"Remember! Reality is an illusion, the universe is a hologram, buy gold, bye!" -Bill Cipher.

Reality

Dipper squinted his eyes as he gazed down, holding one hand over his head to shield his vision from the golden sun overhead. He was standing on the edge of a grassy cliff that overlooked the town of Gravity Falls. "I don't think you can see it from here," he sighed, moving his hand from his eyes to look over to Mabel, who stood besides him. Mabel gave a huff of disappointment.

"I really thought you'd be able to see the Mystery Shack from here... The view is amazing, and getting a photo of the shack from here would've been great for my scrapbook..."

Dipper nodded, a little disappointed himself, turning back to the town. "But, yeah, I don't think you can- wait! There it is!' he exclaimed, pointing at the wooden roof of the shack that stuck out from the trees. Mabel gave a squeal of excitement, before grabbing her camera that hung from a strap around her neck. She peered through it, snapping photos of the town. Dipper smiled slightly.

There was a reason Mabel wanted to get new photos quickly. The end of their summer was drawing to a close; in fact, they'd be leaving the next day. Dipper frowned at the thought. Neither of the twins wanted to leave, after all. This town felt more like home than their actual hometown, and he didn't want to leave it behind. There wasn't really a choice, though. He sighed.

"Are you done yet?" he asked, returning his gaze to his twin. Mabel lowered her camera.

"Yep! I got some really good photos! We should probably head back now," she added. "Stan said to be back by noon."

Dipper glanced at his watch. It was 11:30. They had a long walk ahead of them. "Yeah, that's probably a good idea."

Mabel turned around and made her way down the slope. Dipper stated walking, too, but he cast one last glance over his shoulder, and he thought he saw something flash, colored like a glitch in a computer. He lifted a brow, confused, before he shook it off. He must've been imagining it. He turned around, before following his sister, though his pace was quick. I must have been imagining it... right?

Dipper stared out of the attic window, his eyes glazed over in deep thought. He had his hands on the windowsill, and his clouded eyed travelled over the ground below. He didn't know what he was looking for... was he seeing if the world would glitch again?

It couldn't have been a glitch... he told himself. Because that would mean that everything is just...

He shook his head. He couldn't bear to finish his own thought. The world was real, there was no way it could all be... fake.

He pushed off of the windowsill and looked over the room. It was empty now; they had moved all of their stuff out. Only a few pieces of stray papers lay on the ground. Dipper let out a sigh, slowly closing his eyes. I was just imagining it...

His eyes opened as he heard Mabel call his name from downstairs. With a final look over the empty room, he dragged his feet over to the door. When he reached for the doorknob, though, his breath caught in his throat and his eyes widened.

His own hand was glitching in-and-out of existence, flashing different colors and occasionally binary code before returning to its normal color. He retracted his arm and held it up to his eyes. It kept flashing in that same pattern, and each time he glitched, a chill shot up his arm to reach his shoulder. "I'm not imagining this..." he murmured in horror. Then he heard Mabel call him again. He quickly reached out to open the door, trying to ignore the sting. After he shut the door behind him, he shoved his hand into his vest-pocket and held it there with a dire expression on his face. He held his hand in his pocket with his other hand as he trudged down the stairs.

He didn't know what exactly was going on, but he didn't think he should let the others find out.

Dipper hurried down the stairs and arrived in the living-room. Mabel was hanging by her legs upside-down in the chair, her arms hanging. She turned her head to look at him.

"Geez, Dip-Dop, what took you so long?" she asked good-humoredly. Then she frowned as Dipper averted his gaze, as if he was hiding something. She scrambled to sit normally on the couch. "What's wrong, broseph?"

Dipper shook his head. "I-it's nothing," he muttered through clenched teeth and narrowed eyes, like he was in agony. Then he let out a quiet hiss of pain, but it was so quiet, like he was trying to hide it. Mabel widened her eyes in concern.

"It's not nothing. Seriously, Dipper, what's wrong..."

