-I'm gonna drink it like a person-(Part 1)

----

When Lee came out of changing room, mostly dry, but hair still wet (but clean!), and grimacing at the way his clothes were getting soaked down the back, he found Sixer, Miz, and Bill waiting for him. Miz was chatting with a few of the other girls. (Even Ben was there, still clutching the violin like a shield between himself and Bill.) But when Miz noticed him, she grinned and bounced her way over (in multiple ways) to poke Lee in the nose. "Dry off~" she sang.

Lee shivered as he felt a warmth overtake him as the water evaporated off. "About time! Come on! We've got math next," Miz said, still grinning, before taking his hand and pulling him forwards. Miz waved at the other kids as they went. "Bye Ben, bye Allison, Jane, Trisha!" she called out. (She only remembered their names via cheating and scanning them. --What? These were a lot of names to remember!) As she passed Sixer along the way, Lee already in tow, she took his hand as well.

"Come on! We're gonna be late for Algebra!" Miz whined as she pulled the twins along behind her. Sixer was staring at Miz, bright red as she did this. (She was holding his hand. She was--)

Bill walked along with them, a bit more sedately. "Why the rush, sis?"

Miz pouted. "I don't like being late for stuff." Punctuality was important. "Besides, I wanna get a good seat!" Miz added. They got to the classroom right as the bell rang.

Miz raised her hands (along with Sixer and Lee's) into the air and cheered. "Woo! We're not late!"

The teacher, a thin old man with a deep set scowl, glared at her as she came in. "Yer not in your seats with your notes open. You're still late." He knew these were the new girls; troublemakers, from what he'd heard. And Gregory Carrow did NOT like troublemakers. His scowl got deeper at the sight of the new girl's body. How obscene and shameless. How vulgar. (Even though Miz was dressed relatively modestly, only exposing her neck, Mr. Carrow took one look at her body shape and declared her a harlot in his mind.)

"Sorry sir. We just came from gym and the showers and--" Miz tried to explain but Mr. Carrow cut her off.

"Sit down. You're disrupting class." His tone was stern and angry.

Miz flinched back, dropping the twin's hands and quickly slipping into a free desk in the front row. "Sorry, sir," she repeated sadly. Lee and Sixer sat down as well.

Mr. Carrow glared at Bill when he didn't sit down. Bill narrowed his eyes at the teacher right back, because Miz was upset, and it had happened after that teacher had talked to her. Was what the teacher had said been what had upset Miz? (Miz was wrong; they had been late; they hadn't sat down yet, yes; this was a fact.) Had upsetting Miz been intentional? (...She'd wanted to not be late, and she'd been very happy when she'd thought she was on time. Was being told they were disrupting class upsetting? Or was Miz upset about being wrong about being late? Or... was it SOMETHING ELSE?)

Miz scanned around the room and brightened a little when she found Mary from homeroom. (Miz had trouble recognizing people so she always cheated with her powers to remember who was who.) Miz gave the other girl a shy wave from under her desk.

Mary raised an eyebrow at Miz's wave 'hello', but she still smiled and waved back. She'd been hearing all sorts of interesting rumors about the new girls. Kinda wanted to talk to them more.

Mary had another class with the twins for the last period today, and it seemed like the girls had the same schedule as them. Mary was curious about how much truth was in any of the whispered stories being passed around the school. She didn't believe in aliens or anything like that but even if the new girls were just lying to get attention, it was interesting. Anything was better than the monotonous bore of daily school drudgery. She would try to talk to them next, next period. Sadly, Mr. Carrow wasn't the type who allowed chatting in class.

Miz looked around the classroom and hid a grin when she spotted her own target, Carla McCorkle. Catching her eyes briefly during her scan of the room, Miz gave Carla a sweet smile before turning back to the front of the class, leaning slightly to her right to press up against Sixer's side. As she was doing this, Mr. Carrow was still glaring at Bill (and Bill was still narrowing his eyes at the teacher).

"Sit down, girl!" the old man snapped. Bill straightened and put his hands on his hips, opening his mouth to say that he wasn't a girl--

... and was interrupted by Crampelter stumbling into the classroom. The blond was looking a little weary (and still more than a little worse for wear) until he spotted Bill. Then his eyes widened in fear and he turned on his heel to leave the classroom. Unfortunately for him, before he could do so, Bill's hand snapped out like a striking snake to grab up the taller boy's sleeve (and wrist) in a movement frighteningly similar to a steel trap slamming shut.

"YOU. You're not trying to SKIP CLASS now, ARE YOU?" Bill intoned with a glint in his eyes, as Crampelter tried (and failed) to twist away and out of the demon's grip. Bill grinned and pulled the struggling teenager back into the classroom, shoving Crampelter down onto the chair behind an empty desk in the front row two desks down from Miz, then slapping Crampelter downwards on top of his shoulders twice hard, before sitting down himself right next to him. (...And now the front row of the class consisted of Crampelter, Bill, Miz, Sixer, and Lee, with Lee sitting closest to the door.)

Mr. Carrow looked livid at this arrangement of hooligans in his front row, but didn't want to delay his lesson anymore and got up to begin writing on the chalkboard. At least that new girl was sitting down now.

--And so the teacher began his lesson, droning on about the topic they were currently covering. Most of the class were already nodding off. His voice was just too boring to listen to.

Bill himself wasn't bored, exactly. This was math. He'd used to BE math. And many many things in his home dimension had been FAR more boring than this. (So was Watching things and waiting for things to happen, sometimes. ...At least the rules the teacher was using here made sense and were consistent.) So Bill sat there with his chin propped up on a hand, quietly watching and listening the teacher as the lesson progressed… with half an eye on the readings he was getting from his suit's sensors on Crampelter.

Miz, on the other hand, was trying very hard to sit still and listen but she was BORED, just like most of the rest of the class. This was all stuff she already knew. She wiggled around in her seat, wanting something to do. She sneakily glanced back at Carla who looked curious about Miz and Bill. And also about how close they seemed to be with the Stan twins. Miz didn't have a textbook for this class so she shifted ever closer to Sixer and leaned over his, pressing herself against him in such a way that her breasts were practically resting on his arm. Sixer was actually too distracted watching Bill and Crampelter (and Bill seeming to casually ignore Crampelter, and Crampelter sweating buckets and looking like he wanted to be anywhere else but there) to notice what Miz was doing. But Lee did.

Miz hid a smirk at the jealous looks all the boys in class were shooting at them. But they weren't the ones she wanted to get a reaction from. Miz had her Eye opened and staring out at Carla behind her. The girl was not looking happy. But it wasn't good enough. It wasn't the reaction Miz was hoping for. Perhaps if she tried with Lee instead?

"You! Straighten up!" Mr. Carrow snapped at Miz. She jumped. (Bill let out a huff of breath.) "Ah, I don't have a textbook yet so…" She tried to explain but the man just scowled. Stanford Pines was on self-study, with a separate, more advanced math textbook than the rest of the class, so that excuse didn't fly with him. "--Don't talk back to me." Harlot. He glared. Miz flinched and scooted her desk a little farther from Sixer. 'Ok, looks like I shouldn't be messing with this during class,' Miz thought. ...Well, she had the rest of the week to mess with Carla. Miz tried to sit quietly through the class but it was just so boring~

What class did they have after this? Social Studies. Ah. That. Well, Miz started doodling in her notebook out of boredom. She jumped when the teacher called on her to answer a question, likely thinking that she wasn't paying attention since she was drawing. He seemed angry that she got it right. (Admittedly, her All-Seeing Eye had helped her out a little bit there, since she hadn't been paying attention and wouldn't have known what the question was, otherwise.) Miz answered easily enough when the old man shot her another question, which only made Mr. Carrow more determined to find some way to trip her up. He didn't like her already.

Miz tried very hard to sit still and be quiet when not being spoken to by the teacher. She used to be able to do this as a human, though even then, she had to doodle or fiddle with her hands or she'd go crazy. But here? With her energy buzzing beneath the skin of her vessel? It was awful. She wished her bowtie was here for her to flick. Not wanting to be scolded by the teacher anymore, Miz left her Eye open and put the rest of her focus on doodling in her notebook, her mind drifting off to some far off daydream instead.

Mr. Carrow was obviously annoyed but continued his lesson. He saw how the new girl was distracting the other students; the other students were staring at her when she leaned back to stretch or when she chewed on the side of her pencil. He scowled more deeply. Girls like that needed to cover themselves. He clacked his chalk against the board loudly, making the kids jump and look back at the board.

"Miss McCorkle! Can you solve this equation?" Mr. Carrow glared at her. She had been staring at the new girl instead of paying attention. It disappointed him, how these children could be so easily distracted. Carla stumbled a little, but managed to give the correct answer still, as she usually did when there weren't any hooligans hell-bent on distracting her. Good. Mr. Carrow began calling on more kids randomly throughout class. They all began to try and focus more, not wanting to be the target of their teacher's intimidating scowl.

