So. I'm still alive.
Have a triangle/boy slash fic!
Trying to just write this down and get it out of the way because it's been in my head for a while.
No slash in his chapter, just a sloooow buiiild... (Bill-d?)
I wrote Bill's voice IN MOSTLY CAPS AND I WILL NOT APOLOGIZE HOPE THAT'S OKAY
"Should we put a sign up? Like a sign that says 'Don't Touch Statue's Hand'. Something like that. Should we do that?"
Dipper stood in the clearing, hand to his chin as he regarded the mossy statue with scrutiny. Mabel shrugged beside him.
"That would probably make people want to touch it even more. I mean, if I saw a sign that was like 'Don't touch this thing', I would totally touch the thing!" she grinned at her brother, who rolled his eyes, "besides, we don't even know if anything would happen from touching his hand. Right? He's dead."
"Demons can't die, Mabel," Dipper sighed, "we've talked about this."
"And you know that for sure, how….?"
"All the research I've done into the subject says so. They can be dispelled, but it's only temporary."
"You do this every year. Come out to this spot and grumble about demons and spells and the temporary nature of human life. It's a real downer, bro-bro," Mabel said earnestly before blowing a strand of hair out of her eyes.
"I'm trying to make sure we don't have another Weirdmageddon, Mabel! And that no one else has to go through what we did. So...that's a no to the sign?"
"No to the sign," she nodded, beginning to wander away, "come on, Dip Dop, I'm bored. You've been staring at that old thing for like thirty minutes! You know I have a five minute attention span. Max. I've already gone above and beyond!"
"Yeah yeah," Dipper waved his hand dismissively, "go on back, I'll meet up with you soon."
He heard her give a theatrical groan, followed by her exiting footsteps. Still he regarded the statue.
Every time they visited Gravity Falls since that faithful summer, Dipper had gone to the statue. He felt some bizarre sense of duty over it; not to protect it from harm, of course not. The very opposite. He'd been trying to destroy the thing for years.
The first year he grabbed ahold of the spindly arm (making sure to stay very far away from the hand) and wrenched with all his might downward, trying to snap the limb off. But although the arm was stick-thin, it would not budge. He kicked its bulging eye as hard as he could, resulting in two broken toes. He pelted rocks at it. All it did was scare away nearby birds.
The second year, he procured an ax from Manly Dan Corduroy. Dipper had never been particularly strong but he figured an ax would at least chip the stone, right?
He had to shamefully return the ax to Manly Dan, making excuses as to why the once razor-sharp edge was cracked and dulled and the wood handle splintered.
Not a single mark on the damn statue.
The third year, he'd tried a chainsaw and damn near killed himself with it when he tripped on a tree root.
Now he was going on 17 and the statue was the same as it had always been. It almost felt like it was mocking him, like HE was mocking him...but the single, wide eye always seemed more alarmed than smug.
No one else shared in his obsession. Not even Grunkle Ford.
"Don't worry, Dipper," he'd reassured the boy, "I've done numerous studies on the statue. It's just that; a statue. Bill is gone..." he had trailed off, his voice a mix of determination and maybe, Dipper thought, sadness, "chances are he will reform, he was a demon, after all. But that will take him hundreds of years. Most likely thousands. We'll be long dead by then and there's not much we can do about it now."
Dipper had begrudgingly agreed. Ford had a point, and Dipper respected the man too greatly to outright dismiss it. Still, there was the sense in him that the statue had to go. It was the only physical link left of Bill Cipher to the world he had tried to destroy.
A cool breeze picked up. The trees groaned, and Dipper thought he heard voices on the wind.
"Wind Whisperers again," he muttered, shoving his hands in his pockets and plodding off out of the clearing. The wind chuckled faintly.
The hair on his arms prickled.
That night, Stan and Ford spread photos of their adventures for the past year over the kitchen table for Dipper and Mabel to peruse.
"Who is that?" Mabel gasped, pointing to a photo of a statue, gold and shaped like a woman, "she's beautifuuulll..."
