Curvaceous Cardinal Vices

[SoylentOrange]

Greed and Wrath are related to... taxonomy? @_@

[hmmm!]

Here's the pic to go along with chapter 4 of the story. Found here, for those who haven't read it yet:

http://www.process-productions.com/f...&postcount=116

[hmmm!]

For anyone who wants it, here's a new chapter and picture to the story
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Sid and the Girls
Chapter 5: Wendy

"What's the matter, Sidney?" Mr. Kim asked him as he came out from the back room, tying his apron behind him.
"Oh, nothing much, Mr. Kim," Sid replied, rubbing his eyes. "Just didn't sleep well last night, is all."
"Really?" The elderly Korean man asked, arching an eyebrow. "I've never heard of you not sleeping well before." He grinned and shook his finger at Sid. "Let me guess... laaaady problems?"
"Wha-ha-hat?" Sid asked, laughing. "Mr. Kim, c'mon, what would make you think that?"
"Ah, you young people," He said, waving Sid off as he turned back to the shelves he was stocking. Sid smiled, continuing to the front of the store. "Ah, you young people" was Mr. Kim's explanation for everything from tourist season to global warming, so he probably wouldn't have to recount his actual woman troubles.
"Hey there, stud muffin," Linda said, surprising Sid as he tried to get the old cash register to start properly.
"Stud muffin?" Sid repeated, blushing a bit. Linda was never one to be a flirt, and the pet-name was fairly unlike her.
"David told me about your date the other night. Said you almost had your v-ticket punched by a real man-eater."
Sid blushed even further. "C'mon..."
"I'm not teasing," She clarified. "I just think it's funny that a sweet guy like you got paired up with a girl like that. They must not screen people very well there."
"Aw, I don't think she was a bad person..." Sid said as Linda started separating out the pile of plastic tubs they used to hold produce in. "She just, well, reallly liked... You know..."
"Sex?"
"Yeah," Said replied, blushing a bit and looking down as he fed the receipt roll into the register.
Linda scoffed. "You know, I'd say you're just naive, but it almost feels wrong. Your ability to see both sides of everyone is really sweet, sometimes," Linda said before setting to work getting the bins in their right places.

* * *

"She wants him," Lucy said, looking down at the store.
"Yeah, but her dad would never go for it," Wendy added. "He pretends well enough, but deep down he still hates foreigners."
"No, what he hates is people having power over him," Gail countered, "Which he instinctively ties to wealth. So long as Sid is never richer than he is, or his family, then he won't feel threatened by him."
"This is all very fascinating, really," Priscilla inoned, arms crossed over her chest, save for the fact that it is *completely* irrelevant to our mission. We are *supposed* to be watching and reading Mr. Graham."
"Oh c'mon, whaddaya want from us?" Wendy said, leaning back against a chimney and spreading her arms wide. "The kid's like trying to read a sheet of glass. No trails, no fingerprints, no nothing!"
"He's not impregnable," Priscilla said. "If you were better you could-"
"Can you?" Wendy shot back.
Priscilla looked away, her upper lip pulling towards her nose slightly. "Just because Sidney does not take pride in his station, appearance, or much anything else does *not* mean he is without flaw," She said, turning her head up to glare at Wendy. "It is *you* job to find his weakness and exploit it!"
"You know, I'm getting reeeeal tired of that look," Wendy said as she stood.
"Is that a *fact*," Priscilla said, her eyes narrowing dangerously. "You'd think you'd have learned to cope with my disappointment in you by now."
"Pfft, whatever. It's not hatred or disappointment. I've seen all those. I know exactly what all kinds of hatrd and disgust look like." Wendy laughed a bit. "No, the way your face is twisting up, it's not hate- at least, not at me."
"You are speaking dangerously," Pride said, advancing on Wendy.
"I'm tired of it because I'm not used to it," Wrath said, stepping back into a defensive pose but stepping back all the same. "Since when were you out of the loop? Since when did you not know what was going on? You're angry because you don't *know* something and it's bugging the *shit* out of you."
"It is not your *place*-" Priscilla hissed as she closed the distance between herself and Wendy, stopping mid-step with an odd look upon her face. She knew she was being observed; not watched specifically but someone was paying attention to her presence. She turned to the fire escape, all the other vices doing likewise as a pair of feet echoed up the metal steps. A Chinese man looked over the lip of the roof, squinting at the seven women.
"Wha' the hell ah you doing on mah woof?" He demanded in stilted English.
Priscilla sniffed the air a few times, getting a feel for the man's soul. "Hmm... Gail," She said, nodding her head towards the man once. Gail reached unto her cleavage, pulling out a small, tightly-wound roll of bills.
"Here's a thousand dollars," She said, flipping the man the roll of bills. "Never bother us again."
The man looked from the money to Gail, then back to the roll of bills. He undid the rubber band around them, counted out the bill, then looked back up to gail and said "Okay!" with a broad smile, merrily tapping his way back down the stairs.
"Phooey," Lucy said, hands on her hips. "Gail always gets the easy ones."
"Hey, there's a lot more people who can be bought off with money more easily than a roll in the hay," Gina said, shrugging.
"I know, I know. I just wish sometimes that we could have some studly nymphomaniac walk in on us talking shop instead of miserly geezers."
"Well hey, remember Barcelona?" Gail said. "You had the run of that place, pretty much."
"Oooh, yeah," Lucy said, copping a feel on herself and biting her lip at the memory. "But... that was like two hundred years ago!"
"Well jeeze, what do you want?" Gina asked.
"Sex!" Lucy exclaimed, throwing her arms wide.
"Can we PLEASE focus?" Priscilla said sternly, grimacing.

