Chapter Text
everything was gone for vox, his power, status, even valentino and velvet were being more pissy towards him than usual. They did give him a new body after about a week of incessant begging. He was still slightly getting used to it but he now had a self-destruct button they placed on his body, in case he got out of hand again, just in case they had to save him from himself, again.
“It wasn't my fault, he was ragebaiting me, with his stupid smile, he was trying to split us up, he was purposely messing with my head”, he told val
“Even so, you still did what you did, were sorry amorcito, but we can't trust you right now, not after what you tried to do to us and yourself”
“NO! It was business! It didn't mean anything and you know it”
“I think you’re mixing up our reasonings, come on, calm down, you’re going insane”
“I’M NOT INSANE, I’M PERFECTLY STABLE!”
Velvette interjects, “val, since when are you the sensical one, and vox is always this hot headed”
“Alastor”, val responded,
“Oh dear Lucifer, it was 70 years ago, get over it, vox!” Velvette yelled.
Vox looked at all of them, “No, you know what? no, this isn't fair. You all suck, I'm tired of this, you don't even know what happened.”
“Yes we do, you told us, remember? you rejected him and he was lying on his little broadcast.” she responded
“Although that's getting increasingly hard to believe with how upset you are about this.” val interjected
Vox’s eyes glare, “Okay, you all are being unreasonable! I'M MAD BECAUSE HE'S TAUNTING ME!”
“V, you’re not in the right headspace right now, we know there's something you’re not telling us because nothing you’re saying is adding up, and usually you’re pretty good at lying straight to our faces.” velvette tries to explain
“YOU GUYS CAN STOP PRETENDING TO CARE! WE’RE OVERLORDS, WE DON’T DO THAT! IM OUT, SEE YA!’ vox yells as he storms out of the tower.
“Yes, we do-and he’s out”, velvette says.
“He’ll be back, give him time, he just needs to cool off, he’s not gonna stay mad forever.” Valentino reassures her.
“I sure hope so.” Velvette responds.
As vox storms out, he strolls through hell. Thinking, being outside and breathing in the air calms him a bit. He can recollect his thoughts. He knows he doesn't actually have any right to be mad at them. Although he feels insane right now, he feels calmer as he walks…
-until he bumps into a familiar face.
Alastor. He had been filled with complex emotion lately although he continued doing what he always did and replaced it with pure rage, because that's what he always did, after all it hurt less, it was easier to deal with. His walk calmed him down but his “old pal” reignited that spark of rage. “...you…”, vox didn't know what to expect from this interaction, he absolutely despised this man now, he wanted him dead, and for good reason, he was the main source of all his problems, both physical and mental, but something in him took over and instead of just leaving and ignoring him, he felt the need to talk to him, which may have something to do with how he felt during his seven year absence, he thought he was dead, part of him wanted to tell him, tell him that he loved him and just how much that night hurt him, but deep down, he was pretty sure he knew. All he really wanted now was to make sure he got payback in any way he could.
All Alastor gave in return to Vox's comment was a quick glare, turning around and pretending not to hear him as if nothing ever happened, maintaining his calm demeanor.
This drove Vox crazy, even though he recognized he was being a bit of hypocrite -considering he would do the same in a different circumstance- but he directly spoke to Alastor, and he just ignored that. The feeling of disrespect surged inside him. “ALASTOR!, I’M TALKING TO YOU! gone deaf you old hag!?” He asked, remembering talking to Velvette about the insults. He likes incorporating other people's words into his own, it's another thing that often makes him lose his sense of identity. He often feels like he's not him, but rather just a collaboration of various other people he loses himself in. “YOU’RE JUST GONNA WALK AWAY AND IGNORE ME! BECAUSE YOU KNOW, YOU JUST KNOW THAT I’M STRONGER THAN YOU! I WOULD’VE KILLED YOU IF IT WASN'T FOR MY ACCOSIATES, YOU’RE F**KING EMBARRASSED THAT YOU'RE SO F**KING PATHETIC”
Alastor's shoulders tense slightly in response, but he keeps walking, eventually bringing himself to a dead end in the alleyway. How convenient for an ambush.
Even though it was small, vox noticed. Of course he noticed! It was alastor, seeing him tense filled Vox with a feeling of power. “What’s wrong? Are you scared of me? scared of what I've become? All thanks to you, I do have that to thank you for! you helped drive me to accomplish everything I did. I almost had everything I wanted, I was so close! but then your little gang had to go and ruin it, didn't they?”
Alastor still didn't respond. At this point, mainly because he already committed, and was he going to let his stubbornness go just to respond to the picturebox? no, no he was not. He looks down at his claws, ears facing away from vox.
“What? You shaking so much you can't f**king speak?, he says, as he walks closer to the man backed into the corner. As he gets increasingly frustrated and confused by the silent treatment, he shouts “PAY ATTENTION TO ME!”
