Testing The Waters - Tumblr Posts

Soooo seeing some art here and there. . . ..

How does it feel to be easily throwable like me, yall? How does it feeeeeeellllllĺl hmmmmmmmmmmmmm?????

May end the poll early but still testing >:3

I need more votes

Soooo seeing some art here and there. . . ..

How does it feel to be easily throwable like me, yall? How does it feeeeeeellllllĺl hmmmmmmmmmmmmm?????

May end the poll early but still testing >:3

I don’t have anyone to worry about. What about you? You came this far. Don’t you have someone who worries about you? If you mean someone I’m dating, I don’t have any. It’s up to you wheter you want to believe it or not.

[for @poisonedspider, continued from here]

Vox smiled when Angel actually accepted the drink, then even more when he spoke to him. Despite them having lived together for so long, he and Angel had had very few one-on-one conversations. When they did, they were usually something short and to the point, like Vox asking what kind of pizza Angel wanted, or the civil exchange of greetings. The two of them didn't interact all that often, certainly not directly. All this time, that had been by design--his design, not Angel's. Vox didn't want the interaction or the intimacy. He didn't want the risk. Too much time with Angel might upset Valentino--or Angel, for that matter--and there was always too much work to do to risk adding more to it. Vox had so many projects happening at any given time, his attention was being pulled in so many directions, that he didn't enjoy having to deal with emotional...

Issues.

But lately, he'd begun realizing that was a mistake--especially when it came to Angel Dust.

The Tower was a little too quiet without Angel around. Something unexpected was missing when he wasn't there, something Vox couldn't name or fully understand; whatever it was, it left an ache behind, left the world too quiet. So this? Having an uncomplicated moment together? It felt nice. Overdue. Stupid, maybe, for so many reasons, but still. Nice.

Vox walked alongside him, smiling--the smile half for Angel and half for the sharks they were going to see.

When one of Angel's arms brushed his shoulder, Vox shivered. He buttoned his shirt up, realizing that maybe he wasn't comfortable showing quite so much of his pale blue skin right now, and hoped Angel hadn't noticed. It wasn't that he didn't trust Angel, it was--something else. Something about Angel, something Vox knew better than to think about. Something dangerous.

Something tempting.

"There's a difference between not being busy," he pointed out, twitching an eyebrow, "and being interested in doing something. Allegedly," playfulness making his eyes seem to sparkle, "it's good for people to just have some downtime. To do nothing." Not that Vox bothered with that often.. or at all. Relaxation was for people who didn't have their own business empires to run; even here, even now, he was constantly processing data and monitoring the projects that needed it most.

Angel probably knew him well enough to know that, and might well make fun of him for it, which Vox wouldn't even be able to say was wrong of him. There were things Angel and Valentino both seemed to understand about being a person that Vox just... didn't. But that was fine. It took all sorts, right? Either way, Vox was happy. There was some pep in his step as the two of them walked along to the lagoon, although for once, Vox didn't seem to be in a hurry. He wasn't rushing--walking next to Angel Dust wasn't something that should be rushed.

"So, do you... have any plans for this week? Other than look incredible, of course."

Vox started to answer, but stopped himself with a shake of his head, taking a moment to think about it instead. He had to step up onto one of the rungs of the fence so he could lean over enough to look down; from up there on the bridge, they had a lovely view of the graceful creatures gliding past them, directly underneath.

"I guess it's that they're so... effortless. Or they look that way. The way they move, how they glide. They fly. Like they're completely free. I only saw one once while I was alive, and I was too stunned to be afraid. It swam past me, majestic. The master of its domain.

"They're dangerous. They don't stop. They can't stop. They process so much information so readily, without needing any powers to do it. I guess maybe I envy them. Their ease. Their--how they just fit. They belong. There are no acts to put on, no shows, no lines, nothing but their grace. If they have to kill, they do it. They don't--regret it. I can't imagine it's every hard for a shark." He leaned over a little farther, carefully tucking one heel under a rung to ensure he couldn't slip, or be pushed, the kind of precaution most Sinners in Hell were likely fully accustomed to themselves; one never knew when a friend might decide to turn foe.

