{Alice} {She/they} {Asexual polyam lesbian} {2_} {Writer and cosplayer} {Anxious bipolar mess with PTSD and a caffeine addiction} {AO3} {Fanfic Tumblr} I made this specifically for miscellaneous posts so I could keep my fanfic tumblr uncluttered and assorted (mostly fandom) thoughts sorted-out. {Hyperfixation List}
Okay, so. I have been dealing with some NASTY health issues that made it hard (impossible) for me to write coherently over the summer (long story), but I'm back! Kind of, I'm an archaeology/Japanese double major in my senior year so time is hard, but! Point stands. ^.^ I'll get to asks ASAP, but I've got a busy weekend so it may still take some time.
Also, I'm at Matsuricon right now, so if you are too, come say hey! If you see Sae Niijima from Persona 5 (usual clothes) or Kuon Ichinose from Persona 5 Strikers, that's almost definitely me because I've never seen anyone else cosplay them (except Sae's OTHER appearance). If you see a Lute, it might be me? I dunno if I'll even do her this con or not, but my friend brought their Emily, so I brought my Lute just in case we decide to do a duo.
And! If you see a Charlie with a large red book tomorrow (Saturday), that's probably me! If you approach me, I will give you a duck! Unless I run out of ducks. Then I'll give you an apology for not bringing enough ducks.
Tl;dr I'm sorry for disappearing, I'm back between college-induced deaths, and track me down if you're at Matsuricon so I can say hiiiiii! <3
*crawls out of my gay little cave and slaps 45 pages of Chaggie fanfiction onto the table* And THIS is why I haven't posted any Hazbin thoughts in a hot minute. I blame my ADHD for giving the writing goblins a monopoly over my brain. :)
Just saw several people on ao3 comment on chapter one of a newly started multichapter fic asking if it had been abandoned because it had almost been two weeks since it updated. The author ended up having to make an author's note to explain that, no, it wasn't abandoned and that they hadn't updated yet because they have work and school.
Like y'all, chill. It's fairly standard for there to be several months between updates on fanfic. Writing fanfic is a hobby that people do in their spare time, it's gonna take a while
As a fanfic writer: YES, THANK YOU. I haven't personally dealt with this issue in my current life (mainly because I try to consciously avoid it via mostly posting oneshots and hoarding longer fics until I've made a lot of progress on them, but people in the Elmax corner of the Stranger Things fandom are also very kind and lovely readers about my loooong hiatus on that fic), but I've gotten so stressed-out I had to abandon past lives because of it.
Let me tell you, feeling like you have to write and post ASAP is a bitch. Writing fanfic should be a fun hobby that you want to share; it should not feel like a job where you work to provide a service and get paid in people's enjoyment. Also, mental health and writer's block are very valid reasons to not update and/or write. If you're not feeling it, don't force yourself and burn out! It sucks and only makes things worse!
Overall, fanfic readers: it's nice to get comments on how excited you are for updates, but make sure you emphasize how much you like what's already posted to give the writer a little treat instead of making them feel pressured. We are starved for praise and those kind words really go a long way.
Taking this chance to promote a few things I love with wlw-HEAVY casts! In no particular order:
The Locked Tomb - book series about lesbian necromancers
Riddle Story of Devil - anime about assassins who are all canonically sapphic
Reverse:1999 - mobile/PC gacha game with a kickass plot and so much wlw content (it's not even subtext), like if you play this game you're either sapphic or a sapphic supporter
Bloom Into You - one of the few slice of life things I'm into (I'm a lesbian, I'm weak)
...Okay I'm just gonna go ahead and count Love Live! (at least School Idol Project and Sunshine!!) because come on, WE KNOW
Lycoris Recoil - anime about more badass lesbians
Konohana Kitan - cute fluffy anime about an inn run by kitsune who are so fucking gay
The solo lines during the hotel rebuild in Finale are actually so fucking impactful though.
Niffty: "to build a hotel" - Niffty is the person brought in to maintain what was there; now she's actively working to build something new for all of them. She's not looking at the rubble and seeing a mess that needs to be cleaned up. She's looking at it and seeing something to create with her friends.
Angel Dust: "start with foundation" - Angel was the hotel's first patron; he was really the foundation of it all. Angel's progress is what's been keeping Charlie's dream steady this whole time. Watching him grow has been reassuring her that she's doing something right.
