Illusion is Reality
Chapter 78
-Here, have a head that's always screaming-
Ten minutes into this Fruits Basket 'anime' show thing, and Stan was already staring at the screen incredulously. ...Was this where Miz had gotten the idea that talking about her feelings would help make her feel better? The show was about a bunch of sad people talking about their feelings and then having the main character comfort them with some cheesy thing about how everyone was special and how everyone had someone out there who loved them. Geez...
From what he'd seen so far, the cartoon was really kind of… cheesy overall, but Stan still relaxed into the comfortable bean bag chair and kept on watching it. Okay, and kind of dramatic, sure, but… mostly cheesy. Stan really couldn't think of a better word for it. Because watching someone straight-out tell somebody else that they were loved and actually seem to really mean it was… Huh. ...Yeah, okay, Stan could see why Miz liked this show.
What was really weird about the whole thing was that the kid seemed to be watching the show just as seriously as he was, too. Which was pretty seriously. ...Didn't seem to be enjoying it like the kids were (there was a lot of light frowning and some grimacing from time to time going on with the kid), but the kid was watching it, and the kid wasn't doing anything even a little bit like complaining.
Stan let out a sigh. It figured. Kid really would do just about anything for his little sis, huh? Even watch cheesy, weird shows with her that she wanted to watch, without complaining...
The next episode started and Stan actually snorted when a new character showed up. A distant cousin who was apparently in love with one of the boys and showed her 'affection' through hilarious, over the top violence? Sign him up for watching that! The show was clearly playing it for laughs, though, and the boy seemed to recover from any 'injuries' near instantly. Kinda reminded him of Zany Tunes. ...Heh. Weird show.
"Aw…" Mabel sighed. "So, if Tohru gets together with Kyo in the end, who does Kagura marry?" She glanced over at Miz, who was frowning.
"I don't think she ends up with anyone…" Miz said, "But her character arc was never about romance. It was about learning to forgive herself for betraying Kyo when they were children."
"-Spoilers!" Dipper cried out. He didn't want what actual plot there was just ruined for him! The girls glanced over at him.
"I thought you said this was a 'boring, girly show' that you didn't really care for?" Mabel teased.
Dipper flushed and pulled his hat down. "It's not as bad as Dream Boys High," he muttered. The girls giggled at him.
"Aww~ you like it~" the two girls chorused. Dipper groaned.
Stan let out a laugh, always ready for another round of 'teasing Dipper'.
"What's wrong with Pine Tree liking it?" Bill asked almost lazily. He caught the teasing, but he didn't really get why it was funny? (He wanted to know…(!) ...And was this a mental attack that he should be stopping because of the agreement? Or wasn't it? Stanley wasn't doing anything about it… or maybe he was doing something, just not 'about it'. Stanley had just laughed, so… probably not.)
Miz sighed. "Well, it's not a problem except for the fact that HE thinks it is. There's nothing wrong with him liking it, but he thinks that boys shouldn't like cute girly stuff like this, so he feel embarrassed at himself for enjoying it."
"Why is it girly?" Bill asked next, turning his head to look over at her. (The kids exchanged a glance.)
"Because the show is about people talking about their feelings, crying, drama..." Miz told him. "Learning about how to get over their own issues through the love and support of others instead of fighting on alone like some kinda loner… though I suppose that depends on the plot and setting…" Miz muttered. "And it's also girly because there aren't any 'manly' things like defeating a bad guy through violence, and a lot of romance and high school drama instead! Which is stupid, because those aren't even something inherently 'only for' men or women. But human society seems to think something like this is important, even though it's not." Miz shrugged. The distinction between the Shounen and Shoujo genres was always pretty arbitrary, in her opinion. "One of my sisters was always embarrassed about enjoying Kare Kano, because it was a Shoujo series, back when she still thought she was a guy…"
(Dipper winced at the 'still thought she was a guy' comment, even though he tried not to. But Mabel took it completely in stride, as did Stan.)
Ford was trying to focus on watching the pawnshop but couldn't help but overhear the conversation. -What were they watching? Something like that 'Duchess Approves' movie that Stan liked so much? It sounded kind of like that, from what Miz had just said. ...And Bill was asking questions about things? (He was too distracted by Bill asking questions to really pay much attention to Miz's comment about her sister.)
Bill frowned. "...Define 'girly'?" Bill asked of his used-to-be-human little sister, just having become more and more confused, the more Miz had talked. Wasn't that supposed to be makeup and sleepovers and talking about boys when Shooting Star meant it? Had he gotten that wrong? Or did Miz have a different definition of 'girly' than Shooting Star did? ...It sounded like she did. "And why does that mean the show isn't 'manly'? Isn't it both? Most of the characters are boys, and there is a lot of fighting and violence! That 'cat' and that 'rat' keep fighting each other with violence for minutes, several times!" At least, they had for each and every of the grand total of two episodes he'd watched with her so far.
Ford suppressed a grimace. -Again? What was Bill up to now? How could the dream demon possibly not know the definition of- and why was Bill acting like-?!
"Well for this show in particular, it counts as a girly shoujo series because of the themes, plot, character types, art style…" Miz frowned in thought. "It's hard to explain. Humans are weird. And the distinction between what makes something girly or manly is kinda complicated. But in this case it's like, if someone is ok with talking about their emotions, feeling things and relying on others to support and help you, they are 'too weak to be able to do it by themselves' and therefore, it's something that 'girls' and 'women' do because they need support to function, whereas being manly would be being able to do things by themselves without help. Because 'men' are supposed to be independent, relying on just themselves and being all stoic and distant with their 'feelings'." Miz scoffed. "That's why a lot of human males are really messed up, because they've been told all their lives that to be a 'man' is to deny themselves the ability to be vulnerable. Which isn't true, but they misunderstand and start building their own self esteem on that sort of ideal, and then try too hard to live up to them."
Bill blinked at Miz. (Ford found himself suppressing a frown. Because that was not a proper definition of either term-)
Bill looked over at Shooting Star and Pine Tree, who just sort of exchanged a look, before Pine Tree shrugged at him. (No help there.)
Then Bill turned his head away from the girls on the roof and said, "...Stanley?" the way most people said '...Help?'
(...To which Ford did a mental facepalm. Not least of which because Ford did not quite trust that his brother, who apparently thought switching bodies with a woman was an interesting 'nerdy thought experiment' for a guy, would be able to-)
"Uh," said Stan, feeling a little blindsided at all of this stuff that had just… come at him from out of nowhere. "Maybe just… think about how Manly Dan does stuff. That's 'manly'. And, uh, other ways of doing that stuff are 'womanly'." Stan really wasn't sure about half the stuff Miz had just said himself. Most of it sounded kinda dumb. (Was that was most kids these days thought being manly was? Relying on people wasn't weak. that was what twins were supposed to do - rely on each other. Wasn't like he was 'stoic' or 'distant' or nothin', either, and he was still a 'man'. He hugged the kids all the time! And he didn't talk about his emotions 'cause it made him feel weird and mushy inside and he didn't want to. Also, crying was dumb and felt worse.) "Yeah…" Stan scratched his cheek. "Pretty sure bein' a strong independent woman is a thing guys can do, too," Stan added, thinking of Sturly Stembleburgiss in The Duchess Approves. Wasn't like it didn't go both ways.
Bill looked over at Stanley almost suspiciously. "Is 'girly' the same as 'womanly'?" Bill asked him.
"Uh… yeah?" Stan said. Why wouldn't it be? "I mean, 'boyishly' and 'manly' are pretty much the same thing, you're just older." That had been what had happened with Manly Dan; not like he'd done anything differently than get older, and just keep on doing the same things the exact same way. Well, okay, maybe he'd gotten better at it, all the cutting down trees and eating pancakes and drinking coffee and washing clothes and stuff, but that wasn't that different. "Same thing with girls."
Mabel, however, was glancing over at Stan and Ford with a frown on her face. "No, she's right. You and Grunkle Ford are always all grumpy inside because you never let your feelings out." ('Huh?' thought Stan.)
Miz nodded. "Like how a lot of guys seem to think that they're not supposed to cry because it's 'embarrassing' even though it's a perfectly natural human reaction to an outpouring of emotion."
"Hey, I don't cry, I shoot attack poison from my eyes like a desert lizard!" Stan said grumpily. "It'd melt you lugs, if I ever got you with it." Now Miz, Mabel, Dipper and Bill were all staring at Stan.
Miz pointed at him. "See?! He denies that he performs a perfectly natural human reaction!" The kids were all nodding, to Stan's annoyance. Bill still looked a bit confused.
"...You don't shoot poison from your eyes," Bill said slowly (wondering if this was like how Stanley kept claiming that he was a kid when he was actually more than one trillion years old).
"He's making up excuses to try and deny the fact that he doesn't want to cry in front of people because he thinks it'll make him look 'weak' and therefore 'girly'," Miz said, while nodding like a sage imparting them all with ancient wisdom.
Stan frowned at them all at that, and sat up in his beanbag chair. "Ain't nothing wrong with bein' girly," he told them all.
Mabel frowned. "Then why don't you cry honestly in front of us Grunkle Stan? You always say you have something in your eye or something like that?"
"I don't cry," Stan repeated stubbornly, crossing his arms. (Bill eyed him from the side. ...Well, the kid could just keep on eyein' him. And why the hell would Mabel want him to cry in front of her? Then she'd just get all upset and worried about him… right? He didn't want that.)
Dipper looked like he was starting to 'get' something. "Oh." he said. He glanced at Miz. "So, is this that 'toxic masculinity' thing I've read about?"
Mabel and Miz both deadpanned at him. ""You do it too,"" they said.
And that made Dipper lay back and stare at the sky like he'd never realized it until they pointed it out to him. "Oh. Oh wow. Like that time I was hanging out with those Manotaurs."
Stan frowned. "Toxic what-now? Being manly ain't toxic! ...Heh, Wendy would've croaked by now if it was," Stan grinned, leaning back in his chair. Wait, wasn't that Manotaur thing… "Hey, you stuck to your guns when they tried to get you to do that…. uh, 'really tough, horrible thing', yeah?" Stan told Dipper. He hadn't known what Dipper was talking about at the time, he didn't think, but he did remember that much. And... "That was pretty manly," Stan repeated.
"Grunkle Stan, it's not about 'being' manly or girly." Dipper explained. "It's about feeling like you have to act and behave in a certain way just because that's what's expected of you if you're a guy or a girl." He felt weird explaining this to his own Grunkle, when Grunkle Stan had been the one who'd told it to him first. (At least, Dipper had thought that Grunkle Stan had?) "Like... 'toxic femininity' would be if Wendy thought she HAD to be more feminine because she's a girl," Dipper said, searching for another example to put it in context.
Miz grumbled, "My human uncle was always telling me to wear makeup and get a boyfriend. Like those were the only important things I was required to do. And mom kept trying to get me married to guys I didn't even know! Just 'cause my parents were worried that I was getting older and hadn't birthed children yet!"
