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Pandora's Fox II
PANDORA'S FOX II
If you were here last June, do you remember that app that appeared on the relics then, Pandora's Fox? It's all about finding your Familiar bond. It's been available for people to use since every Star Child was forced to fill it out or have it filled out for them with its grand reveal. However, it's sat quietly in the background unobtrusive to those who didn't click to see what it was about.
Until now.
That's right, Pandora's Fox is back! (and with a makeover). The app has been rejiggered with old questions and new, including some specific to each Role! The app will buzz and open itself with a blank profile waiting to be filled out. Star Children can fill it out for themselves—as long as they don't lie. This app will not allow Star Children to lie. Honesty is important in a Familiar bond. Star Children who lie may find that answer filled in a little too honestly and unable to be deleted. Anyone who waits too long to fill it in will find it answered for them!
Familiar bonds come in all different shapes and sizes, so find the right person for you!
This is game canon!
Forms for your characters!
Myths:
Legends:
Familiars:
When Vergil brings hunted food around
Mizu nods as Vergil approaches, somewhat used to the warm feeling that comes over her each time they see each other again. It's a foolish thing, but with Vergil, Mizu's always been a fool. So what's the harm. She waits until he gets close enough she can speak softly, without everyone overhearing them.
"Is this another excuse to see me?" Mizu asks lightheartedly. A reference, if not an obvious one, to the profile Vergil hasn't seen. She's not sure how many other people will understand that comment (perhaps Rin?), but it shouldn't be most people. Hopefully. Few people live in Wintermute, so anyone who knows she does could suspect it's Mizu. What's done is done. The fox spirit is reliable in her chaos.
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Neither Vergil nor Mizu have been all that affectionate with the other when others might notice. It's not a matter of shame—at least not for Vergil's part and he would be hard-pressed to believe that the case for Mizu—so much as it is a matter of privacy. What lies between them is between them, and there is no need nor desire to bring anyone else into it in any capacity. For Vergil, it's only stolen little glances. Perhaps a brushing of fingertips that linger for a fraction of a second longer than necessary when passing something to her. It's just enough that his heart flutters each time despite the fact he's the one to do it, but anything more is saved for when it's just the two of them.
So, it seems a bit strange for her to start a game like this. Not that there is a complaint from Vergil, it's just...unexpected is all.
"I wasn't aware I needed one," he says, assuming that he is playing along.
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So long as people see them together, anyone who reads both their profiles can put the pieces together. Vergil doesn't speak with enough people for there to be someone else who lives in Wintermute. So it's reckless but not that reckless.
"You don't," Mizu says, "You haven't for months." For all it's only been weeks they've been together, it's been months since they called each other friend. Mizu has little to no experience with those, but the basic tenet of not needing an excuse to see them makes sense.
cw: brief mention of animal death d/t hunting
Now he doesn't feel that way quite so much. They don't spend every waking minute together—that would be far too suffocating for both of them to do something like that—but when he wants some of her time, Vergil isn't as shy about seeking it out. They grapple. They make love. They share meals together. Vergil occasionally watches her work for a while before leaving her be to her forge. Nights are his favorite. He doesn't need to intimate or ask for anything then. It simply is a given that they will be together. They talk quietly, keeping their voices low to avoid any sound carrying beyond the thin walls around them, until one of them falls asleep. Most nights it's Mizu who falls asleep first, but on a rare occasion, Vergil's eyes have drifted closed without his knowledge first. He doesn't mind when she falls asleep before him. Usually Vergil simply marvels at her in silence almost as though he cannot believe she is there beside him. In some ways he cannot. But he chooses not to dwell on that at night. At night, he is listening to each gentle breath with every rise and fall of her chest, loosening his hold whenever she shifts in her sleep, but never letting her warmth stray too far.
