Working 9' to 5'

Samuel was once again at his job playing solitaire as he waited for the next round of complaints to come in, but it seemed that things would go relatively smoothly as he hadn't seen any more of what he called gremlins. He could never be certain though as he kept moving the cursor around. (Hope, that I won't see those weird guys anymore. I might have joined with them, but I want to keep a healthy distance from them all the same.) He thought to himself.

A door in the work area opened and the assistant head manager stepped in. He was followed by a young guy with white hair. He had on a suit and tie and was walking behind the assistant manager listening explain to him the job. They made their way towards an empty cubicle next to someone playing Solitare on the computer. They stopped at the man's cubicle and the manager coughed to get the guy's attention off the computer. "Ahem, Samuel this is Jacob. HE was just hired here and will be working in the cubicle next to you. Please show him the ropes and not how to access the locked games on the computer." The manager said sarcasim dripping from his words. As the manager walked away Jacob stepped forward and extended his hand to Samuel. "Hello Samuel its a pleasure to work with you." He said with a smile, but his eyes, ice blue aimed to pierce the human as if he was looking through his soul.

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me." Samuel would say looking up to see the form of the demon in front of him. "I guess you have no concept of personal space." He sighed closing out the solitaire and leaned back in his chair "So, you can't be doing just doing this for money, there has to be a reason." He would say as he stood up to take the handshake offered to him. "I'm going to guess because this is a Elgoog subsidiary, you are here to infiltrate it for whatever reason that might be." Samuel would say with a shake of his head. "Being here to create all sorts of mischief, hm?" He would ask.

"Everyone has to stat somewhere, and that includes me. Maybe one day ill let you in on just what im planning. But thats only if you are able to keep up. In a couple of months im going to be damn near running this place. After that im going into business for myself. Now once I get there if your not with me ill leave you behind." He released the handshake and looked into Samuel's eyes. "Now you can believe my word on this or not. Im fairly certain that the word of a sirit holds a bit more weight than the word of a human." He said as he broke contact and went to his desk. After taking a few minutes to set up his phone soon rang.

"I don't know about that, everything I've read about demons puts you guys as liars, manipulators, and schemers, so I would imagine you guys are just about as trustworthy as a human." He would say as he sat back down in his chair and leaned back "It probably isn't so hard to guess your intentions. You strike me as the magnificent bastard type, so I would guess that your intention is to dominate the world of economics, information, political, and any other that takes your interest. Its not all that hard to figure out once you get the trope down." Samuel would say giving a slight smirk. "As for leaving me behind, don't worry I'll keep up with you; though, I doubt I'll have the same physical advantages that you will."

After finishing the, rather pointless, call Nero responded to his statement. "You believe what you read in books rather than 'from the horses mouth' So to speak. Then let me educate you a bit. I chose to become a demon, of my own free will. I was once human and have not completely forgotten what it was once like. But death helps you see things far more clearly. No demon wants to conquer this world, there is no point to it. The ones you describe are the ones that cause mischief, mis fortune and bad luck on others. I on the other hand have drive, and a reason. You are not wrong, at least in part. I dont hide who I am or how I am from those who need to know. Im a plotter and a thinker. So see me as the devil with horns and a tail if you wish. I speak the truth, cause why lie when the truth is so much better?" He said stealing a line from Lucifer himself.

"I put some stock in the books because of there is a grain of truth to them. I have to consider that given the length that humanity has been here there has been interaction between both of demons and humans, and the writings were made to give knowledge to the general populace, even if that knowledge is regulated to the realm of the insane and the occult. That's never addressing the issue though. You talk about the more destructive demons, but you haven't ever stated what your intentions are, for all I know you could be like those demons. You wouldn't be lying by saying you are different from them while having the same intentions as them, not that I care." He would say as a co-worker would come up with a filed complaint. Samuel would look over at it before handing it over to Jacob. "You might as well earn your keep here."

He took the paper but before looking at he he responded. " Do not put your faith in one man's opinion. Those books are written by one person that has had an experiance with one demon. Its like judging an entire race based on what one perosn said. And as for my intentions, if I wanted to be like the others I could simply take over your body and hack away at what I aim to do. But such ways are simple and trivial. I have exsisted for much longer than you can possibly think possible. Your attempt to analyze me is wasted yet I find that quality interesting. In the interest of making this go more smoothly forgive me if I gave any demeaning notion towards you. I shall not look down upon you. But I do promise, stick with me and you will go farther than what you ever could have hoped to." He let it rest at that and took a look at the paper.

~Lunch break~

Nero set his work down on the desk. "The longer I stay here the more I feel im infected by people's stupidity. How hard is it to press a button?"

"Welcome to the wonderful world of tech support. You get to be a gopher for all the incompetents in the building." He would say with a slight laugh at Jacob. "Don't worry, they are not nearly all that bad since this company is mostly made up of tech savvy people, but the ones that need help are the managers and all that. You should be glad though that you are not working tech support for the general populace, I've heard that is supposed to be really bad." Samuel would say with a slight laugh as he leaned back. "Now, back to the conversation we were having, I looked at all the information that I had in reach, and I think the best consensus amongst them was that you should always be careful with how you deal with demons, even if they seem like the non-ripping your throat out kind. You could have taken me over sure, but like we discussed earlier, that wouldn't fulfill goals at all. You don't have the skills for it, and the method you could achieve it puts your life at risk, not something that you want. So, you are using me as a intermediary, which is fine since I am interested to see what I get out of this." Samuel would say.

