-There are infinite alternate versions of me-(Part 1)

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(MizBill POV)

So… that's it. I've revealed to the kids who/what I am. So far… they seem okay with it? They're not freaking out or outright rejecting my existence so I'll count that as a plus?

Oh, who am I kidding? They're probably gonna be more wary around me. Which sucks, but at least they haven't run away or broken like Ford did. I still think that's my fault, somehow? It must be my fault, everything is always my fault… But he seems to be doing better? Still hates me. Even if I DID hurt his feelings that first night… it… was it really that bad? Urgh… I mean, if he's gonna go around saying shit about other people, he should be ready to accept other people talking shit about him too, right? Don't dish it out if you can't take it. But I think Ford's just more sensitive than I thought?

You know, Seb's Ford also had a fragile ego. Ugh. What is it with Stanford Pines and being so… easily offended and defensive? Damn fragile egos and low self esteem...

Heck, I have AWFUL self esteem but I'm not the one lashing out to try and put other people down just to feel superior! ...Okay, maybe I'm being unfair. He's got deep set issues that he clearly needs a therapist for. Just like me. Just like brother. And Seb. And probably Stan too. Damn, none of us are well-adjusted entities. At ALL. And really, why is that Stanford so hung up on brother anyway? Sure, brother did awful terrible things to him (most of which I haven't actually Seen yet, I feel like it's the sort of thing I wouldn't like) but brother's been anchored down. And he's learning to be nicer.

Maybe I'm just being naive and dismissive of Ford's feelings...

But what's the point of Ford being so mean to me anyway? I hurt his feelings because I was mad. And that was just one incident! And I haven't done anything THAT bad right? Nothing bad enough that I deserve to be killed? But that's what he wants. That Stanford wants me dead just as much as he wants brother dead, too. He doesn't even care who I am or what kind of person I am, he just knows I'm a Bill Cipher and that fact alone is worthy of a death sentence.

Ugh, we're not the same person. And infinite possibilities means there are GOOD Bills out there too! Doesn't he understand that?!

...not that I'm a good Bill. I'm not a good person. But at least I TRY.

Besides! Ford hates me 'cause I'm a killer? Well, pot and kettle you asshole! My jobs for Time Baby aside, I don't purposely go around killing people! The few times I have killed on purpose were awful people that I didn't like because they were bad people! And Ford thinks that bad people should die anyway so he can't say anything against that right??

...and he thinks that I'm a bad person. That's the problem isn't it? I KNOW I'm not the good guy. But I'm not the bad guy. There technically isn't any good or evil out in the multiverse anyway. There's just selfishness and selflessness. And I AM a selfish person.

I selfishly want friends. Family. People I can love and care for. And once I've found them, I cling on and I refuse to let them go. I found Xanthar. I found Pyronica. I found Ammy. I found Teeth. I found Hectorgon. I found Kryptos. I found Keyhole. I found PaciFire. I found 8-Ball. I found Sebastian. I found Blue.

I found them. They're mine. I will selfishly protect and love and keep them. That's all it is. I'm selfish and if I love someone, I'll love them wholeheartedly. That's all it is. And I've decided that Blue is my Friend, my Brother. And I'll love him. I know he isn't a good person. But that's the point isn't it?

Most people will side with you when you're in the Right. But only a true friend will side with you when you're in the Wrong. And the arbitrary definitions of Right and Wrong are fluid and changing by the day. Morality is relative and I can't keep track of it anymore. All I can trust are my own opinions and feelings.

And I choose to love my brother.

Because being unloved, unwanted and alone is the worst feeling in the world and I won't let him go through that. He's been alone for far too long already--

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(3rd Person POV)

Mabel picked up the pink round doll. Grunkle Stan had tossed it up over the railing and onto the deck earlier. She was glancing over at Miz who was sitting against the railings, looking lost in thought. The brown-haired girl sighed and walked over to sit next to her.

"So. You're… like Bill but not?" Mabel asked her. Miz blinked, snapping out of her thoughts and nodded, waving her Kirby's arms up and down. "Alternative dimensions and stuff. It's not as complicated as it sounds." Miz placed the doll in her lap. "I haven't seen them all yet. Haven't met them all. Doubt I can since, y'know, infinite possibilities and all."

Mabel played with her own doll, thinking about the last time, and how sure her Grunkle had been about Bill having possessed. "So… was that other guy who was with you…" Had he been possessed by another Bill?

"Yeah. That was Sebastian Pines, the Bill of his world, one of them at least." Miz shrugged. Since the word was out she might as well explain. "For obvious reasons he couldn't show up as himself, what with the whole family resemblance thing, so I built him a custom vessel. We met a few other Bills too before we stumbled into your dimensional set."

Mabel paused. That hadn't been what she'd expected to hear! "Sebastian… Pines?" her eyes were wide. Miz nodded. "In his dimension, Stan and Ford were triplets. Seb was their younger brother. He loves them more than anything in the world." Miz sighed as she thought of how angry Ford had been, thinking Sebastian was the same Bill that was terrorizing them.

"...Should we be hearing this?" Dipper muttered. This was different-dimension talk, and it also sounded really weird and messed up. A Bill Cipher as… family? No way!

Miz paused. "You can tell me to stop anytime?" Miz shrugged. "But I wouldn't know what is or isn't ok. And Mabel asked me first…"

Dipper sighed. "Whatever." Miz glanced back and forth between the two. "So… should I keep talking or stop?" Miz asked. Mabel rocked side-to-side in place, because she wanted to hear more about it. But Dipper seemed like he didn't like it. Mabel wasn't sure if she should make the dragon (demon triangle… who used to be human? --No wonder she said her backstory was complicated!) stop or have her keep going. (--Oh, who was she kidding! She wanted to know about their other family!)

"Dip-Dop," Mabel said, turning to her brother. "Tell her it's okay to talk about dimensions that Grunkle Ford was never in!"

Dipper looked a little uncomfortable. "I…" Miz and Mabel were staring at him with incredibly similar pleading looks.

Dipper almost said something, but then stopped and turned around when they all heard movement at the other side of the ship. "--We can just ask Great-Uncle Ford," Dipper said, with no small relief. He really hadn't wanted to have to decide that himself.

The first of their Grunkles poked their head up over the side and grumbled a bit as he got himself up over the railing and onto the deck. "Getting too old for this," muttered Grunkle Stan. Great-Uncle Ford followed him over the rail shortly thereafter, and with a lot more ease. "So, uh…" Grunkle Stan began, looking over them.

"--Where's Bill," Great-Uncle Ford said, cutting him off. He glanced over at the sandcastle. "He went below deck," Miz said shyly, shrinking away from Ford and scooting a little further from him.

Great-Uncle Ford frowned furiously. "What's he doing down there--" he began, then stopped at a hand on his shoulder, and Stan shaking his head. "--I'll go get him," Grunkle Stan said. They exchanged a long look, but then Grunkle Stan squeezed his shoulder and patted his arm, before heading for the hatch and the ladder. "Need to get some supplies, anyway," Grunkle Stan called back to them all, which left Great-Uncle Ford looking a bit off-balance. "...Supplies?" Great-Uncle Ford echoed, looking a little surprised and confused. He turned and looked down at Dipper.

Dipper pulled down on his hat a bit, then pushed it up again and shrugged. He didn't know what Grunkle Stan had meant.

"Food, Ford," was what echoed up out of the hatch as Grunkle Stan grunted and worked his way downwards. A less loud, "Hey, kid…" echoed up from there, too, as their grunkle descended (presumably) deep into the bowels of the ship.

