Bill POV
Days went by in a very similar marry go round.
Dipper and I would spend the time his human body needed to rest within the dreamscape. A few nights ago he started us on a seemingly never ending roleplaying game, and not the fun type of roleplaying, the kind with a blank board, dice, and math. It had over time become interesting but that was only because of his love of the game and our combined storytelling abilities. In a sense we'd created our own dimension with creatures and lives and adventure, and with the aid of the endless dreamscape, were able to bring it to life. Once we'd run ourselves into a wall or a good stopping point we'd put it all to the side. Dipper had challenged me to several rematches of multidimensional chess, most of which he lost. When games would become tiresome Dipper would collapse back into the couch only to ask me question after question about the different dimensions. He was starting to show more and more interest in the dimension I and Ana originate from.
I'd had the idea yesterday, to bring in several books to give him. He might not be able to read their languages in his dimension but here they could translate themselves for him. Giving them to him was immensely satisfying. Watching him go from perplexed to ecstatic as he watched the words and symbols shift to English right before his eyes. Right away he started reading, falling into a concentrated silence. The flick of brown eyes melting over the page, drinking in each word. The twitch in his brow and the way he would twist his hair in between his fingers just below his ear. Air hiss through parted lips in a low gasp. The sound pulled heat through my veins, I wanted to hear it again and again.
"Read it aloud." I said as he flipped to the next page, shocking him out of the trance the book had placed on him.
"You want me to read it to you?" Dipper half closed the book, his full attention shifting up to me questioningly.
"I don't want to sit here in silence and watch you read, might as well read aloud so we can both enjoy it." I shrugged. Boy was it an understatement to simply say I enjoyed listening to him read.
Once he'd fallen into a good rhythm his voice became steadier, evening out like calm river waters, as he got himself comfortable against the couch his legs stretched out and his shoulder loosening into the velvet he looked at peace. I was able to stare openly at his face as he paid more attention to the book, letting everything about him wash over me. Dipper was constantly tense outside of the Dreamscape, but here I could ensure he didn't feel the pressure of journal pages or the unfamiliarity of the fearamid.
His voice filtered through my thoughts, picking up with excitement as he read faster, eyes jumping down the page with every new word. He gasped, that little hitch of air that made every muscle in my body jump, faltering on his narration. One of his hands shot out and gripped my knee. "You're fucking with me, you did not invent the wheel!"
I laughed, from deep in the chest and head tossed back kind of laugh, "No! I just made the guy who did think I did so I got the credit! It's much easier than actually rewriting history and a lot less messy."
He smacked my knee as he let go, curling back around the book as he continued to read. He looked up several times while reading after that, meeting my gaze with a soft smile, absolutely destroying everything I thought I knew.
I'd always thought I hated the dreamscape, it wasn't tangible enough, everything was so fleeting. By myself there wasn't much fun to be had, but something in the core of my being shifted now. I wanted to spend more time within the dreamscape, exploring its content with new eyes and new excitement.
Watching him read I knew it was because of him. All these new human emotions I was now subjected to dealing with was because of Dipper.
I wanted him to kiss me again, I wanted to kiss him again. I did everything just like before, pulling him into my arms on the couch so we'd wake up together like that morning. I'd lean into him when he spoke, unable to drag my gaze up from his lips as he spoke but still he hasn't kissed me. In the mornings he moves away too quickly, leaning out of my space and redirecting conversation every time. Ana's advice made me painfully aware of how much I wanted to be near him but was turning out to be utterly useless in getting him to feel the same way.
~
This morning was no different, as his eyes fluttered open slowly he lifted his head from its place on my chest, untangled his legs from mine as he pulled away.
"Good morning," I drawled, hauling myself up to a sitting position.
"Morning." He muttered, looking anywhere but at me.
"I'm going to meet with Ana this morning while you and Red have breakfast," I stood stretching my arms above my head, unable to pull back the harsh edge on the words. I was ready two days ago to chew her out, "Let me know if you make any breakthroughs will you."
"Yeah, I'll probably work on it through breakfast with Wendy so it's possible we'll have something by the time I see you later today. I will see you later?" His voice did this funny thing in the mornings, vocal cords rough from the night of not using them, it scratched and broke over the question.
I turned to look at him. His eyes were on his hands, fidgeting in his lap, but his cheeks were flushed. "Of course." I said, softening. He looked up and seemed to relax at that, he even smiled.
"Ok then, see you later."
I returned the smile.
Gravity Falls flashed through the windows I'd passed. The henchmaniacs running wild and throwing parties wrecking it some more. From up here I could see some of the reality bubbles they loved so much floating around, changing the make up and form of items and beings they pass through.
Finding Ana was the easy part, getting her to talk to me was a bit harder.
"I'm not here to fix your relationship problems, Cipher!" She shouted from the other side of her office door, "Find someone else to be your therapist!"