Lucifer: "remedial creation" - Lucifer, who lost faith in humanity after seeing what they did with free will, is remembering the hope he had for them back in Eden because his daughter taught him the potential he saw so long ago.
Charlie: "make the best of what's in ruins" - She's acknowledging that where she saw destruction and failure right after the battle, there's still hope. She's looking at everything that's happened, the successes and failures, and using it to build something better based on her experiences instead of giving up, starting over, or just picking up where she left off.
Vaggie: "new coat of paint" - Paint isn't just decoration. It's the first thing people tend to notice, because it's color. The right or wrong color can make a huge difference in people's opinions. Structure is good practically, but a bright appearance is what draws people in, NOT what's on the inside of the building. As far as making this hotel, Charlie's dream, come true, that ability to draw people in is incredibly important; and Vaggie's been trying her hardest to make that dream come true from the very start. And, just like Charlie, she's acknowledging that a little change is necessary to make this better by learning from what went right and wrong before.
Husk: "new lights across the marquee" - Husk was the least enthusiastic about all this in the beginning. He was only there because Alastor forced him to be. Now that he's seen the hotel actually helping people (Angel being the prime example), he sees it as a place that can give hope and light.
And as a bonus, because it's me so of course I have to...
Charlie + Vaggie: "we're gonna do this, you and me" - Charlie and Vaggie are the ones who started it all. Charlie had a dream and Vaggie was the only one who believed in her. In the beginning, it was just them against all odds; and it's still the two of them swearing to stay by each other no matter what. This line specifically is so incredibly emotional in its depth, and I adore it.
This song went so hard with its rebuild lines AND the Chaggie one, and I just think that's amazing.
Hello. I like your Chaggie analysis posts and wanted to ask you if you could another analysis on the couple. In this case, a tumblr user, angeltheninth, said they saw an interview of the couple's VAs and one of the highlights include saying that "Chaggie is at the core of the show". I was wondering ig you could do an analysis on what that could mean in the future and how it applies even in season 1. Again, only if you want to, and if not, I totally understand.
Ohhh this was fun!! I took a while to think about it and get it written out for a few reasons (such as working on fanfics and tragically having to do adulting things), and I'm sure I didn't pin down all the little ideas circling my brain about this, but here are my current thoughts on the matter!
To kick off with the obvious, they're the ones who started this. Charlie had a dream, and Vaggie was the only one who believed in her; and even with how hard it's been, they've still been fighting to make the hotel work. And it DOES. They're the first people since Lucifer and Lilith to look at things and say "hm, that doesn't seem right, let's try this" instead of just going along with it. Lucifer and Lilith led everyone into a new era with their dream of freedom, and with the Sir Pentious being redeemed and ascending to Heaven even after Sera said it as impossible, a new era looks to be exactly where Charlie and Vaggie are heading with their dream of protection. Yes, protection, because Charlie's goal to redeem demons comes from a desire to save their lives, not for the sake of making them better people. Protection has been a MASSIVE theme this season, expressed in song, dialogue, and action; and Charlie and Vaggie are the ones who kickstarted it in the first place.
And as far as "redemption" goes, using "redemption" as a term to encompass personal growth, Vaggie was the first person Charlie ever redeemed. She found her badly injured and took her in, helping a complete stranger out of the goodness of her heart; and Vaggie, a former participant in annual genocide, threw her whole self into Charlie's dream of redeeming Sinners to save Hell. Vaggie's redemption didn't come in the form of active encouagement towards it as a goal, but just as a result of being around Charlie. Charlie redeemed her without even trying. Vaggie was her first redemption story and she didn't even realize it until Rosie pointed it out. In other words, Vaggie was always walking proof that Charlie could redeem people who did horrible things. She never wanted to get back to Heaven; she was after redemption for her own sake, and for Charlie.
