don't need to take breaks and eat when I can just pack one or two of these." 

He attempts to argue, but a raised brow glance over the shoulder from his aunt shut his argument down. 

"Fine...but I'm not stopping to eat lunch though." 

Mabel shrugged, flipping a pancake. 

"I'll take what I can get. You're eating dinner tonight though. I can't let you skip two meals a day. You can invite your friend over too if you'd like. I know he's the one you have the adorable little crush on, and he's a really sweet kid. Even if he says no, don't let that ruin your friendship. I've had tons of friends who asked me out or I asked them out and we stayed friends after either a bit of a break or a little talk. Oh I'm also almost done with the sweater I'm making for him, so I guess that's another reason you could invite him over tonight too." 

She smiles, plating a pancake and moving on to make the next one. 

Stan looked at his own plate, the pink pancakes and the axolotl on it was enough to make him nearly lose his appetite. He took his fork and smeared the whipped cream around to get rid of the face staring him down. 

"Hey uh...Sixer. I had a pretty weird dream last night. I slept for a little bit, it wasn't much of a sleep but uh yeah. Oh I also saw the Axolotl." 

Ford stopped cutting up his pancakes and looked over at his twin. He swallowed the mouthful of his drink he was incredibly close to spitting out in pure shock. 

"You saw the axolotl again? Did it try to take your memories? Is there anyone you can think of that might want something out of your head? Does it want secrets about the author? I would've guessed it would already know all of that..." 

His words quickly tumbled into mumbling and six fast taps from his fingers not currently wrapped around a utensil. 

Stan nodded quickly, relief washing over him. 

"It asked if I wanted its help figuring out the password. Like I'd actually trust a giant glowing frog-fish right?" 

He scoffs, eating a bite of the pancake, almost glad it looked like the axolotl. Now he could imagine himself eating chunks of that giant pink monster. 

"So when can we get back to that? I know you're busy with your project and all but I just can't figure this out. I know you'll probably get it in like two seconds 'cause of your oversized brain, but I just want all the secrets and the mysteries." 

Ford sat back down in the chair, no longer leaning over the table to keep secrecy between them and not their aunt. They didn't know if she was trustworthy with the journal, especially with the dangerous monsters and adventures they had been going on for almost two months already. 

"It's a little more complicated than I thought it would be. I promise we can work on the laptop tomorrow. If he says no, then I'd rather we wait until Sunday. I just...I really really want to impress him with this. Fidds is so cool, and he's so good with technology I just want to show him that I'm smart like he is too." 

He glances up at his twin, quickly taking a large drink of his shake, now trying to avoid eye contact. 

Stanley groaned, shoveling pancake into his mouth until his plate was empty and his stomach hurt from eating far too quickly. 

"Yeah yeah your daily crush quest for Fidds. I got it. I'll have to figure this out on my own then. What about tomorrow? You'll be done by then for sure right?" 

Ford stares down at his lap, taking another small drink while trying to find something interesting to look at. He fidgeted with his fingers as a distraction, just something to keep his mind and body occupied from the conversation. 

"I think so. But if it goes well I kind of want to hangout with him before he goes to Tennessee for a week with his family. He's leaving at the end of the day on Saturday so if he says no, I won't feel as awkward 'cause he'll be gone for a while. But if he says yes then I really want to hangout with him. If I wait any longer I'm going to miss my chance and someone else might ask him out and date him while he's gone."

He inhaled deeply, rubbing his eyes and adjusting his glasses after the action. 

"This is really important to me. I promise we'll work on the laptop, at least on Sunday. But I need to do this first. We can go mystery hunting and computer coding after I'm done with this, okay?" 

Stanley scowled at his brother and stood up quickly. 

"I'm done. Thanks Graunty Mabel. I'm going to the attic to work on the laptop, what really matters." 

He storms off, barely containing himself from punching something. He didn't want to break anything, he already had five talks with Mabel about controlling himself and finding better outlets than the walls. If he had more time he'd go punch the punching bag she set up in their room, but right now he just wanted to work on the laptop as much as physically possible. 

He rubbed his eyes with his fist and snatched the laptop off his bed, glaring at Ford's bed as he hopped down from the top bunk. 

"Stupid Sixer...of course his crush thing goes before our search for mystery. The big important thing we've been working on literally since the day we got here." 

He goes up to the attic and nestles himself up in the nook by the window. He started typing out codes again, his mind wandering more than it focused on the task at hand. 

"He gets everything and I can't even figure out a dumb code. His stupid journal didn't tell me anything either. The author's probably dead and it's all a huge waste of time." 

He types in the codes as he says them out loud: "Ford" "Is" "Useless" 

He looked at the screen as he wrote useless and deletes all the letters. He already tried that one anyways. 

"I'm probably looking at a dead end. Ford'll look at it and he'll solve it in two seconds. It'll say "the author's dead! He was killed a long time ago by a lone gnome like a loser!" and I'll be the idiot brother again. The twin that will never amount to anything. Just like Pa always says..." 

Stanley shook his head, rubbing his eyes hard with his fists in a weak attempt to keep the tears from falling. He looked at the screen and glared at it. He enters the word 'loved'

The screen blinks red and the horrible buzzer sounds again, except this time a new sound follows. 

"Too many failed entries. Initiating data erase in five minutes" 

"Wait what? I'm gonna lose everything!? I only have one try left?" 

He gasps as the world drains of color, and the oval shaped window, with six weird squiggles on the sides glows a bright pink. 