Stan looked over at Miz in alarm, then looked to Bill. (So did the niblings.) Had he heard that right? That sounded scarily like some of the triangle-dimension stuff she'd gone through, or almost had. Bill, without looking over at Stan, reached over and started patting Miz on the head.
"Well, that ain't happening to you here, Miz," Stan told her. "Understand?" Far as he was concerned, that was what shotguns were for. And, y'know, sane family members. "And neither is me or Wendy cryin' in front of all of you just 'cause, y'know, you all think that we have to do what you expect us to do. Right?" Stan said, waiting.
Mabel stood up. "No! I mean like how you feel like you CAN'T cry in front of us."
Stan blinked at his grand-niece, as she walked over to hug him. Stan frowned down at her as he hugged her back. 'Can't?' "Mabel, sweetie, I don't want to, so I don't. So what?" Stan grumbled out.
"But why don't you want to?" Mabel asked him, and geez, she was really on about this, huh?
"Well, uh," said Stan, because maybe he should take this a little more seriously, if Mabel was gonna be that serious about this thing? "I mean, if I was cryin' - and I'm not sayin' I was!" Stan said quickly. "-I'd be feelin' bad, right? And you're always wantin' me and Ford to be happy, so…" Stan looked uncomfortable.
"But you're doing it again! You're denying that you cry to try and sound tough! But if you were crying and feeling bad, then I can hug you and make you feel better!" Mabel told him. "I DO want you two to be happy. But being 'fake' happy just to make me feel better would just make me feel worse!" Mabel insisted.
"Hey," Stan protested, pushed her away from him slightly, so he could look down at her better. "Do I look 'fake happy' to you?"
"Not right now," Mabel admitted. "But back when Grunkle Ford first came back from the portal and then he didn't want to hug it out with you… you were sad right? But you just acted angry instead!" Mabel pointed out.
"Hey, I was angry," Stan protested. And he'd acted on it, too! ...And hell, it wasn't like he'd wanted to hug it out with Ford at the time, neither. Not after he'd gotten punched in the face for tryin' the first time! "I, uh, maybe got a little sad later. -Not a lot!" Stan said.
"But you WERE sad. And you didn't come to me to let me hug you!" Mabel picked up Stan's hand to hold it.
Stan sighed. "Sweetie, you ain't always around to be handin' out hugs. And you'd feel bad first, seein' me cry, right? Not like I could get around that happening," Stan said, putting it this way almost as much for Bill as for Mabel. (He was trying to connect it back in some way for the kid who was listening in on this whole thing, to connect it back to what Mabel had tried to do earlier, back on the boat, in explaining how she'd feel if Dipper had died.) "Wasn't like you were able to fix stuff with me and Ford right then, either." Not then. The scrapbook was a different thing.
Mabel frowned. "When I get sad and cry, you come to me and you help me feel better. What if I was like you and just pretended I wasn't sad. How would you feel if I did that?"
"Heh," Stan said, ruffling her hair. "That's never gonna happen. You can't fool this old con-man!" he grinned down at her.
Mabel let out a frustrated sigh. "That's not what I mean, Grunkle Stan," she sighed again, giving him another hug. "How would you feel if I thought that I'm not supposed to cry in front of you? Like, if I thought that being seen crying by other people was shameful?"
"I'd tell you to punch anybody who tried to tell you how you're supposed to feel in the jaw," Stan said perfectly reasonably.
"Then-" Mabel glared at Stan. "-who told YOU that you can't cry in front of people?" (And Stan's eyebrows rose in confusion.)
"Nobody," said Bill from the sidelines, staring up at the sky. "-Society," Miz responded at the exact same time.
(Well, at least the kid had gotten something right for once. Huh. ...Well, Stan figured the kid was due. He wasn't sure why it was the demon who used to be human that was the one who was getting all this stuff dead wrong, though. Sure, she'd seemed to have a pretty messed-up home life, both when she was a triangle and when she was human, but… uh… Oh. Huh. Maybe that was… uh… why that was.)
Bill looked over at her. "You See that?" Bill asked her point-blank, because he certainly hadn't. (Had he missed something, somehow? Or had she just not Looked? -He was pretty sure it was the second one. He'd Seen Stanley Pines' entire timeline, start-to-finish, when he'd been looking him up in the middle of making his initial Deal with Gideon. 'Society' hadn't been telling Stanley what to do and not-do by that point for a very long time; most of the Gravity Falls police force had largely given up on him by that point. Not like there was much that could've happened later to Stanley after that, that he could've missed!)
"It's not something I'd need to See, but if we wanna get technical, their father-" Miz said the word 'father' as if it was a curse word, "-seemed to be pretty big on the whole 'stoic' manliness side of things."
"So?" said Bill. "What's your point?"
(Stan let out a deep sigh. Hell. This was gonna go off the rails fast, wasn't it? After looking between them… Yeah, probably. They were both looking a little stubborn, and the last time the demons had started arguing over one of them, it had.)
"Hey," Stan said, trying to cut things off before they got that far, but neither of the demons acted like they had heard him.
"A lot of people pick up their world views from their parents and the community they grew up in," Miz answered Bill. "Their dad wasn't the most affectionate."
Bill gave her a long look at this. "Did you See Filbrick say that Stanley can't cry in front of people?" Bill repeated, being more specific this time.
"...He didn't outright say it." Miz admitted. "But he certainly never cried in front of them. And if he saw 'them' cry he would say that he 'wasn't impressed' with them."
Dipper and Mabel gasped at this, but Stan just frowned. (So did Ford.)
"Pa wasn't talkin' about…" 'the crying part, just the getting beaten up again part?' Stan hesitated. His memories of stuff that far back were still a little… he didn't always trust 'em sometimes. "I mean…" Stan rubbed at the back of his neck, frowning.
Mabel hugged Stan again. "Oh Grunkle Stan…" she sniffled. Even Dipper got up and walked over to him, to hug his other side.
Stan hugged both the kids back, but he also looked over to Ford, like he usually did when he wasn't completely sure about his own memories. Ford looked a little unnerved himself.
"...I don't believe that… our father meant it quite like that," Ford said slowly. "He… was usually talking about what we hadn't… ah…" He really didn't want to get into any of the things they'd used to pull as kids, let alone talk about any of the bullies that they hadn't quite managed to give as good as they'd gotten from. The boxing lessons had helped a bit, but...
"Filbrick thought you were 'weak' and he wanted you 'strong', but his ideas of strength falls right in line with the idea of 'toxic masculinity'." Miz turned onto her side to keep the Stans in her view, and they both frowned at her at that last comment.
Bill had been thinking over all of this for a bit. And then he let out a laugh.
"And you all get so surprised at why I'm happy to be insane," Bill said. "It's better than what YOU all do!" Bill leaned back, grinning at them all, as they all sent him 'what?' looks. "Shooting Star tries to tell Stanley she wants him to cry, so she can feel bad about him feeling bad? And then tries to tell him he has to cry when he doesn't want to, so she can feel bad, but says he's being toxic when he says no and doesn't want to feel what she told him he had to feel, so she won't feel bad? And Pine Tree agrees with her?"
Mabel groaned. "It's not like that."
"-It's exactly like that!" Bill replied. "You're doing the 'toxic masculinity' thing that you just defined, to him!"
Mabel huffed out a breath and looked over at Dipper, who seemed just as frustrated. He wished he had access to the dictionary definition of Toxic Masculinity right now so he could try and define it better. And then shove it right up in Bill's face.
"And YOU," Bill said, turning to Miz, "Think that being sad and DOING NOTHING about the thing that is MAKING you sad is BETTER than getting ANGRY and actually DOING SOMETHING ABOUT IT? -That's NOT 'girly', that's STUPID." Bill gave her a long look. "You've been talking to that STUPID LIZARD of yours too much," he half-chided, half-warned her.
"I don't think getting angry would make me any better at making good decisions..." Miz mumbled.
"And if you're too busy being sad and screaming forever off in a corner alone, and that's ALL YOU DO, then you aren't making ANY good decisions AT ALL, you're just making ONE long BAD one," Bill told her in return.
"I cry, I get over it. And once I'm done, and calmed down, I can think more clearly." Miz sighed, unsure how to defend her own way of handling her issues.
"I get angry, I DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT, and then I don't have to cry," Bill replied happily. "It's BETTER!" Bill chirped out at her, trying to offer up to his little sister what he firmly believed to be a MUCH better way of handling things.
"...Brother, have YOU ever cried out your feelings? Have you ever grieved properly?" Miz asked quietly. She certainly hadn't Seen a true catharsis for him.
Bill stared at her.
And then Bill laughed.
And laughed.
And laughed.
A lot.
And then, once Bill had finally stopped laughing again, the demon-who-now-looked-human grinned widely, and then pointed a finger back at himself.
"Triangle," Bill said, as if that explained everything. (To him, it did. He'd been geometry. No internal organs. No tear ducts. OF COURSE HE HADN'T cried.)
"Well, you have a human-ish body that's capable of it now." Miz stared back at him. "So, would you?"
"Would I what?" Bill said, lounging back against the roof. (Both sets of twins were staring at Miz, now. Because, Bill? Cry? Seriously? ...But only Stan and Dipper managed to follow that thought on to the next one, catching what Miz had just implied: Bill literally hadn't been able to cry before? And only Mabel wondered if what Bill might have had to grieve about was the brother Grunkle Ford thought Bill didn't have.)
"Would you like to grieve over what happened to your brother?" Miz asked so quietly they all barely heard it.
Bill gave her a very long look, while the kids exchanged glances.
"...Define 'grieve'," Bill said evenly. Maybe she'd actually meant 'get even' with the shapes who'd killed him, instead? She hadn't said that, though - she'd said 'grieve'. (Ford quietly noted that this was not confirmation of having... or not having... a brother, either way.)
(Mabel just as quietly noted how reserved Bill got at being asked that question, and sent a glance her twin brother's way.)
"Scream, cry, remember, realize that you can remember him as much as you want to. Think about the good times, think about how you felt and how you might have wanted to feel."
Bill blinked at her. (Crying was stupid, which he'd just told her, and… he could remember his brother whenever he wanted to. Did she think he couldn't? That seemed… wrong, somehow. But what Bill finally decided to share with her was...)
"I'm always screaming," Bill told her, tilting his head to the side. "Does that count?"
('Always?' thought Ford. Bill obviously wasn't screaming at the moment. Even if he'd claimed he'd started 'screaming forever' at the burning down of his home dimension, he clearly must have stopped screaming at some point. He'd even been downright quiet earlier, in ignoring him. And long before that-)
"Depends." Miz shuffled a little closer to him. "Did screaming make you feel better? To grieve is to feel bad for a little while, but then afterwards, you feel better."
