Looking around the floor Amenadiel couldn't help but shake his head at what he was seeing. "Leave it to Luci to buy an entire building… a tower really… and only use a quarter of the floors."

The space was as wide as Lux, having no walls set up to actually divide it up into smaller rooms which was rather nice as it would save them time when it came to deciding how they wanted to lay things out. Charlie was already sitting at a table, working away at the blueprints for how she wanted to lay things out. They definitely had a lot to work with… but also almost nothing to work with. In terms of space there was plenty. But in terms of what Lucifer had done with the floors that was utterly nothing. No one else lived there as, after that whole business with it nearly being torn down, there was no way Lucifer was going to risk it ever falling out of his hands again… utterly lazy of him not to take care of such things sooner but it was now his. Yet when he'd bought The Gaiman Building he'd only ended up using a few of the floors. There was Lux, of course, and the basement that served as a supply room, and Maze had her own apartment which had sat unused for the last few years (as it had always felt like just another room that belonged to Lucifer and when she'd decided to make her clean break that meant moving out on her own). Of course there was the Penthouse and directly below that a secondary floor with the kitchen and a few guest rooms.

And the less said about the sex dungeon floors, the better for Amenadiel's sanity.

But that only equaled about a third of The Gaiman. The rest of the building had been left empty, Lucifer not even bothering to renovate or remove what the previous owners, the MMA fight boss, had left there.

So a lot to work with yet a little.

Amenadiel, Charlie, and her girlfriend Vaggie were on the floor two floors up from Lux. Amenadiel had been the one to suggest that they have a buffer room of sorts, so that there was less temptation for those that wished to stay in the hotel to go down and get booze, drugs, or sex. It would always be there, a nagging whisper of the delights that awaited them, but it could be ignored if they left a room between the loud club and the hotel itself. Amenadiel figured they could use it for their own supplies and storage, so it didn't go to waste.

"Its more than that," Vaggie stated. "The King said that we can have most of the floors below the penthouse. We'll be using the one that belonged to Mazakeen as our apartment-" she gestured between herself and Charlie, who busy working on her plans, entirely focused on what she was sketching out, "-since she won't be staying here." The demon let out a sigh at that.

"You seemed… relieved."

"Yeah well… the Lilim freak me out," Vaggie said. "Sinner demons and Lilim don't get along all that well… there were always attempts by this overlord or that underboss to try and work with them but it always ended with torture and death. The Lilim aren't interested in what we sinner demons do."

"They are just old fashioned," Charlie stated.

"They're fucking snobs," Vaggie complained.

~MC~M~MC~

"I say Gertinuna," a lilim demon said, tugging on his suit jacket. "Look at this peon of a sinner demon." He smirked as the sinner demon, a cowboy from the old west who's true demon form resembled a long horned bull with bits of metal covering parts of his flesh. "Is he using a branding iron to torture that little imp there."

"I do think he is, Totintom," the other lilim, dressed in a Victorian dress, said with a giggle, fanning herself. "Oh… how utterly common of him. It's like he hasn't even heard of hell forged microhooks!" The two laughed and walked away, still mocking the bull sinner demon who was frowning, the branding iron slowly dipping down.

"Uh… you still gonna torture me?"

"No… just not that fun anymore." The sinner demon sighed and walked away, kicking a can.

~MC~MC~MC~

"One of Maze's siblings acted like that?" Amendadiel said, shooting Vaggie a disbelieving look at that.

Charlie grimaced, looking up from her work. "Not all of them… just the ones that step out from the torture chambers and decided to lord it over people that they were older than the sinner demons and more… special, I guess. Then there are the rest that don't like how things are run…"

Vaggie shuddered. "Yeah… those ones are even worse. Violent snobs"

~MC~MC~MC~

"So you're too good to actually do the work of our king, is that it?" one of the lilim said, grabbing their sister Gertinuna's chin and forcing her to look up at her. The lilim, who hadn't given her name when she'd stormed into the town square, brutally ripped the arm off her companion, and used said limb to beat Gertinuna unconscious before hanging her up for everyone to see with burning chains that never stopped radiating heat as hot as the sun. "Prefer to slum it with these filthy human souls that pretend to be like us? Think that makes you special that you're able to get one up on them?" She punched Gertinuna in the stomach. "Pathetic."

Mitzy and Vaggie, who'd stepped out of the donut shop while taking a break from the Hotel at that moment, looked at each other before quietly walking back inside to get another coffee… they had a craving.