Once the sharks had finally wandered out of view, Vox pushed himself up. He went and leaned against the fence on the other side of the bridge from Angel, elbows comfortably back on it. Their feet were fairly close together, the angle of their bodies making a nice vee away from each other. In the darkening evening air, it felt nice, he thought. Comfortable. Not wanting the moment to end, Vox thought back to the other things Angel had said, and asked about. Smiling, he shrugged.

"You do look amazing. Kind of your thing, right? And sure, I try not to notice. You're Val's boyfriend," Vox said it with a completely straight face, "and I try not to intrude on your whole... thing you two have going on. Despite sometimes getting jealous. But I am capable of seeing beauty, Angel." Some sort of small dragonish hellbeast flew over. Vox tilted his head back to look at it, watching its flight. "And you're right, Val threw a shitfit. I left a few hours after you did. I wasn't going to come, but he was throwing such a tantrum, I hit my wall. There's only so much Val Anger Management I can do before," he made an explosion sound, quiet but augmented by his speakers to sound nearly like the real thing, "I want to explode.

"But hey, screw Val. He's an idiot and we love him, but he's not here and we are. Tell me something about yourself, Angel? Something you want me to know, though, I'm not trying to pressure you for secrets."

"Mm, why do yeh' think ah'm layin' here doin' a bunch of nothin'?" He teased right back, though Vox would know. While Angel Dust wasn't nearly as go go go as the other sinner was, he certainly worked himself to exhaustion. Or, well, Valentino did. The amount of live shows lined up, the hours of terribly written pornos, the overnights on the street to earn his pimp more money. Angel Dust deserved the fucking break. Relaxing on the beach was well earned.

Though he had certainly heard the allegedly, and he knew exactly what Vox had meant - the Overlord was not just doing nothing on this beach trip. It had been part of why he had agreed to go see the sharks, maybe to take Vox away from the many other screens he possessed. Maybe because the other had offered him free booze which he would never pass up on. Maybe because Vox looked stunning like this, even if he had hid himself away - oh yeah, Angel had noticed.

He didn't really notice the thrill that came with seeing the sharks, but it was nice to see the other so....happy. It wasn't a mood that he had ever witnessed Vox in much. He'd seen his angry, manipulative side. He'd seen his overly cheery positive CEO face. He'd seen the stressed, running on too much coffee, working himself to exhaustion mode. But this? Considering his disdain for the Vees, for many obvious reasons, it was....nice. To see a side of Vox that he hadn't really gotten to experience.

He was caught off guard by the question, to the point that the words, "Yeh' think ah' look incredible?" spilled out before he could even think about them. This day was just full of surprises, wasn't it? Angel was glad that his sunglasses hid the confusion in his eyes, if only because it made no sense. Val and Vox were a thing. That much had been....incredibly fucking obvious. Angel might be Valentino's little fuck toy, but he wasn't the boyfriend. That role belonged to the man beside him.

He tried to shake off the shock, ignoring the way he could feel the flush of his cheeks, shrugging his shoulders. "Guess ah'm doin' whateva' Charlie decides tah' do f' activities. Ah'm here tah' support her mostly. Cause ah' know damn well Val is gonna be pissed that ah' took a week off." A sigh at that, though he still kept on a smile. "Ah' know she's doin' an open mic night, which ah'm definitely not gonna miss. And th' fireworks do sound pretty cool."

Crossing the bridge to the lagoon in which Vox had spoken about, Angel found himself leaning slightly over the somewhat fenced area, looking at the sharks that were swimming. Hell was weird. Some animals acted like animals - Keke and Fat Nuggets being prime examples - while some sinners were animals. He'd had enough run-ins with sharks to not find them appealing, though a lot of them did give the mafia vibes he thought were kinda hot.

