miraclewhip: (uh3lL5G)

[personal profile] miraclewhip 2019-01-07 04:39 am (UTC)(link)
It felt like- sometimes when I wake up, it feels like there's something holding me down. Something that isn't either of you. It felt like that, but from inside me. Stopping me from going. Pulling me back together.

[ Sleep paralysis is maybe not the best comparison but it's the one that seems most apt to him. It makes him feel powerless, it's desperately lonely even with the two of them at his side, and it's one of the few things that actually fucking terrifies him. ]

It didn't hurt, at first. I think any nerves that could have made it hurt were too damaged. It wasn't until the healing had started that I could feel it and- that was better, almost? I know what pain is, at least. Makes it all easier to think about. After that- I barely remember any of the first night. I know it sucked for all of us but- I don't remember a fucking thing other than it hurting.

Second day was just- until noon, it was just- being injured. I've done that before fuck knows how many times, I know how it works. Then at noon it was that thing again, holding me down, trying to drag me inside myself so something else could go to the outside. And at sunset it managed. Every fucking night it managed, no matter what I did. And then the third night-

-you know what happened on the third night.

[ He's staring downward at the blanket under them. ]

I didn't think I'd be that fucking weak. I've seen turnings. We have records of turnings. Some of them last months before they need to feed for the first time. I don't know if I'm just naturally shitty at this or if I managed to fuck my resistance to that shit up with the ale all these years. I thought I'd be stronger.

The incense was- about what I expected. Good. Couldn't think. Didn't want to think. Put an edge on the pain, because I couldn't think of anything else, but it was worth it.

[ He's shivering just a little, and not from the cold, and his voice is choked. ]

Turning back was always the worst part, even though it was the part we all wanted. Most painful part, no vampire healing. And- part of me hated giving up that much power. It was screaming 'no, no there's still so much good I can do'. That was the worst part, the turning back, and the wanting to stay as I was. It was better, once I couldn't think about it too hard.
miraclewhip: 'I don't like it, I don't like it at all' (Wallachia man has feeling)

[personal profile] miraclewhip 2019-01-07 04:22 pm (UTC)(link)
I could have put an end to all of this. To everything. To every fucking vampire in Europe - maybe in the world - that wouldn't fucking behave. To all the nasty things they kept in line. You wouldn't have stopped me, and there'd be nothing else in the world that could - there have only ever been two. There would never be need for Belmonts again.

[ He could have written a long, long suicide note. And they all know so much about those. ]

And I chose not to. Because it would have made two people kind of sad, and I'm a selfish shit like that.

[ There's one last thing, and the tone makes it clear that it's the end of it. ]

She has long eyelashes, And these stupid dimples, when she smiles. When she pretends to, at least. Only chance I'll ever have to see them properly, and it was the one time she couldn't smile. You'll have to tell me, when they're there.
miraclewhip: no matter how much he dances, his teeth still hurt (Wallachia man confused by flossing)

[personal profile] miraclewhip 2019-01-08 12:19 am (UTC)(link)
[ It helps. It doesn't change a thing, but it helps. He'll still never know if he was right to choose what he did, to choose to be himself instead of The Last Belmont The World Would Need. But the question has hung in the air and been dismissed and is no longer stuck inside his head flinging itself against the walls.

Maybe he was wrong. But at the end of the day he owes the world nothing, and he owes the only two people who would have suffered from it the world.

Alucard kisses his forehead. Frees him. And he shakes his head. ]


One last round.

[ This is going to be the last time they do this, isn't it? The last time in a long time, at least. Because none of them will let any of this happen again. There'll be no need. He places his hands not on Alucard, but on the floor. ]

Tell me about the last time this place had a family in its walls.

[ He's never really asked. It was never proper, really. Even if he were to ask in good faith, a Belmont is a Belmont, and anything about Dracula - about Alucard's family, about his family now, at least as much as the speakers were, and maybe more so for events of the past - anything Alucard could say would only ever be intelligence. Something for him to scour for signs of weaknesses, for anything that could be turned upon his father.

He should ask. He should know. Dracula is a part of Alucard just as much as questionable filing methods and overfondness for wolfsbane and mistletoe and dogs called Dog are a part of him. He should listen, and he should listen while not tearing every word apart in search of hidden information and maybe now he's finally, finally capable of it. ]
miraclewhip: would like to remind you of this at every possible opportunity (Wallachia man does not care)

[personal profile] miraclewhip 2019-01-08 01:06 am (UTC)(link)
[ He nods, and he listens, and he tries to imagine Dracula (Vlad Tepes) as just a man. It's strange, and it goes against every instinct he has (you cannot be trained from birth to kill a man and also believe him to be as human as you are. it does not work that way. Perhaps Leon would have regretted that things turned out that way). But he does it. Just a mother and father, worrying themselves to shadows over a child who seems sickly.

It's the most normal, human thing in the world.

