darkinferno | Jul. 25th, 2020

Dante Rantanen (Riku)

Basics

Name: Dante Rantanen
Age: 21

Dante is a CRAU taken from

recolle. Per the constraints of this game, he is a reincarnation of Riku from Kingdom Hearts, having lived throughout all of the events of the KH series, died, and been born again on Earth. As of this point, Dante has remembered approximately half of everything that happened throughout the series to date, with no memories from KH3.

Background

Dante Rantanen was one of twin boys born to a pianist and opera singer after a one-night tryst, who promptly got married to avoid a scandal. After a few years, the couple decided to split, separating Dante from his brother--Dante was claimed by his father, who promptly turned around and remarried his publicist (so much for that scandal!). As neither of them thought the tour circuit was suitable for a toddler, Dante was sent to live with his grandmother, who raised him until his 11th birthday, at which point his parents realized how little they knew their son and decided that he was old enough to accompany them on their world travels.

Dante hated it. Thrust into the spotlight suddenly, he was expected to be the perfect son, handed off to tutors and nannies and shuttled off to tourist traps and historical sites he wasn't old enough to appreciate and never in one place often enough to make real friends, seeing his father most often at sound checks and after-events and galas. But Dante grew into the mold given to him, growing from an innocent little boy with an ornery streak into a self-confident (if not downright cocky) young man who thought he had the world at his fingertips. His parents would give him anything he asked for so long as he behaved well around them, and he began skipping out on tutors and other obligations in search of more exciting pursuits.

He began chasing that next high, experimenting with alcohol, drugs, and sex (often with his dad's friends' children), sneaking out with kids his age to bars and getting a fake ID, partying, getting high a few times... and eventually being caught with his new "friends" transporting a couple of paintings that had been recently stolen from the downtown galleries. (Dante was able to claim ignorance and his parents paid very well to make sure the story never broke.) His parents sent him home to his grandma, where he wouldn't be able to get into so much trouble and would be out of the public eye.

To be honest, Dante didn't mind this much. He'd already learned so much from the circuit, and his past gave him a sort of allure at the local high school that he cashed in on, continuing partying and getting involved with street racing... and he liked being back home with his grandmother, who had always made time for him when he called or texted her, who had made him feel safe as a child and continued to be that sort of safe haven even as a young adult (just one with a penchant for dragging him around by the ear scolding him now).

And then she passed away--peacefully, in her sleep, but leaving Dante alone once more.

He finished out the school year and moved to Recolle for college, living in an apartment his parents paid for while calling them once a month or so. And to hear it from him, he was doing just fine.

Recolle

Dante went into Recolle a hurt and angry young man who felt as though the world didn't care about him. Almost everybody he'd ever cared about had left him or had been otherwise removed from his life, and his parents didn't seem to care about him as long as he wasn't bringing negative publicity to the family name. He armored himself in sarcasm and worked to give off a "devil-may-care" attitude, trolling everyone he could and maintaining his cool persona. Threadjacking to take advantage of an opportunity to mock somebody introduced him to Prompto Argentum, who would soon become a close friend. Less than two months after being first introduced to Retrospec, Dante had a strong memory of his other self dumped on him. One in which a witch told him that his heart was empty, and that were it not for the darkness there, he would be entirely alone--playing into one of Dante's deepest fears and certainties that he'd be abandoned by everyone around him, that he'd be alone in the end.

Dante panicked and tried to flee the city to run away from his memories, but Prompto refused to let him go without an explanation. Dante refused to give one. This ended in a meetup and a back-alley brawl, where Dante broke Prompto's nose and said the cruelest things he could possibly think of in order to ensure the other boy would leave him alone.

