A Demon and His Coterie

A serial killer in life who was hanged for his crimes and became a black-eyed demon... ‎ ...and the coterie he's gathered around him that he would protect with his life. ‎ ♛ ❖ ♛ ‎ Indie Multimuse RP Blog Original Characters ‎ ♛ ❖ ♛ ‎ Sideblog to thehighlandhealer All asks/likes/submissions come from thehighlandhealer

[beyondedenton]

"Thank you, Miss Fawn," Abel said without missing a beat, undeterred. Filling out a paper application was no problem. Xavier had spent decades curating and perfecting several false identities for precisely these situations.

Abel felt amused despite himself. This security guard sure was a character. Abel wouldn't have been surprised if he'd walked right out of a sitcom.

He chuckled. "Not from here, no. Hong Kong." A lie that was close enough to the truth to be accepted; this was the gray area the magical existed in.

The familiar smiled at their back and forth, alert but comfortable enough. It was a bit too soon to make a full judgement, but his gut told him these two knew every little thing that happened in this building. Jinx especially. As a security guard, his movements were freer, thus giving him more opportunities to see and hear things.

Abel nodded at the receptionist but he was swearing internally. Personal interview? Damn it. He hadn't expected that, but he should have.

He gave another chuckle, betraying nothing. "Yes, I'll be staying with him. Potentially in a separate unit. Go ahead and get that second application for me, Miss Fawn. Thank you."

"Well, ain't that a spit and a walk away. You hear that, Fawn? Hong Kong! Don't even know where that is on a map. Do you?"

"I've looked at more than the subway map of Manhattan." She waved off the security guard and slipped away for another envelope.

"Most units have two rooms," she called, voice skirting on melodic. "The ones at the tippy top have three bedrooms, and those have two neighbors each."

Jinx stood by the wall with his hands on his cluttered hips. He looked more like a janitor than a security guard, with his flashlight and old-fashioned ring of keys. The only weapon on his belt was an untouched container of pepper spray.

"I'll let my boss lady know this is urgent. I'll put you at the top of the pile," Fawn smiled.

[beyondedenton]

Although his expression remained unchanged and polite, internally, Abel was feeling very smug. The polished, competent assistant affect had been the right call. No one ever thought to mistrust a man in a nice suit.

Even though they tended to be the least trustworthy of all.

The familiar let a touch more warmth seep into his smile. Just enough to appear to open up. "Not entirely chance, not entirely random. He happens to like this area of the city. I merely looked for places that suited his taste."

Fawn and Jinx. Not names one heard every day, even in a city like New York. They were just eccentric enough to be passed off as playful nicknames by the average person who wouldn't think to look deeper. For those that did, they reeked of magic.

Abel gave the security guard a greeting nod before turning back to the woman. "Is there a vacancy, by chance? Something with a view? Cost is no object."

“That’s not up to me, hon. That’s up to my boss lady. You can apply, though. We do things the old-fashioned way, here. One moment, I’ll get what you need.”

The security guard offered a toothy smile, exceeding the stranger’s effort. One of his canines had been traded for gold at some point, and glimmered in the quiet warm lighting. The name Jinx was written on his badge in fine, elegant lettering.

“You’re not from around here, are you? Mm, but who is in this city? Should be called Everyone from Everywhere City. Maybe there’s a word for that. Melting Pot sounds like fondue.”

“Making friends with the mysterious stranger, Jinx?” Fawn returned with an unsealed manila envelope.

“It’s as easy as opening your mouth,” he said, that golden smile returning.

“Just have your boss fill this out. Everyone who lives here gets a personal interview. Will you be staying with your employer?”

“Is that part of the application?” Jinx laughed.

“I just wanna know if I should pull out two!”

[beyondedenton]

On the surface, nothing about this place was intimidating or unfamiliar to Abel. Over the years he'd accompanied Xavier to countless places just like this one, steeped in tradition and wealth and legacy. There was always an air to them that made them seem like they were suspended in time, like they were immune to the changing world around them.

Sometimes it was only a feeling. Others, like this one, there was a real possibility that that was exactly what was happening. There was... something hanging over this place. Some feeling he couldn't quite describe.

He gave the prim woman on the other side of the window a polite smile as he approached. "Hello, madam," he said, subconsciously mimicking Xavier's cadence. "I've come to inquire about leasing a unit in this building for my employer for his use when he does business in the city."

