About 12 or 13 years ago

Five-year-old Norma stood in line with her mom and her older sister Ananya for the Wheel In Space in Luna Lookout. The line was very long, so it would probably be a while before they could have their turn to ride. Norma was starting to get nervous, and the park was a little loud. So loud so loud so loud. There were vendors shouting, people on rides screaming, sound effects from the rides and games going off. Norma was also sweating because it was kind of hot out. The fabric of her clothes was sticking to her skin. So sticky so sticky so sticky. Everything was so loud so hot so sticky so much so much so much too much too much make it stop make it stop make it stop makeitstopmakeitstopmakeitstop–

Norma covered her ears and sunk to the ground. She hummed and rocked to try and make everything less overwhelming.

"Norma! We've talked about this! Why can't you ever just be good?!"

"Ananya, you know she can't help it."

Present day

"Where are you?! You were supposed to be here ten minutes ago!" Vaggie was talking on the phone with Loona.

"Listen, bitch. My ride's still asleep, and he asked me not to wake him unless it's an emergency."

"Then figure something out. As this resort's sole front desk clerk, you need to be readily available to help any clientele waiting to check in. You shouldn't expect Charlie to keep doing your job for you."

"I really don't mind at all!" Charlie replied from Loona's spot at the resort check-in.

Vaggie turned to her girlfriend. "Okay, dear, but manning the front desk is still Loona's job." Then she turned her attention back to her phone call. "You'd better get here soon."

"Yeah, yeah, fuck off." And then Loona hung up.

Then Barney and Pugsley came into the lobby, the human still in his pajamas. "Good morning, guys," Barney greeted with a yawn as he sauntered over to the breakfast bar to get something to eat.

"Why aren't you dressed?" Vaggie asked. "You're supposed to be out doing your groundskeeper work right now."

Barney took a bite out of one of the bagels he grabbed, tossing the other down for Pugsley. "We just woke up."

"Listen, Barney. If you're living here and working here, you need to be ready to work bright and early just like most of the rest of the employees."

Barney looked around. "You mean the ones that aren't here yet?"

"Don't be a smartass."

Charlie's ringtone went off, and she took out her phone. "I just got a text from Norma: 'I'm running late because my mom had to stop and get gas. Sorry for the inconvenience.' Well at least she's letting us know ahead of time."

"Seriously? Is everyone gonna be running late today?"

Suddenly, Courtney came into the lobby via a rogue bathtub crashing through the ceiling. For some reason, they appeared to be fully-clothed despite the fact that the tub was full of water. "Morning."

Vaggie's eye twitched, then she grabbed fistfuls of her hair. "¡¿Qué coño acabas de hacer, pequeño monstruo comemierda?!"

Charlie put her hands on her girlfriend's shoulders and began to rub. "Vaggie! Control your temper please."

The angel woman let out a sigh. "I'm sorry. It's just so frustrating working with so many incompetent employees! I can hardly trust anyone here to come in on time or otherwise do their jobs properly and not make a total mess of everything."

"Aww, Vaggie. Why don't we close the hotel for repairs and we can take a beach day today?"

"A beach day!" Pugsley cheered. "I love organized fun! Especially if it involves water."

Vaggie smiled. "That… actually sounds pretty nice."

"A team-building beach day to help everyone build better trust in one another!" Charlie added.

Vaggie's smile dissipated. "Oh. Okay."

"Even better!" Pugsley said. "Dogs are pack animals!"

"Come on, Vaggie, it'll be fun! And it'll give us a chance to see our human and demon employees become better friends, like Barney and Courtney are!"

Barney and Courtney looked at each other, then went "Ehhh…" while waving their hands in a so-so motion.

"I guess that could work. We can teach them about trust the way I learned. On the battlefield!"

Courtney smiled broadly. "Ahaha, yeah!"

"What?!" Charlie, Barney, and Pugsley exclaimed in unison.

"No one's trust is stronger than that between comrades in arms! 'Tis the valkyrie way!"

"Vaggie, I love you, and I'm willing to support you in almost every way, but we are not turning the beach into a battlefield!"

Vaggie let out an annoyed sigh. "Fine. We'll do things the safe way."

"That's my girl! Now let's let all of our employees know that we're having a beach day today!" The princess took her phone back out and began texting.

