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hysterickingdom
Mar. 28th, 2014 03:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
superstylishsquidPLAYER INFORMATION
Name: Jess
Contact: AIM/Plurk/Skype: firebenderjess
Existing Characters: None
CHARACTER INFORMATION
Name: Alastor
Species/Job/Class/Title: Lightning devil, blademaster, Midnight Thunderboy, Stylish Alastor
Age: ~4000, give or take a couple centuries.
Series: Devil May Cry+Viewtiful Joe (Canonly a shared universe)
Canon Point: Midway through the second season, after regaining his powers.
History: The earliest anyone outside of the underworld has seen of Alastor was as a sword on an island known as Mallet, supposedly the location closest to Hell. Presumably he was a demon before he was a sword, but he's never spoken of this time. It is possible to assume, however, that he was there for between one and two thousand years before he was found by a half demon devil hunter called Dante.
In an attempt to establish dominance over the halfbreed, Alastor pulled himself loose from the wall he'd been stabbed into and flew through the air to impale the younger demon. When Dante not only managed to free himself but also decided to claim the aggressive blade as his own, however, Alastor accepted the man as his new master and wielder and lent him his power. He accompanied Dante through the remainder of his mission, despite some rough handling, witnessing him defeat the most powerful generals in the army of Mundus, the emperor of the underworld, and then confront and overpower Mundus himself, but didn't interfere beyond acting as Dante's weapon.
After defeating Mundus, Dante brought Alastor back to his shop, but quickly neglected him in favor of the blade he inherited from his father. Bored and resentful, he decided to leave. Manifesting his true demon form, he slipped away behind Dante's back and soon discovered an alternate world called Movieland, a world within the movies. He adapted easily, taking on the role of a villain with aspirations of fighting and defeating the renowned hero Captain Blue. Eventually, he joined forces with an evil organization known as Jadow and quickly rose to a position of respect as one of two senior officers, alongside a humanoiddoglion called Fire Leo.
Some time after joining Jadow, Alastor's hopes of defeating Captain Blue were dashed when the Almighty Leader of the organization, King Blue, accomplished it personally. At the same time, he pulled a girl named Silvia into the movies from the real world and ordered her capture. Alastor didn't get involved personally until Silvia's boyfriend, Joe, managed to follow her, inherit Captain Blue's powers and defeat two out of three of the lower ranking Jadow officers.
Finding this Joe interesting, Alastor decided to confront him himself. At first easily gaining the upper hand, he was surprised when his opponent turned the fight around with a series of moves he could only call beautiful. Mishearing the complement, the new superhero decided to dub himself Viewtiful Joe, a name Alastor promised to remember as he withdrew.
Curious about his potential new rival, Alastor decided to speak with the hero's girlfriend to learn more about him. He succeeded only in confusing himself more upon learning that Joe always acted on impulse yet seemed to stumble onto the right thing to do anyway, but seemed to develop a fondness for the young prisoner, expressing sympathy for her having to deal with Joe's bumbling and even going as far as to ask if there was anything he could bring her to make her more comfortable.
After his discussion with Silvia, Alastor went to talk to Joe himself, despite the fact that he knew Fire Leo had gone to confront him. There he caught a lull in the battle and learned that his rival had a new sidekick, a young boy calling himself Captain Blue Jr. who was, depressingly, clearly the smarter of the two. Villain and sidekick enjoyed a moment of almost bonding through picking on Joe, discovering that they held very similar opinions on the idiot hero, before Fire Leo found and destroyed the house the heroes had taken shelter in. Leo was confused by Alastor's presence, but Alastor offered no answer beyond blatant sarcasm and then proceeded to decide he didn't feel like joining Leo's attack. As he prepared to leave, however, Joe called out to him and asked if he would be willing to take Silvia a flower for him. Recalling that the woman had wanted flowers for her room, Alastor agreed and left it in a vase in her window while her attention was elsewhere, leaving no indication of where it had come from other than the fact that only someone with wings could have left it from outside.
A while later, he could be seen shadowing Joe as the hero attempted to recover the stolen color of a town full of artists. From his commentary when Joe's efforts left him too injured to use his powers and got his sidekick captured, it's distinctly likely that he ordered the creation of the robots responsible and set them loose specifically as a secret test of his rival's character. Joe passed by fighting anyway and regaining his powers through sheer force of will, prompting Alastor to comment that he'd shown his true colors before leaving.
Some time after that, Jadow's Almighty Leader decided to review the accomplishments and failures of his team. Despite being expressly forbidden from interfering with the editing of the review footage, Alastor couldn't help himself from making certain that a specific incident involving the three lower ranking officers made it in, although he was the only one who refrained from offering suggestions for his own tape, stating that it was fine just the way it was and almost looked like it could be a music video. It turned out to be moot, however, as the grunts provided the wrong footage, instead showing a montage of Silvia's success at keeping her own spirits high. Rather than being angry, the Almighty Leader suggested that his subordinates learn from the girl and curb their internal bickering to try and have faith in each other as teammates.
Soon after, his immediate superior, a woman named Sprocket, told him that he would be pretending to marry Silvia in order to lure her boyfriend to her rescue. Though he initially objected to the idea, calling it beneath him, he seemed to warm up to it quickly and even enjoy himself, despite showing what seemed to be subtle disappointment at his knowledge that she wished she was there with someone else. She offered no resistance at first, trying to make the best of it and then holding out faith that Joe would learn of the ceremony and interrupt, but turned and fled when he failed to show up. Sprocket snapped in hatred for her and, seething with anger at the comment, Alastor left to retrieve her. He found her having a heartfelt reunion with Joe and was able to grab her, allowing them a few parting words before carrying her away with an irritated scoff at their romantic exchange of trust.
