He wasn't expecting to hear that. Ford knows a work of fiction that mirrors his life probably exists somewhere or other, but Bill claiming he knows the...
"Are you saying you've met someone who created a work of fiction that has us in it?" Ford asks. "Like the George Lucas to our Starramblers?"
Okay. It's something not impossible with multiverse travel, but very hard to imagine happening. Ford will follow this train of logic, for now. Skeptically, he asks, "How did you make contact?"
He pretended to be possessed? Wow, that's in bad taste, in Ford's previously-possessed opinion.
But, that aside...
The thing that's helping Ford process this most is Luke's universe. Ford can imagine George Lucas, dressed up in Darth Vader's mask and cape, answering fan mail while in-character. He might explain something from Luke's past, and then...
"Did his answers change our reality?" Ford asks. "Or had it always been that way, and he simply explained it?"
It does remind him somewhat of the square and the sphere. From up there, you can see everything stretched out, even the inner workings of it all, and time has only so much meaning. You can look back and look forward, and if you're the one writing it, you can declare what's true and what isn't. It's very literal authority over the--
You know, because you're the author--
...oh.
Is that coincidence? Can that possibly be coincidence?
"IT FELT LIKE WHEN HE SAID SOMETHING IT'D BEEN TRUE ALL ALONG, BUT FROM WHERE YOU AND I ARE THAT COULD MEAN ANYTHING."
Memories are malleable. They both know this.
Bill looks straight ahead, like he's explaining something that'd keep him up at night - if he ever slept. If this conversation wasn't what was keeping them both up already.
"IF HE SAID WE WERE SOMETHING, OR WEREN'T SOMETHING, THAT'S JUST HOW WE'D ALWAYS REMEMBER IT BEING."
There are things Bill is glad no one asked about. Things that he can know are allowed to be just for him, not for display. Bill is exceedingly careful when he talks about his past, his thoughts. If it's spoken aloud, it's part of the narration. It was made by someone else.
He would like to choose his own answers to some things. He would like them to be not censored for audiences or polished to turn a tighter corner on a punchline. If the price of that is never mentioning them... So be it.
If it's true, and that's really how it works, Ford finds that idea unsettling. Bill doesn't have any proof that he and Ford aren't from a universe that matches up with the answers this not-George Lucas gave, but...the possibility that someone can change Ford's past by answering a fan question and he would never know the difference raises some very uncomfortable questions. Selfishly, he's glad it's Bill and not himself that this guy likes to pretend to be: it means questions about him are less likely to be asked.
But how many were? How much about his history might be different from when he started? How much of his past has been scooped out like the guts of a pumpkin and replaced with something new? What about his past is real, and what's altered memory?
Bill wants to become real, not a creation of someone else, because he believes this guy who answers fan questions created him. Bill wants to get to the Authority's dimension, where no one can change his past, and--
--ah. There's the sticking-point. If the leaders of the Interstellar Empire came to Gravity Falls and started a hostile takeover, or even just wreaked havoc, it'd still have to be stopped. He understands the sense of urgency, understands how important it is to get out of this dimension, but he's still leery about letting Bill loose on this new one, because Ford knows what Bill does to dimensions.
And, even if Ford makes it there and Bill doesn't trash the place, will he see his family again? Or will they just be trapped in a lower plane, on a screen, no longer "real?" Is that a sacrifice he's willing to make?
He's going to have to make it. If that dimension has the kind of power over non-"real" realities, Ford can't leave Bill there alone. He has to go.
Ford sits there silently for a long, long moment, thinking all of this over, looking down at his hands.
"Can you prove it? That what happens when he answers questions changes reality as we know it? Or would we only know for sure if we made it to his dimension and gathered data there?"
"NOT HERE, NOPE. MIGHT JUST HAVE TO TRUST ME ON THIS ONE!"
It's said ironically. Bill pauses. His frown twists.
"EVERYTHING WE DO IS SET UP. THIS CONVERSATION IS SET UP."
It's fucked up to try to have an emotional bond with someone like this. They're not real and you're not real and it's just two dolls being nudged together.
Ford gives Bill a dark look at the just have to trust me bit.
Is Bill taking that entertainment angle again? About how they're not here to be redeemed, they're here to be as amusing as possible?
