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What was Alastor to do? His new ‘phone’ had already been filled with so many messages from Vox. Truthfully Alastor had lost count of all the messages he’d received after 200+ of them. All trying to coerce him into joining a night with him, Velvet and Valentino. Alastor didn’t really intend to go, these sorts of events weren’t his scene exactly. However, it did not seem like he could deny Vox either. He’d be pestered by the TV demon until he finally decided to join. A few more messages and he’d finally open his phone and agree, along with some few strong choice words.
Vox: I’ve got all day Al.
Vox: Like seriously.
A small pause on Vox’s end.
Vox: Have you ever heard the tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise?
That’s it! Alastor grabs his phone hastily from it’s spot on the nightstand furiously typing a rude response. He was not going to have his time wasted by such nonsense if he had anything to say about it. Why Alastor was still using a phone would forever remain a mystery to him, so far it had proved to be a whole lot of trouble. Still, it wasn’t like he could deny the usefulness of the contraption, all kinds of entertainment existed, whether it be slip ups or mindless tomfoolery. Not to mention all forms of knowledge existed there, and while the whole Overlord business never interested him, it paid to be on top of things. One could hardly enjoy entertainment if one was erased, after all.
Vox: wow, touchy.
Vox: I’ll pick you up at 8 then ;)
Alastor was going to type up a rebuttal, but decided against it, deleting his message draft and setting the phone back on the nightstand with a dejected sigh.
Alastor glances at the clock, it was currently 6, he had a few hours. Keeping that in mind, he goes over the various tasks he had in regards to the Hotel, if he was going to be spending an evening away, he should finish as much work as possible. His future self would be grateful for that he was sure. Besides, the three V’s and their plans were always unpredictable at the best and worst of times. How they functioned as business partners was way beyond him, he could barely keep up with any of them as a loose ally.
Steering his mind back to his various responsibilities he decides on going over the patron progress reports with Charlie and Vaggie first. He could inform her of his absence at the same time. Also, it was quite fine a lot of the times, with how little to no progress anyone was making. Truly a great batch of failures all forced together into one structure over a meaningless and delusional goal. Pure entertainment in its quintessence if Alastor was being wholly serious.
A knock at the door halted his monologue.
Curiously Alastor quickly opens the door, seeing Charlie staring up at him sheepishly. How convenient.
“Perfect timing my dear!” He steps out of his room into the hallway, closing his door behind him. Alastor offers his hand for Charlie to take. “Shall we be off?”
“Uh...Where exactly?” Charlie raises a brow, clearly not on the same page. How foolish of him, he hadn’t even told her anything yet!
“Ah! Pardon my hastiness.” He chuckles, not caring in the slightest. “I was jonesing for that weekly meetup of ours.” He keeps his arm outstretched for her to take, whenever that happened to be.
“Now? I’ll have to tell Vaggie too then.” Charlie points out, still not accepting his hand.
“Mm, I’m sure. Before you do, I must inform you that I will be unavailable this evening.” Alastor remembers to inform her.
“So that’s why you want to do this now.” Charlie affirms to herself, then turns back to Alastor. “You can head to my office already, I’ll be there soon with Vaggie.”
Alastor doesn’t say anything further, but retracts his hand, and with a snap of his fingers disappears into Charlie’s office to wait.
--
“Soooooooooo, you ready to go?” Vox leans against one of the Hotel lobby walls looking way too pleased. Alastor doesn’t give Vox the satisfaction of seeing how annoyed he was.
“I suppose so.” Alastor gives the Hotel a last onceover, going over his mental list of chores. He’d made good leeway, it should be fine. He’s interrupted as he feels Vox pull him along towards the entrance or in this case, exit. A few steps in Alastor pulls back his arm that was unceremoniously grabbed, but follows Vox regardless. Until Vox stops suddenly, something seemingly dawning for the TV demon.
“You can use your shadows to move from place to place right?” Vox has a large grin, still looking too pleased.
