[‘Adrian’ doesn’t immediately stab him, but Hector’s guard is still up. The hatred his fellow humans aim at him has always been straightforward, hurled with all the subtlety of a stone at an outcast. Vampires, on the other hand, delight in making a game of it, taunting their prey like cat and mouse. The whispers in the court had always painted Alucard as a lover of humans and disinclined to partake in the bloodshed his father was known for, but Hector has no false illusions that he counts as ‘human’ to this creature of both worlds. Dracula’s son has reasons enough to wish to strike him down; the only question in Hector’s mind is whether the strike will come straight on or from behind.]
You make a good point. [He agreed reluctantly, because he cannot deny the disaster that could arise from a new and less capable lord or lady possessing the powers and knowledge of this ancient place..] Humanity certainly cannot be trusted with it, and neither can the world of night.
[He keeps his eyes on Adrian, though Cesar’s hopping distracts from his focus. The dear little fool. Hector wishes he could shush him, or will him back to the safely of his lab in case this comes to blows, but he doesn’t have that kind of mental connection with him. Cesar is not made to be a weapon; he is merely a dog given a second chance at life.]
Yes, I seek nothing else from this place, nor from you. I hope they’ve not made a nuisance of themselves.
[Alucard’s use of the plural ‘pets’ gives him hope that more than just Cesar has survived his absence, and he summons up what manners he can in hopes that his way to them will not be barred.]
Humanity can be trusted with it in time, in accordance with my mother's wishes. All the night things can already achieve such things if they have the time and inclination. They have all the time in the world to reach and then superseded these discoveries if they ever desired to do so.
[The undercurrent being clear: they don't want to. And in truth, Alucard is fine with that. It limits the damage that can be done, and that? That is a very good thing indeed.
His face has remained cold as stone throughout all of this, and that doesn't change as he crouches downward, offering one hand out to Cesar. The little thing needs to get all the emotion out already, and a belly rub would probably assist in this.
Moreover, and much more importantly, it frames this as a conversation, not the interrogation that he intends it to be in the most subtle way that Alucard can manage. He's never been one for subtle.]
Have you been followed, forgemaster?
[Which all to say that Hector definitely isn't getting out quickly.]
[Hector knows the saintly Lisa of Lupu only in the reflection he saw in her husband, before and after her loss. Here she is once again, in her son’s unyielding faith in humanity. Hector wishes he could have met her, if only to understand how one woman could shape immortal beings as she did.
It’s not a thought he dares voice in front of her son, though. So he keeps quiet, a skeptical quirk of his brow his only response.
Before Carmilla, Adrian’s vigorous petting of Cesar’s belly would have moved him to trust the dhampir. He’s less naive now. Adrian’s fingernails are likely sharp as claws, and close enough to render irreparable damage if he chooses. Cesar pants and snorts in blissful ignorance.]
It’s Hector. I’m between forges at the moment. [It’s dry, defensive; Hector holds none of the power in this situation and he’s near to sulking.]
I wasn’t followed, so far as I know, but I will be hunted. The sooner I’m on my way, the better for everyone.
I have associates that would suggest forgemasters shouldn't have things like hands, to ensure that the in between is forever.
[Associates is a very vague term for whatever Trevor and Sypha are to him these days besides together in some manifestation. Administering the Hold has introduced Alucard to a variety of Belmont approaches to understanding the world's dark and supernatural underbelly, and there is probably more than one Belmont that would make the no hands for necromancers argument. Having seen what can be wrought, it is a terribly hard argument to mount a defense against.
But all the same, Alucard makes no move to put any such threat into action. If anything, the full of his attention is on administering a perfect belly rub, with Hector's presence a mere afterthought. That's a lie of course, the dog is a safe buffer zone between the two of them, as well as an emotional center for Alucard at the moment. Anger, bitterness, grief, it's all hard to tap into when there's a dog to pet.]
Even coming through the area brings the risk of vampires undoing the careful recovery work that has been undertaken since my father's passing. [It's a very careful choice of words. Passing. Not death, not murder. There's a peaceful part of that word that contrasts directly with how it all happened, in the end.] Was that intentional, or something you've barely accounted for?
[Anger flares up, white hot and sudden within him. His hands clench into tight fists. Hector will answer for his crimes. That is fine. But the implication that devil forging itself in inherently evil is intolerable. His voice goes quiet with rage.]