Choosing redemption for redemption's sake is the core of it all. Pentious wasn't trying to get into Heaven when he sacrificed himself; Angel had no way of knowing Charlie could see what he was doing at that club, so he very easily could have fallen back into old habits and called it a cheat day. But because they were genuinely becoming redeemed thanks to Charlie and Vaggie's efforts, they made selfless choices. Vaggie's redemption was real, and now these other souls Charlie took in are following in her footsteps. In other words, Vaggie was the original redemption story, and if she could become a better person even with all that blood on her hands, she knew other people could too; she supported Charlie's dream because she knew it worked, and she stayed by her side no matter how hard things got for them. Their relationship is what set the first ever real redemption into motion; they're at the core of redemption itself.
Themes of protection and love are also INCREDIBLY important in this show, and I'm not gonna cite my assorted Chaggie posts like a bibliography, but I feel like I've talked quite a bit about them being loving and protective. Their relationship is steady and stable, and there's an implicit understanding between them that comes from years of being together. They have rough spots but they get through them. They love and protect each other fiercely. Angel, Husk, Pentious, and Niffty have been learning to love and protect as well. How could they not, when they have such a great example to follow? If not for Charlie and Vaggie being such a united front, things would have turned out much less favorably for everyone.
Working together is what gets them through the hard times; they can't do this on their own. Look at what happened when they were off on their own missions in 1x07! Charlie was struggling until Rosie helped her sort through her conflicted feelings and realize that even though she was hurt, she still loved Vaggie and knew Vaggie believed in her; Vaggie was absolutely getting her ass kicked until Carmilla reminded her what (or more specifically who) her reason for fighting was, at which point she held her own, regrew her fucking wings, and impressed one of Hell's top Overlords. They succeeded because even with things so tense, they knew they had each other and they weren't alone. And isn't everyone supporting each other what that hotel is ultimtely all about? It's basically rehab, and for that, a strong support system really pays off. Their relationship essentially embodies the concepts that guide the hotel.
I know that's a lot more overall analysis than specifics about the future or season 1, but I feel like there are some implications in there, and it's hard to lay them out more explicitly in a frame of temporal reference. (Thanks for running out on me with no refills, ADHD meds, that's sooo helpful for getting coherent thoughts together...) They are indeed, in so many ways, the core of both the Hazbin Hotel and the show itself. I'm flattered you like my analysis posts enough to ask me about this, and I hope it was a satisfactory answer!!!
So I've been thinking a lot about Exorcists lately, and the different little hints at their lore through the series. Thanks to both Carmilla's observations and Adam's pep talk, we can safely assume they're all women. But what about outside of that?
Being an Exorcist doesn't seem like it's a job. Vaggie refers to herself as one in the present tense to Carmilla when she's been living in Hell with Charlie for years; there's also Adam's comment about how he's the one who chose her name, and the little detail about his lieutenant having a name that sounds like a pet name version of her title. So what, are Exorcists created in Heaven for the specific purpose of being Exorcists? Makes sense, sure...except when you think about what we've seen from Vaggie and what we know about Heaven. (This isn't counting any lore from before the main show came out, mind you, since we know some things have been retconned.) That's where, to me at least, things don't quite line up with that "Heaven-born" idea.
In the main show, we've seen Vaggie speaking Spanish. If Heaven created a class of angels for the express purpose of being Exorcists, they wouldn't need to know multiple languages. Considering the exterminations are top secret (or they were, until Adam threw the threat at Charlie in the middle of a courtroom), what need would Exorcists have for any skills other than killing? They wouldn't need other skills; they wouldn't even be bred with the capacity for unnecessary skills. If they're made for only one purpose, and their purpose is a secret, it would also make more sense for them to only exist in a military compound with no risk of that secret getting out; they wouldn't have any desire or permission to go anywhere but barracks and a training ground. But we've seen Lute out and about in the streets of Heaven, and Vaggie seemed like she'd been around the city already before she came with Charlie for their meeting.
Not to mention that if the Exorcists were created to be mindless killing machines, where do the emotions come from? Why would Adam's offer of a monetary reward for killing Vaggie get any response? What's up with Lute's...let's just say unique disposition? And why leave this class of angels created for the purpose of slaughtering demons with even the capacity to feel mercy and exercise free will? Heaven wouldn't put effort into making such complex soldiers for a once-a-year secret massacre; Sera said she agreed to the exterminations, implying that Adam (until his death of course) was the one who ran the Exorcists and their activities, even though he still technically reported to her as his superior. And from what we know about Adam, if he got to create his army of lady angels from scratch, he wouldn't give them the capacity for individuality. Not after what happened in Eden with Lilith.
