Fanfic / Sadistic Tendencies

Sadistic Tendencies is a Helluva Boss fanfic by SilverWolfDemonGirl. It’s hosted on Archive of Our Own.

In the aftermath of Striker’s failed assassination attempt on Stolas, the frustrated mercenary swears revenge on I.M.P for foiling it and taking his angelic rifle. He wants to stick it to them and get it back… And who is a better target for that than the person he considers the ”weak link”, Moxxie? But after a failed kidnapping attempt makes it clear to him that Moxxie is not as harmless and helpless as he looks, Striker can’t help but find himself more and more drawn to the tiny assassin, slowly developing an obsession with him… Which, when combined with his sadistic tendencies, may spell trouble for everyone involved, not the least the object of his affections since Striker is Not Good with Rejection…

NOTE: Due to the discovery that Archive Of Our Own was flooded with bots who copied texts from works without permission, the fic is only available to users with an account on the website.

Sadistic Tendencies contains examples of the following tropes:

Tropes A to H

• Abhorrent Admirer: The basis of the fic is Striker becoming one for Moxxie as he develops a Villainous Crush on him. While Moxxie feels some physical attraction towards Striker and does almost fall under his spell at one point, he’s still very much not OK with the attention he receives since Striker is a possessive, sadistic, manipulative creep who tries to convince him to be unfaithful to Millie and won’t take ”No” for an answer.
• Adaptational Jerkass: Downplayed, as Andrealphus is still a rather snooty, unpleasant individual in canon. However, he still holds his sister dear... though, admittedly, to some rather creepy levels. Here, though, he's an outright social climber who disowns Stella after Stolas divorces her, thus ruining her reputation because he supposedly favored an imp (The rumors seems to leave out the fact that Stolas divorced her because she tried to have him assassinated over said infidelity), just because he thinks being associated with her will ruin his status, as well.
• Adaptational Sympathy: Downplayed. While Stella is still largely as much of a selfish shrew here as she is in canon, she does genuinely love Octavia here. This is in stark contrast to her canon self, where her only reference to her own daughter is to dismissively refer to her as ”an egg that fell out of [her]” in a flashback.
• Adaptational Wimp: Zig-Zagged in regards to the angelic weapons. In canon, Hellborn demons are shown to be able to handle them with no issues, and they are indeed dangerous to demon royalty. Here, though, Stolas explains that Hellborn demons can only wield angelic weapons if certain modifications are made to them, as if their mere touch is enough to cause harm… but these modifications involve the removal of some angelic magic, which means that the magic becomes impure enough that certain demonic magic can counter it - In other words, there are countermeasures to take that can render royals only vulnerable to pure holy magic. Thus, while the modified angelic weapons can still turn a normal Hellborn or unprepared royal into a pile of dust and gibs, demon royals are still immune to them as long as they take the necessary precautions. Precautions that Stolas has indeed taken to protect both himself and Via, since he’s had people after his head before.
• All for Nothing: Chapter 28 reveals that, ultimately, this is what all of Striker’s assassination plans would’ve ended up becoming even if I.M.P hadn’t pulled a Kansas City Shuffle on him; Due to his holy weapons having been modified in order to even let him wield them in the first place and those modifications having involved making the weapons less holy, they would’ve had no effect on Stolas at all because he’s set up counterspells that leave both him and Octavia unable to be harmed by anything other than pure angelic magic. The reveal that his carefully laid plans never had a chance to succeed from the start because of this almost makes Striker drop his calm, collected facade and lose it completely.
• All of the Other Reindeer: Moxxie has apparently had to put up with the scrutiny and contempt of his fellow hellspawn for his entire life for not being ”normal”, even more than you’d expect from denizens of Hell; So much so, in fact, that the phrase ”What’s wrong with you?!” acts as a Trauma Button for him. Striker accidentally pressing this button after trying to rape him leaves the traumatized Moxxie feeling even more out of place at his workplace afterwards, not helped by Blitzo and Loona’s increased Jerkass behavior towards him in a disguised and misguided attempt to protect him from Striker.
• Alone with the Psycho:
  • Chapter 19 leaves Moxxie in this situation once he finds himself in Striker’s motel room. The latter claims that he’s there to both give Moxxie his phone back and to offer his assistance in tracking down a supplier for angelic weapons, but the situations turns tense once he refuses to let go of Moxxie’s hand after a handshake, as it’s revealed that his true intentions were to try to seduce Moxxie and force himself on him.
  • Chapter 30 has Moxxie once again caught alone by Striker, this time at the I.M.P offices. While Striker claims that he’s there for yet another job, this time one that concerns the two’s actions during the Extermination, his refusal to elaborate on what he means and his very friendly-unfriendly way of speaking with Moxxie leaves the smaller imp on edge… A gut feeling that ultimately proves to be correct as it turns out that Striker is actually there to kidnap him again, this time to keep him for himself for good.
• Alternate Continuity: This fic diverges from canon from The Harvest Moon Festival and onwards. Though the events of OZZIE'S still occur here, it's slightly different thanks to Moxxie and Blitzo's relationship having been improved, which results in Moxxie and Millie inviting Stolas and Blitzo to a double date after discovering their attempts to spy on them.
• Angelic Abomination: The Exorcists, certainly, with their normally blank, robot-like faces that can morph into full-on slasher smiles.
• Anger Born of Worry: Blitzo’s Rage Breaking Point in chapter 28 stems at least partially from this: After Stolas ”shoots” himself in the head with an angelic weapon that lacks the magic power needed to actually hurt him in order to demonstrate its inefficiency, Blitzo almost turns catatonic and teary from horror at the sight, and then he completely blows his lid and rants at Stolas while punching him before breaking down into uncontrollable sobs:
  Blitzo: YOU! You don’t do that! Don’t fucking do that!
  Stolas: *horrified* Blitzy, please calm down-
  Blitzo: Are you trying to kill me?! Are you?! Why?! Why did you do that?! Why would you do that?! I HATE YOU! I fucking HATE you! Shit for brains! Stupid fucking bird! Asshole! Idiot! Jerk! IhateyouIhateyouIhateyoustupidfuckIhateyouIhateyou-
• Armor-Piercing Question:
  • After Moxxie refuses Striker’s advances in chapter 19 on the basis that he’s Happily Married, (That, and Striker had just tried to force himself on him) a very pissed-off Striker lays into him for his morals, culminating in Striker yelling: "What’s wrong with you?!" The question causes Moxxie to seize up, his mind getting filled with the many, many traumatic memories he associates with that phrase, before entering a highly uncharacteristic level of Tranquil Fury.
  • Moxxie dishes out one to Blitzo in chapter 24 as part of his furious "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
    Moxxie: I expect all of fucking Hell to shit on me! It’s a given. A painful, predictable given! But when I came to work for you, you said that you wanted to prove that us imps are capable of doing the same things anyone else can! And that we could all be equals here. And I believed that! I trusted you! I stayed for that! Were you lying to me then?!
• Ascended Extra: Downplayed, but Mrs. Mayberry from Murder Family plays a bigger role here. Not only is she established to become I.M.P’s first ”regular customer”, she also lets Moxxie and Striker hide out in her temporary safe zone apartment for 3 hours during Extermination Day (It’s mentioned that she would’ve been willing to let them stay for all of it, but she was worried that the landlord would find out) and even lends Moxxie her phone (Since Striker stole his) so that he can stay in touch with Millie in the meantime.
• Asleep for Days: After surviving Extermination Day and having his blessed bullet wound cursed by Stolas, Moxxie blacks out and sleeps for almost two days straight.
• Attempted Homewrecker: The fact that Moxxie is already Happily Married to Millie does precisely nothing to dissuade Striker from trying to claim I.M.P's gunslinger for himself. He at first attempts to ruin their marriage by trying to cause cracks in their relationship when he comes by the I.M.P offices in chapter 22, and he does this by not only taunting Millie with his lack of personal space in regards to Moxxie and Moxxie having his number (Something he added to Moxxie's phone after he stole it, mind you), but also pointing out Millie's inaction in regards to speaking up for her hubby when her friends and family badmouth him and treat him like garbage. Ultimately, though, his actions actually have the opposite effect once Moxxie hits his Rage Breaking Point, which leads to him and Millie having a heart-to-heart which improves their relationship... After which Striker goes full Yandere and decides to forego manipulating them in favor of just straight-up kidnapping Moxxie in chapter 30.
• Attempted Rape: Chapter 19 sees Moxxie being lured to Striker’s motel room with the promise of finally getting his phone back… only for Striker to corner him and try to seduce him. Moxxie, while feeling some attraction to the mercenary, tries to refuse his advances once he snaps out of his Deer in the Headlights state since he’s devoted to Millie and won’t cheat on her. Striker, however, won’t take "No" for an answer and starts forcing himself on the smaller imp even more with forceful kisses, groping and attempts to undress him, all the while trying to convince him that he ”wants it” even as Moxxie repeatedly begs him to stop. He does eventually manage to get Striker to back off by biting him in the neck hard enough to draw blood (Though the almost feral sight of a roughed-up Moxxie with blood around his mouth only turns Striker on even more) and then aiming a gun at him after he’s escaped his grasp, but even then, Striker still tries to convince him that him reacting to some of the treatment with arousal meant that he actually wants to do it and is just pretending that this isn’t the case.
• Barrier-Busting Blow: Used for a Wham Shot. An Exorcist hovers outside of a protected area, tapping at the protective barrier all the while. Eventually, it slowly stops tapping and instead uses its spear to break the barrier, putting everyone in the bar in mortal danger, much to everyone’s absolute horror as it was believed that the barriers made them safe.
• Berserk Button: Moxxie has grown to despise being underestimated just for being small and physically weak. When Striker tells him in chapter 3 that he’s kidnapping him specifically because he’d be ”the easiest one to handle” of the I.M.P workers, the weapons expert stops being scared and almost flies into a rage (Which Striker mistakes as him trembling in fear), and this taunting motivates him to pull some quick thinking in order to escape.
  • Insinuating that something is wrong with him for being a demon with a moral compass is revealed to be a combined Berserk/Trauma Button so big that he’ll forego anger entirely and jump straight to sheer, ice-cold hatred.
• Big Damn Heroes: In chapter 3, just as Striker is about to grab a momentarily distracted Moxxie and abduct him, Loona arrives at the last second to punch the mercenary away.
• Big Damn Reunion: Moxxie and Millie finally reuniting after Moxxie’s harrowing experience during Extermination Day definitely counts: Millie announces her arrival by screaming his name and barrelling towards him on all fours, sending anybody standing in her way flying, and she throws herself into his arms so hard that both of them spin around several times and almost fall over.
• Big Sister Instinct: This trope becomes age-Inverted with Loona in regards to Moxxie after the two’s heart-to-heart; During their hearing with Stolas, she makes more of an earnest effort to keep Striker away from him. (Though in her usual Tsundere-like fashion, of course) She tries to constantly put herself between the two imps and gets genuinely irritated that Striker keeps managing to find ways around her and invade Moxxie’s personal space anyway.
• Bizarre Alien Biology: Imps turn out to have a lot of sulphur in their bodies, and the concentration of it is the highest in their horns. In the slaughter house, Moxxie uses this knowledge to free Striker from his shackles by smashing off a piece of his own horn, grinding it into a powder, sprinkling it over the chain and pouring water on it to create sulphuric acid and corrode the chain. (Which is also why imps are taught to avoid bathing until they can find a source of hellfire if they break a horn, despite the sulphur building up and making them smell)
• Body Horror: Being struck by a blessing Combination Attack can make a denizen of Hell literally melt into a puddle.
  • The state of a body that’s been hit full-blast with an angelic weapon is also pretty horrifying, leaving nothing but a pile of ashes and dust alongside some gibs.
• Book Ends: The first act of the fic both starts and ends with Striker attempting to kidnap Moxxie. The differences are his motivations (The first time, he wants to hold Moxxie hostage to get his rifle back, and the second time, it’s because he’s gone full-blown Yandere and wants to make Moxxie his and his alone) and that the latter attempt succeeds.
• Breaking the Bonds: A variation; While trapped in the slaughter house, Moxxie hatches a plan for both him and Striker to escape, but in order to pull it off, he asks Striker to break his chain first. (Which is thinner than the other captives’, likely due to Moxxie’s small stature) Striker refuses at first, but after some needling (And taunting) by Moxxie, who points out that he really has nothing to lose by doing it, he obliges and breaks the chain easily.
• Brick Joke: While talking to Millie over the phone in chapter 8, Moxxie promises her that he’ll survive Extermination Day and that they’ll soon be sitting on the couch at her parents’ farm and watch TV, and he’ll finally tell Lin that the soap opera she loves to watch sucks. Eight chapters later, he does just that, to Sallie May’s great amusement.
• Butt-Monkey: This fic deconstructs Moxxie’s status as one; Since he’s constantly treated so poorly by almost everyone around him, the poor guy is left with basically no self-esteem and a burning hatred for being underestimated and looked down upon. It reaches its logical conclusion in chapter 24, where Blitzo and Loona’s escalated condescending bullying in combination with his own stress over several weeks of feeling scared and weak finally sends him over the edge and causes him to lose his shit on them:
  Moxxie: Did you just hire me to be this big loser that you can shit on freely every time you’re bored and she - *points to Loona* - is being a fucking ungrateful and entitled shitty brat?! […] We’re supposed to be co-workers! *voice cracks as he tears up* Yet you never treat me as such! *angry again* I’m sick and tired of you constantly undermining every single fucking thing I do! You constantly insult and make fun of me! And worst of all, you can’t stop treating me like shit in front of others, too! Why did you do that today too, huh?! It’s humiliating! You embarrass me! Like I’m a big, pathetic fat fucking joke to you! What part of this is funny?! It’s not! It’s fucking not! I’m not in on it! And I’m not a damn toy! I’m not your cute little accessory and I’m not your fucking pet! […] *resigned* I don’t even know why I even try with this god-awful, shitty company anymore. When you clearly don’t want anything to do with me.
• Call-Back:
  • In chapter 2, Blitzo and Loona show up uninvited at Moxxie and Millie’s apartment and ask Moxxie to make pancakes for breakfast. (To which Moxxie grumbles that his house isn’t a restaurant… But he obliges nonetheless, if only because of Millie) This gets called back to twice; The first time is when Loona grumbles that Moxxie owes her a dozen pancakes after she saves him from getting kidnapped by Striker, and the second time is during the group’s last phone call during the Extermination, when she tells Moxxie that he promised he’d make her more pancakes as a way to get him to promise to make it back in one piece.
  • Alastor's interview with Moxxie and Striker during the Extermination is brought up in chapter 30 when Striker mentions having listened to it to see if it's connected to the supposed danger the two are in due to their actions during the event. However, it's revealed that their interview was cut out, which means that they're at least not in hot water with any of the Overlords, to Moxxie's relief.
  • A rather disturbing one also occurs in chapter 30: Striker mentions in an earlier chapter that he has ”better means” of poisoning Moxxie if he wanted to do so… A line he repeats after he corners Moxxie at the I.M.P offices and paralyzes him with a nerve poison that he laced his gold tooth with before biting him.
• Cannot Spit It Out:
  • Loona is in full Tsundere mode, as usual. She simply can’t state outright that she's worried sick about Moxxie while he’s trapped in the Pride Ring and feels guilty about his kidnapping; She lashes out instead and claims it's his own fault that it happened. (Blitzo isn't fooled, though, and can tell that she's just scared and sad.) She also can't just tell Moxxie that she wants him to survive the Extermination, choosing to instead yell at him over the phone that he promised he'd make her more pancakes.
  • Her and Blitzo's inability to be open and honest with their feelings is also deconstructed. Both she and Blitzo figure that Striker is up to no good with his offer of working together with him, both of them having noticed Striker’s growing obsession with Moxxie. But instead of openly trying to support their gunslinger, they double down on their bullying of him. This leads to the poor man feeling even more alienated from his colleagues, which Striker notices and plans to use it to further isolate and manipulate Moxxie, and it culminates in him finally reaching his Rage Breaking Point and verbally eviscerating them over it.
• Catapult Nightmare:
  • Chapter 2 sees Moxxie catapulting awake after his nightmare about almost being killed by Striker.
  • A variation in chapter 15: After having yet another Past Experience Nightmare, but about the Exorcists this time, Moxxie snaps awake. He doesn’t gasp or launch himself into a sitting position, though; Rather, he becomes stiff as a board instead.
• Cheerful Child: Annie, Millie’s six-year old niece. She’s introduced making small talk with Moxxie, giddily talking about what she’d do if he turned out to be a zombie and praising him for getting to the semi-finals in the Pain Games. Even as her father arrives and carries her home while glaring daggers at Moxxie, the little imp child merely waves goodbye to the latter and cheerfully calls him ”Uncle Moxxie.”
• *Click* Hello: A variation in that the ”Hello” comes first; In chapter 3, Striker makes his presence at the bar known by first sitting down next to Moxxie and addressing him, which makes Moxxie look at him and realize that he’s having a gun pointed at him.
• Cliffhanger:
  • Chapter 5 ends on the reveal that Moxxie and Striker have been taken to a slaughter house during Exermination Day.
  • Chapter 10 ends on a Wham Shot, as an Exorcist destroys the magical barrier that's supposed to keep everyone at the bar safe, to everyone's horror.
  • Chapter 18 ends with Striker confronting Moxxie at a bus stop and beckoning him to come with him to a motel in order to show him "something".
  • Chapter 24 ends with Millie visiting Striker in his motel room with unknown intentions, revealed in the following chapter to have to do with her knowing about his growing obsession with her husband and how he tried to force himself on him.
  • Chapter 29 ends with Striker showing up at the I.M.P offices after he's left them alone for four months, signifying that this is the starting point for things to go to Hell in a handbasket for them once again as foreshadowed at the end of the previous chapter.
  • Chapter 30, and thus the fic’s Act 1, ends on a bone-chilling one: Moxxie, having been caught alone at the I.M.P offices by Striker, is suddenly caught off-guard by Striker attacking him while he’s answering the phone as the latter has finally gone full Yandere, knocking Moxxie unconscious with a nerve poison and kidnapping him again, setting the stage for Act 2.
• Cluster F-Bomb: Upon finding out that Moxxie is trapped in the Pride Ring with Striker, Blitzo explodes into a furious, profanity-filled and vulgar rant. (Not that we get to hear more than a ”THAT SON OF A-”) It goes on for several minutes, and he apparently never stops to catch his breath.

