#hb101

“I told you Beast’s plan was dumb! I’m just going back to stalking him.” Bill huffed as Tom sat next to him, tightly clutching a bowl of cereal.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever…” Tom mumbled, shoving another spoonful into his mouth.

“Hey, what are you doing?” Bill gave him a perplexed look.

“Stresh eatin!” Tom yelled between the squishing noises of him chewing, finally speaking again once he swallowed. “Marco’s coming over to hang out today and I’m a little on edge.” he sighed.

“What’s the big deal? It’s just a human.” Bill rolled his eye.

“Speaking of which you better get out of here. I need to get ready.” Tom hopped off his bed and shooed the dream demon away with his free hand.

“Fine, sheesh, good luck kid.” Like always, Bill was gone before Tom could reply to that. It’s not like he would've anyway since he was focused at his bathroom mirror now, the overpowering scent of hair spray filling the air as he fixed his magenta locks into the gravity defying position he liked to keep it in, being especially thorough today. Tom couldn't help but feel like he was on thin ice with Marco. Even if Marco was smiling at the end of their Mackie Hand movie date he had still botched it horribly. He’d gotten too greedy and tried to use the date to also pass his anger management by lying to his life coach and saying that he still hated Marco the most.

He knew somewhere deep down that Marco didn't resent him for getting mad and destroying the tickets but that didn't stop his anxiety from bringing up the alternative as a possibility.

Tom continued to fuss with his hair and guyliner until he heard a ripping noise out in his bedroom. Poking his head back into the room he saw Marco step out of a freshly formed portal before pocketing his dimensional scissors.

“Hey Tom.” the boy smiled and gave a simple wave. Tom slinked out of the bathroom.

“Hey Marco, good to...to see you again.” he rubbed his arm awkwardly.

“You too dude.” Marco smiled sweetly before digging into the cloth bag he was holding. “I got that new fighting game Immortal Fighter 5. I thought I’d wait to play it with you since Star doesn’t exactly get video games. She almost broke the tv last time.”

Tom snickered slightly and nodded. “Yeah, that sounds like Star. But sure man, I’ll play with you. My system is over there.” Tom casually pointed behind him to where his tv and bean bags were. Macro followed his friend over and set his bag of snacks down and handed the game to Tom.

“So I haven’t seen you in a while. What’s new?” Marco asked as he plopped down on one of the bean bags.

“What do you mean? It’s only been like a week.” Tom’s middle eye raised its eyebrow.

“Oh, sorry. I’m trying to remember that 16 years in Hekapoo’s dimension was only 8 minutes here.” Marco shrugged. Tom nearly dropped the game and stumbled to catch it again.

“You were in Heckapoo’s dimension?! I...guess that explains why you seemed so happy when I texted you earlier.”

“Yeah, but I got my own scissors now.” Marco smiled and held up the dimensional scissors from his pocket.

“Whoa…” Tom grinned and snapped his fingers, a small flame appearing on his finger tips. He held the flame to the scissors, illuminating Marco’s name engraved on that scissors.

“That is so cool!”

Marco smiled. “Thanks, it took a lot to get them.”

“I bet. I only learned teleportation magic because I gave up on her challenge.” Tom turned back around to put the game into his system.

“So what’s going on with you?” Marco asked as he put the scissors away again. Tom gave a shy smile and itched the back of his neck.

“Well, I graduated anger management finally…”

Marco smiled brightly. “Congratulations Tom.”

“Yep, no more obnoxious regiments to follow and Brian actually gets out of my hair every once in awhile.” Tom strolled over to a large cage, scooping up a familiar ball of fluff.

“And I got to keep little Marshmallow.” the demon beamed adorably, holding up the fuzzy pink rabbit with pride.

Marco giggled at the sight of Tom’s therapy pet, gently reaching over to pet Marshmallow once Tom sat down and set him in his lap.

The small bunny nuzzled Marco’s hand after sniffing it thoroughly. He had not a care in the world as he inched closer to Marco’s hand before flopping out of Tom’s lap and in between the two bean bag chairs with a squeak. Marco chuckled and picked him up. “You silly bunny…”

Tom smiled at their antics. “He likes you.”

