Sample

[lordofsin]

  Soft music was playing overhead, and the rustle of expensive cloth, the clink of glasses, and the susurrus of inane conversation were all things Belial was familiar with. A small smile curled his lips. He loved these so-called high-class bars, where the patrons liked to believe that they were a cut above the common people in their common bars. They liked to believe that they had classy sins of their own, too. As if. Everything ultimately came down to the Seven, and sin was sin, wherever you found it. The sheer pride and lust and greed in the air was almost tangible. He licked his lips slowly, letting his eyes rest on the décolletage of a woman staring blatantly at him, or perhaps at the leather dog collar just barely visible beneath the collar of his white dress shirt. She flushed, turning back to her companions, but sneaking glances at him. Go on. Skim a little off those accounts. You know you want to, and nobody will ever notice. 

  He toyed with the paper umbrella that probably accounted for a quarter of the ridiculous price of his drink - not that he'd needed to pay, he never did - and leaned back in his seat, discreetly watching the people around him and pretending not to notice the eyes, both male and female, that were fixed on him. Most demons tried to be subtle*; he, however, had found that the attention often made his work easier.

  It was almost boring these days, though, with each person thinking that their entanglement, their temptation, was the first and most confusing of its sort, when the number of times he'd seen such situations could fill books. Where was the variety? The challenge?

  The door opened, and he turned to assess the newcomer.

* - Whether or not they actually succeeded is another matter, of course.

Comments

[linny75.livejournal.com]

There were many advantages to sleeping away a century or two every now and then. In particular, when the world was teetering on the brink of an atomic war. It was certainly nice to wake and find out that the atomic war had been cancelled.

However, there are certain disadvantages to it just the same. One of them was that speeping for a few decades made your stamina and strength go to hell. It always took a while to get back to shape after waking.

That was also why he had decided to stop by the next pub or bar he saw down the road, to rest a bit. It wasn't like he had any places to be yet. He was just strolling around the world, trying to get his bearings. Trying to get an understanding of where things had gone that went beyond what his machines and computers down in his deep-sea sphere had told him. Once he was reasonably sure he would be able to pass without causing any undue attention, he would go and investigate that place called Lower Tadfield. The one with two decades of strange weather patterns that had set off his computer's alarms.

There was that bar. Very well, he deserved a drink or two. Change jingled in his pocket, and he knew there was more paper money in his wallet. Most of it was fake, but faked well. No one had yet seen through his counterfeits.

He pushed open the door and looked around the room for a moment.

In case you didn't notice yet, his extra-sense informed him unbidden, you're somewhat underdressed.

He snorted inwardly. Leave it to that independently thinking part of his brain to state the obvious.

Thank you, he thought back icily. I'll manage anyway.

[lordofsin]

One eyebrow rose slightly. The man had snow-white hair despite his youthful looks, and it was either real or a really good dye job. Strange. He was also rather underdressed for this bar, and obviously didn't belong among the businessmen and socialites. Probably wandered in by mistake. It was a prime chance for envy and greed to set in, and the small smile widened. Temptation aside, the newcomer looked interesting, somehow.

Belial's eyes met the man's, and he gestured to the empty seat beside himself.

[linny75.livejournal.com]

In any case, people had become a great deal friendlier since the last time he had been awake. He didn't think someone would've just invited him to his table back then if he'd been in a similar situation.

Then again, there had not been such bars then. And quite possibly, this person was looking for company he was not willing to provide.

But in any case, it would be less awkward and noticable if je just went and sat down than if he remained standing in the door or ignored the invitation.

He strolled over, exuding casualness, and plopped down onto the empty seat. Stretching out his legs, he ignored his extra sense's complaints about getting them both into trouble.

"Thanks for the invitation," he observed. "Have we met?"

[lordofsin]

"We have now," Belial smiled, extending a warm hand. "What's your name?"

He nodded to the bartender, who swiftly prepared another overpriced, brightly-coloured concoction and slid it to him across the bartop. Belial caught it easily and handed it to the white-haired man.

[linny75.livejournal.com]

Atlan raised an eyebrow at the impossibly coloured drink as he shook the man's hand. "Call me Atlan," he offered.

If this strange fellow was thinking to poison him with that drink, he would be in for quite a surprise. He put the decoration aside and took a careful sip to savour the taste.

"Are you always buying drinks for stangers?" he asked, "or are you intending to slip out and leave me to pay both of our bills?" His eyes sparkled as he said it, and he was quite curious for the other man's reaction.