"You really think we're still under--" how should he put it, "--authorial control?" It sounds like Ford's not sure of that. It doesn't feel like anyone's controlling him. There's no way to prove any of this from where they are.
Bill pulls up some grass with one hand, starts absently picking it apart. This isn't comfortable to talk about.
"LOOK, I DON'T KNOW. I'M PRETTY SURE I DIED BECAUSE THAT'S JUST HOW THE STORY WAS SUPPOSED TO END! EVERYTHING ELSE IS JUST ANOTHER BRICK IN THE WALL. IF WE'RE HEADED TOWARDS SOMETHING, IT'S BECAUSE WE'RE SUPPOSED TO BE."
That brings a surge of very real anger out of Ford. He sacrificed for that victory -- Stanley gave up everything -- and it makes him angry that Bill's implying that it was just because it was how some writer wanted it to go.
Ford's temper flares, and for a moment, he looks on the verge of saying more, snapping back -- but then he pinches the brige of his nose and takes a quick breath.
"Alright! Alright. We're both dead, no use arguing about it."
But Ford is deeply resistant to reducing what happened at the end of Weirdmageddon to "just how it was supposed to end." Sure, there's the destiny element, but that's not what Ford was thinking about when he thought Stan's mind was gone forever. It wasn't a trivial thing, it wasn't just a beat in a story, it was his brother.
"I'm still not convinced you're right about this. That it's all just happening because that's how someone's decided it will. But I'll come with you. See for myself."
"What? Of course it does. We were in the Arctic Circle. It was dangerous, I was careless, I told Stan to run -- it's not exactly surprising that it was fatal."
"It felt climactic enough to me," Ford gripes. He feels his opinion matters most here, since he was the one who did the dying. "Besides, the Parallel!Stanley I met in the Bargeyard died the same way. Maybe there's a universe out there where neither of us dies, and it's just the ones who did that got taken by a Barge."
"I'm going to try to find answers," Ford says. "Proof of your theories -- or against them. Whether that comes from the man you mentioned, the Authority, or my own experiments -- I'm going to uncover the Barge's true purpose, and the nature of our reality."
If he's wrong, Ford will still go to the Authority for answers about the Barge. Shake them down a little, if that's what it takes. If it really is an incompetent redemption ship that clumsily grants wishes, well, Ford can work with that.
And if Bill is right, about everything, then...Ford is going to have a lot of reframing his understanding of existence to do. A whole whole lot. And then he'll have to figure out what's next -- for himself, and for his family.
"Maybe I would if I knew more for sure. But right now, there are too many unknown factors. I can't say what I'm going to do, exactly. Not yet."
It's true. He doesn't know if he's making the biggest mistake in existence by letting Bill off the Barge, or if the Authority really does deserve what's coming to them and he should be bursting through the wormhole into their world guns blazing. He doesn't know if meeting this creator figure is going to change everything. He doesn't know what it will mean to his family.
Ford reminds himself that Bill was going to make it there one way or another, with or without his help, and at least this way he's close enough to the situation to be able to make the call of whether or not to...
Mm.
Ford knows what he doesn't want to do. He knows he'll probably have to. Bill, at least, is not an unknown factor. He knows that hoping it doesn't come to that is probably useless. He also knows he doesn't want to talk about it.
He had used the way Bill thinks about this as a game to his advantage before, in the Bargeyard, in a successful distraction and play for time. It wouldn't have worked if Bill had had other priorities. This place, this dimension with the Authority and, let's call him the Director, is what both Bills have been after. They'll do anything to get there.
It won't be win or lose. If Ford tries to get in Bill's way, it'll be kill or be killed.
When it's time, he can't afford to hesitate. Bill won't. If Ford decides to move, he'll have to move. He feels a surge of apprehension, and a nervous sort of discomfort. He doesn't want to do this. Even though he knew this was how it was going to be from the beginning. Good thing what Ford wants doesn't matter here!
"That makes two of us," Ford replies. "It never was for me."
It doesn't sound to Ford like the first time Bill offered something like this. That time it had been a play for a formula that would have set Bill loose on Ford's dimension, and Ford hadn't believed a word of it. This time, though...it almost sounds like Bill's serious.
Ford glances over at him. As always, the look on Bill's face is hard to read. It's still a little bit new to him, after 30 years, that Bill wants him around enough to make compromises for it.
