divinetree | Charlie & Vox

"Shok.wav is different. While my other two have basic implants to allow me to track their health and provide some levels of surveillance in the building, Shoks is an entirely unique project gifted to me by Baxter. There are no others like him."

He fidgeted with the blanket hood, smoothing out invisible wrinkles. "So I chose to monitor his diet and growth personally, to ensure he developed safely and effectively. As you've seen, he's been thriving under my care, and we developed a fairly tight bond. Valentino will try to feed him all sorts of garbage and have him too heavy to swim properly- it's a talk we had a lot- and my bigger worry is he'll finally be fed something his digestive system can't handle as well as anticipated and risk impaction."

Vox frowned. "I've tried since I first woke up in that fucking basket to remotely connect to him, but they changed the pattern of his... encryption..."

He fell silent. This was need-to-know information, but his worry was bleeding in.

"...Anyway. Clearly, this is part of getting back at me, but I wish they'd keep him out of it. He's just a baby."

"Ohh! So that's the kind of thing Baxter was working on at your company! That's really cool!"

And seemed right up the guy's alley, too. Aww. And now he was making performing roaches for Niffty - Baxter's a pretty sweet mad scientist, isn't he?

"He's a huuuuuge baby, really toothy, but he seems great."

That's it - she is definitely going out today to see if she can't convince the Vees to let her bring Shok.wav to the Hotel. Maybe even flex her princess authority...?? And check on Angel, if she can... if that doesn't make it worse, augh, fuck...

Kind of an eccentric kitten, really. He had to wonder what he saw in the hotel that drove him to stay and participate in the sabotage.

If he found out it was because his quarters were arranged to his extremely anal specifications, Vox was going to be pissed.

"...You know you don't have to agree to everything someone tells you, right...? I know what I like, and I know it's not for everyone." Check out Miss People Pleaser over here. He made a note to see if he can't get her into a rant about something she can't stand that pisses her off. He liked the red eyes and horns. The flowy hair was a sight, too... just like her mother.

A beat. "...But Shokky is great. Better than anyone's dog."

He took a breath once they reached the correct floor. One more trek. If this was his normal upper body, he could handle this no problem. But the prototype had fewer layers of muscle structure and an insufficient cooling system. With the blanket, he felt almost too hot. But he needed to push through.

"I'm not lying! It reminds me of some of the pets from our family friends' house - like the jumbo eel! Here, here--"

Charlie balanced the breakfast plate on one hand, pulling out her phone to start flipping through her photo gallery. After a bit of scrolling to find all of the scans of portraits that she downloaded, stepping out of the elevator before holding it out in front of Vox for him to see. There was an old, only somewhat grainy photo of a much younger Charlie cuddling a creature with far too many teeth and eyes.

"This was the eel that the von Eldritch family had - his name was Winzig! Shokky reminds me of him a lot!"

Edited 2026-03-03 18:28 (UTC)

He peered at the photo and his eyebrows shot up. That's... a big fuckin' eel.

"The von Eldritches?? How the fuck do you know-- wait, no, stupid question."

Oof, nope, out of steam. He stopped to catch his breath.

"...God, this- fucking useless body--"

Gah... Charlie winced at him getting frustrated with his infirmity. Yeah... waiting until he had proper legs seemed like the right thing to do... please finish those soon, dad....

To lighten the mood, Charlie leaned in and whispered, "Don't tell anyone else I said this, but Hellsa von Eldricht? HYUUUUUUGE bitch! She's been a bitch even since we were kids!!"

Dad's working on it!! It's- it's two legs, right?

As Vox was rallying himself, he found himself... surprised. After coming to the defense of Angel Dust and her little 'guess what fuckerrrr', Blondie here seemed to be losing her candy coating a little bit. He thought facing off against Adam was the one-and-done thing.

Good.

But to call someone an outright bitch? O-ho.

"Pft... yeah, she gives brat energy. The articles about her bent over backwards to cover that up, huh...?" Distraction. Good. ...And okayokayFINE he also enjoys some hot tea, alright?

Yeah!!! She can tell, she picked up on that real quick-- so she leaned in conspiratorily, whisper-shouting.

