#archerthewarlock

The sound of the smashed glass was loud enough to echo into the mindscape, and Bill focused on his window. The eye opened up in the closed glass plane. The darkness in the room should be enough to hide his eye, as he glanced around, spotting the beast. Great, it was in the room with them. And the old man appeared to be busy. It was a bit too early to make a deal, but the demon wasn't sure he was willing to let it have the Pines… They were fun to mess with, and they could still be useful. ------

The beast swiped its claws at the twins, who ducked and barely dodged the quick attacks from its rather short arms. Mabel had grabbed the broom they used to sweep splinters, dust, and other crafting detritus off of the attic floor, and tried hitting the creature with it. The massive, night-black wings on its back seemed to buffer the hits, however, and it turned to hiss at her. In the light, its full visage was akin to some kind of nightmare. It's body was a lanky and emaciated looking skeletal black, with patches of deep black fur on its joints and torso. It's bent legs were thin and hooved, the head comprised almost entirely of some kind of stag skull. The eyes were empty sockets, staring with a burning hatred that could be felt rather than seen. Its long tail was tipped with a sharp-looking fork, and it whipped and writhed on the floor as it took the blows as if they were nothing. "Dipper, please tell me there's something in the book about this!" Mabel yelled, running practically in circles to avoid the monster's attacks. They had to cover their ears when it unleashed another banshee scream, shaking the foundations of the building. Downstairs, Stan remained oblivious, reading the instructional section of the 'Electrician's Guide for Morons' upside-down. "I'm looking I'm looking!" the boy yelled, frantically flipping through pages with his ultraviolet light at the ready. "Got it! The Oregon Devil, a monster of the night that resembles a demon with a goat's legs, a kangaroo's body and a stag's skull! Releases a horrible scream that can shatter eardrums! Come on, come on, tips on how to beat this thing- what?! 'Nothing has been found to placate the beast, and it remains at large'?! This doesn't help!" "DIPPER!" Mabel yelled, and his head snapped up. Mabel was hanging from a ceiling beam, holding on tight to her grappling hook as the beast tried to grab ahold of her. The monster was nearly tall enough to reach her, and its claws reached up to snag on the edge of her sweater.

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A show of power, maybe? It just might make the Twins come running to him for help the next encounter. The window with his image glowed a bright yellow, reflecting his aura and a warning to the beast that he was watching. It wasn't easy to show his powers outside the mindscape, but it could be done. If the dumb beast didn't take the hint and leave, he'd attack the thing’s mind. The demon needed a word alone with Pine Tree and Shooting Star.

------- The Devil froze. With a shriek and a hiss that sounded pained, the Devil turned and flashed out the hole where the window had been. Seconds later, it was gone. Nothing remained of its presence but a distant rustling of forest leaves that faded to nothing, debris scattered on the floor from its massive body knocking objects to the ground, and the fresh claw marks.

"What the heck..." Dipper said, sliding to the floor, confused and winded, chest heaving as he took deep breaths. "It ran off?"‏

"Yeesh! I was starting to think that guy would never leave,” came a familiar voice that echoed as everything went grey, the twins being pulled into the mindscape. The Yellow Triangle appeared from the window he had been looking through, and floated down towards the twins.

Dipper recognized that voice right away. "Bill?" he said, his expression falling into a suspicious glare as he stared down the triangular demon. "I was worried I'd have to stick my hand in his head to get rid of him." Bill looked at his gloved fingers, swinging his cane in one hand. "But it looks like he took my warning seriously. You’re welcome, by the way." The dream demon glanced from one twin to the other, expecting some kind of gratitude.‏

Dipper didn't look pleased at all by his presence. "Why are you here? Get out! We don't want or need you in our lives." Mabel dropped from the ceiling with a thud as she released the grappling hook from the beam, and got up to look over in confusion. "Huh? Hey, it's triangle-guy again!" The girl gasped as she remembered the last time he had crossed their paths. She glared at him as well, though hers was considerably less intimidating - if her brother's could be considered intimidating in the first place. "You're here to turn my brother into a sock puppet again! I won't let you reform Bipper!" Dipper turned his head to give his sister a very confused look. "What? Ugh, you know what, never mind - questions later. Right now, Bill, you are not welcome here. And what warning? Did you 'invite' that monster here?"

