Chapter Text
Chapter 1: It Always Starts With Good Intentions…
When it comes to change, it can be both welcomed and unwelcome. No one ever really plans how fate may decide what is to come. A person can plan something down to the finest detail, but they will have no full control over how it’ll be. Whether it be fate, by God, or whatever higher being, change is a fickle thing.
Such as being in Hell. Many changes have been going on. From being seen as an eternal pit full of brimstone and fire to a bustling ecosystem full of modern-day cities and technology. Hellborns and Sinners alike were always changing and trying to survive.
A lot has happened since that fateful day. The day that Vox, the Media Overlord and CEO of VoxTex, waged war against Heaven. The day that both Heaven and Hell came together to destroy his angelic weapon. Though all wasn’t as it seemed.
Especially with everything that had happened recently.
The Vees making the hotel look bad, learning that Sir Pentious was redeemed, Alastor being taken prisoner, and then Vox trying to take over Heaven and nearly destroying half of Pentagram City…
To say the events were a whirlwind was a pure understatement. So much had changed… So many new questions have arrived. But there have been questions raging in the back of Charlie’s mind. Some about Angel, some about her Dad…
But when it came to Angel, she knew he wasn’t ready to come back yet. Husk and Cherri had explained that he felt very guilty about what the Vees had done to him. The shame that they made him betray the hotel in such a way.
So she’s been sending him gift baskets to remind him that they still love and miss him.
Hopefully he’ll come back one day…
“Ooof!”
She looked up to see what she ran into…
Oh! It was Alastor!
“Oh, sorry, Alastor! I got so wrapped up in my head that I didn’t see where I was going. I’m sorry.”
He chuckled.
“It’s quite right, my dear. Running a hotel to redeem these tortured souls is very strenuous, as I can tell. It’s not surprising that your thoughts can get a little jumbled up, now is there?”
She nodded.
“Yeah…” She paused. “Actually… Can I ask you a question?”
“Why of course!”
“Your friend Vox…”
At that, the stag’s smile curled.
“Apologies, Charlie, but Vox and I aren’t friends.”
She blinked at him.
“What? But when you asked me to use our deal, you said he was.”
Alastor hummed, cleaning his monocle with the hem of his coat.
“Oh, we were many, many years ago… but that was a lifetime ago. I thought we were friends… but well, I learned very quickly that he had ulterior motives.”
“Oh…”
That was quite sad to hear. Losing a friendship wasn’t very easy. From what she understood from their interactions… it looked like it was a very bad friendship breakup.
“I’m… sorry that happened to you, Al. Oh, and I want to thank you… for everything that happened.”
He waved her off.
“Oh, don’t worry about it, my dear. Where is the entertainment if everyone dies? Such a waste!” He started to walk away. “I'd better head off to do my duties. Christmas is coming and I want this place to look spectacular!”
She perked up at that.
“Oh? You like Christmas?"
He laughed.
“My dear, I absolutely adore Christmas! Why my dear maman made it so magical. I loved celebrating with her.”
She gushed.
“Aaww, that’s so sweet. We Hellborns celebrate Sinsmas. Basically celebrating the Sins we were born under. Like… Greedians will go around stealing, or Gluttoners will spend the day gorging on food!”
He chuckled.
“My how charming… It’s such a shame that not all of us can spend the holidays together now.”
“Did you use to celebrate with Vox?”
The stag’s smile tensed. He awkwardly tapped the top of his cane.
“Well… we did… But as I said, it was many years ago. It’s a shame Vox let his delusions of grandeur blind him. To think, if we’d still have a friendship if he hadn’t fucked it all up. Well, toodle-loo, my dear.”
“Alright, I’ll see you later.”
She watched as his form faded from sight. She felt her heart start to ache. Poor Alastor… other than Rosie and that one Mimzy girl, she didn’t know if he had any other friends. There was Husk and Niffty. But Husk insisted that they were only his employees, though Niffty insisted that they were friends.
And Vox… Vox seemed to be something special to him.
She saw how… deranged the Media Overlord had gotten. Whatever happened between them… Vox was still hurting all these decades later. There had to be more to the story… If only there was a way to help them both…
LIGHTBULB!!
“Val, Velvette, c’mohahaon… I said I was sorry!”
