ok but actually i thought about loz characters in dmc and the very first thing to come to mind was the (idk how still-relevant, or if it was disproven or not) theory that botw/totk link had a sister at some point, and also aryll from ww. could you imagine a dmc style sort of estranged sibling story but them? like i said, depression. ok bye
can confirm, still have not touched the register for any reason other than clocking in and out once for food. they put me on sales floor stocking tho and i have to say it is worlds easier even tho my feet are killing me
here it is. honestly for having written it almost 3 years ago i think it's pretty good. i have a few old posts for further context on what exactly is happening to vergil, if you care.
(the kind-of-synopsis again, bc it was there when i copy and pasted from my docs)
so far ; vergil has an identity crisis and falls asleep
~/∆\~
"What the hell?!"
A series of loud crashes sounded through the house; it shook the ceiling and walls, catching everyone's guard.
Dante sprang to his feet, immediately followed by the other two in the living room - Trish and Nico. The three quickly exchanged glances, then rushed up the stairs; the sound was definitely coming from one of the bedrooms, and it still hadn't stopped. Devil Sword Dante materialized in an instant.
"Is everyone alright?!" Nero shouted from behind, turning into the hallway at a sprint - adorned in a silly matching apron from helping Kyrie in the kitchen. He slowed his pace as he met up with them, gun in hand.
Dante shrugged, looking down the hall. "Dunno," He replied. Barely anyone had seen Vergil that day, but Dante was fairly sure he had been cooped up in his room for most of it, and Lady was playing with Kyle and Carlo in their room while Julio helped Kyrie cook dinner. The crashing was so loud he couldn't immediately tell which room it was coming from; he hoped the kids were okay.
A moment later, one of the doors suddenly opened. Lady stepped out, carrying Carlo, with Kyle peeking out from behind them, all with nervous expressions. The group breathed a collective sigh of relief that the kids were unharmed. But that meant…
The sounds of destruction suddenly stopped. "What was that?" Lady asked, running a hand down Carlo's back. As the rest of the crew shared confused looks and concerned rambles, Dante wandered towards Vergil's room, frowning.
He gave a quick knock, but opened the door without waiting for a response. "Hey Vergil! You, uh; you alive in there?" He froze in shock as it slowly swung open, the room coming into view.
Un-holy shit.
It was completely torn apart. Giant splinters of wood from the bedframe and shelves were everywhere, with any belongings previously held there mixed into the debris, many also in pieces. The mattress was slashed up and mangled, there were torn pages from ripped up books scattered across the floor, and hardly even a square foot of space clear enough to stand with ease. You'd think a whole horde of demons just came through and then vanished. Only one part had Dante instantly stressing, however, and he was sitting right in the center of all the destruction.
"What the hell happened in here?" He mumbled.
Now admittedly, it was a known fact that Vergil wasn't always the most stable person, but the scene looked manic. His arms were wrapped tight against his chest, each squeezing the other, and he was sat curled up on the floor, head resting against his knees. He was muttering something, but it was hushed and strained, and Dante wasn't able to make out any of it. He noticed a distinct tremble to Vergil’s figure, he was shaking.
He put an arm out behind him to signal everyone else to stay back, ignoring an array of questions and complaints, and carefully stepped into the room.
"So did something attack? Or…" He made his way over the broken planks and pieces, continuing to assess Vergil's state as he moved closer; he didn't seem overly injured, so that was good. He dropped his blade. "Or're you just having some kinda mental freak out?" He crouched down once beside Vergil, a sense of unease spreading at the fact that he had seemingly gone completely unnoticed.
"…oing to be okay; you don't need to …" Now much closer, Dante could make out bits of Vergil's mumbling, but it was still mostly unintelligible. His frown deepened.
"Definitely the mental freak out. Hey man, you good…?" He asked, a slight hint of anxiety in his voice. No response. "Vergil?" Not knowing what else to do, he reached out and tentatively placed a hand on Vergil's shoulder.