Bill thought about this. His eyes jittered slightly from side to side, and he suddenly made a connection between three of the things she'd said: crying, get over it, done; scream or cry or remember - remember 'for a little while' - as grieving.
Bill looked up at her and said, "I'm not done screaming yet. I'm still screaming. I'm always screaming."
That got some looks from the humans, and a deepening frown from Ford. (That wasn't…)
Miz nodded. "Well, I hope that you'll be able to feel better. Once you've finished screaming."
Bill grinned at her. "After I've finished fixing everything, I'll stop screaming!" he confirmed. (And that had Stan mentally standing up and taking notice… and feeling more than a little uncomfortable at the idea of the kid screaming forever over his brother. ...and what 'fixing everything' might mean when it was the kid that was doing it.)
(Stan glanced over at Ford… who looked just about as uncomfortable at the idea of the kid 'fixing everything' as he was. …Great.)
Miz smiled softly. "Well, that sounds good. I hope you'll be able to stop screaming soon." If Bill's screams were his method of expressing his anguish and grief, then Miz hoped he'd be able to find peace soon.
"Soon is relative!" Bill said brightly, not concerned about his timetable in the least. "It's fine. I made it useful!"
"...Useful?" Stan asked. The uncomfortable feeling he had didn't exactly go away when Bill tilted his head back and let out an odd-sounding dual rising tone that… kept going. And sounded almost… familiar?
Stan, looking for a little help here (because what the heck was Bill doing? was that supposed to sound like a scream?) turned his head and glanced over at Ford... and saw that his brother had gone as pale as chalk.
Stan whipped his head back towards Bill and was about to snap out '-Stop!' at him before the triangle demon broke his brother again (damnit!)-
-when the kid stopped himself all on his own. The noise quickly trailed off, and the kid closed his mouth again.
Stan glanced around at them all, counting heads and mentally checking pulses. Dipper was staring (he was fine), and Mabel was frowning (also fine). Ford- …looked okay again. Huh. (Stan almost wanted to ask Ford about… Well. That. But… he just wasn't sure what to ask.)
There was a long moment of silence on the rooftop.
Finally, Stan said: "...Sounds more like singing to me," to the kid, frowning at him still. Because… it kind of almost had? (Well, what else was he supposed to say? That's what it had sounded like to him. Like singing, not screaming. Hell...)
"YES!" the kid said enthusiastically, to Stan's surprise, waving his arms around and looking all excited at him. "Music is BETTER!"
...Yeah, Stan didn't get it at all.
"Gonna have to explain that one to me better later, kid," Stan told him, rubbing a hand over his face again. He knew he was missing something here. He just didn't know what.
"Mm. Fine," said Bill, as he leaned back again, against the pillows and blankets surrounding him and his little sister in Miz's 'nest'.
Stan dropped the hand, then sighed and looked down at the kids. "Uh. Not that I ain't okay with the hugs..." he began. The twins pulled away from him a little, looking not at all embarrassed.
"It's fine, Grunkle Stan. I won't make you cry in front of us if you don't want to." Mabel sighed. "But if you're feeling sad, be sure to come tell me so I can give you all the hugs you'll need! Okay?"
"Uh, sure sweetie…" said Stan. (What, was he gonna have to pretend to be sad now to get hugs outta her? ...Heh. Who was he kidding. Mabel gave out hugs like they were goin' out of style. Or made of Mabel Juice.)
Dipper rubbed his arm. "And… I like the anime. There! I said it." He glared at Mabel but she didn't tease him about it. She gave him a grin.
"Just be honest about what you like, Dip-Dop! If you weren't all embarrassed about it, I wouldn't have even known I could tease you about it." Mabel paused. "Same for the whole… being taller than you thing," she shrugged, giving him a smile.
"Heh. -Alpha twin!" Stan called out, grinning as he lifted a fist and punched the air.
Dipper rolled his eyes, but he was smiling as he did it; he'd long since gotten over that. Sure, Mabel was taller than him for now. But he was going to get his growth spurt eventually and then, statistically speaking, he'd almost definitely end up being the taller one! And… even if he didn't grow taller than her… that was okay too. (-He could always borrow the flashlight again for a day!)
"So... wanna watch more anime together?" Dipper asked, and Mabel laughed.
"Sure, bro-bro!" They both scrambled back over to where they'd been sitting before and laid down on a bean bag chair together, sharing one between them this time. (And Stan noticed, even if the demons didn't seem to, that it was the chair that was a little closer to him and farther away from the demons, not the nearer one to their little 'nest'.)
"Heh," said Stan, watching them do this. "I got a better idea." He glanced behind him at Bill. "-Hey, kid," he called out.
"Hm?" said Bill, leaning back and stargazing at the moment. (Miz had paused the anime on the 'screen' she'd made, once the 'girly' explanation had started getting heated. She was about to start it up again for the twins, when she heard Stan say he had a 'better idea', and she waited to hear what he had to say, curious.)
"Gotta question for ya." Stan waited until the kid was looking at him. "With the not-talking stuff. That also mean current events?"
Bill blinked at him.
"No," Bill said slowly. "Any events from when we arrived in this dimension and forwards are fair game," he told Stanley, who suddenly grinned.
"'Not-talking stuff'?" Ford repeated slowly, glancing back at them and not entirely certain what was going on. Wasn't Stan supposed to be the one saying what could be talked about in dimensions he had traveled to before? Himself and his brother and Dipper, not Bill?
Stan looked over at Ford. "Kid made a kind of bet with me and the kids earlier," Stan told him, but before Ford barely had the chance to straighten in place - a precursor to pulling in a full breath to yell at them all for letting themselves be drawn into one of Cipher's mad games! - Stan added, "Kid helps me with whatever I want in the meantime until we go home, and all we gotta do is not talk about how stuff went down with, y'know, this," Stan said, "Back home."
Ford frowned at him furiously. "-I didn't agree to this!" (And did Stan really believe that Bill would simply 'help' him with 'whatever he wanted' until they all were home? What kind of fool was his brother? And did Stan really believe that Bill would actually be getting them all home again at the end of the next night, that he wasn't simply toying with them all, that nighttime wouldn't leave and come again, to the tune of Bill laughing at them all instead, demanding that they-)
Ford glared at Bill. He absolutely REFUSED to play a single one of Bill's mad games, in this dimension or any other! No! And if Bill thought that he could force him to, then-!
"Heh," said Stan. "Bet wasn't with you; it was with us," his brother told him. Ford blinked at him, startled, his original train of thought completely derailed. "You can say whatever you want to anybody," Stan laid out plainly, and Ford eyed him, then eyed Bill. Ford didn't trust this game of Bill's at all, especially not with Bill seemingly trying to leave him out of it. -If anything, that made it that much more suspect to him!
Ford was about to protest (or at the very least warn Stanley about) his brother's irresponsible behavior, when Miz spoke up awkwardly, cutting in before he could. "I'm sorry for going all… Social Justice Warrior on everyone. Not quite sure what came over me." (Dipper and Mabel exchanged a look at this, then mostly just shrugged it off. They'd heard worse, and weirder, back at home in Piedmont, California.)
"Feelings are dumb," Bill said. "All those messy brain chemicals. Thought is MUCH better than Emotion!" he told her.
Miz shuffled around on her nest. "Well, I kinda have to deal with emotions all the time."
"Yes," Bill noted. "But thoughts are easier and better!" Bill liked logic of the Mind; it MADE SENSE. "I'm not doing ANY of that 'Heart' stuff until I have to," he complained.
(That set off several exchanged glances between the kids and the supposedly-responsible adults. And Stan's eyebrows went up, and stayed up, as he realized what that might mean in the larger context of things with the kid, both before and in-the-now.)
Miz giggled softly. "Well, if you ever have to do heart stuff, do you want me here to be with you through it?"
Bill had been about to say that he'd just grab 'anti-Bill' and throw them at whoever's head. -Problem solved! He wouldn't have to handle it! (Or go bug Stitched Heart to deal with it for him instead, which would require a little handling.) But…
"Yes," Bill told her. He liked Miz's idea of being here with him better.
Miz nodded. "Okay then." She scooted over to snuggle his side.
Stan sighed. Why were all the conversations with these demon kids so… taxing? (Ugh, taxes.)
"...Anyway," Stan got back to it with his brother. "The kids down there haven't left the house, yeah?" He hadn't seen them do it.
"-No, they haven't left," Bill said, not even looking over at them, as he draped an arm over and around Miz - which he had decided to do from now on when she touched sides with him, because she wanted and liked hugs. She was making a soft rumbling sound, like purring but… not. (Which he liked! -It was a little like humming, and it made him feel relaxed and a little... sleepy...? That was fine. It was fine.)
Ford, who had started to nod at his brother, sent a long look Bill's way. (Bill seemed almost hell-bent on refusing to look over at him, though, much to Ford's ire.) Then Ford confirmed, "Not even so much as an open window." Even with all the distractions going on, he'd kept an ear to the house. He would have heard something if anyone had tried to leave; the street didn't get that much traffic at night, and it was almost a certainty that they would not be leaving the house this late at night - not unless one of them was up to no good. (He wasn't sure how late it was precisely, but in knowing the date - month, day, and year - and also his location on the planet, he could calculate approximately what time it was by the progression of the moon overhead; it was ever so slightly past midnight now, perhaps by a minute or two.)
"Yeah, but, I was thinkin'," Stan said. "They didn't even go outside again to try and see us? Or talk about anything else?"
Ford hesitated.
"Touching the line, Stanley," Bill called out warningly, and Ford glanced over at him. ...So, this particular point was important enough for Bill to threaten Stanley over, somehow? Because it might spoil Bill's betting-'game'? Why would it-?
"...Wait," said Ford, blinking. He looked over at his brother. "They didn't go to the swingset to talk."
Miz blinked. "Well, us showing up already screwed up the timeline, since they skipped school to spy on us today?" She wiggled her hand in the air, playing with the cybernetic bodysuit she'd made. It was Cursed to feel like nothing. (Bill's, in turn, was set up to directly transfer the sensation of 'touch' of the outer surface of the suit to his skin, so it effectively it felt like he was wasn't wearing the suit at all, also.)
"Yeah. They didn't go to school today, right?" said Stan, leaning back. "So, what did they not do in school today?" Stan offered up almost innocently.
Ford's eyes widened. "They didn't go to the office?" What- did that mean that-?! Ford stopped breathing for a moment, until he realized- ...No. No, the college school board officials would still show up tomorrow; of course they would. That had already been arranged by the time they had been told of its impending occurrence. Ford let out a slow breath in relief.
Then something else occurred to Ford, and he turned his head to glare at Bill.
"'Breaking things'," Ford said darkly. "You thought I'd go charging in there and interrupt everything. Get Stan all riled up over-" And maybe even have his own other self second-guessing what he should do, by what could go wrong!
Bill raised up his head, to prop it up on a fist. And he smiled.
