PROFILE
Name: Dante [Template Universe]
Age: Unknown ; looks around in his late twenties [27-29?]
Gender: Male
Species: Half demon
Sexuality: Omnisexual as all hell.
Housing: Living with Trish.
Marked: Yes, with this cross on his back.
Appearance: Dante stands at a good six feet, shaggy silver-white hair falling into steely blue eyes and a handsome face often seen wearing a confident smile. His body is built for a perfect balance between speed and strength - the man's got muscle, but is still built lean enough to look like a professional track runner. He dresses to impress as much as he does simply just to be flashy - no matter what he wears, be it his usual outfit or simple casual clothes, the only colors he seems to dress in are red, black and silver.
Personality: Dante is calmer than he was as a kid, more level-headed when it comes to seeing and assessing situations. He can tell the difference between situations where it's better to fight and when it's better to run [though he often tends to ignore that anyway], and now can strategize better instead of rushing headlong into things without a clue or a plan. This doesn't mean he's any less cocky though, and is always willing to spew his overconfident banter in battle as he always is. He'll only do what he wants to do, no questions asked, and when his mind is set on yes or no it's extremely hard to get him to change it until the circumstances shift to either intrigue him or get people he personally cares for caught up. It makes him seem shallow, sometimes callous and cold, and often rather annoying. At least once he starts something, he doesn't let up until it's done.
Also, he is an extreme mama's boy, even if his mama is dead. Seriously. He never removes the amulet that remains as the last memento of his mother. Ever. Even when naked.
Abilities/Strengths: First off, Dante is extremely difficult to kill. I mean seriously. The man got impaled with a sword and pulled himself off of it with his spine miraculously intact. He might be just early impossible to kill, actually, but nobody knows for sure and he's not willing to push it to see. As well, any wound that doesn't kill him will eventually be naturally healed by his demon blood, no matter the gravity, and it'll heal faster than a normal human's wound would. Even if his cocky and confident attitude is mostly a cover, it's a cover that Dante retains quite well, and it takes a lot for him to break it.
As for weaponry, he has two swords and two guns with him. Force Edge is the sword his father left behind long ago, the sword that had told Dante to throw his name away. Alastor is a sword he found in the castle on Mallet Island, which, in a gory ritual to separate the weak from the strong, had impaled him. Thankfully it's just awesome enough to have along, as it has the power to control electricity as well as warn him about the arrival of powerful demons by sparking. Ebony and Ivory are two twin handguns, with "By .45 Caliber Warks - For Tony Redgrave" scrawled on them. They're Goldstein's last gifts to him, and unless he absolutely needs to, he never leaves these twin pistols behind. The Shotgun is just as it sounds like - a powerful double-barreled hunting shotgun that, at close range, likely has enough power to take a person's head off.
Weaknesses: Dante's extreme lack of physical weaknesses is counterbalanced by personality and mental flaws. Strip Dante of all his overconfidence and cockiness you'll find a man with extreme guilt issues, major family problems and a vendetta he'll always deny he carries out solely for revenge. Despite all the banter and witty one liners he can spew, Dante still has an unbecoming awkwardness about him, and it doesn't make him the best candidate for idle conversation most of the time. He also majorly fails in anything requiring subtlety - he doesn't really know the meaning of the word, since he loves to go in guns blazing and sword swinging rather than sneak around ninja style. In fact, he's a monthly subscriber to the idea that a sword swing can solve anything. If not a sword, then fists. If not fists, then guns. And if not guns? Alcohol. Diplomacy rates a very low last on his list.
History: Demons ruled the spiritual level. They thrived on ruling over and terrorizing the humans of the physical level, taking strength and ecstasy from their fear and taking the husks of the dead to continue their campaign.
That all changed when Sparda descended from the spiritual level to fight back against his demonic brethren for the sake of the humans. He locked away the spiritual level, locking away his power with it and saving the humans. He fell in love with a human woman named Eva, married her and had a family - two twin boys by the names of Dante and Vergil.
