Schuldig (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
volksdaemon) wrote2016-09-10 12:41 pm
volksdaemon) wrote2016-09-10 12:41 pm
Entry tags:
App for The Far Shore
Player Information
Name: Frudence
Contact:![[plurk.com profile]](https://plurk.com/favicon.ico)
frudence | iblamejen@gmail.com
Age: 30
Other Characters: n/a
Character Information
Name: Schuldig, pronounced Shu-ru-dee-hee by the Japanese characters - i.e. not "dig" at the end, just a soft -dɪχ (Schwarz Codename: Mastermind)
Canon: Weiß Kreuz
Canon Point: End of Glühen minus that godawful redesign. Call it going back into his closet, pulling out the old wardrobe, and tossing the L'Oreal into the trash. Whether he lived or died through that explosion in canon (hey, he's had worse), he makes it to the game. Not like Weiss noticed a difference in canon anyway
Age: 26, since he's from Gluhen which is 4 years after the series.
History: http://volksdaemon.dreamwidth.org/990.html
Personality:
Due to being a non-native speaker of Japanese - and it's probably at least his 3rd language anyway after German and then English - his speech pattern comes out very nasally and informally clipped. On the other hand, due to being a sociopath, being informal could be one of several layers he presents to others at any given time.
The most superficial layer is an unflappable, confident young man. He can appear very charming and helpful to those he thinks are useful now or might be later. Even civilians will pick up on how attentive he is to small details, or how good his hearing is as he catches the edges of conversation; this isn't necessarily true, it's just him using his powers and civilians interpreting it in non-supernatural ways.
However, when in the presence of other psychics or people aware of the Supernatural, he will get a bit more sassy and confrontational - especially if someone is smart enough to catch him in the act. He'll goad them on about thinking they're so smart, for starters, because that's a way to be dismissive of someone who's built up their ego. In particular, while he still exudes confidence in his own abilities, he has no problems backing out of a fight in order to preserve his own life. He is not a skirmisher; he relies on using other people as meat shields, pitting opponents against each other, psychologically diminishing opponents' willpower through his powers or his words alone, and other tactics reserved for someone who genuinely does not care that much about humanity as a whole. They are a sub-class of humans to him, the lot of them, not unlike how White Supremacists see non-Aryans. He does not, in reality, ever try to be decent, or caring, or moral - when he's bored he'll tease fellow Schwarz members, and prefers their company to that of regular humans, but it's not exactly friendship so much as camaraderie by circumstance. Thus, when toying with normal humans as opponents, he finds great joy - true schadenfreude - in making them mad or frustrated by pinning them in moral quandries. When someone does manage to bruise his ego (or his cheek with a golf club), he can get very prideful, spiteful, and look for revenge. It's a long, slow-burning revenge though; he and Schwarz are masters of patience to achieve an end. Resolutions to problems for him can and often do include kidnapping, arson, and murder.
The problem, for Schuldig, is that apart from those like Schwarz who experienced life in tandem to him, he doesn't share meaningful pieces of information about himself. By default he distrusts everyone around him and guards his own thoughts. Almost everyone around him is an open book - so he shamelessly "listens" in on conversations where he's not invited so that he can never be snuck up on or deceived. That cautiousness occupies him so much that what he hears is also a constant white noise in the back of his mind turned up to 11. It's his soundtrack to life. If he ever lost his powers, it would have the same effect as someone cutting the power to the entire city you lived in; he wouldn't crumble immediately, but it will definitely be something uncomfortably different to live with.
Schuldig is not straight in the classic sense - if anything he's sexual but aromantic. Romance once again demands a kind of morality and caring about another person on at least the same level as yourself and that's going to be darn near impossible for anyone outside of Schwarz to achieve without dedication. Basically I'm not worried about it happening; peership will be a challenge all by itself.
He has said before that people's thoughts taste like honey, so anyone with different thought patterns could prove entertaining to him at least, enough to catch his attention. Actual psychic blockades might even frustrate him enough to want to tear them down; he does enjoy a challenge. Lastly, Ouka and the Takatoris are kind of like children to him, even Reiji - they think on a much more mundane level than he and Schwrz do; they think on the scale of individual relationships and countries, but Schwarz is concerned with the whole world and humanity's next level. In that sense, Schuldig can thus miss the forest for the trees, so to speak. Schuldig is also aware of Nagi's crush on Töt, which he thinks is adorable in the naïve sense that it'll never work out.