The axolotl's face appears in the window, then it swims through the glass like water and out of the nook until it was in the middle of the room. It was smaller than when it was outside without the confines of this building's shabby walls. But it still had a powerful energy and regardless of size, it contained a menacing air. 

"It appears you're not going to figure it out anytime soon are you? Poor thing." 

Stanley scrambled up and held the laptop close to his chest. 

"Go away! I told you I didn't need your help! I still don't!" 

The Axolotl smiled, and laughed. It floated towards the boy slightly, still keeping a little distance. It was much smaller than when they were outside, it was comparable to the goat that ran around the shack, just thrice as long. 

"I can always help you, dear boy. I just have a few small requests. Well I suppose the better term would be demands. Nothing big, I promise." 

It raises it's clawed front feet in innocence. 

Stanley looks at the laptop, opening it to see how much time was left. The timer was ticking down too fast for him to have time to make a rational decision, let alone any sort of plan. 

"What...what do you want? Do you want my soul? You gonna put fish guts in my head instead of a brain? Are you gonna rip out my teeth and make me get dentures at twelve years old?!" 

He asks, growing more and more frantic as the laptop continued to beep monotonously with each passing second, each second he was losing. 

The Axolotl laughs softly, a both beautiful and unsettling sound. 

"Calm yourself, dear child. I only need a small tool. Not to rip out your teeth or replace your brain, none of that silliness." 

Stan hesitated. 

"A tool? What do you mean a tool?"

The Axolotl shrugs, floating around the room and inspecting some of the tools Ford had left lying around while working on his project. 

"Oh nothing big, just a tool. Even a powerful being as myself needs a little help from a device every once in a while. Your brother seems to have plenty lying around, has he even touched any of these since starting that little project?"

Stanley looked around the room. There were a lot of tools lying around. But they probably all had some sort of purpose to Ford, otherwise he wouldn't have them. 

"I don't know, I can't just give those away. He's been working really hard on this thing and he needs all of his tools, even if I haven't really seen him touch half of them lately." 

The Axolotl turned to the boy, floating back over to him, closer now. It grew larger the nearer it got, almost filling the room now. 

"I think one small tool isn't very much in comparison to the vast knowledge that little laptop may provide. What has your brother done for you lately? I've seen that you've sacrificed quite a lot for him over the summer. What has he done to return the favor other than step all over your kindness and continue running off with his friend?" 

The Axolotl gestured at the window, and Stan leaned towards it to peer out. 

Stan sidestepped towards the window, looking out. He saw Ford nervously talking to Fiddleford, even with the nerves both looked extremely happy. Even without him there with them. He looked down at the laptop, thirty seconds quickly dwindling. 

The Axolotl smiled and shrunk down to the general size of a black bear, extending its clawed hand to the boy. The hand burst into bright green flames that remained a steady flicker above its skin. 

"I'm afraid you're running out of time and options." 

Stan looked at the laptop and took a deep breath, trying his best to remain calm and think through his actions like Ford would. He reached out and shook the clawed, flaming hand. The hand itself was smooth, like a mix of a tadpole and a very well lotioned person's hand. The flames themselves licked his skin like an icy wind, cool to the touch and sending an shiver through his body. 

"Okay...so what tool are you gonna take anyways? He's got a ton of them lying around." 

The Axolotl looks around, tapping it's chin with a clawed finger. 

"Hmm I'm not sure...how about..." 

Its eyes glow bright white, and its smile widens to such an extent it's nearly body horror. It pulls Stanley closer to its face by the hand, yanking him close, and with an echoing, ethereal voice speaks. 

"YOU" 

Stanley's eyes widen, and he begins to desperately tug on his arm, trying to escape the iron grasp the Axolotl trapped his hand in. 

"WAIT WHAT??"

He screams as his hand is pulled, but his body doesn't follow. He's pulled out of his body and tossed into the air where he cartwheels and barely manages to straighten himself and gain some sort of balance. He tries to touch his hand, where he still felt the phantom touch of the claws and the flames. His hand went straight through. He looked down at his translucent body and tried to touch his stomach, his hand went right through in an almost tickling sensation. 

He turned and looked at his body, now frozen with terror at the sight before him. Being outside his body wasn't the worst part. The worst part was watching it stand up, dust itself off and drop the laptop onto the ground. The body opened its eyes and revealed two eyes with hugely dilated pupils. Almost all of the brown color of his eyes was eaten up by the enormous size of his pupils. 

The Axolotl smiled widely, unfortunately the boys face didn't go quite as wide as it'd like but it would certainly work for the intended purpose.

"Thank you for the body, dear child. You're such a fool, letting me use you as my tool." 

It chuckled at its own rhyme and stomped on the laptop, smashing it to pieces. It destroyed any chance Stanley had at figuring out the code or the laptop's secrets. 

Stanley watched in horror as the Axolotl, in his body, walked easily over to a mirror and adjusted the shirt adorned by the body. It unrolled the sleeves and straightened them out, attempting to smooth the wrinkles but sighed as it made no difference. 

"Only two eyes? I suppose it will just have to do. You humans haven't evolved to have any more limbs yet either. Such a shame your species evolves so incredibly slowly. Unlike your twin, the extra finger isn't much but it certainly helps with the fine motor skills, from what I've observed." 

It chuckles softly at its words, the laugh sounding more childish and less threatening in this body. It opened its mouth and examined the space in the mirror, feeling the missing tooth space with its tongue. 

"Ah so it's truly not a natural gap. It's a missing tooth. Just another mistake you made. You really have a nasty habit of continuously making mistakes don't you?"

