Fanfic / Mike Pines

The Mike Pines series is a series of crossover fanfics between Gravity Falls and Five Nights at Freddy's written by SonicCrazyGal where Mike, still on the hunt for his father's various creations, ends up in Gravity Falls and winds up getting mixed up with the Pines' family and their various antics. The first main story in the series, titled Friends, Family, and Frights is complete and can be found here. The second main story, titled Falling Through The Breach is complete and can be found here. Other stories in the series include Mysteries and Mike, a series of one-shots, The Years In Between, a story showing what the Pines were up to between Friends, Family, and Frights and Falling Through The Breach and PitFalls, where Mike gets sent to another universe.

Stories can also be found on Fanfiction.Net here.

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The stories in the series contain the following tropes:

All spoilers will be unmarked ahead for both the canon Gravity Falls and Five Nights At Freddy's series. You Have Been Warned!

General

• Big Brother Instinct: Mike will go to any length to keep those younger than him safe, which usually means protecting Dipper and Mabel. His first meeting with them is him hearing them screaming in fear and rushing to their aid.
• Cool Big Bro: Mike loves to make Dipper and Mabel happy and, between him being a zombie and later, a cyborg who is always around to lend them a hand, Dipper and Mabel certainly think he's awesome.
• Do Not Call Me "Paul": Mike refuses to answer to Michael and especially his old last name.
• Found Family: Even though Mike is the only one that is actually adopted, Wendy and Soos are considered to be members of the Pines family as well.
• Happily Adopted: Stan has documents forged to make Mike an offical member of the family. Mike is very pleased about this.
• Parental Substitute: Mike ends up latching on to Stan as a father figure due to his...less than stellar actual father. Stan, although bemused that Mike looks up to someone like him, is touched.

Friends, Family, and Frights

• Actually Pretty Funny: Mike actually finds the stories that Stan comes up with to explain his appearance when using him as an attraction at the Mystery Shack to be very amusing.
• Ambiguous Situation: It's unclear if the versions of Evan and Elizabeth that Mike encountered in Mabeland were their actual ghosts or not, as unlike all the other illusions, they actually manage to tell Mike that he can't stay with them forever and that he needs to go back to the real world, yet they only appear when Mike tries to convince Mabel to leave.
• Armor-Piercing Response: When Ford is confronting Mike about why he's insisting on Ford making up with Stan, Mike's answer causes him to freeze and leads to the duo hashing things out.
  Mike: BECAUSE I WANT TO BE FORGIVEN TOO!
• Back from the Dead: After managing to expel Molten Freddy from his body, Mike is shocked to discover that the process made him (mostly) human again.
• Bait-and-Switch: When Bill taunts Mike over having made a deal with Molten Freddy to come hunt him down, Mike assumes he's the price for the deal. He's actually the prize-Bill promised Molten Freddy his body in exchange for the animatronic killing Dipper.
