Late December / January Catch-all

[red_oni]

Who: Dante, along with open prompts
When: Last days of Wilting, leading into the new season (subject to being updated with new threads very soon)
Where: Castle Grounds (Briefly), Menthward, Marelys
What: A general catch-all for random prompts
Anything Else: No warnings at the moment!

Comments

December 27th - 31st (Arrival, Wandering Marelys and Menthward)

[red_oni]

[The Princess' invitation was a little awkward and cumbersome but Dante loved upfront, honest requests like that. Scammers made everything sound too good to be true, trying to sell the moon and the stars in exchange for a favor but the less certain it all sounded, the more it felt real.

Still, he wasn't prepared for the boredom. He'd parked himself in the garden and shut his eyes, pretending to nap while waiting for that cloud of attendants to arrange an outfit to his liking before letting himself get held down to be dressed by a bunch of kind-looking folks with startingly chilly hands.

Before he knew it, he was mingling with a bunch of workers at the pier, a stupid grin cutting into his cheeks. There were sighs all around as he'd lifted a cup to show his dice and opened his hands to collect coins into a thick leather purse. There were sullen faces in the mix but plenty of smiles, given the sheer number of cheesy jokes he'd cracked while he was busy playing to his advantages.] Appreciate the spending money, boys... but I've gotta run before lady luck leaves me and you all clean me out.

[Strolling his way out into city, he started following all those smells that often promised a good time in a new city. So far? It was the second easier job he'd ever been on.]

(OOC: Short and sweet for now! Catch him out in the city while he runs around trying out pizza and sweets... and occasionally sharking people playing games in the open.)

28th - 30th (Night, city rooftops)

[red_oni]

[Was there such thing as too much partying?

Dante wouldn't know. He never had a spring break, none the less been invited to a friend's place for a birthday or holiday. Whenever he wanted, he could stroll up to a liquor store owner and grin his way through to getting a bottle and most bartenders thought he was charming enough to get past the need for pesky things like licenses and proof of identity. Besides, it wasn't like there were many people who'd turn away someone with two gigantic pistols worn on their hips like formalwear.

Rosavelle cared even less about it and he didn't even need the pieces at his side for it, so they sat under his bed in a heap with his shredded clothes from the week before. Instead, he got to enjoy parking himself on a roof in the prettiest city he'd ever seen, guzzling down warm, spiced liqueur without a care in the world while he stared at the stars.

Unfortunately it was dull as hell but that was his life in a nutshell. He had nothing but boredom to look forward to and yet... it was a little nice that he could see the stars for once.]

[saudadist]

[ Why tonight does she have a visitor in her favorite sulking gargoyle spot? How'd he even get up here? ]

Usually drunkards pass out in alleys, not rooftops.

[red_oni]

[He half-heartedly gestured with the bottom of his bottle with an audible 'swish'.]

I'm not passed out, little lady.

[saudadist]

That's why I said something.

[ After all, someone out cold wouldn't be much good for conversation. He didn't need to know she did talk to herself sometimes either. ]

You could fall and hurt yourself being drunk up here.

[red_oni]

[There was something about her demeanor that made him feel a little more genuine when he smiled.

She was weird.]

Worried for lil ol' me? I'll just have to be careful.

[saudadist]

[ Worried?? He's got a lot of nerve... He's not completely wrong, but his attitude about it makes her eyelid twitch. ]

I won't catch you, then. You're on your own.

[ Since this was her spot originally, she'll go right ahead and take her seat. An arm or so length away. ]

[red_oni]

[Ah, he recognized that tone. It was the precise pitch of 'women annoyed with him' made all too familiar recently.

Strange that she was sitting down closer, though.]

Am I? So, you wouldn't reach out if I started tipping over?

[wingstosee]

[ the night is still young. there's still places to explore. and the devil only gets one moment. for exultation, for celebration, for the joy of living life. she's been given a stay of execution in this place. allowed to bring a hell of kindness and blasphemy and blurred lines, friendship/love and boy/girl and her body/the sky. what else can she do but rejoice in herself?

and so she flies above rosavelle, a whirl of light and feathers and eyes looking out over the city. she dives through alleyways, rushes over rooftops, and laughs in the sheer happiness of being. and then, on one rooftop in particular, she surges up over the side-

-and there's just. a guy there. she stops in her tracks; that ever-shifting mass openly stares. and then, after a moment, a high tenor asks: ]

Um. Sorry. Am I- Are you okay?

[red_oni]

[What Venus found in return for her concern had been a crocodile's smile. The lazily slouching young man laid out before her had spent the day, as most, alone in a sea of voices and so he'd patiently waited for the passing silence of the night to have time for himself. The hum of people moving, taking their time getting home after get-togethers and parties was a pleasant enough backdrop compared to a quiet night in Redgrave.

