#super-jump

[howlingday]

My Favorite Things

Inspired by this comic at the request of @setsu-kos-arashi

Gillian: What's your favorite attribute about yourself?

Jaune: Honestly? Probably my size.

Gillian: Yes, yes, you're taller than most of your friends. I'm asking you to be serious.

Jaune: I am. Or, well, I wasn't talking about my height.

Gillian: Oh? Then what were you... (Blushes) O-Oh...

Jaune: (Blushing red, Waving hands around) MY MUSCLES! I'M TALKING ABOUT MY MUSCLES!

[alextheflyingkitsune]

Winners! (and more rules)

The five winners are:

@sir-foxykins

@radwuff

@pandorabox82

@samurai-cookies

@super-jump

For what you won if you’re confused, see here:  https://alextheflyingkitsune.tumblr.com/post/167641749075/alextheflyingkitsune-i-need-pixel-art-practice

More rules: Winners MUST message me in order to claim their prize.

Winners MUST provide ref art or a very detailed description of what they want. 

If winners do not claim their prize within 24 hours their spot will be forfeit and that spot re-drawn.

[mad-hatter-teacups]

First Date (DxL Prompt)

@dxlpartyboat (I was supposed to do this yesterday but unfortunately I had work and a work party to go to later on...that was a lot of fun)

It was hard to tell these days which job leads were authentic and which ones were busts. Occasionally, she’d get a call and head out to meet with the client and it would be a pretty good one. Most of the time, Lady could handle the drones on her own. The nests were splatter-city central and chockful of nasties of which a quick grenade and some manipulated smoke bombs were enough to distract the beasts and she could destroy them. Those were the ones that often tended to be legit most of the time. For ones that required a heavier price, she went dressed for business. It was an attempt to show how serious she was about sitting down and making deals. Sometimes it was as simple as a change in her blouse, maybe dusting on some light makeup, a pair of slacks, and a more fitting pair of boots underneath her pants legs. 

These were the ones that were the majority of “hit-or-miss” and most of the time they were misses. The leads weren’t credible. Occasionally Dante would send Enzo her way just to give her a hand every now and again, which was weird considering he still owed her money. The meeting had been quick and she made it as cuthroat as possible once the lack of evidence came into play regarding the job. Sometimes it wasn’t even the lack of evidence and this time she preferred to equate it more to the sexism than anything. She supposed that came with this job when you were a woman in the field. “Hunting” seemed to equate to “men” more than women didn’t it in the eyes of the narrowminded. 

She was left distracted for the moment before her peripherals caught an odd sight from the corner of her eyes. Her gaze narrowed for a moment at the street corner in front of the diner. In front of it was the last person she’d expected to see...looking considerably tidied up for how he often presented himself at times in his shop. 

Dante was leaning outside the diner, occasionally glancing at the clock inside the doorway for the time. Of course, judging by the awkward sight of him seeming antsy, Lady judged he must have been there for some time. Wait. What was he waiting for? He was in a pair of black denim pants first of all which wasn’t the usual of him and he was wearing a long-sleeved dark red shirt that had a fading logo of “The Ramones” as the graphic. She noted his amulet was tucked under the collar and his hair, likely, had been freshly washed. 

Her boots clicked against the pavement before she came to stand before him, her tone curious as Dante’s head leaned back against the concrete wall of the diner, as patrons within conversed and dined amongst each other. “...Dante?” His name came off her lips in confusion. 

Immediately, the half-demon snapped to attention from his distracted state and his teeth seemed to grit for a moment. A tired exhale escaped him as his warm blue gaze focused on her and he offered her a casual smirk, but his body language told her everything was wrong. “Hey Lady, fancy seeing you all dressed up. Lemme guess,” He gave her outfit a once over and her brow quirked at him in response. “Job interview?”

“Close. Job stakeout meeting for a lead on some demons. You’re dressed pretty casually for someone who “lives on the edge” between hell and humanity.” She scratched at her neck with her index finger, managing to pull away one of her dark locks that must have been a dead end. “What are you doing here, Dante? You’re inside enjoying one of your sundaes?”

That smile he’d been holding suddenly faded and his gaze averted from her cooly. “Nah.” He answered but didn’t seemed to elabourate. “Trouble with my tab.” That was a lie. He’d managed to get some money together for this evening...at least what he thought would be an evening. 

“...You?” Amusement lingered in Lady’s tone. “Trouble with a tab? That’s not like you, Dante. I thought you had it pretty good with the owner of this dive.” Her head indicated in the direction of the diner and she saw the curl of his lip in a brief flash of annoyance. How long had he been waiting out here? Was there another reason he couldn’t just...go in there?

