Author's Note: Hello, hello, hello to all the readers who have tuned into another weekly installment of Drifters. Outside of the fact this chapter is dropping on schedule, I don't have too much else to say in this section of the pretext.
So onto the reviews!
Gamer of Action44D: Lol, your comment was worth the wait as well dude!
I'm really glad Lucifer's take on Heaven's and Hell's dynamic, as well as his philosophical relationship with time, was well received. While the scene was a blast and a half to create, it is by far the section of the story that's undergone the most rewrites.
I was a bit nervous Lucifer was gonna come across as too out of character. But, after watching his duet with Charlie a bunch, I kind of came to the conclusion that the reason he's such a goofball is because he doesn't like the fact he has a somber and serious side. And, luckily for me, those two traits can actually have a good ebb and flow to them. Which is really fun to write.
As far as Lucifer already having tried to Redeem Sinners in the past, I always thought his lines in 'more than anything' were in reference to when he had tried to help Lilith and Eve back on Earth.
But that's just my take on it, and I can definitely see how it could be more in line with your interpretation. With Lucifer having tried to help Sinners after they had started showing up in Hell. Which honestly, sounds like an awesome premise for a prequel fanfic revolving around a young Lucifer trying to redeem the first human Sinners… and if your take ends up being what Vizzipop meant, then we can drop the fanfic part, because it sounds like a cool idea for a prequel cartoon.
Now as far as God goes… I know the community's got a really cool fan character for God. (Who, as far as I know, is a non canon character created by the fandom.) And, while I love what I can only describe as Disney's version of slender man, my fic is more in line with the canon universe. Where God is neither confirmed or denied to exist, and the Angels are just as much in the dark on the matter as humans.
The Carmilla and Alastor scene was so much fun… but you're 100% right about Alastor's use of video being weird. And as much as I would love to say it was a planned anomaly, or the answer for why he made a video call is something that can't be revealed, the truth is much more straightforward.
Which is… that I forget Alastor's issues with video extends to his unwillingness to use the media on himself XD
Which is a big air head slip up for me to make, and I very much thank you for pointing it out… because if you didn't I guaranteed it would have come up again in the future XD
Thank you for the long review as well man! Getting one like this not only makes me feel good about my writing, but also helps it improve! AKA One of the best types of comments!
An Angry Green Boss: Thank you for your review too man! Vaggie's one of the best characters in the show! And I'm hoping we'll get to see more of her interactions with Lute and Heaven in future seasons because I definitely would have loved to see more of it in the first one.
Which is probably why the second Main Character OC I made for this story is another Exorcist. Who, I'm hoping, can do a good job showcasing the relationship dynamic the Exorcists have with one another.
I know that was a lot to get through, but I honestly had too much fun replying to the reviews to apologize about the length.
Regardless, 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 24:
By Default
Amp usually loved being the strong silent type.
Whether that be when she constructed and repaired her drones out in the distilled air. When she analyzed the footage of her enemy as Heaven's eyes in isolated peace. And especially when she flew down to slay her foe, Angelic blade singing a melody built from rest.
Such a divine silence had been believed because her actions were absolute in their goodness. Granting her mind a justified state of zen.
However, caught in the midst of her sister's infectious heresy, Amp found that personality trait more and more unbearable. For without the comfort of her actions, questions of her own sickness racked her brain like a violent storm. Building up a pressure of sin that rammed into the warrior's stitched mouth. Yearning, demanding, and Hell, almost requiring itself to be released.
Such a despicable craving had assaulted Amp the moment Vaggie's betrayal had been displayed. Keeping what she saw, and what she would have to do, a secret was hard enough when she was by herself. Doing so around Lute and her Commander granted the word 'difficult' a whole new definition.
But all that paled in comparison to the effort it took the Exorcist to keep quiet in this very moment.
For doing so when facing the High Seraphim was borderline impossible.
