Your eyes open slowly. The gunk on your eyelids makes it a bit difficult. You sit up and rub your eyes, your scattered brain gradually coming back to itself.

Then your eyes widen as you remember.

Will's here — you went to another dimension — you fought a young, creepy version of Mabel — you saved Will — you aren't Dipper's apprentice anymore — the adults are mad about Will being here — Will's here!

"Good morning, Yasmin."

You scream, instinctively pulling the covers up to shield yourself, even though your pajamas are perfectly modest. Your eyes wildly traverse the room until they alight on — Will?

Will's disembodied head is floating in the middle of the room.

"I — wh-what?" you stammer.

He grins. "Isn't it cool? Turns out I can manipulate space — I'm downstairs, but I just thought about it, and my head appeared here, too. It's in two places at once!"

That's awesome, but another less-awesome thought crowds your mind. "Um. . . were you. . . watching me sleep?"

Will flushes deeply. Uh-oh. Is that a yes?

"I — I just checked on you every once in a while. I swear I left as soon as I saw that you weren't awake."

You put a hand to your forehead. Well, at least he's honest. And he doesn't seem to be a creep — though some of his powers, now that he's physical, could easily be used to act like one.

"Don't let my mom catch you doing that," you say. You cough. "So. . . what else can you do?"

Will's eyes light up. He does seem to have stronger, faster emotions now that he's physical. It's not a bad thing — but it will take a little getting used to. "I don't even know," he says, sounding weirdly excited about that prospect. "Last night, I just. . . felt myself settling into my body. The more I did, the more power I could feel. I have so much power and I don't even know what I can do with it! I wanted to experiment, but I waited for you to wake up."

You frown slightly. He's talking like he didn't actually sleep last night. "Can you sleep?" you ask.

Will shakes his head. "Nope. It's fine, though — I went out stargazing, like I said I would, and experimented a bit with my powers, and just relaxed on the couch. But it got boring, which is why I was checking on you. Sorry."

"It's fine," you say absently. Your mind jumps to the implications of Will's inability to sleep. If the Pines found out, Dipper would freak — what kinds of things could he get up to while everyone was sleeping? You're sure he wouldn't do anything malicious, but people do all sorts of things out of boredom. Having eight hours with no one to talk to sounds pretty boring to you, and it seems like Will could do a lot of damage if he was just doing random things because he was bored.

"Yasmin?" Will asks.

You shake your head. "S-sorry. I'm gonna get ready and then come downstairs, okay? And no spying on me while I'm changing!"

Will nods in agreement, and his head disappears.

You quickly change, brush your teeth, and do your hair before running down the stairs. Will grins when he sees you, but you hold up a finger and head into the kitchen to grab some breakfast. You take your cereal down from the shelf and frown. It feels lighter than usual. You take out a bowl and tip the cereal box overhead, but only half a bowl pours out. What? You could've sworn you had half a box yesterday!

"Oh. . . I'm sorry," says a voice behind you. You turn to see Will, looking chagrined. "I. . . I just wanted to see what it tasted like. I tried to stop. . . ."

You sigh. "It's fine." At least he didn't finish off the entire box. "You're lucky you just ate something that was mine — my mother would not be so forgiving."

Will gives you an embarrassed smile. "Noted."

You sit at the counter and eat your bowl of cereal. It's frustratingly small — you try very hard not to get mad at Will. It's better to have him here, eating your food, than in that other dimension, getting tortured. Still, it's pretty annoying. You make a mental note to talk to your mom about getting Will some of his own food to snack on.

Will talks as you eat. "I can be in multiple places at once, like you saw earlier," he says. "And I can hear a lot — although that may just be because of my body. What's normal hearing for you guys?"

You're not sure how to explain it, but you swallow and try to anyway. "Um. . . we can hear the stuff in one room, but not always in another. If my mom was on the phone in the living room, I might hear that she was talking, but I probably wouldn't be able to make it out."

"Yeah, I can hear a lot better than that," Will said. "Like right now, I can hear your mom humming to herself as she gets ready."

Okay, that's creepy. You decide it's better to have this conversation now rather than later. "That's awesome. Um. . . Will?"

"Yeah?" he asks, his face all innocence.

You sigh. "Well. . . using your powers to find out information like that — even something as simple as humming — is. . . well, people would probably call it creepy. We humans like our privacy, and when we find out that someone knows what we do when we think we're alone. . . it doesn't go down well."

"So. . . what are you saying?" Will asks.

"I'm saying it's probably not a good idea to tell people everything you know," you reply. "And maybe try not to use your powers to find things out, either."

Will frowns. "I can't turn off my hearing."

