Doppelcat.

“Is that what you think?” He laughs at Albion, trying to hold back some bitter contempt. “You’re not very good at finding your own style.” Doppel would of course, use such a thing against the other, since Dante was the one who told Doppel to ‘find his own style’. “Vergil likes red just fine. He likes Dante. He likes blood. You aren’t really that stupid, are you?”

Dante wrinkles his nose, “Are you talking about me or Little Boy Blue? That could go either way.” He gives Doppel a playful little shove. “You can’t seem to keep your hands off me, pal.”

“Uh….you’re a weird one, aren’t you? I never thought you’d like sloppy seconds,” Dante smirks,  “So, what’s the only good invention? Don’t leave me in suspense.”

The shadows are long and distorted this evening. Lights from the stadium. City lights. Neon signs. Street lamps. This one definitely did not live in a quiet place. Perhaps that’s why he worked in a quiet place. A library. Yet perhaps all the same he could not stand the dreaded loneliness of quiet.

Doppel could say he understood that.

Being alone, being in total darkness... it was not pleasant. 

Why send him? Doppel wonders and wonders. He supposes that The Master thinks he will be able to stalk without problems, but the truth is, he doesn’t know this man... He does not know where he is, or where he goes, merely where the phone calls come from. So Doppel came to the house, and found it empty, so he walked around, and waited.

He had moved a couple things.

When a noise starts, Doppel doesn’t think very fast, and slides under the bed, staring from underneath. He glances around. The pantry door is open, the underwear drawer (he had promised to bring one back for The Master), and the window was open, as he looked to see where he was. Of course... of course this one would know someone was here.

He tried to think. Think and think... how to escape. Just slip out of the shadows? He pushes out from under the bed, only to catch that one standing with a knife, and he shivers, panics, remembers the feel of a blade inside a core. Think -- think.

...

A small black cat steps out from under Vergil’s bed.

Stupid.

Of course that wouldn’t work! How would the cat open the drawer, or the pantry, let alone the window? 

“Hey, pizza isn’t junk food, okay? It’s the human world’s most amazing invention. With strawberry sundaes and beer. Haven’t you indulged in human food?” 

“Well, gorgeous, I guess that depends on what I’m doing with my mouth instead.”

“Is there a man more handsome? Of course you’d want to be me.” 

🍐  :    how intelligent is my muse overall?  are they smarter than the average person,  or less than?  are they primarily self-taught,  or did they acquire most of their knowledge in school?  are they more street smart or book smart?  

Perfect memory doesn’t lend him to perfect understanding. While he knows how to copy Dante’s fighting moves exactly, he doesn’t necessarily know how to use them. I think he would consider himself smarter and more superior than the average person, but he is a bit different. His lack of really being able to judge things on his own, as well as his animalistic tendencies, make it obvious what he really is: a primitive animal, surviving in a suit of human skin.

Doppelgangers learn by instinct, and Doppel was no different. He watches, and waits, listening, learning, thinking... just trying to find the time to strike.

The truth is, they are overwhelmingly weak. No muscles, not really able to maintain a large mass without a lot of food, and they are just a pile of blood and nerves given the ability to roll around like a slug. So being smarter than MOST demons of their stature is important to survival.

Everything is self taught. There is no doppelganger school, instinct also plays a big role, but everything Doppel knows, Doppel would say he learned from his host, Dante, or other masters that he has had over the years, although he will usually just say Dante.