voice: un: darkSlayer

[kowase]

WHO: Vergil Vittore and You
WHERE: Libra App, his home
WHEN: May 1st
WHAT: Bear. In his house. Thought you'd like to know.
WARNINGS: Rated B for Bear.

[ whats more impressive than Vittore making one willing, public post to a social media network? Vittore making a second one after what a headache the first one was. and every other time he'd used this blasted network
But right now? right now, he feels he has no choice and he is FIGHTING to keep a calm demeanor as he leans up behind a cabinet he has pushed in front of the bathroom door. calm. ]

Greetings, Libra users. Vergil-- Vittore here again. I hope that I am not being too much of a bother on what I assume is another lovely Spring morning in Kaisou. But I have a very small request I'd like to put out to you.

If any of you have seen my brother Dante within the last hour or so, please, can you try to get ahold of him for me. He went out a while ago, I assume, to go spend the money I gave him for his work this week. I--

[ and then there's the very loud sound of something BREAKING over the voice call, and Vergil's voice, which up until this point was very calm, suddenly cracks JUST a little as he tries to continue the call with just as much calmness he had at the start. ....but what with how an Italian accent is starting to show in some words, it seems he's not as calm as he sounds. ]

I can hear his phone in his room.
He forgot it.

And as I have come upstairs to my apartment, somehow, some way, there is.

There is a Bear. There is a bear in my apartment and it has started to wander.

Please, if any of you can help--

[ ... and now is a great place for there to be a loud QUACK from somewhere very close to where vergil is. he makes a withering, irritated sound in his throat. ]

I swear if you're the reason the damn thing finds us, I will roast you whole.

[ help. ]

Comments

[kowase]

[ it's not like he meant to rain on your huge success or anything. he saw Dante's face transform when he started intimidating the bear at first--he knew he and his brother, and Nox were all demons but. Being faced with it so close; who knew that'd be the trigger for a literal nightmare.

He can FEEL dante's hands on his face through the thing, which is the worst part. It's like being third-person in your own body, the muffled sound of dante speaking--no, begging him to come back out of whatever it was that was playing like a horror film behind his eyelids.

And it's over as quickly as it began. He's back in reality, Dante's forehead is pressed against his own. There are hands on his face--pale, pallid and somewhat clammy to the touch as he struggles to find the words in his throat.

His throat that feels raw from screaming, though he never actually uttered a word at all. ]

...--You. [ noone came. Noone came to save him, he DESPERATELY called for someone to please, please come rescue him.

But noone came. ]

You came for me, this time. [ a low breath, a shaky laugh, as his hands move to grip the front of dante's coat. He feels so fucking weak--and the shame that comes with it makes him want to wrench away, hide himself. like he'd shown some pathetic side of himself to someone who he ever only wanted to look strong in front of. what the hell was he supposed to do?

he laughs again. low, manic. ]

You actually came for me this time.

[advivo]

[ you came for me, this time.

dante breathes out a shudder, clamping his eyes shut in an effort not to look at his brother's face, at the expression laid upon it. the memory flashes across his vision, the heat of the fire licking at his face, the tight grip of eva's hand around his ─ he had cried them, begged her to stop because vergil is still out there where is vergil mother we can't heave vergil behind. ]

Yeah, [ it's all he can croak out as vergil's hands grip at his coat. ] I'm here. I'm here.

[ he could only ever imagine what that had been like for vergil, what had happened to him after he had run off after their fight. dante had thought he must have died, just like their mother, he had thought he failed his brother just as much as he failed their mother. he had been so weak then, unable to do anything but hide in the closet as she told him, unable to do anything but cry himself into exhaustion as their whole lives crumbled around him. ]

I'm sorry I wasn't there back then, I'm sorry I ─ [ the guilt is stupid and irritational, he was a kid, they were both kids. what could they have done in the face of the demonic force that came from them? they could barely wield the weapons left for them let alone protect themselves and their mother. still, the guilt sits in his stomach like a stone, guilt for back then, guilt for right now. ]

I'm here.

[kowase]

...Why are you apologising?

[ it's... illogical, to his brain. He, as he is now--not the man who'd suffered at the hands of a dozen demons out for his blood. Who desperately begged to be saved, who survived only by sheer determination to stay alive. who blamed a mother who didn't know where he was, and a child who, like him, couldn't possibly fight back the onslaught that chased him down for his blood. for his father's blood. ]

You were a damn child. [ his voice is hushed, unbelievably so--like raising his voice any octaves would cause the man to scatter into dust in his hands. ] If you were with me, you would have died too, you goddamn idiot.