"Well, if I did, I have the perfect excuse. I brought dinner," he says, holding out his catch of a couple of rabbits that he kept for them. It's true that Mizu isn't much of a cook. Arguably, Vergil is better in the kitchen than she is given how low the bar is to reach, but when it comes to preparing fresh game like this, Mizu is better suited for the task. So, he's left meals like this in her more capable hands just with the knowledge that even if she would deny he owes her anything, he still wants to return the favor for her later. Especially when he undoubtedly starts to lose it over how many pizzas are inevitably come to occupy his refrigerator once things (hopefully) return to some semblance of normal, and he needs to eat almost literally anything else.
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She nods and accepts the rabbits. The forge isn't the best place to cook food they aren't sharing with others. The time working is good for her soul, but Mizu isn't dedicated to it the way many others are. If it did not provide her access to what she needs and if she did not enjoy it, she wouldn't work. So she begins to wind down her tasks. It can wait until tomorrow. Time is one of the few things in abundance here at Amrita Academy with all their regular lives on hold. Mizu makes time for Vergil and has plenty for herself left over.
"You've joined a small circle of people who've tolerated my cooking, and possibly you're the one who enjoys it the most," Mizu says, amused. It's true she can safely prepare an animal for cooking, but that's where her skill ends in her opinion. In Kohama, it was mostly fish, but she's traveled far across Japan for her revenge. Her time in the mountains sticks with her.
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"Enjoy might be a bit of a strong word to describe it," he teases. "But I've had things far worse that you would have to try to outdo them."
He stays out of her way as she is winding down and concluding her work for the day. Privately, he plays a little game to see if he can predict what next she will do as she brings her tasks to their end. He's watched her enough times at this point, he's more correct than he is wrong.
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The fire is last, and Mizu gives it her whole attention as she smothers it. An unattended fire, when everyone is asleep, is a danger. It would burn itself out without fuel, but it's best handled properly. At least when a small child hasn't sneaked back into one's house to sleep in its warmth. He knew even then, didn't he? Mizu wasn't as quiet as she thought. It makes her smile, just a slight curve to her lips, and Mizu takes a moment longer in reflection. Then she's done, gathers up her sword and the rabbits, and leads the way toward where they can cook in private.
She lets the companionable silence hang over them for a while until the root of their conversation strikes her thoughts again. "Do you even still have your relic or know where it is?"
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He is pulled from his thoughts when Mizu asks after his relic. Vergil's brow furrows slightly as he cannot even recall the last time he saw the device even before all of this began. He would err on the notion that it was in his apartment last, which subsequently meant it probably did not survive. He says, "No. I would imagine it was destroyed. Why do you ask?"
Given that there's never been a need to discuss it, they've never spoken of the relic before. So, it strikes him as odd Mizu brings it up now.
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"We may still be here, but the fox spirit has time amid her searching for wayward Star Children to get up to some of her usual antics," Mizu says, "This time via the relic."
She pulls out her relic, opens the previously ignored Pandora's Fox painting, and scrolls to reach Vergil's profile. Thus wholly prepared for him, Mizu hands it over. "I would not have guessed you were forty-four."
Though now that she's seen Dante, it seems more believable.
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"If she has time for games like this, then she has time to sort everything else out," he says tersely, gaze directed at the ground.
There was nothing written there that was inherently untrue even if it was written in a grating and at times hyperbolic manner. Nothing was too revealing either with most of it being things that others could likely piece together if they paid enough attention to his habits and behaviors. But that does not properly quell his discomfort. Vergil is private. He largely keeps to himself. His business is his alone, not to be shared with others. But it would appear Thirteen feels otherwise. And so, without his consent and what would have been without his knowledge had Mizu not shown him, this has happened.
His irritation, however, is not directed at Mizu, which is why he does not look at her now. He does not need a mirror to know his expression is an unpleasant one and he has no desire to direct it at her.
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A nod at his statement. Indeed, Folkmore is more important than whatever nonsense entertains her. If the fox spirit wants a defender on this count, she'll have to look to someone else. Mizu cares that she has no desire for this and that it's harmed one of the two people she cares about. Nothing else about it matters. Yes, she understands a fox spirit will do as it does, but that does not remove the pain the chaos causes, the humor at someone else's expense when it's... Vergil.
