It only took about four months, but here it is: A Hippie’s Vice, my latest Hip & Amber centric story! As always, remember: this is just a fun little story for an AU, you know, fan fiction.

I apologize for the long wait, there was a lot of things that were going on in my life that made writing this difficult. First, I was never satisfied with the story’s plot until very recently. The story went through *four* complete re-writes, which sadly meant that some scenes I really liked, including one featuring Betty and Heather the plant, got cut. Secondly, I was going through some severe mental health issues and that took a huge toll on my motivation to write. Thankfully, things have been better this last month and I anticipate it’ll all be okay going forward. Lastly, I keep getting distracted with starting/working on other pieces. Like, I was working on this and thought, “you know, I really should write something with Kira as the protagonist”. Then I was all like, “hey, what about writing about Valérie finding out Amber was alive in 1781” and “remember that one you started where Belle was basically the Once-ler?” You get the idea.

Well, back to the story. Here’s a brief summary:

Amber, while suffering from a severe bout of indigestion, uncovers Hip’s darkest secret.

This story features the debut of the Creep’s clubhouse, a setting I created to answer a simple question: “what if Amber & Hip had a private place for them and their friends to hang out at?” I figured a clubhouse from a garish neighborhood overtaken by the Creep would be the perfect place. As I thought more and more about it, another question came up: “wait, why would Hip spare a building like that from her wrath?” I came up with two answers: a) because Amber liked it and Hip can’t say no to those puppy dog eyes and b) if Amber promised to make it environmentally-friendly, then Hip might not have as big an issue with it.

While it’s touched upon in the story, I figured I’d give you a guys a more in-depth description of the clubhouse, Wikipedia style:

-Exterior walls: Beige, have large windows for maximum interior lighting, trellises that facilitate plant growth. The main entrance to the building is on the southern side. A special retractable glass window on the eastern side allows for Buttercup to enter the building.

-Roof: Sloped, have solar panels for power, gutters to collect rainwater.

-Northern side: Water tower to hold rainwater in. Also contains a special magical crystal from Betty that condensates water vapor from the humid atmosphere into water. Believe it or not, Amber actually thanked Betty for that.

-Eastern side: Pool, with equipment to keep it running. Amber is mainly in charge of this though she sometimes “Tom Sawyers” people into helping her.

-Southern/Western sides: gardens that contain a variety of fresh fruit and vegetables. Western side has a small parking lot that serves Amber and Hip’s friends when they come to visit. Also has a carport for the hippie van the two worked on.

-Multipurpose room: First room you see upon entering inside. Contains foosball, pool and ping pong tables, as well as a projector and movie screen for outdoor viewings. There’s a bunch of mismatched couches, tables and chairs inside.

-Kitchen: technically a part of the multipurpose room, located on the north side of the space. Has three refrigerators, a large sink, a big oven + stove combo, a bunch of cupboards on the floor and hanging above. A bar separates the kitchen from the games area.

-Hallway: a long, somewhat spacious corridor that connects the multipurpose room with the other rooms inside the place. Starts heading north, then takes a ninety-degree turn west and terminates at the HOA room. Wide enough for Buttercup to walk down, though she has to keep her head down and she can’t turn around.

-Storage closet: First room on the right side of the hallway. Contains various stuff for the pool, kitchen and whatever else.

-Bathrooms: Nearly identical in design, located on the north side of the wall after the storage closet and ninety-degree turn. Both contain toilets, sinks and showers. The first one also contains a special toilet that works for Buttercup’s physiology. The toilets are compost toilets and use very little water.

-Private bedrooms: One for Amber, and one for Hip. Both see seldom use, as Amber typically sleeps over at her prey’s home and Hip prefers to sleep under the stars. They each contain a queen size bed, dressers, vanity sets and closets full of clothes. I like to think that Amber and Hip customized the details to be more “homely”.

-Back room: formerly the HOA room, now the media room for Hip to play her video games or watch movies in. Has shelves full of manga and DVDs, as well as a closet to hold all her consoles and games.

Earlier I mentioned that the story went through a lot of rewrites. I wanted to share with you all some scenes/plot points that ultimately didn’t make the cut:

-Originally, Betty was a major part of the story. Amber was aware Hip was hanging out with her that day from the beginning, and the idea was that Hip sounding paranoid about the HOA room was what set the story in motion. She’d go to the clubhouse, discover the HOA room was blocked off by a living plant gate and then confront Hip at Betty’s Burrow-like manor to find the truth. She would, of course, take several jabs at Betty that’d ultimate lead to her being fed to Heather, the retired guard plant formerly used by the Sisters when they were meeting in forests. She’d break out, swear revenge at the witch and then find Hip at the clubhouse playing video games.

-Another thing with that plot idea was that Betty and Hip would have additional company. I first thought about including Susie Baron, who’s the real-life Betty Parris’s youngest daughter, being there as a guest. Valérie, Abigail or Rory were also considered to be additional characters, but all three didn’t sit right and were never written in the story. The last idea I had was having Amber finding Betty training three “new” recruits: Angelina Barton, Elizabeth “Birdie” Cannary and Olivia Dorado. The rookies would each be tasked with fighting Hip as part of their required studies. Amber would’ve thought that Betty was willingly sacrificing witches to Hip and wanted in. I kind of wished I kept this in for that reason, lol. Fun fact: the three witches were planned to be included in a Halloween story but that got scrapped, too. They’ll make an appearance, one day.

-I also had Amber talking to Fawnia on the phone as part of the story. During their chat, Betty would come up and Amber would reveal that she told Charlotte, who’s an active member of the succubus coalition attempting to destroy the witches, about Betty moving in the Creep. She would’ve mocked Charlotte’s French accent, but unfortunately the only thing I can recall her saying was “oh, Am-baihr”.

-Another major point of Hip and Betty’s hangout sesh would’ve been about how the two were gonna go visit the site of the Battle of San Bernardino in a few weeks. The battle, though barely talked about in the story, was a confrontation where about fifty witches were killed. Among the dead were the leader of the coven’s branch in British Columbia and Betty’s eldest daughter, Elizabeth “Junior” Baron. The attack was coordinated by Hannah Hull, one of the main succubi in charge of the coalition. She had somewhere between 10-20 succubi aiding her along with a hypnotized battalion of U.S. Army soldiers in her endeavor. Betty wanted Hip to accompany her because she had no one else to go with for the anniversary; she had broken up with George and Susie refused to go back there out of personal grief.

Hopefully my next story doesn’t take this long! Thanks for reading, y’all are awesome!

Edit: I completely forgot to thank Hip for helping me write this! A few months ago, I asked her how she liked her coffee and what games she liked. Thanks to her answers I was able to write in some important details! So shoutout to her!

Note: Hip Hugger, Amber Adams, Fawnia, Tenderfoot, Waning Moon, Buttercup, Silk and Satin, as well as the Creep and this interpretation of Betty Parris, are all creations of the wonderful HipHugger. Used with permission.

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