Charlie glances around at the lobby, seeing Sir Pentious lining up the small pastries Calli's been cranking out while Niffty watches Angel get ready - she's pretty sure her Aunt Calli is panic-baking, honestly, because she hasn't set foot outside of the kitchen since she heard the one-hour deadline and everyone started getting things ready. And Husk told her as soon as she glanced towards the room that she did not want to go in there.
Glancing at her watch, Charlie opens the door…only to get full-body tackled by her father as the man wraps his arms around her in a bone-crushing hug. "Oh, it's so good to see you!"
Charlie chokes out "Good to see you to, Dad…"
Tapping him on the back a few times gets no response, until Alastor's static-filled voice says "I do believe that's her way of saying she still needs to breathe."
Lucifer's grip immediately loosens, and Charlie pushes him back a foot to quickly suck in a gasp of air - she forgot just how strong her Dad is! Or, maybe, she never really knew and he forgot. Once she's got her breath back, Charlie clears her throat and says "Welcome to the Hazbin Hotel!"
Lucifer pets Keekee for a moment, scratches Razzle and Dazzle under their chins - unsubtly threatens them by saying they'd better be taking care of Charlie - and says "It's got a lot of character…"
Lucifer glances around, very obviously looking for someone, and Charlie says "Aunt Calli's…we're pretty sure she's panic-baking right now."
"Yes, she makes the best- What in the holy hells is that?!"
Lucifer points to the wall that keeps getting blown up, which they've repaired five times now, and Alastor shadows over before saying "Just some of the renovations we had done! Adds a bit of color, don't you think?"
Husk takes one look at Alastor's expression, and promptly grabs Angel Dust by his lower arm and drags him away from both the Overlord and the Fallen Archangel to a relatively safe spot behind the snack table. "Husk? What-"
Husk quietly says "Trust me, he's out for blood. You do not want to get in the middle of them." Angel leans over and snags Niffty at that, and Sir Pentious joins them behind the table of snacks. And then, much to Angel's amusement, Husk creates some bags of movie popcorn for everyone to eat.
Lucifer raises an eyebrow at everyone very obviously staying out of the way, then glances back at Alastor before asking "And you are?"
Alastor promptly shadows behind Lucifer, saying "Alastor!" Taking the cane in his hand and shaking it hard enough to shake Lucifer's body as well, he adds "Pleasure to be meeting you, quite a pleasure!"
Angel leans over to Husk, asking "This is gonna be good, isn't it?"
"Oh, big time…"
"It's nice to finally put a face to the name Calli's told us all so much about! I must say, you are much shorter than I imagined!"
Lucifer fixes his hat after it nearly fell off from Alastor's enthusiastic handshake, and takes a step back to size the Radio Demon up. Glancing at Charlie, he asks "Alright, who- who is this? Is he the bellhop, or something?"
Husk starts choking on his mouthful of popcorn, and Angel starts pounding him on the back.
Alastor's eyes narrow just a fraction more, and he says "Au contraire, I'm the Host of the Hotel! You might've heard of me from my radio show! I happen to know Calliope's quite a fan, perhaps you are to."
Lucifer pretends to think for a moment, then says "Mm, nope! Guess that's why Charlie called it the Hazbin Hotel!"
Alastor pretends to laugh, then says "That was actually my idea."
Leaning forward, Lucifer fake-laughs back and snaps "Well it wasn't very clever!"
Alastor bends down, getting directly in Lucifer's face, and says "Hahaha! Fuck you, you little-"
Charlie quickly gets between the two full-grown men, saying "Ok, ok, anyway…" Quickly steering her Dad away from Alastor - she doesn't know why the Radio Demon seems to have several bones to pick with her Dad, but right now that's not particularly important, she really wishes Aunt Calli were in the room right now - and starts showing him around the hotel…while Angel tries not to follow Husk's path now that he's recovered from nearly breathing in his popcorn.
Glancing at Alastor, the spider-demon asks "You think it's something to do with Calli?"
Husk nods his head, saying "Oh, so much…" Alastor's already mentioned Calliope twice, and Husk very clearly caught the flash of guilt in Lucifer's gaze both times - and, he just knows Alastor caught it as well.
Alastor's shadow darts towards the kitchen, and then Alastor disappears before walking out with a plate of…cookies? And takes two immediately.
"Fuck," Husk murmurs, "he's an absolute goner, isn't he?"
Angel walks over, quickly snagging a few as well, but everyone's attention gets taken when Charlie says "Without Alastor, we wouldn't have been able to get the hotel up and running nearly as fast…"
Lucifer's expression goes blank at the Radio Demon's name, but Alastor quickly walks over while saying "Charlie has a very unique vision, some would almost call it magical. I'm more than happy to fulfill her semi-chaotic requests." He puts a hand on Charlie's shoulder, which immediately gets Lucifer glaring at him, and adds "Quite an impressive young lady. If I had to guess, she gets that from her Aunt. We're all very proud of her."
