Illusion is Reality

Chapter 114

-It's like looking in a flesh mirror-

(With MizBill)

The extraction went smoothly. Pyronica caused a commotion outside the building, dumping off a few choice people we captured (a woman who mixed up homemade toxins and went to restaurants to poison people's food for fun, a man who liked to kidnap and kill people's pets to feel superior, and an assassin who was sent against me) and loudly telling the Enforcers to arrest them. We even had a folder with all the evidence of their crimes pinned to them. I wasn't sure if this vigilante justice thing was something good or bad, but geez, it was fun!

While Pyronica evaded arrest herself, I slipped out of there and escaped the building. Couldn't teleport because of the anti-teleport barrier. I could have dispersed the kitten vessel and moved around in the Mindscape, but I needed an excuse to be seen running out the door. So there I was, running down the street away from the building, slipping into an alleyway so that they wouldn't be able to find me, and told everyone to get outta there. Once I Saw that they had, Pyronica dodging the Enforcers and slipping into another alley to where Ammy was ready and waiting with an enlarged transport block, I relaxed. I prepared to teleport away myself, but froze when I felt a rumbling.

This was… a basebeat. There was music happening nearby. A quick look around revealed a dance club at the end of the alleyway. Oooh~ hello new distraction~ I shook my head. No, not right now. Get home now, bring my friends here later. Maybe bring my brother too? I wasn't sure what to do on that front. I wanted brother to live with me, but considering this entire dimensional set was made of my dead body, I could see how he was uncomfortable with that. And I didn't like making him so uncomfortable.

...could possibly move over to his set, but that had its own problems. I sighed as I finally teleported home. So I couldn't live together with Blue. But… that's fine. I couldn't live with Zeon either, since she moved out. Besides, there was always Seb's place as some kinda in-between spot we could meet up at.

I reappeared back at the Death Star, wiggling to shake off the sad thoughts. PaciFire was there, trembling. "Bill!" He gasped when he saw me, the need to snuggle was nearly overwhelming him. I gave him a nod. "Yes, yew can pet me."

He let out the lowest pitched squeal I have ever heard, and cradled me in his arms as he stroked my fur. It was pretty nice, being a cat. I closed my eyes and purred in his arms. Before I knew it, I was falling asleep, slipping off and away...

...and I was back in Seb's dimension.

Miz yawned as she stretched, twisting about on the bed and getting immediately tangled in the sheets. "Nyah!" She squeaked as she tumbled off the side of the bed, wrapped up in her blanket cocoon. She laid there for a while, too lazy to move. Then she scrunched up and wiggled, moving forward like an inchworm back to where she hoped the bed was. She hit the closet instead. "Ack!"

She laid on the ground for a while, whining.

Then she heard the footsteps outside. By the sound of it, they were her siblings! "Zaaaach! Zoooooe!" Miz whined, wiggling back and forth. "Heeeelp!"

She heard the door open and then little giggling voices. "You're stuck again." Zach pointed out. Miz hummed. "Yes. I am aware."

She felt some tugging and she let the children roll her around and free her from the blanket. "Thanks." She laid there, not wanting to move yet. "Hey, what time is it?"

"Ah… dinner time!" Zoe responded. That was the most important indicator of time after all. "And Peepa Pig is on!" That was the 2nd most important indicator of time. Miz nodded, understanding them perfectly. That's what Zoe loved about her big sister, Miz got it. "I think I can skip dinner tonight, I already ate more than enough today." Miz rolled onto her stomach and felt the twins lie down beside her, one on each side. "Don't you two have dinner to eat? You're not allowed to skip like I am." Miz reached out to ruffle Zach's hair. The little boy giggled. "We finished. We got to eat in the TV room."

"Really? What cha do to deserve that little treat?" Miz asked absently as she reached out to finger comb Zoe's hair back and braid it when the girl rolled onto her belly as well.

"Mabel gots a phone call from that old man Sixer." Zoe hummed, tilting her head back so Miz could play with her hair better. "Ah, yeah. He's a no-fun. The grown ups probably didn't want you to get soooo bored that you fall asleep in your food." Miz grinned.

"Can people really be that bored?!" Zach's eyes went wide, blown by the idea. "That sounds awful!"

"Suffocation on your food via boredom induced naps are a terrible way to go." Miz sighed, shaking her head. She finished up Zoe's braid and flicked her fingers, materializing a little scrunchie to tie it with. Only then, did she sit up. Miz scooted back, knowing where the bed was now, and leaned against the side of it. "So you two are done with dinner?" She asked the two. They nodded. "Did you put your dishes in the sink?" Miz pressed. They nodded again. "Wash your hands?" They hesitated. Miz grinned at them smugly. "Oh oooh~" she sang. The two shrieked and ran out of the room as Miz leaped to her feet. "Penalty tickles!" she screamed as she chased the two. They squealed as they ran.

Miz could have caught them easily. But she liked chasing them and they suddenly split off from each other, making her hesitate for a second, which gave them the time they needed to dive out of sight and into hiding spots. Miz huffed. "They're getting really good at this." She complained with a wide grin. "Welp, time to find you~" Miz loved hide and seek. Both the hiding and the seeking. And with Stan's penthouse comprising three entire floors of this apartment building… the kids could theoretically be anywhere now.

...and that made it all the more fun for her~

"Did you hear something?" Stan looked up from his reheated dinner. "Just the children playing I'm sure." Carla shrugged, washing the children's dishes. Even with the high tech dishwasher, one still had to scrape off any solid food first. Stan always stuck his dishes right in, which just meant the pasta would get heat blasted and glued to the ceramic, which drove Carla insane. She heard from Abigail that her husband had to be trained to stop doing that. Sebastian on the other hand, Wanda claimed, washed everything by hand to begin with. The woman sighed. She sort of wished her Stanny could be more like his younger brothers sometimes.

But it was fine. At least Stan tried. That was better than just leaving his dirty dishes in the sink (which Carla's own father had done all her life). Carla finished her dishes and considered the dinner that everyone else was finally finishing. "Hey Stanny~" she called out. "Yeah? What's up?"

"I'm tired, can you do the dishes tonight?" Part of Carla was a little sad that they sent Aaron and Sasha away for the summer. Sasha especially, considering the bodyguard seemed to enjoy playing a Maid whenever her charges were at home and safe. But Carla had been the one to suggest it, wanting them to have a nice summer break as well, so she couldn't complain about it now. And the cleaners they hired only came by once a week to do a thorough cleaning of their apartment. So they'd all have to do their own dishes for the rest of the week before they went to New Jersey to spend the remainder of their summer vacation.

Stan groaned. "Do I have to?" He whined. Carla raised an eyebrow at him. "Stanny, please?"

He groaned but agreed with a, "Fine honey~" and got up with his now finished plate. Carla kissed his cheek as he walked past, "Thanks~ you're the best~"

That got a grin out of her husband. Really, the 'train your husband' tips that Abigail's been giving her worked! "Oh, remember to scrape off the remaining food before you put the plates in the dishwasher." she reminded him, not wanting a repeat.

"Sure, got it." Stan turned on the sink and rinsed his plate, washing the crumbs down the sink.

"I never have to scrape off Miz's bowls." Wanda noted. "She always gets every last crumb that she could." The blonde giggled. "She even eats the bones."

"Well, I think Miz is a special case." Sixer smiled behind his mug of coffee (decaf, at his mother's insistence that he sleep at night like the rest of them.) "She doesn't like wasting any food, if she can help it. And she's capable of digesting everything as well."

"...hey, do any of you find Miz's hunger a little… odd?" Shermie asked. He had been quiet all during that discussion with the older Ford, but there were some things that were brought up that worried him. When everyone gave him curious looks, Shermie sighed. "Look, I… might just be overthinking this, but…" He tried to put his thoughts into words.

"Mabel," Shermie started. "Remember when we first adopted Twizzler?", that was their pet cat. She was a stray they rescued from the streets. Mabel nodded. She had been the one to beg that they keep her after all. "Remember how much Twizzler begged for food? And overate constantly, always searching for more food and finishing her entire bowl if we filled it all the way?"

Abigail, Dipper and Mabel all nodded.

"And we were real annoyed by it, had to put her on a diet because she was getting too overweight. And… remember what the vet told us?"

Mabel frowned. That was years ago. "He said that… because Twizzler was a stray, she was afraid of not having food anymore, and ate everything there, when it was available. Because she used to starve when she lived on the streets."

Shermie nodded. "I know Miz isn't a cat," he said, unaware of the irony of his words, missing the entire context for that particular joke, "But what do we know about Miz's childhood?" he asked them all. Some of them still looked confused, but Sebastian understood exactly what he meant. So did Kari.

"She probably went hungry as a child… and now… she finishes everything, doesn't want to waste any at all." Kari remembered her own mother being much like that, having survived the Great Depression and being very worried about having enough food and supplies. And financial security. A thing that she'd taught Kari very well. Too well. It was her mother's words and teachings that had made Kari choose financial security with Filbrick over the potential homelessness that would come with leaving him. Even if that meant she had to bear with his abusive behavior. Kari wouldn't blame her mother for this, in the end, it had been her own decision. Kari sighed.

"So… Miz eats so much… because she was starved as a child?" Mabel gasped. That sounded awful. She turned to Stan. "We should take her to buffets more often."

"...sweetie, even I'm not that cruel." Stan told her simply as he rinsed off another plate.

"It's fine Mabel. Miz is getting food now. She's ok now." Abigail assured her daughter.

"Ok, so that's another thing we need to watch for." Wanda noted down. She sighed. The list was getting long. But that's what happened when she adopted a traumatized child/triangle/demon-god. But that wasn't going to make Wanda give up on her. Obviously, no one had ever been there for Blue, to teach him and take care of him, but Wanda was here for Miz, and she wasn't going to give up on her.

Wanda worried about these things as she heard the sounds of running footsteps and looked over to see Zoe dash into the room, look around, and dive under the table. "...Zoe, you shouldn't be running after you eat. It'll give you stomach cramps."

"Miz wants to tickle punishment!" was Zoe's reply from beneath the table. Wanda sighed. She got up from the table and looked down the hall, hoping to find Miz. Ah, there she was, opening the bathroom door and checking inside. "Miz, honey?"

The girl looked over, brightening. "Hi mommy!"

"No tickling or chasing your siblings, or anyone else, right after they've eaten food. It's bad for their health." Wanda told her simply. Miz frowned and thought about it. "Oh, okay." And that was that. Wanda turned back to the kitchen and called out for Zoe to come out of hiding.

"Just go wash your hands already." Miz pouted. Zoe sighed, making a show of how this was just such a chore- and how could they do this to her?! But she shuffled off to the bathroom and got the little stool so she could reach the sink. Miz smiled and patted her head, absently fixing her hair from the disarray it had become during the chase.

"Now to find Zach." Miz skipped off down the hall. Wanda rolled her eyes. She sort of understood that other Ford's worry, but Miz was a good child. (So long as the subject of 'bad guys' wasn't brought up. Wanda understood her anger over people like pedophilles and rapists, but simply evicerating them all wasn't the solution here.)

Miz checked on all the rooms, grumbling about how large this place was (what's the point of a place this big if it didn't have moving floors or stairs that lead sideways through walls?!) while calling out to Zach. "I'm not gonna tickle you anymore~ Mommy said I can't~"

She got to a bedroom in a rather out of the way location, ah this was a storage room that was made into a guest bedroom, and opened the door to finally find him. She also giggled. Zach was on the bed, under the covers, but she could easily see the bump in the blanket. Zach liked sleeping sideways after all. "Hey buddy~" Miz hopped onto the bed, getting a squeak from her little brother. "Can't hide like that, everyone can still tell you're there." She told him.

Zach wiggled and peeked out from the blankets. "But if I cover myself, you can't see me!" He pointed out. Miz giggled. "Well, we can't see you, but we still know you're here." Zach groaned, falling back down onto the pillow. "You cheated."

"Nope. Didn't need to cheat for this~" Miz laid down beside him. "Well, I'm not allowed to tickle you after you eat. Mommy said so."

"That's good." Zach wiggled up to press against her side, laying a hand across her stomach in a half hug. "I think I'd throw up."

"Yeah that's probably why mommy said I can't do that anymore." Miz sighed. "But once you're digested, it's free game." She warned him. Zach gasped. "Then I'll always be eating something! That way you can never tickle me again!" He declared. Miz cackled. "But eating too much will make you throw up too!"

Zach huffed into the pillow. "Sucks." He punched the blanket. Miz nodded solemnly. "Yeah, human anatomy sucks sometimes." They laid there for a while, not saying anything. And then Zach asked, "How come you can eat without throwing up?"

"Oh, it's not that I don't throw up, I just have a much larger stomach capacity. Rather, I can break down the mass of things and therefore there's less stuff taking up space in my stomach."

"Like a trash compactor!" Zach cheered. Miz giggled, "More like a nuclear reactor, but I guess your example works too." Zach grunted, kicking his legs against the blankets and rolling around on the bed. "Your way makes more sense," he told her.

"It's more efficient, certainly." Miz shrugged. Zach rolled over again. "Can I get a stomach like yours?" he asked innocently. Miz grinned. "Well! We could make a Deal…" A bit of blue fire flickered around her fingers.

"Nah." Zach dismissed easily. "Dun feel like it." He knew a little about Deals from daddy. And daddy always asked them to do stuff for him in exchange. But Zach was tired from running, and it was late, and the bed was soft. So he didn't want to do anything right now.

Miz's flames sputtered out and she pouted. "Aww…" she looked at how Zach was yawning into the pillow. "Hey, you need to brush your teeth before you sleep. Cavities are worse than throwing up."

"...dun wanna…" Zach's voice was muffled against the pillow. Miz sighed, sitting up. "Brushing your teeth is definitely something you need to do. Come on Zachy…" She tried to pull on him, but he refused to budge, so she rolled her eyes, slid an arm under and around his waist, and lifted him off the bed. "I'll carry you to the bathroom, and then you have to brush, okay?"

"...brush for me…"

"You sleepy little baby~" Miz teased, popping Zach over her shoulder to carry better as they went to the guest room that Zach and Zoe were sharing. His toothbrush was in the adjoined bathroom there. Zach grumbled, but Miz sat him on the tabletop sink and set to work setting up his toothbrush for him.

"You're already five years old, I won't be able to help you with this forever, you know?" Miz told him, even as she filled his little cup with water and held it up to his mouth. He sipped a mouthful and sloshed it around inside before spitting it into the sink. Miz then held his toothbrush up to him. "Are you gonna brush or will I have to do this for you too?"

