[Twin Actors –Part Two]

'The Real Lawyer'

From the small screens to the big screen: Vergil and Dante Sparda are back to explore more roles to tuck under their belt! In a novel approach, the serious elder brother challenges the role of an innocent and helpless salaryman while the reportedly-playful younger brother takes on a role that would very well fit his brother! Will Dante be able to play his role like Vergil? Check out 'The Real Lawyer' to find out, in theatres next summer!

Plot synopsis: Accountant Lance (Vergil Sparda) had been leading the most ordinary lifestyle since birth. Caring parents, respectable college with respectable results, and a respectable job in a respectable company. But respectable becomes the last thing Lance expects when men with black masks drug and drag him into a moving van, wrenching him away from life as he knows. Strange, they call him Lex and ask him things that he cannot possibly know about: things of national secrets and nuclear codes. By a streak of luck, Lance manages to escape his kidnappers, but it appears that until he finds the real Lex, he won't be able to live a long life.

Lawyer Lex Dalves (Dante Sparda) has had a personal vendetta with the dirty underground society for as long as he can remember. With a mother a famous prosecutor and a father as an equally famous police detective, it would be an understatement to say that Lex grew up in a privileged family, taught exactly how to see the world in black and white. But learning about the world and actually being thrown into the world are two very different realities, and Lex realizes that he might have come across a secret much too gray for him.

The world of black and white suddenly seem a little too overwhelming for Lex when he meets his doppelganger Lance –and finds out that he needs to make a decision: to step into the world of gray, or close his eyes and pretend to live the way he has always been.

//

"The clothes definitely make the man." Dante commented as he stood in front of the mirror, adjusting the fit of his suit to make sure they settled in the right places.

Unfortunately, Vergil had to agree with his brother this time, because Dante was actually carrying the image of a strong lawyer very well. He could not quite replicate the aura of stern seriousness that Vergil was more used to exuding on screen, but Dante's serious act was quite distinctive in itself. Despite the filming this time being a small budget one, Vergil was quite looking forward to how the two of them were going to play out their own characters that were written with character traits rather different from their own.

Vergil had always been playing characters who were strong and decisive, and this time he was playing a salaryman who was helplessly dragged along by his fate, always struggling to understand his realities and second-guessing himself with every step he took. On the other hand, Dante who had always been playing easy-going, devil-may-care characters was going to act as a serious, conniving lawyer with many layers of secrets, strategies and sly planning.

"I concur." Vergil answered since he was the only other person in the dressing room. They were getting ready for their concept photoshoot for the promotional posters of the movie, and were left to their own devices while the studio staff set up the lightning and everything ready to receive them. "But if you want to really come across as the man Lex, you better start practicing how to speak seriously. It comes from the tone as well as the words."

"Easy." Dante met his eyes in the mirror, and the playful grin immediately toned down to a serious neutral expression. His light tone became heavy and stern when Dante's spoke his next words, "I have a prime precedent of a serious man as a sibling. Do you think I cannot follow his lead?"

Vergil could not help but smile at his brother's ability to act into the character within a single moment, leaning back into his seat with a chuckle.

"The whole point of us taking this job is to explore roles completely opposite of ourselves, and see if we will end up acting like each other, or create our own depths." Vergil reminded, though Dante seemed to be doing very well created his own version of a stern, serious man different from Vergil's usual characters.

"What are you doing?" Dante rejoined him on the couch across him in the middle of the dressing room, picking up the booklet on the table. "Reading through the script already? Now?"

"We are more or less confirmed for our roles. No harm starting to familiarize ourselves with the script as soon as possible." Vergil answered, watching as his brother joined him in the casual perusing of the booklet, screening through the words with distant interest.

"Look at your part in Scene 89." Dante's amused comment made Vergil cautious as he flipped his script to the page of scene number 89.

"It's the scene that Lance escapes from his kidnappers. What's wrong?" Vergil summarized in general, curious at what could have possibly amused his brother so with the scene that didn't include Dante's character at all.

"Look at your lines. They make Lance sound so pathetic, begging to be spared. He ends up crawling out of the warehouse they stashed him in and he even falls into a drain while running away." Dante read, smiling widely back at his brother. "You're going to look real pathetic."

