#(featuring Dante: a voice of reason)
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February 14th
It was a very busy evening at the Moonlight Roller. Many couples had decided to choose the venue as their date night. And why wouldn't they? Those who favoured the cheesy holiday would be rewarded with bright, heart-shaped decorations, special deals that were literally too good to be true, and plenty of activities to encourage a good night out.
Except... Wilford wasn't anywhere to be found.
That was rather unusual. After all, wasn't this a holiday that was made just for him? It seemed someone else had drawn this conclusion - the person whose home he had crashed.
Dante was not one to observe Valentine's Day, but it was one of the rare times he allowed himself to indulge in a simple pleasure from his human life and read a romance novel on the couch. Wilford was on the floor, one hand holding a joke book in the air as he debated on whether he wanted to read it.
It was... surprisingly peaceful, taking the reporter's eccentricity into account. In fact, it took some time before Dante realised something rather important:
It was a good question, and one that Wilford didn't immediately answer. Instead, he placed the book on his lap and slumped against the piece of furniture.
"I don't think I'm th' expert of love I always claim ta be." Wilford leaned his head back until it lightly pressed against the arm of the couch. "I mean... I know I cared fer Celine an' all, but that love was fake since she didn't love me back. I was just an escape."
-
Dante hummed, closing his book to give his friend attention. "This isn't like you. Normally you'd redirect your attention to your love of your friends."
"True, but I can't really have friends hangin' in a date night zone tonight, can I?"
"I doubt it would be a helpful night to find someone single."
"Nah. With how things have been fer me, it's th' best time ta find that lover, or somethin'. My days are in order, I've barely fallen into other times, an' I'm on a good no-kill streak. I'm practically safe as a baby! But...." The humour in his voice disappeared, leaving a sense of deflation behind. "It's almost as though me bein' like this makes me feel like I gotta keep an eye out an' protect th' chickies."
"The... 'chickies'?"
"Yeah! All th' younger folks goin' through th' loops!"
"I don't think you need to worry about 'age difference' between us and adults of consenting age when those of our fate are unable to feel the progression of time in the same way."
Wilford put his book down so he could roll sideways until he was kneeling against the side of the couch. "What if they think I'm old an' not hot?"
The entity quirked an eyebrow. "You sound ridiculous right now."
"What if I'm losin' my hotness radar an' I can't find anyone of my type 'cause I dunno what that is anymore??" Truly, what a rotten fate!!
Unfortunately, Dante was not the person to lament to. "You act like I know the answer to your problems."
"Yeah. Yer smart."
"But about a matter such as love? I grew up in a loveless family and died a bachelor. I'm not a fountain of knowledge."
Wilford slumped forward until his chin bumped against the couch. "Yeah, I 'spose... I'll get all that figured out in time." That appeared to be the end of it, as his eyes half-focused on one of the back cushions. "Ya think I ever found love in between then and now?"
Dante didn't know the answer. However, he had to give some sort of response.
"Romantically? I think you did. I'm sure you'll remember something about it that will help you remember your 'date skills'."
Wilford chuckled, moving his gaze to Dante. "Yer a good friend, y'know that? I'm gonna help ya find a date. Least I can do." Wilford's offer did not go down well.
"I can barely tolerate myself most days. I won't subject anyone else to do likewise."
#(muse update)#(featuring Dante: a voice of reason)#(this isn’t implying anything between these two btw. They're bros through and through)#intern doodles (mun art)#on the tablet#(disclaimer: this is the default setting; not taking ships on hiatus into account)#(I simply think it's weird that for a man who is so full of love... he hasn't seen anyone that's caught his eye in a long time)
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NEON Carnival Q&A Pamphlet Translation
disclaimer: apparently Taiwanese Mandarin is different from what I speak, so some of these may need to be taken with a grain of salt! my credentials are that my native language is Cantonese and I know - but am rusty on - Mainland Mandarin.
Q: Do the characters have set dick sizes?
A: The team has a "super⭐secret measure", every time they draw the characters they'll reference it.
Q: Between Quincy and Olivine, who has the bigger breasts?
A: The team fought over this and couldn't decide, so there's no answer.
Q: I want to know the ages of the long lived ones, the yokai, and the familiars! Who's the oldest?
A: From oldest to youngest are: Kuya > Quincy > Rei > Aster > Morvay > Yakumo > Garu. The specifics of their ages will be revealed in the game.
Q: Who's older between Father and Topper?
A: Father is older than Topper!
Q: The game has a lot of retro stuff, super curious about the producer's age!
A: Retro has nothing to do with the producer's age!!!
Q: How are the kinks of each room thought up?
A: The devs think of them in the small dark room, the artbook sketches include clues.
[t/n: I consulted two other Chinese speakers and I'm still not really sure what the answer actually means, so this is a best guess translation.]
Q: What's inside the small dark room?
A: Tired and busy devs......
Q: When designing event outfits, how do you decide where to open holes?
A: Different people will think of the parts they want to highlight, later on we'll also test different levels of nakedness. (it's not like we haven't thought of throwing darts to decide)
[t/n: little unsure about this one too. it's possible it means they think of which part of the characters they want to highlight, but they used 眷屬 rather than 角色.]
EDIT: @milkeumilkeou has informed me that in the specific context of nuca, 眷屬 means clan members. that's what I get for not playing the game in Chinese... in this case, the better translation is:
A: Depending on the clan member the devs will open the holes at the places they want to highlight, later on they'll also test different levels of nakedness. (it's not like they haven't thought of throwing darts to decide)
Q: How were the voice actors chosen?
A: The producer chose them according to the characters' personalities and the desired voice. Many thanks to the voice actors!
Q: How far in advance do future events begin production?
A: Usually the topic is decided on about 4 - 6 months in advance, and then production begins.
Q: I want to know which character the devs think would be the best coworker!
A: Everyone agrees the best coworkers would be Eiden, Edmond and Olivine; Dante's work ability is also very strong, but he's more like a head that scares people.
[t/n: 'head' may also translate to director or manager.]
Q: Do the characters have body hair?
A: The devs actually really wanted to draw it, but considered various realistic reasons, so the players can't see body hair, but you're free to imagine it! (let Quincy have some stubble... how would that be?)
[t/n: I would guess that the 'realistic reasons' they considered are probably that BL typically doesn't feature body hair, so it might've made the game less marketable.]
Q: Who has the most sexual experience?
A: Morvay! (super fast answer)
[t/n: the question is literally "who has the most experience♂️?" lol]
Q: Does the Klein Continent have a habit of wearing underwear?
A: Klein has underwear. Just like hats, gloves, and scarves, when considering factors like decoration and functionality, to wear or not to wear underwear, and what type of underwear to wear, all depend on each person's preferences.
Q: Is Eiden's light brown hair dyed?
A: Yes, and he'll regularly re-dye it.
Q: Does Eiden prefer briefs or boxers?
A: It's okay as long as it's snug and covers him, and he has some special styles.
Q: I want to know how Eiden gets to work!
A: Eiden rides a motorcycle, and on rainy days he'll switch to public transportation.
Q: What opportunity led to Eiden's interest in design? Did his designing always have to do with sex toys?
A: Eiden has had artistic talent from a young age, and hoped to turn his passion into a job. His first job was being a sex toy designer at Peak of Pleasure, and this job happened to combine his two interests of design and sex. Aside from the overtime, for Eiden, this was an ideal job.
[t/n: in case you don't remember, Peak of Pleasure is the name of Eiden's old workplace as mentioned in Journey to a NU World.]
Q: I want to know Eiden's relationship history! Did he have boyfriends before?
A: Eiden knew he liked men from a young age. When he was fifteen he had a bitter first love, and afterwards his partners were all short term. Towards relationships he carries a generous attitude of easy-come-easy-go, and thinks that being happy in the moment is more important.
Q: Does Topper have others of his kind?
A: He used to, but when he met Quincy, among those of his kind only Topper was left.
[t/n: 手足 may also translate to 'siblings' or 'close friends', as opposed to 'others of his kind'.]
Q: Who makes Topper's outfits?
A: Sometimes they're prepared by Quincy, sometimes they're made by Eiden.
Q: Does the food Topper hide in Quincy's hair affect Quincy washing his hair?
A: No, Quincy will wash his hair when it needs to be washed. But not long after Quincy washes his hair, the food stores in his hair will be quickly refilled by Topper.
Q: I want to know Topper and Father's weights!
A: Little animals' weights will fluctuate, but there's no direct link to fur amount. Topper weighs about a third of a pampo, Father only weighs about half a music box.
[t/n: pampo as in the pumpkins from Eerie Escapade.]
Q: What's Yakumo's signature dish?
A: He's good at everything, especially savory food. Because of his grandparents' influence he rarely eats sweets, and he can't quite grasp the seasoning amount, but after meeting Eiden he's begun to research sweets recipes.
Q: How is Edmond's knights' uniform worn?
A: The uniform has a top piece and a bottom piece, the jumpsuit has a zipper on the back for convenience.
Q: If Edmond came to Taiwan, how sweet would he order his boba tea?
A: After ordering full sweetness, Edmond would feel that it could be twice as sweet.
Q: How many nipple chains does Olivine have?
A: Olivine makes all of his own nipple chains. He'll change them based on style and mood. The number continues to increase.
Q: Will Quincy help brush Topper's fur?
A: Quincy will sometimes help brush Topper, but most of the time Topper will groom himself.
Q: Quincy, Olivine, and Kuya, who would win an arm wrestling match?
A: Olivine would win, because Quincy wouldn't take it seriously and Kuya wouldn't compete.
Q: Please reveal Kuya's real height!
A: It's 178cm ^^.
Q: I want to know Kuya's experiences before and after becoming a yokai!
A: Kuya's journey of becoming a yokai will be revealed in future scenes. What can be revealed now is that, after Kuya became a yokai, he was a lawbreaker for some time...
Q: When Kuya addresses Quincy, why did it change from "boring associate" to "old friend"?
A: When Kuya says "old friend" he doesn't mean true friends, he just likes addressing people in ways that make them uncomfortable, like "Master Rei".
[t/n: Kuya probably didn't call Quincy "boring associate", but I have no idea where to begin looking for what he actually called Quincy.]
EDIT: Kuya used to call Quincy "boring clan member" rather than "boring associate". credit to @milkeumilkeou once again!
Q: Does Garu sleep nude?
A: He doesn't like pajamas that are restrictive or impede movement, but if it's cold Eiden will wrap him up in clothes or a blanket!
Q: When Dante first adopted Sooley, how did they get along?
A: At first Dante got bitten terribly, because he tried to train Sooley to do various tricks. As they spent more time together, the two eventually developed some mutual understanding of wildness.
Q: Can Dante swim?
A: Dante thinks that with something as small as swimming, you just need to learn!
[t/n: Dante dodges the question here and neither confirms nor denies whether he can swim, just says that anyone can learn. knowing how he is, he's probably being ambiguous because he doesn't want to admit he can't.]
Q: How many darlings has Blade made?
A: Because Blade's favorite is cute things, it's infinitely increasing......
[t/n: 'darlings' as in the goofy little statue guys]
Q: Has Rei always been in the Water Territory? Has he moved before?
A: Rei doesn't have a fixed home, he moves regularly. The room in the Water Territory is just one of his hiding places, it used to be an abandoned house.
Q: Does Rei eat when he's experimenting?
A: He'll eat if he remembers, if Father's there he'll also remind Rei.
