One Last Thought About The Mindbreak AU Before Bed:

One last thought about the mindbreak AU before bed:

It's a normal day in Vee Tower. Velvette's in her quarters, trying to livestream, when Valentino bursts in, bitching that he can't find Vox and that he's not answering his calls. Velvette pauses the stream to yell at Val for interrupting her work with something so petty— Vox is probably ignoring him on purpose because of shit like this. They go on like that for a bit until suddenly, the tower experiences a brownout. Velvette's laptop starts glitching out— not only is the internet down, but the computer itself seems to be corrupting. This is all highly unusual; the tower never loses power, since they're the ones producing most of the damn stuff. And then Alastor's voice starts emanating from every speaker in the building.

He welcomes everyone back to his show, saying that tonight's broadcast will be a very special one– a throwback to his older work. This week's guest is a powerful overlord from the entertainment district and one-time close personal friend of his: Vox, the Media Demon! Vox's voice is heard, cursing at Alastor in response, followed by the sound of shattering glass. Don't touch that dial, Al says, for tonight's show will be very entertaining, indeed.

Valentino and Velvette are frozen for a moment, rooted to the spot in terror. Then, before Velvette can even process what's happening, Val tears off down the hallway to his quarters, scrambling for every gun and angelic weapon he owns. Velvette goes after him, yelling to slow down, that this might be a trap and that there are ways to fake someone's voice. And then the screaming starts. Velvette may not have ever experienced one of Alastor's broadcasts before, but she can tell on an instinctual, animal level that the sounds coming out of the tower's speakers are not AI.

Val tears off to the roof, barely able to contain his demonic form as Velvette runs behind him. He almost takes off without her, but grabs her at the last moment when she shouts to take her with him. In his full demon form, Val makes a beeline for Alastor's radio tower, with Velvette dangling off of him. She tries to make calls and check social media for more information, but her phone is completely non-functional, along with every other piece of modern technology in Pentagram City. The only things that seem to be working are the speakers, all of which are playing Alastor's broadcast, city-wide.

When they reach Alastor's tower, Val immediately starts tearing through everything he can, but to Velvette's horror, no matter how much of the tower they search, they don't find anyone: Alastor and Vox aren't there. Vox's screams are echoing throughout the city and Val is yelling and crying and smashing things in vain and she's just stuck there, useless, unable to do anything about it.

Eventually, the broadcast comes to an end. Alastor thanks Vox and the audience for a delightful show and signs off. The power and cell service suddenly come back on. Val and Velvette only have a few moments to try and wrap their minds around at the fact that they didn't make it in time before Velvette's phone starts blowing up. She gets a call from her secretary: Alastor just dumped Vox's mangled body in the middle of the lobby before vanishing into thin air. The two of them race back to the tower.

Everyone is astounded to learn that, when they scan his systems, Vox is still alive, although completely non-functional at the moment. VoxTek employees scramble to repair his mutilated body, all while Val screams at them to work faster, to fix him. Velvette is approached by one of her employees; they've looked over the security footage and it turns out that Vox and Alastor were actually in the basement of the tower, in one of Val's studios no less. They don't have footage of the actual event, but they do have the aftermath, with Alastor (in pretty rough shape himself) dragging Vox's body back upstairs. Velvette goes numb at the news. They were in the same building the whole time. All she can manage to say to the employee is to not, under any circumstances, tell Valentino.