----
Ten minutes into this Fruits Basket 'anime' show thing, and Stan was already staring at the screen incredulously. ...Was this where Miz had gotten the idea that talking about her feelings would help make her feel better? The show was about a bunch of sad people talking about their feelings and then having the main character comfort them with some cheesy thing about how everyone was special and how everyone had someone out there who loved them. Geez...
From what he'd seen so far, the cartoon was really kind of… cheesy overall, but Stan still relaxed into the comfortable bean bag chair and kept on watching it. Okay, and kind of dramatic, sure, but… mostly cheesy. Stan really couldn't think of a better word for it. Because watching someone straight-out tell somebody else that they were loved and actually seem to really mean it was… Huh. ...Yeah, okay, Stan could see why Miz liked this show.
What was really weird about the whole thing was that the kid seemed to be watching the show just as seriously as he was, too. Which was pretty seriously. ...Didn't seem to be enjoying it like the kids were (there was a lot of light frowning and some grimacing from time to time going on with the kid), but the kid was watching it, and the kid wasn't doing anything even a little bit like complaining.
Stan let out a sigh. It figured. Kid really would do just about anything for his little sis, huh? Even watch cheesy, weird shows with her that she wanted to watch, without complaining...
The next episode started and Stan actually snorted when a new character showed up. A distant cousin who was apparently in love with one of the boys and showed her 'affection' through hilarious, over the top violence? Sign him up for watching that! The show was clearly playing it for laughs, though, and the boy seemed to recover from any 'injuries' near instantly. Kinda reminded him of Zany Tunes. ...Heh. Weird show.
"Aw…" Mabel sighed. "So, if Tohru gets together with Kyo in the end, who does Kagura marry?" She glanced over at Miz, who was frowning.
"I don't think she ends up with anyone…" Miz said, "But her character arc was never about romance. It was about learning to forgive herself for betraying Kyo when they were children."
"--Spoilers!" Dipper cried out. He didn't want what actual plot there was just ruined for him! The girls glanced over at him.
"I thought you said this was a 'boring, girly show' that you didn't really care for?" Mabel teased.
Dipper flushed and pulled his hat down. "It's not as bad as Dream Boys High," he muttered. The girls giggled at him.
"Aww~ you like it~" the two girls chorused. Dipper groaned.
Stan let out a laugh, always ready for another round of 'teasing Dipper'.
"What's wrong with Pine Tree liking it?" Bill asked almost lazily. He caught the teasing, but he didn't really get why it was funny? (He wanted to know…(!) ...And was this a mental attack that he should be stopping because of the agreement? Or wasn't it? Stanley wasn't doing anything about it… or maybe he was doing something, just not 'about it'. Stanley had just laughed, so… probably not.)
Miz sighed. "Well, it's not a problem except for the fact that HE thinks it is. There's nothing wrong with him liking it, but he thinks that boys shouldn't like cute girly stuff like this, so he feel embarrassed at himself for enjoying it."
"Why is it girly?" Bill asked next, turning his head to look over at her. (The kids exchanged a glance.)
"Because the show is about people talking about their feelings, crying, drama..." Miz told him. "Learning about how to get over their own issues through the love and support of others instead of fighting on alone like some kinda loner… though I suppose that depends on the plot and setting…" Miz muttered. "And it's also girly because there aren't any 'manly' things like defeating a bad guy through violence, and a lot of romance and high school drama instead! Which is stupid, because those aren't even something inherently 'only for' men or women. But human society seems to think something like this is important, even though it's not." Miz shrugged. The distinction between the Shounen and Shoujo genres was always pretty arbitrary, in her opinion. "One of my sisters was always embarrassed about enjoying Kare Kano, because it was a Shoujo series, back when she still thought she was a guy…"
(Dipper winced at the 'still thought she was a guy' comment, even though he tried not to. But Mabel took it completely in stride, as did Stan.)
Ford was trying to focus on watching the pawnshop but couldn't help but overhear the conversation. --What were they watching? Something like that 'Duchess Approves' movie that Stan liked so much? It sounded kind of like that, from what Miz had just said. ...And Bill was asking questions about things? (He was too distracted by Bill asking questions to really pay much attention to Miz's comment about her sister.)
Bill frowned. "...Define 'girly'?" Bill asked of his used-to-be-human little sister, just having become more and more confused, the more Miz had talked. Wasn't that supposed to be makeup and sleepovers and talking about boys when Shooting Star meant it? Had he gotten that wrong? Or did Miz have a different definition of 'girly' than Shooting Star did? ...It sounded like she did. "And why does that mean the show isn't 'manly'? Isn't it both? Most of the characters are boys, and there is a lot of fighting and violence! That 'cat' and that 'rat' keep fighting each other with violence for minutes, several times!" At least, they had for each and every of the grand total of two episodes he'd watched with her so far.
Ford suppressed a grimace. --Again? What was Bill up to now? How could the dream demon possibly not know the definition of-- and why was Bill acting like--?!
"Well for this show in particular, it counts as a girly shoujo series because of the themes, plot, character types, art style…" Miz frowned in thought. "It's hard to explain. Humans are weird. And the distinction between what makes something girly or manly is kinda complicated. But in this case it's like, if someone is ok with talking about their emotions, feeling things and relying on others to support and help you, they are 'too weak to be able to do it by themselves' and therefore, it's something that 'girls' and 'women' do because they need support to function, whereas being manly would be being able to do things by themselves without help. Because 'men' are supposed to be independent, relying on just themselves and being all stoic and distant with their 'feelings'." Miz scoffed. "That's why a lot of human males are really messed up, because they've been told all their lives that to be a 'man' is to deny themselves the ability to be vulnerable. Which isn't true, but they misunderstand and start building their own self esteem on that sort of ideal, and then try too hard to live up to them."
Bill blinked at Miz. (Ford found himself suppressing a frown. Because that was not a proper definition of either term--)
Bill looked over at Shooting Star and Pine Tree, who just sort of exchanged a look, before Pine Tree shrugged at him. (No help there.)
Then Bill turned his head away from the girls on the roof and said, "...Stanley?" the way most people said '...Help?'