Happiness wouldn't last. The demons, fueled by rage and a burning need for vengeance against Sparda, weakened the seal enough to cross over and attack the family. Sparda left to try and protect Eva and the boys, but was hunted down and killed before the demons invaded the home. Eva hid Dante and Vergil and tried to make a stand against the force, but was slaughtered before the eyes of a young Dante as he trembled in his hiding place. Miraculously the demons left without noticing the boy, but Dante was left alone - his mother lay dead in a pool of her own blood, a sight Dante didn't comprehend, his father was gone and dead as well, and there was no trace of Vergil to be found. Crying as he clutched his mother's body, Dante spotted the last memento of his father, a great sword by the name of Force Edge. He became obsessed with it, as that and his mother's amulet were the only things that remained of his broken family.
And one day, Force Edge spoke to him.
Hide that name. Blind yourself to it and run away.
And so Dante became Tony Redgrave, who entirely forgot that he was ever Dante. A man who drifted and lived for the present, running from the past and seeing the future only as the next day that came with the rising sun. Eventually he blew into a city called Template, where everything would change. He became a mercenary, revolutionizing the business by advocating mercy, killing only who he needed to and putting to shame those that only lived for wanton destruction. He demolished entire mafia families and crime rings on his own, his strength and skill earning him a few admirers and many enemies. He rose to become the top dog of the mercs, the most requested for jobs by those looking for muscle to hire, and became known for his tendency to pick and choose jobs as he pleased, no matter the price. He gained a business partner and a friend in a man named Grue, and - rather on accident - a surrogate mother in an old firearms artist named Nell Goldstein. For a while he lived rather contentedly like this.
But Tony gained a hint of everything to come when he and Grue took on the job of protecting a mafia boss by the named of Fondo Brown, who was looking for bodyguards to help him escape the country. The caravan carrying him passed through enemy territory and was ambushed on the road. Tony and Grue went to work, knocking out a large number of the men in an impressive display of force that bought Brown time enough to call his own men into action. As gunfire erupted Tony and Grue ran to avoid the heat and only returned when the smoke had cleared and everyone was dead. But it didn't end there - the corpses rose back to life, and Tony was forced to take them out on his own as a petrified Grue could only stand and watch the spectacle. But finally the last of the demonic forces were gone, and pushing the incident to the back of their minds, Grue and Tony went back to Grue's place for dinner and a little relaxation.
But everything continued to take a turn for the supernatural. Tony was introduced to an odd man swathed in bandages a few days later, a man who went by the name of Gilver in Bobby's Cellar. The two squared off in a brief match with both fists and swords, before Bobby forced them to settle it with a drinking contest. Easily coming out on top [by drinking the rest of the keg of vodka down after Gilver passed out], Tony left the bar, stumbling his way back home. As he was walking the alley to the street he was attacked by demons, plus the animated corpse of a man named Denvers who had attempted to kill him ninety-nine times in life. After that he passed out, and woke up in the care of a woman named Kerry, who he quickly left alone in favor of going home to sleep until nightfall. He went to Bobby's Cellar after that and was confronted by Grue, asking about Denvers' body that had turned up wearing his coat and bearing a wound that matched Tony's sword. Tony had gained the unwanted attention of the Oz Club, a syndicate of former underworld members who participated in human hunts for bounties. Denvers had been a member, and so they were now gunning after the man who had seemed to kill him. Knowing the trouble he'd cause by staying around, Tony left Bobby's Cellar and managed to collect info on the Oz Club's last meeting place, aiming to surprise them by going on the offensive before they could strike.
He arrived at a bank in the upscale business district of Template, but something was wrong. The place stunk of death, and as he went higher into the bank his strength began to ebb, and the act of simply breathing became a chore. But still he fought his way through a slew of demons before Gilver showed up, and the two left the bank together. After a while Tony and Gilver became a highly requested duo on jobs, loved for their skill, but something was bugging Tony - the fact that Grue seemed to have gone missing.
He didn't stay that way for long. He appeared briefly before Tony to terminate their partnership officially, not acting like himself ; instead of the friend he knew, Grue was cold and distant, and eventually Tony figured out why. Grue had taken on an assassination job, something they both saw as low and disgusting. But still Tony told Grue to come back after he was finished ; that he had a mountain of jobs that he needed Grue's help with. After the brief and mainly silent conversation the two parted ways in sadness, neither knowing that it would bee the last time they'd see each other again.