Miz was glancing over at Ford and squeezing her doll. Mabel looked over and sighed. She reached out to poke Miz's arm gently. "Do you… want to apologize to him?" Miz nodded but still didn't move. Mabel glanced back and forth between Ford and Miz. She hated it when people were upset with each other.

"Okay," Mabel said, "HUG IT OUT!!!" Then she flinched as Dipper slapped her in the arm. "Uhm, maybe~...?" Mabel added a bit more tentatively, smiling.

Miz looked up with wide eyes. She turned to look at Ford and shrank into herself again. "I don't think…" Ford was staring down at her like… and twitching a bit. He closed his eyes, took in a deep breath, then opened his eyes again and cleared his throat. "Ah, no," Ford told them. "No. I don't think we'll be doing that," Ford ended rather firmly, looking very tense.

Miz let out a quiet, "-sorry…"

And the mood stayed tense for a long few moments... up until something flew up out of the hatch and hit the deck with a 'BANG!'

Ford spun in place, ducking down slightly to widen his stance while drawing his gun from his holster-- and stopped, staring at the open-topped crate that was now sitting on top of the deck.

A second one flew up and out, and slammed into the deck nearby, about a foot or two away from the first one. Ford frowned, and holstered his sidearm again, straightening.

Miz crept closer. "You guys had FOOD in here?" She blinked and glanced over at the far off rock where the idiot teenagers were still spying on them. They had started getting agitated when they had climbed into their boat. She watched Young Ford grab and just about tackle Young Stan when he tried to run over at the sight of them taking their food crates.

"I…" Ford looked a little tense. He hadn't actually had much to do with the boat, not since partway through middle school. He'd thought Stan had mostly just been messing around with it for fun after that, still. He hadn't realized Stan had put this much work into it. (The deck was in far better shape than he last remembered, well-sanded and varnished; the hull was complete, if not necessarily sea-worthy, having not yet had its final sealant applied; and the idea of there being actual supplies on board...)

Ford blinked as Stan slowly climbed his way back out of the hatch, and Bill followed him up shortly thereafter. "Stan, where did you…" Ford hesitated. "Did you have this…" Stan looked up at him like he almost didn't understand the question, and Ford shook his head again. "How did you pay for all this?"

Miz glanced over, bit her lip and looked away.

"Uh, from the summer jobs?" Stan said, as he walked over and crouched down next to one of the crates.

Ford stared at him. "I thought you used that money for dates with Carla!"

"Nah," Stan said. "Two of 'em went to the boat, one of 'em went to date-stuff." He pulled out a packet of beef jerky. "Just like I had one part-time job for the boat during the school year, and one for the date-money." Stan grimaced. "Probably why Carla left me," Stam added, as he set down the jerky, and pulled a couple bottles of water out of the other crate. "Was spending less money on her than the boat."

"But…" Ford trailed off. (Stan had only started dating Carla in the last year of high school. He'd been holding down part-time summer jobs long before that. He'd always thought Stan had spent the majority of his funds on comic books and candy before that! But, in looking around, and really paying attention to what he saw… Ford realized with a sinking feeling that this must have taken years of effort and--)

Miz opened her mouth, made a frustrated sound and closed it again. She glanced between them all and looked like she wanted to say something but wasn't sure if that would be appropriate.

Bill looked up at her and then sighed. "You," Bill said to Stanley, "Have BAD TASTE in women."

"Heh, you're one to talk," said Stanley. "You've got 'bad taste' in Zodiac." He pulled out a can of beans and a can opener next.

"You say that like I had a choice," Bill muttered, and that had Stanley stopping in place, to then turn and look up at him.

"Say that again," said Stan, while looking at him dead-on. (Meanwhile, Miz was still making frustrated squeals as she really wanted to reveal the thing she found out from her latest Scan of this dimension and others.)

"Little sis," Bill said evenly, "Do I need to put a curse on you to help you out over there?" as he crossed his arms and looked down at Stanley from where he was standing.

"I wanna tell him!" Miz whined. Bill looked over at her.

"Three days," Bill said. (Ford frowned to himself. Was Bill planning something for the day after they portaled back home? What was Bill up to?)

Stan looked between them. "...Something I should know, kid?" Stan said, straightening up slowly from his crouch into a standing posture.

"It's fine," Bill told Stanley, still looking over at Miz.

Miz shook her head. "Not about that thing. About Carla," she groaned.

Stan's eyes narrowed. "You keep your eyes offa her and your hands and junk to yourselves," he said slowly to the two demons on deck. "She didn't do nothin' to you."

Bill let out a sigh. "Do you see me doing anything?" he said, rocking back on his heels and raising his palms. "Somebody thinks some things that were 'never meant to be' need FIXING," he said. "The same way that, HMMMM, she maybe thought they needed FIXING when she was trying to tell me how I don't know my own Zodiac two nights ago?" Bill added, with an edge to his tone. "Because that went SO VERY WELL that she's still trying to apologize over it, because she STILL 'feels so bad' about it?" Bill prompted her.

Miz quieted. "Should I not say anything?"

"Take it from someone who has been 'called up' on almost COUNTLESS occasions to 'deal with' an 'ex-' who has cheated on someone else," Bill drawled out. "Generally my client at the time." He grimaced. "Generally." He shook his head and continued. "Humans? Are almost THE WORST about all that stuff. Hormones." Bill waved a hand and got a disgusted look. "Try to stay away from all of it," he told her. "Really; do." Bill let out a sigh. "It's far more trouble than it's worth." Bill looked off into the distance (while the rest of his Zodiac alternated between staring at him and exchanging glances). "Ended up murdering nearly a whole Russian monarchy in sequence over just that sort of thing, once -- and then the reigning oligarchy, too." Bill looked like he hadn't actually enjoyed it, which had even Ford wincing -- especially since he had an idea as to what particular chain of events Bill was referring to...

Miz rubbed her face and took a few deep breaths. "Ok. I won't say anything," she conceded. (Which got her a "Thank you," from Bill.) She didn't want to upset Stan by accident. Even if she really thought she should clear up the misunderstanding from the Stans' childhood. She sighed. Why did she have to be such a busybody?! She paused. "But wouldn't Dipper and Mabel have done something along those lines to try and 'fix' things too?" she asked.

("What, like they did trying to go back in time and write themselves out of existence?" Bill muttered out, which Stan didn't seem to hear, but it sure as hell caught Ford's attention.)

Stan raised an eyebrow at Miz. "What are you even talking about?"

Dipper put it together first. "Wait, did Carla have something to do with Grunkle Stan and Great-Uncle Ford--"

Stan frowned. "No," Stan said. "The hell did you get that idea?" he asked the rest of them, looking around.

Bill let out a deep sigh. "Someone has an underdeveloped sense of causality," Bill announced. "And has not looked at nearly enough dimensions to get a sense of how things GENERALLY go with these two." Bill leaned back a bit, and looped his arms behind his back. "Go on," he told Miz. "Go look at some of the others. Feel free," Bill said dryly -- because the cat was out of the bag, as it were, in Miz being able to See into other dimensions. After all, Miz had done that right in front of that Stanford in the dimension they'd just been in before this one. Bill wasn't about to suddenly act as if that was something she COULDN'T do; that would just make that Stanford suspicious.

That Stanford obviously knew and remembered and believed that Miz was a demon. And that Stanford had seen her use an Eye to See across dimensions not more than an hour ago. So either Bill could proceed as if her also having an Eye -- which was rare, but not unheard of in other demons -- might have been a deciding factor in why he'd chosen Miz as a little sister... or he could give it up right then and confirm to that Stanford AGAIN that Miz was a 'Bill Cipher' like him. (...That said, Bill certainly wasn't going to go with the second one of those.)

