This prison was brilliant, Ford had realized.

Such an incredible invention- something that could gradually convince you to never leave, giving you everything you didn't realize you wanted. He intended not to fall for such a trick, and thus far thought he was succeeding, but his scientific mind had such the strong desire to test things out and take everything apart piece by piece that it hadn't yet occurred that the prison would have picked up on his love for puzzles and been using it against him.

Curiosity had gotten the better of him for the moment, and he'd decided to use a certain ex-muse as his number one test subject. How much would Ford's desire for Bill to understand what it's like to be human clash with his perception of Bill and the need for the characterization to be realistic to him? Of course, the prison would have to know that Bill must be convincing if it hoped to accomplish it's goal of making Ford accept the imaginary reality and stay by choice when the time came that he'd find a way to escape.

The first thing he needed in order to figure these things out should have been easier to obtain than it turned out to be. Considering that the prison supposedly followed his subconscious, Ford was confused by his own surprise at some of Bill's actions. If he'd been the one causing it, then should it not have been at least somewhat anticipated?

Apparently not.

While Bill's love for weirdness remained a factor of his persona, layers of human qualities behind it had already begun to surface. Rather than changing who Bill was, Ford had come to realize it must be he'd simply wished there had been more to him than the straightforward chaos he'd come to know as Bill.

The first 'human quality' Bill exhibited had been the most puzzling of all, thus far.

It hadn't been too long, perhaps two days after Bill's fit in the police station, before something particularly noteworthy happened. Ford had been writing down theories on how the prison worked almost as fast as he could think them up, spending nearly all his time asking Bill questions and comparing the answers to those of Dipper and Mabel's in order to figure out if there were any differences in the amount of sentience each illusion had been created with. Nothing had been particularly conclusive, as whoever had invented the term for sentience had unfortunately failed to create a proper way to gauge such a thing.

Frustrated, Ford decided to face the problem directly. What had he to lose? The worst that could happen was to end up talking in circles, so he approached the locked holding cell this morning with determination to get answers.

Ford peered through the bars and at the cell's sleeping occupant, considering his words carefully before speaking. "I've had enough games, Bill."

The figure's eye opened the smallest bit before he abruptly shot up, more alert than absolutely necessary as he hurried to put his eye patch back on and fix whatever part of his appearance may have gone askew in the night, obviously rattled by the sudden awakening. "Me too! I'd like to get back to ruling the world and not having to experience a sense of non-existence and meaningless hallucinations for a minimum of 7 hours of every 24, so it looks like we both want the same thing! Wanna make a deal?"

Ford narrowed his eyes at Bill. He wasn't going to take the deal, of course he wouldn't. "Deal?"

Bill approached the gate of the cell predatorily, hands on the bars and smirking. "Yeah, sure! Just like the good old days! The two of us working together for one cause blah blah blah, shake my hand, spend eternity together, all your favorite reruns. I'll do everything within my power to help you break out from this prison, and you'll let me out of my own prison, capisce?"

"Wait, that's it? You just want to be let out of the jail cell. What's your game?" Ford glared questioningly, being right not to trust the man in front of him.

Bill suddenly reached out from his cell, pulling Ford close as he spoke to him. "You're a little slow on the uptake this time, I.Q., so I'll be blunt. You destroyed my life by making me mortal. I have to deal with pathetic human concerns such as sleeping and experiencing back pain now, so yes, out of this cell, and if we could throw in a more..." He tugged a bit more, getting them as close as the bars would allow, Ford too caught up to bother removing himself from the other's grip. "-humane approach to my human lessons, it could really go a long way."

"Deal."

For a moment, Bill didn't react. When he did react, it was with nothing proper for a while, just confused, startled stutters, which were exceedingly enjoyable for Ford to watch, so much so that it almost made him not regret having said it in the first place. Almost. Still, he wasn't exactly going to back out at this point.

"Yep." Ford lifted his hand for Bill to shake, but as it was being taken he found himself being kissed as well as the current hand-holding. It didn't last very long and it was uncomfortable with the bars in the way, but it felt more strange when Bill stepped away.

"You better hold up your end of the deal this time, Fordsy."