Alastor finally pulls out a quick laugh before composing himself, clearing his throat “Is that how we ask for things now?”
Vox’s face had a pink tint to it for a slight second, embarrassed that he lost his composure and was being laughed at, again, though he quickly regains himself, “well asking nicely never seemed to work with you now did it?”
“Neither did anything else, dear, but please do keep trying!, I always look forward to watching you scramble to your feet after I sweep you off them…”, Alastor jabs his cane into Vox’s chest, pushing him aside, “..One way or another”
“OH FREAK YOU, YOU KNOW WHAT? I’M DONE WITH THIS SH*T. SWEEP ME OFF MY FEET? REALLY? YOU COULD NEVER! I FREAKING HATE YOU MOTHERF**kER”, as Alastor jabs him with the cane, he grabs a hold of it in his hands, “HA! MY F**KING CANE NOW PRICK!, DONT THINK YOU CAN RUN AWAY LIKE A FREAKING COWARD THAT FREAKING EASILY”, vox knows he’s getting out of check again, the vees would be quite disappointed in him, but his new body has a self destruct button, so he knows if he gets to off the rails again, they’ll stop him, even though they still wouldn’t be too appreciative of what he’s doing, especially val, he’s always been jealous of the attention he gave the deer.
Alastor lets go of his cane and it dissolves into shadow in vox’s hands, “temper, temper, what would your little friends say?, didn't you tell them you were done with me? or something along those lines, I presume”.
vox takes a deep breath, easing his temper, " you know what alastor, you’re right, except about them being frie-nds, it's as you said, they don't exist down here, they're my lovely associates, you wouldn’t know anything about that, i'm freaking sorry, because you're freaking right, for once, you’re not worth my freaking time alastor, i hope you have a miserable, lonely f**king life"
“Yes, well… be sure to tell me all about it when you ’accidentally’ find me again tomorrow”
Vox grows angrier as steam starts rising from his head, frying his circuits, he slightly twitches his head but then remembers what he said, “No, Alastor, Im serious, this time, im done with you, im so f**king done, they were right”, he says in both a calm yet manic voice.
“Then you won't mind me leaving? I have a schedule, you know”
“I was about to, I hope I never see you again”, he starts working back towards vee tower, not looking back. Alastor follows close behind him, not in a way that's easily dismissible as just a coincidence, and he makes no effort to hide it.
Vox groans, noticing this, “Did your schedule -that was so important- consistent with stalking me around town?”
Alastor puts on an innocent expression, tilting his head, “you noticed that?, I must say, for a man so ‘done with’ me, you seem completely thrown off course by my presence alone. Tell me, do you recognize this spot? Maybe from around five minutes ago? We've been going in circles, vox.”
Vox groans, frustrated,”What do you mean, did I notice that? Don’t try to pin this around on me! You’re the one f**king following me, I DIDN'T ASK YOU TOO, I told you I'm done, so I don't know why you're here, I CAN’T DO THIS ANYMORE ALASTOR, IM F**KING DONE, LEAVE ME THE F**k ALONE! YOU'VE DONE ENOUGH DAMAGE FOR MY ENTIRE AFTERLIFE, I NEVER WANNA SEE YOUR FACE OR HEAR YOUR NAME AGAIN, IS IT TOO MUCH TO ASK FOR YOU TO LEAVE ME ALONE?!?...and I did the circle thing on purpose to make sure it wasn't just a coincidence”, vox knew damn well he didn't do that on purpose and was rather thrown off guard by the demon's presence, but he didn't need to know that.
A small crowd of sinners have gathered, keeping their distance in case of outburst, but close enough to eavesdrop, alastor tuts around, “Good grief, how do your associates even let you outside? They can’t be confident in your ability to restrain yourself. I thought you cared about your ‘image’”.
Vox sighs in response, "Don't change the subject, my image can't go down more than it has, ill ask you this one more time, either leave me alone or at least tell me why you won’t”, he notices the sinners listening in and hears the murmurs among the crowd about the things he just yelled at alastor, he wasnt gonna admit it, not here, not now, but that was a big reason he lowered his voice from before
“You want me to tell you? Right here? Right now? Sure!Alastor gives a dramatic pause and turns to the crowd.”
“I’m waiting.”
“Because I have my suspicions that you're so twitchy around me because you’re smitten!”The crowd watching gasps and begins recording,”like a schoolboy”, Alastor smiles wider, rubbing the salt in, “A coward, so to speak. And I could give my evidence of course…in front of this lovely bunch”.
“OH PLEASE! IN TWITCHY AROUND YOU BECAUSE YOU P*SS ME OFF AND ANNOY THE CR*P OUT OF ME. Ya know why dont you go on and try. Try to prove how much im totally in love with you without making yourself seem like a delusional self-centered prick who thinks everyone's in love with him, my approval rating can't go down anymore than 0%, so at least for a little while, tell them, tell them what you got, i dont care anymore, HELL I DONT EVEN KNOW WHO I F*CKING AM ANYMORE. TELL THEM ANYTHING YOU F*CKING WANT”.
