Chapter Text
The video opens with a man against a white wall. He’s blonde, with tan skin and blue eyes, a bit red-rimmed for some reason as if he had been crying not long before he had started recording. There’s not much you can tell about him, as he is wearing a bright yellow blazer over a white dress shirt, and there’s nothing else on the screen. The moment he realizes the camera is working though, a bright smile illuminates his face, and he introduces himself.
“Hi, my name is Bill Cipher,” he starts, “and I am colorblind. More specifically, I have what people call achromatopsia, which means that I can only see things in black, white, or in shades of grey. It’s uh... it’s dull, to say the least.”
The video jumps, an obvious editing cut between takes.
“There’s a company called EnChroma that has developed glasses that correct color-blindness,” he continues. “And for my birthday a few days back, one of my friends gave me a pair, and didn’t tell me what they were. He just... told me to put them on my face.”
The frames change to the same man – Bill – inside what seems to be a wooden shack with a gift-wrapped package in his hands. There are birthday decorations everywhere – streamers on the ceiling, balloons in every corner, glitter all over the floor – and everything is headache-inducingly colorful and bright, with no coordination whatsoever. You suspect that this had been the intention of whoever had been in charge of decorations, and you smile knowingly. Evidently, this part of the video had been recorded with a phone, since there are two large black rectangles on either side of the screen, and the angle is a bit low.
Next to Bill stands a lanky twenty year-old with brown hair and a red plaid shirt. He seems nervous, fidgety, with his hands in his pockets while rolling back and forth on the balls of his feet.
“Come on,” he says. “Open it!” He’s practically jumping up and down now, all the while playing with his blue and white baseball cap.
Bill starts ripping the package open. “Yeesh! Okay, okay... Calm you tits, Pine Tree!” he laughs.
Pine Tree (obviously a nickname) simply bites his lips, unwilling to give up the surprise.
He doesn’t say a word, but you can see the excitement bubbling up in his eyes as Bill pulls out what seems like a pair of sunglasses from the now open box. He stares at them, turning them over and inspecting them, before pulling the two temples open.
“These are really nice, Pine Tree!” he smiles up at his friend. “Thanks!”
There’s a giggle from behind the camera, high-pitch and girly.
“Put them on!” she says.
Bill turns back towards the camera, or more likely the girl holding the camera, and cocks his head to the side.
“Indoors?” he asks.
“Yes!”
The camera shakes up and down as the girl jumps in excitement, and Pine Tree only nods his head vigorously.
“Alright, geez!” He puts them on. “Are these supposed to do something? I mean, sunglasses indoors? Sure they’re niiiiiiiiiii...”
Pine Tree’s hands come up to hide the ear-splitting smile on his face.
The syllable draws out as the man falls silent. His mouth clicks shut as he slowly turns around, speechless, and looks up towards the streamers, the balloons, the glitter. He’s frozen in place, shocked beyond belief, and you can almost see the gears turning in his head as the man next to him is clutching his gut in an effort not to laugh.
“What the fuck,” he says after a minute of silence.
Pine Tree chokes on a laugh.
“Wait a minute.” Bill lifts the glasses up, squints, and lets them fall back down. “Dipper, what the shit?!”
“Happy birthday, Bill.” Pine Tree – Dipper – manages to wheeze out.
“What the shit?!”
He points to the armchair next to him, flailing his arms around, before stepping and crouching closer to the piece of furniture, picking at the cloth, inspecting it with his mouth half-open in awe.
“That’s yellow, Bill,” Dipper says, and his eyes are soft, a small smile tugging at his lips, but the colorblind man has already jumped up and rushed out of the room and doesn’t see it.
The girl holding the camera rushes after the man, and finds him in the hallway, looking at himself in a floor mirror. He looks shocked, scared, horrified, and the girl comes to a stop. The jerking of the frame indicates she’s hesitating, and dread fills your mind just like it does hers. Was this not a good idea? Does he not like what he sees?
Slowly, his head turns towards the girl, and he whispers, eyes wide and disgust written all over his face:
“How could you let me dress like this?”
Three sighs of relief: yours, the girl’s, and Dipper’s right on the edge of the screen. Bill only turns back to stare at himself, and his horrified expression grows by the second.
“Those pants with this blazer?!” he cries.“Mabel, how could you?! I thought you were a fashion student!”
“It’s part of your charm!” the girl snorts. “And that’s green and blue, by the way.”
Bill only frowns and looks down at himself. “Which one’s which?” he mumbles, picking at his blazer, and he can’t seem to tear his eyes away from it.
“The pants are green,” Dipper explains as he enters fully into the frame. “And the shirt is neon turquoise. Your bowtie is pink, you hair is blonde, your eyes are blue, and your shoes are red.” He grabs Bill by the hand and gently tugs him towards the door. In return, Bill looks up, eyes locking with Dipper’s own, and docilely follows his lead. “Come on, let’s go outside.”
“Oh my fucking god.”
The man turns back slightly, and squeezes Bill’s hand while flashing him a fond smile.
“I know,” is all he says.
They go outside, and it’s summer. The sky is almost cloudless, with the white blaring sun right overhead, and there’s an over-abundance of green in the woods and in the grass. The trees themselves are huge and brown, stretching long dark shadows across the terrain.
Dipper lets go of Bill’s hands and stops only a few steps in front him, turning back, arms wide open and laughing.
“So? What do you think?”
Bill only stays there, arms loose at his sides, silent, but you can’t see his face because his back is facing the camera.
You sure can see Dipper’s face though, see it fall, see him hesitate, see him frown and glance from side to side, see him grow nervous at the thought of having fucked up. He looks scared.
“Uh... Bill?” he says, shy, peering up from beneath his bangs.
Suddenly, Bill moves, and Dipper stumbles back as the man crosses the space between them in only a few strides. He grabs his friend by the head, both hands on each cheek, and stops. He just stares, still silent, at Dipper’s wide eyes.
Then he kisses him.
There’s a gasp from the girl behind the camera – honestly you had forgotten she was even there – but she doesn’t turn away. Maybe she’s shielding her eyes to give the two men their privacy, but you sincerely doubt it, if the zoom on their faces is anything to go by.
Dipper makes a muffled sound of surprise at the sudden change, but doesn’t seem to mind. Slowly, he closes his eyes, and lets his hands come up to hold Bill by the waist. At the same time, Bill’s arms slide around the man’s neck, and he leans back as Dipper pushes forward. Dipper’s nose collides awkwardly with Bill’s glasses but they pay it no mind, simply tilting their heads to the side and deepening the kiss.
They stay there, just kissing, as the video fades to white.
The hashtag “#colorforall” appears on the screen, and then the video ends.
You're happy for them really.