Slices of Life and Family

by bluefrostyy

PART 3 of The life of Sebastian Pines! (Read that first, I doubt you'll understand what's going on) The story follows Seb's life after Gravity Falls. Bill was defeated, but the Pines family still have thousands of adventures together. Old characters will come back, new characters will make an appearance, all to accompany Seb through his journey as a human (Cowritten with Mizuuma)

44. Chap 43 McGucket 2020!

IM SO SORRY FOR TAKING LIKE AN ETERNITY AAAAA Colleges been driving me crazy and with the comic of the triplets im doing weve taken forever!

BTW Follow me on instagram as Bluefrostyy ;)

-McGucket 2020-

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While Yun and Ford were busy taking care of the little newborns, Fiddleford was busy with something else.

Namely, the global pandemic. The Center managed to get lots of samples of the virus after asking around at a bunch of hospitals. They were super careful with them, had the special masks for full filtration on, and kept the rooms in which they were studying the virus samples in a sectioned off area with plenty of air filters and sanitation tables with soap.

Fiddleford had been reading and researching (and sometimes getting distracted with racoon friends who paid him visits from time to time) so they could also enter the race to find a vaccine before things got worse. He had an idea for how to handle this, but he still needed a test subject. The best way to see if a vaccine or cure worked was to test it out after all. But ethically speaking, he didn't want to do that. He couldn't expose anyone to the virus just to test his cures. And vaccines were a tricky business that required lots of time to see if they worked, or if they had any negative side effects.

A normal drug trial testing for new medicines involved trying the drug on a group of willing participants. But in this situation, he couldn't go around asking people to volunteer for this. It was too dangerous. And he could ask the patients currently sick with the virus to test out possible cures, but there were issues with that too. It was a hard choice. After all, a vaccine was meant to be used before one actually got sick.

He really wished this wasn't happening. It wasn't good for his stress levels or blood pressure. His poor heart. He was also basically without the help of his pal, because Ford was trying to get a hold of his life again with Yun's kids in his house (and his inner debate on how he wanted to act towards them).

Fiddleford was also so pissed the government wasn't doing anything for the people. If the town wasn't in lockdown right now, who knew how many people could be infected by now or possibly dead! It-It wasn't fair. And he wanted to help. But he was an engineer, not a doctor, he didn't know how .

But he wasn't doing this alone, the Center had some of the best and brightest minds. And those who WERE in the medical field of study were working around the clock with what they could.

But they needed test subjects.

And no one in Gravity Falls was sick, which was a good thing, but it meant they didn't have anyone sick, and were left with a choice of 'Expose a volunteer purposely to the virus to test the vaccine' or 'bring in someone sick to test treatments and cures'.

There was a lot of work to do. And tough decisions to make. Fiddleford rubbed his forehead. But the real issue was the lack of enforcement of the quarantine. The lack of education on the matters at hand. The lack of proper leadership in this country.

….leadership...

Fiddleford paused in thought.

Wasn't that an idea…

"This is just getting weirder and weirder. Seb is confused." Seb declared as Miz magicked macarons into existence after several failed attempts to bake them by hand.

The little macarons grew some legs though, Miz cursed and started chasing them. "Fuck!" Looks like she was still filled with too much weirdness right now. Even after her Yun 'self' had gotten through a huge amount of energy use.

Seb face palmed, caught the food, and floated them into his sharp fangs to bite them in half. There. Killed.

Yup. No idea who made things so weird!

He definitely wasn't complaining though, he had been going insane before all this (stir-crazy), but he just wanted to know~

Miz dropped to the couch, muttering about how she was just distracted before pulling at his shirt. "Hey! I've been expanding some pocket spaces for new territories and islands! People will be safe there!" Seb nodded, not really interested. Miz still told him about it, to get permission. Like a good girl.

"I'm bored... We could make Shlump get sick~ Or scare him with your monster vessel~" Miz suggested with a grin. That made Seb's grin go wide. That was more interesting~

Seb stretched lazily and was gonna ask for more eyes for his monster vessel but he grumbled instead when he felt his chest clenching painfully. Ow...Breathe-he couldn't breathe... "Miz-" He called, out of breath as his hand clutched his shirt. The dragon looked at the human as he slumped over, flatlining quite literally before her eyes.

"Seb?" Miz reached for him before he hit his head. "What the hell? But you still have several decades!" She screamed, shaking him a little as tears formed in her eyes.

No. Nonononono. This was not happening. Not right now. Not if she could stop this!

(There was a pulling sensation, like she was being yanked out and away. She fought against it with everything she had, it was trying to pull her Out. So she went Up instead.)

She crackled into the Space between Spaces and glared at the local salamander. "He still-He still had time! What did you do?!" She shouted as she went Up even higher, shedding her dragon form as she went. She was in her Bill form, eye red and fuming.

She heaved a sigh of relief as she noticed Seb was also complaining to the Axolotl. "You said I had to die on my own! This is not fair! I want to go back, I didn't do anything wrong! Things were going fine!" He hit the Axolotl with his very bright non material hands. His entire form glitched from time to time from his human form, to his old triangle form.

" The sooner you two stop complaining, the faster I can talk and the sooner you can return, William. I needed to speak to you." The AXOLOTL glared.

"And you had to give me a freaking heart attack just to talk to me?!" Sebastian complained.

"You cannot communicate with me otherwise."

"Yeah, yeah. Because my powers got all fucked up."

"No. All the times I've spoken to you, you have been dead." The Axolotl sighed. And all those times he had to bring the human back after he killed himself. "I know what I said, William. But I'm doing an exception right now, because ever since you connected your mind to this Bill," the AXOLOTL gave Miz a stern look, "-this dimension has not been flowing as it should have."

"Miz's my friend and what?!" Seb spat, ignoring the glitching on his body.

"I'll kindly ask you, Miz Cipher, to stop intervening . This dimension's Bill is dead . I do not need another one." Seb and Miz couldn't help but notice the angry tone in that otherwise neutral declaration.

"Miz has been saving people! She-She got those kids out and made all those safe places! And-and isn't like this Bill! And she saved Max! And-And she helps me-" Ax looked at him and patted his head, shushing him.

Miz looked like she wanted to complain, but, to the AXOLOTL's surprise, she seemed to be thinking his words over. "You… don't want me interfering anymore?" She said slowly. Then she huffed. "What's your goal? What's the end game?" She asked.

The AXOLOTL deadpanned. "Too many things have changed. People who are alive now that shouldn't be. Too many Souls not returned to circulation. Technology that should not have been produced yet at the center. Living creatures you created and that have produced offspring!"

Seb and Miz winced a little at that. "To be fair I didn't expect the plantimals to be able to reproduce, they were supposed to be like plushies." Miz said sheepishly. "And my kids love them…" Seb shrugged.

"Sebastian was supposed to let his powers fade from disuse and become a full human." "-WH-WHAT?!" "He would have lived his life quietly and calmly. His children would have carried on with that gift. Your human business appearing out of nowhere will shift the economy for the humans."

"I'm giving them jobs! And an actual living wage! And freaking human rights that shithole capitalistic society isn't giving them! I'm just replacing their broken system for a better one!"

"That's not your job to do." The God said firmly. "Especially not in a dimension you should not be in!"

Seb grimaced and looked away awkwardly, suddenly his six fingered hand glitching to a four fingered black one seemed very interesting. Avoiding the discussion yay!

Miz simmered. "I'm ok with not making any more Islands. But Void Deliveries has too many people involved. I can't just fire them all, and you can't make me."

The AXOLOTL and Miz glared at each other for a while before the AXOLOTL slowly nodded. "You can keep your company, since there are enough humans working to maintain it that it counts as theirs too, but no more islands. No interference with the politics or society or the Fate of this world's timeline. Things are already a mess with Time Baby gone."

Seb looked pissed and shook his head at her. "Don't listen to that jerk!" But Miz looked resigned, "...Fine." It would suck. But if the freaking AXOLOTL was willing to kill Seb just to have a 'chat' with him, what's to stop him from killing Sebastian off as a punishment to her if she pressed the issue? Seb might not see this right now. She felt rather angry at this roundabout black mail. Threat? She wasn't sure what this would be called, but she couldn't do anything against the AXOLOTL.

(Well, she could try overpowering him, but she didn't want to do that.)

And then the AXOLOTL gave Miz an uncomfortable look. "Stanford Pines was not supposed to have children."

Miz's eyes went wide. Her babies weren't-

"I won't let you take them away." Miz's voice turned into a dark rumble.

Seb looked at his palms and then back at the Axolotl. "I knew I shouldn't have trusted you…" the damn lizard still hated him and apparently wanted his family to be miserable!

The AXOLOTL sighed. "It was my mistake not cutting off your interventions from the beginning. I kind of expected my counterpart would tell you himself, but I was wrong. No need to worry. Your children will remain alive as long as they wish, and the things you have done will remain, I do not intervene… I simply wish you would start doing the same."

Miz was shaking, clenching her fists so hard she'd be bleeding if she had a physical body. "You won't touch my children." She stated, like a fact. The AXOLOTL nodded. "I will not interfere with them. But you shouldn't make any more."

"I was not planning to…" She mumbled, annoyed. "Shit, better hope Blue never finds out about this. He'd be pissed ." And she didn't even sound happy at the idea of Blue potentially trying to fight the local Ax. It wouldn't end well for him.

Seb poked Ax's paw. "I wanna go back! You said this was just a chat!" He demanded nervously. "I don't want you touching me again. Keep your end of the deal!"

The AXOLOTL turned the full force of his gaze onto Seb, making the former demon shudder at the heavy pressure. "Let's hope that you won't do anything that would necessitate my interference."

And then Miz and Seb felt themselves falling.

Falling….

And falling….

And fall-

Seb started coughing and gasping for air the best he could as his heart began beating and oxygen flooded back to his body. Miz quickly crawled towards him and hugged his head, stroking his curls. "I got you…it's ok, keep breathing, you're doing great." She was having trouble breathing herself, from stress and worry. Seb had been dead. Miz didn't want to think about it. Her friend had been dead .

She didn't think she was bothering the local Ax by literally helping his humans and giving them a better quality of life! But apparently she had, and the local Ax killed Seb for that… she didn't care if it was just for a few seconds! She couldn't help but feel responsible for that...

Seb was shaking and she just held him tighter. "I don't want to die-" He whispered as he tried to keep the sobs to a minimum. He wanted to finish this, he wanted to finish his human life and now he felt nothing would assure him that. The first seconds before Miz appeared had been one of the scariest moments in his life. He thought he'd never see his children again, that he'd never see his wife, his brothers, his family without saying goodbye.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry…" Miz pressed her head to his. "I didn't think this would happen…" but it did. And it was a wake up call. This world didn't want her interference. It wasn't a place where she could continue doing whatever she wanted. Where she could just have fun. This place wasn't a sandbox. Miz tilted her head back. Figured. This Ax probably got fed up with her and everyone else's lack of respect (She might have to admit Seb and her had been very disrespectful in that aspect…) Fine. She could understand that. She could tone things down. She had enough things set up. But…

She wouldn't be able to just 'fix' things here. Not with her powers. Not by doing things the way a 'god' would. Or a demon. Miz tried very hard not to imagine Blue's 'I told you so!' On the topic of taking down the AXOLOTL.

Yes, she was mad at the AXOLOTL for stopping her from doing what she wanted, but she didn't want to fight and kill him over it either. Miz sighed. 'If I weren't such a coward…'

But. She could still do things the human way. That was fine. She could work around that. But before anything, she needed to stroke Seb's hair and hug him, he felt cold, but she could feel his heart was beating and the sound reassured her immensely. She would have to be more careful, to make sure that heart continues beating.

-.-

Back in town, Ammy sometimes tried to help with the children. "Look upon this." He said to Ira as he held up a bottle. "This is nourishment with which you can use to grow." Ira frowned and reached for it. Ammy shook his head, getting used to having only one stationary head as opposed to multiple moving ones. "I am told that it is polite to ask. Say please."

"...they're too young to talk." Ford sighed. Yun was asleep, tired out from mass producing masks, disinfectant and gloves to put for sale in bulk (for cheap) on Void Deliveries. She was frowning in her sleep, which worried him a little. Ford laid the babies on her so they could continue feeding even while their mother was asleep. Ammy frowned at his sister. "Perhaps if we were to feed them mother's flame?" He asked. "I could not speak properly until I had absorbed some of it."

That raised so many questions that Ford didn't know how to get into at the moment. But still, Ford shook his head. "I'm pretty sure you can't feed infants fire." he stirred the bottle he was preparing as Ammy looked over at the two suckling on Yun's chest. "Why do you not feed your children through your pectorals as well? Would that not be simpler?"

Ford grimaced. "What?!" Ammy shrugged. "I saw you when you were changing clothes after Acedia vomited milk on you-" Ford frowned at that. "-you have a similar body structure to mother's current form, so you have to be able to feed your children as well though your nipples."

The blushing scientist took a deep breath. "We-well...I-I can't...men don't breastfeed." Well, he had read cases of men that had BUT HE DIDN'T WANT TO BE PART OF THE PERCENTAGE! "Then why is your chest like that?" Ammy asked curiously.

"Because when humans start developing, all the embrions start out looking the same before developing specific body parts from their respective sex." Ford explained.

Ammy reached out a hand to squeeze Ford's chest but Ford dodged them. "Ammy, you cannot touch someone like that without asking first." Ford said sternly. "And I do not want to be touched by you, in this way. On this part of me." Or any part for that matter.

Ammy nodded in understanding. Then he turned to Yun, who was asleep, and raised his hands. Ford pushed Ammy's hands back down. "No, you can't touch unconscious people either. They can't consent." Ammy thought about it and nodded again.

Ford had to rub his head. He was trying very hard. Change topic! Change topic! "How is everyone doing back on your side…?" Ford forced a laugh. Ammy nodded "We are well. Keyhole has gotten a new job with the science division of the Restokvi gang in identifying pilfered scrap metals. They are building weapons of mass destruction for our eventual war against the Federation and the uprising against their oppressive rule as per Kryptos's suggestion." Ammy said blandly.

Ford's jaw dropped. What?! Ammy tilted his head at Ford. "Kryptos says it is to be a surprise." he paused. "But I thought it would be a bad idea. And mother has already figured it out, so we are probably not going to do it anymore." Ford had no idea how to react to this. "W-why?" He managed to gasp. Ammy tilted his head and blinked disjointedly. "Kryptos says that we need to kill Time Baby. He says that getting rid of him for a thousand years would give us the chance to change the government without interference." Ammy paused to think "I do not understand much about how a government is run, and Mother is already working on her own plans for it, so we need to have a full family discussion about which plan would be best. Kryptos is convinced that Time Baby's death is necessary for change."

Ford rubbed his face. "But Time Baby is necessary..." He looked down at Yun. Sometimes he agreed violence was needed for change out in space where people could kill at the drop of a hat, but he didn't want Yun to do that, he knew how much it hurt her to do that kind of thing. Luxuria had fallen asleep after he finished drinking, and was slipping off. Ford lifted them up and awkwardly placed the baby against his chest to carry them to the crib. "It's a bad idea." Ford looked back at the confused teen. "I don't doubt Kryptos is smart, but he might be wrong about this." He's also a bitch, but that wasn't a good argument.

"...getting rid of Time Baby would make mother both happy and sad." Ammy said softly. "Time Baby always forces mother to do things that make him unhappy. If he was gone, even just for a little while…" Ammy frowned. "...and yet, mother still doesn't actually want him dead. It's very confusing. And either way, I do not think we should go through with this assassination without mother knowing about it, to take over Time Baby's duties. That is why we've told mother about it. And they said no."

Ford sighed. "Look, I'm sure you all have the best intentions in mind, but if the things in your side work the way I understand them too, losing one of the three would have consequences, even if someone else took over for Time." Ammy nodded and then paused, as a feeling made itself known. "I must ask mother if he designed this body defectively."

Ford frowned. "Why is that?" He was answered by Ammy's stomach letting out a growling sound. The alien looked down at himself, slightly startled. "What is this noise? Are there live Yemishbears within this vessel?"

Ford snorted. "No, you're just hungry." Ammy blinked at him "Hungry...oh yes. The state in which you require the consumption of food for sustenance." He nodded. "So this is what hunger feels like. No wonder Pyronica always complains so loudly." He blinked at Ford, as if testing him, and slowly walked towards the nightstand with the bottles.

"No." Ford deadpanned, wagging a finger. "Go to the kitchen. Soos or Melody can give you food." The little alien cretin even LOOKED at him like-! Like Ford was the bad guy for denying him the baby's food.

"Pity. I rather liked how I did not need to chew in order to obtain the sustenance I needed when drinking mother's milk." Ammy let out a long suffering sigh.

Ford rolled his eyes and picked up Yun's babies when they seemed to fall asleep. Oh geez, did he have to burp them? That never worked when he did it! To his relief, Yun opened her eyes drowsily.

"Huh...Fffffordsie?" she slurred. Ford gave her a reassuring smile. "The children are asleep, uh, I think they'd need to be burped, I think?" He told her. Yun grumbled and before he knew what happened, her arms trapped him in a hug. "Ummm five more minutes." Yun mumbled, even as she waved her hand and made the babies float around and spin slowly until they let out little burps, not even waking them up.

Ford, with his head trapped against Yun's chest, stared. "Is that safe for babies?"

"Mmm…. You're safe for babies…" Yun mumbled, pulling Ford closer, squishing his face against her boobs.

"Yun! Urgh! Ford struggled. "You can let me go now!" Ford was trying to push himself away, but his arms weren't quite reaching the bed for the leverage he needed. Ford spotted Ammy walking to the door. Ford reached out in despair at the young looking alien before he left. "Wait! Ammy! Help!"

Ammy stared. "I will go for food first, my stomach is still growling and since you don't want me to feed from those bottles, I will have to look for food elsewhere." Ammy gave the trapped man an almost smug smile before closing the door. Ford struggled to get out, but she had him trapped with her four arms.

"Dammit." Ford gave up and just let himself lie there. "Your son inherited your snark." Ford muttered. He glanced over at the babies, floating nearby. "I hope none of you did. You'd be infuriating once you're older."