Mizu turns toward the woods to take them away from people more quickly. Privacy is something she can give Vergil even if the fox spirit will not. She doesn't demand he look at her, talk to her, or do anything. She simply finds a spot with enough privacy to let him fume without an audience. Then she goes about doing what she needs to cook, gathering the wood to prepare a fire before she prepares the rabbits. It won't be much of a meal, but it's better than facing many other people when they could read about Vergil in a moment without a second thought to what it means to him.
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Once they are out in the woods alone, Vergil does not assist Mizu with the task of setting up the fire. Instead, he leans against a tree with his back to her, facing the direction of the settlement with his arms tightly folded. It's difficult for him not to wonder how many people have seen it already. How many might make assumptions about him based upon that, and then subsequently feel entitled to his time or more. He drums his fingers against his arm as he listens to the sounds of the fire being lit and breathed into steady life.
That damned fox...
Vergil's nostrils flare briefly as he huffs to himself. What's done is done. There is no undoing it. But... That damned fox.
He lingers there at the edge of the private spot in the woods as though keeping watch for having been followed at all, but really, Vergil focuses on settling himself back down from the revelation. What's done is done, he reminds himself time and time again. And Mizu had the courtesy to tell him of it rather than allowing him to continue on in ignorance. With a sigh, the tension is released. The anger isn't completely gone, but it is not longer as hot as it was a moment ago. Pushing off the tree, Vergil joins Mizu by the fire. They are blessedly alone, and so he only disrupts her preparation of the rabbits long enough to lift and place her into his lap. With his strength, he's able to lift her almost as though she weighs nothing. Without inhibiting her movement, he wraps his arms around her middle.
"I am beginning to not really care for this fox spirit," he murmurs in her ear before pressing a kiss to her cheek. Vergil rests his chin on her shoulder, watching her work.
CW: handling of dead animal
She can wonder what else the fox spirit might have said about her, had she not caught it in the act and interrupted. What it said is true, but Mizu would never introduce herself that way. Oh, she's never pretended her priorities are otherwise. Revenge is the reason she came to Folkmore, and she'll have it. Yet all those smaller things about Vergil it revealed. How much of her routine would be given away? How easy would it be for people to bother her at the library or the tea house when she's not explicitly agreed to meet with someone? Mizu's not sure what people might expect or want of Vergil, but if they want anything of him, that is a bother he doesn't need or want. The relic is not how people meet or get to know him. That requires more effort and his agreement.
He returns, and Mizu glances up a moment but otherwise sticks to her work. She reaches in to remove the intestines when she feels Vergil pick her up and settle her on his lap. Mizu pauses and makes sure they're comfortable before continuing on. Dinner still needs to be prepared.
"She gained a little goodwill bringing you back here, but she's poor at keeping it," Mizu says.
Rabbits don't have the most meat, once everything is removed, but the rabbits in Amrita Academy are of good size. She gets them over the fire before she leans back against Vergil and leans her head against his. It's so different from how they sat at the bonfire, months before, not only because of what's changed between them but because of the privacy, the lack of other people. Vergil is far better than anything someone could get from reading that profile. It lacks what's truly him.
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He's privately grateful for her, too. The raw sting of that forced vulnerability isn't unmade solely because of her, but it is duller with her at the very least. Vergil can take some comfort in knowing that anything in there that she did not already know for herself, Mizu is not one to judge him for it. Even if there are things she does not necessarily agree with or approve of, she does not look at Vergil as lesser for his past just as he has never looked at her as lesser for hers. Vergil closes his eyes, zeroing his focus on the rise and fall of her breath with the soft cracks and pops of the fire as a distant background.
Eventually, he asks, "Did you have any questions?"
Vergil doesn't know if Mizu will ask any even if she has them. Between the two of them, it's always been their choice what they part with to the other. Neither Mizu nor Vergil has ever said anything more nor less than what they intended to share. This is notably quite different from that, and it wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility that out of respect for that, out of respect for him, Mizu would choose not to indulge in any curiosity over what was written about him might have inspired. But Vergil had made a promise and an offer that nothing was to be off-limits to her, that she had the right to know the whole of him regardless of what it was. Even if there were better, more preferred ways for her to know these things about him, that has not changed.