"So, sharks. What is it about sharks, hm?" He asked, tilting his head, never taking his eyes off the giant fish. "When ah' was alive, th' only use sharks had was tah' eat th' bodies we'd throw out inta' the river, once they hit the ocean. Yeh' know, th' whole stereotype of swimmin' wit' th' fishes." A roll of eyes - mobsters were so dramatic.

If you were a part of it.

Ouch. Those words were one hell of a zing, and Vox's smile blanched. He had been listening, smile politely in place, but he flinched ever so slightly now, and lost the smile. Frowning, he hopped up to sit on the top railing instead, folding his arms--tucking a foot under a rung again, entirely unaware he was doing it.

"I don't know what I am to Valentino sometimes. I know what I want, but he hardly wishes to talk about it." Vox's tone came out sharper than he meant for it to, but once he got started, something ugly and seething seemed to come to the surface within him, a whisper of real anger, real pain, that began burning hotter and brighter now that it was being acknowledged. "All he ever wants to talk about is you. It's always Angel this, Angel that. If I'm still his main squeeze, it's only because you moved out and he doesn't have someone to keep him warm as often as he wants." Vox jumped right back down off the railing, tugging at his silly little beach shirt as if it was a suit jacket he could straighten--suddenly very much not wanting to be here. There was more red in his display than there usually was--certainly more than he liked to let show when he was in public.

Keep the monster hidden, always. That was the way. But right now, it felt... too late. They were talking about this--and maybe part of Vox had been hoping for just this, albeit subconsciously. Because Angel wasn't Val. Angel would talk. Maybe not often and not especially willingly, but talking to him felt real, it was a connection, something sincere, something--

"Damn it!" Vox snapped, realizing he was spiraling. He shook his head, trying to shake his moods and his thoughts back under some semblance of control. "If you're not dating Valentino, if the two of you aren't still in love--why do you let him treat you the way you do? What exactly are the terms of your contract? I've been assuming this is some... twisted kink thing the two of you are into, but... what's true?"

As the younger sinner listened, he could understand. He had never been scared of sharks by any means, but he also hadn't been too fascinated by them. It did seem odd that Vox had only had one run-in with a shark, considering the television demon's attachment to the creatures. He knew that Vox had his pet sharks, and....might be part shark himself? Or so he had heard. He didn't know him enough to ask personal questions like that.

But he could understand, the whole no acts, no lines. Something he wished he could do, or could do better. The hotel had certainly been helping him to open up more, but that didn't mean the facade was ever entirely dropped. It felt like something he had to do, to keep himself safe. Much like how Vox had secured his foot underneath the fence rung - they all did the things they needed for survival.

Angel had been about to comment on the sharks, ask about Voxs and what their names were, when that had fallen out of the older's mouth. Angel Dust found himself gawking, pushing his sunglasses down away from his eyes, looking over the brim of them. "Mi scusi?" He was so stunned that his native tongue had come out, blinking at the television as if he had multiple heads.

"Ah' ain't datin' Val." His own voice was firm, and if he hadn't been trying to be taken seriously, he would have broken into hysterical laughter. "Yeh' kiddin' meh'? He ain't interested in meh' like that." Not anymore, though that went unspoken. Angel ended up finally removing the sunglasses entirely, holding them with one hand as mismatched hues looked over at the other. "....how th' fuck did yeh' even get that idea? Ah'm just his favorite employee, and that's only because ah' make the studio bank and ah' know how tah' fuck incredibly well."

A blink, a shake of his head. Sharks forgotten. Vox's question towards him forgotten. "Ah' know Val's poly and all that shit, but ain't yeh' kind of his main squeeze?" He gestured to the other, wondering if this was a joke. Wondering if Vox would go back and tell Valentino everything he had said, so Angel would get proper punishment. "Ah' figured yeh'd know about his datin' life if yeh' a part of it."