Archive of Our Own

"Hello Home." You sigh dejectedly as your keys clatter noisily into the ceramic bowl you kept at the entrance to your empty apartment.

Saying it was empty could be considered misleading to others, but to you the word defined it perfectly. Sure there was furniture and appliances, maybe some bits and baubles strewn in various corners to make it look like someone here had a pulse and could form a thought about decor, but most of it held no meaning. Anything that could have been considered personal had been packed away when you moved earlier in the year, still sitting in the storage unit across town that you hardly bothered to visit anymore. Everything, from the pictures on the wall to the tchotchkes littering the small IKEA coffee table, was specifically picked to be inoffensive and universally ignorable. You used to have more personal stuff out on display, but it felt like every time you brought someone new home they would find something to have a problem about.

You weren't afraid to change, you know. If they had a problem with something it wouldn't of been hard to accommodate it. After the first few time it happened, you started wondering if maybe the problem was you- like you were coming across too eager to change for them. You learned to tone down your responses, but no- even that became a problem. Too much of a response, too little of one, too many personal items, too few- for the longest time it felt as if nothing you did was enough to make you likable to someone- anyone, really. All you wanted was someone to come home to, and to be a person that someone else would like to come home to as well.

It made a part of you lie awake at night wondering who you were anymore. Was there still some of you from before, some part of you that you could still recognize at the end of the day? Or was the only thing left of you the broken pieces of a new personality that was made and injected into every action you took to stop being alone. Was all that was left was a broken mirror that didn't, or couldn't, reflect what was left? You tried not to think on it too hard as if you let it run on for too long you would end up watching the sun set and rise on a new day of you being alone. You were pretty sure these feelings would dissipate and never bother you again of you could just find someone.

Which led to your newest endeavor- book club. Previous knowledge dictated that if you couldn't find a hot and single MILF (or DILF, they could go to book clubs too) at one of these to spend forever with, then at least one of them should have an offspring of appropriate age that you could slowly and slyly foist yourself onto. It took you a few tries to find a club that you could not only show up to consistently, but had a smattering of people you could see yourself talking to. There was Janet, practically a grandma that almost never actually read the book but wouldn't hesitate to be a gossipy little bitch (affectionate). There was Miguel, a man you hoped was divorced when you met him, but was (unsurprisingly) happily married with three kids. He was incredibly sweet and did fix your leaking faucet for a six pack of beer and a sandwich, so you couldn't complain after that. And there was River who was... odd. Verrrry odd. Reeked of sandalwood and hot sand...somehow, but made you a very gorgeous abstract art piece that now hung in your bedroom. Probably the only piece that continued to stay even through your numerous decorative renovations.

But even with the most amount of prodding for a relationship one could get away with without becoming annoying, you still got nowhere in the romance department. It wasn't all bad though. You got to be a part of a pretty cool group on the weekends with a killer reading list. Speaking of which, you didn't have the book that everyone else was starting this month, so River ended up lending you a copy. The book was a part of a series and they had two different sets- one set from when it was first releasing and a second, nicer looking box set. They sent you home with the first set, which you didn't mind and totally understood, but it did irritate some weird section of your brain that it had both hardback and paperback sets with wildly different cover art spanning the set. It shouldn't matter. If you liked it enough, you'd get the box set like everyone else, but wow was it still jarring to look at.

Especially the white book at the bottom. The rest of the set was black with bright flowers across the cover, but there was a white book at the bottom that felt a little different from the rest. From first impressions, it looked like it wasn't even a part of the... original... series. Oh no. You plopped the stack onto the kitchen counter and removed the top stack until it revealed the odd one out. Oh, it definitely didn't look like the rest of the series. The series was black, this was white. The others had plastic coated covers on them that reflected what little light was flittering around in the kitchen, while this one felt like genuine leather. The biggest difference was the fact that, while the rest had actual titles in red lettering, this one was only adorned with a large, curly, golden D.

Yep. You accidentally picked up a hitchhiker, literary-speaking.

You had picked up the set from River's place earlier that morning, wanting to beat the traffic jam on the way there because they lived out past the edges of town. When you arrived, you were positive they had already placed the stack of books on their kitchen counter ready for you to take with you after your visit. You were certain that there wasn't anything even remotely close to the pile that you could have scooped up with the rest. Then again... the house was fairly messy due to the multitude of art supplies strewn across the small trailer. It's... possible that this could have been hiding under the pile the whole time when you weren't looking. It was still odd seeing the pristine white cover in comparison to the other books once you noticed that they had small splotches of paint scattered across the covers and edges.

Maybe this was a project for a friend? All you knew was that they worked with a lot of different types of media, but having something this clean and almost meticulously... pure looking for lack of a better word, felt extremely out of character for someone as chaotic as River was for even the short amount of time that you've known them. Didn't matter. You accidentally took something of theirs that you didn't mean too, which only leaves you with the next course of action- returning it. While it wasn't that late in the evening, it was still nearly a two hour drive to their place and you were in no mood to drive back so soon. With no other easy option in mind, you just settled for a quick call to explain.

Ring... Ring Ring... Two and a half minutes later and still no answer. Fair enough, text then. Hey, accidentally picked this up. Let me know if its important. If not then I'll hand it off at the next meeting. And send with picture. Well, that covered your end of the issue. Now all that was left was for you to get cozy and start up that series... Except... now you were too curious. You had already walked away from where you left it on the counter. but it was almost like you could still see it in front of you. Like the gleam coming from the iridescent cover had burned itself into your retinas. You stared at it from across the room, not moving for so long that it took the pain settling into your feet for you to break concentration.

Finding yourself drawn to it, you wandered back over in a light daze, stopping when you felt your hand made a hard land against the shitty counter top. When did you get over here? You could have sworn you were back at the couch just a minute ago? Weren't you sitting down? You thought you were, but that doesn't matter since you're very clearly standing here now. You had a sinking feeling that you really shouldn't open it. You hadn't gotten a response back from River about whether it was important to them or not, and it looked so nice that you almost felt like touching it would become some irreversible act. Almost. It's just... it looked so pretty. Like a fancy diary or an overpriced journal. Which if it was a diary then you most certainly should not touch it because that is a private matter and private matters are better left private.

