I'm just a Triangle Trying to Save You

[ghflskhu_ph]

Name: RJ
DW username: ghflskhu_ph 
E-Mail: CadUUceus@gmail.com
IM: I’ll make one, don’t have one yet!
Plurk: Paranoidpatriot
Other Characters: N/A

Character Name: Bill Cipher
Series: Gravity Falls
Timeline: Post series- Weirdmageddon 3
Canon Resource Link: http://gravityfalls.wikia.com/wiki/Bill_Cipher
Character History:

“I’m all throughout history, how could you miss me?”

No one knows the true origins of the chaos entity known as Bill Cipher. From a story briefly told in Weirdmageddon 3: Take back the Falls, we understand Bill once hailed from the second dimension as one of its flat citizens. His AMA hints largely to it having connections to Edwin Abbot's book aptly titled "Flatland" which describes a largely oppressive world of flat 'shape' people whose status in society (and right to live) were determined solely by how many sides they had. As a being who embraced all things weird, Bill would have understandably felt stifled in such a obsessive world of perfect order. Somewhere down the road, that all became too much for the triangle and Bill severed what lifeline he had tied to that realm. Ascending to a form of Pure Energy, Bill "liberated" destroyed his dimension from reality's hold and achieved the nearly Godlike status we know he has today.
 

As the all-seeing eye of Providence (yes the one from the dollar bill) Bill has watched the Universe for potentially trillions of years, carefully shaping the world into one he might one day conquer. He knows all, sees all, IS all, and at the same time is not; that impossibility of existence, more than anything, is what truly defines him. Whether he began as the 'flatlander' or has always existed outside reality in some shape or form, Bill Cipher has many beginnings, but for the sake of our story, we'll start with a man named Stanford Pines..

 

 

Stanford was a paranormal researcher who moved to Gravity Falls in order to study the town's abundance of anomalies. Due to his genetic defect of having six fingers on each hand, Ford felt a certain kinship with the strange and embraced the weird. However, after so many years of solving mysteries he hit a roadblock he couldn't seem to solve. If he was ever going to progress further in his research, he needed an edge over traditional learning means. That's when he found a cave that told of a being with endless knowledge that could be summoned with the following incantation.
 

 

...It also warned to NEVER SUMMON the creature AT ANY COST but HEY who cares about THAT noise!
 

At first it appears as though the summon did not work. Ford read aloud the words but nothing happened-- until he fell asleep later that day. Bill appeared in Ford's dreams and explained he was a muse who would pick one human every century to inspire. Using charm and flattery, Bill was able to win the scientist over, from there a deal was struck, a 'friendship' formed, and the end of the world set into motion.

Things started off amicable at first. Bill offered Stanford the plans to build a portal that could act as a bridge between their worlds, in return, Ford allowed Bill temporary means to use his body as a vessel and roam the physical world whenever he pleased. Bill assured Ford the portal would lead him to becoming the 'Man who changed the world' and that genius was made 'with a little help from a friend.' Unused to such outright praise, Ford quickly became rather fond of his dream friend, and decorated his entire house with triangular 'windows' so Bill could see as much into the physical world as possible. In addition to meditating almost daily, Stanford began to nearly worship his muse like a god. Before long, he even granted Bill access to his mind itself.
 

 

Things take a decisively... less amicable turn after that.
After a freak accident robs Ford's assistant Fiddleford Mcgucket of his sanity, when he is momentarily sucked into the portal, Stanford catches on to Bill's treachery and directly confronts him. While the portal would indeed connect the two of their worlds, Bill's realm, the world of Nightmares would hardly change their world for the better. Shockingly, Bill doesn't even try to deny it, and relishes on the surprise and fear on Ford's face. From his perspective everything that is occurring is exactly as he has already foretold and would lead to the most favorable outcome. Continuing to lie would be pointless. Utterly betrayed, Ford attempts to cancel their project by dismantling the portal but its too late. Bill knows its only a matter of time before the pieces would fall back into place.  Months later, Stanford Pines himself would be sucked into the portal, never be seen or heard from again.
 

