Author note: Thanks Supremebandit for beta reading, you really helped me a lot. This is Bill x OC, but it won't have a happy ending. Also this first chapter is written in first person, but for then on It will be in third person. Just giving a heads-up.

It was a breezy and warm day in Gravity Falls, Oregon. Currently, I am training with Ford along with Pacifica. While we did not get along at first, we eventually became friends. We study the supernatural oddities of the world.

Currently we are investigating the supernaturality of Gravity Falls, but we are planning to move beyond as well. Ford told us his stories about his adventures with his twin brother Stan and we were very engaged.

Overall, while sometimes it could get boring, it was a lot more enjoyable than the high school I just graduated from. Pacifica isn't new exactly, she's been there for years and I, myself, am still pretty new. While I did not imagine this would be my future career, I'm not complaining.

I also loved Gravity Falls. Even though the inhabitants can be rather dumb sometimes and can get on my nerves a lot, it was worth it for the wonderful nature and the friends I have made there.

But there's just one problem.

Bill Cipher. The interdimensional, powerful, luminescent, floating, pyramid, triangle creature, with one slit eye, black top hat and a black bowtie. Its limbs are made of an inky black substance, long and lanky. The creature called itself a dream demon. I do not know much about it, but it seems to be very annoying. I was right.

Bill was floating in front of me, trying to mess with me during my walk home from work. I was very annoyed, which is probably what it wanted in the first place.

"So, a breezy and warm day in Gravity Falls, Oregon, eh? Wouldn't think you'd like it." Bill said in a faux bored tone. I just rolled my eyes, please let me go to work already.

I keep walking, but it would not take the hint. I tightened my hold on a book in my arms in annoyance.

"How's your day?" It asked.

"Fine, why?" I said in a growling tone.

"It's so nice, you know? So nice, I wish it was even nicer."

"Oh please, repeating yourself over and over just to annoy me makes me very stressed. You want me to stress out?" I scoffed. I just want this shit to get out of my life already.

"How's work going?" Bill changed the topic.

"Fine."

"How's LLAMA? Being freed from an abusive family must be nice."

"Llama? Who?" I asked.

"That blonde girl at your work."

"Her name is Pacifica Northwest, I'm not sure why you called her that. Well, I mean, I get it, she loves llamas and used to own a llama plush as a kid."

"You think I called her Llama, because of that? Hahaha, no! She represents the Llama on the zodiac, you see."

"What?" I flatly said. "The zodiac?" I could not help but blink.

"The zodiac is a very powerful thing. Million years ago, man predicted it and it was brought to defeat a certain all-powerful monster that would take over the world. Over and over, people that are a part of the zodiac tried to defeat The Monster, but they immediately lost and the new zodiac had to be created over and over. I'll tell you the current symbols if you want?"

I was intrigued for once after being frustrated with Bill for hours.

"What are the current symbols of the zodiac?" I asked.

"Let's see..." Bill riddled. A lightbulb appeared above his head, literally. "Oh I got it! Pine Tree, Shooting Star, Question Mark, Crescent Fish...? Crescent Mark? Sixer, Ice Bag, Stitched Heart, Pentagram and Glasses."

"Are there ten people in every new zodiac?"

"Wow, you counted? I'm so impressed." Bill said in a tone that I'm not sure whether it is really sarcastic or impressed. "Ahem! Yes, there are ten people in every zodiac."

"Would you mind telling me a bit of the history of it? That's really fascinating and it would be great information to tell my mentor, Ford!"

"No."

"Aww, okay." I was a bit let down, but I wasn't gonna complain. I could get more information about it sooner or later anyways. Especially since the members of the current Zodiac are right there under my nose.

I did not realize how long the conversation with me and Bill lasted until I looked up at the sky and noticed it was getting pretty dark. Damnit!

"I'm going to sleep, good night." I said, deciding it wasn't worth playing along.

"Good night!" Bill said.

I'm praying to every single god that Bill isn't gonna come into my mindscape and mess with me once again. I followed the path into my home that was located far away from the town square of Gravity Falls. I turned around and noticed that Bill wasn't there anymore. I sighed out of relief.

My home wasn't big, it was only one floor but it had surprisingly a lot of rooms and there's a basement under there that I used to store all my unused work in Ford's Oddness Lab where I worked.

From my bag, I grabbed the key and opened the door. When I got inside, I locked the door tightly so people wouldn't come in. I sighed out of exhaustion. Was I really that exhausted from all the work?

Anyway, I went to my bedroom. The walls were painted with as many paranormal creatures as I could come up with and also cats as well, the shelves were decorated with clay figurines of paranormal creatures and study papers of paranormality. I always found it funny, since at first I was not interested in the paranormal, but ever since I came to work as Ford's apprentice, because I was desperate for a job. I grew to have a passion for the paranormal. It's why I became great friends with Pacifica and Dipper.

