cryptograms | ( deerington ) application

IN CHARACTER

Character Name: Stanford Pines
Canon: Gravity Falls
Canon Point: Post-Canon

In-Game Tattoo Placement: Inside of his left wrist
Current Health/Status: Alive and uninjured
Age: Early 60s
Species: Human

Content Warnings: Bullying, parental abandonment/neglect, demonic possession, torture

History: Ford at the Gravity Falls Wiki

Personality: Stanford Pines is, in a word, weird. The most obvious, if most superficial, example is his polydactyly, which gives him six fully functional fingers on each hand. While the extra digits earned him vicious bullying from many of his peers ('freak' was a common insult) his family instead insisted that it meant he was special and destined for greatness - an idea underscored by the fact that neither Ford's polydactyly nor his extreme intelligence were shared with his otherwise identical twin brother, Stanley.

While Ford was initially very disquieted by his extra finger, he grew to embrace his uniqueness during his college years. After publishing his first thesis he decided to dedicate himself to the study of anomalies like himself and has spent his life since then researching and interacting with supernatural and paranormal creatures and phenomena. To say that he now thrives in an environment of weirdness is sort of underselling it. In six years he was able to fill up three separate journals, each of them hundreds of pages long, with notes on the behavior, habitats, history, and patterns of supernatural happenings. He's interviewed gnomes, spent the weekend in a ghost-infested cabin, raised a shapeshifter as a pet, gotten into a fistfight with a talking chair, raided an ancient alien spaceship for parts, made a deal with a demon, and lent Mothman money, among many other encounters - all of this before he went on a 30 year dimension-hopping journey. He described Gravity Falls as the first place where he felt at home, and once he realized he was getting too old to adventure alone he thought not of retiring, but of finding a partner.

He's 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; the emotional reactions he does have are fueled more by determination and anger. 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 intent on transporting him to the other side of the galaxy 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.

But in the process of embracing his own weirdness, Ford began to reject the idea of mingling with and befriending normal people. His childhood experiences left him reclusive, distrustful of other people, and more than a little arrogant. He doesn't try to understand the people around him, because he doesn't see why he should. What's the point when the odds are good that they won'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.

Not to mention Ford's ability to connect with and understand other humans is dubious at best. His standards for normal behavior and acceptable safety standards are just a bit skewed, especially after being away from his home dimension for 30 years. Even before this, the only two friends he's shown to have (besides his twin brother) are Fiddleford McGucket and Bill Cipher, and both of those relationships are marked by their own special circumstances. Fiddleford was Ford's college roommate, but more importantly he was an incredibly brilliant mechanical engineer with a proclivity towards doomsday devices. Bill Cipher, on the other hand, was an inhuman, interdimensional dream demon who offered Ford invaluable assistance in his quest for his Grand Unified Theory of Weirdness. Similarly, upon finally returning to his home dimension he bonded with his intelligent, nerdy, paranormal-obsessed nephew, Dipper, much faster than with his niece, Mabel, or even his own brother. Ford had no issue connecting with any of these individuals because they were like him: strange people with strange ambitions and the intelligence needed to pull them off.

Of course, Bill also flattered Ford to manipulate him into building a portal that would allow him to enter Ford's dimension and take it over. Which comes back to another critical flaw of Ford's: arrogance. His achievements against steep obstacles, along with his family's insistence that he was special, gave him a horrendously over-inflated ego. This isn't helped at all by the fact that he's very much aware of his incredible intelligence and places a high value on it. 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, instead opting to try to hide it. When Dipper questioned if he'd be allowed to work as Ford's apprentice and skip out on high school, Ford was confident that his 12 PhDs meant that Dipper's parents would be thrilled to let him stay.

His perceived superiority and distrust of other people instilled in him the idea that he could - and even needed to - reach his goals alone. He became fixated on the idea of changing the world, of making a difference, of being a hero that stood apart from others. Not for money or even exactly fame, but to prove that he could. This isolated mindset was further cemented after a perceived betrayal from Fiddleford and an actual betrayal from Bill, the latter of which caused him to spiral into an unhinged paranoia that had him threatening his brother (whom he had specifically called to come assist him) with a crossbow and scratching massive warnings to 'TRUST NO ONE' in his journals. While he's recovered from that deteriorated mindset, the damage lingers. When a prophecy that would allow him to stop Bill's world-ending plans required other people to achieve, he ignored the logical course of action (preemptively seeking those people out) and instead devised his own plan to stop Bill.

This multi-layered disconnect from other people means he can be incredibly self absorbed and blind to the problems of others. He doesn't understand how people can see things differently to him, and when they do he chalks it up to a flaw on their part. When he offers Dipper the chance to work as his apprentice, he assumes that being away from each other will be better for him and Mabel both. What Ford doesn't consider are his own biases; he projects his feelings about his own awful relationship with Stan (which he describes as 'suffocating') onto Dipper and Mabel and never considers that maybe they'd actually prefer to be together. When the apocalypse started and Dipper wanted to look for Mabel, Ford insisted on stopping Bill first - logical, but not very considerate of a 12-year-old boy worried about his sister. When Fiddleford had a bad experience with the portal and told Ford to shut it down, Ford didn't stop to consider that Fiddleford may have had a point and instead accused him of being a coward and a traitor. He can hold grudges for years and had to be blackmailed into thanking Stan for rescuing him from his interdimensional travels. When he finally utilized the prophecy to try to defeat Bill, he couldn't help but criticize Stan's grammar - and when Stan didn't immediately react he did it again, causing a fight, interrupting the prophecy's ritual, and almost getting everyone killed.

