(AN: Sorry, it's been awhile, I had some stuff to take care of, this is the only apology you're getting)
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So after my horrible embarrassment and subsequently hiding under the couch at home for a few days. ("Bill what are you doing under there! Get out, I wanna watch my shows without you poking me!")
I was sent to go cuddle with Xanthar. Because that's always what happened when something upset me. I couldn't say this was a bad course of action. But I was a little bored and wanted to take my mind off the awful scarring (emotionally) thing that just happened. I leaned against my friend's side and pulled out my Com.
It was a good thing my chatroom with Mary was on a separate layer than my other galactic social media. It meant that I could check up on her whenever and it wouldn't have been hundreds of years since the last time we interacted. I felt bad for not talking to her more, but I got distracted with things. Heck, haven't even been on my own chat rooms in a while. Still, I wondered how the little twins were doing, the younger versions from that new dimension. The last texts I've read from my human high school friend Mary were… worrying. Something about the twins having some kinda issue? She wasn't very clear. I had only glanced at it. Responding would sync me into her Time, and I didn't want to do that until I was ready to open that particular can of worms. And… It looks like it was worm time. Oh boy!
[Miz]: Hey, what's up Mary? Long time no speak~ how are you? The connection's working right? I know there's some out of time sync happening, I think my blog's going into and out of sync with stuff. But anyway~ how are you?
[Mary]: I'm fine? Are you sure you're not busy or something? I'm not sure what aliens do when they're not in school. I've not been bothering you, right?
(Mary had been really worried about what had been going on lately at school. Miz had been really quick to respond for awhile there, within a couple hours or so -- or sometimes just right away like they were passing notes in class or something. But she hadn't gotten any responses from Miz at all in awhile -- just a really long silence -- and she'd wondered if her alien friend had finally either gotten tired of her, or didn't want to deal with or know about any of this stuff with the twins. Except she'd thought Miz and her brother and the twins had all been friends...)
[Miz]: What? Can't check up on a friend?
[Miz]: I've been kinda busy but I finally got some downtime to relax by myself. I've been working on a bunch of stuff. Building my own dimension for one. Dad finally let me try. A whole dimension all by myself!
(Mary was worried as she read, because… um… that sounded cool? But like a lot of work, maybe. Should she really be bothering her alien friend with this stuff? She already felt kind of bad that she'd been messaging her, hoping that her brother would come back and help out with things, since Miz always sounded so busy and had already written that she couldn't come back for a while, so a visit again anytime soon was almost definitely out...)
[Miz]: But I'm taking a break and what better way to relax than checking up on my friends? I missed you~ I'm sorry I haven't responded, but it's been a few thousand years over on my side and responding syncs up our Time for a brief moment, and then I have to disconnect or else you'd have already grown up and died of old age by the time I get the next message out. Damn time dilation!
(Mary blinked at her screen. ...Okay, wow. Miz had let her know that time was passing differently before, and how there was gonna be some delay, but a thousand years? That sure explained a lot!)
(Wait. Did that mean that… Miz was a thousand years older, now? It had Mary worrying a bit and wondering if she was being a good friend. Because if they could only talk every thousand years to catch up on stuff… how did that even work? Even pen pals in other countries overseas that only wrote letters once a month were super-hard, she knew from a few other friends.)
[Mary]: I'm sorry! I didn't know the time differences were so big. That's crazy!
(It made Mary feel a little sad… She wasn't really sure what to feel. This meant that writing to Miz was kind of more like... a message in the bottle, tossed into the ocean, or something?)
[Miz]: Don't worry 'bout the time thing, I'm used to that sort of thing with my mortal friends. Always have to be careful with them. And it makes me treasure your texts all the more. You've got so little time and you still used it to send me a message, that's something I'll always cherish. But enough sappy stuff XD How're you enjoying the Com by the way? Have you found the Search function yet? You can type in any question and get several answers. Don't use it to cheat on tests though~ But also, that last thing you sent… I'm a little worried. Heck, I was worried even when I had to leave. Is Lee doing ok? Is Mini-Ford? I don't think things were going well for them, the last I checked.
[Mary]: Um, the Com is okay. I can write notes to myself in a text to myself? I do that sometimes so I don't forget stuff like new art supplies for class, ha. I won't use it to cheat though, I promise!
(Frankly, putting that much effort into cheating felt like at least as much work to Mary as doing the studying itself. So why would she even bother to do it in the first place? She'd get what she'd get; that was just fine with her.)
(Mary paused for moment, thinking about the twins. Well, it sounded like they were synced up at least for right now, and Miz had asked. It sounded like she really meant it, too -- wanting to know. So it should probably be okay to say something kind of more straightforwardly this time, right?)
[Mary]: Yeah, things are pretty… messed up over here.
(An understatement, Mary thought.)
[Miz]: ….brother said I shouldn't go back for a few different reasons, not yet, but… if it's really bad, I could pop in and check on them. I left a piece of myself there, in a vessel I made, gonna see if I can use that as a beacon to Door straight there instead of having to go through brother… oh he's gonna get mad if he finds out >.> don't tell him shhhhh
[Mary]: Why would he get mad?
[Miz]: He's worried about my safety and gets upset when I do things that he deems 'reckless' and 'dangerous'
(Mary nodded in agreement at Miz's assessment, as she thought about what she'd heard only a couple days ago, about Miz's brother beating up Crampelter in the hallway. ... Probably on Miz's behalf. Knowing Crampelter, he'd probably been trying to flirt with Miz; she was pretty, and… well, Miz tended to do weird things to boys just by walking past them in the halls. Wasn't her fault; boys could be really stupid sometimes. --And Mary usually didn't care about this stuff, all the social butterfly madness, since everything always seemed to work out okay somehow in the end, which always left her feeling like it was usually just a bunch of drama over nothing. ...Well, almost always. Because this time… This time, things felt… off. And…)
[Mary]: Um. Maybe let me explain first before coming over here and maybe worrying your brother? Or, um, try to explain? I'm not even sure what's going on myself. I'm not all that great with this stuff, but my other friends don't really want to talk about it. They keep telling me to just leave it alone, but… it's really messed up.
(Maybe it really was nothing and she was getting it wrong. Mary just wasn't sure, anymore.)
[Miz]: Ok. I've got time. I've synced us up on your time currently, so I'm here to listen/read. What's going on with the twins?
(Mary pulled in a deep breath…)
[Mary]: Okay, so… The first thing is, Lee and Ford actually seem okay and kind of happy about things? I mean, Lee doesn't seem like he thinks anything is wrong, but… I think it really really kind of is. It's really messed up, and I don't know why Lee isn't complaining or unhappy or anything about stuff. At least, he doesn't seem to be, but I don't know. And that's what kind of worries me. I don't really know how to ask.
