Before the armored man could even seat, Charlie had already taken a position at her desk while Vaggie escorted him in.
"Welcome to Hazbin Hotel! I'm so glad you decided to check in!" She exclaimed, a little too excitedly. The man said nothing as he hunched in his chair, still taking time to check his surroundings.
"Good luck getting a response out of this one. I was trying to get his attention for a couple of minutes before I gave up." Angel Dust remarked. Vaggie looked like she was getting more tense by the second. Charlie was still for a moment. This stranger hadn't said a word even in their first encounter. Demons who were antisocial were one thing, but Charlie couldn't read him at all. But if she was going to get to know him, perhaps it was better to just keep things simple. And what was more simple than introductions?
"Well, we shouldn't crowd around him." She said, lifting a hand.
"That's Vaggie, my best friend. That's Angel Dust, a fellow client of yours." She pointed to each as she spoke.
"And you can call me Charlie!" She extended her hand out. She didn't say any more, wanting to let him act on his own rather than directly asking for a response. Fortunately, this actually prompted a response. Maybe all he needed was a warmer environment, Charlie thought to herself. He reached for some kind of necklace he kept tucked somewhere, and upon closer inspection, Charlie realized they were dog tags.
"Stan Blazkowicz?" She murmured aloud. Stan nodded in response. Charlie felt that creeping, happy sensation again.
"Huh. How about that, she actually did it." Angel Dust halfheartedly commented. "Okay, Bill."
He had leaned into a slouching position on the chair with his legs in the air, but then he picked his head up.
"You know, I don't think I've ever met any demon who called themselves a regular name like that." He inquired. Charlie's good mood distracted her from obvious observations like that, but he was right. And where did he get dog tags? There was no standing demon military. And William's skin was a different pigmentation from anyone she's ever met. And leathery, and...
"Vaggie, can we go talk for a second?" Charlie blurted out, taking Vaggie by the shoulders and pushing her out the door.
"We'll just be a moment!" She called reassuringly over her shoulder before shutting the door.
"What's wrong now?" Vaggie grunted, a little too loudly.
"There's something different about William." Charlie whispered, trying to hint at Vaggie as to what whispering actually sounds like.
"Besides the obvious?"
"Not exactly, I mean he's not...like a demon."
"What do you mean?"
"He's..." Charlie paused for a moment, peering through the door window for a moment.
"It's hard to explain, okay? It just feels like he's not from around here."
"So what, there's others like him?"
"Not necessarily, just...look, I've spent a lot of time preparing for the kinds of demons I'd come across. It's actually easier to, well, categorize them than you'd think. But look at this guy's skin! He's just...out of place. Like he's more...lively." Charlie was beginning to feel a little exasperated at how un-helpful she sounded, even to herself, but that's what was on her mind. Vaggie seemed uncertain, but she trusted Charlie enough to take her on her word.
"So now what? What do we say?"
"I don't know yet, but...that's probably why he's been so quiet. All of this must be new to him, you know? Let's just try to work things out." Charlie opened her office door with a flourish, not wanting to keep her guest waiting.
"Well, I'm glad that we're done going over topics completely unrelated to anyone here!" She said loudly, giving Vaggie a wink. Angel Dust didn't respond and William seemed to be fiddling with his gear. Charlie was unperturbed by this as she stepped forward, slinging an arm around his shoulder.
"I was just thinking about how people shouldn't feel uncomfortable, just because they're in an unfamiliar place with people they don't know!" She said, trying to make a show of how she was definitely not talking about him. However, this seemed to resonate with William, turning his obscured gaze towards her. Charlie said nothing, eagerly waiting for some kind of response from him. But before there could have been a response, there was a noise coming from a nearby window, outside, and down below. And then, there was a shattering sound inside.
Charlie jumped at the sound of glass splintering, once again her horns instinctively springing from her head She thought she had better control over that. Checking the room, it seemed like someone threw a rock through her window...again. William had already seen what it was like for Charlie to be distraught, so he rose to his feet, his menacing form becoming more pronounced.
"No, no! It's okay, it's okay! This just...it happens." Charlie said, reassuringly, almost pleadingly so, as she put a firmer grip on his shoulders while Vaggie went to look out the window.
"Fuck off, asshole!" She called out. Angel Dust seemed as uninterested as ever. Charlie took that to mean that least she wasn't getting heat from someone he knew, that would have been bad.
"Sit in your little castle, dumb bitch!" Charlie froze. Usually the vagrant would have just been on their way by now. She didn't know what'd she do if they stuck around for more.
"I'll come down there and leave a bloody speck if you wanna keep going!" Vaggie hollered. She was helping, but Charlie was worried about her getting William riled up, something that was being more evident as he stomped towards the window, preparing one of those massive weapons of his.
"Wait...waitwaitwait!" Charlie hissed, trying to tug on his shoulders to no avail. Now Angel Dust was interested, watching the armored soldier with fascinated intent. Vaggie heard his heavy boots approaching behind her and turned around, about to say something but he shouldered past her. The weapon he held was large enough for even him to use both hands, some kind of railgun that was a sleek white color, radiating with power cells, resting it on the window sill.
"You'll stay holed up in your sunshine house if you know what's goo-" The railgun ignited with a blue pulse, sending an arcing wave forward. There was an abrupt cry of agony, and then there was nothing. The soldier, content, returned to his seat. Now it was both Charlie and Angelt Dust's to push their way to the window. From the height of the window, all they could see was the smoking, radiated corpse of someone who had half of their upper body melted away.
"Bill, buddy, I'm delighted to see that I had the wrong idea about!" Angel Dust remarked, turning to give William a congratulatory pat on the back. And a few more in various other places along his body. Lower places of his body. Charlie was still fixated with widened eyes on the smoldering corpse. But what did it mean? If this man was so isolated, why was he so quick to kill others? And if he had a disregard for life, why hadn't he killed her yet? What made her so different? Then her thoughts were fixed on how he had looked over her business card. Was it really that simple?
"Hey, Angel Dust..."
"Sorry, what?"
"What were your thoughts on Hazbin Hotel, again?"
"Oh, simple. I think it's a bunch of shit that's gonna blow up in your pretty face. I mean, you'd have to be some kind of psycho to actually think-" William brought a gauntleted fist upward, hitting Angel Dust clean in the nose, which expelled quite an amount of blood, despite the clear lack of force behind it.
"OW! Fucking...damnit!" He whined, staggering backward as his limbs flailed around him. Now Charlie was more perplexed. It was only a hunch, but it was quite one to pursue as her mind whirled with the possibilities. But something that occurred to her was how, aside from Vaggie, this was the first time she had some real assistance. No one actually believed in Hazbin Hotel's potential, and despite Charlie's wealth, she had found herself attending many of the responsibilities on her own, from receptionist, to psychiatrist, even to janitor. She had done all of this because she wanted the hotel to succeed, she had never even stopped to ask if there were alternatives. Until now.