Illusion is Reality

Chapter 123

-Buy Gold-

Linda should have been expecting it. She had just sat down at her desk, hoping to get some time to gather herself before starting her day. And then a large glowing circle appeared in the middle of her office and two people came out of it. It went to show how used she was to things like this, that she didn't even flinch. Just sat back to be more comfortable at her desk and looked the people over. Her eyes widened and she smiled. "Oh, hello again Miz." She greeted. The little girl (who was older than Lucifer, older than God and the Earth itself, apparently) waved at her. "Hiiii Miss Linda~!"

"I have been informed by Miz," the blue-and-black haired teenager with Miz said to her, as an introduction, rather authoritatively (and in a way that somewhat reminded her of Lucifer, oh hell), "That appearing here directly is the 'polite' thing to do." And this unknown teenager said this, even as the teenager gave Miz a look as though she did not quite believe what she had been told. (Linda blinked at this.) "Seb has also requested that I not be 'harsh on you' because you are 'a good person'." The teenager seemed to have a similar problem with the idea of this as well, from the way she was crossing her arms now and looking Linda over.

Linda blinked. "Appearing right in is…" She trailed off. "It's not barging through the door without knocking! Which is what you don't like." Miz said brightly. Linda buried her face in her hands. "...yes, it isn't…" She smiled ruefully. "Well, I should clarify, knocking or making an appointment beforehand is more preferred."

"Boundaries, and knocking, and asking permission," said the teenager (after turning to Miz). "Add it to your bracer, now," she said, pointing abruptly down at Miz's left arm. "No more forgetting."

Miz raised her wrist and tapped at a bracelet there, which popped up a sci-fi looking holographic screen before fading away. Linda wanted to ask about it, but figured it was some type of demon-alien thing. "Not that I'm not happy for the visit, but did you need something?" Linda asked.

"A few moments," said the teenager, who turned towards the large glowing circle, made a gesture, then put an arm at Miz's back and walked them both through it again. The glowing circle disappeared.

Linda blinked. It was not a half-minute later that she heard two sets of footsteps, a stop, and then… there was a knock on the door. "Come in?"

The door opened, and Miz and the teenager stepped through the door, and closed in behind them. (Well, the teenager closed it for Miz).

"Better," said the teen, as Miz looked over at Linda expectantly. The human smiled. "That is quite a lot better, thank you." She straightened up in her chair. "So, do you two want to sit down?" Miz nodded, going over to the couch to plop herself into it.

"Where should I be sitting? I am not one of your patients," said the teenager. "These are not strictly-designated as to purpose and relative-positioning, as far as I can see."

"You can sit on the couch as well, if you want." Linda told him. "I have some smaller couch-chairs there too." Linda gestured to the other places for seating. "But if you want to stand, you're free to do that too."

"Standing would imply an aggressive posture, or need for such, with both of you seated," the teenager noted. "Are you going to be staying in a 'defensive' posture half-'hidden' behind your desk?"

Linda narrowed her eyes a little at that. Oh, she was one of those. Linda got up from her desk. "Well, I had been planning to rest a little, but if you're already here…" ("Don't worry, I'll transfer over the funds for this session later.")

"If you are not prepared for this, then we can come back later with an appointment," the teen said looking around the room, and strolling across the front of the couch. "You're clearly not set up for this currently."

"No, I'm used to it. And generally, if people are coming in, it's because they want to talk. I can handle it." Linda waved off, walking over to sit on another couch facing where Miz was sitting, swinging her legs back and forth.

"Do you think that you are ready to do this now, then?" said the teen, still craning their head around and not looking over at her again yet.

"That depends on what you're doing?" Linda sighed. "Are you here to talk, or do you need me to help you break into some facility and possibly steal hospital supplies?" She nearly rolled her eyes at the memories. Dammit Lucifer.

That had the teen stopping in place to look over at her.

"Why would I need any help doing that?" said the teen. And Linda almost relaxed until she said, "Do I look like I need any help in pulling that off? -That was a rhetorical question, the answer is no, I'm perfectly capable of doing that if I wanted to."

"Lucy asks her to help him with that." Miz pointed out helpfully. Linda held back a groan.

"Why?" said the teen. Then she frowned. "Wait. Lucy as devil-Lucifer? Who you need to wear your glasses around?" The teen started looking a bit suspicious.

"...yes?" Miz looked away, putting on an innocent face.

The teen's suspicious face got even more suspicious.

"Put a reminder in to that for wearing your glasses around him, too," said Blue. "Proximity alert of one mile. Minimum."

Miz sighed, typing that in too. Linda was trying very hard not to look amused. "So who's your friend Miz?" ("Oh, this is my big brother.") Oh. So the teenager was a boy- and not a teen. Linda wondered how old this one was.

"...you and your 'squirmy things'," the teen muttered out at Miz, before looking back over to Linda. "You do realize how insufficient this setting is for her sessions here, don't you? If she is here now 'to talk'?"

"Well, this is my office. I don't-" Linda looked over at Miz. "She hasn't told me that she needed any place more specialized for her?"

"Not the place," Miz's brother waved off at her. "The location isn't the problem here," he groused out. "Did you really not explain?" he said to Miz. "Or do you normally set that up for her, at least a little? ...or at all. Is there any 'setting up first' at all, for operational security," the teen stressed out at his sister next, hands on his hips.

"I was trying to go for a 'human' type of thing, since I've only told her about my human life so far." Miz explained. "I figured I'd work my way up from my human life, to my triangle one, and then my demon one."

The teen got a twitch at the the side of his face, near his right eye.

"You are telling me that you did NOT lock down this area to remote viewing," the teen began, "For at least the time period you are spending here. Or this one's brain in-general and personal-timeline-history to reading-and-review from others, either," the teen waved a hand at Linda without looking at her next. "Before talking about any of some of the things with her at all." The teenager did not sound pleased about this at all.

"...I haven't told her anything that would be an issue? At least I didn't think it would be?" Miz shrank in on herself. Linda made note of this. Operational security?

"Are you or are-you-not talking to this 'therapist' about things that do have an impact on you now and would have an impact on you in the future? Or are you wasting your time 'playing around' here?" the teen said to her next. "'Vetting' her is one thing. Are you still doing that?"

"Uwu…"

The teen straightened up and seemed to half-attack the sides of his head (his hair?) with his hands for a little bit, in agitation.

Linda watched all this, rather bemused.

After awhile, the teen stopped, just standing there with his eyes closed, hands still at the sides of head as if he was clearly reaching for patience. And regulating his breathing. Linda recognized it as a square breathing technique, except it was for three seconds on each, rather than four.

"...sorry I don't think about operational security…" Miz fiddled with her hair, holding a lock and finger combing it.

"...This is not fine," said the teen, reopening his eyes. "There is a 'local god' here who is 'omniscient' and can see into the minds, bodies, and souls of humans and other-beings here, who I am not going to be able to stop from having-Seen the things that he-and-it-and-he have already Seen you say and do here, out loud, here in this room here," the teenager told his little sister. "Or any of this one's thoughts, words, or actions on-or-with you to-date."

"But he hasn't done shit for years. I mean, why would he care about what I do?" Miz blinked. "Unless he heard about how uncle Ax is thinking of firing him…"

"I don't trust that deranged lizard, and I don't trust this local god," the teen said. "They both screwed up making-and-not-fixing this dimension. Both of them. Both."

(...see if I bother to help you out next time… jerk…)

"With what?" said the teen (rather suddenly and out of nowhere to Linda), tilting his head back. "I didn't see you 'helping' me with anything here at any time anywhere. What 'first time'? What?!"

Miz looked Up. "He doesn't trust any Axolotl." She said apologetically. "Uncle Ax told me you were being alone and thinking you couldn't be with me. Last night." She turned back to address her brother.

The teen lowered his chin and blinked at Miz next.

"Oh. Well. Definition trouble." He tilted his head back again, frowning. "That's not helping me', that's 'helping her'. Stupid lizard. -Should want me helping to block any mention of stupid-lizards anyway, so 'sensitive' when the topic comes up. Because IT WILL. She will be talking about lizards here. -You're welcome."

(...don't know why I bother…I'm going back to sleep…)

"You 'bother' because it's your job. Do it right for once. -Yeesh. 'Needing sleep'. Fine." The teen dropped his chin again. "Since when do these … do anything," the teen muttered (actually trying not to call it again, because 'sensitivity' and it had just said it was trying to go back to sleep). The teen shifted his shoulders oddly in place, looking a bit uncomfortable suddenly, where he stood. Especially from the way his eyes were darting around the room from object to object, almost restlessly.

"Uncle Ax does stuff sometimes, though, he mainly just complains at everyone talking shit about him." Miz said, far too cheerfully.

"...At least there is talking-back from… to any talking-towards... Somewhat." The teen said very begrudgingly. "Deranged," he muttered out next.

The teen then glanced over at Linda. "What."

"...just… wondering about who you're talking about." Linda said honestly. "Um, if you want to explain after setting up that… security thing you were talking about?"

"I wasn't talking to the local demi-god," said the teen. "-There are several 'security thing's that absolutely need setting up. Some are for this room," he gestured about with a finger, in a room-encompassing way, "And some would need to be set up on you-personally. Because mind-reading and mental-and-physical coercion are also 'a thing'. They are THREE 'thing's, of many. After all," the teen eyed her, "'Privacy' and 'confidentiality' are SUPPOSED to be important parts of this 'human-therapy' process also-here, yes?"

Linda nodded. "Yes. I… yes. That is what I am supposed to do. Confidentiality, yes." She frowned. "Wait, mind reading?" That worried her, a lot. Miz nodded. "Plenty of supernaturals can do mind-power things." she wiggled her fingers, making Linda feel more unsettled. "But don't worry. I can put down a protection-" She paused. "Can I make a modified version of the friendship-bracelet for her?"

Friendship what? And then Miz was holding out a small braided friendship bracelet.

"...That will help with some-things, yes," said the teen, after seemingly looking it over. "But there are all of the 'trapping' and 'pain' problems with that still, even with the Deal-like extension you made to this, to cover part of what the bracelets did not have, as being an add-on addition before. -You could give her a pendant-'back-there', as well? One that only she may use, that only brings her-along." Blue noted, "If you think she is trust-worthy enough to help you on anything you tell her…" Then the teen shrugged. "Or make it so that she cannot leave that place until you let her if she uses that sometime-then. For time for vetting-and-evaluating-her, further-first. Yes?"

Miz turned to Linda, who shivered a little at the weight that gaze had, almost freezing her in place. And Linda couldn't move, as the little girl regarded her. And all at once, that feeling was gone, and Linda could breathe again. "Yeah. I like her." Miz said cheerfully, looking for all the world like a human child again, and not the horrifying thing that Linda almost got a glimpse of. She shivered. Reminded her of Lucifer, a little.

"You can 'like' someone and not trust them at all," the teen noted, turning his gaze on her also. But the teen's gaze was… it felt masked or hidden, almost. Linda was having trouble getting a good read on him, for some things.

"I feel like I can trust her." Miz grinned.

"...Then make a pendant for her, too," said the teen. "Can be flashy. Wouldn't be worried about trying to hide anything about the fact that she left at the leave-point, if she needs to use it. Just preventing her from being traced."

"...for the Island?" Miz asked, thinking that was what Blue meant. Since teleportation pendants were a thing she'd just got done making on the island. "Linda's not specialized with children."

"She wouldn't have to be," the teen said to her. "This would be as an escape for her, to there, if cornered-trapped or in pain-enough that she would start talking. About YOU. -Automatic-trigger for that case-and-scenario?"

"Oh. That makes more sense." Miz waved her hand to get one of those little glass baubles and strung the 'friendship bracelet' through it, making the string longer.

"Add the 'ungraspable' for both," Blue noted. "Intangible-to-others, unseen to all-others. No-one to rip it off, or know to tell her to do so," Blue added next, as he put a hand in his pocket, and pulled something out of- was that a patchwork witch's hat? How had he gotten that to fit-

"And intangible to the point of not getting damaged if she bumps it against anything, too." Or if Linda slept with it on, so it wouldn't be uncomfortable.

"Yes," said the teen, "Just as the other-originals are, too." He shoved a hand into the witch's hat and… pulled out a thin square sheet of metal? He moved the hat up to his head to- hover there?! And slapped his hand down on the flat square of silver metal to-

-the distinctive all-black tattoo covering his hand up his arm wasn't a tattoo. It slithered down from his skin to the surface of contact and spread out like a pool, then into a circle of markings- two- three-

Linda couldn't hold back the giddy little squeak. Magic! Lucifer and the other never really used their powers in such a flashy way. This was so COOL.

It took only a second, then the teen half-dropped, half set the plate with its circles down on the floor, then crouched down and slapped his hand into the center of it.

Linda couldn't see what he did there next - his hand went blurry almost as it got close to the plate-

-and then there was a rush of something outwards that blew through and right past her, leaving her gasping for breath.

She couldn't help but note almost inanely that the skin on his hands and arms were now completely clear (though that brick-like pattern was still there), as he rose to his feet again, and laced his fingers behind his back there, and full-body stretched his arms and legs in place.

"Mmm," the teen hummed out, before relaxing in place, letting his arms swing loose. "Time to actually get this thing done-now. -For the room," he added, as he turned away from the psychologist. "Now that I've got us a modicum of privacy here. Just a bit. -We'll talk about securing you-more a bit more-next." He started making tossing-out gestures at the walls, which flared in ways Linda couldn't quite look at, and seemed almost blurry to her when she tried.

Linda looked around as odd patterns flared on and across various portions of the walls of her office and disappeared just as abruptly, in those eye-bending ways, then jumped when Miz held out the pendant to her. "Here you go. It'll protect you from harm, mind reading, and has a teleportation effect to take you away from where you don't want to be, and to an Island that I built. Just ask for Care Unit 1 if you have any questions." Linda blinked slowly. Then she looked down at the pendant. "And, how do I know that this wouldn't mind control me?"

"How do you know that you're NOT being-mind-controlled by not-you right now?" was Miz's brother's casual response, without even turning his head back around towards her, or seemingly pausing at all in his work, as he kept on making tossing and throwing gestures at her walls, while very slowly turning in place.

"I guess I wouldn't know." Linda sighed. "Then again, I have to deal with Lucifer all the time, he's got that… mind thing, that he does with people. So what do I know." She muttered.

"That's not outright control, that's subversive-influence, and that bracelet needs a bit more of stopping-that probably, Miz," was the teen's next contribution to the discussion. "You haven't filled in all the gaps in that yet. That's part of what-will need discussing."

Miz fiddled with the pendant, humming as she did so. "I'll add that sort of thing in. No outside influences on mentality? Words are allowed through, but magical or psychic-type effects should be blocked."

"Need to lock down any vibrations of 'words' out of the human-audible registers, oh little sister mine," Blue reminded her. "Too many things can-and-do travel along that particular wave-band of conceptual-frequencies. Also: sight-visible. Also: touch-and-absorption-through-skin. Also: taste-ingestible. Also: (ew) smells. The hormonal-pheremonal hydrocarbons especially, for humans." Linda could hear the distaste in his voice.

"...wouldn't that block out all communications?" Miz wondered.

"No," said the teen. "Not if you get all the blocked-ranges right. Only way to do this without altering her internally. Which I think you are trying to avoid for her continued proper functioning here, yes?"

Miz nodded, continuing to fiddle with the pendant. Linda was a little lost, but sort of understanding what was up. The older brother was worried about Linda being compromised, and didn't want that happening when his little sister was going to be spilling her dark secrets to her.

"If there are problems, she can call you and ask you for a lessening of all-of-some of the restrictions on certain things," the teen then noted. "She doesn't have to wait for an 'appointment'. -Do you want me to check over your work when you're done?" Miz nodded, making a few more tweaks and then handing the pendant over to her brother.

Blue had slowed down a bit at this point, and turned to take it from her.

