Post by Deleted on Jun 8, 2012 10:21:37 GMT
Frederica Bernkastel
Basic Information
Age: Old. She's forgotten her original age, but rumors have circulated among her kind that she's existed over a thousand years.
Gender: Female.
Sexuality: Pansexual.
Rank: Rogue.
Canon/OC: Canon.
Canon World/Face Claim: Umineko no Naku Koro ni - Bernkastel.
Cbox Name: Awkward Penguin.
Other Characters: n/a, yet.
Powers And Abilities
Strengths:
- Bernkastel is a witch. Not an ordinary witch, nor one mortals would be familiar with (what's with the broomsticks and hats?). Most may not know she exists, but her title as the Witch of Miracles is accurate. As long as the likelihood of a situation isn't zero percent, there is a chance she can make it happen. Material gain means little to her.
- Being a witch, Bern has no reason to stay one place for long. Why would she, eventually all creatures crumble with the passage of time which leaves her with quite little to do. She can transverse between universes, and has done so for ages.
- She can also change form to become an animal. Bernkastel prefers to take on the appearance of a violet feline with a silk bow around her tail.
- It's been a while since she's separated from her human form, but her existence is her own. She's not immortal, however as the strongest witch in the universe there would be some complications to truly passing away. It could result in her being trapped in a world again, to be killed an endless amount of times under the same scenario.
- She can levitate and fly to a certain degree, but she can't perform any tricks or out-fly a missile. Bern can let her after-image flicker for a couple feet as well, but it's mostly for travel and staying hidden.
- Bernkastel, like other powerful witches, can control game boards. A game board usually involves one witch chosen as the game-master, who then closes off a very small space from outside interference. From there, the witch and the opposition will pick the pieces on each relative side, who must be ordinary humans (anything else would be cheating). Elders and children are fair game. They will do battle there controlling each person's perspective, each side having specific qualifications for winning. In a human vs. witch match it's common for one of the winning qualifications to be forcing the human to admit witches exist.
A good game can last hundreds of years, or forever. If the game master loses, the victor receives her title and may even become a witch herself. For now, Bern is taking a brief reprieve and will politely decline any invitations to play. [this is obviously god modding but for the purpose of this forum she'll never do this... it's just a big part of the history]
- Bern can also use the red truth. A witch can speak in red, and that statement will automatically become true... to a certain degree. The statement must be objective. If someone says something vaguely, if an enemy can interpret it a different way it is entirely plausible. Because of this saying something in red has power, but can also leave glaringly obvious weak spots exposed. Only witches/game masters can speak the red truth, and they cannot lie while using this.
- Then the blue truth comes in. Blue truth is the extremely subjective counter attack to the red truth. If something in red can be taken a different way, or an option is left open, if spoken in the blue truth a witch must respond or face certain death. The blue truth can be granted to humans who wish to challenge a witch, but a witch who challenges a game master can also use this (like Bernkastel).
Weaknesses:
- Her ability to create miracles is by pure chance. If one is given a few years with two dice, the probability it will land on two sixes stays the same, but given enough time the desired result may appear. It's exactly the same, except Bernkastel has been alive and gambling longer than she can remember. Perhaps thousands of years. With that amount of time on her side, of course they would say she could bring about "miracles".
- There is one way to put Bernkastel out of commission, perhaps permenantly... to make her stop thinking. To present an argument so airtight, she can't justify her side at all and falls completely silent. Witches spend their entire lives thinking, so to lose would be horrible. Even the strongest witch can only be cornered a few times.
- She advocates slavery. Not that -she- has a problem with it, other people might.
- It might be because she gets her jollies out of observing human nature burn slowly. The frequent use of her abilities caused her heart to shut down.
- That being said, she tries not to get involved if she can help it. She takes her place as the observer (or maybe an ally from behind the scenes), but anything else would be inconsiderate.
- Or maybe not. Bern hates being bored so much she could die, and a witch is nothing if not fickle.
- Tea and sweets. Spicy food is alright, but in small quantities.
- Lambdadelta, the great Witch of Certainty. They have destroyed game boards with their hands sweetly entwined, only to journey to the next. One could say Bernkastel almost loves her the way a human would.
- Her tail. Don't pull it.
Weapons And Equipment:
- A teacup and saucer. She prefers black plum tea, but is open to suggestions.[/size]
- A large scythe that was once said to be made of miracles, that she can summon in one post. That rumor is false, and Bernkastel rarely fights.
