Post by Carmilla Karnstein on Oct 7, 2017 22:09:40 GMT -5
Carmilla Karnstein
SETtheSCENE
Name: Well technically it's Countess Mircalla von Karnstein, but she hasn't gone by that in over 300 years...
Nickname: Carm, Kitty (but ONLY her siblings get to call her that), whatever anagram of her name she's feeling in this decade...
Gender: Cis Woman
Age: Appears 18, is actually 335
Sexuality: Lesbian
Fairytale: Carmilla
Year: 7
Face Claim: Natasha Negovanlis
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Personality: On the surface, Carmilla seems to be a jaded soul. She's sarcastic, moody, and comes off as taking nothing that matters to anyone else seriously. There's a mischievous streak in her that fuels the last assumption, as she seems to take pride in getting a rise out of the more passionate people of the world, because to her, there's very little point in caring about anything, because nothing we do really matters in the grand scheme of things...at least, that's how she wants you to think she is. How much of this front is genuine, and how much of it is an attempt to push people away from her is up for debate, even for her...because she KNOWS she deeply cares. And you can see that in how much she loves art and philosophy, how eloquent she is while describing her feelings about a specific piece, or explaining a school of thought that she's intrigued by. She may have even convinced herself that she doesn't care about the petty goings on with mortals, but she loses her certainty whenever she comes across a beautiful work of art. She's very much a classics nerd, but doesn't close herself off to ANYTHING new...but if she comes across something bad, especially vampire related, she won't be quiet about her disdain for it, because pop culture has SO much to answer for.
There are few times when she’ll drop the bitter act, but she’ll always do it when she’s encountering an attractive girl. She may not think she’ll ever find love again, but despite being a vampire, she’s still a woman with needs, and even the trappings of being a couple works to fill the empty hole in her heart, if only for a little while. She’s actually quite charming, and it’s rare that she can’t convince a girl who likes girls to at least have a drink with her…and perhaps have a drink FROM her, depends on how her supply of blood bags is doing.
Deep down, she’s a sensitive girl who probably falls for anyone who sees past her rough exterior and sees her as a person. Her siblings may tease her for falling in love so easily, but she really doesn’t. Infatuations, sure, those come easy (though less and less so as time goes on), but love…after Elle? She’s fairly certain that’s not possible.
Appearance: Carmilla has black curls that fall past her shoulders, deep brown eyes that are either glinting with mischief or offering sharp glares, and a slightly pointed nose over full lips that are usually a healthy shade of red, so long as she’s had her regular supply of blood. She tends to become much paler and sicklier if she’s been deprived of blood. Fortunately that rarely happens. Her features are sharp, but in a strangely beautiful way, like an Old Hollywood actress.
She’s actually quite short, but you’d never notice it with the way she carries herself. Perhaps it’s her noble blood, perhaps it’s the fact that she can easily rip off your limbs, but either way, she certainly doesn’t behave like a small girl. Despite years of loving a good gown, in modern times she leans more towards a “punk rock” sense of fashion, though she still has an affinity for corsets, especially if they’re black.
History: She was born Mircalla, daughter of the Count Karnstein in Styria, a duchy of Austria in 1680. She was certainly pampered, and by all appearances wanted for nothing, but she was an isolated girl who seemed to be only born to further the family line, her father more than eager to sell her like chattle when it came time for her to marry. In fact, when the time came for her to finally attend a ball on her eighteenth birthday, she was chattering one of her servants' ears off, saying, "I've never had a friend, shall I find one tonight?" Much as she loved the fancy gowns and the dancing, she wasn't terribly interested in finding a husband...although when she was murdered that night, whatever she thought of it hardly mattered.
Death was only the beginning for her, however, when a mysterious woman she would know as "Mother" brought her back to life as a vampire. Along with Mother came a woman named Matska Belmonde, or Mattie as she would know her, who she quickly considered to be one of the few people in this world she could truly trust, her sister in bond if not in blood. The wide world opened for her in death as it had never done in life, and she found a freedom she knew deep down she would never have known, even as a wealthy Countess. The three traveled the world, dancing in the mirrored halls of Versailles, seeing Elektra in Paris, witnessing revolutions and technological advances, all while feasting on blood, although she would often plead for certain victims because they had some kind of talent, or were just so beautiful, or kind...she learned to quiet down about that after a couple of centuries, however. Particularly after Elle...