A sharp inhale and he shook his head, playing it off. “I do.” There was a slight terseness to his response that he hadn’t meant. His hands shoved into his pockets at his point. “I just...pissed him off the other day and now...I’m hankering for a sundae that I can’t even have.” It wasn’t that. He knew better but he wasn’t going to tell Lady the truth. It was...weird. It was...awkward. He’d been...ghosted. 

There were many times Dante could be a good lier. Most of the time it was to protect his ego or to protect someone else and just move on from the current situation. Lingering in the past wasn’t his style, even though it had a tendency to keep popping up on him like the fucking plague with his father’s legacy. For some reason, this wasn’t one of those times were he was hiding it well. Okay, so she seemed to be more in tune to him acting and appearing out of the norm moreso than was the norm for Dante. 

“Oh.” Lady answered casually and nodded her head in understanding. “Well...” She began carefully. “Since the job I was investigating into was a bust maybe...I can assist you with negotiating a patch between you and the owner. I mean...it’ll cost you, as it always does-” She watched his hand lift up and he waved the issue off. 

“It’s fine.” Dante answered, giving a shake of his head and exhaling softly. “I should...just probably get out of here and head home. Maybe order a pizza or somethin’ and see if I can get that one channel on the television to work. Morrison fixed it once but it went out.” His shoulders slumped but his gaze wasn’t focused on Lady in front of him, even though he had to admit she looked much more refined to her namesake in this state of dress. His expression seemed to fall though as his gaze focused across the street to a bubbly looking redhead with another guy on her arm looking positively delighted with his presence and they rounded the corner to another local hot spot...one he couldn’t exactly afford. Then again he couldn’t even afford a short period of normalcy for himself at times. Who was he kidding?

While Dante’s attention was distracted, Lady followed his gaze and that was when it all clicked. He’d been waiting around for a person to take on a date. A real date and not the kind where it was “sex bomb one and done” type date. A weird sensation tugged at her heart for a moment and her gaze strayed back to him before she spoke again. It must have been weird for her to see Dante making an attempt at normalcy in terms of standard interaction with people. His cynical humour and aloofness could be offputting but here he was...making an attempt. It was as depressing as it was cute. 

“Well...” Lady began carefully. “It seems like it’s been a crappy time for us both then. My job was a bust. Your tab’s on the bust. So...how about I pick up this one and the owner can bitch at me for it later. I think I’ve got enough to cover some sundaes. My treat. No strings attached.” The offer was there on the table and for it she wondered if he would see it as one out of “pity” or he would just...accept it. 

“...What are you doing, Lady?” Dante asked her bluntly as he turned to her. There was a mixture of confusion and slight anger in his eyes. “...Is this a joke?” He asked her, clearly giving up his facade at this point. “Don’t ya better things to do than “make my day better” than what it’s already been?”

“No.” Lady answered him bluntly, a scowl curled onto her features but this time she found herself being bold and stepping forward. “No. I don’t actually.” Her fists clenched at her side before they relaxed and she inhaled a deep breath before exhaling. “This is one of the better things I have to do.” She took another step towards him until they were within the boundaries of personal space. Dante had to lean a bit away from her awkwardly, the confusion clearly set in by now. “...So shut up, take my offer, and don’t hand me any lines before we walk in there.” Her head indicated in the direction of the diner doorway.

Dante’s lips pursed together as he attempted to form his thoughts as to what he could say to her. There were a number of things but none of them came out of his mouth and the only thing he managed to squeeze out was a slight scoff and a smirk graced his handsome features.”...Whatever, Lady.” It seemed to be the only answer she needed because she was giving his shoulder an abrupt push to turn him around and march him towards the door of the diner. “...This why the job you came from was a bust, ‘cuz you pushed the guys around like they were ragdolls in a claw machine?” 

She had to avoid rolling her eyes as they came into the diner where the air was decidedly less tense than she imagined it would be. They were greeted by the cheerful waitress that was usually there and was sweet on Dante and promptly seated in a booth by the back corner where Dante didn’t even take a look at the menu. It was the same with Lady because this wasn’t exactly how she envisioned this whole thing to go. The order process was simple. Strawberry sundae for Dante made to his usual preference. Lady’s was a hotfudge sundae with a vanilla Coke but that was all that seemed to be uttered even after waitress left and Dante leaned back in his seat and glanced out the window from their booth before he glanced back at Lady pretending to read over the menu in front of him.