Personal Information
Personality:
Bernkastel, at a glance, is very much a reflection of her animal form. She holds herself with a large amount of pride the way someone of nobility would, with less flamboyance. Slouching is pretty rude, right? She dislikes people who do that, and will tell them so with the utmost politeness. There's no reason to hide her opinion since it's only that, and she easily accepts someone disagreeing with her. It's because of the difference in morality, she assumes. That doesn't mean she won't tease a person for having a foolish idea though. A traveler at heart, her true agenda is always shifting. She's used to cruelty and poverty but has a natural instinct to defend against it. The one who would make the best ally, but the worst to rely on. There's no way to nail her down to one philosophy entirely, because she'll change her mind as she pleases. It's all on her own terms, like a cat. Bern is a hypocrite.
That being said, she doesn't like boring people. Boredom can kill witches, and she doesn't want to die from such a lame emotion. She likes the impulsive, somewhat dense types. They're a bit easier to manipulate, she can push that type of person over the edge easier. She's capable of doing that to anyone, but the best reactions come from those who never expect it. Bern gets respect from more intelligent folk who know of her, and is usually granted a seat to observe duels between humans and witches almost exclusively. She wasn't given the title as Witch of Miracles for no reason, she's intelligent and the moves she makes can be downright underhanded. If Bernkastel happens to spot an opening, she will exploit it effortlessly when the truth will benefit her the most. Expect a witch to do no less.
Her lifespan has taken its toll on her, Bernkastel simply doesn't feel the way others might. If dueling with witches were hell, than she'd strolled through the inferno several times over. She lives, but it's a very empty life that's only spent watching the lives of others. When it comes to love or ethics Bern will often roll her eyes, or frown. She's sick of the misery that follows emotion but people still keep feeling, they keep making the same mistakes she did. Somehow she knows they're not imperfect, it's her. She stopped being right when she became a witch, and perhaps that's why she regrets.
History:
There's no particular start to Bernkastel's story, as it is one that several people may be living over and over again without knowing it. When witches announce a formal duel between one another, they pick a game board and choose their players. They will personally go through the millions of people in the world, and pick who they deem fit to be a piece. When they do, that person's history will seamlessly intermingle with the plot of the game, whatever it may be. So who can say if one's past hasn't been manipulated, who's safe? If a witch can't find a suitable piece they can make one. How does one know if they weren't just molded out of clay for that purpose? Bernkastel never knew, and still doubts that anyone does. Some may doubt her, but no one knows witches better. Bern had been human, long ago.
It involved the very fabric of reality, what you once knew had been real once and would always be in that little pocket of space. Even so, when witches pick their pawns there's always a small chance. Even if it's a fake world, it's still a world and there's always a very tiny possibility of knowing. Even if a human found out, nothing would change. When a puppet acknowledges it has plastic skin and wooden eyes, it doesn't automatically break free of the wire entangling its limbs. The puppet master would still be in control, and in such a case of breaking so many psychological walls, it's considered an honor for a human to be recognized as a piece.
Bernkastel had once been a very little girl, maybe nine or ten when she had been accepted by a witch. A very great witch... Featherine Augustus Aurora, the Witch of Theater, Drama, and Spectating. Only the most ancient of witches knew of her, and what they could recall were always about the game-boards she hosted. Featherine was a master of the art, no one could create and destroy as she could and every little twist would keep spectators on edge.
Needless to say, it was startling that such a young child would be chosen by Featherine. Even more so when one realized although it was simply a game to them, there were titles at stake. Bernkastel was merely a pawn to be used by Featherine as she dueled against the most powerful witch of the universe, Lambdadelta. If other witches were considered monsters, she was the fiercest. Though she donned pink frills and delicate lace, Lamb's power as the Witch of Certainty made her absolute. She could kill anyone with one-hundred percent certainty and she did. Lambdadelta didn't play around whimsically like Featherine Augustus Aurora, she dealt death swiftly with no room for escape. At the time, Featherine's original decision had been mocked and drew skepticism. How would she beat the Witch of Certainty with such a small, weak-minded human?
In the game board Bernkastel knew as her home village, there was no winning involved. She had a group of very close friends in their little one-floor school. Keiichi, the new student with brown hair and a charismatic tongue. Rena, a gentle redhead who loved collecting cute objects. Shian and Mion were twins, but couldn't have been more different. Shian acted like a mature woman while Mion was tomboyish and argued with Keiichi. Then there was her best friend Satoko, who loved making practical jokes and other traps for Keiichi to get knocked down by. Bern didn't know if there was a word to describe how devoted she was to them. She loved walking home from school with them every day while playing with Satako, and all of the screaming and running around during festivals. They were a close group and Bern remembered when she didn't know what could go wrong. Dull images of metal colliding against flesh wavered in the back of her mind, but she didn't remember such a thing ever occurring.
