Author's Note: Hello one and all. Welcome to what is by far the longest chapter of the story to date, and the one that probably has the most grammatical mistakes as a result (Despite the fact I added a whole extra day to my proofreading schedule in anticipation of its length XD)
Now, this chapter does follow the story beat of an episode, although the small changes that have built up certainly change the dynamic and structure of one scene dramatically. Which I hope will be an enjoyable twist for everybody to read.
No reviews this week, 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 12
Trust Me on This
Lost within the wild foliage of her white mane, Vaggie's pointer finger bent itself a crowbar into her temple. A small way for her to release her annoyance, without physically showcasing it to the world. An action she normally didn't care enough to hide from most of the people who vexed her, but it was a habit she had picked up on the rare moments Charlie was the source of the discomfort.
And right now, as Vaggie's shallow frown met her girlfriend's wrenched open grin, was one of those blue moon moments.
"I think it's safe to let her take part in the group lessons again." Charlie's optimism tried to hiss its way past her teeth into a whisper, "She hasn't disrupted an activity since she became an observer."
Vaggie's retort left her open mouth far less restricted.
"You mean two days ago."
"… more like two and a half." the heiress' eyes trailed downward in admittance, but snapped back up to flip on the light atop her head, "Which means Velvette remained quiet and respectful throughout five whole activities!"
The security guard nearly tore her hair out when she suppressed her sigh.
"Where you see the eyes of a student absorbing knowledge, I see a conniving bitch who'd sell her own mother if it meant she'd turn a profit." Vaggie's voice went low, and traversed far upon the wind a growl… not that it really had too.
"You know I'm literally ten feet away from you, right?" Velvette's grumble rose from the audience and onto the stage.
Vaggie's 'X' remained blind to the pinkette, and fixated on the blonde.
"We shouldn't take her silence for trust."
"Then it's a good thing…" Charlie's eyes darted between her girlfriends and the crowd, her words carried upon a breath she sucked in while she worked up the courage to exhale the rest, "She's returning for today's theme."
The owner turned from Vaggie and flared her hands to the participants below.
"Trust exercises!" Her girlfriend jumped in the air, sprung up by her own enthusiasm.
Vaggie was supposed to reach for the heavens as well. But she remained on the ground, eyes locked on the pupils wordlessly watching Charlie levitate back to the ground. Making sure no, or rather one set of, stares came down the barrel of a gun.
"Uh…" Charlie floated down, drawn back down by the gravity of the white haired woman's tension, "you missed your mark Vaggie."
"Did I?" The security red 'X' remained trained on Velvette's forehead. The Vee's brow twitched, but outside of ensuring the river of seats between her and the others parted to a sea, she didn't fuel the hurricane further.
"You did… but that's okay!" Charlie clapped her hands together, as she tried to divert the other residents' gaze from the three point staring contest, "Because to build trust, you must first earn trust. Which is why Vaggie here is the perfect person to run today's lesson!"
"Uh, question?" Angel raised one of his many hands.
"Yes!" Charlie verbally latched onto it.
"I thought your goal was to not have them kill each other?"
The silence that followed may as well have been a bountiful harvest of laughter that filled the lobby. Not because the crowd below found the situation humorous, but more so their dumbfoundedness at Charlie's obliviousness to the obvious was almost to the point of being cosmically funny.
"Hmm," Charlie sucked in her hum along with her lips, "Let's agree to disagree, and then let Vaggie take things away so you'll see why we are actually in agreement all along!"
Charlie enthusiastically took a step back, as Angel's retort was postponed by his confusion trying to make heads or tails of what the blonde just said.
Unfortunately, Charlie's retreat off the stage left Vaggie in its center. Where she had to will her eye off Velvette and onto the rest of the crowd.
"Right… so today I'm in charge."
Unlike Charlie, Vaggie wasn't surprised by the silence that followed her remark.
"That means you grunts do what I say verbatim. If I say jump, you ask how high."
She marched back and forth across the stage. Her old instincts kicked in to mirror what she thought leadership was, while also having the added benefit of making her prepared for whatever surprises the doll could unleash.
"Which brings us to our activity, the trust fall." she whipped her head to the crowd, her voice raised in place of the hands that didn't, "One of you lowlifes will come up to the stage, reveal a truth about yourself no one knows, then fall backwards into the crowd. Where you will have to trust them to keep your secret as well as halt your plummet to the ground."
Vaggie stopped when she snapped her legs together. Her single eye razed the monotone stares sent her way.
"Any questions?"
The audience offered none, but the crew behind the scene was practically dislocating her arm in eager curiosity.
"Oh me, me, me! I have a question!" Charlie rasped in excitement.
"Yes." Vaggie sighed, albeit instead of a frown like earlier it became a small smile.
"Can I go first!"
The white haired woman unwound her finger from her bangs. And bowing out like a conductor she gracefully made room for Charlie to all but teleport on the stage.
"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" Charlie squealed.
When she turned to the crowd to reveal her secret, Vaggie used the opportunity to slam a fisted hand into an open palm. Which sprung the group into a semi circle around the base of the stage.
"I just want to say… I'm so happy you all are taking part in my program!" the blonde stared off in hope past the people she addressed, "It means the world to me that so many lives want to change for the better."
The owner turned around and inhaled a deep breath, that made Vaggie more worried she'd float away then fall down. When she fell back, the security guard didn't have to stress for too long, as a soft middle ground was reached when Charlie was levitated upwards by a chorus of hands.
"That… was…" Charlie's closed eyes seemed to allow her the ability to pretend she rested upon a crowd, "Amazing!"
Although, when they snapped open she certainly didn't appear choked up about the reality she returned too. With gusto she jumped down into the center of the crowd and turned to each guest with a cheek bitten grin.
"You guys have to try that, it feels awesome!"
Rather than get infected by Charlie's kindness, most of the guests and employees knitted their lips into masks.
Her girlfriend continued to jitter around. The heiress' willingness to wait an eternity for a response she thought was coming any second was as adorable as it was impractical to Vaggie's lesson.
"Private Pentious!" the white haired drill sergeant snapped words echoed out from the serpent's straightened spine.
"Yes sssir- ma'am- intimidating ssspear woman!" the snake's instinctual salute nearly minced his head clean off.
"You have agreed to take part in the redemption program, have you not?" Vaggie rhetorically demanded.
Sir Pentious hand slid off his quizzical eyebrows. In his confusion, he questioned his own answer.
"…yesss?"
"Then slither your sorry self up here and take part in the program."
The snake gulped, as the others synchronized their steps to clear a path/take a step away from the first victim turned volunteered.
With all the grace of a gluttonous caterpillar, the mechanical inventor slinked his way onto the stage. And like a Victorian admiral, Vaggie's mere stance of authority was enough for Pentious to walk himself out towards the theater's plank.
