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plans_in_motion's Journal

Created on 2006-12-19 19:24:23 (#11859581), never updated

0 comments received, 189 comments posted

Basic Info
Name:Schuldig
Bio
Character Name: Schuldig
Series: Weiss Kreuz
Age: 22

Physical Description: Schuldig isn't a man who's easily missed in a crowd. He's quite tall, roughly six feet, and very lanky. His vivid reddish-orange hair is long and habitually tousled, as if he doesn't give much thought to it, and extends in a narrowing tail down his back; his eyes are an intense blue. He's almost always wearing an arrogant smirk, no matter what's going on around him; it's only when there's a clear danger to himself, such as combat, that his expression turns serious. He actually looks a bit older than he is, both because of the height and because of the frighteningly jaded smile he always wears; most people wouldn't believe that much cynicism could be developed in so few years.

In terms of clothing, Schuldig tends to wear a heavy overcoat, worn open over a bare chest, and unremarkable pants held up by a belt with a silver buckle that has an incongruous engraving of flowers upon it. The boots he wears are flat-soled and of surprisingly rough material, which gives his feet good purchase whether up in a ship's rigging or on a rooftop, both places he's often found. On ships, he wears gloves to protect his hands; on land, he goes without. He's got small silver hoops in both ears(and a couple of silver studs besides those in the left ear). When he's expecting trouble, he wears chunky silver rings for roughly the same reason other people wear brass knuckles, with the added benefit of rings being more inconspicuous. There's a hint of a tattoo by his right hip that's actually the tail of a dragon curling around his body; said dragon continues up across most of his back, with the head actually visible on the left side of his neck.

Personality: Schuldig's had a less than ideal life, and had it driven home to him very early in life that there's no one in the world whom he means much to aside from a point of interest, or as someone to screw over to their own benefit. Furthermore, his education, such as it was, came from people without any concept of morality, and as such never actually covered the whole ethics issue.

As a result of this upbringing, Schuldig tends to think the worst of people as a whole, and rarely even considers the possibility of having any moral conflicts about how he deals with them. Thus he has absolutely no compunctions about using, manipulating, or ruining others for his own gain - or even simply for his own amusement, should he be bored. And as a remarkably observant man, he has more ways in which to accomplish this than most; his insight into human nature is actually quite remarkable at times, and some superstitious people actually fear Schuldig as some sort of demon capable of seeing their innermost thoughts. The more canny recognize that he's simply incredibly astute at picking up on the little giveaway tells in human behavior that clue him in on things which are being hidden or, simply, not being said, and also that he has a surprisingly firm grasp of human psychology - although his view of the human psyche does demonstrate a exceedingly jaded and pessimistic view of it.

One of the easiest ways to baffle Schuldig's ability to comprehend a person's behavior is for someone to display a better aspect of human nature with no way for him to explain it away as self-serving - altruism in particular is effective.

Schuldig tends to be surprisingly lethargic when he's not using his natural talents to acquire him whatever he might want at the moment, be it sex, material goods, or entertainment; he remains a smirky bastard but seems rather bored with the world in general(and frequently lounges on things; Schu is a natural sprawler). This isn't to say he's lazy - in fact, he's capable of bursts of frenetic energy when he's doing something that interests him - but he always seems to be bored and disinterested unless he's working to amuse himself rather than because he's following someone else's directives. It should be noted that Schuldig rarely actually follows orders as they are given to him, choosing to interpret them - or outright ignore them - in whatever way grants him the maximum amount of amusement. He is loyal to his captain, and will do as he's told by him (eventually) provided he recognizes the order as being in his and his captain's best interests, but how he chooses to go about achieving the goals he's given may take a wildly different approach from what he was actually told to do in order to accomplish them.

Because it bears mentioning - Schuldig is a hedonist, which frequently translates into his being promiscuous in the pursuit of sex. Anyone attractive and whom he judges as not likely to want to stab him with the nearest sharp object (which is a fairly small pool of people, given his habits...) is a target. Men and women who don't appreciate his attentions and make it obvious will in fact receive MORE attention from him just because he finds it funny. He tends to prefer people his own age or older, however; anyone who is younger than him he generally views as a 'kid' and isn't interested by unless they drastically catch his attention in some way. That Schuldig is not in fact riddled with disease by now is either a wonder of the natural world or, in fact, a side benefit of his being able to read people so well - possibly he recognizes the signs of a diseased person (whether or not even they themselves are aware) and steers clear. There's no actual evidence to support this theory, but it's a possibility.