“In a sense…” Alastor trails off, not wanting to reveal too much. They were allies, and supposed confidants in the making, but Alastor prided himself with being cautious regardless.
“Then take us to the Studio common room.” Vox says, almost demandingly while Alastor gives him an exasperated look. Alastor crosses his arms, accenting the action with an annoyed ear flick. Vox has to try very hard to keep a straight face at it all, it was way too adorable for Alastor. “Aww, don’t be mad, take us to the Studio common room...please?”
Rolling his eyes, Alastor transports them to Vox’s desired location. There he sees Velvet and Valentino, along with several presumably alcoholic beverages.
“Huh, less disorienting than I thought.” Vox comments to no one in particular.
“Al! You came!” Velvet runs up, bouncing happily in front of him, pigtails flailing wildly.
“...How could I refuse?” Alastor responds passively, throwing Vox a disdainful look through his own smile.
“Voxxy spammed you didn’t he?” She giggles in response, giving them both a knowing expression. Alastor hums in agreement feeling himself lighten up at her positive and radiant energy. “We’ll get him back for it, won’t we, partner?”
“I certainly hope so.” Alastor’s lips quirk upwards at the notion.
“Hey hey hey, no way are you guys plotting anything against me in the first five seconds of you seeing each other.” Vox steps between them, physically separating them with his arms.
“You’re totally right! We don’t need to see each other to plot something against you.” Velvet beams at Vox innocently, then skips to her own sofa. Vox just groans, shaking his head in response.
“Are you all very done?” Valentino finally joins the conversation, looking slightly amused by the three of them.
“Not a chance Val.” Velvet responds flippantly, patting the spot next to her on the couch for Alastor. Seeing no issues with it, Alastor takes Velvet up on her invitation, missing the downcast look from Vox.
“So, what are we doin’ today, Velvet?” Valentino asks as Alastor situates himself next to Velvet, and Vox on the couch adjacent to them. Currently there were three couches, all facing a rectangle shaped table that had a various assortment of drinks. Valentino and Vox sat opposite to each other, while Alastor and Velvet sat adjacent to both of them.
“We are totally starting with Never have I ever!” Velvet announces, throwing up her hands in excitement. She then throws Vox an evil smirk, while Alastor watches in confusion, he had no idea what this suggestion of Velvet’s was.
“Ah shit.” Vox looks none too happy.
“It’s not that bad, stop whining.” Valentino seemed to be enjoying Vox’s suffering as well.
“Yeah, easy for you to say. You’re not the one who has to play this game with a childhood friend.” Vox throws Velvet a very pointed glare. “Who knows everything.”
“Doesn’t it work vice versa?” Alastor asks Vox, tilting his head.
“You’d think that...” Vox looks nowhere in particular, reliving all the past memories with this game. He shudders at one particularly bad one. Velvet is still very much smirking, swinging her legs over the side of the couch.
“Let’s begin!!” Velvet announces.
“Begin what?” Alastor finally questions, while everyone first gives him a puzzled look, and then one of understanding. Velvet takes a few minutes to explain their variation of the rules, as Alastor listens attentively. It sounded like an odd game to him, but he supposed his participation was mandatory. Perhaps he should’ve ignored Vox like he had originally intended. Although, he could learn more about everyone present, which could prove useful later on. Could he do it without revealing too much of himself was the question? Hmm, what a truly invigorating game it could be! Now he could see the appeal. Quite the gamble, but Alastor could take the risk.
“Take two, let’s begin!!” Velvet announces a second time, just as excited. “Val, you can have the honors.”
“Hmm, Never Have I Ever done something I regret.” Valentino watches all three of them take their glasses. They’d all decided that depending on how much the statement applied to them, they’d take bigger sips. Alastor took a smaller sip, Velvet finished half her glass and Vox straight up downed his in one go, taking another one for safe measure. Velvet sees this and laughs a bit.
“Got a few things to regret there Voxxy〜?”
“Honestly all I ever do is something I regret.” Vox states dryly.