A little while later, Alastor caught Joe and Blue Jr. making plans to stage a fake return for Captain Blue in an attempt to raise the spirits of a sick child who had given up hope due to the hero's disappearance. Impressed by Joe's initiative and heroic drive, he offered a temporary truce and volunteered to help by providing an opponent for “Captain Blue” to defeat. Rather than throw a fight while recognizable as himself, he disguised himself as the Squid of Inescapable Doom. The plan went poorly, however, when Joe, disguised as Captain Blue, slipped on a banana peel and knocked himself senseless. Alastor quickly made up an excuse to retreat and confronted Joe about his clumsy failure. After a heated argument, Alastor came up with a new plan: he would abduct the child from his hospital room and take him to the roof, where Joe would follow and 'rescue' the boy.
The new plan initially went well, Alastor managing to get to the roof with the child without injuring him and then fighting it out with Joe, until they decided to wrap things up. Once again, Joe managed to slip on a banana peel, but instead of knocking himself out, he slid forward and the punch he was supposed to pull hit full force. In a fit of anger, Alastor dragged Joe out of sight and took his mask off to yell at him. Unfortunately for them, the child followed them and, in their fumbling to get their masks back on quickly, they managed to switch. They continued the fight in reversed roles until Alastor accidentally knocked the hospital sign down, where it would have crushed their young spectator if he hadn't acted on instinct to intervene. The sign hit Alastor on the back and the two fell from the roof, Alastor again taking the impact as they crashed down into the sewers. The fall destroyed his costume and the child correctly guessed that he'd dressed up at Joe's request, not realizing that he'd initially been the villain or even that the villain was fake. Thus when Joe followed to the sewers to make sure the two were alright, he panicked and looked to Alastor to fend off the 'squid'. Alastor decided to keep up the act, even though it meant temporarily pretending to be a hero, and sent Joe flying into a nearby body of water, then flew the child out of the sewer. The child's excited praise caught him off guard and he had to look to Blue Jr. for cues on how to handle it, but he ultimately, if awkwardly, accepted it and left before Joe could make his way back from the water.
His next appearance came when he caught Silvia outside of her cell with what seemed to be three grunts and proved that there were no hard feelings between them from the wedding incident. Two of the underlings were struggling to convey a message to her, unable to speak proper English, and rather than chide them for allowing the prisoner out of her room, he translated that they had seen something that let them know that Joe was thinking about her. Between that and his assurance that Joe was on his way and everything would be over soon, Silvia told him that he seemed different from the rest of Jadow, no matter how he tried to hide it, and that she believed he had a different agenda. He denied her accusation, insisting that he shared his group's agenda, and then ordered two of the grunts to escort her back to her room. As they left, he addressed the third, actually Sprocket in disguise, and asked her why she was sneaking around in that costume. She refused to answer and Alastor remained suspicious.
Soon after that, he was approached by Sprocket with another scheme involving him. Silvia was to be tied to the hands of a clock tower close to midnight to spur Joe to her rescue, after which Alastor could have the rematch he'd been wanting. Alastor himself didn't like the plan, but could do little more than verbally object. Those objections led Sprocket to ask if there were reasons other than the stated crudeness and seeming desperation that he cited, seeming to suspect he had more compassionate reasons for his displeasure, then to question his motivations. He admitted that his goal had nothing to do with Jadow itself, but aligned with their desires. He believed that, as a warrior, he would only feel at peace if he could fight and defeat someone worth being called a true hero, a title he felt Viewtiful Joe had earned.
During Alastor's conversation with Sprocket, the plan continued despite his objections and Joe succeeded in rescuing Silvia. As the discussion finished, Alastor left to confront his rival for what he hoped to be the final time. The fight went well at first, with both parties seeming to enjoy themselves, until Joe proved that he had become a worthy opponent. After that point, Alastor began fighting more viciously, surprising Joe, who hadn't thought there was any true animosity in their rivalry, and even endangering Silvia and Blue Jr. without seeming to care and ignoring both Joe's pleas and Sprocket's orders to avoid injuring the woman. He came close to killing Joe, only to be stopped by King Blue and brought back to headquarters, where he angrily demanded to know why his superior had stopped him and was reprimanded for disobeying orders.
After that, Alastor remained out of sight until Joe finally reached Jadow's headquarters. Fire Leo went to confront the intruder, wanting a rematch of his own, but Alastor interrupted and insisted the lion leave this to him. Fire Leo refused and was defeated by Joe, but King Blue interceded when Alastor attempted to take his turn. Alastor insisted that he was fine this time, remembering that he had lost control of himself in their previous fight, but his superior claimed that he wasn't the right person for this job but that he'd played his role admirably. The dismissal seemed to cause Alastor physical pain, during which Fire Leo rose and overpowered Joe. But instead of allowing his ally to kill their mutual enemy, Alastor grabbed the flaming lion from behind, scorching himself in the process, and told Joe to go, defeat Jadow and rescue Silvia so that they could have their rematch just between them, which was all he'd ever wanted. Joe accepted the help with thanks and Alastor commented that it might be time to “hang up the villain shoes” before the floor under him and Fire Leo collapsed, sending them falling down a deep pit.
Despite the flames and the fall, Alastor managed to survive the fall of Jadow but was trapped in the form of a human, with most of his powers sealed. Unable to pursue his rivalry in this state, he instead spent his time making sure Joe survived against the forces of a new group, Gedow. He saved him outright three times and offered advice to both him and Silvia, with none of the three heroes seeming to recognize him, though Silvia and Blue Jr. found him oddly familiar, before he encountered Sprocket for the first time since the fall of Jadow. She had aligned herself with Gedow, but Alastor asserted that he would not walk the same path as her and stated that he wouldn't forgive her, but neglected to elaborate on the cause of his grudge.
