Author's Note: Hello one and all! As I welcome you not only to the month of May, but the thirteenth installment of Drifters as well! Hopefully this chapter's number will prove lucky.
Now onto the Reviews.
JCINNABAR: Lol as one human to another thank you for the compliment! Waking up to a comment revolving around a cup of water and a biscuit platter was legit an awesome way to start my day!
Gamer of Action44D: The Pride Ring's power dynamic has definitely been shaken up. It's honestly great to have Charlie and the hotel staff POV be this slice of life comedy, then have these sudden shifts to Alastor and Vel's POV shed light on the political power struggle that's the undercurrent driving both plots forward.
Alright replies have been taken care of, so 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 13
Just One Drink
Masked by dusk, a small creature darted through gardens and atop brick layered streets.
It moved with the grace and speed of a shadow, yet was oblivious to the true one hunting it.
One could say it had committed a costly mistake in doing so, others might simply dub what came next the tax of its trade.
A price it would pay when its eyes narrowed in on a gazebo, and the ripped piece of black and white fabric trapped within the floorboard. For before the first step towards the bait in front of it could be taken, the bobber atop its head sank.
A two dimensional void entangled the beast neck. Squeezed the scream in its lung out two popped eyes. Then hoisted it up, and hauled it backwards towards a patient hunter.
"Tsk tsk." Alastor snickered while he reeled in the invasive species, "I don't think you're supposed to be here."
Dragging up a Jurassic chicken, with its elongated beak chiseled to form teeth, the Radio Demon meant that two times over.
As he cast a second line to retrieve the lure he hadn't placed. And before he even bothered expecting the jester's ripped off tag, his teeth smiled a frown.
The feathered raptor he threw into his voided net wasn't the first of Zeezi's spies Alastor had caught roaming around Rosie's town over the last few nights. And regretfully, the statement could be read in reverse as well.
Because Alastor's interdimensional prison harbored just as many wayward flames and sharp fanged food critics as it did primordial avians.
Much like the raptor he had just killed, all interlopers he caught would reform in the void none the wiser to had actually gotten the drop on them.
And better yet, they wouldn't be able to report having found the, quite literally, fabricated evidence somebody has been placing all over Hell.
And as much as the wendigo would love to present Rosie the fools who trespassed on her territory as a feast, he wasn't thrilled with being added to it if she found out who else he had caught in his net. Or that most of the treasures she had sent them out to find were in his pocket.
Alastor sighed, to him it was obvious the Vees were the ones sprinkling the Exorcist remains as false breadcrumbs. All the words the TV hadn't said at Carmine's meeting basically spelled out how he planned to gain power by sicking his competition at one another's throats.
Instead of letting him explain that to them though, each of the three that had the most to lose found themselves trapped in the false harbors of their own isolation.
Even Rosie had personally told him they'd have to place their reunion brunch on hold until after this whole Angelic mess was sorted out. Which, outside of barring him from fantastic local cuisine, was her polite way of telling him that her locked border made no exceptions.
'Not for the lowly Sinners trying to start a war,' Alastor 's eye fell down into the shadow after his prey, 'Or the friend preventing one.'
And just like that, the deer snaked his way after the setting pentagram. Onto the next hunt.
XxxxxxX
If there was one good thing about the twice damned hotel Velvette found herself in, it's that it doubled as a passable bar.
And when she had to put up with Val and Vox's shit everyday, only to have her phone confiscated by the white haired bitch the second she returned to the hotel, a medicore pub may as well be a high end establishment that served cocktails in the holy fucking grail.
"Gimlet, now!" Velvette's shout slammed the door open.
Nester, who had long since learned to stand clear of the entrance at this hour, raised a shaky finger upon her arrival.
Before the bird could enforce Vaggie's protocol, the Vee shot her phone into his hands. And to the tune of his silence, marched her own order to the bar.
"And don't skimp on the lime this time, or else I'm squeezing one in your eyes."
The bartender's monotone gaze blinked at the irritating threat.
"At least you're not demanding more alcohol in it." Husk's shrug reached for the gin and citrous mixer, "But then again, you usually don't get all pissy with your drinks until after Charlie's activity."
"Bite me."
Since the cat's curiosity didn't kill his ability to serve her, Velvette held her snap in a grumble.
"Just making an observation." the gambler lazily dropped his shoulders rather than mockingly raise his hands.
