Welcome! Welcome to the little brain gremlin in my head that won't shut up until I write it out.
This is gonna be a doozy. My first multi-chapter fic in the fandom but definitely not planning to be my last. Even though I have the greater majority planned out I have no idea where this will take me so your guess is as good as mine as to how this thing will turn out. Updates are not set in stone. I've tried doing that before and it stresses me out. (work is already trying to send me to an early grave) Chapters come out just as soon as I write them.
The title actually comes from a speech by Pres. Abraham Lincoln about following our better angels: respect, compassion, community, generosity, ect. No one in Hell is a "Better Angel" but you don't need to be an angel to show any of those traits. So, we can follow our Worst Angels.
(Also posted to my AO3: Cyberwolf_1013)
Look To Our Worst Angels
Chapter 1
"Where is it?!"
The door to his office banged open.
"I know it's here somewhere."
Sounds of shifting furniture screeching across hardwood followed.
"Wait! Wait, in my desk drawer! Geeze, when did it get so dusty in here?"
Shuffling papers and the sound of several stacks avalanching across his large desk.
"HA! I knew it was here! Yep, heh, the whole time."
Something breakable crashed to the ground.
"Oops, heheh, sorry Pompeii. Was that timer important? Hmm, I'm sure that volcano of yours still has years to go before it blows up again."
Lucifer Morningstar, the king of Hell, stood barely taller than the mountain of paperwork stacks around his work desk. He looked around in distaste. Outside of the now broken disaster tracker his office was dusty with disuse and absolutely crowded with backed up royal paperwork. "It's not usually so cluttered around here. Is it? Who let it get this way? Someone should've- Oh, right, me... I should've been keeping up with it."
There were event notices and invites. Thick folders with proposals and details of contracts. Numbers of Hell's growth and all the new information about each Ring.
Okay, so he'd taken some time off after his wife left him, and his only child seemingly followed that same route. He didn't mean to abandon all his duties but- it was just so easy to get so lost. 'I- I've made substantial progress on my rubber ducks since then and... and then Charlie called, and there was that whole business with Heaven to deal with, and I couldn't just leave her to rebuild her life without me again...'
Lucifer shook his head and sighed deeply. He could rapid-fire as many excuses as he could come up with but the guilt just wouldn't subside. Not only had he been a bad father to Charlie but he'd been a neglectful (at best) ruler.
He was working on becoming better for his Little Ducky. Or not so little anymore. She is grown now and ready to go off fighting for her own dreams. 'This time, though, I'll be right beside her.' Lucifer gripped the object in his hand and it made a rather adorable "Squeak" at the pressure. The king chuckled, the sound of the rubber duck had pulled him out of his depressing thoughts, which was just one more reason they were such an amazing creation.
Lucifer looked down at the little thing.
"I promise this will be a new- ahh, wait, I'm gonna be late!" Lucifer panicked when he realized that he was supposed to be meeting with Charlie and Ma- err- Vaggie already for lunch. The king snapped his apple-topped cane into his hands and stored the little duck in a special box he'd conjured before dashing for the study door.
Only once he was out in the hall did he remember portals were a thing.
Just a few minutes after the king breezed out and the room became dark. The dust settled again. One of the newer and smaller paper towers slowly lost its center and collapsed into a pile. On the top was a pink scroll that glowed with magic ever so slightly, as if calling for someone's attention "Here I am, read me" and had the seal of Belphegor emblazoned on it.
+X+
The Hazbin Hotel was a grand sight, sitting on a hill that overlooked Pentagram City, bright and shiny and new. The front faced the city itself with its long drive winding its way down the hill. The back was supposed to open into a wide acreage of gardens but they hadn't gotten around to that yet (probably due to not hiring an actual gardener to care for it) As it was, the rear views of the hotel spanned the rocky terrain that led to the distant, jagged, mountain ranges that surrounded the Pride Ring.