"Ahhh…" Zach responded, mouth open and eyes closed. Miz rolled her own. "You are so spoiled."

"You keep spoiling me," was Zach's cheeky response. Miz laughed. "Just for that, you have to brush your own teeth." And she handed the toothbrush to him and waited. Zach whined, dropping it, but a blue glow surrounded it and floated it back into his hand. "Nope, not getting off that easy."

Amidst lots of grumbling, Zach brushed his teeth. Once he finished spitting and rinsing, he asked, "How come you don't brush your teeth?"

"I don't have to. Because my teeth are magical." Miz was incredibly smug about this. "Never had a cavity before in my life! Not even when I was human! Because back then, I DID brush my teeth!"

"You should brush it too!" Zach complained. Miz rolled her eyes. "But there's no point in me doing that now-"

"Brush!" Zach demanded, kicking his legs against the mirror. Miz sighed. "Fiiiiine~" So she flicked her fingers, created her own toothbrush, and brushed her own teeth. Zach looked incredibly triumphant about this. Miz grumbled, but she was a big sister. She had to set a good example. So she brushed in all the ways one should, the front of your teeth, with an up and down motion, off to the sides of your teeth, sliding the brush past your cheeks, still an up and down motion and this was all while keeping your teeth closed. Then she opened her mouth to brush the tops and insides of her teeth. "See? This way, you get all the spots." Miz told Zach quite clearly, despite her mouth not moving. The perks of being a telepath.

Once Miz finished rinsing, she materialized some floss. "You're gonna need to learn this too." Zach gave a long suffering sigh, but knew his big sis wasn't gonna let him sleep until he did this. So the two of them carefully flossed between their teeth. Then Miz wiped down Zach's face with a towel and cleaned around his neck, behind his ears- to his half-hearted protests, and then carried the boy back into his current room to get his pajamas.

(If Seb was here, he'd have told Miz that she was really spoiling him. But Seb was also wrapped around his children's fingers, so he had no right to talk.)

As Miz got him changed and tucked into bed, Zach pulled on her sleeve. "Story?" He begged. Miz ruffled his hair. "Of course." So she laid down beside him on the bed and told him about the adventures of a high school detective who got drugged and turned into a child. The boy didn't know what homicide was, but he laughed at the story when Miz told him about how he made up a fake name based on the books that happened to be nearby. "He's bad at lying!" Zach giggled.

"Yeah, Shinichi is too honest for his own good. Well, he gets much better at lying later." Miz shrugged. She continued to regale him with the murder mysteries she remembered and only stopped when Zach's breathing evened out and he was fast asleep. Miz kissed his cheek and got up from the bed as carefully as she could. "Night Zach."

Zoe was very upset that Zach fell asleep without her. So upset, that she was pouting the entire time that mommy helped her get ready for bed. "I'm gonna sleep with mommy and daddy tonight!" she declared. Wanda sighed. "If you want to."

"Well, you have fun." Miz wasn't all that tired, having 'slept' for a few hours already. So she left them to it and walked off to find something to do until she felt like sleeping. As it happened, she wandered into Sixer's guest room.

"Hey, Fordsie~ What cha dooooing~" Miz peeked in. Sixer was lying in bed, all set to sleep, if it weren't for the journal opened in his lap. "Good evening Miz, I'm simply making some notes to myself for things Fiddleford and I should work on. For the betterment of the world. The other me mentioned a few things I've never thought of. Should help a lot of people."

"Like what?" Miz jumped onto the bed, crawling over to lie on his lap. Sixer sighed. "A method of checking people's mental health, for one. To help people who might be a danger to themselves get noticed so they could get the help they need."

"Good luck with that." Miz said blandly. "Human society is pretty fucked up right now." She grumbled. "Can't fucking believe that orange bitch got elected here too…"

"You can't kill the president." Sixer said in the tired tone of someone who'd had this conversation multiple times (and it wasn't even all with Miz! He's had to talk down several people at the Center who wanted to assassinate the president.) "I don't like him either, but killing him wouldn't fix the country."

"I know." Miz grumbled. "If I believe it would, he'd already be dead."

"Please don't talk like that." Sixer sighed, not as worried sounding as he probably should have been. "So I'm just supposed to let this happen?" Miz grumbled. Sixer winced.

"I don't have an answer for that." He reached over to pet her hair until she calmed down. "I'm just doing what I can, to heal the damage in the world." He told her. "And you're helping. You're not doing nothing." Miz hummed, picking at the blanket with her nails. "I guess… but I could do so much more."

"...this is fine." Sixer told her. "You've got time, no need to rush, humanity isn't going to die out if you let us go at our own pace." Miz grumbled but settled down at that. The petting helped to settle her anxiety over the deteriorating society on this Earth. It didn't mean she was any less upset about it though. Still, his hand felt nice and Miz rumbled away on his lap as he pet her until she fell asleep.

The next morning was a bright day. With glaring sunlight and rapidly rising temperatures.

Ford was up with the sun - not necessarily because he wanted to be, but old habits from his three decades of dimension-hopping hadn't exactly evaporated overnight in the little over ten months of time with a roof of some sort rather consistently over his head. He was fine in such rising temperatures himself (he'd certainly had to survive far worse in other dimensions than this one), but he'd taken the time to pitch a 'tent' of sorts over both his own head and Bill's, just in case.

Bill seemed perfectly capable of sleeping in himself, though he wasn't as dead to the world here as Ford had slowly begun to get used to seeing out of him. He was twitching at times, and...

...yes, Ford was aware that the use of his coat to try and keep the sunlight off of Bill was likely all that his efforts were doing. Bill had almost certainly set up another of those temperature-controlling spells as part of his usual warding barrier circles of spellwork. He could look out over the roof and see the wavering heat already beginning to rise up into the air off of several of the surfaces here on top of the little stairwell-room they were both camped out on top of at present, this access entryway and exit from the roof of the brownstone where they had spent the past night. The temperatures he was currently feeling, however, were anything but close to that warm.

Ford sighed where he was sitting next to Bill, perfectly upright himself, and he continued trying to use the 'journal app' in the borrowed phone that he'd been given for his current use to write down his thoughts and several diagrams. He didn't particularly like feeling as though he was needing to dabble his fingers in watercolors across the minuscule screen; he missed his own better (and far superior) devices with a sharp almost physical pang inside his chest.

...or perhaps that was his stomach. But he persevered on with his work, given that it was a very bad idea for him to leave the roof, thus leaving Bill completely to his own devices-

"...Why do you always have to think so loud, it's annoying…" was the complaint that came out of said Bill, where he was lying on his side, still unmoving.

"...of course you're awake." Ford grumbled. He was beginning to feel as though he didn't know why he even tried anymore, truly.

Then Ford froze in place for a moment, feeling a jolt of panic, because-

"I made another metal plate for that vessel for you here, stop acting all stupid on me already," was what Bill said to him next, "Too early in the morning for your lunacy yet today, you idiot. At least wait until AFTER all of the stupid breakfast-meal eating, why don't you," with an ever-increasing level of annoyance to his tone. (Ford still shot him a look and raised a hand to his head to rap against ths side of his head quickly - and set it ringing - just to be certain of this.)

"Perhaps if you didn't want to hear my very loud thoughts," Ford told him next, rather slowly, as he lowered his hand to his lap again, "Then you should have made it properly the first time."

Bill didn't quite groan as he slowly pushed himself (and his older female body-vessel) upright. "I DID make it properly the first time. I also made it properly again THIS time. You're just vibrating more through the Mindscape right now," Bill informed him next, "Because you're in a vessel. Not your own body," Ford was then told.

Ford blinked at this.

"...So I am far less secure in the vessel that you have forced me inside, from the time that you first brought me here." Typical.

"If you'd just claim it already, you'd be a lot better off," Bill grumbled out at him next, arms bracing his torso upright behind him. The dream demon blinked at him from where he was half-lounging, half sitting.

And Bill almost seemed rather perturbed as he slowly turned his head to look around for several long moments, then said, almost suspiciously, "...Why is it so bright?"

Ford himself blinked at this, almost lowering the phone. "This level of light seems bright to you?" He got a bit of a dirty look for his trouble.

"The atmosphere is different here. More radiation trapped from the sun," was what came from Ford's phone next.

Bill blinked his eyes, and when he reopened them, he was looking down at the phone in Ford's hand without having moved his head or neck one bit.

"I have the locals on speakerphone," Ford informed him. ("...Of course you do," Bill said almost waspishly back next, pushing himself forward until he was sitting cross-legged without needing to brace himself against the surface below them.)

"Goooood morning brother!" came out of the phone speakers next, which made Blue brighten up a little. And also remember he was not Blue here anymore, he was claiming his/their name of 'Bill Cipher' back from that stupid broken-'Bill' that had been here, post-haste.

"Good morning, little sister," Bill said to her right back (starting to smile a bit almost unconsciously in response to her greeting). "Who have you decided to go about being today at the moment? Miz? Xin? Jan? Someone else?" Sounded like Miz, but he wanted to be certain. (He also didn't feel like using his 'looking-spell' on her at the moment if he didn't have to; he'd only recently just woken up, and was being almost a bit lazy at the moment, given the wards around and surrounding him had remained completely undisturbed over the course of the night.)

"I'm being Miz today," his sister told him gleefully (as Ford gave him a long look). "I might change my mind later, but that's for later. Are you doing alright? Did you sleep well? Are you hungry?" was what came after, in a quick barrage.

"Mm," said Bill. "I am fine. I slept as well as I usually do. I am hungry, but also not; I should eat something though, yes," he answered her back at a slightly more leisurely pace.

"We're leaving our present location to go get something for breakfast now," Ford said over the line rather curtly, before disconnecting the line rather abruptly. (He didn't particularly want to keep talking, or keep that communication line open, now that he knew that the man-eater was awake and listening on the other end of the line.)

"We're heading out too. There's a diner I like nearby, if you two wanna come meet us there?" Stanley said over the phone next, to frown as he turned back towards the table and realized that the call had ended already from the message on the phone screen. "...The hell?"

"Rude." Miz pouted. "Don't know why he still hates me so much."

If he hated you 'that much', he'd be trying to shoot at you with something, little sis. Blue's voice came out of nowhere in the middle of the air surrounding them next. Idiot Sixer. Can't believe he thinks I can't talk with you all without a- His 'voice' seemed to cut out in the middle of his apparent thought.

Miz blinked. "Well if he doesn't hate me, why's he always so mean?" she huffed. Wanda looked up from where she was helping the twins put their shoes on. "Just ignore him sweetie."

'Mean'? You are the one who isn't playing by the usual rules, little sis. And you call yourself a demon. The sound of Blue's 'voice' was definitely teasing at the ending bit there. For shame! HA!

"That's cause I don't know what the usual rules are." Miz puffed out cheeks. "Haven't really hung out with any real Demon-Demons. Like, PaciFire's a demon imp, but he's not a Demon." You could hear the capitalization.

...You should keep not-doing that, little sis. Blue told her next, a bit more soberly. No need for you to 'hang out with' any other demons.

"I don't think my dimension has any. Just me. The closest I've seen is some powerful demon-gods, but even they don't act like those demons from the outside that you've told me about."

Good. was Blue's contribution to that particular point of discussion.

"Miz? Are you ready?" Wanda called back to her as everyone began piling out the door. The dragon nodded, slipping into her shoes quickly and scampering after the rest of her family. "Can mommy and the others hear you?" She asked.

Should be able to if they're nearby, I'm using sound waves, and not maintaining a radius of non-transmission there currently, yes?

"Yup, loud and clear." Wanda wasn't sure where it was coming from though. "Oh, would you mind passing on a message to your Ford? He cut off our call before we could ask him."

Depends on the message, and if I feel like telling him and letting him know about being able to do this right now. Blue didn't sound like he was particularly inclined to do so at the moment, given his tone.

"We're all going out for breakfast at a diner nearby. Stan wanted to know if you two wanted to come. They have a large assortment, many vegetarian and vegan dishes too." Wanda wasn't sure if he would, but she was going to ask anyway, 'twas only polite.

Sixer has consistently been talking about not wanting me around other humans, and also not anywhere near the rest of you, since yesterday evening. Blue noted next, his 'voice' sounding quite dry. And he usually isn't very consistent about anything at all anymore these days. A slight pause. Not that he ever was, really.

"Well, Miz wanted to give you a good morning hug but she's too shy to ask you directly." Wanda said, smile clear from her tone of voice. Miz whined, "Mooooom!" Zach and Zoe giggled. "You gave US morning hugs," they said loudly, so that Blue could hear, "So why're you shy?" But Miz just huffed. "Well, brother doesn't like hugs as much as I do."

There was a bit of a pause.

...which extended a good bit longer than just a thinking pause, into a good minute of silence from Blue's end.

"...brother?" Miz was a little worried now that she'd somehow upset him.

Then they heard a phone ring. -Mabel's from the ringtone of it. Mabel pulled out her phone, the lot of them in the elevator together (the problem with living in the penthouse suite was the long elevator rides) and slid the call button over, then put it on speaker.

"...Greetings," they all heard from her phone, though it sounded almost a tad reluctant this time, or maybe a little reserved. Stan chuckled. "Heeey other Ford. We're going ta go get breakfast together. Wanna meet up at the place? I'm paying. And you know that's a lot coming from me." Everyone else was muffling their mirth behind their hands.

"...And I expect I shall be paying for it with more discussion in return, as per the usual," they heard next with a sigh.

"Not if you're not up for it. Nothing wrong with just having a little family breakfast together, just to enjoy each other's company." Stan shrugged.

"I don't suppose that this discussion could take place with Bill and the man-eater at a separate table a bit farther away from us, out of extended earshot but not out of sight." A pause. "So that Bill could at least do me the courtesy of talking to other people behind my back in front of my face," they heard next, with something of a hardness underlying his exasperated and slightly-raised tone. ...Which was apparently directed at Bill, since what they heard next was, "I was doing it in front of your face, you idiot. Yeesh. -Only in physicality, Bill; not in principle," came the older Ford in dour tone next.

"Sure, we can have a kid's table." Stan agreed easily. "Dipper, Mabel, Dillon, you three are in charge of chaperoning."

"Aw come on! Kids' table again?! I'm 19!" Dipper complained, almost stomping his feet down. Mabel laughed as she leaned on his back, "The kids' table is the COOL table!" She grinned at the 'adults' in the room. "Sorry guys, you're not cool enough to sit with us! Right kids?" She asked her cousins. The twins and Diego cheered, """Cool table! Cool table!"""

