House of Crazies

Work, Work, Work

"The Cellar Dweller club called. They said you left a molotov in the liquor room" spoke Mrs. Prisker, the Mad House's requisite landlady, in her usual grouchy and accusatory tone.

"Pfft, so I left them a little parting gift. Big whoop. As long as they went up in fireworks" Looney responded as lackadaisically as possible, pretty much passing the incident off as nothing more than kicking over a bin. "Well, now that we have your part out of the way and a potential lawsuit to worry about, I need to talk to you about your Ratstock problem" Mrs. Prisker said dryly "It's pretty much a maelstrom all around Pentagram City every time you two bump into each other and there's plenty of other clubs and all other business pricks looking to crawl up all our asses"

"Ha! So what? You're saying I should miss out the day when one of us wins in our everlasting fight to the death? No sir-fucking-ree! If one of us goes out, it's gotta be with a bang, sister!" Looney cackled, earning a groan from Mrs. Prisker, who was about to say something before a short came from the other room.

"PRISKER!"

"Ugh, what now?" the landlady rat grumbled as Novis stormed in, all sorts of pissed off. "Alright, what'd you do with it?!" he snarled. "Excuse me?!" she shot back "Do with what?!"

Looney just sat back as chaos threatened to erupt. "You know what! I told you to pick it up when you went to town and it's not here!" Looney raised an eyebrow and a smirk at that. "This is getting interesting" he thought as the rat and the fly continued to argue. "I bought it as you said and I didn't do a single thing to it!" Mrs. Prisker yelled back, to which Novis shouted "Then where the hell's my conditioner?! If I don't use it each month, I break out in bristles!"

While this was going on, it was business as usual at the club. Wendice and Bob were seated at the bar while Oxtie served them their drinks, pretty much stuck on bar duty since her boyfriend was busy shouting at the landlady. "Another one of those days, innit?" she asked absentmindedly, which was followed by a "Oh yeah" from Wendice and a "Yep" from Bob, the latter pulling out a cigarette.

Wendice took notice and, pretty bored with the muffled arguing in the other room, asked "You ever stop smoking?" She frankly didn't mind either way, as long as there was something to talk about. "Nope" replied Bob, quick and monotone as usual. Bob wasn't exactly a conversationalist, usually speaking in small sentences or just words. Oxtie decided to join in. "When'd you start smoking?" she asked as she poured herself a drink. "After Vietnam" he said dryly.

Wendice figured this was the case. When Looney introduced her and the goon for the first time, they talked about their pasts a little bit and Bob being in Vietnam was part of the conversation. Oxtie was about to ask about that topic when the buzzer sounded, meaning someone was at the door. They quickly guessed who it was and Bob stood up to press the button to open the door.

Stepping through the entry hallway and into sight was the club's sponsor and the Necro Demon himself, Zyrus, and his assistant Kerwin, both looking smug and nervous respectively. And for obvious reasons.

Zyrus always kept his sinister grin, which just added to his already unnerving appearance. At first glance, he may not have seemed like much. When he died, he was one of the rare demons to actually stay in human form, albeit with paler skin, sharp teeth and green eyes. But somehow, the gentleman look he had retained sent shivers into whoever gazed upon him, apart from certain people.

Kerwin was much smaller than his boss, but that was mainly due to his hunched posture. While most demons were certainly scared of the Necro Demon, Kerwin was TERRIFIED of him. And not without very good reason. He was practically a victim of the overlord's sadistic torment; more of a punching bag than an assistant, some would say.