Hazbin Hotel Beach Week - Tumblr Posts

@hellcab posted:

Comfortably numb, Roth’s lazy eyes peered out across the sea. A summer breeze touched his face. Miami Vice in one hand, he wanted for nothing.

This isn’t real.

Faintly, he could hear Hula music coming from the bar. A game of volleyball happened down the beach. Roth sees women walking by his eyes wandered and stared.

This isn’t real.

Sucking on the straw, he downed his third Miami Vice and slouched in his beach chair. His mind wanders and returns to the sea. He stared long and darkly, his mind captivated by the tides. He watched as they broke on the shore.

Someone is out there.

This isn’t real.

He sees people in the tide playing and laughing. They looked free as they danced and splashed about. Then, he sees him. He was rising up, dressed in black head to toe and wearing that god awful mask.

This isn’t real.

He stood there in the water as everyone played about. He just stares. He just stares as he’s dressed in all black. That peacoat was damped and wet, but he just stood there watching Roth.

Roth’s heart was beating faster and faster, ready to pop. His blood rushes as he drops his glass. Chest rising and falling, as The Wire walks out from the surf onto the beach. The Wire reaches into his pocket. He retrieves a switch blade that glints in the summer sun.

Oh God, he’s real!

Roth wakes up screaming his lungs out. Everyone on the beaches stops and hears him screaming. Roth nearly jumps out from the chair as he falls over. His eyes frantic, he looks towards the surf and sees nobody. No man in black.

People are laughing, some are staring.

Roth cannot stand it and gets up to leave for somewhere private.

-

Blitz was passing by when the taxi driver screamed.

He'd gotten to the beach a little late, still not completely convinced that imps were actually wanted at this event, and was still learning his way around, trying to identify and memorize the best routes for escape, the best spots for ambush. More than a little on edge, because hanging out with the hotel crowd apparently might mean hanging out with the hosts of Heaven, Blitz wasn't half as relaxed as he looked.

He glanced over at Roth as he passed him, smiling a little. The driver charged more than fair rates for driving innocent Hell citizens with multiple large pieces of luggage to body dumping remote sites--or so Blitz had heard, of course. He would certainly never need to use such a service himself.

Heaven fucking forbid.

Roth was sleeping though, so Blitz--

Jumped, eyes going huge, when the man screamed.

Blitz landed on his feet, crouching, gun out, looking around for whatever the fuck had scared the guy that fucking badly, but nothing seemed to be around. No real threats. Nothing to be afraid of... They were just being met with blank stares and a few amused titters from other beachgoers.

"Oh for fuck's sake," Blitz growled. He straightened up and looked over his shoulder to catch a glimpse of Roth's retreating form; he looked embarrassed, Blitz thought, or uncomfortable at least. And shit, maybe they weren't exactly friends, but he ran after him all the same--although he didn't come within reach, staying just outside it.

"Hey, man. You good?"

[for @poisonedspider, continued from here]

Vox smiled when Angel actually accepted the drink, then even more when he spoke to him. Despite them having lived together for so long, he and Angel had had very few one-on-one conversations. When they did, they were usually something short and to the point, like Vox asking what kind of pizza Angel wanted, or the civil exchange of greetings. The two of them didn't interact all that often, certainly not directly. All this time, that had been by design--his design, not Angel's. Vox didn't want the interaction or the intimacy. He didn't want the risk. Too much time with Angel might upset Valentino--or Angel, for that matter--and there was always too much work to do to risk adding more to it. Vox had so many projects happening at any given time, his attention was being pulled in so many directions, that he didn't enjoy having to deal with emotional...

Issues.

But lately, he'd begun realizing that was a mistake--especially when it came to Angel Dust.

The Tower was a little too quiet without Angel around. Something unexpected was missing when he wasn't there, something Vox couldn't name or fully understand; whatever it was, it left an ache behind, left the world too quiet. So this? Having an uncomplicated moment together? It felt nice. Overdue. Stupid, maybe, for so many reasons, but still. Nice.

Vox walked alongside him, smiling--the smile half for Angel and half for the sharks they were going to see.

When one of Angel's arms brushed his shoulder, Vox shivered. He buttoned his shirt up, realizing that maybe he wasn't comfortable showing quite so much of his pale blue skin right now, and hoped Angel hadn't noticed. It wasn't that he didn't trust Angel, it was--something else. Something about Angel, something Vox knew better than to think about. Something dangerous.

Something tempting.

"There's a difference between not being busy," he pointed out, twitching an eyebrow, "and being interested in doing something. Allegedly," playfulness making his eyes seem to sparkle, "it's good for people to just have some downtime. To do nothing." Not that Vox bothered with that often.. or at all. Relaxation was for people who didn't have their own business empires to run; even here, even now, he was constantly processing data and monitoring the projects that needed it most.

