Searching for information (open)

Bernd sat quietly in one of the over stuffed chairs, hunched over a number of musty old tomes, all spread out on the table before him, bookmarks here, little scribbled notes there, from most outside perspectives, the table he occupied was a mess, but he knew where every scrap was, what it referenced and how it was related to his little angel. Bernd's body was warped and twisted, his bulbous and lopsided head tilted to the side so that he could read and comprehend the many different dialects, languages and tomes. His sunken eyes made him difficult to truly look in the eye, add that to his crooked and warped form, a myriad of scars and stretchmarks over his wispy and broken form, and a mouth full of crooked and yellowed teeth, and you have what the humans frequently refer to as a monster.

Something was coming up the elevator, and while he wasn't particularly keen in sight, his other senses had been honed through years of isolation and practice. Very few Kindred bothered with the Tremere, especially in Nagasaki, and fewer still would invade one of their libraries. He'd never felt or sensed a presence like the one that seemed to be approaching. Bernd was not a fighter, in fact, he was a far better teacher and caregiver. Given his grotesque form and body, it wouldn't be very easy for him to do either as most Kindred and Kine tended to avoid him like some kind of plague victim. Which wasn't entirely inaccurate.

Those sunken little eyes turned up to look in the direction of the intangible silver orbs. Not that he could see them, more that he could 'sense' their presence. "I don't see many sets of silvery eyes, and you are most certainly..." He coughed, hard for a few moments, reaching across his chest with a gnarled and twisted appendage that passed for his hand. "Ehem, most certainly not my Prince. I don't know anyone else with eyes like those." His voice was rough and gravely, as softly spoken as he was, there was always that almost unpleasant tone, caused by the warping and flaying his vocal chords suffered during his change from human too... Whatever he was.

"Come out..." He asked softly, trying to keep his voice as soft and welcoming as possible. "The Sorcerers here have given me this room for a few evenings..." Again gravely and unpleasant as his voice sounded, there was no hostility or aggression in his ugly voice. "If you're here to read..." More coughing and sputtering as spittle dripped down from his twisted and gouged lips. "If you're here to learn, I'll share a seat with you." Even the old monster knew it was often times better to meet an unknown with kindness, rather than hostility and unpleasantness. It was after all he had to offer.

Bernd smiled up toward the creature that reminded him of the Prince whom had graced his angel with her protection. His smile was crooked and twisted that looked more grimace of pain than actual smile, but it was as close to a genuine smile as the Nosferatu could get. Rising from his seat, he stepped back clumsily, one leg obviously twisted and broken in such a way that it hindered his movements. Shuffling his papers into the books near him he motioned for the creature to sit where he'd just been.

"Amy is a gracious Prince." There was obvious adoration for the aforementioned Prince in his gravely tone. "And the one you call Eto is very odd." He pulled out the chair, moving the books to one half of the table. "If it's information you seek, you've come to the correct Kindred in the correct place." Bernd tried to smile again, that same yellow crooked smile. "And most certainly not. Sorcerers and technology rarely mix equitably." He waved a crooked mass of a hand toward the chair he'd just vacated moving himself off toward the side of the table he'd moved all of his papers and books towards. "The seat is yours. I can stand."

Bernd turned his beady eyes towards his books for a moment then back toward the silver eyed creature. "They call me Bernd here, may I ask what you are called ma'am?" He asked shuffling some of his to the side. "Information on Prince Amy comes in two pieces, it depends on which you would like to know about. Would you like to know about Prince Amy Sorel, or Prince Amy O'Connor? I ask only because though they are the same person physically, they are not the same person. Amy Sorel is a cold unforgiving Prince with regard only to her laws and her codes. Amy O'Connor, Octavian O'Connor's wife is a kind Prince, known for offering creatures like myself sanctuary and kindness. In regards to historical records, this city has stood under the Prince's control for only the last twenty or so years, the history is not terribly long or well documented by the sorcerers yet." Bernd offered the information freely. No one would come bearing the Prince's approval without actually having it, and Amy had shown him grace when he himself looked to only be the monster. If she was indeed a friend of Amy O'Connor, he'd be sure that she was treated as a friend.

