𝐍𝐒𝐅𝐖 𝐒𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐍𝐂𝐄𝐒 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐐𝐔𝐎𝐓𝐄𝐒. This Quotes

Weeping over the long weekend I have in front of me. Hi, hello.

Have I *rips my entire face off and sets it on the table* Have I told you guys how much I love Cody?

x

"You'll be the first person I tell." She promised. And the only. It wasn't as if she really had anyone else to ask for help. Bradley didn't dislike her life. It had intrigue; it had purpose. There was always something new to learn. She liked that, but it was still a rather solitary life. Everything went into looking after the objects in her care. Most of them didn't require that much tending to. Some of them required too much to be left alone for long. Time to make connections didn't come easily or often. Centuries ago, there had been three more of her kind. Sisters that she'd never known. They were long gone, faded into nothing before she'd ever gotten a chance to know them. Her parents had made one last of them to fill in the gap and left her to figure it out. She'd done a pretty good job thus far. It certainly could've been worse.

She laughed once, glad for his humor now more than ever. It cut through the weight of what had just happened. "Maybe a little bit of both," she grinned back at him. Whether he was the scariest thing in here or not, he was definitely one of the more likeable things. It wasn't just poltergeists that she kept in check. There were evils older than time locked away beneath the foundation of her shop, monsters that her parents knew needed to be kept away from the world. She climbed upstairs to her little apartment on the second floor and slept above them every night after checking that all of her safeguards were still in place. Then she checked them again in the morning before doing anything else.

This time, she did blush just a little as Dante went on. It was silly, really, how simply hearing that he enjoyed her company was enough to dust her cheeks in pink. She busied herself then, making her way to the front of the shop to turn the sign on the door to closed and then beginning to pick up some of the more manageable pieces of debris. The questions that followed made her pause. Her hand hovered over the remains of an old medical textbook. She stood from where she'd been crouching to reach it and set the pieces on a precarious bookshelf. When she looked back to Dante, her eyes caught the motion of him rolling up his sleeves. They lingered there long enough to take in his corded forearms before she forced them up. "Nothing like this, no," she replied quietly. "I have other beings in here, but they always come to me contained. It's just on me to make sure they stay that way..." Bradley trailed off. Her brows pulled together. "Why? What are you thinking?"

Dante let out a sigh as she mentioned being even with him and it hardly felt like that, honestly, just by looking at the ruined stuff around the shop. His blue eyes looked at her closely and carefully as she glanced at one specific reliquary, often he wondered what was going on through her head, even more so now. "Still --- if there's anything I can do to help, just let me know, Bradley, alright?"he insisted.

At her bringing up how he isn't the scariest thing in here his brows rose up and he chuckled. "Should I be offended or flattered?"he asked with a little smug grin on his features, showing her he was just joking. Even though the demon was beat, his senses were on alert - the attack couldn't have happened out of no where, that demon was after something. And the more he backtracked, the more it seemed like the demon wasn't after him at all, the element of surprise with Dante being present making him kill it faster.

Once Bradley spoke again he snapped out of his thoughts and offered her another grin. "I do. I mean, it made sense who you are, with the whole business you have in your little shop. Kinda put the two and two together."he admitted with a shrug. "You've got a lot of things of interest kept here. Things that some might use for something bad. So I was kinda swinging by, got some reliquaries from you that helped me in my own agenda. And I grew to enjoy your company, you're one very interesting young lady."he chuckled and procedeed with putting his sword to the side so he could take off his coat, it was already damaged from the demon fight and the bullet hole wasn't as pretty. "Bradley, did you experience demon coming after you before? Have you ever had any sort of encounter similar to this?"he asked and began rolling the sleeves of his shirt up to his elbows, while his trusted guns ebony and ivory rested on each side of his ribs.

🐝  *  ―  𝑷𝑰𝑵𝑰𝑵𝑮 / 𝒀𝑬𝑨𝑹𝑵𝑰𝑵𝑮 𝑺𝑬𝑵𝑻𝑬𝑵𝑪𝑬 𝑺𝑻𝑨𝑹𝑻𝑬𝑹𝑺.

