to see a world in a grain of sand

[kowase]

WHO: Dante, Vergil, Nero, and any visitors to the Auguries within the month of June.
WHERE: Auguries of Innocence
WHEN: Throughout June/July
WHAT: Different logs/stuff that happens at Vergil's apartment-slash-shop
WARNINGS: General sparda family stuff, they talk about demon stuff idk. there'll be a birthday party at the end of the month too.



[ A three-story building with a shop in the bottom-most floor, a sign that is overtly fancy and gilded with silver, Auguries of Innocence. In the window, there is now a smaller, just as fancy, but red glowing sign that says Opening Soon: Devil May Cry.

The second floor a storeroom filled with crates of items unsorted and damaged alike, things Vergil has collected for numerous years and hasn't finished restoring, or is just holding while not ready to sell. The floor also has a number of crafting tools in it for restoring broken items or refurbishing damaged ones.

The third floor is a minimalistic, mostly grey and silver apartment with two bedrooms, one bathroom, a study, a kitchen, a livingroom and a dining area in it. It's covered in antiques, with some weapons hanging on the wall. The furniture looks styled more for looking at than it is for sitting on, which is annoying, at best.


For the Montshs of June/July, Vergil and Dante have forcibly kidnapped Nero to live with them while he's dealing with some rather unfortunate memory issues -- and this post will be used for any threads involving the trio + any visitors while this mess goes on. ]

Comments

[kowase]

[ Vergil doesn't oft take notice of people who park in the little parking lot next to the augeries--usually, its people going to the next door cafe, or the used bookstore on the other side. An antiques shop is good for a visit, but most people don't come inside looking to buy the frankly pricey items Vittore has on sale.

So, from the dimly-lit desk space off to the side of the show floor of the shop, Vergil slowly lifts his head from where he's been reading a book to... stick Wolfwood with a bitterly annoyed look as the man came in with a goddamn lit cigarette. ]

...There are items made of antique wood in here. Stub that out and then try entering again.
[ ...this looks less like a customer, and maybe... ]

Nero. [ he calls out, loudly. ]
I believe one of your friends has come to visit...

[asipofbride]

[ why are people in this world such goddamn weenies about cigarettes? a nasally voice whines at him from the--desk? area? and Wolfwood scowls as he turns to focus on who's speaking to him--

only to meet Dante's face shape but clean-shaven and oddly prissy glowering at him, bringing him to pause for just a moment as he tries to. figure out what the hell he's looking at, having come from a place where twins and clones were basically the same thing depending on your luck or money. ]

Old wood is old wood, a little smoke won't hurt it if you have the good stuff. [ all the same, he balances the Cross Punisher on her end and reaches up to pinch the cherry of the cigarette out as the prissy Danteface calls out for--somebody. ]

Respectfully, who the hell is Nero? I'm lookin' for Dante. Is he around?

[sassery]

[Luckily for Wolfwood, he's going to be affirmed in 0.2 seconds, because Nox is already walking down the stairs to the first floor.

And promptly stopping, staring at this whole conundrum. Wolfwood's question at least causes him to answer, breaking the weird situation if only a little.]

That's me, I'm Nero. [A pause, and he crosses his arms and looks to Vergil, tilting his head.] And I've never fucking met this guy before, who the hell is this?

[Then he hears his uncle's name and his brow raises in curiosity.] Yeah, he's around, upstairs.

[kowase]

It is old wood, that is the point of an antiques shop. They are items aged by time and history, and cigarette smoke is not good for them.

...Thank you, for putting it out.

[ he definitely looks like a very well-put together dante--fancy in his vest and white shirt, a long, elegant blue coat with rose thorns in silver all down the shoulders and lining--ending in large, blue roses that offset the blue colour of the coat.

He's wearing gloves, and that's pretty much where the differences end. He has the very same blue eyes dante has--except his are slitted, like a snake's eye. The same silver hair, the same cut to his face. It's like looking into a mirror, if it were a mirror that could clean-shave people.