All that being said - Schwarz is literally all Schuldig's ever known for most of his memorable life. It's hard to believe Schuldig is just a bit older than many people who graduate from secondary education at a college or university. For all his worldliness and travels at the behest of Eszett and Schwarz, he is the epitome of mastering one skillset at the expense of all else. Especially without Crawford around, Schuldig will not have the fallback plan of "Whaddaya wanna do tonight, Brain?"
Speaking of - Schuldig is easily the most well-adjusted of Schwarz only because he's constantly being updated on the zeitgeist, the popular culture, by his own personal radios every time he steps outside. It helps him play nice with his toys, after all, to be able to appear as normal as possible to them. Basically never challenge him to Trivial Pursuit.
Abilities:
Strengths:
Weaknesses:
Not that Schuldig sees any of these things as weaknesses, but for someone else trying to be an altruistic god helping humanity, these would definitely count:
God/Shinki: God
Why?: I did a test-drive with Schuldig as a Shinki and while I've played memory loss before, Schuldig is way more fun when he's getting full use of his telepathy and thinks that he's in control most of the time. It makes the times when he loses control of a situation really stark in contrast. Additionally, I liked the challenge of giving him an associated god that would force him to do neutral acts (even good ones)
Top 3 Choices: Orcus, Aka Manah, and Janus
God Type: I like to think Schuldig will basically turn into a tollbridge troll regardless of which god he gets, although it's most likely with Janus. He'll have to figure out quickly that his preferred method of 'watch the world burn' will leave him behind the power curve. So even if he doesn't particularly want to help "Mundanes" and answer their prayers, he'll want to just for the power. Same thing with gaining Shinki. The benefit is he'd actually get 'stung' by a Shinki more for very altruistic feelings (heroic) than selfish (villainous) ones. He'll still just cause mayhem to watch interesting stuff happen - and enjoy all the thoughts that come with it - but since he can tell when people are lying to him (unless they block his powers), he could actually fulfill a vengeful /wrathful god role quite well.
Power: Right Place Right Time (akin to the TV Trope Just In Time) - In canon, the one unexplainable side to Schuldig is that he just randomly shows up as many villains do without much rationale for how he could have known to be there. This is mostly attributed to his telepathy, but I just wanted to codify it as his God power. He's the one who steps out of the shadows to offer another alternative, or shows up to help a decision get made, that sort of thing - for a price of course. (Sometimes not even because he needs to get paid; it could be pure entertainment value.)
Writing Sample
Sample: Linked Sample from a smutty game, but not a smut scene.
Other
Anything Else?: No preference for a Shinki at this time, but I'll definitely have a Permissions post for his telepathy.
Name: Frudence
Contact:
Age: 30
Other Characters: n/a
Character Information
Name: Schuldig, pronounced Shu-ru-dee-hee by the Japanese characters - i.e. not "dig" at the end, just a soft -dɪχ (Schwarz Codename: Mastermind)
Canon: Weiß Kreuz
Canon Point: End of Glühen minus that godawful redesign. Call it going back into his closet, pulling out the old wardrobe, and tossing the L'Oreal into the trash. Whether he lived or died through that explosion in canon (hey, he's had worse), he makes it to the game. Not like Weiss noticed a difference in canon anyway
Age: 26, since he's from Gluhen which is 4 years after the series.
History: http://volksdaemon.dreamwidth.org/990.html
Personality:
Due to being a non-native speaker of Japanese - and it's probably at least his 3rd language anyway after German and then English - his speech pattern comes out very nasally and informally clipped. On the other hand, due to being a sociopath, being informal could be one of several layers he presents to others at any given time.
The most superficial layer is an unflappable, confident young man. He can appear very charming and helpful to those he thinks are useful now or might be later. Even civilians will pick up on how attentive he is to small details, or how good his hearing is as he catches the edges of conversation; this isn't necessarily true, it's just him using his powers and civilians interpreting it in non-supernatural ways.
