PRELUDE - SHUT HER DOWN

At the very bottom of Hell's gaping maw, in the final, stretching hallway, A machine, lovingly named V1, walks onward.

Endlessly searching for further blood sources, which she will not find, for she and many others had drained Hell of its citizens.

It will continue its advances, it refuses to give up its pursuit. Right now, it chases a light at the end of the hallway it has found itself in.

The light feels so close, but always manages to stay out of reach.

It is Hell's way of torturing V1 after all the things it had done.

Soon enough, his pace begins to slow down, reaching a measly walk. Blood drips from him at a steady pace, blood he had only just gathered.

The machine refuses to give itself up so easily, it had always been such an unstoppable force.
But now, it was finally being forced to halt.

Her right leg begins to drag slightly behind, causing her to awkwardly limp along, still trying to push herself to go quickly.

Their optic isn't receiving enough information, so their vision begins to blur and warp.

And there begins the stumbling, a perfect line being interrupted by the mere beginnings of the machine's little death spiral.

The machine uses the last of its stamina to dash forwards, however it lacks the ability to recover, to stand back up. Instead, it must now crawl along as its legs begin to go numb.

Something within her makes a loud beeping sound, indicating her ruined state.

Unluckily for her, nothing is here to help her, not even to kill her and put her out of her misery.

It keeps a strong grip on its gun as it crawls along. This grip would slowly weaken, of course, but it never holsters its weapon.

She refuses to. She will hold onto it for dear life.

With each motion, she reaches out for the light.

The hallway seems to finally become finite. An end is in sight.

Bright, near holy light shines down onto the weakened machine. Faintly, with what little hearing it had, it hears a familiar melody, though it cannot remember the name of the tune.

A hand outstretches from the light. One more soon follows. And then another.

And another, and another, and another, until the light is covered by them.

With the very last scraps of power, V1 tries her best to grab onto the hands, to find salvation from Hell, but just before she can feel the touch of another...

The machine's head and left arm hit the floor with a loud clang.

That machine named V1 had gone offline.


PARADISE /// FIRST - DEAD GIRL WALKING

A cold, gentle breeze makes its way through quiet streets, softly pressing against long, unkempt grasses.

Something tall makes its way over to a specific location, getting there by flying with the large wings on its back.

What it finds in the recently parted grasses is familiar to it, and to us.

A machine named V1 lies on the ground, seemingly unconscious. She lies on her right side, hands clasped together just beneath her head, almost as if she was praying.

The entity who approached her attempts to wake her up by gently nudging her. It doesn't work immediately, but the entity still waits by her side.

It wouldn't be long until the machine sparked to life.

First, his wings, chest lights, and single optic lit up, the same bright yellow and amber tones as always.

Then its fingers twitched, before it shifted to lie on its stomach, sharply looking upward once it realized someone was nearby.

She recognized him instantly, her eyelids narrowing.

He floated only about a foot off the ground, and had his arms crossed. What he wore was ornate armor, but V1 could never truly make out all the details due to her poor eyesight.

He seemed slightly shocked at first, but he quickly shoved the emotion aside to speak.

"Machine. It is good to see you again, even if it hasn't been long since we last spoke." The Archangel Gabriel's words implied he held no grudge against V1, no rage against the machine.

V1 quickly sprung up from her bed within the grasses, staring at Gabriel, now with a fully opened eye. She doesn’t stand still, instead softly shaking and shivering.

Of course, he could not respond due to technical limitations.
V1 was never meant to have a voice module, unlike his deep red counterpart.

All they could do was wave to the angel. In response, he chuckled.

"You were never really one to talk. I guess that stayed the same."

Instead of speech, the machine relied more so on body language and facial expression, or as much as she could express with just an eye.

Her top eyelid lowers slightly as she crosses her arms. The motion finishes with her wings, which were once tucked behind her body neatly, flaring outward and upward.

She was annoyed by the comment, to say the least.

