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81.76% Illusion Is Reality: Gravity Falls / Chapter 148: -Underneath the entire thing- Part 2

Capítulo 148: -Underneath the entire thing- Part 2

"I…" Mabel didn't want to talk about any of this anymore (she knew that she was probably already going to have nightmares about all of this stuff as it was) but she had to ask, to say something, the next thing. She still felt nervous for almost a moment, though, before she asked Miz (a lot more firmly than she felt): "Have you told Bill about any of this? Or Grunkle Stan?" She was a little afraid Miz would talk more about the details now; she really didn't want to know. But the whole thing was horrifying. Getting hit was bad enough -- just, terrible and nightmare-inducing, just thinking that somebody could love you and want to do that to 'discipline' you, thinking it was right. But what was even worse was… Look, she wasn't a mom like Miz was(?), but the idea of somebody accidentally hurting their own kid was… it was...

(...also super nightmare-inducing. She was definitely going to have nightmares about this tonight, unless they really managed to stay up all night until the morning, she knew it. Worst sleepover ever.)

"Yeah… I've told brother…" Miz winced. "He knows. And… he was just as upset. And doesn't know how to fix it either." Miz seemed to wilt in place. "So… please don't use a binding circle on me. That's… what made me lose control that time."

"What?" Pacifica side-glanced at Mabel as the other girl had a look of horrified realization. "You--" Mabel stopped herself, almost slamming her mouth shut, then nodded. "Don't worry. We won't do that. We don't even know how to do that! And… uh, the other stuff was startling or scaring you really bad? Or grabbing your wrists and… there's the thing about riding in cars, too, right?" Mabel's voice didn't quite sound nervous, as they all started to release Miz from her 'emergency hug', but Pacifica could pick up on it. Her friend was doing a serious rethink about something.

"Those are mostly just precautions, I really, really don't want to lose control and hurt any of you. When I get scared, I can't think clearly and bad things happen." Miz told them. "It's actually easier to keep my control here than at home. This dimension's so… oppressive? It needs more energy to make stuff happen, there's more Rules in place… though I generate enough power that keeping a lid on them is still a thing I have to do." Miz thought about how to explain it. "Back in my home dimension, if I just… think about something happening, even if I'm just day dreaming and my thoughts wander, if I'm not holding down my powers, they'll start to take effect and… change things around me."

Well, that sounded pretty terrifying. Pacifica didn't want to think what things in Miz's dimension might be like. (That sounded like it would be even worse than Weirdmageddon had been with Bill Cipher here...)

"-and sometimes even when I'm not thinking about anything in particular, if I lose my grip on my powers, they just leak out and start doing stuff anyway." Miz frowned. "I still need to talk to my brother about that, my lack of control and stuff."

"I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT, BUT I FEEL YA." Grenda spoke up suddenly. When Miz blinked at her in surprise, the large girl nodded solemnly. "I HAD TROUBLE CONTROLING MY STRENGTH WHEN I WAS YOUNGER. I USED TO BREAK THINGS ALL THE TIME!" she admitted. "I FELT PRETTY BAD ABOUT IT. BUT I PRACTICED REALLY HARD AND I'M MORE CAREFUL NOW. AND I DON'T BREAK THINGS ANYMORE UNLESS I WANT TO. LIKE OTHER PEOPLE'S FACES WHEN THEY'RE MEAN. SO I'M SURE YOU CAN DO IT TOO!"

Miz looked surprised before she smiled. "Yeah, that's…" she wiggled. "You're right. Thank you." Grenda's vote of confidence seemed to really lift her spirits. Grenda grinned and gave Miz a comforting pat on the back, nearly knocking the much smaller girl over in the process, but Miz just let out a laugh at that, relaxing fully in a way Pacifica couldn't help but take note of.

Pacifica had learned a lot about the demon now, just from this conversation alone. And none of it felt like Miz was lying... unless she was just that good at it. And Miz actually… well, Pacifica wasn't sure how to feel about it. Not without knowing whether it was real or a lie or not. She was suspicious and wary as heck about the demon girl; Miz had outright just admitted how dangerous she was. But… it hadn't been a taunt or a boast or a threat, it had come across as a true warning, one that Miz seemed to be sharing because Miz was worried about hurting them and apparently wanted to avoid such a thing happening

Dr. Pines had said that demons didn't feel things. Yet, Miz had claimed that she didn't want to do things that made her feel guilty. So if she was lying, she'd have to be lying and faking all these emotions convincingly enough to...

Pacifica sighed. She was tired. This wasn't the best time to be looking for inconsistencies in Miz's professed thoughts, actions, and stories, let alone any of her true motivations for anything that she did. For now, the best, smartest thing to do would be to go along with what she could see. Miz was expressing regret and guilt -- which, yes, could have been fabricated for sympathy, but why would she go through the effort to do so when it would have been easier to simply tell them only good things, if she was going to go to the trouble of lying about things to them? Especially at a sleepover where she was supposedly trying to make a good impression, one that was supposed to be fun. This was…

...not what she should be focusing on right now. Fun sleepover. Right.

Pacifica glanced over at Miz, who was now carefully applying foundation to Grenda (who'd asked for them to go back to sleepover activities), face scrunched up in concentration. Candy was giving her pointers and shuffling through the different eyeshadows to find a good color. As they settled down to continuing the sleepover activities, Pacifica couldn't help but ask Miz, "Why did you tell any of us about all this?"

"I figured you were worried about your parents, since I am who and what I am, and my brother has done the things he's done. So I thought I would reassure you that I would leave them alone." Miz, still a little subdued, shrugged before picking out some lipstick for Grenda. (...What? Knowing that the demon had been physically abused in the past was supposed to be reassuring?!) "I don't like them. But I won't mess with them either, not unless they try messing with me first. Or if they hurt you. I love mine, and you love yours." Then, as Miz was lightly brushing on some blush, she added, "I mean, I'm also not gonna hold it against them for stuff you're doing. Just like I'm not holding it against anyone else. Well, I'm holding it against that Stanford a little bit, just 'cause I don't like him, but I'm trying harder to leave him alone since it upsets Stan. And like I said, I kinda like you, which already makes you better off than that Stanford."

...Hold against her parents the stuff she was doing? Pacifica managed to keep her poker face on, the one her father had grilled her on all through her younger years, and nothing of the fear going through her appeared as she asked the demon, "What do you mean?"

"Well, it's not going to work anyway. That thing you and the others are planning." Miz continued, partially ignoring Pacifica's question. "Brother says he won't… well... And, I don't know all the ways we're similar or different from each other, but I know that I can't... I've tried.' (Pacifica frowned at this. She'd tried what?) "So if he's anything like me, whatever you're planning won't work anyway." Miz smiled softly. "So I won't hold it against you for trying." At least she'd try not to. Part of her still felt a little protective. (Pacifica felt her own eyes widen a bit.) "You're just scared and lashing out in your own way. I can understand that. I won't begrudge you for being scared. I'm scared all the time."

Pacifica didn't want to ask Miz to clarify what she meant. More than that, she didn't think she needed to. She'd heard enough threats in her life to hear that one loud and clear. So she responded as simply as she could: by not saying anything (potentially further incriminating) at all.

"YOU'RE PLANNING SOMETHING?" Grenda asked, her eyes still closed as Miz finished up with her blush.

Out of the corner of her eye, Pacifica saw Mabel send a glance her way. Pacifica herself was careful not to look at Mabel as Miz talked; just and only Miz.

"....And?" Pacifica prompted Miz, because it was clear that that was not all that the demon wanted to say on the matter.

Miz shrugged. "You guys should stop trying though, brother's protecting your world from other Demons right now. If you do succeed..." Miz frowned. "It'd probably be a free for all. I'm not quite sure how things work in this dimension yet, but the ownership thing seems pretty important here." Miz tilted her head. "So it would probably work out better if you all left Bill alone. He's pretty invested in keeping you all safe, because that's what keeps Stan happy, at least that's what I'm picking up from them." Miz finished putting the finishing touches on Grenda and smiled. "How's this look?" Miz pulled up the mirror so Grenda could see herself. The larger girl blinked and thundered. "I LOOK GORGEOUS!"

"You're already gorgeous." Miz giggled.

Now Pacifica glanced over at Mabel, who was biting her lip. (Candy was looking down at the various containers of makeup, listening, but not saying anything at the moment. The Korean girl wasn't stupid, and neither was Grenda; they could tell something was up with this 'plan', but they would keep quiet for now, until Mabel could explain what they were going to be helping her and Pacifica with later. It didn't sound like it was gonna be another last-minute sock opera play, though.)

The worst part here was that Miz wasn't even openly threatening them. Not with her own brand of violence, anyway, whatever that may be. No, she was simply telling them quite gently, as if they were a couple of idiots, that having Bill alive was better than taking him down and having to deal with all the other demons who weren't him. And oh, Pacifica had heard that one before. 'Better the devil you know…' and all that. ...Hell, her parents lived that one, on the daily.

And that was how Pacifica knew it was a lie. That was mobspeak for, you won't like the power vacuum this creates, you'd be better off sticking with me, kid, and falling in line.

Northwests didn't just 'fall in line', though. They survived, they then thrived, and they always came ahead of the game and out on top. And Pacifica wasn't about to break that particular trend of her family's tradition, at least.

It meant that she was setting herself up directly against this demon, and they both knew it. And this demon didn't even consider her a threat, herself. That didn't bode well, for her or any of them.

So Pacifica was still understandably tense as she watched Miz wince and then say next, "Sorry, didn't mean to bring down the mood. I just thought I might as well be honest about how I feel about the situation. Though I might be misunderstanding something, I tend to do that a lot. I thought that Stanford would appreciate if I was honest, but I think he hates me more when I'm being so." Miz sighed. "I still don't wanna go around lying outright though. It's more work to keep up and I don't want to bother. Besides, it seemed to annoy Stan when I tried lying." Miz groaned. ('Note to self, talk to Stan Pines and see if he can help differentiate between this demon's lies and her truths,' Pacifica thought to herself.) "But seriously, I'm not gonna harm you, your parents or anyone in this dimension unless they attack me first, or something like that." ('Or something like that'... right. Pacifica swallowed and tried not to react to that, even as her hands loosely clenched into fists in her lap.) "And I'm gonna try harder to keep my temper. I… I just want to do better." Miz rolled her eyes. "Though I think brother would call it being 'worse' depending on how I do so. He's got a pretty skewed definition for it, from what I've seen. Definitions seem to work differently here, dunno if it might have to do with the Rules the AXOLOTL here set up being very different from home. I kinda want to examine that more, but brother says that's too dangerous..."

Pacifica could see Miz drifting off into her own head as she rambled. Pacifica took this time to send off some more texts to Dipper and frown internally to herself. So Miz knew that they were all trying to come up with a way to kill or otherwise contain Bill Cipher. And… what now? The demon claimed she wasn't going to do anything to them -- not to stop them, or harm them -- unless they tried to harm her directly, but not if they tried doing anything to 'her brother'. Operative word there likely being 'try'. (Which meant that if they did manage to pull something off anytime soon, they could expect to have to handle an attack from Miz shortly thereafter, if they hadn't got done dealing with her, first.)