Marco smiled back and set Marshmallow in his lap, letting him curl up in the diamond shaped gap made by his crossed legs as Marco picked up his controller as the game's first cutscene began to play, stringing together a ridiculous plot to attempt to give a reason for all of these colorful characters to be fighting each other in a brutal tournament.

Despite the lack of sense in the story itself, the boys marveled at the improved graphics and new characters, Marco particularly eying a new ninja character. They didn't speak a word, only communicating through conjuring gold Japanese characters that the subtitles translated into English. Stone cold like the metal in his blade, so cool!

Once the boys were allowed to pick their fighters Marco’s cursor took the shortest route possible to that guy, apparently named Nicos. Tom casually scrolled his cursor through the remaining cast, selecting and deselecting a few times before landing on one that caught his attention. A busty woman named Sonita, with flowing purple hair and black curled horns growing from the sides of her head, with an outfit that made it very clear why this was a T rated, almost M rated, game to say the least. With their fighters chosen the round began.

“I will not lose my honor to you.” Nicos’s text read as he dropped onto the platform.

“I won’t go easy on you darling.” Sonita quipped as she joined him on the other side. After a quick test of the jump, block, and basic attacks they took off into the battle.

“Whoa! This guy is fast.” Marco laughed as he frantically moved his controls so he didn’t fall right off the floating stage.

Sonita jumped him quickly, firing energy attacks toward Nicos. Taking a few hits, Nicos darted down to a lower platform on the stage. Sonita attempted to follow but the ninja was already across the platform and jumping back up to the middle platform by the time she got down.

“Hey, get back here!” Tom glared slightly at the tv as he continued to chase him.

Marco laughed and jumped around teasingly at the top of the stage. Sonita double jumped and went into a quick float as she reached the same platform. Nicos ran up to the edge of the stage and hit her with a flurry of swipes from his katana causing the demon girl to fall, just barely catching the edge of the platform.

A power up spawned next to her and quickly ran to it, Tom spending a few seconds to figure out which button would let her use it. The screen darkened as a purple glow formed around Sonita. In Marco’s panicked attempt to get away from the special attack Nicos ended up on the exact same platform as Sonita was on.

“Ha! Check this out!” Tom grinned as large balls of energy circled Sonita before launching toward Nicos in a hypnotizing swirling pattern. Marco yelped and attempted to dodge the attack but Nicos was met with a brutal hit as Sonita muttered incantations in an unknown language.

“Aw, what? How’d you survive that?” Tom pouted as Sonita finished her special attack animation. Nicos had managed to dodge the attack just enough so there was the smallest speck of health left on his health bar. Marco prepared to hold out as long as he could before Tom managed to hit him just once to end the match but then he noticed, Sonita wasn’t moving, and her head was stuck in the bottom of the overhead platform.

Tom frantically moved his joystick around and she wouldn’t move. He started mashing his buttons and although she performed the animations she was still stuck in place. In fact, jumping a few times seemed to get her more stuck. Marco covered his mouth, struggling not to laugh at the bug.

Tom growled, leaving scratch marks on his controller as he started getting angry. Marco dropped his smile when he heard Tom snarling in frustration, glancing around to see what could calm him down. His eyes went back to his own character, nearly dead and in a wounded idle position, and smiled slightly. Nicos shuffled toward the still struggling Sonita.

“Hey, Tom.” Tom glanced up when Marco called his name. Marco motioned toward the screen, Nicos was within Sonita’s attack range.

“You deserve it, it’s a new game so you gotta expect some glitches.” Marco gave him a warm smile and set his controller down.

Tom cracked a soft smile and Sonita dealt the finishing blow. The animation slowed down as Nicos fell to the ground with a yell of pain echoing through the now silent battleground.

“Do not doubt my skills, mortal.” Sonita remarked as it zoomed in on the victor.

Both of the boys couldn’t help but laugh as the victory music swelled and the camera zoomed in on Sonita’s head sticking out of the top of the platform, her entire model starting to twitch rapidly as it attempted to move into her victory pose. Tom clutched his stomach as he laughed at the silly glitch, Marco having tears in his eyes from laughing.

