Chapter Text
Mephy mirthful was not a mean woman.
At least she liked to think so. She supposes that can truly go out the window in the right circumstances but overall. She much prefers to be nice, being mean is too much trouble.
That doesn’t mean that underhanded compliments and information stockpiling doesn’t have its benefits, but she isn’t going to flaunt that. Mostly she wants to live in her shared home with her family.
Though she supposes that she also wants something to believe in.
It started as a innocuous invite to a circle, The Dreamer’s Star was nothing new, even look upon favourably these days considering who they worship. But it was Mephy’s first meeting and that in itself made it special.
She was instantly hooked, The feeling of being heard, the physical confirmation that the sacrifice was actually being received, the crackles and sparks as the fire turned unmagical to blue to receive such a simple offering? She’s never been religious before, especially after louis… But this? This is agreeable.
Ren just thought anything slight magical was fascinating,His Motercycle, Glasses and Magi-Orb all eceniating this fact. Thankfully it means he’s not as easily fooled by sparkles and lights because he usually knows how it works.
Louis… was paranoid about it as he is understandably about most things. He couldn’t get over the fact that this was literally demonic worship, but that just made for a bonding session as he insisted to check over her self made “prayers” for loop holes. He did all the work himself which Mephy knows means he’s just worried.
Then she finally joins the winter summoning this year and Lord Alcor stared at her the most. He seemed reciprocal of the books she scrounged up for him so she hopes it’s nothing more than them being rarer then everything else offered. Louis would never let her ghost live it down if it was anything else.
~~~~
She’s discontent with some of the Circle’s rules.
They’re not bad or anything! They’re just… flowery. She might spend too long listening to louis’s rants but the rules are filled with too many double meanings.
Even she was reluctant to speak about giving herself to him, even if it gets scrutinized. So what if she changed the rules. Well not those rules, made new ones. The Circle had to start somewhere didn’t it? So Did all the other branches of cults to Lord Alcor.
Well, at the very least it’d be something fun to talk about at parties.
~~
“You want to what.” Louis was making that face, the same face he makes when ren mindlessly takes his glasses off when mephy is in the room, one of the few benefits of being undead now is that gorgon’s gaze no longer works.
“I want to summon Alcor the Dreambender and ask him what rules My sect of the Dreamers should follow.” She pauses, trying to figure out how to get him on board. “Don’t worry I’ll ask you before setting anything in stone!”
“That’s not what I’m- Okay so I am worried about that too, but I’m mostly worried about where you’re going to summon him. Because it’s not going to be in the house mephy.” Ah. That’s No good. She wanted to take advantage of the wards he’s set up. Plan B then.
“Okay, not in the house. Only! If you set up the wards at the location. Maybe that slab of concrete in the woods we found a month ago.” Please bite? Oh that’s a funny choice of words.
“Binding circles don’t affect the dreambender. But you never know what will come out of a circle. At least the books from Ren’s stint in a demonology course will come in handy.” Stars yes, he agreed. This is much safer now. Well realistically it isn’t. But considering Louis’s proficiency with loopholes has saved their asses before, she’d rather have him with her.
~~
Ren came along because obviously you can’t have two of them summoning a demon without the third,
“You know.” He says snickering as he pulle his jacket up tighter, wishing he brought a hoodie, “I’m pretty sure this is how cults start.”
“Ren, she’s literally trying to start a Cult. I think we’re well past that point.” Louis grumbles, trying to coax the cow into the middle of the pavement where a makeshift pen is set up.
“And you’re both helping me!” She states gleefully, double checking the lines as Ren “double checks the cooler’s contents.”
“Do you have any Idea on a name?” Louis interrupts her train of thought, visibly done with the cow who at the very least seems content with what’s most likely its last bed. Depends on if a pinprick isn’t enough she muses. Before catching up to what louis said.
“Oh. Uh.” Oh she decidedly does not. She supposed this won’t count as a Circle of the Dreamer’s Star branch anymore. “I’ll figure it out” she deflects, to his very much visible chargin.