This seemed to be Dante's first turning point. After a few days spent camping in the woods, he came back and confided in Ardyn Izunia his fears and what had happened, as well as the fact that he'd punched Prompto. With Ardyn's support, he apologized to Prompto; the two of them reconciled and became fast friends, eventually using a dagger Dante had been gifted by his girlfriend (Ari/Garnet) to become blood brothers proper. Dante continued to grow closer with Ardyn as well, then met Grell Sutcliff at a gala Ari had organized and Hitori Togusa when a contact from his younger days tried to enlist his help robbing a museum. He organized a massive party for college-aged Retrospeccers at an abandoned warehouse on the outskirts of town, organized a sort of "fight club" when it became apparently that several network members were remembering how to use various types of weapons, and explored the Retrospec headquarters at least once a month. (Later, Dante would try to camp out in the main lobby overnight. He was awoken quite abruptly in the middle of the night when disembodied hands grabbed him and forcefully threw him out onto the sidewalk and locked the door behind him.)

Six months after the network kicked on for the first time, Dante was pulled out of reality alongside a number of other Retrospec users. For three weeks the nine of them ventured outside of reality, first exploring a series of abandoned ice caves, then a swamp, and finally an old manor lovingly referred to by the characters as Hell Manor. The name was well-earned: Dante saw one of their teammates' souls forcibly separated from his body (despite his best efforts to ensure it happened to him instead; he hauled said teammate's body around the rest of the time they were in the manor), was attacked by Freya (Fang) when she was possessed by an angry ghost and then was possessed himself, and was powerless to stop the death of another teammate when they managed to escape back into reality.

Dante's failures in the mansion, along with the memories of Ansem he was beginning to regain, meant that he suffered a lot of mental anxiety and stress in the latter half of the month--thankfully, with Ardyn, Grell, Prompto, Togusa, and a few other close friends, he was able to begin processing it and healing. At this point he began to actually believe that these people saw him as their chosen family, and that he could reach out to them for help whenever he needed it.

As time continued to pass, Dante continued to grow--he realized that the life he was constantly remembering was affecting him, but was still noticeably him. By the end of his time in Recolle, Dante was on his way to becoming someone he could be proud to be, even if he didn't think he was there yet.

Important Relationships

Family:

Ardyn Izunia: Lawdad. Stated outright that he thought of Dante as a son (despite their age difference only being 15ish years). Struggled a lot with his own darkness, but that just allowed the two of them to connect more.
Grell Izunia (Sutcliff): Murdermom. Dante adores Grell; she somehow stepped in to be a maternal figure to him where he'd been lacking one his entire life (his grandma was different).
Prompto Argentum: Blood brothers. They've been with each other through thick and thin, from Dante's drop out of reality to accidentally setting Prompto on fire and (intentionally) breaking his nose.
Hitori Togusa: Copdad. Copbro? Dante's not really sure where Togusa is on this scale, but he's family. He's the straight man to the rest of their shenanigans, but he's always right there along with them.
Noctis Lucis Caelum: Originally just Prompto's best friend, Noctis and Dante connected in their own right and the three of them together were... well, a typical pack of 20/21-year-old boys. It was probably good for him.

Friends:

Vera Weiss: An heiress, and one of his best friends. They both understood the stresses of their upbringings and being little more than a living doll for their parents' desires.
Ari Alessandro: The one and only serious girlfriend Dante ever had. To this day he still carries the dagger she gave him after a night of shameless jokes about him being the knight to her princess.
Freya Yun: Brash, blunt, and capable. The two of them are cut from the same cloth, even though they came from very different worlds--they understand each other and, in spite of the armor they wear to the world, confide in each other.
Tatsuo Kihara: One of Recolle's CSIs, the two of them have an odd relationship--friends, perhaps, Dante isn't quite sure. But a good guy that he can confide in.
Leo Valdez: Do not let these two plot together. What morons. What fools. Dante thought they were related for a little while--thanks Retrospec.
James "Bucky" Barnes: Please do not let Dante corrupt you, James. ~~Too late.~~

how many hells

filled with how many devils to pay?

Jul. 25th, 2020

Jul. 25th, 2020

habitation; info post & permissions