Rammstein Music Video Stories

Seemann

(I'm going to be really honest here, the music video, while fascinating, is older and harder to understand! Also...interesting hair styles that...I won't be using in character description. (I'm sorry, but take one look at Paul in the music video and try to say he won't get made fun of.) So using a mix between the music video, actual lyrical storytelling, and my creativity, I present to you, Seemann! :3)

Till sailed into the harbor, he was staying in town for a week or so, then heading out. It was dark, and quiet, after all it was late. So he tied his boat, and was about to head into town when he saw something he'd hoped to never see. It was a death vulture. They weren't really vultures, they were people chosen at birth by the king's court, and they assassinated the people the king sent them to assassinate, all of them wearing plague masks, which was where they got their names due to the bird-like appearance. They looked exactly like the plague doctors of old times, death following them where they went just like the vultures. Sometimes they stalked random people in the night and killed them off as a part of population control. They wore these masks they (from what it was rumored) never take off, they had beaks and you could barely see the eyes through the tinted lenses of their plague masks. Seeing them was certainly a bad sign. But this one only stared at Till, making no move to kill him with whatever weapon they had, death vultures usually had a variety of them. Lindemann suddenly got to his knees, the vulture wasn't too close, but he still did it. Some vultures tortured their victims before death.
"Please...If you're going to kill me, make it quick. I am but a lonely sailor, I would just prefer to get it over with...life has been torture, and if you could spare me that...." The vulture did not reply, it could not. It was in death vulture rules that they could not speak to anyone except the king and his court. They had a big book of rules, and Till knew a few of them just from sailing around and hearing things here and there. All the other kingdoms had them too. Instead, it stepped forward, Till bracing for an attack. But the vulture held it's hand out instead, for Till to take and stand up. Hesitantly, he did so, and found himself looking into the eyes of the vulture. But you could not see them, the glass was too tinted.
"Wh....why?" Till asked in surprise. Looking the vulture up and down, the mask looked like it could come off, but it would be hard to get it off. The vulture stared back for a moment, and a soft voice came from behind the mask.
"You're a sailor..."
"J-ja...why's that important?"
"Do...do you see beautiful places? Traveling?" Till could tell that he didn't speak often, he stuttered and considered his words.
"Ja...why are you talking? I thought you weren't aloud too...."
"We ar-aren't. You are a lonely sailor. I am a lonely death vulture. We can never leave our kingdoms...I w-want to know what it's like out there...." The vulture said, rubbing his hands together uncomfortably. Till looked at him in surprise and then hesitantly back away.
"Komm in mein Boot..." He said, gesturing for the death vulture to follow. He slowly followed Till into his boat, watching the man open a compartment in the floor and pull out a crate full of stuff, souvenirs he had collected in other places. The vulture looked at them curiously, but was hesitant to touch anything.
"I love sailing, and going to new places. But it gets really lonely...so as much as I love what I do, I'm miserable doing it. I transport goods to different places though for my company. They refuse to give me a crew though, they say I do too good on my own. Usually they give me the jobs transporting to places that are harder to get too, since my boat is smaller, and it's a one man job...I'm a good sailor from what I understand. But if they lose me, it's no big deal, because I'm just one person. But harder to get to places means more interesting sights and souvenirs..." Till explained, looking at them, wondering which one he should show the vulture first. It was interesting, he never thought he would talk to a death vulture, much less have it respond.
"J-just one person....th-that's what they tell us when we feel guilty about killing randomly for them..." Till's eyes widened and he stared at the vulture for a moment.
"You're supposed to be apathetic killers from what I understood...do...do you feel guilty?"
"All the time. I don't like my job all that much, bu-but we can't choose...th-they make us from the moment we're born...steal us from our mothers and fathers....I don't k-know who mine are...the only good thing about this j-job is the lovely silence of night...ma-many vultures usually get over it after awhile though..." Till couldn't help but consider this for a moment, but then nodded. He picked up a long fang with some pretty multi-colored scales stringed onto it in a necklace and handed it cautiously to the vulture, who took one of his gloves off and felt it.
