Board Thread:Role Plays/@comment-5999656-20161216022828/@comment-25389303-20161218230252

Diaboli felt a lift to his spirits as soon as he stepped outside the door. He closed his eyes for a moment, and lightly slapped his face several times with his hands to focus his mind. When he opened them again, his brief spell of depression had disappeared, and the old Diaboli was back.

It took a while for him to decide on an appropriate response to Zanipher's words, but out of the corner of his eye he caught her studying him again - to which he quickly looked away uncomfortably.

"Believe me, Miss Dragon, 'comfortable' would be the last word I'd use to describe this situation," he admitted awkwardly.

As he walked, he once again considered simply ending the conversation there. But then what would he do? Go back to work? Even though the topics weren't exactly the most enjoyable, it was a refreshing change to have some intelligent conversation for once.

"You don't have anything to fear from me, though. I'm perfectly harmless now," Diaboli said cryptically as he glanced down at his hand, hoping that, miraculously, it may have somehow healed in the last minute or so. Much to his irritation, the stimulation of the damaged muscles only caused the wound to reopen - to which he quickly pulled out a roll of gauze he kept for such occasions from his pocket and deftly bandaged it up.

In an effort to draw attention away from his bloodied hand, Diaboli quickened his pace and spun 180-degrees so that he was standing right in front of Zanipher, arms folded.

"You know what your problem is?" he asked, leaning forward until his eyes were on her level, with his trademark mischivous smile on his face. "You're too nice. You don't seem to care enough about yourself. I don't know what kind of revelation you had after we last met, but it obviously wasn't for the best. Honestly, how a Dragon and CEO could possibly be demoted to an everyday grunt is beyond me. You shouldn't stand for it - I know I sure as hell wouldn't!"

Diaboli stood up straight again, his smile changing into a thoughtful frown. "I'm not sure why you even decided to throw your lot in with a bunch of egotistical, greedy thugs like the Dragons in the first place. If they're anything like me - which I imagine most of them probably are - they'll start eating each other as soon the food runs out, mark my words."

But before Zanipher could respond, an interesting sight caught Diaboli's eye, and he quickly walked past her to examine it.

"Ooooh! A music store! Let's go in here!" he said in uncharacteristic excitement, and a moment later he turned, grabbed her by the hand and began leading her eagerly towards the shop.