Chapter Text
"Oy, 'Mr. Egomaniac'!" Velvette partially shouts through the closed door of Vox's room, then walks in and is met with the sight of the room being almost completely dark, quiet with sounds of the rain outside barely seeping in, and Vox sitting on the edge of the left side of his bed, facing the wall.
"You left repairs earlier today, just checkin' in if your head's in the right place." A double-sided joke.
Vox, however, has no response.
Velvette stays silent for a couple of seconds before continuing, "Val still doesn't want to talk to you, 'ya know. You sure did fuck up." His antenna twitches in an unnerving way. "But, considering you're just sitting there in the dark totally unresponsive, I guess you're thinking about that."
The doll stops, again. "Come down to eat, I know you haven't been doing so lately." And she backs out of the room closing the door.
As much as it didn't seem like it, Vox paid attention to every single word she said, and each one especially hurt.
Ever since a week ago, his attempt at declaring war against Heaven (and also going completely manic and tried to kill everyone including himself), he has been in repairs because Valentino just ripped his screen off to control his madness. Usually, when he has a big sign over his bedroom door saying "VOX IN REPAIRS, DNI" It would mean he has to be confined to a surgical chair in a special floor of the tower just dedicated for Vox to repair himself. He isn't exactly indestructible. But he can still go out if he's recovered enough, and thankfully his screen being ripped off his shoulders isn't the worst repair to go through.
But it definitely does leave him weakened, which he hates the most. So many things are reeling in his head, from the part he thought he succeeded at being the strongest, to the part where he fought against Alastor, to him making the weapon almost overload, and ultimately to him failing. He cannot stand the fact he made an absolute idiot of himself, despite all his best efforts.
The taps of the rain hitting the room's balcony's railing, then falling down through the rain gutter pipe, the silence of the city and the ringing in his poorly-installed speakers is enough to drive Vox mad yet again. God knows how long he was sitting there like that, in the dark, all alone.
Then, he finally decides to stand up and try to find something to do to distract himself. Walking wasn't easy at all, his sensors are still adjusting to his biological body, cons of having metallic bones but normal flesh and blood. Eventually, he reaches out for the drawer he stashes stuff in, like snacks when nobody's looking or stupid things he impulsively buys at the local store. But his eyes catch on something. Something that brings back bad memories.
It was the torn half of Alastors and Vincent's Vox's picture they took together, over 63 years ago.
His eyes widened, taking a step back from the drawer like it was a sort of flight-or-fight response. Of course, he just had to get reminded of his rival, his defeat, his agony and love for the Radio Demon out of all people all at once, with just ONE simple little picture--
His phone buzzed. A notification from Velvette: "you gonna starve or what?! if u keep this up im eating the leftovers!"
Well, out of all the things she mentioned, it seems like basic needs completely went throughout one speaker to the other.
And so, Vox glances back to the aged photo before brushing it off and leaving the room to attend yet another unnerving quiet dinner with the others.
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"Today was such a productive day!!" Charlie exclaims, jumping up and down beaming with happiness.
"Charlie, babe, all we did today was clean up the hotel and enlist, like, two more sinners into the hotel." Vaggi adds in with a soft tone, always liking to see the love of her life in a good mood.
"Yeah, that's TWO new souls going to be redeemed!!!! I'm so happy right now, Vaggi!!"
"Yeah, well, when you're happy I am too. Now come on, there's still a couple of boxes left for tonight."
Vaggi turns her back and calmly starts walking, expecting Charlie to excitedly follow her from behind, but quickly the lack of footsteps rose up suspicions and she turns around only to see Charlie stopped and her head turned to the balcony.
"What's up?"
"I-I've got a thing to sort out first, I'll be right back with you!" Giving Vaggi no time to proccess, the Princess of Hell quickly skips over to the high stairs of the inside balcony and platform.
"Heyyyy, Alastor..." Charlie slowly approaches the demon, that seems far more tense and distant than ever.
But the unsettling vibes only grow stronger as Alastor turns to her and 'warmly' greets her.
"Hello, dear! Is there something you need?" Despite the cheerful words and voice, the look in his gaze could only send unusual shivers down Charlie's spine.
"No, really, I- just wanted to check up on you. See how it's going..? It's been a week since everything's happened, and you just so happened to be the last in the line for, uhm, check-ups! Haha.." A partial lie, while the check-up list did in fact exist, he actually wasn't even in the line at all.
Alastor thinks what to reply for a very short moment. "Oh, now, Charlie, you don't have to worry your little head about me! I can assure you, things are going well."
"Oh, w-well," The nervous-ness in her voice is now obviously apparent. "I'm glad that they are. And, I'm glad that you decided to stay at the hotel again."
"Hmmm, since we have all known each other for so long, it would only feel wrong to part so suddenly, don't you think?" He shifts his look towards the comically small figure of Lucifer a bit farther away, dressed in his robe with duck slippers and getting ready for his beauty sleep.