* * *

"So you think she'll come back?"
"Probably," Sid replied as he counted out his register. "I mean, I hope so."
"You hope?" Kevin asked. "Think she's a keeper?"
"Well, she's nice," Sid said. "We had a good time, before she ran off."
"Yeah, what was that all about, anyways?" Kevin asked.
"Well, I'm glad you're finding someone good on that thing," Kevin aid. "You think she's the one?"
Sid chuckled. "No, I'm pretty sure she'd make a good friend, but I don't know about much else. I mean, she's nice and all, just... I dunno."
"What?" Kevin asked. "What's the matter?"
"I dunno," Sid repeated, shrugging as he shut the register. "I get the feeling she'd be fine until I wanted to go do something. She's not big on 'doing stuff'."
"Well, so what're you saying?" Kevin asked. "What would you have liked better?"
Unseen across the street, six of the Sins bolted to the edge of the rooftop, listening intently.
"I dunno, I just want someone who likes to do stuff, someone with some fire in her guts, you know? I mean, if I want to just wander off in a random direction and walk around, I don't think I should have to explain why."
Five of the sins standing on the ledge of the building turned their heads to look at the red-headed woman in the black exercise outfit.
"...Aw, c'mon," Wendy moaned.
"What?" Gluttony said. "He said 'active', he said 'fire in her guts'. Who else would that mean?"
"Active?" Wendy said, turning and shaking her head while tossing her hands in the air behind her. "Pfft. Whatever. He just wants walks on he beach and crap like that."
"Well who would you suggest, then?" Lucy said, hands on her hips.
"Send Glu- Gina," Wendy said. "Just go somewhere there's a food stand and she'll be happy."
"...So long as it's not *too* far a walk, I suppose..." Gina said, twirling one of her pigtails in her fingers.
"No," Priscilla said, "Wendy is the one."
"Oh come on, he doesn't want me. He's like some sort of zen master pansy," Wendy said, crossing her arms over her chest.
"Wendy, *you* are going to go on a date with Sidney Arthur Graham, and *you* are going to tempt him," Pride said.
Wrath stopped, turning slowly and looking at Pride, her mouth slowly opening. "I know what this is..." She said, walking towards Pride. "You're setting me up. You know this guy won't go for me, you just want me to go out there and fail because I called you out yesterday."
The thinnest of smiles crossed pride's lips as Wrath marched up to within a foot of her, scowling.
"...Yes," Pride finally said, her smile dropping. "And there is *nothing*," She said, her features hardening, "you can *do*" she continued, her eyes blazing in violet flame, "about it."
Wrath's features slowly curled into a feral snarl, lips quivering and eyelids twitching as her eyes ignited in a crimson mirror of Pride's. Envy looked down at Wrath's fists, the skin creaking as her fists tightened beyond the threshold of what mortal flesh could bear.
"I... *hate*... you." Wrath said through clenched teeth.
Pride's smile returned, the fire in her eyes extinguishing. "That fact, and your utter *helplessness* to change it, brings me more joy than you will probably ever know."
A snarl more wild and evil than all the beasts of Babylon rumbled out of Wrath's chest, the tendons on her wrists and arms standing out like knife blades pressing out of her skin.
Wrath spun away from Pride, marching across the roof with a snarl. Without even slowing down, she bent three antennas and punched through a chimney before reaching the edge of the roof and jumping off.
"Um, Priscilla?" Gluttony started, looping her thumbs and forefingers around each other like the links of a chain, "I don't- not that I'm questioning your orders-"
"But?" Pride said, still watching where Wrath had jumped off.
"Well, I mean, if Father said this was important, why send someone you're certain will fail?"
Pride turned her head slightly, looking away from Gluttony and the rest of the vices. "...If the situation becomes dire, I will step in personally," She said. "For the moment, however, I have time enough to teach Wendy a lesson. And besides, we may still learn something from observing Mr. Graham."
"O-kay..." Gluttony said, frowning slightly as she followed Pride to the fire escape.