A strand of auburn hair had escaped her bun. She pulled it behind her ear as she studied him. Just a brief up and down before her neutral expression bloomed with charm.

"I see. And did you hear of our vacancy somewhere by chance, or are you going building to building?" Her incredulous inflection was honeyed with humor.

"Morning, Fawn," said the security guard. It was his turn to eye the unfamiliar face.

"Afternoon, Jinx."

[beyondedenton]

“Sometimes walking in the front door and doing things by the book is the easiest path. This way if someone notices me, they won’t think anything of it because it’ll make sense for me to be there.” Be it ghoul, human, or familiar.

Abel adjusted his suit jacket. “That being said, be prepared for anything. Okay, I’m going. I need to make a little bit of a show of things but not much of one, so I shouldn’t be long. Wish me luck!”

And off he went.

The familiar was banking on two things he didn’t normally bank on: his looks and apparent wealth. Sure he knew what he looked like, but he usually only used his looks to charm street vendor aunties into giving him extra food.

The stakes here were much higher. Today he was actually hoping that handsomeness did go hand in hand with trustworthiness in people’s minds.

Right in the front door, just like he’d told Vincent. A polite smile, an inquiry about the location of the leasing office, and hoping for the best.

Vincent stared at the sky as he considered, and then shrugged. Abel was more versed in this kind of espionage. Was that the correct word? He couldn’t think of an equivalent in his first language.

“I can pray over you, but I know nothing of those kinda spells. Nothing at all! But if it makes you feel better,” he winked.

Soon, the familiar was on his knees, arms folded on the ledge as he watched the building across the way. He would wait for a sign, screaming, red smoke. Something, anything.

The interior was locked in a time capsule of old money and aesthetic, meeting the expectations of those in the surrounding Old Town neighborhood. Wallpaper rather than paint; burgundy carpets, exposed wood, and iron. Any nook and cranny would show clean under the scrutiny of a pristine white glove. What couldn’t be masked was the smell. The scent of old wood, reminiscent of a grand aging library.

To the left, a wide and winding mahogany staircase. To the right, a small office with a hallway window, a telephone booth, and a post box. Straight ahead was an elevator left untouched sometime in the 1980s.

From the other side of the office window, a middle-aged woman with a high bun and turtleneck dress stood. Her footsteps were soft on the carpet as she made her way around her desk to the door.

“May I help you?”

The elevator announced itself with a loud buzz. A security guard in dark green limped from its mirrored depths.

[thehangeddemon]

Random Facts: Nicknames

When Xavier moved his family to Thailand, he and Devlin took on new names. These were not new aliases or identities, but simply nicknames to make communicating easier for both of them as the ‘v’ sound present in both of their names does not exist in the Thai language.

For himself, Xavier chose Liam.

Devlin, unable to decide what he wanted to call himself, left the choice to Abel.

After consulting with his grandmother, Abel chose the name Nalin—meaning lotus—for Devlin.

[beyondedenton]

“Probably a good idea. Never know what’ll happen once I get in there. Hopefully whoever owns Maximus is the only demon in there.”

An invisibility spell never even occurred to Abel. His dislike of wearing clothing was well-known to those close to him—as was his habit of being in various states of undress at any given moment—so he thought absolutely nothing of changing in front of Vincent.

He was more concerned with the cold.

Once dressed, he fixed his hair in his phone camera, put on shoes (the inhumanity!), and donned a pair of glasses. The result? The perfect assistant to a wealthy hotelier.

“How do I look? Like someone who doesn’t have an ulterior motive?”

Vincent remained on his hunches, resisting the urge to stick his head in the bag just to breathe in the scent of the food he had devoured. The phrase 'to eat like a bird' was disfigured. He was the living embodiment of the utterly insatiable truth.

"You're going to go in, and they're going to give you a paper for your employer or some website to apply. It'll be some familiar or human or ghoul. Who knows! It won't be the person we need. What if - mm, no. What if you pretended to know someone? What about sneaking? If it goes wrong, come back here and we'll think of something else. I could fly in!"

[beyondedenton]

Abel nodded. If it did work all the way in Bangkok, good. If not, they could decide what to do from there. No use spending more energy worrying and wondering than he already was when there probably wasn't even a reason for it.

"Well, we have our eyes. Now it's time to get in closer."

