A knock came rapping against the doorwall. I turn to face the unnanounced visitor only to find my eyes fixed about a finely dressed slim figure with a crooked grin. “So it looks like the little saint Nick has grown tired of waiting for his next prey eh?” the sly voice was instantly recognizable for Greed.

“Woah there bucko, we can’t have you fuckin around here. Don’t you remember that you ain’t that good around Charity?” Wrath wore a grimace as if he’s had to say this hundreds of times already.

“Well then you should also remember that none of you can stop me from fighting him.”

“Gah, fine. We’d hafta clean up after your mess anyways.” It was quite the surprise to see Wrath actually back down from something.

“So Joseph, where exactly did you see these feathers? Just lead the way and I’ll take it from there.”

“Wait what do you plan on doing? Surely you don’t mean to fight each other right? I know that what he’s doing right now is wrong but the act of charity is rather nice.” I wanted to try and calm down Greed, but it didn't seem to help much.

“First of all, if you speak kindly of him once more I can assure you will regret it. Secondly, do you not realize the unbalance and chaos he’s causing? Thirdly, I am Greed, everything this bastard does goes against my principles, and I seek no forgiveness for my wrath.”

“Oi. that’s my shtick.”

“Wrath, you’re not the only one to seek violence among us, let me be.”

I was still confused. “Wait, isn’t there any way that we can try and help Charity? Maybe try and bring him back to reason?”

“So you want these people lying in the streets to just continue and rid themselves of their possessions? Do you realize how much these people will lose while you try and negotiate with a corrupt virtue?”

hm? “Wait, ‘corrupt’? What does that mean?”

“Ah, so we have to start from there then, fair enough.” It seemed like Greed was preparing for a long lecture. “Well I’ll skip the whole beginning stuff since it doesn’t matter, but let’s get started with the conditions. The seven heavenly virtues are the counterparts are each of us seven deadly sins. They are often used as a sort of emergency measure against us sins in the case we go rampant, especially with our previous wishes. But occasionally these virtues incorrectly gauge the balance of sin and virtue and overreact. This causes them to essentially throw a tantrum and causes the nearby people to be corrupted by their virtue. Us sins hardly ever have this happen since we are normally kept heavily in check by the virtues should we try and upset the balance. That’s actually the main warning clause in the book, the repercussions for granting sinful wishes aren’t caused by us, but by the virtues. The old man always favors the virtues, so he places the blame of the “curse” on us. Anyways, us sins have a natural disposition against our opposing virtues, but the virtues often treat us like nothing, despite us often being the ones who have to take care of their outbursts. You don’t need to worry about us though, since we are manifestations of humankind’s virtues and sins, we can never really die, but our more direct influences on humanity can be temporarily stopped. That’s what I plan on doing with Charity.”

“So Joseph, the longer we stand around here dawdling, the poorer the saps around Charity’s lodging will become, and I’d especially hate it if places were to go out of business because of this.” Deep down I was really conflicted. I didn’t know whether to agree with Greed and destroy Charity, or to try and help Charity calm down. I had to make up my mind.

“Greed, wait. Can you please let me try something with your help? This is something I must have.”

“Kid, just because you appeal to my admiration of greediness does not mean you can just get me to do what you want. But I’ll at least hear out your request.” Here goes nothing…

“I want you to protect me from Charity’s curse and let me try and talk him down.”

“Kid, do you know what you’re asking me to do?”

“Somewhat, yes.”

“Well let me enlighten you, the only why I can protect you from Charity is to enhance your greedy nature. If anything goes wrong your morals could be permanently cursed to be unbalanced into greed. Do you still think it’s worth the risk?”

Was it? Was it worth risking my personality for the sake of saving someone from a temporary death? I thought about the good that could come from other people being properly charitable, and how some people could really be changed for the better sooner rather than later and made up my mind.

“I do. So how should we go about this?”

“Gah, I feared you would do this. Since you’ve made up your mind I suppose we should come up with a plan tomorrow. It’s already getting rather late. I’ll have some rough numbers done up by the time you get back.”

“Alright, I suppose we’ll figure this out after I’m done with work.”

Wrath finally popped into the conversation. “Well since it seems like you too have gotten somethin’ figured out I’m gonna head off and do my own thing.”

“Alright Wrath, see ya later.”