* * *

Sid was just finishing up his dinner when he heard his computer beep. He paused for a moment, not having recalled turning his computer on when he got home, but then again given how quickly he'd had to get ready because of his date with Sally he wasn't ready to discount anything he'd done or not done in his half-awake state. Sid finished off the last on his plate and put his dishes on the counter next to the sink on his way out the kitchen, turning the corner to his bedroom. When he sat down at his desk and turned the monitor on, he noticed a message had popped up in the corner. Clicking on it, he was taken to the dating site again, where there was yet another unfamiliar name waiting with a message for him. Was this normal, he thought as he clicked on the message? To get a new girl responding to you every day?
"Hey, I know Sally, she said you werea good guy. Can I come over I neeed to vent."
Sid checked his watch as he hit "reply", a spike of panic stabbing through him as he remembered his frenzied cleaning the night before for Sally.
"Right now?" He asked, hoping she wasn't already on her way over.
"Yeah," The reply came a few seconds later, causing Sid to exhale in relief. "Please? I'm really angry."
Sid looked at his watch again. On the one hand, he'd had enough of strange women dropping by every night, but on the other hand, what else was he going to do that night? She sounded like she needed someone, and if he could help he didn't see any reason why he shouldn't.
"Okay," He said. "You've got my address from my profile, right?"
"Yeah. See you soon."

Sid did some minimal cleaning, but the apartment was still more or less clean from when he'd tidied up for Sally. Still, he put away his dinner dishes and did a few other things. He was just about to fluff the last pillow on his couch when he heard someone stomping up the steps outside his apartment, sounding like each foot was trying to smash through the wooden stairs as they went up. He nearly jumped when someone pounded on his door, each blow enough to shake the walls.
"Sidney!" A woman's voice shouted. "Open up!"
"Who- who's there?" Sid asked, backing away from the couch.
"Wendy!" she shouted back. "From the inter-whatever!"
"Okay, okay!" Sid called out, rushing to the door.
When Sid opened the door, he didn't know whether to stare agog or run. Wendy looked like a combination of track star and professional boxer, all muscle and sinew and angry glare. Her shock of red hair was as fiery as the flames printed on her track pants, and what of her torso wasn't covered by her sports bra rippled with power, muscles tensing and stretching visibly under her skin as she moved and turned.
"Sidney?" She asked, still glowering.
"...Yes?" Sid replied, hoping it was the right answer.
"Call me Wendy," She said, walking in past Sid, who flinched as she passed.
"Is... is Wendy short for something?" Sid asked.
"What? No," Wendy said, flopping down on his couch and looking at him quizzically. "Why would it be?"
"Well, you said 'call me Wendy'..."
"Because it's my name, stupid," She retorted.
"Sorry, sorry," Sid said, putting his hands up. Wendy still had him a little off-balance, and he searched for some conversational anchor to right himself. "So, uh, you said Sally's your sister?"
"Who- oh, yeah, Fatass. Unfortunately," She said, kicking her feet up onto Sid's coffee table, her heels landing roughly enough to cause the items atop it to jump slightly.
"Unfortunately?" Sid echoed.
"You try living with someone whose only developed muscle is her thumb," Wendy said, pantomiming working a TV remote. "Can't get her to do *anything* that isn't centered on sitting on her butt."
"So... is that what you needed to vent about?" Sid asked, worried he was wading into dangerous waters.
"What, her? Pfft, hardly. Fatass might be irritating, but I can handle her." Wendy popped up onto her feet, grabbing a handful of hair on either side of her head and yanking it side to side. Sid flinched at each of the pops her neck made, sounding off like snapping chopsticks.
"No," Wendy said, beginning to pace in a circle around Sid's couch, "What's got me so pissed is my boss."
"Your boss?" Sid asked. "What do you do?"
"Imagine the most arrogant, overbearing, insufferable..." Wendy started, avoiding the second part of the question.

* * *

"Why is it we can't hear through these things, again?" Sloth asked.
"You know as well as I do why," Greed said.
"Well, I mean, I know we're not allowed to intercept prayers and stuff unless they're specifically directed to the low office, but we can't even hear Wendy, and she's sure as certain not talking to the other side."
"It's all part of the deal," Greed replied. "We're only allowed to watch from this side. In order to listen or interact in any meaningful fashion unless we go there ourselves. On earth, everything's fair game, but from Hell, all we can do is watch."
"Well, that doesn't seem fair," Gluttony said. "The other side can hear and interact without coming down in person."
Greed shrugged. "It's what happens when you lose a fight."
"I'm sorry, was that a disparagement against Father?" Pride suddenly said, her head snapping over to Greed.
"No! No, I'm just saying that's how things went down, is all."
Pride scowled, but returned her view to the mirror just the same.
"...I kind of don't think we'd want to be able to hear her at this point," Envy said from the back of the room. The other sins looked to the mirror, seeing Sidney backed against the wall, eyes wide as Wrath's human guise walked circles around his couch, speaking emphatically.

