Leroy sat at the table, cards in hand, he reached over to the table to grab a handful of peanuts and pop them into his mouth, he was playing poker and a small mountain of gold coins were littered around the table. He didn't have anything to drink, he was a keeper now and the Guild master specifically said "try not to misrepresent us," so Leroy did not have anything to drink, but cards he could handle, plus gambling was a sin only if one cannot control it. He was a paladin, but barely made it though the ceremony, the last two times he fell asleep, he tried to stay awake, but the speech was about 2 hours, and he stayed up all night cramming to make sure he didn't forget the sacred texts that he needed to recite from memory. But he had made it, he was a paladin of the keepers, he felt taller. People respected his more, and to Leroy it was a good feeling. He drew a card and looked at his hand, Gods, this could be a lot better, they probably got things way better than this," He looked a the pile of gold, he was not too far into it, there were several people at the table so the money built up fast. But with money came greed and thus the tensions were high, one person could start a bar fight just by cheating or trying to grab his share.

"aw I fold guys," He put his cards on the table. Leroy thought to himself, See, I got gracious in defeat down, Paladins have a moral code and I'm following it, but I don't want to end up like Holy master Ferres," That reminded him of his old trainer, he still had bruises from where he hit Leroy when he was not standing straight, or when he "showed too much aggression" in combat, Paladins are supposed to be furious when it came to smiting, and Metal gauntlets hurt. Leroy looked up to see waitress arrived, with a plate of chicken and Leroy, politely thanked her and payed for his meal. "I may not win much tonight but hey, at least I got chicken..."

"Awwww nuts... it smells horrible in here."

Vex raised an eyebrow. Since when did Ennui, a demon fly much like any other demon fly, care about what things *smelled* like? Demon flies came from the pits of Hel, and even if they were annoying, blood-sucking little parasites (socially, morally... and Vex strongly suspected, physically) they still had a few lovely advantages: they were annoying and they generally acted predictably. If she walked into a room and within ten minutes there was a fight she knew it was Ennui's presence. If she walked out of a room and somebody started an all-out killfest... it was probably Ennui.

And another constant about Ennui was his unwavering dedication to the holy gospel of 'I'm a manly man even if I'm only one inch tall.' Ennui didn't complain. Ever. He would natter, he would annoy, he would talk, he would torment... but he didn't complain.

Vex sniffed the air, tentatively, and understood.

There was a bloody paladin in this room!

Now generally, it was hard to detect certain types of people (good, or bad or whatnot) but with paladins... they made it too easy. Something about them just made devils instinctively hiss in revulsion and fight down the urge to vomit. More devils had been decapitated in known history because of the reflexive urge to gag than any purported goodliness or skill that paladins had. It was damn hard being evil and scary (and kill things) and also wanting to puke so bad that your bowels hurt.

"Where is it?" Vex muttered. "He's not too near... I woulda spotted him."

It was definitely a him too. She-paladins were usually a lot more subdued if no less smelly. They didn't have as much of that lovely scent of self-righteousness that helped alleviate the mental pain of fighting paladinhood for demons.

Ennui didn't answer and Vex was pretty sure why- well, there'd be no helping it. She'd just go in and hope for the best. There wasn't a paladin or a legion of paladins that'd keep Vex from her rightfully earned alcohol. And in she went.

Leroy took a bite out of his chicken while he looked at his hand, Oh man sweet, these suckers won't know what hit them." Just as Leroy thought that the door to the tavern opened, and a she devil walked through like she was looking for something. Leroy saw her and thought to himself, "aw crap she's a demon, times up lets do this..." But just before Leroy stood up from the table and drew his greatsword another thought hit him, "crap, what if its a forgiven demon or something like that, they're around, one of them is in the keepers, Master Ferres would have my ass on a silver platter if I assaulted an innocent civilian." So he eased himself and slunk back into his chair, he didn't like the look of her, but he also didn't like the look of Master Ferres'es hand smacking him in the face, or worse. "Royal flush, read em and weep," Leroy put his cards onto the table and kept a weary eye on the devil, she was either a chance to get some good done and hopefully prove to the keepers that he was worth the time and effort to train him, or a one way ticket out of the keepers, so for one of the few times in his life, Leroy was going to play it safe.