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Vergil speaks up, and Mizu considers the offer. Most of the information is nothing new. She even would guess as much about his feelings toward Dante without the fox spirit dangling them for all to see. There is a curious phrase in the description at the start about Vergil excising his humanity. Mizu wants to know more about that—not from a place of judgment but because it's clearly an important part of his past. Vergil didn't choose to release even that hint of information that teases at something significant. She could ask, but for all Vergil's offering to answer questions, it feels more respectful to let that sit and wait until he chooses to say more about it.
That topic aside, Mizu considers the rest. "How fond of cats are you in general, or how did that Russian Blue win your heart?" She's amused. A light easy question, she hopes, but Mizu knows anything can touch on something serious. If it does, she'll learn more, but Vergil is smart enough to know she's not prying for his insides. Not from the fox spirit's doing when it's one sided.
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"I have no strong feelings about cats one way or another," he says, opening his eyes once more. "I never had pets as a child, and I was never around animals much thereafter.
"But I suppose I respect cats to a certain degree. They're usually tolerable if nothing else."
They're independent creatures. They have no need nor want from anyone or anything else beyond what they determine for themselves. It would be difficult for Vergil not to respect that sort of temperament relative to others wherein they may have no need of others whatsoever or be so overeager in their attempts to please that they seem to express little to no will of their own.
"As for the Russian Blue, in particular, she was merely persistent in her attempts to possess my attention each time I visited. And my lap. Much like someone else I happen to know," he teases lightly, pressing another kiss to Mizu's cheek. "It was perhaps inevitable that I would yield eventually."
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So no, Mizu has little experience with animals much like Vergil. That said, Folkmore teems with them.
Tolerable is a compliment from Vergil. Mizu thinks the cats should be proud of that, so much as they care for Vergil's opinion, which is likely not at all. Since he's a regular at Catfe and they permit that, he must be tolerable in return. More than tolerable to the Russian Blue. Kai chose Mizu, where she kicked Mikio in the chest. So it's fitting that the cat too chooses the person, rather than the other way around. It makes her smile.
She snorts at Vergil's joke, not bothering to point out he lifted her into his lap this time. He's right that she's come into his space plenty on her own. Mizu has no apologies and no shame for that. Much, she imagines, like the cat. "You yielded?" Mizu jokes back, "You mean someone else has bested you before I have?"
She's mock offended and keeps a straight face poorly with much difficulty. She leans forward to adjust the rabbits and keep them cooking evenly. She sits back up, turning her face to look at Vergil, eyes gleaming. "I will have to redouble my efforts."
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"I suppose you will have to," he says, as though there were anything that Mizu could do in this moment or any of them to follow that would convince him more to concede to any demand of his attention or affection. Vergil freely gives them to Mizu. Granted, it is only when they are alone, but she needn't say or do anything to draw him near to her. For all the problems and misery and concerns that recent events have brought about, Vergil is grateful for it having brought this to them at least. "I would not have considered you so easily swayed to jealousy, however. I take it I should take great care that the two of you are never acquainted with one another lest you begin to plot the one another's demise."
Although he would bring her if she wanted to go with him. To the Catfe. To meet the fiesty little Russian Blue that has him so wrapped around her paw. He does not mind sharing that with her any more than he minds sharing anything else with Mizu.
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"The Russian Blue may plot my demise all she likes, she'll never succeed at it," Mizu says, "For my part, I have far higher standards to become a target of my revenge. The cat will have to try much harder if she wants to get that sort of attention."
The words remain tongue in cheek. Catfe and the Russian Blue are a part of Vergil's life Mizu hasn't seen, an intriguing and potentially adorable (in a stoic sort of way) one. She rests her arms over Vergil's where they wrap around her. "She has far more reason to be jealous of me than the other way around."
