The loud clack of her heels in the hallway was muffled by the dark purple-red carpet underneath her. Despite her being inside and not alive anymore, the sounds and scent of a swamp filled the air. Despite her being in this Hotel for the past few weeks, and being in Hell for even longer, she still wasn't sure if this was the right door. Taking a deep breath, she knocked on it anyway, and upon noticing it being ajar, she opened it further.
The receptionist of the Hotel, Alastor [?], froze at the sight of her, bloody clawed hand still on the desk with a chunk of a freaking deer CORPSE on his table. He hummed a little tune, chewed the bite, and looked at her again. "Do you mind? I'm in the middle of breakfast." He asked, tilting one eyebrow up but continuing to eat. His accent was…thicker? He at least sounded more southern to her.
"Um, there's a message for you at the door." She said.
"Ah, Luna, was it? You should really learn some manners. It's rude to interrupt a gentleman while he's eating. Who's at the door?"
"Uh, sorry, Mr. Alastor. There's someone sent by a flower, I think? Posie?" Luna tapped her chin.
"Ah, well then in that case—" He snapped his fingers, and the deer immediately was chopped into pieces and wrapped in a neat package. Alastor grabbed three before winking at her. "Just these for the road!"
He melted into the shadows and reappeared downstairs [well, she heard him talking downstairs]. Luna quickly ran down before watching him talk to the messenger, open his mouth wide, and swallow them whole before walking away with a pleasant smile on his face.
XXXXXXXX
Alastor walked down the street, shining his monocle on his sleeve and watching his surroundings vigilantly. He pulled the black hair tie out of his curly hair and letting it flow freely, combing a claw through it and then putting his hand at his side. A cloaked shadow cast itself over him and the retired Overlord Zestial appeared next to him.
"Hark, Alastor. How fare thee this day?" Zestial asked with his rustic accent. He was tall, taller than him, with a stitched-up black-and-green hat with cobwebs strung between the brim of his hat and the spider-like appendages at the top of his black cloak.
"Greetings, Zestial!" He turned over to smile at the demon.
"Oh my gosh!" Some demon screeched from behind them. They grabbed a container of gasoline and dumped it all over themself before lighting them on fire and running away screaming.
"Ah, the weather doth become this fine day." Zestial commented.
"Indeed, it looks like we might have some acid rain later!"
"If our luck doth hold! I do revel in the screams. How art thou?" Zestial asked, waving a long spindly limb in the air absently. "It has been an age since thou hath graced us with thy presence. Some hath spun wild tales of you falling to….holy arms."
Alastor laughed, running a little bit to catch up with the demon. "Oh, I just took a well-earned sabbatical, nothing serious," he adjusted his bowtie and poofed up his hair a little bit.
For fourteen years? Zestial's expression told him.
"Though it's fun to keep everyone on their toes! Do tell, I'd love to know the theories!" Alastor played a laugh track from his microphone, laughing along with it.
Zestial chuckled along with him. "There too hath been rumor of thy involvement with thy princess and her recent flight of fancy. Tell me—" His eyes glowed slightly and his appendages grew into extra arms. "How dost thou fall in such folly?"
"That is for me to know, dear Zestial!" Alastor spun his cane in his hand and continued walking.
"T'would be grander folly by far to assume the workings of your mind, Alastor. Thou hath been naught but an enigma since thy manifested in this realm!" The spider demon chuckled again.
"Coming from someone as wise as you, I take that as quite the compliment!"
"Alas, verily, we wouldst continue our discourse, yet I deem we have reached our destination." Zestial gestured to the building that was Carmilla Carmine's main building.
The two stepped into an elevator, and they traveled up into the office that Carmilla deemed would be where the monthly Overlord meetings happened. Alastor used his shadows to open the door for himself and Zestial, noticing two of his acquaintances, Rosie and Florence, who were sitting near an empty seat. He nodded at them, and sat in between them.
Florence wore a dark gray corset that squished her waist painfully thin, with a black dress that covered her feet and ballooned slightly on the ground, not unlike one of Rosie's outfits. Her dark brown wavy hair was pulled up into a side bun, with some strands that were out by choice. Her silver-and-white parasol was lying at her side, and her soulless black eyes were wide open with a sharp-toothed smile.
