-Uuugh-

---

Pacifica frowned up at Ford Pines. The kind-of-hot uncle, or grunkle. Whatever.

"You're really pushing this, you know," she told him in her usual (haughty) manner, as she shoved open the front door to the mansion. "I told the twins to tell you that we shouldn't ever meet here in-person, at the same time." Internally, she was kicking herself. She'd known that that last message had sounded kind of off, that Dipper didn't normally talk like that. But she'd gone and written what she had, without checking who she was writing to first, and... this was the result.

"I'm aware," he told her dryly, looking none too happy himself, "But you should assume that anything communicated via radio frequencies is something that Bill can, will, and has been, intercepting with ease."

Pacifica tried not to grimace at this, as she watched Dr. Pines follow her in, and close the door behind them. He adjusted his glasses, as he walked down the hallway beside her.

"Fine," she told him tersely. "What is this barrier thing anyway? And why can't Dipper or Mabel help me with it?" Because she didn't understand why it had to be him, why he was risking everything this way, just for this.

"Mabel helped me with the original barrier by gathering the unicorn hair for me," he told her, "But neither she nor Dipper helped me with the preparation of the actual formula, or putting up the barrier itself. I don't have a good reason to make it at the Shack without suspicion from either of the two demons, so I wouldn't be able to teach it to either of them without Bill wanting to know exactly what we were up to," the man informed her. "But I can understand the need for at least some safety from a broad spectrum of remote and potentially long-distance curses and other magic attacks."

...Great. "I see." Pacifica made her way into the main room and then down another hallway. "By the way, why didn't you tell the rest of us about the demon's little sister, when you were making the case for your brother being able to keep the demon under control? That would have been nice to know about at the time," she told him sarcastically.

Ford sighed. "He doesn't have a--" He gave her an uncomfortable grimace. "She's a demon. She's not actually his--"

"--family? But Bill says she's his sister. And he treats her like one, as far as I can tell," Pacifica said to him. "At least, they seem to behave the same way towards each other as Dipper and Mabel do, which is…" Really, she had no words for it other than something which vaguely reminded her of disgust, but felt a lot more uncomfortable.

Ford sighed again. "They apparently decided to 'adopt' each other two weeks-- one week ago, from your standpoint. When that man-eater showed up at our doorstep." He frowned. "I don't know what Bill is planning with this…" Ford looked down, and stopped in the middle of the hallway. Pacifica stopped to face him.

"Yes?" she prompted him.

Ford looked up at her again, and the man looked grim. "I was going to say, 'I don't know what Bill intends to accomplish with this pretend family game of his,' but…" He looked away from her, with seemingly great reserve.

"...But?" Pacifica prompted, and Dr. Pines grimaced.

"To be quite clear to begin with," he told her, "There's no way that any of this is legitimate. Demons cannot love. Even if they put on the act of doing so, they are completely incapable of it."

"But…?" Pacifica prompted him again, when he stopped yet again.

"But," Ford said, seeming to pull in a breath and steel himself, "Bill may not… actually be a demon after all. Not in the strictest sense of the term. And he seems…" Ford grimaced and looked away from her again. "...to be taking this all very seriously, with Miz. At least in the short term. --But make no mistake," the man told her hurriedly. "Bill is still very dangerous, and his moods and whims shift so abruptly that one cannot entertain the notion that he would and will continue to act this way for long. It would be sheer folly to think so, for even a single moment."

Pacifica froze in place. "Excuse me, what?"

Ford blinked at her. "I… yes?" he said. "What… part of what I said was unclear?" he tried next, at the girl's continuing confusion.

"What do you mean, Bill isn't a demon???"

"That isn't what I--" Ford stopped then pinched the bridge of his nose with his fingers. "Bill is a demon," he said in exasperation, dropping his hand. "He simply isn't… the type of demon that I thought he was," Ford told her, then muttered out, "Because apparently there are types of them, now."

Pacifica stared at the scientist for a moment.

"Fine," Pacifica said. "Okay. Great. So he might not be the type of demon you thought he was. --Does this change anything at all?" she asked him. "Is he actually more easily killable then, or something? Can we use this, somehow?"

"Use--" The man blinked at her owlishly. "...Possibly." He'd looked a little taken aback for a moment at the thought, though. That was weird. "But without knowing... the specifics of how he was able to come back this time," he said with a grimace, "We still won't know how to kill him in such a way that we would have any certainty that he would, in fact, both die and stay dead. Stan is right about that," Dr. Pines told her with a heavy sigh.

"And his sister probably wouldn't like it if we did," Pacifica muttered. "Unless she's one of those types of demon who can't love anyone? But from what I've seen, she really does seem to like Bill." And the feeling also seemed to be mutual.

"An act. Surely." Ford frowned. "A heartless man-eater like her is simply… using this 'family' play-game to get something that she wants. That's all that demons ever do, and they are always and consistently quite fickle. --I haven't figured out what she's after, not yet, but she's been making up all sorts of nonsense stories in a strong play for sympathy, in order to trick my brother into going along with all of it." He grimaced. "And it seems that she is a good enough liar that even Bill is somehow falling for this act of hers, too." And he seemed very uncomfortable at the thought.

Tricking the crazy demon was one thing -- which, frankly, they were and had been pulling off already themselves, right now, ever since the demon had come back (and before that, even) -- but... "Tricking Stan Pines?" The blonde raised an eyebrow. That old con man was nobody's fool. "That doesn't seem very likely. --What stories has she told?"

The man looked irritated, now -- though not with her, oddly. "All sorts of things. She's been claiming that she used to be human, for one thing. That she died in a car crash, and became a triangular, then demonic, 'Bill Cipher' after that." He didn't quite roll his eyes at this, even as Pacifica raised an eyebrow at 'became Bill Cipher'. He gestured with his hand outwards, as if to emphasize… "That she has PTSD from being captured by one of her summoners at some point, while she was a demon, and in the Mindscape. That she had younger sisters as a human, and a younger brother as a triangle, before she died yet again. And that, supposedly, Bill used to have an older brother who was killed for being--" he took in a breath rather stiffy, "--for being unnatural in some way. And that Bill's entire plan to take over our world has been just one step in some crazy plan to bring his brother back to life somehow. --It's all utterly ridiculous! And Stan is just eating it up, taking it all as if it were some indomitable truth!"

Pacifica looked the scientist over carefully after his outburst. He looked severely stressed.

"And how much do you believe of this?" she asked of him next.

And she watched as his shoulders slumped.

Pacifica sighed. (Almost all of it, then? Really?)

"You'd better come in, sit down, and tell me the whole story," she told him, walking a little further down the hallway to the next door down and opening the door. "If we're going to screw this up with us both being here at the same time, I might as well get the most out of it while you're here," she informed him, motioning him inside.

Dr. Pines looked up at her, and gave her a rueful sort of smile.

"Yes, of course," the scientist told her, and the man walked forward briskly to catch up to where she was standing (moving far more quickly and with a much longer stride than he had down the hallway with her earlier, which Pacifica noted rather clinically and she was a little bit impressed -- most adults weren't polite enough to walk at her pace). He looked horrendously tired.

In Pacifica's thoughts, she was already putting together Miz's offhand comment about how she'd had a sister who'd been dyslexic, together with Bill's complaint about human bodies, and this new information that Dr. Pines had just given her: Miz having had little sisters when she was human. It fit perfectly. Pacifica doubted it had all been an act, with how Miz had mentioned it so offhandedly, so naturally in a conversation that wasn't about trying to stir up some sympathy for her. The younger-looking demon hadn't even elaborated about the sister who'd been dyslexic.

