forum Inexplicably High, Inexplicably Low // dark mystery // oxo // closed

Started August 02, 2020 by @LittleRiver local_movies

tune

They say there’s a motel off in the middle of nowhere. And, when I say nowhere, I mean it.
It’s on the side of a mountain, surrounded by the tallest evergreens I’ve ever seen. Somehow, you can only find it at night.
It’s some kind of gross magic, if you ask me. How the broken neon sign pierces through the fog, even though it flickers off and on. How the 30’s style jukebox still shines its rainbow colors to some Elvis Presley album, even when no coins enter its slot at all. How, somehow, the moon is always full, and there’s always only a few rooms open at a time— even though no one ever seems to leave or enter.
And, most of all, how it will trap you in… and never let you leave.
I’ve heard it only shows up to those who get lost on the old mountain roads. When your truck breaks down, conveniently just a mile away from this motel. When your radio turns to static, the fog rolls in, and all you can see is the faint neon sign.
Then, there are those who say it’s an urban legend, to keep people from driving the roads at night. Frankly, I don’t believe them. I don’t believe them, because all of their stories are wrong.
How do I know?
Well…
My name is Hitchpike. I’m some sort of hellish devil from the eastern circle.
And, I’m the owner of this motel.
So drop in, stay a while. It’s not like you’ll be leaving anytime soon.
Welcome, my child…
To the Inexplicable Inn.

Welcome, newest member of the motel! This is basically an rp where your character gets lost, finds the inn, and then stuff goes down. I’d probably rate it MA, because this will no doubt have some dark themes. Also, feel free to suggest a secondary genre. Want romance? Done. Want sci-fi? We could make it work. Post-apocalyptic? Totally. Bring your creativity!

Small rules:

• Be relatively active pls :3
• Rated whatever is fine (for language, actions, etc) / whatever you’re comfortable with
• 3+ sentences, pls
• GrAMmaR
• No controlling someone else’s character
• We can chill in pm’s if we need to
• No OP pls. Or maybe yes OP. Depends

I’ll get temps up once someone joins.

Full Name:
Nicknames/Aliases:
Age:
Gender:
Occupation:

Personality:
Mannerisms:
Hobbies:

Physical Appearance: (links are welcome :)
Normal Attire / Gear:

Backstory:
Family:
Other:

Full Name: Hitchpike (last name unknown)
Nicknames/Aliases: Hitch(y) / Pike
Age: 23
Gender: Male h/h
Occupation: the keeper of the Inexplicable Inn

Personality: Devious and tricky, Hitch is. He’s a total jester, loving everything jokes, sarcasm, and humor. He likes to play with people, and loves seeing them off their guard. Very flirtatious and speaks in fluent slang and sarcasm. He has a very defensive outside demeanor, but underneath, he is essentially a glass cannon. Hitch gets angered easily, and is not very difficult to break. He often needs time to himself, and is relatively vulnerable, if anyone takes the time to notice. Although, he switches in instants, and though he is unstable, he’s also extremely bold and impulsive.
Mannerisms: Speaks very elegantly. He always carries himself high, and acts extremely confident. He walks swiftly, all of his movements as graceful as if they were made underwater.
Hobbies: Music / running the inn / playing with people’s sanity / socializing

Physical Appearance: Hitch has both a demonic form and a human form. His demon form is grotesque and quite odd, his skin turning to a pure white and his pupils dilating to fill his entire eyes. He grows horns atop his head and about a four foot long tail, everything a pale powdery alabaster. His hands extend out into claw-like fingers, as do his feet, but he keeps mainly the same body shape.
As a human, Hitch looks something like this or this. Hitch stands at about 6’0” and is quite lanky. He has a crooked yet charming smile, a dimple on only one side of his face. His eyes are a deep brown and his hair is a rusted dirty blonde. He has scars around his body but wears them proudly, one of the most prominent ones being a cut down the left side of his mouth. It spans from his bottom lip down to his chin.
Normal Attire / Gear: He’s actually quite formal, wearing a white collared shirt, always a supremely colorful bow-tie, and black slacks with black suspenders. This normally fits him while he’s a demon as well, with the acception of his tail, because his body does not change size. He is also often seen wearing some kind of weirdly retro sunglasses.

