for paradisa
NAME: Ian
JOURNAL: pridefall
EMAIL: meaculpable AT live DOT com
AIM: priestlyish
WIKI NAME: pridefall?
CHARACTERS: None
CHARACTER NAME: Dietrich Von Lohengrin, the "Marionettenspieler"
FANDOM: Trinity Blood
CANON: Right after being Radu is destroyed by Seth.
WHAT THEY LOST: All memories of Esther Blanchett; it's as if she never existed to him.
PERSONALITY: Dietrich is your classic example of a person with a nonsexual sadistic personality disorder. He enjoys hurting people both physically and emotionally, enjoys watching others squirm under his "attention", and, above all, he loves being perceived as superior. As a brilliant, rather amoral child, he began his first fascination with death after his father tried to have the boy killed, sealing his fate and the fate of everyone else who lived with Dietrich. Men, women, children, his own family: the boy slaughtered them all through some unknown means and continued to rule on in his father's stead, his interest in violence and death making him a vile, cruel ruler that would rather experiment on the populace of his homeland than help them in any capacity. Dietrich, quite literally, has no remorse for what he does, no hesitance or need to hurt others. In his pursuit for knowledge, he simply does these evil things, and take a sort of detached amusement from it: to him, humans and vampires are merely playthings, and if one breaks? It's simply time to move on to the other one. He is a master of being two-faced, with no physical tells that show he may be being duplicitous or false. In fact, he goes through such lengths to be false that it's hard to tell if he's ever telling the truth.
That said, Dietrich -- for all of his supposed "Genius" and love of violence -- is a rather frail teen when it comes to having the tables flipped on him. The very few times we're shown that things have gone outside of his control, we see that Dietrich is both subject to freezing in terror and flipping out if pressed too hard, an obvious sign of Dietrich not being all the "emotionless" monster he portrays himself to be. He'd rather run to fight another day than die for his loyalty; a survivalist at heart.
THIRD-PERSON WRITING SAMPLE:
The second day after they meet, Dietrich invites Isaak to the manor for a chess game. He expects it to be a short, necessarily contrite affair between the two of them; a meeting of the minds where they would each probe the other's strengths and weakness, feigning weakness and innocence all the while. As was necessary for this type of agreement, Dietrich would show more of his hand than Isaak would, and would have to keep any talking on his part so that he sounded more interested than he genuinely already was, while Isaak, Dietrich knew, would play the part of unaffected proprietor, aloof and slightly dangerous in everything he said and did.
The atmosphere would be polite, controlled bullshit on both of their parts. He knew that Isaak only wanted one thing from him, and one thing only.
The question was whether or not he would take it.
Dietrich stares hard at the long-haired man seated before him, his fingers gently drumming against the table while he watches Isaak make his move. While Isaak is not exactly an imposing figure, the way he holds himself screams otherwise: smiling as if he were in on some great secret, his eyes never hinting at malice or anger whenever Dietrich honestly tried to press his buttons.
"Tick tock, mien fruende."
Isaak calmly looks up from the board, and smiles almost wolfishly. Knight to E-5.
"Check."
The utter emotionless of it made Dietrich want to break him all the more.
"Excellent maneuver."
Whenever he's sure he can get away with it, Dietrich sneers at Isaak. It's a small enough victory to calm him; to keep him in interested in what's going on when he's otherwise making sure to keep his smile sanguinely pleasant, his demeanor affably blank and calm. Dietrich is not used to being forced to "match wits" with another, but Isaak -- Isaak is the type of man that pushes his limits without questioning their existence, forcing him to bite his tongue and observe instead of act right out.
"Bishop takes pawn. Check."
Thus far, the games that they have played -- both on and off the chessboard, always flirting with disaster, never giving the other quarter -- are like trying to balance an infinite number of spinning plates: Deitrich must always be on guard, must always think four steps ahead in order to circumvent what Isaak wants him to believe is the inevitable.
"Do you mind if I smoke?"
Dietrich laughs.
"Of course, of course. I would be a bad host if I said no!"
There were only so many moves a person could make, in chess. Dietrich watches Isaak as he makes his ploy for time, his fingers already beginning their incessant drumming while the man reaches into his coat pocket and fishes out a cigarette.
