Complete - Backdated; A Chess Board

[cutecatenvoy.livejournal.com]

When; Before this log.
Rating; PG-13 due to little war talk.
Characters; Lacroix (master_lacroix) & Schrödinger (cutecatenvoy).
Summary; Lacroix arrives to the City, Schrödinger helps to choose his pawns.
Log;
It was most peculiar that he found himself in such a strange and unfamiliar place. "This is odd," Lacroix said, eyes roaming the area. Where was this place? He had trotted around the globe in his near two thousand years of unlife and had never seen anyplace like the one he was looking upon.

Had he not been standing over his immortal son ready to grant his foolish fledgling's last wish? How cruel and selfish of Nicholas to think of only death and desire his immortal father to carry it out. All of this over mortality, love and a woman...that woman. Lacroix's upper lip partially curled with pent up anger. She had ruined Nicholas with her delusions of giving him back his mortality and Lacroix was glad she was dead. His only regret was not being the one to do her in. Because of her he had lost his son and his daughter. She had robbed of his dear ones and his entertainment. Now whom would he torture and torment and teach the ways of immortality too?

Lacroix pulled himself from his thoughts of what had transpired and still could not think of any logical explanation for what he was seeing. "Perhaps I have finally gone mad," he said aloud. "Or maybe this is my fresh start."

A New World meant he could meet new people and among those new people there had to be someone who could alleviate his boredom...for maybe a few centuries. Why yessss. He could find a few new fledglings of course none could replace his Nicholas or Janette as his favorites but they could at least try. Or they could be doomed to fail...he liked the sound of that.

Bored.

Even with Major here, Schrödinger was bored. The lack of war, fire and conflict made him an unhappy, immortal catboy. He entertained himself in tormenting unsuspecting citizens by stealing some items or misplacing them in their loved one’s rooms to provoke strife. But that wasn’t enough. Only the end of the world would save him from completely boredom.

And that is delaying itself, he thought, yawning.

He took his leave (if he was indeed there) and appeared on the middle of Misery Square, hoping he could meet that Fräu Dorian to look ways for amusement. The vendor had liked last game he played by spinning the carousel faster and have all the idiots of the city in panic.

Grinning, he walked, fully closed on his Hitler Youth regalia and cat ears. If someone had a problem with that, they could go to hell or he would send them there personally. Come out Fräu, I’m bored.

Now that was not something one saw everyday. A boy with cat ears wearing a Nazi uniform...not even during World War II had he ever beheld such a sight. Interesting...not that he cared for Nazis one way or the other but the boy had caught his interest anyhow.

"Feeling restless are we?" Lacroix asked, walking up next to the lad. He always did have a bad habit of skimming across a person's mind upon meeting them.

Schrödinger looked up and blinked. A vampire. He could recognize the lack of proper life of the undead (and the notable smell of blood and clear parlor). He thought about vanishing out his way and ignoring the question but maybe he was worth to annoy at for a while.

“Ja. Very, no war, all this peace gets on my nerves,” he replied, crossing his arms and looking as if he was about to pout. “What about you, Herr Nosferatu? Bored?” He did not recognize him, thus the catboy assumed he just arrived.

"I see not happy unless surrounded by conflict," he stated more than asked. "Me bored? Not at all I just barely got here. You'll have to ask that question after I've been here a few days," Lacroix said amused.

He wasn't necessarily interested in war but causing some good old-fashioned conflict would not be out of the question. "Perhaps you and I can help each other out. Do you like to play games?" he asked, a slight mischievous smile finding his face.

Schrödinger tilted his head and considered. He would see what this vampire had to offer and then chose to play or not along. “Depends which games,” he said conversably. “I dislike the ones that end up shooting my face off. I can’t die, but it hurts and gets messy.”

His ears perked and stared at the vampire, expecting a good option to fight his boredom. “You can’t leave, did you know it? Even if you want to. Nothing can die here, either. The City brings it back.”

Lacroix considered the lad's words for a moment and thought it sounded promising to be in a place where death held no real sway. It meant his games would be all the more promising. "Yes, getting shot in the face would be bothersome indeed. No, I was thinking more about a game of human chess. I do so love to see the pawns moved across the board under my influence. The problem here is that we would need chess pieces for our game."

Schrödinger grinned, tilting his head and rubbing his chin in interest. “You want a guide, ja?” he asked. “Who are you interested in, Herr Nosferatu? We have angels, demons, cyborgs, monsters of nightmares, gods, grim reapers, werewolves, vampires and humans, among them vampire hunters.”

Now that was quite an assortment to choose from indeed. The potential for finding new fledglings as well as poor hapless souls to torment was quite great. If he was going to be trapped he may as well have some fun especially if death was no longer an issue. Lacroix smile widened. "A vast array of chess pieces exist in this world then. Yes, a guide would be quite useful. I'm Lacroix and who might you be?" he asked

“What pieces do you want? Some are dangerous and will make you a pawn,” Schrödinger pointed out with a sinister grin. He straightened and saluted after the introduction. “I’m Schrödinger, warrant officer of the Millennium Group, Herr Lacroix. For war and war.”

"Aw you see therein lies the challenge. If your pawn is able to figure out the identity of the chessmaster than that chessmaster is unworthy. It's a pleasure to meet you, Officer Schrödinger," Lacroix said with a nod.

"The type of pieces I am looking for are the ones that can be influenced by some subtle manipulation and are the most interesting to watch of course. Do you know of any that may need a nudge in the right direction?" Lacroix asked, a Cheshire smile forming across his lips.