The sun of the Pride Plane shone into Stolas' master bedroom through the window, waking up Blitzø from his slumber. The imp sat up and stretched his arms over his head with a yawn before rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.

"Did you sleep well last night, Blitzy?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah. I slept okay. How 'bout you?"

"Oh, I simply slept like a baby, thank you for asking." Stolas pet one of Blitzø's horns. "I don't remember ever sleeping so well since you came along."

Blitzø rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah, I know. You say that every fucking time I ask you that."

Stolas giggled. "Well, it's true every time I say it. Seven years with you in my life did wonders for my overall wellbeing!"

Blitzø pushed himself out of bed and put his boxers on. "Yeah? And seven years of getting in your pants got me the easiest way to travel anywhere across the Multiplane without taking the elevator so I can take my assassination company to the rest of the Planes outside the Hellish ones."

"And in exchange for letting you use my grimoire, you agreed to be my constant companion and personal assistant imp." The prince playfully pinched Blitzø's cheek before the imp swatted his hand away.

"Yeah. That sorta thing isn't really something I make a fuss about, so long as I'm getting something out of it. Speaking of 'companion', aren't you worried about your horrible bitch of a wife finding out about us and ripping your head off?"

Stolas laughed as he gave his hand a flippant wave. "Oh, no. Stella would never be able to pick up on what we're doing out of her sight."

Then the door opened, and in came Stolas' wife in question, carrying her purse. She just stood there, staring at her husband, who stared back, sitting up naked in their marriage bed, and her husband's assistant, who stared back, standing next to their marriage bed in nothing but his underwear.

"What the fuck is GOING ON IN HERE?!"

Blitzø and Stolas looked at each other, and then looked back at Stella. "Sorry for fucking your husband!" Blitzø said with a nervous grin, and then he ran off.

"Stella? Stella! What are you doing?! Stella!"

Loona sat at the table, scrolling through her phone while eating a bowl of hellhound cereal before Stolas suddenly ran into the dining room in his red robe.

"Hey, is everything okay?" Loona asked.

"Yes, Loona, everything's fine!" Stolas answered with a shaky smile. "You needn't worry at all!"

"STOLAS!"

The male owl demon turned and put his hands up as he backed up slowly. "Stella, please! I assure you there's a perfectly understandable explanation for what you just saw!"

"What I saw was you," the angry hen threw a vase at him, "in our marriage bed," then she threw a bust at him, "with an imp!" she threw a potted plant at him. "A FILTHY IMP!"

"But he's my personal assistant–!"

"Do you want to fuck this one too?!"

Stolas dodged the butler imp that was thrown at him. "Of course not!"

Then Stella grabbed Stolas' wrist and pulled him close. "I wonder what the rest of the Ars Goetia would say if they found out what you are. A disgusting… disgraceful… imp-fucker." She punctuated the last phrase with a slap across the face, and then coldly hissed at him, "You will pay for what you did," as she shoved her husband onto the ground before walking away.

Loona helped Stolas stand on his feet and he fixed his robe. "Okay, that was pretty bad."

"I'm perfectly okay, really. Just a tad battered, is all."

He was clearly not okay, but he also wasn't in the mood to argue about it, so Loona decided to change the subject. She grabbed her phone and looked at the screen.

"Oh, hey. I just got a text from Charlie."

"What does it say?" Stolas peered over the hellhound's shoulder to see for himself, which she pulled away from.

"'The resort is closed for the day for repairs to the hotel. Please come over anyway–'"

"'–for a day of team-building fun on the beach.'"

"That sounds like fun!" Norma's mom said.

"I don't think I wanna do it, though."

"Why not?"

"Why isn't 'I don't' a good enough answer?"

"Norma, I think a team-building beach day will be good for you. You'll get to make new friends and gain new perspectives."

"But what if I don't want to do either of those things? Besides, I didn't bring a swimsuit."

Then the car pulled into a rest stop at the side of the road before turning in the opposite direction.

"Mom, what are you doing?"

"We're going home so you can pick up your bathing suit and beach supplies."

Most of the Happy Hazbins Resort employees stood around on the beach, most of the supernatural employees wearing glamor, and everyone dressed in bathing suits or other beach-friendly gear. Then a portal to what looked like the interior of a mansion opened up, and Stolas, Blitzø, Loona, and Octavia stepped out, also wearing glamor and beach gear. "Hello, everyone! Thank you for waiting for us."

