Dipper dropped his bags on the bed, starting to stretch a little. He was really happy to finally arrive at the shack, the bus ride from Piedmont is pretty long and not the most comfortable one either. He quickly took a look at the room, seeing that nothing had moved since last summer, other than Soos might have dusted the room before they arrived.
He left out a little chuckle when he heard Mabel in the other room talking to the phone loudly, most likely with one of her friends. He got out of his room, walking toward the other one present in the attic. At some point, they had to split room, question of privacy, and everyone realised that there was actually a room up there, even if it was mostly used as a storage room. It hadn't taken long for them to change it into somewhere Mabel could live for the summer.
He knocked on the open door, waiting for his twin to signal him he could get in, entering and sitting at the desk. Now that he was focusing more on what Mabel was saying, she seemed to be talking with their Grunkles. He then looked a little concerned, hoping nothing bad had happened. Mabel seemed to sense his concern since she offered him a smile with a thumbs up, not wanting his brother to worry himself for nothing.
"They are going to arrive a little later than scheduled" finally said the young woman when she told them goodbye and hanged up, "Nothing to worry about, just some car problem on the way here, after all the Stanmobile isn't young anymore" she commented with a laugh, gaining a laugh from her twin. No, that car wasn't young anymore and it had been through a lot of stuff through the years.
"Well, at least they are doing fine and we know they were already on the road" said Dipper with a smile, standing up again. "You know if Soos needs our help?". The young man had noticed the work Soos seemed to be doing to this old shack, supposing he took some days off doing tour before the tourist season. The more they were to work on it, the quicker he could finish. But he only received a shrug from Mabel, as she didn't ask when they spoke with the man at their arrival.
So the twins both went to join Soos, finding him in the gift shop working on some light. "Hey Soos, you need some help with your work?" asked Mabel happily.
"No dudes" smiled the older man from the top of it ladder "You two must be exhausted from the travel and I'm already nearly finished, thanks to this little dude" he explained while pointing toward Kevin, one of Wendy's little brother, who was cleaning the store. The twins smiled, amused that it was yet again a Corduroy that was helping in the gift shop. After all, Wendy had to leave for college, even if she was visiting for the summer when she could.
"Well, if we are not needed~" sing sang Mabel as she was reaching for her phone, calling one of her friends already. Dipper's choice that he would rather go relax and unpack his bags. Once he was upstairs, he spied a little to see whom Mabel had called, making him smile when he saw a really expensive car pull in front of the shack. Pacifica wasn't a really surprising pick.
It took him a couple of minutes to unpack his clothes, then going for his books and computer. He finished with his journals, going for yet another year to hide them in the chest under some clothes, right at the bottom. He couldn't have Ford find them, especially after they destroy the original journals after the whole weirdmageddon thing. Well, let say he might have made copies of most of the pages before Ford could destroy it and created his own journals to keep track of what he could find while exploring. How could he have left so many great information go to waste?
He stood up when everything was done, looking around as he was searching what to do now, especially now that Mabel was gone, that Soos didn't need him for now and that the Grunkles were still on the road. Is eyes then stopped on the triangular window, reminding him of events from which he had mixed feelings about. He seemed to hesitate, before going for the idea that came to his mind.
He quickly grabbed his messenger bag, throwing in his phone, his small pencil case and his notebook, just in case he came across something interesting on his way. He did have to go through one of the journals to find some indication to the location he needed to go. He was soon after gone from the shack, telling Soos that he was going out for some time so he wouldn't worry.
It took him less than a couple of minutes before feeling familiar inside the forest, knowing pretty well where he was going without even really needing the indication he had taken with him. It's only after at least twenty minutes of walk that he got to his destination: Bill Cipher remaining statue.
Dipper left his bag hanging on a low branch, approaching the stoned figure. He didn't know himself why he came here, he never did in the last seven years. Well, it did traumatize him and his twin, it took a really long time before he was able to actually sleep without fear of seeing the triangular demon. Though through the last years, he did wanted to talk about it with the others and what he had lived with Bill, it wasn't all nightmares in his case, but it was a really touchy subject so he never tried again after the first rejection. Even if the idea of one day seeing the demon again was making him anxious, he was feeling pretty calm now about it.