Finally, Mr. Carrow called on Bill.

"You, solve this equation." Mr. Carrow scowled, clacking his chalk against the blackboard.

Lee wasn't exactly sure what Bill said next, but with all the "lines in length by" some number and "angles in degrees by" some other number, and "relative turnwise of" something else… Lee wasn't actually expecting him to end with some random-sounding thing of "--which is equivalent to the number twelve-point-seven-five in base-ten."

With the way Mr. Carrow was scowling at Bill, though, it was probably, technically the correct answer. Except...

"This is algebra," Mr. Carrow said with a scowl.

"And I'm geometry," said Bill, which had Lee wincing and slapping a hand across his face. Not again…

"Get up here and do it properly, if you think you know the answer!" Mr. Carrow barked out, challenging the hooligan. She'd likely copied it from-- (Then Mr. Carrow frowned as he realized that Stan likely didn't know the answer, the Crampelter boy was terrible at math, and the harlot-- ...Fine. It was probably her sister she'd cheated off of, then. That Pines boy had used to cheat off of his brother the same way, up until Mr. Carrow had put a stop to that by giving them different assignments entirely. He'd almost never caught them at it, either, unfortunately...)

Bill got up from his chair and strode up to the board, facing the teacher.

He took the piece of chalk from the teacher's hand, held it between his hands by both fingers and thumbs… and split it in half right in front of him with a quick and sharp 'snap!'

There was a pause in which Mr. Carrow looked like he was going to have an apoplectic fit over this -- he did not split his chalk! -- and the class nearly gasped as one, thinking that the new girl was going to--

...except Bill then turned on his heel to face the board, and started writing across it, top-to-bottom, two-handed, a piece of chalk in each hand.

Lee blinked as Bill wrote from the outsides in, from the left and right at the same time, then moved down the board a bit, and started writing center-outwards, to the left and right this time, then...

It took Bill maybe five seconds to get the solution down on the board this way, and then he put both pieces of the broken chalk down on the chalk ledge, turned in place, and walked right back to his seat. Except, what he'd written up there looked kind of weird… --oh shit.

(To finish it all off, Miz flicked her fingers and the chalk recombined into one piece with a soft 'click' sound, that nobody really noticed in the aftermath of the teacher losing his temper with the lot of them.)

(Because for some reason, the demon had written it all out on the board -- correctly as an algebraic rather than geometric proof this time, mind you -- but in Sixer's handwriting.)

---

Lee let out a sigh of not-quite relief as they stumbled out the door into the hallway. The math teach had drilled Bill for the rest of the period, but this time he'd actually said all the answers in algebra instead of whatever-it-was that he'd said before. (And Mr. Carrow had done nearly everything short of blindfolding Bill to try and prove that he must have been cheating somehow. He'd even demanded to see Sixer's notes, thinking he must've written the answer down for Bill to see before the hooligan girl's 'performance' at the board. Spoiler alert: Sixer hadn't.)

Miz rubbed her temples. "Well, that happened." No anger was felt, thanks to the headband, but she didn't like angry scolding tones from an older man. (Part of the reason she'd thrown herself out the window a few days back when an argument was starting back at the Shack. That tone made her unhappy.)

"At least we didn't get any detention over it," Lee said, wiping a hand across his forehead and letting out a breath. He hadn't exactly been spared from a couple questions during that grilling himself, and with the teacher as pissed as he'd been? Lee had had to actually take it seriously that time, instead of trying to joke off a bunch of wrong answers like he usually did.

"We've got Social Studies next right? Are we done?" Miz Flickered to see if that teacher was more pleasant… and thank Ax, they were! A kind older woman who was very enthusiastic about discussing current topics.

"Social studies, then 'art'," Lee told them. He looked at her askance; hadn't she said she knew their schedule?

Miz grinned. "Oh! I love art!" She tilted her head. "I don't have any supplies… should I make some supplies?" Then a voice interrupted them.

"If you have Art last period, I'll be there. You can borrow some of my stuff." Miz turned to see Mary. The teenaged girl grinned at them. "You guys are hilarious."

Lee groaned. "It's not as funny from this side." Sixer just shrugged; he was still wondering why Bill's handwriting was practically identical to his. Bill's contribution to this was an odd tilted-head look at Lee and an, "Of course not. Funny and hilarious are not the same thing!"

Mary laughed at that before waving at them and walking off. "I'll see you guys in Art."

Miz waved before grabbing Sixer and Lee's hands again to drag them off to Social Studies. This time they were able to get to class with time to spare and Miz slid into a seat, unsure what this class would be about, she didn't really remember her own social study classes from a whole lifetime ago.

The teacher for this class, a cheerful woman named Helena Evergreen, smiled at the two new girls. "Hello, dears," she said, then greeted Miz with an, "Are you William or Miz?" She had already heard from rumors that the new students were two sisters, she had been a little confused about the name but figured that perhaps her parents had really wanted a son.

"I'm Miz and this is Bill." Miz introduced herself before gesturing to her brother. Bill nodded to the teacher once in confirmation. Sixer and Lee were already getting into their seats. Lee was hoping, praying, that Bill would just be normal for this class...

His prayers were in vain. The AXOLOTL didn't care.

---

"I can't believe you kept trying to convince her that there was a 8th and a half president!" Lee groaned as they left class.

Bill looked offended. "There WAS!" he protested.

Miz patted Bill's shoulder. "The nature of truth is fluid and skewed by preconceptions, ignorance, misinformation and years of careful propaganda by the reptilian shadow government," she tried to soothe him (to the tune of an irritated, "I KNOW THAT! But it SHOULDN'T be!" from Bill). "Besides, if the authorities found out that some people knew the truth, they'd get arrested and shipped off to Washington," Miz tried next. (Nevermind the fact that no one had believed Bill, Miz noticed plenty of kids muffling giggles.)

Sixer blinked. "You mean there really WAS a 8th and a half President?"

"YES!" Bill insisted. "I used to talk to him--" he stopped short, blinking, then looked incredibly annoyed for some reason Lee didn't get. "WELL," said Bill, in slightly more sedate tones again. "I used to talk to the one in the dimension we portaled here from," Bill muttered out.

Miz winced. "Oh geez, how did your Ax even manage to do all this without you?" That… would require a lot of work, wouldn't it?

"I KNOW." Bill looked thoroughly annoyed. It wasn't as though he hadn't looked into this all before they'd jumped; it was why he'd gotten so mad about what the stupid lizard had done in the first place! "Fever dreams and mushrooms are MUCH MORE of a 'thing' here! Mostly. Also: global warming; more sunspots; less giant birds." He glared at nothing in particular. "--And stealing enough weirdness from MY dimension to practically DEFLATE IT like a BALLOON!" he gritted out, voice rising, fists clenched at his sides.

Miz continued patting Bill on the back. "Huh, well the global warming thing sounds like what my past dimension was going through, maybe it's what happens when there's no Bill?"

Bill turned his head towards his little sister and gave her a confused look. "Global warming happens when there's a star acting as a sun!" he told her. "That's why the planet isn't one big iceball!"

Miz shrugged, "And enough carbon in the atmosphere to trap too much heat in the planet to cause global climate shifts."

"Well, yes?" said Bill, because enough carbon in the atmosphere did do that. "What's your point?"

Miz shrugged, not really wanting to go into this right now. "Well, does carbon fueled overheating of the planet happen in the dimension we portaled in from? I forgot to check."

Bill blinked. "It could happen that way." He tilted his head at her. "Why do you want to know?" (He was, yet again, not connecting the concepts Miz was bringing up as all belonging to the same train of thought.)

Miz shrugged. "It would be nice if it didn't. Intense climate changes like that tend to kill off the plants and animals that can't adapt quickly enough. Which, was kinda normal, mass extinctions happen all the time, but I like the animals that currently exist.."

They were all walking to the art room as they talked, Sixer was swinging his head around to look at the two. "Wait, climate change? Global warming?"

"Your planet's coming out of a mini ice age," Bill told him, waving it off. "Don't worry about it. YET." As far as he was concerned, fixing that sort of thing was easy. It just required a little… ATTENTION! Haha! (Though he wasn't doing THAT sort of thing, to prevent it, for Stanley's dimension. Global warming unfroze Time Baby where and when he was going to finish reconstituting his molecules! --Bill wanted that time loop set up and remaining FIRMLY in place, as it was and already had been and would continue to would-be in the future, present, and past… So global warming for that dimension, there would be! One way or the other. HAHAHAHAHA!)

Lee still looked worried, but Bill waved him off as they got to the art room. Miz blinked slowly before sighing. She would Look this up later and see about fixing it. The Earth was supposed to have periods of hot and cold, but they weren't supposed to be as intense as her memories from her human years told her.

