Vox is checking the monitors for the Complex he, Valentino, and Velvette run and live in together when he notices two figures in Valentino's studio that definitely shouldn't be there.
The first is Lucifer's daughter, instantly recognizable with her blonde hair and the dots on her cheeks.
The second…Velvette's ranting and raving instantly springs to mind, along with every scrap of research he did on the Peverell Myth, as it's called. And what he found…isn't encouraging. Supposedly, Peverell came to Hell with Lucifer and Lilith - and, while Lilith brought civility to Hell, Peverell brought civilization to the place. Made all the original buildings, created Pentagram city from nothing, even cleared Pride Ring of all the demons so Sinners could have their own space without being enslaved by the all-powerful beings if the more outlandish stories are to be believed.
One short poem from about a thousand years ago sums it up pretty well, if he's right - 'Hair like blood and wings of death, snake whispers steal your breath. Eyes of magic and songs been sung, beware the one who is forever young.'
He doesn't see any wings on that woman, but that hair is the exact color of blood and Velvette's description of what went on in that last Overlords' meeting certainly fit the bill for magic.
Quickly calling up Velvette, Vox could almost sigh in relief when she miraculously picks up on the first ring. "What is it, Vox? I'm about to be-"
"Velvette, this is serious. I'm going to send you a picture, and you're going to tell me if you recognize the woman in it." Velvette raises an eyebrow, but starts cursing up a storm as soon as she sees the image. Vox groans, and says "I take it you know who she is."
"That's the bitch that showed up at the meeting and had the gall to threaten me!"
Shitshitshitshit… "Val's studio, now. She's up there with Lucifer's daughter, and from all the research I've been doing-"
Vox is suddenly cut off by a voice coldly asking "You threatened my niece?"
Vox promptly disappears into the computer cables to get up there faster.
Angel stumbles and hits the bed when Valentino throws him by the back of his dressing robe, yelling "Alright! Get your asses back on set, we're taking this from the top!"
Charlie glances between Valentino and Angel, having gotten a glimpse of a black eye Angel definitely didn't have five minutes ago, who's getting to his feet, and yells "WHAT MAKES YOU THINK YOU CAN TREAT HIM LIKE THAT?!" She can feel her horns start growing out of her head, her hair escape the braid she normally keeps it in, and the power surging through her veins in her sheer fury, but all Valentino does is smirk at her, top set of arms crossed over his chest while the bottom set has one planted on his hip as she advances on him.
Angel suddenly gets between Valentino and Charlie, black eye clear for both her and Calli to see, and says "Charlie! Just stop!"
Calliope raises an eyebrow in surprise, but doesn't say anything - just takes in every detail as Angel Dust does a complete 180 personality-wise on Charlie.
Charlie asks "Angel, what are you talking-"
"Charlie, leave! I didn't want you to come here, I already asked you to leave - you didn't listen, you made things worse!" It takes Calli exactly one glance of Angel's towards Valentino for her to piece what's going on together.
Angel's just told Charlie to leave if she really wants to help him when Calli turns to Valentino and coldly asks "You threatened my niece?" This piece of shit pimp thinks he can just threaten whoever he wants?
Valentino glances at her, missing the way Angel audibly swallows, and asks "Who now?"
Angel runs over to place himself between Calli and Valentino, anger evaporated like it was never even there, and says "No, Calli, I swear Val didn't threaten anyone, I promise-"
Calliope deadpans "That black eye of yours says otherwise." And then, before Angel can try to steer her towards the door, she bursts into emerald green mist and reappears behind him before advancing towards Valentino - who apparently has some functioning brain cells in his head, as he's backing away without the cocky smirk.
One of the other actors - Rocky, Angel remembers - grabs her shoulder to try and stop her before he can warn him not to…and promptly gets blown into the back wall by an arc of brilliant green lightning as the room starts to darken ominously.
