#I took this down for a bit to edit again lmao sorry | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

Visit Blog

Explore Tumblr blogs with no restrictions, modern design and the best experience.

Fun Fact

Tumblr has been banned in Indonesia for providing people with access to pornographic content.

#I took this down for a bit to edit again lmao sorry

hystericstar · 11 months

Note

I saw your post about wanting more ask. Lucky for you I'm thrust for more Sidon x reader posts. So how about this. We all know Sidon is 100% virgin. It's funny the fandom treats him like he's a sex god but he ain't. This himbo Zora prince will be a blushing submissive mess for his first time.

So may I request that with sub!Sidon with a hylian female s/o?

I wanted to let you know that this ask made me giggle and kick my feet like a schoolgirl 😫😫 I absolutely adore this thank you for feeding the brain rot <33

cw: blowjob, titjob, riding, reader calls the shark male wife a good boy and I think that’s it! If there’s anything I missed let me know <3

kinda proofread there might still be mistakes

! MDNI !

“Ah, Is… is this okay?” His voice trembled ever so slightly as he spoke in a hushed voice. Lately, his mind had been reeling with thoughts of you, laying bare beneath him. Dreams of being able to worship you, holding you so close your heartbeats became one plagued his mind on the daily. However, one thing stood in the way of achieving that fantasy. And that was the fact that… he wasn’t experienced… at all. As of right now, he had only removed your shirt and was still looking at you like a lost puppy when asking to undo your bra. The usual bravery in his eye gone.

A soft giggle bounced off the walls. You lit up in amusement when the zora tensed under your touch, watching with wide eyes as you guided his hands away slowly, and gently pressed your palms to his shoulders. A silent command to lean back. Sidon swallowed thickly when he felt his head hit the plush mattress beneath him. “Did- did I do something wrong, my pearl?”

Promptly straddling him, you brought a hand up to cup his face and press a soft kiss to his lips. “No, I just want you to relax for me, mmkay?” His face burned red while his heart swelled in his chest. The response was a silent nod.

The bed emitted a soft creak when you moved down and released his two lengths from the pouch they originally resided in. Sidon gasped the moment he felt you kiss one of his tips, accompanied by the sound of your bra being unhooked. The cool air against your skin sent a wave of shivers throughout your body, but they went unnoticed as you preoccupied yourself with the act of sinking your mouth down onto him slowly. Cupping your breasts, you lent in closer untill they pressed against the neglected shaft.

You hummed when Sidon threaded a hand through your hair, tucking away a stray strand behind your ear. Slowly, you got to work kneading your breasts around his second shaft. peering up at him through your eyelashes, you made eye contact with him, feeling his hips lightly buck up into you. “Dearest, your so- hah, so precious.” His face had a fierce fed color, almost matching the rest of his scaled body as he stuttered out the sentence between heavy pants and grunts. His lengths were big in comparison to you, but that didn’t stop you from trying to take him even deeper into your small mouth. Every time your tongue circled his tip, he would let out a slight gasp, and for every long stripe you licked up his length, you'd be rewarded by a breathless moan. As soon as you watched him throw his head back, you decided it was the perfect time to catch him off guard and speed up your pace, syncing the rhythm of your breasts and mouth. The Prince was thoroughly surprised, his head jolting forward. Sidon’s eyes met yours once more. A copy smile graced your features at the sound of an involuntary moan reaching your ears.

“My love! S-slow down! I think… I think I’m g-gonna-“ your mouth left his tip with a ‘pop’. Your hands flew to each grasp a shaft, rigorously pumping up and down. Your lips curved up once more after pressing your tongue to his tip. “Do it.”

Sidon’s hand swiftly moved from your hair to the sheets, grabbing them roughly as his other moved over his mouth. The zoras mind replayed your tone of voice, the command bouncing off the walls of his head. You watched his entire body tense, feeling his hot seed shoot out and coat you in the thick translucent liquid. His chest was heaving when he looked down at you once more, eyes widening at you lapping up whatever you could.

His warm palm cupped your cheek, thumb swiping at your bottom lip and unknowingly bringing a bead of cum to your lips. How amusing it was when his eyes widened and mouth opened slightly at the feeling of you licking his finger, going as far as to even wrap your lips around it and making a point to keep eye contact. You couldn’t be stopped from laughing seeing him look to the side, covering his mouth with the back of his free hand. “Your not hiding your blush y’know? Its clear as day love.” You spoke up, hooking your thumbs under the end of your pants and shimmying them down, opting to kick them off and throw them to some random corner of the room. When you were done, you moved his hand away to kiss his cheek, slowly trailing your mouth down his jaw. “My Pearl-“ he breathed, inhaling sharply when you sucked on his neck. Only then did he become painfully aware of your cunt barely hovering over his drooling members, the only separation being the underwear you still had on.

While he might’ve just been pushed off the edge of pleasure, he wanted more. Soft hands wrapped around your hips, bringing them down to rest completely on top of him. Sidon shamelessly whined at the feeling of such intimate contact. “That’s the spirit! Good boy.” You cooed. “Now you’re getting the hang of it.” He felt himself twitch at your praise and goddesses the heat in his cheeks was embarrassing.

“If I may..” he spoke softly motioning towards your underwear with his eyes. “Mmhm”

That was all he needed to work up the courage to pull your panties down and shakily press a finger to your hole. Although your soft sigh gave a nice boost of confidence, it still wasn’t enough to break that cloud of anxiety he felt deep within his mind.

When he felt you starting to line yourself up on one of his dicks, he jolted to grasp your hand. “Ah, we don’t have to-“ “No. I wanna.”

The only thing he could do now was sit back and watch you took your seat on him. Sidon etched every single detail into his mind. He refused to look a way no matter how good it felt. From the way your body twitched and trembled when just the tip was in. To the borderline pornographic moans that gracefully tumbled out like a sirens song.

The moment he was fully inside of you, he felt he could come. Everything so new and so utterly divine. His whole being was trembling with just the warmth of you alone.

Finally feeling adjusted enough by the stretch to accommodate the sheer size of him, you slowly began rocking your hips forward. Every movement you made filled the room with echoes of synchronized moans and frequent bed creaks.

“You feel, hah- you feel s-so good.” Sidon could barely speak. His vision went fuzzy while he helped you move along his length, the extra friction of his other shaft rubbing against your stomach making his body tingle. The sounds you made would forever play in his head as he eyed the way your breasts moved deliciously in time with your movement. Everything at once tipped him off the edge once more, blessing him with a high he swore to never forget. Your insides filled with his release and stomach abruptly painted with another layer of seed.

The air was cut by sharp moans from the two lovers. A comfortable silence befell you as you fought to catch your breath. “I love you. I love you so much.” The Prince whispered, snaking his arms around you. You rested your forehead against his, focusing on the feeling of his breath fanning over you. “I love you too. You should blush more often. It’s cute.” Once more he bashfully averted his eyes.

~《☆♡•°•°♡☆》~ I got a little carried away whoops- anyway, I hope you enjoy and thank you for requesting!! <33

#loz x reader #loz x reader smut #sidon x reader #prince sidon x reader smut #totk x reader #totk sidon #sidon x reader smut #Sidon x reader smut #I took this down for a bit to edit again lmao sorry

80 notes · View notes

hugshughes · 9 months

Text

The 1 A. Fantilli

Adam Fantilli x fem!reader

synopsis - based on “the 1” by Taylor Swift obvs. The school year starts back up at the University of Michigan and after your break up with Adam, you’re trying to live life freely but can’t seem to get the idea of him and your relationship off your mind. But what happens when you see him again, and you both are yearning for each other more than ever before?

wc - 4.5k (:0)

contains - lowkey angst but also very fluffy closure, reader cries, miscommunication a little bit (i know), kissing, cuddling. (if i missed anything please let me know!!!!)

an - this is the first part in my folklore 100 follower celebration! i’m so excited for it! i do not loveeee this but i really wanted to get this first part out! hopefully you guys like this! here is the masterlist to this celebration. me when im about to make a fic based off “the 1” have a happy ending 😊. also sorry this took longer than expected i has surgery the other day and did not pop back to normal like i assumed i would lmao. please someone get the betty refernce at the end ;))) also i still need a player to use for my betty fic for this celebration so… someone request someone. also this is barely edited so sorry. also should i make a taglist?? would anyone like that??

i’m doing good, i’m on some new shit. been saying “yes” instead of “no”.

To say you were definitely doing much better now that August had arrived was a true statement. You’d been a wreck most of the summer over your breakup with Adam, but as the summer started to slow down and your tan glowed, you felt you heart get lighter and rid itself of it’s burdens.

You and Adam had broken up just a little bit before the draft. The prospect of him being in Anaheim while you finished school in Ann Arbor sounded like an impossible feat to conquer.

You also knew what the newfound NHL fame would bring Adam, even more attention than before, new people, new friends, new girls surrounding him. And while you knew Adam would never in a million years cheat on you, you didn’t want him to feel like he had to be tied to something, someone, 2,234 miles away, to be exact.

When you watched the draft and saw Leo get drafted to Anaheim, your heart sank to your stomach. Many tears were shed that night, knowing the boy you loved with all of you wouldn’t be 2,234 miles away, only 190.

You assumed that if he wanted you back he would’ve called, or texted, or emailed, or sent a letter, anything. But you got nothing, so you accepted that he was perfectly okay with still being apart. Even though it did hurt because you remembered the night both of you cuddled close and whispered about how amazing it would be if he went to Columbus and not Anaheim.

i thought i saw you at the bus stop, i didn’t though.

When school started back up, you couldn’t help but see him everywhere you went. You did feel better, and you were healing, but it did instill an ache in your chest when you’d see your favorite study spot, your table at the starbucks right off campus, his dorm building, everything.

You even thought you saw him there once, your eyes widened with fear as you thought you saw him standing at a bus stop on campus but it wasn’t him, just another brunette boy, but not yours.

i hit the ground running each night. i hit the sunday matinée. you know the greatest films of all time were never made.

It was hard for about a week or so, being back in the place where you fell head over heels in love with him, but your friends would always be quick to cheer you up and tell you “it’s gonna be okay.” And most of the time you believed them.

You’d gone to many more parties than you had last year, you were usually trying to spend time with Adam and you two preferred being alone together than things like parties.

You felt the ache when you saw a guy taking his girlfriend to the Barbie movie, as stupid as that seems. You and your friends had all waited to see it until you were back together and you were all dolled up in your pink outfits. But you couldn’t help but have that same ache when you remembered Adam promising to take you to see if, and promising to wear pink just for you.

Obviously, that never happened. After the movie you couldn’t help but pull up your photos and scroll through your ‘Adam🤍’ album, the videos got to you the most.

Adam had made you film yourself when you opened your birthday gift from him, you had no idea why.

“Baby, why am I filming this?”

“Because, I want to be able to rewatch your reaction to it!”

You give him a funny look, and he urges you to open the big bag, seeing a jersey, a Michigan jersey. You’re pretty confused because you have a Fantilli jersey already, one you wear often. You pull it out of the bag and unfold it and turn it around, and then you see it. Instead of Fantilli across the back, it says “MY MAN”. Your jaw drops, you start laughing so hard, like stomach hurting from how hard you’re laughing.

Adam joins in your laughter, asking if you like it. You tackle him in a hug, kissing his cheek twice.

“It’s so perfect!”

The video was perfect, it ended in your phone falling from it’s propped up place on your desk as you kissed Adam. You felt happy and sad when you saw it. Happy that it happened, that you were able to ever experience that kind of love. Sad because it was all gone now.

i guess you never know, never know. and if you wanted me, you really should’ve showed. and if you never bleed, you’re never gonna grow.

You know that if you had the chance, you’d go back to Adam without thinking for two seconds. He was the best thing that you’d ever been graced with. He was everything to you, and you know that in a tucked away part of your heart he still is.

You just wish you both had tried harder, because you both loved each other with all of your beings. You just wished you both showed how much you really wanted it at the end, but both of you were scared of how the other was feeling.

but we were something, don’t you think so? roaring 20’s, tossing pennies in the pool.

In the middle of the night, when you’re staring at the ceiling of your room after watching Adam’s newest highlights you tend to always think about one thing; if he still thinks about you, the way you do him.

You hoped he did, you hoped you weren’t the furthest thing from his mind at all times. And if you were to ask him, he would tell you that you were all he could think of for months, you were the only thing on his mind when he woke up, and when he went to sleep. Columbus was fun, and new, and exciting, but you were everything to him.

Adam had hoped you’d send him a text the night of the draft, and then he’d be able to start talking to you again. But, you never texted, you were worried he wouldn’t care if you did. You didn’t want to embarrass yourself.

and if my wishes came true it would’ve been you.

You had wished on 11:11s, fallen stars, eyelashes, candles, four-leaf clovers, everything, that you and Adam would be together always, and that didn’t end when you broke up, you still wished for him, always.

in my defense, i have none. for never leaving well enough alone. but it would’ve been fun, if you would’ve been the one.

You always felt like you were doing something wrong towards the end of your relationship, not because of Adam. It was because you just had a voice in the back of your head telling you that you weren’t doing enough for him and that you were making him upset, and it led to you doing things to try to fix that but only would end up making things worse.

You just needed him always, you two were inseparable. You were at every home game, a good amount of the away games, and then you were almost always together during any free time you two had. While you were only together for about a year, you could see your life with Adam. He had said something to you about wanting to marry you, 5 months after you started dating. You were just it for each other.

i have this dream you’re doing cool shit. having adventures on your own. you meet some woman on the internet and take her home.

You think about if he has met another girl yet. You know that those hockey teams like going out together and they definitely attract lots of female attention. The ache came back at the thought of him sleeping in the same bed as another woman.

we never painted by the numbers, baby. but we were making it count.

Some people thought your relationship was, unrealistic, in a sense. You and Adam were together all the time, and it made certain family members and friends question what would happen after the draft came and Anaheim took your boyfriend from you. But obviously, Anaheim didn’t take your boyfriend, Columbus did, which made the breakup hurt even more.

Every minute you spent with Adam was full of love. There were very little disagreements, and the few that did take place were always out of love, which also made everything hurt more. No one could’ve seen your breakup coming, you two included, it just came up one night and ended up with you two calling it quits. It was the first time you’d ever seen Adam cry, and that broke you inside.

you know the greatest loves of all time are over now. i guess you never know, never know. and it’s another day waking up alone.

Sometimes you wake up and forget he’s not yours anymore, that he might even be someone else’s. And then you snap back to reality and it hits you like a train. Your roommates sometimes leave sticky notes to you that you’re gonna be okay, that’s everything’s okay. He was the greatest thing ever. Your love for him conquered all.

i, i, i persist and resist the temptation to ask you, if one thing had been different. would everything be different today?

You just play back every single moment in your head. Wondering if you’d done anything different if you’d still be his, if he’d still love you how he did. What you didn’t know was that he was doing the same exact thing 190 miles from you, resisting the urge to text you.

Adam was counting down the days until his birthday, praying that you would text him, allowing him to start a conversation with you. You were as well, having typed out your birthday message to him already, weeks early, waiting to be sent.

but we were something, don’t you think so? rosé flowing with your chosen family. and it would’ve been sweet, if it could’ve been me.

You two would spend nights with his friends, the boys he loved most, and his teammates because you wanted them to like you because he liked them. You wanted to be able to have their approval and you definitely did. Your friendships lasting with a few of the players, specifically Dylan Duke.

Dylan had been so incredibly sweet to you when you met, understanding how it probably felt to be surrounded by a team of boys who you didn’t know. He was someone you could hang out with at hockey parties when you felt like you were being too clingy to Adam.

in my defense i have none, for digging up the grave another time.

Dylan had been begging you to come to a hockey game since before the season started. And you were finally convinced so you are going to attend the 2nd Providence game. They won last night 2-4 and were hoping to do the same again.

You felt the ache when you were searching through your umich gear for your outfit to the game and found your Fantilli jerseys. You took a deep breath and pushed it off, grabbing a blue and maize crewneck and throwing it on over your leggings and blazers and leaving.

You got into the Children of Yost section pretty easily, but it was always a hassle nonetheless. You found some friends and stood with them, shouting cheers when the guys skated out.

You and your friends were pretty close to the glass in the student section, only a few rows back, so you were able to see the guys really well. You screamed when Dylan scored his first goal of the night, he saw you and laughed so hard. Luca, who was hugging his teammate was confused by how hard Dylan was laughing, and looked to see what the source of his entertainment was. When he saw you, jumping up and down with your friends, screaming for Dylan, he was shocked. Shocked you’d even come to a game. And then his eyes widened when he realized his brother was here, watching him play.

When the first period was over the Childen of Yost settled down and danced to the songs and did the little games that came up to on the jumbotron. Your fun halted when you saw Adam come up on the screen, the words “Welcoming back former Wolverines!” and his names flashing on it. Your friends saw and their jaws dropped. He hadn’t been at the game the night before, of course he hadn’t, of course this was the game he came to.

You brushed it off and insisted that you were fine. You continued to have fun and mess around with your friends during the break in between periods. But then Adam had the shock of his life, staring at the screen as the view of you and your friends dancing to American Boy by Estelle & Kanye as the cameras showed different groups of the Children of Yost.

The second he gets over his shock you’re off the screen, and he’s slightly leaning out of his seat, searching the crowd of the student section, and then he saw you, messing around and playing with your friends. Part of him wishes you were in his jersey, as unrealistic as that seems. He wonders if you still have his jerseys, if they’re in a thrift store somewhere, or if they’re tucked away in the bottom of a box in your room.

He knows Dylan probably convinced you to come, because Dylan was your favorite of his friends, and the two of you guys were “besties” whenever you were together. He wonders if you’ll go down towards the locker room after the game to see Dylan and if he’ll get to see you again.

The game ended soon enough, the guys winning 3-4 with 2 goals from Duker. He texted you after the game to come down, wanting to go to eat with you after.

from: Duka👊

Dude come down after I wanna go eat

from: Y/n/n🤝

idk duke i kinda wanna go home

from: Duka👊

Bro no you have to stop being a loser

from: Y/n/n🤝

fine.

He liked your message and you let out a sigh,

“Hey guys, I’m gonna go down and see Duke. I’ll see you guys later, okay?”

They nodded and gave you light hugs, telling you random things that are always part of girl goodbyes.

“Are you sure, do you think Adam’ll be down there, babe?”

You sighed again, shrugging, hugging her tighter.

“Don’t know, but I can’t let him stop me from doing things, right? If I see him, I see him. I don’t know if he’ll say anything to me, but if he does I’ll just talk to him normally, you know?”

The girls all nod, saying goodbye again, telling you things about your said “girl power”. You made your way through the arena, getting let through by security and heading back to the hall where the players come out.

You kept your head in your phone as you leaned against the wall, snapping people, scrolling through Instagram, and texting your mom about the game.

Dylan came out fast compared to usual. You high-fived him as he came up to you, congratulating him on his two goals. He thanked you and then was quick to try to get you guys to leave.

“Dylan, It’s okay. I know he’s here. I’m not gonna like, run away from him. Alright?”

“Yeah alright, he was just in the locker room and I was worried you might not know, 'cause I didn’t even know, so.”

You nodded and smiled at him, patting his shoulder in thanks. Then you realized he was missing something.

“Dylan, did you leave your phone in the locker room?”

He looked at you in confusion, then patting the pocket on his bag, and then his sweatpants pockets, then his sweatshirt pocket, but came up empty.

“Shit. Alright, I’ll be back in half a second, wait here.”

You nod and he hands you his backpack, racing back to the locker room. You put his bag on your back and look back at your phone again. And then you hear him, his laugh. You don’t even wanna look up, you glance out of the corner of your eye, seeing his silhouette.

You freeze in your stance, fingers pausing on your screen. You hear him, Luca, and Mark talking very loudly. Adam sees the bag on your back first “DUKE #25” along the side of it. Then he realizes it’s you. He quiets down very quickly, almost stopping in his tracks.

Luca notices his baby brother’s change in attitude instantly, whipping his head to the side, his eyes meeting your figure. Mark, somehow sees you and his mind doesn’t think for two seconds. He calls your name, happy as ever.

“Hey! Come here I haven’t seen you in forever. What’s up?”

You wince at his obliviousness, or maybe his uncaring of the situation. You squeeze your eyes shut for a second before putting a smile on.

“Hey Mark, I’m fine. How are you?”

He nods and replies, half hugging you and pulling you back towards his group. Luca quickly says hey to you, wrapping his arms around you briefly.

You look at Adam, your eyes softening. He looks at you as if you’re the only girl in the world, and to him, you are. You go to say hey to him but he hugs you before words can come out. He holds you so so tightly, and you practically grip him. Fuck, you missed him.

“Hey, Adam.”

You feel him take a deep breath in, rubbing his hand up and down your back.

“Missed you.”

“Missed you too, Adam.”

You both seem to realize you aren’t alone and you pull away, clearing your throat as the other two boys look at you with huge smiles. You feel heat radiating from your cheeks as the four of you stand there.

The awkward silence is cut off by Dylan racing back through the hall.

“Hey dude, sorry I took so long. Ty started asking me about something-”

He stopped himself when he saw you standing inches from Adam, a blush covering your face. He tries to cover the smile overtaking his face.

“Oh hey guys, um well, we were about to go eat, you guys wanna join?”

Your eyes widened at Dylan, cursing at him in your head, hoping you’d gained mind powers that could disintegrate him. Just because you can stand here and hug him doesn’t mean you can sit and eat dinner with him.

Mark jumps to accept, telling you two that you should also invite the other guys still in the locker room. You agree, thinking the more the merrier for your situation. You and Dylan let the other guys know and then take off. In the car, you turn to Dylan and almost shout at him.

“Dylan Duke! What the fuck?”

He smiles at you, that stupid smile. You shake your head and sigh loudly leaning back against the headrest and closing your eyes.

“I saw how you were looking at each other in there. And Mark whispered to me about your hug. I know that this is for your own good dude. At least get civil with him.”

You sigh and nod, your eyes still closed. Dylan lets out a noise of agreement, and you two drive to your chosen restaurant.

When you pull up to a restaurant on a Saturday night and ask for a table for 10, you usually are looked at like you have two heads. But in Ann Arbor, when a umich hockey player comes in and asks that, they will make it happen.

You and Dylan were the first to get there, sitting across from each other at the far end of the table. Tyler, Rutger, and Ethan arrive next, Tyler sitting at the end chair between you and Dylan, and Rut and Eth sitting next to Dylan. Adam, Luca, and Mark arrived next. You watched Mark push Adam forward to sit in the space on your right.

He smiles at you awkwardly as he sits down next to you, making sure to leave a comfortable amount of space between you. Lastly, Seamus and Mackie arrive, taking the last two seats at the table. All the guys were talking around you while you checked your phone every minute or so to try to look busy. You glance to your side and notice Adam as bored as you.

“Hey Fants.”

His head quickly turns to you, a bright smile adorning his features.

“Hi.”

“How’s Columbus? Sorry I never congratulated you, I just-”

“Hey! It’s okay, I understand, alright? But it’s nice, I’ve made a couple of new friends and stuff. It was nice already knowing people there.”

“Yeah, yeah. That’s really good Adam.”

Adam stared at you longingly as you stared at your fingers. You were messing with the rings you always wore, then realized how you were wearing your ring from Adam. You felt like you couldn’t let him see it, worried you might embarrass yourself. You covered your hand with your other, trying to make your position look as natural as possible.

When you looked back over to him and he was already staring at you, you swear your heart started pounding, even more so than already. His eyes looked sad, something so uncommon to see him feeling. He’d always been your happy boy, always bringing you up and making you better.

You would rather climb to the rooftops and scream to every Ann Arbor citizen of your everlasting love for Adam than even whisper it to him. His eyes, though, they’re like the ocean. One look and all of your senses are gone.

“I really missed you Adam.”

You didn’t look at him when you whispered it, you stared at the football game playing on the TV across the restaurant, the Bengals were winning by 14. Your hand pressed into the wood of your chair next to your thigh, running your fingers back and forth across the grain. You didn’t flinch physically when you felt his hand brush over yours, but your heart felt like it was about to implode.

“You have no idea how much I missed you.”

You finally got the courage to look into his eyes. You turn, just a little, and look at him, the raw look on his face, his glazed-over eyes, his bit at lips, your boy, he’d always been yours, always will be.

“And, you have no idea how badly I want to kiss you right now.”

He mumbled it, not caring if you heard or not, he just knew he had to say it, if not to you then to admit it to himself, that he wanted to kiss you.

Adam watched as your eyes widened innocently, he loves everything you do. He just stared, he knew you heard him, he didn’t know what to do after that, and neither did you. You seemed to have gotten lost in the moment, forgetting about the 8 other hockey players surrounding you, who had honestly mostly just stopped really talking to each other and were mostly watching you and Adam.

In that moment, you couldn’t even hear them, you couldn’t even see them. They were blurry, muted, and muffled, but looking at Adam, it was so clear. You weren’t thinking, you were just following whatever split-second decision your heart made and grabbed his face, kissing Adam. You fucking kissed him. His hands wrapped around your wrists, kissing you back immediately. You kissed for maybe three seconds, the hustle and bustle all around coming back to you.

You pulled away from him first, if it was his choice he would’ve made out with you right there in front of everyone. You looked at him with wide eyes, and he still had his big beautiful smile. You hear an ‘oh shit’ come from Luca’s mouth, and then the rest of the guys at the table going crazy and immediately feel embarrassed. Your face burns as you quickly wipe your lips with your sleeve, burying your face in your hands as a smile reluctantly makes its way to your face.

Adam has the biggest grin on his face as he scoots his chair closer to you, wrapping his arm around you, pulling you close. Adam’s hand rests on your hip, tracing shapes already like it was never gone. Like it was home after being away for far too long. You know the two of you would have a big conversation about everything later. But for right now, you just let him hold you, and you let him order for you, because he always knew what you wanted, even now.

When dinner came, Adam’s hand left your hip, but it ended up holding yours under the table like you were two fourteen-year-olds hiding from your parents. He started messing with your hand, pulling it more into his lap so he could play with it with both of his hands. He’d always done this when you were together, he would mess with your hand while he talked to others at dinners or parties or anything.

Adam was shocked when he felt it, the cool band on your ring finger. He looked down at your hand, eyes widening when he saw his ring still adorning your finger. He stared at you with so so much love in his eyes, from across the table, Luca could see how happy his baby brother was, and he was so thankful for you.

“You still have my ring on.”

You couldn’t tell if it was a question or a statement when he whispered to you. You looked down at the band on your finger, smiling sheepishly at him and blushing. You nodded slowly, not knowing how to explain it to him.

“I just really like it. And I just really like you, so.”

He laughs, nodding at you with amusement, letting out an ‘Oh yeah?’ to which you nod assuringly.

You knew he was the 1. You’d known when he had first introduced himself to you. You could tell that this new beginning to your relationship was going to last, that the time apart only made you both stronger. You’d always loved him, and always will, and if kissing him in a crowded restaurant in front of all of his stupid friends is what it takes to have him, you definitely would.

but it would’ve been fun, if you would’ve been the one.

