Chapter Text
◬ Date Published: 7/08/2017◬
◬ Date Revised: 21/05/2021◬
…
Bill Cipher blinked. And he blinked again.
He didn’t know where or how he got where he was, all he knew is that he just gained consciousness and was extremely confused on any other details.
Bill looked at everything surrounding him, in the dark vast of nothing. He flew around, not knowing where he was, but as far as he could tell, he was alone, something he didn’t quite understand yet. The space around him felt empty and unnerving and it felt like an eternity passed before he came to his ‘senses’. These weren’t senses that he was familiar with, much less a feeling he could certainly pinpoint a sensation or name to. His very existence was so sudden and newborn- one second he wasn’t there, and the next, he was.
Glancing at his hands in existential dread wasn’t an action he could perform either, as all he was then was a collection of atoms that had gained consciousness. He didn’t know what he looked like, what he was, or what to do.
It was at this time, that he asked himself; how was he here? What was he? How was he created?
Who created him? Who created Bill Cipher?
Creation. It’s very concept creating a never ending cycle of, “If a creator created us, who created the creator?” It was an exhausting endless string of apprehensive questions, ones that won’t never meet a satisfactory answer, at least for any known, conscious, sane being.
It made him feel strange. Not knowing what was happening panicked him slightly. Another feeling he was incredibly unfamiliar with.
Bill tried to remember any previous memories, anything that can let him know what was going on, but there were no previous memories to grasp onto in the first place. There was nothing, and even the idea that one can think and is in control of their own actions was absurd. Especially for a new entity such as Bill.
It alarmed him that words, stated in his own, (incomprehensible for literally anyone else in the universe) foreign, speech ran across his mind, but despite his understanding that this was a form of personal communication, his thoughts were vague and unclear.
The world around Bill was mind-boggling. It was disorganized and messy and was the exact breeding environment for the madness and havoc that would soon come. But things, although considered 'fun’ or rather, 'eventful’ to some, it also felt, like described before, untidy.
It didn’t feel… stable.
Comparably to a scale that held pounds of gold on one of its plates while the other had a few pathetic pebbles. It felt like it was ready to collapse at any moment, where no ordinary person could feel at peace with these surroundings. Not like an ordinary’s person wouldn’t have their brain melted upon contact within this dimension, but it wasn’t an idea that crossed Bill’s mind. Hell, he didn’t know other beings could exist.
With a world left to play with, he quickly made himself comfortable. Not exactly the brightest decision, considering it was like a mouse nestling in a caged rat trap, completely aware of its outcome but rather not caring instead of attempting to leave.
Bill wasn’t exactly a being you would describe as particularly patient. He felt like he needed to be entertained almost all the time. A bit like a king with his jester.
Eventually, Bill just got… well, bored.
There wasn’t anything new to see in his dimension, and to his disbelief, it hadn’t collapsed like he had expected it to. It was the only aspect of that home that he was counting on to give him a final reign of unpredictability. The prolonging wait of collapse and destruction was, in his eyes, the best way to say goodbye. He didn’t know if that would cause the end of his own existence, but that’s exactly what made it so thrilling.
Now it was lame. He knew all there was to know about it. It was predictable and it wasn’t fun in the slightest. It was… the same ol’, same ol’.
So he left.
'Left’ meaning Bill destroyed it.
After billions of years, Bill knew that it wasn’t going to last long. So he destroyed his own dimension for as long as he pleased. Burning chaos. Maybe just to earn a few more moments of satisfaction. After all, all the other entities lived there. Lived.
And out of all honesty? He hated living there, and he had said so himself.
"Flat minds in a flat world with flat dreams,” he described it as, something he would end up murmuring himself constantly later. But from there on out, he didn’t know where to go.
It wasn’t until Bill came across an intergalactic foam wedged between dimensions. It was boiling hot, festering and over brimming with dark matter, constantly shifting. Despite it’s dominating heat, it was nonetheless, just as inconsistent, if not more, in temperature as size was with the previous dimension. It was unstable.
Bill took this into account. It was a risk, but that’s something he was more than willing to overlook. In fact, its appeal mostly came from the sudden change and its threat. He knew this place had no laws and no stability, but maybe he could start anew.
He could remake it, make it into a fun world - a better world.
And so he did. With a new sense of identity and an overflowing amount of ego and fortitude, Bill named the foam the Nightmare Realm.
So for trillions of years, he made himself at home. It was way better than the 2nd dimension, he could tell you that. He had other monsters there as well to keep him company, something he hadn’t come to realise could be a thing until recently. Unfortunately for them, Bill treated them like slaves, but that was besides the point.
All in all? Bill was doing OK.
