Author's Note: Hello one and all to the eleventh installment of Drifters. Not too much to report in the pretext this week. By all means this is an average chapter, of average length, and of average name. That being said, I do hope it is an above average read for all!
Moving right on over to the review section and…
Sir London: Every city's gotta do what its gotta do to bring in those tourists XD I will say the uniqueness of Pentagram City makes it a fun setting to write in… which is good since the lore dictated that 99% of this book takes place there.
Gamer of Action44D: I can confirm Hellvua boss characters will not have a huge impact on the story, and thus will remain a cameo... For now ;)
To your second point, the story is definitely starting to pick up pace. With the next chapter being a big catalyst for the conflicts to come. (And was supposed to mark the halfway point of the book based on my chapter outlines… unfortunately when drafting the next few chapters, two more magically appeared as I have a bad tendency to overwrite scenes or include some that aren't really necessary XD. But hopefully the editing process will streamline all that out.)
Now without further adieu, besides my traditional apology revolving around any grammatical mistakes that may pop up along the way, I welcome you back too….
Drifters
A Hazbin Hotel Fanfic
Chapter 11
Everything you Want
Open your mouth, inhale. Close your mouth, let the trapped air free your mind. Open your mouth once more, exhale all your troubled thoughts away.
In times of stress, all one had to do is breathe, and eventually the anxiety and rage within would subside.
Certainly not on the first pant, or even the second, but by the hundredth or so breath Charlie found herself with enough zen to speak.
"I'm glad everybody could make it tonight." the heiress began, "Tonight's redemption's topic is vulnerability. Specifically how important healthy vulnerability is when it comes to being honest with ourselves and others."
This evening, her words echoed level through the lobby, rather than cascade down from the stage. With Vaggie, Angel, Netser, and Husk having been rearranged to sit in a semicircle of chairs. With the two ends being connected by the cushioned couch, where Sir Pentious and Niffty were seated next to the… texting pinkette that made Charlie's clasped hands become clenched.
"And what better way is there to talk about vulnerability than with a truth circle!" Charlie hissed her enthusiasm through locked teeth.
Normally the reveal of her activity would trigger Angel's eyes to roll, Husk's to close, and Nester's to find the floor.
That's what happened most nights at least, but tonight was certainly not like most. For as Velvette's eyes remained predictably fixated to her phone, the spider's, cat's, and bird's shifted rapidly between the uninterested influencer, and the twitched glare Charlie shot her way.
"Now, I know you all must be asking yourself 'What is a truth circle?'"
Silence was her only answer, and not even the elephant in the middle cared enough to feign curiosity.
"Well I'm glad you asked." Charlie continued, "All it involves is a group of open minded individuals, a basic understanding of geometry, and a stick!"
The heiress spread her hands wide, and with her right she gave a quick motion to Vaggie.
For a brief moment, all the eyes trained on her relocated to the white haired woman. Who marched next to Charlie with clamped teeth, cracked bones, and a steel brow.
In Vaggie's hand was a black conductors rod. Its sole feature of interest, a blue quill tied to the top, was outshined by the wrath emitted from each one of her girlfriend's thunderous steps.
Vaggie stopped next to Charlie. And through some small miracle, the security guard didn't continue forward to beat the stick into a baton using Velvette's head.
God knows her girlfriend held the device like a club, for Charlie found herself having to use two hands to wrench the device from Vaggie's grip. Nearly falling over when the sword finally did come free from its rigid stone prison.
"In a truth circle nobody can talk," Charlie rebalanced herself and waved the rod, "unless you are holding onto this device, known as the truth stick."
"Question." Sir Pentious raised his voice after his hand, "What power doesss that ssstick utilize to keep othersss mute?"
"Because if I hear somebody talk without it, they'll find my stick jammed down their throat." Vaggie's cold still flashed out the answer.
The inventor retracted his arm slowly to his side. A reaction shared amongst the others. Except the influencer, whose focus remained in cyberspace. And Angel, who looked like he was on the verge of an aneurysm holding back the vulgar quip Vaggie had perfectly set up for him.
Charlie sucked in her lips, and reopened them only after her nostrils had flared under the pressure of two jet streams.
