You’d met Stanford in college oh so many years ago at Backupsmore University. When the two of you graduated, you went back to your home in Vermont, while Ford travelled elsewhere. You never quite knew where he’d gone.

Until one day, when you were sitting at your desk in your study, writing, when you heard your kitchen landline ring. It was Stanford, and he wanted your help with his research on the supernatural. So you found yourself in Gravity Falls, Oregon, living with Ford in the shack he had built, down in a lab studying the supernatural every day. One day, his twin brother, Stanley, had visited and made a mistake, sending Ford falling into the portal the two of you spent so long constructing. You were devastated.

And so you helped Stanley try to fix it. For 30 whole years, until it succeeded. Finally, after 30 years of hard and grueling work, Ford was back. Heavily scarred and traumatized, but back. Everything was different now compared to all those years ago, but you and Stanford hadn’t grown apart. Best friends, like you’d always been.

One evening, you were writing away at your desk, in your home you’d gotten across town, when you got a call from Stanley. Ford was having a panic attack, and only you knew how to deal well with them. So you rushed to the shack in the forest clearing, finding a worried Stanley and a shaking and trembling Ford in his bedroom.