However, when in the presence of other psychics or people aware of the Supernatural, he will get a bit more sassy and confrontational - especially if someone is smart enough to catch him in the act. He'll goad them on about thinking they're so smart, for starters, because that's a way to be dismissive of someone who's built up their ego. In particular, while he still exudes confidence in his own abilities, he has no problems backing out of a fight in order to preserve his own life. He is not a skirmisher; he relies on using other people as meat shields, pitting opponents against each other, psychologically diminishing opponents' willpower through his powers or his words alone, and other tactics reserved for someone who genuinely does not care that much about humanity as a whole. They are a sub-class of humans to him, the lot of them, not unlike how White Supremacists see non-Aryans. He does not, in reality, ever try to be decent, or caring, or moral - when he's bored he'll tease fellow Schwarz members, and prefers their company to that of regular humans, but it's not exactly friendship so much as camaraderie by circumstance. Thus, when toying with normal humans as opponents, he finds great joy - true schadenfreude - in making them mad or frustrated by pinning them in moral quandries. When someone does manage to bruise his ego (or his cheek with a golf club), he can get very prideful, spiteful, and look for revenge. It's a long, slow-burning revenge though; he and Schwarz are masters of patience to achieve an end. Resolutions to problems for him can and often do include kidnapping, arson, and murder.
The problem, for Schuldig, is that apart from those like Schwarz who experienced life in tandem to him, he doesn't share meaningful pieces of information about himself. By default he distrusts everyone around him and guards his own thoughts. Almost everyone around him is an open book - so he shamelessly "listens" in on conversations where he's not invited so that he can never be snuck up on or deceived. That cautiousness occupies him so much that what he hears is also a constant white noise in the back of his mind turned up to 11. It's his soundtrack to life. If he ever lost his powers, it would have the same effect as someone cutting the power to the entire city you lived in; he wouldn't crumble immediately, but it will definitely be something uncomfortably different to live with.
Schuldig is not straight in the classic sense - if anything he's sexual but aromantic. Romance once again demands a kind of morality and caring about another person on at least the same level as yourself and that's going to be darn near impossible for anyone outside of Schwarz to achieve without dedication. Basically I'm not worried about it happening; peership will be a challenge all by itself.
He has said before that people's thoughts taste like honey, so anyone with different thought patterns could prove entertaining to him at least, enough to catch his attention. Actual psychic blockades might even frustrate him enough to want to tear them down; he does enjoy a challenge. Lastly, Ouka and the Takatoris are kind of like children to him, even Reiji - they think on a much more mundane level than he and Schwrz do; they think on the scale of individual relationships and countries, but Schwarz is concerned with the whole world and humanity's next level. In that sense, Schuldig can thus miss the forest for the trees, so to speak. Schuldig is also aware of Nagi's crush on Töt, which he thinks is adorable in the naïve sense that it'll never work out.
All that being said - Schwarz is literally all Schuldig's ever known for most of his memorable life. It's hard to believe Schuldig is just a bit older than many people who graduate from secondary education at a college or university. For all his worldliness and travels at the behest of Eszett and Schwarz, he is the epitome of mastering one skillset at the expense of all else. Especially without Crawford around, Schuldig will not have the fallback plan of "Whaddaya wanna do tonight, Brain?"
Speaking of - Schuldig is easily the most well-adjusted of Schwarz only because he's constantly being updated on the zeitgeist, the popular culture, by his own personal radios every time he steps outside. It helps him play nice with his toys, after all, to be able to appear as normal as possible to them. Basically never challenge him to Trivial Pursuit.
Abilities:
- Empathy+Telepathy or Psionic Intuition minus Precognition - Schuldig is able to read not just thoughts, but feelings too. Implanting thoughts and feelings is much harder, but he has done it in canon with weak-willed minor characters from a great distance - through a video conference of all things. What he is best at is catching the superficial thoughts that rush through a person's mind as a knee-jerk reaction to something shocking or crazy they encounter. Deeper thoughts and complex opinions are tougher to unravel, especially if the person is just walking by and he doesn't have enough time to probe.
-- Anticipation: think spider-sense. He gets a 3-second glimpse into combat actions and tries to play the chess game of reacting to moves that his opponent hasn't yet made.
-- Empathy: One of many psychic talents that Mastermind's powers manifest as, he can catch the immediate feelings or reactions a person has to a situation - whether they're suddenly uneasy, or incredibly excited, or severely depressed. This includes the ability to force emotions onto another sentient being as well, from very subtle things like making them more susceptible to suggestions or more likely to jump at opportunities, to actively making just plain angry or sad or happy.