"My world only has one set. I have no experience with this." Miz sighed. But she leaned against a railing and Flickered, backing out of the conversation as she tried to learn. Her expression was confused. "I am so glad my world only has one set to keep track of… this is so complicated…" she muttered.

(Ford frowned at her, wondering what she meant by 'one set'...)

"Welcome to 'Nightmare Mode'," Bill said blandly, with a half-snickering smirk and an amused sideways glance at her.

Stan looked annoyed. "Well whatever it is, I don't care." Stan squatted back down and pulled out some more food. "Water under the bridge, anyway. Doesn't really matter."

Dipper frowned and looked over at his sister. (He didn't get why Miz had brought up being able to See things if they were trying not to remind Great-Uncle Ford that she was a Bill Cipher. But, more importantly just then, knowing that wasn't just a thing that might mean something to Grunkle Stan...) "It might matter to--"

"--Wait," Ford cut in. "What did you mean, 'write themselves out of existence'?" Ford protested to Bill, looking down at the two niblings.

"What the kid said," Stan said without even looking up, which left Ford looking startled. "It's pretty simple, Ford," his brother told him, pulling out another can of beans from the crate. "No broken science fair experiment means you get to go off to your fancy school. That means you probably end up someplace that ain't Gravity Falls; someplace bigger and better, that keeps you so busy that you have even less time for your family." The twins frowned at each other, while Stan set the can down on the deck, and reached back into the crate. "Meanwhile, I'm who-knows-where on my boat. Maybe I'm doin' okay, maybe not." The kids looked startled at that pronouncement, and exchanged glances. Stan grimaced, pulled out a final box of crackers, and then slowly lowered himself down to sit on the deck properly. "Either way, neither of us are taking care of Shermie when that pregnancy scare happens, and guess who probably doesn't get born after our ma and pa are finally done talkin' them out of things?"

"...What?" said Ford. He hadn't realized… what had happened with their little brother?

Stan sighed and looked up at Ford. "Couple years after you, y'know… with the portal?" Stan grimaced. "Shermie showed up on the doorstep of the Shack. I took 'im in," Stan told his older twin brother. "Took care of 'im. Shermie was a mess," Stan said. "Me not being there? Shermie not having anybody on his side back then? Means no nephew, and no grandkids."

"Because Stan's a good man." Miz smiled gently. She gave Stan a soft look (and the old man twitched at the awe and admiration in her gaze).

"Uh, heh. Nah," Stan waved off, looking hugely uncomfortable. "He's family. Ma and pa just didn't get it, is all," he frowned. "Too much crazy Jewish stuff, and the community, and 'what will people think', and all that noise. Like I care about any of that," Stan huffed out. But then his frown turned into a glower as he looked over at the niblings. "These two know the story. They knew exactly what they were doing, coming here. Tryin' to do what they were doing, tryin' to go back in time." Stan did not look very happy with either of them, and they both wilted and tried not to squirm under his gaze.

Ford turned towards Dipper and Mabel, absolutely aghast. ...No, not just aghast. He looked gutted. (Whether or not Stanley was correct in his premise that neither of them might have been around, let alone able to take care of, their little brother at the time was, to Ford, not the issue. The point of the issue at-present was that...)

"Dipper, is this true?" Ford asked of his young protege. "Did you two think it possible that you might cease to exist, if you had been successful?" Had the niblings really believed they were putting themselves and their own existences in jeopardy in this way, in attempting what they had?

Dipper pulled down on his cap, looking down. Then he looked up again, and the look in his eye was combative. So was Mabel's; the glint in her eye and her hands-on-her-hips stance said it all, and then some. (He and Mabel had talked about the dangers. They'd decided the risk was worth it. Helping their grunkles, stopping Bill; it would have been worth it! If they'd been able to pull it off--)

"Grunkle Stan wasn't doing anything about Bill," Dipper said adamantly. He looked over at Stan. "You're not doing anything about--!!" Dipper protested, and Miz twitched, unhappy with how Dipper wanted Bill to have stuff done to him. Did he want Bill to be punished? Like, a proper punishment?

"Yeah, I am," Stan said suppressively, staring Dipper right in the eye.

"You're helping Bill!" Dipper complained. "And Great-Uncle Ford keeps getting hurt--!!"

"--I'm fine, Dipper," Ford reassured him, stepping forward, hands outreached, palms forward, and it hurt his heart to see Dipper take a step back, and Mabel looking so very very worried. (He could hardly imagine how very wrong things had gone, that the niblings had gotten the idea into their heads that potentially writing themselves out of existence was preferable to him-- Ford knew he had to do better. ...Somehow.)

"No, you're not, you-- you--" Dipper grabbed at his hat again with both hands. "You don't even know what day it--!"

"June 30th, 2013," Ford said as firmly as he could. "Ah, in the dimension we just came from, forty-six-apostrophe-backslash." And while the two of them were looking shocked (and the two demons were left blinking, wondering what that meant for what Ford thought of them), Ford took another few strides forward and squatted down in front of Dipper. "I'm sorry, my boy," he said, "Mabel," he sighed, looking over at her also. "I…"

While their not-quite argument was happening, Miz glanced back over at the younger versions of the Stan twins. They were trying to sneak closer now, probably getting bored and wanting to do more than watch them stand around talking without being able to hear what was going on.

"HEY!" Bill yelled out, stomping forward and starting the two younger Pines that were out there. "Bill, don't--" Stan started to growl out, but it was a bit too late, as Bill grabbed two small objects out of a pocket and whipped them with unerring accuracy -- one after the other -- at both of their heads.

The younger 'grunkles' ducked, but the objects rebounded off of the 'covering' rocks near them (because physics -- Bill hadn't been aiming at where they WERE, he'd been aiming at where he'd been sure they were GOING TO be) and then cupped his hands and yelled out, "PAYMENT FOR SERVICES RENDERED! AND YOUR BOAT!"

"No, it ain't, and we AIN'T TAKING the boat!" Stanley called out, then let out an "Ugh," as, to Bill, that apparently translated to: "STEALING YOUR BOAT FOR TWO DAYS!! WITHOUT BURNING IT AT THE END!"

Miz grinned wickedly. "We'll give it back later thanks~" she called out, then added, "I'll even refill the food stores!"

"NO, SHE WON'T, THAT'S FOR THE FOOD, TOO!" Bill called out himself, giving her a quelling look. She needed to stop giving people stuff! Bill made a mental note to explain to her about that sort of thing later.

"Hey, this is gold!" came an exclamation from behind one of the rocks, and Bill grinned as Stan let out a groan.

Ford and the niblings were startled out of their own talk at the mention of gold, and Stan's groan. "What?" Ford asked, then frowned. "Where did you get--!"

"Wait, that really was real gold?" Mabel asked next, looking over at Bill, as he smugly walked back over to them from across the deck.

"Yes!" said Bill, while Ford said, "Mabel, where did he get--"

"--I made it," Bill cut in before Mabel could. "I told you to take your time with the spaceship," he not quite teased Ford (and there was an undercurrent to his tone that made it clear he was pissed off with him for some unknown reason). "But did you listen to me? --Common refrain: NO! You did not!" which got him a glare out of Ford.

"Sixer, they've got gold!" Young Stan practically squealed out. "They're real pirates!" A quieter voice echoed out in wonder, saying, "These look like real Spanish doubloons…!"

Ford's shoulders dropped and he gave Bill a long, hard stare. Bill just grinned.