"Need to add in a few more tweaks to obfuscate Looking at her previous history, along her own personal timeline, by Looking at her," the teen told her, handing it back. "Could make it variable rather than absolute. -Vibratory-resonant with-and-when being within the field of this room as an initial-enactor and setting-tool-guide?"

Linda rubbed her head as Miz worked at the bracelet a bit more. "...so… would that make it safe for me to continue speaking with Miz?" And she realized there was no way she'd be able to find a child psychologist to help with Miz at this point. Well. Looks like she was going to have to take a crash course in child psychology. At least it wouldn't be as stressful as learning how to use medical supplies for emergency first aid...

"No," said the teen, looking up at her. "Nothing is 'perfect', and none of this has to do with you-and-Miz interacting yet." He turned away from her again. "That 'ship already sailed' even-before this, when you first started talking to-and-with her, without any of all-this in place. -This will make it hard for all but a few beings to be able to determine what happens in here," she was told next. "And it will show you if it has been tampered-with; this is NOT tamper-proof. None of this is forceful-enough to stay in place 'no matter what'," he then told her. "It will stop any recording-devices or -magics from working outside-to-in and inside-to-out while it is working, though. Anything that is made here will be wiped-out into non-existence upon exit-or-removal, as well, now," he said, as he went back to making a few more tossing motions at the walls with a frown. "You won't be able to 'send emails' or 'phone calls' from in-here because of this," he added, "But it will also prevent anyone from listening-in on anything in-here by trying to record from those lines." Then he paused for a moment, hands on his hips as he looked around at what Linda just couldn't see, and said, "Do you want me to secure this somewhat against physical entry, as well? A boundary, that will let no-one and no-thing through it unless you give explicit permission for such, either verbal-audible willed, or written-silent, for each and every entry-each-time? -Things on your person will be allowed in, except for an incomplete limited list of all things considered-recognized harmful. I can have the air circulate and clean itself here, and light will be filtered through and stop at anything above a certain level, outside of a certain range; gravity as well. Electricity will be separate; I can and will cross-convert electricity for your 'outlets' here from the ambient electromagnetic field, with cutoffs and safety bleed-offs there, as well."

Linda got caught on something the teen said before he started getting into a bunch of specifics, and she had a very mischievous thought. "Would that stop Lucifer and his friends from just barging in?"

"Unless they manage to break it down, yes," said the teen. "Powering such can also include stealing whatever-force they are trying to use to get in at that boundary, to help 'power' it?"

Linda actually let out a cackle. "Oh that would be funny. Maybe then he'll finally learn to make an appointment!"

"Is that a 'yes'?" said the teen, but he was giving her an amused smile (at her reaction to this news) already.

"Sure, so long as I have control of the permissions to enter, don't want to get locked out of my own office after all." Linda grinned.

"Can't guarantee that, if it is tampered with," the demon noted. "But then, you might not want to come in anyway. -Forced entry will collapse the whole thing; you'll lose all your 'notes and recordings', and your bracelet-and-pendant will act as your proof-of-self-identity for entry -DON'T take them off, ever," she was told, as he started gesturing at the walls again at a rapid-pace, then stopped. He turned to her. "What do you want as a sigil for 'this person only' and 'all people and things for the next one minute from now' for the written?" she was asked. "Two things, to draw out on the floor or any-surface in here, if you cannot speak or otherwise move much at all. -Draw them on the wall here." Miz's brother made a gesture, and two dark circles appeared on the side wall of her office, labeled with what he'd just asked her. "I'd recommend something simple, not intricate, easy to recall, but not easily absently-done, for each."

Linda paused, then pointed at the wall. "Do I draw something?"

"Trace it out with your finger, using either hand. The hand will not matter. You could even use your tongue in the roof of your mouth for the sigil-drawing of this later, if you wanted."

"Ok." Linda went up to a wall and traced a quick pattern in each. Wow, she was doing magic! Technically. But this was so cool!

Blue nodded, and the black lines that had followed her finger faded out.

He stepped forward then, put both hands on the wall, and the entire room from the walls to the ceiling and floor (and the windows) seemed to thrum for one long moment.

Linda glanced up and down to realize that the walls hadn't been the only things Miz's brother had been adding things to.

...And then Miz's teenaged-looking brother let out a slow breath as he pulled his hands away from the wall, and walled back over to the sheet if metal that he'd put down, to pull his not-tattoos back up into each arm, pick up and stow the sheet of metal back inside his floating witch's hat, and...

The teen turned to her and said, "You could put your phone in a planter to hang out the window, if you want to be able to hear it ring in here. Or set up a phone to ring loudly out in the hallway. The physical protections will not allow you to be shoved, pushed, or pulled out the window if you do the former of those two things, though, while the latter could be used to draw you out of your greater-safety-in-here as a ruse and a lure, so I would recommend that first one," he informed her next.

"That's fine." Linda nodded. "So… that's how magic works?"

The teen's eyebrows went up.

"I didn't show you how magic 'works'," he told her next, frowning a bit at her. "I just enacted some of it in front of you. Most of which you couldn't even see."

"It's still impressive, even if I don't really understand it." Linda looked around. There was nothing on her walls that she could see.

"Mm," said the teen. He sounded like a master artist who'd been told by a three-year-old that his painting was 'pretty'. (In other words: reasonably satisfied in hearing someone praise his work and mean it, but not in any way impressed upon hearing this declaration from this particular person who was standing right in front of him saying it.)

"The walls will 'bleed red' if this has been compromised in any way," the teen told her next. "You will be able to see it from the hallway. And it will stay that way, until you or someone-else replaces the walls-entire. You can check if it still exists at all by making the 'this-one-person' sigil on the door, on the front of the door-in when the door is open and inside the room. It will make the trace in glowing-blue, then disappear again, the first time you do it. Second time that actually lets them in, it will be in draw-down-deepening black, visible even in the dark as even-much-darker. You should do the check one time, every time that you enter this room."

"...suitably dramatic." Linda nodded.

"And off-putting to whoever dared to commit such a forcible entry, because bleeding," the teen noted next.

"Nice." Linda grinned.

The teen smiled.

"Couch-Miz, chair-you, middle-chair-me?" the teen said next, at the couch, the chair facing the couch, and a chair off to the side that was facing the both, ostensibly on neither 'side' as it was sitting to face down the middle of an imaginary dividing line between them.

"I'm alright with that arrangement." Linda looked over at Miz. "I wasn't aware what you tell me was going to be so top secret?" Miz shrugged. "Brother's para- erm… worried." She looked sheepish. "Which he has every reason to be."

"Miz, what did-and-have you told her that you are, oh little sister of mine?" the teen asked next, as he easily and casually folded himself down into his seat. Linda followed suit after Miz had sat down again as well.

Miz leaned her head onto her hand, balanced on one leg. "I told her about my childhood as a human, my human parents, and how I apparently have daddy issues, just like all her other clients." Linda was professional enough to not snort at that. But seriously, between Seb and Lucifer, she was finding her demon clients seemed to have daddy issues as the core of their problems.

"And what does she think that you are, as of right now?" the teen said next.

"A dragon demon god, older than the universe itself," Miz said, then grinned and added on, "And Lucy's superior." Linda barely held back the bark of laughter at that.

Her brother let out a deep sigh and sat (lounged?) back in his chair, propping one leg up on the other knee and putting down his elbow on the other armrest, and his chin on his fist, to send Miz a very long look. (Oddly, it felt like he was sitting in it like it was some kind of throne?)

"...You do realize she has no real comprehension of any of that, otherwise she would have run away screaming by now," the teen noted dryly. "Or worse."

"Well, she got scared by Lucifer when he first showed himself to her, but she got over it." Miz shrugged. "I confess, I haven't shown her me yet. I was gonna work her up to that."

"Alternately," the teen drawled out, "You could stick to talking to her about only human things, and never have to 'worry' about ever getting to that point with her in the first place, because you are 'only' looking for someone to talk to about 'human things' about-and-with." He glanced over at Linda. "This 'Lucifer' is nothing compared to-" he stopped talking abruptly, and looked away.

Linda considered the two of them. "So, are you both… more similar to a Lovecraftian-type of entity?" Miz sat up, blinking. "Oh, yes. Kinda?"

The teen grinned at her quite winningly. "Would you like me to be?"

"I don't want to go insane from looking at you, or attempting to comprehend you. I still have my day job." Linda said wryly.

"Oh look, she's not an idiot,' the teen said to Miz while continuing to stare at Linda next, still grinning. "-Tell me," said the teen. "Do you feel in any way qualified to help my little sister with any of all of her… 'problems'?"

"Not at all." Linda said honestly. "I've said that I am not qualified for this. But they wanted someone to at least try."

"'They'?" the teen said.

"Her parents. Seb and Wanda. They were worried about Miz. After… some things happened. I can't tell you about them without Miz's consent on the matter." Linda looked over at Miz, who sighed. "The whole, almost getting kidnapped, thing, and my own PTSD of stuff." She shrugged.

The teen looked like he was about to explode for a moment at the 'kidnapping' mention, then pulled it all down again.

"...Right," said the teen. "Still need to track down that-" he stopped at the look his sister gave him, and got a bit of a grimace, turning his head away from her then. "-Do you think that you will ever find anyone who will be 'qualified' to help my little sister?" the teen asked Linda next.

"I… was asking around with some other people. But I don't know if anyone would be able to… handle this sort of thing. I'm afraid I only really know other humans in the psychiatric profession…"

"What do you think a 'good' psychiatrist would need to do-or-be to be qualified to be my dear little sister's therapist, then," the teen queried her next, his foot ticking in place slightly on his knee, every so often. (It reminded her a little of a cat's twitching tail...)

"...probably someone not human, or… rather, perhaps someone who understands better, of what she is, who she is." Linda sighed.

The teen gave her a long look.

"I understand that better," said the teen, "But what I don't, apparently, understand well enough to help her with, is human problems, from a human way of thinking-and-feeling. You are not-qualified yes," said the teen. "No-one is, that I know of. But a someone-who-is-not-human-and-never-was would not be able to help her with what she says that she needs: she told me that she is looking for someone to talk to about 'human things' about-and-with."

"Well, I guess I can do some of that." Linda sighed. "I… I know how to talk to people. I'm not, my job isn't to make my patients better, or anything like that. I am here to help them understand themselves better, so that they can make themselves better."

"Define: 'better'," said the teen. (His foot had stopped moving.)

"That definition is different for everyone, because everyone has their own baselines, and no two people will need the same thing." Linda told him. "I just help them realize what they think or want, so they can decide for themselves."

"So if I was your patient," the teen said to her, "And I told you that my idea of 'being better' was being able to murder every last being on this planet, other than myself and my sister, without feeling any remorse, pause, or 'sad' reflection upon the act later… what would you do?"

"Well. As a person," Linda hesitated, "I would say that is horrible." She frowned. "But professionally, I would have to ask if such a thing would make you happy. Is, that the sort of person that you want to become? That you think would be someone you'll be happy to be."

"And if I say yes? And you feel certain that I will do it then-next?" The teen was smiling.

Linda closed her eyes, looking a little strained. "Well, I would be rather… upset. But there's no way for me to stop you, if that is what you want to do, is there." At this point, she was rather certain that this was likely the case, even without straight-up proof of whatever this 'teen' actually was.

"And if I was just some normal human?'

"I'm required to report you to the cops. In fact, even you as you are now, I'd probably have to report you to the cops. But the difference is that if you were human, there's a higher chance of you being stopped." Linda adjusted her glasses. "I'm afraid there's a thing, with society here, where we don't want people to kill others."

"I'm aware," the teen grinned at her next. (His foot was doing that twitching cat tail thing again.)

"I would tell you that you shouldn't go around killing people, because I don't like the idea of anyone doing that. But I wouldn't be able to stop you, if that is what you've decided." Heck, she was very certain Maze and Lucifer had killed numerous people. But… they were still her friends. As much as she didn't like it.

"Why shouldn't I go around killing people?" the teen asked her next. "It's not like they're not-dying already. Currently."

"Mainly because a lot of people do not want to be killed."

"Some do." The teen was looking over her evenly.

"And that would be called 'assisted suicide' which there are also laws against." Linda sighed.

"Do you think suicide is fine? Personally."

"No. I don't think it's fine. Not at all." Linda sighed. "And I will try to tell people not to do so. But ultimately, I cannot stop anyone. I can't do more than try to help them realize that making a decision like that is too important to do so without a lot of deep introspection and second opinions to help round out their own thoughts on the matter."

Blue stared at her levelly for a long moment.

"Is there anyone or anything that could be used as leverage against you," the teen said next, "That could-or-would have you giving different answers or advice to any of your 'patients', in any way, than you 'normally' would. To say or not-say a thing, or to say something that someone else had told you to say or to do. 'Or else'.'

"If someone were to threaten the lives of my friends and family." Linda looked strained again. "I confess, I have that selfishness inside me, where I could be threatened in such a way. I wish I could say I could be professional enough to not do so, but that would be a lie."

The teen let out a long breath and his face twisted up into a half-frown.

He sat back in his chair.

"Miz," he said, "Add an 'emergency talk to you or Seb' function to that pendant of to-be-hers, would you," he said, while not looking away from Linda. And then, "Well. At least YOU actually recognize it. ...There's always a 'breaking point'. Always."

"Open communications, got it." Miz nodded. (She was still holding the bracelet and the pendant in her hands.)

Linda gave a bemused smile. "Oh, I know all about being held hostage or used as a leverage thing. I know where my 'breaking points' as you so put it, are. I'm a therapist. I know myself, I kind of have to."

The teen nodded twice, almost absently, as he put his chin down on his other fist, propped up from the other armrest. He was gazing over her, and… an odd 'eye' made of lines of light flickered in, then out at his forehead.

Linda sat back, feeling a bit tense about all this. She wondered if this was a little like what the detective went through, on her cases with danger and… whatever else went on in her police work.

"...well," said the teen after a bit, and the 'eye'-lines flickered fully out. "I can't say that she's definitely and absolutely unsuitable-immediately." He frowned. "I don't trust you," he said to her next, uncrossing his legs and letting his foot drop to the floor, "But Miz and Seb seem to want me to give you the… 'benefit of the doubt'," he sounded both annoyed and disgusted at this, "If I was 'reading between the lines' with them correctly." He flicked his gaze over to Miz for a moment, who nodded.

"Trust is a heavy thing. Something that shouldn't be given out freely." Linda agreed. "All I can do is try my best to help people, and earn that trust."

"Then let me make this very clear now," the teen told her. "You don't know what you're doing, you are to help my little sister help herself with her human and human-sourced problems only, and you are NOT to make her feel as though anything you tell her should have any bearing on what it takes to rule over an entire planet worth of people - or more - 'morally' or 'ethically' or 'nicely' or otherwise," the teen told her. "You can, will, and should make that clear. Your stupid, petty, flat-ish so-called 'human morality' of 'humanity' does NOT scale well to entire planets at all," the teen told her, "Let alone entire planetary systems, galaxies, or dimensions. Or other alien races, cultures, or systems of governance. -This is only potentially useful for understanding a very-limited number-and-amount of human-related problems, and other, older single-human-life-only sorts of things."

Linda glanced over at Miz. Well, if she really was some kind of dragon demon thing from space (eldritch horror as well, by the sounds of it) "I have no way to understand things at that scale. So I won't be able to say anything about it." Not like she could understand Lucifer half the time anyway, not in any of the Celestial matters. "I'm just here to help Miz understand how she feels, and why she feels the way she does."