-- Full Control: If the person is prone to psychic attacks, just plain mundane, or lets Schuldig in (since hey this could be great for BDSM stuff), then he can control a person's whole body even while they remain conscious and protesting.
-- Shielding: Over time, Schuldig developed some defense mechanisms against psychic attacks from - say - his own teammates should they turn on him. Granted, he is much more of a "the best defense is a good offense" sort of person, but even he knows that anticipating people's movements in combat can only take him so far when psychics are involved.
-- Telepathy: Schuldig is able to read and implanting thoughts as well. He has even done it in canon with weak-willed minor characters from a great distance - through a video conference of all things. As with Empathy, what he is best at is catching the superficial thoughts that rush through a person's mind as a knee-jerk reaction to something shocking or crazy they encounter. Deeper thoughts and complex opinions are tougher to unravel, especially if the person is just walking by and he doesn't have enough time to probe. Additionally, with enough teamwork or willingness, he can create a kind of psychic link between several people so they can all talk to each other without speaking - and without blindly sharing all of their thoughts too. - Agility - Schuldig is quite fast and dextrous on his own, but in the context of combat he also looks supernaturally fast to his opponents - this is actually due to utilizing his telepathy to anticipate his opponents movements and get out of the way before they can strike him or his allies.
- Strength - This is much more in the realm of human possibility, but it's worth noting - Schuldig has enough upper body strength to snap a man's neck.
Strengths:
- Passing for a mundane human (with or without telepathic powers assistance)
- The above includes knowing random trivia
- Catching surface level thoughts on passersby
- Keeping track of relevant dirty laundry / blackmail material on a number of subjects (targets) at any given time
- Goading targets based on their current conversation (juggling their thoughts and what they're saying at the same time)
- Strong sense of self-preservation (would rather flee a fight he's losing than die for any reason at all)
- Patience (he can play a long con and see an endgame)
- Is an asshole (takes a lot to out-mastermind the Mastermind and even more to kill him)
Weaknesses:
Not that Schuldig sees any of these things as weaknesses, but for someone else trying to be an altruistic god helping humanity, these would definitely count:
- Trust issues though not to the point of anxious paranoia (to him, it goes back to self-preservation)
- Holds grudges indefinitely
- Eavesdrops and shamelessly shares others' secrets when relevant, no matter how private
- Is a sociopathic, immoral asshole who embodies schadenfreude and doesn't value the lives of humans
God/Shinki: God
Why?: I did a test-drive with Schuldig as a Shinki and while I've played memory loss before, Schuldig is way more fun when he's getting full use of his telepathy and thinks that he's in control most of the time. It makes the times when he loses control of a situation really stark in contrast. Additionally, I liked the challenge of giving him an associated god that would force him to do neutral acts (even good ones)
Top 3 Choices: Orcus, Aka Manah, and Janus
God Type: I like to think Schuldig will basically turn into a tollbridge troll regardless of which god he gets, although it's most likely with Janus. He'll have to figure out quickly that his preferred method of 'watch the world burn' will leave him behind the power curve. So even if he doesn't particularly want to help "Mundanes" and answer their prayers, he'll want to just for the power. Same thing with gaining Shinki. The benefit is he'd actually get 'stung' by a Shinki more for very altruistic feelings (heroic) than selfish (villainous) ones. He'll still just cause mayhem to watch interesting stuff happen - and enjoy all the thoughts that come with it - but since he can tell when people are lying to him (unless they block his powers), he could actually fulfill a vengeful /wrathful god role quite well.
Power: Right Place Right Time (akin to the TV Trope Just In Time) - In canon, the one unexplainable side to Schuldig is that he just randomly shows up as many villains do without much rationale for how he could have known to be there. This is mostly attributed to his telepathy, but I just wanted to codify it as his God power. He's the one who steps out of the shadows to offer another alternative, or shows up to help a decision get made, that sort of thing - for a price of course. (Sometimes not even because he needs to get paid; it could be pure entertainment value.)
Writing Sample
Sample: Linked Sample from a smutty game, but not a smut scene.
Other
Anything Else?: No preference for a Shinki at this time, but I'll definitely have a Permissions post for his telepathy.