But why did Miz believe that they couldn't do anything to that insane demon, anyway? Because she had tried... to kill him too and… failed herself? And determined that if he couldn't die when she'd tried to kill him, that none of the rest of them could manage it? (How had she managed to survive the aftermath of that with him? Had he… given her permission to try, or something? Dr. Pines had said that they all treated death like a game, and their own lives like nothing, so...) Or was her ambivalence on the subject just due to the fact that he might not stay dead, like Dr. Pines had said was a thing for most demons, which would explain why she knew about the problem and yet felt so carefree about it.

Pacifica was starting to see what Dr. Pines might mean about demons not having human emotions. Miz really didn't care about the idea of Bill Cipher dying, killing him herself or otherwise. This demon would likely only get angry after they'd pulled it off, if that was the order they went at them in -- because they'd pulled off the impossible and shown themselves to be a threat to her, having done what she couldn't, not because she was 'worried about Bill dying'. That was the conclusion Pacifica came to from all of this.

...Dear lord, Dr. Pines had been right about that. She'd thought he'd been halfway to insane, the way that he'd ranted over that particular point. But instead, he'd just proven himself right on that point -- on allelse the older scientist might have been more 'factually correct' on than she'd realized, at the time…

"...though I think I'm still gonna have to take down anyone who tries to harm my friends and children, they're not immortal like I am so they could get hurt. I can't allow that. That's not wrong, right? It can't be wrong to want to keep those I love safe. Brother said he can take care of himself, but my friends aren't demons, they wouldn't be able to..." Miz was still rambling. "I mean, I guess I go overboard most of the time, but if I let those guys go, they're gonna keep coming after my family, I can't just let that happen, right?" (Going overboard. Not knowing there was a limit. This demon was scary-dangerous, and Pacifica was starting to hate this all, a lot.) "Urgh… Tina told me that it was wrong, but I still can't just let someone who wants to harm her get away, they're going harm someone else, I've Seen them do so, and shouldn't I be trying to prevent that sort of thing? And I only really get rid of the ones that I can't get arrested and therefore neutralized as a threat for whatever reasons anyway…" (Neutralized as a threat... Pacifica clenched her jaw as she stared at Miz.)

"Stop," Mabel said simply. Miz blinked and covered her mouth. After a second, she lowered her hand. "Sorry. What did I do wrong this time?"

"A few things, we can talk about them later, but... just… can we get back to the sleepover right now? And maybe talking about fun stuff instead? ...I can do your make up this time?" Mabel offered. Miz nodded. "Okay," she said before settling down more comfortably and closing her eyes.

Mabel waited until Miz's eyes were closed, but once she had, Mabel looked over at Pacifica and give her a look. Pacifica blinked at her, until Mabel mouthed out, 'Are you okay?' and it was only then that Pacifica realized that her hands in her lap were shaking around the phone that she was holding. Pacifica pulled in a deep breath and stilled them, then raised her chin and nodded to Mabel. She was okay. She could handle this.

She looked down at her phone again, and shot off a few more texts to Dipper. He was responding with worry over having left his sister alone with the demon. ...Apparently, he trusted Miz even less than Bill, and that… wasn't actually all that surprising anymore, with all the talk of lack of control and the fact that Dr. Pines had told her, of how Miz wasn't part of the agreement -- it was Bill Cipher who was following that. Which meant... [Don't go barging in here, you'll ruin everything.] she sent to him, then she mentally kicked herself and quickly added after that -- after remembering that, yeah, these siblings cared about each other -- [Mabel's handling Miz pretty well. More importantly, what's the deal with Miz?] Pacifica asked. [How big a threat is she?] Because Pacifica wasn't sure what to think with her. [Miz claims to have pretty much killed people who threatened the people she loves(??), waht did she do to them specifically??]

She sent all that off before kicking herself as she remembered… ugh, she was getting tired, okay? It was hard to be at the top of her game when... [Dr. Pines told me demons can't love, so what the heck does it mean when she says she's killing people to protect the people she loves and cares about? Does that mean she's lying and just killing people for fun, or what?] which, from her last conversation with the man, she had no doubt that Dr. Pines would probably say was the reason for it. But in talking with Miz in the same room as her, it sure didn't sound like that was it. Miz claimed to have children, whom she seemed to care about, if her admission of feeling awful for hurting one of them meant anything.

...If she weren't lying about that, at least.

And Pacifica simply couldn't tell. Did she, as a demon, feel differently about demons than people? Or...

...or… was there a second, different set of rules for people? One that wasn't equal, or fair in any way? Like… racism, maybe? Like people's lives were... worth more than demon ones? Since demons couldn't die, or came back, or apparently didn't care about their own lives or each others' lives at all? ...But if that was true, then what Dr. Pines had been saying had been...

Ugh. This was starting to give her such a headache. ...That, or the cheap nailpolish fumes. Maybe she should open a window...

Well, either way she cut it, either Miz was a master level liar or she was telling the truth. Because to the best of Pacifica's experience with reading people, Miz was being honest, as scary as that was. ...Actually, it almost felt like Miz didn't really have a brain-to-mouth filter on her, what with the way she rambled on the way she did, both last time -- during the anime showing -- and this.

Pacifica busied herself with opening a window -- or at least, she tried to find one to do that, until she realized that this hovel didn't actually have one in this room that opened even the least little bit. Not that it had a screen behind it to keep any of the insects or other things out, if it had. Gross.

By the time she sat back down again, Dipper had finally responded with [I dont know about her threat level or who she's killed. But Miz does love bill, I think. Or at least care about him? She seems to. Great-Uncle Ford says its an act but I don't know what to think myself yet.] This text was quickly followed by another. [But there's maybe a chance that demons do love, just not in the same way that we do? Like Miz loves Bill but in some kinda messed up demon-sibling way? (I can't believe i just wrote that...)]

And that was a whole other can of worms to be addressed later...

"Why don't you like Dr. Pines?" Candy asked, that being one of the few things she was able to pick out of Miz's rambling.

Miz, eyes still closed, groaned. "He's a racist," she said simply. Mabel twitched, smearing the foundation across Miz's cheek, then set her jaw (not saying anything for now), as she reached for a tissue to handle the mess. ('If he is, then so are you,' Pacifica thought, then blinked at herself.) Miz continued, "He's also an expert in denying reality and truth, if it's something he doesn't want to accept as true. It's so frustrating. It took me a while to figure it out, but I think I finally know why he broke himself, he cracked and went into his own head, running away from reality, because he couldn't handle it." ('What?' Pacifica stared at Miz in shock, because what was this, now?) "And denying what's true and making up a lie for himself to believe instead makes him feel better. And one of the lies he's convinced himself of is the way he refuses to believe there's more than one Bill, and that I am one." Miz frowned even as Mabel shakingly put down the implements to pick up the blush brush, next. (Mabel was very angry at this point about what-all Miz was saying about one of her favorite grunkles, and trying very hard not to show it.) "And I don't like the way he denies my existence. It's almost worse than his blatant racism towards me."

"...I don't believe Dr. Pines treats you as if you don't exist," Pacifica said slowly to Miz, watching Mabel. "If he did, he would have ignored the fact that you were attending this sleepover with the rest of us." It was rather clear that the opposite was the case, in fact. But if that was something this demon believed was considered denying her own existence... then she was even crazier than Pacifica had thought.

"I didn't mean it like that. He does consider me a threat. But he doesn't want to think about how I'm a Bill, he just classifies me as a basic demon and treats me as such." Miz sighed. The Miz laughed. It was a bitter sound. "Not that I'm not used to it. People really don't like me. Back home, people used to be too afraid to bother me when I was out in public, but when my self control got better and I wasn't losing my temper at people all the time, they got confident enough to start getting angry at me for daring to be in public spaces. I got politely told to leave while trying to go grocery shopping once. I had cops training guns on me when I went out to lunch with my family at a restaurant…" (Pacifica saw Mabel begin to open her mouth, and then close it again.)

Miz sighed, expression growing resigned. "But I actually don't mind all that anymore. I'm used to it. That's just normal now. But the way that Stanford denies my existence, denies it so hard he broke himself just to deny the truth in front of him--" (...That made no sense. Dr. Pines didn't seem broken, and he didn't seem to be denying anything about her, either. He'd brought up the whole 'two Bills' thing to her when they'd met at the mansion, in fact.) Miz seethed. "That ticks me off. Once I realized that's what he was doing… or at least that's what I think he was doing." She stopped and took a deep breath. "But I still feel bad for the way he broke. Stan was really upset that I caused it, even though it only happened because that Stanford just couldn't handle it. But I still feel bad about it. Because he got hurt and I didn't mean to hurt him." Miz's hands were clenched on her knees (and Mabel was rather lightly going over the same areas over and over again, barely touching her right now -- if she was even actually applying any more of the makeup at all, Pacifica noted -- it was clear she didn't trust herself to touch Miz at all right now).

Pacifica slid forward, reached out a hand, and took the blush brush from her friend. She saw Mabel startle, then shiver slightly as she turned towards her -- and oh, did she look angry right now. Pacfica gave her a quick head tick to the right, and Mabel grimaced, eyes glinting with anger, but she nodded once and slid backwards, to be given a rather quieter hug by her two friends than either of them usually did (especially the big one).

"But how am I supposed to apologize for existing?" Miz continued rambling on, eyes closed, as Pacifica picked up where Mabel had left off with her make up. (It wasn't as though Pacifica hadn't had to persevere through difficult situations before with perfect aplomb. And this particular topic wasn't one in which she had any particular level of emotional engagement, unlike her Californian friend.) "Stan and brother say I shouldn't ever have to apologize for existing, but everyone's still upset at me for breaking him and I just want to make up for it somehow-- but what am I supposed to do? How am I supposed to fix things? Make things better? I can't stop existing-- I've tried but I always come back--" Miz's voice cracked. (And Pacifica's eyes narrowed; Mabel seemed to miss that one herself, but Pacifica hadn't. And she was going to bring that up with both of the elder Pines later. Because if some of these demons didn't want to come back and kept doing so, that held grave implications for both their sanity, and their willingness to--)

Miz's eyes were still closed, but she was trembling and crying as she just unloaded everything she'd been holding in, because she knew that saying any of this around Bill would just make him upset and she knew it would probably make Mabel upset too, but she just had to tell someone, anyone-- "And I don't know what that Stanford would accept as an apology, he just got mad when I tried and it made everything worse--"

"Grunkle Ford isn't a racist--" Pacifica winced at that, this not being a good time for this sort of engagement with Miz, but she kept her own mouth shut and let Mabel continue. "--And he knows you're a Bill," Mabel told Miz quietly, not looking at the demon as she pulled away from her two friends and started rummaging through the makeup instead. (Hopefully for the last of it what Pacifica would need to apply, to consider this makeover done, and bring a quick end to this whole thing.) "He told us all, me and Grunkle Stan and Dipper, that he knows about all that. That he wouldn't ever hurt us for knowing that you think you're a Bill, either," she said next, just in case Miz really actually cared about that. "He just doesn't think you're Bill. Because you aren't!" Mabel said, glancing up at her.

