Wine and Dine

from /hhg/ - Hazbin Hotel #324
it's from the past thread
---------
I'll try but we're past the bump limit and on pg10 so I might not get it all here before the thread dies

I think it started with this:

Here's the thing about Alastor vs the average male serial killer. Most male serial killers are sexually motivated, I've heard 50-70% depending on what source you look at. Albert Fish, The Grim Sleeper, The Green River Killer, Citizen X, The Trashbag Killer, Jeffrey Dahmer, and more, were all motivated by twisted, warped sexualities born of a combination of bad nature and bad nurture. Alastor being asexual kicks the standard

>I was horribly abused and now I can't cum unless I'm killing

model out the door.

I do think that Alastor is insane, but it's not the standard issue

>Mommy beat me with a bible every morning and touched my privates every night so now I have to kill hookers and eat their livers

type of insanity, more the

>Cackling, grandiose, megalomaniac madman with absurd ambitions and no morals or inhibitions

type insanity. Supervillain insanity if you will.

Our idea of Alastor being an agent of Furfur is a little bit overly fanficcy at this point, but I DO think he's working under some sort of greater evil. Given that his lack of sexual desires takes him out of the standard mold for male serial killers who commit the most grotesque crimes, and that he also has an artificial accent characteristic of the wealthy socialites of the era, I think one anon's theory that he was a well-off eccentric and not an abused weirdo who snapped holds water. He was perhaps, part of some sort of early 20th century esoteric society, like you see in Lovecraftian fiction, who experimented with the occult and ended up going further than most of his peers in his pursuit of supernatural power. His killings were purely ritualistic in nature, as was the cannibalism. Hell, maybe he doesn't even like the taste of human flesh and he'd be happy eating a veggie diet, but he knew that eating his victims would have a major payoff in the end.
-
Alastor is much more like the romanticized serial killer (i.e. Hannibal Lecter or Jigsaw) than any real-world example. Though, "Lovecraftian-esque mad occultist" would be pretty fitting.
-
I think his accent may not be put on but genuine, as it was taught standard in New England during the 1880's to 1920's
I guessed since Al's human form looks so much like Milo Thatch that his dad came from New England and moved down south as a carpetbagger
Al's mother could've been descended directly from French aristocracy and would be incredibly wealthy
But I really like the idea that he's part of a secret Lovecraftian society, you took the words out of my own mouth with that
-
>Lovecraftian-esque mad occultist

I'm a fucking idiot for writing this sentence but not realizing it: Aleister Crowley. That's just making him a real-deal Aleister Crowley.
-
Eh Crowley was rather preoccupied with sex though. Weird, gross sex at that. Menstrual blood having supreme magical powers and the like.
-
Yeah Crowley was fucking weird but I don't see much distinction between magical menstrual blood and occult cannibalism power. I was just mentioning the coincidence.

I am now wishing this was a canon thing though. It would explain why he's so bullshithax powerful from the get-go. Either that or willful and self-indulgent sinners are just stronger than incidental ones.
-
This is a circuitous comparison, but go along for this ride with me

>Crowley's magic menstrual blood

Look into the "Source Family" cult led by ex-marine Jim Baker. They developed a ritual based on Crowley's teachings that involved numerous men all having sex with a menstruating woman and the resultant fluids being collected. The exact procedure remains unknown, it seems to be the only thing that ex cultists can't bear to describe to an outsider, but the ritual was referred to as a "feeding". Take from that what you will.

vs

>Whatever the cannibalistic practices of Alastor's fictional occultists society are

Cannibalism has been practiced by many cultures for many reasons. Some cultures believed that eating certain parts of a slain enemy, often the parts they believed were the seat of the soul, granted their strength to the consumer. Others practiced a non-violent form of funerary endocannibalism, believing that the act helped free their family member's spirit from the mortal world. Some especially superstitious people practiced cannibalism on those who were believed to have been victimized by an evil spirit, as a way of showing contempt for the entity that had attacked their friend.

Cannibalism can have a variety of supernatural ideas attached to it, but sex magic is sex magic.
-
>Cannibalism can have a variety of supernatural ideas attached to it, but sex magic is sex magic.

That's fair enough. Alastor may have been running around eating the hearts of virgins to become a wizard for all we know, but at least he wasn't making potions out of menstruation fluids.
-
or made a deal with a demon
-
Bloodborne shizz
>Hunter alastor
>Max insight
-
Smile with your eyes on the inside.
-
The broad premises/lore of Clive Barker's The Undying, Eternal Darkness, and that one game that's like Penumbra for sissies come to mind.

>Old, powerful eccentrics
>Big libraries full of "lost knowledge" and Necronomicon-like texts that "man was not meant to read"
>Curious people getting too wound up in their study of that shit and becoming unhinged

Maybe Alastor's father was an archaeologist fascinated with long dead civilizations, predating the bronze age collapse or the end of the Old Kingdom yet significantly less known, as though someone had deliberately tried to erase all trace of these people, and he dug up something he shouldn't have and brought it home.
-
Got to love rich old crazy bastards with too much time on their hands.
-
It's a brilliant premise for both interactive and non-interactive stories alike. Big, biiiiiiig old mansions give plenty of ground for the characters to explore whilst making it difficult to actually LEAVE the site of all the madness, plenty of places for secrets to be hidden, and more importantly, plenty of places for whatever horrors the unscrupulous occult experimenters have let in to be hiding.

