Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

A child is the picture of innocence when they are first brought into the world. A canvas that is empty and waiting to be painted by the world and the experiences that people have. In order for children to have a happy and secure childhood, it is the responsibility of the adults to watch over and take care of them. That canvas will be covered in a lovely picture that is painted by their happy lives.

Even when we paint the canvas with beautiful childhood memories, the world isn't always kind. There will be many more that will be painted by pain and despair. A great deal of these kids fall through the cracks, or perhaps the adults that are there for them simply do not care. No one will properly nurture and lead them, leaving them to figure out what to do on their own. As a result of the youngsters losing their innocence and being forced to mature more quickly in order to survive in the world, the painting eventually became black and broken.

When a person's life comes to an end, they are evaluated for their life and will be sent to either Heaven or Hell in the afterlife. Heaven has an insane standard that, in order to pass through those pearly gates, one must meet; if one is considered to be even remotely unworthy for it, they are sent straight to Hell.

Hell does not discriminate. It does not matter whether you are an adult or a child; as long as you do not match the standards of Heaven, you will be sent to the south side. A punishment that lasts forever in the land of fire and brimstone appears to have no end in sight.

A harsh punishment for adults but even a harsher punishment for a child. With life cut short and with no chance to experience life, a child will forever roam in this cesspool of an afterlife wondering if things would be the same or if they would be able to change had they reached adulthood.

Is this the end of the line?

Are they forever stuck in Hell with no way out?

Trapped in this land of eternal torment forever until the end of times?

Is there no way for them to reach the pearly gates they have heard so much about?

What’s this about the princess's new project???

Chapter Text

Hell, a place where the damned reside. The place where rotten souls judged not worthy of Heaven are tossed into this pit to suffer through the worst imaginable torture: each other. And if that isn't bad enough, every year, angels descend from Heaven to slaughter them all because Hell apparently has an overpopulation problem. Who knew that there would be so many shitty people in the world?

Next, we see the clock tower in the city center begin to ring its bells. The ringing means that the annual exterminations are over. Many exorcists stopped what they were doing and began to fly back to the portal in the sky to Heaven, while leaving massive devastation and countless loss of lives behind. After the portal in the sky closes, a bunch of demons begin to poke their heads out from their hiding places, checking to see if it’s safe to come out.

Not long after that, Charlie, the princess of Hell, came out from her hiding spot and let out her fireworks, which provided confirmation that the extermination was officially over. After that, demons begin to come out from their hiding spots and go back to their normal lives. Turf wars have already started up, with many demons attempting to grab territories for themselves.

On one of the quiet streets caught up in those turf wars, there was a small pink motorbike, all decorated, being ridden by a kid heading down the road. The kid pulls up his bike to the side of the road and takes off his helmet. This kid's name is Angel Dust, a pink fluffy spider with long legs and a famous child actor known all throughout Pride.

Angel puts down his helmet and proceeds to the nearest drug vending machine. Following that, he went out and bought the drug known as "Angel Dust" from the machine. Then, out of nowhere, some no-good punk just swiped his drugs and took off.

“Hey!” Angel shouts as he spots the punk making off with his stuff, the punk just taunting him in return, and yells back. “Up yours, you little twerp!”

Just as Angel is about to give chase, a boulder falls from the sky and crushes the punk. Angel was devastated. “Oh my gosh!!” he yelled, leaning down to grab what was left of his pack of drugs. “My drugs!!” They were all crushed.

“Damn it!” he exclaimed, looking up at the sky where a blimp was hovering, packed with all kinds of weapons, and it was shooting off rounds in every direction.

Inside the blimp, there is a small snake kid. The kid starts monologuing to himself about how he's going to take over this territory and become an overlord, imagining all the respect he'll get when he pulls it off. Additionally, tiny egg creatures that appear to be ship crew members are roaming about everywhere.

“Ahahahaha! Those cowardly grown-ups dare not hinder my territorial takeover! A wise decision! The power of my machines is unmatched!” The snake kid laughed as he continued to talk to himself. "At this rate, I will seize control of this entire territory by the end of today!"

The kid pressed some buttons and made a couple of guns fire a few shots down below. “And all of Hell will know the name of Sir Pentious!! The second child sinner who will become an Overlord of Pentagram City!!”

This is Sir Pentious, a young genius inventor with a strong talent for inventing and making weapons. The egg creatures are his little minions, and he likes to call them “egg-bois.” Sir Pentious is still talking to himself about how he will take over this place and become an overlord when a bomb is hurled at his balloon.

“Hey! Tween-Edgelord! Heads up!” was all Sir Pentious heard before the bomb came crashing through the blimp window.

The bomb goes off, leaving an opening in the airship for someone to jump into. This person then playfully challenges Sir Pentious, saying that this is her territory, and if he wants it, he’ll have to fight for it.

“Well, well, well! Look what we have here? A little kid thinks that he can play with the big leagues,” the person teased, making silly, mocking motions toward Sir Pentious.

Meet Cherri Bomb, an older teenage cyclops girl who's got a real talent for explosives and a fiery passion for pyromania. She is currently entertaining the kid by having to "battle" him.

“Why don't you get this toy of yours off my turf before I smash it!?” Cherri taunts before tossing a bomb in a random direction in the blimp, “More??”

Sir Pentious stammers and turns a little red before pulling himself together. He confidently claims he was aware of that and is just about to gear up for a fight.

“Yo-o-o-u, don’t scare me! I am a rising overlord who does not back down from a fight! If it’s a fight you want, then it’s a fight you’ll get,” Sir Pentious replied to Cherri, despite his stammering.

“Alright, let’s see if this toy of yours can really do all the things you say. You know, the big leagues are a whole different ballgame, right? Our playtime is way past your bedtime!!" She playfully teases Sir Pentious, daring him to bring it on.

They both then start fighting.

Meanwhile, over at 666 News Station on the other side of the city, Katie Killjoy and Tom Trench are covering the latest news right after the exterminations. They are saying that with how recent the exterminations have just ended, there are now many unclaimed territories that are now up for grabs. Demons from all over hell are already duking it out to gain new territories.

It’s complete chaos out there as always, right after the exterminations. Heck, even the kid sinners are even going in for it.

“Right, you are, Tom; those little shits waste no time taking what they want. Many robberies and riots are now happening thanks to those little brats. But hey, this is Hell! When there is no riot or robbery, is that not happening? Those pea-sized dipshits just make everything worse,” Katie says, her voice dripping with fake sarcasm and a peppy tone.

“Speaking of it, Katie, it looks like there is a live report of a turf war happening downtown. With the notable pint-sized Carmilla’s brat, ‘Sir Pentious,’ and the spunky teen ‘Cheri Bomb.’” Tom adds in right after Katie.

They switch on the live TV, and there it is—those two kids are really going at it, launching bombs and firing death rays everywhere. As they fight, they destroy the turf area and surrounding streets.

“Well, Tom, there goes that neighborhood. I will be surprised if there is anything left standing at all; you know how kid sinners are. In other news, we have the Princess of Hell making a big announcement about her brand new passion project. More on this after the break," Katie says, before signing off for a news break.

In the meantime, Charlie and Vaggie are preparing to deliver Charlie's program on live television backstage at the studio. Charlie is really excited about this! Her project is about to get some attention, and she just feels that a lot of people will be open to it. Charlie thought it would be fun to add a musical element to introduce her project, but Vaggie wasn't having it and insisted that Charlie should stick to the script.

“Come on, Vaggie! I know what to say! I just feel like we need to...I don't know, make things sound more exciting!” Charlie gasps and turns to Vaggie, saying, “Hooo! What if I sing a song about it!!”

Vaggie gently reminds Charlie that this isn’t a musical but an important presentation of their project, and it’s really important to take it seriously if they want people to pay attention.

“Life isn't a musical; sinners won’t take kindly to someone who is happily singing about their suffering and life in Hell.” Vaggie then warned her girlfriend, "They might hate you for this."

Charlie assures Vaggie that she has this under control, but she believes that some music will lighten the mood. Vaggie is once more asking Charlie to really take this seriously and to follow the script they've prepared.

“Don’t worry so much, Vaggie! I have this under control! I just thought…you know…want to connect sinners with music! Everyone loves music!” Charlie says being her optimistic, cheerful self.

Vaggie pinches the bridge of her nose and says, “I don't think it's that simple. Just please follow the talking points we went over.”

“But—” was all Charlie managed to say before Vaggie grabbed her and turned to face her, saying, “And do NOT sing!”

Charlie gives in and decides she'll stick to the script, trying to hold back her musical instincts.

The interview started off pretty well, with Charlie following the script and sharing details about her new project, The Happy Hotel, a hotel that aims to rehabilitate sinners. Charlie shares her thoughts on wanting to find an alternative to the overpopulation issue in Hell, without needing to go through the yearly exterminations. She aims to help sinners find redemption so they can make their way to Heaven.

After Charlie spewed out her idea, nobody spoke, indicating that everyone was shocked by how absurd it was.

Charlie, wanting to connect and share her thoughts, adds, “Look, every single one of you has something good, deep down inside. I know you do!”

After a brief pause, she snapped her fingers and said, “...Maybe I'm not getting through to you.”

Charlie, feeling like she hadn't quite reached the sinners, starts singing and dancing about her hotel, while Vaggie lets out a groan in the background.

It was a fun song, to say the least.

Of course, once all of that is over, everyone starts laughing at her. Her idea of redemption is considered ridiculous and naïve, and many sinners just lost a lot of respect for her, not that she had any to begin with.

Katie, laughing, mocks Charlie as she asks, “Why would anyone in the nine circles of Hell give two shits about becoming a better person?” She then said, “Nobody wants to be a good person just for the sake of it.”

She also points out that there's no proof that this experiment will actually work or that someone is dumb enough to participate in a bogus project like this.

"That's where you are wrong; in fact, I already have a client, and he is quite famous among Pentagram City," Charlie tells Katie as she cuts her off.

Charlie mentions that her hotel is currently hosting a well-known client, the famous child star, Angel Dust. Katie quips that it’s not really an achievement, saying, “That tween brat will go anywhere if you dangle enough alcohol and drugs in front of him.” She also asks, “Is the princess really that desperate for a client that she’s resorted to babysitting for one?”

Charlie replies, “Sure, Angel might be a kid, but he’s been a really good boy these last two weeks. He's been doing well, keeping himself out of trouble and staying clean. Besides, he is just a harmless kid; he can't do much damage to anyone.”

“Are you talking about the harmless kid who's just casually wrecking a city block at the moment?” Katie asks with a big smile on her face. It seems that during Charlie’s rants, she received a new update from the current turf wars.

There they are on live TV—Angel Dust, Cherri Bomb, and Sir Pentious—going at it and entirely wrecking a whole city block. Katie reports that a new player has entered the turf war, and it appears to be the famous child actor, Angel Dust. Charlie begins to panic; the interview is officially a disaster. Everyone is laughing at her and her idea, and her only client is behaving in the opposite manner that the hotel is intended to represent. Instead of a well-behaved kid, we see a kid getting rowdy and participating in casual destruction of public property.

Tom and Katie are having a good laugh; this kind of on-screen disaster is sure to give the ratings a nice boost. It seems like the project is being labeled a failure before it even gets a chance to start.

After that, Katie insults Charlie by asking, "How does it feel to be a failure in both babysitting and being a Princess?"

Charlie shot back "How does it feel to need to have lipo just for your face? You might want to consider covering up those noticeable wrinkles since competing with child actors can be tough when your face doesn’t quite match their youthful look. BITCH!!"

There was this brief pause, followed by Tom making a quick getaway. Katie then reveals her true demon form and lunges at Charlie.

A brawl breaks out between these two women.

Meanwhile, back at the turf war, Angel and Sir Pentious are having a good time battling it out on the streets. Both of them are letting go and releasing all of the pent-up energy that has built up over the past few weeks.

Cherri then asks Angel, “So, where have you been, anyway? I thought you up and died or some shit. Not that I was worried, of course!”

“Don’t get ya’ panties in a twist. I've been staying at this crappy hotel on the other side of town.” Angel tells her as he hands her a bomb for her to throw.

“Some broads are lettin' me stay rent-free if I play nice.” Angel says, ducking in response to approaching gunshots.

“That means behaving like some goody two-shoes kid, no pranks, no drugs, no booze, and no problematic language. It’s drivin’ me crazy! All those stuffy rules and no fun!”

“Ho-ly Shit!!” Cherri laughed in disbelief.

Angel has a lot of pent-up energy that he wants to release after two weeks of being clean. Luckily, there is another kid here who’s happy and willing to duke it out with him. Sir Pentious, on the other hand, wants to impress his obvious crush, Cherri Bomb. He believes that if he can defeat Angel Dust right now, she will be quite impressed with him.

Cherri then asks Angel, "Aren't you worried you'll get in a lot of trouble because of this?" Angel just shrugs and says, “What’s one little brawl going to do?”

Back at the news studio, things are pretty intense as Charlie and Katie Killjoy keep going at it, while Tom Trench is on fire.

“WHY WON'T ANYONE HELP ME?!” Tom screamed as he was literally on fire.

Later, a limo is seen traveling across town, towards a hotel with a large sign that reads ‘The Happy Hotel.’ Inside the limo, it was super quiet; nobody was talking, but one could definitely feel the tension in the air. Charlie looks really upset as she gazes out the window, while Vaggie shoots a glare at Angel Dust, who's just messing around with the buttons in the limo.

Vaggie then yells at Angel, asking, "What the fuck were you DOING?!" Angel casually responds, “I am helping out a friend. Isn’t that a ‘redeeming quality,’ helping friends with stuff?”

“Helping a friend DOES NOT involve destroying a whole city block!!” She then adds, “Your actions today made the hotel look like a fucking joke!!”

Angel snaps back, “What the fuck ya’ wan’ me to do?! I've got a reputation to maintain. Can you imagine what would happen if people found out I was turning all goody-goody?!”

“The hotel's rules are boring, and there isn’t anything fun to do there; with all this pent-up energy and nowhere to release it, I had to find a way to let it out.” Angel says as he continues to push all of Vaggie’s buttons.

At least he didn’t destroy the hotel, but that’s mostly because if he did that, he would have no place to stay.

“Your reputation?! What about the hotel’s?! Thanks to your actions on live TV, no one in Hell will take us or the hotel seriously!! All due to your selfish bullshit!!” Vaggie yells at Angel.

Charlie tries to remain optimistic and reassures Vaggie, saying, "Hey, come on. We don't know if things are over yet! Try to relax, Vaggie.” She places her hand on her shoulder, offering a reassuring smile. “I-it'll be okay!”

“Besides, Angel is still a kid,” Charlie points out, “We can’t be too harsh on him; he is still very young and learning.”

“Kids like him could use a spanking or two.” Vaggie points out.

“Ya’ might end up on a watch list if ya’ not careful,” Angel jokes back. Vaggie lets out a low growl as she tries to calm herself down, settling into her seat in silence as the limo nears its destination.

Chapter Text

They quickly arrive at the front porch of an old multi-story building, and there’s a big sign that reads “The Happy Hotel”. As they walk inside the hotel, they find that it is still in the same sad and depressing state that they left it in this morning. There's dust and broken furniture all over the place, a lot of the facilities aren't working, and there's even no food at the hotel. It clearly shows that the hotel is a mess and not in perfect working order.

Charlie and Vaggie are completely exhausted while Angel's just feeling really hungry. Vaggie, feeling a migraine coming on, flops down on the nearest couch. Meanwhile, Charlie makes her way to a quiet corner of the hotel to make a phone call.

Angel is looking for something to eat, when he stumbles upon a fridge sitting on the floor right in the middle of the lobby. He opens the door and discovers an old, crushed box of strawberry popsicles. Luckily, there’s just one popsicle left inside. Angel doesn't appear to care that the popsicle has melted a little bit, and he immediately begins digging into it.

Charlie is trying to call her mom, but the call isn’t going through and just heads straight to voicemail. So, she drops her a message, “Hi, Mom. I know I keep calling, and you must be busy... Really busy... But, um, the interview didn't go well. The hotel is in a bit of a mess, and I don’t think sinners will be flooding in as expected.”

Charlie then shares, “I don't know what I'm doing. I am feeling very lost, and I could really use some advice, Mom. I... I think Dad was right about me... .” She then wipes off some tears from her face. “Anyway... I have to go now. I really miss you, and I hope to hear from you soon. Love you. Bye.”

Charlie then plopped down onto the floor, all set to wallow in her misery, when out of nowhere, she heard some knocks on her door. She's wondering who might have shown up here on such short notice; it's not like they're expecting anyone at the moment.

She slowly opens the door, feeling a bit hesitant, and there it is—a small, red deer kid right at her front door. The kid's got on a white shirt paired with suspender shorts and a cute red bowtie. He's got on white socks and black shoes too.

This isn't just any kid; it's Alastor, the Radio Demon. He's the youngest and the very first child overlord in all of Pride. Despite being a 12-year-old sinner child, this deer demon has terrorized the sinners of Pentagram City with his magic and prowess.

“Hello—” Alastor greets before Charlie slams the door in his face.

Charlie glances to the side for a quick second before he opens the door again.

“---o,” Alastor continued before getting slammed again.

After Charlie slams the door right in his face again, she shouts for Vaggie, “Vaggieee!! The Radio Demon is at the doooorrr!!.” She then turns to Vaggie and asks, “What should I do?!”

Vaggie jumps to her feet, weapon ready, and warns Charlie “Don’t let him in!! He's a pretty dangerous guy, and we just aren't ready for him.”

Charlie takes a moment to think before she turns back and opens her front door.

Alastor just strolls in and says, "Hello there, I'm Alastor!" He grabs Charlie's hand and gives it a shake, saying, “Pleasure to be meeting you, quite a pleasure!”

“Excuse my sudden visit, but I saw your fiasco on the television, and I just couldn't resist! What a performance! Why, I haven't seen such a disaster since the stock market crash of 1929!”

“Hahahahaha, it was practically raining orphans in Hell that year…..” Alastor chuckles while fiddling with his mic. “The riot felt like a mix of 'Lord of the Flies' and 'Hunger Games'; it was definitely fun and captivating.”

Vaggie suddenly steps in front of Charlie, holding a spear and aiming it right at Alastor. “Stop right there, cabrón hijo de perra!! I know your game and I'm not gonna let you hurt anyone here.” She thrusts her spear ahead. “I don’t care if you are a kid, pull any tricks or stunts and I will stab you with this spear”

Alastor just chuckles right in her face, and says, “Ha! If I really wanted to hurt anyone,” he says, giving a glimpse of his true demon form, “I would have done it by now”, all while showing off some of his creepy powers and those voodoo symbols.

Charlie then asks, “Sooooo…..why are you here, Alastor…?”

“I'm here because I want to help!” Alastor responds with a cheerful tone.

“Uh…..What?” was all Charlie could say.

Vaggie and Charlie exchange glances, both clearly in disbelief by what they just heard. Helping them out, the Radio Demon? There has to be a catch here; nobody in Hell just lends a hand for no reason.

Charlie looks over at Alastor and says, “What do you mean… by help?”

“This ridiculous thing you're trying to do! This hotel! I want to help you run it.”

Still unsure, Charlie asks again “Buuut... why?”

Alastor chuckles and asks, “Hahaha, why does anyone do anything? Sheer, absolute boredom! After seven years of hiatus, I am absolutely bored!! I have nothing else to do! So, why not try to do something different?”

“Besides, I am going to need a comeback debut!! A project like this is sure to attract all kinds of attention!”

Charlie giving a side-eye Alastor asks, “So, does this mean you think it's possible to rehabilitate a demon?” she pauses for a moment. "Oooorrrr... maybe you'd like to try it for yourself? ...You know, so you can go to Heaven..and be safe….?”

“Pfffftttt….Bwa..hahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!” Alastor bursts into laughter, clutching his stomach.

Alastor couldn't help but laugh; the princess thinks that someone like him is looking for redemption!? She was more clueless than he thought, and that was even before he showed up at her front door. What kind of demon she thinks he is. Just because he is a child, doesn’t mean he is this helpless individual that’s needed looking out for.

He’s been fine on his own! Thank you very much!

“You misunderstand me, princess. I am not looking for any redemption, I am here on my own violation just to pass time!” Alastor chuckles before he finally stops laughing. “I am here to witness Hell’s own princess executing her crazy scam, up close and personal!”

“This is not a scam!! Charlie really wants to help you guys, no matter how you people don’t deserve it!” Vaggie jumps in, defending Charlie. “If you’re here just to make fun of her, then get out, you little twerp!!”

“Oh don’t mind little ole’ me, I only want to help you in this endeavor” Alastor tells the girls. “If the princess of Hell truly wants to help us sinners, by all means go ahead.”

“Use whatever methods or ideas you can think of to redeem the ‘so-called’ sinners”. His face then sinister “And I will be here watching….. Watching you people attempting to live a fantasy…”

He then clutches his hand in front of them “Only to be crushed by the harsh reality that hell is forever. They've reached the end of the road; there's really no way for them to go anywhere else from here.”

Charlie raises her eyes and says “Riiiggghhhhttttt………….”

“This is going to be a very fun game and who better to help you than I?” says Alastor as he continues talking with Charlie.

While Alastor chats with Charlie, Angel leans in towards Vaggie and asks, “So, uh... what's up with Smiles over there?” He casually pointed his thumb over at Alastor.

Vaggie can't believe that Angel has never heard of the Radio Demon; he's been around longer than she has.

“Wait, you've never heard of him before? You've been here longer than me!”. Angel just shrugs, looking a bit confused at her. “The Radio Demon. One of the most powerful beings Hell has ever seen?”

Angel gives another shrug, ”Eh, not big on politics.”

Vaggie lets out a groan and begins explaining that the Radio Demon is one of the few kid sinners that have a major impact on Pentagram City.

“Decades ago, Alastor just popped out of nowhere and began making waves in Hell. He began to topple Overlords who have been dominant for centuries. Then, he broadcast his carnage all throughout Hell while he laughed in the background, like a child playing with his toys. Sinners started calling him ‘The Radio Demon’ (as lazy as that is).”

“And then seven years ago, he destroyed a chunk of Pentagram City for no known reason. No one knows how this young mortal soul got so much raw power. But one thing's for sure: He's an unpredictable source of danger, a wicked spirit of mystery, and a violent monster of chaos, the likes of which we can't risk getting involved with unless we want to end up erased!”

Angel just scoffs at her as Vaggie finishes telling her tale, he doesn’t buy it. “Ya done?” He laughs at her as he glances over at Alastor. “He looks like the strawberry popsicle I ate just’ now.”

“No way that short-stack is responsible for that disasta’ seven years ago” he said, glancing at Alastor with his fingers almost pinching together. “He is so tiny and cute, that it’s almost criminal.”

Vaggie just scoffs at Angel and says, “Well, I don't trust him!”

“To be fair, do ya’ trust anyone? Anyone at all? Heck! Ya’ don’t even trust kids like me!” Angel says, rolling his eyes.

Vaggie then pulls Charlie aside, “Charlie, listen to me. You can't believe this kid! He isn't just some innocent kid! He's a deal-maker! Pure evil! I don’t think he can be redeemed! ... And he is most likely looking for a way to ruin everything we're trying to do! Like some kind of sick, twisted game!”

“Not to mention that incident seven years ago! He destroyed a chunk of the city for some unknown reason!" Vaggie points out, "He may be young, but he is extremely dangerous. We should not even consider entertaining him."

Charlie bites her lips and glances at Vaggie. “I...we don't know that! Look, I know he's bad, and I know he probably doesn't wanna change, but the whole point of this is to give people a chance!”

She turns and looks at Alastor, who is inspecting a nearby portrait of the royal family.

“To have faith things will be better! How can I turn someone away? I can't. It goes against everything I'm trying to do. Everything I believe in. The reason I set up this hotel in the first place.”

She then glances at Alastor, her expression turning more concerned.

“Plus, I can’t leave him alone. He is just a kid, and Hell is bad enough already as it is. I can’t kick him out there just because I am uncomfortable with him here. As an adult and a princess, it's my responsibility to take care of the little ones. The ones that are really helpless in Hell.”

She takes a deep breath and says, “I have to look out for them, even if they don’t want me to.”

Charlie places her hands on Vaggie’s shoulders and says, “Just... trust me. I can take care of myself!”

Vaggie, seeing that Charlie has made her decision, warns her, “Charlie, whatever you do, DO NOT make a deal with him!”

“Don't worry, I picked up one thing from my dad!” Charlie reassures Vaggie. “You don't take shit from other demons!” She then heads over to where Alastor is.

“Okay, so, Al. You're super sketchy, and you clearly see what I'm trying to do here as a joke.” She bends down and meets Alastor's gaze, hands resting on her hips.

“But I don't. I think everyone deserves a chance to prove they can be better. So, I'm taking your offer to help. On the condition that there be no…” She gestures at Alastor with her hands, saying, “tricks or voodoo strings attached.”

“I also won’t be making a deal with you. I really don’t want to take advantage of a kid by pushing them into something or making a deal; they should be free to choose what they want to do. So Al, you are free to do this for as long as you wish.” Angel and Alastor both widen their eyes a bit in shock when Charlie says this.

An adult that lets them have freedom of a choice?! Who the fuck is this princess??

“Sounds fair?” Charlie asks with a bit of uncertainty.

Alastor quickly gathers himself and responds, “Fair enough! This is just an activity to pass time after all!!”

“Cool beans,” Charlie says with an awkward grin, giving two thumbs up.

Chapter Text

“Hmm hm hmm hmm…” Alastor hums while he skips around the hotel, taking in the surroundings. “Smile, my dear!”. He playfully waves his mic in front of Vaggie.

“My maman always says, ’You know you're never fully dressed without one!’”. He glances around the lobby and asks, “So where is your hotel staff?”

Charlie looks over at Vaggie, who’s still shooting him that intense glare, clearly showing that she’s the only staff member around in this hotel right now.

“Oh, you’re really going to need to have more than that.” Alastor lifts an eyebrow and comments.

He strolls over to Angel and asks, “So, what can you do, my fellow child sinner?”

“I can teach ya’ how to make and roll ya’ own customized weed blunt,” Angel answers Alastor.

A record scratch is heard.

“No, thank you!” Alastor shot back a quick response.

Alastor can see that the hotel is clearly understaffed (none at all). So, he figures it’s time to call in some favors and begins using his magic to give the hotel a little makeover. With just a snap of his fingers, the hotel's old fireplace has been swapped out for a brand new one.

Suddenly, a figure covered in soot pops out of the fireplace, just like Santa Claus sliding down the chimney. As Alastor gets closer and lifts the mysterious figure, all covered in soot, it suddenly opens its one eye and gazes at the people standing behind him.

