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[personal profile] cornerofmadness
And I got it. Instead of a 50% chance of rain for ALL of those Saturday festivals there is an 80% chance. sigh. I might not do anything.

I picked the wrong time of year to give Rocket surgery. This is when he transitions from his fat and fluffy winter self to his sleek furred skinny summer self. It's a radical change and he looks like a dirty rag. I can't tell if he's sick or that's just how he looks (today it was the latter)

Saw the knee doc and he's basically it's nerve damage. We can't do much. Here's gabapentin. But I don't wanna take that. I have some I won't take it every day it makes me loopy. Try taking it any day anyhow. I mean I know he's right but I don't want to do this. I might try it for a month. we'll see. I also don't want to deal with this always and no one knows why it's getting worse as I go (I suspect it's my lack of exercise lately)

Here's my fannish 50 story rec and my story of the week. Also I'm trying to decide what in fandom annoys me more, the artists on FFN complimenting a story and launching into the art they want to do for you (regardless for fandom and naturally for pay) or the ones on AO3 who pretend to be an actual fan being super kind about your longer stories before hitting you with the I wanna do art for you (for pay) spiel. I think the latter because the other you roll your eyes and move on and the latter you thought you had a new real fan and you don't.

Title: Never

Fandom: Hazbin Hotel

Summary: Angel didn’t want to confess but if it got Charlie off his back in her redemption session, he was going to let her have his ugly life story with both barrels.

Author Note - Written for Spikesgirl58’s 6 word challenge. The six words were Organization, Owl, Star, Argue, Damp, & Abuse. Also written for the lyrical titles album challenge 2025 . I’m using the Footloose soundtrack album and the song for this is Never by Moving Pictures.
Also written for the allbingo prompt of white as a sheet.



“Are you really sure you wanna know, sweets?” Angel drawled to Charlie, squirmed in his seat next to Husk on the couch. Vaggie and Charlie sat on the other couch while Niffty perched on Pentious’ coils next to Husk’s armrest. Alastor had managed to avoid this particular hell: Charlie’s betterment sessions.

“I ssshared one of the reasons I arrived in hell,” Pentious pointed out. “Everyone needs to ssshare.”

Charlie beamed at Pentious, a look she rarely gave Angel no matter how hard he tried. It hurt every time because it reenforced he wasn’t good enough, even though he knew Charlie would never knowingly make him feel that way.

“Pentious is right, Angel. We all need to do this. You can’t redeem if you don’t know what you did wrong.”

Husk rolled his eyes. “I think we know, Charlie.”

Angel jerked three thumbs at Husk, the fourth being busy holding onto the cocktail Husk had mixed him. “That! But if you really wanna know how the most famous porn star in hell got here, lemme tell you a story. I was born into….let’s call it an organization.”

Husk snorted. “Call it what it is, kid. You were born into the mob.”

“I ain’t confirming that.” Angel smirked. “Anyhow, one of the first lessons my father ever taught me and my brother was how to get away with murder.”

“He didn’t.” Vaggie shook her head.

“As a teen, yeah he did. Well, technically I was eleven and Giovanni was almost thirteen because it’s important to him that he’s two full years older than me when he ain’t.” Angel chuckled. “Poor guy, he ain’t taller, stronger, or smarter than me and, trust me, his face ain’t never made anyone’s undies damp. He wishes he was this handsome.” He dusted his knuckles in his chest fluff, ruffling it up.

“I don’t believe it,” Vaggie argued.

Angel shrugged. “You can ask him. He was never handsome.”

“I meant I can’t believe anyone taught their child how to get away with murder.”

Angel pulled out his phone and scrolled. He handed it to Vaggie. “Call him. Name’s Arackniss now but he might not answer seeing it’s my number. He and I are on the outs again.”

“Wait, you’re serious. Your brother’s here too?” Vaggie’s jaw dropped.

“My brother, father, grandfather, uncles, cousins, and a couple of nephews, yeah you’ve had to have heard of the Web overlords, right? That’s my whole family. I used to work for them until I had enough of Papi’s abuse and I went off with the man who promised me the world.” Angel’s laugh was bitter, fragile, even in his own ears. “Who abuses me worse than Papi ever did and that is saying something because my father used me as an ashtray growing up and would beat me and Giovanni for the littlest of reasons. Why are you looking at me with big owl eyes, doll face?” He asked Charlie. “I asked you if you were sure you wanted to know about my life.”

Charlie went white as the hotel’s sheets. Well not his sheets which were currently burgundy because he thought it was pretty and white was just too clean for him. Everything about him was dirty.