The air was cloying. Death liked such air. Vex didn't. But it seemed to go hand-and-hand with alcohol and she couldn't do much about it. Either avoid bars to avoid the air or go to them and drink like there was no tomorrow. Vex definitely knew which one she wanted, today. It had been a long day and she really didn't want to start 'not' going to bars even if it was supposedly in-character with her current persona. Which was a mild-mannered she-devil that could openly walk the streets of... wherever. It was a difficult task to pull off, she would have much rathered that she just put on a disguise and be done with it but... no, it would make the impact when she killed her target so much more satisfying if he believed her to actually be legit.

So killing the paladin was out of the question. She had thought she had seen movement but had ignored it. Ignored it for the sake of her sanity and the contents of her stomach. She would ignore it and keep on ignoring it till' she was blue in the face or her contract was fulfilled.

Then, and only then, she would KEEL!

For some reason a biting face showed up in her mind and she pushed it aside.

She took a step forward. Tables turned and eyebrows were raised. She hadn't bothered with the disguise for the past week but there were still patrons that didn't believe her to actually *be* a devil and them seeing her made them start to re-consider their various intentions. She had heard of on-going bets within the small (well, not so small) community that wanted to try and attack her just to see what would happen. She had busted up enough faces to make them reconsider... hopefully they'd be more cautious now.

She sat down and asked for beer. Beer came.

And Vex drank.

Leroy kept playing cards, but he couldn't help but glance over at the devil. He reached for another chicken wing only to find that there was only some bones, and a few scraps of meat, he looked over to the waitress, the inn was crowded and she was having a hard time serving all the patrons. "ah hell I might aw well do the right thing, I am a keeper now..." He grabbed his plate and stood up, putting his cards down upon the table in a sign that he folds, he didn't have anything good anyways. He walked over to the bar, he waited for the bartender to come over and grab his plate, "I'll just have an ale." Leroy tired not to jump or look scared when he looked over to see that he walked next to the devil, "I am stupid as hell sometimes." Leroy waited for his ale, keeping ready for whatever could happen. If she was going to pull something, she would probably do it now.

"He's there. Right. Now. Right next to you." Ennui said, buzzing in Vex's ear like the annoying, pesky little creature that he was. Vex was sorely tempted to have them switch names and roles but didn’t. The power of Vexation, when harnessed properly would be able to destroy worlds, harm even the greatest of Gods and Goddesses and be able to wreak havoc and mayhem on a scale so unprecedented as to make it truly terrifying to the entire world of Arda. No, not only the entire world the entire uni-

"Not like, two hundred leagues next to you." Came the tantalizing and omnipresent whisper.

Vex’s eyebrow twitched. The glass of alcohol in her hand shuddered under the strain of keeping itself together.

"Not like, twenty leagues next to you. "

"I know..." she hissed. She concentrated on her beer. On her lovely, lovely alcohol. If there was one thing she knew, it was alcohol. Alcohol could drown away all sorrows, all privileges, all rights and all sanity. It would hopefully drown away this stupid, stupid, stupid distraction named Ennui and leave her capable of not getting into a fight with something so small that everyone would believe she had gone psychotic (or rabid) and was needed to be put down like some dog in the street-

"Like, -right- next to you."

Vex’s glass shattered in her hand, sending shards of glass into her fingers and spraying alcohol everywhere. But the pain was rather minute compared to the she-devil’s sudden wrath at the annoyance and as she was about to break her own self-imposed rule the bartender hurried towards her, bowing and apologizing for the crummy utensils. Somewhat confused and mollified Vex sat right back down.

And began to drink. This time able to drown out both paladin and fly.