  Striker: Does he wanna kill me or fuck me? I can’t tell.
• Comically Missing the Point: In chapter 27, upon Striker revealing to Stolas that he’d been hired to kill him during the Harvest Moon Festival and that Blitzo and co. saved him, Stolas reacts with intense infatuation and starts flirting with Blitzo even more intensely, apparently caring more about the fact that Blitzo was trying to keep him safe than the fact that somebody wants him dead in the first place. Though it could possibly be justified as, being a member of Hell’s aristocracy, he’s had to deal with his fair share of assassination attempts in his life, and he does take the situation more seriously when Blitzo points out just how bad things could’ve gotten.
• Continuity Cameo: Husk, Alastor and Cherri all appear briefly, with Husk and Cherri getting background mentions and Alastor interviewing Moxxie and Striker about why they’re in the Pride Ring during Extermination Day. (And trying to get them to make a Deal with the Devil, though both imps are smart enough to decline)
• Contrived Coincidence: Discussed. During I.M.P and Striker’s hearing with Stolas in chapter 28, Moxxie mentions how awfully convenient it is for Striker that Sulfus, who’d been hired by Stella alongside Striker to kill Stolas and then backstabbed his fellow mercenary, just so happened to be found dead later without a single trace of the angelic rifle he stole from Striker at the scene of the crime… Or anything else that would connect him to Striker, for that matter. His tone of voice and side-eyeing of Striker as he says it makes it clear that he suspects that the snake imp has something to do with Sulfus’s death… And while Striker dismisses it as a coincidence, as an earlier chapter showed, Moxxie is absolutely correct in his suspicions.
• Cooldown Hug: In chapter 28, I.M.P and Stolas gather around Blitzo and envelop him in a hug to calm him down after he loses it on Stolas over the latter's Reckless Gun Usage in order to show that Striker’s modified angelic weapons wouldn’t’ve hurt him.
• Crazy-Prepared:
  • Moxxie turns out to keep some cash hidden in the lining of one of his pant legs in the case of somebody stealing his wallet. This comes in handy when he and Striker need to get into a safe zone area when they’re trapped in the Pride Ring during the Extermination.
  • Sometimes, being the target of repeated assassinations has its advantages, as Stolas demonstrates in chapter 28; He reveals that Striker’s heavenly weaponry has been modified to the point that they can’t be considered pure holy magic anymore - A process which is needed for somebody like Striker to even touch the weapons in the first place. This means that a magic user with a certain amount of power can nullify the effects of these ”impure” holy weapons by casting the appropriate demonic counterspells on themselves… Something Stolas did to himself and Octavia long ago due to all of the attempts on his life he’s had to put up with.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: It’s mentioned that a demon that’s been hit with an angelic bullet will be affected by the blessing as long as the bullet remains in their body. If the blessing spreads, the demon will eventually die by virtue of being cooked from the inside out. Because of this, it’s actually important to get the bullet out if a demon has been shot by an angelic weapon.
• Deadly Euphemism: This fic introduces the term "missing imp." Since imps regularly go missing without anybody caring about it, the term has two meanings; One is the literal one, and one is an idiom called "make you a missing imp"... which means: "I'll kill you" or "you’re going to die".
• Death Glare:
  • I.M.P shoots Striker several stink-eyes basically every moment they’re in his presence, not even trying to hide their contempt for him. Millie’s are particularly vicious due to Striker’s Villainous Crush on her husband and refusal to leave him alone; If looks could kill, Millie would’ve rendered Striker a corpse a hundred times over during the course of the story.
  • During their meeting with Stolas in chapters 27 and 28, Striker continuously shoots evil eyes Stolas’s way due to his hatred of Hell’s aristocracy. Stolas, for his part, remains oblivious to them due to being more focused on flirting with Blitzo at first and then on who ordered the hit on his head.
  • In chapter 28, when Striker finds out that all of his plans were All for Nothing due to his modified weapons turning out to have no effect on Stolas thanks to his precautions leaving him invulnerable to anything other than pure holy magic, the cowboy becomes so full of rage that he almost goes into a full-blown Villainous Breakdown and contemplates attacking Stolas to find some other way of killing him… Only to snap out of it when Moxxie, having noticed his Killing Intent, shoots him the mother of all death glares. Unfortunately for Moxxie, while this does make Striker calm down and realize that it’s not the time to lose himself in anger and blow his cover, having Moxxie’s intense focus on him and only him regardless of the reason only turns him on and makes his Villainous Crush grow even more.
• Deer in the Headlights: Moxxie ends up freezing in fear when he finds himself facing an Exorcist right outside the slaughter house he just escaped from. He would've been killed had Striker not arrived and pulled him out of the way. He also blue-screens hard out of sheer confusion in chapter 19 when Striker, after cornering him at a motel, makes bedroom eyes at him, forcefully kisses him and starts feeling him up and undressing him. At one point, he almost finds himself giving in to the advances, mentally noting that Striker is hunky and handsome and good at kissing... but he snaps out of his aroused stupor once he remembers his marriage to Millie, which he doesn’t want to endanger for anything in the world.
• Determinator: Once Moxxie sets his mind on something, he’ll stop at nothing to see it through regardless of how outclassed or outnumbered he is. He becomes dead-set on surviving Extermination Day in order to reunite with Millie, and at one point, he comes face-to-face with an Exorcist (who previously broke a protective barrier to get in); Instead of succumbing to fear or freezing, he gets angry and dodges the angel’s attack, leaping onto its back to escape.
  • This is something that Striker muses on while observing the smaller imp as he sleeps in chapter 8. For as much danger as Moxxie was in both during the Harvest Moon Festival and at the bar in chapter 3, and considering just how outclassed he often ends up being when it comes to physical strength and size, he’s never once begged for his life or let the ”fire” within him go out.^note While imps in general give off a ”brimstone scent”, Moxxie’s is apparently weaker than others unless he’s determined to achieve a goal or really angry Heck, even when he’s tortured and raped in Striker’s erotic fantasy in chapter 1, the fantasy ends with him giving the mercenary a defiant Grin of Audacity.
• Didn't See That Coming:
  • When I.M.P meet up with Stolas in chapter 27, all of them are caught off-guard by Striker actually revealing to Stolas’s face that he’d been hired to assassinate him during the Harvest Moon Festival. What leaves I.M.P even more gobsmacked is Stolas’s infatuated reaction to Striker revealing the lengths that Blitzo and the others went to in order to keep him safe.
  • For his part, Striker was banking on the meeting with Stolas being held in secret, which would let him set up a Frame-Up and kill more nobles with I.M.P as his Unwitting Pawns. So when Moxxie reveals in a casual (if repeated) comment that they decided to make the meeting official, thus meaning that all of them are listed as requesting an audience with the Prince (Not by name, granted, but it wouldn’t be difficult to find out their identities), Striker is absolutely flabbergasted and furious that he's being forced to reveal the truth instead and making all of his plans go down the drain.
  • After their meeting with Stolas is finished and I.M.P (minus Blitzo, who is staying with Stolas due to the Prince wishing to make up for his Innocently Insensitive behavior), Striker mockingly thanks Millie and Loona, who protectively step in front of Moxxie in response, for upholding their end of the deal and mock-compliments Moxxie for being ”not half the coward [Striker] expected [Moxxie] to be.” All three of them get riled up at the insults, as he expects… but what he doesn’t expect is for Moxxie to also step forward, offer a genuine handshake and friendly smile (Though still with a sharpness in his eyes) and thank Striker in return for upholding his end of the deal.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Moxxie and Striker manage to actually kill an Exorcist by letting a building collapse on top of it.
• Disowned Sibling: Chapter 29 mentions that Andrealphus, in contrast to canon, actually publicly disowned Stella as his sister due to the humiliation of her husband supposedly divorcing her in favor of an imp… Something that she wasn’t present for, but was made aware of when he sent documents of the event to her afterwards. And it’s outright stated that he only did it because he thought the association would hurt his chances to climb in the ranks amongst the Goetian court.
• Dodge the Bullet: Blitzo’s first appearance in the story has him getting shot at by an on-edge Moxxie after once again entering the couple’s apartment without permission. He narrowly dodges the bullet and compliments his employee on his quick draw and good aim.
  Blitzo: Damn, Moxxie, way to go! Nice reflexes! Nothing less from my Employee Of The Month! Woo!
• Don't You Dare Pity Me!: This is how Moxxie feels regarding his acquaintances ”coddling” him after he survives the Extermination; When Striker reveals in chapter 18 that he paid back the money he owed Moxxie for letting both of them into a safe zone to Blitzo (Since Moxxie was at home resting), Moxxie connects the dots as his latest salary included that exact amount as a ”bonus” without Blitzo explaining what that entailed, much to his irritation as this feeds into his perception of being looked down upon.
  • The trope is then deconstructed. This attitude prevents Moxxie from opening up and telling the rest of I.M.P (Except for Millie) about Striker’s Attempted Rape of him, despite the proceedings clearly having traumatized him and leaving him scared of Striker once more; Instead, he keeps quiet about it because he’s afraid that if they find out, they’ll believe that he can’t handle himself, especially considering the sticky situations he’s already found himself in previously. (Blitzo and Loona being even bigger jerks to him than usual also doesn’t help)
• Double Meaning: In chapter 22, while discussing a potential team-up to discover which royal has access to angelic weaponry, Striker hands over one of his own angelic guns to I.M.P as a showing of ”good faith”. However, he makes it clear that he has every intention of getting it back once the job is over by telling Moxxie that he ”never gives up on what is [his]”. On the surface, he’s merely talking about the gun, but the other meaning is that he already considers Moxxie his ”property” and intends to fully claim him for himself, despite Moxxie rejecting him previously.
• Double Take:
  • Moxxie ends up doing one when Striker casually announces that he’s off to get laid while staying at a safe zone.
  • In chapter 27, Moxxie has a PTSD episode upon seeing the shadow of a winged creature in Stolas’s mansion, believing it to be an Exorcist. When he snaps out of it once he realizes that it's just one of Stolas's servants and notices that Striker also had a reaction, he relaxes a little bit upon noticing him… before catching himself and remembering that, no, he’s not in the middle of the Extermination anymore, the Enemy Mine situation with Striker is completely different and he doesn’t want to be anywhere near the other imp since he’s a sadistic, gaslighting creep who won't leave him alone.
    Moxxie: *thinking* Oh, he’s here. *realizes that he just thought that, pinches the bridge of his nose and sighs* Shit, he’s here.
• Dude, She's Like in a Coma: While hiding out in an abandoned building, Striker (who is keeping watch for Exorcists) observes the sleeping Moxxie, muses on his Determinator qualities and ”delicate”, ”breakable” features and finds himself so overcome with lust that he almost kisses him. He’s interrupted by Cherri setting off a bunch of bombs nearby, though.
  What do you taste like? Sweet? Spicy? Damn it, I want to… need to…
• Enemy Mine:
  • Moxxie and Striker are forced to team up in order to survive Extermination Day. Moxxie, naturally, isn’t too thrilled about the arrangement and refuses at first, especially since Striker tried to invoke a rather one-sided deal from their truce - He only agrees to it in the end because he realizes that it’s safer for them both, but he forces the mercenary to promise that he’ll give up on assassinating Stolas afterwards. (With the knowledge that Striker might go back on his word, but Moxxie bluntly makes it known that those are his terms, take it or leave it)
    Striker: If you run away from me again, I’ll throw you at the first fucking Exorcist I see.
    Moxxie: We’re not exactly off to a great start if you’re gonna keep it up with the threats.
  • In chapter 21, Striker offers a team-up with I.M.P in order to track down a supplier of angelic weapons in the wake of Sulfus’s death. Though in this case, since Striker is the one who did the deed, it’s merely a front in order to get closer to Moxxie, further manipulate him and claim him for himself.
• Entitled to Have You: It’s very strongly implied that Striker feels this way in regards to Moxxie as a result of his Villainous Crush having evolved to a full-blown case of Yandere. During the first act of the fic, it’s made clear several times that his attitude in regards to the latter develops into this when he starts to refer to Moxxie as ”his”, even using an angelic gun as a pretense to actually talk about Moxxie in this way in chapter 22. It reaches its logical conclusion in chapter 30, when he finally loses any semblance of restraint and straight-up kidnaps Moxxie with the intent of finally claiming his ”property” while trying to claim that it’s ”for [Moxxie’s] own good.”
• Erotic Eating: After the blessed bullet is removed from Moxxie’s arm, Striker offers him a Hellraiser pill to curse the wound, thus somewhat counteracting the blessing and allowing the wound to heal faster. Moxxie is aware of the highly addictive nature of the drug (Not to mention that it’s illegal… in Hell) and is, of course, suspicious about taking it… To which Striker responds by sensually grabbing the pill from Moxxie’s hand with his teeth, even using his tongue to do so, all in order to demonstrate how ”harmless” it is. Moxxie is left rather flustered and confused by the display, though it’s a bit unclear whether Striker did it to mess with him or due to his growing Villainous Crush on him… or both.
