Author's Note: Good morning, afternoon, and evening to all those who have tuned into another chapter of Drifters! I know last week was a bit of a short entry, but hopefully the length of this one will balance everything out! Or maybe not, since a literal earthquake threw me off kilter this morning… which given where I live was not a statement I'd ever thought I'd type out in an author's note.
That being said, the author's note isn't supposed to increase in volume with the chapters, so onto the review section!
GamerOfAction44D: Thank you man! Nester's definitely meant to be an OC rather than a self insert, so I'm glad he reads that way. As a person who writes mostly OC stories, I always try to make sure the characters I create are part of a story, not the story itself.
For this one, that trap is actually quite easy for me to avoid. Mostly because Nester, the main OC for Drifter's, isn't the main character of the novel. That role is shared amongst the five third POV perspective I write from, and the hotel residences. Which naturally allows for more viewpoints, and encounters that revolve around the issues being faced rather than an individual character.
Now without further adieu, besides my traditional apology revolving around any grammatical mistakes that may pop up along the way (and luckily no preemptive apology having to be given for stereotypes), I welcome you back too….
Drifters
A Hazbin Hotel Fanfic
Chapter 9:
And the Oscar goes too
'I can't believe we're doing this.' Vaggie's fingers engraved the thought into her temples.
"I can't believe we're doing this!" whilst her girlfriend unknowingly echoed it into reality.
At her side, and always dressed for the world's most extravagant business meeting, Charlie's voice jumped with more joy than her jittery feet.
"Can you believe we have a full class tonight Vaggie?!"
The white haired woman peaked her one eye alongside the blonde's through the stage curtain. The two extra people in the audience barely made a dent in the number of empty seats.
"Ummmm-"
"Of course most of them are online, but still! A whole virtual audience getting a sneak peak at what the hotel can offer!" Charlie's squeal of delight morphed into a rapid burst of inhales, "Okay! Focus Charlie!Foooccussss!"
Vaggie wanted to grin at her partner's adorable prep talk, but unfortunately a certain stitched doll in the audience had consumed all her attention.
"Just try to keep in mind Charlie that-"
"I need to meet them with a smile!" the red cheeked woman shot a thumbs up, "Don't worry, that's my philosophy on everything in life!"
"That's great, but what I mean is-" before Vaggie could inform Charlie that she shouldn't place so much hope in the kindness of internet strangers, her girlfriend had taken the plunge through the curtain, "…you shouldn't get ahead of yourself…"
Vaggie's words trailed too far behind. By the time the realistic tone reached the red suited owner, it was drowned out by Charlie's optimistic one.
"Salutations to all, and welcome to another Redmotion 101 lesson! As you know we have two very special new guests with us this evening, so let me be the first to say how happy I am you've come to the hotel for salvation Sir Pentious and Vel-", Charlie's cheeks rose to the point they nearly pierced her own eyes.
Only for Vaggie to see the needle that inevitably popped them come from the crowd.
"It's Velvette to you clown. We're not friends." the influencer efficiently ordered with a carefree tone.
"Right… Velvette." the heiress's crisp nod corrected.
The ax haired bodyguard wished her red 'X' patch could stare itself into a dot on the rag doll's forehead. As it stood right now, the heat of her burning gaze played second fiddle to a phone screen held so close it was practically branding the Vee's eyes.
"Anyway, I know you are quite the streamer," the polka dot cheeked woman tried to continue, "which means we're super lucky you showed up when you did, because you're the perfect person to help us with today's activity! The…"
Charlie threw two fists up.
"Salvation Skits!" her palms, much like her words, exploded like fireworks.
"…" only for the crickets in the audience to not even chirped out so much as an 'aw' or 'ooh' at the display.
Vaggie used the silence to hone in on her target. Analyze the Overlord wannabe's eyes in the brief moment they were up to see what ill intent she had in store.
"…Huh-"
Vision tunneled in, the white haired woman's ears picked up what the corner of her eye couldn't see.
Vaggie forced her pupils through narrow railings, but eventually pried it off the Vee long enough to match the sound of deflated confusion to Charlie's desperate stare.
The spear wielder tilted her head, and at first returned her partner's gaze with the confusion that brought it over.
In the prolonged silence, the heiress pupils darted upward. And Vaggie squinted her eye failing to read what it said. Second after painful second passed, but not even Charlie's brightened cheeks could shed light on what Vaggie was evidently supposed to see.
"What's up?" the security officer eventually mouthed. With the fixated eyes of the audience having nothing better to do then read her lips as a shout.
"The banner." despite the thirty seconds of silence, and the vision literate crowd, Charlie answered the question the same not so sly way Vaggie asked.
"… banner?" the partner cocked her head, only for her pupil to break her silence when she saw the word clearly, "Shit!"
Vaggie whispered hiss carried through the silence a banshee's wail. Her hands shot into the curtains. And beneath the silken sea, desperately clawed trying to find the rope to unfurl the sails.