 

 

Fast forward thirty years later, Dipper and Mabel Pines first encounter Bill when he is under contract by Gideon, to enter Stan's mind for a code that would allow him to steal the deed to the Mystery Shack. At first, it appears Bill might turn Gideon's offer down (and he very well could have, given how easily he is able to intimidate the faux psychic) but when Gideon reveals Stanford Pines to be the target, a brief memory from his time with the Author changes Bill's mind. Acquiring a promise from Gideon to help him with "something of his own" in return (a bad move on Gideon's part) Bill accepts the job and helpfully imparts the twins with knowledge of what he plans to do before departing.

Using the third journal, Dipper, Mabel and Soos follow Bill into their Uncle's mind in order to stop the dream demon; something Bill fully intended. With the Pine twins and Soos looking for the secret code in his stead, Bill only had to sit and watch until the perfect time arose for him to swoop in and claim their find for his own. After some fast thinking, the gang manage to remove the code from Bill's grasp, forcing Gideon to break their deal. This causes great panic to Bill, who then in fury engaged Soos and Mabel in combat. Only when Dipper discovers that anything he can conceive he has the power to do within his Uncle's mind, do the group stand a chance in repelling Cipher. Before being nearly chucked out by the trio, Bill stops the fight of his own accord, with the promise of sparing them for now. He warns them that "A DARKNESS APPROACHES, A DAY WILL COME IN THE FUTURE WHEN EVERYTHING YOU CARE ABOUT WILL CHANGE" and promises he'll be keeping a closer eye on them from now on.

Bill appears again in Season two for an episode titled Sock Opera, where he suckers Dipper into allowing him to borrow his body, trapping the boy in the Mindscape to watch in horror while Bill wreaks havoc. Unlike last time Bill had not been summoned by Gideon. Dipper had been trying again and again, without success, to get into a password encrypted laptop that would hopefully give him more information on the author of the journals, when Bill appears and offers to give him a hint. While the Pines twin is wary at first, he eventually gives in to Bill's temptations, it's only when Bill rips Dipper out of his body that Dipper realizes his mistake in how he worded the deal.
 

Bill may have agreed to give a hint, but he never agreed to leaving the laptop intact after. As soon as he is able, Bill uses Dipper's body to throw the laptop on the ground and stomp it to pieces (ironically revealing the hint he promised, as the laptop's maker label is now shown beneath the cracked frame.) Claiming Dipper has gotten "WAY TO CLOSE TO SOME MAJOR ANSWERS" Bill informs the twin that he has to step in and get rid of the journal or Dipper might actually get in the way of his plans. It's a wild chase from then on out, with Bill beating up Dipper's body in an attempt to goad the sibling into revealing the location of the journal and enjoying anything he can along the way.

 

Their fight comes to a standstill when Mabel decides saving Dipper is more important than the play she had spent all week on and drags Bill down to the stage with her for a showdown. In the end, because Dipper had not slept for days prior to Bill possessing his body, the demon is exhausted and repelled once more. As before, during his last defeat, Bill steps in, using a sock puppet for a temporary vessel, to deliver one more cryptic warning "THIS ISN'T THE LAST YOU'LL HEAR OF ME. BIG THINGS ARE COMING, YOU CAN'T STOP ME!!" before the twins blow his vessel sky high, effectively banishing him once more.

 

 

Bill takes his time after that. He knows he can't act until his pawns move forward on their own a bit, and sure enough, they do just that.  Desperate to reunite with his twin he lost thirty years ago and took the identity of, Stanley Pines reactivates the portal to bring Stanford Pines home. The drawback is that the portal is so unstable that just using it once is enough to punch a hole in the fabric of reality leaving behind a rift-- the exact thing Bill has spent the last trillion years attempting to get his hands on.  With the rift, Bill could tear a hole from his dimension into Gravity Falls and finally achieve his ultimate goal, all he needs is for the Pines to make one slip up. He feels the moment so close, he eagerly pops up in the returned Stanford's dreams to remind him of their failed partnership.

