-Race you to the bottom of the stairs-(Part 2)

"I didn't know that you didn't know--"

"--Later," Stan repeated, still more than a little angry with the kid, because the kid should have known that he would never be okay with Ford being alone in the same room with him, let alone off out in the woods with him, for any reason. Bill almost bristled at the brush-off, before taking a hold of his own temper, pushing it down, and nodding once. "Fine. Later."

"--It's not fine," Stan said angrily, fists clenched at his side, as Soos slowly started to lever Ford to his feet, with Melody hovering at the side a bit to try and help catch him if need be. Miz was forced to step away and let go.

Miz sniffled. Her eyes were tearing up slightly as she let go of his hand. "I'm sorry…" She said, actually meaning it this time. "I was just talking with Bill and then Ford started getting… weird…" She was starting to understand why Stanley was so protective, if Ford was this delicate. "And then he got weirder and Bill said he did it to himself? But I didn't know he was this bad off…"

Stan stepped forward and not quite caught his brother, as Soos tried to get him upright and Ford's feet went nearly out from under him. He was far more preoccupied with helping his brother out than handling anything with the pair of demons at the moment, starting a fight or yelling at them or anything else. They weren't trying anything right then, and Ford came first. Getting his brother away from the two of them and home safely was the higher priority right then. (And Stan knew if he engaged with them right now, he'd likely end up taking a swing at the kid. And then…)

Stan ducked down and got under his brother's shoulder, got him mostly up again properly, with hand holding his wrist across his shoulders and another arm wrapped around his back to grab at his waist. Ford staggered for a moment, then looked up and leaned heavily against his brother at recognizing him, though it took him a moment.

Ford's face lit up in a relieved grin, "Stan-- Lee," and he started to laugh… then leaned on him even more heavily and his laughter quickly morphed into sobbing. Tears streaked straight down his cheeks; he was too far gone at the moment to even think of being embarrassed, and he thought it was all happening safely inside his own head anyway, no-one would ever know...

"Um… is there anything I can do to help?" Miz asked softly, still sniffling.

"Figure out your stupid emotion thing, and stay out here until I come get you two later," Stan said tersely, angry as hell as he turned away from the two of them and slowly helped his brother take the staggering steps with him that he needed to in order to get back to the house. Soos followed at Ford's other side, and Melody gave Bill a somewhat disappointed look, before she turned away and started walking back with the rest of the boys to the Shack.

Miz sniffled as they left. Bill shrugged it off as something he'd have to handle 'later'. He sat down and unwrapped the plastic bag Stan had shoved at him, pulling out the two containers of hot chocolate and pancakes, respectively. Miz reached for the pancakes and ate them quietly.

Bill opened up the thermos and poured out a cup of the beverage into the top cup, then held it out for her to take from him. Miz sipped the liquid, coughed and blew on it to make it cooler before she took another sip. "Did I do bad?" She asked.

"No," Bill said. "It would have happened sooner or later." He sat back on the grass. "Was thinking about trying to explain the problem to Stanley a bit better before it did, but…" He shrugged. He'd only confirmed multiple Bill Ciphers to Stan a few days ago, and last night was the first time he'd done it when he'd had the uncontroversial evidence right in front of Stanley's face of this fact.

Bill rubbed the side of his hand against his right temple."Only way around it would be to try and change the idiot's perceptions so he'd never recognize another Bill Cipher as existing or being a Bill Cipher. And that would be dangerous." He'd been putting it off because he didn't know what the final outcome would be when that Stanford bounced back this time. He'd been hoping to maybe get a bit farther with Stanley first, enough that he could ask him.

Miz nodded, hiccuping slightly as she sipped the chocolate. Ooh… it… was really good… hadn't had chocolate sin-since… she hiccuped again, swaying slightly. Oh. She shook her head and shoved another pancake in her mouth. She should probably eat more before she drank more… huh… she had thought it was the liquor part of the chocolate liquor but… huh… chocolate…

"...Miz?" Bill blinked at her when she started swaying.

She swayed again. She probably shouldn't drink anymore of the chocolate… but it was delicious. Ah...she wanted to drink anyway...

Bill narrowed his eyes at her. "...It's the chocolate, isn't it." He'd seen these sorts of reactions to chocolate before in denizens the multiverse-wide.

Miz nodded slowly before hiccuping again.

"Try changing the caffeine and the portions directly connected to those hydrocarbons to water, instead." Bill didn't know the specifics of how Miz set up her vessels, but water shouldn't hurt this one, he presumed. That change didn't always work, and did mess with the taste a bit, but sometimes it did and that was enough...

Miz nodded before she frowned at the cup and thermos. She hiccuped again. "Uwu…" She whined. At least she hadn't drank too much of it yet. If she just waits a little, it should pass. She sipped it and made a face. "It doesn't taste as good now." She complained. "So I've heard," Bill agreed. "But did it work?" Miz blinked and shook her head. "I dunno yet." She ate another pancake, hoping it would help. It normally did.

"Mm." Bill set down the thermos at his own side, to reduce the temptation, and then pulled his knife and the partially-completed next set of rune-covered stones for Miz to try, to keep working on those. He was running out of ideas himself for what might work, or what wavelengths or means she was using to pick up on those 'waves', whatever they actually were.

Miz ate the pancakes and waited for her body to burn through the caffeine. The dizziness was fading, which was good. She wondered what it was about Earth chocolate that caused this. The chocolate-like stuff she found out in the multiverse didn't cause such a reaction.

Bill continued to work quietly. He seemed largely at ease with where he was, what he was doing, and who-with.

-----

Miz finally got an idea. If the problem was being unable to isolate her 'sense' for emotions, then she simply blocked ALL her senses. Sight, Smell, Sound...the whole lot of them.

When she explained it to Bill, he looked a bit horrified at the idea of her effectively blinding herself to everything ON PURPOSE. (It was something of an anathema to him, counter to how he'd thought about almost anything he'd ever done before -- the more information the better, the more ways to gather it the better, and you get everything you can first and then filter it later. 'Turning senses off' was very different that 'turning down the volume' or 'filtering what you can See or hear' and similar. He considered the latter to be just another type of regulation, and he'd always thought of the former as being akin to excising capabilities from one's Self.) He hadn't quite tried to stop her, but it had taken some serious explaining on Miz's part before he'd stopped trying to talk her out of trying it.

She felt a little odd with the blindfold on. She'd set up a 'spell' on it so that it would block ALL of her senses and slowly work her way backward. She couldn't feel anything at all. Not even touch, she was sure she had her hands on her face, pressing against the cloth she had tied around her face but she couldn't feel it. Ok. This was a start. No emotions were coming through. Now she just had to slowly adjust this spell to allow her senses back, one by one. It would take a while and she resolved to start with her sense of touch so she didn't accidentally press too hard on her face and gouge out her own eyes or something.

Miz was moving oddly as she sat on the leaf chair, tilting and swaying as she lost her sense of balance.

Bill's hands twitched. He usually didn't have the impulse to reach out and try to touch or grab -- he'd largely gotten rid of that instinct a long time ago, after only his first few thousand years in the Mindscape -- but right now? He very much did want to reach out and correct her swaying, to give her a sense of the boundaries around her and still her uncontrolled motion. But Miz had explained before starting this how that would be distracting, and so he didn't.

He didn't like this though. Being 'blind' for even short periods of time was highly dangerous, in his experience. Miz had told him she trusted her "Big brother" to make sure she was safe, though -- and that was exactly what he was doing just then for her, continually scanning the area and looking for signs of trouble.