Jacob leaned forward and rested his elbows on the desk and crossed his arms on it. "You are correct on most counts. It is not that I dont have the skills for it. I rather simply choose not to. That may be hard for you to grasp, seeing as your dead set that all demons are the same. Im no fool, I could go around manipulating all the people I wanted to. Here is the complication, im not the only one here obviously. If I try to quickly worm my way to power, ill be stopped by both sides of the fence. So yes I need you, but you are one in over 10 million that I could have chosen. Lets just say you have potential, ive seen something in you that I actually wish to help bring out." He stopped for a moment and leaned back. "We seem to have an agreement thought. But be weary, id tell no one about this. You may never know just who is a demon or an angel. And yes angels do exists, just not in the same manner as humans think."

"I figured as much since you seem to have crossed over, that you would have to contend with the bigger fish, weather they are demons or humans. It suits for you to keep your manipulations at the most basic level since you don't know the power structure well enough or the players to stop yourself from stepping on toes, one of the reasons I suspect you are here is that because Elgoog is a telecommunications giant you are here to try and tap into the vast amounts of information that constantly flow through its optical networks. Information for you is power, and the more information you have the better off you are." Samuel would say.

A smirk came upon Jacob's face. "And you would agree would you not? Information leads to knowledge, and knowledge leads to more power. The more you know the more dangerous you become. Far more than just physically but influence can open many doors or help you shut just as many. For example if you hold someone's dirty little secret over their head, or even convince them that you know. You can get them to dance to a tune for as long as that information holds true. Or until you make it true. Either way the results can be amazing. But im not ignorant or stupid, the opposite is possible as well, and thats why Im taking my time. I will not allow someone try and hang something above me." He said. ~ Cause I will devour them and their whole family if necessary.~ He thought to himself.

"No, your the kind that will go to any measures to keep any dirty secret hidden, no matter the cost." He would say leaning back with a little smirk as he stood up from his cubicle and exited it. "Come on our lunch break isn't all that long, and we have more people coming with idiots who can't find the on and off switch." Samuel would say as he brought him to the small kitchenette. "I figure you are the type to publically put on the front of the gentle employee, the kind man, who uses charm and kindness to disarm others from the real shit you are doing. I bet you already have five plans in your mind of advancing to middle management before the quarter is out, and only one of them involves actually doing any work." He would say.

Jacob got up with Samuel and made his way to the kitchen., while Samuel analyzed him more. As Samuel named out a few things like being kind and charming. He shook the hands of the people around him welcoming him. And made sure to smile nicely for the women. Putting on the front of the humble new guy, making sure everyone knew his face. He was fitting Samuel's profile perfectly. Once they were alone again he continued talking. "Of course, what did you expect me to do? Be cold, argumentative and anti-social? Stop pointing out the obvious, your only trying to make yourself feel better about the situation your in. The fact that a demon is now working with side by side. And you have agreed to help him take over the world, for your own selfish reasons." He said quietly to him and then poured himself some coffee and drank it slowly.

"See, I knew you wanted to take over the world." Samuel would say with a roll of his eyes as he opened up the mini-fridge and got his prepacked lunch. "I don't know, I was expecting a little bit different personality. You could pull it off with a cold attitude, most the the execs here are cold fish. They only care about a bottom line. I expect you would warm them right up next to their frigid example." Samuel would say with a slight laugh "Now, of course I agreed to help you out for my own selfish reasons, that is par for the course. I just wanted to be clear on a few things before we got into a closer working relationship." Samuel would say as he opened up the tubber ware and put it into the microwave. "So, how are you planning on handling that friend of yours? I imagine that he is going to be a handful by himself if he is just situated on one thing only." Samuel would say as he let his food warm up for a few minutes before popping it out. "Tell me, the little gray demons that I saw swarming around the database earlier seemed to be some sort of mindless demon. I was wondering if you knew about them at all?" Samuel asked though his own research had revealed that they fit the title of gremlins, things that were drawn to complex machinery and sole purpose was to cause it too malfunction, the more complex it was the more they were attracted to it. "Hm, that is pretty interesting, guess those things will be a nuisance from now on, huh?" He said as he started picking through his food before popping a few reheated bits into his mouth.

"My personality changes from person to person. I talk to each person in the manner that gets me what I need. If its fear ill instill fear into them. Kindness or shrewdness. I can take on all forms while it all ultimately works up to my ultimate goal. And your thinking simple by the phrase 'taking over the world'. Cause think about it, what then? You have the whole world in the palm of your hand, what do you do? My ultimate goal is whats after that, but you will learn that in time." He took another sip of his coffee and sat down at the lunch table. "You mean Ryu? He serves his purpose, but dont underestimate him. He may love to fight but he is a genius in his own right. You mistake his lack of knowledge for the current world ass stupidity. Its actually the opposite, he is the most complicated demon ive ever met next to myself. He will take care of what is beyond these corporate walls." He finished his coffee and listened to Samuel about the gray beings. "Yes I have encountered them. They seem endless in number, its quite possible it was the first spirit to enter the world wide web. And from there it separated into many parts. I have an interest in it, but I have not the time to test my theory. But you have seen them I assume. If my theory is correct and they are part of one being and we get it on our side. It could prove an invaluable asset. Of course I could be completely wrong and its just a bunch of idiots playing." He sat there for a bit longer. The looked at the times. "Well it seems the break is over. Im going to finish my work for today and leave. We will continue this conversation tomorrow." He got up. "Oh one final warning. watch yourself, beings know im here and they are assuming what my mission is. They just might come after you. It would be advised to learn a way to protect yourself." He said and walked back to his cubicle.