Hello boys, girls and inbetweeners!
Welcome back, it's been far too long and I have more planned I promise, I haven't stopped I'm just a master procrastinator. Please tell me if there are any mistakes within the story whether they are grammatical or incorrect in the world of Gravity Falls, thanks.
Disclaimer: I don't own Gravity Falls or any of the characters but I love them all so God damn much.
"Pine Tree, come in here for a second," Bill called loudly from the kitchen before Dipper could make it through the door to escape.
His feet dragged on the tiled floor as he stepped, defeated, to face his captor. He was sat cross-legged to mid-air above a chair. A golden teacup floated lazily around him as if orbiting the sun. He looked calmer, more refined and held together than the beast-like man that had threatened him life not ten minutes ago.
"Remember what I said about the journal," he nodded towards the lump in the boy's vest pocket.
Yes," Dipper assured, feeling anxious to leave the demon's company as some as possible. He didn't want to say or do anything that would cause Bill to become angry again. He had never felt true fear like that before, he had always had Mabel by his side to comfort him but now he had to face Bill alone for the first time and he was terrified.
"I want to see it before you put it away."
"Okay" Dipper complied, backing slowly towards the door as he did so.
Bill pulled out his black cane from thin air and Dipper flinched away as Bill swung it down towards him. Bill held the glossy wooden staff out for him to take, seemingly unaware of the fear that he had just instilled in the boy.
Dipper grabbed hold of the stick tentatively and almost dropped it in shock.
"Why the hell is it so damn heavy?" He grunted under the weight of the simple wooden walking stick.
"I never really noticed its weight, maybe you're just weak," Bill smirked. Despite the obvious attack on Dipper's questionable masculinity Dipper was happy to catch sight of the imping smile because he knew that he was safe for the moment although he couldn't guarantee that it would remain like that for long.
He felt sweat drip down his face as his fingers inched for the door handle. His instincts were telling, no, screaming at him that it was not safe there with only Bill for company. Being trapped in in this dimension was clearly getting to Bill's head and the longer he stayed here the more erratic he would become.
"Why do I need it?"
"Hold the end out in front of you when you walk away from the house, if it crashes into the barrier than go no farther, kid, 'cause if you do you'll fry. Don't try to touch it with a finger if you want to have fingers."
Dipper just nodded. He knew from the look on Bill's face that he wasn't playing around; the barrier could kill him if he made one wrong move.
"If I call for you I expect you to come back to me immediately, do you understand?"
"I'm not your-" Dipper cemented his mouth shut before it got him into trouble again.
"I'm glad you stopped yourself there, Pine Tree, because you are whatever I say you are, the sooner you understand that the better." Bill growled warningly.
"Can I go now?" He asked, tugged anxiously at his vest.
"If you want." Bill sighed, waving him off and turning back to his tea.
Dipper didn't need to be told twice, he was out of the front door and down the steps before Bill could say anything else. He gulped down the fresh air and began to advance farther away from the house, the stick held out in front of him like a pretend sword.
He hummed the catchy tone to Disco Girl as he walked slowly away from the house but it was slower than it usual would have been and his voice had grown deeper over the past year meaning he was no longer able to reach the high notes like he used to.
"Disco Girl… Coming through… That girl is you- Ah!"
As he took another step forward he was all but thrown to the ground by an invisible force.
"The force field," he mused allowed, he had grown accustom to musing internal thoughts aloud under Ford's teachings, it was a way they could communicate to each other without having to stop what they were doing and waste time. But, of course, instead of a clap on the shoulder and a murmur of pride there was only silence.
He tapped the place where he thought the field was and felt his arm jerk back painfully as the stick rebounded.
Sitting beside the barrier, propped up against a tree he could hear the faint out of tune tones of Danny Boy. He couldn't see the Leprecorn from where he sat but he could tell that annoyingly catching tune anyway. The Shamrock creature must be galloping just outside the barrier. Dipper hoped that it wouldn't run into the barrier by accident. The image of a fly flying into a bug-zapper caused Dipper to shiver despite heat of the mid-summer sun.
He sat there for the next hour, flipping through his journal absentmindedly.