(...To which Ford did a mental facepalm. Not least of which because Ford did not quite trust that his brother, who apparently thought switching bodies with a woman was an interesting 'nerdy thought experiment' for a guy, would be able to--)
"Uh," said Stan, feeling a little blindsided at all of this stuff that had just… come at him from out of nowhere. "Maybe just… think about how Manly Dan does stuff. That's 'manly'. And, uh, other ways of doing that stuff are 'womanly'." Stan really wasn't sure about half the stuff Miz had just said himself. Most of it sounded kinda dumb. (Was that was most kids these days thought being manly was? Relying on people wasn't weak. that was what twins were supposed to do -- rely on each other. Wasn't like he was 'stoic' or 'distant' or nothin', either, and he was still a 'man'. He hugged the kids all the time! And he didn't talk about his emotions 'cause it made him feel weird and mushy inside and he didn't want to. Also, crying was dumb and felt worse.) "Yeah…" Stan scratched his cheek. "Pretty sure bein' a strong independent woman is a thing guys can do, too," Stan added, thinking of Sturly Stembleburgiss in The Duchess Approves. Wasn't like it didn't go both ways.
Bill looked over at Stanley almost suspiciously. "Is 'girly' the same as 'womanly'?" Bill asked him.
"Uh… yeah?" Stan said. Why wouldn't it be? "I mean, 'boyishly' and 'manly' are pretty much the same thing, you're just older." That had been what had happened with Manly Dan; not like he'd done anything differently than get older, and just keep on doing the same things the exact same way. Well, okay, maybe he'd gotten better at it, all the cutting down trees and eating pancakes and drinking coffee and washing clothes and stuff, but that wasn't that different. "Same thing with girls."
Mabel, however, was glancing over at Stan and Ford with a frown on her face. "No, she's right. You and Grunkle Ford are always all grumpy inside because you never let your feelings out." ('Huh?' thought Stan.)
Miz nodded. "Like how a lot of guys seem to think that they're not supposed to cry because it's 'embarrassing' even though it's a perfectly natural human reaction to an outpouring of emotion."
"Hey, I don't cry, I shoot attack poison from my eyes like a desert lizard!" Stan said grumpily. "It'd melt you lugs, if I ever got you with it." Now Miz, Mabel, Dipper and Bill were all staring at Stan.
Miz pointed at him. "See?! He denies that he performs a perfectly natural human reaction!" The kids were all nodding, to Stan's annoyance. Bill still looked a bit confused.
"...You don't shoot poison from your eyes," Bill said slowly (wondering if this was like how Stanley kept claiming that he was a kid when he was actually more than one trillion years old).
"He's making up excuses to try and deny the fact that he doesn't want to cry in front of people because he thinks it'll make him look 'weak' and therefore 'girly'," Miz said, while nodding like a sage imparting them all with ancient wisdom.
Stan frowned at them all at that, and sat up in his beanbag chair. "Ain't nothing wrong with bein' girly," he told them all.
Mabel frowned. "Then why don't you cry honestly in front of us Grunkle Stan? You always say you have something in your eye or something like that?"
"I don't cry," Stan repeated stubbornly, crossing his arms. (Bill eyed him from the side. ...Well, the kid could just keep on eyein' him. And why the hell would Mabel want him to cry in front of her? Then she'd just get all upset and worried about him… right? He didn't want that.)
Dipper looked like he was starting to 'get' something. "Oh." he said. He glanced at Miz. "So, is this that 'toxic masculinity' thing I've read about?"
Mabel and Miz both deadpanned at him. ""You do it too,"" they said.
And that made Dipper lay back and stare at the sky like he'd never realized it until they pointed it out to him. "Oh. Oh wow. Like that time I was hanging out with those Manotaurs."
Stan frowned. "Toxic what-now? Being manly ain't toxic! ...Heh, Wendy would've croaked by now if it was," Stan grinned, leaning back in his chair. Wait, wasn't that Manotaur thing… "Hey, you stuck to your guns when they tried to get you to do that…. uh, 'really tough, horrible thing', yeah?" Stan told Dipper. He hadn't known what Dipper was talking about at the time, he didn't think, but he did remember that much. And... "That was pretty manly," Stan repeated.
"Grunkle Stan, it's not about 'being' manly or girly." Dipper explained. "It's about feeling like you have to act and behave in a certain way just because that's what's expected of you if you're a guy or a girl." He felt weird explaining this to his own Grunkle, when Grunkle Stan had been the one who'd told it to him first. (At least, Dipper had thought that Grunkle Stan had?) "Like... 'toxic femininity' would be if Wendy thought she HAD to be more feminine because she's a girl," Dipper said, searching for another example to put it in context.
Miz grumbled, "My human uncle was always telling me to wear makeup and get a boyfriend. Like those were the only important things I was required to do. And mom kept trying to get me married to guys I didn't even know! Just 'cause my parents were worried that I was getting older and hadn't birthed children yet!"
Stan looked over at Miz in alarm, then looked to Bill. (So did the niblings.) Had he heard that right? That sounded scarily like some of the triangle-dimension stuff she'd gone through, or almost had. Bill, without looking over at Stan, reached over and started patting Miz on the head.
"Well, that ain't happening to you here, Miz," Stan told her. "Understand?" Far as he was concerned, that was what shotguns were for. And, y'know, sane family members. "And neither is me or Wendy cryin' in front of all of you just 'cause, y'know, you all think that we have to do what you expect us to do. Right?" Stan said, waiting.
Mabel stood up. "No! I mean like how you feel like you CAN'T cry in front of us."
Stan blinked at his grand-niece, as she walked over to hug him. Stan frowned down at her as he hugged her back. 'Can't?' "Mabel, sweetie, I don't want to, so I don't. So what?" Stan grumbled out.
"But why don't you want to?" Mabel asked him, and geez, she was really on about this, huh?
"Well, uh," said Stan, because maybe he should take this a little more seriously, if Mabel was gonna be that serious about this thing? "I mean, if I was cryin' -- and I'm not sayin' I was!" Stan said quickly. "--I'd be feelin' bad, right? And you're always wantin' me and Ford to be happy, so…" Stan looked uncomfortable.
"But you're doing it again! You're denying that you cry to try and sound tough! But if you were crying and feeling bad, then I can hug you and make you feel better!" Mabel told him. "I DO want you two to be happy. But being 'fake' happy just to make me feel better would just make me feel worse!" Mabel insisted.
"Hey," Stan protested, pushed her away from him slightly, so he could look down at her better. "Do I look 'fake happy' to you?"
"Not right now," Mabel admitted. "But back when Grunkle Ford first came back from the portal and then he didn't want to hug it out with you… you were sad right? But you just acted angry instead!" Mabel pointed out.
"Hey, I was angry," Stan protested. And he'd acted on it, too! ...And hell, it wasn't like he'd wanted to hug it out with Ford at the time, neither. Not after he'd gotten punched in the face for tryin' the first time! "I, uh, maybe got a little sad later. --Not a lot!" Stan said.
"But you WERE sad. And you didn't come to me to let me hug you!" Mabel picked up Stan's hand to hold it.
