#See this is where you went wrong Dipper | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

ckret2 · 7 days

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Chapter 48 of human Bill Cipher slowly dying inside for 24 hours straight with no signs of stopping anytime soon:

The Eclipse: Part 6

Over a month since his death and after nearly 50 chapters, at long last, the moment you've all been waiting for:

Bill has a complete physical and mental breakdown.

Unfortunately there's only one person available to deal with it.

They landed near where they'd camped last night. While the Pines climbed out, Bill stared at the sharp gray rocks beneath the cliff. The blood was gone. It took him a moment to process that Ford was speaking: "We can pack our tents, return Tate's boat, and borrow a phone to call Stanley for a ride."

Bill numbly climbed onto land.

Their tents were in disarray, but more or less where they'd left them the night before. While Ford and Dipper dealt with the largest tent and cleaned up the campsite, Bill methodically attempted to fold up the tent he'd slept in.

He couldn't make sense of it. There were too many plastic rods with too many little joints and too many fabric flaps, he couldn't parse the geometry of it. This should be easy, he'd watched Dipper assemble the tent last night, how hard could it be to do the same in reverse?

But it wasn't working. His hands were shaking. The joints were bending wrong, the joints were bending in directions that shouldn't exist, in impossible dimensions, shrinking and expanding perversely as they twisted in alien foreshortening—

Bill let out a gasp so loud and sharp that Ford and Dipper immediately whipped around to face him. Ford asked, "What is it?"

Bill couldn't speak. He just stared down at his awful human legs.

"Bill?"

Voice very far away—but impressively calm and flat—Bill said, "I have to sit down."

"Why? What happened?"

"My legs aren't working. I can't feel them."

His knees buckled. He tried to grip them to keep them straight, but found only one arm responded. "And—my left arm." He dropped to his knees in the mud.

And suddenly he was the center of attention, two humans moving around him in a dizzying flurry, all grotesque limbs and fabric: "Hey, are you okay?" "What happened? Are you injured?" "Think we should get help?" "Maybe he needs food—"

Too much. He closed his eyes, but there were still fingers on his arm and shoulders and back. He swatted at them with his functioning hand. "Don't touch me don't touch me DON'T TOUCH ME!" His shriek startled the birds from a nearby tree. He attempted to bite somebody, he wasn't sure who—this was what he'd been reduced to, no legs, no strength, no power, he couldn't even protect himself from being touched, all he had left was his teeth—but he misjudged the distance and bit only air. But it was enough to make the humans back off, shrinking into the distance.

"Don't touch me. Stop trying to move me. Don't ask me why I can't move. I don't know. This—this—" he gestured frantically at his body. He was moving too fast, talking too fast. "This—corpse—human body—is stupid. It's just being stupid! I need to sit. Leave me alone, I need to sit. I need to sit, and—look at nothing, and breathe." He was talking far too fast, breathing too fast. "I need it so much. Go away."

No matter how hard Bill tried to imagine the humans spontaneously ceasing to exist, they did not go away. Ford knelt in front of him, studying his face. "Try to smile."

Bill forced a smile. "Good. Good, good. Positive thinking."

"No. I'm trying to see if you're having a stroke." He sat back. "Your face muscles are still working symmetrical."

Bill decided to keep smiling anyway. He thought it might help. Happy happy happy.

"You say your can't feel your legs."

"Yes."

"Or your left arm."

"Yes."

"Did you feel any pain beforehand? Tingling in the limbs, or...?"

"No—no, no. They were working fine and then they were gone. They just—disappeared." Bill laughed. The laugh went on too long and sounded too high and too nervous.

Ford nodded. "Okay. Drink this."

A water bottle materialized in Bill's field of vision. It took a couple of tries for Bill to manipulate his hand through three-dimensional space to grasp it. He shakily drank as much as he could. It tasted like drowning.

"Dipper, run to the bait shop and call for an... The nearest hospital is at least twenty miles outside Gravity Falls' weirdness barrier, Bill can't get there. Call for a doctor and I'll stay here to—"

"No," Bill snapped, "no no no, don't call a doctor. I don't want—" He didn't want to be seen like this. He didn't want somebody picking him up and helping him into an ambulance like he was too weak to move himself. He didn't want Mabel to know. Bad enough Ford and the brat did. "I don't need it. I'm fine."

"Fine?!" Ford gestured at him in disbelief. "Three fourths of your limbs aren't functioning—!"

"I'm fine, I'm fine. Something's wrong with the body. It's got nothing to do with me. I'm fine, I'm just in it." He shut his eyes and tried to breathe. "Just—just let me sit."

"Let you sit and then do what?"

"Give me time. It'll come back. Don't tell anyone and—stop looking at me."

There was silence. Bill didn't want to open his eyes. He heard Ford stand and walk away.

####

"Do you think he's faking?" Dipper murmured.

Ford hated that that always had to be the first question. "I can't imagine what he'd stand to benefit from pretending he can't walk." Bill had been desperate to get back inside the last two days. If he'd now decided to—what? maybe take advantage of his freedom to try to escape?—then why hadn't he done that when they got separated in the lake, or in the caves where Bill could see in the dark and Ford hadn't known how to call the geodites? If he was trying to separate Ford and Dipper from each other so he could kill them one by one—why hadn't he just let them die?

It was hard not to think about how he really had saved them for no clear reason.

"He's spent two very stressful days hardly eating, sleeping poorly, and hiking through half the mountain. I'd say he needs food and rest. And probably more water." He'd gulped down two thirds of Ford's water bottle.

"Seriously? He can't feel his legs, is—is that normal for like a day without food and sleep?" Dipper asked. "People can go longer than that, right? You've gone longer."

"It's not a 'normal' symptom of exhaustion, hunger, or dehydration. But I think he'll fight us if we try to get medical help. Let's deal with the immediate problems first and—see where we are then. Even if it doesn't help, at least then he won't be paralyzed and starving."

Dipper nodded uncertainly. "What do we do if he's dying?"

The boy catastrophized at the drop of a hat. In a way, Ford supposed it was a good thing—having been through his fair share of catastrophes, he knew it helped to be prepared—but Dipper was so young. "Get him to a doctor as soon as we can; and, if that isn't enough... hope we're lucky." In other words: hope Bill stayed dead.

Dipper nodded again. "What's our strategy if Weirdmageddon restarts? Maybe... I wonder if that's what the Axolotl was trying to warn me—"

"Lunch first," Ford said. "Then we can plan for the apocalypse."

####

Bill knew they were going to make him move. They hated him. They would parade him through the streets to make a mockery of him, look at the alien loser in a malfunctioning corpse, washed-up puppeteer who can't even control a meat marionette, he's already dead and you can make his corpse in the forest a tourist destination—

"Okay," Ford said. "We'll give it an hour. Dipper's heading to town to get some proper food and call the shack."

The shack. Like a prison cell with an open door and a black hole inside trying to suck him back in. "Don't tell them—"

Dipper said, "I won't, I'm just letting them know we're not dead. And that we'll call again in a couple of hours."

No doubt so that Bill couldn't kill them without the shack knowing something was wrong. "Right."

"Do you... want any specific food?"

"Not hungry."

There was a pause. "Right. I'll just... grab something."

Bill didn't care what he did. As Dipper left the sound of each footstep was like a knife in Bill's ears. He just needed to breathe, needed to breathe and be normal and feel normal and happy—

Something soft landed on his head.

Bill opened his eyes.

There was an unzipped, slightly moist sleeping bag draped over his head and around his shoulders; and Ford standing several feet away, hands awkwardly clasped behind his back, looking somewhat embarrassed with himself.

Bill said, "What."

Ford cleared his throat. "It. Helped when you were, ah... had a hair cut. I thought—it can't hurt."

It took Bill a moment to figure out what he meant. "Oh." The towel. Ford had seen him hide under a towel. Right.

Ford winced and muttered, "Maybe it can hurt."

Bill croaked, "What."

It wasn't until he tried to speak that Bill realized he was crying so hard he couldn't breathe. His vision swam, his shoulders shook, his breath came in sharp hitches—no no no no, that wasn't okay, not in front of— Stop, stop, stop.

He covered his eyes with his hand. The water bottle slid off his thighs and spilled on the ground. Between gasping breaths, Bill forced out, "This's—this is—good. Good."

"How is it...?"

"It's a—hint. This—it's—prob... probably... ps-psycho—som—ss—"

"Psychosomatic?"

"Mm. Mhmm." He tried to get in a deeper breath and failed. "'Sgreat. Means—no inj—injuries. Flesh is—fine."

"So you're..." Ford's footsteps came closer, "saying it's psychological—?"

"No!" Bill let out a hysterical laugh. "I'm FINE! 'M happy. It's the body. It's—some hormone—hunger—exhaustion—just... s-synapses—and neurotrans—transmm—tr—"

"Easy. You can barely talk." He heard Ford sit next to him, felt the sleeping bag shift as he brushed against it. "Try to focus on breathing—"

"WHAT do you THINK I'm TRYING to—" Bill ineffectively pummeled Ford through the sleeping bag. "Move! Move, move, move! Don't t—touch—" He let out a frustrated scream that morphed into a humiliating sob, and had to clap his functioning hand over his mouth to smother the sound. He was not this body; he was a separate thing locked inside the body. This body was a prison, this body was a punishment. The legs didn't work, because the body was doing something to him. These weren't his tears, his grief, his fear. They were the body's. Which hormone was at fault? What could he blame other than himself?

He felt Ford's weight shift away from his side. "Okay, okay," Ford said. "Just... take it easy."

Bill socked him again. "Don't t-talk to me like a horse." He covered his eyes.

He didn't mean to risk his life for Ford.

Former friend, false worshiper, useless pawn, now enemy. Bill had just seen him floating out there and he'd done it—and he'd forgotten he could die.

In the Nightmare Realm he had saved his friends from peril billions of times before, because it was so easy for him, powers like a god, to see someone he was fond of and casually pluck them out of harm's way. It had been billions upon billions of years since Bill had been vulnerable to physical harm. He'd seen Ford in danger and he'd done what he always did and he'd forgotten he could have died.

He could have died. Eternally, permanently, last chance—he could have died.

And it would have been for nothing.

Bill was selfish. He had effortlessly saved friends billions of times but he'd also casually let them die just as many—assuming he didn't kill them himself. He saved friends because he liked them; but he didn't put himself out for ex-friends. Ford hadn't had one nice thing to say to Bill in years. Bill would never lure Ford back under his sway. Ford's survival endangered Bill's. But Bill had saved him anyway. He hadn't even stopped to think.

He didn't know. He didn't want to know. He didn't want to think about saving the human hellbent on killing him, he didn't want to think about almost dying, he didn't want to think about how peaceful it had been floating under the water, how easy it would have been to open his mouth and breathe in—he didn't want to think. He wanted to stop thinking. He wanted to empty his mind. He couldn't meditate through his hitching breaths and the way his stomach ached from struggling to keep his sobs silent, and his legs and left arm were gone.

He was fine. He was happy. He'd always been happy. Happy happy happy.

His entire body shook with sobs. He was dizzy—gasping between sobs for air he couldn't get. He was so lightheaded and crying so hard he couldn't stay upright. The edges of his vision went dark.

Ford wrapped an arm around Bill's shoulders and tugged him against his side. He held him up until Bill was too exhausted to cry anymore.

####

There was zipper noise, then a sound like shifting vinyl. Bill cracked his fingers apart to peer through them. Ford had unrolled the portable chessboard and was setting it up. "What?"

"It looks like we'll be here a while," Ford said, addressing his statement to the chessboard rather than to Bill. "It's... something else to focus on."

Bill wasn't sure what the emotion clawing its way through the grief-stricken haze in his mind was, but it felt very similar to relief. He nodded. "S—smart. I'm already—getting bored." His cheeks itched, his eyes burned, and his head was throbbing. As Ford set up the board, Bill closed his eyes and tried again to force himself to breathe more evenly. He was still dizzy from hyperventilating. Embarrassing—even a comatose human can breathe, and Bill couldn't even get that right. "Black?"

"I know."

Of course he knew. Bill always chose black. "First?"

"Fine." And Ford also knew, despite white traditionally getting the first move, Bill always moved first.

Bill waited in numb silence for Ford to finish setting up the board and sit on the other side. Moving almost automatically, Bill picked up a queen, hopped it over his line of pawns—

"Play it properly," Ford said irritably. "I put up with your cheating and lying for years, I'm not putting up with any more."

Bill gave Ford a look that he intended to be deeply offended, but immediately realized was probably just wet and pathetic. "Really? Now?"

Ford at least had the good sense to look a tad embarrassed, but he said, "I didn't set up the board to watch you move random pieces around like an untrained kindergartener."

"Three of my limbs don't work, Stanford."

"Are you suggesting your right arm doesn't remember the proper rules of chess?"

He wondered what Ford would say if he said yes. "I have a headache."

"You're probably dehydrated." Ford rummaged around in his backpack and offered over another bottle of water.

Bill reluctantly accepted it. He probably was dehydrated. "You owe me your life."

Ford fixed him with an unimpressed look. "You're trying to cash in a life debt... so you can cheat at chess?"

Bill opened his mouth; paused as he slowly thought that over; and dissolved into broken, hysterical giggles. "I don't know w-what I'm trying to do." He covered his mouth, squeezed his eyes shut, and tried to steady his breathing again.

Ford sighed. He waited until Bill had regained some control over himself; and then he said, "You can make up one new rule."

Bill considered the offer. "Total, or per game?"

"Per game."

Deep breath. "Fine. But I'm not telling you what it is. You have to guess it."

Ford considered it. "Three conditions."

"Mm?"

"One: you have to share what the rule was at the end of the game. If any of your illegal moves didn't conform to that rule, you automatically lose."

"Mm."

"Two: any rule you come up with has to apply to both sides of the board equally. Nothing that only advantages you or disadvantages me," Ford said. "Three: if I can figure out what your new rule is before the game's over, I can use it too. Obviously, you lose if I ask you about the rule and you lie."

Bill mulled over Ford's terms. His head was so foggy, he'd already forgotten the first one. "Deal."

"Deal."

####

Bill lost every game.

Badly.

He was clobbered. He was creamed. He was a faint red smear upon the pavement.

Back in Ford's dreams, Bill had won a good four-fifths of their games. Ford had heard during his travels that Bill was a mediocre player, but he didn't think he was so bad that all of those games had been won due to cheating. Even when he wasn't cheating, Bill had sometimes taken Ford by surprise.

But now, Bill was squinting at the board like he was struggling to see where the pieces were. Occasionally his fingers pinched down on thin air like he was trying to grab a non-existent piece. So Ford assumed the catastrophic losses were more a reflection of Bill's mental state than his skill level.

The option to make up rules didn't save Bill, but it at least made the games more interesting—and unlike the rest of Bill's abysmal playing, the new rules gave Ford a glimpse of the devious mind still buried somewhere in the traumatized human body.

The first round, Bill decided that the queen could leapfrog over pieces like a knight, and when Ford pointed out that would mean whoever had the first move could put the opposing king in checkmate in one move, Bill grudgingly amended the rule: the queen could leapfrog to an empty square, but could only take pieces in a straight line in the conventional manner. Ford had to maintain a phalanx of pieces jealously clinging to his king to guard against Bill teleporting his queen to the king's side. Bill managed to check him twice before Ford won.

One round, Bill decreed that rooks could only land on pieces the same color as they were sitting on, then smugly nestled his king on a white square next to Ford's rook on a black square; and then promptly lost the game when Ford pointed out both of Bill's rooks were currently on white squares, meaning he'd broken his own rule before he'd revealed it.

One round he decided that kings could move like queens, which Ford only discovered when he thought he'd checkmated him and then Bill zoomed his king across the board to take Ford's bishop; and then Bill lost a few moves later when Ford used his own king's newly revealed power to properly corner Bill.

One round Bill decided that once any back row piece was captured, it reincarnated in the body of the corresponding front row pawn. Ford genuinely liked the new rule—it meant you had to capture and checkmate both the king and the king's pawn before the game was over, and you had to be more cautious about what pieces you took since it could inadvertently set up a previously harmless enemy pawn to devastate your side of the board. But by the time Bill revealed that rule by jumping a pawn like a knight, Ford had already taken Bill's king's pawn and seen a way to checkmate him in two moves. It was a sore disappointment to end the game before getting to experiment with the new rule.

A few games were so short that Ford won without ever seeing Bill pull a nonstandard move. Round seven was one such game. Ford cornered Bill with a knight and a bishop. That had been the quickest match yet. Game over. "Checkmate."

"Checkmate," Bill said.

Ford paused, looking over the board, thinking moving his bishop must have given one of Bill's pieces line of sight to his king; but no, his king was perfectly safe. "What?"

"Checkmate."

"You can't mate me, I just mated you."

"I know. Checkmate."

Frowning, Ford said, "Explain."

"The extra rule this game is that both kings are wearing suicide vests." He tapped his king, "He's wired up with enough explosives to wipe out the whole board." There was a look of steely exhaustion on his face. He looked like the kind of desperate, hopeless man who would put on a suicide vest. "If I'm going down, you're coming with me."

Ford laughed so hard his stomach hurt.

It was petty revenge for losing seven games in a row. A frustrated child flipping the chessboard, but making a self-deprecating joke out of it: as long as we both know I'm going to lose anyway...

