Redemption lies within

While the general occupants of the hotel conversed amongst themselves in the main room, Charlie was beside herself as she spoke over the phone with her father in a not too distant hallway; after talking with a bit with her dad, and him asking her of something, Charlie's expression shifted to that of excitement as she held her phone up to her ear.

"Yeah, I can totally, yeah!" She spoke while leaning forward a bit, before standing up straight in excitement, "I'll head over there right away. Okay!" Charlie said, before ending the call with her dad with an ever present giddy expression.

After gasping in excitement, Charlie couldn't help but shout, "Yes... YES!" she cheered while throwing her arms up in celebration, before bringing them back down.

Putting her phone away into her pocket, Charlie rushed back from where she came to poke her head out to wave over at Vaggie who was still in the main room and at Joshua who was on his way back down the stairs minus the dolly he was using to transport his ammo crates up the stairs with. 

"VAGGIEJOSHUAHOLYSHIT!" She said all at once in an excitable and exuberant way, and earned the attention of both.

Surprised by the sudden and abrupt way Charlie called out for her, Vaggie responded with a surprised tone, "Ah! What!?" she asked.

Joshua on the other hand, as he finished walking down the stairs, focused his attention on the Princess of Hell as he set both his feet down and turned fully face to Charlie, "hmm, yes?" he answered softly.

With an excited attitude while biting her lower lip with a smile, Charlie urged the two of them to come over into the hallway with her before dipping back into the hallway away from the others to converse in private with Vaggie and Joshua.

Vaggie glanced at Joshua and gave the man a shrug at his glance sent her way, before both of them headed into the hallway to see what was so urgent for Charlie to speak with them in such a way.

Vaggie was the first to speak as she and Joshua entered the hallway with Joshua trailing behind her a bit, "What's going on?" she asked 

Bouncing up and down in unbridled excitement, before taking a deep breath to explain the situation she had on her hands, Charlie spoke in a very rushed manner, "My dad just called." She began by saying, before pacing around, "he said that the leader of the Angel Army wants to meet." she followed up with, before turning to grab Vaggie by her shoulders, "He asked if I could go instead." she finished explaining, before releasing Vaggie from her hold.

With a confused look on her face, Vaggie tried to make sense of the situation, while Charlie breathed in and out to calm her hyperventilation.

Joshua decided to voice his thoughts on the matter, "Curious, indeed, this matter is. a most fortuitous chance on a silver platter for your endeavor for the Hotel to show any meaning, if I may say so…" he surmised as he crossed his arms while lifting one hand up to cup his chin in thought.

Charlie shook her fists in excitement as she glanced between the two of her fellow workers of the hotel, one of the first two to be more exact, "I know, right~! With this, perhaps I can try and reason with them or even heaven that I want to make a change in the system!" she reasoned.

"I don't know about this…" Vaggie remarked as she crossed her own arms and expression and unsure look on her face, "The extermination just happened. What could they want this soon?" she asked while expressing with her arms out at her sides

 "Who cares!?" Charlie expressed with a shining smile, she clenched one hand beside herself while using her other hand to lift her index finger to the air, "This is my chance to try and get heaven to stop their exterminations on hell!" she reasoned with a bright eyed look.

Vaggie, however, glanced over at Joshua and lifted an eyebrow at him, "Well, what do you think?" she asked.

Joshua lowered his hand back away from his chin back into his crossed arms, and shrugged with his shoulders, before glancing in Vaggie's direction, "I can think of one good passage that brings to mind on this situation, and it is this" he began with saying, before focusing his sights in on Charlie who focused her attention back on him.

"' But there are some things that you cannot be sure of. You must take a chance. If you wait for perfect weather, you will never plant your seeds. If you are afraid that every cloud will bring rain, you will never harvest your crops '." Joshua finished saying with a brief exhale of breath.

Vaggie however, was a bit more critical of the matter, as she looked at Joshua, "Yeah, but this has nothing to with some simple crops!" she threw her hands up in exasperation, "We are dealing with exorcists here, angels that make it their job to kill sinners. There's a lot at stake here." she professed.

"Hmph." Joshua exhaled an amused breath, before speaking back to Vaggie as he glanced back at her, "Would you rather I go by the old adage of looking a gifted horse in the mouth?" he jested a bit dryly, before speaking more seriously on the matter as he focused his attention back at Charlie.

"In any case, what would you have us do, with this information of your father giving you this opportunity?" Joshua asked with a raised eyebrow from under his wrapped head.

"Yeah." Vaggie remarked as she gestured back to the main room where everyone else was, "If you haven't realized, we still need to fix Alastor's fuck up on the commercial for the hotel!" she reasoned.

"Right…" Charlie noted with a nod, and gestured at Vaggie with her hands, "That's why I figured you can help matters here while Joshua comes with me for moral support!" 

At the mention of calling Joshua a moral support, Vaggie raised her brow at Charlie with an expectant look directed at her, "And what am I, chopped liver?" she quipped.

