Choni

Choni is the femslash ship between Toni Topaz and Cheryl Blossom from the Riverdale fandom.

Canon
FACE-OFFS Cheryl and Toni meet at the Ghoulies vs. Serpents drag race as Cheryl takes over the flag prompt from a bemused, but nonchalant Toni. Their later re-introduction goes far worse as Cheryl demeans the Southside High students, who have been transferred to Riverdale High following the closure of Southside High. Following Jughead's article, Toni, inspired by her grandfather, leads the protest against Pickens Day, the celebration of a man who slaughtered the indigenous Uktena people who have the rightful claim to Riverdale and today exist as the Serpent community. Cheryl's mother confirms the horrible crimes of General Pickens at the behest of her great-great-grandfather, Barnabas B. Blossom, and Cheryl, horrified at this, goes and stands with the Serpents in protest. Taking a stand against her family's gruesome acts, Cheryl looks on in reverence and admiration as Toni speaks.

SUPPORT When Cheryl lashes out at the core four, Toni calmly confronts Cheryl and sees beyond Cheryl's defences. Cheryl balks at Toni's kindness, but starts letting her guard down when Toni persists in knowing the pain behind Cheryl's evil facade. Cheryl opens up to Toni and shares with her how Cheryl fell in love when she was younger and Penelope branded her a deviant, tearing Cheryl from her love Heather and crushing her as she began to hid her true feelings. Toni tells Cheryl that Penelope is completely wrong and that Cheryl is deserving of love and Cheryl lets herself receive Toni's comfort.

ROMANCE Cheryl and Toni start hanging out at Thistle House and are very flirtatious around one another. Cheryl asks Toni to be her emotional support at her late father's will reading, where she faints when her late father seems to enter the room. Cheryl finds out that it's her long lost uncle and keeps Toni around, inviting her to family dinner. Cheryl invites Toni to join the River Vixens and confesses to her inner circle that she's afraid to be alone in the house, fearing for her life in the face of her mother and uncle's scheming. Toni is sympathetic and Cheryl admits that she had to invite several girls over for a slumber party to have Toni over in the house. They almost kiss, when a loud crash wakes and scares everyone.

The attempt on Nana Rose's life has Cheryl confess to Toni that she fears she might be next. Toni later goes looking for Cheryl at Thistle House and is told by Penelope that Cheryl's been sent off to a Swiss boarding school. Toni is sure Cheryl's in danger and enlists Josie and Veronica's help in confronting Penelope, but to no avail. Nana Rose calls Toni at school to inform her that Cheryl's with the 'Sisters' and Veronica figures out that it's the Sisters Of Quiet Mercy.

With info from Kevin they lead a rescue mission through a secret tunnel leading to the facility and break into the screening room where a despondent Cheryl dares not think that Toni has really come to her rescue. Shaken out of her reverie, Cheryl runs to Toni and hugs her and they also kiss for the first time, before escaping with Veronica through the tunnels. Following her ordeal, Cheryl's out for vengeance, but oddly relaxed given what she's been through and happy to be with Toni, at school, out in the open.

During the musical episode, as Cheryl stars as the lead, she and Toni hang out and enjoy themselves, until the murder. When Cheryl's pulled out of the musical by her mother, with Toni's encouragement, Cheryl stands up to Penelope and takes Thistle House for herself and Nana Rose. Following Midge's death, Cheryl sings at her funeral and is livid, giving a speech where she states that she is adamant at finding whoever's responsible. Meanwhile, Toni and the Serpents get busy protecting Fangs once it's publicised he was having an affair with Midge. They escort him out when he's released from prison to protect him from an angry mob, but Fangs is shot.

Cheryl's attacked by the Black Hood at her house, but manages to get out to her quiver and shoots him in the shoulder with an arrow, leading the Black Hood to flee. During the chaos of the Riverdale riots, Cheryl is contacted by Jughead who needs her help. Penny abducted Toni to threaten Jughead and he rushes to save her, with Cheryl in tow. Toni is released and she and Cheryl huddle together, relieved to be together again. The three of them go to the Whyte Wyrm, where Cheryl seems to join in allegiance with the Serpents. They later witness FP carrying a limp, beaten Jughead and are horrified. Luckily, Jughead is fine in the hospital, and Cheryl sets the legal emancipation from her mother in motion with Attorney McCoy, providing her with Nana Rose as her legal guardian.