Ford tried to pry Yun's hands off but she made a sad whine when he did so. Ford groaned and slumped over, lying half on the bed and half kneeling on the ground. Looks like he was stuck here...might as well get comfortable…

He carefully climbed onto the bed and lifted Yun so he could make room for himself. He laid down on his side, head still squished against his partner's chest, and sighed. Well...whatever then. He might as well go to sleep as well. His exhaustion from caring for the children this whole time finally caught up and Ford relaxed into the softness, fast asleep.

Ammy looked around the house as he stumbled through the hallways. Kitchen...kitchen...where was it again? He saw another human, a female, turn the corner and spot him. Melody relaxed and sighed. "Hello Ammy, you're here for another visit?" Ammy blinked his eyes independently of each other. "Yes. I came to see my siblings. I am also searching for the kitchen, I need food to placate my growling stomach. Stanford said I am no longer allowed to drink the bottles meant for my siblings. Thus I must acquire alternate sources of nutrition. Where can I find it?" He asked. "Um… follow me." Melody scratched her arm, unsure what to say in the face of this child staring up at her. Did he have an eye problem? They kept blinking out of synch with each other.

Well, alien child. Melody didn't know the details but Yun had assured her that Ammy was a good kid. While they walked, Melody decided to strike up some conversation. She didn't know much about Amorphous Shape. "So Yun is your mother, what about your father?"

"I had no father. Mother birthed me on her own." Ammy stated. Melody gasped. So Yun's previous boyfriend had left her with a child and ditched her? How awful. Alien or not, Melody felt bad for the other woman. (She was misunderstanding Ammy's point here, not that she knew.)

Melody still smiled. "Well, it's very nice to see you again. I suppose we'll be seeing more of each other, since Yun pretty much lives here now." She held out her hand, almost absently. Ammy stared at the hand before raising his own. Handshake. A method of greeting another person in which you check them for hidden knives within their sleeves, as well as mother's preferred method of sealing the fates of any who wished to make Deals with him. Ammy took her hand and shook. "I am very glad you do not have a knife." He said.

Melody frowned and nodded slowly. What was wrong with this kid? "I am...glad you don't have one either...you said you were hungry? I will show you the kitchen. Maybe you could take your mom and Dr. Pines some food, they haven't eaten since this morning and it's past noon." Ammy followed the knife-less, helpful human. "Thank you. I will be sure to bring back adequate sustenance for mother. She might devour Stanford if I do not."

Melody laughed. "Right. Well we can't have that now can we?" She shook her head, thinking his statement to be a joke. They got to the kitchen where Melody began preparing some sandwiches. "Is there anything you want in particular? Are there any foods you can't eat?" Melody asked. Ammy blinked slowly. "I am capable of dissolving most substances though I do not eat often." Melody frowned. Was his family situation very poor? What WAS Yun's life like, out in space? "Well I'm going to make some chicken sandwiches ok?"

Ammy nodded. "I am very thankful, Melody, for your generosity." Melody smiled at him kindly. What a polite young man. She liked his hair. It was all colorful and pretty. She quickly made some food for Ammy and his mom, parents (?), and put everything on a tray. "Do you want to eat here in the kitchen or take this upstairs to eat with them?"

Ammy hummed in thought. "I...I want to be with them, should I take this with me?" He pointed at the tray and Melody nodded. Why did the kid look so confused? Was he ok? "Do you need help bringing this to them?"

"No, I am sure I can do this. Thank you again for all your assistance." Ammy nodded to her before going back down the hallway. He placed one of the sandwiches in his mouth as he went. He'd seen Teeth and the others eat often enough to know how to do this. The chewing part seemed tedious to him, but he would endeavour to copy them. Ooh. There was a wonderful sensation along his mouth as he chewed. Was this...a new taste?

It was nice. Feeling stuff. He opened the door to the room he came out from and entered. He left the tray on a table and looked at Yun and Ford sleeping. He raised an eyebrow. Ford said he couldn't touch Bill without consent, then why was Ford doing it? Well, it didn't matter. "Stanford, Mother, wake up, the female human called Melody told me you also need nourishment." He ate another sandwich while gently shaking the two. Ford stirred and yawned, his lips brushing against something. He blinked his eyes open and turned bright red. "Bweh!" Ford backed off the most he could.

Ammy lounged on the couch, nibbling another sandwich. No wonder Teeth and Pyronica enjoyed eating so much. This was very pleasant. Yun was beginning to wake up, yawning and making her chest squish against Ford's face as she inhaled. She blinked and hugged her stuffed animal tighter before frowning. This wasn't Mr. Floppy. She looked down to see Ford. Oh. She noticed where Ford's face was. OH.

For a second she wanted to shove him away but then she realized how embarrassed he was and her need to tease him overtook the previous thought. Yun grinned at him. "So~had a nice nap?"

"Let me go…" The poor man muttered, embarrassed. Yun stretched again, pushing her breasts closer to him. Ford closed his eyes, regretting not falling down the stairs as a baby. "I knew you would want to try too~" Yun purred. Ford rolled away from her until he fell to the floor. (Yun giggled. Teasing Ford was too much fun!) The octuplets whined in their pile at the loud thud. Couldn't they see they were trying to sleep?! Ammy watched the two with a confused look and took another bite of his sandwich. "Are you done? If you don't eat, can I eat the rest please?" Yun laughed at Ford before turning to her oldest child. "No, you can't! I need food to make more milk, right Fordsie?" She leaned on the edge of the bed to look at the fallen man. Ford nodded. "Absolutely…food...and milk…" Ford groaned. "You really won't turn down an opportunity to tease me."

"Because you're cute when you're embarrassed."

Yun looked at the pile of babies and decided they would be asleep for another few hours so she could get her breasts back to normal for a bit. She pulled on a shirt before reaching over to grab a sandwich. "So, what do you think of your new brothers and sisters after knowing them for a while, Ammy?"

"I think they are small, and they don't do more than eat and sleep. I can't tell if I like them or not until I can speak to them and interact."

Yun nodded. That made sense. Ford rubbed his chin, damn, he needed to shave, and went to grab a sandwich. He was just going to take a bite when his phone rang. Really? He looked at the hour. Wow. It was almost 4pm. "Hello?"

"Hello? Dr. Pines? We.. We have some news."

The HR department from the Center? Ford blinked. "What is it?"

"Erm… that is…" The woman seemed to be hesitating. "Dr. McGucket has just sent in his resignation letter."

Ford almost dropped his phone. "His- resignation?! He's quitting?!" That didn't make any sense! Fiddleford loved the Center! Why would he-

"Yes sir. It… um… It says here that he's resigning so he could run for President…"

"WHAT?!" Ford almost threw his sandwich across the room. Yun, who was looking distracted by something, turned to stare. "What's going on?" Ford lowered his voice when he heard some small whimpers, but he kept stuttering.

"What?!" He repeated, much lower this time. For PRESIDENT? But-but the candidates were already chosen! He couldn't just-what was he even-Wasn't he working on the vaccine? What was F DOING?!

"I don't know sir. I was merely told to pass on the message." The poor woman said apologetically.

Ford just stared blankly at his phone.

"I'll be back." He shoved the food into his mouth before standing up.

"What's going on?" Yun blinked.

"My friend just quit to run for president. And I gotta find out if he's mentally sane."

"Oh." Yun frowned. Was this part of the AXOLOTL's plans? "Well good luck?" She put out there. Ford put on his mask and dashed out the room.

Yun sighed. Well. Fiddleford for president. She wouldn't say she didn't like this outcome. If this was the AXOLOTL's plan, she could get behind it. "You see, Mr . Axolotl, sir? I'm sitting very still here in bed being good~" Yun grumbled to the sky.

There was no response, which was about as good as she was expecting from him at this point.

She reached for another sandwich and winced. Her shirts didn't fit anymore. Her breasts had grown too large. Yun pulled at the fabric and altered it to better accommodate her new figure. Ugh. Ammy took another bite of his sandwich before commenting "So have you any thoughts on what to do about Time Baby, if we're not killing him?"

"Ignore the fuck outta him. He'll hate that." Yun swallowed another bite. Ammy tilted his head. "Are you unhappy at how Kryptos wanted to keep our assasination attempts a surprise?"

"Meh, I'm actually not big on surprises that I don't ask for."

Ammy glanced at the children. "Like the babies?" Yun nodded. "Yeah, like that. Well, not the babies themselves, just… How many of them there are. And the fact that they're… mortal." The mother and child nodded in understanding.

"But they're family." Ammy pointed out. Yun smiled, "Yes. And I love them all the same."

-.-

Shermie had been checking the news like the good, responsible citizen he was, of course not on TV, but from independent unbiased media, until he stumbled upon a very familiar face. "Hey kiiidsss! Isn't this Ford's friend? The millionaire racoon lover?"

Mabel, who had been snuggling Waddles on the floor and Dipper, doing homework on the table, stood up to look at his phone. "Hey, that's uncle Fiddles!" Mabel exclaimed. "And he's running for president?" Dipper gaped.

"Woo! McGucket 2020!" Mabel cheered. "Thank god! Now I actually have someone I want to vote for. We are SO gonna do campaign planning for him now!" She giggled and rubbed her palms together. They did the campaign for mayor of Gravity Falls at TWELVE, how was the presidential campaign any different? Waddles oinked in approval.

Dipper grabbed his dad's phone and quickly read over the article. "Mabel, just because mister Fiddleford is a good person, doesn't mean he's a good politician." Dipper deadpanned. Also, wasn't he like… Insane and homeless for 13 years?

""Because there's no such thing as a good politician~"" Shermie and Mabel said at the same time before bursting into laughter.

"Woah…" Dipper muttered as he finished reading the article. He was making some veru good points- wait! "Everyone gets a robot spider?! What the hell?!" He smiled, looking up at his sister and dad. "I NEED a robot spider!"

Mabel started chanting "McGucket 2020!" And Dipper soon joined in.

Shermie laughed evilly "Oh Stan's gonna so pissed~" for one thing, that Fiddleford fellow wanted to tax the rich. Including himself. Shermie could respect a man who was willing to put his own neck in the grindstone for a topic he believed in. Also wanted to cut military funding. Because, as the article said, "If everyones got their own robot spider, they won't have to worry about terrorists." They would be designed to protect their human companion. Not attack other people. Only protect. Shermie thought this would be cool, if it actually worked.

He hugged his kids and joined in the chant.

-.-

"You can't just simply decide one day you want to become president!" Ford screamed. McGucket blinked. "Why not? I just did" He smiled.

"Because… there are steps involved! You have to campaign, get yourself recognized and-"

"I flew over the white house in a giant robot that looks like a bald eagle. I got recognized." Fiddleford shrugged. Ford groaned. "...I know you did. I have Shermie and Seb spamming me about how much they loved that."

"Come on. This is America, Stanford." Fiddleford chuckled. "I know what I'm doing. With someone who actually cares, we can actually have the change we wanted. Kiddos would get the education they need, colleges would be more accessible, research centers will actually have the attention we always wanted, I just needed to quit for this, can't have people thinking I'll only benefit da Center. And that way finding the cure will be easier. The vaccines actually almost ready, in a few months we'll have all the data needed ta know it's safe."

Ford tried to think of something else. "But...what about your blood pressure? HM?! Did you think of THAT?!"

Fiddleford rolled his eyes. "I got medication for that. Also my therapist." He shook his head. "Look Ford, I've been thinking a lot, since I saw the Island that Xin built."

Ford blinked. "Huh?"

"Like, I knew the awful stuff was happenin' in the world, and I didn't do anything ta stop it. Even though I could. I could have smashed those camps down with a giant robot and freed the children. I could've built a giant robot to stop people from leaving their homes to make 'em stick to quarantine. I could have made a giant robot to kidnap Shlump and demand he changes his policies."

"I'm noticing this is mostly just giant robots." Ford deadpanned.

"The point is, I needed to stop being like 'I could have done something' and start actually DOING things." Fiddleford said calmly. "And if I have to use giant robots to do so, that's fine." He gave Ford a cheeky grin. "Gotta play to my strengths, as it were."

Ford rubbed his face. "I-It's not that I don't trust you...I do! But...I don't know…" He rubbed his arm and looked away, grumbling. "And maybe I'll miss you working with me…" There. He fucking said it.

Fiddleford chuckled. "Aw shucks, I'll miss you too old friend. But this ain't gonna be forever. And you bet I'm gonna be continuing my research in between that politically stuff." He shrugged. "I may not be a politician, but I did help run a fairly successful research center, with plenty of different people and opinions and such to mediate."

Ford smiled. "Well, I don't know if you'll win, but I know I'll be voting for you."

The two hugged. Fiddleford was a little sad to leave. But this was something important.

Something he had to do.

Ford went back to his work once Yun told him she could handle the newborns on her own. He supposed he should trust her in that, and it wasn't like the kids were his, so he didn't really have a responsibility for them.

He did need her help on his newest weather-altering device later. Just to have her check his work. If Fiddleford wasn't here anymore, he needed to find another person he could trust to look over his work. Without Yun here though, he had to stand up and come back and it took so long! Suddenly, his brain clicked and he had an idea! His portal watch! Oh, he ALSO needed to continue developing this. He wanted to create his own portals, safe and all that!

He did think it was too dangerous to commercialize it without safety features hardwired and unhackable put in place. He hated to admit Blue was right about anything, but the demon's paranoia was on point. He actually liked Yun's idea, of her Delivery Service teleporting packages to whichever location was closest to where it had to be. Perhaps… something like that, but for people? Like bus stops that also could bring you to the other bus stops? He could hardwire limits on distance into the new portals, and even if someone hacked it, it wouldn't be able to go any further, or teleport people to anywhere that isn't just another teleporter that was part of the same 'line of transit' as it were?

He worked long into the day, calling up a few of the other mechanics in the Center to double check some parts. He would bring his notes to Yun later for her to check over as well. And if Fiddleford had time, he would bring some to his old friend for the final check.

Ford played with his portal watch. It didn't have any limits like his new design. Which made it rather dangerous if used improperly. Not that Ford used it all that much. He was rather wary around portals, despite (or because of?) everything he'd been through. It was useful, but he just never really used it. Ford pressed a button to open a portal back to his room. He… was going to try and actually use it more. It would be rather stupid to make teleporters for replacing cars if he wasn't willing to use them himself.

He stepped through and blinked at the scene before him.

Yun was rocking Acedia in her arms, the little girl was wailing and screaming. "It's ok, you're going to be fine. I know, I know, it was very mean of Avaritia to punch you like that, I'm sure he didn't mean to…"

"Is something bad going on?"

Yun looked up. "Oh, well, while they were napping, Avaritia flailed about and punched his sister in the face. She's… very upset." Yun sighed, stroking the girl's brown hair.

Ford chuckled a bit. "Oh I'm sure it was an accident, Elizabeth." Ford took her tiny fisted hand and gently massaged her 6 tiny fingers. "There, there. Don't give your mom more work, I need to do science with her as well, you know?" Acedia sniffled and looked up. Daddy! She gurgled softly, slowly calming down.

"Aww~ thanks Fordsie~" Yun smiled, bouncing the infant in her arms. "Well look at'cha. Portal travelling like a space adventurer~" she leaned over to nuzzle Ford.

Ford smiled and leaned to the touch. "I was just fiddling with my watch, wouldn't want it to get damaged by disuse."

"So clever~" Yun batted her eyes at him. Ford chuckled. "Now you're just teasing me."

"Eh~ I like when you tell me how pretty I am, you like being told how smart you are." Yun shrugged as she tucked Acedia back in, farther away from her brother this time. She didn't seem so happy with that decision, judging by her look, the infant was thirsty for revenge. Yun poked Acedia's nose. "Nope, no hitting your sibling back. You may discuss your grievances with him later."

"They're too young for that." Ford laughed.

"Pffth~ they can't speak aloud, but that doesn't mean they can't communicate." Yun lowered herself to lean her head against the baby bed. She just watched the children with half closed eyes. Ford squatted down beside her. "What do you see that I don't?" he asked.

"They're thinking so loud. They're so curious about everything." Yun said with a peaceful look. "Well, they're dreaming now, but it's… it's all concepts and feelings and sounds with no meaning." she reached out to stroke Invidia's cheek. "It's lovely."

Ford watched his partner stare at her children, utterly enraptured by whatever it was she could see. He realized then, that Yun experienced things very different from a human. She could feel and see and hear things that a human like him would never fully understand. And the children, were they going to do that as well?

Whatever it was, he had decided he wanted to help, he just hoped he would actually be helpful to them. Small things he'd noticed so far was that the children were very sensitive to sounds and light. The lights couldn't be too bright or they would start to cry. And music with bass beats made them cry too. Yun mentioned that the vibrations hurt. Apparently she was sensitive to bass as well, though she'd gotten used to it over the years.

Ford had modified the lightbulbs in the house, just as he'd invented the other light bulb (which… now that he thought about it, he should patent and sell), to make a bulb that could have it's brightness adjusted. It wasn't a heat-type bulb, so you could touch it without issue. And stroking down the bulb would lower the brightness. It still made your skin softer.

"Well, what are they dreaming about now?" Ford asked, keeping his voice soft. Yun rested her head on the bed, leaning over sideways. "Lines, squiggles. Colors. Warmth." she paused. "Happy."

"...that's a good thing, yes?"

"Yeah." Yun smiled again. "Pyrone used to dream of sounds. When he was a baby." she commented, sounding wistful.

"Is dreaming so young something alien kids do? I thought babies started dreaming around 2." Ford commented with a hum.

"Lots of species out there develop quickly. For survival's sake. You humans are the outlier here. You take so long to reach maturity. And then you need the rest of your lives to continue developing." she sighed. "You're changing all the time, reinventing yourselves everyday. And most of you don't even realize it. You think you know who and what you are, but you're always changing. And if you don't, you stagnate. So very fascinating."

Ford blinked. "Is… this not normal?"

"Normal isn't a thing. Higher percentage of a thing being more common, sure. But normal changes depending on the situation. I still get that mixed up sometimes. Keep wanting to know what's normal or not. But that's not how that works…"

"Ah… huh?" Ford noticed she hadn't actually answered him. Yun sighed, straightening up. "Most species out there will reach maturity and remain more or less the same from that point on. Any changes that can happen, any growth, only happens if they live past the natural lifespan of their species. Or if something super drastic happens to them."