Angel curses, putting himself between Calli and Valentino yet again while still walking backwards to keep himself there, and says "Calli, Calli, I swear he didn't threaten her, I swear. I just tripped over the robe and hit the vanity, I swear-"
Valentino curses as his back hits the glass, and again when he realizes the glass is barely holding together and is cracked in a million different spots, and Angel's body gets moved to the side somehow to reveal…a drastically different version of this 'Calli' than he saw before - hair looking like liquid blood, skin positively luminous in the darkness, eyes glowing the same color as that magic of hers…and he can feel her magic filling up the room, almost suffocating him as it does. Darting to the side to have an available escape route, he nervously calls over "Angie, baby, what's wrong with your friend?" He's caught onto the detail that Angel Dust is suddenly more afraid of this 'Calli' than he is him, and he'd be more insulted if he couldn't feel the sheer power filling up the room making every hair on his entire body stand on end.
Val's never been so happy to see Vox as when the fellow Overlord makes his entrance into the room via a security camera - unfortunately, Vox immediately starts shorting out, his face going haywire as he grips at it while stumbling.
Angel calls over "What's 'wrong' with her, Val, is she's quite literally the strongest person I've ever met, has magic that reacts on a dime, and you've managed to piss her off! That's what's wrong! Calli, I swear I'll be fine!"
Calli's just quite literally ripped Valentino from the wall and thrown him to the floor when Angel gets between the two a third time, arms outstretched and looking absolutely, desperately terrified. "Calli! You can't kill Valentino!"
Velvette bursts through the door right then, unnoticed in all the commotion, and quickly drags Valentino back towards Vox as Calli asks "Why not? Give me one good reason-"
Angel blurts out "He's got me under contract!"
Everything just seems to go still, even Valentino not daring to move in case he breaks the moment and draws her attention once more, and Calli eventually asks "You sold your soul to him?!"
Angel quickly says "He said it was a work contract, we outlined the basics. How many hours a week I'd work, what the pay would be, etc. It was only after I signed it that I realized it bound my soul to him - and, if you kill him while it's still valid, who the fuck knows what'll happen!" If it sounds selfish, cowardly, and manipulative…Angel doesn't really care right now. He's genuinely terrified that if Calli kills Val, it'll end him as well - if he knew for certain that wasn't the case, he'd stand back and let Calli disintegrate the asshole.
As it is, the Overlord still owns his very soul - and, while he was cocky enough to have never thought he could be killed…Angel's pretty sure there's some kind of clause somewhere to do with such circumstances.
Calli doesn't go back to her usual appearance, but the hair-raising, glass-vibrating power filling the room thankfully lessens some - Angel has the slightly ridiculous thought that it's escaping out the door Velvette came through, and it very nearly makes him burst out in laughter. Which is a sure sign he's already had way too much today, especially of Val's pheromones, because this is the furthest thing from funny…even if the sight of Valentino shaking in his boots on the floor is the best thing he's seen in ages. Instead of either thing happening, Angel spies Vox still shorting out, and asks "What's with him?"
Calli glances away from Angel, sees Vox still gripping his twitching and jerking head as it does every possible thing a malfunctioning television does, from the lines of static to the black screens, electricity jumping off him as he grips at his head, and says "My magic tends to fuck with electronics advanced past a certain era. The more electricity and fancy computer chips and such in it, the worse it gets unless it's specially shielded. The tv back at the hotel is pretty close to the limit as it is, and it only functions around me because it's so old-fashioned. His flat-screen head? Hasn't got a chance."
Angel says "Right…well, he's the brains of the three of 'em - someone has to be, after all - and he might have something to say you might wanna hear…" It's a long-shot, true, but he might. Also, anything to try and distract Calli from her terrifying rage - now he gets what she meant by 'my words don't carry much weight up in heaven, even if my wrath does.' If someone looked like that because of him, he'd be on the floor agreeing to do whatever she wants.
Calliope's expression says she doesn't think that's remotely possible, but she rolls her eyes and says "Fine…suppose I should meet the last of them, one of them has to be the power behind it all, and the two I've met so far are largely pathetic." To be clear, she's referring to brain power - the three of them found a way to gain power together that works, but take away any of them and their power-pyramid will crumble.
