RE: Leitner- Finishthestory Short Story
Well, first of all, congrats on getting that @curie upvote like our last two entryists (new ones to this week). Very nice to see @curie helping out this community as much as they can while giving a new sense of energy to people where it is needed. So I’m happily swinging at that.
Unto the post: as to keep consistency I shan’t bother with @dirge’s prompt here other than what the closer/ending does with it. As such, I won’t refrain from quoting other commenters from below. Like @dirge’s comment of what hooked him in, and the lines of {"Come now, faster to my bosom." Melinda again} did caught my eye. I was wondering if I stepped into some old Feudal-Mercantile slang period or a Victorian one, both equally dirty contexts for this line. However, what reeled me actually was the first sentence with {"He felt the vampire crouching in the dark corner but went ahead, ignoring the foul and cold presence."} and making me wonder how confident he was. Seeing later that he didn’t exude some dæmon slaying tendency nor a careful vampire hunter, there had to be some trickery he prepared for their trickery. Especially as the @bananafish pointed out with the seductress mannerism of Melinda and how sloppily happy they were to plunge in on Benjamin Leitner. He had to have prepared for their vampiric indulgences, and I cought on as soon as Melinda realized her plan fucked up as Benjamin Leitner went bezerk on them mercs (mercanies). The grand reveal being that he had anti-Vampire / Old Blood / Nephilim coursing in him. Well, he truly was visiting the family and he’s gonna save his name at all costs... which five hundred limit reached, now we have to imagine the fight as Leitner jas probably some Castlevania encounter with Melinda.
La filosofía (The philosophy): Admittenly I like to rather, as to play of @dirge’s remarks on stock vampire characters and the @bananfish’s remarks on betrayal, to suggest this is the return to form of the classic vampires. Or more frankly as you can’t really do that in its purest form, you made a female Dracula story where the victims aren’t only the peasentry and proles but also the excommunicated/diminised/banished ruling class members. Here we can see where his concerns lie and what he does to even protect a name, whether it be for his class interests or securing some path for his future kin if he can get any in the future. Now can we make sense, in one movement, how Melinda was able to swindle him to his grave (acting qua the factionalist ruling class head). And one can say that she has bad reputation, but when was the last time you’ve heard of an affluent person being prisoned and remembered what they did? Now compare that to lumpen and regular proles and how many hands you’ve to steal to make a count such as that. In effect, your ending suggests a very clear inner circuit of class competition inside one’s own classes qua factionalism and the willingness to sacrifice at all costs to get rid of one’s own so one can have a bit more political gravitas over the other. A definite thing we see from the days of first societies to empires like the Han dynasty and Roma to the Feudal World to nowadays with Capitalism in its most economic form, that evem slandering someone has grave economic effects. By leaving the ending blank, it clearly gives way to multiple ending and multiple fights, yet clearly also showcases how even though contingent factors lead up to that scene, no one is sure who wins ‘til the last drop of blood is made. Much like inner class conflict qua factionalism.
