A/N: so i was writing the bonus chapter for my other story and then there was this wave of ideas that came tumbling down on me (pun unintended). "never push inspiration away when they come," says my brain. so there you go, a nonsensical concoction that doesn't really make sense. basically one-shots to fulfill my urges of writing naomily in strange settings. i'm not taking it seriously, so you shouldn't too. this chapter is just an introduction, the stories will start next chapter.

if any of the content makes you feel uncomfortable, please, just don't read it?

The little demon swallows back his saliva as he peers hungrily over his sunglasses at the trail of beautiful, young angels who are walking by ahead.

Sweet Lord, that's one thing good about hanging around here. You never run out of hot babes to ogle at. Feeling cheeky, he lets out a wolf whistle directed at the angels, prompting giggles to erupt in the group as the gorgeous and immortal ladies throw amused glances his way.

The devil grins and lies back in his lounge chair with a satisfied smirk, basking in the warmth of the sunshine as he takes a sip of marguerita from the cocktail glass beside him.

Hmmm. Existence is good. He could really do this for eternity. Literally.

"Demon!"

OK damn it. Why is happiness always so short-lived? Existence sucks.

"Yes, Master," Demon cries out with feigned obedience as he springs up from the lounge chair and stands in front of the figure with his head bowed low, pretending to look as uncomfortable as he can.

He has this figured out once: masters do nottake a fancy to seeing their servants and slaves being all snug and comfy. Servants, being servants, got to be working their asses off every time the master sees them. Otherwise, how can a servant be called a servant? It's like seeing a dog that doesn't bark, or a fish that doesn't swim. It irritates the hell out of them sadistic bastards.

And now that his master has caught him in his full hedonistic glory this time round, Demon knows he's in for some deep shit that will take at least three days of bathing in chamomile flowers to rid the smell of.

"What in all the possible universes have you been up to?" Master yells so hard into Demon's ears he thought someone was thrashing on his eardrums with real drumsticks. Demon gulps. The old man's veins are popping out in his forehead and it isn't a really pretty sight. Demon knows one can't find medication around here, but seriously, this old chap needs a chill pill.

"N- Nothing, Master," says Demon sheepishly. "I was just thinking of chillin' for a bit after finishing the last task you gave me," Demon continues, hoping the credit he has for finishing his last task will serve to appease his Master a little.

"You've got some guts to be mentioning about the last task? I've just gotten several complaints from some gods and goddesses that you screwed up their toilets real good! Instead of making the waste go away via the pipes, they are going out the OTHER WAY now!" hollers Master in fury.

"But, how could that be? I did manage to unblock the pipes and test the flush the other time-" the poor little demon asks, confused.

"You're asking me? Why don't you try and explain it to Hera and Ceres instead, who both got their faces splattered with faeces this morning? I knew you little imp couldn't be trusted with such an important task like that," Master says as he seethes with anger.

"Anyway," continues Master. "I had a meeting with the rest of the gods just now. We all agreed that we should let Fiend take over your job and transfer you instead to Storage," adds Master quietly.

"WHAT? NO! I don't want to go to Storage!" cries Demon in panic.

Fiend is the only other devil who was dug out from the depths of hell together with Demon. The both of them are arguably the only ones from hell who ever got to see what "heaven" (or whatever they call this place) was like and enjoy it in all its eternal beauty and glory.

Of course, there ain't no such thing as a free lunch, even in heaven. Fiend and Demon were brought here for a specific reason; to do all the dirty jobs for the gods and goddesses around here. That includes repairing and maintaining the toilets; running stupid, physically taxing errands that the gods themselves are lazy to do; clearing mountains of wastes generated every day by spreading them across all the possible universes. (There we are, naively thinking that gods don't generate wastes. All those leftover foods from the feasts don't just disappear into thin air, do they? They have to go somewhere.) Mostly in black holes, but occasionally, Demon burns them in space. Ever seen all those flaming balls of things out there in space? Glittery stuff that fill up the sky in the absence of light? That's right, incinerated chunks of heavenly garbage.

