Chapter Text
You know, life was a whole lot easier nowadays at Hatchetfield High: murderous ghost jock killing spree and neon colored demon choir summoning aside.
That was all done now, though! And god, was Stephanie Lauter glad for that. She and Pete had a great time at homecoming, and ever since Grace Chastity had dropped out of class and off the face of the earth, suddenly, keeping her grades up with a little help from her new boyfriend was a hell of a lot easier. Not that she really needed to anymore…since her dad was… yeah .
But Stephanie was being POSITIVE about the whole thing. She was enjoying the rest of her highschool career. She was free of Jaggerman, and with that asshole gone, she and Peter were free to do couple things…
…like studying…and movie nights…
Mostly, they just went out to Pasqualli’s. It was good eating! Pete had even let her chat to his big brother Ted a couple of times over the phone and seemed pretty into the idea of her getting to meet him I-R-L sometime soon.
In fact, they were going to meet up at Pete’s place to meet him tonight !
Pete said Ted wanted to make her dinner.
He also warned Steph that she shouldn’t be upset when it was literally just take-out that Ted smacked onto a dinner plate.
“H-he does that with everybody! Please don’t take it personally.”
It was cute that he was all embarrassed about it. Then again, if she had an older brother who worked in a crummy office, she’d probably be a bit hesitant about introducing him to her partner, too. Ted seemed like a cool guy, though!
Stephanie wanted to make a good first impression with him for Pete’s sake. Ha. Pete’s sake. Oh, she was a comedic genius. The first step was finding something to wear: something easy and casual, but still neat and put together. Ted was an office worker, so he probably had a semi-formal dress code, or at least a tie or some shit. Also she just really wanted a tie. Ties were cool. If Pete wore his dinky little suspenders, they’d kind of match!
Cute!
Her smile brightened as she stepped into the shop and nodded politely to the worker behind the counter. She came here pretty often, so she didn’t take too much time with the usual meet-n-greet. A quick wave and a brief hello was all it took, and then she got busy with getting herself lost among the loaded racks of clothes. Coats, blouses, knitted cardigans, overpriced graphic tees with simplistic designs, and skirts with lily-white petticoats hung around her everywhere she turned. Wedged between the racks were plastic mannequins that came in either glossy black or yellowish white, many of which were posed to be “rocking their stuff” with their hips swayed to the sides and their hands stretched over their faceless heads.
Steph wandered to the men’s section near a mannequin dressed in a fitted black vest. There was a box of miscellaneous ties, a few of which made her smirk with how they reminded her of Pete.
“Oh damn, this one’s got a little face,” she chuckled quietly. The yellow emoji-style grin stared back from the center of the olive-green bowtie.
She had money to spare. Why not spoil her boyfriend with a gift while she was out on the town, spoiling herself with new clothes? There were a few long blue ties in here that would go great with a dress she’d been meaning to wear…
As she reached down to grab one, a hush voice whispered to her from behind. “ Stephanie…turn around… ”
Like anyone with half of lick of sense in their skull, Steph raised a polite, pointed middle finger and shook her head into the bin, “Yeah. Not happening, bud.”
“ Why not? I can help you find the perfect fit… ”
Just who did this creep think they were? Did they think it was normal to walk up to some random highschool and start breathing down their neck? Their breath smelled godawful…it was sticky and hot and smelled like…pork? Like sweat and raw bacon that had gone bad .
She whirled around with a fist ready to punch out the weirdo’s lights, but there was nobody there. All she saw was a loaded rack of clothes.
“Hello?” She said, “who’s there?”
She was a bit surprised not to hear a voice from the employee up front. It was a small store. Maybe her voice got muffled by all the clothes and shit?
She started to put her hand down, but then the clothes in front of her began to shift. The cloth rustled when the voice spoke again. It seemed to come from inside the circle of clothing, because yeah of course a creep like this hide in the middle of a clothes rack when they bothered a fucking highschooler.
“ We’ve met, ” the voice rasped, “ I’ve been keeping tabs on you for a while, Stephie. I want to help you out with meeting Ted. I know you want to look your best for him and Peter…right? ”
A hand emerged from between the clothes. It was thick and muscular, with a wide fleshy palm and five strong-looking fingers that ended in long, sharp claws. It was pink, and covered in wild-looking fur that covered the arm from the wrist downwards.