Well Pacifica did not have a passion in the paranormal but she had an expansive education growing up, so she came to know a lot about science, physics, math, etc. as a result and she would explain to me how the paranormal creatures and paranormal things such as magic work. It was very fascinating.

Dipper did the same, but he was a lot more rambly and nerdy about it. Not that I mind, I, myself, was a nerd of fiction as well. I flopped into bed, not bothering to change into my pajamas, as much as that bothers me. Closing my eyes, I was slowly starting to fall into a deep sleep.

I tossed my body around occasionally and I was thinking about my friends, the work, that damn Bill Cipher and more.

The next day, I found myself very conscious of my smell. I opened the door and walked to the bathroom and showered for a while. I changed into my alternate work clothes.

Once that was done, I did not bother to clean my room and instead headed right into work. I walked through a hallway with lots of rooms and finally went to my door. I unlocked it with my key and when I opened the door and got outside, I locked it again.

The air was very fresh, which I liked and the forest was pretty dense and dark. Ford's Oddness Lab isn't too far out there, so it was a short walk.

After I stood around Ford's Oddness Lab with the guards standing, while it looked small on the outside, it's actually pretty damn large on the inside. There's lots of rooms and lots of people working there, some of them from foreign countries.

"Hello, Dr Mariya. You can enter." The guard said and opened the door so I could walk in.

The entrance room is made of metal and is rather dark. That would unsettle me normally, but I am pretty used to it as I come to this room everyday I come to work. I saw some man who seemed to be a paranormal investigator and fellow scientists chatting together around the counter.

In front of the room is a door to the elevator, I stepped into the elevator and who I saw was my friend, Pacifica in lab coat.

"Oh, hello." I said.

"Hi." Pacifica said, preferring to say as few words as possible. "We've got work to do." She pressed the "5" button.

The elevator started traveling down the destination and the light flicked.

"I know. What is the current task we're assigned today?"

"Investigating paranormal conditions and what may possibly cause them."

"I see. What kind of conditions?" I asked.

"Conditions that completely change your personality. Like, say a dedicated and prideful man is changed into a musical silly man." Pacifica sounded more sorrowful than usual.

"What's wrong?"

"None of your business. Anyways, an example would be musical man curse. It's a condition in which after a while, your personality starts to be taken away and turned into a musical man. Examples can be like suddenly listening to sped up music all the time."

Your personality being taken away...

"Ah, alright."

I felt myself jump a bit once the elevator stopped at its destination and the doors opened. It showed a dark hallway with several doors, this time the lighting was greenish.

"Here we are." Pacifica gestured at the door labeled "CURSES" leading to a experimental lab.

Pacifica and I walked together into the room and then into the Curses lab.

The Curses lab wasn't dark this time, it was very lit which made for a suitable experimental environment. Ford was there as well. "I see you're here. Well, follow me."

Ford was leading me to the front desk around the wall, which had a lot of glass with twirling particles inside it, a potion with black substance inside it and a cube on a glass plate. I couldn't help but touch the big desk around the front desk which is pretty clean and made of wood around us out of curiosity.

"You already know what curses are and how they work, so I won't tell you. This time, we're going to revolve into what makes a curse work, the particles required for each curse, how sigils are achieved and figured out and more." Pacifica explained.

"Precisely." Ford said. "These particles in glass you see? They are for testing and figuring out what works and what doesn't. For example, lightning can work for personality change curses as it would warp the target's mind to some extent."

"Are you trying to curse me?" I could not help but worry.

"No, it's for testing and science. It could be like finding a cure for it. Welcome to the world of science where we have to accept risks like it or not." Pacifica deadpanned.

I sweated, but she was right. I accepted this job in the first place, so i can't complain too much.

Ford gave me and Pacifica latex gloves to wear and we did so.

"We will test the black goo curse in which when you use it on the target, whether it be a person or object, it becomes covered with black goo. It's toxic when you touch it and the resulting effects can be really nasty."

My head started to sweat anxiously again.

"Don't worry, we have latex gloves on." I looked and Ford was wearing latex gloves as well.

"This curse was made and may be one of the first to be so, but we very well could be wrong." Pacifica said. "It was made by mixing black goos and corrupting magic together and it's achieved by saying the name out loud or by using a potion. We will test it on the cube on the desk."

"Wait, wouldn't it spread?" I asked.

"The plate it's standing on is curse-resistant." Ford explained calmly.