Mary waved at them when they got into the art room. "Hey, how've you all been?" Miz shrugged as she sat down beside her. "Brother tried to enlighten our class on the truth of American history. They didn't believe him." Mary raised an eyebrow. "Ah, huh?" Miz shrugged. "It's not all that important."

This class was smaller than their other classes, being an elective. The teacher came in to grin at them all. "Oh. New students! Right! Yes! Nice to meet you! Well, today we're doing still life sketching. If you don't have charcoal, you can grab some from the cart. You will have to get your own paper though." The teacher, an energetic young woman who seemed like a grad student herself, spoke incredibly quickly.

Miz sighed. She knew still lives were meant for practicing their technical skills, but she didn't like them. Well, unless it was an interesting still life. The teacher flicked on a few spot lights to give her display a stark light and dark with shadows. Miz blinked. Oh. This wasn't bad. There was a deer skull and a bird cage. She could do that. Mary ripped off two pieces of paper from her sketchpad and handed them to Miz and Bill.

"Thanks." Miz grinned at her. (Bill didn't bother with the thanks; Mary had said she would share her supplies, and sharing her supplies, she was doing. Bill hadn't asked for it, so as far as Bill was concerned, he didn't owe her anything for what was being given, that she'd promised without any strings attached to give.)

Mary grinned back, scooting her chair a little closer. "So, you don't mind if I try to get to know you, right?" Mary asked bluntly.

Miz tilted her head. "Not really? Are you suggesting we become friends?" Miz responded just as bluntly.

Mary blinked before she snorted. "Sure. Why not? You two are new to the neighborhood right?" Mary waggled her eyebrows at the other girl. "Space aliens or something?" Lee groaned in the background.

Miz giggled. "Yup. We're really far from home. A whole dimension away!"

Mary hummed as she began lightly roughing out the shapes of the still life onto her paper, measuring with her thumb and everything. "That's cool. So, are you here for the invasion or just sightseeing?" Mary asked wryly, not really serious. But those were the two main theories going around and she was curious what 'story' the new girls had made up for their little play.

"It was originally a rescue mission, but then stuff happened with those hatchlings over there and we ended up staying here for longer than we planned." Miz gestured to the Stans when she mentioned 'hatchlings'. Mary raised an eyebrow. ("Hatchlings?!" Lee was sputtering, he wasn't some baby animal!) "Well, you see, we're actually from an alternate future, so the older versions of the twins came here and saw their younger selves, and then some things happened and Stan wanted to make sure these two didn't suffer like they did in their timeline and he asked me to make sure that Lee doesn't try to drop out of school, like he had to do in his timeline--"

"--Wait, what?!" Lee interrupted. He hadn't really gotten that from what the old guy him had said earlier.

Miz turned to him with a serious look, her hands still sketching out the still life (cheating with an All Seeing Eye? Fuck yeah she would!) and deadpanned, "In their dimension, Stan got blamed for breaking the project."

At this, the twins both flinched violently, and they both went more than a little pale. They could clearly imagine what would have happened if something like that happened. Filbrick would have been even MORE pissed off. And with Lee taking the blame...

('Oh shit,' Lee thought, because hadn't the old-SIxer said that things had happened differently in their dimension? That they hadn't had a bunch of older-thems around? --Then what had that older-him had to do, all out on… his own? Lee wasn't too sure that he could hold down enough jobs to make enough money for hotel rooms every night, let alone food…)

Mary looked back and forth between them. Was this 'play' even more intricate than she thought? The twins looked legitimately upset. She frowned. The whole 'alien' thing couldn't be real, could it?

Lee was frowning, and Sixer glanced at his brother with a worried expression. He remembered Miz had said in the boat with those two older versions of them that Filbrick had originally planned to throw him out… which means that in the other timeline, it must have been Lee who had been thrown out, instead of him. And from the sounds of it, if he was understanding Miz correctly now, Lee must have dropped out of school altogether in order to try and make ends meet...

Miz hummed as she turned back to her own drawing. "--But anyway, we're staying for a while in this dimension so we can help these two reach some sort of financial stability, considering Sixer got disowned by their father and Lee left home to be with his brother, because you shouldn't abandon your sibling, and the older versions of them are going to work on making enough money for them so that they can survive until graduation, at which point they're on their own." Miz worked as she talked, and by the time she finished her summary, she had the rough shape of everything sketched out and was now adding in the details.

Mary stared at the twins. "...you got disowned by your dad?!" she asked them quietly.

Sixer winced and looked away, working on his own sketch for a bit. Lee clenched his jaw, but made no comment.

Miz commented, "Fildick is a jerk."

--which made Lee bristle. "Hey! He's still our Pa!"

Miz turned to stare at him. "A man who willingly throws his own child into the streets is not a father."

Lee shivered at the expression on her face. Miz turned back to her sketch and Lee heaved out a breath. (Geez. Ok, the younger sister was scary too. Got it. But why was she getting mad at him for something his pa had done, huh?! That wasn't fair!) He hunched his shoulders.

"He isn't your twin's father anymore," Bill pointed out to Lee next, as the demon was staring (... scowling?) at the still life out of display. "Your Filbrick disowned him before kicking him out of the family. Or were you not paying attention to hear him?" (Bill had checked that right before opening the portal, while everyone had been tense and distracted. --HA, his Zodiac had probably thought he'd spent that entire time setting up the portal at the beach's edge, instead! But he'd been concentrating on far more than just and only THAT...)

Lee bristled even more. "Just 'cause he--" but Sixer cut him off.

"It's fine Lee, let it go." Sixer turned back to his sketch. "It's better this way," he said quietly, with an odd intensity that left Lee frowning.

Mary blinked and then blinked again. "Ooookaaay…" she said slowly. Weird. Really weird. "So… you two are here… because of them?" She wasn't quite sure what that meant.

Miz nodded as she sketched. "I don't mind. It's kind of exciting to be around so many humans. And it's a learning experience for brother." Bill scoffed at this, while staring at the still life they were supposed to draw. He hadn't started, not even touching his paper as he just stared at the display. "Bill, are you going to try to draw it?" Miz prompted him gently.

Bill hunched his shoulders slightly and crossed his arms. "I don't like it!" Bill complained. "Leaving out too much information," he grumbled, glaring at the still life, then again at the blank page.

Miz shrugged. "It's better than drawing toilet paper."

"Mmmn," Bill said. He glared at the still life still.

"Just draw it however you want to?" the teacher prompted from behind them -- and startling Bill a bit, if the way his shoulders and arms dropped and his facial expression went all shocked-long was any indication.

Bill twisted his head around on his neck and stated up at her, wide-eyed. Then his eyes narrowed slightly.

"...However I want?" Bill asked her, clearly testing. But the teacher just smiled at him and said, "Yes." This assignment was on observation but it was also the new girl's first time here so Ms. Talia thought it would be okay for them to do what they wanted; the way a child approached art would tell her a lot about how these kids were -- their temperament, personality, etc.

Bill stared up at her for another long few moments.

"HM," said Bill. He looked at her for another drawn-out moment.

And then he turned away from her and picked up the pencil.

...and started writing equation after equation onto the page, starting at the very top, and working his way down.

Ms. Talia looked fascinated. "An interesting approach." Very different, she itched to know if the girl was testing her or was just expressing herself in a unique way; hard to tell sometimes, with her students.

"Mm," said Bill. "Easier to start with defining the general shape and material and environmental conditions for nonbiologicals, and then describing the deformations." He tapped the equation for a cylinder, the chemical formula for the aluminum-stainless-steel mix, and the formulas describing the intensity and relative location of the light (and light-color type) and the temperature-pressure-atmospheric conditions. He paused for a moment, partway through the equations describing the free space absent of metal (starting with a smaller cylinder-of-removal inside the larger cylinder for the central cage region). "Other way around would need a lot more paper!" he told her. "--Biologicals are easier," Bill added, gesturing to the specific genetic profile he'd written for the deer skull (and the short addendums below it describing age, time of birth, time of death, time of now, rate of decomposition and decay -- pretty much complete at this stage -- along with a the descriptor detailing the specific portion of the body being further described, the level of damage to it such as which were the missing teeth from said skull, and final resting place of said remains). Then he got back to his equation-writing.

Ms. Talia nodded. "That's a new way to think about it," she responded easily before she glanced over at the other new girl's work… who seemed to be doing the assignment properly by drawing what she saw and shading it in… but was also doodling tiny little humans climbing all over the display… was one of them trapped inside the birdcage? "I see someone's having fun." Ms. Talia grinned.

Miz nodded. "It looked too empty." Ms. Talia was about to move on when she paused, noticing that within the eye socket of the deer skull there was a… kitchen?

