A young man, dressed entirely in shades of grey, approached the home of Abby Normal on one particularly grey afternoon. That last bit was entirely coincidental, probably.

When he arrived at the door, he removed a hammer and nail from his belt, along with a black piece of paper, and nailed the paper to the door. Upon it in bright red ink was a schedule of sorts. It was a rather lengthy list of family names, along with addresses, and dates accompanied by times. With the 'schedule' was a postscript.

Abby,
I know you've probably got a few.. Reservations, about working with me during this 'shift'. Too bad! This list is all the upcoming parties I've got for the month. Come to whichever ones you'd like, it's YOUR money. If you've got any questions, just stick them on a piece of paper and stick that paper on the nail. Someone'll pick it up and bring it to me. Great work, by the way. You're a hit!
See you eventually,
Skid

It was night, but, Abby was Abby tonight. No Fairy Goth Mother, no friend in need, no nothing.

Just the sad, weird little woman she was.

And sad summed it up, tonight. She sat in the window of her apartment, dressed in loose skirts for a change. She'd done her laundery, paid Maggie a visit, but Maggie had work to do, and she'd tried to entice anyone into some conversation at the bar. No luck.

Abby sat, melancholy and homesickness descended upon her with gusto. She cried softly into her freud doll, and was missing Jamie, her crazy roomie from the asylum. Oh, Jamie would have loved it here. She was always going on about alternate dimensions and planes of existence. Poor thing, turns out all those paranoid delusions weren't delusions...all that sh*t really was happening.

With a sigh, Abby stared out the window at the people going by, and wished for someone to come. She wished for someone to acknowledge her, and she wished for the stories and voices in her head to sort themselves out and get themselves written down somewhere. It was the only way she could free herself from the others she felt were in her head.

As she sat, head on her knee, she swore she saw Jamie's face appear in her skirts, and so, with no one else to talk to, she spoke to the image of her dead friend.

http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff152/VinylValentine/sssadgirl.jpg

It was the very next day that the Jester arrived outside Abby's very own door himself. He knocked, waited, waited, and waited until an unbearable three seconds passed.

Once they had, he simply ceased to exist outside of the door, and began to exist inside of it. "Ugh, far too long to wait. Bother.. ABBY!!!! I've got a present that doubles as work for youuu!!!" He carried with him a rather bulky and massive package, wrapped in several layers of bubble wrap and... For some reason... Xmas gift-wrapping papers.

Aside from that, he had two burlap sacks tied together at the tops slung over one shoulder. But those can be discussed later.

He set the bottom, obsidian and flat and without coverings, upon the ground in the least bothersome place he could find. Unfortunately for anyone with a sense of 'convenient placings for gigantic objects', that location happened to be in the middle of everything. Literally. The dead center of the place, from what he could tell.

And then he waited for her to enter the room, as expectant as though she should've foreseen his visit through some untold psychic power. He did tend to make a lot of assumptions, maybe that was one of them.

He blinked and gave a sniff as the door opened. He snickered quietly to himself at the smell and allowed his arms to fold loosely before him as he watched her approach.

Having no sense of personal space, he didn't bother to warn her that she was about to crash into him. He'd probably have let her do just that, if she hadn't stop/jump/yelped. When she did, he looked her over and snickered with wild abandon. "Well hello yourself! Getting all squeaky-clean?" He followed his question up with a good snicker.

He continued speaking, almost immediately afterwards, as though it were a rhetorical question. "I've brought you a little something to help you with work. But I thought you might appreciate the decorative aspects of it as well, so I added a little flair." He pushed forward the massive wrapped object with one hand, though it was probably too heavy for a Human to move.

He grinned, twisting at the mask's fabric slightly, before he motioned for her to open it. He thought of what her reaction would be to the 3' scrying orb, set upon the massive obsidian base. It was sculpted, or chiseled, or magically shaped, something ridiculous like that. At any rate, it was as gothic as he could get it. Aside from that, it didn't really matter with the enchantment the Jester had worked out for it. That would be the best part. When Abby touched it, the base would alter in design and style depending on her mood.

He'd been trying to think of something to give the spell a practical use, and Abby was doing far better than even he had expected. "Think of it as a gift, more than something to research job sites with, huh?" He kept thinking about all the parties still lined up. Ouch, the next was for a Lich... Had he been meaning to give her a raise? He couldn't remember... Perhaps.

He watched her open it, deciding that the Xmas wrappings were a good idea with a somewhat appreciative grin. He let himself get a little swept up into the happiness of the moment, and snickered as the base shifted forms.

