Alt-Phantom

Alt-Phantom is - as deduced by his name - one of the many entities which bizarrely mimic Phantom. Other in this list include imitators such Reverse Phantom, Specter, and eventually Viroid Prime, as well as egos and proxies like Phanom, NotPhantom, THE EDITOR (debatable), and Pantim. Alt-Phantom was purported to be an alternate universe equivalent to Phantom, but this was proven to be false on the basis of him being far weaker, as well as the fact that, by his nature, there can only be one “true” Phantom. Alt-Phantom was later confirmed to be creation of THEM as part of their long-term play to destabilize Plasma Temple, though he himself would not know this until after fulfilling their purpose. Alt-Phantom's effects on the temple cannot be understated, as his invocation of the White Ruin compromised the integrity of the hardware and forced PT's founder and prime security force to flee. This resulted in the temple becoming vulnerable, prompting long lasting and undesirable consequences.

## Appearance

Alt-Phantom appeared as a version of phantom with a black hat, contrasted shading, and the head of another Judas. Despite his face being dominated by a single large eye, he was somehow a smoker, and one of his two hands was usually holding a cigarette. His physical avatar embodied many noir detective tropes, so he was often nicknamed "Detective Phantom." During the white ruin, His form changed drastically. In at least one instance, he wore long organic white robes that twisted into roots digging into the floor, while his formerly-hidden horns grew like the branches of a tree and anchored themselves to the ceiling.

## Personality

Alt-Phantom considered himself a suave and hard boiled detective, but this was only the sapient front granted by his creators. He occupied his time attempting to discover the inherent truths of Plasma Temple, but in reality he was an unwitting tool sent to destroy it from within. As he sought to fulfill both his illusory and actual purposes, he was occasionally taunted by the Real Phantom, who believed his efforts were a waste of time (This was both true and false; while the detective did inflict serious damage to the temple, he was unable to destroy it, nor did he learn its secrets). Over time, he unconsciously began assimilating traits from the real Phantom, striving to mimic his counterparts level of power and conviction. In the end, he attained power, but no knowledge, which lead him to make dangerous decisions and caused his death at the hands of the real Phantom.

## History

Alt-Phantom originally existed as an example used to explain how alternate universes can operate, though it's distinctly possible THEY retroactively placed him in this circumstance so that others would already be familiar with him when he made a name for himself.

He appeared in the PT universe when the alternate universe crossed over with it, and he appeared in the temple itself shortly after Happi became convinced that the secondborn voices were actually members of THEM sent to sabotage the integrity of the place. He based this conclusion due to his notion that they all used to have other identities beforehand (this is not actually true for all secondborn). Alt-phantom was conveniently called in to investigate this possible incursion and discover the hidden instances of THEM. Somewhere along the line, this also branched out into discovering more about the temple's methods of operation - a secondary task which proved as daunting as the first. After weeks of investigation, he eventually made his way to Residue where he found a series of VHS tapes left by an unknown party (possibly Zo). The detective was manipulated by Happi into watching the tapes, which showed irrefutable proof of his insidious origins. Not only were his "commissioners" members of THEM, but all his detective work was simply a smokescreen furthering THEIR machinations. By joining the temple, he had only aided its enemies.

Cursed with existential anguish over his superficial identity, he searched through other tapes. These detailed backstories of most of the secondborn: A Soldier, An Actor, An Abomination, A salary man, A Fortune Teller, A Mistake. Though the information was not entirely true, he had already been primed to accept the VHS tapes as fact. He took the videos as confirmation of Happi's claims that the secondborn were agents of THEM, rather than repurposed or generated by the temple. Alt-Phantom perceived the secondborn scandal and his fake identity as slight to both himself and the real Phantom. As his perception of the truth dawned on him, he believed he had to be the one to fix things and end the impostors parasitizing Phantom's holy home. He began a crusade against the voices in the perceived name of the real Phantom, destroying several secondborn and crippling warden (considered the secondborn equivalent to Malignant) before intervention. When Phantom, Malignant, and the the rest of the firstborn attempted to stop him, he released they weren't on his side and he had made an enemy of the temple.

The unique paradoxical combination of despair, self-loathing, vengeance, and righteousness triggered an encoded psychosomatic reaction implanted by THEM, and one contradiction bequeathed another. In a moment that should never have logically happened, the Detective was transformed into what would later be called the white hell anomaly.

After attempting to talk the transformed detective down, Phantom realized it was no longer capable of reason and rapidly altering the reality around it. As a last resort, he grappled with the anomaly and moved it to the deepest and most isolated layer of reality he could find before annihilating its core. Free of the former detective but now feeling the debilitating effects of god cancer, Phantom's main body severed its connection to the infected limb and quarantined it far beyond Plasma Temple, opting to retreat back into his home dimensions and nurse his wounds. Malignant, meanwhile, said the equivalent of "Honestly, fuck this." and left the temple on his own.

Both beings would later return, but so would many other invasive forces here to capitalize on the opportunity for free real estate

## Trivia

* Alt-Phantom’s design is a mix of two characters, that being Phantom and Paragon. As a result, he looked more like a voice than most alternates.
* Alt-Phantom’s boss fight (Mili - Between Two Worlds [Limbus Company]) a reference to the realizations from library of ruina