"Alright, it looks like almost everyone's here!" Charlie said. "Now we just have to wait for Norma and the life coach I hired for the day to get here and we can get started!"

"Life coach?" Vaggie questioned. "You didn't say anything about hiring a life coach."

"Yeah! His name is Harmony, and he agreed to host some trust-building activities for us."

"I don't know why I'm even here," Octavia said. "I don't even like Earth beaches."

"Come now, Via," Stolas told her. "It's nice to get out of the house once in a while. Besides, this is a good opportunity for you to make some new friends!"

"But I don't know anyone here."

"You can get to know people here," Blitzø said. "Most humans are pretty gross, but hey, maybe you'll find one you like. Like… what about that guy? They look fun!" The imp pushed Octavia towards a skinny person with dyed red-and-cyan hair which matched the 3-D glasses they wore.

"Hi. Name's Jade Nelson, film enthusiast, but everybody calls me 3D. My pronouns are they/them, and I run the resort's theater."

"You wanna know a fun fact about your favorite movie? Look it up," Badyah added. "They'll go on for three hours. Hi. I'm Badyah. I work over at Phoenix Park with Josh, Janelle and a few others."

"Phoenix Park? You mean the theme park that a subpar human actress opened and modeled after herself because so many celebrities' egos are so massive yet so fragile that they feel the need to erect such grand, commercialized things so that as many people as possible know how supposedly great they are?" The young owl demon smirked.

"Uh… I don't…"

"Norma! Hey!" Barney ran over to his friend, who was walking over to the rest of the group, eyes cast down at the sand and one hand rubbing the other arm up and down.

"You didn't respond to any of my texts and I was starting to wonder if you were coming. What took you so long?"

"Anxiety. New people are scary. People in general, really."

"That's because you don't know anyone yet. Why don't you start by learning everyone's names?"

"Well, there's Ms. Morningstar, the assistant manager, the lifeguard–"

"I mean actually learn their names."

"But what if I get them wrong?"

A van painted with images of unicorns, galaxies, and eyeballs with wings pulled up onto the beach. The driver's door opened, and out stepped a seemingly human man with honey blond hair that reached his upper back and a goatee of the same color. He was dressed in loose, baggy clothes and a chain necklace with a skull charm that had reddish-purple gemstone eyes. "Greetings, you beautiful, unique souls. In my current life cycle, as a trust-building guru, I am called Harmony."

"Hello, Harmony!" Charlie greeted with an energetic wave. "I'm so glad you could come and lead us in our trust exercises today!"

"Indeed." Harmony walked over to the group. "Ms. Morningstar has asked, and paid me, to bring you all together in a family of love, trust, and understanding."

"That's right! We've all got things that make us different in our own unique ways, and you might not think you have much in common," the employees all looked at one another, "but in time, you'll hopefully see that you're all more alike than you've ever realized. And these exercises that Harmony has planned for us are sure to let us see that and help us better work together to make this resort the best we can make it. Because teamwork makes the dream work!"

Harmony nodded. "Yes, yes, that's all fine and good, and trust is the thing that binds us together. Now, who can tell me what the opposite of trust is?"

Norma raised her hand. "Mistrust?"

Harmony pointed to her. "Close! It's actually fear!"

"No, I'm pretty sure the opposite of trust is mistrust."

"Which is often brought about by fear," Vaggie supplied.

"Right. Fear is the monkey on your shoulder telling you not to connect with one another." Harmony walked up to Logs and mimed grabbing something off of his shoulder and throwing it into the distance. "And today, we're going to toss that pesky monkey into the ocean!"

"Poor little guy."

"Now, each of you will group together in teams of two."

Vaggie stood next to Charlie. "Okay, so I'll be teaming up with Charlie, because as her assistant manager, I–"

"Oh, no no no no no no no. I will be picking the teams at random, and the partners you end up with will be the ones you remain with for the rest of our trust-building journey."

"That's even better!" Charlie said. "We should practice building our trust in people we don't already know that well."

"Yes, that's right. Now, Ms. Morningstar, you will be with… this fellow." Harmony pushed Charlie towards Stolas, then proceeded to select more employees to team up together, starting with Vaggie and Norma, then Barney and Angel Dust, then Logs and Loona, and so on and so forth.

"Hey! Looks like you're my partner, Octavia," Badyah said.

