tiredpandaportfolio - Tumblr blog

tiredpandaportfolio · 8 months

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Dante trying to make pizza at home for the first time would be a nightmare. RIP the poor kitchen

It takes me way longer to get these out than I like.

It was the closure of his favorite pizza joint that really pushed him over the edge. Financial troubles, they claimed. Dante could maybe understand that. They had the perfect balance of cheap and quality pizza in that part of town--and they were willing to deliver to his alley, something most pizza joints balked at.

With good reason, perhaps.

Still, he told himself. Wasn't the end of the world, was it?

He tried a few other pizzerias. Some did not want to get their delivery crews anywhere near the whole neighborhood. Of those that did, their fare was either way too expensive for his wallet, or some kind of disgrace that should be ashamed of calling itself pizza. He was very particular about his pizza. He hated anything too greasy, or that was all bread and not enough toppings, or when the cheese had a funky smell, or when the store was stingy with the meat.

He struggled through the first two weeks. Just when he thought he’d found some hopefuls, he also found out that they were a lot less forgiving than his old usual about being owed money. They cut him off at once and even spread the word.

“Aaah… what’s a man gotta do for some decent pizza around here,” Dante grumbled as he sat back against his large chair, frustrated.

He knocked the last of the fliers into the wastebasket where others lay crumpled. Every last one of these stores among them had let him down. Sure, he could go out to eat but he’d much rather have it brought to his doorstep so he could enjoy his pizza in peace. The frozen pizzas he’d gotten to tide him over were not cutting it anymore. They were too small, too thin, too stingy with everything. He needed something with substance.

As he glared at the ceiling fan, a dreadful thought came to him. He would have to seek advice. He carefully considered who he could entrust with this secret. Trish was out. She would purposefully just tell him to eat something else, just to amuse herself at his frustration. Lady would make it about money, like she always did. He grumbled. No, there was only one person who’d give him a straight answer… for a price. He sighed. He hated this, but he’d have to bite the bullet.

He sat up and dragged his phone close, wedged the receiver between his ear and shoulder and irritably dialed the number, his finger dragging the dial round and round with practiced speed and mindfulness not to actually break the damn thing. The crackly dialing tone made his leg bounce with frustration.

“C’mon… c’mon…” he muttered through his teeth.

She took her time answering. He heard the click of her answer and then the soft, tired voice: “Hello?”

“Hey Twig,” Dante said, leg still bouncing. “Still sleepin’ in? It’s 5 in the evening.”

“No,” Tess sighed from the other end of the line. “That’s you, ‘till someone walks in and gives you a load of trouble. Or scarfing down another pizza.”

“Funny you should say that,” he said.

“Anyway, what’s happened now?”

Dante smirked tartly. “Now why would you say that, Twig?”

“Because you never call just to chat,” Tess replied in a similar tart tone.

“Alright, alright,” he chuckled. “Listen, I need a tiny favor.”

“If you’re gonna ask me to ‘magic your coat clean’ again I’m going to hang up.”

“Wait, wait, wait–” Dante said quickly. “No, I just wanna ask you something.”

“Oh,” Tess said sheepishly. “What’s up? Ghost stuff?”

“No, no, it’s something dumb,” he admitted. “Listen, this stays between us, alright? I’ve got dirt on you too, don’t forget.”

“Yeah, yeah, just out with it, you fusspot.”

Dante braced himself and breathed in. “Alright, listen. I need your unbiased opinion, as an Italian.”

“Oh boy,” Tess said and he heard her smirking.

“So… what’s the best pizza place in town, right now, in your expert opinion?” he asked quickly.

“The what now…?” she echoed. “Dante… did you call me to ask about a pizzeria? Is this about your usual place closing up?”

Dante grimaced. “Who told you that?”

“Morisson, he saw it closed and predicted you’d lose your mind,” she chuckled. “What, are you gunning for your fix?”

He resisted the urge to hang up. “Please just give me something, I’m so done with this.”

“I’m not some kinda pizza oracle, Dante,” Tess sighed, but he still heard her smiling. “I don’t know man, have you tried Rossellini’s? Oh but they wouldn’t deliver to your end of town, would they…”

Dante growled. “No, they don’t and it bugs me. They have good pizza.”

“Well… not sure what to tell you then, I don’t really do take out,” Tess said. “Unless you want to take a crack at making pizza.”

“Real funny–” Dante started to snark but then he blinked. Really, why didn’t he try that? He might be lazy but this was a matter of his peace of mind. If he just made his own he could have pizza whenever he wanted! And he’d make it the way he wanted!

“I might just do that, Twig,” he said, feeling smug.

There was a weighty pause before she replied. “Ok, just don’t burn your house down. I don’t want to think about what you’d do if all you had left were the clothes on your back–assuming you haven’t pawned them off.”

“Your confidence in me is breathtaking, Twig,” Dante snarked and hung up the phone.

He stood up and stretched. Right. Making pizza should not be that hard.

But it was.

Two days later, Dante stood over his oven, fumbling with a fire extinguisher, covered in flour and his shirt stained with tomato sauce. His oven was open, spewing out a thin wisp of really smelly, dark smoke and he could barely see what was going on inside. Finally he tossed the old handheld extinguisher aside and with a grunt just grabbed the rack bare handed and pulled it out. He winced. What he was holding was a blackened oven rack with what looked like pieces of charcoal stuck to the prongs. He blinked.

“Where’s the rest of it…?” he muttered and then cast his eyes around for a place to put it down on.

To his dismay, the sink was full of dirty bowls, the counter was covered in flour, spilled pizza sauce and the aftermath of a carnage of chopping vegetables and meat. Even the table was covered in dirty pots and kitchenware, except for the one spot where a ratty-looking recipe book was open, its pages stained. He awkwardly elbowed aside some stuff on the small counter and tried to put the hot and charred rack down, having to quickly drop it and move to catch a falling bowl with his foot, resulting in splattering his boot and pantleg with the first, utterly failed version of his pizza sauce.

He hissed out a cuss and picked up the bowl off his foot and put it in the sink with a sigh, grabbed a grimy rag to wipe his boot and clothes down, then stooped to look inside the oven.

“What else was I expecting…” he sighed, staring at the pile of charred remains at the bottom of the oven.

He had stupidly placed the awkwardly shaped hunk of dough straight onto the rack with just some baking paper, because he’d managed to ruin the only baking sheet he had. The previous attempt was welded to the sheet. The kitchen stunk of charred food and Dante straightened up, rubbing his back and looked around. His attempts to cook usually produced a mess but this was beyond even his greatest culinary disasters. He’d stubbornly been trying for the last two days and every time he thought he was making some kind of breakthrough, he’d stumble onto another problem. He’d gotten close a couple of times but the two that looked safe enough to eat were just terrible. Looking at the sad pile of charcoal at the bottom of his oven, Dante sighed.

He shut the oven and then shut his eyes, tilting his head back towards the ceiling. The taste of defeat was so much worse than anything he’d eaten from his attempts and he was starting to just ruefully accept it.

“Haaaah… she’s never gonna let me live this down,” he sighed.

He trudged out of the kitchen and straight to his bathroom to peel the sweaty, dirty clothes off him. He wasn’t attached to these particular ones but he was almost impressed how he’d managed to make more of a mess on them by trying to cook than he’d ever manage by fighting demons. He would’ve been laughing at himself if he wasn’t at the end of his rope and tired. He managed to shower, only to find that there was so much flour and bits of dough stuck in his hair it took work to get it all out without it turning glue-like. When he finally dragged himself out of the shower, the office no longer smelled of burned food and he changed into fresh clothes and tried not to think about what he was going to do about the utter disaster in the kitchen.

