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It was a good day in Hell - at least, it was for those who worked the Hellp Desk. Most of the souls today were simply misdirected, people who believed they were supposed to be in Hell but who had actually been pretty decent in life. The Front Deathk handled most of those, usually, but some just couldn’t believe they had earned paradise until they heard it from someone sitting under a sign that read ‘Welcome to Hell: The Afterlife You Deserve’.
Penny helped some lost souls fill out their applications for their own paradise, while Ruggy made a quick coffee run. Judy was telling off a selfish soul, who still hadn’t realized that ‘bless your heart’ was not a compliment. Sharkie was over in a side cavern, trying to teach Cupcake to roll over - and the enormous dragon was doing its best to comply without breaking off too many stalagmites.
Lily looked over her charges fondly; Ruggy had certainly made the most dramatic transformation, but all of them were thriving. It made her proud to see them growing into the people they’d always wanted to be. Life had not been kind to them, but she was. Even when she wasn’t nice - as Ruggy could attest - Lily always tried to be kind.
Well, unless you were a complete scumbag. They’d gotten a few of those souls today, the ones that let all of them unleash some righteous anger. None that needed her to whip out her speed dial list, though. The kinds of souls that especially hurt her staff, Lily hated to see. She could shrug off pharma bros and insurance lobbyists now, but certain kinds of cruelty were still triggering for her people. It was an important part of their growth, to confront their trauma and overcome it, but the process was still painful. Lily hated watching it happen, even though she was so proud of them all. And they knew she always had their backs, ready with all the encouragement and support they might need.
“Coffee!” Ruggy sang out, and all of them took a well-earned break. It was almost the end of the workday, anyway.
Angel had met up with Ruggy at the coffee shop, and the two of them kept stealing little glances at each other, with smiles that warmed Lily’s heart to see. Sharkie, of course, just rolled their eyes at the pair. Lily couldn’t help a slight smirk; it was a joy to see her adopted child being fiercely and uniquely themselves. Even with all the gushy romance floating around, Ruggy and Angel practically making heart-eyes at one another, absolutely no one would ever dream of pressuring Sharkie to find a partner of their own. They didn’t want or need that, and it was just fine with the rest of the Hell’s Belles. Part of being on the team was accepting each other as they were.
If the people passing through could do that, they wouldn’t be down here. Earlier, one of the souls in Sharkie’s line had demanded to know if they were a boy or a girl. Sharkie had said simply, “I’m a shark.” The soul had gotten annoyed, and insisted, “What’s your gender?” To which Sharkie had just grinned and replied, “Chaos!” The stubborn bigot ended up going down to level three with some interesting bite marks, and Lily had laughed joyfully. Sharkie was a far cry from the sad, lost child she’d met in the beginning.
Beleth and Greg turned up, as they often did at the end of a shift, and Bel gave Lily that wonderful warm grin of his. “Hello, my bride-to-be,” he purred.
“Not this again,” Greg muttered, while Judy chuckled and Sharkie mimed throwing up.
“Hello, my groom-to-be,” Lily replied, and kissed him. He wrapped his powerful arms around her, and for a moment she felt even more at home than she did in her paradise.
“You going to the block party?” Angel was asking Judy, as Greg hugged Penny.
“Of course, my son’s coming down to be in the parade,” Judy replied, beaming. “He’s gonna be on the very first float this year, even. I’m so proud!”
“Wait, what block party?” Ruggy asked, looking confused.
Lily leaned comfortably against Bel while she replied, “The ‘Queer as Hell’ block party. Well, it’s not really just a block party anymore, it’s more like a pride parade knocked up Mardi Gras and the baby was born on Halloween. It was started years ago by a lot of souls who were always told they were damned because of their sexuality or their gender identity.”
“Why?” Ruggy asked. “I mean, they have their own paradises now, right?”
Angel jumped in to answer, “Mostly. But they still want to celebrate the fact that the people who hurt them were wrong, the Universe does love them just the way they are. And it’s always a great thing for the ones in level one who haven’t forgiven themselves yet.”
Ruggy blushed a little at that. She would’ve been in level one, if she hadn’t assigned herself to the Hellp Desk. Lily figured as long as she was doing the work to become a better person, it didn’t matter where exactly her penance took place. And frankly, some of the argumentative souls were as bad as anything on the top few levels.
Angel took Ruggy’s hand, making the blush suddenly much deeper. “Do you want to go? It’s a lot of fun. The parade is huge, it’s not just the floats. We’ve got three marching bands, a whole demons-in-drag revue, lots of families and found families marching together, plus there’s a ton of food and drinks and general partying. Oh, and a bonfire afterward!”
“I, uh, I mean, I’d love to, but um,” Ruggy stammered.