Dipper opened his mouth to respond -probably by contradicting her- but he was cut off as he let out a gasp of pain. Only then did she realize that he had his right hand in his vest-pocket, and he held it there with his other hand. His right arm was shivering slightly, shaking. He was panting now, but he finally responded.

"I-i-i-i-i-it's fine," he stuttered, but the stutter sounded more like the sound a glitching game would've made, and his voice seemed hollow, echo-y, and distorted. Mabel gaped, having no idea what was going on. Dipper had shut his eyes tightly, and he shook his head, before turning around and pushing the door to the outside open. He slammed it behind him as he ran out.

"Dipper..." Mabel whispered. Then she drew in a deep breath. She'd have to find him. She hopped off of the couch, her feet touching the ground, before bolting out the door herself.

She glanced around wildly before she saw him. Dipper was heading into the forest, with his hand still held in his pocket. He climbed over a large rock, before jumping off. For a moment, he froze completely. This wouldn't have been very worrying normally, but he had frozen mid-air, with no movement whatsoever. Mabel let out a gasp of astonishment and worry, before Dipper unfroze after a shudder and landed on the ground. Then he started running again.

Gathering her strength, she charged after him, her feet barely skimming the ground as she ran faster than she ever had before. Something was very wrong, and she needed to find out what.

Dipper leapt over the rock, but a cold pain shot through him as he froze in mid-air. He wanted to cry out in agony, but his mouth wouldn't move. His vision was blurred over as he hung suspended in the air, his throat burning as if he were being hanged by an invisible rope coiled around his neck. After his body gave a quick shudder and the chill faded away, he could move again. He fell to the ground and wasted no time as he began running again. Was Bill right? Is reality just... fake? An illusion? If nothing's real, if I'm not real, what're we all even here for!? Why do I even exist!?

He tensed slightly as he heard Mabel call him. "Dipper! Come back!"

His surprise was immediately replaced with alarm. If she had been following him, she'd seen him glitch in the air, and if she caught up with him, she might see him glitch even more. He ignored the chill that kept shooting up his arm, and he quickened his stride. But then he froze again from another glitch, and his whole body was screaming in agony. He couldn't move, no matter how much he wanted to. When he finally did unfreeze, he couldn't land well, and he collapsed onto the ground, his head slamming into the forest-floor. He rolled over onto his back, summoning only enough strength to let out a groan. He wanted to scream, but he just couldn't... Then he realized too late that during his fall, his hand had slipped out of his pocket. By now, though, he couldn't be bothered to care.

His vision blurred, clouded, and glazed over, he barely heard Mabel's gasp of shock as she approached. "D-Dipper! Your hand!"

He tried to open his mouth to respond, but as another wave of pain washed over him, he let out a warped and strangled cry.

He could hardly hear Mabel's footsteps as she stepped over to him. He closed his eyes, his breathing coming out ragged. The coldness that had been slowly travelling up his arm had turned into numbness. He slowly opened his eyes again as he heard Mabel's voice.

"Dipper... w-what's going on?"

Dipper ignored the pain that coursed through him as he forced himself sit up. He shuddered as, instead of just his hand, his whole body gave a quick glitch. He could hear Mabel gasp again.

"N-nothing's real..." he muttered, staring at himself as he gave another glitch.

"W-what do you mean?" Mabel asked, her eyes widened as she gaped at him. "A-and doesn't that hurt...!?"

"Nothing's real," he repeated. "I-i-i-i-i-i-i-it's all fake," he told her, his voice warping again as he stuttered.

"B-but Dipper... doesn't... whatever that is... hurt!?"

Dipper gave only a slight nod, before his form dissipated for a second before appearing again. "Mabel... e-everything is fa-a-a-a-a-ake…"

"T-that doesn't matter right now! Please, Dipper, tell me what's wrong!"

He opened his mouth, but instead of real English, his words had been turned into binary, and his voice came out sounding computerized, with only a trace of his own voice. "01001110 01101111 01110100 01101000 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01101101 01100001 01110100 01110100 01100101 01110010 01110011..."

