#bill cipher keeping secrets

[harper-collins]

An Afternoon Alone

The Twins, The Triangle And The Magic oneshot!

Fluffy, a slight bit of angst and a small piece.

Set at the beginning of Year 5

The hustle and bustle of the house was getting a bit irritating, and although Dipper was pleased they didn’t have to stay at the Leaky Cauldron again, he did want to get out of the stuffy environment. Thankfully, he had just the right person to do that with. The brunette turned to look at a mirror to slick his hair back the way he used to. He knew the London weather would probably mess it up when he left the building, but he couldn’t help it.

A noise was made from behind Dipper, which made him jump, causing him to turn and see the almost adultified Bill Cipher in his complete form. He looked a lot more humane nowadays; he’d lost his edge, and although he wasn’t softer, he felt nicer to look at due to the organic way that he presented himself. He was still wearing fancy clothing outside of Hogwarts, but the blonde had grown and developed his human form so that Dipper couldn’t help but feel attracted to him all over again.

“I do feel a little bad about leaving Shooting Star with the grief she’s feeling right now, but I think it’s time that we let you walk around without her,” Bill grimly replied, moving towards the door. Dipper kept his eyes away from the blonde as he opened the door. “I feel the same way, but I just can’t sit next to her all the time. I can’t stay in the house either; it’s suffocating with grief,” Dipper replied, watching Bill shut the door to Grimmauld Place.

Dipper briefly reviewed what the demon had said before frowning and looking up at him. “Hey, I can leave the house by myself just fine!” he sharply replied, giving the other an angry push. Bill cackled for a moment before coming to his senses. “Still, Pinetree, I’m not letting you wander the streets of London without me. Voldemort is back, and even if we are trying to kill him, it’s probably a good idea to just be safe and protect ourselves by running away for the time being,” he murmured back, raising an eyebrow at the brunette. Dipper couldn’t tell whether the other eyebrow was raised, which made things slightly tricky.

“I’m not a child, Bill. I know how to handle myself,” he turned to look at the demon with a darkened expression, but Bill was merely shaking his head at Dipper. “You may be an adult mentally, Pinetree, but you are no match against an all-powerful wizard that even Dumbledore’s nervous about facing,” Bill chirped, walking towards a van selling food. Dipper blinked a couple of times, staring at the other. “Dumbledore’s nervous about facing Voldemort?” He repeated back.

“What?”

“What?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Bill carefully replied, a slight twinkle in his eye as he spoke. Dipper grumbled quietly; of course, the other was still keeping secrets. When wasn’t he? He moved on regardless, and the two approached the food van. Dipper let the demon pick an assortment of foods for them to share between the two of them. It was costly, but Bill didn’t seem to care about the prospect of money—only gold.

They continued walking into a small park they’d found nearby and frequented throughout the summer, regardless of the year. They sat down, opened their respective packets of food, and began to take in the summer atmosphere—while it lasted. Being in London was better than living in most of the UK, but it still got rainy. They took their time eating, which was the only logical thing to do when you had clear air. Or, at least, as straightforward as you could get in this day and age.

Dipper turned towards his partner and warily began to take in everything about him, all the details. First, there was his calm, relaxed expression as he ate. He seemed to enjoy their little trip, probably thinking about how they could blag it later. After all, no one knew about Bill yet. They just thought he was very weird. Despite his facial expression being quite relaxed, his body was less so. It was tense as he tightly held the sandwich in his hand. The other was holding his head as he awkwardly sprawled across his part of the bench, facing Dipper. The brunette could still tell that there was something wrong with the demon.

A thought then occurred to him. He had witnessed the death of Cedric Diggory just as much as Harry had. Yet… He wasn’t nearly as traumatised as an average individual. Although it felt pointless to point out that Bill wasn’t your standard individual, it felt like the other should still react. It wasn’t like he was soulless or anything. The brunette hesitated momentarily. Was he going to bring this up? Especially when they’d left the house to escape this exact subject.

Maybe… Maybe it was a better idea to ask later. As Dipper nodded to himself a little, moving without thinking, he looked back to the demon who was watching him with a quirked expression. He was intrigued, confused, yet interested. Dipper tried not to pay attention to his stare as he glanced away to stare at the trees further away from them, and Bill only chuckled slightly at the movement. Dipper tried to refrain from looking back at him, but the soft feeling of another’s skin touching his face made him look back at Bill, who gave him an empathetic expression.

Dipper moved back towards Bill, who kept his hand trailing across the other’s cheek, letting it slowly roam around the other’s face as if trying to memorise the other’s features. Dipper let it happen for about a minute before he put his hand on the other. Bill, who had gone dazed as he memorised Dipper’s features, jumped a little at the touch before relaxing and giving the grin he always gave. He took his hand off the other’s face. The brunette caught his hand before it dropped adequately.

“Your smile,” Dipper murmured to the other. “I want to see it.”

Bill smirked, not giving the response that the brunette had been wanting. Dipper only rolled his eyes at the display. “You know that’s not what I meant,” he pressed, watching the other’s expression as Dipper tightened his hand on the blonde. “I know, but you’re not getting me that easily, Pinetree,” he teased, tightening his hand around the other. The young male turned away, huffing and taking his hand back. The other’s grip had been getting too tight anyway.

“Awwww, c’mon Pinetree! Are you being a wimp?” He teased lightly. However, Dipper could only scoff and stand up, not disputing it and not saying anything to protect himself. Bill cackled as he followed the brunette’s train of thought before observing him. His expression had grown misty as if he could tell something was wrong. “It… It might be a good idea for us to head back now,” Dipper mumbled, glancing at the demon sharply.

Bill hummed for a moment before returning to the direction of Grimmauld Place. “Maybe… But there is something I’d like to talk to you about later,” the demon replied, retaking the other’s hand as he began to walk. Dipper didn’t say anything in reply to this. He just let himself be dragged with Bill. It was slowly getting cloudy as they trekked back to their temporary home.

With the world becoming the way it was, Dipper couldn’t help but feel that the weather was beginning to reflect the moody and scary place it was becoming. Hopefully, it wouldn’t take too much longer until they could finally get home. It was an unrealistic, wishful thought, but better than nothing. The two walked back reasonably quickly, and in a few minutes, they found themselves back in the dark and saddened environment. The two quietly went back inside, awaiting their fate for the evening.

[hkthatgffan]

Okay, it's time for me to reveal them!!

These right here are the 4 images Alex Hirsch sent to me and @fordtato back in 2023...months before The Book of Bill was formally announced!!

Head Statues!

Beta Cover!

Glitching in a tree!

Pines Family chess

we've held on to these for nearly 1 year now! Alex shared them between August and October 2023.

It was fun to be one of the only people in the world who probably had seen these that wasn't directly working on the book.

But my time with them is up. They are now yours.

What is the context of each image? We'll now know together!

The Book of Bill is now OFFICIALLY out!

[varilien]

ive been wanting to do some redraws of the gravity falls art i made as a kid n since it's seasonally appropriate, here's some magician au doodles ^^

and just in case i don't come back to draw it again any time soon here's my thoughts so far on the topic and the original art circa smn like. idk maybe 2015 or 2016?? i wish i'd put the date on anything from back then lol

Palestine: Funds | Action | eSims | Info

Sudan Resources | Congo Resource | Lebanese Red Cross

i might change the designs later on but at this point i thought it'd be most fun to just kinda leave it really close to the originals :3

anyways!!

okay so gravity falls magician au. plotwise it's all actually about the same, the twins might be a little older actually, like 15 or 16 (maybe they've visited gravity falls in the past?), but whatever. they get sent to a sleepy little village in the woods to stay w their great uncle. magic runs in the pines family, although no currently living pines is thought to have any notable capability. healing a scratch or finding something u lost under ur bed, basically. magic is actually probably a lot more common and mundane in this world than canon, so gravity falls' weirdness as a region comes more from the intensity and unpredictable nature of the magic found there

anyways the BIGGEST plot difference is that i like the idea of the kids meeting bill pretty early on. he introduces himself as a seasoned familiar looking to get back in touch with his old partner. now, bill is a breath of fresh air for dipper in particular, who finally has someone he can speak frankly with about the weird experiences he's been having, but even tho bill loves nothing more than spilling secrets and arcane knowledge, he's not really able to do so as he'd like to. he's got TONS of spells placed on him for the express purpose of keeping him quiet, but there's a few things bill has been able to elude to if nothing else: 1, he knows who the author of the grimoire dipper found in the woods is. 2, he knows stan pines' great secret. and 3, he knows how to access magical power beyond comprehension

hehe idk i just like the idea of bill spending possibly months mentoring and making friends w the kids fully planning on just using them for his own gain the entire time but. well. maybe it's nice not being alone anymore too. tho he'd never admit it

[ghost-oftheriver]

Stanley Pines, the conman clown, Always dragged his family down. One mistake, disowned, denied, Only thing to do was hide. One way out, the open road. Reinvent, retry, reload. A girdle, eyepatch, fathers fez, "I'm a new man!" so he says Couldn't outrun life's regrets, Just kept placing bigger bets. Changed his haircut, switched hotels- Truth is just whatever sells. When you've lost track of your lies, When the poison starts to rise, When the walls are closing in, When its clear you cannot win, When your actions make it worse, When they see you as a curse, Give the wheel one last spin, Take your chips and go all in, And Lucky Stan- the roll's on black, He got his life and family back. His big break, it finally came, Redemption from a life of shame. You really think you won the day. You packed your bags and sailed away. You think you left the past behind. But trust me

[egginfroggin]

*yeets this and runs*

[fofflesnave]

Therapy didn't prepare him for this

[askbillchiper]

no you fucking idiot. who is the entity whos controlling fords blog right now

OH

WHO?