Miz slowly adjusted the spell, allowed back one of her senses. She could feel the chair under her now. She gripped it when she realized she was falling over and huffed out a breath. Still couldn't see, hear, smell or the others but this was a start. She breathed deeply and concentrated on unhooking the next sense. She chose hearing this time so she could at least talk to Bill. "Hello? Testing…" She heard her own voice. Ok, good.

"Testing what?" Bill said, confused.

"To see if my hearing is back." Miz responded. "Which it is. That's good."

"Good." Bill smiled. He still felt a little nervous (HAHA, nervous? who's nervous? not Bill!! his little sister was fine!) as he continued to keep up his area checks-- --Ah, he couldn't get too distracted by talking with Miz to keep track of his scanning-spells!

Miz tilted her head as she poked at her own spellwork. Ah. Looks like she would have to make a choice. If she unlocked too many senses, the spell would fall apart. So she could get 3 back safely before the spell got too unstable to adjust any more. So… that left the question of which should be the last sense. She had touch and hearing so far… the obvious choice would be sight but… well…

Miz bit her lip in thought. Well… she could always swap out later, there were WAAAAY more senses than just five after all, not all of them were the kinds people thought about. She sighed. "I can only have three senses active at a time if I want to keep the suppression spell up," she told Bill. "I have touch and hearing, but I don't know what my last one should be."

Bill blinked. "Why hearing and not sight?"

"Because I like being able to talk to people and hearing their responses." Miz said. "Also, I have trouble telling people apart and their voices are a helpful way to tell who is who."

Bill took a moment to respond. He was still keeping up the scanning-spells, and it took longer for him to think through things as a result.

"Synthesia is a thing," he told her, as he flicked through a few things on the visual interface he'd made to watch things. "You have touch, and… sight won't be problematic?" He glanced through a few more things. "You can just amp up touch and translate the sound waves to something you see in front of you, or… we can set up a spell in the bracelets to translate it over to visual input for you automatically."

"Well there's also sense of distance, sense of time, sense of balance…" Miz mumbled. She was lucky that touch was close enough to help with balance, but she was going to stumble a little.

"Distance is usually mapped to touch and sight for humans," Bill noted. "Time sense is… tricky. I don't have that right, right now, myself, even. Balance should be related to touch, but interior; you can't open that one up a little more broadly without problems?" he asked.

"I can push for it… but that would override the 3rd slot for sense." Miz sighed. "Y'know, it's fine. I don't need to see, right?"

Bill was quiet for a moment.

"If it was me," he began slowly, "I would pick sight, touch, and…" He hesitated. "Taste. You like eating. I've been able to find analogues for almost everything mapped to what I could See, except for Touch." If she couldn't push it without losing a 'slot', she likely couldn't open up sight to include Seeing sound waves, but… he thought a bit on that.

Miz thought about it. "Alright, I'm pretty good at lip reading so if I'm watching then I would be able to know what people are saying."

Bill nodded. "And there are technologies -- not even magicks -- that species without Hearing can use to communicate with ones that do rely on it. Look up the Universal Translators that I have here?" he recommended.

"Ok, so...Sight, Touch and Taste…" Miz concentrated and reworked the spell, shivering a little as all sound cut off again. She reached up her hands to push the blindfold up so it rested on her forehead like a headband. She squinted and blinked a bit to get used to seeing again. The silence was a little disconcerting but she couldn't feel any emotions… except her own, but that was a weird feeling too. Distant, somewhat. Was this what it was supposed to feel like without psychic powers making everything more… vibrant?

"...Testing?" Bill said, turning away from his spellwork setup, to look over at her and move his head into her vessel's field of view.

Miz blinked. "I can't hear you, but I can tell you're saying 'testing'," she said, the volume of her voice a little shaky. It would get softer and louder as she seemed to adjust to speaking without being able to know how her own sounds came out.

Bill nodded. He flicked his hands through the one of the more common sign languages used by some dimension-travelling species to ask, 'Can you See still? Or is that suppressed, too?' It hadn't quite occurred to him to ask it of her until now.

"I can see with this vessel's eyes, but I can't See," she said. "Which, I think would actually reassure Stan and Ford."

'Yes,' he signed at her, dourly. 'But you should spend the time now before we go back Seeing anything you think you need to, before we do.' He paused. 'Taking off the blindfold immediately lets everything back in?' he asked of her. If she didn't think to actually test it, he'd recommend it to her next. She needed to understand how disorienting it might be to go from almost-nothing to everything… It wouldn't be quite the same as slipping from the Mindscape into a vessel or exoskeleton, because her All-Seeing Eye was also being restricted currently.

Miz nodded. She slipped her thumbs under the cloth and lifted it. It slid on and off easily, so if there was an emergency she'd be alright. She shivered when all her senses returned all at once. "Ah… I'd be distracted for a few seconds of putting it on or off. But I'm fine otherwise," she said.

Bill nodded at her.

"Should we ask Stan if I'm allowed back inside now?" she asked as she put the headband back on. She shivered at the oppressive feeling. She still thought this was unnecessary but if it would help Stan know that she was trying to be good… she thought of something. "How would I know if the kids say 'Stop'?" she asked.

Bill frowned. He hadn't thought about that. It took him a minute. 'They can sign it at you.' He made the normal universal gesture. 'Just don't talk when you aren't looking directly at someone who could hear or see then and relay the stop?' Annoying, but it would work. 'No might be more of a problem, though,' Bill realized belatedly. 'You can't just NOT do ANYTHING unless you're looking at someone who's paying attention to everything-and-you.' Even Bill wouldn't be able to pull that one off. And 'no's tended to require an immediate, near-instantaneous stop-check and response.

Miz sighed. "It's fine, I can trade taste for hearing. It's fine to eat bland food for a while…" She was saddened by that but unless she could get the twins to find a very obvious signal for 'Stop' and 'No' there would be issues. "This is frustrating." She sighed.

'We could eat outside the barrier for meals,' Bill signed to her, as he took down the scanning-spells. 'You could swap hearing and taste just for then? Or go farther out and take it off entirely?'

"That'll work. I should ask Stan if that would be acceptable?" Miz asked.

'Yes,' Bill agreed. 'He'll want to give input.' Bill stretched and sighed. 'He may even come up with a better idea. He does that sometimes.'

Miz swapped out taste for hearing and sighed. "Well, should we call Stan and ask if I can go back inside now?"

Bill nodded and pulled out his phone again. He called Shooting Star's phone first, this time. ...And it went straight to voicemail. Bill frowned. He tried calling the main house line again, and got a pick-up. "...Yes. We have something that works. She can't-- yes." He paused. "No, I didn't…" Bill grimaced. "Yes. ...Fine. ...Yes." He pulled the phone away from his ear and tapped the disconnect button.

Bill let out a breath. He turned to Miz. "Melody says 'yes' to coming back inside, but 'recommends we stay in the attic room until she tells us otherwise'," Bill paraphrased heavily. "Stanley isn't happy, and he doesn't want either of us near that Stanford for awhile."

Miz nodded, standing up and wavering a little as she walked carefully. "Alright. That seems fair." She snapped the bracelets back on. "I do hope Ford feels better soon."

"HA. --Technically," Bill said with a bit of an odd look in his eyes, "He's feeling BETTER right now than he was before!" he told her, with something of a nasty grin, as he began walking back to the Shack alongside her.

"Has Stan considered taking his brother to therapy?" Miz asked. Actually… now that she's here… in a world where therapists exist… could she ask Stan if SHE could get therapy?

