Fanfic / Thicker Than Water (Hazbin Hotel)

aka: Thicker Than Water

Marty has been in hell for a few decades, living life as an average demon in Pentagram City, that is, until he discovers I.M.P. has been hired to murder his still living daughter, Liz. Through a botched assassination attempt, Liz reunites with Marty in Hell - a father she hadn't seen for over 30 years. With no other choice but to trust Marty to protect her against the hazards of Hell, they work together to discover the identity of the demon who wants her dead.

Thankfully, there is safe refuge in the Happy Hotel.

Thicker than Water is a Hazbin Hotel fanfic written by Aragem. The story details the adventure of a (still living) human named Elizabeth Carter, or "Liz" for short, being trapped in Hell, while getting to know Marty, her father that she never met in life.

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Thicker than Water provides examples of:

• Absurdly Spacious Sewer: The sewers of Pentagram City is compared to like a maze and looks like abstract art with turns and twists that make no sense, short hallways that lead to dead ends, and not all the tunnels are shaped the same nor are the same height.
• Action Survivor: Downplayed. Much of Liz's continued survival can be attributed to luck and the kindness of others, however, there have been times where she was able to save herself. The most notable example was during I.M.P's failed assassination on her, where her actions lead to incapacitating Blitzo and Moxxie long enough to escape.
• Accidental Murder: Of the murder-suicide variety. Diego agrees to burn down a building for someone to get the insurance money, and told his brother Mateo to wait for him to finish doing so, with his sibling not knowing what he's really doing. When he took too long, Mateo got worried and went back to their old home to check on him, and was caught in the flames. Diego tried to save him, but it was too late for the both of them.
• Adaptational Villainy: Well, more like Adaptational Antagonism. I.M.P's staff and their personalities haven't been changed from canon, however, the POV of this fic comes from one of their targets and her dad, meaning that, in this story, they have gone from being Villain Protagonists, to regular villains.
• All Myths Are True: The last recorded human to enter Hell was named Dante, who wrote about his experience there.
• Asshole Victim: In Chapter 48, Zero and Zip are shot and killed by Izzy and Moxxie, respectively. No tears are shed for either of them.
  Jesse: (Kicks Zip's body) He got to die too quickly.
• Big Damn Heroes: Elizabeth so far has been on the receiving end of this three times:
  • The first time was when Marty took her unconscious body from I.M.P's conference room.
  • The next time was when Alastor scared away the demons Seviathan hired to go after her.
  • Then when Jesse saved her from being taken by Izzy.
• Blackmail: Liz gets Diego to help take down CandyLand by threatening to tell his brother he's responsible for their deaths.
• Conditioned to Accept Horror:
  • Most characters follow this trope, seeing how the fic mainly takes place in Hell. Marty even thinks Liz was acting odd for feeling so shaken by her attempted murder, until he remembered that such a thing isn't as common in the living world as it is in Hell. Later on we get this bit:
    Liz: I mean, we survived a murder mill and fought off a horde of robots with chainsaws for arms. It feels surreal that you're about to do some grocery shopping. I'm still... shaken, I guess.

Marty: You're probably just hungry.

• This becomes more of an issue for Elizabeth when she tries to convince Diego to leave CandyLand. While it's true he and his brother are abused in several ways in their current situation, it's not that different from their lives as orphan Mexican boys living in 1930s America.

Diego: Yeah, the imps are all bastards, do you think the bosses and foremans on Earth were any better?