Days passed and eventually Gilver became top dog, leaving Tony behind in the dust, his silent and merciless professionalism sparking the mercs back into their old ways of utter destruction. The matter wasn't at the forefront of Tony's mind very long however, as Enzo, an informant and middleman Tony tended to take his jobs from, told him that one of Grue's daughters, Jessica, had been hospitalized. Grilling him for more info, Tony eventually arrived at the location - a sanatorium outside of Template's limits. It held the same air the bank had, and as Tony fought his way through he figured out why. He was on the digital level, the nexus between the spiritual and the physical, and the demonic energies were taking a toll on his half human mind and body. He fought his way to the basement where he found Jessica trapped in the branch of a large demonic tree, her pain and anguish having become the source of the tree's life force as it grew and spread. The tree was a bridgehead between all three levels, and if it was allowed to grow it would allow the spiritual, digital and physical levels to combine and be overruled by the demons. Realizing there was no way to save Jessica, Tony killed her to end her pain and set fire to the sanatorium, destroying the tree in the dancing flames.
All of the events surrounding Tony, in the end, led to him being banned from Bobby's Cellar and gaining little to no work due to the superstitions surrounding him. He sought out Goldstein for sympathy and food, which she gave with her usual curt replies and cold banter, as well as a warning about Gilver. He was quickly dismissed by her after finishing his food, but Tony didn't get far from her shop before it was set ablaze and he was running back, hoping to save her from the choking flames.
But he found her sitting as calm as ever as the fire blazed around her, simply commanding Tony to finish the newest set of guns she had made for him - a twin set of pistols, one ebony and one ivory, built especially for him. She passed away soon after, and her death along with her gifts woke Tony up - as he slaughtered the demons among the flames with Goldstein's guns, he once more took up the name Dante. Walking away from the blazing shop, Dante allowed his feet to carry him to Bobby's Cellar, where he found Gilver, covered in black armor, waiting for him inside. After a grueling battle in which Dante's life was narrowly saved by his mother's amulets and Goldstein's guns, he came out the victor and Gilver collapsed. As he disappeared, Dante witnessed something disturbing - he wore an amulet matching the one he wore around his own neck at all times. Not only that, as Gilver's armor and bandages fell away, Dante saw himself staring into a face akin to a mirror of himself. Gilver disappeared without answering his questions, but the half-breed soon figured it out on his own as he turned his amulet over. Gilver had been Vergil, the twin Dante had thought he'd lost long ago.
Eventually he was found and helped out by Enzo, and the rest became history as Dante healed up, moved out of Template to a new city and returned to business, finally realizing the dream of getting his own office, a business he called "Devil May Cry". He was a demon hunter on the side, intent on taking revenge for his mother's death so long ago. He buried everything that had been associated with Tony Redgrave, burying that part of his past and moving forward.
One boring night, a woman by the name of Trish came crashing into his shop - quite literally, flying through the window on a motorcycle. The two engaged in a brief scuffle meant to test Dante's strength before Trish hired Dante to help take out Mundus, but as she left Dante made an odd connection - Trish looked exactly like his long-lost mother, Eva. He doesn't let this stop him though, and the two head to Mallet Island, where Trish said Mundus will be appearing as he tears himself through the spiritual level onto the physical to wreak havoc. As they arrived at the island Trish left Dante to hike to the castle in the distance alone. Making his way through with little distraction by Marionettes, Sin Scissors, Sargassos, and collapsing bridges [as well as getting impaled by Alastor, the bitch], Dante eventually ran across a powerful lava spider demon by the name of Phantom. The two fought before Phantom escaped in defeat, and the devil hunter continued on.
It wasn't long before they met again, and Dante barely escaped from Phantom's rage into the courtyard of the castle. Presenting an item called the Pride of Lion to a lion statue before breaking it caused a Shadow to break free, which Dante quickly dealt with and moved on. Continuing to move through the castle, Dante eventually encountered Vergil again, adorned in the armor he fought in in the encounter in Bobby's Cellar. Vergil bade Dante to follow him to the castle's patio, and with no other options Dante obeyed. The two fought again, and Dante lost, but was once more saved by his mother's amulet as Vergil saw it and simply disappeared. Recovering his strength, Dante found he didn't have it for long as an item he had picked up, a sphere called the Melancholy Soul, activated and began draining his stamina. Rushing through the castle he inserted it into a door, stepping through the now open door. But he didn't find himself in the castle on Mallet Island.