Alastor gives the figure a couple of quick shakes, brushing off all the soot and uncovering a little cyclops girl underneath. She's petite and delicate, sporting a messy short hairstyle and dressed in a classic 50s-style maid outfit. She is about 16 years old and can also be considered a child sinner.

“This is Niffty! She is one of my very good friends! And she cleans!” Alastor says, holding up Niffty and introducing her to everyone else at the hotel.

He then drops Niffty on the floor, which doesn’t seem to bother her at all. She waves at them and says, “Hi, I'm Niffty! It's nice to meet you! It's been a while since I've made new friends!”

She glances at the three initial hotel residents. “Only girls here?? No bad boy??” Niffty darts around the trio, asking, “No men at all??”

“Uhhh…what?” Charlie comments while observing this little bug sinner buzzing around the hotel.

Niffty then notices just how filthy the hotel is, “Oooh, boy! This place is filthy! It really needs a lady's touch!” She picks up a bug and crushes it in her hands. ”Which is weird because you're all girls, no offense. You guys should have known how to do this from the beginning!!”

“Oh, my gosh! This place is such a mess!!” Niffty exclaims, grabbing a feather duster and beginning to tidy up. “Must cleannnnnn meeeeessssss!!!” she says while zipping around the lobby, tidying up everything.

While the three of them are staring at Niffty's frenzied cleaning, Alastor takes it upon himself to summon another person to assist him at the hotel.

“Hah! Read 'em and weep, suckers! Full Ho—”. Before the voice can finish, he notices that everything around him is swirling with these crazy voodoo symbols, and suddenly, they find themselves in a totally different place than where they started. “aaaa? What the fuck is this?”

The figure glances around and catches sight of Alastor, letting out an annoyed purr as he jabs a finger in his direction, saying, “YOU!” He walks over to the deer child, planning to give him a piece of his mind.

The figure then reveals himself to be a cat demon with wings. He is a black and white cat with a playing card design on his wings. He also wears a top hat, a bow tie, and suspenders. He is 17 years old and is still a child sinner even though he is one year away from being considered an adult. Not that it matters anyway; the drinking age at a lot of places is usually over twenty.

“Ah, Husker, my good friend! Glad you could make it!” Alastor cheerfully greets Husk.

Husk jabs his finger at Alastor and says, “Don't you "Husker" me, you son of a bitch! I was about to win the whole damn pot!”. He gestures his paws to the winning pile, which disappears with Alastor’s magic.

“Good to see you too!” Alastor replies.

Husk facepalms and drags his hands down his face, saying, “Let’s just get this over with. What the hell do you want with me now...?”

Alastor rocks back and forth with his feet and says, “My friend, I am playing a new fun game, and I need some extra hands, so I took it upon myself to volunteer you in this fun endeavor! I hope that's okay!”

“Are you shittin' me?!” Husk exclaims

Alastor blinks a couple of times and then says, “Hmm... Nope, I don't think so!”

“Wait, you seriously think you can just pull me out of nowhere to join your games?!” Husk then gestures towards Alastor with his fingers, saying, “Like some kind of babysitter on standby!?”

“Playing games is way more fun when you have more people around.” Alastor responds in a nonchalant manner. "And you are not a babysitter; you are my playmate!"

Husk facepalms again and tells Alastor, “I'm not playing your fucking game.”

Alastor's face scrunches up a bit, revealing a slight frown even though he's smiling. He tightens his grip on the mic and starts to pout a little. It looks like he might be about to throw a tantrum, based on how he's acting. There's a bit of ambient magic in the air, hinting at his discontent.

But then, he takes a deep breath and says, “Well then, if you don’t want to play. You can help me man the front desk of this hotel!”

“What! I ain’t doing that too! That sounds like work!” Husk exclaims, waving his hands around, “And not even a decent one! This place sucks!”

Charlie seems crestfallen after hearing that while Vaggie glares angrily at the winged cat demon.

Alastor waves his hands, and with a few gestures, the air fills with magic. Suddenly, a whole bar pops up right in the middle of the hotel lobby. The bar is decorated with skeletons, snakes, and bones, along with some card suits and candles for that extra style. The area around the bar has glowing green wooden walls that clearly show this bar was brought in from somewhere else. There is also a "Jackpot" sign on the left wall and a Beelzejuice neon sign on the right wall.

There's a sign on the front of the bar desk that says "concierge." This sign shows that this bar is meant to act as the hotel's front desk.

“Don't worry, my friend, I can make this more working condition friendly!” Alastor says while making his way to the bar. “ ...If you wish.” He waves his hand again, and just like that, a bottle of cheap booze pops up on the bar out of nowhere.

Husk takes a moment to gaze at the booze. “What? You think you can buy me with a cute pout”. He looks at Alastor's obviously fake pouty face. "And some cheap booze?!"

After a second passes, Husk grabs the bottle and says, “...Well, you can!” He then proceeds to drown himself in alcohol while settling into his spot behind the counter.

“Hey, hey! Hey, hey, hey! No! No bar, no alcohol!” That's when Vaggie stepped in front of the bar, waving her arms around and making it clear that she wasn't on board with any of this. “None of you guys, except for Charlie, are of age! You are all underage! Which makes the bar so much worse!”

She then says, “This is supposed to be a place that discourages sin! Not some kind of underage…frat…party house!”

Angel then tackles and interrupts Vaggie before she can finish, shouting, “SHUT UP! SHUT! UP! We!”. He points towards the bar with three of his hands and says, “are keeping this!”

He scoots over to the bar, leaning in with those cute puppy-dog eyes and saying, “Hey~”

“Go fuck yourself,” Husk says, brushing off Angel and diving back into his drink.

Angel leans over the bar a bit more. “Awww~ Come on, don’t be like that~ How about sharing some drinks with a fellow kid sinner~~?”

Husk just gives Angels the finger.

Charlie rushes over to the bar, leans in towards Husk, and exclaims, “Oh, my gosh! Welcome to the Happy Hotel! You are going to love it here!” She extends her hand for a handshake, looking really enthusiastic with stars in her eyes.

Husk leans back, feeling a bit overwhelmed by the princess's excitement. He takes another swig from his bottle and says, “I lost the ability to love since I was born.”

Alastor strolls over to Charlie and Husk, casually asking, “So, whaddaya think?”

“This is amazing!!” Charlie responds with a cheerful tone.

Even Vaggie has to admit that the bar is somewhat impressive, “It’s…okay.”

“This is going to be very fun and entertaining!” Alastor starts to speak as he taps into his magic again.

He then dresses up with a top hat and a waistcoat. He starts singing and dancing around the hotel. While he's doing that, the entire hotel begins to transform with his magic swirling all around it. A fresh wallpaper begins to take the place of the old one, a lot of the broken furniture seems to fix itself, and the facilities start working again.

Then a group of shadow minions emerges from the fireplace and begins playing some instruments. Suddenly, more minions pop out from the shadows and start dancing, even inviting the other hotel guests to join in on the fun on the dance floor. Naturally, Charlie is more than happy to jump in, but Vaggie is reluctant and tries to keep the shadows at arm's length.

Angel is just chilling, sipping on his drink from the bar, ignoring the shadows creeping around him. Meanwhile, Husk is giving the shadows a good old middle finger as they get closer. Niffty looks like the only one really enjoying herself—dancing around and playing with the shadows.

As Alastor danced, he couldn't help but think of a catchier name for the hotel instead of just calling it “Happy Hotel.” Sinners probably won't be drawn to a place that has "happy" in its name, unless it's for something like drugs or sex. He's about to say, “Hazbin Ho–,” when suddenly, the wall behind him blows up.

Chapter Text

Charlie, Vaggie, Angel, and Alastor rush outside to see what was happening and figure out what caused that explosion.

They find a blimp up in the sky, and it’s the same one that was on the news earlier today. It's Sir Pentious’s blimp. The blimp's main window swings open, and out pops the little snake kid, exclaiming, “Hah! Well, well, well. Look who finally shows up after seven years! Nice to see you again, Alastor!”

“Hmm…you seem familiar? Do I know you? I can’t seem to remember??” Alastor tilts his head, pretending to be confused.

Sir Pentious, angry with Alastor's dismissal, exclaims, “Oh! So that’s how you want to play!!” He then goes back inside the blimp’s control room and yells, “Maybe you’ll remember after you get a taste of—” He yanks down a lever, and suddenly, a massive gun is aimed right at the hotel crew.

“Take this! You stupid deer!!” Sir Pentious shouts as he prepares to take aim.

Just as the gun was about to go off, Alastor quickly snapped his finger. Suddenly, an unsettling portal from another dimension bursts open, and out come tentacles and shadow demons. They latch onto Sir Pentious' ship and start shaking it around. Sir Pentious is getting tossed around inside the blimp with his ‘egg-bois,’ and some of them are getting scrambled from the impact.

Then some tentacles burst into the blimp and start grabbing Sir Pentious and his eggs. The tentacles pull Sir Pentious and his eggs outside, dropping them right in front of the hotel crew, while the other tentacles drag the whole blimp down toward the portal just before it closes.

Everyone fell silent for a moment, just staring at Alastor, taking in the fact that extremely powerful magic was just performed by a small 12-year-old kid.

Sir Pentious then snaps out of it, exclaiming, “Hey, that’s my blimp! Give it back!!”

“Ha! Winners, keepers. Loser, weepers,” Alastor says, playfully sticking his tongue out.

“Why! You!” Sir Pentious exclaims as he leaps at Alastor, starting a fistfight with him. They were on the ground, throwing punches and tugging at one another.

Charlie and Vaggie quickly rush in to pull them apart. Charlie grabs Sir Pentious while Vaggie grabs on to Alastor. They pull the boys apart, keeping a firm grip on them to ensure they don't end up fighting again.

“Hey! Hey! Heeyy!” Charlie exclaims, trying to get both boys to calm down. “No fighting! You boys should be getting along and not punching each other!!”

“He started it!” Pentious shouts, pointing his finger at Alastor.

Alastor, trying to break free from Vaggie’s hold, shouts, “Did you forget who was the one who pointed a gun in our face in the first place!!”

“I wouldn’t have to if you just remembered me in the first place!!” Pentious yells in response.

Alastor, attempting to shake off Vaggie’s hold, shouts, “Your face is so forgettable! Like I could remember it in the first place!!”

Pentious hisses and makes another attempt to leap at Alastor, but Charlie quickly steps in and pulls him back.

“Stop fighting! Stop fighting!” Charlie yells. “We are going inside, sit down and you two are going to think about what you did!” She goes on, “And then we will have an apology circle, and both of you will say sorry to each other!!”

Before the two boys could protest, Vaggie cuts in and says, “March! You two are in a whole lot of trouble already! Inside! Now!" she exclaims, dragging both Alastor and Pentious back into the hotel.

“Oooooo!! Someone is in trouble,” Angel says, a small smirk playing on his lips as he steps inside after them. Husk rolled his eyes and headed inside, with Niffty perched on his shoulder.

In the hotel, everyone is hanging out by the fireplace in the lobby. Alastor and Sir Pentious sat across from one another in a circle, staring angrily at one another. Both of them refuse to speak, leaving the rest of them in an awkward silence.

So, Charlie decides to break the ice by saying, “Okaayy..so…looks like we have two friends here that need to say sorry to each other!!”

“I have nothing to say to him!” Sir Pentious says, crossing his arms.

While fiddling with his fingers, Alastor responds, "I feel the same; I have nothing to say to him."

Charlie kneels down and wraps her arms around both boys' shoulders, pulling them in closer together. “Come on, don’t be like that!” She then hugs them closer. “It’s obvious you two are friends and know each other well! You guys really ought to be getting along instead of fighting.”

She looks at Alastor and says, “It’s wrong for you to make fun of Sir Pentious. He's just looking to reconnect with you as a friend.” She takes a moment and says, “Also! You kinda stole his blimp…even though he is attacking us with it. It’s still kinda wrong to just take it from him.”

Charlie then looks over at Sir Pentious and says, "Pentious, you started the fight with Alastor both times, and you attacked us and blew up a part of the hotel. You should take on some responsibility too. Alastor's just looking out for us with that big gun you're about to fire.”

“Alright, you two, it’s time to make up. Go ahead and shake hands and say you’re sorry to each other,” Charlie tells both boys in a firm tone.

The two boys stayed quiet and avoided eye contact until Pentious finally turned to Alastor and said, “I’m sorry for attacking the hotel…”

Alastor pauses for a moment, then finally looks over at Sir Pentious and says, “I suppose with your forgettable face, I sometimes forget my fellow child sinner comrade…”

“Annnnddd…?” Charlie encourages Alastor to keep going.

“And—,” Alastor says, then suddenly exclaims, “I’m still keeping the blimp! I may have been gone for seven years, but I know your mother would not let you play with it whenever you want!!"

“You can get it back when Carmilla comes to grab it!” Alastor exclaims, stomping his foot.

When Alastor says this, Sir Pentious lets out a scream. He'll be in big trouble if he doesn't bring the blimp home! He took the blimp out without asking! His mom is going to kill him, then wait for him to regenerate before killing him again!!

Alastor bursts into laughter at Pentious and exclaims, “Ha! Looks like you're getting into some trouble~”

Charlie jumps in just before another fight could start up again. “Oookay!! Looks like both of you boys made up! I am going to order dinner for everyone!!”

She then turns to Pentious and says, “Pentious, I am going to need your mom’s number. I need to call her and let her know you're alright and that she can come pick you up from the hotel."

“But—” Pentious says, attempting to argue.

Vaggie cuts in and says, “No buts! There's no way we're letting a kid like you wander around the city by yourself! We're calling your mom to tell her what you did!” She then says, "Act like a man and face the consequences head on!"

Charlie comforts Pentious, who is growing more depressed by the moment, saying, "Don't worry, I’ll do my best to talk to your mom and see if she can lighten up on you a bit."

Later that night, Charlie had ordered pizza for the kids, except for Angel Dust, who insisted on having a small salad because, in his words, “Pizza is nothin’ but calories on bread, and I need to watch ma’ figure.”

Charlie had called Carmilla earlier, and she said she'd be here to pick up her son as soon as her meetings were done. Charlie tells Carmilla not to worry, saying that Pentious is in safe hands and that she's making him dinner at her place. Carmilla thanked her profusely and said she’d be there as soon as possible.

It’s getting quite late, and the kids, except for Husk, are starting to get tired. It appears like it is about time for them to go to bed, and it is obvious that they cannot remain up late. Charlie’s starting to feel a bit worried since Sir Pentious is still around, and she and Vaggie really need to get the kids settled for bed soon.

Just as Charlie is about to call Carmilla again, a limo rolls up to the hotel's front gate. Everyone leans out to take a look, and Pentious spots his mom’s car right away. Charlie gives a nod to Razzle and Dazzle, telling them to open the gate and let the car through. The car pulls into the hotel’s property and parks right on the front porch.

Then, a woman gets out of the car. She is a tall, gray woman with a beehive horn hairstyle and, most notably, pointed ballerina legs. She is dressed in black waist-length stockings and white ballerina shoelaces.

She walks in front of Charlie and gives her a small bow. “Princess Charlotte, I’m Carmilla Carmine, and I’m the mother of Sir Pentious,” she says to Charlie in a professional tone.

“I would like to personally apologize for whatever transgression my son has conducted in your presence.” She continues, “He is still very young and therefore quite reckless and rambunctious. Please do not hold it against him. If there is any compensation that needs to be discussed, I would personally negotiate in his place.”

Charlie waves her arms in front of Carmilla and exclaims, “Oh no! No! No! There’s no need for anything!! It’s just kids being kids!! I don’t need anything from either you or your son!!”

“I just want him to get home safe! It’s dangerous for a kid like him to be on his own out there! Just get him home safe, and we will be even!” Charlie says with a reassuring smile.

Carmilla pauses for a moment, then says, “You are very kind, princess; you ought to be careful with it. Demons won’t hesitate to take advantage of it.”

“Thanks for the warning; I will keep them in mind.” Charlie expresses her appreciation. “And please, call me Charlie. It’s more comfortable that way.”

“Very well then, Charlie. It’s getting late, and I would like to pick up my son now.” Carmilla replies back.

Charlie suddenly realizes they're still outside her front door, "Oh! Sure, come on in!” Charlie then yells for Vaggie, “Vaggie! Pentious’s mom is here! Could you please bring him to the front door?”

After a little moment, Vaggie leads Pentious by the hand to the front door, where his mother is waiting for him. There is an awkward quiet between the two before Carmilla rushes in to hug her son. Her son, surprised by this reaction, instinctively hugs her back.

Eventually, they both released their grip, but then they noticed Carmilla’s expression shift from relief to pure fury.

She begins to scold him in Spanish, “¡Serpiente tonta! ¿Sabes lo preocupada que estaba? ¡Estás en un lío! ¡Espera a llegar a casa!”*.

She continues to reprimand him as she drags him out the door and into the car. Vaggie winces slightly as she understands every word.

As Carmilla prepares to enter the car, Charlie talks with her briefly and says, "Please don't be too mad with him. He's really just a lonely kid who doesn't have many friends. He just wants to have some kids his age to spend time with.”

“I see… I will keep that in mind. You really care for him, princess,” Carmilla says after contemplating a bit.

“Of course! I care for all my people, especially kids; it’s my duty as princess to watch out for them!” Charlie replied with a lot of determination. “I would like to add that Pentious is free to visit the hotel at any time. It would be nice if Alastor and Angel had a friend to play with.”

Carmilla pauses for a moment and then says, “Thank you; I will consider this offer. In return, you may keep the blimp. My son attacked you with it anyway, and it’s your right to keep it.”

“Oh nononono!! We can’t keep that! It’s too much!!” Charlie tries to refuse the offer.

Carmilla raises her hand and says, “Please. I insist. This would serve as a good lesson for my son for being irresponsible with weapons of mass destruction and the need to be responsible for it.” She insists it's no great deal, but she also knows that none of the hotel guests know how to operate a blimp. For them, it’s just a huge balloon decoration.

“And in addition, for caring for my son, I will owe you one favor. A favor that can be done within my limits and my willingness for the task. With the additional clause that it will not upset the balance of Hell or put my family in danger, I will try to fulfill the favor as best as possible.”

Charlie stares at Carmilla with wide eyes. A freaking overlord just casually drops her a favor for her to use just because she cares for her son?? Is she missing something here??

Carmilla reaches out her hand and asks, “So, do we have a deal?”

“Ahh!! No! No, no! There is no need to be a deal! No handshake! Just having your thanks is enough!!” Charlie waves his hand, turning down Carmilla’s offer.

Carmilla kept her hand out, giving Charlie a questioning look with an arched eyebrow.

“Very well then. We will have an informal deal. I will still owe you a favor, and you can cash it in anytime.” Carmilla then lets her hand fall to her side.

“But be warned, princess, not everyone in Hell can be reasoned with. Sometimes you have to do the things you hate to protect the ones you love.” Carmilla gives Charlie some advice. “There will be times that fighting back might be the better option than being a ‘good person’ or ‘taking the high road.’ You need to learn that Hell does not take kindness lightly.”

Charlie stays there, quiet, really mulling over everything Carmilla just mentioned.

Carmilla then speaks up and says to Charlie, “It’s getting late; I should get my son home and to bed now. Thank you very much for your time today.”

“Oh! No problem! It's a bit hectic for me too, but I manage to get through it,” Charlie replies.

Carmilla swings open the car door and smiles, saying, “Good night, princess. I hope to hear from you soon.” She then gets into the car and closes the door. The car then starts up and takes off from the hotel driveway.

Charlie watches the car leave the hotel gates before heading back inside herself. Vaggie stands by the door, wrapping her arms around Charlie to offer some comfort. Charlie glances over at the kids who are beginning to drift off and says, “Well! Looks like it is time for bed! Come on everyone, let’s get you into your rooms.”

As Charlie and Vaggie escorted the children upstairs to their rooms, they were all unaware that Alastor had released some of his power across the hotel. From the outside, it appears as though a massive blimp has appeared on one side of the hotel.

Then, out of nowhere, a lightning bolt strikes the "The Happy Hotel" sign, turning it to "The Hazbin Hotel."

Chapter Text

“Once upon a time, there was a glowing city protected by golden gates known as Heaven.”

A beautiful illustration is shown; depicting a beautiful kingdom in the sky that shines with golden gates protecting the citizens there. The image suddenly shifts to reveal that the gorgeous realm has come to be known as Heaven. The kingdom is a magnificent place made entirely of pure light.

“It was ruled by beings of Pure light, Angels that worshiped good and shielded all from evil.”

A few balls of light were seen soaring around the kingdom before landing on an empty spot and revealing themselves to be angels. These angels, unlike other angels, are ancient entities who have lived since the beginning of time and do not have a typical humanoid form. Instead, it combines elements of earthly creatures like feathers and eyeballs with physical or abstract items like fire and metallic rings.

“Lucifer was one of these angels. He was a dreamer with fantastical ideas for All of creation. But he was seen as a troublemaker by the elders of Heaven. For they felt his way of thinking was dangerous to the order of their world.”

The scene suddenly transforms to a white silhouette of Lucifer, who is joyfully creating fireworks and flying around, releasing creation magic as he does so. He appears to be having a great time and doing something he loves. The scene then shifts to Lucifer being reprimanded by a slew of towering silhouettes representing Heaven's elders.

“So, he watched as the angels began to expand the universe in their ways. From the dust of Earth, they created Adam and Lilith, equals as the first of Mankind.”

The illustration then depicts Lucifer watching from afar as the other angels of Heaven toiled to create the planet Earth and its inhabitants. With a wave of their hands, the angels gathered the dust and made the first humans, Adam and Lilith.

“But, despite this, Adam demanded control, and Lilith refused to submit to his will. She fled the Garden.”

Two human silhouettes are then displayed, one male and one female. The male silhouette, Adam, appears to be demanding something from the female silhouette, Lilith. Lilith then raised her arm, rejecting Adam. Next, Lilith is seen fleeing from Adam and the Garden of Eden.

“Drawn in by her fierce independence, Lucifer found her, and the two rebellious dreamers fell deeply in love.”

The following scene showed Lilith crying by the river when the white silhouette of Angel Lucifer appeared in front of her and took her hand. The two silhouettes are shown looking at each other lovingly.

“Together, they wished to share the magic of free will with humanity, offering the Fruit of Knowledge to Adam's new bride, Eve, who gladly accepted.”

After that, the scene changes to show Lilith and Eve, Adam's new bride, in the garden beneath a big tree. Then, between the two women, a snake materialized and changed back into Lucifer. Lucifer then offered Eve a brilliant red fruit, which she eagerly accepted.

“But this gift came with a curse. For with this single act of disobedience, evil finally found its way into Earth. With it, a new realm of darkness and sin. And the order Heaven worked to maintain was shattered.”

The picture then depicts the rise of dark tentacles from the darkness below, which were able to ensnare the Earth. Red eyes opened on the screen as the darkness engulfed it. It is shown that although the Angels attempted to fix the earth, it was too late. The darkness has now broken and contaminated the planet.

“As punishment for their reckless act, Heaven cast Lucifer and his love into the dark pit he had created, never allowing him to see the good that came from humanity, only the cruel and the wicked. Ashamed, Lucifer lost his will to dream.”

After that, the scene depicts Lucifer and Lilith plummeting into the shadows, which is where the evil they unleashed came from. Lucifer appeared depressed and ashamed, his creation magic fading away along with his hope. Then he left, heartbroken and dejected.

“But Lilith thrived, empowering demonkind with her voice and songs. And as the numbers of Hell grew, so did its power.”

Lilith is then shown to be rising and prospering. Musical notes can be seen while she sings to inspire the sinners. The dark, lifeless pit in which she and Lucifer were casted, blossomed into a vibrant metropolis. Then, as Hell's population grows, more and more demons appear on the scene.

“Threatened by this, Heaven made a truly heartless decision. That every year, they would send down an army, an Extermination, to ensure Hell and its sinners could never rise against them.”

The scene subsequently shifted to Heaven, where an angel with six wings gave a remorseful look before another angel with horns and golden wings flew in front of her and led an army of flying angels with spears down to Hell to exterminate the sinners.

“But Lilith's hope remained. And her dream was passed down to their precious daughter, the Princess of Hell.”

In the last scene, Charlie is depicted as a regal figure amidst the flaming landscapes of Hell, holding a powerful heart in her hands.

“And that’s the Story of Hell,” Charlie wraps up, glancing at her audience with a satisfied smile.

It is then revealed that Vaggie, Alastor, Husk, and Niffty are the members of the audience. It turns out that Charlie has been sharing her story with the kids and Vaggie all along, and the illustrations and scenes shown were actually from her storybook. They're all gathered in the hotel lobby, lounging on the sofas. Charlie has her own spot on one sofa, while the others are spread out around her, like it's story time.

After a moment of silence falls over the kids as Charlie puts her book down, Angel interrupts, “So, ya’ sayin’ that thanks to your daddy, this hellhole exists? And you are supposed to be some kinda’ of saviour for us??”

“No! That’s not what I meant! I mean—, as a princess I suppose to help you all—, and—” Charlie fumbles over her words as she is suddenly accused of having a savior complex.

Vaggie chimes in, “Hey! This is not what Charlie meant! She is just telling a story from a book given to her by her parents.”. Vaggie continues to stand up for Charlie. “Her parents shared their beautiful dreams with her, and she chose to help all of you! You should be grateful for it.”

Angel retorts angrily, “Grateful!? That story painted her as some kinda’ saviour and that helpin’ us is just a way to fulfill her destiny or somethin’!”

“I’m with Angel on this one; that story does seem kind of fishy. It really made your parents look like the heroes, while Adam and Heaven came off as the villains,” Husk added. “I've been around long enough to see that this kind of story really only shows one side in a good light.”

Angel joins in, "Yeah! Like a divorce! They always tellin’ lies to their kids to make the other one look bad.”

"Parents always tell lies in their story to make them look good." Niffty adds, "They always lie and trick their kids into doing stuff for them."

To everyone's surprise, Alasor also chimes in, “ I am also in agreement with the rest of my fellow child sinners, sometimes there is one parent that is so bad, you think of murdering them from time to time. Ha!”. Then laugh tracks can be heard from him.

He also mentions, “They either prefer to deceive the good parent or mislead the child for their own advantage. They will also use their child in whatever way that pleases them.”

“Yeah! Parents sucks!” Niffty shouts out.

After listening to the children's complaints, Charlie and Vaggie both became quiet. Charlie really doesn't have the words for this. It's clear that adults, particularly their parents, in life, have treated them poorly, but they had no idea it was this bad. While the kids are still chatting away, Charlie stands up from her seat, with Vaggie trailing behind her, and heads over to the nearest window to gaze outside.