"y-What?!" Vergil's head shot up as he flinched back, his expression full of shock as his eyes met Dante's. Dante quickly removed his hand and raised his arms in surrender; everything about this felt wrong. Vergil continued to stare, frozen, for a moment. "I… I- I'm…" He faltered, sudden exhaustion washing over his features. He slumped forward slightly, as if lacking the energy to support himself properly. He squeezed his eyes shut as his arms loosened their grip on each other and began sneaking up towards his hair.
Dante could do nothing but sit, stunned, as he watched Vergil begin to rock slightly, back and forth. He began to… whine, maybe? It quickly turned into an exasperated groan of frustration. His hands reached behind his head, gripping his hair, as his volume sharply rose. Dante made to reach out again, but pulled back as bright energy surged into Vergil's hands, forming a large blade. He leaned back, his arms continuing to linger behind him for just a moment, then he swung forward, slamming it into the ground between his legs as hard as he could. His screaming peaked as the blade collided with the rubble - sending chunks of debris flying across the room - and then tapered off almost abruptly. Dante shielded his face with his arm, exclaiming.
The sword dissipated as orbs of the same blue energy formed near the ceiling, before quickly shooting towards the floor with a crash, each almost as impactful as the initial swing. Vergil's arms slowly returned to their original position, squeezed tightly around each other. He resumed rocking momentarily, working back down to just shaking. He was breathing deeply and heavily, no longer making any other noises.
"Whoa, what has gotten into you?" Dante remarked, jumping out of the way as the trajectory of the energy bolts irregularly shifted closer and closer to the two of them. He stood a couple steps from the door, but didn't exit. The bolts continued to fire semi-randomly, but slowly lost force, until they were just spinning around Vergil, shifting through unstable shapes. The dust settling, Dante could hear faintly that Vergil had returned to mumbling, still hushed, strained, and now raspy from screaming.
He turned towards the doorway, which Nico and Nero had at some point wandered through. He glanced back at Vergil, sighed, and stepped towards them. "Yeah-uh, I don't think he really wants to be bothered right now."
Nero scoffed. "Yeah. No kidding." They remained there for a moment, but Vergil didn't move again, and the spinning barrier never dissipated, though it did waver occasionally. "Well. I'm going to go let Kyrie know no one's hurt." He turned to walk out, "Let me know when he comes to his senses, so he can figure out how the fuck he's gonna clean this shit up."
Dante chuckled as Nero left without a second glance. He lingered, hesitating, then turned back around to face Vergil, the frown returning to his face. Upon hearing Nico say something - he didn't catch what - he waved her away assuredly. "You and the others can go… I think I'm gonna stay here and keep an eye on him, y'know, in case he tries to tear the house down again."
"Yeah, alright." She walked toward the door, before giving one last disbelieving look around the room. "One hell of a family, that's for sure." She muttered as she turned away, shutting the door behind her.
"That's for sure." Dante parroted quietly. Following short deliberation he opted to just sit somewhere clear enough to fit, leaned against the wall, and kept an eye on Vergil. The not only spinning, but also randomly pulsating blockade grew oddly hypnotizing, and after a few minutes of just staring at it, he put his head down, resting it against his knees.
~
Dante jolted awake some time later. A quick glance out the window showed he couldn't have been asleep very long, the sun was only just starting to set. He yawned and stretched out; or, tried to stretch out. He was still sitting in a pile of rubble. His gaze finally landed on Vergil, still curled up in the middle of the room, not moved an inch, though the barrier was nowhere to be seen.
Upon further inspection Dante noted that the stressed mumbles and shaking from before had at some point shifted to slow, even breathing; his shoulders gently rising and falling with each breath. He got to his feet, carefully and quietly walked closer, and paused once he got close enough he could see Vergil's face. Suspicions confirmed, he leaned back with a small huff. Vergil was out cold. He actually looked like he was sleeping quite peacefully, despite the prior situation. Dante frowned as he stretched out properly, he still didn't know what to make of anything that had happened. Either way, there was little he could do until Vergil woke up, so he left the room, glancing back one last time as he shut the door.
He made his way towards the dining room, following the captivating scent of Kyrie's cooking; dinner had to be ready. As he entered he spotted Nero and Julio setting the table, and as soon as Nero noticed Dante, he paused what he was doing, walking over.