When she did, the knot above the pulley was crushed into a straight line. Vaggie turned around just in time to see two buckets worth of confetti rain down upon her girlfriend's squeezed posture, and for the blonde's cringed eyes to open up to the golden spelt and halo dotted 'Salvation Skits!' streamer.
The spear wielder felt a rockslide of guilt and embarrassment ram into her. Each emotional boulder struck Vaggie to the beat of Charlie's cleared throat.
"H-how they work is through scenario based improv." the pale manager croaked up the nerves she failed to swallow, "I give two people a scene that contains an environment and a temptation. And as a duo, they must act out a performance where the matter is resolved in a healthy and sinless manner."
In her attempt to not miss another cue, Vaggie unfortunately stuck to the script rather than adapt it to the distilled atmosphere. Which meant her frantic claps traversed a deadpanned audience, and entered Charlie's ears a slap to the face.
The poor speaker kept her smile going through it all.
"So… you're happy I'm here because?" the pinkette raised eyebrow pierced through the silence.
"Because you film everything about your life," Charlie seemed happy to throw herself on the lanced question so long as it promised to kill the awkward moment from before, "so you're practically an actor. And your skill on the stage can help put the others at ease-"
"Um, excuse me!" Angel crossed two sets of arms, and tossed up the top pair with his eyebrow, "The hotel's always had an actor."
Vaggie dragged her hand down her forehead. The spider demon always picked the worst time to remind her that having a new problem, didn't mean her old ones had vanished.
"O-of course." Charlie stutter rose up and down like the hands she tried to politely calm Angel with, "What I meant to say was, now that we have two movie stars-"
"Oh please," Velvette rested her feet in a free chair, and leaned backwards till her phone practically lounged on her face, "people flock to me because I'm not an actor. My life's fucking amazing all naturāl."
"See!" Angel barked his agreement more vexed than grateful, "She's no performer, just fucking lazy!"
"The only lazy thing here is your outfit." Velvette's stretch back into her streaming position mocked Angel more than her words ever could, "Horizontal stripes? Seriously, is that how you normally dress, or is your next porno set in the eighties?"
"Excuse fucking you!"
When Angel leaned up in his seat to tower over the Vee, Vaggie moved to intervene. At least stopping a fight was an aspect of her job she hardly ever screwed up. Unfortunately, it was also the one her girlfriend got in the way of the most.
Charlie sent her a pleading gaze to freeze. And before Vaggie could conjure her spear, she found her teeth gripped onto her bottom lip as her girlfriend tried for a diplomatic approach.
"Let's save the drama for the stage hehe."
The heiress chuckled, unsure if her words would douse the growing fire in water or gasoline.
Given that logic, Vaggie gritted her teeth, and braced for history to repeat itself.
"No-" Angel began, before he shot down his own anger, "No, you know what, yes!"
Vaggie eyes peaked open when she heard no explosion. Although the spider now stood as if the floor could erupt from underneath him at any moment.
"Your fans deserve to see some real acting skill rather than their daily dose of shit!"
"The fuck you say about my job?" Velvette's fingers froze upon her phone screen.
The next tap she produced was the noise of her two feet drilling into the ground before the furred demon.
"I haven't said anything about a job," Angel's stare hammered down onto Velvette's, "the crap you do doesn't qualify."
"But being a cum vacuum does?" the Vee's gaze glared right back, trying to upper cut the spider into the ceiling, "If you really want to pick this fight, then fuck it! Let's have all of Hell witness the end of your career!"
Velvette turned to address Charlie.
"You there, worthless Hotel bitch!"
No look could stop Vaggie from acting now. When she unsheathed her weapon, her girlfriend had to grasp the end of it to stop the law enforcer from pinning the Vee's face to the floor with the front.
"Y-yes?" Charlie replied, her muscles and words twitched trying to hold back two different catastrophes.
Vaggie really wished she'd just let her go. From her point of view a disaster was impossible to avoid now, might as well only have to deal with the one birthed from the other two's obliteration.
"Bring on these Shit Skits."
"Really?!" Charlie smiled, her excitement cut off only by the grunt it took to keep Vaggie from charging forward, "A-awesome! Here let me just-"
Vaggie saw Charlie's gaze go to the three paper filled bowls off to the side, then back to the rabid beast who was supposed to be in charge of the lottery… also known as her.
"Uhhhhh," Charlie's hands tried to squeeze Vaggie's shoulder in reassurance. When the white haired woman dragged her forward an inch, the therapeutic gesture became a readjusted grip, "Nester!"
The owner called out to one of the two and a half people in the room not intent on murdering somebody.
"U-um… yeah?" the avian cautioned out a response.
Vaggie's vision was too scoped in on the doll to see that her actions were probably triggering a PTSD flashback for the bird man.
"Vag's and I have to… um… g-go over some quick preparations!" everybody saw through the lie, except the white haired woman who tried to bulldoze past it, "There's three containers backstage. Can you pass out the one with everyone's name in it? It'll pair you guys up for the skits."