Stanley stared at his body and floated over, reaching out and trying to at the very least touch his body and see if he could at least affect the Axolotl. Unfortunately he couldn't even do that much.

"No. This can't be happening. What did you do to my body?! How did you do that? Get out! Get out of my body!" 

He tries to lunge at the Axolotl, but flies right through his own body. 

The Axolotl turns to look at him and chuckles again. It shakes its head in disappointment, folding its arms over each other. 

"Yes, it's more than clear now that you're certainly not the intelligent twin out of the pair." 

It looked down at the laptop with a proud smile. 

"Well now that that's done, it's onto destroying that journal as well. The two of you are growing uncomfortably close to some answers I don't believe need to be revealed." 

It walked down the stairs, then after making it halfway down realized what would be more interesting and brilliantly decided to throw itself down the stairs, tumbling down and going limp so the body could hit the pointed steps however gravity intended. 

It stood up, dusting itself off. It looked at the left arm where it could just feel that a couple of nasty bruises were going to make themselves very known in a few hours. If the body survived until then. 

"I almost forgot what a joy human pain was. It's been a while since I've inhabited one of your species. You are truly incredible." 

It says to itself, making its way down the hall towards the kitchen, fully aware of the ghostly form of the child whose body it was possessing followed behind it. 

Inside the kitchen, the Axolotl got distracted by the adolescent human addiction center, the refrigerator. The body's dehydration also added into its desire to seek out this treasure trove of human self sabotage. It snatched a Pitt cola from the shelf and tore the tab off, tossing it over its shoulder to become someone else's problem. It tilted its head back and poured the beverage into its mouth, smiling widely as the texture of the bubbles and the intense flavor overtook the tongue's senses, and poured it further up on the face, laughing at the burning sensation of this over caffeinated and sugary drink going directly into the eyes. It lowered the can and blinked away the liquid making its vision blurry. 

"Oh this is too much fun! I don't know how you humans can live day to day without experiencing all of these wonderful sensations! Of course your brain is wired a little differently than the majority of humans. So I suppose that might be your reason. You and another human I used to know have that in common." 

It giggles to itself, finding a drawer and carelessly abandoning the half drank soda on the floor. It opened the drawer to find a great collection of kitchen tools at its disposal. It takes a butter knife and jabs it against its arms and then tries slicing, both to no avail. This particular tool has been made far 'safer' since the last time it had a chance to inhabit a human and pilot it around wherever it pleased. 

"So little one, where do you keep the journal? I know either you or your brother always have it on hand." 

Stanley floated a little closer, gasping at the sight of his body up close. Seeing the axolotl poorly attempt to brutalize his skin with butter knives and spoons wasn't comforting considering what other tools were in this kitchen. 

"I'm never going to tell you! I'll never let you find it, and you'll never find it without me." 

He crosses his arms, smiling proudly at the demon fish possessing his body. 

Ford looked into the kitchen and tucked the journal into his jacket before 'Stanley' could see it. 

"Hey Stan! I'm taking the journal with me to write notes and make sure the device works properly! I'm also going to leave before you hear this and try to take it back! Bye!"

He runs off in the opposite direction, out of the house. He had been using a clearing in the woods for his project and was pretty much complete with it now save for a few double checks and final touches. He had invited Fiddleford to come see it later that day. 

Stan looks at his brother, his already ghostly face several shades paler. 

The Axolotl smiles far too widely. 

"Thank you dear brother! I'll come watch as encouragement!" 

It looked at Stanley, watching him fly towards his brother. 

Stanley tried desperately to reach and speak with his twin. 

"Wait! He's lying! Sixer I'm right here! Don't give him the journal! Stanford please stop!" 

He stares as his brother hops on a bicycle and rides off into the woods. 

The Axolotl strolled up next to the floating phantom, playing with a fork and jabbing it repeatedly into both of its arms, leaving an array of four red dots in a line in several places along its arms. 

"Sorry child, that's not how this works. You're in the mindscape now, you can't speak to anyone without a vessel to possess. You're essentially a ghost, and unless I get out of his body, you will be one. I'm not planning on leaving anytime soon either, little one." 

It tucks the fork into one of the short's pockets and stretches its arms above its head, looking up at the sun and smiling widely at the change in vision until it looked back down at the child in front of it. 

"Have fun trying to communicate with your current state. I'm sure you can find a way to brute force your way through this just like all your other problems. That's how you've solved almost any issue that comes towards you, through violence." 

The Axolotl began walking to the woods, not bothering with a bicycle or any other form of transportation. It wouldn't risk this body with the golf cart it didn't trust this body's capabilities to drive without crashing and making it unusable. This body, as weak and fragile as it was, was better in its current state than broken in several places. 

It stopped for a moment, closing its eyes and allowing its millions of eyes on earth, in the birch trees, in art, carved into wood or stone, drawn on a piece of paper, painted on a wall, and a thousand other places show it exactly where the six fingered twin currently was in the woods. 

Stan looked around, trying to think of a plan as he floated quietly behind the demon possessing his body. He couldn't think of hardly anything at the moment, but at least he could follow his body and try to come up with a plan by the time they reach Ford. He could maybe try to possess a sleeping animal? He had never possessed anything before, anything alive would undoubtedly be difficult to possess. And unless Ford somehow started paying closer attention to him, he might be stuck. 

"This isn't good...oh man. Ugh of course I'm the one who got my body taken by a fish demon. Why wouldn't I? I'm always going to be the dumb twin, I couldn't even figure out a stupid five letter code and now the laptop's ruined. I ruined that just like I ruin everything else." 