"Pine Tree, get out from behind that tree I want to talk to you."
With a sigh Dipper picked himself up and stepped around to face the demon in human skin. He was leaning against a tree only a few metres away and smirking down at him.
"You're a quick learner." The demon smirked widely, showing a row of perfectly aligned white teeth.
"You're an aggressive teacher." Dipper mumbled, gesturing to his shoddily bandaged arm.
"I'm sure Ford would agree with you."
"He wouldn't have always agreed."
"True, but he learnt. I'm sure I can say the same for you kid. It pains me to say it, become I know you're going to love it, but you are so much alike, you and him."
"He hates you now, you know that right?"
"I have noticed that he has become rather bitter towards me lately but I have no idea why." Bill sniggered and collapsed onto the forest floor. He patted the ground beside him and, hesitantly, Dipper took up the patch of grass.
"He didn't always."
"How do you know that?"
"I read the journals, all of them, I read the parts that he scribbled on and ripped out. You weren't just his Muse he saw you as being more important, he trusted your word over the word of his best friend. What was your relationship with Great-uncle Ford?" He was sure he was pushing it a bit too far, that Bill might figure it out but fortunately Bill wasn't looking at him but staring off into the forest with a blank expression on his face.
"Why do you think it was anything more than respect and admiration?"
As if! Dipper thought quietly.
"Christ Bill, I'm thirteen, I can read subtext you know!" Dipper snapped back. His face was turning a bright shade of red.
"Why do you want to know?" Bill asked with a touch of curiosity in his voice, it was clear that he hadn't expected him to read between the lines.
"Because it's sounded like you were more than just his Muse and he's my great-uncle, he doesn't talk about you and I want to know... what it was like." Dipper was careful not to look at the demon as he said this; he didn't want him to know what he was asking.
"I know what you're trying to imply kid and it was not like that, Ford can't 'love' anyone like that. He was always in love with the idea of science and mysteries and to him love was neither. He was in love with the knowledge I gave him not the time I spent with him. Let's just say he took some of Tesla's philosophies a bit too much to heart."
"Oh, right, of course." Dipper knew all about how much his Great uncle admired Nicola Tesla's work and how it how served for most of his inspiration when trying to figure out how to build the portal. At one point to the journal Ford had even compared the love he for Tesla to the love that Fiddleford had for his wife and son.
"Enough about old Sixer, he's useless now, I can't destroy this universe either way so he's served his purpose for now."
"What's my purpose then?"
"Entertaining me when I get bored."
"I'm not going to act like your puppet, Bill I mean more than that to the ones I love."
"Yes, of course your more than that I mean, Stan likes you because you work for free and Mabel likes you because you're a push over and you'll go along with her stupid selfish games. And let's not forget old Fordsie, he likes you because you stumble around him likes a puppy and boy does he love the attention." Bill sneered down at him, making him feel like a bug or a germ.
"SHUT… I mean… I don't believe you; you're only saying these things to get me to doubt their love for me so that I'll join you."
"Oh, you got me kid, I just wanted to soften the blow of never being able to see them again after the summer. I'm such a terrible demon, no wonder you all hate me.
"Stop with the sarcasm Cipher! I won't ever trust you no matter what you say."
"I'll let you get away with that childish command for now but if you ever say anything like that again I won't hesitate to cut your eye out."
To Dipper's discomfort Bill looked completely serious about following through with his threat. Bill's human body also only had one visible eye and Dipper knew for a fact that Bill liked to plaster his likeness on everything he owns.
"Is there any way for me to talk to Mabel when she goes home?" Dipper asked curiously in an attempt to steer the conversation in a different direction.
"Sorry kid, no can do, I have no dominion over the world outside the Gravity Falls town borders." Bill thought for a minute, tipping his head back to look at the sky. "But I can give you a way to talk to her while she lives within the town."
"That's great! What is it?" A bubble of hope rose in Dipper's chest, if there was a way for him to communicate with his family there might be way for them to rescue him as well.
"You're getting a bit ahead of yourself there kid, I'm not giving you anything that special for free! I am not a demon of charity I'm a demon of dreams and if you want to get a dream out of me you've got to give me something in return."