• Chekhov's Gun: When doing the Unicorn spell around the shack, Mabel expresses worry that, due to Mike's status as a zombie, he won't be able to enter the shack. Ford assures her that the magic will only keep out evildoers, which Mike confirms when he is able to walk through forcefield. Mike ends up using this fact to expel Molten Freddy from his body, as while he can enter the forcefield just fine, Molten Freddy can't.
• For Want Of A Nail:
  • Mike's own experience leads him to convince Ford and Stan to make up far sooner, leading to...
  • Due to Mike's presence during the final battle with Bill (as well as the above point), the Zodiac actually works, as Bill is too distracted fighting him until it's too late to stop it.
• Fusion Dance: With some help from Bill, Molten Freddy manages to fuse themselves with Mike during Weirdmageddon until the group returns to the Mystery Shack.
• The Grotesque: Mike, even though he is a literal rotting corpse, is a pretty friendly guy once you get to know him.
• Heroic Willpower: Mike's desire to keep Dipper and Mabel safe allows him to keep Molten Freddy from getting complete control of his mind, even while they're fused together. Sure, he needs a little outside help from Dipper and Wendy, but it's him doing most of the work.
• In Spite of a Nail: Most episodes go how they would have in canon, either due to Mike choosing not get involved due to his appearance (or, in the case of "Northwest Mansion Mystery", Pacifica refusing to let him come due to his appearance) or being busy with something else.
• It's All My Fault: Although Ford, who looked into the incident, tries to convince him otherwise, Mike remains convinced that Evan's death was all his fault.
• Locked Out of the Loop:
  • Played for Laughs when Gideon confronts Dipper, Wendy and Mike during Weirdmageddon as, due to Mike not arriving in Gravity Falls until what would have been season 2, he and Gideon have never met and, as such, have no idea who the other is.
  • Played for Drama a little later when, after freeing Mabel from her bubble, Molten Freddy attempts to take over Mike again and Mabel has zero idea what is going on, only knowing that something is happening to Mike and that Dipper and Wendy are about to attack him because of it.
• Mundane Luxury: After coming back to life, Mike is overjoyed at being able to eat common food like pancakes again.
• The Needless: Due to his status as a zombie, Mike doesn't need to eat and doesn't really need to sleep either. Once he comes a Cyborg, he loses this status.
• Not So Above It All: Mike and Ford, two of the most serious characters in the fic, happily chase the other tourist trap owners out of the shack with an alien glue and some glitter when given the chance.
• Positive Friend Influence: Mike serves as this to the Pines family, convincing them to be more willing to trust each other and make up.
• Sequel Hook: The story ends with Mike visiting Henry in hopes getting involved in Fazbear Entertainment's latest project.
• Spanner in the Works: Mike's presence in the story sends quite a bit off the rails, most via insuring that the Pines' family dynamics are much healthier. Bill specially tries to get rid of him because of this.
• Younger Than He Looks: Although Mike is decades old at this point in the series, Wendy and Dipper are shocked to see that he looks barely older than the former due to spending most of it as a zombie.