"Ah, that would be a Inanna," Ford nodded toward the photo, "Sumerian goddess of love. We found that statue on an island that resurfaces just once every five hundred years!"
"Had to leave it behind, though," Grunkle Stan grunted and knocked back his tumbler of whiskey, "damn thing was cursed. Our boat wouldn't move with the thing on board, no matter how hard we tried. Ford eventually insisted we put it back."
"Your Great Uncle Stanley thought he could hide it on board without me noticing," Ford rolled his eyes, "like I wouldn't notice that the boat still wasn't taking off."
"You found all this treasure?" Dipper asked, picking up a photo of a chest spilling over with gold and jewels.
"Deep underwater, in a shipwreck in the South Pacific!" Ford grinned excitedly, "beautiful vessel. Most likely belonging to Spanish merchants."
"Spanish government laid claim to the damn thing though, insisted it was one of their ships from like, two hundred years ago, and that the treasure belonged to them! Can you believe it?" Stan grunted with a scowl, "Also, not related, if you ever go to Spain, don't mention your lat name is Pines."
Dipper squinted his eyes up questioningly at Stan.
"Why-"
"WHOA!" Mabel interrupted, nearly knocking Dipper out of his chair as she lunged for another photo, "what is this?!
The photo she held was of a bronze mask, its surface dappled green with age. Bizarre nodules erupted from its surface, and in its center was the visage of a screaming face. Two holes for eyes and another hole to signify a gaping mouth.
"We're still not quite sure about that one," Ford frowned, "I locked it up downstairs, just in case it might be dangerous. I plan to run tests on it this summer."
"But not before we spend some quality time with you knuckleheads, huh?" Stan grinned and caught Dipper in a headlock, rubbing his knuckles into the boy's scalp. Dipper laughed and swatted at his Grunkle's hand, Mabel's tittering and Ford's chuckling in his ears.
"Lake tomorrow?" Dipper asked when Stan finally let go of him.
"Lake tomorrow," Stan and Ford nodded in unison. Mabel and Dipper grinned.
"Remember how much those two used to hate each other?" Dipper asked as he and Mabel brushed their teeth in the mirror.
"Oh yeah! Grunkle Ford was all 'You pushed me into a multiverse and stole my house!' And Grunkle Stan was all 'You abandoned me and got all weird!'"
"Yes, that is exactly what happened."
"Think this'll be our last summer in Gravity Falls?" Mabel asked, looking over at Dipper after they both spit out their toothpaste.
"Wha?"
"I mean...you know. College coming up...things'll be different..."
"We'll still have summer breaks, stupid. Don't worry about it," he elbowed her, "last time you did that, a demon took over the town."
Mabel grinned.
"It worked out okay, though. Right?"
Dipper knew he was dreaming. He stood on the shoreline of what looked like an island. Water lapped at soaked smooth stones, tickling his bare feet. A jungle stood behind him, wild and thick. No wind, no animal noises. Silent.
His entire body went cold, numb, when he realized.
Everything was gray.
Despite the common myth that dreams were only in black and white, Dipper found that he always dreamed in color. Even his frequent nightmares were awash in color, gleaming yellows and blood reds and fiery, deal-making blues.
The only time his dreams were without color was when…
"No," Dipper shook his head, wrapping his arms around himself, "no no no no. You're supposed to be dead! Gr...Grunkle Ford said you weren't coming back!"
"THAT OLD CODGER THINKS HE KNOWS EVERYTHING!" a familiar voice reverberated around him, making his heart nearly stop in his chest. He whipped around, searching desperately, not wanting to be caught off guard again.
"Where are you?! Come out! Face...face me like a man!"
"A-HAHAHAHAHAH!" the voice cackled, the sound drumming into Dipper's bones, "I'M NOT A MAN, KID! HAS IT BEEN SO LONG THAT YOU'VE FORGOTTEN? BUT YOU..."
Blue fire erupted in front of him, and as it dissipated, the familiar yellow shape was before him.
"You've SPROUTED, Pine Tree!"
"What...what's your angle here, Bill?" Dipper asked, trying to hide the fear in his voice. Bill's eye gleamed in amusement.