• Et Tu, Brute?: A downplayed example in that Moxxie doesn’t fully trust Striker for all of his possessive, manipulative behavior, but chapter 30 reveals that he still wanted to be able to trust him on some level after them having survived the Extermination together, which is why he subconsciously lowers his guard somewhat when around him and especially when Striker lets him see his another one of his carmine-crafted guns. So, when Striker suddenly attacks him and poisons him with the intent to abduct him while he’s alone at the I.M.P offices, he can’t help but feel hurt and betrayed:
  Despite all of the shit [Striker had] pulled, Moxxie in his gut had come to trust the outlaw. Even if it was illogical. It may have started just based on instincts and self-preservation, having to rely on him with his life during the Extermination, but afterwards he still thought that they’d come to an understanding.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Make no mistake, Striker is a sadistic, evil bastard, but he does appear to have at least a semblance of a sense of honor. At one point, Moxxie arranges for both of them to get temporary access to a safe zone during the Extermination; After they survive the ordeal, Striker actually comes by the I.M.P offices a few days later to pay them back the money he owes.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Striker, for all of his attempts at manipulating not just Moxxie, but also the rest of I.M.P, has some blind spots simply because decent behavior seems to be a completely foreign subject to him, leading to him getting caught off-guard a couple of times:
  • Upon finding out the outrageous hourly prices for access to a safe zone, Moxxie reveals that he has some hidden cash on him since Sulfus stole his wallet. Striker immediately comes to the conclusion that Moxxie is planning on spending it all on himself and starts planning on how to get back at him, so he’s completely floored when Moxxie instead pays for both of them to get access for a shorter amount of time. Sure, Moxxie was just keeping his word as per their agreement, so it wasn’t just out of the goodness of his heart. But considering just how surprised Striker is that the other imp wouldn’t backstab him like that, it suggests that Striker himself would’ve done it in a heartbeat had the roles been reversed and the circumstances different.
  • He also can’t fathom why a literal demon would have a moral compass, dismissing Moxxie not wanting to cheat on his wife as nothing but a bad excuse. This also means that he believes that Moxxie and Millie’s relationship will be easy to destroy after witnessing the tension at I.M.P earlier, Blitzo and Loona's bullying of Moxxie as well as Millie not vocally standing up for her husband. Because it’s not like a Happily Married couple would be able to actually be open with and talk to each other or anything. He's therefore caught off-guard at catching Moxxie's scent on Millie when she shows up to confront him on his unwanted advances towards Moxxie: Not only is he surprised that Moxxie told Millie about the Attempted Rape, but he'd expected to have successfully created cracks in their relationship and is perplexed to find out that this is not what happened.
  • He expects I.M.P to spend days deciding whether they should team up with him to track down a supplier of angelic weaponry, therefore giving him more time to work on his plans to claim Moxxie for himself and further straining the I.M.P workers' relationships and making it even easier to manipulate them. So when Millie reveals that I.M.P will accept his deal less than 24 hours after he made his proposal, he ends up rather stunned. He also didn't see coming that Moxxie and Blitzo joined her on the trip to the motel, waiting outside while she went in to confront him. All he knows is that something changed, and not in his favor; The idea that people in strife with each other would talk and reconcile is evidently not a possibility that crosses his mind.
• Evil Gloating: When he believes that he has Moxxie cornered and subdued at the bar in chapter 3, Striker smugly reveals that he picked the weapons expert specifically as a hostage because he’d be ”the easiest one to handle” of the hires at I.M.P in order to get his rifle back. It backfires: Instead of scaring Moxxie into submission as intended, the only thing that happens is that he stops feeling intimidated and gets pissed off instead, which leads to him pulling an Indy Ploy in order to get away.
• Evil Is Petty: After ambushing Moxxie at the hotel in Wrath and taking the angelic rifle back, Sulfus decides to knock out Striker, steal the rifle and take him to a slaughter house during the Extermination to ”get on top of the game” and rid himself of a rival… and he lugs Moxxie along, too, just because he’s pissed that the latter shot him in the arm in self-defense.
• Evil Plan: Striker’s plans are revealed in chapter 27 to not just involve isolating and claiming Moxxie for himself, but also to kill off even more demon royals. In order to achieve this, he plans to first use Sulfus’s interactions with Stella, the latter having been the one to hire him to take Striker to the slaughter house for failing to kill Stolas the first time, and edit the messages to make it look like her brother Andrealphus was the one who hired Striker for the job. As this would most likely result in Andre’s exile, Striker then plans to appear once more to Stella, using her desperation to his advantage and offering her his services to get revenge for her brother, only to then rat her out to Paimon and get hired by him to kill both Stella and Andrealphus for orchestrating his son’s murder. And with both of them dead, he finally plans to infiltrate Stolas’s palace by disguising himself as a servant and kill him, too. In the end, he’d be left with a crapton of money, a legendary assassin status and Moxxie as his ”property”.
  • Unfortunately for the snake-like cowboy, his plans hinge on the meeting not following proper protocol, so I.M.P ruin that for him by making the meeting a public hearing, meaning that it would be easy for anybody to find out who’s had an audience with the Prince even if no names are listed, and this would alert Stella to Striker not only being alive, but also trying to frame her brother; Thus, all of Striker’s lies would unravel once his words fell under the scrutiny of the royals. Furthermore, Stolas reveals in chapter 28 that Striker's weapons wouldn't've affected him anyway; Since they're modified weapons, they're not considered purely holy anymore, which means that the effect can be nullified with demonic counterspells, something Stolas cast on himself and his daughter long ago. So, even if I.M.P hadn't pulled a fast one on him, Striker's assassination attempts would've been unsuccessful anyway. Striker is not happy to find this out. At all.
• Fantastic Drug: Hellraiser is a drug that appears to be a ”curse” in pill form. It speeds up a demon’s Healing Factor and counteracts blessings to a certain degree. It’s also highly addictive if used repeatedly and is, in fact, illegal in Hell.
• Fantastic Racism: It’s already canon that Hell’s lower castes get a pretty bum deal in the Hazbinverse, and this fic is no exception:
  • It’s established that imps regularly go missing and never return, and hardly anybody cares due to their place in the pecking order; It’s to the point where threatening to make someone ”a missing imp” is used as a euphemism for killing someone. A flashback also mentions an old show on Vox’s TV channel showing that sulphuric acid could be produced by taking an imp’s sulphur-rich horn and submerging it in water - Afterwards, several imps vanished without a trace, and Moxxie had to shoot a sinner who tried to nab Millie for this purpose. There’s also Stolas’s indifference to Moxxie’s plight when Blitzo calls him for help, as he tells Blitzo that he can ”just” get a new weapons expert if Moxxie dies. This actually causes some tension between him and Blitzo, as the latter wonders if the Prince would use similar reasoning if Blitzo was to die.
    • Furthermore, it’s mentioned in chapter 29 that, while Stolas’s divorce came and went with little interest from the public at large, his reputation still took a hit from it: While unfaithfulness is nothing new under the pentagram in Hell, he was made into a laughing stock amongst his fellow royals and received no small amount of contempt for supposedly ”ruining” his marriage for the sake of having an affair with an imp. Blitzo seemingly doesn’t care about getting, in essence, compared to a dog, but Moxxie recognizes from the increased amount of self-deprecating jokes that it gets to Blitzo more than he likes to let on, and the aftermath of the OZZIE’S couple’s night only serves to make poor Stolas lose even more respect. Though it’s nothing compared to the damage that’s done to Stella’s reputation, as she’s a lesser royal in comparison.
  • Loona is shown to have been treated like crap during her long time at the orphanage - She was constantly passed around from foster home to foster home, apparently even being used for sexual services, and berated as useless by everyone to the point where she decided to find Safety in Indifference and ultimately turn into the surly Jerkass she is today. It’s all but stated that this is due to her being a hellhound, as when Blitzo arrives to look for a hellhound to hire for his company, the orphanage owners offer younger males to him as ”guard dogs” because they’re ”easier to handle” before he officially adopts her.
• A Father to His Men: Blitzo does everything he can to help Moxxie (And Striker by proxy, not that he’s happy about it) stay at least somewhat safe while trapped in the Pride Ring during the Extermination. He first tries to open a portal to get his employee to safety, and when that turns out to be impossible, he tries to pull as many strings as he can to find safe spaces to use.
• Failed a Spot Check: After Loona saves Moxxie from getting kidnapped the first time, he’s hauled back to the I.M.P offices and literally tossed to Blitzo for a mission. Blitzo doesn’t even notice that Moxxie is roughed up and bleeding from his shoulder, even after setting him down and filling him in on the mission they’re going on… until Moxxie admits that the job he was sent to accept fell through, which is when Blitzo finally turns around to scold him.
  Blitzo: What?! For fuck’s sake, Moxxie! C’mon, why-
  *He turns around and sees the disheveled state his employee is in*
  Blitzo: Oh. *tone changes from annoyed to concerned* Woah, woah. Hold up. Are you OK?
• Fire Purifies/Heal It With Fire: Hellfire not only cleanses demons from filth and even lets them do so while still wearing their clothes, it can also accelerate a demon’s Healing Factor and allow, among other things, broken horns to regrow. Some apartments in Hell even have a ”hellfire feature” for this purpose.
• Forced Sleep: This is how Sulfus manages to get the drop on both Striker and Moxxie and take them to the Pride Ring: While Striker is busy cornering and intimidating Moxxie, Sulfus uses a sleeping spell to make both of them pass out.
• Forceful Kiss: Striker plants several on Moxxie while trying to rape him in chapter 19, and he also plants another one on him in chapter 30. In the latter case, it's both to ”claim” him and to make the paralyzing poison that he already inflicted him with when he bit him to act even faster, all to keep Moxxie from resisting getting kidnapped a second time.
• For Your Own Good: Striker claims that this is the reason why he’s kidnapping Moxxie in chapter 30; He says that Moxxie’s wife and colleagues are ”smothering him” and that, by taking him away from Pride to force him to work for/live with Striker instead, he’s ”doing [Moxxie] a favor”. Of course, since Striker’s Villainous Crush has caused him to finally go into full Yandere mode, combined with the Forceful Kiss he plants on Moxxie just after saying this, this is obviously a bunch of hooey, but it’s unclear if he’s aware of this or if he’s just believing his own lies.
• Gaslighting: After the Extermination, Striker starts trying to manipulate Moxxie by trying to get him to doubt how certain events in the past have unfolded, all to ensure that Moxxie becomes easier to string along and claim for himself, of course:
  • The next time he meets Moxxie after the Extermination, Striker claims to Moxxie that he never called him ”pathetic” while attacking him during the Harvest Moon Festival and that Moxxie only remembered that because he heard it when he was on the cusp of passing out.
  • He tries it on Moxxie again in chapter 26 by claiming that the Attempted Rape was a ”misunderstanding” and that everything should be good between them since he ”apologized” for it. He then tries to convince Moxxie that he’s the one who is ”confusing” him by sending ”mixed signals” whether it’s water under the bridge or not, all the while subtly threatening to reveal what happened out loud and once again getting into his personal space. Moxxie, due to his low self-esteem, almost falls for it, but Blitzo comes in between them and starts trying to distract Striker before he has a chance to continue with his manipulations.
• Good Hurts Evil: Blessings act as a poison to demons. If a demon is shot with a blessed bullet without dying and the bullet remains in their body, the blessing will eventually spread through them and kill them anyway, making this a justified case of We Have to Get the Bullet Out!
• Hammerspace: As in canon, Moxxie appears to be able to conceal way more weapons on his person than should be feasible, as shown when Striker disarms him after he and Sulfus ambush him at a hotel in chapter 5. Striker lampshades this to himself in chapter 19 when Moxxie pulls a gun on him seemingly out of nowhere to get him to back off after an Attempted Rape; He notes that he was checking Moxxie’s clothes for weapons while feeling him up and wonders if the tiny assassin is able to just spontaneously summon firearms out of thin air when he needs them.
• Heal It with Booze: After removing the blessed bullet from Moxxie’s arm, Striker nabs a bottle of pure vodka to sterilize the bullet wound. (Justified since that was all they had access to) He ends up spitefully dumping the whole bottle onto the wound when Moxxie makes a taunt about having better ”game” than him due to being Happily Married.
  Striker: Oops. My hand slipped.
  Moxxie: *glares* Of course it did.
• "Hell, Yes!" Moment: Seeing Charlie’s fireworks signal, thus signalling that the Extermination is over, induces this reaction in both Moxxie and the surviving sinners:
  Moxxie: *in disbelief* The signal… from the princess? It’s… It’s over? *overjoyed* YES! IT’S OVER! HAHA! FUCK YOU, HEAVEN! IN YOUR FACE!