He'll give the man a minute to enjoy himself.
"I believe we're done here."
Dietrich feigns surprise, his face twisting into an uncertain mask while he silently relishes the victory, however hollow it may be. Isaak came here for something, and it certainly wasn't chess.
"Oh?"
Isaak nods, and stands up. Dietrich follows suit, making sure to keep his head just slightly inclined.
"I've learned everything I came to learn."
Dietrich smiles.
"You threw the game."
A pause.
Dietrich bows at the waist. It was time to finish what Isaak had started by setting foot in his house.
"In order to gauge my reaction: you came here, settled on something innocuous to do, and then let me win to show your magnanimity" another small laugh. "And now, you will leave my house and conveniently leave behind the extra Orden Jacket you brought with you, to make me deliberate my decision even further."
Isaak is silent. Dietrich knows -- oh, how he knows -- that the man must be silently counting his options; reviewing everything he has done up to this point to see if he has made enough of an impression on him or not.
"It was rather necessary. I've already made my decision."
He stands up straight, looks Isaak in the eye, and smiles as wide as he can.
"Tell Herr Nightroad that I've every intention of helping him burn the world clean."
What else could he do, anyway?
"Igne natura renovatur integra."
The Orden's goals matched up so perfectly with his own, after all.
FIRST-PERSON WRITING SAMPLE:
Once upon a time there was a greedy, selfish dog, and that dog ended up stealing a steak from a butcher because it was hungry.
[ A small laugh ]
On the dog's way home, however, he had to cross a wooden bridge, and, in doing so, he happened to catch a glimpse of his own reflection in the rushing waters below.
[ Paaaause ]
Now, because the dog was greedy, I'm sure you all can guess what happened next, can't you? The dog, being the capricious beast that it was, barks to try and frighten the poor thing away, and ends up dropping the steak he had stolen into the rushing waters below, where it was washed away with the current, never to be seen again.
I'm sure you can all appreciate the irony, no~?
[ Another laugh ]
Now, tell me, if we should not fault animals for going along with what is simply their nature, how, exactly, can we do the same to people?
JOURNAL: pridefall
EMAIL: meaculpable AT live DOT com
AIM: priestlyish
WIKI NAME: pridefall?
CHARACTERS: None
CHARACTER NAME: Dietrich Von Lohengrin, the "Marionettenspieler"
FANDOM: Trinity Blood
CANON: Right after being Radu is destroyed by Seth.
WHAT THEY LOST: All memories of Esther Blanchett; it's as if she never existed to him.
PERSONALITY: Dietrich is your classic example of a person with a nonsexual sadistic personality disorder. He enjoys hurting people both physically and emotionally, enjoys watching others squirm under his "attention", and, above all, he loves being perceived as superior. As a brilliant, rather amoral child, he began his first fascination with death after his father tried to have the boy killed, sealing his fate and the fate of everyone else who lived with Dietrich. Men, women, children, his own family: the boy slaughtered them all through some unknown means and continued to rule on in his father's stead, his interest in violence and death making him a vile, cruel ruler that would rather experiment on the populace of his homeland than help them in any capacity. Dietrich, quite literally, has no remorse for what he does, no hesitance or need to hurt others. In his pursuit for knowledge, he simply does these evil things, and take a sort of detached amusement from it: to him, humans and vampires are merely playthings, and if one breaks? It's simply time to move on to the other one. He is a master of being two-faced, with no physical tells that show he may be being duplicitous or false. In fact, he goes through such lengths to be false that it's hard to tell if he's ever telling the truth.
That said, Dietrich -- for all of his supposed "Genius" and love of violence -- is a rather frail teen when it comes to having the tables flipped on him. The very few times we're shown that things have gone outside of his control, we see that Dietrich is both subject to freezing in terror and flipping out if pressed too hard, an obvious sign of Dietrich not being all the "emotionless" monster he portrays himself to be. He'd rather run to fight another day than die for his loyalty; a survivalist at heart.
