Author's Notes: Hello, hello, hello to all my steadfast readers, and welcome to the twenty-second installment of Drifters! I know last week we went on a tangent, but this week the two plots have once again converged into one!
With that said, onto the reviews!
Gamer of Action 44D: … gonna be honest, I think you're 110% right on swapping the order of the last two chapters. Following Vaggie and Charlie along just after they left the hotel would have made the phone call way more suspenseful! And making Jurassic Blitz the twenty-first chapter instead of the twentieth would have made the chaos of the Dino assault hit even better!
So much so that when the story's complete, or I find myself with enough freetime to edit previous chapters, I think I will steal your idea and switch chapter twenty's (second part) and twenty-one around. (And by steal, I mean I will credit you in those chapters for the awesome idea!)
Seriously thank you for the plot flow advice man! And I'm glad to know the weekly update schedule doesn't leave you guys on the edge of your seats for too long XD
SilverExcel115: Thanks for the review man! Charlie and Lucifer's father and daughter dynamic is legit one of my favorite aspects of the show, so it's nice to know my first attempt at it didn't read too out of character, but also didn't seem like it was one to one with the show. (Which is good… because due to how amazing it is, Dad beat Dad is the episode I've watched the most. And when I write scenes with Lucifer, I feel like my subconscious is always just two seconds away from copyrighting that episode XD)
Alright, hype officially fueled by replies!
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 22:
Gut Check
'My dear girl, I could not have sculpted a better evening myself!' Alastor's thoughts laughed a melody.
Through the swirl of shadows, the twister of shattered bones, and the whirlpool of a carpet bombed lobby, he saw the small silver blur that made it all possible.
And as quick as Nester's peril had whipped it out, Alastor noticed Odette's hand reel the Angelic blade back into the confines of her lab coat.
'You poor thing~' Alastor mused his jubilant sarcasm.
The taps of his playful empathy achieved through the dozen or so Jurassic spinal cords his tendrils cracked in half across the lobby.
Perhaps the Carmine heiress thought the weapon had gone unnoticed. Perhaps she thought that the body it had sent to oblivion could be disposed of when the chaos of Alastor's entrance simmered. Or perhaps the naive fool saw the shadow spin the evidence away into a paste that couldn't be connected back to her action.
'Or more likely,' the radio's static exploded out, and upon voided sound waves darted their way in and out the eardrums of the crumbling dinosaur assault, 'You are acting upon instinct, and have yet to fully grasp that once drawn, a blade can never truly be sheathed again~'
He left a quarter of his catch hanging on their hooks. Their twitching body's convulsed on a laundry line that ran through their neural networks.
Wearing his own enamel shined scabbard, that he dared boast had never been compromised, the wendigo began making a game out of eviscerating the invasive species that had vexed him to no end.
Any gratitude over them having finally achieved some level of use, was shifted onto the shell shocked guests of the Hotel. Who had played the roles of the clueless, heroic, and downright pitiful victims fabulously.
Fiddling his fingers, as if they were just fitted in a smug glove, Alastor danced his wires into a victorious tune.
The first note sliced straight through the long neck of Angel's assailant. The second erupted forth like a geyser from the fanged chicken about to snap its beak around Husk's throat. And the Hell with it, in such a great mood, the wendigo even echoed the crescendoed note on top of the tripled horned beast about to gorge Vox's puppet.
Pulverizing its head into a mash that splashed onto the Vee almost felt more poetic to his breakthrough anyway.
'Angelic weapons!' Alastor's mind laughed to itself, as the punchline of Velvette wiping a disgusted expression onto her face sent his neurons into a maniacal fit, 'How simplistically ingenious of you Carmilla!'
And even if nothing more than a product of his dopamine high, the Radio Demon truly meant the compliment.
Under most circumstances, he'd only ever declare somebody's ability to pick up the knife of a foe and discover it was sharp as genius with an overdose level of sarcasm.
But then again, he couldn't exactly call the first person who found out a pointed rock could pierce flesh an imbecile, when he was part of the ignorant mass of cavemen who simply walked past the stone thinking it was no more than oddly shaped.
