Chapter Text
Ford sighed as he rubbed his eyes after holding the door to the shack open for his brother. He was glad to be home to settle in again after being on the sea and the road for so long, but the nightmares that had plagued him for the last few nights of their trip made him feel paranoid to be back in Oregon again. Before the fiasco with Bill's call for attention, he knew the metal plate prevented Bill from being in his mind, that the nightmares weren't real and that Cipher was dead, but ever since Stanley got his memory back, he couldn't shake the feeling that Bill might come back too; It was just about the worst days of anxiety in his life when he'd found Bill's book, confirming that Cipher was still alive in some form. But after laughing with his family at the weak manipulation attempts in it and Bill's lack of actual power, as well as leaving notes for any others who found it, he felt........good. Whole. He hadn't felt whole in a while. It was strange. He'd gotten a message after, from the staff of the apparent forced therapy dimension his former muse was being held in. Apparently, the cursed book he'd been angsting about had been a rule violation Cipher did during "Arts and Crafts" time. Of course, Cipher would do something like that. He'd never been one for rules......
But it'd been months since then, he'd gone on the adventures/research missions with his twin they'd dreamed of as kids, he had a family that loved him and life was better than he'd could've dreamed of in his youth. He was so, so happy....... and yet he was also about ready to pull his hair out from the frustration of getting that crawling feeling of paranoia again. He'd known he was safe before, and then he'd found that damned book. He'd spent 30 years hunting Bill down. His life had revolved around that triangle for over 30 years. He frowned as he went down to the lab, pulling out his newest journal and polishing the recently taken notes. (Yes, he knows he'd spent too much time in books......but there was too much information they'd come across on their travels to not record it somehow. And he was getting better at not using the journals to self-isolate, he'd let Stanley write some entries and even managed to catalogue more of his personal feelings and thoughts without tearing out the pages or hiding them in invisible ink.) It was over, he knew it was over, that strange therapy dimension had confirmed it was over, but every vaguely triangular shape in anything made him tap his foot in anxiety. He just swore he kept feeling this energy, some instinct that-
He froze when he saw the letter on his desk.
"MESSAGE FROM: THE THERAPRISM.
Greetings, earth⁴⁶ling! We believe you, Stanford Pines, are fairly familiar with the entity William "Bill" Cipher. (We deeply apologize once again about that little containment issue with his unauthorized scrapbooking project)
Great news! Given where he started, he has made tremendous progress in our program, but recent developments indicate a change in tactics is needed. We know you are experienced and well-equipped to contain dangerous entities, especially Mr. Cipher, and that he shared many more personal details with you than any other entities he's interacted with, as well as in a much shorter time frame. He has also mentioned you frequently in recent therapy sessions. We believe his reformation would be greatly facilitated by a probational transitional reincarnation, and for ease of execution of this, you have been selected to take our patient in as a ward. Rest assured, his powers will be stripped and he will be placed in a near fully mortal body, so he should not pose a significant threat. Thank you for your cooperation, and Praise the Axolotl!
P. S. The Theraprism has provided a number of moral and mental health books as a resource for you to aid us in his rehabilitation, but they are not required reading. You need only to house him and document his behavior. He will be sent to your lab in in his new body in approximately 30 minutes."
Well, shit.