But, as always, it doesn't matter. Even if what Bill wants is for Ford to completely abandon his principles and come with him, that won't happen. It looks like they're in the awkward position of neither one really wanting the other to be dead, but heading for a situation where they won't have a choice except to kill the other. Too bad that's entirely unavoidable and there are no alternatives.
"I'll go with you as far as I can," Ford says.
He wants answers. But he knows how this is going to end.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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Met the guy.
He wasn't expecting to hear that. Ford knows a work of fiction that mirrors his life probably exists somewhere or other, but Bill claiming he knows the...
"Are you saying you've met someone who created a work of fiction that has us in it?" Ford asks. "Like the George Lucas to our Starramblers?"
Okay. It's something not impossible with multiverse travel, but very hard to imagine happening. Ford will follow this train of logic, for now. Skeptically, he asks, "How did you make contact?"
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Bill snaps.
That's how easy it is.
"IT WAS TRUE! JUST LIKE THAT! YOU REMEMBER AT THE END OF THIS MOVIE WHERE THE EARTH KID JUST SAYS THE QUEEN'S NEW NAME AND THE APOCALYPSE STOPS?"
Like that kinda.
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But, that aside...
The thing that's helping Ford process this most is Luke's universe. Ford can imagine George Lucas, dressed up in Darth Vader's mask and cape, answering fan mail while in-character. He might explain something from Luke's past, and then...
"Did his answers change our reality?" Ford asks. "Or had it always been that way, and he simply explained it?"
It does remind him somewhat of the square and the sphere. From up there, you can see everything stretched out, even the inner workings of it all, and time has only so much meaning. You can look back and look forward, and if you're the one writing it, you can declare what's true and what isn't. It's very literal authority over the--
You know, because you're the author--
...oh.
Is that coincidence? Can that possibly be coincidence?
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Memories are malleable. They both know this.
Bill looks straight ahead, like he's explaining something that'd keep him up at night - if he ever slept. If this conversation wasn't what was keeping them both up already.
"IF HE SAID WE WERE SOMETHING, OR WEREN'T SOMETHING, THAT'S JUST HOW WE'D ALWAYS REMEMBER IT BEING."
There are things Bill is glad no one asked about. Things that he can know are allowed to be just for him, not for display. Bill is exceedingly careful when he talks about his past, his thoughts. If it's spoken aloud, it's part of the narration. It was made by someone else.
He would like to choose his own answers to some things. He would like them to be not censored for audiences or polished to turn a tighter corner on a punchline. If the price of that is never mentioning them... So be it.
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But how many were? How much about his history might be different from when he started? How much of his past has been scooped out like the guts of a pumpkin and replaced with something new? What about his past is real, and what's altered memory?
Bill wants to become real, not a creation of someone else, because he believes this guy who answers fan questions created him. Bill wants to get to the Authority's dimension, where no one can change his past, and--
--ah. There's the sticking-point. If the leaders of the Interstellar Empire came to Gravity Falls and started a hostile takeover, or even just wreaked havoc, it'd still have to be stopped. He understands the sense of urgency, understands how important it is to get out of this dimension, but he's still leery about letting Bill loose on this new one, because Ford knows what Bill does to dimensions.
And, even if Ford makes it there and Bill doesn't trash the place, will he see his family again? Or will they just be trapped in a lower plane, on a screen, no longer "real?" Is that a sacrifice he's willing to make?
He's going to have to make it. If that dimension has the kind of power over non-"real" realities, Ford can't leave Bill there alone. He has to go.
Ford sits there silently for a long, long moment, thinking all of this over, looking down at his hands.
"Can you prove it? That what happens when he answers questions changes reality as we know it? Or would we only know for sure if we made it to his dimension and gathered data there?"
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It's said ironically. Bill pauses. His frown twists.
"EVERYTHING WE DO IS SET UP. THIS CONVERSATION IS SET UP."
It's fucked up to try to have an emotional bond with someone like this. They're not real and you're not real and it's just two dolls being nudged together.
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Is Bill taking that entertainment angle again? About how they're not here to be redeemed, they're here to be as amusing as possible?
"You really think we're still under--" how should he put it, "--authorial control?" It sounds like Ford's not sure of that. It doesn't feel like anyone's controlling him. There's no way to prove any of this from where they are.