When Ford had recovered himself enough to look at Bill again, Bill was giving him a faint, grim smile that didn't quite make it to his one open eye. Still—he looked a little less miserable than he had for the past hour. Or the past couple days.

Ford said, "We'll call that one a stalemate."

"I'll take it."

####

After trying all morning and half the afternoon, Dipper had remembered part of what the Axolotl had told him. Just one phrase: sixty degrees that come in threes. He could hear the rhythm and rhyme of whatever the Axolotl said next, something something something -eez—it rhymed, he was sure of that—but the rest...?

It took Dipper over an hour and a half to get back to the campsite; he'd gotten lost in his thoughts, and consequently, gotten lost in the forest. He returned with a plastic bag of the kind of junk food they regularly saw Bill consuming in the shack, a few slices of gas station pizza, and a clear takeout container of nachos. Bill immediately went for the nachos.

While Bill was inspecting the circle-shaped tortilla chips with obvious disappointment, Dipper rummaged around in the plastic bag until he found a small jar of rainbow sprinkles and offered them to Bill. Bill took it without acknowledging Dipper, awkwardly untwisted the lid with one hand and ripped off the seal with his teeth, and liberally drowned his nachos.

"The gas station looks like an earthquake hit it," Dipper reported. "And most of the cars had popped tires. I guess they must've floated up and then crashed back down." He took a cheese pizza slice and offered the box to Ford. "Nobody I asked saw the Axolotl."

Ford glanced at Bill, expecting him to have some kind of comment on that; but Bill just grunted "Mm," focused on the chess game like he thought he'd be killed if he glanced away.

Dipper pointed out when Bill pulled an illegal move, Ford explained the new rules they were playing by, and Dipper settled down to watch. He tried to razz Bill the next time he lost; but Bill made such a pathetic figure that he couldn't even enjoy making fun of him and quickly gave up.

During the next game, Bill unexpectedly slid a pawn backward diagonally to take out Ford's queen. While Ford was silently fuming over the loss of his most powerful piece, Dipper hazarded, "Can pawns capture both forward and backward?" That would have been Ford's guess too.

But Bill simply said, "No."

Dipper mumbled, "Huh," lost focus on the game, and stared off into the distance, murmuring something under his breath. He kept getting lost in his thoughts today. Ford supposed nobody in this hiking party was in the best mental state.

Maybe pawns could move like bishops? But when Ford tried to slide one diagonally across the board, Bill said, "That's illegal," and Ford returned it to its original spot. There was some hidden condition he was missing. Maybe which color square the pawn was on? Or maybe it was like en passant, you could only capture an enemy piece backwards if that was the first time the enemy piece moved?

When the game was over—Ford won, but Bill had held out longer than usual—Ford asked, "All right, what was the new rule?"

"Pawns can capture forward and backward." While Ford and Dipper stared at him in mute outrage, Bill ignored them to casual shift his posture from kneeling—his knees had gotten sore—to lotus position, and said, "Next game?" as though he couldn't even be bothered to notice the humans' fury.

"But that's exactly what we said!" Ford snapped. "You lied to me!"

"No," Bill said, "I lied to the kid. I'm not playing against the kid. Why are you paying attention to what I tell him?"

Dipper demanded, "How is that fair? Anyone listening would think—"

But he fell silent when Ford laughed. "Of course," Ford said. "I should have expected that. Any loophole you can find. That's part of the game to you, isn't it."

Bill gave Ford an unsettlingly knowing look; and Ford supposed it was part of the game to him, too.

(Somewhere in the back of Bill's foggy mind, he kept count: three times. Before today, Bill wasn't sure he'd heard Ford laugh once this summer. What changed? What was Bill doing differently? Maybe Ford only liked him when he was completely broken.)

It took until halfway through the next game for Ford to realize Bill had moved his legs.

####

Over Ford's protests that they should wait until his strength was back, Bill insisted they get moving immediately. He'd rather be locked in the shack again than spend one more minute sitting by the lake.

"I hate being surrounded by trees. Why do humans like nature so much. This is miserable." Caked in mud, still wearing a towel like a skirt, teetering with exhaustion, Bill certainly looked like the most miserable camper to ever exist. "I cannot begin to tell you how sick I am of looking at pines."

Ford wondered whether the pun was intentional.

Bill's limbs were weak and uncoordinated. He could twitch his left fingers when asked, but his grip strength was nonexistent and the arm hung limply at his side when he wasn't actively trying to use it. His legs moved, but when he tried to get to his feet he collapsed back into the mud. But he thought he could probably stand with support. He ignored the hand Ford offered and crawled to the nearest tree to lean on as he got to his feet. Ford could see Bill's knees tremble.

"I don't need your help," Bill grumbled. "I can stand fine on my own."

Ford wouldn't argue with Bill's definition of fine. "But can you walk?"

"I could." He couldn't even make the lie convincing.

"Then be my guest."

"I'm saving my strength."

It would almost be funny if he wasn't being such an inconvenience. "Well, you're here and the boat is over there." Ford gestured. The shore was much further away than it had been yesterday. "If you can't walk, then you're either crawling or you're getting help. Which you'd prefer is between you and your dignity."

Bill's face reddened. "Don't talk to me about my dignity, like you've ever cared about my dignity..." He twisted around to inspect the tree behind him, tired gaze looking over the branches—maybe he was planning to break off a walking stick? He attempted to grab a thin branch that wouldn't serve as a walking stick for a toddler. He wasn't strong enough to break it off. He kept trying.

They were never getting to the boat. "Please let me help."

"Go jump in a lake. Again."

How did Ford handle this without prodding at Bill's bruised ego? "Consider it my thanks for—ah..." Ford cleared his throat. "For actually telling the truth about the eclipse. In spite of... what was no doubt immense temptation to lie like a cheap rug. Since we didn't believe you anyway." He had averted his gaze in embarrassment; he forced himself to face Bill like a man. Bill was actually looking at him again. "And for not chucking my gnephew's body off the cliff when you had the opportunity." The bar was so low it was on the ground, and yet it was still impressive that Bill hadn't found a way to dig under it. "And... for saving my life."

Bill set his jaw tight, as if he didn't like being reminded of his moment of decency; but he said, "Fine, get over here." He held out his good arm. "Help your hero and savior limp triumphantly off the field of battle."

When Ford offered his hand, Bill ignored it, and practically snarled when Ford tried to wrap it around his waist for support. Rather than putting his arm over Ford's shoulders, Bill seized a wad of fabric near the collar of Ford's t-shirt as a handhold to hang his weight from. Ford felt less like he was supporting Bill, and more like he'd just gotten in trouble and his father was marching him into the living room by his collar to give him a stern talking-to.

"First time you've ever thanked me for anything I've done for you," Bill muttered. Ford told himself he could drop Bill once they were on the boat.

Dipper was completely zoned out, waiting on the boat staring off in the direction the Axolotl had flown. He didn't react as Bill sat next to him, and Bill didn't acknowledge he existed. Ford started the motor, and they crossed the lake toward Tate & Backle's Bait & Tackle.

####

(You can't imagine how long I've been waiting to post this chapter. Hope you enjoyed, I'd love to hear what you think, and I hope those of y'all who have been waiting for Bill to cry like a baby are satisfied.)

#bill cipher #human bill cipher #grunkle ford #stanford pines #gravity falls #gravity falls fic #gravity falls fanart #fanart #my art #my writing #bill goldilocks cipher

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amazon160 · 9 months

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Spot dabbles because the simps need to be fed:

(art ain’t by me I’m so sorry I couldn’t find the og artist 😭)

-He is the single most awkward man alive, no doubt. Has no filter. Will compliment or critique you on the spot. Hehe. I just noticed the pun there lol. And if it’s not an annoyed critique, he usually gets all flustered after he realizes what he’s just said.

-Spot is real laid back if not an anxious wreck around you. Clearly a bottom. You’ll get him to be more assertive by telling him that when he does, it’s straight up H O T.

-He seems like a “work now, clean later” kind of guy. I mean, we saw how disorganized his house was. It reminds me of Dipper in this one Gravity Falls episode iykyk 😉. Once he moves in with you, he’ll push himself to pick up after himself more often. Until then, he would much rather come to you than you come to his apartment.

-The man can be a scientific perfectionist, but he does not like to clean :(

-Absolutely loves it when you lay your head on his stomach. He’s a lil chub, so he feels like a pillow :3

-Spot is very self conscious of his body, of course. So he will go ballistic when you caress his square like torso or his spindly limbs, like they’re the most perfect things in the world to you.

-He doesn’t understand how you could love someone like him :’(

-When you trace around his spots or sweet talk him about whatever, he can barely sit still underneath you. Any type of praise will send him through the roof.

-So when you’d say it was hot when Spot was assertive? Every now and then, he’ll take that advice. It’ll be easy to kinda just sneak up on ya from behind with his portals.

-He also likes to give you praise as much as you like to give him it. He knows that the assertion needs to go both ways.

-That’ll be its own blurb with more details for another day.

-But.

-I’ve always had a thing for hypnosis, I love it and I don’t see it used too often. But like, imagine Spot pins you onto the bed or the couch or somewhere comfortable. His portals are keeping your arms out of place and he forces you to look at him the way he makes Miles look to the side in the movie

Erm. 😳

-The spot on his face starts to swirl, or ripple, or whatever motion and you feel all groggy under his gaze, making way for Spot to take advantage of you while you’re under his trance.

AAA--

-I’m not the usual fan of yandere but for a lil wimp like Spot to be acting that way would be HOO--MAMA--especially if this were after his transformation and the end of the movie.

-You wouldn’t stand a chance.

-AND tbh his voice is just so 😩 especially when it’s distorted

-Like is it just me-? Idk.

-He doesn’t like doing the spicy all that much, he’s mostly into the fluff and domestic bits of your relationship. Don’t get me wrong, he appreciates what intimacy he’ll get, but not so much the SPICY stuff y’know

-And this is whether or not you’d say he has his part. For some reason this became a discussion with me and some friends and one of them literally went “maybe it’s in a hole somewhere”. So if that’s where you wanna go, go for it. Heck, I’ve still seen some art of stuff coming out of that face-spot of his. Y’know, the one spot on his head 😋

That’s all the dribbles FOR NOW, but I intend on getting a not spicy but mild blurb of Spot along with that hypnosis concept XD

#the spot #the spot x reader #the spot spiderverse #atsv #across the spiderverse #jonathan ohnn #jonathon ohnn x reader #spot x reader #atsv x reader #im putting hypnosis in cus can

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piss-pumpkin · 4 months

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🪷☀️Some sunny day🌤️☔️

Douce amere chapter 4, (older)dipper pines x reader, ~4.9k words

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The party, and really all that had happened in the last few days, had left you drained. You sighed, stretching. Today, you thought, could be a good day to do nothing, and see nobody. At least for a while, to recharge your social battery.

It was afternoon, and Susan’s house was empty. But it was so sunny out, and the woods were nice. You glanced out the window, checking the weather again. Yeah, outside. That was where you should be. You grabbed your backpack, and opened the door.

You took a deep breath in, feeling the wind hit your face. It smelled vaguely like the woods, whatever that meant. Something like pine, cedar, dirt, with a pinch of monsters and mystery, though monsters didn’t smell very good, typically. You leaned on the railing of lazy Susan’s porch, and took another deep breath. It smelled like summer, and the woods were waiting.

You stepped down off the porch, and hopped onto the driveway. You’re backpack was heavy with Dippers book. Today was a good day to catch up, and the best place to do that, you decided, was the woods. If, by chance, no monster or adventure found you, you could read the beginning.

You started walking down town, headed for the Gravity falls forest that so often drew you in with mystery. As you walked, you checked your bag, double checking that you brought water and snacks. Thankfully you did.

You approached the edge of the forest. The tree line was thick immediately, the woods forming a clean barrier. It either was, or wasn’t. There was no place in between town and forest. The closest thing to that would be the shack.

You touched a tree. It was a little right, and a little wrong, your first time venturing into the woods this summer alone. Mystery hunting here was something you did with the twins, and your first summer memory in the forest being without them was strange. But alone was liberating. It was free. Alone was the fresh air in your lungs and the silence of the world replaced with the noise of the jungle. It made you feel like Gravity falls was yours, like you were the main character, so to speak. You stepped though the tree line, forging a path through.

The grass folded under your feet, and the brush parted as you lived through it to change trails. You found yourself smiling, hands swinging at your sides. It really was beautiful, the nature. The trees leaves blocked the sun overhead, what little rays could break through spotlighted whatever they landed on. And the morning dew and dampness of the forest created a mist to walk through.

So you walked. Carefully, as not to trip on any branches or roots, searching for a comfortable looking spot to read. That and taking in the sights. And your eye was caught by more then a few Gravity Falls weirdness things. You passed a few glowing flowers, strangely coloured vines, and a strange mole creature with human eyes. That one was strange. You did your best to take a picture of each oddity you saw, to show it Dipper later. Maybe he or Ford would know what you passed by.

You picked a few faintly glowing red and pink flowers, who’s pollen centres seemed to be steaming. You looked them over, and wafted the scent of them towards your face as you went. Smelled like…sulphur. You threw the flowers away behind you.

Looking back in front of you, you saw… a breakage in the trees. A clearing, with the sun shining in unbroken rays down over a grassy patch of the woods. Fuck yeah. If it was dry, that would be the perfect place.

You sped forward, into the clearing. The sudden sun was startling, and your arm flew up to shield your eyes. You scanned the area, checking for any gnomes, or perhaps a vicious plant. It seemed clear… stray for an unmoving grey silhouette facing away from you. That was a bit odd.

You moved to investigate, getting closer to the… statue. As you stepped in front of it, you saw. It was a little guy, triangular in shape, with a little top hat at the tip of the pyramid. It was as if it was holding out a hand to shake. Most striking of all, a single eye took up half the face. Odd.

You stared at it, considering taking a picture to show Dipper. You decided against it. Odd.

You squatted down, resting your hands on your knees to make curious eye contact with the statue. It felt familiar, and alien. You pondered what to name it. “You’re a weird looking guy,” you said, pointing at the statue. “What is your name?”

You paused, and it seemed like the sounds of the forest disappeared from your head. It was just you and the statue. As if the sun was shining just on the little stone pyramid, time seemed to slow. There was no wind, and no birds chirping to offer a bit of advice or naming inspiration. You stared into the eye, not touching the statue. In truth, you couldn’t look away. What to name it? The air was hot, and you were acutely aware of it in your lungs, for some reason. You could almost see the statue was sparkling in the light.

And then the thought came to you. Silently, the thought came and echoed in your mind, the only thought you could have. “You look like a William…” you tilted your head, the sounds of the woods and creatures and wind coming back. “But that’s too formal, you look like a casual kind of guy, despite the hat,” you pondered. “Hmmm, and Will isn’t right for you, you don’t look like a Will.”

You stood up, and started to pace around the little statue. “Ugh, and Billy is too childish for you,” you said. Your face soured, “And Willy is just stupid.” You walked in a small circle around it. “I’ll level with you, there’s only one nickname of William left I can think of,” you knelt back down in front of your new stone friend. “But I hate that name… my best friend really hates the name, so I won’t use it.” You sighed, flicking the hat, “So as much as it doesn’t suit you, I think I’ll call you Billy.”

You could almost feel the anger coming from the statue. “Yeah, yeah,” you shrugged. “I know, feels a little weird…” you booped it just under the eye, and smiled. “We’ll get used to it though.”

You stood up, and looked around. “So, Billy, the area looks pretty nice, is this the spot for me?” you asked your new friend.

Silence as a response. Spine tingling silence.

”You’re, right,” you said, setting your bag down. “I think I’ll read here, it’s sunny and warm.” You set your bag down, and sat beside it, nearish to your new friend. You laid back on a flat and soft patch of grass, and leaned your head on your backpack. Comfy.

You held the book so you could see, and started from the beginning. It was nice reading in company. Usually that was Dipper, today it was Billy. You glanced over at him. He hadn’t moved. You weren’t sure why you expected him to, given that he was made of stone. “Billy, do you like mysteries?”

Silence. Not even a bird chirp. Like the forest was just spitting static at you. And a mild ringing in your ears.

”Yeah, I have mixed feelings too. They can be really good at their best, but so boring, predictable, and lazy at worst,” you said, pulling the book to your chest. “And if it’s a murder mystery, it’s so hard to get invested in the characters…” you looked away from the eye and back up to the clouds passing overhead. “But my Dipshit likes them, and said this was was really good,” you opened the book again, eyes scanning over the first page. “So I’ll give it a fair shot.”

Billy didn’t have any thoughts of his own to offer. Figures, since he was a statue.

As you read, you had to give credit where due, Dipshit picked a good one. Gripping story, and compelling mystery. You limited yourself to the marked page that Dipper had stopped at, so you could read the rest together. But stopping was a difficult task considering the quality. It took a lot of self restraint not to finish it, or at least read ahead of him. Instead, you decided to discuss what you did read with Billy.

”So, I really hope Dip is wrong about Paul… the friend character,” you said, rolling into your stomach and kicking your feet in the air. “Cuz I am not normal about him and the main guy.”

Billy didn’t respond as you looked into his eye. The single, bulging eye, which seemed to be watching you.