"So, Vergil finished with his little temper tantrum? I'd like to ask him," He turned to make sure Julio wasn't listening, and lowered his voice slightly, "what the absolute fuck is wrong with him." He returned his volume to normal. "After dinner, of course."
Dante chuckled and shrugged, shaking his head. "Nah- Well, I mean yeah, but he's dead asleep. Dunno what's up with him."
"Asleep? After all that? Is that safe?" Dante shrugged again.
“Like I said. Dunno. He didn’t pull any stunts like that while we were in hell, but that’s not really the best place of example.” he idly rubbed his neck as he talked, still deeply pondering the previous event. Had anything like this happened, and just gone unnoticed in the depths of their struggles? It would have been impossible to tell the rampant destruction apart from a quickly deconstructed demon ambush, he knows he wouldn't have questioned it then.
The worries are still worming their way through his mind when movement pulls him back to reality. Nero had turned back to setting the table, and he realized he had just been standing there, lost to his thoughts. Upon seeing the table mostly set already - save the food - he cleared his throat awkwardly, which earned him a raised eyebrow from Nero.
“Well. I uh, I think I’m gonna get some fresh air for a minute while you guys set up. I’ll just be on the porch, if anyone needs me.” He turned and began to walk away then, Nero continuing to watch as he stepped out of the room; after a beat he just tiredly shrugged and returned to his work.
Those are only the new art scans from the recently released Artbook “Devil May Cry - Graphic Arts 3142 ‘Special Edition’“.
The book also includes two new interviews in japanese for now.
Part 1
https://kaldea88.tumblr.com/post/183950972970/devil-may-cry-graphic-arts-3142-separt-1
Part 3
https://kaldea88.tumblr.com/post/183951692535/those-are-only-the-new-art-scans-from-the-recently
You can check also my previous artbook scan uploads:
Devil May Cry - Graphic Arts
https://kaldea88.tumblr.com/post/171553382685/devil-may-cry-graphic-arts-nero-ill-upload
DmC Devil May Cry - Visual Art
https://kaldea88.tumblr.com/post/172166113010/dmc-devil-may-cry-visual-art-part-1
DMC5 CE Artbook - part 1
https://kaldea88.tumblr.com/post/183839387960/dmc5-ce-artbook-part-1
it started with intentionally spreading these microbes that slowly turned everything to dust.
i traveled many places, just to spread the microbe. it looked almost like mold, especially when it was just starting to grow, but it didn't stop until whatever it had touched was as a pile of snow.
some places i traveled alone. some places i had friends, all working to spread the return to dust. we moved quickly, without a second to waste.
i don't know when it happened, but i returned to my family. they had all been working too, i think, because they knew of what i was doing, and began to travel with me.
i think i understand why we traveled separately for so long. seeing each other, we grew scared. we loved each other, we didn't want to turn to dust. it wasn't that we were afraid of losing ourselves, but we didn't want to lose each other, or the ability to show, to feel, our love. we hugged a lot.
it's funny, really. in our sudden fear of becoming indistinguishable from one another, we became one. we stayed close, no longer moving even more than a foot apart. the dust was growing, you could see it on our skin. all we could do was stay close, make sure the last moments we had were together, full of love and memories. travel was no longer important, neither was location.
we were together, that's all that mattered.
when i woke up, it had snowed. it was the first time this year that the snow really stuck.
(is it just me or does his head dip ever so slightly further at the same time she turns to look at him? it definitely does.)
it seems to me that everyone (including myself) immediately interpreted vergil's relationship a specific way. i see a bunch of different ideas regarding how he acted during the relationship, but when it comes to lir, she's this loveable, beautiful woman, sometimes akin to kyrie in personality, and sometimes she's the one who nero inherited his spunk from, but no matter what, people assume she was nice.
now don't get me wrong, this is a totally fair assumption, seeing as we have literally no information on her aside from the above gif. even i came to this conclusion at first. but there's nothing saying it's the only possible conclusion.
ngl most of these realizations came from me experiencing a toxic relationship myself, but i already trauma dumped that in a different post. this post is definitely more headcanon-focused lore analysis than that.
so where to start...
