Husk

"You think you can just buy me with a wink and some cheap booze?! Well, you can!"

- Husk, responding to Alastor's proposal

Husk is a Sinner Demon who has the duty of front desk clerk and bartender at the Hazbin Hotel and is one of the main protagonists of Hazbin Hotel.

Appearance
Husk is an anthropomorphic avian cat demon. His look is evocative of a magician, paired with a casino referencing playing-card theme.

The sclera of his eyes are a dark taupe, with yellow-orange irises. He has long red eyebrows with dark red vertical stripes near the tips, and a small black heart above each eyebrow.

His fur is taupe-colored, overlayed with white on his face, torso, feet, and upper arms. The insides of his ears are white with pale pink stripes. He has a darker shade of taupe encircling his ankles, mimicking spats. His tail is taupe and long, ending with a large spray of "plume-like" fur or feathers, which are red with black and white stripes. He has yellow-orange hearts underneath the paws on his hands.

His wings are large and red, with black stripes and playing card suits (diamonds, clubs, spades and hearts) markings.

Husk accessorizes with a black top hat with a red hatband and a golden button-like decoration, as well as a red bowtie.

Personality
Husk is a grumpy, lazy and apathetic older sinner, who is generally uninterested in most things that fall outside of his now very narrow interests; namely gambling, parlor tricks, and prolific drinking.

He resists having to do work for free and balks at the idea of being forced into doing "charity work" at Alastor's request for the Hazbin Hotel (although he also seems easily bribed with "cheap booze").

A "husk" of his former self, he claims to have "lost the ability to love" long ago, though whether literally or metaphorically is yet unclear.

He can be gruff, sarcastic, and even vulgar at times, with a propensity to swear. Despite this, he is said to also be surprisingly patient and able to take outlandish events in his stride, electing to drink his problems away later.

Natural Abilities

 * Flight: Thanks to his large pair of avian wings, Husk is capable of flight, though it has been stated that he doesn't fly often, both because he is lazy and because he is not fond of his demon form in general.

Skillset

 * Multilingualism: Aside from English, Husk can speak the following languages fluently: Italian, Russian, German, Mandarin Chinese, Spanish, and Japanese.
 * Musical Talent: Husk can play the saxophone to a professional standard. He can also possibly play the piano.
 * Gambling/Sleight-of-Hand: It's unclear whether Husk has any elevated skill when it comes to the actual playing of gambling related games, such as Poker, as he's noted to frequently cheat using his sleight-of-hand talents. Husk is shown to have skill in controlling the game, however, and has the ability to take an entire pot out from under a group of other players.

Unique Abilities

 * TBA

Galleries

 * Husk/Gallery
 * Husk/Designs

Concept & Creation
Husk was originally designed by Vivziepop's younger sibling, M, also known as "Razz", who conceived the character as a winged cat-like humanoid, then gifted him as a character to her.

Vivziepop developed Husk with the intention of him joining her demon gang and being a close friend for Angel within the planned "Angels and Demons" arc of her then-running webcomic, Zoophobia. She eventually realized that the collection of misfits had the potential for their own self-contained story and shifted them over to the first draft of what would eventually become Hazbin Hotel.

Rick Sanchez from Rick and Morty was an influence on how VivziePop originally envisioned the tone of Husk's voice. However, using a sample of Rick's voice as an example of what she was looking for did not play out favorably for subsequent auditions, as many that were sent in were mere impressions of Rick rather than a unique voice of their own. VivziePop noted that, aside from being "grumpy old people", it was funny how little else Rick and Husk had in common.

VivziePop met Mick Lauer prior to his casting as Husk. After VivziePop's Die Young music video became successful on YouTube, she was contacted by Mick, who brought her into his fold of Newgrounds artist friends, inviting her to feature on the MAGFest 2016: Animation Panel with him.