It was very small and Ms. Talia had to lean a little closer to look at it. A tiny little kitchen seen within the eye socket, as if it were a window. The detail was exquisite considering the size. But something seemed off. Ms. Talia tilted her head and was amazed to see that the 'view' of the kitchen moved along with her. As if she was now moving to look through a window from a different angle. The art teacher frowned and moved her head back and forth, watching the view of the kitchen change, she could only see the fridge and countertop before, but now she could see there was a stove as well. She rubbed her eyes, confused about what was happening, some sort of optical illusion perhaps?

She blinked her eyes down at the sketch and was shocked to see there was now a person inside the kitchen. Had the new girl drawn it in the few seconds her eyes had been closed? Wait. Ms. Talia looked around to the rest of the sketch and frowned. The person inside the birdcage was gone and… the rest of the people in the drawing had moved positions?

"Miz," she heard the other girl say in tones of complaint. "It's supposed to be a STILL life."

The asian girl pouted. "But that's boring~" She added a tiny little cat. It didn't move but when Ms. Talia looked away to Bill and then back, the cat was halfway up the side of the cage, frozen in the act of climbing.

"Do the assignment right," Bill told her. "Or do a different assignment! ...Ask for another one?" Bill amended. "But don't do it wrong ON PURPOSE; that's just annoying," he chided her absently, not looking away from his own work (as he kept on writing). "School is for learning how to do things right!"

Miz pouted some more but drew a car, which everyone in the drawing piled into and left as she moved her hand over the drawing to block it from view, only allowing brief glimpses of the car and the people in it, leaving the still life empty once more. Ms. Talia was still staring.

Mary was staring too. "That's really cool. How'd you do that?"

Miz shrugged while Lee was groaning into his hands. "I just animated them." She paused. "I need more practice though." Since these could only move when they weren't watched directly, that wasn't good enough. But drawing all the inbetweens was too much work.

"You couldn't just erase them?" Lee complained. Because had she really needed to show off all that weird demon-ness of hers some more while people had actually been watching?! Gym class had been bad enough, but… she was… just as bad as Bill at this!

Miz gasped. "And take the life from that which was just granted? How cruel! This way, they're just gonna go off and start their own lives somewhere else where they wouldn't have to stay still."

Lee stared at her. "Those drawings… were alive?" Oh man, he was gonna have nightmares over this...

"Not fully, they don't have very long life spans; they'll live out their lives and pass away peacefully when their charcoal runs out." Miz blinked before assuring him, "But they wouldn't be in pain, they're meant to be temporary and they're okay with that. They're happy just to be able to experience life for a short while…" Miz frowned.

Bill glanced over at her. "Thought you said you couldn't do the life thing?" This sounded like it was at least partway to what 'her (stupid) lizard' did already. Did she just not think of it that way?

"It's not like they have Souls, though… I guess you might find that upsetting? I can animate stuff and make it 'alive'-ish but they aren't… really… real?" Miz frowned. "It's like making a water tower grow a mouth and walk around, but it's not really 'alive'."

Oh. "--'Automate', not 'animate'. As in, turn into automatons. Animating is for cartoons! --And reanimating is for things that were once-alive before but are-not-now," Bill told her, grinning at her winningly. "And terminating is for making currently-alive things dead!" Bill ended simply, then paused. "Or firing from a job. Except not firing. For less than gross incompetence. ...Usually because the position is no longer necessary, existing, or paid?" Bill said, pausing in his equation writing for a moment as he attempted to articulate what he thought was the current human English definition for that. They were in an English human-language 20th century Western human-society school, after all.

"Well these are drawings, so it's kinda like a cartoon, thus, animation. And even if they're not really alive, I would feel bad just… erasing them." Miz pointed out. Sixer was scribbling stuff down in his journal. ...And Mary was taking this all in stride better than Lee had thought she would.

"So where are they now?" Mary asked as Lee stared. He wanted to know too, mainly because this was really messed up and he wanted to know, just in case. (He didn't like the idea of little drawn people climbing over all his skin when he was asleep. Because tattoos were a thing, and…)

"I think they're just gonna wander about through other pieces of paper until they find a place they want to settle down and build a new house to live in. Unless someone supplies them with more charcoal to sustain them and they end up growing or reproducing…" Miz put her paper down, having pretty much finished and not having anything else to do.

"What would they build a house out of?" Mary asked next, intrigued.

"Other drawing-lines," said Bill. "The cannibals." And just when Lee thought that the demon might have a problem with that, Bill let out a gleeful "HA!" instead. (Lee groaned and covered his face with a hand.)

Miz reached over to pat Lee's back, realizing he was upset but not quite sure why. "There, there?"

Ms. Talia was staring at the sketch on the table in front of Miz with a gobsmacked expression.

"Don't 'there, there' me!" Lee complained, straightening up in place and away from her hand. "Why would you just up and make a bunch of cannibal lines? Or whatever the heck they are? --That's messed up!" he complained.

Miz shrugged. "I was bored?" ("You made a bunch of cannibals because you were bored?!" Lee complained next.) She frowned. "And they would have been happy to just live in my drawing, but it's supposed to be a Still Life so they had to move and find a new home."

"Could've just left them there and started the still life assignment over with a new piece of paper if they were already happy where they were, little sis," said Bill, as he finished up his own work, lifting his pencil from the page and giving a half-grimace, half-smile at what he'd just completed. He turned to look at her, setting down his pencil. "You didn't need to drive them out of their home." Wasn't that Stanley's definition of… mean?

Miz hummed, "I… didn't think of that…", before turning to the teacher, who was incredibly pale right now, "Would it be alright to have a not-still life for my assignment?" Ms. Talia nodded slowly, eyes staring far into the distance as she seemed not fully aware of where she was right now. Miz cheered before tapping a finger on her paper. "She says you guys can come home!" The dragon-demon whispered into the page. She waved her hand over the paper a few times and a happy family returned and moved back into the deer skull in all their stop-motion frame glory. Miz turned to Bill. "I forgot I could have asked the teacher if I could change the assignment."

"I did say that earlier," Bill agreed good-naturedly.

"I wasn't sure if she would allow me, but she seems to like them…" Miz glanced up at the teacher who was blinking rapidly to watch the little drawings move around.

"Allow you?" Bill said, sounding surprised. "It's YOUR artwork," Bill told her. "'Allowed' isn't a thing! --She can critique, but she can't MAKE you change it or do it a certain way. Neither will I," Bill told his little sister, making it clear that: "I was just offering you advice and suggestions earlier. --I wasn't trying to tell what I thought you HAD to do or I'd MAKE you. You know that, right?" Bill told her with a light frown.

Miz nodded to show she understood and leaned over to nuzzle Bill's side affectionately. "Okay, thanks." Bill smiled slightly; he didn't quite grimace at the start of the bodily contact this time. (Either Miz was getting 'better' at the way she was touching him, or Bill was slowly getting used to it...)

Ms. Talia finally seemed to snap out of whatever stupor she was in. She reached out to hesitantly trace the edges of the paper. "Um… ca-can I have this?" She asked. Miz blinked. "Um… yeah? I'm passing in my assignment, right?" The teacher nodded, a jerky motion. "D-do I need to feed them?" Ms. Talia asked. Miz blinked. "Well, you can draw stuff for them. Like food or stuff if you want? But you don't have to, they'll fade once they run out of charcoal anyway."

"How would… someone give them more charcoal and… keep them alive?" Ms. Talia asked, a bit eagerly. Miz tilted her head. "I guess, you just trace over their outlines when they look like they're fading--" The teacher snatched up the drawing with a grin. "Ok. Thanks. I will--- go and grade this now! In my office! Yes!" She had a manic look in her eyes as she power-walked out of the classroom with the drawing held carefully out in front of her. "I will take good care of them-- I mean, grading! Yes." Before Ms. Talia left the room, she called back, "Free study for the rest of the period! I will grade your sketches during our next lesson--"

The door closed and Miz blinked. Uh...

Bill let out a soft laugh. He was rather used to inducing that sort of reaction in humans (...and others...) as a muse. Though usually, he went in more for the types who were...

...WELL. Let's just say that he was LOOKING FORWARD to his upcoming 'detention' that afternoon! HAHAHAHAHA!

(It was nice to be APPRECIATED, after all!)

Lee was groaning into his hands. Sixer, the oblivious idiot, was still cheerfully writing all this down in his journal (without really thinking through -- or being concerned in the least about -- the deeper implications of any of it), while Mary 'woop'ed at the free period.

Lee had never wished for the end of the school day more. What little reputation he'd had before this was already completely shot by this point, he knew it. No going back there. --He just wanted it to stop before it got even worse, and turned into the negative bullying ostracization junk that he and his brother had used to put up with before. He didn't want to go back to that! Not again! He'd finally--

...Oh shit, the demons were going to be in school with them tomorrow, too, weren't they?! Lee wanted to beg the older version of himself to reconsider this, ple-- that word that you were supposed to use when asking for things nicely. Arrrrrrgh, Lee might even have to use it!