"Lance is a common person who got dragged into a world he had no idea existed just because he looks like Lex. Begging, crawling and falling into a drain; they are all written to show how out of his depth he is in his situation and how desperate he is to just get away and return to his old life. Besides, it's precisely because he passes out in the drain that his captors cannot find him and assume that he has escaped successfully." Vergil answered, flipping a few more pages to double-confirm his knowledge of the plot.

"I don't know about how they wrote him, but I'm looking forward to watching you look pathetic on screen." Dante answered with a grin, idly flipping to the back pages and giving the general scenes casual glance-over as well.

"Whoa, so Lex knew about the existence of his twin brother since young, but pretended to live in blissful ignorance since young? I can't decide if that's just him being conniving even when young, or just innocently wanting to absorb his parents' affection alone." Dante noted with surprise. "Imagine if we were younger and you were sold away for money. I'd definitely act like Lex and pretend to be ignorant that you ever existed, Verge. I'll be the only Sparda in the entertainment industry."

"I think you are forgetting the fact that our characters in Devil May Cry became famous because of the fact that our twin rivalry was a main catch-point. If I was sold away for money, you probably wouldn't have thought to join the entertainment industry in the first place." Vergil reminded, completely ignorant of the fact that his very own brother had basically announced that if time was rewound, Dante would abandon him without hesitation.

They were just all words of a braggart, and Vergil honestly did not believe for a single heartbeat that Dante would abandon him. In terms of likelihood, there was a much higher chance of Vergil throwing his brother away than the other way around.

Dante flipped a few more pages, then made a sound of surprise.

"Lex actually really backstabs Lance? Wow, this is probably the first time I'm acting as the antagonist-in-disguise. This will be fun."

"I'm more surprised that you don't know about that plot twist. We were supposed to have already understood the general plot before we took the job." Vergil answered, flipping along to rest on the same page as Dante's script.

It was the scene of the plot twist, when Lex –on the cuff of victory against their shared enemy, the Prime Minister –suddenly turns around and backstabs his twin brother. Lex would slip a pill in Lance's drink and leave Lance unable to move while the police raid the building looking for them, and Lex himself would leave through the back door, round the front and face the reporters to announce personally that Lance was the man responsible for killing the Prime Minister.

"If you were taking the job, it was more or less a guarantee that I was going to take it too. The story doesn't work if there aren't twins acting the roles of Lance and Lex in the first place." Dante waved his hand in easy dismissal at Vergil's light lecture.

"Don't be complacent. We are not the only pair of twins in the entertainment industry. Casting pairs would be easy work; the power of makeup can even make individuals with absolutely no relation look as if they came from the same mother." Vergil warned, since having fame get to their head was something he was very cautious of –particularly because he knew Dante would easily fall for such trap.

"Yeah, but we are the most famous pair of twins at the moment, and we're paving the way for all the other pairs in the industry." Dante grinned. "But fine, before you lecture me until my ears fall off, I promise to go home and study the script inside out, alright?"

"You'd better. Filming starts in 3 days, and the schedule is packed. We won't be having much time to revise, and you know better than to waste everyone's time with bad shots just because you forgot lines."

"I'm insulted you even think that's possible for me. We have never forgotten lines on camera before." Dante scrunched his face.

"Keep it that way." Vergil answered with finality in his tone, and the two of them returned to their silence as Vergil continued perusing through the script, taking more interest in the back-stabbing scene since Dante had directed him to that particular scene.

"You know, we're getting famous." Dante's words broke through the silence between them, pulling Vergil out of his concentrated reading.

"I noticed."

"Do you think there might be a day that we end up like Lance and Lex? Or like Dante and Vergil in the DMC Series? Stabbing each other in the front and back? I can't imagine it happening now, but I cannot guarantee another five years down this road. Maybe you'll have something that makes me jealous, and I accidentally plot to kill you."

"I don't think you have enough brain power to accidentally plot to kill me."

"True. I should be glad enough that you don't go killing yourself." There was absolutely no insult taken from Vergil's words, but that was the very nature of their relationship after all. Both men knew themselves and each other well enough to not bother with useless words.

"You should worry in the event I go off myself." Vergil answered evenly as if it was a very predictable event that would happen in their future. "Do you honestly think you will be getting more jobs like this if I'm dead? Dante Sparda is not TV-screen friendly without Vergil Sparda as his foil. That's why we haven't been given a single job alone without each other. We are a package deal, and once either one of us drop out of this race, the other gets dragged along."

