Copper Key Cafe: Chilly Autumn Afternoon

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[Lunderly]

The ivory haired lass watched as the newcomer took to the two others who'd decided to visit the building. Her eyes dropped to the floor momentarily. It was an odd thing, having so few memories left to sort. She'd have smirked had she not gotten a glance of Tyeal stalking out of the cafe. Before she could inquire she heard a voice call out that old, familiar name.

The woman turned to Dreamer, one of the few people she could actually identify and smiled.

"I'm sorry... Key was lost to the Void. I think I'm... all that remains.That, and the shell that I had to rip myself from to break free and return here. You, though. You're Dreamer. You must have met with this... part of Key when the cafe was..."

The lady twisted, gesturing her arms to their surroundings.

"When this place was still functioning. When it had a purpose. How long ago was this? Where has everyone gone? I know that there were more people here. They were residents. What happened?"

[shadow_dreamer]

Dreamer heard Tyeal yell, a small smirk as she could hear she got under his skin just a little. Something her predecessor had taught her was always remaining calm even when people wanted to tear in to you. The infamous black dragon that stalked the tavern to kill purely for fun. Dreamer was never exactly like Trygon, but he taught her enough to use against others when she was doing her own work.

There was something that stirred inside of the elven man, he seemed like he was in some sort of internal distress. Dreamer's brows rose, she looked much like a curious scientist, perplexed and interested in her new findings. He was not just an innocent eleven warrior and the more she wondered the more she would save it for later to dissect him. While her first instinct was to stalk after him and find out what made him tick, she instead heard Key speaking to her in a confused haze.

The demon returned the smile, "Guess most of us old people are."

Her voice grew soft and matter-of-fact, she shrugged, "At least you're back here, right?...I did. I didn't get to know the 'other' Key for long though. I was trying to find an escape for a bit and ended up here by accident. Figured, maybe I could help those in here since I seemed taken by Key."

Key began asking more questions, some she knew she couldn't answer. Dreamer's face seemed more monotone as she was recalling Sanya yelling at her. She closed her eyes for just a second and then reopened them to look upon her old friend.

"It really was a lovely place, reminded me of a classic inn, or an English house." She paused, "I couldn't tell you all of the patrons names, I only knew you, and one other girl, Sanya. The last time I was here you were healing someone, I was suppose to keep Sanya inside but-- Sanya didn't look kindly on my kind and thought I was responsible for the person you were healing. After that..You blacked out and I took you upstairs and laid you down." Dreamer pursed her lips and looked to the side for a moment, sensing more shadows near the entrance.

"I didn't return after that." So she couldn't tell her what happened to her. Nor could anyone else in here. "I wish I could tell you.." Dreamer herself had gone through transformation, her body ripped open by another, her memories wiped, she felt empathy for Key's distorted lapse in time, her lost memories.

[Lunderly]

Even in the dimly lit confines of the cafe it was easy to trace the growing distance across Dreamer's gaze. Without meaning to, the ivory haired lady had hit some sort of nerve in the demoness. She looked onto the uneven, unpolished floorboards beneath their feet and soaked up what little information she could retain. It was still so hard to concentrate. Although Tyeal's tea had done wonders to bring back her waning strength, it could do very little against the damage the Void had inflicted on her psyche.

And what... What Vendredi had done to her soul. That man.

Those slender fingers trembled. She bit her lip hard and tasted fresh blood. The elven-eared lass fought back the weight of her arm. That sudden yearning to reach out and hold onto Dreamer. The only being she knew she had a connection to. At least, for certain. It was strange, how very small and weak this frail body of her own seemed. Memories be damned, she needed to get on stable ground. Mentally. Emotionally.

"I'm sorry that-" Her voice broke. At this rate, she wouldn't manage to hold back the twisted, wretched knot of emotions bundled inside her. "Thank you for telling me all that you know. Dreamer. And for, for helping me so long ago. I'm sorry that Sanya-"

The name carried weight on her lips. Why? She shook off the feeling.

"That you had to go through something Key could have prevented. Thank you for helping us as you did. And... Thank you for coming back. If there's anything I can do to repay you for what you've done, even giving me the answers you've given me now, please don't ever hestitate to ask."

[Aceir]

Tyeal moved sluggishly his clawed feet ripping up dirt as he moved along, his tail thrashed the ground around him as he moved. All the shadows around him from animals, plants, rocks it didn't matter they all condensed on his own like a pitch black oil stain leading deep into the abyss. His senses heightened to that of an apex predator, the sounds of the groundshifting, mice scurrying to get away from him, creatures of all shapes and sizes ran to get as far from Tyeal as possible.