"Kid," Stan said tiredly. "I told you I was paying for stuff."

"Paper money could get wet or blown away; they might never find it belowdecks," Bill said breezily, walking over to him, to turn in place and sit down cross-legged next to him. "You can make it up to me when we get back, with a 'nice' easy two-man con," Bill told him almost conspiratorially.

"...Kid," Stan started to say, in tones that made it clear what he thought of that idea (that he was about to shut Bill down), when Bill said next: "Unicorns."

Stan stopped and eyed the kid sideways, especially at the "Ugh, unicorns," produced from Mabel.

"And treasure. By scamming them out of it," the kid said next, looking all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed (without a tail), and out-and-out excited and excitable.

Stan continued to eye him sidelong. After a beat, Stan said, "...I ain't saying 'yes' until I know exactly what's going on, and even then I ain't saying yes unless I say 'yes'."

Bill grinned, and Ford dropped his head into a hand and looked like he wanted to collapse on the spot, because his brother…

Miz slid down the side of the boat, wanting to check on the young twins up close. She hugged her doll and called out to them. "Hi~" she said. "Are you gonna spy on us all day or are you actually gonna say something?"

This was enough to have them looking at each other, and then Young Ford straightened up from behind the rocks, about to speak--

"OH! LOOK! ISN'T THAT THE BEACH COPS COMING!" Bill called out next. "GUESS WHAT'LL HAPPEN IF THEY FIND YOU WITH THOSE COINS ON YOU!!"

Young Ford jerked his head over towards the pier, looking frustrated as hell, but Young Stan didn't even wait to check -- he practically grabbed his brother and then ran off, dragging him along behind him.

Miz pouted before she sent a frustrated look her big brother's way, once she'd made it back onto the deck. But to this Bill simply said, "This is dinner. Then we need sleep. We can play with them tomorrow." At the absolutely angry glare he got from Ford, and the dark look he got from Stanley, Bill then amended that to a: "...Maybe."

"Fine… but we WILL play with them, right?" she pouted. "I'm not gonna do anything bad."

"Mmm... depends on your definition of 'play'?" Bill told her slowly, as he got another new set of glares from the younger twins. "But I have a feeling that we might be seeing them again before we leave tomorrow night."

"Doubtful," was Ford's one-word contribution to the discussion, as he picked up a can of beans and (instead of handing it off to Stan, who had the can opener), pulled out a vibra-knife and used that to open the lid (to the tune of a muttered "...overkill…" from Bill, as the demon opened up the box of crackers for his own meal).

Miz's tail was out and wagging. "I wanna see them make funny faces!" They were so cute~ the young Ford was like a baby owl! "Like… maybe showing little Ford some cool magic stuff and listening to him squeal at decibels only dogs can hear!"

"Maybe," Bill said rather evenly, almost conditionally, as he pulled out and handed over one of the stacks of crackers to Miz for consumption. She nibbled on them with a happy sound.

"You're really okay, now, Grunkle Ford?" was Mabel's quiet question to him at his left. Ford pulled in a careful breath and let it out slowly. "I'm better than I was," he admitted lowly, not letting his voice carry. "But I'm afraid I'm not going to be 'okay' until Bill is dead for good," he murmured to her and her brother, almost under his breath. (Ford hardly let himself think of the problem of the other demon(ic Bill Cipher?), at-present. The Bill he knew himself was so much of a threat that, truly, he dwarfed all others until he had been dealt with-- destroyed for good--) He handed over the can to his grand-niece, along with a utility spoon from his pocket.

Ford hardly wanted to admit how very much of a tightrope of sanity he felt he was walking just then. Really, the only thing that had kept him from… 'losing it again'... was the idea that, with the possibility of infinite Bill Ciphers, there was also the possibility of infinite Stanleys and Stanfords like himself and his brother. And the Axolotl was merciful. If there was any justice in the world… each and every Bill Cipher would be killed eventually by their own Zodiac… even the younger one sitting in front of them, if she really was one of them (and not simply a lying demon trying to help Bill drive him insane). It wasn't a losing battle, so long as he didn't give up. So long as all of them never gave up and simply-- The Axolotl was merciful.

Miz twitched. She picked up his words and turned her eyes onto Ford with a glare. Dipper and Mabel saw her dark look and shivered. Mabel quickly stood up to hopefully talk her down. "I-I'm sure Grunkle Ford isn't--"

But Ford put a hand on Mabel's shoulder and pushed down gently. "I can speak for myself, Mabel." He looked over at the young so-called 'Bill Cipher', the demon in disguise at present -- or at least thinking s/he perhaps was, still, somewhat in-disguise. "Bill will die and stay dead. I will see to it. ...And I will at least make sure that it is quick," Ford told her. "You have no idea what crimes he has committed, and if you truly don't believe that people should die if one can possibly prevent it..." He flicked his gaze over to his brother for a moment. "As Stanley has suggested that you might." (Not that Ford would hold his breath for that one, with any demon in existence...) He turned his gaze back to her. "Then if you took the time to look for yourself, you would know that he must be stopped before he kills anyone else. He has already killed far, far too many." Ford's gaze stared holes into the older Bill -- or would have, had Bill looked anything like concerned at this pronouncement.

Miz stared back, unflinching. "I've decided he's my brother. And I love him. So I won't be happy if he dies."

Ford frowned at her, because that hardly made sense to him at all. If she'd ever been anything like human once, as Bill had said (weeks ago) that she had been, then... "How could you possibly love him? He's a mass murderer, and delights in causing other people pain."

Miz opened her mouth and then grit her teeth. "I'm not supposed to attack you, verbally, so there's a thing I really want to say but I'm not supposed to," she grit out.

"Very convenient, but I'm not a part of this 'agreement' of Stanley's, and neither are you," Ford pointed out, as he finished carving open another can of beans with his knife. This one he handed to Dipper, along with a utility fork.

Miz straightened, and Stan stepped in, dropping a hand on her shoulder. "Don't," he told her. "Don't go lettin' him bait you."

Ford sent Stan a dark glare, and Miz hissed. "So I'm supposed to sit here and let him talk about murdering my brother--"

"Your big brother look worried to you, kid?" Stan asked her. She looked over at Bill, and no, he did not look worried at all. "There anything my brother can say to make you change your mind about the kid?" Stan added.

"...no…" Miz muttered. "But it still makes me unhappy." She was clutching her doll tightly. But she WAS backing down.

"It's a waste of time, kid," Stan told her, and he felt a bit more relieved that Bill had raised a hand to pat her on the head, and Ford wasn't saying anything more for the moment, at least. "You'll just get more unhappy, the more you try and convince him the other way around. My brother keeping you feeling all defensive about it is halfway to winning for him."

"Stanley--" Ford began.

"No, look," Stan said, letting go of Miz's shoulder and gesturing with the water bottle in his other hand. "These two smacked you in the head so hard yesterday afternoon that you were still feeling it tonight so bad, you ended up practically concussing yourself on that barrier the kid's got across the attic staircase, not thinkin' clearly." Both Dipper and Mabel winced in sympathy. "Don't go pickin' fights you know you can't win."

"Stanley--" Ford began again, jaw clenched.

"--and don't go pickin' fights I know you can't win, either," Stan told him. "This? Is one of those."

Miz huffed. "You always defended Ford when people spoke bad about him." She looked away, more annoyed than angry now about him having stopped her own defense of Bill. "How is this any different?"