Right now, Amp was no more than an insignificant accommodation in the Angelic being's peripheral vision. If, for whatever reason, the full gaze of the star freckled woman shifted to her, the soldier feared she would quite literally bend over and be sick with the truth.
"Why must I even ask," luckily, Sera's words bored down a silent thunder on the golden king Amp flanked as one of two rooks, "that you have revealed this alarming news to me, only after I sought you out in regards to a separate issue."
Skin seeming to flow with the celestial nights of creation, Sera's command came down with everything but the question mark. And Amp's background tremor rattled her instinctual gulp down her throat.
In the pit of fire below, she and her sisters had faced the worst of Earth's evil and the ravenous hordes of Hell's filth. Yet, even in her slender humanoid form, Sera's righteous height and authority seemed like an unmountable force.
And with her pupils caught in the trap of chasing an end forever out of reach, Amp's eyes could only offer a peripheral view on how the Seraph's presence affected her comrade and Commander.
"… well, they're obviously not very separate now are they?" Adam's humor cautioned itself through his masked fangs.
And while Amp had witnessed her leader's sense of jubilance hit or miss with a number of different Winners… this was the first time she had heard the man's comedy fail himself.
"Alright, too soon." He coughed as Sera's narrow eyebrows shined on them a parental scorn.
"Clearly it was not soon enough." the Seraph sighed.
"Okay, considering our drone's trip from Hell to Heaven traverses reality itself, I'd say getting this message within twenty four hours is pretty freaking fast-"
"Not when Lucifer's request for a meeting arrived before your warning." Sera stated her decree.
Amp's sweat came out red hot embers, all but forging her mask to her face.
Although Lute had said she and Adam would be the ones to bring the evidence up to the council long before Sera's announced visit, the Watcher knew the hours her guilty conscience needed to strip Vaggie from the film was the true culprit to blame.
"Why does that matter?" Adam nervously tried to shrug off the weight of Sera's authority.
Unfortunately, the celestial Angel's presence proved too massive to move in. And perhaps graciously for Amp, to even think.
"Forgive me your holiness," Lute's crisp words were as dutiful as ever. If, maybe, a tad bit more civil, "but he brings up a valid concern. Why do you need to provide Lucifer a reason to dismiss his request?"
"Because I now know there is a reason too." Sera's tone didn't grow angry, so much as it simply… grew.
"Wait… you didn't agree to a meeting with him did you?!" Adam's stupor came out a shout. One that basically told Amp's bones to resume their rattle.
"…" Sera's mouth closed. Which allowed her previous statement's echo to haunt them with the answer.
"He can't- How could- Ignoring the fact the King of Hell could arrive with weapons that can literally kill us-"
The silent Exorcist wasn't even aware of who was uttering such frantic words. Until Sera's head turned… and Amp realized in horror she herself had been the one talking.
"I-I'm sorry, it's just, how can he even talk to you?" she changed her panicked bark to a question of disbelief, "Wasn't he banned from the realm?"
The curiosity that flowed from Amp's lips was sucked into Sera's eyes as if her pupils were black holes. And with the weight of the singularity now fixated atop the Watcher, the lowest ranking Angel felt her kneel to the floor almost turn into a fall through the clouds.
"There are some things you cannot understand child." Sera's words constricted themselves around the Exorcist's lungs. The event horizon wafted into Amp a calm order. Yet at the same time, bore into her with the pain of an emotionless threat. "The workings of the council and are contact with the fallen Arch Angel being two of them."
Amp was grasped by a level of terror she didn't know was possible.
In this moment of light casting its power atop an insignificant lump of atoms, even the first man and Amp's Lieutenant shuffled away from her in fear of Sera's wrath.
"So do not cry for things you cannot understand."
The Watcher wasn't even aware she was shedding tears till they struck her knuckles frozen hail,
"Weep knowing your actions can affect them."
Mercifully, before Amp felt the need to cast herself away in self disgust, the Seraph turned back to the first human's decision she chastised.
