i may not be crime but i am the arrest

THE AU

Bill Cipher has got Ford in a dreamworld a la Maleficent/Malleus/you get the deal-style.

Dreamworld is (visually) collector-style fantasy with rewritten memories overlaid on top of corresponding real-world ones to increase believability. Bill’s falsified story goes as follows:

Look there are usually a lot more bullet points but I'm cimpressing some of this. All you need to know is that in Bill’s bullshit liar made-up dream narrative, they totally make up and Ford continues with the portal and Weirdmageddon starts early. But oh no no no no, it’s not Weirdmageddon, because this is not an apocalypse. It’s an enlightenment!

Instead of being morbid-gory-dark weird, it’s starry-whimsical-magical weird. It’s weird that whimsical preteen girls dream of something palatable and magical-girl-esque for the masses. Because Bill is just so good and gracious like Glinda the Good or something. And also because it's what I want to draw.

Ok wait before anyone says anything about the random aesthetic change consider it... its a blue Weirdmageddon to contrast red Weirdmageddon... haha get it...

Now for the point of the dream! In the waking world, Bill is trying to get the equation from Ford to take Weirdmageddon on a world tour. In the DREAM world, Bill’s just oh-so-sweetly trying to persuade his darling husband/ally/look they have their own special thing into believing that “the rest of the world is ready for this” and, “imagine what a beautiful world it would be if weird became the new ‘normal’ everywhere! We wouldn’t be the losers! We’d be ACCEPTED.” But no, his nervous, darling prince/king/something is all, “I’m not sure if they’re ready, Bill!” Hahahaha how coy and sweet and definitely not as serious as it is for him in the waking world.

Ah, well. Bill can wait because he is just so kind and benevolent and they are living an idyllic married life of constellations and toytown puppets and smiling faces and a mystical, whimsical world of magic. Yes. 

Bill puts Ford in this dream in order to wheedle him into giving up the equation willingly. The problem is, as much as he can get Ford to like him in a dream, the metal plate stands in the way of full obedience like a particularly effective firewall.

The plate acts as a failsafe within Ford’s mind, a subtle reminder of what should be and the small instinct that prevents him from completely falling for the dream. There will always be something a little bit off, or a puppet that doesn’t quite act right, and an almost imperceptible voice that encourages him not to tell Bill too much. 

It’s the last hope—the last sensible part of him buried somewhere. Bill can’t just go in and pull out the answer sheet for himself. He needs to get Ford to give it to him willingly, and if a dream is the way that has to happen, then it shall be.

Consider the metal plate acting as the LITERAL barrier in dreamworld, much like the glass dome of drv3. Like if he just pays enough attention, sometimes, Ford thinks he sees… metal…?

Bill thinks if he can keep the dream running for long enough, he can wheedle the equation out of Ford the Dreamer. Just gotta make sure he doesn’t wake up…

OH MY GOD!!! Waitwaitwait there are enough people in the stone throne to populate Ford’s dream, so he put them to sleep too so that they can be off on their merry way. It’s a lot easier to put real people inside for believability.

The problem is, the MOST IMPORTANT CHARACTERS OF FORD’S LIFE… well, they’re not in his throne. And they’re not sleeping. No, no, now he has to make FAKE DREAM PUPPETS and hope they’re BELIEVABLE enough for the old fogey. Figures. Just gotta make everything harder for poor old Billy…

These puppets will probably make Ford go “they would not fucking say that!’ at some point.

For Ford, it’s like he’ll have lived now two sets of thirty years once he wakes up. For everyone else, it was just a few (maybe too many hours) of him asleep. Damn. That’s fucked. No memories? Try too many memories, instead!

THE INSPIRATION/VIBES/MOODBOARD

SPOILERS FOR TWST…. AND AMPHIBIA…. AND SGE… AND LOOK I REFERENCE I LOT OF THINGS HERE OKAY. SORRY. 

‘Once Upon A Dream’ by Liz Braswell, AKA that one book as part of the Disney Twisted Tales series and it is specifically about Sleeping Beauty. Guhhhh I love that one

Malleus’ dreamworld in TWST Book 7. I stopped playing TWST but I’ve seen some of it and let me tell you Once Upon A Dream (the book) LITERALLY made me predict this when I WAS playing

Marcy getting put into the fake illusion-scenario by the core in order to keep her happy while not in control, in which she snaps out of it with a “this isn’t real, is it?” AKA her “they would not fucking say that” moment

Sophie getting brainwashed by the Scims in book 6(??) and then blasting them out of her brain once she snaps out of it before she runs off

Luz snapping out of the Collector’s fakeass nightmare because “Amity would not fucking say that. INCURATE!!!"

Danganronpa V3 but specifically the way in which fanfic writers approach the idea of a virtual reality postcanon au

The one episode of Ducktales where they get put in a ‘normal family sitcom’ scenario before slowly breaking out of it

MabelLand, at least a little bit, because COME ON

Are we sensing a theme in the above. Illusion-wish-fulfillment-dreamworld I love you. ACTUALLY WAIT Overly Sarcastic Productions’ trope talk of Dream Apocalypses covers this really well and also puts into words what i Loveeee about these sorts of the above scenario