"What startling positivity." Dante scowled at the merciless slap of reality from Vergil's words. "What a bright future ahead of us."

"It is a reality and a fact that the sooner you accept, the easier our lives will go. You trying to one-up me and asking our manager for jobs alone without me; they will all fade away over time." Vergil spoke as his eyes returned to the script between his hands as if their conversation no longer required his full attention. He painted a visual picture as if Dante and him had been conversing about what to have for dinner instead of talking about their future in the entertainment industry.

"Don't blame your lack of ambition on me." Dante casually tossed his script back on the low table between them, leaning back into his couch. "You're just like Lance. Boring and normal."

"That'll make you like Lex. Reckless and backstabbing." Vergil retorted without missing a single beat, not even bothering to look up from the script this time. "Fitting."

"Whatever." Dante stretched and yawned; the insult bouncing off him. "You're stuck with this reckless and backstabbing person."

"I wouldn't ask for anything otherwise."

________________________________________________________________________________

The air conditioners in the auditorium were certainly hard at work since Vergil could feel the cold chill of the air around him. Still, he supposed it was to be expected, since the auditorium was filled with at least 800 attendees of tonight's award ceremony along with him and his brother.

Vergil and Dante sat in the front row right before the stage, offered with perfect view of the stage and all of its magnificent performances, along with the many celebrities dressed up in their most beautiful and handsome versions gracing the stage. They could not be blamed; tonight's award ceremony was the most prestigious and the biggest one every year. Even Dante had been captured by their stylist for a good half day to transform him into a man that was honestly –for the first time –worthy of an award.

Their current situation was unreal, something that Vergil certainly did not see coming at all.

Their previous roles as Joon Il and Joon Tae in the drama Shooting for the Sun had somehow gotten so famous and well-received that both Vergil and Dante had been nominated for not only the Best Actor Award, but also the Best Supporting Actor Award. Not only was the double-nomination for both of them something to be impressive about, the initial polls from the public had added to the unreal effect by throwing votes to only the two of them, leaving the remaining nominees to bite the dust behind the both of them.

As the weeks passed, the prediction became more or less real: both Dante and Vergil would be going home from the awards ceremony with an award each. The only real question was who would be going home with which award: the Best Actor or the Best Supporting Actor.

The debate on whether Vergil or Dante was going to get the Best Actor Award quickly became the hottest topic on everybody's lips, and it even split the nation up to ridiculous notions of 'Team Vergil' and 'Team Dante'. All the while, the two main characters of the debates remained silently monitoring the polls as the votes came in over the days, their numbers always matching and equal.

And thus, it was the day of final reckoning: the results day of the award by popularity vote.

"Dante, don't be rude." Vergil whispered to his brother, who had whipped his phone out and tapping away happily. It would usually be fine for someone to casually peruse through his mobile during the award ceremony, but the two of them had been given the privilege of sitting on the front row, which meant that the award presenters and emcees on stage currently could see their every movement clearly.

"What, I'm just curious! They said they would be closing the polls at 10pm. It's 9.50 now and I want to see how I'm doing." Dante whispered back, the excited grin spread across his face.

Perhaps it was an understatement to say that Dante had been 'silently' monitoring the polls. The man had been excited like a five-year-old child promised to be given candy for the past few weeks, determined to somehow win the title of the Best Actor and prove once and for all that he was better than Vergil. Their previous conversations of how one of them would never be able to do well without the other was turning around to bite Vergil in the ass, considering how the amount of jobs flooding through the doors for them would definitely change in proportion to the award they would be receiving today.

Much as Vergil wanted to continue lecturing his brother about how rude it was to be checking his phone in front of the emcee still continuing the show like a pro despite the obvious distraction in the front row, he held it all back. If Vergil was forced to be completely honest, he was curious himself; how far had their votes progressed in the last few minutes to closing time. Had he or Dante received a sudden surge of votes to create a strong margin against the other?

Vergil was distracted temporarily to clap politely with the rest of the audience when the winner of the Best Child Actor award was announced, and watched as the young boy quickly climb up the stairs to receive his award to give his thank-you speech.

