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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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[darkinferno]

[RING RING, Dante usually doesn't make a habit of answering unfamiliar numbers! Maybe he should let it go to voicemail...?

(Nah, he won't actually do that.)]

This is Dante.

[originallutece]

Ah. The half-cat boy.

[Guess who Souji called.]

A pleasure to match a voice to a name.

[darkinferno]

The half-ca--so you were the one Souji was sending that to?

[He doesn't even know who it is he's talking to? Souji, why are you sending shit like this to people he doesn't even know...]

He's full of shit.

[originallutece]

I should hope so, or I'd be desperate to have you in my lab already. As it is, I'm fascinated enough by your sword drawing abilities, but you can blame Ardyn for letting that slip, not Souji.

[SHE JUST KNOWS ALL KINDS OF THINGS ABOUT HIM, DOESN'T SHE.]

Dr. Rosalind Lutece. I called you at random, hoping to dial a stranger, but this will do perfectly.

[darkinferno]

[WHY DOES SHE KNOW SO MUCH ABOUT HIM WHAT DOES SHE KNOW HIS LIFE STORY TOO]

Yeah, well, he's wrong about that one. [Beat--fine, okay, he'll cop to it.] I haven't been able to summon my sword since the beginning of the month. Apparently Retrospec decided we hadn't had enough of their bullshit and swapped some of my stuff with someone else.

Is this for a bingo card?

[originallutece]

It is. What did you get instead of that ability?

[darkinferno]

Orange eyes.

[Here, Rosalind, have the unimpressed selfie he sent Dirk when the change had first occurred! His eyes are bright, vivid orange, not hidden behind shades like the other boy does.]

I also got some sort of people radar--I can sense people around me. Where they are, what direction they're moving in... there are a couple people in the city I could probably tell you the location of right now, but I haven't tested that one enough.

[originallutece]

Why on earth not?

[darkinferno]

Because it's not that easy. Imagine you've got a map of the city and you have a bunch of push-pins showing where people are. All the plastic bits are the same color, but there are a few that have black pins instead of silver metal. You can't tell which one's which when they're all stuck in the map, right?

Over time you might be able to pick out which ones have black pins--you might recognize any imperfections in the pinhead that lets you pick them out. But until you learn that, it's a guessing game.

That's kind of what it's like. And it's a little weird to call your girlfriend up at 10PM asking her if she's in her kitchen right now.

[originallutece]

Weird for you, perhaps . . .

[No, that's more a placeholder than anything while she tries to think. Honestly, she can't imagine anything she'd rather do than experiment with a power like that.]

Which people are the metaphoric black pins? By which I mean: what familial or social relationship do they have with you? I hardly need names.

[darkinferno]

[Definitely weird for him. He doesn't want Ari to think he's camped outside her house stalking her!]

No blood relations. [Does Prompto count under that header? He's not sure.] It's the people I hang out with the most. That presence I can feel starts to seem more familiar, so it gets easier to pick out, even though it should be the same as everyone else's.

[originallutece]

Ah.

[God, how fascinating . . . Rosalind pauses for a few seconds, thinking about this, and then:]

What do you mean by feels familiar? Do they have have an individual feeling, or flavor, or--?

[darkinferno]

[Dante pauses. Let's see...

He closes his eyes, pushing out with that strange sense in Ari's direction. He knows roughly where she'd be at this time, working hard...]

It's hard to explain. It's different for each person. Ari... it's this kind of light warmth. With Prompto it's a little more energetic.

I don't know if it would be the same feeling for the person who normally has this power, though.

[originallutece]

Mm.

[She doesn't know Ari, but she does know Prompto, and heaven knows energetic is a good word for him.]

Perhaps it's based on your perceptions of them. I assume you regard this Ari warmly?

[darkinferno]

Well, she's my girlfriend, so...

[Draw your own conclusions, Rosalind. It shouldn't be too hard.]

[originallutece]

A simple yes would have sufficed, thank you. How many people do you sense in such a fashion?

[darkinferno]

[That's a good question. For a moment, Dante's quiet as he considers...]

It's hard to say. I can pinpoint those two most of the time, but the other ones... I'm not sure if I'm actually sensing them or if I just think I sense them. But there are maybe three or four others I might be able to pick out if I were close enough.

[originallutece]

Mm.

[She digests this for a long few moments.]

Well. It's rather a pity I can't imagine you'll be keeping this ability for long. But I would like to know more about your, ah, normal one, so to speak. The one that concerns materializing items.

[darkinferno]

I can't show you until I get it back, but all right, shoot.

[originallutece]

First of all: how on earth do you materialize and dematerialize items?

[darkinferno]

[Oh, Ros, why are you always asking the hard questions? He's not going to have a satisfactory answer for this one, either.]

I put out my hand and it appears there. Then, when I don't need it any more, I let go and it disappears.

[He knows that's not good enough though. Give him a moment.]

It's... kind of like I told the prof. I can feel it's there, even if I can't actually see it. [Unbidden, his hand comes up over his heart, as though feeling for Soul Eater inside of him.] So I know that when I need it, it's going to be there--it can't not be, because if it didn't show up, I wouldn't have it.

[Kingdom Hearts, man ¯\_(ツ)_/¯]

[originallutece]

[U G H. Let me tell you how much Ros hates video game logic; it's a shocking amount for a character who comes from a video game.

Still! She believes him, in no small part because that's somewhat what Ardyn had described.]

Can you do it with any object? Or is it simply the blade alone?

[darkinferno]

[On his end, Dante's shaking his head, even if Ros can't see it.]

No. I know the prof can, but I think mine works differently than his does. My sword... I can feel it in my heart, normally. Not just floating around in some nebulous place.

[originallutece]

Can you describe it for me? The sword, I mean, not the feeling.

[Why his heart of all places? For that matter, why a sword?]

[darkinferno]

You mean what it looks like?

[If he sounds a bit perplexed, that's because he is. What is there to describe about Soul Eater? Its appearance seems too simple for all the other questions she's been asking him.]