The school week passes without much of an issue... And with every passing day, they're getting closer to that sweet summer vacation, as the school year is almost going to get to a close.
In the meantime, Dipper was made aware of what they did with Alan. He does seem a little disappointed and lets it known kindly when they leave the school.
"I wish you guys would've told me before that..."
Mabel defends herself genuinely. "I know, I was hesitant too... But I didn't see another solution. We both agreed that we didn't want or wish to use violence to solve the situation, right...?"
Samuel tries to convince him too. "... And we really couldn't think of something else... Otherwise, he'd get away with this. Something Bill would've hated... Don't you think Alan deserved that...?"
Dipper barely hesitates. "Yes... Yes he did... And even worse than that..."
"Don't think too much about this, Bro-bro." Mabel really wants him to feel better and changes the subject. "What's done is done! Anyway, you guys heard about the talent show for this year? You wanna participate?"
Dipper looks away, conflicted. "I dunno... It's not my type to go on stage in front of an audience... I don't even know what I could do and I'd be scared to mess up."
Sammy comments on it himself. "I'd try it..." He notices his friends looking at him in disbelief, and he's perfectly able to know what they're about to say. "Yeah, I know that I'm the reserved type, and the thought of it makes me a little nervous... But it's been on my mind for a while that maybe I should try to overcome this kind of anxiety..." He looks away, a little in shame, for one second. "You know... Trying to be brave, and all..."
"Oh, that's amazing, Sammy!" Mabel is quick to cuddle him gently. "What are you gonna do?"
"I don't know... Go on stage, take a mike, drop a few jokes..." He tries to end the subject, feeling a little embarrassed. "I'll figure it out...!"
Dipper smiles gentfully at this. "This is great, Sammy... I feel like you've been changing a little lately..."
His friend does feel insecure about it, still. "Have I...? I don't know..."
Reading this stare, the brown-haired boy avoids developing. "I think so, even if you didn't notice it. Anyway..." He looks at the time. "We gotta go, have a nice week-end, alright?"
"Sure thing! You too!" He nods gently before leaving home, almost in a hurry.
When the dark-haired boy reaches home, he does the usual of greeting his parents, dropping his backpack in his room and getting a healthy snack. And like always, when he goes to his room alone...
"Another week done, eh Fuzzball? I hope you're happy about letting school behind for a bit!"
Sammy looks a little too lost in his inner thoughts to be able to react accordingly.
Bill floats directly in front of his sight. "Hey now, what's with that long fleshy face, boy?"
He leaves out, rather quietly. "... I don't know for sure if I wanna do this anymore..."
The demon reacts to that very annoyed. "You better not backpedal now, Fuzzball! We've already got our agreement done!"
"I know, I know..." He admits. "I don't intend to prevent it, it's just... I'd feel dirty..."
Bill keeps his angry tone to get his point across. "We had a deal, and now is not the time to have doubts! If we don't act now, then our plan won't be able to bear its fruits. It's now or never, Fuzzball!"
Samuel then decides to let him know what's bothering him the most about it right now. "Feels more like your plan... One in which I'm nothing but a pawn..."
"Heheheh... A pawn..." Bill takes it humorously before approaching in a kind manner. "Don't be silly... Someone needs some more self-confidence..." Then he adds. "If you were a pawn, you wouldn't even know or want to know what horrible things I could do with you... But instead, I've let you know what I intend to do, and I'm only gonna do those because you've agreed to. You can trust me..."
Samuel is letting the speech get to him. He does indeed want to trust Bill despite his discomfort. With that, the triangle leaves out the ultimate argument. "It's for your friends' best interests...You really wanna go against that?"
"Of course not!" Samuel stares with certainty, which puts him fully on board with the idea.
"Good... Then try to relax and let me do..." Bill concludes and turns around, before he starts thinking to himself. "Pinetree was kinda right... This boy did change..." The idea makes him pleased inside, but he isn't going to let it be known.