"Many of the things she felt then are and have-been having an impact upon the 'her' she is now," said the teen. "There are things that she does not understand about 'then', and some of them also can-and-do hurt her. Some cause her unnecessary pain. -I do NOT like the idea of her handing over all of these things to you, for you-or-others to potentially be able to use against her." The teen was glaring at her now, hands and fingers grasping around the edges of the arm rests of the chair. "Make no mistake," the demon told her, "The only reason I did not tell Miz to add a 'you cannot speak about her' to those two things that you are going to wear? Is because someone could use that to learn what might be her weaknesses, by forcing you to try and say things, and noticing not what you can say, but what you cannot. -If I had MY way," the demon said next, "I would remove you from everything-else entirely, sit you in a pretty little box that you cannot ever leave, have you forget everything about her in-between sessions, and destroy you once she was done with you after. Even if I trusted you with her Mind at all, to begin with. But my little sister doesn't like the idea of me killing people for her, and she also 'likes' you," the teen told her next, with a frustrated wave of his hand. "I'd show you how easily I could force or trick you into talking about your patients as well, by an object example, but she and Seb want me to not be 'harsh on you', so." He said the last sing-song, then sat back in his chair, looking both tense and also-frustrated.

"...thank you for not killing me once my use is obsolete?" Linda held down a shudder. "That's kind of a terrifying thought, no offense."

"Alternately, you may be begging for death before you're all done," the teen told her next. "I make NO promises." ("Brother." Miz groaned. "What? I make no promises to kill her, I make no promises to not-kill her. She could want either one!")

"...I am utterly terrified right now." Linda said, much more calmly than she felt. Miz actually came over to pat her back. "Brother has that effect on people."

"Lady, I'm a Master of the Mind," the teen drawled out at her. "I know EXACTLY what someone can do to a person, when all their deepest darkest secrets, wounds, holes, fears, hopes and wants and dreams, loves and hates and nightmares are all laid out, open and bleeding and beating right in front of them there, out on a platter made of beaten gold before them, like an offering to one of your lesser 'gods'. Keys to the Kingdom of someone's own Mind. Free Will, to be re-tuned to some other being's liking. And that's just the Mind; I'm not even getting into what can be done to someone's body or soul, against their own will or otherwise." He glared at her next. "You SHOULD be terrified of what I'm going to do to you, if you ever even THINK about hurting my little sister, by screwing with her cute little Mind. And I WILL know about it," the teen informed her, with all seriousness. "Don't EVER think that I won't."

"That's kinda unfair for Miss Linda." Miz pointed out.

"Fine." The teen tossed a hand back, but he looked no less annoyed. "She can think on it, but not make that CHOICE, then, at the end of things. I will allow it. -If you think she'd need to think so long-and-hard on it, to avoid such a terrible fate."

"...I don't plan to go about forcing people to think things they shouldn't, not if it's something that is part of them." Linda frowned.

The teen gave her a very long, dark look. "My little sister has things that hurt her and cause her pain, that she wants to change," she was told. "She also wants feedback and external judgment; you might call that seeking direction. -If you don't understand my concerns at this, then you aren't very good at your job," the teen ground out at her next.

"If she wants to change them, that is her decision. I'm just here to help her make sure that those changes are what she wants." Linda said simply. "I will give my opinions, examples of other choices, but I won't be trying to get her to choose what I want." Linda paused. "Unless that choice she wants involves harming herself, which, I would want to give her more…" Linda searched for the right word, "...reasons why she shouldn't." After all, Sebastian had been… like that. And from what little Linda has heard from Miz, she was suspecting something similar.

"You had damn well better." Then the teen shifted in place, almost restlessly, like he didn't feel all that comfortable all of a sudden.

"My job is to help people understand themselves to make themselves better, happier, healthier. Self harm goes against that. As would suicide, but all I can do is help, it'll still come down to their own decision in the end." Linda rubbed at her temples. "But I will try to help them not want to do that."

"Leaving information out can be leading, can change a choice. 'Packaging' and 'presentation' can-and-does matter with humans," the teen said, then grimaced, slowly rising to his feet. He seemed to almost absently be rubbing at the back of his neck rather hard. "Miz, it is lunchtime," he said. "I should eat something before I start making logical errors again," the teen said to his little sister, slowly dropping his hand, and then...

Linda wasn't entirely sure what happened next, but what she saw happen in sequence was: the teen standing in front of her seemed to almost go blurry at the edges for a moment, while his eyes went completely wide; he threw his head back and his body spasmed, arching backwards, while something like an absolutely insane grin split his face.

And not a split-second later she saw the teen's expression spasm from some sort of insane ecstasy into some flavor of almost-scared shock - he tried to reach for something as he shot out a hand, something happened but she wasn't sure what. She just knew that she was shaking and at least two steps back by the end of it, chair fallen over, the teen was almost doubled-over forwards and no-longer looking blurry again, and his arms were clutching himself across his chest like he was trying to- to hold himself together and in? His expression was still a bit wide-eyed and shocky, but the grin was gone, he seemed to be… holding it down, whatever it was, if the way the sides of his mouth were spasming was… oh, oh god… what...

(Blue let out a slow breath, breathing heavily, and a bit hard. He could hardly believe what had just happened there. He couldn't believe- except that it had-)

"Really, really lousy TIMING there, Stanley," the teen wheezed out, as he shivered in place, trying to keep things under control(?), and-

-whatever had just had her feeling so in-danger and panicked receded almost as suddenly, like a wave pulling back into the sea without dragging her with it, as the teen closed his eyes and suddenly the 'tattoos' at his arms began to dye down to an alarming black-hole like black color, that seemed to be almost actively sucking in all the light around him just a bit, rather than simply being dyed and tattooed in ink there. The brick patterns up his neck seemed to darken themselves in as well shortly later.

"Summoning?" Miz asked.

"No," Miz's brother said, while his eyes were still closed. He was slowly letting go of the grip he'd had on himself around his chest, breathing evenly, almost carefully. "Almost the opposite," he said to her, as he slowly opened his eyes. "He let go. He let go completely," he said, shaking his head slightly, like he couldn't believe or comprehend something, about whatever had just happened. "Of everything." The teen straightened up slowly, still leaning forward slightly, and she watched as whatever this 'teen' was swallowed hard. "Completely." He looked a little shaky, more mentally than physically (he wasn't quite shaking, but he was shivering a bit), but whatever was happening to him mentally had definitely had some sort of a physical impact.

"...is… that… good?" Miz breathed, looking a little scared. "His anchor was- are you-"

"He's alive," said the teen. He closed his eyes, lifted a hand, and ran it over the top of his head (underneath his hat) through his hair. "He did that on purpose." There was almost a laugh underneath his voice. "He- he shouldn't have-" Linda watched as the teen swallowed pulled in another breath. "I didn't think that he would-" Pulled in another breath. "Just because he said he would-?!" his voice went higher-pitched at the end of that, but also lower at the same time - like two voices, somehow two-toned, and-

"Maybe he's testing you?" Miz wondered.

The teen was shaking his head back and forth almost numbly, as he reopened his eyes, "That isn't- he shouldn't- I don't know why he did that." His two-toned voice was all up and down the scale as he said that, and the teen looked shocky and very perturbed, like he was abruptly trying to balance himself on shifting sand.

"..." Miz looked like she wanted to say something and wasn't sure how. She looked over at Linda, who just raised her eyebrows. "Miz, communication is key. What do you want to say?"

And Miz sighed. "Maybe Stan… is putting a little trust in you?"

"He has no reason to," said the teen, "He's very angry with me right now." He lifted his hands to the sides of his head again; he was still staring wide-eyed at an angle downwards. "I don't…" He frowned like he was trying to understand something and… clearly miserably failing at it. "I was letting time progress over there; I wasn't going to shift back in time. I was making my displeasure known. I don't…" He dropped his hands. He looked very lost.

"...maybe that's why he's doing it?" Miz wondered aloud. "Stan did agree to things with you. About taking care of you."

"He's angry with me, the longer-than-three-days was 'I must be in big trouble', and he should want me in worse-trouble or dead for awhile-again, just-because," the teen ground out at Miz next. "It would be my own fault for 'running off', which he shouldn't even know about 'for sure' and certain." The teen was bringing his head up, and his hands were slowly clenching into fists. "I don't know why he did that."

"But he's still…" Miz frowned. "Doesn't he care for you at least a little?"

"He doesn't care about me, and he wants me dead worse than his brother," the teen told her firmly. "I'm only going along with the agreement until he stops lying about it and breaks it. -He won't wait until he thinks I've 'crossed his line's again," the teen said with a dark smile (an equally-dark look in his eyes) and a huff. "-And I won't be the one to break it first, I REFUSE." The teen was standing tall, looking firm on… whatever he was referring to there. "And then he can choke on what happens there-and-then next," the teen muttered out quietly, looking away from his sister, and off towards the opposite wall.

"Well, he let go. Meaning he proved you wrong?" Miz shrugged. "Since he hasn't broken the Agreement. And even essentially set you free?"

The teen made a very uncomfortable grimacing face at this. "Just for a while. It's not a 'forever' thing. Anchor's still there." He looked down at his palms and flexed his newly-darkened fingers. "Haven't had to handle feeling that happen while I was in a vessel before. Much different than when I'm in that stupid human-ish body of mine. Not nearly as grounded-down-not-out when I'm inside this thing." He stopped flexing his fingers and hands, and let them fall to his sides.

And then the 'teen' looked up at Linda again.

"...Hmm. I'm surprised you didn't run right out that door screaming," the teen said next, looking right to Linda. "Or start screaming for answers, at me." He straightened up a little bit in place. There was something a bit crazy in his eyes, that he hadn't quite been letting her see there, before.

"Ah, well, screaming and such wouldn't do anything to help my situation." Linda shrugged. (She'd also done that before, lost it before, and it had never helped. And then she'd felt a bit stupid about it all afterwards, completely frustrated with herself for losing it in front of her client - Lucifer. And- Well, freaking out in front of Lucifer was different, too; he was a damn GOOFBALL and she didn't have to bother being professional in front of him like anyone else she had as a patient, not when he was such a child. But Miz needed someone calm. Poor girl had enough issues with rejection.)

(She'd gotten most of that sort of thing out of her system with Lucifer, anyway. This had been alarming for a bit there, but not in the same way that seeing Lucifer's true face had been, either. And it had been easier, with another person being there and Miz not freaking out or panicking in the least, just… looking and sounding a bit concerned.)

"Well, you're okay, aren't you?" Miz worried about whether having his anchor entirely loose would cause any… health issues?

"Yes," said the teen. He looked at her, then away from her, as he rolled his shoulders a bit. "I would've been fine. And I am fine-again-still. The rest of the city block, not so much. Almost didn't catch-and-grab it all back down in time." He settled a bit and shrugged at her. "It's just like when we took our first trip out together, again. All of the weirdness, now on-tap! ALL of it."

Linda frowned a bit at the mock-cheer in his voice for a moment there, especially when he said the rest of it so seriously. And as for the actual contents of what he was saying...

"You aren't talking very much," the teen noted, talking to Linda directly again. "Are you worried I'm going to destroy you if you do? -I usually don't take questions that-badly." He smiled a bit at her next, with (what looked to purposefully be) no teeth.

"How badly do you usually take them," Linda put out there with a bit of talking to Lucifer level snark. Oddly enough, that got a "HA! -Not very!" out of the demon, and a reasonably-sized (almost happy?) grin.

"Well, I'm honestly a little too overwhelmed by this all, right now." Linda told him. "I admit, I haven't had someone grill me quite this hard about my patients. Not even Lucifer's family was this… much."

"That idiot would have no expectation of privacy," the teen noted, "Because demon-spawn, and omniscient demi-god of this dimension for a 'father'."

"He's very… forthcoming about many things." Linda admitted. Though he kept secret, or rather, was in denial of, everything important. "Also, with his father being who he is, he probably doesn't bother with security, since…" Linda shrugged. "God apparently sees all? I don't know?"

"He's getting fired soon." Miz said sweetly. "As soon as I can convince mommy to take over for him!" And that had Linda choking on air. (Especially when her brother nodded at this and looked rather pleased about this.) "Excuse me?!"

"What," said the teen, "He's doing a horrible job of things here. -How many people do you know who are happy? And all of that DYING here, too."

Linda considered that. "Well… isn't he… like…" she waved her hand helplessly. "Isn't there supposed to be some sort of plan?" (The teen blinked at her at this.)

"Hell no." Miz had no qualms about that. "Yaweh is just a layabout who's more focused on watching the drama unfold in his ant farm without doing anything to help them."

"I have plans," said the teen. Then he brightened up a bit. "BIG plans!" And now he was grinning.

"...I am slightly afraid of what plans you have." Linda deadpanned.

"HA!" went the teen, then: "F̢̟̯̲̞̥̥̹̮̣ͣ̊̑͛͐̔ͥE̢͙͔̪̫ͦ̍͌̈ͯ͘A͍̗̝͇͙͈̒̇̃͡Ŕ̯̠͖̹̲̰̘̠ͮ͐͠ ̨̯̝̲͙̺̰̖̈̿͐͂͡ͅN̜̻͖̝͖͚̼̲̝͌ͩ̈͊͢͝O̶̱̖͕̟͓̝͆͐͊̈̊̚͝T͔̠͒̄ͩ̚̕!̷̼̱̹̞̼͚̺ͭ̈͠!͍̗̭̎͊!̢̼̖͓̲̲̬̻̞̻̅" he grinned, like it was some sort of huge joke.

"...oh." Linda blinked. "That whole eldritch horror thing. Angels were described as such… though the ones I've met don't seem like that at all. And even Lucifer doesn't really look like some multi-eyed creature."

"Eh," the teen waved this off. "They're probably just trying to keep it all packed in, to this plane of existence, to try and keep all of you from losing your blinking little minds, for courtesy. Mostly."

"I look like swirly lights!" Miz spoke up. "With shifting colors that man-kind has never seen! And a single eye! And I'm on fire!" She kept listing off. Linda stared. Trying to imagine it. "...wouldn't that be rather… pretty?" She asked.

The teen looked over at her, blinking. "...Hopefully not on fire all the time anymore, little sis," he said, sounding more than a little bit disturbed.

"I'm not on fire now." Miz admitted. "But I was, for a while, back right before the universe was created from the me that was burning."

"Oh. Well. Yes. That." The teen nodded. (Linda stared at this.)

"I started falling apart. It was pretty scary back then." Miz frowned. "Like, I could see my arms unraveling before me, and everything was burning and burning and-" Linda winced.

"I-" the teen began, then glanced over at Linda and stopped. "...am not a 'patient' or a 'client' here, and all of the talking on these things should not be mine," Miz's older 'teen'-aged(?) brother said next, seeming to deflate, just a little. (While also looking just a bit… cautious?)

"You don't have to say anything you don't want to." Linda told him, before turning back to Miz. ("Yes. I am aware of this.") "Is that… burning, something you want to talk about, to me?" she asked gently.

Miz hummed, rocking back and forth on the couch. "Well, it doesn't bother me anymore, now. But back then, it was pretty scary." ("It sounds rather scary." Linda said sympathetically.)

"...Was there another human-time burning, before that?" the teen said slowly next, almost carefully then. (Linda glanced over at him, wondering what-)

"There was…" Miz's eyes went distant. "...the car… it… there was a gas leak…" She curled her hands into the edge of her dress. "I was in my seat belt, was good, I would have gotten tossed around the car if I wasn't- but I couldn't think… couldn't… get out…" She shivered. Then she leaned over, reaching, grasping for her brother, for him to hold her.

The teen held out his arms, took a single step towards her, and let her grasp him. (Placed one hand at her back, just to have it there, the other on top of her head. Gently there. Looking down at her with no expression that Linda could read on his face. Watching her.) Miz shuddered, breathing with short, quick inhalations. "I- couldn't-" But Linda verbally stepped in then, very carefully told her, "You don't have to say anymore, if you don't want to."

"...do-on't you n-need to know?" Miz squeezed her eyes shut. Linda shook her head. "I need you to stop for now. Do you want to talk about something else?" Miz nodded. "Let's all sit down, okay? Focus on breathing for now." Linda said, her voice gentle.