[haunted-pool-noodle]

I couldn't stop laughing at this absolutely terrible joke so now I have to inflict it on you. sorry?

[Image 1 ID: Bolded text that says, "Stripping for edible flour in Tijuana," then in unbolded letters below it, "Please don't make me elaborate." End ID.]

[Image 2 ID: A 4-image comic of Bill Cipher from Gravity Falls. He's floating in front of one of Stan's memory doors, which is labelled as "KEEP OUT." Bill looks at the door and says "OHO, DEEP, DARK, SECRETS? DON'T MIND IF I DO!"

There are then three panels shown, from the perspective of the door looking at Bill. Across the first two, Bill opens the door, eye closed and other hand on his hip. In the last panel, Bill's eye is open, looking deeply unsettled, and he slams the door shut.

Bill turns from the door, staring downwards, haunted by whatever he has seen.

Bill looks back at the door out of the corner of his eye, putting a hand to the top of his angle. He says, "OH GOD, HE AND SIXER REALLY ARE IDENTICAL." End ID.]

[fandom]

Monster Mash Monday

WooOOoOoooh! Obviously, historically, monsters are Bad and Ugly. Not…not so much on Tumblr. Please keep this PG-13 if you go with the last option.

[ckret2]

Chapter 93 of Bill Cipher somehow femme fatale-ing his way through tricking the government agents into leaving the Mystery Shack alone:

The grand conclusion! Bill has successfully sucked the agents into his cult—sorry, I mean successfully convinced the agents that the shack doesn't need investigating.

And Bill stops thinking about Powers within like fifteen minutes.

Time to celebrate!

Dipper and Mabel were crowded against the back door, trying (unsuccessfully) to eavesdrop through it, and only barely backed up in time to avoid being hit as Ford opened the door. "Well?" Mabel pressed. Dipper asked, "How'd it go?"

For a moment, Ford maintained the stern glare of an imaginary high-ranked government official; and then a goofy, self-conscious grin stretched across his face. "That was actually kind of fun."

####

Powers didn't instruct Trigger to call Dale until they were on the road and the Mystery Shack was safely hidden behind the trees. "We're heading back your way."

"Did you make it inside the shack?" Dale asked.

Powers sighed. "No. We were—intercepted."

"By who?" That was Goldie's voice.

"The same officer who took our flash drive last year."

Her voice got a little louder and quicker. "What did he say? Who is he? How much did he tell you—"

"We'll debrief you when we rendezvous."

She grumbled impatiently, but said, "Fine."

Dale said, "While you were gone, I went through the rest of last year's reports and I'm putting together a preliminary report on what we've discovered. I'll forward it to you and HQ—"

"No," Powers said immediately.

"N... no, sir?"

"Send it to me, but that's it." Powers straightened his back. "We'll be reporting that there were no gravitational anomalies in Gravity Falls."

Trigger stared at Powers and Dale fell silent. Trigger said, "What?"

"There were no anomalies," Powers repeated. "Equipment misreadings. Same with the power surge this past weekend. Very embarrassing for us."

"But... but we have eyewitness reports," Dale said.

"Mass hysteria," Powers said firmly.

Dale said, "Sir, I don't understand—"

"Then I'll explain it when we rendezvous" Powers said. "There's nothing else to investigate in Gravity Falls."

"Nothing—?!" Trigger repeated. "You can't be serious! What about—"

Powers shot him a sharp look. "That wasn't a suggestion, Trigger. Our investigation is over."

Trigger fell silent; and for a moment, the only sound in the car was the slightly unhealthy wheezing of the Gleeful Auto used car engine.

Goldie said, "We can rendezvous at the diner."

Powers nodded. "Good idea." For most of the day, he'd been running on more coffee than food, and it was beginning to catch up with him.

Dale said, "Okay. We'll see you there, sir." Trigger frowned, but he didn't argue.

Powers flipped the turn signal as they moved from a dirt path through the woods to a paved road; he noticed his hand was shaking. He couldn't get out of here fast enough.

####

They retreated to the diner, the waitress who'd seated Powers and Goldie last night escorted the four of them to a booth ("What is this, a double date? That's nice!"); and once they had coffee, Powers quietly told Trigger and Dale what they'd found at the museum and graveyard and told Dale and Goldie what they'd found at the Mystery Shack:

This town was rotten with governmental secrets. By all appearances, it was a veritable dumping ground for cover-ups and conspiracies, starting with its founding by a disgraced secret president and continuing right up until today. The task force operating as "the Society of the Blind Eye" had taken responsibility for keeping these secrets buried; and they weren't just working with the Department of Cover-Ups, they were were being run by it. Their leader was the very same superior officer from the DCU who'd taken their flash drive.

("Wait," Goldie said, "how do you know that?" And when Powers had said he'd introduced himself to them, she'd sucked in a quiet gasp, and then seemed to zone out a moment as she processed the implications of this revelation.)

This "Blind Eye" task force had free rein to erase the memories of any civilians who knew anything about their operations; and those who were permitted to know about the group—no doubt the local police had to be clued in—simply brushed off any questions about mysterious happenings in town. Never mind all that.

The DCU officer said what was happening in the shack was a matter of international security; somebody in this town thought there was somebody dangerous in the Mystery Shack, and they'd made an anonymous report to that effect; the residents in the shack knew how to get radioactive waste far too easily; reports this last weekend claimed the townspeople had witnessed some sort of massive laser beam originating from somewhere near the building; all their investigations last summer had suggested a subterranean doomsday weapon was beneath the shack; and yet, when this "doomsday weapon" went off, nothing happened. As far as Powers could tell—and, he suspected, as far as he'd ever learn—the Mystery Shack was likely some sort of secret weapons testing facility, and when they'd stumbled upon it last year and dug too deep, the Blind Eye had swooped in to confiscate their intel and erase their memories. Some agents' memories more than others. (Trigger and Dale stared at Goldie, trying to remember their lost colleague's face.)

"But... but why us?" Dale asked. "We're not civilians."

"I know," Powers said darkly.

Dale sat back in his seat, staring at his coffee, looking lost.

"I don't like any of this," Powers said. "I understand that a nation must cover up its embarrassing secrets. It's part of a government's duty to hide things from its citizens." (Trigger and Dale nodded in agreement, that was just common sense.) "But... but brainwashing them? Manipulating their memories? Even other government agents? That isn't the America I thought I was serving."

"And imagine what else you still don't know," Goldie said.

"I was trying not to."

"You thought the Blind Eye might be a unit that's gone rogue?" Trigger suggested hopefully. "We could report this DCU officer back to HQ. Perhaps the Bureau should look into..."

But Powers shook his head. "They appear to have ties to the police, and until very recently they were colluding with the Northwests. If they are rogue, they're powerful. We report this, it goes one of two ways. Either our superiors don't know about the Blind Eye, in which case they were left out on purpose and now the entire Bureau is in their ray gun's crosshairs; or they do know... in which case they deliberately put us in harm's way. Twice."

Goldie piped up, "But if the Bureau didn't know about the Blind Eye, don't you think somebody in the past year would have mentioned Trembley to you? Since they shouldn't have know you were taken off that case."

Powers's stomach flipped. "That's true. So—they knew."

Dale slowly shook his head in disbelief. Trigger asked, "But... why? If they don't want us to know what's happening here, why would they let us come back?"

"How should I know? To experiment on whether their brainwashing holds? To get the rest of our memories erased? You heard what he said about the long-range memory gun!"

"Wait," Goldie said, "what did he say?"

Powers grimaced in disgust. "That they didn't just tell us we'd stumbled on a secure facility and ask us to leave because they'd wanted an opportunity to test out a long-range upgrade to the memory gun—and considered us convenient targets."

Naked amazement bloomed across Goldie's face. "He said that?" Her voice was hushed with awe. "Wow. That's—that's diabolical." 

"As diabolical as creating a government-sponsored robe-wearing mind-wiping cult in the first place," he snapped. "I'm sure there's some kind of behind-the-scenes bureaucratic nonsense that made it seem like a good idea, but—!"

Goldie put a hand on his shoulder. He fell silent. She squeezed his shoulder. "Hey. It's all right. There's four of us now. We can watch each other's backs." She gave him a reassuring smile. "As long as we don't tell anybody else what we know, we'll be safe."

He breathed in slowly. "You're right." How lucky he was to have found her—the only person he could trust in Gravity Falls. Perhaps the only person he could trust in the world.

