#teenage vessels for eldritch gods! come and get your teenage vessels for eldritch gods!

[starpirateee]

What about a prompt like this for a Drabble (you don’t have to!!) : At the summoning instead of asking for what they cherish most, the lords in black ask Steph, grace, and Pete to work for them to do their bidding, offering not only to get rid of max but things they long for in their lives: stability, freedom, power, etc. And to sweeten the deal, it’s revealed that Ruth and Richie can also be brought back to serve alongside them, reuniting them all together while getting rid of max.

Oh anon, eldritch god shenanigans are my jam! Let me see what I can do!

The way I like to picture this is that they're still (mostly) human but the lords are kinda working through them? If that makes sense? Well... At least, that's the case for the three who are still alive...

"Let me check my Christmas list…"

A large scroll unfurled itself, bouncing off the floor between the group. Covering the book. Trailing off into the infinite and unknown. Steph stared out at the walls of the gym, wondering how far they could be stretched if the rules didn't apply. The paper was still going, still expanding…

The whole universe was written out on that scroll, piece by piece. And the thing examining it was picking out one of those pieces, whichever would bring him or any of the others the most pleasure.

The others edged closer, peering at the list with great intent. Pete's back was tense against Steph's shoulder, and she could see the way he was glancing desperately between the entities to avoid staring at one for too long. That one had singled him out, called him out by surname. First names were one thing, that was just how they referred to each other, it could've been overheard… But it had called him Spankoffski. Now, it was personal.

"I know what they could give us!" It giggled, flashing a hand out and pointing at something on the list.

The others saw what it was pointing at, and erupted into a sickening chorus of gasps and giggles that forced Pete, Steph and Grace closer to each other. Grace had a hand on Steph's forearm, Steph was leaning against her like her life depended on it, and Pete was pressed up against Steph's shoulder, stiff as a board. Terror was painted across all of their faces. They'd long since passed the point of being able to hide it.

"The boy interests you, doesn't he?" The scroll-holder asked, turning his attention.

Tinky grinned and nodded. There was something fiendish glittering in his eyes. "He does! He's just like his brother!"

Steph may have only known Pete for a couple of weeks, but she didn't think he'd ever mentioned a brother. Or, at least, he'd never mentioned anyone she would class as his brother. "Pete? What's he talking about, brother?"

Pete's breath hitched, and for a moment longer than he cared to admit, he froze, staring at the Tinkerer. Ted went missing some months ago. People had had given up on him at this point. That thing knew something.

He advanced from the scroll, inching towards Pete and stopping uncomfortably close. "Teddy's been FUN to play with! Over and over and over and over! You're gonna be even MORE fun!"

Pete tried to make a protest- to say anything that would warrant rationalising his fear- but he was too afraid to speak. An unseen force was gripping at his throat, forcing him to gasp for breath.

"… Pete?"

Steph laid a hand on his shoulder. She and Grace had seen the Tinkerer vanish, and had seen Pete lose focus, but hadn't seen the fifth lord re-appear. But, Pete was still lost to them.

He started gasping for breath, and Steph and Grace shared a glance that expressed all of the concern they felt for him. They barely noticed the scroll vanish into thin air. Steph forced herself to focus, and centered herself. "What're you doing to him?"

"Here's the deal, Steph-a-nie… My brother has taken an interest in your friend. So, if you want rid of Maxwell, then you will let us in."

"What?"

"We will get rid of Maxie, but we will have to work through you."

Pete struggled beside them. Whichever invisible force was stealing his breath was pushing him harder the longer they hesitated. For all it was worth, he was trying to fight it, but it was starting to look like he was losing.

Steph's mind was racing. She understood the terms of the deal, she thought, but that would mean giving up her freedom, Grace's freedon, and even Pete's. A few words would condemn them all to a fate she didn't even want to think about.

Fuck it, anything was worth it for Pete.

"Okay, okay, fine!" She couldn't bring herself to look at Pete in this state. Her breath heaved. "Fine… Please, just let him go..!"

Pete flinched back from the thing holding him in place. Then he took his first sturdy breath in a while, and collapsed. Grace gasped the moment he hit the ground, and she and Steph backed off together. She peered over her shoulder, and both of them just stared at Pete, waiting for a sign of life.

"Do we have a deal?"

"Yes!" Grace nodded quickly.

"Sure, whatever you want!" Steph agreed, her heart aching.

The air turned cold. There was a flash that Steph couldn't identify either as part of her mind, or something that happened in reality, and then silence. Way too much silence. Silence that was broken by the sound of laughter.

Steph knew that laugh anywhere. That was the awkward chuckle that came with triumphant ideas and silly jokes and accidentally saying something stupid mid-conversation. When the biology test results came back… At the football game…

That was Pete's laugh.

And it was getting louder. More confident. Less like his, and more like something that simply came from his body. His hand shot out, digging into the polished floor and grazing the painted lines of the sports pitches. He pulled himself back up, and his chuckle devolved into something of a manic laugh, crazed and loud.