Resentful or not, Alastor did agree to ally with Sprocket one more time when she decided to steal a black diamond that, under the light of a solar eclipse at a specific place on a deserted island, would grant the holder a wish. While Alastor had no interest in the wish, a solar eclipse would restore his full power. When Joe, Silvia and Blue Jr., along with three female secret agents, arrived to reclaim the diamond, Alastor kept neutral in the fray and was ultimately left in a collapsing ruin by Sprocket after Silvia curiously pushed a self destruct button for it. Alastor and Blue Jr. once again shared a moment marveling at the stupidity of those around them, the devil showing sympathy for the boy, before they were forced to deal with a monster created by Gedow. Although Alastor had no stake in the battle, he was pulled into helping anyway and taken from the island against his complaints. When he insisted he needed to see the eclipse, one of the agents offered to give him a spectacular view of it. The view turned out to be from space, however, and the vantage point left the eclipse incomplete and useless, to Alastor's rage.
Between fighting and extensive travel on foot, the injuries Alastor had taken during his altercation with Fire Leo and been unable to heal in his human form eventually caused his body to give out. He collapsed at the edge of a town that was trapped in time at the day before Halloween, a place he was expecting to soon see a solar eclipse of its own. He might have died there if a local woman hadn't found him and tended to his wounds, though he remained weak and was plagued by nightmares of the event that had led to his injury.
After resting for several days, Alastor discovered that Joe, Silvia and Blue Jr. had arrived in town, along with a reformed android from Gedow, and were staying with the same woman who was taking care of him. Perhaps because of the presence of his rival, Alastor insisted that he was recovered enough to leave his room and join the Halloween Eve dinner. There he overheard a story that tomorrow would come during a solar eclipse, during which love confessions were said to go well. Joe encouraged the lovestruck young man who had told the story to make tomorrow come through his own hopes and prayers and the next morning, time had moved forward.
As the eclipse begun, another of Gedow's monsters appeared and threatened both the woman who had helped him and the man who pined after her. Alastor initially attempted to leave, insisting to himself that whatever happened to the people of the town was none of his concern, but thoughts of the fact that one of the people in danger had helped him pulled at his conscience and forced him to return, fighting alongside Joe and then taking a blow for the local pair that, without his powers, left him on the verge of death. He hung on stubbornly, however, long enough for the light of the eclipse to restore his powers, leaving him ready to continue fighting. The Gedow beast didn't last long after that, but Alastor decided not to challenge his rival just yet. Instead he left quietly...only to wind up in the Netherworld.
Personality:Alastor is a devil...and this has absolutely no impact on his personality other than providing the image he tries to live up to. Though he initially claimed to be a villain, he has repeatedly shown that he's capable of sympathy and even kindness. He doesn't believe in pointless cruelty, nor does he ignore debts. He believes strongly in honor and refuses to use dirty tricks or superior numbers to gain the upper hand. In fact, he subverts nearly every expectation of a typical villain.
But while he's a poor excuse for a devil, he's far from a saint, either. He's stubborn, prideful and temperamental, sarcastic and easily amused at the expense of others. He has a tendency to act on his own desires, only agreeing to requests when he himself feels like it. His strong independent streak makes him a difficult ally to manage sometimes. Typically he's more agreeable toward those he respects, but his respect can be difficult to earn. A strong will, sharp instincts and the ability to stand up for and chase what's important to you are all good ways to earn points with him, as are general competence, intelligence and skill in combat. But even those who have his respect are still subject to his dry humor and teasing, both fond and mocking. Rarely does he keep a sarcastic quip to himself, particularly if he views you as a rival.
On that note, rivalry is an important concept to Alastor. Not only does he believe in testing his abilities against worthy opponents, he also actively enjoys clashing with fellow warriors. If an opponent shows promise but isn't quite up to his level yet, he's willing to wait and even aid in the growth of his fledgling rival in the hopes that they'll become someone worth fighting. To that end, he will do whatever is necessary to ensure that he gets his chance for a rematch, to the point that he's been known to risk his own safety to ensure that nobody else finishes his rival off before then. This focus can become dangerous at times, however, as he's entirely capable of becoming so focused on his fight that he forgets other things that may matter to him. In such cases, he reacts consistently with anger to interruptions, regardless of who or what was the cause, and may even lash out violently if he's capable.
Despite this seemingly self-centered attitude, he has displayed some outright heroic tendencies that only become more evident as time goes on. He's freely offered his skills to help cheer up a sick child affected by the actions of his own organization, offered advice that helped Joe protect innocents without prompting and risked his life for someone who mildly inconvenienced herself to help him. Any accusations of being nice or having motivations other than self interest, however, are met with denial and even derision. After all, devils aren't kind, right?
But his kind and honorable streak isn't the end of his oddities as a devil. In fact, he seems to be religious. Not only has he attributed coincidences in his favor to divine will, but he wears a stole in his human form, a garment generally associated with clergy. He seems unaware of God's distaste for his kind and, strangely, has been seen walking in a church with no ill effects from the holy ground.
Another odd trait he has among largely vicious and uncivilized devils is a sense of dignity. With a few exceptions, he tries to maintain an image of control and aloofness, although he has mixed success due to his general difficulties in hiding his emotions. When calm, however, he presents a convincing image of restraint and maturity.
This is not to say he's stuffy and has no childish tendencies. In fact, the truth is somewhat the opposite. He has a self-admitted weakness for dramatics and seems unable to resist a flashy entrance, shows a tendency to enjoy using his teleportation to startle or surprise people, has a fondness for puns and has an unashamed love of sweets. On top of that, he can be downright petty at times, trying to humiliate his inferior officers by making sure everyone was reminded of their most spectacular failure largely for his own amusement and feeling the need to rub in Joe's difficulties with banana peels in his irritation. Still, rarely does he do anything outright harmful out of petty amusement or irritation.