"If we want a chance to do something about the Blind Eye, this must stay between us," he said. "And we just have to hope the Blind Eye's leader is convinced we'll keep their secrets."

####

Goldie had insisted that Powers not drive her "home" to the Mystery Shack—now that they (belatedly) knew the danger, it seemed safer to minimize how many times the residents saw Goldie and Powers together. But she rode with him as far as his motel. It seemed neither of them wanted to leave each other quite yet.

As Powers drove, he asked, "Are you sure you don't want to come back to Washington with us? The Mystery Shack is the most dangerous place you could possibly be staying. And there's a chance we could get you reinstated as an agent..."

"Or, there's a chance they'll tell the Blind Eye that I've regained my memories." (She was right, of course. It had been a foolish, hopeful suggestion.) "Besides, I can't go back there, knowing what I know now—and not knowing what I don't know. We need to find out what's going on in that shack. And as long as they don't know I'm getting my memories back, I'm the only one of us they'll let inside. If anyone can get to the bottom of this whole Blind Eye mess, it's me.

 She picked up the folder she'd left on the car's dashboard, the one they'd taken from the museum, and waved it at Powers. "And hey, I've seen the names of everybody in town who's involved in the cult, remember? I know who to watch out for."

He conceded, "Strategically, keeping an agent in town does make sense. I'm just... worried about your safety."

"Comes with the business. Don't you know I'm worried about you, too?" She reached over to run her fingers through his hair along the back of his head. (It was hard to concentrate on the road.) "But we've both got jobs to do. While I'm here, you can investigate these guys from inside the system. Maybe try to find out who warned the eagles about somebody dangerous in the shack! If you give me their name, I can track them down and... see if maybe they're an ally." (He could see Goldie's smile from the corner of his eye.) "I'd just love to have a conversation with that little whistleblower."

Powers had already nodded in agreement before he realized what he was agreeing to. "You're asking me to spy on our own bureau?"

"I'm not asking for anything. We both already know what's necessary," Goldie said. "They're erasing people's memories. We can't just stand for that. If we don't do something, who will?"

His grip reflexively tightened on the steering wheel. "You're right. If it has to be us, so be it. I'm fine with extensive government cover-ups and secret weapons testing in populated towns; but I draw the line at wiping people's minds! Look at the damage they're doing to people! To their own agents! Look at you—because of the Blind Eye, you've forgotten most of your life, you've forgotten your real name, you've even forgotten how to open doors!"

"Yeesh, you don't have to keep reminding me," Goldie muttered. "Although I'm glad you're indignant on my behalf! Most people around here think it's funny!"

Sometimes, Powers was glad he didn't understand humor. So often, it just seemed like cruelty. "I give you my word, we'll find out who's behind this and how deep their influence goes. And... we'll decide what to do then." Some of the hardness leaked out of his voice as he pulled into the motel parking lot. "I just hate leaving you behind."

"Hey. We'll meet again, promise. In the meantime..." As Powers parked in front of his room, Goldie unclipped one of her earrings—the green triangle that had a gold eye painted on—kissed it, and offered it to Powers. "Something to remember me by!" She winked. "Just keep this with you, and wherever you go, I'll go."

A lump formed in Powers's throat as he took the earring. "Goldie, I..." He couldn't figure out what he wanted to say. Instead, he unfastened his seat belt and leaned toward her; she met him in the middle, coiling her arms around his neck as he pulled her into a deep kiss. He'd hardly gotten used to her presence and he already had to leave her behind.

She broke the kiss to murmur, "By the way—a bit ago, I did remember something about my past life."

"Did you? What?"

"My real first name," Goldie said. "It's Dorabella. But call me Bell."

"Dorabella. It's a beautiful name." He was just brokenhearted that it wasn't familiar. "Stay safe, Bell."

"Stay safe, Gary."

####

Bill blessed the poor besotted agent with one final kiss at his motel door; and somehow managed to suppress a triumphant giggle until after the door was shut.

One little hiccup aside, that went so, so well.

Bill had three suspects for who had ratted him out to the Bureau of Covert Investigations: Soos's fiancée Melody Grue, who hated that Bill was still in the house; Gideon Gleeful, who'd probably just love to get out from under Bill's thumb without Bill being able to trace it back to him; and Old Man Fiddleford McGucket, who must have been involved in getting Ford's gun working because Ford never could have done it alone, which meant he'd probably been told Bill was still alive.

Bill was sure it was no coincidence that the anonymous tipster had reported "someone dangerous" in the Mystery Shack the day after Bill revealed he'd survived his execution.

At the moment, he was most suspicious of Melody. It was too lucky a coincidence that she'd just happened to be absent on the day the agents first came by the Mystery Shack. Because she'd slept bad. Ha. Melody had slept bad since she was five years old. She just came to work tired. But it made a convenient excuse to keep out of the way for a day, didn't it?

Bill was in the shack; he could put pressure on Melody himself. But Gideon and McGucket...? Well—it would be easier for someone with a little more mobility to look in on them.

And it was more efficient to have somebody else do his dirty work.

Bill fished out his eye patch and put it on as he walked several doors down from Powers's to the car he'd noticed the night before with the rising triangle logo of his Death Valley girls. He peeked into the motel rooms nearest the car, then knocked on a door and waited.

"Hel—Cipher? My lord?" Sue stared at him in surprise. "I—How did you find out I'm here?"

"I have my ways."

Her face broke into a grin that she quickly tried to temper. "I'm honored by your visit, but—is it safe for you to be out in broad daylight like this...?"

"Sure! Didn't I tell you the tide's turning?" He gave her a broad smile. "But unfortunately, your god hasn't been given access to the currency you mortals use to do business with each other. Care to help me with a little grocery shopping?"

####

As Powers packed to leave, his mind turned away from Goldie (Dorabella) and the Blind Eye.

Something was rubbing him wrong about the Northwest cover-up.

So Gravity Falls' real town founder was the madman Quentin Trembley; he was replaced in the historical record by the "waste-shoveling village idiot" Nathaniel Northwest, who was immediately made one of the most important men in Oregon and whose descendants were unimaginably wealthy...

Or, rather, they had been wealthy, until they got wrapped up in some kind of muddled financial fraud case last summer. Something about investing the family fortune in some fraudulent bonds that nobody could find any record of.

Years ago, before the BCI approached him, Powers used to work for IRS Criminal Investigation. Everything he knew about the Northwest case seemed wrong. It didn't line up with how crimes like that were supposed to work. It was difficult for con artists to vanish into thin air with that much money and no paper trail—not even any record of their communication with the victim. Suspiciously difficult. Suspicious enough that part of Powers wondered whether the fraudulent bonds were a cover story for something else.

Last summer, Fiddleford McGucket was an insane homeless man living in the town dump. The exact words Goldie had used were "village idiot." Powers remembered seeing him a couple of times in town, as forlorn and destitute a figure as you could imagine. Just a few weeks after they pulled out of Gravity Falls, this insane village idiot spontaneously went sane, filed countless patents, and became unimaginably wealthy overnight... and just so happened to move into the recently-vacated Northwest Manor.

Probably around the same time that the Blind Eye cut ties with Preston Northwest and erased his memories of the society.

It was very interesting for all those patents to come out of the same town as some kind of hidden weapons testing facility and the blueprints for a memory-erasing gun. The gun's blueprints were handwritten; he'd have to compare them to some of McGucket's patents to see if there were any similarities. He'd bet anything that either McGucket was a genius who'd gone undercover for some mysterious purpose at the Blind Eye's behest; or else he was another Nathaniel—a fool to serve as an easily-manipulable figurehead in return for wealth. Powers would have to come up with an excuse to visit him very soon.

And then there were the people in the list of Blind Eye members that Goldie had deciphered. The list contained a couple of prominent local businessmen and the owner of the town newspaper—never the kind of people you wanted to see as part of an organization dedicated to hiding and suppressing information.

But the name that concerned Powers the most was Bud Gleeful, whose name had come up multiple times during the investigation into the Blind Eye. He was the father of a child arrested for conspiracy, fraud, and illegal surveillance. (Surely a child couldn't have done that? And who sends a child to jail, anyway?) Bud's used car lot was apparentlyrecommended to federal agents in need of incognito vehicles. He was addressed in a note on the back of the threatening letter left in Powers's motel room—which suggested that piece of paper had passed through Bud's hands before reaching Powers. And there was a recording of him voluntarily using the Memory Gun on his wife and himself���clearly he was a strong believer in their cause. Powers needed to investigate everyone in the Blind Eye's list of members—but he probably needed to investigate Bud first.

Hopefully he'd find something useful he could pass on to Goldie.

Before he packed up his laptop, he connected to the Bureau of Covert Investigations' system. There was no easy way to see a directory of everyone in the bureau (secret agents, after all; a list of all personnel would be a major security threat) but he at least had access to all the agents who were or had ever been assigned to the Gravity Falls case. Nowhere in the list was there a "Goldie Locke." Just one more thing covered up. HQ clearly wasn't concerned with searching for a missing agent, whether it was because they'd forgotten her or abandoned her.

