From Carol Molliniere: "You've been getting into a lot of the characters minds and doing a good job at it. Can we see you getting into the triangle's mind? Probably anything inbetween Dreamscaperers and Sock Opera, just Bill...WATCHING everyone. Look out Gravity Falls!"

Thank you! Absolutely, I love writing Bill-related one-shots! This one shall be set right after Into the Bunker, and has some references and hints at Sock Opera (because I can).

I Spy

Okay, so maybe he had been a little too lenient with those kids. Letting them go had been merely a way to get them off his back for the moment, and watching them deal with Gideon had been rather entertaining. Those two kids were interesting. No matter how many times someone or something told them to stay away from the supernatural (he would chuckle to himself in the mindscape as he spotted Pine Tree cross his fingers behind his back) they always found some way to get in and out of trouble with the creatures in Gravity Falls.

Unfortunately, as amusing as Shooting Star and Pine Tree were, they also were steadily growing closer to uncovering some dangerous secrets. The author of those journals, for instance, was one thing he knew Pine Tree was obsessed with finding. It seemed that after Gideon took the Shack the kid grew even more determined to find out the greater secrets in this town.

"Probably shouldn't have let them off with a warning," Bill mused, watching as the kids slept one night after daring to enter the author's bunker (which he was rather impressed Pine Tree had discovered in the journal, considering how long it had been since someone had set foot in that place). Shooting Star was dreaming of the usual: boys, sweaters, those two brightly-colored and radical boys she adored. He couldn't help but roll his eyes as she giggled in her sleep.

Pine Tree shifted in his slumber and drew the demon's eye to him quickly. He briefly wondered if the kid sensed his presence in the dreamscape.

While the girl's dreams were usually bright and terribly cheerful, which grew sickening to watch most of the time, her twin's head was dark and was so cluttered that Bill barely found his way around the mess whenever he spied on his dreams. Pine Tree often dreamt of monsters and mysteries, sometimes having to run from the supernatural creatures before waking with a start. Those were frequently entertaining.

Tonight was no different - except the monster this time was the shapeshifter, who had taken the form of that red-haired cashier girl he liked. The kid was running through the bunker, trying to hide from the doppelganger as they called out taunts and laughed at his obvious fright. Bill watched for a few minutes, amused by the kid's fear.

Pine Tree was the more logical of the twins, focusing more on the brains than the heart of the mysteries. It was amusing to see him becoming more and more obsessed with the town of Gravity Falls, and Bill wondered if the preteen even realized this. Clearly Shooting Star and Fez had, although the former was choosing to accompany her brother to keep him safe and because she seemed to be in a bit of denial over his obsession. How far would this kid be willing to go to learn all the secrets this town offered?

That thought stopped the dream demon cold and he flashed scarlet briefly. No. That wasn't an option.

These twins were going to get in the way of his plans, plans he had worked so long on, and he couldn't have them trying to stop him. Not now, when he was growing closer than ever to achieving his goal.

Shooting Star wouldn't be difficult. Point her in the direction of some boy she deemed cute, and she was distracted well enough (Bill considered giving that one guy who was crazy about puppets a push in her direction one of these days, just to get her out of his way if Pine Tree might need her). It was the other twin who was going to be difficult to yank away from that journal.

No, he had to stop this obsession of Pine Tree's. That kid was smarter than he had thought, and he had underestimated him once before in the mindscape of his great-uncle; the preteen boy had managed to learn how to bend the mindscape to his will and conjure whatever he imagined. If the kid was clever enough to figure that out, he definitely needed something stronger than a distraction for the boy.

Destroying the journal - and now that laptop Question Mark was planning on repairing too, while he remembered it - was not going to be simple, especially since he was in the mindscape. Just because he wanted the book destroyed didn't mean he could just outright take it and do so. No, Pine Tree would notice and he had no patience for an argument over that journal right now. He wanted to do it in a way so that the kid would truly understand how dangerous the supernatural was, and that he simply couldn't continue this dumb obsession.

Bill watched as Pine Tree dove down a tunnel to avoid the shapeshifter in his nightmare, his eye watching the monster now instead of the boy. These fleshbags had such entertaining nightmares sometimes, it made him laugh to think of the terror they experienced because of one measly imagined dream.

"What I wouldn't give to be in your body, kid," he chuckled and floated above the preteen boy's head. "Seems like all that pain is just going to waste in your worried little head!"

He froze suddenly, rethinking what he had just said. And then, if demons with only one eye and no mouth could smirk, Bill definitely did right then and there.

"Oho... I suppose we could strike up a deal, couldn't we? I mean, it's been quite a long time since I've had a puppet..."

Bill, NO. Leave the poor kid alone.