He sat heavily into his chair with a groan and leaned back, resting his legs on the desk and stared at the ceiling. He was never good at stomaching defeat and even something as minor as this–which to his mind was not minor at all–was going to really get him down in the dumps for a good while. The last thing he wanted was someone to bother him now.

So of course the phone rang.

Dante grunted, almost wanting to kick the hoarse-sounding machine off his desk but instead he knocked the receiver off the base, with practiced care, and snatched it out of the air to bring it to his ear.

“Devil May Cry…” he grumbled.

“Ah, sounds like someone’s having a bad day,” Tess said.

Dante almost hung up and blurted something vague about her timing.

“Alright, alright, don’t get worked up,” she said, and he frustratingly could hear her grin. “Just wondering how you’re coping. Did you actually try making pizza?”

He almost snapped at her but frankly, it wouldn’t amount to anything and he was too tired to get into a fight. He sighed and leaned back into his chair. “I did.”

There was a pause and he could easily imagine her looking amazed–or horrified. “And? Building still intact?”

He grunted again. “It’s fine. But I sure as hell burned a couple of pizzas.”

“Guess the experiments failed,” she said, matter-of-factly.

“Big time. I’m left with a bomb-zone of a kitchen and an empty stomach,” he confessed.

“Mmm, sounds like it. I take it you’re running on fumes now, huh?”

Dante didn’t want to admit it, but he really hadn’t eaten much since yesterday and he was already feeling like his stomach was sticking to his back. “Kinda,” he grunted. “Why?”

“Well… I haven’t had lunch and I really don’t feel like eating by myself so why don’t you pick your sorry ass up and come over here,” she said. “And before you get any ideas,” she added, just as he was about to protest, “this is not pity. You’ve probably committed unspeakable sins against pizza over the last couple of days and the less we speak of that, the better. Consider this a re-education. I’m going to teach you what good pizza is.”

Dante let out a barking laugh. “You didn’t. You can just make pizza?”

“Dude, I lived in Italy,” she said smugly. “If you can’t make pizza you get deported.”

He sat up properly. “And what, you’re willing to share?”

“Yes. Rejoice, dumbass, I’m gonna feed you. And then teach you how to make a pizza without burning your office down,” she said.

He chuckled. “Careful, Twig, I might have to propose.”

“You’re so funny. Just get over here, I have some dough ready to go. Bring some beers,” she sad. “And before you ask, no, I cannot ‘magic your kitchen clean’. Your mess, your problem.”

“You’re such an evil bitch sometimes,” he grumbled.

“Mmm, yeah, I’m so evil I’m offering to have home-made pizza with you. Now get over here, I can’t wait to see your face when you try my pizza and love it.”

“Don’t get cocky Twig, I might just say I hate it just to spite you.”

Tess laughed loudly. “Hah! Good one. I’ll have you know my pizza makes gods weep.”

“We’ll see about that,” Dante chuckled. “Alright, save me a seat, I’ll bring the beer. I’ll grab one of those tangerine schnapps Roy likes and try and bribe him to rescue my kitchen, or something.”

“Be prepared to be reeeeeally nice to him, then,” she cackled. “See you.”

Dante grumbled and hung up after her, then stood up and stretched. Actually, he really should gracefully take this defeat and make the best he could out of it. Having pizza and some beers with Tess did not sound all that bad… her mockery aside, anyway, because she was never going to let him live this down.

#devil may cry #panda writes #dante #dmc #dmc dante #ask panda: answered #ask panda

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tiredpandaportfolio · 8 months

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Idle Thoughts on How I Write Dante and Tess.

I felt like fooling around and getting some thoughts I have about them in order, again because I like having some consistency to my writing. There's very particular ways I write the two of them and I often have thoughts that don't always make it into my stories.

Tess is a rather odd character, as far as my creations go. She breaks a lot of "the rules" of the setting, but in a way that helps flesh her and the worldbuilding out, I think. Her presence allows me to cover topics that I might otherwise not really be able to tell within the DMC universe.You can check out the oc: tess templar tag on my blog if you want to find out more about her.

The Nature of Their Relationship

It is complicated and this is not even an exaggeration. They're both difficult, broken people and much as we'd all like that, love doesn't bridge every gap or patch every problem. Navigating a relationship has been a challenge for them, from the very beginning.

When they were young, they used to be pretty vicious with each other, verbally and emotionally. Just becoming friends required a lot of time and compromises, a little bit every time. If you'd asked them, at the time, why they made the effort, neither would admit to consciously doing so. With the benefit of retrospect, if you twisted their arms, they'd both admit that it was loneliness. By that time, they had each spent most of their lives very isolated and alienated, in often hostile circumstances. They had terrible trust issues, particularly directed at adults. Meeting someone of the same age, with similar baggage -- someone who got it -- was a big deal for a pair of dysfunctional teenagers.

In a way it sort of saved them both emotionally, particularly Dante, staving off cynicism and misanthropy for a bit longer. He could still allow himself to make connections with people. Tess found an anchor in herself that propped her up against her own cynicism and she developed her eventual patience with people.

Their separation hurt them both. They had only just started to acknowledge their awkward feelings and Dante was particularly angry about it, for a very long time. He did his best to bury his anger about it, but part of him was greatly frustrated by the feeling that he had allowed something precious to slip through his fingers. Tess was plagued by regrets for years, especially as her own circumstances began to beat her down and she lost hope in even the conviction she had that they might see each other again.

Meeting again after years was not some magical moment where all was suddenly well. They had fresh trauma to work through, more inner demons to fight against. The years had changed them. They were once more practically strangers. They both had secrets they were unwilling to talk about. Dante never managed to find the courage to open up about his family issues and thought Tess was doing him a favor, not asking. She would regret that, eventually, but she only wanted to give him peace. And she was scared to ask, too.

But that memory of the old fondness, the warmth it brought, got them to try; to bridge that distance, re-acquaint themselves with each other and why they got along so well in the first place. It actually didn't take that long for their feelings to run from friendly to something deeper, but it did take them a long time to acknowledge them -- in fact, Dante nearly didn't, until Tess' familiar, Roy, gave him an earful about it. Dante had been convinced that neither were the feelings mutual, nor did he deserve a chance. Roy was not gentle in disabusing him of this notion, and he was quite harsh about Dante treating Tess' feelings too lightly and hiding behind his 'make a joke out of everything' attitude.

He was a little floored that she reciprocated because her own tendency to bottle up her feelings to protect herself made it difficult for her to properly express them, something she continues having difficulty doing, but she tries.

But even after clearing the air, they still can't agree on the precise nature of their relationship, save that they are incredibly important to each other. And that's regardless of how they look to others. Between calling each other names, bickering like an old married couple and even antagonizing each other, it's easy to mistake them for frenemies. They are in fact, just incredibly independent people who don't react well when others interfere in their lives, even someone they love deeply. Theirs is a relationship of constant compromise, pushing and pulling until they find the middle.

Will It Last?

It could. But it all depends on them.

Dante is not one to burn bridges lightly and if you think about it, he is an incredibly forgiving person when it comes down to it. He's given second and even third chances to people who by all rights may not have quite deserved it. He's willing to overlook and forgive a lot of things, even quite heinous ones. He's had to learn to live with a lot of the things he himself does.