“I said I’m not talking to you!”
“Velvette!”
“Cut the shit, Vox. You’ll get your body back when we decide you learned your fuckin’ lesson.”
“Ugh! I still have a job to do! You two just can’t leave me here!! I’m the fucking CEO of our company! I got shit to do!!”
Vox huffed. Since his failed plan, he’s been living as nothing but a screen. His two friends have refused to reattach his head! And it was annoying! Okay, so… his popularity might have taken a small hit… But it’ll be fine! All he needed to do was do a whole fake apology, regretting what he’s done, and it’ll be all good! People always forget what rich and powerful people do after apology videos. It was foolproof!
If only Valentino and Velvette would help him with it!
Ugh!
This was Alastor’s fault! He wouldn’t be in this position if it weren’t for that smug-ass-smiling freak!
And to think… He used to be friends with the fucker. That he wanted to be more.
He was a fucking idiot.
He sighed as he was still stuck, propped up on the dresser. With no body, he’s been able to hop around, but being so far up…
Well, he didn’t want to risk cracking his screen. So right now, he was stuck. He sighed. Might as well do some paperwork that he can electronically sign while he is here.
“Stupid fucking princess… Stupid Alastor… Ruining my big plan…” Vox muttered. “If I had my body back, I’d fucking show them.”
A twitch in his nostrils caused him to pause.
“Oh no…”
He felt a sneeze come up.
“No, no, no! Aaa… AHCHOO!!”
The force caused him to lose balance, causing him to start tilting backwards.
“Nononononononono!! AHH!!”
He winced as he felt the back of his screen hit the desk. He let out a groan. Damn it! He tried to get himself back up, but it was futile. He’d probably get barely an inch of the ground, only to land back on it. Unable to move any higher.
“Fuck… VAL!! VELVETTE! HELP!! I FELL BACKWARDS!! I’M STUCK!!”
Silence.
Ah shit… They didn’t leave him here alone did they???
“VELVETTE!! VALENTINO!! I CAN USE SOME HELP HERE!!”
More silence. He huffed. If he had his body, he’d be crossing his arms right now.
“Well fuck my afterlife!”
Charlie hummed as she browsed through the many books around her. She was currently in the library, looking for something to help Alastor and Vox’s friendship. She knew bonding games weren’t going to work with them. They couldn’t stand to be in the same room together!
So she had to go a different route.
A spell.
Now if only she could find one that would work…
“Babe?”
Hearing the voice, she looked up to see her beloved girlfriend, Vaggi, entering the room. She smiled at her.
“Oh Vaggi! Perfect timing! I’m trying to find a spell to help Alastor.”
The Fallen Angel squinted her eye at her.
“Alastor… asked for your help?”
“Yes, er well… no. No he didn’t. But it’s a surprise!”
Vaggi let out an amused hum, sitting next to her girlfriend. She knew Charlie had a big heart, but sometimes her ideas got a little… out of hand. Even if she did have the best of intentions.
“Oh are you?”
“Yes. So I was talking with Alastor and he told me that he and Vox aren’t friends. Which I totally thought they were as he called him his friend before the whole… canon explosion thingy to make me use my deal. Anyway! Moving on from that, Alastor told me that apparently they stopped being friends a very long time ago. Thinking back to his friends, he doesn’t really seem to have a lot. There’s Rosie and that Mimzy girl… Niffty I’m sure is his friend too. Or she might see him as a friend, but Husk denies that they are. And I obviously see him as mine! But from what I can find in the old reports was that they were super close. There were rumors that they were secretly dating! So like… if that was true than their break-up was more than a bad friendship breakup! It was a bad romance breakup! Which would be sooooo much worse!”
Vaggi did her best to follow along with her rambling.
“Okay…”
“Well he was telling me how much he loves Christmas. So I figured, what would be a great Christmas gift for him?”
“And you thought helping him mend his relationship with Vox… would be a good gift?”
“Yes!”
And now was the time for her to interject.
“I dunno… They seem to really hate each other.”
“So did you and Husk but you two came around…hey maybe we could lock them into a violent misadventure where they can bond like! It would be just like that action movie we watched a few nights ago!”
“Hon, I love you. But twenty-one jump street is not a good guide on how to establish a friendship.”