When she came flying towards him, he braced himself and gave her a nice, wet hug in return to her bone-crusher. He let himself be danced around the room, and him weighing all of a quarter's weight allowed him to simply lift his legs and be waltzed throughout the place.

Once she'd gone to the ground to look at it more closely, he took a few steps forward, talons clacking against the flooring as he did so. He leaned over her, looking into it with his one visible eye, the swirling vortex of red and gold split by the slit of a black pupil, and snickered. "If you'd like to. It's more for seeing what kinds of houses and setups our clients have, but I didn't set any parental controls, so go nuts!"

He snickered again, and thought on the Lich who'd apparently acquired an appetite for parties over the years. The orb swirled and filled with a white smoke. When it took on colors and solidified into a miniature, three-dimensional image of its keep, he let out a satisfied 'hmph' sort of sound. The image moved around the outer areas of the massive, sprawling estate, and eventually into and throughout it. Once the mini-tour was completed, the smokes grew white again and dissipated.

Skid looked down, and poked at the top of Abby's head. "Just think of who or what you'd like to see, and you can see it in two or three dimensions! Just don't try to catch me bathing. Unless you really want to, that is. I don't really mind." He snickered in a slightly silly way, before rising up and looking it over again.

"Any other questions? If not, I've got a client to interview. A Demon who's itching to celebrate Cinco De Mayo. Who'da thunk it? You could come, if you'd like." And with that, he looked her over again and allowed his arms to fold loosely before him.

He snickered to himself as she came out, hopping, and gave her a wink when she asked about the bath. "Of course! You can watch whatever you'd like! If it just so happens to boost my ego, all the better!" He watched as she got up, snickering all the while, and when she took his arm he let a slight grin win out and tug at the mask's fabric.

"Well he's a lesser Demon. I mean leeeesser. But, of course, among regular old Humans he's a god. And he got rich, and used to the good life, and thinks himself quite the charmer. You're going to like his place though, very dark and pointy-looking." By now, they'd already stepped out into the daylight, and were heading towards a strange magical transport at the end of the street.

It looked vaguely like a monorail car, but it hovered in-place two feet above the ground and had no door. The windows were there, though, and gave a glimpse of the rather comfortable-looking interior. Everything in there was black leathers and velvets. When the pair reached the side, the Jester leaned over to whisper into Abby's ear.

"And from what I've heard, he's got a bit of a schoolboy crush on the Fairy Goth Mother. So, turn on the charm and we may just find ourselves pulling home more than expected!" When he pulled his head back up, he said something in what was quite obviously Abyssal, or the tongue of the Demons. A rectangle of dark light appeared on the transport's side, and allowed them to step in via the set of stairs in the slab of stone that folded out.

Skid gestured for Abby to go first, ever the gentleman, or maybe just to make a perverted joke along the climb up the stairs. One could never tell.

The Jester's eye followed Abby up the steps, snickering as she held her skirt down and giving a convincing sigh as she got to the top. The comedy (or was it?) accomplished, he reached the top step in one leap. As he did so, he settled into the interior of the vehicle and sat himself directly across from Abby.

When she spoke, and asked her questions, he snickered beyond even his usual means.

After she was finished, and he recovered, he spoke. "Yes, he likes the Goth Mother. Yes, flirting would be a big plus to an egocentric Demon like this guy. Most Demons that live outside the Abyss don't require souls for sustenance. The car is his, but I can use it as I'd like. That brings me all the way back to your second comment. You've met a Demon before." He snickered again, and continued without further comment on that bit. "As for my schedule, I bathe around three in the morning. But the real show is in the morning-mornings. I exercise in the buff, save the mask of course, for a good couple of hours."

He snickered a bit then, and smirked. Did he ever take that mask off?

The vehicle had actually been speeding along while he'd been speaking. They'd left the city proper, and were now moving along a dusty trade route a few feet above the ground. In the far distance, the silhouette of one hell of a mansion/palace/wtfsizedhouse stood out above the tree-line.

"You ever been inside a house big enough to fit two hundred houses inside it?" He grinned, and waited.

The house was a sight beyond comprehension. It was a true testament to the nature and ego of the stereotypical lesser Demon.

Black everywhere, interspersed with dull and incredibly dark reds and silvers. Points, spikes, and arches all over the place. Wicked-looking gargoyles littered the edges of the roof, likely enchanted to life (or possibly actual, living gargoyles) and standing watch over the grounds. A deadly-looking fountain in the main driveway gave the place its final touches.