523 notes · View notes

svltzmans · 8 months

Text

out of the woods - h.m.

a/n: i'm back with longer fics again! i was in a bit of a dry spell with inspiration but i'm finally getting back to it! you might be asking "lizzie will you ever stop naming your stories after taylor swift songs?" and the answer is no ❤️

warnings: smut (18+), kinda angsty? but not really, hope has her humanity off for a bit and her and reader are exes (but not for long), this is very very soft and the smut is pretty tame lmao, i didn't edit this at all

"you're just not the person i fell in love with anymore."

the moment y/n broke up with hope was still a blur. hope's humanity shutdown was rough on everyone involved, but she never would have expected losing the love of her life over it.

at the same time, she understood. now that she had her humanity on, she realized how coldhearted she had become and the way she treated y/n reflected her lack of sympathy.

it hadn't took long for hope to realize that she had made a huge mistake. sure, she had little control over the way she acted when her humanity was off. regardless, she still mistreated y/n and lost her in the process.

y/n knew that she loved hope, and she was sure that she could cope with her supernatural qualities, including her occasional lack of humanity.

however, y/n quickly realized having humanity-less hope as a girlfriend was harder than she had imagined.

any kind of affection from her girlfriend was almost entirely out of the question. it felt like the person she loved had disappeared, and it was too much to handle.

ever since the breakup, hope had been determined to win y/n back. she understood that the trust between them had diminished and it would be hard to show y/n that her recent behavior was behind her.

y/n was apprehensive when she interacted with hope. she wasn't cold, but she certainly wasn't warm either. she just didn't believe that hope truly had turned her humanity back on, knowing that a vampire with their humanity off could be beyond tricky and manipulative.

a major part of her believed that hope would never do anything to hurt her, humanity or not, but she just couldn't take that risk.

hope had tried to open up to y/n about her humanity and tell her that she was truly back, but y/n would just brush her off.

"i just need more time," she would say, and hope would solemnly nod in understanding.

eventually, hope couldn't cope with y/n's indifference any longer.

"y/n, please just talk to me."

y/n finally agrees to sit down with hope, avoiding eye contact with her ex-girlfriend.

"please look at me, y/n. i miss you so much. i know i was awful to you."

y/n reluctantly looks up, locking eyes with hope.

"how do i know it's really you, hope? how can i believe you?"

hope can't help but feel hurt by y/n's lack of trust, but she knows she would feel the same way if she was in y/n's position.

"i've spent every minute of every day thinking about you, y/n. you are everything to me and it kills me that i hurt you so badly. i wasn't myself and i know that's not an excuse. but god y/n, i miss you so much. and i'm so sorry."

y/n softens at hope's words, realizing that she was being genuine.

"i miss you too. and i'm sorry for blowing you off. i guess i was just scared. i know you wouldn't hurt me. i just couldn't bring myself to talk, i didn't know if you were actually back or not."

"i'm here, y/n. and i'm never going away again."

hope tentatively brings her face closer to y/n's, waiting for a reaction.

when she doesn't get one, she presses her lips to y/n's.

when hope finally pulls away after what feels like an eternity, y/n wraps her arms around her tightly.

"i'm so glad you're here, hope. really here. i missed you."

hope melts into y/n's arms, allowing her head to rest on her shoulder.

"hope?"

"yeah?"

"be mine again. please."

hope doesn't respond, opting to kiss y/n again instead.

hope is gentle in every sense of the word, her hand gently resting on y/n's cheek, gently coaxing her to lay down.

she takes her time, wrapping her arms around y/n as she kisses her.

hope toys with the wastline of y/n's sweatpants, running her fingers over her stomach.

"may i?" she asks tentatively, looking deeply into y/n's eyes as she awaits her response.

"thought you'd never ask," y/n laughs quietly before attaching her lips to her girlfriend's once more.

hope's touch remains gentle as she dips below y/n's underwear. she studies y/n's face carefully, ensuring that she is completely okay with what she's doing.

"that's my girl. always doing so good," hope coos, listening to y/n's gentle whines.

when y/n falls over the edge, she wraps herself around hope again, wanting to be as close to her as possible.

hope holds y/n for some time, running her hand over her back.

just when hope thinks y/n has dozed off, she hears her sleepily mutter something in her ear.

"i love you."

hope wasn't sure if she would ever hear y/n say that again, and she feels relief flooding her whole body at her words.

"i love you so much, y/n."

#hope mikaelson #hope mikaelson x reader #wlw #legacies #legacies x reader #hope mikaelson x fem reader #the originals x reader #hope mikaelson fic #hope mikaelson imagine #hope mikaelson smut #hope mikaelson x fem! reader

235 notes · View notes

lovincherries · 2 years

Note

yeah i am going to need part 2 of just the tip omg

Just the Tip Pt. 2

summary: part two of my other imagine, Just the Tip, kind of angsty but not really. reader comes off obnoxiously pure, i know. BUT it’s to go along with the innocent theme

A/N: omg you read my mind!!! I still haven’t edited the first one lmao, so there are still grammatical errors; however, someone has to write Elvis smut. I’m not gonna lie, I have no plan, I just make stuff up as I go along. NOT PROOF READ! Sorry I just wanted to make sure I got it out today.

Warnings: maybe dubious consent? kinky, dirty, nasty, freaky, all the good stuff! breeding kink

Part Three

It had been days since you had last seen Elvis, since he took your innocence. You would be lying if you said your heart didn’t hurt a little at the thought. You understood he was working on some songs at the Sun Studio, but you wished you could meet up for even just an hour. You had been walking around with this guilt in your chest, that you had done the worst thing imaginable in the world. He said he would marry you, said he would love you for the rest of his life. Could he though? His career was just beginning and there’s no way a girlfriend could be good for it, let alone a wife.

It was 12 am and you were wide awake with your thoughts in your room, you missed Elvis dearly. There was a faint knocking sound coming from your window that distracted you, you looked over and of course it was him. Although you were happy to see him, you were angry too. He didn’t even call you, didn’t even ask you how you were the next day. Nonetheless, you let him in your room. That was something you would always do, let Elvis in no matter what.

“Hey baby, I missed you more than anything in this world,” he said, reaching in to grab your hips and kiss you on the cheek. “I love this little night dress number you’ve got on, can make a man go week in the knees.” He smirked, that god damn smirk, you just looked away in disbelief.

“What’s the matter baby? How are you feeling?” He cupped your cheeks in his hands, engulfing your face. Tears threatened to spill from your eyes as you thought of how you’ve been feeling.

“I can’t believe you, now you ask? I was in pain the next day and there was no one there for me,” you managed to choke out, your voice cracked but you were not going to cry.

“I’m so sorry darling, I know I messed up. I should’ve called, should’ve been there for you. I’ve been working so hard so I can put a ring on the pretty little finger,” he said, pulling you into a hug. You felt guilty now, he had been working so hard for you. He promised he would marry you after taking the one thing that society deemed you valuable for, your virginity.

“Really?” you asked, looking at him through your eyelashes.

“Yes, I wanna give you my last name. Y/N Presley has a pretty nice ring to it, don’t you think?” He asked, looking down at you. You nodded your head in agreeance.

You sat with him and talked for an hour listening all about his songs, letting him lay his head in your lap. He was letting his hand get dangerously close to your private parts again, a part of you longed for him to touch you there but the other part of you knew it was bad news.

You moved his hand away from you, letting the moral part of you win.

“C’mon darling, it ain’t nothing we haven’t done before. It felt real good for you the first time, right?” He asked, but it came out as more of a statement.

“But, Elvis, you know I wanted to save myself for our wedding night. Plus, if we do it again, I could get pregnant,” you countered. He had convinced you that since you never had sex before that night, you couldn’t get pregnant. Your parents had guarded you from everything, you knew bits and pieces but all your information came from him. And you trusted everything he had to say fully. He lied straight through his teeth; he didn’t want you to worry with the very real possibility.

“We have to practice to get good, I want our wedding night to be perfect. Don’t you?” He rhetorically asked, he knew it would only take a little convincing. Deep down you wanted it just as much as he did. “Plus, I won’t finish in you. I promise.” Another lie, he just couldn’t help himself. You looked down at his pants and you could see his penis rising. You now knew what that meant, he wanted you. It felt good for him to want you like that.

His hand was under your dress now, his fingers playing with the hem of your underwear as he talked. As he convinced you.

“Okay, but we can’t wake up my parents,” you demanded this. If they walked in on you and Elvis, you would never be allowed to see him again and you would probably be sent to live with your aunt who never got married.

“They won’t hear a thing,” he smirked again, you knew that look on his face. It was always trouble. He kissed you, grabbing the back of your neck and bringing you in. It was a slow and passionate kiss, so very different from the other night. You don’t know what came over you, but you moved so you were sitting on top of him. Your most sensitive part placed on his. He deepened the kiss now, his hands finding their way to your hips. He used them to guide you, to grind on to him. You let out a moan, you could feel him through his pants. Your shear underwear had no real coverage, he just kept bumping your clit.

His hands now moved to grab your butt, gripping it harshly as you now mimicked the movements. “So perfect, Y/N. Never in my life,” he said as he flipped you over, so he was now on top of you. It felt all too familiar like this.

He hovered over you as he began to lift your night dress up over your head, you weren’t wearing a bra, so your nipples were hard as they felt the cold air. The bruises he left on your breasts were still there from last time, marking you as his.

“When we’re married, you won’t wear clothes around the house. Want to see you like this all day, every day,” he whispered as he was kissing down your neck. He pinched your nipple in his hand and it caused you to squirm. You felt bold now, and you began unbuttoning his shirt with shaky hands. Despite last time, you were unfamiliar with everything like this. You knew it felt good, but you knew it was so, so wrong. His tan skin was smooth to the touch, just seeing him like this was so erotic. His dark hair fallen over his face, his lips swollen from kissing you.

He began to kiss down your body till he was face to face with your prívate parts, something to obscene. You didnt know what he was going to do next, but you knew no matter what he did it would feel good.

He slowly took your underwear off, and his face lit up like he was looking at gold. “Such a pretty pussy baby, can’t believe you kept it from me for so long,” he mumbled as he got closer and closer. You gasped once his lips reached your clit sucking on, lightly tugging at it with his teeth.

“T-that’s a bad word,” you managed to moan, it was the nastiest word out there and he said it. He just smiled and continued on, but he brought his finger to your entrance. It was still slightly sore from last time, it was such a big stretch in such a tiny hole. He began to slowly push one finger in, pumping it in and out slowly. Making sure you were accustomed, that you could fit him this time too. You were more tense this time, you knew what he was going to do.

He pulled away from you clit, “so tight baby, holding onto my finger for dear life,” he joked. Joking did not seem appropriate to you in a time like this, it wasn’t funny.

“O-oh my god, Elvis,” you moaned as he continued pumping his finger into you, faster and faster. He began to play with your clit as well. You don’t think you’ll ever get used to this feeling, the pleasure, or the feeling of being invaded. You began to buck your hips as he continued to press harder into your clit. If you could open your eyes, you know what you would see, a smug look on his face. And then, all of the sudden he stopped.

The sudden absence of his finger cause you to open your eyes, you were slightly agitated if you were being completely honest. He was off the bed now, and he began to unbutton and unzip his pants, god in that moment you felt just completely in awe of him. That smug look he has on his face, how he looked so hot with no shirt on, and just how dominating he looked. He was unbelievably attractive.

He was completely nude now and you were able to really look at his penis. Only one word came to your mind, beautiful. You had no clue what anyone else’s looked like, but surely it would never compare to his. It was unbelievably, intimidatingly big. You hadn’t had time to worry the last time you and him did the do, but now you do.

He began to slowly crawl on the bed, kissing up your body as he did. Peppering you with his love. Once he reached your ear, he whispered, “jus’ aching for ya.”

He had no idea how you were aching for him, you had never thought you would feel this way for anyone, ever. How could you resist him though?

You watched as he guided his shaft between your folds, letting his tip meet your entrance. Your breathing picked up, nervousness arising.

He began to kiss you as he entered, both of you releasing a gasp from the feeling. He had only put just the tip in, giving you a moment to adjust before continuing.

“It was like you were made for me,” he moaned in your ear as he pushed in more, it was still stinging as he continued. Your walls were engulfing him.

He soon bottomed out, staying in the position for what feel like hours but it was just mere minutes. It was a sting, but nothing compared to the last time.

“Elvis,” you whispered.

“Hmm,” he replied, eyes closed tight in concentration. He was trying not to move, “tightest pussy I’ve ever had. never in my life, feels so good,” he rambled.

“Start moving,” you interrupted, bucking your hips trying to push him to start moving.

He did, slowly he pulled out so he was just barely in you, and then he thrusted back in, hard. You gasped as his tip hit your cervix, it was a crazy, full feeling.

He reached down between the two of you and continued to play with your swollen, sensitive clit. The feeling combined caused you to see stars, it was overwhelming and powerful. It was so overwhelming you didnt even hear what he was saying, “gonna be my wife and have all my babies, want you to be full of me. Let all those other boys know youre taken,” he murmured mindlessly, drunk off of you.

He kept thrusting harder and faster, continued to play with your clit just the same. “Talk to me baby, how you feeling?” He cockily asked, he knew how you felt. Your head thrown back in pleasure, you truly couldn’t talk. Thank god your bed wasn’t loud or else you would be screwed.

“I-i,” was all you could manage, you wanted to tell him this was even better than last time but you couldn’t.

“Tell me or I’ll stop,” he thrusted harder, played with your clit more if it was even possible.

“A-amazing,” you breathed out, you were stuttering and barely managed to form a sentence. He just kept going, and going. You began to squeeze him with your walls, milking him, tempting him. This threw him off his high horse.

“G-god,” he moaned as you continued to squeeze the life out of him. You both looked down to see how you were connected, how easily he slid in and out of you, how it looked like you were made for him.

A ball was forming in your stomach, just like last time. This was a feeling you wish you could experience all the time, how you lived without it before you didn’t know.

“Gonna fill you up, try my best to make you a mama. You’d be such a good one, tend to my babies,” he whispered in your ear. You were too into your own pleasure to even begin to acknowledged what you were saying. You felt him quickening his pace, you were on the verge of spilling over.

He started thrusting harder too, hitting you at just the right spot. He began moaning in your ear, you knew he had to be close. You forgot about your parents, your parents be damned. This felt too good to stop.

“Bout to bust,” he grunted. Sweat was dripping off of him onto you. You pulled his face to kiss you down to you, both of you moaning as it continued. It was dirty, raw, and messy. Everything you came to love about Elvis, he was the polar opposite of you.

“I-I’m, bout to finish,” you managed to moan as he kissed down your neck. Sucking at your skin, lapping at it.

Then it hit you, a raw, pleasurable feeling. It was like you were seeing stars, totally, blissfully unaware of anything. You were just moaning uncontrollably. You were so into your own pleasure you didn’t even notice Elvis had finished as well, didn’t even notice the warmth overflowing. He had promised not to, so why would you think otherwise?

He collapsed on top of you, head laying against your breast. You didn’t even think about him finishing, the thought never crossed your mind. He stayed inside of you, making sure nothing escaped.

You played with his hair as he slept, you knew you couldn’t stay like this. Your parents were bound to come in your room in the morning, and if they found Elvis in here, it would be the end of you and him.

You could no longer keep your eyes open either, blissfully unaware of what the love your life did. Now you were bound to him, nothing could come between you. Not your daddy, not your momma, and certainly not your morals. Your ring laid in his pocket, which is what he came over to give you; however, he got a little distracted.

Tag list:

To be tagged: click on this link and enter your @

@kittenlittle24

#austin butler elvis #elvis presley #elvis 2022 #Elvis smut #Austin butler smut #Austin butler #Austin butler imagine #smut #dubious #hottt #hot #sexy #steamy #Elvis Presley smut #Elvis imagine #Elvis Presley imagine #elvis movie

1K notes · View notes

orion4ever · 5 months

Note

HIIII! It's the paranormal enthusiast mc anon again, I loved that SMSM THANK YOUUU! I'm back with another request :)

(Sorry if this is worded wierd, I couldn't figure out how to word it lmao)

Could I request a Baxter x past dance partner MC? MC used to do competitive dancing, and during contests and competitions in their past the two were often paired together. They immediately clicked the first time they danced together, and paired with eachother every chance they could get. After step 2, maybe mc stopped dancing or something happened that caused them to stop being paired together/not see eachother as often, and they didn't meet again until the summer :)

gsjskw aaaaaah I don't know how to word this correctly and I apologize if it's too specific, feel free to change this around or edit it if you want to!

Thank you again, and have a wonderful day/night! :>

Author’s Note: ….Okay this is freaky af because I WAS LITERALLY RETHINKING THIS SCENARIO IN MY HEAD. Are you a mind reader? 😦 if you couldn’t tell, I went HARD with this request! I wrote this with the MC and Baxter not meeting at the Soiree moment but at this competition instead.

Pairing: Baxter Ward x MC

🖤🤍

Let me set the stage-

You and Baxter are both very talented dancers , maybe the best in the pacific region’s teen category.

You have been fostering this skill since you were a little kid and have proven to your dancing instructor at the Cypress of your affinity with ballroom dancing.

All the cypresses in America held a ballroom dance competition with each Cypress nominating one person per age group to represent their location at the contest.

At age 13, you were selected to represent the teen and pre-teen category!

You were a bit nervous about it, especially it being your first competition.

You also didn’t expect to be making a charming new friend, or a future summer boyfriend.

˚ ༘♡ ·˚ ₊˚ˑ༄ؘ

You stood in the huge dancing hall, the tall shiny roof and shiny marble floors showing a reflection of yourself. The trip hadn’t been too long, this year’s annual competition took place at a Cypress in Nevada.

You looked around the room and noticed people of varying ages, you zeroed in on any kids around your age to ‘scope out the competition’ as your instructor would call it.

In the distance, an older gentleman pulled a mic from under a cabinet in a far-off corner of the room and tapped it a few times.

“Testing….testing…Welcome! To the annual ballroom competition. We would like to thank all our out-of-staters for making the trip to the Cypress’s Nevada location.”

The big room echoed with a loud applause from the crowd. The older man allowed them to finish before continuing.

“For any new competitors, I will quickly go over any etiquette and rules. Two competitors, each representing a different state but sharing an age category will pair up. They will be competing together and will both receive a trophy for their Cypress.”

Some of the pre-teens groaned at having to socialize with strangers, earning a few giggles from the older dancers.

“We do this to save on time and…to make it more interesting. As dancers, you should experiment with other dancing partners to see who matches your style and rhythm; like a therapist.”

The older gentleman added that last part to joke but it only earned a cough and an awkward laugh from the other side of the room.

“…AHEM. Uh yeah! We will start with the younger category, Categories teens and up should begin pairing with their dancing partners. Remember, it’s all friendly competition here!”

The older gentleman put the mic down and scratched his head, clearly embarrassed that his one joke landed flat.

The little kids all ran towards the middle of the dance floor and started pairing up quickly with each other, laughing and already giving each other hugs.

You envied how quickly they could make friends and pair up, maybe it’s them not having any awkwardness to them yet. You couldn’t say the same for the other categories all either awkwardly shuffling towards new people or instantly jogging towards acquaintances and friends.

You stood to the side and looked around, you were a bit anxious about the possibility that you would be left without a partner. You weren’t mentally prepared to meet any new dance partner.

You twiddled your thumbs and watched on. You were just about to test your luck with a teen who looked just as awkward when you felt a noticeable tap on your shoulder.

You turned around and spotted a very handsome boy, maybe a year older than you. His casual smile widened when he got a look at your face. His hair was a dark black. His skin, was pale and pink at the cheeks. A mole placed on his neck and finally the most intense

Deep brown eyes.

He looked as if he should be modeling for DIOR or if he should be a star in some movie. His neatly pressed suit made him look like a prince.

“Hello there. I am Baxter, Baxter Ward.” He introduced himself, extending a hand for you to shake.

“I noticed that you don’t have a partner and I was hoping to fix that.” He said. The young man had a distinctive voice.

You gave him a neutral smile and shook his hand back.

“I am Y/N L/N. It’s nice to meet you.” You greeted him in return and then answered his question.

“That would be great actually, This is my first competition so I am a little all over the place.” You chuckled nervously, rubbing your arm. The brown-eyed boy nodded.

“It gets easier, I promise.” He reassured before asking a different question.

“Which state are you representing?”

“Oh, uh I am representing California!” You replied, crossing your arms proudly. Baxter’s face somehow brightened even more.

“Oh, wow! How wonderful, I am representing Oregon.” He chuckled. You made a small exaggerated gasp before lightly clapping your hands together.

“We’re like..like neighbors! That's so cool!” You grinned.

Baxter paused at the thought, putting a hand to his chin in an equally exaggerated way.

“I never thought of it that way..” he said thoughtfully before giving you a polite but genuine smile.

“Let’s do good for Oregon and California then.” He said confidently, you nodded at the sentiment.

You and your new dance partner now stood next to each other, watching the little babies dance with each other. While they’re dancing was silly, they all looked to be having fun and some even paused their swinging to ask the other what their favorite colors were or if they wanted to get ice cream after the competition.

Baxter made an amused sound before turning back to you, wanting to make conversation and also…wanting to hear your insight.

“If only we could all make friends that quickly.” He sighed softly, stuffing a hand in his pocket.

“Tell me about it.” You chuckled. “What makes it easier for them anyway? Are they just more social?” You questioned more to fill the air than actually wanting hearing an answer so you weren’t expecting Baxter to reply with his own opinion.

“I personally think it’s because they aren’t as burdened with fears of rejection yet, it makes them more confident.” He commented. You blinked before agreeing.

“That makes sense. I wonder where all that confidence goes when we age.”

It was silent again, the younger categories finished up their round with everybody including the both of you, giving a round of applause for them.

“We will now have the preteen and teen division go up next.”

Baxter turned to you and offered a hand. “Shall we?”

You in return, took his hand “We shall.”

The two of you walked to the middle of the room and got into position. Baxter took the initiative and offered to lead. The older gentleman behind the counter hit a few buttons to activate the music in the speakers. The other contestants began to dance and spin around, unlike how silly and unserious the way the babies danced; everybody currently on the floor struggled to get acquainted with their dance partner’s style. Lots of accidental stepping-on and half spins that didn’t go through.

You and Baxter were extremely different though. While you guys did start a little rocky, with never dancing with each other before. The two of you warmed up quickly and danced very well together.

You two swung and spun around as if you guys had danced with each other billions of times.

But more importantly, it looked as if Baxter was having fun dancing with you.

And you enjoyed how familiar and fun it was to dance with him.

Baxter whispered something to you, “You are very talented,….and you have nice legs.”

“Wait what?”

It was now an unofficial tradition to pair up together, and you guys did for the next two years. While you and Baxter weren’t that close back then, you still had fun conversing with one another and being able to dance so freely with each other; you enjoyed how straightforward he was and lightly teased him for how formal he sounded and he played around and equally enjoyed your company, you didn’t know it then but you two felt a click.

So it was extremely unfortunate when you injured your ankle permanently and would have to stop dancing for a while, it had happened during the winter so you weren’t able to tell that charming boy goodbye or to explain to him why his dance partner had suddenly disappeared off the face of the earth. It broke your heart, that those sparks you had when you danced with him would never be replicated.

You never thought you would see him again, Until that fateful summer of 2016. You sat in both awe and shock as Baxter stepped out from the passenger side of his taxi, he turned towards you and Cove; his neutral eyes narrowing when he took a look at you before a look of recollection replaced it.

“…Y/N? Is that you over there?” He questioned loud enough for you to hear.

“BAXTER??”

Cove looked between the both of you. “Huh?”

#olba #baxter ward #our life beginnings & always #olba baxter #fanfic #orion4ever #gb patch #baxter ward x reader #baxter ward x mc

60 notes · View notes

helenkordart · 14 days

Text

This was a bit of an insane project! I decided to draw all the designs from the various official arts we have gotten over the years. A bit of an archiving project! I tried to make them as accurate as possible. It involved a lot of guesswork tho, since most of them don′t show the full designs. Let′s just say that only 5 of these (and I mean five figures, not design sets lmao) show any kinds of shoes.

I do love seeing the design elements that carry over between the designs tho. Ququ is a cold boy and has to have some kind of fur or a scarf. Feng-er doesn′t want a speck of dirt to touch him and prefers high collars and bracers and high boots (the boots ARE book canon tho). I also love that there′s only three designs that have Ququ wear some kind of crown, the rest is just ribbons or nothing at all, despite the jade crown being mentioned at least once. Like no, we want the boy to be cozy and prevent headaches...!

Please tell me which designs are your favourite! Mine is the official manhua design, mostly because it′s honestly such a smart design, especially Ququ. Like you can tell the artist looked at Ququ and his specific disabilities and worked from there. Besides the hair ribbon, my favourite small detail is the arm warmers that look like compression gloves used for arthritis 🥹 That one means so much to me. Also the difference in layers between Ququ (I′m cold) and Feng-er (ew no dirt touch me ew). It′s just. So nice 🥹♥️

If you want the corresponding official arts, I′ve posted them in the thread on twitter! Anyway here′s which is which with more commentary lmao sorry I cannot shut up about these so much thought actually went into making them and this is the only place where I can actually talk about them properly 🥹

The designs from the first discontinued manhua- Some people in the fandom prefer these because they say they feel more adult but no, sorry, sure the art skill might be better but they just. Don′t feel like Fengcuis to me. Like I would′ve learned to love them but I′d never exchange them for the main ones we got. Plus the character designs changed between all the panels, so trying to chase down a specific design was hell. I′m glad Ququ showed up only in one panel so I didn′t have to do that again lmaoo

The designs from the official manhua- I already explained above why I love them so much. Just. These are THE designs for me. I see these little guys and my heart goes doki doki. If (when) I make lil standees, I′ll very probably use these

The designs from my favourite of the manhua covers- you don′t understandddddddddddddddddddddddddd I love this cover so much. To say I′m insane about it is an understatement. Just. Look at the cover art. Feng-er staring directly into the camera, challenging. Ququ looking soooo kissable. Their entwined fingers. Ququ wearing a jade bracelet in the colours of Feng-er′s robes. I′m just. Vrrrrrrr bark bark BARK. Also had to make MORE patterns for this one. Still not sure I did it proper justice tho 🥹

The manhua-canon modern au outfits- I still can′t believe we got a canon modern au where singer-spy Feng-er kidnaps doctor Ququ on a mission-date and has him hold a silly baloon all day and wear a cute little cap with a silly little cockatoo on it and then they wish each other a happy new year during a sunset on top of the ferris wheel AND I′M SUPPOSED TO BE NORMAL ABOUT IT???????????? Anyway Ququ in his tweed collection is so cute. Mwah. Best boy. Feng-er come on tug on his scarf and kiss him. Do it. Now

Designs from the covers of the traditional edition- these designs are pretty unique while still feeling in character, which is cool! Ququ is such a fancy lil lad here. And I′m obsessed with his... frog? Mousie? Front clasp. I made it a little fox because of course I did

Design from the 1st cover of the simplified edition- I don′t have that much to say about these honestly except that they′re very pretty. I love that Feng-er′s top robe is sheer and I love the silver embroidery, even if it took me some time to figure out how tf to draw it

Design from the 2st cover (Ququ) and 3rd cover (Feng-er) of the simplified edition- that Ququ design drives me crazy. He looks so soft and cozy, you wouldn′t guess that this is the meanest most repressed bitchiest man in all of ye olde Sui dynasty. I want to squeeze him. Cute agression overload. Meanwhile I couldn′t figure out what Feng-er′s belt and hem was doing pattern wise so I just winged it lol.

Fengcuis cosplaying a married couple with designs from the Thai vol. 1+2 freebie- God. Funniest arc in the entire book. They′re insane. They′re perfect for each other. Peerlessly matched. One day I′ll draw more of unhinged wife Feng-er because seriously. Their idea of heterosexual marriage is SO funny. They′re so real for that. And the og chibi designs are SO cute. Ququ′s sweaty little face. This was your idea gay boy, suffer

Audio drama designs from first half of season 1- These are so funny bcs the difference of the designs is like. Main covers: beautiful and ethereal. Minisode covers: Ququ is A Tube with a head on top. Slappy fights. Beautiful. No notes. TubeQu is a god′s perfect creature

Audio drama designs from second half of season 1- I said it before but these just feel too generic to be properly them. While drawing them they did kinda grow on me, at least Feng-er, since his expression is kinda perfectly smug. Im still ehhh on the Ququ tho. He′d look better without the crown.