“Charlie?” Vaggie asks with a hint of worry. “You okay?”

Charlie pauses for a moment, then looks back at Vaggie. “I'm fine. Just... thinking, ya' know? Family stuff.”

“The kids got to you, huh?” Vaggie takes a guess. “I wouldn’t worry about it too much, they’re just talking without really knowing what’s going on.”

“That’s not it, Vaggie. I really messed up! Those kids clearly had a hard life with horrible parents, but here I am, just showing off my amazing ones and all the love we share,” Charlie says, waving her hands around anxiously. “I didn’t even consider how they might feel when I shared that story.”

Vaggie puts a hand on Charlie’s shoulder and offers her a reassuring smile. “Hey... You didn’t know they would react like that. If anything, you are just trying to cheer them up.”

“I know that the exterminations have been hard for you, and that story seems to make you feel a little better. You want the kids to feel a bit better too; you just want to share your story with them.” Vaggie gives her a comforting nod.

Charlie offers her girlfriend a little smile. “Yeah... I just thought I could help them keep their minds off of things, you know… I had no idea that the story makes it seem like I'm this princess just there to help them fulfill a destiny."

“That’s how they see it, but it’s not how you do.” Vaggie says to Charlie.

“They've seen so much that it's hard for them to view any adult positively. Sometimes, nice stories can really get under their skin, and they'll end up saying some not-so-nice things about them.”

Vaggie then meets Charlie's gaze. “Charlie, you are fulfilling a destiny. But it’s a destiny you chose—a destiny because you truly care about your people and want to genuinely help them.”

“Don’t let anyone else think otherwise; you’re going to do great things, not just because you’re a princess, but because you’re an amazing, wonderful, kind woman. Honestly, I can't imagine being with anyone else.”

Charlie gets a little emotional and wraps her arms around Vaggie for a hug. “Thank you so much, Vaggie! You always know what to say. Love you.”

“Love you too.” Vaggie gives her a warm hug in return. “How are you feeling now?”

Charlie lets go of her hug and says, “A bit better…..”

She takes a moment to pause. “Vaggie, do you really think the kids had a point? That is, my story might be... you know... a little... kind of... exaggerated...?”

Vaggie bit her lips, looking a bit uncertain. “I don’t know, Charlie...this is something you need to talk with your parents about.” She then asks, “Did you hear from your mom yet?”

Charlie just shakes her head, looking a bit dismayed.

Vaggie winces slightly and asks, “Oof… how long has it been now?”

“Not that long, only...seven....years, off doing something important, I'm sure!” Charlie responds without making eye contact with Vaggie.

“But, this kingdom was something she really cared about.”

She takes a quick glance over at her window. Outside, there is a view of Pentagram City, the main city on the Pride Ring. It's on fire, as usual, and there's a lot of gunfire and sinners screaming outside. It's a city full of depravity and sin, but Charlie still loves it all the same; it’s her kingdom, her people, after all.

She then says, “Something I care about.”

“Well, at least you aren't alone.” Vaggie says to Charlie with a comforting smile.

Charlie then glances over at Vaggie. “I just hope what I'm trying to do here will work.”

Vaggie takes Charlie's hands and says, “It will. I have faith in you.”

The two share a peaceful moment until Angel Dust suddenly yells for them from the TV area. “Hey! Princess! Naggy Vaggie! Get over here, quick! Smiles got something to show ya’!”

Chapter Text

“Well, hello there, you poor lost Sinners! Do you like blood, violence, and weird, gross sex stuff? Of course you do; that's why you're in Hell!”

The scene turns static, then snaps back to life, showing video footage of one sinner stabbing another with a knife, just before Alastor steps in to grab their attention. The video footage is rather shaky, indicating that it is held by inexperienced hands. It also shows that the person behind the camera is quite short, as most of the shots are taken at waist level.

“But what would you say if I told you there was a place to stay that had none of that?”

The video goes on to show the two sinners glaring at him with anger and hatred. The camera pulls back, showing the amount of destruction spread across the entire area. Craters are all around, everything's on fire, and the buildings are in ruins. While Alastor keeps talking in the video, more and more sinners start to emerge from their hiding spots, looking like they're ready to pounce on him.

A few sinners leap towards the camera, ready to make an attack on Alastor, and then suddenly, the whole screen goes static.

“Welcome to the Hazbin Hotel, a place where you can find redemption so that you can go to Heaven!”

The scene shifts, and we get a glimpse of the front of the Hazbin Hotel from the outside. The camera is angled up in a bit of an awkward way, kind of like a little kid craning his neck to catch a glimpse of the top of a really tall building. Next, the camera pan and tilt down to the hotel’s front entrance, capturing the sign and the front door.

The footage in the whole video is still pretty shaky.

“Founded five days ago by the Princess of Hell, Charlotte Morningstar!”

Now, Charlie is on camera. Because Charlie is way taller than Alastor and the video is filmed from a child's viewpoint, it creates an interesting illusion that Charlie is towering over everything, almost like a giant. She gives a little wave to the camera, and then Angel Dust pops into the frame, stepping right in front and blowing a kiss at it.

“Come place your fate in this crazy lady's hand!”

The scene shifts once more, now featuring Charlie in an interview with Katie Killjoy. Charlie is doing his best to sell her on the hotel, but Katie seems completely uninterested, casually taking a smoke break as she talks.

“As she ignores whatever crazy issue she has by trying to fix you instead!”

And so, after a scene change, there is a close-up of a child's hands holding a stack of photos to share with everyone.

The first photo shows Charlie with her back turned, looking at a corkboard that's packed with a redemption plan and some playful drawings. It looks like she's getting ready for her next redemption activity. The corkboard, however, is a mess of strings and notes, giving off a feeling that she’s piecing together a conspiracy rather than just planning an activity.

Alastor then moves to the next photo, revealing a shot of Charlie in tears, turned away from her father, who is facing the other way under a spotlight.

Finally, Alastor pulls out the photo from the bottom of the stack and turns it over for the camera to see. It's a photo of Charlie presenting her plans in a PowerPoint to a crowd of sinners who look pretty confused. The photo really shows her eyes twitching, too.

“Here we offer fun things, such as somewhat functional staff.”

The scene changes, and the shot is now at the hotel's front door. The camera then tracks into the hotel as the front door opens and Alastor, behind the camera, steps inside. When Alastor says, “Fun things,” out of nowhere, a shadowy minion appears right in front of the camera. It's holding this huge cardboard sign that says "Fun Things" in bright yellow, and it's all doodled up around the edges.

Razzle and Dazzle are zipping around, flying by as they clean the hotel. The camera shifts over to the bar area, showing the bartender, Husk, and Niffty hanging out there. Husk, clearly having had one too many, just passed out on the bar table, his face hitting the counter with a thud.

“and 24-hour pest control.”

Niffty, the hotel maid, zips around Husk's unconscious body as she tries to stab and chase after a bug. She then dashes off screen, trying to catch the bug.

“Custom rooms,”

The scene shifts to a toilet, where red eyes on the wall are staring right at it. So, basically, anyone using this toilet is going to have an audience watching them.

Alastor is also trying to hold up another cardboard sign that says ‘Custom rooms’ right in front of the camera. This time, he’s actually holding the sign himself, which makes it look really close to the screen. Also, the camera looks really shaky since he's just holding it with one hand.

“And just look at this boring old parlor! There is literally nothing to do here!”

The scene shows Angel Dust lounging on the sofa in the hotel parlor, looking completely bored. He's just lying there, looking blank, with his phone resting on his chest and a little drool escaping from his mouth. He’s definitely bored, and right now, nothing online seems to grab his attention.

Then suddenly, a support beam crashes down near KeeKee, giving the demon cat quite the scare before it dashes away. This noise jolts Angel awake, and he finds Alastor there, holding a camera.

“Enjoy a fun conversation with our only resident here.”

Alastor walks over and leans in close to Angel's face. When Angel hears that he's the only hotel resident, he just flips Alastor off.

“Wow! All this and more at the Hazbin Hotel!”

The scene changes, and Alastor is now standing in front of the parlor fireplace. Alastor is all static, and you can hardly see his face on the screen. He is holding up a large sign that says, ‘WOW!’ Alastor then pulls out this drawing he did of the hotel, and the camera zooms in on it. The drawing is a little rough around the edges, but that's expected from a 12-year-old. It’s really vibrant though, packed with stickers and various shades of red.

“Your last desperate attempt at salvation starts here!”

The final scene gives one last look at the hotel building from the outside, wrapping up with a shot of a doodle-filled drawing that says, ‘Call now or don’t. I don’t care! Our phones don’t work!!' right in the middle of the screen.

The screen fades to black, and the commercial ends.

“So, what do you think?” Alastor asks the audience about his homemade commercial.

Everyone is just staring at the TV, which is now off, and it's all quiet. They have no words for it.

“I'm sorry. What was that supposed to be?” Vaggie exclaims,

Alastor just blinks at Vaggie and says, “The commercial, of course!!”. He waves his hands and gestures to the TV, saying, “I don't understand why you people are so insistent on television when radio works so much better.”

“And since I don’t trust anything that has to do with VoxTek or anything associated with them, I made this all on my own. And with my own equipment too!” Alastor says, feeling pretty proud of himself.

Charlie winces, a bit guilty, and says, “Uh, yeah ... . One note, Alastor, I mean, first off, thank you so much for making this seriously amazing! And I'm really proud of you and so grateful for this!"

Charlie scratches her head, avoiding Alastor’s gaze, and adds, “But um, maybe the tone is a bit... off? The commercial is a bit off….”

“The way you introduce the hotel is…um…”

Angel steps in as this is going nowhere and bluntly states, “It’s bad. It's so, so bad. I think I have nausea watching this.”

“Angel! Don’t say that! Alastor clearly worked hard on this commercial!” Charlie chastises Angel.

“No! I am seriously havin’ motion sickness when watching this! The camera's really shaky!” Angel exclaims back.

“It’s like ya’ are on a boat spinning around while ya’ are inside a moving car tryin’ to read somethin’ with tiny words!”

Here Vaggie adds, "Plus, it barely explains anything about how we're trying to save demons from extermination, which is the whole point."

“There was like only one moment where you explained the end goal, which is getting sinners into Heaven. The rest is just you making fun of Charlie and the hotel!” She also adds.

“I like it! It makes my eye spin!” Niffty suddenly shouts,

Alastor glances at Niffty with a grateful smile before addressing the rest of the group, “At least some people appreciate it!” He says, pouting in frustration.

“No! No, no, no! We really appreciate your commercial! Really!” Charlie exclaims, waving her arm around. “It’s just that…” She pauses, her words hanging in the air.

“We can’t use this for the hotel’s commercial. It doesn’t represent what the hotel really is and honestly, the quality is pretty bad.” Vaggie puts it bluntly.

Charlie glances over at Vaggie and exclaims, “Vaggie! Don't you think that's a little harsh?”

Vaggie stands up, places her hands on her hips and says with a firm tone, “I’m sorry, Charlie. But I am not sugarcoating this. This—,” she gestures toward the TV. “-is not what we want to represent us.”

“It is hard to watch and barely understandable, and most of it is just mocking you and the hotel. Nobody's gonna wanna come to a place that a powerful overlord thinks is a waste of time.”

Husk then chimes in from the bar area, “Not that they will listen to him in the first place. Nobody listens to kid sinners, not even if they are an overlord.”

Vaggie and Charlie both flinch a little at this.

Angel Dust then raises his hand from the couch, catching everyone's attention.

“What?” Vaggie asks.

“If'n you're filming a commercial, can I suggest you take better advantage of the talented celebrity you have right here?” Angel Dust proudly points to himself with his three arms, while the fourth one grabs the bottle of booze at his feet. “Starring, the one and only, yours truly.”

“Angel, that would just make the hotel look like we're just using you to get people in,” Vaggie says.

Angel then exclaims, "Yeah! Duh! I can totally get fans to show up at the hotel just by being on screen for like, 5 seconds!!”

“We are not doing that!” Vaggie shot back.

“Why not? Children on TV always pull on heartstrings! I swear if you film me along with Strawberry Deer here, with sad puppy eyes and an outfit that shows some skin, you will be rolling in sinners.” Angel explains.

Alastor suddenly pops up next to Angel and says, “Haha! Never going to happen!”

Charlie, looking super uncomfortable after hearing Angel's explanation, says, “Angel, I appreciate you wanting to use your talent to, um, attract folks to the hotel, but I really don't want to exploit you in that way.”

“Plus….. your idea might attract the wrong kind of sinners here…..”

The kids look at each other, raising an eyebrow after Charlie says this. They really don’t believe her at all; adults in Hell usually exploit or enslave kids to do their bidding. They doubt this princess or her girlfriend would be different; it's just a matter of time before the adults show their true intentions.

“Oh please! Like you don’t want to exploit this!” Angel points to himself with his three arms. “I got the looks, I got the skills, I got the clout.”

He chuckles a little and says, “Pick a tone you want to go with and I got ya’ covered! You want sad? I can make sad puppy eyes! You want happy? I will be like a kid on a summer day! You want hip? I am the latest trend you can get!”

Charlie lets out a nervous chuckle just as her phone starts ringing. The caller ID shows that it’s from her dad.

“Hold that thought! I'll be right back.” She quickly picks up her phone and heads to a quiet corner to answer it.

“Don’t chu’ worry! I could keep going all night, princess!” Angel exclaims as he takes a swig of his booze.

Now that she’s found a quiet spot, Charlie takes a deep breath and picks up her phone, saying, “Hello? Dad?”

Angel, still sprawled out on the sofa, turns to Vaggie and says, “Hey, I have a question. If freaky face over there is so powerful,” Angel points at Alastor, “then why can't he just make people stay here?”

Alastor looks at Angel with an ominous look on his face. "Oh, trust me," He grins wickedly, dark magic swirling around him, and says, “I can.”

“Why do you think I'm here?” Husk chimes in from the bar, casually holding a bottle in his hand.

“You actually think I'd be cleaning bottles and listening to you fucks bitch and moan all the time if he wasn't forcing me?” He mentions, while he cleans the bottle.

Niffty emerges from behind the counter, raises a hand, and declares, "I like being forced by Alastor!"

“Keep that to yourself, Niff.” Husk tells Niffty.

Angel sits up from the sofa and glances over at Husk. “What? You don't love being with a celebrity like me here, Whiskers?”

“Fuck you! Call me Whiskers again and I'll jam that bottle down your throat!” Husk angrily exclaims as he glares at Angel.

Angel, with a cheeky grin, says, “Come on~ You know you love me.”

Vaggie lets out a sigh and says to Angel, “Angel. Let Husk do his job. And, no, we can't force sinners to stay here. They need to choose to.”

Angel points to himself and says, “I'm choosing to be here, and even for a kid like me, I think it's all stupid.” He gestures around the area and says, “We're in hell, Nag. That's kind of the end of the road, ain't it?”

“Well, Maybe it doesn't have to be. Just because nobody has made it out before doesn't mean it's not possible.” Vaggie says as she tries to convince Angel.

Angel Dust places a hand on Vaggie's shoulder, gives her a deadpan expression, and says, “Hey, whatever means I can keep crashing here rent-free. Drugs and booze are expensive.”

Vaggie just responds with a deadpan face.

Charlie is just about done with her call. She’s got a big smile on her face; it seems she is really happy with the news her father brought to her.

“Yeah, I can totally, yeah. I'll head over there right away. Okay?!” She hangs up the phone and lets out a gasp of excitement, “Yes... YES!” She jumps up with excitement and spreads her arms wide.

She then shouts for Vaggie, her arms waving with excitement, “VAGGIE, HOLY SHIT!”

“Ah! What?” Vaggie asks,

Charlie waves her over, eager to share some exciting news. “Get over here!” she says with a hint of excitement.

Vaggie lets out a happy sigh and strolls over to Charlie, who's bouncing around in a super cheerful mood.

“What's going on?” Vaggie asks Charlie

Charlie takes a deep breath to steady herself, trying to calm her nerves before she dives into her explanation. But her excitement gets the better of her, and she starts talking really fast.

“My dad just called!” Charlie takes a deep breath and adds, “He said that the leader of the Angel Army wants to meet!”

She then grabs Vaggie by the shoulders, pulls her in closer, and says, “He asked if I could go instead!”

Charlie starts to hyperventilate as she releases Vaggie, who looks really confused and says, “But-but, the extermination just happened. What could they possibly want this soon after—”

Before Vaggie can continue, Charlie starts singing. She sings about how she can do this meeting no problem and she will definitely not blow this chance.

Vaggie tries to calm Charlie down, “Charlie, hold on…”

She goes on to sing about this amazing once-in-a-lifetime chance she's been given. A chance at convincing Heaven about her ideas, a scheme to change their minds and touch their hearts, or whatever it is that angels have inside them.

“It’s really just a meeting.” Vaggie tries to calm Charlie down and help her keep her expectations in check.

Charlie is still singing and dancing happily in the lobby. Vaggie, sensing that this meeting might not turn out the way Charlie is hoping, says, “This could be bad…”

“Cheer up, Vaggie!” Charlie happily sings.

She takes Vaggie's hands and twirls around the room with her, singing, “Something tells me that today will be a happy day in Hell!”

They twirl around the room for a moment until Charlie finally releases Vaggie. She gives one last spin before coming to a stop and says to Charlie, “Okay, but just don't... sing to them.”

But before Vaggie knows it, Charlie is already gone.

“That bitch is halfway down the street!” Angel Dust exclaims,

“Is she—?” Vaggie nervously asks,

Angel just nods and takes a swig, saying to Vaggie, “Oh, she's dancin'!”

Vaggie feels a headache creeping in and groans, “Ugh, no…”

Charlie is making her way down the street, oblivious to the destruction and bodies of dead demons everywhere as she continues to sing her song. She just strolls around, still singing away.

After a little while, she arrives at a window of a sex dungeon where a hellhound and an imp are in a compromising position. They notice her, and Charlie, feeling a bit awkward, quickly takes off before she goes back to singing. Charlie then accidentally steps on a dead shark demon that was releasing a very bad smell. She cautiously avoids the corpse and presses on in the street.

“Hi mister!” Charlie gives a friendly wave to a sinner holding a newspaper.

“Go fuck yourself!!” the sinner shouts back at her, clearly annoyed. Charlie quickly moves on from there.

One demon opens his window in an apartment nearby, revealing his apartment on fire. Another demon comes out of nowhere singing he's going to shove barbed wire up someone’s hole. A demon is coming out from an alley singing; they all have their role down here in hell. And finally, a demon with a knife sticking out from his eye is saying he is not doing well.

The demons around start singing, “Another shitty day in Hell!”

Charlie climbs onto a car, singing about how she can show the angels, “That any soul can change!”

Vaggie heads into the watchtower from the Hazbin Hotel, almost like she's calling out to her girlfriend, singing, “Those angels' minds are hard to change.”

“Then they will know everyone can be redeemed.” Charlie sings right after Vaggie. “From the evil to the strange!”

“They're bloodthirsty and deranged!” Vaggie sings, hoping her warning gets to Charlie.

Charlie hops down from the car, singing about how she'll hear all the stories from the sinners who are lost and displaced. She understands that assisting sinners comes in various forms and requires acquired taste. But if she opens the doors of her hotel for all these people, she really thinks she can make a difference for them. And when she finally gets to help them, it’s going to be a Happy Day in Hell.

Then, a truck rolls by, and Charlie hops on for a ride to travel around the city. She passes the Vees’ porn studios, where a crowd of folks is hanging out in front of TV shops, glued to the screen watching porn. She jumps off and lands just as the truck rolls by Cannibal Town, still singing away.

As she walks by a group of cannibals munching on some unfortunate soul sprawled on the ground, she suddenly gets hit in the eye with blood from one of the bodies they were feasting on. Charlie flinches a little, but it doesn’t bother her at all because she’s just too happy to feel anything else.

When she finally gets to the Heaven embassy, she wraps up her song by singing about how she can make this happen and that today is going to be a fucking Happy Day in Hell!

Chapter Text

Charlie makes her way up the steps of the Heaven Embassy and finally arrives at the front door. She gently nudges the door open and takes a quick peek inside.

“Hello!?” Charlie calls out into the empty embassy, her voice bouncing off the walls in the silence.

Charlie walks in through the door and notices that the entire embassy is empty. She calls out again, “Hello?”

Her voice bounces off the walls of the hallway, but no one replies. “Creepy,” Charlie mutters to herself. She made her way to the front desk of the embassy before long.

Charlie walks up to the front desk, and it’s just her and a lone bell. She glances around for a moment before tapping the bell to ring it, and just like that, a golden scroll and a feather ink pen float down from above to her.

“Oh, okay...,” Charlie says in surprise before signing the scroll. “Also creepy.”

The scroll and feather take off into the air before vanishing completely. The twin doors slide open, and Charlie steps into the meeting room, finding it dark and empty.

“Uh...hello? Is anyone here?” Charlie calls out as she searches for someone in the dimly lit room.

The lights flicked on out of nowhere, and there—were two angels standing at the far end of the room. One of them had a huge mask with golden horns. He has a golden halo and is draped in a white and golden cloak, which has a big 'A' symbol right on the front. He's also got a plate of ribs right in front of him.

The other one looks like a typical exorcist— a grey female humanoid in a typical black and grey exorcist bodysuit uniform with a black halo. She is wearing an exorcist mask with horns that curve backwards, and there's a ‘X’ on the left eye of the mask. She’s standing tall next to the golden one, hands clasped behind her back.

“'Sup!” The golden angel greets Charlie.

Charlie, caught off guard by the unexpected turnout, exclaims, “Holy, shit!”

She immediately fell down after getting surprised by the sudden appearance of two angels in the room. She gets back up and readjusts herself to introduce herself properly.

“Hi, I'm Charlie. My dad asked me if I could meet you.” she says with a smile as she introduces herself.

The golden angel, holding a rib, just says flatly, “Yeah, I know.”

“Okay, well.” Charlie sees the angel tearing into the rib like a buzzsaw. She extends her hand for a handshake and says, “It's nice to meet you.”

He then says to Charlie, “Totally. It's nice to meet you, too.”

Adam leans in to offer Charlie a handshake, but just as she’s about to grab his hand, it slips right through, revealing him to be a hologram, fizzing on and off after being touched, which freaks Charlie out.

“Ha! I fucking got you.” he exclaims before turning to the other angel in the room and saying, “Did you see that?” The angel just gives him a nod.

“Good shit.” he mutters to himself.

Charlie tries to make clear that they’re actually holograms.

“Uh...so, wait. You aren't here?” Charlie points down with her fingers and asks him.

“No, you think I'd come down there!?” He chuckles while saying this.

He keeps going, saying, “No, I mean, I love the vibe, totally, I love your tunes. Pretty fucking hardcore, don't get me wrong.”

“But! It's such a bummer! man. Everything down there's just so ‘eugh’, ya know?” He waves his hands, talking about Hell. “Ew!” He says while chuckling.

Charlie brushes off her uneasy feeling and starts to talk. “Right. So, I'm happy we've got this opportunity to meet. There's a project that I've been working on that I really want to talk to you about—”

The angel gently places a finger on Charlie's lips, signaling her to be quiet for just a moment. It's interesting how he can actually touch Charlie, even though he's just a hologram.

He cuts in on Charlie and says, “Hey, hey, hey, hey, slow down. We've got time. How about we get to know each other a little. Mmm. How about lunch? You hungry? I got you.”

He grabs a plate of ribs he's been snacking on and passes it to Charlie. “Here's my personal favorite. You'll love it.” He says while handing Charlie some of his ribs.

“Uh...thanks.” Charlie says in a bit of an awkward way,

Charlie reaches for a rib, but her hand just goes right through it, showing it's a hologram. It flickers on and off when she touches it, and then the angel bursts out laughing.

“I got you again, bitch!” He bursts out laughing at Charlie. “Fuckin' hilarious!”

Charlie, not really feeling it, lets out a small, dry chuckle while the angel laughs away with glee.

Back at the Hazbin Hotel, Vaggie calls the kids to talk about their misleading and badly produced commercial. While Husk slouches back on the sofa, looking pretty bored, Angel Dust is just chilling and scrolling through his phone, ignoring Vaggie. Niffty sits elegantly between them. In another chair, Alastor is sulking visibly, his arms crossed and his face annoyed.

Vaggie steps up and says, “Okay, so Charlie is dealing with something very important, so while she's gone, we are making a new commercial. One that represents her vision and what we're doing here. So, we need a camera.”

She looks over at Alastor and says, “Alastor?” while reaching out her hand, signaling for a camera.

Alastor just pouts, arms crossed, turning his face away from Vaggie and completely ignoring her. Angel Dust chuckles at this, while Husk just rolls his eyes.

“Alastor, you can’t be serious right now,” Vaggie says, sounding really annoyed. “We need to shoot a new commercial; we can’t use yours.”

Alastor just kept his back to her, completely ignoring her.

Vaggie, feeling more and more frustrated, exclaims, “Come on! We really need to get this done!” She then says, “When you showed up here a week ago, you told us you would help run this hotel! And we need you to do your part for this.”

“So. Camera. Now!” Vaggie shouts out. The kids are now giving Vaggie a look, and it’s clear they’re not too pleased with her. They feel she's asking them to do something that benefits only her and Charlie, not them. Furthermore, they think her tone is pretty offensive. It’s really frustrating and a bit annoying.

At least Charlie recognizes and values what Alastor has done; on the other hand, Vaggie just seems to dismiss and criticize it, not really seeing that a kid sinner put in the effort for her out of their free will.

Alastor just rolls his eyes and snaps his fingers, and suddenly, a vintage folding camera from the 1930s, without any recording films, appears in Vaggie’s hands. Vaggie does not find this amusing.

“A video camera?” Vaggie clarifies.

Alastor shoots her a flat look and snaps his fingers once more. This time, a video camera with tape all over it replaces the vintage one.

“Alright! Let's do this!” Vaggie declares,

“Have fun without me; I will be here, not helping you at all!” Alastor says to Vaggie.

Vaggie, sensing a migraine creeping in, exclaims, “Ugh! Fine! Just don’t get in our way!” She grabs a box from nearby and hands it over to Alastor.

“Here, why don’t you play with these? They’ll keep you busy,” Vaggie says to Alastor.

It's a box of devil goat plushies that Charlie had bought earlier for the kids. After realizing that most hotel guests are children, Charlie has spent the past week buying toys and entertainment for the kids. At first, she picked up the typical stuff: board games, mind-stimulating toys, or anything that could strengthen the connection between friends and family, like Hell-o-poly. (It'll become clear later that this was a mistake.)