He listens and he does not touch and he does not speak because this is not a conversation. There might be time for that later, if he ever particularly feels the need to discuss Dracula as a man, and if Alucard ever particularly feels the need to let him. ]
miraclewhip: (1o3dVoo)

[personal profile] miraclewhip 2019-01-08 02:12 am (UTC)(link)
[ He doesn't scoff at the idea of Dracula being human. Being kind. Being a loving father. He did, five years ago. But even if it weren't the rules of this game (and that's why he's using this game to ask, as a promise that he won't throw this back in Alucard's face) there are things that he needs to consider and accept

Mathias Conqvist had become a monster for love, he had known this all his life. He could accept, then, surely, that Vlad Dracula Tepes had become a man for it.

And then a monster again, and then a little of both in the end.

Four hundred years of sacrifices, recent as a few years before his own birth. Four hundred years of men and women taken into the crypt before they hit thirty. Of names carved in stone because the bodies couldn't be recovered. Four hundred years of his kin bleeding and dying in the rooms of this very castle - and he knows that if he continues to work his way through it then he'll eventually find the bones. All because his family had believed Dracula beyond hope. And in the end what almost made him human again, what didn't bring him low but did make him safe, was a knife striking his front door. It's been a bitter thing to accept for a long time.

Which was why 'Princeling' had had the tone of insult in the first place, really.

He doesn't speak, but he nods. ]
miraclewhip: 'I don't like it, I don't like it at all' (Wallachia man has feeling)

[personal profile] miraclewhip 2019-01-08 02:40 am (UTC)(link)
[ And that is the end of it, isn't it? The rest he knows.

He places his hands back onto the ground for a moment, and then reaches them forward to take Alucard's. ]


It's important to know who your family is.

[ It's offered as a statement. As an explanation for why he asked, because it isn't the Belmont way to forget those who went before you. And now, unavoidably, Dracula and Lisa are both those who went before. But it's also an instruction of sorts. Because what Alucard described just then, that is what his family is. Far more than what his mother was was in death and what Dracula was at his worst. ]
miraclewhip: with iguanas after 2 week stalemate (Wallachia man reaches alliance)

[personal profile] miraclewhip 2019-01-08 02:53 am (UTC)(link)
Well enough to call it fair to judge them by what they've left behind here.

[ Which is. An attempt to be nice about Dracula. Because here is not the outside world. Here is not even Belmont lands. Here is where what Dracula has left behind is knowledge of all the wonderful things that people have forgotten. Here is where what he has left behind is his son, and to judge anyone as half of Alucard is to judge them favorably. ]
miraclewhip: (DYMUDuS)

[personal profile] miraclewhip 2019-01-08 03:09 am (UTC)(link)
I nailed cloth to a wooden frame, and I needed his guidance to do that much. Don't try to make a big deal of it.

[ He chuckles, and it's lighter than any sound he's made over the last two weeks. Maybe he'll even sleep in tomorrow. Maybe he'll even take meals with the other two. Maybe he'll spend the entire fucking day lying on the sofa with his head on Sypha's lap as she reads, plotting with her ways to make Alucard paranoid that they're trying to take a peek at his sewing. ]
miraclewhip: (8blQFIT)

[personal profile] miraclewhip 2019-01-08 03:17 am (UTC)(link)
Let me revise that, then. I wanted to take my shirt off at you. Don't try to make a big deal of it.

[ He runs his thumbs over the back of Alucard's hands softly. ]

I think I'd rather we didn't need this any more. No more poison left to drain.
miraclewhip: no literally that's what's happening in this. (Default)

[personal profile] miraclewhip 2019-01-08 03:36 am (UTC)(link)
Well shit, and here I spent the last five years being so careful about never doing it, because I thought you didn't care for the view.

[ Never living that down, Alucard. Never. ]

I'm going to assume that any invention that involves sitting down half-naked and grabbing a vampire gets stuck in the hold, rather than the library.
miraclewhip: bra and hat, vandalises church property (Wallachia man wearing nothing but)

[personal profile] miraclewhip 2019-01-08 04:08 am (UTC)(link)
'Sit down half-naked and grab the vampire in an entirely appropriate way'.

[ The last round of the stupid game is over, then. Whatever they need to get out from here on, they do they normal way. He shuffles over rather than standing properly, moving over to Alucard but not leaning against him or anything of the like.

Because the vampire probably has his own fucking plan. ]
miraclewhip: (X3oPCO5)

[personal profile] miraclewhip 2019-01-08 04:31 am (UTC)(link)
[ Oh.

Oh, right.

For some reason this hadn't actually occurred to him (the need to practice part especially. Fuck. Is Alucard going to carry him back up to their room like a blushing bride? How is that even going to work with three of them? Will he have to carry Sypha and then Alucard carries them both?) and he thinks for a moment before standing. ]


That's going to be shitty practice, unless getting married involves a lot more sitting on the floor than I think it does.

[ LOOK, THAT'S MORE FLORR THAN EVEN HE'S OKAY WITH. He smirks, looking down at Alucard. ]

Stand up and say something nice so that I can swoon at you. That seems more appropriate.
miraclewhip: (8blQFIT)

[personal profile] miraclewhip 2019-01-08 04:52 am (UTC)(link)
Well shit, you know how I feel about breaking vampire bones.

[ And, very dramatically, he swoons into Alucard's arms. Very, very dramatically. ]

You weren't kidding about the fucking arm jokes, were you?

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