But he's not without his merits! Of particular note are his inclinations towards serving the greater good, his relentless work ethic, and his fondness for his family. He trusted Dipper to assist him with his research and encouraged him to believe in himself and have faith in his own abilities. He trusted Mabel to try to retrieve unicorn hair, and while he doubted her ability to complete it at the time (largely due to unicorns being jerks), he also had complete faith that Mabel's charisma would let her thrive even if she were separated from Dipper. In his quest for recognition he veered towards projects that would benefit humanity, rather than those that would simply benefit him. He worked for 30 years to solve the Bill issue all on his own, and he never once shied away from the danger. Even when he was being held captive and brutally tortured for information he refused to share it, and only considered relenting when his family was threatened instead.

The most important thing to note, however, is that many of the above facts apply to how Ford used to be. When his efforts to stand as a lone hero not only fell through but just made the situation worse, someone else was able to step in and save the day: his twin brother Stan, a lifelong criminal with a long history of screwing up both he and Ford's life. But when his family was on the line Stan volunteered himself for a scheme that would defeat Bill at the cost of his memories, identity, and sense of self. He'd live, sure, but he wouldn't really be him anymore.

Watching his brother willingly and unhesitatingly sacrifice himself to take out Bill shook Ford to his core, and he did a lot of growing up in a very short period of time. He realized that his desire to stand alone as a hero was foolish and knows now that for all of his intelligence and achievements 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. He sees how detrimental his old mindset was to both himself and the people around him. Now he's making efforts to forget old grudges and offer forgiveness (to everyone but himself), and remarks that while trust shouldn't be freely given he should extend it to those that have earned it. Most critically, he realized how incredibly vital his friends and family is to him. He worked harder than anyone to help Stan recover his memories, and once those memories were back, Ford finally reached out to ask Stan to fulfill their childhood dream of sailing around the world together.

He's in a transitional period, in other words. He won't suddenly be the master of tact, communication, or understanding other people's feelings, but he's at least going to try. Similarly, he's not going to lose his arrogance, distrust, and tendency to hold grudges, but he'll be a little better about keeping them in check. Reconnecting with his family is what's important to him now, and he's going to be putting his efforts towards that goal.

Abilities/Powers/Weaknesses & Warping:
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 mindscape is a separate plain of existence in Ford's world; people can naturally connect to their own mindscape via dreaming and meditation, or enter the mindscapes of others via spells. Should Ford enter the mindscape (or its Deerington equivalent) with either method, other residents of the mindscape 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.

Magnet Gun: Pretty much exactly what it sounds like: a gun that 'fires' magnetism instead of bullets. The upper limits of its capabilities are never clearly defined, but Ford says it's able to rip out someone's fillings from fifty feet. It's also shown that it's able to easily lift a fully grown man clear off the ground and dozens of feet into the air, as well as stay firmly attached to the side of a speedy aircraft even with the weight of a 12-year-old boy attached. Ford mostly uses it as a tool, adjusting the power level as needed to serve as a rappelling tool, grappling hook, door opener, or whatever else he may need. The gun is also capable of emitting an electromagnetic pulse that can disable robots, computers, security systems, and other electronics that aren't properly shielded against such things.

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: 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; a device that encrypts thoughts and prevents them from being read; an inter-dimensional portal (made with some help); spells to protect an area, enter someone's mind, and summon the dead; a perpetual motion machine; a light bulb that lasts for 1000 years and makes your skin softer; the magnet gun mentioned above; 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.

Aside from the above, Ford is otherwise a normal human with normal human strength, speed, endurance.

Inventory:
- Clothing (red turtleneck, pants, boots, coat, glasses, crossbody belt/holster, underclothes)
- Spare pair of glasses
- Magnet Gun (described above)
- Photograph of he and Stan as children
- Infinity sided die (broken; the die will yield one of an infinite number of symbols when rolled, but none of the associated effects)
- Canteen (full of whiskey)

Writing Samples: TDM top level (for specific links: subthread 1 and subthread 2)

OUT OF CHARACTER

Player Name: Kei
Player Age: 32
Player Contact:

begleiter

Other Characters In Game: None
In-Game Tag If Accepted: Stanford Pines: Kei
Permissions for Character: Here
Are you comfortable with prominent elements of fourth-walling?: Yes
What themes of horror/psychological thrillers do you enjoy the most?: Fear of the unknown, forbidden knowledge, madness born of knowing too much, paranoia, generally the themes found in ghost stories, slasher films, and the works of Lovecraft
Is there anything in particular you absolutely need specific content warnings for?: Nope!
Additional Information: N/A