"Ah okay…"

Ford grabbed the potion and poured it down the cube. The cube became covered with black goo all over it and it let out black bubbles. Eventually it was starting to melt and yet after some point it suddenly stopped melting, staying in motion.

"This kind of black goo melts the things it comes across and if used on a person, can end up rotting their brain completely, resulting in a completely different person."

"Ooh…" I won't lie, that sounds a bit terrifying. "How common is it?"
"It's not common. Black goos only appear in specific magic-affected habitats. And there isn't a cure, though there is treatment that can heal the brain a bit and make the symptoms less severe." Ford answered.

After doing more experimenting and studying a few curses and different kinds of particles and materials used to make curses, I was finished and was going to go back, then Ford held me back.

"Remember to not touch things without permission again next time, alright?" Ford said.

"Okay, okay, I got it. I was just really curious." I said.

As usual, I walked down the forest path and into my home. I locked the door tightly and went into my bedroom and jumped into bed. I didn't bother to change into my pajamas again.

I promise myself that I will do laundry tomorrow though.

I got into a comfortable position and closed my eyes but I can never be too comfortable for long, I would toss around a lot before finally gradually slumbering into deep sleep.

I heard a little noise, which did startle me and made me a bit paranoid, but after years of hearing even slight noises when sleeping making me nervous, it was probably nothing.

I heard a loud door knock, I did not respond to it. Suddenly a loud falling noise broke out and I heard footsteps. I was starting to panic. 'Don't panic!' I thought. But as the steps started getting louder and louder, my body started sweating a lot and I was not sure what to do. My mind told me to think quickly, and my first thought that came to mind was to fight back.

I stood up quickly and quickly grabbed a book which had the Eye Of Providence symbol on its cover from the bookshelf, preparing to defend myself from the burglars. My teeth were gritting as my muscles tightened.

I saw shadows of three figures walking in. This is it. Life or death.

They were dressed in all black with white stripes. But the worst thing is they are all carrying baseball bats.

When they approached me, I grabbed my book tightly and swung it at the middle man's head, putting as much strength as I possibly could into it. The man growled in pain and the other men rushed to attack me and while I managed to swing my book in full strength at him and kicked him as hard as I could, bruising his cheek and leaving a cut. Little did I know the man on the left rushed in swinging his baseball bat at my head.

I saw a blue light surrounding us as I fell. It was blue fire that appeared, flaring brightly at the man, burning him to death and a familiar floating triangle appeared, I knew who it was. Bill Cipher.

"M-Mariya!? No!" He cried and quickly attempted to use his healing powers on me as I felt great pain in my head and I was not fully conscious enough to scream out. Everything faded to black.

I woke up to see the white sterile walls of the hospital and felt my head be wrapped with bandages, which made me pretty confused. What happened? I felt a bit dizzy.

"Jesus! You scared me! Please don't scare me like that again!" I knew it was Pacifica speaking.

"What happened, Mariya?" Ford voiced with concern.

What surprised me the most though was Mabel running into me, tackling me in a hug and crying. "I don't want you to die, ever!" she cried.

Then I remembered what happened. It was foggy and vague but from what I could tell, three people attacked me and hit me. And at some point there was blue fire for some reason.

"I don't know... I think three people attacked me and there's like a fire or something." I said.

"I see." Ford decided to save further questions like how Mariya managed to survive the fire for later. "For your brain injury, I will give you a week off. I hope you get well soon."

Ford walked out of the room, talking with the doctors.

"Are you okay?" Pacifica said in a compassionate tone, which surprised me. Usually she just speaks in a snarky or deadpan tone.

"Yeah, are you okay!?" Mabel said.

"Well... I think I'm a bit fine, but I don't want to get out right now." I said.

The nurse nodded. "That's for the best. For such a serious brain injury, it was a miracle you even survived." Perhaps I am what my co-workers call a luckster?

After the nurse gently nudged Pacifica and Mabel to leave, they both did so and I was left alone with the nurse. Well, she seemed nice enough.

I watched her writing on her notes, wondering what she's writing. Maybe something about my head injury?

"Wait, I have to stay for a day?" I asked.

"Yes and then you can go." Nurse answered.

Goddamnit! I am stuck sitting in the same room for a day! Ughhhh!

Since I had nothing to do for a day, I decided to kill it by thinking about what happened. As far as I could remember, there were three burglars attacking and one managing to hit me on the head, then a blue fire appeared and burned him to death and... and... that triangle I think, Bill Cipher appeared...

Wait, what?

He- It... H- It's a it, isn't it? It really saved me and killed the man who would have caused my death had it not been for him?

Okay, this is really weird. And I live in Gravity Falls, the hotspot of weirdness. Still, he saved me... So thanks.

The next day, I was able to get out of the hospital. I still have six days off. Good riddance.

