[The music is coming to an end. Alucard can hear the last page of sheet music turn, they'll call this here because when that last note plays, there will be an announcement for all to take their seats. This is really the last time they'll get to have, to be as close to themselves as they'll be afforded for the rest of the night.
He'd rather be curled up talking theory right now. Those lights, how to make the microwave heat more evenly because there's cold spots even if the plate's burning, anything. Their life is perfect when there's no one else around to observe it. Observe them. Alucard's presence at these things in the past has always been limited. When he has popped up in circles they have always been the intellectual or the magic ones, because that's what fascinates him most. Never politics. Never this.
Yet this is how it must be. Slight of hand, even as that slight of hand is perfection.
He can't sigh with the terrible longing he feels right now.]
And here I thought you might've heard a story or two about what happens when you go to a vampire's castle for business and not bothered.
[He likes laughing about the book. His father, less so.
The song does end. Dinner is called exactly when Alucard expects it to be, and there is no luxury spared for the meal. Blood at the start for those who require it (he takes his in full view because he must.) Courses tailored for everyone's needs - vampires with blood sausages and blood soups, those more mortal have finer cuisines that include a bevy of seafood served off bone white china - wines that match each selection. There is small talk, but Alucard is quiet for most of it. When he can, he touches his foot to Sypha's. A promise that he isn't in his own head.
It is all such fine food. The music that comes after is just as fine and cheerfully, proudly modern, allowing those who are older to depart with grace and dignity while those younger can enjoy the rest of festivities until dawn. (He catches a few mutters. That dancing, if it wasn't for the hair you'd swear they were his parents. His heart stops.) Alucard still must circulate and take all remaining conversations, but those fall off as dawn approaches. He is apart from Sypha, but never for long. She needs that time apart to plant her feet in this society as her own person, not just as the Speaker who is with Dracula's son. There's one or two vampires that approach that he can trust to engage with her levelly (thank God for James and his shit science), and that is a place to grow.
Dawn threatens. They are the last two to leave, save Theodora and her kin who must, must retire. The goodbyes are scant but warm, and the two are shuffled out into the dawn.
Home then. Home with no incidents. Home where all this artifice can be shed.]
no subject
He'd rather be curled up talking theory right now. Those lights, how to make the microwave heat more evenly because there's cold spots even if the plate's burning, anything. Their life is perfect when there's no one else around to observe it. Observe them. Alucard's presence at these things in the past has always been limited. When he has popped up in circles they have always been the intellectual or the magic ones, because that's what fascinates him most. Never politics. Never this.
Yet this is how it must be. Slight of hand, even as that slight of hand is perfection.
He can't sigh with the terrible longing he feels right now.]
And here I thought you might've heard a story or two about what happens when you go to a vampire's castle for business and not bothered.
[He likes laughing about the book. His father, less so.
The song does end. Dinner is called exactly when Alucard expects it to be, and there is no luxury spared for the meal. Blood at the start for those who require it (he takes his in full view because he must.) Courses tailored for everyone's needs - vampires with blood sausages and blood soups, those more mortal have finer cuisines that include a bevy of seafood served off bone white china - wines that match each selection. There is small talk, but Alucard is quiet for most of it. When he can, he touches his foot to Sypha's. A promise that he isn't in his own head.
It is all such fine food. The music that comes after is just as fine and cheerfully, proudly modern, allowing those who are older to depart with grace and dignity while those younger can enjoy the rest of festivities until dawn. (He catches a few mutters. That dancing, if it wasn't for the hair you'd swear they were his parents. His heart stops.) Alucard still must circulate and take all remaining conversations, but those fall off as dawn approaches. He is apart from Sypha, but never for long. She needs that time apart to plant her feet in this society as her own person, not just as the Speaker who is with Dracula's son. There's one or two vampires that approach that he can trust to engage with her levelly (thank God for James and his shit science), and that is a place to grow.
Dawn threatens. They are the last two to leave, save Theodora and her kin who must, must retire. The goodbyes are scant but warm, and the two are shuffled out into the dawn.
Home then. Home with no incidents. Home where all this artifice can be shed.]