"Whoever has the stick is allowed to ask a question to anybody else in the group. Once they do, they have to hand over the stick so the person can answer." Charlie twirled the tool in her hands, lest she break it in her own grip, "Who'd like to start us off?"
If it weren't for the tension, the room would be filled with silence. Eyes too focused on the steel rod to raise a hand to grab the feathered one.
"Alright," Charlie inhaled her sigh, "I'll go first."
She forced her gaze back to the pinkette. There was a tsunami of questions Charlie wanted to send the influencer's way, but the direct ones she wanted to ask would be counter intuitive to what she needed the Vee to learn through the exercise.
"Velvette," the red cheeked woman's smile echoed her soft approach, "how was your day?"
The sound of taps stopped, and the stitched demon turned to the stick Charlie held out. And the edges of her lips creaked to the tune of three chairs sliding back when she grabbed the acoustic microphone.
"Fucking amazing. My new project was trending all over Hell before I even finished its announcement. And so long as we're being honest, I've got to say," Velvette smirked more than she smiled, "it feels good having all my hard work pay off."
This time, it was Charlie's toothy grin that squeaked to a chorus of chairs.
"But anybody who's anybody already knows all about my day." the doll winked to her phone, "Let's shed the limelight on somebody else's."
The pinkette eyes immediately locked onto Vaggie's. And the doll's lips curled over twice. Whatever question she had conjured for the security guard certainty delighted her, but upon seeing her own reflection in the spear, Velvette's mouth frowned a sigh.
"Hey, chicken boy." whether put off by Vaggie's glare or not, the Vee had turned her curiosity onto Nester instead, "Why are you here?"
By the time the timid avian realized the question was meant for him, Velvette had already launched the stick an arrow into his chest.
"Umph!" Nester doubled over, half to make sure the device didn't fall to the ground and half to trap the breath being knocked out of him, "Um… I-I'm here because Charlie invited me..."
The bird trailed off.
Evidently, this was not good enough for the practitioner of the question, whose fingers tapped the couch having expected more.
"That's not what I meant idiot-" Velvette went quiet when her words were struck down by a spear mere inches from her face.
Charlie shot Vaggie a frown, but she herself honestly didn't know why the Vee had tried to pry for more. It's not like Nester had lied, the doll's question was just too broad to expand on in an emotional way.
"S-sorry, she had saved me from a riot beforehand… and once she found out I was a new arrival to Hell, she insisted I stay at this place because it was safe."
The heiress certainly appreciated the Doorman's attempt to do so though… even if it was because somebody else was at spear point.
"So I guess a more truthful answer is, I'm here because of Charlie's kindness."
The man twiddled the feather in his ear with one hand when another bout of silence came in. But the heiress felt it was too warm and wholesome to be awkward.
"Um… how about you Angel, why'd you get a room here?" the bird's wingspan reached out to the spider's web.
"The free board." the spider huffed out, his breath a needed release of relief after having forced himself to remain silent through all the innuendos he couldn't point out.
Vaggie's sharp glare at his lackluster reply caused the furred demon to tense up.
"Which also says something about Charlie's kindness and goody two shoes crap."
Her girlfriend's gaze may have lowered, but the heiress' heart rose, as her mood improved enough to offer a genuine smile at the compliments.
Angel scoffed and looked away from it, but continued to speak, albeit in a quieter tone.
"And whatever housing they provided was bound to be better than my previous place."
A pause filled the room, before Velvette's phone broke the one rule. The device buzzed as if it held back the force of an explosion.
The doll didn't even wait for the spear to turn towards her before she silenced the device. As if the electronic had actually annoyed her for the first time this evening.
"Alright, normally I'd use this opportunity to see what kind of kinks my wittle kitty cat has~" Angel mused his back upwards into a grinned flirt, "but I've got to ask the old man over here what the fucks going on with his eggs."
The spider turned towards the snake.
"Like, do you lay them or some shit?"
"Of course I don't lay them you baboon." the snake clutched the rod the actor had dropped into his lap, and raised it a general's saber, "They are my egg boisss. Evil ssservants I have conjured through the power of innovation and my own geniusss! Capable of bringing the greatest of Hell'sss Overlords to their kneesss, and a sssymbol of my god-like power!"
The hard boiled henchmen cracked themselves jumping up and down at Sir Pentious' speech. Which proved the snake was lying to everybody… including himself.