"...well, I don't see how that's a problem?" Ford said slowly.

"It's not. Not… really." Yun seemed to be thinking about something. "But it makes it hard to deal with people sometimes." Ford reached his hand up and around, wrapping around her. "Are you worried about which kind the kids are going to be?"

"I don't know what I want from them." Yun admitted. "I wanted them so much. But I didn't really think about what I would do once I got them."

"Guess we'll see when we get there," Ford said simply. Yun smiled a bit. "Hey mr. traveller~ Why don't you bring me something yummy from the kitchen? Surprise me." she poked his nose.

Ford rolled his eyes, but anything to use his watch. "Alright." He disappeared and seconds later, Yun heard Abuelita screaming and Sixer rapidly apologising for startling her. She had to muffle her laughter. Ah, silly man.

-.-

Fiddleford hired a campaign manager. Because he didn't really know much about politics. The robot strategy was good and his basic knowledge dealing with crazies, but some extra help was always good.

His campaign manager was… very afraid of all the robot spiders everywhere.

But he was a nice enough man. Not that his efforts to get Fiddleford the attention he needed for his campaign was all that good, considering the memes circulating the internet about Fiddleford riding a robot and screaming about how he was offering robot spiders to anyone and everyone did way more to spread the word.

Anyway, the reason why Fiddleford called the guy up right now was because he needed… a test subject. And since Fiddleford wasn't sure if he was allowed to go to the Center to set up clinical testing anymore, he had to ask his manager what avenues were open to him.

"Er… well, you can get some volunteers. But sir, where are you going to get the power needed for these… tests you want to run? This equipment is… insane."

Fiddleford frowned. Yes, that was an issue. "I'll figure it out."

He wanted to create a 'cure' or at the very least, a vaccine. Use that as part of his campaign. Not that he was going to withhold the treatment. But if he was made president, he'd be able to get the treatment to everyone.

That's what he wanted.

To help people.

...would be nice if he had access to more electricity to keep his machines running though.

It always took awhile to get the octuplets tucked into bed. They fussed and complained and cried when they weren't close enough to each other. And they also had issues if certain ones were beside others. There was an order to it, of who liked being near someone else and so on. It was something that Ford and Yun had noticed about them, but sometimes, remembering was hard and Ford watched Yun struggle with it all, even with her powers, since she couldn't soothe them all at the same time.

"Here, I'll help." Ford offered, holding Acedia Elizabeth and Luxuria Florence to himself. He awkwardly tried to rock them so they'd calm down, but the babies were cranky and unsoothable, so he quickly finished dressing them up in their pajama onesies and put them to bed, carefully placing the blanket over them. "Here you go, your siblings are right over here. It'll be ok." he brushed their hair back and they fussed a little before settling as he continued brushing their hair. Hm. In this way, they were very much like their mother, Ford noted.

"See? They're being good babies and daddy's petting them. So if you behave and go to sleep, daddy will pet you too." Yun coo'ed at the others. She managed to get Gula and the twins settled. Invidia was kicking at his blankets and escaping his tucked in position. "Invidia, you need your blankets to be warm." Yun laughed. Though she tucked him in less snugly, in case he didn't like being a burrito.

Ford snorted softly. "Hey...can we talk?" He finally asked after all the babies were asleep. Yun tensed a little, worry flickering across her expression before it was gone and she looked perfectly calm. Ford sighed. "It's not a bad talk. Just an important one." he saw the way her shoulders relaxed. "Come on," Ford sat down on his bed, patting the space beside him.

Yun sat down, and after a moment, scooted over to press against his side. "What's this about' Fordsie?"

"I love you. You know that, yes?" Ford started. Yun nodded. Ford relaxed a little himself. "Ok." he ran a hand through his hair before he moved his arm to wrap around Yun's waist, leaning against her. "I just wanted to tell you that you referring to me as their dad…"

Yun shifted from side to side. "It bothers you? I can stop."

Ford looked around the room. "Well, yes, it makes me a little uncomfortable. But not… not… it's… it's complicated...I really love them you know...but I just wanted to remind you I...I wanted to take this slow...so...when...I can't deal with them at some point or...or I'm not as close to them… I don't want you feeling bad or worrying about why I am not with them."

Yun nodded slowly. "Oh...yeah...You-You did tell me..."

Ford looked at her "I want to be part of their lives, but when they're this young, I can't… handle it most of the time. It's too overwhelming. I just...wanted to tell you that I'm taking this very slow and carefully for now, and while I don't mind being called 'dad'... I think it carries responsibilities I can't yet assume...and I don't want you to feel disappointed when I don't and can't meet those expectations. I'm sorry."

Yun placed a hand on his shoulder. "Hey! You don't have to apologize! I totally get it!" She hugged his muscled arm. "Thank you for trying so hard...I know you'd feel more confident about this once they're older…"

Ford sighed. "Well, as bad as it makes me sound… yes." he was being honest with himself. He couldn't handle babies and young children. He didn't trust himself to be able to instill in them the basic foundations for what they'd need to build up who they would become once they were older. Heck, Shifty didn't… turn out all that… good. Ford didn't have that much time with Shifty to mess him up, and yet, he still turned out evil. (Which might be some nature versus nurture thing but Ford didn't want to take any chances. Bill was… very strange, and Ammy was even more so, but there wasn't a malicious bone/block(?) in Ammy's body and Ford took that as a good sign of Bill's parenting skills.)

He ran a hand through his hair. "I love them, Yun. They-they're really precious…" he couldn't help but think of when he was holding one of the tiniest babies mere minutes ago, to tuck them into bed. "It's just that, I don't trust myself with them yet, with their well being, or the important things you need to do with little babies… I don't want to be responsible for...for messing them up." The man grimaced faintly, he looked so troubled. "I...That doesn't mean I don't want to see them...I-I just...I feel guilty...being-being unable to do more...or...not helping you with them...and I don't want you to feel bad again about my actions…Sorry I have to tell you this again." he mumbled.

Yun shook her head. "No, feel free to keep on telling me something over and over, I'm stubborn, it takes a while for certain things to stick." she sighed. "And, it's ok. I was a little sad at first, but your feelings on this matter are important too." She wrapped an arm around his waist, mirroring the way he was half hugging her. "That's what we need these talks for. I don't know what you need from me. I can guess most of the time, but having you put it into words is helpful." she smiled at him. "Don't worry, I won't get mad if you can't deal with them, or can't be a 'dad' for them. Having the kids was my decision. You don't have any obligations to be part of this if you're not okay with it."

Ford smiled and leaned down to kiss her forehead, making Yun flush. "Let's move to another room or we'll wake the kids." Yun gasped and nodded. The couple made their way out of this side room that Yun built for the babies and back to Ford's room right next to it. Yun put a bed in there (which they'd been sitting on) for napping so she'd be near them in case they woke up in the middle of the day.

And as soon as the door closed, Yun practically jumped Ford. He stumbled and the two fell onto his bed. Ford looked down to the top of Yun's head. She had her face buried in his chest, purring loudly. He laughed. "...you want cuddles?" he asked.

"Yes~" Yun continuously rubbed her face against his chest, burying her fingers in Ford's hair as she clung onto him. Ford happily obliged. He secretly enjoyed the way Yun purred. The sound was different in her different forms, and part of him wanted to study it. He'd heard that cat purrs can help with healing, so would Yun's purring do something similar?

A yawn escaped his lips. The study could wait. A nice nap sounded great right now.

Yun wasn't in the mood to sleep though, and just laid on his chest. "Do you think Max would want me to put him in a different vessel? One that's a full Eix Leel? His Soul's stable enough now that I could move him without hurting him more?" He had gotten his hearing aids recently and just thinking what and who left him with that disability made her blood boil. She may have spared the lives of those fucking idiots, but she was always two steps away from just going right back and raining her fury upon them all. It was taking all her self control to not do so. (All she needed was a push, just one little bit of an indication that she would be allowed to do so, and she would do it.)

Ford opened his eyes. "I don't know...Max sees the world very differently. Ask him."

"...I will." Yun lazily trailed a finger along Ford's face, tracing his jawline and rubbing along the cute little cleft on his chin. "But I… I can't keep interfering in your world… It's not mine to change…" She confessed. She didn't intend to tell him everything she heard from the local Ax, he didn't have to worry. He didn't have to know how fragile Sebastian's life was.

"What do you mean?"

"Ehhh uncle Ax got annoyed at me." Yun complained.

"Because you're interfering with his plans for this dimension with your sole existence and he wants you to stop creating things?" Ford guessed. Yun nodded and Ford shrugged. "I expected that. Well, in that case…" He grinned mischievously and stroked her upper pair of arms "Maybe limit your powers to only making deals with people, that way it's not YOU wanting to interfere, but someone else's intentions!"

"Hm. I was supposed to be avoiding Deals, but I suppose if I'm extra careful with the terms, and make it clear they're not a 'forever' duration, I could…" Yun wiggled to settle more comfortably on top of Ford, mmm he was so broad, so much room to lie on.

"Is there a problem with making Deals? I thought you loved making Deals?"

"Well, I can be affected by them too. I thought I was careful enough, but… it would be kinda scary if I fucked up." she grimaced. "Like if I got bound again. I might just explode from stress."

Ford looked at her. "An appropriately scary thought." He finally said, looking mildly horrified which only made Yun laugh out loud. "Please don't explode? ...For me?" Ford pouted and Yun just laughed harder. "Where did you learn that pleading face?! Did Seb teach you?!"

"...Maybe." He continued pouting. Yun giggled, laying her head down on him. "I don't plan on exploding. But I can't promise it would never happen. The potential is there. It's something I have to keep in mind. I have to avoid binding circles, or any sort of binding."

"If you ever got caught by anyone, I'll break you free." Ford told her.

"...what if that means you'd need to kill them?" Yun whispered.

"You're my partner. I'd protect you." Ford promised.

"And if that meant you'd have to kill someone?" Yun pressed. "Look, just saying, I won't judge. I mean, I kill people to protect those I care about all the time. Ok, not all the time, like… most of the time, majority?"

Ford blinked. "Yes." Yun whipped her head to stare at him, Ford almost shivered at how intense that look was. "Yes, you would kill for me?" she tested the words in her mouth.

Ford stared at her. He had had to kill in Space, to protect himself and Stanley. "If someone tried to hurt you, I'd kill for you."

Yun didn't take her eyes off him. "Killing to protect your family is one thing, but you'd really kill for me ?" she wanted him to confirm it, fully. Ford was going to sigh, but he saw how serious she was about this. Did his verbal confirmation really mean that much to her? "Yes." he breathed, placing a hand on her chin and running his thumb along her jawline and kissed her cheek, very close to her lips. "I would kill to protect you."

Yun relaxed. Kill to protect, not just kill in general. That… was good. She smiled so wide her cheeks hurt. "I love you." she declared, once more, again, always, as many times as she wanted. As many times as it would take to tell him how happy he made her. She purred, pressing close against his throat, raising her head to rub along his chin. "I love you. I love you so much." her hands clung to him, twining through his hair, fisted into his sweater, gripping his arm, caressing his face. "Mineminemineminemine-" she didn't seem to realize she was saying that aloud.

"Only if you're mine as well." Ford took it in stride. His partner was a demon-god, she was just like that sometimes.

"Mine~ and yours~" She giggled. Her eyes were nearly blazing with her joy. She was also… heating up. Ford blinked. Oh, was this also doing that energy surge thing? He saw how her eyes were glowing faintly, the steam coming out as she breathed. The hands clinging to him were beginning to get a little uncomfortable, too hot.

"Gotta… take.. energy!" Ford struggled to reach his nightstand where his portable reactor sat. He clicked it on and pressed it to her forehead, making her blink. "It's very convenient." Ford noted, "Having one here." he should make more and leave them around the house, and the Center. Just in case.

Yun pouted up at the object blocking some of her vision. "Make 'em smaller." she complained. "I can't see your adorable face."

Ford laughed. "Well I can see yours~ That's all that matters~" He was very intelligent when it came to obtaining free energy from Yun. But seriously, with the rate he was getting these storage-cards charged up, he might be able to more than make up for the failed perpetual motion machine- Ford blinked. Then he looked down at his partner.

He'd built his perpetual motion machine as a way to make clean infinite energy. And here, right now… he was holding infinite energy in his arms.

The man who changed the world.

Well, this certainly wasn't how he'd envisioned doing it, but… Ford wasn't against this approach to it either. Feeling a little mischievous, he noted. "You're beautiful when you're flustered."

Yun yipped and Ford watched the storage charge fully. Nice~

-.-

Max shook his phone a little to adjust the camera. "Sooo how does voting work? Do I have to?"

"It's not obligatory but you should vote for McGucket!" Mabel smiled at him through the camera.

"Yeah, but voting sounds exhausting...Is the president not chosen by the Gods… your God, already?"

Mabel grimaced. "God no. Ew. We decide who we want as the leader every 4 years."

Max huffed and unbraided his hair. "Again. Exhausting. Sounds very disorganized and chaotic." Mabel hummed and couldn't help but agree a little.

McGucket's campaign has continued. And to everyone's surprise, it was going… really well.

They'd never seen a third party candidate get this much support since Ross Perot. Another third party participating was this rapper guy, who was banking on his popularity getting him votes! Mabel thought he'd have more support but McGucket was destroying them all!

Apparently giant robots really worked for a campaign?

Max sighed and shook his head quickly, making his growing hair puff up. "I don't get it…" He pouted. Human politics were weird.

There was a knock on the door. Mabel blinked. She peered close to her Screen as Max went to open his bedroom door.

And there was Miz, wiggling in place and looking worried about something. "Great dragon? What is it?" Max asked.

Mabel blinked. "I'll call later, babe, I think you two gotta talk." Max looked down at the screen as the Zuum call ended and then he looked up at the dragon.

Miz took a deep breath. She'd been putting this off, since she was a little afraid to talk about it. And heck, she felt guilty enough with just regrowing Max's tail without asking him first. But she was worried about his spinal damage and had just wanted to heal him. But… shapeshifting him back into his true form wouldn't work as well as simply regrowing his tail. The Curse was embedded inside him. It would simply force him to painfully transform back into his human form, and Miz didn't want him having to feel his scales fall off again.

His tail was unaffected because the Curse didn't mess with it, hence why the bitches had to physically cut it off. And frankly, Miz still didn't know if moving Max into a new body would trick the curse or not, but it was something she would ask Max about.

"Hey Max, um… you know… how I… have the power to change and shift things?" Miz started. "Well, your Soul is finally recovered from the damage of the Curse activating the first time, so I think I can actually move you into a new body, that looks like your old one, though the DNA would be entirely different since I have to try and trick the Curse so it wouldn't activate again. And… I just wanted to ask you if you would want to risk that?"

"What do you mean? Can't you just change me back?" Max watched Miz sit down on the bed next to him and she shook her head. "Not with the curse as it is, the thing would just 'turn you human' again if I merely changed the parts of your body that it affects." Miz winced.

"But I can give you a new body, just like it used to look like! I… don't know if that would work, but since it wouldn't be your body anymore, there's a chance the Curse would be confused and not activate."

Max rubbed his arm, feeling his tanned skin and the little hairs growing on it. "But...this is my body…" Max hugged his tail. "It looks weird and small and not scaley, but moving to another body? Like a spirit?" He shook his head. "This is my body, this was made for me, by the Gods, how could I reject it?" He laid back. "I know it looks bad, and it shouldn't look like this, the Queen and the priestesses were...ugh…"

"Bitches? Disgusting, cruel, monsters that deserve to be annihilated?" Miz tried, eyes glistening. Max's own looked horrified.

"-abusive. And changed it. But the thought of wearing a body that's not mine, and that was made by magic feels horrible and I don't want that." Max concluded. Miz winced. "...Why would a body made by magic feel horrible to you?" She wasn't protesting his decision, she just wanted to know, because maybe, just maybe he was confused and she could explain it in another way, and he'd accept.

Max smiled at her, showing her his hands with black nails. "We are alive to work for the Gods. Our bodies grow in the soil, and join back to the soil, the Gods own them, it's all in them. Every single trait we're born with, our work and abilities are given to us to work and live and honour them. Who am I to throw away their body, even if it was cursed, for an unnatural one? One that wasn't born and was never part of their natural cycle?" He looked down, looking very awkward. "I admire you, Great Dragon, and I want to honour you as the respectable creature you are...but you're not one of my Gods…" He winced hard. "I'm sorry, you making me a body does not feel right." Despite everything he had gone through, Max was incredibly faithful to his Gods, he was a very religious boy.

Miz had a pained look. And then she leaned in and hugged Max. "You're too good for them. They don't deserve you." she sighed. "I love you so much, Max." Baby, her darling baby. Max hugged her back. Warmth~

She finally let go with a sigh. "Alright. Well… if there's anything I can help with, for your condition, or anything else, please ask.

"I will, Great Dragon." Max bowed his head a little. The boy watched the Great Dragon leave his room and he sighed. He picked up his phone and again and looked for Mabel's name. "Hey Mabel I think I'm finally ready to tell you about what happened that day." He was going to accept what happened. He was not taking Miz's offer, so he'd do the best he could with his own body. Mabel liked him either way (Max thought that was the most important thing, being accepted regardless of what he now looked like) and...it didn't feel as weird as it did before.

Mabel's response was almost immediate. "I'm listening."

Fiddleford was very proud of himself and how he was doing. Shlump didn't seem too happy about a SECOND possible rival, he kept using Tweeter to post shit and claimed that if he didn't win, it meant it was fraud.

He seemed to not understand Fiddleford McGucket was from the SOUTH. From a very conservative Christian and rural family. Fiddleford KNEW how to talk to those people too. He wasn't stupid. And he knew what to say to make them get around to accepting what he was saying. Was it manipulative? Yeah, but he was already going around in a giant robot, so he was just going all the way.

He was so ready for this! And he got to use his robots! Oh he had missed this so much!