Stan sighed. "Sweetie, you ain't always around to be handin' out hugs. And you'd feel bad first, seein' me cry, right? Not like I could get around that happening," Stan said, putting it this way almost as much for Bill as for Mabel. (He was trying to connect it back in some way for the kid who was listening in on this whole thing, to connect it back to what Mabel had tried to do earlier, back on the boat, in explaining how she'd feel if Dipper had died.) "Wasn't like you were able to fix stuff with me and Ford right then, either." Not then. The scrapbook was a different thing.
Mabel frowned. "When I get sad and cry, you come to me and you help me feel better. What if I was like you and just pretended I wasn't sad. How would you feel if I did that?"
"Heh," Stan said, ruffling her hair. "That's never gonna happen. You can't fool this old con-man!" he grinned down at her.
Mabel let out a frustrated sigh. "That's not what I mean, Grunkle Stan," she sighed again, giving him another hug. "How would you feel if I thought that I'm not supposed to cry in front of you? Like, if I thought that being seen crying by other people was shameful?"
"I'd tell you to punch anybody who tried to tell you how you're supposed to feel in the jaw," Stan said perfectly reasonably.
"Then--" Mabel glared at Stan. "--who told YOU that you can't cry in front of people?" (And Stan's eyebrows rose in confusion.)
"Nobody," said Bill from the sidelines, staring up at the sky. "--Society," Miz responded at the exact same time.
(Well, at least the kid had gotten something right for once. Huh. ...Well, Stan figured the kid was due. He wasn't sure why it was the demon who used to be human that was the one who was getting all this stuff dead wrong, though. Sure, she'd seemed to have a pretty messed-up home life, both when she was a triangle and when she was human, but… uh… Oh. Huh. Maybe that was… uh… why that was.)
Bill looked over at her. "You See that?" Bill asked her point-blank, because he certainly hadn't. (Had he missed something, somehow? Or had she just not Looked? --He was pretty sure it was the second one. He'd Seen Stanley Pines' entire timeline, start-to-finish, when he'd been looking him up in the middle of making his initial Deal with Gideon. 'Society' hadn't been telling Stanley what to do and not-do by that point for a very long time; most of the Gravity Falls police force had largely given up on him by that point. Not like there was much that could've happened later to Stanley after that, that he could've missed!)
"It's not something I'd need to See, but if we wanna get technical, their father--" Miz said the word 'father' as if it was a curse word, "--seemed to be pretty big on the whole 'stoic' manliness side of things."
"So?" said Bill. "What's your point?"
(Stan let out a deep sigh. Hell. This was gonna go off the rails fast, wasn't it? After looking between them… Yeah, probably. They were both looking a little stubborn, and the last time the demons had started arguing over one of them, it had.)
"Hey," Stan said, trying to cut things off before they got that far, but neither of the demons acted like they had heard him.
"A lot of people pick up their world views from their parents and the community they grew up in," Miz answered Bill. "Their dad wasn't the most affectionate."
Bill gave her a long look at this. "Did you See Filbrick say that Stanley can't cry in front of people?" Bill repeated, being more specific this time.
"...He didn't outright say it." Miz admitted. "But he certainly never cried in front of them. And if he saw 'them' cry he would say that he 'wasn't impressed' with them."
Dipper and Mabel gasped at this, but Stan just frowned. (So did Ford.)
"Pa wasn't talkin' about…" 'the crying part, just the getting beaten up again part?' Stan hesitated. His memories of stuff that far back were still a little… he didn't always trust 'em sometimes. "I mean…" Stan rubbed at the back of his neck, frowning.
Mabel hugged Stan again. "Oh Grunkle Stan…" she sniffled. Even Dipper got up and walked over to him, to hug his other side.
Stan hugged both the kids back, but he also looked over to Ford, like he usually did when he wasn't completely sure about his own memories. Ford looked a little unnerved himself.
"...I don't believe that… our father meant it quite like that," Ford said slowly. "He… was usually talking about what we hadn't… ah…" He really didn't want to get into any of the things they'd used to pull as kids, let alone talk about any of the bullies that they hadn't quite managed to give as good as they'd gotten from. The boxing lessons had helped a bit, but...
"Filbrick thought you were 'weak' and he wanted you 'strong', but his ideas of strength falls right in line with the idea of 'toxic masculinity'." Miz turned onto her side to keep the Stans in her view, and they both frowned at her at that last comment.
Bill had been thinking over all of this for a bit. And then he let out a laugh.
"And you all get so surprised at why I'm happy to be insane," Bill said. "It's better than what YOU all do!" Bill leaned back, grinning at them all, as they all sent him 'what?' looks. "Shooting Star tries to tell Stanley she wants him to cry, so she can feel bad about him feeling bad? And then tries to tell him he has to cry when he doesn't want to, so she can feel bad, but says he's being toxic when he says no and doesn't want to feel what she told him he had to feel, so she won't feel bad? And Pine Tree agrees with her?"
Mabel groaned. "It's not like that."
"--It's exactly like that!" Bill replied. "You're doing the 'toxic masculinity' thing that you just defined, to him!"
Mabel huffed out a breath and looked over at Dipper, who seemed just as frustrated. He wished he had access to the dictionary definition of Toxic Masculinity right now so he could try and define it better. And then shove it right up in Bill's face.
"And YOU," Bill said, turning to Miz, "Think that being sad and DOING NOTHING about the thing that is MAKING you sad is BETTER than getting ANGRY and actually DOING SOMETHING ABOUT IT? --That's NOT 'girly', that's STUPID." Bill gave her a long look. "You've been talking to that STUPID LIZARD of yours too much," he half-chided, half-warned her.
"I don't think getting angry would make me any better at making good decisions..." Miz mumbled.
"And if you're too busy being sad and screaming forever off in a corner alone, and that's ALL YOU DO, then you aren't making ANY good decisions AT ALL, you're just making ONE long BAD one," Bill told her in return.
"I cry, I get over it. And once I'm done, and calmed down, I can think more clearly." Miz sighed, unsure how to defend her own way of handling her issues.
"I get angry, I DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT, and then I don't have to cry," Bill replied happily. "It's BETTER!" Bill chirped out at her, trying to offer up to his little sister what he firmly believed to be a MUCH better way of handling things.
"...Brother, have YOU ever cried out your feelings? Have you ever grieved properly?" Miz asked quietly. She certainly hadn't Seen a true catharsis for him.
Bill stared at her.
And then Bill laughed.
And laughed.
And laughed.
A lot.
And then, once Bill had finally stopped laughing again, the demon-who-now-looked-human grinned widely, and then pointed a finger back at himself.