Designs from Thai covers 1+2- oh man lol the thai covers. I was joking that I could not save the Feng-er, but he did grow on me. It might be that he looks proper manic with the chibi base I drew 😂 But he′d look so much cuter with bangs. Idk why the artist did him like this. Meanwhile Ququ is the most beautiful man alive. I mean it′s what he deserves, but it′s still very funny. Also LOVE how big and fluffy his collar is.

Designs from Thai cover 3- besides my other issues with the thai design, the colours on Feng-er just clash lmao I′m sorry, again why did the thai artist have to do him like this 😂 meanwhile the coat on Ququ is not a colour I′ve ever seen him in, but yknow what it works surprisingly well. He continues to be the most beautiful man around. Sorry king is that horrible peacock bothering you

#Peerless #Wushuang #无双 #FengCui #meng xishi #feng xiao #cui buqu #this took me like 2 hours to type out LMAO

19 notes · View notes

salemssimblr · 5 months

Note

Hello there! I'm Eden :D I LOVE your renders! I've been rendering for well over a year at this point, however I only stuck to the super basic stuff since it took me a year before that to even know how to do it at all. I've wanted to up my game and get to where you are now. I'm SO SORRY if this question was asked already (I haven't gotten too far in your posts yet), but;

How do you personally edit your renders? I understand you use photoshop, but how do you do it exactly? Your renders have that kind of digital art style, like you drew them yourself. Feel free to be as descriptive or brief as you'd like!

Hi Eden!!! Thank you so much! 🥹😍♥️

I've followed you back and glad we're moots! I'd love to see some of your work!

I'm not sure if I've answered this before but I'm happy to answer it again! Also I haven't advertised it in a while (and I really need to try to get up a new tut, maybe soon), but my alt account is a Render School where I post tutorials, with plans to post editing tutorials in the future!

But honestly as far as my editing, I really don't do much.

Actions are my secret weapon, and I have a few favorites/go-tos I'll link! A few are by simmers and a few are just action sets. I'm in a family of photographers, so I have access to a wealth of resources for my editing.

Sonder set by @intramoon

Cold Water set by @intramoon

Retro Prime photoshop actions

Indie camera photoshop actions

But my "secret weapon," as it were, and the set of actions that I think most helps me accomplish that digital art style is a set of actions that are sadly expensive and hard to find now.

My favorite set is by Totally Rad! and I think in recent years it's been folded in to this Pixel Sugar product on their website. I know that's a steep price point but it's possible you can find it around the corners of the Internet for less, or if you can't, you might be able to find "dupes" of the better ones, which imo are:

Technicolor dream world

Super Fun Happy

Bullet Tooth

Grandma's Tap Shoes

As for my method, I know a lot of simmers paint over their renders, and I've done that a few times but find I'm too impatient tbh. My goal is always to have to do only minor touchups over my renders and some color/vibe adjustments before the finished product. My "raw" files are always exactly what blender spits out for me, unaltered in any way except to resize them for Tumblr.

To get that digital art style, I'd recommend rendering with alpha details if you don't already. If your computer can't handle alpha cc in the game, DM me and I can give you some pointers (sneak peek info for a future tut lmao) on how to accomplish it without bogging down your game.

When I go into photoshop I adjust the brightness and contrast, as I tend to personally prefer high contrast pieces that contain dark subject matter but you can still see the details. Then I'll paint/blur/clone/adjust anything that needs it, then I'll "stack" and adjust a handful of actions before applying edge blur and vignette and any other color adjustments (levels, curves, etc).

That's a very oversimplified rundown of what I do, but really overall my editing process is simple. The bulk of my work happens in blender itself. I find that the more time I take to perfect the lighting and shadows and angles in blender, the less frustrating the editing process and the happier I am with the end result. So, that said, be sure you're spending a lot of time in blender getting the light and shadows to be exactly where you need/want them to be before running it.

I know this is a bit long I'm sorry! If any of it is super confusing or you'd like a more in-depth look at any of it please let me know! I do plan to do editing tutorials for my side blog, but the latter half of this year has kind of run over me like a train, and for now I'm just trying to get by day by day. But I'm happy to help if you have more specific questions!

& thank you again!! ♥️

#replies #thank you so much this literally made my day #I was having a bad one too ugh I needed this #mini blender tutorial #tutorial ish #sims 4 blender tutorial #sims 4 render tutorial #sims 4 editing tutorial #I can't tell yall how happy it makes me when yall love my work #legit holding back tears #♥️♥️♥️

21 notes · View notes

thisfanisgonesorry · 2 years

Note

aa your writing is godsend ;; could you write a scout x reader smut fic where he’s eating reader out?? 😵‍💫 take your time and thank you!! <3

omg ilysm i forgot tumblr existed so sorry it took me a bit but here you go !! i also havent written or had sex in a while so im a bit rusty LMAO

cw// smut. obv. female oral BABYYY. scout is so dreamy but with a c ;), he takes after daddy spy in this one lol. ambiguous rship. i cant be fucked doing ~lore~ so its just immediately smut hes already balls deep please mentally prepare yourself and if it ruins it im sorry. i think this takes place in .. a part.. of the base .. somewhere .. in an ambiguous location👍 no beta we die like men

edit: i just woke up and my beta reader told me i forgot to write scouts accent oh my fucking god. no beta we die like men. im not changing it

edit 2: few months later hello, im porting my fics to ao3 and i noticed this one had so much wrong with it (mostly formatting and grammar) and ive changed some of it oops

♡

His hands found his way into my pants, kind of just groping, as he was hunched above me, pressing me into the sofa-chair below me; his lips stayed warmly connected to my throat as he muttered obscenities. He was teasing, and he was fully aware of it as I let out breathy gasps.

“Scout.”

“Mhm?” I could feel him grin against my neck, beckoning a response. “Babe?”

“Touch me. Can you- please.”

He began rubbing messily circles into my clit as directed for a moment, earning a gasped moan. “You sound so good, you know that?” He spoke as he slowly dipped his fingers easily into the wetness.

“Fuck, really?”

“Of course.” He began mumbling into my neck again, leaving soft bites as he began pumping his fingers in a come-hither motion. “I want to hear you.”

“Please, I need you- I need more. Oh my god.”

And then he stopped. And he removed his hand, and moved off the chair, kneeling in front of me.

“What are you doing, don’t stop!” I frowned.

He began pulling off my pants completely, throwing them behind him somewhere before spreading my legs and making very intense eye contact with it. I hesitated to keep my legs open; “C’mon, show me how pretty you are. Just relax.”

He began holding my calf as he moved one leg over his shoulder and began kissing his way up my leg, closer to my thighs, before finally making contact. I moaned, throwing my head back. He started slow, taking his time as if it was a leisurely stroll.

“You taste good too, what can’t you do?” He joked.

“Shut up.” I said quickly. “Don’t stop, don’t stop.”

I reached down and flicked his, for some reason still on, cap to run my hands through his hair, getting a firm grasp. He let out a groan as he continued ever so slowly.

His hands were holding tightly onto my hips, though I tried to fight it to grind into his face. “Scout. Please. More.” I whined, “Faster.”

He began going faster, lifting my hips higher off the chair to change the angle too, allowing me to roll my hips onto his tongue.

My thighs began squeezing around him and he let out something between a hum and a moan, looking up at me with big eyes. You could see it, he needed this just as bad as I did. He needed to make me cum on his tongue, he was desperate for it, he WANTED to work for it. He wanted to be here for hours for it if he had to.

“Scout, oh my god. Scout.” I began to semi-chant. “I’m right there, please, so close.”

“This fast?” He quickly muttered.

“It’s been a while!” I quickly said back as firmly as I could muster words.

He kept at it with the same agonising pace, though now he was letting out groans that was vibrating through me.

“Scout, I’m gonna, you’re gonna-” My sentences stringed into incoherent moans that gradually got louder, and he began moving slightly faster. I began chanting a mix of ‘fuck’ and ‘scout’ as I reached the edge, my back arched sharply as my muscles tensed around him, basically screaming ‘oh my fucking god’, my head harshly hit the chair as my legs shook around him.

“You okay?” He said after riding out my orgasm, listening to me gasp and pant.

“Fantastic. Amazing. Never better.” I spoke through deep breaths.

He laughed, reaching for my pants and attempting, and somehow now failing, to put my pants back on.

“Thank you.” I said, smiling at him through my haze.

“Of course.” He smiled back, standing me up to finish putting my pants onto my body. Once he finished that, he lifted my chin with his fingers and pressed a soft kiss onto the corner of my mouth; “You should get to bed.”

“Hopefully I can make it there.”

“I’ll walk with you.”

331 notes · View notes

that-gay-guy-from-hell · 1 year

Text

Bound by Blood: Reader & Sparda Bloodline (Platonic)

SUMMARY: It all started on that fateful day, the day everything went up in flames. You’ve been forced to walk a life you’d never imagined. All in the name of avenging your brothers; Dante and Vergil. Who, unannounced to you, are still very much alive and are wandering the endless wasteland called Hell; the endless wasteland you’d called “home” for over three decades.

EDIT AS OF 7/12/2023: I am re-writing this entire fic. I don't really like how it turned out plus all of the half-finished/patrial story bits I have in here are kind of not up to my standard. Please still give this a read, it took me a REALLY long time to finish this, but just know that this is going to be redone. Thanks for understanding, have a great day/night!! :)))

Requested by @loshpen! :)))

*Slams this down like a dictionary* HERE TAKE IT. THIS IS OVER 25,000 WORDS; HOLY SHIT-- *dies*

BEGINNING NOTES: ⚠️Please read these, they are important⚠️

➖➖➖ ⧳ It is EXTREMELY encouraged to read the “General Headcanons” before reading this story; it helps things make more sense. Otherwise, you get lost and/or confused. VERGIL IS WEARING HIS DEFAULT OUTFIT FROM DMC 5 NOT THE DEVIL HUNTER ONE; he does have V’s tattoos though. ⧲Universe typical violence: Blood, guts, gore, (mentioned) throwing up, bruising, broken bones, etc. ⧳Talk of the reader eating raw meat (idk if I need to warn about that or not, rather be safe than sorry) ⧲Talk about abuse/manipulation/torture from Argosax towards the reader; it is not super in-depth, however, it is mentioned and talked about the reader basically having Stockholm syndrome. ⧳Switches between 2nd and 3rd person; I tried to make it seamless but it is a little rough. ➖➖➖ ⧲ G/N Reader & Sparda family; the reader is the younger sibling to Dante and Vergil, making you Nero’s “Pibling” (which is the G/N term for aunt/uncle) ⧳The reader is a year younger than the twins; born in the fall. ⧲Little less ambiguous than I typically try to write. I needed to have something to work on for the reader’s personality and stuff, so sorry if it doesn’t line up with you per se--I tried lmao ➖➖➖ ⧲Sparda is a soft old man--just let me have this. ⧳Vergil has emotional outbursts because of what happened with V/Urizen. ⧲Dante’s amulet is silver and Vergil’s is bronze; I’m using DMC3 as canon colors, not DMC1. ⧳Since you are a part of the Sparda family, you are in the painting from the mantel. You’re placed front right--the observer’s right--next to Sparda. ⧲I know the reader wouldn’t get over things so quickly, but (again) just let me have this. ⧳MINOR SPOILER: The Sparda when you are younger is not “Force Edge” because the proper owner, who at the time was Sparda, has control of it. So when everything happens and you don’t have your sword, it goes into its dormant state, which it then has to be forced out of (or it would’ve had to reunite with you.). ➖➖➖ ⧲I don’t personally have a good relationship with my sibling; in fact, I don’t consider them to be my sibling. So, I don’t know how siblings interact. ⧳I also didn’t have much of a relationship with either of my parents until I was in high school (because I live in America where parents are worked to death and their kids never get to see them). ⧲I ALSO have the ‘tism so I don’t know how kids typically act. ➖➖➖ (I will remove this section once I get my Argo/Mundus H/Cs out) ⧳Argosax’s personality (or lack thereof) has been scrapped. I think them being a psychopath (in the medical sense) makes for a much better character. Argosax can easily convince others to follow their orders--opposite Mundus who does everything through force. ⧳Bolverk has been retconned to be Argo’s bodyguard/general (basically Argosax’s Nelo Angelo but willingly or Pre-woke Sparda). ⧲Argo’s stronger than Mundus, but Mundus’s army is more substantial than Argo’s.

THE ENDING IS NOT PROOFREAD, I JUST WANTED TO UPLOAD THIS (I’ll come back and fix it up later.)

STORY START:

“Shhhhh--” Eva weakly reached out for the crying child that was in the midwife’s arms, “It’s alright."

After a few minutes of her rocking the new child, the room fell completely silent. Despite how joyful Eva should feel, she couldn’t help but stare somberly at her newborn.

A quiet creak came from the door as a large platinum-haired devil entered. It was her husband and the child’s father, Sparda. His typically brash loud voice was beyond soft and gentle as he slowly shut the door behind him, “Eva?”

Her eyes flicked up to him before they returned down to their newest baby.

Sparda moved into the room, standing next to the bed with a dejected look on his brow, “Their… condition has not gotten any better I take it?”

Eva gave a small slow side-glance to her husband; giving him his answer.

A loud slam caught everyone’s attention. The door that Sparda had gently shut was now wide open; so much so, that the knob was digging into the wall behind it. In the frame of the door were the couple’s first children, Vergil and Dante. Before anyone responded to their sudden appearance, they bolted into the room.

Dante squealed in excitement, “See! I told you, Verge!” The two were intercepted by Sparda, who picked them both up by their shirt collars.

“Why are you out of bed? I thought I told you to stay in your room,” Sparda’s voice was sharp but still quiet, not wanting to upset Eva or wake the baby.

Vergil pouted, “But--”

“It is alright, Love,” Eva’s voice was soft as she gave a meek smile, “If they can behave then they may stay for a moment.” Although it pained her to admit it, she knew that this might be the only chance for the twins to see the baby alive.

Sparda hesitated before releasing the boys. As quickly and quietly as they could, they ran to the edges of the bed. Sparda waltzed over and held up Vergil while the midwife held Dante.

After a minute or two, Vergil spoke as he tilted his head in confusion, “Why does it look like that?”

“Vergil!” Sparda growled at his son.

Eva sighed and looked down to watch the sleeping newborn as it wiggled slightly, “They are unwell,” her voice cracked as she spoke.

Dante smiled, not understanding what she meant, “Well, when are they gonna be better? I want to play with them!”

Eva swallowed audibly and gave a pained smile, “Soon, hopefully…”

Days turned to weeks, weeks to months, and soon it had been a year since the child had been born. Despite all the odds, it continued to live. There were of course several days and nights spent watching with great concern, but the child always managed to pull through. Sparda had begun to equate it as the “runt” of the “litter” and referred to them as such. It wasn’t meant with ill intent, however, Eva wasn’t exactly fond of it, but the name wasn’t far off from the truth.

Unlike the twins, their third child’s development was closer to that of a human; both physically and mentally. Not a single glimpse of a sign of having any devilish heritage or urges had been seen. In stark contrast to the two older children who, at this age, were nearly burning down the house whenever they threw a tantrum or didn’t get their way. This child was rather amicable, putting up little to no fuss; never even throwing a tantrum to begin with. Which would reflect the way the child would deal with things later in life; the way you would deal with things later in life.

When you turned two, your “slow” development sparked a very important conversation between Eva and Sparda; how should they raise you? At this rate, you wouldn’t be able to start learning things until you were of the correct human age, unlike the twins who were only three and learning at a second-grade level.

You had also shown a severe, borderline unhealthy, attachment to Eva and were very afraid of Sparda. He hadn't done anything that would cause you to be so terrified. Admittedly, he was a little hurt that his child won't let him anywhere near them. The couple figured that perhaps it is because you seemed to be more “human-like” that it caused you to inherently fear devils and demons.

After many long discussions and some mild arguments, it was decided that you would be raised like a human. That you would attend human schools and human activities. To be treated as such just in general life around the house and town--which meant no training or lessons from Sparda. Once they laid out what they were going to do, the twins were informed of the decision; which was rather important, since the pair were already trying to get you to tussle or adventure with them.

Vergil and Dante were confused about their parents' choice; why were you going to be treated so differently? Sure, you weren’t exactly like them but you had the capability to play alongside them. This was dismissed by both of your parents, as they insisted that you weren’t like the twins--that this is how it has to be. However, when your parents weren’t looking; your brothers taught you what they could. Vergil taught you basic reading and math while Dante taught you more hands-on things, refining your motor skills.

When you turned six, the twins decided to teach you things that Sparda had taught them. Dante taught you more hand-to-hand based things while Vergil taught you about proper weapon usage. You did well, much better than the twins were expecting after what they heard. If your Father or Mother won’t teach you then they feel that it was their responsibility, as your older siblings, to do so.

One night after everyone was in bed, the silver-haired twins unintentionally eavesdropped on a conversation about your upcoming seventh birthday. Underneath their bedroom was a large library that Sparda often visited late at night, however, it seems that Eva decided to join him. Currently, they were lightly arguing about what they were going to give you.

You were already past the age that Sparda gave the twins the heirlooms from his side, which the bronze devil wasn't exactly thrilled about. Sparda continued to insist upon giving you a weapon because, “--even if you were to be raised human, you are still his kin; devils and demons alike will want, and try, to kill you.”

Eva, however, was well within her right to be concerned. You still weren’t showing any signs of demonic heritage and most of Sparda’s gear is too heavy for you to lift or use. Besides, "If something were to happen, Dante and Vergil will be there to protect you.” All she wanted was for you to be raised a normal human child which doesn’t include demonic weapons; especially the one that Sparda was talking about. Before the twins could hear the verdict of the conversation, they both fell fast asleep.

Time seemed to fly over the next few months and it was finally your birthday. Although none of you knew it, this would be the last of your birthdays that you spent with your entire family.

“Tag!” Dante’s index finger jabbed your shoulder as he pivoted around, sprinting through the leaves.

“Hey!!” You ran after him, stumbling a bit; however, you continued nipping at the red devil’s heels.

“Tch,” Vergil sat on the porch stoop. He looked up from his book, raising a sharp brow at the two of you, “How childish--!”

A wide toothy grin decorated your face as you poked his shoulder, “Tag! You’re it!” Then you took off, high-fiving Dante in the process.

He stared for a moment, deciding if he was going to participate; since it was your birthday, he decided to swallow his pride and play along. With a heavy sigh, Vergil shut his book with a loud thump and placed it inside the front door. A small happy smile unknowingly tugged at his lips as he shook his head, taking off after the two of you.

The three of you darted throughout the yard as Sparda watched from the window.

“Our Runt is keeping up well with the twins,” Sparda turned to his wife who had just finished placing dinner in the oven, “Perhaps we are wrong to assume--”

“Sparda,” Eva sighed, “The boys are probably holding back so they can play together.”

He opened his mouth but decided to keep it to himself. His lips turned to a thin line as he turned back to watch.

“You’re it,” Vergil’s voice was monotone as he tapped your shoulder.

You let out a surprised sputter, “How?!”

Both Dante and you stopped as you stared at the eldest sibling.

“What?” Vergil tilted his head to the side and folded his arms.

Dante smiled and laughed, “Since when can you do that?”

Vergil’s brow furrowed in confusion, “What?” In a cocky manner, he teleported to right in front of the two of you, leaning forwards, “Surprised?”

The two of you nodded before you reached out slowly and poked him, “Tag.”

Vergil’s eyes went wide, “Wha..?”

Dante busted out into loud laughter with tears springing to his eyes.

Vergil frowned in irritation and aggressively “tapped” Dante on the head, “Tag.”

The three of you resumed your scampering (and teleporting in Vergil’s case) around the yard, slipping and falling in the leaves several times. Despite what your parents thought, the twins never held back or handicapped themselves to play with you. They were just as rough and fast with you as they are with each other… Well, maybe not as rough but definitely as fast. The game finally ended when Dante fell face-first into a large muddy section of the lawn, taking an unintended mud bath.

The three of you came back inside. You all left your muddy dirty clothes and boots by the door and made your way to the kitchen. Dante ran in to give both your parents a hug but was promptly stopped by Eva sticking out her hand to stop him.

“Dante,” Eva let out a small laugh, “What happened to you?”

“I fell,” Dante gave her a wide goofy smile.

“You need to get washed up,” she shook her head and patted his mud-encrusted hair softly, “Definitely your Father’s child.”

Before Sparda could question his wife, she walked off with Dante. Then he turned his attention to his remaining children.

The two of you sat next to one another on the living room couch. Vergil had grabbed the book that he was reading outside earlier and had picked up where he left off. This wasn’t uncommon for Sparda’s eldest to immediately jump back into whatever literature he was reading before being interrupted. However, this time was different, this time he was reading aloud.

“ ‘Here alone I in books formd of metals/Have written the secrets of wisdom/The secrets of dark contemplation/By fightings and conflicts dire,/With terrible monsters Sin-bred:/Which the bosoms of all inhabit;/Seven deadly Sins of the soul.’.”

“Vergil?” Your voice was soft, not wanting to upset him by interrupting.

“Hm?” He watched you point to a drawing next to the poem.

“Who’s that?”

“The author’s rendition of what they think Urizen might look like. Urizen is the subject of this section of poems,” Vergil felt something on his shoulder and looked over. Only to find that you had leaned against his arm and were nodding at his answer.

The eldest continued through the collection of poems as you intently listened along; telling you the tale of Urizen.

“Vergil?”

“Hm?”

“Is Egypt a real place?”

Vergil laughed quietly, “Yes, it is quite far away. Maybe someday we can visit there together.”

“I’d like that,” you smiled, “We could read this again there, too!”

“Sure, if that is what you wish.”

You nodded vigorously, excited at the idea of traveling the world with your brothers--especially if you get to hear Vergil read more.

Vergil leaned his head atop yours and waited a moment before whispering, “Hey…”

“Hm?”

“I…” Vergil’s brow furrowed as he thought for a moment, he sighed, “I’m glad you are still alive.”

If you hadn't known about your odd illness as a baby, this comment would've seemed rather menacing. However, you were well aware of how sick you were and knew he was trying to be nice.

Your voice was loud and laced with an overflowing, almost sickly, amount of love, “I’m glad too!” You removed yourself from his shoulder and yanked his head down to yours, kissing him on the cheek, “I love you lots, Vergie.”

He stared at you for a moment before sheepishly looking away, “I love you too.”

The loud pitter-patter of running footsteps, made Vergil lightly push you away. Suddenly there was another sibling on your other side, jumping onto the couch with a bounce.

“What are you doin’?” Dante had his signature smile across his face.

“Nothing,” Vergil answered before you could.

“Aw, were you two waiting for me~~” Dante’s voice was laced with a knowing smugness.

“I was!” You chimed in, managing to beat Vergil to the punch.

Dante grabbed you and gave you an aggressive noogie.

“Dante,” Sparda folded his arms and raised his brow.

He stopped, “Sorry..!”

You grabbed him and did the same, ruffling up his just brushed and cleaned hair.

“I don’t know how you three still have so much energy,” Eva shook her head as she entered the room.

Vergil looked up from his book, confused about why he was grouped with you two.

“Now,” she gently placed two boxes on the coffee table, “Would you like to open your gifts?”

You looked up at her in confusion, releasing Dante from your grasp, “Gifts? … Oh! Yeah!” In all your fun, you had forgotten that it was your birthday.

Eva laughed softly before handing you the first box. It was heavy-ish and rectangular. The wrapping on it was crude and chaotic, with enough tape on it that it may as well have been wrapped in tape instead. In complete contrast to an intricately and well-tied ribbon surrounding the outside of it. A warm smile spread across your face, knowing immediately who this was from; Dante and Vergil.

The twins watched intently as you carefully undid the ribbon and the seventy layers of patchwork gift wrap. Your smile faded upon seeing what it was, but not in a bad way; no, rather, you were taken aback. It was a photo album.

You ran your fingers delicately across the cover which had a family photo of all five of you together. Underneath it, there was a small note neatly written in calligraphy, “ ‘Pretty joy!/Sweet joy, but two days old./Sweet Joy I call thee:/Thou dost smile,/I sing the while;/Sweet joy befall thee!’ Infant Joy; William Blake.”

A small bittersweet feeling tugged at your heart as you gingerly opened the scrapbook. Inside there were dozens upon dozens of photos, drawings, newspaper clippings, stickers, and other miscellaneous things. Most of them had dates or small snippets of information next to them, explaining why they were placed there.

Dante whispered to you as you flipped through the book, “You know, it was Verge’s idea to make this for ya--been workin’ on it since you were born,” his voice was playful and, yet, had a sense of pride to it. Of course, this was a teasing remark in an attempt to rile Vergil up, but you knew that deep down Dante was glad that he listened to his twin for once.

You tilted your head in curiosity, halfway through the book the pages became blank, “Why are these empty?”

Vergil huffed contently, “It is so you can fill out the rest as you grow up.”

With a small hum you turned to give him a wide close-eyed smile, “As we grow up,” you corrected him and looked back down at the gift, “Thank you both. I love it; almost as much as I love you! I'll cherish this forever.”

Eva and Sparda shared a small laugh at your enthusiasm over, what the twins’ would’ve considered, such a "boring" gift.

With overly cautious gentleness, you set the heavy book down on the coffee table in front of you. Eva then handed you the second, and last, box. It was a small square box with rounded edges. The wrapping on it was excellent and it had a small bow wrapped around it; it was from your Mother, Eva.

You quickly ripped through the wrapping and stared at the uncovered item. The box was a black velvet color and was unlike any other box you’d seen. Upon opening it, you (and your brothers) raised a curious brow at the contents. Inside, there was a well-taken-care-of palladium chain that had a sapphire pendant; one that is similar but much smaller than the twins’ (not yet received) necklaces.

“That necklace,” Eva started in, catching your attention, “has been in my family for several generations and now I'm entrusting it to you,” she smiled, “I know you’ll take good care of it.”

You got up and went to hug her, squeezing her tightly.

“Happy birthday, sweetheart,” she placed a small kiss on your cheek.

As she helped you put the necklace on, the twins noticed that Father had left the room. Before they could question it, however, he returned.

“Runt,” Sparda smiled widely, “Can you close your eyes and come here?”

“Sure!” You did as he asked, guided towards him by your Mother.

Sparda knelt in front of you, “You may reopen them.”

You stared in confusion and furrowed your brow, “Huh?”

Held between his hands was a large, over six-foot-long, blade. His right hand was on the grip of the sword and his left hand was grasping the back edge on the other end, “Happy Birthday.”

“What!” Dante shot up from the couch, “Not fair!”

“Dante!” Vergil elbowed Dante in the gut, making the red devil sit back down.

You turned back to look at your brothers before your Father spoke again, “Although you may not have a use for it now, I thought it best that you get the same treatment as your brothers.”

“What is it?”

Sparda looked at you with parted lips before they curled into a smile as he laughed, “It is--or, rather, will be--your sword. Just as Vergil and Dante have Yamato and Rebellion; you will have The Devil Sword Sparda.”

A nervous shake found its way to your hands as you reached out and placed your hands on the flat side of the blade. Admittedly the weapon was rather intimidating; I mean, Father doesn’t expect you to be able to lift that, right?

“Dad?” You meekly looked up at him.

“Hm?”

“Why is it named that?”

Another laugh emanated from the large devil, “Because it is my sword.”

“Weren’t Yamato and Rebellion yours too?”

“Rebellion and Yamato, were mine yes. However,” he looked down at the sword, “this is my pride and joy, the one that I still use.”

“Then why aren’t you keeping it?”