"Is that any way to treat the guy who saved you meat sacks? And free of charge, even." Bill let out what could have been a huff. "That's humans for you." He floated a little higher and let his hands hang down next to his legs. "I warned that thing that if it didn't get out of here, I would get involved." He turned to look Pine Tree in the eyes. "I may not look it, but I'm a pretty scary guy when I want to be." He snapped his fingers, and the window fixed itself. "I have no reason to send it here, though it was funny watching you two try and fight it off." He chuckled darkly. "It'll be back though, the second it senses I'm not watching. I may not see the point in revenge, but the Oregon Devil seems to." A little bit of well placed information will leave Pine Tree wanting more. Bill gliding towards the window at a slow pace, turning his back to the twins. He wasn't leaving - not now, anyway. But he wanted to know if they would stop him.

"Revenge?" Dipper repeated, looking over at the demon as he floated back to his exit. "Wait, revenge for what?" "We didn't do anything, at least I don't think so..." Mabel said. She leaned towards Waddles, who was frozen outside of the current mindscape they had been dragged to. "Did we?" No response from the inert pig. "Thought so," she said. Dipper glanced at the book entry on the Devil, only to find nothing helpful in this matter, then back to the retreating triangle. This could be an opportune moment to worm some info out of the demon. He just had to watch his step, or he could end up having another involuntary out-of-body experience. And this time, Mabel was here. No way was he going to risk his sister. "Hold it right there, Bill - there's something you're not telling me. What do you know that we don't about this thing?"‏‎

Aw how cute, he thinks he's going to manipulate me. Bill had a hard time not voicing this. For the moment, he kept his back to them, and then slowly turned around, holding his hands up in a defensive manner. "All right, All right! Sheesh, kid. You forced it out of me." The demon did his best to kept a neutral expression despite his joy. Pine Tree took the bait, hook line and sinker. Bill let his arms fall back to his bottom side and his eye opened wide. His yellow body started to flash images of the past. "The revenge it seeks isn’t because of something you kids did - it was something your family did a long, long time ago!"

Images of the Pines Family flashed within the frame of Bill's body. "This revenge is one of name. Not like what that baby-man munchkin was after. This monster is out for Pines blood because of a hunting group your family formed hundreds of years ago." Images of the hunting party appeared, and the shadow of the creature flashed by some of them repeatedly.

The twins watched as the feed played. "Wait... ‘Pines’?" Dipper said, reading off a name stitched into the back of one of the old pioneer's coats. The pioneers rallied at the edge of the forest, before tromping off into the woods with pitchforks, muskets and burning torches at the ready. It was late at night in the images, and they watched as the people engaged what looked to be a great, shadowy beast. Mabel pointed at the barely visible clawed monster with giant wings. "That's the thing that came through the window!" "And those are our ancestors, fighting it?" Dipper said questioningly. He watched for a few more seconds before shaking his head to clear it. There had to be some kind of catch here. "Hold it, how do we know this isn't just a huge hoax? You could be showing us anything, for all we know!"

"What would I possibly gain from lying to you?" His eye glanced down at Pine Tree. "The Devil has it's plans for revenge, and that could really mess with what I have planned." The images paused on the former Pines pioneer. "Why else would it attack you like this?" Bill's eye was starting to wonder as his attention began to wane a bit. "You’re just lucky I was here to stop it."