“Oh my god, that was great.” Marco said once they both calmed down.

“Yeah…” Tom snickered before scooping Marshmallow up from Marco’s lap to make sure he was completely calm after the brief frustration of the glitch. He sighed and relaxed in his chair, running his fingers through the bunny’s short soft fur.

Marco raised an eyebrow when he heard a low vibrating noise before glancing over at Tom. He looked like he was in absolute bliss, sinking into the cushy beanbag with an adorable bunny on his chest. Marco soon realized the sound was coming from him. Was he purring?

The boy shifted in his bean bag and noticed Tom’s long pierced ear twitch as he came out of his zen state. Marco couldn’t help but smile.

Tom raised an eyebrow when he noticed. “What?”

“Nothing, you’re just kinda like a cat.” Marco snickered.

Tom felt a faint flash of heat on his face. “Sh-shut up man…”

Unfortunately, the compliment caused him to start purring again. Marco couldn’t help but test his boundaries as he stretched out his arm and lightly brushed his fingers against the back of his ear. Tom jumped slightly from the unwelcomed touch as Marco gently scratched behind his ear. His purring got louder as he started leaning into Marco’s hand, unable to control his positive response to the contact.

“Like a fire breathing kitty cat.” Marco teased as he let his hand fall away from his ear.

“I don’t breathe fire, jerk.” Tom lightly punched his shoulder as his blush faded.

Marco squirmed out of his bean bag and stretched after a few more hours of various games and munching down snacks.

“I gotta head home. You can keep the snacks Star will just tear into them in the middle of the night anyway.”

“Alright, thanks.” Tom smiled and got up as well, popping his spine as he stretched.

Marco pulled out his scissors and cut open a portal in front of him. “I’ll see you later, Tom.” Marco smiled.

Tom smiled back, his arms outstretching a bit to offer a hug but Marco turned away before he could notice.

“See ya…” Tom mumbled as the portal shut behind the human.

Tom sighed and fell onto his bed, despite Marco’s friendlier tone towards him he was still distant towards him physically. The only time he touched him today was just to make fun of his purring.

What if Marco will only see him as a friend? He said his date with that other girl didn’t lead to anything but that didn’t make Tom a worthy candidate. The demon clutched the blankets under him and huffed before hearing his bedroom door open.

A servant slipped inside, not daring to actually set his feet inside the room. “Master Tom, the King requests your presence in the throne room.”

Tom sighed and crawled off of his bed, following the servant out of the room.

Just a little fluff chapter before some bigger developments and an excuse to make some cute head canons with Tom.

SO as of right now if I get two more chapters in before Star vs. starts again in November (which isn't likely but I do have a floor plan for these chaps) I'm going to wait on updates with Tom's story until the season is over so that any information about Tom's parents is accurate. I'm sure you guys are used to long wait times with these but I'm letting you know that this one will be intentional.

Got a question? The ask box is at your mercy!  Follow the blog for more HB101 and other nonsense!

Dipper stared out the window of the gift shop as he swept the dusty floor. After Bill’s little visit he immediately told his great uncle, Stanford. This greatly shocked and concerned him and he took protective measures before he could even unpack his bags from being away at sea. It was then that Dipper was thankful for the extra anti-weirdness shield materials Ford had carefully stored in case of a similar threat. Or, in this case, the exact same one.

They just barely had enough unicorn hair to trace the edge of the shack, something that had made Dipper a bit tense as the pile grew thinner while they applied it. From what he heard about the ordeal to get the hair from Mable, he’d rather not have anyone endure that again. A cruel scam, illegal trafficking, a break in, and a bloody fist fight. Although Dipper had considered part of that to be his sister’s imagination going crazy, the biggest similarity between her and Gravity Falls is no one knew what they would throw at you next, both figuratively and literally.

“Head’s up!” Dipper was knocked to the floor as a surprisingly dense pink yarn ball hit him square in the face. “Oops, I was supposed to catch that. Sorry dude.” Soos chuckled, picking up the ball and chucking it back to Mabel as more balls of yarn began to fly.

