Once again, I'd like to thank TamSongFangirl for beta-reading this chapter.
There's a particular reviewer who keeps harassing me over Lute's characterization and whether she's some sort of mental illness or just anger issues and my answer is... dude, Lute feels no remorse when she kills sinners, she loves bullying people she despises but she does a good job hiding it under angelic disciple... except when she becomes uncontrollably furious. Do you really think she doesn't have some kind of mental illness (though I'm not a psychiastrist to draw a final conclusion)?!
TW: Intense homophobia
A/N: Just because I have written a certain character spit homophobic remarks that doesn't mean I support these views. It's a commentary on how this mindset of theirs is wrong and should be fixed. Hope I made myself clear. Enjoy! :)
Time has run rather smoothly in this extraordinary building called 'Hazbin Hotel' with its equally extraordinary residents. Viol was laying on the floor filling a coloring book full of demon monsters. Charlie was against this activity, for the book depicted plenty of these figures bleeding in rather vital parts of their bodies, but since they couldn't find anything better to offer to the angel kid, they had to run with this. Niffty was sweeping the stairs maniacally. In fact, sweeping seemed like the only thing she liked to do. Husk, Angel Dust and Cherri Bomb were sitting on the bar, the former two chatting with each other, while the latter was focusing on her drink and she participated in their conversation here and then. Alastor was just sitting in one of these retro sofas and was watching everyone with a relaxed smile, sipping his tea once in a while. And Charlie and Vaggie had occupied the other side of the lobby and were having their own chat, trying as hard as they could not to be heard.
"Isn't it wonderful, Vaggie? Cheer up already! Sir Pentious in Heaven! And we thought he had died! Or rather, he had died once and for all! And turns out, he revived in Heaven! I knew it! I knew my Rehabilitation program worked! I knew Sir Pentious had whatever it takes to ascend there! I knew it! And did you hear how Viol referred to him? Sir Repentious. That's adorable and totally fitting!
"Charlie..."
"C'mon. We got work to do! We have to market the Hotel. And I even thought of a slogan. 'If you have doubts about our services, let us inform you that out of all these eight years, we had one successful customer. Wanna be the second?'. We could even turn it a jingle if we can rewrite it so it can rhyme-"
"CHARLIE!" Vaggie didn't anticipate to yell as loud as it turned out, but she lowered her voice pretty quickly. "I think we should focus on our current problem..."
Charlie blinked in confusion. "What exactly are you talking about?"
Vaggie tilted ever so slightly her head to Viol's direction. "I think it's time to ask her once and for all about her parents! We've got to help her"
"Are you sure you wanna do this?" Charlie asked anxiously. "I know what you want to and that's why I didn't want to push you. You don't have to talk about your past if you don't want to..."
"Babe, there's no reason to worry. I've got this. Besides, she's just an innocent child. What could possibly go wrong?" She offered a kiss on Charlie's cheek, approached Viol, kneeled down to be on her level and tried to initiate a conversation. Viol kept on drawing, oblivious to the scene that just unfolded in front of her.
"Hey there, kiddo," Vaggie greeted her with a crooked smile.
Viol lifted her head and switched her attention from her drawings to the lady talking to her.
"So, uhm, remember the conversation we had this morning?"
"What conversation?" Viol asked.
Vaggie didn't know how to explain this. She stared back at Charlie, who gave her a thumbs up and wink, as if she wanted to say "you've got this, hun" and turned back to Viol. "You know... about me being a former Exorcist. You said your mother is an Exorcist. I may remember her and thus, we may come in contact with her far easier and return you to Heaven and you family faster"
"That would be wonderful, Miss Vaggie. Thank you so much!" Viol exclaimed and stood up at a mortifying speed. Suddenly, a thought caught on her mind. "Former? So that means you are an angel, right?"
Vaggie couldn't exactly deny that. "Riiiiight..."
"So, what exactly did you do to be thrown in Hell?" Viol asked.
Viol remained silent. Why did kids have to be so curious? Had they never heard of the old saying "curiosity killed the cat"? She played with her hair a few times, staring at Charlie and then, back to Viol.
Alastor, ever the watching eye, noticed the scene and let a muffled chuckle. "Charlie, dear, I think your girlfriend is in trouble" he called.
Vaggie left an exasperated sigh. Why did he have to intervene at everything they did?!
Viol was also taken aback, but not from Alastor's intervention, but because of a word he used.
Girlfriend?!
She shot the couple a judgmental look. "So, you two are lesbians?" She asked, disgust dripping from her tongue.
Charlie and Vaggie stared at each other. How do you explain that to a kid? The answer was simple: as easily as one could explain the whole "when a man and a woman love each other very much..." ordeal.
