Dante

[ringthenoise]

⌈ PLAYER SECTION ⌉
Player: Psi
Contact: PsiYamaneko | PM
Age: Elderly
Current Characters:
James | Pokémon (anime) | rocketman


⌈ CHARACTER SECTION ⌉
Character: Dante
Age: 30
Canon: Devil May Cry
Canon Point: Shortly after being impaled and crucified at the end of the animated series (between the first and fourth games)

Background: Wiki

Personality:

"The lack of an audience afforded him a rare moment of honesty. His ironic smile and theatrical red coat were mere props, protective masks, to put his enemies on the defensive and himself at ease."

One of the most immediately recognizable traits Dante has is a seemingly high opinion of himself and a playful, dark sense of humor. He excels at what he does and he knows it and he won't hesitate to make sure everyone around him knows it too. There is a great deal of theatricality in his attacks and movements when in combat. Parkouring up walls so you can flip around and land on an enemy sword first is seldom a necessary tactic but he thinks it looks cool and that's what matters. When confronted with a powerful foe he'll taunt his enemy or make snarky comments. Some of Dante's behavior is also eccentric and child-like. He plays with his guns like toys and, when morose, sits with his arms thrown about the hilt of his sword, embracing it the way a child would embrace a beloved stuffed animal. All of this adds up to a childish energy that his opponents often find confusing to the point of being disarming.

He gives the impression of someone who takes nothing in the world seriously, but that impression is not entirely accurate. Had he not developed this attitude and the ability to let things roll off of him he would have been consumed by the very demons he hunts, since demons of his world prey on emotional vulnerability. Dante is fully aware that people consider him annoying, and he's okay with that. Much of his theatricality in public is intended to keep people from getting too close, or wanting to. If he is acting childish it is to keep himself calm and convince his enemies that he is not a threat. If he is flashing fangs, eyes blazing, it is to scare his enemies. Dante shows the world what he wants it to see of him and what he wants the world to see changes depending on his mood or his tactics, which suggests he is more calculating and cunning than he at first seems to be. This is particularly true at this point in his life, as evidenced by his attitude in the first game which darkened and grew much more serious as the events on Mallet Island got worse. When he's in a dire situation, he sheds some of his playful persona.

He’s not as cold as he can sometimes seem in his darker moods, either, however. Demon hunting jobs that ultimately have to do with the principles of love or family are ones he is likely to do for free, despite always being massively in dept. People who are emotionally close to him do still get a brash "rockstar" vibe, because some of that is simply who he is and he likes being playful with his friends, but they also get the genuine tenderness and sadness beneath it. Beneath the attitude, Dante is warm-hearted and kind and he accepts everyone as they are even if he does not always express this.

""I see. Maybe somewhere out there even a devil may cry when he loses a loved one. Don't you think?"

Dante's father was a defender of humanity which is a mantle Dante also chooses to wear and he can be surprisingly empathetic towards some of the humans he encounters, even though he feels the human species is more capable of evil than demons are. The state of humanity grieves him deeply and he mourns them from time to time in his own way. He protects humankind whenever he can but has never truly felt like one of them. Despite his apparently care-free personality, he is a man who has lived his whole life at constant risk of succumbing to the madness of duality. Not a human and not a demon, all he knows is what he is not. He watches humanity as if from afar; always able to watch and to see but never touch. He seems to alienate himself from humans more and more as he ages and only allows himself to be a fleeting presence in peoples' lives. This doesn't mean he never talks to anyone, only that getting close to him is difficult. His closest friends are Trish, Lady and a little girl named Patty Lowell, all three of whom found themselves involved in his life in someway and then decided to stick around, sometimes despite his protests. Wearing him down works, though. Once someone has worked hard enough to earn a friend in Dante, they've made a friend for life.

Dante draws hope from his own internal humanity and the humanity of others. Demons in his world usually cannot feel emotions as humans do so as long as he can feel, he knows he is not a monster. When he is able to recognize a similar empathy in a demon he will spare the demon's life. This purity of heart is part of what gives him his power. This is also what gives his business, the Devil May Cry, its name. A devil may cry begging for Dante's mercy but Dante himself is a devil who may cry when losing a loved one. He got the idea after a friend of his, Lady, noted him quietly shedding tears over the loss of his twin brother, Vergil, whom he never liked much but still loved. Dante ended up having to kill his brother, something he still feels guilt for.

He also has his own strict moral code and system of honor; he will never kill a human opponent, he will not fight an opponent that is defenseless, he will rarely start a fight but will always finish one, and, as already noted, if a target shows signs of possible redemption he may spare their life. His moral code, though good, is not always in agreement with the rest of society. He will purposefully undermine authority and destroy public property if it means getting the job done and if a job does not suit his interest, he will not pick it up at all which means he frequently comes across as fickle. In truth he will see a project through to the end once he starts it, even if it means not getting paid for all his trouble. He believes anything worth doing is worth doing regardless of pay and is known to reduce his cost or drop it completely for a client in need. Some people take advantage of this generous nature and bill him for any property he destroys while working rather than offering payment. And he almost always destroys property...