"O-okay," the bird gulped, "but are you sure you don't want to-"
"Listen to the bitch and get the bowl!" Angel and Velvette growled out in unison… and was followed up by an echoed cry from Charlie when Vaggie nearly worked out of her grasp wanting to cut off the two rude attendants with the blade of her spear, "Now Nester!"
The scurry of footsteps and the building of tension rang off Vaggie's own growl as she was dragged away from the lounge.
XxxxxxX
"S-s you're really fine watching online while you patrol the…uh… perimeter?" Charlie didn't know what was rougher, her attempt at her girlfriend's militaristic type lingo, or the future conversation they had wordlessly decided to put off for later tonight.
"Yeah, it's a… good idea." Vaggie gritted out.
Charlie looked away ashamed. She felt bad beyond belief that her quick fix, to ensure the hotel lobby didn't have to be rebuilt for a third time this week, was her practically commanding her girlfriend to take a timeout outside.
Of course, she hadn't exactly phrased it that way, but that was the basic gist of her request. And despite the full foot she had over her girlfriend, Charlie knew the meaning didn't go over the white haired woman's head.
Vaggie patch followed its eye to the ground. The nails that dug into her gray forearm did so with enough force to piece Charlie's soul too.
She hated the fact her partner was clearly going through something right now. She hated the fact Vaggie often requested to be alone in these moments. But most of all, she hated the fact she had used her knowledge of both things to grant her girlfriend a solution she knew Vaggie would take.
More than anything Charlie wanted to talk through this with Vaggie. Be by her side so they can have a discussion about her… over proactive nature. But there was a large audience at stake tonight, and not only that, but for once some of the guests seemed eager to take part in the activity.
Sure Angel and Velvette's determination was born out of the very temptation she was trying to dissuade, but through their actual drive to try, they could be led to a whole new revelation of understanding.
Unfortunately, she couldn't rely on Vaggie at the moment to keep her head on straight through the bumps and roads it would take to get to that destination… not tonight at the very least.
"The Vee's audience is probably filled with lowlifes," Vaggie kicked a stone down the hill, and Charlie's wobbling lips followed the rock downed, "better make sure no creeps try to break in."
"You mean potential guest!" Charlie's half joke pittered out when more of Vaggie's hair covered her good eye, "um… I'll just leave you to it."
"Yeah." Vaggie trailed off, quite literally.
Charlie rubbed her arm at the same slow pace her girlfriend walked off. She took a deep breath that was more a sanctioned sigh, and turned around to go inside.
The weight of the situation sent her feet to the center of the earth, and with two sets she couldn't fight her need to look back towards her partner. The back of the spear women's white hair swung without an edge.
"Y-you know I'm not mad, right?" Charlie attempted to clarify.
The ax blade leveled out, but the face did not glint into view.
"I know…" Vaggie words reverberated from an empty cave, "just disappointed."
Charlie had wanted to hear her own question echoed back to her, or at the very least a confirmation of what should have been obvious.
Instead, she nearly doubled over from the answer. The words having hit her in the chest like a cannonball.
"T-that's not-" she chewed through her bottom lip.
From the corner of her eye she saw the guests gathered around the name bin. And from the growing argument written on Angel and Velvette's face, their partners seemed to have fallen into place.
"We'll talk later… I promise." Charlie softly spoke past her dejection.
She turned and headed back towards the hotel. Time just wasn't on her side tonight, but at least it had prevented her from lying.
And having bookmarked a problem in the immediate past, the blonde forced herself to turn the door open towards the future.
"You can't blame the players before the game starts doll-face!"
"Of course I can! This chicken has so much stage fright, he can't even greet a mirror without choking on his name! How the fuck am I suppose to work with that?!"
And not even two steps in, realized it had just as many issues as the previous chapter. With the force behind Angel's and Velvette's heated exchange being strong enough to whip the entrance open for Charlie.
"Hmph, good actors can make anyone squeal~" the spider crossed arms locked themselves downward.
"Explains all your success!" the Vee snapped back alongside Angel's eyelids.
"You little-"
"You walked into that one man." Husk snickered.
The deadpan look of betrayal that echoed forth from the furry actor caused the cat's low chuckle to increase.
"A-and I've walked into some very excited stage performers!" Charlie coughed up her own laugh as she playfully shouldered her way into the conversation, "Soooo, I take it you guys have paired up?"
She quickly followed up. To ensure any argument that resumed had to go through her, and to make sure any questions about Vaggie were stuck in traffic.
"Yes we have!" Angel puffed. The spider brought himself to his full height, stabilized by the hands on his hips.
"Not unless we're allowed to trade capital!" Velvette growled, her own body vibrating with frustration, "Like civilized people!"
"W-well, the best part of improv is the randomness." Charlie's hand of reassurance was repulsed by the flaming aura in the pinkette's pupils. She retracted her hand before it could get burned, "W-whose everybody matched up with?"
Husk sighed, and dragged a claw around a chalkboard room.
"Niffty and her new snake boots,"
Said cyclops giggling fit had already pushed the serpent's back into the wall. His top hat monocle magnified the fear in his two eyes.