“I don’t know much of chess but the Major fancies himself a conductor of our orchestra and we are all his instruments or players,” Schrödinger commented with a grin. He paced around Lacroix, ears perked and expression thoughtful.

“There are many groups in the city but I don’t pay attention to them anymore,” he admitted, shrugging. “I can point you some. There are those who are called shinigami, torn in some nonsensical love affair of star crossed lovers.” He made a face. “Some cult of a red god whose name is too long to remember. They like to punish. The angels of the Cathedral who aren’t very active but Rosiel is a riddle master. There are demons who used to live in the Circus and entities such as nightmares and creatures who are Death, Pestilence, Dream…” He paused. “I don’t remember what the ninjas are doing but they look to have their own inner struggle. Finally, there are Hellsing Organisation and Iscariot Section, the vampire hunters. Those I know well.” He could forget others but wasn’t really into making grand distinctions.

So many groups to work with but admittedly the vampire hunters were the most promising merely because of their occupation. Let it not be said that he did not care for his kind even if most other vampires were not of his elk.

"An interesting concept an orchestra. Your Major sounds like a master in his own right. Well if you know the vampire hunters well then perhaps they should become the chess pieces to seek out. I always did like to set hunters against one another," Lacroix said, watching the boy pace.

In an abrupt display of random insolence, Schrödinger sat near Lacroix’s feet. He scratched his ears and looked up with a grin. “Interested on them? Well, I suppose I could give you some clues. It’s exciting to find out by yourself.”

He motioned his computer screen. “Open it. I’ll tell you who are the members of each organisation. There’s some woman who is a loner but I don’t care for her to find out her data.”

Lacroix looked curiously at the young man, before doing as he asked. "All I need is names I can easily find out what I need as I go," Lacroix said, opening Schrödinger's laptop.

"You'll find that I too am very resourceful when I need too," he added with a grin. "So who are the players that I should be aware of currently?"

Schrodinger motioned his friends list, to Yumiko’s, Heinkel’s and Anderson’s names. “Those are the Iscariot Order. They work from the Vatican, a lovely group of fanatic religious who will think of anyone of demon if goes against their dogma. They are dangerous, the priest in particular. He’s a regenerator and posses use of exorcism abilities.” He cracked his neck, gesturing toward the Hellsing members.

“Next are the Hellsing Organisation, our dear enemies.” He grinned, rubbing his hands together. “They work for the Anglican Church and protect the United Kingdom, less fanatic, they even adopt vampires in their care and accept heathen mercenaries in their ranks. The Hellsings are the best vampire hunters, a proud bloodline of humans with a will so strong that make the undead bow to them.” He gestured to Alucard’s name. “Even the first of all. Herr Alucard, Dracula, the Impaler King, monsters of monsters. Major loves him as well his current master, the beautiful Fräulein Integral Hellsing. Her dead father is also here, but he’s not like her. Alucard has a fledgling, Draculina Seras Victoria, very attached to her human traits. There’s a mercenary who is her sweetheart and oh! Butler, Walter the good butler of the family, now one of us even if he refuses.” He finished, glancing at D’s name. “I don’t know who this is. But he claims to be half vampire, half human and lives with them. I have my theories. He has Fräulein Hellsing’s pretty eyes.”

Lacroix lifted an eyebrow on the information regarding the Hellsings. Dracula? Could these Hellsings be connected to Bram Storker's Dracula novel? How intriguing it sounded. He hated that novel for how it painted vampires but now it seemed in another world the piece of garbage actually held some grains of truth. The religious fanatics were of little interest to him but the Hellsings did sound promising especially if one of their own was some sort of traitor. At least that was what he gathered from Schrödinger's comment on the butler. He would have to check out all of them to be sure but it seemed he found a pet project.

"Most informative, tell me Officer Schrödinger does seeing your dear enemies in disarray entertain you?" Lacroix asked, a smirk forming on his face.

Schrödinger nodded, giving a feline purr of content in answer. He gestured his head. “I do! Enemies! Allies! Anyone! I’m bored with so much peace. I miss people shooting at my head,” he pouted and stood swiftly, giving a salute.

“Who would you contact first?” he asked, curiously. Was this vampire willing to gamble his soul in a game with the Hellsing’s ace of death, perhaps? That would be glorious to watch.

"I'm not sure at the moment. I would have to make some sort of contact first with any of them so that I may touch their minds and see who might be the weakest link. My guess would likely be one of the subordinates; the little fledgling, the mercenary or the butler are good choices," Lacroix admitted lightly.

Any one of them could likely make an excellent student as well since they were involved with Dracula. Lacroix couldn't discredit that as a possible outcome either.

Schrödinger grinned, nodding. “The mercenary has amnesia,” he commented. “Draculina Seras is strong, naïve but strong willed and seeks justice, police officer in life. Butler is Butler, he wants to fight Herr Alucard so very badly, his pride is too much. Just a toy for Doc and Major, he is.”

He stretched his arms, tired of talking. “Just remember to watch out for Herr Alucard and Fräulein Hellsing. Queen and King of the Chess Board. He’s the power and she’s the key of the group albeit she’s the most human just like her father. Both knights and aristocrats. Arthur Hellsing could be a problem if you play with butler. But problems are fun. They are vampire hunters whose close relationships are with vampires. Messy deal. Guten tag, Herr Lacroix! Have fun with your new pawns.”

"Yes, thank you for the information. Do keep your eyes on all the players for I will be making a move really soon," Lacroix said, amused.

The young officer would likely get a show that would entertain him in some manner. Lacroix would see to that in his own way. But first he needed to start moving the pawns into place. Which meant checking out the network more closely.