However, she also bought toys and things that do not match the present kid demographic or that she does not understand boy children. She purchased numerous sports toys, robot action figures, and toy cars. Additionally, she purchased American baseball and football equipment for Husk, which he doesn't care for. To be fair, Angel and Alastor do enjoy themselves when they smash things with bean bags.

Most of the other things she bought are for kids way younger than them, not really for tweens like Angel and Alastor. There’s a whole bunch of plushies, which makes it seem like Charlie is kind of babying them, which she does sometimes.

Alastor glances at Vaggie, his eyebrow raised. “What am I meant to do with this? Play with them? What am I?! Eight?!”

“Ugh! I don’t know! Use your imagination! Aren’t you kids good with that? Pretend it to be something else!” Vaggie spoke with a hint of annoyance. “Just let us do our commercial.”

Alastor rolls his eyes, grabs the box, and heads to the parlor to play.

“Alright! Let’s shoot a commercial, people!” Vaggie says once more,

The kids and Vaggie, minus Alastor, are chilling at the hotel bar, which also serves as the front desk. They're all set to start filming the first part of the commercial. Husk is hanging out behind the counter, going over a script with his claws, while Angel Dust is perched on a bar stool, giving his face a little touch-up with some make-up.

Vaggie is close by, messing around with the camera, trying to figure out how to get it to work. After some time, she finally got the camera working. The camera whirs to bring the two into focus. Vaggie sets up the video camera on a stand she found in the hotel storage room and gets ready to record the scene.

"People! Places! Let's get this commercial rolling!” Vaggie calls out to grab everyone's attention.

“And… Action!” she says, pressing the camera’s record button.

Vaggie quickly makes her way to her spot for the scene, right next to Angel Dust, who's standing in front of the hotel front desk. They are playing the part of a guardian and child arriving at the hotel together. Husk is playing the role of a front desk employee to help them with their check-in.

Husk leans in, carefully scanning the lines on his script as he brings it closer to get a better look.

"Welcome to the Hazbin Hotel. Can I help you with anything?" After reading his line, he glances over at the duo.

Vaggie looks over at Husk, a bit uneasy, as she tries to get her words out, “Hello, I’m here to check in with my child. I heard that you can set us on the path of redemption and to Heaven. Where we will be safe and happy.”

“I’m going to be in Heaven with my mommy~” Angel says his line in a really adorable manner.

Husk lets out a frustrated groan, rolls his eyes, and takes another look at his script.

"Well, you come—" Husk reads from the script straight.

Angel suddenly claps his hands, jumps around like a little kid, and shouts, “Yayyyy~~~”

Husk, looking a bit annoyed, keeps on reading, “—to the right place."

This is not what Vaggie had in mind; she hurried over to the camera and switched off the recording.

"Cut! Okay, Angel, I need you to turn down the obviously fake enthusiasm a bit, and Husk, can you maybe not have the script in front of your face?” Vaggie tells them,

Husk snaps at Vaggie, “I ain't no actor! I can't memorize all this shit!”

“Please, you can have only one line in this whole thing, and you won't be able to memorize it,” Angel teases Husk. “You are like an old man with dementia!” He chuckles.

“Why, you little twerp!" Husk angrily yells,

"Get over here! I will give you dementia!!” Husk says while he hops over the bar counter, and tries to beat up Angel Dust.

Vaggie steps in between them, trying to break up the fight.

“Hey! No fighting! We are supposed to work together!” Vaggie shouts, positioning herself to stand between Angel and Husk as they both attempt to push past her for a fight.

At the Heaven Embassy, Charlie is really feeling bored. She's leaning on her elbows, tuning out to the angel who's going on and on about himself and his sex life.

“So, I was playin' this gig, and for some fuckin' reason, this virtue chick was diggin' on the drummer, and it's like, ‘do you know who I am? I'm fuckin' Adam. I'm the original dick!’” He gestures towards himself.

He looks over at the other angel and says, “All dicks descend from me. You think you want drummer dick?”. The angel in question just shook her head.

“No way! I'm the Dick-fuckin' master!” He takes a big bite of ribs and goes on, “So, anyway, then we fucked, and it was awesome. What'd you do this weekend?”

Charlie was totally zoned out while the angel just kept going on and on. But then she caught wind of something important, and it was like a lightbulb went off in her head.

“Wait, your name is Adam?” Charlie suddenly shouts, pointing at him. All of a sudden, it hits her who the angel really is.

“Like the first man, Adam, that means you… Oh….”

Charlie starts to connect the dots and realizes this is why her mother left him, which makes her wince.

“That explains so much.” Charlie is mumbling softly.

Adam, completely unaware of what Charlie figured out and what she mentioned, shouts, “I know. I fucking rock.” he says, feeling proud of himself.

Charlie brushes off the awkwardness from Adam and tries to get to her subject matter at hand.

“Well, Adam, sir. Mr. Adam, sir.” Charlie tries to talk to Adam but feels a bit uncomfortable.

Adam shoots her a smooth glance and says, “Call me, Dickmaster.”

“Adam.” Charlie says in a deadpan tone,

“You seem like a smart—” she takes a moment to think. “…well, stand up guy.”

Adam picks his teeth, not really listening, “Uh-huh.”

“And I know you are the leader of the angels. And you are a big thinker, a revolutionary. A— A genius!” Charlie mentions it in a flattering manner, trying to get on Adam’s good side.

Adam, clearly enjoying the compliments, responds with a grin, “I mean, your words, babe.”

“Who would really love to put his name on something?!” Charlie keeps going with her speech.

Adam stands up and exclaims, “Fucking love putting my name on shit! Shit's the best!” before sitting back down.

“It's a solution to our biggest problem!” Charlie joyfully shouts, thinking Adam got the message.

“Oh, herpes. Yeah, that's a bitch.” Adam suddenly cuts in.

“No!” Charlie says, “Our... other biggest problem.”

“Oh…uh..ugly people? Math? Global Warming? Nah, wait, that's Earth's problem.” Adam says this as he tries to figure out the answer.

Adam pauses for a moment and says, “Ummm…”

Charlie looks at Adam, clearly annoyed by his cluelessness.

Chapter Text

In a hotel room, Niffty is trying to stab a bug. She goes for the bug with a stab, but completely misses. Then she starts going at it again and again until Vaggie steps in to stop her.

“Stab! Stab! Stab!” Niffty shouts as she takes a giant sewing needle, nearly her size, and starts jabbing it down at the floor, trying to squash the bug that's darting around.

She missed a few times, and the giant needle made tiny little holes in the floor with each miss. Vaggie kneels down on the floor and reaches out to her shoulder to get her attention. She spins Niffty around to look at her and starts to give some instructions.

“Alright Niffty, Your line is "We have the cleanest rooms", okay?” Vaggie talks slowly and clearly so that Niffty can really get what she's saying.

Niffty nods her head and says, “Got it! I'm ready!”

Vaggie points the video camera at Niffty and says, “Action!”

Upon saying action, instead of saying the line, Niffty freezes and stares blankly at the camera without a breath or blinking from the scene. Vaggie tilts the camera down slightly, a look of confusion on her face. Angel also peers in.

Niffty is seen up close, staring blankly with a creepy, shrinking pupil. Angel slowly backs away, already creeped out.

Unknown to both of them, Niffty is currently having a flashback as soon as the camera turns on and starts recording her.

-Flashback starts-

Niffty is lying on an operating table, unable to move since all her limbs are secured to the table. A bright light shone above her, the kind that doctors use in the surgery room.

Niffty feels a bit out of it and sleepy from the meds she took, but she’s still somewhat aware of what’s going on around her. She noticed a bunch of shadowy figures standing around her, talking about her. Additionally, she vaguely notices some medical equipment beside her.

“You sure this is legal?” One figure said to the other,

There was a pause for a moment before hearing the other one say, “Not really, but that's what science is all about. If you don’t push yourself or explore new things, you’ll never hit that scientific breakthrough.”

“Besides, there won’t be a serious loss for this one.” The figure continues, “Her mom practically disowned her, and after what she did, no one will care if she is gone.”

The first figure then exclaimed, “Oh! So, she's the one who killed her boyfriend and that woman, huh?”

“Yep! Though he is cheating on her. Poor bastard, he got it coming” the second figure replied.

She heard a shuffling sound and then another voice chimed in, “Isn’t her mom crazy too? I heard the woman is delusional and thinks her husband is still with her.”

“I guess it runs in the family,” she heard someone say.

When she looked up again, she noticed a big camera staring down at her, clearly set to film her on the operating table.

She then heard, “Okay, the camera’s all set up. We can begin this new operational procedure.”

"The neuroscience community will find this fascinating. It's not every day that you can have a video of a new lobotomy procedure to study."

“That’s true. We are going to make bank with this!” She caught someone saying with enthusiasm,

Then suddenly she heard, “All right everyone. Let’s begin the procedure now.”

The operation lights flickered on, shining so bright that she could barely see. She noticed the camera and heard the voices cueing to start recording.

And then, it all goes dark.

-Flashback ends-

“Uhh, cut.” Vaggie’s voice suddenly cuts through, pulling Niffty back to reality.

Niffty snaps back to reality and asks, “How was that?”

“Alright, Niffty, you really need to say the line this time, so let’s give it another go.” Vaggie says to her,

Niffty nods and replies, “Ok!”

Vaggie picks up the camera once more and says, “Action!”

Niffty freezes up again, which really gets on Vaggie's nerves, and then Angel leans in close to her face.

Angel says with a smirk, “You're doing great, Naggy.”

Vaggie can feel her eye twitching. “Cut!” she shouts.

“Alright, uhh… maybe we can try to… fix it in post.” She says to herself.

Angel gives a playful smirk and teasingly asks her, “Do you even know what that means?”

“I'll figure it out!” Vaggie shouts at him in frustration.

Angel just gives her a look, eyebrow raised.

The kids and Vaggie are all hanging out in the kitchen now. Vaggie had set out the snacks for the kids that Charlie had made earlier in the morning. The kids are all eating their food without much complaint; it’s free food after all, and with the bonus of having a low chance of being spiked with something. So they are taking what they can get.

Angel wasn't really in the mood for food, handed his portion over to Niffty, who eagerly devoured it. He just sips on the juice that came with the snack.

“Okay, you guys stay here and eat your snacks.”Vaggie says to the kids, "I’m going to edit the video footage for the commercial."

“You all better not be fighting while I’m away,” she warns the kids. She walks out of the kitchen and makes her way to the parlor where the TV is.

Once Vaggie leaves, Alastor glances in her direction and smirks a little. He slips into the shadows, ready to follow her. Angel sees this and decides to follow him.

When Vaggie got to the parlor, she was entirely focused on the camera and the footage it had captured. But when she finally looks up from the camera, she lets out a startled scream.

“Ahh!” Vaggie lets out a scream.

The parlor is a bit of a mess right now because Alastor has been having fun playing here while they’re doing their commercial shoot. There are goat devil plushies everywhere, and they’re in all sorts of states of dismemberment. There were some goat devil plushies merely hanging by the fireplace, hanging by their necks similar to Christmas stockings.

Some were spread out and pinned to the floor, with their middles being cut open, somewhat like a dissection. Others have performed voodoo on them, and there are these plushies with a bunch of pins stuck in them.

There is even a satanic ritual going on, complete with a pentagram and candles all around it. Crushed bones of unknown origin are scattered around it.

“¡¿Qué carajo?!” Vaggie shouts. “Alastor!” she calls out to herself.

She nudges the plushies aside with her foot and then plugs the camera to the TV.

Vaggie spends a bit of time trying to edit the footage she captured for the commercial, but it just isn't working out. The footage isn't great, and she's not really skilled at video editing, so the final result doesn't look too well.

She lets out a frustrated groan just before Alastor walks into the room.

“Seems like you're having a bit of trouble there, hmm?” Alastor smugly asks her

Vaggie, taken aback, asks Alastor, “Why are you here? Shouldn’t you be in the kitchen with everyone else?”

Alastor plops down on the couch right next to her.

“For entertainment,” he says with a grin.

Alastor's shadow sneaks out from his form and pops up behind the couch, making playful laughing gestures.

“It’s funny how one disregards others' hard work thinking they can do better but yet fail spectacularly when they attempt it themselves!” Alastor gleefully tells her. “Good job!”

“Ugh! Alastor! I don’t have time to deal with you right now! I have to get this commercial done before Charlie gets back!” Vaggie shouts at Alastor in frustration.

Alastor glances at his fingers and then looks over at Vaggie, “Yes! Must be frustrating when all your hard work is just rejected like that.” He gives a little grin. “Everything just went down the drain in an instant.”

“Alright! I get it! I shouldn't disregard your commercial like that. Making one is difficult, and you went out of your way to make one yourself.” Vaggie exclaims,

Vaggie takes a deep breath and says, “Look. I need help in making this commercial, and you have the power to do it. So what is it going to take for you to help out?”

Alastor smirks and says, “How about a deal?”

“Pfft, you think I'm that stupid, making a deal with the likes of you?” Vaggie lets out a snort.

Alastor informs Vaggie, “Not for your soul, just a simple deal.”

“I help you with this, and in return, you’ll ensure that there are no products from Voxtech, the Vees, or anything connected to them in the hotel,” Alastor suggests.

Vaggie pauses for a moment, then says, “I can’t do that, Alastor; a lot of the technology and products are associated with the Vees. It's pretty much impossible to not have any of them."

“Then I guess Charlie can come back to absolutely nothing.” Alastor states simply,

“Wait!” Vaggie exclaims. She pauses for a second and then suggests, “How about this?' You can check anything we buy or have outside the hotel before bringing it in.”

“So you can work your creepy, voodoo magic on it and make sure it’s Vees/Voxtech safe.”

Alastor pauses for a moment and then replies, “I suppose that is an acceptable compromise. I guess we have a deal?”

Before they can seal the deal, a voice rings out to them.

“Wait!!” the voice calls out; they turn around to find it’s Angel Dust.

“Before ya’ go sealing the deal, how about I add something for ya?” Angel Dust mentions,

Alastor, curious about Angel’s proposal, asks, “Oh! What is it that you want to offer, my fellow child sinner?”

“You still need a script for the commercial, right? I have seen both of yours and to be frank, they suck!” Angel says, “It’s poorly written and full of typical cliches because you guys don’t know how to write a script.”

“I, on the other hand—” He points to himself and says, “Have movie and TV experience. I've been in a bunch of commercials and movies, and I might have picked up a thing or two along the way. I can definitely whip up a solid script for you all!”

Vaggie and Alastor shot him a fierce glare. They’re not saying anything, because deep down, they both know he was right.

“So, how about this? Since Al and I are on the same page about the Vees and Voxtek, how about I throw in a little of what I’m looking for in the deal?” Angel asks

“What do you want from me?! And what do you mean you and Al are on the same page? Since when did that happen?!” Vaggie raises her voice, asking for answers.

“Since day one, when you and Charlie were preparing dinner for us. Al and I got to talk; turns out we both hate Vox and the Vees!” Angel replies. “He even tweaked my phone so the TV guy can't spy on me when I'm at the hotel.”

Angel puts his hands on his hips and says, “For what I want, I want a video game console with games. Not made by the Vees, a console that is from outside Pentagram City.” He goes on, “I want you to convince Charlie to buy one for me!”

“Why didn’t you just go and ask Charlie yourself? If you just ask her, she’ll get you one.” Vaggie questions Angel.

Angel laughs and says, “Yeah, right! Like she won’t demand something back! Adults are always like that!” He looks Vaggie in the eyes and says, “When a kid asks for something, it’s expected that they’ll need to pay it back. Sometimes, the price can become way higher than what they're asking for.”

Vaggie flinched a bit when Angel said that, “But Charlie isn’t like that! She really cares about you all."

Angel and Alstor both laugh at her. They're holding their stomachs and cracking up.

“Good one, Vaggie! Nice joke there!” Angel says, trying to take a deep breath and steady himself.

Alastor, having just stopped laughing, says to Vaggie, “It’s only a matter of time before you people use us for your own benefit. It’s happened before, and it will happen again.”

“This is Hell; everyone is just using each other. Kids like us just had it worse because we are younger and smaller” Alastor chimes in. “You will understand soon enough.”

Vaggie bit her lips; she looks a bit guilty, like she is thinking about something bad she did.

She lets out a sigh and says, “Let’s just get this deal over with. We should get a commercial ready before Charlie comes back.”

Vaggie picks up the camera and hands it to Alastor, and suddenly, green energy skulls begin to swirl around it.

“Alright then!” Alastor snaps his fingers and says.

He conjured up equipment for a film set, summoning Husk and Niffty. He then dressed everyone up from the 1910s. He then summons shadow minions to serve as additional film crew members. A script pops into Angel’s hand, and a red pen shows up too, set to make certain rewrites or corrections.

“Alright everyone, let's make a fucking commercial.” Vaggie tells everyone.

Chapter Text

At the Embassy, Charlie is getting more and more fed up with Adam's sexist rants about women and masculinity.

“You know when you take her out for the fifth time and she still expects you to pay the check, but you're like, ‘Hey, I thought you wanted equality.’” Adam just keeps going on and on.

Charlie, after hearing Adam's endless chatter for what felt like forever, finally snapped and shouted, “NO! Our shared problem of overpopulation in Hell!”

Adam, suddenly getting it, goes, “Ohh.” He smiles at Charlie and cheerfully says, “Well, that's not a problem! We got that covered!”

He looks over at the other angel beside him and asks, “Lute, how many demons did you kill this year?”

Lute, the angel, responds to Adam, “Got a good 275 this year, sir.”

“275? Woah! Badass! Awesome job, danger tits! Pound it.” He tells Lute.

Adam lifts his fist for a fist bump, and Lute gladly returns the gesture.

After hearing Adam casually brush off the whole Hell overpopulation and extermination thing, Charlie stands up and says, “Uh no, not awesome. Those are my people. You know that, right?”

“Oh yeah.” Adam chuckles after a brief pause and says, “That must suck for you!”

“But these are souls...human souls just like the ones you have up in heaven.” Charlie says these words as she tries to convince the two angels in front of her.

Lute simply said, “They are not the same. They had their chance and they earned damnation.”

“You're wrong. Sinners made mistakes, sure, but everyone makes mistakes.” Charlie reasons with Lute.

Lute just shoots her a glare and says, “Angels don’t make mistakes.”

“You really think that.” Charlie fired back.

Lute keeps glaring and snaps back, “I know that.”

Adam jumps in while the girls are talking and says, “Yeah, I've never made a mistake in my fuckin' life.”

Lute slowly walks over to Charlie and says, “The only reason you're still here is because ‘daddy’ gave you and your Hellborn kind a pardon from an exorcist blade.”

“How does that feel, to know how little you matter?” She gives her a sneer before heading back to her place next to Adam.

Charlie seems a bit off when Lute says that, clearly indicating that Lute's words got under her skin.

“Oops, almost out of time. Guess we should get into it.” Adam casually mentions that the meeting is wrapping up soon.

After hearing that, Charlie exclaims, “Oh, fuck!”

Charlie rushes forward to present her plan as fast as she can, summoning a stack of papers to the table.

“Okay, I've got a lot to get through and not a lot of time, and I feel like you weren't hearing me before, so here it goes.” Charlie says in a hurry as she tries to wrap this up as quickly as she can.

Charlie jumps right into singing, grabbing some drawings from the pile to illustrate what she’s talking about.

“I know Hell's population is out of control.” She starts showing one drawing after another that highlights the overpopulation in Hell. “It's a bad situation, it's taking a toll.”

She sings about how, if she gets the opportunity to help the sinners at her Hazbin Hotel, Hell could be less crowded with sinners seeking redemption and making their way to Heaven.

Charlie sets aside the drawings in her hands and grabs another one. She goes on to explain how angels need to come down once a year to take care of things.

“I know you guys fly down just to kill once a year,” she sings to them while sharing her drawings. “And it must be annoying to schlep all the way here.”

She goes on to say that if she gets enough backing for her hotel, she can help sinners find their way to Heaven, so they won’t have to face this place anymore and come back every year to carry out these horrible exterminations.

Adam raises his hand to pause her and starts singing instead. “Let me stop you right there.”

Charlie, caught off guard by Adam, exclaims, “Oh—”

“Save us all precious time.” He sings, “If what you're suggesting.”

“Is letting them climb. Up the ladder, oh, they'd rather cross the Pearly Gates?”

Adam sings that if Charlie thinks she’s trying to help sinners get to heaven, then she can just stop right there. She really shouldn't waste her time thinking about something that's just not going to happen.

Sinners are people who spent their lives in ways they might regret now, and they're facing the consequences of their actions in Hell. The rules of the afterlife are black and white, really—it's all about the basics, clear-cut and easy to understand. If you're a good person, you get to go to Heaven. If you're not, you end up in Hell and are now worse than trash. They will stay there until Heaven comes down there to kill them again.

“Okay, but—” Charlie attempts to jump in, but Adam isn’t having any of it.

“Just try to chillax, babe.” Adam sings to Charlie while getting too close to her personal space. “You're wasting your breath.”

“Hehe…” Charlie lets out a nervous laugh and takes a step back.

Adam then sings that these sinners should get nothing but death, and honestly, that seems fair for everyone. Those sinners really deserve a lot of blame and suffering.

Charlie begins to explain again, saying, “Well, actually, if you take a look—” but gets cut off once more.

“And when all's said and done.” Adam soars into the air and begins to sing, “There's the question of fun.”

“And for those of us with Divine Ordainment.” He continues to sing as he walks down a staircase that’s made of clouds. “Extermination is entertainment!”

Adam sings about how enjoyable it is that they can go all out with the violence and chaos without having to worry about any repercussions, all because it's part of their job.

“Hell is forever.” He gives Charlie a little push with his wings and begins to fly in circles around the room. “Whether you like it or not.”

“Had their chance to behave better. Now they boil in the pot.”

He sings about how hell is forever and tells Charlie to let go of any dreams she had of helping sinners; in the end, it’s all pointless. Mirages of other exorcist angels begin to pop up around Charlie, and they're completely freaking her out. They’re dancing around her just to make fun of the princess of Hell.

He sings that Hell is meant to suck a lot, and the sinners will just keep on suffering there until the exorcists get the chance to kill them again. He says that Charlie doesn't stand a chance at this, so she might as well throw in the towel now.

Charlie gets really angry and shifts into her demon form, growling as she lights the paper on fire.

Adam then sings, “Long as I've got your attention. I guess I should probably mention.”

Now that he has Charlie’s full attention, he figures it’s a good time to talk about why they’re actually meeting.

“That we've made the determination.”

He pulls out a golden scroll and unrolls it, revealing a rough sketch of himself giving the middle finger, along with some poorly written words that say, “FUCK YOU, I DO WHAT I WANT!!”

“To move up the next Extermination!”

He's actually here to let her know that the annual exterminations are now happening every six months instead. They're going to be coming down faster than before.

“Wait, what?!” Charlie couldn't believe it and gasped in surprise.

“Can't wait a whole year.” He sings with faux disappointment. “To slaughter those little cunts.”

“I know it’s just been a week,” he says with excitement. He takes Charlie's hand with his hologram and tosses her out of the meeting room.

He laughs and says to her, “But we'll be back in six months!”

Lute throws her papers out as Charlie tumbles down onto the floor outside the room.

“Um, wait, you—you—” she says, getting up clumsily and heading toward the door.

As Charlie makes his way to Adam, the door gradually shuts while he keeps on with his guitar solo, shredding away. It shuts completely just before she can get to him.

She drops to her knees as the door slams shut, pounding her fist against it and shouting, “Ugh, SHIT!!”

Charlie makes her way back to the hotel, looking a bit down. Vaggie rushes over and wraps her arms around her in a warm hug.

“Charlie! How did it go, did they listen?” Vaggie asks Charlie, pulling back from their hug.

Charlie, attempting to break the bad news to Vaggie, stammers, “Oh, they sure did… hear it. But, um—”

“Hey, come over here!” We've got something really exciting to share with you!” Vaggie speaks with excitement before Charlie can even finish her sentence.

Vaggie takes Charlie over to the kids, who are simply relaxing in the hotel parlor, all gathered around the TV.

“Alastor and Angel pulled some strings, and it's about to air.” Vaggie tells Charlie as they both settle onto the sofa.

“I pulled a few limbs too, hahaha!” Alastor says with sadistic glee.

Angel, sitting on her floor, chimes in, “Oh yeah! You shoulda’ been there! Smiles got real freaky and got us prime time!”

“Wait, the commercial? You all made a new one?” Charlie looks around the group and asks.

Charlie takes a quick look at Alastor. "What about the one you did?”

“I suppose Vagatha has a point and needs some improvement. Thankfully we have the resources on hand to do it” Alastor says to Charlie with a casual shrug.

“Yeah, one of my better performances if I do say so myself.” Angel tells her.

Charlie, feeling moved, smiles brightly and gets a bit teary, saying, “That's... that's amazing.”

She was about to say something else, but then she spotted all the damaged Goat Devil plushies scattered around the parlor, including the ones hanging by the fireplace.

“Um…Vaggie?” Charlie hesitantly brings up the topic of the plushies with her girlfriend.

Vaggie, avoiding eye contact with Charlie, says, “We’ll talk about it later….”

Angel suddenly puts a finger to his lips, signaling for silence. “Sshh, it's starting.”

The TV commercial kicks off with a scene of everyone in their costumes standing outside the hotel.

“Welcome to the Hazbin Hotel—,” Vaggie says on TV before static fills the screen.

The TV suddenly cuts to a breaking news report.

Vaggie, Charlie, and Angel are feeling annoyed and start to vent their frustrations. Niffty claps and giggles. Charlie gets a bit upset and her horns start to poke out a little, while Alastor's eye is twitching even though he's still smiling.

Katie Killjoy, along with Tom Trench, appears live on screen to deliver a breaking news report, “Breaking news in Hell today! We have just received word from the Heaven Embassy that the next Extermination is happening sooner than ever before.”

She looks over at Tom and asks her co-host, “Do you know what that means, Tom?”

“No, what does that mean, Katie?” Tom replies.

“It means we're all royally fucked!” She slams her hands on the table and leans in closer to the camera. Her eye keeps twitching, which usually means she's about to lose it.

Tom just curls up a bit, taking the fact that, yes, they are all royally fucked.

Screaming can be heard from Sinners as the time on the Clock Tower reduces to 176 days until the next Extermination.

Everyone in the hotel watches the TV in shock after the news is being announced.

“Wait, what? Why?!” Angel exclaimed out loud.

Somewhere in an abandoned battlefield, a drone scours an area until it finds a dead Exorcist corpse with its head missing. The drone scans the corpse.