[ this is meant to be reassuring, but what with how his shoulders shake, his voice slipping into that vaguely accented tone--

hold it together. reign it in. ]

Died, no. No, I do not think I died there. Something else happened. [ the memory cut there. maybe it was for the best.

he's going to let out another short, manic laugh. ]

We really are 'devils' after all.

[advivo]

[ he feels raw, as though his chest has been torn open and nerves exposed, old guilt surging up to wrap around his throat. dante knows he shouldn't be apologizing for not being with vergil, for not trying to find him after eva left him in that closet. he was a child, there is nothing he could have done to change what had happened but ─ but if he had never taken vergil's stupid book, vergil wouldn't have run away, and their mother...

god dammit, he thought he had made peace with all of this years ago. he thought he was over it. ]

I'm sorry. [ dante isn't certain what he is apologizing for anymore, isn't sure if he knows how to stop apologizing. ] Mother, she told me to hide. She wanted to find you, it was my fault you weren't with us that she ─

[ it's only then that forces himself to open his eyes, shining with emotion he can barely contain. ]

Yeah, yeah we are. Sorry, I didn't mean for you to see me like that.

[kowase]

You are still apologising. [ he says, speaking calmly, despite the fact that he truly didn't feel calm. There was a slight shake in his shoulders--one that he's truly trying to step out, steel down. he shifts a little closer, his hands on Dante's coat smoothing out a little as he considers wrapping them around the man.

does he even want to be close to him right now? his brain is fighting two emotions--one to stay close, as he'd finally gotten what he wanted. (He? Vergil? This man's brother? Or himself?) To be protected, to have someone to rely on, family that actually cared about him and not just his success, what sort of name he made for himself.

'It was my fault'.
There's that guilt that Vergil always feels, but now it's mirrored back on him. Was it dante's fault? Is that why he was so desperate to protect him, now, after finding him as a reincarnated version of the man he'd... lost?
Because he felt it was his fault things went wrong in the first place?

His brain is moving faster than his thoughts can keep up with.

His hands grip the man's coat again, his grip so tight the leather squeaks under his fingertips. ]

It's how you scared the damn beast away, isn't it.

[ he finally finds his words again, opening his eyes. His forehead is still pressed to dante's, there are still hands on his face. ]

It wasn't your face in my memories.
Yours simply.
Warped into... one of dozens that chased me. Through a graveyard.
Singing for the blood of Sparda.

[advivo]

[ he almost apologizes for apologizing, but he swallows the words down stubbornly. he'll just fall into a cycle of non-stop apologies, burying himself deeper and deeper and deeper until it all sinks into the very marrow of his bones and makes its home there. vergil grip his coat again, so hard that leather squeaks, and dante can feel the strength of his grip, the way his hands very subtly tremble with it.

it's how you scared the damn beast away, isn't it?

haha, yeah, he made himself the bigger predator and staked his claim just like a predator would do. protected his brother from the big bad bear making an absolute mess of their kitchen. dante forces himself to think about how vergil will react seeing the mess it left behind, how his face will screw up in that hilarious way that makes something fond hum in his chest. it helps bring him back, helps keep him in here instead of in the mess of memories from so many years ago. ]

They came for you too? [ of course they did, just as they came for dante. just as they sang out for the blood of sparda as they chased dante and eva through their home. ] Shit, shit Vergil. [ he feels like he is falling again, eyes still clamped shut even as vergil opens eyes. ] That's... that's our father's name, Sparda.

[kowase]

[ it's a good thing to think about on top of everything else there was to talk about. He was absolutely going to bitch and complain about the mess of his pantry, the several broken items in the hallway-- he was going to be so upset about it.

But at the very least, Dante's methods on getting it out were so powerfully effective--horrifying waking nightmare Vergil just experienced aside--that the bear didn't end up breaking anything in the shop. It's the little things you appreciate.

But for now, he'll answer Dante's questions. Nodding his head--awkward as it is as they're pressed together as if they're children huddling from a storm-- his lips pulling back in a frown as dante fills in the blanks he was missing. Sparda.
Father.
The demon whose blood is in their veins. ]

Explains why they were after me, then. If they were after 'Sparda' blood, who better than one of his very small, very unprotected sons, hm.
[ dante was in the fire, his mother was in the fire. he remembers the thoughts that came to his mind; they were already dead. there was noone coming to protect him. ] They got what they wanted. As if I had any way to protect myself. The memory is vivid. But they tore me to pieces in that graveyard.
Up until I called ... a sword, into my hands.
They stole it. Ran it through my stomach.

...And then everything got very hot. Like my blood was burning, there was something. Someone, rising up out from under my skin, in that moment.

You shook me out of the memory just as I remember starting to tear them apart, instead.