But what if you just cracked open the cover a little bit? Not to like the middle of the book or anything just in case it was a diary, although you were starting to sincerely doubt that River kept a diary of all things. A lot of things can be deducted from the first page of any book, maybe the second if the first looked empty. It would be fine! If the writing inside looked incredibly personal, you would shut the book close right then and there, having your curiosity satisfied just enough so you can put the matter to rest and focus on other things. This would be fine, you weren't the type to blab secrets whilly-nilly so there wouldn't be a problem with just a little peek-

-Of course right then your phone chirps, jolting you from your thoughts and actions. You looked down at your seemingly traitorous hand as you saw how close it had gotten to the cover of the mysterious book. Another chirp knocked you from your thoughts again and reminded you that someone is texting you at that moment. Your prayers for it to be River had been answered as you open the text notifications that they sent you.

Keep it.
Don't know where that came from since it isn't mine.

Okay. That's not helping with the mysterious factor of the book at all. You had to have picked it up from their place. You had stopped by other places today, sure, but no where did you bring anything else inside your car! The pile of books had been sitting undisturbed in the passenger seat all day as far as you knew, and on top of that your car hadn't looked like it was broken into. And who would break in to a locked car just to drop off a book? None of it made any sense and it made you more tired trying to rationalize it.

Well at least you now had the chance to look into the book fully with no guilt, worries, or apprehensions! You gently slid your phone down the counter and stared deeply at the book in front of you. All that internal justification that ran through your mind earlier evaporated once you had technically gotten permission to open the book. It wasn't like you were the type of person that liked to do things when they felt illegal, but while the story of how this book ended up in your possession was still a mystery, your curiosity over its contents was, not shockingly, a priority. There was just something about this book that was just too alluring to you, and now was time to find out why.

You cautiously flipped that baby soft leather cover to reveal.... nothing. Just a blank page of rose-gold filigree in the shape of flowers. Odd looking flowers who's petals looked more like soft lips with their center stamens coming together to look like eyes. With the way the light caught the edges of the golden pattern, it almost looked like the eyes in the center of the flowers moved with your gaze as you glanced over the high quality paper. It was abstract, but familiar enough to send shivers down your neck with a longer glance. Turning the rather thick endpaper to see on the other side was a paper pocket with a library check out card. The card was blank and no where on the card, the pocket it came in, or on the pages surrounding it had any sort of marking that told which library this came from. The page opposite to the pocket had a very interesting foreword though.

To you, to whoever you are in this moment.
Know this. Anything you ask for can be yours.
Through the power found beyond these pages
A Part of you will be changed for better or worse.
But what changes within you cannot easily be
changed back.

Choose carefully, choose wisely, choose selfishly.

Well that sounded promising. What was this, some fantasy novel? Some preface to some prophecy the protagonist reads about later? You really shouldn't be judging a book by its cover too harshly, you were a part of a book club for shit's sake. You guessed that the cover and foreword were doing a pretty damn good job of hooking you in considering that this was the only thing that's been holding your attention so solidly for the last few weeks. The last book you read for the club wasn't all that great in your opinion. Hey, maybe you could recommend this for the next get together if you finished it fast enough.

You expectations about this book flew out the window as the obscure scribbles written in dark ink hit you like a smack to the face right on the next page. You quickly flipped though the next few pages, coming across similar pictures with similar setups. Dark, ominous scralls talking about consequences and ingredients. Mathematical shapes and curls broke apart the text and made your eyes stutter across the page. It looked like the sort of prop an elegant, but deranged witch or wizard would have in a high production movie. Maybe it was? You didn't think that they would go so far as to fill the whole book with legible nonsense. Most of it was legible anyway, once you reached a certain point the text and ink started to run down the page like dark, inky tears, ruining any possibility of deciphering the remaining pages.

You skipped back to the first page, the most legible one at the time. You read more thoroughly this time, forcing yourself to take in every letter as you reminded your shaking lungs to breath. Even looking at this book felt like it was sapping your energy, like someone had hooked up a wire from your heart to your fingertips and the material acted like a dead car battery. Your throat went dry as you read lines stating the need for chalk and chalkboards, sacrificing ground space for magic circles, and the summoner's favorite flowers and snacks. This was starting to sound like someone's really fucked up idea of a first date. Like a really cheesy horror story about summoning a romantic partner. Then you looked at the header on the page.

How To Summon A Potential Lover.

Oh. Okay, you get the joke now. Some sick fuck found out about your pathetic history of loosing anyone you felt like you could be close to, and decided to play a really bad joke. How to summon a lover when all else fails you, reeeaal smooth asshole. Real high quality dick move though, as even the feather-light paper between your fingers felt oddly expensive. And you couldn't even think of someone who you had met in the past that would do this to you. Well, maybe a few, but you were pretty positive that they had all moved on if your Instagram stalking results had anything to say about it. And you were beyond sure that it wasn't anyone from book club as they were all really nice and knew nothing about your romance troubles- or at least didn't acknowledge it to your face.

So now it all loops back around to why was this here?

You stared at the book. You stared, and stared, and stared some more until it felt like you had memorized the page by the time the sensation of pins and needles crept up into your legs. Chalk and board, spare floor space, snacks and flowers. Chalk, floor, snacks. This sounded too easy. There's no way someone, anyone, can just summon the person of their dreams right to their house with potato chips and a bouquet of roses. You really shouldn't be considering this, this sounded like the worst choice in time wasting anyone would choose to spend their night doing. Summoning circles don't work, magic books of rituals aren't real, and no one out there... loves... you.

Fuck. You tried really hard not to go there. You felt the heat of your tears before they threatened to fall from your face. You forced yourself to walk away from the book before your crying had the chance to ruin those nice looking pages. But even with the mental anguish this damned book was causing you, you couldn't bring yourself to fully walk away. There was something really fucked up and strange with this book that just kept bringing you right back, like a shitty relationship you couldn't bring yourself to walk away from. You felt yourself turning back to look at the book again as you used the hem of your shirt to wipe away your tears. It just sat there, looking so pure and innocent there on your counter, but held a dark promise within. If that promise could even come true in the first place.