Would your acquaintances have every blacksmith maimed? Swords can be turned to evil. A herbalist can choose to brew poison- should they all be quelled as well? I could forge marvels, creatures that could be as great a boon to your previous humans as any of the sciences or magicks of Lord Dracula’s castle, if I thought there was any chance they wouldn’t be torn to shreds by people to frightened and superstitious to understand them.
[The sight of this judgmental dhampir lordling stroking his undead dog while decrying the rest of his work stokes the fires within him. He drops down again and forces his fists open to hold out his ungloved hand to the pug.]
Here, boy. [He orders, desperate to put distance between Adrian and Cesar.]
I came for my pets. [He repeats to Adrian.] I raised them, and it is my job to care for them now. No one else will. The people whose safety you fret over so much would throw little Cesar into a fire if they found him. So no, they really weren’t a factor when I decided to come here.
Their relationship with all the darker things of this world has only recently become more nuanced. I'd be the grossest of hypocrites if I agreed so blindly to such an assessment, given what brought this entire nightmare upon Wallachia's head. [Alucard does catch the word your though, and that speaks volumes to Hector's self perception.]
I fought against the things you and...am I incorrect when I say there was a second one with forging skills? [Two workshops does not mean two forgemasters for certain. That much is an educated guess.] Pit things that my father believed to be a productive way to express his grief.
[The word grief causes a pause in Alucard's hand, and that's met with a discontent whine from Cesar. One that only grows louder when Hector tries to force that distance, because now he's being pulled in two different directions.]
Grief that you enabled, with your own work and skills, I suppose.
[The question of why Hector was so willing to help is already starting to answer itself. He doesn't ask it outright yet.]
[Hector wants to protest that the Church was the cause of the war, but even though his cognitive dissonance runs deep, he can no longer excuse Dracula's madness. He frowns, but doesn't contest Adrian's assessment. He does snap his fingers for Cesar's attention, though the dog is loath to move out of belly-rub range.]
Isaac. Your father gathered both of us here. [It stings, hearing that for all the time Hector privately spent thinking on Dracula's wayward son, wondering how he measured up in his lord's eyes, Alucard had never even bothered to learn his or Isaac's names.]
In spite of what you think of our forging, we were trying to mitigate Lord Dracula's wrath. I thought a quick and decisive victory more merciful than a long drawn out campaign.
[As clumsy as Alucard is an interrogator, Hector is even more clumsy a keeper of secrets. He lowers his gaze.]
I thought he'd be satisfied when the perpetrators were punished. I didn't know realize until later than his goal was his own destruction.
[He doesn't owe Adrian an explanation, he tells himself. What's done is done.]
I'm leaving the country, going into hiding. I'm not saying where. Your associates can rest easy- I'll have to give up forging. It's the only way I've any hope of staying off her radar. [Hector spits out 'her' the way most Wallachian peasants hiss when they speak of Dracula. He fears Carmilla in a way he's never feared any other creature.]
He spoke of meeting forgemasters over his travels, but he declined to share names. That was probably for the sake of safety and privacy. [And even here and now, just having a name does precious little. In truth, Alucard had cared precious little for the people met on travels anyway - it was the act of movement that fascintaed him, and learning how scenery morphed across the whole of the contient.
But at the word mitigate Alucard's lips thin, and he finally looks up at Hector with more fire in his eyes than he has throughout all of this.
His next question is a simple one:]
Did you consider my father a person closer to the category of friend before all of this came to pass?
[There's so much more to say here, but the question is important in his eyes. He wants to talk about where, to even boot Hector through the viewing mirror to some remote place, but that'd be too easy, wouldn't it?
[Hector wishes, desperately and foolishly, that he could know what Dracula had told his son about him. It's hard to put into words what he feels...felt...toward the lord of the vampires.
Hector's eyes fix on Cesar, anger subsiding as he remembers that meeting.] Lord Dracula sought me out in his travels. I was living in seclusion, welcomed by no one, and he spent days on the road to nowhere to find me. He was the onl...the first person to look upon my creations and not flinch away or scream for a mob to burn me. He called me a craftsman.
[Hector has basked in the praise, pushing himself even harder in hopes of impressing him further.]