“Because,” he took one of his hands and patted the top of your head, “Someday you’ll need a sword too and I believe this one suited you best.”

“Oh,” you nodded and smiled at him, “Can- Can I ask one more thing?”

“Sure, I don’t see why not.”

Your fingers moved closer to the spine of the sword, making you cringe slightly at the fleshy feeling, “Why is this one so… scary looking?”

Eva laughed this time, even letting out a small snort of surprise at the odd question.

“I…” Sparda had a baffled look as he stared at you, “Are you asking why it has organic material?”

Once more, you nodded and gently grabbed one of the bony spines.

“Because,” he pursed his lips in thought, “Because it is most closely related to me and I come from a place that has a lot of organic materials like this.”

“You’re home..?” Neither you nor the twins knew much about your Father’s past, only bits and pieces, and you had always wanted to learn more about the strange man, “Can we visit there someday?”

Sparda shook his head ‘no’, “It isn’t a place that I want any of you to see, it is…” he pursed his lips, not knowing exactly how to explain things without frightening you, “it is not a nice place…”

“Oh…” You pushed down on the blue-grey scales, “Then how are you from there?”

“Par-Pardon?”

“You’re really nice and kind to everyone,” you pushed down on the large emerald stone that was nestled in the scales, “So how are you from there if it isn’t a nice place?”

Sparda didn’t respond.

You looked up at your Father and saw that he was staring at you with an odd expression, “Dad?”

“Sparda,” Eva moved next to you and gently placed a hand on her husband’s shoulder, “Is something wrong?”

The room became uncomfortably quiet. Both twins were staring at the three of you and you had removed your hand from the sword, opting to hold Eva’s hand.

Without a word, Sparda got up and left, taking the sword with him.

“Did I say something wrong?” You looked up at your Mother.

“No, sweetheart. I'm not sure what that's about,” she looked down at you, placing a hand on your head with a small pat, “Why don’t the three of you go play for a while? I’ll come to get you for dinner and cake later, okay?”

Although you all were uneasy, the three of you went to the twin’s room to play for a while. Eva made her way to Sparda’s office and found him sitting at his desk, staring down at nothing in particular.

“Dear?” Eva’s voice was soft as she entered the room, shutting it behind her, “What’s wrong?”

The large man looked up at his wife, “It is nothing.”

She moved further into the room and stood beside him, placing a hand on his shoulder, “I wasn’t born yesterday, something’s wrong.”

“It’s just,” Sparda removed his monocle and pinched the bridge of his nose with a sigh, pushing the corners of his eyes, “that they used to run and hide when I’d enter a room and then to tell me that…”

Eva gently ran her fingers through his hair and had a sad smile tugging at her lips, “They have come a long way. Is that why you are upset?”

His voice cracked a bit, “I know that it is rather stupid but it makes me sad…” he let out a wet huff of a laugh, “I never thought I’d have a family let alone,” his shoulders tensed as he leaned forwards, removing his fingers from his face, “let alone have children who see me as a good and kind man.”

The petite woman watched as Sparda let out a shuddering breath and placed his elbows on his desk as he pressed his palms into his eyes; doing his best to suppress his emotions.

“After everything I’ve done,” Sparda’s voice was quiet, shameful, “that I did…”

“Sparda…” Eva’s fingers tightened on his shoulder.

He looked up at his wife, tears welling up in his eyes, “Have I truly earned such words?”

The blonde woman held her husband close, doing her best to comfort him, "A thousand times over, my love."

They sat together for what seemed like a lifetime, intertwined within each other's arms. Neither you nor the twins were told about what happened; rather, everyone acted as if nothing odd happened in the first place. However, Sparda made sure that he tucked you in that night, gave you a hug and kiss, and told you that he loves you. A memory that you'd never forget.

Over the next year or so, you began to flourish more and more. The twins were able to outright treat you the same as they do each other without having to worry about your parents getting as upset. Along with that, the townsfolk that saw you three thought that you were a set of triplets; even though you didn’t look like your older brothers. The three of you did everything together; sparred, played, ate, slept--you were inseparable.

“That’s not fair!” You pouted as you lay on the ground, face up, “You promised you wouldn’t do that!”

Dante and you had been sparring, while Vergil was on the lookout in case your parents showed up.

The younger twin laughed a bit and offered you a hand, helping you up, “Sorry, I didn’t mean to.”

Recently, he had developed a new ability, one which he called “Royal Guard” and he just absolutely blasted you with it.

“You alright?” Before you could respond, Dante gently moved your head to the side, “Uh-- Hey Verge,” he looked over to his blue brother, “Can you come ‘ere?”

“What?” Vergil raised a brow and noticed what Dante was looking at, “Really, Dante?”

The red twin removed his hand from you, only to have Vergil replace his hold on your face. You pouted a bit in confusion, “What? Is something wrong?”

“Yes,” Vergil glared at his twin as he removed his hand, allowing you to turn back them, “Dante managed to leave a large bruise across your neck.”

“What if I said I fell..?” You tilted your head to the side and watched Vergil think.

“That might work, however--”

A loud crash and an even louder yelp from you caught the twins off guard. You were currently pinned face down underneath something really really heavy and were unable to move. Dante being Dante started to panic and sprinted off to find Mother; only to have Vergil chase after him and try to stop him--leaving you completely alone. Admittedly, things could be worse--you could’ve been blasted by Dante’s new godforsaken ability again; however, you weren’t exactly thrilled at the moment.

Every muscle and tendon in your body felt as if it were on fire as you pushed up. A loud shouting cry left your lips as you finally push whatever it was off of you--at least enough that you could worm your way out.

Your brow furrowed, “What..?” In front of you was the behemoth of a weapon, The Devil Sword Sparda.

Carefully, you ran your fingers along the flat part right by the sharp edge of the blade. You hadn’t been allowed to see it (let alone touch it) since it was gifted to you. Mindlessly, you grabbed the handle and tugged a bit. Sure, it was heavy when it was on top of you. But now? It felt like you could lift it. Before you were able to test it out, your Mother and brothers were right next to you.

“How did you get this?” Eva’s voice was stern but had a very light trace of fear pricking at the edges.

“I-” you shook your head and looked at her, “I didn’t-- I mean, I don’t know how--”

“It just appeared out of nowhere!” Dante chimed in, which Vergil then socked him in the arm; mumbling about how Eva wasn’t talking to him.

Her lips parted as if she were going to say something, but she said nothing. After a minute or so of silence, Eva cleared her throat, “We need to put this back in your Father’s office. Can you… lift it?”

You moved to the end of the blade and picked up. Seeing that you weren’t quite able to fully pick it up, Vergil and Dante helped; which was enough to lift the gigantic blade. The three of you, guided by your Mother, carried it to Sparda’s office and placed it on the floor of the room.

The incident was never brought up again.

A few weeks following, Dante and Vergil had their eighth birthday. It was an absolute blast as far as you were concerned. The three of you went ice skating, had a snowball fight, and then made snowmen; it was the most “human” fun you’d ever had as a family. When it came time for presents, Eva gifted them two semi-matching ruby amulets; the only difference was that Dante’s was silver while Vergil’s was bronze.

However, Vergil and Dante asked a question that had been on your mind as well, “Where’s Dad?”

Eva simply brushed it off saying, “He’s away with work right now; he’ll be home any day now.”

Looking back on it now, you know Eva was fully aware of your father's death and was just sparing the three of you from the painful terrifying news.

Things were fine for a while; the three of you continued to learn at home with Eva as your teacher and trained as a trio, waiting for Sparda to return.

It was late spring the last time you saw your Mother.

Her, Dante, and you were inside baking cookies together; while Vergil was outside playing--since he didn’t care for cooking.

“Can one of you go get Vergil? I’d like him to come in and help decorate these,” Eva smiled warmly.

Before Dante could even process what was said, you sprung up from your chair with a shout, “I’ll get him!!” and then sprinted out the door.

One moment, you were happily sprinting through the house thinking about what color frosting you wanted to use; and the next, you were engulfed in flames. Your eyes widened with horror as you gazed upon horrific monsters that you’d never seen and, quite frankly, never wanted to see again.

The front door was closer to you than running back to the kitchen, so you continued forwards and did your best to avoid both falling bits of building and whatever these creatures were.

“I just have to reach Vergil. He can protect me,” you repeated this thought to yourself as you sprinted as fast as you could. A half-choked sob left your lips as you felt your chest being to tighten from the smoke. In the end, your struggle was all in vain; you never made it down the hallway, let alone to Vergil.

The twin’s swords clashed as they darted around each other; enjoying their long-awaited reunion. Vergil hit Dante square in the gut and made him fly back several feet, leaving the red devil belly up and laughing heartily.

After a minute or two, Dante sat up with a small content sigh, “So… Not that this isn’t fun but, you got a plan to get us out of this place, Verge?”

The eldest twin straightened his coat and looked at his brother, “I do.”

“Well,” the red devil stood and cracked his back, “Why didn’t you say so.”

“As you said…” Vergil avoided Dante’s eyes, “you were enjoying yourself.”

“And here I thought you were all work, no play.”

Vergil glared at Dante for a moment then stood with his eyes closed, listening.

“So, now-”

“Silence-” Vergil’s face scrunched as he focused harder, before gesturing off to his left, “That way.”

“O-okay..?” Dante followed his brother, “So, what was that about?”

“Yamato can only create a portal at the highest points of the Underworld-”

“Where would we be closest to the human realm..?”

“Exactly.”

“That doesn’t explain the weird thing you just did.”

“I had to locate such a spot,” Vergil’s tone was flat, not wanting to have to explain the specifics; especially since Dante knows what he's talking about.

“Ah, gotcha,” No, Dante didn’t have a goddamn clue as to what the fuck his brother meant.

The two of them walked for what seemed like forever, only stopping to fight miscellaneous hordes of demons. Although it was unintentional at first, they used this time to talk about many difficult topics; starting from the freshest things and working their way back. Vergil’s mind was still a scrambled mess which caused him to have a rather difficult time recalling things the further back they went, so it took longer and longer with each topic.

Despite that small hiccup, they reached back to where this all truly began. Admittedly, neither of them wanted to talk about it but it was important--and it’s not like they had much else to do anyway.

Dante went first and explained what happened; how Eva hid him away and left to find Vergil, her then dying in the process.

The blue devil raised a brow at Dante’s words which didn’t go unnoticed by the red devil, “What?”

“Nothing.”

“No,” Dante shook his head, “No, we talked about this; we agreed to be upfront with each other,” at this point, the red devil sounded more akin to a parent scolding a child rather than a concerned sibling; because of how much he had to strong-arm his brother into talking.

The eldest moved his jaw side to side in thought before speaking, “Last you told me, you portrayed a very different tale.”

“Oh yeah? What did I say?”

Vergil’s response was beyond quiet and Dante was unable to make out what was said.

“Verge,” Dante carefully placed a hand on his twin’s shoulder.

The blue devil flinched from the action before stiffening his entire body, “You heavily insinuated that Mother did not care for me; that she had no intent to…” He clenched his jaw and broke from Dante’s stare.

Dante’s expression fell, “I know and… I’m sorry,” Vergil glared at Dante from the corner of his eyes, “but, if I’m honest, I was just doing that to piss you off,” he sighed softly, “It made it easier for me to fight you, because-- because if I refused to admit that I cared about you then I didn’t feel as bad about the whole thing... About fighting you…”

“Tch,” Vergil slicked his hair back, an action that Dante noted Vergil did when uncomfortable, “I doubt you needed extra reinforcement with that; you seemed to be just fine with fighting me.”

“Hey,” Dante grabbed Vergil’s shoulder, forcing him to turn to him, “You listen here,” he firmly grasped both of Vergil’s shoulders, much to the eldest’s discomfort, “I never wanted things to end like that. I never thought that you’d-- that we’d--” Dante let out an aggravated sigh as he unintentionally tightened his grip, “Don’t you think for a fucking second that I wanted to lose you or hurt you like that Vergil.”

The blue devil did his best to avoid Dante’s eyes.

“You are my brother, even if you did some stupid shit,” Vergil’s eyes snapped right back to his brother upon hearing that, “I mean, I did stupid shit too; but, I never thought things would turn out as they did.”

Vergil sighed softly, “You are a fool.”

“What’s that supposed to--” Dante let out a surprised ‘oof’.

Vergil had pulled his brother into a hug, albeit a rather aggressive one but it was still a hug.

Neither of them spoke, they just stood there for a moment; holding one another. However nice things can never last as they became engulfed by another swarm of demons. It didn’t take long for the twins to have the large horde taken care of and they were back on the road.

After some time, Vergil decided to give his side of what happened. How he was attacked and experienced his first Trigger; how it tore his body apart and he nearly died by doing so. Only to run as far away as possible, thinking that “-both Eva and Dante were dead.”

Dante’s brow twitched at his twin’s words, or rather, lack thereof, “Hey, uh, Vergil?” Dante’s voice was uncharacteristically quiet.

“Hm?”

“Aren’t you missing someone?”

With a confused shake and furrow of his brow, Vergil stopped walking and turned to Dante, “No, Father was gone by then.”

Dante’s lips parted slightly as he looked with great concern, “Are you sure?”

Vergil raised a brow, “What are you on about?”

“Verge…” Dante swallowed hard and placed a hand on the back of his neck, “We had a little sibling that you completely neglected to mention…”

Vergil squinted, “What..?”

“Holy shit,” the red devil’s shoulders, and overall posture, dipped with sadness “You really forgot?”

“If this is your attempt at a joke, I do not find it funny.”

“I’m serious Vergil,” Dante shook his head as he continued, “They were like a year younger than us--were super sick when they were born, which you very bluntly pointed out,” the red devil desperately looked for any sign of recognition in his brother’s face, “Father wouldn’t train them because Mom wanted them to be raised like a human-- Anything ringing a bell?” Dante stared at Vergil.

“I…” Vergil’s jaw moved in thought, “I don’t know…” Before Dante could speak, Vergil put a hand up, “Just give me a little bit.”

“Sure,” after which Dante just continued to ramble about things that the three of you did as kids or random information about you.

“Did we… make them a book..? Vergil scrunched his face in confusion at, what he thought, was a stupid suggestion.

The younger twin’s head nodded quickly, “Yeah that’s right.”

Vergil’s brow twitched as he tried to remember more, “I believe I used to… read to them?”

Once more, Dante nodded, “You did.”

“I see…” the older twin’s expression was rather forlorn compared to normal, “You will have to forgive my confusion, everything is still a bit foggy.”

The twins continued forward for another few minutes before Dante piped up again.

“So, you didn’t see them during the fire then..?” Dante pursed his lips, “I never was able to figure if they…” Dante gestured at nothing in particular, “Ya know.”

The blue devil sighed, “As much as I’d like to think otherwise; if you haven’t heard from them, then they are most likely dead.”

The younger twin nodded, “I figured-- I mean,” he sighed heavily, “I had hoped that maybe you’d seen or heard about ‘em when you were under… well, ya know-- Prince Dickwad’s control.”

Vergil let out a small laugh before freezing at his own reaction. After a moment, he recomposed himself with a nod and returned to his monotone self, “No. I don’t believe I did, anyway…”

The red devil nodded and swallowed his emotions.

Admittedly, Dante had hoped that Vergil would’ve known something about what happened to you. Hoped that, maybe, you had reached the older twin before everything happened; but that was wishful thinking. After all, you were treated like a human, it only made sense that you would have died like one as well.

They continued forwards in silence for what seemed like an eternity. Vergil was mulling over his memories; admittedly, he was rather perturbed that he didn’t recall you until Dante reminded him. In hindsight, perhaps splitting himself using Yamato did more damage to himself than he had originally anticipated. However, that was for him to worry about at some other point; if at all.

Dante, on the other hand, was doing his best to come to terms with everything. He had been living with the false hope of you still being alive. The only thing that was running through his mind was how he almost lost both siblings. Thankfully, Vergil was still with him; which, admittedly, only added to the fear of losing his brother again.

A small discontented huff from Vergil caught Dante’s attention. Before he could ask his brother what was up, Dante saw what Vergil was staring at. In front of them was a large desolate building that absolutely reeked of gore--worse than they’d encountered thus far.

“So, let me guess,” Dante half-ass pointed at the sight before them, “That’s where we need to go, huh?”

“It would appear that way,” Vergil took a deep breath. The blue devil wasn’t exactly thrilled about having to set foot in a structure like this; one so similar to the ones from all those years ago.

Dante noticed his brother’s apprehension, “You gonna be alright?”

“I’ll be fine!” Vergil’s answer was much snappier than intended. Before moving forwards, Vergil mumbled to himself, “It is only a building, it isn’t that big of a deal.”

Before Dante could try and comfort his brother, Vergil was nearly at the entrance. The two cautiously pushed the heavy doors open. The outpost had seen better days, that much was apparent; with every step forward Dante felt as if the pair were going to go straight through the floor--or worse, the building would collapse atop them. Despite the abhorrent smell of death and fresh kills, there wasn’t a body to be found--not even a single drop of blood.

While they made their way up the stairs, Vergil began to take note of how eerily quiet it was. Hell is far from a quiet place, constantly having the sounds of demons screeching and other miscellaneous sounds; here, however, you could hear a pin drop from five rooms away. It made him feel uneasy, only adding to how on edge he was.

Dante had also noticed and began to mindlessly whistle to himself. The unexpected noise made Vergil flinch heavily. The red devil stopped for a moment, waiting for Vergil to say something. After a few moments with no response, Dante continued to fill the silence with any sort of noise he could, unknowingly providing a little comfort to the eldest twin. As the pair ventured onwards and upwards, they both began to look around in a paranoid manner; awaiting the inevitable ambush.

Dante decided to make small talk, “So… can I ask somethin’?” He looked over to his brother who was standing in front of a large decrepit, nearly shattered, mirror.

“Hm?” Vergil’s eyes didn’t leave his reflection.

“Is this, like, one of Mundus’s outposts?”

Vergil shook his head and tilted his head to the side toward Dante, however, the eldest’s eyes never left the glass. He ghosted his fingers along the surface, “No--not his territory.”

“Then who--”

“Argosax… and this isn’t an outpost,” Vergil huffed and turned his full attention to his sibling, “This is, or was, one of their main strongholds; this one, in particular, is only a step below the main fortress”

“You don’t say…”

Vergil raised a brow at Dante’s odd reaction, “Don’t tell me you have forgotten about Argosax? After all, you are the one that killed them.”

“Eh,” the red devil shrugged, “Can’t say I remember ‘em much--they were pretty boring. Plus Argo didn’t put up much of a fight.”

The blue devil scoffed and continued forwards, Dante following a few paces behind, “Perhaps we are the only two people that would consider fighting a ruler of Hell an easy feat--no?”

“You got that right,” Dante playfully shoved Vergil’s shoulder and had a sheathed Yamato placed right against his throat for it, “Whoa--” he put his hands up with his palms facing Vergil, “easy there tiger.”

The eldest twin coldly eyed his brother for a moment before he took a slow deep breath and removed the sword, turning back around and continuing forwards.

“Sorry, I uh,” Dante jogged lightly and stood beside his twin, “I didn’t mean to upset you.”

Vergil didn’t answer but just kept walking.

Dante pursed his lips and stuck his hands in his jeans pockets. He wanted to say something, to continue talking, but it seemed like Vergil was done conversating for the time being.

Another set of stairs later, the twins came upon a large long hallway. Random bits of broken furniture and glass decorated the filthy marbled floors. The partially dilapidated ceiling was elegantly decorated with arch supports that had lavish latticework; which had large roots weaved within, destroying some of it. The walls had old craters that ranged from being small--almost fist-sized--dents to entire walls missing. Along the way, the walls were also filled with easily over a dozen doors; some were open, some were barricaded shut, and others were far from the hinges that they belonged to.

“This place seems much more refined than everywhere else,” Dante tilted his head to the side.

Vergil nodded mockingly, “Yes, very good; I’m glad that you can still see.”

“Hey,” Dante punched Vergil’s shoulder, “I just meant; like--Why is it nicer?”

The blue devil hummed in thought for a moment, crouching to get a better look at one of the large shards of glass, “I’m not sure; but, if I had to guess,” Vergil carefully picked up the piece, moving it around and watching the reflection, “These were the living quarters for whatever devil’s served Argosax.”

Dante made a surprised huff, “Really? I didn’t think that devils were into that whole thing,” he approached one of the normal-looking doors, “Figure they would be too focused on destruction and killing things,” he opened the door, but didn’t enter; opting to just stand in the doorframe.

The eldest twin raised a brow, placed the shard down, and walked over to his sibling, standing behind him, “What’s wrong?”

“I-” Dante stood with his mouth agape, a clear look of confusion across his brow, as he turned to Vergil, “You saw that, right?”

“What are you talking about, Dante?”

Dante looked back at the room, pausing a moment before speaking, “Nothing; guess I’m just tired.”

The youngest twin took a step into the room before being stopped by Vergil grabbing his shoulder, keeping him from moving further.

“Verge..?” Dante turned to his brother, who seemed paler than normal.

“Let’s keep moving,” Vergil’s voice had an odd shake to it and his fingers were tight enough that they were digging into Dante’s shoulder.

“S-sure..?” Dante turned and began to walk down the hall to the upward-climbing staircase, before finally asking, “What was that about?”

Vergil looked over to Dante but said nothing.

“Verge..?”

“Don’t worry about it,” Vergil looked back in front of them.

“Was that supposed to be comforting?”

“I didn’t think that I had to be.”

“What a wonderful older brother I have.”

Vergil glared at Dante before shaking his head with an eye roll.

The pair continued forwards, the feeling of unease only intensifying with each deserted story. Vergil stopped within the confines of one of the stairwells, “Dante,”

“Hm?”

Vergil looked around before looking at Dante, “Do you feel like we are missing something?”

“What?”

Vergil’s brow furrowed as he pursed his lips before turning his gaze back in front of them with a small shake, “Never mind.”

The two continued to the next floor. Once at the top of the stairs, Dante stopped and looked around, “Well, now that you mention it,” Vergil looked over to him, “I do feel kind of odd; like we shouldn’t be here.”

“Well… that’s a given; however,” the blue devil walked further, peaking inside different rooms, “that is not quite what I meant,” finally, Vergil seemed to find a room that fit whatever he was looking for, “Let’s rest here for a moment.”

“I uh-- okay..?” Dante walked into the room. Vergil followed suit, shutting and barricading the door with a nearby cot; piquing the red devil’s curiosity, “So what’s with the sudden break time, Verge?”

The blue twin looked around the room, “This one is safe.”

“Huh?”

Vergil sat on the edge of one of the dirty and tattered cots, “Sit.”

The younger twin hesitated a moment before sitting beside his brother, putting one leg up on the bed to sit facing his sibling.

“Do you recall how I first confronted you when under Mundus?” Vergil’s voice was soft as his eyes mindlessly stared at nothing in particular on the floor. His forearms were resting on his legs as he rapidly tapped his thumbs together--tapping one foot in the same fashion.

The red devil’s face contorted as he thought for a moment. Admittedly, Dante has a hard time recalling events from that time in his life. In the gap between Vergil’s fall and meeting Nero for the first time, Dante was beyond a depressed alcoholic mess leaving those memories a completely jumbled mess.

“Dante,” Vergil turned his head slightly, staring at his sibling from the corner of his eye, “Do you not remember?” Although his voice was still monotone as normal, there was a distant sadness to Vergil’s words.

“I do, kinda,” Dante’s shoulders fell as he placed a hand on the back of his neck, “everything from back then is kinda hazy--just give me a second.”

“I can just--”

“No-!” Dante’s voice was unintentionally stern. Quickly he added in a softer voice, “I want to-- I can remember, just give me a second.”

Vergil turned to fully stare at Dante; watching his brother’s contorted expressions as he was deep in thought. After a minute or so Dante’s face relaxed as he met Vergil’s eyes, “You used a mirror, right? Walked right out of it..?”

“That is correct--”

“Yeah, you were the first bastard that actually had some guts to give me a real fight…” Dante laughed, trying to lighten the mood a bit.

A small smirk ghosted Vergil’s face as he returned to stare at the same spot on the floor, “Surely you noticed the abnormally high amount of glass here, right?”

Dante shrugged, “I did notice but… uh- I got no idea what these places are supposed to look like; didn’t know it was weird.”

Vergil frowned slightly, “No devil is that obsessed with themselves that they’d have that much glass--it must have been placed on purpose.”

The younger twin’s brow lifted with confused curiosity, “So, you--or, well, Nelo--traveling using glass wasn’t some exclusive thing?”

Vergil shook his head ‘no’, “It is a skill that can be taught; however,” Vergil’s shoulders tensed as he turned to look up at the door, “it is extremely difficult to learn and even harder to master.”

“Vergil,” Dante sighed, “I don’t want to sound rude; but, what’s your point?”

The eldest twin sat upright and looked over at Dante, with a harsh squint and clear scowl, “I am saying someone or something is here with us; watching us.”

“Okay. Counterpoint,” Dante folded his arms with a raise of his brow, “What if those are all from someone who used to be here but left when Argosax died? Or are already dead?”

“You aren’t that stupid, Dante,” Vergil stood up, his grip tightening on Yamato, “I know you can feel it, too.”

“So what if they can do some fancy glass shit?” Dante stood up and cocked his head to the side, “We’ll just defeat them like everyone else.”

“In our current state,” Vergil sighed, “I’m not so sure…”

“Our current state?” Dante folded his arms, leaning back a bit, “What’s that supposed to mean..?”

The blue devil’s eyes slowly turned to stare at Dante, “Tell me, Dante; how long do you think you or I can hold our Devil Triggers? Or better yet, our Sin Triggers?”

Dante huffed, knowing that Vergil was right but not wanting to admit it.

Vergil continued, “Whatever or whoever this is, they aren’t to be taken lightly. Neither of us can take on something much more than Behemoths or Lusachias right now; so, it would be very unlikely that we could survive a fight with a real devil.”

After a minute, Dante let out a soft sigh, “Man,” Dante scratched his chin, “It’s that bad, huh?”

Vergil squinted, asking Dante to explain.

“I mean,” the younger twin moved his jaw in thought for a moment, “If you of all people aren’t confident about winning; then we really are fucked.”

“I-- I do not know if you are trying to insult me or not.”

The red devil laughed, placing a hand on his twin’s shoulder, “Let’s go find out who’s been spying on us; what do you say?”

Vergil shook his head with a quiet sigh and a small smile, “They are most likely at the top of the stronghold; where we are going.”

“The news just gets better and better,” Dante moved the cot from the door, “What’s next; you gonna tell me that they are immune to our swords or something?”

“Don’t jinx us, Dante.”

The younger twin laughed as they left the room, continuing onward and upwards. It only took two more staircases for them to reach the top.

Both twins pushed hard against the large double doors at the top of the steps, opening them just enough for the pair to slip by. They found themselves in a large waiting room of sorts. Directly across from them was another huge set of double doors.

The room was in an odd mixture of both good and poor condition; the room itself was relatively undamaged--no holes or what not, however, it was inundated with corpses and blood--which is what caused the rotten stench.

Marble flooring covered the space, which was so covered in filth and gore that it was impossible to tell what color it was intended to be. The walls were plain and relatively similar to the rest of the building; except for the one that housed the unopened doors. That particular wall was covered in rocks and miscellaneous gems. Which seemed rather out of place, as if someone had stuck them there after the wall was built.

Vergil’s eyes flicked up to the ceiling. Its base was covered in cracked grimy tinted glass which was broken up by several dome vaults. In each dome, there were different murals. As he looked harder, he realized that: A.) it was also not original and poorly done, and B.) the “paint” was demons' blood. The different murals were crude interpretations of different events, but he couldn’t quite make them out.