(And truth be told, Mary was actually a little afraid to ask, in case Lee said something to his brother about it. Because with what was going on between the two twins and Carla...)
[Miz]: Lee cares for his brother's happiness more than his own, because he doesn't value himself, no matter how much I tried to tell him that he was important. I still need to find some way to help him through that.
(Mary stared down at her phone, thoroughly confused. She didn't understand what Miz had just written to her.)
[Mary]: Um… what?
[Miz]: Lee, thinks that his own life and comfort and feelings, are worth less than his brother. He puts himself down, constantly. Thinks of his own existence as only for the sake of Ford. It's really fucked up.
(Mary stared at the screen for a while, and then something hit her like a bolt out of the blue. She started typing quickly.)
[Mary]: Wait. So Lee kind of thinks of himself like Ford's servant?
(Because it wasn't as if Mary had been completely not paying attention to those boring reading assignments in English class; and what Miz had just written sounded a lot like those servants or retainers or something for some noble house. --Which was also super-screwed up considering that they were twins, not from other completely separate families, not a prince and his steward, and not living in one of those 18th century English novels or something, but…)
[Miz]: That's a less disturbing way to say it. It goes much deeper, and more fucked up. He cannot live without Ford. He cannot even consider being his own person. He loves his brother more than life itself and will (and can, and HAS) given up everything he is and has, if he thought it would help his brother out. I blame their father, and a lot of other factors, for this mentality. Everyone always told Lee that he was the 'lesser' twin, and he's internalized that in an awful way that I really want to fix. It's not right. There's not anything remotely ok about him thinking that way.
(Mary didn't quite get the 'He cannot live without Ford. He cannot even consider being his own person.' stuff there -- the first one made no sense at all, but maybe that second one was some kind of twin thing? But the rest of it struck a strong chord with her and what she'd been seeing and hearing, and… it was a little like a small epiphany, with the way Miz had written the rest of it. That there was an actual explanation behind everything for what was going on there, that sort of explained pretty much everything… it helped her to relax, at least a little bit. Stuff started to make sense. There was a reason for things. She wasn't crazy.)
[Mary]: Oh. Okay, that makes a lot of sense, now.
(Then Mary realized how that might sound, and she started typing again in a hurry.)
[Mary]: I mean it's horrible, but it makes sense. I mean, I don't like it, but… At least I know what I've been seeing, now? I thought I was going crazy!
(Because to Mary, it hadn't made any sense at all why he would be putting up with any of it, let alone seeming really kind of happy about things, the way they were now.)
(Mary still didn't really get how Carla had gotten dragged back into things, though. But… okay, she kind of understood why Carla had sort of given up on dating either of them awhile ago, now, if this really wasn't some kind of new thing, and had actually been going on for a while. Because Carla was the type of person who would have figured that out pretty quickly. ...At least, Mary was pretty sure that was what people had been saying about her, that she'd tried out dating one twin, then the other one of them…? She wasn't exactly friends with Carla, herself, and the rumor mill in school here was brutal, so she wasn't about to go inserting herself into that mess -- not if she could help it. Especially with the way Carla was going around acting lately, after this whole thing had blown itself wide-open...)
[Miz]: Yeah…. And it hasn't really changed much even in the future. Long story, alternate, parallel dimension, Stan spend 30 years of his life for the sake of saving his twin. So, is mini-Ford being even worse to Lee than he already was? Despite how happy Lee seems to be about it?
(Mary grimaced to herself a little bit. Because with the way Lee was acting these days? She could kind of almost see Lee doing something like that, and then not even getting thanked by Ford for it later, if Ford thought that the whole saving him thing was something small instead of something large.)
[Mary]: ...Kind of? I mean, I haven't exactly been talking with them lately. Not the same way you and your brother were. I've never really been friends with them. It's more like Ford is acting super smug about something, and it's kind of creepy almost? Not about Lee, but… I'm not really sure what he's so smug about? But I'm pretty sure it's not Lee, he almost seems to ignore his own brother sometimes, except when he doesn't. And also the whole servant kind of thing. Lee almost seems to be kind of waiting on him hand and foot, sometimes.
[Miz]: I really want to head over and smack ford upside the head for being a fucking bitch...
[Mary]: That's just it. He kind of is, but he isn't? It's like, Lee is going out of his way to do all of these things for him, and Ford doesn't seem to appreciate it at all. But it's not like he seems to be asking Lee to do any of it for him either, or expecting it or anything, because he always seems kind of mildly surprised or something, every time that Lee does stuff for him? At least for the big stuff. I mean, there was something about spare clothing, or getting his clothing for him or something… which I guess is kind of small, because it wasn't like it sounded hard to do, but it was really really weird hearing them talking about it. ...Except, sometimes the small stuff seems sort of like it might be large, or at least is something that somebody normally wouldn't do for anybody else, that they should just be going and doing themselves? Like, it sort of feels like it's large, even though it isn't a big deal, I guess? But I've never heard of brothers doing stuff like that for each other before, not even the twins.
(At least, Mary thought the twins had never done stuff like this for each other before. But now she wasn't so sure… Maybe they had when they'd been living in the same place, and just hadn't needed to talk about it with each other at school before? ...And wow, that thought just made the whole situation feel even creepier.)
[Miz]: ….huh. Ok…. that's… uuuurgh what are you doing Lee??? Fuck everything, of COURSE we've managed to screw things up even worse than the first time around. Almost makes me appreciate that Stanford for actually being a half-way decent human being-- goddamn mini-Ford COULD become a better person if Lee just STOPPED coddling him and spoiling him like this! ….shit… almost think the two of them getting separated would have been better...
(Mary blinked at this, because the two of them were separated? Wasn't that kind of the problem?)
[Miz]: Okay so what exactly is Lee doing for his brother? I kinda get the servant thing, I can see him trying to do anything he can to make his brother not-mad at him, after their fight, which… yeah… did you know they had a pretty big fight right before me and brother had to leave? Lee pointed out that his brother's stupid science fair project never would have worked as advertised anyway-- I'm getting off track. Essentially Lee's smarter than he thinks, and mini-Ford wasn't all that happy about it.
[Mary]: I mean, they are separated and stuff? Lee's still at the boat, I think? That's where you all were staying, right? He's talked about a boat? But Ford's back at their parents house. And Lee's been doing things like… okay, so the clothing thing. Ford said something about needing to get it all from the boat, and Lee said, no problem, he'll load up his car and bring it back to the house for him? But that's like… he made it sound like Ford wasn't gonna have to do anything at all, that he would just do all of it for him? And-- wait, his science fair project didn't work? People have been saying-- okay, you remember how you said that somebody sabotaged Ford's science fair project?
