Basically, Bentley gets stuck on homework, and Dipper and Torako take it upon themselves toâŚhelp.Â
      Bentley stared at his blank sheet of
paper, pencil limp in his hand, then back up at Torako and Dipperâs expectant
gazes. âI have no idea what my furry would be. Can we stop. I need to write my
final paper, half my grade depends on it.â
      Torako groaned and flopped back,
splayed across the ground of the living room floor. She did not, Bentley
noticed, show her own sketchbook. âThis is why
weâre figuring out furries! Youâre supposed to take a break and have fun,
goddammit.â
      âMy paper,â Bentley said.
      âYouâve been staring at your reader
for about three hours,â Torako said, âAnd weâve been seeing you decline on the
essay-writing front for about a week now. Hence the furries.â
      âI donât know furries,â Bentley
said. He lived a very deliberate lifestyle of trying to be ignorant of Torako
and Dipperâs furry-related shenanigans. So far, ignorance really was bliss.
      âWe can always figure out what your
furry is together,â Dipper said. Bentley raised his eyebrows at Dipper, who was
uncharacteristically wearing a lime-greenâŚsuit? Bentley didnât know how to
classify it. He did know that he didnât
like the gleam in Dipperâs eyes, or the way his smile edged a little too far at
the corners. It was his sneaky smile.
      âNo,â Bentley said, flat.
      Dipper and Torako moaned in unison.
Bentley glanced at the time display on the opposite wallâafter eleven, he
really needed to write that paperâand made a decision. It was probably a
decision he would come to regret, but he needed to stop relaxing and get
working, and the faster he got this over with the faster he could get his paper
done the faster he could lie in bed and think about how much his teacher would
hate it. Bentley also knew, from experience, that Torako and Dipper were
tenacious little shits who would keep distracting him in the name of relaxation
until he gave in. There was no avoiding his fate
      Bentley huffed and ruffled his hair.
âFine,â he said. âJustâshow me yours, I guess. For reference. You first,
Torako.â It would be better to get the more chaotic of the two over and done
with, he thought. For his own sake.
      Torako sat up in a feat only
possible through the power of her impressively toned abdominal muscles. She was
beaming. Dipper pouted on the couch next to Bentley, but didnât say anything.
Instead, he clutched his datapad closer, having insisted on ânewfangled
technologyâ instead of paper.
      âI love you,â Torako said. She
lowered her eyelashes and grinned a grin that made Bentley tense in
preparation. âAre you ready to see it?â
      He took a deep breath, triedâthen
failedâto relax, and nodded. âGo for it.â
      Tommy Hangar, while late-night dusting,
absentmindedly turned on the TV to a âbreaking newsâ report about some disaster
in Kabul. She paid it little mindâit was just for background noise, after allâuntil
she heard the magic phrase, âAlcor the Dreambender,â and then suddenly she was
Very Invested in this cover story. Tommy dropped the Everlasting Handheld
Dustmop (also known as a rag with a bunch of spells in it in order to make it
hardier and better at dusting) and stared for a moment before she recovered her
wits.
      âHon,â she called out, easing onto
the couch like she was afraid it might bite, gaze focused on the screen on the
wall showing a couple of well-dressed reporters. âHon, you want to see this!â
      âIâm in the bathroom!â Filaraâs
voice was muffled by the door and distance between them. Tommy reached out with
one finger and slid the volume up on the television unit. Â
      ââŚsee,
the damage to the city was located in a somewhat economically depressed sector
just east of the main downtown center. It seems to have started in this block
of rented townhomes, as you can see from the aerial shot provided by first
responders to the scene.â
      âThen hurry pissing and get out
there, you want to see this!â Tommy yelled.
      âItâs a number two!â Tommy heard,
but shortly after there was the sound of the toilet unit being flushed. Tommy
leaned forward, her elbows on her legs, and stared at the devastation depicted
even as the news anchors described it.
      âShockwaves
were reported at 3:26 local time to a nearby fire station from a location
nearly a kilometer away from the epicenter. Shortly after, several buildings
shook as though an extended earthquake event was occurring. Pedestrians were
thrown from their feet, and some were crushed under collapsing walls that were
torn apart by the force of the blows exchanged between two demonic forces. As
we said earlier, one of the two demons was positively identified to be Alcor
the Dreambender.â
      On the screen, buildings were
partially to fully collapsed the closer they were to the epicenter, a partially
still-standing block of townhomes. One of them had a hole in the roof, from
what Tommy could see before the view faded back to the two anchors, faces
stern. Down the hall, the bathroom door opened.
Torako and Haji deal with a Murder Hallway, Dipper engages in fisticuffs with an upstart demon, and Bentley gets even (with horrifying results).
There are lots of mention of blood in this. I tried to tone it down, especially after I realized how many times I was writing the word in a row, but be forewarned.
Chapter 10: Haji is Not Qualified For
This Situation
      The pocket dimension was, in two
words, clearly unstable.
      The walls glowed soft pink. This
wouldnât have been so bad if shards of them werenât flickering brighter or
darker, or if they didnât seem to sharpen or blur in Torakoâs vision. She
didnât like that very much. She especially didnât like it when a bit of the
wall and the floor decided to suddenly not
exist before fuzzing back into place. That was not, she thought, somewhere
she was going to put her feet. Or hands. Or anything.
      âThis is bad,â Haji said, eyes wide.
âThis is very very bad.â
Bentley and Torako have a platonic relationship because Ben identifies as ace/aro and Torako respects that despite lingering romantic feelings she has for him. In part because of that respect, thatidentification doesnât stop him from wanting to build a life with Torako (and Dipper), and it doesnât stop them from doing so. Torako is demisexual and panromantic, but nobody ever clicks with her like Ben and Dipper, so she justâŚstays. Itâs where sheâs happiest, and where sheâs been happiest in the past. Living apart in the year that Torako went cult-bashing (and Dipper bounced between them) after spending four years together was one of the hardest, uncomfiest long-term things theyâve done. Living apart when Torako came back to get her MA in Demonology, with a keen interest in police work, was also Not Great but at least they were in the same city.Â
Eventually, they do have kids though! They adopt a couple of non-human children in need for sure, and perhaps thereâs a human lab baby involved. I havenât thought that far into the future. But rest assured, Dip Dop gets his niblets to love and spoil with Bentley and Torako đ
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