Bernd nodded a bit understanding and pulled a book clumsily into his misshapen hand. The tome was rather thin as far as tomes went, and he wiped some of the dust off of it with his other hand, every movement looked strained as if the effort to simply swipe his hand across the cover was painful to him. "This should help Lady Thorn." His gravely voice had shifted from curious and kind, to scholarly and fatherly. "It amazes me how truly ignorant of vampire culture, you and Etonis seem to be." He coughed a bit, his head jerking into his arm to keep the tome safe from the spittle and phlegm that dripped from his lips. "Etonis is a vampire. Vampire has very negative connotations to the people here. We prefer to call ourselves Kindred."

Bernd would place the tome in her hand's should she allow that and shuffled back over to the table, pulling a battered notepad clumsily from the stack of books and papers. The effort to keep everything as neat as possible was obvious as his gnarled hands jerked in response to a stack of papers almost falling over. He held out the pad of paper with a pen already clipped into some of it's pages. "If you prefer notes." He offered, his gravely voice somehow softer. "The Kindred are divided into Clans, and the clans themselves are varying by ability and Patriarch/Matriarch. Each of these thirteen clans are original descendants of Caine. The first vampire." He coughed again and reached for another tome, opening it and setting it down on the table. "The Assamite's, are the silent masters of assassination, often times they are Mercenaries. This is the clan that we believe Etonis was from. The Brujah are a clan known for their rebel and rogue-like nature, brawlers and brutes are how they are generally seen. The Followers of Set, are a group of Kindred who venerate the Egyptian god Set, and believe he will return to wipe away all of the other Kindred clans because they are unclean."

He paused for a moment coughing violently into one hand. The force of the coughing fit shaking the scholarly monster to his very core. "Then there are the Gangrel, a clan closely related to their beasts, the ones who have the closest kinship to the monster that hides within all Kindred." He continued, trying to lay out his lesson for Thorn's education. His gravely voice getting raspier and raspier, as if long monologues of speech were uncommon for the monster. "The Giovanni are a clan of Necromancer vampires, obsessed with death and the dead, and thinning the veil between life and death. They are an incestuous clan, Siring from only their own families lineage. The Lasombra are a clan of proud nobles who control darkness itself, their Darwinistic ways tend to lead to infighting and treating Kine... That is Humans as if they were nothing but cattle." Bernd stopped for a moment taking some time to breathe and get his cough under control, his beady eyes carefully watching Thorn, wondering at her aptitude for learning and knowledge. "The Malkavian's are a clan cursed by madness, each member of the clan suffers for it and venerates it as if it were a godlike trait. Finn is a Malkavian. I don't know if you've met out resident madman yet." He paused again pondering the Malkavian and their brief interactions.

"The Nosferatu is the clan that I myself belong too. We are all hideously disfigured from the moment we are embraced, we stick to the shadows and collect knowledge and secrets, it is largely this that helps us stay alive. The other clans look down upon us with pity and disdain." Bernd shook his head a bit, he'd long since surrendered to the fact that he would always be a second class citizen, and though Amy made it clear that all were welcome, even she couldn't stop the old animosity towards his clan. "The Ravnos are a clan of illusionist and con's. The Prince's Husband's best friend is a Ravnos, they're all roamers and wanderers, plying their craft and their trade. Their curse is probably the most cruel in this day and age. When they are presented with their tick, which seems to always be a crime of one sort or another, their is a compulsion for them act upon it, and without an iron clad will they are often the victims of their own curse, their ability to create and ply illusions is also a double edged sword. The more they use their abilities, the harder it is for them to differentiate between reality and their own illusions, usually driving them mad long before the sun or any other source kills them."

Bernd paused for a moment, again working to catch his breath. "Clan Toreador..." There was obvious derision in his gravely tone as he spoke of them. "They are the artists, those that are captivated and likewise captured by beauty. It is their curse. They venerate beauty and pleasure above all else, our clans don't often see eye to eye, and it is more often than not that the Nosferatu suffer for it." His hand balled up into a meaty lopsided fist, but only for a moment. This was a lesson, and it would do neither he nor Thorn, the guest of Prince Amy any good to give in to his emotions. "The Tremere clan are blood sorcerers, we are in one of their libraries now. They are extremely powerful with that magic, but that magic comes at a price. Their clan and bloodline came into being through treachery and artifice. The Tzimisce clan are flesh and bone shapers, they bend the flesh of themselves and others into the shapes of whatever they see fit. Most are destructive monsters, working toward their own definition of perfection, regardless of the effect it has on others. Lastly you have the Ventrue, the clan that both Prince Amy and her husband Octavian belong too, they are nobles of the highest degree, they are staunch traditionalists and follow codes and rules that were codified long long ago. Amy is more guilty of this than Octavian. But each rounds the other out. Octavian and his empathy and warmth, Amy and her frozen Logic."