The two of them ended up sitting down right where they were, on the floor. Linda followed them down, tucking her legs under her carefully. ...She'd have to talk about getting this carpet cleaned more often.

(And Linda made a note that for Miz, her fear of that accident was much worse than apparently unraveling and burning. Miz had told her about her death before, but had just mentioned it offhand, without going into detail. But it seemed that thinking back on it, in a more 1st person sort of way, was still equally traumatic for her.)

(And when Linda looked over at the teen who was holding Miz in his arms, she could see something burning in his eyes, as he stared at her, watching her: a warning. And then Linda realized that he'd asked that question deliberately when he had, knowing exactly what he was doing, and now...)

(Now, Linda started to get an idea of why, exactly, this teenager who wasn't just a teen, had been so adamant about protections and potentially murdering her, and why he thought talking about human things in the wrong way could potentially harm his little sister so greatly.)

(To say that Linda wasn't very pleased with him for effectively using a sledgehammer on Miz like this to prove a point with her was an understatement. Berating him for it was not going to help Miz at all right now, though.)

So Linda switched tactics. "You like music, don't you?" she asked Miz, once the 'dragon god' had calmed down somewhat. (The teen was slowly half-patting, half-stroking the top of Miz's head now. He hadn't started up the motion until Miz had already begun to calm down, for some reason.) She'd heard from Seb about this; Miz liking music. Miz nodded, though her face was still buried in Blue's side. "Do you like to sing?" Miz thought about it, and then nodded again.

"What sorts of songs do you like?" Linda was sure to keep herself calm and her voice even.

"...Vocaloid…" Miz mumbled. "I have no idea what that is." Linda admitted. Miz let out a little giggle, finally moving away from Blue's side, just a little. "It's like… ah… if those text to speech things were actually good at singing… though if you're asking about human bands, I'm partial to Lordi because I like their music videos. But I still like Vocaloid best."

And then Linda asked more questions, and Miz rattled off so much information about this apparent 'Vocaloid' thing that Linda figured she should look it up later, then realized that this might not exist here. So she asked Miz to show her some of the songs, if she was feeling up to it.

And she ended up with the lights dimmed, a projection on her wall above the couch, and the three of them sitting with their backs against the front of her desk and their butts on top of 'stolen' couch cushions, the other chairs shoved out of the way, as several music videos played out in front of her in sequence. And Linda found herself getting into them. What delightful little songs. Like a short cartoon with a full story told out with the lyrics...

They were only interrupted by a "Doct-!" and then a very loud 'THUD!' against her door. (And then another odd thud - of a falling body hitting the floor - from farther down.)

Linda looked over. (As did the teen without turning his head.) And then she very deliberately turned back to the video. "He doesn't have an appointment today. And I don't have an appointment until 3. We still have four hours." Linda told Miz.

The teen turned his head to look over at her for a moment.

And then he pulled his floating hat down off of his head, stuck his hand into it, and pulled out a box of…

"Would you like some crackers?" said the teen, holding a box of matzo crackers out towards her.

"Linda?!" More thudding. Linda smiled at the teen. "Oh, thank you. I would like some." And the teen handed her the entire box (then pulled out a second one out of his hat for himself). Linda sat back, settled comfortably, opened up the box and the wrapper, and nibbled on the crackers.

The teen opened the box (to share with his sister, apparently), then pulled out a few apples to hand over to both her and his sister, next. And several bottles of water after that. ("Not enough for a lunch, but I can portal something in for us after this starting-snack," the teen noted. "Any preferences?" "Mediterranian! They have vegetarian stuff for you, and meat stuff for me!" "Mm.")

And they continued their impromptu music/movie marathon. Miz was explaining some of the songs to her. And how some songs became a full series, telling more and more parts to a bigger story as they went. "I want to start you on Evillious, but that would take all day, so I'll do that another time when I have a proper appointment, and book you out all day!" Miz was all smiles now, none of her earlier stress showing at all, and Linda wondered if she'd simply taken this distraction and ran with it, or if she had really managed to push it behind her?

Well, a discussion for another time. Linda continued to ignore the thudding on her door. Though she did get up to hold her phone out the window for a bit, just in case old Lucy actually thought to try texting her. He was an idiot though, and was apparently still going for the door. Ah, the sounds stopped? Oh wait no, there were charging footsteps and then a rather loud THUD and pained cursing sounds after that.

"He can't hear you through the door, you know," the teen told her. "No 'eavesdropping' of any sort. Yes?"

"I figured." Linda nibbled on another cracker. "I'm just wondering when he'll think to call me?"

"Are demon spawn used to carrying and using mobile cellphones to talk to people they want-and-expect to see in person?" said the teen, with a bit of a glint in his eye. "Or are they more used to being so direct that their heads are most usually used as a battering ram on all of most of the things, instead." And now the teen was grinning.

"He's technically a fallen angel, but I see your point." Linda sighed. Linda was starting to get the distinct impression that the teen may have expected something like this to happen when he had offered to set this up for her, having known or at least heard something about Lucifer from his little sister. (Given how the teen turned back towards the music videos to watch them after that, humming along now quite brightly and breezily… that was probably more of a fact.)

And finally, Miz seemed to take pity on the idiot outside, as she waved her hand to dismiss the screen after the next song finished. "...can we let him in, just so he knows you're not dead or something?" Miz asked.

"Alternately, just open the door and let him see you give him 'the bird'," the teen drawled out at her next, grinning again. "Twice."

"Oh I like that idea better." Linda cackled. Miz giggled, rocking back on her legs where she was kneeling. "He can't get in unless you invite him in," she told (reminded) Linda helpfully. ("Opening the door isn't enough," the teen confirmed.) The therapist stood up, "Good to know, I hope he learns something from this…" And she strode over to the door.

"Yes," said the teen. "That my little sister has a big brother who is happy to do favors for people that will make him look utterly stupid." And boy, did that teen-aged looking brother sound smug at this.

Linda opened the door, seeing a very worried Lucifer outside. He opened his mouth, "Linda! What did you do to your door? It didn't even budge-" He immediately ended up flattened against thin air, as he tried to stride in past her - and bounced off of the barrier, holding his nose and looking both startled and stunned at this unexpected development, instead. And when he looked up at Linda again, Linda gave him a very unimpressed look and flipped him off. Behind her, Miz leaned over so that Lucifer could see her inside and gave him a cheeky wave. His expression turned thunderous. "You litt-" Linda closed the door in his face.

"Oh, that was satisfying." Linda laughed as she walked back over to sit beside the two demons.

"This is MORE satisfying," said the teen, snapping his fingers, and from the other side of the doorway came a loud splash and an even-louder yelp.

"Oh no, I returned an attack on 'my' boundaries with some water," the teen deadpanned, then grinned.

"I dyed his hair orange once." Miz's grin was maniacal.

"Is there a color that he likes even less?" asked the teen, starting to grin even wider. Then his grin faded as he looked up at Linda again. "Or should I go out there and have a little talk with him about manners for courtesy, boundaries, and spaces."

"...only if I can watch?" Linda sounded too eager for that. Well, seeing her friend (annoying as he was) taken down a peg or five, would be fun.

"Mm," said the teen, as he slowly and casually shoved himself to his feet and stood up. "If you'd like." He just as casually walked over to the door and pulled it open. (Miz and Linda settling down to sit with a clear view of the doorway, though Miz put on glasses for some reason, Linda remembered she'd done that another time too, wasn't quite sure why.)

And the female human-looking short blue-and-black haired, black hands-and-arms'd, brick-tattooed up to his chin, bright-blue cat-eyed, black-outfit bedecked, patchwork witch's hat topped 'teen' stared right up at Lucifer Morningstar with zero trepidation whatsoever, all five foot nine inches of that brother of Miz's to his taller six-foot-three and at least another hundred pounds on him.

And then Miz's brother grinned absolutely maniacally and took three steps forward, right out and past the door.

"You! And that dragon girl- what have you done to Linda's office-!"

Lucifer cut off with a gasp as… Linda didn't know what he did exactly, but the teen's stance shifted slightly (after Lucifer's uncharacteristic backpedaling at the teen's rather direct march out the door and forward), and-

Linda stared as she saw Lucifer pale a bit.

"WELL WELL WELL," said the teen. "I HEAR YOU HAVE A PROBLEM WITH MY SISTER. I̸̱͈̗ͫͦ͗S̠̙̖͐̾͌̋ͬ͊͢͞͞ ̷̲̙̣̞͈̞̭̼͗̊̓̉̎ͨͩ̿͝͝T̛̳͔͔̹͔͐̌̓̽̆ͨ̾͂Ḩ̶̡͙̜͖͖̬ͮ͐ͅA̹͇̱͊̆ͣͪ͒̓͒͞Ț̛̹̙͚̜̾͗͘ͅ ͂̎̇ͦ͐ͣ̔͋̀͏̦̳͔̠R̦̞̜̹͔͋ͪ͗̽ͫ̕͠͡ͅI̴̡͔̘͑̎̓̑͌͟G̵̡͎̣̻̤̃̏ͭ̀ͪ̑͛̚͠Ḩ͎̼̙̞̮̬͓̰̰̅̈́ͣṪ̜̥̥͒̅͡?̰̫͂ͯ̈́͋̿ͮͣ͠"

And Lucifer twitched. "She is clearly trying to pester me to death. I know she's charmed by me, but she is much too young looking and I do not appreciate the way she shows her affection." He tried to regain his composure.

And then shuddered again as… the teen lifted up slowly, and started floating in the air, legs and arms dangingly oddly a bit.

"OH," said the teen, in that two-toned echoing voice. "YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT 'PESTERING' LOOKS LIKE. -WOULD YOU LIKE TO FIND OUT."

"...no?" He actually squeaked. Linda snorted. Miz was nibbling the crackers like they were popcorn for this show.

Linda couldn't see whatever look on the teen's face he had on right now, his back was to her, but there was a pause, and then… the teen slowly floated back down again to touch down on the floor.

And he seemed to shift his shoulders a bit like a peacock unruffling his feathers, and Linda saw Lucifer slowly (and a bit cautiously) start to straighten up again and relax. (Eyeing the teen a bit warily still, as he resituated and tugged a bit self-consciously at his suit jacket.)

"My sister has a pair of glasses that she can and will wear now, that will cut right through all that bullshit so-called 'charm' that you wear," the teen informed him. "You REALLY should work on controlling that."

"Look, I don't do it on purpose, it's just part of me." Lucifer huffed. "And it's very useful, I'll have you know."

Linda got the impression that the teen was giving him a very unimpressed stare.

And the teen reached out, plucked the sunglasses from Lucifer's breast pocket, did something to them, then shoved them onto the startled-looking devil's face. Lucifer was very confused by all this.

The teen turned away from him and partially back towards the door.

"Boundaries are a thing that should be maintained," the teenager told Lucifer. "This is her office, not yours." He raised his chin up slightly at him. "If you set up an appointment with the 'nice' Dr. Linda Martin here-first, and knock when you arrive for that appointment at the proper time, and ask nicely," the teen told him, "Then she will most likely decide to then let you in. And then you can have a session with her in a room," the teen told him, in unconcerned tones, "That your 'father' cannot listen in on anything inside, or otherwise currently see into, now and in the future-ongoing." The teen stopped right at the threshold, knocked on the side of the doorframe, and then asked her, "May I please come back in?" ("Yes you may." She traced the sigil one-handed with her finger, onto her palm just for good measure, and then the teen gave her a sort of bowed-head nod, and walked right back on through and then in.)

And that made the Devil pause. "You…" He looked up into the room. "This… barrier… it'll keep my Father out?" He sounded like he wasn't sure if he could believe it. "Impossible, he sees all and…" He paused again. "How?" (But Blue was already inside, and didn't feel like explaining it all to him anyway.)

"Your dad ain't the most powerful being in existence." Miz rolled her eyes, before realizing he couldn't hear her. Well, time to test something out. She waved her hands to make a sign with those words appear and turned it to face the doorway. As she thought, using her eye to look at things from the other side of it where Lucifer was, the words became jumbled, unintelligible.

Interesting~ she was impressed by how well this worked. Luckily, she'd been able to see what Blue had been doing from the inside of things in the room, before things had becomes masked, one piece at a time - the metal sheet of runes had made a 'can't see this' zone in a sphere about twenty feet out in every direction for the duration of what he'd been setting up in place - keeping anyone from seeing what he was doing from the outside out there, not from the inside in here where they all had been. (Probably because he'd needed and wanted to be able to see his own work, to double-check and test things as he went. Because her brother was just like that.)

And now that Miz had seen how the effects that it caused worked, first hand, she made a note to teach Fordsie, for that project of his, about perception filters that worked on more than just sight alone. It would be something for the security as well.

Linda just smiled at him, waved, made a 'call me' hand gesture at the side of her face, and then promptly closed the door in his face.

Then she turned and asked the teen, "It really will work? It'll do that?" ("Yes. It's here to stay unless-and-until someone manages to tear it all down, tamper with it, or otherwise collapse it. This isn't only for the times when you're having your sessions here with Miz. -Don't ever have them elsewhere or without a working set of privacy-barriers that are at least as good as this set-of-them, again.")

"Yes, privacy is good," was Miz's addition to this. Linda nodded. Her phone, which was leaning against the windowsill, luckily she had a screen over her window, buzzed. Linda went over to take the call. "Would he be able to hear me over the phone?"

"If you lean out the window where the call can connect, yes. Stop leaning once you can't hear us or the music inside here anymore; that's far enough," the teen told her.

Linda nodded, pushing the screen up and putting an arm over the edge of the windowsill, her other hand holding on to the edge, just in case. "Hello~?"

"Linda! Why aren't I allowed in?!" She heard over the other end. She rolled her eyes. "You haven't asked me nicely if you can."

"But Liiiiiiinda~" He whined. She huffed. "Well, if you have nothing better to say, I'm going to hang up now~" She moved her phone away from her ear slowly. As she thought, with his pride, Lucifer couldn't bring himself to beg to be allowed in. Well, he'll eventually do so. Once he was desperate enough. But Linda felt the need to tell him, "This doesn't mean I don't like you. I just want you to make an appointment and ask before you come in. It's quite rude of you to barge in randomly."

And as she hung up on Lucifer, she thought, '...Huh.' Because while Miz considered herself in a class above Lucifer - and her 'teen' brother was clearly in her same class, if not even higher up than that - the teen hadn't had any problems with asking her for permission, himself. And he'd done it twice. Even chided his own sister for it. Weird.

Linda largely shrugged it off, chalking it up to Lucifer just having bad manners, and leaned back inside, leaving her phone out on the windowsill there behind. She made a note to get one of those window planter boxes, to hold her phone properly. Like Miz's brother had- actually...

"...Can I ask, what is your name?" Linda felt sheepish. Well, Miz hadn't introduced her brother by name, and Linda had been distracted!

The teen told her two names instead, and Linda blinked. Not just because he gave two names, but because one of those names was… Miz's demon name? She looked between the two. Miz also had multiple names. Was there a reason for that? Was there something to do with true names being some sort of secret, so they used the same name as a cover? ...Well, she didn't know, but she would just go with it for now. Best not to question. For all she knew, their 'true' names would drive her mad, like in Lovecraft, or make her ears bleed.

Linda sighed as she finished off the last of her pita bread. Both 'Bill Cipher's had looked to her for a specific Mediterranean restaurant recommendation in the area, and 'Blue' had taken it upon himself to make the trip via portal to go get their called-in (from the open window) cellphone takeout order.

...Which had involved him actually walking out of the room via doorway first (and putting his hat away back in his pocket again before this, though not before pulling a large wad of cash out of it), and then coming back in (after another round of asking Linda nicely for re-entry) bearing several bags full of food as his 'gifts'.

"Mine. Yours. Yours." Blue had gone, as he'd partitioned out the cartons and boxes of food, drinks and other assorted soups and appetizers, on the floor with them for their little impromptu picnic here in her office.

