[Alucard's quiet for a moment. What is the plan from here on out? It's clear Hector doesn't have one, and in theory, this isn't his problem. Not anymore. Isaac is gone and the threat he represents gone with him. If anyone else is stupid enough to attempt to ressurect Dracula, they'll find their way to Alucard's door sooner or later. All he need do is wait, like a spider at the center of a web.
But it is his problem, in it's own horrible little way that Alucard vaugely wants to label projection. This kind of loss is an impossible thing to weather and rebuild from. It's the right thing to try and help someone else through it. To make sure that no one else goes Full Dracula.
Sypha passes the cup over to Alucard, and he takes it automatically.]
[Hector assumes Adrian's reluctance is in taking all of the supplies. Hector can survive off of the land if he needs to. Just as months before at Castlevania, the idea of getting help from someone else doesn't occur to him. He assumes Adrian and Sypha will see themselves home and think on him no more. They're already extending him more mercy than he merits in letting him free.]
Really? You can regenerate that quickly?
[He's never had a good filter, and he's too exhausted to think it through before he remarks.]
I don't understand why there aren't more like you. You have the strengths of the vampires with none of their weaknesses or cruelty. You could... [What? Rule the world? Save it? Be what Hector hoped the vampires could be? He can't find the right words, and ends up just shaking his head.]
[He takes the pause to dip the cup into the water and drink. It buys moments to think, and had Hector's thoughts about more like you come a second too soon, there may have been a spit take. Alucard's aware that Trevor's still watching this through the mirror, and those words? Those are words that make all three of them deeply concerned.
The glass is drained and offered to Hector automatically.]
I could do as I please, and that is not tie myself down to the personality or expectations of anything - only a sense of morals long since taught to me. [And if that sounds a little arrogant, it's because Hector's words have begged another question:]
[Hector takes the cup and turns it back and forth in his hands, not drinking.]
You can do whatever you want. Just...you’re stronger and smarter than humans. Are they afraid of you? Is that it?
[It always comes back to fear, doesn’t it? Hector can imagine a world with dhampir doctors and scholars, longer lived and more studied, helping guide humanity out of the darkness. Humans aren’t all bad, he’s learned. They’re just...fragile, and so easily swayed.]
I can. That doesn't mean I want to. The opinions of others isn't the point.
[Alucard can't guess where Hector has gone with this thought - a world of dhampir shepherds leading humanity to a new age of understanding. He'd recoil at the concept if he truly understood.]
[Right. Adrian probably wants to deal with people about as much as Hector does, which is not at all.]
I forgot, you're going to hide away in your f...in the castle, for the rest of your life.
[He puts the cup down on the table and looks away as he realizes what he's doing. He's trying to keep the focus on to Adrian so he doesn't have to think about his own future.]
It doesn't matter. [The world is always going to be a mess, and he's a fool to still think after all this time that there's someone who could come along and change it. How can he still be so desperate to have faith in something when everything he's ever believed in has disappointed him?]
Do you plan to rest before you sail out? It doesn't get cold here, but I'll start a fire to keep the animals away if you plan to sleep. [It's by no means a subtle dismissal of the conversation.]
[Alucard opens his mouth to respond to that, but there's an elbow from Sypha that stays his reaction and keeps it blessedly muted. This will devolve into fighting if they keep at it, and that's not ideal.
The dhampir sighs.]
We probably need to. Neither of us know the waters here, and it's a bad idea to navigate at night when you're unfamiliar with the seas.
[More than that, it can force them both to drag Hector on the boat tomorrow. Or at least force him to talk about his future openly. One of the two.]
Take the bedroll. [He'll let them decide between themselves how and if they separate the blankets out. He's not sure what conditions they are used to when they camp.] There's an old bed through that door, but I doubt you'd want to fight the squirrels for it.
[He's thankful for the Speaker's intervention, and he really does wish he had more to offer her by way of hospitality.
...But maybe he does.]
I have something I can send with you tomorrow, to help you find your way. [Of all of his spirit-conjured creatures, the fairy is the only one whose body is still intact. She is better than a compass, and since he's taken her from the castle to the island, she should know at least the general way back. That is, if Hector doesn't end up press ganged into coming with them.]