* * *

"...And she's only my 'boss' in the first place because she sucked up to *her* boss! She's so far up his ass you can see her face when he yawns, that no-good, pansy-ass, arrogant piece of shit!"
Sid blinked as Wendy finished her violent tirade, watching her shoulders heave as she panted for breath.
"Umm... you wanna go for a walk or something? Get a change of scenery?" Sid offered, afraid that if Wendy continued any longer, she'd punch his wall, and given how tense her muscles looked, he had no doubts that she'd be able to punch clean through it.
Wendy looked up at Sid, noticing him for seemingly the first time since she'd began her rant. Sid flinched at just how feral her expression looked, but when he looked again she was merely scowling.
"...Yeah," She said, looking over her shoulder at the door. "Yeah, let's blow this dump. In fact, I know somewhere fun we can go."
"Fun?"
"Yeah, fun," Wendy said, turning and heading for the door. "You know, that thing my boss never lets me have?" She reached the door and looked over her shoulder at Sid. "Well, you coming or what?"
"Uh- yeah!" Sid said, hurrying to follow Wendy out his door and down the stairs.

"If... if you dislike your job so much, is there any reason you can't look for another?" Sid asked as he followed Wendy out onto the sidewalk.
"No," Wendy said, scowling. "I'm pretty much stuck there. It's a contract kind of thing."
"Well, I'm sorry to hear that," Sid said.
"Don't worry about it," Wendy replied, her eyes narrowing. "Besides, she'll get hers one of these days..."
"So, ah, where are we going?" Sid asked as he followed Wendy into the seedier part of town.
"Just a fun little place I know where a girl can unwind," She said, smiling the first genuine smile Sid had seen all night.
"Unwind...?" Sid asked, remembering Lucy's concept of relaxation from earlier in the week.
"Nothing dirty, you perv," Wendy said, looking over her shoulder. "Just some good clean fun," She continued, cracking her knuckles to emphasize 'fun'. Wendy looked over her shoulder, seeing she was beginning to outpace Sidney.
"Well, c'mon!" She barked. "You wanna get there tonight or what?"
"Well, I- I mean, do we really need to run?" Sid asked.
"You can catch up on your rest the first year you're dead!" Wendy retorted. "C'mon, hup two!"

* * *

"Okay, here we are," Wendy said, stopping on the sidewalk just as the streetlights came on over the street.
"Huhh- really? A- fuhh- fish market?" Sid asked as he caught his breath. He wasn't out of shape by any means, but Wendy was tireless. She didn't even look winded.
"No, not the stupid fish market," Wendy said as she squeezed into the crowded alley next to it. "Under the fish market."
Sid said nothing as he followed Wendy into the alley, keeping close behind her as she shouldered past a great many unsavory-looking characters. Sid was normally not one to judge by looks, but even beyond the rough-and-tumble appearances of so many of the people they passed, the place just *felt* mean.
A large asian man stood in front of a pair of cellar doors, where Sid could hear the echoes of a great commotion wafting up from its depths. As Wendy made for the stairs down, the large asian man stepped to the side, blocking Wendy's path.
"I don' know you," He said in a thick Chinese accent. "Gwailos need a... spon... sor?" He continued, trailing off as his features softened from their intimidating glare. Sid craned his neck and could see Wendy's lip curled up in a vicious snarl, her teeth bared and her eyes locked on his until he wordlessly moved back from in front of her. Sid followed Wendy down the stairs, looking at the bouncer as he passed, who for his part was looking at wendy over his sunglasses with a fearful expression.
"C'mon, Sid!" Wendy yelled over her shoulder as she pushed through the crowded hallway, heading for the double-doors at the end of the hall. Sid glanced into the side-rooms as he passed, and saw them filled with things and activities that would likely cause any law enforcement official to look twice. But given the types of characters he saw in those side rooms, he thought it best to only look once and hurry along behind Wendy.

