Early morning reigned its dull light down onto the hellscape city. Despite its meek incandescence, the heat was tenfold, bordering on unbearable to anyone who hadn't resided there long enough to learn to cope. Alastor strode in through the front doors of the hotel just as Charlie had finished delegating the day's chores out to everyone. He stood behind her quietly as she handed her girlfriend a list of things she requested she'd do, Vaggie bidding him a bitter good morning with just a slight nod. The overlord paid the sore greeting no mind, turning his attention fully to his coproprietor.
"Good morning, Charlie!" He chirped, the princess turning to look up at the overlord that towered over her. A wide, fang-bearing grin stood at the forefront of his mirthsome demeanor. Charlie returned the pleasant smile.
"Good morning, Al." She turned and continued on her way, signaling for him to follow as she made her way across the front entry, treading towards one of the many hallways, "we have everyone working on little projects to spruce up the hotel." She briefed him the quick run down, gazing down at a clipboard resting in the crook of her arm, "we have Nifty replacing all the fixtures, Vaggie's working on an upcoming furniture delivery, Husker's..." She glanced behind herself at the bar, the demonic feline laying atop the counter, incapacitated from heavy intoxication, "...also here." Alastor rolled his eyes and hummed under his breath in refined amusement.
"Oh and Angel and Dezi are redoing the walls." She pointed to the duo they were about to pass in the barren corridor, both facing the wall they were busy re-papering.
A few days had passed since he was introduced to the hotel's newest addition, her rent and necessities also paid—same as the spider who brought her—in free labor and participation in the experimental redemption program. Alastor was pleasantly surprised by her ability to complete most of the assignments bestowed onto her, his preconceived notions of her and the profane background she came from notwithstanding. The one hindrance, as everyone in the hotel came to learn: she was an avid graffiti artist, or as Alastor so blatantly stated: vandal.
She had been castigated on multiple occasions for the use of her hotel room walls as arbitrary canvases for her airbrushings. After a couple bellicose arguments, and a near toe-to-toe bout with Vagatha, Charlie eventually compromised with the granting of a brick-laden wall on the hotel rooftop for her to unleash her artistic forays upon. With that, the universal dissatisfaction was squashed, and the newcomer had seemed to settle well into her new lifestyle. More often than not, despite their seemingly contentious discourse, the overlord would see her shadowing Angel; the spider undertaking a more safeguarding, brotherly approach to the younger demoness. Alastor suspected it was quite possibly due to the sense of security their similar upbringings here in this hellscape had cultivated between them.
He watched as the spider and goat demoness worked in tandem to repair a dilapidated wall, peeling off old and gluing on fresh wallpaper over the worn wood. Dezire diligently manned the lower sections of the walls before passing it up to the taller arachnid, who stretched to his herculean limit to reach the top corner of the hallway wall. The air between the two hookers-turned-renovators grew increasingly tight and frayed from their rapidly souring moods. The red overlord began to pick up on the embittered muttering between the two.
"Hurry up, will you!" Dezi crossed her arms in languor snappishness as she watched the spider toil over getting the very last of the paper glued down, "at this rate we'll be doing this for a week!"
"Shut ya' fuckin' mouth!" Angel barked back, glaring down at her, "ya' wanna do this by ya'self, short stack?!" She huffed, picking up the putty knife she was assigned and chipping away at the antiquated paper.
"Language, Angel." Charlie reprimanded, only getting a grunt from the arachnid in response. She turned to the watching overlord, his gaze for just a second locked on the spider demon, before he quickly averted it. Dislodging a sheet of paper from the grip of her clipboard, she stuffed it into the Radio Demon's surprised hands, "I need someone to go out and pick up everything on the list. Do you mind?"
YOU ARE READING
Vintage Memories
Fanfiction(Earlier parts of the story are currently being rewritten, chapters 1-12 have been updated) "Seventy-four years..." "Seventy-four...fuckin' years!" "I searched for ya' for decades! I thought ya' were fuckin' dead!" "We are dead, my dear." "Did ya' e...