"Nester and his future slaughter house,"
Velvette's glare may have been redirected to Charlie, but one glance at the spot next to Sir Pentious proved the avian had also faced its brunt.
"and then…" Husk claw hand dropped down with his grunt of air. Angel was to offer up three whole arms to replace it.
"Me and my favorite pussy cat~"
"Kill me now." the winged feline moaned. His hand dropped down his face, and the claws carved out three crimson rivers.
"W-what a great line up!" Charlie tried to use distance to prop up Velvette's scowl with two thumbs.
"So you're just an entirely new breed of stupid?"
Needless to say, the edges of the Vee's lips stayed in place. And Charlie was all of a sudden very thankful Vaggie wasn't around to hear the doll.
"I'm paired with a loser! One who's so anxiety prone I bet he thinks in stutters even when alone! What do you thinks going to happen when he's out in front of millions of people-"
"Millions of people!" Charlie clapped her hands together.
Suddenly, she found the heat that radiated off the Vee more than tolerable. Comforting in fact, enough for her over inflated eyes to hover mere centimeters from the pinkette's forehead
"M-millions of people?!" unfortunately, her joy was not shared by the, maybe literal, chicken against the wall. Who, when faced by the barrage of his own sweated bullets, found the courage to speak his cry for help, "Wait a second. You know what, this is a competition between those two right? They should act with one another! You know, to make it fair!"
Charlie didn't think the young man had ever spoken so fast. Which made her conclude that the brunette retreat into the wallpaper was caused just as much by Velvette as it was a general fear of public speaking.
Regretfully, the part of her mind biting at how uncomfortable Nester was, was swallowed by the potential the humongous audience the Vee offered.
"That's not a terrible idea." Angel tapped a finger to his chin, although another set of digits clawed at his desire to keep the hand fate dealt him.
"I think it's the smartest thing bird brain's said in his entire life." Velvette left, "Looks like any cock can rise to the occasion if under enough stress."
"I…" Charlie sucked in her lips, "Guess that can work… so long as everyone's else fine with it."
"So long as I'm still paired with the," Niffty pupil nearly shot out the top of her cornea under the pressure waves of her ecstatic crackle, "bad boy~"
Sir Pentious briefly traded in his fear for confusion.
"B-bad boy?" the snake hissed out, before the situation caught up to him, "Oh, you mean me. I sssuppose I am quite the villainous ssschemer."
The serpent balled his fist and shook it towards the heavens.
"Curse my roguish charm! If only I could have been born without ssso much irresistible charisma!"
"I've got good news for you then pal." Husk deadpanned, before his accompanying eye roll orbited across the whole room, "I'm down to switch out furs for feathers."
"Great!" Charlie nodded.
Assisted by the act, Velvette's hand snapped her head away from the pinkette's face. The new perspective it provided allowed Charlie's cheeks to press into the Vee's phone instead.
"And would you look at that, the group's already solved a problem in an emotionally healthy way. I couldn't have imagined a better way to start off the Salvations Skits!" Charlie beamed, even as the pinkette kicked the heiress away, "So now that the appetizer's over, let's move onto the main course! Niffty and Sir Pentious, why don't you start us off!"
"Because I like all my limbssss where they are thank you very much!" the snake declared as he replied to the rhetorical question with a rhetorical answer, "Ssssso don't expect any theatre work from me missy-"
Before Charlie could convince him otherwise, the redhead at the serpent's tail hefted him up with two hands, and dragged him up to the stage.
"Let's play! Let's play! Let's play!" Niffty slammed the inventor down next to her on the stage as if he was a toy soldier.
"That's the spirit!" Charlie chuckled, and forced her hands into the environment and sin hat before the shell shocked snake could retort, "Alright! You two are in a… run down bar, and the sinful temptation one of you must avoid is…gluttony!"
Charlie nods were outpaced by Niffty's jackhammer fueled ones. Extending her pointer fingers and thumbs into a square camera, the heiress trained the imagined lens onto the two performers.
"Annddd Action!" the owner chirped.
Immediately the maid opened her smile wide to force down all the excitement in the air. Hearing the bomb whistle down, Sir Pentious snapped back to reality so his arms could snap up to cover his face. And like a self made bunker, the serpent coiled up, eyes closed waiting for the oncoming explosion.
"…"
None came.
Charlie's head leaned out behind her organic camera, and stared bewildered at the shrunken pupil floating in Niffty's eye. It glowed like a black hole, and had crushed all the energy the red head held mere seconds ago.
Not having felt himself sliced in two, Sir Pentious cracked his top bay eye open. And upon blinking twice, the rest of his form relaxed into a perplexed posture staring down at the emotionless statue on the stage.
"Oh yeah." Angel bent backwards, and the confused crowd offers the actor a partial glance away from the anomaly before them, "Vaggie and I forget to tell you, Niffty gets like…"
The furred demon swirled his hands a few times while his tongue kicked the roof of his mouth.
"That, in front of cameras."
Charlie blinked twice, then awkwardly dismantled her biological one to the side. Not that Niffty reacted one way or the other to it.