You looked back at the clock on the wall. Six o'clock. None of the shops near you should have closed yet. Your connected kitchen wasn't all that big, but if you moved the couch and rug in the living room, there might be enough space for the circle. A part of you thought that you could just throw any pile of snacks in the center, but with as excellent condition as that book was, you might as well shill out for something not half eaten already. If it doesn't work out, you get a little treat for your troubles. You were sure there wasn't any chance this was going to work, but at this point you wanted to go through with it just to silence the voice in your head that wanted to make sure.

Two hours of driving and pit-stops at various stores, you finally managed to get everything you needed. Local craft stores had you covered on the chalk and black board, with you settling on pink chalk just for a touch of fun and a small easle because of the lack of space. You also managed to find an extra large canvas to place the summoning circle on as you figured your prissy landlord wouldn't look too kindly on you painting a giant demonic symbol on the floor. You got your favorite flowers like the book asked, enjoying the sight of them more than you thought. The snacks had been secured, but you did end up having to go back to the store twice as you couldnt stop yourself from eating the first package in the car while driving about town. The ritual asked for something called "Blackfire candles" and that sounded like something you don't find next to commercial scents like Hawaiian Breeze and Clean Laundry.

Poking around local occult listings on the internet you eventually managed to find a store that could help you. Places like this were the kind of scene that you wouldn't typically go in alone, let alone act like you knew what you were talking about. The witchy looking goth girl behind the counter was really sweet though, even if she gave you an odd look before, during, and after you asked about and paid for the rather ridiculously expensive candles. Making it all the way back home and up the stairs to your apartment, you placed all the stuff on the counter and got to work.

Even with you being drained of energy from the book and from driving around, it felt like you had rearranged your small apartment in record time. The whole time you were praying that your down-stair neighbors didn't rat on you to your landlord as you found yourself knee deep into the ritual prep. You wasted no time in getting the rest of it set up as you noticed on your second read-through that the spell best recommended that this be performed during sunset hours while facing the sun itself. And with that hour now quickly slipping through your fingers, it forced you to act on this crazy plan of yours now. You muttered the list of rules for the setup as you completed them one by one.

Two intricate circles on the floor wrapped in the confines of an infinity loop with one side bigger than the other. Make sure that the bigger circle is pointed towards the sunset with the image of the protective sigil on the blackboard placed behind you and next to the smaller circle. Place the candles on the outer ring on the bigger circle and set most of the "offerings" on the point where the infinity loop crosses over itself. Take a small portion of the offerings for yourself and stand in the smalller circle as you face the sun. And with this ancient incantation your greatest wish will be granted... supposedly.

With it all finally set out in front of you, you had to admit that the feeling of looking ridiculous had settled deep into your bones. It was a bit too late now, having spent way too much money on supplies and having the literal golden hour fading its last rays through your window as you stood there with apprehension. Clutching your gifts tight in one hand, you brought the book before you to look at the line of incomprehensible words at the bottom of the page. The whole time you spent speaking the words out loud, you thought you had to have been saying them wrong. There were apostrophes where there shouldn't be and letter combinations completely unheard of to every written language you thought you had seen. The only sign that told you that this might have worked at all... was the candles lighting themselves on fire.

It wasn't a trick of the light- the book said to leave them unlit. You began to feel a speedy wind pick up out of nowhere in your apartment. You had no fans on, no windows or doors open, nothing to explain this sudden and violent draft. Your clothes whipped around you and the pages noisily flapped back and forth as this wind picked up more speed, getting to the point you had to shield your eyes as the winding air bit into them. You did your best to keep your eyes from shutting completely as you looked around to see what could be causing such chaos already. As your eyes drifted to the candles you started to see the signs that the show was about to begin.

The smoke from the candles seemed unaffected by the wind at first, but as the smoke drifted towards a spot in the air the flames that made them started to follow. Long, thin, blue flames grew and stretched chased after their own smoke trails, growing to impossible lengths as they swirled around into a ball. The runes painted onto the canvas started to glow brightly to the point that it ignited the material around them, searing the canvas away in a flash of fire to reveal that the infinity loop and everything contained inside had already burned itself into the floor. Even the burning rays of light from the circles underneath couldn't escape this odd pull that had started to form in the middle of the room. The colors from the walls and decorations were leaching off thin strips of itself so they too could join the light.

Even the sun and the sky itself looked like it was melting, even if they were an impossible distance away. Long strands of colors and materials that had no explainable way of stretching and sliding around like this all came to bow and to be absorbed by this ever growing ball of bright white light. It kept growing as it ate more and more strands made from everything around it. Once it had reached the width of a bicycle, did it finally suck in the offerings laid at it's feet. The wind had stopped after that, almost like this glowing entity had been pacified with the offered treats. A moment feeling more tense than a tightrope had passed with both you and this ball of energy doing nothing. You couldn't bring yourself to breath, let alone look away from what you had made as the ball began to change. Before your eyes a deep slit had slowly appeared in the ball, running in a slight slant from lower left to upper right.

You were speechless. Shocked to a standstill with no way of knowing if what was going on was truly real. Even if it was real, you began to doubt that there was any way to stop what has been started. You watched on with shaky knees and swallowed thick and sharply while the edges of the deep, black slit began to curl away from itself. One layer, then another and another and another. Layer after layer of those same, soft, silver, lip-shaped petals that you saw at the front of the book you were holding, each one curling back and moving away to reveal a new one that looked bigger than the one before. As the rippling petals sped up, you could feel your senses melting away with each one that disappeared.

The colors in the room began to melt at the sides of your vision and bleach themselves into a whitish-grey. Your tongue began to taste things that were not there or could not exist. A phantom breeze ghosted over your skin like the cold breath of a hundred people breathing down your neck, triggering goosebumps and setting your skin's sensitivity to the max. Any remaining strength in your legs gave way to the oppressive sensation of an unfamiliar power stuffing itself into the room, like trying to shove cotton fill into a pillow already stuffed to the brim. It was warm and all-encompassing, like a sense of comfort that was rapidly approaching the dividing line to suffocation. All the while you stared, unblinking, at the mass of light and energy and all things soft and pretty as the last folds of the flower drew themselves apart to reveal a void.

