It barely even counted as a summons. All that Dipper felt from it was a gentle tug, nothing compared to the carious calls that were constantly being deflected to his answering machine as he tried to get a moment to himself for once. He probably would have overlooked it altogether if not for the niggling sense that something about it was worth checking out.
He arrived to find a girl no more than eight years old, her dark hair in pigtails held together by lime green ribbons, on the other end of a hastily-scribbled chalk summoning circle in the middle of a brightly-colored bedroom. Her eyes were puffy, her hands shaky. Before the demon could ask why he was summoned, the girl blurted out her request, her words spit out rapidly in between sniffles.
"I left the door open last night when I went out and my hedgehog got out and somebody went by in the street and ran him over and- Mister Alcor, can you please please please bring back Prickles? It's all my fault and I'm so sorry and I'd make sure he never ever got outside again…"
Dipper shook his head. "Look, kid, I can't bring back your hedgehog. Not the way you want him, anyway. A lot of other demons would just make him a zombie and say that was close enough, but-"
The girl stopped sniffling and gave the demon a shaky grin. "You're saying you could make Prickles come back as a zombie hedgehog? That'd be so cool, I'd love to have a zombie hedgehog as a pet-"
"Ṇ͉̖̰͉̮̠͑ͪ̒̀ͪ̐̀̏̎͜Ȯ͎̜̖̖̺̮̦͋ͬ́!͖̦̣̠̙̰͙̐͐̈́ͣ͗͌̕"
The girl took a step backwards, her eyes widening with fear.
Dipper sighed. "No, that's… that's a bad idea, okay? Zombies don't make good pets. Really."
"But-"
"I̸̧̞͓͇̳̪̅̒́̈͛̚ ̸̷̗̱̦͔̺͖͎̮ͦ̈̾̉̌ͩ͌͞S͔̞͙̞̲̟ͥ͌ͩͯ͆̏̇̀͟Ä̶̟̩̖̰͎͉̹̺́͆̒ͤͬ͑̒̀I͓̦̳̭̱͎̊͊̊̔͌͠D̸͎̟̦̳͈͂̊ͩ͑ͭ́̊ ̴̨̦͎̗͎̹̥̙̣̃ͦ̿͗̔ͥ́͡N̶͔̞̬̂̏͐Ỏ̜͖̮̙͉͐ͯ̍͋̿ͣ͝ͅ!̖͖̭͖̳͇͓ͫ̏ͣ̾̒̅ͭ́̚͡"
The girl nodded weakly, stunned into silence, her eyes fixed on the poorly-drawn summoning circle.
"I could give you a new hedgehog, though."
The girl's eyes remained focused on the floor. "It wouldn't be Prickles."
"No, it wouldn't be Prickles. But he could look like Prickles if you want. Better than nothing, right?"
"And for you?"
"Hmm…" Dipper looked around. The bedroom in which he floated was small and bare. The walls were painted in loud shades of pink and green; some of the paint had chipped away, and one corner held a messy drawing of a unicorn made in permanent marker. Two stuffed bears, dirty and ragged from years of use, lay on a mattress covered with a single blanket not even big enough to fully cover his young summoner.
Finally, on top of a tiny plastic chair, Dipper spotted his target.
"Your Halloween candy. I want half."
The girl giggled. "My… candy?"
"Yep. And no pawning off all the candy you don't want on me, either. Deal?" Dipper extended his hand, which filled with blue flames that danced along the surface of his palm.
"Candy for a new hedgehog, right?" The girl grinned, her tears almost dried. "Deal." The girl shook his hand; Dipper's hand engulfed her tiny hand as they gripped one another. Her fingers were rough, her nails bitten.
After a moment of contact, the girl ran off and dumped her stash of Halloween candy onto the ground, the pieces flying all over the room. "Take what you want, Mister Alcor."
The demon dropped to the ground and started rooting through the girl's haul, sorting out the pieces that he liked best. "Don't… just Alcor, okay? No 'Mister'."
The girl nodded. "Okay, Mister- I mean, Alcor."
After satisfactorily dividing the candy into two roughly equal piles, Dipper snapped his fingers, and a hedgehog appeared on the girl's bed.
"PRICKLES!" The girl picked up the hedgehog and hugged it tightly, not seeming to mind that several of its quills were embedding themselves in her clothes and skin, before letting it free to roam around the bed. "Or- I guess not Prickles anymore, huh? I'll have to come up with a new name."
Dipper started in on a chocolate bar, crumpling up the wrapper into a wad that he threw to the floor. He wasn't sure if the chocolate was especially good or if it had just been too long since he'd had any, but whatever the case, it was absolutely delicious. "Name him after me?"
The girl burst into laughter. "I'm not naming him after you, silly." As her laughter died down, she added, "Aren't you gonna leave?"
Dipper licked his fingers after finishing off the chocolate bar. "Nah, I think I'll stick around."
The girl started twirling one of her pigtails, ripping out a few strands in the process. "But Daddy's gonna be home soon!"
"Oh well. You summoned a demon, kid. Trust me, you're getting off lightly." Dipper paused and thought for a moment, then transformed into his twelve-year-old self. "Better?"
"Sure." The girl cautiously took a step forward, then another, before finally sitting down at the demon's side. "You're not gonna hurt me, right?"
"Nah. Just want to hang out." Dipper looked over at the girl, who was steadfastly examining the wrapper of some off-brand fruit snacks. "By the way, what's your name?"
"…Ana."
"That's a pretty name." Dipper gave off a toothy grin. "Is that your real Name? Or did your parents give you another one?"
The girl stopped mid-bite. "Why?"
"Oh, call it curiosity. You don't have to tell me your True Name, I just want to know if you have a different one."
The girl shook her head, struggling to get out words with a mouth filled with fruit snacks. "Nuh-uh. Jus' Ana."
"Well." Dipper laughed. "For one thing, you shouldn't have told me that. Be more careful around demons, will you?"
The girl started choking, hacking for several seconds before finally managing to gulp down the last of the fruit snacks. "You said you just wanted to hang out."
"Yeah, I did, and I meant it… this time. Just a tip for the future, that's all." Dipper paused, taking in the face of the girl who was now stuffing her face with marshmallows, evidently wanting to shove as much pure sugar into her system as possible before falling under her father's watchful eye. "But maybe he knew you already had a True Name. One I know. One I suppose you ought to know, too."
"Huh?" She was chewing with her mouth open, and he could see all sorts of pastel colors melding together into a uniform glob of stickiness. But he looked past that, gazing deeply into the girl's eyes. They were darker than before, and still wavered a bit, filled with fear of the entity that she now knew only as Alcor the Dreambender… but Dipper could tell that behind those eyes was the same soul that he knew all too well, that this was far from the first time that the two had eaten candy at one another's side.
"Your Name is Mizar."