Are you certain? Taking just the floor isn't a hardship.
[Sypha's a Speaker and can manage just about anything. Alucard knows that in wolf form, comfort isn't as important. Neither of them exchange looks this time, but there is a certain wavelength they both exist on.
Hector's absolutely getting press ganged tomorrow. But for now, the matter can be handled with more subtly and grace by Sypha.]
We'll focus on that tomorrow. It's been a long day, and right now we all need to rest. You too, Hector.
Just take it. [He wouldn't have offered it if he wasn't sure. Once his guests are asleep, Hector can pop outside and see if any of his old reanimated pets want to sleep beside him. They work just as well as a blanket for someone who doesn't mind the smell of animals and slight necrosis.
He wants to walk the length of the island until he's tired enough to collapse, but that's not a possibility with these two here. They won't trust him on his own while they rest.
He settles into the opposite corner of the room and sits, propped against the wall. He doesn't expect sleep to come, but within a few minutes of sitting, it does.]
[While Sypha and Alucard do take the bedroll, neither of them falls asleep immediately. Alucard is simply a wolf, curled up and quiet beside Sypha. There are gentle fingers that card through all of his fluff, although it's Sypha that falls asleep first.
The night wears on. At some point, Alucard nudges Sypha awake and they trade shifts. It's easier to do this with three, but it's fine. It means that when morning does come, Alucard is no longer a wolf but a person again. The bucket remains where it was left last night, but he's managed to forage a few pieces of fruit that are sat beside the bucket.
Nothing else has been touched. Alucard's cutting up the one apple he managed to find with a knife that's been laying around (and very much cleaned up), his hair pulled back and looking almost comedically domestic after the events of yesterday.]
[Hector wakes and blinks the sleep out of his eyes. He sees Adrian assuming the role of domestic goddess in the middle of his ruined cabin, thinks about commenting on it, and decides it is too absurd to even hazard a remark. How he looks so refined and noble after spending the night on a floor, Hector can't say.
He unfolds himself from his corner and stretches stiff limbs. His shoulders give a satisfying pop. Taking a quick glance out of the broken window, he sees a clear sky.]
It looks like decent weather to start your journey home.
[Really, there's nothing to it. The other two travel more. He looks after the house. His diet is more specialized, and so cooking in a way that balances human and vampire needs has always been a priority for Alucard. It's as normal as any other part of himself, and that's all there is to it.
Alucard moves onto the two pears he found, hardly missing a beat as Hector speaks.]
Tell me, Hector, when you lived here before, how easy was foraging and looking after your diet? I've noticed a lot of overgrowth, but precious few resources.
[Hector is baffled. Why is this the conversation they are having?]
I got by. The fishing's not bad, and I kept a little garden for tea leaves. [He wasn't willing to devote more time to a larger garden, so he'd prioritized the substance that would help keep him awake so he could keep working longer.]
I'd go inland for supplies before the winter. I never starved.
[The answer he's skirting around is, 'It's a miracle I survived on my own, and your father was positively exasperated by it.']
I see. [Alucard's tone makes it clear that he finds the response to be troubling, at the very least. He finishes cutting up the fruit, and he offers some of the pear over to Hector.]
I'm worried that things might have changed in your absence.
[Yeah. Alucard'll just betray the hand that they ain't letting Hector stay here either. The argument has to start at some point.]
Eat. I doubt you've done much of that since arriving here.
[....yeah, dad had the right of it on that front.]
[Hector is immediately on guard. He takes the pear warily. The island has little to offer other than wild creatures and isolation. That is precisely why he was able to settle here; if it had been a rich, fertile land, not even his reputation as a necromancer would have kept the locals at bay.]
I have not had much of an appetite. I will be fine until I am ready to leave. You needn't worry.
[The pear is hard when he bites down on the slice, at the very first stages of ripeness. Fruit like this is a rarity on the island, and Hector's surprised Adrian was able to find one of the few fruit-bearing trees around.]
[They're words that are a little too frank. Alucard knows it, but he really doesn't care. Grief makes people do stupid things like not eat or drink, among the many options that the both of them know exist.]
You...do know we're not letting you stay here, yes?