Trivia

 * Husk's name means "a dried-up, and subsequently worthless exterior of something", which is descriptive of his character, as he's shown to be merely what is left over of the man he once was.
 * Husk was stated to be from when he was alive.
 * Husk grew up in a casino and really likes "cheesy old magic shows" with unironic enthusiasm. As a child, he would watch the magic shows that took place in the casino. His love for magic is something he's retained, with it being described by Vivziepop as "the one thing that melts his crusty heart".
 * Husk can play the saxophone and had to play for lounge bars in Vegas a lot while living.
 * Vivziepop describes Husk as a magician himself.
 * She also describes him as the most befitting of the title "has been", in the literal definition of the phrase, more so than any of the other characters from the main cast.
 * His love of magic and possible past career is also reflected in his design, the patterns of his fur being evocative of an old-fashioned magician's outfit, complete with tuxedo and spats, accessorized with a banded top-hat.
 * He has been depicted in VivziePop's development illustrations performing card tricks with his demon powers, as well as being accompanied by a magic wand motif.
 * Vivziepop says that, at the time of recording, she hasn't ironed out all the characters' nationalities, but she thinks that Husk is probably of Russian heritage, or at least part.
 * According to Faustisse, Husk travelled a lot during his living life.
 * Husk is described as the "protective, grumpy, drunk, angry uncle of the group", who loves gambling and cigars. He is a gambling addict and an alcoholic, who is described as actively fighting his gambling addiction in hell.
 * Faustisse confirmed Husk's orientation to be pansexual and also elaborated on the manner with which he expresses it, implying him to be gender-blind and referring to his attitude towards attraction as "any hole is a goal", adding that "if you just hid every person's upper body, all buttcheeks are up for game".
 * Faustisse described Husk as being very physically unattractive while living and stated that it contributed to his lack of pickiness or preference when it came to sexual partners.
 * According to Vivziepop, Husk's casino lifestyle, alongside his voice actor, Mick Lauer's, fluency in Mandarin, was an influence on his multilingualism.
 * Husk utilizes his love of sleight-of-hand magic to frequently cheat at gambling. This is demonstrated in the pilot episode when Alastor teleports Husk to the hotel and he is shown holding both duplicate and non-existent cards when announcing his "full house" win.
 * According to Dave Capdevielle, Husk is "very deeply emotionally troubled", which is why he drinks a lot.
 * Vivziepop agrees with Mick Lauer's assessment of Husk as insecure in certain ways, adding that he would need "a lot of validation".
 * VivziePop describes Husk as "definitely one of the most jaded characters on the show".
 * Husk is apparently "surprisingly patient". Contrary to what could be assumed of him, it takes a lot to push him to the point of explosiveness and he can endure a lot.
 * According to Faustisse, Husk is great with children.
 * Husk doesn't really like the form he has taken in Hell and does not embrace it, although he has accepted it. He especially dislikes his more cat-like mannerisms, like purring, which he has no control over. He doesn't utilize his powers of flight as much as he could due to his unwillingness to truly step into his Hell-form.
 * Vivziepop described Alastor as having a fairly uncharitable view of a lot of his male acquaintances, and that he would acknowledge them as an unflattering collection of their most basic traits. She said Alastor sees Husk as "sad", "lonely", "alcohol" and "gambling".
 * When discussing the characters' cooking abilities, VivziePop said that Husk just eats "shitty bar food".
 * While Husk has yet to show any unique demonic powers, Vivziepop confirmed that Husk indeed has powers of his own; when asked who would win in a fight, Husk or Angel, Vivziepop was unsure, saying it would be an intense battle if they were both really trying to win, with Angel being faster, more agile and more accurate, but Husk having more power.
 * She has previously drawn illustrations of Husk wielding a yellow electricity-type power from the hearts on his paws when manipulating cards during Husk's development.
 * Faustisse does not think that Husk is physically strong in a bodily sense.
 * When a fan informed VivziePop that husk means "remember" in Danish, VivziePop replied that it "kind of fits him, when you get to know his story".
 * Although Husk appears very distanced from those around him and no longer interested in meaningful relationships beyond his usual bottle of booze, Vivziepop has continued to describe Husk as Angel's "best friend" during her later development streams for the pilot, as well as implied that Husk may begin to take responsibility for the younger and more delinquent members of the hotel in the future.
 * Vivziepop joked that Husk is one of the easier characters for her to write as he doesn't really care much about anything anymore and is almost always grumpy, causing him to have similar deadpan reactions to everything.

Development

 * Husk received his first redesign by Vivziepop in August, 2014, where she began to lean much harder visually into his magician theming, changing his fur from pure white to a mid-grey and white tuxedo pattern.
 * Husk made his first animated appearence in Vivziepop's animatic short, Daddy Issues, where he watches with amusement from the audience as Angel roasts his father and brother on stage.
 * Husk received one of his final redesigns in 2015, his design streamlined into a more animation-friendly character with better posture, a more definite color-scheme, and a simplification on his patterning. This design would only see relatively minor tweaks before heading into the pilot.
 * On April Fool's Day 2018, VivziePop's channel released a short comedic fake trailer for the Hazbin Hotel pilot, in which Husk drunkenly rambles about how bad modern trailers are. Within the ad-libbed dialogue, Husk makes a joke about having fought in Vietnam (world boxing tour). Despite the obvious comedic tone of the fake trailer, the idea of Husk fighting in Vietnam, or just being a war veteran in general, became so widespread within the fanbase that it prompted Faustisse to clarify with VivziePop that she had not, in fact, made this part of his canon backstory, to which VivziePop replied, "No. I have no idea what that is. I've never heard of it".
 * The number '75' in Husk's now archived Voxtagram account username, @bar_cat75, may be a reference to either his age when he died, or the year he died.