Dipper snickered and rolled his eyes, though decided not to get involved in their battle. He went back to sweeping as an excuse to stare the floor. He heard Stan quickly scold Mabel and Soos before having them clean up the yarn. Soon enough Dipper was alone with nothing but his chores and his thoughts.

WHAM!

The boy jumped as he heard something hit the screen door near him. He turned around, holding the broom in front of him as if it would serve as a functioning weapon for whatever was outside. He didn’t hear anything moving around, and were there...flower petals caught in the screen? Dipper lowered his broom and approached the door, plucking the smooth violet petal from the ripped and twisted screen.

He opened the door, now more curious than fearful. He groaned. “Mabel!” a large bouquet of flowers rested on the doorstep, a mix of blue, indigo, and bright yellow flowers were piled into a soft light blue silk, a card stuck to the fabric.

Mabel poked her head around the corner with a grin. “What’s up bro-bro?” Dipper sighed and picked up the flowers. “You got present from someone.” Mabel gasped excitedly and swiped the flowers from his hands. “Did you already get another boyfriend? Or...oh god please tell me that isn’t from Gideon.” The more he thought about that the more the bouquet seemed to smell of his cologne. “Nah, he’s pretty much over me.” Mabel inspected the flowers curiously before pulling the card free of the rest of the gift.

“Well who is it?” Dipper asked, tilting his head a bit. Mabel only gave his brother a wide smirk. “Oh I don’t think this is for me Dipper.”

Dipper’s eyebrow perked up higher as Mabel waved the card in his face. There were no words, just a little, blue, pine tree image inside. “Ooh~ looks like someone has a secret admirer!” Dipper scoffed.

“What? That’s just a picture of a tree, that doesn’t prove-”

“Bap!” Mabel stuck the card to Dipper’s hat, right over the original pine tree logo. Dipper sighed in defeat, blushing slightly. “So, someone actually likes me??”

“That’s what an admirer does bro. Falls head over heels for you!” Dipper smiled softly and took back the flowers. “Huh...an admirer...sounds kinda nice…” As Dipper reveled in the fantasy that a beautiful girl was shyly leaving flowers at his doorstep a hiss came from the bouquet.

Dipper looked into the dark cracks between the flowers in the arrangement before a large black snake lunged out of the flowers. Dipper screamed and held the flowers and hissing snake away from his face. Mabel yelped and jumped away as large black spiders swarmed Dipper’s arms. The boy flailed and panicked, crashing into the wall before finally managing to throw the flowers out the door and frantically shake off the spiders.

“What the hell was that?!”

Bill peeked out of the bushes with a disappointed frown, why did he throw it away? That flower arrangement was beautiful! Beast told him humans liked flowers. Then again leaving an arrangement for his human didn’t work out so well either. You know, what does that guy know anyway! Bill huffed and got up, strolling toward the main part of town.

Bill stuffed his hands into the pockets of his shorts as he wandered down the town’s sidewalk. He wasn’t afraid of being caught as the demon monster that traumatised just about everyone last summer, these people were idiots. Everyone on the planet was, even Pine Tree!

“...but he’s...my idiot…” he murmured to himself, a faint blush on his stupid human cheeks. Why did this vessel have to show so much emotion, it sucks!

He brushed past the window of a jewelry store that was closing for the day, almost walking past entirely until a faint sparkle caught his eye, he turned his head back to the window, in the display a beautiful bright blue pin in the shape of a pine tree. The low summer sun caught it perfectly, leaving small blue dots reflecting off around the display. The gold backing shined magnificently and it certainly looked pricey. It was perfect! Pine Tree would love this!

Bill gave the gem a greedy smirk and sauntered off before anyone could notice he’d been standing there. He’d be coming back for that one.

“Piiine Treeeeee” Dipper could hear him whining and tapping on the shield. Dipper huffed and ignored him, somehow the demon knew he was alone and Ford was way down in the basement where his tapping couldn't be heard.