Charlie inches her way over to Angel's side as Calli stalks over to the Vees, and whispers "I'm so sorry, Angel…"
Angel shakes his head, saying "I'm sorry to, for yelling at you. I wasn't mad at you, really. Val…you can't fix Val. He's down here for a damn good reason, Charlie, the kind of reasons that you can't just make disappear. Not…not everybody can be redeemed."
Charlie nods silently, then asks "You want to sit down?"
"I wish. If my contract isn't broken at the end of this, Val will definitely have my head."
Vox sighs in relief when the horrendous interference fucking with his circuitry suddenly mostly disappears, only to feel Velvette tugging at his sleeve urgently as she hisses "She's coming, Vox!" Valentino jerks his head up sharply, having been rubbing his aching body, only to find himself body-slammed against the wall by the petite woman without her even touching him.
Vox takes a few large steps backwards to keep functioning, and says "You must be Miss Peverell…"
Calliope barely even glances at Vox, saying "Yep. Calliope Peverell." Turning her full attention to Valentino, she says "Give me the contract, bug, or-"
Valentino spits out "Like fuck am I giving you-"
Vox quickly cuts in, asking "Might I speak with my associate for a moment?"
Calliope drops Valentino to the ground, and Vox quickly drags him to an empty corner and yanks him down so they're at eye-level - they hear his voice go deeper and distorted, much like Calli's changed when she went 'glowing-and-deadly,' as he says "Let her read the contract, Val, else I'm fairly certain she'll rip your limbs off one by one and burn them to a crisp!"
Velvette glances between her two partners and Calliope, and says "You wouldn't…would you?"
"No." Velvette sighs, up until Calliope says "I'd rip his organs out one by one and feed them to people in Cannibal Town. And, yes, skin, muscles, and bones are also organs."
Velvette swallows audibly, right along with Valentino who clearly heard every word she just said, and says "Right…good to know…" Fuck, who the hell did she try to pick a fight with in that Overlords' meeting?!?!
Valentino reluctantly produces the golden roll of magical parchment, and it zooms into Calliope's hand so fast it nearly hits Vox in the face as it flies past - Vox doesn't even react to that, continuing to talk to Valentino while the terrifyingly-deadly woman is distracted. Unrolling the parchment, Calliope quickly reads through the magical contract - from the litany of hissing she starts doing, she doesn't like what she sees. Vox mutters "Oh, fuuuck…"
After a solid minute, Calliope glances over at Valentino and says "You are, without question, the luckiest bug in existence today. You're aware of that, right? Because, I can't kill you in every way I know how to combine in connection with Anthony over there due to this contract." She's been testing it with her magic since it hit her hand, and it's unfortunately very valid and legal. If it weren't, the parchment would be up in smoke right now.
All three of the Vees sigh in relief, right up until Calli adds "The same, however, cannot be said of this building. Anthony comes back injured beyond the obvious he'd get from this job, and I'll personally raze this entire complex to the ground. Am I clear?"
Vox quickly says "Crystal clear, hi-definition clarity! Right Val?" Valentino nods, looking a mix of outraged and terrified as he does.
Calli walks over to Angel, contract still in hand, and says "It's airtight, bar one clause. You're doing, I assume?" She can't see Valentino just putting it in the contract that he can only do anything to his employee in the studio. Outside this building, Angel's free to do whatever he wants.
Angel nods, saying "Yeah. Since it was pitched as a work agreement, he couldn't really say no I guess…"
"Well," Calli says, eyes still glowing green as her hand starts to do so as well, "I may be able to enforce that a little stricter than he was intending. He tries anything outside these walls, he loses you."
Angel's jaw drops, and he asks "You can…" Charlie's aunt can make magical deals?! When the heck did that...right, half-demon. Good to know!!
"Yep. I don't screw people over…and, generally, I don't usually make deals with my magic. I've got more than enough power unless I need to go to war on the other six Rings and all their inhabitants or some such, and everybody generally assumes I'm just going to own their souls or whatnot. It's really not worth the hassle that explaining over and over again that I don't want their souls is. The temporary power-boost is nice, though."
Angel asks "So…what do you want in return? You've already said no to…" He gestures towards the abandoned scene.
