Pentagram City
Silence permeated between Joshua and Husk as the two walked beside each other through streets of hell, neither of the two spoke to each other since they left the hotel; one opted to stare ahead whilst holding his firearm against his shoulder as he strides forward, while the other was pocketing his hands as he walked beside the other sinner.
Neither sinner spoke a word, even when a random demon stepped out of an alleyway with the offer of drugs, "Heya fellas, look'n for a good time? Cuz I got just the thing for you!" The drug dealing sinner offered while whipping open his coat to show a wide variety of bags and needles.
The only thing both chose to do was walk around from both sides of the sinner demon while the drug dealer was still holding his coat open to show all his wares. "Bwuh, hey!" the drug dealer exclaimed while Husk and Joshua ignored him. "Fine, I got tons more customers lined up than some suckers like you!" he flipped the two off before huffing off with an irritated look.
As the two sinners were within enough distance away from the drug dealer demon, Husk was the first to finally speak up as he kept his eyes forward, "Kid wasn't even selling the good stuff either, not that I'd partake in that garbage much." he grouched a bit lowly.
After a few more seconds passed, Joshua spoke back with a measured tone, "Such a thing…psychiatric drugs are, I have seen men and women take worse." He remarked with a stoic look in his eyes as he paid attention forward whilst he and Husk continued walking forward. "No amount of narcotics will bring anyone happiness, it is only a downward spiral of suffering." he finished saying.
In response to Joshua's critique against and around the idea of drugs, Husk commented back while still walking forward with his hands stuffed in his pockets, "Tell that to everyone in hell, and I doubt you'd get anyone to listen. Everyone's already at their bottom, with every indulgence available."
"Quite so. But that does not mean sinners have the need to make their existence worse." Joshua started back with a harsh look in his eyes, but continued gazing forward as he continued to walk, "Adding fuel to the fires of their sinful ways will only worsen their lot in the afterlife."
Husk snorted a bit in amusement at the way Joshua worded his response, "That's rich coming from you, boomstick man. Look at you." Husk remarked as he continued to walk while momentarily glancing at Joshua with a sideways look, "Our sinner bodies are suppose to reflect the lives we lived, and I can only imagine the shit you did in life if nothing but charred skin is underneath all that." he lifted his right hand out to point at Joshua.
Not paying mind to Husk's glance his way, Joshua responded back with a calm and collected tone, "And you would be right." Joshua said as he glanced back at Husk's sideways glance to him, "But that does not mean I did not learn from my past mistakes." he remarked, before looking back forward as the two kept walking.
"Pheh." Husk rolled his eyes a bit and too looked forward as he walked beside the burnt man, "So I've heard." he said, while remembering some idle gossip from Angel about Joshua's circumstances of getting covered in pitch, lit aflame, and tossed into the grand canyon. "You sure you didn't just die then and there at the bottom of the Grand Canyon?" he asked gruffly, with some skepticism in his tone. "Seems to be a bit of a stretch to survive such shit."
"Rather you believe me, or not, it matters not to me, for it is in the past now." Joshua spoke back in a calm tone while both sinners kept walking forward, within a good distance of their vision was a market district that advertised a wide range of stores that sold alcohol. "In any case, I believe this is where we part ways for now."
While the two approached the nearest alcohol store, Husk continued to the front door while Joshua stayed behind; As Husk approached the door of the liquor store, he turned to glance at Joshua, "Stick around, and I'll help with whatever you're hunting down with all that firepower of yours." he informed Joshua, earning a questioning look from said man along with a raised brow underneath his wrappings.
Husk turned to gesture at Joshua a bit, "Oh don't look surprised, whatever is it you're planning on doing, I've seen that look before. So don't be coy with whatever you're trying to pass off." he gruffly explained with a look directed back at Joshua questioning eyes.
With a critical gaze from Joshua, the burnt man replied back to him with a skeptic tone, "I am just uncertain why you would join with the endeavor that I am partaking in." he explained with a flat tone that matched his skeptic voice. "You have no need to involve yourself in my own matters."
Husk shrugged off Joshua's question with a bored look on his face, "Yeah well, let's just say I need to work off some steam, and cabin fever isn't doing me any favors with staying cooped up in the hotel everyday behind the bar."
With a hard look in his eyes, Joshua spoke back to Husk with a matter of fact tone, "While I will not deny your extended olive branch of assistance, know that the task I am about to do, draws no enjoyment out of me. This endeavor of mine involves nothing short of making the other party cease their actions against my person. Nothing more, nothing less. There is no catharsis in any of it." Joshua warned Husk with a fierce stare back at the feline demon's face.
