Fighting the Paperwork

by Fan Of Games

Ever wonder how the camera was installed to monitor Etihw as she did her work? According to Kcalb and Wodahs, she played with her paperwork which she destroyed while playing. Etihw says otherwise, claiming it became a monster she had to put down. Still, it's her fault either way regardless of whose account is accurate—hint: it's definitely not hers.

"Pleeeease!" she begged them, hands clasped together while sitting at her desk with a large mountain of documents and files on top of, and surrounding it. Her eyes were shut, hoping the two of them would cave and give the affirmative to a simple request. Being the Goddess of this world, Etihw certainly had a lot of responsibilities such as protecting her people and serving them well in any aspect. It was just like back then during the war—only that had ended many years ago when the demons and angels made peace in their world to stop fighting. Anybody who came in expecting to find Etihw hard at work would surely believe she would be maintaining that peace with Kcalb, thinking she was upholding simple laws with him to preserve peace and maintain administrative duties. Sadly, those people were mistaken because their conception of her, a Goddess who used to work diligently, became utterly false. "Just give me a break, guys! I have been working my ass off all morning!" And it was false mainly because she was just too lazy to even do anything now.

Unfortunately for her, this request she asked for was denied. "I'm afraid not, Eti," Kcalb commented, finishing up a report he was editing before the Devil stood up and stretched. "You've left us far behind schedule enough as it is. It's about time you started to do something productive."

"Indeed, Lady Etihw," the Head Angel, Wodahs, concurred with his older brother. "We've been waiting long enough for you to complete the work you're supposed to do. Get to it so we can proceed with our assignments once you've completed your own, and do handle them carefully."

"But there's just so much work!" Etihw protested defiantly, still trying to avoid her duties. "It's like I'm stuck in some cubicle some boring administrator sits in all day without emerging out of his bubble to remotely have a little bit of fun to brighten up his dreary lifestyle. I've been doing work seven days a week, at least let me have the weekend off since I've done more than completed those forty hours we need. Come on, I deserve to have some fun every once in a while."

"I think not," the Devil immediately disagreed with her. "Show some appreciation for those we employ, Eti—Wod and I included. We—in your description—sit in our cubicles all day as we do the work required of us in this monotonous lifestyle, or rather, we would be working more often than we usually do if you would finish what you must handle and pass it over to me so I can finish it. The same goes for what I've handed over to you. Besides, what kind of work have you done? It hardly seems like you really fulfill your responsibilities twenty-four/seven since you escape work."

"Very true, brother, she has been shirking her duties as of late," Wodahs agreed again. "For once it would be nice if she actually stayed true to her word regarding what she had accomplished as far as administration goes." He turned to the Goddess and addressed her next. "Did you so much as fulfill all of those forty hours, Lady Etihw?" he asked her with strict emphasis on 'all'.

"Duh, of course I have," Etihw answered, crossing her arms and turning upper torso to the side while jutting her nose up in the air. "Who do you guys think I am? What do you take me for?" Waiting for a response, she let a few seconds pass before opening one eye to find both of them had stepped in front of her desk with their own arms crossed. They stared at her, their eyes boring into Etihw's presence in unified disapproval which made her swallow nervously and shudder somewhat because she felt they didn't believe her easily fabricated lie—which was also easily transparent, it seemed. "W-well, I may have…" she murmured hesitantly, "accidently skipped an hour…or two." It was the first step in an honest truth, but even that was a hesitant exaggeration on her part.

"And how many times have you accidently skipped one to two hours?" Wodahs asked in a critical tone, glaring at the lazy Goddess with his brother. "Well, Lady Etihw?"

"U-um, once or twice, eh heh?" the Goddess answered sheepishly with a sheepish smile.

"The hours or the times," Kcalb reminded her sternly. "Which is it?"

"U-uh, t-the times…I-I think."

