#damn time to dust off the ol armor drawing arm

[docdufresne]

Anyway damn its been like 3.5 years since Ive posted to this blog and I've been getting back into rvb now that its over and MAN do I have horny thoughts about those marine men again

[keeroo92]

Breaking Point

My SFW contribution to @jackpot-dantezine, where Dante falls apart on the way to confront Urizen.

Word count: 1,909

-------

The air hung stagnant around him, oppressive and unnaturally warm. Shades of red and brown, grey and a sickening green encroached up the walls. When he called the smell, “hot garbage”, he’d been far too kind. Veins pulsated a stern drumbeat as Dante stepped forward after his two female companions. 

“Bet you both I bag the first Queen!” Lady taunted. Trish responded with a cool smirk and a quickened pace, but Dante’s mind was elsewhere.

What if it was Vergil?

Dante had his doubts, despite what the weirdo client told him. What were the chances, right? Vergil’d been gone for years, stuck in hell after their last meeting. Getting back here, let alone in good enough shape to pull off this bullshit, was a longshot.

Still. His brother had a way of popping up and causing trouble. 

The first boom of battle ricocheted off the nauseating walls, reminding him where he was and what he still needed to do. He’d better catch up. Thinking about shit wasn’t his style; killing demons was. 

Time for a good ol’ fashioned beat down, that’d get him out of this funk. 

Dante cracked his neck, hands twitching to grasp the twin handles of his beloved Ebony and Ivory. The staccato thud of his boots mirrored the thudding of his heart, hastening as he got closer to a fight.

He turned a bloody corner just in time to see Trish deal a death blow to a Hell Judecca, its skeletal arms dissolving into ash as she spun to find her next prey. Her signature yellow sparks glowed brightly from her hands, her body dashing across the blood-stained ground to strike a pair of Antenora. Show off.

“That puts me ahead by two, Lady! What, are you taking a nap?” the blonde called.

“Not even close!” Lady replied, firing her bazooka straight down the throat of a Caina.

Dante grinned and picked a target, spinning on his heel as a scythe hunted his flesh. Too easy. He twirled Ebony and shot the ugly bastard in the face behind his back. Why did all demons look like the ass end of a bad burrito, anyway?

Eh, who cared?

His heart lurched. Vergil would. When they were children, Dante’s brother never ran out of questions about the nature of demons. He’d asked everything imaginable, from how they fought to how they multiplied. 

Dante tried not to think about that part.

And for every question Vergil asked, their dad had an answer. He’d stop whatever he was doing to explain, smiling proudly all the while. Like Dante wasn’t even there. It used to annoy him, but now the memory only brought bittersweet longing. What he wouldn’t give for them all to be together again…

“Dante, duck!”

Leather snapped as Dante instantly dropped to a crouch. A stream of fire licked his flesh, a Hell Bat above screeching its displeasure at the near miss. Annoying bastard. He never should've let it get so close. 

I gotta keep it together, he thought cynically, or the girls will get on my case.

Plus, banter always helped keep his mind from visiting its darker corners.

The man in red summoned a smirk and fired a few rounds, his bullets poking holes in the bulging orange belly overhead. A sound not unlike a whoopee cushion signaled his success. Nice.

“Sayonara, sucker!” he crowed, watching as the bat’s leaking body propelled it into a wall to explode. “Let’s call that one twenty points.”

“No way, lazybones! You don’t get extra for making fart noises,” Lady called with a scowl. 

Dante raised his hands in a placating gesture as soot settled to mark the deaths of their foes. He hoped Ver- Urizen sent a few more their way; he needed to warm up before kicking the king’s ass. Maybe he should stretch, just to keep his blood flowing.

Dante sighed and shook his head. He’d never hear the end of it.

It turned out he didn’t need to worry; as the trio progressed, they encountered wave after wave of demons, all vying for fresh blood. Trish and Lady didn’t falter, picking off one after another as Dante did his best to stay on task, but his mind kept drifting back to his brother.

For decades, Dante held only anger at his twin for not being there, for forcing their mother to search for him. To a child, the immature logic made sense. If Vergil hadn’t run off, things would’ve turned out differently. Simple cause and effect.

But time dulled the blade of his rage, and a broader understanding of life took hold. Any number of choices may have changed the outcome of the attack, but obsessing over it wouldn’t change what happened.

None of them had the power to predict the consequences, or to change them. All he could do was keep fighting, and hope that by doing so he spared other families from sharing the fate of his own. 

If Dante was being honest, the constant battles tired him. His body didn’t move like it used to, and the first aches of middle age warned him it was time to slow down. He couldn’t chase demons forever, and part of him didn’t want to. It was a lot of work.

It might be time to leave it to someone younger.

Then again, what the fuck else was he going to do all day? The only thing worse than being tired was being bored.

And the thought of retiring while Vergil was still out there somewhere, doing who knew what… it didn’t feel right, as if the balance would shift to the demons and they’d go unchecked. As a descendant of Sparda that gave a shit about humanity, Dante felt a certain responsibility to bear the weight of defending them. It was what his dad would’ve wanted.

What his mother would’ve wanted.