"Oh no, the iced tea instead of the hot one instead, however WILL me and my sister survive! ...Bill. What. I get my hugs, you get your talking; we all get all of the food. That's fair. ...Hardly." (Ford was a bit worried about Bill being around the other people in this city. Most of the locals he'd seen on the streets had seemed rather grating thus far.)

"Will there be thai iced tea? I haven't had that since forever?" Was Miz's only response to that. Stan shrugged. "We'd need to be in a thai restaurant for those, sorry. We could go to one for lunch?" Miz cheered. "Thai food! Thai food!"

"I'd rather finish what we need to in this next conversation, if at all possible," the older Ford said next rather dryly. (He was pinching the bridge of his nose again as he walked.) "Where is this place where you want us to meet?"

Stan gave him the address, it was a big diner, and this early in the morning, there should be enough seats for everyone, including a 2nd table.

There was some lower talking on the other end, then: "Bill has given me the street-level directions from our location. We will likely be there before you arrive." A pause, then a sigh. "How many seats should I be reserving for this meal?"

"There's 15 of us here, so 17 with you and Blue." Stan said back.

A slight pause. "Understood." Another pause. Then an exasperated: "No, Bill, we are not going to conquer the restaurant for-"

And then there was a click as the call disconnected.

"They're funny," was Diego's very astute observation. Dillon ruffled his little brother's hair. "That they are. But that doesn't mean you can say that to their face." Diego shrugged, not seeing the problem. The elevator finally made it to the ground floor. Good thing there were 20 elevators in this building or they would have been in trouble.

"Hey, imagine if someone else wanted to get on at another floor?" Mabel smirked. Dillon groaned and leaned against his cousin. "Don't even- I've been late for school before because of that! Uuugh! Penthouses suck!" complained the rich boy.

"Hey!" Stan complained. Penthouses were cool!

When the Pines family walked in, at least a few of them collectively facepalmed at the scene before them.

The place looked a bit like a warzone. There were what appeared to be makeshift barricades in place, made out of coat racks (that had been clearly pulled off of the wall from over by the door) and some sort of twine that was hooked strategically off of several sections of the diner, around other tables and chairs (and, in a few cases, picture frames on the walls and over the drop-down ceiling braces), forming a clear and distinct delineation between one area and the next.

There was also a staring (read: glaring) contest going on between, not the older Ford and Blue, but the two of them against a rather large group of people on the other side of said barricade. (...And maybe also a little bit of glaring from Ford at Blue, from time to time.)

...The odd thing about the whole mess was, while there were several open tables being defended at the twosome's backs, that area was open to the general public and anyone who was coming in the door. The other side of the barricade was farther into the shop, and the people on that side all seemed to already have tables.

"Stay on your side," they heard the older Ford intone darkly, not in a way that made it sound like the first time that he'd said it. He also had his hand held a bit oddly at the left side pocket of his coat (...where that weapon thing was. Right.), while Blue was standing at his right side, quite straight and tall, head tilted back slightly, chin up, with his arms crossed authoritatively.

"...I'm not even gonna ask." Carla rubbed her temples. Stan turned to the hostess, hiding behind her little check in area. "Hey, um… we're here for the… uh… reservation for the group of 17 people?" The poor woman shakingly raised a hand to point at the older Stanford and Blue.

The older Ford turned, and his thunderous expression brightened considerably. "Ah!" (At the shift of movement out of the corner of his eye, though he whirled back immediately towards the barrier, hand at his gun pocket at the ready-)

Blue casually whipped his hand forward abruptly, and there was a dull 'thunk!' and a curse as the man who started to step forward backwheeled, pulling his hand back and shaking it with a hissing wince. (There was also now a fork embedded in a table in-line between Blue and himself, almost down to the tines…)

"Stay on your side," the older Ford repeated, yet again.

Sixer waved. Just going with the flow. "Thank you for reserving the tables for us." while Stan gave the hostess a charming smile. "We're a large group, figured we'd send some people ahead to warn you all first." The woman just continued staring. Kari sighed. "We apologize for the trouble." Because of course. Well, she wasn't going to hold it against them. As long as the other customers weren't harmed, or any of the staff.

"The only trouble here," the older Ford said, not looking away from said 'trouble' this time as he talked, "Are these ruffians, who tried to spread out two to a table here, to take these ones that were needed, when they already had tables of their own," he ended with a glare at the offending younger crowd on the other side of said barricade. ("Was just a joke, man," one of them complained, at the old scientist's gimlet thousand-mile glare.)

Ignoring all the drama like it was just 'normal', Miz ran forward with her arms out. "Good morning big brother!" and waited to see if Blue was going to reciprocate her hug before she actually pressed herself against him.

Blue reached an arm backwards behind him, not quite turning away from the offending 'ruffians' - and without taking his eyes away from any of them, he easily pulled her forward and up to his side, in a supportive and bracing one-armed hug. "Hello, little sis. Are you ready for your breakfast meal, and all of the eating?"

"Yup!" Miz chirped, happy as can be with spending some quality time with her brother. The rest of the Pines herd began to sit down at the tables, the adults heading over to the older Ford's side and the kids vice versa. Dipper was flushing from intense embarrassment at the whole situation.

"Freak…" was one of the 'ruffians' muttered from the other side of the makeshift barricade.

Half of the entire pack of Pines (which was still quite a lot), all stood up at the same time, and in unison, turned to the offender and intoned together, like some horrifying hivemind, """What did you just say?""

The older Ford himself bristled in place, but Bill turned back around smoothly and said to the ruffian directly, "Yes! What's your point?" Which left the older Ford snapping his head around, shocked and staring at Bill (feeling rather attacked and betrayed, even though he himself berated himself almost immediately for that reaction, because this was Bill, and he should have known better), as Bill just kept on standing there calmly, if not looking just a bit excited at this, from the glint in his eyes, and-

"I called you a freak, you lunatic-" the young man stopped when two of his friends grabbed him by the arms and started tugging him back.

"Oh, FINALLY," Blue said next, raising a hand to his breastbone and just about fluttering his eyelashes at the fool. "I thought you'd never NOTICE! -You could do to act like you acknowledge it, though," Blue grinned out at them next.

And then the pin finally dropped for the older Ford.

He stared at the sixty-something-year-old-female-looking lighter-blue-and-grey-haired, short-haired, spike-cut, shorts and t-shirt wearing, cat-eyed, tattooed within an inch of their life human-seeming demonic 'woman' standing right there in front of him, with hands, arms, and legs dyed perfectly black, and a brick pattern of similar darkness clearly spanning from somewhere down his chest up all the way to the tip of their chin, and...

"...Ah," said the older Ford, slowly beginning to relax almost immediately. Because they'd been talking about the demon at his side who in many circles called himself the king of freaks and nightmares, most of whom he called 'friends'. Not him. "Right. Yes." Of course they'd been referring to Bill; by most human visual standards, he undoubtedly looked like he'd be more at home in the midst of a tent full of circus freaks, than standing in the middle of a diner in the heart of the city of New York, surrounded largely by suits-wearing businessmen and by what Mabel would probably term 'hipsters'. (Ford dropped his left hand to lay relaxed at his side, and ran his other hand over his face.)

"...I can't take you anywhere, can I," the older Ford said, not even sure why he felt like there was a laugh somewhere down there, bubbling up in his chest.

"What? Sixer, you're the one who started this whole 'posturing' gig," Bill complained right back at him, turning on his heel and walking (read: escorting his sister) past him. "If you'd let them take all the tables, we could've liberated all their booths, and all their food!" (There were a few exclamations of protest from the other side of the barricade at this. The poor hostess and a few waitresses and bystanders were trying to take the barricade down, without much success, until Blue turned and made another whipping motion with his hand, and there was a 'ping' at one particular ceiling tile and a snapping sound, and the whole entire makeshift divider-contraption immediately came down like a heavy curtain dropping between the two makeshift sections, with a clattering series of thuds.)

The other Pines sat down again, ignoring the weird looks the other people were sending them. Wanda was nursing a headache. She wasn't going to complain about Seb in public ever again. Things could have been so much worse.

"VICTORY!" Blue proclaimed next, as he and his sister took up their own set of seats, while the older Ford gingerly sat down at the opposite and farthest-most table away from the two of them (and all of the other children), where the Pines had left a seat open for him.

"Apologies," the older Ford told them all. "I would have been able to keep it all without blood shed, but I wasn't able to keep Bill away from the forks." (The man they'd seen shaking his hand earlier was being herded towards the back room, holding his hand, while another person exited from the area where he was being led to, with a large bandage across their lower wrist.)

"...it's fine. As long as no one was hurt." Kari sighed. Stan was trying to wave down a waitress. Sixer and Shermie were checking their wallets, making sure they had enough to generously tip the poor wait staff.

"...Not… in any significant way, no," the older Ford afforded. "Nothing that should leave any lasting scars-" He paused. "Ah. You have helped Fiddleford develop dermal regenerators in this dimension already, haven't you?" he asked of the local Ford next. At the blank look he got in return, he added next, "...Or at least a modified version of that ointment for…? Ah..." He trailed off at the looks he was getting from the rest of them.

Sixer pulled out his journal and wrote down more stuff. He didn't want to admit it, but there was starting to be too much work. "We have some healing salves, we needed to make them after all the explosions and fires that happen at the Center. Full on regeneration requires permission from the government because that's considered human testing."

The older Ford blinked at him at this news.

"Fiddleford's safety measures aren't being followed at your lab?" They'd seemed very restrictive at the Institute he'd been at in his own 'set's Dimension 46. "I'm surprised that he hasn't been chasing down the worst of the offenders with velociraptor robots by now, if people are losing limbs that need regenerating over this."

"Oh, I think you're misunderstanding." Sixer adjusted his glasses. "He loves watching them burn. Some sort of emotional release for him."

The older Ford blinked at him, looking a bit perturbed at this news.

"...I see," the older Ford said rather reservedly in reply.

"No one's been seriously hurt. And we have medical staff on hand whenever an experiment goes out of control." Sixer didn't see the issue. Everyone working there knew what to expect when they signed up, it was in their contract.

"...When they go out of control," the older Ford repeated. (Not 'if'. 'When'. In a supposedly-controlled and controllable setting. Without a portal or anything from the other side of a portal introduced in the mix. Which… Ford blinked as he realized, they didn't have a portal- meaning they couldn't go around grabbing and reverse engineering advanced technology from more civilized dimensions, ah, so that was why they were so… behind, in the tech levels here, despite having an Institute of some sort.)

"Ah, Dr. Clark's experiments like to escape containment. Luckily, they're mostly harmless, they do knock items over sometimes." Sixer looked at the menu, wondering what to order. Coffee and toast sounded good.

"Give 'im time, older Ford." Seb looked over and gestured at Dipper. The teenager turned and pulled Zoe's hand off her mouth and sprinkled pepper over it, as he'd been told to do, to stop the kids from biting themselves. "I'm pretty sure he'll be more careful with safety and not exploding every five minutes when he gains old wise experience~" Seb grinned at the kid's table. The toddler whined loudly at being prevented from eating her hand. "Zoe, no biting means yourself as well." Dipper sighed. ("-Stop that," was Blue's snapped-out contribution to the discussion, rapping Zoe on top of her head with a now-empty water glass (that he'd just emptied into his mouth, by way of drinking it all down). "You are not food.")

"I'd love to give him time. In fact, I'd rather be sure that he survives that long first," said older Ford murmured as an aside to the man's slightly younger and more demonic brother. The older Ford folded his hands on the table and asked the younger scientist next, "Have you considered creating a separate annex for those experiments that like to escape, to roam about inside without causing a series of rather dire consequences to the rest of your working staff, away from other experiments that might potentially be explosive or otherwise rather unstable if knocked over or otherwise investigated by inquisitive outer phalanges, limbs, or feelers?" All he could really think here was that perhaps they'd never had the idea for an underground bunker, or something similar, here.

"We're actually in the middle of building a new wing of the building." Sixer said proudly. "Fiddleford had the idea to make use of that new metal they've developed, since it's much lighter, to make a new floor on top and off to the sides." Sixer glanced over at where Miz was pointing at multiple items on the menu, chattering away to the waitress as she wrote down everything the dragon-in-disguise wanted to eat. "I've been meaning to inspect Miz's sub-space pockets to see if I could recreate my own."

"-and the corned beef omelette. And the strawberry pancakes. And the roast beef sandwich-"

"Those are incredibly dangerous, and far too easy to destabilize," the older Ford told him next, almost aghast, and with no small amount of horror. "Didn't you run into any of those in your travels?"

"In my travels, yes. And they were very unstable. But Miz's are different." Sixer flipped his journal around to the page where he wrote down his notes on the extension to Seb and Wanda's house. "I've got my observations of the one she's built in Sebastian's house here."

"And if you don't know the equations for how they are constructed and operate in the first place, before you begin to attempt an inspection-" The older Ford visibly stopped himself with an effort. "If you don't have the proper containment for roving experiments, I doubt you have the proper containment for handling the sudden eruption of a compressed space into our own local setting, especially one of unknown size that would require a great deal of very careful and dangerous probing first."

"That's the wonder of it." Sixer pointed at his journal page, which had many paragraphs of equations that he'd been able to figure out. "It's fully stable. In fact, it… it's just as real as all the space around it! And indestructible as well! But it's fully connected and functional with the outside world. There's even a working drainage system!"

For a moment, the older Ford stared at him, and wondered if he himself was being too cautious. He understood the draw of the unknown, the wonder that pure science could bring-

"It's amazing! And it doesn't make any sense! Except that all the math checks out! I've recalculated it multiple times and everything works! The only reason I haven't been able to make it myself is the sheer amount of energy input needed to anchor the space down- and it requires even more energy to push the size to be as big as it is-" Sixer was amazed at how effortless Miz made it seem!

-except this younger version of himself was being incredibly foolish in how he was going about all of this, because while risking his own life and limb in the pursuit of such wonders was one thing-

"-Are you only planning on instituting proper safety measures at your facility before, or only after, someone else has died?" the older Ford said next, cutting him off rather bluntly indeed.

