005

[durch-feuer.livejournal.com]

{Today is a good day for Dietrich! He's not stuck doing paperwork or anything menial, oh no. Now he has a nice puppet to play with and spark any kind of conflict to create the new order that the Orden so wants. But Dietrich doesn't care about that. It's just fun. ♥

But anyways, he's indulging in one of his favorite hobbies. With delicate silk gloves on, Dietrich is carefully reading a book that is obviously very, very old. Turning the pages is a careful process, but he's reading the book with interest. The book, though, is Mein Kampf, which Dietrich was quite happy to get his hands on at all. Such antiquated books are a rarity.}

Comments

[brigadiertardis.livejournal.com]

So your family was killed by the vampires? Were they enemies, or killed for killing's sake?

[smiles] It is no matter. Knowledge is something to be shared, after all, and I have so much knowledge to give.

[durch-feuer.livejournal.com]

Simply for killing's sake. I was the only survivor of my village.

It's still very kind of you. {Flipping through} Well, at least there seems like minimal differences. Most likely translation error.

[brigadiertardis.livejournal.com]

So, in a way, you are the last of your kind?

Do you need me to retranslate a passage, then?

[durch-feuer.livejournal.com]

Of my village, I guess you could say that. Somehow, I was spared. The sisters said it was because God was smiling upon me that day, but...to be honest, I'm not really one for religion. The sisters were very kind and I appreciate them taking care of me, but...I didn't always agree with the things they said. Ah, I guess you would understand that.

Oh, no, it's fine. The meaning is still the same. It's just the choice of words or grammar. When you translate it back into German, it's the same.

[brigadiertardis.livejournal.com]

Ah, yes, that is something I am quite familiar with. I have been told a great many things I did not agree with during my lifetime. Still, I am curious as to why you were spared. It seems a mystery to be solved, does it not?

[durch-feuer.livejournal.com]

I imagine that for you it would be especially true of things like religion. They aren't very logical, but we humans seem to like them. Ah, but that? Luck, mostly. They killed my father first, and just set the house on fire. Everyone else burned to death, but I managed to get out and hide in the woods until they left. I heard later it was because my father was a noble. Our town was killed by extremists that go by the same kinds of principles as this book.

Methuselah think that they're superior in every way.

[brigadiertardis.livejournal.com]

Religion is such a quaint and contradictory belief structure. I have never understood why you humans latch onto deities, especially considering most of them are simply alien races looking to usurp power within your sector of the galaxy. Still, it seems odd no one should have seen you escape, or that you would not have taken any with you. How did you survive the fire in the first place?

[sniffs] Vampires are hardly superior to anything.

[durch-feuer.livejournal.com]

Ah, is that what it really is? It'd be interesting to tell the dogs at the Vatican that. {Simply} Because, even if they're stronger and faster, vampires are very stupid. Even a seven year old boy could outsmart them. I tried to help my family and servants out, but...Mother just wanted me to be safe. The stairs had burned out, and we were on the third floor, so...I jumped. Or, I guess, it's more like Mother threw me. The porch broke my fall, but I still broke and arm and got burned pretty badly from the rubble. {He rolls up the sleeve of his shirt to show a pale scar on his arm; in reality, it was from his early days at the Rozencruez Orden, but a scar is a scar for the purpose of the story} I still have a scar from the wood cutting into my skin, but other than that...I survived.

It hurt more than anything I can remember, but I was so afraid for my life that I just ran into the woods to hide in the river. Vampires have a better sense of smell, but it's like a fox's trick with a dog. In the water, the smell doesn't carry. I had to wait in the river until dawn, but...Well, despite all of that, I'm grateful that I lived at all.

{Simply} Well, I have to admit that they definitely win when it comes to the physical, but I've never met one that's actually smart. But with my line of work, it's always kind of funny to see them squirm when they receive orders from me. They hate it.

[brigadiertardis.livejournal.com]

More often than not, yes. And I suppose that is a satisfactory answer, though it still leaves me questioning why no others considered running for the river. Unless you were the only house close enough? Not knowing the layout of your village makes it difficult to assess. Still ... it seems you turned out none the worse for wear after your attack. Is that what turned you to this line of work? Or was it more the chance to see them squirm, as you put it?

[durch-feuer.livejournal.com]

Well, it was the noble's house, so it was distanced from everyone else's. As far as I know, no one survived, but who knows? Maybe someone was smart enough to. I had to go to the next village as soon as I could afterwards because of my arm.

{Laughs a little} No, not really. I grew up as a orphan of the church, and it was when an officer of the Orden was wandering by that I decided to go. The church held little for me, despite how much I liked it. It wasn't until I arrived that I found out that it was an organization of vampires. There's only two humans in it; myself and the officer that came through.

[brigadiertardis.livejournal.com]

It would be interesting to find out, at any rate.

So this organisation ... you and the other human are in charge of it? You control the vampires? Don't you fear they may revolt against you?

[durch-feuer.livejournal.com]

Ah, no. The person in charge of it is neither vampire nor human. He's a scary person, to say the least. {Laughs} Oh, no, not at all. I'm not towards the top without reason. I can't match their speed or strength without magic, but I have something that I can use to keep them in line.

[brigadiertardis.livejournal.com]

How can one be neither human nor vampire? Are there other species in your reality? [nods] And what might that be?

[durch-feuer.livejournal.com]

There's one more. When the colonists went to Mars, there was actually two diseases. One of them turned people into Methuselah, and the other was deadly. Records say that anyone infected by that virus died. But apparently, the colonists introduced that virus to a few fetuses, and those babies lived. They were called Krusnik, and are superior to vampires in every way. They're vampires that drink the blood of vampires. I've met two of them in my life. One is the leader, the other is his brother. They're really scary creatures.

{With a smile} My "magic" for one, my brain second, and this technology last.

[brigadiertardis.livejournal.com]

So you work under a race of creatures who are still vampiric, only they hunt and feast on the blood of the vampires who killed your family? I must say, it is all highly fascinating.

Do you believe those three factors can allow you victory over anything? Magic, after all, is nothing but cheap parlour tricks and conjures of light.

[durch-feuer.livejournal.com]

Yes. Lord Cain isn't a person that's seen a lot by anyone with about...a lower rank than I, but an unruly soldier will become his feast. I've only seen it once, but {Wrinkles his nose} it's still disgusting.

Not anything. I have no intentions to go against my superiors yet. In the Orden, rank is based on power, and almost nothing else. But magic is hardly a cheap parlour trick in my world. Magic is what lets me put my hand through a vampire's chest without getting a drop of blood on me. It doesn't kill them, of course, but it reminds them of their place.