You were about to speak again, but were startled out of it. A small droplet of rain hit your face, causing you to blink a few times. “Well shit, Billy,” you said, standing up and looking at the bright but overcast sky. It was white and grey clouds for as far as the eye could see. “I think I have to leave you now, I can’t let Dip’s book get wet.”

You packed everything into your back, and slung it over your shoulders. But you couldn’t just leave. It seemed like it had been windy only a moment ago, but as you started off the clearing felt eerily still. Still and silent. You looked back at Billy. “Don’t worry, I’ll probably be back,” you said, snapping him a finger gun. “Any time I need away from all my bitch ass friends, you know the deal.”

Billy didn’t reply. But with those words, and that promise, life seemed to return to the valley. odd. So much was odd. But that was Gravity Falls, you supposed. You started to walk back to town, under the cover of the trees to avoid the rain. Back to your Aunts place, or perhaps Greasy’s diner.

…

Lazy Susan was not a lazy woman, that was certain. She ran the only decent diner in town, cheap and open at the best and worst hours of the day. She greeted you as you came in, the bell drawing her attention, “Hello, Y/n!”

“Eyyy,” you said, snapping at her. You took a seat on the counter, resting your elbows on the old stained wood, and kicking your dangling feet off the vintage seat. “What’s up?”

Susan leaned on the counter with you, “Oh, you know.” She glanced over to another customer waving her over, “Sorry, be right back, sweetie.”

You nodded, biting the inside of your cheek through a smile. Cringe nickname, sweetie was. Not all bad though. Looking around, you saw the restaurant was swamped. You must have gotten there during the dinner rush. You watched as Susan tended to the customers order, the man winked at her. You squinted, and realized it was Toby Determined. Gross.

As Susan came back, she sighed, starting to brew a coffee behind the counter. “So, Y/n, can I get you a drink?”

You smiled, “Of course. My favourite?”

Susan placed the coffee in front of Toby, and came back in front of you. “Of course.”

She knew your cafe order by heart by now. As she was making it, another few customers walked in, and another at a table tried to call over Susan. You sipped your drink and watched as she tried to juggle all of them. “Hey Susan, you want help today?” you asked. Wouldn’t be the first time you worked there, and wouldn’t be the last, you were sure.

Susan waved her hand, “Oh, no.” She shook her head, pouring a coffee for a manly Dan. “You’re on summer vacation, you should be outside enjoying yourself, go hangout with your friends.”

”Girlie, it’s busy in here and it’s just you today, come on,” you said, gesturing around.

A voice called out from the kitchen, “Hey, I’m here too!” Robbie, the dishwasher, shouted from the back.

You sighed, “My bad, it’s just you and Robbie here today, you need me to take some orders?”

Susan pursed her lips, and glanced around the room. More people coming in, more people needing service at tables. Yeah, it was busy. She sighed, “Alright, thank you.”

You smiled, “All good,” you said, snaking around the counter. There was an apron for you, hanging in the kitchen. Robbie was also there, unfortunately, scrubbing away. “Y/n,” he greeted flatly.

”Robbie,” you replied, nodding.

You walked by the dish pit coming back to the front, a little too closely. Robbie flicked some soapy water at your face. Furrowing your brow, you sneered at him, “Nerd.”

He sneered back, “Nerd.”

So, you went to the front and took orders so Susan could focus on cooking. You put on a customer service voice, and did the absolute best you could with how busy it was and how tired you were at heart.

…

Just a a couple hours. You just worked the dinner rush, and the closing hours. It wasn’t nearly enough to make your feet hurt, or supply you with the need to complain. You looked around the now empty diner, “Am I good to go?” you asked.

Susan was in the cash register, “Of course, Sweetie. Thanks for helping today, I’ll pay you…” she paused, starting to the back kitchen, “Eventually.” Susan stopped, nearly falling off balance as she did so suddenly. She turned to you, and pointed at the door way, “Also, the Pines boy is here for you!”

You glanced at the closed door, then back to Susan. You barely saw the trailing end of her apron disappear into the kitchen. “Outside?” You asked, hanging your own apron on the rack.

“Yeah!” you heard shouted from the kitchen. As well as faint complaints from Robbie, dealing with the final push of the dishes.

It was dark out already, a wonder considering it was summer. The day does pass by fairly quickly when you sleep till noon. You grabbed your stuff, “Alright, I’m heading out!” You shouted to the kitchen.

You heard two responses. Robbie yelled a hearty, “good!” to you, while Susan said a quick, “Have fun!” You smiled, and pushed the door open.

The moment you stepped out, he spoke. “Heyyyy,” Dipper said, leaned on the wall. “I would have come in to talk to you, but you looked super busy.”

You smirked, “Aww, never to busy for you, Dip.” You glanced back through the window, “It was actually swamped though, I wouldn’t have been able to chat much…” you turned back to him, stepping away from the diner, “so where we going?”

”Are you recovered enough to hangout at the Mystery Shack?” He asked, pushing himself off the wall and walking beside you. The car was still here, which you planned to drive illegally again.

You thought for a moment. After a few hours busting your ass at customer service, you were tired. That and the long night last night didn’t do wonders for your energy. A little tired to hangout with the big group, but just you and him? That was easy. “Yeah, let’s go,” you said, hopping in the car. “Get in.”

Dipper stood for a moment while you sat at the wheel. “Don’t you still have your L?”

“You didn’t care this morning,” you said, brow raised.

He sighed, and climbed in the passenger seat. “Well, I’m a lot more coherent now,” he said, putting on his seatbelt. “I took a nap, and now I can think critically.”

You snickered, starting be engine, “how unfortunate for you.” You started backing out into the parking lot, and turning into the road. “Lucky for me, I’m kinda delirious,” you smirked. “Did not sleep since the party.”

Dipper sighed, “Don’t crash.”

”Hey, if I didn’t this morning,” you said. You hit the road, “I think I’ve at least had rest time since then, sooo…”

…

When you got to the shack, all you did was zone out in front of the tv and your phone. And that was fine, you were next to Dipper on the couch while Mabel was fast asleep upstairs, and the house was quiet.

Then Dipper spoke up with a question, rather out of the blue. “Hey, wanna go in the roof?”

You looked at him, brow raised. It was late, probably pitch dark. “Like, now?” you asked, blinking tiredly at your phone.

He stood up, “yeah, it’s nice.”

You sighed, standing up to follow him. “And probably cold,” you smiled. He was in front of you, but you could guess he heard the curl of your lips.

He found the gift shop, and Dipper crawled up the ladder, opening the hatch in the ceiling, “Come on, it’s cool.” You looked up at him, and at the crack of the night you could see. “Is it cold?” you asked, folding your arms across your chest. There was a breeze coming through the hole, and it sent goosebumps up your skin.

Dipper stuck his hand out the hole, “No… unless your a pussy,” he said, looking down at you. He threw the door open and waved you up, “Come on.”

You smiled up at him, shaking your head, “well, if you insist then.” Dipper climbed onto the roof while you ascended the ladder, and moved away from the hatch to let you through.

You scrunched your face as it hit the cold air, a reaction you couldn’t control. Stepping out and kicking the door closed behind you, you saw Dipper. He was standing with his back too you, looking out onto the forest and the sky. The stars were out and bright enough that you could see the line of trees as a black silhouette against the sky.

You stared up above you. This side of Gravity Falls didn’t have much light pollution, the stars were so completely out and visible that it drew your eyes like a magnet. You elbowed Dipper, “hey, look, it’s you.”

You pointed up to the Big Dipper, and heard regular sized Dipper groan beside you. You looked at him as he rolled his eyes. “No escaping that one, is there,” he said, shaking his head.

You turned your body to him, smirking. Your eyes wandered up to his forehead, and his birthmark peeking through under his hair. “It’s your namesake,” you said, trying to poke his face. He swatted your hand back gently.

“Nickname-sake,” he scoffed. He turned away from you, fixing his hat so that it covered his birthmark. “And by no fault of mine,” he laughed.

He sat down on the edge of the roof, letting his feet dangle off the edge. You smiled, doing the same next to him. “What, would you rather me call you Mason,” you said, leaning over to better see his face. The night air might have been cold on your cheeks if you weren’t blushing. Still cold on your arms though.

He winced, pursing his lips as a blush crept over his face. His eyes flickered over to you for a moment before he looked back at the view. “Yeah, no,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck. “Now that I’m hearing it, it feels weird. Like you’re gonna murder me, or something.”

You snickered, “Yeah, you better watch your back, Mason.”

“Ugh, stop,” he smiled, shaking his head. “That’s what my Mom calls me when I’m in shit,” he said. He cracked his knuckles idly, “I’m terrified for my life.”

“Maybe you should be,” you said, smacked him playfully across the chest. As he moved to block your strike, he threw himself off balance a moment, nearly stumbling off the roof. “Oh, shit!” you exclaimed, as he started to squeak in surprise. You reached out to grab him, pulling him just a little bit away from the edge, and steadying him. “God damn dude, maybe you really should be scared for your life.”

His eyes were wide, and brow furrowed He glanced over the edge of the roof, “I feel like this happens too much, I think I nearly fall to my death on a regular basis.”

You gasped in faux shock, “Maybe it’s a sign!”

Dipper scoffed, “of what, my impending death?”

You almost wanted to make another joke about falling in love. Almost. Two days in a row with that one was too much, you didn’t want to go too hard.

You opened your mouth to speak, but Dipper was faster. He laughed, “Or let me guess, falling in love with you.”

You felt your face flush. “Wow, you know me too well,” you shook your head, eyes wide and a nervous smile crossing your lips. “I need new jokes.”

It was Dippers turn to lean forward to to see you. “It’s true, you really do,” he deadpanned, brow raised. “I’m at a point where I can perfectly mimic your cringe.”

You snickered, “If that’s true, maybe then you’ll pull some bitches.” You internally grimaced at the irony. He did have the power to pull bitches, even without your cringe. Primarily, you.

Dipper leaned back on his hands, kicking his legs back and forth as they dangled. “That implies you get bitches, which…” he trailed off, looking at you with skeptical eyes.

You punched him lightly on the arm, trying very hard to make eye contact and not look away in embarrassment. “Hey, I do, actually,” you said. You looked away after you did, staring again at the Big Dipper in the sky. “Unfortunately,” you added on.

Dipper scrunched his face for a moment before it dawned on him. “Oh shitttt,” he said, stroking his chin. “Yeah, you dated that one guy last school year… god, what was his name?”

”If you remember, don’t say it,” you laughed. “That guy sucks.” You kept your eyes trained on the stars. They were shining and beautiful, it was true. But at heart, a big part of you wanted to look at Dipper beside you. “And don’t remind me of the cringe flirting I’ve endured from randos.”

Dipper paused, letting night silence hang over you for a moment. You fought the urge to look at him. While talking with your crush, the topic of conversation accidentally turned to your ex. That was not ideal. You bit the bullet, and glanced over at him.

Immediately you were met with his eyes on yours. Shit. You looked away quickly, back at the tree line silhouette and stars above. Beside you, you gripped the edge of the roof hard, with the hand he couldn’t see.

“Did you like him? Your ex, that is…” Dipper finally asked. “I know you don’t now, but like… did you before?” His voice was quiet, not unsure of himself, but small and soft. You looked over at him again, finding his gaze locked on the sky, face slightly red, from what you could tell in the dark.

You looked at your hand a moment. “I don’t know,” you sighed. “You know?”

Dipper nodded his head up at you, silently asking for a little more to go off.

“I just… have no idea,” you said, thinking back. “I don’t think I did, really. Not like that, anyway.” You kicked your feet, embracing the fact that this conversation was happening, whether you wanted it or not. “It didn’t work with him because he sucked, for one… but I don’t think I was,” you paused, fidgeting with your hands. “Emotionally available… like,” you pressed your eyelids together in a very forceful blink, and then glanced at Dipper, making brief eye contact. “I still liked somebody else, and I think I knew that… but I didn’t know that, ya know?”

Dipper fiddled with his hands, “I think so, yeah, actually.”

You tilted your head, gazing still at the stars. “Oh yeah?” You pondered curiously, “ever date anyone back home?”

You could feel Dipper nod beside you. “I had… a similar problem to you, but I was a shittier person about it.”

That piqued your curiosity, “Oh?” you asked, turning your body completely to face him. You crossed your legs in front of you, and leaned back on your hands.

Dipper sighed, and did the same, fully facing you. “Yeah, I… dated somebody, for kind of a while, actually,” he rubbed the back of his neck. “Too long, I really hurt their feelings.” He was avoiding your eyes. That was okay, given the topic.

You pursed your lips as he spoke, trying to keep stoic. He dated somebody? And didn’t tell you? Your fingers owed at the roof shackles, grinding down the prints on the tips. And he was mean?

“I kinda sucked though, I knew I liked somebody else, and I was only dating this person to try and get over them.” Dipper shook his head at himself. “It uh-“ he finally looked at you, face flushed in embarrassment. “It didn’t work, and I just felt really bad, for a while.”

You bit the inside of your cheek. “Damn, dude,” was all you could say. And you didn’t even know. Why wouldn’t he mention that? And who was he trying to get over? It felt cruel to hope it was you, like you wished to be the cause of his distress. You tried to shake the thought, that tiny hope from your head.

He folded his hands in his lap, and looked out into the trees. “Yeahhhh….” he said, small and unhappy smile on his lips.

You sighed, resting your cheek in your hand. “We all do shit, man. You seem really torn up about this, you wanna talk about it?”

Dipper glanced over at you, and threw his head back, neck nearly limp as he looked up at the sky above him. “Not really much to say, actually. Just kind of a bummer… and I lost a friend too, when we broke up… so that sucked.”

Damn. “That’s awful, man,” you said, taking a deep breath if night air in. “Honestly, I’m sorry.” What words were there, that could help.

“Eh, don’t be. It was a little bit ago now… I wanna say around the same time you were dating that one asshole.”

You smiled, “we’re twins, then!”

Dipper laughed, “Don’t tell Mabel, she’ll get jealous.”

You snickered. Your eyes were adjusted enough to the dark to see his face clearly, and the soft smile he wore while he looked at you. You pursed your lips, and wiggled them around, unsure if you should ask the question lingering in your mind. “Dip, can I ask…” you started. “Why didn’t you tell me? About any of that… I would have been happy to listen if you wanted to vent.”

Dipper groaned slightly with a sigh. “I thought about it…” he said, playing with his fingers. “I didn’t want to bother you with it, plus I was kind of… ashamed.”

You put your hand in his, steadying his anxious movements. “Being ashamed isn’t a bad thing, Dip. It means you care, and you want to do better,” you told him. You tried your best to channel Mabel’s emotional intelligence. “And, also, talking to you is never a bother.”

Dipper looked down, leaving your eyes on his shaggy hair, and hat that was nearly falling off. But you could sense his smile. “Thanks, Y/n,” he said softly.

You glanced up at the sky, barely catching a shimmer across it. “Shit, Dip, look,” you said, pointing up. “A shooting star!”

Dipper looked up, and you could see the light from the moon and cosmos reflected in his eyes. “Shit, I missed it…”

You hummed in disapproval, about to speak. As you were though, a stronger gust of wind hit you, cutting though any clothes you had on and giving you goosebumps on your skin. “Dip, I’m a pussy, it’s cold,” you said. “I might go inside soon.”

”Want my sweater?”

You paused a moment, thinking. The answer didn’t take a lot of thought. “Yeah,” you said quickly. You pursed your lips, “Oh wait, but then you’ll get cold.”

He was already unzipping his hoodie, “You’re mistaken, I’m not a little bitch,” he said, tossing you the sweater. You started to put it on, feeling the lingering warmth from him as you did. Felt nice.

As you zipped it up, you turned back to dangle your legs off the edge. Dipper did the same as you did. You glanced over at him, hugging yourself in his sweater. You smiled, scooting closer so you were practically huddled together. He raised an eyebrow at you curiously.

“Warmth,” you said. You pointed at his bare arm, “You are a bitch, I can see you’re goosebumps.”

He grumbled, “I can’t even feel that, actually.”

”Bullshit,” you called. “Well either way, I’m helping by blocking the wind, too.”

He sighed, “okay, it’s a little chilly without a coat on, I’ll give you that.” He looked around at the now swaying trees. “It’s cuz the wind picked up,” he pointed at the weather vane, which was spinning. “See?”

You snickered, “yeah I see… bitch.”

He shook his head. “Yeah, whatever nerd,” he said, putting his arm around you. Even warmer. Good. You leaned in more, snuggling closer to escape the growing win. He glanced down at you, huddled into yourself and looking much smaller then normal. “You’re right, though, we should go inside soon.”

You looked up at the sky, and felt his heavy arm around your shoulders. It was nice. “Soon,” you echoed. Not now, but soon.

It’s here I remind you again that y/n has never seen bill, despite all they’ve heard. Also sorry if you do t have an asshole ex I very much wrote this at a specific time in my life 💀

This chapter concludes the introduction arc.

#x reader #dipper pines x reader #gravity falls x reader #my writing #dipper pines #dipper x reader #douce amere #gravity falls

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gxdsfavgal · 2 years

Text

Something to Learn

Pairing: JJ Maybank x fem!reader (nickname Zee) x John B

Warning: 18+ MDNI, angst, smut, choking, hair pulling, edging, piv, mentions of drinking and smoking, bruises, abusive/toxic dad, no Sarah yet, not edited/proofread

A/N: this was requested by @lovesickformaybank ... I feel like it’s not my best work of smut :/ but enjoy!

