A Lesson in Working
Setting: A couple of months after Madhouse! DMC; Devil May Cry
Description: 10-year-old twins Selene and Evalynn were offered ice cream by Dante, but he had a catch and a lesson along the way.
Inspired by an episode of Bluey ("Ragdoll") -> Bluey belongs to Joe Brumm and Ludo Studio.
"Friend Like Me" is sung by Robin Williams(1951-2014) and composed by Howard Ashman(1950-1991) and Alan Menken -> Aladdin belongs to Jon Musker, Ron Clements, and Buena Vista Pictures Distribution.
TW: Dante being a girl dad, Lady being Lady
---
Selene sings as she walks around the shop, "Well, Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherazade had a thousand tales-"
Selene gasps, seeing a twenty-dollar bill on the floor, and cheers as she picks it up. "Money!"
---
"You got some power in your corner now, some heavy ammunition in your camp-," Evalynn sings as she watches the fan in the main room of the shop while on her back. Selene runs up before saying,
"Evie, I found money!"
"Money?"
Once Selene showed it to her younger twin, they cheered in unison, "Money!"
Both girls run to Dante, who is currently lying on the bed in his bedroom, reading a magazine. Selene asks, "Father, can you drive us to the diner to buy us ice cream?"
Evalynn then said, "We found money!"
Dante corrected nonchalantly to his daughters, "Correction, you found my money."
He took the twenty-dollar bill as the girls cried, "Hey, that's ours!"
"No, it's mine. I must've dropped it when I was doing laundry."
Selene points out, "Yeah, and we found it."
Evalynn chimes in, "Which makes it ours."
Dante lowers the magazine before saying, "Sorry, girls. You have to work for money."
Evalynn spoke, "No, you don't! It comes from the machine on the wall."
Selene adds, "Yeah, you just have to push the buttons."
"There's more to it than that."
Selene spoke, "This is wretched!"
Evalynn chimed, "Yeah, we want ice cream."
"Ice cream tastes the best when you've earned it."
"That's not true," Selene spoke.
"Well, let's find out," Dante closes the magazine as he gets up from the bed, "C'mon, in the car."
"What? We're getting ice cream?"
"Yep, I'll drive you, girls, to the diner."
Both girls cheered as they were about to meet Dante there, only to stop them, "There is one catch, though."
The girls looked at each other with confusion before Dante booped his own nose, then flopped down like his limbs were jelly. He spoke, "Ragdoll."
Both girls cried as they ran to their father, "Oh, no, not Ragdoll."
Evalynn attempted to use her strength, but despite both of them being quarter-demons, it was not effective on him. Selene boops his nose a couple of times as Evalynn cried, "Dad, come on!"
Selene spoke, "We don't want to play Ragdoll. We just want ice cream."
Dante then spoke, "Well, I just need help to get to the car."
Evalynn groans before calling out, "Mum!"
Dante replies, "Your mother's working right now, earning money."
Selene said to Evalynn, "It's not that far to the car; we just need to pull him."
"Okay, I'll push from this side," Evalynn spoke as she got to the other side while Selene took his arm, "Ready? Go!"
Both managed to get an inch and a half with a grunt. Evalynn spoke, "He moved!"
Selene instructed, "Okay, pull on that leg while I push his bum."
Both moved Dante's lower half while Dante spoke to himself, "Maybe I'll give the strawberry sundae an addition or two."
"It's working."
Evalynn spoke, "Yeah, but it's too slow."
Selene suggests, "Let's try rolling him."
"Okay."
While Dante thinks aloud, the girls heaved as they rolled him, which was somehow faster, but it was like a thick log. Dante called out to his girls, "Hurry up, girls. I want that sundae."
Both girls quipped as they kept going, "We're going as fast as we can."
A few seconds of rolling later, the doorway stopped them, making Dante quip, "Oop, Square peg in a round hole."
Selene snapped her fingers as she said, "I got an idea, I'll be back."
Evalynn tries to push him in another direction, but to no avail, while she complained, "Dad, this is too hard."
Dante spoke, "Obstacles don't block the path; They are the path."
Evalynn replied, "I don't understand what you're pointing out!"
Selene comes back with the yoga ball that their mother used when the girls were young. She spoke, "Here, you pull, I'll use this."
Evalynn groans, "Fine."
Evalynn was pulled by the arm while Selene used the wall in an attempt to use the yoga ball to push their father up. She complains, "This is hard work."
Dante spoke, "Eh, a bit of hard work never hurt anybody."
Evalynn quickly went to where the doorway opens, then pushed her father forward, landing with a grunt, "Okay, that one hurt."
As both kids climb on top to get through, Dante cheers, "That's it, girls. If you get knocked down seven times, you get up eight. There's no 'I' in team."
While Evalynn pulled by his arms, she spoke, "Dad, stop yapping!"