Pacifica wouldn't discount the idea of it completely though, of course. She'd met people who could lie that effortlessly, and drop a comment or two that would just be begging for someone to follow up on later. She'd seen that before, both for business-related matters and for personal ones. She had no reason not to trust the 'subject matter expert' on demons that she had in the form of Dr. Stanford Pines. But, she didn't have all the details of the situation yet. (And the man was clearly a biased source in at least some respects, if she'd understood half of what she'd heard from the Pines twins on the subject of the scientist and the 'dream' demon. Though he did seem to be incorporating new information as he learned it, and revising at least some of his conclusions as he saw those differences and conflicts in those conclusions emerge.)

So she would get the full story straight from the horse's mouth, for herself, and see what conclusions she came to on her own.

---

In a word, Pacifica was horrified.

From the way Dr. Pines told it, Miz had either gone through some seriously traumatic things -- including what sounded like abuse -- or the demon was callous and disgusting enough to claim such, in an attempt to garner some sort of sympathy. ...Even more disturbingly, Dr. Pines didn't seem to make any sort of differentiation between either of those particular points, nor did he think that PTSD was an actual possible outcome of any of what he'd just related to her for some reason. And from the way he'd told it to her, relating the events which he'd seen, it sounded like this younger demon had (truthfully or otherwise) latched onto Bill as some 'beacon of hope', out of some desperate need for affection and family. ...And yet, Dr. Pines didn't seem to realize himself this angle of looking at the events that he himself was relating. He simply claimed that all of it had to be lies, or simply not relevant in some way, and didn't seem to bother thinking about any of it further -- what Miz might be trying to imply, or relate, or get out of sharing this information with any of the Pines -- not any of it.

So, there were two things there. Two basic conclusions that Pacifica could make. One, Miz was a master level liar who was stooping low enough to fake stories of past trauma in order to leech sympathy for some unknown reason. Or two, she was a scared lonely young woman who had somehow inexplicably turned into a demon at some point, and just wanted someone to love her.

Admittedly, Pacifica was cynical enough to think that both of them might be likely. Which meant that it very well could be the third possibility, instead: that both of them were true, to varying degrees.

The demon could very well be lying to everyone about herself, telling only what might garner sympathy, and leaving anything else that might not fit her own sob-story narrative out, of course. She was the only one here to tell her side of the story, after all -- there was no-one else that they could talk to, to tell any of them whether she was lying or not. All any of them had to go on were their own instincts, here.

Miz could also, still, be a scared and lonely little demon-woman looking for someone powerful to latch onto, to either do her work for her or to protect her, or whatever else she might need. Horrible people could still love each other, after all. And it wasn't as though any of these things were mutually-exclusive, necessarily.

Dr. Pines didn't exactly even have proof that Miz was a demon, one way or the other, just a sort of 'gut feeling' from years of experience of recognizing other demons successfully, apparently, or whatever. (Not that he did anything but stonewall her, when it came to asking him for any of the specifics of said expertise in that area.) ...And even if Miz wasn't lying, she could still be leaving things out, to try and get people to think she wasn't as bad as she might actually be.

The other point here, was that Dr. Pines didn't seem to be looking below the surface on any of what he was seeing. He seemed to believe that it could only be one or the other of these possibilities. Not a mix of the two, like Pacifica thought might be the case, not both; and he certainly didn't think that it might even be something else entirely -- which Pacifica was still going to have to think on, now that she had a lot more to work with. It was all black and white to him; there was no real room with him for grey. And demons were quite clearly in the black for him.

If Miz was a demon, then to him she was evil. Period. Endstop. Plain as can be.

Pacifica grimaced, then smoothed her expression deliberately. She disliked this sort of simplistic thinking; it was almost never right. (It was also very easy to take advantage of, in the form of false narratives; her parents did it themselves frequently.)

And if even a fraction of Miz's past were true (after all, the best lies contained a grain of truth)… and if Dr. Pines had rejected it straight out and let slip to Miz that he thought she was lying about the suffering she'd gone though...

Well, the twins had told her that Miz had already hurt Dr. Pines, because he had made her angry. He likely had reason to feel biased on this particular front; most people did after being hurt. (And Pacifica felt it was telling that Dipper and Mabel hadn't given her any details of exactly what had happened to him either, between the two of them.) Though frankly, if Miz's trauma was real…

(A torn out ending from a storybook. Being told every night that she had to be perfect or else. That bell ringing and ringing…)

...if that had been what had set her off, well. If she'd had PTSD from the sort of thing Dr. Pines had described (in not too much detail), she'd be downright furious at getting gaslighted like that from some know-nothing stranger. (Though not necessarily angry enough to do something that would get herself labeled 'a demon' over enacting it, to be fair.)

Still, Pacifica didn't know enough to make a decision on this matter. So, despite her skepticism about Dr. Pines's extremely limited tunnel vision concerning the demons, she held back on voicing her doubts aloud. She would just wait, watch, and figure this out on her own, all by herself. Just like she always did.

"--And Stanley keeps going along with it. He even goes through the trouble of helping this stupid family play continue on, encouraging Bill and the man-eater to continue pretending to be brother and sister. It's ridiculous!" Dr. Pines ranted to her out loud.

Pacifica held back a sigh, as she knew it was likely that she wasn't going to be able to get him to think any more broadly about this that day. (Quite frankly, she had no inclination or motivation at the moment to do so.) So instead, she asked him a different question: "Why is it so bad that Bill has a sister? Aside from how she might stop us from killing her brother?"

"Because it makes Bill seem--" Ford grimaced. "Watching him pretend to care about her makes people think he might actually be capable of caring about anyone at all! --Which he doesn't," Ford insisted.

"And…?" Pacifica asked, rather than the droll '...So what?' that she actually wanted to say. Because, if they all knew Bill was 'pretending', then it wasn't like the act would work on them.

"It's dangerous! Bill doesn't care about anyone but himself! So having him pretend otherwise is--" The man waved his hand around. "--You don't understand what sort of impact that has on the unconscious mind!"

"What?" Pacifica said next, confused. Was the man implying some sort of… hypnotic suggestion of some sort?

"Seeing it, even if you know it's a lie, you'll start to get used to it and expect it, thinking that it's normal, that he's normal, whether you mean to or not. You'd start to subconsciously believe that maybe he does actually--" Dr. Pines made a frustrated gesture. "It's subversive. He looks human at present. Even if he didn't, most people would begin to anthropomorphize him almost immediately, at the first sight of anything looking like human-like behavior coming from him. The expectations that result from it--" Dr. Pines grimaced again. "It simply can't be countered by pure reason so easily. --It's biological," Dr. Pines said, letting out a tired sigh, as he removed his glasses, to rub at his eyes. "It is literally hardwired into us from an evolutionary standpoint," he explained. "To empathize and to believe that he is the same as you are because he looks human, that he cares about the same things as you do. That he thinks and feels the same way. To relax your guard around him-- he's not human, and any kind of human-like behavior coming from him is either entirely false, or simply us misinterpreting his actions and reactions to people, situations, and events. Whether he is a demon or not, or what type of demon he might be, is simply not the issue here. Bill does not have human emotions," Dr. Pines told her, "And he does not empathize with any of us, or the human condition, in the slightest. He isn't human, but the closest human classification for him that fits in this context is the term 'psychopath', or perhaps 'high-functioning sociopath'. --Do you understand?" he asked her almost urgently, searching her face. "It's all an act. He cannot be trusted."

Pacifica let out a sigh. She'd dealt with sharks who she suspected were just that before.