"Since when did you become the moral type of bartender?"
"Since never," Husk slid the finished cocktail into the doll's hand, "just voicing the question feather's got rattling in his head before it triggers a stroke."
Velvette leaned her head back to sip her drink, and only saw the frightened chicken Husk pointed to as a bonus.
"What, you've never had a hard day at work before?" the question's harshness was cushioned by the coaster slid under her slammed glass.
"The day you showed up was no picnic for his skeleton." Husk sighed, and provided Nester's answer when he saw the Doorman's lips stitched shut, "But you haven't been this outright bitchy since Charlie shut you up."
Velvette made sure to drown the growl in her throat. The thought of that red cheeked royal's accidental victory continued to boil the Vee's blood. Still, she had learned how to turn that fire of hatred into a fuel she'd use against Charlie to win the overall war.
The shit that ignited her words right now was from a far older problem. One that plagued her like a bad breakout of hives.
It wasn't life threatening, it wasn't world ending, but it was iterating as Hell. And something she'd rather just cover up with a drug.
'And I'm definitely gonna need at least two drinks,' Velvette's thought sneaked out loosened lips, "if I've got to get through a fucking activity tonight with this hanging over me head-"
Through the last ounce of liquid left in the glass, the pinkette saw a blonde sweetener atop the stairs. Before Velvette could swallow it, her brain placed it down upon the counter. An idea having spiked her thoughts.
"… sorry." the Vee's eyes shied down, making sure it looked like she didn't hear the faint footfall that had walked her vision towards the counter, "Trying to water down a bad attitude. Work can just be such a bitch sometimes."
The doll cupped her drink with both hands. And slowly tilted the point she filled it with back and forth.
Husk raised an eyebrow when her thunderstorm shifted into a downpour. But Velvette didn't care, her performance didn't have to convince him, just the person who had missed the earlier forecast.
"Woah!"
And with how fast the stool to her right was filled, she was off to a good start. As the blonde critic sat next to her with a sympathetic smile.
"I know it's five O'clock, but happy hours aren't meant for bad moods." Charlie's soft voice of concern sure drank the pinkette's up though, "Everything all right Velvette?"
"I'm fine-" the Vee started to raise the glass, then made sure to give it a good slow swirl. As if her mind was actually sloshing around Charlie's question, "Just a rough day, which is something for you guys to celebrate honestly."
She sighed her lips into a pitiful smile, and set her drink down.
"Not if it means you're struggling." Charlie's hand moved to rest on Velvette's shoulder. And the Vee pressed her sympathetic advantage when she pushed her own hand into her face.
"God, you're lucky none of this is on camera, or else I'd have an even worse nine to five tomorrow." Velvette had to hold her sneer back from becoming a smirk.
Honestly, with the heiress' hand squeezing her shoulder in comfort, the Vee's real good fortune came from the fact Vaggie's caution wasn't present to reel in Charlie's naivety. That, and that the cat who stood in place of the security guard did so with a silent sense of cynicism rather than a loud aura of concern.
"So let's just get to your stupid activity," she of course still had to jostle her hook around somewhat to make its lure pass for live bait, "and you can sleep easy knowing your hotel wracked up another goal on me."
"I'll sleep a lot better when you realize we're on the same team." Charlie frowned, before her words raised her lips to a smile and her feet into an idea, "Tell you what, the evening activity for tonight was going to be skit on drug addiction. But if you want, we can get the group together and see if we can brainstorm healthy ways to cope with stress instead!"
Charlie declared in excitement, before her cheeks ripened at the silence that followed.
"If that's okay with you that is?"
So long as the heiress kept ignoring the hook she bit, the idea sounded great to Velvette.
"I… guess." the Vee paused through her acceptance, "But know that I definitely don't want my phone back tonight if it is!"
And with that remark put on as the finishing touch, the rapid nod of Charlie's head all but hammered in the fact Vel would be getting her phone privileges back sooner than later.
"I promise that by the end of tonight you'll never want to see it again!" the suited woman jumped at her own joy, and bounded towards the stair. Only stopping on the first one when her words caught up, "Not that we won't give it back to you. You'll just not want it because the program will go so well. Which would be bad for you to show if you want a stress free day at work- Not that your success here will cause your work to be stressful, since we're gonna solve that solution right now-"
Velvette's first true emotion came in the bewildered looks that everybody in the lobby sent Charlie's way.