Miz covered her ears. "Nope. Not saying anything."
Bill, while holding gaze with Ford, slowly raised a single finger to his lips. And then he made that waterfall sound again. To Ford's consternation and continuing ire, the demon looked absolutely delighted for some reason.
"Then what am I supposed to do here?!" Ford snarled out at Bill angrily.
Stan stared at his brother in something like horrified amazement. "You're asking the kid?"
(Miz snorted and tried to muffle her laughter, it probably wouldn't be nice. But, Ford STILL looked to Bill for guidance even after he rejected him?)
"-No!" Ford shook his head. "I-" He closed his mouth and grimaced, turning away from all of them, to stare back down at the house and the pawnshop below it again. Things had been so much easier when Bill had just acted as the villain that he was! Why couldn't he just-?!
"I'm not playing your games anymore, Stanford," he heard Bill say behind him, and it sent a chill down Ford's spine, even as it provoked a good deal of rage. "I don't have to."
"They. Were. Your. Games." Ford growled out, as he slowly turned back to face Bill, hands on both of his guns. He pulled in a breath. "I did not want to play them," Ford said next, fully intending to read Bill the riot act, because Bill-
"You wanted an adventure? I gave you an adventure," Bill told him, sitting up in place, as the niblings looked over at him. "You wanted to be a hero? You wanted to fight?" Bill spread his arms out. "Why not? -Here's your villain!"
Ford clenched his jaw, and began to protest that, "That wasn't-!"
"-what you wanted? No, it was," Bill said, lowering your arms. "You just don't LIKE what you want. -It's fine," Bill said, settling back down again, to lie on his back again, looking back to the stars. "Our Deal is off, and I'm done with you."
"...Oh?" said Ford, nearly vibrating in place with rage, as he slowly rose to his feet, hands slowly curling around the grips of both of his weapons as he took a slightly broader firing stance. "Well. Maybe I'm not done with y-" Ford stopped at the hand on his shoulder. His brother's hand on his shoulder. His brother, who had just gotten up from where he'd been sitting over by the niblings, and crossed the roof in order to do so. To stop him from-
Ford turned his head towards his brother slightly.
"You want him to stop playing games with you, right?" Stan told him quietly under his breath. "Ford, take the win." And Ford felt an odd fatigue run through him at his brother's words.
"Stanley, I-" Ford said quietly, straightening, his hands loosening slightly in their grip on his ranged weaponry.
"-Just tag out," his brother said to him. "Just for a little while. Okay?"
Ford stared at him, then down at the hand on his shoulder.
Miz was making an understanding sound. "Oh… so Ford wanted a villain in his scenario, in his 'story' and you obliged?" she looked up at Bill. Well, that explained a lot, considering how much Bill had to work around that Stanford just to keep him alive in the 30 years he spent behind the portal. Might even explain why Bill had tormented Ford so much despite trying to be his friend.
"Not like I didn't already fit the part of a 'villain' as he defines it!" Bill told her cheerfully. Then more soberly he added, "I tried to give him other things, too, but he didn't want them from me."
Ford literally gave a full-body flinch at the last. (Stan opened his mouth to ask his brother what the hell that had meant, but at the haunted look Ford had on his face, Stan closed his mouth again. He did tug at Ford's shoulder until he sat down again with him, though, right where they were both standing, not all that far from the roof's edge.)
Miz paused. "That sounds a little like how the Federation in my dimension purposefully puts me up as the 'villian' and points to my 'jobs' for Time Baby as 'evidence' for how I'm evil, even though THEY were the ones who demanded for me to do them." She frowned. "A sort of, 'pin the blame on me' kinda thing."
Miz sighed. "To be fair. It was my fault for agreeing to his Deal. I'm not gonna put all the blame on him. Even if Time Baby's a jerk. And I just think it's unfair that I'm the villain when he's the one holding gladiatorial matches where people can kill each other for people's entertainment and apparently that was perfectly fine!" She turned to stare at the younger set of twins. "Even worse that anyone can challenge anyone to Globnar. And no one seems to find this fact a problem?"
"Hey, we tried to get out of it!" Dipper protested, holding his hands up. "It was messed up!"
Mabel looked over at him. "The laser tag was fun, though," Mabel noted.
Miz nodded. "It's messed up and stupid but it's perfectly LEGAL to do. Isn't that just… unfairly stupid? He can go around killing people or holding death matches that involve CHILDREN but he's still the 'good guy'?" ('Death matches?' Stan and Ford both thought, sending worried glances at each other. -When the heck had that happened?!)
Dipper and Mabel looked at each other. "...You think Time Baby is a good guy?" Mabel asked of her skeptically. Theirs definitely wasn't! And it didn't sound like the one she was working for was, either?
"The multiverse where I come from has him as one of the heads of the government. He doesn't do much for the laws and stuff, but he's there and he allows them to pass the laws they decide on. He doesn't need to be a good guy, he's on the council that decides what's lawful or not. And isn't obeying the law considered good?" Miz spat out. "I think your Time Baby attempted to arrest brother during Weirdmageddon, that would make him the 'good' guy in your eyes, wouldn't it?"
Mabel and Dipper frowned and exchanged a glance. Did Time Baby try to do that? Well, there had been that letter from Blandin, so... if Time Baby had tried to stop Bill, then… Sort of? But no?
Miz continued, glancing at Bill, "Didn't he threaten to throw a tantrum if you didn't surrender? Don't his tantrums destroy things even WORSE than that party you threw?"
(At this point, Stan was starting to wonder if he should've asked the kid if their own(?!) Time Baby was a problem that needed solving. -Or, y'know, punching. One of the two.)
Bill let out a laugh. "If I let him! He's a dumb baby," Bill said. "And now the stupid idiot's got himself trapped in a TIME LOOP!" Bill grinned. "3012 comes around, when his molecules finish reconstituting? And the stupid little idiot will come out swinging with NO real memory of ANYTHING that happened before that! Big tantrum. Real 'end of the world' stuff! HA!" Bill exclaimed. "-I'll just step out for a bit, and let that stupid baby do his thing. No reason to rock the boat! Eventually, he'll come back and try to stop me, aaaand..." Bill made a sort of twisted looping motion with a finger, then let out a chittering chuckle.
Dipper and Mabel exchanged a glance, remembering what the mailbox had told them about the year 3012.
"So, if we left something for the time squad to find in the future…" Dipper said, looking at Bill.
But Bill didn't look worried, he just laughed instead. "HA! -Nice try, kid! But that stupid Time Baby's gonna destroy EVERYTHING! -Anything you could manage to pull off HIDING FROM ME - and LET'S FACE IT, you couldn't! - would be TOO WELL HIDDEN for that dumb baby OR his so-called 'Time Squad' to ever find! And that's even if it SURVIVED all that DESTRUCTION in the FIRST place! HA!"
"Time Police, Bill. They're called the Time Police," Dipper corrected him, feeling annoyed. Ugh, what was up with Bill and his stupid nicknames for everything, anyway?
Miz scoffed. "So HE gets to destroy the world and he's still an authority figure?" That was so unfair.
"Authority figure? HA! -More like a figureHEAD!" Bill laughed out.
Miz giggled, Time Baby had a huge head, not that there was anything wrong with large heads, but it certainly suited his ego.
"Not that those idiots do more than run around after him, trying to keep him from getting too cranky," Bill told her. "Like I care what those humans get up to!" Bill waved off.
Miz tilted her head. "So...why is Time Baby allowed to run free and arrest other people for timecrimes when he's just as destructive if not more so than any demon?"
"Because he's just that destructive," Bill told her, like it was obvious. "Nobody else stands up to the jerk! Stupid giant Time Lords are REALLY hard to kill permanently. -I didn't get him the first time, slipped RIGHT out from under my Sight," Bill muttered. "And I wasn't OUT yet, and I didn't want a bunch of idiots JUMPING IN and MESSING with MY dimension to handle it FOR me! ...So I'm letting the dumb baby do his thing," Bill shrugged. "Why get into a whole bunch of STUPID nonlinear time loop nonsense, when I DON'T HAVE TO?" Bill pointed out.
Miz shrugged. "I can't tell if yours or my Time Baby is worse."
"Eh, yours," Bill said. No contest there. "The one here is stuck now, and NEVER GETTING OUT. Contained, and if I didn't care about anything else, I could waste him again WHENEVER I WANT without all that dumb 'pillar' stuff you've got going GETTING IN MY WAY."
Stan frowned. The kid was getting worked up. He sounded a little too 'high energy' just then, more like he had the first couple of days that he'd been at the Shack. And Stan could feel Ford shifting his balance through the hand he had on his shoulder; Ford was feeling the unease, too.
"Mine's still up and about and he DOES do his job keeping time from collapsing so… Eh." Miz sighed. "As annoyed as I am with him though, he has been slightly nicer recently." She rubbed her arm.
Stan had to stifle a wince. "'Slightly nicer' don't mean he won't try and tap you for another one of those jobs again," Stan told her roughly, from where he sat.
"Well, yeah. And that would suck. But I have recently been able to talk him into helping me with an idea I had for getting my little brother back…" Miz sighed. "It took eons of work, making him trust me enough for that."
Stan started feeling really uneasy himself. He'd thought he'd talked her around on the getting out of the hired-killer thing, but if she was still willing to work for him to get what she wanted, despite saying she didn't want to kill people… then she really wasn't that much different from the kid, in a bad way. (Ford glanced over at Stan, feeling the grip on his shoulder tighten slightly.) "Miz… it really ain't worth it. There's gotta be another way to do whatever you need to do, without that Baby guy's help."
Miz glanced up at Stan. "I don't want to kill for him anymore. I could try to find a work around. And… if he really insists that I HAVE to kill someone, I could probably fake their death and just keep them away from Time Baby until he forgets about it?"
Dipper and Mabel looked at each other. "You've been… killing people for Time Baby?" Dipper said slowly. They both started to back away from her a little bit.
"He made me a Deal, I do a job for him in exchange for a Favor. And I trade in my Favors to-"
"-Stop," said Stan. Miz closed her mouth. He glanced between Miz and the kid. "Bill, talk her out of it. Completely."
Bill tilted his head at Stan slightly. "Right now?" (Ford looked between the two of them with the first stirrings of vague alarm. Because had Bill actually just- That had been a command that Stan had given to him, and Bill had just- just-)
Stan started to open his mouth to say 'yes', then thought the better of it. "Before she leaves for her own dimensional set again." He had other stuff he needed to handle here, and back at home, first. "-Don't think I don't know what the two of you are doin'," Stan told the pair of them, "Bein' all distracting and thinking you can just lead us all around by the nose." And at the way Bill just brightened up and gave out a chittering laugh, Stan knew that he'd called it. (Shit, and his brother actually looked surprised at this. The hell?)
Miz grumbled. "Really can't hide anything from you." Distraction failed. Again.