'Friendship'...I don't know if that's the right word for it. We weren't equals. He thought he and his lady could change the world for the better, help people be less afraid of what they can't understand. I would have done anything he asked.
[And in the end, he did, unquestioning, for far longer than he should have.]
[Few people knew his father as anything but a thing to be feared. Even other vampires had that impression, for his father's shadow loomed ever so large over them all. The parts of Dracula that Alucard grew up knowing, well, there is some comfort in not being alone in remembering that part of the man. But it is scant, because Alucard knows that this all may yet turn sour.]
When he asked for your [there's no good word here, so Alucard scuttles the attempt to find the right one] to come to this place, did you question the deeper motives for his desires beyond what he told you outright?
[Alucard's voice manages to hold steady, even though this part is fragile for himself.]
[Hector's eyes narrow. Does Alucard mean to imply that Hector was played by Dracula, that he'd been a tool and nothing more?]
He wanted to avenge the murder of his wife and see to it that the humans were controlled for their own good. He could have seen it done- the corrupt church razed, disease eradicated, an age of enlightenment cultivated out of the darkness.
[Hector had clung to the notion so hard that even when the evidence of Dracula's true design stacked up higher and higher, he'd willed himself blind to it. He can't even say it was out of loyalty, because in the end, he'd turned his back on his lord.]
Humans are animals, not rational enough to rule ourselves. I thought Dracula was something higher, like a shepherd who could tend the masses. A being so old and unfathomably wise...I wasn't sure he could be wrong.
You saw the potential in all of that, and yet you didn't step back, evaluate circumstances, and identify all of those desires as a form of mourning. [In that statement, said with too much weight and regret in them, is the real reason Alucard asked after friendship. The simple potential that someone else beyond himself understood his father's emotions and could have said something to pull him back from the brink. Words from a mouth that didn't share genetics, that might have more weight than a son's.
It's a disappointment, to say the very least. And it's at that point Alucard finally pulls himself up from rubbing at Cesar's belly. The worst moments are past, after all.]
I refuse to comment on your understand of human nature, but as for the matter of my father, you met him at his best. It's almost understandable.
[There's a long sigh that follows.]
You didn't care for justice for what passed, that much is already clear to me. That devotion [it's far more than Alucard had] was the only reason you agreed to such an insane proposal?
Speak plainly. 'Why did I not do what you failed to?' That's what you mean, isn't it?
[Adrian cannot know the length and depth of how completely unqualified Hector is to act as a counselor to anyone. He's never loved anyone, only lost the parents he'd killed for their abuse, and his view of humanity is 'best avoided, though no need to go out of the way to be cruel'. Asking why he didn't understand Dracula's grief is like asking a fish about the finer points of flight.]
I could not have stopped him if I had tried. I didn't try. Causalities were unavoidable, but I could try to direct the forces in such a way to reduce them, rather than letting the vampires run free and make a sport of it. I chose poorly, and even more poorly when I believed that bitch who said Dracula would be better relieved of his command.
[He's still kneeling when Adrian rises, finally able to collect his dog from vampiric clutches. Cesar's little body is warm when he jumps into Hector's arms, in a reanimated life rather than undeath.]
Forging is my reason for living, and I am going to have to abandon it. That's the price of my crimes. If you wish to add some penance above that, do it and be quick about it. Otherwise, I'm taking my pets and leaving.
[Meaning yeah, you called him out on it exactly, Hector. Alucard has the good sense to look at least slightly embarrassed about that much, and as for the rest, well. His father never gave biographical details of most others he met in his travels - Hector included.
He shifts his weight, folding arms over his chest and listening to the rest very carefully. I didn't try seems to acknowledge some level of culpability in all of this, even if that is not what Alucard seeks at this point. He had his answer moments before, and it's a new pain to deal with.
Carmilla though. Alucard makes a soft noise at the mention, and he understands things a little better now. The potential for a coup was only clear after Trevor and Sypha investigated the damage Sypha caused in Brăila.]
A decision that brought this all to it's conclusion. [They're words meant for himself. There's no gratitude in Alucard, but there will be a great amount of time spent dwelling on the new information.]
Anything additional would be pointless cruelty. [There's definitely a sadder gloom over Alucard now, settled in his shoulders and the way they safe.] The rest of your associates are...they have free run of this place. They're doubtlessly aware of your presence.
