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Day 963 since The Incident. Dipper's day opened rather unfortunately. Like, discovering his cave had been raided and nothing was left, level of unfortunate. There was a musky and humid scent to the air. The sky was dark with heavy storm clouds and shed little light into the cave. It was truly impossible to find out what time it was, but most would assume morning. It was eerily quiet. All these together promised rain, and soon.
“Come on, come on, where is it?” Dipper muttered to himself, barely audible. He had to find that tiny (and fragile) time machine! In his rush and the poor light of the cave, he didn’t notice it slipping out from his pocket and onto the rocky ground, where it cracked and shattered into hundreds of pieces. It had been his only hope to see his family again. Mabel, Stan, Ford, even Wendy and Soos. He felt deep despair present itself in his gut. It was lost and it was all his fault. He couldn’t figure out how to make the time machine work, it was from a future that no longer existed. It was indescribable and had caused him much frustration over the years. He had been hoping to use it to go back at least 700 days and fix it, keep them from ruining everything.
It was all their fault. They were a secret society that worshipped the current leader. Dipper didn't understand why they supported that monster. Dipper was in hiding from Bill, at the moment. He had become terrifying. If Bill had been scary back when he was with his family, with Mabel, and Grunkle Stan, even Waddles, he was downright petrifying now. They said he was a demon able to take any form. (Dipper didn't know, anymore. He tried to stay as far away from Bill as possible, thank you very much.) Bill was the last thing you saw before you died, the first thing you saw after you were born, the one that haunted both your nightmares and your waking hours. Dipper had pondered Bill's weakness many times over the years. There had to be SOME way to stop him, and it itched at his brain, but ever since his encounter the revived Society of The Blind Eye, his memory had never been the same. It was a miracle he could remember his family so well. It was a shame he couldn’t remember everything, he couldn’t help but think over his meager breakfast, leftovers from supper. It was bland and he wished he had Mabel's cooking, despite it's...interesting aspects. Hell, he'd chug a gallon of Mabel Juice, just to see anyone, even Pacifica, again. He wished Mabel was here. He had no idea how he’d see her again, especially with a broken time machine. If only Soos was here. He’d been a whiz at that kinda thing. It had been a tragedy when Dipper found him. Soos’s still had his handy screwdriver. (Needless to say, Dipper gave him the burial he would’ve wanted.) Dipper noted it was probably about time to go outside but was interrupted.
"Stranger, stranger, please help me!” An old woman’s voice cried, heavy with pain. Dipper didn’t know how the voice had found his cave, it was well hidden. That promised trouble. But if it was Mabel, would you go help her?, Something prodded in his mind. With that, he went to go help the poor soul.
“What's wrong? Are you injured anywhere?” The sight Dipper saw was rather gruesome, a person was standing over the old woman’s corpse. The sour scent of infection lingered in the air but Dipper couldn’t figure out who it was from. (It was a miracle the woman had lived that long, in full honesty, most were gone in the first year. Dipper suspected something was up.)
“Please, she attacked me, then when she was losing, she called out to you! I only used self-defense!” The strange man claimed, and Dipper couldn’t help but feel bad for him. The man couldn’t have been more than 5 years older than him.
“Are you injured?” Dipper reiterated. The man paused before answering.
“No, I was able to defend myself,” the man’s(?) voice warped and it caused Dipper to pause. What had he invited into his cave? Ever since The Incident, there had been many, many creatures and he hoped that this wasn’t the elusive Shapeshifter.
“Would you like anything to eat?” Dipper's voice trembled as he addressed the person(?). He really hoped he was wrong.
“If you have anything to eat, I am famished,” It said, having gotten its voice back in control.
“Oh, uh, I have a little bit of squirrel left, I hope that’s alright.” Dipper stuttered, hoping the echo of the cave kept it from noticing. He bumped into the side of the cave while getting the food. It seemed to take an agonizing amount of time for it to finish eating, which it seemed to be having trouble with. It was probably just a few minutes in actuality but to Dipper, it felt like hours. He just wanted it to leave. He should've never answered the door.
Then it started to change. From a nice(-ish) person to...something. It was grotesque, both the process and the result. It went inch by inch starting at the land and feet until they joined at the torso. Once they joined, they went up double the speed to the head. It was impossible to describe and constantly changing, it was like it had no form. It easily broke through the top of the cave, which was around 10 feet tall. It was thousands of colors and went from a triangle to a head to a thousand arms, attached where the shoulders would be. Then ten other indescribable forms, until it settled on the shape Dipper saw in his nightmares. It was the one who'd killed his great uncle, who drove Mabel insane. It was then that Dipper knew he messed up. And the thought paralyzed him. This was no puny Shapeshifter. No, this was Bill. He had helped him out, given him food.
“I see you’re already aware of who I am. But please, in the future, quiet your thoughts. I am pleased, however, that my little ruse worked,” Bill said, a tad smugly. His voice was distorted to the point he could barely understand Bill. He approached him, bending down slightly to keep the cave from coming down around them. (Dipper had a feeling that he could probably collapse it and get out alright, so Bill wanted something from him. That couldn’t be good.) Wait, little ruse? What ruse?
“The old woman. Unfortunately, it seems that a sour scent always ends up in my creations,” Dipper understood now, neither of them had been infected since the woman didn’t exist. It had just been one of Bill's…(how had he worded it?) creations.
“Let’s make a deal. I want you on my team and in return, I’ll fix your little doohickey there. I’ll even show you how to use it,” Bill wanted to make a deal with him? Dipper had forgotten about the time machine in Bill's arrival. Yet one question kept repeating itself.
“Why you? Simple. You’ve survived this long, you think rationally, you can stomach the gore, dead bodies, and I’d get a Pines on my team. It’d be nice payba-” Bill cut himself off there, but Dipper was so caught up in his thoughts that he didn’t notice.
If he accepted, he’d get to see Mabel and his family again. But if he declined, then he would probably kill him. But was it right? Who knows what the leader of the universe would want from him. And the first and last time he made a deal with Bill, he'd ended up with 7 more scars. Mabel making a deal with him had been her downfall, everyone's downfall. He mentioned gore and death so that couldn’t be good. And if he went back, then hopefully, this dipper wouldn’t exist, because this future wouldn’t exist. Would it create some sort of paradox? But-he had to see Mabel again. No, it's worth it to see Mabel again. Right? It's worth it to keep Mabel from becoming what she did.
Unbeknownst to Dipper, it began to rain violently as he reached out and shook Bill's hand.