However, despite how he was on board with this, he still hadn't addressed his initial problem. There was no cure for Corvid yet. Which meant he would have to do it himself. His previous issues were still here, being able to test out potential cures. (A vaccine was good and all, but only if enough people ACTUALLY vaccinated against it, which, from what he's seen, was going to be the issue. So if relying on vaccines wasn't going to work, he would have to create a better treatment to help heal and cure the unfortunate people who got sick.) The issue was energy, he didn't have enough to power his experiments. But he'd gotten a message from Ford the other day about how he'd gotten another fully filled battery of his partner's energy and had her permission to give them out for use. So Ford had given one to Fiddleford.

And as Fiddleford turned the battery around in his hands, he was struck with inspiration.

He pulled out some paper to begin jotting down his thoughts. A blueprint was forming in his mind. It was something he'd been considering, but hadn't been able to do due to the high energy expenditure it would require, but if Ford was right, they had all the energy they could ever want here, for free, for him to use to power anything he wanted to build, to run his equipment. So… he was going to take advantage of that to work on a little something he'd wanted to do for a long time.

(Several months later)

"Wow. That crazy bastard really did it." Seb stared at the news.

The headline, [Presidential candidate McGucket releases cure for Corvid-19] was… well, frankly, pretty amazing.

"This cure doesn't have any chemicals, apparently." Wanda said, reading the news. Because it was mechanical in nature. Didn't require injection. You breathed it in, the nano-machines clung on and did their work, and then they were breathed back out over the course of a few days when the machines ran out of power and shut down. They would run out of power eventually anyway, so there was no fear of them remaining inside your body, they were light and non-metal and would be breathed out easily. They were even biodegradable so even if they were stuck in your lungs, they would just harmlessly break down and your own body would just absorb the remains with no issue. At least, that was what the news was saying.

Seb hummed. "If Glasses manages to convince our Karen neighbor, it means he could convince any idiot in the country to vaccinate!"

Wanda nodded at him. "That would be good."

"I'm gonna try!" Seb exclaimed. Wanda reached her arm lazily to stop him, but of course it didn't work. He ran up to the window and shouted, making everyone wince. "YO, CAROL! HAVE YOU SEEN THE NEWS? YOU CAN PROTECT YOURSELF FROM THIS NEW FLU WITHOUT A VACCINE!"

Carol poked her head out of the window before huffing and going out. She came outside without a mask and stood in the middle of the road. "What the heck do you want?!"

"Hey, stay right there until a car passes, please!" Seb crowed at her through the window. "Seb!" Wanda shouted and smacked his shoulder, making the once again brunet laugh maniacally (no hairdresser meant no cute hair dye, and he didn't trust Miz not to turn his hair some weird color just for fun).

Carol huffed and stomped to the sidewalk. Seb glared at Wanda for ruining his chance. "I said! You can protect yourself from getting corvid without a vaccine!" he repeated. "So now you've got no excuse not to get treated!"

"Vaccines don't protect you from anything anyway you dumbass!" Carol sneered.

"But this is not a vaccine! It's a cure and it's special! Is based on the magical properties of essential oils~~~ And it's helped by super cool technology!" Seb cackled.

Wanda just sighed, knowing that the 'essential oils part was unrelated to the cure itself. It was just part of Fiddleford's very intelligent marketing strategy, while being only a placebo. Like telling people that putting a potato against a shot would suck out the toxins or something. The thing you breathed in the nano-machines with was in the form of those essential oil room diffusers, flavored with essential oils, but only a tiny bit, because getting actual oils into your lungs was actually bad for you, and it was really stupid how much people kept giving themselves lipoid pneumonia from breathing in too much 'essential oil' candles and room sprays and it was just annoying, but if people believed something so strongly, even if it was a lie, well, Fiddleford was going to have to work AROUND it. Essentially, you could insert a package of the 'cure' that Fiddleford created into any diffuser or even just boil it in a pot of water and breathe it in.

And all while the vaccines were still being made. So Wanda was very excited and hopeful for the future. Fiddleford might be weird, but she had to admit he was a genius (Ugh, like Ford was a dumbass and was still a genius).

"I still don't trust him! He might be putting chips on us!" Carol sneered.

"What the fuck? This is literally made for fuckers like you! And the damn things melt away, there's no way for there to be any chips! Vote for McGucket you dumb wig wearer! Your goddamn smartphone already has chips in it! AND that ridiculous computerized refrigerator you kept bragging all over your social media about!"

"You were stalking me online?!" Carol gasped. Seb rolled his eye. "No, but I follow Melissa so I end up seeing your posts sometimes." he shrugged. "But you want me to follow you, don't you? You want me to see your ugly selfies and unfunny minion posts~?" Seb purred, making his voice unintentionally raspy as he was biting his lip and making sexy looks.

"URGHH WHAT THE FUCK YOU DRAG QUEEN?!"

"Gasp!" Seb fluttered his long eyelashes, "Did you call me a QUEEN? Thank you! I didn't know you liked that art!"

"FUCK YOU!"

"HAH! In your fucking dreams, bitch!" Sebastian laughed, putting a hand to his crotch and sticking his tongue out.

(Not that Carol could see that through the window.)

Wanda rolled her eyes, exasperated, and just left the two to scream at each other. She couldn't deal right now. She guessed their theory wasn't true. Nothing could change Carol's opinions. She still believed Fiddleford's plan would convince a lot more of people though. The biotechnology used was well documented with Fiddleford's updates over the past several months, and best of all, it was already tested while the vaccines were still in development. This was a CURE. Fiddleford had gotten a lot of volunteers, who were already in the hospital and sick with the virus. They were open to any experimental treatment, since most doctors had already told them there was nothing they could do except waiting for them to either survive or die. So Fiddleford's experimental cure was welcome. And when those patients started improving- well, at that point, everyone wanted to volunteer and test it out too.

And, like some miracle, they all showed signs of improvement. And even shocked the doctors with their full recovery. But the thing was, Fiddleford's Cure healed the damage from the virus, it couldn't fully eradicate the virus itself. The people still had remnants of the virus in them and still had to be quarantined until their bodies managed to flush them out of their system. But it was saving lives and bringing some people back from the brink.

Miz observed Seb and Carol insult each other before she placed a hand on Zach and Zoe and said, "Come on guys, let's go watch some Minecraft Manhunt videos." before steering the two of them away so they didn't have to listen to this anymore. It was very creepy. But as long as Seb didn't go outside to throw hands, it was all good. Max had been more clever and turned off his hearing aid a while ago.

Miz took the kids back to their shared room and sighed. Stupid Carol and her pent up thirst for a man to pay attention to her. Seb was just giving her what she wanted couldn't he see? Why couldn't she try someone else? Anyone else? Just 'cause her husband worked all the time, and even took extra hours just to have an excuse to stay away from her because he couldn't actually stand her… (and the quarantine forcing him to have to be around Carol 24/7… she actually worried for the poor man.)

"Miz?" Zach pulled on her sleeve after the minecraft video ended. "Can we bring Amanda over?" Miz sighed. "No, not until we've all gotten the vaccine, once it's available." at the sad look on Zach's face, Miz smiled mischievously. "But~ we can test out that cup and string thing Zoe wanted to make."

"Yes!" Zoe cheered. She'd seen it in an anime (The Pledged Everland) and wanted to try it out. "But I wanna finish the season first!" they hadn't finished watching yet after all. Zach passed a lump in his throat at the memory of that terrifying show, and laughed awkwardly. "I...I think I'm gonna go play with Max."

The girls watched him walk off before turning to each other and shrugging.

Zoe tugged at Miz's hands as they watched the anime. "How are your babies? I wanna see them!" The little girl pouted. Miz ruffled her hair. "They're doing fine! And growing weally big! They're gonna be as tall as you soon~!" Zoe laughed and pushed her away. "No! They're still super tiny! I'll be taller forever!" Miz hummed. "Well, your uncle is way taller and they're alien babies, they'll probably be taller than you."

Zoe whined. She wanted to be the tallest! She was taller than Diego and Zach! It must remain that way!

Zach had found Max on the couch (a spot the young man had claimed as his own) as he looked at his phone. Ford was upset Max had moved on from books for PHONES, but he guessed that was something teens did nowadays. Zach poked his head under Max's arm and cuddled with him. Max glanced down at him and smiled. "Hey there." he greeted the great dragon's sibling. (And also mister Sebastian's son.)

"Watcha doing? The girls are watching scary stuff and I don't wanna." Zach explained. "I'm reading a story Mabel sent me." Zach glanced at Max's phone. "Can I read it too?!"

Max stopped for a second, blinked, glanced down at his phone before looking up. "No. I'd get in trouble. This is not for kids, I don't want Mr. Seb sending me to the corner."

Zach huffed so he simply laid there on Max's belly as the green haired boy used him as an arm supporter. "Then who am I supposed to play with?" Zach complained. Max chuckled. "Well… Mr. Seb is still with that Carol lady, yes?"

Zach could still hear them downstairs, he nodded. Max glanced off to the side. "Well, miss Wanda could use some company, perhaps?" Zach's face lit up. Yes! He could go play with mommy! He rolled off Max's belly (making the older boy a little sad because his source of heat was leaving) and ran off through the house to find Wanda. He found his mommy on her laptop and she looked up when he came in. "Hey Zach, what's up?" she smiled.

"Miz and Zoe are watching scary things. So I wanna play with you instead." Zach climbed on the bed and snuggled with his mommy, who dragged him even closer and kissed his soft forehead. "I'm busy right now, but you can keep me company and then we play."

"Deal!" Zach reached for his daddy's tablet and laid there watching cartoons. Wanda ruffled his curls fondly. Her baby. Even more baby when he fell asleep, sucking his thumb. Wanda carefully pulled the finger out, (bad Seb habit), and pulled the blanket over him. She really hoped this whole global crisis ended soon. She didn't like how sad her kids looked, forced to stay inside, she really wanted this to be over, she wanted people to stop dying so much, she was so tired of seeing so many people being so selfish! And she wanted it to be safe, so her babies could go out and see their friends again…

Wanda stroked Zach's curls. "Let's just hope your Uncle Fiddleford can solve this soon, baby…"

At one point, Yun got incredibly depressed, she was only feeding the babies with the bottles and was barely carrying them around like she normally did. Ford wasn't sure what happened, until he managed to get her to admit that Blue had dropped in for a visit. And Ford just wanted to punch that damn demon. But he couldn't get to where Blue was, and just focused on helping Yun feel better, assuring her that she was loved and fuck Blue if he made her feel otherwise.

It took a while to get her smiling again, Ford worried about her mental health, and requested that she have a session with Linda more often.

-.-

Ford decided that since everyone at the Center tested negative, and they were all quarantining, it would be safe enough to bring the octuplets to work. So, when he was sure they were awake enough, he took them with Yun to the center for everyone to meet. At some point the local news team (Shandra and Bodacious T.) came, not missing a chance to look at the cuties. Of course they stayed far away, wearing masks and just squealed at the babies from a distance. Ford didn't know how the entire town knew about the babies, but they did.

Ford was grinning widely despite all this, being in a good mood. He had woken up early to do a much softer training routine he learnt from Stan while lost between dimensions. As he got back in shape, he would go harder.

It was when the news were leaving that a high pitched scream almost broke the windows of every house in a 10km radius. "UNCLE FORD!" A teen in pink squealed. Mabel ran up and tackled the man, nearly slamming him into the ground. Yun laughed at the stunned look on his face. She was still wearing one of his turtlenecks, they had cuddled together to sleep last night and Ford decided he liked seeing her in his clothes.

"Mabel?! Six feet! Six feet!" Ford gasped. Mabel squealed as she squeezed the life out of her uncle. In Ford's mind, he wasn't sure if he really was THAT feeble or if his niece was simply unusually strong. She had the tackle of a professional football player. She would knock Stan's entire team out.

"It's fine uncle Ford. I tested negative, and I've been wearing these double filter masks just to be safe!"

Mabel let go (to Ford's gasping relief) and stared at the eight babies in a little carriage that Yun created. "I will say, that does make me feel somewhat better." Ford fixed his glasses.

"Aw~look at them all~" Mabel cooed. She saw them over Zuum, sure, but this was different! She glanced up at Yun "Mad respect yo." Yun muffled her laughter behind her hand. "Thanks." Ford rolled his eyes. He had to take them out of her. People should be praising him . But whatever. "Hello to you Mabel." Ford chuckled. "Did you really come all the way here just to meet the babies?"

"Oh it's not just me. Dip Dot is still parking the car! Hehe, I convinced him to ditch classes. Not like he was getting much work done anyway." Mabel grinned. "Oh, my dad told me to tell you that you're insane."

Ford deadpanned. "Alright." Mabel cooed at the babies again. She put her face too close to the one in a pink onesie and he whined, smacking her right in the nose with his little hand. "That's Invidia Isaac Lin-Pines." Ford introduced them. "The one in purple in Luxuria Florence. The one in green is Ira Amelia. The red one is Gula Marie, the turquoise is Acedia Rosalind, the blue one is Avaritia Nicholas and these two little ones are Vanagloria Jane and Superbia Emmy." Ford concluded.

Mabel blinked at the names. "Eh… she really went with them, for reals?" Ford sighed. "Yun did." Yun placed her hands on her hips "It's called theme naming! It's what you do with twins!" Ford groaned. "But why the sins? Couldn't you have done the seven virtues or something?"

Yun huffed, offended. "Because the virtues sound stupid! Seriously! It's Humanitas and Humilitas! Like...what even?!" She crossed her arms. "And what other seven themed things was I supposed to go with? The labors of Herakles?!"

Ford couldn't help but snort loudly. Mabel raised a hand. "Maybe flowers! Eh? Would you have liked to be named after a cute, widdle flower, Invidia? You're a little pretty baby." She squeezed his chubby cheek. Invidia tilted his head to the side and put a fist in his mouth to suck on it. Mabel squealed again. "Why are they so cute?! I think I'm gonna faint! Can I carry one?!"

"Not if you're going to faint." Ford frowned. "Ok I won't faint." The young woman grabbed the blue baby and carried him. "Hello~" Avaritia blinked at the human carrying him. Mommy and daddy weren't making a fuss so she must be safe. He reached out to pull on her nose. "Uwu…" Mabel squealed "Awww~"

That's when Acedia whimpered. She was hungry. She looked around to see mommy and reached up for her. "Ahh…" She whined. Yun felt the 'hunger' and cooed at her daughter. "Ok, let's go to daddy's lab so you can drink some yummy milk ok?" She may have been blocking out her emotional sense, but she opened it back up for her babies. As a mother, she wanted and needed to know how they were feeling. Plus, their emotions were pretty simple right now, so she could easily filter it out.

Mabel cooed when Yun took the carriage with her and disappeared into the Center. Ford and Mabel stood alone in the lobby and she hugged him tightly. Ford raised an eyebrow. "I'm so happy for you Uncle Ford...now I've got 3 aunts! Even if one is an alien who is secretly another Bill." She lowered her voice to whisper that part. "As your favorite niece, I get dibs on spoiling them but with the virus thing I didn't have time to knit little sweaters for them yet because I don't have all the colors I need! Are the kids color coded? They looked color coded. I can make the sweaters color coded too!"

Ford laughed. "That would be appreciated. Thank you Mabel." The two made their way to his lab. Ford paused before he opened the door. "Oh right, Yun will be breastfeeding the children, is that alright with you? I know everyone was screaming about it over Zuum." Mabel sparkled. "More than alright! It's the miracle of motherhood!"

"Well, alright then." Ford opened the door and saw that Yun had created a little curtain to give herself some privacy. "Yun? We're coming in." He informed her before pushing through the curtain. Yun was, as expected, holding two babies as the rest got bottle fed. He could see the glowing blue energy holding up the bottles for them.

Mabel sat down and captured a green clothed baby to hold herself. Ira blinked up at the girl before ignoring her and going back to drinking.

"Does it hurt?" Mabel asked.

Yun shook her head. "It only hurts when they bite too hard, otherwise...it actually feels rather nice. Oh!" She winced softly when Gula began squeezing her boob to try and get the milk to come out faster. "It's actually more annoying because of how heavy and swollen my breasts feel."

Mabel smiled. "Don't tell Max this, but one part of me is happy he's human now, with a cute tail, but human enough, so we can have babies someday." She had been thinking about it before the 'thing Max never talked about' happened, and now their problem had been solved.

"You're really serious about him, aren't you?" Yun smiled. Mabel grinned back. "Yeah. I mean, I'd like to think that… well, I mean…" she flushed a little. "I know people think I'm just boy crazy, but I really, really did just want a partner. And… I think Max is the one." She wanted to share her life with him, he made her so happy.

"As long as you two continue being friends who are also really into each other, I think it'll be fine." Yun looked down at her babies. Truthfully, she felt she still didn't understand what 'love' was.

"So are you and Ford going to get married someday?" Mabel asked. Yun chuckled. "I don't want to get my hopes up. I'm happy enough just being with him." Mabel's smile faded a little at the resigned way Yun spoke about 'hopes'. But she shook it off, she didn't want to think about how sad that sounded. She switched subjects smoothly. "Speaking of marriage, Dip-Dop and Paz are doing really well together." Mabel waggled her eyebrows.

"Oh there's no way in hell that Llama's gonna let your brother go. She knows he's top tier husbando material." Yun sounded so smug.

The teen giggled. "I'm hoping they get married! I want to be in charge of planning everything! I want a double wedding and if Dillon agrees, the 3 of us!" Yun giggled. "I remember when I planned my son Pyrone's wedding. I got so frantic my friends literally sat me down and told me to stay in the kitchen while they dealt with everything else." The memory was bittersweet. Sometimes, she still couldn't believe he was really gone. Her dear little Icepack.

"Aaaw~" Mabel smiled widely. "Well, weddings are important! Super awesome party where you get a pretty cake and dress? Of course you'd be frantic!" She paused and then turned to Ford, who hadn't been paying attention to their conversation. Mabel had a mischievous look on her face. "Heeey uncle Ford~ would YOU want to marry Yun someday~?"

Yun glanced up at Ford, whose eyes were wide as he finally paid attention. "Fordsie?" She asked.