Lucifer watches in outrage as Alastor puts an arm around Charlie's shoulders, then promptly pushes himself between them to get to the snack table and asks "How 'bout you introduce me to your other friends, Charlie?"
Charlie nods, watching Alastor disappear once more, and quickly introduces Vaggie as her girlfriend, who says "Hi, sir…you probably already know I'm a Fallen Angel just by one glance to…so I'm just gonna say right now that I will never intentionally hurt Charlie…"Lucifer picks her up in another bone-crushing hug of his, which Vaggie decides to take as both a silent warning and acceptance of her place in Charlie's life.
Alastor comes back out of the kitchen with three plates this time, one of brownies, one with an apple pie, and…are those Macaroons? When did Calli make Macaroons?!
Now everyone's starting to get genuinely worried about both Calli and the state of the kitchen…
Sir Pentious salutes Lucifer, Angel gives him a wave as he takes one of the cookies, Husk does the same…and Niffty climbs him before saying she cleans.
Charlie pries Niffty off her Dad, saying "We're, like, eighty-percent sure she's usually harmless to anything bigger than a bug or dust-bunny…"
And then, with zero warning whatsoever…the chandelier crashes to the floor, kicking up a massive cloud of dust and dirt.
Calliope runs into the common area at the sound of something big crashing, only to find…Lucifer and Alastor locked in a music battle. And they look pissed off at one another - what happened?! Alastor seemed fine when he came in and said everything smelled delicious before taking a few of the finished items to the table, and when did Lucifer get here?! Seeing the two of them - and Charlie - are stuck in a song-battle, she heads over to Vaggie and the others and asks "What's going on?!"
Everyone glances at one another as Alastor starts playing piano in response to Lucifer taking out what's either a golden fiddle or violin, and Angel says "Erm, Cals? I don't think you really want to know…"
Everyone else quickly shakes their heads at her questioning glance, and Vaggie says "I'd ask Alastor if you really want to know, honestly." He's the one that seems to have a massive bone to pick with Lucifer for some reason, after all.
Calli groans, especially at Alastor's line of 'They say the family you choose is better' and rubs at her temples - this is quickly turning into an absolute shitshow, and she doesn't even know when it started or how to stop it!
The song's just devolved into a straight-up argument, the two of them literally nose-to-nose and looking like they're actually about to start a fistfight, when suddenly a new voice starts signing and completely takes over. Calli sighs in utter relief once the music ends, she's never in her entire existence been so glad for a show-stealer as she is right now - because she just witnessed two grown men about to come to blows…over a broken chandelier.
Lucifer's head snaps over to her at once, but Alastor takes everyone's attention saying "Mimzy!"
"Alastor! Sweetie, dollface, so good to see you!"
It's when Alastor goes in for a hug with Mimzy that Calli decides she needs a headache potion and then something to drink. And, when Mimzy says the two of them used to know one another up on Earth - and that Alastor was the only one who could drink someone under the table and then keep up with her on the dance floor - all the lights suddenly flicker ominously. Everybody bar Mimzy glances towards Calliope, who quickly says "Sorry! Headache, I'll get back to the kitchen in a minute. I'll fix the chandelier, by the way."
Angel whistles, and says "Now that is some scary jealousy…" And he didn't even think Calli could get jealous!
"Alastor," Mimzy says, "who is that and why would she make the lights do that?"
Alastor's eyes widen a fraction, and he says "That was Calliope, Princess Charlotte's Aunt. She-"
Mimzy cuts Alastor off with a gasp, having spotted Lucifer standing there, and quickly makes her way over to him to introduce herself. And, if the curtsy she gives him goes so low everyone gets a good view of her chest…well, she's never curtsied before.
Calliope's gaze locks onto Mimzy, every ounce of gratitude she had for the woman having gone down the drain at that curtsy, and she quickly walks over saying "Charlie, you and Alastor should show Lucifer around the hotel! I'll help Mimzy get settled." She's quickly caught onto the detail that Mimzy - despite her timing with interrupting that song - is a gold-digger, and she'd rather not have her around Lucifer or Charlie if at-all possible.
Alastor already said anyone's welcome at the Hotel, though, and she's not about to go back on that if the woman's actually serious about it all...but she gets the gut-feeling that she's not. Call it a hunch...or, call it having dealt with too many gold-diggers to count during her time on the Wizengamot trying to wrestle Britain into a better state than it was when she was growing up.
Lucifer says "I'm sure Charlie can handle showing me around-"
Alastor shadows in front of the pair, saying "Nonsense! We started the hotel together, we'll show it off together."
Calli watches as the three of them head off into one of the corridors, and then shakes her head before downing a Headache potion. "Do I even want to know why the Chandelier crashed? Much less whatever's going on between Alastor and Lucifer?"