[Hector has the feeling of being judged and ultimately dismissed. He can't say what end Adrian has in all of this, but it seems he is being given permission to gather together his pets and depart. He gently lets Cesar down and rises.]
Carmilla will turn her sights back to this castle, once she's secured her position back in Styria. It's too tempting a trophy for her to resist. If you're lucky, Isaac will clash with her before then. I hear he ended up across the sea somewhere. He'll not rest until he destroys her for her betrayal.
[The information isn't an olive branch. It's more like a toll paid for safe passage. If Adrian truly means to let Hector leave here with Cesar and his brethren in tow, he'll have earned the warning.]
Cesar, show me to the others. [The little pug isn't great with orders, but he seems to grasp that one, and yips in excitement.]
[The part about Carmilla seeing the castle as a prize to be taken. That was the fear in all of this, what the castle might mean to others. Being proven right has no joy in it, all Alucard can do is manage a tired noise at that fact.
As for Isaac, well, Alucard cannot say much. He doesn't know the man, he only understands that there was a deeper set loyalty there - something Alucard did not have because he owed too much to his mother, and something Hector failed to have for however Carmilla persuaded him.]
We've anticipated it. [That's no royal we, but Hector doesn't need to know it.
Following Cesar to the others means taking a sudden right down the corridor, and following the pug for a little while until he reaches a door on the left that's open. Alucard is at the very end of this strange procession, far too still. There's far too much information to absorb, and there are important farewells to focus on.
The room is one of the many siderooms of the castle, this one featuring two sofas, two armchairs, and cushions set around the room for creature comforts. The window on the far left has a set bench with even more cushions there, creating a sunny sort of nook for all lazing purposes. Within are all of Hector's other companions, and all at once, there is an ambush.
[Hector weathers the onslaught happily, cooing each creature’s name in turn as they tumble against their fellows, vying for the necromancer’s attention. He scratches and caresses as he checks each one over. Their little bodies are unable to heal themselves, so the responsibility falls to Hector.
The dhampir momentarily ignored, Hector pricks a finger on an exposed fang and offers it up to his cat to suckle like a newborn. The exposed muscles on her hindquarters has deteriorated, and in the absence of his forge tools, blood is the easiest way to transfer his energy to her. Her eyes glow a brighter blue, and the flesh begins to take on a healthier color.
The pets’ needs seem to, be finally takes the time to look around the room. It looks comfortable, lived in. The cat’s backside aside, his animals are surprisingly well. He turns to study Adrian more closely.]
[Alucard's eyes look out of the window and only for the reunion of Hector and his menagerie. It's as much privacy for the matter as he is willing to allow, as he has absolutely zero reason to feel comfortable letting Hector alone in any part of the castle.
It's less for Hector's sake than the animals anyway. While knowing their names is helpful (he made his own up, although there is one cat that seems to only ever respond to You said in a deeply exasperated tone), the rest is towards their sentiment for the forgemaster.
Even the scent of blood in the air provokes no reaction. Only a deep sniff, like clearing one's nose.
His eyes do meet Hector's when the question is asked though, and there is a nod of his head.]
Yes, although I am afraid figuring out the appropriate way to do that took slight trial and error. [They didn't come with guides, after all.] I also couldn't very well ignore them.
[That’s a bald faced lie. Alucard absolutely could have ignored them. The castle’s former residents had, except for the ones who were inclined to try to kick at them when they passed.
For a moment, Hector sees the Dracula he’d first known in Adrian’s profile. Maybe it’s the mother he sees reflected in both of them, he has no way of knowing. Whatever it’s origin, it’s something Hector can respect. He inclines his head.]
Thank you.
[He pauses, still absently stroking the pets that Adrian has sheltered. He thinks of the castle, still partially in ruins, and the various forces who would try to seize it. In spite of Alucard’s ‘we’, he appears to be here alone.]
The repairs to the castle’s defenses would go more quickly with more hands. I could make creatures that could help you, before I go.
[It’s an offer that could cost him his hands, but he makes it anyway. He failed the father. Maybe he can start making amends by helping the son, if he’ll allow it.]
