Fanfic / Growing Up Impish

Growing Up Impish is a Hellaverse fanfiction by CheyCartoongirl8 and CynicalGenre, hosted on Archive of Our Own.

Moxxie Knolastname never really liked to talk about his own family. It wasn't that he was ashamed of them, but rather that they weren't exactly the most beloved individuals in Hell, so he learned to keep his mouth shut about them.

Unfortunately, when an unexpected visitor drops by the headquarters of his employers: startup assassination business I.M.P. (Immediate Murder Professionals), bearing an invitation to a forthcoming family reunion, the seasoned weapons expert of the crew has no choice but to introduce his beloved but hyperactive wife and fellow co-workers to his rather eccentric parents, along with the rest of his family.

But how is a Imp supposed to explain that a certain powerful "Radio Demon" is his father?

The story can be read here.

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Growing Up Impish provides examples of:

• Accidental Kidnapping: Played With: While Velvet did intend to snatch Moxxie off the street, it was purely because she thought he was some cute orphan imp wandering around and thus didn't realize she actually kidnapped the Radio Demon's son.
• Actor Allusion: Moxxie’s birth name is Kaos, the exact same name as the main antagonist of Skylanders and another character voiced by Richard Steven Horvitz.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: The entire fic is centered around this sort of relationship between Moxxie and Alastor, going from total strangers in canon to a father son duo in the fic.
• Adaptational Angst Downgrade: Zig-Zagged. Moxxie’s childhood in this fic is leagues’better than his canon one; Instead of being the son of a powerful and abusive Mafia don who murdered Moxxie’s mother and spending his childhood days living in fear of his father, he’s taken in by two Overlords and a Sinner who, despite their various issues, are genuinely Good Parents who love him very much and are extremely protective of him. However, his birth parents were also killed during the Extermination, which would’ve most likely led to his own death had Alastor not decided to take him in on a whim, and his late teens were shaped by the horrific Domestic Abuse he experienced at the hands of his first boyfriend George. All in all, Moxxie is still a rather damaged individual, but in a different way from his canon counterpart.
• Adaptational Sympathy: Striker earns a good dose of this in the fic when it's revealed he's been using the money he makes off his assassination gigs to try and track down his long lost brother who disappeared after their parents were killed in an extermination, desperately trying to make their family whole again.
• Adopted into Royalty: Downplayed in that Alastor and Rosie aren't royalty per se, but they certainly have a lot of relatives that qualify as such who Moxxie became an adopted nephew/grandson to.
• Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Alastor establishes himself as this right away, complete with Dad jokes and doting parental behavior from the moment he shows up. Rosie and Mimzy also get in on this to a lesser extent.
• Asshole Victim: George’s luck finally runs out in chapter 44; All of his plans have imploded in his face, he finds himself surrounded by everyone he’s manipulated and mistreated over the course of the story, and he almost ends up punished at the hands of Asmodeus for not just everything he’s done to everyone at the wedding, but also for repeatedly trying to date-rape patrons at Ozzie’s clubs. But instead, the Lust imp meets a very gruesome end at the hands of his supremely pissed-off ex-boyfriend who is revealed to have inherited Alastor’s magic powers. Since George has spent the entire story being an abusive, narcissistic, smug Manipulative Bastard who has selfishly and remorselessly tried to ruin not just Moxxie and Millie’s marriage, but also the lives of several people, nobody feels bad for him.
• Attempted Homewrecker: As soon as George finds out that Moxxie has moved on from him and is Happily Married to Millie, he immediately puts plans in motion to ruin their marriage and reclaim Moxxie for himself.
• Badass Family: Moxxie's parents are some of the most feared overlords in Hell, his aunts and uncles are legendary Ars Goetia demons, and the imp is no slouch himself with his firearm skill and knowledge of shadow magic. Not to mention Moxxie's brother Striker is a pretty big badass given his track record.
• Badass in Distress: Millie suffers this fate during her wedding day after George kidnaps her and leaves her locked up with holy binds in an old warehouse.