Cheryl learns from Penelope that the Whyte Wyrm is being raided and warns Toni, Jughead and Archie. They all escape in time and seek refuge at Fred Andrews' house. Toni puts forth that Cheryl be honored for rescuing the Serpents and Cheryl is made an honorary Serpent, receiving a cherry red Serpent jacket from new Serpent leader Jughead, as Toni proudly looks on.

JUNIORS Following the harrowing years she's had, Cheryl and Toni motorbike across country together for three months. They return in time for Cheryl to throw a last day before summer ends pool party, where she tells Toni for the first time about what happened at Sweetwater river in the winter. Cheryl tells Toni she lost hope - that Archie saved her life and she wishes she could do something to help him stay out of prison. Once Fangs gets intel that the Ghoulies have Hotdog, Toni and Cheryl join the Serpent boys and Betty on a mission to retrieve him. They walk into a trap and to protect Jughead, Cheryl shoots an arrow in Malachi's shoulder as a warning and they manage to get Hotdog.

They help Veronica stop Hiram from ruining her speakeasy opening by helping her find evidence of the Ghoulies working for him. They later find themselves involved in the dangerous board game sweeping the town, Gryphons and Gargoyles, when Jughead’s investigation into it involves the Serpents. When Toni and the other Vixens suffer from the mysterious seizures going around town, Cheryl nurses her back to health and asks her to move in with her, to which Toni says yes.

While Riverdale is under a town wide quarantine for weeks, Cheryl and Toni entertain themselves by becoming cat burglars and stealing from the rich people around town. When they return home one night, Toni tells Cheryl that she loves her and Cheryl returns the sentiment. Their fun is short lived when Jughead declares a no crime law for all the Serpents, even though he secretly gives Fangs a pass for selling drugs. Cheryl and Toni ignore this rule and break into the Pembrooke, where they steal an expensive egg and Cheryl leaves a lipstick mark on Hiram’s portrait as a calling card. When Jughead finds out, he kicks Toni and Cheryl out of the Serpents, and has to kick Fangs out too, when they call him out for his hypocrisy.

When Cheryl tries to help Kevin move forward with Moose by reading a blind item suggesting someone in the RROTC is in the closet as a way to encourage him to come out, Toni confronts Cheryl for basically outing him, as well as acting too blasé about how much losing the Serpents hurts Toni, because they were her family and legacy. Cheryl sincerely apologies, telling Toni that she’s the most important person in her life, and she will do whatever it takes to fix things. She apologizes to Moose, gives her interview spot at her family’s legacy school, Highsmith College, to Toni, and finds a bunch of girls around school to form a new gang, which Toni names The Pretty Poisons.

Between adjusting to living together and differing opinions on their new gang, tensions begin to rise between Cheryl and Toni. When Toni tells Cheryl that Jughead insulted the Pretty Poisons and called them a vanity project for Cheryl in an attempt to get Toni to rejoin the Serpents, Cheryl and the other girls confront Sweet Pea and Fangs and beat them up when they belittle them. Toni doesn’t approve of using the Poisons for petty vendettas and reminds Cheryl that she’s a leader, and not to use them without her permission again. But when another fight breaks out between a Poison and a new Serpent under Cheryl’s watch, Toni threatens to suspend Cheryl from the gang, while Cheryl threatens to not let the gang use her house for meetings if she does. Toni ends up making a deal with Veronica for the Poisons to work security for her at her speakeasy without discussing it with Cheryl, who later declines the invite on to join them.