Charlie walked over to Vaggie and placed her palm on her partner's shoulder with a placating smile, "Oh relax, Vaggie, I said moral support, you are my emotional support and partner after all, right?" she smiled afterwards.

Vaggie smirked back up at Charlie, knowing both of them were just jesting each other, "I'll see what I can do." before she frowned a bit at Charlie, "Just don't sing to-"

Before Vaggie could finish her sentence, Charlie began twirling in place and stepped out from the hallway to begin singing a tune, "~ I can do this! Somehow, I know it! ~"

"-Them…" Vaggie finished saying with a deadpan while Charlie sang to herself and danced and twirled off into the distance.

Vaggie glanced from her place up over at Joshua who had turned around to follow after Charlie as the princess of hell exited out through the front doors while still singing, "Hey, bible reader." she called his attention over, to which Joshua stopped momentarily to glance back at her.

"Yes?" Joshua asked as he looked towards Vaggie while momentarily turning sideways to look in her direction.

With a plain look and arms crossed, she lifted out her arm to point at Joshua, "Just a fair warning, since you and Charlie will be speaking with the leader of the exorcists. There's something you should know." she explained with a bit of a distasteful look on her face.

"And what would that be?" he questioned the fallen angel with some interest laced in his tone of voice.

"You'll meeting with Adam." Vaggie said bluntly.

"The first man, Adam?" Joshua asked with a raised eyebrow.

With a flat look from Vaggie, "Yeah, and he's a major dick, so don't expect some holy messiah-esque man that comes off as a pure soul or whatever." she remarked with an eyeroll.

Making a thought hum, Joshua responded back to Vaggie while glancing at her, "Speaking truthfully, the scriptures describe Adam as just that, the first man of mankind that had died after living a long life, never going into detail of his personality. So I wouldn't put it past the first man to have a crass behavior as well as an ego to match it." he remarked, before taking his leave to catch up with Charlie.

"Huh…" Vaggie mused with a scoff as she watched Joshua head out of the hotel past the other occupants of the hotel that had watched Charlie head out through the front doors whilst singing, "Figure's that book wouldn't bother to paint that dick waffle in a dark light." she muttered to herself.

Heaven Embassy

"Hello!?" Charlie greeted an empty building as she entered halfway in through the front doors, before opening them up to let herself in; as she walked through the embassy, Joshua soon let himself in through doors as well a moment later.

While Charlie hollered out another 'hello' to greet anyone that may be present in the building, Joshua massaged his wrists as several times he had to get past a few chaotic fights between sinners. 

In the whole time Charlie had sung her way through the streets towards her destination, sinners of all types were indulging themselves to every sin imaginable; from cannibalistic sinners to lustful creatures that peered through a sex shop, Joshua had to push his way past several fights and annoyances that dared cross his path.

There was already some crimson blood on his knuckles that was not his from the aftermath of catching up with Charlie, there was only so much sin that he tolerated, but when confronted too far, he was within his rights to push back.

Joshua's eyes glanced at his bare forearm that was missing the gauze he used to cover up his burnt body. Just as he had reached the embassy after Charlie entered through the front doors, a cannibal had lunged at him and wrapped their jagged teeth onto his forearm.

The sinner would think next time not to eat something that was capable of catching aflame in their mouth.

"He~llo~" Charlie hollered once more while cupping her mouth to make her voice carry off more, before commenting on the situation, "Creepy…" she remarked.

"While concerning…" Joshua began to comment as well as he caught up with Charlie with strides strides to walk up beside her, "I highly doubt heaven would bother to station an angel in hell when needed." he said, before pulling out a roll of gauze to re-wrap his arm up, so that his focus wasn't stuck on keeping his arm from catching aflame.

"I…suppose you might be right." Charlie replied back to him as the both of them approached a front desk with a single bell atop it, and tapped it to see if anyone would arrive to greet them. "You gonna be alright?" She asked him with a pointed look at the man's bare forearm that Joshua was in the process of re-wrapping up to cover his burns.

As Joshua spoke, a golden scroll and feather ink pen floated from above down over to her, to which Charlie couldn't but mutter ' also creepy ', "I'll be fine Charlie, nothing I haven't dealt with before in my time I've been in hell." he placated her worries as he finished re-wrapping his arm with a fresh set of gauze.

"Okay?" Charlie guessed in her worries over Joshua's state of being, before reaching out to grab the ink pen to sign her name. After finishing, the set floated over to Joshua next for him to sign onto the guest list.

After signing his own name into the guest list, the scroll and feather flew back up before disappearing. Right then, the twin doors off to the side slid open to show the two of them the meeting room.

"Well…here goes nothing, right?" Charlie asked without expecting an answer, before leading the way into a dark room with seemingly none inside. "Hello?~" she hollered out a bit.

As the two of them enter, the doors slide closed while the lights suddenly switch on, revealing two angels at the end of the room. with one being an exorcist lieutenant, Lute and the big boss leader of the Angel Army, Adam, who is eating a rib in his hand. 