Mysteries and Mike

• Armor-Piercing Question: When chatting with Pacifica and she mentions she should be getting home, Mike asks her if she actually wants to, causing her to spill a lot about her family.
• Commonality Connection: When she actually gets to talk to him, Pacifica is floored to find that she and Mike actually have quite a bit in common. Namely, that both come from broken homes and have a complicated relationship with their family because of it.
• Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?: When Bill comes to make a deal with him, William tells him to get lost.
• Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Mike's natural British accent slips out at times when he's tired or not thinking.

Falling Through The Breach

• Adaptational Heroism:
  • Moondrop in canon is stated to have been extremely creepy even before Afton and Vanny started messing with things. Here, they were another victim of the virus and was stated to be well liked by the kids they looked over.
  • It's confirmed that Monty was not responsible for Glamrock Bonnie getting scrapped. Rather, what actually happened was Vanny damaged him to steal his parts for William and the higher ups decided not to repair him, in spite of Mike saying he could, and just promoted Monty to a band member instead.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: Moondrop was stated in game to be rather cruel towards in its care. Here, it's stated that he was simply the guy who watched over them at night and some of them actually preferred him to Sundrop, with his violent behavior being the result of the virus and he took every precaution to keep himself from hurting anyone.
• Adaptational Wimp: Since the animatronics are instead repaired rather than brutally destroyed, Glamrock Freddy doesn't gain any of the upgrades he gets in canon.
• And I Must Scream:
  • Moondrop makes it clear he was very much aware of what Willaim and Vanny forced him into doing and hated every second of it, with the other animatronics confirming the same once freed.
  • Once Dipper frees her, Vanessa reveals that she was aware of what she was doing while William was possessing her, yet couldn't do anything to stop herself from committing murders.
• Ascended Extra: Vanny appears much more throughout the story than she did in canon, being a much more recurring threat.
• Bait-and-Switch: Chapter 9 ends with Moondrop lunging for Mike, making it seem like they're going to attack him. Instead, Moondrop pulls Mike into a hug, revealing Mike managed to free them and they wanted to express their thanks.
• Berserk Button: The animatronics are all utterly outraged when they realize that William was controlling them to attack children.
• Big Damn Heroes: Just when it looks like the heroes won't be able to make it out of the crumbling PizzaPlex, DJ Music Man, having been made immune to fire by Dipper, helps ferry them all to safety.
• Demoted to Extra: Most of the cast of the prior story are demoted to namedrops, with the only two characters to appear regularly being Mike and Dipper.
• Demonic Possession: What William is doing to Vanny and what he wants to do to Mike.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: Roxanne is stated to struggle with the fact she was made from a Foxy model and often has talks with Mike about how she doesn't feel right, which reads like a person struggling with their gender identity and trying to talk things out with a close family member.
• The Dog Bites Back: The second she's freed from his control, Vanessa leads the group straight to William's lair.
• Everyone Has Standards: A brief reading of all of the Pizzaplex's various disclaimers leaves all the animatronics, even the biggest rule followers like the Daycare Attendant and Glamrock Freddy, in favor of burning the place to the ground.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: William acts like Mike is ungrateful for everything he's done for him and acts as though Mike is selfish for not wanting to help bring Elizabeth and Evan back. The idea that Mike is objecting because murdering innocent kids is horrible and wrong goes over his head.
• Fighting from the Inside: Moon, upon realizing what William and Vanny were doing to him, took every possible action to prevent himself from hurting anyone, such as disabling the feature that allowed him and Sun to switch between each other manually and ordering Sun to keep the lights on at all times.
• Genre Savvy: Dipper, having been very similar in his own youth, knows that if he tries to send Gregory out of the Pizzaplex before the group confronts William, he's going to just sneak back in and thus, lets him come.
• Grew Beyond Their Programming: Mike has been invoking this with the Glamrocks, as he can clearly tell they have human like natures and he encourages them to grow via getting them things to help them with any interests, such as buying Roxanne a sewing kit so she can make her own clothes, getting Chica a music book so she can actually learn how to play the guitar, giving Monty some grade schooler age books so he can teach himself to read and teaching Freddy how to draw.
• Group Hug: Once the animatronics realize that Mike and Dipper aren't going to abandon them and are actually planning to take them with them once they burn down the Pizzaplex, they pull Mike into one of these.
• Hidden Depths: Monty, who everyone believes is little more than a dumb loudmouth, actually likes being awake when Mike is repairing him since he likes it when Mike explains what he's doing to him, even if Monty doesn't fully understand it. An earlier chapter even reveals he's teaching himself how to read.
• I Never Said It Was Poison: How Dipper gets Gregory to admit to seeing Mike as a father figure.

  Dipper: Of course! Got to keep my future nephew safe after all.
  Gregory: Who said anything about Mike becoming my dad?
  Dipper: You did, just now.

