Authors Note:
Hello one and all to another remarkably, albeit not for this shorter update, still weekly chapter drop for Drifters, a Hazbin Hotel Fanfic! As of now, I am still looking for a beta reader, so if anybody is interested shoot me a PM (more information on the role can be read about in the previous chapters authors notes, or you can simply reach out to me directly if you have any questions.)
With that out of the way, onto the review.
Gamerofaction44D: It has been fun seeing how the addition of new guests causes a butterfly effect to the story as a whole. More so than being the source of direct changes, it's been interesting for me to notice how the catalyst of Nester's presence offers more changes because other established characters are put in positions where they have to interact with people they normally wouldn't have in the show… as we may just see happen soon ;)
Now without further adieu, besides my traditional apology revolving around any grammatical stakes that may pop up along the way (along with an additional apology to any Welsh, Scottish, and English readers for… reasons), I welcome you back too….
Drifters
A Hazbin Hotel Fanfic
Chapter 8:
The British are Coming
When Charlie knocked on the wooden door, a jackhammer responded in ear shattering morse. A coded message, of not so secret origins, that vibrated its destructive potential through the hotel's structure.
"S-Sir Pentious I am just…" Charlie sucked in air past a clenched smile, "loving the fact you have made yourself at home here so quickly! But… there's been some complaints about the-"
As if on cue, a sonic bomb of bells and whistles hissed its way into the hallway from the serpent's room. Whatever sound didn't puff the door out like an overinflated bounce house, escaped as smoke and heat from the keyhole and cracks.
"… noise." Charlie's optimism quickly ran itself dry.
"S-sorry. I didn't want to be a bad neighbor." Nester said from behind the owner, "but it literally sounds like he's working on the Manhattan project in there."
"I hear what you mean-" Charlie deadpanned, and was cut off by the fact she wasn't the only one.
"Try having to feel it!" Angel's shrill voice drilled up from below. At least three sets of the spider's hands banged on his ceiling to morph the floor Charlie stood on into a drum, "Either you shut him up now, or I will do it permanently!"
"For once," Vaggie sighed next to Nester, "I think we'll all just benefit if we let Angel solve the problem."
"Come on Vaggie, things haven't gotten that far out of control."
"Doll! The introverted chicken's speaking up, and my number one future murder suspect is agreeing with me!" the furred demon all but had his mouth to the floorboard at this point, "Pretty sure that means shits been spinning on the fan for at least a day!"
Angel's input didn't make it any easier for Charlie to think over the chaos. And her own knuckles that pounded the door hardly helped create a quiet environment.
"Sir Pentious, please let us in. We aren't trying to hurt you."
The orchestras of saws and explosions crescendoed upward, before they ceased all together.
"What do you take me for," the snake hissed behind the wooden bunker, "sssome sssort of sssimplton?!"
"Yes." Vaggie's monotone voice replied.
"She didn't mean that." Charlie tried to lean her reassurance through the peephole… a giant red eye sent her falling backwards.
"Yesss she does!" Pentious slurred, "Look at you all, I've never ssseen a more ravenous group of rapscallionsss!"
The slit keyhole narrowed its pupil onto the nervously shifting Nester.
"I don't even want to image the thoughtsss going on in that sssadist head."
"… Charlie," after looking at the confused avian, Vaggie shot a deadpan expression at the door while helping her girlfriend up, "are you sure we need to keep him here? We're trying to run a redemption facility, not a mental institution."
"Then why are you here psycho bitch-" Angel's words were cut off by Vaggie's foot's attempt to merge the two floors. While her renovation effort ultimately failed, the actor did shut up when her kick knocked him back to her side of the discourse.
"What I'm trying to say is, Sir Pentious is a threat to the other guests."
"Me?! When have I ever caused harm to you?"
"Y-you blew a hole in our lobby two days ago." Nester piqued up.
"Which didn't cause any causality!" the serpent retorted, "… despite my best efforts."
"See!" Vaggie threw her hands towards the crimson eye.
"I see…" Charlie tried to reason with her girlfriend and her own ideals, "your concern. But what better way is there to show our guest anyone can be redeemed than by bringing in somebody like Sir Pentious."
"Anything!" Angel fist quaked the floor, albeit from a location further away from Vaggie, "Literally anything else would be a better idea!"
