divinetree | Charlie & Vox

"I have to get some kind of princess privileges," she joked, looking over the list again. Hmm...

"...And I want you to try and change to be a better person."

"...Eugh." The immediate response. "It's not enough that I'm not trying to bite or shock you right now, huh? Because I still could."

He's not about to be a care bear and 'hear my hope' with you. Everything sucks. Everything is terrible. Just kill him, please.

"It's not that bad. Just... try. I'm not going to write down any goals or anything, just... try."

Yeah. She wants to put that in the agreement. If he stays here, he... should make efforts to be a better person.

"And I'll see if I can figure out how to make Alastor promise not to bully you, either."

"...You realize telling him not to do something will only make him want to do it more? The man's a fucking brat. It's a brat thing. I'll just... fucking ignore him. I'm done."

The lines grew around his eyes. "I'm so... so fucking tired."

"Ignoring him is probably a good idea..." Charlie agreed, frowning a little at Vox. He seemed so... deflated. There was almost none of that swagger and confidence that was so intimidating and compelling before... he'd stared angels in the face and threatened war.

Well... at least this was for the best.

"Say... why did you decide to work with other demons? Why'd you try to rally everyone, like... like my mom did?"

"Because it was the only way the plan would work. Everyone was pissed about waiting around just to die by bastards who thought they were untouchable until we finally got one up on them. Zestial, Carmilla and the rest were content to just count bodies and then move on. They were scared of a possible war and what devastation it would bring, when such devastation was already on our fucking doorsteps every... year, then six months."

His monitor swapped to Lute standing on the cannon.

"Adam died, but it would never end with him. This little banshee was gonna be next. And if not her, someone else. So on and so on. You had your work cut out for you if we let things rot as they were."

Lute... right. Charlie knew that - knew that things could escalate, could still go so, so badly. And she knows she hadn't proven herself to enough of Hell to convince them to trust her, yet.

"I promise we haven't been letting anything rot," the words came out in a soft tone, uneasy, but...

"...It's something that separates you and Alastor, is all - you... do team up with other people. You get that working together, being together, makes a difference."

It hit him like a ton of bricks. Fatigue, bitterness, smoldering frustration boiled in his soul, all painted with how weak he was for turning to others, how disappointing he was for reaching out; he was nothing, a leech, a virus each and every day he spent time with Valentino, days spent having tea in the occasional cackle-marked silence as Velvette brewed up another potent concoction...

Silenced.

"...What?..."

No. That's. That's not how this works.

When is the laugh coming? The punchline?

Why... was he so surprised by that? It felt obvious, but...

... "This is MY moment!"

He'd pushed away the other Vees, come to think of it... the two of them seemed so annoyed when Vox had put her next to them at the table. They'd been fighting.

But at the same time, he really had been talking about everyone in Hell uniting. He DID have the Vees. The contradictions... they seemed so obvious to Charlie, were they really not obvious to Vox?

"It always makes a difference. Mom believed in that - you kept referencing her too, so I know you know that. It... doesn't matter how strong any one person is - if we all work together, we're all stronger for it."

There wasn't a hint of judgment in her tone. A little confusion, some uncertainty, but... no judgment.

"...And while I don't think we should fight with that strength, I think we need it to make the peace that people here in Hell deserve."

He missed Val and Vel. They were a team, but he ruined it. He ruined it, and he didn't know how he could fix it without begging-

"Seemed more like begging to me."

"You'd be nothing without those two."

"What really are YOU contributing besides... noise?"

"You really haven't changed, have you? Still so reliant on all those around you..."

It was never going to be enough, was it? He'd united Hell. He'd united Hell, just like Lilith did before she vanished. But it would never be enough. God, he was so stupid... all that he'd done, everything he tried to show that he was continuing to sail to the top, and all he got in return was another jab to doubt himself. Vox never truly was the captor. Not for a MINUTE.

...And now everything was ruined.

He should have listened to Velvette and Valentino more. Sure, he didn't credit them a whole lot, but it definitely went from a slow trickle to a drought once he had his hands on Alastor.

