Dark Hero

Elec’s expression drops immediately as the demon tells him to shut up. Axel’s wandering into some dangerous territory here, with his flawless lies and promises of stardom failing to ease the blow.

“I beg your pardon?” Maybe if they were friends (or if Axel was more pointedly a dick) he could brush the comment off as the usual banter, but it’s all too rude for the DLN to just let it fly. A ‘give someone an inch and they’ll take a mile’ sort of situation.

Elec retrieves the autograph from under his bracer momentarily to make a point of checking the name. “-Axel, you seem like a fun guy, but you’re nowhere near fun enough to start giving me attitude. At all. I have fans- hell, I have impersonators!” He says, voice tweaking from rising incredulousness. “I was trying to get around this politely, but fine: I don’t want to do it. Go embarrass yourself on TV.”

Axel blinks owlishly, his ears dipping down in anxiety over Elec’s words. He stutters for a moment, distressed and distraught over the outright rejection --- but pauses.

“Attitude? What do you mean by that? Aren’t you a demon too?” 

Frankly, what Axel had said was incredibly low-tier for usual demon etiquette, as the Dark Hero is notably more polite than most. Arrogant for sure, and quite self-obsessed, but not outright evil --- to a point where it damages his reputation! It didn’t occur to him that he might be talking to a human, who tend to be a touch more sensitive than his fellow devils. 

Not that it really mattered. Demons don’t cater to other people, anyway. His interest is simply piqued, a sly smile worming its way onto his face and his claws fidgeting against frets.

A wise decision. Vying for sympathy isn’t an approach he’s prone to giving into. Even now, with Axel looking so pathetic the Express Owls were trying not to get upset on his behalf, every fibre of the Conductor’s being just wants to tell him to hurry up and shove off.

The only thing that stops him is the fact that he knows full well that it’d be even harder to get rid of the demon if he’s effectively stranded at the studio.

“Fine.” he concedes. The Conductor reaches into his coat and rummages around before abruptly shoving something into Axel’s hand. Looking at it more closely, it’s pretty clear to see why the old bird has no quarrels palming his own phone off to a complete stranger; it’s one of those chunky Old People™ mobiles with oversized buttons and absolutely no functions besides handling texts and calls. The most advanced thing about it is probably the fact it can play Snake.

At least he has the decency to give Axel some space now. He’s standing close enough to convey a sort of ‘I’ve got my non-existent eye on you’ message, but there’s no active intent to eavesdrop.

Axel glances warily at the bird-thing, tracing the edges of the phone’s buttons with the pad of his thumb for a few fortifying seconds. Then, he puts on a smile unfitting of a man whose face is explosion-adjacent, and punches in a long number.

The call rings two or three times before he gets an answer.

“Hey, ma! I just wanted to check in on how everyone and --- oh. Axial? Could you put ma on?” he pauses to listen, “Well, pass on a message for me, yeah? It’s about that money I’m sending home... yeah, yeah, I know she does, but I...” an anxious, startled expression tugs at his confident grin, “I will be! I promised, didn’t I? You're gonna be blown away by my success in no time! Just keep on watching TV!!”

THE ULTIMATE HOLIDAY THEMED ASK MEME {part of: ❄ twenty-five days of elle} 

SEND ME A SYMBOL

▲: One of our muses tries to catch snowflakes on their tongue. ☾: Your muse asks for help decorating a gingerbread house. ♪: One of our muses inviting the other for a Christmas duet. ♦: Our muses wrap presents together. ☃: Our muses build a snowman together. ✈: Our muses travel somewhere for the holidays. ✎: My muse’s Christmas card to yours. ✘: My muse runs into your muse while trying to buy them a Christmas present.  ✆: My muse calls your muse while drunk on eggnog.  ツ: Our muses go caroling.  ✿: My muse gives your muse a Christmas present. ø: Our muses cuddle by the fireplace with hot cocoa.  ✌: Our muses argue over which Christmas movie to watch.  ♡: Our muses kiss under a mistletoe.  ♛: Our muses kiss at midnight on New Year’s.  ➸: Our muses decorate their house together. ♘: Our muses put up a Christmas tree and decorate it. ✰: My muse invites your muse to dance to Christmas songs. ☼: Our muses volunteer to help out for the holidays. ∞: Our muses go tree shopping. ❖: Our muses go ice skating together. ☁: Our muses go sledding.  ✉: Your muse hits mine with a snowball in order to start a snowball fight.  ϟ: Our muses bake Christmas cookies together. ↺: Our muses doing something holiday-themed with their kid(s).