Besides; if he didn’t, then who would? Nero sure as hell wasn’t ready, not yet. 

But above all else, if it came to a fight to the death, his brother deserved to go at the hands of his family. Someone who understood what he’d gone through and all that he’d lost. It was Dante’s responsibility, and he damn well wasn’t hiding from it. Not this time. 

The thought left a hollow ache in his chest, a bitter sorrow he desperately wished he could ignore. If there was any alternative, any chance of helping his brother instead of ending his life, Dante knew he’d take it. That he had to even consider killing Vergil showed how twisted life could be. It made him want to scream. 

“Aw, shit,” Trish said, breaking his rambling thoughts. A quartet of Nobody’s waited in the next clearing, scurrying back and forth like excited cats. Perfect timing - Dante hated these guys.

And he really needed to kill something.

He flew at the demons with a cry of fury, drawing all four to him as he pulled Rebellion out. The girls followed in his wake, but he saw nothing save the nearest mask as his blade struck home. It left a deep crack in the clay, but the prick backed off before he had the time to kill it.

He really hated these guys. 

“Lady, finish him!” he cried. The other three were already swarming him. Damnit.

He dodged a stray arm and slashed at another as a blast reached his ears. The grotesque floor shook from the force and Dante roared, unleashing a vicious series of slices at the stumbling Nobody closest to him. It whimpered and tried to back off, but he refused to let it go that easily. Rebellion’s heavy blade sank deep into the creature’s core, splattering hot blood on its fellows and its killer alike. Two down. 

Two to go. 

There were days he didn’t see the point of it anymore; no matter how many would-be demon kings he took down, there’d always be another, and the peons were even worse. Useless, feral things, their only desire to destroy and kill.

It only added fuel to the fire of his rage. He needed to get closer.

Dante sheathed Rebellion and pulled at the thread of dark energy connecting him to Balrog, summoning the metallic pseudo-armor even as he threw a powerful punch. A rapid kick followed, his feet cracking against the reddish mask of the third nobody. He’d kill it before it fought back.

But a fiery blast on his left hurled him to the side, the last demon cackling as he fell. Years of getting pummeled proved their worth as Dante rolled with the blow, using the momentum to get on his feet a beat later. He grimaced and flipped a finger at the laughing jerk. 

“Is that all you got?” he shouted. Who knew if it understood.

It screeched and slammed a limb at him, slashing at his chest. He stepped aside and brought his arms together, crushing the appendage and tugging the beast closer for a solid headbutt. He punched and kicked, again and again. Demon blood splattered his face, each drop like a balm to his wrath. The chaotic battle surrounding him faded away; it was just him and the demon and the sounds of his strikes pulverizing its desecrated body. 

“Dante?” Lady called, her voice barely piercing the fog of his anger. He ignored her and punched the Nobody in the face again. “Dante, it’s dead. You can stop hitting it now.”

How many people had this one killed? How many families did its hunger shatter? For all Dante knew, it might be the bastard that killed his mother. He punched it again.

“Dante, come on…” Trish said. 

Maybe this was the demon that left nothing but smears of blood on the playground outside. Or the one that tore through a local grocery store, or that small house where he found those god awful husks. Another punch. He didn’t notice his female companions coming to stand beside him.

“Dante, knock it off. We need to keep moving,” Lady said, her palm coming to rest on his shoulder as he pulled back for another punch. Trish mirrored her.

The edges of the creature’s face began dissolving, a fine grey powder all that remained. Dante’s panting breath sent the dust aflutter as he slowly lowered his arm. His jaw ached; had he been gritting his teeth the whole time? Fuck.

Better crack a joke, something to keep it light.

“So, that’s what, four points to me?” Dante said. Both women shot him fierce glares.

“What the fuck, Dante?” Lady began. 

He wiped away the blood still clinging to his face and sighed. “It’s nothing.”

“Didn’t look like nothing,” Trish chimed in. “You good?”

The red-clad man released the tendril of energy connecting him to Balrog, the blood-stained metal vanishing a beat behind. He didn’t know what to say. His rage still flickered within him, an ever present ember waiting for the right moment to flare into an inferno. It might give him an edge; it might consume him. 

Talk about a double-edged sword.

It didn’t matter what was happening in his heart or what it did to him. There was a big ass demon tree growing in his city, ugly bastards swarming the place and who knew what else. It was his job to clean up the mess, no matter who made it. 

Dante snorted. He was, in essence, a janitor. 

He cracked his neck. It was time to clean. “I’m good.”

[cutelittleexo]

"How would you feel?"

