Redemption lies within

Once upon a time, there was a glowing city protected by golden gates known as Heaven and ruled by beings of Pure light, Angels that worshiped good and shielded all from evil. 

Lucifer was one of these angels. He was a dreamer with fantastical ideas for All of creation. However, they see him as a troublemaker by the elders of Heaven. For they felt his way of thinking was dangerous to the order of their world. So, he watched as the angels began expanding the universe in their ways. From the dust of Earth, they created Adam and Lilith, equals to the first of Mankind. 

But, despite this, Adam demanded control, and Lilith refused to submit to his will. She fled the Garden. Drawn in by her fierce independence, Lucifer found her, and the two rebellious dreamers fell deeply in love. 

Together, they wished to share the magic of free will with humanity, offering the Fruit of Knowledge to Adam's new bride, Eve, who gladly accepted. 

They came to Adam's new bride, Eve, to offer her an apple from a tree to bring free will to humanity.

But this gift came with a curse. And with this single act of disobedience, evil finally found its way to Earth. With it, a new realm of darkness and sin. And the order Heaven worked to maintain was shattered. As punishment for their reckless act, Heaven cast Lucifer and his love into the dark pit he had created, never allowing him to see the good that came from humanity, only the cruel and the wicked. Ashamed, Lucifer lost his will to dream. 

While Lucifer stagnated, Lilith thrived and brought Hell to new heights, leading the angels to start the yearly Extermination as population control for the overpopulated Demons and Sinners.

But Lilith thrived, empowering demonkind with her voice and songs. And as the numbers of Hell grew, so did its power. Threatened by this, Heaven made a truly heartless decision. Every year, they would send down an army, an Extermination, to ensure Hell and its sinners could never rise against them. But Lilith's hope remained. And her dream passed down to their precious daughter, the Princess of Hell. 

"So!" Charlie finished with saying with some perkiness in her tone, while closing up the book of Hell and Heaven's origins she had in hand and placed it on her lap, "How different was that, compared to this bible of yours from your life?" she asked Joshua as she sat on a wide crimson and pink couch.

It was after lunch time, and after some thinking on her part, Charlie wanted to get to know Joshua more on what he meant about the teachings of the faith, as well as what he's always alluded to about the lord, the son, and the holy spirit.

Sitting atop a simple cushioned chair that was available in the room, Joshua made a humming sound of thought as his eyes drifted to the side as he mulled over how different the hell he found himself in truly was. "It's…quite drastically different, Charlie, compared to how my denomination of the bible portrays the beginning of the world…though…" he then looks back at an eager looking Charlie.

"From what I do understand, all interpretations of my world's bible all state that there was only Adam and Eve…" Joshua stated as he stewed over his thoughts for a bit, before continuing on, "Though a lot of other literature has portrayed Lilith as Adam's first wife, before being replaced by Eve for one reason or another…"

"Huh…" Charlie began to muse with a thoughtful expression as she shifted a bit on her couch, and rested her hands onto her lap in idleness, "Do you think this bible from your life is any different from what one that the Angels gave to humans to live by?" she asked.

Joshua looked directly back into Charlie's eyes as he sat on his chair while hunched over a bit and his elbows resting on his knees, "One thing to keep in mind, Charlie, is that the world I come from, the bible has been passed down through many denominations of faith, but all if not most, all say the the world and everything in it was created by one god."

"Oh, well, that is a bit different for here from what I know. you humans seem to have trouble getting split on many denominations of faith." Charlie remarked as she reached up to tap her lip in thought, before pointing it out through the air, "What about the Angels?" She began to ask, "Did your god create them, or do they even exist?" 

Sitting up a bit more straight with his hands now resting on his knees, Joshua spoke back to Charlie, "They exist, of course." he replied back, and crossed his arms, "Though, from what I remember, they were agents of the Lord's word and acts, most particularly in the old testament." he shrugged a bit at that, "A time when God was more heavy handed in his punishments against sinners."

"Wait." Vaggie spoke up, who had remained silent the entire time whilst sitting off the side of Charlie with her arms crossed as well; she unfolded her arms though as she sat up and placed her hands on the edge of the couch to sit forward and stare directly at Joshua with a scrutinizing gaze, "Are you saying on your would, your angels and god punished humans on Earth?" she asked with some surprise written on her face.

Joshua focused his eyes over at Vaggie, and pinned her with an even stare as he sat forward in his chair once more, "From raining brimstone and fire at one point and time, to flooding the world, to causing plagues against a nation to release his chosen people from slavery, I can say for a fact that the lord was very heavy handed in the old testament."

"Huh…" Vaggie looked to the side with a downcast look, "And here I thought the angels were heavy handed against sinners…" she said, while alluding to the yearly extermination of hell dwellers.

In response to that, Joshua spoke back to Vaggie, "I highly doubt the lord above of my world would have wanted his arbitrators of his word to commit genocide against sinners in hell, when the whole purpose of hell is to punish the sinner. Throughout the bible I've read, the lord loved humanity, but would also look down on them in disappointment for any sins they transgressed."

