Beauregard Waters's Story

Sleep. Wonderful, blissful, sleep.

That was all that Acedia wanted to do. He was tired and the alcohol he had consumed the night previous was still in his system. Since he wasn't human, he didn't really suffer from hang overs and he really had to drink a whole lot before he even felt a buzz. It was awful money-wise but he didn't really care about his growing 'tab'. They wouldn't be here for too much longer really and so the loss of money wasn't really a deter for him. Considering the amount of cans and glasses strewn in the dorm one would think he had gone to Lust's concert but he hadn't. He said he would, but he never made it there. Acedia was the least reliable of the bunch and Acedia was sure that his 'brother' would understand.

Acedia yawned and stretched against his bed and turned to glance at the clock. He squinted a bit to get the digital numbers in focus. 8 o'clock. AM. He had class with the Big Bad Boss at 8:30 but why bother? He lived in hell. He worked for the Devil. What more could he learn from a class that was centered on something he was living? Besides, class was really boring and it was early. Lucifer really should have made the class later in the day. Maybe then Acedia would be remotely inclined to attend such a thing. As it was, curling up in his nice soft bed sounded much more appealing to Sloth.

The sin gave a yawn and rolled back onto his right side and pulled the covers over his head to go back to sleep. Yeah, this was the better option. If he went to class, he'd fall asleep in the hard chair anyway. At least this way Mr. Boss-man didn't have to come over to his desk and startle him awake every 10 minutes. Less annoying for everyone involved. See? Acedia could problem solve when he wanted to.

He didn't get to remain where he was however.

Lucy was one to always be punctual to her favorite class though that didn't stop her from making an annoyingly necessary stop beforehand. She didn't bother knocking on the door knowing the little Sloth would be too lazy to come an answer the door anyways. Lucy simply barged straight in calmly and composed as she always was as she entered the room. She was not one to pull covers and make a grueling amount of noise like some of the others tasked with retrieving Sloth. No, Lucy instead took the chair from the rarely used desk and pulled it at the edge of the bed.

She sat down with her legs crossed and watched the lazy Sin sleep hidden away in his shield of covers. She examined her nails and let out a very audible sigh. "I'm only going to warn you once to get out and come to class." Lucy waited for his response hoping he understood by now that one warning was fair enough before she would decide to use her powers on him.

Acedia groaned when he heard Lucy and curled up tighter under the covers for a moment. He would ignore her and most of the time, he did ignore her. Today however, he really didn't want to have to deal with a painful wake up call. If Lucy decided to use her powers on him, he was going to be in pain and the ache was sadly residual. He gave an exasperated sigh and pulled the covers away from his head and glared at her.