"Should we… turn off the phone?" Husk voiced perplexed.
"That would make me feel better." Nester muttered out, before he stuttered out a full hearted, if not plainly false, reason, "T-the audience only wants to see the two pro's anyway-"
"No!" Charlie yelped, then took a deep breath to re center herself, "the fans need to see that everybody can do this, and that nobody will judge how amateurish the performances are."
The avian hung his head in defeat, and for a second Charlie even began to frown in sympathy when she thought she heard him mutter a curse under his breath… but whether he did or not, she forced herself away from his sorrow, and dragged her attention back to the stage.
"Sir Pentious, maybe you could prod her on?"
"I sssupose I could give it a go." the snake tapped his chin, inspecting the broken cyclops as if she was a powered down machine, "Minionsss! Fetch me a large ssstick, sssome tape, and a taser-"
"G-great idea, but I-I meant try to lead her into the scene!" Charlie stuttered out her correction while scooping up the hard boiled underling before it added far to realistic props to the program.
"Oh…" the serpent's brow deflated like his tone, before he took in a deep breath to puff his posture back into a regal form, "I guesss I can try to pry open her ssshell with sssome of the old Ssshakespeare."
The snake coughed into his scaled hand. Then waved two hands down his slithering form as if shedding his skin.
"Helloooo there young missy!" the snake hissed out a bow, "Welcome to my fine pub! May I welcome you in with sssome ale?"
Charlie lifted a thumbs up at the effort… the rest of the audience was as quiet as the unresponsive cyclops.
"…" Sir Pentious's eyes darted a rounded unsure of himself, before he forced a smile and leaned in to continue, "It isss the best beverage in the land! All you need do is take one ssssip and you'll never put the mug down!"
The snake brought up an empty hand as if it contained an invisible pint. The inky oblivion it was filled with was Niffty's eerie silence.
"Um… the first glasss is free?" the snake stated, defensive in his awkwardness. When he was met without another response, the uncomfortableness soon found itself boiled over to offense, "You know young lady, it'sss rather rude to turn down a gift."
Charlie faced soured inward when Sir Pentious turned his back to the cyclops.
"Especially one I've worked ssso hard to make! My mother built this establishment with her own two handsss you know!" the snake eyes teared up, "And upon her passing, entrusted its sssurvival to me! But try as I might, I sssimply cannot keep it afloat!"
How the snake was able to start crying on demand was a talent Charlie didn't think he had. Unless… the croaks in his voice weren't an act at all. Or, maybe it was, but one the serpent has fallen for himself.
"I didn't even want to run a tavern, but I'm doing the best I can mother!" Sir Pentious wailed towards the heavens, "But the people of thisss city keep beating down your legacy over and over again!"
The audience behind Charlie was shocked into silence. The sole noise being that of Velvette's raised phone getting a better camera line.
"People like her!" the snake slashed out his words alongside a spear tipped claw pinned right at the statue faced Niffty, "Who desecrate your memory with their juvenile mistreatment of the honest man'sss oath! Out! Out I sssay! You are unworthy to be in sssuch a ssstoried establishment!"
The short Sinner didn't so much as blink in response.
Sir Pentious gasped, taken aback. His hood flaring to life as he made ready to lunge at the cyclops.
Charlie sprang forward just as the cobra did. She snatched, and then spun, maid away as if she was a fumbled football. The snake streamed past them and crashed into the empty chairs.
"Huh?" Niffty groggily blinked herself from the petrified state in Charlie's arm, "Oh! How'd I do?! How'd I do?!"
Charlie turned her head between the groaning broken form of Sir Pentious and the toothed filled smile of the cyclops.
"… great!" Charlie creaked from behind her toothy grin.
"Really?!" Niffty jumped up and down in excitement on the chair she was deposited atop.
"Yeah, really?" Angel cocked an eyebrow.
"Yes, really!" Charlie nodded, as her mind began to formulate reasons as to why, "You both did… an amazing job in showing how sometimes the best way to avoid peer pressure and manipulation is to just ignore it-"
"Peer pressure?! Her rudeness cost a man his mother'sss legacy!" Sir Pentious snarled while he dusted himself off.
Charlie offered condolences through a forced chuckle.
"What a commitment to character folks!" the heiress clapped for the camera, before she tried to quickly divert its attention back to the stage, "Let's keep things rolling with the second performance!"
The red cheeked woman pointed towards the two winged attendant. Both slugged their way over to the stage, however, where the cat marched upon it with a groan, the avian stopped in front of Charlie rather than the first step.
"Everything okay-"
"If you're not going to stop the stream," Nester's voice, usually so soft and hard to hear, came out clear in its desperation, "then please, please, pleeassse don't make me go up there."
"Why not?" Charlie wasn't exactly confused by Nester's anxiety, but his new tone was… off putting to say the least. Stuttering through a conversation was one thing, words cracking themselves into clarity under the weight of his own pity was another, "If you've got stage fright, then I think you know you're in good company-"
"It's not that, it's just… I know I'll screw up if I go up."