"Is that some kind of TERRIBLE PUN? BECAUSE IT'S TERRIBLE! DON'T USE IT AGAIN or I'll have to DISASSEMBLE your body into bloody, MARSHMALLOW-SIZED BITS and EAT THEM in my CEREAL! JUST KIDDING! OR AM I?"
Bill floated around him, appraising him with that one, searching eye. Dipper watched him closely. He was...smaller than Dipper remembered. Only the size of his hand. Not only that, but his usual golden gleam seemed now to be a dull yellow, barely pulsing when he talked. And even his voice, as loud and annoying as ever, didn't seem to echo with the same intensity as Dipper remembered.
"You can't disassemble anything. You're in the Mindscape. You're in my dream."
"YEAH AND IT'S PRETTY FUCKING BORING," Bill swept his cane to indicate the visage of an admittedly rather stereotypical deserted island, "STILL NOT MUCH OF AN IMAGINATION AFTER ALL THESE YEARS."
"I thought you were dead," Dipper said, his fear turning into rage, disappointment at himself, at Ford, for being so wrong,"it was supposed to be thousands of years before you reformed."
"SIXER told you that, RIGHT? He's WRONG about LOTS OF THINGS!"
"Like being your friend?"
"EXACTLY like that!" Bill laughed his usual annoying laugh, but it trailed off softly in a way Dipper had never heard from him before. The demon closed his eye and sighed, leaning against his cane.
Suddenly, a surge of hope cut through Dipper's panic as he realized...
"You're weak," he said, and Bill's eye shot open again, its pupil a thin slit, "you're not at your full power. Not at all."
"Kid, you've never SEEN ME at my FULL POWER," he retorted, his eye flaring black.
"Bullshit. I saw you at your full power and still managed to kick your ass."
"YOU DIDN'T KICK ANYTHING!" Dipper gasped and fell back as Bill grew, his body burning red and engulfed in flame, until he towered over the boy, his voice growing deep and gravelly and pounding like a drum through Dipper's very being, "I WAS TRICKED BY THOSE TWO DECREPIT SACKS OF SKIN YOU CALL FAMILY! YOU SHOULD BE DEAD! YOU SHOULD ALL BE DEAD!"
He towered and burned over Dipper for another few seconds, before popping back to his former size. Even through his fear, Dipper saw that Bill's eye drooped.
"Haha, lots of FUN, that whole thing," the demon sighed, "But it was a DIRTY TRICK and did end in my molecules being SCATTERED ACROSS SPACE! DON'T THINK I'VE FORGOTTEN! I FORGET NOTHING! Not even the movie DREAMCATCHER! It was SO HORRIBLE! That's the PRICE YOU PAY for OMNIPOTENCE, AM I RIGHT?"
"If your molecules were scattered across space, how are you back?" the boy cautiously stood and dusted himself off.
"The MINUTE your Uncle's MEMORIES CAME BACK, I was able to start PULLING MYSELF TOGETHER. BLAME THE OLD MAN! Or better yet, BLAME YOU AND YOUR SISTER! I'D PROBABLY STILL BE STARDUST IF YOU HAD LEFT HIM AN AMNESIAC! A-AHAHAHAHA! LIFE is SO FUNNY, ISN'T IT?"
"But still! So quickly? You shouldn't have been able to reform so qui-"
A tiny black hand against his lips stopped him from speaking any further.
Bill's fingers were as cold as ice.
"BELIEVE IT OR NOT, that's what I brought you here to talk about."
"...what."
He stared suspiciously at the triangle, whose hands now rested on the top of his cane, eye staring almost earnestly up at him.
"OKAY, SO...in all HONESTY, I shouldn't have been ABLE to reform SO QUICKLY. I am FANTASTIC, but not quite so FANTASTIC as to TRANSCEND THE NATURAL ORDER OF THE UNIVERSE!" Bill's yellow form flashed briefly into an image of deep space, dotted with galaxies. He pointed the tip of his cane at Dipper, "SOMETHING'S GOING DOWN, KID, AND IT'S NOT MY DOING."