Sixer blinked. "We do have safety measures. And we're adding more every day, we do an inspection of all the machines every week- I'm sorry if my statements have made you think otherwise, but we aren't as reckless as you believe." He adjusted his glasses. "The explosions are controlled, they only go out of control from mistakes like someone leaving their notes too close to the flammable things-"

"You talk of experiments escaping and setting off explosions that have been injuring others, a need for full regeneration capabilities at your facility, did not discuss proper containment procedures for an experiment you are planning when asked. I could understand perhaps the daily workings of an overzealous staff contributing to such problems, but what worries me the most is that you are talking about this new experiment with the same enthusiasm as I myself remember having originally for the creation of my own rather disastrous portal device, which hurt Fiddleford badly due to a lack of proper safety measures. It is a rather different beast when you are putting more people at risk than just yourself, you must agree on this." It was why the older Ford walked his own dark and dangerous road largely alone, and it had him frowning at this younger Ford slightly. (He also began to wonder if this was a bit like what Stan sometimes felt like around him when they were chasing after cryptids, just the two of them. But they were both armed to the teeth, to begin with, and properly prepared for all-)

Sixer blinked. "Oh, no one's lost any limbs. Dr. Wexler just thinks it would be cool to make regeneration technology. And it would be very helpful for medical reasons, but the Board is being stubborn about not allowing human testing." Then he sobered. "I am aware of what happens when there aren't enough safety features. We... " He rubbed his face. "...may have been somewhat lax in enforcing said safety features, but I'm trying my best, I'm not… quite good at talking to people. They all assume I'm going to fire them if I complain, I don't want them afraid of me- sorry, I'm just… I'm still working on that."

"...Apologies," the older Ford said after awhile. "I just…" He sighed. "The last time I heard someone talking so brazenly about a lack of containment for their groundbreaking experiments… things did not end well there. A great many people did not survive the… event," he ended rather dourly, removing his glasses to scrub a hand over his face. It was encouraging to know that this Ford did seem to care about the problem, but the older Ford himself… "I have no idea how to address your personnel issues," he admitted. "I've never tried to manage a lab of people myself." He didn't have any idea of how to even start giving advice for that sort of thing. All he knew of that, was what he knew of the International Institute he'd been within for a brief time in his own set's Dimension 46.

"I have problems with… understanding other people." Sixer admitted. "I don't have a lot of friends. I'm trying, but it's… hard." He rubbed his hands together, tracing his fingers one by one. "Never learned social skills, if you could call it that. Fiddleford's in charge of really addressing our staff. And he… well, he's recovered well from the memory gun, but he's different from the way he was before. Less terrified of everything, which I figured was a good thing."

"I'm glad that your Fiddleford- that your friend here is recovering well." He let out a sigh. "I have admittedly had a far easier time making friends on the other side of the portal, than in my- than in any dimension with humans," the older Ford noted, with something of a feeling of camaraderie there. (He then paused and took a moment to put in his own order for food.)

"Well, from what I understand, you were alone in your own trip behind the portal." Sixer sighed. "I fell through along with Stanley. I had him with me. He… did all the talking behind the portal. And me? I withdrew inside myself and didn't really try to connect with anyone. I had Stanley, that was all I needed. I didn't need friends, killing Bill was more important. I didn't need to talk to anyone, Stan would do that for me." He grimaced. "In some ways, I think maybe that was a shame… I didn't have any incentive to try and reach out. And here I am now, still unsure how to talk to people without someone else there to help me out."

"-imme the whipped cream!" "You've already encased your entire stack of pancakes with them! That's enough! I'm staging an intervention!" "You can't tell me what to do Pinetree!"

"Well, you don't seem to be doing terribly in talking with me, now," the older Ford noted, reaching for his glass of water.

Sixer chuckled. "Well, I am getting better. Slowly. I think I'm friends with a few of the other scientists. They're friendly towards me, at least. We sometimes eat lunch at the cafeteria together." Stan laughed and elbowed him. "That's why we planned to spend all summer together. Going off and relaxing, talking to people, making new friends? Maybe." Carla rolled her eyes. "You just wanted an excuse to get the whole family together."

"And there's nothing wrong with that now is there?" Kari scoffed, cutting up her own meal calmly. "I for one, would like for all of us to have family time together." Sixer blushed. "I know, ma."

"-That's him, officer!" a loud declaration cut through the talking, and the older Ford looked up in alarm, because he recognised the voice of the man-

-who was apparently pointing at Bill, with three police officers at his back, because clearly this young fool had no working survival instinct and-

"-That's the guy who attacked me and Mike with a couple of forks!" he said rather triumphantly, and the older Ford winced at this, slowly starting to stand up.

"Damn." Seb blinked, looking between amazement and a little worry.

"Oh, yes, officer," Bill drawled out at the lot of them next. "Do arrest me for defending myself and my table against these stupid little 'ruffians' here."

And the older Ford stopped in place about halfway up, remembering that what most people were seeing here was a female old enough to be someone's grandmother, blue-and-grey-haired and tattooed and cat-eyed and sitting there calmly in a sea of other individuals, seeming perfectly able to get along with all and sundry…

...in fact, 'she' was sitting at a table with a gaggle of young children surrounding her, seeming perfectly at ease around her - one of whom was snuggled up against 'her' side and staring at the police with innocently confused eyes. (Miz was happy to help out her brother here, definitely playing it up!)

...Ford sat back down again.

The police paused, looking around at them all gathered here. "Um, are you sure you have the right person?" He sounded rather confused by all of this.

"Yes!" the man protested.

"Oh yes," the very fit but odd-looking old biddy type said to them next. "I showed that hooligan what-for. Why haven't you arrested him yet?" Bill paused. "Would you like to take my statement on the assault he and that 'friend' of his attempted on my person earlier?" Bill asked the officer rather breezily, slowly making his way up onto his feet from where he was sitting.

(Ford slowly facepalmed at this. Damnit, Bill. Why couldn't he just have lied about it, like a normal human bei- never mind.)

Seb had to shove his pancake in his mouth to hide his snicker. Wanda was facepalming along with Ford. Definitely never complaining about Sebastian or the twins in public ever again.

"Ah." Taking discretion as the better part of valor, the officer took a step back and gestured towards the door. "Right this way, ma'am."

"Ma'am?!" the snitch said next. "That dude's a guy!" he protested quite self-righteously. (He might be a snitch, but this was NYC, and misgendering was serious business among certain crowds here. And that old dude had some of the most intense inks he'd ever seen someone flaunt, not gonna test that.)

"...sir, then." The policeman said, rather more open and polite than anyone here would have figured, under the circumstances. (The man definitely wasn't being paid enough for this, either.)

The older Ford watched Bill get up and go. He sighed heavily, but stayed in place instead of getting up and going after him. He picked up his own fork and began eating.

At the look that he got from some of the others (given his recalcitrance in going after Bill in this particular instance), he said in-between bites, "If he starts blowing people up, or they actually try and arrest him, I'll see what I can do." Frankly, he doubted he'd be able to do anything to stop him. But Bill clearly wanted to handle all of this himself, given what he'd said earlier, and he didn't particularly feel inclined to help out those two fools or the local law enforcement when they should have known better. There was only so much he could do. Stan had given Bill his lead before, and Ford could see Bill clearly enough through the floor-to-ceiling glass windows in the front of the modern-looking diner. Either Bill was going to continue to follow Stan's agreement at this point, or he wasn't. And Bill wasn't lying; those two had tried to grab at him earlier - hence the need for a barricade, which Ford had promptly put up as best as he could, with what little time and limited supplies he'd had at-hand.

"...alright then." Shermie groaned. "Am I the only sane man in this family!?" He wailed quietly as he saw that his older brothers were eagerly watching the going ons.

"...You think it would be sane to try and get between a demon and his 'fun' for the day without the proper weaponry on hand for a survivable attempt?" the older Ford noted dryly, spearing another bite of his pancakes and eggs.

"...fair point." Shermie noted. "But they're clearly enjoying this." He pointed at his brothers. Stan and Seb were whispering, "Old lady fight! Old lady fight!"

"Yes, well, I can hardly speak to their sanity, now can I," the older Ford noted dryly to him next.

"Now, now." Sixer said authoritatively. "It's not right to call this an old lady fight. Blue is a man." He corrected them. Then his mouth twitched as he suppressed a smirk. "Ten bucks on Blue."

"No fair!" Stan groaned. "I KNOW that Blue won't lose, it's a hopeless bet!"

"Twenty bucks that Blue will handle this in less than five minutes." Sebastian added on, changing the entire theme of the bet. Stan gasped. "Well, ten bucks that those two guys get arrested instead!" And the triplets continued on this vein, betting on all sorts of other things. The rest of the adults groaned.

(Ford was beginning to get an idea of why the man-eater liked it here. All of them reminded him of Stanley a bit in this regard.)

It wasn't three more minutes later that Blue and the two 'ruffians' were standing off against each other, with the police overseeing this sidewalk-side discussion. A few words were exchanged between the two potentially still-combative sides, and then Blue nodded to the police officers and walked back inside past them all, while the two others turned away and walked off.

Blue made his way back over and sat down rather easily.

"All parties apologized to each other," Blue said, "But they had to apologize first. -I win."

A series of cheers and curses erupted from those sitting around the adults' table as the triplets passed money to each other for the various things that they bet on.

"And I liked Seb's bets best, because he is a me-who-is-also-me. Obviously. -Give me my take," Blue demanded out of him next, holding a open hand out imperiously towards him, palm up.

Seb, in too much of a good mood, handed it over without trouble.

Blue pocketed it promptly, then went right back to eating his meal. (Ford let out a slow breath at this. What he'd spoken earlier to Shermie had been true, but… it had taken a lot out of him there to keep himself in place and not go outside to try and stop Bill from… who knows what he would have actually done if Seb hadn't spoken up, and his bets hadn't been the most tame of the three.)

(...Though he did wonder how intentional that might have been on Seb's part. Ford also resolved to ask Stan for more details on what this 'me who is also me' thing truly meant, when it came to Bill. He knew that it meant that Bill largely considered other versions of himself to be, intrinsically, also him, but with this 'broken Bill' that Bill had spoken of with such derision here as 'not even being a me who is not me at all', and Bill's own verbalized reasoning here just now when it came to his own behavior being impacted by something that Seb had done and not done himself, there was clearly more to this than Ford had originally thought - and potentially even more that Stan had realized for himself earlier, not knowing this new information.)

To the sane Pines' collective relief, there were no other real issues during breakfast. Miz was earning stares from people at how much she packed away, and Mabel was vibrating in her seat from drinking the syrup off her waffles (which had been utterly bathed in the stuff). Compared to all that, the three toddlers' rambunctious behavior was 'normal'.

Though when it came time for the check, both Blue and the older Ford pulled out the appropriate amounts to cover what they had each ordered and eaten. Stan was about to protest but waved it off. He paid for everyone else's meal, with Sixer, Shermie and Seb paying the tip. And what a generous tip it was. The waitresses actually couldn't keep the grin off their faces.

And Miz was leaning on the counter, telling the hostess to inform the chefs that she liked their cooking. Sixer chuckled at that, knowing that the people here didn't understand what a compliment that really was. Everyone filed out and Stan turned to Ford. "So, are you going off on your own again, or do you wanna come by and play in the pool with us and the kids today?"

"I was rather planning on working a bit more today, to increase my current supply of funds," the older Ford told him, then got a slight frown. "Apparently, people in this city are quite happy to pay an inordinate amount of money to have items hand-delivered to their residences. ...Not my usual method of procuring funding in other dimensions, but it's the least problematic one that I see for us here, that can have us both keeping to this city for the interim. And it's been keeping Bill occupied as well, so far." (He would also need the funds to put together that device for Seb that they had talked about the night before, previously. Though, perhaps the local Stanford was going to do that.)

"Ah, shipping is a very big thing nowadays. Lots of people prefer to just stay home and order out for things." Stan shrugged.

"I'm surprised that Fiddleford hasn't managed to corner the market on that with robotics," the older Ford noted, before pausing. "Unless he's too disinclined to remove some of the weaponry from them before letting them loose on the rest of the general populace. If he's anything like the Fiddleford I know... Stan has noted that some of his more notable personal inventions are 'lawsuits waiting to happen' without several pages of signed indemnification letters in-hand."

"...considering that rocket powered baby stroller he built for Sebastian when the twins were born…" Sixer deadpanned.

"Ah," the older Ford noted. "That explains it, then."

"Hey, Sixer. Chop-chop! It's my turn with the idiot-stick! Unless you want me to clone it-"

"-You are not cloning this phone; it isn't even mine," the older Ford said rather strongly to Blue, attempting to cut that right off at the pass. He turned to the others. "I should go."

"Fashion disasters that require my correcting await!" Blue called out next, and the older Ford sighed yet again, looking to the rest of them with a long-suffering look.

"Enjoy your day at the pool," the older Ford said to them. "Please." (And then he turned and strode off, at a rather fast clip after an impatient and loudly complaining demon.)

"You should try to enjoy yourself too, dear." Kari called after him.

"Oh, I WILL!" she got back from the demon, next. "HA!" ("Bill…" Ford already felt mildly frustrated with him, and they hadn't even picked up their work again yet.)

"Well," Kari sighed. "They're quite the odd couple," was her observation. The other adults choked. When she looked back at them curiously, none of them seemed willing to say anything. Sixer on the other hand, was frowning and then looking like something finally clicked. "Oh, is that why they behave that way around each other?"

Miz gave a long suffering sigh. "The ship that cannot sail, they're not working right for each other. It wouldn't work out. Not unless they both work on it." Mabel narrowed her eyes at the girl. "...you ship them?"

"Oh, yes. Very much so." Miz nodded. "But I guess it's weird to ship people in real life, huh? Though I do ship Pinetree and Llama." Mabel cackled. "Me too!" The girls high fived.

"...aaaaaand let's never talk about this subject again!" Dipper coughed and made his way past. "Nope. Nuh uh." He just wanted to get back to uncle Stan's house and play in the pool. He was almost hoping the week ended sooner so they could all go to New Jersey already.

Miz was rather intrigued by the fact that Ford could make money from just delivering stuff to people. Shipping was really that important, huh? She wondered if she could use that somehow...

"So how long is your brother and his Ford staying here in this dimension?" Wanda asked Miz gently as they changed into their swimming suits in their room. Miz hummed, sliding her dress off. "Well, it's kinda like when I was living with Blue for a while because there was that thing chasing me through my Dreamscape. Only now, they're here because there's another Ford over there, who's kinda a bitch."

"Miz!" Wanda scolded. The dragon rolled her eyes. "He IS though! Even that Stanford doesn't like 'Ford. Even if he won't say it aloud, and especially not in front of Stanley." Miz huffed. "They just want a vacation too. So they're here."