“Bitch, you regret meeting me??” Velvet sounds very offended as she gestures to herself.
“Every fucking day.” Vox takes pleasure in the angry look he receives from the doll demon.
“Children, children.” Valentino interjects. “I believe Velvet is next.”
“Never Have I Ever cheated on a school exam.” Velvet keeps her excited smile on her face. Vox takes another longer swig of his drink, while Alastor takes another small one.
“Really Al? You cheated on a test?” Vox questions, as if he himself hadn’t taken a sip as well.
“Didn’t feel like doing it really.” Alastor admits with a shrug, remembering his limited school days. Certainly not the most fun years of his life.
“Your turn Al!” Velvet urges from next to Alastor.
“Never Have I Ever drunk to the point of unconsciousness.” Alastor had dropped his more tactical approach along the game. Something with the atmosphere and the beverages if he had to guess. All three of them reach for their glasses, Velvet taking the largest hit ironically, Valentino the second largest.
“Remember that one party Voxxy?” Velvet turns to Vox after she finishes, giggling a bit.
“Who had to carry your drunk ass home?” Vox reminds her.
“Not the only one who had to do that baby.” Valentino joins in, while Velvet innocently shrugs at both of them. Alastor quietly chuckles from next to her.
“Ok, time to get one of us shitfaced.” Vox declares. “Never Have I Ever directly killed someone during my lifetime.” Alastor flops against the back of the sofa dramatically. The three V’s watch him, grinning, all knowing who Vox was referring to. Sealing his fate, Alastor downs two larger glasses, he’d certainly had his fun as a serial killer. Who knew it would be a disadvantage in something like this.
“Havin’ fun there Al?” Vox has the audacity to ask, sounding proud of himself.
“Go to hell.” Alastor says without thinking. The rest laugh, clearly the alcohol was already somewhat getting to the deer demon. This was going to be an interesting night, and an even more interesting morning.
“Sorry to burst your bubble Al, but I already am in Hell.” Vox then gestures to all of them. “I mean you guys are all here, it must be Hell.” Velvet throws a slipper of hers at his screen, not doing any damage, but making a funny rippling effect go over his screen. Valentino snorts at the statement and the display.
“If anyone can complain about you idiots, it’s me.” Valentino makes himself more uncomfortable on his sofa.
“No way! You have any idea what I have to deal with daily with you guys?!” Velvet tries to retrieve her slipper, but Vox holds it over his screen, out of her reach. She leans over him to try and reach.
“Stop lying, out of the 99 problems me and Val have, you’re most of them.” Vox is forced to drop the slipper as Velvet elbows him in the stomach.
“Take all that, and imagine my position now.” Alastor’s grin widens as they all glare at him unanimously. Alastor could really start to feel the effects of the alcohol. He leans his head back against the couch, attempting to ground himself.
“I do believe it is my turn now. Never Have I Ever been kicked out of a bar.” Valentino says and Vox wastes no time in scowling at Velvet’s direction. She pretends to not notice as she drinks. Alastor takes a smaller drink as well.
“You too Al? What the hell would you do at a bar? Eat the bartender?” Velvet sounds genuinely curious.
“Ew, what the fuck Velvet?” Vox doesn’t sound taken with the idea.
“Shut up, I’m curious as hell.” She shushes him quickly.
“Interesting guess my dear, I’m afraid it’s just that Husker makes a curious drinking partner occasionally.” Hints of an accent start popping up in Alastor’s speech. “Although, that is quite a good suggestion for later.“
“Now look at what you’ve done. You think I want to see that shit if i ever go drinking with him??” Vox throws up his hands in frustration. Velvet starts laughing.
“IF you ever go drinking with him! Also that would be the sight of a lifetime. One moment the bartender is there, the next, he a dead boi.” Velvet giggles like a madman.
“Got something against bartenders?” Valentino almost looks concerned for Velvet’s deteriorating mental state.
“Haha! Nope!”
“First of all, fuck you Velvet. Second of all, you need serious help.” Vox points an accusatory finger.