Stephanie saw it and took a step back. Her shoulders hit the side of the tie bin, stopping her in her tracks. She could go right or left to round her way back to the front of the store, but the arm stretched out a bit further with no sign of stopping. It could grab her easily.
“ Ohhh, don’t be frightened , Stephie dear…I’m not gonna hurt you! I wouldn’t dream of hurting a single hair on your pretty lil’ head. I want to help you! ”
“Help? Help me w-with what ?”
“ Your outfit! You want a tie, right? ” The fingers curled and flexed, with one black claw pointing towards the box while the others folded against the palm. She glanced into the loaded bin while the raspy voice went on, “ All the ones in there are soooooooo last season. You want something new! Something fresh! Something… tasty ! ”
That word. Tasty.
Something about it felt familiar. Felt wrong .
Stephanie’s memories flashed in shades of colorful neon. The glare of rotten green, putrid yellow, sickly purple, deathly blue, and noxious bubbly pink swam behind her eyes. The voice laughed. “ Ohhh, little honeybee…come now. Let’s get you fitted for your special evening, yes? Come on… ”
The hand patted her lightly on the cheek. A hooved claw tilted her chin up, then slowly pulled back. She watched, frozen and breathless, as the long furry arm vanished back between the clothes. The smell of meaty pork hung in the air where it’d just been.
Stephanie suddenly felt very alone .
She didn’t want to, but without realizing it found herself moving her feet forwards towards the rack. She brushed the clothes aside and ducked her head. The textures of the clothes brushed harshly against her arms, shoulders and face as she sucked in a breath and stepped through into the stiff darkness that waited beyond.
It felt like she was being swallowed. The smell grew stronger. Each breath she took had a rancid, acidy taste that made the muscles around his stomach churn with disgusted unease.
Yet she continued to walk forward.
When she finally opened her eyes, it was to find herself in a small, round room with silky pink curtains all over the walls. There were no lights around that she could see. The room appeared to be illuminated by a dull white glow that was tinted pink by the silky curtains from overhead. The walls swayed and moved in a slow, flowy movement. They pulsed in and swelled outwards, almost like the room itself was breathing .
It made Steph think of a stomach . She’d been swallowed up, and now here she was in the belly of some terrible creature.
“ Ahh! There she is! ”
The curtains on the wall opposite of her parted. Through the darkness behind them stepped a tall figure that ducked their head as they passed through and stepped inside the fleshly-lit parlor. They were tall, with a broad frame and a round pronounced middle. The elegant ball gown they wore matched the walls with its pink and pale white frills, fluffy sleeves, and dramatic layered skirt. The silk it was made from was weird. It had this marbled look about it where the reds and whites were mixed that reminded Steph of an uncooked steak.
A head of wild, curly pink hair bobbed towards her. At first, Stephanie thought they were wearing some kind of freaky mask that was shaped like a giant mouth.
That was until the mouth opened and smiled brightly at her, “ Hello, little honeybee. So wonderful of you to hear me out. ”
“W…who are you?”
She was so stupid. She was a stupid, silly girl who’d just stepped into a room with a monster.
“ Don’t recognize me? Oh, I’m hurt. You wound me, Stephie dearest, ” They…he… it . WHATEVER the fuck PRONOUNS it went by, they laughed a wet, throaty chortle. “ Ahhh, and it wasn’t even that long ago that you summoned me and my dear brothers to help you with your little Jaggerman problem. How cruel of you to forget little Nibbly…but well…most people do forget the youngest in any family, so can I really be so surprised? ”
Nibbly gestured to the two chairs and small coffee table in the center of the room. “ But nevermind all that. Come. Have a seat. Let’s talk, shall we? ”
She was in too deep.
Too late to run away now.
The chair creaked when she sat down. The leather was wrong . It was too shiny. Too wet . Stephanie sat at the very edge while Nibbly laid himself over the arms and leaned his head fully against the back headrest until he was more ball gown then freaky mouth face.
He didn’t have eyes, but she KNEW it was looking at her when his smile widened.
“ So ,” Nibbly said, “ you want to dress up all fancy for your little meet-n-greet with Petey’s brother, correct? ”
She nodded mutely.
