Can’t find it, but I saw someone draw Fiddleford erasing Ford’s memory into goo and it gave me pain. Here’s my reasoning for why that didn’t happen/wouldn’t happen.
Fiddleford isn’t nearly as athletic as Ford. Now, there are probably Blind Eye members more capable of chasing after Stanford if they were trying to forcefully erase his memories, but that doesn’t mean they’d be successful. The man may be depriving himself of sleep, but he’s built up enough brute strength and endurance to escape. He made it home after collapsing in a truck stop parking lot, and managed to fight Stanley in the portal room.
The Blind Eye members wouldn’t know the layout of the forest and mountains as well as Ford. He spend years out by himself in nature, trying to drink in every detail. Even the members who know the forest because they grew up there haven’t looked at the forest the same way as him. These are people scared of the supernatural who willingly joined Fiddleford’s memory erasing cult. They aren’t going to be experts in Gravity Falls guerrilla warfare.
The memory gun eventually made the Blind Eye members forget who their founder was, and the forced use on the townsfolk made everyone stupider. The young people like Soos and Wendy haven’t had their minds erased as often, so they aren’t affected like the adult population.
While pre-portal journey Ford would be up against the first generation of cultists before they forgot Fiddleford, I still feel like the effects of the memory gun would hamper their efforts to hunt him down. Especially if he goes into the mountains and woods full of creatures these cultists have been trying to forget.
Bill would be annoyed like a bratty toddler if Stanford lost his memories, so he’d oppose it too. Not out of care for the man [shipping them is extremely gross], but because he’s impatient to get that portal running, and takes too much delight in tormenting Ford. Knowing this group of people is afraid of the supernatural, should Ford be captured by the cult somehow, Bill would intimidate them into letting him go. Or beat them up using his body.
5. Ford was becoming aware of Fiddleford’s use of the memory gun before he left the project. He was already getting [rightfully] paranoid about Fidds before the reveal that Bill was evil, but that paranoia only got worse after the fact. He’s no coward about it; the man still went into town and was chasing Blind Eye members to try and find out who they were. But yes, Ford is smart and anxious enough to watch his back in town, in case the Blind Eye tried to get him.
6. Fiddleford wasn’t just the founder of the memory erasing cult, he was also the most addicted to using the machine on himself. Which explains why he lost his mind and became homeless so quickly, while the other members like Ivan are still sane enough to run the cult. Pre-portal journey would also be the time when memories about Bill were the freshest, so it’s safe to assume Fidds was using that ray on himself plenty. Even though both men were in a deteriorating metal state, Stanford was not as unwell or near the point of insanity.
7. Ford was always better at dealing with the stress of dangerous anomaly attacks and horror, which served him well in those thirty years beyond the portal. He also survived for 30 years while an outlaw, homeless, lost, and still at risk of possession [until he met the Oracle]. If it got bad enough in Gravity Falls and the cult was looking for him, Ford could survive in the wilderness just fine. Or escape to another town in Oregon or the surrounding states. But he’s probably return as soon as he thought they had given up to make sure the portal was secure.
8. For Ford to be turned into a shell of himself like in the drawing, he’d have to have something integral to his identity erased. Something like “the supernatural” or “weirdness” itself. But A. That would probably break the memory gun or require an hour’s worth of memory canisters. And B. That would so obviously send the poor guy back to when he was a toddler that Fidds would immediately realize he messed up. Why a toddler? Because he hadn’t met the bullies at school yet, and extended family would find him more cute than weird.
But yeah, if Ford started talking like a 3-4 year old who thought he’d been kidnapped, there’d be no way to argue that he’s okay. They’d have to try to sort through his dense paranormal memories in that pile of canisters, trying to undo the damage.
9. If they did mess up Ford’s mind that badly, Fidds would feel terrible about it and try to fix it. I imagine Stanley would be contacted using Ford’s old mail, and knock some sense into the cultists on his way to revive Stanford’s mind. And the erasure wouldn’t stop Bill from being terrible to Ford, so it would once again prove that Fidds was wrong to erase his mind in no uncertain terms.
10. Even at the height of his cult arc, I doubt Fiddleford would be so full of it/stupid that he erased “the paranormal” from Ford’s mind. They knew each other for years, he should know that it’s something Stanford cherishes, and has ever since he was a child. Which ultimately means there’s a nil chance of Ford getting lobotomies via memory gun, even with Blind Eye Fiddleford on the prowl.
So yeah, TDLR I must not be over that ancient AU where Dipper gets his entire mind wiped and the cult just keeps him like a servant. Kidnapped a 12 year old boy. [Ivan wasn’t that evil bro].
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After getting back from the portal, Ford will sometimes go... well, he calls it "camping" but really he just wanders deep into a dangerous part of the forest with nothing but his clothes and a gun.
It's... sort of a PTSD thing? He'll get stressed, usually because he hasn't been in danger for too long and his body decides it needs to prepare for the other shoe to drop. Going and being in danger makes his body decide "oh yes, that's the thing we were scared about, we can chill now".
Sometimes he just needs what is (unfortunately) very familiar to him. A hostile environment, no people, and only as much as he can carry.
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Here, take this snippet from the 'Bill in Other Universe' sidestory of Bill vs Bill:
“That’s not-” Bill starts, but Mabel lunges forward, smacking his front with a cheerful, “Bwomp!”. Kinda like a high five, except sticky.
As she steps back, Bill rolls his eye. Always friggin' enthusistic. Even when - he glances down at his surface -
“Oh for-” A small, bright, rainbow thing is glued to his lower left corner. Scraping at it with his fingers doesn’t work. Neither does the knife, or the paint stripper, of fire for that matter - it’s not coming off - and he reels on this human with a glare. “Where did you get stickers in the post-apocalypse?”
No response. She’s giggling too much, hands cupped to her cheeks.
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I also I wrote a scene that I might end up cutting - it messes with flow - but I like a couple of the gags, so here it is for posterity.
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Gideon Gleeful puffs out his meager chest, ego bloating under the attention.. “I see the lie you’re building here, Bill Cipher.”
“Sure, I lie all the time! But not about this!” Bill says, with sincerity that surprises even himself. He points right back. "What are you on about?"
“You’re not married.” Gleeful continues. As pleased as if he spotted a trick in Bill’s wording - even though there wasn’t one. “You just said ‘date night’.”
Bill blinks. Then starts laughing.
“Wow, and I thought my dimension’s Gleeful was a moron.” He flicks a spark into that pompadour, and watches Gideon squeal, smacking at his head. “Even when someone pities you enough to date you, they'll still end up disappointed!"
Gleeful splutters for a moment. Covering smoldering hair, and coming up with another protest- Until Question Mark sets a gentle hand on his shoulder.
“Ahem,” Question Mark coughs into his fist, and declares with solemn dignity. “Dating even after marriage helps keep the spark of romance alive.” He waves a hand in the air, like it would leave a rainbow trailing behind - and nods. “It makes total sense, dude.”
“See? Question Mark gets it!” Bill darts over, and pats this squishy man-baby on the back. “Now this is why you’re happily married in most dimensions.”
“I am? Wait…” Soos narrows his eyes, tapping his chin in thought. “I’m not married.”
“Sucks to be you, then, huh?”
“Aw,” Question Mark slumps, and Bill gleams. Yep, he has it great.
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