"That's certainly one opinion." the heiress' chuckle slowed along with her head's scan of the room. Not even her girlfriend or the nicest resident had the courage to meet her gaze and lie in reassurance, "Okay, well, it's not everybody's opinion."
She tried to stow herself, and looked to Sir Pentious.
"No, I agree with them," the snake squeezed the stoicism from Charlie's souls "kidnapping me was quite ssstupid."
"But so entertaining!"
A static voice sent a spike chilling cold front through the third floor. Charlie saw a shadow fall over her figure, and Sir Pentious cowered in fear seeing what looked over her.
In an instant, the fabric trumpets of fortification rose up again before Charlie. And in the moment that followed the Radio's cane shooed her aside, and caused the construction to cease as quickly as it came with two taps of his microphone.
"Almost as entertaining as the broadcast I was performing in my studio. Unfortunately, my vocal gift is getting drowned out by an annoying fly's buzz." Alastar smiled ax teeth at the wooden door, "You wouldn't happen to know anything about that would you, my reptilian rascal~"
"… Nope, no gnats here." Pentious strained voice echoed in its retreat to silence, "Perhaps you should check the spider's web-"
"Don't send that freak my way!" Angel roared.
The Radio Demon's eye twitched. Charlie found herself dragged back behind Vaggie as a sinister aura created more potential for destruction than gravity.
"He's been building a bunker all day Pinstripe!"
The heiress gulped in sync with Alastor's accelerating eyebrow.
"Every time Charlie tries to drag him out, he fucking doubles down in his hole!"
"I won't let her lower my guard! The moment I come out, you'll all attack-"
"Pentious," Alastor stated calmly, "no amount of eggshells and trinkets can keep me from whittling this door down and skinning you alive. The only way to avoid such a fate, is for you to listen to Miss Morningstar. Do I make myself clear?"
The silence that followed was deafening. And when the world went back into motion, the lingering effect of the Radio Demon presence made the clanks of Pentious mad dash to fumble open his locks, nothing more than white noise.
"Much better." Alastor's crisp words matched his staff's cartoonish twirl, "I must say, the world sounds far better in static-"
DING DING DING!
The firing of three artillery bells shivered across the Radio Demons suit and skin. Vaggie instinctively repositioned herself in front of girlfriend… and Charlie saw the beige flash of Nester seeking protection at the back of their three man line.
"Nes- Ge- uckin- door-" a low growl traversed intangibly up the hotel.
Charlie cocked her head perplexed at the syllables she had to decipher. Luckily for her, the floor below had far more pieces to work with.
"You lazy piece of shit! Go get it yourself!" they all heard the actor screech with far more clarity.
"H-Hey Angel," Charlie tried to raise her voice. It came out a stutter due her own personal reluctance to turn up the volume, "what's going on?"
"Kitty's too scared to open the door!"
"It's- n- in- my fuc- job- descrip-" Husk anger got his point farther along, although it contained nowhere near enough fuel to make sense.
"You bipedal pussy!" Angel screamed his sigh before directing it upward, "He's waiting for Nester to grab it!"
"O-oh Right!" Nester attempt to turn up his inflection struggled just as much as Charlie's, "Sorry, I-I'll be down in a minute-"
DING DING DING DING DING DING DING DING
"Ten seconds." Alastor's toothless smile commanded, "One way or another, you'll be down, answering the door, in ten seconds."
Nester's face contorted as if a lemon had been jammed down his throat. Charlie opened her mouth to intervene, but….
"Nine." Alaster brow line furrowed to the tune of another rapid fire volley from the doorbell, "Eight-"
A trail of feathers blazed themselves ash. Alastor may have kept counting down, but Charlie doubted she would be able to hear it over Nester's crash down the stairwell. From the impacts that echoed up, the frightened avian must have been jumping down entire floors to get to the lobby… or more accurately escape the Radio Demon's wrath.
"Don't you think that's a little harsh Al?" Charlie forced a cough, "He's still new, and it's not like he's ringing the door."
"But it is his job to greet all the new people who come to it. If you are to run this business, you must expect your employees best as their bare minimum." the pinstriped man hummed maliciously.