As Vergil tried to get a better view of the artwork, Dante was looking at the extravagant furniture and decor that littered the room. In the middle of the right side, there was a large stone table with several wooden chairs--a few of which were broken; both the table and chairs all seemed to be hand-carved, covered with various creatures and symbols. On the far left of the room was a large wood desk; that, once more, seemed to be hand-carved--it looked similar to Dante’s. This was enough to pique the red devil’s curiosity.

Dante sauntered over to the desk. Once he got closer, he noticed that there was an odd stack of thin paper-like items on it. Carefully, he moved the items around and tried to make out any of the scribbles.

“Hey Verge,” Dante turned over his shoulder, “Come take a look at this.”

Vergil slowly looked down from the ceiling and strutted over to his sibling.

“Does any of this mean anythin’--or are these just someone's failed art project?”

The blue devil pushed Dante out of the way and spread out the items of interest across the entirety of the table. He leaned forwards with his hands on the edge of the desk and began to pick through the papers.

After a few minutes, Vergil answered, “These are all made on dried demon hide,” Dante gave Vergil a look of surprise, “They are all very well done, some of the best work I have seen...”

“I didn’t know you could make paper from demons.”

“It’s more akin to leather rather than paper.”

“Still is weird.”

Vergil hummed in acknowledgment and moved some of the pages together before sighing, “There is a small paragraph here,” he ran his index finger along the area with writing, “However, the diction is very broken and the language isn’t consistent; using both Greek and Latin.”

“Is it anything important?”

Vergil hesitated, “I’m unsure.”

“Can you try and read it?”

The eldest sibling nodded then cleared his throat, stopping every few words to translate more, “ ‘ "Father, father,/where are you going?/Oh do not walk so fast!/Speak, father, speak to your little child,/Or else I shall be lost.". The night was dark, no father was there,/The child was wet with dew;/The mire was deep, and the child did weep,/And away the vapour flew.' .”

The red devil raised a brow, “Isn't that--?"

"William Blake's work? Yes."

"You didn’t by chance write these, did you?”

“No,” Vergil shook his head and stood up straight, “I never wrote this one down; not to mention I was never allowed to accompany Mundus to any “meetings” with Argosax--none of my belongings would be here.”

“Hm, wonder why?”

“Why what?”

“Well,” Dante placed a hand on his hip, “If you were Mundus’s prized knight, then why didn’t he take you with him? I mean, I would’ve if I were him.”

“I-” Vergil’s face contorted with sudden confusion and realization, “I don’t know.”

Dante shook his head, “Anyway, so why is there random poetry here? Argosax just decided to learn about human literature?”

“I don’t know that either; this is the first time I have seen human works that weren’t written down by myself,” Vergil’s eyes peered over the table, “It is rather off-putting that it is Blake’s work as well; there are hundreds of thousands of poets to choose from…”

“Yeah… I mean- I don’t want to sound mean but are you sure Urizen or V didn’t visit here?”

“Urizen and V did not visit here; I assure you,” the blue devil looked over to the unopened doors, “I think our break time is over.”

The younger twin looked over at the doors, joining Vergil’s stare, “You feel it too, huh?”

“Mn,” Vergil gave a curt nod, “Whatever is behind that door; is what’s been spying on us.”

“Welp,” Dante traipsed over to the doors, “Little help?”

Vergil shook his head, “I am going to get a peak at what is on the other side first; then we will decide our course of action.”

“What?!” Dante’s face scrunched as his mouth was agape in confusion, “Vergil, you are the one who keeps preaching about how powerful this thing is. You going over there by yourself is-- is--” he pinched the bridge of his nose, “stupid!”

“Us just breaking down the door without understanding what we are up against or what we are releasing is impetuous,” the eldest folded his arms, “I will be fine, it is just a peek.”

“But what if--”

“If I am not back within a minute,” Vergil went to place a hand on Dante’s shoulder but stopped, opting to lightly punch him instead, “Then break down the door.”

“Verge this is a little too heavy for--”

“You are a son of Sparda; a devil imbued with the fire of hell itself,” Vergil gave Dante a smug smirk, “A wooden door shouldn’t be much of a challenge.”

The red devil sighed, “Alright- Alright… Just, hurry back.”

Vergil gave him a small nod before disappearing into a cloud of smoke.

Once on the other side, Vergil was met with a muddy bronze-colored devil--just sitting in the middle of the room. The devil’s eyes were closed and its hands were placed on its thighs; as if it were meditating. The moment Vergil tried to move, however, the devil’s eyes snapped open. They were of a bright magenta hue and had streaks of the same color running down their face which joined up with a line that went across their throat--mimicking a slit throat.

It stood up, locking eyes with Vergil. Their body was riddled with battle scars and had a mixture of browns, blacks, and purples throughout. Its entire form was much more akin to Vergil's or Dante’s Sin Trigger’s, making Vergil scrunch his face in bafflement.

The more he looked, the more strange this new devil became. Notably, the devil had cloven hooves; a feature that Vergil had only ever seen on one other devil. His eyes widened, taken aback at the sudden realization of what he was looking at; however, before Vergil could return to his twin, the eldest was teleported to an unfamiliar location. It was akin to that of Malphas’s void that V had been placed in; however, there were no gates, no menacing feeling, just a room filled with junk..?

I couldn't decide what I wanted the reader's SDT to look like, so here is a compilation of all the different sketches/two fully rendered works.

Dante paced uneasily behind the door, tapping his fingers against the grips of Ebony & Ivory, grinding his teeth together, “He will be fine; I just--!”

He froze and his eyes widened, he could no longer feel Vergil’s presence, “Son of a Bitch!” Dante holstered his side arms and Triggered then crashed through the doors--making them fly off their hinges.

The bronze devil caught one of the airborne objects and threw it back at Dante; who sliced it clean in two. He de-Triggered and looked around the room for any sign of his twin. Panic began to set in as he tried to figure out what happened; Vergil wouldn’t have left Dante here, right?

Before Dante could delve into those thoughts, the feeling of his feet leaving the ground brought him back to reality. The bronze devil had hit the red devil far off into the doors that lead into the waiting room he had just been in.

With a groan, he sat up and got to his feet, “Damn it, Verge,” his eyes met with the devil’s, “Where’d you go?”

Crouching down slightly, Dante readied his Devil Sword and dashed at his attacker. The devil curled both sets of its leathery wings around itself, using them to take the brunt of Dante’s Devil Sword’s power; before expanding them back out, sending Dante flying back once more.

“Tch,” he quickly caught himself and sprinted at the devil once more, cracking the ground in his wake.

It grabbed Dante’s blade, which sliced into its palm. It looked at the wound in confusion, as if it didn’t understand what happened. Using their free hand, the devil tried to grab Dante but he managed to teleport out of reach. The bronze devil stared down at their injured hand, seemingly enamored by the pooling blood.

Not wanting to let up, Dante attacked again--using Trickster to get closer and take the devil by surprise. This, however, didn’t go as planned. His opponent flicked their head toward the direction Dante had teleported and, using one of its forward-facing horns, skewered him through the thigh.

“Shit,” Dante pushed away on the devil’s head, attempting to break free; however, an odd blue glint caught his eye and he stopped.

Before the younger twin could get a better look at the odd object, the devil yanked Dante off its horn. In a flash, they slammed him into the floor, creating a large crater with Dante’s body. They attempted to gut Dante using its claws; however, they were stopped by Dante’s Devil Sword being laid across his body. Using his free hand, Dante grabbed Ebony and shot his attacker between the eyes--at point-blank range.

He waited for the devil’s body to go limp but it didn’t; no, it just sat there, looking down at him. The bullet was lodged deep in its head and was bleeding but they were still alive. Getting frustrated with this fight, Dante triggered.

The bronze devil hissed quietly and jumped up in reaction to the sudden molten hot temperatures of the red devil, which allowed Dante to do the same. The bronze devil grabbed the bullet from its forehead, looked at it with an odd curiosity, and then flicked it at Dante; with the same velocity that it would have if it had been shot from a gun.

Of course, it missed the younger twin. Shaking off his confusion, he re-engaged with the devil. Dante’s wings flew out behind him as he lunged at the devil. It put up its forearms and caught the sword with them. Although it wasn’t as deep as it would’ve been against any other devil or demon; the sword sliced into the meat of the arm.

A strange huff of a growl came from the devil, as it locked eyes with Dante. Despite the fact the devil had no lips, the younger twin couldn’t help but feel as if it were smiling at him--mocking him. In frustration, Dante pushed harder into the devil’s arms and that’s when he felt it.

“What..?” Dante sprung back and looked at his forearms; large deep cuts that mirrored the ones on his opponents decorated his arms and were bleeding heavily, “That’s a new one.”

The bronze devil cocked its head slightly and flared its wings outwards; now it was definitely mocking the younger twin.

With a small growl, “Fine,” Dante stuck his sword into the ground and pulled out Ebony & Ivory, “Let’s try this on for size.”

The red devil kicked up into the air, hovering several feet above the bronze devil, and rattled off several rounds. If it had been any other devil or demon, Dante knows that all of his shots would’ve landed; however, only a handful of the bullets managed to knick the devil’s hide. Despite the devil’s sheer size, it was much more attentive and more of a contortionist than he’d anticipated.

Dante shot off Ivory several times in hopes to distract the devil from the slowly charging Ebony in his left hand, “Here’s a lil’ somethin’ for ya’,” Dante yanked up Ebony and fired--not allowing his opponent any time to react… or so he thought.

The moment he pulled the trigger, his target disappeared. A chill ran up Dante’s spine and, before he could process what was going on, the devil was behind Dante and grabbed him by the wings, holding them by the base. The devil spun around in the air and threw Dante into an upper part of a wall. The younger twin let out a strangled gasp as he felt the air leave his body and de-triggered. He fell from the high-up spot face down onto the floor. Slowly he stood back up, stumbling a bit and taking deep uneven breaths. He tossed his coat off to the side--not that it mattered much since it was pretty tattered at this point--and revealed that his entire back was raw. Large slices ran along his spine where his wings were attached and were bleeding profusely.

Not knowing what else to do and steadily becoming more and more exhausted, Dante summoned his sword back to his side and used his Sin Trigger--healing his wounds. The bronze devil took a step back and tilted its head in confusion before Dante was back upon them with blinding speed. He stabbed the sword through the devil’s middle; not caring that it made his own insides burn. They let out a sputtering gasp and grabbed at Dante’s neck and face; wedging their claws in between his scales, pulling them off. The two struggled for a while before the son of Sparda was finally tossed off to the side.

The bronze devil looked around for a moment quickly concluding that it was outmatched. They stuck out its hand to the side and waited. Although Dante is only a few short steps away from feral when in this form, he froze upon seeing what was within the bronze devil’s grasp.

Their fingers tightened around the sword’s dingy crimson grip as they placed the back edge on their shoulder. However, the sword wasn’t the only thing that Dante was in shock over; no, there was something else. Hanging onto the grip was Vergil, who teleported to his twin immediately upon returning.

Dante was in such shock that he could no longer hold his Sin Trigger. The bronze devil lunged at the pair, missing only by a hair because Vergil grabbed his twin and teleported to the story below.

“Are you alright?” Vergil looked over his visibly exhausted twin.

With heavy breaths and a half-hearted laugh, Dante smiled, “That’s supposed to be my line.”

“They seem to have given you quite the hassle.”

“Eh, I’m just tired.”

“Tch,” Vergil shook his head, “We don’t have much time-”

“Verge,” Dante’s voice cracked, “Why does that thing have The Sparda?”

“Not just that,” Vergil reached into the edge of his coat and pulled out a large book that had an old faded happy family pasted right on the front cover, “They also had this.”

“What-”

“I don’t know exactly what’s happened; however,” Vergil looked up and saw cracks beginning to form, “We need to figure it out and fast.”

Dante copied his brother’s stare before returning to him, “So what-- They were “Nelo Angelo-d”?”

“Do not call it that,” Vergil snarled at his sibling lightly, “If it were that easy then I would’ve taken care of them myself.”

“Then what happened to--!”

The ceiling caved in and both brothers jumped back. Vergil quickly tucked the book into his coat and readied Yamato.

“Wait, Verge,” Dante grabbed his brother’s shoulder, “Careful what you do,” his eyes locked with the magenta hue of the bronze devil’s, “I got stabbed by myself when attacking.”

Vergil side-eyed Dante, “How odd, that--!”

The bronze devil lunged at the twins, who split apart in two different directions. Dante pulled out Ivory once more. The bronze devil snapped their attention to the red assailant and swung The Sparda. Dante rolled out of the way and knelt at the end of it, firing a few shots. However, the bronze devil wasn’t done; it followed through and pivoted around on its hooves. This opened The Sparda into its scythe formation, which was perfectly in line with Dante’s body.

“Shit,” Dante leaned back and hit the floor with his shoulder blades, still having his knees in a kneel. His turquoise eyes watched as the blade just barely missed his body.

Dante spun up around and onto his feet. Wondering what the plan was, he looked around for Vergil, only to find that he had disappeared again. Another aggressive lunge came from the burly opponent which Dante swiftly sprung upwards, landing on the (now-closed) Sparda’s spine.

A smirk tugged at Dante’s lips as he squatted down, placing his forearms on his knees, “Man you’ve gotten big, huh?” The devil pulled The Sparda back up, forcing the red devil to dismount, “You know, it took me forever to learn how to properly use that thing; surprised you already figured out how to open it--!”

He instantly reacted to the devil’s teleportation by doing so himself and stood with a hand neatly placed on his hip.

“I don’t want to fight you,” Dante’s brow twitched, using his free hand, he summoned his Devil Sword, “You don’t have to do this.”

A small, but noticeable, hesitation came from the bronze devil before it re-engaged with Dante. The two exchanged blows. Dante noted that it was almost eerily similar to how the two of them used to spar as kids. Suddenly, he got an idea.

He made sure that he was correct about the pattern that the bronze devil was using before dodging at a very particular point, the same one he used to take advantage of when you were kids.

“How’s this?” Dante unleashed Royal Guard, sending the devil flying back onto its ass.

It laid there for a moment as it stared at the ceiling.

The younger twin’s brow scrunched as he tried to remember what he’d say to you after accidentally hitting you with his ability, “Sorry… You alright?” Dante pursed his lips waiting for a response.

The bronze devil slowly leaned up, tilting its head at Dante. After a brief moment, they stood up with a shake of their head and readied The Sparda again.

Dante squinted as he readied his sword, thinking to himself, “Where the hell did Vergil go? He’d better have left for a good reason, I’m getting sick of this.”

The two of them exchanged blows again. It seemed to go on forever until Dante, in his exhaustion, slipped up and got slammed by the back edge of The Sparda; flying off into a nearby wall.

“Damn,” he groaned as he sat up, “I’m getting too old for this.”

They walked over to Dante, staring down at him with their wings flared out; debating what to do next.

Blood splashed onto Dante’s face as he watched Yamato peirce right through the devil’s hide. Vergil yanked Yamato downwards before removing the blade, causing the bronze devil to hunch over and hold its middle.

“I see,” Vergil wiped the blade against the wrist of his coat, cleaning it. Carefully, he placed it back in its scabbard, “You can only reflect attacks that you see coming, how enlightening.”

The bronze devil turned its head to the side before teleporting. Vergil pivoted around and blocked the devil’s attack. The eldest twin jogged over to his younger brother, tossing him the book. In return, Dante tossed Vergil Ebony before the blue devil turned back to the problem at hand.

Vergil reapproached and snapped his fingers, summoning his doppelgänger. The pair separated, Doppel shot upwards while Vergil did his best to keep the bronze devil’s attention. A grimace found its way to Vergil’s face as he used Yamato to block a heavy-handed swing from The Sparda. Sparks flew from the blades as they slid across one another.

Doppel attempted to repeat the same attack that Vergil had done before; however, the bronze devil dodged it and grabbed Doppel… or would’ve grabbed them if Doppel wasn’t an apparition. Vergil used the distraction to skewer the devil once again, this time pushing even harder into them with Yamato. The blade was deep enough that the tsuba was against the devil’s spine. Vergil’s feet were placed on the legs of the devil and he was leaning his whole body weight into the attack.

The bleeding devil flailed about, shaking its body vigorously and trying to claw at its back to grab their attacker. Unable to shake the annoying blue devil, they fell backwards, attempting to crush Vergil. Although it was unexpected, Vergil had enough time to use his Sin Trigger. This, in turn, protected his body; however, the floor was a different issue. The pair went straight through the structure and were now a few stories lower.

Vergil shoved the bronze devil off him, removing Yamato. The two stood staring at one another, waiting for the right moment to-

“Hey! Assholes!” Dante jumped down, fumbling his landing slightly, “You trying to kill me?”

Vergil’s eyes didn’t leave his opposer, however, the same cannot be said for them. Currently, its eyes were fixated on the book in Dante’s hand which the red devil noticed.

He held the book up in one hand, “Lookin’ at this?”

It tilted its head.

“Verge found it in the little pocket dimension you stuck him in- That’s what it was, right?”

The bronze devil looked away from Dante, staring at a random point in the room. Although he couldn’t be sure, from the odd reaction, Dante felt as if the bronze devil was confused--perhaps even trying to place the book or the twins.

“Let’s see,” Dante licked his finger and began to thumb through the pages, selecting one at random. With a loud cough, he began to read, “ ‘Today, we all went to the beach. It was fun-’,” The devil snapped back to attention and lunged at Dante, only to be stopped by Vergil.

Seeing this violent reaction, the red devil stopped only to have Vergil yell back at him, “Keep reading.”

The younger twin nodded, “ ‘-and I learned how to make a sand castle. Vergil kept making them with me and Dante kept destroying them; so mean.’,” Dante snickered to himself.

Vergil’s hold broke, allowing the bronze devil to continue its course. Dante managed to teleport out of the way and onto the opposite side of the room, using Vergil as a mid-way blockade.

“ ‘I asked if mom wanted to swim and she said ‘no’. Then I asked Dad, he told me he couldn’t swim. So my brothers and I offered to teach him. Mom laughed.’.”

A low guttural growl emanated from deep within the devil’s throat.

“Keep going, Dante,” Vergil and the bronze devil traded blows again, all the while, Dante kept reading.

He flipped to a new page, “ ‘Vergil and Dante came to get me from school today. They got to meet all my friends. Tristen said that they were weird and I punched him in the nose. There was a lot of blood and Dante told me to ‘beat his ass’. We all got yelled at when we got home. Worth it.’.”

The devil swung The Sparda and nearly sliced Vergil’s tail in half.

“Let’s see, uh…” Dante flipped further into the book but stumbled upon something unexpected; entries made after the fire, “Vergil, give me a minute.”

Although the eldest wanted to banter with his sibling, he was much too focused on the fight.

Dante’s eyes widened as he scanned the later pages. Things continued as normal, however, there was a turning point about ⅔ of the way through. There were no more drawings, no more newspaper clippings, no more stickers. The once-happy thoughts and quippy comments were replaced with ramblings about how much they wanted to go home; how much you wanted this to end. Dante’s eyes rapidly flicked across each section, a mixture of both despair and anger becoming more and more apparent with each entry.

You had been wandering for what seemed like days on end. In the beginning, you’d tried to summon The Sparda or call out to your Father, in hopes that he’d save you. Days on end were spent screaming and crying out for someone to find you--to wake you from this unending nightmare. But no one ever came, no one could even hear the whimpering lament of this lost child.

Your body was growing weary and your limbs felt like lead as you began to meander slower and slower. At one point, you found a small out-cove and stopped in hopes of getting some rest but found yourself quickly attacked by those creatures again. So, you’d run until you lost sight of them. The incessant sounds of snarling nightmarish demons filled your ears, only to be broken up by the calling out of your long empty stomach.

Everything hurt: your eyes, your lungs, your head, your legs; every single inch of your body was exhausted. The lack of water only drained your muscles further, adding painful cramping to each inch of your legs; but you had to keep going. However, despite this sentiment, you couldn’t pick your feet up anymore and collapsed on the ground.

A burning sensation brought you back to. You tried to flip yourself over but found that you were unable; something had a hold of you. Panic quickly spread through your body as you struggled against whatever had you. With each movement, the pain became worse and worse; all you wanted to was scream but nothing came out.

What happened next was a blur. You remember feeling both as light as a feather and as heavy as a boulder. Whatever had a hold of you no longer did, rather, you had a hold of it. When you became fully aware again, you had a rock in your hand that was coated in blood. Pinned beneath you was a dead (Riot) demon. Its head and neck were barely distinguishable from the ground underneath it, smashed into a thick red pulp with bits of scales and other organs inside.

Terrified and revolted, you threw the rock at the mangled corpse in fright and stumbled upright, taking a few steps back; only to fall on your behind from a growing agonizing pain in your middle. Slowly, you looked down at your body to see what type of damage had been done. Your fingers shook as you lifted your tattered shirt.

Deep dark bruising had covered your entire body, however, it seems that your ribs and abdomen had taken the brunt of the damage. Each breath felt like someone was carving up your innards, making your chest tighten. If you’d had any food or anything within your stomach, you would have thrown up from how painful everything was; however, you were running on empty.

With a shaky and unsteady hand, you slowly touched your middle and winced. All you could think about was wanting to go home; curling up in bed with your siblings or with your parents. You began to cry once more and curled up into a fetal position on the ground.

After some time, you calmed back down and found yourself blankly staring at the nearby corpse. Slowly, you inched towards it; not standing but rather scooching over to it. Cautiously, you poked it and waited for it to spring back to life or something to happen; however, it just laid there. You grabbed its hand and looked at the claws on it.

If you couldn’t summon The Sparda, you needed a weapon. Despite your fear and the putrid feeling inching its way up your throat, you twisted the creature's fingers. Loud cracking and popping filled the air until you had several of the claws separated from the body.

You then had a horrible thought, “Is this edible?”

A grimace of disgust found its way to your face as you looked at the dead demon. You were starving, sure; but were you really going to eat that? Loud growling from your stomach answered your question for you. Closing your eyes, you used one of the claws to slice open the creature’s bicep and obtained several strips of flesh.

You opened your eyes cautiously. Your arms and hands were stained a sticky dark red-black and you had obtained what you needed. Another loud impatient growl came from your gut. A part of you wanted to just eat the raw meat but you were much too repulsed to do so. With your prize in hand and your repurposed claw-daggers, you slowly stood up and wandered off; trying to find one of the many open flames of this strange place.

Upon finding a small flame, you used one of the claws to hold the cutlets to cook. The environment smelt of brimstone and rot, however, the smell of the meat was quite pleasant. Perhaps it was because of how starved you were but you swear that it smelt of something between a steak and fresh chicken that had been seasoned with copious amounts of various peppers. Your mouth began to water, it smelt so good.

With a deep breath, you closed your eyes and placed a piece in your mouth--gagging instinctively. After several attempts, you managed to eat a full piece. It was tough and rubbery but it at least tasted as good as it smelt. After finishing your few pieces, you rested a while; letting the food settle. Once again, you found yourself crying and wanting your family; your Father in particular kept coming to mind.

“Why did he leave us?” A hiccup left your trembling lips as you held your painful middle, curling back up into a fetal position on the ground, “Why wasn’t he there to protect us?”

You cried for some time before taking a blackout nap. When you woke up, thankfully, nothing was trying to eat you and your middle seemed to have healed to some degree. With a deep breath, you stood and continued your aimless meandering.

Nothing interesting happened for some time. You had become quite the vagabond. You’d quickly learned how to survive in the harsh environment; living off of demon flesh and hell ice (for water). Although you never forgot about your family or the human world, you’d become rather comfortable here; a distant part of yourself wondered if this was where Sparda grew up.

As time went on, you began the early stages of--what could only be described as--a metamorphosis. From your elbows down, you had several rows of thick bronze scales, the same with the skin from your knees down. At first, you were scared and tore them from your skin. This quickly became much too painful for you to bare and you stopped trying to get rid of the re-growing scales.

Around ten you had developed scales throughout most of your body. Your hands and feet were completely covered in them now and had sharp claws instead of nails. You’d given up on clothing--or, rather, had none. After which, your body quickly developed scales on your chest, lower back, and entire hips; protecting you.

Your teeth had become much sharper and seemed much too large for your prepubescent mouth and would regularly cut your, still human, lips with them. The upside was you no longer had to cut the meat from corpses or had to cook it; you could consume it straight off the bone.

Finally, after almost three years of wandering, you’d found something. A large building that was crawling with demons. Despite your uneasy feeling, you had an intuitive feeling that this could be your way home, at least, maybe provide an idea of how to do so.

For a few weeks, you watched, waited, and schemed. Every few days, the demons would leave in mass and then return no sooner than a day later. So, you used that time to break in. Of course, there were still guards but that wasn’t an issue. You quickly killed every demon that crossed your path; from Empusas to Sargassos to Plasmas; nothing was too difficult for you to kill.

You’d made it to the deepest parts of the building, it was a throne room of sorts. There was a large seat in the middle of the far wall that was covered in scorched burn marks. The room itself was decorated rather elegantly and was tidy--something rather hard to come by in the Underworld. None of this concerned you, however; you just wanted what you came for. Making quick work of the room, you pillaged the entire space, digging into every nook and cranny. There was nothing. Frustrated hot tears welled up in your eyes as you realized this was a huge waste of time. Before you could leave, another horde had entered the room.

You turned to them and gave the group a once-over. It was a fairly large pack of random demons, nothing you hadn’t seen or couldn’t handle; but, there was something else--something nearby that felt much stronger than anything you’d faced so far.

Fearing the oddly dangerous presence, you made quick work of the demonic horde and bolted out the door. Upon reaching one of the lower rooms, the evil you felt earlier made itself known. A large grey skeletal devil stood in your way. In his right hand, was a large Viking sword, and on each side of him there were twin white wolves that had heavy chain collars. A chill ran up your spine and your stomach began to turn. For the first time in a long time, you were afraid.

As you tried to scrabble for a way to escape or a way to get past him, one of the wolves lunged at you.

Quickly you dodged out of the beast’s way only to find the second to be right in your face. You sliced at its face with your nails and cut it through one of its eyes, but it didn’t flinch. A loud crunch echoed through the room as you felt its teeth tear into your arm, right through your scales--breaking your bones. You grimaced and, in your anger, used the hand of said broken arm to grab the chain around its neck. With all the might you could muster, you threw the wolf into the first; knocking them off to the side.

Feeling the same terrifying devil’s power right behind you, you teleported out of the way and watched as the bony devil’s sword struck the floor where you had been standing. Your mind was reeling. It had been a long time since you had teleported and you were unable to control it. So, despite your best and most desperate effort, you couldn’t replicate it again to escape.

The wolves had stood back up and went for you once more, but you managed to sidestep both of them and used one as a jump pad; springing yourself at the skeleton. If you couldn’t leave then you are going to die trying. This action took the devil by surprise and allowed you to wrap yourself around his back. Your hands dug at his skull as you tried to pull it from his body; which, despite it not having a physical representation, was stubbornly strong.

Growing tired of these games, he grabbed you from his back and held you up; reading his sword. You struggled and growled, scratching at his arms and kicking wildly, waiting for the end of your journey. However it never came, rather, you found yourself stumbling forwards. It seems you had teleported again and, this time, you were right where you needed to be to run for the exit.

Confused as to what just happened, the devil did a double take before sicking his wolves upon you once more. The entire time you ran down the hall the twin wolves were practically nipping at your heels. Distantly you found yourself wondering if they were toying with you, enjoying the thrill of the hunt as you had done many times before--perhaps this is a sick form of karma?

Things came to a head when you reached the foyer of the building. In the room stood a fiery devil. You froze, inadvertently allowing the dogs to catch up with you. They tackled you to the floor and began to bite at your body while their claws dug into your middle. You shouted loudly as you did your best to fight against them, biting and scratching at them in return, but you were unsuccessful.