It was a slow night, Kie, Pope, JJ, John B and I has been bored the whole day. We’ve drank, we smoked, we went around the whole island and to the mainland. Yet we still are bored as hell.

Now we were on the HSM Pogue, all of us on the bow in a daze looking up at the night sky. The stars were different tonight, like they were calling out to me as we were moving across the small waves of the water.

It was one of the colder nights of Summer at OBX. JJ laid on his back on the bow floor with just a hoodie keeping him warm, his arms behind his head. Kie and Pope were sitting distant from each other, their legs are sharing a blanket. John B and I doing the same.

“Zee, you see that over there?” John B pointed up into the dark sky.

“Wait hold on, let me see.” I scooted closer to him, our thighs touching.

I closed one of my eyes, following up his arm to see where he was pointing at.

“Those stars? What about them?” I turned to face him, our faces just an inch apart. I can feel his breath fan over my face, I smell the mixture of weed and beer that we’ve been consuming all of today.

He smiles at me, his eyes scanning my face before turning his head away from me. “That is the Big Dipper.”

“Oh that’s pretty. Can you show me more?” I gripped at his bicep, resting my jaw on his shoulder.

“Zee.” JJ called out, making me quickly look down at him on the boat floor. “What are you doing?”

“Looking at stars.” I blinked, not knowing if I did something wrong.

“Come lay with me.” he wasn't asking, JJ never asked much.

“John B is showing me stars.”

“Constellations.” John B corrected.

“Yeah, constellations.” I told JJ before letting out a quiet huff, turning back to John B so he can show me more.

I was surprised that JJ didn't retaliate like he usually does, he always has something to say. All of today he was different, he was more quiet. I asked him repeatedly if there was something wrong but he just brushed it off with a ‘nothing’.

John B showed me so many constellations and the brightest start in the North, Arcturus. He told me how he knows all about them, and other cute little facts.

An hour later everyone began to get tired and cold, we were begging to go home where it would be warmer.

Once we docked at the chateau, everyone began walking into the Routledge home, except JJ.

“J, where are you going?” Kie asked, her body wrapped in a burrito blanket.

All of our faces looked at JJ all tired, our eyes barely staying open and our bodies swaying from exhaustion.

“Home. C’mon Zee.” he held out my helmet, his already on his head.

“J, it’s late and I'm tired. Let’s just sleep here.” I crossed my arms over my shivering body. My body swaying from the lack of sleep.

“Yeah JJ, you have the whole guest room just for you.” John B tried to convince him.

“We’re going home. Zee put on your helmet and get on.” his tone was harsh, he was demanding.

I knew not to push his buttons, especially when he had alcohol in his system. I wished everyone a good night and lazily dragged my feet to JJ’s motorcycle. I snatched my helmet from his hands and put it on with a groan.

The ride home was quiet. He wasn't singing to music like he usually does. Dead silent.

He parked his bike in front of his house, quickly putting down the kickstand and roughly throwing his helmet onto the dirt.

“J, what the hell is wrong?” I hopped off the bike and gently placed my helmet onto the handle.

I cautiously followed him up to the front door, making sure to keep quiet so we don't wake up Luke. JJ didn't answer, he just stood at the door not moving a muscle and having his back towards me.

“JJ, answer me.” I accentuated my words in a whisper.

He swiftly turned around, his hand finding my throat in seconds. His long fingers wrapped around my neck like it was nothing, squeezing just enough to restrict my breathing a bit. His eyes were dark, pupils blown. His eyebrows were furrowed and his nose flaring.

“You just really like John B, don't you?” he brought my face up to his, I stood on the tips of my toes.

I shook my head sideways, telling him a no.

“Go to the room.” He pushed me away and releasing my throat, I felt at my throat trying to inhale as much air as I can. He didnt even look at me after, he was too busy looking out into the woods.

I quietly walked into the house, seeing a limp body of Luke on the couch. I made my way to the room that JJ and I shared whenever we decided to go back to his house.

I stood in the middle of his room, biting at my nails. My eyes went wide as he stomped his way into the room, closing and locking the bedroom door behind him.

His figure towered over me, his broad shoulders and long hair casted a shadow. His finger traced my skin from my shoulder to my jawline.

His hand gripped at my throat at an alarming speed, he was holding me up to where I was once again on the tips of my toes.

“You’re gonna get naked and sit on the bed for me.” his eyes were dark, no blue to be seen.

He let go of my neck and let me start to strip. He was taking off his clothes too, his eyes watching me as I take off my sweatpants.

He pulled his hoodie off of his torso, his skin littered with purple and yellow marks. How was I not able to catch how sore he was today? He was struggling to pull the article of clothing over his head, his body aching but he tried not to show the pain.

“J.” I stood up and made my way to him, helping him with his hoodie.

His eyes didn't meet mine, he didn't want to talk about it. Luke was just in the living room, he didn't want another fight with his dad especially with me here.

“JJ.” my fingers lightly circles all of the bruises on his abs, his breath shuddering at the touch.

“Strip.” he held me by my wrists, lightly pushing me away from his body.

“JJ, can we just talk about it?” I sat on the edge of the bed taking off my hoodie, leaving me just in my panties and bra.

“I don't want to talk about this.” His finger pointing towards the biggest bruise. “I want to talk about why you were flirting with John B.”

His fingers splayed on my hips, gripping at the waistband of my underwear. His fingers feeling at the lace, twirling it in his fingers before roughly pulling it down my legs.

“Turn around.” I flipped my body with my stomach against the mattress and my bare ass hanging off the bed.

His fingers laced through my hair, pulling my upper body off of the bed. My back arching achingly. His freehand unclasping my bra, pulling it off my chest and off my arms. My tits bouncing from the release.

“You know, I never thought that I’d be dating a whore.” he muttered into my ear, his lips grazing the shell of my ear with each word he says.

His free hand comes down to my rear, a loud and hard smack caused my body to leach forward. My back arching away from his chest, his hand leaving a swelling red handprint.

“I think you need to learn not to flirt with my best friend.”

He pulled down his shorts and underwear, his free hand fisting his hard cock, using his pre-cum as lube. He brought his tip to my dripping core, dragging it around my slit and spreading the slick.

“J.” I quietly moaned out at the teasing. He was so close to my center, his tip missing it on purpose.

He wrapped his hand around my hair one time, pulling my head closer to his shoulder. That’s when he forced his dick inside of me, not letting me adjust to his size. His hips were like pistons, going in and out of me rapidly.

His groans and thrusts were filled with anger, but also lust. My skin was raw from his skin slapping against mine. My hole sore from his shaft dragging at a quick rough pace.

His hand stayed in my hair while his other take grip of my throat, holding my back against his chest. Our bodies shaking the bed, not caring if Luke wakes up from his high.

“I- Im gonna cum.” his thrusts making me stutter out with just the little air I was able to breath in.

He slowly pulled out to where his tip was in me. “No.” he pushed into me, his balls hitting against me.

I was barely holding it, the knot was ready to be untangled. My body shook from the strain of keeping it in. I can feel his cock twitch inside me, his thrusts stuttering.

“Oh fuck!” he groaned loud for the whole side of the cut to hear.

He pulled out and released onto my back, my euphoria taking a pause. He finished, but I didn't. I was a whining mess, pushing back my ass into his hard cock, trying to get some sort of movement.

“JJ.” I exhaustedly snapped at him.

“Only good girls get to cum.” his hand tightening in my hair, I winced.

“I- im a good girl.” I whined against, rutting back against him.

“Good girl don't flirt with their boyfriends best friend.” he let go of my hair and throat, pushing my body forward into the bed. He tucked himself back into his boxers and shorts, leaving me a whining naked mess.

“JJ, please.” I got up from the bed, on my knees where he stood at his dresser. “Please! I’ll do anything!”

Tears formed at the corners of my eyes, the salty liquid falling down my cheeks. It was bubbling inside me, wanting to spill over but not able to. I was so close to popping.

He found some clean clothes and went to the bathroom, paying me no attention. Not letting me finish. He was punishing me. He knew none of my toys would satisfy me. He knew my fingers couldn’t reach the heavenly areas his fingers, tongue, and cock could.

This was my punishment.

#gxdsfavgals masterlist #jj maybank #jj maybank smut #jj maybank fluff #jj maybank angst #jj obx #obx jj #obx fluff #obx angst #obx smut #rudy pankow #rudy pankow fluff #rudy pankow angst #rudy pankow smut #outerbanks #outer banks #outerbanks jj #jj outer banks

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nautiscarader · 3 months

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Broken plates,broken promises

Wendip + Mabcifica, G, Ao3

Wendy Corduroy took another look at the décor of the room she was in, trying to absorb all the intricate details, even those covered in shadows created by subtle, atmospheric lighting.

"Wendy?", Dipper's slightly concerned voice brought Wendy back to her date. "Is everything okay?"

"Oh,yeah, sure.", she replied quickly, "I'm just flabbergasted how much work Mabel and Paz have put into this business."

Dipper followed her eyes, admiring the restaurant teeming with people, enjoying their meals.

"The best fancy restaurant in Falls."

"You mean, the only fancy restaurant", Wendy smirked. She wasn't exactly wrong. Aside from Lazy Susan's, where Pacifica took her first steps, there was only a pizza place,a sandwich shop and a hot dog stand, operated by very handsome rotweiller, catering exclusively to other canines.

"You sure I did not break any fashion rules?", Wendy asked suddenly.

"Wha-? No, you look gorgeous in that dress."

"Even if I ditched the fake belt for the utility one?"

"I wouldn't expect anything less from you."

Wendy smiled.

"Well, it is my only dress,so it's not like I had much choice."

"Ah", Dipper suddenly sat upright and corrected his tie "S-Speaking of that, you will be getting one more soon…"

"What do you-"

But it was too late for Wendy to stop her boyfriend. By the time he stood up, her heart was already racing, and when he dropped to one knee, she lost all the air in her lungs.

"Wendy Blerble Corduroy… will you make me-"

CRASH!

The two jumped in place, startled by sudden noise coming from the kitchen side. And as theirs, and everyone else's attention has be directed to the source of the noice, all they could see was Mabel Pines with tears in her eyes.

"YOU DIRTY CHEATER! YOU PROMISED!"

"Wha-what do you mean?", Dipper raised his hands in defensive gesture.

"YOU KNOW VERY WELL WHAT I AM TALKING ABOUT!", Mabel kept roaring.

"What the he-"

The kitchen door opened, and Pacifica became frozen in place, as she tried to comprehend the situation,looking from Mabel,to the broken plates, to Dipper proposing, only then realising that every guest was looking at her.

"Er, we apologise for the commotion, I assure you there is nothing to-"

Paz paused for a moment.

"Actually, no,I take it back. WHAT THE HELLIS GOING ON?"

"He did it a day earlier!", Mabel complained. "And he didn't tell me!"

"I thought you'd notice! You deal with reservations!, Dipper countered, "And all the seats were taken for tomorrow, so I had to book today!"

"And who do you think booked all those?!", Mabel roared, " I made sure so that all our friends can have dinner tomorrow!"

"You haven't told me about it either!"

"Dipper, what part of 'well-planned surprise double proposal' is too difficult to understand?"

"Double proposal…?"

Mabel turned her head as Pacifica's quivering voice interrupted the argument.

"Oh, shoot.", Mabel started frantically looking around, until she spotted a colorful dessert on a nearby table.

"You haven't tasted this cupcake yet, right, sir?" Mabel addressed the astonished gentleman.

"N-No", he replied, unsure what was going to happen next.

"Great, we're gonna make you a new one"

Mabel quickly snatched the pink treat from the plate and faced her girlfriend, before dropping to one knee.

"Pacifica Northwest, will you do me the honour of becoming my wife, preferably with huge, opulent AND DOUBLE WEDDING?", she threw the final words at her brother, still also on one knee.

"Alright, geez, Mabel, I'm sorry!"

Pacifica could not stop tears from running down her cheeks. She accepted the cupcake at the same time as emerald ring went onto Wendy's finger. The two couples were lost in long kisses, while the room erupted with cheers.

"I think that calls for champagne on the house, eh, Northwest?", Wendy addressed Pacifica from across the room.

"YOUR house, you mean", she snapped back, "You owe us for the plates. And the cupcake, Corduroy".

Pacifica threw her a cocky smile before licking some of the frosting from her lips.

#wendip #mabcifica #nautiscaraderfics #wendy corduroy #dipper pines #gravity falls

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pansyfemme · 7 months

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i distinctly remember an era of the gravity falls fandom on here where people kept trying to disprove trans headcanons of dipper. which for me is stupid bc like. it’s a headcanon. that’s the literal point. it’s not canon. but yknow. different era of fandom and we all know how cis people get when you so much as imply you might read a character as trans. But the thing that always really got me about it was that like. the main way that people were proving he wasn’t was pointing out that we’ve seen him shirtless and he’s flat chested. And like. ok. lack of understanding of the variety of trans bodies but ok, i get your point, whatever. more infurating to me were the people who were arguing against this, because they always went to ‘what about peri? what about scar care? By the way you can get surgery way earlier than you think?’ and not like. the more obvious thing that he’s 12. Why the fuck would you not just say maybe he’s on blockers? like i see it way too much that people just forget trans kids exist even when viewing kids as trans. like. its not like going through the wrong puberty is a crucial experience you need to show in every depiction of transness. It’s a big part for a lot of us, but like. its a very real thing that you can just.. never grow breasts as a trans man. you know that right

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chiiroptereh · 2 years

Photo

Ten years. Holy wow. There are so many things I want to say that I don’t even know where to begin! But, first of all, I’m truly desolate that I wasn’t able to finish this piece properly in time; this was supposed to be a full work but unfortunately paired with my graduation, a nasty cold and just an overall busy year I just totally ran out of time. I intend on finishing this properly at some point, but for now all I can offer is the line work and the character flats. I hope you enjoy it anyway!

The really sappy stuff is beneath the cut. Happy double digits, Gravity Falls; I will always love you!

My brother and I have been close our whole lives. We first watched Gravity Falls together in November of 2015. These memories are some I hold so incredibly dear to my heart for so many reasons, but mainly because it was the summer of 2019 when my parents separated, and unfortunately also when my brother was hit very hard by puberty. He suddenly wanted nothing to do with me. We rarely even spoke because more often than not it’d end in a fight that brought me to tears. He hated me, and I could not stand it. I felt so lonely, so betrayed and, more than ever before, longed for the good ol’ days to come back to me.

Eventually, my brother’s destructive behaviour came back to bite him. One day I woke up to hear from some of our mutual friends that everybody had abandoned him; every single one had dubbed him a horrible monster and refused to talk to him ever again. He was completely alone, and, despite everything, I made the decision to ask him what was wrong. For the first time in years he opened up to me. We went on a long evening drive down the highway, just listening to his favorite music and seeing where the road would take us. After this, we finally began to talk again. He’d pop into my room every night just to say hello, watch YouTube and even asked me to teach him how to draw.

The reason I’m telling you all of this is because, during the endeavour, I was often reminded of Dipper and Mabel’s plight near the end of the series. It struck a cord deeper than I had expected it to when I rewatched it during this era, and it gave me hope. Gravity Falls was the last thing we had shared together and bonded over at the time. We created together, we imagined together, we loved together. The days we spent walking around the local track on sunny summer’s days musing over fun ideas for stories and fan-comics were some of the best ones of my life. So, you can imagine how difficult it was to feel like that had all been torn from me.

Nonetheless, just like the Pines twins (both sets! Happy birthday Stan and Ford <3 <3), we forgave each other. We’re best friends again, and I am so incredibly grateful for that. I can’t imagine my life without you, little bro, and I hope we continue to take on the world together for decades to come!

Thank you, Gravity Falls. Thank you for making me laugh, making me cry, making me think, making me feel and making me create. Thank you for the nights I spent curled up on the couch with my whole family, laughing and smiling together. Thank you for making me believe in the power of a sibling bond. Thank you for all of the inspiration, motivation and artistic growth (and being responsible for the first time I was drawing humans regularly!). Thank you for helping me bond and connect with my closest friends in the entire world. It is an absolute privilege to be able to be here to celebrate an entire decade of some of the best television to ever air. I know this show will never truly leave me; how could it after all of this? One day, I’m sure I will watch it again with my children, and then again with my children’s children, and create those memories all over again. And with each line, each frame, I’m sure I will look back to these memories. Moments forever frozen in time, where my family and I were as we should be: well and truly as one.

Oh man now I’m crying lol, sorry if that was a bit incoherent I am beyond exhausted (been drawing for like eight hours straight) :’D But hey, it came from the heart!

Adios folks, I’ll hopefully see you soon with the proper iteration! And remember: “Gravity Falls is real and it will never die.” I, however, am going to die in approximately five seconds. snzzzzz

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qtssvnwoo · 2 years

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Means Something- Draco Malfoy

warnings: mentions death, mentions blood that magical pen thing Umbridge uses on the students, not proof read

a/n: This fic contains song lyrics from Lizzy McAlpine’s Song “Means something.”

Guide: Bold and Italic- Song lyrics, Y/n (Your Name)

words: 1.3k

I saw your name on a street sign, in the middle of nowhere, and that has to mean something.