Stan looked down at her, with raised eyebrows. "What, with you wanting to defend your brother?" Besides the kid just not needing somebody to defend him on stuff like this? "--I was bein' stupid about it back then," Stan told her. "I had no idea what I was doin', and because of that, they kept on doin' it." Stan took another drink from his water bottle, then said, "Best way to win a fight is to never have to have it in the first place. You gotta pull out the guns? You're already bein' stupid." Stan eyed her. "You want a bully to stop? You hit 'em where it actually hurts, instead of takin' swings that won't connect and are just gonna get you shoved down and stomped." Stan sighed. "There's a time and place for that, yeah, but this? Ain't one of those, Miz. Not even a little."

(Ford stared at his brother, somewhat aghast. Stan was… actually trying to help the demon? He could think of no other interpretation for his brother words and actions, just then.)

Miz thought about his words. Stan was secretly relieved she really seemed to be considering it. (He wouldn't have told her any of this if he thought she was a born killer, to go for the throat. This was the 'hey, bring it down a notch' stuff. ...And yeah, Bill hearing it too was probably not that great -- especially since the kid might actually spend more time thinking about the 'where it actually hurts' part instead of the 'avoid it in the first place' part -- but it wasn't like he thought it was the kid's first introduction to the concept of digging the knife in.)

Finally Miz sighed and let the tension drain out of her. "So, ignore the bully and don't feed the troll?" She asked. Yeah, she could do that. She knew Bill had killed a lot of people. But so had she. So had countless other people, organizations and monsters out in the world. But Bill was her brother. She decided this. And she would still want to be on his side. Because she wouldn't let him be alone anymore.

"Stanley," Ford said quietly, "What are you doing?"

"Helping the kid and his sister not get into fights," Stan told him evenly, over the top of his bottle of water. He took another drink, and Ford looked frustrated.

Bill let out a huff of laughter, and Stan glanced over at him. "Not helping, kid."

"It's just funny," Bill said, then paused. "Well, hilarious, really," he self-corrected.

"Kid…" said Stan, but Ford's eyes were already narrowing, even as the niblings were glancing between them.

"--What's that supposed to mean?" Dipper cut in, just as Ford was about to demand it himself.

Bill switched his gaze over to Dipper.

"Kid, don't," was Stan's firm response to this. "Do. not."

"Oh, but he asked so very… nicely," Bill all-but-breathed out, pupils dilated slightly, the corners of his mouth starting to turn up in a--

"---aaaaaCK!" Bill protested, as Stan brought a hand down on top of his head and started mussing up his hair. "STAN--lllee--" Bill complained. (He wasn't whining, oh no, definitely not!)

"Nope," said Stan. "You think I can't see that coming a mile away? Not doin' that today, nope. Save it for later," he told the kid. "I am tired of all of your antics, every last one of ya', and we are not doing any more of this tonight," Stan said unironically, in the full daylight overhead. (It was nighttime at home, and Stan wasn't about to let any of them get away with not eating or sleeping like it wasn't -- especially not the kid, or his own brother.)

Miz looked down when her stomach growled. Stan promptly handed over the jerky packet without even looking at her. She ate it quickly -- way, way too quickly -- before glancing over at the ocean. Stan noticed and raised his eyebrows slightly. "Got nets and fishing poles with line down in the hold, if you want to go fishing," Stan told her.

She wiggled. "Can… can I go swimming in my dragon form?" she asked.

Stan glanced over at Bill for clarification and input. Bill responded with, "As long as she tosses on an 'invisibility bubble' and a 'keep away' ward for humans and cryptids, she should be fine." Bill looked over at her. "Just remember to clean off before transforming back? Scales to skin can end up with some very itchy residue still, especially from seawater!"

Miz nodded. "I learned Prestidigitation ages ago for cleaning stuff." Ford and Dipper perked up at the mention of one of the spells from D, D and more D. Bill just rolled his eyes and called out "Sparkle Fever!" (the name of another DD&MD spell), raining glittering light over the two nerds (...and then Bill blinked and looked vaguely taken aback when Mabel started demanding, "Me, too! Me, too!" while bouncing in place, grinning).

"...Yeah, okay," Stan said, ignoring the prank spell and turning back to Miz. "Don't go stayin' out more than an hour, and… I want to be able to see you from here. Me and Bill, in case you run into trouble. You can do that selective spell thing, right?" Miz nodded. "Go for it."

"Thanks mister Stan." Miz grinned before she put her doll down and… shimmered. Stan blinked in surprise as her form shifted longer and larger before the golden creature slithered off the boat and toward the ocean. "Uh…" Huh. That was pretty neat. ...And also kinda a little disturbing. Speaking of which… "She that big before out at the lake?" Stan got a nod out of the kid as he kept munching on his crackers. "That why she eats so much?" A shrug. "Right…"

Mabel was staring in awe. The triangular head with the single eye was kind of creepy but the rest of it was almost pretty. And now she had confirmation that Miz really WAS a Bill Cipher from another dimension. And a dragon! And a dragon girl! "Dipper, look!" Mabel said enthusiastically.

Dipper's jaw dropped open. "W-wha-ah… Ah?!" He pulled on his hat as he stared at the large serpentine body, antlers and… tentacles?! "Oh, man!"

Ford frowned, having only seen a shimmer in the air and then nothing. He couldn't see anything that the rest of his family was seeing. At best, he was able to make out a sort of shimmering haze as he stared.

He looked over to Bill, who just smiled. "Wouldn't want you losing your mind again, now, would we Si--" Bill stopped, then looked away.

"I can't see her," Ford said slowly, as the rest of his family realized something was wrong.

"You can see plenty," Bill said. "Enough to tell if she's closer or farther away. She won't sneak up on you."

"You modified her spell?" Stan asked him slowly.

"No, not hers," Bill said. "I tossed a modification to the 'invisibility bubble' that's already been cast on the boat; a Miz-specific modification, as it were." He shrugged. "It works on things -- well, a Miz," Bill said with a smile, "--Both when she's inside it and not. The modification goes inactive in a little more than an hour," Bill told them, looking unconcerned. "He'll be able to see her again after that, unless I renew it."

"Say something before you cast," Stan told the kid. "I shouldn't have to tell you that."

Bill rolled his eyes. "Fine," said Bill.

But when Stan grunted out next, "How'm I supposed to tell if it's you or somebody else," that actually seemed to give Bill pause for a moment. Stan glanced over at him. "What, you thought I was bein' arbitrary?" Stan sounded almost amused, and Bill pulled a face at him.

Mabel was leaning over the edge of the boat, watching the dragon twist around as she chased down and devoured some unfortunate fish. "Can YOU turn into a dragon?" Mabel asked Bill.

Bill looked over at her. "With my anchor unmodified?" Bill asked her somewhat-rhetorically. "Not a good idea. ...Could make myself LOOK like one easily enough, though, by casting an illusion," he told her. "Or I could create a robotic exoskeleton like Glasses is oh-so-very fond of doing, if I really felt like it." It was pretty clear that Bill wasn't all that 'fond' of the latter idea there, though.

Dipper's hands were twitching; he really wanted to write down his observations. He wondered if he could ask Miz to let him inspect her when she got back? Alien dragon! ...Who was also a Bill Cipher, sort of, but-- okay! He… probably needed to think this through a little more, but he really really wanted to know, and knowing more about triangle demon transformations could maybe help against Bill later… aaaaand he was just trying to justify this to himself again, wasn't he. Wow. He was (still) really good at that.

Miz stayed out, playing in the waves a bit as she snagged a fish from time to time, and Mabel and Dipper eventually let their grunkle shoo them back to the crate, to finish eating dinner (though they did keep stealing glances when they could from time to time).