But if Exorcists are human souls who went to Heaven, why did Adam get to name them? Why is it a whole identity, not a job? Without more information, my current theory is heavy conditioning.
Picture this. When the right kind of soul comes to Heaven (a woman who doesn't have anything she'd be looking for in the afterlife, who doesn't have anyone there who would be looking for her, who wasn't some perfect pacifist saint in her human life), Adam gets to her before she can properly settle in and recruits her. Breaks down her identity to rebuild her as an Exorcist, even choosing a new name for her himself (and possibly reshaping her physical form to be more uniform or maybe just more to his tastes), to the point that it becomes as much of an identity as any other. That type of conditioning also explains Vaggie's military tendencies, and the way souls who went to Heaven are so eager to come down and slaughter thousands of souls when for all they know they might be killing someone they knew when they were alive.
The selection process also explains why no one but the other Exorcists would have noticed Vaggie going missing, or the Exorcist who was killed by Carmilla; if they're souls who didn't have anyone in Heaven who would miss them, and who were conditioned to the point that they identified as Exorcists who didn't bother trying to form any outside connections (which would probably be part of that conditioning to ensure none of them let the secret slip to a non-Exorcist), no one would ever notice if one of them disappeared. Even Sera didn't give any real indication that she knew one Exorcist defected and another died before Lucifer set up a meeting for her and his daughter. She just said Adam "failed to contain the demons' unrest" to the point that Lucifer was getting involved; no mention of if she knew things were starting to fracture before Lucifer called her up with the implication of looking to change things after spending millennia just passively watching it all happen. Human souls being selected to become Exorcists because their lack of attachment makes them vulnerable to such complete conditioning would explain a lot there.
(As a side note, it makes even more sense that Sera didn't know about Vaggie, because from what we know, Vaggie might not technically be fallen, at least up until the end of the hearing. She was still able to physically enter Heaven while it's implied that Lucifer can't. Lucifer became fallen because the angels at the top of the hierarchy cast him out, but Lute and Adam don't have that kind of authority. They took her wings and halo and left her in Hell, but Adam still referred to her as a current angel both in their private confrontation and in the courtroom, not a fallen one. By that logic, "fallen" status can only be assigned by someone of a high enough rank, and Adam and Lute are too low on the angelic food chain to officially declare someone fallen. That would have had to come from someone like Sera, and no way was Adam going to admit to his boss that one of his elite Exorcists chose to defy the purpose of the exterminations and let a demon live. Sera probably only learned about it because Adam decided to hurt and establish control over a very defiant Charlie in the courtroom by outing Vaggie as a former Exorcist. Though that's definitely A LOT of speculation on my part.)
But conditioning does still leave room for them to possess individuality, because they were human, and humans do inherently possess individuality. Being bilingual, especially from a young age, is something that gets hardwired into the brain; hence why Vaggie speaks fluent Spanish despite her conditioning. Personality can still shine through; hence the excitement of the Exorcists as a whole, Vaggie's show of mercy and subsequent life in Hell, and Lute being her fucked-up unhinged self.
Plus this little bonus: when Emily, a Heaven-born angel, gets mad her angry flush is distinctly a bright blue, which implies Heaven-born angels have blue blood (which also makes sense in a symbolic way, with the phase "blue-blooded" and all); Exorcists, like Adam (a human soul), bleed gold. We know from Helluva Boss that Hellborns bleed black, but we've seen that Sinners bleed red. (Of course Charlie's a Hellborn with red blood, but considering she's the only Hellborn who has a human soul as a parent, she's kind of a special case.) In other words, in both Heaven and Hell, it human souls and souls that have no direct link to humanity have different blood colors.
It also goes back to what I mentioned awhile ago about Heaven just being a real-world broken government doing the same bullshit that happens on Earth. Conditioning is a thing that really happens while artificial creation of pre-conditioned soldiers isn't. Of course this is also all just me talking to myself while my chaotic little hyperfixated brain throws ideas at the wall to see if they stick, but I at least don't think it's entirely baseless.
I would just like to say how hard it hits me in the chest to see Charlie masking every time she's onscreen the day before the fight (including what we see on Vox's spy screens of course), except when no one is with her but Vaggie. Even during her emotional speech she tries so damn hard to keep that confidence up and smile on. But we do see her stop masking twice, when the only person watching her is Vaggie.