'I bet even you didn't think the answer was this elementary!' Alastor chuckled at the hand he raised towards the heavens. His smile wrung when he clenched it closed, and a choir of primordial Sinners echoed out a dying chorus through shattered larynxes, 'No wonder our resident war dog sacrificed so much to keep it a secret! I dare say, under most other circumstances, I would have too!"
Carnivorous groups of scavengers still ran in unharmed packs at the edge of the storm.
Alastor felt his bones begin to lengthen, as they whispered sweet urges towards the destination the birds flocked.
The Radio Demon would be lying if he wasn't tempted to follow the broadcast to its screeching source. But the mess before this one had been caused by his over indulgence, and to ensure the encore to this success went without a hitch, he supposed a call for restraint was in order.
Besides, as he watched a squad of suicidal avians be threaded together by his faithful maid's needle, who was he to keep Niffty from her fun.
'Or my actors,' Alastor's grin creeped as he watched Angel and Velvette fire their Tommy guns in a desperate duet at the hordes of trophies he collected, 'for their once in a lifetime roles~'
Reigning his tendrils in, he began to whip out his shadows with more articulate precision. Making a show of the battle as he began to rain the Sinners he struck down into entertaining places to reform.
A few more bulky goons for his kitty cat to explode over here. Perhaps a platoon's worth of feathered reinforcements for the spider and muppet to mow down out in front. Needless to say, any and all leftovers he didn't have a place for would be sent to his little sadistic Cyclops as her yearly bonus. And… what the heck, he'll even send the small twig legged pterodactyl inside the bar.
The poor thing had reformed with a leaking bladder, was no bigger than an ostrich egg, and seemed just about ready to go down to a stiff breeze.
'Truly a worthy arch enemy for you to defeat my Victorian Viper!' Alastor chuckled, 'All even make sure the leading roles have a perfect view of your heroics!'
Slamming down the winged bowling pin with one tendril, the Radio Demon made the echo draw in the attention of the two cell towers overcome with on the job PTSD.
Which, after he tapped a shadowy wire onto Pentious' shoulder, was an illness Alastor was proud to temporarily cure Nester and Odette from.
As they saw the cowardice snake turn around confused. And witnessed the inventor's tail accidentally shatter the flying reptile, and its hollow bones, against the bars foundation.
And with quite literally no brain cells available to address the contexts of the situation, the blonde and brunette draft dodgers gave the red-eyed snake a thumbs up as if he was a war hero.
'How wonderful it truly is,' Alastor looked away from the scene pleased, 'to be pulling all the strings~'
XxxxxxX
"Holy shit! Holy shit! Holy shit!" Charlie muttered the very panic Vaggie thought.
And as the two partners ran across the city, their outright terror only grew stronger as they approached the Hotel.
Fear had erupted into them when the security guard was finally able to break the news of the phone call.
Horror swelled next as they sprinted towards the disaster.
That horror grew to dread, when miles away from their destination they began to hear a chaos they couldn't see erupting from it.
And now, running up to their home, that appeared ready to blow as if it was a balloon holding back a hurricane, Vaggie was convinced Charlie and her would faint at whatever apocalypse laid behind the doors.
Closing her eyes and taking in a deep breath, the white haired woman tried to ready herself. Whatever danger they were about to enter, she needed to face it with discipline and a rational mind.
And when she opened her eyes onto Charlie grabbing the door handle, only for the mangle form of… some sort of reptile that had broken every bone and organ in its body as it smashed through a window, she figured it would probably be a smart idea to confront the issue with discipline, a rational mind, and a spear.
"Holy shit-"
Vaggie unsheathed her weapon as Charlie's voice vibrated with the hotel it touched. Only to be swept away by a pressure wave when the barrier exploded into an industrial fan along its hinges.
"HOLY SHIT!" and that bomb seemed like a cap gun compared to the nuke Charlie let loose from her throat when they saw the Armageddon that was the Hazbin Hotel lobby.
"Hahaha~"
"My fucking spleen!"
"Keep ssshooting you imbecilesss they're almost through!"
"Shut up before I unload my last round into your skull!"
"I swear to God Pentious if you don't get up here I'll let her do it!"
"Stab! Kill! Clean! Hehehehe!"
"Somebody make it stop!"
