Bill!Pines love ford so much he gave up everything for him but ford doesn't even want to gave up his mortality for him.
"why won't you choose me? Just this once ... I gave you all the solution for all the problem!
# Doesn't want to feel guilty cuz cheating to be immortal? Yeah we move out from this dimensions! You doesn't need to see all this human so you doesn't need to feel bad!
"bill..."
" I already suggest we made the whole family be a immortal too but you said not everyone will agree to be one so *laugh* OH you worry you will go crazy due to the immortality? don't worry about your mental state if I'm stay by your side you wouldn't go crazy I'm promised"
"bill..."
"you doesn't want the guilt of outlive your family haunted you? T-then illl just goin to make you forgot about th- ....nvmind about that last one...but pls think this thru Fordsy ... What happen to me if you die? Just be selfish for me...We can be Forever together!"
Bill!Pines love ford so much he gave up everything for him but ford doesn't even want to gave up his mortality for him.
"why won't you choose me? Just this once ... I gave you all the solution for all the problem!
# Doesn't want to feel guilty cuz cheating to be immortal? Yeah we move out from this dimensions! You doesn't need to see all this human so you doesn't need to feel bad!
"bill..."
" I already suggest we made the whole family be a immortal too but you said not everyone will agree to be one so *laugh* OH you worry you will go crazy due to the immortality? don't worry about your mental state if I'm stay by your side you wouldn't go crazy I'm promised"
"bill..."
"you doesn't want the guilt of outlive your family haunted you? T-then illl just goin to make you forgot about th- ....nvmind about that last one...but pls think this thru Fordsy ... What happen to me if you die? Just be selfish for me...We can be Forever together!"
I have so many thoughts about them. You can read them under the cut below. If not, I hope you'll enjoy the art!
The reason I made this an AU is because I wanted to make my own specific spin on them.
A pairing between these two fascinates me. And not really in "I can fix him" way, but in a "kindness untangles the deep rooted knots of apathy and misery" way. Because that's what the Axolotl, at least in my interpretation, is: an incarnation of selfless, relentless gentleness, compassion and goodwill. An immovable object to Bills unstoppable force. He can't be manipulated by Bill, as he has no way to get an upper hand on him, no tricks up his sleeve, no control over him. His words don't hurt him as they would anyone else, nothing he can come up with can truly waver Axs resolve to be kind to everything in the multiverse, including him.
In this AU I lean heavily into the concept that Ax is THE God of this world. He was there before everything and he was the one to mold existence into reality. Naturally, he has a unique outlook on the world. His love is all-encompassing, but it's not personal, per se. It is a love a God would have for their creation: they know everything has it's place, they've put it there with meticulous care, and even though the concept of karma exists in this universe, it doesn't mean that the wicked, the vile, the reprehensible has no place in this world. On the contrary, actually. Without this balance, everything would lose its meaning. What is it like to experience joy for someone who doesn't know sorrow? What good would order do if there was no chaos?
But even though Ax's love is undeniably unconventional, saying that he is indifferent to Bill, or that he is nothing special to him in the grand scheme of things would be a lie. If you heard that one audio which goes "loving the doctor is like loving the stars", then think back to that. Bill occupies a niche that no one has ever occupied before in Axs mind. He is way more willing to show his love for Bill openly and unabashedly, he does things for him he has never done for anyone, period. And while it was something that gave Bill trouble at first, when he eventually realized this, he was more than okay with the way Ax expressed his adoration. Not because he's "settling" or anything of the sort, but because this type of love isn't something he consideres as something lesser or not enough for him. He feels happy and content in their relationship, even if to get there they've had to face many hardships.
But to circle back to the universal balance I was talking about before, one deed Ax absolutely finds unacceptable is when someone deliberately messes with it and skews it, making themselves and everyone around them wretchedly unhappy.
