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Rosie doesn’t leave Cannibal Town often.
As far as she’s concerned, any time away from her domain is time taken away from assisting her people, keeping up with the latest gossip, and enjoying the comforts of her position.
Alas, when the need arises, she will venture outward, though ideally not for long.
One of the kids in Cannibal Town is having a birthday party tomorrow and Rosie tasks herself with getting them a present. While there are nice toy stores in Cannibal Town, another one recently opened up in Zestial’s territory and the kids have been going nuts for the newer stuff.
Zestial’s territory has few pieces of technology, but they’re not more or less completely bereft in the same way that hers is. The odd sinner or two can be seen with one of those modern cellphones. Rosie steers clear of them for the most part; they’re too noisy for her taste.
Today though, they end up serving her well.
Rosie is navigating through some trickier crossroads when she hears it come out of someone’s phone.
Alastor has been taken down by Vox.
What?
Rosie approaches the sinner whose phone she hears it from. The sinner is clearly smart enough to know who she’s dealing with, for she surrenders both her phone and the information she knows about the scenario at hand immediately upon being asked.
So, Alastor fought the Vees yesterday and lost…
It apparently happened in their territory. Alastor apparently wandered in and called out for Vox’s attention. Vox in turn brought his team and a battle, one that ended in Alastor surrendering himself to the Vees.
Rosie is left with just as many questions as she now has answers.
Why start a fight like that?
Was it meant to be an ego booster after their conversation yesterday that just got out of hand for him?
On one hand, Alastor’s a prideful son of a bitch – he’s certainly at home in this particular ring of Hell, that’s for sure – but he seemed to have a good idea of his temporary limits during their talk, otherwise he wouldn’t have bothered asking for her to repair his staff.
No, even inebriated on pride, Alastor is smarter than to pick a fight like this, a fight he was susceptible to lose.
Besides, while Rosie knows Alastor is no fan of Vox’s, Alastor hadn’t gone on the offensive towards him since returning into the limelight. Sure, they’d had a little argument on one of his programs, but that had stayed on the airwaves to her understanding.
A physical fight, especially one that Alastor himself initiated, seemed beneath him, even if Vox is an admittedly strong opponent.
Wait a second.
Rosie recalls Alastor’s petulant resolve to get his weakened powers back on his own not twenty-four hours ago.
She recalls the minutiae of their deal, what he brought up yesterday and how she countered him.
…
He wouldn’t!
…
Of course he would.
Clever deer.
Rosie’s not sure which she feels more strongly, insulted by his attempt to weasel out of her clutches or impressed by his plan.
For right now, she sticks with being insulted.
The gall he has!
Has she not been a fair owner? Has she not allowed him most every bit of dignity and freedom she could spare?
And he tries to pull this stunt?!
Rosie doesn’t consider herself vengeful. If she did, Susan would have been her lunch several times over by now.
However, Rosie doesn’t appreciate someone pulling, or even trying to pull, the wool over her eyes.
She doesn’t appreciate that at all.
Now, the question becomes what is she gonna do about it.
Well, she’s not going to let Alastor’s plan go through, that’s for sure. He’s still of use to her and especially after this, she’d want control even if he wasn’t.
His situation with Vox poses a problem though. Alastor’s committed to being Vox’s prisoner, so she can’t exactly summon him at will right now.
So, how does she exact revenge on him while also re-asserting her dominance and adhering to this deal he’s forced upon himself?
Hmmm…
Rosie knows that while Vox has Alastor under his control, he’ll make sure he suffers; that clearly wasn’t enough of a detriment to stop Alastor from pulling this stunt and he’ll absolutely find some way to turn the tables on Vox soon enough, but for the time being at least, Rosie suspects Vox won’t let so much as a single opportunity to torture and humiliate Alastor go to waste.
After this, she wouldn’t either.
…What if she delayed or even removed his ability to turn the tables while also regaining her power over him?
Now that would be nice.
Alastor is a deceitful demon; lies and malleable wording is his forte.
Rosie would bet her bottom dollar that he’s doing that once again with Vox.
However, that is where the two of them have always differed.
Lying and swindling has its place to be sure, but in matters of deals, Rosie herself hasn’t found as much value in that approach.
Sometimes the truth can be more of a humbling blow than just the threat of it.
…
Rosie sure hopes Alastor enjoyed his time plotting, thinking he had gained an upper hand in their dealings, because she’s about to raise hers even higher than he could ever imagine was possible.
—--------------------------------------------
Vee Tower is far too bright for Rosie’s taste.
In Rosie’s opinion, flashy neon beams will never compare to the gentle illumination provided by simple light bulbs and candles; they’re so much kinder on the eyes, even if hers no longer strictly exist.
However, Rosie decides to stomach them for the time being as she enters the building.
Some sort of interview seems like it just wrapped up, as demonic reporters leave the tower in droves. Those who recognize Rosie have the good sense to part themselves, leaving her only to bump into one or two elbows.
When she finally sees Vox after getting through the lion’s share of them, he’s smiling, cyan teeth sharp as they create a crescent of triumph.
Her thoughts on his annoyingly massive ego don’t live long once she sees Alastor tied up to some rolling chair with a cyan mask over his mouth that looks like Vox’s, save for the fact that it makes him look like he’s frowning.
It’s not long before Alastor’s eyes meet hers.
They pop like dry corn niblets on a stove.
She can only guess how he’s feeling about her appearance.
Rosie doesn’t address him beyond a quick stare, refocusing on Vox once her presence is made known.
Upon seeing his new guest, Vox’s grin expands in a fake way that Rosie would detest under any other circumstances.
