Leon "Vergil" Kennedy (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
inventorytetris) wrote2019-04-06 02:31 am
inventorytetris) wrote2019-04-06 02:31 am
Info/Traits/etc.
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Leon tends to be a huge sap when it comes to people he considers family. He's the type to be perfectly fine with random hugs from people walking behind his chair or admitting to someone that they were missed, which is somewhat hilarious considering who he used to be and who his son is. To Leon, however, family is something he doesn't have much of. He considers the Kennedys as much of his family as Dante or Nero, but in both cases, he has very few memories and most of them are being made anew. Because of that, he feels like he's missed on a lot of what someone should have when it comes to bonding and love, and whether it's that alone or the past loneliness staying with him, Leon craves that sort of affection.
Leon, however, still has some shades of Vergil in him. He's still fond of William Blake's poetry, and poetry in general, though he does make self-deprecating cracks about enjoying depressing or pretentious stuff. He also feels more comfortable with blades than guns, though he never figured that out until he met Dante -- knives didn't quite trigger that feeling for him.
As well, he can be somewhat competitive with Dante, though it's generally a type of competitive that's in good faith rather than anything actually harmful to each other. The two of them have a habit of comparing demon kills in missions dealing with them, started by none other than Dante himself.
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β Leon is immensely skilled with blades of most any kind. While his main strength and skill comes from thinner swords (similar to, but not necessarily exactly, a katana), he's still good with longer or thicker swords, and even tends to be unnervingly skilled with things like pocket knives and switchblades. He'll always prefer a katana-style sword if given the choice, but he's long since learned to make do with what he's got. He does tend to have a habit of playing with his knife or switchblade idly if he's bored.
β His skill with swords does not mean he has no skill with firearms, however. While he does feel more comfortable with blades, his training and practice didn't go to waste, and he's one of the most skilled marksman there is. He's especially practiced with them because, if given the option, he prefers to go with a firearm over a sword; originally it was because he didn't know of his skill, now it's because it looks more human and normal, which is a distinction rather important in his line of work.
β He does help Dante fight demons despite his "human job"; while what he does is important, it also does give him the leverage to pull free time when he needs it, and if Dante needs help, he's willing to offer it. When working with more demonic missions, Leon shifts to a way of fighting similar to Dante's, mixing his firearms and melee weapons to gain a more unique combat style. Unlike Dante, however, he doesn't gain nor make use of multiple Devil Arms; instead, he sticks to what he already has. Mechanics-wise, he leans towards Dante (a variety of weapons with a variety of effects) with Nero mixed in (set weapons and no styles to change how he fights).
β When on demon missions, Leon goes by his original name (Vergil). This is partly because he wants to connect to some part of his past (as not all of it was evil), and partly because he feels it'd be better not to associate his human name in a way that would let the demons chase after him. It's also why he tends to dye his hair when working on his job's missions or anything in the public eye (leading many to think his natural hair color is that sandy blonde), removing the dye or not redying it whenever a demonic mission is lined up. He also tends to wear somewhat different clothes when working on demonic jobs, replacing his military-grade jacket with a furry one akin to what he used in the Plagas incident. He does, however, carefully avoid dressing like his past self used to.
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Leon, being used to scavenging and taking what he can use during a job or mission, has a wide variety of weapons he's either owned, still owns, or used for a time here and there. Nearly anything he can use a weapon he'll do his best to use, and his gun closet at home has quite a few from his shopping or what he's recovered.
While his overall load-out varies widely depending on what the mission is, how long he was able to prepare, and whether or not he was caught by surprise, there are always a few things Leon keeps on him and uses consistently.