"Why here and not your dimension?" Wanda asked next, pulling Zoe's bathing suit on her as the girl wiggled and made life difficult, just 'cause.

"Because brother's uncomfortable with being inside my corpse," was the calm reply. It took Wanda a few seconds to understand. And then she was… rather horrified. "What?"

"I exploded a lot over there, that's how the universe was made. I'm the big bang, as it were." Miz shrugged, pulling on her swimsuit. "But brother can tell that stuff there's made of 'me' and he's uncomfortable about that."

Wanda… could see how that would… be uncomfortable to be around. "Wait, so… what do you mean by… corpse?"

"All matter in my universe is made of pieces of me," Miz replied easily, not seeming to understand the horror Wanda was feeling. "The plants, the animals, the people, the ground you stand on, the air you breathe…" Miz adjusted the straps on her swimsuit, getting them to a comfortable position. "It's fine for you all since you can't feel it, not like brother did."

"...I don't think 'feeling' it, is the issue here." Wanda said faintly. The idea itself was… well, it was horrifying. She just thanked her lucky stars that apparently humans like her couldn't… feel it. But if Miz's demon brother could actually feel it, and identify it for what it was… well… Wanda understood why he didn't want to have his vacation over on Miz's side.

...it was rather tragic to think of, actually. Miz clearly wanted to be with her brother, but he couldn't be with her at her own home. And apparently things weren't safe over on his end to let Miz stay with him. So… that left Seb trapped between the two, as the only 'safe' place to go.

Wanda didn't like it. But she wasn't going to tell Miz that it was wrong either. Besides, as… problematic as Blue and that Stanford were, they weren't here right now. And Wanda would just have to handle things as they came. "There you are Zoe." Wanda patted her youngest child's hair and let the girl run off. "Careful not to slip." She told her before she disappeared from sight.

Seb came out of the bathroom with Zach, in his swim trunks.

She watched Miz take Zach's hand as the two ran off to the pool room together.

"I hope I can raise them right." Wanda sighed. She hadn't wanted kids. Not so soon, but despite her fears, she hadn't lost her job over it. She was glad Seb was willing to look after them. She was glad Miz was eager to pick up where Seb couldn't.

But it left Wanda a little lost as to what she could do to be a good mother to them all.

"You're going to do fine, Wands." Seb hugged her close.

"I certainly hope so." Wanda smiled back, kissing him softly.

Mabel's phone rang. She checked, and it was Stan's number. So, the other uncle Ford?

"Hello?" she said as she flipped it to accept the call.

There was no preliminary 'Greetings' this time, merely a blunt, "Would the local Stanley happen to be listening in on this conversation at present?" It was other uncle Ford all right, and he sounded really stressed out.

"Um…" Mabel looked around and got up to poke her uncle Stan, he grumbled and lifted his shades. "Huh? Wha?" "It's for you uncle Stan." She held her phone out and Stan blinked at it, "Hi other Ford. What's up?"

A deep breath pulled in. "I apologize for the imposition, but I have a request I feel may need to make," was what Stan heard next. It sounded about as formal and tense as he could get, if it had been his brother.

"What is it? Unless you want me to buy you an entire house or something…" Stan joked.

"No. Nothing like that." There was a bit of a pause, and Stan could practically hear the tension over the phone in the silence, not just in that other Ford's voice. "I believe… I may need access to a shooting range… to vent my… frustrations about something. If you know of one in the area…" It sounded like a very tense admission on his part.

"Oh." Stan blinked. "Oh…" He rubbed his face. "Yeah, I know a few. I'll text you the locations." He breathed, "Probably need an ID, but I can get you that easy."

"Thank you." Shit, why did they guy still sound that tense? "I may also have to ask that you send the man-eater over, with supervision, so that Bill is occupied in another room, so that I am not tempted to push him into the line of fire-" The other Ford cut himself off rather quickly, but not quite quickly enough.

"...alright." Stan winced. "Would it be too much to ask 'bout what set ya off? My Ford needed multiple weeks of no sleep and nightmares to start trying to attack people."

"If you wish to listen to a longer rant on the subject, feel free to come by," the other Ford told him, sounding on the verge of just yelling it all out over the phone anyway as it was. "Just stay out of my line of fire, do not try and defend him, and know that it will likely take a great deal of time."

"Ranting and venting's good- actually, yeah. I'm gonna come and supervise you while Miz is in the other room with Blue." Stanley got up and covered the phone with a hand while he called for Wanda and Seb's attention. A quick back and forth to explain the situation, and Stan was changed back into normal clothes (via a Miz-finger-flick) and teleported over to the shooting range with Miz and Wanda in tow. Sebastian stayed back to watch the twins. Wanda wanted to talk to Blue so more, figure out what was happening. Stan texted him the location on Mabel's phone next.

The group waited outside the building with the shooting range as Stan talked to the manager and got the place rented out, the entire building. He had a feeling it would be safer for everyone involved.

And then the other Ford showed up with Blue.

"-I apologize for the disruption to your day," were the first words out of other Ford's mouth, as he stomped up to the entrance, shoulders up, fists clenched at his sides, and Blue not quite trailing behind him. Blue was eyeing him a bit… warily, almost. Not like he was worried about getting shot; some other kind of shit was going on here.

"It's fine. Family's more important than some pool party. Besides, I own the pool, ain't no issue at all to miss a day of just sitting there doing nothin'." Stan shrugged.

"It is still a disruption," other Ford said, not getting any less tense. And he'd thought the guy had looked tense before.

"Come on, there're some guns here, and I got the range rented out for you." Stan waved at him to follow him into the building. "You okay with Wanda taking Blue and Miz to just hang out at the park a few blocks from here?"

"As long as she feels capable and-" other Ford cut himself off right there.

Blue looked like he was about to say something, then stopped, closed his mouth, and looked away. Demon seemed real frustrated about something here, too. He just wasn't looking tense enough to explode at all of his seams over it.

"I'll be alright." Wanda said tightly, not comfortable with Miz being so near that other Stanford while he was so tense and worked up. The last time any Ford had been that stressed while near her children, a baseball bat had been involved. And Wanda wasn't about to have a repeat incident where they swapped out a bat for a gun.

"I just- I just need a minute to breathe, without-" the other Ford said, shuddering slightly. (Blue grimaced. Demon wasn't super-pleased about whatever this thing was either, huh.) Other Ford closed his eyes for a moment, and seemed to pull himself together just a little bit… was still looking just as tense, though. "-The range is inside, correct?"

"Yeah, follow me." Stan opened the door and waited. Wanda began to walk off, tugging on Miz's hand gently. "Come on Miz, Blue, if you're coming too?" she asked the older demon.

"Yes," Blue said, turning away and beginning to follow the two of them outbound. He didn't say any more than that, though. The group of three walked off, out of sight of the two men standing at the door to the shooting range.

Stan got them both in without incident, though he knew several of the staff were going to be keeping an eye of the two of them, given that they weren't stupid and could see what kind of a violent hair-trigger the guy next to him looked to be on.

...except the one army vet in the place handing out the rifles, who took one look at him, got kind of a knowing look of some kind of recognition, and sent them on to a different part of the range than the first guy at the desk had told them to go to before.

...Real funny thing there. The guy didn't hand out any bullets with the unloaded rifles, and the other Ford didn't say shit about that, as he slipped the thing over his back by the carrying belt that it looked like most of those guns didn't have.

Stan wasn't dumb, he could sort of get what was going on. Heck, his brother used to have his PTSD flashbacks. Frankly, Stan was amazed he didn't have his own, but he'd always been pretty good at getting a hold of himself. So he didn't say anything.

He followed along, and didn't say shit, and when they opened the door to the room they'd been told to go to, and Stan saw the sign on the back of the door they'd just entered, the lightbulb kinda came on.

There wasn't anybody else in there, and that was probably a good thing. Stan had rented out the whole place, but he wasn't sure if they'd gotten everyone else out, aside from the staff.

It was a good thing, because the next thing that happened was that the other Ford literally trashed the entire place, down to the brick walls and the rough concrete flooring.

Once the door closed, and that Ford turned away from him, it was like a switch flipped in his head. This was some kind of 'training inside an office building' setup, or some shit, and this Ford ruined the whole entire thing in less than half an hour. Stan was almost impressed.

...Probably a good thing the room was scheduled for some kinda tear down, anyway, from the sign that had been on the door.

This wasn't some PTSD shit, here. This was just pure fucking stone-cold rage.

This guy was a damn killer, Stan could tell from the way he was moving around, and he broke every last thing in the place with flying fists and booted feet. And when he was done doing that, he unhooked the rifle from his back and used the butt of it as a hard bludgeon to hammer all of the remains of that down into splinters.

And when this other Ford was finally done with that, off at the other end of the room, having torn his way through from the one side to the other, he stood in place for awhile, taking heaving breaths in place for a good couple of minutes, fists clenching and unclenching at his sides.

And then he slung the rifle back over his back again, turned in place abruptly, and stomped his way back over towards the doorway they'd taken to get in, kicking things on the floor out of his way as he went. When he got to the wall, he turned and sat down, back against it, knees pulled up almost to his chest.

Then, and only then, Stan realized exactly how badly that the guy was shaking in place.

"...want to talk about it?" Stan asked calmly as he moved away from the door finally, and sat down nearby, not too close. But close enough that if the other Ford reached out, he could still clap a hand on his shoulder or what not.

Stan wasn't sure if he'd take him up on it. He'd expected yelling and cursing; this other Ford had been almost dead silent throughout. He'd only given out angry yell or two when something had taken more than two or three blows for him to break.

"He lied to me." Other Ford's voice was shaking.

"Blue?" Stan asked softly, a lot softer than he usually spoke to anyone, even Diego.

"He lied to me, and lied to me, and HE NEVER STOPPED LYING!" the man screamed out at the room next, before slapping a hand over his mouth, tucking his chin down, and beginning to shake even harder.

"That sucks." Stan glanced around and was glad that none of the staff were anywhere nearby. Guy with the rifles had probably told them to stay away. Probably deserved a raise. He'd seen it better than Stan had.

"'That sucks'? That sucks. -Oh yes, certainly, that sucks," the other Ford repeated back to him almost nastily at the beginning, and angrily by the end, slamming a fist into the concrete floor below them. "Damn him, damn him," the other Ford said next. "Those last ten years, I thought-" He shook in place again. This time, though, his shoulders came up a bit more, and he looked more in pain now than angry. (Maybe even a little confused, like he didn't understand entirely. Like he wanted to know why, but was a little afraid of the answer he might get if he asked it.)

"What'd you think?" Stan asked, but with a tone that implied Ford didn't have to answer if he didn't want to.

"-I thought that he'd finally left me alone," was what that other Ford told him, hands curling up the sides of his head to grab in into his hair. "I thought I could tell. I thought that-" He lifted his head and let out a laugh that was nothing but dark self-derision after years upon years of pain. "I'm such a fool."

"...he really fucked you up, huh?" Stan sighed, leaning against the wall as well. "You're not a fool. You're human." He said quietly.

"No, no - damn him. You don't understand," was what that other Ford said to him next almost shakily, looking even more stressed now than he had when they'd first walked into this place. "You don't understand what he did."

"What did he do?" Stan was asking more because he got the feeling that this Ford really needed to say it, to get it out of him, so that whatever it was, wasn't festering inside him anymore.

"He- he-" The other Ford was struggling with it, and it wasn't only hurt and pain he was dealing with, there were tears in his eyes and-

"-he never left me alone," was what this other Ford said to him next, and it all began rushing out of him like some dark stream of- "Those last ten years. He never- the first ten were-" He shook his head roughly (and barely stifled the shudder). "And those second ten were-" He shuddered hard that time. "But that third decade. After- after I got the plate in. He didn't actually leave."

Stan stared as this other Ford then cursed under his breath and started wiping under his glasses, finally having realized he'd started to cry in the first place.

"I- I couldn't tell," he said next, sounding both hysterical and miserable, as he tilted his head back, almost hard enough to clang it against the wall behind him. "He was there- it was him, and I couldn't tell," he said next. "I couldn't tell," he repeated, voice rising in pitch, "Because none of their eyes were slitted or yellow," he said almost hysterically, "And I- I- like a fool- I thought that- I thought-" And he only got that far before giving up, shakily pulling off his own glasses, and just slapping a hand over his eyes as he cried, tears just streaming down his cheeks.

Stan hesitated before scooting closer and opening his arms, if Ford needed a hug. He "Oof!"ed when Ford practically plowed into him, pulling him close and wrapping his arms around him real freaking hard. Shaking. Then Stan curled his own arms around this Ford. Yeah, different dimension, still Ford. His own brother never admitted it, but he needed someone to hold too, back during that time behind the portal. And yeah, Stan understood what this Ford was saying.

Heck, their own asshole Bill had possessed all sorts of people during their time behind the portal. Sixer had gotten pretty good at picking them out of a crowd, almost instinctively. But… well, if Stan thought about it, Miz's eyes weren't yellow and slitted. Neither were Blue's (slitted, yes, yellow? No.) Did that mean that the demons could disguise themselves as people that easily? Stan never thought about that before. But it made sense, if Miz could walk around looking perfectly human, and she was a 'young' Bill Cipher, then surely an older one would have long since figured out how to hide such a big weakness, right? Now Stan found himself wondering if their own Bill had ever done such a thing, pretended to be someone without them finding out...

And if this Ford had just realized that his own Bill (Blue) had somehow been around him for… from the sounds of it, ten whole years, without him ever finding out? Well, damn. That… that's gotta burn. So Stan kept quiet and just held the older man as he sobbed into his shoulder. Even though this was a really tight hug. He couldn't leave his brother this Ford to break down alone.

And this Ford held onto him for a really long time. Couple minutes at least, until the shakes finally settled out to once-in-a-while shivers and then stopped.

And Stan was rubbing this Ford's back, soothingly (he hoped).

And this Ford was just, y'know, finally starting to really relax, when...

-he pulled away from him abruptly, eyes wide. Pushed away from him, really. And the guy looked kind of horrified, as he said, "Oh. Oh no. I didn't mean-" He looked downright mortified there, and he'd practically leapt away from him like he'd gotten some kind of an electric shock.

"Whoa! You ok?" Stan blinked. "It's fine dude. You needed a hug. I don't mind at all."

"I- you… don't?" this other Ford said next, as mortification slowly shifted into some kind of confusion here, and...