"Bastard. Always ruining my sleep," he mused. "Fine, fine. I am up." He slowly pulled himself out of the bed and zombied over to his mirror and ran his fingers through his hair to somewhat comb it back before he pulled on a pair of jeans sitting on the floor and a wrinkled black T-shirt. He gave another yawn and slung his tiny back-pack over his shoulder. "There. Ready," he answered. He did not wait for Lucy though. He just started to make his way to the classroom slowly. He was sure Lucy would get there before him if she wanted to be there on time. And surprisingly, he ended up in the classroom only a minute late. He plopped down on the first empty seat he found and stared at Lucifer with a bored expression on his face, head resting on his hand.
~~~

Freida sat in her seat, her manicured baby pink pinky nail tapping on her lush bottom lip. She didn't normally take morning patients since most students had classes at this time, but there were a couple who she always saw in the morning. One of them, a girl, was sitting in a chair across from the virtue pretending to be a Clinical Psychologist. The poor dear was dealing with a lot of stress at home and this stress was not being helped at all with the appearance of the sins. Even though she was not one of the seven chosen humans, she was being affected by their aura and the occasional attention she did get from them. She needed quite a bit of healing.

"I see," she said softly and let her graceful hand write out the new development in the girl's life. Not only did she have her parents in the hospital, she was now facing a potential break up with a boy she had known for two years. Besides her depression of course. That was probably one of the things causing some of this boy trouble. Damn Acedia's power so easily ebbed over the masses without him even truly interacting half the time. Truly, a sin that required absolutely no effort to persuade people. She was happy the sloth never actually applied himself.

"So the problem is centering around the fact that you do not want to go out much anymore?" Patience asked just to clarify.

The young girl nodded. "I just... I don't want to go out. I am tired all the time. And just going to the movies is boring. I end up falling asleep and he gets mad that he spent money on the tickets for me to fall asleep."

"What do you think would solve this problem the two of you are having? If you don't want to go to the movies, what would you like to do?"

"I don't know. There is no communication anymore. He says I am no fun."

"So it is more about communication and interacting?"

"Yeah."

"Okay. What do you think you can do to help improve that?" She asked, each word she uttered extending her Holly Voice to help dispel some of the fog that Acedia had left on the girl. A lot of it was the tiredness. She was losing more and more desire to do things so even if she came up with a solution, she would be unmotivated to do anything about it. She needed a bit of a boost. The girl heaped a big sigh, some of the creases in her face fading a bit as she calmed.

"Well... I guess we could hang out at home and talk. Or we could go out to a lunch or something. That is kind of a middle ground. I should probably answer some of his texts too. That way he doesn't think I am ignoring him," she said with a nod. "I could.. I could text him and make the arrangement to a restaurant this time. That will show him that I am still interested."

"All right. That sounds like a good idea. I want to see how you improve your communication with him next week and see if things have changed."

"Okay. Thank you Dr. Anemone."

"You are welcome. Your session is just about over. Is there anything else I can help you with today before you head off to your classes?"

"No. That was all for today."

"All right then. I will see you next week. Have a good day," Freida smiled and sat up in her chair, her blond hair up in a professional and elegant bun.

The student gave a nod before hurrying out of the room.

Freida sighed softly and looked down at her schedule. They needed to stay on their toes. They had to undo all the mess the sins had created before they could really start to sway the 7 powerful humans. They needed to work fast. Thus far, she had seen very little of the seven since they did not yet require mental help. She wasn't going to be able to influence them directly unless they came into the office. Ah well. She was getting Intel at least. It appeared that she mostly had to help those around the 7. Other humans seemed to be more susceptible to the charms of sin and virtue alike. The 7 would be harder to reach. And they were all currently in Lucifer's classroom. Most of the sins would be there and their combined efforts would be quite daunting. At least some of the virtues were there to keep the basic aura stable. She did so wish they didn't have a class with Lucifer but there was nothing they could do about that. At least Michael was also a teacher to help balance that situation out. She was going to have to talk to the others about Acedia's reach over the students in general and of course Lust's parading around. In her book, those were the two that could cause the most collateral damage emotionally. Well, they could all be rather damaging but generally speaking, she saw Lust and Sloth as the two that could reach many people at once.

"So much to do and so little time," she mused softly.

Sleep was never a necessity for the sound young Virtue though Ariel seemed to greatly enjoy the ritual more than most. Humans claimed to feel a rejuvenation from the task that the pure Ariel wanted to experience though his methods were always done in an odd and ritualistic manner. He'd always shower just before bed to remove his body of any impurities from the day before beginning his nightly routine of cleansing his face and physically removing the 'impurity' that may have rubbed off on him. Then he would prepare everything he needed for the next day. He'd set aside clean clothes and neatly organize them before organizing all his essentials for his classes and drink a full glass of water with assorted fruits and vegetables. Only then would he allow his body to drift off into the meditative state that was sleep in order to experience something many humans seemed to hold so dear.

Ariel would soon wake up the next day just before his alarm would sound his catchy show tunes everyday in the same timely fashion for him to get dressed and cleanse himself once more as if lying in his bed may have ruined the purity he embodies. His breakfast was as healthy and as vegan as anyone could make that seemed to take him hours to prepare before his daily work out and post shower. Yet somehow he still managed to always arrive to his morning class in a timely fashion. His first class was dreadfully Demonology and Occult Studies with a man his creator knew far too well with the evil and impure Seven Deadly Sins. Of course Ariel did not allow himself to despise the Sins are express any distaste as thoughts like those would be far too 'impure' for someone like him. He would instead meet everyone with a kind heart though he was much nicer towards the humans he was tasked with converting for unknown reasons.