"Triangle," Bill said, as if that explained everything. (To him, it did. He'd been geometry. No internal organs. No tear ducts. OF COURSE HE HADN'T cried.)
"Well, you have a human-ish body that's capable of it now." Miz stared back at him. "So, would you?"
"Would I what?" Bill said, lounging back against the roof. (Both sets of twins were staring at Miz, now. Because, Bill? Cry? Seriously? ...But only Stan and Dipper managed to follow that thought on to the next one, catching what Miz had just implied: Bill literally hadn't been able to cry before? And only Mabel wondered if what Bill might have had to grieve about was the brother Grunkle Ford thought Bill didn't have.)
"Would you like to grieve over what happened to your brother?" Miz asked so quietly they all barely heard it.
Bill gave her a very long look, while the kids exchanged glances.
"...Define 'grieve'," Bill said evenly. Maybe she'd actually meant 'get even' with the shapes who'd killed him, instead? She hadn't said that, though -- she'd said 'grieve'. (Ford quietly noted that this was not confirmation of having... or not having... a brother, either way.)
(Mabel just as quietly noted how reserved Bill got at being asked that question, and sent a glance her twin brother's way.)
"Scream, cry, remember, realize that you can remember him as much as you want to. Think about the good times, think about how you felt and how you might have wanted to feel."
Bill blinked at her. (Crying was stupid, which he'd just told her, and… he could remember his brother whenever he wanted to. Did she think he couldn't? That seemed… wrong, somehow. But what Bill finally decided to share with her was...)
"I'm always screaming," Bill told her, tilting his head to the side. "Does that count?"
('Always?' thought Ford. Bill obviously wasn't screaming at the moment. Even if he'd claimed he'd started 'screaming forever' at the burning down of his home dimension, he clearly must have stopped screaming at some point. He'd even been downright quiet earlier, in ignoring him. And long before that--)
"Depends." Miz shuffled a little closer to him. "Did screaming make you feel better? To grieve is to feel bad for a little while, but then afterwards, you feel better."
Bill thought about this. His eyes jittered slightly from side to side, and he suddenly made a connection between three of the things she'd said: crying, get over it, done; scream or cry or remember -- remember 'for a little while' -- as grieving.
Bill looked up at her and said, "I'm not done screaming yet. I'm still screaming. I'm always screaming."
That got some looks from the humans, and a deepening frown from Ford. (That wasn't…)
Miz nodded. "Well, I hope that you'll be able to feel better. Once you've finished screaming."
Bill grinned at her. "After I've finished fixing everything, I'll stop screaming!" he confirmed. (And that had Stan mentally standing up and taking notice… and feeling more than a little uncomfortable at the idea of the kid screaming forever over his brother. ...and what 'fixing everything' might mean when it was the kid that was doing it.)
(Stan glanced over at Ford… who looked just about as uncomfortable at the idea of the kid 'fixing everything' as he was. …Great.)
Miz smiled softly. "Well, that sounds good. I hope you'll be able to stop screaming soon." If Bill's screams were his method of expressing his anguish and grief, then Miz hoped he'd be able to find peace soon.
"Soon is relative!" Bill said brightly, not concerned about his timetable in the least. "It's fine. I made it useful!"
"...Useful?" Stan asked. The uncomfortable feeling he had didn't exactly go away when Bill tilted his head back and let out an odd-sounding dual rising tone that… kept going. And sounded almost… familiar?
Stan, looking for a little help here (because what the heck was Bill doing? was that supposed to sound like a scream?) turned his head and glanced over at Ford... and saw that his brother had gone as pale as chalk.
Stan whipped his head back towards Bill and was about to snap out '--Stop!' at him before the triangle demon broke his brother again (damnit!)--
--when the kid stopped himself all on his own. The noise quickly trailed off, and the kid closed his mouth again.
Stan glanced around at them all, counting heads and mentally checking pulses. Dipper was staring (he was fine), and Mabel was frowning (also fine). Ford-- …looked okay again. Huh. (Stan almost wanted to ask Ford about… Well. That. But… he just wasn't sure what to ask.)
There was a long moment of silence on the rooftop.
Finally, Stan said: "...Sounds more like singing to me," to the kid, frowning at him still. Because… it kind of almost had? (Well, what else was he supposed to say? That's what it had sounded like to him. Like singing, not screaming. Hell...)
"YES!" the kid said enthusiastically, to Stan's surprise, waving his arms around and looking all excited at him. "Music is BETTER!"
...Yeah, Stan didn't get it at all.
"Gonna have to explain that one to me better later, kid," Stan told him, rubbing a hand over his face again. He knew he was missing something here. He just didn't know what.
"Mm. Fine," said Bill, as he leaned back again, against the pillows and blankets surrounding him and his little sister in Miz's 'nest'.
Stan dropped the hand, then sighed and looked down at the kids. "Uh. Not that I ain't okay with the hugs..." he began. The twins pulled away from him a little, looking not at all embarrassed.
"It's fine, Grunkle Stan. I won't make you cry in front of us if you don't want to." Mabel sighed. "But if you're feeling sad, be sure to come tell me so I can give you all the hugs you'll need! Okay?"
"Uh, sure sweetie…" said Stan. (What, was he gonna have to pretend to be sad now to get hugs outta her? ...Heh. Who was he kidding. Mabel gave out hugs like they were goin' out of style. Or made of Mabel Juice.)
Dipper rubbed his arm. "And… I like the anime. There! I said it." He glared at Mabel but she didn't tease him about it. She gave him a grin.
"Just be honest about what you like, Dip-Dop! If you weren't all embarrassed about it, I wouldn't have even known I could tease you about it." Mabel paused. "Same for the whole… being taller than you thing," she shrugged, giving him a smile.
"Heh. --Alpha twin!" Stan called out, grinning as he lifted a fist and punched the air.
Dipper rolled his eyes, but he was smiling as he did it; he'd long since gotten over that. Sure, Mabel was taller than him for now. But he was going to get his growth spurt eventually and then, statistically speaking, he'd almost definitely end up being the taller one! And… even if he didn't grow taller than her… that was okay too. (--He could always borrow the flashlight again for a day!)
"So... wanna watch more anime together?" Dipper asked, and Mabel laughed.
"Sure, bro-bro!" They both scrambled back over to where they'd been sitting before and laid down on a bean bag chair together, sharing one between them this time. (And Stan noticed, even if the demons didn't seem to, that it was the chair that was a little closer to him and farther away from the demons, not the nearer one to their little 'nest'.)
"Heh," said Stan, watching them do this. "I got a better idea." He glanced behind him at Bill. "--Hey, kid," he called out.
