Board Thread:Role Plays/@comment-5999656-20170521035143/@comment-25389303-20170601204852

The sound of Zanipher's laughter brought a small smile to Diaboli's troubled face, and before he knew it he was laughing softly as well.

"Yeah, you're not wrong," he replied, just as the doors to the elevator opened, to which Diaboli splayed his arms out in an exaggerated manner.

"Well, home sweet home," he said, stepping out into the main living room.

Diaboli remembered when he had bought the building several years ago. It had cost him practically everything he had saved up - even at the low price set when the company that owned the place went bust. It had proved a worthwhile investment, though, and he could rely on the rent to keep him afloat should all his less-than legal activities go awry. Renovating the top floors into a living space, though, had taken some time.

In a city like Mistral, which was almost entirely traditional in the style of its buildings, something like Diaboli's suite was hard to come by. The floor was made of a light beige wood that looked exceptionally well polished, and was only ruined by several lines of dents in the boards left by a certain giant robot's clawed feet. Three of the walls were made of glass, with one opening out onto a large balcony that allowed for access to the amazing view of the surrounding city and the green-topped mountains beyond. The fourth western wall that faced the base of the mountain was plated with white ceramic tiles, and was adorned with rows upon rows of trophies.

These weren't awards, though. They were a prized collection of weapons, masks and pieces of armour, all taken from his fallen foes. People who had made it personal and caused Diaboli to hold a grudge against them ended up as part of his patchwork scarf - but those that were unfortunate enough to possess something he found interesting at the time of their defeat suffered the humiliation of decorating his wall.

Diaboli looked at the wall fondly for a moment, but then turned his eyes away. The main room was dotted with pieces of black furniture that kept up the monochrome theme, as well as numerous expensive-looking sculptures of creatures of Grimm and the various cities of Remnant. None of that was particularly interesting though, he thought. Instead, he led Zanipher to one of the side rooms - in particular, the map room.

"Have a seat if you want," Diaboli offered, indicating to one of the six dark leather chairs that surrounded the large mahogany table in the centre of the room. The table itself was more of a intricate 3D map of the city, however. It was perfectly to scale, and looked like it had taken a very, very long time to make by hand - so much so that, from experience, Diaboli was careful to keep his hands away from any of the models whenever possible to avoid breaking anything.

"Help yourself to a drink," he continued, waving his hand towards a small bar at the side of the room as he settled down into the seat at the end of the table. "It's been an exciting day so far, and it'll get even more so soon. Besides, it sounds like I have a fair bit of talking to do."