"What more could I possibly give you, Bill? I've already given you myself and my word that I wouldn't fight being here." Dipper pleaded. 'Although that doesn't mean Mabel, Stan and Ford can't try…' He thought hopefully.
"Here's the deal kid, I'm not gonna sugar coat any of it for you, I get bored really easily and you don't want to see me when I'm bored."
"Yeah, I've noticed that but what do you want me to do about it? And where does my family come into all of this?
"Obviously you're not the only Pines that interest me but I knew that Ford would never want to make a deal with me again."
"But you brought him here before, this is where we made the deal before you brightened the place up, it's much nicer now."
"Even though I lured old Fordsie out here I can't make him stay like you, I don't have enough power to make energy chains and he would never in a million year make that deal without some high quality manipulation on my part and although it would be fun to see where it would have lead, making the deal with you was far more easier then I had first thought."
"Gee, thank."
"I'm not going to lie to save your dignity kid."
"You've lied for less before."
"Touché."
"I don't mean to stop this weirdly okay conversation that isn't ending in me getting hurt in any way but we were discussing this new deal you were thinking of."
"Oh, right, of course, I didn't think you would be so eager to get back onto the topic, I always thought you regretted all the deals we ever made."
"I made a promise that I would regret this one no matter what happens. I'm doing it to save my family."
"Caring for the ones you love just means it hurts even more when they die kid, I hope you realise that kid."
"Of course I do but it doesn't matter how I feel in the end all that matters is that my family and friends are save from you and your cronies."
"Yeah, whatever you say kid, just remember that I warned you. Anyway, back to this deal, I want you to talk to Sixer and the other Pines family and act as though I won't be reading every letter they send."
"And why will that stop you from being bored? We could just play chess instead you know?"
"As I was saying before you're not the only interesting Pines, Pine Tree. I'm not quite as omnipresent as I used to be and I want to be able to watch over you as well as spy on the other meatsacks. Understand?"
"I get it but I have no idea how I'm going to be able to… What was it? Write letters to them when there's no post office in a radius of about thirty miles around this house and there's even less of a chance that you will willingly let me out to post anything."
"Don't be stupid Pine Tree I know you're not that dumb."
"Oh, yeah, so how am I going to write to them then?" Dipper challenged, pulling at the grass angrily.
"Easy kid, I'll make you a post box." With a click of Bill's fingers a letter box grew like a tree from the grass in front of them.
It was a dirty white colour with a small red flag which signalled any mail. Bits of moss and lichen were already growing on it.
To Dipper's amazement it was the letter box that he had found with Soos last summer. He and Soos were able to communicate with the mysterious person on the other end. Whoever it was they knew the answer to any question they had asked. But they had never been able to ask it who the Author of the journals was.
Of course he knew now who the Author was and to some extant the amazement of who he really was had worn off somewhat. But back then he was crushed by the fact that he could no longer obtain the knowledge after Mabel had put her disgusting video into it.
Of course he had forgiven her for what she had done. How could he not? She was his sister, she was his twin.
"It's the mail box that we found in the forest! Was it yours all along?" Dipper sounded bewildered, shocked by the idea that he might have been talking to the triangle dream demon without even knowing it.
"Nope, that wasn't my box kid, that was the Axolotl's little box of knowledge. The asshole is probably laughing at me right now. I'm sure this is just what he wanted, for me to be useless and trapped." Bill let out an animalistic scream and slammed his fists onto the ground like a child throwing a tantrum. Dipper shot away from him in fear of his life. He knew what it was like to be on the receiving end of Bill rage and he didn't want any more wounds to clean.
"So is that what I'll be using to send them letters?" Dipper asked carefully after it looked safe enough for him to do so.
"Yeah... yeah, knock yourself out kid, I'm going back inside. Just remember the rules. My name is literally Cipher so don't think you're smarter than me and put in a stupid little massage for them to decipher because it won't work."
Dipper sat staying after his captor as he made his way across the garden to the house. He couldn't help but smile at the thought of communicating with his family again even if it was only through letters. A million little plans began to form in his head and he could help but laugh out loud.