And Linda had learned pretty quickly, about a demon's (these kind of demons, at least) Claims for what belonged to them, and that it was considered very important (at least for Blue, though Miz largely was just seeming to follow his suit and his example?) though the 'hows' and 'whys' of it were still more than a little bit unclear.

"Dessert?" asked the demon, pulling another bag out of nowhere (where had he been holding onto that?) and it looked to be full of plastic silverware, bowls and- several containers of both fruity frozen ices and ice cream.

"I should be watching my weight…" Linda patted her stomach. "Unlike you two, I'm just a simple human, with a finite storage capacity." She's seen how much Miz ate, and how her stomach had filled and then emptied. Miz had explained her internal storage, and how it had apparently been growing larger recently, meaning she could fit more inside her without needing a larger vessel. (Linda had no idea what that meant, but Miz seemed quite proud of it.)

"The frozen ices contain no added sugars," the older demon told her next. "Just the fruits and water-turned-ice. No more, no less. Very few calories."

"Alright then." Linda chuckled. "Fruits are healthy. I can make myself believe so, and have some."

Blue nodded. He took the small-sized cup of 'lime ice' from the bag (along with a spoon), and handed over the rest to Linda for a first pick. Linda picked out a small orange ice for herself, and a new spoon. (Miz got the rest of them all for her dessert.)

They took their time on the ices. ...Well, Linda and Blue both did. Miz, on the other hand...

"Yummy!" Miz stuck a spoonful in her mouth, and whined at the brainfreeze. She rolled around a bit on the couch (they'd moved the furniture back into place, and sat back down in the chairs and couch again after finishing off lunch - Blue sitting next to Miz on the couch this time), and Miz continued to roll back and forth there until it fully melted in her mouth and- she took another spoonful, repeated the process.

Blue seemed to look on at this intermittently, and largely without comment, as he himself ate.

"...You could take smaller bites?" Linda suggested weakly, seeing Miz writhe around, her tail coming out to lash out and around with the numbing pain of a brain freeze.

"Or she could roll around on your couch for no reason at all but because she wants to," was Blue's rather unconcerned contribution to this. "No 'brain-freeze'-as-an-excuse for it needed."

"Do you want to roll around on my couch?" Linda asked. Miz swallowed her ice. "It's fun to roll on." Then she took another spoonful and Linda watched her tail go ramrod straight before thrashing around as Miz hummed in slightly pained protest.

"Well, as long as you're okay." Linda responded, bemused.

"She is not inflicting on herself actual pain," was what Blue told her, as he got up to toss his trash in the middling-sized trash can sitting there by her desk. "Ah," said the demon next. "You will need to put your trashcan outside the doorway now, from now on, if you want anyone to remove the trash from it for you. No housekeeping in here without you letting them in, if you use it."

"I don't," Linda noted. "I keep confidential notes and tapes in here. I'm used to doing that for myself." ("Mm," went the demon.)

And Linda decided this was one of the oddest days. Not quite as bad as that girl's night out with Maze, but… still weird. But, she did enjoy the security that her office now had. "Wouldn't people find it odd, that they can't come in?" she wondered.

"Most people you meet here have some form of 'manners' that they exhibit towards you, yes?" said Blue. "How many of your patient-clients don't knock and wait for you to answer the door, for you to then let them in?"

"It's mainly just Lucifer and Maze… and…" other demons and celestials that she didn't want getting in. "...yeah. Them." Linda shrugged.

"Then will the others-not-them even notice the difference, if you then-and-now-always leave your door closed for the knocking, from this day forward, do you think?" Blue asked of her next quite practically, as he came back over to lounge on the couch.

"Probably not." Linda laughed.

"You can tell them that you have a client worried about security," Blue told her, "And that he 'paid' to have the work done to make your door and your doorway even stronger than steel, yet three times as light."

"That's a good idea. And with Lucifer being the way he is… well, it'll make sense…" Linda nodded.

Blue nodded back, then looked down at his little sister again. "Should I not have done all of the ice cream, and gone with all of the cakes and the cookies instead? Or are you having fun, little sis?"

"Both are good." Miz licked at her spoon. "Cakes and cookies will need milk to accompany it." she said, as if imparting some ancient wisdom. "Especially the chocolate ones."

"Chocolate milk?" said Blue, and Linda wasn't quite sure if he was teasing his sister or not.

"Non-chocolate milk." Miz nodded. "Those go best with cookies."

"Strawberry milk?" said the older demon next and, okay, that had to be teasing there, right?

"Not strawberry either. The normal, plain milk!" Miz puffed out her cheeks. "And there's apparently Lactaid milk that I can drink without getting sick!"

"Frog's milk could be better?" (Linda did not know how the demon was keeping a straight face at this.)

"..." Miz actually seemed to consider this. "...could suck on a frog… see what happens…" she mused. Linda gagged a little.

"Not the 'rainforest' ones, little sis," Blue said in half-warning sing-song tones. "With all those bright colors…"

"But the poison is so tingly~" Miz held her cheeks and wiggled.

"Not in that vessel, it's not," said Blue.

"True, my mouth would get all puffy. And itchy." ("And in some cases, 'poisoned'-y.") Miz sighed. Linda held back a snort.

Blue looked up at Linda after this.

"We should go," said the older demon, "And leave you to your work and your own for-the-future preparations."

Miz nodded. "I'll make a proper appointment for another time." She tilted her head. "...for this session, since we took your whole morning…" and Miz pulled out her Com to tap a few things down. Linda held up her hands. "You don't have to-"

Blue put a hand on Miz's head top stop her, and instead held out the rest of the wad of cash that he'd pulled out of his hat earlier to Linda, what he hadn't spent on their lunchtime meal here. It was all one-hundred dollar bills.

"I couldn't- that's too much…" Linda stared at the bills.

"No," said Blue, "It isn't. -This isn't just for the 'extended session'," he told her. "Many humans would spend more than this to 'vet' another human that they do not know, and you answered my questions directly. You acted as 'private investigator' for me, today; answered all of my questions both promptly and honestly. You also did not complain about the 'redecoration' and additions to your room, which could have potentially caused you some trouble. -Payment for services rendered. Yes?"

"I… suppose." Linda blinked. "If you're sure?" Hey, money was money. Linda wasn't hard off, in fact she was doing pretty well, mainly because Lucifer paid very well- were all demons so generous with their cash?

"Yes." Blue nodded, still holding it out to her. "This is yours." Linda held out her hands to take it. "Thank you," she told him.

"Don't thank me," the demon told her. "Payment for services rendered. Just do your job. Properly. And if someone tries to pressure or otherwise subvert you into not-doing that, tell Seb or my little sister right away. Or both of them, using that pendant. Or get away from them, using the same. I will not always be here to handle that for you myself," Blue then told her. "But one of the two of them should be. And they will NOT put up with that. It WILL be handled here for you, post-haste."

Linda got the distinct impression that Blue was thinking of 'handled' as 'murdered and vanished without a trace', but she knew both Seb and Miz better than that. ...She hoped. Seb was a sweetheart, didn't want to hurt people, mostly. Miz was much the same. Blue, however… reminded her of Maze. Quite a lot, actually. He acted even less human than Lucifer did. (Put on a lot fewer airs, too.)

"I will." Linda told him clearly, as Miz handed over the bracelet and the pendant to her now. She put both of them on (as a bit of a show of good faith, while she pulled in a breath… and nothing bad happened to her, that she could feel or see). Then she smiled at Miz. "If it's ok with you, I had some tests I wanted to run by you. For a way of figuring out how you are, mentally." Because she had noticed some things with Miz's behavior. She wasn't sure yet, but she was making note of Miz's rocking, her rolling, and most telling (to Linda at least), the way Miz had actually stood up to pace around during the music video marathon when she had gotten excited and couldn't sit still. Or the way Miz had to fiddle with stuff in her hands when she had to stay still for longer periods of time. Well, with the way Sebastian turned out to have ADHD, Linda really wanted to test Miz as well.

"For next time?" Miz finished the rest of her dessert. Linda nodded. "If you're comfortable with that."

"Sure." Miz rocked again, leaning back and considering the ice cream containers before swallowing them whole. Linda stared. Ok. That happened. Blue gave his sister an exasperated look.

"That is not food for a human-ish body-like vessel, little sis," Blue told her directly, also in an exasperated tone.

"My stomach can handle it. And there's less trash to throw out this way."

"With that type-and-form of 'reasoning', you'd be eating every thing in every landfill everywhere next," Blue told her. "Don't do that, either."

Miz paused. "That would solve the planet's pollution and trash problems…"

"No, it wouldn't," said Blue. "It would remove significant amounts of mass that could otherwise be 'recycled' by enterprising young humans," he told her, "Remove several metric tons of metal that they would no longer ever have available again, and not solve the pollution problem that is mostly in the air and also the water that is in the oceans."

"I can recycle it." Miz pouted. The elements that make up stuff got extruded through her pores.

"You would also be eating several metric tons of broken needles, thrown-out drugs, viruses and bacteria, dirty diapers full of discarded human waste, and other hazardous-waste trash - do NOT do this thing," Blue said to her next, watching her carefully.

Miz shuddered. "Eww, diapers…" she shook her head. "Might be better just to disintegrate those…"

"Tell your local-'Hand to make a disintegrator for you, for all of the every-thing that you might want to then aim it at," Blue told her. "Even-better, have him trick that local Glasses into making one, then steal it from him for your own use, instead."

Miz seemed quite taken with that idea. "But can I still chew on glass?" she asked, to Linda's horror. "I like the cronch."

"There are ways for humans to masticate glass without damaging themselves," Blue noted, "Carefully." He glanced up at Linda after he said it.

"The shards won't… hurt you? Will they?" Linda asked anyway, in case this wasn't just some demon thing.

Blue looked at Linda, then turned to Miz. "Show her some of the humans-eating-metal and humans-eating-glass videos from the worldwide-internet here-and-now, yes? Briefly. Not more than five minutes," Blue told her.

Linda was sitting there, blinking, for about five minutes straight. She had not known humans could do that.

"...This footage isn't doctored?" she asked the two demons at one point, and got a pair of "No," "It is not," and nods.

Linda sighed. "Alright, as long as you're not hurting yourself with this." ("Yes, that," Blue agreed.)

"I'm careful," Miz assured her. Linda sighed. "Alright. Good."

It wasn't long after that that the two demons showed themselves out, and Linda came to the door to see them out and watch them go. ...And Lucifer was outside the door, still in the hallway (or maybe in the hallway again, since he no longer looked so bedraggled by water as he had earlier). He was pouting at her. Linda rolled her eyes. (Though he did startle quite badly for a moment, when Blue made that large portal again, before Blue and Miz stepped on through it. And the devil remained oddly shaken for not only a couple seconds after, as he readjusted his clothing, but his eyes continued to show his unease as well.)

Linda sighed and went back into her office.

(Seb and Ford, testing their depression and pain sensors)

With everything that Miz and Blue had dropped on him this morning - and Ford one of the central topics of conversation there - once the two demons had left his house Linda-bound, Seb had called up said triplet of conversation to vent and complain.

One thing had led to another, though, and now Seb was standing in the middle of Ford's lab (via portal gun from Ford), staring down at what was sitting there now, all laid out on his triplet's workbench.

"I've got to be home by 2," Seb reminded him, glancing over at the clock, which was reading 1:45. "How many more tests are we gonna do?"

"This shouldn't take very long," his brother told him, and Seb fidgeted in place. He was starting to feel a lot more uncomfortable now, because... "We've been testing for HOURS!" Seb whined. He was restless and antsy, being cooped up in here. Ford had been sticking all sorts of things to his head and taking readings. Though, fair's fair, at least Ford had a bunch of stuff stuck to his own head too.

"This issue is that we're both depressed, or somewhat depressed at times." Ford frowned down at the readings on the screen. "What we need is a healthy person to use as a baseline."

"...Soos?" Seb suggested. "And probably Melody too? They've got their lives together." Seb rolled his eye, "Heck, can't you have your staff help out in this experiment of yours?"

"They can't see you here. I've told you. The distance and the teleportation is still a secret. I can't have the government finding out about that." Ford sighed. "It's a miracle no one's asked about Miz yet."

"...that's 'cause they know Xin's a dragon, and just assume Miz magicks herself here too," Seb deadpanned. Ford nodded. "Well, yes. But that only works as an excuse with my staff. If a tourist got a photo or- or talked about it…" (And of course Ford hadn't even noticed this was a problem until Blue had pointed it out - this was a man who used his own name as the password for his computer. And then wrote that password down in his journal.)

"I get it Sixer." Seb sighed. "By the way, what's that thing saying now?" He pointed at the screen. Ford read the lines of text. "Well, you're fine, for the most part. I suppose our conversation and such, is keeping you from thinking anything depressive."

"So… keep distracted? I already do that." Seb shrugged. "It's my way to keep myself from spiraling. Just stay busy. Stay productive."

Ford had to admit, "I do the same."

Seb added, "As does Miz."

The two were quiet for a while. Then, "We're all messed up, aren't we?" Ford asked.

"To the point that this is considered our normal, yeah." Seb nodded. "But I think that's how it works to live with depression or anxiety?" He bounced his leg where he was sitting, wanting to get up or move or something, but having to stay seated here because of the tests. "It's like, a coping thing?"

"I see." Ford noted that down. "Well, Ma's gonna be getting a copy of this, that'll alert her if we start getting… low." Seb winced. "Do you have to give one to Ma? I don't want to worry her."

"She'll be more worried if we don't," Ford deadpanned. She'd made that very clear to him two nights before. "But I will be making sure she doesn't see all the data." (That would be too much.) He was also hoping to get Sebastian in on this too, so that he wouldn't be the only one being watched by Ma like some child. Yes, Ford was childish like that. If he was going to have to deal with Ma, he was dragging Seb down with him. Especially with Ma having a portal gun of her own. With her being perfectly capable of literally dropping in on the two of them, the moment that these sensors went off…

(...Maybe he should spend some more time trying to figure out that portal-stopping exclusion field idea that Blue had brought up. Having her being able to drop in whenever could be dangerous, especially at his workplace, not only because of having to explain the existence of a working long range portal device, and- dammit, he was being side tracked by Blue constantly bringing up other subjects for him to focus on!)

Wait. Ford paused. He could just set locations and time for when the portal device would actually work, thereby forgoing any unexpected visits altogether. He wanted to slap himself. Why was he such an idiot?

...except he'd need to get his hands on her version of the device to do that, and then lock out her permissions for changing it back over again, and while he could do that with his, he wasn't sure he could do that with Kari's own personal portal device. Given that Blue had given it to her at the end of his second visit - apparently dropping by her room while she'd been packing, right before he had taken that other Ford back to his 'set, and they'd all left for Jersey - and that Blue had apparently said that the device would only ever work for her, or let her through those portal openings- (Dammit Blue!)

He was going to have to build a portal blocking device wasn't he? The list of work to do just kept piling up. Ford slumped over his work bench. The thought detector let out a bunch of beeping sounds. "Whoa! Sixer?! Are you okay?!" Seb jumped to his feet and went over to check on him.

Ford groaned and ran a hand over his face, shoving a hand out to slap the 'off' button on the speaker for the sensor device (so at least he didn't have to hear it continually going off, even if right now he still needed it taking measurements for more raw data, so he could tune it better).

"I'm fine," Ford said with much irritation. "This thing is clearly too sensitive for its own damn good," and the scientist glared down at it next.

"Um." Seb shifted uneasily in place. "...Does that mean that it works, 'cause you are feeling worse right now? -What happened?!" Seb demanded, sitting down right next to his triplet.

"Blue." Ford deadpanned. Seb winced. "Ah… right…" He scratched his head. "Yeah, good luck with that. He's never gonna leave you alone."

Ford whined into his hands. "Damn those other Fords for being such terrible examples!" He complained. "That's why he hates me so much!" He wasn't them! And Miz wasn't Bill. There was no reason why all of this had to be happening!