"I'll keep that in mind," she told him. "Though that does beg the question: why haven't you been affected by this yet?" she asked, hoping for a little more clarity from him. (After all, it wasn't as though he wasn't human, and he himself seemed almost incapable of seeing the demon this way, from the way that he'd been talking about the demon here and now.)

Oddly, the man didn't seem taken aback by this, he simply grimaced and said, "I have rather the opposite problem. I've realized recently that I only see him as a triangle, and exactly what it means that others do not. The full extent of the impact that has likely been having on the rest of my family, as they continue to associate with and around him, is…" Dr. Pines shook his head, looking morose. "It's actually quite difficult for me to see what he looks like to others in his current physical form," he told her. "Largely, because I know what he is supposed to look like when he does things, from my many encounters with him in the Mindscape to-date."

...well, that just left her with more questions and answers. Exactly how well did Dr. Pines know this particular demon? And, more importantly, how had he managed to stay alive for so long, with such a negative, combative, and callous attitude towards the demon seemingly driving him? The demon had quite literally rearranged her own father's face for trying to suck up to him! And yet this man, who had been actively opposing him for years… how had he done it?

No. No, she had to focus. Two demons meant two problems. She had to grasp the larger problem first, before dealing with...

"Okay, so the two demons seeming to be affectionate isn't actually them caring about each other in a human way. So, what is it then?" Pacifica asked. "Why would they go to the trouble of pretending to care about each other? The whole, 'getting us to let our guards down' is one thing, but why would Bill trust this other demon, whom you say he doesn't care about, nor she about him, to sleep next to him?" Because she'd rather gotten the impression that that was rather a big deal for the demon, from a few things she'd heard from Mabel and Dipper at this point -- the whole 'safe place to sleep while un-messed-with' thing. And yet she'd seen many photos from Mabel of the two cuddled together in all sorts of places. She didn't think a demon would simply trust someone he didn't care about, who he knew didn't truly care about him or his own safety, to be so close to him while he was unconscious and helpless, while sleeping.

"I know," Dr. Pines gritted out, and Pacifica realized suddenly how very tense he was. How he had his hands clenched in fists in his lap… "It is an incredibly dangerous situation," he told her.

At this, Pacifica couldn't help but stare. "Are you…" She had to take a moment to compose herself. "... actually worried about the demon?" He wanted to kill him. So why would he be so worried about Bill getting hurt by Miz? It didn't make any sense!

But to this, Dr. Pines looked her straight in the eye and told her grimly, "You have no idea what Bill Cipher can be like, when he thinks he's been betrayed."

...And that rather sent to chill down her spine.

Pacifica pulled in a slow breath, then let it out just as slowly.

"You're worried about the fallout of the situation, later," Pacifica stated.

"Miz might go away," Dr. Pines told her. "But Bill… will not."

"I see," Pacifica said slowly. So they would be the ones having to deal with the fallout. Assuming that Bill survived whatever Miz threw at him, after the betrayal Dr. Pines was expecting to take place. Though that meant that Dr. Pines was absolutely certain that Bill would win such an encounter as well, and...

Wait. Pacifica had to shake her head when something clicked. "So… Bill would be quite upset when he gets betrayed. But wouldn't that mean that he really does trust Miz? At least enough that he… wants to pretend she's his sister? Like, he cared enough about her for this?"

"No," Dr. Pines told her, adjusting his glasses. "Bill is a demon. He exhibits demon behavior. 'Betrayal' for them is just another word for 'let's change the way we've been playing with each other up 'til now, to a full on physical fight instead'. The only question is, would she be playing by the rules that he likes to play by or not, which would generally involve at least a few seconds notice of the 'relationship-game' being off, before turning around and trying to kill each other again thereafter. --They all have their own rules that they play by, and life is a game to them. And they don't live and die by them, either. Even their own lives are worthless to them. Largely because they don't stay dead," Dr. Pines told her heavily, looking both tense and frustrated in the extreme.

...And with that, Pacifica started to truly understand the real scope of the problem.

And the next words out of her mouth were, "Is this why Mr. Pines is trying to--" But she had to cut herself off at the confused and startled look that Dr. Pines gave her almost immediately.

"What?" Dr. Pines said, when she didn't continue. Then he frowned slightly. "You… think he wants to… set up Bill to be betrayed by another demon? On purpose?" he ended, to Pacifica's both shock and disbelief.

...well, at least he looked absolutely incredulous at the thought. Pacifica shook her head at him. "Apologies. I misspoke," she told him, not wanting to get into some things that she had a feeling really should stay a conversation between strictly herself and Mr. Pines only. Because if that conniving old con man was trying to do what she thought he was trying to do...

Dr. Pines frowned at her.

"Perhaps the niblings haven't told you," the man told her. "But I believe that you should know. Stan has made it very clear, both to Bill and the rest of us, that he doesn't want Bill to be talking with any other demons, for a multitude of reasons."

Pacifica frowned. "And… he's okay with Miz, why?"

Dr. Pines let out a sigh of frustration. "Apparently," he began, "Miz does not 'count' in this respect, given that she apparently, supposedly started out as a human being in the first place. And because she tends to spend a great deal of her time in human form in general on the whole, as well."

"...and Stan knew this to begin with, back when he first met her?" Pacifica clarified.

Ford paused. "...No," he said. Stan hadn't been told that Miz had used to be human at first, when the man-eater had first come to their dimension, or this second time, and... He simply hadn't. ...Had he? --Yes, Bill had stated there was a demon who used to be human that he was talking to on his blog, but Bill hadn't named explicitly who that demon was at the time...

...to the rest of them. In the kitchen. When it had first come up, because Stan had brought it up.

But Stan had been talking to Bill quite a lot when none of them were able to hear either of them, or anything at all of what they were saying.

And the rest of them had thought Miz was simply a dragon, from her first visit. They hadn't known she thought she was another Bill Cipher, and therefore a demon, until she'd essentially told them all this time around--

...why did she tell them? If Miz had wanted to manipulate them all and get their sympathy, outing herself as demon wasn't the way to go about it--

Ford felt his head throb, at the ache forming. None of this made any sense.

...Had Bill known she was another Bill before this? He hadn't been surprised at the information out in the forest. But when had Bill learned of this himself?

"I…" Ford said, before trailing off again. "I don't… know," he eventually had to admit to her. "I'm not certain when Stanley found out that information." It still made him dizzy almost to think about it, that time when he'd collapsed in the forest, but… The demons had said something of what had happened to Stan at the time when Stan had come to pick him up, to retrieve him, hadn't they? And Stan hadn't seemed... he'd seemed to know what they were talking about at the time. (So that meant that he must have known that much, for at least as long as…)

"That would be a question for Stan himself," he had to tell her.

"Fine," Pacifica said. "I'll ask Mabel to ask him for me, and get back to me via text message." To her, that seemed rather pertinent actually. How long Mr. Pines had been encouraging them to act like siblings versus when he'd found out that they were supposedly both the same demon, almost (which still didn't make much sense to her, what did that even mean? That they were both Bill Cipher?), seemed very relevant to know under the circumstances to her. "So, just to make sure I understand the situation," Pacifica began to summarize, "Both Bill and Miz are 'Bill Cipher' type demons, but being the same type of demon has no impact on their ability to empathize, or rather, their lack of empathy, with themselves or each other or anyone else. Is that correct?"

And that for some reason made Dr. Pines's eyes go wide as a look of startled realization swept across his face. "A Bill Cipher type demon…" he breathed out, then looked even more horrified for some reason. "Oh. Oh no. --Stan, what are you trying to do…" he said next, looking downright scared and almost sick.