"That doesn't sound like a healthy employee boss dynamic-" Charlie 's mind stopped as it clicked into gear. A smile revved itself up, "Oh my God… you're right!"
"I often am~" the radio teeth flashed, only to bleed the bottom gums when the bells intensified.
"He is?" Vaggie questioned with concern.
The heiress tried to blow it away with her head nods.
"Of course he is! That could be a new guest at the door!"
Charlie latched her hand onto Vaggie's. And dragged her down the hall and past Alastor and his yanked open eyelid.
If Nester had leapt down the staircase, then Charlie kited her girlfriend down a free fall. She quickly cratered atop the regal staircase, as if she teleported there instantaneously after the realization.
So little time had passed, that the hotel owner had outpaced the oxygen deprivation caused by her girlfriend's arm hanging around her neck for dear life.
Nester himself had just reached the front entrance. His hand fumbled to unlock the door with all the grace it had frantically buttoned up his misaligned uniform.
Charlie opened her mouth the moment Nester went for the handle. Her voice pumped with childlike energy.
"Welcome to the-"
The moment the deadlock lifted, the door slammed itself open.
Its wooden frame swung into the avian a table sized right hook. A loud crack sent Nester barreling through the lounge sofa and coffee table. The down man was the meteor in a wooden chalked crater, and Charlie could practically see the stars circling the brunette's head.
"Hazbin Hotel…" the heiress' greeting wheezed itself out as if it had died from old age.
Her eyes followed Vaggie's pupil's slow drift from their knocked out Doorman to the door.
A female demon stepped through. Her height and build was similar to Vaggie, along with her roughly human-like appearance. Albeit… the stranger only seemed to look like a mortal person, the same way a toy doll would.
Although Charlie had heard dark skin was a common color amongst living mortals, this woman's void hued skinned looked more like dyed cloth than flesh. Outside her large eyes that moved around organically, the rest of her face was cushioned even at its sharp points. As if a layer of added fluff was added to give off the topographical outline of lips and a nose.
Her pink and white hair was tied together in a high ponytail, and matched with her black and neon violet outfit.
Charlie would say the color scheme was gothic, but the long skirt and short sleeve shirt and jacket the hue seeped into was far too confident and fashion forward to be considered emo… not that she was an expert on that type of lifestyle or anything.
"Only thing more pitiful than the name is the service." the woman's accent followed her through the door. She stared down at her phone, and before Charlie could respond, the doll kept talking. Making it clear she was far more interested in the conversation with it then anyone else, "I practically spent a whole lifetime waiting at the entrance."
Her heels and words clicked off faster than the doorbell she indented. When she marched past the bar, its dumbfounded tender grumbled out the first attempts at communication.
"… it was less than a minute." Husk raised the point along with an eyebrow at the newcomer.
"I don't have any seconds to waste kit-kat." the woman flipped up her right palm to silence the gambler, "Time is money, and money is everything. Speaking of which, why are my bags still outside?"
The pinkette turned her phone sideways. Nester's staggered attempt to pick himself was filled with groans, snapped joints, and the terrible promise of internet fame.
"Your clothes belong in the dirt, but mine don't." she snapped her finger to grab the Doorman's attention.
"… O-oh… um… r-right away." the bird limped past his own injuries… probably wondering if the sight before him will disappear when his concussion does.
He frowned when the luggage only vanished outside when he dragged them in.
"Are your bones hollow?" the woman rolled her eyes as Nester slugged along, "Pick up the fucking pace! For God sakes, do I have to blow a hole in the wall to get you people moving?!"
"Between you and Pentious, I'm getting the feeling that's just how the British are taught to bitch." Husk grumbled.
Charlie watched the phone drop from the woman's face for the first time. Before the owner could even process enough information to intervene, the pinkette murderous eyes caused the cat hair to stand on end.
"I'm English, you feline fuck!"
"… there's a difference?" Husk backed into the wall, and his low snark came out a panicked defense.
"The difference is I believe in vowels, not plaid!" she stared down the bartender.
"What the hell does that mean?" he gulped.
"T-that she's too rude to be Welsh?" Nester whispered the answer as a question, but was unable to hide it between his groaned strain… and instantly froze when a carnivorous growl ran him down to pry out the correct response.
"What was that?"
"U-um…you're too nice to be Scottish?" the bird wings flared out with his hands in surrender.