"Every second I'm here brings me closer to wanting to kill myself."

Badyah laughed while putting an arm around her. "Oh, Octavia, you're a riot! I can already tell we're gonna be great friends."

"Who said you could touch me?"

"Now, then, let's get started with our exercises, starting with the Stare of Trust," Harmony announced. "Eyes are the windows to the soul, and each of you will look into your partner's and say something deeply personal about yourselves. Now, begin!"

Each of the employees sat down on the sand, sitting across from one another and looking in each other's eyes.

"My name is Charlie Morningstar, and I love this resort and all of the employees who work here."

"Well, hello, Ms. Morningstar. My name is Stolas, and I deeply care for my assistant Blitz with every fiber of my being." This prompted an annoyed groan from the aforementioned imp.

"My name is Barney Guttman, and I've been transitioning for about six years now."

"Hello, Barney Guttman. My name is Angel Dust, an' I really, really, really like to suck–"

"I sincerely hope the next word out of your mouth isn't dick," Barney deadpanned.

"Popsicles! Jeez, kid, getcher mind outta the gutter, will ya? But yeah. I like suckin' dick too."

"My name is Niffty, and sometimes I like to kill mother bugs in front of their children as a warning to others."

"...My name is Pugsley, and I feel extremely uncomfortable right now."

"Norma, you need to take this seriously," Vaggie said sternly.

Norma stared back at her through the sunglasses she was wearing. "What makes you think I'm not?"

Harmony walked by, inhaling deeply through his nose. "Ahh, fear."

"What do you think you're doing?" Vaggie asked him.

The life coach ignored her and announced, "All right, now for our second exercise: the Fall of Trust!"

"Trust falls are a very important metric of measuring trust. You don't know if you can trust your partner unless they catch you if you fall."

As Harmony spoke, each of the employees fell backwards into their partners' arms, Loona backing away to let Logs fall on the sand, Pugsley running away from Niffty and hiding behind Barney, and Norma just standing there while Vaggie stood behind her, awkwardly holding her arms out.

"Aren't you going to fall?"

"How can I be sure you'll catch me?"

"I will. You can trust me. Just fall backwards."

Norma fell face-forward onto the sand below.

"Why did you do that?"

"I panicked!" Norma's voice was muffled by the sand.

"Now for our third exercise, and my personal favorite, the Maze of Trust."

The employees all gathered at the beach's obstacle course. Harmony put blindfolds over half of their eyes. "In the Maze of Trust, your eyes are obscured by darkness. Only by working together with your partner will you be able to escape the maze."

Vaggie locked eyes with Alastor. "Alastor, I swear to the Divine if you do anything to 3D."

"I wouldn't dream of laying a hand on anyone while they can't see. The pain is worse if they're able to see what's happening, anyway."

"What'd you say?" 3D asked.

Alastor patted 3D on the shoulder. "Nothing, my dear androgynous chum!"

"Alright, now begin!" Harmony announced.

The blindfolded employees tried to make it through the obstacle course by listening to their partners' instructions. "Go left! No, yer other left!" "Okay, Octavia, now raise your right leg." "There we are. Watch your step now."

"That's it, keep movin'." Courtney guided Moxxie towards a hole, which he fell in.

"I saw that!" Millie cried as she pointed a finger at them.

Then Barney tripped and fell on top of Logs. "Shit, I'm so sorry!" He lifted off his blindfold. "Are you okay?"

Logs took off his own blindfold. "Yeah, I'm fine. How about you?"

Barney blushed and smiled sheepishly. "Uh… Yeah. I'm okay."

Vaggie rolled her eye before turning her attention to Norma. "Okay. Now, Norma, in front of you are some traffic cones which you'll have to weave through."

"What?"

There were so many voices overlapping over each other. Norma could barely make out what the assistant manager was trying to tell her. She couldn't see a thing through the blindfold Harmony put over her eyes, so her hearing seemed to be amplified. Everything was so loud so loud so loud. The afternoon sun was beaming down so hard it was so hot so hot so hot. Norma couldn't see through her blindfold but she knew everyone was staring at her because she was having a freakout right in the middle of the obstacle course and everyone else was there and they were judging her and–

"Why are you so full of fear?" the life coach hissed in her ear, putting extra emphasis on the last word.

Norma fell to her knees, covering her ears.