Once Miz had eaten her fill and even caught some other fish in her tendrils, realizing she COULD sting like a jellyfish if she wanted (that's pretty neat. Her powers did such cool things when she let them go wild), she swam back to the shore and crawled up out of the water, with several paralyzed fish curled up in her mane. --She'd even caught some food for everyone else!

Bill kicked back and relaxed on the deck himself, laying flat, once he was done eating (and drinking a bottle of water -- yes, Stanley, he wasn't stupid).

Once the kids were done, Ford cleaned up after them and pulled out and ate a few things from the crates himself. He felt a bit odd about it (and particularly did not like that Bill had apparently paid for it in gifted gold coins of dubious value to their younger counterparts), but with the way Stan was glaring at him, he had a feeling that not eating (or refusing to eat) would lead to a fight that he was not up for at present, and very much did not want to have with his brother.

"Does anyone want some fish?" Miz asked as she walked back to the boat, dripping sea water.

"Heh," said Stan. Because this was really a thing for her, wasn't it? "Gimme a minute," Stan told her.

Stan got up with a grunt, and made his way down into the hold below via the hatch again. Sure enough, it was only about a minute before he was back up with a strong-looking rope and some hooks. "We can hang 'em up on the deck, save 'em for later," Stan told her, tying up the line between two eyelets. "They can dry out a bit up here."

Miz's tendrils extended, holding out the fishes she caught. "Thanks," Stan told her, taking them from her one at a time and jamming them onto the hooks. Ford watched this carefully. He still couldn't quite see her form, but he could see the fish she was carrying.

"I only see floating fish," Ford told Dipper, as the boy looked up at him with questioning eyes. "A bit of a shimmering outline of the rest, but nothing more." It seemed somewhat large, whatever this other Bill's form was.

Mabel was already reaching her hand out to touch her. "Can I pet you?" she asked. She remembered how much Miz had enjoyed being petted by her before, the last time Miz had been there and looking anything like dragon-y.

"Mabel!" Dipper hissed out, and Ford straightened in alarm. --They weren't at the Shack, there was no barrier that could keep her out anymore, and this Bill had no real reason to pretend anymore to be able to lure them out into the open to get at them. They were out in the open, already.

Miz cleaned and dried herself. "Head pats?" She wagged her tail eagerly, the long limb whipping through the air behind her. "Yes, please!" She wiggled her body back and forth. "I love head pats!" and Shooting Star was safe! Miz lowered her head against the railings and stared at Mabel like a pleading puppy (granted, a one eyed puppy with a mouth large enough to swallow a man whole...).

"Miz, size down first?" Bill called out almost lazily, sunning himself across the deck. "Make it easy for Shooting Star to reach." Miz's eyes widened, then she shook herself in a full body shiver and Mabel stared in awe as she shrunk down to the size of a large python instead of a bus. She climbed onto the boat, claws skittering along the wooden planks in her excitement as she curled up quickly and sinuously in Mabel's lap.

Ford shivered as, sure enough, the time on Bill's spell ran out, and he finally got a good look at Miz in her new form. Dragon. Man-eater. Bill Cipher. She--

...was practically purring as Mabel started patting and petting her on the head. Miz went limp in seconds, draped over Mabel's legs as she stroked a hand along Miz's back and scratched behind her antlers.

Ford's mouth dropped open slightly.

(Bill was side-eyeing Ford carefully, watching his reactions like a big-brotherly triangle demon… by using the sensors in his suit, and activating the privacy-mode interface that beamed information directly into his eyes. To anyone watching Bill, it would have looked like he'd been lazily staring up at the sky...)

"Thaaaat… is not like Bill at all," Dipper noted under his breath, as he stared at his sister and Miz. Because Miz was acting… pretty much exactly like she had before, the last time she'd come to visit, and Bill... pretty much hated to be touched, as far as Dipper had been able to tell so far. Bill definitely never looked comfortable when he was sitting there in Grunkle Stan's chair, doing the whole 'hand on the head' thing. Dipper was actually pretty sure that Grunkle Stan usually did that mostly just in the evenings, because by then Bill was just straight up getting too tired to put much energy into arguing with Grunkle Stan over it, or slapping him off (and then risking facing the consequences for doing that that same night, when he was already so tired).

"So… you… like being touched?" Dipper asked Miz, as he warily got up and approached his sister and the small dragon lying across her lap.

Miz purred softly, a rumbling sound that reminded Dipper more of a motor than a cat. "Only by people I can trust…" she mumbled sleepily. "Shooting Star is safe. She's nice…" --And only because Miz knew Mabel would never willing hurt someone who was helpless. And a cute animal? Bonus points!

Stan was finished puttering around with whatever he'd been doing with the fish over at the other railing, still. He was ambling back casually, wiping his hands off with a rag. The sight of Mabel petting the smaller dragon-Miz didn't even seem to really register with him as anything like weird or out of place, Ford realized; his brother just seemed to note it, and move on.

"Could use some help with the bedrolls on the second deck," Stan said as he walked over, and it took Ford a moment to realize that his brother was talking to him.

"Why not get Bill to help you with it," Ford told his brother almost caustically, glancing over at said triangle demon. Bill wasn't doing anything really, just lying flat on the deck in the sun, his head tilted back as he stared up at the sky. But then Bill turned his head and his neck, to look towards Miz and the kids, looking perfectly relaxed and at ease, with a smile on his--

Ford was up and had taken three steps, before Stan intercepted him and forcibly steered him towards the hatch.

"No," said Stan under his breath.

"Stanley, he--" Ford's voice was shaking. He was shaking, because Bill looked--

"You hear me? No," Stan said, practically shoving him down.

"The kids--" Ford began, still staring at Bill.

(--happy, Bill didn't deserve to look happy, to look safe, to--)

"--Are safer with you down on the second deck right now with me," Stan said. "Don't argue with me right now, Ford," Stan said.

(--look and feel safe, not when he didn't, when he didn't feel safe, he didn't get to, Bill shouldn't get to, he--)

Stan shoved Ford down further and barely stopping short of kicking him down the ladder, as he pushed himself down after him.

Meanwhile, Dipper was slowly reaching out his hand towards Miz, before Miz opened her eye to stare at him, and he flinched and froze in place. "Ask first," Miz said firmly.

Dipper blushed. Right. "Um, can I study you?" he asked.

Miz narrowed her eye at him and Dipper was about to back off before she said, "Nothing invasive, right?"

Dipper sputtered. "O-of course not!" She peered at him, clearly not trusting him as easily as she did Mabel but finally nodded. Dipper reached out his hand, acutely aware that Miz was watching him closely, and placed his hand along the side of her long body. He blinked. She was warm. He noted that she was incredibly smooth, the lines of her bricks being the only real texture he could feel. She was firm, too; Dipper pressed a little to feel her side compress slightly but not much. Miz was still watching him closely.

Dipper's hand moved up her body slowly, and he noted that it didn't matter which direction his hand was moving; her bricks felt the same either way, unlike a snake or a shark that had scales facing one direction. He finally reached her head and squeaked, freezing in place again, when one of the black tendrils curled around his fingers.

"Um… can you let go?" Dipper asked. Miz forced her tendrils to release him and they swayed lazily. Dipper took one between his fingers and pinched it lightly. Miz gasped and pulled her head away. Dipper pulled his hands back quickly. "Sorry!" he cried out.

Miz shook her head back-and-forth. "That felt really weird," she grumbled.