Several hours later, in the middle of the night... Even though Samuel is sleeping nicely... He opens his eyes out of nowhere, with Bill having taken control. Although he sports his usual grin to some extent, he also seems to have a very serious expression. He silently sneaks out of the house to walk around the streets.
Sammill does have a very specific location in mind and stops when he reaches it. ... Alan's home, because of course he would know this kind of information without any help. He's able to sneak into the frontyard after making sure that no one is around, and then silently lies down on the grass, on a spot where he wouldn't be seen, before Bill leaves the body to sleep there.
Bill manages not to glow and very quietly whispers to the body. "Sorry, Fuzzball, I won't be long..." He then disappears to explore around, and quickly enough, he gets to Alan's bedroom and enters his dreams very silently.
Once inside his dreamscape, Bill closes his eye to compose himself, thinking about the Pines twins, and softly repeats to himself. "I can do this... It'll be worth it..." before deciding to put the plan in motion.
Right as he entered, Alan didn't have any dream. But thanks to his presence, he sees himself in the familiar setting of the school. Unaware about the situation, he does what he does best when he sees people around him.
"I always do my best to make the world around me a better place. I always fight injustices when I see them... I regularly donate to charities and associations when I get the chance... And I would never ever be able to do anything wrong..."
"HE'S A FRAUD!"
The sudden yell completely interrupts his usual fibbing. Mabel was standing right there alongside Dipper, the two of them taking all the attention.
"THIS GUY IS A PATHETIC LIAR!" Yells Dipper.
"HE'S A BULLY! A MANIPULATOR! HE'S AN AWFUL PERSON WHO DOESN'T MEAN ANYTHING HE SAYS!" Yells Mabel.
Despite how their claims aren't accompanied by any proof, the situation becomes a lot more scary from Alan's point of view, as everyone who was worshipping him seconds ago look at him with scary frowns.
"Um... Guys...? Why would you listen to...?"
Before he's even able to finish his sentence, the dream keeps distorting to look more and more nightmarish, as the Pines twins are growing in presence and everyone around those two seem to get a possessed aura about them.
"Wait... Hold on, I..." Alan backs down in this dream, but then he suddenly finds himself bumping into a wall, that immediately turns into a cell as a very scary adult shawody figure is sentencing him.
"For all your wrongdoings, you will be sent to live detention, and will repeat this grade 5 times!"
Dipper and Mabel, in this nightmare, are fist bumping in pride and laughing evilly in a distorted manner, their powerful presence reaching its peak.
Alan yells and cowers, and right after, despite his eyes being closed, he can feel everything appeasing itself, and he can feel like a glow asking him to open his eyes.
"U-uh...?" He looks around. The school setting is still there, but everyone's gone, and everything looks normal again. The sky, the walls, the ground... Everything looked grim a few moments ago, but it all changed into a much more serene environment. While he's processing it, he hears a loud and playful voice from behind.
"Well well well... That was a pitiful spectacle, wasn't it?"
Alan lets out a yell of surprise before turning around to see Bill and the same yellow gleam he has felt while he had his eyes closed. He looks very confused while he's trying to process what he's seeing in front of him.
Bill says proudly and tauntingly "Take a good look at this great sight, Puppeteer!"
"W-what...?" Before he can ask, the answer comes.
"I've been observing you... I've seen how talented you are at twisting everyone's perception of the truth... How you have a presence that makes everyone easily manipulated by you... So I thought it'd be a fitting title to give you, Puppeteer!"
Alan's confusion is huge and he tries to get better answers. "B-But... What even are you...?
"Oh, me...? Maybe yours truly is nothing but a figment of your imagination..." He giggles. "But maybe I'm actually some kind of conscience that has come for you..."
The young teenager seems to believe it due to a lack of another explanation. "A... A conscience...?"
"Yes... I must say, you have a lot of talents, and I admire them... But I have come to warn you..." Bill moves a lot during his speech, showing a lot of confidence like usual. Even if, on the inside, he does feel a little nervous, he does everything he can to let it buried deep. "What you've seen just now was a sign of bad things to come..."
He recalls what happened in horror. "This... This horrible nightmare... It was your doing...?"