He convulsed again, a tear slipping down his face as he shut his eyes tightly and another torrent of pain flooded his senses. "Dipper!" Mabel cried.

"01001101 01100001 01100010 01100101 01101100 00101110 00101110 00101110 00100000 01110010 01100101 01100001 01101100 01101001 01110100 01111001 00100000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01100110 01100001 01101011 01100101 00101110 00101110 00101110..."

"W-what are you even saying?"

Dipper struggled to keep his voice normal as he spoke next. "N-nothing is real, Mabel... E-everything is fake... Reality is fake... 01010010 01100101 01100001 01101100 01101001 01110100 01111001 00100000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01100110 01100001 01101011 01100101 00101110 00101110 00101110..."

He drew in a shuddering breath.

"01001101 01100001 01100010 01100101 01101100 00101100 00100000 01101001 01100110 00100000 01110111 01100101 00100111 01110010 01100101 00100000 01100001 01101100 01101100 00100000 01100110 01100001 01101011 01100101 00101110 00101110 00101110 00100000 01110111 01101000 01100001 01110100 00100111 01110011 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01110000 01101111 01101001 01101110 01110100 00111111 00100000 01010111 01101000 01111001 00100000 01100001 01110010 01100101 00100000 01110111 01100101 00100000 01100101 01110110 01100101 01101110 00100000 01101000 01100101 01110010 01100101 00111111 00100000 01010111 01101000 01111001 00100000 01100001 01101101 00100000 01001001 00100000 01100101 01110110 01100101 01101110 00100000 01101000 01100101 01110010 01100101 00001010 00001010 00001010?"

Suddenly, he felt arms wrap around him as Mabel held him softly in a hug. "Dipper... calm down..." she murmured. Dipper was breathing heavily, and he couldn't find the strength to pull away.

"N-nothing mat-t-t-t-t-t-t-ers…" he stuttered. "Everything i-i-i-i-i-i-is fake... 01000100 01101111 01101110 00100111 01110100 00100000 01100010 01101111 01110100 01101000 01100101 01110010 00100000 01110111 01101001 01110100 01101000 00100000 01101101 01100101 00101100 00100000 01001101 01100001 01100010 01100101 01101100 00101110 00101110 00101110 00100000 01000100 01101111 01101110 00100111 01110100 00100000 01100010 01101111 01110100 01101000 01100101 01110010... I-i-i-i-i-i-i-it's not r-r-real... Fa-a-a-a-a-ake…"

Mabel tightened her hold on him, but not enough that it hurt. "Dipper, even if it isn't real... Even if it's all fake... We're still all here. Who cares if the feelings we feel are fake! We still feel them..."

"01001001 00100111 01101101 00100000 01101110 01101111 01110100 00100000 01110010 01100101 01100001 01101100... I-I-I-I-I don't matter..."

Mabel hugged him harder. "Dipper, you matter to me... You're my brother, and I could never do anything without you... Dipper, it isn't fake when I say that you matter... I care about you, bro-bro..."

Finally, Dipper returned the embrace, wrapping his arms around her as he shut his eyes. "01000001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01001001 00100000 01100011 01100001 01110010 01100101 00100000 01100001 01100010 01101111 01110101 01110100 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101... I-i-i-i-i-i-i-it's... I-i-i-it's r-real..."

Mabel nodded, a tear of her own slipping down her face. "It's real," she repeated him. And Dipper slowly felt the pain fade away, he felt the numbness fade away... Every glitch left him... Well, no, he had one more thing to say...

"01001001 00100000 01100011 01101111 01110101 01101100 01100100 00100000 01101110 01100101 01110110 01100101 01110010 00100000 01100001 01110011 01101011 00100000 01100110 01101111 01110010 00100000 01100001 00100000 01100010 01100101 01110100 01110100 01100101 01110010 00100000 01110011 01101001 01110011 01110100 01100101 01110010..."

So, yeah, no real idea as to why I made this.

I'm only a little sorry for all the binary code in there. If you really want to know what he was saying, just copy and paste into a translator. Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V.