"Uuuuh, yeah! Anyway, that's really all I wanted to talk about, I gotta help Vaggi with the boxes soo, good night, Al!!"
Alastor watches as the figure of the Princess hurriedly walks away down the stairs, and his smile thinning.
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"Soo..." Vox chuckles dryly. "What's the repairs for today?"
"Well, today's your scheduled rest, boss." His assistant replies, with a bit of an uncertainty in his tone. "... There was a change."
Vox raises an eyebrow. "Well, then, I don't know, you're dismissed!"
"We just got here."
"Don't care!"
With the far away doors shut, Vox turns around to just really take in the actual horrors of the repairs room. There's a lot more blood on the tools and wires hung everywhere, Vox knows for sure if he didn't have the anesthesia protocol installed in his main .exe he would be totally toast every time he needed repairs.
The uncomfortable setting of the surrounding only made him feel even worse, and he decides to go outside a bit for a walk before realizing his social image is totally shattered. His little 'crash-out' as Velvette likes to call it certainly did do irreversible damage, but Vox just felt a certain need to go outside, a gut feeling in his stomach was urging him.
The outside was incredibly dull. He was first greeted with the ruins of the entrance of the Vee's tower alongside a few (not really paid) construction workers trying to fix the damage he'd caused. Welcoming.
There were lots of puddles on the ground left over from last night's rain, and because it was so cold out in the streets Vox assumed he didn't have to worry being seen by any sinner because it was a Thursday morning and figured his presence outside wouldn't be noticed as much. And it wasn't, apart from a few nasty glances, but he was simply too mentally tired to care.
He spent a few minutes walking around trying to decide where should he go. To a cafe? A small restaurant? Or maybe some remote place?
Eventually he settles on to a small park in Cannibal Town with few benches and nobody being around there at this hour, and it was a relief to realise that the entirety of Cannibal Town doesn't care who he is.
"Wow, surprising to see you here." A voice creeps in not too far from his left, and the voice's characteristics were enough to make Vox's skin crawl.
"What are you up to now ?" Alastor's tone drops and is cold, with Vox hesitantly turning around to face the Radio Demon.
"... I'm not looking to pick a fight, Alastor." Vox quipps without thinking, probably the most genuine response Alastor could've heard, which only intrigued him more.
"Is that so? I guess it makes sense why now you're scurrying around the block aimlessly like a chicken without it's head."
"And what exactly are you doing here?"
"Similarly to you, I also took a walk to clear my mind! Cannibal Town is a lovely place to stroll around." Vox couldn't believe how lightly Alastor was taking the situation, no matter if he was masking or not.
Vox then sits on a bench next to the one Alastor was sitting on, making a distance where Alastor was comfortable in and where Vox wanted to rip his head off again.
Seeing the awkward tension between them, Alastor took the chance to rub some more salt in the wound as if he didn't get enough of messing around with Lucifer lately.
"Well then, how's it going on your end? I see your little friends haven't torn you to pieces now that you showed them just how full of yourself are."
Vox stays silent with his body slumped and head turned down, just like how he did with Velvette.
Alastor leans in closer. "Or how you got put in your place yet again, not really something that would happen to a self-proclaimed GOD."
"Oh, fuck off, Al-" He mumbles before getting cut off.
"Or how you were left all alone again, must've hurt a lot, no?" Alastor leans in even closer.
"SHUT UP!" Vox finally snaps, with Alastor's grin widening even more.
Then Vox takes a weak breath, and turns around.
"I just want things to be back to how they were before."
Alastor perks up.
"Back then..." Vincent hisses through his teeth, not planning to finish that sentence any time soon, thinking that Alastor would interrupt with some degradating joke,
But he didn't. This time, the chatty advantage-taking Radio Demon finally went unresponsive, which immediately caused a few alarms in Vox's 'Alastor.exe' protocol to go haywire.
"Fuck's gotten into you now?" His voice dropping so low, even his microphone is struggling to send out the sound waves.
Then, suddenly, a loud static noise can be heard from Alastor's staff, before him straightening his posture up and turning his head to view.
"Hmm, just baffled at how shaken up you still are after all this time, truly disappointing."
"You need therapy." Vox blunts without thinking.
"So do you, sweetheart."
"Oh, shut it." Vox finally manages to smile even a little bit after more than a week of severe depression, and seeing Alastor's face finally looking softer, Vox took this as friendly banter.
He stands up ready to leave, opening his mouth to say a sarcastic goodbye, but he gets cut off again.
"... Tomorrow, 6 in the evening, in the smoothie shop you took me before. Don't worry, I'll make sure nobody makes a fuss about your presence." Alastor adds in a concerningly calm and soft voice, but it felt so genuine.
Vox freezes for a moment, barely processing what he just said, untill turning around and seeing Alastor gone from the bench, slid into the shadows of the cold morning.