❛  i can't stop thinking about you even when i try.  ❜ ❛  every time i see you, it's like my heart skips a beat.  ❜ ❛  i never realized how much i needed you until you weren't there.  ❜ ❛  do you ever feel like there's something missing ... like a piece of your heart is somewhere else?  ❜ ❛  i wish i had the courage to tell you how i feel.  ❜ ❛  if only you knew how much you truly mean to me.  ❜ ❛  do you ever wonder what it would be like if things were different between us?  ❜ ❛  sometimes i wonder if you ever think about me the way i think about you.  ❜ ❛  i had a lot of dreams about you recently.  ❜ ❛  somehow, you're always on my mind.  ❜ ❛  i think i've been in love with you since the day we met - scratch that, i know i've been in love with you since the day we met.  ❜ ❛  my biggest wish is to hold you close and never let you go.  ❜ ❛  all my life i've felt like a part of me was missing, but with you i've finally found it.  ❜ ❛  you deserve better than who i am right now, but i'm gonna keep trying to become someone you do deserve.  ❜ ❛  every time you smile at me, i get this flutter in my chest.  ❜ ❛  do you think i'll ever be worthy of your love?  ❜ ❛  i want to be the person to make you happy. the one person you can always come to with whatever you need.  ❜ ❛  will we ever get another chance together?  ❜ ❛  you were the best thing that's ever happened to me.  ❜ ❛  my biggest regret is ever letting you go.  ❜ ❛  i'm still in love with you ... and i honestly never stopped.  ❜ ❛  when i wake up in the morning, you're the first person i want to see.  ❜ ❛  every time i wake up, i check if you wrote me another message.  ❜ ❛  i wish i could be as important to you as you are to me.  ❜ ❛  it hurts when you don't talk to me like you used to.  ❜ ❛  i miss everything about you, your touch, your laugh, your smile. i wish i could have that back.  ❜ ❛  i want to fall asleep wrapped in your arms.  ❜ ❛  hold me closer; i always feel safer when you're with me.  ❜ ❛  there's so much i wish i was able to tell you.  ❜ ❛  i know things aren't easy right now, but i want to remain a fixture in your life. after all, you're one in mine.  ❜ ❛  i miss the way you always made me smile.  ❜ ❛  you're the reason i keep holding on.  ❜ ❛  maybe we're supposed so to remain a case of 'right person, wrong time' forever.  ❜ ❛  if only you knew how i feel about you.  ❜ ❛  i'm yearning to hold your hand in mine.  ❜ ❛  i think you are the one for me, and i hope one day i'll be the one for you, too.  ❜ ❛  do you think i'll ever become more than a friend to you?  ❜ ❛  my heart belongs to you, always and forever.  ❜ ❛  my first instinct is to protect you, no matter the cost.  ❜ ❛  i've been thinking about us a lot lately.  ❜

DEVA CASSELL as ANGELICA SEDARA

IL GATTOPARDO (2025)

There was a little flutter in the pit of her stomach when Dante told her that he liked when she smiled at him. This really wasn't the time for her to be fixating on some offhand comment. The shop was in shambles. Her favorite customer was...certainly more than just her favorite customer. She'd seen plenty of infernal things in her day. She hadn't expected him to be one of them, but she supposed there were worse things that could happen. It was almost nice, really, the knowledge that she finally wasn't the only inhuman one in the room.

But this wasn't the time to enjoy that either. Even said with an edge of humor, there was dread in what Dante said next. He didn't think it was just an accident. On the contrary, he seemed to expected something more sinister. Given his clear offensive experience and her rather meticulous keeping that made accidents in the collection all but unheard of, she was tempted to agree. Things like this didn't happen here, not just a demon breaking out but anything, really. The idea made her stomach turn in a much less pleasant way this time.