With Stanford back in Gravity Falls, it isn't long before his connections to Bill start becoming apparent  to the rest of the cast. In the Last Mabelcorn, Dipper learns of how Stanford met Bill as well as a way to create a force-field that Bill and the strange elements he creates cannot penetrate; something that would come in handy later on.  The Pines family try everything to prevent Bill from getting the rift, but inevitably the slip up happens and Bill uses the families growing confusion and mistrust with one another to take advantage of the situation.

 

Borrowing the body of the Time Officer, Blendin Blandin, the dream demon only needed mere seconds to shatter the rift and overtake the town in waves of chaos and weirdness. He invites his 'friends' also known as the 'interdimensional gang of criminals and nightmares' to destroy the place in the wildest hooplah the Universe has ever seen, aiming to create 'A party that never ends, with a host that never dies!" from there, things only escalate further.  Within minutes, Bill achieves a physical three-dimensional form complete with all the powers he had in the Mindscape, within hours he breaks time itself from existing and sets the town ablaze and within 'days' he rounds up nearly every citizen and forges them into a throne of PETRIFIED HUMAN AGONY.  The Pines family have a considerably harder time.

Having prepared for this moment for the last thirty years, Stanford Pines attempts to shoot Bill with a matter destabilizer only to miss and take out a chunk of his hat (which is somehow also part of his physical form.) In response to the failed assassination attempt, Bill turns Stanford into a gold backscratcher and keeps it with him. Dipper, hyped up on adrenaline and fury, attempts to confront Bill himself, only to fail terribly and watch both Ford be taken away and the Author's journals all burnt to a crisp before his very eyes.  At this point, Bill is so convinced he has won he doesn't perceive Dipper as a threat at all, the kid is nothing and can do nothing, rather than bothering to kill him he orders one of his henchmaniacs to do it instead. As per their deal, Bill traps Mabel in a bubble of her own imagination to grant her the 'world of endless summer' he promised when he tricked her into handing him the rift.

I mean, technically it was summer outside the bubble too, just a little more blood rain showers than before...
 

Unconcerned with every step the town takes towards fighting back, Bill ignores nearly every show of retaliation against him, even vaporizing Time Baby, the ruler of the Time Correction Agency and Time itself, without little thought for the consequence. Eventually, however, Bill finds himself run into a bit of a roadblock when he discovers he nor his 'weirdness waves' can escape the confines of Gravity Falls.  Seeking answers from the only mortal he knows might enlighten him on the subject, Bill unfreezes Stanford from his golden state to interrogate and offer one last time to 'join' him.

Stanford, lets face it, like a moron immediately divulges the information and claims he may know a way to fix it, but swears he would never help Bill. Which is just stupid, really, Sixer. Left with little choice, and with the Mystery Shack mounting its offensive strike at last, Bill tortures Stanford until he comes to the conclusion that the man would respond more to those he loved being hurt instead.

A lot of maniacal laughter, a destroyed mystery shack, one regenerated eye and a ruined Zodiac Banishment circle later, and Bill has the Pines family right where he wants them. In his hands he holds Dipper and Mabel, with the promise and intent to kill them unless Stanford LETS HIM INTO HIS MIND ALREADY never once expecting the sacrifice Stanley Pines is about to perform to save his family.  Unbeknownst to Bill, in the middle of his struggles to catch Dipper and Mabel, Stanley and Stanford both swap clothes, with the aim to, while Bill would be preoccupied with the incorrect target's mind, wipe him out with the memory gun; an invention created by the Society of the Blind Eye, a cult specializing in the removal of 'harmful' memories.