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A pistol that Leon acquired during the Las Plagas incident and has kept with him ever since then, replacing his usual handgun so he can have a bit more firepower. Despite being found in such a place, it's a standard-issue handgun and as such gives Leon very little trouble when using it. It fires fast and has a significant amount of firepower. Originally, it was easy to reload and had a large magazine, but Dante modifying the gun to run off Leon's demonic energy (similar to Dante's own Ebony & Ivory) made both of those things nonexistent -- and unnecessary. Leon used to carry this gun on his left side, where he once carried Yamato when he was younger, especially since the gun required both hands to steady. With Yamato back in his care, the gun is instead on his right side now, off to the back a little. |
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A sword that acts as Leon's "main weapon" when he can fight freely, and the weapon that is, beyond every other thing he uses, his sword. The Yamato was given to him after a deal with Nero and is something Leon carries with him at all times, either quietly fused into himself or openly on his hip, depending on what sort of mission he's on. While he tries to refrain from using it on human missions, his comfort with it means he does sometimes sneak it out if he's alone or in dire need. Yamato's abnormal sharpness means that, even when being used as just a sword, Leon can get an immense amount of mileage from it. While it's most often used to cut demons or snap ropes (in human jobs), he has been known to use it to cut open his own way into -- or out of -- troublesome places. Dante still doesn't know why he cried with glee when he found out he could just slice through doors or pathways with it. | |
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Also found during the Las Plagas incident, the Broken Butterfly is one of Leon's favored guns. While it did require a lot of work and effort on his part, it shows immensely -- Leon's personal version of this gun is incredibly dangerous, packing a terrifying level of firepower even if the firing rate is lower than his basic pistol. Given the choice, Leon would most often make use of the Broken Butterfly, but having a magnum as a basic gun would be too suspicious, especially considering regular ammo troubles for it. Like the Blacktail, Leon's version of this gun is modified to run off his own power, sacrificing a small bit of its power in order to remove the need for reloading and ammo altogether. It's another reason he uses it sparingly with other people around and mimes reloading it every so often. |
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While Leon is not much of a brawler, Beowulf allows him to at least fight as one well. Originally being somewhat wary of the Devil Arm, once he actually got his hands on it and practiced with it, he found it immensely familiar and was able to pick up his old skill with it quickly. He still finds it a little odd, but to say it isn't fun and that he isn't capable with it would be a lie. The light that Beowulf emits regularly is also helpful for navigating in pitch-black areas, though Leon does feel a little more animalistic when using them for a reason he's not too sure on. Unlike Dante, he doesn't need to charge at all: he can bring out the full force of each strike straight out, making him a lot more deadly, though he is slightly less agile than Dante in return. | |
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When Dante took down the mind-controlled Vergil in 1, Vergil didn't actually die. Instead, the force of the energies in the fight tore him up, but didn't shred him. Though Dante thought he was ripped to pieces, instead, the volatile energies in the area simply threw Vergil "out", leaving him to the mercy of space and time. When he finally did reappear, it was in the human world -- bloody, wounded, and bare, without much of anything to his name physically or mentally.
After a fairly short amount of time, he finally came into contact with humans: specifically, a family known as the Kennedys found him soaking their backyard in blood. He was quickly taken in, though by this time, his demonic heritage (weakened by his manipulation and shattering) had finally managed to heal the wounds, leaving them confused as to the source of the blood. Vergil couldn't tell them himself, either, unable to even speak to them in his state.
Unwilling to just leave him in that state, the Kennedys did what they could to get him help, and over the next year or so, Vergil's mind was rebuilt, though he had to relearn nearly everything from speech to simple common sense. During this time, he began going by the name "Leon" (suggested by one of those helping him), as he couldn't remember his actual name; eventually, this was expanded to "Leon Scott Kennedy" when the family that originally found him adopted him.
For the next decade and a bit, Leon lived as a human, thinking he actually was one. His rapid healing was strange, but something he never actually told anyone else about, simply playing it off as being lucky enough to dodge any sort of really bad injuries and being a fast healer otherwise. (His family did know, but said nothing, not feeling it was their place.) Eventually, he barely needed to justify anything -- the Raccoon City incident, and then the incident with the President's daughter, gave him a massive reputation as being able to survive through anything.
The Las Plagas incident was one that would start a chain reaction that would haunt him, however. During his time attempting to save Ashley, he unintentionally unsealed part of his power while under duress and badly hurt, forcing him into Devil Trigger mode. Unfortunately, because of his lack of memories and how long it was sealed, he went briefly insane in it, tearing apart everything nearby -- which, luckily, was only a lot of forest and Plagas. After that point, he was able to willingly trigger it, and he could keep enough control to tell friend from foe (protecting and avoiding hurting Ashley), but he was still mostly feral while using it. Even so, it helped him to get them both out alive, and Ashley swore to never tell anyone about it. (Taking pictures, on the other hand, she neither promised against nor refrained from doing, leading to a years-long game of "Goddammit, Ashley, I thought I confiscated all of the negatives, how many backups of this do you have?")