Backstory: Honestly… still trying to figure this out. I’ll leave it tbd for now.
Family: None, except for a small goblin-looking man by the name of Thames. He’s not actually blood-family, more of Hitch’s associate, but Hitch still loves him like a brother any day.
Other: tbd.

Full Name: Cadium Bishop
Nicknames/Aliases: Cad
Age: 19
Gender: Male he/him
Occupation: Student/Amateur Photographer
Personality: Curious and easygoing. He’s a pretty reserved, introspective guy. Despite being somewhat introverted, he’s very easy to make friends with and is known to be very reliable. His real pitfall is his curiosity. “Curiousity killed the cat” has never been so applicable to a person. He really can’t help nosing around in other people’s business and sneaking around places he probably shouldn’t be if only to satisfy his need for information. Because of that he can come off a bit prying as he tends to ask more questions than what is considered polite. His curiosity can make him reckless at times.
Mannerisms: Quite fidgety all the time. Alway tapping on something, eyes darting around. He speaks somewhat fast but his inflections are very clear so he’s not very hard to understand.
Hobbies: Photography as well as playing the keyboard
Physical Appearance: 5’10, pretty average sturdy build. Fair skin and cool grey/brown hair. Very expressive eyebrows. One of his eyes is dark brown, the other is a bronze/rust color. His ears are pierced but he almost exclusively wears plain silver studs. He usually wears a slight smirk and his brow is often furrowed. Kind of an idea
Normal Attire / Gear: Usually just jeans and a graphic tee. He also wears an old letterman’s jacket with a bunch of pins on it, a pair of black hiking boots, and his camera bag. He gets a pin for the jacket every time he goes somewhere with a gift shop so he has about thirty pins currently.
Backstory: He had a pretty normal upbringing until his older brother Isaac died during some experiment he was participating in. There was a lot of missing information around his death so he and his parents never really got closure. He ended up going to the same college and studying photography, and meeting some of Isaac’s friends now in their senior year. They also wouldn’t really talk about what had happened to him but they gave him an old pen that used to be Isaac’s and that he now carries around with him everywhere.
Family: His late brother and his parents
Other: TBD

_{(So sorry, writer’s block hit me like a truck. Here we go!)}

Hitchpike roamed the floors, dress shoes tapping lightly on the floorboards. To any untrained eye, the boards looked completely furnished and normal, perfectly polished. However, if you looked any closer, some swore they waved beneath your feet, and split on cue, sometimes people seeing things through the cracks. Pike didn’t seem to mind, walking gracefully among the front lobby.
The broken neon sign from right outside the front window cast an eerie purple glow upon Hitch, his eyes growing fully black for a second until the lights flickered back on, and off yet again. There was no breeze indoors, yet the hanging light seemed to swing for no reason at all. A barrage of colors stemmed from his right, the jukebox still succeeding at its job of spitting old 50’s tunes. The man found himself humming along to the melodies, even swinging back and forth as he continued his pacing.
“I’ve never seen you this excited,” a gruff voice muttered from behind the front counter. The speech was only interrupted by a chair scraping across the floor, as a small goblin began to mount it at its station, so he could actually see above the desk. “What is new tonight?”
“Why, can’t you feel it Thames?” Hitch replied, glancing whistfully out the window. “I just have a wonderful notion that tonight will bring grand visitors. What do you think?”
The small goblin replied in a voice that sounded about as smooth as rocks in a blender. “I do not understand your senses, Hitchpike.”
“You’ll just have to see, then, Thamey-boy,” Pike replied, a joyous smile spread across his face. “I have a great feeling about tonight.”