"That Stanford says that I 'think' I'm a Bill." Miz sniffled again. "I don't think I am, I know I am. I'm the Bill of my world…" Miz wiped at her eyes. "...I'm glad he won't hurt you or Dipper for knowing. I was a little afraid he might…"

"You're smearing your makeup," Pacifica told her, reaching for a tissue, among other things. (Well, at least she could do it right this time.) She rather professionally wiped Miz down, before starting over again, this time going through things far more quickly. (It was much easier this second go-round, with not nearly as many layers of unnecessary foundation caked onto her skin, to have to work on top of without messing up or cracking.)

"But you're not exactly the same as Bill is, not really," Mabel pointed out -- even if, at this point, she wasn't actually sure if Miz herself was better or worse than the stupid dream demon himself. "Just like Grunkle Stan and Younkle Stan were different. And Grunkle and Younkle Ford. --You…" Mabel swallowed hard, then tried again, "You like some different stuff than Bill, right?" Mabel said, trying to keep things on a lighter note, even though the things Bill liked were horrible, and she was really angry right now at Miz for lying to her friends about her Grunkle Ford like that! "I don't think Bill would ever pounce at laser dots like you did with Dipper the other day," Mabel told Miz, with a very strained smile. (...And Pacifica thought it was rather a good thing that Miz was having to keep her eyes closed right now, with the glare Mabel was currently giving her.)

"Yeah, infinite alternate dimensions, infinite alternate iterations of Bill, or Stan or anyone else." Miz agreed. "But I'm still a Bill. And having that part of me denied makes me feel like everything I've gone through-- all the pain I've had to go through as Bill, is being denied as well…" Miz sniffled. "It's stupid and irrational, and maybe I'm misunderstanding things again, but that's… how I feel…"

Mabel pulled in a breath and let it out slowly. She looked back at her friends, when Candy patted her on the arm, before turning back to Miz. (She was so tired right now. Tired of all the lies, and the…)

"...I don't think he's trying to do that," Mabel told Miz -- told them all, really. "He just… notices that you're different than Bill. And you went through different stuff, right? So…" Mabel hesitated, not sure if she should actually tell her that-- No. Grunkle Ford could handle her. He could. It would be okay. She straightened in place, looking a little determined, and said, "I think that maybe what Grunkle Ford really doesn't like, is that you act like you want to be more like Bill all the time. Like, you look up to him a lot? And Bill hurt Grunkle Ford a lot. So… it's like you're saying you want to be an even worse demon and hurt him a lot too, when you say stuff like that."

"Just because I am a Bill doesn't mean I want to be like brother. He's himself and I'm myself. And while I admire him a lot, I'm not planning to be him. I'm me." Miz said firmly.

"Well, you should definitely tell Grunkle Ford that!" Mabel told her, her shoulders dropping a bit, because maybe... "It'll probably make him feel a lot better." It made her feel a lot better. She'd been really worried for awhile now that part of the reason Miz was being so mean to her grunkle was because Miz had thought doing that to him would make Bill happy with her. Like doing that (for him?) was a way for Bill to hurt Grunkle Ford without breaking the agreement himself? But if it wasn't, and it was all just Miz being a demon and saying terrible things all the time, because… well, Bill did that all the time if you didn't tell him 'stop', so that was probably just another terrible demon thing too...

"....you really think so?" Miz asked, and the note of hope in her voice made Pacifica feel incredibly uncomfortable, even as Mabel nodded at her enthusiastically.

"--But only if you really, really mean it," Mabel told her next. Miz had just said that she wanted to be better and less demon-y, but... "He'll really not like it if you're lying, or not sure, or something." (She knew she would be really angry, if she found out later that Miz had been lying to her and her friends about that. ...And Grunkle Ford might not even believe her right away. But Mabel knew that the first step for any of them maybe getting anywhere at all would be Miz actually telling him first.)

And even as Mabel started to feel better, lightening up a bit, her words made Miz turn cold again, that note of hope frosting over.

"...he automatically believes anything I say is a lie, regardless." Miz frowned. "Heck, he likes my lies better." (Pacifica raised an eyebrow at that. She also noticed a headband under Miz's bangs. Hm, well, Miz hadn't taken it off, and she didn't really want to hear any little bit of blathering from the demon about that complete fashion disaster. She'd just work around it like it wasn't a problem.)

(And, this close, Pacifica blinked when Miz's headband seemed to… twinkle? There were symbols on it, and they were flashing lightly, faintly, and she only saw them since she was so close. Okay, what was this thing? She had to ask the older Pines later.)

"Wellllll…" Mabel drew out, because she wasn't really sure about that one, but Grunkle Stan had told her before that if there was something that Bill ever got that wrong, to tell Bill to come to him about it. But this time, going to Grunkle Stan probably wasn't gonna solve this one. So instead, maybe this time…

Mabel scrunched up her face for a moment, and crossed her sweater-covered arms. "...You could ask Bill to tell him for you? Maybe? Grunkle Ford can tell when Bill is lying," Mabel pointed out, after thinking about that one a bit.

"...he'll just switch to believing that I lied and tricked brother instead." Miz pointed out, eyebrow twitching as she thought about it. Pacifica couldn't help but let out a soft laugh of her own. (She could see Dr. Pines doing that. After all, the scientist had straight-up admitted that that was what he thought Bill was doing -- lying to himself and therefore telling the 'truth' as he believed it.)

"Well, you gotta start somewhere," Mabel told her. "It's not like stuff's gonna get any better if you don't tell him." She was actually pretty sure that if Miz didn't, it would just keep on getting worse and worse.

"...I'll try." Miz finally said (to a "Yay!" from Mabel). "But I'm not holding out much hope for it," and despite her words, Pacifica could see how Miz was wiggling in place, and the faint trace of hope beneath her annoyance.

"Well, you are a demon," Mabel said. "And he doesn't like demons so much." She shrugged.

"And that Stanford is racist against me, for being a demon, even though I never had any choice in the matter." Miz was clearly rolling her eyes beneath her lids.

"I dunno if it's racist," Mabel said, frowning slightly (while Pacifica hid another wince, thinking 'no, it most definitely was racist' in a way, just not the way the demon was implying it). "I think he just doesn't like you killing people." Grunkle Ford had never been all that super-clear on stuff to her and Dipper (well, definitely not her, anyway). She wasn't too sure what he meant by demons, anyway. He talked about 'being a demon' more like it was things people did, than being born some way. "And neither do we. Dipper, or Grunkle Stan, or Soos, or Melody, or anybody else."

"If someone is trying to get to one of my friends with plans to violate her, I'm not gonna hold back on destroying them." Miz growled.

"VIOLATE HER?" Grenda bellowed out in confusion, and Mabel and Candy looked confused as well. (Pacifica, however, did not.)

"--Change the subject, now," Pacifica demanded quickly, feeling more than just uneasy at the swift topic shift there, to that particular sort of thing. Because that couldn't have been unintentional on the demon's part. And she did not want to know--

"Well brother and Stan don't want me working for Time Baby anymore either, and I don't like doing his dirty work, so I can see their point." Miz sighed. "It'll be something I need to talk to dad about, he's the one who told me to try and get along with Time Baby…"

Pacifica stared, unable to understand what Miz was saying, or what topic she'd just shifted to (if she'd even actually shifted to a different topic at all).

"Well Time Baby is a big jerk, so I think it's good to stop working with him," Mabel said quickly, nodding at her. She'd said that before, and Miz had said this before, and why were they still talking about this? "So… just no more killing people, okay? That should make Grunkle Ford a lot more comfortable and happy around you," Mabel told the demon firmly.

"If just the act of killing people makes someone a demon, then there are plenty of police and soldiers who would be demons. Heck, if it was even just the act of killing people for

fun

there are police and soldiers or even just random people who would be demons, and yet that Stanford doesn't classify them as such. At least I don't think he does." Miz pointed out.

"I didn't say I thought not killing people would make you not a demon," Mabel tried, and this stuff was really starting to make her all headachey -- it was really more of Dipper's thing, she swore. "I told you it would make Grunkle Ford not so angry and upset with you if you stop doing that."

"I'm pretty sure his definition and mine are not the same for demons. Heck, I think they're not the same definitions within this dimensional set and mine. In my world, demon is a title that someone can be born with or gain over time. It's a classification for your species or career." Miz explained. "I became a demon after I died and came back. But I never got a choice in that. I didn't choose to come back…"

"Okay, no. Stop for now!" Mabel told her. She was tired, this was getting into other-dimensional-talk territory, and... "I'm sure you and Grunkle Ford just need to talk this out, without yelling at each other a bunch. If your definitions aren't matching up then you'll always be misunderstanding each other." Mabel was pretty sure about that one from some of the stuff that Grunkle Stan had told her and Dipper about Bill. She turned around and started applying eyeshadow to Miz. "And that isn't good. But even if you can't talk to him about that," because Bill and Grunkle Ford sure didn't do that real well themselves, "At least tell him that you're not gonna try to be more like Bill. --Our Bill, at least. Please?" she asked of Miz.

"...I'll try." Miz sighed.

There was a long pause, during which Mabel looked like she didn't want to talk anymore, Pacifica finished with the concealer and moved on quickly to eyeshadow, and Candy and Grenda looked between each other, before Grenda asked Miz, "SO YOU'RE BOTH NAMED BILL? THAT'S WEIRD."

Miz giggled. "Brother and I are both Bill," Miz confirmed. "I'm going by Miz right now--" she pointed at herself "--because that is the name of this form I'm in, which I'm wearing because I thought it would make you all more comfortable around me."

"I HAVE LOTS OF NICKNAMES WHEN I WEAR DIFFERENT STUFF, TOO!" Grenda shared. "MARIUS LIKES TO CALL ME SUGARPLUM WHEN I'M WEARING DRESSES AND MAKEUP WHEN I VISIT HIM."

"...form-wearing?" Candy asked with a frown. Miz couldn't nod her head since she was still having makeup applied to her face (by Pacifica now? she sounded a lot closer now, and Mabel had sounded farther away...) so Miz raised a hand and closed her fingers together before 'nodding' her hand. "This form is a vessel I created so that I can be seen and heard by people. My true self exists within the Mindscape since I lost my original body and most people can't see into the Mindscape. So making and wearing a vessel is needed if I want to interact with you."

"WOW. THAT SOUNDS ANNOYING," was Grenda's take on the situation. Miz's hand 'nodded' again. "It is, but I like making vessels, it's fun to customize them." She smiled. "I can look however I want! I can make forms that people like, or admire, so I can actually go out in public and not be sneered at…"

"Miz…" Mabel began, but she was a bit too late to stop Miz, who was on a roll at this point.

Miz laughed bitterly. "You know even before I was a demon, when I was just a simple triangle who'd never killed anyone before, living in the 2nd dimension with the other shapes, people hated me back then too. Because according to the laws and rules, I was an Unnatural, a freak, so they just all hated me on principle." Miz grumbled. "Even though I hadn't done anything wrong, I never killed anyone… I obeyed the laws, I did everything they asked of me."

