Weyland's Visit

[7twistedwishes]

On the other side of the door... Hell.

No, no fire and brimstone. A large room, half living room, half office, tastefully decorated and furnished. Thick carpet, a big couch, several recliners, an old-style desk, bookshelves, filing cabinets... and a computer too. Classical music plays in the background and the delicate scent of incense hangs in the air.

The Devil steps aside to let Weyland in enter. No need to make promises of release for him, since he is out of her purview.

Comments

[mechanicalswans]

"You never... use it to toy with them?" he asks. "I do. I have in the past, anyway; the cult I have now is not dedicated to me, and most of them do not know who I am. If you have people willing to follow you, you can get them to do almost anything. It can be entertaining."

[7twistedwishes]

"True... that is an idea." She nods, moving to take his arm. "Shall we?"

[mechanicalswans]

"As you like," he says, and sips his drink. "I have no particular plans for the evening."

[7twistedwishes]

She nods, taking him to an elevator.

It was not there a moment before. Anyway, she walks in with Weyland, and presses '97' on the panel: it starts moving down...

On the way, the glass walls will show infernal panoramas and peeks at sinners being eternally punished.

[mechanicalswans]

He follows her into the elevator, and watches the sights that go past with interest.

"Do you ever go for walks and talk to the people being punished?" he asks. "Ask them whether they regret it--can they reform, or are they here forever?"

[7twistedwishes]

"If they are here, it is because they do not regret." The Devil shakes head. "The redeemable do not come here, only the damned. And most of them are petty damned, empty and boring."

[mechanicalswans]

"Do you ever change their punishments, just for fun?" he asks. "Offer them tasks to carry out in exchange for their freedom, but then deny it? Then again, I imagine that would only be fun a few times. It would get old quickly."

[7twistedwishes]

She turns around, leaning to the glass, watching him. "Dear, I have been doing this for thousands of years. I have tried every trick, every game." She is a bored Devil.

The elevator stops with a 'ding', and the doors slide open to admit cold air. "I can not go further... or rather, this avatar can not go further, but the passage is straight. Just watch out for the ice on the floor."

[mechanicalswans]

"We should trade games," he says, "see if that can alleviate the boredom at least a little. Maybe you haven't played all of mine, and I doubt I have played all of yours.'

He glances out through the doors, and finishes his drink. "I shall be careful," he says.

[7twistedwishes]

She just nods and watches him go...

The room at the end of the tunnel is... not a room but a vast domed cave, filled with ice. No floor, just ice, like a massive lake frozen.

And under the ice, there are sinners, frozen but 'alive', contorted in agony.

Far ahead at the center of the lake, a small stone slab rises from the ice; there is an humanoid figure sitting upon it.

[mechanicalswans]

He is well accustomed to ice, being from the northlands, and having been to the realm of the frost giants. But it feels different here--the sort of nightmarish, he thinks, that would have fit in very well with his own people.

So he walks carefully along the ice, observing his surroundings.

[7twistedwishes]

And as he gets close enouugh, the figure looks up. Wearing rags, dirty bandages covering old wounds, emaciated.

The Devil smirks. "Take a seat." As she gestures, the manacles and chains that bind her wrists, ankles and neck to the stone rattle.

[mechanicalswans]

He frowns, but takes a seat, obediently.

"This is where you are, always?" he asks quietly. "How did it happen? How can you change it?"

[7twistedwishes]

The laugh is bitter and tired. "Call me Legion, because there is many of us. But the core stays here, freezing among the betrayers. There, you can see Judas. There, Ephialtes." The chains rattle as she points to frozen sinners. Her fingers, toes and lips are blue and purple with the cold.

"There was I time when I was flame, now my fire is used to burn petty sinners." She shifts position, stretching legs a bit, the chains being way too short to allow any kind of comfortable postion on the cold stone slab.

[mechanicalswans]

He produces a lit cigarette from midair, brow furrowed.

"There must be something that can be done," he says. "Are you not simply carrying out your purpose as the rest of us do? Why should you be punished for doing what you were created to do? It is unjust."

[7twistedwishes]

"I was not created for this, dear. I was created to be Light, but my light revealed things others did not want to see. There was war in heaven and he who could undo me chose to bind me here. Someone had to take care of Hell and someone had to be blamed by the wrongs of the world." She gives a weak shrug. "Keeping me here fulfills both goals."

[mechanicalswans]

He rests a hand on her arm.

"He is making you do his bidding," he says, "be his scapegoat, and this is your reward? Do you at least--in my world, there is a rebellion, there is a war against the gods, and the forces that oppose them will be victorious, or perhaps already were. Do you have that comfort, at least?"

[7twistedwishes]

Good thing that his hands are metal, since her flesh is cold as ice. "No. One day he will not need me anymore, and I will be undone along with all the sinners."

The Devil shrugs. "Good thing I can send out avatars of myself. or I would have gone insane, alone here in the cold."

"Hmm, maybe I did go insane, just am unable to notice."

[mechanicalswans]

"It seems it must always be so," he says, "whatever world you go to, always the same. The chief among the gods must keep the others in their place, submissive. The world must be bent to his will, and no one else's."

He shakes his head. "I suspect we are all at least a bit insane. Immortality will do that."

[7twistedwishes]

"I dared oppose his ideas. I dared love humanity, and I suspect he delighted in showing humans do need to be coaxed out of the mud." She does not even shiver anymore, too cold. "Now I test and torment them, so his path can exist. There is no light without darkness, and the Bringer of Light became the Angel of the Abyss."

[mechanicalswans]

"What you need is a plan," he says quietly. "And allies. But I am biased. I have been imprisoned, and if it were to happen again there is very little I would not do to escape. I suspect you have more fondness for humanity than I do, and would not be willing to do as many of the things I would, in your place."

[7twistedwishes]

"I used to have, no..." The Devil shakes head. "I do not think a plan would work much, dear. I am powerful, but I am not a god. And it was a god who put me here."

Interesting, the manacles have locks.

Locks have keys, right?

[mechanicalswans]

"I was not a god, but I have made myself into one," he says, taking her hand. "If you want to be freed from this place, I am sure there are ways... not easy, of course, but nothing worth having ever is. Would you like to be free?"

[7twistedwishes]

"Weyland, dear... the way to free me is to convince a god that he does not need me anymore, or to take the keys from these manacles from their guardian. And even of I am freed that way, what would prevent him from locking me again?" Oh, look... her touch makes a thin layer of frost appear on his hands.

[mechanicalswans]

"If he can't find you, he can't lock you up," he says with a light shrug. "If he doesn't see what is happening until it's too late... there are always ways."