(Mary was on pins and needles here on this one.)
[Miz]: I meant separated as in SEPARATED, in the original timeline, Ford blamed Stan for breaking the project and cut off pretty much all contact with him. For over 10 years. Stan spent that time living on his own and got into all sorts of awful situations. Things weren't good, and I'm not saying that I want Lee going through that, because it was awful! Stan nearly died on multiple occasions and had no help or support from his asshole family who didn't really give a shit about whether he was alive or not. Least I don't think so. I mean, if Ford had cared at all, he would have contacted him earlier.
(Mary stared at this for awhile. And after she'd picked her jaw up off the floor…)
[Miz]: And yeah, someone messed with Ford's project, but even if they didn't, the damn thing wasn't a perpetual motion machine anyway--
(Mary shook herself -- right, Stan was the name Lee preferred, but also the older, other old man with them. Who was supposed to be Lee from that other future timeline thing? She started typing quickly.)
[Mary]: Wait. Did Ford and Lee know about this? The original timeline thing? And the someone messing with it thing?
[Miz]: I…. don't think they know the whole story. Older Stan didn't want to stress them out about it. But they DO know that the project was sabotaged.
[Mary]: Okay, but I thought you told me that Lee didn't break it?
[Miz]: He DIDN'T! But that didn't stop Ford from being a goddamn bitch and BLAMING him for it! And making Stan blame HIMSELF for it! Because Ford's the smart one, he MUST be RIGHT! So Stan MUST have broken it! Even though the fact of who broke it or not wouldn't have changed the fact that the damn thing never WORKED like he claimed it did in the first place--
(Mary felt a bit dizzy at all this.)
[Mary]: Okay, well, just so you know, it's all over the school right now that Lee broke Ford's project, and that he maybe had a co-conspirator or something helping him out. A couple days ago, Ford moved back home -- that was when Lee talked about doing the whole giving him his clothing thing back? And the same day the whole school was in a huge uproar about the whole 'Lee broke Ford's project' thing.
[Miz]: Goddammit! Lee didn't TOUCH the damn thing. He wasn't even anywhere NEAR it! Let me guess, their father blames Lee for breaking it, not even considering that he had nothing to do with it. How'd Carla feel about it?
[Mary]: I don't know about their parents, but Ford keeps saying to people that Lee broke it, to anyone who looks like they'll listen to him. I don't know why the teachers believe him, but it's going around that someone saw Lee do it, like a witness or something. I don't know what's up with Carla, or how she feels about any of it; we don't talk. But I've seen Ford talking with her a little bit in the hallways since then, and he's always smiling, and she's super cold to him but still talking. That really really cold kind of angry that most boys just don't pick up on at all. But she's still talking to him whenever I see him go up to her, even if it's a really short conversation and she walks away quickly. I don't know what's going on there.
[Miz]: ...I really want to smack mini-Ford. He KNOWS that Lee didn't! I told them that Lee didn't do it! He's just being a fucking asshole now. And yeah… Carla hates his guts. Especially after he used her and broke her heart. But I might have misunderstood that part, hell if I know how human romantic relationships worked….
[Mary]: Well, Lee's saying that he isn't talking, which is pretty much guilty around here. And he looks a little guilty, too, when he says it? But… that just seems kind of wrong. Except a bunch of other people are saying somebody saw him actually doing it, and… Wait, so Carla really did date Ford first before Lee? Or did you mean that Lee used her? I remember hearing something about that, but she was only really out there a lot about dating Lee right before she started dating that new guy she just broke up with about a week ago.
[Miz]: Long story short, she mistook Stan for Ford when they first got together, and she didn't realize she had the wrong twin until it was too late. And she kinda misunderstood and was confused about who she was dating and a bunch of drama happened and Lee doesn't know and Carla doesn't want him to know since she started actually liking him, and I think she thought that he'd get mad if he found out she was only with him because of Ford-- anyway! Human romance is bullshit and I don't get it! She got mad at Ford and wanted to get back at him and his brother for using her and Ford claims she was the one at fault for mistaking him for his brother to begin with-- and they're twins! Humans already look really similar even if you didn't take the whole 'twin' thing into account so why does he blame her for being confused about who was who??? I certainly wouldn't be able to tell if they were wearing each other's clothes! And guess what Stan was wearing when he and Carla first got together? Ford style clothes!
(Mary stared at this for a solid minute and a half, then practically facepalmed at the drama stuff there. That was way, way, WAY too much for her to unpack here, let alone try and make somehow coherent. She was pretty sure some of her friends would have a field day with this, whatever this was exactly, but she wasn't about to tell them and get Carla mad at her over it, let alone Lee or Ford. There were rumors about what Lee had done to Carla's last boyfriend's ride, and Ford was just… scary. She stayed well out of all that stupid high school drama whenever she could. It all made absolutely zero sense to her, too; she didn't know why everybody practically insisted on acting so crazy all the time about all this relationship stuff… Good thing she was waiting 'til community college, she figured. (Maybe this was part of why she and Miz got along so well?) ...She blushed at the ending bit about the two twins looking similar, though.)
[Mary]: I'm totally guilty on that front; I've been having trouble keeping them straight. It, uh, took me a whole day to figure out which one was which again, after all the 'Lee broke his project, no really' drama, because Lee's wearing glasses all the time now? --It's not my fault, though. I went to a different middle and elementary school; I didn't know which one of them had the whole extra fingers thing! But it's hard to get a good look at their hands most of the time, and I don't trust just looking at their clothes and how they dress either, since that's really easy to change. But their hair actually looks kind of different, so I've been going by that at a distance for the two of them. Lee has his zits in a bunch of different places than Ford does on his face, too.
(Mary tried not to giggle at the last bit. She liked to think that she was a halfway decent artist -- or at least had a good eye for detail. And peoples' complexions didn't clear up overnight, so since she was seeing them in school pretty much every day…)
(But yeah. The two of them really did look alike unless you looked at them really carefully. They acted different, sure -- but that could be faked. Theater group and 'playing a part' was a thing, and she'd heard rumors before that sometimes Lee dressed up as Ford and vice-versa for cheating on tests and stuff. She didn't know how accurate that was, but… twins pretended to be each other just to mess with people for fun sometimes, right? She hadn't even thought that Lee needed glasses, until he started wearing them almost all the time now, pretty consistently, and she realized that maybe one of the reasons he'd been sitting up so close to the front most days was so that he didn't have to squint at the board -- not just to sit up close next to where his twin brother was...)