It was just his luck when his motorbike stopped in the middle of nowhere. Cad spent a good half-hour trying to start it up again but it was no use. He had even kicked it several times which didn't help the bike but it had improved his mood greatly.
Eventually, he started walking it down the road as every road had to lead somewhere. Plodding along, the quiet night air quickly became boring so he put in earbuds and continued. It was strange. There had been cars driving along the road before but now it seemed deserted. At least he didn't have to worry about being run over.
The road narrowed and Cad tried his phone. No service and his battery was frighteningly low. He cursed himself for not being smart enough to charge it ahead of time but to be fair he hadn't expected to be walking a dark road alone at night, with only the wind and whatever lived among the trees to accompany him.
Just as Viva La Vida started playing in his headphones something shined through the trees. He stopped and tried to see exactly where the light was coming from but it was obscured by the trees. He walked down the road a few more feet and a path branched off into the trees and towards the light. Where there was light, there would be people.
A little ways down the path the building came into view. It appeared to be a motel or an inn. He silently wondered why the hell it would be here, in the middle of nowhere and the answer creeped into the back of his mind. For people like you, lost and alone with no hope
Parking his bike outside, he opened the door and found himself in a surprisingly nice lobby. "I think I'll be needing a room for the night," He croaked.

Hitchpike watched from where he was as a smaller human walked into the motel lobby, and instantly, his smile grew wider. Yes. This one was… perfect.
Pike then stepped into view, bowing in front of the new figure. Once upright again, his bright caramel eyes danced across the boy’s features, almost as if sizing him up.
“Ah, hello!” Hitch cooed in the most melodic voice he could muster. He stepped aside, so he was covering up Thames from the boy’s view. Yes, right now, Hitch wanted to be the center of attention.
“I am Hitchpike, runner of this inn,” he purred, clasping his hands behind his back and puffing out his chest, keeping his eyes locked on the boy. “And of course! We can get you a room. What might your name be?”
With the last question, Hitch stepped forward, his smile twisting up into some kind of sultry grin. He offered a hand for the boy to shake, tilting his head with the fluid motion.

Cad returned the smile uneasily and accepted the handshake. The owner, Hitchpike, his voice was very pleasing but slightly unnerving.
“Cadium Bishop,” he replied. “But that’s a bit of a mouthful so please call me Cad.” He tilted his head to look at the man at the front desk. Although he wasn’t quite sure that it was in fact a man. Maybe he was tired and his visions was getting blurry but he seemed…off. He shook his head.
“Apologies for arriving so late. My motorcycle broke down about a mile down the road. I’m glad that you’re still accepting guests at this time of the night.” That, at least, was genuine.

“Cadium?” Hitch replied thoughtfully. “I like that. Oh, and yes, we always accept guests. Twenty-four seven, if that’s the phrase..”
He trailed his last words, having them at more of an inaudible mumble. Once he pulled from the handshake, he intertwined his hands behind his back again, turning around with his head held high and walking forward.
“Thames!” Pike called, even though the goblin-folk was close enough to hear his whisper. “Give me a key for room 307, please.”
“Room 307?” Thames asked back, his yellow eyes widening in just the slightest. “Sir, you—“
“The key, Thames?” Hitch cut off, voice harsher. The goblin obliged, scratching off a small card behind the counter, fiddling through a few silver keys until he found a golden one. He held it tentatively up to Hitch, his boney hand miniscule in comparison to the man’s.
“Thank you,” Pike replied, his voice suddenly smooth yet again. He then motioned back to Cad, beginning to stride forward again out the back door of the lobby. “Right this way, Mister Bishop!”

Cad watched the exchange in silent confusion and a little bit of awe. The man behind the desk was awfully small and he could’ve sworn his eyes were yellow. Maybe it was just the light?
Cad had seen no small amount of weird stuff and met no shortage of strange people but the last five minutes had to be some of the weirdest.
He trailed behind Hitchpike out of the Lobby. “I appreciate the formality but, really, you can just call me Cad.” Being called Mister Bishop made him feel old. He hasn’t heard it since his brother’s funeral. He shuddered at the thought.
“Hitchpike is quite a fascinating name. Is it your given name or simply a nickname? And what’s so special about room 307? The…man at the desk, Thames, seemed confused when you asked for the key.” Cad knew he was prying a bit to much but his curiosity shown through his confusion.
(I am going to sleep now. I’ll try to keep up but I’m at camp all day tomorrow/)