A deer moved suddenly in his eyes, it flinched seeing him but by then it was to late. A spike appeared under it impaling it between the eyes, then the spike disappeared dropping the dead animal onto the ground. A shadow tendril from his own oily shadow hooked onto the deer and dragged it behind Tyeal as he continued to walk back to the cafe. His shadow went about sending hundreds upon hundreds of little mice like balls of darkness that scurried about gathering herbs and spices that grew naturally around the area. The little shadows carried back these packages and deposited them into his dark shadow that swallowed the contents of their packages.

Tyeal shadows did this instincutally, he had remembered the Momoji Hakubi was hungry and figured that everyone else was as well. Better to grab the contents now then later, finally the deer was dragged down into the shadow. Larger shadows looking like imps went about hacking apart a dried oak and dried birch; oak for long burning fire, birch for a fast burning. These split pieces of wood were also moved down into the shadow, he didn't really require food anymore in this form but eating had its pleasures.

Tyeal was finally infront of the cafe, he heard people talking inside, he continued his advance his movements made no sound. The inns shadow outside was pulled free being absorbed into his own deepening the shadow, as he came to the entrance the shadows of the door way pulled free as well as the hallways. Tyeal forced his wings back inside his body as well as his tail, he stepped inside. The room didn't change except for all the darkness was now being sucked into him. He let everyone continue their talks and moved past them all like a wraith into the kitchen, the kitchens darkness peeled away as he observed the room.

Suddenly the little balls of darkness proceeded back to work, running about wiping dust from the surfaces of the room placing herbs and spices to dry in cabinets. A corner of the room was cleared and a dark spot on the ceiling dropped the deer which got suspended from a shadow hook letting the deer bleed dry. Tyeal using the wood from earlier started a fire to prepare to cook, his shadows like arms grabbed pans and started dicing/crushing thespices and herbs. The shadows then cleaned the deer immediatly, the cleaning process toke not even a second giving meat to Tyeal that he began to cook immediatly.

A pinch of pepper, a dash of salt. Lemon pepper to get rid of the game, the meat sizzled as it cooked filling the kitchen with a delicious aroma. Tyeal let his shadows go about the mundane task of cleaning and repairing the kitchen. Some began to spill out of the kitchen and began to work on the bar and dining area, wiping dust, repairing chairs and tables; cleaning deep muck from the ground that had been there for god knows how long. Any mice in the building fled at the little balls of shadow that killed them on site. Other shadow balls found a bottle of Jack Daniels and delivered it infront of Leo, with a freshly cleaned cup.

[shadow_dreamer]

The Copper Key

Dreamer watched as she struggled to gain her thoughts.

The demon shook her head after hearing Key try to apologize for Sanya freaking out. Finally she wandered over to her, closer she keeled down in front of her. One of Dreamer's hands rested on Key's knee. The demon was slowly starting to get dry from the rainy weather, her long locks had kinked in places, giving her hair a more wavy look thank normal. Light hit one side of Dreamer's face, revealing smaller scars along her neck and shoulder. A small smile emitted from her.

"I would do it again if it helped. You can not control the actions or beliefs of others. You didn't train Sanya to hate demons, you didn't tell her to attack me. Key-" She tried to remember this person was currently referring to Key in third person, "Key knew Sanya would have a melt down, sure, but I was prepared for that. My job is not always pretty." A small grin crossed her face, revealing multiple sharp teeth along her mouth.

Behind her, behind all of them she could tell someone was working in the darkness. The sweet aroma of meat filled the air. The only person not present was Tyeal, he must have come back fully. The man was still a mystery to her, she was unsure if he could trust him at all now. Instinct made her weary of people, especially those out-rightly judgemental.

For now, she remained at Key's side, hoping she would understand this wasn't her fault.

"Do you remember anything?" She asked soothingly.

[Aceir]

((Grabs a defibrillator))

It had taken Tyeal a long time to rebuild the Copper Key, his utter dominance over the darkness allowed him to find and recreate what had once been the "Original" Copper Key Cafe. He leaned against a cherry wood bar carefully built by Tyeal's own hands as he set about the task of refurbishing and rebuilding the cafe. A small ball of darkness looking similar to a ball of soot rolled up onto the bar staring at Tyeal with white and black eyes, Tyeal with a white gloved hand stroked the ball. He was originally here on a contract with the owner of the cafe, but ever since everyone seemed to vanish he decided that his best course of action was to remain here until they had returned. Reading many books he recreated a uniform of sorts a butlers outfit he had read. Instead of wearing his band of sealing Tyeal had instead made an eye-patch to devour the latent demonic energy coursing throughout his body.

Tyeal ducked his head under the bar and grabbed a bottle of Cardhu, an amber liquid called whiskey. The effects of alcohol never affected him like most mortals he had met in this world, losing their balance, getting in fights of no apparent reasoning. Things of this nature bothered Tyeal as how anyone could allow themselves to be controlled by the drink. Grabbing a polished glass cup he poured a small glass of the whiskey and made his way to the door, he flipped the closed sign to the now open sign. Then returned to sipping on his whiskey and wiping down the totally clean surfaces of the room.