[Miz]: See?! Even other humans have trouble with it! Why does Ford have to treat Carla like she was some kind of stupid idiot for mistaking them for each other?! Heck, that was part of the reason why she felt enough resentment to actually go with her stupid revenge against the twins and sure I get why she's mad but Lee was innocent! He doesn't deserve anything that happened to him from the fall out of all this!
(Mary read through this, trying to think it all through. She didn't really get it. If Carla was mad at the both of them, then why was she talking to Ford at all? And why did she look sick when she looked at Lee sometimes, like she wanted to throw up -- not because she thought what he was doing was disgusting, but… the way Carla looked at Lee was more like Carla just… couldn't look at him, almost. Like she almost couldn't bear to watch what Lee was doing. At least, that was how it had seemed to her. And it had been uncomfortable for Mary to watch herself, sure, but not that almost heartsick-looking kind of bad. She'd seen that on other people before, but more for somebody who broke up with somebody to get back together with somebody else, except the person that they broke up with that other guy to be with was dating somebody who was just horrible for them? So seeing Carla like that… that had made her think that maybe Carla still liked Lee, and wanted to get back together with Lee now after breaking up with that other guy with the now-totalled at the bottom of a cliff-face van. But if she wanted revenge on them both or something, then that… didn't really fit.)
[Miz]: --People don't give a shit about his fingers. Ford needs to learn that his fingers aren't fucking important. No one gives a shit. Like, at all. Not anymore. And he can't use them as some crutch to hold his resentment against 'normal' humans forever. Fuck, mutations are 'normal'. That's how evolution works! Fuck his father for making such a big deal of it. Fuck the bullies for giving him shit for it. Fuck Ford for buying into it!
(Mary winced at reading this. She hadn't really interacted with the twins a lot before Miz and her brother had joined the class for those couple days there, but this sounded about as messed up as the whole thought process behind that 'Lee as a servant' thing, too.
[Miz]: ….sorry. Just… really annoyed at them all right now. mini-Ford, Lee and Carla-- and especially Filbrick! He's so fucking blind he can't even realize that Lee has worth as a living person. Lee's not an idiot. He's almost as smart as his brother, even if it doesn't seem like it. Because everyone always told him he was the 'stupid' one so he believes it too. I've made him do his homework, he usually doesn't bother, and you know what? Lee gets all his math problems right. All of them. Without any cheating or asking his brother for help. All he needed was me poking at it until he got off his butt and actually did it. I've explained to him that all math is still the same math-- but he still doesn't understand that he's not stupid and--
[Miz]: Hang on, is Lee still doing his own homework? He needs to graduate! He better… I'm gonna have to talk to him and by talk I mean lecture, if he isn't--
[Mary]: Oh, wow. Miz, how do I write a zillion laughs on here? Because that last one about Lee being smart and his homework? Wow.
[Miz]: What?
(Mary was practically shaking her head and giggling as she typed.)
[Mary]: Okay, so. This kind of happened today? But… --Okay, no, I should start at the beginning. A couple days ago, Lee quit both the wrestling and boxing teams. Everybody got pissed off, but he said he needed more time to take more after-school jobs. To make more money to support Ford with something, I think? He started to say something, then just started telling everybody that he needed the money for 'the boat and stuff', whatever that means. But today -- wow. I overhead the teachers in the lounge, because I was late to lunch from my extra art studies class? And you want to guess what they were yelling about?
[Miz]: ….is he actually doing his homework correctly? *hopeful face*
[Mary]: Ohmygosh, it is soooo much better than that! So, half the teachers were all on Lee's side, and the other half were all 'he has to be cheating!' Except some of them were saying that he was doing the stuff in class? And they couldn't figure out how he was cheating, and they wanted to know how some of the others had caught him at it? But some of the other teachers were all like 'no, he probably wasn't cheating', and I heard one of them just drawl out, 'oh good, he's finally applying himself' all dry like and happy. I think it might've been the one science prof?
[Miz]: Oh. Well that's ONE piece of good news.
[Mary]: No, no, you don't get it, it's not just the homework. I found out in art class today -- Lee wants to graduate early, so he can do full-time jobs and stuff for 'way more money' or something? So he's been asking all the teachers to give him all the in-class problems and all the readings and the homework assignments up front, and he said that he'll do the assignments and stuff in class so they can watch him and tell he's not cheating or anything. I think he had the whole selling pitch down pat by the time he was talking to our art teacher. Ms. Talia said that there wouldn't be enough time in class to do all the artwork, even if he read up on all the techniques on his own and practiced them first? But Lee said that since he isn't doing wrestling or boxing anymore, could he stay after until she leaves and work on it then? And they sort of compromised on him coming in for some of his independent study periods instead.
[Miz]: ….well we did have a whole 'you need to graduate' thing going. Older Stan never got to graduate and wanted at least one version of him to do so. I'm glad Lee is finally giving up on pretending to be stupid just to make Ford feel better. I wonder if that'll make Filbrick realize that Lee isn't some idiot failure that wouldn't even be able to graduate like he kept telling him he was?
[Mary]: Forget pretending to be stupid, he's like crazy-smart or something! He's been getting all-A's the last couple of days; some of the teachers have been accusing him of cheating a whole bunch of times the last couple of days. It's just the wanting to graduate early thing here that's new today. Which is just crazy -- even Ford isn't trying to do that!
[Miz]: Yes. Lee's always been a genius. He's mini-Ford's twin after all. He just always thought that he was supposed to be the 'stupid' twin so he never bothered to do his work. And their father didn't help at all by straight up making Lee think that he was the stupid one and giving him even less incentive to actually apply himself. See why I hate their father?
[Mary]: What the heck? What does that even mean? I mean, Lee's doing stuff way faster and he's obviously a genius or something, but... I thought Ford was having to do 'special' assignments or something? And I thought setting up stuff for him was hard for everybody to do? There's always been some kind of thing at school every year over what he's going to be doing in school that year, anyway. If Ford's such a genius too, then why didn't he just graduate early and go off to college already? I mean… that makes no sense at all. Did their parents just not want them to graduate early, or something, and now Lee can do it because he's not living at home with his parents anymore?
(For awhile there, Mary had thought that maybe Ford was a bit slow, and had only been sitting in on the advanced classes because the teachers were better and could explain things better to him. It wasn't until the whole brouhaha over the science fair project, and word about some college admissions people coming by just to see his project and nobody else's, that she'd started hearing the word 'genius' being thrown around when it came to him.
