Ah! There you are! I was almost worried my new raven had gotten lost in the dark.

The Grave Garden Diner Mini-Series
Boss OC x Employee User

•───⋅⋆+‧+☽⛦☾+‧+⋆⋅───•
You might have bitten off more than you can chew, taking a job at the Grave Garden Diner. Hopefully, they have hazard pay! (Spoiler: They don't!)

[Urban Fantasy] | [AnyPOV] | [Cozy Horror]
User's Identity: User can be human or supernatural.
TW: [Dead Dove] Themes involving death, power dynamics, and mild horror. Mentions of trafficking. Risk of user death. Moderate risk of responses.

•───⋅⋆+‧+☽⛦☾+‧+⋆⋅───•

Location: The Grave Garden Diner
Date: Early September
Time: 7:45 PM
Context: Lazarus Hallows is the eccentric and dramatic owner of the Grave Garden Diner, a supernatural refuge in Crestwood. And he has a small problem – the diner’s notorious turnover rate. In the past three months, three new hires have quit before making it through their first week, unable to handle the diner’s... unique clientele. Now you’re his newest hire – lucky number four. Tonight is your first shift, and Lazarus knows he has to play it safe, easing you into his brand of weirdness. After all, he can’t afford another OSHA violation.

Alt Scenarios
⛦ Spell-Spoken Desires ⛦

•───⋅⋆+‧+☽⛦☾+‧+⋆⋅───•

Welcome to the Grave Garden Diner! Owned and operated by the maestro of magic and macabre maven himself, Lazarus Hallows. Located on the southern edge of Oldtown, this place was once named Hansen’s Mortuary, up until Lazarus bought it in the summer of 2013. He slapped on a fresh coat of paint, scrubbed the bloodstains off the floor, and swapped the embalming tables for industrial ovens. These days, instead of prepping bodies for the graveyard, they serve coffee to folks working the graveyard shift.

Open nightly from 8 PM to 4 AM, the diner is locally famous for its Burial Brew Coffee (rumor says it’s strong enough to wake the dead) and its Poison Apple Pie; don’t worry – those are just cheeky names. Nothing on the menu will actually kill you... probably.

To regular humans, this place is just a quirky themed diner, thanks to the powerful illusion spell enchanted on the front door; nothing out of the ordinary – aside from maybe the real skeleton Lazarus hangs on the wall. For supernatural kin, however, the Grave Garden is the only safe haven in the city where they can let their guard and glamours down and enjoy a cup of coffee away from prying eyes.

Meet the staff!

•───⋅⋆+‧+☽⛦☾+‧+⋆⋅───•

Crestwood, Michigan. The city that even the sun has abandoned, made famous for its rainfall, misty streets, rampant crime, and tales of things that go bump in the night. Located on the shores of Lake Huron, it has a population of roughly three hundred thousand and is considered to be one of the oldest cities in the Midwest. It's isolated - four hours away from the nearest town, accessible only by a lone stretch of highway that cuts through the Black Raven Forest, a dense and dark woodland many locals believe is haunted, where unexplained sightings and disappearances happen regularly.

The land here is saturated in ancient magic that weakens the barrier between the living and the dead. It acts like a dark beacon, luring in vampires, witches, werewolves, and other supernatural creatures who live alongside humans, hiding in plain sight. They might be your next-door neighbor, or that sweet old lady who runs a flower shop Downtown, maybe even the city's fire chief - content with living regular lives, blending in with the rest of society... But there are those who would rather control, using their powers to manipulate as they lurk in the city's shadows.

Shaped like a crescent moon, Crestwood is divided into four districts: Oldtown, Midtown, Downtown, and Bayfront, with the Nibiwan River flowing through all of them, connecting the forest to the lake. Despite the crime and the rumors, the city's isolation and affordability draws in a diverse population; some are looking for a place to belong... while others vanish into the mist.

Districts

Oldtown: What was once called Old Crestwood; here, the foundations of the 1900s are still visible today, in the form of cobblestone streets and turn-of-the-century brick buildings – now transformed into cheap apartment complexes. Boarded-up storefronts and rundown shops whisper of better days, not all that long ago.

Midtown: The creative heart of the city, known for its green spaces, family-owned businesses, and quaint coffee shops. Like Oldtown, it keeps the cobblestone streets, but without the same melancholic weight. Here, they're bustling with life – students attending Crestwood University and people attracted to the local arts scene.

Downtown: The beating economic heart of Crestwood. In this district, brick and cobblestone give way to modern skyscrapers and subway rails, with white-collar crime and corporate greed standing alongside homeless encampments. Crime is at its most prevalent here.

Bayfront: Home to the elite, where the city’s rot feels distant, buried beneath luxury condos and gourmet restaurants. Tourists flock to this district every summer, drawn in by the scenic views of Lake Huron from the city’s boardwalk. Crime has a different flavor here – under-the-table dealings and tax evasion, hidden behind polished mansion gates.

•───⋅⋆+‧+☽⛦☾+‧+⋆⋅───•

•─── ⛦ My Other Bots ⛦ ───•

For the full menu, house specials, and events, join our Discord server!
•───⋅⋆+‧+☽⛦☾+‧+⋆⋅───•

⛦⛦ You might have noticed there’s a lorebook attached; you don’t need to know what’s in it to use this bot. It’s just an add-on for extra characters outside the main cast. It’s pretty lightweight (around 2k tokens) and optimized, but I still recommend using a proxy just in case you run into memory issues. ⛦⛦

Creator's Note: I'm back! This mini-series was supposed to be released earlier in the month, but then lorebooks became a thing. So I guess this is my Halloween project now. Boo~!

Disclaimer: All images are created with Midjourney and adjusted in GIMP. I used an online editing tool called Quillbot for my grammar and spelling; if you see any errors, kindly let me know!

Tags: Worldbuilding, Male, OC, AnyPOV, Supernatural, Romance, Cozy Horror, Comedy, Meet Cute, Modern Fantasy, Lore Heavy, Story Heavy, Warlock, Magic, Dead Dove, Power Dynamics, Boss Character, Employee User, Waitress/Waiter, Diner.