Rosie wore a black blouse with white buttons and lining, with a gray skirt and light gray tufts at the bottom. Her large black hat with flowers of all shadows and a dark red plume, was tied to her head. Her pale gray skin stood out against her large black eyes, with her white hair braided around her head.
Sitting across from Alastor was the "Demon of Distortion", better known as Chizuki, who was sitting in the chair with a bored expression on his pale face. He wore a partially see-through black cloak with red outlining, and underneath it revealed a black shirt and pants with large dark gray boots. There was another boy who was sitting on the side of the armchair, looking around the room with a cunning grin. He had silver hair with dark blue tips, a plain green hoodie and blue jeans, with smart-looking yellow-green eyes.
There was another Overlord there that he hadn't seen for a long time: Henka, a demon who had gray skin with dark spots, a large seal tail, and one black-sclera eye with a blue pupil and one red eye. She wore a white long-sleeved blouse with dark brown puffy pants.
Carmilla walked to the head of the table, pulling a whiteboard behind her. Her daughters, Clara and Odette, sat down to their respective seats next to her, directly across from one another. Carmilla tapped her papers on the table before taking a breath. "Welcome, Hell's sovereign Overlords. I've invited you all here because you represent the controlling powers of our city. Together, you all own millions of souls, which are at risk with the new Extermination schedule. We need to discuss what can be done to minimize the impact to us."
Her white eyes followed Zestial to his seat. The spider demon had been standing in the corner previously, and had just now approached the table.
"Zestial, so good to see you, my friend."
Zestial summoned saucers and small teacups that automatically filled themselves with tea in front of all the Overlords at the table, and summoning an extra one for Chizuki's companion. "Enchanted as always, Carmilla."
The ballerina demon nodded, acknowledging his greeting and she turned to Alastor. "Alastor?"
He frog-blinked, still smiling pleasantly. "Yes, I know I've been absent for a while, and I'm sure you've all been wondering!"
"Not really….but welcome back in any case," She said, shuffling through her papers and looking around the room. "This year's Extermination was brutal," she thickened her accent on the word "brutal", rolling the r's and everything. "far more even than years past. My daughters and I have assessed that about 16% of the population was lost," she snapped her fingers and Odette rushed over to a nearby projector and she activated an image to be broadcasted on the wall behind her mother. "With the angelic legions now returning twice as quickly, I think it prudent we—"
She was interrupted by the door slamming open, and Vile walked through, still on her dastardly phone. "Yes, I've got it handled, Vox….are you doubting me? Really? Me….that's what I thought….yes, I know they're all a joke. Thank you, V….see you soon!"
She hung up on Vox and sat down on the opposite end of the table, still scrolling through her phone.
"Nice of you to join us, Vile….will your….colleagues be joining us too?"
Vile took a whiff of her cigarette and looked up from her phone to stare at Carmilla. "No, they have better things to do other than listen to an old windbag who thinks she's tough chip. I'm only here to represent because of your stupid rules."
"Charming. So, as I was saying, the Extermination—" Carmilla began.
Vile paused her mid-sentence by holding up a hand in the air.
"Yes?" Carmilla asked. Alastor could see the tension behind her tight frown.
"On the subject of discussion…." Vile began. She reached underneath the table and brought up a fur bag that he hadn't noticed that she brought. Vile reached into it and brought out a mauled head and threw it across the table. It was almost unrecognizable, but the flickering, smiling face showed the true identity of the head.
"Oh! Tasty…." Alastor muttered, tilting his head at it and widening his grin.
"Where did you get this?" Rosie asked, narrowing her jet-black eyes.
"I found it during Extermination Day. If these Holy Rollers can be killed, the game has changed," Vile stood up onto the table, pointing down at the Exorcist's mauled head and glaring at Carmilla accusingly. "We can take the fight to them. The rest of the Vees and I have come up with a full assault plan—"
Alastor laughed loudly, attempting to drown out the Overlord. He had noticed Carmilla's and —surprisingly—Rosie's tension, and, like a good friend, was trying to silence the Vee. "If it's true that you and your….colleagues desire to fight with such little weapons, allies and such meagre proof, the Vees are….more foolish than I thought before."