Skid's eye widened slightly as Abby, relocated, and he couldn't even suppress a snicker and a smirk. Innocence of course. Innocence! He watched her excitement with an entirely amused gaze, the reddish-gold eye flickering with laughter as he did so, and the smirk pulled at the fabric of the mask as she got ready to flirt.

Her second relocation dimmed the smirk in the slightest of ways, but it blossomed across the mask again as she questioned what it was she could do to provide entertainment at this party. "Well, we're going to find out in a few moments. Strip teases may not be out of the question, judging by the guest list. You're going to meet a lot of new supernatural beings, at this one. And not the usual types."

The vehicle, meanwhile, had come to a stop before the sprawling estate's main house. A man stood outside. Or, something that looked to be a man. A massively muscular creature stood next to him, holding a ridiculously large black parasol. The creature looked to be something between a wolf and a snake. Its body structure and digits looked to be exactly as an anthropomorphic wolf's, but his furless skin was black and smooth, like a snake's.

Under the parasol stood the Demon. His midnight black hair resting carelessly at his shoulders, and his purely black eyes setting his face in a regal sort of handsomeness, set his painfully pale skin out starkly. His clothing was the finest designers could create, and all in dark reds and blacks.

The vehicle opened up, and Skid exited first. He moved down the stairs one by one and embraced the Demon after a curt interchange of words in Abyssal. Or, for Abby, in an unintelligible and confusing tongue that made them both sound like they were about to fight. The looks on their faces, though, suggested otherwise. Skid turned then, head out to the side as he spoke to the Demon. "Wait 'til you see her in person." The Demon grinned in a deviously charming way, and spoke in his smooth-as-a-knife-through-butter voice. "I can only imagine what a pleasure it shall be."

And they waited for her to exit. Almost like a debut.

((Feel free to control the super-suave demon!))

A smirk masked the Jester, as he walked ahead of Abby and the Demon. In fact, should anyone have been paying any special attention to him, a bit of a purposeful need was carried along with him. A very, difficult to read sort of need. It was with this that he almost altogether disappeared into the beastly manor he appeared to know better than he'd let on to.

The Demon, however, took Abby's hand in his own. Not in a hand-holding kind of way, but in the way a noble might lead a lady. The smirk he wore was quite different from the Jester's, and his ashen face seemed to wear it well. "Oh no, I am the honored one, dearest Abby. I caught a glimpse of you at one of Skid's parties, and from that moment forward, I knew I simply had to have you." The beastly creature that held the parasol over its master's head shifted its grip on the haft, and the covering grew large enough to shade Abby, as well. "We cannot have skin as flawless as that come under the scrutiny of something as unforgiving as the sun, can we?" Oh yes, he turned up all his flattering for this meeting.

He led her towards the house, and into the massive hall that served as nothing more than an entryway into his humble abode. It was a sight.

A sight that, oddly enough, was devoid of Skid. Though, there did seem to be a feeling lingering that he'd passed by recently.

The Demon simply smiled and bowed his head slightly. "Master Skid had asked me upon your arrival if he could, how did he put it, 'tear my kitchen apart?' I do believe that was his phrasing. Old Abyssal is so very difficult to translate." He then tipped his head back up, and let out a perfectly manicured laugh. "But should you ask me, I would dare guess him a touch jealous. His retreat was a bit hasty, was it not?" There went that laugh again. A perfect brow quirked at her query, and nodded once. "Take the main stairwell up, until you reach the second floor, and look to your immediate right. You should find yourself facing one. Take your time, for I have an eternity in which to wait."

Well, Skid wasn't anywhere near the kitchen. In fact, he'd been quite curiously inspecting a few rooms he hadn't been allowed in during his initial tour. That being completed, and him making it within earshot by the time the Demon had dubbed him "jealous," he paused to hold back a wave of laughter. A pair of clawed fingers came to rest heavily upon a masked temple, and he cut a detour. He sat himself down on the top of the stairs, and finally let himself revisit the memory of the Demon's suggestion. It was then that he let the waves of laughter wash over him. Once they'd subsided, he took to looking down on the entry hall.

The Demon was still smiling a rather morbid smile when the laughter rang out, to hich he merely allowed both brows to raise in unison. "It appears as though he has already found himself entertainment. How quaint." The massive, beastly servant must've taken that as his shift ending, or something of the nature. He shook out his massive head, fell to all-fours, and began to pad off through the house as its body shifted to accommodate its new posturing in a painful-sounding way. By the time it rounded a corner, it was almost perfectly a massive, wolf. It was simply covered in a smooth, black, leather-like skin.

The Jester watched and sat. He was almost entirely amused. And besides, it was time to see if Abby thought he was drawn enough into her to cough up extra...