"Hm?" said Bill, leaning back and stargazing at the moment. (Miz had paused the anime on the 'screen' she'd made, once the 'girly' explanation had started getting heated. She was about to start it up again for the twins, when she heard Stan say he had a 'better idea', and she waited to hear what he had to say, curious.)
"Gotta question for ya." Stan waited until the kid was looking at him. "With the not-talking stuff. That also mean current events?"
Bill blinked at him.
"No," Bill said slowly. "Any events from when we arrived in this dimension and forwards are fair game," he told Stanley, who suddenly grinned.
"'Not-talking stuff'?" Ford repeated slowly, glancing back at them and not entirely certain what was going on. Wasn't Stan supposed to be the one saying what could be talked about in dimensions he had traveled to before? Himself and his brother and Dipper, not Bill?
Stan looked over at Ford. "Kid made a kind of bet with me and the kids earlier," Stan told him, but before Ford barely had the chance to straighten in place -- a precursor to pulling in a full breath to yell at them all for letting themselves be drawn into one of Cipher's mad games! -- Stan added, "Kid helps me with whatever I want in the meantime until we go home, and all we gotta do is not talk about how stuff went down with, y'know, this," Stan said, "Back home."
Ford frowned at him furiously. "--I didn't agree to this!" (And did Stan really believe that Bill would simply 'help' him with 'whatever he wanted' until they all were home? What kind of fool was his brother? And did Stan really believe that Bill would actually be getting them all home again at the end of the next night, that he wasn't simply toying with them all, that nighttime wouldn't leave and come again, to the tune of Bill laughing at them all instead, demanding that they--)
Ford glared at Bill. He absolutely REFUSED to play a single one of Bill's mad games, in this dimension or any other! No! And if Bill thought that he could force him to, then--!!
"Heh," said Stan. "Bet wasn't with you; it was with us," his brother told him. Ford blinked at him, startled, his original train of thought completely derailed. "You can say whatever you want to anybody," Stan laid out plainly, and Ford eyed him, then eyed Bill. Ford didn't trust this game of Bill's at all, especially not with Bill seemingly trying to leave him out of it. --If anything, that made it that much more suspect to him!
Ford was about to protest (or at the very least warn Stanley about) his brother's irresponsible behavior, when Miz spoke up awkwardly, cutting in before he could. "I'm sorry for going all… Social Justice Warrior on everyone. Not quite sure what came over me." (Dipper and Mabel exchanged a look at this, then mostly just shrugged it off. They'd heard worse, and weirder, back at home in Piedmont, California.)
"Feelings are dumb," Bill said. "All those messy brain chemicals. Thought is MUCH better than Emotion!" he told her.
Miz shuffled around on her nest. "Well, I kinda have to deal with emotions all the time."
"Yes," Bill noted. "But thoughts are easier and better!" Bill liked logic of the Mind; it MADE SENSE. "I'm not doing ANY of that 'Heart' stuff until I have to," he complained.
(That set off several exchanged glances between the kids and the supposedly-responsible adults. And Stan's eyebrows went up, and stayed up, as he realized what that might mean in the larger context of things with the kid, both before and in-the-now.)
Miz giggled softly. "Well, if you ever have to do heart stuff, do you want me here to be with you through it?"
Bill had been about to say that he'd just grab 'anti-Bill' and throw them at whoever's head. --Problem solved! He wouldn't have to handle it! (Or go bug Stitched Heart to deal with it for him instead, which would require a little handling.) But…
"Yes," Bill told her. He liked Miz's idea of being here with him better.
Miz nodded. "Okay then." She scooted over to snuggle his side.
Stan sighed. Why were all the conversations with these demon kids so… taxing? (Ugh, taxes.)
"...Anyway," Stan got back to it with his brother. "The kids down there haven't left the house, yeah?" He hadn't seen them do it.
"--No, they haven't left," Bill said, not even looking over at them, as he draped an arm over and around Miz -- which he had decided to do from now on when she touched sides with him, because she wanted and liked hugs. She was making a soft rumbling sound, like purring but… not. (Which he liked! --It was a little like humming, and it made him feel relaxed and a little... sleepy...? That was fine. It was fine.)
Ford, who had started to nod at his brother, sent a long look Bill's way. (Bill seemed almost hell-bent on refusing to look over at him, though, much to Ford's ire.) Then Ford confirmed, "Not even so much as an open window." Even with all the distractions going on, he'd kept an ear to the house. He would have heard something if anyone had tried to leave; the street didn't get that much traffic at night, and it was almost a certainty that they would not be leaving the house this late at night -- not unless one of them was up to no good. (He wasn't sure how late it was precisely, but in knowing the date -- month, day, and year -- and also his location on the planet, he could calculate approximately what time it was by the progression of the moon overhead; it was ever so slightly past midnight now, perhaps by a minute or two.)
"Yeah, but, I was thinkin'," Stan said. "They didn't even go outside again to try and see us? Or talk about anything else?"
Ford hesitated.
"Touching the line, Stanley," Bill called out warningly, and Ford glanced over at him. ...So, this particular point was important enough for Bill to threaten Stanley over, somehow? Because it might spoil Bill's betting-'game'? Why would it--?
"...Wait," said Ford, blinking. He looked over at his brother. "They didn't go to the swingset to talk."
Miz blinked. "Well, us showing up already screwed up the timeline, since they skipped school to spy on us today?" She wiggled her hand in the air, playing with the cybernetic bodysuit she'd made. It was Cursed to feel like nothing. (Bill's, in turn, was set up to directly transfer the sensation of 'touch' of the outer surface of the suit to his skin, so it effectively it felt like he was wasn't wearing the suit at all, also.)
"Yeah. They didn't go to school today, right?" said Stan, leaning back. "So, what did they not do in school today?" Stan offered up almost innocently.
Ford's eyes widened. "They didn't go to the office?" What-- did that mean that--?! Ford stopped breathing for a moment, until he realized-- ...No. No, the college school board officials would still show up tomorrow; of course they would. That had already been arranged by the time they had been told of its impending occurrence. Ford let out a slow breath in relief.
Then something else occurred to Ford, and he turned his head to glare at Bill.
"'Breaking things'," Ford said darkly. "You thought I'd go charging in there and interrupt everything. Get Stan all riled up over--" And maybe even have his own other self second-guessing what he should do, by what could go wrong!
Bill raised up his head, to prop it up on a fist. And he smiled.
Miz covered her ears. "Nope. Not saying anything."
Bill, while holding gaze with Ford, slowly raised a single finger to his lips. And then he made that waterfall sound again. To Ford's consternation and continuing ire, the demon looked absolutely delighted for some reason.