"Though…" Joshua began to add on to say with a thoughtful look in his eyes as he began to stand up from his chair, "And from what the bible preached of how Hell punishes a sinner, your own is light punishment against sinners compared to the Hell I know of."

At the mention of how different Hell could be, Charlie spoke up with curiosity, "Oh, how different is the hell in your bible?" she asked.

Joshua's eyes focused back on Charlie as he stood straight up and working some of the stiffness out his left shoulder, his 'burnt' body was always sore and it always felt like his burnt skin was being stretched thin, "Believe me Charlie, the hell I know of from my world, is far severe on a sinner compare to this hell you live in. Just try and imagine every sinner being burnt alive while being tortured by every demon and devil under Satan's rule."

"...."

"...."

"...."

After a moment of silence passed between the three occupants of the room, it was Charlie that spoke with some effort to lighten the mood.

"...So, what denomination is your faith from again? Heh heh." Charlie laughed nervously while silently glad her hell wasn't the same as what hell was depicted in Joshua's bible. She rubbed the back of her head nervously.

As he stood, Joshua relaxed his shoulders once more while crossing his arms once more, "The Mormon faith."

At the mention of the Mormon Faith, Vaggie raised her brow as looked over at Joshua weird, "Don't you mean the Normon faith?" she asked, thinking she misheard the burnt man.

After being questioned by Vaggie, Joshua addressed her as he focused attention back over to her, "...As I said, the faith has many denominations, and apparently your Earth has just as many…" he remarked with a dry tone.

"By the way." Charlie started to say as she sat up with more attentiveness now that the awkward sense of feeling passed, she smiled over at Joshua to ask, "What's your bible say about my dad, Lucifer?"

Joshua looked back at Charlie, and let out a heavy breath, "I believe that's a story for another time, I still have a few more crates of ammo to haul back up to my room." he excused himself as he headed towards to the door, "You can asked me later if you still wish to know, but for now, I believe this discussion on theology can continue for another time." 

While Joshua opened the door to the room to let himself out, Vaggie stood up to holler over to the burnt man with her hands cupped over her mouth, "And don't forget to carry in those crates of missiles, for fucks sake, you'd think you were starting up a military complex!" she hollered at the man as he closed the door behind him

Once the door was closed, Vaggie rolled her eyes and looked down over at her partner Charlie who still sat on the couch with a thoughtful look present on her face; Vaggie thumbed in the direction that Joshua had left, while her other palm was on her hip, "Can you believe that guy? Here we are trying to redeem sinners, but then he goes and buys up all manner of ammo and firepower!"

"Hmm?" Charlie mumbled out, before perking up and smiled up at Vaggie, "Oh, sorry, my mind was elsewhere at the moment."

Vaggie raised an eyebrow at Charlie, and placed both of her palms on her hips as she turned to face her partner fully, "What? Like how it seems he wanted to avoid speaking about how different Lucifer is in his world?" she asked, and shrugged it off, "I mean, it couldn't be that bad, right?"

With that said, Vaggie gestured for Charlie to get up and follow her, "Alright, come on, enough of this weird talk. Alastor says he has something to show us." she says, before walking out of the room to head to the foyer of the hotel.

As Vaggie exited through the door, leaving Charlie to herself for a bit, a loud bell rings throughout the city outside the Hotel's perimeter. Charlie turned to look out the window behind the couch she sat on to see the Bell Tower at the Heaven Embassy.

Looking on with sadness, Charlie inwardly reminded herself that it'll be another year before the Extermination comes again.

Later

After showing what effort he put into making an advertisement for the Hotel, Alastor shut the Television off with a turn of a dial, the tv itself no doubt an antiquated form of television that alastor bothered to conjure up and tolerate compared to the modern Television that were sold in Pentagon City.

"So, what do you think?" Alastor asked Charlie and Vaggie with a broad smile, while the two of them sat on a loveseat couch.

While Charlie seemed to have a neutral expression with her hands on her lap, Vaggie however had an angered look with her hands on the cushions she sat on, "I'm sorry. What the fuck was that?" Vaggie asked.

Charlie tilted her head a bit as she tried to voice her own opinion in a less crass manner, "Uh, Yeah. One note, Alastor." she began to say while lifting her arm up with her index finger raised

"I mean, first off, thank you so much for making this seriously amazing." she tried to compliment the Radio Demon, and clasped her hands before fidgeting with her fingers a bit.

"but um, maybe the tone is a bit off. We want people to want to come here. This makes it look, um…" Charlie tried to voice the best choice of words without being too harsh on the sinner, but Vaggie interrupted with bluntness.

"Bad. The word you're looking for is bad." Vaggie spoke with her arms crossed and her head turned towards Charlie to speak to her partner directly.

"Funny…" Alastor started with saying while placing his palm on his chest, "I was going for hilarious." he made a flippant gesture with his hand while tilting his head back and looking upwards in amusement.

Vaggie however didn't think so, as she leaned forward to rest her right elbow on her knee, while lifting her other arm up to hold her head in exasperation towards the Radio Demon, "It didn't explain anything about how we're trying to save demons from extermination, which is the whole fucking point." she said while sitting back up straight and throwing her arms out in annoyance towards the sinner and situation at hand.