  Random sinner: What he said!
• Heroic BSoD: Moxxie enters a bad one after it’s revealed that he’s been taken to a slaughter house on Extermination Day. He paces around in a panic at first until he collapses into a Troubled Fetal Position, bawling his eyes out. He almost crosses the Despair Event Horizon, but thinking about Millie snaps him out of it.
  • He also slips into one in chapter 19 after not only almost getting raped and getting his Trauma Button pushed by Striker, but also the motel receptionist mocking him for it afterwards and telling him that he deserved it out of nothing but petty spite and jealousy over Moxxie getting Striker’s attention. Blitzo and Loona’s escalated bullying in the following chapters doesn’t help his state of mind, either.
• Heroic RRoD: Due to a combination of a lack of food and sleep, an adrenaline crash and all the injuries he’s sustained during Extermination Day, Moxxie eventually collapses. He panics a bit at realizing this, as Striker would probably leave him behind if he’d seem like a burden and thus render him a sitting duck, so he promptly suggests that Striker could carry him on his back which would let him still act as a guide and stay out of the way. The entire ordeal leaves him so exhausted that, once he’s finally safely reunited with the rest of I.M.P, he ends up Asleep for Days.
• Heroic Self-Deprecation: Poor Moxxie evidently has no self-esteem whatsoever due to the poor treatment he constantly gets from the people around him, his small size and his lack of physical strength. He mentally berates himself repeatedly over his own weaknesses, perceived or otherwise, and is quick to blame himself for situations spiralling out of control. During his first Heroic BSoD, he starts thinking in terms of nobody missing him or even remembering him if he was to die, and even his internal monologue when Striker asks him why he likes guns so much is rife with this:
  Because [firearms] have rules I can follow that won’t change unexpectedly. Because holding them makes me feel safe. Because they allow someone like me to survive in Hell. To keep up with Millie. Because they give me a fighting chance. Because I’m weak.