"Y-you know what," the owner gulped down her own rapid fire thoughts, "I'm just going to get ready."
The heiress shot herself out of sight. And having survived a last minute hiccup in her plan. Velvette leaned back in her stool, her lips slowly hemmed into a smile.
"So much for a hard day at work." Husk snorted, but prepared a rag to prod her discarded drink rather than her performance.
"What can I say, for as fucking obnoxious her high on life attitude can be, Charlie just made mine easier."
Her words paused the cat's cloth just as it absorbed the golden liquid. Slowly bringing it out, the bartender raised an eye into Velvette's. But before she could question if she had slipped up, Husk doused the concern when he simply poured the gin into his mouth.
XxxxxxX
"Ssso you're sssaying that ssscreaming at my minionsss… makesss the problemsss they cause worse?"
"That's right!" Charlie nodded, though no amount of head movement could shake the smile from her face.
Rather than stare out across a mostly empty sea of chairs, the hotel's owner and its occupant had dragged the lobby furniture into a circle for tonight's lesson.
Sir Pentious, Nester, and Husk were seated on the couch, and the girls scattered about the cushioned chairs. And even though Angel still hadn't come back from work yet, Charlie couldn't help but have a full heart with how well things had been progressing this afternoon.
So far Vaggie's whole idea of improvising the lessons seemed to be working like a charm.
Of course, as she briefly shifted her vision from Sir Pentious to the pink haired Sinner, the true measure of tonight's success would come when Velvette revealed her ailment.
Right now though, her eyes slithered from the future back to the brainstorming cobra in the present.
"I sssupose it would be more efficient if I just ssshot them when they ssscrew up."
Not even that cold blooded remark, stated as if it was an emotional breakthrough, could strip the grin off Charlie's face… though it certainly dilated her pupils.
"Or~" Charlie's harmonized, and grabbed Vaggie's hand before it could smack her forehead, "Whenever you find yourself mad at the egg boiz, you take in a deep breath to-"
"Sssteady my aim?" the snake questioned.
"Calm your frustration." Charlie corrected, "That way you'll be in a better mindset to provide the Egg's with constructive criticism so they don't make the same mistake twice."
Sir Pentious blinked, then flicked his finger back to his chin.
"Constructive criticism you sssay. Putting their ssshells back together isss quite time consuming… perhapsss your idea is worth a ssshot."
The heiress blew out a sigh of relief. Glad to know her own return to zen had kept Pentious open to achieving his before the conversation got too out of whack.
"Glad to hear it." Charlie's head turned to the feathered employee next to the snake, "Now how about you Nester? How do you deal with stress at work?"
"Oh… uh… I-I don't really know." the bird admitted, or rather his fingers rapid fire flick at his quilled ear said what his words could not.
"Well…" the heiress slowly trailed her words trying to find a way for the bird to see his own habits, "did anything happen on the job today that made your heart rate spike?"
"N-not really-" a migration of raised eyebrows met the avian's stutter, "W-well… I have been worried about something lately. Although, it's not a work thing, or maybe it is, I mean it happened during my work day, but not when I was at work-"
"Nester." Vaggie's cracked, and startled the man's brain enough to reset.
"S-sorry," his finger nearly snapped his pen in two, "So during my lunch breaks I've been heading to Canine Cuisine-"
"And you want to know how to overcome an addiction to God awful food-" Husk was cut off with a glare from Vaggie that Charlie did not approve, nor did she comment on.
"That's great Nester!" the rose cheeked woman instead urged the story onward, "Do you still feel nervous talking to them because of how you met?"
"Kind of…" the bird cringed, although all Charlie had done was shed light on a secondary issue, "But the thing is, everytime I eat there Roadie won't let me leave a tip for Stewie… because he says the best one I could give is getting you to run a promotion for him."
Charlie blinked to the blurred out image of Nester's quill.
That was certainly a unique problem to worry about. But she shook the shock out of her head realizing it was no big deal.
"And you've been stressing how to ask me? Well that's not something you should feel nervous to do!" Charlie smiled her reassurance, "I'm here to help you guys, so always know my ears are ready and waiting to pick up everything. I'm pretty busy the next couple of weeks, but let him know I'd be more than happy to schedule something for the future."