~MC~MC~MC~

"Alright, so I have all the plans drawn up!" Charlie said excitedly, leaping up from the table she'd been working on and, with a hop and a skip and a bounce, landing on a crate and thrust the blueprints out for them to see. "This… is our new hotel!"

Amenadiel blinked. "That… is a drawing of stick people walking into a box."

"That's not a box it's the hotel!" Charlie proclaimed. "See, there is the door… oops, forgot the door." She blushed and went over to the desk and for the first time Amenadiel noticed she was using crayons to sketch out her design.

"Yeah, she does that… a lot," Vaggie said.

"Should I be greatly concerned?" Amenadiel whispered.

The demon though shook her head. "It will be fine. She just sucks at drawing but if you get her someone who can actually put a design down on paper she'll be able to give them a full description. It's… honestly kind of amazing. I've seen her lay out multiple levels of the Hazbin Hotel down in hell, explain exactly what each one will look like from curtains and carpet to capentry and lay out… its all there in her head. Its just when she draws she gets excited and… well…"

"Do you think I should add some stickers?" Charlie called out. "I bought rainbow stickers this morning. They are very rainbow-y."

"Right," Amenadiel said, shaking his head at the fact that Lucifer's daughter was more bubbly than some angels he knew. "So Charlie," he said as the young woman hopped down and began to move about the large open space, muttering to herself as labeling her 'blueprints' with everything she wanted to have in the lobby, "what exactly are you thinking for us starting out?"

"Weeeeeelllllll," Charlie said, tapping her chin, 'when we started Happy Hotel-"

"Hazbin," Vaggie reminded her.

"Happy Hotel," Charlie said stubbornly. "When we started with that we were mostly giving demons free room and board who said they wanted to change but now I honestly think that wasn't the… best idea." She sighed. "Don't get me wrong… I believe there is no one that is above redemption. Every demon has a rainbow within them."

"Do not sing the song," Vaggie warned her.

"There's a song?" Amenadiel asked.

"There is a song for everything," Vaggie said, rolling her eyes while Charlie pouted before waving off Razzle and Dazzle who began to push the piano and violin they'd gotten out back into storage; Amenadiel wondered if he should see about getting his son Charlie a cherub or something to protect him like Lucifer's Charlie had with those two demons. From what Charlie had told him Razzle and Dazzle had been with her since she was a baby and were utterly loyal to her in a way that made how loyal Maze was to Linda look like bitter enemies. One or two quiet guardians that would watch out for the boy and make sure he was protected. It was something to talk with Linda about.

"Oh, I don't know about that," Charlie said with a giggle and an embarrassed smile.

"The waffle song?" Vaggie pressed.

"…I like waffles, I like waffles, they make me a happy Charlie. They are yummy, in my tummy, num num num num num!" Charlie ducked her head, blushing. "That was my first song ever."

"I'm pretty sure your first words were a lullaby."

"The demons?" Amenadiel asked, amused by the antics of the two but wanting to get back on the subject at hand.

"Oh, right," Charlie said, instantly perking up. "Honestly I think we did more for our staff than we did for the demons that stayed at the Hotel. They… weren't fully dedicated to the cause." She tapped her index fingers together.

"They took advantage of us for free room and board," Vaggie said with a sigh. She walked over and placed an arm around Charlie's middle. "I hated how they treated this all like a joke. Charlie is doing amazing things for demons down in Hell and so many of them either laughed at her or thought they could use her as part of their own schemes." Her mind turned to a certain Radio Demon who'd been awfully quiet when Lucifer had rolled up to the Hotel to renovate it…

~MC~MC~MC~

"Right," the King of Hell said, stepping out of his limo and clapping his hands. The Queen was just a step behind, looking glamorous as always, watching as her husband looked over their daughter's hotel. "Everyone out… yes out. And since I'm your king that means right blood NOW!"

There was a massive stampede of demons rushing out of the hotel, all in various states. A winged cat demon just barely managed to stand up straight, though another demon gave him a bucket in case the rush out the door left him throwing up. A fish demon blinked before falling to his knees. The maid was wiping something off her lips that Lucifer figured wasn't cream from an iced coffee. Others were half dressed or in mismatched clothing. Then there was Vaggie who was in a super long sleeping tee and Charlie who was wearing footie pajamas.

"Good, you're all here. Now then normally we leave you all alone because this is my daughter's project and I don't like to interfere. Believe me, I know what its like when your father won't give you a bit of freedom or space. That said I've decided that it is time to take Charlie on a little trip up to Earth-" Charlie let out a squeal that clearly was her crying out 'Trixie!' but the other demons didn't know that, "-and while she and Vagatha are going it only makes sense that this hotel get renovated… updated to fit standards I hold."