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"That she does," he says, agreeing with a kiss. "And the better for me as well. I don't imagine a cat to be capable of appropriately wielding so much sway over a son of Sparda."
Granted, there are worse fates to likely befall him, but a cat is far more fickle than Mizu is liable to ever be.
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Only a month into whatever this is together, Mizu's therefore shocked to hear, if by implication, that she has 'so much sway' over Vergil. Some surprise shows on her face, and Mizu's glad Vergil cannot see it entirely. Mizu does not know what sway she has over Vergil, but she has little if anything she wishes to do with it. He spends time with her freely. The only activity lacking in that regard, at the moment, is sparring and that for safety reasons Vergil outlined. Mizu wouldn't push him to break those. With Dante here, she imagines she may need to step back sometimes as they sort things out or Dante gets the lion share of Vergil's attention when needed, but again, Mizu would not change that or force Vergil to choose between them. Only an idiot would do that. Mizu wants Vergil to form a better relationship with his brother like he wants.
So all in all, there is nothing to do with whatever sway she has over Vergil except to sit with the fact it both exists and Vergil stated as much aloud. Fortunately, she's already sitting.
With no idea what to say. There are times for companionable silence, but this moment hardly feels like one of them, mid-conversation and teasing. Mizu manages, grasping at something to say, "I imagine only people not seeking it obtain it."
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Does she... Did she not believe that she could ask things of Vergil and there was a greater possibility that he would be willing to do them than not? He knows that she never tends to ask for anything from him. What he does for her is by his own choice and will alone. But surely it should come as a natural conclusion that in his dedication to her, he would certainly not deny her reasonable requests.
"Are you trying to imply that I'm stubborn?" he asks as though he were ignorant to the fact he is, indeed, quite stubborn and willful. Vergil would not likely be alive today if he were not. But he grants her the opportunity to tease him about it instead of possibly dwelling wherever it is she disappeared to for a moment in her mind.
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She exhales, letting her body relax, and watches the rabbit, her thumb rubbing against Vergil's wrist. "When someone meets you and shortly tries to alter your behavior, it shows they either do not accept you or do not understand you. Perhaps both. I want you to be you; I wouldn't be interested in you otherwise. Plus I suspect you wouldn't be as interested in me if I were regularly trying to change who you are."
A more serious answer than Mizu needs to give, but she gives it despite that. In the moment, she cannot help but think that the sentence Thirteen wrote at the start of her profile is a jab at them. The joke is on Thirteen that Vergil will never see it unless she shows it to him. Nor is it something Vergil's unaware of, Mizu thinks. Things will change. They always do. Unless Folkmore has truly been overrun, they will not remain here indefinitely. Vergil and Dante may need some space, and Mizu accepts that. She'll be greedy in having as many of these moments now but not be jealous of the brothers in the future.
cw: brief mention of attempted child murder and torture
It's easier to see in retrospect, but part of Vergil's attraction to Mizu has always been the degree to which she's always accepted him as he is. Nothing of his past that she's been told or seen for herself has made her pull away or think lesser of him than she did before. And when it comes to what Vergil has expressed in terms of how has changed, how he wants things to be different, she's never spoken of them in any way that could be considered less than supportive. Whatever Vergil wants, Mizu does not dissuade him from seeking out. Mizu's opinion of Vergil has never been blind, however. She does not ignore his shortcomings or his failures. She just does not let them be the sole determinant of her thoughts.
In some ways, that remains terrifying. To be seen so completely is something Vergil really only knows to meet with fear. But he is determined for that fear not to have the final say. It may lead Vergil to withhold some of what he feels for Mizu from her. He avoids certain words in both his own and borrowed words for a reason, and he is not so willfully ignorant to not know why. Those young feelings of love he knows he possesses are dangerous to him, and he does all that he can to keep them from taking a deeper root because he knows he cannot survive the heartbreak when Mizu inevitably leaves for her revenge or he stumbles into some means of messing this up.
"No, I wouldn't," he says softly. Vergil exhales sharply in light amusement. "And you wouldn't have been all that successful in trying regardless."