[It may be a lie from where Hector sits, but it absolutely isn't from Alucard's purview. Forged things they might be, but unlike the things that were used as foot soldiers in his father's army, they had done no harm to anyone. If anything, they had been a boon, although those are words Hector hasn't earned. There's no need for him to know that his creations became Alucard's therapy dogs (and cats) (and others).
At the offer, Alucard is quiet. There's no giveaway in his face about how he might lean, but after a minute or two, which implies an honest consideration, he shakes his head no.]
That would cost you time and bring too much attention here. [He doesn't know how long forging takes. It's a risk he has no intention of bringing on upon himself. Or Trevor and Sypha. They can prepare for Carmilla in their own way, without betraying anything that could be read as assisting an escaped prisoner.]
This home can be defended in other ways. If you intend to see to your safety, that must take priority.
[Hector nods. He won’t press the issue. His presence here is a risk, there’s no denying that.]
I hope for your sake that you’re right. You doubtless know the castle better than I.
[There are supplies in his quarters that he’d hoped to collect- fresh clothes, a weapon for the journey, among other things- but having been granted this much, he’s not going to press his luck further. Nothing is irreplaceable, aside from his little menagerie.]
[It's as closed to humor as Alucard has ventured into the situation thus far, and it's clear his sense of the stuff is bone dry. There is something more contemplative that overtakes him as his eyes move over all of Hector's friends (and that seems to be a closer description to what they mean to the man.]
How do you intend to move them around without their being seen?
[Alucard's face sours at that particular response, because it betrays how little Hector's really planned here. Not that he's concerned for Hector's safety, just Hector's companions who don't deserve anything, whereas if Alucard had to be honest with himself, he might not be terribly upset to learn that something happened to Hector. If anything, that seems like it would be a mercy.
All the same, Alucard's eyes go back over to Cesar, and there's a soft tut.]
A bag would be useful, for emergency situations. I believe I can provide that much, although they will find it cramped.
[Alucard expression gets a flat look in return. Maybe a dhampir lordling who grew up with a library ten times the size of Hector’s childhood home could come up with a better plan while escaping from captivity and running for his life, but Hector’s working with what he’s got.]
I’m pretty sure being spotted with a bag full of undead animals would mark me just as suspicious as just having them loose, but I’ll take it.
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You make a good point. [He agreed reluctantly, because he cannot deny the disaster that could arise from a new and less capable lord or lady possessing the powers and knowledge of this ancient place..] Humanity certainly cannot be trusted with it, and neither can the world of night.
[He keeps his eyes on Adrian, though Cesar’s hopping distracts from his focus. The dear little fool. Hector wishes he could shush him, or will him back to the safely of his lab in case this comes to blows, but he doesn’t have that kind of mental connection with him. Cesar is not made to be a weapon; he is merely a dog given a second chance at life.]
Yes, I seek nothing else from this place, nor from you. I hope they’ve not made a nuisance of themselves.
[Alucard’s use of the plural ‘pets’ gives him hope that more than just Cesar has survived his absence, and he summons up what manners he can in hopes that his way to them will not be barred.]
Have I your leave to collect them?
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[The undercurrent being clear: they don't want to. And in truth, Alucard is fine with that. It limits the damage that can be done, and that? That is a very good thing indeed.
His face has remained cold as stone throughout all of this, and that doesn't change as he crouches downward, offering one hand out to Cesar. The little thing needs to get all the emotion out already, and a belly rub would probably assist in this.
Moreover, and much more importantly, it frames this as a conversation, not the interrogation that he intends it to be in the most subtle way that Alucard can manage. He's never been one for subtle.]
Have you been followed, forgemaster?
[Which all to say that Hector definitely isn't getting out quickly.]
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It’s not a thought he dares voice in front of her son, though. So he keeps quiet, a skeptical quirk of his brow his only response.
Before Carmilla, Adrian’s vigorous petting of Cesar’s belly would have moved him to trust the dhampir. He’s less naive now. Adrian’s fingernails are likely sharp as claws, and close enough to render irreparable damage if he chooses. Cesar pants and snorts in blissful ignorance.]
It’s Hector. I’m between forges at the moment. [It’s dry, defensive; Hector holds none of the power in this situation and he’s near to sulking.]
I wasn’t followed, so far as I know, but I will be hunted. The sooner I’m on my way, the better for everyone.