Mabel opened her mouth to say 'stop', but then glanced around and realized… Grenda and Candy and Pacifica were all listening to Miz pretty intently, and none of them looked really weirded out or scared like she was starting to feel again right now...

...and it wasn't like Dipper and Bill and Grunkle Ford were listening to them right now, out in the hallway, anymore...

So Mabel slowly closed her mouth and tried not to listen instead, laying her head up against Grenda's shoulder. (Candy and Grenda and Pacifica could fill her in later. She just… needed a breather for a bit, without leaving the same room as them. And Sweater Town was out, because she had makeup all over her face right now. So, Virtual Sweater Town. Yup...)

"The council chose what job I would get, where I would live, how much I would be paid… and they would have chosen who I had to marry once I was old enough, and I would have just smiled and went along with it, because I just wanted to be a good person and obey the laws..." (Candy glanced away from them all at that, knowing what family expectations felt like, while Pacifica grimaced herself, moving on to mascara from eyeshadow, which needed Miz to open her eyes for a few seconds to apply.) "...but then the council made the decision that I wasn't allowed to see my family ever again. They refused to let me see my little brother ever again. And I couldn't accept that. So, I rebelled." Miz seemed to wilt into herself. "I disobeyed. And… a lot of stuff happened, but none of it mattered, I failed. I couldn't get my brother back. He's gone… everything and everyone's gone… and I don't know how to fix it." Miz sighed even as Pacifica moved on to lipstick application at an almost lightning-fast speed -- she had to, Miz seemed almost physically incapable of stopping moving her lips -- and finished putting on those finishing touches. ("Done," Pacifica told her, in regards to her makeup.) "Brother doesn't know how I would fix it either, my situation is harder to fix than his, he has something of a plan for his. But my dimension has different rules and it would be more difficult to fix what I broke…"

"Bill's situation?" Pacifica leapt at the chance to ask about this. If Miz wasn't lying (and frankly, none of this had sounded like straight-up lies; Miz had clearly misunderstood a few things about Dr. Pines, but she could see intellectually why he might want the demon to not have an accurate picture of him, even if the picture he'd rather have painted instead would likely draw more heat down on him, rather than less…), then getting something, any small detail, would tell her a great deal more about either Bill's actual state, or Miz's own demonic state of mind on the subject. "What do you mean?" Pacifica asked as she reached for a mirror, hoping Miz would just keep talking and perhaps reveal some actual actionable weaknesses on just this one thing, at least for a little bit.

"Fixing the 2nd dimension so he can bring his brother back," Miz said simply. (Pacifica blinked at her at this.) Miz finally opened her eyes properly and turned to check out her reflection and stared at how strange she looked. "My cheeks look weird." she said simply. She didn't seem upset, merely surprised.

Pacifica frowned at her a little. Hadn't she said that she'd had makeup done before? she ought to know what it looked like...

"Miz," Mabel said firmly -- because Grunkle Stan had said they really shouldn't bring up Bill's brother -- "Can you not talk about other dimensions anymore tonight? Or your past? Please?" At least Bill actually stopped when she asked him to. Miz just kept on saying and repeating the same kinds of things, over and over again. It was like she kept forgetting or something, almost.

Miz paused before nodding. "Oh, sorry." she winced. "I need to stop oversharing, I did that even when I was human. It made things awkward with my friends sometimes." She paused again before tapping her headband. "...don't ask me stuff, I can't help but answer." Miz said finally.

"Well no more sharing. For right now." Mabel told her. Then Mabel paused. "Maybe we should--" she began, wanting to find a way to tell Miz about as politely as possible that she wanted to end the sleepover for the night.

"--Move on to the next person. Who wants to get their makeover done next?" Pacifica asked smoothly, and Candy raised her hand eagerly. Mabel a good bit of fatigue roll over her, but she put on a smile and scooted over to help her and Pacifica both out. Grenda loudly declared they were going to make her fabulous.

Pacifica could see that Mabel was just about done for the night -- or at least, done with wanting to spend any more time with Miz -- but Pacifica herself wasn't quite ready to stop getting information out of Miz yet. So far, the younger demon had answered all their questions when asked, and while they could be lies, everything she'd gotten out of her yet would still give Pacifica something useful to work with. (Plus, that thing with her comment on how Miz 'couldn't help but answer' stuck out to her and Pacifica was going to milk it right now for all it was worth. Because come tomorrow, she might not be able to do so anymore. Miz was clearly sharing a few things about Bill that Pacifica doubted he would want passed around, and she had no doubt that after tonight, Bill would likely grill 'his little sister' on what-all they talked about, and then… that 'can't help but answer' might become a 'can't help but not'.)

Pacifica was sick and tired of being kept in the dark. And this demon was practically begging to be taken advantage of, intel-wise. So Pacifica lowered her voice while the other girls chatted loudly as they worked, and she asked the demon, "So what's the deal with that agreement between Mr. Pines and your brother? Does it have anything to do with the anchor? What is it? Is that why Bill isn't messing with any of us?"

Miz blinked before lowering her voice to answer, glancing over at Mabel with a frown and moving to angle herself so that she could better hide this conversation from the brown-haired girl. "I don't think so?" She frowned in thought before seeming to realize something. "Oh, if you're wondering why brother isn't causing trouble like last summer, it's because there's no point. He only had that wild party because his other demon friends wanted a party. Since they're not here, and I have no desire for a wild party, he doesn't bother. The agreement is just a semi-formal thing? Just ground rules for how to get along with people, I guess?" Miz shrugged. "And the anchor's an anchor," she said, as if that explained everything, which it didn't.

Pacifica glanced over to check and make sure the other girls really weren't paying attention to them. Good. (Mabel was her friend, after all, and her friend had been upset enough for the night.) "How'd Stan get the anchor?" Because if she knew that, she bet that she'd know if and why and how he knew how to use it. --Was the old conman more well-versed in all that magic stuff than any of them knew?

And here, Miz scowled at her question, making Pacifica hold back a flinch, having not seen the demon display this much hostility before, not even at the idea of Pacifica wanting to kill her brother earlier -- which Pacifica would have thought rather similar, but…

"His twin-" Miz practically spat out (while managing to stay quiet), "-burned that anchor into him during a fight. Probably didn't even realize what it was. And if that Stanford attempts to brand the anchor onto any of you out of some stupid thought of using it against my brother, I will count that as him harming you all and take him down." Pacifica's eyebrows went up at this, and Miz seethed before taking a few breaths to calm down. She slowly straightened back up. "Besides, I don't know if it'll work anyway. And from what I've Seen in another dimension where Stan agreed to do the circle thing with you guys that day brother came back, it only succeeded in making Stan burn from the inside out since the anchor connected him to Bill and vice-versa…"

That made Pacifica go cold. "What?!" she hissed.

"Well, I was looking into the dimensions that exist within this dimensional set." Miz stated as if it were obvious. "And I've seen a few iterations of the events that happened here in those other dimensions, you know? Infinite possibilities and all that. I haven't Seen all of them, just a few that happen to exist here and are similar enough to be counted as possible outcomes branching off from the same starting area. And in one of them, you all tried the circle but you had to stop because the anchor was killing Stan or something." Miz shrugged. "There was also one I Saw in which the teenager you guys grabbed wasn't even Bill, just a human kid that was unfortunate enough to get involved in all this." Miz tilted her head. "There are a lot of different iterations here. It's pretty cool. My dimensional set doesn't have that. We only have the one Timeline, and if branches DO form, they're shunted off to a different AXOLOTL to take care of, so I can't See them." Miz shook her head and got back on target. "But this dimensional set… well! The AXOLOTL here takes on and has dominion over all the parallel branches! I've even found the 'Bill' who's actually a demon from the outside. Though, he's not actually Bill, he's Will, and… from the best I could understand, he and his twin brother Bill are both demons from the outside and shared their 'demon-ness' together, which is against the rules, not that it stopped them…" Miz blinked at the horrified look on Pacifica's face. "Ah… did I say too much again?"

"What?!" Pacifica hissed again. (It was a good thing she was used to memorizing conversations for later discussion. That had all sounded absolutely insane and-- what?? Just-- what?!?!? --Because how many Bills were there that they might need to worry about? And other versions of them? --Were they all struggling with them, with those Bills? Wasn't there anyone out there who had managed this yet???)

Miz frowned, wondering which of her list of things it had been that had upset her. "Ah… well I don't know how the anchor would work in this iteration. So maybe Stan won't be hurt by it?" Miz tried to comfort Pacifica on the subject that she thought might have upset her. "Unless you're just upset by the demon from the outside Bill? I don't think he's gonna be all that bad, even if he is a demon from the outside, from what I've Seen about him, however brief, his powers don't seem to be working right," Miz tried to reassure her. "The Ax here seems to be trying to test something, creating all these parallel dimensions and alternate Bills and all. Not sure what he's after, but he must have a reason for it…"

Pacifica opened and closed her mouth a few times soundlessly at this. But before Pacifica could respond to any of what Miz had just said, with more than just a what???, Candy called over, "What are you two whispering about?"

"I BET THEY'RE TALKING ABOUT BOYS WITHOUT US!" Grenda guessed.

"Stan is pretty cute when he cleans up…" Miz noted. Candy and Grenda groaned. "But he is so… old." Candy complained.

"He's still younger than me." Miz shrugged. "Not that I'd go for him. I'm sure it wouldn't work out. Neither him or that Stanford. Brother wouldn't approve either."

""Eww~"" The other two girls winced and laughed (while Mabel tried to hold down a shudder). Mabel got up and left Candy and Grenda to distract Miz while she checked on Pacifica.

"You okay?" Mabel asked Pacifica quietly, as she sat down next to her. "You shouldn't have asked Miz something if you don't want to hear the answer, either," Mabel told her. She'd seen the look on Pacifica's face after Miz had talked, and then talked again. "She doesn't know what counts as mental attacks yet. She really does answer pretty much anything we ask."

Pacifica slowly stopped her trembling, fists clenched in her lap. "No, I wanted to know. And I needed to know. I don't regret asking. This…" What she'd just found out was something big. Something big… and scary. If she was right about this... It was the sort of thing she really needed to talk to the old con man about right away. Alternate dimensions… iterations… multiple Bills that were here, nearby, somewhere, with other versions of them trying to stop them, and having just as much difficulty as them doing it. --If Miz could see them, did that mean that the other demon could see them himself, too?

Luckily for Pacifica and Mabel's mental health, Grenda and Candy were able to keep Miz occupied for a bit -- during which Miz acted pretty much like a perfectly normal girl (quite possibly because Candy and Grenda avoided asking her any questions what so ever, instead going into the topic of cute boys and clothing, and not letting Miz deviate from either of those topics, even a little) -- as they both calmed down a bit further. And then… well, Grunkle Stan came on by and knocked on the door, which pretty much ended the not-sleeping part of the sleepover for them (thank goodness).

And then Miz (finally!) went back upstairs to sleep in Bill's room.

And… Pacifica wanted to talk to Mr. Pines. But she had to wait, she had to prepare before she did that. She wasn't going to try and do that tonight; she couldn't. She was too tired to be able to handle the old con man effectively. And if Dr. Pines' fears were truly the worst realized, and Stan Pines himself had truly been compromised… She needed to bring her A game to this. After a good night's sleep, and out of both demons' potential earshot.

Pacifica laid down on her blanket and pillows. Grenda and Candy had drifted off to sleep already. Mabel was still awake, the blonde knew this. "...Mabel?"

"Yeah?"

"So… Miz."

"Yeah." Mabel let out a huff of breath.

"And, she's telling the truth."

"...not exactly. She doesn't lie a lot. And when she's not lying, she's only telling us what she thinks… what she believes is the truth."

"She's crazy." Pacifica nodded, getting what Mabel was going for.

"Yeah. And she doesn't always get things right," Mabel noted firmly.

"I noticed that," Pacifica told her without bias or blame, and she heard her friend let out a soft sigh and relax into her sleeping bag.

Pacifica cleared her throat softly, then asked, "So… that part about her life as a triangle… did Bill go through that all too?"

"...maybe. Grunkle Stan says the two of them have a lot of similarities, but different, he called it 'like looking into a funhouse mirror' where things can kind of look similar but not the same thing happened, or maybe it would sound like the same thing if you had to say it all in one really short sentence, but it actually happened really really differently."

"So, like, the demon's in the details?" Pacifica drawled out at her, and Mabel couldn't help but giggle at that: "Yup!"

...Well, if the two demons were dimensional counterparts, that could be part of it, right? Speaking of which, it hadn't escaped Pacifica that Mabel had seemed to be trying to keep herself awake. (Admittedly, the 'slapping herself in the face' thing had been a pretty big clue. Even Pacifica wasn't so tired as to have missed out on that one.)

"So, I never got the full story of you and the other Mabels?" Pacifica tried.

Mabel groaned. "Yeah, Grunkle Stan's funhouse mirror explanation thing isn't just from looking at Bill and at Miz. I met an Anti-Mabel at the end of last summer when we were closing up all those little ripped-up rifts in the forest. She was like me, but the opposite of me at the same time. She was evil. --She hated cats. Can you believe that?! But there were some nicer Mabels there, too -- like Military Mabel, she was really cool and--"

Pacifica felt herself slowly drifting off to Mabel's own drowsy retelling of her adventure out there in the multiverse. There was a lot to think about, and the heaviest thought was that Dr. Pines knew both everything, and nothing at all, about Bill Cipher.

...It was possible that none of them did, any at all of those Dr. Pines' that were out there, if Miz hadn't been confused or lying about what she'd just told her. And that was going to be a problem, possibly sooner than Pacifica liked to think.

When Mabel finally did drift off to sleep, she slept peacefully, without any of the nightmares she'd feared she would have. She didn't think much of this the next morning, and she also didn't notice Miz's slightly guilty look at the breakfast table, as the younger demon rubbed at her temples.

Bill did, though. As he steepled his hands over his tea, he tried to avoid Stanley's glance that became one of those long looks as his Zodiac caught on that something was wrong.

Bill waved it off for now. He'd explain to Stanley later, what Miz had told him the night before. Miz hadn't done anything herself but tell him what she'd been worried about; and Bill hadn't really needed to exert much effort at all, really, to keep Shooting Star from having any bad dreams, in the same way that he did for his own Sixer, now.

--It wasn't exerting any magic or weirdness on her without her consent, and it wasn't a spell cast upon her; it wasn't anything that could get him 'in trouble'. It was something -- the very same thing -- that Stanley had wanted done for his own brother, and Shooting Star's mental health and physical well-being -- both impacted by good sleep, or a lack thereof -- was of far higher priority than him. Bill doubted that Stanley would have any problem with something so simple as that. It was fine. (...The only un-fine part about it was that Miz had been rather certain that she'd caused it, what would have happened if Bill had not intervened on his own for his Zodiac in that manner last night…)

Miz had also asked Bill to help her tweak her headband again, because she just hadn't been able to shut up at all. That was something that Bill was more worried about than Shooting Star. (He was a dream demon, and the Master of the Mind. He could handle making sure Shooting Star's Dreamscape didn't devolve into screaming nightmares for a few days or more. Helping his sister with her own troubles was what took actual understanding, planning, and significant effort, when it came to his part.)

---


Capítulo 149: (Pacifica’s conversation with Stan)

---

"I need answers." Pacifica told Stan Pines. She'd been surprised to get a text from Mabel earlier that said Stan wanted to talk to her. She was worried, of course, about meeting so soon after that disastrous sleepover, but apparently the demons were going to be busy and distracted for a few hours. She didn't know what that meant, but Stan had set up the meeting at Greasy's Diner, with the story that he was going to be taking the niblings out to lunch there since they hadn't gotten to go with him the last time that he'd gone. So that was where Pacifica found them. And she had slid into the booth and gotten straight to the point.

...Or at least she'd meant to. But before she could begin talking, Mr. Pines pulled a rolled-up wad of papers out of his back pocket and tossed it down onto the table in front of her.

At first, in her confusion, she thought it was a magazine or a newspaper, until she picked it up and blinked at it.

Mr. Pines lounged back in his booth seat, sipping on a cup of coffee while she read it. And gone still, as she realized what she'd been holding. She was quiet as she read, and gotten even quieter as she went on.

She read the whole thing despite all this, though, and when she was done, she carefully set it down and slowly looked up at him.

"Did Miz tell him, or is his hearing just that good?" Pacifica asked him quietly.

"If you really wanted to know that one, you shoulda stuck around for breakfast, and asked the kid himself, directly," Mr. Pines told her, and Mabel winced.

Pacifica stared bullets into Mr. Pines for a moment, then looked over at Mabel.

"Why didn't you tell me we were being listened to," she stated rather coldly at Mabel, thoroughly incensed at this point, and Mabel winced.

"She didn't know," Pacifica heard from up behind her, and she went rigid. "But that Stanford does," continued a voice that sounded like playful knives.

Pacifica barely resisted the urge to punch straight out, as the demon slid into the booth seat at her side, right next to her, and...

"...Thought I told ya to stay at the house with your sister, kid," Stan Pines said, eyeing the demon over his coffee mug critically. Pacifica's mind was spinning in circles at this point, but she supposed it was a small comfort that Mr. Pines sounded at least a little disapproving of the demon's presence, as the demon picked up the transcript from last night's conversations from the sleepover right in front of her, and slid it into… a hat. Some sort of… she wasn't sure exactly what it looked like, but it was a bit floppy and pointed and she was too scared right now to turn her head.

"And miss this? --Stanley, you wound me," the demon purred out with a scary kind of sarcastic glee and a wide wide grin.

And then Pacifica all but flinched as the demon's hand came down on her head with almost a slap and--

And the demon began to… he was…

(Pacifica started to twitch.)

...petting her, on top of her head. Running his right hand into, over, and through her hair gently, in some dumb parody of--

Pacifica ducked her head and slapped his hand away.

And she was just about shaking with rage and fear as she looked up at the demon and--

--the demon was staring down at her with a low-lidded gaze, in something almost, but not quite like, amusement.

"...Bill…" Pacifica heard Mabel say quietly, across the table, at Mr. Pines' left-hand side.

"Rude, much?" Bill Cipher said to Pacifica (presumably, of her hand-slapping, rather than referring to his own improper actions like he should be), as he tossed an elbow over the back of the booth and turned away from her slightly.

Pacifica was ready to tell him off, getting her face rearranged be damned, when Lazy-Eye Susan walked by and took a moment to slow down and scratch Bill on top of his head as she went by.

"Don't forget," Lazy-Eye Susan said cheerfully, as she started to walk away again, "Your shift starts in an hour;"

Pacifica was already staring at the way that the demon had practically stretched his head and neck upwards to follow her boss' hand and those scritches. She started to twitch at the thought of the demon having taken a job at the diner, and the idea of being stuck on her shift with him for the rest of the day when her shift started in an hour--

("Mm," went Bill, leaning back in his booth seat. The demon looked a lot more relaxed now, as Pacifica eyed him critically.)

...Oh. Right. Right. Her shift, not his-- Wait.

"Kid," Mr. Pines said blandly, as he took another sip of his coffee. "You maybe wanna go up to the counter and get some more scritches in, or whatever?"

"Counterpoint: I get to mess with Llama if I stay sitting right here, plus head scritches," the demon drawled out lazily.

"Counter-counterpoint, even more head scritches up there," Mr. Pines said evenly.

Bill actually tilted his head back quite far and rocked it side to side slightly in place, with a slight grimace that came and went as he "HMmmMMMMmmmMMMmmmmm…" hummed out in thought.

...Pacifica could not believe this. The stupid-- "Just-- go up to the counter already!" she spat out at the demon, practically shoving him out of the booth with both hands.

The demon had to have been expecting this, though, because he didn't end up on his butt on the floor, he ended up on his feet in something of a dignified huff. "Rude!" the demon said, but for some reason he was grinning brightly as he turned away from them and walked off. To sit himself down over at the counter. ...For more head scritches, which Lazy-Eye Susan was providing. (The traitor.)

Pacifica pinched the bridge of her nose. "It was him?" she asked. "Not Miz?" Really? It had been him?!?

"Both of them, kinda," the old con man told her over his coffee.

Pacifica stared over at him, aghast.

"Why?" she asked of him openly.

But to this, the man shrugged. "Kid likes worship. Go figure."

Pacifica stared at him.

"And Miz?" she asked, after a long moment.

"Miz… kinda seems to just like the attention," Mabel told her, and Pacifica looked over at her, as Mabel squirmed slightly in her chair. "Miz is… lonely." Mabel added, as if that explained it.

Wonderful. She'd survived the demon for the moment. Despite the fact that he, and Mr. Pines, both obviously knew that'd she'd been-- last night--

Okay, this was great and all, but-- "I thought you said they'd both be busy for a few hours--!" Pacifica hissed at the old man as soon as Bill looked to be thoroughly in the throes of a good petting (practically slumped over -- and across -- the counter at the front almost fluidly). Not that it apparently meant much, considering the demon could apparently just pull up whatever people said somehow, no matter what, barrier spell that was supposed to prevent magic or not!

"Kid changed his mind when he heard I was taking the kids to the diner for a few hours," Mr. Pines shrugged off.

Pacifica was about to ask him another pointed question when she heard an "AAACK! --BILL!" from the front, and she had to let out a sigh. ...Well, Dipper was clearly out of the bathroom after washing his hands again, now.

Pacifica couldn't help but rub a gloved hand against her brow, as some cackling and muted back-and-forth occurred in-between the two of them at the other side of the cafe, until Dipper finally got away from him and dropped down next to Pacifica into his own seat there (recently-vacated by Bill and originally vacated by one Dipper Pines earlier) once again.

"How is this my life," she heard Dipper mutter as he slid a little farther into the booth next to her. "Why is this my life. Stupid demon. Stupid--"

"--Hey," Pacifica heard Mr. Pines say almost critically -- certainly, rather more sharply than she was used to hearing from the old con man ever -- and Dipper… winced and quieted down on his insults. Pacifica glanced uneasily between them.

Mabel winced. "Bill… hates being called the 's' word. It makes him really mad."

