PuzzleMaster1998;
I sure hope I can live up to... well, whatever the expectation might be, thanks!
RyantheSamurai;
"Maybe? Who knows... and, I checked the channel, but I will try to build something more in the lines of what the show might offer rather than a particular concept. Thanks for the suggestion.
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"Great, fucking dryer is dying on me, gimme a few minutes and I'll be out!"
"Y-yeah, sure. N-no hurry."
"Say, does your type of folks eat? I don't really know much of how Heaven people work!"
"Huh, no. Well, not usually, but I've been feeling pain in my stomach lately, and getting a bit lightheaded."
"Greeeeaat, that means you're already starving! Didn't you realize what it was?!"
"Angels don't need to worry about such needs. Eating, drinking, and... other things aren't really a concern anymore. Errr... at least they weren't."
"Well, sucks to be you. I cannot imagine not having to do any of these things! Well... I guess I could appreciate not having to use the bathroom ever again. Don't get me started how fucking annoying is to get cleaned up after... well, shit!"
Collin made a face while looking away towards the opposite wall. The last hour was rather strange, if anything that happened already wasn't crazy enough. Loona, despite Blitzo's most persistent complains, took the sheep with her to the side of the building where the bathroom was located. Collin stood outside near the bathroom door while he awaited for Loona to finish her improvised bath. Needless to say it took forever, considering the amount of anxiety Collin was suffering under the current circumstances. He was stuck on a rather unpleasant place, to put it lightly. No way out, nowhere to go and no reason to leave either. Where would he even go if he managed to escape Hell? He meant it when he said he has nowhere to go, but to think he might be stuck at Hell forever, the very thought of it made him shiver, his chances of staying hidden for long would be slim.
He wished there was a way to go back in time and change things, but that was a foolish thought and him trying to be in denial of his current situation, there was simply no way back of the absolute world of shit he got himself into. A stab in the back could literally come from anywhere and he wouldn't be able to do anything to avoid it. He was on his own is this nightmare and he failed to see how it could end.
Loona shocked him a bit by defending him from the wrath of her alleged foster father, a concept that Collin was still dumbstruck to learn about. How could Hell actually even host an orphanage was beyond him, but it also made him curious as to why the Hellhound was in an orphanage in the first place. It wouldn't surprise him if her parents had been murdered or she simply was abandoned. It was Hell, what else was to be expected? Yet, the thought made him feel a twinge of sympathy for the Hellhound, she probably endured a very difficult childhood.
Moxxie and Millie came by occasionally asking Loona if she needed anything, which was surprisingly considerate in Collin's personal opinion, although they ignored the sheep on those short visits. Loona replied to their worry with rather rude words, to which Collin couldn't help but wonder aloud why she was being so dismissive of their concern.
"Oh, don't worry about it, Loona's like that all the time." Moxxie said, addressing him for the first time, much to the sheep's surprise. The Imp sounded very formal and well mannered if compared with any other in this building. Collin couldn't help but notice that they both were wearing bow ties. "We got used to it after a while, you will do too if you stay around long enough."
"I can hear you through the fucking door weasel dick!"
"Umm, okay?" The Cherub replied, looking uncertain of how to behave in this situation. It was extremely bizarre to be talking so casually with such creatures. He decided to have a conversation going anyways. "So, it seems that after I was banished my aura of immortality was removed."
Collin already had been wondering what else he lost after the Cherubs had their privileges taken away, he expected to lose most his powers, but not also the very energy that kept them alive, or rather kept them out of need to be taking care of their bodies.
"Aura of what?" Moxxie asked, looking extremely puzzled. The sheep sighed while formulating a proper explanation inside his head.
"Angels have this powerful aura that prevents them from decaying, either due diseases, time, or lack of organic sustenance. Therefore our only concern is merely existing and assisting."
"Huh, sounds incredibly dull to live like that."
"You mean boring as fuck!"
"Well, yeah. I couldn't imagine not having a way to enjoy eating, drinking, and so many other things, though surviving time itself sounds pretty handy." Collin raised an eyebrow.
"But... your kind surely has the same type of immortality?"
"Ehhh, not quite." Moxxie scratched the back of his neck, sounding far less confident all of sudden. "We still can get sick, starve, and other things that would kill most living beings, except that we have a high tolerance to extreme heat."
"Me and Blizto made a bet Moxxie would be the first one to die if something bad happens during one of ours jobs. Cause the dumbass always find a way to get into trouble!"
"Hey! I do not! Wait! You two bet on me dying first?!" Moxxie stood perplexed while glaring at the door. He could hear snickering coming from inside. Collin didn't know why but he found the scene to be somewhat humorous. Although he knew it was better to not laugh at Demons. "For fuck sake... anyway, yeah, basically we do not have such auras like the one you described."
