It wasn't until the pencil snapped that Alucard opened his eyes, turning to D slowly. There's a measured care to the movement, one that betrays how unsure Alucard is about what may happen next. There has never been a reason to think that any of D's nature is similar to his own, but this? It simply threw it all into sharp contrast.
So quietly, carefully, once that pencil snapped, Alucard met D's eyes. The red? That was of no concern. Alucard had seen it before in other vampires. In his father. The fangs too, although that D's could extend was a thing Alucard found himself slightly jealous of.
Yet here they were.
Carefully, without moving from his spot, Alucard asked: "What do you need?"
"Distance." The word is slightly slurred from fangs too large for his mouth right now, the ache to sink into something almost overwhelming and making it difficult for him to focus on much else.
"Or something to feed on," the parasite adds, a harsh bark of laughter that's far from amused coming from it.
"Hard to resist, huh, D? That heartbeat so close? All that fresh, hot blood right there for the taking--"
"It doesn't matter, it won't happen." His voice was less distorted now, starting to shift back to the icy calm it normally was. "It would hurt you no matter the usefulness and you wouldn't enjoy it.
"And if I lost control, I don't know if you could stop me."
Admittedly, he hadn't seen Adrian fight or even handle a weapon beyond their initial meeting. But he struck D as someone who'd try too hard to spare him and he was well aware that if he ever did lose his control and turn on others, any hesitation could mean the end for him.
Perhaps Adrian has a point in that, considering what he had been driven to do for his own father, but D is slightly relieved at the second question. He doesn't protest, simply nods towards the door.
"The room you gave me. The pack."
It isn't 'his' room in his mind, and has been barely touched even in his time here. It serves to keep his supplies, such as they are, but its difficult to tell if he even sleeps in there or has just treated it as storage.
If Adrian chooses to go himself, D will take the opportunity to seat himself on the floor, meditating to regain his calm and waiting until the other man returns. Although he also wouldn't fault him for taking the opportunity to send him away now.
Alucard leaves without another word. He knows where D's room is at all times, because if his guest needs help or if something goes truly awry, then he can respond. It's important, having that information, and it has paid off here and now.
He moves fast. The speed of a vampire, because that's important to use right now. This? This is an emergency.
Once in that room, he does find the pack. The capsules. Takes two, then runs back to D with the capsules in hand. He doesn't even stop to get a cup for water. He simply goes until he returns to the lab.
"--Here."
Alucard is quick to interrupt the meditation, hand lowered, offering the capsules.
Of course Adrian returns faster than expected, and D cracks an eye open that is still stained with bloody light to look at him. But it isn't the capsules that draw his attention.
He can see the pulse of blood beneath the surface of Adrian's hand, the thicker lines of arteries pulsing up his wrist and tracing elegant lines up his arms. Human enough to be appealing despite all his careful control.
His arm moves slowly, held by a single-minded focus not to just grab Adrian's arm instead of the capsules, and his claws catch at Adrian's skin briefly despite his best effort.
There is a sink in the lab. Alucard pauses only to grab a glass, which is to say he opens one of the cabinets beneath them and takes out a piece of lab equipment that can hold water. Filling it up takes no time at all, but every second feels like a life time. D's restraint is remarkable, but this is no time for such comments.
He walks back over. Holds both out, steady and calm.
Instead of taking the glassware immediately, D drops a capsule into the liquid, watching as it starts to immediately darken to a red colour. Then he takes it from Adrian and sips at it slowly.
It's never the same, but it does help and he closes his eyes as he slowly regains his control by inches. When he does eventually look at Adrian again, there's only a faint suggestion of red to his gaze and his claws and fangs have almost entirely returned to their normal state.
Alucard has about a million questions now, mostly as to why that happened in the first place, but he knows better than to ask. He's quiet for a few moments more, and carefully, he places one hand on D's shoulder.
It's a point to show that this? It isn't grounds for giving D the boot.
The effect of the touch is immediate, every muscle locking tight as D freezes in place, almost as though Adrian's touch had turned him to a statue. But it isn't like before, not underlined with the tightly controlled urge to attack; it simply seems as though he hadn't expected it and didn't know what reaction was needed in return. So he didn't respond at all.
He didn't pull away either at least, just shook his head carefully.
"No."
If and when the hand is removed he stands and carefully crosses to the desk again, the flask still in hand.
"Blood." He doesn't expect the answer will really surprise the other dhampir, but makes an attempt to elaborate. Adrian hasn't asked him to leave and hasn't shied away, both of which would be understandable responses and nothing D would fault him for, and if anyone could understand this...
