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[darkinferno]

Dante Rantanen

"Hey, you've reached Dante. I'm not in right now--you know what to do."

VOICE | TEXT | VIDEO | ACTION

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Text, 8/28

[mincingminuet]

Dante.

You free to talk?

Phone call, in person, wherever. Just...not text? Not personal enough.

[darkinferno]

sure

i was planning on going out to peach beach, it shouldn't be so bad now that the sun's going down

meet me there?

[mincingminuet]

sure. See you there.

I'll probably bring food. Preferences?

[darkinferno]

whatever's fine, i can't say i'm really hungry

what type of drink do you like? i'll bring those

[mincingminuet]

Fireball if we're talking booze, Dew if not.

Gimme about an hour.

text → action

[darkinferno]

sounds good, i'll meet you then

[Dante's out at the beach long before that hour's up, but he doesn't mind. There's something about the sound of waves on the beach that he's grown to like, something about their unceasing nature. Whenever Pen gets there, he'll be camped out on a fairly large rock, a couple bottles beside him. One is a fresh bottle of gin; the other, her Fireball.

It's not until she's pretty close that he glances up at her.]

Hey.

[mincingminuet]

[She's there as quick as she can make it, walking up with a pizza box set under one arm. It's an offering even if he's not hungry. And she totally is hungry.]

Hey.

[dropping down to sit on the rock, she settles her buffalo chicken cargo between them.]

I'm sorry about taking so long to get in touch.

[darkinferno]

Huh?

[It's not what he's expecting. Dante's startled right out of his thoughts, glancing over at her.]

What do you mean? It's only been a couple days. Honestly, I didn't expect you to text me at all.

[mincingminuet]

We're friends, dingus.

[Opening the box she plucks out steaming and totally spicy pizza.]

Why wouldn't I? I needed time to get my own head on straight, but...I don't like leaving people unchecked on.

[Anyone.]

[darkinferno]

[Yeah, that expression? That's not going away in the slightest. They're... friends?

Huh.

This is weird.

After a moment, Dante's reaching over to nab a piece of that pizza for himself, rummaging in a bag at his feet and pulling out a bottle of Mountain Dew.]

Here. I grabbed both.

How are you holding up after everything?

[mincingminuet]

[Uh. Yeah. Weirded out, Pen blinks at him but takes the Dew and stuffs a bit of pizza into her pizza hole.]

Thanks.

[She shrugs half heartedly.]

I am here. A few weeks living off milky ways and Doritos is one thing. Kinda had it rough out there, but no worse than you and Freya.

You?

[darkinferno]

[He gives a shrug of his own.]

About the same. At least there're showers and beds here.

I take it Freya's already told you all about our adventures through hell manor and the swamp?

[mincingminuet]

Some.

[She chews thoughtfully, opening the soda and sipping before replying.]

I saw some other stuff, from where I was. When we were in space, there was a screen, I saw you fighting a yeti.

[Blowing out a breath.]

I won't ask what you went through personally, but I can see it's eating at you. If you need to talk, I'm here.

[darkinferno]

[For a moment Dante pauses, actually glancing over at her, before lowering his pizza. A hint of a sheepish look turns up the corner of his lips, and he runs his free hand through his hair.]

I'd ask if I'm really that obvious, but... stupid question.

[His eyes turn toward the sea again, watching the waves rolling in and out.]

Did Freya tell you what happened to Ryoji?

[mincingminuet]

I've been there. I just know.

[Her mischievous smile is a tell all. But it fades quickly.]

She was a first responder. He didn't make it. I didn't know the guy, so I didn't pry beyond that.

[darkinferno]

Yeah. He was part of our team.

It's tough, you know? We all worked together for three weeks, and then in the end... we couldn't protect him.

[He couldn't protect him.]

It'll be okay. It's just a shock.

[It's a lie, but Dante doesn't want to go any deeper into it. He doesn't want to revisit the frustration and all the feelings of failure thinking more on it brings, not right now.

He'll take a bite of that pizza now, switching the slice to his other hand so he can grab his bottle of gin to wash it down.]

So tell me about space. I saw a picture of you guys riding some sort of pod upwards.

[mincingminuet]

Yeah. It is.

[She won't dwell, or fixate. It's not her place to do that, and that's not why she came here anyway.]

Space was...[taking a bite, she considers how to say it...]

Weird. I guess? It was a station full of biomes, not like a shuttle. Simulations of other places I think. I spent most of it underwater.

[darkinferno]

Underwater?

[Hang on. Emil had gone to space too, right?]

Don't tell me you got turned into a fish or something.

[mincingminuet]

No...I was in a submarine. Some people got turned into animals but that was in the lab, not space.

[Out of context? Yes that is fucking weird. Also Emil also turned into cheese.]

[darkinferno]

[Is this what it sounds like when he explains their adventures to other people...?]

So you wound up in a submarine... in space. Do I have that right?

[mincingminuet]

Yeah. You do.

[She just sounds so bored with it too.]

I have it on camera. I'll show you sometime.

[darkinferno]

[Dante shakes his head]

At least ours made some sort of sense.

[He pauses for another bite, thinking it over before he gives Pen a sideways glance.]

Was that all this was about, our crazy adventures through the unknown? Or did you have something else you wanted to talk about?

[mincingminuet]

Well I wanted to check on you, after Ryoji.

[A breath.]

And thank you. For helping bring Freya back to me.

[darkinferno]

For what?

[Excuse him a moment, Pen, he wasn't expecting that. But after a moment he's giving a quiet snort of bemusement, glancing back out to sea.]

I didn't do that much. Freya's plenty capable on her own, you know. She would've made it back with or without the rest of us.

[He doesn't doubt that in the slightest.]

[mincingminuet]

Look, I know that. She's tougher than you and me combined.

[She shoots him a somewhat annoyed, if not outright angry look.]

But Christ, when I saw that photo of the two of you fighting a fucking yeti? I freaked out a little. But I knew that she had someone reliable with her through that. It helped.