Schuldig is quite intelligent, but his areas of knowledge are extremely eclectic. Things you can learn on the street, such as math(as it applies to money), basic economics, psychology, street-fighting, talking trash, picking up someone to spend the night with, etcetera, are areas he's well-versed enough in to be called an expert. More abstract knowledge, or things that have little place in street life - ethics, for example, or history - is entirely foreign to him, and generally considered to be unimportant. (His attitude is "If I haven't needed it by now, why would I ever need it?") He IS very knowledgeable regarding science and in fact seems to have heard of some theories that have never been presented to the general public, but doesn't much care for the subject. He's likely to inform you of this at knifepoint.

Abilities/Strengths/Weaponry: As mentioned previously, Schuldig is almost preternaturally observant; very little in the way of important details slips by him, particularly when it comes to a person's behavior, but he's also very aware of his surroundings. This serves him well in more ways than one, and fairly often. Part of Schuldig's natural arrogance stems from the fact that he's well-aware that this gives him an advantage over other people, and that it's only an advantage because most people simply don't pay as much attention as he does and aren't bright enough to pick up on the same critical details as he does even when presented with the exact same situation.

Schuldig is too slender to be any sort of physical powerhouse, although he has more than muscle enough to be extremely active. But simply put, when it comes to fighting, Schuldig doesn't pack a lot of power behind his blows. In fact, Schuldig doesn't like straight-up combat at all; fortunately, with his speed, he doesn't have to engage in it much. Schuldig is shockingly fast; add that to his ability to read his opponent's movements almost as soon as they decide what those moves will be and it's very hard for anyone to keep up with him in a fight. He's able to dodge most blows, and while his own don't pack much of a wallop, his ability to dart in close and deal a strike to a critical area before he can be stopped means that he's more than effective enough at laying people flat when he has to. He's far more likely to run in after a missed punch and elbow you in the temple than he is to deliver a left hook to the jaw. However, he's also just as likely to run away than to bother fighting at all, although sometimes he'll engage in combat just to taunt his slower opponents.

Schuldig is also a remarkable climber. Rigging, buildings, trees, you name it, Schuldig can climb it like a cat and probably just as quickly. He seems to find being dangerously high up thrilling(and in fact views being high-up as having a measure of security, as it's harder for him to be attacked that way), and generally prefers to be above ground-level whenever the option is present. He's as sure-footed a few stories up in the air as he is on solid ground.

As far as weapons go, Schuldig carries a few discreet knives tucked away on his person - mostly small affairs that are meant to be whipped out and used at a moment's notice, but also one large one with a serrated edge that's more of a work knife than a fighting one. He also keeps a couple lockpicks tucked into his headband; Schuldig has retained quite a bit of his thieving skills and sees no reason not to be prepared for any eventuality.

Weaknesses: As may be guessed from the preceding sections, Schuldig doesn't have a lot of friends. In fact, he has any number of bitter enemies and people who'd like to slit his throat or put a knife between his shoulder blades if given half a chance. This is weakness enough; that Schuldig is entirely unconcerned by this, and continues to add to the list, just puts him in a worse position. Entirely aside from Schuldig's alienating people, those who know him sometimes like to keep a little distance between themselves and the redhead just so they won't wind up being caught in the crossfire if someone decides they want to try to take vengeance right then and there.

Also mentioned already is Schuldig's lack of physical strength. In a flat-out contest of strength, Schuldig can be rather easily overpowered by anyone with a height, weight, or build advantage on him.

Although Schuldig does have a strange sort of charm to him - a charm that tells you that you ought to know better, but something about him is simply too fascinating - he tends to come off right from the start as untrustworthy. And whatever his draw is, not everyone is susceptible to it.

Schuldig also has a positively violent antipathy towards science and anything related to it.

History: The circumstances of Schuldig's birth are more or less unknown to him, although he's aware that it was under unusual circumstances. What Schuldig does know is that from his earliest waking memory, he lived in a laboratory as a scientific specimen, being tested upon and studied by a professor and her young protege(as far as he knows, the only two people involved). He was never allowed outside, never treated much like a human being, and never given any sort of human contact beyond those two people. He was taught how to walk and talk like a human being, how to read and write, was introduced to everyday objects and concepts - in short, he was given an education, but less for his own sake and more to make it easier for his captors to work with him. He was never even given an actual name; until the time he named himself, he was known merely as 'Specimen One'.