“But it worked for you and Husk!” Charlie argued.
“Only by dumb luck and even so I’m pretty sure it would take more than fighting a gang together to get those two to be friends again.”
Charlie sighed and bowed her head. “But there’s gotta be something we can do! It would make both of them so happy, I know it!”
“Charlie, please. I get that you want to help as many people as possible and I love that about you, but there’s some things that you just can’t fix. Okay?”
“I guess. I just thought it would be such a great…” the princess of hell trailed off when something caught her eye. “Idea…
A small scroll tucked in between two books that she had missed earlier, sparkling with glitter and tied with a bow in Christmas colors.
“Charlie?” Vaggie asked. “You trailed off, are you okay?”
Kneeling down to pick up the scroll off the shelf, Charlie unfurled it and began to read.
The Bond of Sinsmas
When cast, this spell will transport all invoked parties into a realm where broken bonds are reforged and friendships reignited through the magic of Sinsmas.
Simply obtain a piece of each individual you wish to transport with the spell such as a lock of hair or a droplet of blood. Then draw the symbol shown below and chant ‘Amo clichés natalicios’ three times to cast it.
Charlie’s eyes then wandered to the bottom of the paper where an occult symbol that resembled a cursive H in a circle was drawn and she felt her spirits light up.
“Vaggi! This is it! This is how we get Vox and Alastor to be friends again!” Charlie cheered.
“Your plan is to lock them in a separate realm until they start getting along?” Her lover deadpanned.
“Not just any realm, a realm filled with Sinsmas magic! Which everybody knows is the best kind of magic!”
“That’s still imprisoning them Charlie.”
“But Alastor said he loved the holidays. Sending him there with Vox would practically be like giving him a vacation!”
Vaggi rubbed her eye in frustration.
“Okay, let’s pretend like this idea isn’t insane. Where exactly are you going to get the materials? I know Alastor leaves his combs around but we don’t have anything that belonged to Vox.”
“Ooh, good point.” Charlie remarked, putting a pondering finger to her chin until she spotted Baxter walking by.
“Hey! Baxter! You used to work for Vox, do you have any pieces of him? Like blood or hair or something like that?”
Without missing a beat, the mad scientist pulled out a vial filled with neon blue finger nail clippings and flung them towards Charlie while continuing his stroll through the hotel.
“Thank youuuu!” the princess of hell called out.
“Wait, why did he even have that?!” Vaggi demanded, aghast. “Baxter!”
“Research purposes!”
Not paying attention, Charlie continued towards their hotelier's room.
“Now to get some of Alastor’s hair!”
Vaggi frowned. Her girlfriend flat out wasn’t listening to anything other than the ideas bouncing around inside her own head. She ran after her.
“There’s really no talking you out of this, is there?”
The blonde shook her head with a large smile.
“Nope!”
“Fine. Just…be careful okay? I hate both of those assholes but the last thing we need is to send the radio demon and the television demon to another dimension with no way of getting them back.”
“Don’t worry, if anything looks like it’s going wrong I’ll stop the ritual right away!” Charlie promised, giving the hotel manager a salute. “I’m sure the counterspell is in another scroll!”
Sadly Charlie really should have looked a bit more carefully at the spell, more specifically the warning written on the back:
Warning: all individuals affected by the spell will not be able to escape from the realm until their bonds have been mended. Nor will anyone who cast the spell be able to summon them back before such an occurrence.
It wasn’t hard to find a gold marker and draw it on the floor. She made sure to follow the symbol to a T. If she didn’t, then the spell wouldn’t work. Once satisfied with her handywork, she sat the turf of red hair and a neon blue claw in the center. She then proceeded to go around lighting the candles that were around the circle. Pleased that everything was set, she clapped her hands together.
“Alright, let’s get this spell going!” She pulled the scroll out, reading it over. “Okay let’s see… Got it!”
She sat the scroll to the side, then held her hands up as she went to cast the spell.
“Amo,”
The circle glowed to life.
“Clichés,”
The candles flickered.
“Natalicios.”
Outside of Pentagram City Mall, Alastor was whistling a tune as he carried the multiple bags of Christmas decorations he bought for the hotel. He paid little mind the snow and glitter that started to gather around his feet.
“Amo clichés natalicios!”
