Show me the moving pictures.

[Day 2: On the Job]

i know the fandom ripped her to shreds after the season concluded and i was honestly SHOOK

charlie was making mistakes, but it was her pride...i felt that it was very consistent and an important lesson for her to learn as a leader. she's going to need to win against a smear campaign, and her handling of it was bad because she was more invested in her ego and the hotel's reputation than actually strategizing effectively. it's a mistake a lot of leaders make, and she reckoned with it and made up for it!

i know she's going to be in dismay and blame herself for angel's absence.

RADIOSTATIC FANS WAKE UP WE GOT ALASTOR DEGRADING VOX CONTENT

Not only do I think he's exactly this type of guy, I also think he becomes the first guy to be publicly kinkshamed by Valentino.

(Valentino's jealous/annoyed that Vox has not been responding to his advances in this AU. Like WTF, does he have to take a chunk out of the guy to get his attention?!)

Also, on the topic of "Partners Alastor regularly biting Partners Vox," we have to all consider the fact that Vox as I write him has a LOT of wire, metal, and tech by volume, as compared to regular flesh. Which means that if Alastor is not being strategic about this (or maybe if he is, depending on how you look at it) he is less "leaving scars" than "having a sentient chewtoy that repairs itself periodically."

Okay one deranged thought on this. Valentino immediately swoops in to be a homewrecker. Like immediately immediately. It takes him not even a week. And, you know, Vox can't NOT entertain this/can't just shoot him down because it makes sense! They've kind of sort of been flirting with each other for decades! If he suddenly goes cold just because this is pissing off Alastor beyond all belief they will obviously blow their cover please don't be mad Alastor please don't be mad it's for the plot i'm doing it for the plot--

I can see this going in a really funny and horrible direction of like-- at all times, unbeknownst to Valentino, Valentino is in mortal peril. Valentino is signing and executing his death warrant in triplicate. And at the same time, Alastor is majorly struggling to understand wtf his problem is, exactly, with letting Vox manipulate Valentino in this way. It's not as though he has ever had a burning desire to sleep with Vox. But should he, though? Is there something obvious he's missing here?

You thought I'd be something easy to forget

Depends on the contract!

One foundational thing that I feel strongly about with contracts meta is that there is no such thing as an unconscionable contract or a contract that is void for incompetence or an implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing in all contracts in Hell. Like, the idea that contracts have to be "fair" or that you have to be competent to make them or acting out of your own free will feels inconsistent with, y'know, the fact that this is an Evil Magic System In Literal Hell.

So, to give an example, I think "give me your soul or else I will kill you" works as an enforceable contract in Hell. It just wouldn't be an efficient way for an average Overlord to build up their power because killing doesn't actually stick in Hell, so really you'd need to commit to torturing someone for long enough for them to agree to anything you ask to make this gambit work -- and that's just inefficient. Or at the very least, it's inefficient unless the soul you're after is really important to you for some reason.

I think it's plausible that many soul contracts are constructed in such a way that like - one party gets something once, and loses their soul forever. Classic crossroads demon type shit: you're in a bind, someone helps you, but in exchange you sign your soul over. Alastor probably has a much higher than average number of those where his part is 100% done and he just owns a soul now, hence Charlie's reaction to his offer to "help" in season one.

Why "much higher than average?" Because Alastor likes sidequests. No, really. Alastor thinks it's fun and funny to embark on random favors. It makes life more interesting and keeps people On Their Toes about him. Alastor has gotten a fair number of soul contracts by deciding to do things for the plot.

Alastor also has a chunk of "inherited" contracts that he forced other Overlords to sign over in the process of torturing/killing them. He probably stopped doing this when he realized how cumbersome it is as a logistical matter to wind up with someone else's souls and deals, but he's lived a long time. And people make mistakes, okay?