First:
No one's really paying attention to her, and she's not smiling; she's worried. When Vaggie approaches her, she doesn't put on a happy face. She talks about her mom with the same smile as in the first episode (during a very emotionally vulnerable moment with Vaggie, might I add). It's not happy or confident. It's nostalgic, wistful, and sad, because her mom's absence is something very personal and painful for her. When Vaggie asks if they're ready, Charlie doesn't instantly start to smile or answer with confidence even though she usually would (even within that short beat of time), because her mask is off. She's not confident or optimistic. She's scared. She's not ready.
Then Pentious comes out and she's all smiles again! The mask comes back on when someone other than Vaggie is there.
Second:
Of course, one of our favorite scenes. Charlie's alone when she breaks down, but when Vaggie shows up, she keeps the mask off. She admits how scared she is. When she does smile, it's not the big smile she's been throwing on throughout the day, and it's not strained either. It's soft, gentle, and real. She's not masking. Vaggie is genuinely making her feel better when she's finally letting herself fall apart, just by being there and reminding her that no matter what happens, she's already accomplished so much, and she's so loved.
Charlie is under a lot of stress and pressure. She's scared. She's not as optimistic as she's making herself out to be. She's giving everything she's got out there being a strong, confident, inspirational leader and friend in front of everyone, and it's only with Vaggie that she lets it go. She doesn't have to try to be strong. She doesn't pretend. She lets down her guard, because for her, Vaggie is that one infinitely special person who gets to see every part of her; the one person she can always be her honest self with.
There were plenty of times in other episodes when Charlie didn't mask her negative emotions around people, but that was when she didn't have anyone looking to her as a leader. She's running on adrenaline and the weight of people's expectations as Extermination Day gets closer, and she can't let the mask she's put on slip in public. She has to seem like she's totally ready for what's coming. But Vaggie is different.
The amount of trust and love Charlie has for her is staggering. She's under an insane amount of stress and pressure, and having Vaggie by her side is probably the only thing keeping her from completely falling to pieces. Seeing a relationship so full of deep trust and love is absolutely beautiful. <3
Figured I'd just answer both of these in one post, since they're tied together!
Yes, I can absolutely see Lucifer helping Charlie learn more about her abilities. They're rekindling that father-daughter bond, and teaching Charlie to use abilities she got from him is something ONLY Lucifer can do; I don't see him passing up the opportunity to be the fun dad who teaches his daughter literal magic tricks. Say, for example, throwing magic at Exorcists in battle and lighting up the marquee lights in the hotel rebuild scene? Forgive me if I'm mistaken, but until that last episode, we hadn't really seen Charlie use that kind of ability; there's a very angelic aspect to it, and we saw that same gold magic from Lucifer himself, so I'd say he's already started giving her pointers! Especially with the confidence, ease, and precision during the rebuild versus the slightly clumsy use of it in battle. VERY different situations, of course, but still.
As for wings, that's something I've been thinking about for a while actually! The fact that Vaggie regrew angelic wings after her Exorcist wings were ripped off definitely feels like a hint that Charlie might be getting some of her own in the future. Her dad is a fallen angel, so it makes sense she'd have the potential for them; it seems likely to me that with the right catalyst, especially after leaning more into her angelic-natured abilities under her dad's guidance, she might end up with wings of her own. (Personally I'd love to see that, because imagine Charlie being able to fly and how adorably excited she'd get over it!)
And yes, yes I ABSOLUTELY would love to see those dual mentorships going on! Vaggie continuing to hone her combat abilities with help from Carmilla is one of the things I'm really hoping happens in S2. The mutual understanding and respect they found for each other isn't something that should be passed off as a one-time interaction, in my opinion. (It's also fun to note that Vaggie and Carmilla have both been shown to speak Spanish. Another bonding opportunity, perhaps...?) And it would be SUCH an adorable and domestic thing for Vaggie and Charlie to get training from their mentors and show off what they learned to each other, so there's definitely a Chaggie bonus there!
These were really fun asks to get! I always love a good excuse to analyze and theorize about my favorite characters, so thanks for that! ^.^
One of my favorite little tiny details about the hotel rebuild is the specific use of a Carmine brand drill.