Q: If Fluff Balls think Fluff Balls are cute, will they eat their own kind?
A: They won't eat each other. If there aren't cute things around, the Fluff Balls will journey in search of them.
[t/n: since when was eating cute things part of Fluff Ball lore...?]
Q: Where is everyone's erogenous zones?
A: Aside from the gemstones, everyone's erogenous zones are as follows:
Eiden: lower abdomen
Yakumo: tongue
Edmond: nipples
Olivine: entire chest
Quincy: dick, palms
Kuya: ears
Garu: tail
Blade: darling♡
Dante: tattoos, especially the Adam's apple and fingers [t/n: might be throat instead of specifically Adam's apple]
Rei: moles
Q: I want to know where everyone starts washing when they shower!
A: Hair: Eiden, Yakumo, Edmond, Olivine, Topper (the fur on top of his head)
Face: Dante, Sooley
Upper body: Quincy, Father (chest feathers)
Lower body: Garu (tail first), Morvay (also tail first♂️)
Anywhere's fine: Rei, Blade (e-droids' bodies will automatically maintain cleanliness)
Kuya: nobody knows where he washes first, but it's said he showers every day
Aster: likes to bathe
Q: When drawing characters, are there emphasized specialties?
A: Eiden: dick size, the balance of everything
Yakumo: height, his slender body, the size of his feet as proportional to his height, finger length
Edmond: waist to hip ratio, thighs
Olivine: chest, eyes
Quincy: arms, shoulders, pecs, Topper
Kuya: face, palms
Garu: his face/cheeks shape, his round butt
Blade: eyes, balanced model-like body, his cheeks when he smiles
Dante: perfectly triangular upper body
Rei: the firm lines of his body
Aster: brattiness and cuteness
Morvay: muscular but not too buff
Q: In Aster's mansion, does everyone have their favorite locations?
A: Eiden: his own study (he designs a lot of things here)
Yakumo: kitchen (cooking)
Garu: kitchen (stealing Yakumo's cooking)
Edmond: garden (frequently has afternoon tea here)
Olivine: library
Blade: library
Quincy: quiet places where he can sleep
Kuya: next to the fireplace
Dante: living room
Rei: places to put collectables
Aster: personal money vault
Morvay: likes being outside, doesn't like staying home
Q: Do the characters have personal clothes?
A: Eiden: in his rebellious phase he liked dressing up, now he prefers simple, comfortable clothes. He has a changing room at Aster's house, and every event he'll absorb the local trends and design outfits that fit Klein aesthetics and seasons.
Yakumo: aside from traditional snake yokai attire, Yakumo's clothes are almost entirely bought by his grandparents.
Edmond: because he's nobility, he has a lot of clothes.
Olivine: because he dedicated his life to the priesthood, Olivine doesn't have many personal clothes.
Quincy: he has few clothes. Most of them are made by him, so they're rare.
Kuya: he likes trendy and new stuff, so he has a lot of accessories.
Garu: it was only after he started living with Aster that he started getting more clothes (Aster and Eiden buy a lot of clothes for him).
Blade: he'll wear whatever people give him, and he looks good in everything.
Dante: he doesn't like wasting money, but as the Sun Lord, he has special outfits for important occasions.
Rei: it's fine as long as it's wearable, he prioritizes ease of movement.
Aster: prefers pretty, fancy designs, and especially likes clothes with cute accessories.
Morvay: likes practical (easy to take off) clothes.
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AHHHHH! Memoire 61.5 of the Case Study of Vanitas just dropped! I'm loving everything about where we are going with this dham arc!
We are finally getting more on the whole business with where dhampirs stand in this society. Feared by humans as being too close to vampires, looked down on and at one point hunted(!) by vampires. And wow are the Count's people prejudiced as fuck. The only reason Dhampirs have "the right to exist" is because they are under the eccentric Marquis Machina's protection.
Watching Johann and Riche broke my heart this chapter. The way they both reached for their glasses when it was mentioned how dhams are revealed by their eyes. Riche was visibly scared the entire time and Johann was trying his best to comfort her. It really characterizes Dante, the member of the Dham trio who doesn't wear glasses, and is also almost always the most loud and proud of the three. Dante doesn't give a single fuck to "hide" his eyes.
Bless Noe, calling bullshit on everyone with "Isn't it just less confusing to just call people by their name?" Love that man so much. Vanitas stifling his laughter at Noe's wholesome honesty. Perfect.
I also really appreciate Domi's bits this chapter. My girl thinks she is so progressive with her whole "Being prejudiced in this day and age? How unattractive." And then only minutes later getting somewhat called out by Noe for never even learning Dante's name. Domi learning that she ain't above being prejudiced and that she needs to do better. Not being outwardly hateful is the bare fucking minimum. I love that last panel of her, that mix of embarrassment, panic, and palpable shame she feels with herself. The way she got really quiet and shut down. It hurt to watch in a good way. I've been there Domi. You gotta collect yourself, learn from your mistakes, identify and overcome your personal biases. Don't fall back into more self-hatred, you can do it girl! God I love her so much.
Also, I love that last panel of pissed off Dante! Dude is so over this conversation. Staring daggers at Noe like "Is this some kind of fucking White Knight routine of yours or are you genuinely this naive and friendly?" Good sir I eagerly await your angry rant next chapter. Fucking go off my dude.
This chapter had so much emotion from everyone. Hate, anger, fear, shame, love. All of it on display. As much as I have really started to hate the "fantasy racism" cliche, I'll give this one credit for some realism in displays of prejudice and the subtle effects it has on its targets. While I don't have experience being the target of racist prejudice, I do have experience being the target of queerphobic prejudice. The dhams really hit with me, especially the lines calling them "half-formed things, neither fish nor fowl." Like, yep I'm trans and non-binary, I've heard and seen that type of shit said before.
The way Riche and Johann reached instinctively for their glasses when it was mentioned how the uncontrollable gold flashes of their eyes give them away to humans. I felt that, being "revealed" by features of your body and being instinctually self conscious about them. Trying to hide the things that "give you away". I still remember when Jeanne was trying to figure out if Johann was human or vampire, watching the anime, hearing the tired and thorny contempt in Johann's voice with the delivery of "Nope, I'm a dham." Shivers. Same fucking energy of delivering "I'm nonbinary" to random people for fuckteenth flippin time watching the fucking look in their eye change as they realize what I am. Then, Johann catches himself after saying it, realizing Jeanne didn't mean any offense, that his tone was too prickly. She just genuinely didn't know. You can feel how Johann is always on guard. Always having to be prepared for people who think he doesn't have "the right to exist." I felt that.
I'm optimistic for how the story handles this arc. I'm praying it's good and doesn't fall for the problematic elements of "fantasy racism" tropes. The way this chapter handled Domi makes me hopeful. That and anymore material we get on Dante, Johann, and Riche is a win in my book.
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Would be opposed to writing a one shot scenario about Evan going through even more trauma during the events of Devil May Cry 5? Such as Nero losing his arm, Vergil someone in the world of the living once more (all the events that follow) and then the climatic showdown between Father & Son?
Well, I can do something like that.
So, Evan in my HC doesn't go to Redgrave. Actually she is only 18 and the week V shows up at Devil May Cry is also the same week that she graduates from high school. I actually have a story written about that and I can post it here if you'd like. As for what happens during Redgrave, there isn't much going on for her. But, I do believe this is where she and Nero meet for the first time.
As for Nero and Vergil having a showdown... oh just wait. I'm working on a whole story for that. I'm hoping to have the first chapter published soon.
Anyway, here is pretty much what happens during Redgrave with Evan... I also figured it would be better told from V's perspective at first.
Where Did You Go?
The last time V had been to Devil May Cry, he had told Dante about Urizen the Demon King. Now, not even two weeks after, the frail man was standing just outside of the door. There was a reason he was there. That reason had been on the doorstep right as he had come out of the shop that night.
He had not expected to see her. Much less knew she existed at all. Dante had been very careful to keep her concealed all this time, but even so, she could be helpful. In some form, at least. The moment he saw her features, it became clear to V that Dante had a child. Even with his fractured memories, he never recalled the devil hunter speaking of any sort of relations.
Still, with Dante very much out of the picture and Nero the last bastion of hope, maybe the girl was a possibility too. If she was strong enough, that is. If her bond with her father was strong enough, she would not hesitate to fly into battle. That was how he saw it. The other possibility was that she was just as human as he was. Then she was no help at all.
"So why are we here, V?" Nero stood right behind the black haired man. "We both know Dante did not come out of that tree."
"There is some... delicate matters to attend to." With one motion, V lifted his cane and knocked it against the solid doors of the shop. There was a moderate chance that she was in the building waiting for her father to come back. She would be waiting for a long time. He could hear Nero scoffing behind him.
"Yeah, this is a waste of time. There is no one here, man." Not so true when the sound of the lock clicking on the door brought the young hunter to attention. "Who would be here?" When the door opened a crack, V could only see one of her pale blue eyes and a sliver of her face.
"Sorry, but we're closed." Her voice was light, but not timid. She looked at V with a little recognition in her eye. "Oh, it's you."
"Mind if we come in?" She did not answer verbally, only opened the door to reveal herself more.
"Wait... what?" V honestly expected Nero to react differently upon seeing the young girl in front of them. "Is this some sick joke?"
"I should ask you the same thing." She blurted out with just as much surprise at seeing Nero.
"Quiet." The tattooed man spoke feeling tension building between the two children. That was what they were in his eyes. "I come with news of Dante." The moment the girl heard the name, her face dropped from defensive to worried. There was even a distinct fear in her eyes that could only come for a child, fearing the worst.
"You better come in then." She opened the door wider for the two men to enter the shop. It was not so much different from the last time V had been in there, except for the apparent cleaning that had gone on. He surmised that she had taken to tidying up the place while Dante was gone. "I'd offer you guys some drinks, but I haven't gone anywhere." She put her hands in her back pockets as she stood there.
"Do not worry about that... I can see you've been keeping busy." He motioned to the state of the interior. She nodded as Nero looked around at the memorabilia plastered on the walls. "You look well, at least."
"Yeah, I guess I've been okay." She was trying hard not to jump to the questions that were undoubtedly running through her mind. "Anyway, where is my Dad? Is he okay?" V did not blame her for blurting out her concerns. After all, he knew very little about what happened to the half-devil.
"He's gone." The room stayed silent after V said the words. But the girl shook her head with a smile.
"I can promise you he isn't." She looked up at the black haired man with a fire in her eyes. It reminded him of something from the past that was not his own. "I know my Dad, he is not easy to kill." While he admired her faith in her father, he simply could not let her keep false hope. Urizen was more powerful than he had realized.
"He didn't come out of the tree with us." Nero walked over to the girl. V had been trying to place the relation between the two, only coming up with the possibility that Dante had been carnal in his youth. There was another possibility, but that was not likely. "Neither did his friends."
"So you just left them there?" There was clear anger in her voice as she pulled her hands out of her pockets and balled her fists. "Are you serious? My whole family, everyone that I ever cared about, went to Redgrave and they didn't return?" V watched as Nero softened his features, running his only hand through his hair in shame. Her eyes flicked to his missing arm. "What happened?"
"The demon... Urizen." Perhaps it was best to let the two talk without him interfering any longer.
"I'll leave you two for now... it's best if Nero explains everything." V said gave a small bow of respect to the girl before making his way to the door. As soon as he was gone, Nero was left with this girl who was just as alone as he was.