Nibbly tutted, “ Oh come now, honeybee, come come. Use your words like a big girl. It’s a busy gig, being a Lord of the Black and White, and here I am, Lord Nibblenephim, spending an ounce of precious eternity to help a stupid little thing like you . You ought to be most gracious to your host… ”
His voice shifted, and suddenly Stephanie was talking to her father. Her shoulders straightened firmly along with her now fully rigid back. Hands in lap. Eyes focused ahead. She kept a polite tone and spoke with a little nod, “Y-yes sir. Sorry…”
“ Wonderful. I know I’m a pig, but I do prefer to not act like I was raised in a barn. All I ask is that my guests show the same respect in turn. ” Nibbly waved a fuzzy paw through the air. At once, the wall to their left parted to reveal a weird bird human person THING in a bright pink t-shirt. The thing waddled over to Nibbly’s chair and held a tiny pink box between its clawed hands. Ratty, dirty magenta feathers sprouted from the creature’s wrist down to its elbows. With each step it took, a pair of cartoonish feelers with round fluffy pom-poms at the ends wobbled on top of its head.
It had a mouth just like Nibbly’s. Its teeth bulged from behind fatty pink tips that barely contained two sets of glossy, shiny red gums that left no room on its head for a nose or eyes. It held the box out before it shuffled away after a polite, brief bow.
“ I’ve got just the thing for you, Stephie dear. It’s new, fresh, and it’ll make you the apple of Pete’s eye while you’re meeting his brother. One of a kind! Girls like you always want to be at the height of fashion, and oh honeybee, this is the Everest peak ! ”
From the box he pulled a long, thin piece of silk.
It was semi-transparent, and of course, light pink in color.
Nibbly set the box onto the table and held the silk up for her to see. It caught the ceiling light and shone delicately in the glow of the tinted halo. Its pinkish color faded more towards a dusty red at the ends. Nibbly grabbed either side of it with his claws, then weaved them together into a simple yet firm looking knot. Then he rolled the entire scarf into a ball that he covered completely with his hands.
His palms pressed inwards for a moment. His fingers tightened. Then, after a few seconds, he opened his hands once more.
Now instead of a shapeless silk strand, there was a neatly shaped necktie that dangled from the pink beast’s fingers. It was as long as Steph’s chest and made of a thick, leathery material with a faintly maroon color and a pretty white woven pattern of flowery blooms stitched along its length.
“ Ta-da! ” Nibbly cried, finishing his act with a magician's flourish.
He held it out. Steph took it and hesitantly felt it between her fingers.
“ My gift to you, ” Nibbly exclaimed, “ a necktie for your dinner with Petey and Ted. It’s all yours, honeybee! ”
Stephanie frowned at it. “What’s the catch?”
Nibbly froze. “ ...catch? No catch. ” He rose to his full height. “ I mean…hm. I guess I could ask you to…I dunno! Try something new while you’re out for dinner? ” He tapped his large teeth with a hooked finger. The claw made a harsh tink-tink-tink sound when it scratched against a fist-sized canine.
Wait….
…
….what. What did he just say?
“Try something…new?” She repeated.
“ Try a new thing! ” Nibbly shrugged. “ I know it’s hard to expand your palate. I am something of a patron to the picky eaters of this world, but how could I be the Lord of Hunger if I didn’t encourage any mealtime exploration in those I aid? Try something new to eat while you’re at dinner with the Spankoffskis. Do that, and I’ll consider it a payment for the tie. ”
Was it really that simple?
She didn’t have time to ask more questions. Nibbly waved towards the wall she’d entered through, and Stephanie watched as the fleshy membrane parted.
“ That’s all for now, my dear. Run along and get yourself ready. ”
And with that farewell, he ushered her out between the curtains. Steph slid on her heels back out into the harsh lights of the clothes shop. As soon as she emerged and reorientated herself, the employee from up front called out to ask if she needed help with anything.
She looked down at her hands and saw the dark red bow tie was now sitting snugly in a plastic bag along with a white paper receipt.
Stephanie grabbed the bowtie with the yellow smiley face and called out shakily, “Ah, nah! I’m good. Thanks though.”
What a weird way to start the afternoon…
She…guessed it was time to check out, get home…and get herself ready for dinner with Pete and Ted.