So- I had this idea. It short, it's a genderbent ADGTH AU! I'm not doing a whole story for it, most likely- or, at least not on here- but I got to thinkin' yesterday... what if Charlie had been a female? His (her, in this AU) name is actually Charlotte, of course, but she goes by Charlie because it sounds better, in her opinion. She also looks exactly the same as regular Charlie, but just more feminine. A little less broad in the shoulders and chest, y'know? Annabelle in this scene is a male, and his name is Amos. He has the same role as Charlie does, and serves to greet angels to Heaven when they arrive, like Annabelle does.
So I thought- why not try this out for size? I hope you guys like this if you give it a read! Thanks!
The last thing Charlie saw before everything went dark was- nothing. Darkness, actually. Maybe a blindfold. Oh! She wondered what the big surprise had been- the one Carface had hyped up for several hours.
She sure didn't know right now; at the moment, everything was dark. Then there was a burst of colors, and the sensation of being catapulted through the air, and then- SMASH- her head began to throb.
Charlie found herself lying upside down... against a sparkling golden gate, when she looked. Utterly confused, she slowly opened her eyes. "Huh-? W-wh-where am I?!" she panted, stumbling through her words. A bright blue orb appeared next to her, and then a pinkish-colored whippet was there. "This is the Great Hall of Judgement," he said, smiling warmly at her. Panic struck Charlie like a lightning bolt; she kicked out with her long legs and gasped.
"Judgement?!" she cried, flattening her ears. The whippet just smiled again. "Oh, not to worry, Charlotte. You'll go to Heaven," he filled her in, and, not bothering to correct him with the name she didn't adore, but didn't hate either, Charlie looked down at her paws- she was floating! Over a purplish-pinkish rug walkway with a bunch of shapes on it.
"All dogs go to Heaven because, unlike people, dogs are naturally good, and loyal and kind," he informed Charlie, who just stared and let a smile grow on her face. The whippet picked up a diamond and tossed it into the air casually, and then he began to fly away. She forgot all about the red-banded watch she'd been given by Carface on Earth, instead following him.
"Huh- hey, that's true!"
"Welcome to doing whatever you wish!" he sang, watching Charlie look around curiously- and excitedly! "Ah... this is really a... lovely place you've got here!" she observed, grinning. "Eating whenever you please," he continued, waving a paw, "follow me- to a constant different climate, we keep it seventy-three degrees- we still have Fahrenheit here." Charlie looked down and saw a big lion and three little lambs peacefully sleeping together on a bundle of clouds.
"That's fine with me!" she said, still following the mysterious angel. "Welcome to not more Rat Race!"
Charlie, wide-eyed, just leapt after him. "Oh boy!"
"To order and calm instead-"
"Ahh, great, great."
He finally hopped over this desk and spun on a silver stool. Then he looked Charlie in the eye and calmly said- "welcome... to being dead."
Horror engulfed Charlie's whole being; she drew back sharply, understanding all of a sudden what was going on. "What??" She put a paw to her chest in shock. "You mean I'm- I'm-!"
The whippet didn't look up. "Stone cold, I'm afraid!" Charlie was then overcome by fierce anger. "I can't believe it!! I've been murdered!!" she yelled, floating upside down where she was. 'Amos,' according to the locket around his neck, flipped through the pages of a book that sat on his desktop. It was so thick Charlie didn't know if she could fit it in her mouth! "I'm having trouble finding any goodness or loyalty here, Charlotte, but let me see..."
Charlie shook her head and came back down to glare at him. "He killed me!!" she snapped. "I beg your pardon?" Amos asked, and, annoyed by his lack of sympathy and/or surprise, Charlie pounded her fist against a certain page. "There's a mistake been made here!!"
When she looked down, Charlie saw a photo of herself as a puppy- she had torn papers in her mouth, naturally- but she also saw her parents as well. She quickly looked back up. "I don't wanna die!" she began to (angrily) sing, gasping as a tiny dish appeared beside her. A little fox angel took her paw and dabbed it in some powdery stuff. "You've got the wrong gal!" Charlie wrenched her paw away.
