Hazbin Hotel Rewrite; Opening up at the Bar
From what I seen from hh with how it handles sa topics, it's very...questionable. Now the show hasn't still come out yet so I won't go into detail about it, but with how they use the song 'poison' and behind the scenes of it (viv making a sex joke as marketing the song and the lead storyboard shipping val x angel despite what it's meant to portray in canon) makes it understandable for people to critque the show's portrayal of it. So for here, I want to approach Angel's truama as respectfully as I can with Angel opening up to Husk as it seems to be the same episode where both of them improve their relationship. I hope I'm able to address sa well because I know it's a very delicate topic that shouldn't be written lightly (especially for truama responses like hypersexuality) so if you have any problems with how I written it and how I should change it, please let me know. I will rewrite it until I portray this topic properly and credit you for your critque/help (unless you don't want to)
Content Warning; SA and mention of drug/alcohol addiction
A bar full of bottles and boozes sitting there in windless silence, aching for their next customer. Its emptiness is numbing, the stranded desert of this hotel. Husk, tapping his fingers in rhythm, halts it as though the ticking of a clock stops and sighs in relief, grateful that his work is now done. He takes a bottle of booze, fulfilling its fate as he opens the lid to drain it all down, until he hears the door creaking.
He groans “Oh it’s you,” as Angel Dust drags himself towards the bar, collapsing his face to the poseur table. “What do you want now? Bar’s gonna close soon. So hurry up.”
Angel’s face tilts up. “A drink, please.” His voice is soft yet hoarse.
Husk rolls his eyes, wishing for that sweet graveness to enter this bar once again. He goes through his bottles. “Which one?” He asks with a hostile glare.
“Any.”
Angel Dust slowly lifts himself up from the table, staring in discomfort at Husk grabbing a random bottle from his shelf, a sense of dread lingers onto him.
“Husk…” His voice grows quiet.
“What?”
“I’m…sorry.” His eyes not meeting Husk’s gaze.
“For what?” He responds snappily, placing one hand to his hip.
“For earlier…” Angel answers, his eyes still refusing to see Husks. “For saying and doing all those weird things to you, I'm sorry.”
His grouchy face still remains. “Whatever,” firmly placing the bottle to the table and swishing it towards Angel. “Don’t do that again.”
“Yeah,” his body tenses, “I hope so…”
Husk brows raised. “Hope so? What do you mean?”
The question hangs on as Angel Dust fiddles their hands, looking down at the wooden dry floor. The room has been fogged in silence as Husk finds himself repeatedly tapping his fingers, wondering when the clock will finally end its grating tick.
“Well…” His voice quivers, tracing his eyes back to Husks. “I don’t know…”
Husk’s face turned puzzled. “The hell you mean you don't know?!”
“I-” Angel pauses himself for a moment, “I don't know. I just don’t know.” His face bangs on the table as his arms come to cover.
“Ah well, might just be a you problem then.” He cackles at his own joke, with hollow applause.
Angel huffs, “That’s what you all think.” His voice became more irritated.
Husk’s laughter abrupt into cold stillness, his voice freezes with the rest of his body.
Angel continues, “All of you think i’m just some dirty sex pest, huh? A running sex joke?” Anger starts to rise through his voice, “Even Charlie thinks what I do is just who I am- like I chose this!” He cuts himself off, facing down to the lifeless floor again. “Like I chose this…”
Husk words vanished, his voice having trouble coming out of his mouth. All he could do is stand there, watching Angel Dust ponder through his thoughts.
“You know I don’t actually like being sexual twenty-four seven? Crazy right?” He formed a smile, though not by sweetness, but by bitterness. “I don’t actually like making endless sex jokes or dirty talk, I don’t actually like to constantly fantasise or masturbate or sleep around with a bunch of nobodies,” bitterness starts to spread through his voice, “and I especially don’t like working in that place!” He holds his breath, exhaling to serene air. “But I do it anyway, no matter how hard I try.” His finger scratched the table harshly with a melancholic frown. “I don’t know what is wrong with me, I didn’t used to be like this, it was only after-” Angel cuts himself off as his body starts trembling. He places a heart on his hand, feeling the rapid sounds of his heartbeat. “After…” He slows himself, unable to muster anything else to speak of.
His eyes lift to Husk, seeing the statue that he became, his widened pupils not even taking one blink. Angel’s face rose with worry, “Oh uh…sorry.” He murmurs. “Sorry, I’ll just take the booze or-”
“Go on.” Husk's voice comes back again.
“W-what?” He quivers, taken aback by what he heard.
“Go on…” Husk's voice trails off, still a statue of himself.
Angel Dust pursed his lips, facing down once more. “There was a time back then, when I sneaked into a bar for some alcohol, the thing that helped me most when I was alive. There was a really fancy bottle, porcelain white shimmering with bubbles, I couldn’t help myself. I had to have it. Then he caught me, I thought he would kill me. Instead, he made a deal; that if I work in his business, I won’t need to steal anything or even need a place to stay…” He breaks off, his fingers scraping themselves to a shell. “So I worked as one of his sex workers; a stripper for his bars, an actor for his films, anything to do with sex, really. It wasn’t what I was always interested in, but it felt…better? Being more open and honest about myself that I never got to do on earth. That is, until I came back to his home…He told me he wanted to show me something, my ‘reward’...” He holds back on his words, wrapping his arms around in a warm embrace. “After that, I…I don't know, I guess that’s where I started becoming more sexual. It’s like a switch where my mind now constantly thinks about sex, even if it’s not what I want. It’s my poison.” He holds onto his words again, reflecting his thoughts. “Maybe it’s a way of control, to take back what he did to me, not letting him hurt me…but is it any good if you can’t control it yourself?” He finds himself eyeing at the bottle of toxicated liquid. “That’s why I came here, I couldn’t find any drugs. So alcohol will just have to do.”