"I'm... pretty sure nobody wants to work with me any more, at any rate. And I don't think that's going to change," he remarked quietly.

Somehow, that... makes her think back to Sir Pentious getting caught in the Hotel on his first night. How he was defeated, sniffling, ready to accept his painful fate.

...She was still mad at Vox, but... seeing a little bit of Sir Pentious in him brought a smile to her face.

♪♫ It starts with sorry;
that's your foot in the door. ♫♪

♪♫You know, it's funny...
I've sung this to someone before.♫♪

♪♫The path to forgiveness can be painful and a fright,
but "sorry" can start things off right~♫♪

Oh no. He walked right into it, didn't he? Though he blinked his surprise to the beat, his expression soon fell flat.

Right. Daughter of an angel. Daughter of creatures that apologized for genocide with fucking gift baskets and taffies.

Okay, you know what would fix all of this? Of he could just connect to this torso and arm, and then he can put his hand over her mouth and shush her before someone hears her. If anyone hears her, they find him, and shit only gets worse.

♫♪ It's... not that simple... ♪♫

He quietly hopped to the torso, tried to navigate to the neck opening-

♫♪ I've done a lot I won't take back, ♪♫
♫♪ There is no 'sorry'... ♪♫
♫♪ But Hell's at least on the right track. ♪♫

♫♪ No longer silent, waiting to die, ♪♫
♫♪ Heaven is listening- or at least, willing to try? ♪♫

♫♪ By all accounts, I lit a flame... ♪♫

♫♪ It won't have to be the same! ♪♫

Charlie leaned over the bed, moving the torso for him so he could try and connect to it again - that's what he was doing, right? She kept singing, a little more encouragingly.

♫♪ If you say it to your friends, ♪♫
♫♪ With time, with a try, you can make amends! ♪♫
♫♪ No one is truly beyond redemption ♪♫
♫♪ and I don't think you're an exemption. ♪♫

Wait, is she... really...?? He shifted then, and wiggled his broken wires to slowly slip into the connector ports upon the neck section of the dismembered torso. After a spike of worry, that he was truly broken forever, he felt that spark of a connection. The torso twitched as the electric current went through its countless wires, starting internal fans. Tiny lights within began to glow, and Vox felt like he had a chest and shoulders again. It was faint at first, but in time, he would get full sensation in even this foreign body.

♫♪ I'm convinced, princess, ♪♫
♫♪ That you've truly gone insane. ♪♫

♫♪ Yet I feel... something... ♪♫
♫♪ Like maybe I've done insane, too? ♪♫

Redemption possibility? Fuck no. But... maybe... maybe Velvette and Valentino would hear him out if he approached them again with a level head? He'd been begging, pathetic, until he was thrown out and lost what little he had left.

...He wanted Shok.wav. He wanted his puppy so, so badly. If he asked for anything at this point, sweetened it with an apology, then maybe he could start with that.

♫♪ All that I wanted, was for all of them to see, ♪♫
♫♪ That there is so much, a world of worth there is to me... ♪♫

Next came his arms! She lined them up carefully, letting him pull himself together again. He'd been such an asshole, he'd done such horrible things, but... maybe right now, they were connecting? Maybe he could come to realize just how much he hurt people.

♫♪ I think it's natural, to want to be seen! ♪♫
♫♪ To do that you don't need to be mean... ♪♫

Legs, too...? Oh. Leg. Only one leg. Charlie pulled it out of the basket, giving it a befuddled look as she unfolded it... it was... oh! It was like one of those springy prosthetics! She set it down next to Vox on the bed, digging through the clothing in the basket to figure out if there was another one there. N...no... just the one... well... okay, she'll just have to ask her dad to help out there...

♫♪ We want to make others proud... ♪♫

Only one leg. While Vox wasn't aware, Valentino tried to find a second, but Velvette insisted the white boy was smart and he'll manage with one. And if not, "eh!"