"What...what is this?" He asked, pointing his long beak towards me. Till let a small smile form on his face in memory of getting that little souvenir.
"It's a dragon fang, on a necklace with some scales. From the rare rainforest dragon. Though, dragons are in lesser quantities with the king hunting them, really, they're amazing creatures...a village women gave me this in exchange for saving her daughter from falling into a river." Till could tell he was fascinated by the way he looked at it.
"I've...I've never seen a dragon. I've always wanted to....do you see a lot of them?"
"Not a huge amount...mainly water dragons and sky dragons..." Till shrugged, taking the necklace back when it was handed over to him. He pulled out a large shell and handed it to the other man, who examined it carefully. Till took it back, no questions asked from the vulture. Next he took out a few pretty rocks he got from volcanic areas, explaining each one to the vulture. The vulture asked many questions about sailing and places he'd been to, people he'd met, and sights he'd seen. Till spent felt genuinely happy someone was talking to him, usually he didn't talk much to others, though the same probably applied to the vulture. There was one question the vulture asked, that surprised him.
"What...what's your name?"
"Why do you want to know? I mean, no offense, you're an assassin...." Till said, feeling slightly uncomfortable.
"Ma-maybe I could search you out...w-while in town, and...show you around...." He said, almost anxiously.
"Oh....It's uh...it's Till. Till Lindemann. Do you have a name?"
"I...they usually just call me, vulture, or, filth, or disgusting...to be honest, I've almost...f-forgotten m-m-my real n-name...."
"You have a lonely, tough job too...strict rules, and no one thanks you if you catch dangerous criminals....no one thanks me for traveling into dangerous places, I have strict rules...I am lonely." He said, understanding how the vulture felt. He moved closer to vulture, feeling comfortable with him.
"Y-yeah....I mean...t-technically I'm not lonely...we're crowded into quarters together when we're o-off the jobs, and for har-harder jobs y-you can ge-get a par-partner. Bu-but most of the other vu-vultures think I'm too weak, they try not to get too close to me, 'c-cause they don't want to be s-sad when I die...." He stuttered, Till actually felt really bad for him now.
"It's lonely without men...but also lonely amongst men. You're still...alone, even with them around..." Till said, and reached out to the vulture's back patting it lightly. The vulture flinched at each pat, but didn't move away.
"I...I am sorry. I'm not use-used to sympathetic or affectionate co-contact...."
"I'm not just sympathetic...I'm empathetic. To some extent, I really do understand how you feel. Our situations are just different. You do remember your name though...right?" Till asked, looking at the bird mask, wondering what the face looked like underneath.
"Even if I did...it's against the rules..."
"You already broke the rules talking to me. And let's not mention coming into my boat and spending quality human time with me."
"That's just it...they dehumanize us....we're not humans to them...if I could take off my suit...you would know...if we were raised like you were, we would be the same. My name...I don't remember it. Like I said, the kindest name I'm usually called is vulture, among things like filth, and disgusting. I think....my name was Christian or....Lorenz? I don't...I...Lore-Christia-I really don't know. Maybe it was Arthur?" Till thought of something for a moment and chuckled.
"I could always give you a nickname."
"Nickname?" The vulture looked at him in confusion
"Ja, sometimes it's a name only friends can call you...or a preferred name over the original. How's that sound?" The vulture seemed surprised. But slowly nodded. Till looked around and thought of things. Then he read over various signs too despite it being two in the morning and light being limited to torches. Then he saw something and nodded.
"Flake. And maybe Flake Lorenz as a full name. I like the sound of it, how about you?" Till said, smiling. The vulture mulled it over and nodded, mouth moving visibly under the mask. The bell tolled, the the vulture jumped in surprise.
"Oh god, I have to...I have to get back to the castle...." He said, getting up and running out of the boat. Till ran after him.
"Wait! Where will I find you?" He called, causing Flake to turn around.
"I will come f-find you. I am a vulture." He said, before throwing down a smoke bomb and disappearing completely. Till watched the empty street for a moment, then went back to his boat to go to sleep.
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