Vaggie was a trained soldier. A trained soldier who had been put through a military gauntlet made to prepare her for literal Hell. A place of sin, chaos, and anarchy she had then descended into dozens of times over the last half century.
Yet it was only when standing at the edge of the battlefield before her, did she understand the term shell shock.
But then again, with a bootlegged bar turned into a jerry rigged Great War trench on one side, a horde of cocaine rabid dinosaurs on the other, a freaking one eyed gremlin darting around to stab corpses in every corner of the room, and a sentient storm of barbed shadows laughing maniacally in the middle, Vaggie didn't think anybody could lay eyes upon this scene without freezing up.
"Oh… man… I am not…built for… marathons…"
Neither Vaggie nor Charlie had the time to reboot and turn to the winded voice that panted its way up the hill.
"Just… give me a…minute honey." With his daughter staring blankly ahead, the king of Hell would certainly have that time as he bent down to suck in his second breath, "Alright… I'm good."
From the corner of her eye, Vaggie saw Lucifer's finger raise up first. And with a blink, she saw his back lean his head up after it.
"So don't worry Charlie, whatever the emergency is, papa's here to handle it-" the literal devil went silent. And when his digit deflated under the weight of the potent flabbergast spilling into the actual air, Vaggie felt less ashamed about her own pause, "… Holy shit."
A tick of the clock painted the agonizing beauty of the moment onto their souls… and the next tock crashed their bodies into it.
"My h-hotel… my guest." Charlie croaked out.
"Seem…" her dad coughed into his hand, before a twitched eye cocked an unconfident answer her way, "Nice?"
Not even Vaggie's shock could prevent her from shooting a look towards Lucifer she normally reserved for Pentious.
"THEIR UNDER ATTACK DAD!" Charlie yelled, whipping her hands out towards the carnage.
"Oh thank God," Lucifer breathed out relieved, "for a second I thought those psychopaths were your clients-"
The older blonde froze when the younger one looked at him with an agape mouth.
"You know what, it's not important what I thought." Lucifer awkwardly tried to wave away his point.
"Charlie! We've got to get things under control!" Vaggie tried to reign in her own focus along with her girlfriend's.
"How?!"
That was a fair question.
"Um…" Vaggie twirled her spear in her hand along with her mind, until it fell upon the tornado at the center of the atrium, "Telling Al to give it a rest would be a good start!"
She pointed towards the deer.
"Oh… so the creepy one is your friend." Lucifer cringed.
"Did you think the mouth foaming dinosaurs were?!" Vaggie snapped at her girlfriend's father to save Charlie's wrathful disappointment the trouble.
"…" Lucifer sucked in his lips and went silent for a moment. His eyes dinging around for an answer that did not come easily, until it left his lips a poorly constructed lie, "… no."
"Alastor!" Charlie called, evidently more selectively numb to her dad's idiotic behavior than Vaggie thought, "You've got to-uh- Stand down!… please."
Unfortunately, in terms of forcefulness, this was an improvement on the heiress' end.
Not that the order had nearly enough energy to overcome the shadowy wind vortex.
Luckily, the guard had grown accustomed to being Charlie's microphone.
"EVERYBODY CUT IT THE FUCK OUT BEFORE I START CUTTING YOU!"
The command was far from instances. But as the chaos went from a category five to a three, the debris of the storm began to fall to the ground.
At least, the debris that wasn't dangled in the void stitched power cables threaded about the downstairs like a spiderweb.
"Ah, if it isn't our radiant owners!" the radio's smile tuned onto the entrance way… or at least, what was left of the entrance way, "I dare say I did not expect you to be back so soon, nor with a new guest at that."
"New guest?" Lucifer furrowed his brow.
Vaggie's eye remained deadlocked on the Overlord's grin.
"What the fuck is going on?!" she demanded.
"…" Alastor's smile lopsided his head to the side, "I'm afraid I don't understand the question."
He innocently shot back, as if his shadowy tendrils weren't still lancing their way through a flock of invaders.
Vaggie's brow twitched with each shattered rib cage. And continued to do so till Alastor could read the morse code answer through her pulsating vein.