To say the founder and leader of the Hotel, Charlie Morningstar, was an optimistic demon was Hell's greatest understatement. She was like one of those bubbly people who always greets you much too enthusiastically first thing in the morning. However, that brightly shining ray of sunshine had proven she had some heat to her as well.
All of the Pride Ring had seen the news highlights as the Hazbin Hotel's residents and allies took on the Exorcist army and the First Man a few weeks prior.
However, today, Charlie was practically vibrating with joy and excitement.
She'd just finished a tour of the hotel with a new sinner that was interested in trying to redeem themselves. The poor guy hadn't been in Hell long, maybe a year or two, and seemed to be more genuine than most about the idea of being better. He was an odd fishy sorta demon, Vaggie had mentioned he reminded her of a catfish, but Charlie didn't know how a cat could also be a fish so she just took her girlfriend's word for it.
Then again Husk was a cat with wings so... it could happen.
Ever since they fought off the Extermination most sinners hanging around the hotel were only curious about that and the group who defeated Adam. Those ones stayed for a day or two, but the novelty was quick to wear off, and they disappeared just as soon as they arrived. All in all, though, the hotel now had a small handful of actual patrons that participated in group activities.
"Vaggie, can you believe it?" Charlie practically danced across the sparkling new foyer to meet her angelic girlfriend at the base of the grand staircase. Her long blonde hair was bouncing against her back. The shorter woman had just been upstairs showing the new guy to his room and leaving him to get settled in. "He's the third one this month, I think he'll be a great addition, and we've had so many others call since the reopening."
"Yeah, he seemed okay with everything, but let's give it a few days. Yeah, sweety? The other two didn't last three days between them." Ever the realist, Vaggie couldn't help but temper her Charlie's over the top expectations of every new demon who passed by the hotel doors. She reached up to peck the grinning demoness on her pretty black nose.
Vaggie just hated to see the look of disappointment and frustration being bottled up over and over by her girlfriend.
Charlie took a deep breath and calmed herself. It hadn't taken her long to learn the disappointment of watching sinners come in, fake it for a day or so, and then walk out. Despite her best efforts to make them feel welcome and at home. "You're right, I know I shouldn't get all hopeful again, but I can't help it." She grabbed onto Vaggie's hands and gave them a reassuring squeeze. Charlie waited for her angel to look up at her with her beautiful smile. "It'll work out, but if it doesn't... well, we'll just have to try again the next time."
A smirk played across the gray-skinned (fallen)angel's face. "You know those words sound really familiar," she teased, knowing full well that this was something she'd said countless times to lift Charlie's spirits over the last few weeks. Vaggie watched the blonde demon blush lightly and felt her heart pitter-patter in her chest. 'I love her so much. How do I deserve her? Or to be this happy?'
"Come on," Charlie pulled her away from the stairs and into the updated parlor. "Dad should be here for lunch any minuet. He's a little late but I guess so are we. He sounded super excited when I talked to him this morning."
As they say, "speak of the devil".
It was just then that a glowing portal opened and the king of Hell, himself, stepped into the foyer of the hotel.
+X+
In the center of Sloth, the lowest Ring of Hell, a last-ditch discussion was going on. Belphegor stood at the window overlooking the busy city. In her hand she held one of her special cigarettes in her thin fingers. It was a unique mixture, for her alone, that would probably send a normal demon into a coma. She was quiet for so long that finally there was a cough behind her, probably as a reminder that there were two powerful beings waiting to be addressed. 'As if I could forget.' Then again sometimes she was known for being spacy.
The Sin turned with a dark smirk on her lips. "Be careful, Baphomet. You dooon't know where a simple cough will lead you to these daysss."
Belphegor finally turned her lidded eyes to them. The goat demon, Baphomet, who had once ruled Sloth in her stead seemed to be impatient as they crossed their arms over their coat. A deep frown on their fuzzy muzzle. Then the Sin's gaze slid to the side and her cigarette clenched tightly between her teeth. The shorter demon dabbled mainly in enhancers and modifiers. However, the dark creature in front of her was much more creative in the uses of deadlier creations.