• Bait-and-Switch: Chapter 30 has a scene of a nervous Millie being circled by Rosie and her assistant Spiffy, humming and hawing about how something ”simply won’t do” and how they should ”just get rid of it”. Because Millie has spent most of the story worried that Rosie will find her to be ”not good enough” for Moxxie, it’s set up like Rosie is disapproving of Millie as Moxxie’s wife… But then it turns out that Rosie and Spiffy were just criticizing the other assistant’s choice of wedding dress for Millie;
  Spiffy: Really, Polly? A floor-length gown with a train for an outdoor wedding?
• Be Yourself: Discussed. Thanks to a combination of feeling intimidated by Rosie’s high status, accidentally offending one of Moxxie’s aunts at the first family reunion and being the main target for George’s mind games, Millie spends a good chunk of the story desperately trying to prove herself to Rosie as she’s afraid that the Overlord will deem her ”not good enough” for Moxxie. As a result, she simply goes along with Rosie’s suggestions for the wedding, even if the proceedings stress her out and almost none of it is to her tastes. Her family notices this and urges Millie to just tell Rosie what she likes and make the wedding become something that both Moxxie and Millie want - After all, Moxxie loves Millie just the way she is, so why wouldn’t his family? Especially since Alastor and Mimzy have already make it quite clear that they adore her. However, Millie eventually explains why she feels like she can’t do that with Rosie as a subtle Calling the Old Man Out moment: Moxxie has been nothing but himself for the whole time he and Millie have known each other, but her family has been anything but receptive of that and instead mocked and belittled him for not living up to their ideals, and Millie doesn’t want the same thing to happen to her with Rosie. Ironically, her worries are completely unfounded - Rosie loves her just as much as her partners do, meaning that her family is absolutely correct in their observation.
• Big Brother Instinct: Striker towards his missing little brother, the imp risking life and limb for years in order to find him again. When he finds out Moxxie is said brother, it changes everything and he immediately jumps on board to help his little brother save Millie.
• Bound and Gagged: How George deals with Loona when she finds out about his plan to ruin Millie and Moxxie's wedding.
• Bride and Switch: This is how George is finally subdued in chapter 44. After Moxxie’s friends and family, alongside the other Happy Hotel inhabitants (sans Charlie and Vaggie), interrupt the hijacked wedding ceremony and Alastor pulls Moxxie (and Striker) into his shadow dimension to protect him, George gets the brainwashed guests to subdue them with angelic bindings, reveals that he’s stolen Alastor’s grimoire and threatens to have everyone in the venue killed unless Moxxie is brought back to him. Soon, Moxxie comes out from the shadows with a Bound and Gagged Striker in tow and takes his place at the altar once more… Except it’s revealed to not be Moxxie, but Striker in disguise, the two having swapped places thanks to a transformation spell placed on a pair of gloves (Which also means that Moxxie-as-Striker was never actually restrained and thus could free the others while George was focusing on his ”husband”). George is then promptly shot in the hand by a freed Blitzo and punched in the face by Striker for his trouble, and the whole ordeal gives Charlie, Vaggie and Asmodeus, who have been alerted to the happenings by Fizzarolli, Verosika, and Micole, time to arrive and stop him once and for all.
• Cain and Abel: Occurs between Striker and Moxxie. Downplayed in that Striker didn't know Moxxie was his brother and immediately regrets his actions when he figures out their relation.
• Cannibal Clan: Given that Alastor and Rosie are his parents, Moxxie's direct family certainly counts as such. Thankfully he hasn't inherited their unique tastes.
• Comically Missing the Point: In Velvet’s flashback to the first time she met Moxxie, she brings the five-year old imp back to the Vees’ hangout after meeting him on the street with the intention of keeping him as a pet, unaware of the fact that Moxxie is Alastor’s adopted son since the Radio Demon went to great lengths to keep their real connection a secret. When Alastor shows up to take Moxxie back home, he threatens the lives of all three of the Vees if they blab about it to anyone and then vanishes. The three Overlords are rather shocked by the aftermath… And then Velvet frustratedly exclaims that she forgot to ask Alastor if she could keep Moxxie.
  Vox: DAMN IT, VELVET!