Husk exhales a quiet breath, with Angel’s words stalling through his mind. He saw Angel reaching for the bottle. “Wait!” He alerts, taking the bottle before Angel could have the chance. Angel looks at him, confound. “Why?” Husk fell silent, wavering on his memory like a lightning struck in a bottle. He places the bottle back to its fateless place and starts rummaging through the tea bags until one reads ‘Black Caravan Tea’. He places the tea bag in a muggy cup and clicks the kettle to brew. Minutes go by as the kettle finally makes its thump, breaking Husks trance as he pours the steamy water onto the cup and gently pushes it over to Angel. “Here” He says softly. “Careful, it’s hot.” Angel slowly directs his eyes to the hot tea, then back to Husk, his mouth making a quiet gasp. “I know it’s not much,” He adds. “But for you, I hope it can be enough.”
Angel dust calmly blows the steam off his tea and takes a sip, warm smoky sweetness filling his mouth in peaceful bliss. He continues sipping it at a slow pace, enjoying each moment with him and his magical tea, transforming his mind to ocean waves, hearing its soothing whooshes and the pleasant echoes of bird’s chirping. After taking one last sip, he notices Husk with his own muggy cup, cooling off the steam before slurping down the whole tea to an empty cup. His grouchy face disappeared, replacing it with a genial smile; friendly and relaxed. Like warming his face with radiant golden sunlight.
“What’s this?” Angel asks as soon as Husk tastes his last drop.
“Black Caravan.” Husk replies, licking his lips. “My Babushka always makes this tea, saying ‘If you get upset, don’t waste your mouth with vodka, relish it with Caravan.’” He glimpses away from Angel dust, shining a little star in his eyes before glaring at the shelves of bottles and boozes. “Heh, no wonder I hadn’t remembered…”
Angel snickers. “My Nonno says something similar. He said; ‘You don’t stuff your mouth with alcohol, you stuff it with Frittelie!’” They both chuckle with each other, reminiscing of their old lives before the room went to silence. Both eyes looking away from each other as Angel proceeds to fiddle with his hands and Husk tapping his table, now only slow and with no rhythm. A clock’s final strikes till midnight. “You know,” He spoke solemnly. “After you're done with work and all, instead of finding drugs, you can come straight here to talk or have some tea. Either one or both to get off some steam.”
Angel glances back to Husk’s sentimental gaze, his eyes lit up. “You’ll…You’ll do that?”
“Yeah.” He responds, keeping his gaze to Angel Dusts. “I’d do. For you…”
Their eyes locked in their gazes, their beating hearts twined to one another. Angel’s eyes turn away from the burning faint shades of pink of his face, looking steadily at the cup. “Yeah,” a small line shaped to a tender smile, “I’d like that.”
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Tw for mentions of drugs and ODS
I can see Pony eventually having kids, like having a whole house or something in his twenties, like twentie two, like I mean young. I can see him having a daughter, two years old, he wouldn't be a BAD father, no he beoukd be a pretty good one, but he still has a lot, I mean ALOT of issues. I feel like genuinely the aspirin abuse would lead to more. Since its a gateway to more hardcore drugs, he would obviously keep this, secrete from Darry, and Soda because you know both them would lose there shit, he would hide them or try and get them to a different place when they came to visit. Which wasn't very use full since Darry loved Suprise visits. He hid the drugs decently from his daughter, but would talk to her like tell her what to do during an Od and wouldn't use them in front of her, but he would be assleep, and Darry would come over to visit and talk with his daughter ( he loved his daughter sm that had the silliest bond.) but I mean that man left like a pill or something out and darry asked what it was and she gave him a whole musical number, because she's like 2 (something like this PSA. https://youtu.be/OpTKdu3s_Fs?si=aMZAzEXMYZoQR-ZU ) and oh my god that man would freak, and be mad but mostly be concerned about his daughter first. (he's not abusive no absoulty not, he treats his daughter lovely, and loves her so much.) and then ask about pony, and she wouldn't lie. Believe me when that man woke up Darry had raided the whole house.
DAMNNN THAT PSA WAS CRAZY
but no fr tho pony has such an addictive personality and there's no way that his constant reliance on both cigarettes and aspirin wouldn't end up leading to something more if no one was able to catch on to it soon enough. and pony LOVES his daughter but he just doesn't know how to cope properly after years of relying on substances to deal with his issues. 100% darry would be freaking tf out when he finds out about pony doing drugs AND about his daughter having to know what to do if anything goes wrong. especially because darry knows what it's like to lose parents, and he can't see how after everything, after all of the pain of losing their mom and dad, that pony could still risk losing his life and depriving his daughter of a parent. that's what makes darry the angriest about the situation, is that pony is risking putting his daughter in the same situation he had to suffer through as a child (and, darry thinks to himself (though he feels a little selfish about the thought later), that if pony dies, darry will be stuck having to take care of another child that isn't his). when darry confronts pony it's one big mess, with screaming and crying, and pony tries to explain to darry that the whole reason he taught his daughter what to do in case something goes wrong was so that there was less of a chance of pony dying and his daughter having to go through that. in pony's mind, this is perfectly reasonable, but it only makes darry angrier.
i like to think that with darry and soda's help, pony was eventually able to stop doing drugs and to realize how much pain he would have put both his daughter and his brothers through if anything happened to him
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