“Says Mr.Stalker and local creeper himself.” She counters.
“Still not as creepy as your internet search history.” Vox is quick to mention.
“Whatever, let’s switch games!” Velvet huffs.
“Let me guess, Truth or Dare.” Valentino takes off his heart shaped glasses, inspecting and then cleaning them before putting them back on.
“Bingo! One point for Val!”
“Here we go again.” Vox rolls his eyes, not sounding too happy for this game either. Alastor continues lying against the backrest, becoming one with the couch, still listening to everything that was going on though.
“I’m so starting!” Velvet claps her hands together, then turns to Alastor. “Do you know how to play Al?”
“We had a few rounds back at the Hotel.”
“Perfect! One point for Charlie too then!” Velvet doesn’t turn away from Alastor. “Al, Truth or Dare?”
“Truth.” There’s a very prevalent accent as Alastor responds.
“Ever had sex?” Velvet asks, but everyone else in the room seems to be curious for the answer as well.
“No.” Alastor rubs at his antsy ears, they did that sometimes when he was really drunk. It was terribly inconvenient and annoying.
“Damn.” Valentino says breathlessly. “Centuries old virgin.”
“That’s what it sounds like?” Velvet directs her query towards Vox about the deer demon’s accent. She’d waited forever to hear it, since Vox withheld the evidence from her, stupid bastard TV man.
“You should hear how he says some of the words.” Vox zeroes his focus on Alastor, thinking about something.
“Vox, Truth or Dare.” Alastor cuts their conversation short. Velvet’s eyes widen at how Alastor’s ‘“t”’s sound. Meanwhile Vox thinks, he really did not want to do any dares that Al would think of, it seemed like truth was the safer option.
“Truth.” Vox says after he decides.
“Pussy.” Velvet and Valentino say together. Vox chooses to ignore both of them, he was too drunk for this shit.
“Why did you really force a truce between us with a deal?” Alastor looks up for the first time in a while, trying to interpret Vox’s facial features.
“Oooooo, serious question.”
“I don’t know if I should be offended that you think I have a hidden motivation or not.” Vox slightly frowns, meeting Alastor’s gaze. “Nothing to it, but I like you and wanted to get to know you better beyond the whole rivalry thingy.”
“Least you could do is offer the whole truth.” Valentino grins as Vox’s features betray how awkward the TV demon is feeling.
“Fine, because I really liked you.” Velvet rolls her eyes, not finding the confession all that embarrassing, it was barely one any way. Alastor seems to share her view as he gives a dismissive wave, returning to his previous position of lying down.
“Velvet, Truth or Dare?”
“Dare, because I’m not a coward like you.” Velvet states proudly.
“Well good, since you’re not a coward, you’ll jump those wonky ass flights of stairs you keep saying you will but never do.” Vox has a victorious smile as he sees Velvet regret her decision.
“..Ha..ha ...of course..!..Gg..ez…” Velvet heads to where the stairs are located.
“I’m going to record this comedy gold.” Valentino says before Vox can do anything.
“Great, send me the clip.” Vox smiles widely at the thought, his well deserved revenge for all the embarrassing footage Velvet had caught on him.
“You’ll owe me.” Valentino reminds, sporting his own smile.
As the two other Vs leave the room, Vox watches Alastor who was currently insistently patting his ears down. It was honestly too much for Vox’s drunken mind.
“I can help you with that?” Vox suggests shamelessly, trying to coerce Alastor into sitting next to him. Alastor gives him an incredulous look, not moving an inch. “I’ll make you feel a lot better if you let me〜!”
Alastor takes a moment to process that sentence, it sounded way too dubious for his liking. Still, it would be nice, they’ve been bothering him all night.
“We’ve done it before!” Vox tries instead. “And you didn’t die, did you?”
“Yet.” Alastor points out. He wasn’t particularly worried about Vox, even if Vox did try to kill him, Alastor had a few backup plans in mind. All available to him in a matter of seconds if he truly needed it. Most involving his shadow that he’d hidden into the room.