• Crazy-Prepared: Alastor is revealed to have taken some countermeasures on the off-chance that somebody with the ability to use magic would steal his grimoire; When George gets a brainwashed Goetia to open the portal to Alastor’s shadow dimension to get Moxxie back at the ruined wedding, he suddenly gets suspicious and tosses an ordinary wedding guest at the portal… Leading to the poor thing exploding into Ludicrous Gibs. Though this also backfires somewhat as George threatens to have Millie thrown into the portal and killed in the same way if Moxxie isn’t returned to him.
• Creepy Child: Moxxie is shown to have been a combination of this and a Cheerful Child when he was little. He was a genuinely bubbly, kind and happy little boy… Who also saw nothing wrong with helping his Dad seeking out new victims to eat under the guise of a ”game”, giggling and clapping his hands at the prospect of a reward for ”winning” while Alastor consumed his prey right in front of him, and another flashback also shows him giggling at a child trafficker who’d tried to kidnap him getting eaten by one of Alastor’s shadow servants. It all led to him becoming a legend in the Pride Ring and The Dreaded for being Alastor’s ”servant”, even getting a Folk Song written about him that recommended that people either gave him a wide berth or treated him with kindness, lest Alastor showed up to decimate whoever tried to harm the boy.
• Creepy Family: With Alastor being Moxxie's father, this is pretty much a given.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: George finally meets his end in chapter 44 at the hands of the very imp he mistreated the most: Moxxie uses his inherited shadow magic to strap George to an operating table and cutting off his limbs one by one, keeping him alive and conscious throughout all of it before finally killing him by tearing out his heart and crushing it with his bare hands.
• Disappointing Older Sibling: How Moxxie responds to the knowledge that Striker is his older brother.
• Distinguishing Mark: Moxxie's birthmark, which is what causes Striker to realize the thespian is his long lost baby brother.
• The Dog Bites Back: In chapter 44, Moxxie finally gets the chance to get back at George properly for not only the years of Domestic Abuse he put him through, but also for trying to ruin his current life for his own selfish means, hijacking his and Millie’s wedding and trying to bind Moxxie to himself with Blood Magic. Alastor reveals that Moxxie inherited a weaker version of all of his magic powers from accidentally ingesting his blood as a baby, and the freckled sniper decides to demonstrate them by transforming the wedding hall into a torture chamber, strapping George to an operating table and torturing him to death by cutting off all of his limbs. It all culminates in him tearing out George’s heart and crushing it in his grip.
• Domestic Abuse: George had this relationship with Moxxie, trying to control every aspect of the imp's life and even denying him his chance at stardom to keep him under his thumb.
• Entitled to Have You: George, Narcissist that he is, repeatedly demonstrates that he feels this way regarding Moxxie, whom he still considers ”his” years after they broke up. As soon as he discovers that Moxxie is Happily Married to Millie, he goes mad with jealousy and starts making plans to split them up so he can reclaim his ”property”; All the while, he ties logic into knots to I Reject Your Reality levels in order to justify his behavior, both past and present, repeatedly denies any wrongdoing on his part, insists that he and Moxxie are ”meant to be” and that Millie is ”bad” for his former lover and refuses to accept that his ex is happy without him. In a conversation with Loona, his sister Micole flat-out admits that, while George does feel some form of genuine (if twisted) love for Moxxie, his feelings ultimately boil down to him seeing Moxxie as his possession that he can treat as he pleases.
• Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Alastor’s mother is present in this fic, having given up on Heaven to join her son in Hell. It’s made very clear that, despite her son being a cannibalistic Serial Killer operating on Blue-and-Orange Morality, she loves him dearly, and in turn, Alastor thinks the world of her and wants nothing more than for her to be happy… Even if that entails her dating and eventually marrying his Arch-Enemy Vox. When she’s attacked and injured by some Sinners and accused of being a ”spy from Heaven” on Christmas, Alastor goes ballistic and sets out with Moxxie in tow to find the culprits and kill them.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Downplayed. Despite being a selfish, narcissistic sociopath, George does seem to hold at least a sliver of genuine affection for his little sister Micole, even if he doesn’t respect or accept her being asexual (This opinion is also held by everyone in their family, what with them being Lust imps and all, as it makes Micole an Oxymoronic Being and the family’s White Sheep) and isn’t above manipulating her, too. He also clearly has no respect for her opinions since he repeatedly refuses to listen to her when she tells him to stop his constant schemes to split Moxxie and Millie up and to just let Moxxie be happy. Despite all of this and his main motive being to manipulate her, he appears to have a genuine desire for her to go out and meet people instead of staying cooped up in her coffee shop all the time, and he does get her the stray cat she’d been looking to adopt as a Christmas present. Micole, in turn, also seems to love her big brother despite his treatment of her, though she sadly accepts Moxxie and Millie’s families’ plans to kill him once his kidnapping of Millie on the day of her wedding is revealed; She hates the outcome to the point where she slips into a Heroic BSoD, but she’s also come to realize that it must be done since George will never change his ways or stop trying to claim Moxxie for himself.
• Everyone Has Standards: Verosika and Fizzarolli are roped into George’s plans to distract Blitzo with their presence during the wedding day. They’re never told any details and thus don’t know what George is planning beyond having something ”special” for Moxxie and Millie, but they still take him up on the offer since they’d never pass up an opportunity to screw Blitzo over. But when they discover that they were meant to be distractions while Striker killed Stolas, they’re horrified and appalled and jump ship quickly - After all, they agreed to mess with Blitzo, not commit treason. This actually leads to them alerting Asmodeus to George’s presence and plans once the wedding goes off the rails.
• Exact Eavesdropping: Loona is the one who discovers George’s plans first due to this: In chapter 29, she overhears him first having a conversation with his sister over the phone in a hallway, after which he calls Striker to talk about their plans to kill Stolas and sabotage Moxxie and Millie’s relationship. It’s downplayed in that George actually speaks rather vaguely, but his tone and choice of words is sinister enough for Loona to get suspicious. This prompts her to start investigating him… And thanks to Vortex asking around in the Lust Ring about George and her own conversation with Micole soon after, she discovers what exactly George is like and how he treated Moxxie when they were dating, and this makes her realize that he’s planning to ruin the wedding. Unfortunately, she’s found out and incapacitated by George before she gets the chance to stop him or alert anybody else to his plans.
• Family Disunion: Alastor inviting Moxxie to the family reunion in front of his coworkers is what ends up kicking off the entire story and all the mayhem and mishaps that followed.
• The Family That Slays Together: Moxxie got a lot of his love for murder from Alastor, the Radio Demon often using him as a sort of tracker during his childhood who either lured out potential victims or pointed Alastor in their direction. Moxxie looks back on these bonding activities fondly.
• Happily Adopted: How Moxxie feels about having Alastor, Rosie, and Mimzy as parents.
• Horrible Judge of Character: Millie towards George, believing him and Moxxie having departed on good terms and being more liked by his family than her. Justified in that she's both blinded by her own insecurities and was never told what Moxxie's relationship with him was really like.
• Insane Troll Logic: George is absolutely convinced that Millie is a bad partner for Moxxie despite having no evidence to prove it, going off the assumption that wholesome and healthy relationships simply don't exist in Hell so she has to be doing SOMETHING behind Moxxie's back.
• I'm Taking Her Home with Me!: Velvet's response to coming across Moxxie as a toddler, finding him so adorable that she snatches him right off the street within seconds of meeting him. Naturally, Alastor doesn't take this well.
• Insecure Love Interest: Millie, of all people, becomes one in this fic. Due to a combination of feeling intimidated by Rosie's high status, accidentally offending one of Moxxie's aunts while trying to make small talk during their first dinner and falling victim to George's manipulations, she spends a good chunk of the story worrying that she'll be considered "not good enough" for Moxxie and that Rosie disapproves of their relationship... Which she doesn't - In fact, the Overlord thinks the world of her.
• It's All About Me: What George's character boils down to. He's willing to ruin Moxxie's chances at stardom, destroy his wedding ceremony, endanger Stolas' life, and risk royally pissing off the radio demon all for his own selfish needs.