"Norma? Are you okay?" "What's wrong with her?" "Shouldn't someone do something?"

"Don't look at me! Stop looking at me!"

"Norma."

Norma took off her blindfold, and saw Barney crouching in front of her at eye-level.

"Norma, do you wanna go somewhere quiet?"

Norma nodded, and she stood up to follow him.

"We'll be right back, everyone! We're just going to have a water break real quick!"

Barney and Norma sat down at a spot on the beach that was farther away from the group. Norma picked up a handful of sand and let it run past her fingers. "I don't understand why it's so hard for me to be social and stuff. I'm so stupid."

"You're not stupid, Norma. Your autism just makes some things harder for you."

"Maybe I am full of fear like the life coach said. Everyone could see it."

"He shouldn't have said that. Just because you don't have the easiest time with people or sensory stuff, that doesn't make you 'full of fear'. It just makes you a little different, and that's not a bad thing."

"You sound like Charlie."

Barney stifled a chuckle at that, and then said in a peppy, falsetto voice, "Inside of everyone is a rainbow! We can work together to help demons, angels, and humans get along, because teamwork makes the dream work! Now let's all sing a song about togetherness and love~!"

Norma laughed.

"Gather 'round, children! It is time for our fourth and final exercise of the day."

Barney stood to his feet. "Ready to go back?"

Norma nodded and stood to follow him back to the rest of the group.

"Ah, good, you're all here. Now we can begin our final exercise: feeding our fears to the Skull of Fear!" Harmony held up the skull charm on his necklace. "Each of you will reach deep inside the darkest recesses of yourselves and find your greatest fears, and then once you've found them, take the Skull and let them flow through your hand and into it." He took his necklace off and held it out. "Now, who would like to go first?" He locked eyes with Norma. "You?"

"Uh… I…"

"It's just a game, Norma," Charlie assured her. "You've got nothing to worry about."

"I guess…" Norma reached her hand out and grabbed the necklace.

"Hold the skull in your hand."

Norma lowered the skull charm into the palm of her other hand.

"So… what's supposed to happen now?"

Harmony smiled. "You've fed your fear to the Skull of Fear."

"I'll go next!" Charlie took the Skull in her hand, before she went into a trance.

Charlie was suddenly transported to what appeared to be the lobby of the resort's hotel, but much more decrepit, like it had been abandoned for decades. Everything also appeared to have been burned in a great fire of some kind.

"Wh… What happened here?"

"Well, well, well, looks like you couldn't really get everyone to get along after all, could ya, Char-Char?"

"Dad…?"

Standing behind her was her father, the king of all of Hell himself. "That's right. And I've come to rub in your face how much you've failed at this little endeavor of yours. Like, come on, kiddo! You should've known that angels, demons, and humans could never put aside their differences! Like, seriously! How could anyone be so damn naïve?!"

Charlie started to tear up. "I… just wanted to make the Planes of Existence better for everyone…"

"Ha! Good job at that! Just look at this place!" Charlie's dad gestured to the charred lobby. "Face it. All the Planes of Existence think you're a failure and a laughingstock. As a matter of fact," Dad snapped his fingers, and Charlie was suddenly sitting on a tall stool and wearing a dunce cap on her head, the Deadly Sins and her mother standing all around her, "I invited all of the other Deadly Sins and your mom to laugh at you!"

Everyone pointed and laughed.

Charlie sat on the sand in the fetal position, clutching her head with her eyes shut tight. "No! Stop laughing at me! Please!"

"Charlie? Charlie!" Vaggie shook her shoulder to try and snap her out of whatever was going on. The angel woman glared at Harmony. "What did you do to her?"

Harmony chuckled. "I didn't do anything. Ms. Morningstar fed her deepest fear to the Skull, and thus the Skull gave her a vision of her deepest fear." He picked up the Skull and pushed it into Vaggie's hands. "And now it's your turn to feed it."

"Like Tartarus I'm gonna–" Vaggie went into a trance of her own.

Vaggie was standing in a barren, misty realm. She looked around, and saw Charlie standing in the distance with her back turned.

"Charlie?" Vaggie ran over to her. "Charlie! I'm here!"

The princess turned her head to glare at her with disdain in her eyes. "What do you want?"

Vaggie flinched. "Ch-Charlie?"

"Charlie, what's gotten into you? Please, this isn't like you! Charlie!"