• A Lesson Learned Too Well: After Dipper calls out Cassidy for being the reason that William was able to return, she takes that to heart and decides to ensure that no trace of him survives...which includes trying to kill Mike and the animatronics just in case some of him still lingered in them.
• Loophole Abuse: The animatronics have gotten very good at finding loopholes in their programming, something Roxanne exploits when faced with William, who is possessing Mike as her programing forbids her from attacking a human. But Mike isn't exactly a human anymore, now is he?
• My God, What Have I Done?:
  • The animatronics are all horrified by what they did under the effects of the virus.
  • Similarly, once Dipper exorcises the part of William that was possessing her, Vanessa is equally horrified by what she did while under his control.
• Mythology Gag: After the group frees her from the virus, Chica asks if she was caught in the garbage disposal again. Tricking her into the garbage disposal is how the player decommissions her in canon.
• Named by the Adaptation: The Daycare Attendant's two halves are given the names Sundrop and Moondrop.
• Official Couple: Dipper reveals early on that he and Pacifica are engaged and were in the middle of wedding planning when Mike called him.
• Oh, Crap!: How Dipper and Mike react when they realize that there's a child (Gregory) in the building, who will no doubt make things much harder for them since they'll also have to focus on protecting him.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: The biggest sign of how shaken up Monty was that he almost killed Gregory and Mike while under Willaim's control is that the normally loud and boisterous animatronic is completely silent when faced with the aftermath.
• Parental Substitute: Gregory slowly comes to see Mike as a father figure.
• Railroading: Due to William managing to hack his way into most of the Pizzaplex's systems, he's able to force the group to go where he wants, starting with him forcing them to visit Roxanne first.
• Rejecting the Inheritance: William still considers Mike his heir, while Mike wants nothing to do with his so-called father.
• Resist the Beast: Mike manages to fight off William's possession long enough to give Gregory a fighting chance against the also possessed Glamrock Freddy.
• Revenge Before Reason: As Dipper points out, Cassidy not letting William face whatever awaits him in the next world is the sole reason why he was able to come back.
• Sole Survivor: Non-lethal example, but by the time the story begins, the only animatronic who William and Vanny never attempted to take over was Sundrop.
• Spotting the Thread: Downplayed, as Gregory didn't fully realize what Vanessa was planning, but when she caught him sneaking into the Pizzaplex, he notices that she was dragging him away from the doors rather than towards them to throw him out and it played into his choice to run.
• Time Skip: This story takes place ten years after the events of Friends, Family, and Frights.
• Took a Level in Badass: Due to the Time Skip, Dipper is now a much stronger adult who can even use magic.
• Trauma Button: During chapter 6, Gregory and Freddy agreed to meet with Mike and Dipper Pines despite Gregory's reservations about trusting the two of them. Seeing Gregory inside Freddy's stomach sends Mike into a panic attack because it triggered memories of his younger brother's death. Dipper calms Mike down, and Freddy apologizes for causing Mike stress, with Gregory feeling guilty despite distrusting both Dipper and Mike; Mike does not hold what happened again either of them.
• Underestimating Badassery: When William, using Monty's body, sees Dipper warning him to let Mike go or else, he laughs, telling Dipper that even if he could harm him, anything he does will end with Mike getting hurt as well. Dipper promptly reveals himself to be much more clever than William was expecting, using a magic spell to block Mike's hearing then having Chica let out an ear piercing screech that causes Monty to glitch out so that Mike can escape.
• We Can Rebuild Him: Heroic example, as Mike salvaged Glamrock Bonnie's AI chip, promising Freddy that he'll rebuild him once everything is over.
• Villain Respect: William is impressed that Mike and the Pines actually managed to defeat Bill and Mike notes that it does seem sincere.
• We Can Rule Together: William wants Mike back at his side. Since Mike very much doesn't want that, William plans to possess him to make sure he stays.
• What Are Records?: In chapter 9, when Mike asks Gregory if he touched anything he wasn’t supposed to, Gregory answered that he only took the security badge and some weird thing. Dipper seeing that the weird thing was, in fact, a CD, was shocked that Gregory did not know what a CD was and felt old. Mike, who was from the 80s but aged down to a young adult, again commented that if Dipper was old, then he was ancient.
  "Gregory!" Mike shouted as he and Dipper jumped back from the computer they had been working on. "Did you touch something you weren't supposed to?"
  "I uh... took the security badge!" Gregory replied, showing the others what he had found. "And also this weird old thing!"
  "You don't know what a CD is?" Dipper said in disbelief. "I feel old..."
  "If you're old then I'm ancient," Mike joked before focusing back on their current situation.
• What Measure Is a Non-Human?: The higher ups at Fazbear Entertainment are extremely callous with how they treat the animatronics, casually getting rid of Glamrock Bonnie and creating Roxanne from a Foxy model without caring how they feel in spite of the animatronics' advanced AI allowing them to feel human emotions. By contrast, the more heroic Mike, Dipper and Gregory treat the animatronics as if they were actual people, something that actually shocks the animatronics who are clearly used to being treated as non-human.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Upon realizing that Cassidy not letting Willaim move on in favor of continuing to torment him is the reason he's still around, Dipper tears into her, pointing out that all of his latest killings are partly on her as well.
• You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Roxanne says this almost word for word when her shadow clone makes spikes come out of her cart.