"You know how there's always that one mean girl bully in school? Like, any level of school - Hellsa has always been that bitch. Like!! I know that bullies are usually overcompensating for their own feelings of inferiority or loneliness but come ooooon, do you have to like making people feel like shit that much?? And so WHAT if I'm nice to your brother, what's your PROBLEM?? Just!!! Unfuck your mean head and stop being the WORST!"

He had to bite his lip a bit to suppress SO much.

"...You... you feel better?" Did he had a bully in school? Man, who didn't? But he could scarcely remember their face or name. There were bigger fish to fry for him, and there were skinnier, weaker-looking kids to pick on over the Whittman boy.

"I dunno, it just feels like that was building for a while."

"Ugggh... I don't really think about her that much, but remembering Winzig and all the time I spent at their place, ugh... neither of my parents really took anything I said that serious, we all graduated high school and didn't really see each other past college, so..."

Vague so-so gesture!! "I don't know why she got even more bitchy when I was dating Sev, that was the worst part..."

Sev... Sev, Sev... Seviathan, right? The son.

"More fuel for the fire, I guess? Maybe--" He paused to give a short wheeze of a laugh, then nudged her with an elbow.

"--Maybe she was into you...!"

"...Eww."

"NOT! Like she's ugly or whatever-- just!! You ever know someone whose whole personality is just?? Gross?? Like???"

"LIKE-- if you like someone then why would you be a huge asshole to them and the other people they care about????? That doesn't??? Make any sense??? I don't like mean people romantically!! That's just!! Something that makes people actually ugly, not any way they look!"

"UGH!!! I feel SO SORRY for any girlfriend she gets!!! Especially if she's a super bitch at them, too!! Fuck!"

"But WHATEVER-- fine, whatever!! Maybe someone's into that?? It's not MY problem anymore, I'm not on the market! She can go be a huge mean loser with someone else!!"

GUH.

"ANYWAY... uh. That ick aside."

Vox was completely slain. He gradually slid to his one knee onto the floor in his belly laugh, leaning on the rack for any sort of stability, tears streaming down his face.

The drama! The rationalization! The attempt to change topics...!

Oh god... oh god, he felt dizzy... fuck, he hadn't had a laugh this hard in fucking WEEKS...!

"I-... I get-... I get it...!!" Oh god, air. Hold on, air-

"Katie... Katie Killjoy, she...! Fuck, she's wanted my dicks for YEARS...! And you've- you've met her! She's the fucking WORST...!"

"Katie Kill-- UCK! Fuck, nooooo!" Charlie flinched, practically gagging at the thought.

But that was short-lived - with Vox laughing that hard, it was hard for Charlie to resist the infectious laughter, too - even if she was red-faced and embarrassed about having SUCH a dramatic reaction.

"Then-- yeah! Yeah, haha, you get it! Like-- miss Killjoy might be kinda pretty if she wasn't... like that! Hahaha!"

"Oh my GOD, if I sent you the creepy emails she's sent me, you'd fucking die...!! I have- I have a spam folder specifically to filter it all! And- and-"

He sucked in a deep breath. "And I'm INTO mean personalities! I mean, sort of?? They call it- they call it brat taming, right? When someone's just a stubborn little shit... but Katie's got no fucking shot! And she keeps trying!! It's almost sad! And I like women! I love women!! Just not- not--"

He gestured vaguely, then reached up to wipe off his face. Ohh, god...

Brat taming, ooooh gosh, she only knows that because of Angel's... helpful... informative... oversharing about his work. G o s h.

.......How... many of those movies were made by Valentino for Vox's taste--?

Nope, Charlie Morningstar, don't go down that train of thought, there's no going back.

...Though that does raise a different question. She opens her mouth, thinking to ask that one instead...

..........Noooo, maybe let's nooooot...

"That. Makes sense about you," is what ends up tumbling out after several layers of self-filtering.

Whew... alright. Let's climb back up, get on our foot here. The remark had him snort, and rather than dismiss it completely:

"Okay. Humor me: What about that makes sense?"

Edited 2026-03-03 23:50 (UTC)

HOW... DOES SHE SAY THIS WITHOUT BEING MEAN...

"Just... uhm... you seem..."

...............

"...Competitive!"

"Competitive." Girl, what--

"Sure, I like a challenge. That's how Al-- enTINO got- got my attention...! As a business partner!!"

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1/??

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/done

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