Gabriel chuckles before gently waving his hand downward as he speaks.
"Enough of the teasing,"

He waves his now free hand out, toward the town that lies behind them.
"We need to figure out where the Hell we actually are! Or if we are even in Hell anymore."

V1 begins looking around, studying his surroundings. The two of them are in the very outskirts of a town in the middle of who knows where.

Gabriel slowly floats off, heading toward the center of the town. V1 has no idea what to do, so she trails behind Gabriel.
Her wings slowly tuck themselves behind her, crossing over like the idle wings of a bird.

They walk mostly in silence, though the two soon quicken their pace. This town seems to be somewhat of a ghost town, and it's beginning to creep them both out.

There is only the sound of wind and distant wildlife. Mostly sweet birdsong.

A lonely dog barks out, alerted by the sounds of footsteps.
V1, without thinking, jumps backwards, grabbing onto Gabriel's waist.

"Ah- um, ma-machine..." Gabriel stutters and stammers out of surprise.

As soon as he realizes what he's done, he lets go and takes a few steps back. His pupil is contracted, and his hands are level to his chest, palms facing outward.

Gabriel sighs. "Let us just keep going." He decides to drop the matter, turning back in the direction he was heading and continuing forwards. V1 lowers her hands and follows.

Awkward feelings would follow the two as they march onward, feelings that were first sparked back when they first met.

The pair start to see some stores and such appear along the streets, most of them seem to be closed however.

One cannot help but wonder if all there is after the afterlife is desolate towns.

"I think we should get out of here as quickly as possible." Gabriel’s voice carries a soft shiver. Something about this place makes him uncomfortable.

V1 nods in agreement, rushing off in a random direction, Gabriel now following her.

A train station isn't too far away from the small shopping district they were once in. Gabriel spots it and points it out to the machine, and they immediately make a beeline towards the station. He quickly darts after it.

V1 briefly stops at the entrance, waiting for Gabriel before it ascends the staircase with him by its side. They enter the small, and relatively empty train station lobby.

The pair are immediately drawn to the map of the train lines and destinations. The town they have found themselves in has been marked with a standard 'YOU ARE HERE.'

Gabriel points it out, V1's gaze following his finger.

"We are in a town called Whitlodge. That is, in my opinion, a horrible name. That gives us more reason to get out of here."

He removes his finger from the board and looks around, deciding where to go next. Eventually his finger resettles on the board, with V1 once again looking to the area.

"Costereni. It sounds nicer, does it not?" Gabriel looks to V1, and she meets his gaze while nodding in agreement once more.

Gabriel is off to the ticket desk to ask for their tickets. The woman working the stand is oddly pristinely human, roughly in her 50s or 60s, with a sullen expression.

"Excuse me Miss, could I get two tickets to Costereni?" He spoke kindly.

The woman looked up at him, she could not look more unhappy and tired of her job, and yet with each second her face drooped more and more.

"Sure thing, angel." Her voice had a slight rasp to it. She swivelled her chair to the side in order to print out the tickets.

The printer carried on for a little bit before printing the tickets.

She removed them from the printer and slid them across the counter to the angel.

"Thank you, and may you have a blessed day."

He swiped them up, motioning toward V1 in order to get their attention. V1 approaches Gabriel as he moves toward the doors leading out to the train platform.

She paused, taking out the Marksman and carefully flinging two coins onto the ticket desk. She then followed Gabriel outside.

It holsters the Marksman back into its respectful wing, as she sits down on one of the benches scattered across the platform.
It was next to Gabriel, but they both were on opposite sides of the bench. At that point in time, they were merely allies, not friends at all.

Silence fills the open-air platform, interrupted by soft gusts of wind and whatever little noises V1 made just by existing.

That would only last a moment, as soon a new noise joined in as the wind blew. Small clicking sounds getting closer.

Curious, V1 rises from the bench to go investigate. 
She notices a pencil, and a notebook on the ground not far from where the pencil had ended up rolling off to.

She picks up both objects, scanning the first few pages of the notebook, since they're the only part that was written in by the original owner.