"Really, Eti?" Kcalb inquired sarcastically, already suspicious of her as was Wodahs. "Do you mind if we check your timetables to validate that response so we can confirm if your account's truthful or not?" His question caught Etihw off guard and she inwardly panicked because she knew they would find not a single activity pertaining to work was highlighted as fulfilled and also begun. Her agenda was actually filled with nothing but childish doodles, really, and she was afraid they'd find out and ultimately prove she was fibbing about having worked hard when she actually didn't work at all. Still, she tried her best to save face—albeit very stupidly—by giving them her answer.

"Why, yes, I do mind you guys invading my privacy and all," she replied, choosing an easy way out by denying them access to the schedule she followed—was meant to follow, to be specific. "You don't ever hear me asking about your schedules, do you? Besides, you know I've got nothing to hide anyway." Her argument was illogical and flawed on so many levels that Kcalb and Wodahs did not even need to lift a finger to disprove it even though they still did to point out the flaws.

"We do, each and every day, and every hour each day," the Head Angel commented.

"If you've nothing to hide, there should be no objection to us looking," the Devil stated as he snatched up the agenda Etihw used before she could even object and protest against it. She tried to steal it back from him, but Kcalb had already begun flipping through it with Wodahs. They were not smiling at the sight of doodles on every page in place of work related text. The Devil sighed, frustrated that the Goddess was lazy. "Cute," he complimented her regardless, "but not productive in any way. Do you mind explaining how artwork like this is relevant to your job?"

"It is too relevant!" Etihw spat out at them and seized the agenda once Kcalb gave it back. "I'll have you know those drawings are quite productive because they remind me of what to do!"

"In regards to what, Lady Etihw?" Wodahs inquired critically, arms crossed. "Doing work or escaping from it and the two 'slave drivers' who 'overwork' you as seen on each page?"

"A fine example that she shows no appreciation for her coworkers, Wod," Kcalb concurred.

"Indeed," the Head Angel agreed.

"I do too appreciate them!" Etihw protested.

"Who: us, the slave drivers; or the people in the departments?" the Devil pointed out. "Do Wod and I not qualify as your coworkers if we perform the same governmental functions and some different duties, a few of which are similar to one another? Or are you discriminating against us?"

"I-I'm not discriminating against anyone, and that includes my coworkers—which includes you guys, let me remind you of that! Do you not even trust me at all, even after all I do?"

"Nope," Wodahs responded blandly, picking up a stack of documents and setting them on the desk in front of her. "Not when you purposely slack off and avoid responsibility, now get right to work." He and Kcalb watched as Etihw's eyes bulged at the sight of how he could even manage to lift such a tall stack—in her eyes, considering it wasn't that big to begin with.

"B-but this is too much!" the Goddess protested. "Can't I at least get some help with it?! I really need to take a break!" If she believed her continuous appeals for that break would work, she was dead wrong because the Devil crossed his arms and raised a finger to wag it at her.

"Not a chance, Eti, you need to work. We're not going to contact anyone else to come help you because you'd be shoving the work onto them—and us as well for that matter; yes I anticipated you would demand we stay here to help you get through all of this. No work, no break."

"W-wait, where are you two going?!" she demanded as they started to walk out. "Do I not help you guys whenever you require my aid? What about Ivlis' invasion months ago?"

"First of all, you're never around when we need your aid getting this important work done," Wodahs commented and opened one of the double doors while his brother concurred with him.

"And you haven't really done much during that idiot's attack; though to be fair, Eti, you've been captured by him and were thrown into an area he controlled, so I don't blame you for it. Still, we all tried to prevent it as best we could," Kcalb explained. "Even so, that's in the past now and it no longer correlates to the present situation you landed yourself in. It's nobody's fault but your own, so do finish the work—all of it—you're required to complete so we can make some progress around here. And don't fast track it either; just take your time and handle it carefully."

Etihw's mouth hung agape and she seized a file and stared at it, looking from all the stacks of documents piling up on the desk and around it too before averting her attention back to the two of them as they left. "I-I have to do all of this by myself?!" she cried out in shock, her eyes bulging in surprise while she stood up and held her arms out to show them how much there was to do.

"Yes," Kcalb answered insouciantly.

"B-but w-what about you guys?! Where do you think you're going?!"