It's a very nice touch, please let them build a relationship with Carmilla and appreciate her going above and beyond in helping them out by not only telling them what can kill angels, but by teaching Vaggie how to kill them so she could teach the others. Not to mention she was the catalyst for Vaggie getting her wings back by reminding her what (or more specifically who) she's really fighting for.
(Also please more of Carmilla mentoring Vaggie, that mutual respect and understanding they built was SO good.)
The way Adam has never once used Charlie's name, even though she's the only one who properly introduced herself (with him just dropping his name in conversation like he assumed she already knew it), is actually a fun detail about his character. He's this "alpha male" stereotype: aggressively heterosexual, has to be in charge, "respects women" when it suits him (for example, using women's rights to get out of paying the check)...the kind of guy who would look at a woman's name tag and then call her pet names in a derogatory way regardless. Oh, and let's not even get into how the Exorcists are an army of women trained to be powerful...and all those powerful women are directly under his control.
Compare this to Charlie, who, even after interacting with him a little bit and realizing he's awful, tries to be respectful to his position and treat him with dignity. She uses his name, to and about him, because that's the decent thing to do, even though he has given her literally no reason to show him that respect.
She's trying her best to maintain some degree of professionalism and respect, because he does have a position of power, and she's going to acknowledge it no matter how little he deserves it. But Adam, both when talking to Charlie and about her, never uses her actual name. He doesn't even use a variation of her name to insult her; he doesn't bother with her name at all. The disrespect there is so fucked-up, because she actually ranks higher in Hell than he does in Heaven, yet he still never once bothers to use her name. Because she's a demon? Because she's a woman who holds a position of power above his level and far outside his control? Because he's an asshole? Yes. Yes to all of these things.
All of which makes this moment just that much more satisfying:
Now this dickhead who's been demeaning Charlie with pet names and insults this whole time is being told to call her by her royal title in the same moment that she finally throws out those shreds of respect, professionalism, and dignity he never deserved from anyone, least of all her, in the first place. It's a tremendously satisfying moment.
(Side note: does anyone else always shudder with creeped-out disgust at the "Lilith's little hottie" line? Because I sure do )
It is not lost on me that Charlie and Vaggie were initially not doing great against Adam and Lute...and then proved Carmilla was so fucking right.
Vaggie is absolutely FUCKED here. She's been in this position before, with Lute looming over her spitting vitriolic judgment, Vaggie's blood on the ground. Back then, she couldn't stop Lute from taking away her wings, her eye, her home, and her purpose. But now? She has more than that; she has love, because she has Charlie.
When Lute threatens Charlie, everything changes. Vaggie fucks her up immediately...and shows "mercy" knowing that being forced to live with part of herself gone (her arm was CRUSHED, no way was she getting it back), the shame of defeat, and the knowledge that someone she's been looking down on so completely is responsible for it all is a fate MUCH worse than death for Lute.
And Charlie? Charlie's insanely powerful but has no clue how to use her power to its full potential because she's never had a reason or desire to fight until now. Even when she's being strangled, when she's pissed-off and vengeful, she can't really tap into that power. But then Adam comes at her dad and is about to catch him off-guard.
He's about to hurt—possibly kill—her dad, who she's finally building a good relationship with; her dad, who just showed up to protect her despite the risk of politically turning this battle from an act of defiance by a willful princess to an act of full-on rebellion by the King of Hell himself. She reacts on instinct to protect her father and stops a hit that destroyed Alastor's shield. And she does it effortlessly.
Carmilla was right. For these ladies, at least, the need to protect someone they love, no matter what kind of love it is, is exactly what rallies them to come at enemies who were just kicking their asses and absolutely dominate.
The fact that Vaggie knew it was a HORRIBLE idea for her to go to Heaven because there were so many things that could go wrong and so many bad memories there, but her girlfriend needed her and she couldn't say no to her cute face; the fact that the headstrong, optimistic, determined, powerful Princess of Hell knew she couldn't handle taking this huge step alone and the only one person she could imagine being by her side in that critical moment was Vaggie.