Overall, Alastor is a rough but generally good hearted person trying too hard to live up to his dark image and deluding himself into thinking that he doesn't care about others. While his temper and his eagerness for battle can get the better of him sometimes and lead him to act in truly nasty ways, most of the time he's more likely to be irritating or even helpful than actually dangerous.
Abilities:
Strengths:
Super strength: While it's never been explicitly measured, someone who is roughly his equal in terms of raw power once lifted at least seven tons over his head with ease. Who knows what his upper limit is, but it's probably somewhere in the double digits tons wise.
Inhuman agility: He's a lightning demon, of course he has absurd reflexes.
Durability: He can take kicks that would shatter concrete and only be knocked off balance.
Regeneration: He's been known to go from the verge of death to fit to fight in a matter of seconds upon having his powers restored. It's also a running gag in the games version that he never stays dead, which may be related to the fact that part of his soul is in an object elsewhere.
Weather control: He can control lightning, wind and clouds on a whim, able to create a storm that spanned as far as the eye could see on open ocean purely as a backdrop for his dramatic entrance.
Magic: While most of his magic is lightning or wind based, he does know a few non-elemental spells. The most notable is Air Hike, which creates a brief platform of magic under his feet for him to spring off of.
Flight: This renders Air Hike virtually useless, of course, but it's always good to have multiple options. Curiously, he almost never seems to actually flap his wings when flying, so it's more than likely a levitation effect.
Shapeshifting: He can, at the very least, change the size of his wings and take on a more human appearance. He can also turn into a sword, but he's not likely to do this very often.
Swordsmanship: He's not called the blademaster for nothing, okay? He can also throw his swords with great accuracy and control them telekinetically.
Sword production: There is no known limit to the number of identical copies of his original sword that he can pull out of nowhere. Presumably they're made of magic.
Potential for greatness: A large portion of Alastor's power is sealed away in the original copy of his sword, which is still hanging on Dante's wall somewhere. If he ever gets his hands on that sword or gets a boost of power to make up for it, he'll be able to change to his Underworld Emperor form, which is twice the size of a human and a whole lot more powerful than he is now. Though he doesn't know it, even that isn't his full power. If he's ever in a position of pushing his limits out of any sort of care for another, he'll be able to reach a new level of power capable of smacking down reality warpers.
What fourth wall?: He's fully aware that the world he lives in is a movie and, as such, is appropriately genre savvy and capable of exploiting the flimsy logic of fictional worlds to produce objects from nowhere for a quick gag, store objects in hammerspace, handwave minor details as long as it's funny or dramatic and not relevant to the plot (or being observed) and change his clothing in less than a second as long as he's offscreen. As the badass rival, he can also invoke the Rule of Cool for offscreen teleportation and dramatically perfect timing.
Teleportation: Nixed, obviously, but if it ever comes up, he can create invisible portals suitable for transportation or eavesdropping.
Devil Arm Stuff: If someone picks him up in his sword form, one of three things could happen: they could overpower him and establish dominance to use his powers as they see fit, he could overpower them and possess their body to use as he sees fit or they could possibly reach an agreement and work as equals...but what are the odds of that happening around here?
Scheming abilities: When he sets his mind to it, he's very good at nudging people along for his own ends without making it entirely clear what those ends are. It can make him very difficult to figure out.
Telepathy/Empathy: He can communicate telepathically, but primarily does this as a sword or when he otherwise can't speak normally. He also has the ability to sense emotions and can pick up on powerful ones without even trying. Between these two powers, he's also incredibly difficult to fool and can see through even perfect disguises.
Elemental resistances: He's immune to electricity and cold and resistant to fire. He sprawls out comfortably in freezing weather and survives grappling with a guy who's literally surrounded by fire.
Acting skills: He knows how to put on a show, that's for sure. This includes an impressive talent for altering his voice.
Cleverness: He's the reason you should never make a contract with a devil. If it's possible to word an agreement or promise in such a way to give him an advantage or a loophole to squeeze through, he'll find it.
Weaknesses
Drama: A self-admitted weakness, he can't help doing things the dramatic way even when that conflicts with the practical way.
Poor self-awareness: He's in massive denial about large parts of his personality and, as such, really doesn't know himself very well.
Pride: As a demon, his ego is naturally the size of some planets. He's loathe to ask for help, hates being in debt and will never back down from a challenge.
Utterly transparent: His emotions are written all over his face and voice, so not only is it easy to tell what he really thinks about someone, he's really bad at lying convincingly.
Buttmonkey tendencies: He's prone to the occasional moment of the universe going out of its way to embarrass him.
Temper: While he brushes most things off, finding something that truly ticks him off will make him react impulsively and violently, even if he would normally restrain himself.
Stupid pointy ears: Even when he's trying to look human, he can't make them look round.
More Devil Arm Stuff: His soul currently belongs to Dante, so not only is he not at full power, but should a Dante ever show up, he'll be bound to serve him...as much as he can't wriggle out of through loopholes, anyway.
General obnoxiousness: He's kind of insufferable, especially since he can never keep a snarky comment or sarcastic quip to himself.
Poor team player: Unless he has genuine respect for the people he's working with, he doesn't do teamwork well.
Impulsive selflessness: If someone helpless and innocent is in danger and he's the one in the best position to help, he'll put himself in harm's way to save them without even thinking about the risks.
Inner conflict: His refusal to accept the fact that he's really a good person holds him back from his full potential and causes him to try to push away the people he cares about. It also causes him quite a bit of psychological stress and confusion.
Sample: Plus a bonus Shadow!