"Well?" Vergil had to admit that now that he knew that the closing time for the polls was approaching, he felt Dante's infectious excitement as well. The only difference was that he knew how to tame it down and not let it affect others around him.

"Check for yourself." Dante's knowing grin was insufferable, as if he was elated to realize that Vergil –who had been acting cool the whole time –was actually as excited about the polls as he was.

Giving a mental apology to the child actor on stage who was still in the middle of thanking his friends and family, Vergil pulled his phone out of his breast pocket and pulled up the browser, entering the polls where the current number of votes had been displayed for all.

What he saw honestly surprised him.

"Wow, it increased by about 500 since a few minutes ago." Dante's whispered made Vergil realize that his brother had leaned in to get a glimpse of his phone screen. "But it's crazy: for every one vote I get, you get one vote too. These last-minute voters are really keeping our numbers equal. You'd think out of a total of... approximately 700,000 voters, either of us would get a tiny slice more than half. But we're quite literally tied neck and neck for the spot."

Dante was not wrong. In the bar chart that represented their shares of votes against the rest of the nominees, both their bars were exactly equal. Even the number floating on top of the bars were equal: 354, 781.

Vergil checked the time on his phone once more. 9.59pm.

He looked up briefly to check that his brother had finally –and rightfully –returned his attention on the child actor who had finished his thank-you speech and making his way off stage while the MCs returned to the microphone to move on to the next award to be announced.

It might not make a difference.

Vergil tapped on his screen lightly, watched as the webpage loaded fully, and then locked the screen of his phone, pocketing it back quickly.

It probably did not really make a difference at all.

"Well, won't you look at the time? It is 10pm sharp. We all know what that means! The voting polls for the Best Actor and Best Actress are officially closed!" The MC announced upon the cue he received from his in-ear microphone. "Why don't we take a short break from the award presentation to ask how our nominees are feeling at the moment now that a winner has been decided? Ladies first!"

"Don't say anything stupid if they come to you." Vergil warned his brother, but got the general sense that Dante was not listening to him at all when he spied that wide grin on his brother's face. Vergil barely heard what one of the nominated female celebrity said in answer to the MC's question, but became very aware that every camera was pointed on him and Dante when the spotlight flashed on them.

"And of course, we move on to the main characters of hottest topic this year! We have been hearing endlessly as analysts and theorists try to predict a winner, but we have not heard the feelings of the men in question. The polls are closed now, Mr. Dante and Vergil Sparda. How are the two of you feeling? This is quite a situation, isn't it? The two of you are always pitting against each other on-screen, and now your fans are making the two of you pit against each other in real life as well."

It was not surprising at all when Dante happily grabbed the microphone offered to him by one of the sound assistants.

"It's amazing, and I can't believe this is happening to us. I've been wanting to know whether I'm better than Vergil, but all the comments I've been reading has been about comparing us both and saying we both have our strengths and flaws. Today, we will know for certain! Then maybe I'll get more jobs than Verge here!" Dante spoke excitedly, as Vergil quietly covered his eyes in embarrassment at the child-like quality that his brother was showing on live national TV.

"Perhaps the older brother would like to put in some words?" The MC was definitely giving him a chance to redeem himself, and Vergil was all but glad to wrench the microphone from his embarrassing brother.

"Who wins or loses won't make a difference. Everyone who has been nominated today has worked hard, and are deserving of the prize in their own manner. Even if Dante wins the prize tonight, it will change no fact that he is still my younger brother, and his character will hardly change. Neither will I, and that will be my promise no matter the result of today's polls."

The model answer from him gained thunderous applause and was a satisfactory ending to the interview-break that the MC had initiated all of a sudden.

Since the production team required some time for the votes to be finalized and the winner to be decided, Vergil and Dante were made to wait through the award presentation of a few more categories. They did, however, share the congratulations with the Director when 'Shooting for the Sun' won the Best TV Drama, receiving the heartfelt thanks from the Director from onstage. Truly, the period-drama that they had filmed had somehow been a breakthrough piece of the year that nobody had really expected.

"Look at the stupid grin on Nero's face." Dante whispered as they remained standing, clapping in hearty congratulations as the Director was finished with his thank-you speeches and leaving the stage. "His character died halfway through the drama, but he looks like he had been carrying the entire show himself."