"So, what's your name?" This got a reaction from her other than sadness and regret. He clicked his tongue when she did not answer. "I'm Nero."
"Evan." She said quietly. "My Dad told me about you, I just forgot you existed, I guess."
"Oh yeah? Nothing bad, I hope?" The awkwardness between them was only made that way because they knew nothing of each other. Nero had no idea that Dante even had a kid, much less told him about her. Evan definitely had the same feel about her that Dante had. "Anyway, I uh... I... I'm sorry."
"It's okay, but I know he's alive." She moved to the red couch and sat down, putting her face in her hands. "He said he was going take care of something that should've been taken care of a long time ago. I don't really understand any of it because he was always trying to protect me."
"I can see why." Nero envied her. She had a living parent that was there for her throughout her life. It was another reason for him to resent the man. Dante had left his daughter behind to deal with the mess in Redgrave. "I don't know what V is up to by coming here, but don't go to Redgrave. Stay as far away from there as possible." Evan nodded, but he could see that she was thinking over every scenario that could bring her father back home.
"He told me you were a good person. That if anything happened to him, you would look after me." Well, he was not so sure of that. He felt like he had been volunteered into helping this... well she was essentially a teenager. Nero also felt that she had been through some stuff too.
"If it makes you feel any better, I'll make sure he gets home." That was the only thing he could offer her at this point. She was just another lonely kid like him.
Evan on the other hand, knew there was more to Nero than her father had let on. Now was not really the time to be doing genetic calculations on who Nero belonged to. It was very obvious to her that the man standing in the shop before her was her cousin. She was not going to say anything about it until he did.
When Nero left, Evan was alone again for close to a month. She went to work three days a week, but most of the time she stayed in her room at Devil May Cry waiting for any word from Nero. He called nearly every day to make sure she was okay, nothing more than that.
It was the nightmares that had been bothering her. The visions of her time in the forest after her mother died had come back, only this time, she was searching for Dante. He was lost out there in the snowy forest at the base of the mountain.
She called out for him over and over, sometimes hearing the howls from the demons that killed her mother. There was no sign of him. Nothing that could tell her Dante was out there waiting for her or that he was even alive. No red coat, no sword, nothing.
It was not until Nero returned that she knew something was not right.
"He's alive, but he's in the Underworld with Vergil." Evan looked down at her cousin's now fully fleshed arm. She looked up at him in confusion. "Oh, yeah... this sort of happened."
"I have so many questions." She said flatly as Nero held up his arm with a smirk. "So, catch me up."
#devil may cry#dante#dmc#fanfic#amwriting#dante sparda#devil may cry fanfiction#dantes daughter#trauma#devil may cry 5
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I’ve been a fan of Hozier since I heard his song take me to church. Its intense religious scrutiny tied with its beautiful queer allusions roped me in instantly. It didn’t take me long to discover how talented this artist was, and how deep of an impact his music would have on me. He’s been a favorite ever since.
Following a steady increase of my love for Hozier, was a fast and intense love for the Inferno of Dante, a book that I was originally begrudgingly forced to read. I had already watched a youtube series on the comedia and figured that’s all I would really need from this story (sooo fucking embarrassing). But, as we delved deeper into the inferno and all the rich history associated with it, my english-subject-loving-brain was absolutely enamored. There was so much to digest and speculate and criticize and praise. I was in Heaven (haha).
Now obviously some months have passed since the release of this album, but I only recently discovered that Unreal Unearth featured the marriage of these two beloved interests of mine.
With all that being said, here’s are my incredibly belated, partially sincere and partially bullshit thoughts on Hozier’s Unreal Unearth:
De Shelby pt 1- (7/10) gorgeous guitar brought to us by a gorgeous Irish man. Desolate, chilling, sullen.
De Shelby pt 2- (7/10) absolutely insane transition. This bass is so catchy and rhythmic, really fun. I assume this is representative of the harsh descent into hell, running/hiding from the atonement of sins: throwing yourself into what is ungodly to avoid isolation.
First time- (8/10) this just sounds so fucking good, “some part of me must have died the first time that you called me ‘baby’ and some part of me came alive the first time that you called me ‘baby’” is so stark and relatable. God that is an absolutely devastating way to look at bouquets. A quick ode to the lost “remembering again/ the full extent of what forever is” because fuck. This is confusing and heart wrenching, a lover mourning his lost love and worshiping them all the same because they’re all he has in this eternity, this limbo leaves him lost and all he sees and all he knows is death, even through the kind gestures of flowers on his grave, desperate and lost
Francesca- (9/10) The first direct reference to the inferno via the storms of lust in the first circle. Listening has me confusing lust with love- is lust just an extension of love ?? Because this is a damn love song. “Heaven is not fit to house a love like you and I” oh my fucking god yeah this is the favorite. Does Hozier know that he’s a lesbian or should I tell him
I, Carrion- (8/10) so, so beautiful. Consumed in consumption itself, prioritizing pleasure over what is right and moral. So many references in this one- the turtles holding up the world, Icarus flying and falling, atlas carrying the weightless feeling he is experiencing.
Eat your young- (8/10) this song is popular for a reason. Obviously representing gluttony, the lyrics are so disgusting and immoral, hungry for more wealth, more gain, more, more. Criticism to world leaders, criticism to capitalism, criticism to consumerism, criticism to those who take and take. “Eat your young” stealing the future of your youth, decimating the climate, sending your children to war, sending your children to sweep chimneys, all exploitation, all eating your young. Also head ???
Damage gets done- (7/10) everyone move this song is so upbeat I need to fucking dance. Brandi has a really powerful voice that complements hozier’s so well. For something being representative of greed, this song is pretty damn grateful, at least on my first impression. In a pessimistic perspective, it could be the oblivion of the youth to their damage on the earth. Just by existing in the world we live in we leave an irreversible mark on our climate, our environment, our wildlife, etc. Unknowingly, we’re greedy to want to thrive in our world in any capacity but specifically financially. Maybe the best of us are our youth that don’t want for more than they have. This song contrasts the previous one HARSHLY.
Who we are- (6/10) this song is a headache. Juxtaposing the deeply frustrating lyrics of navigating the dark, burning out, chasing mindlessly and the loud singing filled with a sense of catharsis and relief is sooo mind boggling. So much uncertainty and passion.
Son of Nyx- (7/10) god I love a transition track. So dejected and beautiful at the same time. These themes of loss are just constant throughout the album. Someone tell me how Hozier did all this world building without any words? I would have genuinely guessed that the river Styx is what’s being represented by this instrumental, he captured it exactly how I imagined.
All things end- (6/10) This is definitely akin to gospel music. Hozier’s influence from black artists is rich in this song, really fun listen. Also deeply ironic to use this style of music to write a song about heresy. Reminds me of his iconic take me to church.
Continued in next post ! :-)
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May I please ask for headcanons on they the other version of the recruits react to mine?
Of course boo!
I feel like a kid swapping baseball cards with a neighborhood kid
How they met was a random visit in the city by the gang, mostly for the siblings to find a place to perform and Jane Vera and Dante just followed to hang out, the same time when the friend group were in the city for college lessons and personal reasons
It gave them a heart attack by accident with this:
Joe sits at a small table with a drink as he relaxes for a bit and Jac walks over mostly covered in his red jacket with the hood up cause it's cold so Joe didn't notice right away, and Jac starts ranting about the cold and soon brings up a "hot babe" from a bar visit he went to and asked if wants details.
Joe goes pales and nervously and slowly getting angry ask "But what about Roxy?"
In which Jac, assuming it's his best bud and referring to a chick previous said, "what about her?"
Luckily before Joe could sock this guy a new one Sia walks over with two cups of coffee and sat in front of them and starts complaining about a phone call with her boss' assistance (this world of Pan and Panic) who lost an important file
Jac and Sia talk back and forth and Joe slowly begins to question reality when Jac tries to convince Sia to go clubbing with her the weekend and how she needs to find a nice guy
Somewhere else in the building Jack is checking the sound when Joseph randomly sat beside him and said "Okay, so there's this cult documentary I watched last night right?" and just goes off on the documentary he was watching and complaining about his step-mom which is a normal vent which was a huge load of "whoa" on Jack
Then how it all tied together
Ivan was walking around and stopped by the vending machines and heard a voice a lot like Aya, now homeboy been crushing on her for a long time and been holding off letting those feelings known.
So what he do?
He goes over and starts talking until Zuri turns around and the two just stare at each other like "wtf"
Then Cece comes in while Sha comes in the same time and everyone's like "wait, wtf-"
So after gathering everyone introductions were made with Jack trying to be extra sure they were real and not magical beings like the recruiters, best not open that can of worms of the Disney Villain Recruiters just yet boo
Apologizes were made after everything
Wilhelm was mainly staring at Vince in per astonishment. He had similar features of his face but was obviously proud of his looks and not hiding him unlike himself, he was open with emotions when he wasn't, and not to mention Vince has a girlfriend when he barely dated.
The two soon do bond over childhood stuff and books with Vince comfortable enough to show the guy a picture of Stephanie
Wilhelm scrunch his face u and said "Sorry. She just looks like Margaret"
"Is she nice?"
"She's a girl who lives in my building. We don't get along"
Vince was just happy he hasn't met Apple Poison yet
Joseph was kind of taken aback at Joe in a way since he, like Vince, is open and not hiding like he is. The bond over the ocean and talk about Misty and Arielle together when they're away from others
Sia's first thought of Cece was she reminded her of her past self a bit. The two talk and as Sia soon mentioned her work and how she got a fancy ass home (she showed pictures) she was surprised to hear Cece offer to ruin her family's life with ease and bring even more damage to her ex-fiance. She simply grinned as they realized they're more similar than they seem and everyone can simply shutter in the idea of these two working together with Sia being Cece's main alibi if needed
Charles was amazed by Malachite. Like he has a band??? They talk about their life styles and Charles did his hardest to try and not tell Malachite his past but when it did he used way more physical power to make sure he won't go rampage
Aya adores Zuri to bits. Like tons of compliments and giggles. Like best friends imminently attached. Those two swap contacts with each other within the first 20 minutes of their talk. She just finds her so pretty and so happy she has a great life
Sha couldn't stop but find Nadia so pretty and so impressed by her boldness
"So your dad lets your party?"
"Uh, by dad you mean mom yeah."
The two chat about being the younger ones of their groups and favorite activities and hobbies with Sha seeing more and more of the confidence she needs to grow through Nadia. Probably won't sleep with people much as she shows off the purity ring she had since she was 7 though she admitted to have dated and kissed before
Jac totally digs this Jack guy! They seemingly have a lot in common and Jack even got promises to have discounts at the diner he works at with Maria. There was a lot of apologies with Jac saying sorry about Jack maybe nearly kicking his ass kicked but assumption he's cheating on his girl
Janice was pretty much "wanna hang out?" with Jane and they two had a lot of deep nice conversations about life and their dads which Janice can't help but smiling hearing how nice her family sounds and how she luckily didn't have her childhood
Maria was more or less confused of Vera. Yes they had things in common, but she was... open of her feelings and her likes. There was no issue if she listens to rock music? She's open she's gay?? It honestly scared the poor girl more with the idea someone like her was worried all this time when it' isn't a big deal
Ivan fucking LOVES Dante man! They both talk about fashions, their moms, certain cute brown hair childhood besties in their lives
#disney villain recruiters#disney villain recruiter au#vince kemonohito#wilhelm waldeck#joseph melissa#joe kemonohito#cece kemonohito#sia ariti#celosia ariti#malachite kemonohito#charles audley#zuri kemonohito#ayanna ejiofor#aya ejiofor#nadia kemonohito#aisha marwan#sha marwan#jane teach#janice jones#janice k jones#vera hugo#maria moulin#dante mcquinn#ivan smith
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I am pretty woozy and tired so this post is probably going to be short. I mean I don't guarantee that I am doing talk to text so it doesn't take me as long. Because I really just would like to go to sleep.