Every day she went to school. Bernkastel recalled it happened on that one day specifically in June, on Showa 58. Whether it be Keiichi or even shy Rena, one of her closest friends went insane. It could be any of them and she didn't know how or why, but then they would start killing the rest of their friends off. Bern watched their descent into madness, yet no matter what she did none of them would listen. Then their little town would be bombed with toxic gas, destroying the rest of the community. No matter where she ran or hid, a group of men in white would always find her.
They would grab the child and cut her open straight down the middle, breaking her rib-cage in the process. Still writhing in pain, they threw her body outside of the Shinto temple. Sometimes in the midst of the mind-numbing pain she felt flecks, maybe seeds, fall into her organs. There would be a faint flapping of wings, and then the crows feasted. By morning there would only be a half-eaten, rotten naked corpse of a form resembling a little girl. That was how she died for hundreds of years. Each time the Witch of Certainty won the world would reset. Eventually Featherine withdrew from the game, but Lambdadelta was still in control and Bern was only a human child. It was hopeless, no matter how she tried she'd eventually get swept under by the witch's might.
When the clock restarted, Bernkastel was still in a child's body but her soul had aged far past its vitality. Her name was different then... but that moment was when Bern manifested. Out of the pain and suffering of one pawn, Bernkastel appeared outside of the game board and challenged Lambdadelta directly. In each game board there were always certain unspoken rules on what would always happen, and what would always be. If the opponent managed to figure out what those rules were, bypassing them would be easy.
She already knew one. In each timeline, one of her friends would be consumed by paranoia and result in the deaths of their group. If she managed to stop the gas and live past June of Showa 58, then she'd win. Lambdadelta was already so bored of this game, right? Surely she wouldn't mind if they played one more round. The Witch of Certainty sneered, then cackled. Sure, why not. Maybe she'd give the kid a break and let her try her best strategy. It's not like she'd been close to surviving before. One more game would determine the fate of her friends, the people she'd loved.
Bernkastel managed to place one of her pieces (the ones Featherine used to control) among those of Lambda's, and started to destroy her pawns from the inside out. Not only did she have a victory, but it was overwhelming. Everyone, including her human self were safe. They'd go on living and she...
She... became a witch. Against one-hundred percent certainty of endless death, she had done something no one else had ever been capable of doing. Not even Featherine Augustus Aurora. Bernkastel, the Witch of Miracles. The strongest witch in the universe.
She was her own person, and no longer the little girl in that world. She was now someone who had no friends, who had stolen the title of strongest witch from Lambdadelta and earned her wrath. She was a witch who would be continuously challenged by Lambdadelta, game after game. The sadist in the Witch of Certainty was horrified she lost and wanted to break the new witch as soon as she got the chance.
Yet the other witches feared them and skittered to the opposite ends of the universe. Bernkastel only knew Lamb. An abuser and ally, someone who loved her as much as she loved the bruises that dotted Bern's neck after choking her. After several centuries, Bern stopped feeling anything for anyone. On several occasions she'd tortured humans herself. No one loved her, no one needed the witch while the little girl was still in that world and would finally be able to go on with her life. She didn't know that winning would be so painful.
Sample Post
"What game should we play next, Lamb?"[/size]
Bernkastel let the tang of orange-and-something-or-rather tea sting at her lips, and sipped delicately. The warmth that sparked on her tongue made the girl deduce that it had been orange and cinnamon. The large chunks of crystal danced around them, creating a pale moonlight that reflected the emptiness of her fractured eyes. The two rarely laid curled up together like that, gazing at the possibilities before them. The Witch of Miracles was almost impressed by the sight, intrigued. In each crystal, there was a world and in their endless night these worlds were constantly being duplicated and replaced. There was no reason to run down the deep labyrinth of shimmering corridors, because there would never be an end. They would just be wandering forever, but wasn't that what they already did?
God knew those two would play games forever until they were satiated, she simply wanted to know if the Witch of Certainty had a personal preference. Even so, the dark-haired witch's face remained stone cold. Aside from the vague motions of her exhaled breath, there was no reason why a person would mistake her for a living being.
It took about ten minutes for the Witch of Miracles to form more words. "... How boring."
Oh, she hated that. Even admitting it was awful, it ruined her tea with the bitter taste of copper. She'd need a new cup. Bernkastel brushed a few violet locks behind her ear and stood. Recently games had gotten rather tiresome. She'd heard whispers of strange mortals here and there from other witches, but it wasn't anything she actually knew about. Perhaps it was about time she'd found out. The witch let her arms and legs slowly dissipate as she began to advance toward the mortal realm, extending her existence. It had been much too long since she'd explored an area outside of the game-boards, and her little crystal pocket space located in-between. There would be entertaining humans out there, so she didn't mind some danger.