Yet, for all the dirty work that Demon has done, he doubts that they are any worse than the work done in Storage by Fiend. No, they are in every way much better than the work in Storage. Basically, the work in Storage is to sort out every single object that is found inside and record them in the inventory. Sounds like a pretty easy job, compared to unblocking sewage pipes, you say? Well, it's tempting to think like that, but here's the thing: There is A HELL LOT of things in Storage. And when we say a hell lot, we really mean a hell lot.

You see, Storage is so named because it stores every single thing that has been created by the gods and goddesses in all the universes they have created out there. And trust us, that's quite a bit of stuff to sort out.

Now it's easy to see why Demon prefers his job to Fiend's job any day. Sorting those items will take an eternity, not that there is any problem in where they are right now, but Demon swears he will go crazy working in Storage.

"Since when you've got a say in things around here?" asks Master in a dangerous voice.

"Please, Master," Demon furrows his brows in desperation and pleads. "Could you give me another chance?"

"I am giving you a chance now, Demon. You'll redeem yourself by working in Storage. Either that, or you go back to hell. Now quit whining and follow me," answers Master unsympathetically as he turns to walk off.

Demon has no choice but to follow meekly behind.

It is true that devils have no tears but Demon swore he almost cried when Master opened the door to Storage.

The mountain of objects that lay haphazardly before him stretches from the floor all the way up to the… Wait a moment. THERE IS NO CEILING. Demon's neck almost broke on the spot as he attempts to lift his head up and look for the spot where the tall pile of objects extending upwards ends. It doesn't seem to.

Demon starts panicking when he realizes that the "room" has no walls as well. Everywhere he turns he sees a chunk of objects, another chunk of objects, another chunk of objects…

Demon felt his knees go weak and he collapses into Master's arms.

"Get a hang of yourself, you moron!" shouts Master as he slaps Demon on his head.

"Master Laplace, please… please don't throw me here! I'll work hard on the toilets in future, I promise," wails Demon exasperatedly.

"I can't do anything, Demon. This is the decision of the board of gods and goddesses," says Master, as he looks Demon stoicly in the eye. "Besides, this is only temporary-," he adds.

Demon's face lights up at the word "temporary". "Really? I won't be doing this forever?"

"Well, that will depend on your performance. If you do this job well, I may be able to get you back to clearing wastes and such," says Master quietly.

"That's just awesome!" Demon can't help yelling as he jumps up and down and attempts to hug Master, who is giving him a stern look now. Demon stops leaping but he is unable to suppress the smile on his face.

"Tell me what I'm supposed to do now, Master. I'll start right away!" Demon says enthusiastically.

"Well," continues Master. "First up, what do you know about Storage?" asks Master.

"It… stores objects?" ventures Demon.

"You're not even trying, are you, Demon?" Master says with a roll of his eyes.

"Uhm, it stores objects that are left behind in a universe at the end of time in that universe?" Demon says uncertainly.

Master sighs.

"When the gods decide to create a universe, they first do up a plan. They plan the entire course of events that will happen from the very first point that universe comes into being, until the point when they decide to dissolve the universe into non-existence."

"Which means, at the beginning, before anything even happens at all in that universe, the gods already have a blueprint for what is going to happen. They know every single shit that is going to take place."

"And to make sure that the events will go according to the way they want it, they imprint every atom that they create to put in this universe, with a Fixed Path."

"I've lost you," says Demon, scratching his head.

"The Fixed Path is the path that an atom is pre-determined to take from the start of time, to the end of time. It shows you the precise location of that atom at every point in time. For example," continues Master as he picks up a molecule of water from the pile of objects and examines the tag on it. "This water molecule's Fixed Path says that it will start by being part of the ocean, and then one day it will get evaporated and fall as rain. Then it will be absorbed by a tree, and stays in the fruit of the tree. The fruit gets eaten by an animal, and the water molecule is absorbed by the animal, which is then eaten by another animal. So on, and so forth. The fixed path says that at the end of time, this water molecule ends up being trapped as part of an iceberg."

"Wow…" Demon's jaws fall open upon hearing the explanation. He knew that Storage is full of old, useless stuffs, but he didn't know they each had a story of its own.

"What happens is that at the beginning of time, the gods create everything that exists in the universe. Over time, the objects transform according to what their Fixed Paths dictate, and at the end of time, they remain the final form that they transformed into. These final objects are kept in Storage as an archive for that specific universe."