THIRD-PERSON WRITING SAMPLE:
The second day after they meet, Dietrich invites Isaak to the manor for a chess game. He expects it to be a short, necessarily contrite affair between the two of them; a meeting of the minds where they would each probe the other's strengths and weakness, feigning weakness and innocence all the while. As was necessary for this type of agreement, Dietrich would show more of his hand than Isaak would, and would have to keep any talking on his part so that he sounded more interested than he genuinely already was, while Isaak, Dietrich knew, would play the part of unaffected proprietor, aloof and slightly dangerous in everything he said and did.
The atmosphere would be polite, controlled bullshit on both of their parts. He knew that Isaak only wanted one thing from him, and one thing only.
The question was whether or not he would take it.
Dietrich stares hard at the long-haired man seated before him, his fingers gently drumming against the table while he watches Isaak make his move. While Isaak is not exactly an imposing figure, the way he holds himself screams otherwise: smiling as if he were in on some great secret, his eyes never hinting at malice or anger whenever Dietrich honestly tried to press his buttons.
"Tick tock, mien fruende."
Isaak calmly looks up from the board, and smiles almost wolfishly. Knight to E-5.
"Check."
The utter emotionless of it made Dietrich want to break him all the more.
"Excellent maneuver."
Whenever he's sure he can get away with it, Dietrich sneers at Isaak. It's a small enough victory to calm him; to keep him in interested in what's going on when he's otherwise making sure to keep his smile sanguinely pleasant, his demeanor affably blank and calm. Dietrich is not used to being forced to "match wits" with another, but Isaak -- Isaak is the type of man that pushes his limits without questioning their existence, forcing him to bite his tongue and observe instead of act right out.
"Bishop takes pawn. Check."
Thus far, the games that they have played -- both on and off the chessboard, always flirting with disaster, never giving the other quarter -- are like trying to balance an infinite number of spinning plates: Deitrich must always be on guard, must always think four steps ahead in order to circumvent what Isaak wants him to believe is the inevitable.
"Do you mind if I smoke?"
Dietrich laughs.
"Of course, of course. I would be a bad host if I said no!"
There were only so many moves a person could make, in chess. Dietrich watches Isaak as he makes his ploy for time, his fingers already beginning their incessant drumming while the man reaches into his coat pocket and fishes out a cigarette.
He'll give the man a minute to enjoy himself.
"I believe we're done here."
Dietrich feigns surprise, his face twisting into an uncertain mask while he silently relishes the victory, however hollow it may be. Isaak came here for something, and it certainly wasn't chess.
"Oh?"
Isaak nods, and stands up. Dietrich follows suit, making sure to keep his head just slightly inclined.
"I've learned everything I came to learn."
Dietrich smiles.
"You threw the game."
A pause.
Dietrich bows at the waist. It was time to finish what Isaak had started by setting foot in his house.
"In order to gauge my reaction: you came here, settled on something innocuous to do, and then let me win to show your magnanimity" another small laugh. "And now, you will leave my house and conveniently leave behind the extra Orden Jacket you brought with you, to make me deliberate my decision even further."
Isaak is silent. Dietrich knows -- oh, how he knows -- that the man must be silently counting his options; reviewing everything he has done up to this point to see if he has made enough of an impression on him or not.
"It was rather necessary. I've already made my decision."
He stands up straight, looks Isaak in the eye, and smiles as wide as he can.
"Tell Herr Nightroad that I've every intention of helping him burn the world clean."
What else could he do, anyway?
"Igne natura renovatur integra."
The Orden's goals matched up so perfectly with his own, after all.
FIRST-PERSON WRITING SAMPLE:
Once upon a time there was a greedy, selfish dog, and that dog ended up stealing a steak from a butcher because it was hungry.
[ A small laugh ]
On the dog's way home, however, he had to cross a wooden bridge, and, in doing so, he happened to catch a glimpse of his own reflection in the rushing waters below.
[ Paaaause ]
Now, because the dog was greedy, I'm sure you all can guess what happened next, can't you? The dog, being the capricious beast that it was, barks to try and frighten the poor thing away, and ends up dropping the steak he had stolen into the rushing waters below, where it was washed away with the current, never to be seen again.
I'm sure you can all appreciate the irony, no~?
[ Another laugh ]
Now, tell me, if we should not fault animals for going along with what is simply their nature, how, exactly, can we do the same to people?