The original owner isn't important, however, so V1 just takes it for herself and starts writing in it. It's writing an apology to Gabriel.
His handwriting is robotic, yet oddly charming.

It sits back down, handing the notebook it found to Gabriel, open on its apology. He grabs it, quickly reading it, as it's only a few words.

'SORRY FOR WHAT I DID, GABRIEL.'

"Honestly, machine, what happened just might have been for the better. I am still unsure what this place even is, but I have a feeling that it is going to lead us somewhere nicer."

He hands back the notebook, and she grabs it while thinking about what Gabriel had said. V1 fidgets by tapping the bottom end of the pencil onto the notebook page.

She'll have to continue thinking on the train, which is just arriving now. The train is modern, being mostly white and blue with yellow accents. Only one person is standing at an exit.

Gabriel and V1 both stand up, with V1 moving the notebook's ribbon onto the page she wrote on, before closing it. They wait for the train to stop, Gabriel simultaneously studies each carriage, trying to pick the quietest out of them all.

He briefly grabs the machine's right hand to guide her toward the carriage he had picked, but lets go after a second.

They find a spot to sit, V1 quickly opens her notebook and quickly writes something down. Gabriel watches as she writes, getting slightly nervous as he sees what is being written.
The train departs from the station, and he places his hands on his own thighs as he tries his best to come up with a response.

V1 finishes writing and looks to Gabriel. Their eyelids lower, leaving a gap in the middle, as if they were squinting at the angel.

'SO WHAT WAS THE HAND HOLDING ALL ABOUT. HM?
GOT A CRUSH ON MACHINERY?'

"Absolutely not." He seems somewhat flustered by the situation. V1's motions imitate that of laughter, though of course it lacks sound.

Its attention would shift to the window that it sat next to, surveying what she could of the sparse and sad scenery.
As the train progressed, the towns seemed to get livelier, which told both of them that desolation wasn’t all there was to it.

It moves to write again, this time making a mistake. Fortunately, there was an eraser on the bottom end of the pencil, which it used to correct its mistake.

V1 stops writing, as she had finished the sentence.

'I GUESS THERE IS HOPE FOR US AFTER ALL.
THAT IS, IF MY DEFINITION OF HOPE IS CORRECT...'

"Well, what is your definition for hope?"

'HOPE (NOUN)
A TYPICALLY OPTIMISTIC DESIRE FOR AN EVENT TO OCCUR. A FEELING THAT CAN DRIVE SOMEONE TO DO GREAT THINGS.

IN THIS SITUATION, I AM HOPING THAT THIS TRAIN IS TAKING ME SOMEWHERE NEW, SOMEWHERE INTERESTING.'

The pair briefly stare at each other.

"Excuse this inquiry, but why are you so... Mellow?"

Gabriel could ask the machine thousands of questions now that she had a way to communicate.

V1 looks down into her lap, at the notebook, thinking. She brings the pencil up to the page and hesitates for a moment. She's writing slower now.

'PERHAPS IT WAS THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF MY DEATH.
GOING FROM RUNNING BACK TO CRAWLING, THE OPPOSITE OF A HUMAN'S LIFE.
THERE WAS A BRIGHT LIGHT AT THE END OF THE HALL.
HANDS REACHED OUT FOR ME WHEN I WAS CLOSE ENOUGH.
LIKE SOMETHING WANTED ME HERE,
SINCE MACHINERY SHOULD NOT BE ABLE TO GO INTO THE AFTERLIFE. AND YET
HERE IN ARCADIA I TOO WILL BE.'

V1 pauses, staring at his own hands, listening to Gabriel whispering out the words as he reads them. It serves as a good indicator of when to flip the page, as V1 had run out of room on the page they were writing on.

She starts writing again, as Gabriel speaks. "Death was soothing to me, I would guess you felt the same?"

Please imagine the sound of pencil writing on paper.