"Then what am I supposed to do here?!" Ford snarled out at Bill angrily.
Stan stared at his brother in something like horrified amazement. "You're asking the kid??"
(Miz snorted and tried to muffle her laughter, it probably wouldn't be nice. But, Ford STILL looked to Bill for guidance even after he rejected him?)
"--No!!" Ford shook his head. "I--" He closed his mouth and grimaced, turning away from all of them, to stare back down at the house and the pawnshop below it again. Things had been so much easier when Bill had just acted as the villain that he was! Why couldn't he just--?!
"I'm not playing your games anymore, Stanford," he heard Bill say behind him, and it sent a chill down Ford's spine, even as it provoked a good deal of rage. "I don't have to."
"They. Were. Your. Games." Ford growled out, as he slowly turned back to face Bill, hands on both of his guns. He pulled in a breath. "I did not want to play them," Ford said next, fully intending to read Bill the riot act, because Bill--
"You wanted an adventure? I gave you an adventure," Bill told him, sitting up in place, as the niblings looked over at him. "You wanted to be a hero? You wanted to fight?" Bill spread his arms out. "Why not? --Here's your villain!"
Ford clenched his jaw, and began to protest that, "That wasn't--!!"
"--what you wanted? No, it was," Bill said, lowering your arms. "You just don't LIKE what you want. --It's fine," Bill said, settling back down again, to lie on his back again, looking back to the stars. "Our Deal is off, and I'm done with you."
"...Oh?" said Ford, nearly vibrating in place with rage, as he slowly rose to his feet, hands slowly curling around the grips of both of his weapons as he took a slightly broader firing stance. "Well. Maybe I'm not done with y--" Ford stopped at the hand on his shoulder. His brother's hand on his shoulder. His brother, who had just gotten up from where he'd been sitting over by the niblings, and crossed the roof in order to do so. To stop him from--
Ford turned his head towards his brother slightly.
"You want him to stop playing games with you, right?" Stan told him quietly under his breath. "Ford, take the win." And Ford felt an odd fatigue run through him at his brother's words.
"Stanley, I--" Ford said quietly, straightening, his hands loosening slightly in their grip on his ranged weaponry.
"--Just tag out," his brother said to him. "Just for a little while. Okay?"
Ford stared at him, then down at the hand on his shoulder.
Miz was making an understanding sound. "Oh… so Ford wanted a villain in his scenario, in his 'story' and you obliged?" she looked up at Bill. Well, that explained a lot, considering how much Bill had to work around that Stanford just to keep him alive in the 30 years he spent behind the portal. Might even explain why Bill had tormented Ford so much despite trying to be his friend.
"Not like I didn't already fit the part of a 'villain' as he defines it!" Bill told her cheerfully. Then more soberly he added, "I tried to give him other things, too, but he didn't want them from me."
Ford literally gave a full-body flinch at the last. (Stan opened his mouth to ask his brother what the hell that had meant, but at the haunted look Ford had on his face, Stan closed his mouth again. He did tug at Ford's shoulder until he sat down again with him, though, right where they were both standing, not all that far from the roof's edge.)
Miz paused. "That sounds a little like how the Federation in my dimension purposefully puts me up as the 'villian' and points to my 'jobs' for Time Baby as 'evidence' for how I'm evil, even though THEY were the ones who demanded for me to do them." She frowned. "A sort of, 'pin the blame on me' kinda thing."
Miz sighed. "To be fair. It was my fault for agreeing to his Deal. I'm not gonna put all the blame on him. Even if Time Baby's a jerk. And I just think it's unfair that I'm the villain when he's the one holding gladiatorial matches where people can kill each other for people's entertainment and apparently that was perfectly fine!" She turned to stare at the younger set of twins. "Even worse that anyone can challenge anyone to Globnar. And no one seems to find this fact a problem?"
"Hey, we tried to get out of it!" Dipper protested, holding his hands up. "It was messed up!"
Mabel looked over at him. "The laser tag was fun, though," Mabel noted.
Miz nodded. "It's messed up and stupid but it's perfectly LEGAL to do. Isn't that just… unfairly stupid? He can go around killing people or holding death matches that involve CHILDREN but he's still the 'good guy'?" ('Death matches?' Stan and Ford both thought, sending worried glances at each other. --When the heck had that happened?!)
Dipper and Mabel looked at each other. "...You think Time Baby is a good guy?" Mabel asked of her skeptically. Theirs definitely wasn't! And it didn't sound like the one she was working for was, either?
"The multiverse where I come from has him as one of the heads of the government. He doesn't do much for the laws and stuff, but he's there and he allows them to pass the laws they decide on. He doesn't need to be a good guy, he's on the council that decides what's lawful or not. And isn't obeying the law considered good?" Miz spat out. "I think your Time Baby attempted to arrest brother during Weirdmageddon, that would make him the 'good' guy in your eyes, wouldn't it?"
Mabel and Dipper frowned and exchanged a glance. Did Time Baby try to do that? Well, there had been that letter from Blandin, so... if Time Baby had tried to stop Bill, then… Sort of? But no?
Miz continued, glancing at Bill, "Didn't he threaten to throw a tantrum if you didn't surrender? Don't his tantrums destroy things even WORSE than that party you threw?"
(At this point, Stan was starting to wonder if he should've asked the kid if their own(?!) Time Baby was a problem that needed solving. --Or, y'know, punching. One of the two.)
Bill let out a laugh. "If I let him! He's a dumb baby," Bill said. "And now the stupid idiot's got himself trapped in a TIME LOOP!" Bill grinned. "3012 comes around, when his molecules finish reconstituting? And the stupid little idiot will come out swinging with NO real memory of ANYTHING that happened before that! Big tantrum. Real 'end of the world' stuff! HA!" Bill exclaimed. "--I'll just step out for a bit, and let that stupid baby do his thing. No reason to rock the boat! Eventually, he'll come back and try to stop me, aaaand..." Bill made a sort of twisted looping motion with a finger, then let out a chittering chuckle.
Dipper and Mabel exchanged a glance, remembering what the mailbox had told them about the year 3012.
"So, if we left something for the time squad to find in the future…" Dipper said, looking at Bill.
But Bill didn't look worried, he just laughed instead. "HA! --Nice try, kid! But that stupid Time Baby's gonna destroy EVERYTHING! --Anything you could manage to pull off HIDING FROM ME -- and LET'S FACE IT, you couldn't! -- would be TOO WELL HIDDEN for that dumb baby OR his so-called 'Time Squad' to ever find! And that's even if it SURVIVED all that DESTRUCTION in the FIRST place! HA!"