well first of all that gif. i literally didn't ever notice it until i put the gif into this post, but his head definitely dips, just a little, at the moment they cross paths (if you can't see it: the shadow goes from just barely covering his eyes to covering like half his nose, and his lips become mostly obscured. he definitely lowers his head). she turns to look, he tries to become even more obscured than he already is. why would he do that?
this scene takes place "a few decades" before dmc4, so we can assume that it's right around when nero was conceived. my guess would have to be after, though, not before. that's not the demeanors of two people who don't know each other, even if they were pretending not to, it's clear that they do. i doubt it's mid-relationship either, vergil seems too focused for that.
she's obviously not the type of person to go chasing after him, but she definitely recognizes him, and seems to still be fond of him. but she just lingers and watches him, she doesn't approach, doesn't engage. it's vergil, so we know he's fully aware that she's there, and who she is amongst all these people, likely long before she ever comes on-screen. but if he knows her like we can assume he would, what reason would he have to be shying away from her? he knows she knows it's him, but he also knows she's not following.
you could reasonably argue that it's because they had a good relationship, until he suddenly up and left for his own reasons, or maybe even because they had a bad relationship, but that he was the toxic one. but either of these theories still don't explain why he's hiding himself from her, despite knowing she's aware it's him. he's too prideful, usually. if they had a good relationship and he left, or if he was the toxic one, either way he wouldn't care so much. he would hold his head high (as high as he can without negating the cover of his hood). he would march right past like she didn't matter. whether because he's a dick or because he's trying to ignore his feelings, he wouldn't act like that here. not for those reasons.
but...
but if she was the problem? what would he do then? what if she was a weakness he was trying to pretend he didn't have? a soft spot for someone he shouldn't trust? it's not like she would ever be able to physically harm him, not as a human. there would be no way to physically abuse him, not with his strength; unless he was emotionally torn as well. i don't know about you but i would definitely do everything in my power to avoid someone who was abusing me, even if just emotionally, and get away as soon as possible, even if, especially if i knew they saw me. honestly that's what his actions here remind me of. subtle, but not hesitant. distant, and not kind, but not necessarily unkind. he just wants to stay away from her.
i do find it interesting that she doesn't seem to try to follow, but it is a very short scene, and just because she might be manipulative, doesn't mean she has to be stupid. she knows he's done with her, that she's lost her grasp on him. but she still wants him. still holds interest in him, and it doesn't seem negative. (not a serious point but a good one: do you see the evil mastermind hand clasp she does when she sees him? she's immediately plotting, lmao)
if they were in a toxic relationship where he genuinely put in effort with her, only to be taken advantage of in ways that seem almost impossible to achieve against someone like vergil (if anyone could though, it would be her), i could see this reaction. they cross paths, and he does his best to just ignore her, pretend he doesn't even recognize her, but he can't help but rely on the cover of his hood, and he ever so slightly sinks into it as they pass each other, simply too close for comfort (can we talk about the way his hands are clearly not at his sides? one might say its because he only just put the cloak back on, but we all know he moves so immaculately that if he really wanted to he could put the cloak on perfectly in .2 seconds and not have to hold it in place at all. this is a rare glimpse of vergil actively seeking comfort instead of (more like as well as) power, even if only subconsciously). lir on the other hand makes no move to disguise her recognition from anybody but vergil himself, silently turning just as he passes, and clearly watching as he goes on.
personally i don't think she was a good person. i think she's a lot at fault for why vergil ends up not a good person too.
Converted these into more of a sticker form... I need to play with them a bit more (especially Lady's... all the white is sort of blah, and I'm not sure what I want to put on the drum.) Plus I need to make the Nico, Nero, and Kyrie ones too! I think I might do a more formal interest form later. But I mean, if you are interested please say something! low key I want to print some just for me, but the website I use seem to require a minimum amount, meaning I'd get at least 20 of each.
these are great and i love them (unfortunately will not be able to purchase any but thats cause im broke), so i raise you:
my unfinished rockstar au where the only one i have designed so far is vergil, but the instruments are the same as here for the most part (except really flashy designs bc i dont do casual even when i should)
pixelskylines
ellievsbear
tangentwithtanner
2087
blakekathryn