SENTENCES

“Look! It’s snowing!” “Do we really have to leave cookies for Santa?” “Santa’s not real! There, I said it!” “Where do we hang the stockings if we don’t have a fireplace?” “You really don’t have to get me anything this year.” “Do we really have to go to your parents’ house for Christmas?” “Let’s just sit in our pajamas and watch Christmas movies all day.” “You’re gonna become huge if you keep eating all of Santa’s cookies.” “Oh, put some mistletoe on my butt and kiss it.” “This is the best Christmas I’ve ever had.” “This is the worst Christmas ever.” “Is that mistletoe?” “You look cold. Here, take my scarf.” “I’m just not a fan of the holidays.” “You’ve had the Christmas radio on non-stop for five hours.”

TEXT MESSAGES

“…I bet.” he replies bluntly, quirking a brow the demon’s way. Normally the enthusiasm would have him rather endeared, but after being thrashed Elec can’t bring himself to return the energy. ‘Defeated’ is the best way to describe how dejected he looks.

Has he walked into the Twilight Zone? Is this a stupidly vivid nightmare? That’d at least explain whatever the hell is going on with Axel’s collar. Also? The fact that he doesn’t have somebody hired solely to sprinkle glitter on him is just rude. Homophobia never sleeps.

“Gonna go ahead and say it: I have absolutely no clue who you are.” Whilst Elec isn’t exactly a music connoisseur, Axel seemed pretty notable. If he’s making a comeback then he must have been popular at some point. “Don’t you have an actual rival to go bother? Somebody who works in the industry…?”

Axel leans on his guitar, pretending he didn’t hear that.

“You’d think so, given my high demand, but I guess nobody’s been up for the challenge!” he lies, seamlessly; surveying his claws as if speaking offhandedly and not desperately scrabbling for an excuse. If he wants to get technical, just about everyone in the industry is his rival --- they all hate him enough, and they’ve been stealing his roles and spotlights alike for some long years.

Of course, there's also Adell, but he can’t even play the flute and gloat at the same time. 

The Conductor chooses to willfully ignore that swimsuit comment. Any begging accompanying it similarly fell on deaf ears. All Axel’s excuses do is dig him an even deeper hole; at this point even the role of ‘uncredited dead body’ might be beyond him.

“I’m. Not. Interested. I wasn’t interested when you barged onto me set and I’m definitely not interested now that yer tryin’ to pin your screw-up on my crew!” the bird hisses, every feather on his body bristling with his flaring temper. He marches up to the demon and stands directly before him in a blatant attempt to square up. “Scram already!! I have work to do- just do us both a favor and quit while yer ahead!”

Such harsh words and threatening posture would probably be more intimidating if the Conductor weren’t so vertically challenged, but he’s not about to back down on his promise of tossing Axel out personally if it comes down to it.

The low lights on set do nothing to improve Axel’s dejected appearance. His face wet and stained red, ink dripping from his obscenely-shaped eyebrows and a shadow cast over the angles of his face, the ex-star looks like a soaked rat as he arches his back and up-faces his palms in plea.

“But...! But...! I’m the Dark Hero! Come on, baby, I’ve gotta be on something --- anything!!” he stresses, but stops himself short. A brief spark of rational thought informs him that if he keeps begging, the Conductor is likely to choke him with the chain of his necklace.

Frankly, he doesn’t need the strain on his vocal chords. Or his emotional state.