"Oh, I see…" the radio hummed a smile behind his lips, and nodded his head as if the solution came to him in the form of a savory aroma, "Nester~"
Alastor harmonized his call over the bar. Yet frozen in place, the pub seemed more like a painting. With its patrons frozen in the final states of their fight or flight response when the storm broke.
"I believe Vagatha is upset you didn't get the door for her."
Vaggie's eyepatch nearly burst.
"The dinosaurs Alastor! What's with the fucking dinosaurs attacking the hotel?!" she yelled. Through with the pin striped man's game
"You're in charge of security are you not?" smiling, the radio was certainly not done playing it though, "You tell me."
Her one eye closed, and when it opened the world became red.
"I'm gonna kill him." Vaggie whispered. But before she could make or break that promise, Charlie's hand came to her shoulder to hold it back.
"Al…" the blonde began. But before she could continue, the radio's teeth actually pinged out a preemptive announcement. With the signal cutting through the last remaining assailants… much to Niffty's disappointment.
"I'm afraid I'm in the dark on the matter as well." Alastor hissed out through his teeth, "When I came down from my studio, the lobby was already infested with these vermin. And I've since been trying to clear them out."
Vaggie's eye narrowed as she analyzed his response.
"For once," Husk was the first person to break through his own frame and join the conversation, "Al's telling the truth. One of these bastards slammed into our door, and before we could question why, he started attacking us. By the time we took care of him, fifty more had shown up."
Vaggie's feet, at the very least, stopped running in place.
"But… why?" Her partner's brow furrowed.
"It's like I told you, they're Sinners Charlie. Indiscriminate violence is kind of in their nature."
Vaggie's face morphed into a monotone expression as she looked towards her girlfriend's dad.
"Speak for yourself my short stacked fellow~" the radio hummed towards the smaller blonde, "All my violence is artistically graceful."
"Is that why the lobby looks like it's been struck by a meteor?" Lucifer cocked his head.
"…" Alastor opened his mouth, but for the first time, no words came out.
And when his gaze narrowed, Vaggie saw Husk's eyes widened. As he slowly began to duck below the battered counter of the bar… and dragged the unthawed statues down with him.
"I'm sorry." The Radio Demon waltzes his way to the floor and right up to the white suited royale. All the bodies behind him falling like rain as he spun his staff, "But just who exactly are you?"
Vaggie sighed, and was about to sarcastically tell the person who sent them on tonight's errant to 'take a guess'.
"He's my dad." Charlie massaged the answer out of her temples first.
"Well, please let your father know-" the radio began to hiss out… before his own static cut itself off. Turning towards Charlie, the wendigo's eyes widened back and forth between the two blondes as if trying to regain a lost signal, "… he's your father?"
"…yes"
Vaggie could almost hear Charlie's fingers drill into her skull.
"Lucifer?" Alastor inquired as if the heiress had brought back a step parent instead.
"That is my name." the elder Morningstar answered. Eyes narrowing as the radio squished his mic down on the devil's top hat. Then brought it up high to his bovine set of ears.
"Really?"
"Yes really!" Vaggie snapped before Lucifer could, "So if you're all done fucking around, let's clean up this mess, fix the lobby, and show the man some Hazbin Hospitality!"
The security guard ordered. Her eyes burned a hole into the radio. Who was too preoccupied studying Lucifer to notice.
And to make matters worse, the rest of the workers who dared lift their heads above the counter were also too flabbergasted by this new wave of shock and awe to heed her command either.
"Oh my God." Charlie groaned, and seeing her girlfriend's shoulders slump, Vaggie's own mind echoed the thought.
For, with even Niffty's gleeful eyes too engrossed by the staring contest going on between the deer and the apple to do her job, she realized this long night was about to become eternal.
XxxxxxX
Nester used his broom to push the scattered bones into the nearest void trashcan Alastor had dotted about the lobby. Still caught between the adrenaline and fear the assault had left him in, the bird was robotic in his movements through the clean up process.
And much like the others, the reason he even had the fuel to slowly go about it, was because the broken corpses needed to be disposed of before they could reform.
That… and everyone needed an excuse to be in the same room as Charlie's family meeting.