Pacifica felt a bit on eggshells over his reaction. "...That isn't the type of demon they are?" she asked him slowly.

But to this, Dr. Pines simply dropped his head into his hands, and let out a groan of some sort of despair.

Pacifica let out a breath, and tried again. "You said Miz claimed to have become a Bill Cipher demon, after having used to be human, right?" Had she misunderstood him in some way? What was she not getting, here?

"He's trying to use her to get him to understand people," Dr. Pines said, muffled through his hands. "That knucklehead. That-- that foolish--"

Pacifica lost track of the rest of what he was saying as it descended down into an unintelligible mutter.

Fine. She'd just have to approach this another way. "What type of demon is Bill?" she asked him.

There was a long silence, during which she felt rather impatient. But eventually, Dr. Pines slowly straightened up again, and finally answered her question with…

"Not a demon from the Outside," she was told, as Dr. Pines scrubbed a hand over his face. He looked truly awful at this point. "Not an Outsider, nor a Traveler. Just a…" He let out a tired and almost horrible sounding laugh, "Just a dream demon. A triangle demon. One who may have used to be an actual person at some point, however awful." He slowly opened his eyes to look at her. "But not human," he told her. "Never human."

"No matter what his body looks like right now," Pacifica finished for him.

"Yes," Dr. Pines confirmed to her rather tiredly.

"And what type of demon is Miz?" Pacifica asked him next.

"She calls herself a 'pillar' of some sort, apparently," Dr. Pines told her. "Something of a self-styled local demigod, of whatever 'dimensional set' from which she hails. Which is pure nonsense," the man told her. "Even Bill never puts on such airs." He sighed. "Stanley calls her a 'dragon-lady' half the time; I call her a man-eater -- and rightfully so, because she is one," he told her. "She's not contested either designation for their accuracy -- likely because she can't -- and she goes by several more names than 'just' Miz. She has several forms and gives them all different names," he huffed out. "Which just goes to show that she's used to 'pretending' to be something else."

*Something of a changeling, then," Pacifica said

"No," Dr. Pines told her, frowning. "I told you, she is a demon. Changelings are entirely different -- rather, they are a type of somnambulant faerie, commonly of the Sidhe variety, that are generally--"

"--Right, sorry, my mistake. I misspoke!" Pacifica said quickly, recognizing the telltale signs of a subject matter expert trying to correct a novice's understanding of something inside in their chosen field. "But like, a type of creature who changes who and what they are, is what I meant. She's something like that?"

"Technically, all demons are," Dr. Pines confirmed, with a nod. "Though usually they have to die before picking another form. --Bill is different, because he himself exists largely in the Mindscape; as does Miz. They are able to create physical bodies for themselves of any shape, form, or type, once their Mental selves are fully physically located within a given dimension," he told her. "And they are both physically here, within our dimension, right now. The events of Weirdmageddon occurred because Bill had finally gained access to our dimension, and was able to physically travel into it, to arrive here and then," Dr. Pines grimaced, "And 'party' with his Henchmaniac 'friends', to the detriment and destruction of the rest of us all."

Pacifica allowed this to sink in and nodded. "Alright. So they're Mindscape demons?" She'd heard about the Mindscape from the twins, a little bit, at least. Considering Dipper had been stuck in it when Bill had stolen his body last summer.

"That's--" Dr. Pines grimaced again. "They don't classify themselves that way," he told her. "And neither of them started out their lives in the Mindscape. So that's not quite an entirely accurate description of them."

"...and how do they not count as Bill Cipher demons? Since Miz did, according to you, classify herself as a Bill Cipher?" Pacifica asked next, still wanting to get a proper answer to this particular topic.

"'Bill Cipher' is a… 'dimensional username', of a sort," he told her. "And demons have a singular name, that no-one else is allowed to have," Dr. Pines told her. "If someone does have the unfortunate luck to have the same name as a demon, for whatever reason, then that demon will generally show up to kill them in short order," he told her. Then he sighed. "Yet, Bill and the man-eater apparently both hold the name 'Bill Cipher'. And Bill has made it clear since then that he doesn't kill the other demons who share his name, and that he has no inclination or reason to do so -- rather the opposite, apparently," he told her with a frown. Then he paused before adding, "And the man-eater is going by names other than 'Bill' in her current form, at the very least to avoid confusion here in the interim."

Pacifica thought about it. "So… Miz's real name is Bill Cipher? Was that her name when she was human? Or did it become her name when she became a demon?"

Ford paused. "I… don't know for certain. I admit I haven't really talked to the man-eater. I could probably ask Stanley about that for you, though. Once I learn of it, I can have Dipper or Mabel relay the information to you, later," he offered.

Pacifica nodded at that answer before she moved onto her next question. "So, aside from your worry over Miz's eventual betrayal, what's the issue with the two of them playing at 'siblings' with each other?"

"...It's rather disturbing to watch, knowing what is going to happen when the act is finally dropped," Ford admitted to her.

Pacifica raised an eyebrow. "So it's not real. And you know it's not real, and it makes you uncomfortable," she deadpanned, even as he frowned at her furiously. "I get the whole, betrayal and fall out thing, but why put in the energy and effort of being upset over it?" Was he really so petty that he just didn't like seeing the demons cozy up to each other? If that was really the reason for Dr. Pines' objection to the idea of the demons being together, well...

...that was just stupid to let them know. For all any of them knew, the demons might keep on doing it, just to mess with him. Because if this whole thing was going to blow up in their faces sooner or later, and 'later' would potentially mean a worse blow-up from their local Bill Cipher, according to Dr. Pines himself...

"Bill shouldn't be pretending to care about others!" Ford insisted.

And that made Pacifica have to take a breath and look away for a second. "Shouldn't? --So, what are you saying here? Are you saying Bill 'should' act more like a 'demon' and simply not care about anyone at all?" It almost sounded like… Dr. Pines was upset that Bill wasn't… conforming to demon behavior like Dr. Pines… wanted him to? Because, if that was really what was happening here...

"He's lying!" Dr. Pines told her hotly, surprising Pacifica. "Demons do not have relationships like that! They do not care about anyone but themselves! --I've already explained this to you; it's a trap."

Pacifica rubbed at her temples. "But if we know that's what he's doing, then we can't fall for it completely. We won't be caught completely off-guard, and we can account for it." She'd managed that with plenty of 'sharks' before, certainly; and for all of the rest of them not being exposed to this daily, they could simply carry on with... Yet for some reason, the man was shaking his head. "Why is this a problem? Why are you…" Pacifica held back an eyeroll. "Are you really upset that Bill isn't being honest with you??" She couldn't quite stop the incredulous tone. Seriously? This was… petty entitlement in the highest sense of the term. Dr. Pines was upset that Bill, the crazy psychopath demon, wasn't being HONEST with him???

"Yes!!" Ford told her in pure frustration, and he couldn't understand why she was looking at him like that.

---

Pacifica could hardly believe what she was hearing here. "Are you seriously expecting the demon to be honest with you?" Really? What in the world--?!

"No!" the man said with a grimace, and he looked… more than a little uncomfortable as he said it.

Pacifica frowned at him. "Then what do you expect out of him?" she asked. She'd rather thought that the whole point of what had gone wrong between him and the demon the first time had, had to do with the demon lying to him about things. (What, exactly, Dipper and Mabel had not exactly been clear on, but… what with the way the man almost constantly said that the demon couldn't be trusted… Pacifica had rather thought that the man knew better than that.)