 

 

The plan works, for Bill, someone who has only ever seen the family's struggles as a tool for manipulation, cannot fathom that such love for a sibling exists. Similarly to the surprise he experiences, during Mabel's sacrifice for Dipper, Bill is caught entirely off guard when he finds himself not within Stanford Pines Mindscape, but his brother Stanley's instead.  As the flames from the memory gun's shot consume the room, Bill knows he has lost. Try as he does, he can't call off the deal, he can't seem to leave, and he can't fight back. Using the only gambit he has left Bill drops to his knees and begs for a deal, offering riches, wealth, and even an entire galaxy.  Stanley Pines, despite his money-seeking filled life, knows what is important and refuses, only sitting back to watch as Bill's form literally tears itself apart.

Bill manages to shriek out an ancient rite with his last parting words in the hopes that it might save him, before Stanley Pines punches him to oblivion, leaving behind nothing but blue flames of pixelated gold dust. The physical form he left behind when he accessed Stanley's mind turns into a moss covered statue, as the town returns to its previous state. Bill's statue lingers somewhere deep in the forest, his final pose reminiscent of not just the last deal he made but of one who is reaching out, desperate to touch reality once more...

 

 

Abilities/Special Powers:

As the master of dreams and the Mindscape realm, Bill's powers are absolute; basically, if you can think it, you can do it. He is not affected by things such as gravity, logic, or time. Fortunately for the Universe, very specific conditions must be met for Bill to bring any of his powers into the Physical world, so for the sake of clarity I am going to break Bill's powers into two categories: Passive and Active.

PASSIVE:
Omniscience- Bill's similarity to the Illuminati symbol and All Seeing Eye are no mistake. He quite literally IS the Eye of Providence and has access to the wealth of knowledge from not just Gravity Falls canon but all Universes and their alternate offshoots. This can make his job difficult, as, just like the infinite sided die, the Universe and its future are constantly shifting with infinite outcomes, to infinite variables. Fortunately Bill is also a being of unpredictability, and he has been in this game long enough to manipulate these factors fairly well.

Essentially, Bill Cipher is the internet (yes, and you thought he couldn’t be more terrifying) - if it exists and you can search it, he knows it.
(For the sake of not infomodding, I will of course have opt out posts and always work with players to not abuse my power!)
Occasionally when he is on a roll, Bill gets too impatient to constantly check the outcome of everything he is doing (its less FUN) and that often leads to his downfall, but despite the lack of sanity he so proudly boasts to have, living this way has made Bill fairly tactical when he attempts to be.

Windows:
As Bill confirms in his official AMA, any drawing depicting his likeness is, in essence, a part of Bill and a window through which he can see our world from the Mindscape ( so, yikes Stan, stop bathing in money!) This is very handy because if he needs more information somewhere, he can just trust in his followers to draw one eyed triangles in said locations. You can bet he'll be trying to get people to draw more and more of them all throughout Wonderland.

Incorporeality: While most would argue being stuck on another plane of existence that can't touch the physical plane is a weakness, there is a certain amount of protection it grants Bill. Just as he cannot hurt anyone through touch, so too can average physical objects not hit him. Of course I am more than happy to alter this rule in game whenever possible, as Wonderland is not your typical Physical world!

Immortality: Bill is old as fuck As with Incorporeality, Bill is not affected by the passage of time, leaving him unable to die through the means of aging. More than being outright murdered it seems the most efficient ways to defeat Bill are to trap him in a powerless state, as he is likely too entangled with the Universe to fully be erased. Again, in game, this will be different; I will totally kill Bill whenever actually possible!

Summons/Teleportation:
Bill can be seen and interacted with on a physical plane, to a bare extent, if he is summoned using the incantation in Journal 2. Time slows down in a sort of pocket dimension which encompasses only a few feet outside the summoner and where the act is performed. By altering the portion of that reality with the summoner's consent, Bill can basically treat the small area like the Mindscape-- as long as it returns to normal after he departs. Interestingly enough, it is possible to see Bill without being in this temporary pocket dimension, as we saw Soos and Mabel clearly watch the exchange in Dreamscaperers despite Gideon being in a near trance-like state and their not being close enough to be included.
If allowed, I would like to keep this practice possible in game as a basic communications/teleportation spell, if only because it has potential for hilarity if people want to obnoxiously bother Bill and repeatedly teleport him to their location for a face to face chat. This would not work for those on the mirrorside.