"Your subordinate is right about one thing however," Sera's words did little to slow down the silent streams Amp trickled down, "the Morningstar has been eternally barred from our realm, and can never return to Heaven, let alone stand within its high court."
"…" Adam remained silent for a moment. The hesitant gaze he spared his downed guard felt like a feather compared to what she just experienced, "But you made it sound like you agreed to let him-"
"The council," Sera's emphasis of the collective will nearly came out a sigh, "has agreed to let ambassadors of Hell stand before the court. So that we can address… concerns Lucifer's daughter harbors regarding a soul's capacity for redemption."
"Okay, well, problem fucking-" Adam paused when the density of the room rose once more. And Amp feared her first, and still ongoing, panic attack would simply flow into another one, "Freaking solved. We have literal video evidence of one of the Hotel bi-…bimbo's guests using one of our knives to kill another Demon! Inform the council of that, and they'll never let her in."
Adam tried his nervous chuckle once more… but this time even a plain glare from Sera was enough to wash away his laughter.
"Unless…" he swallowed his previous words as best he could, "that's a dumb idea because of an obvious esoteric reason my ape brain can't see."
"It is…" Sera closed her eyes in annoyance. At least, it sounded like that to Amp. Who was still too afraid of falling through the ground to look up, "But the main problem with your plan has to do with the agreement made between us long ago."
"Huh-" the first man's confusion was cut short by his own breath of realization, "Oh right… guess you still haven't been able to explain things to Em's."
"As stated, the necessity for your crusade goes beyond the justification you can grasp for it." Sera was, if not quick then, determined to make her point known, "As are the reasons only a select few Seraphim carry the burden of its existence."
"Hey, I'm not going to be the one to break the news if you don't want me to." Adam tried to regain his casualness by throwing up his hands in a mock surrender. That, from Amp's view on the cloud, seemed rather real, "But even if Charlie's not coming up here with a sleeved dagger, I guarantee her bag's gonna have a cat stashed inside."
Sera's presence dimmed slightly in contemplation.
"When I first met her, the idiot literally broke out into a song about it before I could finish my lunch." Adam mumbled.
"I shall work out a way to prevent the topic from being brought up…" Sera's voice furrowed her brow, "But you certainly will not be the one to reveal it to Heaven."
Amp's head found the, if not courage, instinct to look up just enough to see Adam suck in his masked fangs. And for Lute's to open beneath eyes that had been in silent contemplation this whole time.
"And neither will Charlie." her sister's words sailed up towards Sera. And in shock, Amp witnessed her Lieutenant withstand the higher being's fixed stare.
"Did you not hear what I just said Exorcist?" the Seraph's tone narrowed through her eyes, "Or can you not even understand your inability to do so?"
"Forgive me," Lute's bend to her knees was far more voluntary, "I do not mean to speak out of turn. However… you had stated one of the rules I can comprehend is that the Morningstar is not allowed in Heaven."
"That is correct." Sera's low voice raised an eyebrow.
"As his daughter, is Charlie not a Morningstar," the head Exorcist reasoned, "and therefore barred entry from our realm?"
"…" above them, the celestial Angel's motives remained closed, even if her aura pulsated as if she was about to declare Lute's point absurd. However, no correction came, "I am unsure if the council will deem such an interpretation of the decree valid enough to cancel the meeting altogether…"
Instead, Sera's question was cast out as a line for her sister's response to bite.
"You do not need to terminate it, merely point out how Hell's ambassador cannot be a Morningstar…"
Lute's gaze fell upon Amp, and with it, the lower ranked soldier remembered she was part of the conversation.
"B-based on our findings, Charlie's hotel has plenty of Sinners that can go on her behalf."
Amp blinked. Not aware her head was in a pointless nod of agreement till Lute's look away signaled it to stop.
"… once again I must reiterate, your minds simply cannot grasp the complexity of how the council acts." Sera began to rise. Her mouth glowing brighter until it was warmed into a celestial beak beneath a halo, "But once again, I must remind myself that your actions can still affect a flow you cannot see."