Back in Heaven, both Lute and Adam receive the data that the drone has scanned from the body just now.

“We found the body, sir. They've never managed to kill one of us before. We should just go down there now and destroy them!” Lute exclaims angrily at Adam.

Adam raises his hand and gestures to Lute that he won’t be doing that, for now.

He then tells her, “No, no. We can't risk them catching on. But don't worry. When we come back, there won't be a demon left alive to pull a stunt like this again!”

Adam slams a fist on the projector, destroying it and causing its light to disappear, leaving only Adam's glowing evil smile.

Chapter Text

It’s the morning right after the big news about the early exterminations. After hearing about it yesterday, Charlie decided to send everyone to bed early to sleep it off, planning to discuss it in the morning. It's now the next morning, and everyone’s hanging out in the parlor, trying to work out this new deadline.

Charlie is pacing back and forth, clearly in a bit of a panic, while Keekee strolls alongside her owner.

“Okay. So, the extermination is coming in six months instead of a year! No big deal, just a little setback. Nothing we can't handle. Just angels cutting our timetable in half, but who needs a whole year to save souls, am I right?!”

Charlie is pacing faster around the room, her panic turning into anxiety as she worries about the six-month extermination. The other kids are just standing there, watching her do this without saying a thing.

She’s really feeling the pressure and shouts, “And next time when they cut the time in half again and again, we'll just handle it, right?!”

Vaggie takes hold of Charlie’s shoulders, pulling her back from her downward spiral and panic attack.

“Yes. We will.” She speaks to Charlie in a calm and steady voice, offering reassurance.

Angel, lounging on the sofa, chimes in, “Oh, please, ya had less than half a chance when you started all this salvation and saviour bullshit. And now…”

His phone buzzes rapidly, letting him know a bunch of messages are coming in. It looks like it's his boss, Velvette. With the new extermination deadline coming up, a bunch of his schedule has been moved around, and now he’s going to have to put in double or even triple the overtime. There are also numerous insulting comments against his body and fashion sense.

“Ain't no silver lining this time, toots.” He tells Charlie this while trying to brush off the messages.

Charlie, doubting Angel, responds, “Sure there is! We just...have to look a little harder for it!”

“Well, while you're lookin', the rest'a hell's goin' nuts.” Angel keeps scrolling through his phone.

He waves his phone in front of Charlie and Vaggie, saying, “People are already freakin' out about the news. Look at what's happenin' in the Doomsday District.”

He scrolls through an article, and at the bottom, there's a demon screaming in front of a fire. Suddenly, a pink message pops up. Charlie leans in and takes a closer look at it.

“Err, what does ‘you better still be a 2 or smaller’ mean?” She asks, squinting to read the message.

Angel, not wanting Charlie to find out, freaks out and pulls the phone back.

“Aah, heh, nothin'. My boss, Vel, is just freaked out about the news too. Like I said, everyone's losin' their shit.” Angel says with a hint of nervousness as he attempts to steer the conversation in a different direction.

“Yeah, that's true. Sinners are desperate” Vaggie has a lightbulb moment and turns to Charlie, saying, “Maybe desperate enough to try anything to escape the extermination?”

Charlie gasped and said with excitement, “This is the perfect time to recruit more sinners for the hotel!”

“Cute idea and all,” Angel says, waving his phone in front of them again. He shows them the chaos and destruction happening outside and asks, “But are you really going to go out in all of this?”

“Well, it’s not like people are just gonna show up on our doorstep—” Charlie starts, but then a loud explosion interrupts her.

Charlie let out a terrified scream from behind, catching their attention with the sudden explosion. They look over and see a new hole in the wall. Then, from the hole, they spot Sir Pentious holding a handmade bazooka launcher he used to blow up the hotel wall. Right behind him, the egg-bois are bustling about, doing their best to make their boss shine.

“Show yourself Alasssstor! Come on, face me—” Pentious announces something, only to realize that Alastor isn't in the room.

He puts the weapon down and looks around, saying, “Oh! He's not around?”

Charlie and Vaggie take a step forward to say hi to him. “Hi, Pentious! Are you here to visit Alastor?”

“We have a door, you know? You could have used it.” Vaggie chimes in right alongside Charlie, arms crossed.

Pentious, brushing off Vaggie, says to Charlie, “Yesss! I’ve come to face my rival in a battle to the death! For his title of Overlord!!”

Charlie gets in front of him and quickly says, “No! No, no! No battle to the death here!!” she exclaimed, waving her arm wildly to make it clear she's not on board with this idea.

“Pentious, if you just want to hang out here, all you have to do is ask.” Charlie says to him softly. “You’re welcome here anytime.”

“And use the door when you visit.” Vaggie adds in. “We don’t need you blasting walls down at the hotel.”

“Looks like Alastor is going to have to fix all of this.” Vaggie gestures to the wall, which is now damaged, and lets Charlie know about it.

“Did someone call for me?” Alastor pops out from the shadows, catching the girls and Pentious off guard and giving them quite the scare.

Charlie nearly stumbles back, caught off guard, but quickly finds her balance and steadies herself. She then says, “Oh! Alastor, you’re here!”

She holds Pentious's hand and pulls him along to Alastor, bubbling with excitement as she exclaims, “Guess who dropped by to see you at the hotel!!”

“Your good friend! Sir Pentious!!” She says excitedly.

They share a brief moment of silence before Alastor breaks the ice, asking, “What are you doing here?”

“Aren’t you still supposed to be grounded for losing the blimp?” Alastor raises one of his eyebrows and says.

Pentious happily responds, “I was. But Mother said my punishment was over and I should head to the hotel to have some fun.”

“It’s kind of strange, you know? She’s very busy with the new extermination date coming up, but she doesn’t want me to help her,” Pentious thinks out loud.

Charlie gives Vaggie a curious glance. “Huh? I wonder why Carmilla suddenly lets her son hang out here?” She then says, “Last time I saw her, she was hesitant about letting him come here.”

“Probably because of the new extermination date.” Husk chimes in from the back. He popped out from his cozy nap spot under the bar counter to check out what all the fuss was about.

Charlie looks at him and says, “What do you mean?”

"Think about it." Husk tells her, “It’s no secret that Carmilla is one of the good parents in Hell, and she definitely wants her kids to be safe.”

“Since the time for extermination is shorter now, she’s really going to have to up her game to get it done. You’re a hellborn and the princess of Hell, so wherever you decide to settle in will definitely be the top hiding spot in all of Pride. She likely hopes you'll take a liking to Pentious, her youngest, so he can settle in with you.”

Charlie and Vaggie exchange glances, their eyes wide as they start to grasp what Husk just said. Carmilla seems to want to make sure her youngest child is kept safe and hidden during this upcoming extermination, which is likely to be pretty brutal. Where could she possibly find a safer spot than wherever the princess of Hell is hiding out?

The King and Queen definitely made sure the best hiding place for their beloved daughter, and if Charlie likes Pentious, he can join in too.

“Oooohhhh…” Charlie gives a nod, showing he gets it.

What Husk didn’t mention is that Carmilla probably sent Pentious to keep an eye on the princess and the hotel to figure out what kind of threat it could pose. From what Alastor told him, it seems like Carmilla really cares about keeping things in order and balanced in the Pride Ring. Always trying to keep the overlords from going wild and taking each other out, which would definitely throw the city into chaos.

She probably figures that the shorter extermination time is connected to the princess and her family.

Who else could have been able to reach out to Heaven?

Pentious might not even realize he's a spy. He's just going to tell his mom about his day at the hotel and spill all the details without even thinking twice.

There was just one thing that really bugged Husk.

Why the sudden interest in the early extermination and the princess? What’s so special about this extermination? Well, aside from being a bit earlier than usual, of course.

Is Carmilla planning something? Or does she know something that they don’t?

By the looks he exchanged with Alastor, it was clear they were both on the same page—What’s Carmilla’s angle in all of this?

Chapter Text

Now, at Vees' headquarters. A large crowd has gathered outside a store, watching an ad on the TVs in the window that’s showing off a spy drone.

[New VoxTek designer voyeur scopes. Peeping on the neighbors has never been more stylish. VoxTek! Trust us with your money!]

Once the ads wrap up, the crowd rushes into the store and stampedes out with boxes of voyeur scopes.

[This week's episode of "Yeah, I Fucked Your Sister, So What?" is brought to you by VoxTek.]

Two sinners are hanging out in an apartment, completely engrossed in a trashy sitcom by Voxtek, their eyes glued to the TV screen as they soak in every moment of the show.

[Trust us with your entertainment!]

Random sinners are now watching their computers, laptops, and phones with their focus completely on them. It’s like they are in a trance.

It is then revealed their eyes are swirling, signifying the work of hypnosis.

In a large room where TVs are displaying a bunch of consumers while the phrase "Trust us" keeps playing on repeat. Electricity courses through the air as a guy with a TV for a head gets up from his chair, laughing wildly at the consumerism of his audience.

“Muhahaha! Now that's good television!” He lets out a wicked laugh and says.

Suddenly, his screen changes to show an icon of a black and red doll sinner with dark skin. The caller ID pops up, and it says her name is Velvette, another one of the Vees. She's got a clown horn ringtone going off when she calls him.

The TV sinner takes the call from his screen and, using his electric powers, sends it to one of his many screens. There, Velvette appears in her studio, sporting a big ponytail. He takes a seat in his chair and grabs his coffee mug that’s right by him.

“Hello there, Velvette! How are you this hellish morning?” He gives her a nod while sipping from his coffee mug.

“Oh, cut the shit, Vox. I need you up here now!” Velvette demands.

Vox glances at one of his screens while taking another sip from his coffee mug.

“What could possibly be the problem, my dear?” He asks her, clearly not really focused on what’s going on.

The screen displaying Velvette is shaking, suggesting there's some chaos happening at her studio. She then says, “Your little boy toy is wrecking in my department while I'm trying to pull together a show and—”

Behind the scenes, you can hear workers running and shouting, with things being thrown around, while a voice is heard cursing.

“THAT FUCKING BITCH!” the voice cursed out.

In the background, there's blood splatter everywhere, with body parts flying around and workers hurrying to regain control of the situation.

“Just get your ass here, NOW!” Velvette yells at Vox. She turns her head away from the screen and shouts, “Damn it, Valentino!”

The call wraps up, and Vox's smile disappears as he stands up, letting out a sigh and adjusting his bowtie.

“'Oh god. Here I go, Valentino.' Just another fucking day with Val. Hey-hey-hey. Fuck my life.” As he strolls to the platform, he mutters to himself, a bit annoyed.

In the lobby of the main Vees towers, there is an elevator featuring a cheerful Vox, with a world bubble on its door that says "Trust us!" The door swings open, and there’s a Vox just standing there, looking a bit annoyed at first. He let out a sigh, but then he quickly switched to a smile for the group of reporters ready for an interview. They crowd around, each one aiming their microphones at him.

“Mr. Vox! What do you think about the new extermination deadline?” A reporter is asking him questions, her microphone aimed right at him.

Vox flashes a big, fake business smile and starts talking.

“My dear people! We at VoxTek Enterprises have always been at the forefront of innovation. And now, with this new oncoming threat, we are shifting our focus to your protection. We are pleased to announce—”

A TV screen pops up next to him, displaying an ad with the VoxTek logo, now in gold and sporting angelic wings, along with the tagline—

“VoxTek Angelic Security is coming soon! Trust us, with YOUR safety.”

Vox stares at the crowd with his left eye, using it to hypnotize them just like he does with his consumers. All the reporters are just standing there, totally zoned out, with blank looks on their faces like they’re in some kind of trance.

Vox’s assistant, an eel sinner, lightly walks up to his boss and asks, “Uh, sir, when did we begin working on Angelic Security?”

“Thirty seconds ago.” Vox replies. The assistant trails behind him as he starts to walk off, moving past the group of reporters who are still hypnotized.

“Try to get that bitch Carmilla on the books and cancel all my appointments today. I have a fire to put out upstairs.” He tells his assistant what he needs him to do.

He then morphs his body into electricity and generates himself into the security camera on the wall.

The staff at Velvette's studio are busy cleaning up since things are a bit a mess around there. Blood splatters are all over the place, and clothes are scattered around the studio. It really seems like a hurricane came through here and just turned everything into a chaotic mess.

Velvette strolls over to her designers, who are all holding up dresses to show her.

“No.” She turns down the first dress from the designer.

“Unacceptable,” she says with a quick glance at it.

“You're fired,” she tells the third designer.

“What’s this?” She pulls up the sleeves of the fourth designer dress with her fingers.

“Wrist ruffles?! Is this 1750?! BURN IT like the witches who wore it!” She shouts at the designer to get it done right away.

As she sends the designer away, Vox appears next to her.

“Velvette! I can see you're busy. Tell me, where's our hot-headed friend now?” He walks into the room and gives her a friendly greeting.

Velvette turns to face him and says, “Up in his tower, waiting for a flat-faced prince to calm him down!”

Vox lets out an annoyed sigh and asks her, “And uh, what's got him so out of sorts today?”

“Who knows? Probably another tantrum of not having a star for his shows!” Velvette shrugs off, not caring for Val.

“But he tore up my best model! And you know, the show can't wait for that unlucky bitch to pull herself back together!” She says to Vox, clearly upset. Her show has turned into a disaster thanks to Valentino's little outburst.

She turns around and shouts, “Melissa! Get over here!”

Melissa hops onto the platform, a bit nervous, while Velvette waves her hand back and forth, using her overlord powers to switch out Melissa's outfit.

“No. No. Hideous. I want to die. Eww.” Velvette says this while she keeps swiping her hand back and forth.

Finally, Velvette lets out a happy gasp, “Yes! That's the one!”

“Ahh, looks like you have everything under control here.” Vox says to her,

Velvette turns and shoots him an angry glare, “Are you fuckin’ kidding me!! Of course not!!”

“Thanks to your piss baby, not only my models are in pieces. Ugh, with that disgusting moth around here, all the kids have to leave because of that restraining order!!”

She pulls out her phone and starts scrolling through her contacts. “Now, they ran off to who knows where and are doing god knows what!!”

Velvette taps a contact on her phone and starts calling someone, “Stacy!! You better find those rugrats if you know what’s good for you!!!”

“And make sure they don’t stuff those fat-filled doughnuts into the holes they call mouths while you are at it!! Who knows what it’ll do to those hips? I, sooo, don’t have time for any resizing of the costumes!!”

Velvette rubs her head, feeling a migraine creeping in and just wishing it would go away. She quickly goes back to texting someone on her phone, but it looks like they're not responding at all.

“So….all the kids went AWOL on you?” Vox asks after watching Velvette shouting at her employees.

“Ugh…Can't you tell just by looking?! And that pint-sized twink Angel Dust is totally ignoring my calls and texts!!" Velvette says, while scrolling through her phone.

Vox lifts an eyebrow in surprise. “So, Angel's not around?”

“No, he moved out and is staying at that hotel run by Miss Prissy Princess,” Velevtte says, still focused on her phone.

“The fucking brat! Does he know how much work needs to be rescheduled now that he's not on call 24/7? What a selfish tween!!”

Vox takes a closer look at Velvette and asks, “So, Angel is... living with Lucifer's daughter now?”

“Yeah! Miss Disney Princess opened this hotel to, you know, supposedly ‘help’ sinners." Velvette air-quotes around the word ‘help.’

She wraps up what she's doing on her phone and glances at Vox, “And now, I can’t even go get him without causing a huge fuss! What a fucking bitch!”

“Yeah, well. Our brand is perfection, and if we just waltz over there and cause trouble, things could get messy,” Vox says, casually walking over to the nearest TV screen and turning on a live feed from a drone he just sent to the hotel to keep an eye on things.

The VoxTek Voyeur scope is up in the sky close to the hotel, and it's currently capturing everything that's going on there. From up above, the drone captures Charlie and the group talking with Carmilla’s son, Sir Pentious, outside. In the shot, there's a full-body static covering one kid, which indicates it's Alastor, and his power seems to be messing with the camera drone. It looks like he's getting into a bit of an argument with Pentious.

Vox’s TV head starts to glitch as he figures out who the static kid is, “IS THAT FUCKING ALASTOR?!” He slams his hands on the table, “HE’S BACK!?!”

“Oh yeah. He has been staying with the princess at the hotel with Angel,” Velvette says casually while scrolling through her phone for messages.

“Alastor...came back...and he is with Lucifer's *glitches* daughter, and that wasn't the FIRST FUCKING THING YOU TOLD ME?!?!?!” Vox's voice starts to wobble as he glitches more and more.

Velvette glances up at him and gives an exaggerated eye roll. “And feed into your creepy obsession with this kid? Yeah, right! You do your thing, and I'll do mine!"

Vox keeps glitching out while he yells in frustration.

“Take that back, you juvenile deer. I'm definitely not a whiny, snot-nosed mommy's boy!” Pentious is shouting at Alastor.

Alastor chuckles and laughs at Pentious, saying, “Oh, please! I’ve actually seen you wrap yourself around your mother's leg! If that’s not a mama's boy, I don’t know what is!"

Pentious, feeling irritated by Alastor's comment, exclaims, “Well, that's the pot calling the kettle black! I have heard you on what you called Ms.Rosie! Who's the mommy's boy now?!"

Alastor's eyes shift into red dials, and in a twisted voice, he warns, “You better go no further, chum! Or you will come to regret it…”

“Or what? You jerk!” Pentious challenges him.

“Now, now. Let’s not start another fight. How about we go inside for cookies and snacks?” Charlie asks, hoping to calm down the two kids who are arguing.

“Or this!” Alastor shouts as he calls forth his shadowy tentacles.

The tentacles wrap around Sir Pentious, spin him around in the air, and then send him flying over to Carmilla’s District.

Alastor covers his eyes and squints into the distance, shouting to Pentious, “Have a safe trip home!!”

Alastor chuckles as he spins around and makes his way back into the hotel. Charlie and Vaggie step in before he can get to the hotel, clearly not happy with what Alastor just did to Pentious.

Vaggie, arms crossed, yells, “What the fuck, Alastor?! You really can't just throw Pentious around like that!! He's just a kid; who knows how much it will hurt when he lands?!"

Angel nearby says, “I wouldn’t worry about it too much. Kids are tougher than ya’ might think; sending him off like that won’t actually hurt him too much."

“Besides, it's not like this is the first time kids are being tossed here and there. If anything, these kinds of things happen to kids, especially the smaller ones, all the time.”

Charlie takes a quick look at Angel before shifting his attention back to Alastor. “Wow! Okay! A lot to unpack there, but we will get back to it later!”

“But first, Alastor. Vaggie has a point; you really shouldn't just throw kids or people aside like that, especially if they're your friend. It's important to treat your friends well; they in fact shape who you become and help keep loneliness away.”

She then says, “If you keep treating your friends like that, one day you might end up alone, with no one around to keep you company or lend a hand when you need it.”

Alastor's face scrunches up in annoyance at Charlie as he says, “I am perfectly fine being on my own! Friendship and feelings just weigh you down from accomplishing your goal or are a sign of weakness!”

“This is Hell! Relying on or being close to someone means someday you will owe them a favor or they expect you to pay them back. Being alone is a much better option than being in debt with someone!”

Charlie, surprised by what Alastor just said, attempts to respond, “But—”

“No Buts! You don’t get how much friendship or wanting one can screw you over if you are not careful!” Alastor shouts at her before she has a chance to say anything.

Alastor is certainly becoming more and more irritated; his shadows are starting to act up, and the ground beneath him is beginning to crack a little. This whole idea of someone wanting to be near him is obviously bringing up an awful memory, and he is becoming increasingly distressed over it.

Charlie and Vaggie are doing their best to help him calm down, while the other kids are hiding out in the hotel. Once Husk picked up on Alastor's shift in mood, he quickly pulled both Angel and Niffty inside.

Alastor, not in the mood for anyone, slipped into his shadows and vanished into his room. His room door now has a wooden sign that reads, ‘Do Not Disturb,’ and just below it, there’s another sign that says, ‘Go Away.’ There's a third one just kind of hanging below the other two, saying, 'This means you, Charlie & Vaggie.'

Velvette and Vox both focus on the screen as Alastor throws a little fit. Even though they can't hear what he's saying, it's clear from what he's doing that he's still just as powerful as always. Just a little breakdown, and one can really see the outcome of it.

“Well, that’s just a waste of time. All we see is that little kid throwing a fit and marching off in a huff.” Velvette, says, raising her eyebrows, clearly not caring of it.

Vox wasn’t really paying much attention to what Velvette was saying. Vox's left pupil morphs into a tilde as he observes Alastor fading into the shadows, his figure becoming static and blurry. The screen gets a little fuzzy and then turns off.

“That FUCKING BRAT is back!” Vox shouts at the screen that just went dark.

Velvette glances at him and, with a hint of sarcasm, asks, “So, I’m guessing you’re just going to forget about heading to Val now?”

“It's been seven years!” He exclaims to no one in particular.

Velvette rolls her eyes and goes back to her phone, saying, “You realize that obsession of yours is kind of creepy and pathetic, right?”

“Uh, FUCK YOU.” Vox shouts in response.

“Just telling it like it is,” Velvette says while brushing him off.

Vox glances over, and Velvette says to her, “Things have changed a lot since he left town.”

“Yeah! All thanks to you! We fuckin’ have to clean up that huge mess!!” Velvette gives him the finger while saying that.

Vox walks off quickly, saying, “I gotta send a message of who's REALLY in charge of things now!”

“You aren’t listening to me at all, aren’t you?” Velvette comments while she watches him walk towards his surveillance room.

Vox’s surveillance room is a glowing red pit, and there are these cybernetic sharks swimming around in the walls. Vox has a bridge that leads him to the circular center area. That's where his seat is, along with a bunch of monitors and screens, letting him spy on everyone around him.

Vox walks into his surveillance room and heads over to his chair. He begins to sing about how he feels about Alastor.

“Welcome home!” He starts to sing as he makes his way to his chair. “I'm gonna make you wish that you stayed gone!”

He sings ‘Welcome Home’ to Alastor, but he also mentions that Alastor will regret coming back. Vox claims that he's going to make Alastor wish he stayed gone.

As he settles into his seat, Vox lets a jolt of energy run through his arm. He sits back in his chair and turns to look at the many screens around him. He sings about Hell establishing a new status quo and how he's at the forefront of it.

Vox presses a big red button, and suddenly, four cords snap into place at the back of his head, linking him up to his TV networks. He quickly tells his team to start a live broadcast, and everyone in the studio gets to work.

“Everyone knows that there's a brand-new dawn; turn the TV ON!” When he starts singing, everyone gets to work.

They kicked things off by rolling the camera, and just like that, Vox’s program was live on TV.

Every television in Hell suddenly cuts to a live broadcast featuring Vox singing about the Radio Demon's return to the city. He then asks his audience, "What does this mean for you or your family?"

He tells them he has some good news to share. He tells the crowd that the Radio Demon is a loser and a brat. He doesn't want to sound hostile, but honestly—

“The demon is a coward!” Vox is singing along with a chorus in the background.

Vox sings that the Radio Brat isn't something to be worried about and that he's really just a relic from the last century.

“I hope he had a nice vacay!” He sings to Alastor, “But he should have stayed away!”

In his hotel room, Alastor tunes in with his radio waves and catches all of Vox's bullshit on live TV, listening to that TV head slander him left and right. He suddenly has a great idea and rushes over to his radio tower right away.

Vox keeps on singing, while the brat seems to be stuck in a radio era; everyone else has moved on to video. And now his medium is getting bloody rare.

“Hell's been better since he split,”

He makes his way down a hallway in V Tower, where he jumps, twirls, and then pulls Valentino and Velvette in close.

“Where's he been?” He sings with the two in his arms about how things have been better since he split from Hell. “Who gives a shit?!”

Vox claims he really doesn’t care about where Alastor has been all this time. It was pretty obvious from his face that he was lying, and one could see he was in fact curious about where Alastor was.

“Salutations!” The radios of Hell crackled to life, and there was Alastor’s voice coming through on the other end. “Good to be back on the air.”

Alastor makes his reappearance as he starts with his radio broadcast from a station perched in the top corner of the Hazbin Hotel. He doesn't really know how to use the broadcasting system since he never got the chance to learn it. But as time goes on in Hell, he picks up the basics and figures out how to blend his magic with the system, allowing him to control it as he desires.

In his radio show, Alastor declares that he is indeed back, with plans to entertain and wreak havoc in Pentagram City. He begins to sing about how Vox is just a sad guy who only goes after fame and cash, nothing more. He keeps altering himself to win people over since his true self is so unlikeable.

“Every day he's got a new format!” He shares his songs with his listeners through the radio.

“YOU'RE LOOKING AT THE FUTURE!” Vox is singing, taking a shot at Alastor. “He's the shit that comes before that!”

Vox fired back, saying that Alastor is just a kid stuck in the past and really needs someone to show him a thing or two about modern life. Alstor throws some shade at Vox, saying that without the other Vees, Vox is just a weak, pathetic sinner with no chance of becoming an Overlord.

“He'd be powerless without the other Vees!” Alastor is singing while mocking Vox on the radio.

Vox angrily sings back, “Oh, PLEASE!”

With a smirk, Alastor shares this little gem: “And here's the sugar on the cream.”

He shares a fun little tidbit for his listeners; Vox originally wants Alastor to join his team, but Alastor is like, "No way am I teaming up with this slimeball of an adult." He sings with a bit of a smirk, saying Vox is so pathetic that just getting turned down by a kid has him throwing a fit like a toddler throwing a tantrum.

“You fuuu—cking BRAT! I'll show y-you, suffering!" He shouts, glitching out as he tries to threaten Alastor.

“Uh oh, the TV is buffering!” Alastor says to him with a grin.

“I'LL DESTROY YOOOOU-YOU LIT-T-LE—” was all he could manage before everything went haywire and crashed. Vox ends up having this huge outburst that completely overloads everything—all the TV screens and even Valentino and Velvette's phones. It causes a blackout all over Pentagram City, except for the Hazbin Hotel.

“Let's begin,” Alastor sings ominously over the radio. “I'm gonna make you wish that I stayed gone!”

Alastor gradually transforms into his true demon form and declares that, one way or another, he's gonna make Vox wish that he stayed gone. He will one day see to it that Vox will be in his broadcast scream program, and when that day comes, he will have so, so much fun.

Alastor lets out an eerie, childlike laugh before he cuts off Vox's signal throughout the city, leaving the overlord dismayed that Alastor is still as powerful as he was last time.

“FUU-UU-UCK!” yells Vox.

Chapter Text

Vox, Velvette, and Valentino are gathered in a conference room right now, having an emergency meeting to talk about something important with Alastor. While a robot named Kitty is busy serving drinks to everyone.