Seb let out a snort of laughter. "Nah, that's not why he hates you." It's because you're dating his precious little sister. Seb didn't say that aloud, but he thought that was one of the major reasons for Blue's harsh criticism of Ford. "The interns think he's got some high standards, apparently," Ford muttered out next. Seb sighed. "Good luck with that." His triplet's gonna need it.

"Well, Miz likes you." Seb pointed out. "So that's gotta count for something." Ford chuckled. "Yeah. I just… how did she turn out so sweet? She's a Bill Cipher too." He paused. "Then again, you're pretty much a puppy," Ford told Seb with a teasing nudge of the elbow.

"I am not a puppy!" Seb complained. "A very cute puppy." Ford grinned, getting into it. "I can just picture you running around, wagging your little tail~ begging Wanda to pet you and give you treats~"

"Hey!" Seb poked Ford. "You're the same with Miz! She's got you well trained."

"I am not trained!" Ford flushed, knowing that was a lie. "I'm not a pet!" he said hotly next, which was far more true as he knew of it, he believed.

Seb paused. Then he looked over his brother, at the blush on his face. "Oh wow." Seb said. "So you two really… I mean… we all suspected but…" Seb turned bright red. Nope. Nope. He wasn't going to think about his brother's kinks. Nope. No way.

The machine was beeping, cutting off, beeping again, but it had been set to silent. Still though, it was being quite overwhelmed by the thoughts it was being made to process.

The display was still visible though, and Seb glanced over at it, then him. "Bro, you got issues," he grinned. The thoughts kept reading 'Miz' as the points jumped up and down rapidly. Seb poked his brother, laughing at his continued blush.

And then Seb's bracer-reminder went off, like he'd set the timer on it to do when- Shit. It was 1:58pm. 2pm, 2pm, his kids were home at 2pm!

"Shit, Sixer, I have to go." He had to be there for his kids! Seb shook Ford until he snapped out of his haze. "Portal! Portal! Portal!" Ford stumbled to his feet as Seb pulled at him. "Ok! I'll do it! Let go!" He fumbled a little with his watch, but he got the portal up and Seb was dashing through, throwing off the sensors stuck to his head as he went. (Ford barely caught them before they hit the floor.) "Ok see you again sometime byeeeeee~!"

"You still have two of my-" Ford cut himself off and sighed. He could make more sensors. Or have Seb return them later. Well, for a first test, this was… workable. He would just need to calibrate it better.

With all this work on his plate, Ford wondered if he could get away with skipping lunch today? No, he shouldn't. He sighed. Damn Blue. Damn operational security.

(Seb, Ford, and Blue meeting with Ashton that night)

"So… what's this about?" Seb asked, having been abducted by portal once again. Only this time, it was by Miz and Blue. But they were… in some kinda office. And… another man, who seemed rather curious about everything happening, was blinking at them all. Ford was rather exasperated. "So, Miz contacted me during lunch, asked to meet Ashton, just as you did this morning. And… since we were already planning on going there tonight, well…" he waved a hand at Blue. "Apparently, her brother wanted to come with." Which was annoying, but whatever. Ford didn't want to waste energy talking him out of coming.

"I was the one who talked to Seb about the need-still for it this morning, within my little sister's hearing," Blue clarified.

"Of course you were." Ford deadpanned.

Blue eyed Ford, then asked of Seb, "You didn't tell him I was planning on coming before?"

"Not like he would've said yes if I had!" Seb grinned out at him right back. (Blue rolled his eyes at this, but - after looking over at this Ford again - didn't contest it.)

"So… is this… a group session today?" Ashton asked slowly, after the two Pines and two… children?... filed into his office. He wasn't exactly briefed about this. But he'd go along with it. They'd been talking to each other all this time and Ashton had kept quiet to listen. But now they were seated.

"If that makes you feel less threatened, then by all means," the oddly and extensively tattooed teenager said. Ashton could see Ford groaning. "What he means is," Ford tried to explain, "That… apparently some of my sessions with you are having a…" he struggled to explain it.

"You're giving Fordsie the wrong idea about what he needs to be as a person!" The youngest child, a little Asian girl, said sternly.

"-'Should's are supposed to be avoided in therapy, are they not?" was the teen's addition to this next, as he strolled around the room like he owned it, then ran a finger across the top of his bookshelf and… was he checking it for dust? (Ashton was a little unsettled by all this, though he tried not to show it.)

Ashton blinked. "Ah, well, I was helping Stanford with overcoming and handling his anxiety. He wanted to be calm and unstressed." If Ford had truly called in two… teens who seemed to at least know some of the proper language and methods for discussing these things… even if it was a rather childish-sounding take on things... Ashton would speak to them with his honest thoughts on the matter. "He was in a pretty bad spot when we started, so I had to be more proactive in my approach with him."

"Easiest way to stop feeling 'anxiety' and feel not-stressed anymore by a proactive approach is to die and stop feeling any of all of the feelings anymore. -Try again," said the teen, while turning to face him.

Ashton gave Ford an incredulous look. His patient shrugged. "That's not… what my point was? I meant telling him of different ways to handle his stress, or ways to let it go and such."

"And did you tell him that? Explicitly? That there are all sorts of things, and different choices for him to make, things for him to try out? One size does NOT and never-will-be fitting all?" the teen said to him next. "This Ford does NOT pick up on 'subtext'. Given to him by anyone. At All."

"...I'm not that bad?" Ford pouted.

""""Yes, you are."""" were what the teen, the younger girl, and one of Ford's triplets said to him in short order, even though it seemed to Ashton like they hadn't been trying to say it in unison (given the looks they all gave each other next).

"And if you don't know that, yet," the teen said to Ashton next, taking up residence by the bookcase in the room, to lean up against it, "Then you haven't been paying attention." The teen looked largely relaxed, from the way he was holding himself over there in that part of the room. ...in the way that he'd seen army veterans and sharpshooters look 'relaxed' when they were more than ready or willing to jump into a fight.

"Well, I have noticed Ford had trouble with social situations, and understanding that most of human communications are unsaid. There's a lot of 'reading the room' that he doesn't quite get." Ashton frowned. "But I thought he knew that my suggestions were only suggestions. It's up to him to decide what's ultimately correct for him."

"It is?!" Ford gasped. He thought that a therapist would just tell him what to do. Like setting the rules and the equations to be solved, like in tests and such. Ashton and everyone else, stared at him. ("Oh dear," Ashton couldn't help but say, out loud.) Then Miz sighed. "You're lucky I love you, even if you're a dummy."

"Same." Sebastian groaned.

"This… is a problem," Ashton said. He looked around at the three of them. "Thank you for bringing this to my attention - Stanford, there are several things that we need to discuss together right now."

Ford winced. He had… somehow thought of therapy as anything else in life, a problem to be solved, and to get high marks on. Like test papers, like knowing what answers the teacher wanted from you, regardless if it was correct or not. Just write the 'correct' answer in and get a good grade, get praised by the people around you. And in this case, do the things that Ashton asked of him, get praised for 'healing' and being 'better'. (Get cleared to be allowed near his family again.)

Ashton looked around at all of them and said, "Stanford, would you feel more comfortable discussing this with your friends and family around? Or simply one-on-one?" He did know that Ford struggled with social situations, and with this many people in the room for him to keep track of and potentially worry about...

"-Not 'his friend'!" the teen said abruptly, like he was clarifying a point, and Ashton looked over at him in a bit of shock and wariness. (Five minutes in, and Ashton already had a read on him. But for the teen to state such so blatantly outright-)

Well, at least it left a firm opening for him to respond to this, then. In a more positive manner, that would help to safeguard his patient immediately, here and now.

"You should leave the room, then," Ashton said to the teen firmly, "If you are not here for Stanford's own well-being and sake." (He left the verbal door open, and…)

The teenager grinned at him. "I'm here for my sister," Ashton was told, as the teen stood upright out of his lounging position, and strolled past him out and back through the doorway. "Come on, little sis."

And the little girl got up and followed after him. The door closed. Ashton let out a breath, then turned back to Seb and Ford. "So…" The man folded his hands together with a frown. "I think there are… many, many things we need to talk about."

Ford winced, feeling like he was being chastised. "I'm… I apologize, for getting this wrong," he said simply.

"No, Stanford, this is hardly your fault," Ashton told him with a sigh, running his fingers along his forehead. "I should have made certain that I knew that you understood the basics of the process, before we began. Clearly, I did not communicate this effectively to you. That is my job, not yours. You are not a mind-reader. And neither am I." And this was why he usually didn't take clinical patients over video calls; it was harder for him to pick up on the more minute microexpressions, quick and aborted responses, and other full-body behavioral mannerisms. Frankly, he was glad now that they were all seeing him in-person today, especially for something so significant as this. But Ford hadn't been able to do in person sessions at the time, wasn't comfortable with it. But perhaps now...

Ford nodded. He'd just thought a therapist was there to 'fix' you. And after what Ford had almost done, hurt Zach in a fit of paranoid delusion, Ford had wanted to be 'fixed'. So that he wouldn't do something so awful. He'd been willing to do anything to stop feeling like he had. To stop himself from hurting the people he cared about. And in his rush, he'd… misunderstood something so important, apparently.

"Are you more comfortable with Seb staying in the room for this?" Ashton asked him. "It is perfectly okay to say no. It is not a judgment on you or your brother to say 'yes', or 'no', or 'I don't no', either. This is your safe space to talk, or not talk, about anything that you want to talk about with me. He came here today with you, because he loves you and wants to support you, correct?" he asked of Seb next. He'd gotten that read off of him, at least. Not to mention the way they were leaning up against each other now, even still standing - not even seated just yet.

Seb nodded. "Ford, I didn't notice anything was wrong, and I'm sorry for that. I wouldn't have even known there was anything going on if Blue and Miz hadn't brought it to my attention." He patted Ford's back. "But seriously, this is all about how you feel. So it's up to you if you want me here or not."

And Ashton could tell, just from that, that Seb himself had been in therapy before, and it had worked well for him. Even if Ford hadn't spoken about it briefly in one of their sessions when they talked about his family. Seeing was believing. Ashton felt rather disappointed in himself for being unable to help Ford properly before this point, as Sebastian's therapist had so clearly helped him.

"Seb, you are not a mindreader either," Ashton said gently, to forestall any potential blaming or self-flagellation that might otherwise be the result of that later. "Regardless of how this issue came to our attention, we all know about it now, and can work on it now, moving forward. -Why don't we all sit down for a moment, and give you a moment to quietly think and reflect on whether you'd like Seb to stay in the room here with you, or not. And if you're not sure about anything about what will be the difference between either choice, I can answer any questions you may have about what I'll do, and not do, in each instance. How's that?" Ashton gave Ford a smile. (He was hoping that sitting down would help Ford to feel less tense. Being seated would let him relax a bit more fully, reduce the fight-or-flight response somewhat, and let him focus more on what was going on internally, by letting himself put himself at a better advantage that way, physiologically.)

Ford nodded slowly. He sat with his hands in his lap. Thinking. So… a therapist wasn't there to give him the answers. He was supposed to… write the test himself, using the guidelines set up. Is that… how it worked? Except that… there was no score. No grading system. He couldn't get an A+ in therapy. Or could he? -No, he remembered Ashton saying something about that when they'd first started(!). He felt the heat rise to his cheeks in shame.

(If he'd been wearing that new sensor right then, it would've been sounding off all sorts of bells and whistles, for all the negative self-talk that was then going on, after that.)

Ford took a deep breath. "I… I would like my brother here." He said finally.

Ashton nodded. "You can ask him to leave if you need to," he let Ford know, "And even if you do that, you can ask him to come back inside later, or take a break and go to him out in the waiting room instead. Okay?" He was very much taking that warning of needing to say things explicitly to Ford just then, just in case. And so he went rather overboard with it, laying things out in adult language for him, but in as much detail as he would for a small child who might be involved in a human behavioral study, who might need things explained to them both very extensively, carefully, and completely, just in case...

...and given how his patient looked up at him then - rather confused by this at first, and then seemed to consider all this for the first time - before nodding at him once firmly...

(Ashton stifled a sigh. Oh dear. ...Ah, well. He supposed that taking that one internship in that child behavioral studies lab for a summer semester was likely going to be serving him very well, now.)

"All right," said Ashton. And he pulled in a breath to begin...

Blue was sitting 'upside-down' on a chair in the waiting room area. (He had his back on the seat cushion, and his legs up the wall.) He had his arms splayed out across the chair seat, hands loosely lying there near the back of the cushion. And he had his eyes closed. No 'Cipher-eye' 'looking-spell' in sight.

Miz, humming to herself, was seated on the floor in front of him, finger combing Blue's hair; the touch was soft, not light, and sent odd shivers of sensation through this body-like vessel of his. It made his muscle feel like not wanting to clench up on him when he might otherwise be commanding them to (a bit dangerous, to his Mind), and it was different from a pat or a hair-ruffling or even a cat-pet-stroking, which he also knew. The only human who ever really touched his head or hair while he was human-ish was Stanley, up until this point (because Stanley had made it clear that he thought it was necessary for him to be keeping up agreement properly, by his way of thinking, and so Blue had let him). And Stanley's hands were large and rough, nothing like the soft small fingerpads of his little sister's own chosen-and-decided-upon hands. Miz's fingers brushed through his hair, around his ears and down the sides of his head. It felt… odd, very much so in a way Blue wasn't used to. But it wasn't unpleasant, and his sister seemed to be enjoying doing it, so Blue let her. It was fine.

"My sisters used to love it when I played with their hair." Miz said quietly. "We used to take turns brushing each other." She smiled, somewhat nostalgically. "Zach and Zoe like it too. Zoe lets me braid hers. I've been teaching her to braid mine. I think she'll be better at it than I am in a few years."

"I can do all of the hair-brushing for you instead, if you want me to," Blue told her rather lazily. His vessel was feeling very lazy and heavy right now. Not wanting to move. Muscled relaxed, and relaxing, too far for a proper fight-dodge-payback response if-and-when he needed it. Which he would. Probably soon. Just then.

Blue's eyes slowly drifted closed. The sensations were odd, as his little sister continued doing what she was doing, and Blue continued not stopping her from doing it.

"You can brush my hair later." Miz told him quietly, noticing how relaxed he was. She threaded her hands through his hair, enjoying their texture. Not fluffy like Ford's, it was coarser, but not as much as her own hair. She wondered if he used some special kind of shampoo or conditioner? She'd never really paid that much attention to that 'cleaning' spell of his that he used (but he'd never outright shared it with her either!). Magical shampoo? Was that part of it? Miz pouted a little. His hair was so nice. Her own was always a mess, no matter how much conditioner she put on. Still, she was having fun in her own way, brushing Blue's hair like this. He really was pretty. (Not that she'd tell him right now, he was always in denial of how pretty he was.)

"Mm," said Blue, under her continued ministrations.

Ashton was a bit worried, as their session ended and he saw the renowned scientist out.

There was… a lot. A lot that he'd gotten wrong, and that Ford hadn't even thought about.

Not least of which, that was most worrying, in the most recent terms, was how many times the words 'Miz said' and 'Blue said' came out of Ford's mouth during that session.

And while he'd seemed a bit more relaxed and embarrassed every time something to do with Miz had come up (except for when it turned to worries about the girl's own safety, apparently), every time that Blue had come up and been ranted about...

It was clear that the teen was a toxic individual, and Ashton had almost had to hold back a grimace as he'd told Ford his professional opinion on the matter.

Blue was, most likely, a high-functioning sociopath. He warned both Seb and Ford not to jump to conclusions, and that he'd need to have at least one session with him to confirm a diagnosis...

Except that Seb had nodded and said, "Yes. He's utterly insane. A complete sociopath." like that was a given. They'd… known? Ashton was rather unsettled by that. "And… is it… safe, to have him around…?" he was then asked.

