Chapter Text
Vox was hiding a dirty secret.
It wasn’t uncommon in the slightest for denizens of Hell to have some nasty skeletons in their closets. Heinous crimes, sexual perversions, that sort of thing. Some sappy sinners cared a whole lot about keeping stuff like that under wraps, pathetically self-flagellating over it as if that would get them a ticket out of here. But Vox wasn’t a pussy. He wasn’t shy about any pedestrian things. No, what was really worth hiding from the general public down here, especially for an Overlord with a huge public image like himself, was something embarrassing. If sinners got even a whisper of something that could easily be mocked, it would end up everywhere. And while the Vees were generally strong enough to withstand things like that, Vox personally didn’t want to give anyone an edge.
Thus, the humiliating secret: He was abysmal at video games.
He had learned that these were “the hot new thing” in the 1990s. Although he normally prided himself on being forward-thinking, Vox could not wrap his head around it for the longest time. He couldn’t fathom why those weird beepity-boop things were so popular. Hell, he understood the internet quicker than video games. Of course, with the internet Vox grew to understand that games were indeed important to many people, and thus worth investing in, but as to why he was at a loss.
Velvette, on the other hand, was a fanatic for them. She would spend many a weekend sitting in a stupid-looking chair, yelling her head off into a headset and frantically mashing buttons on a controller. She devoured every new release from VoxToys, the main game development studio under VoxTek, and indeed she came in to manage that particular branch more than Vox ever did, even though it was technically under his jurisdiction. Vox found all this sort of charming, but once again he couldn’t understand the hype.
“You know,” Velvette told him when he mentioned his confusion. “If I have to say it this way…getting good at those ‘beepity-boop things’ could be good for you.”
“Hm?”
His business partner summoned a screen in front of him, displaying an image of unsightly demons with their eyes glued to computer monitors. “Look Vox, I know you don’t understand this, but…There’s a whole demographic of disgusting slavish morons who devote their lives to gaming.”
“Like you?”
“Shut up. These people think anyone who posits themself as one of them is cool. So, if you were anything like them, you might, you know, gain their respect.”
Vox paused, mulling over her words. “So you’re saying that if I immerse myself in this ‘video gaming’, I could tap into a new audience?” He rubbed the bottom of his screen methodically. It was always good to gain a new audience, even one as depraved as the “gamer” community.
“And I know you don’t know shit about HellRaisin’, but I can carry you for a while, haha. We can destroy our competition together, yeah?” Velvette said, an expectant expression on her face. She handed him a controller that, surprisingly enough, resembled Vox’s colors.
Thus, Vox descended into a new culture. He made an account for HellRaisin’, Hell’s most popular competitive online game. He bought all the hottest cosmetics. He created a line of Vox-themed gaming gear. Vox was still complete garbage at the game, but that didn’t stop him from posting carefully doctored clips to his social media. He made sure to be extremely careful about it, because, once again, anyone finding out the truth would mean certain ridicule. In the meantime, he would play games with Velvette, where she would coach him with her superior knowledge. She seemed to enjoy smashing him into the ground.
What was more important was that her suggestion worked. The grease-stained nobodies that made up “gaming culture” had taken in this carefully curated image and…accepted it. They thought he was cool, one of them, which meant they were definitely going to buy all of his products. Vox was pleased. Although he hadn’t initially understood the whole thing, Vox was finding success marketing himself as a “gamer”. He now had an extra level of social cred, especially with a subset of younger sinners. Had to hand it to Velvette, she knew what she was talking about.
A small problem did inevitably emerge. People began asking him to livestream his games. It had the potential to be a pretty highly viewed event. Of course, there was no way he could do that. Not without extensive practice. Vox began a regimen of anonymous games to hone his skills. Over the course of a few days it became his obsession, his greatest goal. Win one game of HellRaisin’.
This was when it happened.
Vox took a deep breath and booted up another round. He had the best pay-to-win weapons, the best equipment, the best internet connection. The last few rounds had not gone in his favor, but this time he was determined to come out on top.
It always started out with pandemonium. HellRaisin’ was a peculiar game. It was intensely unbalanced, often cruel with its mechanics, and of course there was no internal moderation for player etiquette or exploits. All this only made victory more sweet. At least, he assumed.
