divinetree | Charlie & Vox

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?"

"Clearly," he added dryly. This was the one Heaven fucking believed in?? Had to be a mountain of nepotism. But... that idiot Pentious was actually up there.

"He should do it no problem. He was one of my best at VoxTek. ...Before his little stunt at my rally, anyway. He's obviously fired, so do whatever you want with him."

"He really did great," Charlie concurred, getting out her phone and typing up some bullet points she wanted to go over for their Deal later. "He's really smart, and really curious...! He and Niffty have been getting along super well - gosh, the whole roach circus thing is really coming together, too," she laughed a little. Like a flea circus, but a little more... uh... unhinged!

"I think this'll be maybe... a good chance for you to see people on the same level, for a while. Get to know them, and stuff."

Yeah, Alastor's little bug chick would be his flavor... He grumbled, but offered nothing further so far as Baxter was concerned. Good riddance, even if he did make Shok.wav.

...Shokky... even here, he couldn't establish a signal, make the connection. He'd need time to figure out what credentials were changed to refuse his connection. He was smarter than the idiots he hired for cybersecurity. They couldn't keep him from his babies forever. He'll kill them. He'll eat their fucking hearts.

What would happen to his sharks in the meantime, though? Valentino didn't know what to feed them, or even knew their tummy rub schedule. They'd get hungry. They'd get lonely. And Shok.wav, he'd...

A wire snapped in him, and he looked through Charlie as she spoke. His eyes widened and the smile grew tight.

"Oh yeah! What a great idea! Hey- line 'em up and get 'em in here! Put down some tarp while you're at it for the mess! Do you hear yourself, Blondie?? I mean, FUCK-"

He looked around the room now, his next laugh thin.

"You put me in the same building as Alastor, who I'd be shocked didn't know I'm here by now and is probably waiting for you to leave the room!!"

"He is not allowed to hurt the guests or fight with them or anything like that," Charlie rebuffed, grip tightening on the phone. The way that... Vox's expression that day was...

"You are NOT killing us over that stupid deer!!"

There was definitely some... history, something she didn't have context for. Something that probably... was going to be huge to unpack, if Vox ever bothered trying.

"So I won't let him. He won't hurt you, just like you won't hurt anyone else here. As long as you're a guest in our Hotel, I'll make sure of it."

"Then you're the idiot that so many in Hell still think you are!" He laughed, falling back against the pillows, eyes unfocused.

"You- you don't know a fucking THING about him, do you?? I mean, of course you don't! He doesn't tell anyone shit! There are things he even kept from ME! Hahahah...!!"

He fought to breathe. "Whatever held him back doesn't any more! He used me to do it! He's using you now more than ever! He's playing a game none of us poor bastards can comprehend, and nobody has the means to stop him! Not even your old man! I just--"

He wheezed in laughter. "You've got the universe's biggest fox in your henhouse!!"

Looking up from her phone, Charlie furrowed her brows - what was Vox talking about...? "What... held him back? Huh?"

The concept that Alastor was using them... that wasn't a foreign thought. It popped up, now and then. But this was the first she'd heard of something 'holding Alastor back'...? What did that mean?

"...Used you... I guess... maybe that's why he cashed his favor in that day for that. I thought he was just being a huge jerk for some weird reason? Or-- wanted you to touch my shoulders or something, I don't know," idly, she pushed her hair out of her face. "...He always said he was here to watch people stumble and fail to redeem themselves, and it was just for fun. So we kind of already knew he was being shady and weird, but..."

Over a year of him being around, actually helping with the Hotel (even if he dragged his feet more often than not), giving passing advice, fighting by their side...

"...I'll stop him. I won't let him hurt anyone here."

"Fuck if I know! He said I helped him cut something holding him back after you booked it off stage. He wouldn't admit to anything like that unless he can fuel a good ol' gloat. Please, I've known him forever. I could write a fucking book."

But he rolled his eyes at the insistence that she'd stop him. Mmkay. Whatever. We'll see if he survives the night, let alone the week, with the creepy Prince of the Forest skulking around the building.

"Either way, if you don't want a fucking riot, maybe hold off on the whole... 'getting me to see others here on their level' thing. People are famously stupid: Even the worst news gets buried under something else that grabs the public's attention in less then three weeks tops."

"I don't think you're really ready for that either, anyway... you're still pretty hurt."

Physically and mentally. Gosh... she'll make sure Alastor doesn't mess with him. Maybe Valentino will actually come back, maybe Vox will get well enough to leave on his own, but... until anything like that, Charlie was going to make sure to treat him like he actually was going to try and redeem.

"You guys seem to have... a lot of history. He even made Vaggi make a Deal with him so he never had to do anything with television stuff again, once the commercial was made..."

"Of course he did," he hissed under his breath. "Don't know why, since the asshole purposefully scrambles up film anyway."

He huffed, and looked away. "A 'lot of history' is putting it lightly. But what does it matter...?"

Vox gave a little hop, managed to catch one of the pillows with his teeth, and wrench a little. It plopped over his face. But that's what he wanted anyway.

"What do you care?"

"Well... it... seems like something that you care a lot about," Charlie ventured, setting her phone down to pick up a couple other lighter pillows, building up a little pillow fort over him. Since... that's what he seemed like he was trying to do.

"You were really, really hurt, right...? It didn't really look like... hurt pride over losing, when you were pointing the cannon at him. At us."

"I don't," he replied quickly. But at the pillow fort grew, lit inside by what parts of his screen wasn't covered by a pillow, offering a soft blue against the drab and red, he made no effort to fight the gesture.

He'd turned his lights off, and was asleep in his office under his desk when Valentino had grabbed him, dumped him in the basket. He'd found comfort just being by the glow of his shark tank, watching them swim.

It'd been hours, but he already missed them. If Val was serious or just... forgot, the brat... he'd probably never see them again.

"I wasn't hurt." That's weak.

"...I was angry."

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