Bill gave her a sideways look. "So he could sob to someone about 'how he feels', and then LET them root around IN HIS MIND to DO things to him?" HA! That wasn't happening! That idiot couldn't even manage to talk to the rest of his Zodiac about things. Why would Miz think he might even consider talking to a stranger?

"Aren't they supposed to help?" Miz muttered. "Doesn't Ford want to get… less broken?"

"Help? Maybe. If you trust them to. And if they're actually worth trusting. …And if they know what they're doing." And that was a LOT of 'if's. "Besides, that Stanford is incapable about talking about other dimensions with Stanley, Shooting Star, and Pine Tree as-is," he told her. "Well that sounds… dumb. How's he supposed to get over his issues if he refuses to acknowledge them?" Miz stepped carefully, watching where her feet needed to go.

"Oh, he acknowledges them! ...most of them," Bill noted. "But if you ask me, I think -- HA, I know -- he's afraid that they'll HATE him if they finally figure out what he's REALLY like!" Bill told her brightly.

"That's even MORE stupid. They love him." Miz pulled on her shirt. "Stan loves him even when he's… the way he is. And I doubt Mabel would hate him unless he shot someone to death in front of her."

"Mm," said Bill. "Maybe?" He looked away from her. "But maybe he wouldn't love them."

"If Ford doesn't love them back, I would be legitimately angry with him." Miz grumbled. "They care about him a lot. If he doesn't like them back… that's… just really mean." It'd be such a dick move.

"No," Bill said. "You misunderstand." He looked back at her. "If they had done what he had done, and felt what he felt, and think what he thinks…" Bill looked away from her, as the Shack came into view. "He might not love them anymore." He tilted his head back and looked up at the sky. "He might hate them, instead. Because they screwed up. And did something wrong. And couldn't ever fix it. And keep not being able to fix it. ...So why wouldn't they feel the same way about him?" He grimaced, and said lightly after that, "And what kind of person must they be, to forgive someone like that, if he's supposed to be good, and he's supposed to be the hero, and he... can't, and he thinks that maybe he shouldn't?"

"But that's… so sad." Miz was sure that no matter what it was that Ford might have done, Stan would probably still forgive him. Stan had said he had celebrating people dying before. So, he would probably forgive Ford regardless.

"Mm," said Bill. He dropped his chin. "Maybe. ...Counterpoint: maybe he deserves it!" Bill told her with a wild and absolutely-false grin. ...And it wasn't Stanford Pines he was thinking on when he said that, his mind full of memories of someone yelling at someone-else about how someone was a monster.

"I don't think that's a reason to stop loving someone… even if they did something awful… if they… try to be better and not do it anymore…" Miz hugged herself. After all, she's done plenty of awful things.

Bill let out a laugh as they made their way up onto the back porch, bypassing the area with all of the Mystery Shack goers. "You REALLY don't understand how Stanfords work, do you," he told her, as he opened the door. "Not forgiving 'unforgivable things' is a specialty of theirs!" And there was a great deal of anger underlying Bill's apparent amusement at what he clearly he thought was a stupid 'quaint' notion, as he said this.

Miz looked over before going back to making her way through the shack. "I've only met your Ford and Seb's Ford. I've seen another Ford before, but it was inside another Bill's memories. He… was also a jerk… I'm worried. Are all Stanford's just jerks? I don't want my Ford to be a jerk…"

"Yeesh, you're asking me?" Bill told her. "I only know what things are like around here!" he made a gesture. "Never Seen any of your dimensions. A LOT of things sound very different there. --You want my advice, though? Don't let the stupid lizard put any Stanfords on your Zodiac if you can help it," he told her. "Even the ONE 'nice' Stanford I could find in this dimensional set is a bit… tricky," he admitted, feeling more than a little uncomfortable.

"Well...I'll be extra careful when mine finally comes along…" Miz looked at the stairs and held onto the wall so she wouldn't slip.

"Careful might not be enough," Bill told her. "In MY experience, when a Stanford decides something… it's decided. You're done. --'Changing your mind', what's that?" Bill laughed out. "And it has nothing to do with what you can or can't say about any of it, because they may just decide to stop LISTENING TO YOU, too," he told her. "...At least when they're awake," he told her, then muttered, "Inconsistent."

They made their way upstairs. Miz sighed. She had wanted to hang out with Mabel today. But like always, she just messed things up. "Well, I have no reason to collapse my 3rd dimension into the Nightmare Realm or do anything awful to it, so he shouldn't have a problem with me."

Bill blinked at her. "What do you mean?" he asked, as he made a gesture and fixed the sound barrier and the lighting as they entered his attic room.

"..." Miz wasn't sure what Bill was asking about. "Well, I'm not trapped in my Nightmare Realm, so I don't need to get out of it."

"Yes," Bill said. "What's your point?"

"So if I'm not gonna harm the 3rd dimension, my Ford probably won't get mad at me?" Miz tilted her head. "Isn't that the reason your Ford got mad at you?"

...It was probably a good thing that they'd made their way up into the attic by that point, for how loudly Bill started to laugh.

And laugh.

And LAUGH.

By the time he was done, he was laying flat-out on the floor, panting and complaining of "...body… ...spasms..."

Miz settled on a pillow and watched Bill gasp. "Am I misunderstanding something?" She wondered if the misconceptions were due to her unconsciously thinking this world followed Canon. It DID seem to… on a surface level… but perhaps there was something very different going on.

Bill slowly got back control over his breathing, and let out a loooooong breath. "WOO! Oh, THAT was SOMETHING!" He turned his head to look over at her. "Who said anything about DESTABILIZING this DIMENSION?" he asked her, smiling. Really, the whole point of getting out of his old decaying dimension and into someplace -- anyplace -- else was for him to be able to get to someplace stable where he could work from. Destabilizing the underpinnings of this dimension and collapsing it had never been on the menu. --He'd held that 'rip' the 'rift' had made in a mental grip made of iron. It wasn't getting any larger than he wanted it to be, and he'd been planning on closing it himself, later. ...once he was sure about his Henchmaniacs following through on doing what they were told. In the meantime, he'd been leaving himself a really VERY obvious backdoor to kick them back through if they didn't. Demons did better with in-your-face and unmistakably eye-popping visuals -- things that just could not be overlooked, Bill had found.

"I think I'm getting the backstories of different dimensions mixed up." Miz groaned as she leaned against the wall. "So what WAS the plan you were going for?"

"Getting out," Bill told her. "That was Phase 1. Phase 2 was TAKING OVER, with a little 'help' from my Henchmaniac friends. Phase 3 is… well," Bill made an odd sort of gesture. "Everything else. Wanted to give myself a bit of flexibility," he told her, "Without any real deadlines to worry about. Had enough of that to last me a trillion more lifetimes with that stupid prophecy," Bill muttered out angrily.

"....So Ford's just mad because he didn't want you taking over the 3rd dimension?" Miz huffed. "Back in my world, the Federation does that CONSTANTLY. They invade a planet, plant themselves in a seat of power and rule over it."