The conference room is a dark blue space with walls that function as a shark tank, containing cybernetic sharks that swim within it. There is a long table with several black office chairs on both sides and a bigger dark blue chair at the end for Vox to sit. There are also demonic plants potted in the corners of the room.

Vox addresses his two partners, “We have a problem. Alastor is getting pretty close to little Princess Morningstar, so what we really need to focus on now is making sure that no deal ever goes down between Lucifer's—”

He slams his fist on the table. “—brat and that smiling twerp!”

Velvette, scrolling through her phone without glancing at Vox, asks, "Well, how exactly are we supposed to stop it?"

Valentino is in the process of adding some sparkle to his revolver. He's slathering on a bunch of glue and covering it up with some glitter and marbles.

He is a very tall moth demon with lavender skin and pupil-less pink eyes, which he wears over with gold-rimmed, heart-shaped sunglasses. His wings are wrapped around his body to form a floor-length coat with white fur at the wrists, as well as black-and-white-striped fur trim down the center-front to the bottom hem.

He is known as The Porn Overlord, and there are quite a handful of restraining orders involving kids against him.

“Put something inside them. That's how I get the bitches to behave.” He says while he's trying to stick a marble onto the glue gloop.

The other two Vees look at him in disbelief; did Valentino really just hear what he said? He said it in a way that could easily be misunderstood.

“Gross! That’s why you had all that restraining orders” Velvette says to her fellow Vee Porn Overlord.

“Disturbing phrasing aside... .Well, maybe someone on the inside isn't such a bad idea.” Vox strokes his chin, pondering over this idea.

He looks over at Velvette and says, “Do you think Angel would?”

Velvette, still scrolling through her phone, said, “That annoying tween won't even pick up my calls.”

Vox takes a sip of his drink and then slams his glass down on the table. He gets up and starts pacing around the room, saying, “We need someone that Little Miss Bleeding Heart would take in.”

“Someone...pathetic, desperate, with no direct ties to us?” Velvet is saying

Val, still sitting there, says, “I employ every down-on-their-luck loser this side of Hell. Who the fuck is left?”

Vox slams his hand on the glass of his fish tank and says, “Come on, people! Think! There’s bound to be someone who is able to slip into that hotel for us!”

“With every second that passes, it means that Alastor is getting close to Lucifer’s brat, and with her goody-two-shoes act, she probably got him reeled in and vice-versa!”

Valentino and Velvetter exchange a quick look before turning their attention to Vox. It seems like there's more going on here than just the worry about Alastor striking a deal with Lucifer’s daughter.

“Are you talking about your thing for that Radio Brat? If that's the case, I'm out. There are even some kinks that, even I, don’t want to touch.” Val makes inappropriate comments as he speaks to Vox.

“IT IS NOT A KINK!! I AM NOT THAT KIND OF PERSON!” Vox responds with a defensive shout.

Val lifts both his hands and says, “Hey, I’m not judging. You do you, my man.”

Velvette did have something to say to Vox, “If this is about your weird obsession with getting the Radio Brat for yourself, then you can count me out too!”

Vox looks at his two partners in betrayal, struggling to wrap his head around the fact that they’re not stepping in to help him with this.

“Wait, what?! Why are you all backing out?! What about Alastor getting close to the princess?" He shrieks as he begins to glitch out.

“Yeah…no. Not touching that hole, not after what happened seven years ago,” Valentino says, standing up from his seat and gathering his things, getting ready to head out of the room.

Velvette stands up and says to Vox, "You got that right! I'm not cleaning up the mess you make again!" She gives Vox the finger before walking out of the room. “Good luck in your pathetic attempts, Vox! Looks like you are going to need it!”

As Valentino and Velvette head out, Vox shouts after them, “Fine! I don’t need you all! I’ve got this covered myself!”

The door to the conference room slams shut, and Vox finds himself alone, lost in his own thoughts.

“As soon as I figure out how….” As he looks at his fish tank, he rubs his chin and cradles his glass in his hands.

Back at the hotel, Vaggie and Charlie are standing outside Alastor's room door. They're talking about whether Charlie's plan is a good idea or not.

"I don't know, Charlie… He looked pretty upset already.” Vaggie says, a bit unsure.

“What if this plan just makes him even angrier than he is right now? He's going to create even more problems for the hotel than it already has."

Vaggie is talking about the wall that's damaged, in the lobby downstairs. Alastor hasn't been able to fix it because of his little outburst earlier today, and he's been locked in his room ever since. So they've put a tarp over that big hole in the wall for now, but they can still feel the wind slipping in from outside through it.

“Don’t worry, Vaggie! They are both good kids deep down.” Charlie assures Vaggie. “They just need a little nudge and some guidance to get on the right track.”

Charlie turns to the door and gives it a knock. “Alastor! It’s me, Charlie! Can you come out for a bit?”

A voice calls out from the other side of the door, “Go away, Charlie! Read the sign!”

“Come on, Alastor! Me and Vaggie are really worried about you! We just want to talk!” Charlie yells in response.

“No! I don’t want to!” Alastor shouts from his room.

Vaggie steps forward and calls out, “Alastor! Your choice! You either can come out, or we’ll just have to come in! Guess what? We’ve got the master key!!"

Charlie leans in and whispers to Vaggie, “Vaggie! You can't do that! Privacy is really important for kids!" She gives Vaggie a disappointed look.

“Just barging in like that will definitely make them lose trust in you.”

Charlie tells Vaggie as though she has been through this before, which she very certainly has—after all, she did go through an emo phase once.

Vaggie, sensing Charlie’s disappointment, pulls back a little. She doesn't really know much about kids and how they feel, so her direct approach can sometimes put them off or make them feel like they can't trust her.

“Sorry, babe. I guess I haven't really gone through something like this before. This is all new to me," Vaggie says, giving Charlie an apologetic look.

Charlie puts a hand on Vaggie’s shoulder, giving her a reassuring smile, and says, “Hey, don’t worry, I’m figuring this out too. Let's tackle this together." She smiles gently at Vaggie.

Vaggie glances at her girlfriend with a warm smile, feeling grateful to have someone like Charlie by her side.

“Are you both quite done?” Suddenly, a voice chimes in between them.

Charlie and Vaggie snap back to reality and quickly look over to the side, trying to figure out where that voice came from.

It’s Alastor. It looks like he has decided to come out of his room and speak to Charlie and Vaggie while they are having their moment. He’s been watching the couple share a moment for a while, but eventually got bored and decided to let them know he was there.

“Oh, Alastor! You’re finally out of your room!” Charlie excitedly shouts at him.

Alastor looks at her with a straight face and says, “Yeah, I couldn’t just ignore the fact that you two nosy ladies are going to barge into my room like that.”

Vaggie winces a little when Alastor says that, feeling a bit guilty about what she had mentioned before.

“So… Alastor…” Charlie says, trying to ease into the topic of conversation.

“I was just thinking, what if you went over to Pentious’s place and said sorry to him? You can patch things up and be friends again!" Charlie suggests to Alastor.

Vaggie jumps in, “And don’t forget, we need to bring his eggs home too. We really can’t let them run around the hotel and create a mess."

She’s talking about the egg-bois that came along with Pentious, which got left behind after Alastor sent him back to Carmilla’s district. They're just running around the hotel lobby and causing somewhat of a mess.

Alastor crosses his arms and says, “No! I will not apologize to that whiny snake boy.”

“Come now, Alastor. You need to learn how to start treating your friends better, and what better way than by starting to make up with him?” Charlie talks to Alastor softly, like a teacher guiding a child on how to behave properly.

“I still don’t want to!” Alastor shouts out to the girls.

Vaggie placed her hands on her hips and said to Alastor, “Well, you’re going to have to. You're going to be hanging out with Pentious for the rest of the day."

“Wait, what?!” Alastor yells at her.

“It’s my idea, actually!” Charlie exclaims excitedly. “What better way to learn to treat your friends better than by spending time with them!”

“You and Pentious can bond and have some fun together. By the end of the day, you guys will get to know each other a bit better and feel closer because of it!”

Charlie gets really excited when she talks about the boys hanging out and having a great time together. She can already imagine the end result, where Alastor and Pentious are the best of friends, happily playing together like kids.

Vaggie then gives Charlie a gentle shake to bring her back from her daydream.

Charlie glances over at Alastor and says, "Alright, Alastor! Let’s get you all set for your playdate! I gave Carmilla a call, and she said it’s okay for you to be there."

“She’s just mainly concerned about her son’s egg-bois, but she mentioned you can hang out with him for a bit, just know she’ll be keeping an eye on things.” Charlie mentions it casually, almost as an afterthought.

Alastor rolls his eyes and says with a hint of sarcasm, “Oh, fun…”

He then glares at Charlie and Vaggie. “There is no way you can make me go for this playdate.”

“Bye, Alastor!” Charlie leans out of the car window, calling out and waving goodbye to him. “We'll come by to pick you up later today!" She says excitedly.

Alastor is standing by the gate entrance of one of Carmilla’s factories. He's simply just waiting there since that's where Pentious is supposed to meet him. Charlie and Vaggie are in the car behind him, just having dropped him off from the hotel. They're getting ready to head off to their next destination.

Alastor's face is all scrunched up, showing he's definitely not happy with how things are going.

Egg-bois are darting around his feet, having a blast just like little kids do when they're playing tag with their friends. Alastor just stands there, arms crossed, not even glancing back at Charlie in the car.

Charlie rolls up the car window, waves one last time, and then the car speeds away from the compound. They're heading over to the Doomsday District, looking to bring in more sinners for their hotel there.

After a little while, Pentious walks out from the main door of the factory and makes his way over to Alastor. Pentious's first sight is his egg-bois, and he feels a wave of relief to see them back with him, safe and sound. He lets out a joyful squeal, and Alastor flinches at the sound, his sensitive ears not quite ready for it. Pentious hurries over to his eggs and wraps them in a warm hug.

“Ahhh! My eggs! Yay! Ah, it's so good to have you back! I missed you all so much!” Pentious says, tears welling up in his eyes, as he keeps them close.

“Wow, boss. So, where did we end up going? Did we miss you while we were gone?" One of the eggs asks obliviously.

Pentious releases his hugs and gently sets them down on the floor.

“No matter! Now that you're back, we can move forward with our plans for the upcoming domination!" He says, striking a dramatic pose with his hood thrown back and his hand in a bit of an awkward position.

Alastor stays silent, taking in everything happening right before his eyes. This snake kid is way more childish and annoying than he realized; there's no way he's sticking around for the rest of the day with him here. He's seriously thinking about walking back to the hotel the long way.

It's quite a walk, and to reach that hotel, he'd need to walk through the Entertainment District. He really doesn’t want to, and he’s not keen on being bothered by the Vees and their presence either.

“What to do? What to do?” Alastor was lost in his own thoughts.

Pentious calls out to him, “Alastor, Mother just told me we’re supposed to spend the day together and ‘hang out,’ or something like that.”

He waves his hand toward the main door and says, “Shall we head in and have some fun with games and activities to strengthen our bond?”

Pentious then pulls out a board game and says, “How about we play my favorite game, Hell Scrabbles? But be warned, someone with my skills isn't really worried about being beaten by someone like you.”

He gives the game box a little shake and says, “Don't worry; I'll make sure to lower the difficulty for you.”

Alastor looks at him with a straight face and says, “I think I’ll pass on that offer, if you don’t mind. I don’t really care for Scrabble."

“Hmm…If this game isn’t your thing, what about this one?” He pulls out another board game, and this one seems a bit more handmade.

Alastor squints at the scratchy title; it’s a little tricky to read, but eventually he manages to make out the title, “Dance and Ladders”.

“Dance and Ladders?” Alastor raises an eyebrow and asks, “Shouldn’t it be Snakes and Ladders?”

“No, you read that right. It's Dance and Ladders!" Pentious points to the artwork he made on the box.

“Imagine playing Snakes and Ladders, but instead of landing on a snake, you land on a dance tile! When that happens, you’ve got to get up and show off your dance moves in front of everyone else!”

“So, you just dance like an idiot in front of everyone when you land on that dance tile?” Alastor asks Sir Pentious.

Sir Pentious, thinking Alastor is interested, excitedly says, “Yes! And there’s no music either! You dance with your feelings and imagination!"

Alastor can’t help but think that walking back to the hotel is starting to sound like a pretty solid plan at this point.

Alastor decides to give Pentious one last chance, asking, “So, is there a third option for our ‘bonding’ activity?”

Sir Pentious is a little dismayed; he really thought Alastor enjoyed his Dance and Ladders game. He pauses for a bit, but nothing comes to mind. Pentious, not wanting to come off as rude for being quiet for a while, suddenly pipes up, “How about we have a tea party with the egg-bois?”

Alastor, to his surprise, responds, “Oh! That sounds like a great idea! To be honest, I really enjoy tea parties and have attended several of them."

Pentious is a little taken aback; he had no idea his friend enjoyed tea parties just like he does. He often faces teasing from other kids for enjoying this activity that's considered girly, even though he's a guy. To avoid getting teased any more, he often hosts tea parties by himself and with his egg-bois.

Sometimes, his mom and sisters join him for tea, talking about their day. It became one of his favorite activities with them.

“So, what will we be doing at this tea party?” Alastor, asks Pentious.

Pentious begins to perk up as he shares about his cozy little private tearoom for his parties. He talks about how he serves real tea and tasty snacks, creating the perfect setting for everyone to chat and gossip together. It's mostly him talking with the egg-bois, but honestly, they hardly ever say anything interesting back.

"Oh, just to let you know, today’s menu is going to be completely vegan—no meat at all!” Pentious mentions it to Al.

“So, that means no treats, no sweets, and the desserts will mostly be made with Hell's version of soy.”

A record scratch sound can be heard.

“I beg your pardon? A completely vegan meal? Why?!” Alastor's voice gets a bit louder as he asks.

“My mom and sisters are doing one of those diet cleanses this month, and the whole family is going vegan.” Pentious explains.

That’s it! This is where Alastor draws the line! He can handle a forced playdate; he can put up with the snake's whiny, tearful wailing over his eggs; he can easily ignore the snake's boring game attempts!

But to have a tea party with no meat and to be a complete vegan. That’s just criminal for a cannibal kid like him!

He is going home, and he doesn’t care that he has to walk there and pass by the entertainment district. He's going to take his chances over there instead of here.

Alastor turns and starts to walk away from Pentious, making his way down the road. He's heading back to the hotel, and Charlie's just going to have to deal with it. He’s not planning to stick around with Snake Boy any longer than necessary.

As Alastor is walking away, Pentious calls out to him, “Wait!! Alastor! Where are you going?!”

“Back to the hotel! I’m not wasting another second with you or this ‘playdate,’” Alastor says with a huff, continuing on his way.

“But we’re supposed to hang out today,” Pentious says, trailing behind him. His egg-bois were right there behind him.

“I’m definitely not going to spend the day playing those boring board games or, even worse, going vegan,” he says, shuddering at the thought. “I’m heading back to the hotel, even if I have to walk!”

As Pentious sees Alastor walking away, he pauses for a second and then calls out, “Wait for me!! I’m coming too!!”

He quickly takes off after Alastor, trying to catch up, with his egg-bois trailing behind him.

Bonus:

Eventually, a sinner arrives at the factory gate, looking to meet her boss's son and his friend. Carmilla hired him to keep an eye on the kids, making sure her youngest was safe and sound.

The lazy sinner, thinking this would be a piece of cake, decided to take his eighth break of the day and ended up sleeping at his post. When he finally woke up and made his way to the meeting spot, the kids were already gone.

“I am SO fired,” he muttered, glancing around as if someone might hear him.

Chapter Text

The Entertainment District, true to its name, primarily houses businesses catering to the entertainment and pleasure of sinners. In this place, sinners can really let loose and enjoy their vices to the fullest. This district is bustling with casinos, bars, brothels, and much more. One can find just about any kind of entertainment one can think of in this district. Think of this area as similar to a mix of Vegas and L.A.

This district is mainly owned by the Three Vees, or just the Vees for short. A trio of powerful individuals who work together to control the entertainment and media industries. The main Vee is Vox, the TV demon in charge of the entertainment and news media of Hell. He is also in charge of Pentagram City's distribution of devices and electronics. He founded VoxTek and serves as its chief executive officer.

Valentino, the second Vee, is a tall, sinister moth with red wings. He's called the Porn Overlord and is the one behind the mature content in Pentagram City. He runs his own adult film studios, where he puts out a range of pornographic movies and shows for sinners to enjoy. He also runs a few brothels and has a number of workers under his contracts. He pimps them out for a crazy amount of money.

The third and last Vee is Velvette, a doll sinner with dark skin and customized hair. She's often called the social media overlord and handles all things social media. Alongside being a social media powerhouse, she’s also diving into the world of fashion design, working on fresh lines to strengthen her influence.

Furthermore, Velvette and Vox are in charge of the youth media and entertainment. A lot of entertainment aimed at teens, youth, and young kids are produced by both of them since they really know how to attract the attention of young audiences with their media.

However, Valentino is not allowed anywhere near their contracted youth. Vox and Velvette have no faith that Valentino will not do something stupid to the kids. Plus, it wouldn't look well on them if the Porn Overlord is around the kids. Due to a few incidents, Valentino also has ended up with several restraining contracts and can't be in the same room as any of the Vees' contracted kids.

Alastor is now walking down a street in the entertainment district, with Pentious and his eggs trailing behind him. He's walking quickly, trying to get through the district faster, he is also hoping to shake off Pentious in the process.

“Alastor! Are you really sure this is safe?” Pentious looks around at the bright surroundings and asks.

Everywhere, there are these bright neon signs advertising drugs, sex, and all sorts of things that kids really shouldn't be exposed to. Sex workers are all over the place, hanging out and showing off what they have to offer to attract clients.

“No, but this is the fastest way back to the hotel. So, I'm walking through this district." Alastor responds as he keeps walking.

Pentious looks a bit uncertain and says, “But, Mother says this district is dangerous. And I was told I should never come here by myself..."

Alastor rolls his eyes and says to Pentious, “You could always head back home.”

“No! Mother says to never be alone in this place, so I won’t be leaving you alone!” Pentious shouts out.

Alastor suddenly halted and turned to face Pentious. “No need to worry about me. I'm an Overlord, so I've got this covered."

“The things your mom is worried about for you don’t really apply to me. I'm not the same as you, so I'd appreciate it if you didn't compare us."

Pentious, still looking worried, says, “But this place is full with gross adults; even more than usual. As a fellow comrade, I just can’t leave a fellow kid behind."

Alastor and Pentious are now having a heated argument by the side of the road, so caught up in their bickering that they completely missed a few things happening around them. It looks like one of Pentious' egg-bois has gone missing. His name is Frank and he got a bit distracted and ended up wandering off from the group while the kids were having an argument.

The second is that they didn't realize there was a camera tucked away in a corner of the building, watching them closely. The camera is zoomed in on the two kids who are having a heated argument. Pentious is plainly visible in the live feed, however Alastor is hardly visible and is just static. The camera gives off a couple more static glitches before the screen goes completely black.

A figure can be spotted smiling from behind. He's been keeping an eye on the feed and now is aware that Alastor is in the entertainment district. He bursts into a wild laugh and starts to make his plans. Obviously, this figure is Vox.

While that's happening, Alastor and Pentious are still arguing, until one of the egg-bois pulls on Pentious' shirt. Pentious pauses his argument and glances at his egg-bois.

“Hey boss, Frank's not here anymore,” one of the egg bois says.

“We have names?” Another one asks.

“What?!” Pentious exclaims while counting his eggs, and sure enough, Frank is nowhere to be found.

He starts shouting for Frank, “Frank! Frank! FRANK!!” He keeps shouting louder and louder while looking for his missing egg.

“Looks like Frank has gotten a little lost, hmmm?” Alastor says, as he watches Pentious frantically scramble around looking for Frank.

“It seems like you’ll be busy for a while; guess I will be heading back to the hotel alone then.” He cheerfully says as he gets ready to walk away.

Just as he's about to leave, he catches the sound of sniffles coming from Pentious. He turns around and sees that Pentious is actually starting to cry. It begins with a few sniffles, then some hiccups, and now Pentious is just full-on crying in the middle of the street.

His crying has caught the attention of other sinners, and it seems like they might try to take advantage of the child who's distressed. Alastor notices a bunch of lecherous sinners creeping out from the shadows and making their way closer to them.

At this point, he could simply turn around and let Pentious face whatever was coming his way. But there’s something holding him back, like that annoying little voice in his head telling him he can’t just leave Pentious to fend for himself.

Plus, Carmilla would totally kill him if anything happened to her son.

Alastor lets out a sigh of defeat and releases some of his power. He reveals to the sinners that he's the Radio Demon, and getting any closer is an invitation to trouble. Many sinners back away when they see this, leaving the two kids on their own.

Alastor turns to Pentious and says, “Quit your whining, will you? I'll help you find your Little Egg Creature!

Pentious wipes away her tears and gazes at him, her eyes glistening, “Really? You’d actually do that for me??”

“Yes, just don’t let me regret it.” Alastor says, rolling his eyes. "Now stop sniveling; it's so pitiful."

Pentious rubs his eyes and takes a moment to stop sniffling. He doesn't understand why Alastor wants to help him, but he doesn’t care. Alastor is actually helping him!

He reaches out for a hug, but Alastor just sidesteps, leaving him to tumble to the ground.

“Don’t push it,” Alastor says to Pentious.

They start walking around the district, looking to see if they can find Frank nearby.

Down a quiet alleyway, Frank is wandering around, looking a bit lost and having trouble finding his way out.

“Uhhh…boss? Where are you?” He says while searching the area for his Snake Boy master.

Frank glances around the quiet alley, hoping to find his boss nearby. As he's looking around, he doesn't notice a figure suddenly pop up behind him. As he turns around, he sees a tall demon right in front of him, looming over him, with a TV for a head.

Vox approaches the egg with a sinister grin and a fake cheerful tone, saying, "Hello, little one! Looks like you're a bit lost, huh?"

Frank, not realizing what Vox has in mind or the danger that he's in, responds innocently, "Oh, yes. I'm trying to find my boss. Do you have any idea where he is?"

“Oh! Your boss! So, you're one of Sir Pentious's eggs, huh?" Vox asks, acting like he’s unaware of this fact.

Frank gives a nod and replies, “Yep! That's my boss! I’m trying to find him!”

Vox puts on a big fake smile and says to Frank, “Well, don’t you worry! I'm here to help you find him!"

“Really? Wow, that’s really nice of you, TV guy!” Frank says with a big smile.

“Of course, of course! That’s me! Mr.Nice Guy, who likes to help those in need,” Vox says with a smile.

Vox pulls out a lollipop and gives it to Frank. “Here, how about you enjoy this candy while I check for your boss with my cameras?”

Frank gives his thanks to Vox while cheerfully accepting candy from a total stranger.

“Thanks, TV guy.” Franks starts to lick the lollipop.

As Frank enjoys his lollipop, Vox turns around and begins to conjure a small cube camera in his hand. It's really tiny, so he has to be careful not to crush it in his hand. Vox then turns back at Frank, who’s still busy with his lollipop. He smoothly and swiftly takes off Frank’s top hat and sets the camera right on Frank’s head. Once he’s sure the camera is secure on Frank’s head, he carefully puts the hat back on, making sure it covers and hides the camera underneath.

However, while Vox is doing that, he's also monologuing to himself about his grand plan and what his plans are regarding Alastor.

“Once I get the details on the inside of the hotel, getting Alastor on his knees will be so much easier. Who knows, I might even grab a deal from the princess,” he chuckles, adding, “Or maybe I’ll get ahold of both Alastor’s and the princess’s soul!”

Two red lines show up on the left side of his lower lip as he chuckles to himself, imagining himself as the top dog in Hell, with both Alastor and Charlie under his thumb.

“And if Alastor is not cooperative, well, I already have a few things up my sleeves to make him!! I can’t wait! Alastor is going to be mine! With our powers combined, there’s no way anyone can stop me from taking over Hell! I’ll be the top dog for everything!!”

He bursts into hysterical laughter, talking to himself and gazing up at the crimson red sky. If someone passes by and sees this guy, they might think Vox is an insane person talking and laughing to himself. To be honest, that's pretty close to the truth.

Unbeknownst to Vox, Frank was listening to every word and managed to remember most of it. He may not be the smartest, but when Pentious made his eggs, he made sure they wouldn't forget things easily. In order to keep track of an order or command that's set for a long time, just in case.

Once Vox finishes his little talk with himself, he turns back to Frank and says, “Oh, would you look at that?” in a fully exaggerated surprised tone.

“Looks like I’ve found your boss! He's just down that street!" Vox says, gesturing down the street where he knows Pentious and Alastor are. “Why not head over there and catch up with your boss?”

“Wow! Thanks a lot, TV guy! I'm heading over to see my boss now!" Frank cheerfully says as he walks toward the direction Vox pointed out.

Just before Frank walked away from Vox, Vox quickly grabbed the lollipop from Frank's hand. He needs to make sure that there's no sign of Frank having any interaction with him.

Vox calls out to Frank, “Oh, before you head out, just remember to keep this meeting between us.” He gestures towards himself and Frank.

“I don’t want to let people know that I’m a good person; this is Hell after all,” Vox says, faking a smile.

“Sure thing, boss.” Frank responds casually, assuming it's an instruction. He walks down the street to where his snake boss is waiting.

Alastor and Pentious are walking down the street, trying to find Frank. Pentious keeps calling out for him, his voice echoing as he shouts, "Frank!"

“Frank! Where are you?! Frank!!!” Pentious shouts while Alastor trails behind.

He seems a bit bored as he follows behind Pentious, not calling out for Frank, but he's most certainly aware of what's happening around him, paying attention to any sign of Frank.

While they're wandering down the street, they notice something from the distance. It’s Frank! He’s right at the end of the street, making his way over to them. Pentious's eyes lit up with joy when he saw his egg, and he hurried over to give it a big hug. The other egg-bois and Alastor trail behind, getting closer to him.

"Oh, Frank!” We finally found you! Pentious says while giving him a hug. He then wraps his arms around Frank, holding him out and exclaims, “Where have you been?!”

"Well, I saw this cat with a really funny eye. It blinked funny, so I followed it. Then, there was this huge, bright sign with a cup on it, and I thought, ‘Hey maybe the boss might want a drink,’ so I headed over to it, and then I—"

Frank just kept talking and talking about how he wandered off and became distracted by all sorts of things.

Alastor's eye starts to twitch as the egg keeps yapping, and his annoyance builds up until he finally shouts, “Enough!! We get the point! You saw some shiny things and decided to go after it! End of story!"