"Nester, it's improv, it's actually impossible to screw up." Charlie tried to draw him out with a smile of reassurance, but the brunette simply shrank further into himself.
"Can't you do it for me instead? That way we know things will go smoothly." he all but cawed out, his wings ruffled as if to emphasize how underdeveloped they were.
"Huh?" a pang of guilt entered Charlie. Sir Pentious had been afraid of Niffty and he had been forced onto the stage… but then again, he didn't seem as fragile as the avian. Charlie's lips fumbled, he was also new. Maybe he had a point-
"It's not like I've ever done improv either kid." Husk interrupted from the corner of the stage.
The cat's grovel sounded vexed as ever. But when Charlie leaned her head up, she noticed the feline's eyebrow was raised scanning the dodgy avian.
"So you've got to do this crap for the same reason I have too." a clawed hand grasped the man's collar and dragged him up, "Bosses orders."
When Nester's eyes widened as if he was in free fall off a cliff, Charlie's hand flew out to grasp it. But the moment his feet hit the stage, her arm faltered. She stared at its half stretch form, as if shocked by her own betrayal in wanting to stop the healing process.
Of course the Doorman had to take part in the skit, it was all part of the redemption process. If she had catered to him just now, then she'd be denying him the very thing she promised all her guests.
So why did she falter to begin with? It's not like she had when he tried getting out of it twice before-
"Hey princess," Husk growl dragged Charlie back to reality the same way he dragged the pale faced Nester center stage, "give us the damn scene so I can get this over with."
"Oh right!" she fumbled her hands into the bins, "You guys are in… an apartment, and the sin is… lust-"
Charlie's face blanked along with the two men on the stage. In hindsight, she really probably shouldn't have put that one in just on the principle of Angel being in the audience. Speaking of which.
"Are you fucking kidding," the furred demon flared out all his limbs, "that could have been me!"
"But it's not." Husk droned, not happy at all of the sin he got, but at least contempt with the consolation of not having to act it out with Angel, "I'm used to shooting down perverts, so you're gonna be the one who shits out flirts."
"W-what?! I don't… I really-" the brunette tripped out his own panic attack, and he looked like he was about two seconds away from running off the stage. As if his nerves were an actual carnivore set to hunt him down.
"Well I really want to get this over with!" Husk grasped the bird by his upper shirt, and snarled into his face. Which, if nothing else, seemed to scare him into a stationary flight response, "So say your dumb pick up line already!"
"…" the avian gulped, and even if the breath didn't calm him, it at least cleared his throat, "A-alright."
It was clearly anything but for the bird, but Charlie seized the opportunity.
"Action!"
"…"
"…"
At the very least, the silence that followed this time had movement. Be it Husk slapped to the forehead or Nester's rattling bones.
"… you sure this place isn't a mental institution sweetheart?" Velvette spoke up. Her smirk was nothing more than a thrown tomato from the peanut gallery.
Unsure of the answer at the moment, Charlie gulped in tangent to each red blink of the Vee's phone.
Her face born pale, whatever color the heiress lost must have lit up her signal fire of desperation. One that the gambling canary couldn't even shield his eyes away from.
"Goddammit." the cat's clenched teeth ground down his own grumble.
Husk approached the avian, cursing with each step, and grasped his shoulder to turn him away from the audience. Once the pawn was set in place, the cat returned to his own position, flipping the camera off on his way by.
"You've walked me home," the bartender's monotone voice was light years away from the stage. More emotions streamed forth from Husk's twitching eye when Angel pulled out his own recorder then his actual performance, "Now you can go, thanks."
"O-okay." the avian agreed, and his wingspan spun out like a tip from his spin towards the stage.
"Jesus Christ." Husk pinched the bridge of his till it broke, before a clawed hand hooked the edge of his stage hands feather to drag him back into the limelight.
"… w-what… should I not go?" Nester's nervous shiver got worse when the two actors in the crowd puffed out their cheeks.
Charlie's mouth sunk down her face. Knowing all too well the Vee and the spider looked more like they were loading in their laughter then holding it back.
"Yes, but for us both to exit stage left you need to…" Husk leaned his head back to the tune of shattered teeth, "For fuck knows what reason, you need to talk about wanting to fuck me."
The bird's face dropped, and Charlie's crunched in. When he put it like that there was no more 'probably'. Improv featuring a random seven sin definitely could have used more tweaks.
"About how you want to fuck me worse than the universe fucks me everyday. How you want to plow me harder right now, than how much that nymphomaniac talks about how hard I'd plow him."
Said spider gave a sultry wave with one arm… and a rather descriptive display of sign language on what exactly he wanted done with the other five.
"About how you want to wrap me up in more chains than that deer antler shit stain of an Overlord." Husk's anger seethed forth with more vigor than his dedication to the role, "How you want to bend me over and shove more shit into my ass then it can crap out in a lifetime! "
Charlie's mouth rose… if only because her frown of disappointment became a straight face of shock.