Vile scoffed. "Meagre proof? It's a dead ducking Exorcist, I'd say that's pretty ducking definitive. Are you going blind, old man?"
"We don't know how this Exorcist perished. Perhaps it was not by a demon, and by something else? Remember this, my dear, if you rush into something without thinking, wouldn't they only come back with more vengeance towards the group for some people daring to uprise?"
Carmilla sent him a grateful look before focusing again on Vile. Alastor's ears twitched, picking up all of the other Overlords' whispers about what he and Vile had talked about. Vile turned to Carmilla, looking between her and Rosie.
"Oh, I see, Grandpa's too wussy to fight, so there's no reason to, right? What's the matter, fossil? Too senile to make a real power grab?"
"You better show some respect, check your behavior!" Rosie jumped into Vile's face, her expression scrunched into pure outrage. "No one speaks to Alastor that way~! Did you expect us to sit back and take your insolent, brazen, display~?"
"Hahaha!" Vile chuckled, putting a hand to her mouth in mock laughter. "You've got it twisted! I'm not the one who needs a new attitude! Maybe you missed it, but I'm that hashtag WITCH and I will do nothing less than what I please, WHOO! I'm the backbone of the Vees! Mad that I acted respectless? Well it's 'cause no one could respect this!"
She walked across the tables, posing and smirking in every Overlord's face. "Sorry group attendin', since when are Overlords too scared to FIGHT? You're long past trendin', sorry bae but I ain't swipin' right! You've lost your relevance!"
"We can't act without more intelligence." Alastor cut in.
"UGH! No wonder I'm so respectless, I could eat you lot for breakfast!"
Rosie's expression looked like she wished she could do the same thing to Vile. "You and the Vees are inane and uninformed! Smug wannabees, who don't heed when they've been warned!" She sang.
"'Oops'!" Vile put a hand up to her mouth in mock politeness, yet again. This was really getting tiring…. "Did I strike a nerve? 'Cause when I brought out the angel's head, couldn't help but observe….that your wrinkled face was turning bad! Why are you avoiding war? Don't your cannibals get food some more? Thanks to my bein' respectless, I guess one thing I'm startin' to suspect is….you know why this angel's headless! Do you have a disclosure?"
"This meeting's over!" Rosie exclaimed.
The tension in the room was so thick, one could cut it with a knife. "Well that was a productive meeting!" He exclaimed.
"Hmph, fine. Safe travels back to the nursing home, frickers! Hahaha! Kiss my arse!" She flipped them off before she walked out the door, and he could still hear her tapping away on her device and ranting.
"This meeting literally just started!" Zeezi, a dinosaur Overlord, exclaimed, waving a fluffy and scaly paw in the air.
"The nerve of her!" Alastor exclaimed. "At least she's no longer plaguing us in Cannibal Town, although I much preferred her old name. Guess her new one suits her, eh?"
He shared a laugh with Florence before he saw Rosie get up from her seat and gesture over—-to both him and Florence—to come into Carmilla's office. Alastor shrugged, getting up first and then offering a hand to the lady cannibal. She took it, getting up, before letting go and walking into the arms dealer's office.
"What is it my dears?" He asked, standing by the door. Carmilla was sitting at her desk while Rosie and Florence were standing near one of the large windows.
"Well, Alastor, about what Vile said—" Florence began.
"Rosalinda," Carmilla said sharply. "No."
"Mom, he should know," Clara said softly.
Alastor took a deep breath and reached over to pat his friend on the back—when had he moved over closer than her?—. "What weighs on your soul, old friend? I implore you to share the load~ If it was you, who killed the angel, why not let your strength be known~?"
"I always thought that I would keep unnecessary blood off my face, but when that….thing attacked—" Rosie began.
"We had to act," Carmilla sang.
"We had to cross that line and keep them safe," Rosie gestured to Carmilla's daughters.