Rather than shine her own toothy grin onto a resolved situation, the heiress cocked her head seeing Nester's twitching quill still held the limelight.
"Nester you just solved your stress so there's no need to worry about it anymore-"
"Um… well… I-it's just," the feathered man gulped before he clenched his teeth and hissed, "I was so anxious to ask you… and felt so guilty everytime Roadie looked at me expecting an answer… I kind of said you've already agreed to help out."
Charlie sucked in her lips, and she took a deep breath through her nose before she opened her mouth.
"Oh, well, pleasing people is not a very good way to cope with a situation."
The heiress still needed to take her own advice on that subject from time to time. So she knew better then anyone that Nester solution was that he had to bite the bullet and admit his mistake to Roadie and-
Charlie paused when saw the bird's pupils flicker themselves frozen. A wave of pity struck her face and… perhaps forcing him to admit something like that to a person like the hostile restaurant owner wasn't the best idea.
"B-but what day does he need help, maybe I can find a way to squeeze it in?" Charlie offered, and immediately felt the quizzical gaze of Vaggie be nailed into her by Husk's raised eyebrow.
"He said he'd set up a commercial shoot this Sunday." Nester crisped out.
Commercial!? Okay, so obviously that would be a way too time consuming form of 'publicity'. Besides, the weekend was really a time meant to focus on her own clients.
"Oh, well… you're going to have to tell Roadie that," Charlie's response paused with her mind when Nester cheeks paled, "I'm looking forward to working with him!"
Vaggie's eyes bore into Charlie's brain. Questioning if she was serious on the matter. Evidently, her girlfriend wasn't pleased with the fact she was, and turned to solve the issue at its source… only to sigh in acceptance when she saw the same problem the blonde did.
"Alright… so, we'll get that squared away in the next few days." the heiress turned her chuckle to Velvette, before Husk's narrowed gaze could make the previous problem bigger than it actually was, "But as for the problems of the present, would you be comfortable sharing yours?"
"… I guess," Velvette sneer was accompanied by a rub of her arm that tugged at Charlie's heartstrings and rolled Husk's eyes, "Not to bore you with the fucking details-"
"Oh please do!" Charlie nodded, before she coughed her enthusiasm into her hand, "If you think it will help us get a better understanding of the full picture."
"Not much to say really," the doll snarked, but looked down as she continued, "My two partners are fucking arseholes who spend their day bitching at each other instead of getting their jobs done. Which leaves me having to waste my day making sure they get along well enough to do their fucking work tomorrow."
"I… see." Charlie actually didn't. If only because she was her own boss, and her partnership with Vaggie, both in business and life, never had hiccups that lasted more than a few sentences, let alone a full day. Still, the heiress wasn't about to forgo offering ways to cope with a bad work environment just because she hadn't experienced it, "Well, have you told them how that makes you feel-"
"Every single fucking time." Velvette clapped back before Charlie could finish.
"… and do they understand their disagreements upsets you just as much as it does them?"
"Enough to make them laugh at me as if I was some sort of child throwing a temper tantrum" Velvette hissed.
"Ever think of quitting?" Vaggie deadpanned.
"You'd just love that wouldn't you." the influencer shot back.
Charlie clapped her hands together beneath a smile. Trying to draw their attention back to the real issue at hand, rather than the new one being formed.
"What I think Vaggie means is… if their arguing is getting in the way of your work," Charlie tipped toed across the answer as she created it, "then you shouldn't spend your time trying to get them to go back to theirs. Just keep on trucking ahead with what you've got to do, so they learn what happens when they don't do theirs."
Velvette smirked, and Vaggie rolled her eye. Which probably accounted for the fact that both the sound and orb paused when they finally processed what the blonde had said.
"Huh… you know what," the pinkette spoke up, "That's not terrible advice. If those bastards want to bitch at each other, why should I have to waste my time reining them in."
"Exactly!" Charlie grinned her eyes shut.
"They can crash and burn to the tune of my laughter for once."
"If we dial it back a notch or two that is," and just like that they were shot back open.
The sudden fire in Velvette's eye left Charlie's singed with a small level of concern. But all things considered, her spontaneous activity had turned into a five star course. Everyone was being surprisingly open. And even those that weren't, Husk, were being surprisingly mild in their nihilism.
