Chapter Text
"Okay everyone, listen up," Vaggie announced, in her usual military-style tone. For Angel, it seemed completely unnecessary, but it must've been something from when she was an angel. "Charlie and I are about to leave, if anything bad happens, call us immediately. When we get back, you should be prepared to get hurt."
"Don't worry, Vags. We'll be fine," Angel replied, taking a short swig out of a shot glass.
Vaggie crossed her arms in annoyance, "I'm just being careful, Angel." Charlie stepped closer to her girlfriend and patted Vaggie's shoulder comfortingly, "It's fine, honey! I know they can take care of themselves. Alastor's here to take care of them. They'll be fine!" By the side, Alastor narrowed his eyes, "Yeah, sure."
"We'll be going now!" Charlie exclaimed, as the two exited the hotel.
Angel shifted comfortably in the fancy couch. After the renovations, the hotel lobby has become increasingly larger, with the help of Lucifer, Charlie's dad. He was sexting a weird horny guy on his phone, as it was his side-gig when he wasn't shooting with Val.
A few awkward silent moments passed. Husk was seemingly drinking another bottle of something while leaning against the bar stand. Niffty was doing God knows what with the dead corpse of a rat. Alastor was sitting in the solo couch to the left of Angel, staring at this weird red book in his hands. If you listened intently, you could hear him softly humming to himself.
Angel was getting bored when Alastor gave him a tiny heart attack by suddenly standing up, making a weird creaking noise by sliding the heavy couch.
Alastor moved towards Husk, "Husker!" he adressed, his weird transantlantic static-y voice breaking the silence.
"Would you kindly look after my book while I get something in my room?"
"okay..?" Husk mumbled hesitantly.
Alastor slid the book near Husk and headed up to the lobby stairs. Seeing that Alastor was out of sight, Angel slinked to the bar stand.
"What's that?"
"Whiskey."
"Not the drink, Whiskers-"
"Do not call me Whiskers," Husk glared. "Yeah, yeah. What's that book Smiles left behind?" Angel gestured to the book.
"Boss recently got this book!" Niffty popped up beside Angel. "Yeah, he's very into it, but he's just been starin' at the cover," Husk added. "Weird," Angel mused, tilting his head and looking at the red book.
"It is very dusty," Niffty pointed out, pulling out a small brush. Husk gently pushed her brush away, "Niff, don't. Y' don't know what'll happen if we touch it." "But I really want to dust it," Niffty pouted.
"What's the harm? It's just a fuckin' book," Angel said, standing up. "Angel Dust, what are you plannin'?" Husk groaned, tensing up.
Angel stepped closer to the book. "Angel," Husk cautioned. "Whattt? It could be, like, a fairy tale or some shit."
"Worth a shot, ain't it?" he shrugged, swiping the dust off the cover. It was very dusty indeed, but nothing out of the ordinary seemed to happen.
The cover had imprinted lettters which seemed faded out, but Angel was able to make out one word, "humanize".
"See? Nothin' happened!"
"Angel, you fuckin' idiot."
"If somethin' happens, s' all your fault," Husk glowered. "I know how to take responsibility, Husky," Angel smirked sexily. Husk groaned in return.
"Since Angel already touched it, can we try opening it?" Niffty asked. Angel chuckled, "I do think openin' it is unsafe-r than just touchin' it. I'd rather have a less painful death by touchin' it than readin' what's inside."
"You should've thought of that before touchin' it," Husk remarked, taking a large sip out of his whiskey. Angel rolled his eyes teasingly.
Husk's ears perked up, "Something's about to happen," he warned the two. "What the fuck do you-" Angel started, as the book began vibrating.
"holy fuck," Angel whispered, as he and Niffty backed away from it.
The book began exuding a pink smoke, slowly filling the lobby. Angel, Husk, and Niffty started coughing from the amount of smoke seeping into the room.
Alastor was just coming down the stairs when it started happening. "Alastor!" Angel managed to shout through the smoke.