Wendy plowed through every stray soul that was even slightly between her and the doors, shady-looking characters that made the hairs on Sid's neck stand up, but either by her intense glare, feral snarl, or just sheer bravado, no one moved to reprimand her or otherwise impede her progress. Sid caught plenty of nasty looks as he followed as close behind Wendy as he could, but there was something about Wendy in her purposefulness that cowed even the toughest-looking characters, like she had an aura that repelled people. She pushed open the double doors at the end and a wave of screams and yells flew out of them. Only Sid's need to stay close behind Wendy kept him moving forward as he followed her into the throng of hollering people, nearly all of them asian, pumping their fists in the air and shouting towards the center. Above the bobbing shock of fiery hair, Sid saw a set of chain link walls in the center of the room, the tops swaying slightly against
each other. The crowd became unbearably dense, only Wendy's insistent movement forcing her and Sid deeper and deeper into the throng. Sid found himself pressed up against Wendy's back as she shoved her way through the crowd, parting the mass of bodies with surprising ease.
Finally Sid and Wendy made it to the fence, and Sid could see what it was everyone was yelling at. Two asian men were circling around each other, gauze-wrapped fists up by the sides of their heads.
"Muay Thai!" Wendy yelled as Sid settled in next to her. "None of those pansy-ass pads or anything!"
Sid flinched as one of the fighters delivered a flurry of blows to the other's head, the fighter covering his head with his arms to absorb the blows.
"Yeah! Beat him down!" Wendy yelled, hooking her fingers in the chain links and pulling her face close as she yelled.
Sid looked at Wendy, then back to the fight, flinching as the defending boxer threw out a trio of vicious kicks, impacting against the attacking boxer's sides with enough force that Sid swore he heard the slap of the impact over the roar of the crowd.
"They block with their shins!" Wendy said, looking at Sid. "Their damn shins!"
Sid glanced at Wendy and back to the fight, flinching as a drop of water fell on his forehead. The entire roof was dripping, the melted ice and condensation from the fish refrigerators up there causing a constant light but sparse rainfall. The lamps hanging from the ceiling would sway a little when each drop would land on the shade, making the edges of the lamplight seem to sway and fuss a little from the constant minor jittering of the lights.
Both fighters were bloody by this point, wicked high kicks and crushing punches having split the skin over the eyebrows and jawbones and noses of the combatants. Yet still they glared at each other, all thoughts of pain or fatigue forced from their minds as they focused solely on their rival. Sid was beginning to feel quite uncomfortable; between the riotous screaming, of which Wendy's calls for blood seemed to be the loudest, and the sheer brutality of the fight, no referee or judge or anything resembling an end besides which man goes down first, Sid felt like he was distressingly out of his element. Sometimes when he felt like this he would try to retreat inside of himself, to meditate away the chaos of the world, find the calm in the eye of the hurricane, but he didn't like relying on it too much. It reeked of escapism, of hiding from the world; after all, the problem with being in the eye of the storm is you're basically alone. Sid looked to Wendy,
who was jumping up and down in place, looking like she was about to climb up the fence as tightly as she was gripping the loops in the chain link, yelling and hooting and screaming, joy radiating off her face's every feature save the eyes. Sid turned back to the fight, just wishing it'd be over soon so they could get out of the fish market. The legality of it aside, it just wasn't something he wanted to spend a night doing.

The fight continued, and Sid tried to imagine himself in their position, beating on another human for money, fame, or even sport. He shook his head, watching as a drop of blood splattered on the floor of the makeshift ring. Why? What was the point of hurting another human being just for fun? What was the end result, Sid wondered as he watched, what was the terminus of this contest of pain?
Sid was about to turn and ask Wendy just how long she intended to stay here when the two fighters simultaneously lashed out with low kicks, their shins striking each other with deadly force. Sid gasped as one of the fighter's shins wrapped around the other's, the bone broke like a twig as the fighter's foot flopped around like a snapped rubber band. The man stepped back, the pain already registering on his face, though of course with the bone fractured so badly his lower leg collapsed under him like a rag doll's, his cry of pain drowned out by the explosion of noise from the crowd, the match coming to a very decisive and unexpected end.
"C'mon!" Sid heard Wendy yelling as she jumped up and down at the fence, "Get him! Punch him in the sack! Your arms still work, don't they? Quitter!"
Sid shook his head. He'd had enough. "Hey," He said, patting the back of Wendy's bicep, "Hey. Hey!"
Wendy spun, looking at Sid, and he couldn't help be feel a bit unnerved that no matter how happy the rest of her face seemed, her eyes never lost their somuldering intensity.
"Yeah, what?!" Wendy yelled.
"I'd like to go," Sid yelled back, trying to keep his tone as polite as he could given how loud he had to be to be heard.
"Go?!" Wendy barked back. "It's only the first fight!"
"I'd really like to go," Sid said back. "If you wanna stay, that's fine, but I don't wanna be in here anymore."
Wendy opened her mouth, but stopped halfway to saying anything. She looked to the ring, where the injured man was still being helped out, the agony etched into his face as his foot hung limply from the rest of his leg. Wendy looked at Sid, her face falling, then off to the side, back to the ring, and finally back to Sid.
"...Fine!" she said, shoving back off the fence, pushing a gap in the crowd with her back. "C'mon!" She snapped as she spun around, once again pushing and shoving her way out of the crowd as Sid followed behind. She said nothing all the way out, the bouncer at the top of the stairs giving her a wide berth as they exited.
"So, what was that?" Wendy demanded, spinning on her foot as they reached the sidewalk.
"What was what?" Sid asked, taken aback by the aggressiveness of her accusation.
"Why'd you bail after only one fight? They were just getting started!" Wendy asked, now pacing a small section of sidewalk, arms crossed in front of her.
"Look, I just- I didn't want to watch anyone else get hurt, okay?" Sid said, spreading his hands and shrugging.
"What?" Wendy asked, turning her head to look at Sid as she kept pacing. "Why? Who cares?"
"What do you mean, 'Who cares?'" Sid echoed. "I care. I mean, that guy's leg probably hurts worse than anything he's ever felt before in his life."
"Ha!" Wendy barked, stopping to look at Sid. "The leg? The leg is nothing. What hurt that guy the most was the fact that he *lost*."
"I don't think that wounded pride hurts more than snapping your shin in half," Sid said.
Wendy cocked her head, put a fist on her hip, and arched a brow at Sid. "That's because you've never fought for anything before," She said. "C'mon, let's blow this joint," She continued, beckoning as she turned and started walking down the street. Sid walked behind her, Wendy acting as a wedge parting the crowds on the sidewalks.
"I'm sorry, I-" Sid started.
"Sorry?" Wendy said, halting and spinning to Sid. "Why the hell are you sorry?"
"Well, I just-"
"Listen, you felt something, and you said it. You were even willing to walk out on me for it. As much as I might think you're a damn sissy for getting all weepy-eyed at it, that's *your* opinion and you shouldn't apologize to anyone for it!"
Sid blinked, trying to reconcile the fact that Wendy had just said one of the most self-affirming things in his life to him via insult.
"You're really something... unique, Wendy." Sid said. Wendy gave him a simpering look and turned back down the sidewalk.
"Look, Sidney," Wendy said, "Trying to be nice is good for buttering up dates, but honesty, in all its brutality, is the best course. You feel something, you say it. You want something, you take it. Someone tries to stop you, you beat them to it." Wendy turned her head, looking at Sid over his shoulder. "Well?"
"I... I don't know," Sid said, as he tried to keep up. "It just seems so... mean."
"Mean?" Wendy retorted. "What's wrong with mean?"
"Well, I mean, it's the whole point of why we got civilized, isn't it? To stop living through force, to be able to peacefully coexist?"
Wendy laughed at that one as she stepped into the street, heedless of the traffic. Sid hesitated a moment before following Wendy, her seemingly unstoppable momentum clearing a path through the traffic as easily as she had through the crowds.
"Jeeze, careful!" Sid said as he jogged up behind her.
"Mean is how anyone who gets anywhere in this world does anything," Wendy said. "Civilization is just stratifying who we get angry at and how we take it out on them."
"I just... why does it always come back to anger, to rage?" Sid asked, finally coming up shoulder-to-shoulder with Wendy. "What about the positive aspects of society?"
Wendy stopped, spinning to Sid as he walked half a step past her before he could stop himself.
"Look," She said, "every piece of 'polite' and 'positive' society was bought in blood. Gandhi couldn't have sat-in in front of Hitler's tanks, they woulda mashed him flat. King's marches would have done nothing against the Khmer Rouge except give them easy targets." Wendy jabbed a finger at Sid, the impact making him flinch. "You have to understand that anger is the root of everything good you've ever enjoyed in your entire life. Every right you cherish is there because someone got angry enough at whatever cocksucker was keeping it from them to stand up and sock them in the face and take it by force."

Wendy turned and kept going down the sidewalk, her brow furrowed. Sid wasn't buying it, and she was sick of keeping her temper in check. She'd like to just headlock the twerp and drag him back to Hell herself, but there were lines even she wouldn't- couldn't- cross. She'd had to develop her own punishment room, somewhere the wrathful would spend all eternity, the worst thing she could think of for mortals who screwed up during their time on earth. But what boss-man could do to her for bringing an untainted soul to Hell would make that look like daises.
"I just- even if that's true, why?" Sid asked, finally finding his tongue. "Why does it all have to go down? Why can't anything be built up? I don't understand why it always comes back to hate and destruction."
"Because that's the way the world works, Sid," Wendy said, edging just a bit forward of Sid's shoulders but still close enough to see him next to her. "The weak are punished by the strong, the many crush the few, that's how humans are. The only people able to change that are the stronger ones, the meaner ones, the ones who are willing to do anything to get ahead." She glared at Sid. "Why get angry? Why? I'd ask you why *not*?" Wendy looked ahead, and saw a dark-skinned man practically aglow with simmering rage a ways down the sidewalk. Bad childhood, uncaring neighborhood, felt the whole world was against him and probably rightfully so. A perfect candidate. "The world is a terrible, unfair, brutal place, and the only thing it recognizes is- hey!" She exclaimed, shoving Sid into the dark-skinned man with her shoulder and feigning a stumble. "Watch where you're going, you big oaf!"
"Say *what*?" The dark skinned man said, turning to the two of them to scowl. In the soft light of the streetlamps, the man's piercings- one in his chin, two each on his earlobes and the tops of his ears- shone in stark contrast to the way the crevices in his face seemed to gather shadows as he scowled.
"I- I'm sorry, I didn't-"
"Know he had to make excuses to weaklings," Wendy interjected. "C'mon, Sid, let's go."
"Now wait one damn minute," The man said, insinuating himself in front of Sid. "you got some kinda problem, man?"
"No, no problem-" Sid started, raising his hands and backing up a step.
"Like this guy's a 'problem'," Wendy finished. "You could totally take him."
"What?" Sid said, throwing an astounded look at Wendy.
"You tryin' to throw down, bitch?" the bruiser said, squaring his shoulders. Wendy could feel his ire bubbling up through his soul; now if she could just get Sid angry enough as well.
"You see, Sid?" Wendy said, feigning exasperation. "This is the way of the world. Bullies and thugs."
"Look, he's not- I'm not-"
"A thug? That's all I am to you?"
"No, you're not anything to me, I-"
"Oh, so I'm just a nobody huh? Beneath your attention?" The man said, advancing on Sid, who was for his part backing away.
"Look, I'm just trying to-!" Sid started, putting his hands up. Wendy followed, keeping next to Sid as he backed up, but inside she was fuming. Frustration, yes, fear, yes, but Sid just wasn't reaching the boiling point she needed.
"I think you need to get the hell out of chinatown, you and your skank girlfriend, before-"
"What was that?" Wendy interrupted, turning to look at the bruiser, shouldering in front of Sid.
"You heard me," He said.
"Say it again. I *dare* you, say that to my face one more time."
"Oh, what, now you want some, too?"
"Please," Sid interjected from beside the two, "Can't we just calm down and-"
"I'm *plenty" calm," Wendy said, hands balling into fists. "I just need to make sure jerkass here isn't about to make the biggest mistake of his pathetic life."
"Pathe- Bitch, I will slap the smug right off your damn face!"
"Bring it!" Wendy snapped back.
"Please, we don't need to fight!" Sid said, trying to come between the two, only to be shoved back.
"Last chance," Wendy growled through clenched teeth.
"Get the fuck outta-" The bruiser started, but Wendy was already airborn, a standing jump that would have made a professional basketball player jealous. The man was already bringing his hands up as Wendy bent at the waist, swinging her arms behind her as she cracked her forehead against the bruiser's. It was the proverbial two hits; Wendy hit the bruiser and the bruiser hit the ground, knocked out cold.
"Whoa! Whoa!" Sid yelled, eyes wide. "Time out!"
"What?" Wendy huffed as she turned away. "He was asking for it."
"Asking for it?" Sid asked, mouth agape as he knelt by the man's side. "You practically started the whole thing!"
"So what if I did?" Wendy demanded, turning to Sid, hands on her hips. "He'll be fine."
"He's out cold!" Sid exclaimed.
"He'll live," She said, turning away.
"You know, I really wonder what's with you," Sid said, shaking his head. "You're so... so full of *anger*," He said as he put a hand on the man's forehead.
"Yeah, well, I wasn't gonna let him talk like that to my face," she said, looking back and forth as people wandered by, snarling at any passerby who might consider stopping to look.
"And you had to hit the guy?" Sid asked, straightening the man's crumpled limbs so he at least had good circulation.
"You saw him," She huffed. "He wasn't gonna back down."
"Yeah, but that's... I mean, haven't you ever heard 'A soft answer turneth away wrath'?" He said as he bent the man's knees up, like he'd seen done to shock victims. He didn't know if it was helping, but he just felt like he had to do something.
"I mean, why, if you say that everything is so bad, would you want to contribute to it all? Make it worse?" He sighed, shaking his head. "...Wendy?" He asked, turning his head. He did a double take, whipping his head from one shoulder to the other.
Wendy was gone.