"Our lunch break," Wodahs also responded nonchalantly. "We're heading to the cafeteria. The other guys might already be there by now, so please do not keep us any longer and get to work, Lady Etihw." He and the Devil didn't have to turn around, but they already knew Etihw stuck her tongue out at them while making a childish face as an insult to them. "That can certainly stick."

"Yes," Kcalb agreed as they left, but not before he gave the Goddess a final warning. "And Eti, do be sure you're hard at work once we return in a little bit, otherwise we'll ensure you work. Believe me, we've prepared something that can ensure better results than you can on your own, so please put effort into it of your own initiative rather than force our hand to make it worse for you."

And with that they were both gone, just like that, leaving Etihw all alone in the office with nobody to help, or even care for that matter. She stared at the doors unapprovingly, glaring as if she had some kind of heat ray vision enabling her to shoot lasers from her eyes to melt those doors. "We've prepared something that can ensure better results than you can on your own," she parroted those words to mock them, growling in anger as she slumped in her chair. "Phooey!" With a rough sigh expressing her irritation, Etihw snatched up a document and stared at it, reading it over quickly before tossing the useless thing aside—actually it wasn't useless at all since it was important. "Bah, those two are nothing but slave drivers…" the Goddess muttered under her breath and crossed her arms. "They really get on my nerves, never having any fun at all and preferring to just work their lives away instead of enjoying themselves…" As a matter of fact they did; although Etihw didn't care because she wanted to enjoy this peaceful lifestyle, she had to admit they enjoyed it too—not that she would, even out loud, especially to them. She just denied it because they got to enjoy it.

"Man, I wish somebody was here to share the burden with me…" she murmured quietly as she thought of the possibilities. Froze was in school, so the young angel was occupied. Arbus and Ater were probably off in town somewhere shirking their own responsibilities, or were pursued by Grora. Grora herself was also probably busy with the garden or on a patrol if she wasn't pursuing them—specifically Ater, who she still despised and wanted to kill because of that accident despite having received numorous warnings and punishments not to which made others wish a prison cell was built to contain her so she wouldn't harm the cat demon anymore. Kcalb and Wodahs were on their lunch break—which they properly earned—and they were seeing the other guys in their circle of friends such as Siegfried, Valens, and Maurice, so all of them were also busy with that and their own duties too. Etihw sighed, finding her list of accomplices narrowing down until none were left. "Jeez, is there no one available? Has everyone just found something else to take up their time?"

It couldn't be helped, she was on her own and had nobody to assist her with all of the work. The Goddess despised the reality of her predicament, but couldn't do anything about it. "Man, I'd do anything to get out of here…anything but this." Yes, accomplishing this task was something to do about it, if not the thing she really wanted to do. Still, it was what it was and Etihw had no right to complain about it because this situation was her fault to begin with. If she hadn't skipped all of her duties to run off and play instead, she probably wouldn't be here. Then again, she would likely be here anyway just to finish up whatever was left of the many stacks surrounding her.

The Goddess sighed again and leaned back in her chair, shutting her eyes. "I just wish there was something I could to make this a little more entertaining…" Then her eyes jolted open because she thought of something. "That's it!" she exclaimed and started rummaging around in her desk to look for some spare crystals she kept in it. They were all empty, devoid of magic since she hadn't energized them with any yet. "Here they are," she commented upon having found them and pulling one from among the pile to hold it up before her in a firm grip. "Just what the doctor ordered: more fun to make the work fly by without breaking much of a sweat," she giggled, charging it up so the crystal she selected could be like an elemental Atronach, the spirit of an elemental Golem. Beings of such natural constructs were found in the various caves dotting this world, but Etihw was going to produce one from the crystal and all of these documents. She planned on fighting it with writing materials after using more magic to analyze each document and pick away at this thing in due time. Each document and file would be looked over and signed by pens utilized as her weapons of choice in this playful conflict, and reports would magically be finished without her having to write any.

It was perfect, and Etihw mentally complimented herself for thinking of an idea like this.

What could've possibly gone wrong?