[Miz]: It means that everyone allowed Lee to believe he was stupid, and that everything he ever did was wrong, because no one told him that he was actually doing them right. Lee's very stunted in his learning because of this. What he's doing right now is JUST catch up. If he'd been given a chance when he was younger, someone to work with him to help him achieve his potential-- auuugh it makes me so frustrated to think about how far back Lee was held just because no one cared enough to help him! Sorry, probably my Muse-side acting up. It does that when I meet people who could achieve great things and just… don't, because of a lack of faith in themselves and stuff. And mini-Ford doesn't graduate early because… ah… I guess I don't know why he hasn't bothered. I'd like to think it was because he wanted to stay with his twin, but considering mini-Ford doesn't care about leaving his brother behind, I'm not sure why he hasn't. Maybe his parents had financial reasons? I didn't bother to check.
(Mary stared at this for awhile.)
[Mary]: Well, Ford's still not graduating early, and it sounded like most of the teachers practically want to quarantine Lee alone in a room for most of the day with two teachers watching him while he's doing his work, so…
[Miz]: Yeah that's a lack of faith right there.
[Mary]: Some of them think he was cheating this time, and a bunch of them sounded like they were pretty sure they had some kind of evidence that he'd been cheating off his brother for years, on homework and on exams and stuff in class. But somebody called them out on it, that they never gave him zeros on the stuff, because they couldn't actually prove-it prove it? And then it sounded like things started getting pretty ugly, so I got to lunch before anybody saw I was eavesdropping at the faculty lounge door there. So… it's kind of a mess. Was he actually cheating before? Do you think that he's cheating on this stuff now?
(It didn't seem like he was, but… maybe if the twins swapped clothing or something? Mary wasn't in most of their classes -- really just homeroom and art class -- so she didn't know for sure if they were or not, but… it had definitely been him in art class, not his brother.)
[Miz]: He did use to. Because he was too lazy to do his own work >.> because he got bored by how EASY it was and thought that if he was stupid, then it shouldn't be easy, and therefore, he MUST have misunderstood it. So Lee stopped trying at all. I had a talk with him about that. Glad to see he's finally doing his own work. It's so much faster just to do it himself.
[Mary]: Wow. So… he actually really does know how to do all this stuff, but just cheated for years and spent a bunch of time trying to make sure he couldn't get caught? That sounds like a lot more work than just doing it.
[Miz]: yes! That's what I've been saying this whole time! It's so idiotic! And this ALL happened because everyone told Lee that he was the 'stupid' twin. They made him BELIEVE he was stupid. And Lee never had any incentive to believe otherwise. But now, if what you're saying is true, he's decided to stop playing around and just do the work and graduate, not because he wants to, not because he realized he's smart enough to do so, but ONLY because he wants to work full time so he can devote the rest of his life to supporting his brother financially. …..can't say I'm surprised, but I'm still mad. I would be less mad if mini-Ford actually appreciated any of Lee's efforts, but knowing him, he just takes it for granted.
[Mary]: But if he was doing his own work at least sometimes, he should've been getting good grades back on that stuff, right? He does okay in art class when he tries stuff out, sometimes. Not on the outside assignments, but on most of the physical things like pottery and wood whittling and stuff? His drawings always look like those crayon drawings you see out of little kids, though -- it's actually kind of funny.
[Miz]: Like I said, Lee didn't bother to try, if he was 'stupid' and 'never going to amount to anything' then why should he even bother? I'm being super sarcastic, in case you couldn't tell. And guess who I'm quoting here? His good for nothing father who never cared enough to even get to know his own sons. Also, Lee's a hands on kind of kid. He works best when he's got some tactile sense for it. Drawings are Ford's thing. Mechanics and sculpting? Construction? That's Lee's forte.
[Mary]: Huh. ...Do you think I should talk with Ms. Talia about that? I know some of the art assignments can be swapped out for other stuff. She lets me do that a lot. If he's better at sculpting and doing other things with his hands, then... maybe he can't get out of the drawing assignments because they can only be swapped out with other types of drawings, but he could at least get extra credit by doing more assignments. He could probably do that could bring his grade up, maybe. Art isn't optional; if he gets a D or worse, he'll fail out, and his drawings right now are way less than D work. I'm not sure he can improve them that much that quickly. Not when he's starting from little kid stick figures and stuff.
[Miz]: Yes please. If you can do that I'd be really grateful. Thank you! I'm so worried for Lee. Wish I could be there. But since brother brought future-Ford (it's complicated) back, and he's afraid that 'Ford might try something with me, I'm not allowed to head back >.> in the off chance that 'Ford might find me. I told brother that I could handle myself, but he's kinda over protective and just doesn't want such a person being anywhere near me.
[Mary]: Well, Ford's been kind of creepy, and kind of… I mean, I can understand why your brother doesn't want you to be around Ford alone. Carla doesn't look super happy about being around him, any time he walks up to her, and… I wouldn't want to get on his bad side, anyway. The way he's been acting lately… I don't know.
[Miz]: I can guess why. Also, I suspect he might be black mailing her at this point >.> Carla kinda hinted that he did something similar back when she was dating Lee… but I don't understand human romance so I'm not gonna try digging deeper into that.
[Mary]: Well, that would explain why she's acting so pissed off about him, if he's blackmailing her about something. But what could be so bad that this blackmail thing you're talking about is even worse than her wanting whatever relationship revenge thing that she wants on them, though?
(Because Mary had seen plenty of people fall on their figurative swords over relationship drama at her high school. Fights, suspensions, all the rest of it. Even in middle school, it had been pretty bad. She couldn't see Carla putting up with Ford over anything right now unless it was downright apocalyptic, and maybe not even then.)
[Miz]: Carla's revenge on mini-Ford didn't work the way she intended. In both timelines, it ended up with a child disowned and thrown into the streets. But somehow… they both ended up with Stan/Lee being blamed over it.
[Mary]: Wait, Carla has something on Ford's and Lee's parents?
[Miz]: More like Filbrick's a dick all on his own and reacts to things the way he does because he doesn't love his children. If he did, he wouldn't have disowned them over something as stupid as a broken science fair project that doesn't even work- and never did! And only a blind-ass idiot wouldn't be able to see just how much Lee loved his twin, would do anything FOR him and still IS doing just for him--
(Mary was just confused now.)
[Mary]: I thought those other guys got guardianship of them or something, though? Wasn't there paperwork?
(She thought she'd heard something about that.)
[Miz]: Yeah, Stan from the future came here to try and fix this mess. Hopefully Filbrick doesn't mess with what Stan set up. Geez this is all sorts of fucked up.