• Crazy-Prepared: Izzy catches Liz in the sewers by scaring her out with hidden speakers he has down there. According to him, this is not the first time someone has tried escaping him via sewers.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Due to the fact that the Imps who worked as security and enforcers at CandyLand were more accustomed to abusing children weaker than them and had no real experience in combat, when The Family, who are made up of trained marksmen with more experience in combat, carry out a takeover on CandyLand, the imps stood little to no chance of holding them back and it took the skills of I.M.P, who are trained assassins, to give them a fighting chance.
• Darker and Edgier: The story is noticeably darker and without much of the humor that the source material is known for, with a greater emphasis on the hazards of Hell. It's at least partly justified by the fact that the main character is a very fragile human in a very unsafe world that she doesn't belong in, so it makes sense that the evil and dangers of Hell would be given more focus.
• Deader than Dead: As in canon, any demon killed by angelic weaponry is this trope. Not only that, but it is shown that cutting parts off a demon over a long period of time will drain their regeneration to the point it will no longer work. Many demons met the latter fate due to Brian Hartly's actions, and Brian himself dies in the former way when Marty slits his throat with an Angel Blade.
  Arackniss: There's life on Earth, and death in Heaven or Hell. Nothing after that.
• Deal with the Devil: CandyLand's overlord, Jack, makes the sinners working under him sign a contract to keep them working under him for eternity in exchange for safety from everything outside Candyland's walls (though not from what's in Candyland itself). Bizarrely, Jack never makes an appearance for the signings himself, which makes Alastor believe the contracts themselves might not hold any real water to them.
• Didn't Think This Through: Elizabeth's Fatal Flaw is that she has a habit of acting in the heat of the moment. When she was on Earth, this lead her to making an unprofessional threat to another lawyer, and made people think she had something to do with said lawyer's life falling apart later. In Hell, she literally threw the wad of cash Seviathan gave her at his face, which ended up with him sending demons after her to teach her a lesson. However, her biggest failure was when she tried using the Angel Blade on Izzy trying to kidnap her instead of running away like Marty said she should. This ended up giving the intruder a weapon that can actually kill her dad. Liz even lampshades that there were better options she could had done that would had been better than what she did.
• The Dreaded:
  • Alastor is as much this here as in canon. His presence was enough to make everyone in a high class club run for the hills, and later, scares off some demons sent after Liz, even though said demons earlier said they didn't care about potentially getting on Valentino's bad side. Ironically, Liz notes that the evening she spent with him was the safest she'd ever felt since her arrival to Hell, as any other demon they came across wanted nothing more then to get away from him.
  • The Exorcists. While they don't make a physical appearance in the story, CandyLand shows recordings of them at work as a way to keep the juvenile sinners working under them from wanting to escape. After seeing these recordings for herself, Liz notes that she would want to numb herself with booze, sex, and drugs like everyone else in Hell if that's what she'd have to look forward to every year.
• Driven to Suicide: Tim Rathel, one of the suspects to whoever hired I.M.P, shot himself after Liz discovered he had a history of embezzling from charity groups. Except that's only what Liz thought. In reality, Rathel's doctors diagnosed him with an inoperable brain tumor that would cripple him over time before killing him, so he took the easy way out. Him facing jail time for his theft was the least of his worries.
• Entertainingly Wrong: When I.M.P lost their target, Blitzo firmly believes that Liz is still alive, and getting by via prostitution. His belief in the latter is quite wrong, especially seeing how she even turned down money for sex she had at one point. When he finds out that the human is undercover in CandyLand, Blitzo thinks she's only doing it to get with the young boys working there.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones:
  • If he were a good person, Marty wouldn't be in Hell, yet he has complete, unconditional love for his daughter, who he continues to helps despite any personal grief it gives him.
  • For all his faults, Shard is quite glad none of his children ended up in Hell like him.
• Even Evil Has Standards: M&M are disgusted and immediately turn on Zip when they realize just how evil he is. While they may work for a Murder, Inc. that kill kids for free and, in Millie's case at least, proud of it, they draw a line at working with child predators.
• Everybody Has Standards: While Angel Dust may be a promiscuous sex maniac who constlanly flirts with nearly every man he meets and is willing to have sex with anybody who pays him, including women, even he won't get sexually involved with Asher who's still physically a teenager, and tells him to get together with somebody who's closer to his age instead. However when Asher won't take no for an answer and starts to sexually harass Angel instead, Angel is forced to use physical violence on Asher just to get him to stop.
• Height Angst:
  • Arackniss, as opposed to his brother Angel Dust, has this problem. He's so short he even needs someone to drive a car for him.
  • Liz also suffers from this while in Hell. Aside from exceptions like the imps and Arackniss, it is noted that demons are generally taller then humans like her. It also serves as a reminder of how vulnerable she is there.