"But he's perfectly fine calling everybody else an idiot," Dipper muttered out, crossing his arms and sliding down and back in his seat.

"Never said the kid ain't a hypocrite." Stan sipped his drink. "Never said he don't take being called an idiot a hell of a lot better than 'the s word' neither," Mr. Pines snorted out, with an odd twinkle in his eye as Dipper looked up at him with… some kind of dawning realization going on, for some reason.

"What, seriously?" Dipper asked, and the old con man gave his grandnephew a nod something of a gleaming-eyed smile over his coffee cup, as he took another sip from it.

"Kid don't usually dish out what he can't take," Mr. Pines noted. "Never heard him call anybody stupid who didn't call him that first."

And this… apparently had Dipper sitting up a little and frowning, still crossed-armed, in thought. "Huh…" Pacifica watched as Dipper turned around in his seat and looked past the side of the booth -- apparently, watching the demon for a bit, with the direction in which he was looking.

"So, what," Pacifica drawled out, "Only some insults are fair game?"

Mr. Pines looked over his coffee cup at her again.

"Remind me to hand you a dictionary sometime," the old con man said, apropos of none.

"...I have several dictionaries at home," Pacifica said, almost caustically, but the old man just looked at her and shrugged it off with a "Suit yourself."

Pacifica frowned up at him, then tried not to wince as Dipper whispered out to her in her ear, "I'm pretty sure he meant all the Bill-speak stuff. The dumb dorito's got some weird definitions for things, or something," Dipper told her (reminded her, really -- Mabel had said the same thing to her last night during the sleepover, blast it!). "I think it's 'cause he's insane and doesn't think the same way we do," Dipper ended up telling her next.

Right. "...I would appreciate a copy of this demon-translation dictionary." Pacifica conceded.

"Oh, yeah? You sure?" Pacifica gritted her teeth. She really didn't like the smug smile Mr. Pines was giving her right now. Or the, "Heh, maybe I should charge you for it. Gotta be worth somethin', bein' able to talk to demons like--" ("Grunkle Stan," Mabel chided him, to a "Yeah, yeah, fine," from him next.) But she knew how to set aside her pride (and potentially her checkbook) for something important, and knowing how to essentially speak the demon's language would be something critical for her to know. So even if he really meant to gouge her on it later, Pacifica would pay up for this. If she had to. (It had just better be very accurate, and not one of those stupid scams of his.)

So Pacifica gritted out through her teeth, "I would very much appreciate it, if I could get a copy of this demon-dictionary," she repeated.

"Yeah," said Mr. Pines over his coffee cup as he downed it to the last drop, not even looking at her, "I heard ya the first time, y'know."

Pacifica bristled, but she stopped herself from saying anything caustic when Dipper put a hand on her shoulder, she turned towards him, and he shook his head at her in warning.

So she took a deep breath, and got back to the real point at hand. "That transcript you had; he knows what we were talking about." Pacifica stated. Mr. Pines nodded. "And he knows what Miz said." Another nod, and something of a lopsided smile.

"So, he knows that Miz doesn't love him." Pacifica stated. That was part of her worry, because if Dr. Pines was right about the whole pretend family play thing, then Bill finding out Miz didn't love him might make him want to call off this game.

Stan raised his eyebrows at her for just a moment, then grimaced. (Hell, and here he'd thought she might actually have the thread going there, for a second.) "Nah." He paused at her look, before letting out a sigh and telling her, as he held out his cup for a refill and got one (as Lazy-Eye Susan passed by), "She adores him."

"Then why isn't she worried about--"

"--You wanna take this one, Dipper?" Mr. Pines said, cutting her off, and it startled her.

She looked over at Dipper and he said, with a slight 'sorry' grimace and a shrug. "Bill told her to stop trying to protect him, this morning at breakfast. Stop getting angry for him, too?" He looked over at Mr. Pines, and said next "It kind of came up, when Grunkle Stan was talking to him and Miz about the while slumber party thing, and Grunkle Stan asked him for a transcript of the whole thing, and stuff." And Dipper didn't look any happier about the whole transcript thing than she felt. In fact, his own response to what must have happened this morning gave Pacifica pause.

"And Miz was tryin' to protect him," Stan pointed out, pointing his own coffee cup at her. "Tryin' to threaten you all for him, and everything. Ain't real happy about that," the old con man noted. "She still ain't playing nice yet." If she was ever going to stick by stuff and actually start playing nice, at some point. Stan wasn't holding his breath for that one anymore. At this point, he'd just take the kid being able to stop her from killing or maiming anybody.

Miz was just too forgetful, too out of control, and Stan wasn't going to count on Bill being able to straighten her out anytime soon, Even with the dragon-lady herself saying that she wanted to be quote unquote 'better', that whole nighttime conversation with her hadn't really changed anything with her and what she was doin', not really. The best he'd gotten out of that, was her keeping her mouth shut sometimes around Ford -- and even that was out the window again now, what with the whole headband thing back and forth, with the needing to stop reading other-people's thoughts stuff having tangled that whole mess up all over again, now.

Not that that really changed anything, in the long haul. She was too spontaneous, like the kid wasn't. She reacted without thinking first, forever and always -- which was really the freaking opposite of the kid, even if the demon lost his temper over shit sometimes, too. She didn't think ahead, not really, and she forgot stuff on top of everything else, like the kid didn't, so when you told her stuff, it just didn't stick, even if she seemed to mean it at the time. Stan didn't know what to do with her, really. And when she got scared and upset, if that ever happened...

Heck, she'd told them already -- and Stan really wasn't looking forward to finding out what she actually meant on that one -- that when she got scared or upset, she couldn't think properly. ...Like she was even thinking 'properly' at all to begin with. Stan grimaced at that.

--Which was what made her so damn dangerous, really. She wasn't actively malicious most of the time (except with Ford -- though that was a pretty big 'except' in his book), and it made it even harder to handle her, because he couldn't just go punching her in the face for completely deserving it, telling the kid she deserved it, and just leaving things off at that. Oh no, dragon-lady couldn't make it that easy for him. She just decided she was all 'right' about something, no matter how wrong she actually was about whatever it was, really -- because she just forgot what it was convenient for her to forget, to go forward with things however she wanted -- and then bulldozed her way forward, through everything and anything in-between, including people even. (Hell, sometimes for her, that seemed like a selling point. Murdering all those pedophiles and shit. Like she needed the excuse to 'be good'... at killing and messing with people...)

Stan sighed. Hell, getting therapy wasn't going to be nearly enough for the dragon lady, here. She didn't just need therapy, she needed someone literally freaking telling her what she could and couldn't do, and making it freaking stick, somehow. Dragon-lady wasn't going to stop any of this shit on her own, that was for sure.

And no, Stan wasn't going to be the one who was going to do that. But he was starting to understand why Bill was so worried about her being alone with him now. If Bill thought Stan could actually tell her to stop doing this stuff, and actually have her listenin' to him, he'd be real damn tempted to do it outright, and just be done with it. But he wasn't anybody's mother, and he sure as hell wasn't her friend. He wasn't signing up for any of her shit, and the sooner she left at this point, the better, far as he was concerned.

"...Miz is really afraid of losing Bill…" Mabel spoke up.

"She ain't going to lose the kid," Mr. Pines told them all, as he took another sip from his mug. "Whole point of them being siblings, and all."

"But she's still afraid of it. Of… being left alone." Mabel continued, remembering what they'd talked about out in the yard, about what Bill had said to her specifically outright, about being lonely and... "She's afraid of losing Bill. Like she lost her other siblings," the teenager emphasized. "You, um, you remember what I told you that they said to each other, out in the yard, when Bill was helping her with the whole 'listening to other people's thoughts' thing?" she asked her grunkle, hoping he would understand what she meant without her having to outright say it.

That got everyone to turn and stare at Mabel.

"Miz can listen to people's thoughts now?" Pacifica asked Mabel in horror, to which Mabel quickly waved her hands in front of her and assured her, "No! Not anymore! That's what they were working on the headband for!"

Meanwhile, while that little panic attack of Pacifica's was going on, Stan was letting out a sigh and rubbing a hand over his face as he remembered what Mabel had told him.

"...Grunkle Stan?" Dipper asked him slowly, but Stan just shook his head.

"Ain't somethin' to worry about, Dipper," he told him. If there were two things he was really sure of with that triangle… "Kid looks at her like he practically wants to box her up and hang her around his neck for a start, lately. Pretty sure he's not gonna let her go off leavin' or anything, until he sure that she's gonna remember to come runnin' to him if she's having any problems with anything, and he's got his own way of going after her and getting to her if he needs to," if he thought she needed him. The rest of it -- getting his new baby sister handling her powers 'right', or whatever else it was what the kid said he wanted to work on with her before she went anyplace else that was any less safe (read: anyplace where the kid wasn't) -- was really only the 'gravy on top' for the kid, Stan was pretty sure. Stan didn't doubt that the crazy triangle demon would be more than happy to go to where Miz was if she needed him later, for more help than she could ever need on that sort of thing or whatever, but the kid might not be able to help her later if he couldn't get to her himself. First things always came first with the kid; the kid wasn't stupid -- he knew what he was doing.

"But what does that have to do with Miz thinking we can kill Bill Cipher?" Dipper asked Stan dubiously next, and Stan barely stifled the sigh. He didn't stifle the grimace.

"Don't think that the kid thinks that the whole 'convincing her to run to him' thing would work, without convincing her he can't go on bein' dead for him to not be here to help her. If the kid can't convince her, and she ends up convincin' him instead, maybe that might mean somethin'." Stan told Dipper with a shrug. Seemed simple enough to him.

...and Pacifica was staring at Mr. Pines incredulously. "What, are you joking?" she asked him somewhat rhetorically (and angrily), then stopped and took a deep breath. "Do you honestly believe that we really can't kill Bill Cipher. Again." She stared at him flatly and coldly. Because it had been one thing when she'd heard Dr. Pines say it, that Mr. Pines was refusing to help them all kill Bill Cipher. But it was a whole different thing, to be sitting here in this booth and watching the old con man scratch at his cheek and then shrug at her, going "Eh," in front of her, in the here and now -- it was absolutely infuriating and-- and--

Pacifica slammed both hands onto the top of the table in front of her and shot to her feet, about to read Mr. Pines the riot act--

--and Pacifica jolted in place as she felt a pat on top of her head again.

She not-quite froze in place again, and not just because of the looks on the faces of the two Pines twins, both in front of and next to her.

--and slapped Bill's hand away from the top of her head yet again, turning and scowling up at Bill--

--who was lounging on his side across the back and top of the booth seating, looking down on her with amusement in his eyes.

And he grinned.

"Little Llama," Bill purred out at her. "So angry. --You should be careful," Bill told her, with a gleam in his eye. "When you get so angry that you're ready to attack, don't forget to not turn your brain off!"

Pacifica stared up at him for a moment in sheer disbelief.

...and then she realized exactly what she'd been doing.

In the exact same diner that Bill was sitting around in.

Within earshot.

...And then she realized that what she was thinking was entirely wrong, and not even really the main point or the real problem of it all, when Bill said next, almost playfully: "....You do remember that you're NOT on the priority list, don't you?"