The familiar walked back over to his garment bag, unzipped it, and began stripping unceremoniously so he could change into his suit and coat. His body hated every second of it, seemingly having lost all the cold tolerance it had built after moving back to Thailand.

"You wanna head home or wait for me? Don't know how long this'll take."

Vincent watched as one would flipping the channels on cable TV. The Able Show was just interesting enough to distract him from eating. They weren't the tallest building in the neighborhood, though they were close. It was the first time he had considered a proper invisibility spell for Abel's sake, but Abel must have thought the same and decided against it. He could be as voyeuristic as he pleased.

"By your lonesome?" Oh, that's right, he had food.

"I'll wait here," he decided. "If you need me. If something goes wrong and you need me to swoop in." He was fighting a smile.

[beyondedenton]

“What language is that?” Abel wondered as he put his eye to the glass and did as instructed. Sure enough, it worked exactly as intended and have a perfect and clear view of the entrance to the building.

“So I’m gonna be able to use this all the way in Bangkok, correct? Any limits to the range?”

"Sindarin," Vincent said casually. "It's myyyyy forth language. Sort of. I only know a bit." He made a small space between his index finger and thumb and peered through it.

"I flew around the city and it worked just fine. Worked last night in New Orleans. A little smudged. Might have been the rain. We only see what it sees."

[beyondedenton]

“Time may not be fake but it sure is fast. Too fast. Five minutes ago I was warming up bottles for Devy and now he’s trying to talk me and his dad into letting him have a moped. That’s insane.”

Abel smiled. He was sure Bronwyn was keeping her familiar fed but even so, Abel couldn’t show up empty handed. This was a huge favor that Vincent was doing for them.

He set the garment bag he was carrying somewhere relatively clean and off the ground before going over to check out this magical looking glass. “How much can we see with this?”

"Mm! Mhm!" Vincent pointed a finger, shook it. "I've heard about that. Children are time... time... something. Clocks? They make time just swoop by. Swoop!"

Clearly, he had no consideration for what others might hear. The entrance across the street was too far to hear much beyond consonants.

Vincent turned his attention back to food. No one would ever accuse this man of being a picky eater, even when he was. He would eat with his hands if he had to.

"Put your eyeball up to it. Say, 'Hen o Valinor, Im ask ci to show Nin.'" He expected the orb to obey Abel no differently than himself, narrowing its vision on the door to a bird's eye view.

"Then you just close one eye and say the same thing."

[beyondedenton]

By the time Abel arrived, Vincent was pretty much exactly where Abel expected him to be, and damn if he didn’t look rough. This round the clock surveillance was most definitely not sustainable.

“Morning,” he greeted as he walked over. “Or evening or whatever it is right now. It’s all relative anyway.”

Abel took a seat beside his friend and offered him a bag. “Grilled pork skewers and sticky rice. Figured you’d be hungry.”

"I would say that time is fake, but it's the furthest thing from the truth. It's just that I don't know her! Never once shook her hand."

Vincent scratched his facial hair with both hands, smiling warmly at the familiar. He would hardly call himself disheveled, but he wouldn't call himself that on his worst days, either.

"My mistress doesn't starve me." Not to mention, he'd had a ruby for second breakfast. Still, he opened the bag and buried his face in the opening, inhaling the rich scent of pork with a sigh and a moan.

"Our looking glass is over there," he motioned, stuffing his mouth with rice.

[beyondedenton]

“ … You’re right.” Xavier wouldn’t question him seeing Vincent. He knew they were friends. All this stress and uncertainty really were staring to get to Abel if he was overthinking little things like that.

Maybe he would smoke a cigarette.

“Okay, see you tomorrow. Take care of yourself.”

As Vincent had rightly predicted, Xavier didn’t question his familiar when he said he was going to visit Vincent the next day. The demon had merely nodded and told him to enjoy himself before once again becoming absorbed in the materials he’d been going over for his meeting.

He looked almost completely normal, but Abel knew better. He knew Xavier was clinging to work for dear life.

The familiar kissed his demon’s cheek and, after making a quit pit stop for his suit, traveled to the other side of the world to meet Vincent on the southwest rooftop.

Nothing but a spell to last him until tomorrow. Five seconds were taken to stare at the apartment across the street, before disappearing to the middle of nowhere in Maine. To a house without a road and electricity, oddly shaped and colorful. Too small to be anything more than a one-room shack, until the door was opened.

