HEY , DAPPER DAN !

here’s a PERMANENT STARTER CALL ! 

alastor stops in his tracks ,  gloved hands freezing around a half-fixed bowtie ,  static buzzing from somewhere far away . 

this isn’t their first secret meeting ;  alastor knows it’s unlikely to be their last .  he’s even started to look forward to them . 

he’s had to learn to deal with many confusing things ,  and though some of them seemed impossible to him before they started their strange relationship ,  few things could have prepared him for vox saying anything like that ;  something affectionate .  

any sentence that didn’t end in a playful insult or started out dripping in sarcasm was one he didn’t feel prepared for .  was this one that ?  he doesn’t know .  he’s altogether not sure where they stand anymore .  

were they even still rivals ?  can you feel protective of a rival ?  it wasn’t that long ago he genuinely wanted the robotic man dead .  does he still want that ?  no .  no ,  he definitely doesn’t want that anymore .  that’s a strange revelation ;  a man he hated so much he wanted him dead is a man he doesn’t hate now .  he might even be a man he cares about .  

he’s frozen ;  a deer in the headlights of affection that he can’t understand .  

in the end he decides to treat the whole thing as a joke .  it’s easier .  

❛     WHICHEVER PIECE THAT MAY BE ,  you can have it back next saturday .      ❜ 

         Ah– while the owl was well aware that Alastar was helping to… ‘support’ this establishment, he still had hoped to be greeted by another face. Not to say Stolas had any ill-qualms with the sinner, rather– he foresaw this whole ordeal being far more complicated than needed with him present. Primarily, because powerful entities always had a reason for stepping foot in another’s… ‘territory’. 

       It just so happened that this reason was a peaceful one, which could prove hard to convey.

        “My my– you have my apologies, Alastor– for interrupting what I assume to be dinner preparations?” There was a subtle raise of an eye’d eyebrow, primarily due to the viscera that painted the sinner in front of him. “Coming unannounced is typically the safest option, I find– since it spares whom I’m visiting from unwanted attention.” He’d traveled via portal, instead of door– for that reason. “I had hoped to run into Ms.Charlotte– is she available at the moment? If not, I can discuss my proposal with you to pass on to her.” While Stolas was well aware the possibility of Alastor just… not mentioning it to Charlie was there, he’d have to discuss this with Alastor eventually anyway. The sinner was her biggest supporter, after all.

        “Rehabilitating sinners is no small feat, and it is my understanding that your collective knowledge of heaven’s operations is… lacking.” His faux grin had grown more genuine as he spoke, arms coming to cross in a more casual fashion as it did. “I find our Princess’s aspirations rather noble, and wish to lend her my knowledge in that regard– likely to the dismay of the Morning Star himself– but my loyalty extends to Charlotte as much as it does to him.” She was the heir after all. 

        “While he might be whom we fell with out of heaven with, she shares the same unholy blood we swore to serve. Although at the current moment, it seems I’m the only one amidst us that remembers that…” Was there a bit of agitation there? Yes. Fueled by others amidst the unholy army mocking the Princess for her choices. “Regardless– Charlotte has my full support. I’ll be saying such publicly in a few days, and simply wish for her to not be blindsided by it.”

alastor tilts his head in amusement .  so that’s what the other hellborns thought he was doing .   helping .  

he supposes that is what he’d said he was doing ,  but he’d never actually expected anybody to believe him ;  was it just stolas ?  did anybody else share in his naïveté ?  alastor had to assume so ;  either that ,  or the powers that be had the same goal in mind that he had . 

because alastor is only here to find a way to kill the royal family .  

whether their reasons for killing the king of hell are the same as his own is of little importance to him ;  stolas had ,  after all ,  just inadvertently informed him that the other goetias thought charlie as big a joke as the rest of the seven rings did .  maybe he isn’t the only one aiming for a change in management ;  alastor supposes he could pick a candidate from the list of princes .  any one of them would work ;  it’s not like their rules would ever extend to him the same way lucifers did .  he’s learned .  nobody will ever have that kind of power over him again . 

alastor wipes his bloodied fingers in his apron .  he’ll play along ,  for a while .  at least until he knows how to get rid of charlie’s apparent only royal ,  loyal subject for good .  

who knows ;  he might even prove useful someday . 

❛   I SEE !  HOW wonderful !  she’ll be delighted to hear it .    ❜ 

FIZZ SUPPOSES THEY WERE AN EASY TARGET, WEREN’T THEY?  so blatantly out of their comfort zone up in pride,  looking only as lost as they feel in a place built to accommodate demons so much bigger than them — even as one of the more willowy of imps the rings below have to offer,  fizz still found themselves leaning up on the very tips of their boots just to glimpse over hips and elbows.

laying in the gutter offers them even less in terms of a view.  this sinner surely can’t blame them for their clear apprehension in even accepting that hand.

(  they do,  of course,  because they don’t trust themselves to make it back upright without at least a little help.  )

    “——I DON’T,  haveanymoney,”  they blurt,  all in a single breath.  you know,  just in case this guy also wants to rob them of whatever they have left.

alastors smile widens a bit .  he’d always found something very endearing about a person so clearly unable to defend themselves  .  remnants from a past where he ,  too ,  was in danger of getting hurt himself in the scuffle - humans are fragile things ,  he’d learned .   overlords less so .

he withdraws his hand after helping the other demon up and hides it behind his back with the other ,  where the imp can’t see it ;  and then he wipes his glove in his coat .  just in case .