And then Bill just lounged there. And propped up his head under a fist in a listening posture. And just waited.

...turned her brain off. She'd turned her brain off. Pacifica fought the desperate urge to giggle hysterically at the sheer stupidity of what she'd just done here today. Meeting with Stan Pines directly. --Dr. Pines was already compromised, and there had been no reason whatsoever to think that Mr. Pines would have been anything better, anything more but worse than that, even. The twins hadn't been telling her anything close to everything either, and she should have known better. She should have known better than to--

She should have left. She should have left when she'd realized that Bill had first arrived...

Pacifica felt a chill go down her spine, as the demon looked at her piercingly, and Bill's grin got just a touch wider, as if he knew exactly what she was thinking, here and now.

...they'd all been compromised. All of the Pines had been compromised.

"Time to answer a question for me, little Llama," Bill Cipher said to her next. "Which side are you on--"

"Bill--" Stan started to say, in warning tones.

"--Glasses, or my Six-Fingered Hand?" the kid said next, and there was no way Stan was gonna let that one slide.

But the kids started getting there first. "--That's not a fair question, Bill, and you know it!" Dipper put out there almost immediately.

Pacifica was almost thrown off by the level of accusation in Dipper's tone, but right now, she couldn't look away from the demon in front of her. She was sweating at this point, and she could… she could feel the knife's edge she was balancing on, just held, being held underneath her… ready to slice her up and--

"Kid, you didn't give her my side as an option there," Stan put out there before things could begin to get any worse.

"Because your side isn't an option for her right now," the demon said next, not looking away from Pacifica's own gaze. "She wants to attack me; she's not part of the agreement. That means she's either with Glasses, or with Sixer, right now," the demon said easily.

"And this is something you've got to know right now," Stan tried rather blandly, as Pacifica continued to sweat under the demon's gaze.

The demon's grin got a little wider.

"Yes," the demon purred out, like he was savoring the word.

There was a pause.

"...It's your funeral," Stan said next, crossing his arms and sitting back in his seat, to both the twins' horror.

"HAHA! --Quite possibly!" the demon enthused, leaning in a little more closely. "Go on and choose, little Llama. I want to KNOW," he told her, with that grin still plastered across his face.

And as Pacifica stared up at him with her mouth dry, and her throat starting to feel closed off, and her hands numb with the cold spreading through her...

...she started to get really, truly, angry.

Her hands clenched into fists.

"Go to hell," she told him, but the demon just laughed.

"Been there, done that! Burned the t-shirt already, even!" the demon told her. And then he ducked his head down slightly closer to hers and told her, "My side isn't an option yet."

"Kid," Stan said in exasperation.

"I want to know," the demon said, and there was a flash of something sharp in his eyes. "I want to know if she's going to lie to me TO MY FACE or not," the demon told Stan Pines, while looking at her, and that was the last straw--

"--Dr. Pines!" Pacifica spat out at the demon, in defiance and rage, and--

--the demon blinked at her and his head came up.

And he broke out into a wide, and different, delighted sort of grin, all at once.

"Excellent choice!" the demon told her, reaching out and patting her on top of her head.

But before Pacifica could bat his hand away from her head again -- or even start getting over her shock at his reaction, really -- the demon pulled away from her on his own and then proceeded to slip off the top of the divider between the booths, and down onto his feet in the open aisle space of the diner, looking both relaxed and as if he was pleased at this whole turn of events somehow.

...Meanwhile, Pacifica was breathing like she just been running for miles and miles, wondering what the hell had just happened.

"Hey kid, c'mon now," the old con man called out to the demon, as the demon began to turn and start walking away. "You really going to leave it all at that?"

And the demon turned in place and looked back at him, walking away backwards with a smile on his face. "I got what I needed from her," he said casually, giving him a hand wave.

"Yeah?" said the old con man. "But did she get what she needed from you?"

And at that, the demon stopped in place abruptly and blinked at him.

And then turned his head a bit more to look over at Pacifica again.

He stared at her for a few moments, then turned back to Stan Pines with a slightly inquisitive frown on his face.

"I don't need anything from him!" Pacifica protested, feeling uncertain, and attacked somehow by the thought, and also… she wasn't sure what.

"...If she wanted something from me," the demon said slowly, almost as if he hadn't heard her. "She would have stayed for breakfast. She didn't do that," the demon said, and… Pacifica slowly began to realize that the demon… what the demon was actually doing right now, was...

"You sure about that?" Stan Pines asked the demon casually, as he took a sip of coffee from his cup, and… The demon looked between them again.

"...what do you think you see that I don't?" the demon said slowly next, and Pacifica didn't know why what Bill had said there was important, but it sure seemed to have gotten the twins' twin attention for some reason, somehow.

"I don't need anything from him," Pacifica insisted. "I just want him dead." Because, frankly, if the demon hadn't killed her yet for telling the truth about what she was doing with Dr. Pines -- which the demon obviously knew and wasn't worried about in the slightest -- then--

"--Yes!" the demon said enthusiastically, clapping his hands together, and turning towards her with a grin. "That's why you're working with that Stanford, not Glasses! --It's a good choice," the demon said next, "A good fit for you."

That left Pacifica frowning.

"...Yeah," said the old con man with a sigh. "She's not going to ask. Never mind, kid. Go off back to your sister, or whatever. Pretty sure you're right about being done here."

And to that half-a-order, the demon just gave Stan Pines a laugh, a grin, and a salute, before turning on his heel and jauntily walking off once again -- this time, leaving the diner as he did so.

And Pacifica slowly turned to the Pines and asked, "What did he mean? How is McGucket not trying to kill Bill worse than working with Dr. Pines to do that?"

And if she hadn't been looking at him and not blinked, she would have missed it.

She almost had a buzzing in her ears, as she stared at him, not hearing anything at all of what he said next. Not that it would matter, she knew it was probably some old con man thing of no importance, with the look he had plastered across his entire face right now, but...

If Gideon Gleeful hadn't ranted it at her so many times over so many years -- more and more frequently over the last two -- she would be doubting her own sanity at this point. But she'd seen it. She'd actually seen it. She'd finally seen what Gideon had been talking about, out on full display so completely, for just a mere moment.

She'd known the old con man was smarter than he looked -- he had to be, really, he wouldn't have been able to stay in business with Gideon going after him like that, otherwise -- but...

She'd said one thing, and she'd seen it. She'd been looking at him as she'd said it, and she'd seen him put it all together -- she had no idea what it was that he'd realized, but he'd realized something, something incredibly important -- and she'd seen the man behind the con man mask. The frighteningly intelligent man, lurking back there behind his eyes.

And his eyes lied like anything, pretending to be all dumb and stupid and misunderstanding again, now. ...But the twins' eyes didn't. They never did.

But when she turned to them, with the question in her eyes of 'You saw that, right? How was what I said important--'

--The twins just looked back at her with a question in their own eyes, asking, 'What's wrong?' to her.

It confused her for a moment. but then she realized that what they were reacting to was solely and wholly her own confusion, and not to anything else.

They hadn't reacted to Mr. Pines' thought, whatever it had been, that scary-intelligent flash as he'd grasped something when it had been written large for that mere split-second across the man's face. No. They hadn't even noticed it at all.

And when she looked back up at Mr. Pines, feeling all startled and frightened almost, and starting to shiver--

--and Stan Pines just looked back at her with that dumb-seeming, slightly dull-eyed wide-eyed sort of questioning look on his face, with that 'I'm just a dumb old con man' look that he always used on everyone else, except for once or twice with her here and there, when the look had let up just a little bit -- but never so very completely, a mask behind the mask--

Pacifica realized, with no small horror, that the con man never actually took his mask off, not even for his own family.

Pacifica swallowed, hard.

She closed her eyes, clenched her fists, and forced herself to calm down.

By the time she'd calmed down a few seconds later, she was ready to open her eyes, take in a deep breath again, and say...

"What am I missing here."

...with a rather shaky breath.

The con man looked at her over his cup, and the look on his face changed, just a little.

"Y'know, the kid went into a whole spiel this morning," the lying man told her, as he swirled the liquid in his cup in his hand. "Talking about how none of us were asking any of the right questions. Crowing out about how none of us were communicating with each other, how he knew you wouldn't be able to take advantage of nothin' 'cause of that, even with Miz having no brain-to-mouth filter on her at all last night, still. Stuff like that." He set his coffee cup down on the table, and slowly got up from his seat at the booth.

"Grunkle Stan…?" Mabel asked, looking up at him.

And Pacifica watched as the liar smiled down at his grand-niece, and gave her a genuine(-looking(??)) smile, as he patted her on the head himself.

"Figure I'd actually better go walk the kid home," the liar told them, "What with Gideon Gleeful still running around and all. Don't want the two of them running into each other, not like that's gonna go well." That got a grimace out of the twins; the old con man, as well. "Stay in sight of Lazy-Eye Susan; don't go leavin' the diner 'til I get back," the old con man told the twins next.

"You--" Pacifica began, still feeling more than a little thrown. Because all these years, all these years and she'd seen little glimpses, here and there, of him not acting like a campy, dumb old, gross old con man 24/7, yes. But this, this… what she had just seen was...

"Figure you two can fill in the rich kid on whatever while I'm getting the kid home, can't ya?" Stan Pines said to Mabel with a smile, messing up her hair again. "Show the triangle who's boss?"

"Boss Mabel!" Mabel called out happily with a grin, punching her fist into the air. "Back in action!"

"Yeah, we can handle it," Dipper said, glancing over at Pacifica with… something in his eyes.

"Yeah? Good," said the old con man, pulling out some dollar bills and tossing them on the table. "Uh," he said, pausing for a moment at the twins' surprise at this… development? "Don't go spendin' it all in one place."

"Yes, free money!" Mabel said, to which she got an 'Oi!' out of the con man as he left, which had her letting out a little giggle at his complaint.

...Pacifica slowly sat down.

"...You okay?" Dipper asked her, and when she looked over at him, she realized...

That look in his eyes? Was concern.

Pacifica let out a breath in a deep sigh, and slumped a little in her seat. Stan Pines wasn't compromised. No. He was the one running this whole damn thing. ...And he was also compromised, and scarily-smart, and now Pacifica was going to have to actually start listening to Gideon now, wasn't she… ugh--

Then, all three of them sat up straight in their seats at the terrible, high-pitched SCREAM they'd just heard.

"That sounded like--" Mabel began, but Dipper and Pacifica were already out of the booth and running.

They slammed their way out of the diner, down the steps, and--

--and sure enough, there was Gideon and Stan Pines and Bill--

--and Gideon was lying down on the ground, looking out-and-out wrong somehow, and Bill was holding a knife, and Stan Pines was--

"--Really, kid?" the old con man drawled out from where he stood next to the demon, as the demon set fire to... Gideon's hair? He was-- He was holding an absolutely huge chunk of-- oh my god--

--and it all went up in fire and smoke in a flash in his hand, which the demon then waved off with a slightly wrinkle-nosed grimace and his now completely free and hair-free hand, as he flipped the knife in his other hand closed and stowed it away at his back somehow--

""LI'L GIDEON!"" the two ex-prison cons cried out, running forward (...why were they all so dusty? --no, wrong question -- why had they both been so far back?), dropping to their knees and picking him up between them, to cradle him in their arms rather protectively.