His overzealous attitude flourished under his domineering mindset that constantly told him, “Enjoy what you destroy,” an ideology of his that became more prominent when the existence of the prophecy came into light.
Ah, the prophecy.
The prophecy stated that Bill Cipher would soon link both the Nightmare Realm with the third dimension. It was a prediction made by those native to the land back then, and the only reason they had been made aware was from Bill’s over arching ego constantly penetrating the minds of those he found easiest to target. In simpler terms, he planted hints of his plan into the weakest to watch them and everyone squirm.
Said plan was to take over the third dimension. Our dimension.
Acknowledging its actuality took Bill by surprise.
Another dimension? Well, he could take over that one too! How exciting! He could do this no problem, with the destruction of worlds being a feat not many but he could accomplish. It was that much more enticing when he discovered said dimension’s stability. This dimension was ours and our scale had stayed balanced for years and it seemed to be staying that way, making Bill desire the 3rd dimension that much more.
Unlike his other broken homes, it actually had a balanced law of physics. Where other entities - humans - were 3D and not 2D.
For Bill, all he’s known are flat shapes. He himself was 2D. A flatlander, as they call it. He had undergone many changes in his appearance, since his first form had begun as a structure of atoms invisible to the average human. Now he took the shape of something much more simple.
A triangle. Yeah, that was it. An overall basic shape, but one that can be threatening if need be. With its pointed 3 sides, anyone with a brain could analyse its points as a sign of danger. His large eye, although unsettling was easily seen as godly- the mark of an entity that knew too much, in the presence of those who knew too little.
Bill loved waving his nature in the face of those that think they’re too intelligent to fall for his tricks. It made them look much more stupid when they realise the signs of his compliancy to demolition was evident in his form from the very beginning.
But that form he held was only the stepping stone of what he truly wanted. He was just a triangle, while in our dimension, things could be pyramids. The 2nd dimension had only length and width, but we had length, width and depth.
Bill was most definitely going to get this. He always got what he wanted, whether it was gotten the easy way or the hard way. He ventured into the mindscape, a place Bill had already mastered at using - the same place he did not understand when he was first brought into the world. With as much time as he had, he spent most of his moments there - a temporary home - and looked for more people to trouble.
He could find really gullible people, but there was no fun in that, was there? It wasn’t like he hadn’t done that - he had actually targeted ignorant people too much - but he wanted a challenge. The unpredictability factor.
Bill generally preferred using the scare tactic. He wouldn’t just get something scary and toss it at their face. He dug for deep psychological rooted fears and got his victims so traumatised, that when he tortured them, they could actually feel it happen. He wanted to cause long term damage.
However, it was all completed within the confines of the mindscape. Sure, the chaos of emotions he can bring upon a person using simply their mind was incredible, but that’s all it was. It was all in the mind.
It was like waking up from a bad dream, that’s all it was to them.
Ironically, he despised the idea of people not taking him seriously.
Ignorant people, although easy to fool, had no more potential other than being played with. It was the intelligent ones that he had to reach into- twist his words to fit to their liking and assist in their works. Feel as if they were partners, two sides of the same coin.
Oh, how he wished to be able to access the real world.
The terror he would add.
Bill had his desire, his motivation but now he also needed a method. He needed to get to the 3rd dimension. But how?
How does one benefit from another with compliancy? Humans are far from giving with the 'joy of their hearts’. Deals needed to be made of mutual benefit.
Right. He needed to make deals.
Years and years went by, before the 20th century rolled around. Bill was as close as ever to reaching our dimension. But instead of him searching for the perfect candidate for manipulation, it was someone that had instead called for Bill. It wasn’t that crazy - he had been called upon before, but time and time again he found himself more than disappointed.
Here? Now? He had another chance with someone with more than enough potential. Someone that had come to seek him instead of the other way around. Someone that was ready to risk it all, and call on an ancient being. Someone that was ready to accept whatever help Bill would choose to give him, and someone that would take responsibility if it meant things were to fail.
That unpredictable predictability.
And that was that. Bill had already found a new person he could trick.
He introduced himself as someone that found extraordinary people who could do extraordinary things. He made sure to use praise and words that meant nothing to him towards the man that it meant everything to. He spoke to his ego, and it worked. The man he found was extremely intelligent in all the ways you could imagine. He was special, more advanced than most, mentally. It was exactly the sort of target that he had been looking for. This man’s mind was one in a billion.
But he was still human.
And many reasons of a human’s downfall is attributed to pure ego.
Upon shaking his hand and sealing the deal, Bill Cipher burned the man’s name into his very being, as it was one he knew he had to get adjusted to, and one that he would unknowingly hear long after he was done with him.
The man’s name was Stanford Pines.