----

Lee was thrilled to leave the demons behind for Detention; unfortunately, Miz didn't want to stay for it.

"It's good enough that I got it. I don't really have to go, right?" she had asked Mr. Harman, who was already almost completely distracted by what Bill had started writing on the board -- which had made far more sense than what Miz had written up earlier (which had been smudged into further illegibility by the opening of the viewing portal itself).

And being so distracted, the science teacher shrugged and said, without looking away from Bill, "Yes, yes. I've got class with you two tomorrow, as well. I'll see you then."

Bill wanted to stay in detention, though he was a little disappointed that Miz didn't. (But Bill didn't argue Miz's reasoning, which was that Stan had told her to keep watch on the twins so they didn't skip school, but Stan had asked that of her because the want-behind-the-want was that he also wanted the two to graduate. So she wanted to stick with them and make sure they got back to the boat safely and did their homework so that they COULD graduate.)

So Bill took a moment to send a dead-eyed stare the teenagers' way, before finally agreeing with Miz's reasoning, with an expression of 'If anything bad happens to my little sister, you're BOTH going to pay for it!' quite clear on his face.

Lee sighed, feeling a little uncomfortable at the responsibility there. (Like the younger demon would listen to him if he told her not to do something that might get her hurt!) He watched as Miz gave her big brother one last nuzzle before waving goodbye and bouncing out of the school.

Mary wanted to hang out some more, but was forced to go home when she saw her parents arrive at the school to pick her up, some kind of family emergency or something. Thus, parting was such sweet sorrow for the two girls, as Miz's new friend(?) waved at her as she got into her parent's car, and they drove off.

So Miz and the twins walked back to the beach by themselves, with Miz looking around properly at the neighborhood as they went. She wanted to check out what kinda food they had here; a port town near the ocean definitely had plenty of seafood. She wanted to check that out. Miz stopped dead in her tracks at the sight of one particular restaurant, though.

"Is that place called the Spaghetto???" she laughed and ran towards it, holding Sixer's hand and dragging him behind her. "That's hilarious!"

Sixer stumbled as Miz pulled him along. "Ah?! Wait!" She slowed and looked back at him curiously. "Shouldn't we tell the older us where we're going?" he asked.

Miz tilted her head and considered it. "Ooh! We should invite them to go out to dinner with us!" She still had left over money from her sales. Besides~ she loved going out to restaurants with friends!

Lee sighed. "Uh…" He sort of didn't want to hang out with the demons in public. They were embarrassing enough at school! Though Bill wasn't here right now, and Miz was better at blending in as long as she wasn't showing off her powers or whatever, Lee was still worried about another 'lunch' incident if the food here wasn't up to her standards. Sixer didn't seem to care about any secondhand embarrassment, so it would be up to Lee to save the both of them by: "We… need to do our homework." Lee felt like gagging, just saying this. (Oh shit. Was HE turning into the RESPONSIBLE one?! Noooooo!)

Miz raised an eyebrow before shrugging. "Right! Schoolwork!" She ruffled Sixer's hair. "You need to get yourself a scholarship, young man! Then you're gonna go and do awesome things! And-" she leaned in close. "Don't abandon your brother." She told him quietly with a serious expression. Sixer blinked. "Wha-?" Miz booped his nose with a grin. "Don't worry about it. But don't forget either." (Sixer looked at her oddly for this, as he readjusted his glasses.)

Miz looked around for the older Stan, eyes flickering absently. After getting them into school, Stan and Ford had returned to the beach and worked on repairs for the boat later that morning, before heading off. Stan had spent the morning along the boardwalk earning more money, after that. (And Ford had left at the same time as Stan.) ...Well, she would get the kids back to the boat, help them finish their homework, and then she'd take them out to dinner!

She pulled Sixer along. "Onwards! To victory!" She bounced cheerfully to the boardwalk. Her new bra offered enough support to do so without toppling over this time.

The twins were essentially herded back to the boat where Miz sat down with them, pulling out her own homework to work on it with them. Lee was planning to just half-ass his work as per usual, but he jumped when Miz suddenly appeared over his shoulder. "You can do better," she informed him, to which Lee groaned and said, "It's fine."

"I can tutor you." Miz insisted, scooting closer to him and leaning forward, pressing her breasts against Lee's back as she reached out to point at his homework. "You're not even trying. I know you can do better than this." She didn't seem to notice Lee's blush as she leaned against him to pull his Algebra homework back out. "You didn't even double-check your work."

"I don't really care?" Lee mumbled. Miz scoffed. "Come on. I know you don't care but it's not bad to try and do better?" Lee groaned. He didn't want to. This was so annoying. But he couldn't help but enjoy the soft bumps against his back. It felt really... nice. So if Miz wanted to lean against him while tutoring him… well--!

Sixer was diligently doing his own homework without prompting. --The sooner he was done, the sooner he could start asking Miz a few hundred questions about demons!

"Show your work along the side, it lets the teacher know you did this yourself. Otherwise they'd accuse you of copying your brother again and fail you without even checking," Miz could be heard saying from where she was helping his brother with his work. Sixer quietly approved of his brother trying harder on his schoolwork. He watched Miz lean over Lee with her… ah… Sixer blushed bright red at seeing the position she was in.

Miz didn't seem to notice as she continued walking Lee through the math. "--then you multiply this with the one in front, the one there and you add them up afterward--" Lee nodded stiffly, face red.

Part of Sixer wanted to tease Lee about having a hot demon babe hanging off of him (and what said demon babe's older brother might have to say about the whole situation once he was back from the detention that he'd so desired), but other other part of him was more interested in listening to how Miz explained the work to his twin.

Through some miracle, Lee actually managed to finish his homework. That earned him a beaming smile and a cheerful "Great job! I knew you could do it!" which gave Lee an odd expression on his face.

Sixer finished his homework as well, which earned him his own praise. He tried to hide his blush, an odd tight feeling in his chest. (He was… proud? Happy? He wasn't sure what this feeling was. But Miz's praise, as simple as it sounded, really seemed to be real and heartfelt. She really was happy for them. Legitimately proud of them. ...It was an odd feeling.)

Once Miz finished checking over all their work and approved of it all (stating that it wasn't about them getting the answers correct, but that they had each answered to the best of their knowledge), she pulled them out of the boat behind her in search of their older counterparts. They were both in the booth that they'd claimed. Ford was in the back, seemingly not doing anything at all; Stan was up front, counting up the cash that he'd earned for the day.

Miz grinned. "Hi Stan~" (It was then that the teenagers realized Miz was back in her child form (having finally accepted defeat on the difficulties of basically lugging around two basketballs on her chest). When had she changed?)

Stan looked up and raised an eyebrow. He took a good look at the three of them, and the next words out of his mouth were, "Where's Bill?"

"He said that detention sounded like it would be fun so he asked the physics teacher to give him one." Miz responded simply. "I got a detention slip too! But I didn't feel like sitting through it, and I wanted to keep an eye on the twins. So I skipped." Miz said cheerfully as she help up the slip of paper. "This is the first time I've ever gotten a detention slip, is that good?" she asked.

Stan stared. "Hold on a sec. Bill asked the teacher to give him detention?" He needed proper clarification on that one first, before anything else. (The kid didn't do nothin' without a reason for it; had he really just done it 'for fun'? ...And which kind of fun had the kid been going for there, was also a pretty damn big concern.)

Stan looked over to Lee and Sixer for their input, and Lee sighed. "Bill walked right into class and demanded for the teachers to give him detention. He tried with our homeroom and English teacher but they both refused. Then Mr. Harman agreed to give him detention 'cause he wanted to talk to him…" Lee trailed off. Should he tell Stan about how the two demons had failed to pretend to be human that day?

"So… the kid… wanted detention?" Stan frowned at them in confusion, eyebrows raised and barely stifling a laugh, because… what the heck?! (He couldn't wait to hear the kid explain this one to him. How was detention supposed to be fun?) Miz shrugged, folding up her detention slip and making it vanish with a flick of her wrist. "He said it was fun? I dunno? Never got detention before, maybe it's actually supposed to be fun?" She shrugged. "But I wanted to explore the city and I saw a restaurant and it had a funny name so I want to go there for dinner," she told Stan simply.

"--Wait," Ford cut in. "Mr. Harman. Our science teacher?" he asked, his voice rising in tone abruptly. It had been so long ago, but…

The younger twins exchanged a glance. "Uh, yeah? He teaches physics." said Lee, wondering what the problem was. Especially when the older Sixer turned white as a sheet.

