Chipless AU
@cherry-blitz stated in a recent post that they didn't enjoy exploring a scenario in their Persistance Pays Hazbin Hotel AU where Alastor finds out about the chip, and I lwk felt bad because I had already sent an ask where I wrote up a flurry of angst in the middle of the night. So it's here instead!
Cherry, if you see this, I'm so sorry lol. I absolutely adore hurt/comfort with much more hurt than comfort. I will take this time to acknowledge that neither varient of the ChiplessAU has a good ending, but that is the point! I honestly like stories that end disappointingly, so forgive me for my dramatics lol.
Throwback to PP au varient idea!!
Alastor finds out Vox hid a chip in him. Alastor crashes out and beats the shit out of Vox. Vox begs, pleads, doe eyes tears and fear for him to stop. About how it was because he loved him. But of course stubborn Alastor doesn't listen because how stupid does he have to be to believe that somebody actually loved him? That Vox wasn't in Hell for a reason, and that anybody could want anything other than to use him? He's angry. And rightfully so.
Vox, shit beaten out of him and still taking more hits, begs. He begs and begs and begs for Alastor to stop, to listen, to forgive, to do anything other than hate. Alastor, still, doesn't listen. He trusted this idiot once, why would he do it again?
This then devolves into one of two paths.
1. Vox pines for Alastor. He spends the rest of his eternal death begging for him back. He finds unique ways to plead; he sends gifts, souls, flowers, threats, anything to bring his deer back. Alastor sees through his "manipulation," and refuses to relent.
Alastor is broken forever and never trusts anyone ever again; Vox is broken forever and is never able to love anyone again (because he only wants the one who will no longer have him, that greedy bastard).
Alastor becomes incredibly repulsed by Vox, and poor Vox places Alastor on a pedestal built high by distance and grief.
Bad ending number one.
2. Vox "wakes up." Alastor had toyed with him before; looked down on him for not understanding him properly. Then, Vox went to such excruciating lengths to fix it. To understand this bitch. And still, somehow, that was the wrong answer.
Vox had spent countless nights fretting over what color made that stupid percentage bar tick up even one percent. What jokes were funny, where he could put his hands, what words he couldn't could or should say. He bled himself dry and Alastor hated him for it.
Well, fuck him. If Alastor won't love Vox, then he will hate him with such a burning passion that he will never be forgotten. Vox will make sure that Alastor never sends an apathetic look his way again, because by God he is going to live in that man's head forever. If Alastor is incapable of love, because surely that is what all of this means, then he will nurture a relationship through hate.
They get into fights constantly. Bloody, gruesome fights that level buildings and leaves them repairing themselves for days. Vox knows exactly how to get under Alastor's skin now, and Alastor despises it. They hate and hate and hate and fight and fight and fight and grieve over the love that could have been there if Alastor had been just a little more ignorant. If Vox had been just a little more smart. If things had ended just a little differently.
Alastor lives with the fact that the one man who tried to understand him can't look his way without shuddering in abhorrence. Vox lives with the fact that the one man he still loves isn't capable of reciprocation (his fault? he doesn't care enough to consider it). The loss of what could have been dangles between the two demons, both too hurt and caught up in their pride to try and fix anything.
Fights grow, and so do their weapons. Carmine supplies them with angelic steel. Battles are more deadly. Someone dies. It doesn't matter who, because the other kills themselves anyways.
Bad ending number two.
Anyways. Thanks for coming to my tedtalk. I call it ChiplessAU1 and ChiplessAU2. Apologies for exploring this scenario that was supposed to be cut off, I simply enjoy the terribleness too much. I want those bastards to suffer!
Cherry, if you saw this, I will leave ChiplessAU out of your inbox forever more. I gracefully bow, and bid you goodnight.