To Hell and Back

A song project directed by Vane Lily

          The afterlife was split into three different sects. There was Heaven, run by “God”, otherwise known as Carina. There was Hell, run by the “Devil”, also known as Lucifer. Purgatory existed somewhere in the middle, controlled equally by the two, and deemed to be something of a waiting room, where souls were suspended until their judgement.

          Within Hell existed seven different domains, where sinners were sent to suffer for eternity, each distinguished by the nature of the sin that warranted punishment. These domains were headed by powerful demons, who, themselves, were once humans on Earth.

          You see, judgement itself was a very simple process: the good go to Heaven, the bad go to Hell. So intuitive, a child would be able to figure it out. However, every now and again, someone would come along with rather... unique circumstances, that couldn’t be neatly fit into one or the other, that put into question the integrity of the system.

          These people were often given a spot in Hell, given work as demons to enact torture on those who were deemed wicked enough to deserve it. Spared from eternal suffering, but under the condition that they have to spin the wheels of the system, perhaps for these individuals, it was a life not too dissimilar to the grind of a nine-to-five job on Earth.


Summaries by Carbon Monoxide / Crow graphic by moldapartment / Home page art by 11vein

SONGS

I. A Crow's Trial

...The devil's work life, suffice to say, is comedy at best.


II. This Is My Heart

...Mother Mary's rotting either way!


III. Perfectly Sweet

...Guaranteed to feed that ego’s meat!


IV. The Other One Left

...Each target is marked with the will of a sin.


V. ▮▮▮▮▮▮

...Your love was fatal from the start.

COMING SOON

CHARACTERS

STAFF NOTICE: Photographer gone fishing. Please return for picture day at a later date.
Graphic by moldapartment

Kieran

Gender / Man (he/him)
Age / ???
Birthday / Unknown (Died ???)
Title / Lead Guide Demon
Likes / Smoking, guitar, city bustle
Dislikes / Isolation, quiet, coworkers, peppermint

Cold and withdrawn, this lonely boy feels as though he knows more about the people he’s responsible for than he does himself. Being the son of Lucifer, Kieran is tasked with guiding the newly-deceased spirits to judgement, where their fate is to be decided. After work, you can find him at a local bar or street corner enjoying a smoke; despite his status, it’s best to leave him be, he doesn’t appear to be the most approachable.

Trivia
- Cult following loves his guitar playing
- Has a soft spot for children


Nina Macías

Gender / Woman (she/her)
Age / 25
Birthday / June 2nd, 2155 (died 2180)
Title / Sinner
Likes / Writing, Liszt pieces, capybaras
Dislikes / The ocean, confined spaces, disobedience

Nina Macías is a young woman with a mysterious past. She isn’t one for conversation or companionship, and her refined, composed demeanor sticks out like a sore thumb amongst the sea of people who occupy Hell. Don’t let her unassuming looks fool you, Nina keeps a dagger on her at all times, and the hilt of her weapon has molded to the grooves of her hands.

Trivia
- Polyglot, proficient in 5+ languages
- Specializes in blades, but is proficient in firearms and poisons.


Leonardo James Vela

Gender / Genderqueer (he/she/they)
Age / 236
Birthday / November 9th, 1944 (died 1977)
Title / Head of Lust Department
Likes / Trashy romance novels, custom doll making, tamarind margaritas
Dislikes / Blue eyeshadow, obnoxiously loud cars, stained glass

Confident and with an inspiring work ethic, Leonardo James Vela works as the head of the Department of Lust. Tasked with punishing offenders and criminals alike, he takes on this job with a wicked smile and languid bravado. Buy him a drink, and Leo will be more than happy to tell you all about it. Push too deep into his past though, and he's likely to close you off.

Trivia
- Has managed to accumulate $10,000 of credit card debt in Hell
- Has a deep admiration for beloved Tejana icon Selena Quintanilla's music despite having died before her debut


Sarai Nassif

Gender / Woman (she/her)
Age / 216
Birthday / March 30th, 1964 (died 1999)
Title / Head of Gluttony Department
Likes / Shopping, sugary milk tea, corny romcoms, vodka
Dislikes / Co-baking, tardiness, summers, beavers

Sarai Nassif is an intelligent and kind woman, responsible for leading the Department of Gluttony, she dedicates her time to the punishment of those who indulge in the expense of the poor. Despite what her work entails, Sarai is deeply-empathetic, with a fiery passion for real and honest justice. Ask politely, and she’d be more than happy to whip you up a decadent dessert; just, don’t ask where she sourced her red food coloring.

Trivia
- Good at card games
- Surprisingly great breakdancer

Art by Neon / Design by Juno / Color direction by moldapartment


▮▮▮▮▮▮

Gender / ?
Age / ?
Birthday / ?
Title / ?
Likes / ?
Dislikes / ?

COMING SOON

Trivia
- ?