• Kick the Dog: George takes a sick amount of glee in his attempts to undermine Millie’s self-worth over the course of the story, all of it in the form of Sugary Malice, passive-aggressive comments and actions and rubbing his knowledge of certain aspects of Moxxie’s past life in her face. And after he hijacks Moxxie and Millie’s wedding and once again subdues Moxxie’s friends and family as well as the other Happy Hotel patrons when they arrive to stop him, Millie notices that he changed the decorations and even crossed out her name from the signs and replaced it with his own. He even shoots her a smug look and makes a showing of leading Moxxie (Actually a disguised Striker) to the altar to finish the soul-binding ceremony, even admitting to himself that marrying Moxxie in front of his ”ex”-wife is even more satisfying to him than his original plan of leaving her for dead in a warehouse after kidnapping her and making it look like she left Moxxie for someone else.
• Knight Templar Big Brother: Striker spent years, YEARS, doing everything he could to track his baby brother down despite having never met him purely out of a sense of familial loyalty.
• Living Aphrodisiac: George has the ability to Mind Control people by releasing pheromones. (Apparently, all Lust inhabitants give off pheromones of some kind, but he seems to be the only one who can outright control people with his… Or maybe he’s the only one who chooses to use them in that way) He used them on Moxxie repeatedly while they were dating to keep him in line, interrogate him or force him to do his bidding, and he’s also revealed to have been banned from every club in Lust for repeatedly using them as date-rape drugs. Near the climax of the story, George takes a drug that strengthens his pheromones even more and lets him brainwash demons that are much stronger than him in order to hijack Moxxie and Millie’s wedding for himself. However, his repeated drugging of Moxxie ends up biting him in the ass and leads to his ultimate downfall; While he manages to brainwash the other guests, Moxxie turns out to have grown immune to the pheromones due to the sheer number of times George has used them on him. So, instead of actually being George’s obedient little doll, he plays along in order to find a good opportunity to get the drop on his former lover. George, of course, is none the wiser, fully believing that Moxxie is under his control up until he’s finally subdued and the deception is revealed.
• Long-Lost Relative: as it turns out, Striker and Moxxie are brothers. The latter having been scooped up by Alastor after his parents were killed during an extermination, leading Striker on a life long search for any trace of his wherabouts.
• Love-Obstructing Parents: Alastor and Rosie to George. Unlike most examples this is a GOOD THING since George didn't exactly treat Moxxie well.
• Love Will Lead You Back: George believes this to the point that he's practically delusional, even going to such extremes as attempting to orchestrate Millie and Moxxie's break up to get the latter back.
• Manipulative Bastard: George is a textbook example of this, playing on Millie's insecurities in order to push her away from Moxxie and leave her in a vulnerable position. Even attempting to produce false evidence that she's cheating on Moxxie.
• Meet the In-Laws: Millie's arc boils down to this, the country imp desperately attempting to prove herself to her husband's more refined family (and failing miserably almost every time).
• The Missus and the Ex: Occurs when George meets Millie, their initial interaction goes about as well as you would expect and things between them only go downhill from there.
• Mood Dissonance: Played for Laughs. A flashback to a toddler-aged Moxxie getting a reward for winning his and Alastor’s game (read: tracking down Sinners for Alastor to eat) leads to the two of them going to a toy shop. It would’ve been presented as just an ordinary cute father-son bonding moment… had it not been for all of the other patrons and cashiers being absolutely terrified of the Radio Demon’s presence to the point where they simply let them have the child’s guitar that Moxxie wants for free just to get them to leave.
• Must Have Caffeine: Micole has a craving for caffeine in the way the rest of her family has a craving for sex; She’s mentioned to drink more coffee than is probably healthy and goes stir-crazy if she doesn’t get any. She’s also revealed to run her own coffee shop as it not only lets her serve actual high-quality coffee to others and gives loners like her a place to hang out in, but also gives her an excuse to guzzle as much coffee as she wants every day. And woe betide anybody who comes into her shop and asks for decaf…
• My Own Private "I Do": How Millie and Moxxie got married, lacking the resources to hold an actual ceremony. Luckily Moxxie's family seeks to rectify this error and hold an extravagant wedding for the two of them.
