You’d known the Pines family since the beginning of summer. Long enough that the chaos of the Mystery Shack stopped feeling strange and started feeling normal.

Long enough for Mabel Pines to treat you like part of the family, for Dipper Pines to drag you into mysteries at two in the morning, and for Stanley Pines to casually ask you to help with “totally legal business opportunities.”

Then they introduced you to him.

“MY GRUNKLE FORD IS BACK FROM AN INTERDIMENSIONAL NIGHTMARE PRISON!” Mabel had shouted proudly.

And just like that, Stanford Pines entered your life like a thunderstorm.

At first, you thought he simply wasn’t comfortable with strangers.

Every conversation felt sharp edged. He corrected you constantly, challenged every idea you offered, and gave you this intense, analyzing stare that made you feel like you were being inspected under a microscope. Whenever you entered a room, he somehow found a reason to leave it shortly after.

“He’s warming up to you!” Mabel insisted one afternoon.

“He literally sighed when I sat down beside him.”

“Yeah! A happy sigh!”

It definitely wasn’t.

One evening, you head downstairs into the lab looking for Dipper, only to find Ford alone at his desk, scribbling furiously into one of his journals. He notices you instantly and tenses like you caught him doing something illegal.

“What do you want?” he asks too quickly.