"Um…" the steampunk serpent clasped his hands so his thumbs could twiddled the awareness his pause emitted, "ssssomething about me I don't ssshare with anyone… That'sss a toughy, I ssshare almost everything with my minionsss."
Pentious's three eyes motioned all the others to the striped suited egg.
"Our bedtime story is the boss's daily list of accomplishments!" the hard boiled henchmen swung his legs atop the stool as if it was a swing.
Vaggie felt no emotional hesitation to pinch her brow at the slippery Sinner.
"It's fine if the Eggs know, just tell us something about yourself we don't. Something you wouldn't share with us under normal circumstances."
"Sssoming I wouldn't want to ssshare with you-" Pentious slowly rubbed his chin until the motion stopped when it jump started the gears in his head, "Oh, like the Death Ray I've been waiting for you to confiscate."
"Yes like the-" Vaggie's brow suddenly stretched upwards from the two dining plates that formed underneath, "Death Ray?! What Death Ray?!"
"The one I've been 'hiding' in my room, although I use that term lightly." Pentious raised a ringer as if he was a teacher lecturing the concept of 'obviousness' to a student, "You sssee, for the last two daysss you've been ssso focused on Misss Velvette, you've neglected to sssweep my room for ordinance."
Vaggie's red 'X' pulsated to the beat of the Victorian's slurs. And her good eye tunneled out the sight of Charlie's strained smile in order to focus solely on the soon to be skinned reptile.
"Of course, I was originally overjoyed to be free of your gaze," the honest snake clearly wasn't aware of the one on him now, "but then I got to thinking, why in the Nine Ringsss would you view her asss a greater threat than me!"
Pentious back arched and he brought a feigned hand to mark where Vaggie planned to spear him.
"Sssuch an insult to my pride could sssimply not ssstand. Over the last day and night I have constructed grander and grander instrumentsss of destruction!" the snake's voice wailed with pride, before it was cooled off by the water that pressed against his eyes, "But you haven't ssso much asss knocked on my door, let alone kick it down, to analyze the threat."
Give her two more seconds, and Vaggie would be sure to change that.
"And truthfully…" the serpent inhaled a deep breath, "It hasss made me think lesss of you and the Hotel's sssecurity on more than one occasion."
Outside of the metallic grind produced by Vaggie's jaw, Sir Pentious' climatic reveal was met with a crowd that had theirs locked up.
Unbeknownst to the center of attention, they all waited for the silence to be broken by the serpent's back… well, almost all of them.
"Woohoo!" the inventors' henchmen clapped intakes into a maraca, "You told her boss!"
"Yesss… I sssuppose I did!" Pentious's ego rose to the tune of his supporter, "I must sssay, getting that off my chest doesss feel quite good. Perhapsss there is sssomething to this trust exercise."
The snake finally turned to Vaggie.
"You even look ready to drag me upstairsss and use me as a mace to ssstrike down my gloriousss invention-" the reptile's joy melted into terror when he saw the murderous look his accomplish achieved, "B-but of course I wouldn't want to interrupt the activity!"
The snake turned his back to the stage before he coiled himself up.
"Quick! Sssomebody catch me!"
Vaggie moved to do so by the throat, but the serpent sprung his body in the air before her hand could trap it.
With how high the snake turned dragon flew, more eyes rose upward than hands. But when his shrunken form reached it peaked, and eclipsed the crowd underneath a growing shadow, an orchestra of appendages shot upward.
Unfortunately, some rose higher than others. And when Pentious crashed back down to the lobby, he did so with the same grace as a child falling from a tree. Having broken each thin branch on the canopy on the way down… otherwise known as Angel's arms.
"Son of a bitch!" the actor's silent screech turned into a grunt when Pentious's weight strained his final pair of hands that where level enough to be supported by the others, "She said trust fall, not jump!"
"… ssso long as you caught me, I didn't think it mattered." the snake slurred still atop the sea of hands.
"It does for my back." a cat's muffled groan came from beneath Pentious's center of gravity, "Get the fuck off of me!"
Seeing the non negotiable request reflected in the eyes of most of his support beams, the snake slithered his way. Although the pain he had caused lingered on as slime atop his saviors hands.
A stain of disgust Velvette immediately tried to rub off onto Nester's hoodie. An action that would usually call for Vaggie's interference… but her heated stare was more concerned with burning out the source of the filth.
"Sssorry about that," Pentious awkwardly rose himself up to address the crowd, then shrunk when he turned to Vaggie, "and the Death Ray… truly faultsss have been made on multiple endsss."
'Only fault is I haven't caused yours yet.' Vaggie snarled the thought through two clenched fists.
"But that's why it's so important to trust our friends with how they make us feel!" Charlie cared not for the slime on her blazer, and all but used it to slip herself in front of Sir Pentious before he could trust her girlfriend's fist to break his jaw, "Good job SP! Now, who's next on the list?"
With reluctance, Vaggie allowed her partner's fast paced plea to sweep her back on course. But her dagger-like stare made sure Pentious knew him and his death ray weren't out of the woods.
"Velvette."
The doll's hand ceased its mop like motion across her avian rag. One look between the murderous security guard and the shaking snake made the Vee seem to question whether she wanted to rejoin the activities, or remain a silent observer.
With a reluctant sigh, which shifted Nester's dazed expression into one of surprise at the mess she left behind, Velvette stepped up to the stage.
"I suppose the thing I have to trust you guys with, is the fact I'm going to keep writing critical reviews of this place." She stated plainly.
Before Vaggie could tell Velvette the point of the exercise was to say something they didn't know, the influencer eyes rolled their way onto Charlie.
"And that I can't tell the other Vees I've got to do so the 'proper way', or else they'll dub this whole thing a failure." she crossed her arms beneath a sneer, "So don't go telling them unless you really want me to cause some chaos."
Vaggie… didn't know what to make of the statement. She honestly didn't believe it was true, but then again it certainly sounded corny enough to be so.
Unfortunately, when the Vee turned to Vaggie, it was away from Charlie's ballooned smirk. Which was the only face Vel had to worry about if she wanted to stay here.
"That a good enough truth, or do I need to drop a laser on you too"
The white haired woman blinked twice. With a shake of her head, she rid herself of the pinkette's sarcasm and took a step forward.
"Nope, just backwards."
Velvette raised an eyebrow but, when Vaggie extended her hands past the influencer's shoulder, it fell down.
Flailed hands grabbed for a non-existent railing as the security guard used hers to waved the doll a quick goodbye.
The surprise in Velvette's eyes lasted for two seconds, before Charlie scooped her into a hello.