Unexpectedly, the dogs stopped, looked to the side, and removed themselves from your body; leaving you face up on the floor.

A part of you thought you had died, that this nightmare was finally coming to an end. In reality, however, the fiery devil had dismissed the dogs back to their owner and was standing above you. Although you know you should’ve been afraid, between the large wings and the gentle warm feeling their body gave off; you felt as if you’d met an angel. Then they began to speak in a language you didn’t understand.

“Bolverk,” they turned to look at the bony warrior from before, “Where are the others?”

“Lord Argosax, I-” he turned to look down at you, “I had sent a troop in to dispose of this vermin, but none returned.”

Their voice tilted in disbelief, “Really now?”

Your heart was racing as you sat up, a part of you wanted to run and hope to make it but you knew that this flaming devil was different somehow. Besides, you needed a moment to heal your wounds.

“You,” they turned to you, speaking in a tongue that you did understand, “What were you even attempting to gain by breaking in here? There are easier ways to die, I assure you.”

An aggressive furrow decorated your brow as you tried to speak, unsure of yourself since it had been many years since you’d done so, “Fuck you--!”

Instantly, you were kicked across the ribs and into a nearby wall. Blood dribbled out of your mouth as you fell back to the floor, laying face down.

“Such a shame,” a sound of footsteps and slight sizzling told you that the fire devil had moved beside you, “You would’ve been quite the addition to my cause.”

Everything went dark. Then you took a deep gasping breath, despite your current situation of being impaled, you were still very much alive.

You slowly got up, moving to a push-up, sitting on your calves, kneeling, then stumbling to a stand leaning against the wall. A glint caught your eye as you looked down, the bony devil’s Viking sword had been plunged through your chest cavity, straight through your heart. With a grimace and a groan, you pulled the blade from your body and held it at the fiery devil’s neck; a crazed look in your eyes and a thunderous growling from your chest.

You’d expected a fight or some sort of violence, however, that couldn’t have been further from what happened.

Rather, the fiery devil lightly ran its finger along the blade, “What a feisty brat,” if they’d had a mouth, you’re sure they would’ve been smirking, “No wonder you managed to make it in here; a power like that is quite rare,” they grabbed the sword and melted it, “To make others feel the attacks that are done against you... I only know of one other devil that could pull that off.”

Although you were radiating confidence, you couldn’t have been more doubtful of your skills. Right now, you were completely and hopelessly outmatched. As the fiery devil melted the sword, your shoulders tensed as you heard a noise to your left; dodging instinctively.

One of the wolves had been sent after you again. You grabbed the wolf’s scruff and bit down through it; piercing its hide. It yelped and thrashed about but you dug your teeth further into its flesh, gripping onto it hard enough to pull its front paws off the ground.

“Bolverk,” the flaming devil stood and looked to the swordsman, “Call off your dog; I wasn’t in any danger,” they turned their attention to you, “Can you release Geri?”

Your lip twitched as you let out a low rumbling growl. After a moment of thought, you did as you were asked.

“Good, you are smarter than I thought,” they moved in front of you, “Now, what is a child of Sparda doing here?”

Another low growl left your lips at that name, Sparda. You’d conditioned yourself to hate your Father, blaming him for everything that you’d been put through.

“This is Mundus’s fault, isn’t it?” They took their forefinger and placed it underneath your chin, tilting your face up to look at his, “You’ve been here since Sparda’s demise, haven’t you?”

You recoiled your head from his touch and took a few steps backward.

“My name is Argosax; I’m sure Sparda told you a story about how evil myself and Mundus are, didn’t he?”

“I don’t know and I don’t care,” your voice was low and your eyes remained on their face, unblinking.

“Well then,” Argosax took a step towards you, “If you’d allow me, I would like to know more about you and what has happened; perhaps I can help you attain your revenge--that is what you are seeking, right?” Their voice was gentle however it had a sinister feeling deeply woven beneath it.

“Revenge…” your brow softened ever-so-slightly, “No.”

They sighed, “If you are looking for your family then I’m sad to say but,” they placed a hand on your shoulder, “they are all dead.”

Your gut dropped and your eyes widened as you shook your head ‘no’ backing up till you hit the wall, “No, you are wrong; they are still alive, I just need to get to them.”

Argosax clicked his tongue quietly, “I am afraid that they are all gone; the fire took them. The fire that happened because of Sparda--for Mundus to send a message.”

You ground your teeth and clenched your fists tight enough that your palms began to bleed, “Because of…” your lip twitched as you felt a hot burning sensation fill your body.

“Mhm,” Argosax bent down slightly and was at face level with you, “Don’t fret; I can help you obtain all that you desire,” your eyes snapped open, noticing that the room had become engulfed in magenta-colored flames--courtesy of your angry outburst, “All I ask in return is for you to swear your servitude to me,” they stuck out their hand, waiting for you to seal the deal.

Admittedly, you were hesitant but you weren’t stupid; it was either accept this deal or Argosax would kill you. What choice did you truly have? Cautiously, you reached your hand out and grabbed theirs. Marking the worst mistake of your entire life.

Over the years you had lost all of what little humanity you had retained; you couldn’t even remember how to speak anything besides basic Greek or Latin. The training was harsh, borderline unbearable, but you kept going. Your intense hatred for Sparda pushed you over the edge and there was no returning.

Quickly you had become the strongest devil in Argosax’s ranks, only being surpassed by them and, their right-hand knight, Bolverk. Your heritage was quite apparent even just by looking at you. No human parts remained, you were fully outfitted in your (Sin) Devil Trigger. Although it wasn’t exact, your form had many similarities with your Father’s, many distinctive things--such as his hooves, knees, or horns.

Because of how strong you’d become there wasn’t much left for you to learn, so Bolverk and, to some degree, Argosax began to train you. The brutality from the two was like nothing you’d even been through. Perhaps it was because they wanted you to be a perfect warrior or perhaps it was rooted in their deep-set hatred for Sparda; regardless, they tortured you more than they taught you.

Any little mistake would put you in what was nicknamed “The Chamber”. Within those four sound-proof walls many vile things happened to you, from things as simple as being starved for weeks on end to much more physically abusive things; you’d been through it all. During this time, Argosax did most of the more extreme punishments.

However, despite that, you retained your respect for Argosax; whether it had to do with the deal or an odd form of Stockholm syndrome, you weren’t sure. Every time they’d punish you, you’d almost get off to it; it was as sickening as it was alluring. In your endless torment, you’d convinced yourself that Argo was doing this out of love, out of compassion, for you and your situation. Something that they played into. Telling you that they loved you and that you loved them; however, none of that was true. It was all just to keep you within their pocket and use whenever they needed.

“Dante!” Vergil shouted at his twin, snapping Dante out of the horrifying implications in the journal before him, “Any time now-!” Vergil rolled out of the way, barely missing the bronze devil’s attack.

“R-right, sorry!” The red devil shook his head and shut the book, “Vergil, you know Greek right?”

“Of course,” Vergil growled loudly, shooting Ebony at the aggressor's eyes; unsure of what else to do at this point.

“Well, I think--”

“Just get to the point!”

“They don’t know English anymore.”

Vergil let out a low nearly inaudible whine as he landed near his twin with a small stumble, “So what, you want me to read?”

“Not read, just talk.”

“If you don’t think I haven’t tried that--”

“Tell them Argosax is dead.”

A small confused tilt adorned Vergil’s brow before he shook his head with a sigh, “Fine. Not like we’ve got much else to go on.”

The bronze devil waited for the twins to attack again; radiating a sickly amount of cocky confidence.

Vergil slowly approached and spoke calmly, “Are you waiting for Argosax to return?” It took a step back in confusion at Vergil’s words, “They are dead and have been for a very long time.”

With a loud huff, the devil responded in a low, rough voice, “No, they will return; who are you to tell me otherwise?”

The eldest twin shook his head, “As far as I or anyone else is concerned, Argosax has been dead for nearly two decades; they’re nothing but ashes in the wind.”

“No!” Its voice reverberated throughout the structure as it slammed The Sparda into the ground, “They can’t be-- No one has that kind of power.”

Vergil raised a brow and folded his arms, “Really now? Are you aware that any of us could beat Argosax or Mundus? The three of us are much stronger than any of them; surely you knew that you could’ve defeated Argo yourself..?”

The devil took a step back and looked between the twins, “You speak as if you know about me; when you have no clue who I--”

“ ‘So Fuzon call’d all together/The remaining children of Urizen:/And they left the pendulous earth:/They called it Egypt, & left it./And the salt ocean rolled englob’d.’. Does that ring a bell?”

It took another few steps back, “I-- How,” it shook its head, “Are you mocking me?”

“I don’t mock, I only wish to remind you of yourself; of your humanity.”

“I am no human,” it placed a hand back on the grip of The Sparda, “Humanity has no place within me, Lord Argosax told--”

“Then where did your items in your pocket dimension come from? Where did the book that Dante has come from?” Vergil gestured to the devil’s forehead, “Where did that sapphire pendant come from?”

It said nothing.

“I understand if you have taken issue with our Father but,” Vergil sighed, “Our Mother, Eva, had nothing to do with that day; it wasn’t her fault. So why denounce her side?”

The devil yanked The Sparda back out from the floor and spook in an aggressive manner, “You do not know anything, I was shown the truth,” it lunged at the twins, who split apart and dodged the attack.

“By whom? That manipulative bastard Argosax?” Vergil’s voice became louder, “Perhaps I could tell you the truth that Mundus showed me? The fabricated story of how Sparda was responsible for our Mother’s death and for us three being split apart.”

It swung the sword wanting nothing more than for Vergil to shut up, “Silence!”

The eldest’s voice was filled with an ever-increasing aggravation and vexation. Now, lost within his own thoughts he had stopped speaking in Greek, “How that traitor Sparda shouldn’t have sullied demon blood with a human womb?! How he could’ve used a child with some grit?!”

Dante’s eyes widened upon hearing what his brother was saying. All he could do was stare in disbelief and with mouth agape in shock, this was no longer aimed at their youngest sibling; no, Vergil was being swept away by his own memories.

Vergil darted at the devil, leaving a cloud of dust and cracked tile where he stood, “Do you honestly think that Argosax wanted anything more than a puppet? A pet with the name Sparda attached to it?”

The pair interlocked swords and ground against one another in a hold. The blue devil’s eyes had a crazed expression; a mixture of a primal devilish wickedness and a deep-rooted terror that sent a very distinctive chill up Dante’s spine--the same feeling he got seeing what happened to his brother after Mundus.

In Vergil’s anger, he unintentionally used his Sin Trigger and snarled at the bronze devil, “Argosax was no different than Mundus; they were playing savior to a disgraceful weak half-human offspring,” Vergil stood eye to eye with the bronze devil, “Tell me, do you still remember yourself or have you lost it with all that putrid shit Argosax told you?!”

They froze at Vergil’s sudden overwhelming anger, giving the blue devil a chance to tackle them to the ground, pinning them.

“I know you can understand me,” his wings flared out behind him as his tail flicked around, “Answer me!” His claws dug deep into the bronze devil’s arms.

The pinned devil opened its mouth but said nothing. Despite Vergil piercing their hide, it didn’t use its power to make Vergil hurt; no, it just laid there and stared. After a few minutes, Dante slowly crept closer and peered over Vergil’s body to see what was going on.

The blue devil’s claws had dug far enough into the bronze devil’s flesh that his fingertips were inside their arm. Despite this, the pair just were just staring at each other. The bronze devil wasn’t struggling or trying to move; the only thing it did was wince when Vergil shoved his claws further.

Another few minutes passed. Dante had begun debating if he needed to step in and separate them, however, this was quickly answered.

A loud snarl of a cry came from Vergil as he de-triggered. His eyes were filled with tears and he had enough running down his face that they were collecting at his chin, dripping down onto the pinned devil. He wanted to say something, anything, but only managed a weak, “Please,” that was followed by a voice crack.

Dante placed a gentle hand on his twin’s shoulder, “Vergil…”

“Ver-gil?” The twins could see the gears turning in the devil’s head as it tried to place the name before its gaze slowly turned to Dante, “You are Da-nte then..?” It turned its gaze back to Vergil, and with a slight pause, it let out a low exhale, “My brothers..?”

Vergil’s fingers tightened on the devil’s arm, making it flinch, “Yes.”

The younger twin grabbed Vergil’s shoulder again, this time sternly, “Verge, stop--”

“How-,” The devil’s gaze flicked between the two, “How are you still alive? More importantly,” the devil sat up, making Vergil sit on its lap in the process, “What are you doing here? If Lord Argosax truly is dead then the Underworld will be in ruins; you two are in immense danger.”

Dante stared at Vergil for translation, but only got to hear Vergil’s response… That was also unintelligible to the red devil, “Who do you think killed such vermin? We aren’t in danger, only lost.”

“Lost..?”

With a nod, he let out a heavy wet sigh hoping to re-compose himself, “Yes,” Vergil carefully removed his fingers, a thick line of blood connecting him to the open heavily-bleeding wounds, “We are trying to get home and Yamato can do so but-”

“You need a place close to the human world?”

Vergil nodded and stood up, assisted by Dante. He looked up, “I don’t know if this place will work anymore…”

The entire top six floors were missing and you all were staring at the open sky.

“Ah, sorry about that,” you sighed, “I can escort you to another pinch-point if you would like?”

“There aren’t any others close by.”

You laughed and stretched out your wings, “I am faster than you’d believe.”

“Ehem!” Dante put his free hand in his pocket, still holding the scrapbook in the other, “Care to share? Or are you two like shit-talking me or somethin’?”

You stumbled over your words a bit, still struggling on how to say your brothers’ names, “I first want my book back, Dante,” you stuck your hand out, waiting.

“Uh…”

Vergil wiped his blood-stained fingers off on his coat, “They want their book back.”

“Oh! Sure thing, here,” Dante placed the book in your hand; which you held up and it disappeared, returning to your small dimension of valuables.

“So…” Dante walked over to his coat that, thankfully, had fallen with the floors but wasn’t any more damaged than it already was, “What’s the plan?”

Vergil straightened his coat, “They are going to take us to a new place; this one is no longer suitable for Yamato to work.”

The younger twin sighed, “So, how long is this walk going to be?”

You scooped up both brothers, holding one in each arm, as they wrapped themselves tightly to your neck.

“Verge,” Dante looked to his twin.

“Hm?”

“We sure this is a good idea? I mean, they were just beating the shit out of both of us..?”

Vergil did a slow turn to the red devil, “I destroyed an entire city and threatened the entire human race, again… Then you decided to come down here with me… How is this any different?”

“Fair, I umphf-!”

You abruptly turned to the left, making both twins jolt violently within your arms, “There,” your wings stretched out wide before you neatly dug your heels into the ground, “Hold on tight.”

With that, you flew straight up and felt both brothers tighten their grip tenfold. You took a moment to stabilize yourself since you aren’t used to having all the extra weight. Then, there was a thunderous clap. Both twins flinched at the ungodly loud noise, especially since neither of them was used to such noise from flying. Although you’d told Vergil that you were fast, breaking the sound barrier wasn’t exactly what he imagined.

It didn’t take long for the three of you to find the new pinch-point. Once again, it was a structure within Argosax’s domain. You landed on the roof and placed your siblings down. Both of them were dazed and Dante actually had leaned over to throw up (which he had nothing to purge so he just dry heaved).

You gave them both a curious look, “Are you alright?”

Vergil looked at you and unknowingly yelled in response, “What?!”

“I see, never mind,” you waved a hand in dismissal and waited for the twins to return to normal; however, the three of you were paid some company.

Both brothers readied themselves but, once more, you raised a hand, “Allow me, the two of you need to return to a stable condition before you leave.”

The horde was nothing more than a sneeze of a challenge to you. You didn’t even need to use The Sparda; no, all you needed was your hands. It was times like these that you had grown to cherish during your time here in the Underworld; times where you could let loose, to rip and tear without any repercussions. You took only a minute to desolate the horde, finishing by ripping out a Fury’s throat with your teeth.

You turned to your brothers, gore still hanging in your mouth, and waved shyly. The expression on both of their faces was a mixture of impressed and horrified--Dante was mostly just horrified. You sucked the bits of flesh that were in your teeth into your mouth, eating them.

“That’s,” Dante stared at the floor unable to look at you, “I’ve seen some gross shit but--”

“It is the way of the world down here,” Vergil ran a hand through his hair, “Eat or be eaten.”

“You ever have to..?”

“No,” Vergil shook his head, “Nelo did not require food.”

“Huh, really? How’s that work?”

Vergil turned to his twin, “Perhaps I can explain more at a later date. For now, we have a more pressing engagement.”

Dante nodded, “ ‘Suppose you’re right.”

The twins walked over to you, who was currently gnawing on the last Fury’s corpse. A quiet “Ehem” from Vergil caught your attention and you stopped eating.

“Sorry,” you stood up, “Are you two ready to go?”

Vergil raised a brow with folded arms, “You mean us three? If you think we are going to leave you down here then you are mistaken.”

Your eye flicked between the pair, “I do not know if that is--”

Vergil huffed lightly, “This isn’t up for discussion, as the oldest child and the one who is making the path home; I have the final say,” his arms relaxed to his sides, “You are coming with us.”

In an almost shy manner, you wiped your face using one of your forearms; doing your best to clean yourself, “Can you make a portal that can handle all three of us? Yamato’s original use was only for one at a time.”

A confident smug smirk tugged at Vergil’s lips, “Trust me when I say,” he removed the blade from its scabbard, “I can do much more with Yamato than anyone knows.”

Dante moved to stand next to you, grabbing your hand, and he mumbled quietly, “You’re gonna like the human world, I promise.”

Before you could respond, Vergil sliced open a large plus-shaped hole; opening a large portal. He looked at the two of you before grabbing Dante’s free hand, “Tread lightly and keep close to me.”

The two of you nodded, making sure to keep hold of one another, and traversed through the portal.

Once on the other side, the three of you found yourself in the middle of a snowy pine forest. You hissed loudly at how ungodly bright it was and covered your eyes. Dante stretched his arms up with a loud groan and then flopped face-first into the thick snow.

His voice was muffled as he laid, unmoving, “Nap time.”

Before Vergil or you could protest, Dante was already snoring.

Vergil let out a content sigh, a small smile adorning his face, as he sat down in the snow. You joined him, cautiously sitting in the snow. After a few moments, you tried to relax and allowed your wings to lay flat behind you on the snow, sending a shiver up your spine.

After some time, Vergil ended up curling up in the snow; which, a half-asleep Dante proceeded to smother by wrapping himself around his twin. If this had been any other situation or context, Vergil would have gutted Dante on the spot--that is if Vergil allowed himself to sleep in the first place. However, both of them were exhausted from who knows how long they’d been traveling.

You, on the other hand, were wide awake. Sleep had become something you couldn’t afford to do when working under such circumstances. A small sad, almost envious, feeling pricked at the edges of your mind as you watched the fast-asleep two-person pile.

They slept for several hours and Dante at one point even offer (and beckoned) for you to join their cozy pile; however, you shook your head. Keeping them safe was all that you had in mind; something you’d wanted to do since they were taken from you.

Once fully healed and mostly rested, the twins decided to figure out what the next course of action would be.

Dante sighed, “What I wouldn’t give for some food right about now--”

You stood up, “I can get something! I’ll be right back.”

Vergil snickered slightly, “That’s not what he means, however, that is a nice--”

It was too late, you’d already run off into the woods.

“Hey!” Dante went to chase after you only to be stopped by Vergil grabbing his arm.

“They are going to bring back food,” Vergil shook his head and spoke quietly, “What that food is or what that means, I’m not sure.”

“Let’s just hope that doesn’t mean that they are going to hunt humans…”

After a moment of silence, Vergil reached to his lower back and pulled something out, “Here,” he held out Ebony, “I do not wish to use this any longer.”

“Alright,” Dante grabbed the gun and put it back in its holster, “If you ever wanna use ‘em again,” he winked, “Just lemme know.”

Vergil rolled his eyes. They sat in comfortable silence for a while, Dante resting his eyes and Vergil looking over Yamato for any damage or filth to clean.

“Hey, Verge, why can’t we just use that again,” he gestured to Yamato, “to get back to Red Grave.”

“I need to know where we are to use Yamato correctly,” Vergil mindlessly tapped his fingers on the scabbard.

“So we need to find a town or something then…” Dante sighed as he flopped face up into the snow, arms spread out, “Wonderful.”

Vergil turned over his shoulder to look at Dante, “I do not see what the problem is with that?”

The red devil’s brow furrowed, “Really?” The eldest gave no response, “Verge, we look like shit, we are covered in blood, and who knows what else-- we probably smell horrid- and we are traveling with an over seven-foot tall devil,” his eyes went back to staring up at the sky; however, instead of the sky, his gaze was met with a dead Elk. To say Dante jumped would be an understatement.

The blue devil raised a brow, “I see you’ve returned?”

You nodded. The dead creature was supported by your arms, however, your teeth were still deep within its neck.

“Dante,” Vergil turned to his now calm sibling, “Can you make a fire?”

“Sure, I--”

Instantly, there was a small magenta fire in front of them and they turned back to you; who, even if you couldn’t properly emote it, they could tell was smiling.

The twins helped you cut apart the meat, you’d long forgotten how to properly process an animal. Then using The Sparda’s spines, you hooked the meat up over the fire to cook.

“Alright, I gotta ask,” Dante looked at you as he cocked his head in curiosity, “Why didn’t you have The Sparda before..?”

“Because I couldn’t summon it between realms, my pocket dimension is different and transcends such physical limitations.”

Dante stared at you in confusion before Vergil translated for him, “Ah, I see.”

As the meat cooked, the twins and you shared stories; both good and bad. Admittedly, this was the most you’d spoken since your last time seeing the twins; the most you’d spoken in over three decades.

The venison was unseasoned and cooked unevenly but was still rather tasty. It took you a few tries to get it down, not because it was bad or anything, but because it was much different than a demon’s meat.

It was nearly midnight by the time you’d all finished eating. Dante and you ate most of it, Vergil isn’t used to eating more than a few scraps but he made sure to eat a decent chunk. You snuffed out the fire and put The Sparda away, as you did so the twins had curled back together and were sleeping. All you could do was stare at them.

As the weeks went on the three of you hadn’t found any sign of where you were, only seeing a few unoccupied hunting tree stands and abandoned campsites. Dante and Vergil had begun to re-teach you how to speak English (or rather remind you.). It took a while for you to re-grasp the language but you were able to finally communicate with both siblings, no longer relying on Vergil to be your translator.

At one point the three of you found a small lake. In a blink, Dante was nude and was easing his way into the cold bath. His arms were held close to his body with his fists in front of his chest, shivering heavily and saying various things; such as, “Holy shit that’s cold,”

“Are you going to join him?” You asked a very unamused Vergil.

“Are you?”

The question caught you off guard, “Am… I?” You paused in thought for a moment, “It has been so long since I’ve seen water like this,” you let out a low growling laugh, “I don’t know if I remember how to swim.”

Vergil began to strip off his blood-soaked clothing, placing it in a neat pile next to Dante’s disheveled mess, “Then that makes two of us.”

Your head moved back a bit in surprise, before you could question him, Vergil moved to join Dante in the lake.

The blue devil’s shoulders shot up to his ears as he hissed from the freezing temperature. Dante was already comfortable enough that he was swimming around. A wicked smirk decorated his face as he snuck over to Vergil and splashed water up at him. Vergil’s body arched from the sudden icy feeling, cursing Dante in the process.

The younger twin’s laughter died down when he got a better look at Vergil’s bare skin, “Hey,” his fingers lightly touched Vergil’s back, who instinctively flinched away, “What..?”

Without meeting Dante’s eyes he mumbled, “I don’t want to talk about it.”

Unsure how to help, Dante grabbed his twin into a vice grip of a hug; despite the eldest’s protests.

All the while you watched from the shore. Slowly you’d inched your hooves into the water, but you hadn’t moved since then. A part of you wondered what Vergil had meant by telling you that he might not know how to swim either; combine that with the abhorrent scarring on his back, and you were more than confused.

“Hey!” Dante yelled over to you, “You coming in? The water’s nice~!” He let out a hardy laugh.

You looked down at the rolling liquid, unsure if you should. That’s when you felt something push you. When you whipped around, you saw that Vergil’s doppelgänger was behind you and it pushed you again.

Dante noticed and began to laugh harder as Vergil had a warm smile tugging at his lips. Slowly but surely the apparition made you enter the water. It wasn’t warm per se, but your body was hot enough that the temperature of the entire lake shifted up several degrees. The twins both washed themselves as you played with the water like a small child. You’d set your hand on the top and slowly push it down, feeling the surface of it give way to your scaled digits.

Having already finished cleaning himself, Dante swam over to you and splashed you. In shock, you shot downwards; submerging yourself. Under the water, you saw so much that you’d never seen before. Little fish that were playing with each other, small crabs that you put your hand out to and they pinched your fingers, several different types of vegetation, and many colorful stones. You felt something tug the end of your wing and resurfaced, seeing that Dante and Vergil were staring at you.

“Thought I made you drown, heh…” Dante placed a hand on the back of his neck, “Sor--!”

You used your wings to splash him--and Vergil by accident. The three of you engaged in a water fight, splashing and rough-housing with one another. It was fun, right up until the three of you heard a loud crunch from the embankment.

A large polar bear was standing at the edge, watching you. Curious as to what it was, you got up and out of the water; despite both siblings telling you to stop. Upon reaching it, you stuck your hand out to pet it when it bit you. Enraged at the sudden act of aggression, you killed it. Then, you stared at the body horrified at what you’d just done. You flipped your gaze to your brothers who stared back, Dante was the only one that had any expression and he was just as horrified as you.

Vergil walked out of the water and placed a hand on your shoulder, “It is alright, accidents happen.”

Without another word, you placed a hand on the dead bear, petting its soft blood-stained fur. Carefully, you incinerated the carcass. The twins got dressed and the three of you headed back on your way, never bringing up the incident again.

Another week passed and the three of you finally found a small town.

“Alright,” Dante said, getting up off the downed tree that he’d been using as a resting spot, “You two stay here and I’ll go get some info.”

“Are you sure you do not want me to accompany you?” Vergil raised a brow.

“Nah, I’ll be fine. Besides,” Dante looked over to you, “Someone needs to stay with ‘em.”

Vergil’s gaze joined Dante’s and watched as you were intently watching a caterpillar as it inched along, your wings flapping a bit in excitement. The two smiled softly. Although you were a rather twisted version of the child they once knew, seeing you partake in such innocent things made them both feel happy.

A short pause later, Dante slapped Vergil on the shoulder, “Alright, I’ll be back later,” he leaned over and whispered just loud enough for Vergil to hear, “Try to keep them from killing anything or anyone, yeah?”

“Of course,” the blue devil folded his arms, “I am still the eldest, I know how to take care of my siblings.”

“Had me convinced otherwise--”

Vergil jabbed Dante in the gut with his elbow.

The younger twin left, waving goodbye to you--who was much too enamored with the small bug to notice.

“That is called an Arctic Woolly Bear caterpillar,” Vergil meandered over to you with his hands folded behind his back, “They are quite common in North America.”

You looked over at him, “Is it dangerous?”

He shook his head, “No, they are harmless,” gently, the blue devil picked up your hand, “Open your palm and do not shut it,” you watched as he placed the small fuzzy bug in your hand.

A quiet purring could be heard from you as you watched it crawl on your hand, Vergil still holding the underside in case you accidentally shut your fingers.

“They do not have these in Hell… I wish they did.”

Vergil laughed softly, “I know, I am quite knowledgeable about how things work down there.”

“How?”

