Firestarter

1. Checking In

Note: All series characters, locations, and plot devices are the property of Vivziepop. I just brought in my own characters to play. Viv said I could.

It was early morning. Not that morning, noon, or night made much difference in hell. It was always the same red sky, the same sulfuric clouds, the same vast pentagram that hovered miles overhead, A vast mystical seal that imprisoned those souls unfortunate enough to be locked out of heaven. And there were a lot of them. Too many. Especially here, in Pentagram City, the vast metropolis that covered most of the center of the Pride Ring, the turf wars were constant and often bloody. Not that death was permanent for the human souls who woke up as demons after their mortal lives had ended. But getting shot or stabbed or eviscerated or burned still hurt just as much. It's just that eventually you came back. Death was never permanent in hell. 

Well, almost never. 

Somewhere in one of the less fashionable districts stood a tall, rather off-kilter building that purported to be a place for the souls of the Damned to seek redemption. 

No one was buying it.

Everyone had seen the 666 News segment about the opening of the hotel. Just another crazy idea from a member of Hell’s ruling elite. Everyone knew that the Morningstars were crazy. No one  had even seen the King in years. There were occasional rumors that he was actually dead, but then someone would set a foot out of line and there would be definitive evidence that Lucifer Morningstar was still in charge of the Pride Ring in particular and Hell in general. All of the overlords still lived in fear of him. And why not? After all, he was the literal Devil. No one respected him, but everyone feared him. Everyone with a brain, anyway.

By contrast, no one seemed to know what to make of his daughter, Charlotte. She was Princess and heir to the throne of Hell, but no one could be less likely to merit such a title. During the disastrous TV interview, she had come across as well meaning and sincere, but also entirely delusional. She actually believed that the denizens of The Pride Ring, hardcore sinners all, could be redeemed. Worse, she can't believe that they wanted to be redeemed. 

Obviously, she was completely fucking insane. It made for good television though. Especially when she and Katie threw down on camera.

Needless to say, prospective guests weren't exactly beating a path to the door of what had originally been called the Happy Hotel and now bore a sign in neon that declared it to actually be the Hazbin Hotel.

This was not a name that would inspire anyone to come and seek redemption. 

Why would anyone want to go to Heaven anyway? Eternity among a bunch of goody two shoes who were too weak to survive five seconds in Hell? In Heaven, the lofty realm that sent a band of angels every year to cull the numbers of the damned?

Except now the exorcists were going to be coming down 6 months early. Evidently  the meeting that Charlie had had with their leader, Adam, had gone seriously sideways.

The afterlife was a lot more fucked up than they taught in Sunday School. 

At least in Hell you knew that you had to be constantly looking over your shoulder and that you had no choice but to look out for yourself. No one pretended to give a shit about anybody else. Well, except for the princess, but she was definitely as crazy as her father if not more so. 

Inside the hotel, the bartender was getting set up for another day. It wasn't that he necessarily expected an influx of patronage, but he had heard Angel Dust come dragging in, spent and wasted, just before dawn. Husk figured that sooner or later the resident porn star would come dragging his skinny ass down the stairs demanding a hair of the dog that had bitten him. Repeatedly.