Chapter 10 – Urd Gets Busy & Recruits Skuld in the Debugging Department
What is there to do in heaven when you're not working? Floating around on clouds, playing harps? Not likely, since your work assignments take most of your time and then after that you learn/practice Goddess skills, or reply to help calls from various planets in His creation. Belldandy keeps herself busy at the GRO, she's still working the switchboard, but not able to grant wishes yet. That doesn't bother her like some of the other young GRO Goddesses, she just has to wait for her one call (and she's under orders to only do that, too).
Urd became System Administrator for Yggdrasil since she can somehow fix problems faster than the other sys ops (they probably haven't thought of the backdoor entry technique). Urd doesn't really like her new position, but it gave her a First Class license, for awhile anyway. Then there was the "Urd's Super Punchbowl Potion" incident at the Yggdrasil Multi-Millennium Party, and she promptly got busted back to Second Class after sending a dozen Gods & Goddesses to the infirmary (yes, Heaven has one) for Love poisoning. Seems it was beyond their control to act like Gods & Goddesses after drinking the punch so He temporarily knocked them out and sent them in to allow the potion to wear off. Urd's casual cover-up remark about Gods need to lighten up at the party didn't go over well thus sealing her demotion. Leave it to Urd to exhibit the wrong behavior and the wrong time. She was also getting used to being hit with Heavenly lightning bolts as she matured and friskier for her behavior, they also have the plus of keeping her hair that dazzling white. Skuld says her permanent tan was probably from exposure to all the UV radiation the lightning bolts emit, not because of her half-demon heritage.
Skuld was advancing rapidly towards her second class license through her training with Menorum. Transporting was becoming easy, and she could block minor spells. She wasn't powerful or skilled enough to attack yet, so she was making up for it by piecing together discarded mechanical components into simple devices (i.e. the invention of the Skuld Bomb).
Bell patiently waits for her call, the one to set her free from the switchboard. She enjoys helping the other Goddesses in their tasks, and gets to hear what is going on in the various worlds. Some calls she received at the switchboard were disturbing to her; sometimes she would answer with people crying because they were heartbroken, lost a loved one, destitute, or were severely depressed and at high risk of hurting themselves. Other calls sounded just like a normal call where one assumes they got a wrong number. Her sensitive nature made it difficult to shake the troubling calls even though she knew a Goddess would help them get through their problems. She had the luxury of having Urd keep an eye on Keiichi and let her know how he was doing. Urd found him very boring, a guy who had no real excitement in his life. He had gotten into college and she wondered what would happen for him to call the GRO. She hoped it he would call because of a "wrong number" instead of him being hurt. "He'll call someday, I must be patient."
Urd sends a message to Menorum via telepath, "Menorum, Skuld is needed for a new project here in Yggdrasil. Would she be available to start soon?"
Across heaven, Menorum replies, "Yes, she still has not found her source of power yet, so there isn't much more I can teach her until she does. Give me a couple days to finish and I'll bring her buy."
"Thanks Menorum, I look forward to seeing her again."
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A couple days later –
Menorum brings Skuld to Urd, who sits at her terminal floating above the floor.
"Skuld, you've been recruited to help in our debugging department. Do you know what a bug is?"
Skuld looks sternly at Urd, "Yes, that's what happens when one of your programs goes bad because you only think you're a good programmer!"
Anger flares in Urd's eyes for a brief moment, but with Menorum here she tempers her usual lightning bolt reaction. "Yes, although they come from most programs when they don't function correctly."
Skuld rolls her eyes and says under her breath, "Yeah, like all of yours!"
Menorum looks between the two sisters and then turns to Urd, "I'll leave Skuld here with you." She turns to Skuld and gets down on a knee so she can look into her eyes. "I've taught you what I can until you find your source of power, your love. When you find that, I can teach you how to be a First Class Goddess if He wants me to. I'll keep an eye out for you little one, you're going to grow up to be great. Take care of yourself Skuld."
Menorum hugs Skuld and steps out into the hall, disappearing outside the door. Skuld sniffs as she waved bye. Urd calms down and floats down by her, "Ok kiddo, let's get you going. I think you can handle your assignment alright. Your group is this way…"
Urd takes Skuld's hand and leads her deeper into the Yggdrasil complex and steps into the central debugging office. A middle-aged God comes over and bows slightly to the two, "Hi, I'm Apex, and this must be Skuld."
Skuld nods without saying anything.
"Don't worry Skuld, we'll teach you what you need to know to whack bugs. Thanks Urd for bringing her down, we need to go get started. There's been quite an outbreak lately."
Skuld snickers at his comment and thinks, "Yeah, because of her!"
Urd clears her throat, "I don't know what's causing them, but we're working on it 'round the clock!" She turns to Skuld, "Ok, have a good time, see you later!" Urd waves her hand at Skuld and leaves the room to go back to her terminal.
Apex smiles at Skuld with a big toothy grin, "Ok, first things first, we have to get you a weapon. Ever swung a hammer before?"
Skuld looks up confused, "what's a hammer?"