Selene comes up with an idea, calling out her sister, "Evie, look!"
Evalynn turns to the stairs as she agrees, "This'll be easier."
"What will be easier?" Dante asks while the girls pull him out of the doorway, then push his body down the stairs. He groans, "Sometimes obstacles-Oof!-are placed-Ooh!-in our way-Augh!!-to see if what we want--OW!-is really worth-urgh!- fighting for!"
Both girls cheered, "Yeah, go dad!"
As Dante landed on the bottom of the stairs, both girls giggled before Selene instructed, "Help me get him around the corner."
Both girls pushed him, only to figure out he was stuck. Evalynn complained, "He's stuck. Even if we get him out of the house, we still have to get him all the way to the car."
Selene cried, "It's impossible!"
Dante spoke, "Great works are performed not by great strength, but by perseverance."
Evalynn spoke, "Wait a minute. Are you trying to teach us something?"
"One must persevere-"
Evalynn groaned, "Augh, he is!"
Selene pouts, "What?"
"Okay, fine, I was trying to teach you the value of hard work. That's demon hunting 101."
"Why are you trying to teach us something that we don't want to learn?" Selene asks.
Dante answers, "I don't want you both growing up to be lazy, otherwise your mother would kill me."
Selene groans as shesitst on a stair, "That's it. We're not going any further."
Evalynn followed along while Dante asked, "You don't want ice cream."
"You keep your twenty, Father."
"Okay."
Silence stretched between the two sisters. Evalynn broke it when she asked her older twin, "SeSe?"
Selene asks, "Yeah?"
"I want an ice cream."
"Me too."
She slaps herself before Selene got back on her feet with renewed motivation, "Alright, let's get father into the car."
Dante spoke softly as he reminisced about how Vergil was when he was younger, "That's the spirit."
Selene turned to her father, "But, we're not learning anything."
"Deal, but do yourselves a favor. Why work harder when you can work smarter?"
Evalynn thought for a moment before coming up with an idea. She left the room for a moment before returning the roller creeper from the car trunk. She called out as she went to her sister once more, "Ready, SeSe?"
"Ready!"
Both girls pushed Dante over the last few steps before landing on the roller creeper. They cheered as they high-fived. Both then took each foot, rolling their father through the main door.
Selene cried happily, "There's the car!"
Evalynn spoke, "Let's roll Dad down the steps."
Dante spoke, "Girls, I love you, but don't ever do that."
Evalynn groans, "Okay, fine."
---
Lady reloads her pistol before seeing Dante tumble down the steps, making her say, "What the hell!?"
Dante spoke, "Morning, Lady."
She ran up to them before saying, "What's going on here?"
Evalynn spoke, "He stole our money."
"What!?"
Dante spoke, "Okay, that's a little exaggerated."
Selene pipes up, "He said he would give it back if we got him to the car."
Lady asks, her eyebrows furrowing her red and green eyes, "Is that so?"
Dante deadpans, "Just head inside. This doesn't concern you."
"Well, it does now," Lady declared as she turned to the twin girls, "C'mon, girls!"
As Lady aids the girls, Dante spoke, "Hey, watch the hands, Lady."
With him rolling like a square wheel, Lady mutters toward Dante, "Bossing around your daughters. I mean, honestly!"
As they got close to the car, Evalynn groaned, "We'll never get him in the car, he's too heavy."
Dante quips, "Ah, well, what are you going to do?"
Lady smirks, "Open the car door, girls. I'll show you how I managed to haul Kalina Ann."
As both girls did that, Lady took a breath before lifting Dante with her legs, making him mutter, "Damn, look at those quads."
Lady grunts, "Promise me to work hard and maintain a strong core, girls. Don't get lazy."
Both girls nodded in unison, "Yes, Lady, we promise."
After getting Dante in the car with the girls cheering, Dante slumped over the wheel, honking for a moment before Lady sat him up.
Dante smirks, "I'm not sure what to do in this condition."
Both daughters gasped, "What!?"
Selene asks, "So we don't get ice cream."
"Not unless you drive-Oof!"
Dante's sentence got cut short when Lady moves him to the passenger seat and says to the girls, "Buckle up, girls. I'll take you there."
---
Both girls waited in the car before Lady came out with the ice cream dishes and said sweetly, "Here you go, girls."
Both twins spoke, "Thanks, Lady."
Dante quips, "'Thanks, Lady'!? I paid for it."
Lady adds, "And I keep the change since you still owe me."
The girls laughed. Dante turns to Selene before instructing, "Okay, Selene. Take a bite."
Selene took a bite of her banana split before feeling the explosion of flavor. A different kind than the last time she had it. Her eyes lit up before saying, "This is the best banana split I've ever tasted."
Dante chuckles toward his eldest daughter, "Told you."