After a few more taps the shield retaliated and made Bill yelp as a shock went through his body. “Oww!” the demon sucked on his stinging finger pitifully and muttered a few latin curse words to himself before raising his voice again. “Pine Tree come out. I just wanna talk kid.”

Dipper spared him a glance out of curiosity. His vessel was dirty and ragged, hair greasy and sticking up in odd ways and an arm was caked in dried blood. It had been several days since he first got this body and clearly Bill hadn't considered bathing during any of them. The vessel had grown extremely thin as well. Either Bill was only finding scarce amount of food or he kept forgetting humans need to eat to live.

Bill pulled a small box out of his shorts pocket and lightly tossed it into the weirdness barrier. It passed through with no resistance and landed in the grass near the gift shop’s entrance. Dipper raised a cautious eyebrow at the box from inside before look back to Bill. He gave an encouraging and eager nod and motioned for Dipper to retrieve the box.

The boy gave him a deadpanned look in return. “If you don’t get out of here I’m getting Ford.” Dipper warned. The demon took this as sign to leave before he got caught by someone who would happily run out and kill him.

Dipper huffed and got up from his spot at the counter, deciding to retreat to a room devoid of windows to keep Bill from pestering him.

As he turned to go sit in the living room curiosity pricked at his brain. What the heck did Bill just toss into the yard? Something to trap him? Something else to rip the dimensional barrier? He should at least give it to Ford in case it’s dangerous. Wow, he is really good at reasoning with himself.

Dipper turned on his heel ignoring Mabel and Soos watching the local news (something about someone smashing the window of a jewelry shop last night) and went back to the screen door near the discarded box, eyeing it suspiciously. He couldn’t see Bill anywhere, hopefully he ran off far enough that he wasn’t spying on Dipper through the bushes. He kept his mind off the thought just enough to grab the box and go back inside.

It was smaller than he thought, just a simple yellow ring box with a slick black ribbon tied around it. What kind of horrifying interdimensional creation did he cram into this thing? Dipper’s fingers trembled slightly as he tried to peek open the box. He strained his eyes to try and see inside it.

“Hey Dipper!” Dipper yelped and closed the box, hiding it behind his back. “Whatcha got there?” Mabel cocked her head and attempted to see the little box.

“Uh...it’s nothing.”

Mabel peeked over his shoulder with a sly grin. “I spy a jewelry box! Is it for a girl? Do you have another crush?!”

“W-what?! No!!” Dipper held the box out to keep if out of her grip as Mabel made a motion to grab it. Mabel hooked her leg around her brother’s ankle and tripped him. Dipper’s hat flew off his head as he hit the floor of the gift shop with a thud. Mabel stepped past the squirming limbs of the boy and grabbed the box with a victorious laugh.

Dipper rolled to his stomach and frantically reached to trip her up but she was too far away by then. “Mabel don’t open it!” Dipper cried out. Mabel teasingly cracked the box open before flinging it open fully. Dipper shielded his face on instinct but all that came was a surprised gasp from his sister.

“Whoa! Where’d you get the cash for this?!”

Dipper looked up curiously, shouldn’t that box be spewing nightmares right now? Mabel picked up something sparkly out of the box with amazement. A thin, gold, pine tree-shaped pin rested in her hand, one side of it completely decorated with bright blue jewels. “It’s just a pin?” Dipper raised an eyebrow.

“Just a pin?! This looks like it costs more than the shack!” Mabel exclaimed.

“Hold on give me that.” Dipped stood up and plucked the pin out of her hands. He spun it between his fingers and looked at it from every angle.

“Well you better tell me who this mystery girl is soon but I’ll leave you alone...for now.” Mabel tossed the box back to him and left the room.

“Huh, doesn't look like any kind of charm or monster. The barrier wouldn't let it pass through if it was so that makes sense.” Dipper muttered to himself. “But then...why give it to me if it wouldn't do anything?”

Dipper traced his finger along the edge of the shape. He was a bit disturbed the day he realized the pine tree symbol on his hat is just two triangles and a stick. Triangles...they’re his gateway into this world, like a window of some kind. That’s what Ford told him. Draw an eye on a triangle and he can see through it, no matter the size or materials it’s made of. Soon enough Dipper could see the gems embedded on the top half of the pine tree forming an oval shape. His eyes traced the shape before they narrowed in disgust at the sparkling pin.