Amp watched in transfixed awe, at the purity of a being so good it made her terrified of her own hidden darkness. And even as the Seraph began to disappear within her own blinding light, she left the group below with a promise of her return.
"And if that current shall lead a Sinner in place of a Star to our gates, it will be the Exorcists I trust to ensure their proper… guidance through the realm." a flash of light appeared, and just like that the celestial being was gone. Leaving only her echoed words behind, "As well as our realms protection from them."
The sparkled remnants of decency fell upwards. And it wasn't until the Angel's final decree ascended far beyond their reach, that Amp had the stomach to stand.
"Freaking philosophic turd." Adam eventually muttered. As the Watcher's slow turn to him had less to do with his insult of the Seraph, and more so the lasting effect Sera had on his watered down vocabulary, "Nice job wading past her enlightened crap Lute. Last thing I wanted was to have to debate that Broadway loser in court."
"Just doing my duty sir." Lute's snap to attention triggered Amp's flinched salute.
"That's why you're my number one!" Adam clapped the Lieutenant's back, before he shot a smirk at her lagging sister, "Hope you were taking notes Ampster."
"O-of course sir. I-I apologize for my…" the Watcher bit her tongue when too many answers left it tangled, "For my everything."
Adam sneered humorously at her slump into a defeated posture. But shrugged his own shoulders into a lazed one.
"Don't sweat it too much," he stated, "Sera's a handful even when she's not in a bad mood. Still, if you could have got us that info just a tad bit sooner…"
He mused, a pit of guilt formed in her stomach that the hand he waved couldn't fan away.
"I-I take full responsibility… please sir, I'll make it up to you." Amp spoke desperately.
"Oh, I know you will." The first man confirmed, "After all, since you're the one who pissed off Sera, you're the one who's gonna work the most overtime"
"Sir?" She breathed out confused and concerned. The former emotion grew faster when her Commander looked at Lute, and chuckled at her rolled eyes.
"Before I tear them a new one in court, I'm putting you in charge of making sure the Sinners that drag their sorry asses up here don't cause a problem. Be that a violent or political one." Her boss stitched a smirk, "Needless to say, I don't have to tell you what Sera will do to us if you fail."
Amp felt the residue of the Seraph's presence stop her heart.
"I assure you, I will not."
XxxxxxX
"You want us to do what?" Husk's monotone question echoed the one that had left Charlie's deflated lungs.
"… represent the hotel before Heaven's-" the heiress's smile hissed out a response that crashed into Vaggie's deadpanned voice.
"They heard you hon." the guard sighed, "Like the rest of us, they're just wondering if this is a nightmare."
"I-I'm still not convinced my whole experience here hasn't been some sort of fever dream." Nester's shock was stated flatly. Almost if the words he spoke were truly nothing but pushed air.
"For the first time in fifty years, I'm starting to think the same fucking thing." Husk, didn't growl more so then he, rudely moaned his be-wilderness forward, "I mean for God's sake Charlie, why on Earth would you even want us to go up there instead of you?"
The heiress's smile remained despite the heavy tones putting noticeable strain on the structure's edges.
"B-because you two are valued members of our team, and the perfect people to represent our goals before the Angels court!" Charlie popped up two thumbs. Quite literally needing to reinforce her own terrible attempt at enthusiasm.
Especially when Husk's monotone glare bore down with the force of a one ton blink. And fearing a total collapse of her improvised plan, the blonde quite literally couldn't bring herself to look at Nester. For if she did, she may just see his anxiety had produced a silence so potent, it popped him out of existence.
"You want to translate that optimism into English for us?" the gambler turned his call to Vaggie.
"She's not allowed into Heaven, and needs somebody else to represent her." The white haired woman reflected Husk's plain drawl back at him, "Given the hotel's cast of characters to pick from, you and TweedleDum are the best attorneys we could think of."