You saw signs of him everywhere. Streets, Diagon Alley, Hogwarts, even in your own home. No where was safe from the signs that lingered in the back of your mind. Every corner you went past and every road you went down had little memories and reminders of him. At first you thought you were crazy, and then you grew to love the little reminders of him.

I know your zodiac sign, me and Leos get along great, and that has to mean something.

“Do you really believe in all those signs and that stars tell us things?” Draco asked, directing his attention from the sky over to you. While still looking at the stars.” you answered.

“Yes and no. I believe something can lead to your personality but it doesn’t entirely mean it's true.”

“Care to elaborate my love?” Draco chuckled, propping himself up on one elbow while staring lovingly at his partner.

“Well, the stars tell us stories with constellations, like the little dipper and the big dipper. And as for signs, I think they can describe people's personalities pretty well.” Draco laughed and rolled back onto his back, earring a glare from the person bedside him.

“What's so funny to you Malfoy.” You asked, sitting up as they watched the boy beside them continue laughing to himself. Draco sat up with them and faced them, leaning an arm on his knee.

“I just think it's fascinating how you believe all that.” He laughed, moving his bangs away from his eyes as if he was trying to get a better look at you. Draco smiled softly as he reached his hand, which was previously resting on his knee, up to your cheek and lightly held your face in his hand, rubbing softly on your warm cheek. “I love listening to you talk.”

But for some reason, your not here, and I refuse to believe that means something

“That's the third time this week Draco!” You yelled as they attempted to walk away from him. Draco had missed yet another date they had scheduled, and each day was a new excuse that he had pulled out of his ass.

“Love you don’t understand I-”

“You what, Draco? You had extra homework? Got caught up with quidditch? Or were you just blowing me off again?!” You had felt deep inside that you were just over reacting, and that him missing a couple dates wasn’t as big of a deal as it had seemed to be, but something else screamed inside you that he was lying.

“Blowing you off? You truly believe that I would purposely miss a date without a proper excuse?”

“Maybe, you’ve done it before so what's stopping you from doing it again?” Y/n could see the look on Draco’s face as they spit out the words. The words seemed to pierce Draco in the gut as he just stood there with a look on his face that could only be described as absolute betrayal.

“I would never do that to you Y/n! You know that,” He paused, walking towards them and taking their hands in his, “you know me.”

Even with the reassuring words from Draco, you couldn’t help but still feel like he was lying, like something was truly wrong.

I felt the way that you hugged me, when I was broken inside and that has to mean something

Draco was holding onto you while you cried. Slowly rocking back and forth as a way to comfort or ease the pain coming from your wrist. He softly shushed you, as he ran his thumb back and forth over the mark on your wrist. I musnt tell lies, it read. Draco felt shivers run down his spine as he remembered the look on your face whilst you were writing. He wished he had been there to try and stop Umbridge. Or to at least try and make your punishment less painful.

“Draco, it stings.”

“Shh love, I know, I know.”

“Why must you support her? She's a terrible person Draco.” To this Draco stayed silent, scared to face the truth that she was in fact a horrible person, scared that something would happen to him if he said something different.

I felt the way that you kissed me, when we got too drunk that night, and that had to mean something.

Draco held the back of your head as he pushed you up against the wall, feverishly kissing you as his other hand rubbed up and down the small of your back.

You kissed back just as feverishly, tugging at the hair on the back of his head while your lips danced with his. You wrapped your arms around his neck and slowly pulled away, sighing in content as he kissed down your neck and sucked on the sides of your neck.

“Draco, we shouldn’t be doing this here.” You whispered trying to pull his head away from your neck, but to no avail.

“If you're quiet no one will know.” He smirked at you before pulling your chin up to meet his. Looking into his eyes, you could swear you saw a flash of your future, and before you could say anything, Draco wrapped his arms around your waist and counted to kiss you like tomorrow wasn’t going to come.

Every time I think too much, it ends up crazy, but I don’t know how to not think about you.

You tossed and turned in your bed. The covers felt itchy and the cold air felt like it was mocking you as it nipped and bit at your nose. You let out a sign of frustration as you stared at the ceiling with only one thing on your mind. Draco Malfoy.

Every time I trust my gut, I think I’m crazy. ‘Cause I don’t know how to put my trust in you.

Draco looked at you with a concerned look spreading across his face. He reached out to try and take your hand in his but all you did was pull away.

“Love please you know-”

“No Draco. I don’t know why you had to do this. I don’t know why you had to become one of them.” you spat, crossing your arms protectively over your body while staring daggers at the boy. “I don’t even know if I know you anymore Malfoy.” Was the last thing you said to Draco before turning on your heel and walking away as tears stained and painted your flushed cheeks.

Do you think it means something, that I wrote another song about you?

Your eyes focused on the sky above you as pieces of rock crumbled on all sides. People were walking around, looking at what was left of Hogwarts. But your gaze was fixed on the clouds clearing above you. The voices drowned out as you placed a hand on your aching waist.

“Y/n. Y/n please. Get up.” Draco yelled. You turned your gaze over to the boy beside you,

‘why was he crying?’ you thought to yourself as you watched him hunch over your body and hold onto your cold hand.

“Please just stay with me. Don’t leave me.” He whispered, picking up and cradling your body as his sobs shook him. He rubbed the side of your face as he sobbed into your chest. The blood falling faster and faster from your waist as you hummed softly.

Draco stopped for a second and looked at you, he knew this song, he recognized this song. So he hummed along to the tune that you had written for him so long ago, while he swayed your body back and forth. The sounds of Draco’s quite pleads for you to wake up mixed with the humming of the song you wrote slowly drained into a bone shattering silence as you felt your hand slowly fall from Draco’s, hearing one last scream of agony erupt from Draco’s throat as you withered away in his arms. Your body lay limp as the blood flow stopped. You felt nothing other than coldness, and you saw nothing other than darkness. But Draco felt his heart drop and his stomach turn as he realized what he was seeing before him. You were dead.

#draco #draco malfoy #draco x reader #draco x you #oneshots #angst #draco angst #harry potter #harry potter angst #harry potter x reader #draco x y/n #fanfic #harry potter fanfiction #draco fanfiction

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hkthatgffan · 1 year

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I still remember it like yesterday. I don’t think anyone forgets the first time they saw it. It’s crazy looking back at how long it’s been. I always assumed I’d be a fan for a few weeks at most…not 6 years and counting. Gravity Falls changed my life in ways I still am discovering. And now, 6 years on from that cold February evening in 2017 when I finally decided to give this 40-episode masterpiece a try, I still find looking back at it all so insane and why I fell for Alex Hirsch’s creation over literally anything else I could’ve.

I think after the show itself and the impact on me which I’ll mention later, the fandom’s full of life mentality and kindness was what got me hooked not even a week into it. I mean, I was a year late, so I didn’t think I was gonna find anyone left. I began on Gravity Falls Amino in 2017 and I don’t think I ever expected to find the GF fandom to be so alive and thriving, despite it at the time being a year on from the finale. I think to this day that’s something I love about it; yeah, it’s not as big as it was at its peak. But it still is alive and well despite it being so long.

I think alongside just how alive the fandom was, it was also just the kindness of fans that kept me going. I afraid when I joined at first and felt intimidated at times. I was the new kid on the block. Were fans going to welcome me in or mock me for being late and gatekeep me out like I was less for not being a fan when it was airing? Well, I think the answer is pretty clear. I’ve been in so many fandoms since and while GF’s isn’t always perfect, the kindness in this fandom on all medians I’ve been on is incredible. Old fans are so supportive and helpful to new fans, new fans with curiosity bring new ideas to the table and help keep the stories alive and more. I see it on this the GF sub whenever a new fan is welcomed in for finishing the show or on other sites when they share art or ideas and more that watching GF gave them. I see it in old fans who return because they’ve been reminded about why they loved this show so much or the continued love from fans who never gave up on GF even when Next Summer became less a possibility and more a tear causing goodbye.

Yeah, we have our ups downs as a fandom, but we all are collectively here because we love this cartoon and what it means to us all. Whether you think the show ended perfectly or not, think Dipcifica is the best ship or Wendip is, think Bill is alive or dead, hate or love Mabel or Ford and more, we all are Gravity Falls fans first and foremost and that is something we all are aligned by.

Gravity Falls also made me love animation again after a year of just being away from the median. I’ve gone on to watch so many other cartoons since it. While I admit I still sometimes find myself trying to see if it can live up to GF, which is of course never the way one should watch another show; by comparing it to another, I do owe GF for my renewed passion. It made me not only love animation, but also find a great deal of respect and admiration for the people who make them. From creators to animators, writers to VA’s, Gravity Falls was a huge reason why I now watch every new cartoon with a greater deal of respect for those who work to make the median so incredible.

There is so much more I could say about Gravity Falls and its impact on me…be it the channel I created through it and video creating skills I learned through working with it, the fanfics, the fanart, the communities I’ve had the chance to be part of cause of it, the good and bad from the people and events I’ve been part of from it, or even the renewed appreciation for those I care most about because I saw so much in me in Dipper and Mabel’s sibling relationship. But the thing is…when I found this show, I was at a low point in my life and at the least hopeful for the future.

I was in a real bad place mentally speaking. Really just questioning where it all went wrong and not being able to find a reason to crack a smile anymore. I was the least optimistic I ever was about the future. And then for some reason, I decided one day, after seeing a video about how it ended well, I’d give this cartoon I barely heard about but knew the existence of, a chance. I mean, what was the worst that could happen? I think everyone has their own story for when it hit them in relation to their reason to love this show. I have to be honest, I think the defining reason for me is now lost to time or buried deep in my memories now…but the combination of just Gravity Falls’ pure fun feeling, mystery and emphasis on fan interaction, as well as nostalgia factor really got me excited. But there was one other reason I fell so hard into the fandom and this show; the reason why it got me good...Escape.

It was almost like an escape from reality. For those first few months, I was nonstop Gravity Falls fandom. I scrolled through Amino on the daily to see what people were posting about it, checked Alex Hirsch’s Twitter to see what was new, checked the GF sub to see what was up and more. It was just wake up, classes, come home and obsess over GF, sleep, repeat. I think it’s taken me a long time to realize that at times, Gravity Falls was my Mabeland; my escape from the troubles of real life and the real world. But while it may have been easy to let this obsession become unhealthy and consume me and yeah, at times I feel it may have, I think in a way, it helped me reignite my motivation for the future and the next chapter ahead.

I think seeing Dipper tell Mabel that the future is not something to be afraid of and that going through it with someone who cares, was something I needed to hear and come to understanding the meaning of. Talking to people and finding ways to overcome it. I always thought I was more like Dipper but truthfully…those eyes of fear and the future Mabel had in Vs the Future were the ones I had in the lead up to this day 6 years ago when I gave episode 1 a watch. It’s ironically why I ended up loving her character more when so many others began to hate her. That fear Mabel had was something I understood. Not knowing if you’ll be okay in the future and who was there for you…Mabel really was my guide into and out of that emotion.

And slowly but surely, life got better and better. I did still have my ups and downs here and there and times where I wondered why I made this turn instead of the other with life (still do), but then, each turn was always gonna lead somewhere and by the end, I found my way out. I think now I am at the most stable and just mentally okay place I’ve been in for years. Gravity Falls wasn’t the reason I found my way out of that dark place…but it did give me the motivation and assurance that I needed to hear in order to do it myself.

I still don’t know what the future holds. Hell, even just last year I questioned if I’d still be here in the fandom to mark 6 years. Life is an up an down roller coaster with bumps that all try to throw you off. If you hold on too lightly, you’ll fly off and be lost, but if too strong, you won’t enjoy it. It’s a case of finding that balance. I had held on too lightly before I found GF. Then for a while I held on too hard as I used it as a means to escape. Being able to find the right grip to be able to take life for a spin but retain control was not easy, but I needed to do it if I ever wanted to see what the future was rather than think what if.

I sometimes get asked why Gravity Falls means so much to me when there’s cartoons out there that can be argued as being better than it. For me, Gravity Falls’ quality as a show isn’t why I love it so much. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve been able to allow myself to accept that GF isn’t perfect and see the cracks in it while still loving it instead of blindly believing it’s perfection. Neither is the notoriety I’ve gained from it. Anyone could’ve made the username That GF FAN and done what I did and still do. I’m not some mega fan or any special person. I’m just a guy who was a year late to the party and become obsessed with a cartoon that began 10 years ago, lol. I will forever be grateful for this fandom’s kindness and for giving me a chance and a place within it. And while I am always grateful for that, it’s not the only reason that to me Gravity Falls means so much.

It's the message this show sent; that message about life and never letting the future stop you from living it. To not let the past, dictate your future and to find those around you who will help make the future better. That was more important and of a thing that Gravity Falls gave me than any other cartoon I’ve seen since, no matter its quality gave me and more valuable than any Journal 3 Special Edition or piece of merchandise ever will be. It was the right show at the right time and just did it for me.

There was a high school student one cold February evening 6 years ago, who began watching a cartoon he had no idea about beyond a little background knowledge. And I doubt he ever imagined then that this one show would help him find the passion and reassurance to give life the fullest and find a way out of that dark moment so that looking back now…that time is nothing more than a long faded away scar.

And all thanks to a kid who thinks washing clothes is a waste of time, telling his twin sister who’s better at knitting than I’ll ever be, that there's a better way to get through the future than denial or trying to hide away in fear of it.

So yeah…there’s my corny story, lmao. 6 years ago today, I watched Gravity Falls for the first time…and 6 years on…it’s still one hell of an amazing show and life lesson.

VHULRXVOB, BRX UHDG DOO RI WKDW? RU GLG BRX MXVW VFUROO GRZQ, VHH WKLV FRGH DQG GHFRGH LW, OPDR? HLWKHU ZDB, WKDQN BRX, IHOORZ JUDYLWB IDOOV IDQ :)

#gravity falls #that gf fan #thatgffan #thank you gravity falls

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partlystiles · 2 years

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Can I ask for continuation of the French exchange student and Peter Pettigrew? Just where their relationship kinda starts to blossom and the guys, mainly Sirius, are still confused on why she’s into him. But she’s somewhat over being petty, but not really. She still ignores Sirius to a degree. But whenever Peter and her hangout, the guys ( and maybe the gals) spy on them so they can figure out what she sees I’m Peter. ~🍄

it's been a hot minute but yes of course!

You can read part one here !

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Look, that’s the Big Dipper, that’s Orion’s Belt and...that is the constellation of Pegasus, see it’s like a square and then three lines coming off of it. Someone thought it outlined a bit of a Pegasus...like a flying horse.”

“It’s beautiful.” Y/N whispered as she stared up at the blanket of navy blue that coveted the sky that night and the beautiful dots of white within it, she was lay back against a blanket which she could feel the grass from underneath prickling at. “I quite like looking at stars.”

“A lot of people are named after stars, aren’t they?” Peter shifted on the blanket, his elbow brushing against the girl beside him which made the both of them smile up to the sky they were staring at. “Sirius, his brother Regulus, Astrid Baker, Cassiopeia Pritchett, Danica Glore, Estelle Cook-”

“You know a lot of people.” She laughed, turning her head to look at the side of his face. It was dark out but the stars and the light from the crescent moon shed light all over his skin and lit up his eyes.

Peter had been smiling quite widely but it slowly lessened after Y/N’s sentence, it’s true he did know a lot of people. But not many people knew him. For a lot of his life he was just James Potter’s friend or one of the boys, a quiet prankster, a mousey boy with little to no personality. He only knew all these names because he actually payed attention to people unlike others who only knew him as the ‘blonde marauder’.

“Peter?” Y/N turned on her side and then propped herself up on her arm, looking down at the boy beside her who glanced at her with wide eyes after being snapped out of whatever stupor he had been in. “What is wrong?”

“Nothing.” He smiled softly, shaking his head as he looked at her. Y/N was practically the only girl who had ever noticed him, really really noticed him. She laughed at his jokes, she asked him about himself.

Peter looked down at her hand that lay on the blanket, it was still manicured and she was wearing that same pearl bracelet that matched the pink ribbon tied around his own wrist. He thought his favourite thing about her next to her smile was her hands, they were so beautiful and looked so soft. And he always wanted to build up the courage to hold it but he never had.

He was no idiot, there was definitely something more than friendship between them and he knew that. But he could never make any moves, he always chickened out. Yes he wore her ribbon around her wrist but he really wasn’t sure what that meant; when she gave it to him, they had just finished talking by the fireplace. Everyone else had gone up, it was just them.

She had been playing with the ribbon for about ten minutes before she smiled and tied it around his wrist, successfully capturing his breath before she announced that she was going to bed and that she would see him in the morning. Then she had looked at him for a moment before smiling and saying goodbye.

He felt like grabbing her hand and asking her to stay but refrained from being creepy, he just stood with her and watched as she went up the stairs to the girls dormitories and he went to the boys. And then got confronted. He had to say that Sirius had really gotten on his nerves, acting like Peter had to have some sort of trick to have a pretty girl interested in him.

The boy still went on about it even weeks afterward, just before Peter had left with the blanket and announced that he was taking a late night rendezvous, Sirius had asked him to talk him up since Peter and Y/N weren’t official. James smirked a little and Remus glared at the boy but Peter just left with no other word to see his angel at the bottom of the stairs.