"Oh no," Bill told her. "He's just fine with 'just' authority doing whatever-the-hell-they-want. No problem with that! --No," Bill told her, "He just complains about how I'm going to 'destroy the planet', 'destroy everything', yadda-yadda-yadda, whatever." Bill rolled his eyes at the thought. "--Oh, the last time I tore down a dimension was SEVENTY BILLION YEARS AGO! Why Bill, how horribly unforgivable! And, goodness, I did it more than once?! --Why, that's EVEN WORSE!!!" Bill cried out fakely, pretending to speak in tones of clutching-at-pearls horror. "--Oh, I just won't LEAVE HIM ALONE!! or stay OUT of HIS HEAD!! Boo hoo!" He tossed the back of his hand across his forehead. "--Oh, I help out my friends when they want to commit a little mass-murder for some quid-pro-quo? What's wrong with you, Bill; why did you DO that, I can't even imagine," Bill waved off with that same hand. "'No, Bill, you shouldn't kill people who want you dead for doing all these horrible things, that's wrong'," Bill complained. "'Why won't you just DIE already before you make everything worse, Bill; nobody LIKES you'." Bill made a chuckling sound.

"How is defending yourself when someone tries to kill you, wrong?" Miz pulled her legs up to her chest. "I mean, I try not to kill people if I can help it just 'cause it's annoying to deal with, but people back home know that as long as they don't mess with me, I won't kill them. Anyone who DOES attack me should know what they're getting themselves into…" she mumbled. "And of course I help my friends if they wanna do stuff. Though I do tell them to keep the mass-murdering on a smaller scale, bailing them out of prison all the time is annoying." She mumbled "Stupid Time Baby…"

"--Ah-ah-ah! Mass murder is a no-no with him. So congratulations, you bring that up around this one, and he'll want you dead, too, same as me." Bill looked at her seriously. "So don't do it." Bill frowned. "As far as Sixer is concerned, 'people who don't deserve to live should just die'," Bill related to her. "Which is going to be a problem with him later," Bill muttered, looking tired as anything. "It's not like I go around killing people specifically unless they cross me directly and piss me off; too much work, why would I even BOTHER otherwise? It's a waste of my time," Bill grumbled out.

"Who is he to judge who deserves to live or not?" Miz sighed. "What authority does he have?"

"Why, he's the 'hero of the story', of course!" Bill said with a great deal of false levity and a boatload of sarcasm. "It's what he WANTS, after all."

"Hero? Or protagonist?" Miz tilted her head to the side.

"Both," Bill told her.

"Great, so he's a chuunibyou…" Miz laughed somewhat hysterically. Figures, if he really has a hero complex.

"Chuuni--...?" It took Bill a moment to match it to the correct human language, what with his stupid fleshy human-ish body slowing his energy Self down (as usual, since he'd returned). Once he did, he started laughing hysterically all over again, kicking his feet, the whole nine yards.

"Well he IS, isn't he?!" Miz giggled. "Oh Ax, that's…" She snorted.

"HE IS!!" Bill sputtered out between laughs and sporadic giggles. "OH! Ohhhhhhh…" He collapsed against the floor, truly at a loss for words. "...I …really should have spent more time looking through human-things sooner," he said finally. "You're all SO AMUSING." He's Seen plenty of things over the millenia, but most of it he'd just automatically viewed, catalogued, and stored. He hadn't consciously gone through all that much of it -- only what he'd thought he'd needed here-and-there when he'd been making Deals with people. What else had he been MISSING OUT ON, for being in such a rush?

"Thanks!" Miz giggled.

"Mmmmm..." Bill hummed out, feeling a bit odd. (He wasn't used to the endorphins, or how they were acting on him, and with him 'lower down' in his body than usual, with how Stan had been pushing and encouraging him to do that more and more over the past few weeks…) He blinked up at the ceiling slowly, realizing he was feeling very… relaxed.

Miz laid down beside him, pressed against him but not otherwise touching or holding him. It felt… quiet in her head. Her thoughts were still running around at high speeds but… it was less… cluttered? She wasn't sure how she felt right now. But it wasn't bad.

It was too early in the day for sleep though. She blinked slowly. "Hey Bill, you ever watch anime?" If her powers still worked, she could project the episodes on the wall with sound bubbles to make this a whole, theater-like experience.

Bill looked over at her, perfectly fine with how she was pressed up against his side. (It was actually the closest he'd felt here yet, to how things had used to feel to him, back when he'd "just" been a triangle in his old dimension, well before the fire.)

"That stuff Question Mark is into?" he asked of her. "Define 'watch'." He'd glanced at and flickered through a few things he'd Seen, in keeping watch on his Zodiac. 'Giffany' had been a bit… yeesh. --Say what you want about Question Mark, but Melody was a much better pick for him, Bill figured. More his speed, and overall much quicker on the uptake without missing the important bits. "Real-time, not sped-up, just sitting and watching -- not Seeing -- watching?" He'd only been recently introduced to the experience here, doing that with his Zodiac, a few times since he'd come back. It had been a bit… different. "Will there be talking? Or no-commenting-just-watching rules in effect?" If he wanted the latter, he could just scour his memories for that, and might as well run through it as sped up as possible inside his own Mind.

"Just watching it real-time with the eyes of our physical bodies. Enjoying the moment and just experiencing it the way humans do. No Seeing to know what the ending is, just watching it." Miz raised her hands to make the illusion appear on the ceiling above their heads as they laid on the ground.

"Hmm. That's fine!" Bill said. He was up for whatever she might like to show him, and 'the way humans do' sounded like there would be talking involved, then. In a quick cross-section check of a few things he had stored away from using his Eye, talking had happened more often than not in what'd he'd seen overall, in what humans did. "Which one is this?"

Miz nodded and put on the first episode of Baccano. She's watched that series so many times she knew pretty much every scene by heart. "It's called Baccano, it's my favorite. Ok, first off. This anime is purposefully told out of chronological order, sliced into short segments from all the different characters points of view." She grinned. "We're supposed to piece the story together ourselves as the episodes go on and we find out more of the story."

"Sounds like a usual Seeing session from a full set of inset-eye symbols, then," Bill commented. It would be nice to see something like Seeing something again. He hadn't been able to use his own Eye properly since he'd been back, and when he'd used it the afternoon before, it had HURT.

Miz grinned and clicked 'play' in her head.

---

Over 6 hours later...

Miz was still giggling. No matter how MANY times she watched this show, she still loved it. Oh Isaac...Miria...if only they were real. She would want them to adopt her. They would be the best/worst parents...but they were immortal! So they would never die and leave her...

"So… what'd you think?" She turned to grin at Bill. She thought he liked it. She couldn't 'feel' if he liked it but he laughed multiple times and had a wide grin on his face for a lot of it, especially during the fight scenes. Though he did snort and mutter, "Do fireworks really charbroil a human body like that?" and had seemed a bit distracted for awhile, as he'd tried to calculate that one out via the chemistry and the physics. She eagerly awaited his assessment of her favorite anime.

"THAT--" Bill laughed again. "THAT demon had a SENSE of HUMOR!! --Setting all that up!" he grinned. Now Bill kind of wanted to do something like that. Usually he needed to intervene multiple times to steer things his way. But the pure CHAOS of it? That had just seemed entertaining. "Did humans really come up with that? Or is there a dimension that was really like that, that influenced them?" he asked, curious.

"Well, if there WAS a dimension where those events happened, I haven't found it yet. So, to the best of my current knowledge, a human came up with this story. Ahhh~" Miz squealed as she rolled around. "And it's sooo much fun!! It's sheer, utter chaos!"

"It is!" Bill laughed out.

They both blinked and looked over at the stairway as they heard a lighter set of footsteps, before Melody called out, "Bill? Miz?"

Bill waved a hand lazily to make the audio barrier two-way again, then spoke out, "Here!"

"It's time for dinner," Melody told them both. "Come on downstairs, now. And remember to wash your hands." They heard her footsteps recede.