"Oh! That's so wonderful, dad!" Charlie said in delight. "But you really don't need to do that… I'm fine with the hotel-"

"Well I'm not," he said, wrapping an arm around her and guiding her towards the limo, motioning for Razzle and Dazzle to push Vaggie along with them. "I've always told you to dress for success… and you do that quite well." Charlie bobbed her head in agreement; she prided herself on looking fashionable. "Which is why I want to make sure the hotel reflects you. We can go over some design ideas…" As he pushed her and Vaggie into the limbo he nodded to Chloe… who smirked and shut the soundproof door before shifting into her true demon form, rising into the air as her hair swirled around her and Hell's darkest magics formed in the palms of her hands.

The staff and guests of Hazbin only had seconds to find other places to sleep for the night as Chloe took the hotel apart brick by brick in her search for a certain pesky Radio Demon… who was no where to be found.

~MC~MC~MC~

"But this time its going to be so much different!" Charlie said excitedly. "Mom and I talked and she felt that I tried to dive in too quickly, go for the extreme instead of working up to that. Instead of working with demons why not work with the humans who might become demons? Get them to decide to just be good here on Earth so they never go down to Hell, don't end up out of their loops and thus being turned into Sinner Demons, and thus we don't get over populated to begin with!" Charlie pressed her hands together, a large (and completely innocent and non-demonlike) smile on her pale face. "And its going to show me so much stuff I can use for the demons when Hell's Happy Hotel opens back up!"

Amenadiel chuckled at Charlie's excited. The young woman clearly loved helping people. "Well, I think you are going to be on the right track. Who do you want to help first?"

"I'm thinking people that already want to do better but they need a place to stay so they can do just that. Away from influences and such that would make them want to go back to being bad."

"That is a wonderful idea," Amedadiel stated. "A place that is accepting of anyone, no matter how far they have fallen, and offering them a place to recover. A nice-"

"Does anyone else feel like this is leading up to something?" Vaggie asked.

"Relaxing."

"Seriously, feels like a build up."

"Understanding."

"Here it comes."

"Accepting place."

"Satan on a barbed dildo!" Angel Dust shouted, bursting out of the stairwell. "I haven't been that out of breath since I had to do a line of hellhoud dicks to get enough money for my drugs!" He looked at Amenadiel and arched an eyebrow. "And whose this grinning moron? What's wrong, skippy, your new gerbil figure out how to nibble on your prostate?"

"And there it is," Vaggie muttered.

"…Charlie, who is this demon and what part of the fault line would you like to see him beaten down into until I get him right back to Hell?" Amenadiel stepped forward, cracking his knuckles.

"Oh, ya gonna fist me? Gotta warn ya, that'll cost extra." Amenadiel unsheathed his wings and all at once Angel Dust's eyes went wide and he cringed. "Oh fuck… an angel."

"The first angel," Amenadiel stated. "The Fury of God."

"Shit… shit shit shit!" Angel Dust said, backing away from Amenadiel. "Hey Charlie, get the fuck out of here! This guy makes those robo-angels from the purges look like vibrators!"

"Must everything be a joke to you? Or about sex? Or a sex joke?" Vaggie rolled her eyes and took a seat. Honestly she was hoping Amenadiel would pound the annoying spider demon right back down to the inferno.

Charlie though darted forward and put her hands on Amenadiel's chest. "hold on, hold on now, Uncle Amenadiel! This is my… well, I was going to say friend but honestly I think Angel would vomit if I said that-"

"I would," Angel Dust replied, feeling a bit better with Charlie calling the angel her Uncle. But Amenadiel glared at him and Angel Dust winced. "Uh… I'll just be shutting up now. Heh."

"But he is someone I've been trying to help. And I mean yeah, he's rough around the edges- Angel, please don't make a joke." The demon snapped his mouth shut. "But he is trying to get better. We've made a lot of progress."

"That is progress?"

Vaggie sighed. "As much as I hate to admit it… she's right. He used to be a lot worse."

"Totally. 100%." Angel nodded rapidly. "Beforehand I wouldn't ask permission before trying to tongue your rosebud. By the by, is it true that angels taste like Lucky Charms?"

"…I still want to hit him."

"Give in to those urgings," Vaggie encouraged but in the end Amenadiel sighed and backed off, pulling his wings back in.

