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[have_your_lives]

Name: Callie
Personal LJ: callie_chan
Contact Info: FyreflyzBlaze on AIM
Other Characters Played: Zevran Arainai, Dias Flac
Preferred Housing: Schuldig will be taking the husband slot at 1492 Kramden Road, because Ema, Touma, and Misaka are just that unlucky. I have the okay from all three muns!

Character Name: Schuldig, which means 'guilty' in German. This is presumably not his real name, but it's all he's ever called in canon and there's no hint as to what his real name might be. His codename is Mastermind, which can serve as his 'last' name.
Character Series: Weiss Kreuz
Character Age: Never specified, but I've seen people guess it to be around 22, and I'm fine going with that.
Background: Schuldig's background is only ever referred to briefly, and without any real detail. Sticking solely to what canon gives us, we know that Schuldig is of German descent and spent time at Rosenkrüs - a facility touted as a special institute for psychically gifted children, but in actuality run more like a Holocaust concentration camp(it's specifically compared to Auschwitz in canon in terms of brutality, as well as the execution of children who are deemed failures or no longer useful). It's generally accepted (though I'm not sure if it was ever outright stated) that Schuldig and Brad Crawford were at Rosenkrüs at the same time, and that's how they met, making them the two founding members of Schwarz. (They also both slept with the same woman around that time, interestingly enough, another psychic named Silvia. Schuldig was the more enamored with her, and apparently wasn't all that skilled in sex when they first met - though, given the likely timeframe, he may only have been a teenager.) The other two members, Farfarello and Nagi Naoe, arrived later. All of them, save Farfarello, have psychic abilities - Crawford is a precognitive, Nagi is a telekinetic, and Schuldig is telepathic. (Farfarello's skill is the inability to feel pain, and probably not psychic in nature.)

Rosenkrüs was a training ground for Esset(alternately spelled Eszett, Estet, SZ, SS, ß, take your pick - main lesson being, German being used in a Japanese series which is then translated to English is going to have all kinds of problems), a powerful and shadowy organization that took command of Schwarz after they had left Rosenkrüs. Under their orders, Schwarz took up the role of bodyguards for Reiji Takatori, a corrupt politician working his way to becoming the Prime Minister of Japan. Esset had their own reasons for wanting Takatori in charge - largely because he worked for them. Mostly this involved protecting Takatori's (and his family's) shady dealings from interference from the vigilante assassin group, Weiss - of course, one of the Weiss assassins had a personal vendetta with Takatori, which meant that Schwarz's services as bodyguards were that much more necessary.

However, it must be said that, even within the context of following Esset's orders, Schwarz had their own goals and interests entirely separate from them. At one point, Schuldig goes to great lengths to torment Ouka Takatori - Reiji Takatori's beloved daughter, and the love interest of the Weiss assassin Omi Tsukiyono. Clearly placing a higher priority on his sadistic amusement than the clear conflict of interest in torturing the daughter of the man he was purportedly working for, Schuldig taunted them both and set a chain of events into motion that led to Ouka's death at Farfarello's hands(possibly accidental; it was a gunshot at long range by a one-eyed man while Ouka was hugging Omi, followed by Farfarello cursing, so he might have been aiming for Omi instead and missed), made all the more tragic by the fact that Omi had just come to terms with the fact that Ouka was, in fact, his half-sister. Ouka's death outraged Takatori to the point where he beat Schuldig and Farfarello with a golf club at some length before Crawford stepped in and placed the blame on Weiss.

Despite occasional personal forays, Schwarz continued their work as Takatori's guards until Takatori did, in fact, become Prime Minister - at which point he promptly spurned both Schwarz and Esset, clearly wanting to enjoy his new-found power without Schwarz babysitting him or Esset directing him. Unsurprisingly, this ended extremely badly for him - Schwarz, who easily slaughtered the guards he placed over them, simply left him to the tender mercies of Weiss, remarking that their interest all along had been in establishing anarchy, not installing a despot.

With Takatori gone, Schwarz began working more directly for Esset. The sheer number of plans they put into effect in this time aren't all worth detailing, but they all had one thing in common - every action taken was meant to stir up as much unrest and anarchy as possible. (For example: psychically influencing a PTA group to start 'cleansing' the youth of the day by setting them on fire with napalm, supporting a crazy composer whose music subconsciously drives people to commit suicide, etcetera.) Eventually, this led to their kidnapping Aya Fujimiya - the comatose sister of one of the Weiss assassins, Ran(he was currently going by Aya's name, though I'll call him Ran to avoid confusion). Of course, they had to kidnap her from Schrient, the group that had kidnapped her first, but that was a minor detail. Amidst the extreme confusion surrounding kidnapping Aya, rescuing her, her being kidnapped again, and the like, Schuldig played some more sadistic games - this time with Sakura, a girl who was in love with Ran and who happened to look very much like his sister. While initially this had probably only been for his entertainment, Sakura actually turned out to have significant use to Schwarz. Esset's plans for Aya were to use her as a vessel to summon a demonic power that fans have theorized to either have been Hitler or something that had possessed Hitler; Aya was chosen because, in her time spent comatose, her body hadn't actually aged, making her unique. However, and entirely unexpected by everyone, the girl who was actually present at the ritual - which Weiss interrupted - was not Aya, but Sakura; Schwarz had taken possession of Aya for themselves.