Bernd stopped for a moment and leaned over, suffering from yet another coughing fit. "I apologize if I've inundated you with too much information. It is all there in that tome." He covered his mouth wiping away some more of the spittle. He leaned heavily against the wall and tried his best to smile kindly toward Thorn, regardless of his yellowed teeth and monstrous visage.

When Thorn touched Bernd, she would feel the physical pain he always felt, there like an old battle scar that would never fully heal. It wasn't the type of pain that was simply overcome or ignored. It was a constant in the old Nosferatu's life. The pain was terrible, endless as it would be for the rest of the time he spent among the living. Bernd however, didn't respond to the slight ease of his pain. He knew it would be back, the years he'd tried different painkillers an drugs to ease the pain had taken from him the only thing that held to him any true value. His mind. "Your touch harmed the Prince?" Bernd's gravely tone held no accusation, nor any indication of offense or concern.

He tilted his lopsided head to one side as his thoughts came together slowly. "Your touch perhaps was not the cause of pain Lady Thorn." Bernd heaved a heavy sigh, hunching over in yet another coughing fit. "The Prince is cursed, the fae that cursed her took away something she didn't know she cherished. They took away Amy's ability to feel Warmth, and were it not for her husband, I believe she would feel that same cold every night until there were no more nights..." Bernd shook his head from side to side. "As for her emotional turmoil." Bernd let out a gargling sigh, there was obviously some kind of fluid in his lungs. "Amy came from a time of women having no rights, no reason for being other than bearing children. She was Embraced on her eighteenth birthday. From that point on, she was no longer allowed to do anything but be the perfect lady."

The Nosferatu looked truly saddened by his own admissions. Admissions he and the Prince had spoken of at length. "Worse still, she had to be a perfect Ventrue. Ventrue are known for their stoicism. Emotional outbursts of any kind are looked down upon as weakness. So all of these perceived weaknesses were beaten out of her by her father Christian. It was not beaten in the traditional sense, but the Kindred sense, beatings pain, agony, torment." Bernd coughed a bit more, now gaining a bit more composure and strength. "Then her first Fiancee destroyed her, cheated on her, and betrayed her to those that would break all of Amy's rules and codes. Rules and codes that had been beaten into her for centuries. She, Don and Findero burned the entire city to the ground. She mounted his head and the head of her treacherous best friend on pikes outside the city to serve as a warning." Berned sputtered a bit and took a few deep breaths.

"Then her father disowned her, she had acted within her rules and her training,but for Christian Sorel..." Bernd spat the name out as if it were poison on his mangled tongue. "Christian Sorel was her father. Amy was for all intents and purposes banished to a life of cold solitude until she and her husband Octavian met." Bernd paused for a moment, not really catching his breath but focusing on his thoughts. "Octavian has not broken her curse, not the curse placed by the fae, but he's brought her a level of warmth and kindness that she had never experienced. True kindness, no strings attached. Amy for the first time in over a a thousand years has been allowed to be a person, not a figure head. And that is solely on account of the young Octavian." Bernd reached up wiping more spittle away.

"Allow me to describe the situation for you, so that it is clear how and why things happened the way they did, and you can draw your own conclusions." Bernd moved over toward the table leaning heavily against it, his legs painfully aching. "Amy took Nagasaki from the Eastern Monsters. And in doing so claimed the city for herself. This place has been the only bastion of the Kindred in Asia for the last two decades. She was cold and precise in everything she did. When Octavian was Embraced, he was Embraced to take care of a crippled sire whom abandoned him. He met with the Prince and they made a deal, and through a series of strange events, the pair fell in love. Octavian's honesty and warmth changed Amy, brought Amy a measure of kindness." He spoke of both very fondly, each having earned a place in his battered old heart.

"Then one of Amy's friends died with them both, fighting in a battle. Amy held the funeral, her father came to pay respects. Amy ran to her father for support, and he backhanded her." Bernd looked visibly shaken by the last few words, his lopsided head turning a bit too far to the side. "Then Octavian broke his nose, before the entire gathered crowd which should have been an immediate death sentence for the young man, but he managed to avoid it and garner favor with the queen of all Ventrue. All of those emotions, all of that pain and fear Amy has never been allowed to feel. And not because she can't feel them, not because she doesn't, but before Octavian she simple wouldn't allow herself to feel it, be effected by it. All of those emotions she can't feel are bottled up inside her beast." Bernd coughed hard leaning over the table before gasping for a moment and settling back down.

