#nebulagaster

Coronis hung to the curtains in the main ballroom of the estate, and watched.

There were three eyes. One of them had closed, and the other two were blinking in utter innocence.

Vine's plumage had changed, a paler pink rather than the deep-down crimson red. She sat in the same luxurious robes, but she was inspecting it like a new toy. And she did so....with two hands.

As if time had rewound, an Angel sat where a Queen had stood.

Three uses of Torpedo later, two new acquisitions, and the 'dissolution' of a potential business rival later, and Vox is feeling energized. Great even. He's gotten more work done tonight than he feels like he's managed in weeks, all thanks to Buzz's new tool.

He taps the desk beside his laptop, humming slightly as he looks at the screens full of statistics and personnel. For that alone, Buzz would normally deserve a promotion-- he'd been making great strides in the corporate ladder until he plateaued where he is. He would hardly be the first person to languish in a middling position, nor would he be the first person promoted up from it.

Should he? He could always offer. He flicks the scroll bar until he sees the little glowing teal link to Buzz's file, printing out a blank version of the contract, and, in another tab, the soul-bind one. It's less corporate looking, a more arcane looking font. It's a proper demon's contract after all, even if he's expedited the process rather than writing it all out by hand. It's standard for his, a longer term than the average contract, but in exchange they get more protection from the other Overlords, and more power.

He reaches over, and grabs them, closing the first tabs to open a live-feed of the Vogitek tower; not that floor... or that one, that one's empty, that's a studio... ah, there. Buzz's office with the lights still on. Excellent.

Alastor tried to keep his ear to the ground in Hell, while he did not pay all that much attention to the worries of hierarchy, anything to do with Vox, well, that was sure to catch his attention. A new demon who had challenged him with something new had appeared but was now working with the flat faced pompous show off? Alastor saw plenty of opportunity in such a being.

He had not interfered for a while, leaving just enough time perhaps for them all to settle into their new friendship before he found ‘Buzz’ conveniently alone one hellish afternoon. He approached with a hum of static, jumping between channels as a polite warning of his presence. Grinning all the while as he made his way to stand near Buzz, still at arms length for now.

Nah. The pilot episode and “Oh Millie” are all the footage we had on canon—and both of them COMBINED are shorter than the new episode. It’s jumping the gun to assume that Moxxie is being out of character when the very first official canonical episode in the series is longer than all of the previous material we’ve had to base his characterization on. And at any rate, if we’re weighing up a pilot episode and some pre-production material versus the Actual First Episode, I’d say that the version of Moxxie in the pilot should be the one that’s considered OOC going forward—because pilots are generally made to test out the show concept and see what works and what doesn’t BEFORE starting it for real.

Anyway, “he’s okay with killing for pay” doesn’t necessarily mean “he’s okay with killing ANYONE for pay.” Even IRL serial killers express preferences in victims—including people they consider unacceptable to kill. Moxxie seems to be fine with killing in general—it’s just the fantasy image of a cute, happy, loving family that he’s reluctant to slaughter.

Maybe this tells us something about his motivation for joining IMP! Maybe he assumed that “we get revenge on people for our clients” meant their clients would be sending them on jobs to kill assholes that screwed them over—thus helping weed out terrible people from the human population and leaving behind decent people to get on with their lives (like those hypothetical cute families).

Or maybe it tells us that Moxxie doesn’t actually want to do this job. Maybe Millie talked him into it because it’s something SHE enjoys and excels at, and while he’d be happy supporting her in her murderous career, he’s not comfortable doing it himself. Maybe he THOUGHT he wanted to do it but is finding more and more often that indiscriminate murder makes him uncomfortable—but he can reluctantly talk himself into it when he feels like it’s for a good cause.

Or maybe it tells us something about how Moxxie feels about family. Maybe he had a terrible childhood and is reluctant to break up a family that looks like it’s got its shit together. Maybe he wants to start a family with Millie and is projecting his hopes for the future onto other families he sees.

“And I still think it’s a bad idea, a lot of sinners will be seeking asylum here as protection... I’m trying to help the Princess save them, not trap them at the hotel so you can hunt them down for your own benefit... Mr Ombra, I’m trying to make the hotel as a place of freedom, not a prison.” Don’s wrath was starting to leak out in his tone, as it was suddenly cold and firm.