She had, admittedly, been fighting off a sour taste in her mouth ever since Vaggie proved a tactile approach to redemption was more productive than a strategic one. Don't get her wrong, she was ecstatic for her girlfriend's breakthrough. Charlie had just wished it didn't have to come at the expense of all her hard work. And unfortunately, to prevent her sorrow from becoming jealousy, the heiress had allowed the emotion to morph into a storm of doubt. Which had hovered over her head a rain cloud for the past two days. As she questioned whether she harbored the ability to save a soul without a script.
Right now, that downpour of pity seemed like a long forgotten flood. Evaporated by the rays of sunlight Velvette's enthusiasm to solve her daily problem with advice Charlie had conjured provided.
And if she could tackle the personal demons somebody like Velvette battled, then there was no Sinner alive whose problem she couldn't solve the moment they walked through-
The front door crashed open, and a loud crack chirped through the foundation. As the new building settled upon its old aesthetic.
Charlie wasn't proud of it, but rather than turn her sight towards the source of the explosion, she followed everybody else's gaze onto Sir Pentious.
"… Oh I sssee how it isss," the snake's monocle whipped itself back and forth to meet the stares, "I blow up the entrance a few dozen timesss, and now whenever it sssqueaks I'm to blame?!"
"… yeah, pretty much." Husk shrugged before Charlie could apologize.
With the chance to do so having been crushed beneath the conflict's accelerated implosion, the heiress turned her head to address the catalyst instead.
"Oh, good evening Angel," Charlie almost sighed in relief when her first client stood in the door instead of an actual problem.
"What's so good about it?" the spider groveled back.
His tired words pulled the heiress' eyes in for a more detailed examination. And quickly realized she had overlooked multiple issues.
All ranging from the minute, like Angel's arched back that looked ready to snap beneath the weight of his own head. To the more concerning, like the handle shaped hole in the wall the actor slammed into existence.
"Any particular reason you sucker punched the door?" Vaggie's temper remained low…for now.
"I've got a better question for you," Angel hissed back. His drooped eyelids barely able to work up the energy to narrow in frustration, "Why the fuck do I have to punch open the door when we've got a Doorman?"
"O-oh, sorry I'll-" Nester jolted to his feet.
"You'll what? Have me go outside so you can get a second take?" Angel's deadpanned expression froze the bird to his seat.
Charlie brow burrowed, and the arrow it pointed down at her lips triggered a frown.
The actor dragging himself home from a long shoot was nothing new, and Angel had always held a mean spirited personality… but right now, the spirited part seemed to have wandered away.
"If you want to make yourself useful, go tell puss face to man his post before I get there."
Nester's silence didn't stop the message from growling next to him.
"A-actually the bar's closed until our activity ends." Charlie tried to smooth things over.
"Why?" Angel deadpanned.
"Because for once, listening to her bullshit seems less asinine than fueling yours" Husk mumbled.
He slouched back in his seat, but the actor apparently saw the bartender's crossed arms as a gate to break down.
"Fuck it, got to do everything myself." Angel's sneer of defeat triggered a code red in Charlie's mind.
His unempathetic snaps earlier were odd, being in a horrid enough mood to end an exchange with Husk without so much as an attempted flirt was unheard of.
"W-woah!" she skated on her heels to intercept the spider before he crawled his way to the bar, "You've obviously had a hard day at work."
Charlie's forced smile was met with eight genuine eye twitches.
"Which is actually kind of funny-" her pitch was sucked back when the spider notched his brows into arrows, "N-not haha funny of course, just in the sense that tonight active was actually created to address how to deal with a stressful day on the job that doesn't involve certain… beverages."
Angel blinked his volley away.
"Unless that's an open invitation for me to hit the nearest meth dispenser," he stepped around her, "I'm grabbing a drink."
Charlie turned as if the white furred demon had passed through her a phantom. She raised a finger, but the warm weather Velvette brought had been dispelled by Angel, and his cold front left her momentarily frozen.
"Hey," Vaggie managed to chisel her out to the tune of Angel throwing around bottles, "she said the bar was closed."
"What have I done that makes you think I give a shit?" five of angels hands extended a finger while his sixth brought a bottle of whiskey up for closer inspection.
Charlie's own hand had to frantically raise itself before her girlfriend's voice, and the tension, broke the roof. Although with each passing second, Angel wasn't exactly making that outcome any less likely.