Anything Else? I have a metric butt-ton of headcanon for his past before DMC, so be warned. Also, he will laugh at your petty ideas of evil.
Name: Jess
Contact: AIM/Plurk/Skype: firebenderjess
Existing Characters: None
CHARACTER INFORMATION
Name: Alastor
Species/Job/Class/Title: Lightning devil, blademaster, Midnight Thunderboy, Stylish Alastor
Age: ~4000, give or take a couple centuries.
Series: Devil May Cry+Viewtiful Joe (Canonly a shared universe)
Canon Point: Midway through the second season, after regaining his powers.
History: The earliest anyone outside of the underworld has seen of Alastor was as a sword on an island known as Mallet, supposedly the location closest to Hell. Presumably he was a demon before he was a sword, but he's never spoken of this time. It is possible to assume, however, that he was there for between one and two thousand years before he was found by a half demon devil hunter called Dante.
In an attempt to establish dominance over the halfbreed, Alastor pulled himself loose from the wall he'd been stabbed into and flew through the air to impale the younger demon. When Dante not only managed to free himself but also decided to claim the aggressive blade as his own, however, Alastor accepted the man as his new master and wielder and lent him his power. He accompanied Dante through the remainder of his mission, despite some rough handling, witnessing him defeat the most powerful generals in the army of Mundus, the emperor of the underworld, and then confront and overpower Mundus himself, but didn't interfere beyond acting as Dante's weapon.
After defeating Mundus, Dante brought Alastor back to his shop, but quickly neglected him in favor of the blade he inherited from his father. Bored and resentful, he decided to leave. Manifesting his true demon form, he slipped away behind Dante's back and soon discovered an alternate world called Movieland, a world within the movies. He adapted easily, taking on the role of a villain with aspirations of fighting and defeating the renowned hero Captain Blue. Eventually, he joined forces with an evil organization known as Jadow and quickly rose to a position of respect as one of two senior officers, alongside a humanoid
Some time after joining Jadow, Alastor's hopes of defeating Captain Blue were dashed when the Almighty Leader of the organization, King Blue, accomplished it personally. At the same time, he pulled a girl named Silvia into the movies from the real world and ordered her capture. Alastor didn't get involved personally until Silvia's boyfriend, Joe, managed to follow her, inherit Captain Blue's powers and defeat two out of three of the lower ranking Jadow officers.
Finding this Joe interesting, Alastor decided to confront him himself. At first easily gaining the upper hand, he was surprised when his opponent turned the fight around with a series of moves he could only call beautiful. Mishearing the complement, the new superhero decided to dub himself Viewtiful Joe, a name Alastor promised to remember as he withdrew.
Curious about his potential new rival, Alastor decided to speak with the hero's girlfriend to learn more about him. He succeeded only in confusing himself more upon learning that Joe always acted on impulse yet seemed to stumble onto the right thing to do anyway, but seemed to develop a fondness for the young prisoner, expressing sympathy for her having to deal with Joe's bumbling and even going as far as to ask if there was anything he could bring her to make her more comfortable.
After his discussion with Silvia, Alastor went to talk to Joe himself, despite the fact that he knew Fire Leo had gone to confront him. There he caught a lull in the battle and learned that his rival had a new sidekick, a young boy calling himself Captain Blue Jr. who was, depressingly, clearly the smarter of the two. Villain and sidekick enjoyed a moment of almost bonding through picking on Joe, discovering that they held very similar opinions on the idiot hero, before Fire Leo found and destroyed the house the heroes had taken shelter in. Leo was confused by Alastor's presence, but Alastor offered no answer beyond blatant sarcasm and then proceeded to decide he didn't feel like joining Leo's attack. As he prepared to leave, however, Joe called out to him and asked if he would be willing to take Silvia a flower for him. Recalling that the woman had wanted flowers for her room, Alastor agreed and left it in a vase in her window while her attention was elsewhere, leaving no indication of where it had come from other than the fact that only someone with wings could have left it from outside.
A while later, he could be seen shadowing Joe as the hero attempted to recover the stolen color of a town full of artists. From his commentary when Joe's efforts left him too injured to use his powers and got his sidekick captured, it's distinctly likely that he ordered the creation of the robots responsible and set them loose specifically as a secret test of his rival's character. Joe passed by fighting anyway and regaining his powers through sheer force of will, prompting Alastor to comment that he'd shown his true colors before leaving.
Some time after that, Jadow's Almighty Leader decided to review the accomplishments and failures of his team. Despite being expressly forbidden from interfering with the editing of the review footage, Alastor couldn't help himself from making certain that a specific incident involving the three lower ranking officers made it in, although he was the only one who refrained from offering suggestions for his own tape, stating that it was fine just the way it was and almost looked like it could be a music video. It turned out to be moot, however, as the grunts provided the wrong footage, instead showing a montage of Silvia's success at keeping her own spirits high. Rather than being angry, the Almighty Leader suggested that his subordinates learn from the girl and curb their internal bickering to try and have faith in each other as teammates.
Soon after, his immediate superior, a woman named Sprocket, told him that he would be pretending to marry Silvia in order to lure her boyfriend to her rescue. Though he initially objected to the idea, calling it beneath him, he seemed to warm up to it quickly and even enjoy himself, despite showing what seemed to be subtle disappointment at his knowledge that she wished she was there with someone else. She offered no resistance at first, trying to make the best of it and then holding out faith that Joe would learn of the ceremony and interrupt, but turned and fled when he failed to show up. Sprocket snapped in hatred for her and, seething with anger at the comment, Alastor left to retrieve her. He found her having a heartfelt reunion with Joe and was able to grab her, allowing them a few parting words before carrying her away with an irritated scoff at their romantic exchange of trust.