"I--" Dr. Pines looked even more uncomfortable, almost twisting the cloth of his pants under his fists as he kept silent for several long moment, then finally said -- blurted out, really -- "I can tell when Bill is lying, but when he's lying to himself and doesn't know it--" The man cut himself off at the end there, took his glasses off, and shook his head as he rubbed a hand over his face, and Pacifica stared at him with a slight thinking frown as he did so. (Frankly, she couldn't help it.)

And it occurred to her then, why Old Man McGucket had called Dr. Pines compromised. What he'd meant, when he'd muttered out darkly that Dr. Pines still listened to the demon.

Objectivity. It was a problem that was encountered quite frequently in the world of the rich, grossly wealthy, and highly successful. The losers -- the biggest of losers -- fell for the oldest trap in the book: letting themselves be convinced by some random person with a drive and a dream and a vision... and no real plan behind it. Someone utterly convinced of the truth of some investment… that was absolute and utter garbage.

If you listened to the sheep, you risked becoming one of them. And a shark was one thing, but to tell the difference between someone who was blinded by lies and someone who actually knew what they were talking about? That was far harder.

Oh, it was quite clear to Pacifica now exactly what problem Dr. Pines was currently facing here with this demon. He was feeling threatened by the fact that the demon, and his own brother, seemed to believe that the things they were seeing were different than Dr. Pines himself believed them to be, with Miz. He was worried that his brother seemed to be falling for some lies from Miz, but he was also at least as worried that Bill Cipher actually, actively believed those 'lies' himself, and that the demon was acting accordingly.

And it was also quite clear to Pacifica now, upon realizing this, that Dr. Pines had never stopped listening to the demon that he'd been trying to kill. He'd been using the demon as his own barometer for something, some check on his own view of reality, somehow. And that was… terrible. Because the demon was absolutely insane. All of them knew that. They all knew that. Dr. Pines knew that. And yet...

Dr. Pines was horribly compromised in the extreme, when it came to Bill Cipher. Old Man McGucket had been right; more right than, perhaps, even the old man himself knew.

She was going to have to be very careful from now on, in the future, when dealing with Dr. Pines because of this, now that she knew what she was dealing with, here. She could take it into account, yes, but it would make things so much harder, and...

And Pacifica let out a sigh as she also realized she would have to talk to the other old man, Stan Pines, to get his side of the story, next. One that would be hopefully less biased. She really disliked talking with the old con man, though. He and her family had never really gotten along, ever. And she didn't like to think of whether or not anything she asked him about would result in an actually truthful answer out of him, instead of the usual insults she was used to from him at this point.

That said...

"You really shouldn't be counting on the insane demon to let you know what is real and what isn't," Pacifica noted rather dryly. This wasn't something she'd keep to herself, if there was any chance at all that he might listen to her.

"If Bill Cipher's grasp on reality wasn't as strong as it is," Dr. Pines informed her, just as dryly, and perhaps both a little wryly and darkly as well, as he put his glasses back on, "Then he would have been taken care of by all of the other demons out there, long ago."

...Aaaand now the man was practically throwing out compliments to the demon, apparently. (She was starting to see why the demon might want to keep him around.) Pacifica pinched the bridge of her nose and took a few shallow breaths. Calm… calm… don't blow up at the idiot in front of her. "Look," she leveled with him, "Subconscious-whatever or not, we can all just remind ourselves and each other, not to fall for either of their little 'look at me, I'm a human!' acts--"

"--But Stanley is falling for it!" Dr. Pines said, looking almost sick with worry at this point. "Or-- he seems to be," he said, taking a step back from what he'd just said, shaking his head and grimacing. "He's said that he thinks the man-eater should get a therapist to 'help' her get over her supposed trauma -- as if demons could ever feel trauma over any sort of circumstance of death, or anything else that either happens to them, or they do to themselves," he muttered out, to an eyebrow raise from Pacifica. "He even went along with her apparent fear of cars to such an extent that he had us walk into town with her, instead of just taking the car and letting her fly along above, like he did that other trip--"

...Other trip? Pacifica had a full-blown headache going now. Exactly what had been going on over there at that hovel? Though she supposed that answered her question somewhat, as to who exactly had visited the diner that day…

"So what you are telling me is that you're angry that your brother is pretending to respect the girl-demon's stated boundaries and playing along with her game, to not give her an excuse to pretend to get upset over all of it -- presuming that she's lying and doesn't actually need to be given the common respect of some sort of courtesy that you'd give to any other person," she stated to him outright and drolly. Seriously, she was starting to think Dr. Pines' feelings towards demons were blinding him to everything else--

"Demons don't deserve respect! They're demons! They're not people!" Dr. Pines had his fists clenched in his lap and was shaking in place, looking absolutely irate. And Pacifica's eyes went wide as she straightened slightly in place. She stared at him and things were starting to connect together quickly in her head, as she realized that--

"Did you…" She had to pause for a moment. "Do the demons know that that's how you feel… about them?" Pacifica asked him, feeling vaguely horrified.

Dr. Pines let out a huff, as if irritated by the very question. "Of course! I've made it very clear that I--"

...well shit.

Pacifica wanted to scream. How was this… man so… stupid?! Telling the demons to their faces that they didn't deserve any sort of respect because they were demons? That was flat-out racism of the lowest of forms! Pacifica admittedly did not and could not consider herself an expert on demons or demon behavior, but the idea that anyone -- let alone a demon -- would put up with such a clear disregard for… that… To treat them with that level of disrespect was just…

Pacifica couldn't imagine that anyone would be willing to put up with that, demon or not. Certainly not without getting even over it. --And if she was right, and the demon had quite literally rearranged her father's face for trying to act as though he was anywhere close to his same level... being considered equal would likely be bad enough, but to think of them as lesser? that would be even worse, and...

....and Miz seemed to be the far more human-like of the two of those demons. If Miz might still react to some things as a human would…

If anyone had told Pacifica to her face that they didn't think she was a person deserving of respect--

It was no small wonder that Miz didn't like him!

--Hell, the twins had told her that they didn't think Miz would mess with anyone who didn't mess with her first, hadn't they? But if Dr. Pines had really, truly, actually told her this, in this way, to her face, that he didn't think she was a person...?!

"--How are you still alive?" The question came out in a huff as Pacifica stared up at Dr. Pines in horror. Because the crazy triangle had rearranged her dad's face just for offering to join him, asking for a subordinate position to him (a high subordinate position yes, but one that was clearly subordinate to him), and--

"Tenacity and-- ah," Dr. Pines looked confused at her own confusion, adjusting his glasses as he looked at her. "My health is fine?"

...That did not answer her question. "I mean, how have the demons not killed you yet for disrespecting them so openly?" Pacifica restated. Because she had no idea how he hadn't been torn apart by them by now, or--

"They--" Dr. Pines seemed to falter for a moment, before he straightened in his chair and told her, "There are things worse than death. Losing my family is one of them," he told her grimly, "And Bill knows it. ...And for whatever reason, the demons are playing along with Stanley's agreement, currently." He let out a frustrated sigh. "And Stan has put me on this 'priority list' of his, that he worked out with Bill, against my own wishes to that effect." He grimaced. (He didn't want or need that-- but Stan just kept giving in and--)

Pacifica stared. "Agreement? What agreement? And what priority list?" Pacifica demanded out of him. And what did this have to do with… the Pines potentially dying, apparently? --Why did no-one tell her these things?!