On a whim, he did an online search for any open missing persons cases with the first name "Dorabella." No cases came up, but he stumbled on something else: the first search result under her name was for the "Dorabella cipher". Goldie was a cryptologist; for a brief moment, he hoped that maybe she had invented some cipher and they could track her identity that way. But no, the Dorabella cipher was a mathematical curiosity—some unsolved ciphertext from 1897. He was no closer to finding out who she was.

Well, until they figured out her real last name... maybe he could privately call her Bell Cipher.

####

Bill knocked on the shack's back door and Stan answered it. Beaming, Bill said, "Happy birthday!" He shoved a cake into Stan's hands and swept past him. "Today we brought a bouncing baby conspiracy theory into the world! That calls for celebration."

"Where did you get a cake?" Stan asked.

"From the grocery store!"

Pacing in the kitchen, Ford asked, "How did you pay for it?" From the twitchy look in his eye, he appeared to be on his fourth mug of nervous coffee.

"I didn't!"

Mabel and Dipper ran halfway downstairs to see what the commotion was. "Bill!" Mabel called. "Did it wor—? You brought cake!"

"I brought cake!" He stepped back to let Mabel zoom past him and seize the cake from Stan. "Anyway, good job, humans, you performed your jobs terrifically! Mabel, your map was amazing, Powers bought it completely—and so fun to play with!" He ruffled her hair as she passed him again to take the cake to the kitchen; and then punched Stan's arm. "Stan my man with the heisting hands, good work at the police department and the motel! He never even noticed that file had been missing!" He turned toward Dipper. "You!" He looked at him. "You did your job."

"Thanks," Dipper said flatly.

Bill swooped into the kitchen. "And Ford!" He flung an arm around Ford's shoulders. Ford shrugged it off. Bill put it back. "Fordsyyy you dark horse, what a performance! You should play villains more often! The fun kind of villain, that is. Not the kind that drags innocent triangles through a mountain."

"'Innocent,'" Ford echoed. He pushed Bill off again and set his coffee down so he could accept the slice of cake Mabel was holding out.

Bill planted both hands on Ford's shoulders to keep him from wiggling away again. "What did you tell those government goons, anyway! I mean, I thought you did a good enough job at the museum last night—but when they got back from the shack, they were shaking in their shiny black shoes!"

"I didn't say anything that remarkable," Ford said. "I just said the shack was a top secret facility and dropped a couple of the biographical details you gave me to convince them I really am with the government."

"And you let them know you're our fake Blind Eye boss?" Bill said. "I am impressed!" (In the next room, Dipper quietly noted that Bill hadn't said he was "sincerely" impressed.) "Here I was afraid our worst-case scenario would be them figuring out we've got one actor playing two parts, but no! You, you made it an asset!"

Ford fought down a flattered smile. "It wasn't that big a leap. It fits in with this conspiracy narrative we're trying to spin."

"And so does the government using its own agents as guinea pigs for mind control weapons! Beautiful! You've upped your roleplaying chops since the last time you dragged me into a DD& More D game."

Ford was losing the battle with his facial expression. One corner of his mouth crept up as he asked, "Did he mention the bit about threatening to use him to find out whether the memory gun accelerates Alzheimer's?"

Bill's eye stretched wide open. "No," he gasped. "No way! Because his mother—? That's sheer evil! Oh, Fordsy, I am sincerely impressed!" (Dipper frowned.) "He'll be thinking about that every time he forgets his wallet for the rest of his life!"

For a moment, Ford's pride began to flag as he stopped thinking about doing an A+ job at protecting his family and started thinking about what this would mean for the agents they'd done it to; but he didn't get long to think about it before Bill went on, "How did you come up with that!"

"Ah," Ford said, "well. It was easy, really. After all, I knew that our goal was to gaslight these men and manipulate them into losing trust in every ally and authority figure they had so we could convince them to put all their trust in a deceptive con artist's word." He paused; and then a sly smile stretched across his face. "So I asked myself, 'What would Bill Cipher say to them?'"

Bill let out a shrill cackle. "Now that's my Sixer!" He ruffled Ford's hair roughly. "Listen to you! Best student I've ever had! Brilliant!"

Mabel shoved a plate of cake between them and jammed it into Bill's diaphragm.  "Here! I added sprinkles." 

Bill and Ford averted their gazes as Bill took the plate. "The cake already had sprinkles! I got one with sprinkles on purpose."

"And I added more," Mabel said firmly. "Grocery store bakeries are way too stingy! It's like they think we're gonna run out of sprinkles or something. Crazy!"

Bill shrugged. "Can't blame 'em. The Great 2015 Sprinkle Shortage is just around the corner." At Mabel's terrified look, he burst out laughing. "Kidding! Kidding! Your planet's never running out of sprinkles, you're fine."

"Jerk." Mabel punched his arm, then went back to cutting up cake.

Stan nudged Ford and muttered, "You're not falling off the wagon, are you?"

Ford grimaced, but he just slightly shook his head.

Stan dug into his cake and raised his voice. "So, I take it the plan worked?"

"Did it work!" Bill crowed. "We'll never see those guys again! I've got 'em convinced that every weird thing in town is tangled up in some secret weapons testing project connected to a Trembley cover-up they've been booted out of, and they'll either get brainwashed or arrested for treason by their own bureau if they keep digging! They—are—gone!" He beamed at the assembled family. "I'm proud of you all! You can't always trust a human to do a good job for duty, for charity, for love, or even for greed; but there's one thing you can always depend on to motivate a human!"

Digging into his cake, Stan asked, "Self-preservation?"

"No, shenanigans! And I love that about you people."

"Is this how you start all the conspiracies you've been involved in?" Dipper asked. He'd come in to accept his slice from Mabel.

"Pff, yeah, pretty much!" Bill rolled his eye. "Behind every giant, globe-spanning conspiracy... there's a very smallconspiracy made up of six regular guys who are really invested in convincing people that a giant globe-spanning conspiracy exists." He grabbed a bottle of tabasco sauce from the counter and started saturating his cake. "And framing secret societies for things they didn't do is always loads of fun!"

Ford had taken a seat at the kitchen table to eat his cake, which he immediately regretted when Bill elected to sit on top of the table and cross his legs. "So you admit you haven't actually run any globe-spanning conspiracies." He exchanged a sideways glance with Stan—get a load of this guy. Stan, mouth full of cake, rolled his eyes in agreement.

"You're impressed with what I can pull off with a non-existent budget, three old fogies, and two children. Admit it." He flung his arms open wide. (Ford moved his head out of the way of Bill's cake plate.) "Anyway, everybody lavish me in gratitude and praise for saving the Stans from federal prison! Go ahead! Shower me in reverence!" He looked at them expectantly. "No? I shoulda kept that cake to myself."

"I'll thank you!" Mabel flung her arms around Bill. "Thank you so much for keeping my grunkles safe. I know you didn't have to, and you still resent them for killing you and everything—so it means a lot to me that you did so much for us."

Bill warred with his expression to keep it steady as four different emotions threatened to cross his face. He patted Mabel's head and said weakly, "Gimme a 'Good Job' sticker and we'll call it even." He cleared his throat. "Hey! Speaking of rewards for good behavior, it was nice running around outside without being leashed like a dog! When's the next time I get to do that?" He looked at Ford and Stan expectantly.

They winced and looked at each other. Stan shoved another forkful of cake in his mouth.

Ford said, "We, uh... we haven't... discussed it—"

"Finished," Stan cut in, "haven't finished discussing it."

"Hmm!" Bill gave them a thin smile. "Okay! Let. Me. Know." He jabbed his fork violently into his cake.

####

"He did just save all our butts," Stan said. He and Ford had retreated to just about the only place where it was safe to talk without Bill eavesdropping: Ford's subterranean study. "He could've thrown us under the bus. What would we have done? Said, 'No, you don't understand, this guy is actually an evil alien triangle who wants revenge on us'?"

After Ford's near relapse into his old Cipherholic habits in the kitchen, he'd been worried that would be the first thing Stan brought up. But to his relief, they were on the same page. "I'm sure there was some self-interest involved," he said. "Bill doesn't have any legal identity, he wouldn't want the government figuring that out. But I'm also sure he could have talked his way out of that. And by all appearances, he behaved himself while out in public. Aside from shoplifting a cake."

"Which was delicious," Stan pointed out. "Nobody's dead, nothing's on fire—that we know about, anyway—"

"And we already know he isn't interested in running away from the shack. He's had at least three opportunities in the past week, and he's come back every time," Ford said. "So..."

So.

They eyed each other uneasily.

"Obviously we can't trust him completely unsupervised in town," Ford said.

"Obviously. He'd start a cult with a thousand dollar entry fee in an afternoon," Stan said. "But..."

But.

Ford said, "All right. Let's come up with some new rules."

####

(No TBOB-related edits in this one I don't think. Even the line about Bill being able to start a cult in a day is pre-TBOB (and pre-TINAWDC).