“Mephy.” He pleads, before seeing ren over her shoulder trying to open the ice cream. “Wait ren no we need that for the deal!” He half yells brushing past.
~~
Louis doesn’t see why they should veer from the Old Latin summoning, but Mephy insists that sticking to tradition without thinking about why is why she’s doing this and he supposes she’s right in a way. Though he insists to look over any contract they form with the demon, in writing preferabbly. It can’t be as bad as when ren had his first summoning and nearly sold his head.
Louis got him to quit demonology real fast after that. Thankfully Ren took to cryptozoology like a moth to a fla- no wait that’s the bad allegory for attraction. More like a fish to the water.
“And I summon you Alcor The Dreambender! I hope you will listen!” Mephy interrupts with the din of a ritual successful, her voice still reverberating through the clearing, practically giddy as it clearly worked enough to summon something, as smoke is pouring out the candles and collecting above the cow and it isn’t in the shape of the infamous Answering machine and the din of mephy’s reverberating summon is consumed by a
““Y̷̮̟̘̱̮̖̩̠̞͎͔̘̼͖̹͚͢ͅO̴̶̙͕̘͖̞̝͎̞̙̯͢͝U̢̹͎̻̦̪̕͟͜ ̵̵͖͚̗̳̞̤͓̞̟̙̗͢͢͠D̨̙̳̘̫̪̼̣͡Á̝̼͇̪̞̭̠̘͘͘͝R̵̸̶̻̟̩͝ͅE͝͏̸̨͇̥̜̝̹̙̠͉͔̤͚̼̝̱̠̪̺ ̻̲̪͎͉̰͠Ś̷̳͎̥͈̞͖̪͎̭̕͞Ư̴̧̡̫̠͉̥͕̮̪̦͈̼͇͙͎͜M҉̧̥̩͍̳̤͚̮͖̜͔̳̝͕̦̞̠̭̦͟͢͝M̷̥̙̙̗̼͔͘͜͞O̪͉̺̣̬̱̝͍͎̫̺̪̞̤̹̲͙͢͝ͅN͏̡̢̛̲͎͉͙̝͍͔̣͎̖̼̹̭ͅͅ ҉̴̲̗̙̺̬̺̝͈̣͉̜͇͎̠͕͓̞͕̺A͞͏̨̺̤͕̣͇͖̫̝̠̳̣̫͟͠ͅL̴͉̫̭̼̹͙͚͉̳̦̬̖͉̹̭̜͖̱̙͞C̡͕͕̟͕̭̱͕̦͈̗̪͟O̷̖̦̬͖̯̝͉̟̱̖͎̭̫̕͞R̢͏̞͉̦̤̝̜̟̲̞͉̩͈̼͟͢ͅ ̶̸̛̙͔͖̙̦̻̖̥͟͟ͅͅT̷̷͍͙̥̻̥͙̼͕̳͘̕H̢͉̳̩̮̘̻̟̠̩̳̹͇̖̗͢ͅE̷̢̞͖͉̦͔͚͔̞̞̺̦̹̭̟͎̳͇͇͡ ͝҉͖̦̰͎̮̬̥̼̮͚̼̦̮͚͕̻͚̳͝D̨͎̣̯͉̠͔̖͍̻͈̤̬͚̦̹̞̀͞͠Ŕ̵̢͚̝̤̬̭̝̝͍̜͕̩̹͙͞͞ͅḘ̵̵̶͔̦͖̻̬͝À̩̞̰̰͜M̸̵̡̥̱̯͙͉̩͇̣̬͎̰͈͙̖̮̘͇͚͢͡ͅB̢̧̛͕̮̮͔̩̱͚̮̙̭͓̫͇̥̫̞̀͜Ḙ̛̝̰͕͕̪͚̪́͢͟N̷͏̧̺̼̳͚͔̝̠̥̟̻̮D̢̤̲̣̙̥̭̜̬̺͙̝̀E͏̷̥͙̥̙͡͠R̴̫̹̻̰̲̪̱͎̞̀͘͠͝ͅ?̵̩͍̯̣̭́””
Ow, that kinda hurts. He resoutly hopes the staring is at all of them is to unnerve them and not just at him. He doesn’t think he could handle if it was just to him.