Miz blinked. "Dinner already?" Her stomach growled. "Ah. Right, we DID just sit through 13 episodes…"

Bill blinked himself. "Ah." He winced slightly as he slowly levered himself up. "Mm." Miz was stretching and groaning as her spine made popping sounds. "...downside of physical bodies… ugh…"

"Well," said Bill, "When you follow the original Rules set, yes," he told her. He slowly pushed himself to his feet. Miz rolled around until she got up, wobbling a little from the sudden movement. "Well, I'm hungry. Here's hoping this dinner conversation ends up being less… problematic," she muttered. She made her way over to the stairs to slowly lever herself down.

Bill followed more slowly behind her.

By the time they had finished washing their hands in the upstairs bathroom, and were downstairs and had entered the kitchen, Melody and Soos were seated at the kitchen table, and Stanley had already finished cooking and was seated as well. Dipper, Mabel, and Ford were nowhere in sight.

"Sit down," Stan said, not even looking up at the two of them.

Bill actually looked vaguely uneasy, as he saw the two empty chairs open, and one toast-sandwich already made up for him on the one plate. Miz sat down quietly. She wasn't sure if she should say anything. She wasn't even sure if she should apologize.

The rest of them were eating quietly. Bill looked annoyed, as he picked up his toast sandwich and ate his way through it. It didn't take him more than a minute, and then he just sat there, looking more and more irritated, and more and more tense.

Miz looked at the food. Hamburgers and salad. She got one and bit into it, chewing quickly as she fed her aching stomach. She looked over the salad to see it had various fruits mixed in with the leafy greens and vegetables, and it all looked fresh from the produce section. Oh. Melody looked at the little girl and scooped some of the salad onto her plate. "You need to eat your vegetables, too," the woman said. Miz nodded but frowned and picked some of the fruit out to set aside.

Bill kept glancing back at the toaster, then around at each of the people.

"You shouldn't be picky with your food." Melody scolded Miz lightly as she took in the growing pile of fruit chunks. Miz shook her head. "I'm allergic to melons," she said quietly. Melody looked surprised. "Oh. I'm sorry. I didn't know."

"It's ok. I'm ok if they're touching, just can't eat the actual thing itself." Miz finished picking out all the melon bits and chewed on her salad. She was allergic back when she was human, and it somehow carried over into her vessels when she built them. Sort of like… an unconscious way of feeling like she was still herself.

Suddenly, Bill shoved himself to his feet.

"Sit down," said Stan. "NnO," Bill said, looking less irritated and more angry now.

"Bill," Stan repeated, starting to shove himself upright.

Bill twisted away from him, turning towards the counter for just a moment. Then he turned back again and leaned over the table instead, to grab up the entire serving bowl that had the salad in it. He immediately sat down with it again, holding it in his lap, and practically spat out at them all, "--MINE."

Stanley stopped, about halfway out of his chair. He half-squinted half-glared at Bill. "What."

"Mine," Bill repeated, to which Stan looked annoyed. "You don't take things from this table that you won't--" Stan stopped talking when Bill grabbed up the serving spoon and shoved a good portion of the salad straight into his mouth.

Stan stared.

Bill chewed, swallowed, and didn't look entirely happy with what he'd just eaten. But he also took another spoonful and bit into that, too. Miz glanced over but shrugged and continued nibbling on her own salad.

Stan slowly sat down, watching him.

Bill didn't exactly look like he wanted to pitch the bowl across the room on the second bite, maybe just kind of close to it. By the time he got through the fifth, he seemed about as fine with it as the toast sandwiches. By the ninth, he was more mechanical about it than the toast and seemed largely indifferent to it -- which was better than how he'd reacted to anything he'd eaten before, to-date.

"Kid…" Stan said slowly. He'd never seen the kid eat so much at one sitting, ever. (Something about this wasn't right, and Stan was very sensitive to the problem of not getting enough food to eat. It also didn't sit right with him that the triangle hadn't been eating much before this -- despite Stan making it clear that he could eat anything he wanted, however much he wanted, no strings attached -- and now there was this sudden change and he didn't know why.)

"Um… Bill? Did you… not have lunch today?" Melody asked in worry. She hadn't thought to check on him all day, he didn't come down for lunch and she assumed he had some sort of snack while he was upstairs in his room. She glanced at little Miz who was ravenously eating her way through a 2nd burger already. "Oh."

Stan looked over at her. "You didn't--" Stan let out a sigh and rubbed a hand across his eyes. He'd forgotten to tell Melody how things usually went with Bill and mealtimes; he'd just assumed... He hadn't even thought that maybe she wouldn't call him down for lunch, or make him eat. He'd been too busy watching over his brother and the kids that day, and too pissed off with both the triangles to risk talking with them any earlier in the day than now. He'd needed the time to cool off before he went off half-cocked and did something seriously stupid... like hauling off and punching the kid in the face when the demon wasn't trying to hurt Ford right then, no matter how much he'd wanted to then, and wanted to still.

Stan dropped his hand and looked up at the demon. "Bill, did you not eat lunch today?"

He frowned as Bill refused to answer.

"Sowwy--" Miz said with her mouth full. "--We were watchin' anime… and lost track of time." Not that she was capable of sensing time right now.

"'Course you did," Stan muttered. "Melody, you gotta bug the kid to make sure he eats, and actually watch him do it. I asked you to babysit him and Ford, yeah? They won't feed themselves." Stan told her. "If they don't come to the kitchen on their own, you gotta go get them and bug 'em until they do. Most days they don't."

"Sorry Mr. Pines, I hadn't realized…" Melody sighed. Soos patted her back. "It's okay, dood. We'll remember next time," he told his fiance cheerfully.

"Yeah," Stan said, looking over at the two demons at the table. "You shouldn't have to, though. They shoulda come down on their own, or at least broken into a couple of those cracker boxes and water bottles the kid's got upstairs." He sent a long look at Bill. "You should be taking better care of your little sister, yeah?" he added, because maybe that would get the triangle eating with a hell of a lot less prodding.

Miz was already reaching for a third burger. Her salad was finished off already. Picked clean aside from the red watermelon bits.

Bill was still eating.

"...That's more than two sandwiches worth, kid," Stan said after a while, slowly leaning back in his chair. "You want to tell me what's going on?"

Melody frowned slightly. "Did I not make enough pancakes this morning?" she asked, somewhat obliviously. Miz raised a hand. "Sorry, I ate them all…" she said sheepishly. "They were really good though!"

Stan was frowning at Bill. "The kid don't eat most stuff. Just burnt toast and crackers. He won't touch pancakes."

"Oh," said Melody. She usually didn't cook for the Pines; she'd only done it this morning and this evening as sort of an emergency. Whenever she'd seen Bill in the morning or afternoon, he'd always been fixing his own breakfast or lunch of that toast-with-jelly sandwich, which is why she hadn't thought it was a problem that she hadn't seen him eat that day; he'd always seemed to do it on his own, as far as she'd known. "Bill, does that mean you didn't eat anything for breakfast? You left your toast on the counter this morning," Melody noted, and that had Stan looking over at her.

Bill twitched. That didn't stop him from taking another bite of salad, and not looking at any of them. Miz looked over. "Well… he's eating now?" She wasn't sure why. She was a little frustrated she couldn't See why.

"Bill, did you eat breakfast or lunch today?" Stan repeated, turning back to Bill.

"Penalize me for it," Bill snarled out at him.

Stan looked grim. "How many times."

"Twice," Bill spat out, before taking another bite of the salad. It had been a large bowl, and it was almost gone.

