The magenta Luciferian sky seemed almost to shine brighter upon the two resplendent demons very much enjoying their conversation mostly with the serpent taking most of the conversation the entire time while the glass darling watched the egg bois parade around them in a circle smiling softly at their circusy antics like a mother would to their children wanting attention.
"Honestly, my dear Gem. You must get over the fear of automobiles, acting as if they will simply come alive and eat you. Although that would make for a great idea for an invention." Sir Pentious hummed in thought, his tongue tasting the idea.
Gem rolled her reflective eyes, feeling a bit embarrassed of her simple phobia that was quickly forgotten when glancing at her interlinked arm, finding her pale green skin being hued a tinted grey and, from quickly using her compact mirror from her dress pocket, finding that her eyes were a reflective silver. If she had met them, she would believe to pass for Leviathan's distant relative. It both fascinated her and made her think of how the outside atmosphere made her seem more deceased than she originally thought.
"What do you prefer to eat my dear?" Sir Pentious questioned leaning his head into the reflection of Gem's mirror giving a glance of his stride.
Gem closed the compact, placing it back into her pocket. "My parents would always make me stuffed bell peppers filled with rice, chicken, basil, tomato sauce, and sealed with cheese. It became my favorite since how many times I bugged them after I saw it advertised when daddy would read his morning newspaper."
Sir Pentious hummed at this new information. For the fifty years they've known each other, only Gem has ever spoken of the past and nothing but the past like she had nothing else to be thinking about, rarely ever speaking of her family, but it was never anything to tie as a sin. He always speculated that maybe it was from an unwanted substance or domestic, but Gem never brought up anything hinting to a lover simply due to how devoted she was to dance.
"Pentious, I believe this is the restaurant?" Gem questioned pointing at a red brick building with white and green lights flashing outside with a cartoonish devil mascot holding a lobster on a pitchfork.
"Yes, it is my dear. Figured you'd enjoy the cuisine of shellfish. Do you like seafood?" He questioned sheepishly, the hood of his cobra appearance flaring slightly while he held open the door.
Gem gave a shiny smile "If there's one thing about living in San Francisco is that you were never too far from the ocean. That and also since the back of the home was practically half beach."
Stepping inside, Gem could tell by the sudden widening of theseateds eyes that the excitement had yet to wear off.
Both were generously taken to their reserved table. A rather dark restaurant that held for candlelight. The table cloth was cleanly white with newly polished silverware no doubt this place was expensive even for those rich and still living would puke when so much as glancing at the menus prices.
Brushing a piece of hair behind her ear, Gem scanned across the men,u not taking heed to the other patrons around them. It was always about the status and placement of who someone was in hell compared to the hierarchy of heaven. It meant nothing to Gem, she only lived what she could, never take and never tell.
"I will be getting the shrimp scampi with mineral water" Gem stated placing her menu off to the side of the table before reaching for her rolled-up silverware and placing the white wrapping on her lap for her dress to not be ruined.
Sir Pentious gave an unamused expression with his tongue making a low hiss. "Mineral water? Are you some sort of millennial now?"
Gem's eyes switched from side to side keeping her mouth closed while fiddling with her outside fangs no doubt trying to keep in her laughter "The Generation of now is called Gen Alpha not Millennial" Gem corrected fixing her poster while resting her wrists on the table "I am part of the Silent Generation and you, a great friend is part of the Lost Generation."
Sir Pentious stared at his reflective friend taking in this cumulative information "Those titles sound eerily depressing. Anyways I'm having deviled eggs with white wine."
Unbeknownst to him, Gem quickly picked up her lap cloth to hide a gag at the mention of deviled eggs.
For the short time until waiting for dinner to arrive, snacking on bread with butter, they had conversations about their past events and possibilities of how much longer until hell becomes an ecumenopolis. How normal the conversation becomes with no mentioning of another's suffering and no mocking of other sinners.
