Drastic Measures (fic+art)

▲

How were you supposed to get rid of a curse he’d basically, and foolishly, bonded to the pages of his journal?

Bill's initial reaction when Dipper asked him about the runes entered his mind. When he handed him the journal, Bill looked strangely surprised, much to Dipper's horror. “You tryna bring on the apocalypse yourself, kid?”

*swear warning*

Canon divergence, human Bill Cipher (unironically), Bill is a jerk, Mabel tried

this ain't "Desperate Measures," I'm just bad at titles

Ambiguous ages, if you wanna see em' all as 8-year olds, that's fine.

≫ ──── ≪•◦ ▲ ◦•≫ ──── ≪

March 22, 2020

▲ Fanfiction ▲

Google Docs

Word Count:

1440

Time Taken:

4 days

▲ Artwork ▲

Clip Studio Paint

Duration:

3 hours

Layers:

60+

progress shots + extra at end of post

Dipping my toes into some fanfiction stuff because I don't usually share my writing.

I wrote this more for the experience

≫ ──── ≪•◦ ▲ ◦•≫ ──── ≪

#cipheres

≫ ──── ≪•◦ ▲ ◦•≫ ──── ≪

art talk

I'm gonna be honest - the only reason I went for a lineless style was because I didn't want to spend a whole week on the drawing.

This is probably the quickest piece of art I've done that was still pretty big (in my opinion). I skipped over the sketch and line art stage entirely. Literally. I just slapped everything together in a span of three hours. I've never done something like this, especially lineless art.

I basically LIVE by the words "the sketch is the foundation of your art," but here I am, breaking my own rules. I'm not saying I'm not proud, but like, wow.

▲

▲

╔══════ ≪ °▲° ≫ ══════╗

╚══════ ≪ °▲° ≫ ══════╝

▲▲▲

Drastic Measures

╔══════ ≪ °▲° ≫ ══════╗

It's 4 AM, and Dipper's as frantic as the day before the apocalypse, the numbers ticking in his head. This was possibly much worse compared to Bill's apocalypse, and that's saying a whole lot.

Dipper can't even get the anxiety-induced buzzing in his limbs to stop. Each time he set his journal aside and curled up under his covers, the constant barrage of thoughts and possibilities refused to cease. Even now, as he held a shaky hand up to the corner of his blue journal, the flame of the lighter in his hand danced tauntingly.

Dipper glared accusingly, eyes reddened and tired, at the single page decorated with dark ink and flowing characters, their contrast to the pale of the page burned themselves into his retinas. The picture-perfect runes had bound themselves to the journal — but would turning it into ashes it be enough? Panic arose to his throat again, and he pulled the lighter away.

He shut the journal with a light thump, and Dipper let the flame burn out into the dark, allowing the soft of the moonlight from his window to drape itself across the crumpled sheets of his bed and the cold floorboards below. Dipper could've easily blamed Bill, it was a tempting, nagging feeling he had. It wouldn't have helped the situation though.

How were you supposed to get rid of a curse he’d basically, and foolishly, bonded to the pages of his journal?

Bill's initial reaction when Dipper asked him about the runes entered his mind. When he handed him the journal, Bill looked strangely surprised, much to Dipper's horror. “You tryna bring on the apocalypse yourself, kid?”

Worry and guilt followed him relentlessly for the next seven days, and it was no wonder Mabel dragged him back into her room to ask what was going on. "I mean, Bill might just be teasing you. You know how he is, Dipper." He insisted, a dozen what-ifs when he relayed his thoughts to her. Mabel went back to swinging her legs over the edge of her bed. "I don't really think it's that big of a deal. You don't gotta go out into the mountain to... I dunno, banish your journal into the depths of whatever or whatever. Just chill, Bro-bro. Seriously."

He went off on his own, exasperated. No one there wanted a re-do of their last apocalypse, near-death and all, and Dipper seriously did not want to be the one to start it this time by being too curious. He could practically hear Bill laughing at him. "Curiosity killed the cat!”

Bastard.

Dipper cried out with frustration, throwing his covers aside and pushing his blue trucker hat over his bed-head. Once he shoved his sock feet into his sneakers, he had quickly traversed into the silent hall. He prayed that no one could hear him, avoiding the weaker spots and cringing when the floorboards creaked underfoot.

After carefully making his way down to the bottom of the staircase his heart was pounding wildly in his chest, and he forced himself to exhale slowly as his limbs shook. Dipper clutched the journal with his lips pursed, slipping out the back door and sprinting across the grassy field and past the treeline, eyes set on the mound of rock in the distance.

▲

"Dipper!"

It was almost a whisper, with the wind screaming and filling Dipper's head and blowing his hair aside. He whipped his head around, ears straining to listen while he braced himself on the side of the rocks to keep himself upright. The change in altitude made him lightheaded, he was exhausted, and his knees were scraped and raw from climbing the slope.

How Mabel had even made it up there, he didn't know, but she was definitely there in the distance. Her long brunette hair and pink sweater gave her away, thrashing in the wind with his pine tree hat held tightly to her chest.