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"LOOK, I DON'T KNOW. I'M PRETTY SURE I DIED BECAUSE THAT'S JUST HOW THE STORY WAS SUPPOSED TO END! EVERYTHING ELSE IS JUST ANOTHER BRICK IN THE WALL. IF WE'RE HEADED TOWARDS SOMETHING, IT'S BECAUSE WE'RE SUPPOSED TO BE."
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"Don't talk about what Stan did like that."
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"I'M CURRENTLY DYING AGAIN BECAUSE OF WHAT STAN DID, SIXER!"
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"Alright! Alright. We're both dead, no use arguing about it."
But Ford is deeply resistant to reducing what happened at the end of Weirdmageddon to "just how it was supposed to end." Sure, there's the destiny element, but that's not what Ford was thinking about when he thought Stan's mind was gone forever. It wasn't a trivial thing, it wasn't just a beat in a story, it was his brother.
"I'm still not convinced you're right about this. That it's all just happening because that's how someone's decided it will. But I'll come with you. See for myself."
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"I DON'T REALLY GET WHY YOU'RE DEAD, SPEAKING OF. IT DOESN'T FIT RIGHT!"
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"YEAH, BUT KIND OF ANTICLIMACTIC AFTER THE WHOLE APOCALYPSE, RIGHT?"
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"WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO WHEN WE GET IT WORKING?"
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Bill props both hands behind his point. "THEN WHAT?"
What are you going to do if he's wrong?
What are you going to do if he's right?
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If he's wrong, Ford will still go to the Authority for answers about the Barge. Shake them down a little, if that's what it takes. If it really is an incompetent redemption ship that clumsily grants wishes, well, Ford can work with that.
And if Bill is right, about everything, then...Ford is going to have a lot of reframing his understanding of existence to do. A whole whole lot. And then he'll have to figure out what's next -- for himself, and for his family.
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Bill knows what he wants to do.
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It's true. He doesn't know if he's making the biggest mistake in existence by letting Bill off the Barge, or if the Authority really does deserve what's coming to them and he should be bursting through the wormhole into their world guns blazing. He doesn't know if meeting this creator figure is going to change everything. He doesn't know what it will mean to his family.
Ford reminds himself that Bill was going to make it there one way or another, with or without his help, and at least this way he's close enough to the situation to be able to make the call of whether or not to...
Mm.
Ford knows what he doesn't want to do. He knows he'll probably have to. Bill, at least, is not an unknown factor. He knows that hoping it doesn't come to that is probably useless. He also knows he doesn't want to talk about it.
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Ring says: true.
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He had used the way Bill thinks about this as a game to his advantage before, in the Bargeyard, in a successful distraction and play for time. It wouldn't have worked if Bill had had other priorities. This place, this dimension with the Authority and, let's call him the Director, is what both Bills have been after. They'll do anything to get there.
It won't be win or lose. If Ford tries to get in Bill's way, it'll be kill or be killed.
When it's time, he can't afford to hesitate. Bill won't. If Ford decides to move, he'll have to move. He feels a surge of apprehension, and a nervous sort of discomfort. He doesn't want to do this. Even though he knew this was how it was going to be from the beginning. Good thing what Ford wants doesn't matter here!
"That makes two of us," Ford replies. "It never was for me."
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Bill props his hands behind his point again and crosses his legs, looks up at the fantastical stars.
"YOU SHOULD JUST COME WITH ME, Y'KNOW? I'M GOING TO FIGURE ALL THIS OUT."
A party that never ends, with a host that never dies. One of us, all-powerful.
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It doesn't sound to Ford like the first time Bill offered something like this. That time it had been a play for a formula that would have set Bill loose on Ford's dimension, and Ford hadn't believed a word of it. This time, though...it almost sounds like Bill's serious.
Ford glances over at him. As always, the look on Bill's face is hard to read. It's still a little bit new to him, after 30 years, that Bill wants him around enough to make compromises for it.
But, as always, it doesn't matter. Even if what Bill wants is for Ford to completely abandon his principles and come with him, that won't happen. It looks like they're in the awkward position of neither one really wanting the other to be dead, but heading for a situation where they won't have a choice except to kill the other. Too bad that's entirely unavoidable and there are no alternatives.
"I'll go with you as far as I can," Ford says.
He wants answers. But he knows how this is going to end.