[closed] jukebox hero

[subhuman]

Who: Dante & Others
When: February
Where: Horizon & Nocwich
What: Closed prompts and headaches (caused by Dante)
Warnings: Will add as needed!

Comments

[subhuman]

[ Fair to ask. Nah, but there's not a lot about this situation that is fair. Maybe it came off wrong--wouldn't surprise Dante. It wasn't so much a judgment of "could you have done better", since he figures that's kind of a given, but "what should I have done?"

What he did wasn't the right answer. But was there one? It feels like no matter what someone's gonna get the shit end and it's going to be Nero no matter what.

Even if there wasn't a whole mess of Vergil being his father just because of Vergil being the man that he is--that he's become--but putting the big red sign on Nero as "Spawn of Sparda" in Fortuna was practically a death sentence. Granted that ended up being a mess either way.

See? No winners. Life's just like that sometimes.

Of course it's much easier for Dante to think that way about his own situation. He struggles a lot more when he feels like there's something he should be doing for someone else's situation. For Nero's.

Nero would have handled it differently just because they're different people. He's right--there's no way it would have been a secret for long. Do you hold all your cards close to your chest in the hopes you can gauge your opponents' hand? Or do you lay them all out knowing you can only go in swinging with what you've already got?

Dante leans a little further back into his seat. He's quiet, but he's listening. ]

It matters to you, doesn't it?

[ He speaks in a flat but serious tone.It's bothered Nero this entire time. And he really can't pretend that it's not a decision he's weathered easily either.

Dante exhales loudly, trying to loosen up a bit. ]

I'm not going to apologize...'cause once you start in this family then there's no end in sight. You'll be playing catch up for the rest of our life and no one's got time for that.

[ Too many demons, literally and figuratively. Transgressions that should rightfully tear any bonds apart. And yet...fragile, frayed, weakened as they are--

--sometimes they're all each other has got.

But not Nero--no, that's the main difference. Nero has got more. He's got a lady, a family, a place he loves and wants to protect. ]

But if you've got questions, I'll do my best to answer them. Scout's honor.

[ It's the least he can do, put some sunlight to the pages of Nero's family history that have been kept in the dark for so long. ]

[ofthesword]

[It's not a big surprise to find he totally didn't get why Dante was asking the question. All this time he's known him since Fortuna, he still doesn't feel like he knows much of him. And Trish and Lady sort of cemented that -- like they're together with him, and they get him on the surface.

Kind of reminds him of V. But V was even more open than the two of them. Which -- you know, fucked up, considering.

Nero rubs his arm. The question's annoying, 'cause the answer's obvious to both of them.]

I don't care about gettin' an apology. [It was more like, this confrontation. If he didn't have it, it was gonna keep pissing him off. To not get it all out there. Especially why he's so shit at keeping stuff to himself.]

Look, it doesn't have to be now. But I wanna... know. About him. [About both of them, really. About the family. He had Kyrie and he had Credo, and for a while, he had his adoptive parents. But even Nero knows the way he was picked up wasn't exactly normal. And his family was in a cult. He doesn't know what the fuck a blood family is supposed to be like.

Not that he thinks they're about to be normal, either.] I found you guys are blood relatives, then you both leave before I get a single damn question out. [He holds out a hand, and V's book appears there, heavy with its poetry.

Not V's. Vergil's. Whatever.

The big V on the cover still has the slightest shimmer of gold, worn as it is.] This is all I ever got.

[Maybe it says enough it's appeared here, where it doesn't even exist. And every page is as filled, as far as Nero can remember it.]