Hotel of the Dead

"Pleasure to make your acquaintance," Cornyx says with a slight nod.

"My name is actually Damascus, but you may call me whatever you'd like." He smiled at Sevy, who was still stupefied. "and I'm a..." demon. It was the truth, but he wasn't sure he wanted to reveal it. He glanced meaningly at Corynx. "I'm a shifter."

Sevy laughed incredulously and walked over to Damascus, reaching up to poke his face, "That is so cool! And do you actually live in the Underworld, or was that a misunderstanding?"

"Ah... I do- partly." He leaned away from Sevy's finger, slightly uncomfortable.

Tamika simply watched, stewing quietly. She had never really trusted Gordon as a cat, and now that he turned out to be a human, or whatever he was, it was clearly obvious that he was hiding something.

Elisa popped in suddenly from the wall next to Tamika, making her jump.

"More guests! Wonderful!" She moved quickly over to the two men and the cat, smiling broadly. She tilted her head at Damascus, "oh, and you're the kitty from earlier. Sorry I spooked you. I'm Elisa."

Damascus made a face and backed up a few steps, "Uhm, t- that's okay. Nice to meet you."

Mothman hesitantly joined the rest of the group, clearly put off by the strange happenings going on among them. He quietly walked over to where Damascus was standing. "If you don't mind me asking," he said, "why were you using the form of a cat?"

"It's, um... it's a long story." he mumbled, going to rub the back of his neck. "Basically, someone was trying to track me down, so I assumed that form so that I could go undetected. Next thing I know, a cen- a long time has passed, and I kind of got stuck."

Jersey perked up with an impressed whistle, having figured out what Damascus was planning on saying. "A century? Shoot, you're old. You might even be older than me!" It was only after he spoke that he realized the shifter might have wanted to avoid mentioning the specific amount of time. Whoops.

"I suppose so." Damascus sighed, figuring that that original slip had been his mistake. It wasn't Jersey's fault for being observent.

"Wow. I had no idea. How old are you?" Sevy pressed, a slightly goofy smile still plastered on his face.

"Oh, I've lost track." The demon waved his hand and attempted to change the subject. "I'm not sure exactly how this place works, but you might each be assigned a room. That might be a good thing to find."

Elisa piped up from next to him, "Yes, that's right! There's a good room, one with a cozy bed and that fits all your personal needs," her voice dropped slightly, "and then there's a bad one-"

"Previous guests may not disclose information to-" Jane cut the ghost off, who then interrupted her in turn.

"I get it, I get it! No more spilling the beans." She sighed deeply and turned back to the group, "If I was allowed to tell you, I would. You'll know soon enough, anyways.."

"Are we just going to ignore his age-" Mothman started to say, but the conversation had already switched to another topic by the time he started to bring up his concern. Letting out a quiet sigh underneath his breath, he listened to what Jane and Elisa had to say. The part that Jane had prevented Elisa from saying deeply worried him - why would there be a second room? And why would it be so important that Jane had to cut Elisa off?

Spoiler

As promised, here's my new character! He's definitely on the tall side, with lean limbs and pale skin. One of his dark brown eyes is hidden behind his black bangs; said hair goes down to his shoulders. He looks like he's somewhere in his early twenties. His outfit consists of a black leather jacket, black t-shirt, dark jeans and black leather boots. He's also got a pair of sunglasses on.

When the man awoke, it was to a world of pain and confusion.

As he pushed himself off of the ground, he tried his best to come up with some sort of explanation that could explain why he was hurting and how he had gotten here - wherever here was. He ran through what he remembered the last. He had been going to the meeting - the one he had been excited about for weeks - when there had been that attack. The person had been using a knife. He had been trying to disarm them when-

Oh.

Oh no.

There was a long gash running up his side. He could see the blood seeping into the shirt he was wearing underneath his leather jacket, could see the precise cut into his flesh, could see how terribly off he currently was. He bit his lip and tried not to cry at the pain. It was far worse now that he had started thinking about it.

He wildly looked around for something to help him.

The only thing he could find was an ominous building a few feet away. It wasn't the most trustworthy place, but he had no other options. He pressed against the wound - pressure was good, right? - and staggered towards the entrance. It took all of his effort to remain standing as he stepped inside the lobby.

"Welcome to Limbo Inn & Suites. We hope you enjoy your stay," a monotone voice suddenly called out. That normally would have caused him to jump, but he was in too much pain to even think about that. And worry, too. That meeting had been secret. They had made sure of it. But that person - that person that had stabbed him had mentioned who he was, hadn't she? She had called him by that name, even though he was dressed in casual clothes. And while there was a resemblance, his mask should have obscured it-

A tablet suddenly appeared in front of him.