"What?" the demon said, seemingly guileless. "He attacked me first; he's not part of the agreement. He was asking for it, he deserved it, and he got it! It was going to happen sooner or later. Besides," the demon waved off, as Gideon groaned and… his eyes were fluttering oddly, and his body was lying in Ghost Eyes' arms almost as if he was boneless, Pacifica realized, as she ran over to check on him herself. "Llama got that barrier spell up around his house yesterday afternoon. It's fine."

Ghost Eyes glared up at the demon. "You-- you-- How dare you! The boss's poor beautiful hair!"

"Eh, it's an improvement. --Here," said the demon, and he moved forward liquid-fast, and the next thing any of them knew, Gideon went from having next-to-no hair on his head, to really no hair left on his head, and the demon was standing back up and burning the rest of it, same way he did the first. "Happy?"

The other ex-con burst out crying, as Ghost Eyes looked down at Li'l Gideon in shock. "Oh, boss is gonna be real mad when he wakes up."

Bill nodded. "And if you want him to wake up anytime soon, you should get him home quickly," Bill told him, as if instructing a couple of two year olds. "And not let him leave after that."

Ghost Eyes frowned up at the demon mightily. "And why would we listen to you?"

"Oh, you won't have to listen to me," the demon said, "I'm just stating facts." He splayed his hands to the sides rocked back on his heels, and said next, "You think that kid's going to want to leave the house, when he's looking all bald like that?" He grinned.

The two ex-cons exchanged a look.

"Oh, get goin', you two," Stan Pines said next, pretty grumpily, "Before I go tellin' the kid I don't think you've learned your lesson yet."

Pacifica wasn't sure what about those words had been all that threatening, but it sure had these two ex-cons getting up and running off in a hurry, with Gideon Gleeful carried along for the ride.

"--Better give it a week or two!" the demon called out after them brightly, as they both ran off. "Just in case!"

Dipper was fretting anxiously beside Stan. "What happened?"

"Eh, Gideon got mouthy, and I let the kid have at 'im," Stan shrugged off. "Tried siccing his two 'bodyguards' there on him for just standing there and breathing air, the little jerk." Stan snorted. Really, that brat. He could've pretended not to see them and gotten himself around the next corner, or just turned around, hightailed it and ran, but noooo--

Pacifica slowly got back up to her feet from where she'd been kneeling next to Gideon -- before the two ex-cons had run off with him, anyway.

"Was that really necessary?" she asked them both angrily. Because honestly, Gideon was a little jerk at the best of times, and now she was gonna have to be the one to deal with the fallout!

"Hey, he ain't dead," was Stan Pines' response to that, as he turned and started to walk away with the demon right at and by his side. "Hell, how long were you planning that one, kid?" she heard him ask next, to Pacifica's shock.

"Quite a while now!" the demon enthused out matching Stan step for step. "Really, I'd thought old Fordsy would have gotten that barrier spell out there sooner for the rest of them, what with Glasses being so stingy and all," the demon said next, "And here he's only gotten it out to two of them so far? Rude!" -- which almost had Pacifica marching after him next to demand what in the world he was talking about.

But she stopped herself first. ...Two steps and a "Wait!!" in.

And let out a shocked breath as she realized what she'd almost done.

"Word of advice, Llama!" she heard called back to her from the demon, which startled her rather badly all over again. "Ask the cat-lady for head scritches, if you want to know so badly! --You won't regret it!!" was his bright reminder, as she opened her mouth, about to call back a confused and almost reflexive 'why??'

She stared after the demon and the old con man, then turned to the twins, shaking her head in bewilderment and trying almost desperately to understand, what had just happened--

"Uh, we should probably go…" she heard Dipper say, as he pulled down on the brim of his cap. "Great-Uncle Ford's gonna have a fit when he hears about this, and…" he looked to his sister.

"...We should probably be there to help Grunkle Stan with the fallout," Mabel finished for him, looking sorry. They both did, really.

"We'll call you on your phone, okay? Promise," Dipper told her, as they both turned and began to run off after them both.

And Pacifica stood there and stared after them as they went, trying to remember what it was like to breathe.

She'd almost run off after the demon just now, demanding answers. Expecting him to give them to her? Expecting him to...

...It wasn't just Dr. Pines that was compromised here, was it. It wasn't just him. She was also compromised, too. Already. Somehow.

'...You won't be able to help it.'

No. Oh, no. No… it was worse than that. The demon had known what she was doing all along. He'd known what was happening in the Shack. He knew what was happening in town.

He knew what had been happening up at the mansion. He knew. He'd known. (...Had he always known??)

And he didn't care. He didn't care at all. It…

Pacifica covered her mouth with her hands, and barely suppressed the bubble of hysterical laughter she was feeling down to a giggle.

It was just a game to him. One that the demon was completely sure that he would win.

Because they were already compromised. All of them were already compromised. Weren't they?

...with maybe the single and sole exception of Old Man McGucket. But even he wasn't trying to kill Bill, which meant that...

...he was basically useless. And with the rest of them being already so compromised… no… she couldn't...

"Paz?" she heard at her side, and she looked up at Lazy-Eye Susan. "Are you ready for your shift, honey? It starts in five," the woman told her with a smile, but also something of a slightly-confused look.

"Did… did you see what just happened out here?" Pacifica not quite stammered up at her, almost plaintively.

But the diner waitress just looked down at her, with a slightly bemused smile.

"Well, now," the woman told her rather authoritatively, as she placed a hand on her shoulder. "If Gideon Gleeful hasn't figured out by now that he shouldn't go messing with cats like that, I don't think he ought to be surprised at getting all clawed up by one that's been around the block a few times, if you know what I mean," she was told, with a, "Wink!"

... a cat. She thought the demon was a...

"...Why do you think he's a cat?" Pacifica tried next, rather slowly. Because she knew her boss well enough by now to know that she'd get an intelligible answer, even if the answer itself would be...

"Well, he's got those beautiful eyes," Susan enthused. "And that coloring! So unique!" she enthused at her, as she steered Pacifica up the stairs towards the door of the diner.

"...Right," Pacifica said slowly, then shook herself. Ugh, what was she thinking, letting herself get sidetracked so easily when that demon was just running around and-- she didn't have time for a bunch of boring, normal diner-shift work--

...except all this demon stuff was driving her crazy and a bunch of normal boring work, in their normal, boring town sounded really, really good right about now.

So Pacifica walked along, letting herself be steered by her good-natured boss up the stairs to the diner, and Pacifica asked, "...and his sister?" as they went, because at this point, why not.

"Oh that poor little thing. She's very sweet. It's nice that he adopted her as his own and all, but she really shouldn't pretend to be a cat like he is, you know," Susan told her almost confidentially. "That's just not normal. I don't know why she would do that." And Susan looked almost concerned at this point. "...She seems a little too obedient, too. Must have been through a lot." Was the waitress'... unusual but surprising assessment. Pacifica didn't discount it for that reason, though -- not in the least. Pacifica generally took what Susan said about people very seriously when she assessed them, after having learned that, nine times out of ten, the aging waitress had generally turned out to almost-always be pretty spot-on.

"If she's not a cat, then what is she?" Pacifica asked next, feeling like she was on the cusp of something.

"Well, she's human," Susan said like it was obvious. "But…"

"'But' what?" Pacifica pressed her.

"Oh," Susan said. "Well, if I had to say she was something... oh, but it's rude though," she fluttered. "I really shouldn't," she added, waving a fingernail-laden hand at her as they both headed for the back, for Pacifica to change into her work clothes in the staff changing area.

"I won't tell, you know that," Pacifica said, then before Susan could go into her usual 'oh, I really really shouldn't' routine, she took the plunge and added, "You know, if she comes in here again, I really want to be able to waitress her table properly."

"Well," Susan said. She looked around for a moment, checking to make sure no-one else was listening, then whispered to Pacifica rather less loudly than she usually did, "I think she's a bit of a dragon, really, if you ask me. She's certainly not a big cat like him, at all. Not even a little."

Pacifica barely kept a straight face at this.

"...Good to know," she told her boss. Because apparently the demon who wanted them all dead was a cat, but his so-called sister rated somewhere on the order of a dragon instead.

"Maybe more of a dragonling, though," Susan carried on next. "Oh, I'm just not sure what to call the young ones. --I'll have to ask that cutely serious scientist brother of his, the next time that they all come in. ...Poor thing's so confused, trying to be whatever she thinks other people want her to be. I suppose that cat of Stan's will set her straight on the cat front soon enough though -- preferably without a terrible scratching to remind her of it, poor dear," Susan said, looking sad. "But she's not a cat, definitely not one of those. Never will be either; humans just can't be cats no matter how hard they try, and I should know -- I've got three of them!" she smiled at her. But her smile faded as she said, "And fire-breathing dragons aren't cats either, the poor thing. She really should stop trying, I'm sure she'd grow into a lovely little dragon if she'd just let herself be herself, you know. --Might cause a bit of a problem with the cows over by your parents' factory, though. Wink!" she noted with a nod (and said eyelid-wink), before she bustled herself out the door and back to the kitchen, presumably headed back to the main area of the diner...

...leaving Pacifica alone in the changing room area with her own thoughts.

As she changed clothes into her more common-looking (and -feeling) work outfit, Pacifica tried to think about what it all meant. When Susan said things, it generally meant something larger, even if the elder waitress couldn't really unpack or explain it herself. Cats, what were cats? Independent, sure of themselves…

...with claws just like small knives? (...Or big knives, in the case of a 'big'ger 'unique' type of cat? Pacifica shook her head at this.)

And dragons… fire-breathing dragons… what were dragons? Fierce. Protective. They hoarded their gold, their treasure, and killed any who would try to steal it, any who would try to take it from them-- greedily and angrily protecting what they saw as theirs...

Could a (...big?) cat take on a (little?) fire-breathing dragon and win? Did dragons listen to and want to be cats, instead of dragons themselves? ...Well, cats usually got pampered by humans, and dragons usually got people trying to slay them instead, while they were trying to sleep... or nap…?

Pacifica shook her head at herself as she finished tying off her apron. Maybe she was reading too much into this. Dr. Pines had said that demons weren't like humans, and Susan really only was a human herself, while the demons just weren't...

...She'd worry about all of this more later. Right now, she had to get in the game. --Waitressing. It was a thing.

Pacifica took a few moments to splash some cool water on her face, wash off the old and don some new makeup in the proper 'waitressing' style, slapped herself lightly on the cheeks twice, then turned and stomped out of the changing room with her head held high. She was a waitress on a mission.

She had gnomes to shoo out of the trash bins with prejudice.

...And a broom. She needed the broom. Really really needed the broom for this. --And she made a beeline back for the closet to get it. She didn't want to think about the last time she'd tried to shoo those stupid little buggers away without one...

Pacifica, broom firmly in hand, slammed the back door to the outside and back of the diner firmly closed behind her.

---


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