Not just a void- a black hole. Framed by those soft looking petals, the warped edges of the black hole pulled in more strings of light as it formed its horizon line. Swirling lines made from all the colors of the sky were pulled across, over, under, and all around the abyssal pit of concentrated nothingness. The lines of colors were not content to stay at the boundaries designated to them by science, and started to ripple and wave against the gravity pulling them straight. The waves grew in height and frequency, growing taller and closer together until the line of colors broke away from the edges of the void it was trapped by and formed a ring. An Eye. An iris made from the last surviving colors left in the room encased in the sclera that was the void. That observant gaze shuttered as it looked all around the space it occupied before focusing on you.

You, who could not find the strength within you to run or pray. You, who could only bask in the terrifying glory of your creation. You, kneeling not out of fear or zealotry, but out of no emotion at all. Your mind was blank, rendering any intention you once had nonexistent. The Void's unfeeling glare bared down upon you, cementing you under its weight as you watched the pupil constrict for just a moment. Was it scared of you? Frightened at seeing that an insignificant beast had brought it to existence? Or was this anger? Enraged at the fact that something so much lesser than it had the gall to bring itself to them. Whatever emotion it tried to express fled from it quickly as the pupil changed from a tight circle to expanding itself. Wider and wider the iris grew until it disappeared over the black hole's border and out of sight completely.

With as wild as this experience had already been, you found no point in trying to prepare yourself for what you were about to witness next. That formless, flat surface of endless nothing rippled from within, like something from the inside was tapping at the surface. One ripple in particular didn't drop back down and instead only pushed forward more. A pale, stony white finger broke through the surface. One finger followed another, and continued until a pale hand pushed through. The cool white skin of the fingers melted into the warm tones of the peachy flesh of an arm. Its palm pressed itself against the surface of the void as another hand pushed itself through. Then a third hand. And a fourth. Four arms broke through its inky black containment and moved towards the edges of what had to have been a portal to worlds unknown.

Pearlescent strands of white hair held back by a pointed crown of black rays pushed itself through the abyss, reflecting back the remaining light in brilliant hues of pink, yellow, and blue. The head that was attached was cast in dark shadow as it exited, hiding any features found underneath the unnatural shade. Before the head moved any further, a hem of a garment shifted out from the void as the figure knelt on the edge of the portal to help itself through. Extracting itself carefully from the confines of its prison, It's toga-like outfit draped around its body and piled around its feet like the white waters of a turbulent waterfall. As it rose to it's full height, it looked around its new domain before admiring its form, stretching out all four of its arms to look at them more closely.

"W҉e҉l҉l҉… T҉h҉i҉s҉ i҉s҉ n҉e҉w҉…" It spoke slowly, moving as if it was adjusting to it's new form.

You couldn't speak, could barely breathe. Your mouth flapping open and close like a fish searching for water. The edges of your vision turned blurry like you were looking through tears, but you couldn't feel yourself crying. Your skull felt like it was warm and buzzing, as if intoxicated by what it was trying desperately to understand. Your hand clenched harder around the flower stalks and bag of snacks, your only grounding point in this whole ordeal. The tall being's missing face turned to notice you, you who hadn't moved from your kneeling worship out of awe and fear.

"H҉a҉v҉e҉ y҉o҉u҉ s҉u҉m҉m҉o҉n҉e҉d҉ m҉e҉?" It asked, posing its arms in a rather placid manner, "F҉o҉r҉ w҉h҉a҉t҉ p҉u҉r҉p҉o҉s҉e҉… I҉f҉ y҉o҉u҉ c҉a҉n҉ s҉p҉e҉a҉k҉ a҉t҉ a҉l҉l҉ t҉h҉a҉t҉ i҉s҉."

You need to speak. You have to make yourself speak. The words die on your tongue like fallen soldiers in a losing battle, but you find the strength within you to move forward with them anyway. You have to, you made it this far into the ritual and you can't have it falling apart on you so late in the game. You pull the book towards your chest, hugging it tight against you in the hopes that it puts up a shield between you and the onslaught of whatever it was that was melting your brain. Closing your eyes and bowing deep, you gain enough clarity to speak your peace.

"T-the book, " You stammer, "The book said you can grant a wish."

"D҉i҉d҉ i҉t҉ n҉o҉w҉?" It countered as it crossed its lower set of arms. You couldn't tell if it sounded amused or irritated at the revelation, but you continued forward.

"Yes, and the cost of doing so means I will be changed." You recalled, fighting the numbing buzz infiltrating your ears and mind, "I accept the conditions, and with it I offer my wish."

"W҉e҉l҉l҉ t҉h҉e҉n҉, d҉a҉r҉l҉i҉n҉g҉… O҉u҉t҉ w҉i҉t҉h҉ i҉t҉." It teased, its tone light as it held out a hand in waiting, whether for the offerings you've prepared or for the wish itself, you weren't sure. So you made the decision to hand over both.

Will you... WILL YOU DATE ME?" You shouted with conviction, dropping the book in your arms so you can shove your mildly crushed offerings into its awaiting hand.

A weighty pause filled the air more loudly than the thrumming that occupied it first. You opened one eye to see the figure was unmoving, still holding its hand out but now had pulled back slightly as if recoiling from your offer. Did you mess it up? Did you say the wrong thing? The title of the ritual said "Summon a Potential Lover" so this unholy being from the beyond had to be the "lover", right? God, this happens every time with you! Right when it matters most, the person on the other end suddenly finds themselves not interested!

"O҉o҉o҉o҉k҉a҉y҉y҉y҉y҉y҉… t҉h҉i҉s҉ i҉s҉ a҉w҉k҉w҉a҉r҉d҉." It offered as a way to fill the silence.

"What? What's wrong?" You called out, hoping not to get a "It's not you- it's me" speech.

"H҉o҉l҉d҉- h҉o҉l҉d҉ o҉n҉. J҉u҉s҉t҉ a҉ s҉e҉c҉o҉n҉d҉", It said as it waved it's arms around nervously, "I҉ n҉e҉e҉d҉ t҉o҉ f҉i҉n҉d҉ a҉ w҉a҉y҉ t҉o҉ t҉u҉r҉n҉ o҉f҉f҉ t҉h҉i҉s҉ l҉i҉g҉h҉t҉ s҉h҉o҉w҉ f҉i҉r҉s҉t҉"

It turned its back to you and stood looking at the black hole it formed in your living room with two of its hands on its hips. It waved the other set around while making various hand gestures, appearing to not have much experience with turning off its mode of transportation. In a last ditch attempt the Figure clapped its hands together and the portal to another world swirled into itself like dirty paint water going down a drain. With no ominous back-lighting obscuring its form, you got a better view of who it was that arrived into your home.