"But what do you need me to do with these final objects, Master?" asks Demon with a curious stare. "They are no longer needed anymore, are they?"

"Well, that's the problem. All the objects you see here are the final objects, but they have not gone through their Fixed Path yet," says Master.

"What? I don't really understand, Master," says Demon.

"The gods kind of screwed up this time. They were going to start up a new universe project, called Universe5683. But instead of creating the objects as they originally are supposed to be at the start of time, they created the final objects instead," explains Master.

"So the universe kind of ended before it even started?" asks Demon.

"Something like that. And now, they refuse to give up on the project, saying that it is one of their greatest projects undertaken or whatever. They want to try and reverse the Fixed Path to make the objects to their original forms, so that they can "reboot" the universe again and they want you to help."

"Seriously, Master. The gods think too highly of me. Me? Reversing Fixed Paths? If I've had such great powers I wouldn't be stuck here cleaning toilets…" began Demon.

Master shoots Demon a stare that shuts the latter up.

"The gods are giving you the powers to enter every one of these objects in its final form and travel back with it to its very original form via its Fixed Path. The objects can't go back to their original form themselves, they need help to go backwards on their Fixed Path. And you will help them with it," says Master.

"I don't understand, Master. Why can't the gods do this themselves?! Wouldn't it be faster?" asks Demon.

"Theoretically, yes. But look at the number of objects we have here. It will take them forever to do it. And they are not going to spend all day possessing objects and following it back on its Fixed Path to its original form," explains Master.

Yet they want to salvage their stupid Project Universe5683. So I'm the one who does this dirty job. You gods and goddesses are really angels, aren't you?

Demon sighs as he lies flat on his stomach amidst the mountains of objects that lay around him. For the past (Hour? Day? Decade? You know, it's really difficult to keep track of time in this eternal place.), he has been plunging into items and bringing them back to the start of time via their Fixed Paths. And what strange sights he saw in this bizarre Project Universe5683! He saw things flying around in the air, heard loud blaring noises that he had never heard in his entire existence, met creatures that resemble the gods and goddesses very much, but were dressed really strangely. No wonder they had wanted to salvage this project. It was a very interesting universe indeed.

As Demon lies on his back with his arms tucked behind his head, his eyes catches sight of something shimmering in the pile of objects next to him. He reaches out instinctively and pulls the item from the stack of nonsense. That's when an awful crash rang off somewhere far off and the next moment, Demon is lying under a whole pile of stuff.

"Awww man, I just sorted out that pile according to time period!" Demon grumbles.

Not moving from where he is, Demon pulls his hand out of the pile and stares at the object in his hand.

The first thing he notices was that the Fixed Path tag is gone. Holy shit, he will have a fun time looking for it in that pile later. But something else about that item catches his eye. It is a rounded metallic material, with a huge circular hole in it that you could look through to the other side. After "hanging out" in Project Universe5683, Demon has seen enough weird objects to be convinced that the creatures have the strangest things which they use for the strangest purposes ever.

What in the world could this item be used for?

Demon arches his eyebrow as he catches sight of some sort of script on the inside of the object. He recognizes the letters; they belong to this language that the strange species used to communicate with one another – English. He had learnt to read the language after his countless journeys back in time with the objects (one of his objects was a lead inside a pencil in a children's school at one point in time). Demon furrows his brow hard as he makes out the letters.

"L… Y… F…"

EMILY FITCH, it reads finally.

What in the world does that mean?

Usually, Demon will ignore things he can't understand and throw the item back into the pile. But this time, he seems to feel a magnetic attraction towards that object in his hand. It makes him want to know about its story.

He glances briefly at the mountain of objects on him. Well, there's no time to look for that tag right now.

Demon decides that he will find out for himself.

A/N: if you're still baffled, in essence demon will possess the ring (yes, that's the item he was holding) and go back on its fixed path along the course of human history to provide us with glimpses of... *tada!* naomily! in, ahem, different eras and settings and the strangest places.

disclaimer: like i've said, this story is written purely to satisfy some of my experimental writing urges and to loosen those nerves. the writing's not quality (it never is with me, anyway) and if you are uncomfortable with the content (mention of gods etc), again, PLEASE DON'T READ IT. thanks!