A little while later, Alastor caught Joe and Blue Jr. making plans to stage a fake return for Captain Blue in an attempt to raise the spirits of a sick child who had given up hope due to the hero's disappearance. Impressed by Joe's initiative and heroic drive, he offered a temporary truce and volunteered to help by providing an opponent for “Captain Blue” to defeat. Rather than throw a fight while recognizable as himself, he disguised himself as the Squid of Inescapable Doom. The plan went poorly, however, when Joe, disguised as Captain Blue, slipped on a banana peel and knocked himself senseless. Alastor quickly made up an excuse to retreat and confronted Joe about his clumsy failure. After a heated argument, Alastor came up with a new plan: he would abduct the child from his hospital room and take him to the roof, where Joe would follow and 'rescue' the boy.
The new plan initially went well, Alastor managing to get to the roof with the child without injuring him and then fighting it out with Joe, until they decided to wrap things up. Once again, Joe managed to slip on a banana peel, but instead of knocking himself out, he slid forward and the punch he was supposed to pull hit full force. In a fit of anger, Alastor dragged Joe out of sight and took his mask off to yell at him. Unfortunately for them, the child followed them and, in their fumbling to get their masks back on quickly, they managed to switch. They continued the fight in reversed roles until Alastor accidentally knocked the hospital sign down, where it would have crushed their young spectator if he hadn't acted on instinct to intervene. The sign hit Alastor on the back and the two fell from the roof, Alastor again taking the impact as they crashed down into the sewers. The fall destroyed his costume and the child correctly guessed that he'd dressed up at Joe's request, not realizing that he'd initially been the villain or even that the villain was fake. Thus when Joe followed to the sewers to make sure the two were alright, he panicked and looked to Alastor to fend off the 'squid'. Alastor decided to keep up the act, even though it meant temporarily pretending to be a hero, and sent Joe flying into a nearby body of water, then flew the child out of the sewer. The child's excited praise caught him off guard and he had to look to Blue Jr. for cues on how to handle it, but he ultimately, if awkwardly, accepted it and left before Joe could make his way back from the water.
His next appearance came when he caught Silvia outside of her cell with what seemed to be three grunts and proved that there were no hard feelings between them from the wedding incident. Two of the underlings were struggling to convey a message to her, unable to speak proper English, and rather than chide them for allowing the prisoner out of her room, he translated that they had seen something that let them know that Joe was thinking about her. Between that and his assurance that Joe was on his way and everything would be over soon, Silvia told him that he seemed different from the rest of Jadow, no matter how he tried to hide it, and that she believed he had a different agenda. He denied her accusation, insisting that he shared his group's agenda, and then ordered two of the grunts to escort her back to her room. As they left, he addressed the third, actually Sprocket in disguise, and asked her why she was sneaking around in that costume. She refused to answer and Alastor remained suspicious.
Soon after that, he was approached by Sprocket with another scheme involving him. Silvia was to be tied to the hands of a clock tower close to midnight to spur Joe to her rescue, after which Alastor could have the rematch he'd been wanting. Alastor himself didn't like the plan, but could do little more than verbally object. Those objections led Sprocket to ask if there were reasons other than the stated crudeness and seeming desperation that he cited, seeming to suspect he had more compassionate reasons for his displeasure, then to question his motivations. He admitted that his goal had nothing to do with Jadow itself, but aligned with their desires. He believed that, as a warrior, he would only feel at peace if he could fight and defeat someone worth being called a true hero, a title he felt Viewtiful Joe had earned.
During Alastor's conversation with Sprocket, the plan continued despite his objections and Joe succeeded in rescuing Silvia. As the discussion finished, Alastor left to confront his rival for what he hoped to be the final time. The fight went well at first, with both parties seeming to enjoy themselves, until Joe proved that he had become a worthy opponent. After that point, Alastor began fighting more viciously, surprising Joe, who hadn't thought there was any true animosity in their rivalry, and even endangering Silvia and Blue Jr. without seeming to care and ignoring both Joe's pleas and Sprocket's orders to avoid injuring the woman. He came close to killing Joe, only to be stopped by King Blue and brought back to headquarters, where he angrily demanded to know why his superior had stopped him and was reprimanded for disobeying orders.
After that, Alastor remained out of sight until Joe finally reached Jadow's headquarters. Fire Leo went to confront the intruder, wanting a rematch of his own, but Alastor interrupted and insisted the lion leave this to him. Fire Leo refused and was defeated by Joe, but King Blue interceded when Alastor attempted to take his turn. Alastor insisted that he was fine this time, remembering that he had lost control of himself in their previous fight, but his superior claimed that he wasn't the right person for this job but that he'd played his role admirably. The dismissal seemed to cause Alastor physical pain, during which Fire Leo rose and overpowered Joe. But instead of allowing his ally to kill their mutual enemy, Alastor grabbed the flaming lion from behind, scorching himself in the process, and told Joe to go, defeat Jadow and rescue Silvia so that they could have their rematch just between them, which was all he'd ever wanted. Joe accepted the help with thanks and Alastor commented that it might be time to “hang up the villain shoes” before the floor under him and Fire Leo collapsed, sending them falling down a deep pit.
Despite the flames and the fall, Alastor managed to survive the fall of Jadow but was trapped in the form of a human, with most of his powers sealed. Unable to pursue his rivalry in this state, he instead spent his time making sure Joe survived against the forces of a new group, Gedow. He saved him outright three times and offered advice to both him and Silvia, with none of the three heroes seeming to recognize him, though Silvia and Blue Jr. found him oddly familiar, before he encountered Sprocket for the first time since the fall of Jadow. She had aligned herself with Gedow, but Alastor asserted that he would not walk the same path as her and stated that he wouldn't forgive her, but neglected to elaborate on the cause of his grudge.