"Uncle Ford? Uncle Stanford?" He didn't respond. "Oh god, I think I broke him!" Mabel exclaimed. "I'm sorry, babies!" The babies babled quietly, not understanding and finding daddy's face funny. "Ma...rriage?" Ford whispered before he had to lean on a chair so he didn't fall over from the thought. Luckily he had already burped the babies and returned them to their carriage. He felt somewhat faint. Marriage. To Bill. He wasn't sure how to feel about the subject.

Yun rolled her eyes. All the triplets were so dramatic… "Don't pester him about it, if he's not up for it, then he's not up for it." She sighed and reached out her free hand to poke Ford. "Marriage is a pretty big deal, right? I'm not asking for an answer right now, yeesh! We've only been dating for like a year or something."

Mabel sighed. "If you DO get married, I want to plan it!"

Yun laughed. "I'm sure Wanda gets first dibs on planning my wedding if it does happen. And Kari too." She exchanged babies again, having to rotate them out to feed got tiring.

The babies who'd finished eating had yawned and fallen asleep, tired from suckling.

They decided to leave the lab after that. Ford was reminded by Yun that he had a job to get back to. "I'll show off the kids to the other workers, from 6 feet apart." Yun patted his hand. "Frankly, the only reason I'm even allowing them out in public is because I want them to get used to more people. It'll make it easier when they're older and have to be around crowds." Plus, they needed to be exposed to germs and microbes so their immune systems could start to identify what was a threat or not.

Ford blinked, not realizing that had been part of the reason for this 'outing' of hers. "Oh, that's… actually very smart." Yun preened. "Did you expect any less from moi?" she batted her eyelashes at him. Ford laughed and ruffled her hair, ("Ack!"), "Alright, go have fun. I'm going to do serious science things."

"You're gonna be poking things and seeing if they explode." Yun deadpanned. Ford huffed. "I'm poking them scientifically ."

Yun rolled her eyes with a grin. "Well, see ya later~!" she and Mabel waved as they left Ford's lab and he got back to work.

More months later…

The year was filled with lots of riots (not surprisingly, worldwide), Shlump being an idiot (many other presidential candidates AND country presidents being idiots. The politicians all over the world seemed to be in some competition to see who could out-asshole each other first), and massive support for Fiddleford from people (even worldwide, as the US elections were always a great TV drama for the rest of the world to follow) as they realized that his record, while kind of strange, was pretty clean overall.

Also, the popularity from his cure actually healing dying people, and their grateful families, grateful doctors and fellow scientists whom he openly shared his cure with, both in how to create them, and how to administer them, meant that there were huge swaths of the population throwing their votes in with him, third party or otherwise. Some people criticized him for using his cure as incentive to temp people into voting for him, but the response was essentially, 'He LITERALLY made a cure for a deadly disease. Shut the fuck up!'

(And yeah, his lack of a political background should have been enough to kick him from running, but literally anyone could run for president so long as they met the requirements so…)

Some parties against him had also poked into McGucket's personal life and past. They criticized him living in a mansion "How can he claim he cares for poor people?" and showed photos of when McGucket's mind was fucked up and he was insane. "He has mental problems that can return at any moment! Is that a president you want?"

The Pines and the entire town all raged at this. Screw the haters. They prefered McGucket!

McGucket's campaign responded to all the hate with photos of how Fiddles opened the mansion to everyone in the town for coming and going before the pandemic, and how he had been in therapy for his psychotic break from nearly dying and his PTSD. Fiddleford advocated very strongly in support of the homeless, using his own personal money to buy out the thousands of empty houses and letting people live there rent free. (Fiddles couldn't actually afford all of it, but by some wonderful coincidence, Void Deliveries had thrown in their support as McGucket 2020's sponsor.) And vocally claimed support for therapy and psychiatric help for anyone. That was good to convince pro gun folks, because their arguments were always 'mental health'. Fiddleford merely stated that guns were fine, as long as people are given training on gun safety before they're allowed to purchase or own a firearm. (Which is already a thing in most states. But just because there was already a law in place, didn't mean people were following them, which is where a lot of the issues came up.)

He campaigned for universal health care, where the taxes would go to paying for everyone's right to live. He also took a look at how the government had been selling military, war grade weapons to the police and he said, hell no. He promised to restructure the police in the country, not get rid of it, but at the very least, don't give them weapons meant for war. This was to appease both sides of the population about how much power and force the police was allowed. Fiddleford knew that law enforcement in general was fine, but they needed more regulations. More checks and balances as it were.

And Fiddleford was a scientist, first and foremost. He was intelligent, competent and compared to his opponents, seemed perfectly sane despite his past.

Ford was amazed at all this. How… wild everything had become. He didn't doubt F would probably receive a nobel prize for the cure he'd made. He should. He really took his chance. He'd have been restless, probably even anxious he wasn't doing anything relevant like F before, but now? He was just so proud of his best friend, the entire Center was so proud.

And the babies drained him to the point Ford could only nod and smile. And they were only five months old. They were so active, he couldn't take his eyes off them or they'd be falling off the bed. Or dragging themselves over to grab other stuff. And Gula was physically stronger than her siblings, had more energy and keeping her occupied was more difficult.

And that wasn't even getting into their powers.

Yes.

Like they both suspected, the children had powers. They were weak, but the first time Gula had sneezed fire when they took the babies outside to get some fresh air, Ford nearly had a heart attack. And then there was the time Luxuria caught on fire when they got incredibly angry that Avaritia was hogging the blankets while they were outside having a picnic in the yard. Well, Ford had his hands full. As did Yun.

"At least their powers are suppressed when in the house, under the unicorn barrier." Yun shrugged.

"Oh wow what a relief." Ford said sarcastically. "I'll make them some bracelets of unicorn hair. Hopefully that will make things easier."

"As long as it doesn't cause any issues. I'd prefer if they didn't have to wear barriers. They need to learn to control their powers, kinda hard if they have them suppressed all the time." Yun cuddled Ira, she was always complaining about everything, because growing so quickly hurt a lot and Ira didn't like it. "Well, I will have to check on them both in and outside of the barrier, see how their Weirdness is doing. At the very least, the barrier doesn't keep them out, probably because they're half human. So it's like how the Weirdness barrier doesn't do anything to block out Seb, in this sense."

"Good for human genes!" Ford tickled Vanagloria and Superbia's belly and they flapped their arms widely, squealing happily. Yun needed a second to recover from how hot Ford looked.

"With how quickly the cure is being produced and mailed out to every hospital in the country, it might be safe to go back out in public… which means… people are going to see the kids."

"Yeah? So what?" Yun blinked.

"...I'm just… worried. About the twins. How… they would… be received."

"If anyone has an issue with them, any of them, I'll eat them." Yun nuzzled Ira against her cheek. Ford sighed. "Please don't eat people."

"I make no promises."

Ford chuckled. "Well, at least tell me first so I can tell you what a terrible idea it would be."

"Kaaaay~"

Ford looked towards the twins, Gloria biting a ball and Erbi reaching for her pacifier. "We won't let Yun eat people, kay?" He kissed their noses.

Yun took a deep breath again, watching Ford being affectionate with her children. Ah. So hot… She took a photo to show Seb later. He earned his thousand bucks for really knowing his brother. Ford was stupid and sometimes selfish, but he loved his family, and he was no loser. It was obvious to her that he wouldn't stay arms crossed about his uncomfortableness around the babies. He was Stanford Pines and learning was his top 1 skill. Not knowing was something he didn't tolerate. He would probably learn to be a very good father. And Yun found that very sexy.

She also saw the online books bookmarked on his laptop about children psychology and raising. What a nerd. She loved him so much.

-.-

Speaking of eating people. Mabel wanted blood spilled.

She knew Max didn't want to take revenge on the queen and priestess who hurt him, on the family who turned their back on him, on his tribe who cast him out-

But that's 'cause Max was too good for this world. Mabel on the other hand, well… she was sunshine and rainbows, but she's also fist fought a unicorn. She also learnt a while ago that morality was relative. And frankly, Mabel was pissed. And she knew that Miz was pissed too. And so she contacted her cousin (aunt? She needed to settle on that one).

"What would… it...take…" Mabel asked slowly over her private call with Miz, "To…" she couldn't find the right words for it. "Make it obvious to certain people, that what they did was unacceptable…"

"You wanna go eviscerate the Eix Leel queen and high priestess too?" Miz deadpanned.

"God, so much!" Mabel groaned. "Max JUST told me about what really happened that day, and I held myself from teleporting right there to hug him! It's not fair! They didn't ask him about us! They didn't ask ME! They could have listened to me! Right?!"

"Well according to them, the very act of being together with a human was a punishable offence." Miz grumbled. "And I let it go, because that was Max's wish, but I still feel like it wasn't enough. They shouldn't have gotten off scot free for doing that to him. Not just for Max's sake, but everyone in the future who might end up in that same situation. It's not fair."

"Can you still ' leave them a warning' ? Even if Max didn't want to? I'm his girlfriend and future wife so I get a say too…" Mabel stroked her chin. Like in those tv dramas. "He's been scared this whole time, that can't be good for making decisions!"

Miz's eyes glimmered. "Oh~ yes~"

Mabel grinned. "So what do we do~"

Miz's smile turned predatory. "Oh, well… I've got a few ideas~"

Karma. Do to them what they did to Max. Recreating the 'human curse' wasn't hard. Even Mabel could probably cast it. And Miz was ALL for teaching her how~

-.-

Sneaking into the village was no trouble. Perception Filters made it so no one saw them. Miz did tell Mabel that the curse she taught her wasn't going to be soul based, because it was awful. She also said that it wouldn't mean anything unless the queen and high priestess knew what reason they were being 'penalty'ed for.

"Oh, I want to have a good long talk with the queen and priestess." Mabel growled. "I want to know if they regret what they did, in any way. If they're willing to apologize to Max, then I won't…"

Miz rubbed her palms together. Karma~~~ (Or at the very least, it would be something they got to have a choice in, do they regret what they did, how has the village been faring in the time since, do they want their great dragon back or were they going to be idiots about it?)

The two went up straight to the Palace and Mabel puffed her chest confidently. They won't be able to hurt her and she was here to serve justice.

"Hey! You!" Mabel shouted as the perception filter was dropped and the eix leel jumped.

"What the-? How did that got in here? ...Great dragon?" The Queen stood up confused, looking at the random shouting woman and the dragon next to her.

"This is Mabel. Max's mate. She's… here to talk to you." Miz, in her dragon form, floated beside Mabel, glaring around at the doors to the room, keeping them shut.

"Uggh." The queen complained, dropping back to her chair. Mabel had her hands on her hips. "You hurt my boyfriend! And you had no right to do so! Why do you hate us so much?! We're happy! We were happy before too and it never stopped Max from doing his job as ambassador!" The curly haired girl complained. "You better be sorry for what you did!"

"Is the beast still trying to speak to me like she's a person?" The queen addressed her husband, who was staring at Miz warily. "We banished the deviant, and good riddance."

The King didn't like the look in the great dragon's eye. He had enough self awareness to know she was still displeased from what happened a year ago. And things had been hard, the winter had struck them harshly and people were complaining and going hungry. Many of the people were already asking to have the queen and priestess apologize to the great dragon so they could have food, but his wife had been very stubborn about her decision.

"Maybe listen to her complaints, my Queen." The King asked in a soft voice, his braided feathers bristling in distress. "It's still the Great Dragon's property."

The Queen rolled her eyes and looked back at Mabel, who kept complaining about tyranny and abuse of power of how they couldn't think less of Max for being male because that made them shitty.

The Queen made a long suffering sigh. The King suggested she ask about the deal. "Great Dragon! We'd be so honoured to make another deal with you…" She said, completely ignoring Mabel. "Thank you again for blessing us with your presence… and your human. But truly, we have plenty of other males who would be much better ambassadors, could you not choose one of them instead? Drop the subject?"

Miz narrowed her eye. "Do you really feel nothing over Max's loss? Do you really not care?" Mabel's fists balled up.

The King looked at his wife, praying to the Gods she didnt say anything stupid(er than she already did). "My Queen…"

"We did what we needed to do. It's to keep unwanted problems away from our town"

"You could have simply asked him to leave, you didn't have to torture and curse him." Miz loomed over the queen. "He was MY chosen, and you hurt him. And the only reason you still live is because he doesn't want you to face my just retribution. Because even after what you did to him, he still chose mercy." Miz hissed.

"Those are the rules. He would have been cast away for some other crime, but he insulted me and the Gods and my ancestors by laying with a human!" The Queen explained

"He wasn't hurting anyone, least of all your gods or ancestors. They didn't, and don't, care who Max falls in love with." Miz thundered. "The only one with a problem with what happened is you and your priestess's own bigotry!" she paused. "Even the god of the coming spring has seen and found no issue with their union." and frankly, having Santa Claus give you his blessing for your relationship was such a surreal experience for Mabel.

Mabel looked up at Miz with a sad look. "Don't worry, Shooting Star. This was just part of the plan, remember?" The dragon purred. "They're not sorry for their hurtful actions so we can act."

The king's eye widened and he tried to plead, "Great dragon, please don't-" "SILENCE!" The Queen snapped at her husband, and Mabel's eye twitched. Miz leveled a stare at the Queen. "My human, Mabel, has come to discuss her grievances with you. I have told her that she gets to decide your fate. As Max would have you spared, but what you did to him was caused by her being his partner, I felt it was only fair that Mabel gets to have her word in."

"Well I have done no wrong. His acts were disgusting and he was suitably punished for it." The queen said stubbornly. The king was inching his way away from her, tail between his legs and eyes frantically looked around, afraid of being caught in the crossfire. Where were all the guards?! Miz carefully placed a paw on Mabel's shoulder. "Well, what's your verdict?"

Mabel rubbed her eyes as she held back tears. "How can you be so cruel and merciless to someone who was so faithful to you!? You didn't have any right to hurt my boyfriend, bitch! And I'm not allowing you to keep thinking he remotely deserved that pain! You treat humans like monsters, but until now, the only ones who have belittled, humiliated and tortured Max has been YOU and your disgusting sexist rules! If you think I'm horrible and that Max should be forced to suffer for wanting to be with me, well I say YOU'RE the horrible one! And you should face that horribleness! Look as horrible as you think we are to match how horrible you are on the inside!" Tears streamed down her cheeks. And then began saying the spell Miz taught her.

The Queen's eyes widened. "What are you-" she gasped as the magic swirled through the air, carried by the ambient Weirdness that Miz leaked out. It curled around Mabel's emotions, gaining strength and direction from the depth of Mabel's anger at the injustice that her beloved Max had been forced to endure. And the Weirdness ate it all up… and struck.

The queen screamed as darkness closed around her, seeping into her mouth, nose and eyes and tearing it's way through her flesh.

The King stared in horror for a few seconds before he banged and scratched the doors. "HELP! HELP ME!" The guards outside pushed and kicked at the door, hearing the screams of the King and Queen.

The queen howled in agony as her scales began to peel off and her bones twisted, cracking and reshaping themselves. She shrank, writhing and clawing at herself even as her hands twisted.

Mabel retreated in fear and hid her head against one of Miz's legs. The dragon shielded her from the grotesque scene with her paw. Miz stared though, and did not blink as she took in the pain and misery of this bitch who dared to hurt HER kid. She just wanted to do this to the priestess as well. Or~ Miz's eye narrowed, she could use the queen's condition as a threat to the priestess, of how the great dragon could easily curse the priestess the same way if she didn't fall in line.

The queen still had her tail, as the curse didn't affect it, and the limb thrashed around, hitting everything as she screamed and stumbled around the room. The king was scared shitless, just sobbing and huddling against the door.

"It's done?" Mabel asked softly and Miz nodded. "Yes. But you don't have to open your eyes if you don't want to, Mabel. Do you wanna go home? I can take the rest from here."

Mabel nodded, feeling a little bad about the queen's pain, but knowing that she put Max through even worse, and that steadied her resolve. She took in a breath. "Alright. I'm gonna go home and call Max. I need to apologize to him about what I've done." Mabel wiped at her face and sniffed. Miz nodded, nuzzling her muzzle into Mabel's hair. "Alright Shooting Star, and thank you for coming with me." and she teleported Mabel back home.

And then Miz was alone with the sobbing queen (who looked directly out of a horror film, with how much blood she was covered in from the scales falling out) and her terrified husband, curled up as far as he could. "Well. How does it feel, your majesty?" She smiled. She felt like shit for enjoying the queen's suffering so much, but fuck it.

Miz advanced towards her. "You should have apologized to me, apologized to Max. How dare you think you can just replace what's MINE with anyone?!" Miz took another step, "How dare you insult me in such a way? I allowed it to slide, I took back my blessings, out of respect for Max's mercy. But it didn't feel right to me ." Miz glared. "I may not be YOUR god, but I am STILL a god. By all rights, I should have placed a plague upon your lands and your people for that insult."

The Queen didn't look up, she was just crying softly, with her throat hoarse from screaming. "I'm sorry- I'm sorry..." She whispered hoarsely, clawing at her face, which felt smaller, bloodied, her muzzle was gone, gods what happened to her?!

"Are you? Are you really? Where was any of this remorse when Max's mate came and asked for it?" Miz sneered. "If you had apologized to her, and she forgave you, I would have accepted that and left you all alone. But you didn't, because you don't. You're not sorry at all."

Miz was right in front of the queen now, "How much will your lack of respect affect your kingdom, huh? I can easily plague this place, make sure all of you starve to death or bring down the coldest winter, surely no egg could survive it." Miz growled. "How about your husband? Do you want him to suffer too? Your daughters?" The scared male whimpered by the door. But he was too terrified to fight, to say anything.

"N-No...please…" The Queen gritted her teeth as tears streamed down her irritated cheeks. She hugged herself, feeling her body so foreign.

Miz shook her head. "I could make them all suffer. But I won't. Because it wouldn't be fair to them to have to suffer for your mistake. So… here's my offer, you call a public announcement. You tell the people of what you did, what it meant, when you hurt my Chosen. What it means when you hurt an ambassador to a god, even one not your own." Miz rumbled. "Let them know of the punishment I have dealt upon you. And I will give them all a choice, to renounce you as their queen, and regain my favor, or to throw in their support for Maxini's banishment, and face the same punishment that has befallen you."