Today was actually an excellent day. I had a lot of fun and it was like very chill. I still worry that people aren't having as much fun as I have heard has happened at other bachelor parties. But everyone seems to be having a good time and is enjoying everyone else's company. Even if the food hasn't worked out exactly how we planned every time.
Me and James ended up hanging out until around 2:30 when we finally went to sleep. James apparently woke up at 8:00 which is very late for them. And I didn't wake up till about 9:00 and I was the last one out of bed.
When I got out of the room to smoke everywhere. Because they were burning pancakes by accident. But everyone was up and seem to be in a great mood. I was feeling really good and we had breakfast outside. Me and Jess both had egg sandwiches and me her, Callie, and Dante talked about cruise ships and the best kind of vacations. And then we went on a long talk about books and reading fast. There were a lot of deer out there today and so we had fun pointing them out. The receiving one that still had its baby spots.
Once breakfast was over and everything was pretty cleaned up we set up the table and me and Jess got to work on sorting all of the weeds into bowls and containers so that we could all start making bracelets. I really love that we need this little program happy because everyone seems really enjoy making bracelets it was so sweet. We got a bunch of really cool glass beads. Specifically the most we got was of ladybugs. Hope you had a lot of different florals and solid Stone colors. And once the table was clear everybody came together and I told them how to make them.
Not that it's particularly hard to make a beaded bracelet. They probably could have figured it out. But the issue people always forget when they're first making them is not to leave enough string to tie. So I told them to leave about 3 in so that we could finish them off. I had them all tape one end to the table so the beads wouldn't go everywhere. And thankfully everyone was able to keep all the beads on the table. Except for Dante who's bracelet exploded and went everywhere.
I made a bunch of bracelets and just made a bunch of bracelets. People made things for the girls that they're dating. After I told them they would be a very nice gesture for you to do that. And they were all like that such a good idea. Because for some reason they couldn't think of that themselves.
We will finish up with beads and me Justin Dante decided we wanted to sort all of the letter beads to make them alphabetical. And not took a while. And while we were doing that my dad called me. I don't have many bars and have terrible service up here so we kept dropping the call. But it was so nice to hear his voice. He sounds so good right now. So strong. And he's going to be at the hospital for a little while longer and then he'll spend I think 2 weeks in rehab. Just learning how to stand and muscle tone I'm assuming being built back up. But everyone seems to think that things are great. And I'm really excited about that.
After we finish cleaning up beads we decided that it was time to go to the lake. Most of the boys were watching a sport on the screen. It might have been baseball it might have been college football. I could not tell you. But they wanted to wait till the end of the game. So six of us left and drove to the lake over here. This is a lake community. It's almost dated where you have to check in at the front gate. But it's not like a regular community. They don't seem too strict on their rules of decoration in your heart. But the lake was really nice. They had big water features in the center so that you knew where it was safe to swim and so the boats didn't come in. Instead of having like a rope. And the water felt so nice. I only sat in it for a while I didn't want to get what completely mostly because it was kind of cool out today. It was very warm sitting in the sun So eventually me and just pulled the chair we were using all the way back under a willow tree.
Don't have the best we're just sitting around in sand and reading. And the other half of playing frisbee or football. There was also a family reunion happening at the pavilion and the kids from there were playing with us. One little boy played ball with them for a while. Basically became James's new best friend.
Kept telling James to take their shirt off and then I was objectifying them. I always want to
Give James compliments so that they have better self-esteem. Because they are beautiful and they should feel that way.
I finished my book. And it was very very sad. I really love the dear America series and this particular author was just so good. In the back of the book it said that she's an eighth grade teacher and she's written a couple other books about coal miners. So I'm going to look at those. This book was put out in the year 2000 so maybe she's done more since then.
The rest of the guys came to the lake and there was swimming and walking around and enjoying nature. They had a little Free library box and I found another book that was just very silly about a teen vlogger in 2014. It is not good. But I'm probably going to read the whole thing just for fun.
We will be at the lake until around 5:30 and then we all loaded back up in the car to come back here. A lot of us changed some people took showers. We sat outside for a while. Eventually coming inside and me and Jess hung out eating snacks and watching ticks on her phone next to each other at the kitchen table. I was having a great time. And I think everyone else was super chill and that was really nice. I don't think anyone's bored at all and that feels good.
Games that start making pizza dough and we were supposed to do the episode of their podcast tonight but we ran out of time so we're going to do it tomorrow morning. Mostly we just ate and hung out and it was really good. I didn't really dizzy around when the sun started early on. I think some of it is just exhaustion. And some of it is there's a lot of smoke from the oven because there was something in the bottom burning. I also think I'm just really tired and I'm a little wiped from sitting in the sun for so long. That always makes me very tired.
Go and lay in Jesse's bed which is right off of the kitchen for a while. She was watching YouTube videos and I was so tired I was only having a single thought. Like not having 10 thoughts at once like I normally do it felt like I was only having one conversation with myself. And that is very unusual for me. But it was my friend quietly with jazz well I listen to whatever the video was.
But now I'm in bed. I just took a shower and the girls all went to bed as well. The boys are going to stay up longer and just do everything. I I'm really grateful that they all came. And that they spent time and money with us. It's been really nice. I could fantasize about living in a big house with all my friends when we get to do things like this. I love seeing everyone work together.
Tomorrow is our last day here. Just picked a place where we can do Lake check out so we don't have to leave till 3:00. But the plan seems to be we're going to wake up and see if it's too rainy. But if it's not we're going to try to go out into nature. Just doing some like gentle hikes and walks around in nature. We might go to the playground. If it's raining there won't be any kids there I would assume. But even if it's just drizzling I still would like to get out there. The other plan is to make tacos. And then we're going to check out early and maybe go to some antique stores that are nearby. Kelly suggested it but then she was like I mean if you don't want to go. And I have to tell her no I want to go so much. I just don't want other people to be bored. But all the guys seem to be on board with it. I'm just so worried that people are not having a good time at any given time. But I am pretty sure they are.
And then we're going to go home. We'll go our separate ways and our separate cars. And I'm looking forward to going back to our own house. And I hope that it means me and James are just going to have a lot of fun and feel more excited about the wedding. It's about a month away now and that's crazy. I am so excited to be married to James.
Good night everybody. I am tomorrow is beautiful for all of you. Sleep good.
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who: @ofgoldengrove
when and where: prior to the situation regarding lady mayya allyrion and the belarys family, but following the conversation between cedric tyrell, baashir dayne and dante uller in which the reach made it clear they sought to destabilise the summer isle economy - including trade with dorne.
the sounds of celebration within kings landing's feast hall wasn't enough to muffle the atmosphere of tension there was between various courtiers and various factions; the conversation with the reach king and the first and second minister of dorne had left a certain taste in the back of her throat, one that was not the bitterness of the red wine she seemed to be in the process of replacing her blood-flow with. her lips remained tainted with intoxication, and it came in the ways her laughter carried over the hall: the period of mourning was over, and the white silks had slipped from her body to be replaced with her usual bright colours.
her gaze had briefly met with the dragon queen following their interaction within the art gallery, where her casual nature had been the reason for a woman momentarily feeling lesser than the other before the eyes of the world - and as much as she did not believe that was her issue, she still felt a pang of awkward guilt each time she came across her.
in the end, both had been given respite from the interaction by myriam feigning dizziness, and there had been space between them. the issue of the reach thorns remained a forefront problem in her mind; she cursed how sly and cunning they were, and the power they withheld right on their doorstep - the might of the redwyne fleet was no joke, and then to add the blackbar one into account too, the scales became worrying. it was less about breaking ties with the summer isles, who had remained a steady trade importer to dorne for years now, but rather dealing with reach folk who believed themselves untouchable. the region of the marches was able to be cultivated for growth, due to the change in soil type - or at least, that was what she had been told.
there were two regions of marches she could focus on; and the one with the dragons will always be the most questionable. she continued to hold her goblet to her lips as her mandarine skirts glittered in the candlelight, winding her way around the dance floor to try and depart it - she hoisted her skirts slightly, to ensure she did not or others did not walk upon them. and when she turned in her direction and bumped into another, the wine splattered all before their torso. she made no reaction but that to kiss her teeth, before looking up, wondering who had managed to walk right into her - only to look upon a certain individual once again.
mathis rowan, though this time dry, rather than in the bathhouse. she had heard rumours that he had never really died at all, and had managed to return back to the court he had served - no doubt it was for him the summer isles now became a close target of the reach council's animosity. she merely looked at him, then looked down at the red wine which stained his shirt, before looking back up at him - a part of her wanted to merely walk away in that moment. "i heard you were alive again." she spoke, her voice slightly slurred in the way it always was when she was drunk; and yet, there was a slight smile on her features. myriam allyrion glowed when she was drunk, like a candle. until she did not.
the smile faltered slightly now. he had been one of many to give her the attention she craved during another time, that felt like a lifetime ago now. craved, was the word specifically; for she did not want the attention of her husband as much as he had tried to pressure her for another heir, her closeness with her family had distanced as a result of the tryst with the velaryon bastard, and the chapter of the sword of the morning had come to a close. as much as it pained them both to finally turn the page over, to close the book - they had been wrong. she looked upon him again, clearly looking as though she were thinking. "sorry." she added, almost as an afterthought for what was on his shirt.
she wanted to ask him what in seven hells did his people think they were doing, threatening to sail into dornish waters? would he defend them? surely he would, considering his association. but how would mathis rowan defend it? was it even his issue? "will i see you in my seas should i refuse to cut ties with the summer isles?" she asked, her question blunt as she took another long drought of the wine glass.
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DANTE & EVIE — DAY FORTY
location : party boat / lower deck
featuring : @inquixotic
DANTE
dante sees evie come down from the upperdeck and moves towards her before he can think twice about it. by now he's come down from the high of kissing charlene and is beginning to see more clearly, realizing his mistake with not speaking to evie first. maybe it should wait until tomorrow, but he doesn't want her to find out without him saying something first (clown emoji). "evie," he greets, coming over to her side. warning bells go off in his head when he can already see she's been crying. uh oh. "are you okay, bella?" concern wracks his tone.
EVIE
coming off her talk with charlene that i don't know how it ends yet, she's still clearly emotional and the tears haven't slowed at all. and, of course, the last person she wants to see is the one who's there, calling her stupid names in italian, like he didn't just ruin the only good thing she thought she could have in here. "don't fucking call me that." she recoils away from him, the concern in his voice, her hands going up with the anger burning hotter at the sight of him. "just don't."
DANTE
it doesn't take a genius to see that evie knows, but that doesn't stop the hurt that flashes in his eyes. "you talked to charlene." not really a question, but dante feels the air sucking out of his lungs. he tries to steady it with a deep breath. "can we talk, please?" he doesn't see why they can't still be friends.
EVIE
she shoves past him to move towards one of the seats, the bar, anywhere where she doesn't have to look at him. "no, we can't fucking talk. you didn't want to talk before you kissed her." he was the one person she trusted with how much she liked charlene other than eden, and he's the reason she's in this position to begin with.
