Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Chef Saltbaker had to close the bakery today. Just in case. He saw a… potential threat. Someone who probably wanted to speak to him. He couldn’t allow any disturbances when the “guest” arrived. He’s less of a guest. More like an intimidation sent by the devil himself.

Saltbaker had gotten on the devil’s bad side, but it wasn’t for the reason you think. Normally, the devil tries to catch runaway debtors or anyone who makes a deal with him, but Saltbaker was different. The devil was chasing him down because he HADN’T made a deal yet. He visited the casino once, met the manager and the devil himself. They had a meeting of sort. The devil even pulled out a contract, but Saltbaker didn’t sign.

The devil said he could think about it, but that was nearly a month ago. He knew that the devil was angry for Saltbaker ending all communication, never getting back to him and telling his decision. The thing was, Saltbaker hadn’t even decided yet. Obviously, he knew it wasn’t smart to give his soul up, but the offer was tempting. Power. That’s what he really wanted. Power over the astral plane.

The devil could’ve given it to him, but he had taken too long and wasted his time. Now a certain right hand man was hunting him down. Even if he only intended to chat, that manager sure was no one to mess with, especially with his influence. He could ruin Saltbaker if he wanted.

The door to the bakery opened and a tall, slim figure stepped into the bakery. The devil’s number one lackey, King Dice. Saltbaker gulped. This wasn’t going to go well. Dice looked around for a minute. Biding his time. Stalling maybe. Perhaps even trying to make Saltbaker more intimidated. that would be hard to do. After what felt like an eternity, Dice made his way to the counter. the only protection Saltbaker had. Saltbaker was a bigger man than King Dice, but Dice didn’t need physical strength to completely wipe the floor with him.

“Afternoon, Chef.” King Dice gave a gentle nod towards Saltbaker. He leaned on the counter. He seemed so confident and collected. He was wearing his usual purple suit, but with a long black trench coat made of course fur. It almost looked like the devil’s fur, but it was most likely a cheap imitation, perhaps created by the devil himself. It didn’t make Dice look any kinder.

“Afternoon, mister. What brings you here?” Saltbaker gave a friendly smile. If he didn’t know better, he would think that Dice could smell fear. Knowing the devil’s rewards to his favorite mortals, Saltbaker wouldn’t be surprised.

“I would browse your selections, but unfortunately, I’m here on business.” King Dice remained expressionless. It was almost uncanny. Saltbaker didn’t undertsand why he studied Dice so harshly, so closely, but perhaps it would save him. “You’re aware who I work for, correct?” Dice raised an eyebrow.

“Yes, sir. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t.” Dice frowned slightly. Saltbaker’s friendly demeanor was cracking, just barely.

“Good. Straight to business then.” Dice stood up straight, as if to emphasize the point. “Boss is thinkin of pulling back the contract. He doesn’t think you’re takin this seriously. He doesn’t work with people like that. He’s unimpressed with your… work ethic and communication, let’s say.” Dice put his hands in his pockets. His expression returned to a neutral one.

“Listen, I’ve needed a lot of time to think. This is a tough decision for me. Perhaps we can renegotiate. I just need more time.” Saltbaker didn’t want to plead, but he also didn’t want to lose this one time chance.

“Look, I can’t buy ya more time. Boss don’t work like that, even with me. But there is something I can do for ya. If you want to keep this option on the table.” Dice removed his hands and crossed his arms. He looked like he pitied the chef. That didn’t exactly leave a good taste in Saltbaker’s mouth.

“Yes. Anything. Please.” Maybe acting all pathetic was winning Dice over, although the chef doubted it. Dice thought the chef was acting pathetic, but business was business. He shouldn’t feel bad for any debtors, even only potential ones. They wouldn’t last anyhow.

“I can maybe set you up a meetin with the boss. You can discuss your terms there. Maybe grant yourself some more time, but boss man ain’t kind to no mortals. Especially those who don’t deserve it. You get one chance, and you gotta make it count. Understood?” Dice looked serious again now. He looked down on Saltbaker despite them being nearly the same height. Perhaps the chef was cowering more than should be. It didn’t help his image with Dice.

“I would appreciate that. Thank you!” Salt baker held his hands in a praying position towards Dice. He didn’t seem to react too much, but he understood the sentiment.

“Of course. Business is my thing, chef. At least, nowadays.” Dice csmiled and gave a raspy chuckle. He sounded like a singer, but also a smoker. Maybe the casino was just so smokey that it had an affect on him. Or Dice could indulge every once in a while. Saltbaker may never know. He hoped he wouldn’t see Dice again, despite the kind gesture of his. Dice held out his hand for a shake. Saltbaker obliged.

“Now, there’s no guarantee that anything’s gonna happen. So don’t get your hopes up. If I do manage, you’ll receive a notice telling you the time and date. Don’t be even a second late. Got it?” Dice raised an eyebrow again, but this time with a frown.