Anyway!! At long last, the end to this arc! Which expanded a lot more than I expected it to! Looking forward to hearing y'all's thoughts. The next big thing we've got is a flashback to Bill's howling void girlfriend (which, amazingly, I was in the middle of writing last summer when TBOB came out... before we found out he canonically had a howling void girlfriend). I'm still deciding whether I wanna post those chapters all together or separate them with some other chapters in between.

But, before we start that, we're gonna chill out and do nothing terribly important for a few chapters.)

[cup-o-stars]

Relativity Falls Lore Concept- The Oracle and Bill

The Oracle:

I was initially inspired by the Twitter user @SUwu159's depiction of the Oracle in their take on Relativity Falls, and made my own adaptation as I learned about her in canon.

(Assume she can change colors because I couldn't pick what I liked most)

This version of The Oracle isn't malicious per se, and does not desire the same conquest or chaos sought out by Bill. But she likes universes to be organized and quaint (or answers to another high power that demands it), and finds fulfillment in achieving these goals through any means necessary.

The Oracle and Dipper:

(Sorry if this dialogue tastes like a corndog in your mouth. I just needed to write a semi-resolution to Dipper's side of the relationship, ha.)

Getting into the real struggle with the Pines family. Dipper and Mabel don't fight and hold grudges like the Stans (that we've seen of), so my opinion is that they drifted apart in their late teens and twenties, both feeling pressured to be less attached at the hip. My current belief (though I'm very willing to rewrite this section) is that Mabel and Dipper both poured a lot of energy into pretty niche fields, and being very busy meant very short and rare windows to reach out. Both assumed the other was doing bigger and better things and felt self conscious / childish for wanting eachother's company.

I'm still considering Mabel's backstory, since I think she probably hit lower points than Dipper. You know. Starving artist, lol. But Dipper entered into paranormal investigation, pest control, etc. before his ghost + monster catching went far enough for his name to gain some notoriety. Hell, maybe Pacifica's family reached out to him to take care of "rats" that were actually ghosts, cementing his interest in Gravity Falls and giving him a window inter supernatural work.

Dipper was taken on as something of an apprentice to the Oracle 30ish years before canon as word of his good and dangerous deeds spread. However, what was at first a personal dream come true (saving lives with nerd magic) soon became a personal hell as the Oracle began to overwhelm Dipper with knowledge of various futures and universes where everything he cared about could be destroyed. He's always been over prepared and incredibly paranoid, and became obsessed with protecting the world by acting as a partner to the Oracle.

He ends up doing- or not doing- a lot of morally ambiguous things and gaining a lot of enemies. He is too ashamed to face his family- especially Mabel- with what he's done and burden them, giving the Oracle more to use against him to keep him working for her. Basically "you've already done all this and risked it all, there's nowhere to go if you stop now." Eventually this ends in her seeing him fit for her work and convincing him to hide out in and save other universes, which he gets trapped doing for the next three decades.

Little throw away idea: Pacifica could have been an investor or partner, but left as they uncovered secrets about the Northwest family. Maybe she wanted to undo something (debating making any of the Oracle's powers time related just because I hate time travel) or stop a current show of corruption, but Dipper had to stop her for the "greater good."

In the main universe, Mabel goes to Gravity Falls upon news of her brother's disappearance, searching for any loose end to trace back to him.

I love that in canon, Dipper is willing to do anything for Mabel, and Mabel gives it back. Dipper here spends all of his life keeping as many versions of her as safe as he can, and she spends all her life trying go seek him out- maybe even dropping a larger opportunity outside of Gravity Falls for her art and settling on business at the shack. Dipper wants Mabel alive, Mabel wants them both happy. I like the idea that it's Dipper and Mable vs. The Future but the future is a demon, alien thing.

Which leads me to...

Bill Cipher:

I'm actually gonna cover a couple versions of Bill I think are fitting for this AU, because I initially wasn't sure if I wanted him here at all.

Child Bill:

Pretty straight forward. Bill as a baby, child thing is tempting and this is the au where he'd exist. Personally though, I think Ford's friendship with Fidds would be more enriching to his growth, and Bill's personality is so close to Stan's they would likely be competing to fill very similiar roles. (If Bill behaves differenty as kid, I don't know about it.) Honestly, Bill is super similiar to Ford and Stan, and works better as a kind of foil or antagonist because of that (imo). I do find the mental image of Ford carrying Bill around funny. I do not enjoy human bill like, conceptually, so I'm probably never gonna design one as an adult or child, lol.

It would be cool to see a world where Bill didn't accidentally kill his parents though.

Bill - Reincarnated Original

Technically I guess they could all be reincarneted (especially baby Bill), but this version of Bill experienced and holds memories of the original canon events in GF. Beings like Bill and the Oracle can remember recent/soon approaching lives, and catch glimpses of more distant cycles as well.

What I like about Bill's recent role as an antagonist to Ford and Stan is that he constantly describes them in the terms of their worst traits, and sees them through the lens of the roles the world placed on them. In this AU, Bill is the epitome of the past (in this case a past life) coming back to bite the twins. He rattles their progress in communication as well as their sense of inner peace by bringing old Glass Shard Beach issues into Gravity Falls.

(Depicted here-> moments after Ford summons Bill using the same ritual as Gideon.)

The drawback to this is that it feels a lot like covering old ground.

Simply Bill:

This is pretty much just regular old Bill with the same fresh perspective as everyone else, and also the one I'm going with. He tried and failed to get Dipper's trust in the past and had to lay low at the arrival of the Oracle. Once they left, Bill targeted Mabel. I think it could be very interesting for Mabel and Bill to either have a fresh relationship wherein Bill is actively taking advantage of her desperation to find Dipper, or for Bill to be an old betrayal (not romantic, but not dissimilar to the opportunistic exes Stan and Ford have to be wary of and beat back under the rug regardless).

Either he shows himself to Mable early on, or decides that Gravity Falls is both Oracle-free and worth the time after either Ford or Mable summon him. Afterall, 30 years isn't much to him.

Maybe he exists in the background like he's always done, or the kids (being snoopy and disrespectful of Mabel's secrets) discover what Mabel's doing and run into him on their own.

Whether Bill is aware of the original series or not, I think he could be neat to stick in between Stan and Ford again for conflict. My favorite aspect about Relativity Falls is the prospects of the Stans having a larger support system and better tools to help themselves with. Beating Bill faster and better would be the ultimate testament to Mabel and Dipper's skills as functioning role models, even if Mabel is currently blinded by her focus on Dipper.

Stan and Ford will fight and they will make up, but this time maybe they can overcome it on their own.

I also think a good idea is having Ford and Stan's issues be completely Bill free (outside of like an episode or two's worth of relevance, unless he put them into a particularly stinging situation). It would feel fresher and also streamline the plot, lol.

Overview:

- Dipper is stuck travelling the multiverse with the Oracle and keeps himself sane by thinking of Mabel and protecting various versions of her.

- Mabel is investigating his disappearance in Gravity Falls and is working on a portal/portal equivalent with Bill to bring him back.

- The kids may or may not be aware of this.

Looking at the main series of events, I think it'd be neat go back to the apprenticeship conflict, where Ford could be approached by the Oracle (or something else that makes sense) with the promise of being a "hero," but knows better now because of Dipper and his experiences with Bill. It's kind of a more convoluted version of Ford's proposal to Dipper in canon, and they basically learn the same thing, lol. You can hang out with ghosts if you want, but demons are gonna get you. Maybe being a child with siblings is all you need.

(Stan could also be offered this, given the Oracle already knew he- or at least someone with his face- would beat Bill, but I think it's well established he isn't very interested in doing anything without family.)

All in all, things might be a bit crowded with two antagonists. But I do like the concept of Bill's arrival and subsequent chaos triggering Dipper and the Oracle's return to Mabel's dimension. I also love the idea of Bill, the Oracle, and some secret third thing all trying to pull the Pines family apart, and it's like a Man vs. God turned into a Family vs. Destiny thing, idk. Just trying to make it feel bigger.

Thank you for reading all this. It was a lot to draw. Next time I do anything for Relativity Falls, I'm gonna go back to the smaller things like Mabel bonding with the kids and stuff like that.

[looney-mooney-studio]

Thinking about that one joke in the Book of Bill that implied Bill might be the biological father of the Flynn kids. Thinking about how Linda Flynn had a secret career as a famous astrophysicist at one point. Thinking about how we don’t know exactly what Bill was doing in the 90s, and how he seems to want to skim over that part of his life, after Ford broke up with him for good but before the twins showed up in Gravity Falls.

Thinking about how Bill frequently hung out with famous musicians. Thinking about Linda, a brilliant young woman fresh off a bizarre pop star career, wanting to make a name for herself that ISN’T Lindana, might have found a new direction with an old friend (before he showed her his true colors.)

Thinking about Bill, fresh off a devastating breakup, trying again one more time to get SOMEONE on Earth to make him a portal. Trying to make the plan WORK. Trying to get a home for his friends in the face of a home dimension that was being destroyed (again). Having someone who’s COMPLETELY DIFFERENT from the man he was obsessed with, but who was no less brilliant and no less capable. (But, unfortunately for him, MUCH less gullible.)

