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It is a normal day at the gates of judgement. Everyone was working and doing their job as usual. There were a few good souls, a bunch of entitled souls and just in general everything was going like normal.
Sam came over and picked up Henry for Date night. Celli was visiting so George was playing a bit with her. So you could say the only people that were really working were Am, Angelo and Olli.
Am was dealing with a soul that was trying to argue that it should send them to heaven and how they “don’t belong to hell” and how “a dumb AI couldn’t tell them what to do”.
Olli tried talking reason with a female soul that first tried to hit on him and now was trying to convince him he needed a partner and sex and kids and all that stuff to live a happy life. Olli tried pointing out the irony of the statement but the soul just kept going on how “AroAce people just haven’t found the right person jet”. He really was about to jump over the table and drag her down by the hair to level 4 of hell himself not even wanting to use the magical trapdoor for her.
Angelo was proud seeing both of them deal with those souls so good and professional. He could feel a smile form on his face but then “Angi! My love! How have you been?”
Angelo sighed turning to the voice. ‘Why? Why always when everything is calm and everyone is happy!’ and with that thought he started speaking. “Hello Loki. What do you want?” He kept his voice distant, annoyed and even a bit icy.The north trickster god just chuckled amused at the Greek. “Oh come on love~ don’t be so dramatic and cold! Be honest, you have missed me since you last saw me.”
Loki had his normal slightly arrogant tone as he spoke and Angelo knew he was just there to cause mischief and chaos around the gates. He already brought up the urge to punch him in the face inside Angelo but then again it was Loki.
Loki came under the excuse having problems with the paperwork for George’s trip-favour-outh-thingy and needing Angelo’s help understanding it. It wasn’t even a complete lie, seen as he actually needed help with that, but also just wanted to have an excuse to be near the daimon and maybe even get a bit of body contact in any way with the younger. Angelo just tried to stay as cold and distant as he could.
Did he fail? No. Did he succeed in having no body contact? Also no. Loki just kept on getting in his personal space over and over again. Angelo actually started to slowly lose his temper with the god and was about to punch him or throw him into the Sticks river. However both weren’t real options right now, seen as there was a new soul approaching his desk.
“Loki shut up and wait.” He said with way too much happiness, as he shuffled his flat hand into the other god’s face and just pushed him to the side. You could hear a crashing sound but Angelo didn’t look or even blink at it. Blessed be the oblivious mind.
“Hello, and welcome to the gates of judgement where my patience is running thin due to a trickster god who doesn’t know how paperwork works or what personal space means, so please make this long or worth it being short.” Angelo’s voice had completely changed to something more sweater and kinder but also more professional and practiced.
The soul didn’t respond to his greeting. He blinked a few times, confused “Hello? Can you hear me?” He asked again, waiting for an answer. Nothing.
He now looked at the soul in front of him properly. They looked like a teen, maybe barely 16 or 17. They wore a black washed out hoodie and some width, military green pants with extra pockets on the thighs. Their clothes were hiding any body features to indicate the gender of the teen. They had a mix of purplish-red and dark brown hair. It looked like they dyed their hair and it slowly grew out and washed out. Their hair was a bit above shoulder length which also gave them a gender neutral look.
Angelo sighed realising he has no idea if he should say Miss or Mister while addressing the soul. This could be problematic if the teen was an entitled homophobic or transphobic asshole. Angelo sighed frustrated again. “Sir- Miss? I don’t know... I can’t help you if you won‘t talk to me“ he tried again
The teen shifted uncomfortably in front of the desk. Angelo had a soul file laying in front of him but didn’t wanna open it at the moment. The kid sighed. “I- I think there has been a mistake in my judgment.” The teen shifted their weight again moving left to right.
‘Oh great’ Angelo thought, fighting the urge to roll his eyes at the young soul. “And why would that be? Let me guess: you were sent to hell but are supposed to be in heaven-“ “I think I should be in hell but my documents say something different.” The teen interrupted the daimon. He needed a second to register the words. Gods, how long has this day been? When was his last break?
“W-what? Excuse me for my confusion, but could you please elaborate?” He asked, trying to find the right words without angering the soul or offending them in any way.
“I- I think my judgment by the gods- or I mean god is wrong.” The kid stammered out. The change from gods to god struck Angelo as odd and left a small bitter taste in his mouth. “Okay let me look at your file and we can try to sort this out.” He explained calmly and with a reassuring smile.
He opened the file and read through the basic information:
The kid was good, not the best home situation but still two loving parents, complicated family situation, used to get bullied, went to therapy and oh- that explains a lot. Angelo now understood a few of the major problems.
“I think I know why you believe that.” He said with a soft voice. “I-I was already at the front Death-k and the Hellp-desk but they couldn’t help me, s-so they sent me here. Y-you are Angelo, right?” Angelo felt something small break inside him at how hurt this kid sounded. “Yes, that would be me. And like I said, I think I can help you.”