Ford groaned. "Stanley's made some sort of an agreement with Bill. There's a non-aggression component to it. Bill is not to attack anyone who does not attack him first, and is to stop attacking anyone if they stop attacking him... once some indeterminate time has passed… if Bill hasn't already killed them first, for trying to kill him in-turn," he told her with a grimace. "There is also a protective component to it; the 'priority list' is a list of people that Stan wants Bill to actively protect and not harm, most of whom are considered an active part of the agreement. Dipper and Mabel are first on this priority list. And Stanley recently put me on it too." And Ford was very scared-- frustrated-- disgruntled-- resigned-- unhappy about this, still. --And for good reason!

"So… Stan made the demons agree to not harm anyone," Pacifica stated, feeling incredibly frustrated. Because that was some pretty important information right there, that none of them had let her know! --How exactly had the old con-man managed that? (Could she get herself and her parents on that list? Even if it was only a temporary thing? And why did Dr. Pines not want to be on it? Because even gaining herself a little more genuine breathing room for herself, as she worked on all of this, would be--)

Ford let out a huff of breath. "Stan didn't make them agree to that! No-one can make Bill Cipher do anything! He… he simply asked them to, apparently," though how Stan had managed this feat, Ford still hadn't a clue. --It could not possibly have been as simple as Stanley had put it. "And for some reason they are both going along with it, yes! For the moment!" Ford stressed to her. "--But these demons are billions of years old; Bill himself is over one trillion, at this point. Bill lied to me for years before showing me his true colors. --We need a permanent solution, not one that will last nowhere close to anyone's lifetimes," he told her -- while trying desperately not to think about what Bill had said about rolling back time, about being able to bring them all back-- "And Stan has no control over them! They could just break the agreement at any time! --It's not even a Deal, with any consequences at all attached to breaking it! There's absolutely nothing forcing either of them to keep it!" he cried out in frustration, trying to will her someone, anyone to understand him. "They might be following it now, but there's nothing holding them to it, quite literally! --Do you understand me? Stan can't control them, and the man-eater isn't even a part of this agreement of his!"

Pacifica tried not to grit her teeth. Dr. Pines had said rather the opposite before, a few short weeks ago, when he'd come outside to tell the rest of them that it was something of a 'false false alarm' and okay to disperse. Not to belabor the obvious, but she'd noted at the time how very hard he'd been trying not to display nervousness when he'd been doing it. --That man! 'There's nothing to fear, Stan has everything under control', her foot! She'd been wondering when the truth would finally come out! Luckily, she hadn't believed him at the time, for even a second! That was why she'd been working on all of this from day one! (She just hadn't been stupid enough to say so at the time; she'd made like she was going along with it, like the rest of them.)

That said…

"Wait." Pacfica held up a hand. "You're telling me that the demons are agreeing to not hurt anyone, on their own, because Stan Pines asked them to and they chose to agree to his terms? And they are continuing to hold to this agreement of his that he worked out with them, out of their own free will?" Because while the man clearly believed the opposite, and had since day one...

"That he worked out with Bill," Ford corrected, "But, yes! That is an accurate summary of the situation at present, but there's no telling when they will simply change their minds and kill us all, once they're finished playing whatever game they have going here! And that will happen, whether it's a day, a month, or a year from now! Because that's what demons do!" he told her, in further frustration, because why did no-one seem to be listening to him about this?! Why was no-one taking his dire and quite serious warnings even a little bit seriously!?

...So wait, Mr. Pines might actually be able to hold off these demons from doing anything for a year?! She'd thought they might have anywhere from another hour to a week, at best! (Frankly, she'd been waking up every morning, wondering why the sky hadn't broken itself open again yet.)

"Okay," Pacifica said to him. "So what is making them want to keep 'playing this game' that is stopping them from killing us all?" Pacifica asked him. Because if there was something that she could make sure not to disrupt, that would have them going for that year instead -- or, even better, something that she could help enhance...

Ford slumped in his seat. Why had she had to ask him the one question that... "I don't know." Ford admitted. "I don't know why the demons are going along with this. ...This isn't the sort of 'game' that Bill usually likes to play." And it scared him that Bill might have, at some point, started to get a taste for it. For this sort of-- He stifled a shudder, as he ran a hand across his face. "Stan claims it's because he treats them like people and asked them to do so nicely. But that's beyond ridiculous. Demons aren't people and there's no reason to treat then as such. If you could reason with a demon, they wouldn't be so dangerous!" he told her, dropping his hand to stare at her, almost imploringly, wanting her someone in this dimension to just, and so simply, understand.

Pacifica, however, was instead struck with the rather distressing thought that Stanford Pines, the 'smart' twin, was an utter idiot. How was finding that out not the man's top priority? They all needed the time to be able to come up with something effective to use against the demon. How was getting himself -- and all the rest of them -- more time in which to work and live normally not something that he was working on, night and day, to acquire?

And then Pacifica was struck with another thought entirely. Back when Bill had first shown up last summer and started making trouble, all the townsfolk had immediately turned hostile to him as an 'outsider' and a, well, a jerk really -- who declared themselves anyone's 'lord and master for all eternity'?? -- and had promptly told him to get out. Which, of course, had not worked.

...Well, Pacifica was sure that asking Bill 'nicely' to leave wouldn't have worked either, but perhaps if they had been more polite, maybe negotiations could have actually been opened. Her father had been rather assuming and forceful, but Stan Pines had managed to make this 'agreement' with Bill, whatever it truly was, and that meant that there had to be some negotiating room to be had.

Unless…

"Dr. Pines," she asked him slowly. "Is Bill currently capable of starting another Weirdmageddon? --Assuming that we didn't interfere with some plan of his to do it?"

"At this point, I don't doubt that if he wanted to, he could, even if we tried to stop him," was Dr. Pines' dark response.

"You're sure," Pacifica asked him. "You have proof of this?"

"He hasn't talked to that effect," Dr. Pines told her, "Not quite. But Bill clearly believes it. Stan believes it. And I've seen Bill do things in the meantime that indicate that he very likely could do just that, without even taking Miz's potential interference into account, whichever way that might end up falling," he told her.

...Right. So, the only thing holding the demon back right now really was whatever hold that Mr. Pines had over him, that he hadn't even told his own brother about. Great.

But that did mean that there was some negotiating room to be had. The demon wasn't just not taking over the town against because he couldn't -- he absolutely could, as confirmed by the demon expert's own knowledge of the situation.

"That anchor Stan has isn't enough to stop Bill from doing anything, not really," Dr. Pines told her. (Anchor? What anchor?) "It may allow Stan to 'hold' Bill's Weirdness at bay, but Bill has magic, science, and his own vast knowledge at his disposal, still." (What else hadn't the twins told her about?) "And--"

"--What anchor?" Pacifica demanded from him next. Because weirdness? Not 'just' magic?? What???

"Stan has some 'anchor' to Bill, or vice-versa," Dr. Pines told her. "Bill claims that it is nothing like a binding, and… frankly, I don't know what exactly it is. I'd never even heard of such a thing, before. Not before it came up, with Bill, now. I don't even know where it came from, or how Stan got it. All I can tell you for now is that this anchor, whatever it may be, is something that connects them both to each other, and it somehow grants Stan the ability to prevent Bill from using his Weirdness abilities and powers. And Stan can give him control back at any time."

"Which means that if the demon manages to convince him to do that…" Pacifica said slowly.

Dr. Pines nodded at her.

Pacifica let out a slow breath. Yes, she got the picture, and it looked grim. ...She was also now starting to realize why Dr. Pines was so completely freaked out at the thought that his brother might be willing to 'go along with' a made-up sob story of Miz's, even just a little. It was because of the idea that, if Bill told enough of a tall tale, would Mr. Pines go along with it, even if it meant giving the demon back his powers? --Pacifica didn't think so, but Dr. Pines clearly wasn't so sure where that line was drawn for his brother, not anymore.