Angel probably knew him well enough to know that, and might well make fun of him for it, which Vox wouldn't even be able to say was wrong of him. There were things Angel and Valentino both seemed to understand about being a person that Vox just... didn't. But that was fine. It took all sorts, right? Either way, Vox was happy. There was some pep in his step as the two of them walked along to the lagoon, although for once, Vox didn't seem to be in a hurry. He wasn't rushing--walking next to Angel Dust wasn't something that should be rushed.

"So, do you... have any plans for this week? Other than look incredible, of course."

It was too early in the morning, and far too peaceful a morning at that, to feel anything but contentment when Angel agreed to go. Blitz smiled, watching him stand up and take the board. He didn't try to look at his feet, didn't even say anything about them, just waited until Angel was in the water, until Angel turned to look at him, calling out like that... Fuck, that guy was so light somehow. Blitz knew that was partially an illusion, because Angel had a hell of a lot of trauma dragging him down, but still, there was something special about him. Maybe it was just charisma, maybe it was just--whatever it was that drew everyone to him so readily. But it drew Blitz, too.

He watched for a moment longer, enjoying the view, before he ran out into the water too. Blitz chucked his board down and laid on it, wiggling around until he felt like he was in a good position to start paddling. Then, he looked over at Angel. This... was definitely a bad idea. The worst idea, maybe. But fuck it, why not? Why not take the opportunity to steal a beautiful moment now and then, when they could? It wasn't like the world was just going to offer them up for free.

"I don't want you to drown," Blitz said, finally answering him. He just looked at Angel for a moment more, floating next to him, then nodded to a little point of land. "Let's paddle out to get parallel with that, but not too close to shore. And then... uh, you know. We'll um... It'll be worth it." It would, he told himself firmly, trying not to be nervous. He had practiced with the crystal often enough by now, even if every time it left him feeling a little more hollow with heartache, a little more lost without the lover he'd almost had, the lover he couldn't hold onto, that he ought to be confident in his ability to open the portals. Still, taking Angel out of Hell... Lucifer might get pissed at them for it whenever they came back, and Blitz didn't know what it might really mean to be on the receiving end of Lucifer's fury. Probably nothing good...

But what the fuck.

Life was full of shit that was never good.

Blitz started paddling, focused and just enjoying the physicality of it, the feeling of the board moving as he dug his hands into the water. The ocean of Hell were listless and lifeless at best, but this was still nice, still fun. And once they were far enough out that he didn't think anyone could stop them, Blitz looked over at Angel and nodded. "Let's take a trip. A short one. But let's go somewhere the water's actually fucking beautiful."

He didn't wait to see if Angel agreed. Blitz might lose his nerve if he did. Instead, he opened the portal there and paddled through it to the other side--

To Earth.

The sunlight was brilliant. It felt like it sang against his skin. The water was alive, vibrant and alive and even the way it moved was different. It was early morning there too, near the tropical island he was now floating off of, the sun barely above the horizon. The wind felt bright, and the crashing of waves on the golden sand was somehow soothing rather than intimidating, at least to Blitz. It was beautiful here... He sat up straight and then leaned his head back, eyes closed, trying not to listen to hear if Angel came through the portal, waiting and hoping all the same.

Blitz had needed this, he realized. Needed to be somewhere beautiful, somewhere alive. His heart was a hollow place these days, an aching place, and moments like this might keep it going a little while longer.

Angel was used to an absolutely terrible sleep schedule, having consistently gotten home in the middle of the night - uh, morning? - when Valentino would work him until he could practically not stand anymore. It had been an odd thing to be able to have a vacation, something that everyone had agreed to in the Pride Ring - even Valentino. Now that Lucifer was 'back in action', he was pretty sure his boss didn't want to upset the Princess. Angelic steel wasn't the only thing that could kill a sinner for good.

Because of that though, he had woken up far earlier than he had been wanting to. Of course, the one opportunity he has to sleep in, and his body is on high alert. Decades of cocaine addiction and partying into the night would do that, he supposed. But there was no point just wasting the few free days he had in this relaxing place just staring at his ceiling. Which was what had gotten him up and going to the beach, even if he was by himself.

In a way, that had been nicer. Not that he minded company, being an absolute extrovert. But while everyone else was resting - or fucking, who knew, that seemed like something that would probably happen this week and he totally wasn't jealous - he felt like he didn't have to put on that celebrity facade. Sometimes, Angel just liked to be comfortable. It was why he had gone to the beach in a pair of swim trunks which absolutely still screamed Angel Dust, but were much less revealing and more cozy. A pink matching bikini top over the fluff of his chest.