Mabel laughed. "You're doing it wrong Dip-Dop, like this!" Mabel placed her hand among the tendrils and wiggled her fingers as she moved her hand up and down, brushing against the black appendages. At this treatment, Miz let out another purr, going limp once more.

Dipper started petting Miz the way Mabel showed him to, and he felt a small smile grow on his face as he made her purr and stretch out, relaxing and growing less wary of him. This was... pretty cool.

Bill watched them all gently playing together with a smile.

----

The first thing Ford expected to hear out of his brother as he was forcibly shoved down onto a bench was 'Ford, keep it together.'

The first thing he actually heard, after Stan finished lighting a lantern and hanging it off of a nearby hook that, quite frankly, looked like it had been made, sized, and installed for the very purpose of holding that particular lantern, and after Stan sat down right next to him on that bench, was: "Ford, you don't have to keep it together all the time. Just… maybe try to not fall apart while you're right in front of the kids."

Ford stared.

"Stanley, this is a wooden boat," he said. "You should not be lighting candles or anything else on fire down here in a contained hold, and you know this."

"Nice to see you've still got a twenty-track mind, Ford," Stan said almost grumpily. "You wanna tell me why you almost lost it up there with the kid, just now?"

Ford clenched his hands in his lap. "You shouldn't be leaving the kids up there alone with--"

"Miz is up there with 'em," was the next thing out of Stan's mouth, and it left Ford wondering for a moment if it was he who had begun hallucinating all of a sudden, or his brother who had gone well and truly insane. "--Don't look at me like that," Stan told him. "That girl may be a demon, but I've been talkin' with her. There's no way in hell she'd hurt those two kids, or anybody else's kids, either."

"You…" Ford shivered. "She just admitted that she's a--"

"--Bill Cipher, yeah," Stan said. "But the kid, Bill, wasn't lying about her being a 'human' demon, either." The 'and you know it' was implied. Ford had heard Bill say it, and while Ford had known that Bill had been holding back something (...and oh Axolotl, now Ford knew what that 'something' had been, angels of logic and mercy help them all...), he'd also recognized himself that Bill had not been lying about that.

"--She used to have sisters, Ford," he was told next. "Human sisters, younger than her. Somethin' happened, she ended up a triangle, then a 'Bill Cipher'. She's six hundred billion years old or somethin', now. Life ain't fair."

"That's…" not possible, Ford wanted to say, because... Well. It didn't make any sense. It was dream logic, at best. --He had to be dreaming.

...But Bill had said he wasn't dreaming. And Bill hadn't been lying. Ford let out a shaky breath. (Except Bill usually said he was dreaming, when he…)

(But that wasn't really Bill. It had never been Bill. It had just, just been an idea of Bill, a kinder Bill, after he'd had the plate put in, after Bill had stopped being able to visit him in his dreams. After Ford had trained himself well-enough to keep Bill out, using the plate. He had to want it badly enough -- to not want Bill inside his head, no matter what -- and the plate would take care of the rest.)

--It was all fine, regardless. Bill couldn't get inside his head anymore. Really, Bill hadn't been inside his head again since-- since--

...and then Ford felt himself pale all over again. Because Bill had visited his dreams the first night he'd been back in Gravity Falls. He'd had the plate in then, and he hadn't wanted him in his mind or his dreams, then. (...Had he?) But that hadn't kept Bill out.

And Bill had jumped out of his 'three dimensional' body, his physical form, when they'd been in the Fearamid. The 'Penthouse suite'. Planning to jump into his own head and just read the equation, take what he wanted. --Ford had been the one who'd said, 'not so fast', while Bill…

...Bill had acted like he could have entered his mind, right then and there. While he was still conscious. Without having gained his permission.

Ford slowly raised a hand to his head.

...Bill had shook Stan's hand and proceeded to jump right into his brother's head without reservation. He'd thought Stan was him. --The metal plate was supposed to keep Bill out. Simply shaking hands shouldn't have been enough. It was literally supposed to be the equivalent of a physical and mystical barrier, to keep Bill out no matter what, so long as he didn't want Bill inside his mind.

Even though he'd wanted to save the kids, he didn't want Bill inside his mind. Before Stan had offered up his desperate 'hail Mary' of a con, Ford had steeled himself to trying to convince himself that he really wanted to let Bill back into his mind. For the kids -- to give Bill what he wanted, in order to save them. That it was what he wanted; that saving the kids meant wanting to let Bill in.

Bill should have at least thought if the possibility that Ford might try to go back on his own end of the deal, or simply have trouble following through with it… shouldn't he?

Ford had been sleep-deprived and still half-delirious from torture and pain when Stan had offered up his suggestion. And with the way Bill had been acting earlier, insisting that Ford let him inside his mind… Ford hadn't questioned why Bill had thought that that was even possible, when Bill knew about the metal plate, and knew that while Ford didn't want him inside his mind, there was no doorway or gateway for access to his mind. Bill should have known that Ford would not have been able to have changed his mind so easily, after so many years of consistent and constant effort otherwise.

Unless…

No. No. No.

"...I'm not safe," Ford said shakily, raising his other hand to his head and clutching at it.

"Huh?" said Stan, as Ford swallowed hard.

"My mind… isn't safe…" Ford felt strained, like he was being stretched to his limits, and beyond them. "I can't…" He felt his breathing go completely off, but he couldn't calm down, he wasn't safe, he wasn't--

"It doesn't work," Ford barely got out; he was bent over nearly double. "It doesn't-- it doesn't keep him--" out, and BILL WAS HERE RIGHT ABOVE THEIR HEADS--

Ford felt an arm around his back and a hand at his waist, and he was nearly pulled backwards off of the bench. The next thing he felt was a 'CLANG' as Stan rapped his knuckles against his forehead.

"Knucklehead," Stan told him, as Ford gasped for breath as the vibration ran through his skull. "Don't worry about it."

And by this point, Ford was feeling fairly hysterical. "Don't worry about it?!"

"Yeah," said Stan. "No way in hell the kid's gonna fall asleep without a barrier up that's at least as good as your unicorn voodoo stuff," he was told, in tones of practicality. "I'll just get the kid to make it a little larger. You can sleep under it with him, do that 'hold his hands and mouth' thing again, or whatever. It's fine," his brother told him, as he literally shrugged it off.

Ford stared at his brother. And then Ford let out a stuttering giggle, as the world started to tip sideways on him again.

"C'mon, Ford-- ack!" said Stan, and then Ford felt a rush of breath leave him, and--

--he was a mess of limbs against a hard surface and trying to catch his breath and--

Ford was blinking up at the ceiling. Which was the deck of the boat above them.

"Stanley?" Ford asked faintly, continuing to lie right where he was. "Did we just fall off of the bench?"

"...Ow," came the reply from his brother.

Ford thought about this carefully, giving it all the due consideration and weight it deserved.

"...Apologies," Ford finally said to his brother, rather carefully. "I don't believe I'm feeling particularly well."

"Yeah, Ford," was the slightly muffled reply he got right back. "Kinda noticed."

"I…" Ford swallowed. He stared up at the ceiling. (Bill was right above the heads, and...) "...I think I'm just going to lie here for awhile, if that's alright with you," Ford told his brother

Ford heard a soft sort of grunt, that almost sounded more like an exhalation of breath, really.

Ford frowned.

"...Stan?" No response. Ford turned his head and looked to the side.

For a moment, Ford felt a lance of panic run through him, reaching for his brother, worried for a moment that Stanley might have hit his head, or worse--

But then Ford realized, as he stared at Stan's head on his shoulder...

...his brother was asleep.

Ford stared at this. "Stanley," he said, almost scandalized. (It wasn't that late at night back home… was it?)