"Part of the reason why the show did so well is also because of how well he played the role of Wang So." Vergil advised, spying the said young man sitting a short distance away from them. Following the explosive success of their dramas together (with the Devil May Cry Series and now Shooting for the Sun), Vergil was slowly coming to the quiet belief that Nero might actually be their lucky charm. 

"The only thing he did well was dying in that dramatic fashion." Dante complained, clearly refusing to see Nero as anything more than a childish young actor. It seemed as if two dramas together were not enough to build any good rapport between Dante and Nero who were like cats and dogs whenever around each other.

"A dramatic death brings invested audiences." Vergil reminded, but pulled Dante back to their seats when the next award category came up: the Best Actress. The unspoken countdown had begun; after this category it would be the Best Supporting Actor. And since either Vergil or Dante was slated to win one or the other, there would be no room left for doubts for who the Best Actor would be.

Vergil had never really imagined that the awards would mean so much to him –he had actually been quite indifferent when he first heard news of both his and Dante's nomination into the awards. But now that the unspoken countdown had begun, Vergil suddenly felt as if his world was about to be taken from under him.

And so, despite all the rudeness of leaving his seat while the award presentation was still going on, Vergil made sure to stay in the shadows while he crept to the closest exit from the auditorium. In the corridor outside that was thankfully deserted, he felt as if he could finally breathe properly while he collected his thoughts, leaning against the full-length glass windows that offered a beautiful view of the beach and sea outside.

"What's wrong?" A concerned voice asked, and Vergil spun with surprise to find someone else sneaking out of the auditorium like him.

"Trish." He greeted his fellow actress from the Devil May Cry Series, though her style now was very much different from her character. She might have looked beautiful and shapely in her leather clothes while in character and on camera, but her bombshell gown for the red-carpet ceremony today certainly did not leave much of her figure to imagination. "I just needed some air."

"Just before the most important award category?" The woman asked with the hint of a smile, but concern was still in her eyes as she approached him, placing a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Is it the stress of competing with Dante?"

"I don't know." He admitted. The two of them had become fast friends after filming the Devil May Cry Series, and she was one of the few people who he could afford himself to be a little more relaxed around. "I didn't think that this would affect me, but current circumstance being, I appear to be wrong."

"Breathe a little." She gave him a light pat on the back. "I've never seen you look so desperate. Well, at least off-screen."

"Is this the panic at the thought of having Dante and I go separate ways?" Vergil introspected as he took his friend's advice. "There's no denying that after today, we might really end up doing very different things that I never saw coming. I always assumed that we would be acting together, but no matter who wins today, we're going to be apart."

"It's funny to hear those words from you. Back during Devil May Cry, you were so confident that Dante would be useless without you, and that you would be nothing without him. Now, you're equally confident that the both of you would be doing extremely well without each other. Just decide whether you look down on yourself and Dante or not, Vergil."

"I didn't think we were capable." Vergil answered. "It certainly seemed like it while we were filming, but the popularity that we individually got has been showing otherwise. I've even been getting calls from radio stations go join them for interviews alone."

"Look, nothing will change the fact that you two are brothers and twins. Even if you do jobs separately, nothing will change. You and Dante will remain the same. In fact, you two might have more things to say to each other in the future if you are doing different jobs. The two of you are like married couple that has been together for too long sometimes." Trish's comparison was not the best, but Vergil could not help but chuckle at how she had hit the nail on the head.

"We've been arguing on who does the laundry and who does the dishes recently. It definitely sounds like a married couple's argument." Vergil admitted. "Thanks for trying to make things better, Trish."

They had thankfully reached some sort of conclusion to their conversation enough to calm Vergil down when the door opened for the third time, and this time Nero poked his head out of the door.

"What are you still doing here? They are moving on to the Best Supporting Actor, and it's going to look bad if you are not in your seat!" Nero urged, and there were no more words needed as Vergil hurried back to his seat to find Dante completely oblivious of his absence, eyes twinkling at the reel tape that introduced the nominees for the Best Supporting Actor. The reel tape was currently highlighting Dante's acting as Joon Tae and the editors had certainly done well to choose the best shots for this short montage.

They had no space to discuss before the reel tape was done, and the spotlight returned to the prize presenter who had the result card gripped carefully in his hands.

"This is the moment we have all been waiting for. I am really honored to be the one who will be presenting both awards to both brothers tonight." The presenter started, then carefully opened the card, creating a suspense-filled pocket of silence.