The bottle in his hand was emptied by the time she'd found him and the moment his eyes set on hers. She didn't smell like a demon as far as he could recognize but he was already antiquated with things that wore deceptive glamours. He watched her with ice-blue eyes, bright and focused. That was a moment of tension, built in an instant, was quite suddenly smothered when he'd held up a finger politely, tipping his head back and guzzling the last dregs of his bottle.]

My bad! [That slouching young man messily wiped the excess from his chin and cheek with the heel of a particularly expensive glove before flicking droplets harmlessly beside himself.] Repeat that question for me?

[wingstosee]

Um.

[ for a moment, the lightcloud just... stares at dante. did he just. interrupt her, chug a bottle, and then ask her to repeat herself? that's. hm. slowly, she pushes her body back into something recognizable - one arm, then another, and soon she's folded and twisted herself into a humanoid, winged figure. like a many-eyed angel in her glory. be not afraid.

thankfully, that's not what she says. instead, she goes with: ]

Are you. Okay? [ now that she's got a recognizable face again, it's easy to put together "mild concern" for an expression. ] I mean. In general. Like, it's probably a bad idea to be drunk on a rooftop? But. Even apart from that. Were you just... looking for some space?

[red_oni]

[It wasn't often he got to see those transformations in reverse. Usually, the mass of appendages came about after the first round was up. Still, he didn't seem at all surprised to see it. Better a cute girl than an even more incomprehensible blob of body parts.]

You worried? [With a 'hup', he'd gently pushed his elbows into the roof and with a flex of his biceps Dante flipped himself onto his feet. Unashamed, he dusted his coat off without missing a beat as he'd placed his heel's on the edge of the roof.]

Maybe it's worth the risk just to see the stars without all the crap in the way.

[wingstosee]

[ on the one hand: it's nice to have someone that doesn't seem confused or intimidated by her whole- you know. situation? but on the other, nobody here has been taking her seriously when she mentions being the devil. come on!! she's evil!! let her be evil!!! ]

Haha! God. I guess it is nice, huh? [ she doesn't make any move to approach, floating at a distance. ] You really don't get the same view from the ground. Haha.

[red_oni]

[He would have had a whole lot of undeserved nerve to talk about someone having the smell of hell on them when he had to wear an uncomfortable amount of cologne to keep his recent trip to the border between realms off his skin.

Though, he was a whole lot more puzzled by the nervous nature of the girl. She seemed awful like a sparrow, ready to dart away the moment he might have gotten too close--so, he'd done what he could to not seem too intimidating, himself.]

Must be nicer from way up higher, too. The extra eyes help any?

[batlan]

[ scene: the roof of the Geraniums barracks, an only slightly more private location than castle proper. Ororon is the type who always looks up. ...and then there's his hearing, which can detect the soft thud, thump, bump of someone making themselves comfortable somewhere above his head while he's returning to his still-modest, barely-decorated dorm. hm...

shortly thereafter, Ororon is also on the roof, with a blanket tucked under his arm and sugar cookie in hand. sniff, sniff... he just needed to follow the smell of booze.

he holds the items out to his drunken barracks-mate in an offering. ]

Hi. Need these?

[red_oni]

Huh? [Dante wasn't one to let his guard down no matter where he rested. More than that though, he was the type to pretend he'd left his guard down to deliberately look like more of an idiot than he was.]

Woah, hey! [He'd shifted to sit up, perhaps a bit too promptly, leaving a bit of excess on his shirt. Hastily patting down the nice vest he'd been fitted into, Dante cleared his throat and flashed Ororon a sloppy grin--holding out his hands to take both. Despite the cold, the cookie had won him over quicker.]

Thanks, pal. Kinda thought you were the brooding distant type... glad to see you're the charitable type too.

[batlan]

Sorry,

[ Ororon's apology for the upset is genuine, in spite of the fact that he gets the sense Dante isn't as surprised as all that...

regardless, it's pretty much Ororon's fault that liqueur was spilled this day. good thing he thought ahead enough to bring the gifts. ]

Please, take them,

[ Ororon's happy enough that his offerings are well-received to smile. a little bit! ]

Guilty as charged, a judge would say. [ for which? both. especially if one counts meditation time... ] Brooding by myself all the time isn't much fun, though.

[red_oni]

Sorry? [For the life of him, he'd genuinely fumbled on what the reason for that apology could have been. Liquor spilled was just an expected outcome of drinking on a rooftop, so it hadn't registered at all.

Instead of worrying too much about it, as he handled all things, Dante simply grinned at Ororon and bit into the cookie. The guy might have looked a bit gloomy at a glance, sure, but there was no mistaking where a compliment did its magic.]

Well, now, do you really gotta brood? I dunno about you, but this whole place is gorgeous. [There it was--the arm thrown around his shoulder without a lick of care for personal space.]

Back where I'm from, snow just ain't this clean and the food can't compare. Hell, sometimes people just give you food for free! Case n' point, right?