"I see, I'm surprised I'm not suffering from the heat effect though." Collin could tell this world was far more heated than Heaven or even the Human world, but for whatever reason he didn't melt into a puddle yet. "I was expecting to catch on fire at any second, but I guess the transformation gave me some benefits." Moxxie raised an eyebrow, looking at the ship with curiosity.
"What transformation?"
"Well, remember the... other two?" Collin replied sheepishly. Moxxie nodded.
"Hard to forget to be honest. Even in Hell just having some stranger to invade your workplace for the sake of murdering you is troublesome."
"You probably figured that they were the other two Cherub that were with me, remember? That day with Lipton."
"Oh,... oh! Wait, these two were...! What happened with them?"
"Those weirdos were like you?! I thought they were some hired punks that captured you or something."
"No, after we crossed the portal that Striker opened, we immediately started suffering the mutation effects. It was rather painful but, for whatever reason, my changes were minimal if compared to them. I'm not sure why."
Moxxie nodded, looking pensive as he started debating with himself about the possible causes of the changes only two of the Cherubs suffered to a greater level.
"Probably cause the other two were complete shitholes, guess Hell felt more like changing them to what they actually were."
Both Collin and Moxxie glanced at the door with surprised looks on their faces.
"That's... actually a very good guess. Although it still doesn't explain why Hell felt the need to change Collin, even if on a smaller scale." Moxxie replied, intrigued by the event. He definitely would do a later search in regards to such changes. "This type of occurence is actually very common and goes back since Hell's creation. I may try to look into it, although I wonder if such knowledge would be so o-
"Why the fuck are you two talking?!"
Moxxie jumped as Blitzo shouted behind his back. The Imp stumbled into a nearby small desk, shattering it completely.
"Oh, fuck's sake Moxxie! Watch your clumsy ass!" Collin couldn't help the indignity he felt at such injustice.
"It's not his fault, you scared him off!" The sheep accused with a frown. Blitzo instantly came right in front of the sheep, gun on hand and looking every bit of frightening as he could.
"Are you trying to fuck with me?" He said on a near whisper, which made Collin freeze on the spot.
"Blitzo! I can hear you! Behave!" Loona shouted from inside the bathroom and she sounded distinctly annoyed.
Blitzo groaned, looking and sounding every bit of frustrated he could manage. He kicked a nearby chair while walking away, muttering several death threats and curses under his breath. Collin let out a sigh of relief once the tallest of the Imps was no longer on sight.
"Don't take him wrong, he's always on a difficult mood, you get used to it after a while." Said a familiar female voice that the sheep heard very briefly before. He looked around to see the girlish Imp standing near Moxxie, helping him to get up and dusting his clothes from any pieces of debris. "Well, as well one can hope to get used to at least."
"Huh, right. I suppose." Collin replied hesitantly, last time he saw that particular Imp she was carrying a huge ax and giving him a very unsettling look. Millie seemed to realize his weary stance, she tried to ease his nerves a bit even if she found the presence of the sheep to be rather... troubling.
"Name's Millie, I guess you already talked with my husband." She indicated Moxxie at her side. Collin gasped, looking at them in bewilderment.
"W-w-wait... husband?! You two are..."
"Married? Yeah, what about it?" Millie quickly replied, feeling a bit offended at his perplexity. Collin immediately raised both his hands on a gesture of surrender.
"No, no, no! Don't take me wrong, it's just..." The sheep bit the inside of his cheek, feeling much more conflicted than before. "This is a lot to take in, I mean... you two love each other, like... a lot?"
"Obviously?" Moxxie replied with a chuckle. "Why other reason we would be married if not that?"
"Urgh, someone kill me." Came the Hellhound's voice through the door.
"Loona, you ok in there? It's been over an hour."
"Piss off!"
Collin almost laughed at how silly the female canine sounded, but he wanted to keep his throat intact so he refrained from doing such. At least he felt more at ease seeing that the Imps were also finding the situation to be rather comic.
"Heaven taught us since we were... well, born. I don't really recall much of my youth to be fair." The sheep started with a frown.
"Uh, how old are you exactly?" Moxxie asked with genuine interest.
"About... twenty two." The sheep replied, still struggling to gather his memories.
Collin thought he heard something crash inside the bathroom, but ignored the noise for the moment.
