This one's for you Phouka ;)
Dipper woke up in better shape than the day before, even if he still felt as if he passed in a lawnmower. Same for everyone. As he stepped his way to the kitchen in a semi-conscious state, he saw his sister and each barely greeted the other.
- Mornin', they both said.
- *yawning* What do you want Dip-dop?
- Huuu… could you pass me the cereals please.
He got the milk out. She grabbed a huge canister of juice and drank right from it. As they each ate, Stanley came in, traits heavy with tiredness. Looks like he had not slept that well. If somebody looked closely, they could discern the tracks left by fresh tears. He tried to look good, but obviously the twins where smarter than that. On his side, Ford fell asleep because of the sleep deprivation his body was forced trough last night. Gideon? Still traumatised from his late night party with an angry dream demon, which was still sleeping despite time not passing in the Mindscape, weird Bill was and always will be.
Back to the siblings, they easily noticed the sadness in their uncle's eyes. They said nothing, but they knew that eventually, they would need to talk this out, even if just to let the recent tension between the Stans go away. The man grabbed the newspaper, not even bothering to eat or drink anything, which was unsettling to Mabel and Dipper. Dipper ate in silence as his sister made herself a pair of toasts, a second pair was on the way, one for Stan, the other destined to Ford. They heard the man sigh in relief and… satisfaction? Lifting his head, Stan explained.
- Pacifica had an accident yesterday while she was out with her horse. Apparently, an army of snakes just popped out of nowhere in front of her and the mare, he continued while asking himself how such thing could happen, they say Yarrow is her name, scurried back to the mansion.
- I hoped she's okay, said Mabel.
- Don't worry, she said she was only scared, she got no injuries whatsoever. You know, Stan admitted, that little girl may be a bit annoying, but since she helped us before, I'm glad she's okay, because now I know she's a good kid.
Dipper looked at him, perplex. Then a light turned itself on in his head.
- You mean the time with that category ten lumberjack ghost that almost turned us all into wooden pigeons toilets? A tired smile on his lips, he pursued, yeah, she really is different from her parents, she seems to be like them. However, when you know her, she's kind, caring, sharing and as a plus, winking at his uncle and Mabel, it's always useful having someone representing power in your friends. He added, even if their family has a weird past from a single lie, while playfully poking his sister, refereeing to their adventure where they discovered the truth about the forgotten eight and a half president.
Stan shivered. He was glad he missed that adventure with the ghost. Wood?, ok, pigeons?, burn them all. When his niece tugged on his arm while pointing at Ford, who was coming their way, he remembered when he let her enter his room. They had a talk and she convinced him to present his excuse to his brother. After all, good old Sixer only wanted to help them. He was about to speak, but then something unexpected happened.
[At the same time in the Mindscape]
Bill woke up, feeling a little tired, but overall pretty good. Inspecting himself, he looked in worry as his conical form distended while his base had started to thin from the back and the front. What was Pine tree's soul doing to him? He suddenly screamed in agony as a horrible pressure on his eye made it feel like the time they plucked it out, which was painful as regenerating it could take a long time, but he had the Mindscape in such case. Slowly, the pressure became a pulling sensation between right and left. An alien feeling, like being able to feel twice the same part of his body, forced the entity to open his eye. Only for him to discover he now had two of them. Having forgotten how it was to have two eyes, he was taken aback as he noticed his depth perception was more accurate then before, but it was unsettling to him. It seemed that the changes hastened each day, and he feared becoming human again. If such a scenario took place, one of the possible consequences could be a total loss of his powers. Hopefully, it would stop before it reached these kinds of extremes. Now taking a good look, his body lost a bit of the point, which became rounded, as if someone rubbed something on it to smooth off the angle of his "head", which made him now look like a thin cylinder. Nobody could take him seriously now, his reputation would be ruined. His yellow-white eyes turned red with anger as he cursed Dipper in every languages he had learnt, which were approximately 3 825 once rounded up. It was something he did from time to time, doing something on a long enough period to cool down. Finally calming, the demon took a deep breath. The new eye had a cut, which would need to be healed. Sitting on the grey grass, he waited for the pain to go away, falling asleep without even noticing it.
[At the shack]
Not even the half of a word crossed Stanley's lips before his nephew screamed in pain. The others could only watch, but Ford feared the powers might be consuming Dipper. The now orange magic fire enveloped Dipper like a shield, hiding him from their view.
Clutching his eyes as pain scythed through them, he felt like he would explode, as a balloon filled to the brink with water or air. He could not know the magic was using this opportunity where the weird protective bubble was missing to go inside him, but there was too much of it.