"Angel, why don't you go upstairs and look around… maybe you'll have some suggestions for the hotel?" Charlie asked.

Angel nodded. "Right, yeah. Your dad told me I needed to help you out so that's why I'm here." He walked towards the door, waving goodbye to them. "If ya ever decide to Fall give me a holler, big boy!"

"And I thought Maze was bad," Amenadiel muttered.

Charlie let out a sigh of relief. "Thanks for being so understanding. Angel might seem like a bad egg but he really isn't… believe me, I've actually met bad eggs. Had them fire on me too."

Amenadiel blinked at that. "Hell has really changed since the last time I was down there."

"I'd say not for the better but I'll take how it is now over being stuck in one of those Hell loops." Vaggie shuddered at that.

"Well, you'll never go into one again, I promise," Charlie said, walking over and kissing her girlfriend on the forehead, which earned a gentle smile from the gray-skinned demon. "But thank you for that… and for helping out here, Uncle Amenadiel. I think you are going to be a huge help."

"You're more than welcome," Amenadiel told her. "To be honest… I feel a bit like I'm taking advantage of you." He sat down at the table Vaggie was sitting next to, glancing down briefly to see if it was safe to rest his elbows on it; it had belonged to a criminal and then Lucifer so checking for sticky spots was a must when it came to being in the Gaiman Building. Razzle and Dazzle walked over, offering them all some donuts (though they did consider leaving Amenadiel out based on principle but decided since Charlie liked him he couldn't be all that bad even if he was an angel). "For a long time now I haven't known what to do with my life. I was God's most faithful soldier. Everything I did was in the name of doing as He commanded." Vaggie scoffed at that but Charlie shot her a look. "Then when I Fell I focused on trying to get back in my Father's good graces. Only I realized it wasn't about getting back in his good graces… it was getting back into my own. I had betrayed myself and caused my own Fall. So I did all I could to rise."

"And how did you?" Charlie asked, leaning forward, utterly engrossed in his tail. "Because you have your wings back and just… wow! I've seen my dad's wings… other than Mr. Crowley his are the only full wings I've ever seen. Well, except yours. Mine are just blah!" She stuck out her tongue and made a face. "But yours were beautiful!"

"Thanks," Amenadiel said with a gentle smile. "And I did it by not focusing on what I had to do in order to make up for the things I'd done. Because it always felt like doing that was just me… grasping at straws. Trying to force the issue. It wasn't until I began spending time with your namesake that I began to forgive myself. Because Charlotte Richards was a… deeply flawed woman. She did terrible things for the most petty of reasons. Yet she also wanted to do so much good… to make up for that. And when she died it… it hurt so much. Because I knew she deserved better. Not just Hell but life. She deserved to live. And all that… that made me want to live so I could help her." He smiled. "And I did."

Charlie smiled even as she blinked back tears. "I wish I could have met her. Dad and mom told me so much about her…"

"Maybe one day you will," Amenadiel said. Because, he mentally thought, if there was any demon that could earn the right to walk through the Pearly Gates it was Charlie: the demon that wanted to redeem other demons.

Besides, there was always a chance Charlotte could find a way back to Earth.

~MC~MC~MC~

"Come on Charlotte, it wouldn't be all that bad!" the cherub that looked like a duckie (not a duck… a duckie. A cartoon baby duckling duckie) declared with a giggle (because it was always a giggle. Or a cheerful smile. Or a blissful sigh). "Its like you are always wearing a snuggy."

"You aren't making the case you think you are," Charlotte Richards told the cherub before making a few marks on the forms sat out before her. Surrounding her on the cloud (because OF COURSE it was a cloud… everything in Heaven was made of clouds, even the toilets though in Heaven when you pooped it was merely clouds that came out of your butt… singing ones) that she'd declared her office were several dozen cherubs who were all trying to convince her to select THEIR form as the one she took when she became a cherub. Self-actualization and all that, she'd been told as much by Gabriel (and it still threw her off that he looked like that guy from Mad Men), so if she did decide to become an angelic being she should be able to control it.

Should.

And that didn't mean that she couldn't make a mistake.

Thus research.

"You'd look lovely with a beak!" the duckie cherub told her.

"NEXT!"

~MC~MC~MC~

"So Lucifer," Linda said, setting a cup of coffee down on the table next to him, "its been a while since we talked and while I'm not your therapist anymore that doesn't mean we can't talk."

"You aren't going to go on and on about your child's name, are you?" Lucifer asked wearily. "I told you, we chose it to honor Charlotte. And honestly I forgot you and Amenadiel had done the same."