His angel who made the first move.

Peter snapped himself out of another trance as his hand that rest on his stomach whilst he was lay down was taken by hers that he had just been staring at. It was a slow movement, an unsure one and Peter stared at every second of it. The way she brought his hand off of his stomach and laced their fingers together before resting them in the space between them.

“Don’t be so afraid, Peter.” She whispered and if he had the courage, he could’ve bolted up and put a hand on the back of her head to bring her in for a kiss. But he didn’t, he simply looked at her and felt his heart swell.

“What kind of Gryffindor am I?” He made a joke and Y/N smiled but it didn’t quite reach her beautiful eyes.

“Well, I’ve heard your quite the prankster. That’s quite brave and daring.” She said, raising her eyebrows and Peter flushed slightly red before he narrowed his eyes at her suspiciously with a smile.

“How do you know?”

“Marlene likes to complain.” Y/N giggled and poked his cheek with his tongue as he smiled and watched her grin at him knowingly. “She told me about the time you caused every Slytherin’s tongues to grow at breakfast.”

“It was Sirius’ idea.” Peter defended himself but she didn’t seem that bothered, more amused at the red flush on his cheeks. Of course she would find out about their pranks, she didn’t live under a rock. “I just provided an entrance into the kitchens. See, the secret is you have to tickle the pair in the portrait down near the Hufflepuff Common Room. Swings right open for you.”

“You’ll have to take me sometime.” She suggested as she let go of his hand and for a moment he was crestfallen, but then she started playing with his fingers and he really couldn’t complain.

“Well, I could suggest that we be the ones to get the food and drink for the party?” Peter said and Y/N looked up at him with a face of confusion for a moment. “The Halloween party that Gryffindor throws every year.”

“What is Halloween?”

“You don’t do Halloween in France?” Peter asked and Y/N shook her head with a small laugh at his genuine shock. He let his jaw drop and just stared at her until she started giggling again. “Oh my word. Well, Halloween is basically where you dress up as things and eat sweets. Originally it was to like ward off spirits or something but now people just eat a lot and wear fun costumes on October 31st. But we have the party on the 30th because there’s the feast and everything on the actual night.”

“I go to back to France on the 31st.” Y/N mentioned and Peter sat up in a very shocked manner, she widened her eyes at him as he looked down at her in a slightly sad way. “Oh, no, not forever. Just because the Sunday is La Toussaint and I’m going to visit my father’s grave. I’ll be back early Monday morning.”

Peter gave a large sigh of relief and laughed again, looking down at the blanket in slight embarrassment before looking back up at Y/N. He grabbed her hand again, running his thumb over the back of it whilst he stared at her. Did he kiss her? Did he wait for her to kiss him? Did he just keep staring at her like a creepy stalker?

“But I’m sure I can party for a bit.” She said, her voice sounding a little bit softer and breathless as Peter carried on stroking her hand with an extremely cute smile. “What do I dress as?”

“Anything you want.” He shrugged, laying back down again but making sure to keep tight hold onto her hand. If it was up to him he would never let her go. “I was gonna go as Robin Hood, but-”

“I watched that film when I first moved here, with Lily. She’s my neighbour.” Y/N interrupted excitedly and Peter chuckled softly as her eyes lit up. “It was very good. And Lily put on French subtitles so I could understand all of it! If you go as Robin Hood, then I can go as Maid Marian...”

“Like a couples costume?” He asked before his eyes tripled the size and he tensed up, hand squeezing hers slightly tighter. “Not that we’re a couple or anything like you might not even like me like that, I didn’t want to assume cause you know obviously we can go as just friends but like I’m sorry I just didn’t wanna label anything but that’s exactly what I did so-”

Her amazing laugh is what interrupted him. a smile like nothing before as she used her other hand to cover up her face. She decided to lay back down, their hands interlocked in the middle of them whilst her chest jerked slightly with her laughs. “Yes, Peter. A couple’s costume.”

Peter looked at her, just like she had before, watching her side profile with the sky reflecting in her eyes and her skin looking as soft as ever. She glowed in the night, her large cardigan she had shrugged over her short silky pyjamas. Pink like her lips, her nails, her cheeks, her jewellery. Her whole entire aura.

He had brought down his own jacket to give to her but tossed it on the sofa as soon as he saw her in her own. She didn’t notice him throw it and he was glad, but as good as she looked he thought she would look good in his own jacket as well. It would drown her as he was a bit bigger than her, but she would be comfy and have something of his as he did of hers.

“So is that confirmation that like...” He started, still confused with where they were but as soon as she turned her head and they locked eyes again, his sentence trailed off. “We’re-”

“Students out of bed!”

“Filch!” Peter jumped up and Y/N joined him, the caretaker was still at the top of the hill and quickly making his way down. Y/N jumped up too in fear but something was quickly thrown over her, some sort of cloak. “Don’t panic, we’re invisible.”

“Invisible?” She whispered, staring at the cloak and then at Peter in slight confusion. Peter helped her stand and it was then that she realised that the blanket that had been lay on was gone. “Peter, what-”

Filch approached closer and Y/N stepped back into the boy’s chest, his hand came to her hip to keep her stable before she toppled over him. Then she paused and glanced back at him as his hand secured her waist and kept her close. To her amazement, Filch walked straight past them without a second thought, muttering to his cat as he looked around confusedly.

Peter got closer, his mouth coming to her ear and he heard her breath hitch slightly. It was moments like this when he had bravery, other times he would not be so brave as to capture her waist and get this close to her.

“Let’s go.” He said and waited for her to nod before they started walking again, amazingly invisible still. She was looking over the blanket in front of them with awe as they walked up the hill. “It’s James’. Some sort of family heirloom.”

“Wow.”

The walk up to the Common Room was short. Once they were in the castle, Peter took the blanket off of their heads. His hair got slightly dishevelled but hers was perfect. It was still dark in the castle but Y/N had lit up her wand and held it out of the blanket when they first entered.

“I enjoyed tonight.” She whispered, feeling it was only appropriate in this level of darkness, squeezing his hand. Earlier, Peter had sheepishly suggested that they hold hands through the dark which Y/N thought was adorable.

“Me too.” He grinned in the wand light. “I also wanted to just clarify-”

A crash came from their left when they turned one corner and Y/N gasped, turning quickly. Peter also stumbled back and tugged Y/N close to him again at the sound, they weren’t under the blanket anymore but Peter began to try and get it out whilst Y/N looked around for any sign of authority that could tell them off.

“Good going, fucknut.”

“It wasn’t my fault!”

“Guys, sh!”

“It was Remus and his freakishly long legs.”

“Hey!”

“Shut up.”

“Marlene, calm down.”

“They’re going to hear us!”

Y/N and Peter exchanged a long look with one another, she had her eyebrows raised and a look of disbelief on her face but Peter seemed agitated. Sirius had joked about spying on them one too many times and Peter didn’t want to make a fool of himself in front of Y/N but he was angry. Very angry. A moment of privacy is all he asked for and Sirius had no faith in him at all.

He tried to stay calm but his anger blinded him and he stormed towards the broom closet that was a couple of metres away. Exactly where the sound was coming from. Peter ripped the door open and a wand light glared back at him but he didn’t even flinch, just glared at the 6 faces in the cupboard.

“Hey mate.” James grinned awkwardly. Y/N popped up from behind Peter’s shoulders and Marlene, Lily and Mary all waved at her with varying hellos. “How’s your night? We’re just...sex.”

“Yes.” Marlene nodded.

“That’s exactly what is happening.” Sirius pointed at James.

“Sex.”

“Yep.”

“Exactly.”

“You expect me to believe you’re having one massive orgy?” Peter asked, straight-faced and Y/N furrowed her eyebrows. She didn’t know what that word meant. All seven of them nodded though. “Get out.”

One by one, they all filed out of the cupboard. Y/N shook her head at her friends as they came and stood in front of her. James and Remus came out too, all of them were in their pyjamas and James was carrying an odd map that had an assortment of ink on it. Moving ink, it seemed.

“Not you.” Peter put a hand on Sirius’ chest before he pushed the boy back into the broom closet and followed in after him. The closet did nothing for secrecy. “Are you kidding me, mate? Spying? Seriously? Is it so hard flor you to admit that a girl might actually like me?”

Y/N looked around, frowning and the boys were already halfway gone. They were mumbling to themselves and turned around to wave bye to Y/N, she waved back at them quietly but they turned away as quick as possible as they approached the staircases.

Lily, Marlene and Mary were on the staircase after them. Y/N looked around shockingly to realise that no one was with her anymore like she thought they were. She couldn’t bring herself to follow them, she hadn’t said goodbye to Peter yet and would feel horrible for leaving him after a date. At least she thought it was some kind of date.

“No, what, of course girls like you.”

“Name one.”

“Dina Quinn.”

“Dina Quinn was a girl that I had a crush on and guess what Sirius, she was also your girlfriend for a month.” Peter said, he sounded angry and Y/N felt awkward waiting and eavesdropping. “Because I was so ready to ask her out and then you step in and start flirting and she’s all over you. Y/N is different, she wasn’t persuaded by you and you can clearly see that things are going good between us so why are you trying to ruin it?”

“Mate, I’m not, I’m just-”

“Trying to find out what she could possibly see in me?” He raised his voice slightly, it sounded close to breaking. Almost close to tears. “Truth is, Sirius, I have no idea what she sees in me. Compared to you I’m nothing but Y/N sees something in me. And-And I like her a lot, because she’s kind and she’s pretty. She has the purest soul and she’s so gentle. She makes me feel like I’m on top of the world every time she’s within an inch with me and I talk about her every night and Sirius, it hurts me that you’re trying to take that away from me.”

“All you see is a pretty face or hear a pretty accent and when she didn’t want your compliments you were so shocked that she wasn’t interested. I know she’s gorgeous and I know I’m well out of her league but that doesn’t give you the right to interfere with me and the girl I love just because she hurt your stupendously humungous ego. Because, this is finally my chance. My thing. And who knows how long I’ve got of it. Someone else might come along or- I don’t know, but the point is please stop this!”

It was silent for a bit and Y/N still felt like she was intruding on a private conversation, which she probably was. Sirius said something, much quieter so she presumed that Peter had just been talking loudly and that’s why she had heard him. There was more mumbling and then the door opened, revealing the two boys with their arms around one another as they walked out.

“Yeah and then we-” Peter was saying before he turned and saw Y/N standing there. She waved sheepishly and began to think that she should’ve walked away. “Hey, uh, you hear all that?”

Y/N nodded and Sirius took his arm away from Peter, patting his back before he began to walk towards the stairs, leaving his friend standing there and staring at the girl awkwardly. He then pat Y/N on her shoulder and the girl turned to him.

“Have a good night, L/N.”

“You too, Sirius.”

He whistled as he went up the stairs, two steps at a time. Almost like he was trying to get to the common room as quickly as possible, probably to escape the awkwardness. Y/N turned back to Peter and took a deep breath as he went to stuff his hands in his pockets before realising that his pyjama pants don’t have pockets. He then just kind of put his hands down to his sides.

“Y/N everything that was said in there, I just...I didn’t mean to get mad and-”

“Mon dieu.” She swore in that beautiful French accent and crossed the couple of metres that separated them before taking his face in her hands and pulling him into her, connecting their lips together.

Peter’s breath hitched when he was pulled in but then he just kissed her back, putting his hands on her hips for a second. He always used to get bullied for being small but sometimes it comes with it’s perks, like not having to bend down that much when kissing someone.

Her lips were so soft, so incredibly soft and so incredibly her that Peter practically melted in her touch with her hands on his face and touching him. Being so close and so intimate. His heart swelled a thousand sizes and he felt like he could burst, melt and fly all at once.

She was heaven and he was a mere mortal praying with every fibre of his being that he would be allowed to go.

Y/N pulled back from him and rested her hands on his chest, breathing heavily and looking up at him with a hopeless look on the border of worry. Peter was sure that he looked hypnotised because that’s exactly how he felt, his brain had imploded and he was searching for anything to say. But all he could say was:

“Wow.”

Y/N quirked a smile and tried to take her hands back from his chest but Peter caught her wrists and leant down to kiss her again. It was just the same as last time, possibly a bit better and she put her hands on the back of his neck again, smiling as they split and kissed again and split again before resting their foreheads against each other and grinned.

“je t'aime aussi beaucoup.”

“So just to clarify-”

“Yes, Peter, we can be a couple if you want.”

“Cool.”

#the marauders #peter pettigrew #peter pettigrew x reader #harry potter imagine #the marauders imagine #the marauders x reader

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the-lighthouse-lit · 21 days

Text

I was tagged by @cruulsummer

The rules are simple - find a sentence, or excerpt, that includes the words you’re given and paste it in, and include a link to the finished story if you want. But honestly, these are guidelines at best - do what you want.

I’m tagging: @lunarmoment @scorpioaqua @laestrellapanda @raevenlywrites @blushroomx @fiora-miriel

My words to find: Red - Sleep - Writhe - Shallow - Bet - Safe - Look - Anger - Help

Your words are: Intention - Suit - Dark - Smirk - Heavy - Spread - Music - Stop - Alcohol

Red and Help (double whammy because it’s a long bit!) from The Invention of Gravity (a Gravity Falls 1800’s AU that will probably never be finished…):

“What’s your name?” Mabel asked.

“Wendy Corduroy!” Grunkle Stan shouted from the ground. The three looked down. “Get in here!”

Wendy descended from the tree in a series of exact movements that told the twins she’d been slowing down for them before. The twins observed as she ran into the house after their uncle, long red hair mostly out of its cap flowing freely behind her.

The two looked at each other, finding themselves higher up the tree than they’d ever intended, and now alone.

“…How do we get down?” asked Dipper.

Inside, Wendy Corduroy was telling Stan, “I can chop wood, make pegs, I can empty up a mattress and fill it up and sew it back up again with help, I can almost cook on the spit without burning it, and I can clean and shoot a rifle.”

“You’re already hired, Miss Corduroy, I spoke with your papa,” Stan told her.

Sleep from There’s Probably a Moral at the End Somewhere (my Teen titans play-format Fairytale AU, posted here)

STARFIRE: She is floating two feet above the ground. You who know her best, is this how she sleeps?

ROBIN: I don’t even know if she sleeps. I don’t know anything about her. And everything I thought I knew about her was wrong.

I’ve got nothing for Writhe, or Squirm, or Thrash, so I offer you Struggle lol, from a roooough draft of my original story Surot (found absolutely nowhere):

“But if the bathrooms are closed, you can get the key from the hut over there, just ask for Laura…”

I stopped myself. Stella looked kind of jittery and nervous. When I’d motioned to the bathroom she’d dove forth, and now that I’d presented her with a challenge, her eyebrows arched, like she was slightly shocked she’d have to struggle in this way—or like she was calculating she’d spent too long talking to the class freak and was panicking about it.

“Hold on,” I say, and I hold my camera to my chest as I go to the hut myself, all the while wondering why I insist on doing things for pretty girls. It made me feel like a boy. Or like a rough maid from a period drama doing stuff for her delicate ladies.

Shallow from The Club of Unauthorized Heroes Year 3 (yet unpublished):

Dick’s breaths were shallow. His mind was stuck on the here and now. He felt like he should be reviewing the mission—searching for where they went so wrong. But really all he could think about was how much Gar hated hospitals. How annoyed he’d be when he woke up.

Bet from Feral (an entry for BBRae Week 2022, found here):

“That was cool. Quick and clean. Bit sloppy at the end, though. Anyone could see what you were doing.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” The girl’s voice was a grave whisper. Nearly a hiss.

“You chose a good area, too,” Gar went on regardless. “Lots of distracted loaded pockets around. I bet there’s even some left for me.”

Safe from Over Again (my Teen Titans-Miraculous Ladybug AU, first two chapters found here):

He took in her sarcasm and decided to one-up her. “Hm. You tell your crush you like them yet?”

She groaned, all her coolness gone. “I never should have told you about that.”

“But you did,” he reminded her with a big grin.

And she still didn’t know why. How had she told Beast Boy when she hadn’t even told Kori? She guessed she felt he was safe. Kori might try to set her up with Gar if she knew; it wouldn’t take her long to figure out who her crush was. But Beast Boy was detached from her world—he went to her school, but he couldn’t let her know that.

Look from The tide is full, the moon lies fair (my only She Ra fanfic, a Seamista oneshot, posted here):

He laughed, and it rumbled through his chest. “Really. A small fire. Without me needing to be there?”

“Maybe the venue missed you,” she returned, moving away to look at his face—his handsome face with the jaw and the ridiculously sharp moustache and the hyper-expressive eyes. She’d missed the chance to really look at it, before.

She tilted her head up to kiss him, and the whole world fell into place. To come back into his arms after a long time was a feeling she wouldn’t trade for anything.

And finally, Anger from The Club of Unauthorized Heroes Year 2 (which is published here, but not this bit yet!):

Gar looked back and forth between the faces in the car windows. “Jen?” He turned to Terra, whose face turned from anger to panic when he did.

“You haven’t figured it out yet, slug-face?” taunted Mikron. “Are we gonna have to spell it out for you?”

“Figure out what?” Gar returned. “That you’re Hive? We knew that for ages.”

“Do you wanna tell him?” Baran asked Terra. He was clearly having the time of his life.