It was a rather tall person with a fairly masculine appearance. His toga was draped across half of his body, revealing his toned chest and the anatomy of half of his four arms. His dress had a long leg slit in one side that was filled with ruffles looking like the petals from the book and the portal. The other side of the dress had a line of diamond shaped cut-outs framed in golden ribbon. it was cinched at the waist with a belt in similar shape to the diamond hem, but the centers were filled with eyes of blue, pink, and yellow irises. What was more off-putting was that the belt blinked and was rather intent on studying you. Looking at his chest again, the black hole from earlier had made its home in a scar right over his heart, framed with flowers and swirling contently. The being's face was rather handsome and disturbingly familiar, but the extra mouths on his cheeks seemed to keep you from placing him in your memories.

"Sorry about that." The mysterious figure chuckled nervously as his hands played with each other, "That droning hum was starting to get irritating. That and I'm sure that black hole was a little too distracting."

It was odd watching him speak. You could see his lips make the words he was speaking as he talked, but as you looked at either one next to the middle, you could see a disconnect. While the pair of lips in the middle -where all lips should be- looked kissably soft, the other two were nothing more than wrinkled scars bearing crooked teeth. With the way they moved as he spoke, you guessed that one side spoke what he was going to say and the other lagged a little bit behind in timing. They didn't seem to be making any additional noise, but you had a feeling that they are the reason this... man? God? was sounding so discordant when he first arrived.

"Hello? Earth to summoner? I know I have this terrible habit of making people speechless, but eldritch energy can fry a brain if you're not careful. Hate to have someone as pretty as you become a vegetable on our first date." He? It? waved a hand around to get your attention and held the other two out in an offer to help you off your knees.

You muttered an apology as you took... his... Let's go with his for now... hands and tried to gracefully get up from the floor. You hadn't noticed until now, but once he banished the black hole to the confines of his chest, that all encompassing, fuzzy-warm pressure that had filled the room had suddenly disappeared. The lack of it seemed to give you a slight sense of virtigo as you helped yourself up onto shaky knees. Once you felt stable, you carefully leaned back down to grab the book that started this whole mess and absentmindedly straightened your outfit, finding a pocket to put the offerings in while trying to come up with something to fill the silence with.

"So... is that the book that brought me here?" The newcomer asked, holding his hand out as he beat you to the conversational punch.

"Yeah, it is. Here-" You didn't initially pay attention as you answered him back on reflex, almost handing the book back just to get the cursed thing out of your hands, but something in the back of your mind warned you to hold back.

Holding it up between the two of you, you narrowed your eyes in suspicion, "... If I hand this to you, you're not just going to take it and dissappear on me, are you?"

"Must be your first time." The man said as he rolled his eyes", "Kinda hard to dissappear on you when you've got me trapped." He brought a pale knuckle up to the left of him and tapped at the air, causing faint ripples of pink light as he did.

You tried to keep your expression neutral, but it was hard to suppress a look of surprise as you saw it. Guess the magic circles weren't just for protection. Still, you weren't convinced about the situation staying in your favor.

"And you're not just saying that just so I'll hand over the key to your escape, right?' You added on as you continued to refuse to hand over the book.

"Jeez, were you this skeptical before you summoned me?" The godly looking man asked as he moved his arms to a more defensive pose, "You do know that relationships are built on trust, right?"

"That's another thing." You mirrored his guarded posture with one of your own, " "First date", "Relationships", you keep talking like you're interested and yet you're the one that popped a "This is awkward" line right as I asked you to date me. Do you always speak in mixed signals or...?" You trailed off, hoping this confusing being would provide a decent explanation.

"Well in that case, I guess I should state for the record that I'm... not into humans." He answered with a convincingly sheepish expression, but you weren't entirely sure it was real. Guys as hot and as smooth as him don't get "sheepish".

"Then why the hell did this spell summon you?" You sighed heavily, pinching at the bridge of your nose to starve off a headache.

"I don't know." He answered in a singsong tone, "Maaaaybe if you let me take a look at the book, I could give you an answer." You leveled him an unamused glare at his thinly veiled ploy.

"Hey, I am a god. I do have godly powers that could help us out." He pressed on with a shrug, coming across as sure as you were about your shared situation.

You groaned hoarsely as you flippantly handed over the book, "Whatever. Make my night."

He took the book with a gracious thanks before slowly looking through the pages one by one. You stood as patiently as you could, but after a while you began to wonder if he was going so slow on purpose to piss you off. Eventually he snapped the thin book shut, snapping you from your irritated thoughts.

"Well, did you find anything?" You questioned with misplaced hope in your voice.

"I got nothing." The enthereal man man answered with a shrug, "The rest of these pages are as indecipherable to me as they probably are to you."

Your hands slapped onto your already tired face. This was all going straight to hell in a hand basket. You just wanted a romantic partner, how did it end up with a god in your living room who was about as much help as an AI assistant.

"Don't lose hope yet, my Fair Summoner. I have experience with these types of books, and I know how to make the rest of the spells appear." The God haughtily explained with all four of his arms poised in a grand display of gesturing to his greatness,

"All we have to do is perform more of them." He turned the book around to show you the next page before you could rebut the now invalid fact of there being no more spells to perform.

Your hands slid off of your face as you looked on at what looked to be a freshly scribed page detailing a whole new spell. You hesitantly reached out for the book, wanting to touch the pages to ground yourself, to make sure that this wasn't some trick by the unearthly being in front of you. You brushed your hand over the page, noting its dryness and how none of the bright ink stained your skin. You were so sure this wasn't in the book a second ago, because you would have remembered a spell titled "How To Adjust The Contract"

"How to adjust a contract? What contract? Is it talking about the wish?" You rattled off question after question, not sure of what meaning this meant to the two of you.