"Oh no," Ford breathed out, looking like he'd just seen the face of death… or worse. "No no no--"

"--Ford!" Stan exclaimed, startled, as Ford vaulted the table and shot off at a dead run. "...The heck?" Stan muttered, standing up and craning his head around. Was Ford headed for… the school?

The teenagers looked at the retreating back of the man and exchanged worried frowns with each other.

"It's fine; I'll handle it," Stan told the teens, as he rubbed his eyes under his glasses with his fingers. Then he let out a sigh and dropped his hand, looking up at Miz. "You said you wanna go out to eat?" he asked her directly.

"Yup! And I made sure we all finished our homework first!" Miz tugged on Lee and Sixer's hands. "They both did really well." The teens flushed at the praise.

Stan glanced at them both, then back to Miz. "Yeah, okay. Good." He paused for a moment. "You got enough money to do that? Eat out?" Stan asked her.

Miz nodded eagerly. "I can pay for myself! I still have some money! And… and I wanna taste the way they cook stuff here!" She didn't quite whine but she was wiggling in place with pent up impatience.

Stan nodded almost absently, already pulling a couple bills off the stack. He handed them over to his younger counterpart and said, "Take her wherever. Stay out of trouble." Stan leaned back and shoved the rest of the money in a pocket. "I'm gonna go catch up with my brother, figure out what's what," he told them all. "Don't wait up for us." Stan looked over at Miz. "Have fun. Just don't go eating out the whole restaurant, yeah?" he said, with a slight smile and a huff of breath that generously could be called a laugh. (He was tired thinking about it already, how he was going to have to handle the kid and Ford next.)

Miz hugged the two younger twin's arms to herself. "Okaaay! I haven't had Italian food in EONS!" there was something similar to it out in space but it just wasn't the same!

"Uh huh." Right. She'd been living out in space all this time, and 'her' humans hadn't really gotten out of the pyramid age yet, right? She really had missed Earth food, hadn't she? She'd said it a couple times, kinda, what with not having the right ingredients for junk, but the demon-kid really meant it. ...Well, Stan could sort of understand that. He didn't know much about what kinds of food existed out in the multiverse, but with what he'd picked up from Ford whenever he'd accidentally let something slip about what he'd eaten during his time on the other side of the portal...

...Yeah, 'very different' didn't even begin to cut it. Not with 'classifications of species nutritional intake requirements' with 'modifiers for fatal sensitivities' and all that junk. (Stan still didn't know how exactly Ford had been so sure that the kid had made those pancakes that one time a couple days before, though, instead of Dipper. 'That particular kind of bland' didn't really cut it. They hadn't actually tasted bland. He had a few guesses, but... Stan had been even more careful not to accidentally call Dipper 'kid' ever since, though. He'd meant to ask Dipper to try his hand at making those pancakes, not the triangle demon.)

Miz was actually whining now. "I kept introducing the idea of Earth food to the creatures in my own dimensional set, but it's just not the same! The closest things I've found are Potatoes and Tomatoes! And even then they're not the same KINDS!" she said vehemently, as if this was of vital importance. "I've been trying to recreate the plants from scratch by altering the DNA of the other plants I've found, and getting my worshippers to breed their crops until they resemble the stuff that I remember, but--"

Stan held up a hand and Miz quieted. "Yeah, I remember. You said that before." Because she had. The potato and tomato thing, anyway, if not the specifics. Not like he needed to know those -- and if she was anything like the kid on this, too, she'd just rant on and on forever and just keep getting hungrier and hungrier, if he didn't stop her before she really got started. "It's fine. You're here now; you can copy whatever ingredients you want for later. --But for now, you three go out and get yourselves something already-made for you to eat. --That's enough money, right?" Stan asked Lee. "You're not goin' ta some high end fancy place? Or are ya?" With the way Miz had ranted about expensive foods being fancy for the sake of price and how they ruin food, Stan was pretty sure Miz wouldn't want to go to a high end place, but he figured he'd better check, just in case.

Lee spoke up, "She wants to go to the Spaghetto." Miz giggled softly at the name. Stan paused. Was she really wanting to go there just from the name? Miz grinned. "It sounds funny." Sixer finally spoke up: "Can't you just create whatever food you want?"

Miz tilted her head up at him. "Fresh cooked food always tastes better than synthesized food. If I'm copying the atomic structure, they all end up tasting the same because they're all the same, down to every last particle that makes it up -- but actual cooked food has all sorts of minute differences in flavor!" She could scan and copy any meal from Earth she wanted but they were all going to be the same. Even if she scanned and recopied something from a 5-star restaurant, it just wasn't as unique as actual cooked food.

"Which is why maybe you all should swing by a grocery store with her after you eat, before they close. Let her get a good look at a bunch of ingredients for stuff. Cooking stuff together differently would make stuff taste different, yeah?" Stan raised an eyebrow at her. Miz nodded. He was starting to get the sense that she felt even more strongly about food than he had originally thought.

Lee sighed but looked down at where Miz was holding his hand. "Well, off to the Spaghetto we go." He waved at Stan with his free hand after counting and pocketing the bills (that was gonna be way more than enough for where they were going), and the three of them walked off.

Stan let out a sigh as he watched them walk away, Miz skipping cheerfully while holding their hands He didn't exactly take his time cleaning up the booth, but he wasn't exactly not rushing it either.

Once he had everything handled for the day, though, Stan hurried off for the high school.

---

Lee had figured Miz was a big eater. He just hadn't fully understood what that meant.

They'd gone to the Spaghetto and Miz had spotted one of those Food Challenge things on a poster. A bowl of 4 pound pasta and 1 pound of meatballs challenge. 5 pounds of food within 50 minutes. If you finished the bowl then it was free of charge. Lee saw the way her eyes lit up.

Well, Lee had figured it was HER money so if she wanted to go for it, it wasn't his problem. The three got a table and when the waiter came around to take their orders, Lee watched Miz order the challenge bowl and the restaurant staff brought out a waiver for her to sign. Sixer, the damn nerd, was also taking notes on this, after ordering an eggplant lasagna for himself.

Lee got a normal-sized spaghetti and meatballs for himself and stared when Miz ordered a few appetizers for the table. "Don't worry, I'll pay for the appetizers," she told them, "Since I'm gonna be getting the Ghetto-Meato for free," Miz said confidently. The restaurant staff gave their group some worried looks.

"If she gets sick, it's not our fault," the waiter told them. "Are you sure you want to let her do this?" They asked the older (looking) kids. Lee shrugged. She was a demon, so whatever.

The appetizers came out and the staff were even more worried when Miz ate some of those too. Sixer was content to just sit back and watch the action, eating some food when Miz prompted him to. Lee felt a little weird about it, because Miz was fussing over them a little like… a mom or something. Maybe the way Lee supposed an older sister might have done it? Actually, didn't Miz do that with Bill too? Make him eat his vegetables?

After they finished off the stuffed mushrooms and calamari, the entrees came out. Lee sipped on his soda while Miz drank some hot tea. ("To clear my pallet," Miz had claimed.)

A waiter with a stopwatch stood beside their table. Miz grinned at the giant plate filled with a pile of noodles larger than her head. Lee really hoped this wasn't going to end badly. (Sixer just noted down his observations: one demon seemed to love eating while her older brother was the opposite, was there a reason for this?) Then Lee's thoughts were derailed as Miz began digging into her plate.

...holy freaking shit.

Lee could see how wide the waiter's eyes were, and he was sure his own were the same. Right, demon, yeah, but watching someone a whole head smaller than him eat a bowl of noodles bigger than her head was… a bit much. Miz sat back in her chair, rubbing her round belly and sighing happily once she finished. "That was goooood~" She wiped the tomato sauce off her cheeks with a napkin. The waiter put down the stop watch. "Uh…." He glanced at the empty bowl and then down at the stop watch. "Well, I guess you won the challenge…" And probably beat the old record time as well, if Lee had to guess.

Miz grinned at them. "Woo! Free food!"

Sixer snorted before turning back to his own meal. "Well, that's one way to save money." Miz glanced around. "So I'm paying for the appetizers, I can pay for the deserts as well, if you two want any?"

Sixer wiped his mouth before responding, "I'd actually prefer to have another one of your hand-crafted ice creams. They were delicious."

And that got a faint blush out of the demon girl, which made Lee groan. Dammit Sixer. Lee seriously hoped his idiot brother didn't end up accidentally seducing the demon who found him attractive and may or may not want to eat him. (Sixer seemed to have a problem with girls that way -- as in, he was totally oblivious unless it smacked him in the face, and then... well, nothing really. There was no smacking him in the face, other than the actually-smacking-him-in-the-face kind; not as far as Stan knew, anyway.)

Luckily, Miz was distracted by the manager coming up to ask if she wanted her picture taken to go on the Wall of Winners. As Miz walked off with them to get her picture taken, Lee turned to Sixer and sighed.