Instead he was in a church with no explanation as to why.
Age: Unknown ; looks around in his late twenties [27-29?]
Gender: Male
Species: Half demon
Sexuality: Omnisexual as all hell.
Housing: Living with Trish.
Marked: Yes, with this cross on his back.
Appearance: Dante stands at a good six feet, shaggy silver-white hair falling into steely blue eyes and a handsome face often seen wearing a confident smile. His body is built for a perfect balance between speed and strength - the man's got muscle, but is still built lean enough to look like a professional track runner. He dresses to impress as much as he does simply just to be flashy - no matter what he wears, be it his usual outfit or simple casual clothes, the only colors he seems to dress in are red, black and silver.
Personality: Dante is calmer than he was as a kid, more level-headed when it comes to seeing and assessing situations. He can tell the difference between situations where it's better to fight and when it's better to run [though he often tends to ignore that anyway], and now can strategize better instead of rushing headlong into things without a clue or a plan. This doesn't mean he's any less cocky though, and is always willing to spew his overconfident banter in battle as he always is. He'll only do what he wants to do, no questions asked, and when his mind is set on yes or no it's extremely hard to get him to change it until the circumstances shift to either intrigue him or get people he personally cares for caught up. It makes him seem shallow, sometimes callous and cold, and often rather annoying. At least once he starts something, he doesn't let up until it's done.
Also, he is an extreme mama's boy, even if his mama is dead. Seriously. He never removes the amulet that remains as the last memento of his mother. Ever. Even when naked.
Abilities/Strengths: First off, Dante is extremely difficult to kill. I mean seriously. The man got impaled with a sword and pulled himself off of it with his spine miraculously intact. He might be just early impossible to kill, actually, but nobody knows for sure and he's not willing to push it to see. As well, any wound that doesn't kill him will eventually be naturally healed by his demon blood, no matter the gravity, and it'll heal faster than a normal human's wound would. Even if his cocky and confident attitude is mostly a cover, it's a cover that Dante retains quite well, and it takes a lot for him to break it.
As for weaponry, he has two swords and two guns with him. Force Edge is the sword his father left behind long ago, the sword that had told Dante to throw his name away. Alastor is a sword he found in the castle on Mallet Island, which, in a gory ritual to separate the weak from the strong, had impaled him. Thankfully it's just awesome enough to have along, as it has the power to control electricity as well as warn him about the arrival of powerful demons by sparking. Ebony and Ivory are two twin handguns, with "By .45 Caliber Warks - For Tony Redgrave" scrawled on them. They're Goldstein's last gifts to him, and unless he absolutely needs to, he never leaves these twin pistols behind. The Shotgun is just as it sounds like - a powerful double-barreled hunting shotgun that, at close range, likely has enough power to take a person's head off.
Weaknesses: Dante's extreme lack of physical weaknesses is counterbalanced by personality and mental flaws. Strip Dante of all his overconfidence and cockiness you'll find a man with extreme guilt issues, major family problems and a vendetta he'll always deny he carries out solely for revenge. Despite all the banter and witty one liners he can spew, Dante still has an unbecoming awkwardness about him, and it doesn't make him the best candidate for idle conversation most of the time. He also majorly fails in anything requiring subtlety - he doesn't really know the meaning of the word, since he loves to go in guns blazing and sword swinging rather than sneak around ninja style. In fact, he's a monthly subscriber to the idea that a sword swing can solve anything. If not a sword, then fists. If not fists, then guns. And if not guns? Alcohol. Diplomacy rates a very low last on his list.
History: Demons ruled the spiritual level. They thrived on ruling over and terrorizing the humans of the physical level, taking strength and ecstasy from their fear and taking the husks of the dead to continue their campaign.
That all changed when Sparda descended from the spiritual level to fight back against his demonic brethren for the sake of the humans. He locked away the spiritual level, locking away his power with it and saving the humans. He fell in love with a human woman named Eva, married her and had a family - two twin boys by the names of Dante and Vergil.