"Ssso, wasss anybody else expecting him to be…" Pentious' whisper trailed off, much like his mop, in the direction of the blonde man currently sitting down on the jerry rigged sofa.
"A short king." Angel stated plainly. And unlike the others, he openly stared his confusion at the fallen Angel, despite the murderous gaze Vaggie constantly sent back, "Because I wasn't. Although it explains why all the family portraits here are taken from the waist up."
Nester had to admit though, the security guard's obvious signal was having a hard time quenching even his curiosity, let alone the actor's.
Before tonight, the avian had no intentions of ever wanting to see Charlie's father. Let alone be in the same room as somebody the societies of Earth viewed as the incarnation of evil. For as mind bogglingly off as peoples description of Hell had been, and as nice as its heiress was, Nester felt no desire to find out what religion had gotten right and wrong about her dad.
Of course that was before the man had awkwardly walked himself into the hotel a head and a half shorter than the bird, and with all the grace of a dad joke.
"This fucking place just gets stranger by the minute." Husk grumbled while kicking a fossil into a nearby tar pit.
"You mean more infuriating!" Velvette hissed, her hand flicking out towards the short blonde rather than the mess on the ground, "Like seriously, that's the ruler of Hell? He looks like what would happen if an albino penguin fucked a three ring circus!"
"That is a… weirdly accurate description." Angel admitted.
"You know I can hear you all, right?" Lucifer finally followed Vaggie's gaze upward, but unlike the security guard, his stare harbored more embarrassment than threats.
"The fact you can and have done nothing about it only justifies their confusion." Alastor smiled across from the fallen Angel.
Unlike Nester and the rest of the hotel workers, the radio had plopped himself down right in the middle of Charlie's meeting.
Although, considering the taller blonde currently had her head buried in her hands, she seemed more upset she had to be there than the deer.
"God help me."
Nester could swear he heard her mumble. And the avian almost felt like asking her if she meant her grandfather.
"This isn't how I wanted things to go this evening… but," Charlie took a deep breath, and attempted to make the best of a bad situation, "since you're here dad, maybe it will be easy to show you my point about redemption."
"… are you sure?" Lucifer cautiously questioned as Niffty dragged a bloody corpse past him to her overflowing landfill.
"Yes I'm sure-" Charlie sucked in her answer along with her lips. Evidently needing to take a deep breath.
It was strange, Nester had never seen the heiress seem so uncomfortably upset. Not even in the moments before she snapped at Velvette all those months ago.
"Dad, let me introduce you to the hard working men and women behind you." Charlie motioned to her employees.
And Nester and the others, admittedly, stared at her gesture like a deer in headlights. Which did not paint a great 'hard at work' picture.
"…" case and point, the lab coat wearing guest the heiress first motioned towards was frozen in place. The duster Angel had jammed into her hand having remained fixed since the cleaning process began.
"Um… she's Odette," the actor decided to intervene on behalf of the pale blonde's stage fright, "and I'm Angel Dust…"
He trailed off, and when Nester saw the small blonde's head cock at the street born name, it was probably for the best the spider didn't introduce his profession alongside his title.
"Name's Husk." the bartender grumbled next. Keeping his intro short and simple, and made sure the frantically waving maid's was too, "And the deranged cyclops' Niffty."
The greetings only stained their image more when then red haired Sinner licked the smile she sent the elder Morningstar's way.
"Velvette." the influencer stated next, "But you probably already know that."
"…should I?"
And like father like daughter, the bird saw the Vee's eyes shoot open a silent explosion at the man's ignorance.
"I sssupose not. After all, her reputation is rather sssmall when compared to the great Sssir Pentiousss-"
The fist the doll rocketed into the snake's jaw was significantly more deafening.
"Of course…" the man awkwardly chucked himself into a similarly emotioned silence.
A silence that lasted until the avian realized it was staring at him.
"O-oh… um, I'm Nester… last name still pending." The bird's right hand turned his quill into a buzzing fly, "N-nice to meet you Mister Lucif- Morningstar-… sir."
"Nice to meet you all as well…" the short haired blonde twiddle his words as if they were his thumbs, "I'm Charlie's dad… as she may have told you-"
"Not really, Charlie hates bringing you up!" Niffty's innocent remark stitched the tension in the room tighter.