"...Stan?" Ford said slowly, looking very wrong-footed at the moment to Stan.
Stan sighed heavily. "Ford, the kid's thing here isn't actually what happens with the two kids in there," he tossed a thumb back at the pawnshop and the house. "It's something we could figure out here that could be a problem for us when we get back home," he told his brother.
"Stanley!" Bill said, sounding scandalized. "You heard, but you didn't listen! I said it would cause trouble if you figured it out here, and no trouble if we get back first!"
"-Trouble for you," Stanley noted, and Bill got a thin smirk. "What happens if we get back without figuring out this thing you don't want us to figure out here?" Stan asked him straight-out.
"That Stanford loses YOU," Bill told him with a grin.
Ford immediately shot to his feet and stepped forward and out in front of Stan. "-You are not killing my brother!" Ford declared angrily, though he was shaking like a leaf as he said it. (And all the things he'd been trying not to think too hard about suddenly grew claws and dug them into the forefront of his thoughts: the kids were here, Bill had a second demon as backup, nothing Ford had on him would work to even so much as slow either of them down, he couldn't stop him, he couldn't do anything-)
Bill gave that Stanford a long look. "Who said anything about killing your brother," Bill told him with absolutely zero inflection to his tone, while Miz looked away, keeping her mouth shut.
Stan slowly pushed himself to his feet again, then took a step to the side, to stand at the side of his brother (patting Ford reassuringly on the shoulder as he went). And Stan stared at her and then the kid.
"You're sayin' that if we find out…" Stan paused.
"Then you and I will have a problem," Bill admitted, turning his head back towards Stanley. "And if you don't find out, then…" Bill gave him a long look. "You, Stanley Pines, will get EXACTLY what you want!" Bill told him with a smile.
Stan pulled in a shallow breath. Right. "Losing my brother is what you think I want?" he said to the kid, oh so carefully. (Like the demon knew what he wanted. Like hell.)
Bill stared at him. "No."
"...So why would I lose my brother?" Stan asked the kid next, glaring at him.
...and he got a "-You won't!" and another giggle - and an almost sly look - out of the demon kid for that one.
Stan frowned at the kid. How the hell could Ford lose him, without him losing Ford? "You ain't makin' any sense, kid."
"Yes!" said Bill. "EXACTLY!" He looked very happy about that. ...Hell. Stan pinched the bridge of his nose.
Miz was covering her face. "Uwu…" This was so fucked up.
Stan glanced over at Miz. "...Can I get a translation from insane-triangle-talk, here?" he asked her, but Bill immediately said, "No!" and made a zipper-and-tossing-away-the-key motion across Miz's mouth for her. (Dipper winced at watching this.)
Miz shrugged. She shook her head slowly and placed a finger to her lips before shrugging again with a helpless expression… and a mildly guilty look.
Stan let out a breath. Damn it. "Is anybody gonna die outta this?" he asked. (And the kids slowly backed a little farther away from the two demons even further.)
Bill shook his head and shifted a bit in place. "No." That was surprising to him, that Stanley had asked. (Did Stanley think he wasn't following the agreement-rules anymore? It wasn't like he didn't know that Stanley wanted most of the things he'd told him to apply to everyone. It was only the priority-order of 'defending against attacks' that was specific to just-them, to Stanley's 'family' - Bill knew that now. The whole 'not starting fights' and 'not attacking first because that starts a fight' thing was a 'kid'-thing first, not just an agreement-thing; and the definition of mental and physical attacks Stanley had given him was an as-yet incomplete explanation by way of Stanley of what Stanley thought would cause fights in general, not something that applied to just-and-only-and-specifically THEM.)
Miz raised a hand into the air and said, "No dying! Like, the opposite of dying!" (Bill shot her a warning look at this.) Miz sheepishly put her hand back down.
...Okay. If nobody was gonna die, then Stan figured he could probably handle it. Whatever 'it' was.
('The opposite of dying?' Dipper wondered. Did that mean that somebody was going to… be born? He glanced over at his sister, who looked just as confused, so this wasn't something Bill had said anything about earlier during any of her 'science lab' sessions with him at the spaceship. Okay...)
"Is Stanley going to end up in another dimension afterwards?" was what Ford asked of the demon in an almost shaking tone of voice, and the kid looked over at him, almost surprised. The kid tilted his head, and moved his eyes over to Stan.
"Am I?" Stan asked, to both reinforce and repeat the question.
"...Do you want to?" was the demon's reply, and, well, that didn't exactly help.
"Any reason you think I should?" was Stan's next question, and Bill made a humming, almost reflective, thinking sound.
"...That's up to you," Bill told Stan in a more moderate tone. So was the, "I could take you anywhere you want to go," and that told Stan that that one wouldn't exactly be part of the kid's plan... which meant it wasn't part of what the kid was expecting to happen in this whole 'Ford losing him' thing. Okay.
"Grunkle Stan…" Mabel said, as she and Dipper slowly drifted their way across the roof over to him.
Miz had buried her head under a pillow. Her tail was out, twitching in agitation. "Uwu…" she wasn't going to say anything. But it was hard. Like sitting on a juicy bit of gossip and NOT telling 'Ronica.
"I ain't gonna get you to define 'losing me' to me while we're here, am I, kid?" Stan grumbled out. He wasn't exactly surprised at the single shake of the head Bill gave him. Damn. Worth a shot.
"But nobody's going to die," Shooting Star repeated, looking over at Bill. Bill turned his head towards her slightly, a bit confused. Hadn't he just answered that?
Bill tilted his head at Shooting Star, at her rather unexpected (to him) question. "Yes, nobody is going to die," Bill repeated. "That is a thing that I will help Stanley to make sure will not happen." He looked up at Stanley. "While our 'gambling bet' is on." He looked back down at Shooting Star. "...And for a little while after," Bill told her. Then he grinned at her. "It wouldn't be NEARLY as much FUN, otherwise!"
Mabel did not look particularly reassured. Dipper was frowning at Bill furiously, clutching at the brim of his hat.
Miz spoke up softly. "That Stanford-" she pointed at Ford, her head still buried under a pillow "- might not lose you, it might not happen. Even when it happens. And no one's going to get killed. It'll be up to you. And… and you're a good man," she told Stan. "So it might not happen."
Stan frowned over at her, then looked between her and the kid. And the kid just… shrugged.
"...Tryin' to work me up over nothin'," Stan grumbled to himself, letting out a half-sigh, half-breath for his trouble. He shook his head. "I really don't like your mindgames, kid," Stan told the triangle kid.
"You asked!" Bill told him brightly, with another chittery-laugh. Stan let out another tired sigh and let his shoulders slump, shaking his head.
He raised his head slightly to look over at his brother. "He usually pull stuff like this on you?" Stan asked of his brother, who was still staring at the kid with a very taken aback look on his face.
"...Nothing quite like this," was all he got out of Ford, in a very quiet tone, as he continued staring at Bill.
Miz poked her head out from under the pillow. "So… since that distraction failed, what do we do now?"
"Eh, let them all do their thing with the 'two kids' over there," Bill waved at the pawnshop in front of them. "It's fine!"
Stan shot Bill a disgruntled look. He wasn't gonna completely give up on whatever it was Bill thought he was hiding, but he wasn't gonna obsess over it or anything, either.
"You know, you really didn't think this through, kid," Stan told the kid, as he sat down, and Ford escorted Dipper and Mabel off to the side of the roof - to help them both grab up their bedrolls and bring them back over to where he was watching the house, to set them up a good distance farther away from the two demon-kids pillow-'nest' than Stan and the kids had all put their bean bag chairs.
That had the kid blinking at him, at least. "You said you'd help me with anything until we're back home again," Stan said, glancing over his shoulder at the kid as Ford slowly settled down next to him on the roof, handing off his own bedroll to him. "What happens if I decide we're not leaving tomorrow night?"
Bill just smiled at him.
(MizBill Interlude)
Aaaauuuggh! You know that thing where there's this huge spoiler that you know and you just REALLY want to tell someone?! But I can't! I have to keep my mouth shut.
Oh gosh I'm so worried about what's going to happen! I hope it's a happy ending but that's going to be on Stan whether it happens or not. But he's a good man. I'm sure he would be able to accept it. Or at the very least, that he wouldn't abandon that Stanford even after he learns the truth.
Because that would be too sad. Even if Ford is a buttface!
I still wouldn't want him to lose Stan.
That would be too sad.
Am I too forgiving to still want him to be able to be happy even after his insensitive words towards Bill? Actually, once they all learn the truth, it would be like dramatic irony and part of myself actually thinks that would be karma. That Stanford accuses Blue of lying about having a brother? He says something like that to Bill? Well, payback's a bitch.
I wonder if Ford might actually learn his lesson after all this is over? Or would that spoiled brat continue sitting on his high horse?
More than anything, I just hope Stan will be alright. Bill thinks this is going to be great but I don't think he really understands how this is going to make Stan feel. Or at least, how I think this is gonna make Stan feel...
(BlueBill Interlude)
Bill was pleased. Everything was going according to plan.
That Stanley would see EXACTLY what had happened in the past, AND WHY. That Stanford would be taken down - HA! - one measly peg? More like SEVERAL RUNGS DOWN THE LADDER! And Bill? Would be thoroughly and completely entertained by ALL of it! ...Really, he was looking forward to seeing how Stanley handled things, once everything hit. It looked like Stanley might actually be stubborn enough to stick around and really SEE EVERYTHING through! (And Bill was really VERY INTERESTED in seeing what his Stanley decided to do. How he would 'handle it', all of it, everything!)
And when all was 'said' and 'done'... when they all got back...
Maybe Miz could help run… just a SMALL bit of interference for him, really - without any risk to herself! Maybe just a small bit of distraction without ANY blame - and in the midst of that minor chaos, Bill would bring Stanley's twin-brother back.
And everything would be just fine.
Stanley would have his entire family, entirely un-messed-with. No problems with the agreement, there!
That Stanford would lose Stanley, because with what Stanley saw HERE and realized THERE, he (...that Stanford!...) would NOT call Stanley his brother anymore. -That Stanford would decide that he'd lost Stanley! That idiot Stanford would give Stanley up, all on his own! Because that would be what that Stanford had decided, and nobody else could say or do anything that would ever change his mind, once he did that. (Moron. That Stanford had NO IDEA what a BROTHER actually was! Let alone what one was WORTH.)
And Stanley wouldn't lose that idiot Stanford, because that Stanford was Bill's Six-fingered Hand. They were both a part of his Zodiac. So everything would be fine.
And none of them were going ANYWHERE unless Bill said so. They were all HIS.
...If Stanley wanted to take a whirlwind tour of the multiverse to get away from that Stanford for awhile, though, Bill certainly wouldn't be adverse to the idea! HA!