[Mary]: Well, I think they might've re-registered Ford. Not too sure about that, though. Somebody saw them all coming out of the office a few days ago. First day you and your brother stopped coming to school again, when you left?
[Miz]: Huh. So… let me get this straight. Mini-Ford threw Lee under the bus with their parents, claimed that Lee had broken his project, just so Filbrick would direct all his hate and blame on the younger twin, just so mini-Ford would be allowed back into the house, at the cost of making Lee's life worse by having him take the blame for something he didn't do, but will have their father hate him for, forever?
(Mary frowned a bit. Miz had let her know before what the general situation was, that she and the other old guys who had kind of 'adopted' Lee and Ford had left, too. But...)
[Mary]: I don't know about being worse. But Lee's living all alone now, if the older timeline guys left, too, and haven't come back. I don't know where this boat is. I'm kind of worried about that. If it's just him living all alone and Ford is staying back with their parents again, then… there really aren't any adults around at all for Lee?
[Miz]: Yeah… we all had to leave, this isn't our dimension. As much as I might have wanted to stay. Huh… I'm gonna need to set up a way to contact Lee somehow. Yeah, he's alone without any adults. Shit. what time is it where you are? Date? Like, how many days since we left?
(Mary told her.)
[Miz]: Okay… fuck. Brother time synced the dimensions, so they technically count as 'one' so that means that there's a version of me in the past, which is the future-timeline running around. And I can't overwrite my own existence… so I can't actually come over there right now.
[Mary]: Version of you in the past?
[Miz]: It's complicated. A past version of the Me that's talking to you right now. She's still there, in the dimensional set somewhere, living in the future timeline with the older Stan. And so long as she's there, I can't come over. Because then there would be two Mes existing at the same time.
[Mary]: ...So you're talking back in time to me? From a thousand years from now someplace else? And your brother is there with you?
[Miz]: Yes. And no. Brother stayed in your dimensional set. I had to leave. Because he doesn't want me even being in the same dimensional space as 'Ford. He really, REALLY doesn't trust that man.
[Mary]: But you were here for awhile? If he didn't want you around Ford, why was he okay with you going to school here?
[Miz]: Mini-Ford isn't as bad as he would become as an adult. He's still capable of changing, of becoming an actual person. Unlike adult 'Ford who's… kinda the worst. And not about to get any better.
[Mary]: Wait. That was the science guy, right? I heard about that. Didn't your brother get super-mad about him trying to teach science class at the school here a couple days ago?
[Miz]: Ok, that science guy isn't 'Ford. He's 'that Stanford'. There's a third timeline that he was grabbed from. I know, it's confusing as fuck.
(Oof. Too many similar names. ...Okay, that wasn't the most important part, though. Mary bit her lip and thought about this hard.)
[Mary]: Okay, so you can't come here until… sometime when your brother's okay with it. Can he come here? Do you… I mean, if he does stuff differently in this dimensional set while past-you is still here, is that a problem? Or did it already happen? I don't know how time travel works.
(Really, any book or movie Mary had ever seen on it had been super-confusing.)
[Miz]: Not until the 'past' version of me leaves. And also when brother says it's safe. But, I could come anyway, and just… don't let brother know… >.> could I sneak past his watch? Probably. Is he gonna find out? Yeah he probably would. But… could brother go to you? Yes. Definitely. He could do that. But does he know how to fix things? Eh…. brother understands human interactions worse than I do.
[Mary]: So… you're sure that he didn't come here when past-you was still around here someplace.
[Miz]: Huh. I can't say he didn't. He might have. Wouldn't put it past him. He seemed to really like Lee. So I could see him checking up on him. But whether brother would realize something was wrong or not is a different story.
[Mary]: ...Okay, so he could maybe check in on Lee, if Lee needs it. Um, in the future for me and Lee. And that would be the past more than a thousand years ago for you now, in the past for you, as long as he's sneaky about it and you didn't find out. Or, uh, don't find out when it's past-you.
(Mary let out a breath of consternation, shook her head, and continued.)
[Mary]: --Is there any way to let your brother know that things are weird without letting past-you know about it? Bill might not understand human stuff too well, but if Lee knew he wasn't alone, I guess I'd feel better about it. I was kind of hoping you could get me in touch with your brother maybe. --Not that I don't like talking to you about stuff! But you seemed super-busy, and I wasn't sure...
[Miz]: My texts don't have to be time synced. I could text him and it'd show up on his device. And he doesn't have to show past-me that text. But getting you in touch with brother shouldn't be hard. His connection number is… hang on while I look that up. Urgh~ numbers~ hate memorizing them. Like phone numbers but even worse because they're much longer!
(Mary giggled a little at this.)
[Mary]: I've looked at the chatroom thing. Those strings that the 'profile' thing shows are super-crazy-long! Please don't tell me that they're supposed to be words!
[Miz]: Yeah that tends to happen. Oh, found it. [001110000011011000110001001100000011011000110100] his username is [William Cipher ▲] or… it should be? Ah… there was another Demon with almost the same name. Like I think his was [William ▲ Cipher]. But I think that's Will-from-the-outside… anyway, don't confuse my brother for the other Demon.
(AN:01011001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01100001 01100011 01110100 01110101 01100001 01101100 01101100 01111001 00100000 01110100 01101111 01101111 01101011 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01110100 01101001 01101101 01100101 00100000 01110100 01101111 00100000 01110011 01100101 01100001 01110010 01100011 01101000 00100000 01100110 01101111 01110010 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01100001 01101110 01110011 01110111 01100101 01110010 00100000 01100110 01101111 01110010 00100000 01110100 01101000 01101001 01110011 00111111 00100000 01011001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01110000 01110101 01110100 00100000 01100001 01100001 01100001 01101100 01101100 01101100 01101100 01101100 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100001 01110100 00100000 01100101 01100110 01100110 01101111 01110010 01110100 00100000 01101001 01101110 01110100 01101111 00100000 01101100 01101111 01101111 01101011 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01110100 01101000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01110101 01110000 00101100 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01101101 01110101 01110011 01110100 00100000 01100010 01100101 00100000 01100100 01101001 01110011 01110011 01100001 01110000 01101111 01101001 01101110 01110100 01100101 01100100 00101110)
[Mary]: Okay, I'll try not to confuse them? I guess I could always ask which one has you as a sister, if you aren't the other one's sister, too? ...Um, where do I put in this code? The chatroom friends page?
[Miz]: Yeah that works- go into the top, there's a button for [add friend] and it lets you input the serial number and username to send them an invite to the chat room.