But... Tess isn't like that. She's far more firm in her principles and for better or for worse, those mainly center around her survival. She's spent her entire life trying to make sure she isn't killed or worse, eaten by demons and whatever other threat rears its head. She doesn't quite know any other way of living. To be perfectly honest, being anywhere near Dante is a massive risk on her part, and not just because trouble and death follow him like a bad omen. Witches are hunted, quite literally, by both demons and humans in the know. Dante himself poses a legitimate threat to her, no matter how much he or she might believe otherwise. It is a possibility she can never completely remove from her mind.

The thing is, Tess' principles also mean she doesn't let others off the hook easily and can hold grudges. If she had enough evidence that Dante, either directly, or by association, had done things she could never forgive... it might be over. She wouldn't be able to exist in a relationship where she is expected to turn a blind eye to things she can't stomach, no matter how much she loves the other party. She's just too used to having to protect herself and she will do so, even from people she loves. This doesn't mean it's not going to hurt.

Romance

Of the two of them, Dante is the hopeless romantic. And this is despite his long-held belief that romantic love just wasn't really going to be a thing for him. He's aware of the irony. He's all about the grand, sweeping gestures. The flowery confessions, the recitation of poetry and overt and subtle flirtations. He's the one who goes over the top. He's the type to go for a full Hollywood Dip kiss. He wants to go big or go home. And he does it all with all of his usual confidence, even when he’s actually being incredibly awkward. It’s almost as if, now that it’s really dawned on him that he loves her, he wants to yell it from the rooftops. Subtlety just isn’t in his blood.

The problem is, Tess is rather the opposite. She's really not much of a romantic, no matter how much she tries. She appreciates and welcomes romantic gestures, but there is a definite awkwardness that she can’t seem to overcome and she’s rather bad at initiating them herself. Besides, overly "loud" gestures tend to embarrass her and send her running. She swears she understands and appreciates his enthusiasm but anything over the top really goes over her head and makes her feel embarrassed. Her own romantic gestures tend to be small and heartfelt and focus on wanting to be close to the other party. She’ll cook for the both of them and wants to spend time with Dante doing nothing much.

They’ve both had to compromise and reach a happy middle. Dante’s trying to temper his need for showboating and instead make his romantic gestures more intimate and immediate while Tess is learning to be more accepting of Dante’s need to be a flashy dumbass; she doesn’t object so long as there isn’t much of an audience. They have hit and misses but they don’t really mind as long as they’re having fun.

The Physical Side of Things

There is no escaping the fact that Dante, being nearly 6'5", towers over the 5'4" Tess. He's always been taller than her but as adults, the height and size difference can be a little staggering.

Tess is of fairly average height and lean with good curves but she hangs out with much taller people all the time, giving the illusion that she is, in fact, a shortie, which annoys her to no end. Dante being as tall and broad as he is makes her look even tinier. It's just one part of why she's so feisty and snarky all the time. Obviously, Dante loves ribbing her about her height. He also loves using it against her. He can end their arguments by simply picking her up, throwing her on his shoulder like a sack of dirt and walking off, and he has, much to her annoyance.

To be fair, Tess actually adores how taller he is. He's a great barrier to hide behind when she doesn't want to be directly visible. It's also very hard to miss him in a crowd. Dante finds her height amusing and endearing, even if he has to stoop a little to kiss her. He likes joking that dating her is bad for his back. He won't admit it, but it also makes him feel quite protective of her, even though he knows that she's quite capable of killing things five times her size with little hesitation.

His overwhelming strength can be a bit of a concern, but Dante has never hurt people accidentally because he's actually very well practiced with how he handles it. Tess on the other hand is definitely the more agile and nimble of the two, easily getting around or through obstacles Dante might need to detour around. He jokes she might be part cat with all the climbing, parkour and squeezing through narrow passages she does.

The difference is even more glaring if he happens to be in demonic form, because then he is well over 7' and watching a short witch argue with such a massive beast can be rather worrying for onlookers.

Physical Contact

Once Dante got really comfortable in the relationship, he sort of started to revert to how clingy he was as a young boy. For her part, Tess needed some time to adjust and find her confidence. They started from struggling to figure out how to hold hands to working through how comfortable each other was with touching.

Now Dante has little regard for personal space when it comes to other people and no regard whatsoever when it comes to Tess. He isn't satisfied with just hand-holding or even just a hug. He's progressed to the point where he wants to fully drape himself over her whenever he can and cuddle her like there's no tomorrow. He's also very grabby. In part, Dante gets a thrill out of knowing he can touch her whenever and express affection without saying a word. He's not even afraid to do it in public, though he's still awkward because he has a certain reputation, some street-cred he wants to maintain.

Sometimes he'll just do the aforementioned over-the-shoulder maneuver just for fun, because she gets flustered and mad. And he loves flustering her, because she's funny.

Tess is also quite physically affectionate, but she's rather like a cat in the sense that she'd rather be the one to initiate it and can only tolerate so much before she gets wigged out, but ultimately she likes the attention anyway, even if she grumbles. She likes to lean into the touches, and has a fondness for his hands. She likes nothing better than to curl up against him or on his lap when they're able to relax together. If they happen to share a bed and he spoons her, chances are she'll fall asleep almost immediately because of how cozy and secure she feels.

She tries to be patient with his grabbiness, but there's a time and place for slapping someone's butt and in public or in front of god damn demons is not it. Of course she likes touching him too and her favorite thing is absently playing with his hair and giving him kisses. He's quite funny when he's acting like he's too good for kisses but watch him lean in for them all the same.

Their Effects On Each Other

One of the biggest obstacles they had to navigate in the relationship is the curious interactions that demonic powers have on witches and vice versa. This hadn't crossed their minds as teenagers because neither was Dante potent enough yet to override whatever protections Tess used against demons, nor was her supernatural sense sensitive enough to get overwhelmed.

Now that they're adults and fully grown into their powers, things aren't that simple. Tess needs a large number of personal protections and 'veils' in order to just exist without being tracked down by demons or immediately swarmed by ghosts who want things done. She's very skilled at them and can lead a mostly normal life and work without issues... but Dante is a special case. He gives off such an intense and thick power when he's agitated that it can start to get to her.

The first time she was within close proximity when he shifted to the devil trigger, she was knocked out from the sensory feedback. She tried to make a joke out of it, but she had a hard time trying to adjust and the best she could do was suffer frequent enough exposure to try and acclimate. It took months of frustration and migraines and adjusting personal wards but now she's in a position where she's actually quite comfortable around powerful demons without getting stunned. She still gets nauseous around actual Hell Gates or in the presence of huge numbers of demons, but at least she stays standing.

On the other hand, demons get incredibly excited around witches, and view them as fine prey, since their blood runs thick with power. More than once, Tess has used her presence or some of her blood as bait to lure out demons. Dante is unfortunately not immune to this effect. Even though she's wrapped up in wards, he can still sense her arcane powers and it's impossible not to notice. Her blood smells sweet and spicy to him and he's actually kind of scared of what might happen if he gets a taste. He also has an unusually strong reaction to her powers, if she has to use some kind of effect on him. It seems to overly excite his demonic side, making him a little manic and aggressive. They're both a little baffled as to why this happens since it didn't happen when they were teenagers. It does tend to manifest in his tendency to be a pain in her neck and how much he likes provoking her, but also comes out in how forward he is with her. Sometimes when he's particularly agitated he might get a little edgy in dealing with her and struggle to contain himself.

Worries

They don't like it, but as a consequence of who and what they are, there is always a tension in their relationship. They worry about each other, even if they are not good at showing it. Tess worries about his emotional well-being and his self-control. She's always overly conscious of his demonic nature and how far into it he's venturing. She's afraid he'll hurt her, in every sense, but she also has an incredible amount of trust in him and he knows it. That's what gets to him. He cares more about her than he does himself because he's too used to being the most invincible thing in a space and he's starting to understand that's not the case for her.

