divinetree | Charlie & Vox

Well, well...! The hotel after all of... that... sure is active! And Charlie is glad that she's put Vaggi in charge of management. After everything... she realizes she trusts Vaggi to make the dream happen and make major decisions about the Hotel under pressure instead of herself. She has way, way more to focus on and make amends for, herself...

After the initial rush, everyone's getting settled, the counseling sessions are slow and steady, she's getting to know everyone...!

Razzle interrupts after one of those sessions, tugging her towards the front door. "Huh? Wh-- hey, what is it, Razz...le...?"

At the front doors of the Hotel... a basket with some disparate parts, and a familiar television screen...?

It's pitiful, really, like someone had abandoned a baby at an orphanage.

The basket was ornate- Valentino would NEVER keep an ugly one- and filled to the brim with machine parts (was that a limb??) that had definitely seen better days and had a lot of very 'this is suuuper unfinished' lettering scribbled on the surfaces. But placed on the top was a weird iPad wearing a hat, the screen dark. There was a torn-out piece of notepad paper taped to the front:

Do whatever you want with him. You're welcome~ ❤️ Valentino, CEO of ValTek (Name TBD, ok? whatever)

That's... Vox??

"Oh, fuck you...!" Charlie blurted at first, giving the note and unconscious TV a sneer. Ooooough an ugly side of her wanted to just swing her leg back and give the whole thing a PUNT across the courtyard...!!!

....Uuuuugh. No... no. 'Do whatever you want with him'... like he really did just get abandoned.

Charlie noticed the wires still sticking out of the bottom, where his head used to be attached to a neck. Where he was literally ripped apart, just to stop him from killing everyone.

This Sinner, who nearly got Hell into war again, who nearly killed everyone, who hurt Angel so, so badly along with Valentino...

...

... But he, too, was... hurt.

"Do you think I... could be redeemed?"

Charlie let out a frustrated breath.

Yes. She believed that. As much as considering it hurt, burned her pride and stoked her anxiety - she did believe Vox could change.

And if no one else was going to give him a chance, she was going to.

"When you wake up, we have SO many rules and boundaries to set up...!" she sighed, scooping up the basket in her arms and going back inside. Time to get a new key and bring Vox to his new room.

Honestly? Not even Vox would blame her for giving him the ol' punt across the courtyard. But despite the shout and the sounds coming from inside the building, the screen didn't so much as give one sign of life. The basket had some heft to it, but it was nothing to a nephilim.

The jostle, then, would cause the soft whine of fans to kick on. One long, almost football-length minute passed before the back light struggled to kick on, vague snow glowing to life behind the taped-on note.

"Rg-rggh-ggh--" Muffled. Broken. Quiet. Confused? So much for his depression nap. Why were the lights different...? Too... too red...

A key off the ring... hrm. Somewhere... yeah. Somewhere kinda close to her suite - so she could keep a better eye on him. And keep him from unnecessary encounters with Alastor.

She saw the flicker of the light coming on, and adjusted her hold of the basket carefully, making sure it wasn't facing anyone - no one needed to see the guy that caused so much chaos and possibly killed people they knew, or was responsible for their hardships.

...This was definitely going to be tough.

At least a little elevator ride gave her a chance to get a little privacy, since the elevators were still pretty small (it helped prevent people from trying to cart in massive shipments of explosives or equipment or whatever - one of Vaggi's clever ideas). Reaching into the basket to adjust Vox so he was facing upright, Charlie looked him over.

"You okay?"

His vision swam as his eyes came online, the grimace quick to follow. When he noticed the note, his face shifted away from the block, if anything to let him work out his surroundings. The connection, it was... this was one of his networks, yes, but not THE network. Where was he? Whose tiny elevator was this--

He was turned, and his expression froze. His screen glitched. Then, he scowled. "...Do I look okay?? What the fuck is going on? ...Velvette??"

Was he being kidnapped? Great. Just fucking great-- "...Val?? This better not be a fuckin' prank, or I swear to God-"

"Uhhhh. Nope," Charlie corrected, holding the basket closer to her face. Just a bit. "I... thiiiink maybe you and Valentino had a fight? Because he left you here at the Hotel, so... uh..."

He scoffed, though the pixelated sweat drops grew across his screen. "Yeah, well- when doesn't he want to fight, the petulant little--"

Then Vox froze. He left you here at the Hotel.

"...He... no way- did he really actually follow through on his... his threat...?" He'd laugh derisively each time the threat came to kick him out, as if daring him to try it. Valentino would never! He... he was obsessed with him, he'd...

...

For once in his god-awful life and afterlife, Vox fell silent.

That... was a painful expression. Charlie winced a bit, unable to mask herself - and gave an uncomfortable shrug. "Maybe... he just needs some time. You... diiiiid kind of nearly kill us all, so I don't blame anyone for tensions still running a little high...!"

Right. He did. He did. God, he was so close to winning, the taste of godhood right there on the tip of his tongue, and then... and then...

A corner of his mouth twitched. First was a small chuff. Then came the thin, uneven giggle.

