Welcome to Brotherly Bonding: The Week 2025! This is a week dedicated to celebrating the bond between everybody's favorite twins (or my favorite twins at least). It will take place May 6th-12th in 2025.
I will be using the tag "brotherlybondingweek2025"
Remember to have fun! Don't feel pressured to do something everyday or at all.
Keep in mind I will still reblog late contributions, so don't stress!
If you wish to combine prompts from multiple days, just post it the day you feel works best and state it as muti-prompt.
What you make must focus on the twins dynamic. Both characters don't technically have to be present, but it still has to be about their dynamic.
Brotherly Bonding: The Week 2025: Ending and Day Seven
Brotherly Bonding: The Week is coming to a close with a free day, along with the prompts "Grave Visiting" and Sojourn Through Hell"
Remember to have fun and not to stress! If you have started something for this or any day and are unable to finish it, feel free to post and I'll still reblog it!
If you wish to combine prompts from multiple days, just post it the day you feel works best and state it as muti-prompt.
Remember to tag things as "brotherlybondingweek2025"
Today's brotherly bonding prompt was Twin Connection! I combined that with the last few days prompts Different Reunion and Combat & Trust for this newly published fic as an entry.
https://archiveofourown.org/works/65449426
Here's the intro to get you all started:
Dante had absolutely no idea what he was doing.
Which was kinda bad, cause the situation he was in definitely needed a hand that somewhat had a clue on what to do. Right now. Immediately. As quickly as possible!
... he's still got nothing.
Was he maybe panicking a bit?
Yeah, yeah that would seem like a good response. An appropriate one. Or not. Probably not.
Why hadn’t he just gone to Nero with this? Nero would have been way better suited for this. It wouldn’t even have been that far to get him, just an hour’s walk or a few minutes if Dante triggered and took to the sky. Not something he would normally do, but hell, it had been how he had gotten here in the first place.
Measured breaths, a rattling wheeze to every inhale, continued on, uncaring of Dante’s current chaotic predicament. Had Dante not been able to hear the strong heartbeat of the other occupant of the room, thumping on in a stubborn rhythm, he would have probably been even more worried that those noises meant that a death was soon at hand.
Still, Dante had not moved his eyes even once from the prone body on the dusty bed, tucked in all nicely while also having Dante’s coat wrapped around him underneath to hide his pale naked form. Unknowing of the stress he was causing, Vergil slept on, unconscious and further unmoving.
Unconscious, but not dead.
He should have been dead. He absolutely should have been.
...
Today's prompts are "Mirrors" and "Twin Connection"
Remember to have fun and not to stress! If you have started something for this or any day and are unable to finish it, feel free to post and I'll still reblog it!
If you wish to combine prompts from multiple days, just post it the day you feel works best and state it as muti-prompt.
Remember to tag things as "brotherlybondingweek2025"
Playing around with an idea of Dante and Vergil reuniting at 11 or 12 instead of 18, which Changes Things.
The OG anime has Dante living with a woman who was said to be his "mother" at some point in his childhood, and I like to imagine Dante ended up bouncing through a handful of foster families before he went out on his own. The anime has him going by Anthony during this time.
In this verse, Vergil ends up going through one of the towns Dante's in and is stopped by someone who thinks he's Dante. Or rather, thinks he's "Anthony". Vergil has absolutely no idea what this person is talking about and gets increasingly upset by them trying to stop him from going off on his own, until Dante's foster father rounds the corner and freezes because. That child is not his son. He knows what Anthony was wearing that morning, he knows Anthony never wears his hair like that, and most of all-
"Anthony" and his foster mother round the corner a moment later, because they'd been together until the father decided to go ahead for a moment for whatever reason.
Cue Dante and Vergil both freezing while the adults are shocked because what do you mean there are two of them. After a few seconds the two manage to snap out of it, shouting "You survived!?" and "You're alive?" simultaneously, which concerns the adults even more because again, what the hell happened to these apparently identical twins to make them question the other's survival. Their concern only increases at Vergil's "but the house was on fire-" and Dante's "but there was so much blood-".
Dante's adoptive parents finally speak after that, asking "Anthony" what's going on, and it would be enough to snap Vergil out of it and make him mad at Dante, who he thinks is running from his heritage, and who he's upset at for forgetting and replacing his family. Two parents, no brother, it must be perfect for him. All the attention for himself. "Anthony's" life (said in a way that makes it clear that's not the name Vergil knows him by) must be great. If that's what "Anthony" wants, he can have it. Far be it from Vergil to ruin the "happiness" he's found.
