'Tis here that I defer from the cannon

Basically in this Sock Opera doesn't happen

Chapter 2: FQ ABSBILMBA...

Asger could feel the eyes on him, the kid knew something

-Of course, I didn't pick Pine Tree for nothing –

'Not helpful'

The voice rarely was, generally only when it came to what Asger had to do in order for everything to be over, just befriend the Pines family, gain their trust, get the journal, a book that was in possession of the one person who was cautious around him. The voice's plan was simple in theory, 'if you win Shooting Star over Pine Tree will fall after, it's ridiculous how much he does for her', befriending Mabel was extremely easy, but Dipper was a different matter altogether, and to be honest, Asger was pretty sure the voice enjoyed every sign the kid gave of going against what it said

-You're giving him too much credit, Pine Tree's probably jealous of how close you got to Red –

Asger sighed in frustration, scratch that, the voice was never helpful, and never constant either apparently, because Bill, and that's what the voice called itself, himself? Man, he was already feeling the headache of continuing that trail of thought… anyway, Bill had definitely claimed to like Dipper, in a weird interested kind of way where it would complement the boy one moment and berate him the other, having that in the background of his head was more than enough for Asger

He heard the shack's door opening and saw Wendy coming in; he smiled at her when she looked his way

Bill kept quiet for most of it, only reappearing when she mentioned going adventuring with the twins, something about how he could make use of the events either way, Asger really didn't want to know

- MLS ZEXKDB -

Perhaps going inside the forest wasn't the brightest idea, really, that was like, the single most stupid thing Dipper had ever decided to do; only the trees were soft under the moonlight, the noises were almost soothing, and the paths had never been so easy to navigate, Dipper wanted to feel bad about doing this, even a bit scared, but he could only complain mentally while he felt the exited rush he came to associate with entering the forest

Dipper was about to convince himself of returning to the shack when he saw a soft bluish glow in the distance; of course! A supernatural event, explaining the fact that he wanted to investigate an oddly familiar light in the forest sounded a lot easier than explaining why he felt so compelled by the forest at night, he rushed in the direction of the light, he started hearing voices, they got louder the closed he got, he jumped over a line of rocks that couldn't be natural and everything turned to greyscale; he stopped dead on his tracks. There was Asger; the guy who Dipper was sure was hiding something, though honestly he was expecting something tamer, glaring at Bill Cipher, the dream demon who had tried to get into Stan's mind

"If you're done complaining Esper, we have a very special visitor"

Dipper was forced out of hiding by Bill; Asger looked weary
"See the thing about Pine Tree, is he has the right amount of curiosity but he tends to put others first"

He took his eye off Asger and turned to Dipper

"Have you any idea how rare that is in a human? You're a riot!"

Asger groaned

"Oh don't mind him, he thinks he can walk out of a deal with a demon, have to hand it to Red, she got him good"

Dipper was officially confused

"Lucky for him, I got what I wanted already, so he can go"

With a click of the fingers Asger was frozen in place and greyed out

"I have a proposal for you Pine Tree, and I just know you'll accept it"