"Awesome job Velvette!" the hoist smiled down, "I do hope you write this part down in your review… except for the parts you don't want your boss to know hehe."
The pinkette stared up at Vaggie's girlfriend. Her confusion lasted longer than the white haired woman would have liked considering Vel was being held more like a bride at the moment then a doll, but eventually the social icon pushed herself out of Charlie's arms.
"He's not my boss, we're business partners." Velvette scoffed, but the red cheeked woman seemed too consumed by optimism to notice.
"Alright, clean jump." Vaggie coughed into her hand. An attempt to redirect Charlie's attention away from the Vee, "Nester, front and center."
"A-alright…" the avian's stutter for once wasn't due to his nerves, but more so the shiver the gross goo he tried to wipe from his clothes produced.
By the time he stepped into the stage, all the bird had managed to do was spread the mess around further.
"I um… guess the thing that I haven't shared with you guys is…" his beige feather's tanned red when he thought of what he'd surrender, "W-well… just before I go to bed, I tire myself out by…"
Vaggie cocked her head. The bird's pause wasn't anything new, but she couldn't help but wonder if they were now drawn out by a dark secret.
"Jumping on it as high as I can, flapping my wings, trying to see if they'll work." his slow response accelerated into an admittance so quickly, it took Vaggie a second to realize the next pause had been caused by stupidity, "… so far I hadn't had any luck."
"No duh," Vaggie instinct blew out, "Their too under developed. You're basically a full grown man with hatchling wings glued to his back. You couldn't possibly take flight with those things"
"…"
The security guard heard the silence through a sea of loud stares, and saw all the confused eyebrows that questioned how she knew such a thing.
"… or at least… I wouldn't think you could." Vaggie's recovery was far from smooth, nor was her action to turn the spotlight away from her, "See."
With another quick stretch of her arm, Vaggie teetered Nester out of the nest. His arms rose alongside his wings in their quest to swim against gravity… but failed to resist the air enough to rise above the force.
And like a rock, he fell into the crowd. Unfortunately, with Charlie having just settled the pinkette down, his faith lay in his fellow workers and guests to catch him. And their move to do so was halted when they saw the wings flail out.
They backed away, just in time for Nester's back to strike the ground with a large smack. And if his feathered appendages couldn't take flight before, the snapped tune of hollowed bones ensured they definitely wouldn't be able to in the moments to come.
"…ow." Nester eventually moaned from the floor.
"Oh my God!" Charlie rushed over to lift him from his shattered wings, "Why didn't you guys catch him!"
"… Were we not testing out his flight capabilitiesss?" Pentious looked around as if that thought had been a collective agreement.
"… gonna be honest, I was kind of curious to see if he could too." Angel rubbed the back of his neck. Between his words and Husk silence, the snake's assumption was proven correct.
"That was not my-" Vaggie leaned over the edge to make her point actually clear, but stopped herself when she realized she'd have to lie to do so, "I thought you'd guys would prove that by catching him."
"Guess you misplaced your trust." Husk grumbled.
Vaggie would shoot the cat a deadpanned response, but seeing Nester twitch as his wings cracked back into place, she turned to him instead.
"You okay Nester?"
"I-I'm fine-" his body shivered out the lie, "E-except for the excruciating pain-"
"Pain!" Niffty all but jumped up into the stage hearing that, "It's a high enough fall to cause pain!"
Before Vaggie could even process the cyclop's presence in front of her, let alone thy redhead's words, the little demon already launched herself into the air.
"I trust you all not to catch me!" the maid squealed with glee.
Before Charlie could stand herself up to counteract Niffty's wishes, the trio that had failed Nester made sure they came through for the cyclop's… by adhering to her demand and taking another step back.
And at the base of their feet and tail, Niffty's eye squished into the ground as her face cracked against the tile. Before the belly flop could echo out in a silence the maid herself broke it.
"Sweet sweet pain!" Niffty shouted with raised arms, "I want to go again!"
And before anyone could stop her, the redhead peeled herself off the granite, back up to the wooden high dive, and on repeat stamped herself into the tile.
For longer than they should have, everybody's eyes followed Niffty's masochist journey. Before Charlie shakily made her way to the security guard.
"Um… love the activity Vaggie, I really really do." Charlie guided her smile through closed teeth, "But any chance we can move to the next exercise."
Vaggie felt her mouth reflect Charlie's on an inverted mirror.
"... I didn't really plan one past this."
"Well…" Angel pried his eyes from the human shaped printing press, to sing out a teasing tune that carried a far less hectic beat, "if you're willing to take suggestions-"
"I don't care what you say, we aren't doing any of your ideas." Vaggie growled, not wanting to ruin Charlie's day further through the actor's help.
Unfortunately, her girlfriend's ears didn't pick up that message over the loud organic pop produced by Niffty's eye striking the floor.
"But we are willing to hear them out."
XxxxxxX
Alastor was furious. A rare state for him to be in, and one of the few emotions he had to make an extra effort for his smile to cover up.
As he walked down the street though, he felt every demon that lit themselves on fire or threw themselves on their own blade, while entertaining to watch, was proof his frustration was leaking out at an unacceptable rate.
And it was all that Velvette's fault. Her and her dreadfully efficient use of honesty. Something that an intelligent person could use to harm their enemies with their own truth, but a prodigal genius could utilize even further to mask their own lies. And for better or, most certainly, worse, the youngest Vee had proven herself the latter.
It honestly, for a lack of a better term, surprised the bipedal deer that Vox was able to recruit such a capable demon like Velvette. Then again, Alastor himself was proof that, if nothing else, the electronic Overlord had a good eye for the talent he wished to recruit.
Perhaps instead of going off to play god all those years ago, Alastor should have remained in Hell to ensure his position and power over the demons here. If he had gotten to the doll first, he'd be able to use her skills in a far more productive way than the television.
Alas, his current goal was to reel in his anger. And a mind full of 'What if's' would only add fire to the inferno that raged within him.
No, right now he needed to focus on the present, and right now, that present involved an unwanted new player at the hotel that the Radio Demon had to dance his plans around. While also not revealing his choreography to Vee… less they find out about the unwanted instructor that controlled his tempo.
A shadow fell over the deer's lips…and it took him a moment to realize his own void tentacle had caused it. With the limb having dragged up the crushed corpse of a cockroach Sinner that now dangled over his head.
"… Well, that hasn't happened in a while." Alastor's chuckle nearly snapped his teeth off, as he made sure the tendrilled rope threw the demon away in the nearest trash upon his orders, not instincts.
"Absence may explain thy's peculiarity." an accent produced by the properness of time emerged from behind the Radio Demon, "How fare thee this day Alastor?"
The radio demon smile crunched into a grin he was far more happy to wear. And he turned towards the black and green spindle behind him.