STORY

Summaries by Carbon Monoxide

I. A Crow's Trial

Kieran was a guide demon, he was the one tasked with bringing newly-arrived sinners to meet Lucifer for judgement. He was revered for his position, looked up-to by everyone he surrounded; Kieran was considered something of an adoptive son to the ruler of Hell, the two were close, and with that status, came respect.But Kieran had an issue…it didn’t go unnoticed to him, how everyone he talked to, sinner and demon alike, had some memory of their life on Earth. That’s something Kieran lacked. If he were to look inside himself, he saw nothing, he felt nothing, there was no sign that he’d even existed before arriving in Hell. A complete amnesiac, Kieran felt as though he were missing massive parts of himself.When asked, Lucifer revealed that he’d purposefully hidden Kieran’s memory, the experiences of his past life. Kieran found it difficult to trust the man he was so close to, and, over the course of centuries, the two drifted apart…Nina was an assassin. Vicious, uncaring, unfeeling. She found her home in the unforgiving steel of a dagger and the warmth of blood. So, she didn’t find herself too surprised, when she’d opened her eyes to fire and brimstone.But Kieran saw something in Nina. More than just a sinner, he saw an opportunity.Knowing she had nowhere else to go, he extended a deal. He would spare her from the eyes of judgement, and all she had to do was to help him attack Lucifer, stealing a piece of his heart in the process. If Kieran were to eat just that piece, he could regain his memories, and all his questions could be answered.In reality, his end of the deal was…stretching the truth, to say the least. She didn’t have to know that, though.Interested purely in self-preservation, Nina agreed. She was used to these sorts of deals, what’s another body count to a murderer?Unfortunately, things didn’t go precisely according to plan. They weren’t able to catch him off guard so easily, Lucifer defended himself against Nina’s attacks—knocking her to the ground—as he turned his attention to Kieran, betrayed by his son’s actions.Lucifer wasn’t angry. When Kieran looked up into his father’s eyes, he saw hurt. The boy unraveled with the guilt, and confessed his feelings to Lucifer, confessed that he felt empty, missing, broken, without his memories. He was truly honest for the first time, and told him that, without being able to trust the only man he considered family, he felt he had nothing.Lucifer met Kieran’s grief with compassion, encasing him in a hug, he whispered a sincere apology to his son.Nina looked on, and within her, something brewed.
Years of repressed emotions; hate, fear, anger. Things she was never allowed to express, a humanity she was never afforded.
Nina had been used as a tool for as long as she’s been alive, an instrument of murder. And here, yet again, she felt simply used. It wasn’t fair, that Kieran got to have his happy family at her expense, while she was made an object—a means to an end.Fueled with her most primal of instincts, Nina stood behind Lucifer, and forced her arm through his torso. It was surprisingly easy, to pull his heart from his chest. It was even more satisfying, to watch the spark Kieran’s eyes die out, giving away to shock and horror, as his father’s body collapsed onto him.Wordlessly, and through tears she didn’t know she was crying, Nina ate all of Lucifer’s heart. Magic coursed through her veins, and for the first time in her life, she felt she was truly empowered.

Content warning: Topic of Sexual Assault
Reader discretion is advised

II. This Is My Heart

A Tejano born and raised in Austin, Texas, Leonardo James Vela was a wide-eyed young man with a bright future ahead of him. Both of his parents worked most hours of the day, it took a lot of effort for them to make a living, but Leo didn’t mind, he was grateful for the hard work his parents put in to give him the life he had.More often than not, Leo’s parents weren’t able to come home until late into the night. Unable to afford a babysitter and concerned with his safety, they decided to place Leo in the care of their church; they trusted their local priest—a man of good community standing and a decent family friend—to watch over him when needed.In retrospect, it was the perfect cocktail of factors. Leo had no other siblings, he was a loner by choice and kept to himself most days. What his priest ended up doing became more a matter of opportunism, and the knowledge that no one would believe the word of a child over a man of God.Being a victim of childhood sexual abuse had fundamentally changed the course of Leo’s life. Frustrated by the lack of support systems for victims and failed by the community he was supposed to trust, his goals had shifted, and he decided to become a detective, seeking to enact real justice.It was made quickly evident, however, that real justice didn’t seem to be in the cards for people like him. The system simply wasn’t interested in accommodating victims of abuse, it was a badly-kept secret; everybody seemed to know it, but no one seemed to want to do anything about it.No one until Leonardo Vela, that is. Taking things into his hands, he became a sort-of vigilante. He had access to the records, and a back-log of cases to be inevitably shredded, so it was just a matter of picking up the gun. With his own two hands, he became a murderer, striking terror into the hearts of predators, and bringing peace to their victim.It was by his 17th murder that he was inevitably caught. By then, he became something of an urban legend within the location he occupied, so when his identity was confirmed, law enforcement and the court rushed through his trial as quickly as possible in order to sentence him to death. At that point, he became something of a media sensation, and had the press stumbling over itself to get a word in from him.Restrained for lethal injection and pressed for a final statement, he left the world with one last sentence;
“All of them got what they deserved. But that last piece of shit? He had it coming for years.”
When Leo opened his eyes again, he was met with the foreboding figure of Lucifer, towering over him in Hell.
“Ah, Leonardo Vela,” He said, with a wicked grin, “I’ve heard of your…talents, back on Earth. What say we make a deal? One I think you wouldn’t want to miss out on.”
In the afterlife, Leo serves as the head of the Department of Lust, taking it upon himself to torture the sinners guilty of sex crimes.