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[Associates is a very vague term for whatever Trevor and Sypha are to him these days besides together in some manifestation. Administering the Hold has introduced Alucard to a variety of Belmont approaches to understanding the world's dark and supernatural underbelly, and there is probably more than one Belmont that would make the no hands for necromancers argument. Having seen what can be wrought, it is a terribly hard argument to mount a defense against.
But all the same, Alucard makes no move to put any such threat into action. If anything, the full of his attention is on administering a perfect belly rub, with Hector's presence a mere afterthought. That's a lie of course, the dog is a safe buffer zone between the two of them, as well as an emotional center for Alucard at the moment. Anger, bitterness, grief, it's all hard to tap into when there's a dog to pet.]
Even coming through the area brings the risk of vampires undoing the careful recovery work that has been undertaken since my father's passing. [It's a very careful choice of words. Passing. Not death, not murder. There's a peaceful part of that word that contrasts directly with how it all happened, in the end.] Was that intentional, or something you've barely accounted for?
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Would your acquaintances have every blacksmith maimed? Swords can be turned to evil. A herbalist can choose to brew poison- should they all be quelled as well? I could forge marvels, creatures that could be as great a boon to your previous humans as any of the sciences or magicks of Lord Dracula’s castle, if I thought there was any chance they wouldn’t be torn to shreds by people to frightened and superstitious to understand them.
[The sight of this judgmental dhampir lordling stroking his undead dog while decrying the rest of his work stokes the fires within him. He drops down again and forces his fists open to hold out his ungloved hand to the pug.]
Here, boy. [He orders, desperate to put distance between Adrian and Cesar.]
I came for my pets. [He repeats to Adrian.] I raised them, and it is my job to care for them now. No one else will. The people whose safety you fret over so much would throw little Cesar into a fire if they found him. So no, they really weren’t a factor when I decided to come here.
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I fought against the things you and...am I incorrect when I say there was a second one with forging skills? [Two workshops does not mean two forgemasters for certain. That much is an educated guess.] Pit things that my father believed to be a productive way to express his grief.
[The word grief causes a pause in Alucard's hand, and that's met with a discontent whine from Cesar. One that only grows louder when Hector tries to force that distance, because now he's being pulled in two different directions.]
Grief that you enabled, with your own work and skills, I suppose.
[The question of why Hector was so willing to help is already starting to answer itself. He doesn't ask it outright yet.]
Where do you intend to go then?
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Isaac. Your father gathered both of us here. [It stings, hearing that for all the time Hector privately spent thinking on Dracula's wayward son, wondering how he measured up in his lord's eyes, Alucard had never even bothered to learn his or Isaac's names.]
In spite of what you think of our forging, we were trying to mitigate Lord Dracula's wrath. I thought a quick and decisive victory more merciful than a long drawn out campaign.
[As clumsy as Alucard is an interrogator, Hector is even more clumsy a keeper of secrets. He lowers his gaze.]
I thought he'd be satisfied when the perpetrators were punished. I didn't know realize until later than his goal was his own destruction.
[He doesn't owe Adrian an explanation, he tells himself. What's done is done.]
I'm leaving the country, going into hiding. I'm not saying where. Your associates can rest easy- I'll have to give up forging. It's the only way I've any hope of staying off her radar. [Hector spits out 'her' the way most Wallachian peasants hiss when they speak of Dracula. He fears Carmilla in a way he's never feared any other creature.]
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But at the word mitigate Alucard's lips thin, and he finally looks up at Hector with more fire in his eyes than he has throughout all of this.
His next question is a simple one:]
Did you consider my father a person closer to the category of friend before all of this came to pass?
[There's so much more to say here, but the question is important in his eyes. He wants to talk about where, to even boot Hector through the viewing mirror to some remote place, but that'd be too easy, wouldn't it?
The answer is all that matters.]
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Hector's eyes fix on Cesar, anger subsiding as he remembers that meeting.] Lord Dracula sought me out in his travels. I was living in seclusion, welcomed by no one, and he spent days on the road to nowhere to find me. He was the onl...the first person to look upon my creations and not flinch away or scream for a mob to burn me. He called me a craftsman.
[Hector has basked in the praise, pushing himself even harder in hopes of impressing him further.]
'Friendship'...I don't know if that's the right word for it. We weren't equals. He thought he and his lady could change the world for the better, help people be less afraid of what they can't understand. I would have done anything he asked.
