Nobody Forgets Bill Cipher

The Topic of Baking

Mabel pulls me and Yule into the kitchen and sits us down at the table, then taking her own seat. Everyone else is already seated, including the other Pineses, the Ramirezes, and even Pacifica.
Dipper still looks pretty ticked, though he's cooled off a significant amount. The corners of his mouth twitch, and his hand is intertwined with Pacifica's. His brow furrows as he watches me take my seat.
"Alright, everyone," Mabel says, seemingly being the one in charge of our meeting. "I know we've had some..." she pauses, thinking of the right word to use. "Mishaps," she decides on. "However, we're together now to discuss the events of last night and this morning." She shifts her gaze to her brother. "Calmly," she clarifies.
She then turns to face me. "Bill, I think it would be best for you to start. Tell us about your dreams you've had invaded by the henchmaniacs. This time, leave nothing out," she tells me sternly.
     "Fine," I give in. "But believe me when I tell you, you know it all now. The future vision was the only thing I kept from you all." My statement is met with firm glares. "Alright, then," I sigh, then retell the whole story again.
     When I finish, the room dissolves into solemn silence. Nobody has anything to add until Yule says, "I'm alright, guys, really. We can handle this. Things... Things don't have to work out like we've seen that they might. The future is up to us, isn't it?"
     People hum in agreement, though the uncomfortable aura in the room does not disappear.
     "So, there's really not anything we can do about any of this? All we can do is wait for the people who can do something?" Mabel says and grimaces as the weight of our entire situation shakes her.
     I finger the chain around my neck. "However much I want to deny the fact that we can't do anything... we just can't. I don't see any other way."
     "When you trust someone," Mabel says thoughtfully, "you believe that they'll do what they need to do with no worries or doubts on your end." She looks around the circle of us seated about the table. "By the looks on everyone's faces, I can tell that none of us trusts the Society very much."
     Soos nods his head. "It's just weird that they are the ones doing all the work when it's our problem. Shouldn't we dudes be doing something, too?"
     The group looks to Ford. When he has nothing to say, they look to me.
     I twitch and snap, "I'm doing all I can, okay?" Suddenly embarrassed by my outburst, I hastily say, "No, sorry, that isn't true. I don't know what to do." I sigh and clear my mind. "Okay, everyone, can you tell me about your dreams last night, if any of you experienced visits from my henchmaniacs?"
This, even in our heavy situation and Dipper's angry mindset, causes Dipper to look over at his sister and give a small smile. What could possibly be so funny?
"Let Mabel go first," Dipper insists. "Hers is by far the most amusing, if the only humorous one." I nod in agreement; I'm curious to hear what this story might hold.
     "My dreamscape is a pretty great place when I want it to be," Mabel explains. "I may not be able to lucid dream, but I'm still in my right mind. So when those demons showed up, boy was I ready!" she exclaims with a proud grin growing on her face. "I met that lava lamp guy, he looks really cool. I also saw the Hectorgon thing with the bushy mustache, and also this guy with no face or something, Zanthar, I think? Anyway, they were kinda mean and rude, but I've dealt with enough of those people in my life that I knew just what to do!" Mabel comments with a sparkle in her eye.
Of course she would know a way to turn things around. That's just like her. How could I have ever thought anything less of her? Who am I to worry?
"So I just started talking to them! I didn't fight or really counter what they had to say. All I did was veer off onto obscure bunny trails whenever I had the chance. They seemed kind of confused, but always mindlessly went along with anything I had to say that even remotely connected to anything that they had been saying before. Eventually we got onto the topic of baking, and I taught them how to bake triple melt cream puff cupcakes! Even in my dreamscape, they found idea of the treats delicious! I promised them we could learn to make chocolate dandies tomorrow night, and they nodded, agreeing, slightly baffled." She laughs suddenly. "The moment they remembered they that they were the ones supposed to be messing with my head instead of I, them..." She smiles and closes her eyes in remembrance of the moment, then pumps her fist down in accomplishment. "Their faces were priceless. Not a moment later, I woke up."
She opens her eyes and immediately looks to me, pride making her face glow. A smile of my own fills my face. "You handled things perfectly," I remark, impressed. "You handled it all in your own Mabel-y way. I'm proud of you." This statement causes her smile to grow wider, though I thought even that was impossible.
Even Ford has a small smile on his face after his niece's story. It soon fades into more serious comments from him, though. "I am proud of how you took your dream too, dear, but we have to realize that that only solved our problems, at least on your end, for one night."
"We may have won a small battle," I add in agreement, "and that's certainly something to celebrate. We just need to remember that there's an entire war ahead of us."
Mabel's smile gets a bit smaller, but I can see that this doesn't faze her much. "It's all right. I get it."
"However," I smirk, "if your triple melt cream puff cupcake recipe is really good enough to sweep a few intergalactic dream demon criminals out of their senses, you've got to make us some."
Mabel's eyes gleam with excitement. "Of course!"
And, again, we are relieved of our troubles for the moment.