Dipper turned back to the pulsating and violently swirling vortex that bathed the scene in an alarming shade of cyan and fuchsia. The next gust of wind came and he easily toppled forward onto the hard ground, earning a bruise to his shoulder. A large shadow swept over him — and his eyes widened, heart thrashing in his chest — a shadow of an entire tree skimmed his back and the vortex swallowed it whole within milliseconds.

It took him a moment to get his breath back, gingerly pushing himself up onto his feet again. Gritting his teeth and mentally scolding his speeding heart, he forced the journal open. The pages fought violently against the wind, torn away and batting against his arms.

"DIPPER!" But the wind howled once more, knocking her off her feet. Mabel scrambled to get her bearings, forcing herself forward on all fours. "Dipper! Wait!"

Dipper felt a hand pulling his arm back, and he resisted.

"Dipper, please!"

Her hold tightened, tugging stubbornly, and he winced. Dipper turned to face his twin, almost recoiling at her expression akin to betrayal. "I'm sorry, Mabel," he cried out. "I have to do this!"

His sister's soft doe-eyes widened. "No! No, you don't!" she protested, following him when he forced himself toward the vortex. Mabel's lip trembled.

Dipper's death grip on the charred remains of the journal loosened and he let the wind snatch it away, vanishing, along with the light accompanied by a deafening crack. Both the ground and his knees gave away.

Dipper was keenly aware of the rubble biting into his skin, the bitter taste of copper on his tongue, head spinning, warmth in his arms and legs seeping away. He realized he was flat on his stomach. Even so, his skin was burning, and his fingertips were numb, head cottony with sleep.

But moments later, he was pushed onto his back, cool hands grabbing his face and then arms around his chest. There was crying, a voice shouting the same thing over and over, insistent, like just minutes ago. He caught the sweet scent of cupcake frosting and cocoa against his nose, and for a moment, it smelled of home, but as soon as it came, it was gone. "Look at what you did!" Mabel cried, but she sounded... far away. Dipper wished she hadn't moved away so soon.

"What I did!?" a third voice asked incredulously, more annoying than he ed. He knew it all too well — Bill. He groaned, and then there was silence, the voices gone. Dipper felt himself being lifted, and then promptly thrown over someone's shoulder.

'Like a sack of potatoes,' Dipper thought bitterly, eyes screwed shut.

It was INCREDIBLY uncomfortable, especially now that Bill was walking.

"Sorry kid, but you're gonna have a few bumps and bruises from all this for a while," Bill grunted.

"Yeah, Dipper!" Mabel chimed in. He could picture her with her hands on her hips, pouting.

"To be fair though, you deserved it!" Bill's infuriatingly carefree smile could be assumed just by his tone. Dipper mumbled something along the lines of ‘shut up’ and 'fuck you, Bill.’ Bill chuckled, which fed Dipper's irritation.

He could hear Mabel move closer, her shoes against the gravel path (wait, was there a pathway he just didn't see?).

"We thought you were dead!" she said, knocking her knuckles against the back of Dipper's head. He winced but didn't have it in him to lift his head and glare at his twin.

"I wouldn't be surprised if he got himself killed over something like this," Bill laughed.

"The big swirly magic hole or whatever you told him?"

Before Bill could specify and further embarrass him, Dipper pushed himself up with his arms against Bill's shoulder. "Quiet. My head hurts like HELL," he whined. "And put me down."

Bill didn't stop, or put him down, and kept walking much to Dipper's annoyance. The asshole— "Tell me," Bill started, "you came up here to... what? Destroy the face of the mountain?"

Dipper used his elbow to hit him in the head, which resulted in nearly being dropped face-first into the dirt. "I came up here to destroy my journal!" The corners of Bill's lips turned up. "You hyped me up for nothing, asshole!"

Mabel chimed in again with ‘language!’ and Bill laughed. "What were you expecting?" he exclaimed in disbelief. Dipper curled his lip in a scowl.

"I- I thought I cursed my journal or something!" Dipper shouted, face burning hot, and cheeks flushing. "In hindsight, destroying the entire side of the mountain was... a lot."

"Very!" Mabel piped up.

"B- but... Okay, no, that was really overdone." Dipper grimaced, covering his face with his hands.

╚══════ ≪ °▲° ≫ ══════╝

writing talk

I don't usually write outside of roleplay and school, and before Amino I rarely EVER roleplayed, so this is all like- really new to me. Sharing my writing like this, I mean.

I also learned from Grammarly that I tend to write a lot in ive verbs, which tells me the majority of my thoughts are structured through ive voice.

Uhh, that's interesting.

╔══════ ≪ °▲° ≫ ══════╗

╚══════ ≪ °▲° ≫ ══════╝

<33

≫ ──── ≪•◦ ▲ ◦•≫ ──── ≪

LAST NOTE

Please be aware that I've also posted this drawing under a different name (Instagram, Tumblr, DeviantArt) and it'll be mentioned on those social medias.

Ao3

THANK YOU!

▲▲▲