Inside Vee Tower, Vox’s screen flickered to life. He blinked noticing glitter and… snow? They had started to swirl around him. He jumped, his screen moving to the side.
“Whoa! Hey! What’s happening!? Valentino! Velvette!”
“Amo clichés natalicios!!”
Before the two men could react, they were engulfed in a whirlwind of glittering snow. All that was left was the footprints of a deer-demon and the beloved hat of another TV demon. Other than that, it was as if they were never there.
Back at the hotel, Charlie grinned as she finished her spell.
“Oh I can’t wait to hear all about their trip when they get back.” She paused, tapping her chin. “I wonder if there was a way for us to keep in touch with them…?”
As if answering her question, she noticed something in the circle. Right where Vox’s claw and Alastor’s hair turf laid… was a TV pamphlet and a remote. Curious, she picked them up. Her eyes widened at what she saw.
She gasped.
“VAGGI!! VAGGI!!”
Hearing her shouts, everyone in the lobby turned to see the princess running into the room. Spotting her girlfriend over at the bar, she scrambled over to her.
“Vaggi! Holy shit! Holy fuck! It worked!! It worked!”
Husk quirked a brow at her.
“What worked?”
She held up the pamphlet that had two men on the front.
“This! I cast a spell to send Alastor and Vox to an another realm to fix their friendship as my Christmas gift to Al and the spell gave us this! We can watch their progress!”
The barcat’s wings spread out in alarm.
“You did WHAT!?”
Niffty blinked as she looked up from stabbing a rat.
“Where’d Alastor go?”
Vaggi frowned, taking the pamphlet. She opened it, reading the contents outloud.
“Come watch the tale of Alastor LaBlanc and Vincent “Vox” Whittman in this Christmas tale around a fractured friendship, pain, past betrayal and love as these two men reconcile their broken relationship. Set in the early 2000s, Alastor and his mother, Elli travel from New Orleans up to Maine after Alastor’s job as a famous radio host relocates him temporarily. As they explore their new home-away-from-home, Alastor is reunited with his old friend, Vincent, now CEO of his own company who is back in his hometown to visit family for the holidays. Watch these two men come together through the magic of Christmas and maybe become something more than either of them ever perceived.”
Baxter popped up next to her.
“Fascinating.”
“Shit!”
The mad scientist barely flinched, picking up the pamphlet as he adjusted his glasses.
“It appears that this spell also allows us to view this other realm via the television.”
Niffty gasped, running over to peer over his shoulder.
“Oh! We can watch Mr. Alastor on the TV?? What channel is he on?”
Baxter flipped to the front of the cover.
“Channel 3.”
Using the magical remote, Charlie changed to said channel. She couldn’t wait to see what was going to happen!
Early morning sunlight streamed through a window. The curtains opened just enough to let it peek through into the room below. The beam landed on a figure curled up in a bed. The soft sounds of snoring confirmed that they were still asleep. The covers shielding their face from view.
However, their rest would not continue to linger, as a soft knock raptured on the wooden door.
“Alastor! It’s time to get up, sugar! Our flight leaves in a few hours and I’d like to get there early!”
The sleeping lump, now identified as Alastor, moaned at the disturbance. With great reluctance, he removed the covers from his body. Drowsy brown eyes scanned the room.
Noticing how blurry it was, his arm immediately reached over, grabbing a pair of glasses. Glasses…? What happened to his monocle? He’ll look for it in a bit. His shadow probably hid it. The damn thing did like messing with him from time to time. He sighed, placing the glasses on.
“Shadow… this isn’t funny.”
No response.
Damn thing must be out scoping the hotel’s hallways. Uhg. He forced himself, dragging himself to his personal bathroom. He let out a yawn, turning on the sink to splash some water on his face. As he look down, he froze.
Those…
That can’t be!
His hands!
They were… they were…
He forced himself to look in the mirror. What he saw shook him to his core. Gone was his red hair bob. Gone was his antlers. Gone was the gray skin and sharp yellow teeth. No more red eyes. Looking in the mirror was a form he hadn’t been in a long time.
With brown curly hair, lightish brown skin and familiar brown eyes behind the same frames he had in a past he had left long ago….
He wasn’t a demon any more.
He was human.
Shocked at the revelation, he let out a scream.