DANTE
"it wasn't going to happen!" he tries to reason with her, following her anyway. "i did not think it would. i didn't want it to until..." he hesitates, not even sure how he can finish it. "i'm sorry, i wanted to talk to you first. it doesn't have to change anything." he genuinely believes it too.
EVIE
she laughs, hurt bleeding through it. he’s saying all this like she hasn’t just lost full trust in him. “you knew how much i like her.” she spins to shove a finger into his chest, stopping suddenly. “you knew and you still did it. the only thing that’s changed is i know you’re not my fucking friend now.”
DANTE
"i know," his voice is small, because it's not like it's untrue. it's not like he hadn't thought about it, either, even if it was only for a moment. "but... i like her too." his confession is equally as quiet, the first time he's really saying it aloud. "that's... that's okay. we don't have to be friends," he swallows thickly, because that's absolutely not what he wants, but dante has never been the type to beg for friendship. "but i don't want to get between you and charlene, evie. you two can still be together."
EVIE
"i don't care." it's not as simple as she makes it seem, though. before now, she would've sworn she wanted dante to be happy, and even still it brings a pang of regret in her, even with how angry she is at him. "if you cared about me at all, you wouldn't have done it. friends don't do that." it's not that simple either, not so black and white, but she can't help it with how angry she is. "you already have, dante." her voice raises, staring at him with incredulity. "you're not fuckin' naive."
DANTE
it's being called naive that makes him flinch, lips rolling to press tightly together. it doesn't seem like there's any getting through to evie, not when she's this angry; the only saving grace is maybe tomorrow things will be less crazy. she'll be able to listen to him. "okay," he says quietly, taking a step back. "i will not bother you. i'm very sorry for hurting you, evie. and for being a bad friend. i... i hope you can forgive charlene. i still think you two should get to know each other."
EVIE
"you're not a bad friend. you're not my friend." she says simply, pausing to turn to look at him, venom dripping from her words. "i hope you're fuckin' miserable. i hope this ruins any fucking chance you had with any of these people. and i'm fucking glad i'll never see you again." and then she continues on her journey to find a producer.
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Paradox | V & Vergil
“You bring out the best in him, and the worst in me.”
His voice was heavy with the acknowledgement that had been so long delayed, and his chest rose and fell more prominently than she had ever seen it before. She looked on, frozen as he struggled to catch his breath for the very first time.
Rather than ponder the grisly spectacle of the crumpled and broken bodies around her, Aria reminisced on her initial meeting with the demon Urizen, recalling his hesitation to kill her friends before her eyes. Instead, he had thrown Dante aside and wrapped his snakey tendrils around Trish and Lady carefully before setting the struggling brunette down before his bloody throne. For the first time, the demon had hesitated, and it would be his undoing. She would be his undoing. Rather than crush his brother and her female companions in front of her, he took deliberate actions to lessen her suffering. For whatever reason, he felt the need to appease her in some small way, without straying from his goal.
It would seem that his miniscule capacity for amiability was not shared, as the young girl picked up her scimitars and hacked away at the tendrils that hung her companions far above her head. This feat was to no avail, it would seem, as another wrapped itself around her just as Nero pushed his way into through the wall behind. Despite the boy’s protest, Aria was tossed, albeit more gently than Dante, over the wall Nero had emerged from to land directly before the dark poet as he arrived.
“Are you alright?”
“V,” she sighed, pushing herself onto her elbows to begin the agonizing ascent to her feet.
“Yes?”
“What does it look like?”
The man pulled her to her feet but Aria immediately made her way towards the entrance of the throne room, leaving him to follow at her heels. The two burst through the entranceway and took in the new situation. Nero had collapsed and Dante was in Devil Trigger holding back the demon king’s power.
“This was a bad move, take him and go,” the son of Sparda ordered, much to the dissatisfaction of his still conscious companions.
The two argued fervently, Aria preparing to charge Urizen as V held the youngest member of their team in place. The throned beast glanced down at her, concentration wavering for just a moment so that Dante could push his power back further. Before she could charge, the woman’s choice was made for her as Urizen’s vines shoved them away in their flailing and a boulder came crashing down to seal the entrance.
Aria’s fingers went numb around the hilts of her blades, allowing them to slip lower through her hands as the two men beside her argued over their departure. Although she had wanted nothing more than to help Dante, she could not shake the unease she felt at the nature of the new demon king and felt relief in being spared his presence, if only for a while.
The bickering between Nero and V would continue to vex the young woman as they made their way back to the Devil May Cry van. It was only when they approached the not so subtly parked vehicle that Aria held her arm out to stop the poet and gestured for Nero to continue. Although confused, the dark haired man stayed in place and turned to her with curiosity creeping through his features. Once the youngest of the group was out of hearing range, she confronted him.
“Why did you put us on this job? What was that and why didn’t it turn me into a human crayon when it had the chance? What are you going to do if your job got Dante killed?”
Her tone drifted from threatening to desperation and, in an uncharacteristically show of courtesy, the summoner rested a hand on her shoulder with a reassuring gaze. The two held eye contact, hers fierce and demanding, and his soothing and impassive.
“You will know everything when you need to.”
“Dante could be dead,” she choked out, “How is this not a good time for me to know what the hell is going on?”
In the present, Aria’s mind then turned to when she learned the true name of the new demon king. Not by means of being told, but by watching the poet she had grown so fond of driving his cane through Urizen to regain his true form: Vergil.
As the facade around them shattered, she trembled violently in the presence of the man she thought long dead.
“Why did you keep this from me, V?”
Her whisper did not go unheard and Vergil’s cold gaze softened if only a little as it fell upon her, only to harden once it met with Dante’s as the red cloaked brother pulled her into a tight embrace. Tears flowed from the blonde’s eyes as she drove her fists into Dante’s chest repeatedly in rebuttal.
“How could you not tell me, you fucking asshole.”
The demonic twin had no response, instead choosing to pull her in closer until she regained her composure and shoved him away to turn her manic gaze back towards the newly rejuvenated twin. Before she could utter another word, the two were at each others’ throats. Aria could only chuckle hoarsely at the familiarity of the sight before her: the brothers sparring as they always had.
The biggest difference this time however, was Dante’s exhaustion would not allow him to land a single blow on his brother, and Vergil parried his every move with the sheath of Yamato alone. The two talked as they fought but the words fell on deaf ears when it came to the frozen woman. Finally, Vergil flung his brother against the furthest wall and picked up V’s book of poetry.
Aria’s breath caught in her throat as she remembered the nights she and the poet had spent entangled on the couch in Nico’s van, him reciting the poems aloud as she rested her head on his shoulder. All while Griffin groaned, not-so-subtly expressing his annoyance in the corner.
Vergil seemed lost in his own contemplation for a moment before gently tossing the book at her and cutting through the air in front of him. He spoke but his words failed to register in her pounding head; however, Aria was able to understand enough to mindlessly charge Vergil and grab his arm to be pulled through his temporary portal behind him.
The world around her spun, which she believed to be an effect of the portal before realizing she had been flung through the air by a somewhat surprised half demon. He let out a gentle sigh and lifted her to her feet before turning his back and building himself a throne with a wave of his hand.
“Was that, V, really you Vergil?”
The man didn’t even bother to spare her a glance as he only grunted in response.
“If nothing else I deserve an answer before you and your brother kill each other.”
“Yes, the human half of me. Come now,” he drawled, “I never knew you to ask stupid questions Aria.”
“Why would you toy with me again Vergil I thought you had your fill of power from my affections a long time ago”
“It would seem my affections were remembered by both halves of me, and V was able to,” he paused, considering the right choice of words, “connect with you in a way I never could.”
“If you still held affection for me then why all this?”
“You chose him.”
“Dante? Vergil I’ll always choose you, but I cannot stand by and let you destroy the world in your ridiculous grabs for power. Nothing is enough for you, what makes you believe killing Dante will make you any more fulfilled than I did, than being the demon king did?”
“Let me,” he mocked, his mocking smile cutting through her very being as her hope that she could connect with V fizzled.
The silence between them only served to add to Aria’s growing sense of despair, and her heart sunk as she reached for her blades. Her hands lost their grip on the hilts at his next words.
“You know I will try again,” he stated, finally turning his head to glance at her from his throne, “I suggest you do not refuse. Will you join me, or will you choose him?”
Aria’s brows furrowed as for a moment, in his hypnotizing eyes she saw remnants of V as well as the young Vergil she once knew. Rather than answer, she strode up to stand beside him and forced her gaze upon the terror he had brought to the city of Red Grave.
“You know this will not fulfill you,” she said coolly, gesturing at the decimated city.
The man only hummed in response, eyes still glued to her and awaiting her answer.
“You two will kill each other, and I will be left to pick up whatever’s left. Do either of you ever think of anyone but yourselves? Look what you’ve done Vergil, every time you fight each other you stray further away and cause increasingly horrific damage and casualties. Do you remember how many times I have patched the two of you up after your brawls? When does it end? When one or both of you die what then? Where does that leave me? To pick up whatever mess you have made and mourn one or both of you. I can’t let either of you die.”
“It ends when I kill him.”
And in that moment, the ounce of his former self that had sparked hope in Aria disappeared from Vergil’s eyes.
Her hand dropped from her weapon and she backed away as Dante reemerged atop the platform. Finally, Vergil was inclined to leave his seat and confront his brother. Before either could draw first blood, the blue cloaked demon turned to face her, finality in his tone.
“Join me.”
As much as her heart screamed out to rush to him, the sense of deja vu was far too strong. She had seen where the choice would lead her, and knew he would never be content. She shook her head, leaving his side to join Dante.
“Please, be careful. Where’s Nero?”
The brothers glanced between each other knowingly, and Aria’s heart only sunk further when she realized and turned to Vergil.
“He’s yours isn’t he?”
Vergil lowered his gaze, conflicted, and opened his mouth to speak, but before he could, Dante’s sword was headed straight for his head. Aria shook her head disapprovingly as the two brawled, but could not help to admire both Dante’s aggressive style as well as the concentration and certainty Vergil displayed. Although deadly, the two Sparda brothers clashing swords was a mesmerizing sight to behold. She only wished she had not been a spectator to it so frequently.
Old memories continued to arise with every separate blow, the most tangible being the two sparring as teens, both glancing at Aria for approval after executing particularly complex moves.
Her mind was forced back to the present as the twins barrelled past her in a flurry of red and blue light, both having entered their sin demonic forms while nearly throwing her from atop the tree.
It was only when Vergil stood over his brother that Aria was able to break her paralysis and unthinkingly throw herself between the still-demonic Vergil and his collapsed twin. Again, the trio paused as a wave of nostalgia hit, reminding them of the many occurrences of Aria breaking up their fights as children and teenagers by throwing herself over whoever had fallen first. This time however, she was unsure if she had just signed away her life as the demon snarled in disdain and panted, obviously near exhaustion. Aria was not any better off, ribs still screaming from the earlier altercation with Urizen. Although the demon king had not been intentionally aggressive towards her, she had taken her fair share of blows from the bloody twisted vines in their flailing.
“I won’t let you,” she said, drawing her blades and pressing her arm against Vergil’s chest, forcing him back a step as he loomed over her.
As he went to raise a clawed hand, despair crept over her, but both were brought pause by an unexpected yell.
“Don’t touch her!”
