"I think..." The seven arm man sighed.

"Yeah," agreed the man with impressive tusks. "We should just not paint it at all."

"Is that really what you've taken away from all of this?" Azrail asked as he slowly closed his eyes. "It seems you've discerned a new lesson from my story, but at least you did learn something."

"Hah!" Snorted the toothsome man.

"The only thing we learned from your story," the man with a multitude of arms declared. "Is that we wasted far too much time asking you what should've been a simple question."

"And now all my passion for this project seems to have been stripped away." The other man added.

"I cannot control what you take away from a lesson," Azrail mused. "All I can do is try and direct you towards the path."

The two other men looked at each other. They opened their mouths as if they were ready to say something, but then just sighed and shook their heads. Without another word they sulked away. Silently and dejected. With the flames of their passion for painting doused by his long winded nature.

"Maybe I underestimated you."

Azrail turned around towards the smiling man with his own smile. "I'm glad you at least have some greater understanding. Now, tell me. What did you learn from my story?"

"I thought it'd be obvious." The smiling man said dismissively.

"Well, why don't you illuminate me then?" Azrail retorted.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

He smiled broadly, and stepped to the side. Behind him was a strange, craggy form. As if a jagged rock had been made from only sharp angles, and then condensed down into the form of a scrawny man. He had glasses on his face that didn't seem to fit him since they were so perfectly round.

Other than the glasses, he did not wear any clothes. But, he didn't seem to be naked either. More like his entire body was made of something that obviously wouldn't need to be covered.

"I'm just impressed," the smiling man finally answered, "that you could destroy hopes, desires, and dreams so absolutely."

Azrail's smile faded away. "It seems I overestimated your capacity for understanding."

The jagged creature lifted a finger and opened his mouth to ask, "Why would you assume something like that?

His voice was oddly soft and sweet. Like a bird's song dipped in honey.

Azrail turned to face the creature in glasses. "I'm afraid I didn't catch your name." He said.

"Probably because I didn't give it." The sweet, sing song nature of the voice seemed to clash with what he was actually saying.

"Fair enough I suppose. My name is Azrail, and may I ask what your name is, and how you know our...mutual acquaintance?" Azrail said calmly.

"Your words are confusing. Why would you ask for permission and then seem to ask anyway?" The jagged man queried. "It kind of defeats the purpose of a question if you move on as if the answer was a yes, despite not even giving me a chance to answer."

The smiling man took a couple steps back, but remained well within sight of the two of them.

Azrail smiled. "You know, I once knew a girl who never seemed to run out if questions. Why, she even seemed to question every little thing. Especially those things that society puts as critically important for social norms. And the answer that things simply were that way was never really enough for her."

"Did I ask you to tell me a story?" He interrupted as he pushed his glasses further up on his face.

Azrail smiled. "You didn't ask me not to tell a story either."

The sharp edged man frowned. "What kind of asinine logic is that?"

"The same circular logic you seem to be so fond of." Azrail shrugged. "So anyway, this girl. One day we found ourselves in the middle of an ambush. For some reason, these would be murderers didn't try to kill us outright. They tried to talk to us."

As the other man opened his mouth, Azrail quickly continued talking. Almost like of he let the other man speak, he would never be able to tell his story.

"Their questions were innocuous at first, but she questioned them all." Azrail rambled on. "Even simple things, she wanted to know what they meant. Why they phrased it like that. What phrases meant. Who people were that kept interrupting. Why their outfits looked like that. What symbolism even meant as an abstract concept."

Azrail chuckled. "She got them so frustrated, and so confused that they even forgot about their plans for us. Well, actually, they were going to kill her outright for how much she irritated them. Which was not ideal. But! It gave me enough room and time to act."

"Whoa now, slow down." The stony man nearly shouted to be sure he would be heard. "You're racing along pretty quickly."

"Oh? I hadn't noticed," Azrail lied.

"First of all," the man pushed his glasses back up. "What exactly do you mean by circular logic?"

The smiling man watched with a gleeful smile as the two of them started down the road to pull each other into a spiral of technicalities and pretentious pondering.