"Sometimes it can be forced by other means but primarily fresh blood. My own or another's. My abilities increase in response which can be useful."
There's a long pause while he considers if there's more to add or if that is enough, then D continues, each word sounding as though it took some effort to voice: "I was mistaken to try it now."
Reassuring, Alucard. Especially with his tone, which is very much the clinic voice that he grew up watching his mother use. There's a sigh that follows, and Alucard's face falls into something well and truly worried. The worst is passed, of course, but he has suspicions that the outburst is likely to be a weight around D's neck.
"I'll keep it in mind for the future and work to avoid any scenarios that could aggravate it."
The capsules are limited, after all, and most of the Belmonts are out in the world at the moment.
"I think your drawing is more than enough for me to go on though."
D watches him and while Adrian seems to relax he remains tense... but then he's never seemed not tense so it hardly means much. He'd expected more questions, however, and finds himself oddly relieved but surprised at the fact that there aren't any.
It sounds like a dismissal in the other man's words, so he nods and moves to the sink Adrian had used in order to rinse out the empty flask and set it aside.
He should simply leave now, return Adrian to the silence and focus that he likely wishes for, but D instead lingers at the edge of the door. He doesn't look back but just pauses there.
"He made this castle, didn't he? The parts I've seen are like what castles of my time are."
The page is covered in intense lines of graphite, outlining a complex bank of controls and strange, twisted machinery. It's not unlike some of what D has noticed around the castle itself and even if the mind behind both isn't the same, the technology is similar.
He turns at the question, and there's a touch of something that might be sadness to his eyes.
"Hundreds. Many fallen to ruin, their masters long since gone. Their remains are scattered across the lands, hang silent and unmoving in the night sky above."
Alucard's interest is beyond mild. There's surprise, but beyond that, real intrigue. He wants to just dive into the suggestion, find out the mechanisms, but it's a bad idea. Too demanding, and that D hasn't simply retreated somewhere into the castle feels like a small miracle.
"This thing you've drawn, I think I can backtrack at least a little bit of it's development to thoughts here. Even if your Dracula is not my father, he was a vampire and had the time to advance well beyond where humanity stands right now."
"Thousands of years of invention and progress," D said, his voice a low murmer and a clear ring of melancholy to it. "They learned to reach the stars, sent ships and castles into space itself seeking a way to save a dying race."
D continued quietly. "They found ways to control the world around them in minute detail, even bend time in on itself, but none of it mattered in the end. Their people have been dead for centuries, they simply haven't accepted it yet."
Alucard can only breathe out at all of that. It's remarkable progress. Beyond even his father's wildest dreams, most likely. Yet it ends in the worst way possible and oh, that? That makes him ache. There's no other way around that.
"And you truly wish to return to that?"
Maybe that wasn't the right question. Alucard's face is mortified as soon as the question leaves his lips and yet he's asked it all the same.
Maybe it doesn't seem like the right question to Adrian, a jab perhaps at what D could hope to gain in a world that is, at worst, dying and at best doesn't need him at all. But D either doesn't see it that way or doesn't show it, just as he shows little else on his face.
"It isn't about what I want," he says quietly. "Humanity spent thousands of years enslaved to vampires. Even as a dying race, they treat people as little more than beasts and a single one can wreak havoc across an entire city. If those that choose to fight their inevitable end with the blood of others can be stopped by my blade, then that is my purpose."
"Perhaps once they have all faded to time, I will as well."
The whole thing is one of the most miserable thoughts Alucard's heard. He knows it's a byproduct of how he was raised of course, that he was encouraged to think freely and be as free as possible, finding his own purpose and place in life. He also knows he can't think of his world as similar to D's by any means, and the other dhampir's explanation is a somber reminder of that fact.
"It's still worth asking," he murmurs, with that being the only protest he'll truly register here.
"Your home needs you, that much is clear. I'll see what I can recreate of this machine."
"You have your life here," D returns, his voice softer. "You have a chance to be whatever you want and people who understand who and what you are. You've seen a part of what I am, no one should be familiar with something like that."
He doesn't expect Adrian will accept the answer easily, even if he might not protest it, but he's young in D's eyes and their upbringings different to the point he can scarce imagine it.
"Even if you can't restore it, I won't stay any longer than you wish."
That feels important to emphasize right now. D isn't being asked to scoot out now, and it isn't going to happen in the future either. There's no need for it, and...he has to really say this, doesn't he?
"It's...this is as close to any safe haven you'll have, and I'm glad to provide it. What I saw was simply a part of yourself, and I've be the worst of all hypocrites if I truly judged you for it, D."