Vox needed a moment to try and extend his reach to the shoulder joints, making that connection. The arms gave a hard twitch in the wake of the electric current running through the fine wires, his brain fighting to parse having limbs again after going so long without them. That weird phantom limb feeling he'd felt in the initial days of being dismembered was... eerie, to say the least. It was a feeling he hadn't had since his first head replacement.

...Make others proud. No, that... that wasn't it. Sure, he'd wanted to make his dad proud when he was young, be the man of the house when he went off to fight in the war. But as he grew up, he saw so much more in himself that he wanted to show others. He was already prideful, and wanted others to acknowledge his greatness. He was so much brighter than everyone else made him out to be.

He wasn't a weatherman. He was someone who was funny, talented, could give the people what they wanted in the wake of so much sanitized entertainment.

He wasn't a man. He was a god, and others should have been grateful that he'd opened so many doors.

The leg was next. One leg. One fucking leg... har har, guys. He was sure he could find something he could use as a crutch, something to balance until either his cords grew in again or until he could manage a second leg.

But he felt so... exposed, like this. His arm was shaky and unsteady, but he managed to grab the blanket beneath and behind him to pull it up and over him. Cocooning would just be the ticket. The pillow fort had been comfy.

"...Says you," he finally muttered.

"I had to claw my way up from the bottom. You can't be soft... at all. You have to be mean." He looked over.

"I remember when you told Velvette and I to leave. Though I blew you off back then, I have to admit: That took some pretty big balls. You need to start using them more."

"Mmm... it's never helped," Charlie admitted, finding a loose screw in the basket and finding where in the knee joint it was supposed to go, twisting it back in place.

"You, hah, said it yourself - I kinda... fuck up everything I try to do. I'm lucky I have so many good friends willing to help me even when I fuck up and make things worse."

The things she did to Angel... the things she said to everyone when she was angry... the failed pitch that just accelerated the genocide...

"I didn't have to scramble to survive, but even if I did, it wouldn't be a good excuse for how often things turn out worse instead of better when I try to handle them myself."

He only offered a minute nod when the screw was twisted into place. He gradually gave a small swing of the ankle a try, and couldn't help sending a grouchy look the limb's way. It wasn't his...

He missed his body, but who fucking knows what happened to it...? It's been so long, the rats probably got to it or something. He'd worked so hard on it, too... sigh.

"Well... I mean, get realistic for a second: You're Hell's biggest nepo baby. Things are going to suck for you for a while, and that label's gonna be stuck to your ass pretty much forever. ...I'm just stating facts," he added, and raised a hand in defense.

"Having friends to help is nice, I guess, but then you run into the age-old-" His eyes swapped to radio dials. "You can't do ANYTHING on your own, can you??"

When they switched back, he rolled them. "Y'know. Peanut gallery shit."

"...At any rate... you wanna beat yourself up over the times you fucked up, that's your prerogative, princess. But even though I had seventy years to bring VoxTek to where it is... was... you think I was perfect about it? That it was swiftly successful? I mean, I was amazing on many occasions, but... I fucked up sometimes, too. But each fuck-up had me learn something. Failures turned into opportunities."

"You know, the whole 'nepo baby' or 'privileged' thing never bothered me. It's true!" Charlie huffed, a little chuffed. "I know I have a lot of privilege and advantages that my people don't. I don't mind that people are sometimes bitter about that - it doesn't seem fair. But... I care a lot if people think I hate them, or that I'm mean or nasty or any of that," she admitted, letting out a frustrated sound.

The whole 'Charlie Morningstar: DICTATOR??' rhetoric bugged the SHIT out of her.

"But! Vaggi was right - I shouldn't have paid you or Katie Killjoy or whatever ANY attention, I just made things way way WAY worse. I should've listened to her from the start! ...I made her the hotel manager. She's got a much more level head about making decisions for the hotel itself."

After a beat, she gave Vox's newly attached chest a poke.

"I bet you already had that plenty with your friends in the Vees. And you know what? I think that's a good thing!"