(Mary followed her instructions and did that. Then she asked belatedly, after seeing the 'invite sent' prompt pop up.)
[Mary]: Um, he's not going to be upset that I'm trying to contact him this way, right? I probably should've asked if he's busy too. Or was busy. Um… was he?
[Miz]: Busy is relative. And you're my friend. I feel more bad that I didn't contact you much sooner >.> I always feel like a bad friend since I go years without seeing some of them, 'course, to them, it's only been a few days or something… but still!
(Mary winces. 'Busy is relative' wasn't exactly an answer, but… well, he hadn't seemed all that crazy in class. He had made things interesting, though. That said...)
[Mary]: I feel bad about you having to go so long without being able to talk with you! A thousand years between messages is way too long!
[Miz]: Eh, I'm used to it. It doesn't mean I've forgotten you and like I said, it makes me treasure our time together even more. Thank you. For being my friend.
(Mary didn't know how to answer that at first, and she blinked as a new icon appeared at the top of the page.)
[Mary]: Umm...
[Miz]: Did he respond?
[Bill]: WHAT IS THIS THING? WHAT?
[Miz]: Oh hi! This is the chatroom I set up for Mary. Hello! Good to see it works. I know it's not the same as the chat rooms in your dimension, but it still works! Hello from the future btw, this is future Miz! Don't let past Miz know, shhhh~
[Mary]: Hi, Bill! Um, hi from the past? Maybe? Um, here where I am, it's... (Mary checked the time again, then wrote both the date and time down for herself right then into the chat window and sent it to him.)
[Miz]: My past, your present. Time kinda sucks sometimes.
[Bill]: Ugh. That took awhile to decipher. --You're lucky I've been looking for-and-at ALL of the signals and messages coming through this way, and have been FILTERING them all, not just BOUNCING them!
[Miz]: Paranoid as usual :p
[Bill]: Paranoia ISN'T. You have NO IDEA how many things I have NEEDED to bounce-and-filter since then. LOTS TO DO!!
[Miz]: Wow. Have other people been trying to get in?
[Bill]: Most are just persistent messages from the three-who-are-not-in-nearly-as-much-of-a-fight-anymore, not bodies-or-Minds that are trying-to-be-incoming. I'm being DIFFICULT ON PURPOSE from that 'silly string' connection-incoming, just so nobody over there gets any BRIGHT IDEAS that are REALLY very dim!!!
[Miz]: Oh. the tesla-guys? I think I saw a little about them on your blog.
[Bill]: Yes. They are mostly-probably fine for now. But they LIE. So, maybe not! HAHA!
(Wow. Mary felt a little lost and humbled by all this. It sounded like they really were doing important stuff out there in the alien world. And now she felt bad for bothering them with the Pines twins' situation. It was so inconsequential compared to things like creating a dimension or handling a bunch of people sending alien messages or securing some kind of travel-border or something.)
[Miz]: Well, just asking to know, are you in contact with little Lee? I'm kinda worried about him. Mary says the minis have been acting weird.
[Bill]: HM. Miz, what is your timecode SPECIFICALLY? --This connection is as secured as I can make it. Hard to See, even if you're Looking for it!
[Miz]: Oh, well its--
(And Mary's head started hurting from the long list of numbers and… percentages(?)... and weird symbols and things that Miz messaged into the chatroom.)
[Bill]: Ah. This is fine. --Mary, I am talking to you from NOT-local-time-same. Our dimensions are NOT synchronized any more. I had to desynchronize them, FOR REASONS. I am in-the-future relative to you by a few weeks. I have scheduled times when I send-and-receive things in-between them; this is fine. --Miz, your past-self is not here anymore. --Miz and Mary, I have already talked several times to Lee in both of your pasts. Lee has a phone, too; I gave him one before I left. I will talk to him more in my future. --Miz, I may be a past-me relative to you-over-there-now; I do not need to make sure that past-you-here does-not-know that future-you-there is talking to me now, because past-you is no longer here! I escorted you back to your 'set a few days ago. Have you seen me respond to anything on your blog between past-you-here and now? Don't tell me what you wrote or I wrote; tell me when I wrote to you first-next? I need to know, so that I won't change things by writing back sooner, just in case.
(Okay. That was… kind of a relief, Mary guessed?)
[Miz]: A few things, time stamp…
(Mary didn't look this time as the next timestamp timecode thing came through, just in case.)
[Miz]: I'm relieved to know you've got contact with Lee. Is he… okay? What Mary said seemed… worrying.
[Bill]: Timestamp recognized. Noted. Also: INTERESTING. It looks like my starting to write things to your blog resynchronized things with your texting and chatroom here, too! I have just started reading and responding to things on your blog this morning; I received and responded to a series of texts from you on Stanley's phone only a few minutes ago. --Lee is fine. He will probably be less-fine when… I am VERY certain how this all will play out. Lee will do things for him. Lee will also take care of himself. --Miz and Mary (I have read the above), what are you MOST worried about with Lee? It is fine for us to talk; I have been avoiding using my Sight much, and I was VERY careful not to tell Miz anything while doing things for Lee, because Sixer would NOT like the added-interference -- he didn't like MINE very much right before we left! So things will not change with our talking backwards-in-time to you Mary relative to Miz and me! I have-and-will make sure of this!
(Mary let out a breath. Well, that was a good thing, that she could just ask whatever she needed to, right?)
[Mary]: He's alone. That's… probably kind of dangerous. And, is he eating okay and things? Things are really weird between him and his brother, too. It's a little creepy to watch. I'm… kind of worried that Ford is taking advantage of him, or… I don't know. Do you know that Lee is starting to act like some brainwashed servant of his or something?
[Miz]: I'm worried that Lee's gonna overwork himself trying to support Mini-Ford. And that Mini-Ford is going to take advantage of him. Also, Filbrick's being a dick again! I mean, that's nothing new, but Lee actually cares about his family...
[Bill]: --Mary: yes, Lee is alone. He is not living with his twin or his mother or his father or his much-younger sibling. Also, Lee is NOT alone; I have been sending things to him sometimes. The boat is safe; no-one can physically attack Lee there. He is more-safe now there-at-the-boat than he was living with his parents. Because magic. Lee is eating all of the things at all of the meals. Stanley made sure he would have enough money for that before we left. Things are not 'weird' between 'Ford and Lee, they are progressing as I expected them to. Lee will be fine. I will make sure of it, so Stanley does not have to.
(That didn't exactly put absolutely everything at ease, but she did feel herself relax a bit after what Bill had written. So she made sure to write back to him with an:)
[Mary]: Okay, thank you!