Luna-4. A Past, Present, and Future. Ch. 1 - Hope For the Future

Luna-4 got snapped out of her daydream by her stained glass ghost, Shard, seems she didn't realize her guardian was in a daze. "I'm sorry Shard. I was thinking. Could you repeat that please?" Luna asked, hands cupping her still hot tea as she continues to walk along the riverside of the last city, just under the shadow of the ruined tower. "You've been doing that a lot lately. But okay, I'll say it again." Shard rolled her eye a bit before speaking "I asked. How would you feel If you were offered to go back to your life before you were a guardian?" Shard spoke softly and clearly, knowing Luna-4 often loses focus If someone speaks to quick, Luna shot her ghost a unamused look "This question again? I've already told you the answer, I don't know. My dreams are different than other Exo, sure I still dream of the black tower and the fight to get there, but not as much as the others." She sips her tea, still piping hot. Shard darted around her purple Daito cloak and sat in the little crevice where her hood stacked up in a small layer "Do you think It has to do with gui-" "Drop It shard, I came out here to unwind, not to have another existential crisis." Luna-4 spoke in a unusually stern stone, Shard sighed and shimmied out of her hood "Okay. I'll stop...how's the tea today?" Shard asked as If Luna hasn't even scolded her, Luna took a mouth full this time and took in the flavour before gulping it down "Bitter, but a sweet aftertaste. Devrim's fourth favourite tea." She smiled, remembering the time when she asked for sniping lessons from him, only to end up doing his work in that trostland plaza for the day, he got to drink tea and chat up Marc and Hawthorne for once, needless to say she did learn a lot using his custom No Land Beyond. "It's growing on me a bit and I should thank him, think he's still at the fa-...what are you looking at Shard?" Luna-4 asked with a tilted head, seeing her ghost float up a bit "Did the Traveler always glow like that?" Luna-4 turned to see what she was talking about.

Then suddenly feeling a burst of Light.

Comms suddenly went off as civilians and Guardians began to chime in on different channels. The Vanguard channel got some Hunter's on as well much to her surprise. The white noise that was people talking and doing every day responsibilities went quiet before piping up again, different and more rapid this time. Another feeling of Light, like when she was resurrected. It didn't take long before Guardians and Civilians ran past her, some even leaving their spicy ramen sadly behind. A Golden Age song played out in the distance.

"Some hope for the future

Some wait for the call

To say that the days ahead

Will be the best of all."

Luna-4 quickly gulped down all her tea that was meant to be enjoyed slow and tossed it in a nearby trash bin before beginning to walk up the street, her ghost following behind.

"We will build bridges

Up to the sky

Heavenly lights surrounding

You and I."

"Hey, what's the rush?" Luna bumped into one of her fire team members coming out of a underground walkway, a warlock she tells herself she'll befriend, his name being Alexi "Traveler, glowing." She says quickly before running ahead after regaining her footing, leaving him in the dust.

"From out of the darkness

Our future will come

If we leave the past behind

We'll fly beyond the sun."

Luna-4 kept her pace up, running past civilians that stared in awe and up some stairs and continuing on, jumping across ramps and going through the nearby damn.

"We'll be together

Sharing the load

Watching in wonder as our lives unfold."

Now running up stairs and giving a hard left turn before seeing the Traveler again, glowing, much closer now, she passed through a small crowd and made another jump across a gap. Another burst of Light, the area around her seemed a bit foggy. She spotted some of her friends, her lover, and a few acquaintances, sitting around and looking up at the Traveler, some climbing the nearby Vanguard neon sign and radio tower, some over on top of the green house and balconies nearby it. She saw a big ole titan with rusted battleworn armor, Tank, at the greenhouse. A Human Hive-Afflicted Warlock leaning on a aluminum vent, XV, often seen using Dreadfang in crucible. Another Warlock near him, sitting on the ground and leaning on his Monte Carlo, Callum, Gambit wildcard. Another Titan which was on top of the vanguard billboard to get a better view, Reynault. An Exo hunter sat along the edge of the building they were on, Mori, a skillful bladedancer. Luna-4 passed another close friend, an Awoken Titan named Ivara, they've been on strike ops with each other a lot. Sowl, a Guardian she helped get reacquainted in the city a long while ago, been a while since they talked to each other, usually draws a grey teddy bear who likes cookies. A warlock on one of the balconies near the green house, Hawk, usually head bangs. She spotted her ex, a New Monarchy devotee Titan, Felra, who kept her name from her previous life among the Awoken of the Reef. Luna-4 walked up beside her lover and casually held his hand which he responded with a tight squeeze, a Warlock named Volcan, he helped Luna-4 a lot during The Red War, falling in love with each other during said war. They've stuck together since.

All of these Guardians and their Ghosts, they had all gathered to see what the Traveler was doing. An offical message came onto the Vanguard comm channel, ordering evacuation, along with sirens off in the distance, but civilians and guardians still looked on, ignoring the potential danger. "What do you think is happening? I feel so...warm." Shard spoke "Like when I was born. And when I found you..." She looked Luna-4, who was now holding Volcan's arm in worry. Shard didn't talk again, and instead rested on Luna-4's shoulder and watched with the two of them. Another burst of light, making thing's seem blurry. Everyone continued to watch, seeing the Traveler put itself back together. It hasn't done something in 3 years. The comms are active with chatter, Eris Morn speaks, The Guardians Ghost, Commander Zavala. Everyone braces for something.

There was a heavy burst of Light once more. Before the Traveler lit up the entire city and gave a heavy flash of white Light.

"Hope for the future

It's coming soon enough

How much can we achieve?

Hope for the future

It will belong to us

If we believe

If we believe."