He had been sitting along the edge of the beach, knees brought up to his chest, watching the sun rise. Well, rise as much as it could in Hell. It was pretty - prettier than anything he had seen since dying, really. But he was drawn away from it as he heard the drag of the surf board, even before Blitzo had talked. The spider more or less glanced in that direction, laughing lightly as the small imp struggled with both the boards.

"Yeh' look like yeh' could use some help there." He teased, though didn't move from his spot, eyes taking in the imp. God, he was so hot. He didn't even pretend to not be checking him out, though pink eyes met gold as he raised an eyebrow. "Does it look like ah' got time? Of course ah' do. Starin' out inta' the ocean, or well, whatever excuse we have f' an ocean in Hell....it ain't exactly occupin' all mah' time." He laughed, though he knew what Blitz was going to ask him before he even did. No way would he be dragging two boards otherwise.

"Well it's a good thing there ain't no waves tah' catch, because unless yeh' want meh' tah' drown, that ain't no good idea. Ah' have no fuckin' clue how tah' surf." He stressed, though finally stood, brushing the sand from the revealed white fur of his thighs. He hadn't considered getting into the water, uncertain of what to do about his boots, pausing for a moment before he took one of the boards.

"But fine. Ah' ain't gonna say no. Especially if it's just....sittin' there." He looked out to the ocean, back to his boots, back to the ocean, and - "....if yeh' look at mah' feet, Blitz, ah' swear to fuckin' Satan that ah' will absolutely shoot yeh'." He stressed, bending down momentarily to unzip the sides of the long black boots he so commonly wore, pulling them off his fluffy feet and setting them aside. Before Blitz could even say anything, he was running towards the water with the board, laughing and making sure he was submerged up to at least his knees sooner rather than later. "Well? Yeh' comin'?"

"Yeah, it's not really my thing, Hell beaches are depressing, but figured I'd live a little." Blitz was dressed in all black, of course--short shorts and a short-sleeved button-down worn open, because he was absolutely not above letting his glorious abs shine, why be modest about something like that--and had a pair of gloves on. One of them sported a crystal on the back of it; the damn crystal was part of Blitz, permanently stuck to him now, and he hated looking at it without gloves on. At least, when it looked like part of an accessory, it wasn't so bad, but...

Nah. Fuck it. No brooding.

He hopped up onto a nearby fence and patted the worn wooden top railing, gesturing for Roth to join him. "Sorry to hear about the nightmares. They're a fucking bitch. The more real they are, the harder to shake off, right?" He studied Roth's eyes as he said it, not completely convinced, but then looked out to the water as well. Shit. How did one actually go about befriending any Sinner who wasn't Angel Dust? Blitz was putty in Angel's hands, but Angel was also the most damn good person when it came to socializing. Blitz and Roth... maybe not so much. But despite that, Blitz wanted to try. There was something about the cab driver he just really liked, and he wanted to be his friend--or at the very least, to be there for him when he was having a shit day.

"I'm sorry people laughed at you out there. They can go fuck themselves. You wanna talk about the dream, man? Maybe talking about it will make it lose some of its fuckin' power or something?"

He needed to breathe.

Finally, Roth was alone enough to recover. Removing his hat, Roth started wiping the panic sweat that covered his face. The heart was afraid. The blood was hot with anxiety. He just needed to get his bearings. He just needed to reassure himself that was a dream. A delusion. Yet, the dream felt real enough.

How can he tell down here? In this world, this prison of abstract shape and human mockery. How can he tell what was real, or not.

Blitzo’s  question soon caught his tired attention. Roth looked, his eyes lingering as he buried the fear deep down. He knew Blitzo was real. He knew enough that The Imp was real. He thinks.

“Yeah- yeah, I’m good man. Just doing good.”

Gradually, Roth collected enough charisma to lie. He smiled, forcing laughter from his already hoarse throat. Placing his cap back on firmly, he breathed in and exhaled. Maybe, to the untrained eye he could fool someone.

“Just had a bad dream. That’s all, just another bad dream. That’s natural, right?”

Roth’s eyes looked towards the ocean. He recalled how the freezing water filled his lungs, after The Wire threw him over the bridge. It was terrible.

Since damnation, he always had dreams about The Wire. About the man in black, who ambushed him on the Brooklyn Bridge so long ago.  Being murdered and living with the memory haunted Roth. Tortured him.

“Hey, nice seeing you around. Never took you for the tropical lifestyle.”

Vox started to answer, but stopped himself with a shake of his head, taking a moment to think about it instead. He had to step up onto one of the rungs of the fence so he could lean over enough to look down; from up there on the bridge, they had a lovely view of the graceful creatures gliding past them, directly underneath.

"I guess it's that they're so... effortless. Or they look that way. The way they move, how they glide. They fly. Like they're completely free. I only saw one once while I was alive, and I was too stunned to be afraid. It swam past me, majestic. The master of its domain.