3rd person POV
Nothing happened at the pawnshop all night. Nobody came in, nobody went out, and as far as either Stan or Ford could tell (glancing at each other), there were no big fights that happened indoors, either.
Ford almost looked disappointed.
Everyone had eventually slept (except Ford, no matter how much Stan glared at him and tried to get him to at least take shifts with him), and Stan had downright stared at the way Miz had curled up beside Bill - not at Miz, but at Bill. Because the kid had not only let her do it, but he'd seemed to try and 'curl up' right back, sort of back-to-back with her in return. And Miz, for her part, had spent a good half-hour humming out music softly to Bill, until her brother had finally calmed down from all the 'excitement' of taunting Ford earlier, and finally fallen asleep.
(Ford would have stared himself, but he'd had to split his attention between the demons and the house above the pawnshop, so it was more of a series of long glances, with even-longer glances-away in-between.)
And, of course, as Stan had been pretty sure was going to happen, Ford was absolutely mentally (and physically) exhausted by the time he and the kids had woken up again. ...and Miz. The human demon ended up waking up before Bill did, blinking blearily into the sunlight. (Stan had a feeling that that might be a thing, given when the kid usually woke up in the mornings, and how late he usually wanted to sleep in...)
"Ford, c'mon," Stan told his brother. "You gotta sleep sometime. -Look," Stan said, pointing down at the sidewalk. "They're walkin' off to school. Nothin' to do about it, now," Stan said. "Right?"
"I could follow them," Ford said, not quite under his breath, and Stan gave him a long look.
"And do what," Stan asked him sarcastically, "Hold his hand as he crosses the street, and try and give that presentation for him?" Stan rolled his eyes, and Ford felt uneasy, and a little embarrassed and ashamed by this point.
Ford looked down at the sidewalk with a bit of a frown. Was it possible that Stan had been right last night? Had Bill just been… messing with them the entire time? (...That didn't feel right to him, though.)
Ford jolted in place when Miz started singing. The Stans both turned to see the dragon-demon-used-to-be-human leaning against the side of the roof, singing softly with her eyes closed.
"Oh father, mother dear, I'm sorry for what I've done~" she was quiet but the music carried easily. "My legs are trembling as I stand and suck on my thumb~"
The twins glanced over at her after awhile, and then back at Bill as the older demon stirred restlessly in place at the sound of the music in his sleep. "Oh brother, sister dear, I guess that this is the end~ with broken shoes in hand~ I'll never turn back again~"
Stan let out a sigh and got up slowly, to make his way over to the kid just as slowly. Miz was now humming the instrumental part. She waved lazily at Stan, eyes still closed. (Yeah, must've really fixed the headband thing right, then, if she was seein' him without needing her eyes open.)
"I've found a better piece of pattern paper to use~ even if the old was fine, I'll start all over anew~" She opened her eyes, gazing up at the sky.
Stan nodded to her, then came close enough to the pillow-'nest' the kid was still curled up within, to lean over him and say, "Hey, kid. Wake up."
"Oh what's it like to be so loved? As I grapple for~ scissors sharp enough and large enough~ to cut this face I abhor~"
"-Why are you singing that?" Ford cut in, somewhat on edge. He couldn't figure out the point of it. (Bill's songs had always had some pointed meaning to them, in his experience, but this one seemed to be all over the place.)
Miz glanced over. "Because I love this song." She turned her face back to the sky.
"About cutting people's faces with scissors," Ford said, almost deadpan. (Bill stirred and shifted a bit again, as Stan talked to him again, telling him to wake up.)
"About cutting mine," Miz responded softly. Ford shuddered slightly; that was his only response. "Hey did you hear them? Words of wisdom because god has said it so~ but where's my mind gone? This is all wrong~" She was starting to dance lightly, stepping around pillows without even looking.
Ford was still staring at her, worried that there was a deeper meaning there that he might simply be missing. (...and thinking of what would happen if she decided to cut 'her own face' in someone else's body…)
"Why not? I don't know!" she tilted her head forward. "Although it's painful as I disdainful~ly hold the future that I sewed~ I pulled the string along the seams until the gap is closed~"
"Mm." Bill slowly sat up sleepily, blinking. "-gap-is-closed~" he echoed out without realizing it, with multiple odd harmonics underlying the repeated melodic tone. He swayed in place slightly, and blinked again, then seemed to wake up a bit more. He lifted his head up properly, and looked around.
Stan watched this without comment. The kid looked oddly tense, but also slightly relaxed. Not really at-ease, though.
And then the kid looked up at Stanley.
"Kid," said Stan, and Bill rubbed at the side of his head absently with the side of his right hand, frowning up at him slightly.
"...Did you figure it out while I was asleep?" the kid asked, peering up at him, and that left Stanley blinking.
"No, kid," Stan said.
And to this, Bill gave him a half-smile and a "Hm. Didn't think you would," which turned into a half-grimace as the kid stretched all his muscles right where he sat, in-place.
Huh. So the kid had thought he might be able to figure out, maybe… whatever the thing he was taunting him with was... just by thinking about junk for awhile? Or was it something that had had to do with last night? Stan eyed the kid.
...Hell, he was probably overthinking it. Stan figured he should stick to what he knew; he wasn't about to let the kid shove him around, and it was time to let the kid really realize what that meant.
"...You really think you've got an answer for everything, huh kid," Stan said, eyeing him from above, as the kid finished up his stretching. That got him another smile. Yeah, keep smilin'. Stan figured that'd change pretty quick, the second the demon realized that he had figured out something that the demon hadn't, by coming up with a problem that the demon couldn't solve. "Yeah, okay. Got a couple more questions for ya, then."
Bill tilted his head and looked up at him, waiting. Hell. Stan shook his head at the kid and thumbed a hand back towards the food crate. "Crackers for breakfast for you, first." He wasn't about to give the kid an excuse to skip a meal now, accidentally or otherwise.
Stan managed to get them all gathered around the food crate together for breakfast without any major fights breaking out, and some beef jerky and some more pancakes into all of them (except the demons, who went with fish and crackers, young and older).
Miz hummed as she ate, a continuation of the song from before, by the sounds of it, but without the words this time. Bill… just ate. So did Ford. ...Well, the kids seemed to enjoy the pancakes, at least.
And, once they were through all that, and were mostly finished cleaning things up (by taking turns handing stuff off to the kid, for him to go stuffing all the things back into his hat), Stan announced, "We're gonna spend the day on the boardwalk at the beach."
Ford gave him an odd look. "Are we?"
Stan side-eyed him back. "Me and the kid are," Stan told him. "So Miz is probably coming with. -Figure I'll do some busking," Stan said. He wanted to be able to buy a few things. Didn't sit right with him, depending on Miz for all this stuff, the blankets and pillows and fish, and depending on the kid for the magic and the… Stan sighed. He was gonna have to do somethin' about payin' back those gold coins once they got back, as it was. He was the adult guardian, and the agreement-holder; he was supposed to take care of these kinds of things - not the kid, and not his little sister.
It was something he'd have to handle later. But for now… Stan glanced over at the kid. "You ever do anything like that before? Busking?" ...Well, the kid perked up and looked interested, at least. Stan turned back to Ford. "If you and the kids want to do something else, while I handle the demons, that's fine." He took in a breath and added, "But I'd rather grab us a booth and have you sleeping in the back. I don't want you sleep-deprived when it's getting closer to midnight." Heck, if the last time Ford got sleep-deprived was any indication... Maybe Ford wasn't nearly as sleep-deprived as a couple weeks ago anymore, but Stan did not want his brother out and about in public while he was exhausted and wound up with nerves. (As far as Stan was concerned, Ford was actually in even worse shape right now in some ways, than his brother had been after that two weeks of next to no sleep, a couple of weeks ago.)
Ford frowned slightly, then glanced over at Bill. Then he glanced over at the niblings, who shared a look with each other, before looking back up to him.
After a beat, Dipper and Mabel looked over at Stan. "Grunkle Stan, do you not want us to help out with the busking?" Mabel asked him.
"Be easier if you were with me," Stan admitted. "Heh, Dipper's already got a hat for collectin' money in it," he added, tapping the brim.
Miz was thrilled at the idea of conning people with Stan. "I wanna learn to scam people!" Her tail wagged cheerfully before she shoved her tail back down and seemed to 'push' it back under the bottom of her shirt.
Stan let out a laugh. "A scam? Nah, we're not really doin' that today. -Could pickpocket a few folks, but the heat ain't worth it." He slowly stood up. "C'mon." He waved them all towards the fire escape ladder mounted at the edge of the roof and down the side of the building.
Miz quickly changed her clothes and followed them down, floating out of laziness instead of making her way down the steps like the rest of them (Bill included). The pajamas she was wearing shifted into a loose blue dress with black trim, and thin pants underneath. Dipper noted that Miz seemed to be matching herself to Bill's colors. He wanted to write that down too. Maybe it meant something? (Really though, Miz just thought it would be fun to match colors. Besides, half of Bill's hair was a pretty shade of blue that reminded her of Will, it was… nice…)
Once they'd all clambered down the fire escape and were down at street level, Bill was the one who actually prompted Stan first with, "...Questions?"
"Yeah." Stan got to walking side-by-side with him, Miz trailing behind by not so much. The kids were in front of him, with Ford leading the way. "First question: you're so sure about nobody dying, fine. You ain't always right. What happens if anybody does die?"
Bill didn't even blink. "I roll back time in the area, until they're no longer dead."
Miz raised her hand. "I can also just repair their body and shove their Soul back in." She was walking backward carelessly, somehow not tripping over anything.
Stan blinked at them both. ...Right. Uh. He took a mental breath, and kept plowing on. "Second question: you said nobody dies. What about anything worse than death?"
Bill blinked at him this time. "No, nothing worse than death." He glanced up at Stan, then away again. "If you don't like anything, you can fix it. I'll help."
Stan let out a breath. Right. At least that was one giant-ass loophole off the list. (Wasn't like he hadn't talked about 'worse than death' mental and physical attacks before, as part of the whole agreement and everything else. Kid had a pretty decent grasp of that one, even if he usually got the 'lesser boundaries' on stuff pretty wrong still.) "Third question: what happens if I want to stay here for longer than a few days."
Bill just shrugged. "Then we stay."
Stan eyed him. "A few weeks?" Bill shrugged. "A few months?" Stan pushed. Bill looked up at him.
"Time isn't a problem," Bill said to him.
Stan frowned down at the kid. The kid had said something like that before they'd left. ...No, not something like that, hell. The kid had said the exact same thing.
"More than two months, and the summer's over," Stan pointed out slowly, wondering what he was missing here. He knew that the kid knew that the kids had to be back home in California after that. (...Hell, he was pretty sure the kid was up to something about tryin' to find a way for the kids not to leave, the way the demon kid had been asking after all sorts of information on the high school registration process, beginning to end - and transfers - and prowling around online for even more info when Stan didn't get him things from the school fast enough.)
