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Asmodeus was surprised to see the little imp he had publicly humiliated crouching on a black skeletal staircase of a fire escape above his car at the end of a long night of music and steamy, adrenaline-soaked atmosphere.

He was casually polishing a gun, with one leg slung downwards and one knee bent upwards towards the hazy sky.

"You're real shit at sneaking up on people if you mean to do any damage," the huge, near-immortal three-headed being sneered.

The gun, of course, wouldn't kill him by a long shot, no pun intended. It wouldn't even be painful, really. The only other non-royal that had the power to inflict any noteworthy injury on him was the Radio Demon.

"Let me tell you something about hellborn from the Wrath Ring, such as myself."

The much bigger demon noticed the imp wasn't as put together as he had been during his music performance. His collar was loose. His previously nice and smoothed suit sleeves were now crumpled halfway up to his elbows.

As the club's buzzing neon and street lamplights sputtered off, signaling the coming of the workday, the change in contrast seemed to make his electric green eyes brighter and sharper.

"Citizens of Wrath . . . see. What you other-Ringers don't get about us. Is that Wrath isn't just like my wife's style, no patience in ultimate unkind, all rabid screaming and bloodlust. Oh no. She's wonderful in expressing herself, don't get me wrong. But Wrath. Wrath takes many forms. Hers is burning. Mine? Mine is low. Simmering. Constant. Keeping records of wrongs. Watchful. Waiting. And you, my friend, are in my sights." He sat back, clicking the gun down onto black metal in exaggerated patience, muzzle pointed off in a random direction. "I can't hurt you physically, no." The assassin-by-trade spoke while showing hints of his many razor teeth in a subtle, creepy smile. "But you seem to be pretty attached to that little partner of yours, Fizz."

Asmodeus drew himself up. "Watch yourself, puny little bovid mutt. I guess you don't want your wife to see you tomorrow-"

"Oh you really think Solas would go for that?" the imp said dangerously. "You saw for yourself how star-crossed he is for Blitz. Anything that hurts Blitz. Well. Solas already feels like he has nothing left to lose."

His long, spindly tail shifted.

"A royal demon like that, pushed to the very edges of despair? Everybody in hell knows how quickly despair is alchemized to fury. Even if he can't overpower you, I have no doubt he would do everything within his limits to make you suffer."

The being sucked a breath into his disproportionate chest.

"You want to be responsible for an inter-Ring war?" Moxie asked blithely. "Make our already slim shot at beating Heaven in the End Times slimmer?" he said bleakly. "Be my guest. I'll be the first domino. I'm just here to tell you. To warn you. That if you and your little demented exhibitionist pet extend this fiasco past this one night, if you keep on spreading shit about my boss, or if the pest makes good on his threats of legal action, when Blitz is already struggling to keep his business afloat, I'll take a few of your yes-men away. Better yank Fizz's leash. I know you like your toys. No "being exclusive" doesn't mean you're not attached in some depraved way. You'll get 'warning shots.'" The black-striped creature chuckled darkly.

He straightened both his legs and leaned forward.

"You two push it? Maybe I'll leave the circus freak alone. Maybe I won't."

The bigger being's three pairs of eyes narrowed.

He traced a finger down the barrel of the weapon.

"You won't appreciate this of course, and I can't refrain from correcting the grammar retroactively," the creepiness of his smile didn't quite match the feel of his next words, "But my boss said, You shoot and kill well, you escape things easily, you can be strategic and cold blooded when you need to."

The much smaller being held the rail, as if ready to vault away with the grip.

"I'm slippery. If you test me, you'll find out just _ how _ slippery."

He looked Asmodeus up and down from his higher vantage point. "The Radio Demon may be able to control shadows, but I can melt into them just fine myself. You don't get to be in my line of work without knowing how to disappear."

His almost bird-like mouth then hid all his teeth.

Although goofy-looking at times, earthborn geese, too, had a mean streak, barb-edged tongues, and tiny needlepoint teeth concealed to match.

"You can make fun of me all you like," Moxie sniffed. "As if I haven't lived an entire life hearing commentary like yours on my preferences." His tone seemed to match that of his stubbornly but quietly singing on as Fizz and his lord verbally pummeled him with suggestions. "I'll bet you think I was caught off guard by that? Puh This is Hell, after all. Do you know how impossible it is to find erotica that's to my taste here? Utterly. I have always been an outsider. And thought I always would be. Made peace with it. But then, she showed me there was nothing wrong. I was myself, and that was enough. Millie. She is an iron lady both in bodycount and self-esteem. I don't ever have to worry about being on guard for my partner."

He paused.

"But Blitz. He needs my Wrath."

"You sure you ain't stepping out on your wife?" the club owner mocked him.

"Say that again."

He stiffened at the Wrath-ringer's challenging tone.

"Say it again, shithead. And I'll just skip the warnings."

He opened his mouth, but didn't respond.

Moxie hissed, forked tongue darting forward. Even tiny earthborn hummingbirds also had the ancestral-like fork. Although much more flexible than their reptilian relatives. Woodpeckers decimating unyielding wood had many-hard-spiked tongues to grab squirmy prey. But the penguins were the king of sheer coverage of barbs. "It's called loyalty. Something I guess Lust-ringers know nothing about."

"Piss off. You're using the leverage of threatening my right hand man, and you say-"

"Loyalty isn't just for those you have sex with," Moxie cut him off.

"You're defending the guy who dogpiled you, joined us in mocking you. Loyalty? More like being whipped. Without the better benefits," he said suggestively.

"Since you only seem to speak one language," the suited imp said disdainfully, "surely you've been with people you can't stand but also can't keep away from."

The larger being looked caught off guard at the more genuine question.

"For you, it's pretty straightforward what you get out of it," Moxie explained, eyes far away. "For me, it's more nuanced. But the principle is the same. My wife and I could get jobs elsewhere, rest assured. We both stay because we want to."

His voice hardened up again.

"And I will avenge because I want to, as well."

"Listen here, you wannabe. You go around in your little nice suit, emulating people like Solas, and he'd barely crack an expression at wiping you off the sole of his foot if you weren't glued to that asshole. You look for the approval of people who will never really give it to you. Not Bossman, and not Tyto Alba."

"Here's what I don't get. You value Solas choosing lust over a stable marriage. So where do you get off mocking him for it? You just like doing whatever makes others suffer. Well. I can play that game, too. I've never been an outlier that way." the hellborn proclaimed to the much more ancient fallen angel. Having lost his wings, the now-archdevil, a lesser deity in the grand scheme of things, raised all six eyebrows at the still-far-lower-ranked being perched like a peregrine, hook-beaked and hungry, above him. "I'll enjoy it, like any good citizen sadist."

"You'd better rethink putting yourself in my path over people who wouldn't do the same for you under other circumstances."

"I'll rethink squat," the gunslinger declared, scooping up his weapon. "I won't think twice."

And with that, the nimble little half-goat made his way up the side of the building easier than a sheer cliff of his Earth counterpart, growling and showing sharp mismatching teeth as he went, disappearing over the edge with a final flick of a pointed tail.