He took the papers rather slowly, nodding his thanks at Leviathan.
"I think you should probably get that stapler ready soon," he muttered as he began to inch his way to the door. Mammon seemed to love chitchat, which made Oliver wince with awkwardness. He had made a little jab, not actually
wanting the details of the guy's entire thought process! The words the Sin blabbered at him went over his head, none of its meaning actually taken in. It was too much; he preferred people to not waste his time with talking.
When Greed finally uttered his last word, Oliver gave an absent nod and pushed his way out of the office past the throngs of people that streamed in for paperwork. His papers in hand, he thought about what he needed to do next... What
could he do next? Did he have free reign now? Was there more to the tour? Or did Sloth, true to his name, began to slack off on the job? After a bit of pondering, he decided to explore more of the office building before making his way back out, just in case there was anything that would help him ease his mind more.
Purgatory, an hour earlier
“…hmph, being difficult, aren’t we?” the Archangel cooed, staring down at the odd device on the ground before her. It was a cube that was a foot all around, a spherical glass piece contained in the center that had a faint blue glow that pulsed softly. Her hands found their way to her hips as she gave the inanimate object a rather blank stare, many thoughts sorting themselves in her head. She was in Purgatory, right at the edge closest to the Wayward Road; the clearing was cool and gray, devoid of any souls. The people who ended up in Purgatory never really went out of their homes, condemned to a long, solitary meditation until they were pure enough for Heaven, or wanted to return to Hell. Letting them return to the fiery depths was a rare occurrence, one that left a sour taste on Uri’s tongue. No one should ever want to live such a lowly life, especially when they had the chance to redeem themselves and make their way to the only sanctuary fit for the best!
Her red shoe toed the device hesitantly, her voice directed at it.
“I wonder who decided I ought to set you up? Who even made you?” In fact, Uriel wasn’t informed about anything about the device; Michael handed it to her and told her to set it up at the edge of Purgatory, mumbling something about it being a prototype to improve things in the afterlife. She wasn’t one to question him, especially when she had so much free time, but she definitely was wary that she may break it at any time.
“It can’t be helped, I suppose. But really, I don’t even know if you’re turned on at this point.”It had been twenty minutes in Purgatory. The idleness of trying to figure out what to do with the cube made Uriel more tired and resigned to the duty at hand. At this point, she really might as well make one of the other Archs do it, right? She may have been the wiser one, but she couldn’t do technology without proper instructions. Did they really think she just knew everything, automatically? She stretched her wings and yawned. But even if she wasn’t the Arch who knew how to set it up, she had the brains to figure it out, right?
“Let’s see what we can do, then,” she stated as she cracked her knuckles absently. She knelt down and grabbed the device in her hands, rotating it about as she inspected each side. They were all nearly identical, with some buttons on certain edges in a wide array of colors. Uriel’s fingers brushed over them carefully, trying her best not to accidentally destroy or activate whatever the thing was. On one edge, there were words printed in bold, black lettering:
TWO WORDS. Looking at it closely, she noticed faint etchings next to the many buttons which she soon realized were letters and numbers. She blinked, suddenly dawning upon her that the device had a passcode… and that no one bothered to tell her what it was.
“How fun. Like a puzzle,” her mouth mumbled in half-sarcasm as she thought about the passcodes that were possible. Purgatory, Heaven, those were single words and easy to guess right away. Any combinations of the names of the Archangels were also out of the question, as there were too many combinations to guess. If Michael had decided on the passcode, it needed to be simple for all of the Archs to remember, yet odd enough that no one else would guess it. It needed to be short enough, with a meaning for all of them. And most importantly, it had to have come from Michael’s brain, if that was any indication of the type of passcodes he’d think up.
Uri narrowed her eyes, fingers moving to press buttons to spell out her guess.
“H. E. L. L. S. U. C. K. S,” she muttered slowly, placing the cube back down on the ground and stepping back with a satisfied grin.
Simple, to the point, gives a clear message. And most of all, easy to remember, the Arch thought slyly, watching the blue sphere begin to glow a warm cream shade. After a few seconds, a light flashed up above it, hovering in the air and forming an ellipse in the middle of the clearing. She’d managed to turn it on, and once it began to buzz, she realized what it’s purpose was.
“Hm. Not a bad idea, if this ends up working properly.” As she said this, a soul happened to stumble out of the portal, splayed out on the grey grass with Uri standing over it.
The delivery needs a little work and it seems like its interference is sporadic. But if we can make this work, souls will just come straight to purgatory before being sentenced to heaven or the underworld. More efficient than dealing with those Sins, she thought with a nod, a welcoming smile curling her lips as she directed the soul to the main office in purgatory with the utmost grace, befitting The Angel of Wisdom that she was.