Finally, Vergil runs. Dante tries to follow, but his adoptive father grabs onto him before Dante can make it anywhere. He demands an explanation, but Dante refuses to talk. They go home and his adoptive parents try for a while to get Dante to say anything, but eventually give up and that night everyone goes to bed distinctly uncomfortable and unsure of what to do.
Brief interlude for another headcanon of mine: I imagine that Mundus actually wasn't aware that Sparda had two children until years after the fire, maybe not even until the Temen-ni-gru. Dante and Vergil were identical, and never at the same place at the same time. He always assumed Sparda's son was constantly on the move- which Vergil was- and that he sometimes managed to get farther in a set period of times than others, for those times that he found Dante after having his demons track Vergil. As such, Vergil ended up being the one pursued for the vast majority of the time. Every once in a while the demons would find Dante and attack, but since he hadn't awakened his Trigger or most of his demonic blood, he was harder to trace and they tended to lose him. Of course, they did find Dante sometimes, such as when the town he'd been in as a child in the anime was attacked.
So back to this verse, with both boys in the same place at the same time, the demons chasing Vergil are lead right to Dante. That night, the town is attacked. Vergil sees them come for him and head to the town, but initially does nothing. It's not his problem. He should keep running and get ahead while they're not on his tail.
...but then he thinks about why they might have gone the other direction. And when the town is attacked and the screaming starts, Vergil eventually goes in with the Yamato, and is lead right to Dante's house, where Dante is standing frozen as demons break in. Vergil doesn't understand why Dante isn't fighting, but despite his anger at Dante, he doesn't want him to die either, and defeat the demons before Dante can be harmed too badly. Dante isn't unscathed- he'd probably be dead if he weren't half demon- but he's alive by the end of it. The same can't be said for Dante's adoptive parents, who were dead before Vergil entered.
After that, Dante and Vergil finally talk. Dante says he wasn't trying to replace Vergil, and it's not like he wanted to forget everyone (even if sometimes he wished he could), he was just scared and trying to do what Mom said. He tells Vergil that Eva had told him to make a new name and live a new life before she left to find Vergil, and he just wanted to follow her last request. He thought Vergil was dead. He was so sure Vergil was dead, and there would have been no one left who cared if Dante existed other than the demons who wanted to hurt him.
The statement about Eva going to find Vergil is basically the turning point of all this. Vergil asks what Dante means, Dante tells him everything, and knowing that his mom wanted to find him too, that Dante thought he was dead and was scared and tried to look for Vergil anyway after he got out of the wardrobe and house (HC that Dante did end up wandering over to the playground, saw the blood, and assumed the demons ate Vergil or something), and that those meant he was wanted basically have a major impact on Vergil's outlook on life and understanding of his current situation.
He pulls Dante onto his feet and tells him to go with him. Clearly, Dante can't protect himself. He needs Vergil. Vergil's going to teach him to fight and how to hide from demons. It's his responsibility as Dante's older brother. ...unless Dante would prefer to live under a fake name with a fake family. ...if he can find a new one. This one is...well. Gone.
Dante says no. He'd rather be with Vergil. He doesn't want people to keep getting hurt because of him either. He'll go. He wants to learn how to fight for real. He doesn't want to be alone anymore.
From there the brothers are reunited, running from and eventually pursuing/killing demons together until they are eventually approached by a human with a strange scar asking if they'd like more power, enough to get revenge on the one who killed their mother rather than just running from his minions....
Oh hey, look at the time! It's still @brotherlybondingweek2025 and I have it in me to type up a post! Must be a devil may miracle or something. Outside perspective time!
Anyway, everyone knows what love triangles are, but what I've been dying to talk about in this fandom is - The Jealousy Triad TM. (this is all post twins return from hell for obvious reasons)
Soooooooooo you know how Nero wants to form a connection with his father, but they feel like strangers, and both awkwardly freeze up? And then you see Vergil and Dante interact and it's immediately clear the two of them are family, and Nero feels like an outsider, and he envies of the seemingly effortless way his uncle can talk to Vergil and understand him intrinsically (spoiler - it's not intrinsic at all).