"Which ssshall be on display for all to sssee!" the snake hissed out. A sinister plan leaking from his crouched posture as he brought the truth rod up to his face, "Once I find out the Radio Demon's weaknesss that isss! You there, sssmall insect assassin, what is Alastor'sss biggest fear?!"
Sir Pentious whipped the stick to point at the bouncing cyclops.
"Oh, I know, I know!" Niffty said before she jumped and grabbed the feathered item, which technically meant she had broken the rules… but not as badly as the unspoken one she was about to shatter, "Mister Alastor hates-"
A pillar of void and shadow burst down through the ceiling. Like a geyser of solid lighting, it cracked the room into silence… and drowned out the red head's response. By quite literally crushing it.
Velvette, for the first time ever, looked panicked. As Charlie watched mouth open as the Vee huddled to the side of the couch that wasn't destroyed, while Niffty was cratered through the middle of the sofa, and the futon cracked in two like a sinking ship. With the snake and doll atop the world at both ends.
All the other occupants watched in shocked silence as the pillar slowly dissipated, and a manic giggle came from the Niffty shaped crater left behind.
"And that's what Mister Alastor is most afraid of!" the cyclops had never stopped speaking, even as the red cheeked woman peered over the crater, and paled at the sight of Niffty's teeth growing to refill the girl's smile.
"I can attest," static tunneled through the new skylight above, "she did not tell a lie."
The Radio Demon's words never ushered in a face. Yet until the cyclops popped out of the ground, nobody dared take their eyes off where the pillar had come from. Not until the shadows that brought it down stitched the wooden frame and sofa back together. Having made their message very clear.
"My turn, my turn!" Niffty paced on the refitted couch, her feet cracked with the reset bones as if nothing happened, "Husky! Husky! Husky!"
The cat growled, and slapped his face, unable to tell the maid to shut up.
"Why don't you let me drink at the bar?" The red head dashed over and climbed onto the cat's literal face until her one bloodshot eye filled the entire vision of his. As she forced the stick onto his clawed hand a kabob, "Why? Why? Why?"
Husk pried the wood off his nail, if only to use as a lever to force the imp off his face.
"Because you do so much stupid stuff sober, I don't even want to imagine what you'd be like drunk. Hell, one shot of anything on the shelf, and there's no telling what damage you'd cause yourself."
The cat murmured, arms crossed. Charlie felt her smile once again be rigged to her lips, and she swooned at the wholeness… which caused an allergic reaction in Husk. The main symptom being dilated pupils.
"Or worse, the damage you'd do to me." the cat tried to save face, but the smile Charlie had sent his way already turned into a smirk from Angel, "Fuck this stupid shit."
The bartender rubbed his temple with the stick. Before he pointed the feather towards Vaggie.
"If you guys gush over trust and safety so much, tell me why you're letting these two shits stay here?" the stick was tossed to the security guard, but Husk growl landed on Velvette and Sir Pentious.
"I-I…" Vaggie's grip on her spear loosened beneath her own stutter when she had to catch the stick.
Charlie cocked her head confused, but also provided a smile. She urged her girlfriend to go on, after all they shared everything between each other, her white haired partner certainly had the ability to share her true thoughts on the question.
"… I don't trust them."
Charlie's smile faltered slightly at the response… but it wasn't as if that was the worst thing to say. After all Velvette had done some pretty questionable stuff and-
"And I think it's honestly…" Vaggie took a deep breath while she fiddled the rod, "a ridiculous risk we're letting them stay."
And Charlie was back to her breathing exercises. As she attempted to reach one hundred breaths as fast as demonically and humanly possible.
"So why are you staying?" Vaggie narrowed her eye at the smirking Vee, and imbedded the stick a javelin into the couch.
"To showcase how stupid this whole place is," Velvette wasted no time in her response, and pointed it along with the stick towards Nester, "before you lead more naive fools like him to their deaths."
"W-what-" Charlie yelped at the bold truth, before Velvette waved it in front of her to cut it off.
"Ah ah ah," the pinkette hummed, "rules are rules bitch, even your idiotic ones."
Charlie's mouth shut. And she felt the pressure of the need to speak inflate her lungs into pressure cookers.