ACTIVE:
Possession:
Usually through the use of his 'Deals,' Bill requires the 'consent' whether tricked into it or not of a living being in order to be able to borrow their body and experience the physical realm; the time he can spend in a mortal body is dependent only on how long said form can remain awake. The moment it falls asleep Bill is repelled from the body and the deal rendered null. As shown in Sock Opera, Bill can also possess other objects, but this appears to be for an even more limited amount of time. It is likely Bill was only able to possess the Dipper Sock for a moment, and only because the child had left some residual energy from having used it himself seconds beforehand.
As discussed, Bill will be able to possess the network line in able to interact with the game.

Dreamwalking: As a 'dream demon' Bill is able to spy on and enter another person's dreams. He can slip in and out as he wishes, and more than likely is capably of twisting them into nightmares. Theoretically he can do it any time to anyone, as even Stanford who put a metal plate in his head to block Bill out, still experienced a visit after returning from his time in the portal; but on an OOC note I will only be doing it with player permission and plotting beforehand.

Everything else:
When in the Mindscape, the sky is the limit, but here are a few of Bill's favorites:

Energy blast- He uses this to destroy Time Baby in one blast, as well as take out the tower. Bill is made of pure energy himself so he has endless reserves.
Transformation- of himself, the environment, other objects, people into objects, and objects into people.
Pyromancy- Even when he can't do harm with them, Bill loves his blue flames. They always act as his signature when making deals.
WTF IS THAT- Summoning shocking horrible imagery just for the shock value of it.
Reading Minds- Similar to Omniscience, but with the added bonus of plucking the info right from the subjects head at that very moment.

*Deals?
While this more the antithesis of a power than an actual power, it should be noted that Bill's word is his bond. He might try to swindle people out of deals and half-ass his end of the bargain as much as possible, but there is no denying he has some desire for them to not be broken. Bill isn't a character who can do things for himself as much as he needs to coerce others into doing the task for him, so having people keep their end of the deal is very important (and they usually have no way out of it anyway). Whether calling off a deal is actually harmful to Bill is unclear, but he definitely cared more than a little when Gideon prematurely canceled their bargain and it may likely be the reason he was not able to leave Stan's mind even before the flames from the memory gun engulfed him.
*(This does stray into headcanon territory but I thought it worth mentioning nonetheless)

First- Person/ Network Sample:

"YOU KNOW, I'VE GOT TO HAND IT TO YOU GUYS. WHEN YOU MESS UP, YOU SURE MESS UP BIG!"

[As with all of Bill's attempts to contact the network, the screen remains ominously blank, aside from the occasional blip of static. One of these days, he will grace these numbskulls with his actual appearance, but not yet. Let them earn it first.]

"I mean even with the TWEEDLE TWINS and their CREEPILY EMBELLISHED WARNING you still had to go and OFF YOURSELVES faster than a FIRE CONSUMES A DRAUGHT FILLED FOREST. Makes ya wonder who IS GOING TO PERISH IN UNDEFINABLE AGONY next-- My MONEY'S on THAT GUY!"

[Not that... anyone can see where he is pointing even if he were on the display. No, these weekly messages were for a little more than basic conversation. They were more like a statement, a little powerplay, but mostly?]

"But you don't have to take MY word on it. It's not like I CAN SEE THROUGH THE TEMPORAL KALEIDOSCOPE OF PROBABILITY AND HAVE FORESEEN EACH ́A̡ND̷ ͞ÉV̕E͠RY̧ ̡O̷N̨E҉ ̡OF Y͏OU͟R ͏ÍN͝TE̢NSEL͡Y҉ ̷GRUES̡ǪME ̡DE͢AT͡HS̡, ONE THOUSAND  TIMES  OVER or anything!"