The rest of the group looked helplessly as chaotic magic surged from the flaming ball. Thankfully, luck was on their side. Ford was prompt to react and pulled out a little gun, resembling the memory one, but green. Pulling the trigger made the thing shoot a laser, which englobed the ball of magic. It was like a shell, protecting them from the madness of the unbridled magic trying to get free of this new restraint. Soon enough, the flames died down and the group sighed in relief.
For Dipper, it had been less fun. He felt like his insides were on fire as he literally inhaled the magic around him, dense to the point it was a miracle it was not asphyxiating him. As he nearly fell to the ground, the pain in his eyes went away. Panting, he brushed off the sweat on his forehead and looked up to the group, but something was out of place. The details were neater, and the shadows were almost gone, but it was still early in the morning. As everyone looked at him, they had a brief moment of panic. Slowly getting up, he looked curiously at them.
- What's wrong, he asked, did something happened beside that huge ball of fire?
He said this one almost in a joking tone, but nobody was amused, even if his sister had a few chuckle from it.
- Y-you should g-go see for yours-self in a mirror, responded Stan, visibly shaken.
Shrugging it off, he just walked to the bathroom, telling himself "ho well, if it happens again, grunkle Ford will surely use that gun again and save the day, hooray… wow, that was sarcastic, even from me". Finally, he looked at the mirror, and took a few steps back in fear. Gone were his eyes, Gone were the brown chocolate pupils and gone was the normal shape. His eyes were now that of Bill's! "Elongated pupils, glowing eyes, yup, my life's really freaking me out right now." It was the only thing he thought before noticing a big detail.
His eyes were glowing… violet?! Odd. Then, Stanford came with a few explanations for him. Clearing his throat, the scientist looked worriedly toward his nephew, which shook rapidly his head in an attempt of chasing the violet hue away. Not knowing what exactly Dipper did, his eye quickly came back to normal.
- Mason, "oh boy are things grave if he calls me like that", thanks to the data you provided to me, I have a better understanding of how this magic works. Has a weird secondary effect of the deal, it seems that your body is, how to say this… ah, yes, rejecting the magic, or at least slowing it from being assimilated.
- What do you mean by that? Is it related to the dizziness and when I puked? He was not fond of yesterday's events.
- Sadly, yes, was the answer. There is a limit to what you can do right now. Yes, I now understand how this thing work, at least partially, but there is something dangerous about it. *sigh*, Mason, if you keep abusing this power, it will soon take its toll on your body, and, pushing it too far, you might, you m-might… Ford was unable to finish the sentence until Dipper did it for him.
- I'll die. He said it softly, as if unsurprised but instead, resigned. That's what you're saying, right?
Nods of approval from his uncle.
- You know, I also think that the transfer of the magic may had some effects on it, inverting the colors, which could explain the fact it is now orange and why your eyes were violet, the colors are at the exact opposite of Bill's. To be clearer, if you take a wheel of colors, and look, you would see that blue and orange are opposite, same goes for yellow and violet.
- Oh… but about that whole "I'll die and things", do you have more information about it?
- Yes, looking a bit less sad, he said, it seems your body could not take all that magic in one go. That means you may have this kind of crisis again, I know it seems painful. At the same time, if you can't completely accept the magic inside you, you'll never be able to use it again without putting you life at risk. We'll just have to, you know, wait this out and hope it will come ok. I don't say that you can't use the magic, just to be careful. If you're in a dire situation and there's no other solution, do it, use the magic, but really if there's no options left. Until then, you should try to never use it. You'll only get better this way, and I won't have to start monitoring you, so on my side I'll be able to research further information about our current situation, you got this?
- Uh… most of it, he said, so in short, never use the magic except if there's a big danger, right?
- You could say it like that, said the scientist, smiling a little. Now go finish your breakfast, I have to tell the news to the other and I don't think they'll take it as well as you did.
- Alright, he turned to leave for the kitchen, when he did another turn to jump in Ford's arms. Hugging was still a bit uneasy with him, but the man soon hold his arms around Dipper. Thanks for everything, I know you're doing your best to help me and the others, grunkle Ford. With that, he finally turned away before running back to the kitchen, apparently looking better then before all that talking and flaming ball. The man was left in his thoughts.
"This little guy is really your opposite, Cipher. One could say you're at the antipodes of each other."
Alright I know I could do better but hey, I'm not a guy who write like he had team and all to write a book! Also, I planned on uploading this Friday, and on that point I have no excuse, none, really. But to be honest, the chapter's weird to me, not like I wanted it to go. Oh well, at least it goes with the plot, so whatever.
