Dog-Breath and Birdbrain
is a Helluva Boss fanfic which follows Grace, an Ordinary High-School Student living the small town life in the Pacific Northwest. Nothing much normally happens where she lives, until a group of Men in Black calling themselves "Truth Seekers" start turning their town over for some mysterious investigation.
Before long, Grace ends up running into two stray demons—Octavia and Loona—and ends up becoming their Secret-Keeper while she works to keep them safe and fed and, hopefully, find them a way home.
This fanfic provide examples of:
- Adaptational Badass: At first the "Truth Seekers" seem as bumbling and incompetent as they were in their debut episode, but then two agents disguised as drunken Halloween celebrants lull Loona into letting her guard down long enough to capture her without getting hurt.
- Aliens of London: Grace takes a moment to point out the oddity of Octavia having a British accent, when she doesn't even know what Britain is. Loona claims it's a 'posh' accent, and initially assumes "British" is some sort of anti-demon slur.
- Bathos: The story leans more towards relatively straightforward drama, but some canon-typical humor creeps in with the D.H.O.R.K.S. However, in their first scene, it's clear that despite their various quirks, they mean business.
- Batman Gambit: The agents truth-gas a captured Loona, believing that whatever she sees will get her to reveal Octavia's location and Grace's identity. It works as the hellhound crumbles under the pressure of her inner mind and accidentally mentions Grace's name which is all they need to track the girl down.
- Cast Full of Gay: Grace and a lot of her friends are openly queer, and Octavia mentions that roughly 90% of demons (not counting sinners) are some flavor of queer too (though she's convinced Katie Killjoy is straight).
- Cessation of Existence: As usual, angelic weapons can permanently kill demons, but worse they can do this to still living humans, which happens to both the Sheriff who knew too much and apparently Agent One.
- Deader than Dead: Anything killed by an angelic weapon suffers their fate, with their souls ending up not in Heaven or Hell but Purgatory. Agent One suffers this fate, after angering Cletus too much.
- Disproportionate Retribution: While Cletus and Keenie more than deserved their final fate, Collin arguably doesn’t, as he was mainly bullied into helping them and was routinely abused by his fellow cherubs the whole time, clearly being regretful about their actions and even attempting to help the protagonists in the end.
- Distant Finale: The final chapter epilogue, takes place ten months in the future, with Grace now attending college, the mysterious sightings of Octavia fading into urban legend, and all her friends from Earth and Hell, having mostly recovered from the ordeal. And with Octavia deciding to move to Earth for the time being, even attending Grace's college, to continue her relationship with her girlfriend.
- Drama-Preserving Handicap: The fake Grimoire didn't just forcibly send Octavia and Loona to Earth, but it also suppressed their magic, meaning they can't use their human disguises to blend in.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Despite everyone having gone through much hardship, almost everyone ends up in a happy place by the end. Loona & Octavia are reunited with their fathers and their home. After some hardship, Grace has rebuilt her friendship with Archie & Jenny, keeping in touch with her hellish friends and is attending college studying Theology—Religious Studies. Loona goes back to her old life, though her relationship with Blitzo is improving. Stolas divorces Stella and is happily and openly pursuing Blitzo. Even Agent Two is out in Purgatory looking for her partner. And finally Grace & Octavia are able to continue their romantic relationship, as the princess decides to attend her girlfriend's college disguised as a human.
- Entertainingly Wrong: When Grace first meets Octavia and Loona she assumes they're the product of government experimentation, a misconception Loona encourages for a time.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Stella and Andrealphus' cruel and demeaning treatment of their imp servants repulses Striker, with the last straw being turning that cruelty on him.
- Evil Is Petty: When Stolas goes to Stella practically begging for his Grimoire back, Stella takes an almost sadistic delight in humiliating him in front of every body, making him kiss her boot and then kicking him while he's down. Then when she finally surrenders the book, she has Striker shoot it, has destroying the grimoire and its magic.
- Fate Worse than Death: Chapter 18 ends with Stolas sending the cherubs to Stella's mansion. Given the exceptionally heinous treatment Stella and Andrealphus have heaped on their imp servants, it's safe to say they're in for a bad time. The final chapter reveals they've become Stella's replacements for Octavia, Striker and Blitzo and are constantly abused by the swan and fearing for their lives.