He didn't think anyone would likely show up to this cafe on the first day of opening a very unlikely thing that would be in his opinion. Tyeal spotted his dreaded combatant for the last untold period of time he had been here, a single minuscule dust bunny tumbled about by edge of the couch. Tyeal squinted his dark eyes at the creature, "Vile beast where have you come from now?!" he said as he stalked over to the location of the tiny dust bunny that seemed to shrink in fear even though it wasn't alive at his approach. "I have slaved for days to rid this building of your species of dust but yet.. here you are before me. Taunting me like you are some bully on a playground! He carefully knelt and picked up the dust bunny, a large ball of darkness rolled up beside Tyeal, he looked at the ball and as if in response a gaping maw of row upon row of razor sharp teeth had appeared. Tyeal tossed the dust bunny into the balls open maw and allowed it to continue its duties of hunting and killing mice. Tyeal simply returned back to his place behind the bar and began polishing glasses waiting for new arrivals.

[Lunderly]

((Howdy, folks! Pumping blood back into this place now that I have moved, gotten work out of the way, and have a stable connection. I may only reply a few times a week at first, but it will only get better from there. Is anyone still subbed to the place?

I'm debating starting up where we left off, or simply skipping time. I'm going to wait until Wednesday to make a final decision. Unless I get some favorable replies before then.))

[Lunderly]

(Since Aceir made a lovely post last October, I'm going to have us start off in the condition he left the cafe in. It's a perfect place to continue on from and I don't feel that any time skip from his work is necessary. If anyone from before Aceir's time skip needs help or ideas jumping back in, feel free to message me! gaia_kittenstar )

Day gave way to night in a magnificent array of colors, cast over the blustery clouds high above the Copper Key Cafe. With the building's slow transition back to its mighty pastel hues, the old inn was starting to look rather appealing high atop its hill in the Azure Plains. Indeed, for new tenants (and old) had retaken the structure for their own. And one such soul, a woman with long strands of ivory hair and emerald eyes, sat comfortably along the swing on the veranda.

Her feet crossed before her, book leveled between her knees, and she leaned forward in black vest and shorts, with a white shirt tucked in. Fine, but strange attire for someone in the middle of nowhere. But who was the narrator to judge magical characters and fashion sense? Tucking a stray hair behind her pointed ear, the woman flipped the page of her book next and slunk lower into her own lap.

"The....aeverys.... And functional... Hm... And then... I suppose that makes sense." Prodding her pouting bottom lip, she continued to pour over the work, paused, and then squinted her eyes. "Need to take a break."

[Aceir]

Tyeal had only reopened the cafe not too long ago but still, people had no signs of reappearing to this wonderful place. The Cafe was a source to prevent Tyeal's constant wondering he had always done for thousands of years. It was nice in this manner for him for he never seemed to know when the next time he would wake up would be and what era he would now be in. Tyeal belonged to a very ancient and long-extinct race called the Moon Elves but due to experimentation he was now demon-kin and served only one person now. Due to this person, he had rebuilt her home and restored it how it had once been and dedicated his life to protecting her.

As he made his way down stairs dead set on the familiar presence of the person outside he had changed into a nice tuxedo without the coat only wearing a nice chocolate vest with a matching bowtie. His ivory skin seemed to shrink away at invading light but Tyeal was ancient and had learned to ignore the uncomfortable disturbance of light. His sclera or the whites had once been white like everyone else's but were now jet black with the Iris now being a complete milk white seemingly penetrating the shadows. He snapped his fingers at the bottom of the staircase and the shadows began the tedious task of cleaning the entire cafe once again. Then he proceeded to move out the front door and smiled as he saw a very familiar face.

"My master finally returns it seems." He said his voice drifting over the elf sitting in the swing, "I've been waiting diligently for your return!" He laughed happy to see she was unharmed for if she was killed under his contract he would have to kill himself as well.

The Copper Key

[Lunderly]

Aceir

Those lovely green eyes peeked up from the lady's lap as the front door opened wide. Sudden tension gave way to a nervous grin, before the flood of adrenaline that consumed her only moments ago melted completely and she, too, was chuckling. The previous occupant and owner of the Copper Key Cafe leaned back and gave her head a little shake.

"You weren't kidding when you said you were sworn to my side, huh? It was... Tyeal. Yes? Thank you for watching over the place in my absence. I- I've been a very rude host. And far from a decent master. I owe you an apology. I'm sorry."

Slipping off her seat, she dropped the book back against the cushions and stepped the distance between them.

"It was you, wasn't it? You built this place back up to its former glory? It's breathtaking. Better than it was when Key first-" She stopped, shifting gears. "You've done a spectacular job. And you certainly look the part of a regal caretaker. It suits you! Were you waiting here all this time?"