"They're dangerous. They don't stop. They can't stop. They process so much information so readily, without needing any powers to do it. I guess maybe I envy them. Their ease. Their--how they just fit. They belong. There are no acts to put on, no shows, no lines, nothing but their grace. If they have to kill, they do it. They don't--regret it. I can't imagine it's every hard for a shark." He leaned over a little farther, carefully tucking one heel under a rung to ensure he couldn't slip, or be pushed, the kind of precaution most Sinners in Hell were likely fully accustomed to themselves; one never knew when a friend might decide to turn foe.

Once the sharks had finally wandered out of view, Vox pushed himself up. He went and leaned against the fence on the other side of the bridge from Angel, elbows comfortably back on it. Their feet were fairly close together, the angle of their bodies making a nice vee away from each other. In the darkening evening air, it felt nice, he thought. Comfortable. Not wanting the moment to end, Vox thought back to the other things Angel had said, and asked about. Smiling, he shrugged.

"You do look amazing. Kind of your thing, right? And sure, I try not to notice. You're Val's boyfriend," Vox said it with a completely straight face, "and I try not to intrude on your whole... thing you two have going on. Despite sometimes getting jealous. But I am capable of seeing beauty, Angel." Some sort of small dragonish hellbeast flew over. Vox tilted his head back to look at it, watching its flight. "And you're right, Val threw a shitfit. I left a few hours after you did. I wasn't going to come, but he was throwing such a tantrum, I hit my wall. There's only so much Val Anger Management I can do before," he made an explosion sound, quiet but augmented by his speakers to sound nearly like the real thing, "I want to explode.

"But hey, screw Val. He's an idiot and we love him, but he's not here and we are. Tell me something about yourself, Angel? Something you want me to know, though, I'm not trying to pressure you for secrets."

"Mm, why do yeh' think ah'm layin' here doin' a bunch of nothin'?" He teased right back, though Vox would know. While Angel Dust wasn't nearly as go go go as the other sinner was, he certainly worked himself to exhaustion. Or, well, Valentino did. The amount of live shows lined up, the hours of terribly written pornos, the overnights on the street to earn his pimp more money. Angel Dust deserved the fucking break. Relaxing on the beach was well earned.

Though he had certainly heard the allegedly, and he knew exactly what Vox had meant - the Overlord was not just doing nothing on this beach trip. It had been part of why he had agreed to go see the sharks, maybe to take Vox away from the many other screens he possessed. Maybe because the other had offered him free booze which he would never pass up on. Maybe because Vox looked stunning like this, even if he had hid himself away - oh yeah, Angel had noticed.

He didn't really notice the thrill that came with seeing the sharks, but it was nice to see the other so....happy. It wasn't a mood that he had ever witnessed Vox in much. He'd seen his angry, manipulative side. He'd seen his overly cheery positive CEO face. He'd seen the stressed, running on too much coffee, working himself to exhaustion mode. But this? Considering his disdain for the Vees, for many obvious reasons, it was....nice. To see a side of Vox that he hadn't really gotten to experience.

He was caught off guard by the question, to the point that the words, "Yeh' think ah' look incredible?" spilled out before he could even think about them. This day was just full of surprises, wasn't it? Angel was glad that his sunglasses hid the confusion in his eyes, if only because it made no sense. Val and Vox were a thing. That much had been....incredibly fucking obvious. Angel might be Valentino's little fuck toy, but he wasn't the boyfriend. That role belonged to the man beside him.

He tried to shake off the shock, ignoring the way he could feel the flush of his cheeks, shrugging his shoulders. "Guess ah'm doin' whateva' Charlie decides tah' do f' activities. Ah'm here tah' support her mostly. Cause ah' know damn well Val is gonna be pissed that ah' took a week off." A sigh at that, though he still kept on a smile. "Ah' know she's doin' an open mic night, which ah'm definitely not gonna miss. And th' fireworks do sound pretty cool."

Crossing the bridge to the lagoon in which Vox had spoken about, Angel found himself leaning slightly over the somewhat fenced area, looking at the sharks that were swimming. Hell was weird. Some animals acted like animals - Keke and Fat Nuggets being prime examples - while some sinners were animals. He'd had enough run-ins with sharks to not find them appealing, though a lot of them did give the mafia vibes he thought were kinda hot.

"So, sharks. What is it about sharks, hm?" He asked, tilting his head, never taking his eyes off the giant fish. "When ah' was alive, th' only use sharks had was tah' eat th' bodies we'd throw out inta' the river, once they hit the ocean. Yeh' know, th' whole stereotype of swimmin' wit' th' fishes." A roll of eyes - mobsters were so dramatic.