realityshifted | a second miracle

Entry tags:

umineko no naku koro ni (d1) bernkastel

a second miracle

[ A small tea table is just right there, in the middle of the plane. A solitary figure sits at it, and atop it is a chessboard. All of the pieces are scattered across the table except for Bernkastel's and the pink, blonde witch on the other side of the board. Every now and then, she'll take a sip of her tea and maybe rearrange her pieces in a certain way that only she understands, but scatters them again.

Directly in the middle of the board, Bernkastel takes the pieces of the little girl swinging a purse, and sets her in the middle. ]

You can be a stand-in piece.

[ Eventually... she notices a piece that should not be on her game board. She takes it and lifts it up behind her, as if there was someone who would take it from her.

The stars behind her have been disguising thousands of pairs of cats eyes, and finally one large cat emerges from the scenery to sink its teeth into the piece, messily gnashing it to bits until there's nothing. ]

Thank you.

[ Back to her game. ]

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[A tall, imposing figure in a drab coat watched her game from a distance, quietly. Tendrils of smoke sprawled out from his lit cigarette reaching for the star-studded roof of the Plane.

After the unwanted piece was disposed of, Gin drew closer, the light rustling of fabric and quiet footfalls the only sound he made. A short, dry laugh.

He couldn't make heads or tails of her little game, but it was just as well.]

Bernkastel. [His voice was calm and almost genial, but unfeeling, with a gravelly texture from his smoking habit.

He stood before her with his hands in his pockets.] A game for one?

You're welcome to take the other seat, if you like. [ She starts putting the pieces back in place, leaving the unfamiliar, strawberry-haired girl swinging a purse in the middle, however. ]

I've simply been playing out... strategies.

Is that so?

[He calmly takes a seat before her, casually dangling a hand on the back of the chair, leaving the rest of his arm to dangle off the back as he leaned back, the fedora coming slightly askew. His body language was relaxed and casual— perhaps overly so— but exuded confidence nonetheless.

A faint metallic scent clung to him, as well as a somewhat stronger scent of something burnt; of course, there was also the usual scent of sulfur. He looked somewhat disheveled, for reasons other than the tipped hat, but he didn't seem to notice or care.]

[ A working man, of course. She had to assume whenever he made time for the Plane, it was after 'work'. And perhaps he wanted to check up on Bernkastel's progress since their meeting? She'd simply have to prove she'd been working on her research since then. Ignoring the rules of chess, she picked up two pieces, and put them behind the little girl.

It was the pieces of the man in the yellow suit with glasses and the man with the red hair, occupying the 'king's' piece. When she moved her hands away from them...

Their hair colors had changed. The redhead now had black hair, and the bespectacled one had blue. A nice hint as to how far she had gotten. ]

I'm getting there. Learning the defensive strategy, so to speak.

[Of course, she'd be right on all accounts.

He watched with mild interest. He wasn't startled by this display of power; compared what he had seen from her before, this was about as shocking as a children's magic show.

But the message hidden in the act was not lost.] I see.

[He was not a talkative one. He seemed to have settled upon watching her for now.]

There's a few more I could place... [ But she doesn't deem them worth mentioning.

She takes her piece, standing on the white pedestal, and positions it opposite of the three pieces. Her hands hover over the discarded seeking out one to represent him-- there weren't many good matches. The blondes were all girls, and the two actual snipers were the rabbit girls to add insult to injury. She could... but she didn't think he'd appreciate her sense of humor.

So she just made him a new piece instead. ]

However, this is what I'm working with so far.

[A wise choice, although, to be truthful, it wasn't likely to bother him that much.

He did not respond with words and his features hardly shifted. All he did was watch. It could be assumed that he was listening, however.]

[ That leaves her with one extra piece on her board now with the addition of one... that won't do. She picks up the piece of the golden witch in the ballgown. Worthless. She tosses it behind her shoulder for her cats to once again, lunge out of the scenery to rip apart. Otherwise, she has absolutely no reaction. ]

You've noticed, right?

[ She points to the now black-haired pointing man behind the girl with the purse. ]

In order to win any game of chess, you need to take the king.

Yeah.

