At first, there was no answer. Shokua and Mullen exchanged an uneasy glance. They snapped their attention back as the door finally swung open, creaking ominously on unoiled hinges. One black-skinned figure, ears laid flat against his head, leaned out of the shadows into the dubious light of the outdoors, and raked the both of them with his feline-like gaze. "Hello," he all but purred, and fell silent without asking any questions.

He was obviously a daemon of some sort... a biped, cat-like, with a black pelt, white paws and tail tip, longer, dark bangs drooping over golden eyes in a disquietingly human face. Shoky, instantly on the alert for any magic thievery, responded, "Hi! My name is Shokua Vallum, and this is my bond, Tom Mullen. I wonder if you could help us." The daemon gave a little grin, but said nothing. Shoky pressed onward, "you see, my old teleportation spell broke down on us a few miles up the trail... do you have a spare we might use."

The cat-boy, ignoring the dragon's hurried words, gave Mullen another look over. "You're wet." He said simply, and this time there really was a purring rumble to his voice.

Mullen blinked, looked at Shoky, and then looked back at the daemon. "Yes," he replied, just as simply (if a lot more anxiously), "it's raining."

"Yes," Shoky added, hoping to give the black-furred daemon a hint.

The creature let a dark grin spread over his face, slitting his eyes. "Yes...." he echoed, in that strange, throaty voice, "I think that perhaps you both better... come inside." He backed into the darkness cast by the doors, gesturing for the pair to enter.

Mullen's hand seeked his new bond's, apparently of its own accord. "Oh Shoky," he whispered, "I don't like the looks of this... what kind of place is this?"

The Dragon snorted, though held his hand none the less. "Oh, it's probably some kind of hunting lodge for rich weirdoes."

"...Oh," Mullen murmured forlornly. Weirdos meant daemons, and daemons usually meant trouble...

Once their eyes had adjusted, the pair found the cat boy waiting impatiently at the other end of the front hall, glaring at the both of them. "This way," he rumbled, turning and flicking his long, slightly floofed tail behind him. Mullen and Shoky moved forward a few steps, looking around with wide eyes. The front hall itself was peculiar enough... odd relics of some other time and place were gathered on dusty shelves, not a few of which looked a little sinister.

Faint music drifted on the old, musty air, muffled by walls. "Are you having a party?" Mullen asked, hoping that maybe this place wasn't the insane-murderer's hide-away that he was beginning to imagine it was.

"...You've arrived on a very special night," the cat-boy (...he was wearing nothing but a long loin-cloth, and he walked in such a way that made them think he would be more comfortable in nothing at all) said by way of answer. "It's one of the mistress' affairs." He grinned that grin again, a sharp tooth showing behind delicate black lips.

"You're lucky, she's lucky, I'm lucky... we're all lucky!" The bonded pair jumped in surprise as a high pitched voice broke in from above and behind them, accompanied by an even shriller laugh. Mullen and Shoky turned about to see another boy leaning haphazardly over a banister, grinning at the pair of them like a loon beneath his heavy, black makeup. He slid down the railing, dropped to a decidedly graceful stop just behind them, and gave the pair of them a leer. Mullen looked at him, then at the cat boy, and then back... they had the exact same face, though this new person seemed altogether more human.

"Is that typical human garb?" Shoky whispered to her new bond, giving the boy a rather disturbed stare.

"Um...." was all that Mullen could say in reply. No? The human-ish boy was dressed in nothing but a tight, lace-up vest, underwear (unfortunately, just as tight looking) and elbow-length gloves, all of which were dark as midnight. A pair of fishnets reached up most of his legs--old and ragged--clipped to the rest of his... costume via garter straps. He moved gracefully on a pair of black high-heels. He passed the pair of them on Shoky's side, and blew her a mocking kiss from darkly painted lips.

From somewhere, the couple could hear bells chiming... a clock? Mullen squeezed Shoky's hand as the cat-boy suddenly threw them that Look. Apparently the blonde human wasn't the only one to be gripped by the need to sing! "It's astounding..." the black-furred boy announced, stroking the exit of the hallway with one paw, "time is fleeting. Madness," he gave the pair of them a sultry look, "takes its toll. But.. listen closely,"

"Not for very much longer," the fishnet-clad boy interrupted, then received a glare from his near identical partner. "I've got to... keep control." The cat-boy tossed his head, sending the long strands of his black bangs briefly out of place before they fell back over his eyes. His smile was back again. "I remember... doing the time-warp... drinking those moments when..."

He spoke with definitive pauses, each of which had the bonded pair leaning a little forward. What next? They took a few steps forward, following (even if it felt like a poor decision), to follow the odd pair. Cat-boy had turned a corner, and put his paws on a pair of elaborate door handles "The darkness would hit me," he continued, and the second boy chimed in with him, "and he void would be calling..."

He threw the doors open, and suddenly warm, bright light, and high pitched, alien-sounding music assaulted the bonded pair's senses. A barrage of voices burst into chorus: "Let's do the time-warp again!"

Mullen and Shoky stood at the entrance of what looked like a banquet hall, gaping at the assortment of daemons gathered before and a little below them. Most of them were wearing gaudy masks and other costumes, all of them appeared to be doing some kind of dance.

"What the hell?" the human murmured.

"Maybe they're talking about some teleportation spell..." Shoky suggested, though she sounded rather dazed and doubtful.

"It's just a jump to the left," Asuka, from her high vantage point, explains.

The daemons gathered in the hall chanted, as if on cue "And then a step to the riiight!"

From her den, Asuka stands, places her sheet-white hands over her volumous robes, and continues in a bleak voice, "With your hands on you hips..."

"You bring your knees in tight!" The daemons continue, as if responding to the Goddess' words. "But it's the pelvic thrust," (and here the poor bonded pair just stared on in dismay), "that really drives you insane! Let's do the time-warp again!"

"Some kind of teleportation spell," Mullen muttered to the dragon, as they watched the daemons continue with their strange dance.

The humanesque boy that had accompanied them from the front hall strutted past them, not down the steps, but across the side wall. He seemed lost in the movement of the daemons, maybe lost in his own world. "It's so dreamy," he sang, eyes half-lidded as he paused by one of the pillars, "oh fantasy free me. So you can't see me, no... not at all." He shivered. "In another dimension, with voyeuristic intentions... secluded, I see all."

"This is getting very strange," Shoky watched as the high-heeled boy and the black-furred butler-type launched into another round of verse.

"No kidding," her human replied, before their attention was dragged back by a sharp voice.

A dark-skinned human had appeared out of the writhing mass of daemons--he, too, looked like the previous two human-types. What the hell? ...At least he was dressed somewhat more decently. Somewhat. His hair--longer then the other two and hanging just above his shoulders--was smothered with a sequined top-hat that looked like it should fall off at any moment. His tight muscle shirt clung over his skin and the top of his equally tight leather pants, and the whole ensemble was finished off by a pair of sequin-bright tap shoes and cane. He was fancy-stepping it over towards Mullen and Shoky, who felt more apprehensive by the moment. "Well I was walking down the street, just having a think," he sang, voice cutting through the music like a hot knife, "when this snake of a gal gave me an evil wink! She shook me up, she took me by surprise, she had a magic wagon and devil's eyes! She stared at me and I felt a change! Time meant nothing, never would again!"

The daemons burst into chorus again, while the pair of newcomers watched, uncomfortable, from the top of the short flight of steps. It seemed as if everyone were working themselves into a frenzy--and indeed, after a few more steps, hops, and pelvic thrusts, the room fell silent as every single daemon fell to the ground and lay there, quite still.