“Yes, yes. I completely understand. And thank you again!” Saltbaker waved as Dice began to leave.

“Don’t mention it. Seriously. Don’t.” Dice held the door as he said it and finally left. A meeting with the devil. Saltbaker expected this to only go wrong.

Dice walked his way back to the main dock. A ferry was waiting for him. The ferry traveled often from the main isles and this one, but only when the devil allowed it to. Since Dice needed transportation, this was an exception.

It was too warm for his coat, so he took it off as he took his seat on the large boat. He hoped they had a bar on board. He didn’t order anything to drink on the way here. Had to stay professional and all that. He pulled out a cigar form his back pocket and began to smoke. He needed it. Convincing the boss wouldn’t be easy, especially since he had already made up his mind. Dice was confident that he would achieve something from trying, whether or not it was a meeting.

Saltbaker was an interesting character to him. He could be a useful asset to the devil. A powerful baker with potential to control the astral plane. That could come in handy, if he didn’t run away like the rest. Dice didn’t know Saltbaker personally, but he had heard stories. He was the greatest baker in all of Inkwell or so they say. There weren’t many like that. There weren’t many that were the best at something. King Dice could respect that.

While the ferry was taking him home, he flagged down one of the boatsmen asking to order a martini. There was unfortunately no bar on board. He’ll stick to the cigar.

Chapter Text

♪ “I want to see your charm! I want you by my side! I want you to let me break your arm! Don’t let me hide!” King Dice was giving a musical performance in the casino, as usual. It pulled patrons in. It was a song he had written himself while he was still only singing on radio. It felt like a distant part of himself. It was before he even joined the devil and that was about a decade ago. He could barely even remember his life before the devil. He just knew that he’s happier now.

♪ “I need you in life! I need for you to guide! Me! and You! With no strife! Till the day we die!!” Dice ended the song. He had been singing for nearly an hour, all an assortment of jazzy, swinging melodies. He bowed to the cheering crowd. Some had stopped gambling just to hear Dice’s voice.

“Thank you. Thank you.” Dice smiled charmingly to the hypnotized crowd. “Now, if you liked what you heard tonight, be sure to come back! You can hear my performances every weekend.” He pointed to lure the crowd in. They cheered again. He bowed again. After backing away from the mic, he made his way off the casino’s stage. The floor staff lead people back to the tables, back to gambling their souls and cash away.

Dice himself moseyed on over to the bar in the back. There were multiple bars (at least three), but the one in the back was least crowded. Rumulus, a rum bottle, worked in the back bar. He had the shortest temper compared to the rest of the tipsy troop, that’s why Dice put him in the back. He sat down on one of the plush stools.

“Another good show, boss.” Rumulus was washing glasses, looking at his hands. Dice knew that Rummy didn’t like eye contact, especially when he was drunk. The tipsy troop weren’t allowed to get wasted during working hours, at least not when mortals were still permitted into the casino. There were certain days and hours where the casino was closed to the mortal realm, and opened only to hell. It would be a demon’s casino. Dice had no opinion on the matter.

“Of course. Gimme a southside.” Dice looked tired. No one in the casino knew how he was able to not only manage the casino, but serve the devil personally, perform whenever he got the chance, and manage the die houses. His hard working (more like overworking) nature was a mystery to them. Most of them preferred not to work at all, but they had no choice.

“Not gonna try anything new tonight? You usually don’t order the same thing three days in a row.” Rumulus began preparing Dice’s drink starting with the gin. The syrup wasn’t far behind.

“I just want something familiar tonight. I have a meeting. Wheezy will be in charge again.” Dice tapped his finger to the beat of a song he had been writing for days. It sounded too much like his early work, but he didn’t want to scrap it.

“That man is always put in charge. You know he ain’t as good as he says he is.” Rumulus slid the drink over to Dice. He immediately took a swig.

“I know damn well. I just don’t trust any o’ you other bums to listen to me.” Dice shook his drink to mix it, only to hear the ice clanking in the glass. Rummy shook his head. He didn’t care too much when Mr. Wheezy was in charge, but Wheezy cared a lot. He got very power hungry.

“A shame really. Well when you two middle-aisle it, invite me to the ceremony! I wanna hear the I dos.” Rumulus joked, putting away the gin and syrup.

“You’re hilarious. You should get on that stage and tell jokes.” Dice took another swig. He’d heard it before. People joking that he was too easy on Wheezy compared to how hard he could be on everybody else. And Wheezy, too, was a total kiss ass. Everybody would joke about them being in love, but Dice usually quickly put a stop to it. Especially recently…

“The stage ain’t for me, crooner. I’m leaving it to you. You seem to fit right at home up there. Besides, I’m not one to compete with the best.” Rumulus began washing the counter. Some patrons began making their way over to their bar. Probably just to get closer to King Dice, but who knows?