And despite her best effort, the heiress' faceplant into the twice broken coffee table did not shatter it.
"Now now little one, let's not be rude~" Alastor mused, "Charlie's family woes are none of our business."
"You literally gave us the idea to talk to him." Vaggie muttered.
And Nester felt actual sympathy for the devil when Lucifer's eyes constricted. Clearly hurt by a fact he had not known until now.
Shaking his head, the king of Hell decided to turn his disappointment at Charlie into an annoyance aimed at the radio.
"I'm sorry, just who are you?" he questioned with disdain.
"Oh, how uncultured of me." the wendigo hummed, as if playfully unaware of his oversight, "Alastor the Radio Demon, at your service."
"Never heard of you." Lucifer crossed his arm and pointed his chin upwards.
"Unsurprising, the ignorant never do." the wenidgo's smile sprang up a phalanx of spears.
And when Lucifer's eyes narrowed onto the weapons, looking for a weakness to strike, Nester feared his urge to seek safety behind the bar was becoming a chronic illness.
"Hmph," the elder blonde stuck up his nose, "Charlie did say she was trying to redeem the worst types of people."
Unironically, the owner of the hotel seemed to take more offense from her father's poor quip than the occupants caught in its collateral damage.
"I said I would help all Sinners redeem themselves, no matter what they've done… not that I think the ones in here are the worst." the suited woman rasped out her correction.
"You also sssaid thisss place would be sssafe-" Sir Pentious deflated to the ground when Husk elbowed all the air from the snake's lungs.
"Ahora no, ahora no, ahora no." Vaggie muttered beneath her breath.
And while Nester didn't know a lick of Spanish, he nervously gulped down the meaning of her words well enough.
"Dad- Let me just- You've caught us on a bad night." Charlie fought to finish the sentence. At least her dad's sigh of relief made the second one come easier, "But believe me, the hotel is working. Everybody in this room has made so much effort towards being a better person."
And just like that, the incarnation of evil propped his vision up in another tension filled inhale. His gaze shifted around the room with faltering support. As he analyzed the sadistic smirking deer who sponsored the program, the influencer who turned her views away when one of the more important ones tuned in, and a bartender whose boredom was poorly hidden behind an indifferent blink.
Nester himself decided to take this moment to sweep the floor before Lucifer's gaze could reflect the doubt he always wore.
"I'm sure they have…" the short stacked man didn't believe a word he said, "But, it's not your responsibility to help Sinners… especially those who don't ask for it."
The last words drilled up towards Alastor's choppers. The fangs' response were to grow wider, as if daring the would be dentist to take his best shot.
"…" Charlie took a deep breath.
At first Nester thought she was thinking through a rebuttal. However, when Vaggie's hand motioned over to squeeze her partner's shoulder, the avian's eyes narrowed in and noticed the security guard's digits rumbled from the earthquake underneath.
As the Doorman began to understand that the daughter wasn't at a loss because she had no argument, but was silent because of the ancient one she was holding back.
"I'm never going to be able to convince you that this is my obligation," Charlie finally stated atop quenched frustration, "but can you at least respect the fact I've made it my job… that seems like the best way to go about talking to you anyway."
"Oh damn-" this time it was Angel's turn to fold from an elbow to the gut.
And a quick glance from Husk over to Velvette, convinced the influencer to put the phone she was sneaking out of her pocket away. Less she forced the cat into winning the triple crown.
"Charlie…" the fallen Angel's voice faded to a whisper.
"It's fine, a professional relationship seems to be the best one we have." Charlie bit in her lips and shrugged. Both taking a step away from the table and her partner's supportive hand, "Which is great, because it's more efficient than this false front you've got on."
The edges of everyone's lips fell to the same level as the man hurt most by them. Except for Alastor's of course, which may have actually risen to new heights in the thinning air. And Velvette's, which sprang up and down upon her shrug.
Nester would say the action was rude, but knowing Velvette, she probably wasn't mocking the broken family dynamic. Just agreeing with the merit of how productive a business model type interaction would be.
"It's fine dad," Charlie cut off her father before he had time to get over the slap to the face, "After all, I only came to visit you tonight for the same reason you call me nowadays."