"You forgot your nephew's name?"

"I met him for five minutes!" Lucifer complained. "And he doesn't do anything but drool and occasional poop. If I wanted that I'd have another orgy at Larry King's house." He wagged his finger at her. "Besides, Hell's time moves faster on Earth! It was over 80 years since I'd last seen you all when Charlie appeared rather unexpectedly. You're lucky I remember your name…" He paused, lips puckered, and he snapped his fingers several times. "I want to say Bertha?"

"Linda."

"…are you sure?"

"Pretty sure."

Lucifer shrugged. "if you say so."

Linda took a sip of her own coffee. She'd considered giving the stuff up but honestly the whole 'bonding with your child through the miracle of breast feeding' lost its appeal if she had to worry that coffee would make the little half angel bounce around the room like a ping pong ball. "So Charlie wasn't planned?"

"No," Lucifer stated. "It never occurred to the Detective or I that she might come about. Other than your child no angel has ever sired a child before. And demons are utterly sterile, so I assumed that the Detective… well, that all her eggs had been pilfered by the fox so the hen house was empty." He smirked. "Perfect for the cock to enter."

"How long did you spend in Hell writing that one up?"

Lucifer shot her a shocked look. "How dare you!" he said in pain. "Every one of my, must I say, brilliant quips come right off the top of my head!"

~MC~MC~MC~

"Lucifer, are you all packed?" Chloe asked as she walked into Lucifer's den, her hair swirling around her as it grabbed different objects with separate strands before dumping them into a suitcase one long clump of hair was pulling behind her. "We're heading up to Earth in an hour and- Lucifer?"

"Just a moment, just a moment!" Lucifer said, surrounded by crumpled up balls of paper, a pencil held in his fingers which clearly had bite marks on it. "I nearly have it…" He scribbled something on the paper. "Now, is that show, Woody Woodpecker still on tv?"

"Not that I know of-"

Lucifer groaned and tossed the paper away. "And that was a good one too involving a cat!"

~MC~MC~MC~

"Well, I wanted to check in on you, see how you were doing," Linda said. "I know all of this must have been… traumatic for you."

"How so?" Lucifer said, blinking.

"What happened to Chloe for one thing. It must have been difficult seeing someone you care for go through that."

Lucifer shifted a bit, trying to force a smile… but failing. "I would be lying if I said it was easy and we both know I never lie so I won't say that. Yes… yes it was very hard. It was rather like when she was shot or when that miserable excuse for a doctor poisoned her. I… don't like feeling helpless."

"No one does," Linda said. "Especially when it is for those we care about."

"But we managed, Doctor. We managed. We were able to work through it and come out far better on the other side." He leaned back in his chair. "My biggest concern was how she would react to the lose of her humanity. That is always a problem with souls… they don't take well to being in hell or becoming demons. I was rather worried that Chloe would go on a rampage or be reduced to a blubbering mess."

"And she didn't?"

~MC~MC~MC~

"Oh my god!" Chloe said, a giddy smile on her face. "Look at what my hair can do!"

Lucifer watched, bemused… and slightly concerned… as his partner used her hair to snag two imps and bash them about the room.

"And my mouth… look at this smile!" She flashed him a grin that nearly tore her face apart. "I wonder if I have teeth anyplace else…" She pulled at the waistband of her pants, much to Lucifer's own horror.

~MC~MC~MC!~

"Not at all."

"And clearly the experience helped the two of you with your relationship," Linda said. "Though I suppose that is to be expected. Trauma can bring people together and break through barriers. And lead them to paths they never expected. Decisions they would have avoided otherwise-"

"Oh yes, very much so," Lucifer said with a smile. "I will admit that our… situation… was not the greatest when we arrived in Hell. A rebellion amongst the Lillim, the Sinner Demons having turned it into the Wild West… or Black Friday at Dan's Dildo Emporium, the fact that it was bloody Hell, and Chloe dealing with suddenly finding herself now an immortal being whose very being screamed at her to just do whatever she wanted…" He gave a shrug and Linda could tell that while he was trying to put a happy face on it Lucifer did not look back on the beginning of his most recent stay in Hell as something pleasant. "But we did manage, settled into something comfortable and, as you said, reached decisions we would have avoided otherwise…"

~MC~MC~MC~

"Alright… I suppose there is a first time for everything," Lucifer said as he slipped into the furry suit-"

~MC~MC~MC~

"I was talking about Charlie," Linda said, cutting off Lucifer before the could go into more detail. "You have been rather clear about your dislike for children and yet you had a child. And it is clear you cared for her."