The King ran up on all fours towards the dragon and bowed. "Great dragon! Mercy! Mercy please! We can't lose our Queen!" He sobbed. "The government is already unstable! Please! Who's going to rule?"

"Then find someone to replace her." Miz shrugged, "Maybe you?"

The king prepared to cry again, but it caught him off guard. "...me?" He sniffed. "No...And my daughters are still pups…"

Miz grinned, she was having so much fun. She kinda felt bad for this male, but he was given a choice right now.

"You have been there, by your queen's side all this time, so you know what and how things are run? You do. I know you do. Why not rule in her place until your daughters come of age?" The Queen looked horrified, and the King froze at such an offering.

"Most importantly Tunkanai, you've seen the punishment your Queen received, I want you to be the first one to choose! What an honour! Do you support her torture of Maxini? Or are you on my side?" Miz knew it wasn't much of a choice, so she gave a third option, "Or are you still in too much of a shock to really decide right now?" she chuckled, low in her throat.

The king swallowed and his hands were shaking. "To… to be honest, great dragon, I was thinking that the curse was too much. A banishment would have sufficed, and making Maxini's punishment public was… a punishment harsher than his crime." The king winced. "I d-do believe that it is heresy to lay with a human, but I don't think it would have warranted the punishment he got."

Miz blinked. "Well, props to you for being honest about your opinion, at least." She found herself impressed actually. "What would you have done, if you were the one to judge it?"

The king was still shaking, but he wasn't going to lie to a god to their face. "I would have cut his braid, and banished him from our lands. No more, no less." He tensed, squeezing his eyes shut, prepared to face the dragon's wrath. But it didn't come.

"Well, that's… acceptable, I guess. Not on the queen's side, and not on mine." Miz purred. "Your own side. That's fine. Very well, a truce then. I will have you instated as the ruler in the Queen's place."

"You can't-" the queen tried to protest. Miz just gave her a wide grin. "And YOU would rule? Looking like that?" she cackled.

The Queen looked down at her ugly flat feet and pulled the clothes around herself. She felt like dying. This was not happening…The King made a disgusted face at her without meaning to. She was truly hideous.

Miz shrunk a little bit just to move around more comfortably and watch the show. She opened the doors and the guards, all huddled on the door to try to break in, fell inside. One of the females fainted at the sight of their ugly, ugly queen.

The high priestess and her entourage were immediately notified and to say the High Priestess was scared was an understatement. She looked absolutely terrified. Especially with Miz glaring at her and growling. The Queen demanded her to fix this (the priestesses all stepped back, with grimaces and Miz had the time of her life seeing the Queen lose their respect). And when the priestess managed to talk to her again, she did so covering her sight. "What happened?!"

The Queen quickly explained it was all once again because of that fucking unnatural boy, and that she was being forced to talk to everyone in town looking like this! "This is gonna be a fuckin mess! She wants to put my husband in power! A fuckin male, you gotta fix this!"

But Miz just snarled at her and repeated that it was the queen and high priestess's own fault for disrespecting Miz's ambassador and thinking that they could get away with it. "I waited to see if any of you would try to summon me and apologize, but you never did. Which means that what you did to Max was a true decision you made, and not just some emotional lashing out, which meant you had all willingly decided to insult me." Miz snarled.

"And despite that, I'm still giving you one last chance. I'll remind you, High Priestess, you're still on the line here. Make a faux pas and you'll look like that as well." Miz's tail whipped around.

The priestesses had never felt so much worry in their lives.

"So, dear priestess, what'll it be?" Miz grinned. "Will you renounce your queen, or join her?"

The Queen glared at her with bright and angry green eyes. The High Priestess looked up at Miz. "You-You wanted the Queen to speak to the people first...I-I'll organize that…"

Miz knew she was stalling, but watching her stress out was FUN. "Alright, but I'll be keeping an EYE on you~"

All the eix leel ran away, muttering to each other. The Queen was panting and the King slowly approached. "Would...Would you like me to order a bath for you, my Queen?" He was having so many troubled feelings.

The queen simply nodded and left the room with fast steps. Miz grinned and materialized a camera she put on her head. She needed to record this. Seb was going to love the incoming drama.

The speech. Was. Absolute. Madness. The eix leel couldn't believe that was their Queen. No one was paying a single bit of attention among the screamings and shouts. The Queen was dressed up, and was not bleeding everywhere anymore (and was chest naked, much to Miz's amusement), and she was trying so hard to tell the terrified people Miz basically made a coup and now everyone who still supported the Queen and her actions will end up like her.

Of course, Miz corrected them. "I don't actually give a shit who is queen and who is ruling here. All I care about is how my ambassador was hurt. He forgave you all for what you did, but I haven't. And his human mate found out, and she came to ask the queen to give her an apology for what she did. And even though all the queen needed to do was apologize , she refused to even do that. And you see here before you, the result of her pride." Miz purred, floating around and curling her tail around the queen.

Some people defended their Queen. Disgusting eix leel must be punished! Especially a reckless male! Others didn't know and felt terrible their Queen was deformed. A small group vocally claimed the Queen was always in the wrong, that it was pure torture. The vast majority remained quiet, watching the events unfold in fear. In that group was Max's biological family, terrified of how his banishment meant so much. Max's oldest sister looked relieved though. Her little brother was alive!

"So! Who will renounce this selfish, fleshy person? Is she still your queen?" Miz exclaimed, making the Queen wiggle her arms using her tail.

"Release me! I am your Queen!" She screamed, trying to push Miz's tail away. Miz turned her gaze to the high priestess. "Well? Do you have an answer to me?" She almost wondered if anyone here was even halfway as smart as the king turned out to be.

-.-

Seb shrieked when Miz popped up next to him in the living room. She grinned and threw herself on the couch. "You were gone all day! Where were you? Did you steal toilet paper? Did you at least buy some? Don't fall asleepppp!" He screamed.

"You can order toilet paper off Void Deliveries and you know it." Miz groaned.

"...I forgot to pay for my phone and I can't use it, ok?!"

Miz rolled her eyes. "Well in other news… Around a fourth of the Heeyatl Pak turned into humans today because they're bitches. Another fourth left town because they couldn't bear the thought of a male ruler, and the rest are fine I think." Miz shrugged. "They've headed for the other villages. Those who turned human are… well, they're trying to continue living in their village, but everyone is uncomfortable with it. I hope they die of food poisoning."

"Did you go into the town to mess with them?" Seb raised an eyebrow.

"They deserved it for what they did to Max." Miz blinked innocently. Seb blinked a few times before shrugging. "Fair enough."

"I have videos of them turning human, wanna see?"

"..."

"Too late! It's already playing!" She showed the camera to Seb and he gaped as the poor eix leel screamed in agony as the scales flaked off their skin like autumn leaves. He gagged and laughed. "UGHH! That's so groooosssss! Show me more!" Seb kept gagging and mocking their pain along with Miz the more he watched the videos.

The two were sadistic motherfuckers.

In a sibling truce, the two decided they wouldn't tell Wanda about it. She found out from Max though (nothing escaped from Wanda Friedmann's knowledge), Max was incredibly pissed at both her and Mabel for the entire week. Didn't speak to any of them. He eventually did. And told them he understood they cared for him, but to respect his FUCKING choices next time. He was not a child and being male didn't mean they could decide for him. Miz and Mabel nodded quietly, and accepted the consequences of their actions like grown woman/alien.

Miz accepted the grounding in peace. Because she didn't regret it. And she'd do it again. She only felt bad that Max was emotionally hurt by her and Mabel doing it. But the act itself? No. She wanted them punished.

-.-

More months later…

The reality show known as the US elections had its most important episode. The elections! Everyone around was asking how the electoral college worked and why were they taking so long!

Shlump, Bayden and McGucket of course were leading. The more time passed, the more McGucket's votes increased. The Cure was definitely a big part of it. But all of Fiddleford's interviews and statements were also gaining him a lot of support from both sides. He supported farmers. He supported office workers. He supported science. He supported religion. He spent some interviews talking about the biological explanations for things in a way that even a child could understand. He was working hard, and yes, his blood pressure was pretty high. But he wasn't going to back down. Because he was tired of being meek and scared. He wanted to make a difference. He wanted to help.

Mabel was going insane with how long it was taking. "Gosh I should have gotten rid of the electoral college when I wrote it in my list!" She complained to her friends. Grenda had sent her vote from Austria (since she still had American citizenship, and could list her parents house as her address) and Candy voted in town. Wendy rolled her eyes as Grenda screamed, they still had time. "Dudes, McGucket is going to win. Definitely. I heard a lot of Shlump boys saying they were voting for him. Like. No one else could have done that." She reassured the anxious girls.

"Besides, from what Dipper's said about Quentin Trembly is correct, McGucket could totally just show up in a giant robot and make Shlump back off."

"I liked that guy." Mabel grinned.

So, finally, the votes all came in. And officially, McGucket was president. Everyone at the Shack and the center celebrated the news with rattles and whistles to celebrate their scientist partner. There were people partying all across America.

And Fiddleford was working together with Void Deliveries to send out the Cure to every household across America. And even overseas to the buildings that Yun managed to buy out there, with Stan's help. Heck, it's been months, she's been working as hard as she could to help out in the 'human' way. Nevermind that her Void Delivery buildings ran on magic.

It was so tiring to help him, power the town, be with Seb (though he insisted she could leave if it made things easier) and feed the octuplets at the same time. They were much bigger and ate a lot more, it also took longer (with the new added distractions they perceived while eating). And with how active they were now, Yun had to be more careful that they didn't get themselves hurt. And Ford would stroke her hair and praise her for being a good mother. (Which got Ford multiple fully charged batteries.)

She just wanted this to end. This little effort and the deaths would stop increasing, with vaccines ready (and set to be distributed through Void Deliveries as well), people would be protected, and the sooner her babies could grow in a good clean environment, the sooner her family will be together again, and the sooner Zach and Zoe will be happy again in school, and going to the cinema and parks...

It's been almost a year since this pandemic started and it was hopeful to see it almost come to an end...And almost without her help! It was nearing the end of November now, and Yun finally, for the first time in a long while, almost felt… at peace.

And while all this was happening, Ford continued his research on the Plantimals…

(Heh, he almost forgot about them.)

While Ford was still getting comfortable with being a father to the babies, that didn't mean he wasn't happy to help care for them. He supported Invidia's head and held the bottle with his other hand.

"Still can't believe I forgot about the plantimals for months." Ford laughed. "With everything going on, it's a good thing they don't require too much care." He paused. "This is why I can't have a pet. I would get them killed." He glanced down at the little blond baby.

"Well, it's a good thing that leaving Sir Bedazzle and Lady Flitter's children in the greenhouse worked out, then?" Yun chuckled. "How'd you hide them anyway?"

"I put them in the smallest one, which not many people use, and then told the staff it was off limits because of an experiment I was working on." Ford said sheepishly.

"HAH! Not exactly a lie then!"

Ford chuckled. "I guess." He finished feeding Invidia and pulled out his journal. "Want to look through what I've got so far?"

"Sure." Yun took the journal and floated it in front of her. Observations on the plantimals' behavior, size, shape, levels of CO2, H2O and sunlight to O and C12H22O11 conversions...

Ford went to sit with her after setting Invidia down, but the infant whimpered and reached for his daddy. Yun giggled. "Hold him while we talk, he wants you and he'll fall asleep faster." She was getting some of the others settled along her body, laying them in her lap and so on. "They like contact."

The scientist smiled as Isaac let out a soft baby gurgle and snuggled against him. "Alright. I guess you can listen, but don't tell anybody, it's classified information." He joked and Yun rolled her eyes. Dork.

"Ok, going back from the beginning. Sir Bedazzle and Queen Flutter buried themselves in Seb's backyard and a tree grew. From that tree we got a harvest of acorn puppies and maple kittens."

"Which made Seb cry, very important. He was trapped under them for half an hour before I saved him." Yun pointed at the journal. "You should write that down too."

It had been just so funny. Seb was scowling like a baby, surrounded by cheerful baby plantimals. Half were Acorn puppies and the other half were Maple kittens. The kittens flew through the air and clung to his clothes while the puppies squeaked and ran around his legs, tumbling and rolling along the ground. Sir Bedazzle and Queen Flutter were there, watching their...babies with excited looks. Sir Bedazzle was wagging his new tail and the older maple cat watched the pups create chaos. Amazing.

"That's not scientifically relevant but I'll add an illustration." Ford rolled his eyes as he sketched his brother and lots of babies on top of him.

"So the creatures I created for fun, were capable of breeding. I wonder if that's from my Harvest God side seeping through…" Yun mumbled. "You've taken clipping samples of them?"

"Yes. I was very careful, I… don't think they were in pain from it. I asked Dr. Lambert for advice on how to take a plant sample without harming the host."

"And it says here," Yun leaned against Ford's side to look over his shoulder while he drew. "That they really are genetically similar to oak and maple." She smiled. "I was sure I made them right, but it's good to have confirmation."

"It's the cat and dog part that is inaccurate. They only resemble a feline and canine in external features. Genetically, they are nothing like mammals." Ford nodded. "Fully plant. But more developed, enough that they have some kind of pseudo brain." He flipped to another page to look at the drawing he made of their 'vessels' and the systems of their nerve cells. He of course took photos but Stanford liked drawing.

"...that's the part that's confusing me. I didn't… build them to have a Mind. Or Soul." Yun frowned. "It almost seems like they developed them over time." There was a niggling thought there, if something she created lived long enough, would they eventually grow their own Mind and Soul? Or had they simply gained a soul from the AXOLOTL not paying attention to who gets one or not?

"Or maybe it was the twins love and affection giving them a soul." Yun proposed later. "Like Richard the big Yellow dog."

Ford rolled his eyes again as he bounced his baby in one arm. He saw Isaac drooling and carefully wiped his drool away. "I doubt that's a valid hypothesis."

"Why though? Your love and affection makes ME produce stuff! And Kari's love and affection turned insane no morals kid Seb into… less insane...dubiously moral teen Seb. But it DID change him!"

Ford sighed loudly and wrote at the bottom 'Power of love and affection-Creates energy impulses capable of changes?'

"Don't underestimate the power of love!" Yun poked Ford's nose. He sighed. "Love versus gun, which would win?" He teased.

"A love gun! Of course!" Yun cackled. Ford ruffled her hair. "Right. Anyway!" He continued. "Just to make sure I wouldn't be arrested for misunderstandings with the plantimals, I got the permission from the national scientific research board, the APHIS and IACUC boards who approved my request to alter plant biology." They were somewhat confused as they were generally in charge of granting approval for animal testing but they had granted approval, which was the only thing Ford cared about.

"That was before the pandemic, so I had just some months of work and papers written about them before I had to put the experiment on pause for the virus...and your pregnancy."

Yun scoffed with her lips upturned. "My pregnancy wasn't that distracting…"

"Their conversion rate is amazing!" Ford gushed. "They can pull the carbon right out of the air around them. They photosynthesize much more efficiently than other plants the same size and produce Oxygen quickly. A-and...they produce a lot of sugars that can be easily harvested and…" he heard from Seb complaining about how the plantimals didn't poop but would often excrete sugar water or even sap. His triplet complained about how the twins would lick their pets and get sugar high.

Seb's twins were so weird…

"Anyway, if we handled them right, and cared for them properly, they could revolutionize air cleaning and sugar production!" Ford was so excited about that.

"I'm sure you'll do just fine~" Yun purred, running her fingers through his hair. "You need to find a way to make them breed again eventually. And study more of their anatomy."

"Can't you just make more?"

"I definitely could but what kind of partner and muse would I be if I did all your homework? You can do it on your own!" Yun huffed. "Sir Bedazzle and Lady Flitter can probably breed on their own, unless it's a one and done sort of deal, which I think it might be, since they haven't tried burrowing again so far this year."

Ford took the pen to his mouth to chew as he thought hard. Yun sighed at his lovely thinking face. The way his eyebrows came together was cute. And the set of his jaw made him look so handsome. It was the lines, the angle of his chin and jaw, Yun could easily measure it with her eyes, and she liked the symmetry of it.

Invidia looked up at his dad chewing a pen. He reached for one of daddy's fingers to bite too! He didn't have teeth though, so sucking it is. Ford looked down. "No, Isaac ew, my hands are not clean!" He poked his little nose.

"Yeah, no tasting Fordsie's fingers before I do!" Yun scolded.

"I'm terrified of that statement." Ford grimaced.

Yun batted her eyelashes. "What? Me? Oh whatEVER do you mean, Fordsie~?"

Ford threw a pillow to her face and Yun yipped as she fell backwards. Stay down, demon!

-.-

After some more testing, involving a lot of paperwork so people would know he wasn't messing around with different DNAs without a goal in mind, Ford was almost done with his research paper, along with the many, many papers of the experiments, and the conclusions. Ford flipped another piece of paper to fill out. He had to get this done as soon as he could, so he could reveal this bit of good news to the world. The baby plantimals were wandering around his lab, being allowed out of the greenhouse for the first time in months. He absently pet a maple kitten when she fluttered over to nuzzle him. They were very affectionate, and had been somewhat lonely in the greenhouse. At least they had each other. They wouldn't have survived otherwise, as they needed companionship.

The maple kitten purred loudly, clearly enjoying it, and tried to get the attention of his writing hand. "Yes, I know…" Ford chuckled. "But I really have to finish these …" He looked at the kitten who blinked at him. "...still amazing how you have eyes and a mouth." He marvelled aloud. He gently opened the little creature's mouth to look inside. The kitten mewed in confusion as Ford looked inside. "Clearly you have vocal chords. And you're capable of drinking water." He muttered. How in depth were Yun's creations, truly? He wondered about that.

The kitten mewed and patted her little legs against his fingers. Ford pet her head with his index finger. "I don't know how Bill managed to create life, how your parents created you. How Bill created something so...innocent and cute. The other Bill could only make horrible monsters." He couldn't help but compare them, they were dimensional counterparts after all.