"Be careful around her." Lee told his brother. Sixer blinked. "What do you mean? Well, if you're worried she'll eat me, I'm not old enough yet." which made Lee sigh again. "Look, just try not to be alone with her if you can help it, yeah?" mainly so Lee could catch whenever his idiot brother somehow managed to accidentally flirt with the younger demon, and maybe keep him from getting clobbered at some point later.

Miz came back, holding a certificate of success for completing the challenge. She slid back into her seat and grinned. "You know I got a coupon for completing the challenge?" She held it out to Lee. "Here. I don't need this so you can have it."

The teen took it with a grunt. --A discount was a discount.

They finished their meal as Miz hummed to herself and seemed to stare off into the distance, her eyes Flickering in a way that made Sixer really, really want to study her more closely. Lee gave him a firm look and Sixer rolled his eyes at his brother's over-protectiveness.

They finished their food and Miz happily ordered desert. Sixer scribbled in his journal while Miz dug through her slice of key lime pie and Lee flagged down a waiter for the bill.

Like Miz said, she paid for the appetizers and deserts, while Lee paid for his and Sixer's entrees. Once all was done and paid for, the group left the restaurant and made their way back to the boat. (Lee almost started heading home but remembered that the pawn shop wasn't their home anymore and had to stifle a tremble as he followed Miz and Sixer. The two were holding hands again as Miz chattered on about some nerdy science thing that Lee couldn't understand but his twin seemed utterly enraptured by.)

Since their homework was done, and none of his part-time jobs were on for the day, Lee wasn't sure what to do with his time aside from keeping an eye on the small demon in case she tried to eat his brother or something. Sixer was asking Miz all sorts of questions about 'quantum'-somethings and 'relativity' or whatever. Lee leaned back against the wall, sitting on his sleeping bag as he stifled a yawn. Listening to them drone on and on was boring as heck.

Lee was wondering what his older counterpart was doing, and almost wanted to go back to the school to check on them, when Miz thoroughly distracted him by exclaiming, "Ugh, I can't stand it anymore! I need to change!" before her form shifted and suddenly there was a young man standing there, stretching and sighing in relief. "Ugh… much better. I've been stuck as a female for far too long…" he grinned. "So where's the nearest grocery store? Farmer's market? Ooh! Fish market!"

....Oh right, Miz DID say she could be male if she wanted…

---

"Ford! Ford! --What's going on?" Stan called out, as he miraculously found his brother in the middle of one of the hallways in the high school -- weirdly, one not too far past the gymnasium where the science fair was. Stan had honestly half-expected to enter the school to hear the yelling from the kid being strangled (or Ford getting drop-kicked for trying it with the kid when the triangle demon had that bodysuit thing on and protecting him) somewhere; Ford had had a pretty serious head start on him, there. (And it wasn't like Stan had been racing after him, either.) The heck was Ford doing here, anyway?

"What's wrong with the kid being with our old science teacher for detention?" Stan asked him, as Ford was glancing around looking frustrated, and… seriously, did Ford not remember where the detention classroom was? (Wasn't like Ford hadn't been sent there a time or two, himself, hell…) Stan sighed and started walking. "C'mon, Ford. The room is this way, ya nerd. And you think I'm the one with 'memory problems', geez."

Ford frowned after Stan not quite furiously (he was certain that he'd already checked the right room for that!) and strode forward and down the hallway past Stan within seconds. Stan let out a grumbling huff at this, but just followed along behind him. Ford was muttering something under his breath to himself as he looked around, and Stan couldn't quite hear him -- his hearing aid wasn't that great. ...And Ford wasn't facing him, so he couldn't lip-read him, either. "Hey! Poindexter! Talk to me."

"Bill is going to break him!" Ford hissed out as he strode down the empty hallway. School was out and the kids had all but cleared out, leaving the scientist's footsteps echoing down the hallways.

Stan almost faltered between steps. "Break-- what?" Dammit. The kid knew he wasn't supposed to do mental attacks! "Why would he do that? --The kid knows better," he told his brother, frowning at his back.

"That's not--!!" Ford made a frustrated sound as he turned a corner and power-walked down the next hallway. "You don't understand--"

"Then explain it to me, Ford," Stan said, reaching out and grasping Ford's elbow in exasperation, pulling him to a stop. (Huh. That... wasn't as hard as he'd thought it was gonna be. Why hadn't Ford fought him on--)

...Oh. Shit. Ford didn't look so hot.

And Stan could feel his brother shaking slightly, through the firm grip he had on his arm.

"He--" Hell, Ford looked cagey as a trapped animal right now, almost. (Or a bought-and-paid-for cop trying to get out of 'fessing up to a mob boss on something.) "You don't understand, you don't--"

"--know what he's like, yeah, Ford, you've told me this one a thousand times, already," Stan said, about ready to smack Ford for pulling this shit on him, yet again--

"--No," said Ford, looking even more nervous almost, like… "You don't care what he's like!" And Stan was just left standing there, blinking, as Ford just… wouldn't meet his eyes, looked for the world like he just wanted the floor to swallow him up whole and-- "It doesn't matter to you, that he--" Ford cut himself off, and he'd fully turned his head away from Stan now, looking around frantically -- literally looking at anything and everything else but Stan, at this point.

Stan let go of Ford's arm and reached out to gently grab both of his shoulders instead.

"Ford, look at me," Stan said evenly. "It's gonna be okay."

"You can't-- I-- I mean, you can, but I--" Ford winced and dropped his head. He shuddered slightly, and looked absolutely miserable, like he was confessing some horrible secret to him as he said, "I-- I'm fine now!" Ford said, finally lifting up his head, and he looked almost desperate as he said, "I-- I'm over-- I'm immune to him now, mostly--"

Stan stared at his brother, because… "Ford, you are not making even one bit of sense right now. Are you gonna tell me what I'm walkin' into, or not?"

And his brother looked scared, still, even as he visibly steeled himself and said, "Bill is… addictive."

Stan blinked at him.

...Yeah, he didn't get it.

"The kid's… addictive?" Stan said slowly, because… "What, were you smokin' him inside your head, somehow?" Stan asked his brother incredulously, because he was pretty sure that fire and the kid didn't really mix all that well, no matter what the kid might try to pull over on everybody and their dog. But to what he'd just said, Ford grimaced and shook his head sharply in a 'no', looking irritated… with himself. (Not Stan.) Okay, but…

"Bill is addictive," Ford repeated, looking out-and-out sick. "He's… he's contagious. He's like a virus, a contagion, and he just--" Ford shook his head, shivering slightly in place again. "His thoughts are terrible -- memetic, almost -- and they spread like-- like--" Ford swallowed, hard. "--You don't know, Stan," Ford told him almost desperately. "You don't know what he does. What he is! What he can do to--"

"Ford, is this some kinda weirdness thing, or something else?" Stan asked him, seriously not getting it.

"No, Stanley, it's what Bill is!" Ford said, grabbing his arms back, and he was searching Stan's gaze frantically -- for what, Stan didn't know. "What Bill does, what he can do to any thinking species--" His brother was starting to shake again.

"He doin' whatever this is on purpose?" Stan said, eyes narrowing. (He'd seriously lost the thread here -- not that he'd had it to begin with -- but he figured that, maybe if he tried to stick with the general stuff, he could still…)

Ford looked almost miserable again, pulling away from Stan slightly to clutch his arms around himself. "He doesn't--" Ford said quietly, then looked away and shook his head. "...No. No, I don't believe so." And then Ford looked at least a little angry, on top of everything else, as he squeezed his arms around himself even tighter. "He's just… He's simply him. And he… he's..." Ford looked drawn as he looked down at the floor, very quiet now.

"He's what," Stan said evenly, not judging any because, hell, he didn't even know what to judge, here.

"...Terrible," Ford said finally, but Stan got the feeling that that really wasn't the word that Ford was usin' for the kid, inside his own head.

Stan eyed his brother for a long moment. But instead of asking what he could've asked, he asked instead, "If you're so worried about this stuff, the kid talking to people, then why didn't you jump down my throat about any of the kids talkin' to him, before?" Stan asked him.

But to this, Ford just shook his head. "The niblings aren't at any risk of--" Then Ford stopped and grimaced. "...Dipper might be, in a few years," Ford said more quietly next, looking away from him, and that had Stan narrowing his eyes at him, slightly. (Okay. So this was probably some kinda geek thing, then. Stan could fill in the blanks.)

"Ford, what are you afraid of me seein' here," Stan asked his brother straight-out. "You… do you need me to wait outside while you…handle things?" Stan asked him, because if this was one of those other-side-of-the-portal things that Ford was so messed up about, then--

"--No!" Ford said, looked shocked (and almost… afraid?) for a moment, before somewhat composing himself again. "I-- I need you to stop Bill. To tell him to stop." To make him stop (-- because I can't and won't be able to), was the subtext Stan got there. Okay. "I'll take our teacher… away. From him." Ford glanced away from him. "Hopefully before it's too late," Ford said next, but Stan couldn't help but stare at the tone of absolute despair in Ford's tone at...