Far more accustomed to the routine, he knew how to walk around the ancient Overlord.
"Zestial!" Alastor harmonized his static into joy, "It's been a year if it's been a day!"
"Thy suppose seven conjures your hiatus an eternity." the webbed arachnid smoothly strode himself to the radio's side.
"Is that how long it was? Guess I am that age were time truly flies past my grasp."
The multi eyed demon tipped his head to usher his chuckle down a tipped hat.
"Or perhaps thy a babe unable to understand tis passing effect."
Alastor's own laugh whistled past his cheek. And the hardiness of it nearly cracked his jaw in two.
"I really have been gone for too long if you think that could be the case." the Radio Demon turned away, and continued his pace.
Not for a second did he think the action was rude, knowing full well you couldn't walk away from somebody heading to the same place.
And within two seconds, the cool breeze at his side was swept away by the slender form of darkness. Outlined by the earthly green hue of a starlit delta. With each split in the river a shimmered reflection of fate. That flowed north into four oases. Each a paint stroke that framed the ancient demon's head. Where their rich knowledge of a time gone by deposited into his six reservoirs. Trapped beneath Zestial's dress hat, yet made useful by the fae tipped chimney at its side.
Normally, Alastor would only let such siren songs of knowledge and potential strut alongside him if he already knew all the smoke they could ever blow. However, as Zestial and him traversed side by side to the same glassed castle, he was contempt to let the older demon do so with the taller figure.
After all, seven years or not, the Radio Demon was confident the shadowy spider still remembered they were the same height in the measurements that counted. Out of respect for the fact that the two games they played differed so widely, they were more so distracted spectators in each other's stands than true opponents.
As the two Overlords walked past and through the front entrance of conflict made capitalism, Alastor felt nothing summarized Zestial and his lion and shark relationships better than the fact the former had to bend down to enter the glass elevator that dared not brush the deer's ears.
"I do hope the other Overlords have preserved themselves as well as you," Alastor began when the tip of his cane lit the lift's highest ambition, "would be a shame if the door opened on an unfamiliar crowd."
Zestial's lips hung a simmered smile, and radiated more warmth than words. A message as clear as the glass panel that waved the passing floors by.
Soon enough though they traversed to the sole level that could offer them a hello. And through the translucent eyelid, the deer smiled tightened at the familiar crowd seated around a bleached table.
Flanked on its sides were the forces of Hell that kept it churned beneath the crowd. Each Overlord ranged in appearance, from neon feathered behemoth's to thin whispered azure flames, yet all shared the same unseeable strength that stretched their reach far further than the cold walls of the boardroom.
Which is why, when the elevator's door pinged open, Alastor's smile tuned itself up. As all heads turned from the forked haired woman at the head of the table to him, and were momentarily snatched into silence.
Alastor said no words. Simply performed a light bow to allow Zestial to traverse into the meeting first. To which the voided arachnid did without so much as a nod of thanks, but a grin of curiosity that followed the elder Overlord as he made his way over to the purple skinned hoist.
When the two began making their pleasantries, Alastor took his first steps in. And closed his eyes beneath a soft hum to better appreciate all the ones locked on his steps. Without choice or hesitation, the Radio Demon tapped his cane before his seat, and flicked it out just enough that he could sit down in it without needing to pull himself in.
When perched atop the leather cushion, his shades stuttered open. His head turned away from the white haired woman's peripheral glare, and toward the socketed pits of an old friend.
"Rosie, it's been too long my dear!" The radio's enthusiasm was kept to a casual volume, "How are you and my favorite dining destination?"
Alastor's Hell long friend may have been dressed in a wined dress with more frills then sleeves and a sun hat wide enough to shade a town, but her conservative aesthetic ended where her face began.
Like many of the Sinners Rosie held sway over, she had the appearance of an upright corpse. And no amount of stitched fabric could cover up the pale hue of her dead cheeks, or the rotted sockets were the female Overlord's eyes used to be.
Yet, the black holes were always filled with life and joy in place of the two organs. And decayed body or not, Alastor appreciated the knifed tooth smile Rosie wore nearly as often as he did.
The woman clasped her hands together, before her shock turned itself into a smirk.
"I'd be doing a lot better if you had thought to stop by and grab brunch with me." Rosie playfully scolded the deer as if he was a nephew who had just returned from an expedition abroad, "Leave it to you to run into me at a work conference instead of a social."
"My apologies, we'll have to correct my oversight soon." Alastor dipped his head, before it finally turned to the silent one he had purposely neglected, "But I think I've delayed Carmilla's meeting long enough."
"Alastor." the twinned forked woman stated simply.
"I know, I came in unannounced and you must all be shocked to see me!" the deer waved his answer up with his hands.
"I suppose," the arms dealer's voice played itself a little too well, and Alastor's mind doubled the growth of his grin, "the news said you had retired."
Until it shattered in his paused hands when Carmilla's indifference became genuine.
"Has he now." the Radio static streamed out the gaps in his fangs. From the corner of his vision he saw Rosie's lips stitch her behind a smile that puffed her cheeks a silent laugh, "How unfortunate for all the viewers. Well, I surely don't need to tell somebody as smart as you that the 'T' before the 'V' doesn't stand for truth."
Alastor gently lowered his point into his lap upon his palms.
"And now that I, and Zestial are here, we can finally start this gathering of yours." much like why Carmilla had the arachnid here, Alastor brought him up as a formality. He made his true point clear, he was back, and the clock's hands were still wrapped in his strings, "It must be something truly important to call us all here."
"It is, which is why…" the white haired woman took a deep breath before she pinched the bridge of nose, "We must wait for our final participants."
Alastor's palms snaked their way into a strangle around one another. His posture went firm, as his neck strained ever so lightly to the left.
Another Overlord? His eyes bored into the silent Zestial. The ancient demon's small smile seemingly mocked the deer's larger one. As it turns out the radio has picked up the wrong signal from the elevator's silence.
That is why he had orchestrated his arrival late to begin with. To ensure the other Overlord knew when he interrupted the meeting, that it was because it could only start when he arrived.
Of course, Zestial had thrown a bump into that idea, but he had improved around that. And use the arachnid's status to enhance his own. For in a more literal sense, a meeting couldn't truly begin until the last person arrived.
But now, there was another Overlord on their way? Who has robbed him of his entrance. It was… it was of little matter. No doubt this upstart little lord hadn't even planned to utilize their tardiness like he had. It was just a symptom of their own idiocy.
Zestial himself probably held his smug expression because he knew Alastor was concerned over nothing but the 'bae' the webbed Sinner mentioned earlier. The people in this room still knew his true capabilities. Better yet, Rosie's banter ensured he still had an ally to his right even if the monotone remarks of the CEO signal there wasn't one to the left.