The Devil Trigger was not the only side-effect of that unleashing. Leon began to have confusing and chaotic dreams of places he couldn't see clearly or remember, with emotions he couldn't place at all. The most distinct dream was of what Leon thought was a church, with stained glass window and very dim lighting. Somehow, he couldn't fully recall the inside of it, just broken furniture, but the stained glass itself always stood out very distinctly to him. He eventually began to draw it after each dream -- initially a poor drawing, unrecognizable, until repetition and practice finally allowed him to draw it so perfectly that it appeared to be identical to the real thing, as if he'd taken a photograph. Once he had a reference of that clear and detailed, Leon began passing copies of it around to see if anyone had ever heard of it -- unfortunately, no matter how long he looked or hard he tried, nothing came of his searches.
He'd given up on ever figuring it out by the time he was called in for a very special job. Like the Las Plagas, something very wrong was going on, and no one was really sure what was happening or why. However, when the government had put out a bounty for information, they had a bite very quickly and wanted Leon to work with him and try to piece together what he could. The man -- introducing himself all too casually as Dante -- had been provided a phone to keep in contact with Leon as accurately as possible, allowing him to actually investigate the strange island while keeping in contact with him. The two of them got along quite well (with one of the others helping them joking it was because they were clearly long-lost twins) and, as Leon found out, Dante seemed to know a lot about what was going on. Despite the very welcome and very useful help, Leon felt that Dante was still hiding something, only ever using his own terms back to him and refusing to expand on things -- not to mention the surprise Dante sometimes seemed to show whenever he confirmed being able to handle the odd creatures. He could never fully trust Dante because of that, sometimes jabbing him "jokingly" about sounding like a cryptic old man, but it never got him any more answers.
Eventually, Leon's own experience and Dante's advice made it clear that Leon couldn't handle it on his own. With some cajoling -- both from Leon's own coworkers and Dante's agent -- the man finally agreed to come and assist Leon in person. While Leon was happy to have some help, he was also very on edge: most of the things he had to handle had drawn out that uncontrollable side of him, and he wasn't exactly sure how it was going to work with someone they couldn't trust to stay silent. Unfortunately, they didn't have the time to find another solution, and Dante was quickly flown out to meet with Leon in one of their outposts.
Their first meeting face to face went... interesting. One of the lower-ranked soldiers initially mistook Dante for Leon and shoved sensitive intel into his hands, another trying to drag him off and further delaying him before Cunningham found him and dragged him to where Leon was waiting. Her shock, and the mistaken identity, became clear once they met, as both Leon and Dante were briefly stunned at each other's identical looks. Leon recovered first, holding out his hand and beginning to properly introduce himself, but he was cut off when Dante got into his personal space and forcibly slicked his hair back. He, and the others, just sort of stared at Dante for a moment in uncomfortable, tense silence before Leon coughed and casually made a joke about being felt up, trying to defuse whatever the hell had just happened. Their relationship turned tense for a bit after that despite Dante acting cheery again, especially after Leon mentioned he felt uncomfortable with his hair up after being pressed as to why he pushed it back down. By the end of the mission, however, things were mostly back to normal, with Leon wondering what had bothered him since whatever it was seemed to have passed out of Dante's mind for the moment.
While the job was tough, especially once the lab with the strange creatures had been found, Leon was able to manage it without revealing his other half -- though the fact that Dante both clearly knew what was happening and healed as rapidly as him was noted. Leon's own healing had almost been revealed as well, but luckily, a demonstration of the First Aid Spray prevented that. Dante paid, they parted ways, Leon giving a pleasant goodbye even though he felt strangely odd about it -- and odder about how pleasant it had felt to fight beside Dante's side, as if he'd been working with a partner he had known for a long time.
Another couple of months passed before their paths would cross again, and this time, with much more impact.