The eldest twin’s face fell into a somber frown, “Here, let’s let the little creature go first,” he grabbed it from your hand and placed it back where he had grabbed it from. He sat on the ground, gesturing for you to do the same, “I cannot tell you everything just yet, however,” he paused and stared at the ground in front of him, “I can tell you about my time serving Mundus.”

You tilted your head, “I remember you mentioned something about that when we were fighting.”

He nodded, “I was forced to serve Mundus after I foolishly tried to defeat him, alone,” you watched as Vergil’s brow furrowed further and further with each sentence, “I knew it was a bad move but what other choice did I have?”

You grabbed one of his hands, giving it a gentle squeeze.

He gave a small half-hearted smile and took a minute before continuing, “In my arrogance and desire for power, I ended up being defeated by Mundus. Who proceeded to take my humanity from me, entombing me within armor made by Machiavelli…”

Your body stiffened, “In the Nelo Angelo?”

“You know of it?”

“I was taught about Devil Arms and Machiavelli’s work was somewhat of an obsession of Lord Argosax.”

“I see,” Vergil’s posture slumped forwards a bit, bringing his shoulders to his ears, “I spent nearly ten years trapped like that.”

“I am surprised that we never met.”

“Mundus was smarter than that,” Vergil’s voice was quiet, almost meek, “Seeing Dante and his amulet half nearly broke the hold it had on me, but after so long I…”

He went silent. You wanted to know more but you could also see how distressed your brother had become, even if it didn’t look like it from an outside view. So, not knowing what else to do, you manhandled him into your lap and embraced him; holding him tightly and wrapping your wings around the two of you--cocooning you together.

Although you couldn’t fully understand the pain and suffering that the eldest son of Sparda had gone through, you could relate to some degree. At first, he pushed you away and tried to escape, which he could’ve done if he had wanted; however, he didn’t. No, Vergil wanted to be comforted--to be held--but was much too proud to admit it, especially to Dante.

Vergil’s cursing slowly turned to soft sobs. His shoving turned to a vice grip, grabbing you as tightly as possible. All the while, you were purring and telling him that things will be alright now. You made small circles on his upper back, mimicking what Eva used to do when any of you were upset. Underneath the fabric, you could feel the scarring you saw earlier; the deep chasms that turned his once identical body into something so far off from his twin--something that secretly pained the eldest twin.

After some time, Vergil’s cries ceased and he just quietly sat within your gentle hold; relishing in an affection he had long since forgotten. He quietly murmured something against your chest, “I’m glad you’re still alive.”

A pang of bittersweet shot through you, those words that were said to you many times when you were young. Words of endearment.

Softly, you whispered back, “I’m glad too,” you gently squeezed him, “I love you lots, Vergil.”

He let out a wet half-hearted laugh, tears welling at the edges of his eyes, “To think this was something any of us could only have merely dreamed of for so long,” his fingers gently grabbed your hand, intertwining them, “to be back together as a family.”

“I wouldn’t trade you both for the world,” your voice was low and soft, doing your best to sound as human as possible, “All I wanted was to have my brothers back…” now it was your turn to let out a huffed laugh on the verge of tears--or what would be tears if you could cry in this form, “I threw everything away in the pursuit of avenging the two of you--and Mother.”

“It’s almost poetic that the most hot-headed of the three of us would be the only one not to blindly follow something to the point of destruction,” this, of course, was in reference to Dante; a child who would regularly get in massive trouble for doing things he shouldn’t be doing.

The two of you shared a small laugh before a third voice broke the conversation.

“Hey! I’m back!” Dante waved to you as you unfurled your wings, letting Vergil out.

“Well,” Vergil stood, folding his arms, “Where are we then.”

“Here,” the red devil handed him a map, “Up in Northern Canada, I guess.”

“I see,” Vergil looked over the large North American map, finding Red Grave, and sighing heavily, “The trip through the portal will be rough and long, it is quite a distance to travel.”

“Eh,” Dante shrugged, “I’m sure we’ll all be fine.”

Vergil looked back at you, who had stood up as well, “Are you ready to go home?”

You looked at the ground for a moment in thought, “Home…” Before nodding slowly.

“Alright,” Vergil looked over the map one more time before handing it to Dante, “I will take us back to the house.”

“Why not Devil May Cry?” Dante raised a brow, stuffing the map inside an inner jacket pocket.

“Because I don’t know where that is,” he unsheathed Yamato and took a deep breath.

As the blue devil opened the portal, you moved towards Dante and grabbed his hand, whispering, “I don’t want to lose you.”

The red devil’s eyes widened as he turned up to you, unsure how to vocalize the sudden warm feeling in his heart; so, he squeezed your hand hard and smiled.

Vergil slid Yamato back into its scabbard, “Let’s go,” he stuck out a hand, which Dante grabbed tightly.

The three of you walked through the gap in dimensions. A portal created by Yamato is essentially a pocket dimension with extra steps; however, it can be used to transport the one who opened it as well--not just the items within.

It took what felt like a few minutes for the three of you when, in reality, it took nearly an entire day to traverse such a wide span. Once on the other side, the three of you stood within the destroyed remnants of your childhood home. You were the first to let go of your siblings and began to wander towards the mantle.

Upon it was the family painting. It was burnt beyond recognition. Although Eva was almost perfectly preserved and the twins’ were semi-damaged, Sparda and yourself were tattered to the point of not knowing what you looked like. You carefully reached toward the canvas and placed your fingers on the place you used to be. Perhaps it is some sort of pathetic irony that the only one who died in that fire is the only one whose portrait wasn’t damaged. The only one who was truly a saint amongst devils.

“Hey,” Dante gently touched your wing, making you flinch and pivot around, “Are you okay?”

You froze at the odd question. Were you? After everything that’s happened, are you still truly the same sibling they used to know? The same child that was eternalized in those oil paints? Or are you some sort of out-of-place and unwelcomed creature? Do you really belong up here with humans or should you still be in that crumbling building, waiting to be rescued by someone who will never come?

Dante grabbed your hand, “Let’s go to my shop, it is where I’ve been living since I was a teen,” he smiled softly, “I’m sure you’ll like it.”

A small whimpered huff came from you as you tightened your fingers around your brother’s.

“Wait,” Vergil folded his arms, “Perhaps it would be best for Dante to go first and see who is all at the shop? I do not wish for your first interaction with your nephew to be one of violence.”

Nephew?

Dante nodded, “Fair point, alright-- Fine, I’ll go make sure the ol’ beaut is shining and perfect.”

Vergil rolled his eyes, “If it is anything like it was when you first moved in,” he sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, “It is a disaster.”

“Hey, it wasn’t that bad and besides,” Dante let go of your hand, “It was your fault it got trashed in the first place, Verge.”

“Are you sure about that, Mister “Let me kick down my own doors”?”

“The shop was ruined already-- Look we can debate this later, I want to go get this done and finally get some good rest.”

“Fine, just,” Vergil grumbled, “be careful.”

“Aw, what was that oh sweet big brother of mine? Urk-!” Dante grabbed his shoulder which had a small blue sword stuck in his bicep.

The youngest twin waved goodbye and, once he turned back away from you both, used his Devil Trigger to get to the shop faster.

Once he got within the city limits, Dante de-Triggered and began to sprint down the sidewalk. The air was nice and cool, making Dante’s run feel rather rejuvenating; plus, it had begun to rain. It was late and not a soul was in sight, so Dante used Trickster to move even faster. He couldn’t wait to get home, to show both Vergil and you the shop. He joyfully hopped up the stairs and knocked on the doors.

No response. “Huh…” He peered around the corner and saw that the foyer lights were on, so he knocked again. This time, however, it was fast and hard; making sure to be as loud as he could without breaking the door.

The door slowly opened just a crack and a sleepy man's voice simply said, “We’re closed.”

Dante laughed, “Well, then, guess I’ll have to come home tomorrow then.”

There was silence. The door didn’t move, staying open just a crack. Dante could hear the heart rate of the man spike upon hearing those words. As if he were afraid to see, the door inched open; revealing a very disheveled-looking Nero.

“Man, I thought that I needed a haircu--umphf-!” Dante felt the air leave his lungs.

Nero grabbed his uncle into a tight hug, gripping handfuls of Dante’s jacket. Hot bitter tears ran down his face as he sobbed into the red devil’s neck.

Dante lovingly clasped his arms around the young man, “I missed you too, Nero.”

“I thought that,” his voice cracked, “that you weren’t going to come back.”

“And leave you to carry on the family business all by your lonesome? Not a chance,” he pulled back out of the hug, firmly holding Nero’s shoulders, “Look, I know that I have no right to ask you but, can you do me a favor? Just for tonight.”

The teal devil’s voice was apprehensive, having a feeling as to what was going to be said, “What?”

“Verge is with me,” he heard Nero sigh, “The two of you can settle things tomorrow… I need the shop to be calm tonight, please?”

“Why?” Nero didn’t mean to be so blunt but he couldn’t help but be a bit salty.

“Because,” Dante smiled, closing his eyes, “I’ve got a surprise family member for you to meet; I think they’d be called a ‘Pibling’..?”

“You and Vergil have another sibling? Since when?”

“Since they were born.”

Nero punched Dante’s shoulder harshly, “Very funny asshole.”

“Just promise me you’ll be nice? Please?”

“Alright, alright,” Nero sighed and wiped the few stray tears from his face, “So where are they?”

“I gotta go get ‘em. Unlock the garage door, yeah?”

“Sure,” Dante turned to leave before Nero called out to him, “Wait!” Nero stepped out of the shop and stood face-to-face with Dante.

They stood in silence for a moment before Dante softly sighed, “I promise I’ll be right back,” Dante ruffled up Nero’s hair.

Vergil sighed, resting on the partially still intact staircase, “It was an accident.”

You gave Vergil a sorrowful stare, “Have you told Dante about--”

“No,” the blue devil’s voice was sharp, “and you are not to tell him either,” he sighed and placed his forearms on his thighs, “Nero has been through enough, knowing that his mother did that… It would only make things worse.”

With a small nod, you looked up at the sky. It had begun to rain. The water was cold as you watched it fall, this had been the first time you’d seen rain since returning to the human world. You flinched for a few minutes from the droplets hitting your scales, however, you got accustomed to them bit by bit. After some time, you stood up and spread out your wings, watching the water roll off the tips and onto the desolated flooring of your childhood home.

Vergil watched from his seat with an amused smirk. Once again, the fact you seemed to be so innocent and child-like despite what happened piqued his interest. Upon seeing you shake off like a wet dog, he couldn’t help but laugh.

Noticing your brother’s odd reaction, you stared at him and watched as his face became flushed with embarrassment, turning away. Much to the blue devil’s ease, Dante appeared before you could question him.

“Alright kids,” Dante was standing in his Triggered form, his hands on his hips, “Let’s go, shall we?”

Both Dante and you stared a Vergil, waiting for him to Trigger.

After a few moments, Vergil stood up, “Fine…” A flash of cornflower blue filled the room and there stood Vergil in his regular Devil Trigger.

Dante wolf-whistled, “Been a while since I’ve seen you like that--Lookin’ good tiger,” he winked just to top off the corny line.

“Silence,” he glared at Dante, making you laugh slightly.

The three of you took off, the red devil leading the trio. It was difficult for you to travel at such low speeds, which made you almost hit both brothers several times during the flight. Often you’d find that you’d need to stop and wait before continuing, giving yourself small gaps to fly in. The twins found it rather amusing and even made a few jokes about how “Everyone has issues with finishing too fast” or things along that line--even Vergil made a few, much to Dante’s surprise.

The three of you landed in the back alleyway behind DMC. Both brothers de-Triggered and Dante bent over to pick up the roller shutter door.

“Welcome home, kids,” he smiled widely and placed his hands on his hips.

Nero stood in the garage, leaning against one of the workbenches, but stood up straight upon seeing the three of you.

Vergil was unable to look Nero in the eye, a strong feeling of guilt eating at his mind. You didn’t take all of two seconds before walking into the garage, ducking under the door, and walking up to Nero. Curious, you bent down to look at him closer. His eyes were wide and he was fighting the urge to grab Blue Rose from his side.

You curiously tilted your head and stared at him, “You’re smaller than I thought you’d be.”

Nero’s brow furrowed as he sputtered, attempting to figure out a response.

Carefully, you reached your hand out and ruffled Nero’s hair, “Soft…”

Dante snickered loudly, reveling in the embarrassed expression on Nero’s face.

The teal devil finally managed to say something, “What the fuck?”

“Hm?” You titled your head to the other side, still petting the top of his head.

“H-Hey! Knock it off!!” Nero unintentionally stuttered as he tried to look angry, which was completely ruined by the bright red tint of his cheeks.

“Oh! Sorry,” you removed your hand and stood back up straight.

“It’s fine, I guess,” he cleared his throat and regained his regular composure, “So, your Dante and Vergil’s sibling then huh?”

You nodded, “You’re Nero, right? Vergil’s son?”

“Tch. Right,” he glared at the blue devil from the corner of his eye, “His son.”

“I’m sorry-- maybe, your donor would be better? I didn’t mean to upset--”

Dante wheezed super loud and doubled over in laughter, making you turn to view your brothers.

“What is so funny?” You tilted your head.

“It’s nothing,” Vergil shook his head, “Dante is just immature.”

“Hey,” Dante stood back up, wiping tears from his eyes, “That’s harsh. You can’t tell me that isn’t funny.”

“It’s not,” Vergil’s tone was flat.

“Ehem,” the three of you turned to Nero, “Can we go inside? It’s late and I have a contract in the morning.”

“A con-tract?” You cocked your head to the side, “For what?”

“Uh… I don’t know if I should tell you. Seeing as your all,” Nero gestured up and down your body, “like that.”

“Like what?”

“I--”

Dante cut in, “Nero’s got a demon hunting job in the morning, it’s what he--and I--do for a living.”

“Ooo!” Your wings fluttered a bit in excitement, “Can I come?!”

“Can you-- what? Shouldn’t that be--?”

You laughed softly, “If you are worried about offending me, I assure you,” you leaned down and made eye contact with him, “I have killed more demons than any of you in this room and, moreover, eaten their corpses,” you tilted your head and had a happy tone to your voice, “Only good demon, is a dead demon.”

Nero stood with a pale expression.

Your elated state fell, “Did I say something wrong?”

Dante grabbed your shoulder, “Nope, he just thinks that you’re gonna kill us three too.”

“Oh no,” you shook your head, “We aren’t demons-- we are devils, there is quite a large difference.”

“R-right,” Nero swallowed hard.

“Welp,” Dante smiled widely, “Why don’t we go inside and relax for a bit?”

Coyly you nodded, embarrassed that you’d just freaked out your own nephew. The red and teal devil both went in the door, leaving you with Vergil.

Using one of your wings, you nudged him and gestured to the door with a nod, “Come on, let’s go inside.”

He went first and you followed, ducking under the frame. A sudden overwhelming melancholic feeling shot through your body. The shop was relatively clean; which, compared to how Dante left it, the shop may as well have been spotless. Both twins and Nero had moved further into the shop and were talking amongst themselves; you, however, were standing at the dividing line between the main section of the room and the small off-shoot that had the bar.

All you could do was stare, unable to move from your spot. Perhaps if you had the ability to, you would’ve cried.

“So,” Dante put a hand in his pocket, “How long have we been gone anyway?”

Nero pursed his lips as he stared at Vergil for a moment, “Nearly two years.”

“Holy shit,” the red devil stood in disbelief, “I-- I gotta call Trish and Lady in the mornin’... They’re gonna freak.”

“Yeah,” Nero’s eyes finally left Vergil, “They are supposed to stop by in the morning to pick up a contract Morrison left tonight, you could surprise ‘em then..?”

“Good idea pipsqueak,” he ruffled Nero’s hair, getting some venomous cursing in response, “So, my room still mine or you’d move into it?”

The teal devil gripped Dante’s forearm, trying to pull him off, “I didn’t touch your shit.”

“Ah, alrighty,” the younger twin removed his hand and placed it on Vergil’s shoulder, “Let’s go, Grandpa, it’s way past your bedtime.”

Vergil frowned but said nothing, much to Dante’s disappointment.

“What about them?” Nero pointed to you, who had moved ever-so-slightly into the foyer and were playing with the jukebox’s buttons (thankfully it still didn’t work fully).

“They’ll join me and Vergil,” a devilish smile filled Dante’s face, “Actually, you two wait down here--I’ll be right back.”

“Wait-- and he’s gone,” Nero pursed his lips and sighed. He turned to Vergil who still couldn’t look him in the eye, after a short pause, the young man walked over to the desk and opened the top drawer, “Catch.”

Vergil grabbed the object that Nero threw, it was Vergil’s poetry book.

“Been keeping it in case you two decided to return,” now it was Nero’s turn to not be able to look at the other, “Figured I should after what V told me about you.”

Vergil pursed his lips, “Thank you, Nero.”

“Yeah, whatever,” he scoffed, doing his best to keep his emotions in check, and walked over to you, “What are you trying to do?”

“I remember always wanting one of these when I was a kid,” you tapped the silver decoration on the top edge, “Sparda used to talk about jukeboxes quite often,” a bittersweet feeling filled your heart at the thought, unsure how to feel about your Father, “Told me for my sixteenth birthday that he’d get me one that I’d always fixated on,” you sighed, “But that was a long time ago, I doubt you care for stories like those.”

Nero leaned against the bar counter, “Actually, it is funny hearing about how much of a normal guy Sparda was after being raised in a cult that obsessed over the old man.”

“A Sparda-based cult? How stupid,” you laughed and turned to Nero, “He was just a devil, nothing more.”

“That’s what I thought,” Nero smiled.

A loud thump caught everyone’s attention. At the bottom of the stairs was a large pile of blankets and pillows. Dante was trotting down the staircase with a juvenile excitement on his face.

“Dante,” Vergil raised a brow and folded his arms, “What in the world is this about?”

“Well,” Dante walked over to the couches and grabbed the cushions from them, placing them on the floor, “I always wanted to have a sleepover when we were kids, but,” he grabbed some of the pillows he’d thrown, “was never allowed to or able to.”

“You’re joking, right?” A skeptical brow adorned the eldest’s face.

“Nope,” the red devil smiled and began to fold some of the blankets, continuing to make the nest of plush on the foyer floor, “I just spent two goddamn years in Hell and almost died countless times,” he closed his eyes and smiled wider, “and I would’ve died without having even one sleepover. So,” he tossed the last few blankets near the pile, “before I kick the bucket, I am having one.”

“And you are expecting Nero, myself, and them to join you?”

“E-yup!” Dante placed his hands on his hips, “Come on it’ll be fun.”

Nero’s lips turned to a flat line, “I don’t want to agree with Vergil, but, what the fuck?”

“I’ll do it,” you raised your hand slightly, “Although, I don’t sleep,” you began to mumble a bit, “The two of you always looked so cozy, but I didn’t want something to happen to you so…”

The red devil walked over to you and grabbed your hand, “Well then let’s change that, hm?”

He led you to the center of the nest and gestured for you to lay. Carefully, you did so and laid face-up with your wings tucked behind you, trying to give the others as much room as you could.

“This is pointless,” Vergil grumbled, moving his jaw in thought, pouting ever-so-slightly.

“No,” Dante smiled, “This is comfortable,” he flopped onto you, laying flat across your body

You laughed and placed an arm around Dante’s shoulders, holding your brother close.

Eventually, Vergil broke. With a heavy sigh, he hung his coat on the stair railing. He laid down beside you, his back facing you, to which you grabbed him and pulled him close.

Nero shook his head, “Nope, sorry, I’m gonna pass.”

“You sure?” Dante looked up at him, very obviously half-awake.

“Yeah. I’m sure alright,” with that, the young hunter turned off the shop lights, “I’ll see you all in the morning,” he stood with mouth agape before closing it with a shake and going up the stairs.

A few hours passed. You were feeling tired, at least, you think you were feeling tired; it had been so long since you’d slept that you weren’t sure if that’s what it was. Both twins were fast asleep and Vergil had turned to face you in his sleep, grabbing onto you tightly.

A deep bittersweet melancholic happiness tugged at your heart. Deep inside, you feared that this was all an elaborate nightmare and that, soon, this would all disappear; making you lose your family once again.

Creaking from the staircase pulled you from your thoughts. Before you could react, you saw Nero standing over you.

“Hey,” his voice was quiet and meek, “I uh…”

You removed your hand from Dante and patted the empty space beside you, which Nero immediately laid in.

Another hour passed and all three of the white-haired men were asleep. Nero’s actions echoed that of his father’s; starting with facing away from you and now he was gripping onto you as if he were going to be ripped away from you. Your eyes felt heavy and you were fighting the urge to close them, but you couldn’t help it. The loud purring from your family and the warm bundle that the group of fire devils created was enough to push you over the edge into a deep sleep.

The sound of a phone ringing woke you up, slowly blinking awake. A groan left your lips as you felt something (or rather someone) heavy laying on you.

Dante was still on top of your chest but he felt heavier for some reason. He felt much taller too. Both Vergil and Nero were still latched onto you, however, they’d settled to grab your arms instead of your chest. They, too, felt much heavier and larger.

An unexpected loud voice rang through one of your ears, “What on Earth?” The eldest shot upright, “You..!”

“Mmm, Verge,” Dante mumbled, his warm cheek was placed against your chest and he had drooled in his sleep, “What are you shouting for?”

“Dante, open your eyes.”

When the red devil did, he pushed up and stared down at you with wide eyes.

Quickly, he stood up and grabbed a free blanket, “Here, wrap yourself in this before the kid wakes up.”

Confused, you tried to pull your arm free, only to have Nero grip you tighter.

“Here,” Dante leaned back down and wrapped your body in the cloth.

That’s when you realized what had happened. Your skin was no longer covered in scales --your teeth were no longer too large for your mouth --your hands were no longer clawed.

No longer trapped in your state of survival.

You were what you once were all those years ago.

Human.

ENDING NOTES: Poems quoted: ❥The Book of Urizen; Chapter II, IX, Preludium: William Blake ❥Infant Joy: William Blake ❥The Little Boy Lost: William Blake--changed slightly; replaced “boy” with child. ➖➖➖ I hope y’all enjoyed this. It took me SOOOO long to finish this. Not sure if I’ll do something like this again, I couldn’t switch between writing this and then writing some “x reader” stuff (because it would bleed into one or the other.). Please let me know if y’all liked this or not! I’d love to hear feedback! Thanks again for the request and I hope everyone has a great day/night! :))))

Want to see more like this? Check out the book on AO3 or check out the Masterlist for Tumblr!

THERE IS ALSO ART THAT GOES WITH THIS BUT I AM TOO FUCKING TIRED TO DEAL WITH THAT RN LMAO IT IS SO LATE AND I HAVE SPENT SO LONG ON THIS (Not that I'm complaining, I enjoyed writing this; it just took so damn long lmao)

If anyone is interested, there is a chapter on my AO3 of all the scrapped content from this fic. As you could/can probably tell, there was so much stuff I wanted to put in this and just either didn't because of time or scrapped because it became too overly saturated with the stuff. Please give it a read, it actually explains some stuff that I left in (like the ceiling paintings for example).

58 notes · View notes

basiliskonline · 10 months

Text

I just finished a Court of Fey and Flowers by @dimension20official, it was absolutely amazing, hands down the best AP I have ever seen, or imagine I might see.

You can find it here.

As someone that is strongly anti-D&D 5E and Anti Wizards of the Coast, it took me a long time to give dimension 20 a chance, and I will strongly suggest that anyone in that same position give it a shot.

I am gonna talk about it below the cut here, cause this will likely be long, this will be things I both liked and didn't like.

So i'm gonna talk abit about my feelings and experience with games and APs, because we're all different, we all like different things in a TV Show and by extension those variable preferences would also expand to APs. So I want to give you a little bit of information about where I stand as I explain my thoughts. Sorry if this gets very SEO Recipe lmao.

If you don't care about all that, skip to the next bold line, however if you are gonna comment or argue or whatever, at least read the context first and then probably don't do that.

I've been gaming for 30+ years, I started very early, and i've played definately dozens, probably hundreds of different games. D&D doesnt even rank in that list, I didn't like it much as a kid, when i grew up and it was 3/3,5 I hated both it and pathfinder with a passion. I played 5E for a bit but its lackluster and very poor design led to a game of boring mechanical options and choices that quickly grew old. And if I was gonna play a narrative game, i wouldn't be playing D&D in the first place. 4E is the only edition of D&D I've actively enjoyed.

I was an immense Critter during Campaign 1 and partway through Campaign 2. Like... "my wife and I have Critical Role quotes engraved on our wedding bands" critters.

But I quickly fell away from both Critters and Critical Role, by and large Critters is the worst fandom ive been apart of (and I was a SuperWhoLock back in the day) and the CR cast talks a lot of nice ideals and backs them up with absolutely nothing but lip service. I am now, tbh, somewhat uncomfortable when I see any of them on my timeline.

Dimension 20 is the first AP my wife and I have tried to watch since CR (we find most APs to be unwatchtable in most situations, just our own preference), My wife was curious about seeing Brendan as a DM after watching him on Game Changer, so we watched Mice and Murder (it was fun, and good, but has NOTHING on aCoFaF), and then on a suggestion moved to watch aCoFaF).

Last piece of the puzzle, WotC is a fucking nightmare company that has harbored some of the worst pieces of trash imaginable (though tbf that is not unique to them, its a major "large/old ttrpg company issue". And I quite frankly would love to never have to hear or see about anything wotc ever does ever again, preferably because they burned down and everything they ever made goes with them (this sadly means I would lose 4E but sacrifices must be made).

Things I like about a Court of Fey and Flowers

The first thing I love about it, is its a very role play heavy AP, and it centers on matters of Political fey intrigue, and that is done so masterfully by every single player and by the GM. (I absolutely avoided D20 because of the DnD/WOTC connection, but I in retrospect absolutely understand the whole "Season of Aabria" that was going around now).

The characters were thrilling, dramatic, sneaky, nuanced and hilarious, and the storyline was gorgeous and beautifully made, allowing the players to make their own messes and their own relationships and romances. So much romances.

I absolutely loved that I didn't have to see dnd 5e be played most of the time. This is something, and one of the only somethings, you'll see me talk about in the "don't like" section, so it is strangely enough both. The system was changed and mostly ignored that I almost never had to see dnd played, the AP is so heavily social and rp and during the state of the AP only had two very very short combats that were more priority on the social implications of the combats than the combat itself. Overall it could have used any system and done what they did, but mostly I didn't have to see 5E played and that made it pretty solid, despite "being 5E".

I also love Brennan Lee Mulligan's Captain KP Hob, a very good bab and the first and only Bugbear PC ive seen in an AP (and I love me some Bugbear)

Thing's I didn't like about a Court of Fey and Flowers

This is gonna stay light, because really there wasn't much. The only thing really is that the system, while ostensibly "5E" the system was so lightly applied, used or stuck to that the game could have used almost literally any other system to better affect and I absolutely hate that they still gave 5E and WOTC some sort of props/bandwidth by barely using the system but still selling it as DnD.

#Dimension 20 #a court of fey and flowers #dnd hate tag #actual play #mine #ttrpg

34 notes · View notes

hyperfixation-symposium · 1 year

Text

QSMP messy lore summary - Day 65

As a reminder I write these for a friend and drop them on here with little to no editing. May contain mistakes, personal opinons, or be out of order. Enter at your own risk and all that.

The start of the day was pretty calm! Foolish logged on to learn that Bad had set up the scavenger hunt for the pritzas he had wanted (he says pritza. I don't know what else to tell you. It's a pizza) and waited for Leo to be up to start. The two had a lot of fun doing it even if it was pretty easy and overall it was just adorable. 10/10 Foolish Leo moments.