Dice saw a certain chef enter the casino behind him. He downed the last of his drink in one gulp and wiped his mouth. Setting the glass down he stood up from the stool. The patrons just trying to get closer to Dice wouldn’t be getting what they wanted.

“Go tend to other customers. Tell Wheezy I’ll be busy.” He pointed a finger gun at Rumulus, and made his way through the crowd of sinners. Saltbaker stayed by the door. His letter told him mister King Dice would escort him to the devil’s office. He just had to wait. The casino wasn’t really his scene. He preferred his quaint bakery.

“Chef! Welcome! You even got togged to the bricks!” Dice welcomed Chef Saltbaker with wide, open arms. Dice was right, Saltbaker did dress up just for the meeting. Dice hadn’t seen him in anything other than a baker’s uniform. Now he was wearing a navy blue suit, with a white button up. No tie though.

“Yeah, I thought I should at least try and take this seriously in my appearance.” Saltbaker fidgeted with his hands. He looked around the casino. There was so much going on.

“You’re a smart cookie. You may not believe it, but the devil does appreciate a good lookin joe.” Dice adjusted his coat. It’s why he cared so much about how he looked. Because the devil did too.

“Come on. We don’t have time to waste.” Dice motioned for Saltbaker to follow him. They walked together through the casino making sure to mostly avoid the visitors. Dice occasionally checked up on his floor staff and made sure the gamblers were happy.

Saltbaker continued to be surprised by Dice’s charm and casual confidence. It eluded him. He himself wasn’t a shy person, but Dice was another level of charming. He had heard nothing but bad things about Dice before he met him. Now after only two meetings, he didn’t know if any of it was true. He was confused. Dice came off as too kind to be such a sleaze and a cheat. Saltbaker knew he shouldn’t trust this facade, but it was becoming very difficult. Maybe the devil gave him a natural charm to make people unassuming to the truth about him.

They had reached the back of the casino with little to no issues. A big garnet red door, beautifully decorated with gold accents like fire and a pitchfork obviously lead to the devil himself. It was too elegant compared to the rest of the casino to not be. The casino wasn’t ugly, it was itself beautifully decorated, courtesy of King Dice, but it was nothing compared to the door.

Dice opened the door, and held it for Saltbaker. After both entering, Dice let it slam shut and walked ahead of Saltbaker. The room they entered was covered in amber wallpaper, gold and obsidian trim also decorated the walls. The floor was stone, but there was a red carpet covering most of it. They were in a hallway, and at the very end was an elevator. To the side of that elevator were a few doors. One was labeled ‘office’ and the other ‘King Dice’. Saltbaker could take a guess what they were for. The other two were unlabeled. The chef didn’t want to guess what they were for. Dice opened the office door and ushered Saltbaker inside.

“Good luck.” King Dice whispered and winked. Saltbaker was going to need some luck… Inside was a similarly decorated room to the hallway. It was different somehow, though. It felt darker. There was no carpet, so the chef was walking on the pure decorated stone. Paintings of hellfire hung on the walls. And in the middle of the room, sat a brown hickory desk, with three sixes on the front craved in, and littered with papers. Sitting behind that desk was the devil himself. He didn’t look pleased to see Saltbaker in his office.

Dice motioned for Saltbaker to sit down. The chef had never seen Dice act like this before. He was expressionless. He was acting like a common servant. It didn’t seem to fit him at all. It felt uncanny, the shift in Dice’s demeanor.

“Hello, chef.” The devil gave a toothy grin despite his earlier expression. He was holding his own hand in a professional manner. “Welcome to my office. Now, let’s talk business. In the past, we have eh discussed contracting before. Unfortunately, we never ended up coming to an agreement. In fact, you proceeded to cut all contact with me. Am I wrong?” The devil gave up on the grin. He looked annoyed.

“Uhm… Yes, sir, I did. But! I really was still thinking about the contract! I didn’t mean to just leave with no trace! I was still-” The devil raised his hand to silence the chef. The malicious grin returned.

“I get it! I really do. It takes time to know if you wanna sell ya soul. But there’s no excuse. You ignored me. You weren’t taking me seriously.” King Dice, who had been standing behind Saltbaker by the door, had moved now next to the devil. The devil pulled out a cigar from his desk drawer and Dice lit it immediately. His lighter was fancy, it looked like it came straight from the Great War. Saltbaker didn’t think Dice fought like that. How old was Dice?

The devil took a few puffs from the cigar. Dice moved to a table behind the desk and poured a few drinks, two whiskeys and a margarita. He set them on a tray and carried them to the desk, setting the whiskey’s in front of the two. Again, he was working like a servant. Saltbaker knew that he was the devil’s right hand man. He didn’t truly understand that this was part of the deal.