The man rudely swiped the book from your hands so he could look at the page too, "Yes it does, in fact!" His finger quickly ran down the page as he studied the ritual's needs more closely.

"Technically speaking, by eldritch law a wish is more or less a verbal contract between the One Who Summons and The One That Shows Up. When both parties are in agreement, the wish stops being something spoken and turns into something more... corporial in a sense. However, we are currently stuck in a sort of magic-wish-contract-limbo as you have asked a request of me I feel as if I can't, or don't really, want to fill. So until we can come to an agreement, I'm basically stuck in this pink cage of magic until then." He snapped the book shut crisply and tucked it under the left side of his upper set of arms, "Now, it is technically within your power to just leave me here and torture me until I give in, but just so you know we are stuck with each other."

A chill settled back into the room as his swirling, primary colored irises flooded his whole eyes, signifying his untapped power threatening to fill the room again.

"And I can make your life just as much of a living hell as you could make mine."

Ignoring the monkey brain in you that made you want to flee in fear as he loomed over you, you took as far of a step back as you could without leaving the intertwined circles and held your hands up defensively.

"Hey man, I like to think that I'm not that much of an asshole, alright? I'm down to talk this out... for both of our sakes." You explained, watching the godly being's posture relax and drop its powerful aura in response.

"Good." He responded cheerfully, " Now, let's fix this miscommunication between us, shall we?"

He looked back at the page and scanned over it one more time, his finger sliding down the page as he read so he could make sure he didn't miss anything important. Once it was more or less set in his mind, he let the book drop to his lower, second set of hands and let them hold the book behind his back while his upper set began to spin their magic. His eyes glazed over as his lips formed words that sounded outright alien to you. His hands waved over and around each other while strings of stars moved over them. A rainbow string of light pulled away from the black hole in his chest like how water would be poured from one container to another and settled into the space between his hands. Once the black hole in his chest had moved to his hands, you watched him pause in the middle of the ritual as a question formed in the shape of his face.

"Before we go further than this... I have to ask something personal, if that's alright?" The deity questioned, curiosity overtaking him, "I have a feeling you've been asked this before, but... you do know that romance isn't everything, right? It's not some end-all-be-all solution or a live-life-right requirement people tell you that you have to hit by some arbitrary age limit otherwise you failed at existing or something. I've known plenty of people who were happy with just having friends in their lives and others who were happy with no-one. The best types of romance are the ones that happen organically, not by trying to expedite one with the power of a baby eldritch God." He shrugged as he looked on at you with a pitiful expression, one that you had seen a million times before as it always followed this same exact speech- over and over and over again.

You were about to answer before he cut you off rudely to tack on an extra anecdote, "And yes, this does still apply even if you've gone through a hundred relationships."

You pursed your lips at him, mildly pissed at the interruption, but it did give you a second to reconsider your answer. This was more than just finding someone to hang out with, wasn't it. There was this feeling that had been bubbling up inside you for as long as you could remember, but every time you tried to explain it to someone, they never seemed to fully understand. If anyone would get it, it would probably be thus supposed Eldritch god of relationships.

Taking a deep, shakey breath, you began.

"I don't remember when it started, or when I first felt this, but... for a longer amount of time then I'd like to admit, I've always felt like there's been a whole in my chest. Its not a normal void I've come to understand at least." You sniffed hard as you rubbed at your nose, trying not to let your tears start so soon already. This was always a difficult subject for you approach.

"They say when you love someone and lose them, that a hole opens up in your heart or soul or whatever. But the problem is that I feel like I've never lost anyone. Sure, I've had people in my life leave or... pass away, and yes they've left their own marks on me, but not in the same way this feels. This... hole, this void... I feel like it hungers for something I can't understand. I have tried everything for the record. Having close friends both in life and online, good family relationships, work buddies and public communities- everything. My schedule looks like an extrovert's dream at times, and yet... nothing. Nothing feels like it's making a dent in this empty sinkhole that I just casually lug around. I've been to a therapist, several actually, and all of them have had their own opinions and all of them have missed the mark. The only one that I felt even remotely understood just brushed it off by telling me to try dating!"

You caught yourself biting the inside of your cheek to keep the ever growing feeling of tears from breaking loose. You hated crying, especially over this. It never felt like it was worth the tears but it never stopped them from cropping up anyway.

"So that's what I did. I "tried" dating. Every day I meet someone new. I open myself up and by the end of the night it feels like they're running away screaming. So I change myself up. I try to become someone that should be easy to love. The next day I meet someone new and it just happens all over again. They keep telling me to be myself, but its so hard to stick to that advice when I've been a million different versions of "myself" and I still can't patch over this fucking problem."

Despite your restraint, you let one tear slip. Its burning trail contrasted against the coolness of your skin. You quietly let out all of your unspoken rage in the simple motion of you wiping the tear and any mark it had left behind off of your cheek before swallowing thickly and schooling your expression back to neutrality.

"So yeah. Consider me a little tired of traditional methods." You huffed, "I just want the feeling to go away so I can know what it's like to feel "normal" for what might actually be the first time in my life."

The godly man in front of you tilted his head in thought as he considered your response, "That sounds fair enough." He nodded in satisfaction as he held out one hand out towards you, still holding the black hole from his chest.

"Alright, place your hand over this and answer these questions as truthfully as you can." He asked politely and watched you steel yourself so you could take this next step with him.

"Okay, what was your reason for summoning me?" He asked, his face never breaking from his lightly cheerful demeanor.

Taken aback by the question, you answered truthfully, "To summon a potential lover?"

He nodded along as he continued, "And what is the topic we are not reaching an agreement on?"

Were you changing some website account password? What was up with these questions?

"We seem to be under the impression that I summoned you as a potential lover for me and you don't want to do... well, that." You answered, hoping the half-assed attempt at legalese was in the spirit of the question.

"Good, good." The ethereal entity accepted, "Now, final question- what is it exactly do you want my help in accomplishing?"

"To not be alone anymore." You answered rather quickly. There, done. Can the two of you move on from this now?

The light around the back hole flashed red as the god before you hissed between his teeth.

"Ahhh, you might want to try that again." He offered, looking pained at the abyssal orb's response.

"What? That's the answer. That is definitely the answer!" You fired back, fully prepared to argue with cosmic forces beyond your understanding.