"That's what I fucking thought." the woman quickly went back to typing on her phone. If the bewildered employees in the lobby thought that meant she was taking a break from ordering them around, they were surely mistaken, "Who's the bitch I have to talk to for a room?"
Charlie stared down in astonishment. The mysterious woman entrance had caught her so off guard, she hadn't even had the chance to breathe-
The heiress pupils darted down to the accidental choke hold Vaggie had her in. The lack of blood flow definitely explained her inaction… and her tunneled vision.
Charlie's hand tapped her girlfriend's arm as if she was flapping a hummingbird's wings.
"Huh?" the patched girl snapped out of her own gaze, before her red 'X' pulsated out her skull, "Oh shit! Sorry! But Charlie you've got to wait, that's-"
The grip melted away with Vaggie's warning. A wave of oxygen and focus flowed into Charlie, and she released it all in one joy filled go.
"That bitch would be me!" Charlie tapped down the stairs, "Welcome to the Hazbin Hotel! I'm Charlie Morningstar, proud owner and redemption specialist-"
"Yeah, yeah, I know. Your mission statement went viral alongside your fight with Killjoy." it was hard to tell if the woman was waving Charlie off, or just danced her fingers across her device to post something, "Just give me my room key before I catch your staff's stupidity."
"…" Charlie quite literally didn't know how to respond to such a flat out statement.
She towered over this woman, yet every word the pinkette said crashed upon her head like a boot crushing an ant.
"U-um… let me just… can I-" by the time the heiress' could start fumbling over a reply, her words were dragged away by a hooked arm.
"Charlie, do you know who that is?!" Vaggie hissed, standing protectively in front of her.
"… should I?"
The pinkette paused her taps. She lowered the phone just enough to shoot Charlie disgusted glare, that sent the heiress fingers pinching at her suits collar.
"It's Velvette!" Vaggie hissed.
Luckily, her girlfriend was pressed so close, the security guard didn't have the room to pull out her spear.
"…um." Charlie swallowed confused. The newly named woman hit her with another Medusa-like gaze.
"You know, Hell's most popular influencer."
Charlie gave a preemptive gulp before she shook her head back and forth.
"She's one of the Vee's-"
"Who will save me!" a crying rainstorm thundered from atop the staircase. As a green bolt of lightning flashes down the ramp and barreled right into the doll.
"What the- is this fucking slime?! Gross! Gross! Gross!" Velvette found herself wrapped in the sniveling embrace of Sir Pentious. Paradoxically stuck with the need to push him off, but repulsed at the idea of having to touch more of his slippery scales to do so.
"I knew you'd come for me!" the snake rasped even as a palm hammered away at his cheek.
"I'm not here for you!" Velvette scowled.
Charlie and Vaggie managed to get over their shock quicker this time around. They grabbed the villain's tail, and matched the Vee's push with a pull. Remarkably, they produced enough force to rip the oozing reptile away… albeit not without a trail of slime staining the influencers jacket.
"You're…not?" Sir Pentious' eyes leaked waterfalls.
"Of course not, you fucking waist of space!" Velvette flashed her hand towards the bar… and the ice that Husk put in her hands immediately turned to steam, "I'm here to review this crapshoot before people trip down it!"
"Oh my!"
Static blended all the woman's emotions into dread. And the three heads turned to watch its bandwidth source descend the staircase far too slowly.
"Vox never was one for subtly," Alastor strut down the stairs made his presence rise all the higher, "but I must have gotten his circuits in quite the tangle if he's signing his workers up for suicide. Nester my boy, be a good sport and make sure that luggage is out of the splash zone."
Charlie watched in horror as the Radio Demon's spine splintered him up another meter. The tremor of the fracture caused his appendage to echo an aftershock, as two antlers bucked from his skull. Every jagged point of bone pointed at the Vee.
"I don't want Niffty's new hand me downs to get stained."
The crackled voice took on a sharp new edge. It froze the attendant it ordered with fear.
How Charlie managed the bravery to turn around and face it was beyond her. But pulling a Vaggie, she forced the pinkette behind her just as Alastor disjointed form crested over them.
"H-hold up Alastor! You can't assault a guest!" Charlie frantically stuttered.