"That big baby can hold his pissy little grudge until... until he gets bored or horny and decides he messed up and comes to get me...!" Okay, so he can't exactly do anything about 'horny' in his current state without some major positioning, but--

"I give it three days. He's never been angry with me for longer than that. Having to run a company will string him-him out too. That'll s̖̤̩hͧͧͅo̖w̤͕̽ͪ̈ h̷͉̟̜͂͗i̵̭m̨̟̔͊ for ruining my fu-fucking-ing mo-moment-t-t!!"

"Ooooookay, we'll... unpack all of that later, uh. First thing's first, if you're gonna stay here, there's going to be rules."

"Rules??" He laughed uproariously.

"Like what, 'no running in the halls'? I've got no legs! 'No stealing'? No hands!! Look, Ma...! HAHAHAHAHAHAAH!"

Completely, like, losin' his shit over here. Abandoned! ABANDONED? Val, you ungrateful BITCH, after all they'd been through!! You wait until he was sleeping and then dump him somewhere...!! Coward! COWARD! The company will SINK thanks to you!"

"No HYPNOSIS!"

Charlie shouted it over the laughter - this was serious. SO serious. He was struggling, yes, but...

"And the rest of our rules. No weapons, no fights, and no drugs. For you especially, though, Vox... no hypnosis."

"Not even a little? As a treat? I assure you, it can feel pretty goo-ow... ow, ow... haha... ha..."

The wires of his neck sparked and he winced. He was pushing himself too hard already??? But he hardly did anything! Where was all of his... his power... oh... right...

"Is... is caffeine a drug...? Surely not. I swear to god, if this is a decaf establishment... I'm gonna revolt...!"

The elevator came to a stop, and Charlie sighed, walking down the hall and double-checking the number on the key she took.

"Caffeine is fine, and you're allowed to have alcohol in the lobby. We sometimes do weed nights. But no crack, no meth, no heroin, no LSD, no molly...!"

Door unlocked, and opened. In they go - for now, it was just a calm, simple little hotel room. Browns, pinks, simple decor... ready to be dressed up and made homey.

"And since things got SO bad, I really am going to have to ask you to make a Deal to keep a promise, if you're going to stay here and recover."

Oh thank god, because if he had to forsake coffee, he needed to start making plans to hop to a balcony and jump off. Saves a trip and energy!

But he quirked a brow, grinning at talk of a Deal. "Clever girl. ...One thing, though: See, I'm sort of missing my top-of-the-line and VERY awesome body, sooo... if you could maybe get that back to me, we can start talking terms. 'Fraid I haven't really got anything I can shake with. There's my tongue, I guess, but then we've got a whole other complicated little thing to hash out."

"Weeeell..."

She'll just. Go ahead and set down the basket on the bed. After pulling the hotel pillows up closer to make a little... pillow tower to prop up Vox's monitor... ah hah! There we go. That looks a little better.

"Maaaaaaybe I can shake one of your little antenna thingies?" she guessed, gently grabbing one and giving it a little 'handshake'.

He wouldn't blame her if she just threw his ass around on the bed or in a closet somewhere. But to prop up pillows and place him was... why? He tried to kill you.

Vox startled a bit with the hand in his space, grasping the diode and giving it a friendly shake. The cyan brightened over his screen, and broken wires tried to stretch what pitiful few inches there were to try and get the hand off of him. But they vaguely waggled in their reach not halfway, shooting sparks as his face twisted in pain, breaths short.

"Sensitive- sensitive-- get off-" He grunted, swimming in equal parts discomfort and a feeling he did not want to be experiencing toward Blondie Cupcake over here--

Edited 2026-02-01 17:39 (UTC)

"Ohp-- shit, fuck, sorry--" Charlie yanked her hand back like she'd touched a hot stove, trying to ignore the flush of embarrassment-- who, what, really?? And??? "Sorry!! I didn't know they-- ahah. I thought they were like ears or something. Ahem."

COUGH. W-well. She'll turn away to unpack the other parts left in the basket, holding up an... arm. Gosh, technological demons are so weird...

"A-aaaanyway... uhh... I'm.... sure we can ask Baxter to uh... get something to put you together a little faster, maybe...? But you're definitely going to be making a Deal with me, make sure that you don't hurt anyone."

"They... kind of... are??..." A momentary honesty in the wake of the swirling 'what the fuck' in his head. But once free of it, any fatigue he may have had was far from his mind.

The basket had an arm, something akin to a torso, another arm... but one leg folded up right down in there. They didn't seem to suit, clearly, made for another model entirely. Other than that, there was absolutely nothing else. Who knows where his other belongings are?

Right. He'd forgotten Baxter had filed a request to work from here that he accepted. It was a makeshift backup plan, some means of if- in some wild coincidence- that redemption worked, then he could spin it. But now that they knew, now that ALL of Hell knew...

Well. Baxter would have no shortage of data, huh? ...Goody for him...

"Yeah, yeah, Princess. ...I'd ask what the wifi password is, but your security's kind of a joke and I already worked it out. Are you sure Baxter is still here? You'd think he'd beef up a firewall or something by now... unless he's slacking off on you. He always did like to hyperfixate."

"I... don't really know how the wifi stuff works," Charlie admitted a bit sheepishly. Cyber security was... well, it seemed really impressive! She uh. Just didn't really study it. "...You think I should ask him to make our wifi more, uh, safe?"

Special delivery!

no subject

1/?

no subject

no subject

no subject

5/5

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject