User Profile

Sebastian Michaelis



OOC INFORMATION

Name; Michi
Journal;fantacination
Timezone; +8GMT (South East Asia)
AIM; michikokale
Email;fantacination@gmail.com (can be reached most often in Gtalk; Open to email logs. :D)

IC INFORMATION

Character Name; Sebastian Michaelis
Series/Fandom; Black Butler/ Kuro Shitsuji (series viewable at www.onemanga.com/Kuroshitsuji)

Living in: Scholar District, Apartment 2 Floor 2, Yochi

Appearance; Tall, slender, and pale skinned, Sebastian is a striking figure. It helps that he’s in possession of ridiculously (or, in canon words, indecent) good looks with his narrow blood red eyes, long lashes, beautiful features and leanly muscled physique. His hair is midnight black, short, and a little messy and spiky around the edges, with two long side bangs to frame either side of his face and some strands escaping.

Since a butler must be presentable and in uniform, he almost always dresses in the full apparel of a Victorian butler: white shirt, black tie (or sometimes, a cravat), a vest (usually gray), black pants, and a well pressed black waistcoat with silver buttons and pin. His pocket watch, at the end of a fine silver chain, is always upon his person. He also wears crisp white gloves, the better to hide the violet pentagram etched onto the back of his black-nailed hands. When going outdoors, he dons a black trench coat with matching black gloves.

As a butler, Sebastian keeps a pleasant and polite, (if thoroughly false) smile on his face at almost all times and keeps his posture straight-backed, hands at side, and proper. The items in his pockets range from handkerchiefs to cutlery.


Personality;

The demon butler is a study of two easily shifting and mixing personalities. His butler persona is unfailingly polite, even kind and gentle, at times. He’ll give the servants a pie (granted, it’s not like he can eat it), repair a broken, cherished ring, or carefully tend to a young master. This side of him can also be a bit enthusiastic- he launches into spiels over donburi or Funtom Company’s expansion, all in the name of being the perfect butler. You could say it’s an expression of his pride and dignity as a butler.

The demonic side is cunning, clever and possesses an understated arrogance. This side of him also has a sadistic, ironic, and often dark sense of humor and a kind of backhanded wit- this shows in how he may respond to someone’s comment or how he interacts with his young master in private- casually, if subtly insulting, at times.

As he has been around for several centuries, Sebastian is incredibly charismatic and seductive, with a long, accurate memory and a thorough understanding of both the light and dark sides of human nature. He is able to pinpoint the right words to smoothly placate with half-truths as soon as cut to the bone with sharp, cruel remarks. He can also seduce most average women with his looks and the right manner. (For the most part, however, he seems asexual and uninterested in sex of any kind unless it serves a purpose (information or manipulation, usually), in which case everything (of both sexes) is fair game.)

Sebastian is a demon with very few loyalties: his contract, his aesthetics, and cats. His contract and his aesthetics drive most of what Sebastian does. It is his number one priority at all times and he always adheres to these when acting out his daily life as a butler. The contract is very clear: help Ciel Phantomhive achieve his goal through obedience of orders (by extension: to serve as his butler until such time as the goal is accomplished) and to not let Ciel Phantomhive come to harm or die before the contract is over. Therefore, Ciel’s safety and orders are his priority and he acts accordingly, no matter time or place, although orders are often interpretable for the demon. His aesthetics are connected to this.

Aesthetics demand that he not only perform his duties, but perform them well. That is to say, he always strives to be the perfect butler, keeping the manor running well, cooking masterpieces, dressing and taking care of anything the master may require, or otherwise serving to his utmost. His aesthetics are what defines his existence as a human butler: to be the perfect butler. As such, they are the key to understanding his next move and his decisions. No matter how distasteful, scandalous, or embarrassing the act, he cares little except that the contract and his aesthetics are fulfilled.

While he is, as a result, extremely competent and multi-talented, he is also capricious and prone to exploiting loopholes, particularly when interpreting orders. For example, when asked to investigate, he will give you scrolls of names of possible human suspects, all cross-referenced and narrowed down. Yet he will neglect to tell you the actual culprit is a supernatural being, under the orders of someone very close to you. Similarly, if he is not ordered to do something, he will not do it , unless the integrity of his contract or aesthetics is threatened. Of late, however, he seems to exercise his autonomy a bit more. He tends to undermine Ciel’s authority, almost playfully, whenever he can- either by misinterpretation, lies of omission, or even a simple chuckle behind a gloved hand.

Regarding cats: cats often distract Sebastian from his duties and he shows a very dorky adoration for all things feline, often cuddling with them no matter the time or place—this may lead to minor disasters such as tigers gnawing on his head. On the other hand, the contract does supersede this… obsession. Most of the time.

When dealing with people other than Ciel, Sebastian’s unmasked personality is usually apathetic- even callous, if the situation calls for it. He does make small talk, however, occasionally garnishing it with his trademark inside joke (akumadeshitsujidesu- a pun that can mean either: I am a butler to the core/ I am a demon and a butler). It may also be noted that he amuses himself with teasing. Especially Ciel. On the rare occasions that he meets someone whom garners his respect, conversation does occur. And what Sebastian respects the most are ability (strength or skill) and will- or perhaps simply the sort of stubborn desire for revenge rooted in a deep and abiding hate.

Abilities/Strengths; Being a demon, Sebastian displays superhuman strength, speed, and recovery (his wounds all heal up very quickly- although he may be unable to restore a limb without a soul snack). He can also apparently leap distances and hang upside down from chandeliers while throwing sharp cutlery. He’s proficient at many types of fighting arts, including fencing, staff (er, candelabra) fighting, and hand-to-hand combat, making him a challenging, sometimes deadly opponent.

The Contract (tattooed on his left hand) with his master, Ciel Phantomhive, enables him to know where (when activated) and what status his charge is in.

More on the level of human capabilities, Sebastian is a jack-of-all-trades, able to cook, clean, and even instruct music and dance in addition to fighting. He can master almost any skill, given time. His sense of balance is superb and owing to his supernatural speed, he is an undisputed artist of sleights of hand.

Weaknesses; Sebastian’s weaknesses are a tendency to underestimate (and thus slip up and be caught unaware), Ciel Phantomhive (and his impossible orders) and cats (he lets tigers chomp on his cranium).

With regard to the tendency to underestimate, since Sebastian is not omnipotent, merely clever and intuitive, he can often be surprised or attacked from behind. More than once, either swords or bullets riddle him in holes as a result. He heals well, but anything inflicted on his body still hurts quite a bit. He isn’t immune to pain.

The most crippling weakness may be Ciel’s orders. He cannot disobey them nor allow harm to befall Ciel, although he may choose how to interpret the words. This can be a weakness because if Ciel orders him to suffer torture, he can do nothing else but. Additionally, he sometimes puts a limit on himself or his supernatural powers due to specific orders from Ciel to act ‘like a butler’.

Sebastian, can also, of course, be overpowered by those stronger or more skilled than him.

History;

Ever since the Fall, the Demon, like most of his brethren, walked the earth, tempting and luring humans into sin and devouring their souls. Like many others, he was of few principles, sampling as many human souls as he saw fit, helping start wars, spreading the Black Plague, and generally being mostly destructive with a rapacious appetite for souls. The wanton all-you-can-eat buffet-eating spree lasted for several centuries but inexplicably, the Demon grew tired of the lifestyle. And seeking a change of pace and a delicious soul, he came upon a child being sacrificed by occultists. Drawn by the hate and the absolute will to forsake God, the Demon entered and answered his call, offering a contract to the boy.

Now, the Demon has taken a human form, Sebastian, and is a butler to the boy-master of the Phantomhive household. The current contract is between him and Ciel Phantomhive, detailing an exchange of Sebastian’s services and power for Ciel’s soul at the end of the contract. As such, he’s been living the daily life of a butler for the noble house of Phantomhive. Not an altogether idyllic existence. Daily chores are usually augmented by small disasters in the form of three bumbling servants. Unsavory business partners may also come to call, needing a special sort of ‘hospitality’. And then there is the Phantomhive duty to dispose of any unwanted blights upon the Queen and London. Not to mention there is always the odd curry cooking contests. It’s a colorful existence, certainly.

Three years since the curry cooking contest ended, he’s been serving and teaching the young Earl Phantomhive with no major occurrences and a contract still waiting to be fulfilled. Typically, he’s growing weaker bit by bit on his abstinence from human souls, but a little nip here or there doesn’t seem to go amiss. Whenever the pinch of a situation is a little too tight or when there is an opportunity to get it, Sebastian takes what he can get of human souls. Even the little bit that may be given in sex. After all, it only assures that he is able to perform to his utmost once his master calls for his services.

Until one day he wakes up in a strange city inside a birdcage.

(So yes, his canon will start to diverge from the manga’s curry arc, sans the ticket. With a three year gap wherein it is assumed nothing happens. If the current circus arc concludes and can be incorporated, I’ll probably make references to it, however. I’m not certain how the part about taking souls may be accepted, but we see in the Circus arc that he’s starving, so to speak, and has sex with a woman named Beast from the circus. Without further confirmation, there are a lot of theories flying around- Sebastian being an incubus or something similar being one of them. A death god’s reluctance to let Sebastian go around by himself seems to imply that Sebastian /can/ find loopholes to eat souls if he’s alone and without a master, even if he’s under a contract. I just thought it was an interesting theory.)

IMPORTANT NOTE (mod-advised): Sebastian will be prevented from going hungry while in The City, so he will NOT be taking any souls.

Samples

Third-person sample;

Sebastian inclined his head in a very shallow bow, one gloved hand draped across his chest and his black hair spilling down from his ears. “Excuse me, may I inquire which city we are in?”

The woman didn’t hear him, or didn’t appear to. She simply passed by, a market basket tucked under one arm and staring straight through him. Strange. He was so seldom ignored by females.

Eyes narrowing slightly, Sebastian reached out to tap another passerby on the shoulder. This one seemed to be a laborer, hefting a heavy sack over one arm. “Sir,” he began.

But his hand passed straight through the man, disappearing into his insides and coming right back out. Immaterial.

Ah, he thought, holding up his hand. It seemed that he was no longer quite corporeal to these humans. A glance down at his pressed suit revealed that he was still in human form, so supernatural forces of the demonic kind seemed an unlikely reason for this state of affairs. It was more likely that whatever had brought him here, unconscious, was responsible for his current spiritual state. Although…

Sebastian reached down to pick up a small, trodden flower, fallen from some flower girl’s nosegay of wares. Although it seemed that he could touch physical objects just fine.

Checking his awareness of the contract for the third time since he’d woken, he sensed the small undercurrent in his blood, gathering at the back of his hand. That told him it was still functioning normally. So it seemed that the contract had not been broken nor would soon die in this strange place. This fact filed away, Sebastian found and sank into the awareness of the contract, searching out his young master. There didn’t seem to be any immediate danger to his master’s person. The teen was healthy and unhurt. But the contract hadn’t been activated, yet, and all he could feel was that Ciel was in this strange land with him.

“My, how troublesome…” But he was here. Lips curving into a small smile, Sebastian started towards where most people seemed to be headed (a market square, perhaps?). The young master was doubtless waiting for him. It simply wouldn’t do for the Phantomhive butler to be late.

And as for the strange artifact he’d been given when he woke up… Sebastian glanced down at the compact… device. A communication tool of some sort? Technology seemed to advance so quickly. Human ingenuity, he supposed…

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