"As I was saying, Heaven educated us for many years about life overall, but when the talks went about what Hell truly is, I have to say they clearly overdone tremendously on certain aspects. Yeah, murdering and other things like that are done with discrimination and-
"Actually, the murdering thing tends to be very specific." Moxxie interrupted with a tone of apology, which astonished the sheep completely. "We do have a rather... complex system regarding doing plain murder of anyone in Hell. Let's say when it happens it tends to be personal. Satan wouldn't be pleased if everyone in Hell was dead after a few days on nonstop murdering sprees. Sure, the Demon Lords would come unscathed, but we have way more Imps and regular Demons. If murdering was a thing we could do whenever then Millie would've killed everyone by now."
"Awww, honey. You're such a sweet." Millie said, giggling happily while cuddling her husband. Collin wasn't sure how to feel about that particular reaction so he decided to get back on track.
"Yet, when it's about Humans you really don't care." The sheep couldn't help but point it out. Moxxie coughed, looking a bit flustered all of sudden.
"W-well, we do it cause we get paid by someone who wants revenge on a living person. But, huh... I guess we may have killed more than it was necessary."
"Did we? I don't remember-
"Spring Break, Forest Station, Seattle, Quebec, New Hampshire." Loona started naming several locations that they've been acting the past months. "Toronto, New Boulevard, H-
"Okay, okay, maybe we did went overkill at these occasions." Moxxie interrupted with a tone of exasperation. "How do you remember all of those anyway?"
"You serious? I have to sit my ass in that fucking chair and fill all the shitty paperwork every time you three are away having fun!"
"But you did come with us... a few times." Millie said sounding unsure.
"Only two times, and Spring Break sucked dick! I was doing pretty much nothing that day. At least those losers from that weird agency gave me something to enjoy!"
"I've been telling Blitzo to let you come more often, especially after how well you did to save their sorry butts when they got captured." Millie said with a smirk. Moxxie grunted, still feeling sore about how easily him and Blitzo got done by Humans that day. "Besides, it does wonders for your mental health, you became way less aggressive once we were back home after all that exciting adventure."
"I am not aggressive!"
"You do sound quite mad at times, to be fair, yells often too."
"Shut the fuck up, Collin! Or I will toss your head inside the vase!"
"Sounds far better than the things she says to me." Moxxie couldn't help but comment. Millie rolled her eyes before pulling the other Imp along with her.
"Alright, let's get going and finish cleaning that... err, stuff we were doing." Millie quickly corrected herself once she caught Collin's look.
The sheep watched silently as both Imps left, he was having a hard time processing that such things as marriage and pure love could actually exist in Hell. Why would Heaven lie so blatantly about such a thing? The more Collin saw, the greater the desire to question anyone in Heaven regarding those things, but it would be very unlikely for him to be able to contact anyone from that plain again.
So enthralled he was with his own thoughts that he didn't notice Loona coming out of the door nearby him. As soon she came into view he threw her a quick glance, only to immediately bring his hands up his mouth in an attempt to contain a sudden laugh. The wolfness, while clearly dried herself, didn't seem to bother using a brush to keep her fur smooth. She looked like a puffy cat, even her hair was shooting at all directions. Loona eyed him with a daring look.
"One fucking chuckle, just one, and I eat your damn legs." She warned, her eyes glowing menacingly. Collin gulped nervously.
"H-huh, s-sure." He stuttered, a half smirk on his face as he tried his best to keep steady. "Say, what are we doing now?"
"Well, before anything, you are also taking a bath." She replied, looking down at him like an scolding mother. The sheep raised an eyebrow, looking puzzled at the forceful suggestion.
"Huh, why?"
"For real dude? You fucking stink! When was the last time you took a bath?! I could feel the moment you came into the building, but I wasn't really sure where the smell was coming from." Loona said, looking at the Cherub with an air of frustration. "Get in there, wash yourself. There's soap in the box, do not use any of the shampoos." She warned, looking slightly concerned all of sudden. "They are not meant for... well, your type."
"Okay..." Collin felt very embarrassed by the accusation, he failed to notice that he was actually emitting such unpleasant odor. His nose had been rather distracted by other things, especially blood. "Err, I will get to it then."
"Leave your clothes here."
The sheep tripped on his way in, turning around so quickly that he almost swatted one of his wings on Loona's backside.
"What?! What do you mean?" He quickly inquired, looking very worried. Loona chuckled at the sheep's panic.
"Relax, it's just to make sure your clothing won't stink, it's not like just a bath would solve it. I also changed, although I tend to have an extra set for situations like this." She explained, looking amused at the sheep's fright. "Get in there, thrown me your clothes or whatever. Pfff, not like I really care about what you look naked anyways." She added with an eye-roll.
Collin could almost swear that Loona was not being very truthful about what she just said, but he decided to follow her instructions anyway. He glanced back constantly to make sure she wasn't trying to trick him or anything. Which only earned him a rather disturbing reprimand.