On the other side of the campus, The First Sin was all too awake...

Lucy never slept. She had no need for it and saw no desire in trying to act 'human' by experiencing such a useless task that rendered her from getting anything done. Instead she spent her nights throwing parties. The best parties really. She was Pride after all and Pride could only bring the best. She was rarely seen at the festivities held in her obnoxiously large dorm that was really more of an apartment all to herself thanks to her 'father' and her own skills of persuasion. She would appear for only a few moments to quickly disappear into her own secluded room if she felt no one was interesting enough for her attention to. She would simply keep to herself as she kept her studies at the top of her class along with performing other tasks like strengthening her powers, improving her combative skills, or meditation to aid in honing her abilities even further. Every one in a blue moon someone would join her room for a night of pleasure she claimed that Lust would be jealous of. Though that night nothing of the sorts seemed to happen as no one caught her eye with their lack of intelligence and interest she found in most humans.

The next morning would be spent with Lucy begrudgingly having to partake in showering with the rest of the human females as Lucifer insisted she try to appear normal. Lucy did not have a need for showering. She was far too perfect for such a useless and mundane task. Of course she did it anyways as she knew better by now than to deny Father and his wishes. His wishes were the whole reason she was stuck in this pathetic school pretending to be like any other college woman even though she was far better than all of them. Though this morning would not be pleasant as Lucy had the unfortunate task of retrieving Sloth from his room. It wasn't hard for her as a simply threat of pain always seemed to get the point across though Lucy still hated anything that could hinder her prefect attendance. Especially when it came to the only class she actually seemed to enjoy.

Lucy seemed to almost rush past Blake though really she was walking at a normal pace compared to him as she arrived early to class as always but was displeased to find that she was not the first. She was second to the young man she recognized as Wolfgang. Second. This would never do for Lucifer's darling little Pride as she made a mental note to be much earlier than him the next chance she had. Lucy took her seat front and center as she did in every class while other students began to pile in along with the other Sins and Virtues like Ariel. Chastity. Lucy saw him as a prude not realizing the temptations he could enjoy if he didn't have a rod shoved so far up his ass and an obsession with being as pure as possible. Ariel took his seat towards the center row as he carefully laid out his supplies for class though he had no plan to actually take notes for a class devoted to sinful and impure thoughts.

As more students piled in, Lucy grew more anxious for the class to start though she never showed it. She always kept her same calm demeanor in any situation. She simply felt a bit anxious internally over the fact that class hadn't started yet and even Blake seemed t arrive before Lucifer which was far to alarming making Lucy wonder what happened to her creator. Lucifer soon came barreling in with childish antics meant to entertain the humans and an apology that she knew would never be genuine. She did not jump or change expression when he clapped his hands together though the gesture seemed to startle Ariel a bit. Lucy didn't fully pay attention or really care until Lucifer began to write on the board in chalk. "The Devil, Lucifer, Satan, Beelzebub, Prince of Darkness, Lord of Flies, the embodiment of sin and evil...."

Ariel rolled his eyes while Lucy seemed to yawn and withdraw from taking notes as she never needed them. Clearly she was an expect in everything while Ariel simply did not want to learn about something so disgusting. Lucifer continued on. "We all know about 'the devil' so to say... But do any of you actually know what he does and the story behind him?" Lucy did her best not to snicker as the humans gave there attempts at responses. Ariel was barely listening to the conversation just hoping their lecture would be over with soon. One man seemed to drag on with Biblical nonsense and that made Lucy scoff and even Ariel snap to attention while Lucifer stopped at Wolfgang's desk and glanced at whatever was scribbled on the page.

Lucifer soon found himself to the front of the classroom right in front of Lucy's desk with his arms folded looking down at her while she scribbled a design on notebook out of boredom. "Lucy?" Lucy quickly looked up from her notebook and met eyes with Lucifer. "You've been awfully quiet... Care to enlighten the class on 'The Devil'." Lucy smirked up at him while Ariel seemed to leaned ever so slightly forward from his typical upright and statue like position. He was actually quite curious about how Lucifer's favorite sin would describe her creator.

Lucy adjusted herself to sit upright in her seat as she began her little speech. "The Devil is not some red man with horns and a tail and a useless pitch fork ruling over a fiery domain of sulfur and brimstone forcing people to sin. Yes, he was cast out of Heaven and the story goes that he fell because of Pride..." She paused for emphasis. The First Sin." Lucy seemed to show a hint of joy with her remark as she continued on. "The Devil had once been an angel and his true name was Lucifer, 'The bringer of light'. He was said to be God's favored angel and the first to question his creator. He questioned God's own pride for wanting another creation... Humans. Lucifer rebelled against God and was cast out of Heaven and punished to rule over Hell for being the only angel with balls to see the truth behind the righteous 'God'. He was then created to be seen as 'The Deceiver' and the cause of sin by religious bigots for showing Adam and Eve the truth even though he never forced Eve to take a bite from the forbidden fruit. She chose to sin on her own."

Lucifer was obviously pleased with her answer though he pressed on. "Very good. Now what does Lucifer actually do if he is not the reason people sin?" Lucy rolled her eyes to give another long winded answer. "Lucifer is said to tempt people towards sin though temptation is already present in everyone. He simply enlightens people with the truth and what they're missing out on. Though if you prefer is actual job... It is to punish those that God deems as sinners and refuses to come into his kingdom as this was Lucifer's punishment for the truth. Am I done?" Lucifer smiled down at her as his attention went back to the class. "Anyone else have thoughts to share?"