This is the primary reason why he sent Bill to therapy: he was a danger to everyone around him and himself not because he was "bad", necessarily, but because he purposefully went off the deep end and made everyone's lives a living hell. He chose to be evil in abundance, becoming his own tormentor in the process without even realizing it. He lied until he couldn't tell what was a lie anymore, until agony became his happiness.
Ax's secondary reason for his decision was Bills own request. He invoked his name, he wanted to escape death through rebirth, and Ax obliged. The problem is this: for reincarnation to be feasible, a person must have good karma. While Ax loves everyone equally regardless, this is a law that cannot be broken. There is nothing explicitly wrong with living your life as someone less than charitable. If it is done in moderation, if your actions help keep the universal balance, or if you or others don't disproportionately suffer because of it, it's fair game. As was already stated, it is even necessary for some people to be this way. This doesn't mean, however, that those who indulged in such acts are eligible for rebirth right away. Its easy to be cruel, so having rebirth be a kind of reward for doing good deeds sounds fair.
The problem with this whole conundrum lies a little beneath the surface. Bill, despite what he says, what he believes, is the least suitable person for this kind of treatment. Even if he genuinely wants to get better and be reborn deep down, the Theraprism approach is only actively making him worse, as it tries to make an entirely different person out of him. They try to break him down so they can help him in shaping himself back up as someone new and healed. And this type of deconstruction works for some, but it is actively detrimental to Bills mental state.
After an undisclosed amount of time Ax notices this and realizes that he has made a mistake, so he decides on a different approach. He shifts the focus away from carmic rehabilitation and onto identifying and working through the underlying reasons for why Bill is miserable. He does so by pulling Bill out of the Theraprism and into his domain, where they begin to coexist. What does the trick, in the end, is Axs unrelenting kindness, but I may expand on this aspect of their relationship better in a different post.
This is basically the jist of it. Thanks for coming to my Ted talk.
Haven’t collabed with @renconner in a long while for a mini comic (minus our big one, Instinct). We were talking about one of Stan’s lowest moments involving being outside with that damn sign, so we decided to make a comic with Stan remembering it. I’ve also kinda of assumed Filbrick would lie to Ford about what’s going on with Stan (Stan probably did too to some extent).
Lined and colored a comic from the old sketchbook!
Idea and dialogue from busket
[Image ID: a comic featuring Stan and Ford Pines from Gravity Falls, beginning with the two of them standing on the deck of the Stan O’ War 2, mid-conversation. Ford says: “…I started building the portal-” and Stan smiles, interrupting: “Oh! I remember something, something from those ten years!” Ford asks: “What was it?” and Stan replies: “I remember building the portal with you!”
The next panel shows Fiddleford standing in front of the portal, and Stan continues: “It was you, me, and Fiddleford.” The scene shifts to show Fiddleford standing in front of tapestries of Bill Cipher, with a wary expression, and Stan adds: “I remember not liking Fiddleford that much, so I’d always try to mess with him, right?”
Back on the boat, Ford’s expression is skeptical as he replies: “Stan, you weren’t there. You must be imagining it.” Stan holds up a hand as he says: “What? No, I swear I remember it. I remember helping you build the portal with my own two-”
Looking down at his hands, he says: “Actually… I think they were your hands?” as the next panel shows one of Ford’s hands, with the sleeve of a tan trench coat around his wrist. The final panel shows, from Ford’s perspective, his reflection in the mirror of the Mystery Shack bathroom. He’s reading out to touch the mirror, cackling, and one of his eyes is obscured by his glasses while the other is yellow and slit-pupiled. Stan asks: “That’s really weird, Ford. How’d I get your memories? Is that some creepy twin thing?” End ID.]
[Mr Bill Pines AU: Bill Cipher-Pines x Clifford(Stanford Reincarnation)]
Bill misses his husband and he can’t decide at the moment if this was Karma or just another mistake he’d walked into. Fate could be very kind, but it could also be a very cruel thing.