#again. sorry I’m over a month late to this tag!#The very sad circumstance that I had writer’s block on a week off work of all times is the only reason I got to this #that also means I hate every line of this ha😭. anyway #tag games #writing tag game #fanfiction tag #writing

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ckret2 · 1 month

Text

Chapter 44 of human Bill Cipher wishing he was trapped in the Mystery Shack again:

The Eclipse: Part 2

Gravity is disappearing, and to find out why, Ford's inspecting the sites where the fabric of spacetime might have been damaged by Weirdmageddon. Dipper's glad to come along.

Bill really, really, really isn't.

"I am genuinely offering you helpful advice, that also happens to be self-serving because you idiots wouldn't trust me if I claimed I was being charitable anyway," Bill went on, as he'd been going on for the past five minutes. "This isn't a trick! I'm not running a con! I'm completely serious: being outside during an eclipse is the stupidest thing you could do. You don't want to watch it, I want to watch it even less, staying inside is mutually beneficial!"

"Do you think I should have brought my camera?" Dipper asked, determinedly ignoring Bill as he trailed behind them.

"What for?" Ford asked, also ignoring Bill.

"I've been trying to expand my Guide to the Unexplained series this summer—I've been doing longer episodes, a couple of them are ten minutes—but I wasn't sure if we'd see anything cool and my backpack was already heavy..."

"Hmm. I suspect either there won't be anything worth seeing—or, if there is, we'll be far too busy dealing with it to record footage."

"Yeah," Dipper sighed, "I guess you're right."

"This is why my journals have more illustrations than photographs."

Bill let out a loud groan of frustration before jogging to catch up with the humans. He checked the trail ahead to make sure he wasn't about to trip, then turned to walk sideways, facing Dipper and Ford as they walked. "Okay, fine, you win. So, just to be clear—the only reason you two are dragging me out here is to check a few locations for these imaginary 'micro-rips' you think are shredding the fabric of reality apart. Right? As soon as we've checked the three places you want, it's over, you admit you were wrong, and we go back to the shack?"

"Yes, Cipher," Ford sighed. "Once we've checked those locations, if we can't find evidence that any of the areas of most concern are near the one hundred thousand micro-rip danger threshold, we'll go home. Since dimensional rips could pop up anywhere around Gravity Falls, there's a possibility there could be clusters over the danger threshold away from the three areas of concern, but with no way to guess where they might be—"

"Fine. Then let's get this over with," Bill said. "Totality is in two days, if we're back home by tomorrow night we'll still avoid it. But if you try to drag me outside again after we get back, I'm hitting everyone with the Amnesia Limina curse and nobody's going outside."

With that threat delivered, Bill cartwheeled ahead of the humans, landed on his feet, and bounded ahead in long moonwalking lopes.

"Any idea why gravity's going down faster for him than the rest of town?" Dipper asked.

"Only that, if there are rips opening between us and the Nightmare Realm, perhaps they're giving Bill back some of his powers," Ford said. "Perhaps his powers are stored in the Nightmare Realm. Although I don't know how that would work." It was a better explanation than Bill's claim that he could just float better than humans, anyway.

The bracelet around Dipper's wrist momentarily tightened as Bill reached the far end of his invisible tether, then loosened as Dipper continue forward; and then tightened a second time, and a third time. From up the trail, Bill shouted, "Would you hurry up!"

"You slow down! Some of us still have to walk!"

But even so, the slowly decreasing gravity was making the hike noticeably easier. Their backpacks sat lighter on their shoulders, and each stride seemed to carry them a little higher and farther than they expected. They startled a deer, and then the deer startled itself with how high it jumped.

"On second thought, it might not be a good idea to take him back to the shack while this is going on," Ford said. "Even if there aren't enough micro-rips in the basement, I'm not wholly convinced it won't end up the epicenter of whatever's about to happen. And if Bill wants so badly to be so close to it..."

From further up the trail, Bill shouted, "If you were any more paranoid, you'd be asking your own shadow why it's following you!"

"If you had access to any more of your powers, you'd be possessing my shadow!"

"Ha!" Bill had stopped to perch on a fallen tree that on any other day would have been far too slender to hold an adult's weight, balanced on it like a tightrope, and waited there for the others to catch up. "Fine, we don't need to go back to the shack, whatever makes you happy! As long as we get inside. Stanley's camper, a motel room, the old Corduroy cabin—hey, the Northwest place is pretty empty these days, isn't it? Is Specs renting out rooms, or...?"

"I am not taking you to Northwest Manor," Ford said. "Fiddleford's had enough trouble without letting you into his life again." Although that was only one of several reasons Ford wanted to keep them apart. For Fiddleford's safety, they couldn't risk Bill finding out that Fiddleford had been told his identity; and, now that Bill had confessed he could see through walls, they couldn't give him a chance to peer through the manor's walls and discover the ongoing paradox fuel synthesis project.

Bill laughed in disbelief. "Oh now you're concerned about somebody else's wellbeing, when it's his—fine! Fine, fine, fine! That's just fine! That's great! Terrific!" He hopped off his perch. "No evidence of self-preservation and let's not even think about respecting the triangle's wishes, but when the hillbilly might be in imaginary danger—!"

"That 'hillbilly' is one of the most brilliant men alive and the best friend I've ever known—"

"Ha!" Angrily, Bill yelled, "Some best friend, he erased you straight out of his head! You don't even know what a best friend is!"

Ford winced—he knew he'd never been much of a friend back to Fiddleford—but while he was gearing himself up to defend himself against whatever accusation Bill lobbed next, Bill turned away from the humans and stormed up the trail, leaving them behind as the weaving path took him behind several trees.

Every couple of steps, Dipper's bracelet twitched against his wrist as Bill tried to get even further ahead and was thwarted. He chuckled. "Do you think you touched a nerve?"

The corner of Ford's mouth quirked up; but he shook his head. "He's just mad he's not getting his way. As usual."

####

"I take it this is our first destination," Bill said, hands planted on his hips, looking around the forest. "This looks like the area where Shooting Star gave me the rift."

Dipper said, "You mean the place where you tricked—"

Bill shoved Dipper's hat down over his eyes. "Anyway, that aside, all the glued-shut wormholes and this are a bigger hint." He tapped the tip of one dress shoe—dusty after a walk in the woods—at the start of a long crevasse in the ground weaving through the trees.

"Yes," Ford said distractedly, taking his micro-rip scanner out of his backpack and turning it on. "This is the place." He took an initial reading, frowned, and followed the crevasse deeper into the woods.

Bill trailed along after him, gesturing at the jagged lines of bending light hanging in the air. "You did a terrible repair job, by the way. Stretching the edges of the rips to meet like that puts more stress on the reality in between the rips. You should have sutured them and let them heal naturally," Bill said. "If there are a bunch of tiny rips in the area, your own shoddy work probably caused them."

"Mm-hm," Ford said, fully focused on the scanner.

Bill's shoulders slumped. He hopped to the other side of the crack in the earth from Ford and strode ahead purposefully, ignoring him.

He glanced at a wooden sign staked next to the crack, nearly passed it, and did a double take. The sign read "MABEL'S FAULT". Bill laughed in surprise. "Who did this?"

"What—?" Dipper caught up and saw the sign. "Oh."

####

2012

Mabel's smile faded as she entered the clearing. "Oh. I... think this is the place where—Bill tricked me in Blarblar's body."

"Guess that explains all the rips in this area," Dipper said. He patted Mabel's back.

She looked down—and spotted the new crack in the ground. She gasped, immediately latching on to the distraction. "Hey, what's that! That wasn't here before!" She knelt next to the crack and peered inside. "Whoa!"

"Huh. Maybe it opened up when the rift broke?"

"How deep do you think it goes?" Mabel hopped back up, straddled the gap, and yelled down into it, "Hello!"

"Careful," Dipper said. "What if it's unstable?"

"We should give it a name," Mabel said. "It's a new geographic feature! We can put it on maps and be famous! What'll we call it?"

"Huh." Dipper stroked his chin. "Well... it looks kind of like a miniature fault line... and you were here when it formed, so I guess that kinda means you discovered it... so maybe... 'Mabel's Fault'...?"

Mabel stared at him.

Dipper's eyes widened in horror. "Oh. Ohh no."

Mabel bit her lip.

"I didn't mean it that way! I swear I didn't mean it that way—"

"Dipper!" Mabel cracked up. "We're calling it that."

"No," Dipper said, mortified. "Oh my gosh. I'm so sorry. Please please don't—"

"Grunkle Staaan, Grunkle Fooord!" Mabel took off toward where they'd last seen their grunkles. "Did you hear what Dipper said—!"

"I'm sorryyy!"

####

2013

Dipper cringed. "Look, I didn't hear it until I said it out loud, okay—"

Bill burst out in shrill cackles.

"I didn't mean it!"

"Y-you're the worst brother ever!"

Dipper groaned, contemplated climbing down into the fault, and instead settled for pulling his hat down over his face again.

Ford passed by with the scanner, shot Bill a suspicious sideways look, and demanded, "What's so funny?"

Still laughing, Bill gestured at the "MABEL'S FAULT" sign.

"Oh." Ford glanced at Dipper, fought not to smile at the poor kid's embarrassment—he'd gotten enough teasing last summer—and said, "Right." He moved on.

"Hey," Bill called, "What's the score?"

Ford paused, but didn't reply.

"Well?" Bill pressed. "You're already past where the rift broke! Don't you figure that's where the most rips would be?"

Ford said, "The scanner's detecting about fourteen thousand."

Bill whistled. He meandered back to Ford's side of the fault. "Sounds like a lot. I'm telling you, the wormholes in this place should've been sutured, that's what your problem is."

"It is a lot," Ford said brusquely. He hesitated. "But."

"But?" Bill prompted.

"But... it's less than a fifth of what we'd expect to see if the fabric of reality were falling apart."

"Wow. Let me pretend to be surprised." Bill made zero effort to look surprised. "That's because the fabric of reality isn't falling apart. You idiot."

Ford glared at his scanner silently.

"You fool," Bill tried. "You buffoon."

Ford rounded furiously on him. "The more you say it's nothing, the more you just convince me that you're lying!"

"Which is stupid! If you always assume I'm lying, how do you know I'm not saying 'it's nothing' to trick you into thinking it's something when it isn't!"

"I don't know! There's no way to know with you! That's why I'm checking with a scanner!" Ford pointed aggressively at the scanner. "Because I'm a scientist!"

"You're a pretty pathetic scientist if you refuse to listen when the expert on a topic tells you what's—"

"—maybe if the self-proclaimed 'expert' weren't a mythomaniac—"

"Guys," Dipper said tiredly. "You've had this argument three times. Can we move on?"

Ford closed his eyes and let out a long sigh. "Right."

"No," Bill said. "Not until I win it."

"Can it, Bill." Ford glanced toward the sky to orient himself, looked around for the path through the trees, and started walking. "Come on. Next site—the place where the rift closed."

Bill clenched his jaw. Under his breath, he muttered, "As if I've ever done anything in my life to make me look untrustworthy..." He glanced up as well—and his gaze lingered on the sky much longer than Ford's.

####

"So I was thinking about what we could do after this," Dipper said, looking hopefully up at Ford.

It took a moment for Ford to drag himself out of his thoughts and look at Dipper. "Yes? You mean after..."

"After the ecl—" Dipper winced, "the... rips get sealed, or whatever's going on." He'd pulled out his journal and was holding it hopefully. "Maybe... I could show you the research I've been doing on the Fremont Nightwigglers? I think they've been stealing pants in town."

He gave Dipper a little more attention. "Is this one of their migration years?"

"Yeah, I think so! One was caught on a security camera—or at least what looks like one. Here." Dipper flipped open to the two-page spread he was currently working on and held it up for Ford to inspect.

He studied the pictures, smiling slightly. "Would you look at that. Very impressive research. I only experienced one migration during my time in Gravity Falls, and they'd all but moved on by the time I caught wind of it. Never even saw one—I had to interview the townspeople to get a description of them."

"Really? I don't remember seeing them in your journals."

"Ah, they never made it in. I was focused on compiling magical spells and artifacts for Journal 2 at the time. I took some notes with the thought of putting them in Journal 1, but never felt like I'd collected enough information to write about them—especially when I hadn't witnessed one myself," Ford said. "You've already collected more here than I ever did. I wasn't even sure they were real!"

Dipper's face lit up. "Really? It's not that much—I still haven't found one yet either, it's mostly interviews about the crime spree."

"It's more real investigative work than I did on them. I only got as far as asking a couple of people at the diner to describe the local stories. You've got the dates and times they've been hitting the stores."

"I guess so." Dipper beamed proudly. "I haven't heard any 'local stories' about them, though. I only recognized them from a documentary I saw on Californian cryptids."

"That might be the Blind Eye's handiwork. Everyone recognized the name when I lived here. I'll see if I can dig up the notes I took, you might find the information valuable," Ford said. "I'm not sure where I left them, but they're probably still somewhere in my study."

"Scrapbook in your study on the top right corner of your desk," Bill said. "Under the box of glue bottles. You're welcome."

Ford threw him an irritated look. Bill had gotten ahead of them while Ford was looking at Dipper's journal, and now he was crouched beside a creek, scooping up handfuls of water, momentarily inspecting them, and letting them spill back out. The eye on the hood stared balefully up at Ford from Bill's back.

Ford asked, "What in the world are you doing."

"Communing with the dread harbingers of the coming eclipse," Bill said flatly. "You can't see them of course, they're invisible to you."

"Of course." Ford muttered, "I don't know why I bother to ask."

Under his breath, Bill mumbled, "Don't know why he bothered to ask."

Ford studied the creek and checked his map. They were hiking east toward the lake, with the town to their south and the cliff to the north; the creek ran north to south in front of them. On the other side of the creek, southeast of them, was a thicker, overgrown part of the woods, the shadows between the trees darker and quieter. "This seems like a safe place to wait," Ford said. "Dipper, you stay here while I scan the next site. Keep him out of trouble."

Dipper nodded. Bill cast Ford a sullen look, then rolled his eye and looked back at the water.

"After I've checked the next spot, we'll follow the cliffside to the lake," Ford said, pointing northeast, away from the dark area of the forest. "If there's still daylight, we can take a boat behind Trembley Falls and set up camp inside the cave."

"Sounds good." Dipper looked at Bill's tiny borrowed backpack. "You... didn't bring a tent, did you."

"Sorry, do you think I have a tent to bring?" Bill asked. "Do you expect me to slide an entire tipi out of my—"

Ford interrupted, "Dipper, you brought a tent, right?"

"Yeah?"

"Then that's sufficient. You can share my tent and we'll set up Bill's as far from ours as possible. We'll be safer that way."

Bill ignored the implicit accusation with silent dignity.

Dipper nodded. "Good idea."

"Now, let's see..." Ford studied the creek. It was much wider than he could usually jump, but under the current gravity conditions... He bounced on the balls of his feet a couple of times, testing how light he currently felt; then took a few steps back, got a running start, and with a "hup!" leaped across the creek. He cleared it by several feet and almost ran into a tree.

Dipper gasped. "Are you okay?"

"Fine, Dipper! Just... don't know my own strength." How low was gravity now, he wondered? He could see grass swaying beneath the surface of the creek. It hadn't rained lately; without as much gravity, even water was being pulled down less, letting it rise higher and flood the creek's banks. He hoped they figured out how to reverse this before the lake flooded. When they made it into the cave, they'd have to camp on high ground. "I'll be back in a few minutes."

Dipper side-eyed Bill; but when he kept gazing into the water without a word, Dipper said suspiciously, "What, no complaints about camping?"

"What's there to complain about?" Bill asked.

"I don't know, you've complained about everything else so far."

"This is the only part of your expedition that isn't a terrible idea," Bill said. "I love camping! Hypothetically. The Nightmare Realm isn't known for picturesque campgrounds. But hey, I like being surrounded by trees. And a private tent? Deluxe accommodations! It's just too bad you'll be dragging the mood down."

"Hey."

Bill laughed. "You're too easy."

Dipper scowled. "You don't seem like the type to be into camping."

"Why not?"

Dipper thought about it. "Man, I dunno, you just—seem like a city person? You're always talking about how much you want to throw wild parties, that's basically the opposite of camping in the woods."

"Is it?" Bill asked. "Welcome to the cult of Dionysus."

Given what Dipper could remember about Dionysus from the book of Greek mythology he'd read in sixth grade, he supposed wild parties and hanging out in the woods weren't mutually exclusive. So what was it about Bill that made Dipper feel so strongly that he wouldn't be caught dead roughing it?

Finally, Dipper said, "I guess it's the top hat and bow tie."

"They're not a top hat and bow tie."

He gave Bill a perplexed look. "Really? What are they?"

"Did you ever read that horror story about the bride with a velvet ribbon tied in a bow around her neck, and when her new husband unties it, her head falls off her neck and bounces down the stairs—?"

Dipper shuddered. "I'm sorry I asked."

Bill laughed.

After a brief silence, he finally dragged his eyes away from the water and impressively flicked a couple of mosquitoes out of the air with a finger. (Dipper wished he could do that. His arms were coated in soothsquito bite messages. He wondered what "BURN TACK" was supposed to mean.) Bill took off his backpack, rummaged around in it, and muttered, "I should've brought a book." He looked around the bank of the creek for a patch of sunlight, pushed his sleeves and leggings up to expose as much skin as possible, and flopped down in the light, eyes shut and hands laced on his chest over the backpack.