[It's inevitable. Might as well get the fight started.]
It's none of your concern. [He's not going to repeat Dracula's mistakes, and he's not hurting anyone else. Adrian has seen that much for himself. He crosses his arms and sets his jaw.]
I'm not planning on staying here forever. I'll return for my pets. [He's being deliberately obtuse about Adrian's meaning. Hector's freedom is the only thing he has left. If Adrian wants to take it from him, he's going to make him own up to it.]
It is. [Alucard's voice is measured and calm. And here, this moment, it requires vulnerability. Because yes, he and Sypha and Trevor are worried. Hector's proven to be a hard element to predict, and in the future he could very well become a problem again.
But there's no good way to say that. Not one that doesn't become an immediate threat. So honesty is the only way forward.]
You...after these things, it's not easy. It requires a solid foundation to rebuild. I don't want you to be without that.
[Hector knows that Adrian speaks from experience. The dhampir lost a family that had presumably loved him dearly before Lisa’s execution. He knows it, he just...he wants to be alone, in the way wild things run off into the forest to die.]
I’m going to be without it whether I’m here or anywhere else. My only foundation is ash now.
[It hurts to even think of speaking her name right now.]
It’s...good of you to care, but you needn’t bother.
[That is, if this is concern for his well-being and not fear of his relapse into forging. He’s too tired to try to judge the inscrutable Adrian’s intentions.]
[It's concern. It's fear of relapse. It can absolutely be both at once, combined with a weird sense of responsibility and respect for what his father might want out of this situation.
Alucard lets out a long, weary sigh at Hector's response.]
Yes. Ash is the way of these things. I could extend the metaphor about mixing ash into mortar, but that's maudlin even for myself. [He's overdramatic and this isn't about Alucard's sense of drama for once.]
[Blue eyes seek out Adrian's gold ones, lost. Hector has understood why everyone else in his life has 'bothered' with him. Dracula had valued first his innovation, then his brute skill at crafting. Carmilla had taken him for power. Even Rosaly, he could understand. She'd loved him, because bafflingly enough, she'd seen in him something she thought she could redeem.
Hector can't think of a reason that Adrian would care.]
[Hector drops his gaze to the cottage floor and turns away. Honesty. That's something. He isn't sure what he expected. Adrian's admission of his unspoken suspicion lends credence to his answer.
Hector never met Lisa of Lupu, but the memory of Vlad Ţepeş carries weight for him still. The man...the vampire...the traveling scholar...the lord of the castle. He'd borne more affection and pride for Hector than Hector's own father had.]
...fine.
[For his former lord's sake, he won't fight Adrian on this any more.]
I'm going to go wash up before I surrender myself to your custody. [It's harsher than he needs to be, but he wants to at least be allowed a little time alone before he leaves. To walk the island one last time, to catch sight of his early experiments through the trees, to say his farewell to this place knowing he'll never return to it.
He steps toward the door, not looking at Adrian as he moves past him.]
I...don't expect to leave much before mid-morning. If that effects anything.
[They can't take all the time Hector may need. But Alucard knows that this is still tearing a man from his home. It's cruel, even if it is to try and provide improvement and make it harder to return to old ways. The weight of it hurts his shoulders, just as the weight of parental expectations do.
There's no standing in the way of Hector. Alucard instead goes to rouse Sypha from slumber and to manage all preparations to depart. They'll probably burn the remaining zombie bits, and maybe that will spread to the rest of the island.
Another part of someone's life up in smoke. That's what it always comes back to, isn't it? Fire and destruction and being forced to emerge from it again and again and again.]
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[Alucard's quiet for a moment. What is the plan from here on out? It's clear Hector doesn't have one, and in theory, this isn't his problem. Not anymore. Isaac is gone and the threat he represents gone with him. If anyone else is stupid enough to attempt to ressurect Dracula, they'll find their way to Alucard's door sooner or later. All he need do is wait, like a spider at the center of a web.
But it is his problem, in it's own horrible little way that Alucard vaugely wants to label projection. This kind of loss is an impossible thing to weather and rebuild from. It's the right thing to try and help someone else through it. To make sure that no one else goes Full Dracula.