"Sort of" Charlie chuckled. "Vaggie is lesbian. I'm bisexual"
"What's bisexual?" Viol asked.
"It's when someone loves both men and women equally" she explained as calm and plain as she could. She didn't want to open a lengthy discussion about preferences and sexualities. Viol was still a child and she could get bored easily.
She narrowed her eyes. "So you're half-straight and half-gay?"
Charlie shrugged. "You could say that-"
Viol remained silent. "That's disgusting!" She finally declared.
Vaggie took a step forward. "Who told you that?" She demanded, sounding harsher than what she intended.
"My mom," Viol said, as if that was the most obvious answer in the world. "She says it's normal for a man and a woman to love each other, not a man to love another man and a woman to love another woman. That's unholy!"
"Well then, your mother is a huge bi-" Vaggie exclaimed, but she was cut off by Charlie.
"Vaggie, hun, not these words in front of the kid," she said and glanced back at Viol.
"What? A bitch?" Viol asked, just to make sure.
Charlie's mouth fell open, baffled by the vulgar choice of words. Vaggie merely lifted her eyebrows, amused from the right guess, but still boiling from rage for Viol's opinion of her relationship with the Princess.
"Oh ho ho, kid! The more we spend time together, the more I like you!" Cherri exclaimed leaning on the bench.
Husk shot her a look that pretty much translated to "shut the fuck up, you stupid bitch".
"Does that mean that we can get rid of the 'Bottle of Shame', since Viol is already familiar with these kind of words?" Angel Dust piped in cheerfully.
Niffty rushed to throw away the bottle, before being lifted up by Alastor. "Now now now, let's hear first what Miss Charlie has to say," and turned his gaze to her.
Charlie had trouble regaining touch with reality. "What were we talking about?" She mumbled more to herself, rather than expecting an answer.
"About the 'Bottle of Shame'" Niffty exclaimed.
"Nuh, I think it was about Viol's mom being a bitch" said Angel Dust.
"No, we were talking about our relationship to Viol" Vaggie yelled, exasperated by their ignorance and gestured at the angel. She turned her focus on the kid. "Listen, Viol. A woman loving another woman is as natural as a man loving another woman or vice versa..."
"Can't you just change your ways?" Viol asked with the same disapproving tone.
"No," Vaggie said firmly. "Some people like individuals of the opposite gender. Some of the same gender. They can't change their preferences. That's just how they were born"
"So, you're telling me that you were born defective," Viol concluded.
Vaggie let out an exasperated growl and pulled a couple of hair tufts from her head. "Nooo. Your sexual orientation doesn't define your worth! It's like being born with blond hair instead of brown. Having blond hair doesn't make you any less worthy than a person born with brown hair. Same thing with sexualities"
"But it does!" Viol insisted. "My mom told me that homosexuals carry diseases with them. You two must have AIDS in your vaginas or something"
Angel Dust shifted awkwardly on his chair.
Charlie was about to answer this statement. "I should inform you that me and Vaggie are perfectly healthy-"
However, she was cut short by her phone ringing. She let a surprised yelp before checking the screen to see who was calling. "Phew." she exhaled. "That's just my dad," she informed and she went outside in the hall to talk to him in private.
She returned a few minutes later, with a smile adorning her face.
"What's the matter, hun?" Vaggie was eager to learn.
"My father will come visit us tomorrow!" She exclaimed. "He'll finally meet Viol and he may help us out!"
"Your dad?" Viol asked. She hadn't thought that she may have a dad. Truth to be told, she hadn't thought that anyone in this Hotel may have family members. And maybe not all of them are in Hell. Maybe they reside in Heaven as well, and that might explain why they're so eager to redeem themselves. She felt terrible for not seeing that.
"Yeah!" Charlie said. "He's usually too busy, being the King of Hell and stuff, and he spends hours away from the Hotel, even though he lives with us-" she motormouthed, before being interrupted by Viol.
"King of Hell?"
Up in Heaven, they had told her stories about Hell, its denizens and of course, the King of Hell...
"Lucifer. I know that he doesn't have the best reputation, but he's a much nicer guy than Heaven's propaganda... I mean..." Charlie assured her, before stumbling in her words.
He's the King of Hell, King of Lies, and the most despicable being that stains our Creation! Her mother had told her in their bedtime stories. He will appear to you all charming and friendly to tempt you to the wrong path. You have to resist! Say 'no' to everything he offers you! He has an evil wife who, thank God, she saw the light and abandoned him and an equally despicable daughter, who mocks Heavenly values.
"I wanna go to bed. I'm tired," Viol said and she faked a yawn.
"Oh, yes of course. It's late," Charlie. She leaned closer to hold her in her hands, but Viol was drawn away.