He cuts a glance--and a glare--at nero when the man comes down to greet who he mistook as the youngest sparda's friend, and frowns at him. Heavily. ]

Very well, perhaps he is not one of your friends, but what have I told you about using that sort of language around people who are potentially customers? [ ya damn pottymouth ]

...If you are here for Dante, we can call for him. He did not say he was expecting company.

[asipofbride]

[ Wolfwood stares at Vergil with the uncomprehending stare of a person who's being introduced to a whole new language; you don't really get 'antique' on Noman's Land, and wood doesn't tend to make it to 'old' status, so the Danteface being so fussy about it is... ]

If you say so, Uncle Stuffy.

[ looking at Vergil is like looking at one's reflection in the glint of a knife, and Wolfwood appraises him with some polite, detached curiosity--and then Nero arrives, and that curiosity gives way right to Wolfwood's mouth doing a thing that his eyes would give away as 'gawping' if only Vergil and Nero could see them.

there are three of them? ]

Huh. Dante only mentioned the one brother. [ he lifts his chin a little in a--greeting? since he's already got his hand back on his emotional support Cross Punisher now that the cigarette has been secreted back into only god knows where inside of Wolfwood's jacket. ]

Nicholas D. Wolfwood. I know Dante. [ because the word friend is weird and weighted and heavy, and Wolfwood especially does not have the emotional capacity to glue any sort of intimate modifiers to said word. ] He's probably not expectin' me unless he's developed some sort of futurevision in the last twenty-four hours. I came by on a bit of a whim.

[ if a whim could describe a whole days worth of prepwork and cooking and going out to the store to put together a pick-me-up package that Wolfwood still isn't using to explain his sudden presence in the land of two Dante-likes and not a Dante in sight. ]

surprise bitch

[advivo]

[ maybe it's the fact he can somehow sense he's being talked about, maybe it's the fact he's suddenly gotten antsy and needs to move, maybe he was thinking about heading over to the cottage. either way, he's coming down the stairs at the tail end of wolfwood's explanation, the familiar voice putting a noticeable perk to his step. ]

Nick! [ this is certainly a surprise, a good surprise, and dante is practically beaming by the time he reaches the floor and walks over to the other man. after all the shit with nero, the tension and worry that has been slowly building up, it's good to see wolfwood - great even - and it takes everything in him not to immediately put his hands on the other man. ] Didn't realize you were coming around.

[ he fails for the most part, unable to stop himself from practically draping on wolfwood with a wide grin. ]

See you've met the brother and the nephew.

[sassery]

[You know, Nox was about to say something when Dante suddenly appeared, making this whole interaction a lot easier for all of them. Still, Nox gives Vergil a look and rolls his eyes, shrugging.]

Yeah, yeah. I'll watch my mouth next time.

[Honestly, it's not hard to notice Dante's body language here, but it's not like his nephew's gonna breathe a damn word about it. Instead, he stretches, offering an exhale and a grin.]

A little. Name's Nox. You'll hear Dante and Vergil call me Nero, s'normal. Don't worry about it.

[kowase]

[ he nods once, sharply, at Nero, when the man promises to watch his mouth. That's enough for him, his attention is going back to this man with a bit of a squint. Still suspicious of the sunglasses-wearing 'Nicholas' who honestly looks like some sort of hitman.

His eyes are glancing at the large cross on his back, and he IS about to ask what the hell it is when Dante (fortunately) makes his appearance before his brother and nephew can get to grilling the man (too heavily.) ]

As far as I know, Dante hasn't yet become able to see the future. And I certainly hope it does not come to pass, he would be a danger if he could see the future. [ because then how the hell is he supposed to win any sort of fight when the man could see everything? But ah, alas. Dante's here now so he can even out his snarking a little on three people instead of one.