Calli thinks for a moment, then says "After you're free from Valentino Vee, you give up the drugs. All of them. Having a drink with some friends, I don't particularly care about - getting high as a kite in the process is out the window. Deal?"
Valentino yells "ANGEL, DON'T YOU FUCKING DARE!!" Vox and Velvette promptly tackle Valentino to the ground so he doesn't get himself killed.
Angel glances between Calli and Valentino for a moment…then quickly grasps her hand in two of his and shakes it - the resulting explosion of power takes out the power to the whole building for a solid minute, even as Vox starts swearing to himself and potentially Velvette and Valentino. "Fuuuck, she really makes deals to…" And he's willing to bet she's already made at least one deal with Charlotte Morningstar already - wait, fuck she lives with Alastor!! FUCK!!
Emerald-green magic forms a ribbon instead of the chain Angel was expecting, and embeds itself in the red-smoke-chain that forms around his neck - something he sees a muscle in Calli's jaw twitch about.
Sending the contract back to Valentino - and hitting him square in the face with it, much to Angel's not-at-all secret amusement - Calli says "I think we're done for now. Charlie, head back to the hotel. Anthony and I will come back once he's done working."
Angel coughs, saying "You can just call me Angel Dust…it's been ages since anyone called me that."
Calli flatly says "It's your name."
Angel shrugs, saying "I'm sorta used to Angel Dust…"
Calli just shrugs, saying "Fine. I guess Angel can be a nickname or something…" While she doesn't want to call him a title Valentino gave him…she'll respect his choice nonetheless. Still, if things get serious, she's calling him his actual name.
Charlie asks "Aunt Calli…you're not coming with?!"
Valentino opens his mouth, but Vox promptly claps a hand over is and hisses "If she wants to stay, all three of us together can't force her out! If we try, we'll lose the entire building and probably our afterlives with it!"
Calli snaps her fingers, the blown-out windows getting replaced by clear glass, and a black chair with blood-red cushions appears in the corner opposite from where Val and the director usually sit. Valentino asks "What the fuck?!"
Calli sits down in it, saying "It's simple, really. I'm not leaving without him, and I don't really care what you think about it or how long you plan to keep him." Charlie opens her mouth, and Calli immediately says "Charlotte Calypso Aconite Morningstar, you are heading back to the hotel and the others now-"
Charlie squeaks, quickly nodding her head and hurrying out the door.
Angel whistles, saying "Damn, now that is some impressive shit, Calli. You do know Val wants to do an overnight shoot, right?"
Calli shrugs, saying "We did all-nighters in school while studying for O.W.L.s to. Plus, I'm an insomniac most of the time. Don't worry, you'll hardly even remember I'm here. I'm good at that."
Angel raises an eyebrow, asking "Is that why you're always up so early?" Calli shrugs as Hedwig phases through the wall and lands on her shoulder, making Valentino freak out - owls eat moths, after all!
Calliope gives Valentino a perfectly blank expression, bar one raised eyebrow, and says "Touch my Familiar, and you lose your hand right before your life. And, in case you don't know, that is perfectly allowed despite your contract with Anthony as it's a completely separate matter."
Valentino scowls, eying the magical owl warily, and says "Just keep that monster-bird away from me."
Hedwig lets out a hoot, fluffing her feathers up and locking glowing yellow eyes onto the moth demon. Calliope smirks, and says "Hed says she'll keep her distance so long as you keep your hands to yourself."
That overnight shoot turns out to be the best shoot Angel's had in…well, ever. He stays with Calli between scenes, something Val is pissed about but he doesn't dare go near Calli and Hedwig.
She keeps herself quietly occupied writing stuff in a notebook, or on a phone call nobody else can hear, Plus, Calli just somehow keeps coming up with popsicles for him - just wiggles her fingers and one just appears mid-flip over to him. It's probably the nicest thing anyone's done for him in the studio.
Her offering to give him a magic tattoo or two she's now working on is definitely another top three - he's got no idea what the tattoos are, though, as she said it'd be a surprise. And the 'Pepper-Ups' she somehow makes out of thin air are awesome, even aside from the detail that he literally has steam coming out of his ears when he drinks them! Best energy drink ever!