Dipper adjusted it in his hand so the eye was covered by his palm before going up to the roof through the secret ladder in the gift shop. A gust of cold evening wind hit his face as he stepped out into the dim sunlight. He wound up his arm before throwing the pin as far as it could, faintly hearing it hit a tree but not being able to see it anymore. Dipper let out a huff and drop kicked the box off the roof as well. “Good riddance…”

Bill held back a yelp when the sharp point on the tip of the pin hit the skull of his vessel. He huffed in annoyance and glared at the pin, now resting on the grass behind him. He leaned over and flicked it deeper into the forest with a groan. “What went wrong? This is what humans like right? Ugh, I told that branch head this was a stupid idea...” He sighed and tucked his legs close to his chest. Simple didn’t work, expensive didn’t work. What else could he do? He wasn’t about to run to Beast begging for more advice. Alright, time to get serious. Pine Tree wouldn’t be able to resist this one!

The demon looked over his new gift, he’d really outdone himself this time! But it was so delicate, he couldn’t just chuck it past the bubble without it breaking. Getting inside wasn’t an option at this point, even if he could break the barrier Ford would be upstairs with a gun (or twenty) before he could say a word to Dipper. He’d have to… His mouth formed into a wide grin when he heard the front door open.

Mabel ran outside with a joyful woop and a water gun in hand, Dipper following close behind with his own weapon and a bucket of water balloons.

Bill watched them fight off the hot summer sun with their water fight, grabbing the tail of a squirrel that was inching up a tree. It shrieked as Bill forced out what little consciousness it had, his human form going limp for the moment as the squirrel leaped out into the open.

The water fight was getting more intense and Dipper had just shifted outside the protection bubble. The squirrel scurried to him, leaping onto his back and grabbing the water pistol from his arms. “Hey!” Dipper yelled and attempted to chase the squirrel who was carrying his toy into the woods. He winced at the twigs and rocks hitting his bare feet but kept after the animal.

It tripped on the large item it was attempting to carry and slumped to the ground, laying completely still. Was it...dead..? Dipper gave the suddenly still animal a disturbed look before slowly reaching to grab the toy.

The leaves of a bush rustled out of the corner of his eye and he bolted straight up, clutching the water gun tight enough to turn his knuckles white. A hand shot out of the brush and grabbed his arm, yanking him deeper into the woods. Dipper screamed and attempted to struggle before he was pushed up to a tree.

Hanging from it was an elaborate design in the shape of a heart, the middle filled in with small triangles. But…wait are those bones?! Dipper let out a shocked and disgusted yelp, looking closer the bones on the outside had engraved codes on them and the whole thing was yelp together with unidentifiable strings of flesh.

“Like it Pine Tree?” Bill grinned happily, standing behind him. Dipper whipped around, eyes wide and angry. “What the hell Bill?!”

“All those cliche human gifts weren’t working out so I thought I’d give you something a bit more...personal.” Dipper gave him a horrified look.

“Presents? Wait, the bouquet of spiders was you too?!”

“Surprise!” Bill chirped. Dipper glared at him. “Look I don’t know what you’re trying to pull demon but I’m not falling for it. You can’t trick me anymore!”

Bill’s wide grin faltered.

“I’m not going to bother even looking at anything else you throw pass the barrier. I know you’re planning something and I don’t even want to TOUCH whatever that is!”

“Aw don’t be like that Pine Tree. I worked so hard on it.” Dipper glared and shot him in the face with a blast of the water gun. The demon coughed and sputtered as the boy shimmied past the bush and walked away. “If you come near the shack again I’m letting Ford deal with you.”

Bill let his more cheerful expression sink as Dipper left, he pushed his wet bangs out of his face and lightly kicked at the dirt. “Stupid human…”

Well Bill knows jack shit about gifts. It’s not the object itself, it’s who is giving the gift. And if it’s Bill Cipher giving the gift no one is ever going to take it.

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