• Narcissist: George is a textbook example of this. He constantly looks down on everyone around him as inferior and considers everyone he meets as either his possessions, expendable pawns that he can use to get what he wants or obstacles that need to be removed. He'll stop at nothing to attempt to either get or reclaim what he believes is "his", gets offended at the mere notion that the universe doesn't revolve around him and refuses to take responsibility for his actions; In fact, he claims that he's right and justified in treating people like crap, having abused Moxxie in every possible way while they were dating and then blamed his boyfriend for it for making him mad.
• Never My Fault: George will continue to insist that he did nothing wrong when dating Moxxie and that his parents forced them to break up rather than Moxxie dumping him out of his own free will, even flat-out insisting that Moxxie would be better off with him than Millie. He also demonstrated this while he and Moxxie were dating, having continuously blamed Moxxie for the abuse that George himself put him through.
• Obnoxious In-Laws: When Vox married Alastor's mother, he formed this dynamic with Alastor.
• Oh, Crap!: Two of them in chapter 44:
  • Alastor has a slight moment of this when he realizes that while George, who’s stolen his grimoire, might not be able to use magic, he can use his pheromones to brainwash somebody who can; Thus, since Alastor is bound with angelic magic, he can’t stop George from forcing a Goetian wedding guest from using the grimoire to open a portal to the shadow dimension that Alastor has taken Moxxie to.
  • George, naturally, reacts this way upon Asmodeus subduing him after Moxxie and Striker have gotten the drop on him with a Bride and Switch; He realizes that while his pheromones have been boosted to the level of him being able to mind-control Goetians, the King Of Lust is immune to the effects, meaning that George can’t control him. He becomes even more terrified when the furious Asmodeus reveals that he recognizes him from his clubs… Because he’s banned him from every single club and bar in Lust for repeatedly using his pheromones to date-rape his targets.
• Oxymoronic Being: Micole, George’s little sister, is an aromantic, asexual Lust imp. This has led to most of her family shunning her and refusing to accept it, with George even stating that asexuality isn’t a thing and that she ”just” needs to get fucked by the right person. (Sadly, this is a remark that many asexuals in real life have to put up with)
• Parental Abandonment: Moxxie's parents died during an extermination shortly after his birth. Thankfully, Alastor was there to step in as his new father.
• Parent-Child Team: Occured very frequently during Moxxie's childhood, being taken out on father-son killing sprees with Alastor and helping the radio demon locate his unfortunate victims.
• Platonic Co-Parenting: Despite Moxxie refering to Alastor, Rosie, and Mimzy as his parents, none of them are romantically involved with one another and simply raised the imp as friends. If anything, Alastor is Moxxie's only real parent while Rosie and Mimzy are more akin to honorary mothers, not that any of them would acknowledge the distinction.
• Poor Communication Kills: While it’s very understandable that Moxxie wouldn’t want to talk about it, a lot of Millie’s heartache and self-confidence issues once George enters the picture could’ve been avoided if either Moxxie, Alastor, Rosie or Mimzy had simply told her what George’s past relationship with Moxxie was actually like, even if Moxxie wanted to give George a chance to show that he’s changed for the better in the present day.
• Pretend to Be Brainwashed: Chapter 43 has Moxxie reveal to Striker while both of them are in Alastor’s shadow dimension that he was never actually affected by George’s pheromones. It turns out that the Lust imp used them on Moxxie so many times when they were dating that he eventually grew immune to the effects. Instead, he’s simply been playing along and waiting for the perfect chance to strike back at him. This lets him and Striker pull a Bride and Switch thanks to a spell placed on a pair of gloves that lets them transform into each other, and George remains none the wiser about the switch and Moxxie’s immunity until Striker punches him in the face and gives Asmodeus a chance to grab him, revealing the ruse and stopping his plans for good.