"Brother controls time. The summer back in your dimension will not end until he wants it to," Miz said absently as she tried to balance on a fence, waving her arms for balance. (Dipper frowned at her. He could see that she was cheating - her feet weren't even touching the fence half of the time that she was 'walking' along!)
Stan frowned up at her. "Their parents will still want 'em back two months from now, however long that feels to 'em."
Bill let out a laugh. "Not a problem!" The kid looked at Miz. "Easier than that: I can control what time the portal out of here connects to when I made it, back in Dimension 46'\ for the connection there." Then the kid looked at him and told him, "I can set it for only a minute or two after we left, if I want!"
"...If I want," Stan said slowly.
Bill tilted his head at him. "Yes?" Bill agreed, not seeming to see the problem there. (...Yeah, okay. Fair. Not like Stan was plannin' on shooting himself in the foot, picking a bad time for them to get back there okay, makin' 'nonlinear time loops' the kid had a hard time handling, or whatever - not if he could help it. Didn't want to piss off the kid for no reason, or have to send the kids back home 'early' himself. Speaking of…)
"Fine," Stan said. "What if we ain't talking months." He took in a breath. "What if we're talkin' years," he asked of the kid. ...Because Stan was pretty sure he could out-stubborn the triangle if he had to, in trying to figure out this 'Ford losing him' problem. Not that he was planning on taking things that far, but the kid couldn't just-
"Years means that Pine Tree and Shooting Star grow up here," Bill pointed out, and yeah, Stan knew the kid wasn't stupid.
"Yeah," Stan agreed. "And their parents would notice that. So what would you do about that?" Stan asked him, thinking he was going to stump the kid hard with that one, if not the next-
Except Bill just shrugged and kept walking along as he said almost thoughtlessly, "Kick them both into the Mindscape, de-age their bodies, have them settle right back in after, all memories and their full Selves intact." Then Bill only hesitated for a moment, to raise a hand, palm-down, and say, "Might need to tweak the brain bits a bit-" Bill said, making an odd half-puppeteering half-surgically-precise series of jerking gestures with his fingers, "-to make everything-physical consistent with their Minds again." Bill lowered his hand. "More than a day and a sleep between and things start to diverge a bit!" the kid said, almost consideringly, as he made a 'what can you do?' gesture with his hand, before dropping it to his side.
Stan stared.
"I could do what what I did with my Friends and just stop their bodies from aging in general," Miz pointed out.
"I could do that, too," Bill said, "But that's more invasive, and harder to do with strictly-magic or only-science than weirdness."
Stan looked over at Miz slowly, then back to the kid.
And then it sort of hit him exactly what kind of a trap that he and his family were in.
Stan thought as he walked, and he looked away from the two demons for a moment, and pulled in a slow breath, as it occurred to him. As it really started to hit him. Because Miz had talked about trapping her 'friends' (family?) with her yesterday, up in the attic. Bill had said that she hadn't done that, because they had free will and they could die and she wouldn't stop them and would let them do it, would go along with it if they killed themselves to get away from her.
And Stan really hadn't understood any of that. He definitely hadn't understood what any of that meant, until now.
...And on top of it all, the pair of them could both bring people back from the dead.
Bill had just talked about pulling them all back from death like it was nothing special, not even hard, even without using his weird-powers or whatever. He'd talked about being able to control time, being able to make them younger again but still have them remember everything…
And Bill had never said anything about not trapping anyone - like his Zodiac - with him. And Bill considered his Zodiac to be HIS; Stan knew that.
If they died, Bill could bring them back. If Bill killed them, he could bring them back. If they tried to escape, even if they managed to catch a portal and got away from him for years... Bill could probably pick a time and grab them whenever he wanted, as long as it took him to find them again - which hadn't taken very long with the kids (and, hell, he'd done it with a damaged Eye, while rushing things). And once Bill had them back, however long it took or however long he wanted to take, Bill could just de-age them all once he had them back and pick up right where he'd left off with them, like nothing had ever happened in- between. Like they had never left or managed to escape him.
If Bill wanted them around… they weren't getting away from him.
Stan glanced up to look at his brother, who was still moving along at the front of their procession. From the very tense set of his brother's shoulders, Stan got the suspicion that Ford had been listening to their conversation, and hadn't exactly known all of this before… and Ford had already been afraid of the triangle enough to want to kill him for good.
Stan pulled in another breath, and let it out again. ...Well, fine. He'd just pull the ripcord for them, then. If it ever got that far. Wasn't like he wasn't planning on keeping his family safe from the start.
If the idea of Bill doing that to them, basically trapping them with him for who-knew-how-long (...how long had Miz known her friends?...), was something that his family wasn't okay with - and let's face it, they definitely weren't - then Bill's very presence around them after a point would be considered a mental attack. They could tell him 'no' and 'stop', and… Bill would have to leave, to leave them alone. Because Stan would hold Bill to it.
Stan didn't exactly like the idea of his family dying, and him being left all alone, but…
...if the alternative was Bill bringing his family back to life and, hell, effectively torturing them for all of eternity? Stan would stick around with the triangle instead, keeping the agreement going - because as long as he was doing that, he could tell the kid that bringing his family back from the dead (after living really good lives, Stan was gonna make sure of that), when they'd made it clear that they'd wanted to stay dead after they died, would be 'messing with his family'. And the kid knew that was a line that Stan was never going to be okay with him crossing.
The kid wasn't going to blink first. Stan was pretty sure of that by this point. If Stan kept the agreement going, and didn't break it himself, the kid wouldn't break it first. -Whatever was going on with the triangle demon, the kid had shown him a couple times now, with how flexible he'd been about things, that he really did want to keep the agreement going, for whatever reason.
Stan figured that he'd have to figure out that reason pretty soon, yeah, but whatever it was, it was pretty solid. He knew that much. -Maybe it was pure spite, the kid always having somebody else break whatever-it-was on him first, but Ford had said (and the kid had admitted) that sometimes the triangle demon had been the one to break a deal first. This wasn't one of the kid's deals (and hell, the kid looked down on deals as the worst and least-trustworthy of the things he'd be willing to do), but...
"Kid, you know I want you to not break the agreement, right?" Stan asked him.
"Yes," he got back in reply.
"What if I asked you right now, to never break it?" Stan asked of Bill next. (The kid had said he'd help him while they were here, after all. Could he get away with just straight-up asking him for a straight answer about all of this, right now?)
"...I'm not breaking it," the kid told him slowly, watching him, and Stan let out a breath in frustration.
"Kid," Stan tried again, "What do you want from me, anyway?" He heard Ford let out a strangled sound. "-Ford, I ain't talkin' to you, I'm just asking the kid," Stan told his brother, trying to stop that one early.
"You don't write a demon a blank check!" Ford ground out, looking back over his shoulder at him as they walked.
"I'm not doing that," Stan told his brother, "I'm just asking-" Stan sighed at the look on his brother's face, that he was giving him. "...Ford, you got no sleep last night," he tried instead, and watched his brother struggle with knowing that, and knowing his reactions were off right now, and knowing that he still wasn't feeling well from getting kicked in the head with the idea of multiple Bill Ciphers existing only a couple days ago on top of that.
Stan watched Ford try really damn hard to take that into consideration… and then watched his brother shoo the two niblings up in front of him, as they hit one of the longer streets towards the boardwalk. Stan debated if he should make Miz follow them too or not, instead of trailing along behind them. ...Whatever, wasn't a huge problem. Didn't really matter anyway; she'd probably still hear them, wherever she decided to walk within their little procession.
Stan turned back to address Bill again. "Kid, what do you want from me?" he repeated. The kid looked at him, but didn't reply before looking away. …Great. He tried again. "What do I need to do, to keep you on my side?"
(Miz huffed and skipped forward a little in case they wanted privacy; she could still hear them though. She was curious about this, too. ...Ford himself carefully steered away from walking too close to her, annoyed and in general feeling aggrieved.)
"We're on the same side," Bill said, not looking at Stan. "My side, your side. Our side. It's…" The kid let out a sigh, instead of saying 'the same side', like he usually did. (Huh. Progress?) "You want to do what you want to do? Say it's your side I'm on? While giving me things? That's fine. You're still my right-hand man," Bill said (while Ford choked). "As long as I don't cross your line." Bill added, looking away from Stan.
"As long as you don't cross my line," Stan affirmed, trying not to listen to the somewhat-silent sound of Ford freaking out in front of him - from the lack of actual coherent words, to the sound of his brother's stumbling footsteps.
"Really, should've known better before, anyway," said Bill. "Just because that Stanford is my Six-fingered Hand doesn't mean he's really anything other than just a 'hard stop'," the kid grumbled out at Stan. "But YOU… you get things done," Bill said to him. "Would be better if-" Bill stopped talking, and stopped in place, as Ford stopped walking, turned around, and got right up in Bill's face, standing firmly in place on the sidewalk.
"Ford…" Stan said slowly, coming to a stop next to the kid, as the niblings and Miz stopped and turned around, too. "We're just talking."
"No," Ford said quietly. "You aren't." Stan saw his brother pull in a breath. "You're talking about sides, and you're talking about-"
"-a puppet-turned-pawn standing right in front of me who doesn't even have the sense to get out of my-" Bill began caustically (even as Ford reached for his gun), but they both stopped when Stan pushed his way between them, leaving his back to Bill.
"Ford," Stan said warningly. "Back down. Now."
Ford let out a soft and shaky laugh, staring at him, eyes wide. "You… you've really picked his side." He looked a little scared.
"Kid's on my side," Stan repeated to Ford, and this was how many times he'd had to say it to him, now? "-My side. Understand? He's mine," Stan told his brother, and- Stan stopped himself short at the 'hard intake of breath' sound he heard behind him.
He twisted his head around, to look down at the kid. And Stan realized that the kid's eyes were wide, and he was staring up at him while blinking hard.
...What the hell? Why had the kid reacted to him like that? What had he said that would…?
Then Stan blinked.
Stan turned in place, just slightly more towards the triangle demon kid, and he repeated: "You're mine, yeah? You're on my side." ...and Stan paid attention as he said it. And Stam saw the differences in the expression the kid got when he said each of those two things. (Really, convincing the kid to 'drop down further' into that body of his had been one of Stan's better ideas. Kid had practically no poker face to begin with, but now...?)
Well, damn. This was the same thing as that stupid 'you don't have to tell me', 'you can tell me if you want' thing all over again, wasn't it? Except this time, it was wanting the kid on his side, and...
"Kid," Stan said. "Bill. I want you. Understand?"
And Stan watched as the kid made a noise like he'd just been punched in the gut, and stared up at him in absolute wide-eyed surprise, and a shock so complete that it bordered on total disbelief.
...Wow. This was kind of, well... pathetic, almost. And so freaking messed up. Kid wanted to be wanted. It was that simple. ...Shit. (...was that really all it took?)