"Course not." Stan scratched his hair. "Seb was really snuggly and clingy as a kid. And my Ford got pretty big on holding onto someone to ground himself, had to sleep while near me, or holdin' me, to make sure I was still there." Stan shrugged. "So I don't mind, really." He let out a laugh. "I mean, I got kids. Kids need hugs and stuff. So, like, it's fine, man."

"You… didn't…" Other Ford was staring at him. "You don't mind…?" He said it like this was a new concept for him, almost. He was holding onto his other arm with one hand, doin' that Ford thing, too.

"..." Yeah, this was gonna be a thing, wasn't it? Stan took a deep breath and carefully told him, "I don't mind hugs, or hugging you, or comforting you if you need it. If you need another hug," Stan opened his arms. "Have at it. My body is ready!"

Other Ford let out a startled laugh at the last one.

And once he got started… he just kept going for a while there, bent over, like he couldn't really stop yet. Didn't sound too happy, though. Sounded like one of those stress reaction things, where everything just didn't make any sense and you had to keep going. Stan waited him out.

After a while, other Ford kind of got himself together again, slowly sat up a bit, not quite wheezing. He was mostly breathing okay.

"I… I'm sorry," was what he said first. "I… wasn't laughing at-" he stopped when Stan waved it off, understood, and continued with, "I thank you for the offer, but if I start hugging you again… I might not stop for hours," he said, looking away from him almost sheepishly, his ears turning red. "I've fallen asleep hugging Stan before," the other Ford told him quietly next, though there was a different sort of pain in his eyes now, as he said that.

Stan chuckled. "Nah, don't worry. I get it. Diego falls asleep on me all the time. Carla says it's cute." He shrugged. "I even got Dillon to do it a few times, back when he was still 13…" for a brief moment, Stan looked a little sad, but he wiped it from his expression quickly.

"...You are openly offering," this other Ford said next.

"Yes. Duh. Wouldn't have offered if-" And he kinda got cut off from the rest of it there, when the guy went from sitting there in some kind of kneeling posture, to practically jumping forward and grabbing him up in a big hug again.

Stan let out a laugh. "Alright mister snuggles." And he hugged the other man back. "Take as much time as you need."

"I will then, I assure you," was what was muttered into his neck, kinda. This other Ford's ears were looking a little red again, what he could see of the one of 'em, but the guy himself let out a shuddering sigh next, and began to slowly relax in his arms.

"Just ah… don't go tellin' people about this. Kay? I can't have people knowing I'm a teddy bear." Stan laughed. "Only Carla gets to call me that."

"Your 'teddy bear' nature is safe with me," was what was murmured back at him next, as the other Ford seemed to settle in a bit and go from hugging him to relaxing a lot and being a lot more snuggly. "I make no promises as to the state of secret-keeping with your significant other, however." And hey, there was kinda a teasing smile in his voice there, that was- uh, wait.

"Ah, Carla likes to tease, but really, she actually wants my hugs all to herself! Well, I AM the best for snuggling," he said proudly. And Carla had missed him, those 13 years he'd been gone, and hell, he missed her too. He never outright talked about it, but he cherished these days of waking up beside her, falling asleep with her in his arms… yeah, Stan liked hugging, alright?

"...I can see why," the other Ford said next, and… man, the guy sounded almost drunk on him now. Or really, really relaxed. Could people get drunk on hugs? Maybe, heck if Stan knew. But he was relieved to know that Ford was feeling better, at least a little. So even if they had to stay here and hug for hours, Stan could handle that.

...Might actually end up doing that, rate this guy was moving. He'd settled in and didn't seem like he wanted to be moving. Eh, whatever, Stan had nothing else to do today. So he settled into a more comfortable position as well. It felt nice, he might take a little nap of his own.

He sort of hoped Wanda was doing okay with two demons. Well, Miz liked hugging, so if all else failed, at least she could snuggle the little demon into submission.

Blue was lying on the ground in the park, spread-eagle and staring up at the bright blue sky.

Wanda was sitting down under a shaded tree close by.

And Miz was swinging, having claimed the swingset as her own and refusing to give it up to anyone as she kicked her legs and went back and forth higher, and higher, and...

...and then she abruptly stopped kicking her legs, closing her eyes and clutching the swing until some of the momentum bled away and the swing wasn't going as high. Once the swing had lost almost all momentum, she began kicking again.

Wanda was splitting her attention between Miz and Blue somewhat less than equally. Miz was her daughter, not Blue.

Also, Blue was nearby where she was and simply not moving or interacting with anyone, just blinking sometimes and lying there where he was, stationary in his originally-chosen spot. He hadn't said anything but short responses to Miz on the short few blocks walk over to the park here, either. Given how much the demon had been talking then all up like a chatterbox before now...

Wanda glanced over at Blue again. "...are you alright?" she asked finally.

"Mm," was what she got out of him for her trouble.

"...do you know why that Ford was so angry?" Wanda asked next. It was rather odd to just… sit here quietly and not do anything.

"Yes."

So he was going to be like that. "Well, I don't know, and I'm rather worried. Would it be too much to ask if you could tell me why?"

Blue closed his eyes.

"If I tell you now, when I didn't tell him then, oh so very easily when you asked it of me now," he began, then blinked his eyes open. "Do you think he would be even angrier with me? Or with you?"

Wanda blinked. "Well, I suppose that would depend on whether or not he'd ever asked you, back then, to tell him."

"He never asked," Blue said. "He asked other times. But not the times he's angry about now." He said it all like he was discussing the weather, but...

...Wanda could see Blue slowly closing his hands into fists out and away from his sides, in the grass.

"Is this upsetting you as well? The fact that he's angry about this thing that you didn't tell him?" Wanda asked, carefully.

"Me? Upset? Ha. -Not like I didn't know he was going to react this way, when he FINALLY figured it out," Blue said to her next. "Just didn't think he'd figure it out while we were here. Idiot lunatic pawn who thinks he's some kind of knight, bouncing around all over the place and missing all of the forest between all the trees. Idiot."

"Well, you just seem a little… tense? Is it bad that he figured it out here?"

"...Maybe."

"...it sort of looks like you're a little upset. Your… ah… your 'tells' are showing all over the place." Wanda was a lawyer. She knew how to read people. And all of Blue's body language was practically screaming that he was upset.

"Stanley likes it when all my 'tells' are showing," Blue said to her almost snidely, half sing-song to her, next. "Low-energy, not HIGH-ENERGY! Let that body just do allllllllll those things for you - pay it no mind, until you have to! Because you have to. Except when you don't."

"...well your body is telling me that you're upset right now." Wanda told him. "And, the other day, your body also made it seem like you were very upset, it's why Mabel thought you were." Wanda thought she might as well clarify. "We humans read a lot about how other people are feeling via their body language."

"I'm ANGRY," Blue said to her, lifting a hand and waving it off. "I know how to communicate, and all of the 'oh, you must be feeling more than one thing!' things are translation errors, caught in the noise level at best."

"Upset can mean 'angry' or 'sad' or 'distressed'." Wanda listed off. "It sometimes implies all of those at the same time. Perhaps this is a translation issue?"

Blue let out a half-frustrated breath, and flicked his hand to the side, and a white screen popped up in front of her face, made of light. It looked to her almost like a computer screen, floating in space, without any monitor or cords around it to be making it happen.

"High-low magnitude," he said, and the thing populated with something like a… running graph over time, with a line hovering above it? Time was in seconds, numbers scrolling from the right towards the left...

The numbers on the left were pretty extreme.

"My normal, constant-ish level of anger," he said, zooming it out for a moment, so that the y-axis read zero on the bottom, then said, "Usual magnitudes." And everything looked pretty… flat and constant.

"High and low spikes over one trillion years," and the thing seemed to get some pretty nasty thin spikes here and there, but it never dipped down very far, and the highs were… visible, but close to maybe a tenth of that high flat line at most, for the earlier part of the graph… and one later part right at the edge of the end.

"Do you have such a graph for other emotions as well?" Wanda asked, examining the chart.

"I only feel one thing at a time," she was told. "Isn't efficient to split my focus like that."

"Really?" Wanda blinked slowly.

"I can lie and say I'm happy. -Because I'm a liar!" he said brightly at the end there, with a (false?) sort of cheer.

"So, are you always angry? Because you choose to be angry?" Wanda really wanted to understand this.

"Yes," Blue told her. "Last thirty-fjve years is this." He gestured, and the spike at the end got a little easier ro see as a few of the here and there, but most of them were mostly like little bumps or blimps, except for that bigger one that looked almost like a straight line upwards.

"...even around Miz? Are you angry around her too?" Wanda asked next, knowing about Miz's Empathy (it was why she got headaches when in large crowds, but at the same time, she was a little afraid to have her headband on when outside, worried about kidnappers).

"Yes, but I usually keep everything in from leaking out at all, even a little," he told her. "Had to teach her boundaries and layering right then, because things got in eventually no matter what. Didn't want her picking up… this." He gestured at the graphic display.

"...so you don't feel happy, even around her?" Wanda sounded a little sad at this.

"I'm angry," he repeated to her again. "I'll be happy when I'm done. After everything is fixed, everywhere. Then, I won't have to be angry anymore."

"Why do you have to be angry?" Wanda sent a quick glance back at Miz again, good, she was there and safe and there weren't any strange people around. Wanda clenched her hands in her pants.

"Somebody should be, and I'm not about to stop," he told her next. "You're being distracting, and distractible. Here." He gestured again. "Localized. The ocean of my anger, and..." He zoomed in a bit on the y-axis, the magnitude, "The waves riding across it. And..." The graph shifted and twisted slightly somehow, "The amplitudes riding on top of those waves, little eddys." It looked straight again. "At a visible scale for humans…" He zoomed in again. The numbers shifted to 10 to the negative exponents in the... billions. "Those eddys removed, which are sourced from places, events, and people that really caught my ire." Twist, and it looked like a flat line again. "And now we're finally getting into the noise range. HMMMMMM, LET'S SEE…" He made a gesture, and zoomed in. And made another gesture, and zoomed in. And made another gesture, and it just kept going… and finally stopped. And it still looked flat.

"Last one week range," he said next, and the whole thing spooled out to the left, and… she could see some quick, thin spikes and dips in the line again. They were very, very thin.

And now that there was some kind of variation in that line again? The numbers at the left y-axis were negative exponents of negative exponents of negative exponents, and even then, the little spikes and small bumps he was showing her here and there weren't really very big...

Wanda studied the graph. "There are some low points, where there's less anger." She pointed at them. "What events were those?"

"It's noise," Blue told her. "Cycling my energy a little differently maybe. Blowing off a little steam? Flexing myself a little differently. It's practically measurement error," he drawled out at her, rolling his eyes. He flicked his hand, and the projected screen went away abruptly, leaving Wanda blinking. "I'm angry. The rest is just… communicated expression," he told her next. "Hit an odd resonance here and there, a little sympathetic expulsion? -Nothing's actually changed. I'm still mad. -Big picture focus here, 'mom'-lady," he said, sounding almost amused to her, next.

"...and you won't stop being angry, won't let yourself stop being angry, until you've fixed things?" Wanda thought she could almost… sort of understand.

"It's not fixed yet, so I'm still angry," he shrugged. "Isn't exactly portal science here."

"...is it your responsibility to fix things?" Wanda asked next. It was good that he was responding, she wondered how much information she could get from him.

"I want it fixed. Nobody else is going to do it. -Guess who just got self-elected to the job," he said next, rather sardonically, before crossing his arms over his cheat and closing his eyes again.

"And why does it need to be fixed?" Wanda glanced back over at Miz again, figuring it was fine to watch Miz while she talked to Blue.

"Because everything is wrong and terrible in all the wrong ways, and it's NOT supposed to be like that, YOU-" Blue clamped down in the rest of his angered outburst. He looked like he was holding his arms crossed a little more tightly now.

"I admit, the world is pretty messed up." Wanda sighed. "But… do you have to fix it alone? I'm guessing no, you… that other Ford, you… need him? To help?"

"I don't need him, or his 'help'," Blue told her next firmly. "Would make it easier if I had ACTUAL help out of him with all of everything to do with all of the things that I'm still working on, yes. But I'm OUT now, and I DON'T 'NEED' HIM ANYMORE." Blue sounded rather acidic and vindictive as he said it.

"...you're angry at him?"

"...It's fine," Blue said, his shoulders going up a little bit, even though he was still lying down as he continued talking. "I'm always angry." He closed his eyes again. "Why wouldn't I be fine? It's fine."

"Well for humans, it's not fine to be angry all the time." Wanda started, "And I know that you're not human, but isn't it… wouldn't you…" Wanda wasn't sure how she was supposed to say this. "Wouldn't you rather be happy, at least every now and then?" She watched Miz laugh as she swung. She sounded just like a real child, just being happy and enjoying herself. The thought of someone being angry all the time, choosing to do so… it just seemed… so sad.

"I'll be happy once I've fixed everything forever, and Liam is back."

"...I'm sure Liam wouldn't want you to be angry all until that point. Wouldn't he have wanted you to be happy?"

"Don't try to tell me what Liam wants. I KNOW what Liam would want by what he wanted." He sounded very up in arms about that.

"...and he would want you to be angry for years and years… because of him?"

"Everything is wrong and I'm GOING to fix things." Blue shifted in place slightly. "Then I'll be 'happy' for the rest of forever, because I'll be having fun and enjoying myself. This is a blip, when it comes to a neverending-forever."

"But you need to fix things… before you bring Liam back?"

"Yes."

"Why? Is it because you're afraid of Liam dying again, if things aren't fixed?"

"...I used to be."

"What changed?" Wanda felt like she was getting close to the point of all this.

"I woke up. I began to understand what was actually wrong. And then I grasped the ACTUAL problem."

"The problem of people dying and staying dead?" He mentioned that before.

"No. Yes. It's bigger than that." He let out a huff of breath. "That's just the smallest tiniest first bit of the piece at the 'beginning' of things. If you're going at it all out of order. Which I am." Another huff of breath. "Because Stanley doesn't want me inspiring or enlightening people anymore, until we've had our little talk on the subject of how I do it currently."

"Ok… and your 'fixing' would be making it so that no one would ever stay dead, even if they were killed… but what if they didn't want to get killed in the first place?" She got that from the other Ford's ranting the other night.

"Not every place has to have dying." He turned his head towards her and looked over at her. "I told Kari most of these things. Why don't you ask her what I told her first, if you haven't already? Or Seb?"

"So just making it so that people can't be killed at all, I'm guessing, making it so people couldn't be physically harmed at all is the next step, then something to prevent people from getting trapped somewhere they didn't want to be. Cover all the bases?" Wanda was brainstorming, "I'll ask Kari later."