"There, perfect," Etihw complimented herself on a job well done—not what she was meant to be doing—and let the crystal levitate over by the center window behind her and collect the files, documents, reports, and whatnot from around her workspace while she ambled towards the doors, summoning a bunch of magical writing materials from thin air with a conjured scrying screen too. Usually such means regarding the latter were used to see the future, and the Goddess used it so she could implement said future of this work being completed. It was how she planned on finishing up in record time without too much effort needed to break a sweat. "Now then," she said to herself as she turned around to begin the conflict, already well prepared for battle, "time to get to work."

That pun didn't last long because the moment Etihw opened her eyes upon saying it, she'd suddenly been crushed under the weight of a massive hand which formed into a fist around her. It certainly hurt a lot more than she expected it to—surprising, as a matter of fact as she actually did not expect this turning of the tables—and the Goddess felt herself getting lifted off the floor before being held face to face with the abomination she accidently created. The crystal she energized with her magic had gone awry, turning rogue as it became an artificial Atronach for the Paper Golem.

Staring at it for a few moments, Etihw shut her eyes again and smiled sheepishly while she scratched the back of her neck. "U-uh, oops, eh heh…my bad," she murmured before she had been thrown against the wall with such force that it nearly broke a hole in it. The Goddess staggered to her feet and coughed, taking deep breaths while forming a shield of ice in front of her to block yet another attack which cracked her means of defense. Luckily it didn't shatter, but it would if another blow or two to it connected; thankfully the Paper Golem wasn't that strong despite being huge. Its body consisted only of a torso with limbs and a makeshift head, no legs for it to stand on since the legs couldn't be formed as it would crush the thing. It was impossible to break through the ceiling. That being said, this Paper Golem was smart enough to know that and manifest only in this room.

Still breathing deeply from how hard she'd been hit and smashed, Etihw wobbled slightly, feeling a bit dizzy before she managed to orient herself when the shield cracked again. She frowned because she realized using a fire spell on her creation would set the whole room aflame which had the potential of increasing in intensity. As much as the element of fire would be an advantage, that wasn't an option due to that reason. Wind would merely blow the papers around, letting it produce additional forms for itself thanks to any opportunity the wind provided, plus there was a chance it could very well break through the window and be free to assault Gray Village. Fire spells certainly would begin an instant forest fire if it landed in the woods below. Even water wasn't an option due to a potential flooding of the room and the castle. Metal, wood, and earth would all produce weight that could break through the floor. Thunder and lightning could also burn everything down too. A light spell would blind both her and the Paper Golem which was a possibility, but she had to see it besides sensing its presence, and Etihw was pretty sure it didn't have eyes and only relied on hearing and sensing her too. In the end all she had were ice spells in her arsenal despite the fact ice could melt; yet just enough to defeat it without flooding the place or breaking the floor would suffice to end her creation's life before it caused more trouble if this Paper Golem ran amok.

Having weighed her options, Etihw planned her attack as she strengthened the ice shield.

…

"Ah, that was a juicy salad," Kcalb remarked upon having finished his lunch while talking with his brother and their friends at the table they met at in the cafeteria. "A mix of vegetables and fruit in one bowl." He smiled, wiping his mouth. "So good…" he murmured before looking at the pasta Maurice had ordered for himself. "How was the pasta, Maurice? It tasted good like usual?"

"Yep, same as always, but still good through and through," the angel replied leaning against the chair to get comfortable while raising his glass. "The chefs deserve praise they get!" he laughed and held his glass of lemonade up. "A toast to them and some of their most exquisite dishes!"

"I'll drink to that," Wodahs commented with a smile of his own as they each raised all their glasses up in unison to join the other angel's as a celebratory gesture of kindness towards the chefs. He checked the time on his wristwatch afterwards, sipping the grape juice he drank. "I do wonder how Lady Etihw is doing with all the paperwork she's currently busying herself with. She must've at least finished some of it by now," he mused aloud, garnering a chuckle from Siegfried.

"What, a single document by this point?" His lighthearted joke made everyone chuckle. "It has only been what, about thirty-five minutes or so since then. Has she written a report first or read through one file in that amount of time by following the process you've established for yourself?"

