Alastor sits down next to Zestial for the Overlords' meeting Carmilla Carmine called, and feels his nose physically twitch when he detects that tingle of power he's been feeling ever since 'Calla Lily' showed up in Hell - Charlie's Aunt Calli, he's almost sure of it, though she has yet to actually show herself in the flesh.
She has, however, stayed true to her word and played her music hours at a time…when he's not broadcasting, that is. When he is, he can practically hear her entertained amusement in the air - and he's fairly certain he actually heard her laughter on the air once when Vox got pushed into another meltdown-blackout for the city.
Husk and Angel Dust keep saying he's flirting with her and vice versa, especially since his last broadcast was about magic, but what would they know? Good company is difficult enough to find, especially in Hell of all places, so he's simply enjoying the one-in-a-million rarity of someone who not only has magic like he does but intelligence and a proper appreciation for radio.
Carmilla starts the meeting, right up until Velvette decides to interrupt with an all-too-obvious power-play by tossing an Angel head onto the table for everyone to see.
Zestial has just pointed out that attacking the angels back could well lead to hell-wide genocide instead of the usual numbers they take on Extermination Day, when suddenly a new voice says "It's not a possibility. It's a certainty." When everyone, even Velvette, snaps their head around to look at the owner of the voice, Alastor promptly uses every ounce of self-control in him to not give away the detail that he's seen this woman before. It's most definitely Charlie's 'Aunt Calli' from that photo, same shade of red hair, same pale skin…different dress, however, a black business dress with red accents that match her hair, and a black staff taller than she is at her back.
Velvette bluntly asks "Who the fuck are you, bitch?"
The red-haired woman - who's clearly still alive, definitely not a Sinner or Hellborn - pushes off the wall she was casually leaning against and says "The name's Calliope Peverell. I've already been briefed on who each of you is, and which two are missing."
Zestial hums, going tense for a moment before forcibly relaxing if Alastor had to guess, and says "Peverell, now there's a name I haven't heard in quite a while… Almost a millennia."
Calliope says "Well, that makes things easier, then. Suppose I won't have to explain why you should take me seriously, then."
Velvette scoffs, saying "Peverell? Those old fairytales? Hell's version of a cross between a unicorn and a pegasus! Some supposed lady who won't die? Everybody dies, everyone here is proof of that considering we're all dead souls."
Calliope raises an eyebrow, then says "Velvette Vee…as insolent, self-involved, and bratty as I'd heard. The so-called 'backbone' of a trio of demons who's respective gigs happened to mesh well enough that they gained influence. Grow up, take a look around. That angel wasn't killed by anything from down here, I can tell you that much. Angels and Demons alike can only be killed by a specially-enchanted weapon, enchantments nobody down here in hell knows a bloody thing about. As such, any potential uprising is doomed to fail from the beginning unless something drastically changes."
Velvette scowls, but Zestial says "You speak as if you have experience with angels, Miss Peverell. How might you have come by such information, might I ask?"
Calliope glances at each person individually, as if gauging how they'll react, and finally says "Because I've been to Heaven, dealt with angels. It's not all it's cracked up to be, really. Big city, mostly empty because their stupid restrictions only let maybe ten percent of people that die every year in. And the ones that are there are a pack of double-standard holding idiots led by an especially stupid idiot who thinks with his stick rather than the rotted brain between his ears." She rolls her eyes, and adds "And they wonder why Hell is so crowded, honestly." As much as she'd like to never see any of their stupid fucking righteous faces ever again, she gets the feeling she's going to end up going up there to bash some heads together and shove some common sense into others.
Velvette starts cackling like a madwoman, and says "Next you're going to say you have an alternative to Extermination!"
Calliope raises an eyebrow at her, then says "As of yet, no. That is, however, why I'm here now. Death has been getting a backlog of souls from Hell to process every single year on top of those from the mortal world that die, and we'd dearly like to find out why. All we can get out of any of them is 'Extermination' - which, as you can imagine, is less than informative. It's quite common, however, for over-traumatized souls to get too upset to actually give out coherent information."
Carmilla says "Death. As in…?"
"The reaper, the end, the deity, the concept given sentience. Not any kind of non-literal idea anyone might have. Death, straight up."
Velvette starts laughing once more, but she's the only one - everyone else has gone frozen with either curiosity or outright terror.
The Overlords that've been around for two centuries and more are frozen in place, hoping against hope that this woman doesn't so much as glance their way - Zestial in particular, much to Alastor's curiosity.
The younger Overlords - well, Alastor - is now intensely curious about her…and Velvette is utterly dismissive. Planting one hand on her hip and cocking it to the side once her laughter dies down, she scoffs and says "So, you don't know shit, is what you're saying."