Blue sighed. (He didn't like having to repeat himself so many times. Why couldn't humans just communicate properly with each other when he wasn't around?) "People can be killed in some places, can't be killed in others, who cares. Where and when they come back? You make it a choice and they don't end up trapped unless they want to be, don't end up killed unless they want to be, don't end up hurt unless they want to be. -The problem isn't just dying-and-staying-dead, it's a lack of choice."

"I see…" Wanda sighed. "I suppose I can see where you're coming from. There's a lot happening nowadays that… make it hard to believe anyone has any choice anymore…" she said bitterly.

"Oh look, sounds like something that needs a little fixing," Blue drawled out, before turning his head away from her again. "Better not tell Seb. Unless he wants you to be part of his 'thinking minds' on it."

"Don't even know how to begin fixing things here to be honest. I'm just… trying to get justice done in my own way. I just want to be able to help people…" Wanda sighed, watching Miz tilt her head back to stare up at the sky.

"'Help people' how? Is that the only thing that you want?"

"I'm a lawyer, I mainly work in prosecution, but I've done defense before too." Wanda told him. "I, in the words of my children, catch the bad guys and make them go to jail, so they can't hurt people." She chuckled a little. "It's more complicated than that, but that is sort of what I do."

"So? What's your point?" Blue stretched in place a bit. "I didn't ask you what you do, I asked you what you want. -You want to 'help people' how?"

"I want people to not be harmed by people who want to harm them. Assault, rape, murders…" Wanda tensed a little when a group of teens entered the park, making their way toward the swings.

Blue noticed this. "Why so tense? They're just humans."

"A mother worries." Wanda sighed, narrowing her eyes at the kids. A few were talking to Miz, one of them taking the other swing that Miz wasn't using.

"Mothers don't worry. They don't care at all." Blue watched Wanda watch Miz. "You do realize that I could murder then easily before they even finish starting to 'assualt', 'rape', or 'murder' her, yes? Assuming she doesn't kill them herself first."

"Murder shouldn't be the first option." Wanda corrected, before she gave Blue a quick glance, then back at Miz. "Mothers… don't care? Where did you learn that?" Because saying something like that...

"Experience." Blue sat up, bracing his hands a bit behind him. He still looked that sixty-something years old, but also timelessly ancient. "Murder should be the first option sometimes," Blue noted.

"...because your mother didn't protect Liam from being killed?" Wanda guessed. "And… wasn't murder the first option, from the people who took Liam from you?"

Blue worked his jaw slightly.

"Murder wasn't the first option for them," Blue said slowly, not looking over at her as he talked. "Leaving him alone and continuing to let him live was the first option. They had to exert actual effort in order to go to him where he was, and take him, and then…"

"..." Wanda split her attention between Blue and Miz. At least it looked like the teens weren't here to cause trouble. One of them even began pushing Miz on the swing. Wanda relaxed a little.

"Oh noooo," Blue said. "She's being pushed on a swing by a human. How horrible. -He might push her off it, and then murder and rape her, just because she's sitting there and he thinks that he can."

"I didn't say that I thought they would do that to her." Wanda sighed. Because it wasn't an irrational fear! There were all sorts of awful things happening around nowadays. "But she's been kidnapped before-"

"When." And when Wanda glanced over at the immediate change of tone in his voice, she realized that she suddenly has his absolute and full attention.

"It was a few months ago. She's fine, Sebastian caught the man who was trying to take her- she…" Wanda winced as Blue's eyes narrowed. "Miz wandered off, while we were at the store, I don't know what exactly happened, but Sebastian got there in time, and the man who tried to take her was arrested."

"Arrested." Blue repeated. He shifted in place, turning towards her. "Who was this individual? And where was he from?"

"I don't know. He was taken away, I didn't know who he was. Or why he was trying to take Miz… she was rather upset. Sent the man horrid nightmares for a while until she felt somewhat better."

"How did he kidnap her. What were his methods."

"Sebastian told me that he drugged her, he… tricked her into leaving the store, where no one else was there to see her, and drugged her…"

Blue stared at her like he was glaring.

"Little sis," the demon said next, with an almost too-patient calm, "Open the command interface menu on your suit and set the filtration unit to all possible contaminants and also select auto-on mode. Right. NOW."

Miz glanced over from where she was swinging. Then she twisted her hand a little and seemed to move her fingers in a certain way, before she lowered her hand again to hold onto the swing.

Blue closed his eyes, and pulled in a breath. He slowly let it out again.

He still looked rather MAJORLY pissed.

"...I get worried. When people approach her." Wanda said quietly.

"I am starting to see why." Blue finished speaking before opening his eyes to meet hers again, in something of a thousand-yard stare.

"How would I know if they had bad intentions or not?" Wanda added. "Miz is so… trusting. She… I don't think she has very good self preservation skills. Since she knows she can't die, she doesn't try to protect herself…" But she was afraid of other things. And Wanda could see that Miz wasn't wearing her headband, she was probably relying on her senses to tell her what people wanted with her, just one small bit of defense.

"I've noticed that. Among other things." Wanda realized immediately what he was referring to there - Miz's suicidal tendencies. "That's why I want her to stop spending time around that Stanford of Seb's."

Wanda blinked. "...why him in particular?"

"Because he's a Stanford. And I know what Stanfords are like." Blue glared off to the side away from her. "And this one spends even less time thinking than almost all of the other ones do. 'Which is really saying something', as you humans like to put it."

Wanda thought about how upset Blue seemed at the fact that his Stanford was angry at him, then put that together with her own (mistaken) belief that Sebastian's brother was in somewhat of a relationship with Miz's adult forms… and came to the (to her) logical conclusion. "You're afraid he'll break her heart?" Like your Stanford broke yours? Wanda didn't say that last part aloud.

"What?" Blue turned back towards her and blinked at her. "She's a being of pure energy; she doesn't have a heart for him to break."

Wanda paused. "...you're afraid he'll hurt her feelings?" She tried instead, making a note to ask Miz about the whole, having a heart or not, thing.

"Feelings get hurt; it happens. I want everything to be fun for her, but that's going to take time. I don't want her to stay hurt for too long before then. She refuses to see reason or be reasonable about taking reasonable precautions. Fine. I'll do what I can for her instead. So I'm maybe working on being a Healer of the Heart, too. Not an Emperor of Emotion. -You don't force other beings to feel or not-feel things. That is a Free Will issue, also. Ask Miz."

"...right. Free Will is good." Wanda wasn't sure Blue was understanding what she was saying, and then Wanda wondered if Demons had some other way of talking about romantic relationships...

"What is the question behind your question?" Blue asked of her next. "What were you trying to ask-without-actually-asking-it? Be specific."

"...I was just trying to understand why you didn't want Miz around Ford. I get that your personal experience with your own Stanfords might be pretty bad, but I think Ford isn't… entirely a bad person. I mean, if you'd asked me a few years ago, I'd agree with you, but he's gotten much better."

"Personal, impersonal; I've seen all sorts of Stanfords. Six-fingers, five-fingers; you name it," he waved off to her next. "It's him 'trying' to not-be 'a bad person' that will have him doing all the same things with her that he did with the local broken-Bill here. Because he doesn't learn. So he will eventually decide a not-too-long-eventually of time from now that Miz 'deserves' to die-and-stay-dead, and then my little sister will be hurt by this, and I don't want that lunatic taking potshots at MY LITTLE SISTER," Blue told her next. "Telling her that he thinks she deserves to DIE, when she doesn't!"

"He wouldn't do that." Wanda clenched her fists. "And if he ever does I'll punch him myself."

Blue looked incensed. "He will decide it, all the Stanfords ALWAYS go off and decide stupid things ALL ON THEIR OWN, and you all think that I'm stupid," he ground out at her next, "But what kind of moron doesn't see exactly what would happen here next? How everything else here would just come undone, unglued, the whole nine yards and seven billion years and counting worth of mess at the end of it."

"These are the Stanfords in your dimensional set, correct? What if things are different here? Sebastian is Ford's brother. So many things here are different. From what I've heard from your Stanford, things are almost unnervingly different."

"I've talked with him already," Blue told her next. "He hasn't thought anything through, admits that he ACTIVELY tries NOT to do that, and hasn't learned ANYTHING from what happened with the local broken-Bill idiot, to NOT make the same mistakes again. Also, his morals are FLAT."

"...Flat as in…?"

"Kill the thing you-don't-like because 'good' and 'bad' and made-up rules that DON'T make sense - because WHY NOT."

"...only when he was sleep deprived and having some sort of PTSD meltdown." Wanda couldn't believe she was actually defending Ford right now.

"Oh, I see," Blue said more than a little bit snidely. "He was having a thirteen year long sleep-deprived 'PTSD meltdown' on the other side of the portal, that didn't stop after he got back for several months. And started another several weeks before that. Of course, why didn't I see this before?!"

Wanda rubbed her temples. "Look, the Bill here was a jerk. He crashed the plane I was supposed to be on, to stop me from going to find Sebastian. Killed a lot of people."

"And now he's dead, and if I ever run across him myself after he's alive again, I'm going to kill him for good. What's your point?"

"So you also think that Bill should be killed? But you don't like Ford wanting to kill him?"

"That wasn't a Bill Cipher. I am Bill Cipher. -You can call me Bill!" he grinned out at her. "Or Blue. Like Miz does. -That was just one of those 'broken-Bill's, who is not a me-who-is-also-me like Seb and Miz are," Blue(Bill?) informed her next, quite promptly. "And yes, he was killed. And no, the point isn't that 'Ford' wanted to kill him, it's WHY he wanted to kill him, and WHY he made that decision, and the FACT that he doesn't take input from others on ANYTHING when it comes to his decision-making."

"He listens to his brothers." Wanda pointed out. "I've seen Seb and Stan talk him into stuff."

"If he did listen to them on anything 'moral' that he thinks matters - and he doesn't - that would require actually TALKING with them sometimes. Which he also does not do."

"He's doing that more now. We all are, trying to stay in touch. It's why we're having this family vacation to spend time together."

"So that you can give him another chance to swing a baseball bat at your childrens' heads again?" Blue said to her almost sweetly. Because yes, he'd finally gotten around to starting to look more than a few things post-Weirdmageddon here up. Starting at the ending of it, and moving forwards. (Unfortunately, his 'looking-spell' wasn't anything like his All-Seeing Eye, so it was taking some time. He hadn't gotten anywhere close to when Miz had first arrived here looking for a 'mom' - not yet.)

"He won't. We won't let him. He knows he isn't allowed to do that and never should." Wanda practically snarled. "He realized what he did was wrong, he chose to change himself and get to a place mentally where he would never do that again."

"He realized it. -What did he realize," Blue said next. "That your spawn are not Bill Cipher? -That isn't changing his mind, that's realizing his aim is off, and waiting around for the same-next target."

"That even if they WERE Bill Cipher, he's not fucking allowed to attack a BABY!" Wanda hissed.

"So what age are they considered 'fair game' again, then?" Blue said, giving her a very long look.

"Never. If Bill does reincarnate, he's not allowed to touch him. Bill died. It's over. If he gets reborn as a human, like Seb did, he gets a fresh start like everyone else."

"It's only 'over' if he decides to play by most demons' rules and not get into the game of holding grudges for things that happened in past lives before then," Blue noted quite darkly.

"This isn't a game. Our lives are not a game! There are no rules!" Wanda cried out in frustration, accidentally hitting on the truth of the matter without knowing it.

"This isn't a game here, yes. That doesn't mean there aren't Rules, or rules, or that you don't make them all up yourselves." Blue said, frowning at her furiously.

"We make laws. But laws aren't rules. Laws aren't fair. There is no fairness in this world."

"Rules aren't fair. Rules are also arbitrary. -Who DIED and decided gravity had to be a thing? Why must cause come before effect? -Make your own rules and MAKE it fair, if you want things to be fair. Define: fair."

"...is there someone who made those rules?" Wanda blinked at the shift in conversation. "Was it that Axo-something that Seb talks about sometimes?"

"The stupid lazy frilly DERANGED lizard here did," Blue told her. "It spun up every dimension in existence here, too. -Different lizard than the one in my 'set. Would have MURDERED it already, if it tried pulling any of this stupid shit on me."

(In the space between spaces, the Axolotl sighed. When was this one going to leave? He was much less pleasant than the little one.)

"Don't MAKE me come up there!" Blue called out while raising his chin up slightly next. "You See me invoking you? No? You deranged lunatic thing!"

(...I just want to sleep, is that too much to ask?)

"I didn't wake you up, and she didn't even call you!" Blue complained, gesturing at Wanda next. "That wasn't your name! Stupid lizard!"

Wanda was staring at Blue, yelling out up at the sky. "Wait, is he here right now?! That god lizard thing?!"

Blue dropped his chin down to look over at her again.

"Define: here," he said.

Over by the swing, Miz was blinking up at the sky. Then she looked over at Blue, his screaming loud enough to be heard where she was. "The Ax here is sensitive," she told him.

Oh, that was IT! He'd had it up to HERE with this whole stupid-

"WHY IS EVERYONE SO 'SENSITIVE' HERE!?" Blue yelled out angrily, waving his arms around from where he was sitting. Then: "OH. I SEE. IT'S YOUR FAULT. ISN'T IT." Blue snarled out, then dropped his chin again. "Of course it is. Of course. Stupid DERANGED miserable misery-looooooves-company BULLSHIT thing-"

Miz actually giggled. "Probably." And the teenagers around her were quite confused by all this. But Miz just dug in her legs to slow the swing down and hopped off, wobbling at the feeling of being on her own legs again. She waved at the teens and ran back over to her mom and brother.

"He feels stuff that involves his name, or even nicknames, so long as the people are speaking with him in mind. The Pines end up waking him more times in a week than humanity does in centuries." Miz told Blue with mischievous delight.

The pupils of Blue's eyes narrowed at this. "...Nicknames?" he said slowly.

"Ax, or big frilly or stupid lizard… but only if you're saying those words while knowing who the Axolotl is and then he gets alerted and woken up.

Blue stared at her.

And then he thought about this.

He looked upwards and said, quite firmly, "Stupid lizard."

(You're doing this on purpose now.)

"AAAAAAAAAAH!" Blue yelled out, jumping to his feet and pointing at the sky. "YOU-!"

But then Blue stopped in place.

He looked down at his sister, who was standing next to him.

And then he said, "...This one listens and talks back."

Miz blinked. "Yeah? Though not everyone can hear him. Seb can't hear him most of the time. Not unless he's actually brought up there."

