"Sixty degrees that come in threes.
Watches from within birch trees.
Saw his own dimension burn.
Misses home and can't return.
Says he's happy. He's a liar.
Blame the arson for the fire.
If he wants to shirk the blame,
He'll have to invoke my name.
One way to absolve his crime.
A different form, a different time."
Formless and rageful, the disembodied spirit of Bill Cipher crossed a myriad of galaxies, a myriad of universes, on a moment's notice. He didn't know where he was going, an unseen force had pulled him out of Stanley Pines' mind right before it burned down and doomed him to non existence. How could they have tricked him so easily? All he had strived for, his million years long scheme, all came down to nothing in the blink of an eye.
Why did humans resist him so much? Why couldn't Sixer just take his deal? He had offered him everything a human could possibly imagine, whatever he wanted, Bill could make it true. But he chose to oppose him. He chose the boringly sick and sterile order of things. He chose to abide the laws, and condemned his tiny little town and subsequently the whole world to a decrepit existence.
What was so wrong with his worldview that humans resisted him so much? What's the point of living in a world plagued with 'natural laws', that he never agreed to in the first place? Laws designed and forced upon existence by someone else. The so called 'order of things' was an imposition, an evil that should be rooted out, and if doing so called for the end of existence, then existence should come to an end.
The darkness of the empty space at the end of all worlds came to an abrupt end when a flash of multicolored light permeated all around him and within him. He almost welcomed the intrinsic peace that usually came from this solitary room hanging at the edge of everything that was, but he knew better than taking the condescendence of a giant pink amphibian floating in space.
"Welcome again." As if the sole thought of the Axolotl was enough to conjure his presence, the frilly creature materialized in Bill's mind eye. The damn thing could hear his thoughts, he always forgot about that.
"Why I am here?" Bill asked in thought, anger still lingering in the back of his mind.
"You know why." The crystal clear voice of the Axolotl spoke. "You invoked my name."
"I did." Bill admitted. There was no point in lying to the Axolotl. How do you cheat something that is technically omniscient? The only reason why it didn't interfere in Bill's plans was because it was too move its cosmic butt across time and space and personally do something about it. What Bill had aspired to for a million years the Axolotl could achieve in the blink of an eye, but it rarely intervened in anyone's issues. It was pretty content with just watching from a distance how things turned out on their own for the rest of the multiverse. Like a universal peeping tom.
"So, what do you want?" The Axolotl asked.
"You already know what I want! Do you want me to beg?" Bill protested.
The Axolotl chuckled. "Well, a little humility wouldn't hurt, would it? But I guess it's not in your nature."
"Did you bring me here just to make fun of me?"
"No, I brought you here because you wanted me to save your ass from oblivion" The Axolotl merrily declared. "And you know what comes with that. You will have to pay for your crimes. I assume you don't regret a thing you did back there, do you?"
"Spare me the guilt trip, dad." Bill mocked.
"I'm not your dad. You took care of your dad a long time ago, didn't you? Of all your kin, actually." The Axolotl replied. Bill felt as if it had punched him right in the stomach, if he had had one, that is. He didn't know what that feeling was, but if it was guilt or shame, the Axolotl surely took notice of it. "There's more to you than meets the eye, Bill Cipher."
"Cut the chase. What do you want?" Bill asked.
The Axolotl made a twirl in the void. "You come in threes, so three trials I'll place upon you." it sang, puzzling Bill " You tried to join the realm of nightmares to the world of humans, wreaking havoc on both, for that crime you will now walk aimlessly between them, never completely in one place.
You gained unlimited power to claim dominion over all that is; you will keep your power, but you won't be able to wield it.
And lastly, you scorched hundreds of human lives to satisfy your lust, thus a human form you shall take."
"What? No, wait!" Cried Bill, but the vision of the Axolotl was already becoming blurry.
"We'll meet again, soon enough. Until then, good luck!"
And as the meaning of those words sank within Bill Cipher, he was pulled again, faster than light. He was out of the Axolotl's lair, and thrown right into the void.