"Miss Vaggie?" Pugsley tugged on the angel's shorts. "Are you okay?"

Harmony nodded at him. "Go on, then. Pick up the Skull."

Norma reached out to try and stop him. "Pugsley, no!"

But the pug picked up the Skull in his paws, and immediately went into his own trance.

Pugsley was all alone on the beach. "Hello? Where did everyone go?" The wind suddenly picked up, and coming out from the nearby woods was a giant, monstrous vacuum cleaner which roared at him. Pugsley ran away screaming, clinging tightly to one of the ropes on the climbing wall of the obstacle course to keep himself from getting sucked up.

Pugsley was clinging to the climbing wall of the obstacle course, Barney stroking his back in an attempt to soothe him. "Please, don't suck me!"

"Pugsley, buddy, it's okay."

"Do we even wanna know what he's seein'?" Husk asked.

"I dunno," Angel Dust replied. "Probably not."

"Yeah, prob'ly not," Blitzø added.

Harmony strolled over and picked up the Skull. "Now, then, who wants to go next? Mr. Blue?" He tossed the necklace over to Barney, and Norma immediately ran over to catch it herself, the two of them ending up touching the Skull at the same time.

Barney was sitting at the dinner table at his Aunt Becky's house. Seated across from him was his Grammy Gram, glaring at him with cold, hard eyes as an endless barrage of insults and criticisms spilled from her wrinkled mouth.

Barney covered his ears and shut his eyes. "Grammy Gram, please stop! Why isn't anyone saying anything?" He looked at each of his family members, his heart sinking when they all just continued eating like nothing was happening. "Mom? Dad? Not even you, Aunt Becky?"

"Barney? What's going on?"

The blue-haired boy whipped his head around to see Norma standing behind him.

"Norma! What are you doing at my Aunt Becky's house?"

"I don't know! I think because we both touched the Skull of Fear at the same time, I got sucked into your fear world."

"Cool. Do you think you know how we can get out?"

"Maybe if we work on getting over what you're afraid of here, we can escape and hopefully help Charlie, the assistant manager, and Pugsley escape from their fear worlds. Now what are you afraid of? Is it the brisket? The tacky wallpaper?"

"No," Barney sighed. "It's my grandma. She can't stand the fact that I'm trans and never stops criticizing me about it. My parents never stand up for me whenever she goes on her bigoted rants. I'm lucky my Aunt Becky has my back, but I'm afraid she'll stop defending me too."

"Well… even if nobody else has your back, you still need to stand up for yourself and fight for the right to be who you are. Because who else will if you won't?"

Barney's brow furrowed with determination. He took a deep breath, and locked eyes with the illusion of Grammy Gram. "Grammy Gram, leave me alone. I have the right to express myself in my own way, and I'm not gonna let anything you say discourage me from being myself! If you don't like it, well… you can fuck off!"

Suddenly, the illusions of his family and his Aunt Becky's dining room shattered like glass to give way to the Happy Hazbins Resort's beach.

"That worked!"

"Okay, now let's go free the others."

Barney and Norma ran over to the obstacle course before they were stopped by Harmony.

"The exercise isn't over yet." The life coach took his skull necklace back. "There are others who haven't yet had their turn."

"Why are you doing this?" Norma demanded.

He transformed into a massive, blue-gray, slug-like monstrosity with slimy, writhing, black-tipped tentacles protruding from everywhere on its body. "Because I'm what's known as an Emotivore, specifically one that feeds on fear."

"And your name is Harmony?" Barney asked.

"Actually, it's Harm-Many. You know, as in how many people I harm? It's a play on words! Anyway, humans are absolutely riddled with fear. It used to be so easy to bring it to the surface back in the day with just my true form, but thanks to the advent of horror movies, I've had to up my game a little. But you!" The demon pointed a tentacle at Norma. "You're already so scared of everything! I didn't even need to create a fear world for you. All I had to do was feed!"

"Leave everyone here alone!"

"Uh, what's going on?" Logs asked. "Why'd the life coach turn into a demonic sea slug thing?! Am I dreaming?!"

"Seriously?" Loona questioned. "You're only just now realizing this resort is a hub for supernatural bullshit?! Some of these jackasses don't even bother to use glamor!"

"I thought they were just wearing costumes!"

Courtney laughed before patting the human on the side since she couldn't reach his shoulder. "Oh, Logsy-Boy, we're gonna hafta have a long talk once this is done."