He stopped moving, remaining floating stationary in the air a couple feet above the ground. His mind, wherever it was, was suffocating with his emotions that seemed to be multiplied intensely by the mindscape. His self destructive thoughts swam in his head, blinding him to any sort of reasoning, and trapping himself in his own self doubt and overwhelming emotions. He floated lower on the ground, his knees only a few inches off of it now. His eyes glued themselves to the ground, not being able to, nor wanting to focus on the world around him he couldn't even interact with. 

"I can't do this...it's going to take the journal and destroy it and we'll be left with nothing. It'll all be my fault. Everything's always my fault. Why can't I ever stop being such a screw up? Pa was right about me..."

The Axolotl smiled to itself, sparing a short glance over its shoulder to see Stanley floating close to the forest floor, talking to himself as his heightened emotions drown any reason or logical thinking he might have attempted to do. That worked fairly well in the amphibian's favor, at least one twin won't have the confidence to try and stop it. 

"Poor thing, if only he wasn't so stubborn I might have been able to do this without leaving him here. His attitude is admirable, I won't deny him that." 

It spoke quietly to itself, keenly aware of the many dangers in these woods, especially towards a vulnerable human child. Even if this particular child was known by most of the creatures as a silly little guy who could fall into self deprecating habits a little too often. Thankfully this vessel wasn't as worn out as as the one it possessed over thirty years ago, that one was in quite rough condition. 

"You could have met these two had you not decided to try and shut down my plans. I see you in both of them, I'm sure this one would have reminded you too much of your sister, and you'd push him away as you did everyone else in your life. Your entire family is living your tragedy, and I have the pleasure of providing the grand finale." 

It chuckles softly, letting its eyes slip closed and allowed the eyes it had in the world show it where it needed to go. It peeked in other dimensions and universes, making sure its absence from its current dimension wasn't causing any issues. It particularly liked seeing one human struggling in the dimension he currently was running from the inter-dimensional police. That was satisfying enough to allow it to close its eyes and open the physical two. 

Ford tightened a bolt and checked a few spots, redoing them or adjusting them to make it as perfect as possible. He couldn't use a welding gun on his own, besides it was already too far to try and change any of the welds, those were all very secure by now. 

"It's...a lot jankier than his normally are. I wish I had the skills and supplies he has, this would be so much easier and more useful than these scraps and junk. The junkyard is so annoying to take stuff from, it takes forever to haul it back here and get more and do the same thing over and over. Oh shoot I hope Stan doesn't mind too much that I took the journal. He's been super focused on the laptop. Maybe taking this will make him take a break. Or if I took the laptop itself..." 

He mumbles to himself, glancing between the notes in the journal from the machine and at his own he added for his current project. They were sort of similar, at least the building techniques were similar enough to make this project a little easier to construct. 

"Shoot I probably shoulda tried talking to Stanley more before I ran off to do this today. The mysteries are really important to both of us. I just need to finish this and then we can spend all of next week working on the laptop. I bet Fidds would be able to help too, if we don't figure it out by the time he gets back from his trip. He likes to make computers, I think he made something sorta like this before." 

He smiles, backing up from the device and puts his hands on his hips to admire his work. 

"A heart mighta been a little on the nose but I think I did pretty good for doing this mostly on my own!"

His proud smile quickly wavered, and he scrunched his brows together. 

"This is too obvious. It's too much. I should've been more subtle. He's going to think it's stupid. He'll probably see how flawed it is immediately." 

He rushed back over and started doing everything he thought might 'fix' it. He referred back to the journal, using the half written notes for whatever machine the author was building originally to reinforce his sculpture. What the notes were for wasn't important, having some sort of mechanical outline was his main interest. Trying to make this less stupid faster was his only current goal.

"Fidds could've done this and something twice as cool in half the time I took. I'm gonna look so stupid. What if he hates me after this?"

Ford kept working at it, desperately trying to find a solution to it but it didn't have one. He couldn't just write down an equation and solve it. He couldn't find the molecules and reconstruct where they went. There was nothing about this that was structured that he could actually figure out. Art was always something he wasn't the best at, it didn't have a definite yes or no, a good or bad, a right or wrong. His brother was better at this type of personal expression. 

The Axolotl looked at the trees, smiling to itself as it saw the prepubescent body it currently inhabited through the trees. It touched its forehead and frowned, one eye of its millions temporarily closed for now. One of the unfortunate quirks of human beings. Almost none of them had quite enough eyes. 

"Ah there you are. Oh poor thing, love is such a painful thing for you humans. You focus so heavily on it, it tears you apart from the inside before you can even speak to who you think you 'love'." 

It stopped by a tree and gazed into the clearing from where it was partially hidden, seeing the child desperately hold back tears while trying to 'fix' his attempt at confessing his feelings. 

Stanley was slowly floating after the Axolotl. He couldn't do anything. He didn't have any way to stop it. He wasn't smart enough to come up with a clever plan to outsmart it. All he could do was wait for it to hopefully leave his body and let him back in. As pitiful as that seemed. 

"I'm sorry Sixer, I shoulda been more careful. Now a fish demon is controlling my body and I can't even do anything. I don't have a body or anything to possess and use to warn you." 

He saw his body standing by a tree and cautiously floated over to it. He frowned as he saw the Axolotl had not yet vacated it, and was staring at his brother. 

"What are you gonna do if you don't destroy the journal?"

The Axolotl tilted its head towards the boy, still keeping its eyes on Ford, but allowing its ear to face the ghostly boy. 

