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He needed to have a talk with Ian. This was getting ridiculous.
The Baelhunt had been going on for thirteen days and Dipper had lost count of how many fans summoned him in hopes of a clue. Aside from the fact it was insanely risky to just summon demons like that - and Ian had warned them specifically not to do this - he didn't know, okay! He didn't know where the damn statue was! He hadn't looked very hard either, but if he had known he wouldn't tell anyone anyway so could they give him a rest already -
He narrowed his eyes and growled as he felt the pull of yet another summons. At this rate he was starting to miss the murderous cultists.
... at this rate he was even starting to miss the Twin Souls fans.
Great. He'd been summoned in a messy bedroom, posters of Mizar the Magnificent hanging on the walls, a folding table covered in papers at the edge of the circle.
A teenage girl stood next to it, hand gripping one of the papers hard enough to crumple it. She stared at him, seemingly frozen.
"Rḯ̌ͬ̇̿͂̄g̋̓̌̇̈ͨ̕h͆̅̎̊ͩt̅͐͋̄͌, I've seen enough," he said, ready to rip apart the binding circle and leave. "Don't summon me again."
"No, wait, don't go! I need you to help me find the next clue," the girl said, dark circles under her bloodshot eyes. She turned that feverish gaze away, running a hand through her hair as she started muttering: "The answer is in the clouds, he said. The answer is in the clouds! But I can't figure it out, I'm stuck, I need to figure this out damn it! We've all been stuck at this for days! I'll give you my friggin' soul if you'll just help me!"
Dipper blinked.
"Your soul?" he said. Sheesh, Ian might have gone too far this time with the difficulty of these clues. Then again, being difficult is what Bill's soul did best.
"Yes! Just tell me what to do!"
She had no idea how lucky she was.
He left the offer hang in the air. It was tempting. "How long has it been since you slept?"
"I don't know, a few days," the girl said, distractedly. "Who cares about sleep! Look, I got as far as connecting the center of each cloud to eachother and if you run that through the Bael cipher you get letters, right, but they're all nonsense because I can't figure out the damn keyword!" She slammed the paper down on the table, which overflowed. One of the stacks of notes came raining down to the floor. "I need something! Please!"
"Why does this even matter so much to you?" Dipper said. "It's just a game. Someone will solve it eventually. Is this about the prize he talked about? Because that's just some merchandise, if you're curious. It's definitely not worth all this."
"I can't leave a mystery hanging," she snapped. "But I wouldn't expect a demon to understand. Do we have a deal or not?"
Dipper paused.
He knew he had changed. You couldn't live for centuries without changing somewhat, even aside from the whole being-a-demon bit. But when exactly had he last felt the thrill of a real mystery hunt?
Maybe as far back as the Transcendence. Man, omniscience really took a lot of fun out of life.
"You know what?" he decided. "I'll give you exactly what you need. And in return you'll let me have all of your notes about the Baelhunt. Deal?"
The girl hesitated for a second. But desperation won. "My notes... but I guess I won't need them anymore. Whatever, yes, deal!"
Dipper shook her hand with a grin. Then he snapped his fingers, three times.
Snap.
Blue fire spread over the many, many papers and took them straight to the Mindscape.
Snap.
The girl's eyes drooped. The rest of her body followed, and he levitated her to the bed before she could fall on the floor. She was fast asleep before she even hit the mattress.
Snap.
A blue baseball cap popped into existence in his hand. He ran a clawed finger over the pine tree on the front.
Things change.
But sometimes... only if you let them.