He sighed as the maple kitten began softly sucking on his finger. "You don't even have teeth." Ford chuckled and went back to filling out his form. One of the other kittens flew onto his workbench and batted at his pen, wanting to play. One of the puppies started whimpering as another pawed his boots to call his attention. He sighed. "Please I have to work." He sighed. The baby plantimals all gave him sad looks. Ford groaned. He couldn't work like this.

Ford picked them all up and placed them on one of his other lab benches. "Stay. I'll be right back." He told them. He quickly exited his lab and looked around for his intern An-whatever his name was.

The boy was in the bathroom, hidden in a stall, having just escaped from one of Dr. Clark's experiments, and lost half of his shirt too. That was close! This place was crazy! Everyone loved to gossip! And experiment on things Andy was very sure weren't… normal. It was polluting his good soul. He whimpered. He just needed the credits to graduate! "I just wanted to learn science…"

Andy hugged his legs, sitting on the toilet lid. Dr. Pines baking a DVD that, according to everyone, was actually an embryo he bio-programmed in order to have kids with his alien girlfriend, Dr. Clark with his scary ass mechanical arm, explosions everywhere. He was seriously doubting he would survive the 1.5 years ahead of him to finish college. He went quiet and heard a voice calling him. Well, it was saying something more like… "Intern?!"

Andy sighed. Mr. Pines wanted to talk to him...and he was shirtless...he hoped that if he stayed quiet, he wouldn't find him. He heard a beeping noise that steadily got louder and faster. "Ah. Intern. There you are. When you are finished in there, I need you to come to my lab." Andy heard Dr. Pines walk away after tapping on his stall door and could only wonder 'WHY DOES HE HAVE A TRACKING DEVICE FOR LOCATING ME?!' (It was a bioscanner that Ford made for easier location of his staff, he built it after the incident with Tyler getting lost in the forest.)

Andy shuddered. Okay, calm down, just remember what Viola-senpai told him. Dr. Pines was a nut, but he was a nice nut. He slowly came out of the stall and looked around. Andy, as the intelligent young man he was (not for nothing, he won the internship to one of the best research centers in the country), put on his mask (everyone still needed to wear masks, as the vaccination process was still in progress), he grabbed the paper towel and looked at his half naked chest. He had to reach his locker, get his backpack, get his extra t-shirt, then go with Dr. Pines. Easy enough!

Minutes later, the intern walked out, wrapped up like a mummy, leaving a few scientists wondering why the boy was covered in paper towels.

"Nevermind all that…"

-.-

It took Randy (?) a long time to come to his lab. Oh sure! When he wanted to interrupt Ford's work he did it without hesitation, but when Ford called him, he took forever! "Did-did you call me, Dr. Pines?" Andy looked at the man and snorted. He was on his chair, covered in leaves?

And then Andy realized the 'leaves' on his boss were moving. Breathing.

"Yes. These are the results of my latest experiment. I need you to look after them so they don't bother me while I work." Ford handed the sleeping plantimals to the teenager and Andy squealed internally when the adorable little things clung to him.

'Oh my god! They're… Bakemon!'

Ford nodded and went back to his paperwork.

Andy squealed aloud this time. "I will not disappoint you Dr. Pines!" He said and Ford sighed. "Yes, yes, now let me work, Randy."

"It's Andy, sir, but close enough!" Andy said with a big smile. He hugged the little creatures and wondered where he could take them. "Dr. Pines, would it be ok if I go back to my dorm and come back later to give them back? I'll be super careful!"

Ford, not really paying attention, mumbled, "Sure, just keep them occupied." He didn't want them back all alone in the greenhouse. Not after he saw how happy they were to be around a person.

Andy squealed, grabbed the babies and flew to his dorm room at the Center. Only dropping by his locker to get his backpack to hold them all.

The gossiper four watched the intern with suspicious looks. Ummm~ Smelled like secret~

As Andy made his way down the hall with the plants in his arms, he noticed a very normal looking man. He knew this guy, it was one of the residents of Gravity Falls, who came by the Center once a week to drop off some supplies. He was a nice guy, this Tad Strange fellow.

"Hello Andy. Would you like some bread? I just made a fresh batch of wheat products." Tad Strange asked, holding a large basket filled with warm, fresh bread. With the entire town in quarantine, people were relying on each other for some supplies. And Tad Strange just really loved to share his passion for bread with people. Of course, Mr. Strange had been scanned and tested before being allowed in, his bread being scanned as well.

Andy laughed. "Maybe later, mister Strange." He waved and went up the stairs to his dorm room. He pulled out his lanyard with his keycard. He heard his bag whimpering and quickly got in. The Bakemons were awake.

He threw away his mask, kicked his shoes away, rushed to wash his hands before he went to sit in his small living room/Tv room and opened the bag to let the 8 little creatures come out. "Hello~" He cooed and rubbed one of the puppies' head. "I am Andy, your creator trusted me to take care of you." they sniffed at him before barking cheerfully and began to explore the new room. The maple kittens flew up to the shelves and tables to curl up and watch their brothers run around the room. Their stubby legs meant they would often trip and roll around a bit, kicking their tiny legs and squeaking.

Andy couldn't help but take out his phone to record them. So cute

He wanted to post it to his blog [Weird science shit] but he was supposed to keep this a secret… but one of the puppies was rolling around the room while going "Aaawooaaawwooo~" and it was too cute to not record.

Suddenly, his phone rang and he groaned as his video was cut. "Hey, man!" He answered his friend. "Hey! How's the nerd center going?" The boy on the other side teased. "Better than your music career wooo!" Andy laughed as he heard his friend gasp. "Not cool, man!" Andy stopped a puppy from licking the remote control. "I'm kidding! It's actually doing great! The head scientist trusted me with something big!"

"Oh! Spill!" His friend demanded and Andy rolled his eyes. "I can't, it's a secret. I am actually watching the experiment." He put a puppy on his feet once again. Silly babies~ "Aw~come on man~I can keep a secret." His friend whined.

"Nope. I promised my boss, man. I already messed up one of Dr. Pines's experiments like...months ago." he had been so afraid he was going to be fired. "You what?!" His friend, Erin, laughed loudly. "You're such an idiot! What did you do? It's messed up already, right? You can tell."

Andy sighed. "I'm not really sure...it was like a DVD...I put it in a laptop but weird shit happened. Dr. Pines hasn't told us what happened after that, but… um… well… the rumor is that his girlfriend became pregnant right afterwards."

"Ooh? That's… weird?"

"Viola-Senpai theorized it was some kinda DNA synching program or something, to allow him and his girlfriend to make kids." Andy shrugged. "I'm just glad the boss was too busy with whatever happened to fire me. And now he's busy with the babies."

Erin laughed louder. Andy took a deep breath. Those babies were his saviors.

"Damn~ " Erin chuckled. "Ok...can you give me clues about the experiment you're helping out with right now at least?"

"Why do you want to know so much?" Andy frowned and Erin shrugged on the other side. "It's a forbidden secret, that's juicy." Erin laughed. "But if you want to change the subject, what's with the ol' doc's girlfriend? Like...daaaaamn~the Center's blog posts don't have many photos but she's hot. Isn't she like...half his age?" The interns (led by Viola) had started blogging about their work at the Center, after having all their posts approved by Dr. McGucket, as a way to advertise and also give the interns and staff a way to socialize. He said it was good for team building.

Andy blushed. He'd seen miss Yun around the lab every now and then, generally bringing food to Dr. Pines. She was normally bundled up in one of the boss's turtlenecks. After her pregnancy got too far along, and with Corvid happening, she hadn't been around as often. And now that the kids were actually born, she was even more busy. "Yeah~she's really pretty." He chuckled. "Don't know how the doc managed to score with her. And so many kids...holy shit…"

"She looks good for being a mother of 8...or...rather, 9." Andy gasped as he remembered "Did you know she actually has ap 9th kid?"

"Shit? Really?!" Erin asked. Andy nodded. "She has an older son, a little teenaged kid. I've heard the other docs say that Ammy, that's his name, was from a previous boyfriend who ditched her when she got pregnant."

"Are you kidding me?! Holy shit!" Erin cried. Andy nodded. "Yup. Pretty shitty. But the boss seems ok with the kid. He's kinda weird though…" Andy petted the kittens who were approaching him, mewing softly. "I think he might have some kinda developmental thing? Neurodivergent definitely. But I think it's too rude to straight up ask about it."

"She could have been with the doc for money? To support her kid?" Erin hummed. "Haha, and it didn't work too well because she got 8 more."

"Don't be an idiot." Andy huffed. "Yun is a really nice lady. She actually knows my name! Boss just calls me Intern or some other thing like my name but not..." The kittens mewed harder and the puppies were whimpering. What was wrong with them?

"Haha, that sucks-" one of the puppies yipped and barked. "-you have a dog now? I thought you were working." Andy panicked and rubbed their heads. They just whimpered harder. They wanted water! They hadn't had water since that morning…

"Er...I'm...pet sitting." Andy said. The plantimals were all whimpering now. Oh. Shit. What's wrong? Oh shit. What if they were dying?! Andy noticed the kitten's tails were wilting…

"Water!" He yelled. They needed water! Oh please don't die! The boss would fire him for SURE! He picked them up and took them to the kitchen sink. "Andy? What do you mean water?!" Erin shouted from his phone which he put on hands free. "Plants need water! I'm so stupid!" Andy cried without thinking. He filled the sink with water and just plopped the little bakemons in. The acorns bobbled on the surface of the water and chirped happily as they could finally drink. The maple seeds floated on the water and purred in content. Andy sighed with relief. He couldn't believe he almost let the plants dry up. Dr. Pines wouldn't just fire him, he would straight up murder him…

"Plants?" Erin asked from the phone. "That's the experiment? Taking care of a dog and some plants?" Andy sighed. "Yeah, yeah, something like that." His friend frowned. "I thought it was something important. That's just boring." Andy went with it. That way he wouldn't sin and tell his friend about the bakemons.

"Well, anyway, I'm hanging up now. I need to actually pay attention so the plants don't die." Andy hung up and sighed. He could do this. He just needed to keep the babies alive a few hours before taking them back to Dr. Pines! He pet one of the kittens. "I'm so sorry I didn't water you." He sighed. The babies clung to his finger and nuzzled his hand.

"Omigosh you're so cute!" Andy was in heaven, despite the situation. "Do you think I could stay with one of you when Dr. Pines finishes sorting his shit out?" he laughed when one of the puppies started sucking on his finger. "You'd be much easier to take care of than a real dog…"

Andy found himself naming each one, finding tiny differences in their appearances to tell them apart. After a few hours playing with the little babies, Andy realized that he wouldn't be able to give them up. He tearfully hugged them in his arms. "I wanna keep you!"

His phone rang. Andy picked up, sniffling. "Yeah?" He winced when he heard Dr. Pines shouting through the line. "Where did you go?!" He winced. "I told you, I took the plants back to my dorm room...to...feed them! Yes. I gave them water and my window is letting in nice sunlight…"

"Well, can you come back? I need the plantimals back." Stanford said and the intern sniffled. "Dr. Pines...I love them! They're too cute! Even when they pee sugar water!" He sobbed, having found that out earlier when he noticed the wet trails along his floor. "Can-can I keep them!?"

"You… you can't keep my experiment…" Ford said slowly. Andy sniffled. "C-can I at least have two?" Ford sighed. He felt a presence behind him and jumped when he saw Ammy standing there, expressionless. "Mother told me to tell you to go to your room. She is feeling lonely and wants attention." He stated.

The scientist nodded before turning back to his phone. "We can discuss long term care for one or two of them later." And perhaps, since the plantimals needed socialization, Ford could assign Mandy to their care? "But bring me the plantimals back, leave them in Greenhouse #22...and don't let ANYONE see them! No one can know yet!" Andy sniffled. "Ok." He hung up. It was going to be hard to choose between them but there were two of them who seemed to like him more. "Alright...Alexa and Timotheus, do you two want to stay with me?" He nudged them. These two plantimals in particular liked to crawl into his shirt for warmth. Their siblings liked to play and explore his apartment but these two stuck to him. The kitten and puppy looked at him innocently with their little eyes shining with trust.

"I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!" Andy wailed as he hugged them.

Well, time to bring these sweeties to… er… which greenhouse was it again? Twenty-something?

He got another call from his boss.

"Change of plans. Go to my house, through the Gift Shop, I'll take them from there." Andy just agreed and made his way out, after putting the… what did Dr. Pines call them? Plantimals? In his backpack again. He got to the Mystery Shack after getting his mask on, just in case. Stanford was standing there, tall and intimidating. Andy held out his backpack with trembling hands. "H-here sir…" To his relief, Miss Yun came from behind his boss and scooped the plantimals out. "Thank you, Andy." She said in her lovely voice. The intern blushed at being so close to her. Pretty alien lady~

"Fordsie, stop frowning before your face gets stuck like that." She scolded him. "And get upstairs to hug your children." Ford winced and meekly backed down. Andy was amazed at how easily she took him down from scary and intimidating to whipped. Dr. Pines left and Yun looked at him. "We are trusting you with the plantimals starting tomorrow. Fordsie wants their debut to be after he's finished all his paperwork, so you better keep this a secret. Why, I shudder to think of what could happen to you if you didn't~" She smiled kindly despite the threat. Andy nodded quickly, now feeling as intimidated as he was with Ford.

Now he saw why they were together.

"I-I will, miss Yun…" The boy nodded before he once again went home. Yun shook her head with a smile. Scaring people was so fun~ Silly Andy.

Meanwhile, Ford went back to his room after a long day of completing papers and saw the eight babies laying on the bed, entertained as Ammy shook a rattle. It was funny how a normal person would be making funny faces or cooing, but the boy was expressionless as he did that. "Hello, Stanford." He greeted him politely. Ford took off his coat and his mask and walked over to the bed. "Hello Ammy, hello pizza slices~" He told the little babies with a coo, the nickname slipped out, inspired by the Piece shards they used to be. Their eyes widened a little bit as they recognized him. Daddy! They reached for him with wide (now with teeth) smiles, waving their little chubby arms all around, kicking their little feet.

Ford gently stroked each of their foreheads, going from Invidia to Gloria and Superbia. He grabbed Avaritia's little hand and smiled as it curled around his finger. "I missed you all...the intern is an idiot...but I can't really fire him…" Andy accidentally started their incubation. If it wasn't for his mistake, they wouldn't have their babies right now. Ford laid down on the bed and curled up in a way to hug all the babies at once. That was how Yun found him and she cooed.

The children were sleeping against daddy's warm chest. Ammy was reading on a chair, unbothered.

She went to curl up next to them and grinned. "You will feed them tomorrow morning." She said. "In fact, I request you take a day off from work tomorrow and spend some time with us." He was busy, she knew that. But she still felt a little lonely.

And especially after that random bout of depression that morning… well, she… really, really needed Ford right now after the latest interaction she'd just had with Blue. She wrapped Ford and the children in her arms and laid her head down with Invidia tucked under her chin. "I know it's a lot to ask, with your work and how important it is to you, but I need you."

Ford's eyes widened a little before looking down at her. He felt his cheeks warming up before pulling her closer. "It's alright. I'm here." He stroked her hip, feeling bold.

Yun smiled. She wiggled closer, until their noses were touching. "I love you, Fordsie."

"And I love you too, Yun-sie." Ford rolled his eyes with a smirk. "I'll call you that if you keep calling me that. As revenge." He said with a serious expression.

Yun snorted. She just freaking lost it. "YunSIE! Ahahahahaha!" The babies complained at how loud she was and Yun covered her mouth to muffle it. "Mmm ppfffhh! Mm mmm ppfffffh!" She continued laughing.

"Come on, you demon. It was not that funny." Ford grimaced, wondering once again how such random things triggered Yun into hysterics.

"Not even Yun-Yun, or Yunnie, just copying me and going YunSIE!" Yun cackled.

Ford rolled his eyes again. Oh for Tesla's sake. He was not changing it though. His pride would be too hurt.

Ammy didn't raise his eyes from his book as he deadpanned, "So the two of you together would be Sie-squared."

And THAT just made Yun laugh even harder.

Then the babies started crying.

-.-

Christmas/Hanukkah/Christmukkah had to be spent in their own houses. Everyone missed each other, but didn't really want to risk it. Besides, the temperature had dropped so much no one felt in the mood to do anything but be cozy in bed.

And Yun had to split herself to be with Ford and Seb at the same time.

Little Maria saw all the snow piling outside, and whined to play, but no one in the Shack wanted to face the snow. It was just too cold. "You'll get sick, honey." Melody told Maria.

Ammy, who didn't seem to care one way or another, offered to go out to play with Maria. "I can ask mother to charm your clothes so that you do not perish from your cells freezing and dying off." He told the almost two year old toddler. Maria's response was to smile and grip Ammy's shirt.

Yun didn't mind the cold, but she was Ford's space heater so he wasn't letting her leave his side as he spooned her.

So Ammy and Maria stood before Ford's bed and Yun reached out a hand to enchant their jackets and all other clothing items to protect them from the temperature. "Have fun you two. Stay close to the house." Yun told them.

"I will endeavour to keep Maria within the boundaries of this property." Ammy nodded. "By fun, do you mean our definition of fun?"

"Please don't rob a museum." Yun deadpanned. "Go with Maria's form of fun."

Ammy nodded again and turned to Maria, entirely serious. "I will need you to educate me on your world views." Maria giggled at the silly big kid.

Yun watched the two walk off, hand in hand. "I think Ammy would be a good big brother."

Ford's expression was suspiciously level. "...with supervision. You… are watching them, right?"

"Hell yes I am." Yun's Eye was wide open and staring at Ammy and Maria out in the yard.

Ford rolled his eyes. He still didn't trust Ammy. He was not evil, but he was so not with his feet on the earth.

At least when they had their Christmukkah celebration, Ammy only joined for a little while before leaving.

"I just don't understand that boy." Ford sighed. Yun shrugged. "Like you can even understand me ?"

"That's different. Finding out more about you and why you work the way you do is exciting. Ammy's just a test of my patience."

Yun giggled. "Well, I'm sure you'll get used to him eventually." She sobered a little. "I really do want the kids to grow up with their big brother."

Ford took a deep breath, remembering Ashton's words. That would be a problem for Ford in the future.