"Time Police, Bill. They're called the Time Police," Dipper corrected him, feeling annoyed. Ugh, what was up with Bill and his stupid nicknames for everything, anyway?
Miz scoffed. "So HE gets to destroy the world and he's still an authority figure?" That was so unfair.
"Authority figure? HA! --More like a figureHEAD!" Bill laughed out.
Miz giggled, Time Baby had a huge head, not that there was anything wrong with large heads, but it certainly suited his ego.
"Not that those idiots do more than run around after him, trying to keep him from getting too cranky," Bill told her. "Like I care what those humans get up to!" Bill waved off.
Miz tilted her head. "So...why is Time Baby allowed to run free and arrest other people for timecrimes when he's just as destructive if not more so than any demon?"
"Because he's just that destructive," Bill told her, like it was obvious. "Nobody else stands up to the jerk! Stupid giant Time Lords are REALLY hard to kill permanently. --I didn't get him the first time, slipped RIGHT out from under my Sight," Bill muttered. "And I wasn't OUT yet, and I didn't want a bunch of idiots JUMPING IN and MESSING with MY dimension to handle it FOR me! ...So I'm letting the dumb baby do his thing," Bill shrugged. "Why get into a whole bunch of STUPID nonlinear time loop nonsense, when I DON'T HAVE TO?" Bill pointed out.
Miz shrugged. "I can't tell if yours or my Time Baby is worse."
"Eh, yours," Bill said. No contest there. "The one here is stuck now, and NEVER GETTING OUT. Contained, and if I didn't care about anything else, I could waste him again WHENEVER I WANT without all that dumb 'pillar' stuff you've got going GETTING IN MY WAY."
Stan frowned. The kid was getting worked up. He sounded a little too 'high energy' just then, more like he had the first couple of days that he'd been at the Shack. And Stan could feel Ford shifting his balance through the hand he had on his shoulder; Ford was feeling the unease, too.
"Mine's still up and about and he DOES do his job keeping time from collapsing so… Eh." Miz sighed. "As annoyed as I am with him though, he has been slightly nicer recently." She rubbed her arm.
Stan had to stifle a wince. "'Slightly nicer' don't mean he won't try and tap you for another one of those jobs again," Stan told her roughly, from where he sat.
"Well, yeah. And that would suck. But I have recently been able to talk him into helping me with an idea I had for getting my little brother back…" Miz sighed. "It took eons of work, making him trust me enough for that."
Stan started feeling really uneasy himself. He'd thought he'd talked her around on the getting out of the hired-killer thing, but if she was still willing to work for him to get what she wanted, despite saying she didn't want to kill people… then she really wasn't that much different from the kid, in a bad way. (Ford glanced over at Stan, feeling the grip on his shoulder tighten slightly.) "Miz… it really ain't worth it. There's gotta be another way to do whatever you need to do, without that Baby guy's help."
Miz glanced up at Stan. "I don't want to kill for him anymore. I could try to find a work around. And… if he really insists that I HAVE to kill someone, I could probably fake their death and just keep them away from Time Baby until he forgets about it?"
Dipper and Mabel looked at each other. "You've been… killing people for Time Baby?" Dipper said slowly. They both started to back away from her a little bit.
"He made me a Deal, I do a job for him in exchange for a Favor. And I trade in my Favors to--"
"--Stop," said Stan. Miz closed her mouth. He glanced between Miz and the kid. "Bill, talk her out of it. Completely."
Bill tilted his head at Stan slightly. "Right now?" (Ford looked between the two of them with the first stirrings of vague alarm. Because had Bill actually just-- That had been a command that Stan had given to him, and Bill had just-- just--)
Stan started to open his mouth to say 'yes', then thought the better of it. "Before she leaves for her own dimensional set again." He had other stuff he needed to handle here, and back at home, first. "--Don't think I don't know what the two of you are doin'," Stan told the pair of them, "Bein' all distracting and thinking you can just lead us all around by the nose." And at the way Bill just brightened up and gave out a chittering laugh, Stan knew that he'd called it. (Shit, and his brother actually looked surprised at this. The hell?)
Miz grumbled. "Really can't hide anything from you." Distraction failed. Again.
"...Stan?" Ford said slowly, looking very wrong-footed at the moment to Stan.
Stan sighed heavily. "Ford, the kid's thing here isn't actually what happens with the two kids in there," he tossed a thumb back at the pawnshop and the house. "It's something we could figure out here that could be a problem for us when we get back home," he told his brother.
"Stanley!" Bill said, sounding scandalized. "You heard, but you didn't listen! I said it would cause trouble if you figured it out here, and no trouble if we get back first!"
"--Trouble for you," Stanley noted, and Bill got a thin smirk. "What happens if we get back without figuring out this thing you don't want us to figure out here?" Stan asked him straight-out.
"That Stanford loses YOU," Bill told him with a grin.
Ford immediately shot to his feet and stepped forward and out in front of Stan. "--You are not killing my brother!" Ford declared angrily, though he was shaking like a leaf as he said it. (And all the things he'd been trying not to think too hard about suddenly grew claws and dug them into the forefront of his thoughts: the kids were here, Bill had a second demon as backup, nothing Ford had on him would work to even so much as slow either of them down, he couldn't stop him, he couldn't do anything--)
Bill gave that Stanford a long look. "Who said anything about killing your brother," Bill told him with absolutely zero inflection to his tone, while Miz looked away, keeping her mouth shut.
Stan slowly pushed himself to his feet again, then took a step to the side, to stand at the side of his brother (patting Ford reassuringly on the shoulder as he went). And Stan stared at her and then the kid.
"You're sayin' that if we find out…" Stan paused.
"Then you and I will have a problem," Bill admitted, turning his head back towards Stanley. "And if you don't find out, then…" Bill gave him a long look. "You, Stanley Pines, will get EXACTLY what you want!" Bill told him with a smile.
Stan pulled in a shallow breath. Right. "Losing my brother is what you think I want?" he said to the kid, oh so carefully. (Like the demon knew what he wanted. Like hell.)
Bill stared at him. "No."
"...So why would I lose my brother?" Stan asked the kid next, glaring at him.
...and he got a "--You won't!" and another giggle -- and an almost sly look -- out of the demon kid for that one.
Stan frowned at the kid. How the hell could Ford lose him, without him losing Ford? "You ain't makin' any sense, kid."
"Yes!" said Bill. "EXACTLY!!" He looked very happy about that. ...Hell. Stan pinched the bridge of his nose.
Miz was covering her face. "Uwu…" This was so fucked up.