[lordofsin]

"Atlan?" Interestng name, too. Come to think of it, the man felt interesting. Human, but... old, somehow. "I'm Belial. And no, this drink is on me. As for your first question..."

He leaned forward slightly. "Only if they intrigue me."

[linny75.livejournal.com]

"I'm just a normal guy," Atlan claimed. He knew perfectly well that no one would believe that.

"I didn't catch your name," he observed as he took another sip from his drink.

[lordofsin]

"Indeed." The man was obviously lying, and he didn't need any sort of power to tell. "Define normal."

Belial took another sip as well. "Belial," he repeated slowly.

[linny75.livejournal.com]

"I thought you might reconsider," Atlan stated neutrally. "Or is this one of those establishments where one does not go by the name written on one's passport?"

As far as he was concerned, people called Belial had a place in human myths. He had made use of human myths before, given rise to some, but the species seemed beyond falling for that kind of trick these days. It took more than a fancy name to inspire awe.

"And normal like in average, common, everyday things. Nothing special."

[lordofsin]

And up went the eyebrow again. "Well, you're hardly one to talk, Atlan." Belial had travelled a lot - mainly in the warmer climes - and had heard of many names, but Atlan was a first. For a person, that was. The Aztecs, he remembered, had had legends of their ancestral home, Aztlán.

This 'Atlan' was evidently more than he seemed.

[linny75.livejournal.com]

"What?" Atlan said scornfully. "Are you accusing me of lying about my name?"

He calmly produced his (well-forged) passport that made him the citizen of a continental-European state and gave his name as Atlan von Arcon. He had used that one before, once, and was rather fond of it.

"Well?" he asked, raising a matching eyebrow as well as his glass.

[lordofsin]

Belial pulled out a black leather wallet that hadn't been in his pocket before and slid out an identity card. "I'm not in the habit of carrying passports about." The card gave his name as Belial Sheol, of Hebrew parentage.

Atlan was obviously more than he seemed, though, and such documents could easily be faked. Belial smiled, though, raising his glass in return. "To identities." Fragile things.

[linny75.livejournal.com]

"To identities," Atlan echoed, drank and put downhis glass.

"But what kind of parent would name a child after a malicious spirit?"

[lordofsin]

"A malicious spirit?" Come now, that was just insulting. "Perhaps you need to brush up on your folklore. My namesake is far more than that."

Belial took another sip of the drink. "And what of your name? It's not one I've heard before, and I've travelled quite a bit."

[linny75.livejournal.com]

Atlan chuckled. "Forgive me if I've offended by not showing sufficient respect for a creature form mythology. But it is a fact that that kind of stories tends to blow things up a lot."

He emptied his drink and put the glass down. "My mother liked the name. It was attacahed to a gread warrior in a story she liked to read."

That explanation was even true, kind of!

[lordofsin]

"Indeed. The cloven horns were overkill, in my opinion. Or the sheer number of children he supposedly had."

Belial's foot knocked Atlan's slightly, almost accidentally, as he leant forward to place his own emptied glass next to the other man's. "A great warrior? From which culture?"

[linny75.livejournal.com]

Atlan ignored the touch below the table. He would not retreat by pulling away, but he would most certainly not react in any way that could be misunderstood... otherwise.

You're getting yourself into trouble that voice in his head remarket.

I am not. He returned silently. To Belial he said: "Not a culture, I think, a story. Something she was told as a child. She didn't even get the name right, though, as I found out later."

[lordofsin]

That earned a laugh. "So what was his actual name? And do you know the story? I'm interested in hearing it."

"Two more of the same, please," he added to the bartender. No retreat, no reaction. Hmm. Perhaps his female form would have elicited some form of reaction, but he could hardly change now.

[linny75.livejournal.com]

"I'd rather not tell," Atlan said, grinning. "I'm quite sure you know all about being expected to live up to a name. And I'll pay for those." He indicated the drinks.

Then he leaned back and let his gaze wander around the bar, taking in the people and, of course, in particular the women. "Do you come here often?" he asked.

[lordofsin]

Belial shrugged fluidly. "To this bar in particular? A couple of times. I've been to many places like it, though."

He scrutinised the man. "I haven't seen you around here before." Granted, a couple of weeks in one place was hardly long enough to know everyone there, but he'd have noticed this man if they'd passed on the street, unless he'd dyed his hair.