Tropes I to P

• Idiot Ball:
  • Despite Striker having repeatedly proven himself to be a manipulative sadist, Moxxie still lets his guard down around him after the Extermination due to their Enemy Mine situation being fresh in his mind. This allows Striker to easily lure the smaller imp with him to his motel room under the pretense of returning his phone and offering I.M.P his assistance in tracking down ”a culprit” with another angelic weapon… when the real reason is that he wants to have his way with him. Moxxie mentally kicks himself for how foolish he was to follow Striker so readily when the reality of the situation sinks in.
  • Despite Moxxie’s suspicions in regards to Striker’s motivations when he shows up for "a job" in chapter 30 (A job that supposedly concerns their actions during the Extermination... With details that Striker refuses to elaborate on), he yet again drops his guard around him, especially after Striker lets him look at one of his other carmine-crafted pistols while the two are talking. This is despite the snake’s unrelenting creepy and possessive behavior towards him in the past, not to mention Moxxie having been caught alone with him before under the pretense of a ”job”, which almost ended with him getting raped. It turns out that their survival stint during the Extermination left such a profound impact on Moxxie that, despite everything, he still trusted Striker on some level... Which finally costs him big-time when Striker, whose Villainous Crush on him has boiled over, drops all pretenses of being there for business while the smaller imp is distracted and moves in to knock him out and successfully kidnaps him again.
• I Lied:
  • After Moxxie is Lured into a Trap and cornered by Striker and Sulfus at a hotel in Wrath in chapter 5, he points out that Striker said that he was going to call him when the rifle-phone exchange was going to take place. Striker justifies the trap by saying that Moxxie broke the deal first by bringing the rest of I.M.P along, but considering that he’d brought in an accomplice already, it’s made pretty clear that he never actually had any intention of keeping his word.
  • During the Exermination, Moxxie’s condition to agree to an Enemy Mine situation with Striker is for the latter to give up on assassinating Stolas. Striker brings this up during their audience with the Prince in chapter 27 and says that he’s a man of his word, but his internal monologue regarding his plans make it crystal-clear that he isn’t; He’s just using the opportunity to further infiltrate the royal family and get the chance to off Stolas, Stella and Andrealphus instead of just Stolas.
• Indy Ploy: Moxxie pulls one in chapter 3 in order to escape from Striker as the latter attempts to kidnap him. When they head for the bar’s exit, he uses his tail to swipe a beer glass and dumps the contents on another bar patron, pissing them off and alerting Striker to them. Moxxie then uses Striker being momentarily distracted as an opportunity to throw the empty glass at his face and using that confusion, in combination with more angry bar patrons approaching Striker, to tear himself from the mercenary’s grasp and flee. When that doesn’t keep Striker from coming after him, he uses the environment to know when the mercenary is about to grab him so he can dodge, pulls out a flash grenade to blind him and finally pulls a bluff when he runs out of ammo. Though thanks to another demon momentarily distracting him by yelling at him, he almost gets captured by Striker anyway if not for a last-minute intervention by Loona.
• Innocently Insensitive: Once Stolas finds out about Stella hiring Striker and Sulfus to assassinate him in chapter 28, he decides that he’s had enough of her cruelty, both for his own sake and Octavia’s, and wants to divorce her. When Blitzo nervously asks if the situation is his fault, since Stella wants Stolas dead for his infidelity with an imp, Stolas tries to reassure him that it’s not; For him, ”that part wasn’t as important”. Stolas genuinely means well by saying that, as he doesn’t want Blitzo to blame himself for Stella’s awful behavior; However, the way he phrases it makes Blitzo’s mind go back to how unsympathetic the Prince was to Moxxie’s plight during the Exermination, which just makes him feel easily replaced:
  Of course [Blitzo] wasn’t important. Why would he believe that?
  … [He was] expendable.
  • And then Stolas takes it one step further just a couple of moments later: When he receives Striker’s modified angelic pistol, he explains that, for Hellborn to be able use these types of weapons, they need some adjustments, and Striker’s weapon is impure enough that Stolas’s countermeasures would’ve rendered him immune to the weapon’s devastating effects… Which he promptly demonstrates by aiming the gun at his own head and firing it before anyone has a chance to react. The sight leaves Blitzo so horrified and shaken that he completely loses it on Stolas for doing something so reckless. To Stolas's credit, he realizes just how badly he’s fucked up and genuinely apologizes to Blitzo for it once the latter calms down.
• In Spite of a Nail: Despite the Alternate Continuity nature of the fic, OZZIE'S still happens, though the circumstances are slightly different due to Moxxie’s improved relationship with Blitzo, which leads to him and Millie making it an unofficial couple’s night by inviting Blitzo and Stolas to their table.
• Insult of Endearment: After Moxxie has his heart-to-heart with Loona in chapter 25, where he apologizes for his outburst and hurting her feelings but also makes it clear that he won’t put up with her disrespect anymore, Loona ends up (kind-of) admitting that she’s happy that he’s not leaving I.M.P… while still calling him ”Fatty”. However, the playfulness in her voice and Moxxie almost laughing when he objects to it, thus marking their strengthening bonds after finally clearing the air between each other, makes it clear that the term has changed from a straight-up insult to this trope.
• Interplay of Sex and Violence: Striker’s budding Villainous Crush on Moxxie results in him desiring to both have sex with and torture the smaller imp. Other characters also pick up on this; Loona at one point muses to herself that, when she saved Moxxie from Striker the first time, she noticed that there was a ”hungry” look in the mercenary’s eyes as he tried to grab him, which she found rather unsettling.
• Irony: Chapter 28 reveals that pure angelic weapons normally can’t be wielded by Hellborn demons due to their holiness being able to hurt them by touch alone and thus needs to have some of the angelic magic removed first… Except that it makes the weapons useless against demon royals who’ve taken steps to nullify the ”impure” magic to make themselves only able to be hurt by pure heavenly magic. In other words, the reason that the modified weapons don’t affect Stolas is the very same reason that someone like Striker can even use them in the first place, despite getting them specifically to be able to kill the Prince, meaning that the modifications rendered both the weapons and all of Striker’s efforts completely pointless. Striker is absolutely pissed to find this out, so much so that he almost breaks character in favor of a Villainous Breakdown.
• It's All My Fault:
  • Loona blames herself hard when Moxxie is kidnapped and taken to the Pride Ring during Extermination Day, since Blitzo had assigned her to protect him. She at first lashes out and says it’s his own fault for being small and weak, but her internal thoughts make it clear that she doesn’t mean it; She’s just scared that Blitzo will blame her, too, and discard her as useless like so many of her previous caretakers did. Though Blitzo is quick to reassure his daughter that he doesn’t blame her in the slightest and will never, ever, abandon her, no matter what.
  • Moxxie, in the throes of a major Heroic BSoD, blames himself for the tension rising at I.M.P while discussing a potential team-up with Striker to find the supplier of angelic weapons; He figures that, had he just managed to shoot Striker dead back at Millie’s parents’ farm, none of the events of the fic would’ve happened.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Deconstructed with Blitzo, at least where Moxxie is concerned. He constantly dismisses, belittles and insults Moxxie and makes vulgar jokes about him non-stop, but he honestly does care for him and is terrified of losing him; He reacts with concern when he sees Moxxie being roughed up and bleeding from his shoulder in chapter 4, assigns Loona to guard him in chapter 5 when finding out about Striker trying to blackmail him and tries his hardest to find ways of keeping him somewhat safe during the Extermination. However, since Moxxie gets to see way more of the ”jerk” than the ”heart of gold” from both Blitzo and Loona, he just ends up feeling like his boss either gets off on seeing him be miserable or just puts up with him because of Millie - Either way, he doesn’t feel like a valued employee at all and worries that Blitzo is just like every other shitty boss in Hell, which only contributes even more to Moxxie’s feelings of not belonging.
  Millie: [Blitzo and Loona] do care for ya.
  Moxxie: *laughs bitterly* Do they? ’Cause I’m not so sure. Loona has been nothing but a huge bitch to me. Even worse lately. As if the mere sight of me angers her. And Blitzo, I mean he’s still our boss, but-
  Millie: Moxxie, sweetheart, I know I say this from time to time, but this whole employer/employee thing is probably something only you truly try to keep up so strict at this point.
  Moxxie: *frowns* Why shouldn’t I? It’s still work. If anything, it’s happening again and Blitzo is acting like every damn asshole in Hell! […] I don’t see any damn difference with him now than any other shitty boss we had to deal with. What if he’s just that, Mills?
  Millie: In any other case, I’d agree. But Moxxie, he’s not like that. And he’s our friend. […] I trust that he cares about you. Much more than a simple employee. And I know I’m right because he tried so very hard to help you when you were at the Extermination. He cares so much about you, baby! He’s just… well…
  Moxxie: He’s an idiot.
  Millie: *laughs* Yup. That. Social skills of a twelve-year old, that man.
• Kansas City Shuffle: I.M.P manage to pull a fast one on Striker in chapter 27. Throughout the chapter, Striker is so focused on I.M.P’s more obvious attempts to keep him away from Moxxie, as well as Blitzo’s insincere flattery of the cowboy, that they manage to trap him in a situation where he’s forced to tell the truth regarding who hired him to kill Stolas instead of going through with his original Frame-Up plan: All of Striker’s plans for the meeting and everything that happens afterwards hinge on it being held in secret, so I.M.P throw a wrench into all of them by making the meeting an official affair, something Striker never thought they’d actually do. Suffice to say, Striker is not happy that they managed to trick him.
• Kick the Dog:
  • At one of the safe zones, Striker ends up having sex with a girl who then beckons him to stay with her for some more ”fun”. He seems to play along at first… only to then roughly grab her face, gloat that she ”wasn’t even that good”, throw her to the floor and trash talk her some more, calling her a cunt for good measure and bringing her to tears. Sure, she was trying to get him to ditch Moxxie, but still; She didn’t deserve that.
  • In chapter 19, Moxxie almost gets raped by Striker at a motel. After he manages to escape, his clothes in disarray and his hair a mess, the motel receptionist (Who treated him with contempt from the second she saw him accompanying Striker out of pure jealousy) asks the distraught imp if Striker roughed him up… and smugly tells him that he probably deserved it and that Striker is ”wasting his time” on a ”sissy” like him. Ouch. No wonder the poor guy slips into a Heroic BSoD.
  • After Stolas divorces Stella for attempting to assassinate him, Stella's reputation is ruined (Though in the eyes of the public, it's not because she tried to have Stolas killed, but because he seemingly preferred an imp as his lover over her), and Andrealphus then declares to the public that he no longer has any relation to her and doesn't consider her his sister anymore. Making it an official declaration is bad enough, and doing it just to save his own reputation even more so, but Stella also wasn't present for this and thus didn't know he'd done it until he sent her the official documents of his disownment of her afterwards.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: After Loona’s Big Damn Heroes moment, Striker wisely decides to back off for the time being since even he can’t take a hellhound on in a brawl and he’s out of ammo for his gun. Though he also makes it clear that he’ll be back.
• Laser-Guided Karma:
  • Striker is understandably not happy about Sulfus backstabbing him and taking him to the Pride Ring to die during the yearly Extermination. The unsurprising result is that, after Striker survives the ordeal, he tracks his former partner down and murders him, taking back the angelic rifle he stole while he’s at it.
  • After Moxxie is shot with a blessed bullet, Striker mocks him for being in so much pain from it. He gets to eat his own words later when he’s slashed with a blessed sword, though his reaction to it is still rather understated:
    Striker: You know what? I take it back. Hurts like a bitch!
• Leonine Contract: Discussed and defied. When Moxxie tries to escape from Striker after the two have just managed to evade some Exorcists in chapter 6, Striker tries to convince Moxxie to ”extend their truce” during the remaining Extermination since Moxxie knows the Pride Ring better than Striker does... And essentially phrases his offer as ”If you stick with me and help me, I won’t kill you for getting me into this mess.” Moxxie bluntly lets him know that it’s ”the shittiest sales pitch [he’s] ever heard” because he’s not actually gaining anything; ”I won’t kill you” is not so much a ”deal” as it is a threat, after all, especially from someone as untrustworthy as Striker. He does ultimately agree to cooperate, but only after making Striker promise to stop going after Stolas to make the deal a bit more fair.
  Moxxie: And what exactly is in this for me? It’s either you or the angels that kill me? Great fucking choice. Thank you soooo much for offering. So many options!
• Living Crashpad: Blitzo interrupts Striker little Gaslighting session with Moxxie in chapter 26 by literally grabbing Moxxie and tossing him out of the way… straight into Millie, much to the couple’s discomfort.
• Lured into a Trap: Moxxie, four times:
  • The first time, he’s sent to a bar to wait for a potential client. It turns out that Striker was the one who sent the request, using the fact that Blitzo doesn’t do background checks on clients to his advantage and wording the request in such a way to ensure that Moxxie specifically would be the one to handle it so Striker can kidnap him and hold him hostage in exchange for the angelic rifle that I.M.P took.
  • The second time is when Striker demands Moxxie return the angelic rifle at a hotel in the Wrath ring in exchange for his phone, or else he’ll ensure that Millie ”disappears”. For this, he teams up with fellow mercenary Sulfus to break into Moxxie’s hotel room and has Sulfus stand in the middle of the room while rearranging the carpet to ensure that Moxxie notices that somebody has broken in. This leads Moxxie to sneak in and focus on Sulfus while Striker ambushes him from a window.
  • The third time, Striker approaches him at a bus stop and beckons him to follow him. Moxxie, who has let his guard down due to the Enemy Mine situation still being fresh in his mind, does so, going with him to a motel where he gets both his cell phone back and informed of Sulfus’s death by angelic weapon. Striker (who did the deed) claims that Sulfus was killed by somebody else and offers his services to I.M.P to ”track the culprit down”… And then he refuses to let go of Moxxie after the handshake, revealing it all to be a front for Striker to get Moxxie alone and have his way with him.
  • The fourth time is when Striker catches Moxxie alone at the I.M.P offices early in the morning in chapter 30 and claims that he’s there on business. While Moxxie has his reservations about Striker’s motivations, the latter still convinces Moxxie to let him in immediately by claiming that he’s there for a job that supposedly concerns something that happened during the Extermination, which could spell trouble for the two of them since they were involved. (Though Striker refuses to elaborate on the details, Moxxie still reacts with horror at the thought of any potential consequences of their actions) During Striker’s visit, the office phone rings three times, which is unusual for that time of day. Moxxie answers the phone after the third time… And there’s nobody on the other end, because the phone call was merely meant to distract him from Striker’s planned attack. This leaves Moxxie paralyzed from nerve poison and thus easy pickings for Striker, who’d intended to kidnap him all along.
• Malicious Misnaming: Striker continues to call Moxxie by the insulting nickname ”vermin” here, to which Moxxie keeps objecting. Though as Striker’s Villainous Crush grows, he gradually stops doing this.
• Man Bites Man:
  • In chapter 19, Moxxie manages to get Striker off him as the latter tries to rape him by biting the snake imp in the neck so hard that he draws blood.
  • Striker returns the favor while attacking Moxxie in chapter 30; He restrains the smaller killer while the latter is distracted, muffles his screams with his hand and bites him in the neck twice to infect him with a paralyzing poison that he laced his golden fang with.
• Mood Whiplash: During Moxxie and Striker’s stay at Mrs. Mayberry’s temporary safe zone apartment, there are two rather sweet scenes back-to-back: Moxxie singing a lullaby version of his love song to Millie over the phone, and him talking to Mrs. Mayberry about her daring to find love again and the possibility of her being redeemed at Charlie’s hotel. (She dismisses it because she doesn’t regret killing her cheating husband, but she appreciates the sentiment) This is immediately followed by him trying to wake a napping Striker up, who is already awake but pretends to still be asleep just to be an ass… which results in Moxxie throwing a pillow straight at his head, pissing Striker off and causing him to retaliate in kind. (Though Moxxie dodges just in time)
• Morton's Fork: As far as Moxxie is concerned, the choice between cooperating with Striker to track down a supposed supplier for angelic weaponry and rejecting the offer becomes this. Say yes, and he’ll be forced to work alongside a sadistic bastard who has previously tried to kidnap and rape him. (Though Blitzo and Loona are unaware of the latter) Say no, and Striker will stalk him anyway since he’s made it clear that he already considers Moxxie his (See the Double Meaning entry) and refuses to give up until he has claimed him for himself. (Not to mention, Moxxie might get stalked even if they say yes to the offer)
• My God, What Have I Done?:
  • After Moxxie finally loses his patience with his co-workers’ shitty treatment of him and blows up on them in chapter 24, Blitzo gets a harsh reality check on how his lack of social skills have affected Moxxie and almost panics when he realizes that the latter might actually leave him for good, just like the other people in his life that he’s pushed away. What seems to hit him the hardest is two things: The first one is Moxxie asking him if he was lying to him when he said that they’d all be equals at I.M.P, because nothing in how he’s treated Moxxie despite apparently considering him his ”star employee” seems to suggest that he actually thinks so. The second one is Moxxie and Millie actually having a fight over Moxxie’s rage, which Blitzo finds extremely distressing because he’s scared that he’ll have indirectly ruined their relationship as well with his behavior.
  • Moxxie later feels bad about his outburst, as well - While he found it cathartic to finally be able to tell everyone what he was feeling and his anger was very justified, thinking back on his co-workers’ and wife’s reactions to it afterwards only makes him feel like a jerk. Especially when he thinks of Millie’s distressed reaction and desperate attempts to calm him down, and seeing that he’d driven her to tears once they see each other face to face to reconcile makes him feel even worse.