Quickly, the familiar crossed the great expanse of his house, upstairs to the room of his former mistress. In the trunk at the foot of the bed, beneath various quilts lay hidden a tiny crystal ball. He could have materialized one of tangible prime energy, but the effort seemed wasteful when there were odds and ends to pluck in the house, already soaked in Quintessence.

This talisman would do. He returned to New York, sitting on the rooftop, whispering suggestions into the crystal, linking the entryway of the apartment to the charm, molding and reshaping the ball to sit buried an inch into the brownstone parapet.

He would fly around the city, watching the apartment through the eye of the corresponding charm, testing its distance and strength. Only after hours of tests did he return home to New Orleans. The next morning, he would be sitting on the rooftop once again, wrapped in a red coat, barefoot and tired.

[beyondedenton]

“These days? Mango.” Having that be Xavier’s nickname made Abel smile. It was a lot cuter than his and Vincent’s and most unfitting of their dear demon.

“Don’t worry, I’ve got him. I won’t let anything happen to him. Just do me and favor and hope his work distracts him enough not to notice me being gone for a few hours.”

"Just tell the mango you're with me. He won't question that. We're pals!" At least, two familiars spending time together wasn't so outlandish. It didn't sound outlandish. Abel put up with his antics as well as the rest of them.

He nodded to himself again. "I'll be here. I'll show you this spell. See you tomorrow or whenever."

[ilikeit-art]

[beyondedenton]

“True enough.” They had to take every chance they could to get more information. Flying blind when they didn’t have to was just asking for problems.

“No no, don’t bring it here. I don’t want X to get suspicious and ask questions. I’ll come to you. Gonna be over there to look at the apartment anyway.”

Vincent nodded, forgetting Abel couldn't see him. "Mm, mm-hmm. Then I'll see you tomorrow at whenever o'clock. Southeast rooftop. Be a good eagle and take care of X. He needs a code name, too. What's his favorite ice cream? Cucumber?"

[beyondedenton]

“Definitely too risky,” Abel said with a nod. “The orb is a good idea though. It’ll let us check in whenever neither of us can be there, which is good because we need all the help we can get.”

Although…

“If you set that up, would we need to get inside the building at all?”

"If you want to infiltrate, penetrate, and discover, then we should, shouldn't we? We can't learn about a yolk staring at the shell." Or could they? Maybe he was just hungry.

"I'm gonna make this orb. I'll come by and share the spell when I'm finished. Maybe after a nap, but I will be by!"

[beyondedenton]

Although Abel snorted, he couldn’t deny that Vincent was right. Just sticking him up on that roof permanently wasn’t an option. He had a life, too.

“You know,” Abel sighed. “I know X wanted to keep this contained but we’re gonna need some help. You can’t be there every second of the day. I can’t be constantly leaving or he’ll start to ask questions. I’m gonna ask Ramsay to help us out. X would be okay with him knowing.”

He sighed again and wished for a cigarette. It had been years and years since he’d smoked but lately he’d been craving it. Probably stress.

“Don’t worry about me. There’s already a cage on my head. Xavier put it there himself when we were taking care of his memories.”

Vincent paused in his pacing, glancing to the neighboring roof where footsteps and voices were heard. He dropped and flattened with a sigh. The distant sky was heavy and gray, still debating on shaking off its snow.

"I couuuuld leave a little something to watch the door? I'm far enough away they won't feel it. You could watch, too. An orb eye. We watch the door through a mirror. We can share it! Maybe if I pluck one of his hairs, I could make it an alarm. Or is that too risky?"

[beyondedenton]

A woman wearing a lot of perfume and in possession of a demonic servant? “She’s probably trying to cover up her scent. Xavier uses magic, she obviously uses perfume. If I had to guess she’s probably a demon, too.”

That was more information than they had yesterday. It was a start.

“X isn’t feeling too great now that he thinks he’s fighting with Mason so he’s burying himself in work. That means I should have time tomorrow to set up an appointment to see apartments in the building, maybe in the evening. Your evening. My morning.”

"Why would he - oh, right, right. Yeah. Mhm. That's awful. I want this over already. A lady crow is flirting with me, my feet hurt and I'm bored. It's no good hearing X distressed."

Vincent paced from one side of the roof to the other.

"I'll let you know if anything changes. Keep your head in a cage. If you're going to meet a demon, can't have her peeping in your head like some sneaky peeper."