"I was contemplating throwing this body off of the water tower. It wouldn't be too shocking, what inferior twin wouldn't want to die when no one, not even his own parents want him? Don't worry my dear child, I'll take good care of you in the mindscape. Unfortunately, until my plans progress further, you won't be able to leave." 

It speaks, turning its head to have full attention on the six fingered boy anxiously fixing what he thought might have still been wrong with the sculpture. 

Stanley stares at the back of his own head, jaw dropped. If he could still feel his stomach, it would have dropped below whatever exists in the center of the earth. 

"You..you're gonna kill me? Why can't you just not destroy the journal and leave? Or heck even destroy it and give me my body back? Why do you havta go to killing me?"

He felt like his heart stopped, although he stopped being able to feel his heartbeats since being ejected from his own body. It was chilling, to feel almost frozen, a watcher of a body that was no longer his. 

The Axolotl turned completely to Stanley, smiling inhumanely wide. 

"Oh you poor little thing. No, you're still useful to me. I'm willing to take certain risks but I don't need to entirely kill you. Mmm well maybe not. I still have all the time in the world to think and weigh out my options." 

The Axolotl, leaning against a tree, rested its head on its hand. 

"You deserve better than what you have. Maybe when my plans come together I could keep you as my own. Your brother's far too intelligent. I don't believe he'd be worth the risk. You on the other hand, you're quite interesting. You don't have an off switch so to speak, and your stubbornness is more than entertaining." 

Stan floated back from his body, away from it, more than a little unsettled. 

"This really sucks. Not being able to solve stuff through punching is so frustrating. When I get back in my body I'm gonna do exactly what we did last time, but it's gonna be way less funny. 

He mumbles, then turns to look at his brother in the clearing, his eyes widening when he saw Ford look up from his project and run off to the edge of the clearing, running a little into the woods. 

The Axolotl eyed the sculpture, stepping closer. It stayed mostly hidden behind a tree but got a more clear view at the sight in the clearing. 

"Let's see how this plays out. I haven't seen a proper human confession like this in a very long time. I might as well allow myself the pleasure of indulging for just a small while." 

Stan moves closer to the clearing, going to the Axolotl's side, just several feet over. He looks out and sees Ford leading Fiddleford towards the sculpture, holding his hands to lead him as he kept his eyes firmly closed. 

Ford felt entirely too aware of the perspiration on his hands, how clammy his skin felt, how gross his too many fingered hands probably felt to his friend. And yet, the taller, skinnier boy didn't let go. He didn't even seem uncomfortable. He had his banjo securely strapped around his shoulder and down his back, where it seemed to take permanent residence. 

"It's just a little further this way. Uh...nothing will ever make us stop being friends right? Even something that might be really really awkward if it goes wrong?"

He couldn't help asking, his mind was overrun with anxious thoughts eating away at any attempt he had at feigning confidence. His thoughts were cleared momentarily when he heard the boy whose hands were lightly grasped in his own laugh. That southern drawl fueled laugh was the most incredible sound he could ever hope to hear. 

"I really don't reckon there's any force in the world that could make us stop being friends. We've fought a thousand terrifying critters and monsters together. I don't think there's a whole awful lot more we could do that would make us stop being friends. Don't worry, whatever thing-a-ma-jig it is you're taking me to won't do anything to make us stop being friendly." 

His southern drawl was thick, not overly but it was one of the first characteristics anyone noticed about him. A voice the boy who was adamant his hands were as weird as almost everyone outside gravity falls thought they were, could never get enough of. Ford would never admit it, but he had gotten Fiddleford to go on rants about anything multiple times just to hear him talk uninterrupted. 

Ford smiled, Fidds' voice being more than enough to calm his nerves. 

"I don't know about that, this might be a little more friendship breaking than monsters." 

He peers up at the sculpture. It seemed so stupid now that his friend was actually here. His friend who just minutes ago, fidgeted with extra parts he had in his pockets and made a miniature four by four Rubik's cube. His sculpture seemed juvenile now compared to that talent. 

"Can...uh can you promise that absolutely nothing will make us stop being friends? I really don't want this to make you stop liking me." 

He felt even more aware of how awkward he felt, how gross his hands might have felt, how his voice was cracking at every anxious syllable. Everything felt deafeningly loud and pin drop silent. His thoughts were silenced when he felt two hands slowly feel their way up his arms and around his torso, pulling him into a hug. It would have been futile to even attempt to reject the hug. Even if he didn't have a debilitating crush on the Tennessean boy, his hugs were unequivocally comforting. His heart trying to pound its way out of his chest didn't do him any favors, however. 

"I promise that nothin', not any critter or monster or adventure or silly New Jersey thing or any other wacky problem will ever make us stop being friends. I don't see why you're so worked up but calm down, you're acting like me more than you should be." 

 He kept his eyes closed, knowing that whatever Ford was trying to show him that was making him this worried was way too important to try and risk peeking at it. 

Ford rubbed his eyes, smiling and laughing out of what he could only assume was relief and his never faltering anxiety. 

"Okay, yeah thanks Fidds. And no one in the universe could ever act exactly like you do." 

He looked over at the sculpture again, taking a deep breath to try and finally calm his nerves. He gave Fiddleford one last squeeze and backed up a little, letting their hands meet and join each other again. 

It was fine. If anything he could break it back down after being rejected and throw the scraps away where he found them. Then Fiddleford would go off on his trip and he would be free of having to think about the issue for a whole week, and then he might never talk to him again. Surely Fidds wouldn't have any trouble finding more friends in Gravity Falls, the town was full of interesting people, and the blond was able to start a conversation with someone else almost as easily as his Great Aunt.