The kid looked up with wide eyes that looked so full of hope. “You can? You actually can fix this mistake?!” “Wow wow wow there! Kiddo calm down!” He laughed at the excitement of the kid “I can try helping you with this situation”. Their face fell a bit at the clarification but still looked so hopeful.
“So let’s talk this through. Why do you believe you need to be in hell? I don’t see anything in your file to convince me of sending you there”
“No! I swear I deserve to be there! I was a horrible human being! First of all I kept on hurting my friends their feelings with things I said or did and with the way I acted!” They started their argument. “Well yeah you did that sometimes but you always apologised as soon as you realised you hurt them, which was almost always… and pretty quick.” Angelo argued back. He knew the soul still had a few arguments for him but he felt like letting the soul speak freely, seen as they looked like they needed to let it out in some way.
“Okay if not for that then what about- you know… me being queer? I am B-Bigender and Pansexual! Isn’t the Christine god like against that? I- I mean so many people on the internet said-“ they tried really hard not to let their voice crack. Angelo saw how hard the soul fought. ‘Maybe Psyche had time for a therapy session with this soul?’ The daimon questioned himself ‘no- I think I can help them for now’ he continued.
“Okay” he finally spoke out again “you know I read your file and know like every thought you ever thought.” It was a rhetorical question “we are both aware that the Christian god is not homophobic or transphobic. Jesus taught us- or well you humans ‘love your neighbour’ so this is not a reason you should go to hell. Plus I see here you helped a few of your fellow queer friends find labels for themselves if they asked you for help, helped them accept being queer is not something bad, helped them with dealing with their parents even if they are homophobic or transphobic. That fact or well those facts would argue more for you going to heaven instead of hell.”
The soul looked up from the floor to look at him just for a moment before looking back to the ground but Angelo saw the realisation dawn on the soul bit by bit. “B-but still… I broke multiple of the ten rules…” they mumbled. Okay, they were getting somewhere with this conversation. “Okay, which did you break?” The teen pulled down their left sleeve a bit more and mumbled something Angelo couldn’t understand, seen as another soul was screaming over at George’s desk about how unprofessional it was to have a little girl here at work and how he could “bring her back home”. Angelo could already guess what level of hell that soul would go to but he was busy with this one at the moment and George seemed to handle it pretty well at the moment.
“I apologise. The gates of judgement are a bit noisy right now. Could you please repeat that?” The teen sighed before speaking again. “I am not sure if it’s the first or second rule b-but I believed in other gods than the one god plus I- I… I…” the kid’s voice broke as tears started running down their face and they started shaking slightly. “Hey. It’s okay. Trust me you can say it” Angelo reassured. The teen needed a moment to calm down. “I- I killed someone… I- I killed m-myself…” Angelo must have looked a bit too surprised at that statement because the kid immediately started rambling. “I- I know it’s a death sin or something like that so why am I not going to hell? I know it’s bad a-and”
“It’s okay. I apologise for my reaction. I knew how you died, I just didn’t guess you be that direct about it.” He was calm which calmed the soul. “S-so then why-“ “because committing murder and killing yourself are two completely different things. Heck even murder and murder can be punished differently depending if it was for survival or self protection or if it was just for the “fun” of it.”
The soul didn’t want to react. They just played with their hoodie sleeves and kept on pulling their left sleeve down. Angelo knew why but he didn’t judge. “Now, do you want to know where you’re actually going?” The soul hesitated but then slowly nodded. “You are not going to hell~” he looked at the file again to make sure he didn’t misread. “And you are also not going to heaven.”
The soul looked at him confused and frightened. “NO! PLEASE DON’T SEND ME BACK TO EARTH! Please!” They begged Angelo an€ their whole body started shaking even more. That wasn’t Angelo’s plan. The kid was barely standing and holding it together enough to not sob out loud. Even more tears had started running down their face.
“Wow wow wow kid! Calm down!” He jumped up from the desk and walked towards the soul. He hesitated touching them but then decided to grab their hand and slowly guide them to the floor. The kid was now full on hyperventilating. “Hey, look at me. Look at me. Breath in, hold and out. Do you understand? In. Hold. Out.”
Angelo did the breathing exercises with them until they calmed down enough to talk and listen again. “I am sorry for the miscommunication. What I was trying to say is that you are not going to heaven, seen as you are not a Christian. However you are either going to Elysium or even Valhalla if you wanted to, but seen as you were mostly a Hellenic polytheist I think Elysium is the better choice here” he smiled at the teen who was still holding his hand close to them but not squeezing it anymore.
“B-but… I never properly prayed… or regularly made offerings o-or even good ones at the rear ovations I did! I- just-…” they sniffed and waited for a moment before continuing “I am not a hero. I am a monster. A-and also I didn’t die in battle or war or something like that! S-so why should Valhalla even be an option for me?”