Charlie gasped a little, her color fading further. “I just…your whole family is in hell?”

“Did you miss the part about him being mafioso?” Husk asked.

“Oooo a family of bad boys,” Niffty purred.

“I’ll introduce ya someday, Niff,” Angel said and Husk elbowed him. “Anyhow, yeah my family is here. No, they don’t want to hear about your redemption plans, Charlie. They think I’m an idiot for being here. Well, maybe Nissy might so long as Papi doesn’t find out and punch him into next month.”

“You could invite your brother if you want, Angel,” Charlie said. “We’d love to meet him.”

Angel wrinkled his barely existent nose. “Right now, he can burn for all I care. He’s being the littlest dick in hell.”

Husk laughed, smothering it with his clawed hand. “Sorry, I know your brother and father. I didn’t know that’s who they were but the Web provided security for my casinos when I was an overlord. Arackniss can be prickly and your father is an absolute mother fucker, kid.”

“I am aware. Anyhow, that’s how I got to hell, Charlie. My father trained me how to get away with murder because he turned me and my brother into mob enforcers with the idea we’d become capos one day and maybe even the don. That was my nonno; he was don. Papi was after Nonno died. And I learned my lesson well, Charlie. By twelve I was running numbers for the family, running girls soon after that. Ironic that I ended up the whore getting beaten by his pimp because that’s what I was expected to do.”

“Oh, Angel, don’t-”

Angel cut Charlie off. “I’m a whore, Charlie. I know what I am and before that I was a pimp but I didn’t beat the girls. Never. And Papi would beat me for being weak. That’s why he moved me to dealing drugs before I was seventeen. Worked out well for him.” Another bitter laugh, another round of sad looks. This time Husk rested his hand on Angel’s wrist, comforting him.

Angel sucked in a deep breath. “You gotta understand, Charlie. My father would have killed me if I disobeyed him. Your dad talks about free will and the mess everyone in this room has made of it but I never knew what that was. I never had a choice. I was never once asked what I wanted in life or encouraged to follow my dreams. I was never even allowed to dream. Hell even outside my family I was never going to be allowed to be who I really am. Being a gay man back then could get you arrested, fired from work, thrown out of your housing, so yeah, I was never going to be brave enough to be openly who I am.”

He paused, his chest heaving. He might be as sheet white as Charlie right now. He felt lightheaded. Taking a breath, Angel launched back into it. “ Papi made sure his rule over me and Giovanni was absolute. I was never going to be allowed to be free. I was a tool for my Papi. I learned how to put the fear of God in people or at least the fear of me. I broke the limbs of people who owed us money. Husk knows the type of man I was because he worked in Vegas with the mob.”

“And I’m a degenerate gambler so yeah, I knew the mob better than I wanted to.” Husk grimaced.

“Right. Giovanni was sent to Vegas for a bit because things got too hot in New York, another way to get away with murder, get the fuck out of town when the getting’s good. Anyhow, I became Papi’s best son. I had to be because if he found out about my tastes, he’d have killed me and I was hoping I could prove I was worth keeping alive, even if I was a fairy.” Angel sucked in air like a man drowning, trying to fight back his emotions. “So, if people owed us money, Papi sent the D’Angelo brothers to beat the fuck out of them. How is that for terrible name? From the angels, ha. Me and my family wouldn’t know an angel if we fell over one. It’s one of the reasons I was happy when Val suggested my stage name. I always was Angel, you see?”
Charlie nodded, looking read to argue the point about him knowing angels but held her tongue.

Angel tore a hand through his mop of hair, nervously. “If you were a rival, we were there to do worse. I had to know how to not get caught because I was straight up murdering people. Sometimes just gunning them down in the street because forensics back then ain’t what it is today. You just pulled up in Ford’s most common car without a license plate, had your jacket collar turned up and your hat on low so no one could clearly see your face, and you were good to spray and pray, take out a lot of rivals at once if you were good at it. Me and Nissy both are good long-distance shots, too. Sometimes I was putting chains and weights on people and dumping them in the East River or the ocean. Sometimes I was there to slit your throat or bash your head in with a bat. I was a very bad man, Charlie, and most of the time I think Valentino is exactly what I deserve. I earned every assault he inflicts on me. Me falling in love with him way back when, being dumb enough to give him my son, getting so betrayed, I deserve that. I deserve everything he does to me.”

Angel shuddered and Husk squeezed his wrist. Even Niffty looked at him with almost pity but he wasn’t sure she was capable. Pentious sagged. Tears leaked from Charlie’s eyes, trailing down her pale face.