"… maybe the schedule I had sent didn't-" the blonde anchor to Carmilla's side sank when it realized its ship was already in port.
"They got the message." the weapons dealer rubbed her temples, and Alastor's top ears twitched at the use of the royal pronoun, "You'd think the people who put GPS into all our phones would be able to arrive on time-"
The ding of the elevator broke Carmilla's sentence at the same time the lightbulb above Alastor exploded. Until all the noise and light left in the room came from the television that entered.
"Well stitch her back together!" Vox spoke with his head turned to the Overlord as he backpedaled an existing conversation out of the elevator, "… Why?! Because when I said we were covering her shit today, that didn't mean you were given the go ahead to throw it atop your own!
The intangible response that came out the speaker didn't make the silence and stares shot towards the TV's outlets any less strung.
"It's either I yell at you now, or I have to be the one to stitch you back up when she finds out! So fucking save us both the pain, and fix your fucking mess!" The TV's finale bark chased his signal away.
The electronic demon took a deep breath. His back straightened, along with Alastor's broken digits, and the monster turned around.
"Sorry about that, good helps just so hard to-" the smile Vox's saved to his screen was deleted the moment it met the radio's, "What they fuck is he doing here?"
"Funny, I was just about to ask you the same thing." Alastor's smile spiked his own tooth through his gums.
"And I am asking you that." Camilla interrupted the wendigo before it could turn this meeting into live entertainment, "Wasn't Velvette supposed to represent you?"
"Unfortunately she has found herself wrapped up in another commitment." The TV eyes rolled, if only to break Alastor's orbit, "But believe me when I say,"
The TV swirled a chair from underneath the opposite head of the table. When he leaned down in it, his legs hammered onto the white surface.
"being sent the wrong weapon's not much of a problem if you get a nuke instead of an uzi."
Vox flared his hands to the back of his head. Carmilla brown furred, and Alastor tried to see if he could get Vox's to sink it further.
"Unless you're trying to be subtle." the deer's fingers clicked into place just in time for him to absently check them.
"Bite me you obsolete piece of shit." the TV cracked an eye open… Alastor's twitched, until he saw the electronic demon's peek had been done to ensure himself he was surrounded by the safety of the other Overlords, "the only reason Vel's not here is because of that hotel hag's idiotic scheduling."
"… Velvette's still there?"
Alastor's eyes were too locked on the television for him to see, or care, which of Carmilla's daughters spoke up. Not that it mattered when the others' response made their confusion a shared trait.
"I thought she got thrown out after her tantrum."
"You mean," Vox carelessly corrected, "she stayed even though our resident princess loses her shit in the presence of intense journalism."
"Vox's…" Alastor calmly stated before he snapped his spine to shoot the TV an owled glare, "How long has it been since I've ripped your head off?"
The screen briefly lost its signal. Luckily, an annoyed Carmilla was there to reboot it.
"And how long must I wait to start my meeting." her low voice gaze around the room. Most Overlords looked to the CEO indifferent, if not smiling. Alastor simply bowed his head, and much like Zestial, motioned her a path out of the traffic, "If you haven't all forgotten, the Extermination schedule has been moved up. And unlike the Vees program for new souls,"
She motioned towards Vox's with less disdain than Alastor thought the TV's vexing action would have produced.
"we can't manufacture enough bunkers to harbor our existing followers before the next purge. Surveys already show that the most recent attack has drained almost all of our populations by twenty five percent. With less than six months to prepare, we each risk having our communities cut in half by the time this is over."
Unlike himself, Rosie's smile did have its down side, and Alastor noticed Carmilla's triggered just that for his friend.
"If we wish to retain some semblance of order and our very power, we must start by identifying this problem-"
"Or skip right to the solution." Vox jumped his answer into the question before it could be finished.
Carmilla raised her hands off the table and crossed them beneath a raised eyebrow.
"Your safe house has been advertised to house thousands," her inflection rose, "but from what I understand, your 'Extermination Edens',"
Alastor's eyes nearly rolled into the back of his head at the name.
"will only house newcomers for this purge… Unless," Camilla pause revealed to Alastor why she allowed Vox's to be here in the first place, "you are willing to expand the raffle to existing Sinners."
Murmurs of agreements came from the behemoth and flame across the table. And Alastor's smile lost its teeth when he saw Rosie even looked to Vox's with a silent hope he'd say yes to the idea.
"Nope," luckily for the Radio Demon, the TV had a great habit of shooting himself in the foot before he had to imbed his into the screen, "It's great you guys care about your people and all that sentimental bullshit, but somebodies gotta look out for the newbies."
The channel turned to Alastor.
"After all, it would be real tragic if a whole wave of souls ended up chickens without heads after this cycle."
Carmilla's teeth cracked before Alastor's, but she had the grace to huff out her frustration as steam rather than shadows.
"That is very… admirable of your Vox." the arms dealer lied through her own teeth, and since everybody knew it, there was no reason to call her out, "And I am not opposed to you housing helpless souls through their first Extermination. But I assure you, there are profits to be gained in reserving spots for citizens who have the resources to make it worth your while."
"I'm sure there are, but I think those Sinners would be better left with the resources one of you could provide them."
Camilla and the others glares narrowed on him.
"Our safe havens aren't-"
"I never said the solution was the Extermination Eden." the TV raised himself from his lunged position to a seated one. His hands grabbed the edge of the table when his feet struck the floor, "What I have to offer all of you, is far more valuable."
"Hmph." Alastor huffed and once again found the back of his fingers more interesting than the TV, "You sell scams at five times the market rate, not secrets for free. Why should we believe anything you have to say?"
"Because my solution is hidden behind one of your secrets." Vox deemed the remark royal, as his eyes lingered on Alastor's no longer than any of the other Overlords it passed, "And I can't use it, till somebody here reveals how it was accomplished."
Alastor's mouth slowly closed. Normally his tongue thought up quips smarter than the electronic demon. But this was the first time Vox had him grow silent.
With a heft up towards his feet, the TV stood his ground for the first time Alastor could ever recall. His mechanical claws reached behind him.
"My people found this at the border where our territories converge." Vox's hand hefted a black and white blur into the table. When it struck, gold ichor squeezed from the stump of the cleaved head of a masked reaper, "I don't care which one of you did it, but somebody here killed an angel…"
Alastor's eyes exploded, which was the most tamed reaction in the room. However, as shocking as the fact a divine being could die was, the strawberry suited man was left speechless realizing his long held assumption of Vox had been murdered as well.
"And they're going to tell the rest of us how they did it."