I can't answer why (I'm not a gangster)
But I can tell you how (I'm not a flam star)
We were born upside-down (I'm a star star)
Born the wrong way 'round (I'm not a white star)
(I'm a blackstar)
When Lena woke up that morning, she knew it was going to be a shitty day. As she lay down on her bed, her eyes searched the old studio apartment she called her home. Her small window opened on the back alley of her building, and only the last rays of the late afternoon would fall through it, lightning up the usually cold one room apartment with a warm orange note. Her head ached fiercely, and every pump of blood into her skull reminded her she should stop binging on week days. She should stop doing a lot of things, and start a few other, she thought as she removed her high-school-now-turned-to-pijamas shirt and searched the floor next to her bed for something to wear before abandoning the comfort and safety of her blankets for the sharp cold of her kitchen to make herself a cup of coffee. The first thing that came to her mind was that apartment could really use some decluttering. It was depressingly grey and poorly lit from the go, and her mess was not making it look any better. She could also save up some money and renew her wardrobe and go for something nice enough she would actually mind not leaving on the floor. She could also get a new, better paying, job and just move to a better, or at least less musty and dark, apartment.
But for today, a pair of worn out jeans, a green shirt and her shitty job would do.
She turned the small radio in her night table on to get the early morning news and left her bed. She didn't mind leaving alone, she wasn't sure she could ever find a roommate that would tolerate her perks, but she did enjoyed the company the sound of the radio provided, even if it was only a background noise. The radio host voice greeted her with news of a local arson fire in a factory had killed three workers during the night. Also, you can now get a 25% discount on your next meal at a very popular fast food chain if you flash your id card. And there would be no trains to drogheda station after a section of wall loaded with concrete and cabins collapsed sending rubble across all lines and taking overhead wires with it. God had been certainly busy that night.
She put the kettle on the stove and waited for it to boil anxiously. She needed her coffee fast, extra black, extra large, with extra sugar and extra aspirin. And to go. Hitting the snooze button a few times until it's too late to shower, have breakfast, or comb her hair and then rushing to work was the only daily routine that she observed almost religiously. Fortunately she had great hair, even after being bleached and dyed several times during Lena's high school years. Since then she had returned it to her original bright brown color and wore it parted to the side with a side swept bang.
As she waited, she felt something was odd. The radio had gone off.
She walked back to the bedroom area and checked the small plastic device. The power button was lighted up, but there was no sound coming out. Nothing would come out either in any other channel. She turned up the volume. Nothing.
"Perfect" she thought as she left it back on the table, the kettle was loudly summoning back into the kitchen. She put one too many spoons of instant coffee in her travel mug, poured in the hot water from the kettle, mixed it up, and the hot black liquid panacea was ready for fueling purposes.
She was reaching a certain age when a drinking binge equals getting massive hangovers that will keep most people from being a functioning member of society the next day, but she didn't feel like a functioning member of society to begin with, so she didn't mind. And it's not like her boss would notice, she makes sure to be extremely unproductive on a daily basis as to not raise any eyebrows when she's actually physically inept for the job. It's true that being a software developer doesn't usually require you to be particularly athletic, but it does imply you need to stay awake during work hours. A task proven to be most difficult when one hates their job, but still need it to pay the rent.
With her keys in one hand, door handle in the other and her teeth strongly clenching her mug, Lena was ready to leave for work, when her radio decided to come back to the living, startling her with a loud static noise.
"I thought I turned it off." she thought, going back to the bedroom area to fetch the damn thing. It was her fault after all, for buying cheap electronics. The static became louder as she came closer, after putting down her coffee, freeing itself, her hand reached for the small black device when a sharp, rising tone cut the static short.
Lena stared in disbelief. It was a high pitch tone that kept rising and rising. And rising again.
"What the-? Really? A Shepard's tone?" An auditory illusion, Lena remembered, the Shepard's Tone does in sound what the old-fashioned barbershop pole does visually, seemingly rise forever.
"You got it Blackstar! Don't touch that dial now, WE ARE JUST GETTING STARTED!"- An echoey male voice inside the radio answered.
The voice hit her like a lightning bolt and she instinctively jumped back as she dropped the radio to the ground. She choked a scream of fear in her throat and stared at the black box. Did the radio talk back to her just right now? Her hand frantically searched for her keys in her pocket as the radio was now playing an old catchy tune.
"Mr. Sandman, bring me a dream, make him the cutest that I've ever seen...". The Chordettes sang as Lena rushed out the door. Her heart was still racing when she reached the street, her blood strongly gushing into her cheeks and limbs.
If a cheap trick could make her so upset, his big entrance would certainly make her faint, Bill thought, as he glanced at the purple travel mug on the night's table. She had forgotten her coffee. Poor thing. She was really going to have a shitty day.