See, every twenty years, her Mother would take her back to Styria, have her appear to be the victim of a carriage crash or be abandoned at the ball, and would make sure some kind strangers (that preferably had a young girl in their care) took her in. She would become fast friends with the girls, who would soon after fall ill, and be taken away by Mother for some strange ritual. She tried hard to not think about it until she met Elle in 1872. In spite of herself, she fell madly in love with Elle, and her feelings were returned, so there was a plan to run away together...but Maman ruined it all, and Carmilla was forced to watch Elle be taken away, while screaming at Carmilla about being a monster. What was worse was that Maman trapped her in a coffin of blood, where she rotted for seventy years, until a bomb blasted her coffin open.
Her mother found her in Paris in the 50s, and dragged her back into her plan. Carmilla wasn't quite as pleased with the idea any longer, but couldn't outwardly admit to it, so she found every means to secretly sabotage her mother's plans whenever she could. She'd tell you (if she were to) that it was purely out of revenge for Elle...but deep down she never thought this was right and just didn't have the heart to admit it. Silas University has probably lost a lot less girls than it could have because of her, not that she'd ever admit to being a hero. Besides, it pisses off her new adoptive brother Will, who Maman acquired during the 30’s, and that is more than fun.
This has gone on for nearly another seventy years...and she knows the horror that her mother has been subjecting girls to now...but before she could really decide what to do about it, she's found her way into some kind of portal, to a whole new school...and honestly, being free of this once again is leaving her feeling pretty fantastic.
Other: She can turn into a panther, has pyrokinesis, is incredibly fast and strong, and might have some supersonic scream abilities….
TELLtheTALE
Sample Post:
You would think that she would eventually tire of gazing up at the stars. Of all the things that she had witnessed in her three centuries of life, the stars were the ones where if there was change, not even her vampiric senses would allow her to perceive that. She knew from her studies that they MUST change, that some of the stars she was looking at might have died millions of years ago…but that was part of the intrigue for her, she realized. Even before discovering that fact, she had found comfort in the stars, how they were so far away. It was a reminder that everything on earth was probably meaningless. After all, if there was intelligent life on some distant planet, wouldn’t Earth probably look as tiny if they ever COULD see it?
So why didn’t that perspective save her from being hurt?
Why did this particular day always hurt, even after a hundred and forty five years?
Couldn’t the ghost of Elle that existed only in her head ever leave her be?
She growled under her breath, and made her way towards the mini fridge (because really, what was the point in having a full sized one when all she really ate was chocolate and blood?), and proceeded to tear at the nearest blood bag with the ferocity of the panther that she sometimes turned into, the panther that could rip out a throat even better than her fangs could. It offered some solace, the burst of violence, but not very much.
If Mattie were here they would have started hunting already, and probably had several glasses of champagne from Paris while they were at it. She thought of just doing that on her own, but it just didn’t have the same appeal…so she simply wetted her lips to get every last drop of blood from her last swallow and let out a sigh.
A hundred and forty five years since Elle was taken from her.
A hundred and forty five years since her second life ended, in a way. She had been buried in a coffin, after all…and the worst of it was that she knew, deep down, she was grateful for that. Carmilla never liked missing anything, because what was the damn point of immortality if she didn’t get to see everything, but…she really wished she had missed Elle’s final moments. Because as she watched Elle being taken, watched her scream, watched her eyes fill with hatred against her, she wished for death. Perhaps that was part of why Maman had a far easier time burying her than she should have.
She shook her head, eyeing the nearby speakers for her phone, and immediately plugged it in, using all her vampiric speed to get her little apartment filled to the brim with angry punk music. Music so loud that she hoped that it would fill her veins and shoot right into her brain so that there was no room for thoughts of her lost love…and while she was at it, perhaps the champagne was more for her and Mattie, but surely some of the wine would be appropriate for a lonely night…