"Aaah!" War bellowed, turning her black-spattered equine muzzle to look at Wrath as she materialized in her backpack. "What're you doing there?!"
"I don't wanna talk about it," Wrath said, folding her arms. "Why's it so damn crowded in here, anyways?"
The basket Wrath found herself in was like an over-large quiver, about two thirds as tall as she was, and filed with all sorts of weapons.
"Oh, it's not like you ever need me anyways," War retorted, her tail swishing behind her as she ran, her hooves clopping heavily on the ground even though she was "running" on thin air above the Acheron.
"Yeah, well, apparently I do, so start heading back to the 8th," Wrath said, looking down at the infernal landscape. "And hey, where's your sword?" She asked, looking over War's shoulder at the three-headed flail she was carrying.
"Oh, it's in there somewhere," War said, "But c'mon, you can't expect me to use that old thing forever."
"'That old thing'?" Wrath exclaimed. "'That old thing'? It's your sword! It's a classic! I mean, it doesn't get any better!"
"Oh, it most certainly does!" War snapped. "Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the classic lines and its versatility, but..." She reached back, finding the shaft of one of her weapons in the back as Wrath side-stepped her massive hand. "*This* is something that really makes a statement!"
"Oooh.." Wrath cooed as the head of the giant double-headed axe shone in the firelight. "Oh my gosh, that is *adorable*!"
"Isn't it?" War asked, turning it over in her hand. "I saw this in Dis when I was off a few days ago and just *had* to have it."
"Oh, and look at the little two-pronged spear-end on the top of it!" Wrath said.
"Isn't it great?" War asked.
"It is!" Wrath agreed. "And it's so you!"
"You think?" War asked as she clopped along. "I mean, it's not too much?"
"Honey, for you it's never too much," Wrath said. "Me, I mean, I just don't accessorize well. I got my claws and my horns, and that's about all I look good in. The spiked leathers, sometimes, but a full-on weapon loadout? It just clashes too much."
"Oh, don't be so modest. Remember Constantinople? You're a right unholy terror with that scythe. Thought you were gonna make Death sooo jealous."
"Oh, please," Wrath said, rolling her eyes. "Flattery. I felt it was way too much for me. Just, 'here I am with my ridiculously oversized farming tool!'" Wrath shook her head. "No, I'll stick with the minimalist stuff. I can't pull off big and showy nearly as well as you."
"Oh, don't sell yourself short. I don't care what Pride thinks, you could be *marvelous* in a decent warhammer."
Wrath flinched like she'd been hit. "You had to bring *her* up, didn't you?" She asked.
"Oh, what now?" War asked. "She riding you hard again?"
"Friggin' sucker punch of an assignment," Wrath scowled, crossing her arms. "Kid was never gonna go my way, not in a million years."
"Really?" War asked. "But how bad could it be? I still laugh at your story from Gaul every now and again, that one was nearly legendary."
"That's just it- it's not like he's trying to push against it, not like others I've worked on," Wrath said, scowling. "It's like it all just slides off him."
"Does he-"
"No!" Wrath interjected, "and that's what's so damn frustrating about the kid! No mark, nada, not even a whiff of it."
"Well, geeze, why send you, then? She shoulda sent Sloth or Gluttony or one of the softer ones to work on him for a while."
"She *has*!" Wrath exclaimed "I'm the third one of us she's sent down there!" Wrath sighed. "What I wouldn't give for your job, I tell ya..."
"Aw, buck up, kiddo," War said as she approached the Malbolge. "You do good work. It's not your fault you boss is so heinous."
"Sometimes I just wanna... rrgh!" Wrath said, making a strangling motion with her hands. "She set me up. She knew I wasn't the right fit for this kid, sent me anyways, and now she's gonna be all over me because I failed. Like blaming a rock for hitting the ground when you drop it! It's just not fair..."
"...You wanna borrow something from back there? Might make you feel better."
"...Aw, that's really nice, you know, but she'd probably take it or break it just to spite me."
"Well, best of luck then," War said as she finally dropped into the crevice that the Vices' home was nestled in.
"Yeah, well..." Wrath muttered, climbing out of the basket on War's back. "I think you and I both know how this one's gonna end."
"In that case, get well soon," War said, squatting down and jumping up into the air, running off to circle Hell for the rest of her shift.

