#mediabelle

Spreading more of my MediaBelle agenda 💗

Last night as I was falling asleep I was musing about why on earth the Mediabelle (Vox-Charlie-Alastor) dynamic is less popular than I’d expect it to be, before immediately remembering that a) poly ships are far less popular in general and b) I think Charlastor and Radiostatic shippers have been engaging in some kind of ritualistic holy war for years now while the Staticbelle shippers look on in fear, or something like that. All this to say, as someone who ranges from neutral to Very favorable on all three of these depending on the day, I have some points to make that I implore everyone to consider even if only from a strictly non-romantic, narrative viewpoint.

Consider Alastor’s perspective first. Early on in his time in Hell (relatively speaking) he meets a young Revolutionary Thinker who is very enthusiastic and thinks he can change Hell with his visions. He’s naive, overeager, vaguely problematic, but he’s also got a passion (and an impressive if concerning history back on Earth) so he at the very least tolerates him, gets close to him, becomes a bit of a mentor figure, feels affectionate towards him until he takes things too far and triggers Al’s hyperindependence and fear of being used. No big deal, right? He toooootally isn’t gonna keep intentionally haunting poor Vox for 70 years…

70 years later, though, who’s there for him to meet but Charlotte Morningstar, a young Revolutionary Thinker who is very enthusiastic and thinks she can change Hell with her visions. She’s very naive, overeager, and not necessarily nearly as maliciously problematic as Vox was but certainly is incredibly privileged and good at unintentionally minimizing the sinner experience. Her passion is much less aligned with Alastor’s desires of fear and power, but he’s inclined (and contractually encouraged, seemingly) to tolerate her, get close to her, become a bit of a mentor figure— wait a second, we’ve seen this before! And when he nearly dies for her ridiculous cause, he realizes this has gone too far, and risking getting close with the naive princess is not worth all of the mediocre musical numbers.

So what does he do? He goes BACK to Vox!!! He gives himself a fucking vacation at the small cost of the rest of his dignity, allowing himself to be subject to anything under the sole condition that Vox doesn’t touch Charlie!

From Vox’s perspective, this is ridiculous! The Radio Demon, who has been tormenting him for-fucking-ever, comes back from being dead as far as anyone knows to fucking Sponsoring someone who is literally a flowerier, more naive version of Vox! He’s parading around for her cause, the guy who broke Vox’s esteem near irreparably for his own independence, and for what! When Vox tries to look into this, he eludes him incessantly before suddenly showing up at the guy’s front door for some kind of manic underpowered brawl that results in him giving himself over to Vox as long as he doesn’t interfere with this new pet project! But he remains a little devil on Vox’s shoulder that the man can’t get himself to shake, and before anyone knows it he’s about to blow up the entire Pentagram in a fit of sheer incomprehensible rage at being unable to crack the man who he fell for and then had his life ruined by.

And Charlie? She barely knows any of this shit! This guy (who she has yet to realize is just an eviler, better-public-speaker male version of herself) starts shitting on her hotel for seemingly no reason, then kidnaps her mentor figure (who has been ridiculously vague about this whole thing) and then goes nuts apparently because of some deal said mentor had with him over her! What!

Now Alastor’s in a very vulnerable position, because he had essentially Vox 2.0, Woman Edition in the palm of his hand to bend to his will and mold into something both him and his benefactor seem to want (shoutout Rosie we love Rosie) but now just witnessed exactly what can happen if he pushes that passion too far in the wrong way. He refuses on principle to be vulnerable with others and he just nearly let that slip (for the second time in 70 years) and was ridiculously weakened because of it. He’s about to Snap, one way or another.

And see this is a situation that has grown on me significantly since I first realized it as a possibility: Vox coming to the hotel for redemption, even if initially under duress or some ulterior motive. Because all of the other pieces are in place for a very interesting dynamic, all that’s needed is for Vox and Charlie to realize they are literally the same person different fonts. Congrats Alastor, you have a fucking Type of obnoxious mentee with NPD to reluctantly gain ridiculous levels of affection for. It’s iconic, it’s poetic, it’s everything to me. And now Charlie’s in the middle of a Homoerotic Old Man Feud as well, which if anyone can help fix it, it’s her.

Vox thought he could record~ Xx

Art by pomhz on bluesky. Not mine! Full post here👇