“You know for such a big hero and strong warrior you don’t give yourself enough credit- like- at all.” A new voice echoed into the conversation. Both Angelo and the soul look up. Loki was laying on his stomach on top of Angelo’s desk, kicking his legs in the air and smiling, with a hint of a grin, down at them.
Angelo had forgotten that menace was still there and immediately felt his blood start boiling again. “Loki.” He spoke with an already annoyed tone glaring at the trickster god. Loki rolled his eyes at the damion and jumped off the desk sitting down on the other side of the soul. Not touch, not moving into their personal direction, just existing beside them. There was a moment of silence where the soul just looked at the trickster god with a slight open mouth as both they and Angelo tried to find words
“Loki what are you-“ Angelo started but Loki interrupted him. “I read your soul file, sorry I just got a bit curious about you. It’s rest souls insist on going to hell you know? Normally it’s the opposite and they want to go to heaven instead of hell. Not that it matters in your case, seen as you were not a Christian.” “I was a horrible believer and worshipper…” they mumble. “You wanna know what a fellow trickster gods once told me? Every bit of worship counts” he shrugged in response. Angelo looked at Loki confused but the Norse god just continued. “Look, I know my words may sound like a trick to you but I promise you on the 9th real and Odin’s bard I speak the truth and only the truth when I say this. You don’t deserve hell. You argued to Angelo you are not a hero or died in war. How about I give you my godly opinion?”
It was a rhetorical question but the teen still nodded and Loki kept talking. “You say you’re not a hero, but still you learned a lot of first aid and medical stuff to help people. You created creative stuff for other people even if you actually didn’t have the time, skills, abilities or experience. You helped your friends whenever you could. You loved helping people. You stood up against your dad and other family members not only for yourself but also your siblings and cousins. And the list goes on. There are so many people mortal and immortal, alive and dead who would call you a hero.” “But-“ they tried arguing in but Loki only raised one hand to silence them. “Before you argue with me about Valhalla let me finish. Valhalla is a place for soldiers of any kind who died in whatever form of battle they fought. You my dear, you died in the mental battle with yourself. You might not see it now, but what you went through in your mind, that is something even some of the gods around all the different pantheons respect and all would call that a war or a battle you thought. So yeah. Even Valhalla would take you little warrior.” Loki had a genuine smile on his face not the arrogant smudge one he usually carried on his face.
Angelo looked at Loki as wide eyed same as the young soul beside him. They were both speechless for two completely different reasons. The soul had finally seen the reasoning the damion tried them to see after the Norse god explained it again in a different way. Angelo was just so speechless that his mouth hung open because Loki, the Norse god of trickery, his ex, was just nice… to a random mortal soul. He couldn’t really grasp the concept of Loki being genuinely nice to anyone and especially lowering himself to apologise for something as small like reading their soul file and also sitting in front of Angelo’s desk on the floor just like that. He was speechless.
Loki saw how confused he was and just rolled his eyes before he gave a slight shrug. He didn’t care how shocked Angelo was at his behaviour, he did what he pleased and that was right now help this soul. Angelo and Loki held eye contact for a moment until the soul spoke up again. “S-so you say I can even go to a place where a lot of real worriers and heroes are? Do I need to choose one? What if I don’t want to choose…” That’s something Loki didn’t know but Angelo did, so he spoke u again. „I mean it is your free choice. If you want you can first have a look at both of the afterlives and then choose and even if you choose one I think the other one would still let you visit.” The soul smiled for the first time since they gotten here. “Okay…” their vice sounded weak but like a huge wave of relief ran over them. “So you can show me around?”
“Sadly I still need to work at the gates here, however Loki here might be able to help and I know someone else who will be willing to help you.” Angelo’s voice sounded reassuring and he reached to his pocket to grab his phone.
“No need to call. I am already here!” A cheerful voice from in front of them. They looked into the direction of the voice. There stood a new god with a feathered head and feathered boots. He had a bright smile on his face and he bowed his lower body slightly down to be more on eye level with the teen soul. “H-Hermes?” They asked with a more dry voice now not believing their eyes.
“The one and only. Greek messenger god and here to guide you to Elysium for a show around and hopefully convince you to stay there.” He sounded so casual but also so cheerful at the same time as he held out a hand for the soul to grab. The soul just stared at him. “A-are you okay?” He asked a bit concerned at the state the human soul was in. The human had a few tears running down their already red cheeks as they realised this was really Hermes in front of them.
They jumped up and into Hermes’s arms. Hermes was first caught of guard but soon composed himself and hugged back. “Slow down kiddo. Everything will be alright now… I promise.” The Greek gods voice sounded so caring and reassuring like neither Loki nor Angelo have ever heard him talk before, while his hand was stroking comfortingly over the souls back.