He attempts to swallow down his thoughts, but nothing seemed to help. He settled for simply pretending to be fine, and began leading Fiddleford to the heart shaped sculpture. He perfected where the boy was standing, making sure he was right in front of the center of the heart, so he'd get the best view of it. He double checked twice and then backed up a little, still slightly holding onto his hands. 

"Okay now just keep your eyes closed and stay here for a couple seconds. When I say so, you can open your eyes, okay?" 

He asks, his eyes flicking between the metallic heart and back at the boy in front of him. 

Fiddleford, of course, smiled and nodded. 

"Whatever it is you're up to, I'm trustin' ya. Just don't scare me or nothin'. You know I'm like a possum when I'm spooked." 

Stanford smiled, nodding in response even if the boy couldn't see it. 

"I promise I'm not gonna scare you. I will surprise you though, hopefully. Just...just keep an open mind okay?"

He felt his lungs in his throat, his heart beneath the soles of his feet, and his intestines tied into so many knots they made a fleshy bracelet. 

He let go of his hands and backed away from the taller boy, rushing over to his project. Excitement and anxiety prickled along his skin, vibrating with such fierceness it was hard for him to simply wipe his sweaty palms on the front of his shirt. 

"You've got this. It's totally fine. He'll love it and we'll do so much stuff together we won't have anything to worry about. And if he doesn't...he's nice. He's not gonna hate me or make fun of me or anything. One nice thing about this town, no one cares if you're into boys or girls, if you're weird, or if you have too many fingers." 

He whispered the last part entirely to himself. It was something he kept reminding himself of over the summer. He shook his hands out and inhaled deeply, exhaling as slowly as he could. He wrapped his hands around the lever on the side of the sculpture. 

"Okay! You can look now!"

He shouts, pushing the lever down as his friend opens his eyes. The heart shaped sculpture opened from the center with a vertical line down the middle separating the two sides. It opened like two doors, revealing a mechanical interior with flashing lights that spelled out:

I REALLY REALLY LIKE YOU! DO YOU WANT TO GO OUT WITH ME?                                                                                                                                                                                       (Mabel helped with the wording)

Stanford slowly peeled his gaze from the lever he didn't realize he was white knuckling, to the boy who was staring at the machine in front of him in absolute awe. He felt his face heating up exponentially and instinctively looked back down. His fears and worries rampantly overtook his senses. He felt his hands quivering and put them back on the lever, even if not to move it, just to give him something to focus on. 

"I-I'm so sorry! This was stupid. I should've just asked like a normal person, or not asked in the first place. I'm sorry. Please don't hate me. I really shouldn't have done this. I'm so stupid." 

The words flew out of his mouth faster than he could think. He shoved the lever back up, causing the heart to slowly close back up again. Tears pricked at the edges of his eyes and he closed them tightly in desperate hopes that it would stop the salty water already starting to careen down his cheeks. 

Ford failed to notice the quite obvious sound of feet rushing over grass and stones towards him. He could hear his friend trying to talk to him, asking if he was okay. He didn't want to hear it. He didn't want to hear that he put all this work into this project just for the answer to be no and for them to never talk again. Or a worse option that didn't even graze his mind until now. 

He snapped his eyes open and turned his head when he felt two familiar arms around him. The first thing he realized amidst blurry vision was that Fiddleford was hugging him. The second was that the boy was crying even more than he was. 

"Wait...why are you crying?"  

The boy with the southern drawl squeezed his friend tighter and laughed. 

"Cause I'm happy. And you're so worried all the time. I like you too ya dork. You know, even if I said no, we'd still be friends. I'm not a big enough idiot to lose you as a friend just cause you had a crush. That'd be the stupidest mistake I figure I could ever try to make." 

Ford blinked the tears out of his eyes, for a moment, only for a tsunami to replace them. He pulled back and grabbed Fiddleford's face in both hands. 

"Wait you do?! You're not just saying that to make me feel better? Are you sure? I can handle if you don't like me. I was preparing for a no. I didn't think you'd like me back." 

He stares at the boy's face, desperately searching for any sign he might be wrong. 

"Ford I promise I'm being honest. I'm not just sayin' all this to make you happy. You know I've never been like that." 

The Axolotl watches the two, a smile creasing further on the human lips when the southern boy kisses the six fingered boy's cheek. The pair laughed and hugged each other, all while remaining seated on the ground next to the sculpture. 

"Not the most impressive human confession I've witnessed. Then again I wasn't included, I'm sure it would have been much more grand if I had a hand in it. But it was very creative and sweet, for a child of his age. It's adequate. I have met grander minds of younger ages. It's quite the shame I'll have to rid this world of your brother at some point in order for my plans to continue uninterrupted."

It kept its eyes on the two boys, then its oversized pupils slid over to look at the journal propped harmlessly on the side of the machine, the opposite side of which the two boys were on. 

"My plans are larger than the three of you could ever dream of being. Getting rid of your journal is just one of the many steps on my grand staircase to my goal I will never outwardly share with you. I'm not an idiot like the triangle that attempted to take over 46'/." 

It walked out of the trees into the opening. It kept both of its over dilated eyes on the the two boys, smiling as it saw Stanley's ghostly form float over to his brother and desperately try to communicate with and warn him. There was no way he could ever dream of speaking with a being outside the mindscape without a vessel, and poor little Stanley did not have one. 

It's smile faltered for a fraction of a second when the berating sound of a child's voice perforated the perfect silence the woods held just moments before.

"Hey there Stanley! Whatcha doing sneaking around all quiet like?"