Sypha passes the cup over to Alucard, and he takes it automatically.]
It's healed, thank you.
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Really? You can regenerate that quickly?
[He's never had a good filter, and he's too exhausted to think it through before he remarks.]
I don't understand why there aren't more like you. You have the strengths of the vampires with none of their weaknesses or cruelty. You could... [What? Rule the world? Save it? Be what Hector hoped the vampires could be? He can't find the right words, and ends up just shaking his head.]
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[He takes the pause to dip the cup into the water and drink. It buys moments to think, and had Hector's thoughts about more like you come a second too soon, there may have been a spit take. Alucard's aware that Trevor's still watching this through the mirror, and those words? Those are words that make all three of them deeply concerned.
The glass is drained and offered to Hector automatically.]
I could do as I please, and that is not tie myself down to the personality or expectations of anything - only a sense of morals long since taught to me. [And if that sounds a little arrogant, it's because Hector's words have begged another question:]
Why would you want me to do anything else?
[Why did you follow after my father or Carmilla?]
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You can do whatever you want. Just...you’re stronger and smarter than humans. Are they afraid of you? Is that it?
[It always comes back to fear, doesn’t it? Hector can imagine a world with dhampir doctors and scholars, longer lived and more studied, helping guide humanity out of the darkness. Humans aren’t all bad, he’s learned. They’re just...fragile, and so easily swayed.]
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[Alucard can't guess where Hector has gone with this thought - a world of dhampir shepherds leading humanity to a new age of understanding. He'd recoil at the concept if he truly understood.]
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I forgot, you're going to hide away in your f...in the castle, for the rest of your life.
[He puts the cup down on the table and looks away as he realizes what he's doing. He's trying to keep the focus on to Adrian so he doesn't have to think about his own future.]
It doesn't matter. [The world is always going to be a mess, and he's a fool to still think after all this time that there's someone who could come along and change it. How can he still be so desperate to have faith in something when everything he's ever believed in has disappointed him?]
Do you plan to rest before you sail out? It doesn't get cold here, but I'll start a fire to keep the animals away if you plan to sleep. [It's by no means a subtle dismissal of the conversation.]
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The dhampir sighs.]
We probably need to. Neither of us know the waters here, and it's a bad idea to navigate at night when you're unfamiliar with the seas.
[More than that, it can force them both to drag Hector on the boat tomorrow. Or at least force him to talk about his future openly. One of the two.]
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[He's thankful for the Speaker's intervention, and he really does wish he had more to offer her by way of hospitality.
...But maybe he does.]
I have something I can send with you tomorrow, to help you find your way. [Of all of his spirit-conjured creatures, the fairy is the only one whose body is still intact. She is better than a compass, and since he's taken her from the castle to the island, she should know at least the general way back. That is, if Hector doesn't end up press ganged into coming with them.]
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[Sypha's a Speaker and can manage just about anything. Alucard knows that in wolf form, comfort isn't as important. Neither of them exchange looks this time, but there is a certain wavelength they both exist on.
Hector's absolutely getting press ganged tomorrow. But for now, the matter can be handled with more subtly and grace by Sypha.]
We'll focus on that tomorrow. It's been a long day, and right now we all need to rest. You too, Hector.
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He wants to walk the length of the island until he's tired enough to collapse, but that's not a possibility with these two here. They won't trust him on his own while they rest.
He settles into the opposite corner of the room and sits, propped against the wall. He doesn't expect sleep to come, but within a few minutes of sitting, it does.]
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The night wears on. At some point, Alucard nudges Sypha awake and they trade shifts. It's easier to do this with three, but it's fine. It means that when morning does come, Alucard is no longer a wolf but a person again. The bucket remains where it was left last night, but he's managed to forage a few pieces of fruit that are sat beside the bucket.
Nothing else has been touched. Alucard's cutting up the one apple he managed to find with a knife that's been laying around (and very much cleaned up), his hair pulled back and looking almost comedically domestic after the events of yesterday.]
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He unfolds himself from his corner and stretches stiff limbs. His shoulders give a satisfying pop. Taking a quick glance out of the broken window, he sees a clear sky.]
It looks like decent weather to start your journey home.
[A stunning conversation starter.]