Husk rolled his eyes and turned to enter the shop, "Yeah, keep telling yourself that kid-"
"I highly doubt either of us are in the position to talk down to each other, in such a manner." Joshua interrupted Husk with an amused glint in his eyes, to which Husk turned to look back at Joshua once more and measure the man's worth.
Before Husk shrugged, "Eh, I suppose you're right. How old were you at your death?" Husk asked out of the blue.
"I witnessed at least eighty five winters, at the very least, give or take a few years." Joshua answered with a hapless shrug.
"Mhm." Husk remarked with a raised eyebrow, "What, did you live off the grid or something, you make it sound like you barely lived with civilization." he mused, thinking back to how some people back in his day chose to live away from civilization and out in the countryside. Only coming back every once and a while to stock up on supplies.
"In a manner of speaking, you could say that." Joshua answered with a faraway look in his eyes, while momentarily looking to the side in thought.
In response to Joshua's answer, Husk simply shrugged and mosied on into the store, leaving Joshua to himself for the time being.
While Husk busied himself in acquiring what he needed, Joshua was stuck beside himself now, waiting on the Cat Demon to finish his errand; as the minutes ticked away, Joshua reached with his free hand to dig into one of his tactical vest pockets, and pull out a slip of paper that was folded up.
After a bit of maneuvering the folded slip of paper with his fingers, Joshua focused his attention down at the address. Nodding to himself, Joshua folded the paper back up before placing it back into a pocket on his tactical vest; he wanted to be sure he had the right address of one of Leviathan's holdouts.
Doing a bit of digging with the assistance of Miss Carmine, Joshua found the demon was one of the older overlords that managed to stay alive to this day, that and his real name was Fredrick.
Never let it be said he did not ask Alastor in a passing conversation. He tolerated the Radio Demon enough to ask if he knew anything about the Leviathan, and what he got was not any whereabouts of the overlord's location, but an opinion against the overlord's character.
"Ohoho" Alastor grinned while letting out a soft chortle as he and Joshua stood within a hallway of the hotel. The overlord twirled his mic cane as he looked back at Joshua, "Oh, that old chap? A greedy one to say the least, very ambitious during my early years in hell."
Alastor slapped his cane into his other hand and smiled coyly at Joshua, "Why you ask?" he inquired from Joshua, who stood not far from the Radio Demon with his arms cross and his gaze fixated on the demon.
"I have…had an altercation with his men. I intend to find out what he wants from me, and demand he cease his actions against me." Joshua spoke back to Alastor with a harsh gaze.
"Mmh…" Alastor rolled his eyes a bit while slamming his cane into his hand once more, before giving Joshua an amused look, "And what, did you think I'd know where he lives?"
"Quite the opposite, in fact." Joshua answered the radio demon, "You yourself have stated you've been on a seven year sabbatical, I am merely asking what sort of character the Leviathan Demon is."
"Oh please!" Alastor chuckled some and smiled rather nastily, "Fredrick likes to think himself a leviathan, but he's nothing but bluster and gas after I chewed his arm off from our last altercation." he hummed afterwards with some mirthful chortling.
Joshua momentarily looked to the side in thought, removing the thought of Alastor using his own teeth to chew off a man's arm from his mind, before uncrossing his arms to leave the conversation, "I see, then I believe that is all I will be asking." he remarked, while leaving Alastor to himself.
Joshua was just fortunate enough that Miss Carmine was forth willing enough to divulge one of 'Fredrick's' bases, on the grounds he smith her a gun free of charge. Thus with the arrangement between him and Carmine, Joshua was granted an address.
Even if the Leviathan demon was not there, he would have to make one of his men talk. It was hard to be a peaceful man when all around you there was violence, but what was peace without securing it with violence? It was an all too real fact Joshua had to live with when he looked after the tribes and what remained of his family in his twilight years.
And just as the Mojave taught him the nature of man, so too did the Hell he's come to know now as nothing more than a might makes right sort of life. You either pull yourself up by the bootstrap and defend yourself from the worse elements, or you end up chewed up and spat out a slave to whatever overlord you sold your soul to.
Meanwhile
Charlie gazed at the banner above the street that read 'Little Italy', and couldn't help but quirk her lip a bit while tapping her lip a bit, before turning her head to look at Arackniss with a bright look on her face after taking in the sight of the italian district of Pride Ring. "Well, it's certainly got its atmosphere, I'll give the place that." she remarked.
Rather than Arackniss reply back to her, Angel Dust spoke up while he stood beside his older brother with a miffed look on his face, "Yeah, too much of it, if you ask me." he grouched with his four arms crossed while a passing glance in the direction of various ongoing gang violence happening off in the distance. "Nothing's really changed with our people, even after death." he griped, a glare present in his eyes.
Arackniss turned to slap his brother on the back in jest with a smirk on his face, "Hey, at least no one dies after getting shot…well, you do, but then you just get back up after a while."