He greets her with a sickeningly sweet warmth, welcoming her to VoxTek and asking what he can do for her today. Before she can speak, Vox asks if she’s heard rumors about his upcoming operation with Hell’s other Overlords and is here to join in on the fun.
Rosie…has questions about that, but she remembers why she’s here today.
Those questions can be asked later, she decides, especially since she has a feeling she’ll be seeing him again quite soon after this meeting.
No, instead, Rosie, looking Vox’s hostage, the soul that is hers, dead in the eye, recreates Vox’s smile as she tells him that she’s here to check on her property.
Alastor is almost never one to show fear. She’s maybe seen it once or twice in the decades he’s worked for and under her control.
That fear shows itself.
Rosie doesn’t even try to hide her smirk, her wordless promise of what is to come, the wrath he’s brought upon himself.
Vox looks dumbly at her and asks what’s going on.
Alastor’s head starts shaking frantically. There’s pleading in his eyes that’s almost too loud to not be silent.
Rosie’s smirk grows. She tells Alastor that she knows what he’s doing, and that while it was quite ingenious she’ll admit, he’s not getting free of her so easily and that there are to be consequences for this little stunt.
Vox, still oblivious, states that though she might not know it, Alastor is actually his property now.
Rosie looks at Vox, still smirking.
Alastor makes a noise, a final choking protest that leaves his throat weak and muffled through Vox’s mask.
If Rosie was feeling merciful, she’d pull back, stop in her tracks.
But Alastor abused her mercy and she can’t just allow that to go unpunished.
Rosie tells Vox that not just Alastor, but Alastor’s soul is her property and without further word, displays the golden ribbon-like chain that connects her hand and Alastor’s neck as proof.
For a few seconds, things are quiet.
Vox’s lower jaw disappears from his screen.
Alastor glares at Rosie, the edges of his permanent grin now peeking through the mask Vox put on him.
Rosie simply upholds her smirk.
Then Vox laughs.
He laughs and laughs and laughs and laughs some more.
It goes on for minutes. If not for the fact that Vox is already dead and can’t suffer a second death via laughter, Rosie would be somewhat concerned.
Once the barks of Vox’s laughter fade into strong chuckles adorned with a shit-eating grin and humor-born tears, Vox starts ranting at Alastor about the shit he gave him for having a team when he himself was owned by someone else, all the while Alastor looks like he wants to sink into the brimstone below.
For a few minutes, Rosie wonders if Vox has forgotten that she’s here and once she decides she’s been ignored long enough, she coughs for Vox’s attention.
Vox, to his credit, immediately provides her with it.
He asks about the specifics of their deal, but Rosie claims that it’s her business. Vox clearly isn’t thrilled about the lack of disclosure, but accepts the answer all the same.
Rosie receives another question, one about why she’s telling him about it now.
This one Rosie has no issue answering.
She tells him that her deal was to make Alastor the strongest sinner in Hell, and how he hopes to free himself by bestowing the title onto someone else, and how she’s not about to let that happen.
Vox seems even less thrilled by that answer, and Rosie can hazard a guess as to why. Rosie has no doubt in her mind that up until now, he vied for that title and has just learned that he’s not able to have his cake and eat it, too.
The next thing out of Vox’s mouth isn’t a question, but a statement; he’s not releasing Alastor.
Rosie smirks, and she tells him she wouldn’t dream of having him do that, that she instead wants to make a deal with him.
Vox looks to the still terrified-looking Alastor before mirroring Rosie’s smirk.
He leans in and says that he’s listening.
Rosie starts asking questions, namely what is this project he has cooked up with the other Overlords.
Vox wastes no time before answering.
Taking over Heaven, huh?
It’s now time for Rosie to be less than thrilled, both about this plan and that if it works, Vox would be in charge of Heaven.
That said, the fruition of that scheme is still a ways off; she can handle it later on.
Rosie makes an offer. She will put her support behind Vox and his plan to take over Heaven, but under three conditions.
The first condition is that while Alastor will spend all of his free time trapped within the confines Vox wills, she is free to summon Alastor as she wishes for her own causes.
The second condition is that Vox obey the parameters of how far his own power can grow so as to not override her authority over Alastor.
The third condition is that Vox outlines the exact wording of his deal with Alastor. After all, if Alastor’s willing to exploit one loophole to get out of a deal, he’ll surely do the same to get out of the other, and she and Vox can’t have that.
Though Vox comments on the unfairness of having to disclose his own deal while hers gets to be kept partially under wraps, he agrees.
From across the room, Alastor looks like he’s about to faint.
For the first time since entering Vee Tower, Rosie approaches Alastor specifically. She gently grabs him, one hand on his left shoulder, the other on his chin and forces his attention on her.
Rosie tells Alastor that he brought this on himself, that she had asked so relatively little of him, gave him the space and time that he hadn’t even offered the souls under his own command, but that she doesn’t appreciate having the wool pulled over her eyes.
Smirking, she tells him that it was a good try, but a try she’s not about to let him make so easily again.
With a hand patting against his masked cheek, she tells Alastor that they’ll be in touch before letting go and leaving his side.
Vox gives Rosie a magnanimous bow and offers her a free cellphone to stay connected, but Rosie assures him that that won’t be an issue, especially with their newly realized piece of common ground. Though the idea of incomplete control clearly annoys him, Vox doesn’t push the matter further, instead wishing her well before stalking towards their now even more trapped than before prey again.
Sins aside, Rosie considers herself to be a generally fair and kind woman. As many of her more gossipy friends say, she’s the exact opposite of someone like Susan, the oft-called – even by herself and Alastor – ornery old bitch.
However, while Susan may be an ornery old bitch, Rosie knows that to anyone who tries to play one too many games with her, she’s more than happy to turn herself into a vengeful old bitch.