[He finally does speak, lifting his head somewhat, so his dull green eyes could peer out at her between his barely parted long bangs and the shadows cast by his hat.

After a moment, he spoke again.]

You're trying to prolong it, aren't you?

I'm not prolonging anything. I'm working as witches do. Setting up the game to leave no--

[ Flicks over the blue-haired piece. ]

-- Loose--

[ Flicks over the black haired piece. ]

-- Ends.

[ Predictably, flicking over the little girl.

Which was not a lie. He was free to take action whenever he wanted, kill the girl himself. Take her hints and take action there as well. To absorb every single factor and eliminate them before they could be a problem was how Bernkastel worked. ]

If I may ask, what is it to you if one girl dies just because you don't have enough proof on your end, anyway? Why not kill her just in case?

[ And that was a dodge. She'd only gathered enough information that the 'king' was probably a great source of protection, and the bishop, a (dubious? Though she had spoken to him, she couldn't cast down how strong of a verdict) source of protection 'on the other side'. But taking the king would break the rook undoubtedly.

And it was definitely true she could get any information she wanted out of this game at any time and end it within minutes.

But that wasn't how she worked, either. ]

Far be it from me to question it, then. [His voice was laced with sarcasm as he smiled at her moves.

But at her question, there was a subtle change in his expression, although difficult to read. It passed very quickly, lasting for barely a second, before he relaxed into that same smile, though he now brought his hand down from the back of the chair to rest it on his thigh instead.]

It doesn't mean a thing to me. [His tone is as steady as ever and there's nothing to indicate deceit; she should know this to be true.] But, before she dies, I'd like to have a little chat with her... if she really is that woman, of course.

There's information that only she knows that would be indispensable to the Organization, you must understand.

Ah... then that makes quite a bit more sense.

[ She picks up the piece of the girl... revolves it in her hands a little bit, eying it with a very small, unreadable smile. Though the piece was that of Maria, she very clearly saw her target. ]

I want you to know I have more than enough information to break this girl, identity or not. That's a witch's promise. Too many other pieces she'd sacrifice herself on the board to protect, but I'm not going to underestimate a target. That's what fools do in their games. Control is only established at the end.

I really do despise the rising phoenix types. [ She sets it back down again. ] But they have the tendency to crop up.

[He continued to smile.] Good.

An immortal bird, reborn from its own ashes... what sort of person would that be?

The kind of person who occupied the king's piece.

However, he was a fool, and I took his game from right beneath his feet.

Oh?

[He took the cigarette from his teeth and flicked ashes off to his side, to avoid burning his clothes or the table in front of him.]

First, he denied magic.

Then, he became a sorcerer to protect his morals, while still not believing in magic.

Then he trapped himself in a logic error, but eventually got out and killed one of my pieces...

But his playing was so terrible that the game was handed to me despite all that.

Trapped himself in a logic error... do you mean that figuratively or literally?

Figuratively to start, but ending literally.

Trapped in a room with no way out. [ A casual teasip. ] Well... there was one way.

[ And she laughs. ] There was a pair of clippers in that room he was locked in. I suggested if he wanted to get out, he could cut himself up, bit by tiny bit, and throw the pieces down the drain.

[And he can't help but grin when she laughs.] Ridiculous.

Did he try it?

No, but I wish he had been in there long enough to get that desperate.

I'm sure it would have been quite a sight...

Perhaps I should try that sometime. It isn't my style and it wouldn't be exactly the same, but... you'd be welcome to watch, if you'd like.

... To be honest, I've been curious about observing how you work. You went for a clean kill on me, but I wonder if that's always the case?

Oh. [Her curiosity amuses him and he raises his head, eyes gazing in the direction of the starry skies, but unfocused and seeing nothing at all. He fixed his hat, then straightened from his previously relaxed and leaning position, to look her in the eyes. When he spoke, his tone remained calm and casual.]

Unfortunately, that's usually the case.

I often have to work from a distance, so my timing has to be perfect... as fun as it is to watch them dangle.