"Speaking of idiots. Bird brain!" Velvette once again directed her curiosity to Nester.
If the heiress wasn't so preoccupied defusing her own vocal explosion, she'd find the sudden pattern of attention odd.
"How'd a pathetic rule follower like yourself end up in Hell?" the Vee walked up and slammed the truth wand into Nester's chest. Her question very much thrust upon him a command.
"… I fell." he stated the obvious, and gulped it back down when Velvette's eyes trained on him daggers, "A-after the blonde guy on a cloud said I wasn't on his list."
"Are you high, or just this fucking stupid?! I mean what was your sin-"
"He doesn't have to answer that!" Charlie erupted, Velvette's hypocrisy granted her lungs the opening they needed to release the over inflation.
Unfortunately, when the heiress talked back, the pinkette seized the opportunity to place Vaggie's spear in check by having the game breakdown into a 'normal' conversation.
"Why? What did he do?" the Vee flipped up her phone now that the stick was only useful as a Richter scale for Nester's anxiety, "What twisted secrets about your guest are you hiding-"
"I don't know!" Charlie yelled, "Because I don't ask them! Because I will never ask them!"
The universe split alongside the two crimson red horns parting her skull. Her calm breaths morphed into a pant. The echoes of which froze all the other inhabitants' anger at seeing the heiress's break first.
Vaggie, Angel, and even Nester had questioned her for giving Velvette the benefit of the doubt this morning. But when she had finally lost her cool at the influencer, they offered slacked jaws instead of support.
Hell, the one person who gave her ragged pants a smile was the smirked face Vee who had caused them… and that only infuriated Charlie more.
Velvette had taken the exercise meant to mend address their problem to create more. Velvette had mocked her project, and now openly admitted to utilizing its downfall to profit off her own. Velvette had taken the safe environment she had offered her guest, and turned it into a comedy for all of Hell to see.
Charlie hated it all. She hated the wedge that had emerged between her and Vaggie because of Velvette. She hated the fact she had been the one to green lit the influencer to tape everything thinking it be a marketing gold mine instead of non stop humiliation. She hated that she had spent more time defending the Vee to her friends, then confronting the pinkette who never even bothered hiding her sinister intent.
But more than anything… Charlie hated that Velvette had showcased the worst part of her, before she could showcase the best parts of Velvette.
"So you'll just let any psychopath stay here? No matter what they did?" the Vee's sneers contained no empathy, "No matter what inner demons they may hide?"
The heiress white eyes flooded crimson. Filled up until she saw the world the same red Velvette's camera blinked to her audience.
Charlie shot her bloody stare around the room. This blind demonic rage is what they craved wasn't it. It's how Velvette wanted to push her agenda. It's what the citizens of Hell wanted to distract themselves with. It's what the static radio that echoed all around them wanted to prove laid in place of every Sinners' lost soul.
Hell, It's even how her girlfriend and her friends wanted her to stand up for herself-
Charlie's scarlet vision caught the silver glimpse of Vaggie's spear head. The weapon remained frozen much like its owner, but within its flat head, Charlie caught her own reflection.
Where she was forced to meet the sight of her own murderous eyes. A single stare of hatred at the front of a pack of concerned faces.
This isn't what Vaggie and the others wanted from her though…. Because it isn't what she wanted.
Charlie's vision slowly cleared. The lances that pierce her crown gradually retreated. Whilst the angles on her face softened.
She took in one last deep breath, before she was done letting Velvette's phone capture the Vee's question through silence.
"Yes." Charlie whispered.
"… Come again?" the Pinkette smile flustered through the pause.
"Yes, that's my answer. I will let anybody stay here regardless of what they did on Earth… or what they've done down here."
Before Velvette could open her mouth, or Vaggie could frown, Charlie continued.
"Because the question that determines whether somebody is a guest at this hotel or not isn't 'What was their sin?' It's 'Do you want to become a better person?'" Charlie's eyes became sharp with determination rather than rage, "Whether people want to tell me their past misdeeds is up to them, but I swear from now until the end of time, it is something I will never pry somebody for."
The red cheeked woman turned a soft gaze to Vaggie. Her eyes apologetic, knowing that she would remain steadfast in her view on the matter they saw differently.