Dice grabbed the margarita for himself and carried the tray back to the table. He sat on it and drank his own drink, returning to his natural charm. Saltbaker felt uncomfortable. The devil downed half of his whiskey in one gulp. No surprise considering how big he was. The glass was nearly a toy compared to him.

“Well?” The devil glanced at Saltbaker’s glass.

“Oh! I’m good! I don’t usually drink.” Saltbaker waved his hand and shook his head. He did feel a little bad. The zoned out Dice had made it just for him, and he didn’t want to deny it. It felt wrong to, but it also felt wrong to drink it. He wished it was never given to him.

“You sure?” The devil raised an eyebrow. Dice looked up from his drink and glanced at the chef, but he seemed unbothered. He went back to drinking and staring at the walls.

“Yes, sir.” Saltbaker looked down at his hands. He was sweating now. You’d think after meeting the devil multiple times, it would get less stressful, but it never did. The devil took a small sip of his whiskey. Dice had that glossed over, zoned out expression again, and walked over with the whiskey bottle. He filled up the devil’s glass and then went back to his table, going back to drinking and looking normal again. Was this a spell or something self-taught?

“Fine.” The devil shrugged. He looked down at the papers on his desk. They were in a language that Saltbaker couldn’t understand. He didn’t want to guess what they were for.

“So, back to the contract. Have you actually made a decision?” The devil looked back at the chef. He grinned again.

“Well, uh…” Saltbaker was planning on saying yes. Although, he didn’t quite want to give up his soul just for the POTENTIAL of ruling the astral plane. It didn’t seem quite worth it. The letter did mention that they would love to have him if he accepted the deal. He had the chance to work directly under the devil himself with Dice. It sounded like a good deal, but after seeing Dice tonight, he was rethinking his decision.

Suddenly, a smaller, purple demon barged into the office. The devil stood up, an angry expression consumed his face. They began talking in another language, the only word Salt could make out was Asmodeus. Dice set down his empty glass and walked over by the door, behind Saltbaker.

“WHAT!?” The devil roared. Fire appeared all around the office. Saltbaker yelled and attempted to avoid the fire. Dice grabbed his shoulder.

“I think this meeting is adjourned. I’ll escort you out.” Dice held out his hand for Saltbaker to take. He leads the chef through the flames avoiding the two demons. Until they exist the office. Saltbaker wipes his brow, and the two let go of each other’s hands.

“You don’t want to see the devil when he’s that angry.” Dice chuckles. This must be a regular occurrence. It is the devil, so Salt isn’t surprised.

“Thanks, mister. Does he get like that often?” Saltbaker rubbed the back of his head. His suit was singed. He would have to throw it away. Unfortunate, it was his only one.

“That’s actually pretty calm for him, considering the news.” Dice began leading the chef back to the door leading back into the casino, they didn’t open it yet.

“I couldn’t understand what was being said.” Saltbaker fidgeted with the unsinged parts of his suit.

“Don’t worry about it. Hell stuff. I’m sure when I get back, he’ll take his anger out, and go deal with it.” Dice adjusted his collar. His suit was completely perfect. No burns. Must be some sort of magic.

“Take his anger out?” Saltbaker asked before Dice opened the door.

“Like I said, don’t worry about it.” Dice’s smile changed. It had lost some of it’s charm. The chef didn’t bother to ask anymore now that they were in public again.

They made their way back through the casino, with this time Dice ignoring everyone. The hustle and bustle earlier was much quieter. People were more focused on their games, the people left anyway. Most either left to go home or had their souls taken. Saltbaker shuddered. By the time they reached the exit, Dice had lost his smile completely. He looked annoyed.

“Hope you enjoyed your stay, chef.” Dice winked and opened the door for the chef. “Please come back another time!” Saltbaker sighed and left the casino. Dice shut the door and walked back, probably to the devil. Saltbaker was alone in the Inkwell Hell cave that housed the casino. It was dark, the only light coming from the building behind him.

He realized that he never did quite answer the devil’s question on whether he wanted to sign the contract or not. He assumed he wouldn’t get another meeting considering how well this one went. Oh well… He didn’t need that deal anyway. He would find another way to get the power he desired.

~

King Dice was standing right outside the office door again. He didn’t want to step inside. He knew that the devil had an ugly temper. It was best just not to disturb him when he was angry. He learned that the hard way and he had the scars to prove it. Dice also knew that he was usually one of the only ones that could calm the devil down.

Asmodeus was one of the demon princes in hell, ruled over by the devil. They usually caused trouble and started rumors, so of course, the devil didn’t like hearing that there was news involving them. That and the smaller demon barging in also probably set him off. Dice might also get in trouble, considering he neglected to lock the door, allowing the smaller demon to barge in.

He took a deep breath and knocked. The door opened on it’s own. Not a good sign…