Dante's actually rather quietly freaked out by how Tess operates; extremely dedicated to whatever she decides to do and very efficient at planning and then executing ploys that will achieve her goals. She doesn't fight for fun or her pride, she fights to survive and it shows. She's ruthless. When motivated she really is so "do-or-die" that it actually unsettles him. She seems afraid of nothing and as much as he admires her tenacity and ruthlessness, it also terrifies him. She's capable of making some truly difficult decisions just so that others don't have to do so and she follows through with them.

Fights

Dante is generally very laid back and doesn't give a hoot about what other people say or do. He does not argue with people unless pushed, he's got better things to do. Insults towards his person or even his family roll off like water on a duck's back. But the moment Tess snarks at him about something he's said or done, or just generally sasses him and calls him a dumbass, he immediately wants to clap back.

He will bicker with her about the stupidest things and they can end up having quite a stupid back and forth, complete with rather childish insults. And they don't care if they do this in front of others. Several demons have met their end because they assume their quarrel means their guard is dropped, just to be annihilated with an angry remark that they're busy talking.

Most of the time it's all rather a lot of hot air, though, the result of two very stubborn people butting heads. People who don't know them well often get the wrong idea about them, and might worry about Tess' well-being, prodding a huge mercenary like that. The fact of the matter is, 90% of the time, the bickering is trivial and they get over it a few minutes later.

Their actual fights and arguments are much, much different. They are rare and never particularly loud or obvious, and rather than trade barbs, they outright attack each other verbally and challenge each other's authority and reason. They will only rarely raise their voices but their words are full of venom and quiet anger. It takes them a long time to reconcile after such fights, and they are mercifully very uncommon.

Mundane Things

With their lives so full of tragedy, risk, the supernatural and the worst of human nature, they find immense satisfaction in little, mundane things that make them feel a sense of normalcy. Neither knew they craved this sense of normalcy until they started to experience it. They take incredible liberties with each other, things they would never do with anyone else.

Dante will sometimes steal her spare keys and let himself into her apartment, often without even expecting to find her there. He likes napping on her sofa and she lets him be. Because she's paranoid about her safety, her apartment is warded so tightly that not even a tiny demon could find it, let alone get in. But she's woven his presence into the exceptions so he has free pass and that fills him with a incredible sense of glee and accomplishment, being allowed into her sanctum like that. It's a great hiding place from Lady and Morrison, too.

Despite all the snark and their jokes and back and forths, their better moments are spent largely in companionable silence. Dante likes doing nothing in particular and doing fuck all with Tess is just better. Her large sofa means he can spread out and there's still room for her to curl up, still in contact with him and he can nap while she reads, and maybe plays with his hair absently. Or they might actually sit down to watch a movie, because Tess is a film nut, especially about old horror films. He has to admit that watching them with her is fun because she makes the most amusing comments.

Once in a while they’ll have a serious conversation about something - but never about themselves. They're too scared to ask the hard questions. They're... content with how things are.

Sleep

Sleep is a precarious affair for both of them. Dante doesn't need to sleep as much as humans but he does like to conserve his energy and motivation -- like a lion in the savannah, he says. Which... is a poor disguise for his laziness. The truth of the matter is that Dante sleeps poorly much of the time because he's still plagued by nightmares and insomnia brought by guilt and depression.

Tess on the other hand, has frequent bouts of insomnia coming from her hyper-sensitive sixth sense, and is prone to night-terrors and sleep paralysis. She suffers frequent, aggressive visitations by ghosts and other entities attracted to her, and there is only so much she can do to ward her sleeping space and herself from their influences. There are times when she goes sleepless for days until she can solve an issue and it shows.

Dante finds this incredibly frustrating because it's something he can't do much to help her with. There's nothing to fight. He takes some small comfort in her saying that his sheer oppressive presence drives off the small fry, the ones too scared of a demon's aura to bother her.

Which is one more reason why they enjoy sharing a bed. Dante's big, warm and very cozy to sleep nestled against and Dante gets an incredible amount of satisfaction just holding her. She fits very nicely against his chest and hearing her sleep soundly makes him nice and drowsy too. He normally sleeps on his back but it's nice to practically curl up around her.

Laughter

Dante is usually seen scoffing sarcastically, or chuckling in amusement at something going on. It's not common to see him belly laugh often, he saves that for the moments when he's relaxed and around people he trusts. He's started doing it a lot more often now that he's dating Tess because her sense of humor can really get to him. She has a way of telling stupid stories from her jobs relating to ghosts or other witches in a sassy way that makes him wheeze. She considers these moments a personal triumph.

On the other hand, Tess' sense of humor often undermines her usual confident and collected appearance. Dante's cheesy lines and his showboating and his particular brand of jokes crack her up way too easily at times, even when she's trying very hard to keep a straight face. Dante actively enjoys attempting to make her fall apart and when she gets going, she's gone, leading him to call her "crazed hyena" when she's having one of her fits.

They’re both dorks.

#panda writes #devil may cry #oc: tess templar #dmc #headcanons #oc headcanons #dmc headcanons #dante #dmc dante

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tiredpandaportfolio · 9 months

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#All of these #but uh #yeah the didn't read the tags folks #kindly get fucked #you don't get to make plot suggestions unless you're paying me #I'll take concrit but for fuck's sake be reasonable and polite #I don't care about your hcs when writing my fics #don't read mine then #read the fucking tags #fanfics

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tiredpandaportfolio · 9 months

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More idle thoughts about how I write the Sparda boys.

Seems like these get received well, so here, let's do another round of various topics. Once again, these are nor definitive, they're just how I choose to write them, and other headcanons are just as valid as the definitive canon, we're all just having fun. Some of these are re-iterations of my older thoughts.

Anger

Anger is a common trait of the Sparda bloodline. They're pressure cookers, really. They just express it a little differently.

Dante probably has the best lid on his anger. He used to be short-tempered and aggressive when he was younger, a real powder keg and he made it everyone's problem. What happened on Temen-Ni-Gru got him to cool his jets, because he realised that his demonic powers were just making his temper worse and cost him dearly. He's mellowed out since and will let a lot of things slide before he really gets mad. Most of the time he'll just get irritated, which makes him extra snarky, at worst.

It takes very specific things to really anger him now. It starts small, crackles of demonic power visible on him and his eyes narrow. When pushed too far, an uglier facet of his personality emerges. He's petty and mean. Normally, he holds back but when angry, the filter is off and his words become cutting and harsh. He's an observant bastard so any weakness he perceives, he will attack, verbally or otherwise.

Down the road from mean lives the scary asshole, when he's been pushed too far. The demonic traits really pop up. His eyes flash red, his aura of rage is palpable even to mundane people and he sits at the very edge of shifting to a demonic form.

However, he will most likely walk away, unless he's dealing with someone really prepared to face the consequences and catch hands. He's quite brutal if he ends up fighting in an angry state. So he walks off, because otherwise, he's liable to do something he'll regret and he's got enough of those under his belt already. It can take him ages to cool off. He can be apologetic, if he thinks he was at fault, he's just terrible at expressing it.

Vergil, on the other hand, doesn't get angry. Instead, he's almost permanently irritated. He pretends that he's above getting angry, but honestly, he has very little patience and when he does get mad, he yells a lot (Exhibit A: "WHY ISN'T THIS WORKING!?").