Resentful or not, Alastor did agree to ally with Sprocket one more time when she decided to steal a black diamond that, under the light of a solar eclipse at a specific place on a deserted island, would grant the holder a wish. While Alastor had no interest in the wish, a solar eclipse would restore his full power. When Joe, Silvia and Blue Jr., along with three female secret agents, arrived to reclaim the diamond, Alastor kept neutral in the fray and was ultimately left in a collapsing ruin by Sprocket after Silvia curiously pushed a self destruct button for it. Alastor and Blue Jr. once again shared a moment marveling at the stupidity of those around them, the devil showing sympathy for the boy, before they were forced to deal with a monster created by Gedow. Although Alastor had no stake in the battle, he was pulled into helping anyway and taken from the island against his complaints. When he insisted he needed to see the eclipse, one of the agents offered to give him a spectacular view of it. The view turned out to be from space, however, and the vantage point left the eclipse incomplete and useless, to Alastor's rage.
Between fighting and extensive travel on foot, the injuries Alastor had taken during his altercation with Fire Leo and been unable to heal in his human form eventually caused his body to give out. He collapsed at the edge of a town that was trapped in time at the day before Halloween, a place he was expecting to soon see a solar eclipse of its own. He might have died there if a local woman hadn't found him and tended to his wounds, though he remained weak and was plagued by nightmares of the event that had led to his injury.
After resting for several days, Alastor discovered that Joe, Silvia and Blue Jr. had arrived in town, along with a reformed android from Gedow, and were staying with the same woman who was taking care of him. Perhaps because of the presence of his rival, Alastor insisted that he was recovered enough to leave his room and join the Halloween Eve dinner. There he overheard a story that tomorrow would come during a solar eclipse, during which love confessions were said to go well. Joe encouraged the lovestruck young man who had told the story to make tomorrow come through his own hopes and prayers and the next morning, time had moved forward.
As the eclipse begun, another of Gedow's monsters appeared and threatened both the woman who had helped him and the man who pined after her. Alastor initially attempted to leave, insisting to himself that whatever happened to the people of the town was none of his concern, but thoughts of the fact that one of the people in danger had helped him pulled at his conscience and forced him to return, fighting alongside Joe and then taking a blow for the local pair that, without his powers, left him on the verge of death. He hung on stubbornly, however, long enough for the light of the eclipse to restore his powers, leaving him ready to continue fighting. The Gedow beast didn't last long after that, but Alastor decided not to challenge his rival just yet. Instead he left quietly...only to wind up in the Netherworld.
Personality:Alastor is a devil...and this has absolutely no impact on his personality other than providing the image he tries to live up to. Though he initially claimed to be a villain, he has repeatedly shown that he's capable of sympathy and even kindness. He doesn't believe in pointless cruelty, nor does he ignore debts. He believes strongly in honor and refuses to use dirty tricks or superior numbers to gain the upper hand. In fact, he subverts nearly every expectation of a typical villain.
But while he's a poor excuse for a devil, he's far from a saint, either. He's stubborn, prideful and temperamental, sarcastic and easily amused at the expense of others. He has a tendency to act on his own desires, only agreeing to requests when he himself feels like it. His strong independent streak makes him a difficult ally to manage sometimes. Typically he's more agreeable toward those he respects, but his respect can be difficult to earn. A strong will, sharp instincts and the ability to stand up for and chase what's important to you are all good ways to earn points with him, as are general competence, intelligence and skill in combat. But even those who have his respect are still subject to his dry humor and teasing, both fond and mocking. Rarely does he keep a sarcastic quip to himself, particularly if he views you as a rival.
On that note, rivalry is an important concept to Alastor. Not only does he believe in testing his abilities against worthy opponents, he also actively enjoys clashing with fellow warriors. If an opponent shows promise but isn't quite up to his level yet, he's willing to wait and even aid in the growth of his fledgling rival in the hopes that they'll become someone worth fighting. To that end, he will do whatever is necessary to ensure that he gets his chance for a rematch, to the point that he's been known to risk his own safety to ensure that nobody else finishes his rival off before then. This focus can become dangerous at times, however, as he's entirely capable of becoming so focused on his fight that he forgets other things that may matter to him. In such cases, he reacts consistently with anger to interruptions, regardless of who or what was the cause, and may even lash out violently if he's capable.
Despite this seemingly self-centered attitude, he has displayed some outright heroic tendencies that only become more evident as time goes on. He's freely offered his skills to help cheer up a sick child affected by the actions of his own organization, offered advice that helped Joe protect innocents without prompting and risked his life for someone who mildly inconvenienced herself to help him. Any accusations of being nice or having motivations other than self interest, however, are met with denial and even derision. After all, devils aren't kind, right?
But his kind and honorable streak isn't the end of his oddities as a devil. In fact, he seems to be religious. Not only has he attributed coincidences in his favor to divine will, but he wears a stole in his human form, a garment generally associated with clergy. He seems unaware of God's distaste for his kind and, strangely, has been seen walking in a church with no ill effects from the holy ground.
Another odd trait he has among largely vicious and uncivilized devils is a sense of dignity. With a few exceptions, he tries to maintain an image of control and aloofness, although he has mixed success due to his general difficulties in hiding his emotions. When calm, however, he presents a convincing image of restraint and maturity.
This is not to say he's stuffy and has no childish tendencies. In fact, the truth is somewhat the opposite. He has a self-admitted weakness for dramatics and seems unable to resist a flashy entrance, shows a tendency to enjoy using his teleportation to startle or surprise people, has a fondness for puns and has an unashamed love of sweets. On top of that, he can be downright petty at times, trying to humiliate his inferior officers by making sure everyone was reminded of their most spectacular failure largely for his own amusement and feeling the need to rub in Joe's difficulties with banana peels in his irritation. Still, rarely does he do anything outright harmful out of petty amusement or irritation.