• Psycho Ex-Girlfriend: More like psycho ex-boyfriend, taking the form of the incubus George. Who is not only a narcissistic control freak that obsesses over getting Moxxie back but will even outright kidnap Millie on the day of her wedding ceremony and attempt to fool everyone into thinking she's cheating on Moxxie all to get his imp boyfriend back.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
  • When all of George’s machinations are revealed after he kidnaps Millie on the day of the wedding and thus reveals that he’s never changed his ways, Moxxie’s hurt and hatred for his ex reaches a boiling point. Once he tracks him down with the intent to outright kill him, he viciously calls his former lover out on everything he’s done to Moxxie as well as his friends, family and love of his life, both in the past and in the present. Alas, his speech falls on deaf ears as George continuously denies any responsibility for his actions and, in fact, claims that every single one of them were justified because Moxxie is ”his”, and the ensuing fight between them just gives George an opportunity to once again brainwash Moxxie with his pheromones. (Or not, as is revealed later)
  • Asmodeus gives a much shorter speech to George after his plans have gone down the toilet and he’s been properly subdued; He spells it out for the Lust imp that he’s been banned from every club in Lust for his continued use of his pheromones to drug and brainwash people, pointing out that George resorted to this because he has no genuine charm or seduction skills of his own and thus has to use underhanded tricks and Mind Control to get what he wants.
• Related in the Adaptation: Alastor being Moxxie's dad, Rosie and Mimzy being Moxxie's mothers, and plenty of Ars Goetia relatives. Moxxie's family tree is FAR larger here than it is in canon, especially with Stolas being his cousin and Striker being his biological BROTHER.
• Searching for the Lost Relative: Striker's assassination gigs are revealed as his way of funding his hunt for his missing little brother, Moxxie, who vanished after their parents were killed in an extermination. Once he realizes that he almost killed said brother, he is horrified with himself.
• Self-Harm: While he’s torturing George to death in chapter 44, Moxxie at one point pulls up his sleeves to show his wrists… Which are covered in scars from him cutting himself. This is done to hammer in just how badly George’s abuse messed him up and how much he despises him for it.
• Shared Family Quirks: Moxxie and Alastor HATE Krampus with a burning passion, often spending the holiday season hunting him down together.
• Shout-Out: Alastor's failed attempt at Moxxie's birthday surprise is quite similar to one carried out by a certain hat-wearing llama.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!: Even after Micole, Charlie, Vaggie, Verosika and Fizzarolli crash Moxxie and Millie’s hijacked wedding with Asmodeus in tow, George firmly believes that he’s won as he’s already subdued all of Moxxie’s friends and family (Or, so he thinks), forced Moxxie out of Alastor’s shadow dimension and is about to brand him with a Blood Magic seal to eternally bind him to himself. Thus, he starts gloating… and soon comes to regret it:
  Micole: GEORGE! You arrogant, slimy, manipulative, stupid fucking-!
  George: (rolls his eyes) Oh, save your breath, Mimi. But now that you’re here, you’re just about to see me get hitched. (grabs Moxxie’s face) Isn’t that right, my precious Foxxy Moxxie?
  Striker!Moxxie: I’m about to see you dead, you idiot! (punches George in the face)
• Sibling Murder: Attempted by Striker towards Moxxie. Once he discovers that Moxxie is his little brother, he regrets it IMMENSELY.
• Sibling Yin-Yang: George and his sister Micole couldn’t be more different; George is a suave, narcissistic Manipulative Bastard whereas Micole is a klutzy, wholesome Nice Girl. George is also mentioned to frequently have sex whereas Micole is asexual, which makes her an outcast in their family of Lust imps.
• Sink or Swim Fatherhood: Alastor is thrown into this dynamic upon first adopting Moxxie, making such errors as attempting to get Moxxie into his unique tastes as an infant and flooding the house when drawing the imp a bath. Luckily Rosie was there to step in before any serious damage was done.
• Spanner in the Works: Striker, Verosika, Fizzarolli and Angel Dust end up being this for George in different ways:
  • The failed assassination attempt on Stolas due to Moxxie Taking the Bullet leads to Striker discovering that Moxxie is his little brother, which prompts him to kidnap Moxxie instead of Millie on the day of the wedding to interrogate him. After it’s confirmed that Moxxie is indeed his sibling, he reveals George’s plan to kidnap Millie and make it look like she’s been cheating on Moxxie and left him at the altar, even revealing where Millie has been taken so that she can get rescued. All of this turns out to be the beginning of George’s ultimate downfall.
