To Feel Your Feathers

Party With the Government

Not much more progress was made on the portal that night. Decoding a small message in the corner of Journal 2's blueprint led me to flick three more switches, resulting in a panel opening above us to reveal a large screen. Five white boxes glared at us, the center container writing out Auto Scan before spewing out various bits of information that neither of us could fully understand.

A machine behind us beeped while spewing out binary numbers, my eyes squinted as they fell on them. Where have I seen something like this before? "If we can finally pull this off, it'll all have been worth it." Stan wrapped an arm around me, pulling me into his side and out of my thoughts. A smile tugged at my face, "Think you can keep it cool around the kids?" Stan raised his eyebrows, turning around and staring straight at the photo of the kids he brought down here sometime last month.

Stan scoffed at my suggestion, turning away from the photo and grabbing one of Ford's old gloves. "Yeah right. We've come this far. Who could possibly catch us now?" Stan pulled the 'MAX POWER' lever, immediately causing the portal to absolutely blind us with light. Through squinted eyes, I made my way over to the switch and flicked it back down. "Stanley! We gotta wait till the portal is ready and have enough fuel before we flick that!" I scolded him as he blinked away the spots in his vision.

"Ha ha, sorry toots. I got a little too excited." Stan shot me a sheepish smile. "I'm excited too, but we can't do that until it's ready. The government could be watching, and that's bad news for the both of us!" Stan lowered his head, hand reaching up to rub the back of his neck. The shame he felt was clear on his face. I sighed, placing a claw on his shoulder.

"Sorry.. I'm just a little stressed by it all." Stan reached up and took my claw in his hands. "It's ok, I am too. Looks like we both need to keep our emotions in check." We stood there for a moment, staring into each other's eyes and smiling. My eyes drifted back to the desk and onto the journals.

"What're you going to do about Journal 3? I'm sure Dipper's going to ask for it back in the morning." Stan turned around to look at the aforementioned book. "Shit, good call. I'll head up to my office and start making copies." Stan retrieved the book before making his way towards the elevator.

"I'll be here." I called back to Stan as the doors closed, reaching for Journal 2. Now with a mug of coffee and book in hand, I sunk down to the floor. My back leaned against the desk as I flipped through the book's pages, taking sips of coffee while reliving the memory of Stanford experiencing blood rain for the first time. Sadly, the coffee did nothing to stave off sleep, as it got harder and harder to focus on the cursive writing before me.

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

I jolted awake for the second time this morning, head whipping around to the source of the noise. Apparently, Stan had returned to the lab to write more notes about the journals, as he had a sticky note stuck to his forehead. "Oh right... showtime." He mumbled to himself, rising to his feet and tripping over me. "Jeez feathers! You picked the worst place to fall asleep."

"Good morning to you too, Stanley." I grumbled from my spot on the floor, rubbing the sleep from my eyes. "Aren't you a delight to wake up to?" Stan laughed at my retort as he rose from the ground, getting a good look at me. "Yeesh! I know you're a harpy and all, but there's no need to have your hair look like a nest." I carded a claw through my wig, fingers snagging in the knots. "Says the man who smells like wet cat food." Stan shuddered at the thought, immediately reminding him of Lazy Susan. "Don't remind me of my date with that woman."

With a laugh, I rose from the floor, joints crying out in pain. "See you in an hour?" I called after Stan, who was in the elevator with our empty mugs from earlier in the morning. "Call it a date and I'll brew another pot."