The TV wasn't the idiot he had been seven years ago. And that fact now shined in the faces of all the Overlords. Who stared at first in awe at the idea the immortal warriors above could die… then with outright hostility at whoever was hiding this knowledge from them.
Each glare revolved around the room, and even his cannibalistic companion didn't spare him from her murderous suspicion. The only one saved from the wrath of being a suspect was the TV who had announced the crime.
The TV that had already had his solution, and didn't need the one he plopped down. Except as bait to draw his rivals' desperation for protection towards one another rather than himself.
Alastor craned his head around, and when Vox's smile met his, he knew that he had to get the other Overlords to see reason. To see the obvious trap. So long as they didn't rush into their assumption of the other, the radio could broadcast the true culprit-
"All of you leave." Camilla's whispered words sucked in all the room's attention… and the brief opportunity Alastor had to flip the script was gone in an instant, "This meeting is over."
The only thing the Radio Demon had left was a single thought.
'Fuck.'
XxxxxxX
"This is how you learned to trust people!"
Charlie's scream dragged Nester's mind from the fox hole Angel's activity had caused it to bunker in.
Only, when he finally came too, he now realized he'd need to expand his mortar crater into an actual bunker if he was going to survive Vaggie's improvised lesson.
The avian, regretfully, recalled his brian shorting out when an employee of Angel's favorite hang out spot had cracked a wave towards him along with a whip. But the whole ordeal must have truly knocked his senses to the moon and back.
How else could he have ignored being dragged up to the top of a skyscraper with the others. While a literal war zone took place down on the streets below.
Nester wished such a statement could be an exaggeration, but just as his mind had followed Charlie's words to reality, his eyes followed her thrown hands to the carnage taking place below.
Cacti demons, riddled with more bullet holes than spikes, laughed methodically as their blown off body parts created improvised shrapnel grenades. Their white thorns tearing the curse words right out of a horde of shark demons throats. Only for those razed fish to charge their bobbled heads onward.
Those who weren't exploded into chummed filled craters, somehow found a way to whip their jaws forward enough to die choking on the ripped out trunks of their victims.
Of course, the true casualty of the eighties apocalypse movie was the street. Unlike the spikes that propped themselves back up in pots made from self repairing fish scales, the asphalt was chiseled further and further downward into a canyon of jagged bedrock.
Honestly, as Nester looked over the edge and nearly swallowed his shocked eyes with a gulp, he wondered how the concrete complex they were on remained standing when the alley below had collapsed through the center of the Earth.
"I demand to have my phone back." Velvette command came out an uncharacteristic shallow breath.
Nester turned his gaze towards his fellow 'participants', and was shocked to find they all shared a similar expression of silent dread. At least… all those who were tall enough to peek a preview over the railing.
"You seriously want to stream that shit show?" Angel's pinprick pupils whispered, his sarcasm weakened by his inability to spare any eyes for Velvette.
"No, I want it to summon 911." the pinkette retort was interrupted by the explosion below, but its shockwave managed to do the impossible and have a bird, cat, and a spider actually agree with the doll.
Hell, Nester just might take out his own cell too-
"Wait, Hell has 911?-"
"There is nothing stronger than the trust between comrades in arms!" Vaggie's marched words snapped Nester's question into a straight spine, "Listen up buttercups, because today you boys become men!"
The group spun their attention from the furnace below just in time to see the white haired drill sergeant's sinister smile to dash them with oil. A terrible realization washed over the group when they understood they'd been seasoned.
And when Vaggie marched toward the first Sinner in line, it was clear to everybody in the row what the chef wanted to cook.
"There is no way in Hell," Velvette was the first person the white haired woman approached, and when the Vee's back petal retreat was blocked by the railing she feared, her threat quickly adopted a tone of desperation, "you actually expect me to jump into that bloodbath."
"Of course not," Vaggie strode unimpeded through the pinkette's challenge, and did not stop until their level eyes bore into each other mere lashes apart, "I expect you to fall into it."
The security guard, if she could even be called that right now, grabbed the doll's shoulder. Shock washed over the pinkette's face, and when it did Nester was hit with a wave of deja vu. Which quickly turned itself into a repeated memory when Vaggie shoved the influencer over the edge. But unlike this morning, the Sinner didn't silently drift into the arms of Charlie. Instead, her scream free dived into a loud crash when she entered the carnage.
Everyone froze in place, whether in fear or shock it was hard to tell. But when Vaggie turned her head towards the next victim, a stronger and stronger argument was being made for the former emotion.
"You!" she effortlessly picked up the serpent who doubled her size, "Are going to survive together!"
"No wait!" Sir Pentious flailed his arms wildly at the air above Vaggie's head, "I can't fight without my minions-"
"But we're right here boss!"
The pupil atop the inventor's top hat dilated when two eggs walked around its rim.
"Don't tell her that- Ahhhh!" the henchmen a top Pentious's head where scatter shot with their boss over the edge.
"And you!"
Angel's skull snapped up towards Vaggie the same time Pentious' did against the street. The panic on the actor's face as he tried to reverse away from the emotionless machine of war was only outdone by the horror in Nester's eyes.
As the avian realized the eight limbed man was the one thing between him and the security guard.
"D-don't you even-"
And that was a fact not bound to last for long. For when Angel's lowered arms extended out to push more space between him and Vaggie, the ladder simply clutched the furred demon hands and ragged him atop her shoulder ready to throw.
"Are going to make this hotel work!" Vaggie decreed.
Nester quickly took a look back to see his options for escape. The only Sinners left in the line was the sadistically smiling Niffty and-
The bird blinked. He may have been out of it on the way here, but did Husk somehow manage to-
A door shut from across the roof. And through the glass panel in its center, Nester saw the blur of black and white fur all but jump down the staircase.
In retrospect, that's probably where he should have ran the moment Vaggie pushed Velvette off the roof. Now, the only way he could have time to make a dash for Husk's escape route was if he swapped positions with Niffty.
He looked down at the cyclops, who all but sharpened her fangs against one another in anticipation for the violence. Sure she was energetic, but she was also basically just a kid. Was he really such a coward he'd hide behind-
"You crazy bitch!" Angel's screech dopplered off the building.
And without any further morale delays, Nester's leg took one giants step over the cyclops, in hopes he could make a small leap for the fire escape-
"You have to be willingly to leap," an iron clasp snatched the brunette by the wings, "if you want to fly!"
Flipped in Vaggie's outstretched arm, Nester found himself held like a paper airplane. And under the turbines of the soldier's muscles, he found himself launched off the building.
"…" like a cartoon character of old, the flightless bird was level with the top of the skyscraper just long enough to realize he stood over air rather than its concrete roof, "OH MY GOD!"
Gravity dragged Nester down and left nothing more than three molted feathers in his place. His organs tingled with weightlessness, and the words in his throat cascaded out a screech of panic.