Thinking about how Linda doesn’t want people to know about her former career as a famous astrophysicist. How she keeps this secret, even better than she did her past as Lindana. How she keeps the lid on this even TIGHTER. How she’s almost bitter about it. As if something HAPPENED.

I’m not saying Bill Cipher WAS Linda’s partner of at least five years, even going so far as to start a family with her before she saw his true colors and filed some sort of Uber-effective inter-dimensional restraining order against him, one-upping him so hard that he doesn’t even wanna think about it, but. Holy shit. Imagine

[year2000electronics]

Bill & Ford & A Book, Oh My!

DISCLAIMER: The Book of Bill has Bill Cipher serving as an unreliable narrator. If we go out trying to say something is "definitively a truth" or "definitively a lie", we're going to keep arguing about it until the heat death of the universe. This is just my own personal interpretation of the source material. If you don't agree, that's fine! Also TBOB spoilers abound.

So it's no secret that interest in the dynamic Bill & Ford have (enemies, platonic, romantic, formerly romantic, whichever way) has really skyrocketed since TBOB's release. Of course, there are the 'easy' culprits to point towards, with Mabel referring to Bill as 'being like a needy ex', and the whole O'Sadley's fiasco (Him literally crying over losing Ford and going "one Sixer, please"? Messy. Messy behavior. Still, I think it goes so much deeper than that.

Bill, being the unpredictable chaos entity that he is, also serves as the main antagonist for a show about family and having close bonds with each other. We don't really need to look into his inner psyche that much, because that's just not what he needed to be doing at that point in the cartoon. He's meant to be a way to divide the Pines, really. And a silly little guy. A silly little obstacle. So, naturally, when it came to Bill's arguably "closest" relationship to someone in the show (Ford), it was very easy to interpret it as Ford being tricked by a completely apathetic Bill, who was just using him as a rung on the ladder. And I do want to stress that Ford and Bill's physical actions remain fairly consistent throughout interpretations, and focusing on the fact that Bill badly hurt Ford is important, so if that's how you still see it, then fine by me! No harm no foul!

But I think the relationship, their story, their tragedy just becomes so much more interesting with the lens The Book of Bill has presented. We’re finally able to see Bill’s perspective as a “protagonist” of sorts in a medium where he’s not just something to defeat- and that’s something we’ve never gotten before, so it’s shedding light on an area we didn’t know about for sure! Again, Bill is lying to the character of "the reader", so we can't trust it as a completely unbiased source. But we can speculate on where the "truth" is between these lies.

First of all, Bill's backstory was that he destroyed his home dimension- we knew that already. But now, with the extra content we have about it, we see something interesting- that Bill's backstory mirrors Ford's to an uncanny degree.

Both of them champion their intelligence, although they highlight how it set them apart from others, as well as highlighting their own 'rare mutation/birth defect'.

Again, with this self-isolation already spurred on from their "weirdness", but also as a little aside, I would also like to highlight that Bill being 'ready to be one', looking up at the stars, striving to 'reach' them, is a shared motif he has with Ford, who is also associated with space, the stars, and reaching them.

Bill's 'trying-really-quick-to-convince-Ford' fantasy sequence even has him in a field of stars as a sort of "ultimate wish fulfilment". Remember, this is Bill showing Ford something he thinks would win Ford over, at least a little.

(And I'll take a quick time out for this train of thought to point out- hey! Bill admits he sought out most of his other victims, but Ford summoned him, and it took him by surprise! That adds a fun little layer of complexity to everything, don't you think? Another little layer of humanity for this whole mess- Bill didn't expertly seek out the 'perfect victim' or anything, it was just... luck. Some twist of fate.)

Anyways.

Obviously, the intro page to the 'Sixer' section has a ton of red flags galore (I mean, poor guy's literally depicted as a hapless puppet. C'mon, Bill. Not to mention the "OH BOY HE'S ALREADY SO ISOLATED, IT'S PERFECT" thing.). This guy is kind of a terrible companion no matter how you slice it. He's terrible to everyone close to him, because he's a deeply traumatized character who refuses to heal. BUT, the wording here is kinda deliciously intriguing to me. All of humanity is Bill's puppets, his future victims, but to me, it's clear that he holds a fondness for Ford. From "This is what a partner looks like", to "Me and Sixer could be the perfect team", to "He had what I always wanted- fingers" (drawn to his strangeness, maybe?), "He was destined for so much more", "I looked at his futures and giggled", and most stand-out to me, "Society calls these people freaks, I call them Henchmaniacs!"

Going back to the pre-Book of Bill era I was talking about, Bill's offers for Ford to join him were always in a sort of murky territory for interpretation. The first offer could definitely be read as mocking, with the line "WITH THAT SIX-FINGERED HAND, YOU'D FIT RIGHT IN WITH MY FREAKS!" in particular making it seem like Bill was only saying that to rub Ford's strangeness in his face, and the second offer to join Bill being under a new circumstance- that now Bill is desperate and believes Ford is the only one who can help him. But the Book of Bill mentions the idea of Ford becoming a Henchmaniac more than once, and also has Bill upset at losing Ford and claiming "he'll be back", as well as Bill seeming to use "freak" more like a badge of honour, and having previously complimented Ford's six fingers (In the Sixer intro page, he highlights Ford's fingers as a quality he likes, and in the pages about bodies, he states that "humans should have more fingers". To me, that first offer reads more now like Bill being genuine about finding Ford a place among his misfits. ...Although, the moment Ford says no, he does zap him into a statue. So. Y'know. He's still got issues.

(Yeah, again, red flag city. "Just hazing"? Bill, none of what you were doing over there was okay! You might have suppressed everything traumatic that happened to you, but that doesn't mean you can go around traumatizing everyone! Good lord.)

Bill has already been imply to like other characters because they remind him of himself. Pointing towards a connection with a character Bill DOESN'T have a weird undefinable ex-partner thing with... Mabel! Alex has says in multiple official media and interviews that Bill sees a lot of himself in Mabel, and essentially, that he thought Mabeland was the perfect prison because if HE liked all that awesome, uncontrolled chaos over any family or friends, why wouldn't SHE? And we see that again in TBOB. So basically, what I'm saying is that we have two characters to back up the fact that Bill seems gravitated towards humans or other living beings that he views as being 'like him'- beings he can relate to! So, y'know, what does that say about Bill and Ford?

There's also Bill's plans for the reader and "Weirdmageddon 2.0", where he portrays the reader as getting to, like, perch on his arm like a little bird and get their own little crown? And specifically calls out Ford for not going through with things?? Okay, Bill??

AND Ford not only being the only human mentioned on the list of people he "definitely doesn't miss so stop asking", but also having his own category? Alright, man.

Of course, another point to the 'Hey, maybe Bill can actually feel emotions towards humans besides complete and total apathy' club is this page here, which has ALSO been hotly debated! Certainly, we know he's telling the truth about his home dimension being destroyed, and we know that he's lying about the 'monster', but some interpret this scene as Bill not being remorseful at all and playing his reaction up to earn Ford's sympathy. And me, personally, I dunno if I agree. I feel like the specific inclusion of Bill "looking distant, more distant than I'd ever seen him" (Mirroring the fact that he keeps blacking out when thinking about all his large-scale massacres) and him "laughing joylessly", I think this sequence is meant to tell us that Bill actually is being vulnerable with Ford here, it's just hidden under layers and layers of deceit, whether towards himself or Ford or both.

And finally for my Book of Bill collection stuff, there's the stuff that could be read as more romantic in nature. In the 'love' section, Bill claims he doesn't love anyone, but, like-

Come on. You can disagree with me that it's Ford, but he does have exes. And he's clearly not over them. Shrimpy little liar. And then there's the fact that a lot of his hokey 'advice' is stuff he ends up directly doing to Ford.

These rats.

The Love Cage.

The Book of Bill really outlined all that in bold, but in my opinion, it was never an entirely new revelation! Bill seems to hold a preference for Ford over other humans in the show. He shows up in Ford's dreams just to say hi, tease him, and gloat (Mabelcorn) unlike the other two dream appearances he's made (Dreamscaperers, Sock Opera) which were exclusively for business purposes. Unlike every other character that gets exclusively one nickname for their zodiac sign, Ford gets multiple (Fordsy, IQ, Sixer, smart guy, brainiac, the list goes on). Bill asks Ford to join him TWICE, whereas anyone else who tries gets their face rearranged, put in a cage and made to dance, frozen in stone, etc etc. And finally, I think, the most emblematic of Bill's weird, specific relationship with Ford, is that whereas everybody else gets turned into stone, Ford got turned into gold.

Which kinda sums up their whole thing up pretty well? Bill gave him special treatment by turning him into a golden statue (similar to yellow ha ha), always holding him close, but, like... Dude. You still kidnapped a man and turned him into a statue and then threatened to kill his niece and nephew. I don't think it will change his opinion on you if he's the Most Pampered Hostage, Actually. I just don't think that we need to explore the relationships between characters as simply "Well, this character hurt the other one, so we shouldn't really think about why or what they feel personally, because what they did was bad, so there".