- For Halloween Im Going As Myself: Grace brings Octavia along to a friend's Halloween party where the host is specifically holding a contest for people wearing costumes in Octavia's likeness, as she's become Shrouded in Myth after being caught on camera shoplifting. Averted with Loona, however, with Grace noticing that some of her canine features are too lifelike to pass off as a costume. Loona tries it anyway later on with a pair of drunks who seem to fall for it, only for them to be perfectly sober undercover agents who lure her into an ambush.
- Furry Reminder: Grace gives Loona a thermos of Hot Chocolate to keep her company, while she and Via go to a party. Unfortunately, Loona is unable to drink it, due to it being poisonous to hounds like her.
- Grew a Spine: After spending most of the fanfic abused and belittled by his fellow cherubs, Collin finally snaps and stands up for himself in Chapter 18, drawing a holy weapon upon them and calling them out for their behavior.
- HAHAHA No: The cherubs demand that Stolas exile Blitzo and the imps onto Earth, like what happened to them. Stolas says nothing at first, then breaks into a fit of laughter at the request, after which he explains to them he doesn't have the power to do that Grimoire or no.
- Heel–Face Door-Slam: Collin turns on Cletus when he admits how little he cares for humans, or even his own coworkers. Stolas implies he sent him along with the other Cherubs to Stella's service anyway.
- Heel–Face Turn:
- Striker pulls one in Chapter 17, revealing Loona & Octavia's location to Stolas, in exchange for safe passage into Earth. While he initially served Stella and was happy to kill on her and her brother's behalf, he became disgusted and horrified by how they treated the servants and eventually himself.
- During the Mexican Standoff in Chapter 18 Keenie and Collin both turn on Cletus when he badmouths them. Collin is especially disgusted with Cletus' behavior and turns his gun on him, admitting they deserve it for their foul behavior.
- Human Disguise: Octavia gains one during the epilogue, as she decides to stay on Earth and attend Grace's college, posing as her human roommate.
- I Kiss Your Foot: Stella makes Stolas kiss her foot, in exchange for the Grimoire. Stolas reluctantly does so and receives her kick to his face for good measure.
- Interspecies Romance: Grace, a human girl, finds herself falling for Octavia, a demon noble.
- The Man Behind the Man: Part of D.H.O.R.K.S.'s spike in competence is getting advice on demon-hunting from Cletus, Keenie and Collin about I.M.P.'s modus operandi.
- Mushroom Samba: Upon being captured Loona gets treated to her own Truth Gas hallucination, wherein a fake version of Blitzo, Grace, Octavia, Vortex and herself, mock her and call her out for her faults and shitty behavior towards others, especially Blitzo, eventually managing to trick her into revealing the identity of her friend.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Loona receives a bitter one from her own mind, while under the effects of the Truth Gas. Wherein, she imagines twisted versions of Blitzo, Vortex and herself calling her out for her awful treatment of Blitzo, her inability to open up to others despite wanting friends and approval and her need to feel pitied for her state without putting in any efforts to improving herself.
- Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: Having captured Loona and the others, Cletus explains his plan to them. When he's finished, he adds this as an extra step, specifically hate-lusting after Loona, immediately sealing him as the vilest of the cherubs by far.
- Replacement Goldfish: The Cherub's ultimate fate in the epilogue. After being imprisoned by a now isolated and defeated Stella, she has made Keenie into a replacement Octavia, whom she is highly critical of, Collin into a her new Striker and Cletus into Blitzo, whom she regularly abuses and insults.
- Shapeshifting Lover: By the end Octavia gains a human disguise thanks to her father, allowing her to attend a college on Earth and continue her relationship with her girlfriend Grace.
- To Serve Man: Loona briefly alludes to eating an adult human who discovered them earlier. Octavia was apparently oblivious to this, and Grace is terrified of the prospect until finding out she Wouldn't Hurt a Child.
- Wham Line: "You’re going to need to decide which leg is meant to be the bad one. Grace is going to get suspicious otherwise."