The Years In Between

• For Halloween, I Am Going as Myself: During his first Summerween, Mike admits that he used to sometimes go out on Halloween since everyone thought he was just wearing a very well made costume.
• Oh, Crap!: How Dipper and Ford react when, due to the latter attempting to remove a program that would cause Mike to attack them, he accidently turns it on.

Pit Falls

• Alternate Universe: Mike finds himself the dimension of Piklokit's Into The Ball Pit AU. That universe's Michael Afton possessed Glamrock Freddy after his death, only for him to be thrown back into his original body around Evan's birthday during the events of Security Breach when Gregory physically traveled back to the past through a ball pit.
  • Another alternate universe comes up when a Vanny arrives, who is explicitly not the same one Gregory knows.
• And I Must Scream: Charlie experienced this as a result of her possessing the broken Marionette animatronic with the narration describing how she had been screaming for someone to help her but was unable to due to the damage.
• Armor-Piercing Question: Lizzie hits basically everyone in the room with this when she asks Charlie if "Daddy" killed her too.
• Big Damn Reunion: After believing his daughter to be dead, Henry is told by Michael to fix the Marionette animatronic as her spirit is still trapped inside. Upon fixing the animatronic's voice box, Charlie immediately starts calling out to her dad, who breaks down sobbing and starts hugging the animatronic realizing that it is his daughter.
  • The ending of Chapter 22 features Dipper and Mabel finally finding Mike after he was sent to the Ball Pit Universe.
• Breather Episode: Chapters 22 and 23 are generally more lighthearted, primarily focusing on Mabel and Dipper arriving in the Ball Pit Universe and them meeting everyone, compared to the heavier topics of previous chapters.
• Brick Joke: While Dipper is fixing Mike's back panels with magic, Mabel reveals to everyone how magic messes up Mike's voice mimicking, causing him to sound like Captain Foxy. She also reveals her favorite one is Ducktective. After all three Mystery Siblings purge Glitchtrap from Vanny, Mike's voice ends up getting stuck as Ducktective.
• But for Me, It Was Tuesday: Mike privately notes how fighting a monster in the woods is basically just an average summer with the Pines Family.
• Genre Savvy: Rather than try and tell Henry about everything that he knows, Michael instead tells him about Charlie possessing the Marionette. He tells him that unless he sees that proof by fixing the Marionette he won't say anything else, knowing he'll be written off as crazy.
• Heel–Face Turn: Upon being freed from her possession, Vanessa returns to her universe with gear supplied by the Pines, aiming to protect her Gregory and take her William down.
• Internal Reveal: In order to get Henry to believe him about what is actually happening, Michael tells him about Charlie's spirit possessing the broken Marionette. Though Henry is hesitant to believe this, he fully accepts it as the truth when he fixes it up enough for Charlie to start speaking to him through it.
• Never Shall The Selves Meet: Subverted. While Mike initially fears this might be the case and tries to avoid touching his alternate self in case it will trigger something, they do eventually touch on accident and nothing happens.
• One-Steve Limit: With two Michael Aftons, the one from Mike Pines is referred to as Mike by the narration, while his Ball Pit counterpart is referred to as Michael.
• Sue Donym: Lampshaded by Gregory, who can't believe that Mike just used the shortened version of his first name as an alias.

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