Charlie was deeply hurt by the motion, though she chose not to say anything.
While they were heading for her bedroom, millions of thoughts encircled Viol's head. If Lucifer is 'King of Lies', then does that make Charlie 'Princess of Lies'? But she's so nice. She would never do anything to harm me. But mom says that they're wicked and cunning and that they know how to hide their true intentions. And Charlie likes women, so she's bad.
"Is there something wrong, Viol?" Charlie asked.
Viol hadn't realized when they reached her bedroom and when she was put to bed.
"No, Miss Charlie," Viol said.
Charlie covered her with strawberry blankets. "Ok, then. Goodnight," she kissed her on her forehead, turned off the light and walked outside.
Viol didn't sleep immediately. She recalled the day prior. She bonded with the residents of the Hotel, she learnt about Charlie's relationship with Vaggie and she was gonna meet her father and she wasn't sure if she should trust them furthermore.
She thought then of her own father and how she only knew about him because of the photos and her mother's narrations. She would give anything to meet him and touch him and talk to him and do other stuff that daughters do with their dads.
She couldn't sleep. She heard whispers outside her room. She climbed down her bed, approached the door on her toes and placed her ear on the wooden surface, eager to listen to the conversation.
"I think she's fallen asleep. I can't hear a thing," she heard Charlie whispering.
"That's for the better," Vaggie said. "There's lots of stuff we can discuss with her. Like how are we gonna explain to her that the last time we faced the Exorcist army, we almost wiped them all out?"
"There's no need to. She must have been told that by her parents," said Husk.
No, I haven't. Viol thought, but she couldn't voice her objection. Curiosity led her to keep eavesdropping on the conversation. She wondered if there were more than three individuals participating.
"Speaking of which, the subject of her parents. Who are they?" Charlie reminded them.
"I think I know who her mother is," Vaggie sighed. "And I think you know too."
"But there are countless Exorcists. She could be anyone," Charlie protested, not taking the hint.
"You and I know the same Exorcist. We saw her in Heaven, eight years ago" said Vaggie.
It took a few seconds for Charlie to realize to whom she was referring to. She covered her mouth with her hands, shocked by the revelation. "You don't mean... Lute?"
Vaggie nodded. "Yep. Her"
The silence that followed was so acute, that a pin dropping on the floor would be enough to break it.
"She's not exactly wrong..." Husk said, rubbing his chin with his paw, drowning in thoughts.
"We can't be sure. We have to ask Viol," Charlie insisted.
"Please, Charlie. There's no need to. You weren't with me when Lute referred to our relationship as 'vile and blasphemous'. It must be her!"
"Guys, I don't understand one thing. If Lute is the mother, then who's the father?" Angel Dust asked.
"I think I know the answer to this question as well," said Vaggie.
"I told you, we can't be sure-" Charlie said, but was cut short by Husk.
"You know, I'd kinda figured it out from the start... I still remember the way this bitch reacted when she saw him dying. You can't convince me that these didn't fuck when no-one was around"
"You mean... Adam? Like, Adam the former Head Exorcist?" Charlie asked.
"Yep" Vaggie said. "I remember. Lute always had a crush on Adam. Never understood what she saw in him... Maybe they were narcissistic and bloodthirsty for normal people to handle them. And against all odds, that fucker reciprocated her feelings. After a while, these two became a thing, though they tried to hide it because Sera very much disapproved of it, for Adam's name was linked to Eve's. Let me tell you, they did a shitty job with it."
"Great! Now we have to explain to her that, not only we fought against her mother's army, but we also killed her father!" Vaggie snarled.
"What she doesn't know won't hurt her," Charlie said. "We won't tell her a thing about, until she decides for herself. And who knows? Maybe her parents are totally different figures than who we imagine them to be. Maybe they're nice regular angels-"
"Nice and regular are not words to describe an Exorcist," Husk interrupted her.
"Regardless, it's not ascertained that her parents are Adam and Lute. We may be proven wrong. Let's try to forget it for tonight. We'll discuss it tomorrow. Let's go to sleep now. Goodnight!"
"Goodnight."
"Goodnight!" They all left, heading for their respective bedrooms.
Meanwhile, they haven't realized that a divine being was spying on them...
Viol returned to her bed and tried her best to fall asleep...
AN: I am currently facing a small problem with the following chapter. I'm undergoing a problem most authors are aware and that is I am stuck in a specific part and I don't know how to move forward. It's not that bad, as I have finished 95% of said chapters, but the struggle is still prevelent. I promise I'll do my best to have it finished it and update it in the span of ten days. In the meanwhile, have a lovely week and I'll see you toon! Bye! :)