“Lord Alcor-“ Mephy gets immediately interrupted, “I’m not a Lord.” The demon seemingly says unthinking, but considering it’s a demon that bite to it’s voice could very well be on purpose. Mephy would call him paranoid though so he stays silent about it.
“Just Alcor then?” Mephy immediately takes to, already having been ready to argue against Calling him that in her sect.
“I’m sure you already know why we’re here as you show a proficiency for it, but to be clear, the purpose of these Fifteen minutes is to figure out the rules the followers of my Sect to your power will follow, as there’s so much contention trying to ask other branches or circles and infighting is a bitch to get around, so I figured you’d appreciate me cutting the middle man out so to speak.”
Louis made a note to not let mephy’s ego get too big about the expression of someone not used to being bowled over made it’s way onto The Demon’s face before it disappeared behind a almost delighted grin.
“No human sacrifices. As for the rest of the rules, we can discuss them in return for the cow you’ve already acquired . I doubt you have somewhere to put it afterwards.” He reaches out for mephy’s hand languidly, before Louis mouth speaks in time with his brain “There’s no time limit to that.”
And Alcor Focuses on him. He knows it’s entirely on him and not a visual illusion he can feel it. The grin on The Demon’s face get’s impossibly wider.
“And who might you be?” He intones and when did The demon turn into a He. There’s a sinking feeling and Louis knew if he still had a heart that beat? It’d damm combust right now. Something deeper whispers that he already knows his name. Might as well answer him then.
“Louis.” You fucking idiot he berates himself before realizing that Alcor expects him to go on. Okay, might as well try to salvage this show. They don’t seem to be in danger yet.
“I’m just pointing out there’s no Time limit, but also you can’t set a time limit and just ignore us the entire time. We’re not entirely fools.” Oh that’s his stuffy accent as Ren calls it. Bad time for it to come out.
“No you’re just starting a Cult.” He points out.
“They’re not starting a cult, well I’m not either. Technically, I’m just creating a new branch of the family of Alcor. I’m again, taking out the middle man and asking you for base rules.” Mephy is taking control again thankfully. Louis doesn’t want to be Seen like that again. But he’s not going to let mephy do this herself. Neither is Ren.
Alcor somehow stands up straighter, grinning all the while as if he’s in on a joke none of them are and will take delight in holding it over their heads.
“Alright, New deal. For the cow You,” he pauses to gesture, but with a sinking feeling louis sees he gestured to all of them “Get 10 hours a week where you can summon me, where I will not do purposeful harm to any residents of your living space. You decide which hours.” That’s suspiciously open ended.
“I can’t help but notice the purposeful. Do you plan to do harm? And what happens if one of us isn’t in our house?” Louis keeps quiet about the neighbors being excluded though. He’s gotten too many weird looks and back handed compliments to fight for their safety.
“Well I’m not going to be breaking a deal just because one of you fall off the stairs because i startled you and you fall off the stairs or something.” He shrugs, “And don’t they say home is where the heart is?” Added with sharp teeth.
Well. At the very least it’s nowhere near safe but Ren looks awestruck and Mephy looks like the stars are being hung right in front of her, so he’ll have to settle in this.
“It’s a deal then…” he sounds even less confident than he feels, but holds his hand out anyway, suppressing the shudder when Alcor easily crosses the bindings even though he only put them in case it wasn’t Alcor they summoned.
He suppresses another shudder when his hand is encased in blue and the ever present grin somehow got a lot more familiar and with a sinking feeling Louis resigned himself to never getting rid of this man.