In their hesitation, another blue flurry barreled into Vergil and knocked him away. Nero. The sudden disruption gave Aria time to kneel down and sling Dante’s arm over her shoulder. She used the distraction to move him further from the new brawl between father and son.
Aria crumpled to rest against Dante’s collapsed form, unwilling to watch the ensuing family catastrophe and instead focusing on keeping the devil awake.
“You look terrible.”
Said devil popped one eye open and stuck a tongue out at her playfully before groaning and resting his head against his bicep.
They watched on as father and son traded blows, Aria cringing whenever one would land. Yet again, she was resigned as a spectator to a duel between those she cared for. Only, this time she wasn’t sure she would have the strength to prevent it from becoming lethal.
Just when Aria moved to rise to her feet, Vergil was beside her on his knees, having been sent sliding backwards by his son. Her heart pounded in her ears, and she distantly heard a quip from Dante as she watched the dark portal below stretch and groan.
“Boys-”
The Qliphoth trembled, aftershocks from the portal shaking its dastardly roots. Aria continued to shake long after the tree had stilled, her chest was tight and her lungs refused to expand. The Sparda family continued to bicker, but they were far away it seemed. Had the pain in her chest gotten worse? She had been too concerned with Dante to notice. She wasn’t sure when her ears had started ringing, but the intensity of the sound felt worse than any blow she had received thus far. Her friends were too busy arguing to notice her struggling for air, and she let out a huff of pained laughter at the familiarity before collapsing to her knees.
They noticed then. Vergil was the first to reach her, but she felt him be shoved aside as her eyes fluttered shut, rendering her unconscious.
#V x OC#vergil/oc#V/OC#devil may cry#fanfiction#DMC5#nero#dante#vergil sparda#dante sparda#vergil fanfic#v fanfic#angst#vergil's ex#unrequited love?
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What If All Men Disappeared and the World Was Just Boring?
A new feminist utopian novel imagines a world without men. The problem is they’re never really gone.
By Hillary Kelly June 16, 2022
Within days of the sudden disappearance of every last earthly bearer of XY chromosomes (fetuses included), things are pretty much back to normal. Trash collection in Los Angeles is up and functioning again. Cross-country flights are soon available, the subways run, and in one small town, things are even better than normal: A seemingly unlimited supply of pizza dough keeps people happily fed. The remaining XXers are so capable that they overcome, lickety-split, what might seem like fundamental obstacles to life without half the population—learning to operate new machinery, reupping the power grid and water filtration, and, though it’s never mentioned, presumably hauling in the year’s harvest. A few weeks later, Zillow creates a brand-new function to pair left-behind citizens with now-vacant houses; the CMS works like a charm, with excellent functionality and zero error messages. And that is how we know this is science fiction.
The left-behind women of Sandra Newman’s novel The Men can do it all. Who run the world? Girls. How do they do it? With an uncanny aptitude for systems management and an unlikely ability to maintain the amenities of modern life with 50 percent of the, er, manpower.
Such is the world Newman constructs in the gap where half of humanity once dwelled. When Jane Pearson comes down a mountain in Northern California after searching for her missing husband and son for 10 days, she hears “a faint, sweet clamor of voices in the air … They weren’t angels or children. It was the sound of a hundred women with no men.” The women are “drinking Bud from cans” and sunbathing in underwear while little girls are dancing to Elton John; the trauma of losing husbands, fathers, sons, and friends in an unexplained cataclysmic event isn’t enough to get in the way of a good time. “In that moment,” Jane thinks, “I was struck by how profoundly a scene was changed by the removal of the masculine element. It felt very sweet and fantastical: a world of lambs with no wolves.”
Relieved from the terror of prowling, howling beasts, these soft, delicate, no-longer-helpless women take back the night, and the streets, and the dark alleys, and all the places where they might have once clutched cans of pepper spray. Far-off problems occasionally float into view—truckers ambushed as they move supplies across the country, towns running out of food and resorting to violence—but this world of fluffy little lambs is billed as a paradise, if only its inhabitants would embrace it.
Except, for this reader, paradise is boring. (There’s a reason we relish Dante’s Inferno so much more than his Paradiso.) The defining feature of The Men, a snappy premise in search of a novel, is the utterly flat reality it imagines for its women. Building an entirely new world order of this sort ought to puff up dramas great and small. But pfffffft. Why does the air seem to go right out of them?The Men launches women into positions of uncontested power but entirely underestimates their complexity. It makes you long, against all your better instincts, for the men to come back.
There’s a big, ugly problem built into the foundation of The Men. The novel slices a clean chromosomal line through the middle of humanity, XX on one side, XY on the other, as if biology were destiny. Trans characters appear—though they don’t speak—but their presence is a moral badge for those who reminisce about disappeared trans friends or watch, with horror, while trans men are beaten in the street. Before publication, the book met with some controversy, based on some early readers and, in some cases, its premise alone. Goodreads reviewers showed up to one-star it, often admitting they hadn’t read the book. The essayist Lauren Hough was removed from contention for a Lambda Literary Award after she defended Newman and The Men on Twitter. But the novel isn’t transphobic as much as sadly ill-considered and unoriginal. Newman’s world isn’t binary, but her mechanism is, and no amount of shoehorned asides can shore up that rotting mooring. The history of feminist utopias in literature is long and fitful, with squabbles among renowned novelists and calls for a more expansive view of gender identity, but The Men lazily fumbles back toward simplicity.
Art is not required to be moral—and shouldn’t strive to be—but good art is never this careless in its conception. Utopias are ripe for wild imagining. Why not reckon with the reality of gender, especially when decades past have already seen this sort of utopian premise time and again? It appears the answer is that the gender-war narrative is too convenient to give up.
Novelists have been banishing men from the planet for at least a century, and Newman clearly nods to her experiment’s precursors in The Men’s acknowledgments. (Always read the paratext.) “Thanks to writers of feminist utopias who came before,” she notes, “especially Joanna Russ, Alice Sheldon, and Sherri Tepper, women brave enough to say, unapologetically, in a far more patriarchal world, that there should be no men.” Each of these writers built little paradises—Russ most ruthlessly with The Female Man, a 1975 time-hopping, rage tornado aimed directly at testicles—where women could live in harmony if not for the men who parachute in to observe, dissect, and, in some cases, try to destroy their idylls.
If I can offer an understatement: There’s a lot for women to be pissed about. Simmering resentment at our still-second-class existence is the de facto emotional state many of us exist in from moment to moment. Gender dystopias, in which men find new and creative ways to explicitly oppress women, have become outlets for that fury; there’s a Look what they’ll do to us if given the chance! snarl beneath every line of The Handmaid’s Tale’s descendants. Dystopian schemes grant men enough license and the right circumstances to keep women as if they were pets. Worst-Case-Scenario Fiction can feel like it’s doing the same work as worry, like we can ward off theocracies and maternal penal colonies by imagining them ahead of time.
The allure of the feminist utopia is that it dispenses with existential anxiety just as readily as it dispenses with men. In Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s Herland, the original American feminist utopia from 1915, citizens have achieved perfect health; they’re “a clean-bred, vigorous lot, having the best of care, the most perfect living conditions always.” The family units in Ursula K. Le Guin’s story “The Matter of Seggri” mete out child-rearing and domestic duties in harmony with larger governance work. On Whileaway, the single-gendered planet in The Female Man, the workweek is 16 hours; the planet is a place “so pastoral that at times one wonders whether the ultimate sophistication may not take us all back to a kind of pre-Paleolithic dawn age.” Women organize into efficient and congruous guilds. They get shit done, they have it all, they live out wellness mantras and T-shirt slogans. But their interpersonal struggles never seem to be enough to launch great stories. Men always appear, intervene, stir trouble. Once novelists create female bliss, they’re hard-pressed to do much with it.
The men of The Men are gone only for a short while. Weeks after their August 26 flash disappearance renders the first law of thermodynamics moot, videos begin to appear online that show the recently departed gathering in prison yards and by dried-up riverbeds. The setting looks like Earth, but it can’t be; it’s too apocalyptic. The men appear as if underwater, moving their lips in “the jerky, stylized speech motions of Claymation,” cognitively tasered and on a different plane of consciousness.
The clips spawn branches of academia, cults of dedication, and righteous protestations that they certainly are or are not a hoax. If this is a rapture, the women wonder, why have the men been taken instead of them? “If miracles were happening,” Jane posits, “there must be gods.” Might it be punishment, “after all the wars, the pollution, the rapes?” Women doggedly watch “The Men,” as the clips come to be called; they host viewing parties and hole up with their laptops, more immersed in the surreal digital version of the missing men than the tangible presence of other women. The integrity of the videos becomes a key talking point for the women running for president of the United States, including Evangelyne Moreau, Jane’s former best friend and almost-lover. The men are just as present when they’re missing as they were when they walked the earth.
Here is where the tension dry-rots. Rather than pivot toward the women, to the rush of possibility for a world full of ambitious, complex, at-odds women; rather than push sci-fi heurism to a new dimension by investigating the thrilling, unbearable prospect of a world now populated by the grieving, formerly oppressed class; rather than defy the cruel banality of a binary gender apocalypse, Newman gives men the narrative. She even gives them the title.
Because the men show up from the past too. As placidly as the women live—some in a lush, communal Los Angeles mansion, others on the road with an erudite girl gang—the histories of their violent and power-engorged relationships with men break through. In retrospect, some spot minor flaws that now loom larger: Blanca’s father brought home scores of women and barked at her to mind her business. Ruth’s son Peter, experiencing some variety of mental illness, perhaps made her life worse, and not better? Jane, the woman at the center of this story, reunites with Evangelyne, but then splices her “peaceful and joyous” time during Evangelyne’s rise to political dominance with the story of Alain, the grimy little ballet administrator who coerced her, as a teenager, into having sex with underage boys while he watched.
It’s only secondhand, through Jane, that the most vivid character of The Men comes to life. Evangelyne, raised in a bookish, small-time cult, has an intriguing back story: When she was 16 she killed two police officers who were involved in a raid on her community. She landed in prison, rather than Cornell, where she had just been accepted. This magnet of a woman, “the preposterous hope of the world,” writes a best-selling treatise on commensalism—her political theory, akin to communism, that wealth should be more evenly redistributed, “where eating the rich is a natural process”—from behind bars, and hopscotches through academic, artistic, and political circles. With the men gone, her ideas rip through masses of women eager to see power radiate through circles, rather than up ladders. She fast-tracks toward a nomination for president. Her story, a gay Black woman’s glorious rise—buoyed by an apocalyptic rapture—is the novel’s standout twist against convention. But I’ll let you guess what end Evangelyne meets. Here’s a hint: It’s at the hands of angry men.
The MenSandra Newman, Grove Press
dhttps://www.theatlantic.com/books/archive/2022/06/boring-utopia-world-without-men/661299/
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Description
From the author of The Heavens, a dazzling, mindbending novel in which all people with a Y chromosome mysteriously disappear from the face of the earthDeep in the California woods on an evening in late August, Jane Pearson is camping with her husband Leo and their five-year-old son Benjamin. As dusk sets in, she drifts softly to sleep in a hammock strung outside the tent where Leo and Benjamin are preparing for bed. At that moment, every single person with a Y chromosome vanishes around the world, disappearing from operating theaters mid-surgery, from behind the wheels of cars, from arguments and acts of love. Children, adults, even fetuses are gone in an instant. Leo and Benjamin are gone. No one knows why, how, or where. After the Disappearance, Jane forces herself to enter a world she barely recognizes, one where women must create new ways of living while coping with devastating grief. As people come together to rebuild depopulated industries and distribute scarce resources, Jane focuses on reuniting with an old college girlfriend, Evangelyne Moreau, leader of the Commensalist Party of America, a rising political force in this new world. Meanwhile, strange video footage called "The Men" is being broadcast online showing images of the vanished men marching through barren, otherworldly landscapes. Is this just a hoax, or could it hold the key to the Disappearance?From the author of The Heavens, The Men is a gripping, beautiful, and disquieting novel of feminist utopias and impossible sacrifices that interrogates the dream of a perfect society and the conflict between individual desire and the good of the community.