However, her lips twitched upwards in gratitude. To showcase her thanks to Vaggie for letting her see the reason on the point they should have agreed upon in the first place.
"Nor will I ever kick out a resident who struggles on their pathway to redemption," she turned back to Velvette, her mouth a thin line, "but I'll no longer tolerate somebody who's just here to sabotage it for others."
Charlie turned and marched across the lobby. The nervous pit in her stomach at her upcoming action was calmed by its necessity.
"I believe deep down any soul can be redeemed, that anybody can become a good person. And to all who want to discover their own goodness, my door is always open to you," she gently swung the glass panel outward, "and closed to anybody trying to drag you down."
Charlie's head swiveled onto the doll and the snake.
"Sir Pentious, I should have gone myself to offer you that choice instead of sending Al." Charlie's soft tone addressed the more fragile being first, "I believe you can be redeemed, and would love it if you stayed with us. But if you don't feel safe or comfortable, then you are free to leave."
The snake head looked around, before he pointed towards himself. As if he was shocked the offer was truly being given to him.
"The same offer goes to you," Charlie's gaze and tone shifted down towards Velvette, "but if you continue to prioritize profit and business over the other's safety and progress then we both know what choice you made. And you won't be free to go, I'll have to force you too."
Silence filled the room. Velvette's phone vibrations swung noiselessly to her side as she stared dumbfounded at the owner.
"… so," Charlie closed her eyes, and let the sternness dissipate through her nostrils, till all that was left in her was stoicism, "what's it going to be?"
The current residents' eyes darted back and forth between the owner and the two newcomers. Waiting to see which would return the server's words first.
"… as if anybody is going to stay at this shit hole now-" Velvette bewilderment cracked first, but her hissed steam found itself intercepted.
"Y-you really would let me go?" Sir Pentious finger still posted the question towards his face.
"Of course." Charlie nodded.
"With a promise that Alastor won't harm me?"
"You have my word, he won't lay a finger on you."
A cold front swept through the building. Which caused the cold blooded serpent to shiver, but Charlie's soft smile still beamed forth with an oath of warmth.
"But…" Sir Pentious eyes lowered toward Charlie once he was sure the ceiling wasn't about to come down on him, "Why? I've attacked you all three timesss thisss month alone. Why grant me clemency?"
"To show you that what we can build together, will be greater than anything we destroy opposed."
The snake's pupils began to inflate like water balloons.
"You don't actually believe this hallmark crap-" Velvette's sharp words were cut off when they popped them.
Sir Pentious leaned back and brought an arm up as he feigned into his own sob.
Two streams of water geysered out of the snake eyes… and one hissed steam off pink hair it watered down. Whether Velvette eyes-twitched in disgust and rage, it was hard to say, her paralysis probably meant she was debating which emotion it was herself.
"Nobodiesss ever believed in me before!"
"Ummm… what about your omelets?" Angel monotone voice was the first bystander to re-enter the fray.
Sir Pentious crying seized for a moment, before he took in a deep breath and the waterworks began anew.
"Nobody who isn't an indentured ssservant hasss ever believed in me before!"
They'd work on multiple issues with his statement later. But for now Charlie smiled and offered more support.
"Well, one does now."
"I'll ssstay!" the snake wailed his arms out.
"… seriously?" Vaggie and Angel deadpanned, albeit more in disbelief than annoyance.
"Yeah! Fucking seriously?!" Velvette slapped the snake's arm away before she jumped up to glare down at the reptile, "All this place has offered is dysfunctional bullshit! Why would you stay here?"
"I-I think Charlie made that pretty clearly," Nester rubbed the back of his head, and the opened mouth closed to a smile when the others answered for her.
"So you can stay if you want to find out," Vaggie holstered spear pushed the edges of Charlie lips up further.
"Or leave if you're gonna keep being a bitch about things." Angel finished, and despite the vulgarity Charlie's own eyes nearly broke in happiness like the snakes.
The pinkette's pupils shattered in bewilderment. Her eyes shifted like a robot when her phone buzzed, and then back to the heiress in silent, unwanted, contemplation.
Charlie made good use of her happiness, and as the Vee's mouth hung open in shock at whatever response she would end up giving, the heiress offered only support this time around rather than wrath.