"So come on already and fuck me! God only knows you can't screw me worse than each passing second of this worthless existence does!" the cat raised his arms and shined his melt down up to Nester, "What do you say, bird shit?! Want to add to my misery?!"
The low shout rumbled out a shockwave. Rather than shatter all in its path, it swept over the room a blizzard.
It anchored Nester's ruffled wings solid. It froze Angel's one man performance into a statue. And it shut down all of Charlie's internal processes, and forced the blonde to reboot.
"I'd…" against all odds, Nester broke the silence first. And Charlie's eyes flickered back on to see the young man shift his weight around either his eyes as his throat jostled his response free, "r-rather not… sorry."
The cold front reflected into Husk for a moment. And when his iced form broke beneath his thundered irises, the cat looked ready to strike down the avian with his claws.
But on the way down, the serrated nails flashed a lightbulb into the feline eyes. Looking to Charlie, Nester, and then the stage, he was able to voice out a tired, if not content, sigh.
"And I respect your decision. Now get the fuck out of my rooms, and have a good night." the bartender's eyes darted from the crowd and his fellow actors shuttered blinks, "There, sin avoided in a none emotionally scarring way. Happy?"
"I'm not!" Velvette crackled a laugh, "Stream was going nuts before you blue balled them! Another outburst from mister mittens, and you two would have been the top trending story in Hell!"
Nester's face nearly went as blank as Niffty, and in that moment Husk decided to take the Vee's answer as Charlie's.
She watched the cat trudged his feet off the stage, and forced Nester's legs to slide behind his and back to their seats.
Charlie stared at the refilled audience still shell shocked by the performance. And it took her a few seconds to realize that the full house below meant the stage was empty.
In a half panic, half reorientation of limbs, the heir apparent of Hell ran back up to the podium.
"Respecting someone's boundaries and ability to say no," Charlie wheezed a chuckle, "a great lesson when it comes to confronting lust. Thanks guys, you did great!"
"So much so the internet wants a sequel." the pinkette snickered, then rolled her phones out of Husk preceding slash.
"Which of course," Charlie frantically butted in, before the house cat could maul the family doll and ensure the already traumatized pet parrot never spoke again, "brings us to our grand finale! Angel and Velvette if you would be so kind-"
"Pfht, fucking never!" the Vee bellowed before she sprung from her seat, "But I'll happily be the bitch who slaps a spider."
"You couldn't afford to doll face," the furred demon strutted up towards the stage and sprang up to it with a cartwheel, "Now get ready for more stitches."
"Hehe~" Velvette walked past Charlie the more traditional way up. She paused to angle her phone down to capture her smug expression, "I don't need to hear your whining later, so here's your preemptive apology for what I do to your boy toy now Val."
A sneer escaped the stage, but Charlie's head rang from the electronic forced into her hand.
"Just because you dress like a circus freak doesn't mean I do," atop the final step, the pinkette's low threat made her tower over Charlie, "so make sure to get my good side or else you and this place will be trending as hashtag hotelhor."
The owner sucked in her lips, and more importantly her desire to call Vaggie back, and instead, taking her own polite advice, nodded to defuse the situation.
"Yo, Raggedy Ann, we doing this, or are you going for stage fright bingo?" Angel talked his foot beneath two crossed arms.
"What's the matter, doesn't your career demand you be slow." Velvette walked right up and smirked into the spider's growl, "You know, your director's definitely watching, so you should at least try to preserve your career."
Charlie flipped flopped with the phone, and focused the stream just in time to watch Angel be the one to go silent. Luckily, he handled his pause far quicker than the previous two actors. In fact, he shrugged away from it, and looked towards the heiress.
"Give us the setting toots."
"Oh?!"
Charlie dropped her hand into the first bin. Not noticing Velvette's face shutdown when the heiress had left the phone in mid air to do so.
"Alright!" Charlie's hand re gripped the device before gravity did. And she flipped the camera onto her as she unfurled the paper, "And to the lovely redeemable audience at home, who very much can participate along-"
"What does it say Charlie?" Angel leaned into his sigh. His shoulder rested atop the crown of the two murder possessed eyes aimed at the woman holding the streaming device.
"Right." Charlie rubbed the back of her head, "It's a…city park! To repeat to the audience, that's city, C-I-"
"Charlie!" Angel's voice came in stern, "While we're young."
"O-of course." the blonde stuttered out.
When her hand moved to grasp the next random sheet, she once again avoided Velvette's oncoming aneurysm.
"Your sin of choice is…wrath!", Charlie decreed. Before she heard her own words, the heart emojis filling the chat lifted her with joy. Until she saw some of the comments… and realized the display of love was at the carnage this specific vice promised, "W-wait before we begin-"
"Excuse me miss, but this is a public area," the spider demon's smirk hid itself behind his acceleration into character, "and taking a crap in the pond isn't how you're supposed to feed the ducks."
Three out of the four audience members' eyes shot open. And in one synchronized move, shifted back two rows. Leaving the solo iris in the front seats cocked in confusion.
