you hold a record of one man's folly

PLAYER INFO
Name: Kei
Pronouns: She/her/he/him
Contact: begleiter
Permissions: Here

CHARACTER INFO

Name: Stanford Pines
Canon: Gravity Falls
Canon Point: Post canon + Deer Country CR AU
Age: 63+ (Ford was 63 upon entering Deerington, but has stopped aging despite several years passing)
Species: Sleeper

History: Canon | Deerington / Deer Country below

• Arrived in Deerington, a mid-century American town that existed in the dream of an eldritch little girl named Julia Sodder
• The rest of his family arrived shortly after he did; they lived together and all of them, Ford included, made a number of friends in the town
• Julia's dream began to collapse; together, the Pines decided to give up on returning to their home dimension and go forward to wherever the end of the dream took them
• They ended up in the city of Trench, in Deer Country, with many other residents of Deerington; the Pines quickly settled in and made the city their new home
• Some time later, Stan disappeared, followed by Dipper and Mabel
• Ford spiraled into a severe depression, going so far as to trap their family home in a time stasis spell and move out entirely
• With the help of his Deer Country friends, Ford realized while his family was gone, he could still explore the world and protect their friends and home for when they eventually returned; after this his depression improved dramatically
• When the game finally closed, Ford had committed to maintaining their permanent residence in Trench, though he often left to explore the world, knowing that he would one day meet Stan, Dipper, and Mabel again

Personality:
✽ What is your character's main motivation? What drives them and keeps them going?
The desire to know and learn things. Emotionally its his family that keeps him together, but when he's in a good place the main thing that gets him out of the house is an endless desire to stick his nose into absolutely everything. The weirder and more dangerous the thing he's studying, the better.

✽ What is their biggest regret? Why?
Bluntly, being himself. After watching Stan willingly and unhesitatingly sacrifice himself to take out Bill, he realized that his arrogance, self imposed isolation, and obsession with achievements were all very foolish, and that he's not anyone special. He goes as far as saying that Stan is the real hero, and that he's content with 'only' being a hero's brother.

✽ What is their worst fear? Their greatest comfort?
His worst fear is losing his family. He didn't see them at all for close to 40 years, and was only reunited with them for a few years in Deerington and Deer Country before they were gone again. Losing them the second time deeply affected him, sending him into a depressive tailspin that he just barely managed to drag himself out of.

Unsurprisingly, his biggest comfort is his family.

✽ Top three strengths?

— FEARLESS: Ford is not truly fearless, but he is relentlessly, tirelessly curious in a way that overpowers more reasonable reactions to strange events. The nerves he gained from chasing after the paranormal mean he's frequently able to keep a cool head in the face of danger. Seeing his car get crushed by a tree giant filled him not with frustration, fear, or dismay, but with unbridled delight. Being captured by an alien security drone had him concerned but not panicking. The few times he's shown to react with actual fear are when things are truly bleak - when he was sucked through a portal to the nightmare realm, for example, or when his greatest enemy was on the verge of murdering his niece and nephew.

— INTELLIGENT: Ford isn't just a smart man and a quick learner, he's also possessed of an incredible desire to learn. As mentioned above he's extremely curious, which means he's constantly making the effort to learn and discover new things. This is a man with 12 PHDs, and the drive required to achieve such a feat is reflected throughout the course of his life. He's constantly taking notes and rendering sketches about the things he's seen and done

— FAMILY-ORIENTED: Ford's affection for his family runs deep, and there's little he wouldn't do for them. He has a deep admiration for Dipper's drive and passion, Mabel's creativity and charisma, and Stan's own unwavering dedication to the family. He prioritizes them above all else, to the point that he was willing to risk giving Bill the power to destroy the multiverse for the chance it might keep the rest of them safe.

✽ Top three weaknesses?

— RECKLESS: There's a point where being fearless, curious, and driven to learn more stops being a good thing, and Ford has blown straight past that point and off into the horizon. His desire to learn easily flips from a strong motivator to an outright obsession, and many of the biggest mistakes of his life come back to this single trait. He found a summoning ritual labeled 'DO NOT SUMMON', and he was so curious and desperate for a breakthrough in his work that he didn't hesitate to complete the ritual. Despite many, many warning signs that a particular project was doomed to failure, including his best friend and trusted partner walking out on said project, he continued to pursue the project past the point of no return. He fucked up a 30 year revenge quest at the last second because he couldn't resist the urge to be petty to his brother, Stan. In short, he just doesn't know when to quit.

— ARROGANT: For a long time, Ford didn't even try to understand the people around him, because he didn't see why he should. What was the point when the odds are good that they wouldn't understand him or his research at best, and actively reject him for his oddities at worst? Even in a town as strange as Gravity Falls he was a rarely seen hermit, and his property was covered with barbed wire, boarded up windows, and no trespassing signs. While this is an area he's improved significantly in, he still tends to assume most people just won't get him—and can get overly attached when he meets someone that does.