Do you think Dante heard Vergil change his entire character and trajectory based only on the revelation that Nero is his son, aka family, and thought that He as a family member was never enough for Vergil? That he never managed to help his brother the same way, and Nero almost didn't have to do anything to achieve that (spoiler - that's not what happened, and Vergil dearly needs them both)
Do you think Nero mirrors that same emotion? That he himself was never enough for Dante to come clean about family, yet all Vergil had to do was come back and stay? He might have not seen much of Dante, but even those few brief appearances are a day and night difference between the Dante of past and the current one who laughs and smiles so much more with his twin back? (spoilers - Nero has just never seen what Dante was like before meeting him, and thanks to his uncles' silence he doesn't yet know how much he truly means to Dante)
Do you think Vergil still feels like walking on eggshells with Dante sometimes, and longs for the ease Dante and Nero have in their interactions? Sure, not everything is smooth between them, far from it really, but their troubles seem infinitely smaller than the minefield he and Dante have to cross between each other. (no Vergil, just knowing each other is not the same as actual presence in each others' lives, and that's what everyone here wants really, and everyone has their own journeys to get there).
helloooo can we talk about how ASDMC Vergil basically delegated to White Rabbit the task of awakening his brother? Possibly because he could not do that himself and he knew Rabbit needed Dante alive for his plans? I don't remember any info specifying that the twins had to be 'awakened' for the blood to work with the Sparda sword, so it's even possible Vergil fed Rabbit false info (that the blood had to be awakened) for Dante to be ready for the incoming big play between the demons. That's your big brother's advice when he's working remotely. @brotherlybondingweek2025 )
Today's prompts are "Different Reunion", "Things Go Differently in a Game", and "Roleswap"
Remember to have fun and not to stress! If you have started something for this or any day and are unable to finish it, feel free to post and I'll still reblog it!
If you wish to combine prompts from multiple days, just post it the day you feel works best and state it as muti-prompt.
Remember to tag things as "brotherlybondingweek2025"
Today's prompts are "Advice" and "Outside Perspective"
Remember to have fun and not to stress! If you have started something for this or any day and are unable to finish it, feel free to post and I'll still reblog it!
If you wish to combine prompts from multiple days, just post it the day you feel works best and state it as muti-prompt.
Remember to tag things as "brotherlybondingweek2025"
Here's something small for the brotherly bonding week 2025! I got reminded by the prompt "Bonding" of this little spontaneous drabble's existence and I thought it would be fun to post here.
Summary: Tony makes a reappearance and he's not alone.
Hope you enjoy!
"And you are...?", the shady as hell information brooker asked. He looked pointedly at Vergil, who looked even more pointedly back.
Dante almost wanted to wince in sympathy at what was about to go down. The thought to stop it all, before it even started, was still stifled almost immediately, because this was most likely going to be very entertaining.
And he really needed that right about now. Really really needed that...
However, seeing as his current occupation was as an underground dealer of all kinds, but mostly info, him making the right decisions was maybe a tad questionable. His current action of trying to intimidate Vergil only drove that idea further home.
The broker himself was funnily enough also in need of something quite badly right now. That being information, very important info at that. As in, to start a staring contest with a demon was a very bad idea in any way shape or form...
Or well, half-demon in this case.
Whatever, in both scenarios it was still something that had a very high chance of making him lose his head quite literally of he continued it too long. Though since he was very ignorant of all of that, Dante could only lament that had he known, he might have made better decisions in that regard.
Poor sucker. He shouldn't have done that.
Though luckily, Vergil was gentlemanly enough to cause no bloodshed and only kept it to a very intense look, but that alone was already enough to make the guy start to regret his decision very quickly. A thrum of to a human mostly unnoticeable power went through the scene, tingling lightly over Dante's senses. He could also see the sweat slowly starting to gather in the broker's pores, as whatever lingering bit of survival instincts hidden in that greasy head of his kicked into sudden overdrive at something he wasn’t consciously aware of he was messing with.
After a very, very long drawn moment of wrought silence, tense in an eery way Dante was thoroughly enjoying, the broker finally blinked. His hands had started to tremble somewhere along the way.
With that, the stare contest was broken and movement came back into the predatory stillness Dante's brother had embodied. And then Dante realized he had not fully told his Vergil about one very important aspect of this undertaking.
The broker wasn't too shabby honestly, since he had recognized Dante as Tony when he had walked in, from just a few old stories he'd still remembered. Which was why Dante was currently prancing about under that name again, even though he hadn't used Tony in decades and it still left an ashy taste in his mouth. But this was well enough, since it would earn some reputation points with the broker, and they were supposed to keep their investigation on the down low for however long they could in the first place.
And if Dante knew Vergil only half as well as he did, that idiot was going to blurt out his real name next. Probably in that smug and superior tone of his. A name that he had never tried to hide. A name that would be known by those who knew where to look, a name that could make the entire shadowy nest of evil they were currently hunting down perk up in terror and scuttle back into the shadows before they could even come close to finding them.