To be fair, he's lost a lot of that edge since then and has a better control of the demonic instincts that stoke his anger, because he refuses to allow his temperament to be swayed... or so he says. Fact of the matter is, Vergil has next to no patience for anyone or anything, be it humans, weakness, challenges or everything else under the sun.

He is good at maintaining his facade of composure, even when he's screaming mad. His default setting is being curt, blunt and rude. He just doesn't care. He'll crush psyches and the will to live under a well-polished boot, if he has to. The angrier he gets, the more snide he becomes.

If he gets really angry, he'll devolve to shouting, but never turn vulgar. Vergil's rage isn't vocal, it's physical; he usually bottles everthing up and expresses sub-arctic coldness, while it's very rare to see him manifest demonic traits in anger. Most of the time one just feels his aura turn thicker, stiffling and oppressive. Anything more overt heralds your end. It's an achievement, making Vergil furious.

The biggest problem is that Vergil does not cool off easily and holds grudges forever. He's almost never apologetic for anything he says or does, regardless if it was done in anger or not. In his view, it's the other side that is at fault for pissing him off in the first place. He isn't beyond acknowledging his faults entirely, as he will be slightly sorry if someone he cares about gets caught in the crossfire.

And then there's Nero. Good grief, this kid. If Dante is the slow simmer and Vergil is the frozen aggression, Nero is a nitroglycerine bomb. Any little thing will set him off.

He'll shout and get extremely vulgar at the drop of a hat, even when just irritated. He wants to fight all the things. He's rude and snarky enough by default, but making him angry makes it so much worse. Sailors hvae nothing on him. He also gesticulates a lot when he's angry and most of it is rude.

And Nero gets angry on behalf of others. When someone he likes even marginally doesn’t get pissed off when Nero thinks they should (because he totally would), he gets angry instead.

It’s rather rare for him to manifest any demonic traits when he’s angry. Or at least, his default anger level, as bad as it seems, isn’t bad enough to set them off. When that does happens it means he’s been pushed beyond the threshold. Punches definitely get thrown, screaming happens.

He’s rarely sorry for getting angry and, like Vergil, holds very long grudges. It takes him forever to cool down after a big rage. He’ll be irritable for days. Rather amusingly, one good scolding from someone he cares about is enough to turn him quite sheepish.

Handwriting

Nero has, by far, the neatest handwriting of the three of them, because he actually got put through proper schooling thanks to the Order of the Sword and Fortuna's compulsory education. He hated it, but he was a decent student and actually learned cursive, of all things. He doesn't use it but it's helped shape his handwriting into something mostly legible.

On the other hand, both Dante and Vergil have atrocious handwriting. Dante's only marginally better because he's got to do paperwork that other people need to be able to read. His signature is very showy because aesthetics but again, it's hard to parse what he's actually writing. Vergil just writes like a demented doctor, his writing is close together, slanted and basically barely-legible scrawls. He insists it's calligraphy but deep down he knows his handwriting is shit and it irritates him.

Both Tess and Lady have commented that the twins "use pokers instead of pens to write."

Coffee

None of them is particularly coffee-mad, but neither will deny the energising effect of a good cup of joe. Nero drinks the most coffee out of all of them, and his taste runs towards a fairly strong double-shot espresso with next to not sugar that he quaffs like a nasty frathouse shot. If allowed he's capable to downing two of these in a sitting and spends the rest of the day absolutely wired which is a dangerous proposition at best.

Dante likes a good standard cup of coffee, with a little sugar but no creamer. He'll probably have one whenever he happens to wake up, just to shake the cobwebs off. He secretly also enjoys a nice Irish coffee if he can get it and doesn't mind indulging once in a while.

Vergil rarely drinks coffee, mostly because he's still in that mentality where he treats food as fuel and doesn't try too hard to enjoy it. He prefers the milder taste of tea but on ocassion is known to take some black and very strong filtered coffee as a means to reinvigorate himself. He does make the mistake of having it too late in the day, though, and that fucks with his sleep.

Food

The boys all have rather big appetites, it comes with demons requiring a lot of energy to be as powerful as they are, hence why most of demonic behavior is guided by hunger. As a rule of thumb, all three of them are more or less, carnivores. They will always favour something meat-related and need quantity.

Dante is, of course, a pizza fiend but he will never turn his nose up at any form barbecue, and it is never too late or too early for BBQ. He may not be a good cook, but Dante is a surprisingly decent grillmaster and with a few spices involved, he'll happily tear through metaphorical mountains of steaks, sausages and anything else that used to wander around and that you can throw on a grill. And he likes his meat dripping. Genrally speaking, you could put anything in front of him and so long as it's edible and you do so out of your good will, he will hoover it up and thank you.

Vergil has a tendency to treat food as fuel and sometimes he doesn’t even pay attention to what the hell he’s eating. And yet a times he’s a very, very picky eater. He's partial to meat but likes it well-cooked and perfectly cut. His favourite meat is actually chicken and he likes fairly simple cuisine, absolutely hates it when food is drowning in sauce. He might act hoity-toity but frankly, he blatantly likes burgers, the nastier the better. Just don't confront him about it. He's sort of expanding his palate slowly but hates being pressured about food. Eats a bit less than Dante or Nero, overall.

Nero is both "a growing demon teenager" and shaking off the often stifling, regimented life of the Order, so he’s dived head-first into a culinary world of madness. He'll try anything he hasn't had before. He actually hasn’t decided what his favorite food is, but right now he’s leaning towards high-texture and high-flavor stuff. Chinese takeout is becoming close to a favorite but honestly, he's almost hooked on junk food. He’s getting a little too obsessed with fried chicken these days but honestly his diet is so bad that he'd probably be dead if Kyrie wasn't there to force him to eat some normal food once in a while. He's very partial to pasta.

Alcohol

Dante can actually drink anything and everything. He’s a whiskey man to the bone, with a preference for Jack Daniels but will go for fancier stuff if he can get it. He won't turn down some quality beer, either, but doesn't care for posher stuff. His tolerance is ridiculous, his system just seems to metabolize alcohol really quickly. It takes a truly frightening amount of very strong alcohold just to get him disoriented. He recovers remarkably quickly though, and he thinks he's only ever been completely blasted once or twice in his life. He does get hangovers though, and doesn't much enjoy them.

Vergil is a complete lightweight. There is no way around it. He acts like he's above drinking, but he enjoys a good wine or brandy... though, he can only take so much before he starts reeling. This is a point of great frustration for him. He can survive anything demons throw at him but a little alcohol fucks him up?! He normally avoids excesses but sometimes he tries to drink more than he can handle, resulting in bad hangovers the next day. He’s a rather weird drunk, both grumpy and sleepy.

Nero is a beer lover. And not just any beer, nowadays. Nero has learned that there's much better beer to be found than any average booze in a can. He's discovered microbrews and fancy craft beers. He’s got a decent enough tolerance but nothing nearing Dante’s insane limits. He also doesn’t really like the feeling of being drunk so he never drinks that much. He cannot stand vodka or tequila, but he's curious and willing to try cocktails. He gets terrible hangovers.

#devil may cry #panda writes #headcanons #dmc #dmc headcanons #dmc dante #dmc nero #dmc vergil #headcanon

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tiredpandaportfolio · 9 months

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What spice tolerances so you think the sparda boys have?

Oh, as a spice fiend, I always have a lot of thoughts about this :D

All Three

So, being part demon means they have hypersensitive... well, senses. They can smell and taste even the most subtle aromas and flavours. Of course, this is a double-edged sword, as it means that while they can savour foods in ways normal people can't, they are all also very sensitive to spices, among other things.