Bill & Ford interest me because they're a tragedy in motion. We can see that Bill and Ford mirror each other in a multitude of ways, and we can see that they both do have positive feelings towards each other at the time they meet, and we see that Bill very desperately wants Ford to be just like him in the unhealthy ways; the ways that make Bill destroy entire universes and compartmentalize it all, because maybe then, he can finally have the companionship he so deeply aches for. Bill and Ford both had tough, lonely upbringings, but Ford moved on from that "I don't need you" mentality. That's what saved him. Bill didn't, and that's what got him where he was in the end. I feel like that's just so much more interesting than Bill just being a flat entity that makes abuse Happen to Ford, just as another Event in his life. I mean, isn't it just SO much more interesting that Ford humanizes Bill, in a way? That Ford makes him- in Bill's own words- "sentimental"? That a chaotic dream demon has regrets and loves and favourites and connections? It's the same thing with Fiddleford & Ford, although, obviously, to a MUCH lesser extent than Bill & Ford. But you get what I mean, right? You know that Fiddleford and Ford are going to undo each other in the end, and the path to that downfall is... it's telling a story! I like the story of it all! I think that's what I've been invested in and intrigued by all these years- the story, the tragedy of Bill and Ford. No matter what form it takes.

(Plus, as tumblr user fordtato pointed out in their own essay (not tagging because this post is messy enough as is oh god), hey, Ford now has two incredibly queer-coded narratives, with one of them being about how he recovered and was able to heal from an abusive relationship. And, well, I think that's just neat.)

Anyways, that's the end of the post. Thanks for reading this long!

[grimoirguestbook]

Book of Bill Website Codes

(Organized by category with notes)

Here's my list of inputs that work on the website :)

Hopefully the read more works like I think it does and I don't accidentally spoil anybody

That being said by clicking read more you will see All of the codes I have found so far

Please be mindful and try not to spoil anybody else with this information. So please be careful if reblogging

I got everything I have collected/found on here, it's a bit messy right now but After I take a small break I'll reorganize and add notes but for now everything's on here, please so check out the posts linked in the log as once I lost all leads I looked to their post for other inputs :)

Also feel free to put any you know of that Aren't on here in the replies I'm sure there's some missing

I will be updating as I find more so check back in if you can! :)

Thank you!

They'll be categorized by

Neat Tv text- Nothing special the tv just gets some text to it

Tab pages-brings you to another tab/website

Audio/video- Audio/video clip plays

Readables- A picture will pop up on screen that you can read

Printables- You can print them :D!

Other- Hard to categorize

Note:

If an * is next to a name that means that you can get different results for the same prompt

(Any personal notes will be in parenthesis)

-> An arrow means that the Passwords are found in the previous page

ex- Page with code that translates to "dork"-> Dork

Slashes/mean/that/any/of/the/prompts/listed/will/take/you/to/the/same/page

Blue text with an underline is a link! Haha! would you look at that! it works!

Will Keep this updated as I find more and will Note the logs at the end of this post

?????

For the mason page anagrams I know WHO they are I just don't know WHAT to do with them, i know it says cryptogram codex at the bottom i think i have to do something with the anagram results but I'm unsure what that is. Stanford Pines Stanlie Pines Gideon Charles Gleeful Preston Northwest Pacifica Elisa Northwest

Notes to Dipper Prompt: (Unsure why- Maybe going to Blind eye page and blurring it but changes from dipper being told to stare at the sun to "I THINK ITS WORKING! STARE HARDER! HARDER!" and the page looking burnt I Think it has to do with how many input codes you enter, It now says "you've almost solved it" and is even more burnt than before, it is now full black)

Neat Tv text-

Pines

Blendin

*Triangle

Axolotl

Ducktective

Book of Bill

TJ Eckleburg (Great Gatsby)

Nothing

Something

*Ciphertology

Deer Teeth

Scalene

Scrimbles

No

Fortnite/skibidi/ohio/rizz/crypto/elon/gyatt/Doge

Life

Death

Portal

Question

Answer

Euclid

*Well Well Well Being

Reality

The Universe

Journal 1

Journal 2

Journal 3

Theyll see/They'll all see/I see

Filbrick

Disney/Disneyland/Mickey Mouse

CIA/FBI/NSA

333 Sundapple Lane Cozy Creek IL 60714-94611

Season 3

Season 2

Season 1

Caryn

Euclydia

Skeleton

Who are you

Burnside

Family matters

When will I die

Multilevel mark/caesaratbashvigenere

Scientology

Easter egg

Sevral times

oh yes they both

Am i Blanchin

Bye gold

Youre insane

History

Hologram

Scalene

Euclid

Titans Blood -> Owl Trowel

Text Chain (You get questions who's answer is another password)

Riddle->Yes -> Mountain Dont -> Lyre Liar -> Harolds Ramblings -> Union Made -> 29121239168518 -> Grebley Hemberdreck -> Rat -> 3466554 -> Tinsel Snake -> Torture Mentally -> Xgqrthx -> 333 sundapple lane cozy creek IL 60714-94611-> MutliLevel mark->emmaline butternubbins->Dispense my treat

What i thought it was (with answer sources):

Riddle->Yes -> Mountain Dont -> Lyre Liar -> Harolds Ramblings -> Union Made -> 29121239168518 -> Grebley Hemberdreck -> Rat -> 3466554 -> Tinsel Snake -> Torture Mentally -> Xgqrthx -> Titans Blood -> Owl Trowel

Answers found in TBOB- Don't Know, NA, Mcguckets dream page, Medieval page, Anti-Cipher Section- tonic page, Anti Cipher Section- Newspaper, Top Secret page, Textbook page- Skin, Dark Ages Page, Anti Cipher Section-Epilogue, A winter break- footprints page, Book of Bill Cover options page, Never trust a wizard page, Have you dreamed this fellow ad (references informercial in show)

Tab pages-

Abuelita

Dippy Fresh

Alex Hirsch/Alex/Hirsch

*Stan/Stanley (his outfit in ebay searches plus a READABLE with SICK music mind you-Check readable section for more info)

Grunkle Stan

*Gideon (second option unlocked after fully "mableizing" the room)

Waddles

Mcgucket/ Old man McGucket/Fiddleford

Bill/Cipher/LLIB/LLIBREHPIC

Bill Cipher/Rehpic

Zyler (Goes to same place as Craz)

Craz (Goes to same place as Zyler)

Toby Determined

Gravity Falls

Mystery Shack

Not a phase

Blanchin

Peak

Cray Cray

Fixinit1

Meow

Fuck alex/Fuck you alex

Globnar

Monster

Audio/video-

Babba/Discogirl

*Gideon (unlocked after fully "mabelizing" the room)

Tad Strange

Pinata (DEFINATELY WORTH WATCHING)

Vallis Cineris (Found on wall when lightning strikes)

Hey Nerd

Weird (Love him)

Spookemups/Spooky/Scary

That's just a/Theory/Gametheory/Matpat (<3)

One Eyed King-> Naitsuaf (Morse Code) ( early years page)

Forget the past

Im still on your mind

Dorito/Nacho

Just fit in

Rubberhose

Love/Boyfriend

Hectoring

Conspiracy

God/Frillium/Help me

Burned inside

Kook

Kubrick

Small/audio log/music (nothing showed up at first, turned off tv and strange audio played, needs to be reversed)

L is real 2401 (soos my boy)

Readables-

Mason (Dippers real name)

*Dipper (personal notes in ???- keep opening the card to get different results)

Pacifica-> PlatinumPaz

Ford/Standford/Sixer

Wendy

Robbie (def worth a look IMO)

Soos-> Pinata

Cursed (Translated from candle in background)

Ad Astra Per Aspera

Blind Eye->Theyll see (Will blur if clicked on, cannot un-blur, may change dipper?)