Gods, it was hard to keep focused when not working on a deal. His body turned yellow once more as he started to look for anything of interest.‏

"Mnn... he is right, Dipper - Bill doesn't really get much from lying to us, at least not here," Mabel piped up. Dipper didn't seem pleased at all. His mind was racing, trying to make connections between the past and why the creature would be after them - more specifically, how it found them. He paced back and forth, chin in hand as he mulled it over, thinking aloud and speaking quickly to himself. "Okay, there's a monster with a grudge against our family. But it couldn't have known we were here, since we're only here for the summer. Maybe it was after Grunkle Stan? He's part of the Pines family too, and he's been here longer. But why didn't it go after him, then?" He opened up the journal again, flipping back to the page with the illustration of the Devil. He looked long and hard at the picture, taking in the grotesque and deformed details. "Hm.... wait a minute- Mabel, it's blind!" His sister turned and looked over his shoulder. "The top of its head is a skull! It has no eyes, it can't see! That would explain why it had trouble hitting us." "And why it kept sniffing at everything like a big dog!" Mabel piped up. "It had to have followed our scent, somehow? ....which would have been amplified by the hot weather, of course!" "Ewww, it was following our sweat stink?" Mabel made a disgusted face. "Not exactly an alluring perfume..." "Except maybe to a murderous beast that wants our heads," Dipper said, flipping through the pages some more. "And it's going to try again... we need to figure out a way to stop it. Or to catch it."

"That's how you use your heads." Bill picked up a paddle ball that had been left on the floor and started to mess with it, finding the toy to be a little entertaining. He was able to keep a steady beat with it. The white of the Dream Demon's eye turned a bright blue as he looked back at the Pines twins. "May I offer a simpler solution?" If he had a mouth, he would be grinning. "I was able to scare the Devil off, but like I said, it'll be back. I could get rid of it for you - it would be easy for me." He let the offer hang in the air, he had a feeling it was going to be refused very quickly, but another attack by the beast and they'd be begging to shake his hand. "It would only cost you a tiny favour~ in return."‏

Dipper's expression closed off with the finality of a steel door. "Ohhhhhhhohoho no, no way! I'm not so stupid as to go falling for that again. We refuse!" Mabel hugged the frozen Waddles, though the pig remained completely static in place. "We don't need your help, Bill," Dipper said, angry. "Go try and bamboozle someone else! We can find the solution on our own."

The triangle demon simply shrugged and floated back towards the window, so that he was facing the twins. "Suit yourself, Pine tree. But you know who to call if you change your mind." His eye reflected the grin he couldn't express. "Until then, I'll waiting to make a Deeeeeaaalll!" With that, he disappeared, taking the connection to the mindscape with him. The paddle ball he had been entertaining himself with dropped to the ground with a clatter of wood. As if he would go far - they where separated only by dimensions. He just had to wait.

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Co-Author Notes: The Oregon Devil is based on the Jersey Devil, an American myth of a demon that matches the description of the one used in our writing (with the alteration of the skull head). And the ‘feud’ is actually based on the legend that the monster originated from the ‘Pines Hills’ in New Jersey c:

The forest at night was not a quiet place. Hoots and calls of nocturnal birds, crickets, that buzzing of the flies in the porchlight as they were drawn toward the deadly light - followed by the 'zzt' noise as one got too close. Branches snapping, trees settling, leaves rustling. All of this was very commonplace way out in rural Oregon, especially in summertime when everything was alive and humid. Except apparently tonight. Tonight, there was no sound. Only wind, and maybe a few leaves moving. The Mystery Shack's lit sign was in disrepair as always, and did little to shed light out into the woods, the broken S still lodged in the earth. Behind that sign, in the attic, were a pair of twins. And they were absolutely miserable in this hot weather. "Hey Dipper," said the girl from her mattress, half-sprawled off of it onto the floor. "Yes, Mabel?" the brother said, laying facedown on his bed with his face in his pillow. "Is there anything in that book of yours that can turn down the heat a little? Like an ice fairy? Or maybe a gremlin to fix the broken air conditioner?" Dipper sighed. "Sorry, already checked. Besides, even if there was, I doubt we'd be able to bring it here if it's hard enough convincing Grunkle Stan to pay for a professional technician." From downstairs, a taciturn yell traveled up. "I ain't gonna pay no government hack to fix what I can do myself with my own two hands and this 'Electrician's Guide for Morons'!" -------- Out in the silence of the forest, something with empty, black eyes stalked towards the nearest source of light, snuffling and snorting as its feet crushed leaves and branches to splinters. In its wake, scratch marks lined the trunks as it dragged claws across them, following the ancient scent it despised oh so much.

