Alright, so they're not marching into battle right away. The claws go back
in. For now.
She turns, eyebrow raised, when he says there's a 'precaution.' That it's a
spell. And it's Bill's plan. That automatically puts them at a
disadvantage, no matter how well Ford knows Bill, or how much he's changed.
"Let me get this straight," she says, looking him directly in the eye, and
ticks off points on her fingers as she recites them. "Bill Cipher came up
with a plan to create a portal through reality to the world that the
Authority are from. There's a strong chance that everyone here is fictional
there. The contingency is a spell that turns imaginary things real."
She huffs out a sigh, and lowers her hand, the points covered. "I
understand that protects us from being ... written out of existence,
or into our own demise, but ... have you considered all of the things that
Bill can imagine? Or the rest of us?"
She's not lecturing him, even though her tone is firm. She just wants to
make sure that she understands this correctly, and that Ford has thought
through all of the possibilities. Her own nightmares aren't kind, and she
would hate to see them made manifest on the barge -- again. "I'm not trying
to talk you out of it," she assures him. "I just want to make sure that
he's not ... hm. Trying to find a loophole, somewhere. Even if no one can
really get hurt, that doesn't mean Bill won't try to find a way to escape."
"I know." Ford tells her this with gravity. He has considered this very, very carefully. "I questioned him extensively about it, in terms that were as straightforward as I could make them. He tried to weasel out of a lot of it. But the truth ring caught a lot of what he tried to misrepresent. By the end, I verified that I knew everything relevant to the operation.
"You see, he...Bill and I go back a very long way," Ford explains. He considers briefly mentioning the attachment Bill has developed, but thinks better of it. "He knew that if he lied to me about what this spell did, I would immediately start trying to undo it, and he couldn't count on my help on the other side of the portal. So, we negotiated: no casualties, and in exchange for my help, he's agreed not to harm anyone who isn't directly related to the Barge."
He sighs.
"I know that it's no accident that the spell that ensures we'll be able to confront the Authority gives Bill the physics-bending large-scale chaos he wants. But Bill has been planning to get to this dimension for years. He's seen the man who wrote our show. And after what happened in the Bargeyard, he lost confidence in the Admiral to get him there. He's very old, very patient, and incredibly cunning. He was going to find a way off this ship sooner or later, and at least this way I'm there. To negotiate.
"Also," Ford adds, "Steve Rogers knows the plan, and I've given him a containment unit that's worked on Bill before, when he had all of his powers. If the Authority is on our side, or if anything else goes wrong, he'll be able to stop Bill."
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no subject
Alright, so they're not marching into battle right away. The claws go back in. For now.
She turns, eyebrow raised, when he says there's a 'precaution.' That it's a spell. And it's Bill's plan. That automatically puts them at a disadvantage, no matter how well Ford knows Bill, or how much he's changed.
"Let me get this straight," she says, looking him directly in the eye, and ticks off points on her fingers as she recites them. "Bill Cipher came up with a plan to create a portal through reality to the world that the Authority are from. There's a strong chance that everyone here is fictional there. The contingency is a spell that turns imaginary things real." She huffs out a sigh, and lowers her hand, the points covered. "I understand that protects us from being ... written out of existence, or into our own demise, but ... have you considered all of the things that Bill can imagine? Or the rest of us?"
She's not lecturing him, even though her tone is firm. She just wants to make sure that she understands this correctly, and that Ford has thought through all of the possibilities. Her own nightmares aren't kind, and she would hate to see them made manifest on the barge -- again. "I'm not trying to talk you out of it," she assures him. "I just want to make sure that he's not ... hm. Trying to find a loophole, somewhere. Even if no one can really get hurt, that doesn't mean Bill won't try to find a way to escape."
no subject
"You see, he...Bill and I go back a very long way," Ford explains. He considers briefly mentioning the attachment Bill has developed, but thinks better of it. "He knew that if he lied to me about what this spell did, I would immediately start trying to undo it, and he couldn't count on my help on the other side of the portal. So, we negotiated: no casualties, and in exchange for my help, he's agreed not to harm anyone who isn't directly related to the Barge."
He sighs.
"I know that it's no accident that the spell that ensures we'll be able to confront the Authority gives Bill the physics-bending large-scale chaos he wants. But Bill has been planning to get to this dimension for years. He's seen the man who wrote our show. And after what happened in the Bargeyard, he lost confidence in the Admiral to get him there. He's very old, very patient, and incredibly cunning. He was going to find a way off this ship sooner or later, and at least this way I'm there. To negotiate.
"Also," Ford adds, "Steve Rogers knows the plan, and I've given him a containment unit that's worked on Bill before, when he had all of his powers. If the Authority is on our side, or if anything else goes wrong, he'll be able to stop Bill."