“You used to be the kind of person who’d protest a pride parade,” Lily said gently. Ruggy cast her eyes down, nodding sadly, and Angel squeezed her hand supportively. “It’s all right, Ruggy. That’s who you were, not who you are. You didn’t want to be that kind of person; you were just trying to be who you thought you had to be. Now that you know better, you do better.”
“Much better,” Angel added staunchly.
“Why of course,” Judy said. “Ruggy, darlin’, we all did things we’re ashamed of. Makin’ mistakes is just part of bein’ human! We’re all proud of you for having come so far. Now don’t you dwell on the past, you’ve learned from it. And you’ve got a whole future ahead of you to think about.” Her smile encompassed Angel as well, who grinned and blushed.
“We’re all going to the party,” Lily said. “You’ll be there with your friends, Ruggy.”
“You guys aren’t my friends,” Ruggy protested, and Sharkie frowned at her. Then she smiled, and said with a little quaver in her voice, “You’re my family.”
“That’s right,” Bel said, giving Lily an extra squeeze. “And we’ll be there to support you every step of the way. Especially at the burlesque show. It’s to die for - literally.”
Lily elbowed him lightly for that. “Ruggy, honey, if you think it’s too much, we can hang out in my paradise and watch from there.”
“Or you can come with me, I’m gonna ride Cupcake,” Sharkie put in. Their eyes sparkled. “I’ll be the only one who can see the whole parade at once!”
“It’s up to you. There’s always next year, if it’s too much,” Penny added.
“I’d like to go,” Ruggy finally said, looking shyly at Angel.
The succubus beamed. “You’ll love it! I’m going to be on the lava-surfing float, it’s three blocks long and has actual lava waves.”
“We’ll make a day of it,” Lily said, and smiled.
“Can we toast marshmallows again?” Sharkie asked.
“Of course,” Bel said, tugging gently at the top of their hoodie. “Just remember not to toast them in the Deadname Fire this time.”
“That was one time,” Sharkie protested. “I didn’t know they’d disappear! No one told me it wasn’t just a normal fire!”
“Deadname Fire?” Ruggy asked.
“Oh, that’s for transgender folks,” Judy told her. “That’s what they call the name they were given at birth, if it doesn’t suit them anymore. Now my son always wanted to be called Sam, so it was easy for me to learn better, but he had some people who would not quit calling him Samantha! That’s just rude. It’s even worse if you’re a Susan who used to be called Robert. Anyway, if a trans person writes their deadname on a piece of parchment and throws it into the Deadname Fire, then no one can ever call them that name again. Drives the transphobes apopletic, it really does.”
“That sounds great,” Ruggy said.
“It is,” Lily said. “People do it for their last names, too, if their birth family wasn’t kind to them.”
“No one down here would call anyone by their deadname though,” Ruggy pointed out.
“Well, no, but it’s the thought that counts,” Judy replied.
“Names have power,” Greg said, his voice solemn. “Letting go of a name that doesn’t fit you anymore, a name that hurt you, that has power, too.”
Ruggy nodded contemplatively, and Penny stepped in to add, “You could change your name, if you wanted. I mean, we’ve all been calling you Ruggy for so long, it feels like your real name now. But if you wanted to be called something else, you could.”
“You can choose any name that fits you, and we’ll respect that,” Lily said, as Ruggy looked to her in surprise. “You’re not the same person you were before. Maybe there’s another name for the person you’ve become.”
“As long as it ends in ‘y’ or ‘ie’,” Bel put in, and Lily rolled her eyes at him. That was just a coincidence.
Ruggy chuckled at Bel, and then said, “You know, I’ll have to think about it. I got used to answering to Ruggy, and the person Ruggy is … well, she’s a lot better than the person I used to be. Maybe I should keep that as a reminder. I had to spend a while being a rug before I could get up and get over myself.”
“Whatever you want,” Lily told her.
“I think Ruggy is a charming name,” Angel said.
“You’d think that if she was named Floor,” Greg teased.
Before the demons could start a round of friendly taunting, Lily cleared her throat. “That’s enough, you can bicker somewhere else. Break time’s over, we’ve got a handful of souls coming our way, and we need to get them sorted out before we head home for the night.”
“Aw, Mom,” Sharkie groaned, but their eyes shone with good humor.
It was a good day in Hell, and the Queer as Hell block party would be another one - though Lily reminded herself to make sure everyone had lots of coffee and aspirin for the morning after. It might turn out to be almost as wild a party as the celebration of her engagement to a certain Prince of Hell.
Speaking of her favorite demon himbo husband-to-be, Bel kissed her hair. “I need to stop by and check on Cereberus, see if he needs another dogfighter to chew on. Don’t work too hard, okay?”
“I’ll try not to,” Lily said, and caught his chin to give him a proper kiss.
“Yuck!” Sharkie groaned, pulling their hoodie over their eyes. “Get a room!”
“Or a storage closet,” Greg said dryly, and all of them laughed good-naturedly.