Time to settle a feud.‏

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Everything was shades of grey in the mindscape save for him, his triangular body shining many different colors of yellow as he floated lazily in the air, a black top hat hovering just over his peak and a bow tie the same colour just under his single eye. The dream demon could tell that it was night simply by the amount of dreams he could sense without even needing to look to see the shade of the sky.

Bill Cipher flipped through the many different eyes he had around this small town; almost every building had his likeness somewhere, and this allowed him to see the events going on in Gravity Falls without needing to really travel there. If something caught his eye he'd check it out. For now, there was nothing. Finally, the demon turned his attention to the Mystery shack. It seemed that there were more people awake there than most of the town. "Really Stan? messing with an air conditioner? Can't get Question Mark to fix it?" The demon chuckled to himself as he watched the old man mess with the machine. "This should be nothing compared to what you have down in the basement." He blinked and turned his eye towards the Pines Twins. The two were normally up to something, and it wasn't impossible to trick them into a deal. If he could smile, he would have as he recalled having possessed Pine Tree’s body. Sure, he had not destroyed the journal, but now he had a hold for a body if he was ever able to get to the physical plane. Maybe save that for the next deal or something. Bill stared down at them from the window, noting that the heat must be keeping them awake. Then he sensed movement near the shack. Bill looked towards the forest and instantly spotted the creature. Anger rose in him, turning his yellow body red as he recognized the creature. It would get in the way of his plans; but he quickly settled. Maybe he could use this? If anything, it would be entertaining, and he just might to get a deal out of it.

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Mabel groaned and turned sideways onto her bed. "Even Waddles can't stand this heat." The pig in question was sitting, expressionless as usual, at the foot of her bed, munching on a piece of cloth from her sewing basket and oinking quietly. "He's a pig, he's got thicker skin than we do," Dipper spoke up. "And Mabel, if you're so hot, why are you wearing a sweater? It has to be nearly a hundred degrees in here with that on." "But it's Bedazzle Weekend for me n' the girls!" she complained, sitting up and displaying her turtleneck sweater, this time a deep blue and covered from neck to waistband in a ludicrous amount of plastic rhinestones. "We make new ones every day, and we have to wear them the whole day or we lose!" "Lose what?" Dipper asked, unsure if he wanted to know. "Lose the game! It's a matter of principle, Dipper. Thankfully, I have plenty of gems left over from my first all-out sweater-making fest." As she spoke, the pig squealed again, and they both looked over to see it's face covered in sticky plastic gemstones, and making chewing motions with its jaw. Mabel chuckled nervously. "Uh, heheh... I'm sure those are nontoxic." A deep, angry growling noise outside interrupted their conversation. The rumbling sounded almost like a dog, but there were too many clicking sounds, like the chatter of bones or the movement of insect legs. "What was that," Dipper said, sliding off of his bed and snatching up the insignia'd journal on reflex. "Is there a puppy outside?" Mabel piped up, leaning towards the wall with the circular window. "I highly doubt it, Mabel," Dipper said as he slipped on his shoes - the floor was notoriously splintery, after all - and headed for the window, looking out. "Didn't sound like a dog I've heard of. Not even a wolf-" Something large, black and twisted in shape sprang at the window from the darkness, a loud hissing roar that sounded like a banshee scream echoing as whatever it was smashed through the glass. The twins screamed, Mabel immediately being partially shielded by her brother, who held the journal in his fingers like a weapon. "What is that thing?!" Dipper screamed, looking up at the beast in horror. The monster snarled, making deep snuffling noises in the air and growling as it approached them, Dipper reflexively shielding Mabel as it roared. "Grunkle STAANNN!" Downstairs, the crotchety old man in question had his head half-stuck in a mangled air conditioner unit, humming to himself with old ear phones in and a music player running.

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Aaaaand that’s where I’m gonna break part 1!