“What- how did you?” Angelo tried to form a coherent sentence, but didn’t manage to get one together. Hermes however knew what Angelo wanted to know. “They prayed to me particularly sometimes and asked me and Apollo to stand by their side regularly, so they didn’t feel so alone.” Angelo nodded slowly.
“Well guess we both are going to show them around, shouldn’t we?” Loki asked jokingly and playfully rolled his eyes. Hermes also rolled his eyes. “I guess we can do that. Angelo are you sure you don’t want join us? Chiron and the others around the river Styxe would probably be happy to see you around more often.” Hermes tried hopefully. Angelo thought about it. “I don’t know… I mean sure I would love to but also there is still so much work…” he mumbled, scratching his chin while thinking.
“Don’t worry Angelo! We got you covered.” Olli called over and Angelo sighed. He now had lost every excuse of staying at the gates of judgment and not only Hermes but also Loki realised that. Both trickster gods grinned at him.
“Oh come on Angi~ this will be fun!” Loki started teasingly. “Hate to say it, but I agree on this one with Mr movie reference.” Hermes said leaning on top so Loki’s shoulders from behind just to anyone the other god and he succeeded seen as Loki did start protesting. Angelo sighed. “I guess I can join you this once.” The teen who stood there (seen as Hermes left the hug to annoy Loki) smiled at him with one of the brightest smiles ever. “T-thank you t-three so much.”
“Did you just thank me?” Loki asked and the two Greeks jumped in “NO! THEY DID NOT!” “Loki, you already have George, leave that poor soul up of your mind games.” Angelo finished while giving him a death glare. Loki raised his hands defensively. “Sorry! Sorry didn’t mean it like that!” He tried to talk himself out of it but Hermes shut that train of thought immediately down. “Oh stop it you jerk! You’re not fooling anyone here.” Hermes moved his position to stand in front of the kid with crossed arms in a more or less protective stance. Loki rolled his eyes and stood up. “Yeah, yeah… I am dropping it” he grumbled as he brushed off invisible dust. Angelo also got up and straightened his clothes.
“Well then let’s go!” Hermes cheered as he grabbed the kids hand and started pulling them towards the universal hallway. They first went to Valhalla where a few gods and other people reassured the kid that they would be welcome there and they are a strong soldier. They even meet an other teen who was in a similar situation then them when they first arrived here.
They then went to the river Styxe where they were greeted by Daren (was that his name?) and Bob. They seemed to know Hermes and Angelo pretty well so the kid didn’t worry. When they stood there the kid started searching for money but couldn’t find any with them so they started panicking. “Shit I don’t have money! Does that mean-“ “Oh no don’t worry!” Hermes chirped in. “Hermes is right. We got rid of that money system a long time ago, seen as people stopped being buried with their belongings. They check your soul file and send you on your way.” The daimon elaborated.
In the end the teen also looked at Elysium and despite Loki’s best efforts they chose Elysium. However they did say they would visit Valhalla very soon. The teen was even greater by a few people who were expecting them.
The two trickster gods and the daimon made their way back to the gates of judgment. “Never knew you were good with kids?” Angelo broke the silence after a moment, while Hermes guided/drove them out of the underworld back to the universal hallway. Loki shrugged with his shoulders. “They seem nice and all, so why not help” “bullshit. I have never seen you so nice to anyone!” Hermes bit back.
(This is mostly out of character form now on because even gods can worry about the mortal world and what’s going on there)
“Well~ eurgh! Okay! I just really show it but I actually like kids… they used to make the most mischief, chaos and stuff like that before- you know…” he looked at the river Styxe instead of one of the two Greeks. “Shit went down in the mortal world?” Angelo continues. Loki stiffened a bit but sighed heavily. “Yeah… I mean, doesn’t it worry you as well sometimes what’s going on down there? Look at the kid just now! They had so big potential in life but chose this because they felt like this was the only option and they are not the only one that choses that way” The Norse god sounded so genuine it shocked Angelo in a sad positive way. “I get it… it’s scary how many people started praying for protection and safety and things just to get better… I haven’t delivered so many prayers in a long time…” Hermes added. He was a messenger god so he was the one who delivered the written prayers sometimes. It was sad. It was sad and that was probably the only time they and many more people agreed on something. “We just need to hope the mortal realm gets better and the people actually change. From here? The only thing we can do is help the broken souls heal” Angelo said, also looking at the river.
(Okay enough sentimental talk. From the author: read the author note at the end)
They arrived at the shore again and all made there ways back to where they were before. Well almost. Hermes stayed at the desk ready to watch Angelo beat the ever living shit out of Loki for making paperwork last so long and also being a pain in Angelo’s ass. They somehow finished it and Angelo did actually punch him after.