[batlan]

[ as soon as he's stooped down just enough to deliver the goods, Ororon is promptly pulled in by a rather unexpectedly friendly arm.

then again, perhaps not so unexpected! Ororon is used to drunks. may as well sit on the roof beside a new friend for a spell... so he does just that, dangling long legs over the roof without an ounce of concern for his balance or the height.

just as Dante's said, there's nothing that requires him to go back to his room and do nothing but think by himself. ]

Indeed, the free snacks almost make the unreasonable hour of Miss Nadeshiko's etiquette lessons tolerable. I'm fond of the crowwants.

[ he is trying to say croissant the same way Miss Nadeshiko does, all proper-like, but... ]

1/2

[red_oni]

[Maybe it made him a little happy to see Ororon worn down by friendliness or maybe he was already plastered--

Though, the latter was unlikely. It would take a whole bottle for him to feel a thing. Often times, sipping at a glass was enough to keep good people far from him. They were the ones he didn't know how to handle except in short stints.

He'd been thinking it would be tricky to navigate that fellow if he was friendlier than he let on--right up until he caught him completely off guard with a classic baked good. It took a moment of processing and a great deal of effort before he realized the choice word had been 'croissants', foggy eyes staring blankly ahead for a while longer.]

January 1st - 5th (Let him have a few days of this)

[red_oni]

[The castle was nice. The people were nice. Even the plants and the animals were cleaner and kinder everywhere he went. It made him think of cartoons he'd watch when he thought his old man wasn't watching--the ones where the flowers and rabbits would dance around and sing like everything and everyone in the world was great. Demons weren't coming out of the woodwork to kill him every night and only that one mean-looking instructor in that castle looked at him like his was a genuine threat.

So, what was Dante's single problem? He was broke. Spending what money he'd gotten in placing petty bets didn't last him and that left him with the only two things he knew how to do-- hunting demons and stealings. Since he'd typically only stolen from gangsters and shitty people, the squeaky-clean streets of Rosavelle's isles were wholly new territory.

Instead of getting a damned job though, he'd opted to stand in front of shops or booths and simply stare through windows. Ice cream, pastries, everything. He wasn't starved by any means given the veritable feasts offered in the morning and evening but that didn't account for a stubborn want to eat something immediately rewarding. By god, he'd stand there and stare until someone gave him some or they started shooing him away with a broom... which never really happened.]

January 1st (3 in the fucking morning, Geranium barracks, first dibs to Corrin)

[red_oni]

[Dante was far used to being alone than he realized. Picking a shop in a shady part of town where no one would ever go in a building that was already falling apart as his home and home base made it difficult to parse exactly why anyone would care to be quiet and respectful at three in the morning.

He'd thrown his covers off after a failed attempt to get to sleep, pacing around his room and dragging his heels. The kitchens were closed and he'd already eaten the stuff he wrapped up from the party and brought back to his room. He could take a bath, again, but then he'd probably just fall asleep where he sat.

So, without a single shred of self-awareness, he held out his hands and conjured a swarming cloud of bats, glimmering with lightning that molded into the shape of a guitar. Taking a deep breath in, Dante flew hard into Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata. He thought about how tedious the old man's music lessons were, talk about meeting the man in person once and he started to feel just a little sleepy--]

[bladeofconquest]

For once, Corrin is having a good night's sleep. The nightmares of the war aren't troubling her tonight and her bed was so deliciously warm and comfy when she fell into it after another satisfying day that it was easy to fall into a comfortable, deep slumber...

Until the cacophony through the wall sends her screaming back into the waking world. She sits bolt upright in bed, and instinctively her hand whips out causing Shadow Yato to fly from its rack on the wall where it has hung pretty much since she arrived into her hand and preparing herself for an attack.

It's only after a few seconds as noise, which she begins to realize is music, albeit of a kind she has never heard before is coming through the wall that borders on a room she believed was empty...apparently no longer. She takes a minute to get her breathing under control, as the music continues to pound at her ears, then takes a deep breath, throws the covers off and swings off her bed. It takes only a moment to pull on a nightgown and bathrobe and she stalks out of her room and pound on the door of her new neighbour. If she has to be loud, that's only because she's worried the new occupant might not actually hear her over the din.

Oh look at that. She forgot to put down Shadow Yato. Hope Dante doesn't mind an annoyed woman with a sword on the other side of his door.

1/2

[red_oni]

[Someone pound at his door? That wasn't anything new. Whether it was someone panicked and desperate, a bill collector or a monster masquerading as a person didn't make a difference. Dante picked himself up, the body of his guitar resting on his hip, a wire of lightning wrapped around his neck to act as a makeshift strap when he'd pulled the door open. He stood there in white boxer-briefs with cherry-red hearts printed on with a dull-eyed expression at first.

He was still a little sleepy.]

2/2

[red_oni]

[It was only when he'd gotten a better idea of who he was that he shifted Nevan to hang more loosely over his shoulder, propping up his elbow on the door frame so he could shoot a sleazy grin down at her.]

Hey, what's goin' on, beautiful?