A buzzing corner with frazzlejetsts in the air watching, casually twirling a cup of red that matched the tone of their suit and claws. The Mirror Demon saw their wine glass and how smooth and fragile they appeared, but just from a limited time of observance before their view was obscured by a curtain drawn over the two for privacy. It was only to be shortly thought on until making an appearance as they just had.
A minute into enjoying their food Gem started to notice pentious patting his lips more frequently than a normal person would for eating deviled eggs.
"Is there too much paprika?" Gem questioned halting herself from putting a shrimp in her mouth concerned for her friend as his face started to become red and dripping with sweat as if something was too hot or spicy.
Sir Pentious struggled to make a cohesive sentence, wrenching his hand around his necktie in hopes of loosening it. Eyes in tears and a body nearly matching the shade of red as an IMP. It only escalated when Gem held up his served glass of wine, but that led to the steam coming out of the poor serpent's unseeable ears. Gem sat with their eyebrows scrunched together, watching as her friend flailed about like a demoniac noodle trying to escape a pot of boiling water. Thank Lucifer for the curtain of privacy.
Just as Gem was about to raise her hand to wave over a nearby waiter Sir Pentious quickly left the table letting out a cry of pain, slithering over to the restroom in the back knocking a few chairs over.
Gem sat there by herself shrimp still on her fork. Not once had a friend leave due to unprecedented food matters. Looking down at her plate of shrimp scampi having yet to make even the slightest dent, perhaps taking it home in a to-go bag is optional.
"That was certainly discourteous. Leaving a date behind without proper explanation" came a flamboyant voice with a hint of changing static taking a seat in the same place as Pentious once was moments ago.
Reflective hair started to prickly as soft claws started to rip at the table cloth. A forgetting of coming outside that sometimes a mirror's reflection attracts not only unwanted attention but the attention that seems to never go away no matter what barrier is put.
It was like a toddler begging for attention, and the only thing for the parent to do is ignore them.
"That poor serpent tongue of his nearly burnt right off!" laughed the red-suited demon helping themselves to a deviled egg.. "There is only so much paprika that can be added to deviled eggs; otherwise, it's as if the devil himself made these."
"Which one?" Gem spoke not looking at the red-suited demon as she ate her shrimp but her agitation was slowly growing.
"What was that my dear?" teased the red-suited man tilting an ear towards Gem "Couldn't quite hear after you so beautiful clipped it a decade ago. I was only giving my compliment."
Gem pressed her lips together sucking off the traces of garlic oil from the noodles before flicking her eyes up to the red-suited man "Satan and Lucifer are two different persons. So, which one?"
Radio dialed eyes flickered, feeling excited at Gem's response; it was like a reward for the meticulous times of ever trying to get something to acknowledge a person's presence. Those mesmerizing glass-cut eyes seeming almost stolen from a jeweler's store.
"Forget it Alastor. I need to leave anyways, stay out longer than I intended" Gem muttered, rolling her hand over her glass bottle of empty mineral water, breaking the bottle against the table using its pieces for a thinly small portal to pass her unfinished dinner through.
Alastor watched as Gem left the table pushing away the curtain and out past the restaurant's doors. What an experience it was compared to seeing her on stage how delicate and soft she danced and the reflectiveness of her eyes mirroring himself almost but it was as if she was seeing right through his intentions.
Gem huffed as she walked out of the restaurant and back to the placement of the cathedral. Irritation fell in her chest, no doubt the damn radio demon wanting to waste her time again with pretty conversation over dinner. Her feet suddenly halted when remembering how Alastor said the word date, and she didn't even counter it. Anything that was of glass material suddenly shattered into bits.
Breezes of glass shards floated for a moment before dispersing across the street. Gem continued walking claws repeatedly clenching but abruptly stopped by the most peculiar falling in front of her from above.
The body was painted scarlet with a matching tail with the point being of a white spade shape and white hair of jaw length. Black horns sprout from either side of their head. Gem had only ever seen an imp as a servant when attending previously invited parties. The attire was one found from the seventies, judging from the Walkman hanging partly from their windbreaker jacket.
Familiar with time and the advances that came, but if asked what decade was the most questionable, she'd most likely be pointing at the imp in front of her.