"You want me to leave you alone?" Harm-Many asked. "Fine. If you're able to set free the three friends of yours that I've already trapped, then I shall go my merry way."

"Come on!" Norma and Barney ran for the obstacle course, where surely enough, Pugsley was still clinging onto the rope for dear life.

"Maybe if all three of us touch the Skull at the same time, we might be able to reach Pugsley."

"Right. On three." Barney raised his hand, Norma doing the same.

"One…" Barney took Pugsley's arm.

"Two…" Norma placed the Skull on the pad of Pugsley's paw.

"Three!" Both humans simultaneously put their hands on the Skull, and they were transported to Pugsley's fear world, where the poor pug was being sucked up by a giant vacuum cleaner.

"No! Please! Don't suck me up!"

"Pugsley!" Barney and Norma ran over to him. "We're here!"

"Barney! Norma! Hurry, you gotta grab onto something or the giant demonic vacuum cleaner will suck you!"

"Pugsley, it's not real!" Barney said.

"It's just an illusion!" Norma added. "It can't really hurt you!"

Barney opened his arms. "Just let go! I'll catch you! Come on, boy! Come on!"

"Okay." Pugsley let go, and was immediately caught in his best friend's arms.

"Hey. Why aren't you guys being sucked up?" Pugsley asked as he took notice that his human friends' feet stayed on the ground.

"Because it's not real, like Barney said," Norma answered.

"Well, I guess they don't make vacuum cleaners that big."

"Even if they did, we would never let anything happen to you, Pugsley," Barney assured. "You're safe with us." And both humans pet the dog on the head.

Pugsley's fear world shattered just like Barney's did. The three of them, led by Norma, ran to Charlie and Vaggie. "Now let's go help Charlie and the assistant manager! Come on!"

"All I ever wanted was to make the Multiplane a better place!"

"Charlie!" Charlie looked over to see Barney, Norma, and Pugsley standing there.

"What are you guys doing here? Have you come to laugh at me too?"

"What? Of course not! Why would we?"

Charlie reached up to wipe the tears from her eyes. "Because I failed at bringing peace to the Multiplane, and I failed at getting all three races to get along in harmony?"

"Charlie, you didn't fail!" Barney said. "Living at the hotel has let me see that demons aren't as evil as I thought. At least not all of them are."

"And learning about angels and demons has become my new special interest!" Norma offered.

"And thanks to that awful demon king possessing me, I know how to talk and walk and do other stuff like a person!" Pugsley supplied.

"I… I guess you're right. I'm so glad I was able to touch each of you in a meaningful way."

Charlie stepped down from the stool and opened her arms to bring her employees into a hug, which Norma declined.

"No thanks. I don't like physical touch that much. But I appreciate the sentiment."

All around them, the illusion of Charlie's worst fear shattered to bits, and they were back on the beach, where the demon princess saw Vaggie standing right next to her, pleading with someone who wasn't there. "No. Please."

Charlie looked at the skull necklace she held by the chain, and then looked back at her girlfriend. She walked up to her and gently took her wrist, the palm of the angel's hand facing upward. "I'm coming to save you, Vaggie." And she placed the Skull of Fear in Vaggie's hand before touching it herself.

"No. Charlie, please, I'm sorry! Please don't shut me out!"

"It's too late for apologies." Charlie went into her demon mode. "From this day forward, you no longer exist to me."

"That's your worst fear, Vaggie? That I would hate you and no longer want anything to do with you?" The real Charlie put her hands on her girlfriend's shoulders. "Sweetheart, I promise nothing you do could ever make me hate you!"

"I just don't want to end up disappointing or failing you…"

"That won't happen. I love you, Vaggie. And I'll still keep loving you no matter what." She wiped the tear from the angel's eye with her thumb.

"You really mean that?"

Charlie laughed softly as she brought her into a hug. "Of course, silly. You know I would never say something if I didn't mean it."

Vaggie returned the hug. "Thank you, Charlie."

The illusion of Vaggie's fear shattered to bits around them, and they were back on the beach with everyone else, including a sea-slug-like demon who was currently being attacked by Blitzø and his associates while they repeatedly dodged its flailing tendrils.

"What's going on over there?"

"I think it's the life coach's true form, and the imps are now trying to kill him," Norma answered.