It does help that they all have stomach acid that could melt stones, so they aren't really prone to stomach aches.

They all have rather different tolerances and reactions.

Dante

Dante has an alarmingly high spice tolerance. Despite the sensitivity, he actively enjoys the burn, as long as it has some flavour to it. Specifically, he really likes some sweet with his fire, so he enjoys hot sauces that incorporate fruit.

He won't eat spicy foods often but once in a while he gets that craving and will find the absolutely most mouth-melting hot sauce or spicy dish to have. He treats it as some kind of unhinged challenge to satisfy his adrenaline-junkie ways. Since even mild spice hits harder, he's always trying to see how far he can push it. He doesn't react too strongly too it, pushing himself to try and no-sell the burn. At most, he'll sweat a little bit and sniffle for a bit.

At the moment, he's sitting somewhere around the ghost pepper range (1 mil Scoville and change) and is already itching to find the next challenge.

Trust me, he'll balk at the Trinidad scorpion. The sensitivity/tolerance balance will tip too far, and he will have no regrets.

Nero

Nero likes spicy foods, but his tolerance range is tempered by his reactivity to it. He prefers tangy spicy sauces and dishes, with a lot of salt and lime.

Nero will go for spicy foods whenever he can get them, and tries to make them himself, with varying results. That sticky note in Nico's van is evidence of a poor understanding of cooking... I mean, steak and jalapenos in the oven? Come on... There is a degree of testing his limits rather than enjoying the food for it's sake and frankly, he's still learning to adjust his flavour palate to more "adult" preferences, like pasta all'arabiatta.

He is not above trying to shotgun an entire bag of Flamin' Hot Cheetos just to prove he can.

He unfortunately has some very visible reactions to spice. He sweats like a pig, sniffles for up to thirty minutes afterwards and, after a certain threshold of spice, drinks water and other liquids constantly, to the point of almost making himself sick.

His current record is Thai pepper sauce (about 50-70k Scoville) and that was already a bit of a stretch of his limits. He's one double-dog-dare from Dante away from a trip to the hospital.

Vergil

Vergil does not handle spice very well. At all. His tolerance, much like with alcohol, is rather embarrassing. He actually prefers rather bland food but there's some signs of improvement as he reintergrates into society. He's not even a bit shy about his inclination towards burgers.

He may scoff at Dante, but his own diet is really just as bad. He won't seek out spicy foods but if he's around Dante or Nero, the goading will eventually get to him and he'll try something. Sometimes he ends up liking what he's eating, sometimes not. It's terrible whenever he feels he needs to compete with them because then he'll try something beyond his tolerance and that never ends well.

His reactions are the most extreme; he sweats, his face gets very red, he gets a very runny nose and cannot stop drinking whatever liquid he gets his hands on. He'll get stomach cramps soon enough.

The best Vergil can do is Serrano peppers (about 10-20k Scoville) and that's a stretch. He actually doesn't want to try anything hotter but again... daring/challenging him proves to be his undoing every single time.

#panda writes #devil may cry #dmc #dmc headcanons #headcanons #devil may cry headcanons #dmc dante #dmc vergil #dmc nero #vergil #nero #dante #ask the panta: answered

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tiredpandaportfolio · 9 months

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I want you ask me about Sparda boy hcs. I don't do Y-N/reader answers well, I'm more comfortable answering regarding hcs about my ficverse, but I'm still willing to try! I'm looking for excuses to practice. Ask this account!

#devil may cry #panda writes #headcanons #dmc headcanons #headcanon #ask panda #dmc #dmc dante #dmc vergil #dmc nero #dante #nero #vergil

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tiredpandaportfolio · 9 months

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DMC OC WEEK, DAY 7: Free Space (Fun Facts)

So in lieu of anything else I decided to share some fun facts about Tess.

She has a rather silly sense of humour which is why Dante's antics make her laugh her head off.

She takes it personally when people ruin pasta.

Extremely vulgar when upset, she can swear in at least four languages. She speaks Italian, English, French and Norwegian.

Actually gets embarrassed easily and blushes far too much for her age. Her pale skin is not helping.

She really burns in the sun, being ginger and pale as fuck.

She has put together her own coffee brew, which she unironically calls "Witch Brew".

Fancies spicy food, with italian pasta all'arrabbiata being her favourite. Her spice tolerance is so high not even the Sparda boys can handle the stuff she'll eat.

Has more alcohol tolerance than a woman her size has any right to. She calls it "her Viking blood" from her dad.

Doesn't get to enjoy her birthday because Halloween is a busy day of the year for her when all the supernatural shit happens.

#panda writes #dmc oc week #devil may cry #devil may cry oc #dmc oc #oc: Tess Templar

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tiredpandaportfolio · 9 months

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Idle thoughts about how I write the Sparda boys.

I worked on this while waiting for BG3 to come out and forgot to post it.

I want to ramble a little about how I personally write them, what my particular headcanons are for them. Because some of my takes differ from the official canon and they certainly might differ from the way other people perceive them.

And you know what? That’s fine. Everyone’s HC is valid. We might not accept someone else’s HC within the confines of our own, because it doesn’t line up with what we’re writing for ourselves, but it’s possible to like someone else’s take because it’s different from yours. So here’s how I write certain topics. You can ask me about others, if you’d like.

Height and Body Shape

They are truly, stupidly tall. It runs in the family. It’s a bane for their more vertically-challenged colleagues. Like, none of them is below the 6′2″ mark, not even V who is a beanpole. And with the exception of V, they’re all quite broad in the shoulderts too, they all have trouble finding clothes that fit right.

Dante is easily the most ‘buff’ of them, with Nero looking like he’ll head that direction, but he probably won’t get that stupid big. Dante’s years of hard life and constant fighting have had an effect on his physique. He’s aware that it’s appealing and he’s got enough vanity to flaunt it, when he can. Ironically, he doesn’t always take care of his appearance. Nero on the other hand, sort of does, but only because Kyrie hounds him. Most of the time he prefers to be very casual. He tries to cut his own hair, but Kyrie has to fix it for him every time, which is why it ends up so short.

Dante’s cheap ass also cuts his own hair but at least he’s learned to do it decently well.

Vergil is the most svelte, he has the physique of a dancer... which is ironic considering he hates dancing (or so he tells himself). He is very particular about his appearance and doesn’t really like change. That’s why he always looks like he’s been wearing the same exact clothes for years and years, a fact Dante will rib him about any chance he gets. Of the twins, Vergil gets the most irritated when someone says he and Dante look alike.

And yes, Vergil is the tallest of the three but he can hardly flex on it because Dante simply looks larger by dint of being buff. It frustrates him.

Teeth

Dante and Vergil have noticeable fangs, have had them since their baby teeth fell out, which was much earlier than normal kids. They used to freak out other children, further alienating them from others. They absolutely used to bite each other whenever they got into fights.

As they got older Dante, at least, made an effort to speak without flashing them constantly and has sort of trained himself to keep them from view. Vergil, on the other hand, responded by becoming the taciturn, aloof idiot we know and love, only ever speaking freely when he was around Dante. Now, after all he’s been through, he’s simply entirely unbothered if people notice he has fangs or not. He only gets annoyed if they start to pry.

Nero’s also got ‘em, they’re just smaller and more blunt. They were not very visible when he was little and overall, got picked on more regarding his hair color and his terrible temper.

They all absolutely bare their fangs when they’re agitated or angry, but Dante will also bare them when he’s in his impish mood because he knows it unsettles others. He’s showing off and he doesn’t care. It’s most egregious when he yawns.