XxxxxxX
Velvette laid in her bed with all the fury of oiled kindling in a fireplace. Her phone on the nightstand out of reach, less it burst into flames in her hands.
Not that she needed it to see what was happening in the world. She had the portable TV, whose cracked screen was only dwarfed by the massive crack in the wall it stuck out of, yelling at her for that.
"I don't know what's more fucking insane!" Vox's annoying buzz infested the room, "The shitfaced snake trending more then a dog video in heat, or that your fuck up caused it!"
Velvette growled. Whether it was because of what the televised narcissist said or because she had run out of projectiles in arms reach to throw at the watch was anybody's guess.
"I'm more curious as to why she's still there?" anybody but the moth-faced pimp, "It's a hotspot for bitches right now for sure, but you tend to stay away from your own kind."
Velvette smothered her head into a pillow. Her grip nearly stained the fabric crimson, and it did little to silence her murderous screech.
The sound waves produced momentarily interfered with the signal of the watch enough that the two other Vee's buffered into a frozen screen.
"… shit." Vox's shock managed to glitch back into action first, "Are you broken?!"
Velvette removed the pillow from her deadpanned face after she cratered her skull into the headboard.
"Is she fucking broken?!" the electronic demon voice turned towards the moth he shared the screen with, "Like what the actual hell is going on?! I expect Val to follow up a success with a week long shit streak!"
"Hey!"
"But not you Vel!"
The doll's teeth shook with the aftershock of her whiplashed rage.
"The Extermination Eden's launch blew more records than Val's video does loads!"
Each heavy insult increased the pressure she placed on her enamel.
"Then you follow that up by letting little miss unicorn crap turn her own mental breakdown against you-"
"Shut up before I unleash it against you old man!" Velvette frustration blew forth when the fangs holding it back thundered into gummed tipped splinters, "I know I fucked up!"
The aftershock of her statement hovered silently in the room.
"Holy shit… you're recording this right-" Val broke the silence, and Velvette broke her bed frame to jerry rig herself more artillery shells.
"Don't you have to be a moron someplace else?!"
Velvette locked eyes with the watch just time to see Vox violently boot Val from the air.
"And you, put it down." the buffered brow brought up his warning gaze as the featured program, "I mean it young lady, you break my product again and I break your fashion line permanently."
Velvette's razors chiseled themselves back into shape just in time to clench behind stitched lips. Her eyes still contained the rage of their destruction, but wordlessly she dropped the improvised wooden spear to her side.
She hated when Vox spoke down to her as if she was his stuck up daughter. It nearly made her regret every time she pissed the TV and moth off by dubbing them her dads.
"Good. Now," Vox voiced sounded like Velvette's crossed arms, "you want to tell me what the fucks gotten into you?"
"You mean besides my vengeance to make that bitch pay?" the doll spat white shrapnel to the floor.
"Yes, besides…" Vox's glitched screen carried his cringe of disgust, "that."
"I found out I was trying to checkmate a group of simpletons playing hopscotch."
"… come again?"
"As if you could the first time-"
Val's interruption causes the screen to stall blue. The screen fixed itself when the sound of the TV striking down its 401 error ceased. When the Television came back on, one of his eyes twitched at having been cracked twice.
"Explain."
"Because half the people here are so damn dumb and naive, they tumble down every pot hole I make as if it was a fucking pitfall!" Velvette threw her hands up, "I perfectly set up a way for the bird to reveal to the public why he's just as much an asshole as the rest of us. Only for me to find out his stupidity is so outstanding, it provided him a way out of the question."
Velvette's grip shredded the pillows into a puff of feathers.
"Then when I have to literally spell out what he needs to answer, our crowned cunt in waiting proves so business disabled she sabotages her own program in front of a live audience," the doll empathized, "just to point out how bad of a person I was being! Which by the way, was great! She sends me packing, and I get to leave for my vacation early!"
"Then why are you still there?" Vox retorted.
"Because she gave me the choice to be kicked out! She knows I'm there to screw here, and she just… forgave me!" Velvette's CPU quite literally couldn't comprehend such a concept, but it sure heated it up as she grew enraged, "And then had the nerve to offer my review a second chance so long as it remained just a review!"
The Vox's eyes buzzed a hummed hue, but his mouth remained paused.