"...Ford," Stan said slowly. "Do I gotta ask…"

"You won't have to," Ford not-quite whispered out. "You'll likely see… they said he wanted to talk to Bill, and..." Ford pulled in a slow and shaky breath, trying to get himself better under control. "...You'll likely see. What I was like. After I first met Bill."

And Stan couldn't help but stare. His brother was standing there, shaking, out in the hallway, in the middle of their old school, looking...

...utterly miserable, and desperate, and scared, and almost as bad as he had when he'd opened the door of the Shack his house to Stan a little more than thirty years ago, to let Stan in after asking him to 'please come!!' (Past the junk with the damn crossbow and the flashlight beamed into his eyes, anyway.) Except this time there was no paranoia and no sleepless nights to blame the shakiness on, or the out-and-out fear in Ford's eyes...

So Stan stared at his brother for a good couple of long seconds...

...and then Stan shrugged (absolutely on purpose) and said, "Eh, I've seen you and McGucket geek out over shit before. I can handle it."

And then he watched as his too-pale brother stilled in place and stared at him in sheer and utter disbelief.

"...What?" Stan complained. "That's what you did with the kid inside your head that you never talk about, right? 'Wanting to talk to him'? About all that math stuff, with the portal?" Not like he hadn't had the kid complain to him about it, a time or two before. "I know you thought you and the kid used to get along before, Ford," Stan told his brother in descending tones, with a frustrated sigh. "Dipper told me that one. Not like I didn't know about that already. So what?" (Yeah, that got a grimace out of Ford... but also almost a smile? Yeah, Stan was totally lost at this point.)

"You know detention is for sitting at desks and being bored, not doing geek things with the teacher, right?" Stan told him next.

That got Stan a startled sort of huff of breath, and a grim, "One can only hope…" out of his brother.

Ford glanced around again. He honestly couldn't remember where all the rooms were anymore, his high school years having been forty years past at this point. He'd thought he'd remembered where the detention room was, but… Ford shook his head in frustration. With how quiet the building was after school now (and with all the students remaining for their athletics practice having finally gotten their acts and materials together, having gone through the locker rooms, changed, and gotten themselves all out to the fields for said practice…) perhaps he could try to simply listen for Bill. Hopefully, if he heard the dream demon… (as much as he was dreading what that would mean for their old teacher, and what Stan was likely going to see and then be able to relate to him next…)

Ford knew Bill better than he thought, because after he and Stan both waited quietly for a minute or so, Ford finally heard the faint echoes of the demon's laughter coming from somewhere down the hall, not too far away from them.

--And Ford was off like a shot, racing down the hall in that direction.

"Ford, that ain't--" Stan sighed and cut himself off, running after him, worried about what this was really all about. (That wasn't the way to the detention room, either.)

Except after half-a-minute of racing after his brother… Stan could hear muted voices coming from down the hallway in front of them now -- the kid's voice definitely -- the cadence was pretty damn distinctive, even through walls -- and... somebody else, exclaiming something in... surprise. Hell, he recognized that tone from Ford, back in high school, when he'd been working through something and just chattering on and on about it: enlightenment.

Ford skidded to a halt and turned to slam up against -- no, burst through the door, it wasn't locked -- and… oh no. Oh, no no no no--

Ford made a frustrated, horrified sound as froze in place and turned his head slowly, looking around the room.

This wasn't the normal detention room. This wasn't a normal classroom.

This was one of the advanced study rooms, with all the chairs shoved to one side of the room, and-- there were those old moveable standing chalkboards everywhere-- and every last one of them was literally COVERED in--

"BILL!" Ford shrieked out, nearly breathless. He had the horrible urge to read every last one of those equations-- slap his hands over both of his eyes and scream--

The wonderful horrifying former muse demon of his, turned away from watching the teacher (who was standing at one of the boards) and blinked at him. And Bill looked… relaxed, not even excited, just-- While the teacher was--

"Sixer?" Bill said. The dream demon looked legitimately surprised to see him there.

Mr. Harman, who was standing at the board, started to turn away from it, too, towards the entrant who he would almost certainly see as an irritant or an intruder upon his work and-- the teacher stopped partway, because while his body started to turn away slightly, his head and neck didn't quite make it, and… he slowly and completely turned his entire body back towards the board.

Ford felt Stan enter the room at his back, and he had the urge to-- no, no, he could do this, he just needed to--

Mr. Harman, or rather, the man standing in front of him who was an alternate-dimensional duplicate of his favorite science teacher in high school, was shaking in place where he stood at the board, gripping a three-quarters used up piece of chalk in his hand like it was a lifeline, almost. He was staring, shaking as his eyes roamed over the board, trying to-- Ford didn't have to guess at what he was trying to do, he recognized Bill's handwriting, and he recognized the teacher's (funny, how the little things came back, how they stuck with you even after), and he knew exactly how bad it was just from the ratio of the occurrence of each of those two things, scrawled across the twelve boards lining and littered throughout the classroom, alone. And…

"S-six?" he heard the teacher say, as if in almost a daze. "Six-- ah-er-it-- it-- Six is-- is-- is?--" Mr. Harman's hands were shaking, and he was starting to look over the board almost frantically at this point-- trying to figure out what had he missed, because Bill never gave hints out unless--

--and Bill just turned back to the teacher and took the two steps forward to stand by his side.

And lifted a hand.

And leisurely stroked the back of Mr. Harman's head oh-so gently.

And then Bill said, "Oh, not six. Sixer. It's a name. He's right over there. No sixes here, don't worry!" Bill ended on a quite cheerful note.

And Ford couldn't help but flinch hard at the tone of voice Bill was using. The instructive one. The one which he'd ALWAYS used when he'd been--

Mr. Harman continued shaking as he stared at the equations Bill had scrawled across the board, "No sixes, no sixes," he murmured, almost like a mantra. His eyes were somewhat dazed, still. (He was gone already. He was so far gone… Ford felt like throwing up.)

"That's right," Bill said almost soothingly, stroking the back of the teacher's head again, before lowering his hand.

And Ford froze stiffly in place at Bill's next words:

"You're almost there..."

"...I'm-- I'm almost?" Mr. Harman said, the not-quite frustrated and desperate and yearning frown on his face slowly easing and… morphing into… "I'm almost there. --I'm almost there, I'm almost THERE!"

And Ford violently shuddered at the wide, rictus grin that Mr. Harman now had plastered across his face. His eyes were sharper; he was leaning in towards the board, now. But his hands were still shaking; he looked no less unhinged.

No. No. Not again. Not--

--He couldn't be too late. Not again. If-- if he stopped the man now, quickly, before--

Ford shoved himself forward, moving past Bill and getting in-between the teacher and the board, interjecting himself between them (...more than a little worried that things were about to get physically violent, because…)

--but the teacher only startled as he lost sight of what he was working on. Ford pulled in a breath and grabbed him by the shoulders, all-but-dragging him towards the doorway --

-- where Stan was standing, looking nothing but confused --

--Ford forced himself to keep moving, and keep moving Mr. Harman along with him.

"--What, what are you doing!" the man finally complained, and he looked exhausted, oh Axolotl, he'd really been about ready to drop on his feet. "Wait, no, wait-- wait-wait-wait! I--"

"You need to stop," Ford told him firmly, as he bodily dragged the man out of the classroom -- past Stanley, who quickly moved into the room and out of the way -- as the teacher finally began to struggle against his hold, trying to push his way back in--

"No!!" Mr. Harman exclaimed, as if he was seeing the promised land barred and gated away from him all his hopes and dreams being ripped away, out of his hands and out of his sight, and Ford's heart ached as he stood and planted himself like a tree in the doorway, as the (dear lord, far younger than him) man tried to push past him and get back inside (still, still clutching onto that piece of chalk). "I need to--!!"

"You don't," Ford said, starting to feel the strain and stress of it, beyond his capacity and capability to bear, on his own. (Not on his own.)

"I need to finish!" Mr. Harman said, managing to claw past him with his arms, if not his body, trying to get a grip on the doorway to pull himself past, and--

"What's the problem, Sixer?" Ford heard Bill say behind him, and for one long moment, Ford nearly folded and dropped where he stood.

Instead, he shoved both arms out to his sides and got a double-grip on each side of the doorway instead, bracing himself, because he knew--

"He's almost done."

...and the teacher paused for a moment as that wonderful horrible phrase from Bill sunk in.

And then Mr. Harman got a hard gleam in his eye (which, really, Ford had been expecting to see from him right from the start).