The fact that even when she felt so hurt, heartbroken, and betrayed and tried for a second to deny it, Charlie never stopped loving Vaggie, still referred to her as her girlfriend, and had full faith that she was completely succeeding in her task (getting detailed sensitive information from a weapons-dealing Overlord) while Charlie herself was struggling and failing with her own.
The fact that even with Charlie so upset that she intentionally threw a painful commentbat her (a comment with a subtle double meaning, though Charlie herself was definitely NOT thinking clearly enough to realize that implication and only meant to make a jab at the secret-keeping), Vaggie still wanted so desperately to protect Charlie out of love that she regrew angelic wings despite having been in Hell for years.
The fact that one gesture from Charlie told Vaggie everything she wanted to say to her, and that mutual understanding was so complete that she didn't hesitate to run to her knowing she would be accepted because her girlfriend still loved her and forgave her.
The support, love, and intimate understanding these two share even when things are hard and painful is so beautiful. They've been together for years; they've been through so much; and it's wonderful to have that respected and portrayed canonically instead of dipping into that easy, fan-craved trope of dramatically heavy relationship angst. I'm glad they left that angst itch to be scratched by fanworks instead, because these ladies aren't that type.
They are powerful; they are determined; they balance and complete each other; and most importantly, they are so head-over-heels and experienced in their love for each other that it took one day for Charlie to deeply consider everything and fully reconcile with Vaggie, who never doubted her even for a second. Their relationship isn't just established; it's stable, and I love to see that for a wlw couple. <3
*checks post drafts in varying stages of completion* Hmm...what kind of day is it today? Lengthy Exorcist background theory day? Yell about/throw shade at Lute day? Vaggie analysis day? Charlie analysis day? Talk about Adam being an ass and getting owned day? Self-indulgent "Valentino fucking dies" crackfic preview day...?
*checks date* VALENTINE'S DAY?!?! That means today, as with every other day in my brain, is a Chaggie day!
Charlie missing the literal trail of angel blood and discarded Exorcist uniform because she's so focused on helping an injured person is actually so adorable. The clues about Vaggie's identity were right there, and she didn't even notice because her priority was helping someone she's never even seen before.
It's safe to assume this isn't the first time Charlie's gone out after an extermination to try and help injured demons, but it is probably the first time someone has actually appreciated her kindness. She looks genuinely surprised when Vaggie replies to her unsolicited help with a smile. Charlie always tries so hard for everyone around her, and this might be the first time someone has thanked her for it. And Vaggie? She was just maimed by a comrade for showing mercy, and left in Hell by her boss to suffer for the rest of eternity. That's two people she knew and likely trusted turning on her without a second thought. Then this complete stranger shows up and presents her with an unsolicited act of kindness, no questions asked. When Charlie first goes to bandage her eye, she tenses up like she's expecting to have to fight to defend herself, but it turns out this demon has just been running around looking for people she can help.
Charlie's kindness has always been replied to with dismissal at best; Vaggie showed kindness and was immediately punished for it. These are two kindhearted women who give everything they have to the people they love and don't ask for anything in return. The basis of their meeting was that they see each other's kindness and respond to it with their own. Charlie came into the alley looking for someone to help, and she didn't hesitate to put a bandage over where Vaggie's eye just got gouged out; Vaggie, instead of brushing Charlie's good deeds aside like everyone else in Hell, smiled at her with probably the first show of genuine gratitude she's ever been given; in response to that unusual gesture of appreciation, Charlie immediately decided to keep helping her (and had a very distinct flash of bi panic over this nice and very pretty girl with a cute smile); and they fell in love.
Their relationship was built on that very first moment. Charlie trusted Vaggie with everything, loved and supported her unconditionally, and didn't keep any secrets; Vaggie kept one huge secret for fear of losing and hurting Charlie, and to compensate for that disparity of honesty, devoted her whole self to protecting Charlie and turning her dreams into reality, no matter the cost to herself. The absolute love and devotion between these two is something so precious and beautiful, and we don't talk about that enough. <3
I'm sorry, did I say 4,000? My bad! I meant over 11,000 words, because apparently I'm that fucking insane over Chaggie. Now I'm just staring suspiciously at the little word count at the bottom of the screen and placing my bets on whether it'll hit 12,000 before I finish polishing it up.
Cats, Crowds, & Coffee @coffeecatcraze - Tumblr Blog | Tumgag