"Amy is an emotional hurricane because until Octavian brought warmth back into her life. She's never known anything other than her ironclad control." Bernd finished quietly. Amy had confided in him many things, some of which he wasn't really willing to share but the overview he had given her might at least in part enlighten Thorn to what and who it was she was truly dealing with.

The bent and broken Nosferatu was surprised, and more than passingly curious as to why Thorn had decided to touch him. It wasn't often that anyone touched one of his kind. Nosferatu on the whole were used to the solitary, shadowy life that they were forced to live. Touch and normal conversations became things that Bernd for the longest time had completely forgotten, at least until his little angel had come into his life. Thorn would feel pain, not the pain of the crippled or those who were sick, but a pain that would never leave, a pain created by his very Embrace, the curse of his clan. He would forever be torn and broken, nearly sightless save for the hugely corrective glasses he wore, and the dimness of the room he inhabited at the time.

The alleviation from his pain was welcomed, but Bernd was well aware of the implications of that alleviation. "I would help you freely. I do not think it wise that you alleviate my pain." The gentleness in his gravely tone hadn't left, in fact it seemed to have become even more tangible. "I would not wish myself to become addicted to the freedom that only you could supply. I would become no better than an addict." He smiled kindly, apologetically stepping back and away from her touch clumsily. He meant no offense in his statement, and there was no other way he could reasonably and prudently come up with to explain why else he would decline her offer.

"My job here is not one that needs my constant attention Lady Thorn. So long as my little angel is allowed to come with me, I would..." Bernd leaned over again coughing. "I would be happy to assist you." Bernd smiled that crooked yellow smile and studied Thorn, her form seemed to have stilled, and her eyes seemed to fade. He was unsure if she was even still there. He had very little knowledge of Lady Thorn, but if his Prince had no qualm with him assisting her, and Blue was amicable to the idea, it would be a chance to learn many new things, and perhaps help Blue find some friends of her own.

He had no idea what Thorn was exactly, or how she functioned or worked. Her mannerisms reflected that of a scholar, and for that he respected her. Perhaps simply being around Lady Thorn would allow him to learn and understand more of the outside world, and it was always good for a Nosferatu to be useful. Useless Nosferatu generally didn't survive very long. Bernd bowed toward Thorn, at least as much as he was able. "I would not wish to intrude on your conversation, if you wish for some privacy Lady Thorn." He offered another yellow smile, his lopsided head tilting just a bit awaiting her response.

Bernd smiled that kind crooked and yellow smile once again toward Thorn. "My little angel is not here as of now Lady Thorn. She is at home still learning her letters..." The kindness that showed not only in his smile and beady little eyes, but his entire form seemed to only grow in intensity as he spoke of his little angel. "Blue is a kind girl. The Prince has granted us both safety and sanctuary here. I do not think that she would mind if I brought Blue around. My visits could not be nightly however, Blue does have her lessons and she is not deserving of the looks she gets from the other Kindred of the city, but I will be at your disposal." Bernd bowed as best his awkward frame would allow.

Another coughing spell overtook him as he righted himself, forcing him once again to lean against the table. Wiping the mucus and spittle away from his lips he turned back toward Thorn, his beady eyes sharply focused on her, at least as sharp as his almost blindness would allow. "As for my job, I am the Primogen of the Nosferatu. I take care of the needs of my Clan, we are all in some way disfigured. I ensure that we are treated fairly in the court, and I am a historian of sorts. I chronicle all of the events and thoughts that anyone wishes to pass to me, as well as some of the questions I ask the other folks of the city. This isn't truly a job, it is more a hobby to pass eternity as I help little Blue learn, and ensure her protection."

Bernd looked up and into Thorn's eyes. What a strange creature, beautiful to be sure, but wrapped up in so much obvious uncertainty that he couldn't help but feel a bit of sympathy for her. That was after all the position his Clan was in every night that they awoke from their slumber. Were they going to be removed from their homes among the sewers and lower places of the world for their appearance? Were they going to be chastised for something that they had not done, and lose some of the few minor qualities of life that they had managed to glean from the discarded scraps of the other clans? It wasn't as prevalent in Nagasaki, but in many of the other city's he'd been a part of, it was commonplace.