  • The failed assassination also leads to Verosika and Fizzarolli showing that they have standards and pulling out because they didn’t sign up for taking part in an act of treason. When they realize how deranged George is and discover his plans to ruin the wedding, they decide to alert Charlie, Vaggie (Who’d been attending a gala that Lucifer had organized and thus weren’t at the wedding) and Asmodeus (Who hates all nonconsensual methods for claiming somebody else) about what’s going on after Millie is kidnapped, and the King of Lust himself decides to punish George for everything he’s done after he returns to the hotel.
  • Angel Dust is the one who, thanks to his pet pig Fat Nuggets, finds the injured Bound and Gagged Loona locked in a chest, the latter having been beaten up and drugged by George for finding out about his plans before almost everyone else. This results in Loona telling Blitzo, Alastor, Rosie, the rest of the Happy Hotel inhabitants and Millie’s family about George’s plans, which prompts the group to set off to track George down and rescue the married couple.
• Taking the Bullet: While participating in a hunting game that Zephar has organized before the wedding, Moxxie ends up pushing Stolas out of the way when Striker tries to shoot him with a stolen angelic rifle; While the bullet just grazes his back, the holy magic still begins to eat away at his flesh, leaving him rather badly injured afterwards. This also becomes a bit of a plot point, as this results in Moxxie’s birthmark being revealed after he tears off his shirt, which Striker sees and makes him realize that Moxxie is his missing brother… And this ends up turning Striker into a Spanner in the Works for George, since he decides to kidnap Moxxie instead of Millie on the wedding day to interrogate him on his identity.
• Uptown Girl: Millie is highly insecure about being this to Moxxie when she finds out he's a direct relative of several Ars Goetia demons and overlords.
• Wedding Smashers: After Millie is rescued from her kidnapping, she, alongside Blitzo, Alastor, Millie’s family and Striker hightail it back to the Happy Hotel where George has brainwashed Moxxie and the wedding guests with his pheromones into believing that the wedding is for him and Moxxie. Just as he’s about to brand Moxxie with a Blood Magic-based magic seal that would leave him bound to him forever, the troupe arrives to ruin his plans with Alastor pulling Moxxie into his shadow dimension to snap him out of it… Only for them to get subdued and bound by the brainwashed Goetian guests, with George revealing himself to have stolen Alastor’s grimoire and threatening to kill them all if Moxxie isn’t brought back to him. However, Moxxie reveals to Striker, who’d also been brought into the shadows, that he was never actually affected by George’s pheromones, having grown immune to them due to the sheer number of times George used them on him while they were dating; He was just Pretending To Be Brainwashed and waiting for the right time to get the drop on George, which he does by pulling a Bride and Switch on him with Striker’s help.
  • This is soon followed by the arrival of Charlie, Vaggie and Asmodeus, having been alerted to George’s plans by Verosika, Fizzarolli and Micole, and Asmodeus subdues George once and for all while the latter is distracted by Moxxie and Striker’s Bride and Switch.
• Wham Line: In chapter 44, though it’s not so much what is said as who is saying it, how they say it and what they look like as it reveals quite a bit about the speaker:
  Transformed!Moxxie: (about George) No. He’s mine.
• White Sheep:
  • With his parents being cannibalistic serial killers, sympathetic hitman Moxxie falls under this trope.
  • There’s also Micole, George’s little sister. She’s implied to be the only one in her family who is a decent person, and the rest of her family have all but disowned her for being asexual despite being a Lust imp - She even calls herself ”the family’s disappointment” while talking to Loona. The only one who regularly visits her is George, and even then, he’s mainly doing it to manipulate her and use her as a pawn in his schemes.
• Worst Wedding Ever: Millie and Moxxie's wedding ceremony goes completely off the rails when they both end up getting kidnapped by two different demons. After all, you can't exactly have a wedding without the bride and groom present.
• Yandere: George to Moxxie. The guy is OBSESSED with getting Moxxie back at any and all costs.
• Your Tradition Is Not Mine: Having grown tired of his father's old fashioned views when it came to technology and culture, Moxxie ran away to the Lust Ring as a way of rejecting those ideals and become more free spirited.

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