Miz glanced between them, having no idea what was going on. "Did I do something bad?" She wondered. Stan glanced over at her. "No, you didn't. The kid needs to not skip meals." He tossed his napkin onto the table and leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms. "He barely eats enough at most meals to keep going on to the next one." He didn't look very happy with Bill. Though after glancing over at the transparent bowl when Bill shoved it back up onto the table, he looked back over at Bill and said, "...Usually."

"I'm sorry for distracting him with anime and forgetting to take a food break." Miz said. "I literally cannot keep track of time right now--" She gestured to her headband. She looked down at the burger and sighed; she couldn't taste anything but she was hungry so she ate anyway. Thank Ax that hunger mapped to Touch.

"Pretty sure the 'big brother' is supposed to be the one responsible for that sort of thing," Stan told her. "Right, kid?" Bill grimaced. There was a pause as Stan considered Bill for a long moment. "You know I wouldn't have told you to sit down if I knew you were getting more food, right?" Stan put out there.

"Tch," said Bill, looking away from all of them again.

Stan pulled in another breath and let it out. "I'm thinkin'," Stan said slowly. "That maybe you weren't thinkin' too clearly this morning, because you hadn't eaten." Stan put out there. "Is that right, kid?"

"I was thinking fine--!" Bill began hotly.

"--You know I don't want you in the same room as Ford alone, and the last time the two of you were out in the woods together, he was trying to run you down, shooting at you," Stan cut in with, overrode him. "That alone should've been a big fat warning flag, because the first time I ever gave you a penalty, it was because you'd approached Ford upstairs when he could've shot you if he'd been armed and you didn't know whether he might've been armed or not. This time he absolutely had a gun on him and you did know it."

Miz looked back and forth, wishing she could look up this event and follow along. "Um...I would have blocked the shot if he did try to shoot?" She said meekly.

"Kid wouldn't count on that," Stan said, still looking at Bill. "Not the way he thinks. --So what was it this time, kid?" Stan said, raising his voice slightly on the last. "Too tired? Too hungry? Not learning your damn lesson from the last time? More than one of those? Or all three."

Bill was twitching, and he didn't look particularly happy.

"...maybe…" Bill began, then stopped.

"Maybe?" Stan said leadingly, almost challengingly.

"...maybe the being-hungry," Bill muttered out, almost under his breath. He didn't look particularly happy though. He hadn't exactly wanted to believe that hunger might actually be a factor that could screw with his thinking that much, either. He hadn't like admitting that about sleep until he'd had it smack him in the face and had to face that one, either.

"...I get grumpy and do stupid things when I'm hungry too…" Miz admitted. She had killed and eaten a bunch of people. That… had been distressing. "It makes it so certain things seem like a good idea… but after you've finished tearing someone's arm off you realize it really wasn't…"

"Uh huh," Stan said neutrally. "See, your kid sister does it, too." He was still watching Bill. "So walk me through it, kid," he told Bill. "If you know what you did there wrong. Where did you screw up in your thinking."

Bill swayed in place very slightly. He was pushing his hands against the side of the seat of his chair.

"...I was thinking of that Stanford as Sixer," Bill said first, and that had Stan straightening in place before squaring his shoulders.

"Yeah?" Stan said, practically staring holes in him. "Why." The kid shouldn't have been doing that. He'd thought they were finally past this.

"Because he said he was there to help," Bill said slowly. "He didn't try to shoot M-- me. Or Miz. Either of us." Bill stopped for a moment. "He was acting more like a 'Sixer', and I didn't question that, even though I know better now and our Deal is off." Bill looked away. "That was the first mistake." He looked back down at the tabletop in front of him. "Then I thought it would be better for him to be there, and that I should give him something he wants for his helping. It was the wrong kind of thinking, the Deal-kind," Bill said, and though his voice was mostly flat, there was a lot of anger underneath it.

Stan let out a tired sigh. "Yeah, okay, you know where you screwed up," he said. "Not the same thing." He looked up at the kid. "You thought he wasn't gonna shoot you."

"No," said Bill.

Stan looked at him. "No, you thought he wasn't going to shoot you? Or no--"

"--I thought he might shoot us, yes," Bill said. "I wasn't worried."

Stan narrowed his eyes at Bill. "Why weren't you worried."

Bill looked up at him. "He can't kill Miz. He can only kill her vessel, and she can always make a new one."

"I don't believe that you'd put up with that for a second, kid," Stan told him. "And that also doesn't cover you."

There was a long tense silence as Bill and Stan stared each other down.

"Show me," Stan demanded abruptly, and it wasn't a half-second later that Bill had swung his left arm up, made a handgun gesture at the salad bowl, quickly went through a flinging motion--

--and the bowl flew in a straight-line across the room to shatter against the far wall, faster than the rest of them could react to it. (Belatedly, Soos and Melody shoved their chairs away and gasped, trying to understand what was going on.)

"What??" Melody gasped out. "What the heck was that??" After a few weeks in town now, and more than a few interactions under her belt with cryptids like Bill and Miz, it had startled her more than scared her, but it had still been completely unexpected.

"Science," Bill said, still holding eye contact with Stanley. The next thing Bill did was slapped his right hand to his left forearm and shove upwards -- and for a moment, after doing so, an odd visual flicker occurred. For a moment, something like part of a dark-colored bodysuit was visible along Bill's left arm and hand, with a sort of metallic grey sci-fi exoskeleton-tracery of support structure that was running parallel to his bone structure along the outside of the suit, with odd-looking small boxy components attached here and there to it.

"Right," Melody said shakily. "Science." She slowly sat back down in her chair. Soos's wide-eyed, "Woah, triangle dude. Crazy sci-fi stuff," didn't exactly cut the tension, but it did interfere with it a bit.

Stan sat still for a long moment where he was, just keeping eye contact with Bill. This was not something he'd expected from the kid. (Honestly, this was the kind of bullshit thing he'd expect from a pissed-off, super-smart, rebellious teenaged version of Ford -- well, if his brother had been a pissed off demon with maybe some common sense, a huge chip on his shoulder, and no morals whatsoever, maybe… -- and Stan was trying desperately right now not to let it throw him off his game more than it already had.)

Miz looked over and flicked her fingers. It was a lot of work to repair that bowl, the process wasn't as seamless as she'd be able to with her full power, but the barrier around the shack kinda prevented that. She could use weirdness within the small anti-magic bubble her bracelets made around her, so she could convert it into other forms of non-magical energy, but the types of things that would work under the Shack's barrier outside of Bill's room were limited. She couldn't reverse time to make it so the bowl never broke, but since it was glass, she could do something else. The pieces glowed and melted together as she created and redirected some heat to merge the shards back together. She was trembling with the effort though. Damn. Anti-magic/weirdness barriers were a bitch to work around. "Uh…" she grunted. "This barrier is really strong…"

"Oh, Miz," said Melody, standing up and going over to the shivering girl. "You're freezing!" she gasped. "Stop! You shouldn't do that indoors if it does this to you. Couldn't we just have taken the pieces outside?"

Bill broke gaze with Stanley first, lowering his arm from its final held pose and turning back towards Miz -- almost as though he couldn't help but do so, once Melody approached her and started getting in close.

Miz shivered. "But… broken glass… someone might have gotten hurt…"

"That's what brooms and dustpans are for," Melody told her. "You shouldn't do this sort of thing." She gently rubbed Miz's arms and was relieved to feel her slowly warming back up. "Is there anything you need sweetie?" she asked. Miz looked up at the woman. "Some warm water? Please?" She asked. Melody nodded. "Alright." she straightened up and walked over to the counter to microwave some water for her.