"I was double-crossed by a dirty rat- actually this rat was a dog, but his car ran me down-!" A lavender cloak was stuffed over her head, and then a pair of wings were applied, and finally a golden halo. "I just blew outtajail- I just got back to town- hey! This is hard to explain-!" Amos appeared beside her, but Charlie wasn't finished, and pointed her finger at him.
"May I speak to your superior?! 'CAUSE I DON'T WANNA DIE-!!!" she cried, but Amos took over for her. "Welcome to doing whatever you wish," he repeated, and, ever frustrated, Charlie growled, "you've got the wrong gal!"
"Laughing and singing all day~"
Charlie was in no mood to listen to him. "Hey!! Listen here, buddy! My time's not up yet!!" she snarled, beginning to struggle out of the stupid gown. "Oh, it is!" Amos said, "there's no mistake about that! We know everything, Charlotte." He disappeared into his blue glow, and Charlie found herself floating upward with a cloud beneath her. "Murdered in the prime of my life!" She now had the cloak wrapped over her head, but she shook her fists in fury. "Damn that Carface, I'll kill 'im!" she vowed, but she stopped; suddenly there were many different kinds of clocks everywhere! "Hey... this must be the watch department, huh?" she asked, looking at Amos as he came level with her, exiting his glow.
"Well, you might call it that." A shiny golden watch with a blue neck band came down until it was even with Charlie's nose, and she stared at it, entranced. "You see, this watch is your life..." Amos continued, "and it stopped."
Charlie looked away. "Well... can't ya just wind it up or something?" she pleaded. Amos was surprised. "And send you back? Oh, no no no no... no-one's ever allowed to go back!" The thick book came up from through the clouds beneath them, and Amos stood on his hind legs before it. "Just put your paw right here." Charlie scowled at it. "Whats'at for?" she grumbled. "For a Book of Records," he explained, but Charlie wasn't listening; she was trying to tug the watch from where it hung. "You see, anything that ever was- or will be- is right here." He proceeded to shove it into Charlie's paws to stop her from taking the watch. She lost her grip on it, and kept glaring.
"Oh, isn't that wonderful... I love it here." Amos began to move away, and Charlie looked after him. "So... y'mean there's no surprises or anything?"
"Oh, no no no... we know everything," Amos replied. Charlie's lips curled into a devious grin- she had a plan. "Oh, that's just lovely. The clouds, the grass, the air..." She jumped up twice and landed on the end of a staircase, and then jumped onto her own cloud behind Amos's. "Heaven is a wonderful place," he mused, and Charlie nodded her head. "Yeah... no surprises, huh?" Then she fluttered her eyelashes. "Say... would you like to dance?" Amos took her paw as their clouds merged, and Charlie let him put a small paw on her back. She draped her arm over his slender shoulders and smiled. "You mean if I'm waiting for an inside straight up here, I'd know in advance whether I'd filled it?" she asked sweetly, leaning into Amos's body. They began slowly moving around the cloud. "We know how it all turns out."
Charlie took his free paw and held their untwined ones out. "You must've... studied dancing," she said, smiling innocently and moving her position again. "You have... natural rhythm. Unusual for a whippet." Charlie swung herself out and began to spin around and around, grinning mischievously. Amos chuckled. "Woah... I'm getting dizzy!" Charlie drew herself in and then to the side, allowing her body to fall into place. She lay into Amos's arm, and he held her up that way for a bit as they swayed from side to side. She held her arm up to hold his paw, and her other arm she tossed over her forehead dramatically.
"Everything is so lovely here..." Charlie sighed, watching Amos close his eyes and smile. Her eyes were half closed. "So planned... so ordered..." Charlie's face turned to a scowl, and she let go of his paw to ball her fist. "-and that's what drivin' me crazy!"
Suddenly, Charlie caught sight of that blue-banded watch. She grinned evilly and twisted slowly in Amos's grip; then she kicked her hinds legs out and began to glide through the air... and began to sing.
"I need... Brazil! The throb, the thrill..." She reached the watch after missing twice, and she carefully grabbed it in once paw. "I've never been there... but someday I will! Adventure and danger..." Suddenly it was yanked from her grasp. "Love from a stranger..." Amos smiled innocently at Charlie, who glared at him. Then they came to a long dip down into the deepest part of Heaven. Charlie got to the edge and watched him fly downward; Amos had tossed Charlie's watch!
"Let... me be...surprised!"