"Jeez." Vaggie spoke up while standing beside Charlie on the other side, her fists were on her hips as she looked around at the various citizens not paying any mind to the background gang violence between various mob family, "And here I thought Cannibal town had its problems." she then gestured at everyone going about their business.
Before Angel could comment on worst it really was behind closed doors of the mob life, Arackniss stepped around Charlie to speak directly to Vaggie while pinning two off his left hands against his side and raising his two right arms to point at her, "Oh believe me, you spend one night in little Italy, and you'll find it's better here than living in a town of cannibals where you have a more chance of getting a piece of yourself chewed off, than getting a stray bullet shot at you in little Italy." he argued with a heated glare at Vaggie.
"Ok guys." Charlie tried to reprimand the two and lead the way forward with a gesture of her arms and warm smile, "Let's not argue about what place is worse, we're not here for that." She then focused her attention on both Arackniss and Angel, "Now, where did you say your father's restaurant was?" she asked from either of the two arachnid brothers.
"Tch." Angel Dust crossed his arms and looked off to the side with a glare, "Don't ask me, princess, I never bothered hooking back up with my folks after kicking the bucket."
Arackniss rounded on his brother with an annoyed look, "Yeah, and look where that got ya, right back to the shit that killed you, and don't even get me started on your new habit of getting your caesar salad tossed!" he pointed at Angel with a disapproving glare.
"And here we go!" Angel exclaimed as he threw his arms up in exasperation, and glared down at his brother while poking down at his brother's chest with his finger, "News flash, Jon'." he squinted down at his brother with a hateful gaze, "I was always gay."
"Of course we knew that!" Arackniss yelled back while glaring back up at Angel's now surprised face, "You think we didn't know? My god, you were looking at Dad's men like how I look at the ladies, it wasn't hard to figure out!" Angel's brother broke back into yelling in his native tongue, while falling into gesturing with his fingers pinched and motioning with his hands.
"Then why didn't anyone say anything!" Angel asked with a bewildered look, he too fell into speaking his Italian tongue, "Did Ma even know?"
Arackniss jerked his hands more fervently as he argued more with his brother, "Anthony, it was so evident the way you looked at men, it was impossible for everyone in the family to not know, we just chose not to say anything. It was the fucking early nineteen hundreds for fucks sake! I could care less about your sexuality at the time, but it's the fact that you're treating yourself like the village bicycle!"
"You're just jealous I'm getting all the action, and everyone wants a piece of my ass!" Angel yelled back at Arackniss, put off that his brother was calling him out on his porn star activities. "I'm fucking enjoying everybit of the fame I've earned with it!" Angel argued into the face of his brother with a wide eyed look.
Arackniss simply looked back up at his younger brother with an unamused look on his face, and all of his hands against his sides, "'Tony, I've been in the crime business long enough to see nasty shit. And what you got going on is no different. So don't tell me you're enjoying it, 'cause it insults my intelligence." he said with a level tone of voice.
"Should…we do something?" Vaggie asked in a low tone of voice with Charlie, who was unsure how to act.
"I think…this might be good for Angel." Charlie answered back in an equal low tone of voice. "I mean, this is good right? Reconciliation?" she asked, to which she looked directly at Vaggie, who simply shrugged back at her partner.
"Hon, you're the one that's supposed to come up with ways to rehabilitate sinners." Vaggie answered Charlie with a flat look, "Just make sure none of this-" She pointed off to the side where a roving band of cars zoomed by in the distance with mobsters shooting at each other, "Doesn't follow us to the hotel."
Charlie couldn't help but shrug happlessly at her partner's insistence that none of the trouble from the Italian district is brought back home, "I mean, it's not that bad right?" she asked with a nervous smile. And gesture to a bakery in the distance that held a woman opening it for the day to sell bread and pasta. "And look, that right there looks quite-"
Before Charlie could defend how quint the district was, the woman that was opening her shop up, pulled out a Tommy gun and fired at the bread store across the street, "Fuck you Allegra, your recipe is shit!" The sinner yelled in italian.
From across the street, the door of the bakery was opened up by another woman wielding the same style gun, "That's not what your husband said last night!" She yelled back, before both female sinners began firing at each until both fell over from being riddled with bullets from each other.
Vaggie, with a flat look on her face, looked sideways at Charlie and crossed her arms, "Yeah, what was that you were about to say?" she asked.
"Oh~" Charlie tried to wave off the random violence between two sinner spouses, "I'm sure once they recover, they get along really well." she smiled, before frowning a bit, "At least, I hope so…" she added.
"Yeah. keep telling yourself that hon." Vaggie remarked with a somewhat amused smile at how Charlie always wanted to see the best in sinners.