His question was directed at Kcalb which was why the Devil answered it. "I wouldn't really be all that surprised if she did. If anything, that would actually earn her some respect from me with regards to that work ethic instead of working to avoid work. She's lazy and doesn't get anything done on time, so I would start to consider her a better worker once she begins to actually get more done around here instead of going somewhere else to lounge about until we have to drag her back."

"True, Lady Etihw has her flaws such as this pitiful work ethic of hers; however, she does have some positive traits to her as well," Valens pointed out in the Goddess' defense.

"No argument there," Wodahs agreed, turning to Siegfried next. "By the way, Siegfried, is that thing that's been prepared ready yet in the event Lady Etihw avoided work again?"

"As a matter of fact, I've got it right here," the investigator responded by holding up a bag with a box in it. "I also took the liberty of installing the base for it up on the wall while she wasn't present in her office. The two of you have seen it, right? She didn't notice it herself, correct?"

Kcalb nodded and accepted the parcel from him. "Yeah, we saw it, and no, Eti hasn't. We'll finish installing it if she skips out on her job again and rig it so it can be connected to a monitor by my desk. I've already configured the device to beep whenever it shows Eti making an escape since it can distinguish the difference between her leaving the office for a meeting so long as she uses a special lie detector I've attached to it, and her fleeing in secret without using it." He held the parcel by him and patted it lightly. "Thanks for this, by the way, Siegfried. We appreciate the help."

Siegfried smiled and finished drinking his coffee. "Sure, no problem."

"I'd love to see Lady Etihw's face when she finds out about this," Maurice laughed aloud, imagining how the Goddess would react to it. "She's going to flip when she sees it."

"I'll say," Valens concurred as they all laughed before he stood up to leave after paying for his meal when a waitress came by to collect the check and the payments they each offered for their meals. "Sorry, guys, I'd stay longer to think about this coming fallout of Lady Etihw's breaks, but I must be returning to see patients right about now. Let me know how that works out."

"Sure, will do," Wodahs replied with a smile before they all went their separate ways since Maurice had to get back to his office while Siegfried headed towards the barracks to help some of the new recruits train. Walking to the elevator out in the corridor, he pressed the button so the two of them—he and his brother—could enter once it arrived at the floor they were on. "You think she is working hard since we last left her a short while ago?" he asked the Devil with a smile.

"Hopefully," Kcalb smiled back, adjusting his tie with the package from Siegfried in hand. "Otherwise Eti will be in for a rude awakening once she discovers what we've planned in order to make her work. I just hope she hasn't made a mess of our office in the process, but it is Eti we are talking about. The chances of her having ruined the place and made it into a sea of papers wouldn't surprise me in the slightest so much as I would actually be delighted to find her hard at work."

"Indeed, brother," the Head Angel concurred with him. "We'll find out soon enough."

…

She had stumbled in an attempt to flee from her position against the wall, trying to pinpoint the Paper Golem's weakness—it's synthetic Atronach, the crystal she charged with her own magic prior to its construction as a living being. Etihw winced as files shot by her when the creature had held its palms out, leaving behind a few nasty paper cuts across her face which she healed so easily since the minor wounds didn't even hurt aside from a collection of small stings. Some of them had fallen to the floor on purpose and the Goddess cried out as she slipped and fell back. She narrowly avoided a punch to her form this way, but the monster's fist slammed down onto her once she fell onto the floor. Wincing in pain, Etihw construct a spear of ice which impaled the hand as it formed directly within it. Her attack forced the fist off her so she could prepare another shield of ice when the Paper Golem unleashed a wave of documents against her. "You call these credentials?!" Etihw taunted it with a cocky smile, strengthening the shield while unaware that the papers were coming up from behind her. "Ha, I've written off beasts tougher than—" Unfortunately the papers already interjected when they smashed into her back, knocking the Goddess off balance into the shield.