Vergil thought back on the vote that he had made in the last minute before 10pm.

"The award of the Best Supporting Actor of the Annual Kinny Awards of 2020 goes to..." The drumroll rang all around, and he could practically feel the cameras fixed on both his and his brother's face, ready to catch their raw expressions upon the result. He made a mental note to school his reaction as much as possible, regardless of the results.

"Vergil Sparda for his role as Joon Il in Shooting for the Sun! This means younger brother Dante Sparda is awarded the Best Actor of the Annual Kinny Awards of 2020 for his role as Joon Tae in Shooting for the Sun! Dante wins with exactly one vote over his brother with 354,804 votes!"

His one vote.

Of all the things that could have floated through his mind, the fact that he had voted on the very last minute sank deep into his soul as both he and Dante stood up on automatic, behaving well as the model actors they were as they gave each other congratulatory hugs.

The look of elation on Dante's face certainly could not be mistaken and Vergil maintained his charming smile as the both of them stepped up to the stage, in the full brunt of the spotlight and received their award that came in the form of a trophy designed as two hands holding up a globe –the icon of the Kinny Awards. In all honesty, there was not much difference between their awards save the fact that Vergil's version shone a sparkling silver and Dante's was a brilliant gold.

The trophy was cold between his hands as he watched Dante excitedly accept his award in front of the thunderously applauding crowd.

"Will the Best Actor give his speech first?" The emcee cued, and Vergil was guided by the stage-helper to stand a short distance behind his brother, made to wait and witness his brother's speech from the stage.

It was probably too late for such concern, but Vergil fervently prayed that his brother would not say anything ridiculous once again on national live TV.

"I guess this proves it. I am better than Vergil." The first declarations were already a very good indicator of how Dante's speech was going to go. "354,803 of you thought so, and I thank you guys for supporting me for the past few weeks! That's 354,803 of you who actually spent the time to go to the webpage and vote for the correct person, and that's 354,803 whose dreams I'll visit tonight to thank personally."

354,803? Even Vergil felt his schooled expression relax into confusion at Dante's speech. Had the award presenter not announced that Dante had won with 354,804?

"For the 354,804th person who voted for me, I have a very special gift for him. You have to forgive me, and please don't be jealous of this last person who voted for me. I love every one of you all the same, but this last person is special to me, so here goes." Dante continued his speech, and Vergil watched with horror as Dante took a step backwards from the microphone, and raised his award high.

There was a single moment of utter horrified silence when Dante slammed his award to the ground, the sound of the trophy breaking into two loud. All celebrities had known from the start that the trophies were not really made with precious metals; they had all just been made from cheap wood and painted with impressive gold and silver. But Dante's act had made the cheap quality a very clear fact as he picked up the two-separate trophy-hands from the floor (one still thankfully holding on to the globe), grinning at his own achievement.

Frozen in horror, Vergil watched as his brother turned to him, and carelessly tossed one of the broken trophy-hands to him at which he caught by pure instincts while Dante returned to the microphone.

"Vergil probably thought he would never let the fact come to light and take this to the grave, but I refuse. My brother was the 354,804th person who voted for me in the very last second of the polls, and his was the last vote that made me win. Quite literally, if it had not been for him, I wouldn't have gotten this award. Just like how without him, I would never have appeared in the entertainment industry, I would never be anywhere if I didn't have him around. I've been trying to win him in all sorts of petty competition, because those are the only things I can win him at. I can't be a better brother than he is, and I can't support him like he supports me, so I can only prove myself and get the both of us fame like this. So, for the remaining 354,803 of you, and everyone else in this industry, don't ever think of separating Vergil from me, because I won't be able to operate as a Best Actor without him. Try it; you'll see how terrible I am without him beside me making me look good."

Dante looked back at the still-shocked Vergil, grinning as if he had won the biggest prize in the universe, and turned back to the microphone one last time, giving a loud sigh that echoed. The dramatic tension remained in the air as the audience waited for the next ridiculous word that would come from the insane actor who had broken his trophy in half on stage within seconds of receiving it.

"It seems like everyone here is stuck with us Sparda brothers as a twin set, but like Vergil told me on set for a movie once, 'I wouldn't ask for anything otherwise'."