"Don't be ridiculous, you're just too violent. You've never been able to handle things, whether they're simple machines or good looking women. You need charm school, my friend."

Dante has a steep violent streak and vents anger and frustration on the creatures he defeats or, if there is no fight to be had, on harmless household objects that subsequently break under his blows. This violence is ingrained into him. All he knows is fighting. As a half-demon he loves a good fight, fighting makes him feel alive; the bigger the enemy the better. He enjoys it so much in fact that he will sometimes hold back just to let an entertaining battle go on a bit longer.

A lack of a good fight can make him moody. He is prone to episodes of moodiness enough that he is sometimes described as "cranky" by those who aren't close to him. Pressing him for details on his personal life is also good way of bringing these episodes on. His own self is his weakness in conversation. He loves to be the center of attention but he loathes talking about his past. That history of trauma is nobody else's business but his own.

While he is extremely energetic in combat, he's a log when out of it. Even though he is devoted to what he does, he can be surprisingly lazy and if nothing is happening to engage him on every level of his being, he is likely to sleep straight through even major events. When not working, Dante sleeps for most of the day and wakes up only long enough to eat a snack, usually a large pizza that he can devour by himself in less than five minutes, or a strawberry sundae. His comfortable range of motion when not in combat is slow and languid. When tired, he can make himself comfortable on a clothesline and he's been known to doze off while standing up.

"You're the detective, you should have figured that out."

Dante is reasonably clever. As a detective, he has decent problem solving skills but they are not as well honed as those of more intellectual types, since people who usually hire him use him as a mercenary more than for his brains. By his later years he pulls his own Batman gambits but he typically lets his guns do the talking for him when he has trouble and he uses physical might to overpower most of his foes in the end. He is very capable of thinking on his feet and reacting under pressure but he is not likely to ever be someone who is tapped for his cunning. He will rarely if ever be the smartest man in the room.

When he latches on to a thought it becomes an obsession and he has difficulty seeing anything beyond it, which can lead to misery and tunnel vision. He was so focused on finding the demon that killed his mother that he never planned on what to do with his life after that (and for a being who may live for centuries if not millennia a life without purpose is a daunting concept).

His strength and his mind have only been shaped for demon-hunting. Since his mother died when he was a little boy he grew up drifting from place to place and parent figure to parent figure and never had a proper upbringing. The few people close to him are often exasperated by how horribly prepared he is for the world outside combat and hunting. Dante's never had a good role model for being a functional adult. His office has little furniture but always manages to be messy. He spends most of his time massively in dept and what little he makes he uses to order himself large quantities of pizza or recreational items that he doesn't really need. Sometimes he gambles for more cash but he only ever loses because he is horrible at gambling. He forgets to pay bills and relies on others for transportation where he can.

Dante, in summary, is a half-demon mercenary and bounty hunter who only knows the world of hunting. He uses a playful demeanor to hide his internal pain and plays up his flippant attitude to annoy people into leaving him alone. When people walk away after meeting Dante they usually leave with the impression that he is a strange and dangerous man and they usually don't know the half of it.

Abilities:

Demonic Power: As a half-demon, Dante has demonic power native to his species. Specifically, he has the ability to assume a demonic form for a limited time, the ability to channel his energy into attacks and special kinds of weapons (the ones he comes equipped with, doing this would break a normal weapon) and a limited form of clairaudience.

-Demonic Physiology: Being a half-demon means he has superhuman strength and dexterity, enhanced senses, high resilience, resistance to fire and the ability to regenerate from grievous harm. The only sure way to kill him is thorough removal or destruction of his heart which cuts off the demonic regeneration.

--Weaponry: He'd come with Ebony and Ivory and Rebellion. Ebony and Ivory are custom buit handguns that fire bullets which are actually manifestations of his power so they never run out of ammo. Dante can fire them at the rate of a machine gun. Rebellion is a massive sword that ostensibly has part of his soul bound to it. He is able to call it back into his grip after being disarmed.

Here's an obnoxiously thorough breakdown.

Alignment:
Elios. Dante's human half gives him the capacity to love like most demons can't and love is what really drives him. Like his father, he has a love for humanity, even if humanity sometimes disappoints him and he fights on behalf of humans. For years he was driven by the obsessive need to avenge his mother, whom he loved and he also turned on his brother whom he also loved but didn't like very much. He may not always love himself very much but he loves his friends and that is enough to keep him going.

Other: Dante will be coming out of the first game/anime. He will still be a bit of a rockstar, but he won’t be shouting and “kuh-raaazzzy” all the time, nor will he be as laid back as he is in DMC 4. He'll be more mercurial and generally moody, at least to begin with.


⌈ SAMPLE SECTION ⌉

General Sample: 1 | 2 | 3

Since the above samples ended up sparse, here are some supplemental ones from the Actual Beginning of time: 1 | 2 | 3

Emotion Sample:
here and here


Questions: N/A