They pressed up against her as they engulfed their prey whole, suffocating her underneath a sea of paperwork on one side and the shield on the other. "D-dammit…" she muttered quietly as she struggled to keep her eyes open while getting ready to unleash a sphere of ice surrounding her entire body. It took just a few moments longer to prepare, and she released the full potential of her energy to freeze the paperwork and shoot up from it to levitate in the air. Sensing the crystal within the center of her Paper Golem, she immediately fired whatever was left over from the last assault. The ice shard that was produced sailed through the air, piercing its target and shattering the Crystal Atronach to end its life. As it was unable to produce any kind of audible sound aside from a wave of papers flooding the room and getting damp due to the ice that melted, Etihw's former construct erupted and sent papers flying everywhere which knocked the Goddess off balance again as she'd fallen to the floor where she emerged moments later. Coughing and dusting herself off, she smiled.

"Well, that takes care of that; problem solved," she murmured confidently and stood, being careful to not slip and lose her balance once more. Examining the results of the battle, the Goddess sighed in relief since she was glad this ended before the Paper Golem could've caused any damage. Technically it did, but Etihw didn't realize it yet as her eyes fell upon the broken crystal with some magic still spewing out of it due to the pent-up energy she put into it overflowing the thing. "Hmm, I guess I must've used a little too much," Etihw theorized with a small smile, putting a bent finger to her chin as she considered what to do. "I really should've measured the amount first. Oh well, I destroyed it and all's well that ends well." Stretching her arms in the air and shutting her eyes with a whiff of victory over the Paper Golem in the air, Etihw breathed deeply and jumped at the sound of footsteps approaching the doors and two familiar voices on the other side which startled her.

"C-crap, I-I totally forgot they were coming back!" Etihw cried out silently so they did not hear her, flailing her arms because she did lose her balance and fall into the papers when she tried to whirl around. "W-what do I-I do?! W-what do I do?!" The doorknob for one of the doors turned and the poor Goddess panicked harder, shivering as she tried to think of a lie on the spot if the two of them found her buried amid the paperwork—literally—she was supposed to be working on. The idea of that appealed to her and she whirled around again and started digging a hole in the papers. Unfortunately for her, they just avalanched on top of where she was digging and it was only when she saw their shadows over her that Etihw squeaked in fear and swallowed heavily. She was busted, and no longer had any choice but to slowly turn around and sheepishly grin at them. "U-uh, u-um, h-hi Kcalb, Wodahs, I-I didn't expect you'd both be back so soon," she stuttered, laughing timidly.

Looking at the sight of the papers arrayed in a mess around them, Kcalb merely sighed and deadpanned while doing a facepalm. "Eti…what the hell have you done?" he asked critically.

"U-um, I-I—u-uh, i-it turned into a monster!" the Goddess declared and raised her arms up high to emphasize how enormous it was: roughly her height, but the message it was larger needed to get across somehow. "A-a giant p-paper creature that attacked me while I was working, a-and I slew it before the dreaded thing hurt anyone! It's a shame it was made from all the documents, but I-I—" Yet Etihw couldn't finish her story, the lie she quickly concocted out of thin air because the Devil held his hands out to telekinetically catch chunks of the crystal used to animate said monster. Her heart sank and she turned pale, suddenly realizing they saw through her fibbing once again.

"Yes, a shame you used all those documents to create this monster of a mess, Lady Etihw," Wodahs spoke coldly as he and his older brother glared at the Goddess. "Thankfully we've already prepared copies in the event of whatever incident you caused, and we shall be sure to get them up on your computer and ready to go so you may work on them after you clean this mess, however."

"W-wha—c-clean it!" Etihw protested. "B-but I-I'm not a janitor!"

"You are now, temporarily speaking," the Devil added, using a bit of magic as a means of reforming the crystal to its original state. Being the Devil, he was supposed to have only been quite experienced in nothing but the destructive side of things. Lately, however, and partly due to Ivlis' invasion and partly because he wanted to change his ways for the better, Kcalb had been honing a set of magical abilities and skills deities and angels used because he believed light and darkness in the natural state of things were much better working together in unity. "Now start cleaning."