Happiness wouldn't last. The demons, fueled by rage and a burning need for vengeance against Sparda, weakened the seal enough to cross over and attack the family. Sparda left to try and protect Eva and the boys, but was hunted down and killed before the demons invaded the home. Eva hid Dante and Vergil and tried to make a stand against the force, but was slaughtered before the eyes of a young Dante as he trembled in his hiding place. Miraculously the demons left without noticing the boy, but Dante was left alone - his mother lay dead in a pool of her own blood, a sight Dante didn't comprehend, his father was gone and dead as well, and there was no trace of Vergil to be found. Crying as he clutched his mother's body, Dante spotted the last memento of his father, a great sword by the name of Force Edge. He became obsessed with it, as that and his mother's amulet were the only things that remained of his broken family.
And one day, Force Edge spoke to him.
Hide that name. Blind yourself to it and run away.
And so Dante became Tony Redgrave, who entirely forgot that he was ever Dante. A man who drifted and lived for the present, running from the past and seeing the future only as the next day that came with the rising sun. Eventually he blew into a city called Template, where everything would change. He became a mercenary, revolutionizing the business by advocating mercy, killing only who he needed to and putting to shame those that only lived for wanton destruction. He demolished entire mafia families and crime rings on his own, his strength and skill earning him a few admirers and many enemies. He rose to become the top dog of the mercs, the most requested for jobs by those looking for muscle to hire, and became known for his tendency to pick and choose jobs as he pleased, no matter the price. He gained a business partner and a friend in a man named Grue, and - rather on accident - a surrogate mother in an old firearms artist named Nell Goldstein. For a while he lived rather contentedly like this.
But Tony gained a hint of everything to come when he and Grue took on the job of protecting a mafia boss by the named of Fondo Brown, who was looking for bodyguards to help him escape the country. The caravan carrying him passed through enemy territory and was ambushed on the road. Tony and Grue went to work, knocking out a large number of the men in an impressive display of force that bought Brown time enough to call his own men into action. As gunfire erupted Tony and Grue ran to avoid the heat and only returned when the smoke had cleared and everyone was dead. But it didn't end there - the corpses rose back to life, and Tony was forced to take them out on his own as a petrified Grue could only stand and watch the spectacle. But finally the last of the demonic forces were gone, and pushing the incident to the back of their minds, Grue and Tony went back to Grue's place for dinner and a little relaxation.
But everything continued to take a turn for the supernatural. Tony was introduced to an odd man swathed in bandages a few days later, a man who went by the name of Gilver in Bobby's Cellar. The two squared off in a brief match with both fists and swords, before Bobby forced them to settle it with a drinking contest. Easily coming out on top [by drinking the rest of the keg of vodka down after Gilver passed out], Tony left the bar, stumbling his way back home. As he was walking the alley to the street he was attacked by demons, plus the animated corpse of a man named Denvers who had attempted to kill him ninety-nine times in life. After that he passed out, and woke up in the care of a woman named Kerry, who he quickly left alone in favor of going home to sleep until nightfall. He went to Bobby's Cellar after that and was confronted by Grue, asking about Denvers' body that had turned up wearing his coat and bearing a wound that matched Tony's sword. Tony had gained the unwanted attention of the Oz Club, a syndicate of former underworld members who participated in human hunts for bounties. Denvers had been a member, and so they were now gunning after the man who had seemed to kill him. Knowing the trouble he'd cause by staying around, Tony left Bobby's Cellar and managed to collect info on the Oz Club's last meeting place, aiming to surprise them by going on the offensive before they could strike.
He arrived at a bank in the upscale business district of Template, but something was wrong. The place stunk of death, and as he went higher into the bank his strength began to ebb, and the act of simply breathing became a chore. But still he fought his way through a slew of demons before Gilver showed up, and the two left the bank together. After a while Tony and Gilver became a highly requested duo on jobs, loved for their skill, but something was bugging Tony - the fact that Grue seemed to have gone missing.
He didn't stay that way for long. He appeared briefly before Tony to terminate their partnership officially, not acting like himself ; instead of the friend he knew, Grue was cold and distant, and eventually Tony figured out why. Grue had taken on an assassination job, something they both saw as low and disgusting. But still Tony told Grue to come back after he was finished ; that he had a mountain of jobs that he needed Grue's help with. After the brief and mainly silent conversation the two parted ways in sadness, neither knowing that it would bee the last time they'd see each other again.