"What else do we all need to know about this anchor, that you haven't told me yet?" Pacifica asked him next, because the man did look like he was holding something back, and the man grimaced.

"Stanley won't let me look at it." Ford frowned. "He keeps insisting that it's not important. But I need to examine it. If I could, then maybe then I could understand it, perhaps replicate it so that other people could 'hold' Bill's powers down, as well. Maybe even strengthen or enhance the anchor further..." It would certainly make him feel better, knowing that more than one person held the anchor over Bill's powers. If he had a hold of it, he would never let Bill's powers go. Never. And then--

"Enhance it?" Pacifica echoed. "Could you use it to stop him from using his magic powers, too?" she asked him, and the man blinked at her.

"I…" Pacifica watched as the man paused in almost the same way as he had before, when she'd brought up the subject of 'using' the fact that Bill was a different 'not-outsider' demon somehow against said demon. "...I suppose I could theoretically use an anchor of a different type to suppress Bill's magic, as well," Dr. Pines told her slowly. "If I can figure out how the original anchor was done and put in place, and how to reproduce it, then that is perhaps within the realm of possibility. But we already have two working methods for doing that," he told her.

"What?" This was news to her. "We do?"

"Yes," Dr. Pines told her, adjusting his glasses. "The Mystic Barrier spell, which I will teach you how to create, and the anti-magic cuffs, which I know how to make, but... --They do not work together as-intended," he added with a grimace. "I don't have any with me to show you today, but any anti-magic cuffs, when worn, will cancel out the barrier spell while the wearer is underneath it; whenever Stan gives him any reign with his Weirdness powers, he can simply slip out of a pair of those locked cuffs with impunity. And with that cybernetic suit that he's now wearing, he doesn't even need that much from Stan. That suit that he's wearing has built-in strength enhancements; he could lift a truck with that."

...Right. "I've seen the cuffs, Mabel and Dipper brought them over for McGucket to mess with." Pacifica told him, as the man blinked at her (not realizing that he'd been talking about the heavy, stuck-closed, explosive-filled cuffs he'd originally made for Bill -- not the lighter, easily-opened, explosive-free bracelets McGucket had been given, that Bill had made out of those cuffs for Miz). "So what we're working with here is things that don't work, but they're workable."

"...Yes," Dr. Pines said to her. "I suppose that's one way to put it. Except that nothing but killing him is anything like 'workable', in terms of a true working solution."

"And what's going to stop him from just coming back like he did this time?" Pacifica deadpanned, waiting for him to tell her otherwise.

"You've been talking with Stanley," Dr. Pines said to her grimly.

...No, she just had a brain that worked when she used it, and she used it frequently. Like, all the time. She was blonde; she wasn't stupid. If Bill had returned once, then there was a high chance he'd just come back again when and if they managed to all band together and kill him again a second time. (...And she'd been waiting for him to say 'the circle will work to do that', so that she could ask him how he was so sure about that. But the fact that he hadn't even done that was telling. Because that meant that...)

"I've been talking with you," she told him dryly. "You're the one that told us he was back." He'd had them called up, to come over to the Mystery Shack in the first place, at the beginning of this whole new mess.

"...Right," Dr. Pines said, grimacing again, and Pacifica sighed.

"So, Stan isn't letting you look at this anchor thing. Even though it's… visible, or something? Why not?" Pacifica asked, getting back to the main subject at hand. That didn't make sense. Why would the old man be trying to keep this to himself? Was that part of his agreement with Bill? Mr. Pines would keep information on the anchor and how to use it from being spread around, in exchange for Bill behaving himself? ...Perhaps. It almost sounded reasonable. ...But the demon was anything but. Maybe if the demon wasn't completely insane, that might actually be a thing, but Pacifica wasn't so sure about that one. ...Yet another question for the old man when Pacifica got to talk to him. Ugh.

Ford groaned. "It's visible down Bill's back, apparently. And I don't know why he won't let me do that, let alone help me with it. Stan keeps changing the subject whenever I bring it up, or pretending it's not a big deal -- even though it absolutely and definitely is that very thing," he told her sourly.

Pacifica nodded to show that she understood: this avenue was a dead end for now, unless and until Stan Pines (or the demon?) was willing to share. (Frankly, she was more surprised that that old con man hadn't seemingly used this as an angle to get the demon to do things for him outright. ...Unless getting the demon not to hurt the family that had already killed him once was already enough of a stretch.)

...Why was the old con man being so resistant to getting rid of the demon, here and now, anyway? --Sure, the Pines hadn't managed to kill him permanently the first time, but they hadn't actually tried that Circle-thing properly with the rest of them yet, and...

Pacifica thought back to that first day when Bill returned, and how Stan hadn't even come outside to get ready do that holding-hands circle-thing with them. How she'd found out later from the twins that Stan had apparently taken Bill in, not just imprisoned him in the Mystery Shack somehow.

And she wondered if maybe that was how Stan had opened the door for negotiations. She'd heard from the twins that the demon had been in bad shape at the start of it all, that Dr. Pines had done a number on him in the woods. But Mr. Pines apparently hadn't immediately treated Bill as a threat to be rejected, attacked, or destroyed -- he'd sequestered Bill away from the rest of them for several days, away from the potential of another immediate attack, and had instead fed, watered, and sheltered the demon over those days. Had that contributed to how this agreement had come about, as well?

They must have talked at least somewhat during that time, and Dr. Pines didn't know the first thing about this anchor, almost. Was it possible that Stan Pines did? Could the old con man have made the demon do this anchor-thing, in addition to the agreement, as one of those missing 'consequences' that Dr. Pines was so adamant were missing from the current situation, while the demon had been at some sort of marked disadvantage relative to them, during those first few days?

"Just to be clear, though," Pacifica noted, looking for confirmation. "Right now, as long as the demons are holding to this agreement of Mr. Pines', the demons are essentially harmless. For now." Pacifica hoped that was what this meant. That, so long as their 'game' with Stan Pines was going on -- whatever 'game' that might be -- they would hold to Stan's agreement and not harm anyone. Which was, y'know, good.

"Hardly," Ford told her. "To think of either of them as ever being 'harmless' is just--" He cut himself off and grimaced, as the Northwest girl gave him a look. "Bill is dangerous as long as he is able to speak to or otherwise communicate with others," he told her grimly. "Even if we managed to 'disarm' him of his powers, he has and will always be dangerous. Bill was unable to impact this dimension physically in any meaningful way for all but up until last summer, less than a handful of months ago," he told her. "His 'bread and butter', as it were, is in getting people to do things for him, in exchange for information. --He sneaks inside your head, figures out what your hopes and dreams are, and then twists things to his advantage. He finds a way to convince you that he can get you what you want. And then he builds upon that."

"...But he can't be trusted," Pacifica said slowly.

"Yes," Dr. Pines told her firmly.

Pacfica stared at him for a moment.

"...Then how does he get anything done?" she asked him slowly. "If he breaks any deals he makes, all the time, then his reputation should be nonexistent."

"You don't understand," Dr. Pines told her, and now his eyes looked dark. Pacifica had to fight leaning back in her chair, as the (now, suddenly highly dangerous-seeming) man leaned forward, and his eyes bored right into hers. "Bill treats those he considers to be his fiendish friends… very well."

Pacifica stared up at him.

"....I thought Mabel and Dipper said that Bill thought he was your friend," she said, rather understating the situation as she'd heard it from Dipper.