Vaggie crossed her arms. "Ah. That tracks."

Blitzø and Moxxie shot at Harm-Many, the bullets being absorbed into his body. Millie slashed off one of Harm-Many's tentacles with a hunting knife, only for it to immediately grow back and knock her away.

"Argh! Could you stop being so fucking invincible?!" Blitzø growled.

Harm-Many chuckled. "You silly imps. Emotivores can't be killed unless the artifact they use to feed off of others' emotions is destroyed."

"Hey, Harmony!"

Harm-Many turned his attention to Norma. "It's Harm-Many."

"Whatever. Watch this!" Norma tossed Harm-Many's skull necklace into the air, which was Blitzø's cue to shoot it and break it to pieces, which fell to the sand below.

"NOOOOO!" And then Harm-Many's head exploded, orange goop splattering everywhere.

Vaggie spat. "Ugh. I think some got in my mouth."

Alastor swiped some of the goop with his finger and licked it off, to everyone's disgust. "Mmm, not half bad."

Blitzø blew on his gun. "Yeah. I just fuckin' saved the day. You're welcome."

"Actually, it was Norma who saved the day," Barney said. "She broke us free from our fear worlds. Let's give it up for her!" Barney, Pugsley, Charlie and Vaggie all applauded her, everyone else quickly joining in.

"Yeah, okay, but I still shot the skull, guys."

"Sir, you wouldn't have been able to shoot it if Norma hadn't thrown it," Moxxie informed him.

"So why didn't that skull trap you in an illusion of your worst fears like the rest of us, Norma?" Vaggie asked.

"Because my fear world is the real world. I was able to free you from your fear worlds because…" Norma looked around at the crowd of humans and supernatural beings, and took a deep breath in, "the fact that I go ahead and face my fear world every day anyway, the fact that I'm so scared of everything and still go out and experience it, that doesn't make me weird or stupid or pathetic. It makes me brave."

"You are very brave, Norma," Charlie said. "Not a lot of humans could stand their ground against an Emotivore. Now why don't we clean up here and just relax for the rest of the day?"

Everybody voiced their approval of the princess' suggestion.

Some employees decided to go home, while some decided to stay and have fun on the beach, lying on the sand, playing in the water, or playing beach volleyball. Barney and Pugsley came back to the picnic table Norma, Charlie, and Vaggie were sitting at with some cold treats for everyone. "Hey, guys! We're back with the ice cream!"

"You know, this is probably gonna sound weird," Norma said as she ate her sundae, "but I think I really like working here."

"Oh, Norma, I'm so glad to hear that!" Charlie chirped.

"I think I'm pretty good at helping people with luggage and showing them their rooms and holding the door open, but it's just… dealing with people outside of work that I have a hard time with. People in general are funny, and not in the 'ha-ha' sense. They just don't make a lot of sense to me, you know? And half of the time, neither do I."

"I get it," Vaggie said. "You just need to find people who understand you well enough." She smiled at Charlie, who smiled back.

"Like Barney?"

"Yeah," Barney replied. "Like me."

"Hey. Norma, right?" Norma looked up and saw Octavia standing next to her.

"Oh, hey. Olivia, right?"

"Octavia. Um, so anyway, it was pretty cool how you… defeated that Emotivore before he could trap everyone else in their worst fears."

"Thanks. All I had to do was expose myself as the most fearful person here." Norma gave a weak chuckle.

"Oooooh, looks like Via was able to make a new friend after all!" Blitzø piped up as he, Stolas, and Loona walked over.

"I'm so proud of you, my starfire!" Stolas said.

Octavia pulled her hat over her eyes, but still smiled. "Ugh, you guys are so embarrassing!"

"Hmm, you know, I wonder who could have summoned Harm-Many here in the first place," the older owl demon mused.

"What do you mean?" Norma asked.

"I mean, Emotivore populations have almost entirely died out before the Great Division, and the only way any more could come to existence is by someone summoning them through a ritual. Surely someone must have summoned this one to the Neutral Plane without any of our knowledge."

The Watcher perched on top of one of the cars in the parking lot, observing his newest recruits from a safe distance. "So far it seems like those new recruits of mine are passing my test with flying colors. Harm-Many hardly even stood a chance against Eyebrow Girl. Although, I probably shouldn't start upping the ante just yet. We've still got at least a little more time." And he vanished out of sight.