Miz was grinning widely at the two of them and almost squealed. "Congratulations!" she cheered wholeheartedly with her hands in the air. She looked absolutely delighted.
Stan glanced back over his shoulder at her, and was shocked himself because... holy shit, that was really all it took?! What the hell had Ford been doing-
Stan turned towards Ford, looking for something from his brother, he wasn't sure what- (confirmation that he wasn't completely crazy and just hearing things, maybe?)
...and Ford looked absolutely ill. He was also staring at Stan, not either of the demon kids.
"You can't-" Ford began, and Stan clenched his jaw.
"He's mine," Stan ground out at his brother, "He ain't yours anymore. I told you that before, back home, in the kitchen, weeks ago. So don't go complaining about it now." Because if his brother was gonna complain about it, then he should have-! ...Hell, not believing the kid would go along with it was one thing, but- (Shit. Shit. -Was that why the kid had been staring at him like that, that night, after he'd gone back to the bedroom and brought up whether the kid had been listening in on…? -The kid had asked if he'd meant it. The kid had been talking about... -This was actually a thing with the kid. Holy hell.)
Ford seemed to be struggling with something, but damnit, right now Stan hardly cared.
-up until Ford pushed right past him, and said straight to the kid, almost desperately: "Leave him alone! Take me instead!"
Stan wasn't sure if he felt like he'd just been dropped in a volcano, or dipped in ice.
He'd barely managed to get his head back around to start to try and talk down the kid (-shit, what the hell would happen if Bill said 'yes'?), when the kid's look of absolute rage kind of up and hit him in the brainpan.
"YOU AREN'T INTERCHANGEABLE!" was what the kid screamed out at Ford, and it left Stan pulling in a breath hard, and Ford actually backing up a step. "And YOU are a LIAR!" the kid spat out at Stan's brother next. "You- YOU-!" the kid was shaking in place, fists clenched, struggling for words.
"Damnit kid, just talk to him like you talk to me," Stan ground out at him, because he was tired of dealing with this shit, trying to play telephone between these two - talk about games - and if the kid would just talk to Ford like he was talking to him- if his brother could just listen to Bill for two seconds without acting like he was losing his goddamn mind in the process- "Just try and act like we're-"
"-you aren't interchangeable, I can't TALK to him like I talk to you," the kid rounded on him, "-you're actually SMART." Stan flinched. "I- he-" Bill got that struggling look again.
"Talk to me, kid," Stan tried next, and that got him a-
"-pair of kings with both the same faces, face cards, but it's a rush and a race to the bottom for him, lower and lower and flattening himself out more and more, down past a jack, a possession, a puppet, a pawn, a ten, nine, eight - blow straight past six! - all the way down to a TWO-DIMENSIONAL two until he can't go any lower, still trying to match you, struggling to MATCH you-" Bill chattered out, "-down and down but he doesn't understand, refuses to understand that you're not aces-low, you're ACES HIGH-"
Bill was shaking and then he shook his head, looked up at Stan, glaring. "You're not him, he's not you - you think I can't tell the difference?!" Bill demanded out of him. "-I wasn't THINKING STRAIGHT BEFORE! Can't tell the difference between you? -I WASN'T EXPECTING HIM TO LIE!"
Bill brought a hand to his head and squeezed his eyes shut. "He wasn't supposed to- I shouldn't have to CHECK! To see if he would try and checkmate ME! That YOU were-!" Bill shook his head frantically from side to side. "He wasn't supposed to- He was supposed to- He doesn't- He WON'T- My Six-fingered Hand was going to be my right-hand man! SYMMETRY! I- nn-"
Bill gritted his teeth and shook in place again, and Stan got something of a deepening bad feeling about this...
Miz winced. "Hey kids? How about we just… step away a bit more and give them some… time to sort this out." Stan was grateful Miz was getting the niblings out of the way before this got any more nuts. (He was definitely going to have to give her a pat on the head later for this one.)
Miz herded the children farther down the street, muttering something about, "Of course he would try to take Bill back after being the one to break it off with him. Seriously, what does he even want? Can't he just make up his mind already!" (Stan mentally took back the thing about the head pat. And it was a good thing the kids were telling Miz off and setting her straight on that one, from what little Stan heard from down the street that was travelling back his way, because Stan didn't have the time to try and handle the two of these demons at once, right that very same minute.)
"-It's fine! It's fine, I don't need him anymore, I'm done with him, I have YOU now!" Bill said, looking up at him, with an almost feverish look to his eyes, as insane as Stan had ever seen him, and a grin so wide that… that... (Holy shit.)
Stan stared down at the kid, watching this sickening display, and all he could think was...
"YOU'RE better than him anyway!" the kid told him, "You can actually FIX things!" and at the last, the look the kid was giving him morphed into a terrible mixture of a kind of mad glee and desperate want, and… damnit, if this was anything like what his brother had had to deal with before, Stan had not given him enough credit… but he had a sick feeling that Ford had never gotten anywhere near this far with the kid, not even close.
...and if Stan had to guess, he'd bet that the distance between them was the difference between wanting the kid to give up half his free will and be a backstabbing 'friend' without even knowing what he was asking for, and just straight-up telling the kid that he wanted him.
(Seriously, somebody needed a damn punch to the face. Maybe that goddamn stupid 'god'-lizard that the kid kept insisting was stupid as fuck.)
The kid was panting and swaying in place and staring up at him with a mad sort of glitter in his eyes, and the next thing the kid said was, "You're not LYING to me, ARE YOU? You- you're MINE," the demon said. "You WANT to be MINE!"
"Stanley-" came the faint warning from behind him, the desperate call, and Stan had figured it out finally: his brother had no idea what he was talking about. (Damn him.)
Kid was a goddamn mirror, most days. You tossed something at him, he tossed it right back at you. You just had to be ready to catch it, to not toss anything at the kid that you couldn't handle yourself. -Color within the lines? The kid was game for that; he'd try it too, try to match it - try to match you, to see if he could. Just to see if he could. -Give him an inch, he'd go an inch; then he'd come back, and give you one back, too, just to see what you'd do with it. He got curious; he wanted to see what you'd do.
(...Give him a reason to trust you, and make him too dizzy to think twice about it? He'd take it. And take it. And take it. ...And then look down and realize what he held in his hands, when he finally had a chance to think. And then… he'd want to keep taking more of it. Because you'd cheated, yeah, sure, but you'd also shown him that you could be trusted, too, because where were the chains and the confining cage, the lock on the door and the painful blows? -There weren't any. There wasn't any of that, and the kid learned quick. The kid paid attention.)
The kid learned, and the kid listened. But the kid was still a kid. And he didn't want much. He wanted a choice. He wanted to choose. (He'd said he hadn't had a choice with his Zodiac. ...And they hadn't chosen him, either. Shit. Was that why...) -The kid wanted everything, and he'd trade it all for a couple of scraps, because the kid didn't care about everything, he only wanted...
...his brother. (-Match this card. I'm not letting go of this. 'I already drew my hand.' -You're not taking this from me.)
And some help he could actually rely on. (-I'll let you stack the deck. What do you think I need? '...Got any triangles?' -Give me what I want.)
To get him back. (-As many cards as you want. Show me what you can bring to the table. '...How about a Liam?' -Give him to me, I WANT HIM BACK.)
And Stan knew exactly what he was doing. (-All in? 'Bets in, cards down; call.' -What do I need to do to have you HELP ME get him back!)
Stan dropped a hand down on top of the kid's head, the kid who was staring up at him waiting (for a trillion years, waiting but why did it end up having to be him?), and Stan bent down just a little bit, just enough to look Bill Cipher right in the eye. -Both of them.
And Stan said, "Bill, you're on my side. I want you. -And if you think I'm ever gonna let you go, then you're out of your goddamn mind."
Ford choked behind him.
But the kid just lit up like a damn Christmas tree, and gave him the widest grin Stan had ever seen.
Endgame.
(-Gotcha.)
You lose. I win. I get you. (-And you win... me.)
...See, kid? It doesn't have to be so hard. Isn't it better this way?
(Stan had thought it would be harder. ...Why did the kid keep letting him cheat? He set the rules, and then he let Stan break them? Why did he even have them in the first place, if he was going to let him cheat to win?)
"So that Stanford isn't trying to make brother take him back?" Miz raised her eyebrows. "Despite saying, and I quote, 'Take me instead!'..."
"He was trying to save Grunkle Stan," Mabel told her firmly. "He thought Grunkle Stan was in trouble and needed saving."
"Probably the puppet-thing," Dipper muttered. "Taking him." Because that was probably the worst thing Great-Uncle Ford could think of. Because if Grunkle Stan said he wanted Bill - not what Bill knew, or what Bill thought, or what Bill could do for him, but Bill himself - then… Bill would think that he could ask for anything out of Grunkle Stan and that Grunkle Stan would give it to him. And Great-Uncle Ford would probably be afraid that that was what Grunkle Stan had meant when he'd said it, too. Right?
The twins looked at each other as they thought about that, though, and then looked back at Bill and their Grunkle. And Bill looked…
The twins exchanged another glance. Did Grunkle Stan need saving? Bill looked completely nuts right now. ...And now the twins were actually a little worried.
Miz sighed. "So that wasn't Ford trying to rekindle some past relationship?"
Mabel turned back to Miz and her mouth dropped open, while Dipper just groaned out: "They're NOT a c-couple!" The teenager looked horribly uncomfortable at having to have said this out loud, as he pulled his hat brim down. (Why did she keep on thinking that?!)
Miz frowned. "Well, that Stanford isn't brother's type anyway, 'least I don't think he is…" she said, and Dipper groaned again and pulled down on his hat harder.
Mabel sighed. "Miz, please stop telling us about Bill's type." Miz shut her mouth. Mabel thought about it for a bit, though. She kind of couldn't not. She was a romance expert, and what Miz had said made absolutely no sense to her. "Why do you keep assuming they're… a couple?" she asked Miz.
Miz's response to this was a deadpan, "I read too much fanfiction."
The kids frowned back at her with identical, confused expressions. Miz sighed and looked down at her feet as she walked. "You're too young for me to explain this to…" she mumbled, "-And Stan would probably accuse me of corrupting you or something." Miz looked back up at the twins. "Does this really upset you guys that much?" She was honestly curious.
Dipper nodded, shuddering in revulsion. "They're not romantically interested in each other. Nope. None of that. Never." There was no way.
Miz stared at him for a bit before shrugging. "Ok. If you're sure." She paused. "I guess it's a good thing they're not into each other. Would make an awful couple."
The twins heaved a sigh of relief, glad that Miz was going to drop this idea.
Miz tilted her head as she thought of something. "So… what IS Ford's type anyway? Didn't he date a Siren? Or am I getting my dimensional sets mixed up again?"
Dipper groaned loudly as his sister enthusiastically jumped on the subject shift with a: "-Yes, he did!"