"Not according to the spell. Sure you don't have a better answer than that?" He bit his lip as he asked, almost like he already knew the answer.

"Me not being lonely anymore would definitely fix the problem, the spell is being pedantic!" You fired back as a counter argument.

"You think it will fix the problem, but you're not sure it will." He retaliated as he pointedly stared you down, "And I said to answer honestly, which according to your statements means that there's a deeper problem to be addressed here, right?"

You wanted to pull your hand away so you could shrug at him more exaggeratedly, but the pull of the black hole in his hand kept you from leaving. You instead racked your brain for what could be the honest answer the spell could be looking for. The entity in front of you had made it sound like you had to dig deeper for something the spell could be satisfied with, but you felt pretty convinced that you had answered honestly! You were looking for a sufficient patch job, getting a partner would be the solution! Yes, it technically didn't address the main issue, but you weren't looking to deal with it. What was this ritual trying to make you spell out about yourself?

A part of your memory flashed back to the foreword of the book you had read only hours before. Not only had it mentioned something about being changed, it told you to wish selfishly. You thought it meant something more literal like cash or expensive cars in exchange for a third eye or a missing limb. What if that wasn't the case? What if this ritual was exactly what you had needed all along and all it was waiting for was for you to admit that what you need is a better set of hands to help. Seems like unusual problems require unlikely solutions in this case.

Your face scrunched up in pain, almost as if finally admitting this was really going to hurt you.

"God, this is about to make me go on some sort of self-actualized journey of personal discovery or some shit, isn't it?" You hesitantly asked as you peeked at the other person held in the spell's hold.

"Only way to know is to find out." He answered unhelpfully and cryptically.

You groaned heavily as you faced the calling void to cast out your answer.

"I want this unending emptiness inside of me to be fixed." You squeaked out as even you weren't sure this was the right answer.

"Close enough!" The god cheered as the magic in the room shifted considerably.

Oh great. The melting of your six senses phenomenon is back. As well as your sense of time and equilibrium, that's just dandy! The first, last and only thing you could understand as the colors in the room melted off the wall and the floor floated out from under your feet was the black hole in between you flattening out into a thin band of primary colors. It was like you watched everything in slow motion as that band of colors twisted and warped into a loop, then a mobius strip, then wrapping around the wrists of you and the god in front of you. As the loop closed tighter it pulled both of your hands together until they clasped on each other like a life line. For as cold and unfeeling as his pale and stony hands looked, they felt like the last source of warmth in a suddenly expanding and unfeeling world.

With your sense of balance gone, as well as no idea which direction was up or down and the color green tasting like a cheeseburger you had in fifth grade, it would be safe to say you held onto that hand like how a drowning man holds onto anything that floats. You felt as if you were already floating somewhere pretty damn high as the god in front of you pulled you closer, as if you were as light as the air around you. You think he said something, but you weren't sure due to the ringing in your ears... at least you think that was ringing. You could clearly make out his handsome face as he leaned in close enough to plant a feathery light kiss on your forehead, but that was the last thing you could comprehend as you felt your senses, your mind, and everything around you blink itself off like an old TV.

When you woke back up, it was daylight again. The sun shone brightly through your sheer curtains like the uv index was set to a billion. The way the light casted over your face felt holy unfamiliar as you were certain you had blackout curtains in your bedroom, but as you shifted to your side and had your heart leap out of your chest because you almost fell off an edge, it became pretty clear you weren't in your bedroom. Your hand made a thunderous slap against your coffee table as you gripped it for dear life so as to not fall off your couch completely. You blinked away the thick fog of sleep in your head and then blinked some more in confusion once you remembered you had shoved both the couch and the coffee table as far to one side of the room as you could so you could... do something.

Weird. You distinctly remembered rearranging your room to do something incredibly stupid, but now you couldn't remember anything after that. You've had incredibly realistic feeling dreams before, but none of them made your shoulders hurt to match. You slowly shifted yourself to a sitting position and held a hand up to protect your eyes from the sun, noticing the tri-colored glass bangle you didnt know you had. Looking around slowly, you made sure that you were still in your apartment and confirmed that your furniture had moved itself back. Or maybe they never moved at all and you were just being crazy, either way you were too tired to distinguish or care. Rubbing your numb face and standing up on numb legs, you hobbled your way around the back of the couch just to see the charred remains of a very large and intricate sigil burnt into your floor and half covered up by the rug.

You dropped to a squat in a panic once you saw it, praying that this was some charcoal dust and you hadn't actually burned something this big into your floor. You pulled back the rug and touched it, but something residual left behind in the markings reached out at you. A memory. A sped up replay of everything that had happened last night came back to you like a gold brick wrapped in a lemon slice. A ritual. A Black hole. A man that had no right to look the way he did. It all came back to you. It shock of it all, both literally and figuratively, sent you sprawling backwards just as you heard your front door unlock.

"Oh, wonderfull! You're awake." The man from your memories, Looking more suspiciously human than how you remembered him sauntered into your room in casual clothing and carrying a brown paper bag full of groceries overspilling the top.

"Hope you don't mind that I stepped out for a bit. Just discovered that trans-dimensional travel leaves you really hungry and you have nothing in your fridge, its honestly atrocious. Like I know rent is high nowadays but looking in there made me get flashbacks to my college dropout days and that is something I do not need to remember-" The stranger in your house rambled on for a bit, not stopping at any point to let you answer back about anything.

It didn't matter, you had stopped listening anyway. You were too caught up in observing this newcomer move about your apartment like he was the one that had been chipping in on rent for the last few years. He looked so alike to the god you thought you summoned last night, but so clearly not the same man. That crown of black rays on his head shrunk down into a simple black headband and his pearlescent hair had been traded out for a light mousy brown. His fluffy bangs were dyed pink, blonde, and blue which matched the three pinstripes running down the right side of his white button-up shirt. As he turned his head this way and that while he talked, you could see the rippled edges of what had to have been a nasty scar that cut across both of his cheeks and met at the corners of his mouth. It looked like someone had tried to cut a bigger smile out of him as a sick joke and it could only be shittily patched back together. He also didn't have the four arms you distinctly remember him having, but he went about the kitchen waving his arms around like he had eight.