Miz huffed. Been a while since she'd used her powers in such a way. It was...interesting. She shivered and waited for her body to heat back up. Next time, gonna redirect heat from another source. Actually…

"Should I built a telekinetic bracer for myself too?" She wondered. It looked useful.

"Yeah," Stan said slowly. "That's a question. Where did you get that, kid?"

"I made it," Bill told him, lowering his arm down to his side completely. "Lab Day one, after I took over and cleared out the spaceship space enough, to get the universal manufacturing unit in there operational again. Had to leave before the unit finished making everything for me, barely had time to input the design specs for the process before we had to head back for dinner," Bill told him, "But I picked it all up the next day." He glanced over at Miz. "General specs should still be in the machine. I can make another one for you too, in your size, if you want," he told her quite seriously.

"So you didn't have it on you that night," Stan said, and Bill looked back over at him. "No, I didn't have it on me then," Bill confirmed.

"But you've had it for five days," Stan said. "You've been wearing this thing for five days."

"Yes," Bill confirmed, looking him straight in the eye again, and it pissed Stan off a bit that not only had he missed this, but that it also brought up the question: what else had he missed?

Miz was sipping some hot water as she thought about Bill's offer to get her a telekinetic bracer.

"Wouldn't using a kinetic energy converter be more helpful? That way I could change the type of output into more than just Force-type effects?" Miz suggested, only partially paying attention to Bill and Stan's conversation, more lost in thought about different configurations. "Like I could convert it into Heat for stuff like fixing glass… or roasting animals for food…" She drooled a little at the idea of shooting fire from her hands using TECHNOLOGY. Ehehehe… she was having fun imagining it.

Ok, so a part of her had always wanted to go on a cool, sci-fi space adventure… but she hadn't really gone for it because she was too embarrassed to be out in the multiverse, LARPing…

Bill and Stan both blinked and looked over at her. Bill did first, as he became distracted from his confrontation with Stanley by the 'Force-type effects' mention, because it took him a moment to scan through things he'd Seen in the past, to figure out exactly what human-thing she was referring to there. Stan started staring because he hadn't expected her to sound so… geeky about anything, even if the kid did with the words he used talking about things sometimes.

"Actually… I could probably build a basic all-purpose hand device instead if I used my normal powers outside the shack to make a Feshermian Crystal… it's not quite the same thing but the show never went into detail about that..." Miz muttered to herself, lost in thought. "Eeeee~ would that be too obvious? Are there Goa'uld here? Would it be considered cultural appropriation?"

"Dood," said Soos, "Are you talking crazy sci-fi gadgets? Because if you are, then you should totally go with the Professor What-downbird's Completely Awesome Yelling Torque Wrench." Soos grinned. "That wrench can do everything," he said with a starry look in his eyes.

"Uhhhhh," went Stanley, not quite ready to interject, except that he had a bad feeling that...

"But the Torque Wrench doesn't. Work. On. Wood." Miz huffed. She could easily pick up what Soos meant. Also, she's been watching the weird Alternative Universe versions of shows from her world in the future of her own world too! How else was she supposed to fill billions of years?

"But that's why they went on that whole Epic Quest of Questitude in Season 23, dood!" Soos pointed out. "To get that Submolecular-Shrinking-Proof Wood Saw Extension Kit for it!"

"Ugh, but it looked so TACKY afterward!" Miz complained. "And the Professor lost the damn thing in that black hole like… half a season later!"

"Yes." Soos stood up in place, took off his fez, and solemnly held it to his chest. "A requiem for a short, but beloved addition, to the Professor's happy repair arsenal. The Extension Kit shall be missed." He bowed his head. Miz bowed her head too. "...But then the writers retconned it and made the sacrifice completely void," she grumbled, as Soos sat back down. "I stopped watching after that. It was just...too annoying."

...yep. Stan felt both vindicated and annoyed. He'd known what was coming; he'd known Soos for that long. "Soos, no talkin' about crazy TV show junk at the table," Stan complained at him grumpily. "That's stuff's for the TV room only! And I don't know why you watch that junk anyway," he added. "It ain't like Duck-tective or nothin'," he said, as he picked up another burger.

Miz and Soos gasped in unison. "You can't compare the two! Professor What-downbird is a Sci-Fi classic!" Soos said. "It LITERALLY inspired all human Sci-Fi shows to EVER come after it!" Miz added. Soos chimed in right after her with, "The sound effects in the theme song are LITERALLY the iconic music used for any and all Alien encounters in OTHER movies and TV shows nowadays!" Soos shook his hands at the sky as he dropped out of his chair and fell to his knees.

Melody was giving Soos a fond, exasperated look. Stan was resisting the urge to bury his face in his hand. Bill wasn't sure how to feel. And, pretty soon thereafter, somehow the two of them managed to shift their conversation from sci-fi television to video games, since Stan had only said they weren't allowed to talk about TV except in the TV room. Thus, video games. Specifically, JRPGs.

"--Look, Maigis is Best Girl and nothing you say will ever convince me otherwise." Miz stared Soos down surprisingly well despite being half his size. The former handyman scoffed. "No offense dood, but like, Kitsuru is Best Girl. She's like, super smart and competent. She's running her own company, like, the boss of it." He laughed a little sheepishly "And any man would love to be stepped on by her."

Miz gasped. "But Maigis is the most loyal! She's the only one who doesn't abandon you and stays by your side up until the end when the main character literally dies in her arms!" Miz argued. Soos held up his hands. "Look dood, I don't wanna start a fight. Maigis is great. But I like Kitsuru best." He put his hand down to her. "So let's just agree to disagree and let bygones be bygones, ok dood?"

Miz looked at his hand. "I won't shake your hand, but I will accept, because I'm not supposed to start a fight and only just realized that I almost started one with you," she said. "Sorry. I'm still trying to figure out what is and isn't something I'm allowed to do."

Soos shrugged, his easy going nature making it simple for him to just accept things as they were. "Sure dood." He laughed. "You know a lot about human stuff despite being a dragon-lady."

"Eh~ human entertainment is literally the reason why I've placed my own 3rd Dimension and Earth under protection. I won't willingly harm a human because any of them might, MIGHT have a possibility of creating something fun and interesting…" she told him seriously. "Like, a lot of them are boring idiots but there are some creative spirits out there and I plan to note down any stories they might come up with."

"You seek out creativity?" Melody asked. She wasn't sure what exactly was happening but she was good at picking up context clues. She had to be, to figure out what Soos was thinking half the time. Miz nodded, more relaxed than she had been when she first came downstairs. Her tail was wagging back and forth cheerfully. "I seek out creative minds. I like seeing what they can come up with, what they can do if I just give them a little push of inspiration!"

Melody smiled. "Well, now I know why you and Bill get along so well," she said, looking over at him.

Bill blinked at her. Then he straightened up abruptly, looking a bit nervously tense -- almost anxious. "She's a writer!" Bill said, pointing at Melody. "She writes all the backstory for those FCLORP sessions that Question Marks does now!"

Miz blinked and smiled brightly. "That's super cool!" She praised. "Thank you," Melody said, smiling. "But I can't take all the credit." She looked back over at Bill. "Bill's been helping me with the GM'ing quite a bit."

"Setup and advice, just that!" Bill said, looking away. "And maybe some spells." He shifted in place. "And maybe some villains." He shifted in place again. "...And maybe some settings." He was hunching his shoulders slightly. "...And maybe some quest rewards and prizes." And now he looked almost… guilty? Shifty? Dare Miz even say… embarrassed?