All alastor does in the moment is stare into vox’s eyes, observing him. Pitying him.
Vox looks Alastor back dead in the eyes, clearly with rage from the intense sadness and insanity he caused him, ”well, tell me, tell them, what's your evidence?"
Alastor internally panics, slightly realizing his bluff had been called, and he's sure vox can read it. After five seconds of silence, all witnesses are torn in half by shadow tentacles, and Alastor allows himself to grimace through his smile. “Fine, you win. I'm not nearly juvenile enough to put personal business on display for greedy eyes to see, unlike you”
Vox smiles seeing him panic, he notices all the dead witnesses and shrugs, not really giving a sh*t. “Personal? Alastor, who said anything about personal? You seemed pretty excited to air out whatever so-called evidence you had a second ago, no witnesses around, why don't you just tell me then, what you think. Apparently you're not leaving me alone and following me because you think I like you! Why don't you tell me why? What’s led you to this assumption? There's so much ‘personal’ stuff I haven't put out there alastor, you cant say sh*t, IN FACT YOUR THE ONE WHO BROADCASTED TO HELL THAT you said ‘no’”
“Darling, if I had known you'd go around the bend this far I might have accepted! Just to save myself the trouble of dealing with a crazed left handed monkey wrench”
" DONT CALL ME DARLING! i didnt need a yes, i just thought you cared, clearly i was wrong, you still dont care!, even after i tRIED TO F*CKING kwill MYSELF AMD EVERYONE F*CKING ELSE BECAUSE OF YOU, YOU, YOU, YOU, JUST DONT CARE, ALL YOU F*CKING CARE ABOUT IS ME BEING OUT OF YOUR WAY AND ME BEING F*CKING MISRABLE, BUT NOW YOU WONT EVEN LET ME LEAVE WITHOUT YOU FALLING BEHIND ME AND YOU CANT EVEN GIVE ME A VALID REASON WHY!”, his eyes start to tear up, " you know you were kinda right about what you said earlier, i did like you, i really f*cking did, but thats over now, and im sure your f*cking ecstatic about that"
Alastor remains silent as he shuffles uncomfortably where he stands. Vox presses his finger angrily to Alastor's chest.
" DONT STAND IN SILENCE, AT LEAST GIVE ME A F*CKING RESPONSE, I TRIED TO BE DONE, I TRIED TO LET IT BE OVER BUT NOOO, YOU JUST WANT TO MAKE SURE IM MISERABLE NO MATTER WHAT!” he holds his head in his hands as tears start forming as he starts laughing maniacally, not quite going full overboard as he did the other day with his voice not distorted at all like before but definitely still losing his marbles a bit, thinking, val and velvette would not be proud if him right now
“...I didn't expect to be right”
“IT WAS F***ING OBVIOUS YOU M*ORON!I WAS F**KING IN LOVE WITH YOU!”
“In what way was it obvious?.?”
“Oh f*ck you, everyone f*cking knew, besides you, everytime wed go dancing, howd Id always find an excuse to see you, to be close to you, how attentively I’d listen, but apparently what most gave me away was the constant blush across my screen and the static between my antennas, thats why i freaking broke this one”, he gestures to it.
As Alastor realizes everything, it hits him all like a freight train at dawn, “The proposal.”
“Yeah, d*mb*ss, the 'business' partners was just a f*cking cover-up because i didnt wanna seem f*cking gay or something, then you just fucking destroyed me, i could’ve handled you saying you didnt like me the way i liked you, yeah, it still would’ve hurt but i would’ve gotten over it, but, you had to tell me that we were never friends, arent, and never will be, and tell me that im weak and pathetic, oh boy, theres no coming back from that ESPECIALLT SENSE YOU WERE THE FIRST, THE FIRT F*CKING PERSON I *EVER*, LET MY WALLS DOWN WITH, FIRST PERSON I EVER TRUSTED, FIRST PERSON I EVER LET MY PRIDE DOWN WITH AND THATS WHAT I GOT, YEAH I MAY HAVE BEEN BROKEN FROM THE START BUT YOU F*CKING SHATTERED ME INTO A MILLION PIECES...c**t.f**k.”
“Im sorry”
Vox sighs, “ That really all you have to say? You think sorry makes it better? It f*cking doesn't".
Alastor's ears droop, and he uses his shadows to teleport both of them to his radio tower.
Vox looks around, suprised, “HUH?? What the f*ck did you do! VAL! VELVETTE! HE TOOK ME!” he yelled knowing full well they couldn't hear him.
“Oh,calm down”
“Fine, but seriously, why are we here?”
“I still have a reputation, and I don't feel like being caught doing this”, alastor wraps his arms around vox before he can protest pulling him into a genuine hug.----