A persistent wailing interrupted the thoughts of Bill Cipher. He only moaned pitifully in response. The occupation of Headmaster Demon sure had its perks, but watching over seven billion-plus beings all at once was quite a bit less exciting than he'd imagined. He considered for the millionth time going back to his previous employment as a Dream Demon— it was much more interactive— but held his nonexistent tongue. Lucifer didn't appreciate a demon who constantly switched jobs, and he wasn't particularly interested in getting on the Devil's bad side; after all, he was the only being he feared— well, second, of course, to Him.

Bill Cipher was a renowned name in the demon realm. Right next to Mephistopheles, you did not want to make him "mad". Not only that, but he had a spotless track record for being sinister, manipulative, and chaotic, obtained the most envied job of the underworld, and took the right-hand seat to the Devil himself. Yet, in all that, no-one had bothered to mention to him how downright boring it'd be. Give it a few centuries, and maybe he'd wing it and request to return to Dream Demon status; because right now, all he wanted was to be where the action was a—

The crying continued, raising up above the clamor of all 6,999,999,999-plus lives. He growled this time. What was causing all that racket, and how could he snuff it out?

As headmaster, he had access to the souls of all beings. Now, he wasn't given jurisdiction to do much with them— no, that was the Devil's work— but he was allowed to marvel at them. Using that word over something created, beautiful, or anything 'good' in general made him sick to his nonexistent stomach, but it was true; even he couldn't deny. The soul was a truly fascinating mechanism, far greater than anything any human could attempt at conjuring. Through one's soul, you could see their past, future, and more… if you knew where to look. For him, with millennia of experience under his nonexistent belt, he never had too much trouble navigating one.

His job was simple, in definition. Mephistopheles was a busy guy, and he didn't have time to watch over each and every individual and send in a pack of Attack Demons whenever things were getting just too peachy. From now on, that was Bill's burden to bear. Luckily for him, if a being not too pivotal or owning too great a destiny annoyed the Headmaster, he had every self-given right and ability to blow out the candle that was their soul. A peek into the lifeforce of the culprit that vexed him now, and he would be able to rid himself of it.

Just how was that set of cries resounding above all others?

His eye narrowed as he fished through the ongoing lives of all homo sapiens. The wails were so loud, yet so hard to find! After seriously considering causing an illness to wipe out half the race so he could find the source of the sobs, he stumbled upon his answer. Why, it was just an infant. No, wait, two infants; twins, he'd guess. Left out in the cold to die, not even given the courtesy of a doorstep for the slightest hope of rescue… Good. No potential for greatness in the hearts of two abandoned newborns! It would be no problem if he rid the universe of the helpless pair. A flick of the wrist and he'd be back to the average overbearing chaos in a Headmaster Demon's day. Of course, protocol— that being the only set of rules given to demons— required he double-check their futures for importance, but that would in no way be an issue—

"WHAT?!" Bill quite literally fell backwards at the overwhelming sight of the twin's souls. "Impossible!" He'd barely a chance to glance through their destinies before both essences practically blinded him with their emanating light.

"W-well, I su-suppose I should l-leave you two be…" If he had a head, he'd have been shaking it back and forth from pure shock.

The mysterious children continued to sob, now louder than ever. Only a moment went by before he screamed with impatience. "RRAAGHHH! Do they NEVER STOP?!"

Whatever they were important for, it was causing them to scream above all the others. It was driving Bill more insane than he already was! His mind raced through a million possibilities, trying to figure out the optimal path to shutting them up. After a short while, the ideal came to him, and he swiftly executed his plan.

"I've just got to do something to keep those twins alive," he drawled, hoping his words didn't sound as sarcastic as he heard it, "their being so important and all…" With the seed planted, he took on his flesh-and-blood form and entered the realm of humanity.

—o—

"Now, now; hush, hush, or whatever," the dirty blond let out more of an upsetting snarl than a preferable calming coo.

The child on the left— a boy, he'd figured, but preferred not to check— refused to relax despite the demon's best efforts, continuing to kick and wail. The other, though— a girl, he guessed— seemed to appreciate his attempts. He nearly smirked at the fact: the fragile little thing tamed by a demon. How cute. "Heh— you keep this up, and I may've been better off killing you before you become too much of a blessing."

He paused after scooping the duo up into his still-shaky-from-lack-of-use arms, pondering his options of where to drop them off. Even so, he couldn't just leave them without a single bit of evidence that he'd rummaged through their heads! He was the demon Bill Cipher, known for leaving his mark on the helpless; branding his signs into the skins of the innocent!

"Hmm… Symbols, symbols, symbols…" These two were important enough, he'd give them more than only his usual, signature triangle. He supposed he could peek into their futures for their names and mark them like so, but giving them names himself was so much more fun! After all, it'd be just more proof that he'd gotten to them first. The boy already had a mark of a constellation on his forehead, but not by any other demon so far as Bill could tell, so that left them both free for him to brand. Besides, if another had already claimed them, he would destroy the competition easily if need be.

After a time of considering the countless existing symbols and their significance, he chose the best for each child.

"You, 'Little Dipper', get a Pine Tree." He brushed a thumb on the boy's right wrist, leaving behind the simple mark of a small sapling. "It symbolizes, like, growth and learning or whatever. I don't really know, your screams are making me tired, okay?" If this Pine Tree would mature, the mark of the tree would grow.

"As for you, 'Shining Soul'," Bill pressed his thumb— more firmly this time— to the left wrist of the girl, leaving behind the simple symbol of a Shooting Star. "I can already tell you're never going to stop shining no matter what I say, so I might as well make it official."

Lastly, he placed the children down and held his palms against their chests. He chanted reverse Latin script (he'd done it so often, it rolled off his now-existent tongue), and, tentatively, removed his hands. The couple was now marked with a triangle on each one's chest. He grinned triumphantly, for the ritual was inconsistent and failed frequently, tending to end in catastrophic results.

"Okay, 'Pine Tree and Shooting Star', let's find you a place to live."

The rest of the night, the city was silent except for a single figure traveling through the dark, grasping onto a mysterious bundle as if its life depended on it.

{A/N: For anyone who plans on reading any longer stories from me like this one, just because I take leagues to update doesn't mean I'm giving up on the story. If I am, I will post an extra chapter informing so, and/or delete the story. The best you can do to know about updates is follow the story.}