Tazercraft duo logs on to see that Quackity took Richarlyson and while there was notes left for Cellbit and Forever there wasn't for them. They often feel like the forgotten dads of the Brazilians even tho they love Richarlyson and it's :(((

Lore can't wait forever tho, and Forever logs on (lmao) to hear about it too. He interprets such as Quackity kidnapping Richarlyson and plans on working to get him back. He sees Cellbit is in the federation base under the wall thanks to the map and goes to stalk him once he's out.

Cellbit wakes up in the same Federation hospital that Max did after getting attacked by the code, noting that the federation saved his life. As they leave, he insists he wants to join the federation and Cucurucho indulges this. He asks Cellbit to gather information on some of the new members that Cucurucho did on day 1. Cellbit agrees, not knowing that Forever is spying on them. Also the federation is building something in the wall apparently!

Cellbit gathers everyone in the Favela to apologize for being in a silly funky mood yesterday, sorry but he's fine he swears! He just thinks they shouldn't leave the island and maybe they should help the federation! No one, not even the French, are buying his shit. He tries to subtly ask some of the French the questions Cucurucho gave him and Etoiles is just NOT having it lmao. He presses Cellbit who lies and says he has a book with information on everyone on the island. Etoiles also has like 10 jobs apparently. (detective, soccer player, half of the French daft punk, adventurer, akdbsknd god he's funny)

Forever and Cellbit have a conversation that is badly translated AGAIN but Cellbit doubles down on taking Richarlyson from Forever and says the Order means nothing to him and the federation is right.

I have to leave around here so things are fuzzy but! Cellbit talks to Roier who has been through a bad betrayal on the island and agrees to stay by Cellbit's side no matter what. My ship keeps winning. Cellbit ends his stream by letting notes from his document scroll through on stream, revealing that THIS IS A PLAN!! It's not going how he originally planned it, but the commercial and the lying (which did hurt a bit? I think?) gave him a good excuse to 'betray' the others. The Richarlyson court case gives him a chance to publically reveal anything he learns in front of the whole server, and if they hurt him, he gets to be a martyr for the Order. He believes that revealing it to stream this way stops the Federation from learning about it (he believes that maybe the Federation can watch streams) and it seems to have worked! The update accounts, who canonically are part of the QSMP census bureau, have made no comment on his plan :)

Forever meets up with Baghera and Bad individually. Baghera doesn't trust Cellbit and stands by Forever's side 100% (my FAVORITE siblings on this server I stg) and Bad seems conflicted, still wanting to believe this is a plan, but stands by Forever 100% as well. When Richarlyson's "kidnapping' is brought up, Bad explains he saw them last night and kept an eye on where they went so could possibly get them close.

Bad and Forever do manage to find Richarlyson, who explains he's not kidnapped and wants to be here. However, Quackity is cringefail as usual and didn't even make a good safehouse for Richarlyson. Forever tries to convince him to at least stay with the Tazercraft duo and Richarlyson talks to Pac and Mike offstream. It's thought that he's staying with them :)

Finally, Bad and Dapper show off their sick new base that they're making from a huge old dungeon that they found. I'm convinced this man doesn't sleep. (Unironically Dapper seemed worried bc Bad was up basically until Dapper woke up after leaving the night before. These two...)

Forever has teased on Twitter that he found something big and will be talking about it today!

#qsmp #q!bad #q!Cellbit #q!Forever #q!Etoiles #q!Foolish #I dunno who all should be tagged hopefully this works #my ass is sleepy snnzzz mimimimi #🔍

30 notes · View notes

piinkyypriincess · 4 months

Text

LETTER'S TO MY LOVELY

Shinichi Okazaki x American!OC

"I Love You."

Main Pairing ~ Shinichi Okazaki x American!OC

Warnings ~ Possessive thoughts, obsession, grooming, denial, pedophiles, suggestive thoughts, and repeating the cycle of abuse.

Spoilers ~ Yes!

Masterpost ~ Here.

Beta Read/Edited ~ No (No Beta Lmao)

Word Count ~ 2.4k Words.

Chp Summary ~ From the moment Shin met her, he knew he had a developing issue. Her brown skin would bruise a pretty purple under his lips if he had it his way.

Chp 2 ~ Ironic is the Sweet Symphony

It was too bad that Shinichi thought the same thing about her; a performer is what he truly was.

A poison apple in his own eyes. A wolf in sheep's clothing.

Penelope was sweet with her doe eyes and gummy smile.

Instead of preserving the sweetness of her syrupy eyes and sugary smile, he wanted to devour all the sweetness she would give him.

Innocence of his own to take, and taste.

A sweetness for him to have a hold on, and because people were cruel, Shin knew that best of course.

The Innocence of children is stolen by vultures who feast on their sugary trail of soft smiles and kind eyes; just like hers.

Shin thought of innocence of his own that was taken and abused.

Penelope was reserved, a naive girl who was hesitant with her every move and self conscious more than the average woman.

A girl is what she was.

Truly Shin was no man, but he smelled the sweetness that poured from the girl's thick lips even before he stepped foot on the train.

In that moment he shook her supple hands, and caught sight of that childish sparkly nail polish that chipped from her stubs for nails; he knew he'd never let anyone taste her sweetness if he had her. No one would abuse her as long as he kept her near him, nobody could as long as he could conceal the smell of her honey with his own.

She'd be ruined in Chofu, the naive foreigner she was.

Shin quickly decided as he scooted himself closer to her, that he would never talk to her again if he could.

Shin was good at acknowledging his own faults, and others too. He strived to improve himself as the best he could while bleeding with the abuse other ignorant adults inflicted on him.

He had a sweetness that invited abuse of all kinds with a soft smile and compliant body.

“So, how do you know English? Your accent is different from mine as well. Did you grow up here or somewhere else - wait! Is that an ignorant question to ask? I'm sorry,” Penelope's voice seemed naturally hushed, the sweet melody of her voice chiming through the stuffy metro air. The American girl fiddled with the cuticle of her index finger, picking at the skin.

Shin decided to spare her from her endless overthinking, her awkwardness was almost kind as she attempted small talk.

“I'm Swedish and Japanese. I attended a school in Britain for a bit so my English has a Swedish-British accent.” Not wanting to reveal more than that, Shin took control of steering the conversation to speak more about her. He was always assertive when he spoke, it was the way he was taught in formality and etiquette lessons.

Looking down at the map in her hand, Shinichi thought he'd ask, “Where are you heading this late, dear Penelope?” He teased with a sly smirk.

The map appeared to be marked up in a hot pink pen with side notes at the left white margin. She took a glance down at the map and gasped softly as if she forgot that it was in the hand she was picking at.

“Oh! I'm uh, I'm a transfer student at um - The new academy in Shinjuku. Star Academy of Fine Arts. I start next - ” She pauses her sentence and avoids eye contact nervously as she thinks of when she starts school. Shin smiles at the immature quirk.

The girl looks back into his eyes with a glint that says she remembers the date, “April, twenty-eighth! With my course undecided,”

Her big eyes widen a touch, the overhead light glinting in her brown irises as she realizes she's overshared a touch, and not actually answered the boy's question.

“I'm staying at a hotel for now,” Penelope nodded proud of herself for telling Shin, a practical stranger, where she would reside for a school year.

She shouldn't share that much. Even the tiniest scrap of information some creep will take advantage of and try to find her.

Just like Ryoko did with him.

“Ryoko's not a creep,” He reminds himself despite being consciously aware, she's using him in every way she can.

Shin hummed at the information with a small smile, and was going to ask another leading question when she surprised him and asked him one first.

“Where do you go to school?” Shin grimaced at the question and chuckled trying to think of an answer.

The brown-haired boy was always a good liar, ever since he was a child - he is a child -

Shin shakes his head a bit, bangs falling in his eyes with his faux laughter at the fleeting thought.

He couldn't tell the smaller how he'd cut class and ran away from home. How he didn't know what to do with himself now that he was practically free.

Minus the chain he'd wrapped around his neck and handed the long end to Ryoko, who he was staying with.

As long as he laid underneath her every night with fake starry eyes, and moaned softly into the early hours of morning; he was well taken care of.

“Seikou Academy for Boys is where I'm headed, in Shinjuku,” Shin partially lied to the girl.

He was headed there as punishment for his behavior with his stepfather; the wretched man itching to be rid of the insect that invaded his home.

Penelope nodded ignorantly and gave a small grin, not knowing what the elite school was. Everyone who heard about Seiko Academy knew that it was filled to the brim with snobbish boys who would live, and die, off of Daddy's money.

The Okazaki family was known for their capitalism and cash.

They owned most of Europe and Asia, old money that owned the land before industrialism took off. Seiko Academy was a small island for rich boys owned by Okazaki Institutions.

Shinichi left the first chance he could when his Father mentioned it, and he hadn't looked back since.

“Oh cool!” She said enthusiastically, scooting into his dampness, the girl grew a bit braver to continue.

“I like your earrings, where are they from?” She said looking at the silver adorning his ears.

Shin smirked knowingly to himself, “They're Vivienne Westwood, a big brand in England! It's even bigger in the punk scene,” His boyish grin stretched wider as the girl's eyes scrunched slightly in curiosity.

“The punk scene?” She raised a brow, turning to face him with a slight tilt of her head.

Shin swallowed the saliva that pooled in his mouth, along with the attraction he felt to her natural girlishness.

It wasn't like the forced one that Ryoko put on.

God, how he'd fucking ruin her if he had her.

His fingers twitched in want, he used them to twirl a curl of her hair around his finger. He figured she wouldn't mind, she was too open with his inviting affections.

“Yeah, punk rock! I love playing the bass,” He did love the bass. The comfort of the sound ricocheting off his blue bedroom walls, the weight of his bass in his hand, the custom blue strap around his shoulder.

Shin loved the bass more than any of the hoard of instruments that his father forced him to learn, much to the older man's dismay.

“The bass! You want to be a bassist?” Shin took a second to think about it, a small scrunch forming between his brows.

The girl's curls were soft, unlike Ryokos which had a rougher texture and crunch from the mouse she used to scrunch her hair.

Her hair was stiff with product that stunk of sour chemicals as she attempted to volumize what slight wave she had naturally into looking like crimped curls.

The girl's hair was the total opposite.

Penelope's was soft in touch, natural and springy. She had a girlish scent with the sweet smell of candy and floral haircare.

Jackpot.

He bit the inside fat of his mouth, releasing it, and smiled.

Besides being a prostitute to women and men, what would he do? Would he sell himself for the rest of his life? It's not like sex work was a particularly bad job. The boy shrugged, not entirely sure.

“I dunno what I want to do. But being a bassist would be cool!” He says gnawing on the flesh of the corner on his lip.

The boy played with the buckle of the belt he held after he let go of the spring of long black hair. The belt was the only item he refused to leave with his woman of the night along with his earrings.

Sometimes his clients had a particularly sick quirk where they wanted to parent him. Especially when he was even younger than their kids.

It was like the guilt they had chewed at their flesh and blended over into their kinks. They'd dress him in casual attire that was two sizes too big for his slender body, and showed off his prominent collarbones where lovebites bruised over.

It was like they were displaying that he was a plaything even if he wasn't with his clients outside.

Taking in the dark gold brown of the girl's skin, he thought she would look ravishing with a reddish-purple scabbing around her neck -

“You totally don't seem like a punk rocker, but I think if you wanna be a bassist you should go for it if you have the opportunity.” She remarked with a soft encouraging smile.

Shin took a deep breath and looked up back at her warm eyes. She was so oblivious from when he looked down her neck and chest.

“Yes,” He internally decided. A reddish purple, mulberry, color would blossom from the blood vessels being abused underneath her soft umber skin.

He would treasure her every day and night.

Those glossy lips stretched beautifully to show the pinkish brown of her gums.

Those glossy lips stretched gorgeously around his - Shin shuttered a breath.

Shin had met a plethora of naive people, but her sheer cluelessness from being both a foreigner in Japan and so defenseless as a childish girl.

It was like looking into a mirror image of his past self.

Shin kept eye contact with the girl who darted her vision on different objects on the metro nervously.

Shin huffed a laugh, “You think so, Penelope?” Shin loved the way her name rolled off his tongue, his Swedish accent heavy when pronouncing all the syllables.

The girl looked into his hazel coffee orbs with her syrupy maple ones. Her eyes were so wide and glossy that Shin thought they must have been doll eyes. Thick dark lashes lined her eyes, the feminine feature standing out starkly even without makeup.

She nodded her head and tilted it again to the left side instead of the right.

“Absolutely! I mean - Possibilities are the endless opening for more opportunities. If you're good at playing then why not try to be a bassist, right?” She remarked wisely, as if that sentence had been constantly repeated in her mind.

Shin hummed and looked down at his designer belt. The Vivienne Westwood sovereign orb was in the middle and the belt itself was long so it hung down past his thigh.

What if he joined a band? Shin was confident in his abilities, being not only professionally trained but passionate. He could do something else with his life other than have sex for money, he would.

Shin had plenty of opportunities for prostitution, but none for music.

Maybe he was born for other people to find pleasure in his body, and him to find solace in their company.

“Silver looks quite nice on your skin tone,” The girl quipped nervously, chewing on the middle of her lip as she worked herself up to continue the dwindling conversation.

Shin cut his eyes back over to her doll-like ones.

She was just a girl, slowly grasping the reigns of young adulthood. She was what Shin should be like instead of a grown-up in a boy's body.

While he was a man playing coy, trying to still be a boy for money; she was a girl going through life the way a normal teen should.

Shin had been deprived of childhood even when he was wealthy. He bit the hand that fed him because he was sick of bad parenting.

He was sick of hateful eyes that looked at him like he was the scum of the Earth.

While the true scum of the Earth gazed upon him like he was crafted with rare diamonds and gold.

It was ironic how difficult life was. It was ironic how the childish girl's words stuck with him.

He mulled over the motivational line he wouldn't have expected from the bumbling girl.

“Thank you, Penelope,” Shin started, his tongue heavy in his mouth. The train started to slow and Shin rose from his seat, taking the brown girl up with him by her hand.

The metro squealed to a stop, and the double sliding doors opened with a pop and squeaking noise of plastic against metal.

With a kiss on the back of her hand, Shin smiled genuinely and wrapped her fingers around his belt.

Years later, Shin still questioned himself on why he gave a random girl the belt his clients typically used on him.

His eyes scrunched closed as he stepped outside of the metro doors. He gave the sweet girl one last look before ripping his hungry eyes away from her.

“Thanks for everything, Penelope,” He said before turning to walk down the station, blending in with the hoard of people coming in and out of the trains.

If he even stayed another second trapped inside that boxcar with her, he was sure he would taint what was left of the innocents ebbing off of her.

The next month, Shin was walking around Chofu with his bass inside his gig bag strapped to his back as he bought a new belt.

It was ironic how Shin found a band poster outside an antique shop called Sabrina looking for a bassist.

Shin entered the shop with a boyish grin spread across his face looking for a woman named Nana Komatsu. The woman was like an overgrown child, a puppy who squealed and squeaked with delight over the smallest of actions is what he learned as they typed up a resume using her boss’s computer.

“Possibilities are the endless opening for more opportunities,” Penelope whispered sweetly like a guiding symphony in his head.

It was ironic how ironic life was; Shin would take this opportunity and run with it for now.

I was so happy when you told me that night that my words actually helped you follow through with joining Blast. That my random motto is what you heard as you performed for Nana.

You never ruined me, Shinichi, you never would, you never could, and now, you never will.

I Love You,

Penelope.

17 notes · View notes

chayscribbles · 7 months

Text

chayscribbles’ monthly writing update ☆ october 2023

☆ STATISTICS.

words written: my writing tracker spreadsheet says 21 543 but a lot of that was just rewriting The Gemini Heist in preparation for nano so does that really count

projects worked on: The Gemini Heist

proudest accomplishment: i was actually able to make a decision about what to do for nano weeks before november and i haven't changed my mind yet, although there are still 12 hours before november so who knows, really

☆ GENERAL COMMENTS.

sooooooooo i don't remember if i mentioned it yet but Andromeda Rogue is on a bit of a hold at the moment because editing was making me miserable and i think i need some time to step back. sorry to anyone who wanted to see it published sooner than later but i was struggling lmao.

anyways, i'll be doing gemini heist for nano!

more specific wip-related comments + featured excerpt below.

☆ COMMENTS: THE GEMINI HEIST (draft 0)

i'm gonna try to get the shittiest draft of this wip done for nano because it's been dragging on for sooooo long (i've had the idea simmering in my head since spring 2022 and started drafting in summer 2022) and i feel like if i don't just dew it i'll never get anywhere with it.

also because the longer it stays in that nebulous unwritten state the more i tweak with it and the most likely it is to break. i think i've broken it a few times already and had to restart lmao. if that makes sense.

anyways i'm hoping to at least get the general structure of the story down by writing the shittiest draft imaginable, an at least taht way i have something concrete to build on.

i did cheat a bit in october tho and rewrote the beginning chapters of gemini heist that i'd already written. partly to get back into the feel of this wip and partly to fix some stuff that simply didn't work anymore after nearly a year of tweaking, and it was driving me insane to know those discrepancies existed.

☆ FEATURED EXCERPT.

because it's halloween and because this update is kinda short, here's a treat: a slightly longer excerpt! this is before Illiana joins the Sirens on their mission, and she is not having a good time.

[Illiana] yanked on the handle. The door opened, and she stumbled into her musty-smelling motel room. Two plasma shots greeted her. Illiana dropped to the floor just in time to avoid getting the top of her hood singed. She blindly flung out her arm towards the silhouette standing over her bed. Heat pooled in her palm, exploding into a gust of violet light that struck her attacker in the thigh. But they were not to be deterred. Charging at her with barely a limp, they thrust a weapon— they were moving too fast for Illiana to be able to make out what kind of weapon it was exactly— and fired again. This time, Illiana aimed for their hand, reaching out with her power, creating a brilliant arc that wrapped itself around their wrist. With a flex of her fingers, she tugged at the light like a cord as hard as she could. The assailant stumbled forward and bumped their head on the corner of the scuffed up dresser. They let out a high pitched yowl, the weapon falling to the floor with a clatter. Illiana was only able to catch a glimpse of the symbol stamped on the blaster’s side before she kicked it under the bed and out of her attacker’s reach, but it was enough for her to recognize the diamond crest of the House of Dyonas’ special guard. Up until that moment, Illiana had been operating on an automatic fight response, but upon seeing the symbol, panic shot through her body. Disarming them was completely pointless, she realized. The attacker proved it a second later as they slammed a glowing purple fist into Illiana’s chest. For an agonising moment, her ribs and lungs and heart felt like they were both blazing hot and freezing cold at once. It took a monumental effort to take in a single breath, as if a giant invisible hand were wrapped around her, squeezing, squeezing, squeezing. Through the haze in her mind, she managed to focus her own energy into her chest and explode it around her like a bomb, releasing her from their grasp. By Fiolsgadd, Illiana thought wildly, stumbling backwards into the doorway once the suffocating feeling passed and she could gasp for air. Kalen’s fiolsridder have found me.

☆ TAGLISTS. let me know if you want to be added/removed to any of them.

general taglist:

@nicola-writes @dgwriteblr @the-orangeauthor @onomatopiya @quilloftheclouds @ashen-crest @writeblrfantasy @celestepens @stardustspiral @pepperdee @extra-magichours @avi-why @lefttigerobservation @chazzawrites @bardolatrycore @innocentlymacabre

gemini heist taglist:

@florraisons @akindofmagictoo @cream-and-tea @nicola-writes @memento-morri-writes @antique-symbolism @rose-bookblood @afoolandathief @pepperdee @avi-why @zonnemaagd @chazzawrites @analogued @enchanted-lightning-aes @innocentlymacabre @kahvilahuhut @celestepens @cilly-the-writer @extra-magichours @onomatopiya @outpost51

🎃👻HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!!🍬🦇

#chayscribbles writing update #wip gemini heist

16 notes · View notes

meraki-yao · 2 months

Note

Omg I don’t like the live adaptions for Disney movies across the board so I just didn’t want to watch the little mermaid and I was so worried people would think it was because of racism! I’m sure she was great in the role and I absolutely did not care that they cast a black woman in the role but I wasn’t going to watch the movie for a million other reasons! None of them having to do with Halle! (Sorry Halle!)

I... I can freaking write an essay on my opinions on live-action Disney remakes. The only one I see of any actual value, which ended up becoming one of my all-time favourite movies, is 2015 Cinderella. It wasn't a one-to-one remake of the original, the costume and cinematography actually looked like a fairy tale book. It also improved upon the flaws of the original, namely giving the Prince a clear personality and backstory, giving Ella and Kit a chance to connect before the ball, cutting down the animal bits, giving Lady Tremaine an understandable yet logical reason for her behaviour, and give Ella a stronger, clearer character as well. It might as well be a new Cinderella movie, separate from the 1950 animated one.

The rest have a lot of flaws and do not add much to the original story while actively diminishing certain messages in the original.

(Spoilers for live-action remakes of Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King and The Little Mermaid, also I went on a rant again lmao)

In Beauty and the Beast 2017, Gaston is painted more sympathetically as he actually helped Maurice, and Belle comes off as arrogant and impolite. Instead of the library being a gift from the Beast to Belle which was a monumental change in their relationship, the library was just Beast judging Belle's taste in books and showing off how well-read he is. It isn't endearing.

In Lion King 2019 (holy shit I'm mad at this one, I mentioned this before but I was such a Lion King fangirl when I was younger) they removed Be Prepared, one of the best Disney Villain songs ever, and took away the menacing factor of Scar. Scar bitch slaps Mufasa and “Long Live the King” was more or less shouted, which just takes away the horror of the sudden, quiet betrayal of the original whispered "Long Live the King" and killing Mufasa by letting go and having him fall to his death. Daylight was present throughout the entire "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" scene. Mufasa didn't appear as this almost religious, God-like figure in the clouds, it was just the clouds because of realism, and that makes the scene so much weaker because there's not a figure to visualize. The CGI was so focused on getting the anatomy right that they completely forgot how animals emote (animals can be extremely expressive) so all of them appear expressionless

In The Little Mermaid 2023, the musical numbers were arranged and filmed/edited in a way that takes away the charm of the original. For example, in "Under the Sea", during the bridge where Sebastian ticks off a list of different sea creatures performing, instead of showing said sea creatures during each line like the lyrics intend, it just shows random stuff randomly. They added an instrumental break that slowed down the song's momentum and didn't rebuild it. And why is Ariel singing Under the Sea when she's trying to leave the sea??? Also, I usually love Lin Manuel Miranda's songs, big fan of In the Heights, Hamilton, and the music of both Moana and Encanto, but the new songs he wrote for the movie didn't add anything, and actually dragged the movie in places that should have been quicker, like Scuttle butt. The reason Triton came to terms with Ariel's longing for the land and gave her legs in the end is because he saw Eric kill Ursala for Ariel, which disproved his original opinions of humans being selfish, dangerous creatures. In the remake, 1, Triton straight up died when Ursala took his trident, so he didn't see the final battle at all 2, Ariel, a mermaid who has never been on a ship's deck before, heck from the movie I don't she even saw a functioning steering wheel, somehow managed to accurately steer a ship, in the middle of a storm and a giant whirlpool, while having no legs, that's not reasonable 3, even if Triton was there to watch, Eric didn't do shit in the final battle and was basically useless, so why would Triton change his mind? The whole point of Triton's trajectory in the original was him getting over his prejudice towards humans and learning to understand Ariel's perspective. That entire arc was rushed and more or less gone in the remake. And see how none of the issues I mentioned above have to do with casting Halle? It's entirely about the storytelling and the musical arrangements

Ok I did not mean to make this so long, I got carried away lol can you tell I'm passionate about the subject

Someday I think I'll write proper Disney essays

Tagging two of my Disney friends/mutual cuz I kinda wanna hear your opinions: @pippin-katz @lfg1986-2

#anon ask #answered #meraki essay #disney #disney live action remake

3 notes · View notes

humanitys-strongest-bamf · 6 months

Note

hey, kat. it is that anon.

i just came here to apologize for just ....yeah....how that all went down. i wrote that message in haste. i'm abc so when i saw your post my first thought was "wow kinda not cool of them to say that" but then i thought about how i would've posted the same thing if my relatives were fatshaming me. i agree with you that--especially in a predominantly white society--that we have every right to speak to our identities and cultures, including their unrealistic beauty standards.

i looked through your about-mes and couldn't find any mention of your identity, not that you have to disclose that tho. at the time, i tried to think "how can i tell this person that what they said is not ok if they are not-chinese, but that they have every right to (and i can relate) if they are?" and obviously i did a poor job conveying that. i was weighing the possibility that you were white and saying something racist against the possibility that you were also chinese and you had the right to say that.

didn't want to come off anon because we're moots who just haven't really talked much and i don't want to get off on the wrong foot because i was hoping to become friends eventually. i'm not sure if i can salvage things, so if you want me to just unfollow that's fine.

once again very sorry for my miscommunications. like i said, i was feeling kinda fiery as i thought about the possibility of that post coming from a white person. i hope my apology can bring you some peace. wholeheartedly, i hope you are okay and im sorry once again.

(editing bc I was too stoned to see the part about you being abc alskdkfjfg)

honestly, i think the main thing was that this could have been avoided if you had dm'd me. i'm a *tad* less agitated about it now because i've had time to process and took some anxiety meds.

and thank you for taking the time to clarify. i appreciate it. and again, i get it. you were trying to watch out for a marginalized group. communicating through text is difficult.

tldr;

- you don't have to salvage anything - me explaining the white savior complex a bit more, although I appreciate you clarifying about being abc (so am I!) - although i'm still not okay with the original ask i do appreciate you reaching out again and taking the time to clarify - i'm sorry for being so hostile about it /gen - if you do want to chat feel free to dm (whether about this or hornyposting - i'm stoned af rn lmao and am chilling, esp now that you've taken the time to clarify/reach out)

i wouldn't worry about salvaging anything because it doesnt need to be. you taking the time to type this out already says the world about your position and intentions as more genuine and, honestly

most people don't know. my main gripe was the feeling that someone was trying to come in and shut my voice down. with the invalidation that i have dealt with personally, but also as a community that is constantly having our voice stomped on, the comment about feeling the right to say it was what set me off.

I'm sorry I just kinda assumed you were white (guess we were in the same boat there lmao), but a huge thing that irks me in general (not isolated to this obvs), is that a lot of the people that do these types of callouts are usually someone with multiple dominant identities, and rarely the identity of the group they're trying to protect. and this is a huge problem in the social work field especially because the dominant group is *constantly* speaking FOR the marginalized group, regardless of its what they want or not.

anyway, i'm glad you reached out. i'm still not okay with the ask, but you bringing clarity to it does make it a bit easier to deal with. if you want to come off anon and dm me, i'd be glad to talk and chat, even if it's about this (or levi ackerman's cock idrc)

with anons, comes an extra layer of unease, animosity, and uncertainty, so the potential for miscommunication is very high. but again, the fact that you came out, clarified, despite technically not even needing to because i never would've figured out who you were anyway, says much more about your intentions and authenticity (positive) more than anything else could have

sorry i was so hostile in my responses. this is clearly something i've had to tell people off about. my offer still stands, if you want to dm, please feel free (i'm nice once you get to know me i swear LMAO) to

#kat chats #cw: racism #cw: weed #tw: discourse #maybe? idk #anyway sorry i freaked out the bpd kinda possessed me this afternoon #hope i didnt scare you off i'm normally nice i swear ksjfksdjfkjdsf

4 notes · View notes

Last Seen Blogs

jonathan-scarecrow-crane

The Personal Blog of Dr. Jonathan Crane

yuzukiyoru

yoru

308hair

3.08HAIR&MAKE-UP

maslanagain

Male

kaji-kokoro

Kaji