And it gave her pause when he asked about potentially apocalyptic additions to her collection. Bradley thought about her eldritch roommates, about the prison her titanic mother had built that the two of them were standing above, about the doors to cells that defied time and space. She didn't want to be suspicious of him. Right now though, she was starting to get suspicious of everything. That wasn't information that she could hand over lightly. "Of course I know everything that I keep here." The nymph finally replied, deliberately only answering the first half of his question. She brushed past Dante to continue picking up pieces here and there that she could. "I-I need to start cleaning. I really appreciate you saving my life, but I-" she grunted as she tried and failed to start dragging a wrought iron wall ornament out of the barely there path left through the rubble. And continued trying even when the metal dug into her fingers. "Can you come back another day? I really need to take care of all of this."

His grin grew as she grinned back at him, she was getting under his skin the more he spent time around her. "I like it when you smile like that at me - it makes my day."Dante admitted without any hesitation. He was an honest man, always has been, plus it was cute to tease her and offer her well deserved compliments because when she blushed it made him feel a certain way.

Scratching along his forearm, it didn't pass him by the way she looked at him, and he had to bite his tongue back to continue with the teasing, there were times when he actually had to be a bit serious, to the best of his abilities. Dante hummed as Bradley explained how things in here worked, with her receiving contained supernatural entities and keeping them that way. Blue hues scanned through the mess, for a moment lost in thought before speaking up.

"There's gotta be some disturbing in the force."he pinched at his chin before looking back at her. "--- Sorry, been watching a lot of Star wars lately. What I mean is, something is definitively happening. There's been an increase in little portals opening up, demons being let into the human world... And this attack onto your shop didn't feel like an accident. I think that demon was looking for something - or testing the waters for someone else."Dante continued on, pacing around the wooden floor as he did so. "Do you know every thing you keep around here? Is there something you keep well hidden that could be dangerous if it'd get into someone's hands - like end of the world dangerous?"

"Oh, trust me, it wouldn't be good for you." Mona practically purred. A part of her wanted to see him try though. She was always eager to not just to test her own mettle but to prove it. Undoubtedly, the man before her was one of the more powerful beings she'd come across. Whether she wanted to work with him or not, that made him a worthy opponent. If she could hold her own against Vergil, the gates certainly wouldn't stop her, She never got to enjoy a good fight anyway. Most of them were so easy to subdue that there was no satisfaction in it.

Risking her life by provoking him just to feel that thrilled would have to come later. Unfortunately. She had a goal. Whatever his reasons were, she'd heard rumors that he had the same one. Playing nice wasn't her strong suit, but she had to do it. Mona only hoped that he didn't need the sugary sweet kind of playing nice, that he wasn't going to expect charm and smiles. The only playing nice that she knew was the mutual respect that came along with the acknowledgment of power.

"No, I came to the right guy." Unable to stop herself from just a small show of defiance, she closed the distance between herself and his drawn blade. "You see, I've got a bone to pick with the gates of Hell. Word on the street is that you're trying to open them, and I'm sure you would've done it by now if you could pull it off yourself. Couldn't hurt to have a witch working alongside you, right?" She flashed a smile and held out her hand, arm running parallel to his katana. "Nice to finally meet you, Vergil. I'm Mona."

"Yeah, no shit."he grumbled, there was clear annoyance in the back of his voice, the icy blue gaze steady and firm onto her. He had no idea who she is, and it felt like a waste of his time already. Not that he didn't have time, he just hated being disturbed in the middle of something, but since she followed him around it was a matter of time before she finally shows herself to him.

Tall, skinny brunette surely had guts, was confident and even cocky a bit too much, as she stepped towards him, trying to prove a point. It amused him but he didn't let it show. For all he cares, he's seconds away from just turning away and leaving her be. But why not give her a chance since she's been in his shadow lurking for days. "I like a good challenge."Vergil said straight away about the pet part, and pulled out his katana as she continued to speak, and pointed it right in front of him, almost drawing a line at where she should stop - he absolutely hated having his personal space invaded.

She had a mouth on her, that was for certain. What did she even know of his progress and what his mission is? Something wasn't sitting right with him nor her words and he gripped at the handle of his katana tighter. "You know what bothers me? This conversation. I don't know who you are or what the fuck you want from me, less alone what you expect of me. You came to the wrong guy."Vergil said in a way for a warning almost.