Stanford

It was an unusually quiet Sunday morning; the gentle awakening of the unhurried sun was a selfless reminder of nature's beauty, while the dense forest, with its current inhabitants, emitted the cold rustling of branches and the thud of running creatures, as if telling everyone that danger was closer than it seemed. Gravity Falls, the town where eternal anomalies and chaos reigned, was quiet at dawn, only slightly echoing the rumble of passing cars on the road and the creak of something. The town was slowly emptying; many houses were hidden from view by large, cumbersome fences, and many had been literally wiped off the face of the earth.

But it was on this very morning that the chief genius in the shack of wonders noticed this emptiness. Stanford nervously paced the basement with a ton of papers in his hands, muttering to himself about data on the calculation of anomalies, polarities, and simply numbers. Above all, he was worried that the population had begun to shrink strangely and rapidly after the events of "Strangegeddon." Meanwhile, the local authorities seemed not to be very concerned about the shrinking population of the town.

Another crumpled piece of paper flew into the already overflowing trash can, followed by all the population reports. The scientist sighed wearily, settling into the uncomfortable chair and taking another sip of hot coffee from his mug. Stanford no longer remembered how much time he'd spent cooped up in this dilapidated basement. And he even less wanted to remember how many days he'd subsisted solely on coffee grounds and nothing else.

With a Herculean effort, he stood up again, swaying slightly but maintaining his balance, and slowly walked towards the surveillance camera equipment. He had placed them around the town when he noticed the disappearance of many people from the town.

Glancing at the numerous monitors, he saw only empty streets, old, dust-covered cars in parking lots, and lifeless, cold houses. All the footage was deserted and silent, as if someone from outside had deprived Ford of his sight and hearing.

To avoid gradually going insane, Stanford decides to surface and take a look around.