    Shit. No. It didn’t matter. Right or wrong. Justified or not. He’d hurt her. He shouldn’t have hurt her! And he hated that he had.
  • Stolas reacts this way in chapter 28 after Blitzo becomes furious with him for demonstrating that he can No-Sell modified angelic weapons by aiming Striker’s gun at his own head and firing it right in front of him.
• Mythology Gag: Moxxie calling Striker’s attempted one-sided Enemy Mine deal during the Extermination ”the shittiest sales pitch [he’s] ever heard” serves as an amusing contrast to Blitzo’s reaction to Striker’s We Can Rule Together speech in The Harvest Moon Festival, where he found it to be a really good sales pitch.^note Granted, Striker admits that he’d worked on it for a while and Blitzo was ultimately just stalling for time, but the boss imp's facial expressions during the speech indicates that Striker did manage to get through to him on some level.
• Nerves of Steel: Striker demonstrates an uncanny ability to always remain impeccably calm and focused, no matter how dangerous a situation becomes; If he’s ever scared for his life, he refuses to show it. This comes in handy during Extermination Day, as him staying calm also helps Moxxie stay calm, to the latter’s begrudging amazement.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Striker's attempt to sow discord amongst the members of I.M.P in order to manipulate them ultimately has the opposite effect: Thanks to Moxxie hitting his Rage Breaking Point and letting the others know exactly what's bothering him and him sitting down and talking to them afterwards, their bonds are strengthened rather than weakened. His bond with Millie in particular is improved even more, as Millie promises to stand up for her husband more after their heart-to-heart.
• No Honor Among Thieves: Striker teams up with the mercenary Sulfus in order to lure Moxxie into a trap and take the angelic rifle back from him… only for Sulfus to cast a sleeping spell on them both once the rifle has been found and take them to the Pride Ring during the Extermination, stealing the rifle in the process. He tells Striker before the latter passes out that he’s just doing this to rid himself of a rival and ”get to the top of the game.” Striker later tracks him down and kills him for this.
• The Nose Knows: Loona’s sense of smell is apparently good enough that she can smell people’s brain chemicals - During I.M.P’s meeting in chapter 24, she can smell Moxxie’s spiking emotions, which confuses and worries her. She also notes that something about Striker’s scent was off, as if she can smell that he’s trying to manipulate them, but she doesn’t understand what it means.
• No Sense of Personal Space:
  • Striker tends to invade Moxxie’s personal space a lot, both to intimidate him and due to the mercenary’s growing Villainous Crush:
    • At the bar in chapter 3, he wraps his tail around Moxxie’s leg to keep him from running away and scoots as close as possible to him.
    • There’s also him almost kissing a sleeping Moxxie while hiding from Exorcists, and when the Extermination is over and the two of them await the rest of I.M.P, he once again wraps his tail around the smaller imp to pull him closer, Moxxie being too exhausted to notice. Both times, Striker is interrupted before he gets the chance to do anything else; Cherri setting off bombs nearby in the former case, and Millie arriving in the latter. And then he takes it one step further in chapter 19…
    • In chapter 26, while waiting to get an audience with Stolas, Striker moves from his armchair to the sofa where Moxxie is sitting, starts to gaslight him again and then leans in as close as possible to him to further intimidate him. This time, though, Blitzo notices and tosses Moxxie out of the way to ”take over” the conversation with Striker.
  • Blitzo, as always, also has some trouble maintaining his distance. His first appearance in the story sees him sneaking into Moxxie and Millie’s apartment once again, appearing to try and spy on Moxxie in the bathroom (And almost getting shot for his trouble) and making inappropriate comments.
    Blitzo: Why are you so jumpy, though? Beating your baby wiener didn’t get you off? Want me to help?
    Moxxie: Refrain, sir.
• No Social Skills: Deconstructed. Blitzo and Loona are apparently so socially inept that they think doubling down on their horrible treatment of Moxxie is going to solve anything regarding the situation with Striker. (The fact that everyone is on edge probably doesn’t help, either, and it’s mentioned that Loona feels uncomfortable and stressed by the strange smells that come from both Striker and Moxxie, which seems to reflect on their emotions, though she has no clue what they mean) The end result is that the stressed-out and alienated Moxxie blows up on them once he finally has enough of it, leaving them gobsmacked and shaken. Millie even lampshades it during her heart-to-heart with Moxxie afterwards, acknowledging that Blitzo has ”the social skills of a twelve-year old.”
• No Sympathy:
  • In a rather callous fashion, Stolas doesn’t see what the big deal is when Blitzo calls him and asks him to help Moxxie stay safe during the Extermination, reasoning that Blitzo can ”get a new [weapons expert]” if Moxxie dies. Suffice to say, Blitzo is incensed at this response, and it leads to some tension in their relationship.
  • Striker mocks Moxxie for being in pain when the latter is shot in the arm with a blessed bullet and calls him a wimp. Though he’s forced to take it back later when he’s slashed with a blessed sword and experiences for himself just how painful it is.
  • The motel receptionist, when she sees a roughed-up, distraught Moxxie leaving the motel after Striker tried to rape him, tells him that he deserved it and mocks him out of nothing but petty spite.
• Not Good with Rejection: Striker refuses to accept that Moxxie won’t cheat on Millie or leave her for him, and the more Moxxie resists him, the more his obsession with him grows. It reaches its boiling point in chapter 30, when the crush has turned Striker into a full-blown Yandere who, after attacking and paralyzing Moxxie and announcing his intention to kidnap him, almost gets angry when Moxxie tries to object and resist him.
• Oblivious to Hatred: Due to a combination of being busy flirting with Blitzo and unaware of the fact that Striker tried to assassinate him, at least until Striker flat-out admits it just moments later, and thus doesn’t know just how much Striker hates demon royalty, Stolas doesn’t notice the Death Glare that the snake imp gives him when they meet in chapter 27.
• Obnoxious In-Laws: This is the reason why Moxxie refuses to stay at Millie’s parents’ farm during their stay in the Wrath ring; He’s sick of being constantly mocked by them and reminded of how much they despise and look down on him for his lack of ”manliness.” As a result, he opts to stay at a nearby hotel with Loona (Who has been assigned by Blitzo to protect him from Striker) instead… which bites him in the ass hard when he’s ambushed by Striker and Sulfus.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Moxxie in chapter 3, when Striker makes his presence known at the bar instead of the client he was expecting.
  • Moxxie again in chapter 5, when he notices the inconsistencies in the intruder’s behavior in his hotel room and realizes he’s been Lured into a Trap.
  • Both Moxxie and Striker at the end of chapter 5, when it’s revealed that they’ve been taken to a slaughter house during Extermination Day.
  • In chapter 10, everyone present fly into a blind panic when an Exorcist breaks down a supposed protective barrier and starts slaughtering every Hell citizen in sight.
  • Striker in chapter 11, when he realizes that he accidentally revealed to Moxxie that he has more than one angelic weapon.
  • Moxxie in chapter 19, when he realizes that Striker refuses to let go of his hand after a handshake and that the mercenary has him cornered in a motel room with sinister intentions.
  • Blitzo in chapter 24, when it sinks in that the situation at I.M.P has gotten so out of hand that not only does he run the risk of losing yet another person he cares about by pushing them away with his toxic behavior, but that it’s gotten to the point where Moxxie and Millie are actually fighting with each other.
  • Striker reacts like this in chapter 27 when Moxxie casually mentions (twice in a row) that their meeting with Stolas is a public hearing. Since Striker had been planning to do a Frame-Up in order to get the chance to kill not just Stolas, but also Stella and Andrealphus, he’d been banking on Blitzo using his status as Stolas’s lover to make the meeting non-official and thus remain anonymous; By making it an official meeting, they’ve been registered as visitors, which means that Striker now has to tell the truth or else he’ll be found out very easily, which makes all of his plans fall apart in one fell swoop. All because he underestimated I.M.P.
  • It’s Stolas’s turn in chapter 28: After he demonstrates that Striker’s angelic weapon doesn’t have any effect on him (due to the holy magic being impure enough that he can nullify the effects with counterspells) by shooting himself in the head with it, he becomes horrified when he realizes that Blitzo not only screamed his lungs out at the sight, but also has gone stiff and almost starts crying from terror at seeing it.
  • Twofer for Moxxie in chapter 30: The first one is when Striker claims that there’s some supposed ”trouble” brewing in regards to their actions during the Extermination, and the second one is when he realizes that Striker poisoned him when he bit him just moments before, which leaves him paralyzed and unable to resist when Striker kidnaps him.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
  • When Moxxie calls Blitzo to tell him that he’s in the Pride Ring during Extermination Day, Blitzo drops any goofiness or vulgarity almost completely; He first speaks with a flat infliction to reprimand his employee for making a tasteless joke, but as the realization sets in that Moxxie is serious, he actually starts panicking, bargaining and even begging Moxxie to tell him that it’s not true. Blitzo reacting in this way makes Moxxie feel even worse for ”screwing up.”
    • Likewise, Genki Girl Millie becomes emotionless as she waits for her husband to call her while he’s trapped in the Pride Ring. She doesn’t even fly into a rage or panic; She simply sits in one place, staring at her phone.
  • Moxxie is, generally, rather open with his emotions even when he tries to be professional. So when a pissed-off Striker asks him what’s wrong with him for adhering to morals despite being a demon in chapter 19, the mercenary is caught completely off-guard at the sheer level of Tranquil Fury Moxxie responds with, having a lot of emotional baggage tied to that phrase. (And honestly, the Attempted Rape just moments before probably didn’t help matters, either)

    Striker was taken aback. He watched [Moxxie] move away stunned. Sitting surprised with this new revelation. He’d been certain he’d seen it up until now. During the Pain Games, at least. Accompanying the jealousy and anger. He’d seen others, too. Fear, panic. A few smiles in between. Always looking radiantly brighter than they had any right to be. 
But now with this clear juxtaposition to compare, he was certain about it. This… was Moxxie’s hatred. At this moment and none prior, he truly despised him. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that he’d pushed the wrong button.
  • Everyone at I.M.P is taken aback in chapter 24 when a stressed-out and anxious Moxxie finally has enough of their shitty treatment of him and explodes at them, giving them a thorough dressing-down on how sick he is of constantly being treated as a ”loser” who they can bully at their leisure. His rage catches Blitzo and Loona so off-guard that they actually find themselves intimidated by him.
    • In conjunction with the above, Blitzo becomes so shaken by Moxxie’s explosive rage that he almost starts crying. The sight is enough for Loona, who Hates Being Touched, to actually give him a comforting hug.
  • Even when his plans go down the drain, Striker usually keeps a cool head on him, being very good at masking how he actually feels. But when Stolas asks Blitzo to show him Striker’s modified angelic pistol in chapter 28, just to see what the weapon that can harm and kill demon royalty looks like, Striker becomes so genuinely angry at the thought of an aristocrat getting their hands on one of his possessions that his smug, calm demeanor drops completely, and he slips into barely restrained Tranquil Fury mode instead. The I.M.P members are caught so off-guard by the sudden change in attitude that Moxxie protectively pushes Millie behind him in response.
  • In chapter 28, Blitzo becomes so horrified upon seeing Stolas’s ”demonstration” of the lack of danger a modified angelic weapon poses to him that the imp first screams in terror, then stiffens up completely and almost starts crying, after which he loses it completely and thoroughly chews him out over it. This is what makes Stolas realize how Innocently Insensitive he’s been to his impish lover.
• Past Experience Nightmare: Chapter 2 starts with Moxxie having a nightmare about being unable to save Blitzo and Millie from a human and then getting pinned down and stabbed by Striker. It’s established that his Alone with the Psycho moment with the mercenary during the Harvest Moon Festival genuinely traumatized him, and the nightmare is a reflection of how small and weak he feels for being unable to defend himself that time.
  • After surviving Extermination Day, he has yet another one, but this time concerning his close calls with the Exorcists.
• Perverted Drooling: Striker can’t keep himself from salivating when he almost kisses a sleeping Moxxie, and he forgets to wipe it away when he’s interrupted by Cherri setting off bombs outside. While Moxxie was sleeping too deeply to notice Striker even approaching him, he does notice the drool upon waking up from the ruckus and points it out:
  Moxxie: Are you… drooling?
  Striker: Gettin’ hungry.
  • He does it again in chapter 28 after Moxxie shoots him a Death Glare so intense that he snaps out of his almost murderous rage after finding out that all of his plans were for nothing; Having Moxxie’s eyes on him with such intensity, even if it’s out of hatred and anger rather than any positive feelings, makes him once again feel so overcome with lust that he can’t keep himself from drooling, meaning that he went from almost breaking character for a Villainous Breakdown to almost breaking character from his growing Villainous Crush instead.
• Pet the Dog:
  • While he and Striker are fleeing through a cellar at a safe zone when the Exorcists have broken the barrier, Moxxie doesn’t hesitate to shoot at the sinners that are following them since they’re quite hostile towards him… But when he sees one woman genuinely pleading for her life, he finds himself sympathizing with her and lowers his gun, planning to let her escape as well. Unfortunately, she’s killed by the Exorcists anyway, right in front of him.
  • Considering his rather heartless response when Blitzo asked him for help during the Extermination, Stolas coming by to curse Moxxie’s blessed bullet wound in order to heal it could also be seen as this. He also warmly greets all of Blitzo's employees when they get an audience with him in chapter 27, asking Moxxie specifically if he's fully healed and expressing relief that all of them are safe and unharmed.
  • After Moxxie viciously chews them out over their shitty treatment of him and he and Millie leave in a huff after having an argument, Blitzo tries to make light of it by cracking another sexual joke. When Loona calls him out on it, she sees that Blitzo is so shaken by what happened that he’s close to tears; She apologizes when she sees this while calling him ”Dad” and then gives him a gentle shoulder hug to comfort him. She does it again in chapter 28 in order to calm Blitzo down after he becomes so shocked and scared from Stolas’s demonstration of how Striker’s modified angelic gun can’t hurt him that he goes completely still. Though it’s not enough to keep him from losing his shit on the Prince afterwards.
• Poisoned Weapons: Sort of; When he attacks the alone and cornered Moxxie in chapter 30, Striker bites him in the neck and reveals that he laced his gold tooth with a nerve-affecting poison just before arriving at the offices. It’s not meant to kill Moxxie, though - Just paralyze and knock him unconscious to keep him from resisting and ”causing trouble” when Striker kidnaps him.
• Poor Communication Kills: Overall, the trope is played with to Hell and back, so much so that it's gotten its own page for it.
• The Power of Love: Moxxie and Millie are as devoted to each other as always. In fact, this is what enables Moxxie to snap out of his Heroic BSoD and actually try to think of a way to escape the slaughter house and pushes him to try and survive Extermination Day; Because he realizes that Millie would cry if he died, and he refuses to let that happen. He also snaps out of a confused (And aroused) stupor while Striker is trying to seduce and sexually assault him by remembering his marriage, and when Striker still keeps pushing for them to have sex, reasoning that it could be their ”little secret” and trying to convince Moxxie that he ”wants it” as he forces himself onto him, Moxxie manages to reject him. Violently.
  Striker: *angrily* Quit being a bitch. Just-
  Moxxie: *raises gun higher* I said no!
  Striker: What’s the big idea?
  Moxxie: I’m not fucking cheating on my damn wife, OK?!
  • Chapter 24 also reveals that Millie knows about Striker trying to rape Moxxie, therefore averting an instance of Poor Communication Kills - The sharpshooter loves and trusts his wife so much that he actually told her about it as soon as he came come after the incident. Millie, in return, loves and trusts Moxxie so much that she believed him without a second thought and took his side.
• Properly Paranoid: Despite Striker supposedly coming by the I.M.P offices for a job that concerns the two’s actions during the Extermination in chapter 30, Moxxie has learned by now that wherever Striker goes, trouble is to follow. Not to mention, despite supposedly being there on ”dangerous business”, he notes that Striker is way too relaxed and in too good a mood for something so serious. So, Moxxie lies about Loona being in the offices, and when he lets Striker in, he sends a group chat message when the mercenary is not looking, asking the rest of them to come by the offices for backup while also leaving the office door slightly ajar. Unfortunately, this doesn’t prevent him from dropping his guard around Striker to answer the phone… Which turns out to have been a distraction all along, as Striker chooses this moment to attack and paralyze him, after which he confiscates his phone and reveals that the group message was never read by anyone before deleting it.
• Punched Across the Room: Loona’s Big Damn Heroes moment in chapter 3 involves punching Striker so hard that he flies straight into a dumpster and some trash cans.