“You don’t, Angel. You don’t deserve it,” she said.

“Bet your dad disagrees.” But would Lucifer? Did he have any direct control over what happened to sinners in hell? He sure as fuck hadn’t seen Lucifer do anything to suggest that he did. Hell seemed to be Lucifer’s punishment as much as it was Angel’s. “Anyhow, Char, that’s how I got to hell. My choices were to become daddy’s little monster or an early grave. Ironically, I got both.” He sighed.

“I am sorry for that, Angel,” she said.

“It was what it was. You know what, I am going to call up Nissy. I wanna see what happens when you do your redemption spiel but sit him down for it and really sell it. And let me watch.” Angel grinned ferally.

“Another reason Angel hasn’t redeemed; he’s a sarcastic jerk.” Vaggie rolled her eye.

“Always, babe. Okay, that’s my story. You’re up, Husky. Tell us your sins.” Angel patted Husk’s knee, earning himself a hot look.

“I’m not the one trying to get into heaven.”

“Nope, not that easy. Pen and I had to confess. It’s your turn. I wanna get my turn to comfort you.” He smiled and Husk scanned his expression and words for flirtation or insincerity.

Sensing none, Husk sighed. “Can I have a drink first?”

“Why do I think that factored into why Husk’s in hell?”

Husk narrowed his eyes at him. “Vaggie’s right. You are a sarcastic jackass.”

“Always, babe. Always, don’t even regret it.” Angel leaned on Husk’s shoulder and he allowed it. “But I really am here for you.”

Husk shook his head and spilled his guts. Angel felt no closer to heaven for his confession but who knew? Maybe someday. Maybe Charlie was right. Time would tell but maybe his “I’m never getting into heaven” would change to a maybe I can.



Out Of Practice Torchwood

To the Last Drop Stargate Atlantis

i loved him then / i love him still Supernatural

Weird Wedding Torchwood

Vs Are Lined Up Like Traffic Cones Hazbin Hotel

snug as a bunny 陈情令 | The Untamed (TV)魔道祖师 - 墨香铜臭 | Módào Zǔshī - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù

Chair The Murderbot Diaries

You Leave Me Breathless The Owl House

Ice Is Nice Stargate Atlantis/Real Genius

Kinkable Paint Hazbin Hotel

If you raise the stakes, you better be ready to raise your ass! Hazbin Hotel

Another Problem Torchwood

Monster Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Sean Bean Must Die Hazbin Hotel

Choices Star Wars Prequel Trilogy/Star Wars: The Clone Wars

Love's a gamble, and baby I'm all in. Hazbin Hotel wip


Hoot Alone The Owl House

Tempest The Murderbot Diaries

Nemo The Murderbot Diaries

a good pour 陈情令 | The Untamed /魔道祖师 - 墨香铜臭 | Módào Zǔshī - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù


And for [community profile] thefridayfive

1. What is your all time favorite book? When I was young I could answer this. I would have said Lord of the Rings but these days I never reread and I couldn't name a favorite book if I tried.

2. What is your all time favorite movie? Star War: The Empire Strikes Back (followed very closely by A New Hope, Indiana Jones and the raiders of the lost arc and Ghostbusters)

3. What are you reading right now? Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik and Under This Red Rock by Mindy McGinnis and an arc of We Can Never Leave by H.E. Edgmon

4. What is your favorite show on TV? Right now? Surreal Estate is fun but I haven't had a real favorite in years, one that I just can't miss. That's rather sad now that I think about it.

5. What is the last movie you saw in the theater? the Deadpool and Wolverine movie. I'm not much for going to the theater I'm afraid.

Date: 2025-05-03 12:00 pm (UTC)
spikedluv: (summer: sunflowers by candi)
From: [personal profile] spikedluv
Bummer about the rain. We're getting rain for the next four days. o_O

Also about your knee and that gabapentin is the only thing available when you already know you don't like it.

Date: 2025-05-03 08:00 pm (UTC)
suzume: Anya Forger from Spy x Family sitting in front of a television (Anya in front of the TV)
From: [personal profile] suzume
Those both sound majorly annoying. (Though I do receive at least some DMs on deviantArt asking me to draw something from some fandom I have a lack of familiarity with, for, uh, nothing? Like, what?)

Date: 2025-05-04 08:43 pm (UTC)
suzume: A sort of Kate Beaton-esque Scar looking out at flying birds (Nowhere to rest his head)
From: [personal profile] suzume
Seriously.

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