III. Perfectly Sweet

Sarai Nassif was only a young girl when she and her family had immigrated out of Bangladesh. Like many others, they came to London to seek out a better life for themselves. Sarai’s parents risked it all to bring her to safety, left behind everything for the chance of a better future, and for that, she would be forever grateful.She was raised in a neighborhood of other like-minded immigrants. Her community was disenfranchised, their schools underfunded and homes run-down, but there was a deep love and sense of shared struggle that connected them together. Sarai acted as the beating heart of that community. Her parents owned a small local bakery that served desserts and pastries from her childhood home. The best cure for homesickness was a warm meal, her mother always said.Sarai would do anything for her community, she told herself. She knew the names of the regulars, of their religious leaders and school teachers. Sarai worked overtime to make extra food to give to the homeless, and free banquet spreads for events and birthday parties which would’ve otherwise remained without any treats.So she found herself in a sticky situation, when her little neighborhood began changing upon the whims of gentrification. Opportunistic businessmen saw their home as low real estate costs and an ‘untapped market’, rather than the sprawling, interconnected web of cultures that it was. Their business struggled over time, and Sarai’s family were confronted with a decision, either to sell the bakery, or to have it fail altogether.Anything for her community, she said…with a heavy heart, her parents signed the deal.New ownership was awful. Her little bakery became an imitation of itself, cutting costs to turn out a profit, with focus shifting to margins and numbers rather than the quality of the food. As an inevitable consequence, the business had failed to get back on its legs, and it was no longer seen as the pillar of hope and warmth that had once appealed to its guests. Business was so slow, and the quality was so poor, that rumors began floating around that the bakery was being used as a front for some kind of criminal organization.As quickly as he had bought it, the new owner wanted to get rid of it. Inundated with his greed, he wanted to burn down the whole thing—blame it on the ‘uppity locals’—and collect the insurance money to pave the way for a new apartment building. It would’ve been the perfect plan, had Sarai not stayed up working late the night it was to be enacted.It all happened so fast. One second, Sarai was stocking inventory, and the next, everything she had worked for, everything she had loved, had gone into flames. Knowing there was no way for her out of the fire, Sarai scrambled to find any sort of escape route, only to find sight of the new owner, with a jerry can in his hands.Her mind going a mile-a-minute, Sarai was furious, and in the midst of the chaos, she dragged him back into the flames. If she was going to lose everything, if her parents were going to be left without their daughter, she wanted him to lose it all as well.Upon her death, Sarai woke up in Hell, confronted with the foreboding presence of Lucifer. She was initially panicked, but he’d calmed her down, and informed her of a business deal he knew she would love.Sarai knew a thing or two about bad deals, and this wasn’t one of them. Shaking his hand, she was quickly crowned the head of the Department of Gluttony.

IV. The Other One Left

There was a lot you could do to a child, if you were to simply dangle a sense of love and security above their heads.As far back as her first ever memory, before she’d so much as learned to talk, Nina knew danger. Orphaned at an extremely young age, she quickly learned the most important lesson she was ever going to learn, and what she would carry with her for the rest of her life; the only thing she’ll ever truly have is herself.Dr. Macias saw something within Nina. He saw a young, lonely girl, desperate for family. He saw enumerable amounts of pain, he saw a gentle soul that could easily be molded to become something dangerous. He saw an opportunity.Nina understood from day one what her role was. She was a replacement for Dr. Macias’ late assistant. Although technically her father, he refused to ever allow her to call him that. It was always ‘Doctor’, or ‘Mister’, whatever was most impersonal. Over the years, Nina was experimented upon, she was conditioned and eventually turned into an assassin for [REDACTED], she understood herself as nothing more than an object, a thing she knew could be discarded as soon as it was deemed convenient, existing only for the purpose of bringing [REDACTED] back to life.Nina told herself she was only ever interested in self-preservation. She was cold, hardened, strong, worthy. In reality, that little girl Dr. Macias had set his eyes upon was still alive, a part of her she never dared to acknowledge. Deep within her, she wondered, why it seemed that the world deemed her unworthy of having the only thing she’s ever really wanted, a family to call her own.