Masochism Tango | Alastor & Lucifer & Vox

chapter 12

"Trade within Hell must remain stable and equitable," you stated calmly. You sat behind the desk of your office in the palace, hands intertwined and elbows placed upon the desk. Your pink tresses were pulled back into a messy, yet elegant low bun, and you were dressed in a simply black dress with stockings and mary-jane shoes. You regarded the screen in front of you, in the middle of a meeting with the Deadly Sins. "As Lucifer's stand-in for this meeting I can say that surely. No Sin should import more items into another ring that they will not profit from. It's a waste of resources, time, and money."

You leaned back in your swivel chair, observing the digital expressions of Asmodeus, Satan, Beelzebub, Mammon, and the rest of Sins. They all held countenances representing their internal struggle at your words, overwhelming and stressed by the bi-monthly meeting. As the King of Hell, Lucifer was responsible to oversee meetings between the Deadly Sins and ensure that any products they distributed within their respective rings were properly received and delivered, and that the peace was kept between them, of course.

Mammon curled his lip, visibly annoyed on the screen. "Listen, Duchess, I respect your input, truly, but the Fizzaroli robots are profiting well. Just because we have a surplus of them doesn't mean we're losing money—"

You raised a hand cutting him off. "Mammon, you have so many of these bots you went to the extreme to ask Satan if you could store them in seven of his warehouses in the Wrath ring." You smiled sweetly, tilting your head. "To be completely truthful, it isn't fair to the working class with jobs in those warehouses to deal with the influx of Fizzaroli robots nor Satan himself, especially when it's not even his trade."

Mammon scowled, but kept silent. Still smiling with superiority, you clicked a few buttons on the laptop and displayed a chart on the shared meeting screen.

"Observe these records of profit since you chose to produce twenty-five percent more Fizzaroli robots then your typical production rate," you stated calmly, gesturing to the digital chart on the screen. "For the first month, profit generally stayed the same, but if we observe the months of June, July, and August, we witness money declining at a steady rate." You clicked the screen and got rid of the chart, leaning forward in your seat and raising your brows cockily. "I may not be as educated as Lucifer when it comes to all of your trades and profit rates, but I'm not blind nor stupid. Just because I only fill in for him every now and then doesn't mean I'm not his right-hand woman — I know what's going on here, Mammon, and if you continue to produce these robots at an increased percentage rate, you risk disrupting the peace not only between you and Satan, but also between your respective rings of Hell," you shook your head, your serene smile widening, "and, well, as the Duchess of Hell, I simply cannot have that."

All of the Sins were quiet on the opposite end, the only audible sound the uncomfortable shuffling of bodies and even the faint sound of somebody breathing heavily. You felt pride wash over you at your impending success, thankful that you were able to somewhat settle this dispute — Lucifer had mentioned a few weeks ago he had been having some trouble getting through to Mammon when he proclaimed he wanted to produce more of his Fizzaroli robots in hope of selling even more than we're already being bought, but something had changed in the market. Whether it was a problem with the image of the product itself or public opinion over the original image of the robot, the famous entertainer and Imp Fizzaroli, something had changed and things weren't going exactly how Mammon had pictured. Lucifer was unsuccessful in persuading him to stop his overproduction of products in relation to the climate of Greed when it came to the robots, but you seemed to be handling things just fine. You had tried to give him advice earlier, to be less passive when convincing him, to readdress the issue with bluntness and a stern tone, but he seemed to not take your advice, for the issue, until now, of course, remained prevalent.