[Lunderly]

Months had come and gone and memories had risen from a grave set in the far depths of a mind that had wandered roads and walked paths far less traveled. The lady with ivory locks and green eyes sat in front of the fireplace to in the complex that was once her home. Her's and many, many others. She stared into the flames before tossing a stick in, listening to the faint crackle and pop. She grinned, then, and stood, stretching long, limber arms and fingers high overhead.

The world had gone mad. Or, rather, her own had. The one that resided in her own brain. Even after so much time had passed, she still shuddered when an inkling of her past took shape, or some residual memory took hold as she prodded through the kitchen. Ghosts resided there. Those only she could see, could almost smell and taste. And for that very reason, she seldom stayed cooped up in the complex for long.

But now? Now she did. It was time to pick up where she'd left off, and find old relics of a former life once again. Demons had to be confronted eventually.

She paused along the doorframe to the cozy cottage and stared out and onto the long stretch of road. Somehow, in one way or another, she'd find what she was looking for. She only hoped it didn't kill what little of herself she'd had left.

[Autumn Painted Parasols]

It'd been so, so long since a corporeal form was a requirement to enter into a plane. And yet tangible existence meant so, so much to some. To others...

Well...

To others, it meant very little. And yet, standing before the relic of a minor manor was a bemused woman with delightfully pink hair and tinged violet tips. Her eager gaze peeked out just above a face guard, candidly plastered with a full row of sharpened mandibles. Her arms rested at her sides, layered in silky black linen that loosely formed over her palms. And an all too short skirt rustled against kindly shapened hips and black tights.

"Tick Tock Tick Tock Tick Tock- Brrrrrrrrrrr!!!" A loose tongue beneath the mask uttered short, clunky syllables. And black, pooling eyes made their way on down and over the doorframe.

"Enough time. Time to collect. Debts need payment."

[Spooky Mittens]

Stranger In Red: Out in the Prism Forest

The realm was still. Animals had long since fled, and the songbirds had flown for warmer accommodations. Nary a breeze graced the path ahead. Everything was quiet, save for the soft treading of boots on a path. The soft ground gave hollow thumps with each step taken, muffled by the density of brush such that only the one making the noise was likely to hear it.

He was a man, slightly above average in height. His hair was a bright red hue, cut short and messy. His body was clad in leathery reds and blacks. His jacket had the look of an officer's coat, but it had been altered to a point that it would be impossible to recognize what organization it came from. Black gloves shrouded the figure's hands, which dangled beside two gun-metal cylinders hanging from the man's waist.

He came to the edge of the forest and the sun finally hit his flat grey eyes. He lifted his left hand to shield his face as he peered across the way to the only structure in sight. A quaint cottage, shrouded by a corona of nostalgia. He felt a kind of emotion from this place, a familiarity that brought him a sense of calmness - though he had never before seen this place. Was it the architecture? Or perhaps the scenery? Or was there some kind of spell cast upon its foundation to ease a traveler's woes? There was no way for the Stranger to tell but he felt compelled by it.

He started off towards the cottage with a lackadaisical stroll. The stranger in red was in no rush.

[Lunderly]

Having made her rounds throughout the household, capturing dust mites and memories into a neat pile along the polished floorboards, the lady with white locks perked a pointed ear. The small group of chimes resting next to the hearth let loose a brisk, poignant tune. And, just like that, the unfelt breeze was gone and the melody came to a halt. Standing at attention, those green eyes peered out towards the porch.

Company.

Removing the apron from her skirts, the keeper of the cottage flicked her thumb and middle finger. Snap! The pile she'd condensed was gone. Her hand raised high into the air. The embers roared to life and flames blossomed forth in the fireplace. She smiled, rather pleased with herself, and adjusted the vase sitting on a table nearby.

"Well. It's time to get back to work, then. This quiet was much too dour to last."

[Autumn Painted Parasols]

Slipping slopes, wandering ever closer and still so far away. It would take time to learn to walk again. To step foot on solid ground as mortals did, waltzing on physical soil. Tedious! Tiring! But true to her resolve, Prismere set her feet down and onto the absolutely, horribly hardened ground beneath her.

Yes. Beneath her. Everything was beneath her!

But a deal was a deal and she wouldn't dare break it. And Prismere cast her thoughts to the far corners of her noggin and step by careful step, made her way up and along the winding path to the house on top of the hill. Winter had surely killed what charm the place might have had. But someone was trying, however vainly, to maintain the place. Her feet kicked against the first wooden step. Then she ascended and hopped twice on the porch. Solid. So it wasn't going to instantly break beneath her, no? Shaking her head, Prismere carefully drew her bleak hand out from the depths of her sleeve and rapped against the doorway.

"Hallo! Anyone in dere?"