"I don't need a therapist, I just need you to fix what you fucked up. You were wrong!" I shouted back.
That had her open the door, growling, "I'm not wrong. I'm never wrong."
"Well this time you were, I did what you said and it worked, for a little while but now he is just pulling away. It's infuriating and it's your fault." I hissed back, stepping into her space.
Ana scoffed, leaning against the edge of the open door, "If it worked then I wasn't wrong. It stopped working because you're an idiot who can't see the obvious next step." folding her fingers together she held her hands out between us, "Talk to him."
Mabel POV
It took a few days and several trips a day, but we managed to get everyone out of the shack and out of Gravity Falls. Grunkle Ford had an old farm house in the woods of Corvallis that he abandoned in his move to Gravity Falls, it's where we find ourselves after everything.
I stood in its drab little kitchen, with fresh food and water laid out on the counter in front of me. Stan and Soos were out back putting in the work to get us electricity so nothing I'd just bought in town could go in the refrigerator yet.
It was so odd, shopping with Pacifica after almost two weeks of scavenging through town for anything that hadn't been destroyed by chaos or demons. I felt sick just walking through the aisle of so much untouched packaged food, it was the same wave of bile that filled my mouth for months after Bill's first attack. It took almost a year for me to be able to walk through shops without biting back tears, all that progress was gone now just like that.
"Mabel?" Pacifica came around the corner, a bundle of blankets and pillows towering in her arms, "Do you want to come set up with me, Soos and Grunkle Stan will tell us when everything is up and ready." I nodded numbly, following her back through the living space. Ford had explained on our way here that he had come to Corvallis with partners, both of whom moved onto different projects before he left, so the cabin was built with three bedrooms. However Ford had plans for both spare rooms so he set us up with a bed and cabinets in the garage, it wasn't anything special but it wasn't uncomfortable and shouldn't be permanent. We set the clean blankets on the bed and unpacked what little we had without a word to one another. I was content to drown in my thoughts. That was till a sharp knock came to the door.
"Girls, we need you in the living room." Ford's voice carried loud and clear. Pacifica shot me a weary look but I didn't have the energy to argue with her again about my Grunkles temper. After all, how could she blame him, with everything that's happening he- all of us have the right to be irrationally angry at times.
Instead I left the room without saying anything, finding both my Grunkles stood near the brick fireplace with pensive tired looks mirrored on their faces. I couldn't bring myself to ask them what's wrong, at this point it was a stupid question that I knew the answer to.
Grunkle Ford took my silence in stride, like he had done ever since we came back empty handed from our first attempt to rescue Dipper. I welcomed his understanding in comparison to the pained or worried looks I was constantly receiving from Pacifica and Grunkle Stan. "I want to discuss my ideas for a different way to rescue Dipper and Wendy."
My heart leaped against my ribcage, "Yes," I hissed, giving him my full and alert attention.
"Now that we know Dipper and presumably Wendy are under some kind of control from the demons, we have to be more subtle about when and how we enter the fearamid, along with the techniques we use to extract them." Grunkle Ford started as I fell into place standing beside him. "After the original attack for a short time I worked on a sedative treatment that would render a demon unconscious for prolonged periods of time. However I had to stop working on it because of complications. I was never able to test on an actual demon but the test I did conduct in the forest was only effective when administered through the bloodstream, which offered another problem because the demon's pure energy forms do not have a bloodstream." A wicked flicker of satisfaction crossed his eyes, "But their human forms do."
Grunkle Stan nodded along, turning his attention to Pacifica and I, "If we go back into Gravity Falls with a distraction we should be able to get back up to the Fearamid and bring Dipper and Wendy home."
"What kind of distraction?" Pacifica asked him, her fingers laced into mine.
"Gideon and his guys."
I cringed at the name, it's been several years and I still hate him, but I understood. Back in the first attack Gideon worked for Bill as my jailor along with a crew of criminals from the Gravity Falls prison, he'd changed sides and worked with us back then and this time he learned from his past mistakes and started on our side. Knowing it would work did not make me like the idea of working with him anymore.
"Dipper didn't come with us last time." I said, pain clawing at my heart, choking the air out of my lungs, "What makes you think he'll come with us this time?" I pushed through it.
"I'm not sure what kind of spell he's under, my original guess was that Bill had to be in contact with him. But it's also extremely likely it's an all encompassing spell that will affect him even without Bill's presents." Grunkle Ford produced two small vials of clear liquid, "These are light sedatives, normal everyday medicine, we give these to Dipper and Wendy and we carry them out and bring them back here."
I nodded numbly, I'd have to drug my brother.
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I have been keeping track of when the plot points in the original happened by chapter, to ensure the story follows the same line and for my own amusement. This chapter coincides with the very beginning of chapter 15 in the original, in fact I turned the original 15th chapter into 5 chapters(17-21). I am having a lot of fun adding to this story and that should be a good indicator that this version is going to be much longer.