[And in the end, he did, unquestioning, for far longer than he should have.]
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[Few people knew his father as anything but a thing to be feared. Even other vampires had that impression, for his father's shadow loomed ever so large over them all. The parts of Dracula that Alucard grew up knowing, well, there is some comfort in not being alone in remembering that part of the man. But it is scant, because Alucard knows that this all may yet turn sour.]
When he asked for your [there's no good word here, so Alucard scuttles the attempt to find the right one] to come to this place, did you question the deeper motives for his desires beyond what he told you outright?
[Alucard's voice manages to hold steady, even though this part is fragile for himself.]
And if you did not, why is that the case?
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He wanted to avenge the murder of his wife and see to it that the humans were controlled for their own good. He could have seen it done- the corrupt church razed, disease eradicated, an age of enlightenment cultivated out of the darkness.
[Hector had clung to the notion so hard that even when the evidence of Dracula's true design stacked up higher and higher, he'd willed himself blind to it. He can't even say it was out of loyalty, because in the end, he'd turned his back on his lord.]
Humans are animals, not rational enough to rule ourselves. I thought Dracula was something higher, like a shepherd who could tend the masses. A being so old and unfathomably wise...I wasn't sure he could be wrong.
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It's a disappointment, to say the very least. And it's at that point Alucard finally pulls himself up from rubbing at Cesar's belly. The worst moments are past, after all.]
I refuse to comment on your understand of human nature, but as for the matter of my father, you met him at his best. It's almost understandable.
[There's a long sigh that follows.]
You didn't care for justice for what passed, that much is already clear to me. That devotion [it's far more than Alucard had] was the only reason you agreed to such an insane proposal?
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[Adrian cannot know the length and depth of how completely unqualified Hector is to act as a counselor to anyone. He's never loved anyone, only lost the parents he'd killed for their abuse, and his view of humanity is 'best avoided, though no need to go out of the way to be cruel'. Asking why he didn't understand Dracula's grief is like asking a fish about the finer points of flight.]
I could not have stopped him if I had tried. I didn't try. Causalities were unavoidable, but I could try to direct the forces in such a way to reduce them, rather than letting the vampires run free and make a sport of it. I chose poorly, and even more poorly when I believed that bitch who said Dracula would be better relieved of his command.
[He's still kneeling when Adrian rises, finally able to collect his dog from vampiric clutches. Cesar's little body is warm when he jumps into Hector's arms, in a reanimated life rather than undeath.]
Forging is my reason for living, and I am going to have to abandon it. That's the price of my crimes. If you wish to add some penance above that, do it and be quick about it. Otherwise, I'm taking my pets and leaving.
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[Meaning yeah, you called him out on it exactly, Hector. Alucard has the good sense to look at least slightly embarrassed about that much, and as for the rest, well. His father never gave biographical details of most others he met in his travels - Hector included.
He shifts his weight, folding arms over his chest and listening to the rest very carefully. I didn't try seems to acknowledge some level of culpability in all of this, even if that is not what Alucard seeks at this point. He had his answer moments before, and it's a new pain to deal with.
Carmilla though. Alucard makes a soft noise at the mention, and he understands things a little better now. The potential for a coup was only clear after Trevor and Sypha investigated the damage Sypha caused in Brăila.]
A decision that brought this all to it's conclusion. [They're words meant for himself. There's no gratitude in Alucard, but there will be a great amount of time spent dwelling on the new information.]
Anything additional would be pointless cruelty. [There's definitely a sadder gloom over Alucard now, settled in his shoulders and the way they safe.] The rest of your associates are...they have free run of this place. They're doubtlessly aware of your presence.
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Carmilla will turn her sights back to this castle, once she's secured her position back in Styria. It's too tempting a trophy for her to resist. If you're lucky, Isaac will clash with her before then. I hear he ended up across the sea somewhere. He'll not rest until he destroys her for her betrayal.
[The information isn't an olive branch. It's more like a toll paid for safe passage. If Adrian truly means to let Hector leave here with Cesar and his brethren in tow, he'll have earned the warning.]
Cesar, show me to the others. [The little pug isn't great with orders, but he seems to grasp that one, and yips in excitement.]