• Hidden Depths: Travis, Angel Dust's client from the Pilot, was actually a skilled doctor when he was alive. His services come in handy when Liz gets shot.
• Invisibility: Marty gained this power when he became a demon, and is capable of extending it to cover one other person (or two if one is as short as Arackniss). After his brush with double-death, he can cover even more people with even less strain.
• Jerkass Has a Point: While Marty can be seen as overprotective at some points with his daughter, it's a little hard to blame him considering the environment they're in.
• Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Asher was a bully who picked on kids weaker than him in both life and in CandyLand as a way to cope with his supressed homosexuality. However Liz manages to convince Asher to defect from CandyLand and accept his sexuality, which he does. Now in most stories this would usually result in Asher instantly changings his ways and become a better and kinder person. However instead Asher still holds onto his toxic ways and even starts to sexually harass Angel Dust the same way he would harass a girl he would be interested,to the point that Angel has to use physical violence just to get him to stop as well as Charlie having to threaten him with expulsion from the Hotel just to get him to change his ways. Point being, that a person's toxic behavior doesn't just completely change overnight and that it takes a long time for a person to be completely rid of them.
• Karmic Transformation: Overlord Jack having the body of a child could be seen as an Ironic Hell for all the children who suffered under him in life.
• Kill It with Fire: Jack meets his end this way. Well, the parts of him that weren't eaten, that is.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: After the events of CandyLand, Blitzo gives up on going after Liz. Between being beaten into unconscious by her father, and getting caught up in a three-way fight between Overlords, not many people would blame him for calling the job off.
• Lumber Mill Mayhem: The first suspect to Liz's hit, Brian, is hiding at Lirking Mill, a lumber mill that was abandoned after it deforested the whole region. It's large in size (Liz compares it to a super mall or an industrial factory) with multiple stories, it's insides are like a labyrinth, bodies are hung up on hooks and it is filled with the robots that use to be used for lumber work, only now they're being used for bringing "fresh meat" to it's only (living) inhabitant.
• Misplaced Retribution: Shard blames Liz for Marty getting stabbed with a holy weapon. While one could argue he may have a point, considering she was what the attacker was after and unintentionally provided the attacker with said weapon in the first place, Shard loses some sympathy for the fact that, one: he did not know that last detail, and two: he ends up working with the demon who directly attacked him to get Liz! Word of God states that Pragmatic Villainy is partially at play here, but also notes that he still blames Liz over losing Marty more then Izzy.
• Not in This for Your Revolution: Alastor helps Liz infiltrate CandyLand, not for any personal gain or care for the welfare of those working there, but for the excitement of it all, and possible concern for the human's safety.
• Older Than They Look:
  • Children who end up in Hell keep their youthful appearance without aging, leading to this. Liz is surprised to find out that some of the "juvenile" sinners in CandyLand are more than twice her age, with one coming from Nazi Germany and another two having experienced The Great Depression.
  • Jack looks like a human child, but not only did he die as an adult, he predates Alaster as the first sinner Overlord.
• Only One Plausible Suspect: When thinking of a list of suspects of who would want Liz dead, Marty narrows the list by pointing out that they would have to had been dead for some time. Assassinations are not cheap, and any new arrivals to Hell start off with nothing. It's why Brian is crossed out as a suspect early on. He was living away from civilization, with no money, and no way to fund a hit on someone.
• Papa Wolf: Marty. He is willing to risk his afterlife to keep his daughter alive in Hell and hunt down whoever hired assassins to kill her in the first place, and there is nothing he won't do to make it happen.
• Pity Sex: Liz has sex with Dagon Von Eldritch because she felt bad for using him to get to Rathel. It does end up being a Pet the Dog moment when she refuses pay for it from his cousin as she knows he would tell Dagon he paid for her to do that.
• Properly Paranoid: CandyLand trains it's employees to spray paint on electronic surfaces. At first, Liz believes this is simply an odd way to keep the workers ignorant of what's outside their wall, until Vox saw and tried grabbing her through a tv screen. After that, it's not hard to see why they'd do this as a way to keep their secrecy.
• Red Light District: Pentagram City's P.P., or Pay to Play, District, operates like this. Everyone there is either paying for sex or selling themselves for it. Being where it is, not everyone understands or cares for consent, and it is not a place to accidentally go to unarmed.
• The Reveal: CandyLand's Overlord is a sinner from 1600s England.
• Screw the Money, I Have Rules!: When Seviathan offers "compensation" for having sex with Dagon, she's tempted, but refuses as she knows he's doing it just as a way to humiliate his cousin.
  Angel Dust: Somewhere out there, Valentino is pissed off and has no idea why.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
  • Shard, despise his feelings for Marty, drops out of the attack on CandyLand, not seeing the risk of angering an Overlord to save a human he hates and is likely dead, worth it.
  • Zero, in the same attack, tries packing up to leave for greener pastures when things are looking south. Might've worked, had Izzy not shown up.