-.-

With that horrible year done and the deaths incredibly decreasing, everyone was kinda excited for the new year. Things would have to be much better with Fiddleford in charge. Ford missed his friend, but he could already see all the changes he was doing to improve things. Raising wages for all essential workers for one thing. More support for the homeless as another. Fiddleford had been homeless for over ten years of his life. He knew better than anyone how hard it could be.

(Sure, some fuckin idiots came and said what he was doing was comunism or some shit, but most reasonably not brainwashed people were just relieved to actually see good changes). Ford called Fiddleford on weekends to chat and let his friend rant and vent about the troubles.

Like the failed insurrection on the white house that Shlump tried to pull just before his swearing as president. Which failed spectacularly as Fiddleford's robotic spiders captured all the enemies.

Mabel and Dipper who'd been following the news (and mocking the dressed up fascists), were just so smug, telling their friends their new robot obsessed president was their friend. Dillon will never forgive his mom for not letting him go to Gravity Falls that year. He'll never let her live that down.

A big challenge McGucket had was how fucking cold this winter was for the country. The Pines were basically living in their beds, shivering and that's because they had the resources to stand it, a lot of places didn't. Seb had been going insane with how cold it was. He hit his head against the wall (Wanda did NOT like this one bit) as the twins laid down still in the pile of blankets, energyless. Seb despised the cold and his fire wasn't even forming as strong. That is how cold everything was! Max was just mentally ready after around 20 years of existence.

Winters are cold. If you die, you die .

And it was refreshing to see a government actually care for people's quality of life by quickly planning a help program for the most in need.

Fiddleford built a whole variety of robots for his purposes. Many of them used the Weirdness batteries that Ford sent him. Hey, clean energy was clean energy and Fiddleford wasn't going to turn it down. And they were workers he could trust to do their job. Even if that job was to generate heat for large areas. Frankly, Fiddleford didn't really like most of the other politicians.

Like the people who essentially stole some of the vaccines to give themselves and their friends and families, instead of the hospital it was supposed to go to. Fiddleford had been so angry about that he had to be forcibly sedated to stop him from setting a giant robot beaver on them. If the vaccines were in the hospital, and no one was coming to get them, then it would be alright to administer them to whoever they could, just so the vaccines didn't expire. But if someone literally steals the shipment that was meant for the hospital for their own social circle, that was… no. They weren't allowed to fucking do that!

Progress with actually changing the laws was slow. But progress on physical repairs was going well. Fiddleford was using his new salary as president to pay for most of the stuff he needed. Fancy cars? No. Vacation trips? No. He had fucking work to do! And what the fuck was he even supposed to do with all this money? Of course he used it to try and fix shit. Like giving the homeless some HOMES for one thing. He noticed there were far fewer homeless along the streets than he originally thought, something he would have to thank Xin for. Next, Fiddleford pushed to get all people imprisoned for possession of marijuanna to be released and to be pardoned. He was president now. He could pardon whoever the fuck he wanted.

He had a lot of work ahead of him and there were roadblocks from all the other politicians (only a small number were actually on his side, wanting to make things better and fix all the problems. Most of them just wanted to keep the status quo).

And while Fiddleford was working long into the night, Ford was doing much the same. He didn't technically create the Plantimals. But he wanted to use them for his work, that being environmental research for making the world better. And if he wanted the Plantimals for that, he had to have the research and data to back them up, since he didn't think saying, "My alien girlfriend created them for fun." was going to fly with the scientific community. So he had to essentially reverse engineer them. He needed to work hard on them.

Ford dialed Seb, unfortunately, Seb had lived and interacted with his pets longer than he had . "YELLOW~!" Seb grinned on the other side of the phone. Ford could feel his grin.

"Hello, Sebastian...can I ask you a favor?" He asked and Seb hummed loudly. "Is it related to roast beef? I am making roast beef!" He informed him distractedly. Ford's mouth watered and he shook his head. No! Focus! "No. Actually. Is the tree that Sir Bedazzle and Queen Flutter produced after their first hibernation still in your backyard?"

Seb laughed. "The tree formed after that night of passion~ Yeah, it's there. Why?" Ford shuddered at the indecent thought he had thanks to his brother. "Do you know if it can produce more baby plantimals? Yun believes it might be a unique occasion but I want to be sure."

"Oh please no! I hope not!" Seb groaned. Ford laughed. "Well, if it does, I think we could harvest the plantimals to sell them as pets and environmental aid." Seb hummed. "Well, that would be useful I guess, with living things needing to 'breathe'." Ford was totally sure his brother made quotation marks in breathe. Seb did realize he also breathed right?

"-But you would need to ask Stan to help you with the actual sales. I'm sure he would be thrilled to market them."

Ford blinked before sighing loudly. "Of course Stan would love to do just that...can you check the tree for me and call me when you know?"

"Ok!" Seb said excitedly as he turned off the kitchen stove. "I'll go check it now! Call ya in a bit! Love ya!"

Ford nodded before he closed the call. Well, that was that. Maybe he should call Stan now? Ford paused. "Naaw~" He could do this on his own, he didn't need Stan's help. Establishing a business wasn't THAT hard right?

He put his phone away and continued writing. He had to get everything ready as soon as possible! He felt kind of bad for taking the credit for Yun's/Miz's/Bill's creations, but...he did experiment on them and learnt how they worked...so, it wasn't that bad? Besides, even if the plantimals weren't commercially sold, they would be bought by large companies, and his research was definitely worth a lot! Being the scientist who mysteriously disappeared and was thought dead for years and who caught the news' attention for a while suddenly coming back with research done on supernatural and weirdness was a great way to promote himself.

Not how he would have wanted to get known worldwide but it worked too!

Motivated by this new thought, Stanford continued working. Doing what he did best!

-.-

And after months of work, he finally cracked the code on the plantimals.

Theoretically. He was keeping some information private and wasn't going to actually create more Plantimals, but he had his paper and was ready to reveal them to the world. He was actually very excited for this. Finally something good HE could do.

Hey, he was happy for Fiddleford, but he also wanted his bit of recognition!

"You're going to do fine." Yun assured him. "Now stand still while I fix your hair."

With how the world was right now, Ford's press conference to reveal his experiment was going to be done in the Center. On a little stage they set up for this 'press conference'. It was going to be on something like a Zuum call.

Everyone in the scientific community went nuts over his 'creation'. They called it the invention of the century, actually, and he was rewarded with a lot of money for it. It didn't stop there though, like he had kind of hoped. Scientists around the world continued trying to contact him, scientific magazines continued writing essays about his research and what it 'meant for the world as we know it', and eventually, he was told he had to do a proper press conference to reveal this new scientific breakthrough.

He was glad he didn't need to travel anywhere. Thinking of Yun suffering from leaving the babies behind wasn't pleasant. (Because Ford would want her by his side, and travelling was difficult with that many children, yes, even with the portal watch, mainly because he didn't want to reveal he had a portal watch.)

And Ford had to be dressed up extra fancy for this press conference.

"Why did I agree to this?" He moaned. Yun laughed. "Because you've got the entire scientific world in a frenzy. You created life. A new species." She grinned. The acorn and maple seed she was holding wiggled. Ford glanced at her. "You need to hide your extra arms." He deadpanned.

"Fine~" Yun grumbled. She was wearing a jacket, less puffy but still pretty large, it was enough to hide her extra arms but she was still annoyed she had to do so. "Everyone in Gravity Falls already knows I'm an alien." Ford shook his head. "But the world isn't ready for that yet."

"And apparently they were ready for aliens and alternative dimensions for when you built the interdimensional portal like 20 years ago?" Yun raised an eyebrow. Ford scoffed. "That...was different."

"Sure~it was." Yun rolled her eyes. "Now let's get out there and wow the reporters." Despite her words, Ford noticed the faint trembling. He had noticed a while ago, but when MizBill panicked, half the time it was barely noticeable. They would appear perfectly calm even when they were stressing out over something or another.

Ford hugged Yun. "It's going to be alright, " he told her. "Don't worry." Yun gave a bark of laughter. "Sure. That's what I've been telling you, ya dork." She hugged him back and patted his back.

A man, one of the people in charge of this transmission, suddenly approached them and looked at Ford. "Dr. Pines, we go on air in a minute, would you mind following me?"

Yun broke apart from the hug and handed him the box with the plantimals. "Just say everything you know about the plantimals. You aren't lying to anyone. I'll be right here if you need me." She kissed his cheek. Ford nodded and turned around, but squeaked when his partner slapped his arm. "For good luck~" Ford rolled his eyes and followed the man to the stage.

He called it stage but it was more like one of those NED talk audience halls. He took a deep breath. This was just explaining with cameras in front of him, no biggie. They had rearranged the lobby area of the Center to look more professional for this. And the news crews had sent in their camera people and anchors, all with masks, and having been tested beforehand. Also, there were markers along the ground to indicare six feet so people could stay apart.

He hugged the plantimals to himself and slowly walked towards the middle where all the reporters were anxiously waiting with cameras and their microphones for the juicy information and the best photos they could take. He cleared his throat. "H-hello. My name is Doctor Stanford Pines." He greeted.

The reporters immediately began asking questions. "What are these creatures?" "How did you create life?!" "Are they sentient?" "Is this the start of BakeMon becoming real? Will you make a Pikachu next?" "Can I have one?" "Can I BUY one?!" "What if they are dangerous?" "How much did they cost to create?" "Some people say you shouldn't mess with life in such a way." "Eight children? Holy mother of god!"

(Yun snorted. Well, she was glad she wasn't the one out there.)

Ford looked back and forth as the reporters continued shooting questions at the same time. He didn't understand what they were saying! He did manage to catch them asking him about his relationship with Yun (totally unrelated to the topic, how unprofessional) and that made him frown. "Excuse me, one question at a time, please." He said. He gave the word to a woman in the front rows.

"Dr. Pines, what are these new creatures? How was it possible to create vegetal and animal hybrids?" Ford straightened up "Well they aren't animals actually, just modified to externally look like one. Once I stabilized the DNA, I managed to grow a small batch of seedlings."

"How are they capable of movement?"

"The same way other plants are. They pump the water through their bodies to tighten and loosen much like our muscles do. There's also a very faint nervous system."

"Why are they an acorn and a maple seed?" A man asked. Ford held back an eye roll. Because his partner made decisions based on his whims. "Because my original experiment was to produce an improved tree that would photosynthesize better. I used acorns and maple seeds because they were easy to find and easy to see."

Ford heard sounds of photos being taken. He unconsciously straightened up a little more. Another reporter asked. "How long will these new species live, Dr. Pines? What are their intended lifespans?" Ford froze and hummed in thought. He hadn't thought of that before! As plants they lived a shit ton, as animals, around 20 years! Shit! Shit!

He slowly took the acorn puppy out of their pet carrier and everyone leaned closer to see the little creature and camera flashes lit the room. The puppy wiggled happily and barked, effectively distracting the people. "They are intended to be house pets as they are friendly, harmless and easy to take care of. This is an acorn puppy-" He put it back in and grabbed the maple seed. "-and this is a maple kitten." It mewed to the crowd to prove it.

They all cooed at the little plantimals. "As for their lifespans...I don't fully know yet. Trees have long lifespans but cats and dogs are at most 20 years." he placed the kitten back inside. "So I don't know for sure yet. They are advanced plants, not animals, so I suppose they could theoretically live for many years so long as they are properly cared for. Therefore, I will need to keep careful track of their population and while I DO want to make them available for sale as an eco-friendly pet, the sale and distribution will be very strict and careful."

Everyone nodded as they recorded or wrote his answers. "How about the fact you created life?" A reporter asked kind of skeptically. "Can you affirm these creatures will cause no harm to the natural ecosystem? You have only mentioned advantages. What would you say is the difference between bringing extinct animals back to life and your new creation?" Everyone immediately turned to look at the scientist to hear his response.

Ford sighed. "Well they only require water and sunlight so they wouldn't be competing with other animals for resources. The downside that comes to mind would be plantimals replacing pet cats and dogs, leading to more animals being sent to shelters but the acorns can't really do what most dogs can and the maple seeds aren't good mousers so I doubt they would replace cats and dogs in the practical aspect. They're more like household plants that also move around and can demand cuddles and play time."

The man nodded and more questions were being shouted. Ford felt incredibly proud of himself at how he was answering the questions. Bullshitting what was actually true with only small bits of lies...which weren't actually lies! At some point, someone asked him if they could be counted as Backpack Monsters, and if they had evolutions. While Sir Bedazzle and Queen Flutter DID change their appearance after their hibernation, he wasn't sure it counted as an evolution. "I think, more than evolution...they go through stages of development like any other living organism. They are babies at the moment, so I expect them to grow as time goes on."

Ford paused. "Also, Backpack Monsters aren't evolving! They're metamorphosing! How do people not understand that?!"

The reporters grinned and lifted their mics. "What's your knowledge of Backpack Monsters, Dr. Pines?" "Did they inspire you to create the Plantimals? "Do you consider yourself a fan?"

"My niece and nephews love the show. I won't say they're the ones who inspired it but I did give my younger brother and his family the first ones and they're doing a lot to help me determine whether they would work as household pets."

Everyone cooed and nodded. Relying on family? Cute as hell!

A few more questions about the plantimals and his research were answered. Yes. This was his newest invention. Yes. He had more, but in stand-by until the plantimals' case was completely done. N-No. He didn't get help, it was an individual project…

"And your desire to sell them?"

"Yes, I-"

"Alright everyone. Listen up!" A gruff voice came and Ford snapped in its direction. Blood left his face as his triplets appeared out of nowhere and marched up towards him.

H-How the hell did they get up there?!

"StanCo will be handling all the distribution of this product. Plantimals! A pet for the environment!" He said charmingly, leaning against Ford as Seb laughed.

The reporters were snapping photos and murmuring among themselves. "When will they be ready for market?" one asked. Stan laughed. "Once my brother's finished with his nerd-notes, they will be ready for purchase, of course, there will be a legal contract before you can buy one."

"Can you affirm the plantimals are a family business, Mr. Pines?" A reporter asked and Stan laughed before hugging his shorter brother towards him. "Can't breathe!"Seb hissed and clawed his muscled arm.

"Of course!" Stan grinned at the crowd. "Why, Sebas here has been graciously helping out by testing that very thing. His children LOVE their Plantimals. They're gentle with small children and easy to care for. They even teach his kids responsibility as they take care of them."

"So how long have you had a plantimal, Sebastian?" A reporter asked and Seb laughed nervously. "A while...um, they are really cute and caring. They survive falls from careless children and they just need a lot of love~" Sebastian didn't actually answer her question, distracting with another topic.

Everyone cooed as Stan pointed at his brother's eyepatch. "Our last pet was a monster! He lost his eye after it went insane! My poor brother!" He cried and both Seb and Ford deadpanned at the (blatant) lie. "The plantimals are the safest pets you could ever had! And only StanCo can offer them to you~"

Seb nodded. "They don't bite and don't have teeth. They don't have claws and they're non aggressive. Even if they hiss or growl when upset, they do not attack. I will admit they're not very good at learning tricks. My kids have been trying to teach sit or stay but all Sir Bedazzle can really do is roll over."

The audience cooed. "Your acorn is named Sir Bedazzle?" Seb rubbed his head sheepishly. Ugh these stupid kids making him look stupid on tv! "My kids named him. He is Sir Bedazzle of the Forest. Our maple kitten is Queen Fluttertail, Lady of the Fey Wilds." The audience laughed. "How adorable!"

Ford looked at Yun as his brothers continued promoting the plantimals. Yun sent him a telepathic message. 'Calm your tits, Fordsie, this is actually really good. You'll have good publicity when they're released to the market and Stan will be in charge of selling them.'

'I don't know how he found out! I didn't tell him for this exact reason!' Ford crossed his arms. 'I could have done it myself!'

Yun rolled her eyes. 'But Stan is REALLY good at selling people what he wants. He has that con man charisma I'm sure he got from Granny Kari...and, I love you, owl, but you aren't that good at business. Just make sure to sign a good contract with Stanley or the guy will rob you.' She laughed. Ford muttered about how it was Stan whom he couldn't trust, not Seb.

Finally the reporters left and Stan grinned as he came backstage. "Hey Sixer! I'm gonna be rich!" Yun poked him in the ribs "You mean WE, right?"

"Yes, Yes that~" Stan's eyes were sparkling as he imagined the commercial and advertising already. "We are gonna be rich asses!" He cheered and raised a hand for his older triplet to high-six. Ford rolled his eyes but agreed anyway. ("You're already rich you greedy bitch." Yun laughed.)

Seb laughed at the two and Stan hugged him again. "I bet you wanna be a part of this too, Sebas. You know what's intelligent? Investment! You should invest in real stuff, like this! I see it! Money flying towards us and swimming in a pool full of it!"

"That sounds disgusting and unhygienic." Ford frowned. Seb simply laughed. "Of course I wanna! All this time making sure those little freaks didn't die finally paying off! But I should ask Wanda if trusting you is intelligent."

Stan let him go and the younger man fell to the floor with a thud. "Ay, you naive souls. I'll send my lawyers when you have everything ready!" Stan winked at Ford who was frowning in confusion.

Ford rolled his eyes. "How did you get here anyway?"

"Fez suddenly appeared at my house, probably moved by the power of money. We portal'd here!" Seb smiled. "Let's go do something~ The kids aren't here to bother us!" He pouted. "And we've got masks!"

Ford rolled his eyes again, but the idea of finally hanging out with his triplets was appealing. He cleared his throat. "Well, shall we?" He wasn't going to admit that he missed them though.

"Can we vandalize Cutebikers office?" Seb suggested. Stan rubbed his palms together. "Oh I love the sound of that mwahaha!" Ford had no voice on it as Seb picked him up with his mind and kidnapped him. "Hey!" ""Wwwooooo!"" His brothers screamed. Yun watched them go with a fond expression. Ford was calling for help, buuuuut~ she was going to let Ford have some quality time with his brothers.

He deserved the chance to relax.

---

Notes:

Mizuuma: Yes. We are power fantasy-ing the fuck outta this. The world becomes a better place. McGucket fixes America and other countries follow suit. We'll make a better world, a FUN world. *Bill Cipher laugh*)