In an attempted to reconnect, Cheryl books them a Spring Break ski trip to Mont Blanc, but is disappointed when Toni informs her that she’s already made plans to go camping with the Poisons without telling her. Their tiff is interrupted when Toni gets a call from Veronica to go work, but when Cheryl shows up with freshly baked snacks to make peace, she finds Toni i having fun and singing karaoke with Veronica. After learning that Toni has secretly been paying Nana Rose rent and trying to get her attention, Cheryl shows up at the speakeasy when Toni is working its casino night, making a show of casing the place, so that Toni will stay after closing at catch her pretending to steal from the safe. The confrontation leads to the two of them having sex in Veronica’s speakeasy after hours, and then finally agreeing to talk about their issues now that the tension has been eased. Cheryl feels like Toni would rather spend time with the Poisons than her, while Toni feels like Cheryl doesn’t like someone else having the power with the Poisons, which Cheryl denies. She also says Cheryl’s house doesn’t feel like it’s her own and that maybe they moved in together too fast. Cheryl says if she feels that way, then she should move out.

Cheryl decides to channel her angry and heartbreak at their breakup into a musical, and has Kevin change his planned choice to Heathers, which she’ll star in. She attempts to appear as if she doesn’t care, but when Toni joins the musical as a choreographer, she grows petty, ignoring her instructions and even engaging in a dance/sing off with her. When the Farm throws a cast party, Cheryl suspects most of it sulking and watching Toni, but when Evelyn informs her that Toni is wearing red to school the next day, she confronts her in the hallway and tries to tell her she needs to leave the school. After the confrontation, Toni sings Dead Girl Walking and leads Peaches N’ Cream and Sweet Pea to the auditorium for a revenge hook up, but stops it before anything can actually happen after she imagines Cheryl singing to her. Toni then goes to Thistlehouse to try to work things out with Cheryl. When she asks her what love was like in her family, Cheryl explains that it was “all or nothing, pure adoration or distilled hate.” She says that Jason was her only light growing up until he died and her life was dark again, until she met Toni, but lately, it’s felt like she’s losing her. Toni assures her that she’s still here and it’s not too late for them to make it work. They sing Seventeen and kiss, reuniting.

Quotes
"We search every damn door until we find her"

- Toni to Veronica about finding Cheryl

"I didn’t want to invite all the girls tonight, but I knew my hideous mother would never allow me to invite just you, it's just ... what I crave"

- Cheryl

Fanon
Although people hoped for the possibility of this relationship when it was announced that Toni Topaz was joining Riverdale, it dissipated once Cheryl's coming out story became an unhealthy 'Psycho Lesbian' trope, and included Cheryl targeting the black characters on the show; Josie, Chuck and Toni. Cheryl was, as she is with everyone, verbally abusive towards Toni from the beginning. At first Toni's willingness to look past this was perceived by some as the character's maturity, but after they started dating Toni was reduced to a sidekick, acting out of character. The bigger breaking point came when Toni learned that Cheryl had been terrorising, stalking and gaslighting Josie, and Toni didn't care/react at all.

There are still people who ship it, but it is not clear whether this is because they are not aware of the toxicity of the relationship, or if it's a case of white people not understanding how damaging and repulsive Cheryl's treatment of Josie, Chuck and Toni is, especially since she suffers no consequences from her actions. The relationship has only continued its negative course, with Toni suddenly starting to rob rich people with her rich girlfriend 'for fun', despite being from a poor part of town and previously identifying societal struggles and protesting them. Cheryl also started displaying abusive behaviour out of fear of losing Toni by trying to limit Toni's social life and life in general outside of Toni's relationship with Cheryl, which is textbook abuser behaviour. This led to Cheryl lashing out by breaking up with Toni, then proceeding to verbally attack Toni in public, as well as physically. Despite this, the show put them back together, showing no regard for Toni's safety and wellbeing.

The fandom has only recently become increasingly aware of the abusive relationship that this is, but a large part is still maintaining that it's not, most likely due to the show not understanding what it is writing. The danger of advertising this relationship as 'representation' of an LGBTQIAP+ relationship seems to evade the people who write this show, as well as the media who unabatedly continue to promote the relationship positively.

Fandom

 * FAN FICTION
 * Toni/Cheryl tag on FanFiction.net
 * Toni/Cheryl tag on FanFiction.net


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Trivia

 * Vanessa Morgan (Toni Topaz) and Madelaine Petsch (Cheryl Blossom) are best friends in real life and met in 2015 when Morgan auditioned for Josie