"Thank ya, Stephie!" A voice from nowhere rang out as Pete brushed a hand through his hair and opened his eyes. "Oh, I knew he'd be a delight!"

Steph's face fell. Pete's eyes were golden, shimmering with the overhead lights in the gym. A broad yet unfeeling smile was plastered onto his face. It even felt unnatural to look at, and sent a shiver down her spine.

"Oh my god…"

Grace winced behind her. "What… Happened to him?"

"Pete?"

"Ah ah, Steph-a-nie. He's ours now. And doesn't it feel wonderful, Peter?"

Pete nodded, a little less enthusiastically than his demeanour would suggest. It felt like nothing was there, that he was finally free. Free of what, he wasn't sure, but whatever it was did feel wonderful.

"Gracie…" Another one of the Lords crossed the gym floor slowly, pushing down his glasses. "It's my turn, and you're a perfect fit."

Grace looked to Steph nervously. In return, she got a slow, assuring nod, and the motion to just breathe. All of this would be over as soon as they'd gotten rid of Max. This was just a temporary dealing, one they could forget about when it was all over.

So, she nodded, took a breath, and turned her attention from Steph as the Watcher sidled up behind her and took her by the shoulders.

Steph watched on as Grace's shoulders rolled back, and she had to force herself to remember that staying calm was her best bet. Her breath wavered. Steph started to feel worse and worse for having agreed to this deal. God forbid it would've been worse if they hadn't... That was the only option they had left. Her dad had told them to summon these beings, and they had to do that to get rid of Max.

To get rid of Max... Right. Of course... This was worth it, or it was going to be. But seeing what they'd done to Pete, and by extension, what they were doing to Grace... Part of her wondered which of them would choose to single her out, and what that would look like for her.

Grace squeezed her eyes shut, biting her lip to avoid showing whatever was going on in her head. Then she seemed to be forced back into the real world with a jolt, and just like Pete, her eyes shot open. A deep purple bled into the brown, and Steph was too focused on that to realise that another of the lords was missing.

"Hello, Stephie..."

Her whole body went tense; she saw a presence in front of her and felt something at her back. The world fell away, and for the briefest moment, she thought she could smell honey.

The sweet taste filled her senses, flooding her mind over with a strange, insatiable hunger. A Desire. That need to end Max that had been dwelling in the back of her mind had grown exponentially in a matter of seconds. Now, she needed to see him departed. For good, this time.

She, Pete and Grace were on the same level as these things now. They understood far more than any person- especially any person their age- would ever even hope to understand. But there was still something missing.

"What about you? Surely the two of you want in as well..." She mused, turning to face the remaining two lords and raising an eyebrow.

"Well... We could..." Wiggly glanced towards his remaining brother. "It is feasible, is it not?"

"I believe so..." Came the answer, and then both of them rounded on the group. The pages of the book in front of them- the one they'd dug up to summon these things in the first place- started to turn themselves. The three of them stared at it until it stopped moving, and glanced at what now sat in front of them. This page was just as strange as the last, and they could barely make sense of it at first. "Ask the boy, he likely knows."

"Yes... If we are to join in on the fun, so to speak, we are going to need those old friendy-wends of yours... And for that, we will need you, Peter."

Pete looked down on the pages, keeping his place with one hand and quickly adjusting his glasses with the other. He didn't know if those were entirely necessary anymore, but at the present moment, he didn't really care either way. Being able to feel them against the bridge of his nose was one of the only things keeping him from thinking about the god doing numbers in his mind.

"Do you understand it?"

"I think so..." What it looked like to him was necromancy. Two weeks ago, he'd have said that was impossible, that nobody could be brought back from the dead. Since that had been long since proven wrong, he'd decided that the best course of action was just to go with it. Maybe he could pretend he understood long enough to placebo himself into actually understanding it. What was it Ted always stuck to? Fake it till you make it?

He hummed, glancing at the page again. "I think I've got it, yeah."

With that, he closed the cover of the book and laid his hand over the top of it, like he was about to swear himself in at court. He could feel the energy shifting from himself to the book and back again. The old pages seemed to breathe with him, heaving and falling with the motions of his chest. He knew the next question, the next place his mind had to go to. "Where are they?"

"We're closer to your theater... The girl is there. The boy ran, but you will find him with her, no doubt."

Pete nodded slowly and tried to think about the little theatre in the school. It was just down the corridor, he'd been in with Richie a few times to watch productions that Ruth was teching for. He could picture the few rows of seats, the skinny little aisle down the middle of them... And the two shadows sitting side by side on the stage. Both familiar. Both waiting for something to happen. He glanced at Steph, and then at Grace, and then slowly pulled his hand from the book. The sigil in the middle seemed to glow the same yellow that had bled into his irises.

Grace blinked the moment the colour faded out and the pentagram returned to being white. "What was that about the theater?"

"I think that's our next step... I think we're gonna pick up Ruth and Richie..."