The insufferable hillbilly was the first to notice him. It looked at the ghostly boy, memorizing his body language quickly, which was a touch difficult with the lack of gravity in the mindscape. It turned to the pair seated on the ground, both holding hands and looking at him with concerned looks on their faces. 

"Hello, I apologize, I had no intention of ruining your precious moment. I was merely searching for the journal so I may take it back and research...barf fairies." 

It bit the fragile human tongue at its blunder. Who even wrote entries in a journal about all the weird cryptic creatures in Gravity Falls and decided that barf fairies were a fitting entry? Thankfully the creature itself wasn't a lie, and hopefully it sounded juvenile enough to be something Stanley would have wanted to research. 

"I'll just take it and be out of your way. I love the heart by the way, very romantic, and definitely original shape. Could have been more anatomically correct but who am I to stifle the creativity of a budding artist?"

It continued its path towards the journal, only a mere fifteen feet away now. If this body didn't trip over itself somehow, it could run and grab the journal and be into the woods in a matter of seconds if it tried. Then once out of sight of the other two, it could find an easy method of destruction. Fire would work best, but it would take a little more time than it had free, perhaps a gnome would eat it if it was paid to. 

Of course, simple plans always fall through the hardest. 

"Why are you talking all fancy like that? And why are your eyes like that? Did you get hit on the head or somethin'?"

If that wretched child doesn't cease what it considers speech-

"What ever could you be talking about? I'm speaking as I always do. There's nothing strange with how I talk. You know me, I found a substance in a bathroom that smelled interesting so I took as much of it as I could stomach. Why else would my eyes be like this? Now I'll just take the journal and be on my way, and out of yours." 

It kept walking towards the journal, picking up speed as discreetly as possible. Especially now that both boys were standing and warily making their way over to it, coming far too close for comfort. 

"No you're acting really weird. Did you seriously take something in a bathroom? Stan you could've died from poisoning or overdose or so many things! Oh gosh we need to get you water and maybe to a hospital. How far is the nearest hospital? Whoever can ride the bike fastest should go back to the shack and ask Graunty Mabel to bring her car out so we can get him to a hospital as fast as possible." 

The smart, too many fingers having child. That one was thankfully less observant of changes in behavior and the mental field in general. But the lie of drug ingestion pushed the conversation in the entirely wrong direction. 

"Oh no don't worry. They weren't very harmful. Just some...marijuana. That's not harmful to the human body unless in extreme doses. Which I did not partake in a large quantity." 

It stated factually, its own lies twisting around themselves unbelievably. Attempting to continue its path toward the journal, even as the other boys drew closer, way too close. Of course, the one it chose to possess wasn't even the tallest one of this group. 

The current tallest, however, was glaring at him. He couldn't possibly know that this child was possessed. It hid the signs expertly. If anything, Stanley was just acting like the stupid twin again, inhaling some sort of harmful bacteria or shiny pretty substance that he was pretty sure would taste good.  

"What exactly are you? Why on earth do you need the journal?"

This child, this boy was not shutting up. That made this extremely difficult to talk its way out of. 

"That's quite rude of you, isn't it? What am I? I know you have a favorite twin, obviously, but I'm hurt. I'm not an entirely different species purely because I'm less intelligent. The journal is for what I said before. I want to learn more about the fairies that barf. Was that not clear enough for you before?" 

It asked, stepping closer to the pair. Seeing them both back up slightly, at the lead of the taller, southern one, gave it that addicting feeling of control. 

"But if I was something else, what would you be able to do to stop me? You're children. And this child means more to you than it realizes. You wouldn't dare hurt a hair on his head. Of course, I'm not something else, I'm your new boyfriend's brother." 

It tested its control with another step towards them, its wide smile creeping back onto the fleshy face. 

"How would you react if I told you I have a kitchen cleaver in my back pocket at this very moment? I could take it out and only cut a few spots on your fragile little bodies and you'd be dead before the sun sets." 

It moved towards them at a steady walking pace, angling itself to also be moving towards the journal. 

"What if it's the shape shifter from the bunker? Or some other kind of monster?" 

Ford whispered to Fiddleford, keeping his eyes on his brother(?) who stared at them with a far too wide smile. 

"I think it's still him, it doesn't have the little twitchin' thing the shape shifter had. I think he's possessed. My family had a whole situation with that at one point. It was pretty nasty. But this is definitely somethin' possessin' him." 

Fiddleford whispered back. He tapped his hand on his thigh repeatedly, an anxious habit he could never seem to drop. 

"Don't keep all your secrets to yourselves. Write them down in a helpful little journal and bury them underground for thirty years for a couple of children to get a hold of. No point in hiding it any longer I suppose, one of the two of you is right. I'm not clarifying which, but if you kindly get out of my way I would deeply appreciate it. Thank you ever so much." 

It sidestepped towards the journal, keeping its body facing the two boys. It saw the twin of its vessel back up slightly, but the irritating hillbilly in training didn't budge. 

"Does someone think that just because he's had someone else running around in his brain before means he's mature enough, strong enough, to stop me? You can't stop me. You don't even know who or what I am. You might get me out, but what then? You'll celebrate, sure, but I can just come back."

It stepped forward again, now only a few steps away from being able to grab the journal. It swooped down quickly and grabbed the journal, clutching it closely to his chest. 

"Want to test your little theory? I'm sure Stanley would love to see what you have planned. What you've learned from all the time you've rented out your brain and your family has done the same. Has Stanford heard about that little bit of information yet? Oooh what a fun way to start your relationship. Drama always hel-"

It was cut off by something bashing against its head. It tumbled to the ground, the body instinctively touching where it was hit. Unfortunately no blood, but it was going to swell and bruise in a way none too pretty to look at. 