It was floating in midair, but he was honestly too distracted to care.

"Hello honored guest. Please press the screen to register for your stay."

This was a hotel, then? He didn't want to stay, but he had no other options. He raised a shaking hand - not the one that was holding his wound, because it had to be doing something to help - and pressed the screen. He gave a pained whimper a moment later when it pricked his finger. He was usually so good about hiding his pain, but he was already dealing with too much to think about holding it in.

He went to take another step forward, but his vision swam in front of him. The pain was simply too much. His legs gave out from underneath, his arm knocking a particularly large vase down with a loud crashing noise that resonated throughout the building as he fell to the ground.

Cornyx looked up sharply as he heard the crash, striding towards the door and stepping outside to find the origin of the sound. The scent of blood hit his nostrils instantly and his demeanor changed instantly, the demon in him awakening as it smelled prey.

In a flurry of draconian wings, the demon dropped from the staircase and onto the first level, alighting upon the tiles near the newcomer.

Fabian, meanwhile, was still very silent and still in his corner, slowly stepping out as the King of Hell exited.

Sevy jumped at the loud crash from downstairs, and then once again as Corynx rushed past him. He followed quickly, leaning over the balcony of the second landing.

"H- hey- don't eat anyone!!" He yelled after the dragon.

Ignoring the stairs in an effort to protect whatever poor soul was down there, he hurriedly climbed the railing and spread his wings before gliding down.

Tamika was right behind him, her wings out and feathers ruffled.

"Sevy! C'mon, don't do anything stupid!"

Meanwhile, Elisa was unbothered by all the ruckus, figuring she would meet whoever had just entered the hotel shortly. She glanced down at the chair, where a cat was crawling out from.

"Small cat!" She gasped in delight and hovered down near it, "how delightful! I didn't know you were here!"

Damascus watched Elisa, the hair at the back of his neck almost bristling. Not turning his back to the ghost, he walked over to the long table and poked around at the remaining food. Picking up a goblet and swigging at the wine, a little bit of color returned to his cheeks.

Cornyx didn't dignify Sevy's words with a response as he folded his wings and they disappeared.

Fabian slipped back under the chair as Elisa approached, eyes wide.

Mothman ultimately decided to linger in the dining room. He was still concerned by what he had heard earlier, and sticking around Elisa seemed like his best chance and discovering more information about this place. He saw Jersey dart out of the room after the others out of the corner of his eye.


As he tried to get himself back up, he could make out a group of people gathering around him. There were three winged people and a man who looked fairly normal. This bizarre combination would have at least shocked him a little (he wasn't exactly normal himself) but the pain was apparently quite good at distracting him. He grit his teeth together and unsteadily finished standing up, only to let out a cry of alarm as he went crashing back to the floor.

Tamika gave a little gasp at the sight on the first time floor- a man appeared to be wounded, and was losing a fair amount of blood. She was by his side almost the instant he collapsed.

"Jane! Is there any type of first aid here?" Calling up at the ceiling, she dropped to her knees and attempted to support him, not caring for any aversion the stranger might have had to help.

"Positive." Came the voice's answer. "Sending health resources."

A few beats passed before a medium sized monochrome box flew down from seemingly nowhere.



Elisa pouted for a second before she leaned down, careful not to sink through the floor, and glanced under the piece of furniture.

"Awe, please don't be scared. I won't harm you. It's just been so long since I've had someone to talk to, and-" she cleared her throat in an attempt to get rid of the desperate pitch that had been starting in her voice. "Um, introductions- I'm Elisa. Can you tell me what you're called?"

Mothman watched Elisa talking to the cat out of the corner of his eye before joining Damascus by the table. He reached down and grabbed onto his goblet, which was full of coke - he could never handle alcohol - and took a casual sip of it. He wasn't sure if it was because he wanted to talk to the shifter or not; after all, Damascus was standing fairly close to the food he liked.


"I'm not sure what's in that box," the normal man said, peering down at him with eyes that were an unusual shade of grey. "But I know some basic healing spells. Not too many of them, but I should know one for tending to a gash like that."

As he tried to reckon with the sudden appearance of the box, his mind continued to return to the unnerving color of those eyes. They were so light they could more appropriately be called silver, and so light that, when the light shined on them just right, they appeared to be white.

Then what the man had said registered, and he sat up with a start - immediately regretting it a second later when the pain intensified. "You-You can do magic?" he questioned. Then he let out a whimper and fell back to the floor.