[They were a reminder that HE was still around. And a promise that he won't be forgotten any time soon.]

"Ahhh, good times. SO!! Who wants to hear how many SPIDERS THEY UNWITTINGLY SWALLOWED in their sleep last night?"

Third-Person Sample:

Alive, OH! He's alive!

Well, relatively speaking.

Bill could hardly fathom how long he lingered there; trapped in a space between conscious thought and actual being, in part because he was blasted to hell in back by a memory gun and also because time was a baseless human construct that he REFUSED to rely on. Even with that ridiculous baby in charge, he would hate the orderliness of it on principle-- but by the CIRCLES did it feel good to eviscerate that guy.

Of course, Bill knew he would survive. You might be able to kill a guy, but you can't kill an idea and BOY WAS HE MADE OF PLENTY OF THEM! Still, that was close. On the whole he has... been better. With his strength as waned as it is, it was going to be a while before he ever retained that much power again. Jumping in his own timeline would be too risky and even if he could find a way back to his friends, Pyronica would be more likely to eat than help him in such a pathetic state; maybe if contacted Teeth inst-- ... he needs to find better friends.

By the time Bill regains enough strength to open his eye, probably another decade or something, he's looking-- at a dresser. HUH. Well, It's not the same room in Stanley's mind, but it might as well be with how little he can interact with it. He glances about the unfamiliar landscape while the rest of this world's knowledge catches up to him, before his eye falls on a mirror; the same mirror he can feel one of his dual existences already staring back at him through the other side.

"UCK, Leave to the guy with a TWIN OBSESSION to bring you to A LAND OF DOUBLES." Whatever. At least he isn't about to cry his eye out of its socket like that Aztec chump!

'Sitting' back, the triangle summons a martini out of thin air, while the bedroom's appearance shifts to resemble more of a technicolor void. THAT'S MORE LIKE IT. Now let's see. Why would ole 'Xotl bring him here?  It's not like he has/hasn't/has/hasn't/has/hasn'-- bill raises a hand to brace himself as his form glitches violently.

"W-WHOAHO-! WATCH IT TEMPORAL STABILITY, No need to have an EXISTENTIAL CRISIS now" --been here before.

Hmm.. that was fishy, he must... not have recovered fully yet. His entire rigid form shaking with a brittle sigh, Bill rights the top hat floating above his person. Oh, how the mighty have fallen. He doesn't feel like drinking anymore. Bill chucks the glass only to have it frustratingly stay afloat across the room.

"..IF I NEVER SEE ANOTHER PINES AGAIN, IT'LL BE ALL TOO SOON."

He supposes he's thankful it was a memory gun that did him in, if only for the fact the only oaf who saw him drop to his knees and BEG would never remember and if no one is around to remember, it didn't happen! Funny how most people never figured that one out.

Oh, he's angry, of that THERE IS NO DOUBT!!!... but grudges were useless to an entity of the endless. By the time he would manage to piece himself together again, humanity would be long gone. That was a rub with being immortal, everyone was technically already dead in comparison to you, even before you met 'em. Admittedly his hatred for Time Baby may have grown exponentially because of that BUT, DETAILS~

"AT LEAST THIS PLACE ISN'T LACKING IN THE ENTERTAINMENT DEPARTMENT."

Rummaging around, Bill can feel it, a connection to the network. Maybe he doesn't have any ciphers and instances of himself here-- aside from Creepy Mccopyface in the mirror-- but sifting through this CACOPHONY OF LIES, should occupy some of his regenerative time. Yeah... Maybe he'll give humanity a break for now. Just watch. Let the morons doom themselves, for once. Whatever clown he's about to view on this dumb hunk of technology, he doesn't nee--

"--tanford Pines here. It has been brought to my attention that according to my timeline, I am--"

"WHAT?!!"