"W-what an imagination-" Charlie hoped that in reminding the online crowd the scene was made up, her words would quell any anger on the stage. Unfortunately, Velvette didn't hesitate to utilize the blonde's defensiveness as her own attack.
"… are you fucking serious?" Velvette husked out, and Angel smiled as if in triumph. That quickly died when he realized the furrowed brow in the Vee's head quivered somebody else's, "Did you just spy on me taking a shit! You fucking pervert, I'm calling the police!"
That was certainly one way to invoke wrath. Not what Charlie would have gone with, but so long as they could resolve the emotional conflict it didn't matter how it was brought up-
"Go ahead, call them. Let's explain to them how you painted the creek brown!" Angel shoved a finger into Velvette's face.
"I'd rather give them the play by play on how it was dyed crimson." the pinkette snatched the fingers in front of her.
"Is that a threat?" the spider hissed.
Angel tried to reel in his hand… it did not move an inch.
"No, it's a promise."
Charlie felt her throat close as the Vee's grip began to squeeze in Angel's digit.
"To anyone who fucks with me."
"You crazy bitch!" if the furred demon was experiencing agony, his pained voice and desperate attempt to wench his pointer finger free was an academy level performance.
"S-scene officially escalated!" Charlie vainly tried to slow down the stories pace… and the likes vibrating her palm, "Let's try to resolve it in a-"
"Hands off!" Angel used five of his to pry himself loose, and cause Velvette to stumble backward onto her ass.
Charlie hand latched onto the edges of her face in a panic. And the director's feet echoed onto the stage a rapid fire cut.
"Time out!" she got between the two wide eyed performers.
"Why?" Angel cocks an eyebrow that seems to raise half his head.
"Because you guys aren't supposed to actually hurt each other-"
"We weren't." Velvette deadpanned from the floor.
Charlie's mouth opened to disagree. Nothing comes out when she understands she'd be the only one on stage to have that opinion.
"You guys weren't… actually fighting?"
"It's called acting toots." Angel folded a set of arms and flicked another out, "At least, that's what I was doing."
"You say as if my skill wasn't the one that caused Miss naive here to drop everything she was doing-" the Vee's face froze up mid sneer, "Where's my phone?"
Three pairs of dilated pupils slowly owled their heads back to the side stage. And saw gravity's signature plastered across a cracked screen on the tiled floor.
"… I-I am so sorry" Charlie words followed Angels step/lunge backwards… and the evacuation of the audience to behind the bar counter as if it was a fortified trench, "Whatever the damage is I'll be sure to-"
The heiress' analysis of the electronic injury ended when the comments on the shattered phone rang out in one constant stream.
'You're fucked.'
Charlie gulped as the device's soul then flickered out, and watched in the reflection as its light was replaced by a pink and white flame of rage.
"I-It's a shame we don't have the viewers… because this is a perfect example of how you can combat your wrath with some of my tried and true breathing exercise-"
Unfortunately, the technique required air in one's lungs, and Charlie felt all her's leave the twin organ when a battering ram launched itself into her center of mass.
"You carney piece of shit!" Velvette tackled the heiress right off the stage, "What was your one fucking job! What was the one fucking thing I told you!"
Whatever response Charlie could stuttered out was overridden by the grunt forced from her lips when her back collided with the floor.
"For fucks sakes it just a phone-" Angel's scream soon tuned itself into to a shriek, as he dove into the fox hole with the other men to avoid the microphone that rocketed towards his face.
"That's my fucking livelihood!" the doll used her follow through to grasped Charlie by the color and pick her up, "I'm going to burn the reputation of this hotel to the ground, but if you ever fuck me like this again, I'll tie you to the furnace as I douse this archaic piece of shit with napalm-"
"Please calm down," Charlie interrupted, the hands that should have been raised to defend herself where desperate waving the air beside her head to ease the Vee down, "I know your upset, but we can work things out by-"
"Stabbing each other!" both women looked over to see Niffty inches away. Where as the men coward away, the maid excitingly pranced on her leg hoping the carnage got worse, "I can grab some of my knives-"
"That won't be necessary!" Charlie interrupted, "Right Velvette?!"
"Only because I'm going to break your jaw on the stage!"
Charlie opened her mouth to dissuade the influencer from doing that. But before her cheeks could puff out a response, the red part paled to match the rest of her complexion.
It was hardly due to the threat Velvette promised, but rather than one she saw shimmering at the door.
"That's all I needed to hear." Vaggie's smile rose against Charlie's frown.
"You think I'm afraid of you knee skirt?" the Vee challenged, despite Charlie's shaking head having become a blur, "Bring it on!"
"Vag's wait!"
But before the challenge or plea could be finished, a streak of silver exploded into the doll.
And just like that, the night's wrath continued.
XxxxxX
Thanks to all who have read through the ninth chapter of Drifters. I will try my best to upload a chapter every Friday. But until next week, please feel free to leave a comment! Criticism is always welcomed, so long as there's an attempt for it to be constructive.
And to anyone interested in becoming a beta reader, feel free to shoot me a PM.