“...Why?” Dante asked her then.

“I said don’t ask me any questions. Didn’t I?” Lady responded giving him a leveled look. 

“No. You said “don’t hand me any lines” as part of the terms of agreement. Questions weren’t off the table. So, I’ll ask again.” He ventured, placing his hands on the table. “Why?” His brows shot up. 

“...Because friends don’t let friends get stood up on dates and go home and wallow in self-pity. Okay?” Lady sounded exasperated at this point. “You know Dante, working in this field...and living it hasn’t exactly afforded either of us the luxury of normalcy.”

He offered a cynical smile and a scoff. “Got that right. We’re a regular television trope ya know. Dead Parent Syndrome. Tragic backstory...”great power comes great responsibility”-” He was gesturing in an overly dramatic way and this time Lady rolled her eyes at him. 

“Okay, shut up. I get it. We’re dysfunctional and neither of us can afford therapy.” She picked up the salt shaker and put it in front of her. “Have you even imagined yourself sitting in front of a therapist before?” The question came without thinking but the response it garned nearly made her jump.

“HA!” He burst into laughter, his head tossing back and for a moment she thought there were tears in his eyes at the very notion of him in therapy. “Oh yeah! Me in the same room as a therapist as I go through all of the tragic and horrifically traumatizing aspects I’ve endured in my life and the only answer that’s logical, ya know, to me, is “demons” but the therapist would look at me like I’m nuts.” His palm slapped against the surface of the table and he gave another short laugh. “Oh yeah. That’s a good one...”

“...That’s exactly how that conversation would go for both of us, I’m almost positive.” Lady added in for good measure. “...How much you’d bet mine would pull some Freudian bullshit because of my father?”

“...Depends on the therapist and if they believe Freud was actually onto somethin’ with that whole “Oedipus Complex” thing.” Dante at this point moved the pepper shaker in front of the salt shaker. He didn’t know why, but maybe it had been a gesture to simply pass the time as Lady had done. 

“Wait. You read Oedipus?” 

“Didn’t finish high school, but yeah. I read Oedipus. Antigone was just as fucked up. They wanted to kill that girl cuz she wanted to bury her family member. Just to bury the guy and nothing more. Ya know, treason an all that.” 

She couldn’t believe what she was hearing and it offered her a slight glimpse into another aspect of Dante’s life he didn’t go into detail with: his childhood. “...You said you didn’t finish high school....but you finished Oedipus and Antigone? I’m sorry. Who are you again and what have you done with Dante?”

“If it were up to me, I wouldn’t have finished them but someone wanted me to attempt to do homework in and out of the system” He was talking about Crest, but he wasn’t ready to go into detail about someone whom had been his “unofficial” mentor. 

Leaning her head into her hand, Lady found herself drawn into the notion someone might have tried to encourage Dante to finish homework (of all things). Her lips began to part but before she could get out another question, the waitress was back with their sundaes and Lady’s vanilla coke. They were left alone again then and an awkward silence fell between them before Dante spoke first as he picked up his spoon. 

“...was I that obvious?” He asked her regarding being stood up.

“...It was painful to watch.” Lady admited as she picked up her own spoon. “...did it hurt?” She asked without thinking. “I mean...your ego.”

“Heh.” Dante smirked. “Nah. I been stood up before, just....this time sucked even more than usual. Ya know, when ya make an effort to actually...go through with something and put meanin’ into it?” 

Slowly Lady nodded and shook her head. “Yeah. I know it all too well. I’m just...sorry it happened to you. Shouldn’t have. Ya know. You deserve some slack. Every once in a while, right?”

His hair was in his face for a moment as he examined the effort put into the sundae and he tossed his head back and grinned at her. “You mean, I deserve some slack from you every once in a while.”

“...Yeaaaaah. That’s it.” Her eyes rolled and she lifted up her spoon to his as she dipped into her sundae. “Cheers.”

“Cheers.” Dante grinned as they each took their respective bites of ice cream. “Mmm. I take it back. I’m glad ya didn’t let me go back to the shop and mope.”

“I’d have come back there anyways and somehow managed to drag you back out here. Kicking and screaming of course.”

“Oooh. Kiiiiiinky, Lady.” 

“Don’t make me regret this decision, Dante.”

“Nah! I’m just impressed ya made me laugh so hard tears were in my eyes.”

“I thought you said Devils Never Cry? Haha.”

“I wasn’t sad so it doesn’t count!” 

“Hm. Sure Dante.”