Feeling emboldened by some recent luck and exhausted by the dreams -- now resurging even more after his time with Dante -- he once again began to pull strings to find someone, anyone, who could tell him what the picture was of and hopefully make sense of the other blurry memories he couldn't quite put to paper. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to spend much time on it, as a terrorist cell kidnapped Ashley while he was trying to arrange things and made vague threats not just to her, but to "revealing the USA's worst secret"; something Leon soon realized was referring to the images that Ashley had on him in his Devil Triggered form. Without much time to waste without risking being exposed, he quickly rushed off ahead of his orders and plans, finding the run-down ruins where the cell had apparently taken up residence. Much to his deep discomfort, he found the place mostly empty with just smears and pools of blood to mark that some fighting had happened -- and, to his even deeper unease, what looked like either claw marks or sword marks.
When he was finally able to gain access to the headquarters under the ruins, deleting what copies of the images of his transformed state he could find as he went, he ran into a handful of the same creatures that he had fought on his mission with Dante -- stragglers of whatever killed the rest, he'd eventually figured out. And that "whatever" turned out to be Dante himself, sitting on a desk in the main office and with an unharmed, but shaken up, Ashley with him. What Leon had intended to be a relieved, quick chat and a run off shattered when he realized what it was that Dante had on him: a folder of those transformed-him pictures, the very thing he was trying to delete. The casual talk turned tense, with Leon insisting on being given the files and Dante revealing any more he found and Dante, of course, refusing to do either such thing -- and, just to be a jerk, holding the file up above his head out of Leon's reach unless he got up on the table.
Unnerved by the threatening atmsophere and trying to think of any way to break it, Ashley blurted out -- at top volume -- that Dante was like Leon and she had seen him turn into the same thing, just very red. The attitude in the room shifted almost immediately, with Leon snapping Ashley's name at her in alarm and Dante freezing in place briefly. Dante himself was the first one to break the silence, a deep tenseness returning with the threatening aura despite his casual smile -- one that didn't at all meet his eyes.
"So this is you?"
Something about the words chilled Leon to the bone, but having seen Dante in action, he knew this was simply not something they were going to be able to dodge -- one way or the other, Dante would force the answer out. Thinking fast, he stepped back from the table, then held out his hand, requesting the files again -- and speaking over Dante when he tried to refuse, saying that if Dante would return them and help him get Ashley to safety, he would willingly go with Dante to wherever he wanted and answer whatever questions he had. Ashley, frightened by the aura, tried to protest but was firmly and strictly shushed by Leon, who had lost all semblance of cheer and was completely serious. The seriousness was mostly to mask his unease and fear at being found out, though the look in Dante's eyes at seeing the firmness chilled him deeper than the words had. Enough that he genuinely felt that Dante was going to refuse, or worse.
But then Dante stepped off the table and offered them to him. They were yanked away when Leon tried to take them at first, his own eyes narrowing, but once Dante plopped them into his hand, he figured out he was just being toyed with and relaxed. A little.
The next few hours went by in a blur for Leon. Dante had turned helpful, assisting him in scouring the rest of the headquarters, deleting what they could find, getting the innocent humans out and making sure to restrain the ones that were part of the terrorist cell. When he'd mused over trying to fry the computers to make it look like an accident and cover up the data loss -- because he didn't trust Dante not to have copies somewhere and because he had downloaded the relevant data for the military, meaning only his own secret would be lost -- Dante cheerfully offered to call one of his friends. Leon's confusion turned to genuine worry at the words "electric hurricane", but having few options, he lent his cell phone at the command to let Dante call. While Dante did that, he busied himself getting everyone outside, only turning his focus when Dante called out to him to return his phone.
His hands were on it before it registered that, though he had responded to the call instinctively, the name Dante had used was not his own and Dante was giving him that spine-chilling look again.
Dante said no more about it for the moment, however, leaving Leon uneasy as they waited. Dante's friend came first, some strange woman that -- much to Leon's confusion and horror -- seemed to actively generate lightning from her body. Thankfully for him, she left as quickly as she came, talking mostly to Dante and leaving him to keep an eye on the humans, and the military appeared fairly quickly once she vanished. Leon pulled aside the commander that appeared, giving him the downloaded data and a run-down of what happened -- included Dante's "necessary and timely assistance" when he was called and the "unfortunate electric accident". He also requested that they take Ashley to make sure she was safe, because he and Dante suspected there might be more that fled nearby and they wanted to make sure, promising to call them if anyone was found and give a thorough report.