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Alucard moves onto the two pears he found, hardly missing a beat as Hector speaks.]
Tell me, Hector, when you lived here before, how easy was foraging and looking after your diet? I've noticed a lot of overgrowth, but precious few resources.
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I got by. The fishing's not bad, and I kept a little garden for tea leaves. [He wasn't willing to devote more time to a larger garden, so he'd prioritized the substance that would help keep him awake so he could keep working longer.]
I'd go inland for supplies before the winter. I never starved.
[The answer he's skirting around is, 'It's a miracle I survived on my own, and your father was positively exasperated by it.']
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I'm worried that things might have changed in your absence.
[Yeah. Alucard'll just betray the hand that they ain't letting Hector stay here either. The argument has to start at some point.]
Eat. I doubt you've done much of that since arriving here.
[....yeah, dad had the right of it on that front.]
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I have not had much of an appetite. I will be fine until I am ready to leave. You needn't worry.
[The pear is hard when he bites down on the slice, at the very first stages of ripeness. Fruit like this is a rarity on the island, and Hector's surprised Adrian was able to find one of the few fruit-bearing trees around.]
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[They're words that are a little too frank. Alucard knows it, but he really doesn't care. Grief makes people do stupid things like not eat or drink, among the many options that the both of them know exist.]
You...do know we're not letting you stay here, yes?
[It's inevitable. Might as well get the fight started.]
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I'm not planning on staying here forever. I'll return for my pets. [He's being deliberately obtuse about Adrian's meaning. Hector's freedom is the only thing he has left. If Adrian wants to take it from him, he's going to make him own up to it.]
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But there's no good way to say that. Not one that doesn't become an immediate threat. So honesty is the only way forward.]
You...after these things, it's not easy. It requires a solid foundation to rebuild. I don't want you to be without that.
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I’m going to be without it whether I’m here or anywhere else. My only foundation is ash now.
[It hurts to even think of speaking her name right now.]
It’s...good of you to care, but you needn’t bother.
[That is, if this is concern for his well-being and not fear of his relapse into forging. He’s too tired to try to judge the inscrutable Adrian’s intentions.]
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Alucard lets out a long, weary sigh at Hector's response.]
Yes. Ash is the way of these things. I could extend the metaphor about mixing ash into mortar, but that's maudlin even for myself. [He's overdramatic and this isn't about Alucard's sense of drama for once.]
I'm bothering all the same, Hector.
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[Blue eyes seek out Adrian's gold ones, lost. Hector has understood why everyone else in his life has 'bothered' with him. Dracula had valued first his innovation, then his brute skill at crafting. Carmilla had taken him for power. Even Rosaly, he could understand. She'd loved him, because bafflingly enough, she'd seen in him something she thought she could redeem.
Hector can't think of a reason that Adrian would care.]
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[There's not warmth in Alucard's eyes, not exactly, but there's...concern? Worry? Something. Alucard lets out a soft sigh.]
Anything else is something I'd rather not give voice to.
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Hector never met Lisa of Lupu, but the memory of Vlad Ţepeş carries weight for him still. The man...the vampire...the traveling scholar...the lord of the castle. He'd borne more affection and pride for Hector than Hector's own father had.]
...fine.
[For his former lord's sake, he won't fight Adrian on this any more.]
I'm going to go wash up before I surrender myself to your custody. [It's harsher than he needs to be, but he wants to at least be allowed a little time alone before he leaves. To walk the island one last time, to catch sight of his early experiments through the trees, to say his farewell to this place knowing he'll never return to it.
He steps toward the door, not looking at Adrian as he moves past him.]
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[They can't take all the time Hector may need. But Alucard knows that this is still tearing a man from his home. It's cruel, even if it is to try and provide improvement and make it harder to return to old ways. The weight of it hurts his shoulders, just as the weight of parental expectations do.
There's no standing in the way of Hector. Alucard instead goes to rouse Sypha from slumber and to manage all preparations to depart. They'll probably burn the remaining zombie bits, and maybe that will spread to the rest of the island.
Another part of someone's life up in smoke. That's what it always comes back to, isn't it? Fire and destruction and being forced to emerge from it again and again and again.]
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