"What happened," Alastor hissed. Angel could make out through the pink blur that his eye was twitching in anger. The smoke engulfed the room until nothing could be seen other than pink.
A few seconds later, the smoke somehow exploded from the inside, but nothing got broken or destroyed. Few coughs could be heard as the smoke slowly disappated.
As Angel's eyes adjusted again, everything seemed normal, but he knew, something was off.
"Fffuck," he heard a voice say. It sounded very familiar, with a transantlantic accent, minus the static shit..
He turned to the source of the voice, coming from the stairs, exactly where Alastor was standing. There was a tall man, with light chocolate brown skin and dark brown hair with the tips dyed red. He was in the same clothes as Alastor.
Angel turned around beside him, where Husk was standing. He met eyes with a man with a medium length black fading into brown hair coiled into twists. He had bright hazel eyes and he was in a black suit jacket under a white long sleeve polo shirt paired with black slacks.
"Okay," Angel started, "This is bad."
"No shit," Husk growled, glaring at Angel. Husk stared him up and down, "You're shorter."
"What?" The spider demon questioned, looking down. A short female, probably Niffty, with short red hair, two eyes, and the clothes she was wearing before ran up to him and climbed up him to his chest, "Yeahh! You are shorter, Angel!"
Angel seemed to be in the same clothes he was wearing, but the sleeves for his lower two arms were dangling because, as he has noticed, his lower two arms were gone. He lost the tit fluff on his ches and instead had pale skin and dyed white hair, his brown roots showing.
Alastor had his hand on his forehead, his face still in that creepy smile he always had, "Alright, who touched the book."
There were a few seconds of silence, until Angel spoke up, "I did. I didn't think it was dangerous or shit so I touched it," he said, "You were touching it anyways, how would I know fucked up stuff would happen?"
"In what manner did you touch it?" Alastor asked. "He swiped it, like this!" Niffty exclaimed, climbing down Angel and gesturing how he did it.
Alastor's eye twitched but his smile stayed put, "You swiped it. Across the cover."
"Should I be worried?"
"That's the way to activate the book's magic," Alastor explained, seemingly exasperated. "The book is about this weird thing about reverting sinner demons to their old human forms because some people aren't accustomed to their new forms."
Husk raised one eyebrow. "That's possible?" Alastor stepped closer to the three. "It is, unfortunately, it brings you back to your old human forms, like without the magic and all," he continued, "That also means I can't do anything about it. We'll have to wait for" - Alastor groaned - "Lucifer."
"Charlie's dad's comin'?" Angel asked. "Unfortunately," Alastor replied.
A gust of wind burst from outside, prickling Angel's skin with coldness. He had forgotten how wind felt on human skin, it had been, like a semi-centennial ago, when he last felt it. He always knew he was sensitive to the cold, but all the weird fur he had made it so he could wear revealing clothes without freezing his ass off. Shit, Hell was cold. It was nearing November, so that did explain it, but Angel didn't know it was this cold. That's why all the clothes Radio Talk wore were long sleeved and layered.
Angel was probably shivering, because Husk noticed and pointed out, "You okay, kid?"
"Yeah, yeah, it's jus', really cold, tha's all," Angel managed to say. He hoped he seemed convincing, ignoring the smirk on Husk's face. "That's obvious, seeing as you've got next to zero clothes on to cover you." Alastor sighed really deeply and beckoned to Angel. "Come on."
"Huh?"
"Let's get you dressed, Angel Dust."
"Wait, what?" Angel hesitated. "Let's get to your room and get you a change of clothes," Alastor repeated. "What part of that do you not understand?" Angel looked surprised at Alastor's sudden invitation.
Husk grabbed Angel's shoulder, "You'll be okay, I hope." "That's very reassuring, Babycakes," Angel joked.
"Ah yes, and also, Niffty?
"Yeah?"
"You and Husker should change as well, just to be safe. The smoke may have caught on your clothes."
"Yes boss!" Niffty said, pulling Husk's arm and dragging him up the stairs despite his complaining.
"Now, let's go, shall we?" Alastor asked, climbing up the stairs, Angel following in suit.