Ashton let out a sigh. "Not for your own mental health," he told them both. "Even if, and I do mean if, he does not get physically violent with you all, he is clearly extremely mentally abusive, and being nearby and around him has already had a clearly detrimental mental and emotional effect on you, Stanford."

"Miz loves her brother." Seb said plainly. "But Blue's a terrible influence. And the only reason he hasn't killed us all is because he cares about Miz enough to not murder us all. But he is dangerous. I know this. We know this. We just… can't do anything about it?" Seb winced. Ford grit his teeth. "I… wanted to try and get along with him, for Miz's sake. But I don't know if I can keep that up." Blue was just too difficult to deal with on the day to day.

"People with antisocial personality disorder do not see other people as people, they see them as things. And they similarly do not and cannot feel love in the same way as those with empathy," Ashton warned him, "Is it more like… a form of possession. If he is capable of actual empathy and love for her, then he doesn't meet the clinical definition," Ashton informed them, "But even if that were the case, that does not mean that it is healthy for you to have him around either of you." Especially not right now, when Ford was far more vulnerable than he'd thought. "If he shows up at your house or your business unannounced and you don't want him there, you should ask him politely to leave. If you feel safe enough to do so, call the cops and have him escorted off the premises; get a restraining order against him if you have to, and he persists. -You don't have to put up with his presence near you, or of any other toxic individual that either of you know; you do have a choice about that," Ashton told them both firmly. Because...

...But then Ashton frowned as he thought on the fact that Blue had been the one to bring up this topic first, today, though. Had the teenager cut in to say what he did before either of them could? Had he been hoping to play Ashton off of him, in some other twisted game? "Did Blue cut you off before you could explain why you wanted to meet me today?" Ashton asked Ford directly.

"...yeah kinda. He does like to talk a lot. And treat everything like he knows better than everyone else." Ford groaned and then paused. "...actually, I think…" Ford rubbed his head. "Despite how awful he is, he does understand boundaries, so if we enforced them, or set them up to begin with…" Ford sighed. "And… I suppose, my efforts to remain civil with him had me allowing him to continue acting the way he does, because I don't tell him to stop."

And that was something else that Ashton had to explain to Ford immediately about - that while being polite was important, his own comfort and safety was far more so. Ford had agreed to try, and had made another appointment with him (for another in-person visit) next week. Ashton sighed. He was worried for Ford. And worried for Miz. Being around someone like her brother was… not good for a young child. Especially not with the way the girl clearly looked up to him. Ashton almost wanted to ask about their parents, before remembering Seb mentioning that they were orphans, and that Seb had adopted Miz. Well, Seb was clearly mentally better off than Ford, Ashton hoped he would be able to raise Miz correctly.

"It sounds like a difficult situation to be in," Ashton told them both. "Please, don't hesitate to call me if you have questions or need help on this. Either of you," he made clear, speaking to both Stanford and Seb.

The men nodded, stepping out of the office and stopping dead in their tracks at the scene before them. Blue was asleep, curled up in a ball on the seat of a single-cushioned chair, while Miz was curled up in his lap. (Frankly, all three men were surprised that they somehow both fit.)

And Blue was both completely relaxed, smiling faintly, and, as far as Ashton could tell it, making some sort of purring noises regularly as he slept.

Ashton blinked down at this in shock.

"...he's almost cute like this." Seb commented.

And Ashton realized something else. For as much as Blue had seemed to be acting as very much a sociopath, and a murderous one (according to Seb and Ford), he… did seem capable of...

"...he needs help," Ashton said quietly to the two men. "He needs help, badly." He looked to be an older teen, which would make things very difficult, but there was still a chance if they got to him before he became a full adult, around twenty. It was an incredibly slim chance, but... "He isn't incapable of empathy or normal human emotion." Not when he was capable of emoting like that, under these circumstances. Dear god. "Some extreme displays of antisocial behavior are due to trauma and an extremely abusive or neglectful upbringing," he said under his breath. "High intelligence under those circumstances does not help. Such behavior can also be a survival and coping mechanism, rather than a neurological lack of empathetic capability." Because the fact that the teen was able to emote and express this at all, while he was asleep and unable to mimic the emotional effect of anyone else around him consciously, meant that this teen...

(Because… from what he was seeing here, and saw before in those first five minutes of meeting him, and putting together the things that he'd heard… Ashton realized…)

"He's most certainly a bad influence on Miz, right now. But she's… probably one of the few good influences for him." Ashton said, even though he hated being truthful with them and saying it (while unknowingly reaching the same conclusion that Blue's Stanley had, in many respects). He glanced over at the two men. "It is not your job or responsibility to try and fix this. Do you understand? -If he is resistant to therapy, it will only give him the tools he needs to take advantage of the people around him far more effectively, and worse. You are responsible for Miz's mental and physical well-being and safety, not that of her brother."

"..." Seb sighed, running a hand through his hair. "Well, I don't think I can separate them, though. I kinda already knew they were a package deal." He smiled bitterly. "We'll just have to keep an eye on Miz, make sure she doesn't turn out like him."

"She's too sweet for that." Ford defended. Seb gave Ford a level stare, "She tried to kill Filbrick." Ford winced, and Ashton stiffened, (What?!)

"...she did that because she hated him for what he'd done to us." Ford winced, looking over at Ashton. "...and I know that's not an excuse. But at least I can understand why she wanted to do it. It's still wrong. And I know we need to make sure she doesn't do that." Ford winced again, thinking about how they could stop Miz here, but out there in space, where they weren't around… and where things were dangerous and people would attack you for any reason and you'd have to kill to protect yourself or you brother and sometimes you even had to kill someone preemptively to protect your brother and- Ford shook his head. That… that was something he was going to have to talk to Ashton about… wasn't it? Ford was not looking forward to that.

"...hang on. Wait. Are you telling me that… Miz has… tried to kill someone before?" Ashton frowned. That was very worrying. Seb groaned. "Her… life before me and Wanda took her in was… not… the best?" He'd heard some of it from Miz, her absent father who'd let her go off and do whatever she wished with no discipline or boundaries set for her aside from 'don't end all of existence' which… was a very WIDE open space for anything she wanted to do! And her Time Baby who'd essentially told her she was only good for killing on his command- Seb wondered if he could get away with killing Time Baby a third time? (Why were their lives so… complicated?)

"If you mean, being attacked by people, and having to defend herself, sometimes with lethal force, not the best." Ford deadpanned. He'd talked with some of Miz's Friends before. During the time he'd been staying with William behind the portal all those years ago. They'd been quite suspicious of him and his brother, even as they welcomed them into their home. And Ford had learned of how much the multiverse simply hated William for seemingly no reason, the police that followed him with their weapons trained when he was out in public was only one of many examples. What did that sort of thing do to someone? That suspicion and hostility? And yet, William still took them in and cared for them. Even when Ford had been just like those trigger happy police who'd assumed the worst of him, simply for being who and what he was.

Ford clenched his fists. No. William was a good person. Even if he'd done awful things. Ford believed this. And he also believed that William...

"Please tell me that you have her seeing a specialized therapist for this." Seb nodded. Ashton relaxed only marginally at this. "Well, I suppose if Blue turned out the way he did from, I would assume, his upbringing… then am I correct in assuming that Miz was with him during that same time? Or that she went through some circumstances that were very similar?" Ashton asked of them quietly. The whole… being attacking and fighting to survive thing… was worrying. He was used to discussing such things with… well. PTSD was his main specialty, but largely with adults on that front. He had some training on helping to deprogram and help out child soldiers, but...

"If you mean parents who didn't love her, a society that shunned and used her, and being forced to conform to unfair expectations. And then being left alone for years. Yes." Seb deadpanned. Flatland was shit. "It's a goddamn miracle Miz turned out as well as she has now, despite all that."

Ashton winced. He didn't know anything about the magical-side of things with Miz or Blue, so for him, his interpretation was… "What… happened to their parents?"

"Well, they don't really have the same parents, they 'adopted' each other, kind of recently," Seb told him, and Ashton nodded grimly. (That sort of thing did happen sometimes, banding together.) "And technically, the cover story is that Miz's parents died in an accident." Seb admitted. "And, I'm sure it was an accident. But…" He looked over at Ashton carefully. "Do we have your silence on this?"

"Confidentiality is important. Yes." Ashton nodded. The waiting room was empty, other than them.

Sebastian sighed. "They burned to death. Their whole village did. And… Miz blames herself for it." Seb explained as a less magical way of describing what had happened. Ashton felt faint.

"...And with Blue?" Ashton asked next.

"Also burned. We… don't know if it was on purpose or not." Seb said evasively.

Ashton grimaced, then scrubbed a hand across his face.

"If you want to find a therapist for him, I will assist." Ashton sighed. "It… may not be a good idea to have him seeing the same therapist as Miz."

"I don't know if he would trust a therapist." Seb sighed.

"Ask him," Ashton said. "Don't assume. The worst he can say is no. And it will put the thought to him, as an option, for later. Let him sit with the idea a while."

"Well, I think he approved of Linda? She's my old therapist, she's handling Miz right now." Seb explained. "She's… not trained for children, but Miz is afraid to trust anyone else. And since Linda helped me, and Miz likes her…" Seb shrugged helplessly.

"Trust is of overriding concern in a doctor-patient relationship," Ashton told him firmly. "If she's in any way ethical and competent, your old therapist will seek help and advice as she needs it, and be very up front about what she can do and cannot."

"Yeah, she told me she's contacting her child-specialist friends." Seb agreed.

Ashton let out a sigh and nodded. "If Blue 'approves' of her," Ashton warned him, "It might only be because he thinks he can manipulate her effectively. Because he doesn't see her as a threat, to his own influence or him. -He would not give her anything that he thought she could potentially use against him, in a therapeutic setting," Ashton warned him. "You'll need to find someone else. But he's likely not going to be open to therapy as anything other than a way to hone his manipulative skill."

"...yeah, that sounds like something he'd do." Seb groaned.

"Please do be careful," Ashton repeated. "You adopted Miz, not him. Both your, and her, safety comes first. He may very likely not want to be helped, or trust anyone who tries."

"I will keep that in mind." Seb nodded. "Geez," he mumbled. "How the hell did I turn out as well as I did?" which had Ford snorting. "A true miracle, as it were."

"...I don't want to wake them." Seb gestured helplessly at the sleeping demons.

"...I don't have another appointment this evening." Luckily. "We could wait and see if they wake up on their own." It wasn't quite that late yet; this was likely just a quick nap on the childrens' part.

So the men went off to get some food and hung out, chatting about much lighter topics. And eventually, Blue started stirring. And Seb pushed everyone back inside Ashton's office, "Blue doesn't like people watching him sleep, or knowing that he sleeps," which was a whole 'nother can of worms that Ashton didn't feel qualified to confront right this instant. So they huddled by the door, peeking out at the children.

"mmmNmmmNNNN-TOAST!" exclaimed the teen, shooting upright. (Blue blinked for a few seconds roughly, his head moving all about blurrily and blearily. Miz whined next to him, having been jostled a bit roughly on the edge of the couch cushion where she'd been, and without Blue's arm around her-)

Miz started to tumble over the side and Blue immediately shot his hands out and leveled her off (floating her in the air). He scrambled backwards a bit, legs all akimbo, and gently set her down again more fully on the couch cushions. (He was perched up on one arm of the armchair after this, letting out a breath as he slowly lowered his arms, looking her over.)

Miz grumbled a bit, but she shifted a little and didn't wake up. Blue finished looking her over, peering at her, then straightened up a bit in place on his perch, rubbing the side of his hand back and forth at his right temple several times repeatedly. (...A nervous tic gesture?)

And then he looked up, straight at the doorway.

And his pupils went to slits and his eyes narrowed a bit next in anger.

"Shit." Seb shut the door. Ford rolled his eyes. "There's no point in that." He opened the door wide and walked out calmly.

"She's fine; I caught her," grumbled Blue, dropping his hand away from the side of his head and looking over Ford suspiciously.

"Thank you for that." Ford told him. Ashton was frowning at what he'd just seen, for multiple reasons. The floating, for one. He had no idea what he'd just seen, there. (And what was wrong with Blue's eyes?! Ashton hadn't noticed before...) But the analytical part of himself was noting that Blue's first response to Miz potentially falling (getting hurt?) had been to immediately try and catch her. Place her down gently. And the way that he'd been handling her had not been in a possessive way; not simply and only the way one handled something that was only an object of worth, great or small. That… was a good sign.

It didn't mean that he wasn't hitting every single other symptom on the checklist for antisocial personality disorder besides 'lack of remorse', but he might be one of the few who might actually respond to treatment, if he was open to it and wanted to get better. (The problem was that, even of those who were capable of feeling remorse or empathy in some small way, very few of them saw a problem with how they were or what they did to others, let alone wanted to change for the better.)

"I didn't do it for you," the teen snapped back at Ford under his breath, and Ashton let out a sigh. He exited the room next, along with Seb.

"Well, thank you all for coming today." Ashton told them all. "And it was nice meeting you, Sebastian." He nodded. The other man shook his hand, smiling. "Great to finally meet you too."

"So," said Blue, as he slid off of the side of the chair. "You figure out that letting another human program you like one of Glasses robots isn't a good idea yet? Or do I need to repeat it at you another thirteen times before you start to consider it yourself, like it's your own thought, again."

Ford rolled his eyes. "Yes, I get it." Now, at least.

"You say that-" Blue began.

"-This is not conducive to Stanford's mental health," Ashton cut in, and the teen swiveled his head towards him.

"Letting you puppet him around is even less 'conducive'," the teen didn't quite sneer out at him next, as he pulled in a breath and stretched in place.

"You realize exactly how toxic your behavior is, don't you," said Ashton, frowning. "You're certainly intelligent enough for it, aren't you?"

And the teen smiled at him next, and said to him, "Yes, and yes."

Oh, he really was one of the ones on the far side of the curve, wasn't he. "Then why are you doing it?" Ashton said, wondering if the teen would actually tell him the truth. (Because if he did…)

"Because I know this local Stanford here better than he knows himself," the teen told him (them?). "And he wouldn't like me if he knew me. He stops lying to himself, and he'd admit that he'd hate me for the same reasons as someone else he used to know, too. Just with a few less knives in the mix. -Easier if I don't let the idiot 'accidentally' start liking me in the meantime; don't feel like having him get all 'murder-y' on me for thinking I lied to him, after." (Ashton blinked at this, a bit worried. He looked over to Ford - who had spoken about someone whom he'd trusted and been betrayed by, but Ashton didn't know about the knives - was the child delusional or merely exaggerating?)

Ford sighed. "Why do you want me to hate you?" He finally out and out asked him.

"I've already got one 'hand who hates me for lying to him," said the teen. "Why not switch it up and try something new? Toss as much 'truth' at you as you can stand, and see what happens next. -Miz doesn't want me stealing you away from her anyway," Blue waved off with a bit of a grimace at this next, "Easiest way to make sure that doesn't happen is to have you 'not liking' me, oh boo hoo. -It's not hard."

Ashton felt very lost at all of this.

"I'm not-" Ford groaned. "My relationship with Miz has nothing to do with you. Not in the sense that you would be able to 'steal' me away from her." He wasn't sure how to put this in a way that Blue would understand. "Miz is special to me. I won't simply throw her away or replace her with anyone else!"

"Or let her be overshadowed by someone else's brilliance, until she might as well not be there at all? More than one way to lose a person there, local-'Hand."

Ashton was very lost at all this.

"No. I-" Ford paused. "Your intelligence has nothing to do with it. I don't just like Miz because of how smart she is. She's-" and Ford paused, finally putting to words how he'd felt, and been unable to understand.

"Who said anything about intelligence," said Blue. And suddenly he was giving Ford a very intense snake-eyes look. "You've never SEEN ME."

"That- what?" Ford blinked owlishly. "I'm sorry, I'm afraid you've lost me."