---

"Say 'Ahh'." Dipper peered into Miz's mouth as she opened it wide. He was making so many amazing discoveries! She could swallow things much larger than herself, mouth stretching impossibility wide so she could dig into whatever it was with her sharp little teeth. Dipper had fed her another fish, watching the process with the same fascination he had for watching those nature documentaries about wild animals. He even had a brief thought that Miz would be the coolest pet! …until he remembered she wasn't an animal and he berated himself for even thinking something that stupid.

"Ahh…" Miz said. Or rather, didn't say. Dipper had quickly discovered that Miz's mouth didn't move when she spoke. In fact, Dipper was pretty sure at this point that she didn't even have the anatomy required for speech.

"--How are you speaking?" Dipper asked.

"Telepath," Miz responded. "I'm projecting my words outward and you're picking them up." She closed her mouth and shook herself. "It's another natural thing my powers do. It's not a sense, it's communication when I don't have a mouth." She flopped down again in Mabel's lap. "I'm more used to speaking like that than using a mouth."

Dipper stared, eyes going wide in alarm. "Wait, you're in our minds?" Great-Uncle Ford would have a fit--! But Miz just scoffed at his question.

"No. Projecting my thoughts doesn't need me to be inside someone's head. I send it out and you pick it up." Miz rolled her eye, and Dipper paused to think about that. …Wait. Did that mean that… normal humans were all at least a little bit psychic, then? If they were picking it up...

--Wait. Better question: "So… could you project dreams to people? Without going inside their Mind?" Because Dipper was pretty sure that Great-Uncle Ford would have an even worse problem with that.

"Yeah." Miz blinked at him. "It's how I run my cooking show." Aaaaaand, that was NOT the direction Dipper had thought this conversation would go. "Cooking what?"

"Oh, back in my dimension, I run a cooking show that I just project out into the multiverse inside the dreams of sleeping people. Like a satellite dish. It's great because I don't have to pay a network for a time slot." Miz shrugged, then her eyelid drooped low and she started kicking a leg when Mabel switched over from 'just' petting her to giving her a belly rub. "Ooooh~"

Dipper waited until Mabel was done with distracting Miz like that so badly, making her feel so good with the petting (on purpose), before asking his next question. "So… is there a way to block these projections?" (Because if there was and they could get it out of her--)

Miz nodded. "They can tune out of my dream if they wanted, just… leave and go back to their normal dream. Though, a lot of people don't seem to realize they can do that."

Okay, good. They could just warn Great-Uncle Ford, telling him that, and he'd be okay. (Dipper exchanged a glance with Mabel, and got a small nod from her. Yeah, okay, she'd do it.) At least, that was assuming…

"Can you project your thoughts to anyone?" Dipper asked next. "What if they didn't want to hear your thoughts?" ...or tried to block it with a mystic barrier or metal plate or anything else, because he was sure Great-Uncle Ford had said his metal plate should keep Bill out of his mind, but he still heard Miz speak. So there had to be something going on there. (Same thing with the barrier; had she been doing it underneath that, too? She'd been able to eat emotions or whatever underneath it... --They'd definitely have to test this telepathy thing out with her inside the Shack, once they were back…)

The dragon stretched lazily. "I'm not going inside their mind. I'm allowing them to hear bits of mine. If they really didn't want to hear me, they can just not listen. Once again, they don't seem to realize they can do that." Dipper winced at the 'once again'. (Okay, so that made it sound like it was all the same thing?)

"So if I wanted to stop listening to you…" Dipper asked slowly. Was it really that easy? Miz looked at him. "Well, try it?"

Dipper frowned and squinted his eyes. Nothing seemed to happen. He sighed. "Nothing's happening," he complained, and was startled when he heard Mabel laugh. "That means it worked, dum-dum!"

"Huh?" was Dipper's eloquent reply. Bill spoke up from where he was lazing on the deck: "Miz has been singing this whole time."

Dipper blinked. It was that easy? "So how do I turn it back on--"

"-ou will make payments for your filthy delusions~ with all the dirty money you have~" Dipper heard Miz's voice singing. He shook his head. "Okay. So… I just… want to hear you and I'll hear you?"

"Yup. It's that easy." Miz giggled. "Sometimes though, I have to FORCE people to listen to me because they're jerks who don't listen to what ANYONE says," she grumbled. "Or I'd have to shapeshift some vocal chords capable of pushing out air in the vibrations needed for audio speech… or simply vibrate my bricks into a facsimile of it to hit their ear drums and be registered as speech." which is what created that weird echoey effect.

"That's…" really cool, but also really scary, Dipper didn't say aloud. (Because if she could just force her way into people's heads, no matter what… yeah. Great-Uncle Ford wasn't gonna like this at all.)

But all this left Dipper wondering, though… "Why are you answering all my questions?" Dipper asked her. Because why was Miz was so much more upfront with information than Bill was? (Besides Bill being a jerk, that is.) "--Don't get me wrong, I like that you're telling me stuff, but…" Heck, even when Bill did say things, half the time Dipper swore Bill was saying stuff weirdly on purpose, just... teasing them with stuff that the triangle demon jerk knew they wouldn't get, and--

Miz seemed to notice his confusion. "I actually wanted to be a teacher when I was younger," she told him. "I really liked explaining and teaching my little sisters… and eventually my little brother, about all sorts of stuff." She sighed. She missed it. She'd loved teaching Pyrone and Pynelope when they were younger. Quackers always listened when she explained things. And Ammy could listen to her talk for hours and hours without getting bored.

"Sisters and a brother?" Mabel asked. She turned to Bill. "Did you have siblings too?"

Bill went a bit rigid, but he laughed as he said, "Did I? --I have a little sister right now! HA!" The twins glanced at each other, realizing that Bill hadn't actually answered the question, yet again.

Dipper frowned and was about to ask Bill again, a little differently -- because sometimes that actually worked? -- but Mabel put a hand on her brother's shoulder, shook her head, and asked instead, "Bill? When you were younger, what did you want to be when you grew up? Did you want to be a teacher like Miz, too?"

Bill let out a short chittering laugh. "No," he said. "There were no teachers in my dimension," Bill told them, in a brittle tone of voice that made Dipper feel a little uneasy to hear.

Miz said softly, "I don't think he wants to talk about what things were like for him back then." The twins looked at each other. Miz rolled onto her side. "Can we talk about something else?"

Mabel had been about to ask Bill anyway, but after Miz asked her not to… Bill usually said something when she asked him things, even if it was horrible most of the time. But... maybe it wasn't a good idea to ask him this time after all, if Miz really thought it wasn't a good idea?

"Okay, so… in your dimension, you're a dragon?" Mabel asked instead. Miz scoffed. "Naw, I chose to be a dragon because dragons are cool." She wiggled. "I mean, what's the point of being able to craft a vessel into whatever shape I want and NOT be something cool?" (Mabel nodded in understanding. She'd want to be a mermaid sometimes if she could! Then she'd be able to visit Mermando, under the sea, and meet him and his new wife… they'd all be able to go on undersea adventures together, if she could do that!) "Of course, even as a triangle I'm really cool, but the rest of the multiverse doesn't seem to think so."

"You have a triangle form too?" Dipper asked. Miz nodded. "I think I should avoid using it though. Ford doesn't seem like he would appreciate it." She hung her head, crawling off Mabel's lap and shaking herself as she grew back into her 'human' form. "It's like that with Jessie too. She can't stand to look at me when I'm a triangle. But when I look like this--" she gestured to herself "--she's fine with being nice to me."