This went on until Schuldig was nearly seven years old, by which time he was a critically observant and deeply resentful child who thought and acted alarmingly like an adult(as the professor, and her young but mature-beyond-his-years protege, were his only human contact, and thus his only models for behavior). One day he was hurriedly gathered up by the professor and, almost before he knew what was happening, spirited out of the lab for the first time in his life, taken upon a ship to Tartarus. He gathered, from what little he heard before their rapid departure and various cues he picked up from her, that their using him as a test subject was actually illegal in some fashion, and an unexpected raid by the authorities was forcing her to take him somewhere away from prying eyes until it was safe for them to return to the lab.

Much to his interest, Tartarus had no facilities anywhere near as advanced as where he'd been before(and even that he didn't know, as geography was something that had never been covered), and thus there was nowhere the professor could keep him that was anywhere near as secure as the laboratory had been. Well aware of what awaited him unless he made some move to change his fortunes, Specimen One waited until they'd settled into new quarters and some of the professor's nervousness had abated, then gave her the slip, literally running headlong into the outside world for the first time.

To say that this was difficult would be an understatement. Specimen One - who changed his name to Schuldig shortly after escaping, for reasons he's never given to anyone - scarcely knew anything, not about where he was or what was necessary to survive. Even for a better-educated child it would have been a challenge. Fortunately, he was young enough at first, and convincingly lost and distressed, that he was able to live off of the occasional show of charity on the parts of people who felt badly for a child in such a plight, even if they could hardly begin to grasp the depth of it. Fortunately, his observation skills served him well here - as he lived off of what he was given, he took in the world around him and quickly began cobbling together a working knowledge of the world that expanded exponentially by the day. And, the more he learned, the more he found that he was surprisingly well-suited to looking after himself. He was active enough that he could usually find someone - generally merchants - who needed something done for coins enough to eat with; when that failed, he could always steal, as he was quick and light-fingered (not to mention skinny from malnourishment) and good at getting into places where he wasn't wanted; when even that failed, he discovered orchid palms and that there were always their fruit to fall back on. When bored - or when in trouble for stealing something - Schuldig would simply head to the northern coast and climb the crags there; he enjoyed the physical activity, and there were very few people who'd risk following him there.

To say that Schuldig was an angry, suspicious child who drew the line at nothing would be accurate, but not perhaps emphatic enough. It didn't take long for Schuldig to realize just how different, and how much more cruel, the life he'd been forced to live was from the norm, and that the disinterested people around him couldn't begin to imagine what he'd been through. This active resentment of the people around him, people who had been more fortunate than he simply by circumstance of birth, made him all the more likely to take advantage of them in whatever way he could. Further, he was always on the lookout for anyone - in particular the professor or her protege - who might drag him back to his old life.

Schuldig eventually found himself lurking around Illyria's port, taking an interest in the ships therein; aside from his own single voyage on a ship, he'd never actually known anything about them, and he found himself intrigued by them. It was there that a teenage Schuldig first met a captain not many years older than he was - a recent replacement of the old captain, thanks to a rather violent mutiny, the details of which Schuldig listened to with great interest - and was welcomed aboard as the first of the new crew members. (The young captain had, as a precaution, doled out coin to his fellow mutineers once they made land with instructions not to return, as a crew that had mutinied against its previous captain might choose to try it again with their present captain. Upon hearing Schuldig barely knew what a mutiny was, he was rapidly enlisted.) A strong - if dysfunctional, and occasionally sexual - rapport quickly developed between Schuldig and the captain, with the surprisingly refined and cool-headed captain serving as a foil to the increasingly fiery and arrogant Schuldig. As between the two of them they commanded both respect and a degree of fear from the rest of the crew that the captain quickly hired on, Schuldig was soon given the position of first mate. Schuldig has served with his captain ever since, from a brief stint as mercenaries to, after their first client betrayed them, a more violent and direct approach to acquiring what they wanted that quickly escalated into full-out piracy. Their ship, the Schwarz, has gained some notoriety, as has its captain, but its flashy and vicious first mate is more well-known than either.
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