"Vaggie is right, Alastor." Charlie started to say, before smiling as she tried to lighten the mood, "the commercial was to let sinners know we are trying to help them."

"Well, my dear," Alastor said back to Charlie as he began to pace over to a nearby fireplace, "I haven't been active in Hell for some time and everyone remembers me from my radio show, the proper medium to express oneself." 

Alastor then paced back to the old television to tap it with his mic cane, "But, you insisted on this noisy picture box advertisement." the radio demon then retracted his cane to toss it to his other hand to look on with an amused expression, "So, I had a little fun with it." he admitted.

With a harsh and annoyed look of her own, Vaggie voice her opinion on the matter, "Oh, fun? You had a little fun with it?" she began to question the sinner, before standing up on the couch, and pointed at Alastor.

 "Well, this is not what we want to represent us. When you showed up here a week ago, you told us you would help run this hotel. Instead, you're mocking us. Nobody's gonna wanna come to a place that a powerful overlord like you thinks is a waste of time." Vaggie ranted at the sinner, before sitting back down with an ever present annoyed look on her face.

From over on another couch, Angel Dust raised his hand as he lazed on the sofa he laid on, catching Vaggie's attention, "What?" She asked the porn star with an annoyed tone towards the sinner.

As Angel Dust laid on the couch with his head resting on his palm, he sat back up while speaking his mind on the matter while speaking in a sensual tone, "If'n you're filming a commercial, can I suggest you take better advantage of the talented celebrity you have right here?" Angel Dust suggested with a wink at the end and three of his index fingers pointed at himself.

With a deadpan look on her face, Vaggie spoke back to the sinner, "Angel, you're a porn star." she bluntly pointed out.

Leaning forward a bit, "A famous porn star. I'll have the horniest sinners knocking these walls down to get in." Angel explained while making a few gestures with his body, before relaxing back down into the couch.

Vaggie protested against the notion with a glare, "We are not filming a porn as a commercial."

"Why not?" Angel asked with his hands out in a questioning manner, before using one of them to make a gesture of rubbing coins together while winking. "Sex sells, don't it?" he followed up with asking.

Angel Dust then continued speaking his mind on the matter, "I swear if you film me goin' at it with mister fancy talk-creepy voice here," Angel gestured to Alastor as the Radio Demon appeared next to the couch that Angel laid on, " you'd be rollin' in participants willing to stay at this tacky hotel."

"Haha! Never going to happen!" Alastor denied the idea with a sharp smile.

Out of the corner of Angel's eye, he caught Joshua hauling in a few crates with a dolly, "What about you, toilet paper man?" he asked as he sat up and sensually leaned his back over the armrest of the couch to look at the burnt man upside down while puffing his floofed chest out, "Bet under all that gauze, you got some sexual frustration all pent up! You're in hell now, a perfect opportunity to indulge yourself."

Just as Joshua approached the stairs while Angel asked him such a question, Joshua stopped turning the dolly around so that he could begin pulling the dolly up backwards up the stairs; Joshua stepped around the dolly with crates to look directly over at Angel Dust, "I believe you are missing the point of the Hotel, promiscuous one." he noted with a dry tone, while giving Angel dust a deadpan look with his eyes.

"And besides…" Joshua said as he resumed transporting the crates on the dolly, via up the stairs with the occasional bump of the small tires against each step, "Even if I did partake in anything close to such a thing, it'd with the opposite sex." his voice trailed off as he carried the ammo supplies up the stairs.

"Eh." Angel Dust smirked as he leaned off from the couch armrest to sit back up straight, "His loss, I guess." 

Vaggie however rolled her eyes at Angel, "I think it also has to do with his body's situation as a sinner, guy looks like he's forever burnt to a crisp beneath all that stuff." she noted.

Angel looked back over at Vaggie with an amused look on his face, "tomato tomato, I've fucked with worse, guy probably just needs some loosening up."

At that, Vaggie gave Angel her own deadpan look, "Yeah,...good luck with that."

"Toots" Angel Dust smirked as he palmed his floofed chest, "Luck ain't got nothing to do with this sensual body!" he said while making shaking suggestion gestures with his chest.

"Alright!" Charlie spoke out loud to try and cut the crass behavior, she waved her palms out to catch everyone's attention, looked straight over at Angel Dust, "Angel, I appreciate you wanting to use your special skills to, um, attract folks to the hotel, but I really don't want to exploit you in that way." she said with a kind smile.

Visibility smirking, Angel retorted back as he went back to making suggestive gestures with his body, "Oh, please, baby. This body was made to be exploited. I got the arms, I got the stamina, I got the legs. I got the lung capacity. Oh, I got the legs. The gag reflex, the holes, the chest fluff everyone thinks are tits."

While Charlie withheld the urge to slap her face in dismay in trying to reign in Angel's promiscuous behavior, her phone suddenly went off, prompting her to take it out to see who was calling her.

Charlie raised her finger up to halt the conversation at the moment, "Hold that thought! I'll be right back." she urged, before getting up and leaving to head to a secluded spot to talk with her dad.

As Charlie left the room, Angel Dust hollered back at her leaving form, "I could keep going all night, baby."