She would only need ask Dante as to how well trying to change Vergil tends to go. He tried hard to convince Vergil, to save him from his blind arrogance, but Vergil could never accept the possibility of what Dante was arguing held any merit to it. All Vergil could see is someone who chose weakness over strength, who rejected who and what they are, and for what? It's an argument they seem to still be locked in with one another if their last conversation was any indication. Vergil's gaze drifts to the fire in front of them, subconsciously pressing Mizu a little closer to him even as she relaxes against him now. Vergil's decision to change, to accept his humanity for what it is were all choices he had to make on his own, through his own observations and terrible, bloody mistakes.
Vergil knows he should probably tell her. She should know about V and Urizen. She should know how much he hated and resented his mother even as he mourned her. She should know how much he hated and resented his brother for being saved when he felt left to die. She should know how his stubbornness had only increased and intensified his torture until Mundus finally, finally carved what was left of his heart from him to bring him to heel. They're terrible, shameful things, but they are still part of him, and what has led him here today.
He can't even truly blame Thirteen for his continued silence on those matters. She tried to strip him of his choice, that much is clear, but Vergil knows deep down that's not why he chooses to say nothing of it to Mizu. Her understanding and acceptance of him appears to be limitless, and there is little to indicate that even with all of that, there is anything he could say she would revoke it. That is not the reason either.
The reason simply is Vergil does not wish to relive those moments.
cw: references to drug addiction and betraying/killing within the family
Mizu once changed her mind about her path. She strayed from the path of revenge for love, for her mother. She married a stranger and agreed to a life she did not want to take care of her. That things worked out as well as they did for a time with Mikio was not guaranteed. Even after Mikio sold Kai, she tried to mend things, both for their relationship and for her mother. The reason she'd been there in the first place. It doesn't matter which of them betrayed her for money. They both betrayed her. No, that's not quite right. She realized her mother never loved her and only saw her as means to an ends, the way so many fathers see their daughters. Mizu lost her importance once she no longer a means to get more opium. Only once Mizu would abandon one or both Mikio and her mother (and with that, her mother lost housing and free food) did the woman beg for her attention. Perhaps her mother wanted to marry her off to another man. Mikio and her mother both died there that day, so there's no way to know. It doesn't matter. The woman wasn't her mother, but even years raising Mizu from when she was a day old wasn't enough to make her capable of loving Mizu. With no love, it's not a betrayal, only the cloth falling from over Mizu's eyes.
The only time Mizu changed her path for love, it was with someone who didn't love her and someone for whom love wasn't enough if he really loved her at all. Vergil cares for her as she is and knows her for who she is. What happened before won't happen again. Even could Vergil betray her for money, she knows he never would.
No, as with most of her relationships, it's far more likely to end because Mizu messes it up or leaves. No way around that. She supposes there's a slight chance the fox spirit provides Vergil (and possibly Dante) a way back to the human world and therefore Nero, so that he leaves first. She would not hold it against him when that is his whole reason for coming here. Of the many things she would never ask of Vergil, she would not ask him to value her above his son. Mizu doesn't want that for Vergil, nor does she want that for Nero. Someone's parent should love them.
"About as well as anyone trying to change me."
Never mind that she already feels different from knowing Vergil. Mizu could not explain how exactly, but there's a reason she made her sword the way she did. Mizu wipes her hands on her cloak, roughly cleaning them, and considers her sword. Mizu promised Vergil all of herself and even offered to let him ask her anything. However, that offer hardly makes it likely for Vergil to ask something he has no knowledge of or wouldn't think there's anything particular to know about. Why would he ask if anything of his is part of her sword? She collected his glove and his shredded coat after parting ways with him and stored them hidden in her cabin. Vergil will likely never know unless she decides to tell him, but it's still too much in the moment. Too large a declaration to give, especially when she made the sword before they came to Amrita Academy.
Mizu unsheathes the sword and rests it across her lap, its unique blue color as stunning as ever. Mizu says, "I don't know that I'd have felt ready to remake my sword without the conversations we've had."
It's a large enough confession.
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