"Sup." Adam greeted the two nonchalantly, while causing Charlie to stumble back a bit at the abrupt greeting.

"Holy shit!" Charlie exclaimed while nearly falling over herself if it weren't for Joshua catching her by the arm, and helping her back onto her feet. After muttering her thanks to Joshua, to which the man nodded silently at her, Charlie addressed Adam with a chipper attitude.

"Hi, I'm Charlie. My dad asked me if I could meet you." Charlie explained herself.

With a spare rib in his hand, Adam responded back with a plain look and bored attitude, "Yeah, I know." before eating his spare rib through his teeth like a buzzsaw,

"Okay, well." Charlie said as she reached out to shake hands with Adam, "It's nice to meet you." She greeted him.

After finishing his spare rib, Adam spoke back while leaning forward to shake Charlie's hand, "Totally. It's nice to meet you, too." he said back to her with a sharp toothy grin.

Just as Charlie reached over to shake hands with the man, her hand phased through Adam's hand to which he guffawed in laughter.

"Augh!?" Charlie shirked her hand back in surprise, while Joshua looked on with some confusion of his own for personal reasons.

"Ha! I fucking got you." Adam poked fun at Charlie while leaning over the table, before sitting back to turn to Lute, "Did you see that?" in response, Lute who stood next to him nodded once.

"Ha. Good shit." Adam finished with saying before looking back at Charlie.

"Uh…" Charlie began with, "so wait," She said while pointing down at the floor, "You aren't here?" Charlie asked.

With a look of disgust on his own facemask, Adam answered, "No, you think I'd come down there?" he pointed down with his finger, before laughing a bit at the idea, "No, I mean, I love the vibe, totally, I love your tunes." He gestured with his hand, before making a downcast look, "But! It's such a bummer! man. Everything down there's just so "eugh", ya know?" Chuckling a bit, Adam finished off with saying, "Ew." 

Glancing in Joshua's direction, Adam took note of his appearance and knew a sinner when he saw one. "That tag-along of yours knows what I am saying, right buddy?" he smirked at Joshua. "Betcha wished ya didn't become a sinner." Adam taunted.

While he stood off to the side behind Charlie, Joshua responded with his arms crossed as he stared back at Adam with an even look from his eyes, "Speaking from experience, I'd say hell is humanity's sins unleashed." he spoke dryly, while not rising to Adam's taunt.

"...Sheesh, way to sour the mood…" Adam commented blandly with a frown, having hoped to get a rise out of the sinner, only to receive a comment from Joshua in his observance of his time in hell.

Realizing she had more on her plate to work with, with how abrasive Adam's personality was, she cleared her throat to grab Adam's attention back to her, "Right. So, I'm happy we've got this opportunity to meet." she said as she clasped her hands into a pleading manner, "There's a project that I've been working on that I really want to talk to you about-"

Before Charlie could continue and further however, Adam reached over to put his hologram finger on her lips to shush her for a moment while his finger flickered for a bit from him almost phasing his finger through Charlie's face, "Hey, hey, hey, hey, slow down. We've got time. How about we get to know each other a little. Mmm. How about lunch? You hungry? I got you." he said while pointing his fingers at Charlie, before reaching down to hold up a platter of ribs.

"Here's my personal favorite. You'll love it." Adam offered with a smirk on his lips.

As Charlie was designing the thought of partaking some of the meal, Joshua spoke up as he realized something, "Pardon the question, but why would she be able to partake in your offering, if everything that you are is merely some hollow facsimile?" he asked with a narrowed eye look directed at Adam.

 "...hey, wait!" Charlie said with a look of realization, and glared at Adam.

Adam meanwhile gave Joshua a deadpan look as he sat back into his chair while setting his ribs aside, "Man dude, you really are a buzzkill, you know that?" he slid a bit off from his chair in an off put manner.

Without skipping a beat, Joshua responded back with a firm tone of voice, "Charlie is not here for your entertainment, nor am I." he said with his arms still crossed, while Charlie smiled warmly at the help that Joshua was giving her.

Adam looked back from Joshua to Charlie, and rolled his eyes at her, "Whatever." before standing up to introduce himself properly, "But yeah, I'm Adam." he thumbed at himself, "The Original dick master!" he smirked.

As Charlie moved to sit, she leaned forward with her hands on the table, "Wait, your name is Adam? Like the first man Adam, that means you…Oh…." 

"...What?" Adam asked with a prideful smirk, "Finally realized who you're talking to?"

With a wince, Charlie muttered a bit while still being heard, "That explains so much.." she commented.

Adam raised a curious eyebrow at whatever Charlie was referring to, but in Charlie's mind, she realized why her mother left Adam. His Attitude was crappy as sin.

"Hm…interesting, so that'd make Charlie the stepdaughter of you…correct?" Joshua noted with a ponderous look in his eyes as he stood behind the chair that Charlie sat on.

"....What the fuck!?" Adam spoke with an aghast look on his face while reeling at the actual thought of being semi-related to the hellspawn.