Weirdmageddon

Lies

Sorry

Booberry (Decoded from popsicle stick)

Even his lies are lies (Front paper)

Tantrum ( code on Bills Mugshot page)

Suck it Merlin

Shave your Grandma (leads to dippy fresh page)

Baby Bill/baby/lalalalala/daddy/mommy

Owl Trowel

Hotxolotl->Seven eyes-> r34lity

Love ya bro

Fuck/Shit/Fuckyou/bitch/slut/sex

Baaaa-> Black Sheep

naitsuaf (click are you ready-> Sign "pleasure doing business with you -candle light turns blue- OR be a coward (losing sound effect plays)

oroborous-> Frillium

Glass sand beach

math/trigonometry/

horror/creepypasta

destruction is a form of creation

unreality

you can't kill an idea

virus

Occurremusiterum

*Stan (click multiple times to get-once there click "how he beat me several times)

Card

Theraprism

Dionarap->stod eht tcennoc

Printables-

Tyrone/Clone/Paperjam

Curse Wittebane (translates runes on page about witches)

Paper is just book skin ( BE WARNED: automatically downloads a photoshop file and crashses the cite)

Irregular (has code on it)

Divorce/breakup

Other-

Mabel (You get fun stickers and a popping sound :) )

*Giffany ( You put her name in multiple times and it forcibly downloads pictures of her and a text document to your computer, scared me a little Not gonna lie here)

Kings of New Jersey (downloads "secret code" font)

cryptogram codex (downloads cryptogram fonts)

dispense my treat-> Kook (downloads a bunch of cool wallpapers)

Log:

One hour after posting: Added 17 new words

Found by me: Booberry, Mountain Dont, Xgqrthx, titans blood, lyre liar, haralds ramblings, union made

Accidentally found by looking at a post: Sorry

Gifted by replier (Thank you!): MATPAT, yes, no, Fortnite, life, death, portal, question, answer

30 minutes after last update: 9 Words added

Found by me: Theraprism, 29121239168518, Grebley Hemberdreck, Rat, 3466554, Tinsel Snake, Torture Mentally, Fordtramarine, Gun (shocked that worked It was a joke- "bill cipher has A GUN")

Like THREEEEEEE ish hours later?

Found by me: one eyed king, well well well being, shave your grandma, paper is just book skin, even his lies are lies, forget the past, irregular, euclid, tantrum, suck it merlin

Like 12 hours later

Found by me: Reality, Baby Bill, Reality, The universe, Giffany (why is it two Fs, Blarg) They'll see, I'm still on your mind, Journal 1, Journal 2, Journal 3

Gifted to me by a replier (Thank you!): Owl Trowel

Idk- Later

Found by me: hotxolotl, lova ya bro, kings of new jersey, fuck, just fit in

Found on twitter(JasonRitter): Dorito, Blanchin'

Gifted to me by Replier(Thank you!): Gideon's option knowledge

Even MORE later:

Me: Seven eyes, r34ality, filbrick, disney, skibidy, rizz, ohio, love, cia, fbi, rubberhose, 333 sundapple lane cozy creek il 60714-94611, bahhhh, black sheep, naitsuaf, oroborous,theyll see, theyll all see Frillium, occuremusiterum (some of these i gave myself because i was really close but just missed a small detail/spelling)

Taken from here and Here Because I got stumped: Season 3, Season2 , Season 1, Glass shard beach, caryn, Euclydia, Peak, Theory, Cray Cray, Help me, mickey mouse, hectoring, divorce, breakup, skeleton, math, history, monster, gyatt, who are you, fixinit1, conspiracy, riddle, cryptogram codex, horror, creepypasta, trigonometry, god, boyfriend,baby, lalalalala, scary, trigonometry,just blendin, morality, burnside, family matters, when will i die, elon, multilevel mark, goodnight sally,paper jam, tourist trap,the duchess approves,shape, scientology, meow, nacho, crypto,sevral times,easter egg, oh yes they both, daddy, mommy, burned inside, destruction is a form of creation, i see, unreality, you can't kill an idea, am i blanchin, fuck alex, fuck you alex, fuck you, shit, bye gold, nsa, globnar,disneyland,kook, kuibrick,virus,that's just a, you're insane

Next day

Found online: Dionarap, stod eht tcennoc, dispense my treat

[clarisimart]

It's been months and my obsession with Ford Pines remains strong, I'm dozens on dozens of fanart and a (so far) 100k fic in, and I am still rotating him and his relationship with Bill in my mind like a microwave.

I've reached some conclusions tho

I think what I find SO SO fascinating about Ford and Billford is (along with Ford's general "there's something so so wrong with him ❤️" vibes) is that we are talking about just a guy (a freaky, and very smart geeky guy yes, but still a regular human) that managed to get A GOD obsessed with him.

I know I'm not the first to point this out, but like, Ford being obsessed/ worshiping bill? Yeah, duh! A being with phenomenal cosmic powers comes in with the secrets of the universe and showers you with praise and affection, ofc you become obsessed and devoted.

(AND YET it is not blind and unconditional, as soon as the scales fall from Ford's eyes that devotion turns to hate / desire for revenge)

However BILL, the cosmic horror, the god, becoming obsessed with Ford? Not only is it not expected or obvious, BUT ALSO BILL'S OBSESSION WITH FORD IS WAY, WAY MORE UNCONDITIONAL/ UNBREAKABLE THAN FORD'S.

Ford's been dedicating every single moment for 30 years into trying to kill Bill , and yeah the obsession remains, but he doesn't want cipher alive... BILL HOWEVER, HE DOESN'T FUCKING KILL THE ONLY GUY WHO ACTUALLY KNOWS HOW TO STOP AND OR KILL HIM DESPITE HAVING SO MANY CHANCES TO DO SO!!!

and the motherfucker triangle STILL THINKS HE CAN CONVINCE HIM TO JOIN HIM AND RULE WITH HIM?!?!?! FORD SHUTS DOWN THE PORTAL AND BILL STILL IS LIKE "OH ITS JUST A HISSY FIT, HE'LL CALM DOWN AND COME BACK TO ME"

FORD PUTS FUCKING METAL IN HIS SKULL TO KEEP HIM OUT, AND BILL IS STILL LIKE "STANFORD MY OLD PAL 🥰🥺❤️ FORDSY!!!!!😘😍 LET ME SERENADE YOU ❤️💜🧡💛💚🩵💙

Ford builds a weapon that can actually kill him and when he shoots at Bill with it, fully intending on killing him, Bill's reaction is being FUCKING HAPPY ABOUT FINDING FORD... UNBELIEVABLE

[tinfoil-jones]

Jerk Ford AU: Secret “Shames”

You'd be hard pressed to get Jerk Ford to admit being ashamed of anything. But, there are some things he either keeps to himself, or if he tells people he makes sure to talk about it like it's funny or not a big deal. Pre-Weirdmageddon, here's a list of Jerk Ford's 'shames', not unlike the Secret Shames list for Canon Stanley.

Acquiring His Quantum Destabilizer. Because he didn’t dedicate himself to destroying Bill Cipher, he didn’t build it himself initially and only finished it when he returned to his own dimension. Jerk Ford got the majority of the thing by taking it from another Ford in the multiverse; he found his dead body after getting pinged by a long-running distress beacon. 

He buried him, ignored how unsettling it was to literally bury himself, and at least had the decency to write "𝓗𝓮𝓻𝓮 𝓛𝓲𝓮𝓼 𝓢𝓽𝓪𝓷𝓯𝓸𝓻𝓭 𝓟𝓲𝓷𝓮𝓼" on the nearest large rock. And then, in smaller letters and a lot less decency he wrote "𝐼 𝒹𝒾𝒹𝓃'𝓉 𝓀𝓃𝑜𝓌 𝒽𝒾𝓂 𝓅𝑒𝓇𝓈𝑜𝓃𝒶𝓁𝓁𝓎 𝒷𝓊𝓉 𝒽𝑒 𝓌𝒶𝓈 𝓅𝓇𝑜𝒷𝒶𝒷𝓁𝓎 𝒶 𝒹𝒾𝒸𝓀 𝓃𝑔𝓁” under it.

His Middle Name Used To Be Filbrick. His father legally changed it to 'Menace' when he was fifteen years old as a punishment for getting the entire Pines family permabanned from the only Krogers in Glass Shard Beach.

Anemia. While there are various versions of Stanford Pines who wear several layers even in the summer due to embarrassing tattoos, and/or horrific scarring from surviving in the multiverse, but Jerk Ford doesn't have that problem.

Bill gave up possessing him early on, and Jerk Ford didn't get into as many fights because he'd rather run off and escape to terrorize the multiverse another day. 

The real reason that he wears layers is because he has an iron deficiency from malnutrition and running a lot, and he gets easily cold because of it.

New Joisey. He has a Jersey drawl just like Stan does, but he hides it. It only comes out when he's in a vulnerable state (i.e never), or if he's in a road rage. He doesn't know if this is unique to him, or if all versions of him are like this.

His First Hate Club. The Ford Hate Club in the multiverse that is mostly made up of other Fords isn’t the first of its kind. In High School, Stanley had started a “Stan Pines Fan Club” which people joined this time unlike in canon. However, he was promptly voted out of it when the other members found out it was a fanclub for both Stan Twins and not just Stanley. 

It then changed into the Stanford Pines Hate Club, which the school allowed because they couldn’t stand him either. A few of the teachers, the head of the PTA board, and even the District Superintendent joined. 

What He Said To Escape When He Was Almost Killed. He knows it was low even for him.

"He died thinking you saw him as worthless, didn't he? Isn't that the last thing you ever said to him? Bill didn't make you say that, no one did. That was you."

Being Frequently Mistaken For The Stanford Pines From The Jerk Dimension. It’s exactly the same as Dimension-R34LITY, except the beef jerky isn’t expensive. 

That Time He Worked At A Space Hooters. In his defense, the uniform wasn’t that different from what he wore in college.

Darkest Thought. He noticed the number of Stanford Pines in the multiverse started to dwindle more and more throughout the years.

"Maybe I'll never get home, and I'll just die out here."