"You're saying something's pulling you back together quicker than natural?"
"WOW, YOU GOT IT!" Bill exclaimed sarcastically, "WANT A PRIZE? How about a HEAD THAT'S ALWAYS-….WAIT, I already GAVE YOU one of those once, HUH? Feels like it's been FOREVER. MEMORY kind of gets all LOOPY when two BRATS and their SENILE OLD UNCLES DISSOLVE YOUR VERY BEING!"
"You tried to kill us!"
"YEAH, because you were being DIFFICULT! I never REALLY wanted to KILL YOU, I LIKE you and Shooting Star TOO MUCH to WANT THAT! BUT IF THE DOG KEEPS BITING, YOU GOTTA PUT IT DOWN, RIGHT?"
"Oh my god. Okay. Just tell me what you wanted to talk about so we can end this conversation. What could possibly have pulled you together so quickly? Is it something in Gravity Falls? Because I'm going to find it and destroy it."
"TOO LATE, KID, I'M ALREADY BACK! Just not quite as POWERFUL," Bill twirled his cane nonchalantly, "AND I HAVE NO IDEA. Part of my being weaker means I'm not quite as...OMNIPOTENT as before."
"Sucks to be you," Dipper scowled, "Why the hell did you want to tell me anything of this? I don't get what you want out of it."
"Whatever is causing this possesses CONSIDERABLE ARCANE POWER, and it's coming from THIS TOWN! It's something that you fleshbags should be KIND OF WORRIED ABOUT!"
"You can't be serious," Dipper scowled, jabbing at the tiny triangular form with one outstretched finger. Bill recoiled slightly, looking more offended that should be possible for a triangle with one eye, "You can't possibly think that I'd be so stupid as to believe you're doing this because you're worried about humans!"
"YEESH, kid!" Bill swatted Dipper's finger away with a deft, and surprisingly painful, smack of his cane, ignoring Dipper's tiny cry,"AS A MATTER OF FACT, I DO THINK YOU'RE THAT STUPID! But NO, THAT'S NOT WHY I'm doing this! WHATEVER this is, it's BAD NEWS for me too!"
"How in the world could it be bad news for you when it's reassembling you?" Dipper asked, sucking on his finger. Bill was uncharacteristically quiet for a moment, studying the ground intently.
"FINE, kid, I'll lay all my CARDS OUT ON THE TABLE," he finally answered, reclining in midair with his hands behind what Dipper assumed could be called his head, "just to show you how SERIOUS this is. SOMEONE or maybe even SOMETHING has been SUMMONING ME for YEARS. OVER AND OVER AGAIN. DAILY, probably."
"But you can't be summoned if you're not whole..." Dipper trailed off uncertainly.
"YOU GOT IT, TOOTS," Bill answered gleefully and Dipper reeled at the name, "ALL THIS CONSTANT SUMMONING, ALL THE POWER THAT'S BEING PUT INTO IT, HAS BEEN PULLING ME BACK TOGETHER about a MILLION TIMES faster than what's NORMAL. But what is NORMAL anyway, RIGHT? HAHAHA! ANYWAY," he continued, noting Dipper's impatient expression, "I'm still not STRONG enough yet to appear anywhere but HERE."
"The Mindscape."
"YOUR Mindscape," he corrected, tapping Dipper on the head with his cane and apparently relishing in the boy's flinch, "I'M LIMITED TO THE SCAPES I'VE SPENT THE MOST TIME IN, and then only within the BORDERS OF THIS TOWN. SO. That narrows it down to YOU AND FORDSY, and only as LONG AS YOU'RE IN GRAVITY FALLS. And SOMETHING TOLD ME your Uncle wouldn't be quite as OPEN-MINDED as you!"
"You mean you think I'm stupider than him," Dipper spat. Bill looked a little surprised.
"YOU GOT IT ALL WRONG, KID. SIXER and I have kind of a...STORIED PAST. If I POPPED INTO HIS DREAMS, he'd probably PUNCH HIMSELF in the DICK to wake up so he wouldn't have to TALK TO ME. Then he'd spend the next THREE WEEKS without sleep, trying to figure out how to GET RID OF ME again. But YOU'RE different, Pine Tree! You'll LISTEN! You won't let our hilarious PAST keep you from potentially SAVING the FUTURE. That's what I LIKE about you, kid!"