Of the three psychic leaders of Esset, Weiss managed to take out two; the most powerful one fled, only to discover Schwarz and Aya. Furious at being betrayed, he lashed out at them - only to discover that Schwarz's psychic abilities now outstripped his own; he was unable to touch them. Informing the man that they couldn't care less about Esset's plans or their ritual, Schwarz announced their intentions to drop the world into chaos, an environment men with their talents would be uniquely suited for. The Esset leader tried, unsuccessfully, to bribe them, before Farfarello finally stabbed him.

Of course, Weiss still needed to retrieve Aya, and coming to get her back finally spurred a full-out showdown between Weiss and Schwarz. However, the battle didn't end conclusively; the telekinetic destruction wreaked by Weiss' fight with the Esset masters, along with the failed ritual, led to the collapse of the entire building. Sakura, Aya, and Weiss' ally Manx made it out, but Weiss and Schwarz were both dropped through the floor, with seemingly the entire building dropped on top of them. That will be Schuldig's last memory before he wakes up in Mayfield.

Personality: Schuldig's entire personality can be summed up in one word in his native tongue, which might well have been coined with him in mind - schaudenfreude. Schuldig enjoys nothing more than making people miserable. He's a complete sadist, but he generally prefers to leave crude methods of physical torture to men like Farfarello; the pain he derives the most pleasure from in others is psychological. He goes so far in the English dub as to say that ruined lives taste like honey. He likes to play people off of each other, as well as off their own fears; at one point he taunts Omi as to whether Omi is any better than the men he's killed, and teases him as to what Ouka would think if she knew he was a murderer. Then he goes to Ouka and reveals to her that Omi, the boy she's in love with, is actually her brother, essentially twisting the emotional thumbscrews on both sides of the equation. Doubtless his time in Rosenkrüs helped shape him into the cruel, amoral man he is, given what sort of environment that was for a child to grow up in and the very nature of the work he was being prepped to do, but it's likely his telepathy itself had a hand in it; at one point he mentions that sometimes he can't tell which thoughts are his and which thoughts are from the people around him, suggesting that he has no way of having even enough privacy in his own head to make out his own individual thoughts. Something like that could probably twist anyone, and that's not even taking into account the dark insights into human nature a telepath would likely be privy to.

Of course, even if it might be understandable how Schuldig became, or was made into, the laughing, psyche-mauling monster that he is today, nothing changes the fact that he is a terrible, terrible person who does godawful things to people just to entertain himself.

Regarding Schuldig's behavior when he's not actually making someone's life hellish, he's actually rather casual and laid-back. He doesn't stand on formalities - indeed, he may consider them annoying wastes of time, and he certainly has the most relaxed manner of speaking out of all of Schwarz - and is actually rather lazy, at least when it concerns anything that doesn't pique his interest. (He'll go miles out of his way for something that does pique his interest.) He's something of a hedonist in that respect; his pleasure and entertainment are his foremost concerns, with everything else taking a backseat. He's vain, arrogant, and not respectful of almost any authority - he seems willing enough to obey Crawford, possibly due to their long history together, but even then he seems likely to obey specific orders while working outside the lines if he doesn't have specific orders not to do something. (I seriously doubt Crawford approved of, or even knew of, Schuldig's actions concerning Ouka, and given that he had to invent a cover story for him, it's likely Schuldig acted on his own.) He seems to get along well enough with Crawford, and often works alongside Farfarello; he seems to have the most conflict with Nagi out of the members of Schwarz, with Schuldig casually irritating him and Nagi being entirely unappreciative, but even then the two seem to have a decent working relationship. Beyond Schwarz, however, he seems to have very little use for anyone.

Abilities: Schuldig is an extremely powerful telepath. In the show, he's shown picking thoughts out of character's minds, which is basic telepathy, but he's also shown to be able to go a step further and either somewhat influence the actions of others or take forcible physical control of their bodies via their minds. (Note that this last ability is not actually perfect mind control - the victim can fight the control, and one assumes that their resistance may vary due to the person's willpower or how extreme an action Schuldig is trying to force them to take.) He is also shown to be able to move extremely quickly - so fast he can't even be seen moving. I personally believe the explanation for this is twofold, and tied to his telepathy: first, as he is able to anticipate his opponent's movements telepathically, he can begin reacting almost before the action itself; and second, he can probably mentally interfere with his opponent's ability to follow his movements. The only skill he seems to have unrelated to telepathy is that he seems to be extremely nimble, and have strong legs; at several points in the Weiss Kreuz: Kapitel series, he's shown hopping across rooftops or through/out of high windows without any apparent difficulty whatsoever.

Naturally, Schuldig will lose all of his telepathy and telepathy-related abilities in Mayfield. I may make his basic telepathy and his ability to actually control people via telepathy separate regains, given how strong the second ability is - and, of course, neither would be used without coordination with other players, so I don't step on any toes with him.

Sample Entry: So what hand-crafted Esset hellhole is this? I distinctly remember us taking care of them, but if there's anyone else out there who could shut me off like flipping a goddamn switch, I've never heard of them. Though if this isn't Esset, then whoever you are, you've made one hell of an introduction.

Of course, I know how this works already. You show me just how firmly you're holding the leash, and then you tell me who you'll be siccing me on. Believe me, I know all the steps to this dance. So why don't we skip right to the good part? I'm no use to you like this. Give me my powers back, and we can talk business. [And if you believe that, Schuldig's got a bridge to sell you. One he will then force you, and everyone else responsible for this, to jump off of.]