Miz turned her head to give Bill an incredibly mischievous grin. "I didn't know you FCLORPed." She giggled. "I GM for my friends back home for our D, D and more D session too!" She assured her poor, embarrassed (nerdy) big brother. Bill blinked, and straightened up in place, all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed again (without the tail). "I don't FCLORP," he told her. "I was an NPC!" he explained with a grin.

"That isn't quite how I would have described it, Bill," Melody said, suppressing a bit of laughter in her tone.

"Dude kicked our butts," Soos told Miz, without embarrassment. "He was the big bad who kicked off our whole new campaign. We got captured and sent to the mines of Quel'histor." Soos smiled happily. "We've been tryin' to get back to the mainland and beat his minions and mini-bosses to find him ever since."

Miz blinked. "Quel'histor...like...the planet? With...the unstable plate tectonics that cause massive lava flow?" Bill looked away, and got a touch of that just slightly nervous look again. Miz tilted her head. "Well, inspiration comes in many forms," she said simply, which had Stan giving Bill a long look.

"Huh?" said Soos, a little lost by this. "No, dawg, it's all just one big planet," he told her, trying to explain. "It's the world of Elonemar. Quel'histor is a volcano, but epic. It used to be a mountain, but then this evil wizard-- Uh, not the same evil wizard NPC dude that Bill played for us--"

"--Soos, honey, we could just let her read my setting and backstory notes for the campaign?" Melody offered. Miz wagged her tail. "I would love to read it! It might give me some ideas for what to throw at Pyronica in our next game. She's been murder-hoboing everything I send at her. It's so frustrating! I spent hours writing up an entire questline and then she kills and eats the quest giver before he can tell her the location!" Miz groaned at the memory of it.

"Well, then," Melody smiled. "You should definitely talk to Bill. He's the resident expert. He gave me some tips for dealing with that, just last week."

"Eh," Bill waved it off. "It happens. You handle it." He paused, then got a sinister look. "Easiest way to handle it is to drop them in a scenario where everything that they can murder-steal from other NPCs is either sentient and ownership non-transferrable, or alt-race alt-class unequipped-cursed." His expression became truly evil. "Or both."

Stan wasn't sure how to feel right now. He really didn't.

"This house is overrun by geeks and nerds," Stan complained, as he pushed back his chair from the table, which got him more than a few smiles. "The lot of ya. Don't know why I put up with ya."

"Aw, we love you too, Mr. Pines," Soos said, going in for the hug.

"--SOOS!" Stan complained as he got glomped while standing in place. "Ugh. Fine. You got your hug, now let go!" Stan said, shoving at him. Soos was still smiling as he let go.

"You're the best, Mr. Pines," Soos said.

"Yeah, yeah," Stan grumbled, brushing it off. He looked overall happier though, even if he did have a slight frown going.

Miz pointed at Stan and said clearly, "Tsundere." There was absolute silence as everyone stared. Then Bill just lit up, letting out a single "HA!" and then nearly fell out of his chair laughing. Soos looked very encouraged, while Melody was unsuccessfully trying to muffle her own giggling, too. Her face was already a bit pink from the effort.

"What?" said Stanley, looking around at all of them confused, but knowing it had to be an insult. "What?"

"It's okay Mr. Pines, we love you anyway," Melody told him, wiping a tear from her eye. Soos looked pretty happy, as if a long standing doubt had finally been cleared.

"....aaaaaaaaah body spasms..." Bill panted out, face-down on the kitchen table.

"Rest of you, I swear," Stan muttered. He shook his head and started walking out of the room. Bill noticed this first, and he started to call out, "w--" then stopped. Stan still heard him, though. He turned around and stared back at him, where the kid was still sitting at the table, barely levered up by his elbows, staring after him. He almost looked a little lost, and definitely unsure.

"I gotta think about the penalties, kid, and everything else," Stan told him. "The whole thing today was a mess, start to finish. And there were a couple things that I didn't catch, too. We'll talk later." He turned away slightly. "Mostly, we need to make sure that this doesn't happen again," he said far more seriously, and with absolute authority.

Bill blinked after him, as Stan walked out of the room, and they heard his steps do down the hallway, then a door on the first floor open and shut.

Bill slowly turned back to the others.

Melody smiled down at him kindly, but her smile was also a bit strained, now. "I think you two should really get to bed," she told him. "Soos and I will clean up down here."

Bill stared at them for a moment. He slowly got up.

Miz put her plate in the sink. "Thank you for dinner." She said as she bowed quickly to Melody. The woman smiled and waved her off. "You're welcome. Now make sure you have a good night's rest." Miz nodded and walked over to follow Bill.

Bill waited for her, then started to walk towards the staircase... and stopped at the base of the stairs.

He turned back to them and asked, "Did Pine Tree and Shooting Star and that Stanford have anything to eat for dinner?"

Melody looked slightly surprised, but she nodded and told him, "We made it all a bit early, first, before coming up to get you. Mr. Pines and Soos took their share of the food to Dr. Pines' bedroom."

"Right," Bill said. "Good." He turned away and walked right up the stairs, not quite slowing down to wait for Miz until they were almost at the top. Miz wobbled a little on the stairs, keeping her eyes on her feet to make sure she was stepping correctly as she climbed.

Bill realized he'd almost outrun her at the bottom of the final flight. He was a bit expressionless as she caught up to him, and this time he let her go first.

Once they were up at the top, he waved the one-way sound barrier active again, and looked a bit uncomfortable for a moment.

Then, and only then, did Bill say, "Sorry," to her, before he passed her, moving farther into the room. She didn't deserve to have him run off ahead of her. He felt guilty about that. He should have been paying attention.

"It's ok." Miz said softly. "I'm still getting used to this." She laid down on the blanket and curled her tail up to hug it to herself. Bill didn't like hugs too much so she wouldn't force it on him. After a while she said quietly, "Good night big brother."

Bill shifted slightly in place, swaying just a bit. Another sort of uncomfortable expression crossed Bill's face for a moment, but the moment passed, and then he clenched his fists and looked firm.

Bill walked right over to where Miz was laying down on her blanket, turned around, and laid down, right at her back, back-to-back with her. And then he shoved himself back another inch to initiate physical contact with her.

Miz moved her head before wiggling to press a little closer. She didn't try to turn and grab him but she relaxed into the touch.

"It's fine," Bill told her. "It's fine."

He made a small gesture and let the light globes spin down a bit low. There were no shadows still, the lighting just became a bit less intense.

Miz hummed a faint Lullaby as she closed her eyes. She felt...safe. Even with her Sight restricted. She wasn't sure why. With Seb and with Bill, she just felt...safe with them. Like she used to feel with her little sisters. Like she used to feel with Will.

Bill's eyelids slowly fluttered shut.

"I'm sorry," he repeated quietly. "I'm sorry." She didn't deserve to have to keep her Eye closed shut. She didn't deserve to have to put up with his Stanford. Miz continued humming but said softly. "I don't mind. I'm just… happy to be here with you."

And for one very selfish moment, Bill thought about what would happen if that broken-Bill never ever went away, and he just… didn't help her get back to her home. If he lied and said that broken-Bill was still there, when maybe it even wasn't.

...Except then she'd be trapped here, when she'd never even been trapped anywhere before, and it made Bill want to scream at himself forever, for even thinking it.

No… he'd help her get home. He'd find a way to rip apart that broken Bill for her, and then she could go home and leave him all alone again. It was fine.

It was fine.

It wasn't fine.

Bill fell asleep to the sound of Miz humming.

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