"...Don't feel like explaining this," Blue grumbled out at him next, rubbing a hand over his head. "It's between me and my 'hand, anyway."

"I won't let you replace Miz." Ford said firmly. "That's not… how this works." He gave Ashton a helpless look, as if to say 'See what I'm dealing with here?'

"If your relationship with another person is impacting this one, you might consider that perhaps you may need to," said Ashton. But that just got him raised shoulders and a glare from the teen.

"...Have you even discussed your 'good buddy Bill' with this…" Blue waved a hand at Ashton, "Here? Or are you still 'neverminding all that'?"

"Yes. I have. Not all the nitty gritty details, but he knows enough." Ford said cooly.

As the two were on that topic, Ashton was thinking about something else. Something… worrying about the way Ford had been talking about Miz. The therapist frowned. "Stanford, what… exactly is your relationship with Miz…" he didn't want to jump to conclusions or anything.

Ford blinked. "She's a dear friend."

"No, he's her 'Hand. Hers. She decided this recently." Blue said himself, as if contradicting him.

(Ashton was even more confused. Seb patted his shoulder. "It's… ah… terms that Blue and Miz use, as their way of… understanding the world and their views on it. Don't worry too much.")

("I am still very worried." Ashton deadpanned.)

"I- what?" said Ford, staring at Blue, who just rolled his eyes at him.

Ford looked confused, and then an epiphany, and then he looked horrified. "I would never try to kill her!" He burst out. He was… Miz had chosen him for her Zodiac?! Why?! ("What?!" Ashton looked wildly back and forth between everyone. Because, what?!)

"And if I'd asked you that twenty years ago, of you and your 'best friend Bill'?" the teen sneered out at him next.

"That and this are two separate things." Ford snarled.

"No," said Blue, "They aren't. -And you keep not-asking, so I keep on not-telling you," Blue glared back at him next. "I'm not stupid, and you're WILLFULLY IGNORANT." The teen thundered out at him next.

And then Miz made a kitten-like sound, and stirred in place. She frowned and whined again. A soft, distressed noise.

And Blue immediately looked highly defensive and shut up, turning his head away from all of them (including Miz), and crossing his arms, hands under his elbows, at his chest.

And Seb was down, kneeling beside the couch, petting Miz gently. "Shh, it's okay…" he said gently, and Miz's expression evened out and she cuddled closer to Seb's hand.

Blue was hunching his shoulders slightly again, and he was looking at anything else in the room than at any of them, staring over at the far wall, off to his side. (But he didn't move farther away from the two feet away from Miz where he was standing.)

"...Miz doesn't like yelling. Or loud, sudden noises." Sebastian said softly, "And she hates the sound of arguing even more." he explained to the people around him. "They scare her, though, sometimes they trigger some kind of 'fight' response and she lashes out. But if she can, she tries to get away from it."

"So, what, I'm giving her 'bad dreams'?" Blue scoffed, still not looking at them. "Let's just take her and go," Blue said, stepping forward and reaching down to hoist his sister up into a very contained-looking princess-type carry.

"I doubt a long car ride would be good for any of you right now," Ashton tried to intervene. "Do you have a place in the local area that you can stay until morning, with separate rooms?" He rather hoped so, if Ford was planning on meeting with him again in-person next week.

"Ah, about that…" Ford grinned sheepishly. "I have a mode of transportation that cuts down travel time. It's still a work in progress, and I'm probably not going to be releasing it for public use, not for a long time…"

Ashton stared. "...did you invent a portal-gate gun?" he asked, and got his answer then Ford looked entirely too innocent. "That's amazing." Ashton noted. Wow. Scientists, am I right?

"Only if you live in a backwater dimension like this one," was the teenager's punctuated by eye roll contribution to the new discussion. Ashton frowned at him. Ford considered it, and then figured he might as well bite the bullet. (There were always those nanomachines of Fidds to fall back on.) "You know how I went missing for 13 years in space?" Ashton nodded, that was a doozy to learn about.

"Well, Blue and Miz are from space." Ford said quickly.

"They're from space?" Ashton asked him. Ford nodded at this.

Ashton stared at Ford for a long moment there.

And then Ashton turned to Blue and said, slowly, "...You aren't human, so you don't feel human empathy." And the implications of that were truly a bit scary to him. (Along with the idea of aliens being real, and really here. Sure, Ford had said he was lost in space, but that was through some… inter-dimensional portal thing, or something. He didn't think the aliens would be, or could be, HERE. It had taken him a while, already, to accept that demons were apparently real, considering Ford had confessed to his brother Sebastian being a demon in his past life, which Ashton still wasn't fully comprehending.)

The alien teenager blinked at him.

"Well." The teen stared at him. "That was fast. -I take it back," said the alien, "You might want to think about maybe-keeping this one, for something," he informed Ford rather dryly. "He's quick on the uptake, at least."

"And… Miz… she…" Ashton frowned. "Miz has had multiple families, and even a human one, whom she learned interactions from," Seb explained. "And she likes humans." ("Hey! I like humans!" Blue complained, at which Ford shot him a look.)

"...which parents were the ones that died in a fire?" Ashton had to make sure.

"Her alien parents." Seb told him, and Ashton sighed in a bit of (guilty) relief. "I see…" Well, this… "I have no experience with aliens, or how to diagnose and treat them," Ashton deadpanned.

"...and at least this one's not lying about stupid shit, and knows at least some of his limits," Blue tacked on to what he'd said earlier, next.

"...are they the same species?" Ashton asked the room in general. Seb shrugged. "Similar, but not exactly the same. From what I know of how Miz… 'works', she's a telepathic empath, can feel emotions, as it were. So she's better at understanding them, on a more personal level."

"More like they were overwhelming her until I talked her through figuring out how to shut all of that junk from the rest of the universe out whenever she wants it to stay out of her Mind, so it would stop shoving her around all over the place always; you're welcome," complained Blue. (Which had made everything inside Miz go… quiet. Enough so that the long buried feelings of her own past had finally begun popping their heads up to be noticed. Not that Blue knew the specifics of this; he'd known that what was her would then be able to come to the forefront again, with a little new space for just and only herself mentally, to finally breathe internally again without any outside interference trying to wash her away and overwhelm her, but...)

"...a telepathic empath in an abusive household, can't have made for a good upbringing," Ashton noted. Then, with a frown, "Is it safe for her to be around you?" he asked Blue.

"I taught her how I layer, she has her headbands and things; I don't usually project much emotion outside my own boundaries at all," Blue said to him. "Operational security. She wouldn't be able to read my thoughts to parse and respond to them correctly, even if she could read them, anyway - and she can't. The new protections she has now keep her from picking up on anything-emotional eventually if she was around me too long, just like anyone else. We worked it all out in my 'set before this; it's fine." Blue was talking in something like clinical tones now and quite seriously, as he held onto her, as he stood and was holding her there in his arms.

Ashton continued watching Blue for a while before nodding. "That's good." he sighed, feeling rather tired. "Ah, I brought up the topic of whether or not you might like to get therapy as well, but I doubt there are any human therapists who'd be able to handle you."

"I'm not about to hand over the Keys of my Mind to anyone else, no," Blue said quite simply in response to this. "I'm not stupid. I know what would happen if I did that."

"...alright then." Ashton glanced over at Ford and Seb. The other two shrugged. Well, at least they'd asked? "If you change your mind, do let me know." ("My Mind will never change. I decided.") "Is…" Ashton paused. "Is Linda going to be able to handle Miz?"

"I mean, she managed me. And she's currently working with Lucifer right now as well." Seb shrugged. It took Ashton a few seconds, remembering first that Ford had explained how Sebastian was a 'demon' in his past life. And then putting that together with- "...the Devil is real?" Ashton rubbed his temples. Of course.

"Miz is only talking with her about human-things. Linda knows her own limits. She is up-front about that. She does not lie to herself or others about what she can and cannot do. And yes," said Blue, "'The devil' is real. And a bit of a cheeky demon-spawn. Could be more annoying if he tried. Maybe."

"...I'm glad that Miz has someone who knows her limits." Ashton was relieved about that. He… wasn't touching the topic of the Devil and possibly the pantheon connected to him with a stick.

Seb was carefully picking Miz up, out and away from Blue's arms (who was glaring at him over this, but didn't quite try and stop him; he wasn't helping him any, either). She whined for a moment at the transition, and wrapped herself around Seb next, mumbling in her sleep before settling again. "Well, we've taken enough of your time for today. I need to get Miz home now." He paused. "Blue, you're free to come with. If you want to spend the night at my house." Ashton looked a little worried at this, but kept his mouth shut.

"Sleeping on his lab couch annoys him," said Blue of Ford.

"...Am I allowed to tell you that you are not welcome in my lab without my express permission?" Ford asked carefully.

"Did someone tell you that you couldn't try?" was Blue's casual response to this right back.

Ford thought about it. "Blue, I would like for you to not come into my lab without my express permission."

"Why not," said Blue, eyeing him.

"Because being around you, when I'm not mentally prepared to deal with you, makes me very unhappy." Ford explained. "I don't hate you. But I don't like you either. You're annoying."

"So if you were about to die from an explosion from screwing something up in there, and I was around to stop it," said Blue, performing another lazy stretch. "You would want me to not 'come into your lab without your express permission' to keep you from murdering yourself, and making my little sister cry over what little remained of your own stupid dead body, then. Hm. I see. How very intelligent of you," Blue said to him sarcastically next.

Ford blinked at Blue slowly. "See, this is why I can't stand you." he sighed, covered his face with a hand.

"Because I'm smarter than you, and right, and you don't think any of all the things through, yet-and-still?" Blue grinned at him next.

"I already know you're smarter than me. I don't need you to tell me so in such a frustrating way."

Ashton was watching this and he placed a hand on Ford's shoulder. "Do you need to take a break, away from him?"

"Not like he was planning on going back to the lab until morning," Blue put out there next. "Unless he wants to skip all the resting and sleeping that my little sister has been slowly training him to do, making her sad when she finds out the next morning. Assuming I don't tell Kari about him trying to pick up 'bad old habits' before that." There was a glint in Blue's eye.

"Stop tattling on me to my Ma!" Ford groaned.

"You're enjoying this, aren't you?" Ashton asked of Blue, feeling a little off balance by all this. The alien teen was clearly playing the thought of the other people in Ford's life off of him, but...

"Well, he's at least trying to think off-and-on, now," Blue told him. "At least a little. More on than off again, finally."

"...why is it so important to you, what Stanford is doing? His… sleeping habits, and the whole, not dying in a lab explosion?" Ashton frowned at Blue, slowly putting something together.

"Miz wants him alive for as long as possible, without overriding his own personal Free Will," said Blue. "And he doesn't think clearly on no-sleep. That's not fun at all, trying to play with him then."

"...and you want to play with him?"

"Mm. He doesn't want to play with me, though. Not whenever he knows it's a game. -As per the usual, for six-fingered hands," said the teen.

Ford frowned at him. "But you said you weren't having fun when-"

"-That was training."

"Then what kind of game do you even mean?" Ford sighed. "And why must you play with me?"

Blue blinked at him. "There are plenty of games," Ford was told. "If you don't like my current-ones, you can ask after another one, instead? -And do you really want me finding other people to play with around here." The alien teen shrugged at him next.

"...you're right. But that doesn't make you correct." Ford deadpanned.

"No," said Ashton. "You don't have to engage in his games. If he wants to 'play' with other people, that has nothing to do with you. It is not your responsibility to try to keep him from doing things to other people." That was effectively a hostage situation, and a terrible dynamic. The fact that Ford had considered it to be preferable, if not welcome, so easily, was truly worrying for Ashton.

"But- he- I can't let him-"

"No. You are not responsible for him. You can't 'let' or 'stop' him from doing anything. It's not your job, it's not your burden."

"Oh yes," said the alien teen, "Do try to explain to him how I have my own personal agency because I am not stupid. I've been trying to do that for… well. More than two weeks. The idiot." ("Name calling does not help matters." "It does when I'm identifying when-and-what he's doing wrong!")

"But if he-" Ford began, glancing between them.

"That's not, your job. No matter how much you might feel like you have some responsibility otherwise." Ashton told Ford firmly. "Miz is Sebastian's responsibility, because he adopted her, he took her on as his responsibility. Blue has no connection to you in any way."

"What part of, 'you haven't learned anything, you're making the same mistakes again-still' do you not understand?" the teen said to Ford next. "Or did you oh-so-conveniently forget that self-conversation with yourself that I dragged you through, this past summer here?" ("What?" Ashton stared at the two of them next.)

"What if he hurts someone? If I could have stopped him from doing so?" and the Ford paused. "No, that's not…" and he closed his eyes, frowning heavily. Wasn't Ford being like those same people who had hurt others, simply by not doing anything? "That. Even if I didn't engage him, if I see him causing trouble, I can't just let it go."

"That, is not your responsibility," said Ashton. "That is for the proper authorities to handle." (There had to be some sort of space police, didn't there?)

"Well I can't go calling the Time Police on him!" Ford blurted out. He didn't have that ability!

"Oh, but if you did," the teen practically purred out at Ford next. "-HA, Miz didn't tell you yet, did she? I've got ALL my Weirdness on tap again right now." Blue grinned out at him next. "As of this afternoon."

And that should have made Ford's hackles rise. That should have gotten him all up and confrontational-

But instead, what popped out of Ford's mouth was, "You didn't have that before?" and he sounded so gobsmacked.

Blue stared at him, fully expressionless.

And then the teen's visage grew truly thunderous, and he literally tossed his hands up in the air and stormed out of the office, in a huff.

The three men stared at the doorway Blue exited from.

"Um," said Ashton. "Is this… weirdness… a problem?" he asked of Ford, clearly out of his own clinical depth.

"Oh, not really, it's simply the 'magical' energies he has command of, that allow him to alter physical reality to his whim." Ford shrugged. Seb had his face buried in his hands, Miz wrapped tighter around him with a whine when Seb was no longer holding her.

"...This isn't a problem?" Ashton said a bit weakly.

"Well, if he's had it since this afternoon and hasn't done anything yet with it," Ford mused. "And his own magical abilities before this seemed rather…" Ford shrugged. "Frankly, I had thought he already had his powers with him, and simply hadn't used them, for whatever reason." Ford actually chuckled. "Miz throws her power around all the time, has no qualms about using them whenever."

Ashton blinked at this. "Does Blue?"

"No, he seems more reserved. Almost… tired out. In fact he gets tired pretty easily." Ford hummed.

"How have you kept them out of the news so far, then?" Ashton was trying to wrap his mind around this.

""Perception Filters."" Ford and Seb responded at the same time. ("What?")

"I'm working on a version that'll work on a much larger scale." Ford admitted. "I don't want the government getting their hands on either of them. Miz especially." He looked downright pissed at the thought of that.

"Your brother adopted a reality-altering alien, and her tagalong alien brother has also been… hanging around you... and you don't want our government getting their hands on them." Ashton repeated this numbly.

"...yes?" Ford blinked. "Miz is worryingly obedient at times. Not a good idea for her to be around people who would take advantage of that."

"Blue's kinda the opposite, though?" Seb grinned at him next.

"If you'll forgive the lapse in professionality… I should get home soon. I think I need a drink," Ashton admitted with a sigh, rubbing a hand over his face. (If he didn't know Ford well enough by now, he'd swear the man was playing a prank. He'd seen the teen float his younger sister there, though...)

"Right, sorry for keeping you so late." Ford chuckled. "We'll be heading back too." And he considered going to find Blue, but then paused, thought about it, and decided not to. What Blue did or did not do, was not on him. It had nothing to do with him at all. It was all on Blue, and his own horrible decision-making capability.

Ashton nodded to him, and once they were out the door, he locked up behind them all and headed for his own car. He didn't look around to see the portal, or otherwise how they got home themselves. He trusted that they could handle it safely, and right now he had other concerns on his mind...