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The real reason why Dante didn't come to Smash Bros
Dante is sitting at a table, looking over two pieces of mail with a serious expression on his face. Lady walks in.
Lady: What's got you looking all stern?
Dante: Well, I'm in a bit of a predicament. You know how I finally managed to pay off the bills for this month?
Lady: Yeah. A one in a million opprotunity.
Dante: Well, earlier I got two pieces of mail. One of them is a coupon for 85% off pizza as long as it's delivered. I got money to spend, and I'm thinking to myself, that's a good ass deal.
Lady: Damn, that is a good ass deal.
Dante: Right? Now, envelope #2 is a Smash Bros invitation.
Lady: You mean that one party where you wail on a bunch of weird looking guys with items on platforms?
Dante: Bingo.
Trish: Didn't you already do tha- OH, wait. That was the other one! The one where you met Heihachi! I heard his kid got into Smash.
Dante: And you brought up memories of the past. And that wasn't me. They just decided to try something I didn't entirely agree with.
Nero: Wait, how'd you meet Heihachi?
Dante: Long story, I don't like the contents of it.
Trish: You had brown hair, your voice was different. Oh, even your Devil Trigg-
Nero: Brown hair? Were you going through some sort of midlife crisis?
Dante: Trish, I don't want to talk about it.
Trish: Okay, party pooper.
Dante: Back to the topic, I got an invitation. Basically, it's a huge party.
Lady: ...So, what's the problem?
Dante: Should I choose pizza or Smash?
Lady: You're seriously having trouble choosing...?
Dante: 85% off doesn't happen everyday.
Lady: Fair.
Trish: Look, let's think about it like this. You either have a bunch of pizza, or you get to be in Smash Bros.
Dante: ....
Trish: ....
Dante: ....Pizza.
Trish: Well, ladies and gentlemen, you heard it here. Super Smash Bros will not be featuring Dante from the Devil May Cry series.
Lady: Was that some sort of reference?
Dante: Now, now. I think there's a way I can still be featured. Just need to find one of my old outfits.
....
Mii Swordfighter is walking down the sidewalk. He is then halted by a voice.
Dante: Hey, buddy.
Mii Swordfighter turns and sees Dante.
Mii Swordfighter: :O
Dante, holding a costume: Wanna get stylish?
#incorrect quotes#smash bros#submission#incorrect super smash bros#super smash bros#Dante#Lady#Nero#Trish#Mii Swordfighter#Devil May Cry#Miitopia
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Accept MY Love - Zenon Zogratis
(Authors note: First off I really wanted to say thank you to everyone that has stuck around and enjoy my book! I’ve reached 20k! I know it may not be a lot but I’ve enjoyed writing black clover and it’s always nice to have support! And second this is my first time writing Zenon so if he’s a little OC... mind ya business haha)
She was given to him as a toy, his servant, slave. She didn't want to be labeled or cared for it, all she wanted was an escape plan. She was weak, a girl picked off the streets for her looks as she was told.
(Your Name) was sitting hugging her knees staring out of the window. The pale snow falling onto the ground effortlessly. "Women." Zenon says from across the room but she refused to look at him. After a few more minutes he roughly grabs her face and she struggles to pull away. "Don't touch me!" She screams as he quietly loses patience with her.
Zenon strikes her right cheek as she gasp and fell to the floor. The blood spilling from her mouth as she looks up to him in fear. "You monster, just get rid of me already! Kill me if you must!"
"Clean yourself up and lay in bed." He says before walking out.
Sniffling she cleans the wounds and takes a bath, the warm water was welcoming especially since the snow had been falling all day.
Taking the only belonging shes had left which was a few clothing and a personal journal she set it hidden under the bed.
Zenon doesn't say a word as he calms his head a bit.
This women had the nerve to defy him and all he could do was snap her neck to end it all.
"It's time for bed." He tells her as she carefully walks into the bed before he stops her. "This isn't the attire I gave you."
A fear comes across her face as she backs away from him. Zenon roughly tears her clothing off, they fall one by one as she picks up the pieces. "These were all I had left of home." She whispers as he hands her something more revealing to wear.
"You are to obey me."
(Your Name) angrily looks up to Zenon and slaps him across the face. "This gives you a reason to kill me now."
Zenon darkly smiles to himself. Oh how he liked to torture her.
"Bedtime." Is all he says and drags her into the bed next to him.
Zenon happened to walk past her home when he saw her. She was shining in the snow and her beauty was mesmerizing.
Carrying the fire wood for some elderly she was smiling kindly to them. Zenon was surprised how gentle he was feeling. He hated it. Why did this women make this affect on him?
He wanted her... no he needed her. For what? He had yet decided but he got what he wanted.
The way she smiled and effortlessly showed kindness was something he could never do. Zenon wanted that from her. That's when he decided she was going to be his.
Zenon was one to rarely sleep these days, he wasn't known to having a women in his bed unlike his brother. The first few nights she refused to sleep so he had to knock her out. Looking at her reflection from the moon her weight had drop dangerously low. The cold wind blew into the room as she shivered and turned away from him.
His body moved unwilling from his mind as he covered her with more blankets.
Zenon craved love, he didn't know how to describe the feeling. To be cherish or a warmth that was never settled in him. He wanted that affection from her yet everything he asked of her she refused.
Tracing her hair to her shoulders he kissed it softly till he craved her body and bit down harshly.
(Your Name) yelled in pain as he held her body close to his. Removing his teeth from her shoulder the thick blood fell as he licked them away. The look in his eyes scared her. He was enjoying giving her the pain.
"You are tempting women." Zenon lustfully whispers as she throws the covers off and tries to find the closest exit.
"At this point I don't even care how I die."
(Your Name) looks towards the window and back at Zenon. She tries to run out the window to end her misery in this room of his. Zenon wouldn't allow it as he grabs her back knocking her out cold.
That night Zenon dreamed of them as they happily lived together and how she was happy with him. He dreamt that they were making love from the pureness of their hearts. How hot she felt around him and the ecstasy they both felt from the closeness of their bodies.
Until it turned into a nightmare of her blood running thick in his hands as she laid lifeless in his arms. Her cold eyes staring up at him, blaming him for her death. She was trapped.
Zenon wakes up in cold sweat as he looks around to find her sleeping soundlessly again next to him. She was uncharacteristically cuddled up next to his body for warmth.
The next morning there was food laid out for her but no sign of Zenon, this was the best part of the day for her. She was alone and not being watched like a hawk. (Your Name) chows down the food, she was starving. The only time she refused to eat was when he ordered her to.
(Your Name) was curious to why he picked her, his brother Dante had many beautiful women surrounding him. Everytime she hoped he would trash her out already but he refuses each time she brings it up or if Dante tells him his 'toy' was boring.
"There has to be a reason."
The door opens as he walks in and changes out to more comfortable clothes. (Your Name) avoids his eyes staring at her as she clears her throat and set the empty tray out the bedroom.
Walking back to the window seat she watches the snow fall again. There was nothing to do, no fun. Her family was gone and she wouldn't dare try to talk to Zenon like she knew him.
"Are you not happy?" He asks her making his way to the window as she softly laughs and grits her teeth.
With venom in her voice she says "clearly I'm a prisoner and there's nothing to do here."
Zenon gently grabs her head and kisses her neck softly from behind.
"Stop it." She whispers as he lightly sucks on the precious skin.
"What will make you happy."
Her eyes widen as she turns her head to look back at him, he was emotionless. The look of his eyes held no warmth or comfort. It was as if he lived everyday to die.
"I want to leave! I want to go home! I'm sure there's other girls who would rather be in my position!" She raises her voice to Zenon as it slightly cracks from fear.
"She wants to leave me, I can't understand why she is so unhappy? I give her food, shelter and all the attention but she refuses everything!"
Zenon eyes grew dangerously dark as he kicked the chair across the room and dragged her to the bed wrapping his hand around her neck. She protested the whole way.
"Do I not give you everything you need?" He asks in a low voice as she swallows the lump in her throat and he finally loosens the grip around her neck massaging her bruised hickey.
"I don't want everything Zenon." She whispers back with tears falling from her eyes.
He lets go and kisses her tears away as he leaves the room locking it behind him.
(Your Name) finally manages to pull herself together when he left the room, her hands were shaking from the anxiety she got from his close they were. Truthfully she was scared he was going to choke her to death. Even though she wanted him to kill her she didn't have the guts for it.
Zenon was with his other two siblings as they mocked him in his misery.
"I told you to get rid of her, she obviously a nuisance to you." Dante says with a smirk as he shakes his head in disappointment.
"Or she can be my toy and I can torture her till she's crying to just end her life." Vanica suggest with amusement in her voice.
Zenon mentally rolls his eyes at his siblings, he was always the different one from the three.
"Don't tell me she's already begged you to kill her." Dante smiles deviously at Zenon who doesn't usher a word but let his silence speak for itself.
"Ahaha brother you sure are a cruel one!" Vanica says licking her lips before leaving the two behind.
"So what are you going to do? I suggest throwing her out in the snow and let the starving dogs get her."
Zenon gives Dante a icy glare as he makes his leave. Going to his sibling for help was not the brightest idea.
Back in the room (Your Name) was laying in bed and reading a book that Zenon had in his shelfs. It wasn't completely boring, the story she was reading at least but being trapped was driving her crazy. He walks in as she tenses up a bit.
Sitting beside her on the bed she backs away from him slightly.
They stare at each other in silence as she turns towards her book once more.
"You can't leave." He tells her as she covers her face with the book. She wanted to avoid his sorrowful gaze.
"Why me?" She whispers as Zenon lowers the book from her face and traces her facial features.
"You are the most exquisite creature I've ever laid eyes on. I have been enchanted by such beauty. I mean no harm to you but you refuse to accept me."
She looks at him sadly and holds his face.
"I can't give you what you need, I am terrified by you, if I am to be the light of your life it is not a gift but chosen by the heart."
Zenon holds her hand on his face before giving it a light kiss.
"Your fate as been determine, if I let you go my siblings will kill you but if you stay with me here in this room I can give you the ever most love in the world."
(Your Name) eyes fell, the light shining in them were gone. Did she want to be set free but die in the hands of his siblings are be in his company till she accepted his love.
She felt disgusted with herself as she answered him.
"I'll stay with you."
With a shaky voice he pulls her into his embrace as she fought to keep her tears in and he devilishly smiles to himself.
#black clover#black clover oneshots#black clover x reader#black clover oneshot#black clover imagine#black clover images#black clover zenon#Zenon zogratis#yuki tabata
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I don't know much about ATLA but based on my objective observation, how Katara looks at Zuko is the same as how Kagome looks at Inuyasha. So I can see why Zutara is still a popular ship even though it's not canon
Thank you, now I can't get this parallels out of my head and... holy shit! You might be onto something there. There's also the fact of them working so well as a team. Their (more than) rocky start. The fact that their friendship is so deep and meaningful on its own.