Blue developed a twitch next to his right eye.

"...I have mixed feelings about this," Blue said quite tonelessly. Because DERANGED LIZARD that sabotaged Seb to the nines and made everything nothing like a game! ...But also listens and talks back when you talk to it.

(...that was not my intention. He was supposed to be raised as a normal human. What happened with Filbrick was… not what was supposed to happen.)

"NORMAL HUMAN?! -THAT'S EVEN WORSE!" And Blue was on a serious tear now. Humans didn't remember shit when they were reincarnated - which didn't even happen that often! "YOU were the one who PUT HIM THERE! WHAT DID YOU THINK WAS GOING TO HAPPEN!"

Wanda stared back and forth between the two demons. She couldn't hear any god lizard responding.

"Well his plan was for Seb to grow up and help defeat the Bill Cipher here, thus absolving his crimes from his past life as Bill Cipher." Miz explained with a shrug. "Which is still better than those dimensions where the AXOLOTL decided to reincarnate Bill as STAN of all people."

"Stanleys are fine," Bill said to her promptly. "THAT is NOT THE PROBLEM with what THAT THING just said. -It said NORMAL HUMAN, in a Pines household, when it knows what Filbricks do, because of Seb as an us the first time around." Blue glared back up at the sky again. "IN WHAT WAY ARE STANLEYS AND STANFORDS NORMAL. ...Stupid lizard. Can't even lie properly, even." Blue muttered out next.

There was no response. Miz pouted. "He's embarrassed now."

"It should be," Blue told her, crossing his arms across his chest. "Thing actually talks and listens, but doesn't take any input? -It couldn't ask a human or twelve for an evaluation-opinion on 'normal' before they finished dying?"

"My theory is that Seb's situation was due to uncle Ax's laziness. He just stuck Seb in a human body and called it a day." Miz shrugged.

"Stupid lazy lizard," Blue muttered out next. "I don't have to care about it being all 'sensitive' here, now, do I?" Blue asked of his little sister next.

"Naw, I've gone up and scolded him plenty of times. Actually, even my dad has scolded him before."

(Threatened, more like…) was the very tired 'feeling' from above.

"Nothing is a game here, expect to be threatened until you fix things PROPERLY," was Blue's unsympathetic response to this.

(...that's what YAHWEH was supposed to do…)

Blue blinked. "WELL. You need better help. ...And to learn how to FIRE the lazy ones. Who are lazier than you."

Miz deadpanned, "You want him to fire God?" Then she cackled. "Oh man, Lucy would LOVE that!"

"Well, if HE'S not doing HIS JOB, EITHER!" Blue made a wide swinging gesture, protesting. "Then YES!"

And Wanda was wondering exactly how much more of this she could take. And exactly how she was supposed to feel about her religion anymore with the thought that God could apparently be fired, was brought up.

"-And also replace him with someone BETTER at it, next," Blue added curmudgeonly, and rather belatedly. "OBVIOUSLY."

There was a long silence. Then, hesitantly (...I will… have to think about that…) which made Miz pout up at the sky. "Don't you have anyone in mind at all?"

"-Don't rush the thing too hard, little sis, it's lazy, deranged, and stupid here," Blue said, backing off just the littlest of bits. (He himself hated being rushed into a decision, after all. Usually led to non-optimal, not-efficient ones. And the point here was to get a better outcome - preferably a longer-term one.) The fact that the thing was even taking the effort to say that it was going to be rethinking things at all was… vukm e cwymsi nqg voajr.

(The Axolotl missed the days when he was just a silent observer, at what point had he begun feeling so… much? He shuddered, things weren't simple anymore, when he could just allow his plans to play out. He… felt rather odd, all things considered. He was capable of sleeping through prayers and threats, everything short of a true invocation. But he'd begun… for lack of a better word, paying attention to this iteration of the Pines family. And he wasn't sure why. Ever since Sebastian had gone off the path of Fate that had been laid out for him… Sebastian had been destined to die, nobly sacrificing himself to take down the Bill Cipher here. And yet… he wanted to go back, back to a human life that had only brought him pain and rejection. The Axolotl didn't understand, but that decision… had piqued his interest in this iteration of the world. He hadn't left it, to go start a new one. And he hadn't left the old one either, the one Sebastian had been originally from. The Pines there were living their lives as well. And the Axolotl wasn't sure why he was letting this go on. What had made him start paying attention. Sebastian's choice, yes. But…)

"What," Blue said flatly to Wanda next, at the look she was giving him and his sister just then.

"...just don't know how to feel right now." Wanda had a bit of a headache, God was getting fired. What did that even mean?

"What, you want me to tell you?" Blue said to her next, rather skeptically.

"...I can make my own decisions, thank you." Wanda wasn't exactly religious but still!

"HM." Blue eyed her. "What did you think you were supposed to have 'feelings' about."

"God being real- how much of the Torah is real?" Wanda asked suddenly. Miz shrugged. "Many artistic liberties were taken for the pursuit of a more interesting narrative." Was Miz lackadaisical response.

"...It's a physical book? That also exists here? -Reality is an illusion here, too; define: real," was Blue's own contribution to the discussion.

"...right. Well, I'm just… going to not think about this subject anymore. Right." Wanda clapped her hands, wanting nothing more than to just let this go.

"Why," Blue said. Then he grinned almost ear-to-ear. "Afraid you'll get nominated for the job yourself, instead? With all that 'fairness' that you're wanting to do."

At that, Miz lit up and Wanda's eyes bugged out. She sputtered. "T-there's no way- I can't- that much responsibility-!"

"Why not? That one piece of him was human that one time," Blue said. "'Responsibility', you can work up to. -Everybody starts somewhere, you weren't a lawyer in a day," he waved off.

Wanda had to sit down. And by that, she meant that she had to lie down on the grass, staring blindly ahead in a state of shock. Oh… Oh no. Oh dear.

Miz patted her head, crouching beside her. "I think you'd make a great god, mommy." She was very thrilled by this turn of events.

"Maybe." Blue seemed slightly more reluctant on that front. "She hasn't defined 'reality', 'fairness', or 'justice' for me yet. Could be worse."

"Because it's subjective and needs to be weighed on a case by case basis based on who was involved in every case…" Wanda said absently. "Like making the punishment for parking tickets a fine of a certain amount of money isn't actually fair. If it's the same amount to be paid every time, it seems like it would be fair, but a rich person would feel like they're not even being punished since its less than pocket change for them, but anyone below the poverty line would be trapped in a cycle of debt as they fail to pay it off and the fine gets larger-"

Blue's eyes lit up.

"She thinks 'reality' can be subjective," Blue said as an aside to Miz, quite thrilled with this development. "That's a good sign. HM. Hm-hm. Hmmmmmmm..."

Miz grinned, still petting Wanda's hair as she babbled on, in a state of shock. "See why I chose her to be my mommy?"

"I think I'm starting to," Blue partially agreed. "Tell me," Blue said to Wanda next. "Why are parking tickets considered a necessary thing? And also these fines?"

"Certain locations cannot be blocked, like fire hydrants, in case they're needed, for the safety of people in case a fire happens. And there are some locations where the streets are too narrow for anyone to drive through if someone is parked there- it would cause a blockade of an entire neighborhood-"

"But they can be blocked, or there would be no tickets or fines," Blue noted. "-What if the things are not needed, or cannot truly be blocked?"

"That-" Wanda blinked slowly, looking a little irritated now. "There are many places which SHOULDN'T be giving people a fine for parking there. They're parking lots meant for parking! They just charge people money for using that space and give you a ticket if your time runs out-"

Blue moved his head in line with hers, upside down from above.

And he grinned as he asked her, "What is the problem behind the problem here? That fines are necessary? Or that the things that are needed can be blocked in the first place? That they are needed at all to begin with?"

"Those are a rather terrible oversight during city construction." Wanda groaned. "And that's not even getting into how many of the places that enforce the fines are more focused on patrolling the poorer neighborhoods, where people are more likely to be unable to pay and-" she was ranting now.

Blue opened his mouth to continue-

...and then paused, then closed it again.

"I'm doing the enlightenment thing again-almost, aren't I…" he straightened back up and said to Miz. Because he'd started to see the twisting and turning of thoughts and pathways, and started to try and reach out to her, to reroute her, to reach out and help her redirect them all back to...

Miz nodded. "Kinda. But I think mommy will be fine if we just let her finish this rant without giving her another one to start on."

Blue blinked at this. And then he nodded.

"There is always Stanley, if we absolutely need him," Blue noted sitting down next to Wanda, on the other side of her there.

"-ot even getting into the socio-economic division that's getting wider every year-!"

"Mommy's a strong one. She'll be ok. And if she does go too far, Seb'll snap her out of it." Miz shrugged, pulling Wanda up into a seated position and brushing the grass off her.

"Do we really want to, though? She is very good at the ranting!" Blue thought about this.

"-nd they don't even pay their goddamn taxes! And then they just buy their way out of having to do so-"

"You should teach her how to smite people," Blue noted. "I think she'd be VERY good at it, yes?" Righteous anger tended to help with that sort of thing, and this dream demon could practically taste it coming off of her in the air.

"Definitely, but I'm not sure if mommy's more of a lightning from the sky or laser beam eyes sort of person."

"Could just ask her, if she ever gets done with her ranting," Blue pointed out. "-Choices! Yes?"

"-can't believe they dropped those charges! There were piles of evidence! But noooo~! Just throw money at it and they got away with it! And his stupid smug face-!"

"Wow." Miz blinked. "I guess she had a lot more pent up than I thought."

"Probably good that's she's getting a lot of it out now, then, with how she talks about getting anger out of the way for more 'happy'." Blue paused for a moment. "...Do you think I should be taking notes on how she does it? I usually get fed up and start destroying things long before I get into ranting on things anything like this far," he said reflectively.

"...probably. I think she mentioned something about imagining someone's head in a vice to make herself feel better during a bad case. Imagining it squeeze, and that's enough to settle her enough to keep going without screaming in the middle of the courtroom, since apparently doing that could lose her the case."

"Oh, THAT," Blue not quite waved off. "The 'visualize the thing instead of doing the thing' thing. -Stanley already told me all about that one." Blue sounded a bit disappointed there, almost.

"Also making lemonade or fresh squeezed orange juice by hand." Miz added helpfully. "The visceral satisfaction of compressing a fruit until all its innards leak out. And also you'll have a nice refreshing drink afterward."

"WHY would I want to drink orange juice," Blue said, pulling a face of disgust. Then he looked over at Wanda. "Is she done?" he asked, pushing a palm against the side of her head, moving it slightly.

"-nd THAT, good sir, is why interest on parking ticket fines are utterly bullshit!" Wanda heaved, gasping for air.

Blue blinked at her. He tried pushing against the side of her head with his palm again, moving it a good full-inch back and forth again.

Wanda sputtered and leaned away from him. "Hey!"

"AHA! NOW she's done!" Blue pronounced quite authoritatively, with a smile.

Wanda huffed. Blushing and folding her arms. "Sorry. Just… had a lot to get off my chest."

"For more room for the 'happy' for a very-human you," Blue noted, lowering his hand.

"That was rather cathartic, yes." Wanda brushed some hair behind her ear. "...what?" She asked as both demons continued grinning at her.

"You're really cool when you're righteously angry." Miz poked Wanda's cheek.

"Definitely god material," Blue noted. "Need to work on your all-around awareness, but demi-god material, oh yes. -Miz will teach you how to do all of the best types of smiting," he said to her decisively next. "Would you like lightning better? Or the laser beams? Or something-other," he continued quite prudently next. "-I hear that Cthulhu-type horror is making a real comeback with humans these days, as 'cool'?" Blue offered up to her helpfully next.

Wanda sputtered again. "I don't-" she sighed. "Whatever." She wasn't going to argue about this. Not with two stubborn demons who'd try to out stubborn her.

"'You don't whatever'?" This was confusing to Blue.

"But mooom~" Miz whined, "-imagine what you'd be able to do if you had tentacles!"

"I do not want tentacles." Wanda deadpanned.

Then Miz tried a different approach, "Imagine what you'd be able to do to Seb with tentacles."

Wanda opened her mouth to reject the idea again, but paused. Then she flushed a bright red and shook her head. "Nope! No! No tentacles!" Ahhh! The absolute sin brought up by that idea-! Wanda had to cover her face. "Not doing THAT!"

"...That sounds more like a 'yes please' than a 'no don't'," Blue noted, perking up in olace and looking interested. "Miz, that sounds more like a 'yes please' than a 'no don't' to you, yes?"

Miz opened her mouth to respond but Wanda shot her a glare. "I might tell Stan that we can't go to a Thai restaurant because they have too many items with peanuts." Miz gasped. "But my Thai iced tea-!"

"What is wrong with the peanuts?" Blue was confused. "The local Stan likes all of the peanut things, yes?"

Shermie's deathly allergic." Miz grumbled. "But we could just not order anything with them!"

"But your Deal should take care of that not being a thing? Because deadly? And also the bracelet, because relative-poison?" Blue said next, still confused.

"Allergies are immune responses and are a loophole. He wouldn't die, but he'd not have a fun time. And even if he knows Shermie would be fine, the potential risk would make Stan say no to going to a Thai place for lunch." Miz complained.

"But bracelet?" Blue noted. "All the poisoning-like things passing through-and-into it should be then neutralized by it? Before being eaten?" He frowned. "Could always stack on another blessing. Or a curse. To fill in that particular gap - why would you leave that one there and so open, when it is so well-known to you already?" Blue asked of her next.

Miz thought about that and wove a quick Blessing. Wanda groaned as she lost her leverage. "...still don't want tentacles." She huffed.

"They're very useful," Blue tried, but saw that he was getting nowhere with her now. "Fine. -You can change your mind and say 'yes' to the tentacles later," Blue told her, glancing over and getting a nod from Miz; they were aligned in this.

Wanda blushed. Nope. Not gonna think about it. "Speaking of lunch, we should check on Stan, see if he and that other Ford are done with their thing." She changed the subject.

Blue's expression immediately went almost completely neutral, if not completely expressionless.

"Fine," said Blue, brushing himself off and slowly standing up.

Wanda sighed at the drop in mood. But she really didn't want the two thinking about her being God's replacement.

"Food is important," Blue confirmed next, as he got himself upright and waited for his sister and his sister's 'mom' to do the same. They all got up and began the walk back to the shooting range. Miz pouted at Wanda but the blonde sighed. Especially when Miz kept up the pout the entire way.