So as Vergil moved to answer, Dante finally stepped up and loudly said, "Paul, Paul Redgrave!" He slung his arm over Vergil's shoulder, leaning his head in with a grin. "My brother."
The guy blinked at the new name, probably trying to figure out if he'd ever heard of a Paul Redgrave before. Of course he hadn't, but in the criminal underworld one just didn't reveal how one didn't know, especially as an information broker. And he certainly wouldn't be able to deny the uncanny resemble Dante and Vergil shared, especially with Dante almost squishing their faces together to highlight this. Thanks to all of that, it would be a point of criminal and also professional pride to keep the charade going.
"Ah, of course", the broker said with a knowing nod.
The telephone in the corner suddenly began to ring in a shrill and annoying tone. The broker's eyes darted from it to the twins in rapid succession. Apparently he still needed a moment to recover from the earlier intense staring and new revelation, as he took the opening presented.
With a very fake and apologetic, "Excuse me for a sec", he scuttled over to the phone and answered it.
Vergil also took the opportunity of semi-privacy to quietly hiss at Dante, "Paul?!"
Dante kept his arm slung over his brother's shoulder, the quiet thrill of being able to do so still not having ebbed in all the time since they'd reunited. He whispered in return, while keeping his eyes fixated on the sweaty broker's back, "Give me some slack, it was the first thing that came to mind."
The guy couldn't even make it a secret of how nervous he was about their continued presence with how often he glanced over his shoulder at them. Vergil really could do a number on one's nerves if he wanted to.
Still quietly Dante added, "And it suits you."
"No, it does not", came the immediate sharp but whispered reply.
"Yeah it does. You're absolutely a Paul."
"No, I'm not."
Judging from the tone and how Vergil's energies bristled he really wasn't feeling the name yet. All the more fun for Dante.
"Whatever bro, you are for now."
With that Dante finally turned to look at his twin, only to immediately be faced with a narrow-eyed glare. Scrunched up nose and maybe even a slight glow to his eyes included. Dante couldn't help the mischievous grin that climbed onto his lips in return.
Man, this was so much better than he had expected at first. The Tony bit was absolutely worth the show and teasing opportunity this visit was going to give Dante now. He leaned more of his weight onto his brother to take full advantage of the current predicament, Vergil not showing the slightest bit of strain.
Instead he opened his mouth to argue further, but then the phone hit the receiver and the broker turned around.
"Ehm, so... Mr Redgraves, how can I help you?"
Vergil must have understood how desperately they needed this information for the current case, since he fell silent in his protests. Didn't stop him from continuing to stab Dante with his eyes though.
Ah, such was brotherly love. Dante could deal with that no problem. Especially since he knew that if Vergil had really minded, he would have just turned around and left already. Or he would have at least shrugged Dante's arm off by now.
"Well, y'know, Paul and I just have a few things we wanted to check out. And we heard you're just the man for it!"
Vergil's eyes were definitely glowing now. Luckily the broker had learned his lesson and was keeping his eyes firmly on the friendly face of the grinning twin.
Yeah, Dante was going to love every second of this. His grin became even more pronounced as he further explained whatever made up shit he needed to, to fool their current customer.
Vergil a stiff but warming presence next to him, playing the role of iceman perfectly. Their jaunt through the criminal underbelly was going to be a piece of cake if things continued like this. One that was way less dreadful than Dante had expected at first.
Tony and Paul. What a pair they made.
...
And cue these two terrorizing so many more people, Dante using every single chance he has to call Vergil Paul, and Vergil suffering through it (not really), all to keep Dante distracted from the fact that he has to use his old name again...
Today's prompts are "A Much Needed Conversation" and "Miscommunication"
Remember to have fun and not to stress! If you have started something for this or any day and are unable to finish it, feel free to post and I'll still reblog it!
If you wish to combine prompts from multiple days, just post it the day you feel works best and state it as muti-prompt.
Remember to tag things as "brotherlybondingweek2025"
Remember to have fun and not to stress! If you have started something for this or any day and are unable to finish it, feel free to post and I'll still reblog it!
If you wish to combine prompts from multiple days, just post it the day you feel works best and state it as muti-prompt.
Remember to tag things as "brotherlybondingweek2025"
Brotherly Bonding: The Week 2025: Starting and Day One
Let Brotherly Bonding: The Week 2025 commence!
The week kicks off with the prompts "Childhood" and "Combat & Trust"
Remember to have fun and not to stress! If you have started something for this or any day and are unable to finish it, feel free to post and I'll still reblog it!
Remember to tag things as "brotherlybondingweek2025"