_{(Alright, don’t worry! Take all the time you need)}

Hitch turned around, walking backward out of the door to the backlit street, which seemed oddly urban to be considering the forest surrounding it. The rooms stretched out in somewhat of a rectangle, leaving the large courtyard in the middle they were walking through now. The doors were on the inside, facing them, whereas balconies dotted the outer side. There were walkways among the motel rooms, little stairs leading up to each of the three floors.
“Ah, I can’t remember if it’s given or a nickname. I guess I… earned it pretty early on,” Pike replied absently. “And room 307? It’s not something you need to worry about. Thames is just an interestingly uneasy lad. Not the best people-person. Yet, he does his job well, if you ask me. Working behind the scenes to keep this inn up-and-running is much less than an easy task!”

“I bet.” He hasn’t expected the Inn to be so well up kept. It looked at lot bigger than he had initially observed and yet everything look untouched, deserted even.
“Do you really get a lot of guests out here?” Cad figures it might be hard to see the sign from the road if you weren’t literally walking along it. “Perhaps you should invest in a bigger sign. You would certainly get more customers.”

“Oh, no, we get plenty,” he purred happily, still striding along, moving to the side and up the stairs. “They’re mostly odd folk, I’d say, so if you strike up any conversation I wouldn’t take anything they say seriously.”
As if on cue, a low guttural scream cut through the courtyard, but the jukebox— which was still in the lobby— somehow seemed to almost overpower it. The scream was slightly muffled, and would probably only be audible to someone paying very close attention.
“And, I believe the sign serves its purpose. You saw it, did you not?”

Cad thought on this a minute as he followed Hitchpike up the stairs. “I guess I did. It’s very good of you to service all the way out here. The upkeep must be Hell on earth.”
He thought he had heard something coming from the courtyard but it wasn’t noticeable enough to concern him. Especially when there were so many interesting thing to focus on otherwise.
“When you say odd folk…what does that consist of?”

(Ah so sorry I was gone for forever!)

“I think Hell on earth is a… wonderful term for it,” he said with a mocking mumble. He continued walking, the sound of his dress shoes giving a slight echo through the open hall. From the overhang ceiling hung a wind chime that looked uncannily carved from bone. But, perhaps it was just failed upkeep of ivory. Maybe it was painted wood. No one would know unless they touched it— except for Hitch, of course. He knew everything there was to know about the motel.
“And the odd folk we get… well, I’d call them travelers more. They…. they just seem off to me, you know? All of them are lost, more or less. They come seeking comforting shelter. When that’s what I offer, they don’t necessarily take me up on it. But…. they all come around eventually.”
He abruptly stopped in front of a room— the room 307. He opened the door with the key he had been given by Thames, smiling as it swung open.
The room was surprisingly in great shape. It was warm toned, the lights holding a slight yellow tint. The room was filled with more antique-looking furniture, the dark wood bed-frame weathered but still in working shape.
“Here you are!” Hitchpike said, pressing the key into Cadium’s palm. “Let me know if you need anything, yes?”

Cad flipped the key in his hand. He was in fact lost and seeking shelter so perhaps this was exactly where he belonged. The room looked comfortable enough and he wasn't in the place to ask for anything more so it seemed time to turn in.
"I will, thank you," He said, not meeting Hitchpike's eyes. His smile still unnerved Cad although he wouldn't be so rude as to reveal it.

“Ah, good man,” Hitch replied, already turning for the door. His shadow, cast upon the wall by the dim overhead light, seemed to have a few more… appendages than his true form— but only for a second, before they flickered away with the faulty electricity.
He stopped in the doorway, and perhaps it was just shadow, but it almost looked like each one of his teeth held a sharp edge, his smile seemingly more gruesome and mocking. His eyes nearly glowed as he gave Cad one last smirk.
“Sleep well, love,” Hitch purred, voice tinted with a breathy laugh. “And, I’m so sorry, but we’ve recently gotten some… noise complaints from some of the members. If you hear anything odd, just… do try to ignore it, hm? It would be much appreciated.”
Without another word, the man stepped out of frame, the door shutting gently behind him.