Forget needing to hide behind the bar to escape a fiery explosion, hearing the noiseless whistle in the air, Nester needed someplace to shield himself from the emotional bomb about to hit.
"I need you to tell me what the official rules are for getting into Heaven."
"W-what? Why would you need to know that?" Lucifer whispered. And as much as Nester empathized with how hurt the man seemed by the familial bond breaking before his very eyes, the bird could also see why it was crumbling.
Considering he was pretty sure Charlie had practically spelt out 'Redemption' and 'Help Sinners' multiple times in the last couple minutes alone.
Even Alastor's eyes, which were drinking in the drama, dipped down into the monotone line his lips refused to make. Stupefied by the ancient being's dense personality.
"Because I am going to request a meeting with them on the topic," Charlie stated, a deep breath needed to force out every word, "and I need to know how many requirements my guests have achieved."
She motioned over to Angel and the others.
"If they already achieved all of them." Her fingers wafted on Pentious' twitching body next.
"Or if Heaven had wrongly condemned a person who had already met the criteria."
Her digits lined up with Nester's sight. Cocking his head in confusion, the bird looked to see if somebody was behind him. And only seeing Niffty tossing body parts into the void with a gleeful smile, the bird's eyes widened twice. Before he pointed his fingers to the dumbfounded expression on his face.
Charlie's soft smile and nod provided an answer he, quite honestly, couldn't process.
"Prepare for disappointment then princess-"
Not able to help herself, Velvette did get Husk to knock down his third strike of the night. As the cat's punch shifted the awkwardness from the bird onto the doll heaving on the floor with the spider and snake.
"Truly, an enlightened group of individuals~" Alastor hummed, "May I dare even say divine."
"I know you're just teasing me Al," Charlie's sigh softened to a smile, "But thank you."
"Oh my dear child." The radio mused. Much to the dismay of Lucifer's pupils, "You know my personal beliefs on the matter, but as your investor, the only vision I believe in is yours."
"That's… not… how… investors… work."
Nester blinked at the shaking hand Velvette raised from the floor. Although, whether it trembled trying to catch a breath, or in rage at the one she was gonna take from the bartender, the bird did not know.
"It is when they view their client as family~" the wendigo pressed, "After all, Charlie's practically like the daughter I was never going to have, but would have raised no matter what."
God… it was just something about that bar that kept drawing Nester's eyes in. That, or the nuclear fusion building between Lucifer and Alastor made even the broken pub seem like a high end bunker.
"Well, as the only actual father in the room," Lucifer looked around, and for once made a pretty good assumption based on the stereotypes of all the Y chromosomes present, "I can tell you that's shitty advice."
"Dad?!" Charlie tried to shut down the elder Morningstar's offense.
"Come again?" The radio welcomed it.
For a moment, Nester saw Angel's struggling hand grow up alongside the Vee's… only for Husk to stomp the weed out before its vulgar remark could blossom.
"Parents are supposed to prevent their kids from getting hurt, not paint targets on their back."
Lucifer stood up, which honestly made him seem even smaller.
"Sir-" Vaggie tried to butt in. Being in the rare position of not only having to be the voice of reason, but also the one to defend Alastor's point.
"And how, pray tell, does keeping the secrets of ascension from your daughter keep her safe?" which is probably why Alastor no doubt cut off her rookie attempt, "Or I suppose the better question is, how does lying to your own flesh and blood keep them safe?"
"I-I've never- I don't lie to Charlie! She's never even asked me that question until now!"
"Then tell me the answer now." the heiress hissed out.
"I… I can't." Lucifer's anger immediately found its forward charge shifted into reverse.
"Then my mistake, your highness~" Alastor jumped at the opportunity, "You're not lying to your daughter, you're just willfully withholding information she desperately needs to achieve her dream."
"That's not- I'm doing it to protect her! Heaven's dangerous, so I'm just-"
"Sending her to meet with them alone on your behalf." Vaggie snarked, far more adapted to wear a narrowed gaze then wipe it off the faces of others.
"T-that was different."
"How was that different?! I literally told Adam about my plan for Sinners at that meeting too." And when Charlie scoped her eyes onto the lump in her father's throat, Nester decided to stop worrying about his addiction.