"No, but you can control how many places you're occupying at once, right?" He nods. "I think it's best if you stay in one place at a time for now. Even if you don't mean any harm by it, the idea that you can be anywhere at any time freaks people out."

Will is quiet for a moment. "Does it freak you out?" he asks.

You're not sure how to respond to that. Does it? Not really, since you know he doesn't mean anything bad by it, but. . . okay, yeah, it's a little freaky. You have a hard time wrapping your head around the idea of being in multiple places at once. Or being able to hear so much.

"A little bit," you admit.

"Oh."

"It's not you," you hurry to add. "It's more the powers themselves. You could do a lot with those abilities. A lot. . . well. . . a lot of damage."

"You think I would use these powers to hurt people?" Will asks. His voice is starting to develop a dangerous edge.

"No!" you blurt out. "At least — not on purpose. I just. . . I worry you might do something that seems fine to you, but is actually harmful to humans." You quail a bit under the look on his face. "Y. . . y'know?" you finish lamely.

A lot of emotions cross Will's face as he thinks this over. None of them look good. You finish your meager cereal bowl, then stand up and rinse it in the sink, giving him time to think. And, to tell the truth, you want to get away from the hurt on his face, even if just for a moment.

"I'm changing," he finally says.

You turn. It sounds like he's realizing something aloud, something painful, but you don't know what's painful about that. Change is definitely scary, and sometimes you mourn what used to be — you're kind of mourning your dreams with Will, though it doesn't seem logical to do so. But. . . Will makes change sound like the end of the world.

"What do you mean?" you ask.

"I mean. . ." He sighs. "Getting a physical form has done more than give me powers. It's. . . changing how I think. It's gradual, yeah, but that's almost worse, because then I don't really notice it." He pauses, like his next words are hard to admit. "I. . . I'm starting to care less."

You come and sit at the counter again, leaning on your elbows. "About what?"

"About. . . people." He won't meet your eyes, and his face flushes blue in shame. His confession tumbles from his mouth. "I'm just so different from everyone else in this dimension. I mean, I always have been, but now. . . it's like I should be normal. But I'm not. At least I look like you guys, but that's pretty much it. I don't need food or water, I can't sleep, I'm not limited in how much I can see or hear. . . and I'm starting to think I'm better for it. People are starting to look. . . insignificant."

You process this. You can tell that Will doesn't want to be like this, that he feels bad about it. It still kind of hurts when he talks about people being insignificant, though. You don't say anything for a while as you think through everything he said.

"Yasmin?" Will asks. He sounds scared.

You want to say, "What about me?" But you don't. Better to talk about people in general — less painful. Instead, you try reflecting: putting what he said in different words. "So. . . you're so powerful that. . . you don't understand other people?"

Will nods reluctantly. "And there's a part of me that thinks that because I don't understand them. . . they don't matter." He rushes his next words. "But — I know that's not true — you matter! You've done so much for me, and — and Dipper is impressive too, even if he doesn't like me. He's done a lot of great things. I know that. But I don't. . . I don't really feel that, anymore. D-do you know what I mean?"

You nod. The disparity between logic and emotions has always been an issue with you. It frustrates you that you can know one thing but feel something entirely different, and the two are always at war with each other. Emotion almost always wins, though.

You try to think of ideas to help Will feel that people matter again. "Maybe. . . do you want to go into town? See everybody, talk to them, feel connected to them? I sometimes don't like people either, and talking to them usually helps."

Will hesitates. "Maybe. I still want to experiment with my powers, though. Can we go out in the forest and do that first?"

After talking about the extent of his power, you're worried about testing them. What if some woodland creature gets hurt? What if you get hurt? The powers you know about thus far don't seem violent, but your brain jumps to stories of Weirdmageddon. How much of that can Will potentially recreate?

"Yasmin? Are you. . . mad at me?"

Well, if he cares about what you think of him, then he hasn't completely lost his ability to empathize — yet. "No," you say. "No, I'm not mad. Just. . . just worried." You muster a smile. "But it's okay. We'll work it out. We can go test your powers, and if you want, I'll tell you what reactions people would have to them." He nods slowly as you say that. "But I gotta warn you — no matter what the power is, there's always going to be someone who's afraid of it."

From the flash of resentment in his eyes, you probably just made things worse by saying that. But it's true, and Will has to know all the effects of his abilities.

You run up to tell your mom what you're doing, and she hesitates at first, but eventually agrees. "As long as you're very careful," she says. As you leave the room, you hear her mutter, "Why am I allowing this? That boy's a demon, for heaven's sake!" But she doesn't stop you.

"Okay, Will, let's go," you call as you jog down the stairs. He's already waiting by the door, and he smiles when he sees you.

When you reach him, you link your arm in his. "All right, my friend. Let's go see what you can do."