• Secret-Keeper: As of now, the only people who know that there's a human in Hell are Marty, his partner Shard, Angel Dust, his brother Arackniss, Jesse, the staff of the Happy Hotel, Henroin, Mr. White, I.M.P, Izzy, and his employer, Vox. What's notable is that in the latter two cases, they're keeping it secret, not for Liz's sake, but because the residents of Hell would want her for their own, conflicting purposes. In I.M.P's case, Word of God states that they would get in serious trouble if it becomes public knowledge they were behind this breach in the rules.
• Sex for Solace: Elizabeth ends up having sexual relations with Angel Dust for this reason. Even though he is on the clock with her, she initially declines his services on the fact that she knows he's gay and he wouldn't enjoy it, though Angel convinces her to do it as she had a very traumatic night and needs to blow off steam.
• Small Role, Big Impact: Loona only really makes one appearance in the story, but she finds out and informs her boss and coworkers that Liz is in Pentagram City.
• Smoke Out: Jesse helps Liz get away from Valentino with one of these.
• Snow Means Death: Marty's time on Earth ended after drunkenly passing out on the way home during a blizzard.
• Stalker without a Crush: Alastor is this to Liz, even watching her sleep for several hours on at least one occasion.
• Stress Vomit: During her job back on Earth, Liz does this in the bathroom after facing down a particularly angry domestic abuser who wanted his wife and kids back. She has no regrets whatsoever about this.
• Super-Fun Happy Thing of Doom: "CandyLand" sure doesn't sound like the name of a brutal drug-producing sweatshop, and yet that's exactly what it is.
• There Are No Therapists: Charlie tries to avert this with Angel Dust, but it's clear she and Vaggie don't have the knowledge or experience to know how. Elizabeth, once she's employed as the Happy Hotel's "Redemption Consultant", is noted to have made more progress in one session then Charlie and Vaggie did in six months.
• This Is Reality: After days of I.M.P's fruitless searching of Imp City for the target, Millie believes that Liz is likely already dead (which isn't an unreasonable assumption), however, Blitzo points out that they still need proof of her death or they won't get paid.
• Took a Level in Badass: When Marty recovers from taking an Angel Blade to the heart, he went from being a regular sinner with a unique power, to an Overlord capable of erasing another (admittedly weakened) Overlord.
• Trauma Conga Line: Poor Liz. While her entire experience in this story could count as one big one, special mention should be given for when Izzy shows up to her hiding at the Happy Hotel. She was nearly kidnapped in the middle of the night, and when she tried fighting back with the Angel Blade, Izzy takes it and stabs her father with it, giving a very likely chance he will be Deader than Dead. Liz is saved by Jesse, and then separates from him to keep her kidnapper away from him and her dying dad, only for it to be All for Nothing as Izzy never even followed them to where they where. She gets away, only to end up at the P.P. District, where she is sexually harassed and nearly raped multiple times, and after another close call with the hired kidnapper, she meets up with Angel and gets to the warehouse where she should be safe, only for Marty's partner Shard to attack Liz, blaming her for Marty's condition. By the end of it all, she's covered with bruises and couldn't even recognize her own trauma-filled eyes.
• The Unfought: Rathel seemed like a good candidate for the demon who wants Liz dead. He had connections, money, and motive to want it. When Liz confronts him at the Von Eldritch Manor, Rathel is surprised, his goons get ready for a fight, and he thinks Liz is someone else. Turns out Rathel barely remembers her, and what little he does remember are some less then flattering moments of her life.
• Villainous Rescue: Izzy saves Liz from from a car of sexual degenerates as he wants her relatively unharmed. Liz then plans one of these to happen again by getting another group of demons to attack Izzy so she can get away from him. He ends up on the wrong side of this trope again when another kidnapping gets CandyLand recruiters to point guns at him.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • While 'hero' might be a bit of a stretch, Shard calls out his partner for not telling him about how his still living daughter is in Hell (he told him she was in Hell, just left out the part that she was still alive). He also latter points out that putting all his time and money into the search for whoever hired Liz's attackers isn't the smartest thing to do. Considering he still has bills to pay, he may have point.
  • Marty, once he woke up from his Convenient Coma, calls out everyone for letting his daughter go to CandyLand.
• Worthy Opponent: Izzy thinks Liz as this, being more disappointed then anything else when she seemingly dies in CandyLand, and even equates it to Captain Ahab learning that Moby-Dick strangled himself to death in netting.
• Would Hurt a Child: The children sinners working in CandyLand are used to being beaten, mutilated, and worse by the people in charge of them. Not surprising, considering their Overlord has been doing it himself even before he died.
• You Dirty Rat!: In life, Brian Hartly was a religious nut who'd put buckets of rocks in front of women's health clinics to encourage people to throw them at any woman going in for abortions. In death, his demonic form is that of a rat who lives in his own filth and eats other demons that his robot lumberjacks bring him.
• You Remind Me of X: Alastor takes a certain liking to Elizabeth for this reason. Though the person Liz reminds Al of may not be what one would expect:
  Husk: What? Your mother?
  Alastor: No, my first.
  Husk: No shit? First love?
  Alastor: No.
  Husk: First fuck?
  Alastor: Oh, dear me, no.
  Husk: Aw, c'mon, the first person you killed?
  Alastor: Close, but not quite. She reminds of me the first time I got it right!

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