Stan glanced over at Miz. "...Can I get a translation from insane-triangle-talk, here?" he asked her, but Bill immediately said, "No!" and made a zipper-and-tossing-away-the-key motion across Miz's mouth for her. (Dipper winced at watching this.)
Miz shrugged. She shook her head slowly and placed a finger to her lips before shrugging again with a helpless expression… and a mildly guilty look.
Stan let out a breath. Damn it. "Is anybody gonna die outta this?" he asked. (And the kids slowly backed a little farther away from the two demons even further.)
Bill shook his head and shifted a bit in place. "No." That was surprising to him, that Stanley had asked. (Did Stanley think he wasn't following the agreement-rules anymore? It wasn't like he didn't know that Stanley wanted most of the things he'd told him to apply to everyone. It was only the priority-order of 'defending against attacks' that was specific to just-them, to Stanley's 'family' -- Bill knew that now. The whole 'not starting fights' and 'not attacking first because that starts a fight' thing was a 'kid'-thing first, not just an agreement-thing; and the definition of mental and physical attacks Stanley had given him was an as-yet incomplete explanation by way of Stanley of what Stanley thought would cause fights in general, not something that applied to just-and-only-and-specifically THEM.)
Miz raised a hand into the air and said, "No dying! Like, the opposite of dying!" (Bill shot her a warning look at this.) Miz sheepishly put her hand back down.
...Okay. If nobody was gonna die, then Stan figured he could probably handle it. Whatever 'it' was.
('The opposite of dying?' Dipper wondered. Did that mean that somebody was going to… be born? He glanced over at his sister, who looked just as confused, so this wasn't something Bill had said anything about earlier during any of her 'science lab' sessions with him at the spaceship. Okay...)
"Is Stanley going to end up in another dimension afterwards?" was what Ford asked of the demon in an almost shaking tone of voice, and the kid looked over at him, almost surprised. The kid tilted his head, and moved his eyes over to Stan.
"Am I?" Stan asked, to both reinforce and repeat the question.
"...Do you want to?" was the demon's reply, and, well, that didn't exactly help.
"Any reason you think I should?" was Stan's next question, and Bill made a humming, almost reflective, thinking sound.
"...That's up to you," Bill told Stan in a more moderate tone. So was the, "I could take you anywhere you want to go," and that told Stan that that one wouldn't exactly be part of the kid's plan... which meant it wasn't part of what the kid was expecting to happen in this whole 'Ford losing him' thing. Okay.
"Grunkle Stan…" Mabel said, as she and Dipper slowly drifted their way across the roof over to him.
Miz had buried her head under a pillow. Her tail was out, twitching in agitation. "Uwu…" she wasn't going to say anything. But it was hard. Like sitting on a juicy bit of gossip and NOT telling 'Ronica.
"I ain't gonna get you to define 'losing me' to me while we're here, am I, kid?" Stan grumbled out. He wasn't exactly surprised at the single shake of the head Bill gave him. Damn. Worth a shot.
"But nobody's going to die," Shooting Star repeated, looking over at Bill. Bill turned his head towards her slightly, a bit confused. Hadn't he just answered that?
Bill tilted his head at Shooting Star, at her rather unexpected (to him) question. "Yes, nobody is going to die," Bill repeated. "That is a thing that I will help Stanley to make sure will not happen." He looked up at Stanley. "While our 'gambling bet' is on." He looked back down at Shooting Star. "...And for a little while after," Bill told her. Then he grinned at her. "It wouldn't be NEARLY as much FUN, otherwise!"
Mabel did not look particularly reassured. Dipper was frowning at Bill furiously, clutching at the brim of his hat.
Miz spoke up softly. "That Stanford--" she pointed at Ford, her head still buried under a pillow "-- might not lose you, it might not happen. Even when it happens. And no one's going to get killed. It'll be up to you. And… and you're a good man," she told Stan. "So it might not happen."
Stan frowned over at her, then looked between her and the kid. And the kid just… shrugged.
"...Tryin' to work me up over nothin'," Stan grumbled to himself, letting out a half-sigh, half-breath for his trouble. He shook his head. "I really don't like your mindgames, kid," Stan told the triangle kid.
"You asked!" Bill told him brightly, with another chittery-laugh. Stan let out another tired sigh and let his shoulders slump, shaking his head.
He raised his head slightly to look over at his brother. "He usually pull stuff like this on you?" Stan asked of his brother, who was still staring at the kid with a very taken aback look on his face.
"...Nothing quite like this," was all he got out of Ford, in a very quiet tone, as he continued staring at Bill.
Miz poked her head out from under the pillow. "So… since that distraction failed, what do we do now?"
"Eh, let them all do their thing with the 'two kids' over there," Bill waved at the pawnshop in front of them. "It's fine!"
Stan shot Bill a disgruntled look. He wasn't gonna completely give up on whatever it was Bill thought he was hiding, but he wasn't gonna obsess over it or anything, either.
"You know, you really didn't think this through, kid," Stan told the kid, as he sat down, and Ford escorted Dipper and Mabel off to the side of the roof -- to help them both grab up their bedrolls and bring them back over to where he was watching the house, to set them up a good distance farther away from the two demon-kids pillow-'nest' than Stan and the kids had all put their bean bag chairs.
That had the kid blinking at him, at least. "You said you'd help me with anything until we're back home again," Stan said, glancing over his shoulder at the kid as Ford slowly settled down next to him on the roof, handing off his own bedroll to him. "What happens if I decide we're not leaving tomorrow night?"
Bill just smiled at him.
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(MizBill Interlude)
Aaaauuuggh! You know that thing where there's this huge spoiler that you know and you just REALLY want to tell someone?! But I can't! I have to keep my mouth shut.
Oh gosh I'm so worried about what's going to happen! I hope it's a happy ending but that's going to be on Stan whether it happens or not. But he's a good man. I'm sure he would be able to accept it. Or at the very least, that he wouldn't abandon that Stanford even after he learns the truth.
Because that would be too sad. Even if Ford is a buttface!
I still wouldn't want him to lose Stan.
That would be too sad.
Am I too forgiving to still want him to be able to be happy even after his insensitive words towards Bill? Actually, once they all learn the truth, it would be like dramatic irony and part of myself actually thinks that would be karma. That Stanford accuses Blue of lying about having a brother? He says something like that to Bill? Well, payback's a bitch.
I wonder if Ford might actually learn his lesson after all this is over? Or would that spoiled brat continue sitting on his high horse?
More than anything, I just hope Stan will be alright. Bill thinks this is going to be great but I don't think he really understands how this is going to make Stan feel. Or at least, how I think this is gonna make Stan feel...
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