Inching backwards, he started making his way towards the safety of the bar. Although, his shuffle towards it was far from subtle. Considering all the holes in the floor, the bodies, and the frozen status of Odette. Who had remained staring blankly ahead into space, right in the space he needed to pass.
"I-I wasn't aware you were going to discuss that with him." the smaller blonde stuttered.
"Wasn't much of a discussion." Charlie mumbled, "Not that you would have given me the resources I needed to make it one."
"… you don't- It's not that simple Charlie."
Nester sucked in his lips. Two pits of oblivion to his right and left, and a Jurassic Park survivor in the midst of a PTSD episode in front, the bird had little option in terms of excusing himself from the family squabble.
"Then make it simple, and tell me what I need to know!" Charlie snapped, "Because I'm going to talk to Heaven about the rules to get in. And you can either explain to me what they are here, or I can ask Adam in the midst of the next Extermination. Wonder which one will be more dangerous to my well being?"
"I can't tell you, because I don't know Charlie!"
"If I'd be safer right now or during a genocide?! You can't be serious?!" the heiress exploded.
"No, I mean I don't know what the rules to get into Heaven are Charlie!" Lucifer's pupils erupted beneath the weight of his own desperation. And upon that crack plea, his answer echoed loudly across the room.
Nester's own freeze up didn't surprise him, but the suffocating balloons on the floor pausing their lungs claw for air did. Hell, even Alastor's teeth were shaded by a closed lips smirk due to the shock of the situation.
And for a moment, all that could be heard was the rising tension, and the reload of air in the red cheeked woman's-
"Shit." Husk's whistle broke through the atmosphere. And Nester's blood pressure rung next when the eyes of the devil, the deranged deer, and the distraught daughter made there way over to the peanut gallery, "It's about time you two started being straight with each other-"
A fist embedded itself into the cat's stomach. And the bartender fell to the floor along with his whistle turned gasp.
Breathing heavily himself, Nester reeled in his clenched hand. Only time revealed his action hadn't defeated the dumbfounded stares, but had grabbed them from Husk.
"…" Nester blinked when every eye in the room, sans Odette's, reminded him he could, "I… um… I-I thought we…"
The avian's finger would have a better chance flicking his quill into a hurricane than explaining how his action was caused by Husk's unspoken rule on interruptions. And with his words only going further and further off the rails, he decided it would be best to just show them what he meant.
"Sorry." the feathered brunette choked out. Before his right hand swung itself a pendulum into his own stomach, and he choked off his interruption by collapsing it to the floor.
"Stupidly selfless, or selfishly stupid." Alastor sang out when the Morningstars and guard's mouths dropped, "Both of which could be Heaven bound traits for all we know."
Nester's chest convulsed on the ground. And it was hard to tell if the crack going past him was the sound of Alastor's boots or the snap of his hollowed rib cage.
"But I'll leave that discussion for you three." Since the wendigo stepped atop the fallen bird to stand next to Odette… it was probably both.
From his prone position, Nester saw Alastor pick the Carmine up like a two by four under his arm. Before he rolled over to see Vaggie's eye twitch.
"What are you doing?" the security guard scoffed.
"Isn't it obvious," the Radio Demon began making his way to the staircase with the engineer, "I'm putting the kiddos to bed."
Before Nester's brain had nearly enough oxygen to question why Alastor was helping the pale blonde up, five shadowy pools leaked themselves between the tar pits.
And the one that formed beneath Nester, and the other downed spectators, quickly proved the radio's statement was in fact plural. As the first thing the bird did when he sunk down into the thick ink, was fall onto his soft mattress.
XxxxxxX
Being able to write Alastor and Lucifer interacting legit leaves me squealing over my laptop and phone. It's just… it's just so much fun to write XD
That, slightly embarrassing, tabloid aside, thank you to all those who have read through the twenty-second chapter of Drifters!
I will try my best to upload a chapter every Friday. But until next week, please feel free to leave a comment! Criticism is always welcomed, so long as there's an attempt for it to be constructive.
As of this moment I am still looking for a beta reader, so to anyone interested please feel free to shoot me a PM.