"… and by best." Husk crossed his, "You mean I'm too nihilistic to get us into trouble, and Feather's is too shy to cause a scene."
"Yeah, pretty much." Vaggie sighed.
"… even if that's true," the Doorman's panic finally opened its way into the conversation. As the metaphorical barrier he swung open rammed into Charlie a mass of guilt. "don't those same qualities make us the worst choice for lawyers?"
The heiress opened her mouth to alter his worry into some sort of advantage she could encourage the avian with. But one look at his pale face vanquished any such argument.
"Alright, he brought up a solid point in a shitty way," Husk pinched the bridge of his nose until it squeezed a mumble out his throat, "but it's a solid point nonetheless. We don't exactly have the charisma, knowledge, or people skills to make your case."
Charlie shot the cat a confused glare twice over. All why Nester's quill jackhammered a series of head nods into her temple. The force of the strikes even seemed to chisel at an empathic nerve within her stone faced partner.
"But Vaggie does!"
That lasted until the bird accidentally shattered the statue. As the gray hued woman's own rapid head shake countered Nester's.
"At least the knowledge part." the brunette's pen became a blur as he tried to glue the stumbling point back together, "She made the hotel with you after all, she should definitely be the one to go-"
"Absolutely not!" The guard shut down Nester's plea like the door he never opened. And the silence that followed in its echo brought with it a series of blank stares. All of which caused the spear wielder cheeks to light up a furnace, "S-sending me up would be like sending Niffty. Only difference is, I'll be stabbing people in a fit of rage instead of glee."
Charlie's smile finally collapsed into a frown. Vaggie had already made it clear she wouldn't go to the hotel owner. Of course the heiress had tried to convince the guard she was being overly dramatic about her violent tendencies.
To which her partner had countered,
'The last time you trusted me to handle a crisis peacefully, it ended with three brain damaged Imps.'
Needless to say… Vaggie had gotten her way.
"I know what I'm asking goes far beyond your job description guys." Charlie took a deep breath. And given Nester's nods roared themselves into a slow shake, she turned her plea towards the bartender who might just listen, "Believe me, I wish I could go in your place. But evidently, not allowing the Morningstar into their domain is one of the first rules they made. And my dad and I aren't going to be able to point out the technicality of a ten thousand year old law in a month and a half."
"But that's plenty of time to get your last name changed!" Nester desperately offered. Only for the shake of Husk's vexed head to back hand the point away, "… isn't it?"
"I don't…" Charlie felt awful about the hurdle she threw before Nester's idea. And truly, her mind did try to at least entertain his loophole. But try as she might, the hard timeframe Heaven had set only led her to a dead end, "I don't think they're going to delay the trial long enough for me to do that… nor care if I did."
She trailed off and looked towards Husk once more, unable to take the pounding of Nester's beating heart.
"Just when is this trial?" evidently the cat couldn't take the stress of the ticking time bomb either. And with far more reluctance than the curiosity that could kill him, the bartender asked for more information on a promotion he didn't want.
"They said a portal would emerge for our delegates at Nine O'clock next Monday." the Heiress cautiously squeaked out. As if elongating the words upon her own meekness would make the short amount of time they had seem longer.
"… Charlie." Husk's tone dropped, clearly seeing the four days' message she tried to hide. Although between his fallen shoulders, and face that began to melt into his soft fur, the blonde couldn't help think the cat's puff of air was more a sympathetic sigh, "I'm a lazy son of a bitch, and I don't want to drag Nester's molting ass up to Heaven for a number of selfish reasons. But even if I wanted to go, Hell even if Nester wanted to go, we don't have the time to make the same argument you would."
"And I'm a shitty student, so even with all the time in the world-" Nester's rapid support for Husk was cut off when the gambler's elbow struck his lungs like a wrecking ball.