"Look, would you fucking hurry up?! If I really wanted to see what you look underneath I could just kill you and rip your clothes apart!" She said, looking slightly pissed off. Collin couldn't help but stare back at her in shock.
"That's... an horrible thing to do, even by... well, whatever Hell's standards." The sheep replied, sounding appalled and undignified. "I get you do murder and whatnot, but stripping someone naked even after they're dead? That's beyond barbaric."
"Dude, this is Hell, you will have to get over it real quick." She replied with a touch of irony and bitterness. "The more you understands nobody cares about respect around here, the quicker you will get used to it."
"I have no reason to disrespect anyone. I... may be frightened of dealing with Demons, but... you are one of the reasons of why I... don't really feel compelled to leave." Collin admitted, his hands holding each other and he glanced at the floor rather timidly. "It's... strange... to actually meet someone in Hell I actually... might trust to a certain degree. I don't really think you own me anything, especially since you didn't let the others kill me."
Loona stared at him, feeling rather strange as she watched the sheep express his gratitude towards her so oddly. She wasn't sure how to feel in regards to the guy. He seemed okay. Well, definitively he was far beyond a much more decent person than anyone in the entirety of Hell, which for her it was a weird way of seeing the situation. This sheep doesn't have a single drop of second intentions plaguing his soul, nor seems to have a reason to lie about anything. He's so brutally honest and innocent regarding anything, that she was having a hard time finding a reason to hate him somehow. Blitzo clearly despised the guy, but Millie and Moxxie were on the fence about him, yet she saw what his values truly are and she had no more doubts that he is the only trustworthy living being in this plain of existence.
'Maybe... fuck, am I really considering this?! Blitzo will be very pissed, but... it's not like I care much at this point anyway.'
"Say, Collin, did you... have any friends in Heaven? Aside those two idiots from early?"
Collin was taken aback by the question, surprised she took the conversation that way so abruptly. He nodded hesitantly, although he wasn't really sure about the truth of his reaction.
"I... may had few? I can't really say how much of friends they actually were. There were other Cherubs that I talked with occasionally, some higher angels aswell. Nothing really personal or meaningful, we just talked for few minutes and that's it. I... was close to Cletus and... Keenie, but that really didn't work out." The sheep ruefully admitted, feeling a pain in his chest when reminiscing the times he shared with the other two, at least there were some good memories, despite all the wrong doings.
Loona nodded slowly, looking thoughtful as she looked at the sheep more thoroughly. She wasn't really doing anything else for the day, Collin needed a bath and, most important of all, a desperate need of change regarding his appearance.
"Say, why don't we head out after you're done? I know a person that can help you to get a fix on that awful look of yours, they do it cheap too. I will get out in few minutes anyway, since the client we were expecting for the day was a trap there's not much for me to do." She offered while trying to sound bored, but Collin saw through the act rather easily. His ears perked in surprise at the rather friendly gesture and he couldn't help the tiny smile on his face. Loona quickly looked away, his facial expression made her feel very awkward.
"S-sure! That sounds really, errr... cool?" He said tentatively, unsure of what kind of words Loona would react to more favorably. She nodded, still keeping her eyes away. "Oh, okay then. I... will get with the bathing thing."
"Sure, just leave the clothes outside the door and I will take them to the washing machine."
"Huh, there's a laundry in here?"
9
"We needed anyway, otherwise how else we clean the blood and gore from our clothes?"
Collin felt it would've been better if he didn't ask anything. Before he could add anything he heard a rather loud growl coming from the depths of his chest, he blushed madly as he realized what it meant.
"Heh, riiiiight. We might get something to eat on the way too. I hope you don't mind eating meat." Loona said with a chuckle.
"Can't really say. I have ever eaten meat." He replied sheepishly. Loona stared in utter disbelief.
"No way dude! You're totally missing out! Get this done quick and I will show some of the good stuff around."
Collin nodded, feeling a bit more at ease. He closed the door until Loona could no longer see any part of him, he sighed while removing the clothing from his bother, feeling it rather difficult to do it so since he was now larger than he should, the clothes didn't really adjust properly to his increased size, he felt something sharp poke at his backside, he quickly looked around to realize that he still has the gun Striker gave away attached to his back at hip level. A frown made on his face as the glow they were emitting didn't return after this long, which cemented the fact that whatever spell the gun carried lost its effect once he entered Hell. There was also the fact that the Cherubs were actually being somewhat expected when they arrived in the office, which made Collin even more assured that Striker wanted things to go wrong after all.
'Never trust the word of a Demon.' Collin admonished himself. 'A Hellhound though... we will see.'