You walked up behind him hesitantly, moving slowly as if you were wading through hip deep water. He continued to ramble on undeterred, either because he didn't notice your cautious behavior or didn't care. When his back was fully turned away from you, you reached a shaking hand out towards his shoulder and jumped when it connected to something solid. The stranger jumped too, surprised to have felt you come so close and catch him off guard. He took one look at your worried and fearful expression and gave a disarming chuckle in return.

"Yes I am real. Yes you did summon something from another plane of existence. Yes I am just that handsome." He gave away freely as he leveled you with his unnatural eyes still swirling with those three colors that always surrounded him.

"Now, do you want coffee or tea?" He asked as he went back to making breakfast.

"Ummm... either works, I guess?" You answered softly, backing off once it had fully settled in that, yes, you really did do something stupid last night.

"Then you're getting hot chocolate." The human looking god jested with a smirk tossed over his shoulder.

You wandered off in a daze, rounding the corner of your kitchen counter top right as you saw the book on the counter. The bright, white, leather bound book with a single golden "D" on the cover. Your fingers hovered over it like you were still not sure all of this was real. As the man in your kitchen spoke up again, startling yourself as you sat down in one of the chairs that lined the border between the kitchen and your living room, holding on to the book as a reminder.

"So I know we made that whole deal about me helping take care of your problems first, and I do intend to make good on that don't worry, but I do have a favor to ask of you before we get started. See, now might not be the best time to mention this, but I haven't exactly been a god for long. I doubt I'm even really a full god persay, the circumstances around me are a little complicated shall we say. But I do have loads of previous experience dealing with other, truly eldritch gods and that's something I think I should talk to you about before we go further."

He stopped in his preparations for just a moment and turned around to drop off a steaming hot cup of hot chocolate piled high with marshmallows, whipped cream, and chocolate shavings.

"Proper eldritch Gods have books, specifically books that can summon them and contain spells that can either help or hinder your relationship with them." He began to explain as he took the book from in front of you and held it up next to his face, "I'm actually pretty good friends with the shogoth that makes these, which makes this all the more interesting that I have one of these because last I checked humans can't just become gods worthy of being summoned. So the favor-"

"Wait, you're human?" You asked, catching on to the only part of the sentence that you heard in your groggy state.

"I was once human, I have clearly ascended to a higher level, and much higher than I thought I was at originally. Please keep up." He clarified as he laid the book back down.

"The favor I'm trying to ask for is- I would like to take a trip down to meet this friend of mine and ask what the hell is going on. Because, like I said, I didn't think I was of full godly status yet. As far as eldritch lifespans go, I'm barely 30,000!" He turned away and went back to finishing what he had started cooking, "It shouldn't take too long. I mean she does like to talk your ear off, but she's probably the only person that can give me a clear answer on these sorts of things. Hell, maybe she could even help out with your problem if I sweet talk her enough!"

You sat in the chair with our hands on your throbbing head. This was a lot to take in despite how simple it sounded. You didn't expect to get this far with a stupid craft project! You just wanted to poke fun at yourself and your predicament, you didn't think it would result in making a literal God give you a helping hand. A plate of freshly made fruit filled crepes appeared before you unexpectedly, knocking you out of your spiraling mind.

"So! What do you say?" The half god asked, "You wanna come with me?"

"S-sure." You offer with hesitation despite having nothing to lose, "But one question on my end. Who are you?"

The god looked taken aback by the question, almost looking a little worried. "Do... do you not remember me? The guy you summoned to your apartment?"

"No, not that! I mean, I remember that part, I just mean like... What do I call you?" You stuttered through your clarification, hiding your embarrassment behind a shovel full of really good crepes.

"Ohohoh, yeah! That." He man chuckled nervously, "Well, I've had several names throughout the years. Darling... Dearest... Dog. I'd rather you not call me that one."

"Understandable." You muttered around the food.

"Uhhh, lets see..." He looked around the room for a moment while lost in thought before his gaze fell upon the cover of his own spell book. His eyes brightened as an idea came to him and held the book up again.

"How about Duke? That way it keeps with the theme and still sounds like a decently normal name this time." He offered as a solution with an award winning smile.

"If that's what you want." You settled with him, not thinking much of it other than it sounds unnecessarily regal for a man with an attitude like his, but then again he is a god... supposedly.

"Well, now that mine is settled, what's yours?" He asked with such innocence. It would have stayed innocent if you could remember yours.

Your face went starkly pale and your eyes widened in fear once it became so scarily obvious in that moment that you couldn't remember your name. You began to choke on your food mid-bite as the realization became worse. Duke asked several times if you were okay and pushed your mug of hot chocolate closer to you, encouraging you to take a drink. Once you got the obstruction cleared, you hoarsely stated that you suddenly couldn't remember it. Clearly seeing that you were scared, he held onto you arm and squeezed it reassuringly.

"That's okay, exposure to the unnatural can do that sometimes. You said you had a lot of friends, right? I'm sure one of them can remember it for you."

You nodded along with him and calmed down considerably, but it didn't make you any less afraid.

"Now, I hate to make you hurry up right after that big reveal, but I kinda want to head to that friend's place I mentioned rather soon, so finish that and get whatever you need ready so we can head out." Duke grabbed his own plate that had been left neglected and proceeded to shovel as much of it as he could into his mouth as he walked away, his way of giving you space.

You sighed as you followed his orders, just being thankful that someone finally knew what needed to be done around here for once. You plucked your phone out of your pocket to take a look at the time, only to see something strange in the black mirror of the screen. Turning on your phone and heading to your camera, you turned it to face you so you could get a better look at the holographic and slightly glowing kiss shaped lipstick print on your forehead. You brought a hand up to wipe it off, but was cut off from touching it once you heard Duke call out from the other side of the apartment.

"DON'T TOUCH THAT! IT NEEDS TO STAY!" He called out, leaving you unsure how it is he could tell what it was you were touching.

"BUT WHAT IS IT?" You called back, still debating on washing it off.

"JUST TRUST ME AND LEAVE IT! NOW CAN WE GO?!" He shouted back.

You just sighed and finished your meal, grabbing the book with you as you left.

This was going to be a long day.