War turned to the house, the brief emotional respite being swallowed up under a deluge of resentment and anger and bitterness towards Pride.
"Make me look like an idiot, will she?" Wrath growled as she strode to the front door. Wrath slammed the door open, storming into the vice's home. Envy pressed herself up against the wall, turning her head and clamping her eyes closed, while sloth muted her television to hear better. Pride, for her part, was simply standing at the end of the foyer, arms folded over her chest. Gluttony stepped into the foyer to investigate and quickly stepped back, looking at Wrath with a mix of fear and concern as she strode past, embers floating off her hair as she quickly closed the distance between her and Pride. She let out the barest of smirks before Wrath swung her fist at Pride's face, Pride jerking her head sideways to avoid Wrath's blow, if just barely. Wrath swung with her other arm, and Pride ducked under that, which only served to make Wrath even angrier, if such a thing was possible. Greed watched from the catwalk over the foyer, one pair of arms
crossed on the railing while the other pair held her face in their palms. The two demonesses danced across the foyer, Wrath swinging and lunging and kicking at Pride, who only avoided each of Wrath's blows, never retaliating as her blue and purple wings fluttered and her serpentine tail flicked this way and that to keep her balance as she dodged and weaved between Wrath's increasingly frantic blows.
"Rrrgh!" Wrath said as she dove bodily at Pride, landing in a heap against the wall as Pride darted to the side, underneath Wrath's outstretched claws. "Why... won't... you... fight... back!?" She huffed as she pulled herself to her feet, shaking her head to get the smouldering mane of hair out from in front of her eyes.
Pride pursed her lips once, arching her brow as she looked at Wrath. "...Because you *want* me to," She said, the barest hint of a smile playing at her lips.
Wrath's face twisted up in a way that looked grotesque even for a demon of the lower circles of hell, and then she spun around, the entire foyer shaking from the impact of her fist against the wall, flecks of stone falling to the ground as a spiderweb of cracks radiated out from her knuckles. Wrath just stood there for a moment, chest heaving as she breathed through gritted teeth, staring down at the floor. Pride smirked and went up the stairs to her room, latching the door behind her. The other vices who had gathered to watch quickly went elsewhere, not wanting to be the closest thing to Wrath when she finally found the outlet for her ire she was so desperately seeking. Alone again, Wrath was finally able to stand upright, rage still boiling in her veins as her hair crackled and smoked. She turned to the front doors, striding up to them and once again throwing the door open, already heading outside when she was interrupted by a sharp impact against
the back of her head. Wrath spun, already snarling, her eyes drawn to the floor as a shrill note sounded from it. Wrath looked down to see a coin spinning itself flat on the floor, then looked up to the catwalk, where Greed was still looking down into the foyer.
"Sometimes, huh?" Greed said, looking over to Pride's door and narrowing her eyes. "Sometimes..."
Wrath scowled, but said nothing. She turned back to the door and went out into the 8th circle, slamming the door shut behind her.