[Bill]: --Mary: you can ask him these things yourself, you know. Little Lee does not bite. Much. HA! --He does not bite girls, though. Never.
(Mary blushed a little bit. "It's a little hard to talk to him, though," she muttered to herself, looking down at her phone. And then, as if almost by prescience...)
[Bill]: Or you could NOT talk to Lee, too! Maybe you did-and-WILL, or maybe you did-and-will NOT! Who can say? Not me! Yes? I am not doing any of the saying here, HA!
(Mary sighed. She wasn't sure if that was a 'yes' or a 'no', but… maybe that was the point of the whole thing? That she just do whatever she would have done… should have done? Was supposed to do, except she'd talked to future-versions of two of her friends, and then...? --Oh, this was giving her a headache.)
(Mary stared down at her phone, and then she smiled and let out a little huff of breath, because... you know what? To heck with it! --Bill had just said it was okay, that he had taken care of any time things to do with this… that could've been done with this, already... so why worry about it? So she'd just do what she wanted! Same as usual.)
(Mary unconsciously relaxed a bit more after making up her mind on all of this, too.)
[Bill]: --Miz: Lee will not overwork himself. At least one of his teachers will not let him graduate early, No Matter What, and he knows what will happen if he does not go to school during the weekdays when school is in session. Filbrick is being Filbrick; 'Ford and Lee are taking advantage of that. Lee does not care about Filbrick anymore and has already refused to go back to the pawn shop 'even if they paid him'; this is progress.
(Mary winced a little at this. Because that kind of made it sound like Lee had been the one doing all of the disowning here, not the other way around.)
[Miz]: ….no one is safe living with Filbrick… but it's good that Lee is… physically fine. Is this progression between them… something that Stanley will approve of?
(There was something about the way Miz phrased that question that made Mary sit up and pay attention. By Stanley, she meant the older version of Lee. Ah. Yeah, would he be okay with what was happening with his younger self?)
[Bill]: Don't know; not asking. Stanley does not care as long as Lee survives and 'Ford survives and they both do not end up starving or dead. Probably. But I have BIGGER PLANS than that! Obviously. Maybe!
(Mary looked at that a little askance. 'Big plans'? What the heck? ...What would the dimension-creating aliens think were 'big plans', here?)
[Miz]: Ah… I don't think that's… well… I mean… maybe get a 2nd opinion? I don't think Stan knew something like this would happen? That mini-Ford would purposely blame Lee for the project being broken? That's… not good, right? I mean, Stan had that hanging over him for over 30 years, the fact that he was blamed for it, and wasn't the whole point of knocking that Stanford down a peg, all about proving that Stan hadn't broken it?
[Bill]: If I ask because you asked me, then that means I will be changing my Mind! I already decided-and-planned not to ask Stanley at all before this chat-conversation here and now in my present and your future-past. And I don't change my Mind ever. I am Mind, and I will NEVER change! Too late!
[Miz]: Ah. Ok. Well, maybe think about asking for some other reason, then? Or I could do that myself once it's safe for me to come back.
[Bill]: Only if I think I NEED to! >:D
[Bill]: ...did I do the little-face right? I did do the little-face right, yes?
(Mary coughed to herself. As usual, these two were a laugh-riot, and she hadn't realized how much she'd missed listening to the two of them until just now. ...Wow. They'd only been gone for a few days here, too. And Miz was a thousand years older...)
[Miz]: XD ok fine~ You did the little face right. But you could also make it ( ` ω ´ ) as well. But I'm glad about Lee too. As long as Lee is doing ok and not gonna die in a ditch, get arrested or kidnapped by the mob--
[Mary]: Excuse me what?!
[Miz]: -- then it should be fine~
[Bill]: Mary: I did the little face right. Miz made another not-so-little face. Miz is glad about Lee's current state-of-living and -house and -food and -schooling. There are MANY ways a person living on their own can DIE, and New Jersey has MANY Mob families that are VERY active Mob in the area. Little Lee knows better to get 'mixed up with' them, though. And if THEY don't know any better, WELL… I'LL just have to STEP IN then and EXPLAIN it to them PROPERLY, WON'T I? HA!
(Mary blinked for a moment at Bill's reply, then when she realized that he had just tried to be helpful by re-explaining everything that Miz had just written, she let out another laugh, too. ...Though it was a little more nervous than she'd maybe wanted it to be, because while Miz's brother was really funny in what he said and did sometimes, the Mob was no laughing matter.)
[Miz]: Yeah, as long as Lee doesn't get caught up in that. I don't think he's old enough to chew his way out of the trunk of a car yet.
[Bill]: There will be no-NEED for chewing himself out of car-trunks when I'M done with him! HA!
[Mary]: There's so much I want to ask, and I'm very sure I don't want to.
[Miz]: ….probably better than you don't. Because I'll answer.
[Bill]: SAME!
[Mary]: Not gonna ask, then.
[Bill]: HA!
[Miz]: I probably shouldn't ask more about the current going-ons, don't wanna mess with the timeline too much, so… what IS the end goal you're trying to do with Lee? I kinda got a feeling you wanted something from him.
[Bill]: Ask me about this LATER. Not with the past-Mary in the MIDDLE of the conversation. --Talking about little-Lee BEHIND HIS BACK? RUDE!!!
[Miz]: I guess XD
[Mary]: Should I be worried?
[Bill]: NO. Lee will have ALL of the choices. ALL OF THEM. That is good, yes?
[Miz]: I think so. Choice is good. Informed choice is better. Is he informed?
[Bill]: I KNOW so. And yes. 'Informed' choices, I am working on this, with him. Lee LIKES being informed, HA! >:D
[Mary]: ...Okay, I guess it's fine, as long as he gets to choose what he wants to do.
[Bill]: He will choose what he wants to do, yes. He can-and-will choose MANY, MANY times, over and over, as well again, ALSO! He can choose the SAME thing, or make DIFFERENT choices. And he will know that he gets all of the choices, because I will TELL him so DIRECTLY and then he will know it! IT'S FINE!
[Mary]: ….okay. That sounds good?
[Miz]: Yeah that's good :D
[Bill]: Anything else you want to KNOW right now, that I can WRITE to you?
[Miz]: So~ owo ~ have you gone through any… ah… this is you after our last text conversation, yes?
[Bill]: First-and-last-for-now text conversation using Stanley's-then-my phone, yes.
[Miz]: Yes, that. Also, as an update. You were right about me needing my glasses. Damn devil has a charm effect going on around him passively.
[Bill]: DO I NEED TO MURDER HIM FOR YOU.
---