Why hadn't he spent his time to flee thinking! It's not like Vaggie's action had stopped for his moral dilemma. If he had just acted like Husk and fled down the stairs-
"Wait a second… he can fly!" Nester screech turned into a yell.
Mad, less so that Husk would have been fined whether he ran down the building or was launched off it, at the fact his own wings didn't give him that option.
Heck, he probably created more lift through his flapping arms than his folded wings did uselessly gliding downward towards the surface-
'... gliding?' Nester mind looked towards his outstretched wings. He felt the air wisped faster above them then below, and his pull to the ground angled. He honestly couldn't believe it…but the fact he didn't hit the ground halfway through his first thought probably should have been his first clue something was up. The bird just didn't think it was him.
"Holy shit!" The edges of the avian's lips took their own flight, "I'm gliding!"
Nester yelp took on its final form as a triumphant decree. A rare emotion for him to experience. But even if he wasn't actually flying, the excitement of drifting towards the ground, rather than having gone splat against it, filled the young man with the positive adrenaline he needed.
Past the base of the building, Nester fell with style towards the ground. And for the first time since he arrived in Hell, he was presented with a Bird's Eye view of it.
Of the bartender who had escaped on foot, the street he had avoided crashing into, and the gang of demons curb stomping Sir Pentious he glided towards-
The bird's joy was struck down by a bout of heavy turbulence. A group of sharks beating a snake to death with its dismembered arm was a tragic sight. And the fact it quickly filled more and more of his vision rapidly transformed it to a horrific sight.
"Turn turn turn turn!" Nester whispered his panic signal, but the wings didn't have voice command. And the bird found himself at a loss on how to utilize the muscles he had spent the last week telling to shut up, "Bank left… or right. Just bank!"
Nester tried to treat flying like reverse skiing. Which proved to be a horrible mistake. Upon lowering one wing to turn himself, the other followed. The muscles clenched in panic when gravity turned his hang glide into a missile strike.
"Crap! Crap!" Nester wordless puffs of air quickly turned to shouts as the ground, and its blood thirsty inhabitants, approached, "CRAP!"
The bird was now close enough to see the swirl on Sir Pentiois top hat. And with twitching heads, the snake's confused assailants were definitely close enough to hear his distress call.
"CRAP!" the bird screamed ten feet from the ground. A scream that soon turned into a screech when the demon, that held the scaled club, eyes finally found the ones in the sky, "CRAP-"
The shark smirked, and adorned the stance of a baseball player. And the second his toothed smile cracked, so did Nester's cheek bone. As the fish demon slapped Pentious' hand across the avian's face a grand slam.
The force was immeasurable, and the pain of the assault masked the one that struck Nester as he cratered into the ground.
Prone, the bird felt like he had just flown through one hundred floors of a glass skyscraper. A lot of bones were broken, but when one of the arms cranked themselves back into place, Nester pushed his face out of the cement he scarred, and onto his knees.
The fact his dazed vision saw stars in Hell wasn't a good sign… and the shark that swam through them into focus was a worse one.
"Foul ball" the fish whistled through the two hooks piercing his nose, "Bummer."
The smile the demon had on didn't make him seem all that choked up about it. Nester, whose fear currently clogged his throat when the Shark's feet stopped a bat's length away from his face, could not say the same.
"Guess I'll have to take another swing at it." the carnivore sneered to the shaft of his twirled club.
Nester's world slowed down as the fish twisted its body and loaded Pentious' arm. And with the only ally he could see an unconscious snake that had tried to kill him last week, the bird gulped. Having just enough sentience to realize he was only gonna get out of this when the shark grew bored of its feeding frenzy.
"Batter up mother-" the demon gripped the bat until the bone cracked. But was stopped when he loosened it when the pavement behind them echoed with the noise. The shark eyes looked where Nester's couldn't, and widened larger than the bird's at what they found, "Fucker!"
Before the avian could question his assailant's confusion, it ran into the shark. Quite literally, as a pink and black blur went feet first into a drop kick that indented the fish chest so much, his stomach ran out his mouth.
Internal organs left behind, the rest of the aquatic gangster's body crashed backward a bowling ball towards his buddies. The result, a strike so powerful the pins exploded off what was left of Sir Pentious.
Speaking of which, Nester's shock flipped to the next frame when the snake's dismembered arm crashed to his side. And he followed its path downward up to the sight of his pink and black hued savior.
"… Velvette?" the bird questioned.
And given her disheveled hair, tattered cloth, and haggard breath that all but caught her fabric body on fire… Nester didn't feel stupid for asking the obvious. After all, he hadn't expected the Vee to come and save him.
But here she was, having devolved the limbs off a land shark with a light speed drop kick. The hatred in her eyes focused on the fish's friends that could still stand, ready to send their entire species into extinction.
And who knows how many other demons and Sinners she had too-
Nester looked behind him, then back to the berserk rag doll, then again to the sea of corpses she had created. Not a river of bloodied bodies that ran to him, but a literal ocean that filled the entire alley with her rage.
Lips puckered in a pale face, Nester shuffled backwards away from the pinkette on his knees.
Velvette had not come to save him, anymore than a car saves an acorn by running over a squirrel.
The Vee was pissed, blood thirsty, and, based on her posture, in a silent rage. One that had barreled into the improv baseball demon simply because he was the closest person she could take it out on.
Nester came to this conclusion just as the rattled school of fish rose to their feet, looked down the lane, and realized how foolish they were to set themselves up.
"YOU FUCKING BITCHES!" Velvette roared and launched herself towards them.
Nester almost fell into the vacuum of space she had left behind. His eyes grew wide at the destruction she unleashed upon the Sinner's.
If the bird had been left speechless at the sight of Sir Pentious's beat down… then the body parts being ripped to shreds beneath Velvette's fury might leave him mute the rest of his afterlife.
The sole body that was flung away even remotely intact was the dazed inventor. Who the Vee had more so thrown back next to Nester to get out of her way rather than to get him to safety.
"Uh… what happened-" the dazed snake rubbed the confusion from his head, only to have it be killed when his eyes too ventured to the blood path before him and the bird, "I don't think finsss are sssupposed to bend that way..."
"Who knew my idea was gonna be the PG choice." a hooked shadow stumbled his way above the two prone Sinners.
Nester tore his eyes away from Velvette's killing streak just in time to see all eight of Angel's eyes widen at its sight. For what felt like an eternity the trio simply watched the carnage unable to look away.
Eventually, Angel grew exhausted of it enough, he began to focus on the remnants of the horror left around them.
"You uh," the spider bent down and picked up sir Pentious arm, "Want a hand with this?"