And with the military fully distracted, the pit of dread in Leon's stomach came right back once he told Dante to lead them on. It was almost funny to him, in a way -- Dante was no taller than him, generally pleasant, and had charmed half his workers, and yet, he felt more afraid of this man than any zombie, parasite, or creature he had ever come across.
His fears didn't get lessened as Dante led him into the forest -- deep enough that all sounds had been swallowed and no one would hear them if worst came to worst. He'd begun thinking Ashley had been right when Dante spoke, his cheerful tone marred by what Leon could only describe as a snarl as Dante began to accuse him of things. Fooling him... acting classes... even being dead.
Leon was completely baffled barely a few words in, setting his back straight and resting his hand on his hip where his pistol was concealed as casually as he could. Before he could try to defend himself, Dante barreled on, accusing him of looking for something Dante didn't have. Leon half-thought he was expecting a snap in response, but the only one he could give was much different.
"What the hell is a Yamato?"
He didn't expect all of that anger, that animated gesturing and moving Dante was doing, to stop anywhere remotely as dead as it did. It was almost comedic and he might have laughed if he didn't feel like he was in so much danger... though he couldn't entirely repress the partial grin, half out of disbelief at how strange this is and half out of nerves drawing out his usual coping through humor. Dante's snapping only got briefly worse once he recovered, insisting that Leon knew what he meant, but Leon countered with the same response -- he has no idea what the Yamato is, nor why it is that Dante thinks he would know about it, much less want it. Finally, frustrated, he attempted to make guesses at what Yamato was -- A brand? Armor? A vehicle? It was only once he asked if it was a gun that something seemed to finally pierce Dante's stubborn head. The threatening aura dimmed, even if it didn't dissipate, with Leon stubbornly insisting that he had no idea what Dante was talking about.
And anyway... didn't Dante drag him out to ask questions? Where were the questions that Dante wanted? All he'd flung is accusations, and -- as Leon irritably pointed out -- those weren't things he could properly address when what Dante was accusing was outright absurd.
Dante at least seemed to calm down some after that, finally allowing them to have a proper conversation. Not that it felt like it went anywhere -- Leon felt just as confused, and Dante seemed to be just as uneasy despite his humor. It was only once he reached back into his pocket and touched the picture he'd haphazardly shoved there that an idea occurred to him. He pulled out and smoothed out the copied drawing, looking at it intensely, then handed it over to Dante, telling him that it was the one thing he had solid of his past -- a vision he saw in his dreams.
As Dante examined it, he explained about his past -- how he had woken up, the time it took to reconstruct his mind, that he didn't even understand what words meant when he was first found. The more he talked, the more something seemed to dawn on Dante, and when Leon finished, silence settled in between them.
And then it was Dante's turn. He explained, slowly, about his twin brother, who Leon must be. Some things about their past. About "Vergil", their separation. Their heritage. Leon could hardly believe what he was hearing. Demons? A demon realm? An ancient "dark knight"? And yet, though the more he spoke the more fantastical it became, Leon found he couldn't doubt a single word of it. Somehow... every last bit rang true, even if he knew Dante still wasn't telling him everything. But true as it was, it made something weigh on him.
"...What the hell am I?"
"A half-demon."
The words hung like a fog in the air and Leon was back against the tree before he even realized he'd moved. It is true. He knew that, somehow, instinctively, deep down. And yet... how could he process something like this? Questions swirled in his head, but he couldn't find the voice to ask even a one of them. The sound of scratching broke the silence first, Leon snapping his head to Dante to see that he was writing something -- something that got shoved into his hands. He looked at the paper for a moment, noticing that it was an address, before his attention got pulled to Dante again as the man started to walk away. Come to the address if he wanted to learn... and if he didn't, don't, and Vergil would stay dead.
Leon, still overwhelmed, was unable to response, leaving him alone in the forest. For what felt like hours, in fact, before he finally managed to shove the paper into his pocket, heading back to give his report and stumble back home as quick as he could.
A couple of days of sleep did little to calm him, even without work; too many things were swirling in his head. Enough things that they, themselves, made the decision for him, and as Leon looked at the paper again, he felt more firm in it.
He was going to find out what he could... and if Dante truly was another family, find out if there was anything there he could salvage.