The static coming from Alastor's mic crackles and wavers, and everyone else feels a tingle of power wash over them before receding as Calliope gives the youngest Overlord an 'I'm-so-done-with-you' stare. "I'm saying I have responsibilities that keep me from both Heaven and Hell quite often, if I ever wanted to head up to Heaven in the first place to deal with that pack of sanctimonious backstabbing arseholes to begin with. And, for the better part of two centuries, I've been splitting my time between keeping things interesting for a certain woman and helping D with getting a shite-ton of souls reborn before they were supposed to come to him. It's been piled up since the last global pandemic, and this year was especially bad. Now, would anybody here like to catch me up on what the here's been going on?"
Carmilla nods her head, saying "Indeed. Once a year for the past few thousand years, Heaven's forces come down to Hell and kill a significant amount of the population. This event has been termed 'Extermination Day' by them, and this latest one took sixteen percent of Hell's population. And now…they are coming back twice as fast. In six months' time, they will come again."
There's a beat of silence, the room seeming pressurized to explode, and then suddenly everything darkens as Calliope furiously asks "You mean to tell me, those idiots up above funnel ninety percent of all souls down here, decide there's a problem, and their solution is to kill everyone they can?!" This absolutely reeks of Adam's special brand of stupidity! If he's not neck-deep in this mess, if not the outright instigator, she'll eat her staff!
The room starts shaking from an earthquake, the windows all suddenly turn to dust, and the table suddenly cracks from the middle, Calla Lilies, wildflowers, Vincas, and vines spontaneously sprouting from the spiderwebbing of cracks and crevasses going all across the table.
Alastor eyes the woman in front of them all once more, noting the changes she herself just went through - her pale skin suddenly seems positively luminous, her already-vivid green eyes glowing a toxic neon green, and her pinned-up hair more resembles a small pool of fresh-spilled blood. Even her voice changed, suddenly resonating in everyone's very bones and seeming to hang in the air with her magic. Speaking of which, her magic - the past few days were just the scent of her, earlier just a brief taste, and he sees every single Overlord give a full-body shiver as the weight of her ancient power falls on them all. Quite a pleasure to meet you indeed...
Just as a chunk of the ceiling comes crashing down on the table, everyone hears a sharp cry as a brightly-glowing white Owl with luminous golden eyes phases through the wall and lands on Calliope's shoulder - Hedwig, as Charlie's called the owl.
And, from the way the magical bird is staring at him, he's been recognized.
Amazingly enough, the quake slows to a halt as she scans the roll of parchment the magical owl that's clearly her Familiar drops into her hand, and the room lightens up to reveal Calliope in the form she was in before. The roll of parchment disappears - likely put away for later, if Alastor had to take a guess - and Calliope gives everyone in the room a humorless smile before saying "Apologies for the mess, my magic reacts to things even when I don't want it to."
Calliope waves her hand almost dismissively, and Alastor barely has time to pluck a Calla Lily from the crack in front of him before it gets repaired and the rest of the plants vanish. He carefully tucks the flower away for later, and sees nobody's noticed as they're all staring at Calliope in utter shock - even Velvette, from where she's hiding under the table. The pink-haired woman flatly says "Holy fuckin' shit, bitch. What the fuck was that about?!"
Calliope deadpans "You've clearly not been listening, brat. Get out. The door's that way."
Velvette's jaw drops, and she incredulously asks "Don't you know who I am?! I'm the backbone of the Vee's, I'm that hashtag bitch, I'm-"
Calliope suddenly levitates Velvette so they're eyelevel, one hand glowing the same brilliant emerald color as her eyes glowed in the darkness and are glowing now, and she says "The so-called backbone of the Vees is a spoiled rotten, immature, phone-obsessed teenager. How terrifying." There's several muted coughs and muffled laughs, and Velvette screeches in outrage.
Calliope adds "Don't think for a minute I've been sitting around twiddling my thumbs in the past week I've been in Hell, little girl. I've collected enough information about everyone in this room to have at least a rough guess at the various powers and abilities in here. You and your two 'friends' haven't got shite going for yourselves without the other two, and all four of us knows it. You wouldn't have shite to post on that phone of yours without them, Vox wouldn't have anything to broadcast or get any viewers without Valentino and you, and Valentino wouldn't have anyone even knowing about his shite if it wasn't hyped up on your social media and aired on Tv. Do not think for even a single instant that I won't Ward every television in this plane of existence to block his mind-control you clearly didn't expect me to know about, purify the pheromones moth-boy secretes in his spit that you market as a love potion of all things, and let all of Hell know how you would've led them to not just 'Extermination' but extinction should you try to fuck with me - am I clear?"
The silence in the room is so thick, one could hear a pin drop loud and clear. Carmilla lets out a small cough, and says "I believe this meeting is over with for now. Madam Peverell, might I have a word?"