With a quick shake of her head, Charlie removed the shock that lingered. She stepped forward to the bar counter and lowered her voice to a whisper.
"S-sorry, I think I've gone about this the wrong way."
The improvised bartender brought a bottle down hard on the table. Only having let it go to pinch the bridge of his nose.
"Free tip, you still are."
Charlie sucked in her breath.
"It's just that, I think you'd be in good company with today's activity. Obviously if you want to take it easy tonight that's totally cool." she offered a gentle way out alongside her propped thumb, "Just know we're coming up with great ways to deal with stressful moments, better coworker communication, and how to be more comfortable around the 'boss'."
Angel's hold on the bottle nearly turned into a shattered fist through it. And her hushed chuckled fell faster than her air quotes.
"So if you feel up for it within the next hour or so, you know where to find us." Her smile began to creak under her own weight when the actor's heated stare began to melt the cheek muscles supporting it, "O-or you can always talk to me about it in private. We can figure out-"
"How I can go to work without wanting to swan dive headfirst onto an Exorcist spear?" Angel's monotone statement was put to shame by his cold stare. "How I can politely tell my boss I need a lighter workload?"
Charlie's eyelids thundered up and down twice. Which if nothing else, left her body too shaken to notice how still and silent the lobby had become.
"S-something like…" she gulped, "that."
"Well here's a lesson for you sunshine, people don't become top dog by letting their bitches complain about the leash." his hollow tone struck Charlie a freight train, "If they did, I wouldn't be crashing here right now. Listening to some privileged ass princess tell me about how her afterschool specials pack the same punch as ten shots in a row."
If he had taken at least one, then maybe each word he uttered wouldn't feel like a bullet through her.
"But hey, if you really want to help, here's a three step solution." Angel brought up a finger and jabbed it into Charlie's chest, "Tighten your leashes, tell Husk to mix me a drink because it's his job, then kindly fuck off."
His words echoed off every wall, and Charlie heard each one enter her ear over and over again. Angel's pants came next, he hadn't exactly raised his voice, but the furred demon heaved as if he had just screeched out a Shakespearean play.
The heiress stared blankly ahead, unable to give a review.
Angel's pants slowed down. Perhaps with no more criticism to fuel him, his mind turned in its own thoughts. For a brief moment, his eyes flashed with guilt, but he sucked any expression of it inward with his lips.
"Listen," the actor began again, yet even when his soft tone still stung with frustration, "I'm obviously not in the right mood for what you've got planned tonight Charlie. I just want to grab a drink, hit the hay, and for both our sakes, wake up to a less brutal day."
He sighed, and the heiress saw it as the reload it was. Which is why, after a brief look to Vaggie, she decided to jam the gun.
"Alright."
Angel mouth opened to shoot down her response, but found itself hung open like a goldfish at the agreement.
"Seriously?"
"Yeah, here to talk if you need to." It went against every instinct she had, but Charlie turned around and walked one led-filled step at a time back to the lounge, "but I can't force you too anymore then you can force Husk to serve a drink."
She sat down next to a perplexed Vaggie, just in time to see Angel's confusion reflected in the bottle he picked up. He gazed back to the group, then to the wall of drinks behind him.
"If you guys aren't gonna open the bar," he sighed, albeit mostly to himself, "then I'm just gonna head up stairs."
The spider demon exited the welcome desk. Chalice tried not to, but everyone's eyes followed Angel's ascent.
The heiress felt awful… but compared to how her other lessons had crashed and burned, this inferno remained local. And if nothing else, the blonde's guilt could rest somewhat easier knowing the one bottle the actor dragged along with him couldn't fuel the fire for the entire night.
"That," Velvette voice twirled the groups focus back, even as her fingers nonchalantly encircled the top of the staircase Angel had disappeared on, "that's the bullshit that makes Val so fucking allergic to productivity."
Charlie eyelids furrowed in confusion, before they widened in understanding.
"Sees their top employee struggles, and thinks working them twice as hard will fix the solution." the Vee leans back in her chair, "Why he can't just be like the rest of us and trade in the broken old model for a new one is beyond me-"
"You work with Angel's boss?" Charlie interrupted.
The way everyone but Nester's eyes locked onto her question made the answer obvious.
"I'm a Vee… you do know what that means right?" Velvette honestly looked too dumbfounded to be offended.
Normally Charlie would apologize for her ignorance, but she had other matters to press right now.
