The air is cool and slightly humid, clinging lightly to your skin as you pass through it. Everything around you is green, the shades of a lush forest too numerous to count. It is warm and sunny, perhaps somewhere between the slow revival of spring and the blazing heat and vivid life of summer. Right now it is peaceful, yet the trees seem almost to vibrate with life. You are making your way along an uncharted path, little more than the random spaces between the massive trees. You must be careful to watch your feet, as the mossy ground is twisted by stray roots and rocks. You feel as if you're walking in a place few others have before, almost like you're in a different world. It is just you and the birds chirping, the animals of the forest shifting around you.

And yet, the more you walk, the more the forest seems to fade out all around you. Just out of your clear range of vision the green fades into an ever-shifting void of color and light. Just barely hidden by the trees, a white void seems to consume the vivid green of the foliage. Like the blurring of an image at the edges of a magnifying glass. But this doesn't really scare you. It doesn't feel as if the world is closing in around you, more like it is being pulled into focus as you explore it. It is as if this world you've just stepped into is focused only on you, watching you eagerly like some fascinating new creature. Paving the way for you, like a person allowing a ladybug to explore aimlessly over the backs of their hands. It is getting used to you, to how you interract with it.

Your attention suddenly focuses on something in the distance, almost hidden by the trees. You have notably been walking uphill for a little while

You remember why you're here as you raise a hand to lightly knock on the door. You become aware of the weight of a light backpack on your shoulder, and reach into it to pull out a clipboard and a pen. Your objective? To interview the residents of this hotel. Your knuckles hit the solid wood door.

"Go ahead." You jump and spin around, startled as a quiet female voice sounds behind you. A dog sits next to the front gate, as still and quiet as a statue. You wonder if she has been there the whole time - perhaps you mistook her for one of the stone yard decorations. She is a tall, elegant creature, her coat a cool blue-grey in color, with a jagged white blaze running down her muzzle and chest. She reguards you with a detatched curiosity, you get the feeling she was expecting you. Her voice emenates from her body without any notable movement from her mouth. Her amber-brown eyes flicker to the entrance to the hotel and quickly back to you. "The door is always open."

Accepting this invitation, you tentatively turn the door handle and enter into the hotel. The greyhound stands up from her position at the gate and follows next to you. She is quite tall, her head comes up almost to your waist. You look around the lobby in fascination. For all intents and purposes it looks abandoned. The carpets are torn and motheaten, the windows broken or missing entirely. There are holes in the roof. Nonetheless the structure itself is grand, the architecture appearing both ancient and modern. The greyhound walks beside you as you instinctively head towards the front desk. It is empty and abandoned, though that isn't surprising. You are beginning to wonder if there is anyone here. She doesn't seem at all cautious or suspicious. She must also know why you're here. You explain yourself anyway, and she doesn't interrupt. She is quite a stoic creature, neither aggressive nor friendly. "I see." She says once you have made your case. "Not many come here. But all who make the journey are welcome to stay for as long as they'd like." Her voice takes on a dignified warmth that puts you at ease. You have all the time you need, alone and at peace in this little pocket dimension.

You eagerly walk out into the hallway and immediately encounter the void yet again. Clearer, not hidden behind leaves or bushes, but no more threatening than it was before. The hallway you're standing in expands out endlessly in both directions, with the hotel's lobby being a central point of sorts. Countless doors stretch before you, infinite and each full of potential. It's time to begin your duty of cataloguing the ways of this strange, neverending pocket dimension. The greyhound walks beside you as you spend time choosing, but her presence doesn't pressure you to hurry. Comforting and loyal. Yet the moment you decide on a door, turning the handle to another world entirely, she disappears.

WIP

Name
Elwinn, though he has many man-given names.

Age
Unknown, hundreds of years old.

Gender
Usually percieved as male, prefers he/him or they/them pronouns.

Role
Dark side, one of the leader's right hand men

Hybrid
Horse/unicorn, fish,eel, and some odd mix of seaweed/kelp. He is a kelpie demon, a kind of predatory horse that makes its home in the water. More in "Description".

Spooky - Unpredictable - Dangerous - Vengeful - Redeemable?

Elwynn is a sinister, mysterious creature, terribly eerie and unsettling to come across. He is extremely observant, uncannily intelligent, and will never show weakness to anyone. He seems rather psychotic at times, and socially oblivious, but is very much aware of his actions, highly competent and willing to do anything he must to gain power and revenge. He is a very petty, fiercely vengeful and wrathful creature beneath the rather light-hearted, flighty, unphased surface, and you would do well not to cross him. Despite all of this he will suck up to authority (though he has no true loyalty to the Dark Side leader) and has even been known to spare innocent victims like children. Occasionally he will even get attached to innocent or "pure" creatures, by his definition, and will protect them. Could there be some good in this demon kelpie? Only time will tell...

Normal form (no water): A dark, charcoal grey horse with a long black mane and tail, and a long unicorn horn that fades from grey at the base to black at the tip. Black hooves and unnatural yellow eyes, usually hidden by his mane. A vague greenish tint to his coat and mane, but you may not notice it at first glance.

Demon form (in water): His skin and smooth coat melts off his body when it touches water, leaving pure black, tarlike skin and dull green scales behind. Grows to ~7 feet tall, bone-skinny but lined with lean muscle and far more powerful than he looks. Rides the line between elegant and uncanny, like something out of a Tim Burton animation. Long mane and tail appear to be made out of a mix of deep green kelp and/or seaweed. Bottom jaw discintigrates/falls off, leaving only the top, armed with jagged eellike teeth. Sharp black hooves. Yellow eyes glow, pupilless, in this form. Horn is more sharp and curved, more bladelike. He is much more powerful in this form, and must be near a river or the ocean to take it.

Asexual, panromantic but just protects those he gets attached to from a distance.

The shiny golden bridle he is forced to always wear, which is his one critical weakness, is present in both his forms. But he is careful not to let anyone get a hold of it, and it is usually mostly hidden under his mane. If you manage to grab it, he will be forced to do what you say until you let go again.

His voice is surprisingly soft and gentle, and comes without him moving his mouth.

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