Vox ran frantically across the map, swiveling his character around like a headless chicken in search of upgrades. After somehow mostly avoiding the rain of bullets coming after him, he found himself in the main tower and eventually landed on an armor buff. Score. Maybe he’d finally get a good game.
Out of nowhere, a digital bullet shot into his character.
Vox flailed and turned around to see a neon-clad avatar pointing a pistol at him. He pulled out his own weapon and fired a few blasts in turn before bolting past his opponent and heading down the staircase. The green player didn’t seem to be following. What, can’t finish the job or something?
He hurried down the spiral stairs of the tower, bumping into walls as he did. Once he reached the bottom, Vox stepped outside to run into the green player once more.
There was a moment of standstill as the two avatars stared at each other. The person opposite him was the first to move, spamming the crouch and uncrouch animation in a crude taunt. Vox fired, but the player tanked the hit with no reaction. Instead, they performed a similar taunt where they sheathed and unsheathed their weapon, before shooting back a barrage that ended with Vox’s character exploding.
YOU PLACED IN THE LOSER PERCENTILE, LOSER, the game’s death screen showed him. The ending stats had similarly insulting messages, ones he had grown all too accustomed to.
Vox was a little miffed, but not something he wasn’t used to at this point. HellRaisin’ was not known for a friendly player base. He put his best foot forward…until he got placed with the same player again.
And again. And again. Six times he encountered the same player, and all six he was relentlessly trolled before being mercilessly killed. This was not regular gaming. This was purposeful targeting, an act of utter disrespect! Unfortunately, it only got worse.
Vox forcefully closed out of the sixth death screen and returned to the lobby. There, he was met with a new sight. His in-game messages were flooded with usernames he’d never seen before.
L
L
L
>epic legendary skin >can’t play the game
kill urself
will you dodge the exterminations while dodging like that?
kys
And others of that ilk. Vox’s anger began to bubble over as he read over each. Every message, while pitiful on their own, built up his frustration with their sheer volume. How was this happening? Did all these people have something to do with the bastard who kept getting into his games just to mock him? Him, the Overlord of Media? If they knew who he was…
“Um, Vox? Something’s going on.”
“What?” Vox whipped around to see Velvette standing at the threshold of his office door.
“Were you playing HellRaisin’ just now?” she asked casually. Vox grimaced and quickly turned off his array of monitors. She smirked and, with a flick of the wrist, pulled up a holographic screen showing a video livestream. “Because someone doxxed you.”
The stream appeared to be a game of HellRaisin’. The person displayed on the corner of the screen in a small profile was an acid-green doglike Sinner peppered with black pixelated patterns. He looked like he might have been a teenager. Bulky headphones adorned his furry head. As he talked, holographic orange hands floated above his shoulders and motioned in what Vox assumed was that pretentious hand language deaf people used. The most infuriating thing was that he immediately recognized the in-game avatar this dog was playing.
“Holyyyy shit, guys,” the sinner squeaked out in his grating voice. “Are you serious? That was Vox. VoxTek Vox. And he’s so fucking shit, man. Six games. Hahaha! Thanks, guys, for tracking his account. I can’t believe this. No fucking way is Vox an actual gamer with the way we trashed him. That is so fucking embarrassing. Like, he couldn’t make one good play that would have made him seem like an Overlord, let alone the Overlord. God, you…you suck, man. Ohhh my god. Good shit.”
Vox screamed, letting out a surge of electricity across the room that fritzed out his monitors. How dare a yappy little kid disrespect him so much! So openly!
Velvette pulled on his leg, dragging him back to the ground. “His name’s Adrian Allet. Some VoxTube troll with half a million followers. He’s not worth our time.”
“Not worth our time?” Vox retorted, his anger giving way to manic frustration. “Velvette, Velvette. We can’t–We can’t let any old sinner get away with humiliating me. I won’t. Stand for it. He thinks he can use his platform to hurt me? No. I’m going to destroy that little twerp.”
Velvette rolled her eyes. She didn’t get why it was so important. But he would show her. He would make sure absolutely no one could treat him this way. Especially not a no-name like this “Adrian Allet”. Count your days, you son of a bitch. I’m declaring war.