Chapter Text
“What in the FUCK is happening?!” Vox screamed as panicked employees ran through the studio, bumping into each other and yelling. Papers and bodies flew about, shouts blared throughout the building:
“Mr. Vox said to pull this immediately!”
“Play the Angel Dust interview in place of our usual programming! Mr. Vox’s orders!”
“Move that timeslot! Get that new Fizzbot ad running, they’re a big sponsor!”
“Sir,” Vox’s assistant said as he walked beside his boss down the crowded hall of anxious, screaming employees. They all parted like the Red Sea for Vox. “We’re trying our best to pivot according to your plans, but ratings are still…” Ethan gulped. “...the ratings are still… uh… they’re tanking, sir.”
Vox suddenly stopped, sending a shiver down his assistant’s spine. He turned to the poor man. “Tanking?” Vox asked. “TANKING?”
The TV demon paused and after a breath, he let out a small chuckle.
“Let me set something straight…” He calmly put an arm around his assistant. His digital face split into a sickly charming smile. “If we don’t get back on track…” The arm on his assistant suddenly became too tight and his previously suave voice strained into a hiss. “Then the only thing that’ll be tanking will be you with my fucking shark. Haha, is that clear?”
His assistant nodded furiously before bounding off to try and solve all of a multi-million dollar company’s problems (ideally, within the hour).
Vox slammed open his office door, leaving behind the pandemonium of the lower workers and entering the quiet chaos that was currently Valentino.
Hugged by red smoke, Valentino leaned against Vox’s desk. His elegant, outstretched limbs silhouetted by the blue behind him.
The entire back wall behind him was a tank, holding one lone hammerhead shark. Valentino watched the shark with little interest, but it was still enough for him to not notice Vox’s entrance.
“Val,” Vox said, capturing the moth demon’s attention.
Valentino’s head turned to Vox, lips curling into a grin upon eye contact. “Hey, papi, I’ve been wondering when you’d get here. Shit’s been crazy today, right?”
“I asked you not to smoke in here,” Vox replied, no longer looking at Valentino after sitting at his desk and opening up a bulky laptop.
Valentino rolled his eyes then took another drag of his cigarette. “Uhg, what’s got your cables in a fucking twist now?”
Vox groaned and slapped his computer screen. “We should all have our cables in a fucking twist, Val! Our viewership has been dogshit! If things keep up like this, we are so incredibly fucked!”
“Oh…” Val said, blowing out a thin, red cloud. “...How are you gonna fix it?”
Vox scoffed. “Of course! It's up to me to fix it. You just keep standing there, smoking and fucking around! Thank you for your important contributions to this company.”
“Hey, fuck you,” Val quickly shot back. “I’m the creative talent. You’re supposed to know all the business crap.”
“Well, Newsflash, Mr. Creative Talent: Make some watchable shit!”
“The fuck? Porn’s always fucking watchable, it’s porn!”
“And that is all you do, Val! All you do is make fucking porn! We’re about to be neck-deep in debt if we don’t make some money instead just making FUCKING PORN!”
With that, Vox shot up from his seat, slamming his fists on the desk and sending Val a glare that didn’t even make the taller sinner flinch.
Valentino simply put out his cigarette on the top of Vox’s head and whipped out his phone, beginning to scroll through several videos and images, totally ignoring his business partner.
Vox threw his arms into the air with a roll of his eyes and a scoff. “Great! Perfect! Real mature, Val. That’s sure to fix all of our-”
“And we just hit 4 million followers! Thank you so much, my little poppets!”
The voice rang from the phone, something sweet and vaguely foreign.
Val was already scrolling onto new content, but the words echoed in Vox’s mind. The TV demon quickly snatched the phone from his partner’s grasp (to a small protest of “hey, you bitch!”) and flicked his way back to that voice.
“Don’t scroll away! Keep your eyes on me, my poppets! ❤”
In the video was a young sinner with multicolored pigtails, clown-like eye makeup, and a cute, fluffy dress. She smiled and posed for the camera, flashing her viewers duck lips, peace signs, and sultry smirks.
All the while, her chat flooded with comments, many begging and pleading for shoutouts. Most other comments praised and worshipped the young sinner, telling her how beautiful, perfect, and sweet she was. Thousands of demons complimented her fashion sense and charisma, fawning over the woman as she pranced in front of her phone camera.
Vox also noticed several dings and illustrations popping up on the video, but he wasn’t sure what those sounds and pictures meant.
“What the fuck…?” Vox’s eyes widened to the point of taking up most of his screen. “There’s over 300,000 dumbasses watching her right now…? Is this what’s taking our viewers?”
“Hell if I know.” Val shrugged, busy checking his nails. “If they keep their clothes on, I never really pay attention to that kind of thing.”
“People watch this shit and she never even takes off her clothes?!” Vox repeated in utter shock. What happened next had him in even further disbelief.
“Don’t forget to tune in later this week,” the young sinner said to the hundreds of thousands of demons watching. “I’ll be livestreaming the Overlord meeting! Whoo! How exciting for you broke losers to get a peek into what it’s like to actually be important!” Just then another ding rang out and a picture of a diamond ring popped up. “Oh, speaking of important! Looks like a poppet with the username StepOnMeVelvette just donated $4000! Thanks, bitch!”
“THE DINGS AND PICTURES ARE MONEY???” Vox hollered, nearly breaking the phone as he squeezed it and watched on. “THESE FUCKERS ARE SENDING THIS BITCH MONEY???”
From outside of Vox’s office, the two media overlords could hear one of their employees shout, “Did you hear that, guys?! She said my name, she said my name! Oh shit, I’m gaining so many followers! Hell yes! This means something to me! The dopamine rush! Yes! I matter! I matterrrrrrr!” With that last shout, the employees’ voice got smaller and further away, leaving the media overlords to assume their employee had run off in a bout of euphoria.
Vox stood staring at the door to his office for a moment, then back down at the phone where the young sinner in the video continued to usher in a series of dings and pictures that were apparently thousands of people sending her praise and money. Vox then looked to Val who had started smoking another cigarette.
Vox crushed Val’s phone in his hand from the unbridled rage that washed over him.
“What the fuck?!” Val yelled, only to be stopped by Vox saying, “We have to meet with her.”
“Huh?” The taller man retorted.
“That little girl in the video just now. We have to meet with her.”
“Whatever,” Val groaned. “I’m still mad at you, asshole!”