Charlie flung herself off the edge, surprised at the weightless feeling, but she stayed belly-up and smiled as she snatched her watch out of the air. "La-de-da-da-da-da-bom-bom-bom~"
Suddenly, as Charlie chuckled, Amos appeared right in front of her; he snatched the watch from her paws with a smile and laugh, but Charlie came crashing down onto a big pile of clocks. "Hmmm- la-la-laaa..." Amos sang, flying out of view with Charlie's watch in his possession. Charlie hauled herself to her paws and smiled. "Today, there's sun... they said there'd be snow..." She jumped out in front of Amos, who was singing with her in the background, and Charlie wagged her tail as she noticed that Amos had put her watch down.
"When all's said and done, it's fun not to know~!" Charlie leapt up and, taking the red "lucky" watch that hung around her neck, she draped it around Amos's and pulled him close to her. "What keeps my heart humming... is guessingwhat's coming!" As she distracted his attention to her pretty brown eyes, Charlie's back foot dragged her Heavenly watch to her, and luckily Amos didn't notice. "Let... me be surprised!"
As a waterfall of watches came upon the two dogs, Charlie twisted herself around and leapt over the ledge, landing on the other side with Amos right behind her. "Ohhhh... ain't it great?"
"Ain't it great..." Amos joined her, and Charlie quickly hid her watch behind her back as a shooting star flew across the sky. "When fate- makes you wait." Amos turned back to her, smiling, but Charlie was beginning to grow impatient. "The world seems mirthless, and you... feel worthless-" Charlie was afraid for a moment that Amos would see the watch, as he was starting to look behind her curiously, so she tossed it into her opposite paw and placed the now free one against his cheek, smiling nervously and stammering just a tad.
"A-and suddenly-there's a big- bone on your plate!"
Charlie leapt up and through the cloud-wall beside her, and then she heard Amos's voice behind her and she glided across the beautiful night sky and looked at the lights of the city below.
"Oh, Charlotte, please remember, down there's a world of used cars... and singles bars... broken dreams, and out of reach stars~"
Charlie held the watch in front of her chest, only shaking her head casually. "But it isn't over~ not for this rover!" She pulled it behind her back again and waited for Amos to catch up before continuing.
"I... don't like... to steal... haha-!" She turned herself around once. "But I... don'tbuy this deal~"
Finally, Charlie flew with her belly up as if she was lying down, and held the watch close to her fur. She smirked down at it in near-triumph.
"In 'bout three seconds, he... will've re-al-ized..." Charlie was started when Amos arrived, floating over her and singing his own note. She laughed nervously, jumping in alarm, and puffed her chest out with a quick laugh. "Haha...!" Then her expression became more playful... but also more secretive.
"Annnnd, he's gonna be-!" Charlie smiled at the watch's shiny gleam and quickly began to wind it up. "Charlotte, what're you doing?" Amos inquired, confused at her diverted attention. Charlie flashed a toothy smile at him. "Wait'll you see-!" Amos grabbed at her shoulder and tried to pull it away, now suspicious. "What's that you have behind your back?" Charlie didn't really reply; she only pushed her hind foot into his belly to shove him away.
"He'sgonna be..."
Amos gasped, shocked that he'd been fooled so easily. "Charlotte, don't wind that watch!" he demanded, making a dive for it. Charlie quickly dodged this and shifted her body from side to side so he kept missing. Then, with a quick inhale, and finished her song by belting out the last note.
"Surprised!"
With that, Charlie shoved her foot into Amos for the last time, detaching herself from him, and hardly heard this dramatic, "CHARLOTTE!!!!" By now it was too late; Charlie felt something begin tremble in her paw. When she looked down, confused, a burst of light blinded her, and suddenly she was rocketing through that tunnel or bright colors. A boom of thunder echoed in her ears, but then there was nothing for a moment. The last thing she heard was a resounding, "you can never come back..."
So... uh... I tried. Heh- I may end up deleting this later, but I wanted to give it a try anyway. Thanks for reading, if you did! Let me know what ya think!
Also, a tiny little Easter egg- Amos is a biblical name, so that's where I got it!
Another Easter egg: he keeps calling her "Charlotte," which she doesn't really like, just like how Annabelle always calls Charlie "Charles."