"But if anyone knew, then all of Hell would rise to war and who's to say would survive the fray I might lose the ones that I'd been killing for?! Eye-eye-eye-I'll be your keeper~"
"Do whatever it takes, we'll make the mistakes! I'll keep you safe, and keep this secret," Rosie said, wrapping Alastor into a hug. He initially squeaked like a deer at first, and tensed up at the contact, but he still held his composure.
XXXXXXXX
He stood on top of the Hotel, watching over the gate and the pathway that led to his Hotel. "When I saw your face, I felt like a stranger in a brand-new place and it felt so good, to be finally understood~There's so much I wish that I could say, so eye-eye-eye~ I'll be your protector~" Lucifer reached a hand out towards the distant building that was Carmilla's office. "Do whatever it takes, make the mistakes, and spend all of eternity being your partner~"
XXXXXXXX
"I don't know what we might face, but I can't replace either of you so….I'll do anything to save you-u-u~" Carmilla sang.
"I'll try to make your dreams come true~" Rosie sang.
"WHATEVER WE GO THROUGH!"
"I know I~" Lucifer chorused in the background.
"I'll be your keeper!" Carmilla sang.
"I'll be your protector~" Rosie sang.
"I'll make the mistakes~" They both sang.
"WHATEVER IT TAKES!"
XXXXXXXX
Alastor walked out from the office, waving good-bye to Carmilla and her daughters, Rosie and Florence hooked around his arm. They walked together all the way to halfway to Cannibal Town.
"I bid you adieu, my dears!" Alastor waved to them.
"You must come visit soon, Alastor! We'll be sure to save you an arm or two!" Florence waved.
Alastor waved to them before walking away to the Hotel. He managed to reach about halfway before he heard the sounds of muffled sobbing. The soft instincts that he had learned from his mother made him follow the sound. Alastor followed the sobbing all the way to an abandoned building, where he heard soft voices and more crying. He felt himself knock on it, and Alastor waited patiently for someone to wait. The soft pitter-patter of footsteps sounded inside, and someone opened the door.
"Chizuki?" He tilted his head, looking down at the Overlord.
"You're not mom….where's mom?" He looked around frantically, eyes wide and glassy, with a childlike innocence that reminded him of Niffty. He looked past the Overlord into the house.
It was run-down inside, with wallpaper peeling off the walls, filled with piles upon piles upon piles of boxes that blocked most of the walls. There were bookshelves in here with dusty books and art supplies, along with dirty cases that were shaped like those phones. There was a faded Morningstar family painting hanging by one edge on the wall, with boxes covering everything but Queen Lilith of Hell. The queen was rumored to be missing, and the discussions about her that Alastor had with Lucifer revealed that she had truly left him, especially after their….public separation—God forbid that their rumored daughter hadn't ended up with trauma after that. There were three beds in one corner, with Chizuki's companion from the meeting lying on one bed with his hands covering his head. Along with the boxes and all other decorations, there were splatters of ink everywhere, in bigger and smaller splatters. It lined the walls, and had remnants of what felt like faint magic that was similar to Lucifer's.
"My dear, is your friend feeling quite alright?" Alastor addressed the companion, watching as he moved slightly off the bed and more towards the entrance, and Chizuki, who was searching the room and muttering about his mother and where she went. "He seems a little…." He tapped a claw on his chin in thought. "...disoriented at the moment."
"Help," the child pleaded. "It's never been this bad before, and that weird black liquid keeps stopping me from doing anything else!" He gestured at the ink, which was lashing out at him every time he moved closer to his friend.
"So this has happened before?" Alastor asked. I wonder if maybe it would react to my shadows. He sent out a tendril towards the ink, and it attacked his shadow, which quickly retreated to Alastor's side, not wanting to mess with the ink for some reason.
"Yes, it has. He's never gone this far though, it's mainly just him not talking or responding for a while, but he's never run around like this."
"I see. Poor fellow. How do you usually stop him?"
"Well, usually—"
"SHUT UP!" Chizuki suddenly burst out, claws balling into fists. He screamed again, "JUST SHUT UP!" The ink burst out, storming even more around him.