"Of course I cared for her!" Lucifer said firmly. "I am not my father…" His lips puckered and he balled his hands into fist. "Even though… having now raised Charlie… I understand some of the choices he made." He quickly held up a finger. "SOME. Not all. And I will still hold he is a vile bastard who should never have had children."

"And what makes you say that?" Linda asked.

"Because I would never abandon her!" Lucifer practically roared. He seemed just as startled as Linda about the outburst, eyes going wide before he let out a chuckle and forced a smile on his lips, folding his leg over the other and leaning back in his chair. "Of course the Detective was sure I would become a gooey mess when I first saw Charlie but let me assure you… that wasn't the case. I was a very dignified and mature father."

~MC~MC~MC~

Chloe yawned, waking up from the quick nap she'd taken. She was still amazed at how easy Charlotte's birth had been… far better than Trixie's. Of course thanks to her demon build her tolerance for pain was far higher than as a human… and also twisted a bit so that seconds after the baby had come squirming into the world Chloe had been fighting the urge to jump Lucifer and do things that would… well, not result in another baby as you couldn't get pregnant doing that-

"This little piggy went to market."

Blinking Chloe looked over… and found Lucifer hovering over Charlotte's cradle, wiggling her pale little toes with the goofiest look on his face.

"And this little piggy stayed home."

~MC~MC~MC~

"Completely dignified," Lucifer said.

"Lucifer," Linda said softly, still shocked by his outburst.

"And I have cared for her greatly. Been there to help her with her school work, taken her on vacations throughout Hell, played her rather childish yet also delightful imaginary games… and even when I thought her mad I was always there for her. It didn't matter when we disagreed I was always there to support her. Give her freedom to explore… but still there to protect her! Because that's what a parent does, Doctor. That's how a parent loves…"

Lucifer's smile twitched and tears gathered in his eyes.

"…why couldn't my Father do that for me?" he whispered.

Linda had never been so happy to not be his psychologist anymore. It made it so much easier to walk around and draw him into a hug as the Devil began to sob.

~MC~MC~MC~

"Has to be a mistake… has to be," Dan muttered as he pulled out another dusty old box and yanked off the lid, scowling when he saw this one didn't have the family photo albums.

It was a prank. It had to be. Lucifer pulling a joke on him. How else did one explain that crossdressing whore having a picture of his Grnadpa Hector doing-

He pushed that from his mind, doing a full body shudder.

"Probably paid off Chloe as well," he muttered himself. That was the only explanation for the changes in her. "They never got married," he said with a laugh as he dug through his attic, looking for the family photo albums to prove to himself that he was simply misremembering what his grandfather looked like and he had NOT visited that hooker-

"Hello?" a voice said and Dan let out a yelp. "Dan, you there?"

After a moment Dan cursed himself for being jumpy and walked over to the table he'd set up by the attic window, the Ham Radio he'd begun to goof around with for the last few months sitting there merrily.

"Yeah, I'm here," he said as he pressed the talk button and the receiver. "Sorry, I left this thing on…"

"No problem, pal," the other Ham Radio operator said. "Just wanted to check in… heard from the others you've been having a rough time."

Dan smiled. There was a circle of radio jockeys that would spend the nights and weekends talking with each other… it was like a Discord server but with radios. Old timey but same premise. Dan talked to so many people that sometimes he lost track of who was who. "Thanks man. I'm… I'm getting better. Just a stressful day."

"Want to talk about it?"

"Not really. Its my ex. She… well, I thought she married her prick of a partner but I think now it was a prank."

"That doesn't sound very nice," the other operator stated. "Entertaining for them, perhaps, but not nice to you."

"Tell me about it," Dan groused, leaning on his elbow. "You ever feel like the entire world is out to get you?"

"It isn't being paranoid if it is!" the man said with a chuckle. "Though… you know the solution to that?"

"What's that?"

"Prank'em right back!"

Dan frowned. "I don't know, man…"

"I'm telling you, my friend… if they want to make you the butt of the joke then turn that butt around and give it a good blast so they are the jokes!"

"Heh… maybe," Dan said, warming to the idea. "Got any ideas?"

"A few… a few. You have some parchment and a quill?"

Dan laughed. "I can get a notepad and a pen. I'll be right back."

"Oh, I'll be right here," the voice said as Dan left the attic… just missing as the radio began to glow read. "And for those of you enjoying this little tale… well…"

There was a burst of static.

"Stay…tuned…"