Also, you should definitely give ATLA a try, though. Not onlly for Zutara, but because the story is really, really good. In fact, I'd argue that the romance part is actually its weakest suit and not as important as the other themes it tried to explore.
As for Zutara, I'd say it is still popular precisely because it didn't become canon. I don't know if you're aware of this but apparently the writers (and couple) Aaron Ehasz and Elizabeth Welch Ehasz, who were mostly in charge of Zuko's character, wanted to go in a very different direction than what we ended up getting, but the creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko (they're know as "Bryke") put their foot down.
The rumor is that another season called Book Four: Air was supposed to happen, featuring Azula's redemption, what happened with Ursa, the discover of alive airbenders, Iroh's spiritual journey and so on. They could have taken this chance to develop Zuko and Katara into something... more. But it was canceled in favor of that awful live action movie.
So they stuck with three seasons and even though the Zuko and Katara's american voice actors thought Zutara was going to happen and the Ehasz couple stilll wanted to leave the ending open in that sense, Nickelodeon and Bryke pushed for the end game we got because, and I quote, "children would cry if it didn't happen."
But it's actually more than that. Bryke, two grown ass man, were so pressed over their favored ship not being as popular as Zutara that they not only dedicated a whole episode of the show (The Ember Island Players) to make fun of Zutara shippers, they also made this cringy ass video and played at SDCC 2008 as a joke:
youtube
They used fanarts made by their own damn fans in order to publicly take a dig on them for liking Zutara and, not satisfied, straight up told these people, mostly children and teens, that if they thought Zutara should be together, they would forever have doomed relationships. And they thought it was funny.
That's why I have no doubt if Zutara had gone canon, they would most definitely find a way to ruin it for us the same way they ruined most of the end game couples, so this is actually for the better.
The Zutara fandom made these characters' journey and relationship justice in a way Bryke couldn't, because they didn't have the same interpretation of Zuko and Katara as the Ehasz couple did and since they were the creators, their word was final.
So who knows? Maybe the fact Zutara was not canon is one of the reasons we still have so many great Zutara content to this day?
#The only ATLA canon ship I actually got behind was the Sokka ones#Because I haven't read the Kyoshi book yet so maybe I'll add one more ship to the list#But so far that's where I'm at#Zutara#Katara#Zuko#Inuyasha#Kagome#Inukag#Thanks for asking#Sidmailing#ATLA
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Father and Son
Their relationship with one another has always been a bit strained. Not having his father in his life for a majority of it and suddenly discovering he exists hasn't boated well within Nero since the day he found out. For Vergil, he still hasn't really bought up the courage to speak to Nero properly yet. To be honest, the man wasn't sure he'd know what to say to him. How does he explain everything that's happened to him up until this point? How does he explain not being there for his kid? How does he explain what Nero already knows?
Vergil wanted to make things right with Nero but he wasn't sure if the kid would even let him. Nero has actively avoided Vergil since he and Dante have gotten back from vacation in Hell, getting rid of the Qliphoth root. Anytime Vergil entered the same room as his son, Nero made his way out. Anytime Vergil tried to talk to him, he either pretended not to hear the older Sparda or would completely walk away. Sometimes Vergil didn't even get a word out because he'd chicken out.
If Griffon was still present, he knows the bird would be pestering him about talking to the boy. Griffon had always been a voice of reason for his human counterpart, the eldest kin of Sparda wishing he had him now to nudge him in the right direction.
"Nero", Vergil whispered.
The boy was only sitting a few meters away, across from him in the DMC office building yet they felt so far apart from one another.
"Nero", Vergil tried again, this time slightly louder.
"What do you want old man?", Nero asked, not looking up from the magazine he was reading. His voice leaked with a venom that seemed to hit Vergil straight in the chest.
Vergil looked away from his son, feeling as though he'd get hit if he was caught doing so.
"You've got my attention now, might as well say what it was you were going to", Nero grumbled.
Vergil sighed, trying to figure out how he starts this conversation. "Just tell the kid how you feel. He'll understand. Deep down inside, he just needs his father", Dante's words rang out in his head. As much as he hate to admit it most days, Dante was right and Vergil had to accept it this time.
"I... I'm sorry", Vergil finally said.
"For which part? Stealing my arm or abandoning me and my mother in Fortuna?", Nero asked.
"All of it", Vergil replied.
"Did you know I never got to meet my mother? She gave me up to an orphanage because my no good father left her to fend for herself. I don't even know what she looks like!", Nero's voice began to rise, his face heating up and the pages of the magazine crumpling under his fingers. "20 long years and it's you I discover is my father. Every one clap for the man who left me and my mother for dead!", Nero said. The boy was starting to yell, his neck a bright red.
"Nero-"
"Oh and don't get me started on how I got dragged into this mess! I almost killed my own uncle the first time I met him, let alone almost getting killed myself!", Nero yelled. He tossed the magazine he was reading to the side, standing, slowly make his way over to his father.
"You know what's worst of all? I had to go through all of that without you! Without anyone! Everyone I loved and cared about got killed along the way! I lost Credo! I almost lost Kyrie! And my mother, who I've never met! I lost all of them and you weren't there for any of it!", Nero yelled. He was standing before Vergil now, looking down at the ground. His hands were balled up fists, his hair a mess upon his head, his cheeks and neck a bright red. A small sniffle could be heard form Nero as tears began to pour down his face.
"Why?", he asks weakly.
Nero drops to his knees, resting his head on his father's lap as sobs ripped through the him.
"Why weren't you there?", Nero croaked out.
Vergil put a hand on his son's back, gently rubbing his back trying to bring any source of comfort he could. Nero clung onto his father as he cried into his torso. Vergil feeling almost stuck, hugged his son.
"I'm sorry I couldn't be there before Nero. I can't pretend to know what it did to you but I can promise I'll be here now", Vergil said.
Nero looked up at Vergil, the man finally being able to see the amount of hurt and anguish that adorned his son's features.
"Please", Nero whispered.
Vergil moved the hair from Nero's forehead, placing a hesitant small kiss there.
"I promise"
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Sins of the Father...
Based off an ask a Nonnie sent me. Not sure of where, or if I want to go with it.
Vergil wasn’t worried. After all, Nero was only second to Dante when it came to tardiness. He had never made it on time to any meeting or gathering since Vergil had first met him, when the young man had been late to dinner two years ago. Sure, Nero was almost never more than a half hour late without a hurried apologetic call explaining his latest excuse reason. But Nero had many responsibilities, three children, a mobile business, a snarky mechanic, so it was obvious that it would take some time to make it to the office. Vergil wasn’t worried at all.
So, why was he tapping his fingers on the varnished desk? Boredom, most likely. Why was he staring at the front door like he was trying to drill a hole in it? Agitation at being made to wait yet again. Why did he have a cold pit in the base of his stomach? Probably being forced to eat the last of the edible food in Dante’s fridge this morning. And why did, when the phone rang, did he lunge for it like a hellhound on a bone?
“Devil May Cry.” He hadn’t quite gotten his brother’s aptitude at answering the phone, he saw no need for faking pleasantness, especially when most people calling were in no mood for faux joviality. Besides, he was ready to upbraid his son about making him worry about being late.
“Ah, I was hoping I would reach you first.” an unknown voice of a woman, her voice slightly raspy with age, or from smoking, he couldn’t quite tell. “Makes things a bit simpler, a little less messy. I don’t wish to involve more people than I have to.”
That ice cold pit grew, beginning to climb up his spine. “Who are you?.”
“That’s not really important right now,” the woman sidestepped his question. “It’s who YOU are that’s the key, Urizen.”
Vergil instinctively gripped the desk, so hard that the wood began to protest. “I no longer go by that name-”
“What would you prefer to go by? ‘The Monster of Redgrave’? ‘Executioner of Innocents?’ or maybe something more simple? Murderer?” The voice was serene, almost otherworldly so.
Vergil’s mouth went dry. He hadn’t tried to hide his actions, never made any excuses for it, but neither had he tried to make it well known what he had done. It was far too difficult to explain to people who were friends of Dante. (Arkham’s daughter always had a hand on the grip of one of her pistols when he was near her.) Let alone the general public.
“What are you getting at?” Vergil barked with far more emotion than he had expected. Why should he care about what a random person thought about him? Why should this accusation trigger a wave of guilt?
The voice on the other end deepened to a hateful hiss. “You, who took countless lives, who stole EVERYTHING I ever cherished and loved, yet...you get the love and adoration of those closest to you, even after all that you’ve done.”
In any other situation, Vergil would have strongly argued against the idea of being ‘adored’ by Dante and Nero, but he couldn’t say anything.
The voice regained its emotional control. “So, I decided that if the Fates, Karma, or the Cosmic Scales of Justice won’t make you pay… I will. You won’t feel a millionth of the pain I have, won’t shed a fraction of the tears I have spilled, but at least you will know a pale echo of my grief.” He heard the sound of footsteps echoing in a vast space, like a warehouse, and then heard what sounded like a person kicking a bag of potatoes. “Wake up,” the voice ordered, directed not to him, but someone with her.
And then a sluggish groan, a pained moan that caused his mind to grind to a halt. There was no mistaking whose voice that was, not to Vergil.
Nero.
Instinct took over. “Touch him again,” he growled, and he could feel the scales of chitin begin forming down his arms, his tail materializing and swishing around in agitation, “And you will never feel the sun on your face ever again.”
A soft chuckle knocked him back to reality. “Trust me, you’re not in a position to bargain, Vergil, Son of Sparda. Besides, my goal isn’t to kill him...yet.”
Vergil couldn’t help himself, not when Nero’s life was in the balance. While Yamato could get him anywhere in an instant, he had no clue of where his son was being held, no idea of how to rescue him. And so he broke down...and began to bargain.
“What do you want?”
“What I want….” the voice drawled, obviously savouring this moment, “Is to have you watch your son die before your very eyes, unable to do anything to save him. To be powerless. But…” there was a pause, “if you decide that you’re not up to the job, or send someone else to retrieve him, I’ll settle for killing him outright and sending you his body. Not as satisfying, but it still sends the message. Make your way to the ruins of the Phantomisa Theatre in Redgrave, I’ve set instructions and coordinates in the phone booth at the front doors. Follow those instructions to the letter, and come alone or else....” another thud, another pained moan, the threat was made clear. “Unlike you, I’m not the monster, I don’t want to make him suffer anymore than I have to. You have three hours.”
“Let me speak to-” Vergil practically yelled into the receiver, but all he got was the soft click of a hang up and a dial tone. How he managed to place the phone back on its cradle without smashing it to pieces was a miracle in itself. Three hours. That’s all he had. Perhaps it was bad luck, but this was the worst time for this to happen Dante was far off, clearing out a demonic filled cave, completely unreachable, and both Lady and Trish were somewhere across the continent, probably on yet another shopping spree. If this wasn’t just bad luck, whoever this person was had done their research...which was not reassuring at all.
Vergil stood up, and forced his demonic features back down. Right now, he needed a clear head, that was Nero’s only saving grace. He grabbed his coat, and unsheathed Yamato and after a few fumbled attempts, he managed to make a portal to the approximate location. He WOULD save his son...even if it cost him everything else.
He left behind a desk with a large chunk, gouged out, it’s splinters still embedded in his fingers.
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