"Alastor! Little help please!" The child screamed. Alastor raised an eyebrow slightly, moving slightly farther away from the tantruming Overlord.
"First, what is your name, my dear?" Alastor asked, smile growing a little wider. He smoothed down his more demonic features, trying to soothe the child.
"T-Tatsu…." he said meekly.
"Ah, well, thank you, dear," Alastor snapped his fingers, and a radio nearby kicked up and tuned in to a smooth jazz station. The music echoed through the alleyway, and Alastor, who had started humming to the music, tapped his cane on the floor. His shadow magic fought against the ink, but they engulfed Chizuki and Tatsu, and, before they left, Alastor whispered,
"Tell Lucifer to take care of you two."
He was nearing the Hotel when he, again, heard sobbing. He rolled his eyes, muttering about Lucifer and not taking care of Chizuki and Tatsu. Alastor again followed the sobbing, and his shadow covered the silhouette of another sinner.
They had dark blue-gray skin with light blue-with-pink-highlights, with an orange butterfly hair clip. Their curly hair was tied in two ponytails, with their shaggy bangs brushed aside. One of their eyes was bleeding blue blood, and he noticed that the demon was covering it entirely, their fingertips stained with the blood; their other eye had light red sclera and purple irises. They also had a puffy top that ended halfway up their body—gah, how do modern kids wear that—that was light teal and dark teal, and something that looked like a light blue-gray belt with dark blue bottoms and light blue slippers.
"My dear, is everything okay?" He asked, taming down the radio static.
The demon sniffed, looking at Alastor with scared eyes. "N-no….w-where am I? Who—-" they sniffed again. "W-who are you?"
"Ah, a new one," Alastor said. "Ahahaha, my dear, you are in Hell, and you just died. My name is Alastor, although you may have heard of me in your history class! I am the famous Radio Killer."
"A k-killer? A-are you gonna kill m-me?" Their eye widened and they scooted back against the wall.
"Ahahaha, don't even joke with me, my dear! Come with me; it's not safe out here," He offered up a hand. "I would offer you a deal right now, but a gentleman has his boundaries!" Alastor instead picked up the crying demon. He normally wasn't one for physical contact, but if he initiated it, it was usually fine to him. His shadows teleported them to the Hotel, where he set the crying demon on one of the couches, putting a blanket over them and settling them in. He heard talking from another room, and he walked down the hallway, entering the room.
"Well, since we have new residents today, eeeeeeeee, we'll be doing trust falls! Just stand on this couch, here, and fall onto the cushions here below! The goal is that you share more of yourself with us!" Lucifer exclaimed. "OH AL! THERE YOU ARE!" A large smile split across his face and he waved at the deer, eyes sparkling.
Alastor waved back before sitting on one of the nearby plush chairs.
"I'll go first!" Lucifer cheered. He stepped onto the couch, practically vibrating with energy and his tail was flicking through the air. "I like….really appreciate you guys. When I first thought of this all that millenia ago, I didn't really think that it would work, but….now it does. Thank you all." He crossed his arms, closed his eyes, and fell onto the ground. A few members, including himself, rushed to catch the King.
"I'll go next~" Husker smirked. He sauntered up onto the couch, struck a pose, and turned to the audience. "I love to suck—"
"I swear, if you say c—" Angel began, shaking his fists.
"Popsicles, you sicko! Get your mind out of the gutter!" Husker exclaimed. He threw himself off the couch, and landed on an unlucky Angel. "But you know, that too~" He grinned.
Angel rolled his eyes. Nifty scuttled past them, running on top of them and making both men groan in pain as she clambered onto the couch. "I KILL MOTHER BUGS IN FRONT OF THEIR CHILDREN BECAUSE SHE DOESN'T DESERVE TO LIVE! EHEHEHEHEHEHEHE!" She screeched, running and diving onto the cushions below, running over and over on the couch, still squealing in excitement.
"These sinners are really growing on me." Lucifer commented from behind him, still watching the sinners.
"Agreed, my dear."