Tropes Q to Z

• Rage Breaking Point:
  • After everything that’s happened to him, from the years of being treated like crap by everyone around him to the Extermination, Striker’s attempted kidnapping and rape of him and Blitzo and Loona’s escalated bullying of him, Moxxie’s stress levels are through the roof. But it’s when Blitzo starts talking down to him about ”catching up with the adults eventually” just because he needs some time to decide whether teaming up with Striker is a good idea or not (Since there’s a lot at stake for Moxxie personally) that I.M.P’s gunslinger finally snaps; Sick of feeling useless, scared and weak, treated like a nuisance or a dumb toddler and worrying about everyone’s safety and getting nothing but scorn in return, he lets his colleagues have it.
    Moxxie: I AM NOT A CHILD! Are we not the same species?! Am I missing something here?! Do you really see me as nothing but a braindead, helpless infant?!
    Blitzo: *shocked* Moxxie, c-calm down. I’m just kidding, OK? It’s… it’s like a compliment, OK?
    Moxxie: *even angrier* It’s not! I tell you so many fucking times that it’s not! You never listen! And you’ve been a total ass to me even worse lately! I don’t know what’s up with this shit, but I’m done with it! Fucking done!
  • Blitzo hits his in chapter 28 after Stolas has one Innocently Insensitive moment too many, the final straw being him demonstrating that Striker’s modified angelic gun can’t hurt him by ”shooting” himself in the head with it.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: In chapter 24, Moxxie finally loses his patience with everyone’s unfair treatment of him and verbally tears the other members of I.M.P a new one over it - He calls Blitzo and Loona out on their bullying of him, Blitzo on his double standards and enabling of Loona’s worst traits and Loona on her rude, ungrateful and disrespectful behavior and laziness. Not even Millie is spared, as Moxxie calls her out on never explicitly standing up for him whenever Blitzo, Loona or his in-laws treat him like garbage, making him feel like he has no support whatsoever, and accusing her of thinking of him as ”easy to manage”. This actually makes Blitzo start to reflect on how badly he’s screwed up when he comes to the realization that Moxxie might leave him for good if he doesn’t try to treat him better.
• Reckless Gun Usage: In chapter 28, Stolas explains that Striker’s angelic weapons would’ve had no effect on him due to the impure holy magic being nullified by Stolas's own precautionary demonic magic… Which he decides to demonstrate by, without warning, aiming at his own head and pulling the trigger. As he explained, he is indeed fine with the gun merely emitting harmless smoke, but the sight makes Blitzo go almost catatonic out of pure horror, and then he loses it completely on Stolas. The Prince, for his part, is horrified at how badly Blitzo was affected by his little ”demonstration”.
• Refuge in Audacity:
  • After Loona saves Moxxie from getting kidnapped by Striker in chapter 3, Striker snarls that Moxxie getting rescued at the last second is ”getting old.” Moxxie responds with aiming and firing his gun at the mercenary… which turns out to be out of bullets, revealing that Moxxie was bluffing through his teeth throughout their entire alleyway confrontation. He even makes a showing of twirling his empty gun with a shit-eating grin on his face.
  • In chapter 27, Striker actually flat-out reveals to Stolas, in the politest tone he can muster, that he’d been hired to assassinate him during the Harvest Moon Festival. Everyone in the room are completely caught off-guard by this.
• Removing the Rival: When Striker realizes that Millie, in conjunction with Moxxie's observant nature, might end up becoming a Spanner in the Works in his plans to claim Moxxie for himself thanks to her being so protective of her husband, he comes to the conclusion that he needs to get rid of her if he is to succeed. Whether he's resolving to Murder the Hypotenuse or finding some other way of doing it remains to be seen.
  How very valiant of you, miss Mildred. Still... You're in the way.
• Sad Clown: Blitzo is shown to crank up the sexual jokes to cope with uncomfortable situations, like trying to diffuse a fight between Moxxie and Millie by joking about them getting it on in order to make up. Unfortunately for him, Moxxie is having none of it since he’s hit his Rage Breaking Point (And is otherwise sick of Blitzo’s vulgar, demeaning jokes and comments about him anyway), but even after he and Millie leave angrily after their fight, Blitzo can’t stop himself:
  Loona: *stunned* What… just happened?
  Blitzo: Uhm… Well. Maybe they don’t bang tonight, but they sure knew how to go out with one, huh?
  Loona: For fuck’s sake, Blitzo!
  Blitzo: *on the verge of tears* Loonie, if you start yelling at me too, I’m gonna bitch-cry so hard, it’s going to be really embarrassing for you, alright?
  • Chapter 29 also reveals that Blitzo cranks up the Self-Deprecation in response to the gossip tabloids comparing his relationship with Stolas to the owl prince "sleeping with a dog".
• Sadist: Striker. What else can you call somebody who jerks off to the fantasy of torturing and raping somebody in the very first chapter? And even as he develops a Villainous Crush on Moxxie, it’s still interspersed with thoughts about torturing him and ”claiming absolutely everything”, his instincts screaming at him to assault Moxxie as soon as he sees even a slight opening. He even has to hold himself back at one point despite having attempted to rape Moxxie just moments prior, but only because Moxxie would’ve been reduced to an Empty Shell at that moment, which Striker doesn’t want since he’s grown to enjoy the other imp being a ”feisty spitfire.”
• Saying Too Much:
  • When talking about angelic weapons, Striker taunts Moxxie about what a ”wimp” he is for being in so much pain from the blessed bullet that he was shot with, saying that his 9mm blessed ammunition would do more damage. Moxxie at first tries to snark at the cocky mercenary, but then he realizes that Striker was talking about pistol ammo when the weapon they took from him was a rifle. This, in turn, makes him realize that Striker basically admitted to having more than one angelic weapon. Striker mentally kicks himself for letting this piece of info slip, as he underestimated just how observant Moxxie could be even when in pain, and Moxxie is understandably pissed at the reveal.
  • Narrowly averted in chapter 30. Striker talks with Moxxie about wanting to find an angelic spear to turn it into a weapon that he can wield without making it lose its pure angelic magic. Moxxie, who is very into the conversation about the angelic weapons, almost offers his idea on how to make that possible… But he catches himself when he realizes that mentioning his ideas to an untrustworthy mercenary who is well-established to despise Hell’s aristocracy and tried to actually kill one of them would be a very, very bad idea.
• Schmuck Bait:
  • In chapter 5, Moxxie notices that somebody has entered his hotel room when he sees that his carpet has been rearranged, and in order to keep the rifle from being stolen before he hands it over to Striker, he sneaks in on his own instead of fetching Loona… and discovers that ”Striker” is merely standing in one spot at the room’s desk. It slowly dawns on the assassin that rearranging the carpet only to not hide afterwards doesn’t make sense, but he unfortunately notices the inconsistencies too late; The imp at the desk turns out to be a stranger while the real Striker climbs through a window and attacks Moxxie from behind.
  • When Striker approaches him at a bus stop and beckons him to follow him in chapters 18-19, Moxxie obliges and follows him to a motel room to get his phone back. Moxxie does at first think it’s weird that Striker couldn’t just have given it to him at the bus stop, but he brushes it off when he sees news of Sulfus being murdered with an angelic weapon, which Striker claims is the reason he took him to the motel. (Though Striker was shown to be the one who killed him previously, foreshadowing that something isn’t right here) Striker offers his services to I.M.P to help them track down the weapon supplier and beckons Moxxie to shake his hand as a promise to ”vouch” for him to Blitzo. The thespian does so… and finds that Striker not only refuses to let go of him, but proceeds to squeeze his hand even harder to keep Moxxie from pulling it loose. Moxxie mentally kicks himself for being dumb enough to let his guard down around Striker, (After all, just because they worked together during the Extermination doesn’t mean that Striker is trustworthy) who now has him exactly where he wants him.
  • When Striker comes by the I.M.P offices while Moxxie is alone there in chapter 30, he claims that he’s there concerning a job offer… And he convinces Moxxie to let him in by revealing that it’s somehow connected to Striker and Moxxie’s Extermination escapades. While the two are talking (With Striker refusing to elaborate on what the job actually entails while relentlessly messing with Moxxie), the office phone rings three separate times, which is noted by Moxxie to be unusual that early in the morning. The third time, he answers the phone… Only to hear nothing but breathing on the other side… And that’s when Striker suddenly grabs him and infects him with a nerve poison, the phone call being revealed to be a decoy to make Moxxie drop his guard and allow Striker to kidnap him once again. It’s somewhat downplayed in this case since Moxxie actually texts the rest of I.M.P to ask them to come to the offices for backup since he has his suspicions about Striker, but since it turns out that nobody read the message, nobody comes to his aid… And Striker makes sure to delete the message, too, to ensure that nobody reads it and finds out who is behind the kidnapping.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: After freeing Striker from his chains, Moxxie floors it out of the slaughter house, having yanked his own broken chain back from Striker in order to get away from him. Unfortunately for him, he doesn’t get very far before running head-first into an Exorcist, though he’s saved by Striker at the last second.
• Shame If Something Happened: After the failed kidnapping at the bar, Striker steals Moxxie’s phone and later calls the I.M.P office to inform him of it. He specifically looks at the pictures of Millie and casually implies that she might ”disappear” if Moxxie doesn’t hand over the angelic rifle to him.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!: When Millie confronts Striker in chapter 25 regarding his attempts to seduce and later rape Moxxie, Striker attempts to rile her up by (truthfully) pointing out her inaction in regards to standing up for Moxxie when the people around them mock and mistreat him, culminating in him claiming he thought their marriage was "a joke". Millie, while furious and feeling a little bit guilty, refuses to take the bait (In part due to her and Moxxie already having talked about it and her resolving to be better about it) and keeps her cool; She ends up grabbing Striker by his bandana and calmly and angrily tells him that he's a dead man if he tries to make any more moves on Moxxie or tries to backstab them during their team-up.
  Millie: Listen here, you slippery bastard. I know your type. You're every arrogant prick I hated back in Wrath! You think you can just take anything you like just 'cause you want to. Well, none of your bullshit is gonna fly here this time, fucker! If you go after my baby again in any way or fuck us with the agreement, you are gonna be in a world of pain. Am I clear?!
• Simple Solution Won't Work: Upon hearing that Moxxie is trapped in the Pride Ring, Blitzo’s first course of action is to get the Grimoire and try to open a portal… only to find that it’s empty, as all magic artefacts stop working during the Extermination. He then tries to call Stolas and ask him for help, only for the Prince to dismiss him and tell him that if Moxxie dies, he can just ”get a new weapons expert”.
• Smug Snake: True to canon and his rattlesnake-like appearance, Striker is so full of himself that he constantly looks down on everyone around him, seeing them as nothing but pawns, and always believes that he’s the smartest person in the room. However, he’s so used to having all the cards, getting his way and believing that he’s too smart to fool that I.M.P actually manage to pull a Kansas City Shuffle on him in chapter 27; Thus, Striker is shown to not be nearly as clever as he thinks he is.
• Snark-to-Snark Combat: During their Enemy Mine situation, Moxxie and Striker essentially take turns passing snide remarks at each other. It continues when Moxxie is alone with Striker in the I.M.P offices in chapter 30, with Striker continuously passive-aggressively mocking Moxxie and the latter refusing to give him an inch… Or, trying, anyway, as he still gets riled up by Striker’s behavior.
• Spotting the Thread: While Moxxie is examining Striker’s angelic pistol in chapter 21, which the latter handed over as a showing of ”good faith” in regards to a team-up to track down a supplier of angelic weapons, he finds himself admiring how pretty it is at first. But then he notices some inconsistencies in the gun’s different parts and realizes that the pistol has been modified, thus making it pretty useless as a good faith showing. Through this, I.M.P figure that something fishy is going on with Striker’s offer. The problem is, however, that they don’t know what his end goal actually is, and the fact that Striker brings up some good points in regards to the supplier most likely having connections with demon royalty doesn’t help matters, either.
• Squee: This is Blitzo’s reaction upon spotting Moxxie and Joe finally coming to an understanding with each other in chapter 16 and Moxxie earning his father-in-law’s respect; After Joe leaves, the I.M.P founder leaps into the kitchen, hugs Moxxie from behind and spins him around while gushing about how adorable the whole scene was and asking Loona if she got it on camera. (She did)
  Blitzo: That was so fucking wholesome, Mox!
• Suppressed Rage:
  • After Striker tricks Moxxie into coming to a bar in chapter 3 in order to kidnap him to get his holy rifle back, he gloats to him about it while invading his personal space as much as he can, pushing Moxxie’s Trauma Button in the process. Convinced that Moxxie has been scared into submission by this intimidation tactic, Striker believes that he’s shaking in fear as he’s lead away… When in truth, I.M.P’s sharpshooter isn’t so much scared anymore as he’s pissed beyond belief that Striker would underestimate him so much that he’d call him ”the easiest one to handle” to his face.
  • Striker himself also suppresses his rage during his hearing with prince Stolas; He hates being in the presence of demon royalty, but he nonetheless hides it behind a pleasant smile and tone. He slips just a little bit when Stolas touches his modified angelic pistol, and when he finds out that his plans were All for Nothing, he becomes completely still out of sheer fury and almost blows his cover entirely in favor of a full-blown Villainous Breakdown. A Death Glare from Moxxie snaps him out of it... for all the wrong reasons.
• Survival Horror: The Extermination Day arc invokedis explicitly referred to as one by the author - The Exorcists are horrifying Angelic Abominations who slaughter anybody living in Hell, be they sinners or hellborn demons, if they’re not within a protective barrier (And it’s revealed that not even that is a guaranteed safe zone during a Wham Shot), and this goes on over the course of 24 hours. Moxxie and Striker find themselves right in the middle of the Extermination and have to work together in order to survive.
• Sympathy for the Devil: Downplayed. After Stolas proclaims that he’ll divorce Stella for trying to have him killed in chapter 28, Moxxie asks Millie if she sides with Stella on the issue. Millie bluntly responds that she doesn’t - Infidelity is not a good enough reason to try to kill somebody, especially not for such a petty reason as having an affair with a lower caste, alongside the other stunts that the swan princess has pulled. (Not to mention, Millie firmly believes that Stella should’ve tried to kill Stolas herself if she truly hated him that much) At the same time, though, she admits that, as much of a Hate Sink as Stella is, she can’t help but feel a smidgeon sorry for her; As she tried to have a royal that outranks her killed, there’ll probably be severe consequences coming her way and not just the divorce. Moxxie also admits to himself in chapter 29 after reading a gossip article about Stolas and Stella supposedly seeing each other on a balcony of the Goetia manor that he, in the end, almost feels sorry for Stella. Almost.