Bill shrugs. "Sorry, Puppeteer... But I had to use a proper way to make you understand how serious the situation is... Because of these pesky Pines pests, your entire life is at risk... These two kids... They are not what they seem..."
Alan looks scared. "What...? What do you mean...?"
"They are not normal kids... They have scary powers that they won't hesitate to use to take you down..."
Alan is very doubtful. "No way, they're just dumb powerless dorks!"
"Oh, really...?" Bill is using true facts to make his lies believable. "Remember what happened lately...? The way you were choking after getting that boy in trouble...? The way you got cheated off from a good grade by copying that girl's homework, without any logical explanation...? They've already started!"
Alan suddenly gets scared as he realizes that it's true.
Bill tells himself. "Okay... Now, time for the bait..." He starts speaking to him again. "But this is why I'm here, not only to warn you... But I'm going to offer you help..."
"You would help me...?"
"Yes!" Bill starts moving all around Alan and is using his words very carefully. "I will make it so you get what you deserve for the end of this school year, and for your future..."
"You... You really...? But what do you mean...?"
The triangle answers to that in a different way. "Like I said, I admire your manipulative prowesses, Puppeteer! And I could help you take them to the next level! Not only could I help you overcome the threat of the Pines twins... I could make your future a glorious one..."
Alan looks interested and Bill continues. "You're doing great having a lot of people at this school believe your words and actions... But how about...?" He suddenly has a bombastic and playful speech. "You take it to a WORLDWIDE level? Trust me, boy... With me around, you would be able to become rich and famous and have a lot of powers from it... I could make you an actor, a writer, an artist... I could make it so everyone would know your name and anyone worldwide would constantly sing your praises blindly and worship you! Doesn't that sound good?"
Alan lets the speech and promises get to him, and he starts showing a grin. His egotism seems to be getting the best of him when he hears this, enough to cover his doubt and sense of judgement.
Bill thinks. "Perfect... There is a bite..." He speaks up in a soothing manner. "All I'd ask in return to my intervention is that you give me an access to your spirit so I can properly help you." He then offers him a handshake, with the blue flames of a deal showing. "Do you accept...?"
Alan moves in without any hesitation. "Of course!" He grabs the triangle's hand immediately, having no idea what he just set himself up to.
Bill ends the handshake to conclude the encounter. "You are very smart, Puppeteer! I will do everything I can so you won't regret that choice!"
"Wait, will you really come back? How would I even know?" Alan asks in doubts, he's not even sure if he's still dreaming.
"Oh, you will hear of me again..." He toyfully adds. "Or maybe you won't... Maybe I'm nothing more than something your mind made up! Heheheheheheh..." He disappears in a glow and everything around Alan becomes a different dream immediately. Bill is still spying on it for now, changing the setting and theme of the dream every few moments by a snap of his fingers. "A classic mind trick... Having a dream be so random and nonsensical that the victim wouldn't remember what happened in it..."
He quickly decides to move away, deciding to access the mindscape he just got the keys for. Doing that, being alone, he tells loudly. "I didn't think I still had it in me to twist and trick like that! It feels so good! Heheheheheheheheheh... Okay, I'll do one very quick trip for now and see what I can find..."
He decides to quickly explore some of the distant memories because he can't help himself. Soon enough, he finds something that makes him go... "Ooooooooh... Now isn't that..." He giggles in the middle before playfully saying. "... interesting...?"
However, he decides to stop the searches for now and leaves, returning to the real world and quickly enough taking control of Samuel's body back.
As Sammill stands up, he can feel how the body feels a bit feeble from the tiredness and the side effects of staying laying on the open for that long. He can feel the body's fingers being very cold from the breeze. "Oooh... Sorry, Fuzzball... Don't worry, I'll make sure your body gets the care it needs for the rest of the night..."
He stays true to these words, returning home and sneaking inside safely, and getting the body in bed under a right amount of bedsheets, leaving him to get a good rest...
Author notes: ...
Yeah, something is happening... I can't tell more about it yet and Bill wouldn't let me anyway.
So...
Thanks for reading!