He simply took a seat in front of him, elbow positioned on his knees and his head resting on his joined hands. "Seem like no one came and took care of you in all these years" said Dipper with an amused tone, looking at the dirt and moss that had grown on him. "Guess most people forgot about you after your tentative to take over and I honestly doubt any of us wanted to visit you" he thought aloud.
Somewhere away, in the Mindscape, a certain demon was trying to do some work when he felt something weak. He sighed in frustration, wondering what was happening around him in that human dimension. Really, they couldn't leave him alone to regain his power after those stupid kids managed to weaken him like that. It was better not be another meatsack trying something bad with it.
In no time he was able to go back, knowing no one could see him like that anyway, though it meant he couldn't do anything in the physical world. It wouldn't stop him from tormenting the night of whoever was disturbing his place. He was instead surprised by someone sitting in front of him, saying: "I don't even know why I came here myself".
He was surprised to recognize the young Pine Tree, even if he wasn't as young as he was before. How long was it since the last time he saw him? He couldn't say, human years weren't something he understood very well. But all this wasn't really interesting, the Pines boy was probably here to do something to the stone figure, he could deal with his sleep later.
"But I guess it's good to see you again, even after all you did". That statement stopped him, making the demon suddenly interested, floating closer. What was he even talking about? "I can't get out of my head the nice thing you did, even if it was just to get my naive younger self to trust you and do what you wanted".
There was a silence, as if the boy was thinking, before restarting "I wanted to talk about you with the others, but they still won't try, I can't blame them about it though, you messed us up a lot". The demon rolled his eyes, not believing he did that much to them. Humans are so fragile, tsk.
"So I guess the only way is to talk directly to what remains of you, at least you won't tell me to stop" chuckled the young man, before becoming silent again. Bill could feel various feelings coming from the human, all contradicting each other, at least from what he could understand.
He then seemed to start talking about stuff related to his trauma, all of which he was never really able to tell Mabel, not wanting to be a burden to her. It was good to finally be able to say it out loud, talking about the thing he was able to recover from, or at least to the best he could and some of the stuff he was still struggling with. As Dipper was laying out his thought, Bill was listening, curious about what effect he had on him, it was interesting to hear actually.
After some time the sky was starting to look warmer, the temperature slowly dropping. That's when Dipper finally stop talking, at this point it was a lot of random stuff about paranormal and life in general, as if just passing time. Bill had at multiple times gone back to the Mindscape to do something else when things were getting boring, coming back soon after.
He stood up, reaching for his bag. He seemed to be ready to go, but stopped on his trail, making the demon stay, curious of what he was going to do.
"Well... um.. I guess I can say goodbye, or maybe next time" said Dipper, crouching down to go and take the stone hand, as if to give it a shake. Then something weird happened, the place where their hand had joined was starting to light up, surprising both of them.
Dipper could feel his tattoo starting to burn a little, making him panic, not knowing what was going one, his eyes growing wide when he couldn't let go of the thing. "nononononono what is happening" he mumbled to himself, trying to pry his hand away with the other.
Bill then started to shine, feeling sucked in toward the statue, even if he was trying to go against it. He was cursing against the young man, not understanding what he had done and clearly, the human didn't know much about it either.
Relief washed over Dipper when he was able to let go, falling on his butt on the ground as he was still pulling before. The relief didn't stay really long as he could see a yellow triangular shape rise from the stoned figure, an eye opening soon after. Then they stared at each other.
Dipper was so confused as to what was happening, he probably hadn't been that confused in a long time, and maybe not as much. What was Bill doing here? How was he even here? Didn't they got rid of him years ago?
"Well well well, if this is not my good old meatsack, Pine tree!" cheered the demon, as if he hadn't listened to him since earlier "How long has it been? You've changed a lo-" he was suddenly stopped when he felt a strange feeling before he could feel his body be torn.
Dipper was now petrified by the horror going in front of him. Cracking and flesh-tearing sound coming from the weird form of muscle, bone and skin that was forming in front of him, slowly taking a more human form in front of him. When all was done, he stared at the new naked form in front of him that was trying to keep balanced with the help of a nearby trunk.
Okay, Dipper was mistaken earlier, this is the most confusing and horrifying thing he had witnessed in his life.
the transformation scene is inspired by the one made by Wamaiiwoods in 'A diffrent form, a diffrent time'