"If she kicks me out, half my viewers shart out her hypocrisy from their troll caves, and the other half get so high off the fumes there ready to burn her hotel down in a riot! But no, she turns back and just gives me a slap on the wrist, and now the internet's hooked on our attack campaign like it's a damn soap op!"
"… your stunt this afternoon did outperform 'I Fucked your Sister' in views." Vox's white noise was muted by Velvette's growl.
"The more people watching her fail the better… the only problem is most of our audience is as fucked in the head as that posh bastard Pentious!" the pinkette hissed the serpent's name with intent to construct his ghost the next time she saw him, "And if a few flowery words convinced him to give it a shot, then who knows who else will now."
"You don't have to rehash bullshit I already know, why the fuck do you think I called-"
"Because you're going to tell me all that's the reason I need to get off my own sinking boat", Velvette crisped words locked the screen in place, "and I'm telling you them, because you need to know I'm not leaving the fucked ship until I meld Charlie's hands to the wheel."
The pinkette's irises reflected flames into the cracked watch as if it was a window into, well, Hell.
Vox's own scanned the inferno broadcast to him. For a moment his eyes truly lived up to their function as digital cameras, as he analyzed her posture and form for any faults, and when he found none he cracked a sneer that the younger Vee knew was a disguised smile.
"Yesterday, you were hellbent on burning this place down in record time. Now you seem ready to drag this out for the long haul?"
"Because now that bitch has made it personal, and I want to be the one starring her in the face when everything she built comes tumbling down around her."
The venom dripped from her voice, and corroded the air so much that even Vox's projected eyes blinked at the irradiation.
"I should have known the only thing you'd hate more than those shitheads' company is leaving it a failure." the TV distorted laugh raised its blocked eyebrow, "But why should I let you? Why risk further loss when we can just take the gains we made with Eden's launch and call it a day?"
Velvette scoffed. Not willing to be talked down to as a child, especially from the one man who knew above all else she hadn't been born yesterday.
"You aren't humble enough to reverse your position Vox." Vel rolled her eyes. As if to rewind the TV to their discussion from last night when he had been the one demanding she stay post announcement, "Just be glad I'm so pissed at her, I don't care to admit your right."
In some way, they both must have known they were playing each other. But then again, that's probably what gravitated the Vees together in the first place, and had ensured their bond held.
"I tend to be, but thanks for the reminder." the TV smirked, "But now that you see the importance of ruining these bastards, tell me, how are you going to screw somebody waiting to be fucked?"
"By giving her exactly what she wants." Velvette uttered emotionless.
Vox cocked his head. His confusion straightened out when he deciphered the slow crawl of Velvette's lips.
The picture of her smirk truly spoke a thousand words.
Atonement, shelter, trust, and companionship. Eventually Velvette would surround herself with more redemption than this hotel could offer, but it wouldn't matter. Because all the promises those concepts held relied on the very hope they were built atop.
And once the Vee proved that hope was false, Charlie would never be able to trust in them again.
Sure, it may take a long time to ensure Charlie rose high enough to be given the fall she deserved. Sure her image might be put through the social meat grinder having to play along. And sure, the Vees might actually lose some people to the hotel as a result.
But who cares, in fact, all the better. Charlie may be immune to the purge, but when the Extermination comes, the rest of Hell will see her pathway to Heaven is built upon a mountain corpse.
Ones that she couldn't use to change the status quo, nor ones the Radio Demon couldn't use to regain his power.
Just tools for the Vees to show the survivors. And for Velvette to personally stand atop off.
Where she would show the princess, more people had been saved through greed and corruption, then kindness and humanity.
"Well then, I'll leave you to it."
XxxxxxX
Speaking of overwritten scenes, the one with the Vees at the end definitely could have been shortened. And was just a long way to showcase Velvette's newfound vendetta for Charlie mirroring Vox's for Alastor's and Valentino's for Angel. That being said… the snappy nature of any Vee conversation was just too fun to write to leave out.
Thanks to all who have read through the eleventh chapter of Drifters. I will try my best to upload a chapter every Friday. But until next week, please feel free to leave a comment! Criticism is always welcomed, so long as there's an attempt for it to be constructive.
As of this moment I am still looking for a beta reader, so to anyone interested please feel free to shoot me a PM.