"Did you just hit me? With an outdated hick instrument?!"
It asks, refusing to look up at this child. It closed it's eye closer to the wound and saw through the trees. The insufferable child standing with the banjo clutched in his hands like some sort of weapon. It was unharmed somehow, unlike Stanley's face. 

"That was supposed to kick you out, you nasty parasite. Get out of his body. I don't care who or what you are, you're not getting your hands on whatever's inside that journal and you are not hurtin' him anymore than you already are." 

The Axolotl picked itself up, then stared directly into the tall child's eyes. It made sure he knew exactly what they looked like when possessing someone. 

"Oh, my dear, I could stay in here until after he dies if I wanted. I've controlled dead bodies before, a recent one would be no harder than one half decomposed. I already know most of that journal's contents. But trust me, I don't particularly need it. I'd rather destroy it." 

It laughed, lunging at the hippy, thankfully knocking that insufferable instrument out of his hands. It tried to recall any kind of fighting that Stanley might have known and of course the first thing to come to mind was biting. Which it got extremely close to doing, but was shoved off by two hands with two too many fingers. 

"Careful little one, wouldn't want to hurt your brother too much now would we?" 

It attempted to regain its balance, but was shoved to the ground once again by the same overachieving child. 

"Get out of my brother's body! I want to know what you are but I don't need to in order to get you out!"

They fought, tussled, grappled, fists hit one person, fists hit another person, very engaging and interesting fighting stuff. 

To finally expel the pink frilly demon, Stanford punched his brother in the gut which in his defense, was a very solid move. The axolotl flew out of Stanley's body and into the mindscape, flying through the trees where it remained far from the children. Stanley flew back into his body at the first sign his fleshy real estate was free of unwanted pests. 

Stanford and Fiddleford were both standing over Stan, one armed with a banjo and the other clutching the journal close to himself, slowly tucking it into his jacket pocket. The twin leaned towards the boy, suddenly feeling guilty for resorting to punching in order to expel whatever monster was possessing him. 

"Stanley...?"

Stanley's eyes shot open and he gasped a deep lungful of air. 

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH" 

He screamed but quickly recovered only to stand up and fall right back down. 

"Oohhhhhh what did that thing do to my body? Uggghhh I hate magic fish frog things. Oww oh man that's gonna hurt real bad later." 

He touched his face, hissing at the touch to the fresh wound that was puffing up the side of his face. He was interrupted by his brother's new boyfriend getting close to his face and staring at his eyes for an uncomfortably long time. 

"Hey uh...shouldn't you be doin' that to him not me? I know I'm pretty cool but my face really hurts." 

The southern boy, seeming content with his examination, backed away from the boy. 

"Sorry, just making sure you weren't still possessed. You had crazy eyes, more than usual. It was terrifyin'. How are you feeling now?"

Before Stan could figure out an answer, his brother tackled him in a hug that ended with him smacking his head on the sculpture. Regardless of the future bump on his head, he hugged back. Being able to feel things again was something he'd never take for granted.

"I'm okay! I'm fine, I promise. You guys really didn't hold out on that guy huh? I'm gonna sit in bed for the next two months, everything hurts." 

"I'm so sorry! I didn't even realize something was wrong until Fidds pointed it out. I feel horrible. What was it like? You could see the things it was doing in your body? Did you know what it was? How did it get there? Wait I need to write in the journal about this!" 

He took the journal out of his pocket and looked up to see his brother, who was already exhausted and injured, run off into the woods, seemingly chasing something. 

"That's not good with his multiple head wounds is it?" 

He asks the boy beside him, both of them getting up and running after Stan. 

It didn't take long to find him, he was sitting down next to a tree with a possum in his arms that seemed fairly happy being held by this random child. 

"I got us a pet! I'm gonna name him Shanklin and tie a knife to his back so he can shank our enemies! He's gonna be our bodyguard from all the creepy axolotl demon things!" 

Stanley held the animal up, then quickly lowered his arms when he remembered how much they hurt. 

"I think I might need to go to the hospital. That thing really messed me up." 

He laughed as Shanklin climbed up his shoulder and laid down across both of his shoulders, its tail wrapped around his arm for stability. 

"I can't wait to show Graunty Mabel Shanklin!" 

Stanford stared at his brother then at the possum. Ignoring the possible strain on the already bad injuries running off into the woods after an opossum probably caused, he smiled and sat down by his brother, looking at the possum. 

"That's seriously the coolest pet we could've gotten! How much you wanna bet we'll be able to take him home with us to New Jersey?!"

He warily reaches out to the possum, letting it smell him to make sure he wouldn't get bitten. Once it was confirmed he was on good terms with the possum, he pet it. It was softer than he expected a wild animal to be. Shanklin was almost purring as he was given attention and pets. 

"Do you think Mabel will even bother getting us all rabies shots? Including Shanklin? We can't exactly keep him if we risk getting a disease." 

He thinks to himself then snaps, looking at Fiddleford. 

"You have a pet raccoon right? What was the process for that?" 

Fiddleford shook his head, sitting down by the twins. 

"Possums don't carry rabies, so y'all are good. Might want to still get him to a vet to make sure everything else is good though. Oh my gosh we can let them have play dates together!"

The three boys went into lengthy conversation on their walk back to the Mystery Shack, talking about wild pet care, treatment, what foods to buy and everything else. They now all shared a new fear of pink frilly aquatic amphibians.