The apocalyptic Horseman, Plague.
He was the very opposite of her chosen color scheme. A dark cloak hung from his boney frame. He was tall, much more in height to Mammon's natural size, which most times made him look even more skeletal than his death-like brother. His skin was a dark ashy color, long and thin dark blue hair, under a wide brimmed black hat.
"What abouuut you, Plague? It's been a month sssince you came to us with news of your latest crrreation. Something demon-born." She didn't bother to hide the plain accusation in her words. Though she didn't expect the Horseman to affirm her thoughts as she took a last drag of her cigarette before putting it out on the windowsill.
'If the other Sins knew I had been so lenient with one of the Horsemen...' She shivered at the thought. 'They wouldn't be with me.' The months long stupor Bel had been in had only been broken within the last few days. For a week now the Sin had been reluctantly pulling herself together as a domino of events had led to a greater number of demons seeking medical help then seen in the last 500 years. It was as much concern for herself as it was to save the lower classes of demons around her Ring.
A deep feeling of unsettlement came over her as the ashen skinned creature looked at her from just under the brim of his black hat. Dead black eyes stared out. They glowed eerily for just a flash as a smile cracked his lips.
"I have many tantalizing choices in my collection that are similar by first comparison. This makes them wonderfully effective in spreading quickly and unencumbered." His voice grated out of his throat like it was being dragged over a bed of gravel. "You cannot assume this is of my creation. Though maybe if you had allowed me proper testing subjects for my work-"
"I've giiiven you more freedom and leeway than I should. That's for certain now. Your experiments would require too manyyy sacrifices. I could NOT condone them." She bit back, tired of the encounter, and wanting to be rid of the macabre demon.
Plague's dark grin stretched unnaturally across his face. "Restrictions, or not, Lady Sloth. Sacrifices I shall have. To see one of my own reign with fear in a Celestial or Hellish realm would be a highly informative and entertaining endeavor. Despite your reluctance, and perhaps because of it, we will see the suffering of sacrifice- come what may."
Baphomet eagerly nodded along in agreement to the Horseman. "Contagions among humans is an old and tired topic of study. The same results every time. Nothing much left to discover from them in that area. But now-" Their claws curled in excitement. "What opportunity to once again enjoy the knowledge gained on the effects to demon blood. My own trials were ineffective in the past."
Bel knew the candle-topped demon had been stifled these last few centuries. That's partly why she allowed them to still have their faction of followers spread through the other Rings. This was treading too close to the line, however. Suddenly needing to be rid of the troublesome Horseman and end this dark conversation Belphegor waved her hand and silence forcibly pressed down on the room.
"Baphomet, contain yourself. I need this information processed and ready to be distributed. From your reports this has stretched beyond our limits."
Baphomet seemed, at least, partly shamed as they gathered composure again. The Horseman had no qualms in still showing his own interest. He was nearly salivating.
"Cursed stars," Belphegor gritted out in frustration. "I'm leaving soooon for a meeting with the other Sins and you've not handed me any gooood news to give them. Despite the high numbers of hospitalization, we haven't had a deadly casualty... yet. Hopefully this little outbrrreak is all noise and less teeth. For the sssake of us all."
Notes:
So, I had to come back and fix Belphegor's speech. I forgot that I had given her a droney sorta way of speaking. Not exactly a lisp or stutter but more like she gets caught on random syllables in her words and stretches them like Pentious does with his Sss's.
Looking forward to the next chapter. I've got it half completed right now.
Next Chapter:
"Oh, Dad, this is amazing." She gasped, holding her hand up and examining the toy. "It's for me?"
It was white, instead of the usual yellow, and looked just like her- down to the apple red cheeks. He'd crafted it to have her long blonde hair, made with fine silk strands, it reminded him very much of her mother. Sometimes, it nearly brought him to tears, seeing how much of Lilith was in Charlie. The duck's matching red eyes were two tiny ruby gems although they could not compare to the genuine joy that sparkled in his daughter's eyes.
And he wasn't done yet.