"I-I know..." Charlie took in the wavered breath her fallen Doorman grasped at. For a moment she wanted to adopt the same desperate eyes the grounded avian had. But leveling out her exhale, her wetted lens shined with a polish look of determination, "I know that even after I prepare you guys night and day with my argument, the likelihood of Heaven accepting it is slim. Heck, I even know that if I was allowed to go up there, and had been preparing for this moment before the high Angel's every day of my life, my chances of success are pretty much zero."
The hopelessness of her words did not match the building determination of her tone.
"But that doesn't mean we shouldn't try." she stated as a fact she stared into Husk, "Which is why I need you two to go on my behalf. Because even if in this moment you lack the passion I'd make my argument with, and the courage to even speak my argument at all… I truly think you guys are the best people we have to show Heaven what Redemption is."
The bartender was silent, and for a moment, everything but his reflective eyes seemed to exist.
Boom!
"Oh ssshit! Minionsss!" That was until Sir Pentious' slurred voice rode down from his room upon the sonic booms of an experiment gone wrong.
"The only guys who can show it without something blowing up along the way that is." Charlie admitted, as for once she didn't want to know what happened in the serpent's room to cause a trail of smoke to start roaming down the stairs.
"Fair enough," the cat stated, his arms uncrossing as he fanned away the soot, "but as much as Feather's and I are the most civil people here by default, you still need a person who can understand the book smarts side of making a sales pitch."
Despite Charlie's frown, from the ground, Nester's sputtering lungs finally sighed out a gust of relief. Until the following inhale of smoke sent him into another coughing fit.
"And as much as Nester and I can ensure the hotel's peaceful image remains intact, they'll rip your argument to shreds if we can't adapt to what they throw at us."
"So…" Charlie's courage finally trailed off. And she feared all she did was set up Husk's decline.
"So if you're not gonna let Vaggie tag along, then you're gonna have to trust me and Feather's to keep the Vee in line."
"What-" the color Nester's face lost was obscured by the black cloud his cut off scream wheezed out.
"You can't be serious?!" Vaggie finished the yelp for the bird. Although, remarkably, more shocked at who Husk suggested they should go with, rather than the mind blowing fact he agreed to go at all.
"She's a cold corporate bitch, who makes a fortune getting people to buy pieces of shit." Husk sneered, "Can you think of anybody better to convince Heaven about a lost cause?"
The security guard's mouth hung open, but the next words uttered were through Charlie's smile.
"No… no I cannot." Despite the pollution, the blonde's breath gave her determination a much needed second wind, "Thank you Husk."
"Seriously," the cat waved off her gratitude and the fire hazard, "don't mention it. And don't expect me to break the news to that bitch either."
The cat fought off the smoke with a bottle of whisky he poured down his throat.
"God knows I'm gonna have enough work added to my plate these next couple of days. Not to mention the pain babysitting Feathers and a sociopath in Heaven will be."
"Don't worry…" Charlie smiled and turned towards the inferno she walked up to, "I think they'll surprise you."
Husk himself had certainly shocked her after all.
XxxxxxX
"Are you shitting me?!" Vox's crackled laugh shot into Vel's ears as if she had just given him a pile of gold on a silver platter, "Fucking, Alastor can be as smart as he wants, but this bitch he's got running the show is basically making him brain dead with all the ammo she gives us!"
The pinkette rolled her eyes.
"So I take it you want me to accept Charlie's offer?" she didn't even know why she asked.
"Does Val take shits on his actors?" Vox laughed at his own rhetorical question, "Of course I want you to go!"
"So much for her death by a thousand cuts." Vel sighed, "But I guess this is too good a deal for me to even care."
The influencer felt a pit of disappointment fill her stomach. An odd feeling for her to have. Especially when her goal to destroy the hotel was clearly going to be achieved.
After all, it may be more because of Heaven's effort then hers now… but at the end of the day, the divine's destruction of Charlie's dream was always going to produce the mountain of despair Velvette stood atop at the end. How she painted the Angels target was a mute point… right?