Overall, Alastor is a rough but generally good hearted person trying too hard to live up to his dark image and deluding himself into thinking that he doesn't care about others. While his temper and his eagerness for battle can get the better of him sometimes and lead him to act in truly nasty ways, most of the time he's more likely to be irritating or even helpful than actually dangerous.
Abilities:
Strengths:
Super strength: While it's never been explicitly measured, someone who is roughly his equal in terms of raw power once lifted at least seven tons over his head with ease. Who knows what his upper limit is, but it's probably somewhere in the double digits tons wise.
Inhuman agility: He's a lightning demon, of course he has absurd reflexes.
Durability: He can take kicks that would shatter concrete and only be knocked off balance.
Regeneration: He's been known to go from the verge of death to fit to fight in a matter of seconds upon having his powers restored. It's also a running gag in the games version that he never stays dead, which may be related to the fact that part of his soul is in an object elsewhere.
Weather control: He can control lightning, wind and clouds on a whim, able to create a storm that spanned as far as the eye could see on open ocean purely as a backdrop for his dramatic entrance.
Magic: While most of his magic is lightning or wind based, he does know a few non-elemental spells. The most notable is Air Hike, which creates a brief platform of magic under his feet for him to spring off of.
Flight: This renders Air Hike virtually useless, of course, but it's always good to have multiple options. Curiously, he almost never seems to actually flap his wings when flying, so it's more than likely a levitation effect.
Shapeshifting: He can, at the very least, change the size of his wings and take on a more human appearance. He can also turn into a sword, but he's not likely to do this very often.
Swordsmanship: He's not called the blademaster for nothing, okay? He can also throw his swords with great accuracy and control them telekinetically.
Sword production: There is no known limit to the number of identical copies of his original sword that he can pull out of nowhere. Presumably they're made of magic.
Potential for greatness: A large portion of Alastor's power is sealed away in the original copy of his sword, which is still hanging on Dante's wall somewhere. If he ever gets his hands on that sword or gets a boost of power to make up for it, he'll be able to change to his Underworld Emperor form, which is twice the size of a human and a whole lot more powerful than he is now. Though he doesn't know it, even that isn't his full power. If he's ever in a position of pushing his limits out of any sort of care for another, he'll be able to reach a new level of power capable of smacking down reality warpers.
What fourth wall?: He's fully aware that the world he lives in is a movie and, as such, is appropriately genre savvy and capable of exploiting the flimsy logic of fictional worlds to produce objects from nowhere for a quick gag, store objects in hammerspace, handwave minor details as long as it's funny or dramatic and not relevant to the plot (or being observed) and change his clothing in less than a second as long as he's offscreen. As the badass rival, he can also invoke the Rule of Cool for offscreen teleportation and dramatically perfect timing.
Teleportation: Nixed, obviously, but if it ever comes up, he can create invisible portals suitable for transportation or eavesdropping.
Devil Arm Stuff: If someone picks him up in his sword form, one of three things could happen: they could overpower him and establish dominance to use his powers as they see fit, he could overpower them and possess their body to use as he sees fit or they could possibly reach an agreement and work as equals...but what are the odds of that happening around here?
Scheming abilities: When he sets his mind to it, he's very good at nudging people along for his own ends without making it entirely clear what those ends are. It can make him very difficult to figure out.
Telepathy/Empathy: He can communicate telepathically, but primarily does this as a sword or when he otherwise can't speak normally. He also has the ability to sense emotions and can pick up on powerful ones without even trying. Between these two powers, he's also incredibly difficult to fool and can see through even perfect disguises.
Elemental resistances: He's immune to electricity and cold and resistant to fire. He sprawls out comfortably in freezing weather and survives grappling with a guy who's literally surrounded by fire.
Acting skills: He knows how to put on a show, that's for sure. This includes an impressive talent for altering his voice.
Cleverness: He's the reason you should never make a contract with a devil. If it's possible to word an agreement or promise in such a way to give him an advantage or a loophole to squeeze through, he'll find it.
Weaknesses
Drama: A self-admitted weakness, he can't help doing things the dramatic way even when that conflicts with the practical way.
Poor self-awareness: He's in massive denial about large parts of his personality and, as such, really doesn't know himself very well.
Pride: As a demon, his ego is naturally the size of some planets. He's loathe to ask for help, hates being in debt and will never back down from a challenge.
Utterly transparent: His emotions are written all over his face and voice, so not only is it easy to tell what he really thinks about someone, he's really bad at lying convincingly.
Buttmonkey tendencies: He's prone to the occasional moment of the universe going out of its way to embarrass him.
Temper: While he brushes most things off, finding something that truly ticks him off will make him react impulsively and violently, even if he would normally restrain himself.
Stupid pointy ears: Even when he's trying to look human, he can't make them look round.
More Devil Arm Stuff: His soul currently belongs to Dante, so not only is he not at full power, but should a Dante ever show up, he'll be bound to serve him...as much as he can't wriggle out of through loopholes, anyway.
General obnoxiousness: He's kind of insufferable, especially since he can never keep a snarky comment or sarcastic quip to himself.
Poor team player: Unless he has genuine respect for the people he's working with, he doesn't do teamwork well.
Impulsive selflessness: If someone helpless and innocent is in danger and he's the one in the best position to help, he'll put himself in harm's way to save them without even thinking about the risks.
Inner conflict: His refusal to accept the fact that he's really a good person holds him back from his full potential and causes him to try to push away the people he cares about. It also causes him quite a bit of psychological stress and confusion.
Sample: Plus a bonus Shadow!
Anything Else? I have a metric butt-ton of headcanon for his past before DMC, so be warned. Also, he will laugh at your petty ideas of evil.