Senses

They have very sharp senses and an acute sense of their surroundings. Dante and Nero’s superior marksmanship is directly related to their excellent eyesight. Vergil, considering what he’s been through, has found that his eyes are very photosensitive now, which is why he avoids strong sunlight whenever he can. His eyesight is as good as ever, but he’s taken to using reading glasses only when reading, to try and prevent headaches from small print.

They all have a very developed sense of smell but of the three, Dante is the most experienced in using his senses to track things, particularly demons. He’s especially responsive to the smell of blood and has tracked down demons simply by following the stink of spilled blood in their wake. He also (unfortunately) has the strongest reaction to the smell of witch blood.

Amusingly, these sharp senses mean the boys are very particular about their hygiene. They regularly get absolutely covered in filth and while they may tolerate it and look unbothered, they really do want to get clear of the excitement so they can get rid of the smell.

How Demonic Are They?

A loaded question with no simple answer. Nero is the easiest to dissect; he is more human than demon. He feels that way and his behavior isn’t really that different or alienating, most of the time. His bad temper and eagerness to fight are entirely human flaws, something that comes from his personality and his upbringing rather than any demonic instinct. He has an easier time resisting such inclinations. Heck, he’ll resist the urge to throw down and fight if he thinks it’s a bad idea -- doesn’t happen often but it does.

Vergil and Dante are another story. The demon blood is far too strong in them. But so is the human will. The twins are caught in the crossfire of their two sides constantly fighting. Sometimes one dominates, sometime the other. Vergil was the first to embrace the demonic nature, but he did so by discarding his humanity. He did not try to come to a compromise with himself because, to his detriment, until recently Vergil did not compromise on anything. Dante went the other way, resisting and even denying his demonic side for so long that Vergil had to force it out. Even then, Dante resisted it and had to learn to compromise. It’s only recently he’s come to accept what he really is and what being half-demon truly means.

The twins are heavily influenced by the demonic side of them, their behavior affected in various ways. They both desire to be the dominant presence in any space; Vergil pathologically cannot allow anything less, while Dante can compromise. Dante is more prone to picking petty fights just to see where everyone stands, Vergil places too much value on his dignity and won’t lower himself to anyone’s level (unless it’s Dante). Vergil’s desires are more intensely focused on power and control, which is ironically very human of him, while Dante is an unapologetic hedonist when he allows himself to cut loose. They both pursue their desires with a single-mindedness that clearly isn’t human. Of the two, Dante is arguably the more ‘feral’ as, again, Vergil puts too much value on his dignity and honor.

Both twins are prone to displaying some demonic characteristics when they are particualrly agitated, but Dante is by far the worse of the two. He’s prone to growling when he’s irritated or particularly pleased, maybe even purr, and more likely to flash his teeth and allow his eyes to turn demonic when he’s angry. And of course, he will never let a challenge go un-answered.

Devil Trigger and Powers

For the twins, their demonic forms are part and parcel of who they are. If pressed, Dante might grimace and then try to describe it like a cloak: he just pulls it around his shoulders and over his head and that’s it, he’s suddenly a demon. But it’s still him, no matter what demonic instincts might insert themselves in his behavior. Vergil might disagree and insist the demon form is who they really are, but he has repeatedly proven himself wrong. He does agree on the cloak comparison, though.

The base demonic forms and the Sin Devil Trigger are two different states; the base form is the one they both use the most, as the SinDT requires a lot more power and a considerably agitated mental state to maintain. They both have upper limits to how long they can stay in demon form before they start to feel some side effects, such as lethargy and loss of control. They both have this ingrained belief that they don’t “need” the DT and only use it in a pinch, because they don’t want to depend on it and treat it as a crutch.

The base form makes them taller, bit over 7′ and considerably bulkier, which the SDT doubles down on, being over 8′ tall and really bulky. The SDT is much harder to control, even for Vergil, and they both act much more aggressively while in that state. The base form is retains some human characteristics; namely, they can speak coherently in it and their hands are still able to manipulate things outside of weapons without breaking them.

Anyone even remotely sensitive to the supernatural finds it very hard to be around them, they give off an oppressive amount of demonic power that serves that purpose: to intimidate anything weaker than themselves. They can double down on it at will as a form of intimidation-- or a direct challenge. To any allies with any amount of sensitivity, like Trish or Tess, this is not a pleasant experience.

Though both of them have wings, the twins are almost embarassingly bad fliers. They can hover and fly in straight lines with a considerable amount of speed, but anything requiring even a bit of finesse is rather beyond them. They’re simply too large and their wings too unwieldy for precision flight.

Nero experiences the demonic form a bit differently. His early experience with it felt like an extension of his arm, not quite part of him. Since the Qliphoth crisis though, he now agrees on the cloak comparison but to him the form is still a tool. He doesn’t quite identify with it, yet. He thinks this might be why it took him so long to embrace it fully. He’s the most coherent and clear-headed in DT of the three and though his huge claws make him clumsy regarding anything requiring delicacy, he can compensate with the extra arms. Funny enough, his body size changes the least out of the three. He’s threatened to brain Dante if he ever jokes that Nero is “the runt” of the family ever again.

Ocassionally, the presence of too much infernal power, or overwhelming emotion might cause them to shift partially or completely. This is a problem all three of them have, and Vergil is the one with the finer control. Dante and Nero are too prone to their own emotions.

Sleeping Habits

They’re kind of like lions in a sense; they tend to conserve their energy for when they need it. At least, that’s what Dante would have everyone believe (no, he’s not just lazy, shush). But, sleep is a fair-weather friend to both twins; neither of them sleeps fully through the night, they both prefer to sleep in short bursts whenever they feel safe and comfortable. Dante has the easiest time falling asleep, while Vergil power naps rather than sleeps deeply. Night terrors and nightmares are a common problem for them both, even after all these years. Vergil particularly has it worse, as his trauma is still fresh. Dante often finds himself wide awake, staring at the bottom of a whiskey glass and wishing it would knock him out.

Dante and Vergil are nightowls, whereas Nero is the paradoxical early bird, probably because he gets better sleep than they do and goes to sleep earlier because... well, he’s got three kids. He’s very “up and at ‘em” first thing in the morning. He sort of needs things to do or he gets restless and when Nero gets restless, trouble starts brewing. It’s best to keep him distracted and give him something to do to wear him out just so he can get through the day in peace and then sleep at night.

He’s absolutely not allowed to have energy drinks or caffeine.

Dante tends to sleep in his clothes but ocassionally he’ll go sleep in just his undies when he’s feeling tired and secure enough to do so. He spreads and takes over the bed. Mostly sleeps on his back.

Vergil is the opposite, hates sleeping in his clothes. He’ll go to extreme lengths to ensure he’s safe and undisturbed before he commits to a long, deep sleep, and he likes to wear something comfortable. He tends to sleep curled up, with his back against a wall.

Nero sleeps on his stomach, face almost buried in a pillow if he can. He likes to wear shorts and a T-shirt. Gets hot easily and kicks covers away.

Socializing

It’s debatable that any of the three know what this even means but Nero is easily the most well-adjusted to society. He might be a menace and the fightiest, most stubborn person in the world, but generally speaking, when people aren’t antagonizing him, he’s the easiest to get along with. He’s actually aware that his attitude and even his appearance can put people off and his time as a soldier of the Order has taught him some discipline. Plus it helps that Kyrie has asked him, very nicely, to be nicer to people. And he generally is, he manages quite well when nobody is aggravating him, so long as he keeps his temper in check... which is easier said than done.