Angel says "The Chandelier just decided to die right then and there. As for Al and Lucifer…no, you really don't, Cals." Heck, they don't even know what's up between them other than the detail that Alastor seems to have a few bones to pick with him.
Calli sits down on a barstool, sighing in relief when she feels the migraine she was getting disappear, and glances over when Husk slides a Shirley Temple over to her - he looks more annoyed than even Angel Dust ever managed to make him, even when the spider demon was in full form flirting away with him like his life depended on it. Popping the Maraschino Cherry into her mouth, Calli glances at Mimzy as she takes a sip of her drink and asks "So, you and Alastor are friends, hm?"
Mimzy laughs, saying "Well, that's your word, not mine, but I think it fits!" Glancing at Angel and Sir Pentious, she adds "Why so surprised?"
Angel picks up the glass Husk slides to him, saying "Didn't know he had any of those - he's been here a while now, and he's still kinda a creepy mystery for the most part."
Mimzy gets a grin on her face, tells them the story pretty much all of Pentagram City knows - how Alastor made several powerful Overlords disappear basically overnight, how he broadcasted their screams on his radio show, how anyone that crossed him met the same fate - then laughs and says "That's the story everyone knows, anyway. But, underneath it all…he's a total sweetheart! Put on some jazz and pour a couple fingers of rye, and he turns into a kitten!"
Calli dryly says "That's probably why he's always playing it. Favorite music style, and all."
Mimzy hums, then sizes Calliope up before saying "So…aunt, hm? Didn't know the princess had an aunt."
Calli flatly says "Old family friend. Call me Calliope." Glancing over at the Chandelier, she waves a hand at it and it repairs itself instantly - and turns ridiculously fancy, but at least all the links and screws are strong this time. And then she heads back to the kitchen, hopefully she can bake her irritation away - why she's so irrationally irritated that Alastor hugged Mimzy is beyond her, it probably doesn't have anything to do with the woman…other than the fact that she called the Hotel a slob-fest.
Yeah, that's probably it. Her insulting all Charlie's hard work, along with that of everyone else at the Hotel.
Mimzy looks behind her for Husk to ask for another drink, but finds him gone.
Husk clears his throat to get Alastor's attention, and asks "Can I have a word?"
Alastor lets Charlie and Vaggie go on ahead with Lucifer, waiting until they're out of earshot, and asks "What is it?"
"You and I both known Mimzy only comes to you when she needs something - that bitch is trouble, and not even the fun kind that Calliope embodies. Who knows what kind of demons she's fucked with this time to have her come running to you?"
Alastor says "It's nothing I can't handle. Don't worry about it, Husker. Besides, who in their right mind would cross me?" Nobody, he made sure of it ages ago.
Husk sighs, running a hand through the fur where his hair used to be, and says "Look, you've been gone a while - and it's not like anyone knows why-"
"And they don't need to know!" There's also the detail that he can't talk about it - literally, cannot speak of where he was or what he was doing, but Husker doesn't need to know that. "So don't you worry your fuzzy head about it."
Husk growls as Alastor grabs him teasingly by the ear, and says "You may own my soul, Alastor, but that doesn't mean I'm your pet!" He could have it way worse, he knows that perfectly well - as far as Overlords go, Alastor's fairly tame to his 'employees' unless they cross him somehow, usually by breaking their contract…or he acquires their soul with the sole intention of ripping them to pieces. He's no Valentino, nothing remotely like the monster of an Overlord, and generally lets the souls he's got under contract do what they want. Hence why he still has his Casino, why he still has his power...it all just comes with one big string attached to it now.
Still, that does not mean he's willing to just let Alastor treat him like some kind of housecat!
Instead of making a comment about Alastor also being on a leash, Husker says "Whatever you say…but you might want to worry about your jealous girlfriend before something either explodes, turns into something else, or the power goes out altogether."
Alastor raises an eyebrow, asking "My what now?"Husker deadpans "Calliope. I've known you for years, Alastor, and I've never seen you act the way you do around her before."
"Calliope and I are not-"
"Haven't made a move, then? Other than laughing at her jokes, rolling with the crazy magic-shit that just happens around her, that flower you've still got in your room I saw two days ago when you wanted to talk to me in there? And the time you took care of her when she was sick, lets not forget that." That seems to have thrown Alastor for something of an existential crisis, much to Husk's amusement. "You may not like sex, but you like her. And, goddamn, make a move already, it's driving everyone else up a wall!" He and Angel had to keep Charlie from running down and congratulating the pair when she realized they each seem to have feelings for one another, and had to explain to her that they aren't together. And then they had to talk her out of planning a bunch of activities to try and get them together.
And then, of course, there's a crashing sound from the ground floor once more - at least that didn't sound like anything glass!
He might just scream, though, if it's that damn wall again.