He glances over at Pentious and says, “We found your egg. Now that’s all wrapped up, I’m going back to the hotel." Alastor turns around and heads back to the Hazbin Hotel.

Pentious, trailing behind him, shouts out, “Wait for me!” He's following Alastor, and all his egg-bois are right behind him.

From a distance, Vox observes them with a sinister grin, knowing full well that his plan is underway. Before long, Alastor will be his, and nothing's going to get in the way of that. He bursts into laughter, confident that his plan can't possibly fail.

With an audible “MUU HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA,” Vox lets out a maniacally laugh.

Somewhere nearby, a voice shouts out, “SHUT THE FUCK UP! YOU CRAZY ASSHOLE!!!”

Chapter Text

Back at the hotel, the hole in the wall is still there, but poorly covered with a large tarp. The wind is blowing in through the hole, making the tarp flap a bit as it catches the breeze. It appears the top part of the tarp is pinned to the wall, while the bottom half is just hanging down by the floor.

Charlie and Vaggie have just got back from their recruitment drive. Charlie flops down onto the couch, completely exhausted.

Angel, lounging on a nearby couch, casually asks, “Soooo? How'd it go?"

“Not a single new recruit.” Vaggie leans onto the couch where Charlie is lying down.

Angel glances at his phone and says to Vaggie, “Yeah well, who would wanna use their last days not fucking and fighting?”

While Angel is looking at his phone, Vaggie unexpectedly hears a knock at the front door. She walks over and swings the door open, only to be greeted by Sir Pentious, his egg-bois, and Alastor standing right there.

“Why are you even knocking on the door? I live here; we could have just gone right in.” Alastor questions Pentious.

Pentious replies, “It would be rude to not knock; I am a guest. Therefore, it is proper manners to knock before entering an establishment.”

Alastor just rolls his eyes and strolls right in, pushing past Vaggie. Pentious and his eggs stroll in right after as they make their way into the hotel lobby.

Vaggie looks over at Alastor and asks, “Alastor? What are you and Pentious doing here? Aren’t you supposed to be at Carmine’s right now?”

“We’re supposed to pick you up from there in an hour from now.”

“I walked back, saving you the trip.” He casually says to Vaggie, “You’re welcome, by the way.”

Vaggie pinches her nose and asks Alastor, "What’s Pentious doing here? Does his mom even know he's here?"

Charlie walks over to Vaggie and says, “Vaggie, what's the problem?” She then sees Sir Pentious and gasps, “Oh! Hello again!”

Charlie takes off his hat and greets Charlie. “Hello, Miss Charlie, good to see you again! I hope you are doing well today.”

“Awwww!! That's so sweet!" Charlie looks at Pentious with sparkly eyes, but she quickly follows up with the question, "Pentious, what are you doing here? Does your mom know you're here?"

Pentious looks away, avoiding eye contact with Charlie, and stammers, “Uhhh… She doesn't exactly know where I am right now..."

“What?!” She has no idea where you are?? You didn’t tell her before you left?” Charlie exclaims.

"Well, it was kind of a last-minute decision, with Alastor choosing to walk back here after all. He really shouldn't be by himself in the city." Pentious says awkwardly.

“Hey! You’re the one who decided to follow me! You could have just stayed home if you wanted to!" Alastor's voice cuts through the air.

Charlie and Vaggie share a look as they spot Alastor at the hotel bar, casually holding a glass of juice.

“Alastor, you’re supposed to spend the day with Pentious. Not just ditch him and come back straight away.” Vaggie says to him with a firm tone.

“Well, if he was not so boring or vegan, I would have stayed. But he is, so I left and walked back home,” Alastor replies casually.

Vaggie is rubbing her head again; that migraine is back. “Ugh….”

Charlie gives Alastor a disappointed look. “Alastor! You can't just walk away and leave Pentious all by himself like that! What if something happened to him?”

“But he didn’t leave me alone.” Pentious chimes in with his voice.

“Huh?” Charlie turns to Pentious and asks, “What do you mean by that?”

Pentious tells Charlie, “He helped me track down Frank!”

Pentious then starts to share how Alastor stayed with him in the entertainment district, helping him look for Frank and sticking by his side during the whole search.

Alastor, feeling a bit overwhelmed, quietly asks Husk to mix some booze into his juice to help him cope with the upcoming event he’s anticipating.

After Pentious wraps up his story, Charlie glances over at Alastor, her eyes glistening with tears and a huge smile lighting up her face. She dashes over to Alastor and wraps her arms around him in a big hug.

“Oh!! Alastor! I'm so proud of you! You really helped Pentious out there!!" Charlie excitedly exclaims while giving him a tighter squeeze, “I knew you had some good in you!! You're amazing!!"

“Yes, yes. I'm pretty exceptional. Could you please stop squeezing me now?" Alastor gasps, struggling to catch his breath.

Vaggie gently puts a hand on her girlfriend's shoulder and says, “Babe, I really think you should let go. You're squeezing him a bit too tight."

Charlie opens her eyes and notices that Alastor is turning blue and quickly releases him. “Oops, sorry, I forgot my own strength there.”

Alastor collapses onto the floor, struggling to take deep breaths.

Angel, now at the bar, leans over to Husk and whispers, “Is it me? Or did I jus' hear his bones crack right now?”

“No, it’s not you. I hear it too. I think Charlie might have broken a few ribs," Husk whispers to him.

Angel and Husk both flinch at that. Alastor just seems to shrug it off; he doesn't even look like he's in pain or showing any signs that he might have broken ribs. Charlie and Vaggie didn’t really seem to catch the cracking sound, so the kids just kept quiet about it.

Angel and Husk are definitely curious about just how high Alastor's pain tolerance really is.

Later in the evening, Charlie has brought everyone together in the hotel parlor. Most of them are sitting on the floor, while Charlie stands in front, ready to share some news.

“Alright, before we jump into this fun activity, let’s clear a few things up so we can really enjoy ourselves without any distractions.” Charlie shares the news with everyone in the room.

She glances over at Alastor and says, “Thanks to Alastor, our wall is finally getting fixed.”

Charlie points at the damaged wall in the bar area, catching everyone's attention. Currently, there's a bunch of shadow demons working on the repairs.

“It’s been a busy day, but Alastor managed to find the time to patch up the wall,” Charlie says with a grateful smile.

Vaggie rolls her eyes and says plainly, "Isn't that what he's supposed to do?"

“Still, I’m really thankful to Alastor for taking the time to fix our wall instead of just leaving it wide open with a tarp on it.” Charlie mentions after Vaggie.

“Of course! I am the one you can count on to finish the task!” Alastor says with a smug smile, puffing out his chest.

Husk and Angel just exchange eye rolls when Alastor says that. “What a drama queen,” they both thought.

Charlie then turns to Pentious and says, “Pentious, I called your mom and let her know where you are right now. She is not pleased with you, but I was able to smooth things over a bit."

“She and your sisters are very busy right now, so they won’t be able to take care of you tonight. It also looks like your caretaker for the day had to reschedule at the last minute, and unfortunately, there’s no one available right now on such short notice."

Pentious feels down when he hears this; lately, his mom and sisters have been busy, but they haven't let him help out. They've been acting really strange ever since the recent exterminations; it feels like there's something on their minds that they're unwilling to share with him. After the early extermination announcement, things really took a turn for the worse. It seemed to freak them out, and now they're being more secretive than ever.

Charlie notices that Pentious is a bit down about the news and decides to cheer him up by saying, “So, I had another talk with your mom, and you won’t believe what she said?!”

With a big smile, she tells him, “Guess what? Your mom said you can spend the night here at the Hazbin Hotel!”

“WHAT?!” Everyone in the room, except for Vaggie, Charlie, and Pentious, couldn't believe what they were hearing and shouted in surprise.

Angel stands up and says to Charlie, “Are you fucking nuts?! This chump attacked us with a bazooka, like, literally this morning! And now you wanna bring him in here to spend the night with us?”

“Don’t worry, Angel! He was just doing that so he can hang out with Alastor! Plus, his mom confiscated all of his weapons, so he is harmless right now.” Charlie says this to try to reassure Angel.

Husk also shares his thoughts and worries. “Don’t you think it’s weird that Carmilla is suddenly okay with all of this? It’s one thing to spend a few hours here, but it’s another to spend the night here.”

He crosses his arms and says, “This seems fishy; Carmilla is definitely up to something, and I doubt—” he gestures to Pentious with his thumb, “this dunderhead here knows anything. There's really no point in asking him."

“How rude! Mother is not planning to be nefarious regarding this hotel! If she is, I would know about it!” Pentious yells at Husk, standing up for his mom.

Husk just brushes him off and takes a swig from the bottle he’s holding. “Sure thing, buddy, whatever you say,” he says to Pentious with a hint of sarcasm.

Charlie goes in between them, trying to soothe the kids, saying, “Now, now. I get that this situation is a bit uncomfortable for everyone, so I came up with a fun game to help us all get to know each other better," she says, clapping her hands.

All of the kids have deadpan expressions on their faces; something tells them that the activity Charlie has planned for them will be neither fun nor exciting. It’s probably one of those games for little kids that they play at camps.

Charlie heads back to her spot and stands right in the center of the circle of kids sitting around her. Everyone's looking at her, waiting for her to start.

“Now, with a new friend, I think it's important we all get to know each other! So we are going to play a little game. Everyone, follow me.” Charlie points to herself and begins her activity, showing everyone how it's done by starting first.

“My name is Charlie!” She claps twice after saying that, then crouches down next to Vaggie and says, “I like to sing!” She gives a couple of claps again, and Vaggie can't help but smile at Charlie with affection when she does that.

Charlie stands back up and cheerfully says to everyone, “And when we get to know each other, it's the greatest thing!” She gives a couple of claps before wrapping up her introductions.

Yep. Just as they thought, this activity is stupid, and they hate it. Pentious appears to be the only one who is willing to participate, but he seems to enjoy everything.

Charlie waves her hand towards Pentious, letting him know it's his turn to introduce himself like that.

Pentious seems a bit hesitant before he says, “My name's Sir Pentious.” He gives a couple of claps. “I like to build,” he says, clapping his hands together twice after sharing that thought.

“And despite my stupid Egg Boiz,” Pentious says with a grin, "I think I'm very skilled!” He claps twice to wrap things up.

Charlie beams with pride as she gestures toward Angel in the corner, while Pentious mimics her, signaling that it's his turn.

Angel glances up from his phone, clearly not that interested. “This is stupid,” he says with a straight face.

“This- is not- stupid!” Charlie cheers, clapping her hands together twice. “It’s just a game!” she says with a couple of claps, moving closer to Angel.

“Sir Pentious did it well, so now please try to do the same!” Charlie gets louder and louder as she approaches Angel, wrapping up her sentence with a couple of claps.

Angel pinches the bridge of his nose and says, “I’m way too sober for this.”

Vaggie, sitting next to Angel, smirks and says, “Well, get used to it and learn how to play; this is gonna be your whole day!” She finishes it off with a couple of claps.

After Charlie's activity that most of the kids weren't really into, it's finally time for dinner. Niffty has cooked dinner for them tonight, so most of the residents are feeling a little wary about their food. This is because sometimes Niffty just can’t help but mix in some bugs into her cooking, saying it’s ‘for flavor.’ So, a lot of them are just kind of poking at their food, making sure there aren’t any bugs hiding in there.

Just as they're about to start eating, the doorbell rings. Charlie gets up and walks over to the door to see who's there. When she opens the door, she finds Pentious’ older sisters, Clara and Odette, standing there.

Odette is a female demon who has a slender build, pale skin, and long light blonde hair styled in a ponytail. Her eyes are quite striking, featuring red sclera and white irises, and she has small black horns perched on her head. She wears circular-rimmed glasses with red tinted lenses, a long white lab coat buttoned up over a black turtleneck, long black gloves, black tights, and a pair of silver pointé shoes that look identical to her mother's.

Clara is a female demon with puce skin, curly cream hair pulled back in a ponytail, black lips, eyes that have red sclera and white irises, and small black horns on her head. She's wearing a sleeveless black crop-top turtleneck paired with gray jean-shorts and a black belt. To top it off, she's got on black fingerless gloves, white over-the-knee stockings, and ballet shoes, similar to her mother.

They're here to drop off Pentious' stuff for the night and to see how their little brother is doing.

“Hi! You must be Pentious’ big sisters, Odette and Clara!” Charlie says excitedly. “Your mom called ahead and told me that you guys will be coming here to drop off Pentious’s things.”

Charlie swings the door wider and waves the sisters in, saying, “Come on in! We are about to have dinner. Do you want to join us?”

Odette and Clara walk into the hotel after Charlie holds the door open for them. They're looking around, making sure the hotel is safe for their little brother. Right now, the hotel isn't looking its best, but it's not falling apart, either. It seems pretty clean and sanitary for an overnight stay, but there are a few structures that raise some concerns.

It's the chandelier right in the center of the lobby, to be exact. It seems like it's just barely hanging on from the ceiling and could come crashing down at any moment. There's a bar in a hotel that seems to be mostly filled with kids, with a wall with what looks like a half-covered hole on one side.

The sisters exchange worried looks, their concern for their little brother growing with every passing second. This hotel feels like a bit of a hazard zone, and they can't help but wonder what their mom was thinking letting him stay here for the night.

They know that with Pentious around, he can fill them in on what's been happening at the hotel, as well as be the first to know any recent developments regarding the Princess of Hell or with Heaven. After that ‘incident’, their mom feels it might be a good idea to keep an eye on Hell’s royalty, just in case anything happens.

But in all honesty, this hotel feels like a bit of a danger zone, and they just can’t shake off the worry about leaving their little brother here.

“No, thank you. We're only stopping by to drop off Pen's things, but thank you for the offer” Odette speaks quietly to Charlie.

Charlie seems a little down for a moment, but then she perks up and calls out, “Pentious! Your sisters have come with your things!”

A few background noises as Pentious quickly made his way from the dining room to the hotel lobby. As soon as he got to the lobby and spotted his sisters, he quickly ran right over to them.

Pentious leaps into their arms, and they all share a warm family group hug. The siblings share warm smiles as they embrace one another, while Charlie stands in the background, smiling through tears.

As they pulled away from their hug, Pentious glanced at his sisters and asked, “Odette, Clara, are you guys staying for dinner or hanging out for a bit?” He asks, his eyes filled with hope.

The two sisters exchange worried glances before facing their little brother, trying to figure out the best way to share the news gently.

Odette bends down and says, “Sorry, little brother. Your sister, mom, and I are very busy right now with the preparations for the upcoming Overlord meeting and dealing with the craziness of the new extermination date.”

Charlie flinches in the background when she hears that. She can't help but feel a bit responsible for it, even though deep down, she knows it was out of her control. But she's really seeing how the new extermination date is impacting her people.

“But I can help! I've already put together a few prototypes for us to try out!” Pentious exclaims to his sister, really hoping they'll reconsider their decision about him sitting on the sidelines.

Clara crouches down next to her sister and softly puts her hand on Pentious' head, saying, “Not this time, little bro. There's a lot happening at the moment, and we really don't want you to get caught up in it.”

“But—” Pentious starts to say something, but Odette interrupts him, “We’ll explain everything to you one day, but for now, could you please just sit back for a while?” She looks at Pentious with eyes full of pleading.

Pentious has more to say, but when he sees his sisters' faces, he decides to hold back and let it slide for now. “Okaayyy……”

“We’ll tell you everything once we know it’s safe.” Clara promises Pentious.

Pentious looks glad to hear this since his sisters will fill him in on everything when the time comes. He can hold off on that for a little while. He then asks them, “So, how’s Mother doing, by the way? Is she busy with something at the moment?"

The two sisters exchange a quick side-eye before Odette says to Pentious, “Yes. She's handling a really important business matter at the moment."

At a Carmine factory, there's a sinner dangling from the ceiling, all wrapped up in chains. He's hanging precariously over a massive vat of bubbling molten steel; a single misstep and he would fall right into it.

“I DIDN'T KNOW THAT BRAT WOULD LEAVE THE COMPOUND!!!” He screamed, fighting against his chains, “HE WAS SUPPOSED TO FUCKING STAY THERE!! HOW THE HELL IS THIS MY FAULT?!”

Carmilla remains silent, pulling out a remote with a red button and aiming it at the sinner dangling there. She presses the button, and the sinner starts to be lowered slowly into the vat of melting liquid metal.

“WAIT! WAIT!!! AHHHHH!!!” The sinner screams as he realizes he is being lowered into the vat.

Carmilla, silent as ever, lifts her glass and takes a sip of the red wine sitting on the small table beside her. She takes her time sipping the wine while enjoying the show.

“I’m sure no matter what, she is thinking of you right now.” Odette says to her brother.

Pentious beams and says, “Well, tell Mother not to worry; I am thinking of her too.”

“Awwww!!!” A voice interrupts the moment between the siblings. They all glance over at Charlie.

When Charlie catches their eye, she stutters, “Uhhh…oops?” She offers them a bit of an awkward smile, realizing she just kind of ruined their moment.

Clara and Odette get up and hand over Pentious' stuff to Charlie. They gave their brother a quick kiss before turning to Charlie. Odette said, “We’ll be back by tomorrow morning to pick him up.”

She shoots Charlie a fierce look and says, “If anything happens to him, you’ll have to deal with the entire Carmine family, got it?”

Charlie, her hands chock-full with Pentious stuff, quickly nods and says, “Yep! Understood! No need to worry! Nothing's gonna happen to him while he's here!!"

The sisters say their final goodbye to their little brother before stepping out the door, and Clara carefully shuts the door behind them as they leave the hotel. Pentious and Charlie are standing next to each other, just quietly taking it all in.

“So… Pentious. How about you head for dinner while I take care of putting your things in your room?" She waves her hand toward the dining room area. “I bet you’re feeling hungry after everything!”

Pentious gives a nod and makes his way to the dining room, while Charlie heads upstairs to his room. He then spots a few heads poking out from the dining hall area. It appears that the other residents were curious and had been watching the whole scenario from that corner.

As soon as Pentious notices them, they sprint back to their table, pretending nothing happened. Pentious soon comes over and takes his usual seat. They start eating, and before long, Charlie comes in to join them after she's finished putting Pentious's things away in his room.

Chapter Text

Once dinner wraps up, Charlie invites everyone to come back to the hotel parlor for another round of redemption exercises. This time, they are diving into a roleplay featuring both Angel and Pentious. Angel's wearing a trench coat and a hat, nonchalantly holding the script in his hands to read it. At the same time, Sir Pentious is dressed up like a little kid in a sailor suit and licking on a ridiculously oversized lollipop.

The other residents are gathered around, sitting back and watching the roleplay as it unfolds.

“Oh, I'm a bad man on the streets who never got enough hugs. Now, where's an innocent kid I can sell crack to?" Angel reads his script out loud unenthusiastically.

After hearing what he just read, Angel says with a frown, “Wow, who wrote this?”

“It's great, right? Keep going!” Charlie asks Angel to keep going from where she is sitting.

Angel gives Charlie a blank look before shifting back to the script and reading out loud, “Hey, you.” Angel shoots a sideways look at Pentious, clearly not impressed.

Pentious puts his lollipop down for a moment and turns to look at Angel. “Who, me?” he says, putting on a dramatic voice.

“Yeah, you look like a kid who could use some…” Angel continues to read directly from the script before stopping and squinting at a certain part.

“...Devil's Dandruff??” Angel reads aloud, completely taken aback by the other name Charlie came up with for crack.

“Oh, for fuck's sake!” He exclaims at the sheer ridiculousness of it.

Pentious shakes his head, showing he’s not interested in the drugs, and then says, “Not me! I have to go home and study!”

“Come on, kid, it'll make you cool like me…” Angel keeps reading for a bit, then pauses and says, "The Crackhead.”

“The only cool thing here is to say no to drugs! Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to not do ‘adult things’ before marriage!” Pentious enthusiastically recites the lines he’s learned by heart.

Once Pentious finishes his lines, Charlie gets up and starts clapping, saying, “Yes! Oh bravo! Bravo!”

She chuckles lightly and glances at both of them, saying, “Now, isn’t that fun? Today was a day full of valuable life lessons for all of us! While having a great time!"

The kids are all quiet, and you can see that none of them are smiling.

“Hey Charlie, what do you think we are?! Little kids? We all know what sex is; it’s Hell," Angel says to Charlie.

“Noooo… I mean, uh, I just feel like sex might not really be the right thing for you guys at your age," Charlie says to Angel, avoiding eye contact.

“Again, it’s Hell. No one cares if a kid knows about sex, as long as the adults don’t touch the kids in that way; they can say whatever they want to the kids.” Angel informs Charlie.

Pentious, the youngest, jumps in, “It’s true! I learned a lot about ‘the sex’ from the adults around me. In fact, I already knew about a few sex positions before I met my mom."

“What?!” Charlie exclaims, “But you guys are all just kids!”

“I knew it!” Angel shouts out, knowing that Charlie thinks of them as just little kids.

Husk chimes in, “Princess, if you believe kids are getting the whole rainbow and candy experience down here, you might want to rethink that.”

“Kids actually have it worse; those fuckers out there have no problem screwing us over.”

Charlie looks a bit guilty when Husk points out that she might not really understand what kids are going through down here in Hell. She caught snippets here and there but never the full story. What Husk told her really hit hard like she just doesn’t understand them at all.

To lighten the mood, Charlie shifts gears and says, “But hey, at least today, you all picked up a valuable lesson!” She points at both Pentious and Angel and says, “Just say ‘No’ to drugs!”

Angel gets even more frustrated, ripping up his script and shouting, “Are you fucking kidding me?!”

Angel shoots a glare at Charlie and exclaims, “You really think I picked up drugs because I think it’s ‘cool’?” Angel says the word ‘cool’ while making air quotes.

“Do ya’ even know me?! Or are ya’ just judgin’ me based on the fact that I’m just a thirteen-year-old kid?!” Angel keeps yelling while gesturing to himself.

“You don’t even know why I need the drugs!! You think I do it just because it’s cool or fun, huh? Or maybe some crackhead talked me into it?!”

Charlie seems to be getting more and more upset as Angel keeps shouting at her. Vaggie, clearly fed up, shouts, “Angel, that’s enough! You're making Charlie upset!!"

“Wait, I’m upsetting her?! What about her upsetting me? From what I see, it has had no special treatment whatsoever!" Angel fired back at Vaggie.

“I’m not the one yelling at her!” Vaggie yells in response.

Angel, having enough of everything, shouts out, “You know what? Fuck You!” He flips off everyone.

“Good luck with the rest of ya’ activity! Because I’m out!” Angel yells as he storms off to his room.

“Angel! Wait—” Charlie makes a move to chase after Angel, but by the time she gets there, Angel's already gone.

In Angel's room, Fat Nuggets, Angel’s demonic pet pig, is snoozing away on his bed, letting out some soft snores, until Angel accidentally tosses his coat right on top of him. Fat Nuggets lets out a little grunt as he crawls out of the coat, keeping an eye on Angel as she settles down on his bed.

Angel looks at his phone with a bit of a frown and notices all the voicemails from Velvette. Angel lets out a sigh and starts to play them. Velvette's voicemails are mostly her throwing insults at Angel and his body, along with all the crazy work he has lined up, including at least one triple overtime shift he has to take on.

Velvette’s voice echoes in his mind, “Without me, you’ll be just another kid on the streets! Complete trash!”

“So you better show your worth or be worthless in the streets.” Her voice cuts into his mind before Angel turns over on his bed.

Angel lets out a sigh as Fat Nuggets hops onto the bed beside him. Angel softly rubs his head and back.

“...Sorry, not now, Fat Nuggets.” Angel lets out a sad sigh.

Just as Angel is about to drift off to sleep, he hears some scratching sounds coming from his door. He looks over and notices Fat Nuggets scratching at his door; it looks like the pig needs to go out. Angel lets out a sigh, gets up from his bed, and opens the door for Fat Nuggets to head outside and take care of his business.

At that moment, Frank is walking by. Pentious has let his egg-bois wander around the hotel, so now they’re scattered all over the place in the building. As Frank strolls through the halls, he unintentionally walks by Angel’s room.

Fat Nuggets ran into Frank just as he was rushing out of the room, and they both ended up colliding and tumbling down together. As they tumbled down, Frank's top hat flew off his head, and so did the camera that Vox had placed under it. The two of them are now lying prone on the floor.

Angel quickly goes over to check on them and sees a small camera on the floor next to Frank. He grabs it and squints, catching sight of something on the camera. He takes a closer look and spots a VoxTek logo. This is Vox's spy camera; Angel figures out he's been spying on the hotel with it. Angel scoops up Fat Nuggets and Frank, making a beeline for the stairs, determined to find some answers.

“You slippery little shit!” Angel shouts at Pentious the moment he walks into the hotel parlor, where everyone else is hanging out.

Pentious, who was busy doing his own thing, lets out a surprised yelp and tumbles off his seat when Angel suddenly barges in, shouting at him.

“You're working for the Vees? I fucking knew there was something weird about you!” Angel points a finger at Pentious, turning the camera around for everyone in the room to see.

Pentious, totally lost, shouts in confusion, “What?? I don't even know what you're talking about?!”

“Then explain this!” Angel is showing off the camera. “This is a VoxTek spy camera! Vox can totally spy on us with one of these!”

“I’ve never seen those before!! And, I definitely don't know about it in the hotel!" Pentious jumps in, defending himself against the accusation.

“It was under one of your eggs’ hats,” Angel says to Pentious.

Niffty, from the sidelines, chimes in, “So, who are Vox or the Vees?” She was about to ask Alastor, but after seeing his reaction to Vox’s spying, she decided to turn to Husk instead.

“This trio of overlords running the media and entertainment scene,” Husk says, taking another swig from his bottle while keeping an eye on everything happening around him. “He's the guy with the TV for a head.”

Frank, tucked in Angel's arms, chimes in, “Oh yeah, TV man. I met him today!"

All eyes in the room shift to Frank after he says that. Angel puts Frank and Fat Nuggets down and then shows Frank the camera.

"So you know this camera?" Angel is asking Frank. Frank glances at the camera, his expression blank, and then says, “I don’t know.”

“Ugh…” Angel sighs at how pointless Frank's statement is.

Sir Pentious walks over to Frank, lifts him up, and gives him a couple of quick shakes before saying, “Come on, Frank! Try to remember the TV man!! I am being wrongly accused here!!”

Frank, a bit out of it from the shakes, starts to come around and says, “The TV man helped me find you today and even gave me some candy!!”

“What?! You actually took candy from a stranger?! You're not supposed to do that!" Pentious exclaims to Frank.