"Just make sure my things are ready to go the moment I get back." she tried to lock her focus back onto Vox through a narrowed threat, "When I start openly dismantling this redemption bullshit, the cat and the bird's balls might be filled with enough anger to finally drop. And God knows if I've gone far enough to piss off them, then I definitely don't want to be at Vaggie's mercy when I get back… or Charlie's."
"You won't have to be." Vox's chuckle became a snicker he couldn't quite shake off, "Because you won't betray anyone."
"I'm sorry… I think I misheard you." Vel's focused lens widened in confusion, "Because it sounds like you just said you want me to go up and make Charlie's argument for her."
"That's exactly what I want." The electronic's fangs sparked a smile.
"Why?" The smaller Vee's back snapped to an upright position, "We can basically ensure victory with this."
"Charlie ensured it the moment she agreed to meet with Heaven." Vox's face lit in pure blue joy, "Whether you stand by her or badmouth her to those Angel pricks, they're still gonna piss on the Hotel Bitch's idea either way. Since you'll be nothing more than a cameraman with a script, better to make the one you read keep your cover up."
"I guess but…" Vel saw the logic, but narrowed her eyes at the point she didn't see, "What do you mean by cameraman?"
"You're going to broadcast that shitty trail to all of Hell!" Vox's arms shot forward, and their reflection in the influncer's eyes stretched her orbs to size of dinner plates, "Where they will not only see Charlie's idea crash and burn, but the kindness of the Vees who built her safety net. Fuck, the value of our Exterminations Eden's gonna increase so much, I don't even think I can call the poor fools who are gonna flood them suckers anymore!"
"That's all well and good. But, even if we had the means to send a broadcast from Heaven, wouldn't that itself be an act of betrayal once it goes live?!" Vel was shocked by her own desperation to make that point.
"Who the Hell says we're doing the broadcast?" Vox's self induced laughter once again rose to an uncontrolled crackle, "All we have to do is send out an alert that our network has been hacked by an unknown entity. The second those cloud hopping virgins appear on screen, nobody is gonna think twice about who did it."
"They will when Heaven says the broadcast wasn't theirs." Vel tried to choke out a reason that she knew wasn't there.
"Cause the people who come down to slaughter us like rats are so concerned about the integrity of our news~" Vox's nearly slipped off Vel's wrist when he doubled over in hysteria, "Face it, the only truth they want us to know is how fucked we all are. If they cared about anything else being accurate, our business would have been destroyed the day it started~"
Vel sucked in her lips. She'd say that was an assumption of Vox's end. But based on all the facts, it was more so a well educated guess.
"Alright fine… but what makes you think our tech can even send a broadcast from Heaven back to Hell?" the pinkette threw out the last bit of confusion she could think of.
When Vox went to punch his screen, the influencer thought she had finally chiseled out a pothole in her partner's speeding mind. However, his motion quickly proved to be a changing channel.
As the screen reflected in on itself the clear pixelated sight of a designer phone, cased in a golden frame with two Hermes esc wings flanking out the top, filled the watch she viewed it on.
"Can't speak for our tech. But you know more than anybody that half the shit we crap out comes from bits we reverse engineer from their drones." The TV's chuckle drew static lines across the screen, "But unlike the low cost material we used to create our replicated products, this personal transmitter's made of 100% Heaven grade trash!"
Vel's eyes blinked once, twice, and then a third time.
She wanted to state that none of that proved the device could stream the live feed. Or that even if it could send one from Hell to Heaven, they had no way to know if it could work in reverse. She wanted to say that and so much more… but she couldn't.
Because she knew what Vox would say.
That she would be finding all that out Monday.
And rather than be forced into silence by the TV's logical point, the pinkette instead retreated into the noiselessness of her mind.
"Didn't I promise you the newest model?!" Vox choked on his own humor, which the influencer listened to without hearing.
For all she could wonder about, was why in the Hell did she no longer want it.
XxxxxxX
Thank you to all those who have read through the twenty-fourth chapter of Drifters!
Barring any site outage, 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.