Dante has been out in society the longest, but for the most part, he’s been interacting with the seedy underbelly the most and he does have an attitude problem. He’s kind of blunt, crass and irritating even at the best of times. It started as a coping mechanism but now he’s grown into the mask so much that he has a hard time letting go of it when relating to others. He does have moments where he’ll willingly drop the act, though. He’s not heartless, if he feels someone wants to talk to him seriously he might stay a bit snarky, but he won’t go out of his way to give them a hard time, and he certainly won’t be a dick to someone in distress, as long as they don’t piss him off. Dante being serious is a good sign of two things: Either he’s taking a situation seriously, or he’s actually angry and ready to end you.

Vergil is easily the most maladjusted and unsociable of the three. He’s never liked people but at the same time, he’s never made an effort to. He’s spent too long either thinking almost exclusively in terms of power, or caught in a web of torture, brainwashing and death. Vergil doesn’t exactly dislike people, he’s mostly indifferent but he just can’t trust anybody. Dante may keep people at arm’s length, but Vergil would rather keep them at the end of his sword. He’s too used to responding with violence, verbal or otherwise. The way things are now, though, he’s going to have to learn to live with at least some people. He’ll always be an unsociable bastard but if he hopes to stay sane, he’ll have to let some people in. He’s never going to tire of fighting with Dante and Nero but at least now he can start to talk to them. He’s always going to keep others at a distance, but at least he’s learning to be a bit more civil, so long as nobody provokes him.

Relationship With Each Other

In one word, difficult. At best. They may have come to some sort of understanding, but they don’t necessasirily have reason to be particularly fond of each other. Fighting is, for better or for worse, the most prevalent and natural form of expression for beings like them. They can’t help themselves. Dante and Vergil actively enjoy trying to tear each others’ heads off even after they’ve sort of made peace with each other. Nero is less about the kill and more about the “shut up” and wanting to prove himself.

I don’t believe that Nero, at least, can so easily let go of his anger, either about being attacked in his own home, his safe haven and having his arm ripped off, or the fact that for years Dante lied to him by ommission. He’s salty and will probably stay really salty for a long time. He’s not exactly like them, he’s learned other ways to related to others than fighting and he certainly doesn’t want them anywhere near the people he deems the most precious to him. Not the way they are. He’s sympathetic, but still too angry.

Vergil has much more serious issues to work through, about Dante and Nero. In regards to the latter, he’s yet to stomach that Nero is his son, but this has rather piqued his curiosity about him, though deep down he knows they probably should stay out of each others’ lives for the moment, for each other’s sake. He wants to fight Nero again, to really test him, and test himself against the kid. But he has enough sense to respect that they’ve both been through enough for the time being. He’s much more eager to fight with Dante and as much as he likes their spars... there is a definite tinge of anger. Dante did technically kill him and has been a thorn in his side forever. What Vergil doesn’t really understand is how much their past friction has cost Dante. This is partly Dante’s fault; as much as Vergil thinks he knows him, Dante’s facade has partly succeeded too well. He doesn’t believe Dante regrets anything, and he’s convinced himself that he doesn’t regret anything, either.

But the fact of the matter is, both of them regret a lot of things. Dante is, in fact, a slave to regret and guilt. He blames himself for the start of it all, he blames himself for surviving and for never being able to stop Vergil or pull him out of his spiral, because was spiralling too. And above all, he blames himself for killing Vergil, back on Mallet island. Dante has never made it obvious to others how much that whole thing broke him. He doubled down of his facade since then and he doesn’t care if it made him insufferable, so long as he didn’t show how much that messed him up. He’s lived with that weight since then. He’s glad that Vergil is alive but he’s not allowing himself to savor it. He still wants to fight Vergil, to give him a reason to stay and not go and do something even more stupid. He is hiding from the fact that he’s surprisingly okay with the fact that his brother nearly brought about the end of the world.

In their own broken away, they love each other. Dante is struggling to find ways to help Vergil integrate into society without But Dante is probably the only one of the two with an inkling at how unhealthy their current relationship is. For them and for the people around them.

Physical Affection

This is kind of a weird one for them. So much of their interactions with each other and with others has been dominated by fighting, to the point where they’re all sort of hard-wired for it. Fighting is the Sparda love language, in a twisted kind of sense. It takes conscious effort from them to fall away from it.

Nero has the easiest time, given that he’s not as slave to the demonic instinct as the twins. He’s had time to develop human social skills and he has people he loves enough to be affectionate towards. Nero loves hugs, kisses and cuddling but he saves them almost exclusively for Kyrie and the boys. The boy is down bad and honestly, who can blame him? Kyrie is a delight. He’s usually a bit standoffish with others, but once someone becomes close to him, such as Nico, he’s a lot more expressive. High-fives, fist bumps, excited hugs and friendly nudges are common with Nero. He won’t usually initiate the hugs but if they come at him, he’ll take ‘em. He likes playing and roughousing with the boys and can spend hours absolutely rolling on the floor with them.

Vergil doesn’t like being touched, which is completely understandable, after everything he’s been through. He’s like a feral cat who just wants to be left alone. The majority of his physical contact with others, even his twin, has been violent. It wasn’t always like this, but even as a kid Vergil didn’t really like being touched much, a fact Dante could never really get through his head. But he tolerated it better back then because he still cared about the family he had. Now he’s in no position to accept physical affection, let alone initiate it. Fighting is the closest thing he can handle but deep down, there is a yearning. He misses that physical contact he did get, though he won’t ever admit it to himself. If he ever works through most of his inner demons and Dante were to ever just hug him... Vergil might crack. He would probably reciprocate. But he’s just not prepared to cross that bridge, yet. Right now, even a handshake is a big ask.

Dante is the most comfortable with physical expression, of the three. As a kid he was the most clingy to Eva, and one of the reasons he constantly bugged Vergil was to get some kind of affection from him. As an adult, he can finally read the room if someone isn’t up for it, unless he’s specifically using it as a way to aggravate people. He too is way too used to fighting as a go-to way to be in contact with others, but he’s also learned to just be affectionate without violence, though he still kept others at a bit of a distance. Finding himself in a relationship actually brought out a lot of his older affectionate nature, though he’s still figuring himself out. Once he got comfortable with Tess, touching definitely became a huge part of his love language and he’s delighted that she allows him to do so--even if he invades her personal space often. Grabbing her hand, smooth one-armed hugs and full hugs, getting and giving kisses--up to being something of a ‘bear trap’ should he be allowed to big spoon. He’s only like this with her, to the point where if she mentions it to others, she gets really strange looks from them.

Vergil’s kind of grateful that she is the target of most of his affection at the moment. It means Dante is much less likely to annoy him.

Sexuality, Gender and Orientation

I write all three of them as cis males.

Nero is Kyriesexual and Kyrieromantic. That’s it. He’s a simp. It’s kind of embarrassing, really. But still, who can blame him?

Vergil is probably demi-sexual and demi-romantic and just so incredibly picky and difficult that he may as well be a brick wall. He just detests everyone equally.

Dante likes to pretend he’s an unbothered hedonist who could and would do anyone, but let’s be real, he’s just one giant bisexual or possibly pansexual disaster and a hopeless romantic. He’s a dumbass, above all else. Don’t let him fool you into believing otherwise. And despite what street cred he’d like to have, he’s actually loyal.

It’s a bit of a mystery exactly how he got Tess to like him enough to date him, though.

#panda writes #idle thoughts about #devil may cry #dante #vergil #nero #dmc #dmc dante #dmc nero #dmc vergil #headcanons #dmc headcanons

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