Johannes' office was a small room on the basement of a building which could only be considered remarkable by the fact that it had guards. The room spoke of its owner's choices - from the small size of it, signalling he didn't feel the need to impress, to the solid wooden desk, good but not luxurious, to the fact that there was no chair for any guests to sit on, while Johannes himself sat on a plain wooden chair, not even padded.

Ariel found himself approving the man's style as he stood in front of him, waiting for Johannes to pull a sheet of paper out of one of the folders that covered the walls.

"Mhm, here." Finally he found the contract he was looking for, handing it over to the large statue without the merest sign of the difference in size affecting him. "It's from Octavius. You probably don't know him, he's not in any circles I'd expect you to move in, but he's a pretty big shot."

Ariel nodded absentmindedly as he read the contract carefully - his lack of eyes fortunately did not keep him from seeing.

"He wants me as a guard." The statue's voice was surprisingly human, yet completely lacking in emotion, emerging from a point somewhere in its throat. "Did you tell him about. Of course you told him about my prices. And he told you money is not a problem." He looked at Johannes, the man nodded, back at the paper. "I don't..."

"Wait." The smaller man cut him off. "There's a dancer in that party, a girl. She's famous. People think she's been touched by demons. I thought you'd be interested in seeing her face to... face, I guess." The man chuckled to himself. He'd been messing with Ariel's aspect for as long as he'd been handling his contracts, and the statue didn't seem to mind his guilty pleasure.

Ariel stood motionless for a couple of seconds. "I see. Thanks." He put the contract down. "I will want to see her in private as payment." Johannes raised an eyebrow, but took the contract and quickly jotted something on it. "Or twice the usual fee." More scribbling. "Is that all?" One final nod, and the statue was off, crouching to pass under the door.

---

Ariel felt extremely grateful that he was attending the party as a guard. Social events were not something he was used to, least of all high-society parties, and he would've felt completely out of place had he not had a task to complete. The instructions he'd been given by Octave before the party started were the essence of simplicity - ensure everyone followed the rules of the party, stop any kind of rough-making, and protect the slaves.

Nothing was ever that simple, of course. With the amount of people invited and the size of the room, he'd quickly realized sitting in one place would make him miss a lot of the action, so he'd had to start moving in a slow patrolling motion to keep tabs on everything. Perhaps it was the sight of a guard, perhaps it was his size, but he soon started noticing any sparks of roughmaking had a tendency to calm down when the moment they saw him heading that way.

There was nothing much out of the usual - here a man fondled his slave, there a woman attacked hers, elsewhere two youths argued about something probably irrelevant, over by one of the corners a circle of merchants were trying to outbrag each other, at the entrance a man was arguing with the guards - but there was something in the air, a sort of collectively held breath that Ariel didn't notice he'd been holding as well until he saw a streak of red on the performers' dais.

The demon-girl had come out to play for she wasted no time in words or introductions, launching herself into a hypnotic dance that in tandem with the musician's skill, had the whole room enraptured. Almost unconsciously, Ariel drifted closer to the dancer as she moved, eyes glued onto her body - in another life, he would've praised her good looks - as he pushed his way through the crowd. His sight flickered onto the crowd, once, twice, making sure she wasn't being threatened by any grasping hands and then right back onto the dancer, until the music finally died out.

Ariel stared at the red-haired woman as the musician talked with the audience, trying to figure out whether she was actually a demon, possessed, or just a simple, unfortunate human. He gave up after a few seconds, unable to reach any solid conclusion; but then again he didn't have his mind up right this instant. With any luck, Octave would spare his gold and simply pay him by meeting the dancer, and then he'd be able to tell for certain.

A glance was shot around him searching for any threats that might've appeared while he was distracted, but beyond one man calling for a decidedly inappropriate song it all seemed to be safe, so he was free for the time being. Expecting that most of the attention would be where the dancer was, at least until she was done, he made his way through the crowd to stand next to the dais opposite where the musician was. This was a rather major show of power from Octave after all, and it wouldn't be any surprise if one of his rivals decided to try and spoil it.