'IT WAS EXTREMELY SILENT.
I GUESS IT WAS SOOTHING, IT ALMOST FELT AS THOUGH I WAS FINALLY GETTING REST,
BECAUSE FUN FACT I NEVER REALLY TOOK BREAKS, I TOOK A FEW TO COLLECT MYSELF BUT I ALWAYS GOT BACK TO IT ASAP.'

Gabriel grabs V1's right hand with his left, V1 quickly shaking her hand because hey, she's writing with it. She quickly scribbles three question marks.

"Apologies, that is just a habit of mine." He retracts his hand, returning it to his thigh.
"Back when I was still a messenger, many people would want to hold onto my hands. Hugs were common too, especially if the news I had to deliver was emotional."

As the angel talks, the machine would shift to using their left hand to write, as they were able to do so. A bit sloppily, yes, but it was still legible.

She grabs his hand once she's done writing, causing him to look over.

'I'M FINE WRITING WITH MY LEFT HAND :]
IT'S NOT LIKE HAND HOLDING IS STRICTLY ROMANTIC,
AND I'M SURE WE CAN BE FRIENDS.'

Gabriel chuckles, seeing that the machine has more personality than once thought.

"I will not reject friendship, though I will say it is odd to see such a gesture from something built for war."

'THERE IS NO LONGER A NEED FOR VIOLENCE.
WHY SHOULD I CONTINUE A CYCLE THAT SHOULD HAVE ENDED YEARS AGO, WHEN INSTEAD I CAN EXPERIENCE THINGS I NEVER COULD HAVE BEFORE?
PLUS, IT SEEMS MY FUEL SUPPLY IS INFINITE.'

"Oh. Well, you do have a point there. I am quite glad that you think this way, as the last thing I would want right now is a repeat of the events that have happened today. We deserve peace."

The train slowly comes to a stop at one of many stations along the way.

Gabriel shifts his attention to the things happening around them.
He believes he heard somebody whisper his name, though he lightly doubts it as his name was common among humans.

A young woman rushes onto the same carriage Gabriel and V1 were on, with another following. She has some obvious scarring from her second death, which appears to be long cuts from a blade.

She takes off a pair of white headphones as she approaches Gabriel.

"Excuse me! Are you the angel Gabriel?" She inquired, talking quickly as she didn't wish to waste the angel's time.

He lets go of the machine's hand, now pressing his own hands together.
"Indeed. How can I be of service, miss?"

"Um, hold on..." She grabs a cute notebook and pen out of her bag, flipping the notebook open to a blank page before she hands it to the angel.
"If you could sign this for me that would be great!"

He takes it from her, writing a short message at the bottom of the page before signing it, and handing the items back.
"Have a blessed day."

"Thank you so much!" She does a small bow before joining her friend as the train takes off.

Gabriel looks back to V1, and she's been silently sketching out the archangel, as well as a virtue. He is surprised at the machine's skill, though she has some limitations, as she cannot properly capture intricate details.

"Do you want me to sign that too?" V1 thinks for a moment, before handing over her notebook and pencil. Gabriel signs right underneath his portrait, adding that he looks stunning. The items are returned to V1.

It's quick to write in the notebook again. 'FANCY FUCK' and an arrow pointing to its drawing of Gabriel.

"Machine, I thought we were friends." Gabriel ends his sentence with a soft chuckle. V1 does that silent laughing thing again.

Over the speakers, a man announces the next station. It's Costerini, which catches the attention of the angel and the machine.

V1 turns the page, not wanting to mess up his drawings. He writes two exclamation marks.

Gabriel briefly looks out the window, before looking back down at V1.
"Once we arrive, I believe it would be best if we find a spot to sit and discuss what we shall do next."

V1 gives a thumbs up to the suggestion, closing her notebook.

The two sit in silence for the rest of the ride. V1 feels that the silence is perhaps a little awkward, but she cannot do much to fill it. So silence it must be.

As the announcer states that the train will be arriving at Costerini's station very soon, Gabriel grabs V1's hand yet again.