The snake blinked at the hand, then brought up his limbless socket, then back towards its missing piece.
"Yesss!" The snaked slur snatched his appendage back… and jammed it onto his elbow like a kid attempting to shove a cube down a circle hole, "Once I get this blasted thing reattached, I can formulate our escape."
Angel hunched further down till he was nearly eye level with the kneeling Nester. A deep breath inflated the spider back to full height, his tiredness never left.
"Tell you what," Angel grasped Pentious with four arms, and with a huff, lifted the snake over his shoulder, "Why don't you finalize that plan of yours on our way back to the bitch. Come on feather's."
The furred demon motioned his bent head at the bird. Whose own looked at it then back to the reaper harvesting the alley way.
"S-should we… help her?" Nester questioned, "Like, is it okay to leave her without backup-"
"Wait for me! Wait for me! Wait for me!" an adrenaline doped truck of manifested excitement bulldozed over the bird.
As the morales Nester had so quickly forsook early, ran across his spine a jack hammered that split his face against the pavement.
Seeing nothing but pain, the beige feather Sinner heard the blood hurtled stabs of Niffty's arrival into the fray. Which was all he needed to know to realize he shouldn't ask questions his subconscious had answered.
"… yeah," Angel groaned, using his lower arms to wrap around the avian's foot, and Nester felt his body be dragged away from the battlefield, "She doesn't need our help."
Any doubt in Angel's statement was quickly dashed by Sir Pentious rapid fired play by play of the action. And with each shocked gasp of the mechanical villain, Nester wondered if they had ever actually left the club the actor had brought them too.
XxxxxxX
Laughter, chuckles, and a cautious air of glee was not the emotions Charlie expected the lobby below her to be filled with this evening. Yet lo and behold, the Hazbin's guest proved her assumption wrong.
"I still can't believe that guy grounded you out with Pentious' arm." Angel snickered and patted a red face Nester on the back. The furred demons' next words turned the birds stumbled into a smile, "Only to get steamrolled by the scoring run."
"Yesss." Sir Pentious reserved smiled dipped its way into the merriment, "My limb wasss the catalyst for… quite a lot of violence today."
All three of the snake's pupils gulped themselves into points when they looked at the top scoring Pinkette. Despite the hours Velvette had spent in her room cleansing herself from the war, the Vee's wired smirk still shined with the cut off screams of her victims.
"Well at least you can take a hit as well as she can dish it out." Husk lightly punched the serpent back into the friendly exchange, "Just like the kid's wings, you almost proved yourselves today."
"Really!" Sir Pentious irises exploded from microscopic to macro beneath the magnifying glass of his watered eye, "I suppose we were quite heroic in the rescue of our downed Aviator!"
"Last time I checked, you were the one that literally armed his assailant." Angel butted his elbow into the inventor.
"M-maybe," Nester twitched his words along with the quill atop his ear, "b-but he distracted all the guy's friends from attacking me."
"That's true! I was the far more attractive prize to beat up!" the renaissance Sinner straightened his back proudly, "Which allowed the perfect opportunity for our cavalry to ssswoop in unnoticed!"
All the residents' faces dropped slightly at the decree, but eventually decided to raise their head at the uplifted emotion it was carried with.
"Guess you did provide an easy path for me to nail that shark arshole." Velvette skipped her snicker on a shaking head.
Nester's hand ruffled his neck feathers at the same speed.
"T-thanks… for getting that guy off me by the way."
Velvette's mouth opened, as if to correct him on that matter. But when she turned to him her gaze must have passed over the atmosphere of the room, for her lips retreated into a nonchalant smirk.
"I didn't have much of a choice, we can't exactly get back into the hotel without the Doorman."
The bird cocked his head confused for a moment, before the silence in the room spread itself a smile of realization. And before Charlie knew it, she was infected with the face's joy when it rose to the second level upon the lobby's laugh.
"I'll be damned,"
Charlie didn't notice Vaggie's arrival until her girlfriend's whisper walked to her side.
"again."
She turned and saw the white haired woman shock morph itself into a small grin.
"Isn't it great." Charlie slid her hand across the railing till it laid atop Vaggie's, "They're all actually getting along. Your program worked perfectly!"
The owner squeezed her grip gently, before her eyes slowly drifted downwards.
"I'm actually… kind of jealous. The one lesson you planned on your own had more of an effect than any of mine." the heiress shook her head, knowing it was a selfish thought, "But I'm not going to argue with the results."
She looked down to see Angel's fingers performing a puppet show of Husk's cowardice while the others, and even the bartender himself, chuckled along.
"And here I was just lamenting how I let you down." Vaggie kept her shock a subdued gasped, "But you know… my lesson plan failed, the trust fall was a complete bust."
Charlie appreciated the support, but had to raise an eyebrow at that. Vaggie coughed into her free hand to clear a path in her throat for clarification to exit.
"The trust fall on the stage that is, and I thought my second swing was a complete disaster too. Hell, I left to wallow in self pity before I could see the result… You're the one who stuck it out to the end." Vaggie purple cheeks faded enough blue for a soft pink to emerge, "You've always believed in me better than myself, so don't be jealous okay. Because we're a team, and I wouldn't be able to accomplish anything without you."
Charlie's smile fell, if only because the lips quivered when she turned to her girlfriend. Eyes watered with a whole ocean of wholesome as she looked into Vaggie's one eye sea.
"You're the best!" the heiress swept the bow tipped woman into an embrace, "And the day you made was the best!"
She unwrapped one arm from her girlfriend, to sweep it out towards the crowd.
"We're proof of how amazing trust is for people," she squirmed the arm around Vaggie's shoulder until their cheeks squished together, "and I think everybody down below is all the happier because you were able to show them that!"
Charlie felt Vaggie eye patch pulsate and heartbeat reverberate deeply at that reveal. Not that she could blame her girlfriend, the sight of all those happy smiles fluttered hers as well.
"I-it is called the Happy Hotel for a reason." Vaggie stuttered.
But just before Charlie's smile could grow further, the apex form of a smirk slammed their conversation to a close. Or more accurately, Alastor's aura knocked the door wide open upon his arrival.
And the normally wisecrack equipped man stunned the lobby into silence when he walked through it speechless. All his greetings to the others consisted of nothing except for their shuffled movements out of his way. Their panicked faces reflected in a toothed grin overshadowed by the loud tap of his cane as he wordlessly strolled up the stairs.
"Was…" Vaggie's monotone hush followed the swirl of Charlie's head when the deer's crescendo upwards past them and into the shadows he came from, "it was called the Happy Hotel."
XxxxxxX
Thanks to all who have read through the twelfth chapter of Drifters. And get ready for the upcoming Cold War between the Overlords Vox has unleashed!
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.