Days passed and eventually Gilver became top dog, leaving Tony behind in the dust, his silent and merciless professionalism sparking the mercs back into their old ways of utter destruction. The matter wasn't at the forefront of Tony's mind very long however, as Enzo, an informant and middleman Tony tended to take his jobs from, told him that one of Grue's daughters, Jessica, had been hospitalized. Grilling him for more info, Tony eventually arrived at the location - a sanatorium outside of Template's limits. It held the same air the bank had, and as Tony fought his way through he figured out why. He was on the digital level, the nexus between the spiritual and the physical, and the demonic energies were taking a toll on his half human mind and body. He fought his way to the basement where he found Jessica trapped in the branch of a large demonic tree, her pain and anguish having become the source of the tree's life force as it grew and spread. The tree was a bridgehead between all three levels, and if it was allowed to grow it would allow the spiritual, digital and physical levels to combine and be overruled by the demons. Realizing there was no way to save Jessica, Tony killed her to end her pain and set fire to the sanatorium, destroying the tree in the dancing flames.
All of the events surrounding Tony, in the end, led to him being banned from Bobby's Cellar and gaining little to no work due to the superstitions surrounding him. He sought out Goldstein for sympathy and food, which she gave with her usual curt replies and cold banter, as well as a warning about Gilver. He was quickly dismissed by her after finishing his food, but Tony didn't get far from her shop before it was set ablaze and he was running back, hoping to save her from the choking flames.
But he found her sitting as calm as ever as the fire blazed around her, simply commanding Tony to finish the newest set of guns she had made for him - a twin set of pistols, one ebony and one ivory, built especially for him. She passed away soon after, and her death along with her gifts woke Tony up - as he slaughtered the demons among the flames with Goldstein's guns, he once more took up the name Dante. Walking away from the blazing shop, Dante allowed his feet to carry him to Bobby's Cellar, where he found Gilver, covered in black armor, waiting for him inside. After a grueling battle in which Dante's life was narrowly saved by his mother's amulets and Goldstein's guns, he came out the victor and Gilver collapsed. As he disappeared, Dante witnessed something disturbing - he wore an amulet matching the one he wore around his own neck at all times. Not only that, as Gilver's armor and bandages fell away, Dante saw himself staring into a face akin to a mirror of himself. Gilver disappeared without answering his questions, but the half-breed soon figured it out on his own as he turned his amulet over. Gilver had been Vergil, the twin Dante had thought he'd lost long ago.
Eventually he was found and helped out by Enzo, and the rest became history as Dante healed up, moved out of Template to a new city and returned to business, finally realizing the dream of getting his own office, a business he called "Devil May Cry". He was a demon hunter on the side, intent on taking revenge for his mother's death so long ago. He buried everything that had been associated with Tony Redgrave, burying that part of his past and moving forward.
One boring night, a woman by the name of Trish came crashing into his shop - quite literally, flying through the window on a motorcycle. The two engaged in a brief scuffle meant to test Dante's strength before Trish hired Dante to help take out Mundus, but as she left Dante made an odd connection - Trish looked exactly like his long-lost mother, Eva. He doesn't let this stop him though, and the two head to Mallet Island, where Trish said Mundus will be appearing as he tears himself through the spiritual level onto the physical to wreak havoc. As they arrived at the island Trish left Dante to hike to the castle in the distance alone. Making his way through with little distraction by Marionettes, Sin Scissors, Sargassos, and collapsing bridges [as well as getting impaled by Alastor, the bitch], Dante eventually ran across a powerful lava spider demon by the name of Phantom. The two fought before Phantom escaped in defeat, and the devil hunter continued on.
It wasn't long before they met again, and Dante barely escaped from Phantom's rage into the courtyard of the castle. Presenting an item called the Pride of Lion to a lion statue before breaking it caused a Shadow to break free, which Dante quickly dealt with and moved on. Continuing to move through the castle, Dante eventually encountered Vergil again, adorned in the armor he fought in in the encounter in Bobby's Cellar. Vergil bade Dante to follow him to the castle's patio, and with no other options Dante obeyed. The two fought again, and Dante lost, but was once more saved by his mother's amulet as Vergil saw it and simply disappeared. Recovering his strength, Dante found he didn't have it for long as an item he had picked up, a sphere called the Melancholy Soul, activated and began draining his stamina. Rushing through the castle he inserted it into a door, stepping through the now open door. But he didn't find himself in the castle on Mallet Island.
Instead he was in a church with no explanation as to why.