Dipper supposed that meant he was being ignored. He took his journal back out and flipped to the section on the Nightwigglers. He'd need some empty space to add Ford's local folklore once they got home. Was there any open space in the next few pages?

"It really shouldn't be called 'Mabel's Fault,'" Bill said out of the blue. "It's not her fault. It should be called 'Bill's Fault.' I'm the one who made it, aren't I?"

Dipper lowered his journal. "Sorry, are you actually accepting blame for something? You're admitting you did something wrong?"

Bill didn't even open his eyes. "I'm not 'accepting blame,' I'm claiming credit. Weirdmageddon was great. Can't help that you're all too boring to see that."

"But you said 'Bill's Fault.' Not 'Bill's Triumph' or something."

"Sure, because we're talking about a geological fault. Don't read too deep into it, kid."

"Pff, no, you definitely said it was your fault. I can't believe Grunkle Ford missed that—"

Bill abruptly sat up. "Hey. What's the 'next site.'"

"What?"

Bill counted off on his fingers, "Six-Fingers said there are four sites you want to hit, right? The place where the rift formed, the place Weirdmageddon started, the place the rift was during Weirdmageddon, and the place Weirdmageddon ended. The rift formed at the portal—been there—Weirdmageddon started at the fault—been there—during Weirdmageddon it was in the sky—going there tomorrow—so where did Weirdmageddon end? Wasn't it in the sky too?"

"Oh," Dipper said. "It's just. Y'know. It's just a... place."

Bill gave him a sharp look.

Dipper swallowed hard. "No big deal. Just... trees and stuff."

Bill flipped up his eye patch, staring in the direction Ford had disappeared. Dipper could see the white of his eye turning red.

"Hey!" Dipper got in front of Bill, trying to block the view of the forest. "It's nothing important. You—you wouldn't even be interested. Really."

Bill just stared straight through Dipper. And then, before Dipper could react, Bill was on his feet and bolting past him. By the time Dipper turned around Bill was already across the creek, following the path Ford had taken.

"No no no, come back!" Dipper jumped the creek and sprinted after Bill, shouting, "Don't go that way, you can't go that way, Bill—"

There was a dark, quiet knot of overgrown plant life deep in the forest, as if no animals had dared visit the area for nearly a year, leaving it to choke itself on its own greenery. Bill was headed straight for the heart of it. He moved through the trees like a swimmer through underwater ruins, kicking off trunks to propel himself forward, grabbing branches to help twist his body around and between them without slowing down—more flying than running, gravity hardly seeming to touch him at all.

He barreled past Ford and his scanner without even acknowledging him. Ford gasped, "Wait—" He turned the direction Bill had come from.

Dipper was squeezing between two trees and tripped over a hidden root. "Grunkle Ford—!"

"Dipper! You still have the bracelet!" Ford pointed, "Run the other direction!"

"Right!" He turned around and squeezed back between the dense trees.

And Ford took off after Bill.

Wild brambles tore at Bill's skin and ripped at his hoodie; he ignored the pain, letting the prickles bite into him as he forced his way through the shrubs—

And then he stood in the clearing, gasping in unsteady breaths, his wide unblinking eyes staring.

In front of him, wide unblinking eye staring vacantly into the trees, was his corpse.

"Bill!" Ford fought against the brambles, trying to figure out how Bill had gotten through. "Don't touch it! We don't know what could happen—"

Bill lunged for the statue.

The bracelet snapped tight around his wrist. Bill's fingers were inches away from his corpse's outstretched hand.

Thirty feet away, Dipper's bracelet went tight while he was trying to scramble over an ancient log. He awkwardly tried to keep his balance on the log; rather than risk toppling back in Bill's direction, he flung his weight the other way, keeping the invisible thread between them taut by leaning so far over that if it weren't for the bracelet holding him up he'd fall to the forest floor.

Bill fell to his knees, clawing at the dirt and grass with his free hand and feet, desperate to drag himself closer in spite of the completely immovable bracelet.

It seemed impossible to Ford that the thin invisible thread wrenching Bill's arm back would hold him for long; Bill would sooner dislocate his own shoulder to gain those last few inches. Ford fell out of the brambles and seized one of Bill's legs. "Bill—"

Bill tried to kick Ford in the face. "You KNEW!" he shrieked. "You knew I was here this WHOLE TIME and you NEVER TOLD ME, you ANIMALS! I could have had my body back! I COULD BE HOME!"

That was exactly what Ford was afraid of. Gritting his teeth, Ford wrapped an arm around Bill's torso and the other around his neck, struggling to get enough purchase on the torn-up ground to move Bill.

Wheezing for breath, Bill tried to kick out one of Ford's knees. Ford took advantage of the split second one of Bill's feet wasn't dug in to drag him back; he only managed to move him a few inches.

But a few inches of slack on the invisible thread was enough to throw off Dipper's balance. He instinctively tried to flail back upright, overcorrected, and tumbled off the log the wrong way. "No—!"

Bill lunged out of Ford's hold, scrabbled across the last few inches to his corpse, and planted his hand on his stone face.

He froze.

Ford froze.

Nothing happened.

"N..." Bill grabbed his arm, grabbed his hand, as though trying to shake on a deal with his own body; nothing. "No." He sounded more confused than anything. "No, no, nonono..."

He hung off the statue by his grip, pressed his forehead against their joined hands. And then he let go and slowly put his trembling hand on the dead face. And then he sat there, breathing shakily, every few seconds sucking in a hitching gasp that made his shoulders jerk.

Ford gingerly got to his feet, brushed his clothes off, and looked at Bill. He didn't move for a moment; then reached for Bill's shoulder; then stopped, curled his hand into a ball, clasped it behind his back, and turned away. "Dipper," he called. "You can come back. It's..." He cast one last glance at Bill, then forced himself to look away. "It's safe."

By the time Dipper caught up, Ford had made his way back into the overgrowth, leaving Bill alone in the clearing. Dipper started, "What...?" but fell silent when he saw Ford's face. He looked past him at Bill and winced.

Ford shoved his hands in his pockets and mumbled, "We should give him..." Dipper nodded.

Bill remained kneeling for less than a minute. Then he leaned forward, used his sleeve to wipe some of the moss off of his dead eye and the bird crap off his hat and hand, and unsteadily heaved himself back to his feet. He moved like he was very, very old. He glanced over his shoulder at Ford and Dipper. "What're you two staring at." His voice sounded like somebody was attempting to strangle him and his smile looked like a zombie had pulled its skin back on wrong. "You should've said you were waiting on me. I was just..." His eyes briefly unfocused. He shook his head. "Just taking a break." His cheeks were dry. He hadn't even cried.

They stepped back as Bill wove around the brambles. Dipper swallowed hard and asked, "Are you alr—"

"Of course I am." Bill plodded mechanically toward the path out of the dense dark woods.

Ford asked, "Do you want t—"

"What I want is to get wherever we're pitching our tents before nightfall." Bill pulled his eyepatch back in place. "You're making us camp, right?"

They had no choice. If they wanted to get to the top of Trembley Falls, reach Gravity Peak, and get back down the same day, they had to be ready to ascend in the morning. They couldn't afford to go back to the shack tonight. "Are you s—"

"What were the readings like," Bill asked.

Ford hadn't even gotten as far as taking readings around the statue; he'd still been checking the perimeter of the overgrown zone when Bill ran past. He looked for where he'd dropped his scanner, picked it up, and checked. "215 micro-rips detected. Higher than baseline levels, but—not even as high as readings around the portal."

Voice thick with venom, Bill said, "What a surprise."

When the forest had brightened again and the creek was visible, Bill turned to travel upstream alongside it. Dipper pointed across the creek at Bill's backpack. "You forgot your..."

"Right," Bill said tiredly. He hopped across the creek.

And gasped in shock when, instead of floating across as before, he landed heavily in the middle of the creek. He squeezed his eye shut, pinched the bridge of his nose, and took a long, silent inhale; and then he climbed out and grabbed his backpack. This time, he put enough force behind his jump to make it back across the creek.

Dipper and Ford exchanged a look. Ford said, "Do you need a minute to dry—?"

"No."

"You could catch a cold in those damp—"

"I knew how germ theory works on your planet when your gill-breathing ancestors were still swimming around in their own feces," Bill snapped. "When I say 'no,' it's not because I don't understand, it's because I don't care. Don't treat me like I'm ignorant and don't act like you care."

Ford's jaw tightened. No, he didn't care. Bill accepted basic human decency as easily as he offered it. "Fine. Catch pneumonia."

"Fine!"

Ford pushed past Bill to lead the way to the lake. He tried not to notice how Bill was trembling.

####

Maybe ten minutes passed in silence before Ford worked up the nerve to say, "You—know why we didn't tell you." It was the closest he'd get to an apology.

Bill was silent for a long moment. "Of course I do." It was the closest he'd get to accepting it. "When I get my power back, I'm going to invent a very clumsy, easily startled species of bird whose feathers are scalpel blades. And then I'm unleashing a million in the shack, barricading the doors, and blowing an air horn."

Dipper grimaced. Ford muttered, "Thanks for reminding us not to feel too bad for you."

Bill let out a raw, broken laugh.

It was a very quiet hike to the edge of the lake.

####

After spending the first half of the expedition trying to hurry Ford and Dipper up, now Bill was the anchor slowing them down. He trudged so slowly that Dipper kept having to stop to give his bracelet a little slack; but Bill kept moving, and Ford and Dipper agreed without speaking not to say anything about it.

By the time they reached the lake, the sun was just touching the rim of the mountain curling west around Gravity Falls. The water had risen so far, it flooded the roots of the trees nearest the shore. Far down the shore, distant dark dots, locals were doing cannonballs off the submerged pier, reveling in how high they could jump, how slowly they fell, and how their splashes hung suspended in the air.

Under the unusual conditions and with night coming on, Ford decided that it wasn't safe to try to set out for the cave under the falls. They'd camp on shore and start in the morning.

This, unsurprisingly, started another fight with Bill. "If we were falling behind, you should have said so, I'd have picked it up—!"

"I'm so sorry, I didn't want to imply you were too ignorant to tell the time—"

"The time isn't the issue, I just didn't think you'd give up for the night before it's even civil twilight—!"

Dipper just found a low hill to pitch his tent on.

When Bill noticed, he broke off the argument, flung his hands in the air in defeat, and crouched by the lake to sulk and study the water. He reflexively scratched his arm, pushed up his sleeve with a frown, and read the soothsquitos' message. "'Deeth in the mourning,'" he muttered. "What's deeth? That's not a word."

Maybe they'd been trying to spell teeth, Ford thought. Why would they warn Bill about teeth?

Ford pitched his tent, he and Dipper made a fire, and they attempted to reconstitute some of Ford's dehydrated astronaut food to mixed success. Bill stayed by the lake and tried to eat the cereal he'd brought, but gagged on the second handful and decided dinner wasn't worth the effort.

As Ford cleaned up after dinner, Dipper rummaged through his backpack. "Hey, Grunkle Ford. So..." He pulled out a portable chess kit. "I brought this to Gravity Falls back when I thought this would be a normal summer and I thought we might go camping? And, well, here we are, and I guess things are kiiinda weird, but, I mean... might as well...?"

Fiord smiled wanly. "I think that's just what we need to unwind."

They unrolled Dipper's canvas chess board and took several tries to set up the pieces on the uneven surface. Ford let Dipper take white; he figured the younger and less experienced player could use the advantage of going first.

Bill wandered over with a can of cider early in the match and crouched at the edge of the firelight to watch. He had rolled his sleeves back down, tied his bow tie, and flipped up his hood, and in the dimming flickering light he looked disconcertingly like his real self. He hadn't bothered to stuff his hair into his hood, and it gave the impression that some strange golden internal organs were spilling out of a gash beneath Bill's eye.

After watching for several minutes, Bill said, "Dibs on playing the winner."

Ford and Dipper said, "No."

"Why not!"

"Because we don't like you," Dipper said.

"Oh, come on." Bill ignored Dipper, turning toward Ford. "Remember how much fun we used to have?"

"I remember that you're an incorrigible cheat and made every game miserable," Ford said.

Bill reeled back. His face was hidden under the shadow of his hood, yet somehow the shadow gave off the impression of fury. He chugged half his cider, unslung his backpack, and dug around inside it. "Who wants to play against humans anyway." He unscrewed a bottle of cold medicine, topped off his cider, and poured the concoction down his throat. "Ugh. You're not even any good. Black's got mate in three and I bet neither of you can see it."

Ford and Dipper stared at the board, trying to find the looming checkmate.

Bill stood. "I'm gonna go hallucinate, pass out, and hallucinate some more. More fun than hanging out with a couple of nerdy losers playing a stupid game of..." He trudged off toward his tent, muttering to himself.

Ford concluded that Bill was probably making up the mate in three—although not confidently—and returned to the game with a sigh. "It will be nice to drop him back in the shack," he muttered.

Dipper nodded. "Yeah."

Ford won—not in three moves—and they started a new game. Several minutes in, Dipper asked hesitantly, "Grunkle Ford? Do you really think the micro-rip theory...?"

Ford pursed his lips, but admitted, "Out of all the locations of concern, you could argue that the spot in the sky where the rift spent a week floating has the highest probability of sustaining lasting damage, so we still need to check. But..." He shook his head. "Based on the empirical evidence—I'm beginning to have my doubts."

Dipper's shoulders relaxed; part of him had worried questioning the Acceptable Theory would be taken as disloyalty. "Then, what do you think about Bill's...?"

Ford snorted. "'Gravitational eclipse' explanation?" He propped his chin in his hand, thinking. "I'm only certain of two things: Bill knows exactly what's going on; and he's hiding something he doesn't want us to know. Everything he's told us so far is what he wants us to think is the truth, and because of that, any of it could be lies. He hasn't given us anything we can independently verify in any way—just vague claims he expects us to take his word for and refuses to elaborate on. Even if he is telling the truth, it doesn't matter. We have to act like... not like he's lying, per se; but like what he says has no correlation with whether it's true."

And thus had been the case with everything Bill had said and done since his capture. Every power he claimed he still had, and every power he acted like he'd lost. Every bit of magical, historical, or interdimensional trivia he spouted off to make himself sound smarter. Every sweet thing he'd said to Mabel, every favor he'd offered Stan—and every time he'd told Ford he wanted to be "friends."

Dipper nodded. "Mabel says that's just how Bill talks. He doesn't care about whether what he's saying is true, he just tells you what he thinks should be true."

Ford would have to keep that in mind when talking to Bill in the future. "That girl's a wizard with Bill. Maybe she's right." Still—he had a hard time believing that figuring out what Bill was really saying had actually been that simple all along. (Maybe he just didn't want it to be that simple, after all the time he'd wasted.)

Ford glanced down at the ring the Hand Witch had gifted him. The first time she'd given it to him in the eighties, she'd told him that if the ring ever turned black, he'd chosen the wrong friends and doomed himself. He couldn't tell if it was just the firelight, but as he looked in the deep blue cabochon now, he swore he saw a swirl of black spiraling beneath the surface. He wished he knew what that meant—was he supposed to trust Bill more, or had he already absentmindedly taken something Bill had said on faith that he shouldn't have? Had that swirl first appeared only now during the eclipse, or when Ford had started studying the miniature grimoire Bill had gifted him? Was it even due to Bill? Ford hadn't studied mood-ring-o-mancy.

Dipper snuck a rook onto Ford's back row. "Checkmate."

Ford huffed. "Well done." He'd been so distracted, he hadn't even noticed Dipper lining his rook up.

Dipper pushed Ford's king over. It dramatically fell in slow motion.

They packed up the chess board, put out the campfire, and slept uneasily.

####

In spite of the sedative cold medicine, Bill couldn't get any decent sleep. It wasn't even a good trip. Every time he shut his eyes for a few minutes, he hallucinated/dreamed that he was locked back in the shack staring at the high attic ceiling, or staring silently at Soos's bedroom—or watching over the town graveyard from high above; or locked like a hunting trophy in a glass display case in some local hick's darkened den; kidnapped and tied up beneath Gideon's bed; closed in a dark airless leather box; preserved like an ancient relic in the museum; hovering above Gravity Falls' valley and trees in the still night sky —

—or petrified in the middle of a quiet knot of overgrown plant life deep in the forest.

Or still in the tent but with his head wrenched around wrong, unable to move or feel his limbs, staring out at an angle that should have been impossible—until he awoke with lungs heaving to find his body was right and he wasn't dead; only for the humanity of his shape to reassert itself and he envied the stone corpse.

He crawled out of his tent, threw up his ill-advised concoction of cider and cold medicine, and collapsed, slipping in and out of a delirious doze until morning.

####

(I have been so looking forward to inflicting this chapter on y'all. Hope you enjoyed, please let me know what you think, and if you thought that was bad then stay tuned for things getting even worse for Bill!! 🎉)

#(there's another 2 pics I might later add at the top; but I don't wanna spoil it when the chapter's new. give folks a day to read or so lol)#bill cipher #human bill cipher #grunkle ford #stanford pines #gravity falls #gravity falls fic #gravity falls fanart #fanart #my art #my writing #bill goldilocks cipher

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