• Tempting Fate: After Moxxie’s Rage Breaking Point, the assassination attempt on Stolas and the ensuing divorce, Moxxie notes in chapter 29 that Blitzo and Loona have become nicer overall, Millie has made more friends and he hasn’t had to deal with Striker or a bunch of other traumatic experiences in four months and thinks to himself that ”everything is fine and getting better”. Literally moments after he thinks that, a knock on the door to the I.M.P offices is about to prove him very, very wrong, as it turns out that Striker has returned and is about to make things worse for them again.
• Terms of Endangerment: Striker’s condescending nicknames for Moxxie progressively become these as the story goes on, continuously referring to him as ”little buddy” and ”little one”. It reaches its culmination in chapters 28 and 30 where he finally goes full Yandere and refers to Moxxie as ”[his] little one”, even doing it to Moxxie’s face after ambushing him in the latter chapter.
• Throw the Dog a Bone: After everything he goes through during the Extermination, Moxxie gets quite the bone thrown his way after he recovers from his Heroic RRoD; Namely, his Obnoxious In-Laws complimenting him on surviving such a harrowing experience and finally accepting him, if only a little bit.
• Time Skip: There’s a fourth-month one between chapters 28 and 29, during which Moxxie doesn't have to deal with Striker at all and the relationships between all the members of I.M.P continues to improve... But it also shows the fallout from Stolas's divorce and Stella's resulting fall from grace, and the following chapter shows that, ultimately, the lack of Striker's presence lulled Moxxie into a false sense of security as Striker was actually off to finally bring his plans to claim Moxxie for himself to fruition.
• Took a Level in Kindness: In the wake of Moxxie hitting his Rage Breaking Point, the ensuing "The Reason You Suck" Speech he gives to his fellow I.M.P workers and the heart-to-heart he has with each of them afterwards, Blitzo and Loona are noted to treat him much better, with Blitzo cutting down on the demeaning jokes about Moxxie and Loona becoming more sociable and developing a Little Sister Instinct for I.M.P’s sharpshooter.
• Tranquil Fury:
  • Upon waking up in the slaughter house, Striker becomes completely still out of sheer rage at having been backstabbed by his partner.
  • Millie gets in on the act, too; She very coldly and calmly informs Striker over the phone that, if Moxxie dies while he survives Extermination Day, she’ll hunt the snake imp down and murder him:
    Millie: If you survive and he doesn’t, there ain’t a place in Hell, Heaven or Earth where I won’t find you and tear you to pieces. Do you understand?
  • In chapter 19, Striker lures Moxxie to a motel room in the hopes of seducing and having sex with him, even forcing himself on the smaller imp. When Moxxie snaps out of his Deer in the Headlights reaction (and slight arousal) and violently refuses the advances on the basis that he’s Happily Married, a furious Striker asks him what’s wrong with him for being a Hellborn with morals. The question first causes the thespian to freeze up, looking like somebody has just punched his teeth in… and then he calmly, icily tells Striker that it’s none of his business. Striker realizes that this reaction is very different from any of the ones he’s seen previously… because this isn’t Moxxie merely being angry, but outright hating his guts.
  • Millie demonstrates this once again in chapter 25 when she shows up at Striker's motel room to confront him on his unwanted advances towards Moxxie. Despite Striker's attempts to rile her up, she keeps a cool head throughout it all, and she's perfectly calm even as she yanks him closer to her face and threatens him with pain beyond comprehension if he doesn't back off.
  • Striker slips into this again in chapter 28 when Stolas begs to look at his angelic pistol, hating the thought of a royal touching his property. He becomes even more still out of pure rage when it’s revealed that his plans were All for Nothing due to the gun’s magic not being pure enough to be unable to be countered with demonic magic, something Stolas planned around years ago. It’s a very, very thin facade, though, as he becomes so furious at the reveal that he almost flips his lid, too.
• Trauma Button:
  • Moxxie turns out to have several:
    • After his Alone with the Psycho moment with Striker during the Harvest Moon Festival, Moxxie finds himself involuntarily flinching and flashing back to that moment not only whenever Striker invades his personal space, but also when he passes by the room where it happened. Striker slams down on this button hard when attacking him in chapter 30 by restraining and Hand Gagging him in a similar fashion to how he did it back then, and it sets off the poor guy so badly that he at first doesn't even notice when Striker sinks his teeth into his neck.
    • In chapter 19, the phrase ”What’s wrong with you?!” is revealed to be another one: It turns out that he’s had to deal with being looked down upon and mistreated for not being ”normal” for his entire life, and getting the question sent his way is a surefire way of getting him to actually hate somebody with every fiber of his being.
    • Chapter 27 introduces yet another one: Anything that reminds him of the Exorcists after surviving the Extermination. While the group are making their way to the room where Stolas is waiting for them, Moxxie suddenly sees the shadow of something large with wings and immediately goes on high alert - He doesn’t relax until he discovers that the shadow belonged to one of Stolas’s winged servants. He then glances behind him and notices, to his surprise, that Striker also had a reaction to it, having stiffened up, moved in front of Moxxie and placed his hand on the knife on his belt. This shows that Striker, as much as he can play it cool, was also at least somewhat traumatized by the experience.
  • Loona’s is getting yelled at, as she flashes back to the horrible treatment she received by her foster families and at her orphanage when she was a child. Moxxie yelling at her when he’s reached his Rage Breaking Point causes her to actually shrink back and fold her ears down like a scared puppy, and Moxxie feels very bad about it when he thinks back on it later. (Not that she didn’t have it coming, what with all of her bullying of him)
• Underestimating Badassery: Moxxie continuously has this problem, despite being The Gunslinger and a Professional Killer, simply due to his small stature, morals and lack of physical strength. And he’s absolutely sick of it.
• Unwitting Pawn: Striker turns out to have planned for Sulfus to be this in chapter 27. Sulfus is revealed to have gotten hired by Stella to get rid of Striker via a slaughter house for screwing up the first hit job, and since Sulfus was dumb enough to take no precautions whenever he interacted with her, Striker plans to erase Stella’s name from the texts and replace them with her brother, Andrealphus, making it look like he’s the one who ordered the hit on Stolas.
  • He also assumes that I.M.P will be the same way, being his ”oblivious chaperones” in his quest to kill the Goetias by letting him get an audience with the Prince… until Moxxie reveals via a casual comment about the meeting being official, thus meaning that Striker can’t pull off his Frame-Up plan since he’d be found out very easily and forcing him to tell the truth instead, that I.M.P has managed to completely turn the tables on him. While he keeps his polite smile around Stolas, Striker is fuming over the fact that a group of ”simpletons” managed to outsmart him.
• Villain Has a Point: When Millie confronts Striker on his attempt to seduce Moxxie in chapter 25, he replies that he thought he could make a move on Moxxie since he "thought" that their marriage was on the rocks. He points out that he thought this because her parents have no respect for Moxxie and would rather that Millie's beau be somebody who fits their idea of "manliness" more, aka somebody like Striker... and that Millie continuously just lets them treat her husband like crap. While he's mainly saying this in order to rile her up, he's also absolutely correct in his observation that Millie never vocally stands up for her husband when the people around him mistreat him; Moxxie even brought this up to her during their heart-to-heart in the previous chapter, and Millie promised to be more openly supportive of him.
• Villainous Breakdown: Only narrowly averted with Striker in chapter 28 after Stolas reveals that Striker’s angelic gun has been modified, meaning that the angelic magic is impure and thus can be countered with the right demonic magic and that Stolas took those precautions ages ago. Striker, who is already pissed at being in a hated aristocrat’s presence and having him touch his gun, becomes so furious upon learning that all of his plans were All for Nothing that he almost loses it in favor of attacking Stolas and trying to find some other means of killing him immediately; The only reason he doesn’t go through with it is that an intense Death Glare from Moxxie snaps him out of his murderous rage and makes him remind himself that such an action would be unwise, as he’s both outnumbered and overpowered.
• Villainous Crush: Striker starts to develop one for Moxxie over the course of the story. Of course, since he’s a sadistic bastard, he also finds himself constantly fantasizing about torturing and sexually assaulting the little guy.
  • Interestingly, Moxxie himself seems to not have noticed this - While he sussed out that Striker had ulterior motives for keeping him alive during Extermination Day, all he knows is that Striker first tried to kill him like so many other demons he’s run into, then tried to kidnap him after that, and then cornered him and suddenly started kissing him and trying to force himself on him another time. He finds this both confusing and terrifying and nothing but proof that Striker is just messing with him. Millie, on the other hand, does notice and brings it up when she and Moxxie have a conversation in chapter 24; It not only unsettles her due to Striker being who he is, but it also makes her jealous. And in Moxxie’s case, the mere thought that Striker would like him in that way scares him.
• Villainous Rescue: Moxxie has just escaped from a slaughter house, only to find himself face to face with an Exorcist who is about to kill him while he’s frozen with fear. Striker saves him just before the weapon strikes him down by grabbing him and pulling him out of the way.
• Villain Respect: Striker finds himself rather impressed with Moxxie’s grits, quick thinking and trickery when he manages to foil Striker’s attempt to kidnap him in chapter 3. (Though Striker might’ve actually succeeded due to an untimely distraction had Loona not shown up just in time) It shows when Striker actually addresses Moxxie by name for the first time instead of just calling him ”vermin”. And then the respect proceeds to develop into something else…
• We Have to Get the Bullet Out!: Moxxie is shot in the arm by an angelic weapon in chapter 11, which causes him such excruciating pain that Striker is forced to dig the bullet out. Justified since the bullets are blessed, which acts like a poison to demons - As Striker explains, if the bullet is left in, the blessing will spread and eventually kill Moxxie by, in essence, cooking him from the inside out. Not to mention, the longer it’s left in, the more pain it’ll cause him, which is bad in a situation where you have to keep quiet and not draw attention to yourself.
• Wham Line:
  • In chapter 5, Moxxie and Striker are knocked out by Sulfus after Moxxe is ambushed at a motel, and they both wake up surrounded by demons and shackled to a wall. When Moxxie asks a demon where they are, he gets this response:
    The Pride Ring! Welcome to the slaughter house, boys! Extermination day is upon us.
  • In chapter 9, Millie has tensely been waiting for the hourly phone calls from Moxxie while he’s trapped in the Pride Ring. And when he does finally call, he says this:
    Moxxie: I’m sorry, I don’t think- I can’t call anymore! We can’t stay still! They changed their patterns!
  • After Stolas gets the chance to examine Striker’s angelic weapon in chapter 28, this exchange occurs, which reveals that even if things had gone Striker’s way, his efforts would’ve been All for Nothing:
    Stolas: This is indeed a weapon ingrained with holy magic. However, it lacks another set of more difficult to cast spells on the bullet to work above a certain layer of demonic magic essence.
    Blitzo: The fuck does that mean?
    *Blitzo pauses, contemplates the words and then breaks out into a triumphant grin*
    Blitzo: You mean it can’t hurt you?
    Stolas: Pretty much.
  • In chapter 30, Striker reveals his true intentions in regards to Moxxie after catching him alone in the I.M.P offices, suddenly attacking him and infecting him with a paralyzing poison and revealing that he’s gone from ”merely” creepy and possessive to a full-blown Yandere;
    Striker: I’m leaving Pride and I’m taking you with me!
• Wham Shot:
  • One of the Exorcists breaking down the protective barrier at the bar in chapter 10, showing that the rules of Extermination Day have changed.
  • Moxxie’s bullet wound glowing in chapter 11, which reveals that he’s been shot with an angelic weapon that will kill him unless the bullet is removed.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • Moxxie’s angry "The Reason You Suck" Speech to the rest of I.M.P in chapter 24 is all about him calling them out on how shitty their treatment of him is and that, if they (Blitzo in particular) care about him, they do an absolute crap job at showing it. It’s enough to give Blitzo a serious reality check, and after they all make up, the boss imp puts in more of an effort to be nicer to Moxxie… even if old habits sometimes die hard and Moxxie has to remind him to stop hurling insults at him.
  • Blitzo gives a speech like this to Stolas in chapter 28 after the latter ”shoots” himself in the head with an insufficiently enchanted angelic pistol, thus meaning that it can’t actually hurt him. The horrified Blitzo blows a fuse and angrily calls Stolas out on how tone-deaf, reckless and scary the little ”demonstration” was.
• When She Smiles: Moxxie and Joe end up having a heart-to-heart after the former has survived the Extermination, the end result being that Moxxie finally manages to get his father-in-law’s respect… And the beaming smile he gives off when he realizes this is noted by Blitzo (Who was secretly watching the whole thing) to be absolutely precious.
  • Striker also finds Moxxie’s smiles to be ”more radiant than they have any right to be”, and he makes note of the first genuine smile Moxxie shows him specifically when discussing Millie (Who’d just threatened over the phone to track Striker down and murder him if he didn’t keep Moxxie safe during Extermination Day):
    Striker: Your missus is something else.
    Moxxie: *beams with pride* Isn’t she?
• Wise Beyond Her Years: Moxxie is noted to think of Octavia as this during his recollections of the Goetian divorce drama in chapter 29, and he finds her admirable for it:
  Who would’ve thought that miss Octavia would be so much more than what the public gave her credit for. Certainly much more mature than either of her parents, her determination and strength of character was commendable.
• Yandere: Striker’s Villainous Crush on Moxxie ultimately culminates in him becoming one; As the fic progresses, his nicknames for Moxxie go from taunts to Terms of Endangerment, and by the end of the fic’s first act, he all but states out loud that he considers Moxxie his and finally tosses any semblance of restraint out the window in favor of ambushing and kidnapping Moxxie to fully claim him for himself.
• You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!:
  • This is Moxxie’s reaction when the Exorcists turn out to be able to use a Combination Attack to strike buildings down with blessings, after they’ve seemingly already managed to change the rules by successfully breaking some of the protective barriers:

    Moxxie: Blessings from above?! Yeah, sure! Why the fuck not?!
  • Striker internally quotes this trope word for word in chapter 28 after it’s revealed that his angelic weapons were so heavily modified that they wouldn’t’ve had an effect on Stolas anyway, meaning that all of his efforts and planning were pointless. The reveal leaves him pissed to high Heaven; In fact, he becomes so enraged that he almost blows his cover of innocence in favor of trying to strangle Stolas to death, break his neck or bashing his brains in right then and there, only snapping out of it when Moxxie glares at him and non-verbally dares him to not try anything.

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