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[The part about Carmilla seeing the castle as a prize to be taken. That was the fear in all of this, what the castle might mean to others. Being proven right has no joy in it, all Alucard can do is manage a tired noise at that fact.
As for Isaac, well, Alucard cannot say much. He doesn't know the man, he only understands that there was a deeper set loyalty there - something Alucard did not have because he owed too much to his mother, and something Hector failed to have for however Carmilla persuaded him.]
We've anticipated it. [That's no royal we, but Hector doesn't need to know it.
Following Cesar to the others means taking a sudden right down the corridor, and following the pug for a little while until he reaches a door on the left that's open. Alucard is at the very end of this strange procession, far too still. There's far too much information to absorb, and there are important farewells to focus on.
The room is one of the many siderooms of the castle, this one featuring two sofas, two armchairs, and cushions set around the room for creature comforts. The window on the far left has a set bench with even more cushions there, creating a sunny sort of nook for all lazing purposes. Within are all of Hector's other companions, and all at once, there is an ambush.
A weird, fuzzy, undead ambush of affection.]
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The dhampir momentarily ignored, Hector pricks a finger on an exposed fang and offers it up to his cat to suckle like a newborn. The exposed muscles on her hindquarters has deteriorated, and in the absence of his forge tools, blood is the easiest way to transfer his energy to her. Her eyes glow a brighter blue, and the flesh begins to take on a healthier color.
The pets’ needs seem to, be finally takes the time to look around the room. It looks comfortable, lived in. The cat’s backside aside, his animals are surprisingly well. He turns to study Adrian more closely.]
Have you... been caring for them?
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It's less for Hector's sake than the animals anyway. While knowing their names is helpful (he made his own up, although there is one cat that seems to only ever respond to You said in a deeply exasperated tone), the rest is towards their sentiment for the forgemaster.
Even the scent of blood in the air provokes no reaction. Only a deep sniff, like clearing one's nose.
His eyes do meet Hector's when the question is asked though, and there is a nod of his head.]
Yes, although I am afraid figuring out the appropriate way to do that took slight trial and error. [They didn't come with guides, after all.] I also couldn't very well ignore them.
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For a moment, Hector sees the Dracula he’d first known in Adrian’s profile. Maybe it’s the mother he sees reflected in both of them, he has no way of knowing. Whatever it’s origin, it’s something Hector can respect. He inclines his head.]
Thank you.
[He pauses, still absently stroking the pets that Adrian has sheltered. He thinks of the castle, still partially in ruins, and the various forces who would try to seize it. In spite of Alucard’s ‘we’, he appears to be here alone.]
The repairs to the castle’s defenses would go more quickly with more hands. I could make creatures that could help you, before I go.
[It’s an offer that could cost him his hands, but he makes it anyway. He failed the father. Maybe he can start making amends by helping the son, if he’ll allow it.]
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At the offer, Alucard is quiet. There's no giveaway in his face about how he might lean, but after a minute or two, which implies an honest consideration, he shakes his head no.]
That would cost you time and bring too much attention here. [He doesn't know how long forging takes. It's a risk he has no intention of bringing on upon himself. Or Trevor and Sypha. They can prepare for Carmilla in their own way, without betraying anything that could be read as assisting an escaped prisoner.]
This home can be defended in other ways. If you intend to see to your safety, that must take priority.
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I hope for your sake that you’re right. You doubtless know the castle better than I.
[There are supplies in his quarters that he’d hoped to collect- fresh clothes, a weapon for the journey, among other things- but having been granted this much, he’s not going to press his luck further. Nothing is irreplaceable, aside from his little menagerie.]
I’ll make sure we’re not seen leaving here.
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[It's as closed to humor as Alucard has ventured into the situation thus far, and it's clear his sense of the stuff is bone dry. There is something more contemplative that overtakes him as his eyes move over all of Hector's friends (and that seems to be a closer description to what they mean to the man.]
How do you intend to move them around without their being seen?
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[Translation- He’s got no real plans, but he’s trying his best here. It’ll probably be fine.]
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All the same, Alucard's eyes go back over to Cesar, and there's a soft tut.]
A bag would be useful, for emergency situations. I believe I can provide that much, although they will find it cramped.
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I’m pretty sure being spotted with a bag full of undead animals would mark me just as suspicious as just having them loose, but I’ll take it.
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