"I haven't, and won't, agree to anything. Besides, it still doesn't make sense. You'll eventually be strong enough to be summoned. Isn't that what you want? Access into our world again? Create another Weirdmageddon? Turn more people into armchairs?"
"HAHA, I NEVER REPEAT THE SAME ACT TWICE, PINE TREE! No, your world would have something ENTIRELY DIFFERENT and probably MORE TERRIBLE in store for it! If that's WHAT I WAS GONNA DO! BUT! IT'S NOT!"
"Get to the point, Bill."
Bill shot a momentary glare at Dipper before letting it go and chuckling again.
"YOU'VE REALLY GROWN, KID. LISTEN, I don't know WHO IS SUMMONING ME, but I CAN SENSE there's GREAT POWER BEHIND IT and...GREAT KNOWLEDGE. A BINDING CIRCLE has already been PREPARED."
"A binding circle?"
"Like the ZODIAC you and your buddies FAILED SO HILARIOUSLY at ACTIVATING. THE RIGHT KIND OF BINDING CIRCLE COULD TRAP ME, MAKE ME DO WHATEVER THE BINDER WANTED."
"Sounds like a win for the human race," the boy crossed his arms and Bill sighed, his voice gaining an irate edge.
"YOU STILL DON'T UNDERSTAND, DO YOU KID? NO ONE summons an ALL-POWERFUL, EONS-OLD DEMON just to keep it locked in a TRUNK OR SOMETHING. THEY SUMMON IT because they WANT SOMETHING. SOMETHING BIG. EVEN IF THEY STARTED OUT WITH THE BEST INTENTIONS...WELL, YOU HUMANS CAN'T RESIST A LITTLE POWER, CAN YOU?"
"I can't believe you think we're still simple and weak, after everything you've seen us do," he glared at the triangle, who seemed unphased, "what exactly do you want me to do about all this? Are you so desperate that you had to call on your arch nemesis for help?"
"ARCH NEMESIS!" Bill barked a laugh, and Dipper couldn't help but feel a little embarrassed, "Don't FLATTER YOURSELF, kid! I've MADE and CRUSHED more POWERFUL ENEMIES than YOU since BEFORE YOUR PLANET was EVEN BORN!"
"But now you're depending on me."
"TRUE," the demon admitted, and it took the boy back a little, "You like SOLVING MYSTERIES, right? It's kind of YOUR THING. Find out WHO or WHAT is doing this. MAKE THEM STOP. DESTROY the BINDING CIRCLE. I'll REGENERATE slower, but at least I won't be a PUPPET. And you won't have to worry about ANYONE using my ARCANE POWER for NEFARIOUS PURPOSES. I won't even VISIT YOUR DREAMS anymore! WELL...maybe just ONCE IN A WHILE, HUH? FOR OLD TIME'S SAKE!"
"You want me to destroy something that could finally keep you in line?" Dipper asked, dumbfounded.
"YEAH KID, THAT'S WHAT I'VE BEEN TRYING TO-"
"I'm not falling for your tricks, Bill!" Dipper shouted over the demon, his blood boiling with fear and rage, "and I'm not helping you! You deserve to be bound and controlled. Actually, you deserve worse than that, but if this is all we get, I'll fucking take it."
Dipper had been bracing himself for Bill to explode in a fiery rage, balloon into a huge monster, glare with hatred down at Dipper with one furious eye gone tar black.
But Bill simply floated in front of him, unreadable and silent.
The two stared at each other for a long while. Dipper was feeling more than a little uncomfortable, which he guessed was what Bill was trying to accomplish.
Just when Dipper was finally about to speak, Bill broke the agonizing silence, his voice unusually soft.
"I'll be back tomorrow night, kid."
His form shimmered, distorted, and then disappeared, leaving Dipper standing alone on the dull, gray beach.