Frank wasn’t really paying attention to Pentious, rambles on, “The candy was super tasty, and the TV man said a bunch of stuff while I was munching on it.”

Alastor suddenly appears between them, gives Frank a forced smile, and asks, “So, what ‘things’ did the TV man mention, Little Egg Creature?” His eyes shift like dials as he asks Frank.

Frank, completely missing the hint, casually says, “He says once he gets the details from the hotel, he can have Alastor and the princess.” Frank is cutting up a bunch of Vox’s words as he does his best to recall the details.

“Oh! That he is going to make Alastor his and become a dog.” Frank finishes his statement, pauses for a while, and then adds, “And I... was supposed to keep it a secret.”

There is a moment of silence before Vaggie shouts out, “¡¿Qué carajo?! ¡Ese cabrón de la tele! ¡Lo voy a matar!”

“Okay…this is just weird and creepy,” Angel says, a shiver in his voice.

Alastor has transformed into his demon form, filled with rage and ready to smash that annoying camera. But then he stops, noticing something unexpected. He sensed a powerful energy nearby and turned to seek it out, only to be surprised to find it was Charlie.

Charlie has transformed into her demon form, with her horns sticking out, hair flowing all around, and her eyes glowing a bright demonic red. Everyone in the room can't believe what they're seeing; it's the first time they've ever witnessed Charlie this angry.

Charlie walks over to the camera that Angel is holding, takes it from him, and uses her magic to turn it into ash. After a moment, she closes her eyes, takes a deep breath, and slowly lets it out, calming herself and shifting back to her usual form. As she opens her eyes, she notices everyone in the room is looking at her, holding their breath.

“Charlie? Are you okay?" Vaggie asks, sounding a bit unsure.

“Oh…yeah… just a bit tired…” Charlie answers in a weak voice.

Husk, seeing he has to take charge of this situation, quickly says, “It’s getting late; how about we all head to bed?”

Vaggie, picking up on the hint, replies, “Yeah! Husk's right. It’s been quite a day; how about we all get settled in for the night?"

As she was busy with Charlie, Husk gently helped her in directing the kids toward the stairs leading to their room. The younger kids didn’t say a word as they went up to bed, not wanting to stir up any trouble with Charlie at the moment. Once the kids are out of the way, Vaggie leads Charlie back to their room for a well-deserved good night’s sleep after everything that went down today.

Vaggie and Charlie are relaxing in their bedroom, all curled up in their pajamas on their shared bed. They're just lying there next to each other, both on their backs, looking up at the ceiling. After a moment of silence, Vaggie rolls over to look at Charlie. She's really worried about her girlfriend. What went down in the lobby was so unlike her, and she was just hoping everything was okay.

“Charlie, are you feeling better now?” Vaggie asks her girlfriend with a hint of worry.

Charlie, still gazing at the ceiling, says, “No, Vaggie. I really don’t think I am.”

“Today was a lot, huh?” Vaggie tells her. Charlie shuts her eyes for a second, then opens them again and says, “Yeah…”

There's this quiet moment between them, and neither of them really wants to break the silence. Charlie looks over at Vaggie, who’s on her side of the bed.

“I just…got so angry. I never would have guessed that Vox is that much of a creep towards Alastor.” Charlie lets out a frustrated sigh, “To even go as far as spying on the hotel…”

“I guess that explains why Alastor wants to vet all tech products coming into the hotel. The Vees have a corner market for them in Pentagram City and can install spy tech in their products whenever they want.” Vaggie informs Charlie.

“What? How do you know that?” Charlie asks Vaggie.

Vaggie, realizing she has to fill Charlie in on her deal with Alastor and convince her to get those MechaFox game consoles from Jikogu City, says, “I’ll explain everything tomorrow; it’s a long story.”

“Alright.” Charlie nods as she takes in Vaggie's response. “I’m really worried about Alastor. With that creep out there, who knows what he might do to him?”

“Babe, I wouldn't worry too much. Alastor is an overlord; he can defend himself if Vox tries anything.” Vaggie tries to reassure Charlie of this fact.

“Yeah, but it doesn’t change the fact that there’s an adult creep obsessing over a kid,” Charlie tells Vaggie. "To be honest, I’m not sure I really understand how much kids are going through in Hell.”

“Vox is just scratching the surface; there are going to be plenty more adults and people even worse than him. I feel like I might have upset them by assuming they're treated better than other sinners, but really, it's the other way around."

Charlie has tears in her eyes as she says that, and then she adds, “I can see why the kids don’t really trust me. They must have gone through a lot down here."

Vaggie, noticing her girlfriend's distress, pulls her in for a warm hug, offering comfort and support. After a bit, she lets go of her hug and feels happy to see that Charlie has stopped crying.

“I guess I look pretty stupid, huh? Not knowing all these things…” Charlie lets out a deep sigh, looking a bit down, “I’m worried I won’t be able to protect them.”

Vaggie gently takes her girlfriend’s hand and says, “No, Charlie. You’re not stupid; you’re just not familiar with kid sinners.”

“You're just starting out and trying your best. I bet they at least appreciate the effort, or else they would have checked out of the hotel by now. The fact that they’re still around says a lot…”

“Ooorrr it’s all about the free rent and food,” Charlie chuckles.

Vaggie chuckles along with her, saying, “Or it could be that too.”

Vaggie smiles at Charlie and says, “Hey, don't worry too much; we’ll figure it out together. Actually, you and I are in the same situation."

“Oh, yeah. You haven't been in Hell for very long.” Charlie thinks about how Vaggie has only been in Hell for a little while.

Vaggie nods along as Charlie shares this, saying, “I had no idea there were so many kids in Hell. I always figured the really evil ones were just down here, you know…"

“Yeah… People often make this mistake. Many people believe that kids can't end up in Hell, but it's actually the complete opposite." Charlie mentions this with a hint of sadness.

“And it’s just not fair; kids are meant to make mistakes and learn from them so they can improve. But the mistakes they make end up sending them to Hell, where they face eternal punishment instead of getting a chance to learn and grow from those mistakes."

Charlie’s frustration grows as she goes on, “Some of them are so young! They had no idea those mistakes were serious enough to land them in Hell! Nobody taught them anything or gave them a chance to defend themselves."

“Hey babe, you’re getting a bit too worked up; just take a breath,” Vaggie says to Charlie.

Charlie takes a deep breath and calms herself down. “Sorry, I just get so angry thinking about that.” Charlie apologizes to Vaggie.

“No worries, I get it. All these kids in Hell feel so wrong.” Vaggie says to Charlie.

“Oh, and let’s not forget about the exterminations.” Charlie talks to Vaggie with a heavy heart.

“Just thinking about it really gets to me, all these kids who should be safe in Heaven but are at the mercy of everything…and then, they come down here to slaughter them all…" Charlie drifts off, feeling a bit sad.

Charlie was so deep in her thoughts that she completely missed the change in Vaggie’s expression. If Charlie had taken a glance, she would have seen the pain and guilt on Vaggie’s face for just a moment before it returned to her usual expression.

“Isn’t this part of the reason you decided to open this hotel?” Vaggie is asking Charlie. “To help sinners and save them from the extermination.”

“If anyone can get through to them and make them a better person, it’s you,” Vaggie tells Charlie, confident in her girlfriend.

“Really? You think that?” Charlie questions Vaggie.

“I know so.” Vaggie leans in and kisses Charlie softly, saying, “Come on, let’s get some sleep. We have a big day tomorrow."

“You’re right. Good night, Vaggie.” Charlie says while rolling over to switch off the lights and head to bed.

“Good night, Charlie,” Vaggie says as she turns over to her other side, trying to get some sleep. Her face seems pained, and it seems like she's thinking about a lot of things. After a bit, Vaggie lets out a tired sigh, closes her eyes, and drifts off to sleep.

Chapter Text

In the hotel lobby, Charlie and Vaggie are working with Razzle and Dazzle to hang a banner that says, “Welcome to the Hazbin Hotel, Sir Pentious!” The banner has a handmade feel; it seems like Charlie made it herself.

"That looks perfect!" Charlie shouts from the stepladder while Vaggie stands below, making sure it doesn’t wobble.

Charlie lets out a joyful scream and says, “I’m so excited to welcome Sir Pentious to the hotel!”

Vaggie, who's at the bottom of the ladder, says, “Um, Pentious has been dropping by the hotel regularly this past week, and he even stayed a night here.”

“Yeah, well, since he stops by so often, I think we should have a little get-together,” Charlie says to Vaggie while she’s coming down from the ladder. "Make him feel welcome here. Like being a part of a family!"

Charlie leads Vaggie over to a long table close by, where a variety of food and dishes are laid out for everyone to enjoy. On the other table, there are a few different types of soda, with some really cute decorated cups next to them. It seems like Charlie has set up a nice little spread of food and drinks for the kids to enjoy at the party! There are a bunch of small balloons scattered around the table to give it a more festive feel.

"Oh, check this out! I created these adorable little plates with their names on them!" Charlie grabs a custom-decorated plate and holds it up for Vaggie to see. It features a picture of Husk's face, with his name written at the bottom.

“I called them name-plates! Isn't that cute?!" Charlie shouts with excitement.

Vaggie, with a warm smile at her girlfriend’s playful behavior, responds, “Yeah, they’re really cute.”

“Oooh! I'm really excited about this! Let's get this party started!" Charlie cheerfully called out as she made her way to the parlor to get the kids.

The parlor is a bit of a disaster, with the kids' stuff all over the place. Alastor’s devil goat plushies are still hanging from the fireplace, and there are a few of Angel’s accessories scattered around from when he took selfies for his Voxstagram posts. There are half-finished drawings and artwork on the table and boxes of video games all over the floor.

"Guys! It's time for the welcome party! There's food, soda, and these adorable little name-plates!" Charlie says with a big smile, bouncing with excitement for the event to kick off. Vaggie is trailing behind her, feeling glad that her girlfriend is enjoying herself.

The kids are all off doing their own thing, though. Angel and Pentious are playing the video games that Charlie got from Jigoku City, with the egg-bois watching them play. Husk is hanging out at the bar, busy counting the wallets he snagged from other sinners during his city outing last week. Meanwhile, Niffty, who's usually on cleaning duty, is a bit tied up right now. She is currently busily torturing the tiny insects after discovering a colony of them in one of the hotel rooms. Alastor isn't even present in the room.

“Hey, um… guys??” Charlie calls them once more, but they just keep on ignoring her.

It wasn't like she was completely ignored; there were a bunch of mumbled responses coming her way, like “Coming, in a sec,” “Just let us finish this level first,” “Not hungry,” and “Hold on, let me pin their legs first.”

The kids are so caught up in their own fun that they totally miss Charlie calling them for the party and just keep doing their thing. Vaggie, noticing her girlfriend looking disappointed and sad, strides over to the parlor area to give them a piece of her mind. She’s thinking about scolding the kids about how they’ve been ignoring and not appreciating Charlie’s hard work. Charlie put a lot of thought into this for them, and they just brushed her off without a second thought.

Just as Vaggie is about to go over to the kids, Charlie gently puts a hand on her shoulder and says, “Vaggie, hold on!”

“I really don’t want the kids to feel like they have to go to this party.” Charlie shares with Vaggie. “I just want everyone to have a great time, but if we push them to go, they might not feel like they can truly enjoy themselves.”

“But, Charlie, you really put in so much effort to throw this party for them.” Vaggie shares her worries with Charlie. “They just brush off your efforts like it doesn’t even matter.”

Charlie glances at Vaggie and gives her a reassuring smile, saying, “Hey, it wasn’t that hard…It's just a little gathering, and I didn't even make the food myself. I just ordered it and had them delivered."

Charlie looks over at the kids, a pained expression on her face, and says, “It’s just…ever since the Vox thing, I feel like there’s been a bit more distance between us and the kids.”

Charlie lets out a sigh and says, “I guess after everything that happened, we might not be as close to the kids as we thought.”

Vaggie looks over at what Charlie's looking at, and honestly, she feels just the same. She hasn't worked with kids before, but she senses there's a bit of a gap between them and her and Charlie. Charlie is looking for ways to connect with the kids better so they feel comfortable opening up to her and taking her hotel seriously.

“But what can we do if the kids don’t really trust us at all?” Vaggie just blurted that out without even thinking about it.

Charlie turns to Vaggie, grabbing her by the shoulders, and exclaims, “That’s a great idea!”

“What?” was all Vaggie could manage to say right then.

"Why don't we concentrate on that for our activities today?! Let's work on building more trust between us and the kids!" Charlie exclaims to Vaggie as if a lightbulb just went off in her head, and ideas are flooding in.

“I guess that might work??” Vaggie shares it with her.

Charlie is already buzzing with excitement, her mind brimming with fun ideas to explore with the kids. She's full of energy and jumps right into planning her activities without missing a beat.

Before she dashes out to grab her stuff, Charlie turns to Vaggie and says, “Hey, Vaggie, could you go get Alastor from his room? I'd love for everyone to join in on this activity together!!”

Vaggie can tell her girlfriend has already made her decision. “Sure, Charlie, I’ll go grab him right now.”

Charlie gives Vaggie a quick kiss on the cheek, saying, “Thanks, Vaggie!” She hurriedly dashed out of the room, but not without throwing in, “You’re a big help!”

Vaggie gives a warm smile as she watches Charlie move away, then heads upstairs to find Alastor.

Alastor is now in his room, digging into a bloody meat slab with a knife and fork, all while some jazz tunes are playing in the background. The meat is very fresh, with blood dripping everywhere. As Alastor digs in, it splatters all over his face and clothes. It seems that today is Alastor's cannibal day. It’s when Alastor has to eat at least one meal with sinner meat to keep his little cannibalism curse in check. Charlie isn't enthusiastic about it, but honestly, it's far better than dealing with a rampaging, hungry, cannibalistic overlord at the hotel.

Suddenly, the jazz music stops with a record-scratching sound when Vaggie comes by her, knocking at the opened door, signaling she’s there.

“Alastor!” Vaggie calls out for him.

Alastor's eyes widen for a moment as he shifts his gaze from the meat slab on the table to Vaggie.

“Do you mind? I'm in the middle of my meal.” Alastor says to her as he continues eating.

Vaggie crosses her arms and says, “Well, hurry up and finish it. Charlie is planning something that needs all of us.”

"Yes, Yes, I’ll be done eating soon, just a little bit left,” Alastor says, taking another bite of the meat, blood juice dripping down his face and mouth.

Vaggie scrunches her face in disgust as she takes in the mess of his face and clothes. "And make sure you clean yourself up before you come down! You look like you just rolled around in a pool of blood."

“Well, I kind of did!” Alastor lets out a chuckle at this.

Vaggie rolls her eyes and says to Alastor, “Just get downstairs when you’re done,” before heading out of the room, leaving Alastor to wrap up his meal.

Chapter Text

As Alastor heads downstairs and into the hotel foyer, he comes across a really strange sight. In the center of the foyer, there's a wooden stage, and right above it, a banner that says “Trusting 101” is hanging down. Everyone else is standing in front of the stage, while Charlie and Vaggie are a little closer to it.

As soon as Alastor shows up, Charlie turns and walks over to him. “Hey, Alastor, you finally made it down!!” She softly nudges his back and leads him toward the stage area.

Charlie talks while they stroll over to the stage area. "Hi, guys. Thanks for being here! It has come to our attention that there could be a little—" She spots a splotch of blood on Alastor’s cheek and, without even realizing it, pulls out a handkerchief from her pocket and wipes it clean.

“—tension in the hotel.” Charlie finishes her speech just as she finishes cleaning Alastor’s cheek. She had no clue what she was doing until Alastor gently pushed her hands away. Angel and Husk share a quiet laugh at Alastor, but Alastor catches them in the act. He then calls forth some small, subtle tentacles right under their feet, tripping them up and sending them crashing to the floor.

“Tension that can be counterproductive to what we're trying to do here.” Vaggie crosses her arms and gives Alastor a sharp glare.

Charlie steps up to her place in front of the kids, right beside Vaggie. “We think that this group could really benefit from—”

Charlie and Vaggie both leap up high and soar into the air. They threw their hands up with excitement, and Charlie exclaimed, "Trust exercises!”

“Trust exercises.” Vaggie is talking a little slower than Charlie.

“Ah, shit!” Vaggie lets out a surprised shout as she loses her balance and ends up tumbling to the floor instead of landing on her feet.

Charlie pulls Vaggie to her feet and whispers, “Vaggie, we rehearsed this.” She lets out a sigh and glances at everyone else, saying, “We're doing trust exercises!”

Husk is the first to chime in, “So, uh, what's with the whole, uhh, this?” He points to the stage behind Charlie and Vaggie.

“I'm not about to put on some show for these fucking chumps.” He says this with his arms crossed.

Angel strikes a cute pose and says, “Oh, I will.” Before getting back to the usual routine, he started waving his hands for cash and said, “But it’s cash per hour for a commission, and you might want to think about adding a green screen for a nice background around here.” He gestures towards the stage.

Vaggie brushes off Angel and turns to the other kids, saying, “Alright, let’s get this started.”

“Oh, I just suddenly remembered!” Alastor exclaimed out of nowhere, startling everyone else in the room. “Today, I am supposed to attend an Overlord meeting regarding the early exterminations.”

Charlie lifts an eyebrow at this. “You attend the overlord meeting?” she asks, a hint of skepticism in her voice.

“Not always, but this one seems important enough for me to attend,” Alastor responds. “After all, the early extermination date affects everyone, not just the hotel.”

Charlie’s face scrunches up at that. The early extermination date indeed impacts everyone, especially the overlords, who really want to keep their souls in check. It makes sense to hold a meeting to go over the details. Charlie’s feeling a bit on edge about this whole situation. Alastor’s heading to a meeting where that creep, Vox, might be hanging around, and she’s definitely not happy about it.

“Are you sure?” Vox is an overlord as well, and he might be there." Charlie shares her feelings of discomfort and concern with Alastor.

“Now, don’t you worry. It would be foolish of Vox to actually try anything at the meeting with the other overlords in the room.” Alastor is doing his best to ease Charlie's concerns. “And if he does, I can handle myself perfectly fine,” Alastor says, twirling his mic.

“But—” Charlie starts to speak up, but Husk jumps in, saying, “Just trust the boss on this one; he’s stronger than you think.”

Charlie glances at Husk for a second, then lets out a heavy sigh. Since today is all about trust, she knows it wouldn’t be right to mistrust Alastor now.

“Okay…. How about we give you a ride to the meeting spot instead? Charlie suggests one thing to Alastor.

Alastor shakes his head, saying, “I’m sorry, but I will have to refuse that offer. I can’t be seen as a weak child relying on the princess for everything.”

“But I don’t mind helping you, and it’s not a sign of weakness to ask for a little help every now and then.” Charlie shares this with Alastor.

“Sure, that might be how you see it, but for me and everyone else down here, it’s considered a weakness. If folks notice that the Radio Demon is all weak and floundering, unable even to stroll over somewhere, they wouldn't think twice about coming after me."

Alastor keeps his eyes locked on Charlie. "That means they'll attack the hotel, hoping to get to the Radio Demon, who they believe is weak right now. They do not care if you are a princess; they will come."

Charlie and Vaggie share a look; each lost in their thoughts. Sinners might try to take on the Radio Demon if they believe he's vulnerable, regardless of the situation. They're not sure they can handle all of them, and it wouldn't look good for the hotel to be known for promoting violence instead of preventing it.

Charlie finally glances back at Alastor. “Fine, you can walk there. But I’m still not happy about this. I know this seems weird, but I can’t help worrying about you.”

Alastor's eyes widen slightly when he hears this; no one has cared to worry about him. Most of the time, it seems like they either want to take advantage of him or they want to harm him. He's never seen anyone show that much care before, not since he arrived here. He hadn't felt cared for in ages, not since the only person who really showed him any was gone a long time ago.

That's when Pentious comes in with a new idea. "What about having my egg-bois accompany you to the meeting?"

Everyone turns to look at him. “They are great companions, and that way, Alastor is not alone on his walk to the meeting.” Pentious then adds, “Also, my mom is going to be leading the meeting today, which is why I’m here all day. Miss Charlie knows her pretty well; maybe this will help ease her mind about it."

Charlie taps her chin with her finger. “You know, if Carmilla is around, I feel a little better about things. She typically watches over everything and makes sure that nothing goes wrong. She looked over at Alastor and asked, “What do you think, Alastor?”

Alastor's face scrunches up a bit, showing his dissatisfaction, but really, it just looks like a baby deer trying to be mad and not quite pulling it off; it's honestly very cute and adorable. Vaggie and Charlie have to bite their lips to keep from grinning or laughing.

“Why do I have to take the Little Egg Creatures? Have I not suffered enough last time?!” Alastor made an adorable pout as he tried to express his anger.

Vaggie gets herself together first, places her hands on her hips, and looks at Alastor, saying, “You’ve got a choice: it’s either the car or the eggs. It's up to you."

Alastor pouted a bit longer before letting out a sigh and giving in, “Fine… I’ll take the eggs. But don’t blame me if they wander off somewhere on their own.”

“No worries, I’ll make sure to let them know not to do that,” Pentious says to him.

Alastor lets out an exasperated sigh. “Oh sure, they’ll certainly remember to do that,” he says with a hint of sarcasm.

Pentious, not listening to Alastor, is talking to his egg. “All right, eggies. You've got to go with Alastor for today. Make sure to listen to him and don’t leave his side, okay?”

“Sure thing, boss.” One of the egg-bois chimes in, and they all head over to Alastor.

Alastor looks around and says, “Alright, it’s time for me to leave. I will see you later tonight. Ta-ta for now.”

He walks out the door with the egg-bois following him, and you can hear Charlie calling out, “Bye, Alastor! Stay safe!”

Alastor waves one last time before heading out and gently shuts the door with a little slam.

Charlie looks at the other kids after Alastor heads out and says, “Looks like we’re on our own without Alastor today.”

Angel and Husk are definitely thinking, “Lucky bastard” right now.

Vaggie kicks things off by saying, “Alright, let’s finally get started. Charlie?” Vaggie glances at her and gives Charlie a nod to kick things off.

“Actually, I thought maybe you could take the lead on this one,” Charlie says, wrapping her arm around Vaggie’s shoulder and playfully pointing at her with a finger.

She releases Vaggie and strolls over to join Husk, Niffty, Pentious, and Angel. “I trust everyone, so maybe you have a better idea of how to build it properly!”

Vaggie, surprised by what just happened, stutters, “What? Uhh, I'm not really sure if I'm qualified, uh..”

Charlie, trusting in Vaggie, says to her, “Oh, come on. It'll be easy! I'm sure you can handle this.”

"Yeah, um,” Vaggie glances around the room, noticing that everyone seems either grumpy or uncertain, except for Charlie and Niffty. Charlie stood behind the kids, flashing Vaggie two thumbs-ups and a big smile to cheer her on.

“Sure, I can handle this. No problem.”

Vaggie takes a deep breath and walks down one side of the stage.

She strides across the stage, her voice booming and authoritative, similar to a drill sergeant, as she speaks to everyone in the room with her commanding presence.

“All right, so we are starting with trust falls! Each of you is going to share something vulnerable with the group about yourself and then fall backward while the rest of the group catches you. Got it?”

She pauses, glances at the crowd, and calls out, “Who’s ready to go first?”

Charlie quickly raises her hand and waves it, calling out, “Ooh, ooh, me me me! Me! Me! Me!”

“All right, get on up here.” Vaggie fondly smiles at Charlie, giving a little nod toward the stage with her thumb.

Charlie runs by Vaggie and heads straight for the stage. She glances around at everyone and begins to share her feelings openly.

“I, I love you guys. Like, really, really love you.” Charlie shares her feelings, a big smile on her face and tears welling up in her eyes.

Vaggie and Pentious run forward and catch Charlie. It was mostly Vaggie since Pentious was a bit too small to really catch Charlie and ended up slipping and falling on his back instead.

“Gotcha!” Vaggie tells Charlie. She looks over at Pentious, who’s sprawled out on the floor. “Hey Pentious, you doing alright?”

Pentious gives Vaggie a thumbs up and lets her know he’s alright.

“That... felt... good!” Charlie says aloud. Still wrapped up in Vaggie's arms, she turns her head and glances at Angel. “Angel, why don't you go next?”

"Fine," Angel says as she reluctantly gets onto the stage.

"This time, everybody needs to catch him, okay? Unless you’d like me to take your video games away.” Vaggie warns the kids about punishment.

Angel strikes a playful pose, smirking as he says, “Somethin' about myself, huh? How about this? I sometimes cosplay as a—”

Husk threateningly points at Angel, “I swear to fuck if you try to test me and say cat girl!”

“—gothic lolita, ya sicko! Get your mind outta the gutter!” Angel chuckles and tips over backward. Husk was able to catch him.

“But, you know, cat girls are a thing too!” Angel is in Husk’s arms. Husk then lets Angel drop to the floor.

Angel from the floor turns to Pentious. “All right, new guy, you're up.”

Pentious gets on stage and happily shares, “This hotel is so much fun! I’m glad to come here anytime I want!” He then falls backward, and Vaggie and Charlie grab him.

“Whee!” He lets out a joyful squeal as he tumbles and gets caught.

“Awww!! Pentious, that was so sweet!” Charlie has tears of joy in her eyes as she carefully sets Pentious down on the floor.

Vaggie gives a little smile and says, “Okay, good job. Uh, Niffty?” She searches for her, but Niffty is already zipping by and heading straight for the stage.

While on the stage, Niffty, giggling manically, shares, “Sometimes, I kill mother bugs in front of their children as a warning to others!”

When they heard this and saw Niffty, the others couldn't help but feel uneasy about her sadistic side. Niffty jumps off the stage, and the others quickly step back, letting her land right on her face. Even so, Niffty appears to really enjoy that.

“Yay! Pain!” Niffty happily exclaims, her face still planted against the floor.

Niffty gets up, giggling, and dashes back onto the stage to jump off again.

“Pain!” she shouts with joy as she keeps doing it over and over.

While everyone else is watching this crazy teen jumping off the stage repeatedly, Charlie and Vaggie walk off to talk privately.

“I don't know if this is really working the way we'd hoped. Maybe we should—” Charlie shares with Vaggie.

Vaggie stops her, wanting Charlie to rely on her for this, and gently puts a hand on Charlie’s shoulder. “Honey, you have to trust me here. I got this, okay? I'll figure something out.”

Angel, who had been listening in, pops up behind them and says, “If you're in the market for some ideas, I've got just the thing for some ‘trust buildin'.”

Even knowing that this is a bad idea, Vaggie with a sigh, asks, “What do you have in mind?”