The thought of going home terrified me, so I decided to go to the Mystery Shack.

I knocked on the gift shop door. "Howdy! What brings you here?" Soos opened the door and greeted.

"I just... Can I stay here for a while? Like, six days?"

"Sure, we have a room you can sleep in!"

I walked into the gift shop. It was a very familiar sight, I have visited this room multiple times before for my friends. It's made of birch wood and there's lots of merchandise like the Fur Trout being sold. For what I know, most of it seems to be just cheap taxidermy or multiple things glued together without thought designed to provoke shock and get money. I wasn't really surprised, considering the kind of man Stan Ford told me he is.

I decided to go to the living room through the hallway. The living room's wallpaper is plaid dull blue and there's what seems to be run-down TV, fluffy yellowish carpet, a striped yellowish couch and a little room with chairs and table to chill around.

I sat on the couch (which smelled pretty gross but I've smelled far more gross things) and turned the tv on. On the screen appeared Duck-tective, which excited me. I loved that show! So many shocking plot twists and fascinating mysteries!

While I was all excited and giddy, Ford who's wearing a red sweater this time walked in. "What brings you here?" I asked, more relaxed and calm than usual.

"May I ask you some questions about... that incident?" He asked and rubbed the back of his head awkwardly as if he was afraid of bringing terrible memories. Which I still felt distressed thinking about. I also felt a great amount of confusion as well.

"No... Just, I need to relax for a while, alright?" I responded.

He nodded. "Alright." He left me alone and went to do what I assume is probably to continue his work, doing paperwork.

I continued watching to distract from the distressing memories.

"Heya, Duck-tective, that show Pine Tree and Crescent Mark love eh?"

I was off guard by the sudden appearance of Bill Cipher behind the couch. "What are you doing!?" I screamed.

"Oh, nevermind." Bill rotated around.

"Can you get the hell out there, please?" I said, annoyed.

"I just saved your life and this is how you pay me?" Bill snarked at me.

"Whatever, you're still annoying."

After taking a deep breath, I decided to ask. "Who's Pine Tree and Crescent Mark?"

"Oh, my friends who live in the same dimension as me." Bill exhaled. "Pine Tree is a living pine tree-shaped blue jigsaw puzzle hence his name and he's a really nice shy kid yet strange. Works at a paranormal store."

"Paranormal stor-" I was interrupted by Bill immediately. "Crescent Mark is something of a circle man who screams like an old man a lot and he does get on my nerves but I respect him nonetheless."

I was now curious. What was their dimension like? What are paranormal stores, are they stores that sell paranormal pets, paranormal antiques or all of the above? I want to visit that dimension and research it. That would make my mentor Ford very proud.

"Can I ask some questions?" I said.

"Sure, why not? What's the harm done in asking questions?" Bill shrugged.

"What are paranormal stores?"

"Oh it's where you sell research papers about the paranormal, magical antiques and more!"

Makes sense...

"So, what are Pine Tree and Crescent Mark's hobbies?"

Bill stayed silent for a while, thinking of an answer. "Crescent Mark sells weird antiques and does engineering stuff. Pine Tree does puzzles a lot. Oh and sometimes having fun. Ha ha ha!"

He cheerfully laughed.

"Can I meet them someday?" I smiled, they seemed like fun people to hang out with.

"Sure, someday."

Someday.

Meanwhile on TV... "I have found the culprit... It's the Great Lake Duck who's been kidnapping all these people!" Duck-tective declared.

"Quack!"

"Such a lame show!" Bill laughed.

"How dare you! It's a great show with the best mysteries I've ever seen and funny plot twists, like that murder victim who is actually alive and has framed the whole thing all along! And It's got great humor too, including some that goes over the kids' heads!" I ranted.

"Oh, please. It's overrated and overhyped and it's cliche, I've seen that kind of thing a million times."

"I smell not knowing how to have fun!"

Bill laughed. Well, even though I still didn't like him much, this conversation was fun nonetheless. The episode ended and the screen revealed that the next show is going to be All That Go Up!, a live action teen drama series.

"Aw man..." I said. I turned off the TV with my remote.

Ford walked in and Bill instantly disappeared. I am a bit confused, but I figured out it doesn't really matter much.

"How are you? I hope you're doing okay and enjoying your days off. I will be extra busy for a week, so I just wanted to say this, I appreciate your work and hard efforts a lot and I'm very proud of you." Ford smiled.

"Woah... uh..." I was taken aback, but I appreciate it nonetheless. "Thanks, Ford. You're the best. You can be really stern sometimes, but I appreciate how you're also willing to listen to me as well and care about me."

Ford sat down on the carpet and we sat in content silence