To her shock, the wendigo jittering body ran into her words as if they were a brick wall.
"My dear, your new guest has just admitted her sole purpose in being here is to sabotage your business." perhaps it was his neck's new length, but Charlie could have sworn Alastor's voice sounded strained.
Of course, his smile looked no less murderous, so she didn't really have the time to dwell on the tone that leaked out.
"S-so?" the owner's voice crack turned into a forced command, her back straightened just as Alastor's reset.
"So?!" the Radio Demon said, his pupils shrank along with his form, "So let me tear her limb from limb! You can't be naive enough to let in a saboteur."
"I let you in, didn't I?" the heiress let out the deep breath she took in, meeting Alastor's stare, "The man who openly said he wanted to finance this project, because of the thrill he'll get out of watching it burn down in failure."
"…" Alastor's silence was amplified by the others' disbelief of him being at a loss for words.
"She gets the chance to stay for the same reason you do, because I believe this place will bring out the best in everybody. Even the people who come to destroy it."
Charlie turned around. Velvette stared at her with a raised eyebrow. Dumbfounded with disbelief that the owner was stupid enough to let her stay as well as stand up to the Radio Demon.
"Charlie-" Vaggie placed a palm on her shoulder, but Charlie shrugged it off… already telling by the tone her girlfriend was trying to find a way to say Alastor was right.
"Velvette," the blonde grasped the pinkette hand with both her own, "you've come here to show your followers a train wreck… thank you!"
"Excuse you?" the Vee questioned, and it voiced the thoughts of all dumbfounded workers.
"Thank you!" Charlie nodded her head, and her lips cracked into a smile, "Because of you, millions of souls are going to see that redemption is possible. The trail you blaze on your journey to Heaven will inspire thousands!"
Velvette blinked twice, her eyes seeming to scan every inch of Charlie's features. Looking for any hidden code they might reveal. The heiress didn't alter anything, because she only ever spoke the truth.
"Whatever makes my job easier." the Vee shrugged, "So long as the dentist's wet dream over here doesn't get in my way, my fans will get an uninterrupted view into this shitstain."
When Velvette pulled her hands away, Charlie clapped them together.
"You have my word he'll leave you alone!"
The sound of broken glass echoed across the lobby. When Charlie went to grab a room key from the rack it was echoed by the drum beat Vaggie's palm turning her gray forehead red.
"Now let's see… oh perfect. Nester, bring her bags up to room 303." the heiress twirled the key, "I think Sir Pentious could benefit from having a friend close by!"
"I really could!" the snake sobbed from the floor.
Velvette recoiled, but outside of taking her phone out to capture a picture of her new neighbor, she didn't complain.
"Here," Charlie eagerly gave the metal to the Vee, "I'll tell you all about our program on the way up!"
"Great…" the pinkette moaned. Though as Charlie led her away, the heiress saw a smirk form on the influencer's face. Albeit the middle finger she flipped Alastar on the way may have fueled it, "the fans can't wait."
"Awesome!" Charlie bit her cheeks in her squeal.
On the way up she turned around to give the crew a double thumbs up.
Vaggie was to flabbergasted to manage even a fake smile of reassurance. Husk had just gotten over his stun to go for an Eight AM shot. And Nester… well Nester was still looking at a terrified Alastor, wondering if adhering to Charlie's request was worth going against the Radio Demon.
Luckily, the lividness of the deer was hidden behind a smile aimed at the Vee. Piercing a luggage bag with his cane, Alastor hefted it up and shoved it into Nester's chest, before he sent the bird to flock behind the two women.
Charlie didn't care for the rage filled glare the powerful Sinner stubbornly hung onto… but she turned around with a smile far more genuine than his. Just happy he was finally willing to be a team player, even if it meant he'd hate the growing pains that came with being one.
XxxxxxX
Thanks to all who have read through the Eighth chapter.
I do hope the small jab at the British there came across in the lightheaded way it was written as. If anybody has read my Fate fanfic on this site, then you already know I think Welsh/Cornish/Brythonic Mythology is one the greatest thing on planet Earth, and I am a huge fan of medieval British history and current day British pop culture… despite the fact that I am admittedly an uncultured American XD.
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.
And to anyone interested in becoming a beta reader, feel free to shoot me a PM.