Sold Your Life For A Thrust | RADIOSTATIC | Previously titled 'An Exception'

Unyielding Cravings

On that day alone, Alastor had realised two things.

One was that he didn't actually mind engaging in that kind of sexual activity that Vox enjoyed, as long as he wasn't directly being touched or made to feel any of those feelings he still hadn't wrapped his head around.

The second was that he couldn't get enough of the taste of Vox's blood.

In both life and death, he had heard stories of being unable to get a person off of your mind, having even normal conversations interrupted by extremely erotic thoughts. He had never understood what that felt like until now.

Of course, it wasn't all inherently sexual. He would be happy, if not happier if he could cannibalise Vox in an entirely non-erotic manner, but the intrusive thoughts took another form.

He tried to ignore them for the most part.

Throughout the next week, he saw no sign of Vox, aside from the new VoxTek cameras strategically placed around the exterior of the hotel as promised. It was surprising; Alastor thought that he would once again come crawling back for sex after less than a day.

Maybe he had gotten bored of him.

If Vox had gotten tired of their deal, that would be an issue. After all, Alastor was still yet to think of any backup plans for gaining his soul. This was his best bet, and if it failed... He didn't know what he would do in that case.

"Well, everyone!" Charlie's voice called him out of his thoughts, as loud and optimistic as ever. "Today is an important day. We will all be pairing up and going to spread the word about the Hazbin Hotel!"

A unified murmur of assent passed across the room after Charlie spoke, before falling into silence so she could continue. "Now, to kill two birds with one stone, each of the pairs are chosen personally by me to be some people who may not know each other as well, making it both a publicity and bonding activity!"

The group seemed less happy at that.

Alastor was completely indifferent to the idea. Though he did have some who he disliked more than others, he didn't hold any favourites among the residents of the hotel.

Charlie went on to list the groups: Husk and Cherri, Vaggie and Nifty, and the remaining three, Angel, Alastor and herself.

Not much happened in the half-hour proceeding that meeting, and before too long, Alastor found himself with the other two members of his group, walking along the streets while trying to look for suitable sinners to redeem.

"As I said earlier, we don't want to talk to anyone and everyone..." Charlie began, repeating the same thing she had said multiple times before in the past ten minutes. "Though everyone deserves redemption, it takes time to get to that point. We need to find one or two people to take back to the Hotel, and that's it."

"Are ya sure that this whole scouting thing is what's gonna work?" Angel asked dubiously, glancing around. "Like, sure, that is how I joined you guys, but why don't we let people come in their own time?"

"Ideally, that would work." Charlie didn't miss a beat, speaking as if she had rehearsed this exact conversation hundreds of times before. "But unfortunately, the only visitor we've had in the past two weeks is one of the Vees, who was only there to pick a fight with Alastor. So, we're down to recruiting."

Angel raised an eyebrow at the mention of the Vees, looking at Alastor with a knowing smirk. "One of the Vees, was it?"

"I'm pretty sure you were out at the time." Charlie replied with a nod, confirming Angel's suspicions and condemning Alastor to a day of ridicule.