I'd like to see some depiction of Alastor's studio, home, family estates, secret murder den, or whatever the fuck he had when he was alive where he did whatever hogwash he was up to that granted him OP powers upon death that are clearly associated with voodoo symbols
-
If you want to go that route, you have to give him an old Louisiana plantation. One that is probably haunted as fuck by now after all the shit that went on in it.

Personally I'm imagining the Ancestor and any other crazy black magic-practicing upper-crust bastards having their own secret society in Hell where they smoke cigars and read newspapers and play golf and do fucked up science experiments to other sinners for fun and curiosity's sake.
-

I believe this is all of it as far as discussion of the topic but there was also a greentext written that I'll find
-
>maybe he doesn't even like the taste of human flesh and he'd be happy eating a veggie diet, but he knew that eating his victims would have a major payoff

lmao

---

>Alastor poked at his...food
>He hadn't yet had a taste, and he wasn't looking forward to it

>The kill had been easy enough, the butchering a bit more difficult
>The eating though, seemed nigh impossible
>He'd studied those charts he'd gotten from the fellow at the meat market, and determined which portions of the human anatomy were closest in nature to the mildest cuts of the pig and cow
>Even so, he'd had to hold a rag over his face as he cooked to keep the smell from sickening him too badly

>His dining partner clearly didn't share his revulsion

>He looked up at the demon as they finished their second helping of his victim
>They were spectral, transient.
>A flash of dark, empty eye one moment, then a fiery glow from within the next.
>A hint of gnarled horn
>A glimpse of cloven hoof
>The glint of enormous, razor-like teeth

>They were not yet fully anchored to this reality, but present enough that they could feast if he provided them with suitable food
>And present enough that he knew they were giving him a dirty look as he avoided eating

>He smiled at them
>He knew from the texts that you should always smile at a demon
>They liked it
>Or maybe it frightened them
>In either case the ancients reported that it was the most reliable way of keeping a wicked spirit from turning on you

>"Something wrong, Chef? Don't you like your own recipe?"

>The demon spoke with a voice like sliding gravel, but he could still hear the sarcasm

>"I don't suppose there's any way I could complete this ritual with a bit of maque choux or crawfish pie?"

>The demon gave a chuckle that that brought to mind the screams of a sanitarium, folded in upon themselves a hundred times

>"None"

>Alastor steeled himself and forced a forkful of human flesh into his mouth before his revulsion could get the better of him
-
>Alastor grimaced as his teeth cut through the meat and the flavor coated his tongue
>He'd adapted a recipe his mother had shown him for this event, but that simply wasn't enough to make the grotesque chunk of flesh palatable
>He pounded on the table with his fist to help muscle through his gag reflex while the demon watched in amusement

>He swallowed, then lunged for his glass of water
>Rinsing his mouth, he could hear a rather disingenuous clapping, though the demon didn't appear to actually be moving

>"Bravo, sir"

>He took another drink to wash the last of the taste out of his mouth before he replied
>He was terse and direct

>"How much of this do I have to eat?"

>The demon laughed again
>The sound would have driven him mad if he weren't already so

>"More than that. Much more."

>Alastor groaned

>"Get me the mustard."
>"And the bottle of Trappey's."
>"And the remoulade."
>"And the cane syrup while you're at it."

>"If you expect me to eat this I'm going to have to drown it."

>The demon rose from its seat without moving the chair

>"Gladly"

>The assortment of condiments came floating back to the table, whisps of claw and bony knuckle dancing around them

>"This had better be worth it."

>A jagged smile appeared before him
>More distinct than anything he'd seen since he'd first summoned the beast
>And much closer

>"It will be"

>"I assure you"

>"It will be"

>"Now eat"

-

I think that should do it
----
other stuff (which it start it of the anon re-posting this.)
----
https://twitter.com/lena_vickx/status/1265246915878432768
-
The notion of Alastor's shadow being a semi-seperate entity onto which he's offloaded thoughts and emotions he doesn't want to deal with is actually pretty neat.
-
>The notion of Alastor's shadow being a semi-seperate entity onto which he's offloaded thoughts and emotions he doesn't want to deal with is actually pretty neat.

I want to see someone make a green text ideas of that
-
Tying in with our discussion from last thread about how Alastor doesn't fit the typical models of a serial killer and him being a mad occultist, the shadow would work in that context too. At some point he found a supernatural means of shunting any thoughts or desires that didn't fit into his more grandiose schemes onto an entity he fabricated. The entity has assumed all the parts of his mind that would get in the way of becoming a powerful monster, but its still anchored to him, whispering in his ear about how he should stop with all the murder and mayhem and go snuggle with someone.
-
that sound cool, can someone Repost that so I can save it?
--------------
Groovy.

So anyway, in the context of Alastor being an occult-experimenter, with tangible profit associated with his killings rather than a sick form of lust, it would make sense for him to shed the "softer" parts of his personality, the ones telling him he shouldn't be doing all this stuff, so he can get on with his diabolical plans.

Like Golem in LOTR, the internal conflict of a single individual reaches the point of being two different people struggling for the same body. So at some point one of them uses some supernatural means to kick the other out, leaving them as little more than a familiar.