A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

A Glitch In The Matrix

Vox sipped his wine as he sat with his on again, off again boyfriend on one side of him and his best friend/business partner on the other. The svelte blue sofa was roomy and nice, but he was seriously starting to get pissed if Valentino tried to put his arm around him again. They'd gotten into yet another huge fight about a week ago and while Val felt all was well that ended well, without so much of an apology of course, Vox was really considering staying broken up. Or at the very least pushing for some sort of changes, not really counseling because who the fuck goes to counseling in Hell but something akin to it, like life coaching.

Velvette on his left shook her head and began drinking straight from the vintage Pinot Grigio wine on the table. Valentino elbowed her roughly but she snarked at him that of course they had more they were overlords after all.

Vox turned his attention back to the gigantic flat screen in front of the three of them. It was live coverage of the Extermination fight and honestly, so far he was relieved that nothing was happening. The two newscasters were trying to amp everything up and talk shit, but so far nothing whatsoever had happened. If it had, he would be the first to know, well the three of them would, because Vox had cameras outside of every major building installed around the Pentagram, state of the art drones to cover areas that didn't, and traffic cams as well. He smirked against his glass lightly. The only thing of note was Alastor, his arch nemesis and former best friend, sitting atop the room of Charlie's Hazbin Hotel. He had his legs crossed primly and had purposely turned his back towards the camera installed nearby as well as the drone hovering in the area. He hadn't bothered to knock them down but was simply ignoring them. Vox rolled his eyes as the camera caught only the back of the man's perfectly straight vibrant red hair, straight back, and impeccable, unruffled state of dress. Seriously, even during their fights, he'd never seen the man out of control in anyway. He held his cane loosely in one hand, seeming to be spinning it at random, but Vox knew better. This bastard did absolutely nothing randomly. He managed to get the drone sideways and before Alastor shifted again to avoid a full shot of his face being captured, he saw his lips moving. Once again, something that for anyone else would have been a nervous behavior or humming, but he knew it wasn't any of that. There was faint red glowing on his hand as well. 'Ah, blood magic, his voodoo shit. So he really thinks some serious shit will go down then. Well, let's see how you fare if it does.'

He thought of how much the man despised photographs, his thoughts traveling instantly to the only picture of the two of them that was shoved in a safe somewhere at the back of his closet. He really couldn't bear to look at it, because the two of them had been thick as thieves at one point in time. They had trusted each other, two powerful men who enjoyed each other's company enough to work together, two overlords well on track to running the pentagram. Until all the fuckery happened. He shook his head at the memory of Alastor's genuine smile and fond glance at the camera that he knew was on that paper. He was far beyond trifles like that now, plus ever since the man came back after a seven year sabbatical to who the fuck knew where, he had been vastly different. And whatever, right? Vox was different too.

"So anyway, how about it Vox? Date night your pick." Val drawled as he tried to grab his hand.

"Uh, what? We're broken up right now." 'Probably permanently, but I can't say that at the moment, bigger fish to fry.' The fight had been about who was the more powerful of the two. Vox had insisted they were equals. He truly had no interest in the porn industry nor how Valentino ran his business. Truth be told if sex with the man wasn't so hot, he probably would have just stuck with Velvette. Valentino had felt differently. "I'm clearly superior, without the porn industry you would be completely reliant upon your little streaming services. Get with the times, Vox, other than porn nobody watches anything on cable or dish in hell anymore."