Time passed, and the absence of something to do grated on Riku as he sat by idly on the couch. Watching the gods in front of them work on what was apparently standard protocol for them, he supposed that he couldn't blame them for the amount of annoyance and hostility they were exuding, all directed to the one god that clearly wasn't doing anything on his desk.
Truly, it was painfully obvious that Astra was enjoying the misery of his younger siblings.
"I'm sure you won't ever ask Big Brother Tyche to do this for you though," Kali pointed out with a scoff as she looked up from her own copy of paperwork to accomplish. "He'd scold you, I'm sure."
"Ah, that's why I properly did the paperwork for his Champion already," Astra smugly chuckled as he then pulled out a fully accomplished form from one of the many stacks of paper on his desk. "Even I'm not stupid enough to risk our Eldest's wrath."
"You... You clearly had the time to do this all on your own if you can do it for Big Brother Themis's Champion," Solis growled, her own magical pen flying through her own forms.. "What's stopping us from just tattling to him about what you're doing?"
"Ah, that's where you're naive, little sister," Astra playfully chuckled without a care in the world. "He's not even with us right now, so why should I be bothered?"
Riku narrowed his eyes at the god's behavior. He didn't think that Astra would be this menacing despite his constant smiles, but this was just downright bullying. Even he wouldn't wish upon the dread of doing tedious paperwork on anyone.
"Just be glad I can't punch you in the face right now, Astra," Shiva angrily grumbled, his grip on his pen almost looking like the poor thing was about to break from his strength. "I would've broken your face in if not for the others."
"Keep telling yourself that, Shiva," the God of Space lazily answered. "There's not much you can do to me anyway. Haven't we already established that?"
"I don't know. I'm pretty sure I've seen Big Brother Shiva send you running before," Nyx suddenly chimed in without fear.
"Hah! Even the little squirt knows what's up!" the God of Destruction cackled.
"I do recall him sending you flying for a few years~" Ragnarok cheerily added with the faintest hint of malice on her tone. "That counts for something, right?"
"Oh, so that's how you treat the big brother that keeps Themis from going ballistic on all of you, huh," Astra whined with a clearly faked sob. "To think that my job is a thankless one..."
"Brother, we all know of how you're doing that, and we're thankful. The problem is that you're throwing your work right down at us instead of doing them yourself," Kali pointed out with a sigh. "You're more than capable of doing all of this, and yet you decide to just pawn it off to us when you have all the time in world to just sleep and lay around."
"I'll have you know that being lazy is a sign of being efficient," Astra teasingly scoffed. "Anyway, aren't you all just wasting your time arguing with me about this? Better get ahead of the others if you want your Champion to be out of here first."
Another round of collective groans echoed from the gods, and Riku could only softly chuckle at the exchange he just witnessed. Classic sibling dynamics aside, he couldn't help but respect Astra for his obvious hustle. After all, why work when you could just make others do it for you?
"I hate him," Kali's Champion, Curie, whispered to him. "I've had a coworker like that before."
"Haven't we all?" Moira lowly whispered back. "I hated her... Made nursing work even harder than it already is."
"So you killed her then?" Curie asked back.
"No? Just because I'm a killer doesn't mean I like it," the nurse sadly whispered back. "The men I've killed... They all deserve it..."
The former assassin raised a brow at that information. He hadn't heard of a nurse turned serial killer before during his time, but he supposed that she was probably from the US where there were killers aplenty. She probably didn't do enough to become an international figure, but he respected her view on her own deeds. At least she wasn't killing for the fun of it.
"You've killed men before?" Eleonore animatedly asked, her rage still bubbling within whenever she turned her gaze to him. "Did it feel amazing?"
Against the former opera singer's expectations, however, the nurse simply sank deeper into her cloak of self-loathing. In response, Mary placed a hand on the nurse's shoulder to give support.
"I'm not... I went into the healthcare industry to help people, not to kill..." Moira listlessly replied. "Those I've killed... No, they deserve it... I saved that hospital... I did... They deserve it..."
From there, the nurse fell into a repetitive droning that blended in well with the usual ambient noise and chatter. Eleonore was clearly disappointed at the response she got and promptly returned to simply grumbling in wait for her patron goddess, while Mary quickly tried her best to soothe the distraught nurse. Meanwhile, Curie simply returned to her own seat, leaving Riku and Shizu alone on the couch once more.
"That was... something, I guess," Shizu absently remarked. "How long do you think this will last?"
"For as long as it takes, I'm guessing," Riku shrugged. "At least your patron god's quickly doing work at the moment."
True enough, Tyche was clearly breezing through the paperwork like it was nothing. Compared to Nyx whose frown was getting deeper the longer she went, the God of Fate looked like he didn't even care about what was happening as he smiled at hummed his way through his paperwork.
"And done," Tyche clapped his hands as he quickly turned around and presented his work to Astra. "Here we go. My Champion is free to go, yes?"
Astra hummed as he looked over the paperwork. "That seems to be the case," he shrugged. "Take care out there then."