Inspired by a comic from @honeqq and I decided why not write something related to it! I need to write more stuff for them PLEASE-
Bill had to steel himself once more at the familiar chime summoning him again. He already knew who it was and had a few theories about the reason behind it. The real problem was that he didn’t know if he could take it anymore; each moment felt like a deep cut, with wounds left to fester as his heart battled his mind, tearing apart any semblance of sanity.
He had to mentally prepare himself for every encounter with the lookalike of his deceased husband, the imitation of a man to whom he had once given everything. Just being there was painful—the same voice, the same face, the similar mutation…
But he wasn’t the same man.
Taking a deep breath, Bill stepped in front of the impatient artist, who regarded him with mild annoyance. The artist was blissfully unaware of the constant struggle the god faced just to maintain a decent appearance. For some reason, Bill didn’t dare to explain this to him; it made it easier… sort of.
“Oh, finally. I was beginning to think you weren’t going to show.”
Bill mused that someone must be pulling a sadistic prank, repeatedly putting him in this situation where every waking moment threatened to unleash the flood of emotions and grief once more. This man wasn’t the genius he had once loved. This guy wasn’t Sixer, no matter how similar they looked.
“Yeah, yeah, I’d call you ‘lucky’ number seven, but you’ve just been annoying. Of all the cosmic beings to seek guidance from, you’d think you’d pick one that hasn’t faded into obscurity.”
“You were the muse for this journal’s author, so I thought you’d be able to help me in some way, somehow. I think.”
At the mention of the journal, Bill wanted to shrivel up and die. It was the only one he hadn’t had a hand in writing. The others he had co-authored with his husband, but this one… this one had eluded him for so long, only to be found by… this guy.
He wanted to bash his skull in and scream.
Stanford was gone; that pill had been hard enough to swallow a thousand years ago. Fate just had to rub salt into that open wound. This whole situation was cruel.
“What’s the problem this time?”
“I can’t decide what I want to paint.”
The empty canvas the other man gestured to seemed to beckon him, the stark white void drawing him in and holding him in a vice grip. The triangle stared blankly at the vacant space; an idea flickered to life in his mind, but he hesitated to indulge it. What if he did? It would only unleash another wave of grief, a haunting reminder of what once was and what he had lost to the relentless claws of time and the cold hands of death.
Bill already knew this was going to be idiotic. He felt it in his bones—he was about to make yet another stupidly ridiculous choice. Yet, before he could stop himself, the words tumbled out. Regret settled in immediately after he spoke.
“How about this? What if you painted someone for me? A portrait.”
The reincarnation regarded him with curiosity and interest, and Bill felt an overwhelming urge to gouge out his lone eye at the sight. Don’t look at him like that. Don’t give him the same expression that once held so much love and adoration, the kind that had nearly drowned him. Don’t remind him of those memories. Don’t drive the knife in deeper.
“Sure, I don’t see why not.”
That was the amusement that haunted him: the ghost of a man he had once loved to his own detriment. Someone whose smile caused the edges of his eyes to crinkle with unbridled joy, someone whose gaze never wavered in love and adoration. It was a ticking time bomb to have chosen and loved a mortal; inevitable goodbyes lurked around every corner of his finite life. There was no telling how much time they had left together, yet Bill still felt like Stanford was taken from him far too soon.
What he would have given for just a little more time—one last kiss, one final “I love you.”
He was a god, yet he would have surrendered absolutely everything for just another moment with the man he once called a husband. His equal. His muse.
Bill had to turn away from the other man, feeling tears welling up in his eyes. He quickly blinked them back; after a thousand years, the grief was still overwhelming. It felt like just yesterday he had been in the arms of his lover, and now that love and comfort were nowhere to be found. The ache in his heart throbbed and pounded, emotions turning him soft. What a useless god he’d become. What was once a pleasant feeling had morphed into crippling sorrow.
“If you don’t mind me asking, though… who is it that you want me to paint?”