“There is no yet to that sentence Al, but you can’t deny that I helped, can you?” Vox gets up from his sofa, as Alastor doesn’t say anything. “Come on, let’s get you over to this side.”
Reaching an arm, Vox helps Alastor get up from the adjacent sofa, guiding the drunken deer demon over to him. Then he sits down, pulling Al with him, keeping Al right next to him. Although, Al still seems to want to lay down, and nonchalantly lies on Vox’s lap, startling Vox. Not that the TV demon was complaining in the slightest. So as he’d promised, he starts petting Alastor’s ears. Still enjoying the texture, warmth and serenity the action brought to both of them. That serenity is broken as Velvet barges in, looking worse for wear, Valentino not far behind.
“Damn, we left you two for like five minutes--” Velvet stops, putting a hand in front of her mouth. “Fuck, I feel sick.” She dashes towards the bathroom.
“You two certainly have no shame.” Valentino eyes Vox and Alastor. It was quite a sight seeing the Radio Demon looking...so domestic, with his former rival no less. Still, seeing Vox with a genuine happiness to him was something Valentino could support, and he looked pretty pleased at the moment.
“Eh, who cares.” Vox doesn’t pay any heed to what was said. “You have the video?”
“Already sent it, you’ll enjoy it”
“Yeah I better.” Vox imagines all sorts of different scenarios, stopping as he sees Velvet re enter the room. “Oh hey, you didn’t die.”
“I might as well have.” Velvet sits on her couch, pouting to herself.
“Cheer up, saat kymmenen pistettä ja papukaijamerkin.” Vox gives her a cruel smile, as she narrows her eyes. “You totally deserve this though, I mean for all the screen related pranks alone.”
“It’s not my fault, your face is just so big and stupid looking and so perfect for it.” She was not helping her own case one bit. “Right Al?”
“Hippity hoppity, Vox’s screen is now our property.” Alastor quotes from the godforsaken depths of his mind. Velvet starts laughing obnoxiously loud, her drunk self finding it more funny than it really was. Vox glowers down at Al, tugging on one of Al’s ears slightly. In retaliation Al roughly smacks Vox’s screen.
“What the actual fuck Al.”
“I think we can safely say that we should end the games here.” Valentino, ever the level headed one out of them points out. “I mean you’re drunk as shit Vox, Velvet died five minutes ago, pretty sure Bambi lost his sanity and I’m tired as fuck.”
“All fair points.” Vox agrees, without having really listened.
“I’ll take care of Velvet this time, you help your drunk Bambi there, I don’t think he’s making it back to the Hotel.” Valentino casts a disappointed glance at Velvet who’d just shut down by this point.
“Would that be driving under influence? Teleporting, or whatever it is he does while drunk?? What would that court case look like?” Vox thinks aloud, absentmindedly running his fingers along the base of Alastor’s ears.
“This is Hell Vox.”
“...Oh yeah.” Vox doesn’t stop thinking about it though. “But still!”
“Yeah...just go to sleep.” Valentino urges, having his fill of idiocy for the night. He had employees for that.
It was with great difficulty that Vox actually got to his room, Alastor was not helpful in that regard. How the hell was Vox supposed to keep steady himself was also steadying another? Using the wall and a few miracles of course! It was still a long and perilous journey down the hall, thank god Val had closed that particular hallway from others.
So when Vox finally made it to his bed he just didn’t care about anything anymore. Flopping onto his bed, he helps Alastor into lying next to him. That’s pretty much all he could remember doing before flipping his screen off.
--
Alastor hadn’t expected to wake-up next to Vox, not after doing so once in the living world. However, the dreadful feeling of sickness he was plagued by was something he had expected. He’d had way too much to drink, and now he was going to suffer ‘deerly’ for that.