Look, Alastor was a manipulator! For all HE knew, his old pal was screwing around with you, and using your power! Y'know, for all that he talks about others using others, he sure was a fuckin' hypocrite--

The poke had him blink. But he pulled the blanket in tighter around him and rolled his eyes.

"...Fat lot a good it's done now. They still threw me out." But he flattened his mouth, narrowed his eyes to the floor briefly, and-

"But they'll learn they can't do SHIT without me and come craaaawling back!" There, that's better. Maybe if he said it enough, it'd come true.

Maybe if he said it enough, it'd manifest and he wouldn't have truly lost everything.

"Or maybe they'll miss you, once they're not as mad," Charlie added a hopeful little addition. "...I think that's probably closer to the truth. So, once you're settled a little, we'll try making your exercises about giving sincere apologies."

He was all bundled up... Charlie took the handful of shirts and sweatpants from where she'd pulled them out of the basket, folding them and laying them on the bed.

"If that's what you want to pick for your Deal, I mean."

Hmm... she'll have to ask her dad about helping make a couple of legs. Hoooopefully he wouldn't be too mad about Vox. Hopefully. He didn't usually seem to be bothered by people or remember them???

"We can shake on it now, actually. ...In exchange for staying here and me keeping you safe from Alastor, you swear to not physically harm or hypnotize any Hotel guest," she explained, thinking it out carefully. This really was the first time she was laying out a proper Deal, huh... well, the first time with a for-real Overlord. Former overlord. "As a Hotel guest, you will abide by the rules that all guests abide by. And you have to try to be a kinder person - however you decide you want towards that goal."

Former, yeah. Ouch.

Vox made a face at the terms, even if they were sensible. No hypnotism or harm, got it. But he could think of a loophole for the next bit.

Kinder? Be kinder, though. He'd rather have let the Might of Lilith explode. However you decide you want.

All he wanted to do was sleep, thanks to the depression. It seemed that getting any peace would require a handshake, and those terms were... simple enough. He just needed to hope he didn't have to actually follow through, since Vel and Val would come and get him quickly.

He reluctantly stuck his prototype hand from the confines of the blanket and, not looking at her, offered it.

"...Fine."

She'd agreed to a Deal with Alastor, but this was the first she was establishing the magical bond - her tail, her horns, her eyes all slipped out. Her extended hand grew with a shimmering red magic, and as she clasped her hand with his the glimmers of light sparked into pops of blue electricity as it entangled with Vox's magic.

Huh.

So that's what it'd look like.

On his end, he could feel the familiar rush he'd known countless thousands of times. But to his complete lack of surprise, this rush was more intense than the rest. She wasn't a Sinner, Overlord, or even the Goetia... she was the daughter of Lucifer. She could snap him like a twig if she didn't find the thought violent or mean.

But he, in turn, felt something sweeping around his wrists, unseen to the naked eye, but the feeling of them would linger for a while.

"...You better hold up your end of the bargain. Because I was serious about Alastor: I have no idea what he plans on doing from here on out."

It's an unseen feeling, the magic coiled around her wrist - around his, too, naturally. An agreement, leaving his soul untouched... Charlie's horns and tail slipped back into subtlety, leaving the two of them there as the air still buzzed with magic.

The shadows were definitely dancing, a little - the Deal would absolutely have been noticed.

"Me neither! Buuuuut he and I are gonna have a long talk about my hotel and my rules. And I'm gonna ask dad to help make some prosthetic legs. I'll go handle that now - you take it easy, okay? Good night, Vox."

She did sort of have to hurry - even as she stood up, there was the distinct sound of footsteps running through the hall.

"Just-- try to take it easy. We'll talk more when you're ready! --Hi, Vaggi--" Charlie waved at Vox before slipping out of the room, off to explain things to her justifiably mortified girlfriend. And to wrangle Alastor. And to talk to her dad.

It'll be fiiiiiine.

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trust_us_with_your - 2026-02-09 23:48 (UTC) - Expand