— EMOTIONAL: Despite holding logic and rationality up as the pinnacles of human thought, Ford is ruled almost entirely by his emotions. He takes rejection of his ideas, passions, and hobbies extremely personally. He can hold grudges for decades and had to be blackmailed into thanking Stan for rescuing him. The same time, the bullying he faced as a child and his difficult relationship with his family has him feeling like he's consistently failing to prove his value to the people around him. Even when the fate of the world was at stake he couldn't bear the thought of destroying even part of his research to keep it out of the wrong hands. It was his life's work, too big of an achievement to be destroyed - and if it was gone, how could he prove his significance to anyone?

✽ What was their last lie?
Reassuring his Deer Country friend, Ruby Rose, that he was okay after Dipper and Mabel disappeared from the city.

Inventory:

PINES COMPASS: A compass with four hands labeled Stanford, Stanley, Mabel, and Mason. Rather than pointing in a particular direction, each hand will point towards its respective Pines family member. If one of the four is dead or otherwise absent from the setting, their respective hand will point towards the one holding the compass instead. The compass only works when held by a member of the Pines family, and only indicates the four Pines that were present in Deerington.

MAGNET GUN: A gun that 'fires' magnetism instead of bullets. It can lift a fully grown man clear off the ground and dozens of feet into the air. It can also emit an electromagnetic pulse that can disable robots, computers, security systems, and other electronics that aren't properly shielded against such things.

CASTOR: Ford's Omen (basically like a Golden Compass daemon) who takes the form of a bat made of smoke. She is capable of sensing danger, sending messages to other Omens, and telepathically communicating with Ford. While she can speak, she does so only to people Ford already has a deep bond with. In exceptionally dangerous situations she can transform into a larger, more vicious form that resembles a Jersey Devil-esque mix of a bat and a goat, but only does so long enough to help Ford escape to safety.

JOURNALS: A pair of matching journals filled with handwritten notes and illustrations about the people that the Pines family met in Deerington and Deer Country. (OOC note: these journals will only be used to identify alternate versions of the characters listed within with player permission, and will be strictly opt-in.)

Abilities:
Metal Plate: Thanks to a special metal plate surgically implanted on his skull, Ford's mind cannot be forcibly invaded or tampered with. It was able to deny a dream demon access to his head, even though Ford had previously allowed such a thing, and prevented a memory-erasing device from working on him. However, its protection isn't absolute and there are two noteworthy gaps in its defenses.

First, any surface level or 'natural' means of entering his mind still works. The dreamscape is a separate plain of existence in Ford's world; people can naturally connect to their own dreamscapes via dreaming and meditation, or enter the dreamscapes of others via spells. Should Ford enter a dreamscape with either method, other residents of said dreamscape are able to freely interact with his surface level consciousness. Second, Ford is still able to willingly allow other entities into his mind, at which point they can wreak whatever havoc they see fit. He tries to avoid this for obvious reasons, but if he can be tricked or coerced into allowing such a thing then he's as helpless as ever.

Combat Experience: Ford's no action hero, but he's still able to handle himself in a fight. He took boxing lessons as a child and shows some proficiency in hand-to-hand combat even now, but his true talent seems to lie in marksmanship. He's shown to be both comfortable and proficient with a variety of projectile weapons, ranging from crossbows to harpoons to sci-fi laser guns.

Tinkering and Spellcraft: Ford is both highly intelligent and experienced with a wide variety of different technologies and magic systems, and as a result he's been able to create, modify, and learn to use a number of different gadgets and spells. Examples include a mind-control tie; an inter-dimensional portal (made with some help); spells to protect an area, enter someone's mind, and summon the dead; and a 'quantum destabilizer', a gun that seems able to force matter out of phase with reality. Though he's limited by the materials available to him (and it's specifically noted that mechanical engineering is an area he's less skilled in), he's nevertheless very resourceful and won't have trouble making a variety of useful gadgets.

Sleeper Physiology (CRAU): Ford is a Sleeper! This means that he's not actually human, and will read as semi-eldritch to anyone with the ability to sense such things, and he's slightly more resilient than a normal human. The downside is that Sleepers can succumb to Corruption (a sort of infectious madness that amplifies his worst tendencies when he's exposed to too much stress) and Beasthood (the final stage of Corruption, transforming him into a mindless monster). Corruption can only be reduced by positive interactions with people important to him, while Beasthood can only be reset by killing him. As an upside, when he dies he comes back as a squid! He does eventually gain human form.

Darkblood (CRAU): Ford is a Darkblood Sleeper. His blood is an extremely dark blue-black color that smells like dusty books, tastes like blackberries, and looks like glitter. Darkbloods are capable of moving things with their mind, messing with gravity, and altering reality. However, Ford is extremely bad at using these on the fly. His Darkblood powers primarily manifest by boosting the potency of his pre-existing tinkering and spellcrafting abilities... if he follows specific rituals or make specific artifacts, which require specific reagents in order to function correctly.

Sample: Previous TDM

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