"Would you be able to set up a meeting?"
XxxxxxX
Velvette sipped on her drink, glad she'd be able to set it down half full for a while longer. Although, with the way the afternoon went, she could have been sucking on nothing but air for the past minute, and she'd still say the cupped looked ready to overflow.
She was satisfied. Satisfied with how she gained more and more of Charlie's trust. Satisfied with how the heiress' plans for the week were now in her control. And perhaps most of all, satisfied that the honky-tonk cat's pub had in fact resumed service once the princess PSA had wrapped up.
"And here I thought my business had been sabotaged."
Of course, it would have been even better if the bartender let her savor the success in silence.
"Does it look like I'm drinking a problem away?" Velvette picked up her glass and swirled it around her stool.
"More like drinking yourself into one." the cat mumbled.
He grabbed a bottle from off the middle shelf. The pinkette raised an eyebrow, but before she could tell him she didn't want to be topped off with that crap, he waterfalled half the jug down his throat.
"… speaking from experience?" Velvette stated, more grossed out than concern.
"Not yours-" the feline belched, and any hairball that had been along for the ride was vaporized by the ethanol, "Tried to drown my self pity before, but never been a shitty enough person to toast it."
"Excuse you?" Velvette recoiled, more so at the smell of the words.
"You honestly think nobody saw past your little 'woe is me' act earlier." Husk pressed the issue despite the monotone nature of his voice.
"I wasn't aware Angel had a monopoly on making a scene." the liquid in her hand slipped past her lips more easily
And the snorts exited the cat's snout just as liberally.
"He doesn't, he's just bad at turning down help."
"And I'm at fault asking for it?" Velvette glass rippled more air than water when she placed it down, "What kind of program do you think Charlie runs?"
"One you don't believe in." Husk shrugged, indifferent to her point as much as he was to the burn wound he chugged, "You're not asking for help, just monetizing your problems. For all Angel's faults, all give him this. He doesn't weaponize the guilt he wallows in."
"You really know how to lift someone's spirits don't you." Velvette said. Having decided her celebration would be a single nightcap.
"Only if I don't pour all of it out." Husk replied, restocking the last of it above his head.
"Well, stellar job then cowboy." Velvette pushed herself away from the bar. Her fingers extended like fingers from an exaggerated southern drawl, "But if it's all the same with you, now that you've well and truly dashed my mood, I'm gonna head up before your advice makes me an alcoholic."
The Vee turned around. Leaving her remaining drink to pick up the tab.
"Better to turn into that than your own scheme." Husk grumbled.
Velvette stopped in her tracks. Part of her felt the urge to turn around, but if he had really cared about what he said, he wouldn't have spoken at all.
"If you think I'm up to something, then just say it." she dared him to turn into a threat.
"Wouldn't have the energy even if Charlie could hear."
The Vee heard the cat's shoulders roll.
"You seem pretty hellbent on talking to me for a guy who doesn't care." Velvette grumbled her deaf towards the stairs.
"Only because all my desire for silence is being taken up by the door."
She turned, not seeing the cat cock his head but seeing the designation it landed on. Or rather the passed out Doorman slumped on the stool beside it.
"So do me a favor, don't fall for your own pity." the cat's growl left Velvette confused. And she wondered if she was talking to Husk, or just the delusional rant of the whiskey he drank, "Before your annoying act becomes an addiction I can't serve."
Whelp, at least he answered her internal question. He was just making no sense. Nearly as little as Nester's decisions to adorn his work clothes and camp out all night next to a door that barely opened three times during the day.
In the end she supposed their annoying traits would be a temporary vex. But for now, she had to be civil with these people, and supposed the kindest thing she could do was to follow through on what she had told Husk.
So without further adieu, and nothing nice left to say, she let her feet talk her way up the stairs.
XxxxxxX
Thank you to all those who have read through the thirteenth chapter of Drifters… and a bonus thanks to anybody who can tell me what the name of the blue flames Overlord in Hazbin is.
Right now I've just decided to call them Wisp going forward, but I tried looking up a canon name. As of this moment I haven't come across any official title yet. Admittedly my knowledge on the Helliverse is limited to the show, the pilot, and Helluva a Boss. But I know the creator does a Q&A podcast all the time, and there was a comic at one point. So if a canon name does exist please let me know. Definitely would like to be using the official one.
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.