As he sort of glares at Nicholas. Without really thinking about it. ]

Nero is more familiar. [ he shrugs with one arm as he taps his fingers against the top of his desk. ] Visiting without warning is fine, but you ought call ahead. The shop may be closed, or Dante may be out. He does enjoy running around outside of the shop, after all.

[ unlike vergil, who was a homebody... ]

[asipofbride]

[ there are three of them.

Wolfwood feels incredibly out of place all of a sudden. Vergil is staring at him like he could visually dissect a man, and while Nox? Nero? Noxero doesn't have Wolfwood's hackles up that high, the simple, fun fact is that Wolfwood doesn't like people to begin with, let alone strangers, so having two of them staring him down while he's already doing something out of his comfort zone makes him tighten right the fuck up emotionally, the proverbial gates slamming shut even as Dante flops on him.

it feels like a hindrance, not a comfort, and a bead of guilt wells up in Wolfwood for that. Wolfwood's eyes are hidden, but his body language probably outs him as keeping his gaze pinned on Vergil (and he will try to puzzle out how someone Dante's age fathered someone Noxero's age at another time and date), even as he tries not to pull a face with Dante half-draped on him. ] Didn't realize he lived in a business establishment. Just thought it was a house. Nice to meet you both.

[ it is not nice to meet anyone but man Wolfwood is trying.

he reluctantly sets the Cross Punisher down, balancing it on its end and leaving it standing free so that he can bring the hand up to pat the side of Dante's neck. ] Blondie got to thinkin' and you know how much shit that gets me into. You mentioned... stuff. Last time you were over. So he sent a care package. An' I got stuck with delivering it since I don't got anythin' else to do.

[ he holds up the basket for Dante to take from him--and it's probably the weirdest hitman maneuver in the world to bring somebody an honest to god wicker basket stuffed full of fresh produce. ] There's, uh. Fruits an' veg from the farm, that cinnamon whiskey you showed us the other week, an' Vash made a pie. So I came by to drop it off and get outta your hair.

[ he glances briefly, between Vergil and Nero, and then back into some sunglasses-hidden middle distance, picking up the Cross Punisher again now that Dante has been patted, trying to calculate the politest way possible to slide out from under his friend while his brother and nephew visually and proverbially pin him to the board, with their eyes like needles through a beetle, and man, Wolfwood wishes he had a cigarette right now. ]

[advivo]

[ his proximity makes it easy for dante to notice the way wolfwood tenses up, the proverbial gates all but slamming shut even as he pulls the other man into his space all grins. an unfortunate side effect of dante's lateness, it seems, and the way his brother looks in their direction. there is something incredibly satisfying about it, the tension in vergil's brow, something that makes the demon in the back of his mind rumble smugly. it is almost a blessing that wolfwood is stiffening up like this, he can only imagine how his twin would have reacted in that case.

dante shifts, positioning himself in such a way that he can pull himself free of dante's grip should he want, glancing between the man in question and his family, a lazy grin settling comforting on his expression. ] That's my bad, I forgot to mention it. Sometimes I forget we live above a business with how quiet it gets.

[ he tilts his head at wolfwood setting the cross down, a hand coming up to pat the side of his neck causing dante's drifting attention to focus. ] You don't need to make up excuses to come see me, Nick. [ he takes the presented basket, casually looking through it. fruits, vegetables─ aha! he zeroes in on the whiskey as wolfwood mentions it, pulling it from the basket with a smug grin and holding the rest of the basket out for vergil to take. he'll make use of the rest definitely. ] Think this is one of those times Vash thinking hasn't really gotten you into shit. Appreciate it.

[ with the care package delivered and the cross picked back up, dante slips off his friend in a silent acceptance of his leaving. he pouts a little as he does it, but the moment he straightens out that same lazy grin has found his lips again. ]

Give Vash my thanks, yeah?

[ he doesn't want wolfwood to leave, wants to indulge in his company as long as he possibly can, but he isn't going to force the man to stay. ]