"Can't you guys at least help me?! I-I said it was a monster! The paper monster's at fault!"

"And just whose fault is it for creating it, Lady Etihw?" Wodahs asked critically to demand an answer from her. A verbal response wasn't needed since the Goddess merely lowered her head in shame when she noticed Kcalb was carrying something. He held it out to her and spoke up.

"See this, Eti," he said, taking the box out of the bag and opening it to show her the camera inside. "It's a security camera, one specifically made for this office to observe you work."

Etihw's eyes widened in alarm since she realized her days of escaping to blissfully lounge the days away were over. "A camera! W-where did you get it?! Don't tell me—"

"Yes, Eti, we're going to finish installing it to keep you under tabs," Kcalb interrupted her, "thereby preventing you from causing more incidents like whatever happened in here was and also to keep you from shirking your duties whenever you feel like it. Do you understand, Eti?"

Yet he didn't get an answer from her, or even a satisfactory one relevant to the inquiry. The Goddess sniffled, tears forming in her eyes because she had just kissed her future days of relaxation goodbye as they were all replaced by a strict punishment—a very strict punishment. A second later she began to weep. "I just wanted a break!" Etihw wailed, the full force of the Devil's words now having obliterated all hopes of even getting one. "All I ever wanted was to just relax! Why do you guys have to make me work?! Can't I ever get any assistants to come in and help?!" Crawling over to them, she got to her knees and held her hands together to beg. "Please, just give me a break!"

"Nope, not going to happen, request denied," the Head Angel repudiated her request. "Now get to work by beginning to clean the mess you made, Lady Etihw." Having given her the direction, he and the Devil both flew up somewhat to the desks; Kcalb to retrieve the rest of those crystals in Etihw's desk so she didn't cause further chaos with them, and Wodahs to gather a few things from the former's desk before flying to the wall near the Goddess' desk. "I'll just begin to hook this up here while my brother disposes of your crystals, Lady Etihw. After this, if you'll excuse us, we've got to be heading over to a conference down in the career center to serve as guest speakers there."

"Indeed, though we'll inform the instructors holding the lecture that you cannot make it on account of having to finish the work assigned to you," Kcalb remarked and landed by the Goddess. "I assume you've had time to prepare for that like we have, but I'm afraid you'll be too occupied."

Etihw sniffed, looking up at him. "I hate you guys!" she cried. "You're both slave drivers!"

"Just get to work, Eti," Kcalb instructed her with a glare cast at the poor Goddess who had merely sniffed again before she began to clean up her mess by picking up the papers everywhere.

Etihw growled even though she still wept. "Yes, sir," she replied bitterly and worked hard.

…

Poor Etihw, she can't escape the iron claw of work forever due to that camera.

This story was inspired by two things. One is Palutena's Revolting Dinner from Kid Icarus: Uprising which also inspired Complexity in Alchemy, and the other is Lil Guardian Pyro, a cute SFM video of an angelic pyro doll fighting a spy doll atop a level one sentry. Lil Guardian Pyro was made by Harry101UK on YouTube; it was the best overall winner of the 2013 Saxxy Awards. I've seen the video and it is one of my favorite SFM videos of all time; kudos to you, Harry101UK; you and Lil Guardian Pyro deserve all the praise you both get. If you did not want me to write something inspired by your video, I sincerely apologize and shall try to do what I can to change this, or write something different if you request I do.

As for the Atronach, the name comes from creatures from the Elder Scrolls series and the Golems I referred to are somewhat based on the creatures of the same name from Jewish folklore. I thought it would be interesting to tie these aspects into stories like this one because these can be considered as elements of fantasy in a way, hence their inclusion here. You could find out more about Golems on Wikipedia if you're interested in learning about them as well.

Disclaimer: I do not own the Gray Garden; it's owned by Mogeko. I do not own Kid Icarus: Uprising as well since it's owned by Project Sora, Sora Ltd., and Nintendo. I do not own Lil Guardian Pyro; it's owned by Harry101UK. I don't own Team Fortress 2; it's owned by Valve. I don't own Elder Scrolls; it's owned by Bethesda.