That was a loaded question, burdened by the lament and grief of a thousand years—a love lost to the hands of time and the embrace of death. The one plane of existence where Bill couldn’t follow. Not as he was. Not when he didn’t have the ability to die. The sickness of an immortal, truly.
“Someone important to me. My muse.”
“You have a muse? Wow. They must be someone incredible.”
Bill could only let out an empty laugh. Stanford was incredible—more than he could ever dare to articulate. Words simply wouldn’t do the man justice; to have a god fall to his knees out of love was an immeasurable feat. The triangle always believed his lover was a force to be reckoned with, a powerhouse and then some. Yet, the relentless sands of time eventually wore him down. Even Stanford's brilliant mind, which had endured so much, couldn’t escape the inevitable; the grim reaper came to collect his dues.
No mortal was spared from that fate.
“Yeah. He was .”
The pain that bled through the triangle’s voice didn’t go unnoticed by the artist, despite his attempts to conceal it. However, the artist chose not to mention it, believing it was best not to pry. After all, it wasn’t his place to interfere; why would he?
Bill cleared his throat and floated up to get a better look at the empty canvas. Every instruction was clear and concise, every requested stroke of the brush executed with intention and purpose. The triangle’s close guidance and precise descriptions of each detail left no room for error; there were simply no mistakes.
As the painting began to take shape, colors and pigments blended seamlessly, crafting an image clearer than crystal. Gradually, the likeness of a man emerged—one with silver hair and a gentle gaze, complemented by a smile that reached his eyes, eyes that radiated immense love and adoration. It was evident that the painting captured an intensely intimate moment; such an expression was not meant for just anyone. Only someone so deeply loved and cherished could inspire a face like that. Only someone who felt eternally young could carry the weight of age with the wonder and joy of a child. The painting became a living juxtaposition.
The artist dropped his paintbrush in surprise; the painting looked so… alive. Under Bill’s guidance, this project had transformed into one of his best works. He couldn't help but wonder if its resemblance to a self-portrait was purely coincidental—an unnerving mirror he had created hour after hour, stroke after stroke, with immense specificity from the triangle beside him. However, the longing gaze from Bill toward the smiling subject made things clear. That action alone spoke more truth than any words they had ever exchanged. Yet, despite the painstaking effort poured into this piece, his eyes were inevitably drawn back to the final product.
It felt… familiar somehow, as if he knew this man, perhaps having met him somewhere before, despite the artist's certainty that he never had.
What was this sense of déjà vu?
The painting was beautifully crafted, distinctly unreplicable, particularly within the eyes of this man, which overflowed with mirth and fondness that clearly belonged to a lover. The expression he wore embodied the true essence of being loved, the purest depiction of happiness.
How had Bill even known about this? Not to mention in such explicit detail…
“Bill—”
“You have your painting, I need some time to think.”
The triangle’s voice trembled with overwhelming emotion, cracking under the weight of his grief. He couldn’t bear to look at the painting any longer. He turned away, unable to face either the finished work or the living, breathing human who looked so painfully similar to the man immortalised in the portrait. Every glance at the painting drove the knife in his chest deeper.
He had been right—this was a stupid idea.
“Just summon me again when you need me,”
Bill muttered, his voice barely holding together. And with that, the god vanished before the artist could even respond.
Back in his original resting place, hot tears spilled from his lone eye as the grief he’d kept buried for so long finally poured out. The triangle broke down into uncontrollable sobs, curling up against a nearby wall, shivering as anguish consumed him. An agonised scream tore from his chest, shaking the very room. It was a miracle he had managed to stay composed for as long as he had.
Maybe he had wanted to see Stanford again—wanted to remember a happier time, to recall a memory frozen in place. The face of his husband, the man he had loved so deeply. But that love was now buried beneath a thousand years of pain and loss, an ache that had festered beyond measure.
Bill Cipher couldn’t move. He stayed there, weeping through the day, letting the weight of eternity crush him.