Ignoring the hangover, Alastor gets up and wakes himself up properly before looking at Vox’s sleeping form. Should he wake up the TV demon? What if Alastor just left? Nothing was stopping him. He didn’t have anything planned for today in terms of entertainment though. Would it be funny to abruptly wake up Vox? He had to feel half as terrible as Alastor did, maybe even worse. How did Vox even sleep? Did he have an off and on button like so many modern devices did these days.
Feeling too curious, Alastor feels around the back of Vox’s flatscreen TV, it was a smooth surface. A few more seconds of looking and Alastor’s wrists are grabbed, and Vox’s screen flickers to life with an expression somewhere between questioning and annoyed.
“And might I ask, what you think you’re doing Al?”
“I was merely pondering if you had an on/off button, which would be a useful feature for you honestly.” Alastor pulls his arms back as Vox lets go. Vox chuckles at the notion.
“Sorry to disappoint, but no such luck for you.” Vox responds before yawning, which to Alastor looked quite interesting. “What fuckin’ time is it anyway?”
“I believe it is currently 9am.” Alastor looks to his shadow for confirmation, and receives a nod in return.
“Why do you hafta wake me up so early always…” Vox groans, not looking ready to get up yet.
“This is hardly early.” Alastor shakes his head in disappointment. “Also, I hadn’t intended to rouse you this time.”
“How would you like it if I started messin’ with your ears while you slept?” Vox asks, even though he’d done exactly that on a few occasions.
“Point taken.” Alastor admits, but still doesn’t feel the least bit remorseful. “Does this place have any form of kitchen?”
“Mm, in the common room, on the right side. I’m surprised you haven’t seen it yet. Are you planning on making something?” Vox asks the last question with a hopeful note. And so Alastor can’t help but agree to cook up some breakfast for the three Vs, even if the other two probably weren’t up yet.
This promise gets Vox to actually leave his bed and join Alastor in the common room, waiting by one of the counters and watching Alastor pull a various assortment of ingredients from the fridge that he didn’t even know existed in there. Then again, he was barred from the kitchen permanently.
In the midst of Alastor cooking Valentino appeared, who had already been awake, and who did not look the least bit frazzled by the previous night's activities.
“Heya Val.” Vox greets from his spot leaning on the counter. “Al’s making breakfast for everyone.”
“How generous of you Alastor.” Valentino doesn’t seem to mind the free food either.
“Mm, think nothing of it.” Alastor responds dismissively.
Velvet saunters to the common room from her own, looking worse than all three of them put together.
“The smell of good non-burnt food has summoned me.” Velvet tells them as she sits on a chair between both of them. “Merci Al, you’ve blessed my day.”
“How lucky for you.” Alastor remarks with a tone full of amusement. Velvet gets herself a plate, staring at it intently.
“Are you going to eat the plate too?” Vox jeers, having watched her for a few moments.
“Forbidden pancakes.” She replies flatly.
“How about you try the actual pancakes.” Alastor sets down the pancakes he’d made, now ready to eat. Leaning against the counter, Alastor hums a song to himself as he spaces out. Luckily he’d done most of the work at the Hotel, he really was grateful for that. Wait--there was something he was...the meeting!!
Alastor perks up suddenly, startling the three Vs.
“What did ya forget?” Valentino seems to already know, sounding very amused.
“I have something to do at the Hotel, I’m afraid I must be going!” Alastor responds hastily, signalling for his shadow to get a move on. He was already late, something that hadn’t happened before. How embarrassing of him to be so tardy.
“Have a nice day!” Vox says before Alastor can disappear to do whatever he needed to get done.
Like Alastor had suspected, Charlie had reprimanded him for being late. The rest of the staff either had their own ideas on why, namely Angel, but most were curious for the actual reason. Not that Alastor was going to admit to anything, it was his business alone. The meeting, as boring as ever had felt like it would never end, but when it finally had, Alastor had returned to his room. He still was quite hungover after all, and just wanted to sleep it off. Despite the chaotic morning, Alastor had to admit that he’d been somewhat entertained the previous night, and it was an interesting experience in its own right. What an unconventional allyship this whole deal turned out to be, but maybe that wasn’t so bad.