If I'm fortunate enough to shoot them at point-blank range or just close enough to talk, I find words break them down just as beautifully. [His quiet voice now sounded softly happy, almost enlightened as his sharp, feral grin stretched a mile.] There's no greater pleasure than watching those who were once so proud, grovelling at your feet and begging for mercy. It doesn't matter if the target was a street rat, an actress, or a politician, they're all the same in the end, dragging their knees through the dirt and grabbing onto your clothes like filthy brats.

Those pathetic, wide-eyed faces frozen in fear as their blood pools onto the floor. The smell of burning flesh and the scent of blood... the fear, the shock, the horror in their eyes is what I live for.

But I also enjoy the chase. It's so amusing to watch them run after delusions of escape, solace, sanctuary— when there's nothing waiting for them after the Organization. Nothing at all... nothing but death.

That foolish woman... her older sister was one of those idiots who betrayed the Organization and actually believed she had a chance.

You could say, what I do for a living is my own favourite game, even if I sometimes find the rules stifling.

... We share a lot of the same interests. Indeed,

[ It was written on her face as he spoke. He had been of few words so far-- never so talkative, and people are passionate about their passions. Bernkastel had only gone so far as laughed and claimed to be the cruelest witch in the world-- she'd never admitted to the things that gave her that title-- if he would share so much with her, why not... sound passionate as well?

She creates another chess piece in the palm of her hand-- a redhead (http://images.wikia.com/umineko/images/d/df/Ange.jpg). ]

The chase is marvelous. The blood is delicious. To create something from the very beginning though... build her hopes and dreams simply to see her family living... to be so stupid as to fall for my words without fail, that I bring her as a pawn on my gameboard. While she thought she was high, mighty, and smart-- playing on the right board of the game, she played right into my palm without me even needing to promise a thing.

The delusion that a witch would simply give her whatever she wanted and let her help her brother, under a simple clause that she couldn't tell him who she really was, and he didn't recognize her.

[ She closes her palm over the piece.

Streams of red blood fell from her enclosed palm, and one could easily tell none of it was Bernkastel's. ]

She played her role perfectly. A perfect trump card when he lost his will to fight.

[ She drops what used to be the piece on the table with a splat-- it's just some sort of bloody pulp. ]

She tried to run from that terrible fate when she realized it. She considered betraying me just to selfishly hold her own end... but from the moment she thought I played the role of her savior, she had written the end of her story and burned the book.

We're not so different, after all... [He leaned closer, still smiling that awful, bloodthirsty smile.] You were right. Forgive me, Witch of Miracles, for taking so long to see in you what you so easily saw in me.

[When the blood drips onto the table, there was no longer any trace of that fear from before, when she first displayed her powers, but there was still that excitement, that undeniable thrill that threatened to overtake him at the sight of her power, amplified by his bloodlust.

If she were any other, normal, sane person, the dangerous look on his face just then and the obviousness tenseness of his body would be more than enough reason to escape and never look back. But of course, Bernkastel wasn't any ordinary, plain person.]

What a fool. [Impassioned certainly described his tone of his voice, which was now a pitch lower.]

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[... conversations with Gin can get one-sided very, very quickly? ^o^;]

[HAHA it's okay. Bern doesn't talk much either. ]

[x3; ... I need to get Gin more icons, I'm so picky about them. xDD; ]

[I can totally understand ;o;]

[Particularly awful if you're picky and want the icons JUST RIGHT before you post anything. xD;;]

[I spend like five minutes picking an icon for a tag. I'm like that too ;w;]

[And when I don't find it, I'll go and scour icon communities! I could take ages searching! xD;;;]

[HAHAHA i usually just give up and make my own when i get that far]

[Hah, as do I, but it's difficult when you play a character with short or difficult to find canon~]

[that is very true ;w;]

[Our sad fate. ^^;]

[alas, our tiny mystery canons ;w;]

[Better my mystery canon, I think, than my positively ancient medical drama manga canon. xD;]

[... this is also true /looks at all my old obscure canons and cries]

[^o^; B-but think of how unique our icons must be!]

[HAHA yes it means we are special]

[:D ... and you have managed to get Gin chatty. Congratulations, a wall-o'-text this way comes!]

[... you just got her on the best topic ever.]

[... and I'm not sorry; but you know, you started it first! But now poor Gin's all excited.]