If he was truly fated to cross paths with that reincarnation, there was only one truth left.
i think one of my favourite parts of gravity falls is just. soos in general. a different show would probably have a character like that- y’know, a fat guy who’s in that early-20s age where nobody wants to acknowledge that nobody knows what they’re doing but they’re not a kid anymore so they’re no longer part of the “marketable demographic” for kids, i think a lot of other shows would make him the punching bag or the butt of jokes or portray him as weird or creepy or a failiure. but no, soos is genuinely a big part of the heart of the show. he’s allowed to be a bit of a dork, and have a non-standard path in life- it’s treated as part of the quirks that make him lovable! the twins think he’s super cool, he’s smart, funny, genuine, kind- and when he gets his own episode in soos and the real girl, his issues with talking to people are just treated as so much more HUMAN than i’m used to for characters in his demographic. it’s really sweet. and i’m glad they do that. i really like soos.
THIS. As a kid i did not expect his character to be this important to me. But here I am, soon to hit 20 and with no idea what to do with my life lol. We young adults love Soos, and if someone does not, they're wrong. 👽
I made a past post showing parallels between Gideon & Bill a while back but the main parallel I noticed are their relationships to Ford and Mabel:
They used to be close to Ford/Mabel before their messed up actions caused a falling out between them
Gave them chances to join their side
Held them captive during the course of Weirdmaggedon
Now this could've been accidental and me just reading into things but the Book of Bill had this recurring idea of Bill being Ford's toxic, abusive ex. It just really cemented this parallel and the idea of Bill being Ford's Gideon.
IN ADDITION - While this might be reaching, I think with this idea in mind, there's an additional way to read to Gideon's line:
"Bill explained it to me nice and simple. She was always destined to be mine. Now that I have her trapped in a cage, she'll learn to love me. I have an eternity to wait"
Another way to read that is, Bill's projecting onto Gideon & Mabel a bit and this was what he initially had planned with Ford: Keep them trapped, and use the endless amounts of time they have to make him "learn" to love him, but then the barrier surrounding Gravity Falls derailed that
May I also throw onto this post, because I've been wanting a little masterpost of all their parallels:
Both have significant powers of their own (all Bill's psychic abilities vs Gideon's access to Journal 2 & the amulet)
... which they gained as children, much too young to handle it properly, facilitating their spiral into villainy...
... and yet for all their real powers, their modus operandi is manipulating people by pretending to have powers above and beyond what they already do (being a divine muse vs being psychic).
As power hungry as they are, what they really seem to want is attention and adoration.
When they're defeated they're sent to a prison where they do arts & crafts and group therapy as part of their rehabilitation. And it's kinda the last thing you'd expect the show to do with them.
They both tried to turn to their usual minions to help them escape prison (Ford vs Bud), and when that didn't work, attempted a dubious demon pact with someone they barely knew in the hopes they'd help spring them (Bill contacting the reader vs Gideon contacting Bill).
They both have a gang of loyal criminals.
They don't treasure their criminal gang as much as this one Pines who keeps rebuffing them.
They latched onto their respective Pines over their similarities (Bill seeing himself in Ford's desire for acknowledgment, respect, and success after a lifetime of being seen as the freak, vs Gideon being drawn to Mabel's appreciation for the "sparkly things" in life)
Both of them blame their target's twin brother for turning them against them rather than acknowledging it was their own blatantly evil murderous behavior.
Dapper dressers.
Absolutely terrorized their parents (at least Gideon's survived)
YES TO ALL OF THIS ^^^ Great observations and I wanna add like a couple more things
They have a harmless, almost cutesy look to them hiding their true intentions
One of the ways the ways they got defeated was being tickled
They both have possessed people for their own gains
Spied on the people of the town through their own image
AND BONUS:
Thank you @trylvieuno for pointing out this page from the coloring book ("What fumbling a Pines family member does to you") and also I noticed someone spray painted Bill over GIdeon's picture
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