BROKEN SOUL - First Day

James would have been lying if he said he didn't find his first day at the Happy Hotel interesting. What happened? Well…

James found himself in a endless black landscape when he opened his eyes, frowning deeply. "Anyone here?" He then blinked. "Wait, where am I? I know I fell asleep. But this is definitely not normal." He felt a bit of heat build up next to his left leg, and looking at it, he saw SR form slowly. He patted his guardian spirit on the head, smiling slightly before a dull light formed in front of his very eyes in the shape of a flame. "What the f-"

"Hi. I'm David. I'm one of your victims." The so-called David began, causing James to stare in confusion. "And I'm saaaad-"

"Oh, Jesus." James facepalmed, feeling like this was some kind of prank from the Big Man Upstairs. It took 3 days inside of the weird plane, before James somehow managed to help David with his sadness. In return, David swore to help him instead of being antagonistic. James stared at the spot where the flame-like soul was, before his vision dulled slowly and he was forced out.

When they woke up in the real world, SR and James shared a look, swearing to each other to not speak of this strange incident to each other ever again. It was best to forget what happened. James walked out of his room after getting ready for another day, thinking he was ready to handle anything that Hell threw at him.

He was not, however, ready for the other resident "customer" of the Hotel; Angel Dust.

He got to the bar, thankfully the place had one (though it seemed a bit… counterproductive in his opinion). The moment he did, he found a weird spider-like demon seemingly flirting with another demon, a cat-like demon with wings. He didn't see Charlie around, so she might have been busy with work related to the Hotel. James tried to stay away from the spider demon, wondering what was taking so long for SR to get out of her room (though she was a lazy guardian sometimes), before the spider demon switched his attention to the new arrival. "Well, well, what do we have here?" The spider smiled, getting uncomfortably close to James. "You look awfully human, bucko. Whatcha doing in this place?"

"Rehabilitation." Was James' blunt response, with the Shifter Demon boredly staring into the spider's eyes, as if he was looking into their very soul. Angel Dust was a bit put off from that, but he kept going regardless, annoying James to no end.

"Rehab? That's so dumb!~" Angel Dust wrapped an arm around James' shoulders, using another arm to wiggle a finger under his chin. "Why bother, you're in Hell! You're surrounded by bad influences, and I can practically smell the blood on you! It's faint, but still there bucko!"

James silently glared at Angel Dust, realizing who he was after a few seconds. He despised the porn industry and anyone related to them. "Get off of me, now." James hissed, releasing enough targeted and concentrated killing intent that it would make people like Alastor take a step back. Thankfully, images of dying repeatedly in a plethora of ways was enough to make Angel Dust back off from James. "I am so getting a restraining order on you."

"You can't escape me here, really. You'll see me a lot in some rehab sessions or some shit." Angel Dust shrugged, finally getting over being threatened by James. The Soul Demon's left eye twitched, he was going to regret listening to SR if he had to deal with Angel Dust's… eccentricities. He looked at the cat-demon, who seemed to be drinking some cheap booze. He sighed boredly, laying his head on the bar, until he saw a cup slide in front of his face. He looked at the cat, who shrugged at him, before returning to his booze. James picked up the cup, taking the shot of liquor down in one go.

'Not as good as getting high on coffee, in my opinion, but it'll do for now.' James sighed to himself. Now he was in the mood for what humans would consider a coffee overdose, though to him it was nothing. He got up, nodding to the cat in thanks for the drink to start his day, and the cat simply nodded back.

It was at this time Charlie decided to stroll in, accompanied by another female demon. She was gray skinned with white/light-pink hair, and a large pink bow accompanied in it. Her visible eye was yellow with pink sclerae, and she had an interesting sense of fashion to say the least. James raised an eyebrow, curious as to who this was.

Charlie noticed James after a few seconds, getting excited, and grabbing the new demon's arm to gain her attention. James had to tune in his lupine senses to hear what was being said. "See that guy, Vaggie?! That's our newest patient!" 'Vaggie' seemed to be suspicious of him, her lone eye staring at him relentlessly, as if daring him to step out of line. James had to admit he admired how this demoness had enough guts to glare at him like that.

Regardless, James decided to go over and talk with his… landladies? Doctors? He didn't know what to call them. Instead, he decided to just wave casually like he wasn't a potentially dangerous nigh-omnicidal psychopath. "Hello again, uh... Charlie!" He doubted he'd get used to calling the Princess of Hell herself such an informal name. "Who's this?"

"Oh, well this is Vaggie! She's my manager!" Charlie's smile never left her face, and honestly, James couldn't help but smile slightly as well.

"Well, it's nice to meet you, Vaggie. Hopefully we can grow to be good friends." James politely bowed, making Vaggie a little uncomfortable. She motioned for him to get up, as she nodded silently, not speaking to him but that was enough for James to know he made an impression on her. Good or bad, he didn't know yet. "So, Charlie, what's-"

James was immediately interrupted by an explosion outside the Hotel, with James looking out the window and seeing someone he didn't expect to see again. Sir Pentious, the Over-Edgelord. This would be amusing, maybe "protecting" the Hotel could get him on everyone here's good side. He casually strode out the door, with the other inhabitants looking out said door and seeing Sir Pentious well and with a new machine prepared. James immediately tuned out the snake demon's rant/speech about how "great" he was and all that jazz, before he saw a laser be shot at the Hotel.

James narrowed his eyes, and in a burst of inhuman — practically ungodly speeds, he was easily moving faster than light itself at that moment, draining his stamina slightly to do so, but he was easily strong enough to knock the laser away from the Hotel. He then howled, shifting into his demon form (not his True one though, Pentious didn't deserve that honor), and increased his size with his shapeshifting. He drew his fist back and punched Sir Pentious' machine, knocking them into the air and destroying the machine. James didn't rest until he saw the machine disappear from sight, before shifting back to his normal form and size. He turned back to the others, who looked either morbidly interested (probably because of his powers), shocked (again, same reason as before), or just plain terrified.

James smiled, if these were the expressions he could get from using his powers to help these people, he wouldn't mind doing it more. That and he felt… something inside of him after saving the Hotel from that laser. He didn't know what it was, per se, but… he didn't hate it. It was actually quite refreshing.

_LINE BREAK_

Again, in the Heavens above, the golden-haired Angel from before was watching the Hell below him again. He was happy that James was slowly, but clearly learning how to be a better person. One day in and he was already developing positive emotions! This was good, this was very good. "Keep it up brother. Soon, you'll be home with us. I'm sure mother would be proud of your progress too." The Angel then left, possibly to go talk with his father.