She felt another chill go down her spine, as the man's gaze grew even darker, and he drew himself up in his chair completely, seeming to loom over her, now.

"I," Dr. Pines told her. "Am not Bill's friend. I never was. The person that I thought him to be was a lie."

"...And?" Pacifica asked quietly.

And the man leaned forward even more, ever so slightly, in his chair. "And I am not a sociopathic killer, who delights in torturing and killing others, while laughing hysterically about it with glee. If I wanted to kill hundreds of millions of people, and make rivers run red with blood, have no doubt that under those circumstances, I would find Bill Cipher to be a delightfully wonderful little friend to have, to help me in that endeavor. If you understand my meaning."

Pacifica tried not to break out in a cold sweat.

And she watched as Dr. Stanford Pines slowly sat back in his chair, as it creaked under him quietly, and watched as he seemed to become rather non-threatening again.

...She did not have any questions anymore, as to how he might have survived anything to do with Bill Cipher. This man was dangerous. And she'd met several dangerous killers before, in the form of several bodyguards of various high-society individuals.

Ones who, frankly, wouldn't care less if the rivers of their towns and cities ran with blood, so long as they got what they wanted out of whatever they did.

Pacifica forced herself to swallow in a mouth gone suddenly dry, to breathe like she didn't want to get up and run, and to get back on-topic and on task like she needed to.

Because Stanford Pines did not scare her. And neither did that demon. She would deal with this. She would fight back against him.

And she would win in this fight, this time. Now that she knew what she was dealing with--

"You said that you know how to make one of these barriers that will keep Bill from hurting me or my family with magic, so long as we stay under it," Pacifica noted. "Show me how to do that."

Ford nodded at her and slowly stood up from his chair. "You have the ingredients here?"

"Yes." And Pacifica couldn't quite keep the peevish tone out of her voice as she told him, "I don't know why you didn't tell any of us sooner."

Ford let out a sigh, as he walked over to the table nearby after her, upon which she seemed to have spread out the various components and preparation tools necessary for the spell. (Good. He had been rather thorough in his list, but he had rather only half-expected her to be able to procure everything so quickly. Especially the unicorn hair, which should have been--)

"I didn't keep this from you on purpose," Dr. Pines told her. "It really isn't as useful as you might think. During Weirdmageddon, it kept Bill from being able to destroy the Shack directly using his Weirdness powers or his own two fists, but… he did get through it then, wielding a non-weirdness imbued object. And Bill can walk right through these barriers now; he's living under one currently, at the Shack. At most, this sort of barrier will suppress his Weirdness powers, if Stan lets them go unchecked and he isn't wearing anti-magic cuffs, and stifle his magic powers somewhat, if only he doesn't have enough time to prepare something that allows him even that ability."

"Prepare something?" Pacifica asked him, confused. That sounded like-- "What has he done?"

"He's created a 'bubble' inside the barrier, up in the attic of the Shack, where his own magic seems to work perfectly well -- at least as both of the niblings, and Stan, report," Dr. Pines told her, as he glanced over her arrangement of ingredients out on the table, checking them one by one -- from the looks of it, to make sure that none of the materials were fake. (As if. She'd paid good money for all of that, thank you. And people in general knew better than to try and con her, let alone any Northwest.) "He's also perfectly capable of walking right up to the line of unicorn hair inside of it and cutting the line of it with a common knife," he told her next, as he looked over the moonstones. "That would bring down the barrier immediately, no matter how well you may hide the location of the anchoring moonstones."

Pacifica blinked at him, thrown for a moment by… "I thought you said you didn't know anything about anchors," she told him.

The scientist looked up at her in confusion, and it took him a moment.

"An anchor for a spell is not the same thing," Dr. Pines informed her, straightening up in place. "It's certainly not the same as whatever Bill has connecting to Stanley at present, that he is terming as such," he told her next, while adjusting his glasses and looking at her oddly. "Bill is a being of pure energy, not a spell."

"My mistake," Pacifica said, but her mind was already whirring away at this new information. Anchors were necessary for spells. But weren't spells just some type of magical energy? Wasn't that how the barrier worked, stopping magical energy from getting inside them? Had she misunderstood or assumed something incorrectly? ...Or had it really not occurred to the man that any kind of energy might be able to be anchored down somehow, just in a different way, and he hadn't made the connection (yet?) to Bill Cipher being a 'being' (not a demon??) of pure energy. Because by Dr. Pines' own admission, Bill was a type of energy, too -- 'pure' energy, that had an anchor, rather than 'magical' energy that required some sort of anchor. Because Bill had an anchor himself, too.

Bill had an anchor that Dr. Pines knew about now, but… Dr. Pines hadn't even known that the type of anchor Bill had now was even a thing, before they'd killed the demon, he'd died, and then he'd come back again.

Had the demon had an anchor before he'd died, and Dr. Pines just hadn't known about it then?

"He also has that suit of his, now," Dr. Pines told her next, as he lifted up one vial of mercury (of the several she'd gotten, just in case the first spell batch came out wrong) and looked it over with a frown, tilting the vial left and right in front of his face while peering at it critically. "He could very easily lift a nearby car and toss it through your front window, if he so desired," the scientists told her almost absently, as he set the vial down again in its small wooden stand on the table.

...No. She was getting distracted here, and this whole anchor business wasn't something Dr. Pines could help her with, clearly. --Best to focus on what he could help her with, then.

"I still want one of these things for my house," she told him firmly. She wasn't living in some hovel; it might not be the mansion she'd grown up in, but the place she and her parents were living in now still had gates and bars and a brick wall surrounding the place to keep out all 'the commoners'. If the demon was going to run around tossing cars at houses, he'd have to do better than that, to break in. "Some protection against spells being tossed at me from clear across town is a lot better than nothing at all," she huffed out at him. Because that was a very different sort of throw, that currently she didn't know how to--

"I agree," Dr. Pines told her, looking down at her, with a slight edge of amusement in his tone… and humor in his eyes. Huh? "That is why I'm here," he told her with a slight, almost rueful smile, "To help ease what worries that I can, and give you some security as you might want to have, in the place where you lie down your head, to sleep. I just don't want to give you a false sense of security, Ms. Northwest," he told her, turning away from her and looking rather serious once again.

"Right," Pacifica said. She could sort of see that now from him. Kind of. "So, how hard is all this magic stuff, exactly?"

"Not too hard at all," Dr. Pines told her, with a genuine (though rather small) smile. "Frankly, I'm not entirely certain why most people simply don't do any magic at all," he told her almost contemplatively. "Most spells don't actually require ingredients so esoteric or difficult to acquire. It really isn't that much harder than your basic chemistry, to perform."

And with that, Pacifica got down to learning the barrier spell that would protect her parents, at least a little bit, from Dr. Stanford Pines. But no matter how much she concentrated on the matter at hand, and memorizing the procedures and wording and all the rest of it, all of her unanswered questions were still left swirling around in the back of her mind during the entire rest of the visit -- and those questions didn't exactly go away when Dr. Pines finally left that day, after he'd taught her what she'd needed to know, and made sure that she would be able to reproduce it all on her own, correctly (which was more diligence than she'd ever gotten out of some of her bought-and-paid-for tutors, while he'd done it all himself for her for free). ...Clearly, there was a lot that Pacifica still needed to ask Dipper about. And Stan Pines himself, absolutely.

...though Pacifica hadn't thought that her next chance at doing that would come quite so soon...

---

Sorry for no part 2, as I'm writing this I feel myself on the brink of unconsciousness