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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So quietly, carefully, once that pencil snapped, Alucard met D's eyes. The red? That was of no concern. Alucard had seen it before in other vampires. In his father. The fangs too, although that D's could extend was a thing Alucard found himself slightly jealous of.
Yet here they were.
Carefully, without moving from his spot, Alucard asked: "What do you need?"
Not how can I help.
It's not the size it's how you use it, Alucard
"Or something to feed on," the parasite adds, a harsh bark of laughter that's far from amused coming from it.
"Hard to resist, huh, D? That heartbeat so close? All that fresh, hot blood right there for the taking--"
"Shut up."
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The questions are calm and straight forward. Nearly clinical.
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"And if I lost control, I don't know if you could stop me."
Admittedly, he hadn't seen Adrian fight or even handle a weapon beyond their initial meeting. But he struck D as someone who'd try too hard to spare him and he was well aware that if he ever did lose his control and turn on others, any hesitation could mean the end for him.
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Alucard is certain about that. His eyes remain on D though, and the next question is just as simple.
"Capsules. Where are they?"
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"The room you gave me. The pack."
It isn't 'his' room in his mind, and has been barely touched even in his time here. It serves to keep his supplies, such as they are, but its difficult to tell if he even sleeps in there or has just treated it as storage.
If Adrian chooses to go himself, D will take the opportunity to seat himself on the floor, meditating to regain his calm and waiting until the other man returns. Although he also wouldn't fault him for taking the opportunity to send him away now.
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He moves fast. The speed of a vampire, because that's important to use right now. This? This is an emergency.
Once in that room, he does find the pack. The capsules. Takes two, then runs back to D with the capsules in hand. He doesn't even stop to get a cup for water. He simply goes until he returns to the lab.
"--Here."
Alucard is quick to interrupt the meditation, hand lowered, offering the capsules.
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He can see the pulse of blood beneath the surface of Adrian's hand, the thicker lines of arteries pulsing up his wrist and tracing elegant lines up his arms. Human enough to be appealing despite all his careful control.
His arm moves slowly, held by a single-minded focus not to just grab Adrian's arm instead of the capsules, and his claws catch at Adrian's skin briefly despite his best effort.
"...water."
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"Water."
There is a sink in the lab. Alucard pauses only to grab a glass, which is to say he opens one of the cabinets beneath them and takes out a piece of lab equipment that can hold water. Filling it up takes no time at all, but every second feels like a life time. D's restraint is remarkable, but this is no time for such comments.
He walks back over. Holds both out, steady and calm.
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It's never the same, but it does help and he closes his eyes as he slowly regains his control by inches. When he does eventually look at Adrian again, there's only a faint suggestion of red to his gaze and his claws and fangs have almost entirely returned to their normal state.
"...thank you."
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Alucard has about a million questions now, mostly as to why that happened in the first place, but he knows better than to ask. He's quiet for a few moments more, and carefully, he places one hand on D's shoulder.
It's a point to show that this? It isn't grounds for giving D the boot.
"Do you require anything else?"
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He didn't pull away either at least, just shook his head carefully.
"No."
If and when the hand is removed he stands and carefully crosses to the desk again, the flask still in hand.
"You have questions. You can ask them."
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That's the only question he has. It should be avoided if possible, and Alucard knows he's in a place to make that happen.
Only then does his hand withdraw.
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"Sometimes it can be forced by other means but primarily fresh blood. My own or another's. My abilities increase in response which can be useful."
There's a long pause while he considers if there's more to add or if that is enough, then D continues, each word sounding as though it took some effort to voice: "I was mistaken to try it now."
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Reassuring, Alucard. Especially with his tone, which is very much the clinic voice that he grew up watching his mother use. There's a sigh that follows, and Alucard's face falls into something well and truly worried. The worst is passed, of course, but he has suspicions that the outburst is likely to be a weight around D's neck.
"I'll keep it in mind for the future and work to avoid any scenarios that could aggravate it."
The capsules are limited, after all, and most of the Belmonts are out in the world at the moment.
"I think your drawing is more than enough for me to go on though."
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It sounds like a dismissal in the other man's words, so he nods and moves to the sink Adrian had used in order to rinse out the empty flask and set it aside.
He should simply leave now, return Adrian to the silence and focus that he likely wishes for, but D instead lingers at the edge of the door. He doesn't look back but just pauses there.
"He made this castle, didn't he? The parts I've seen are like what castles of my time are."
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...well. The thing on the paper looks like it might come from a mind like his father's, given enough time to get there.
"How many castles are there in your time?"
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He turns at the question, and there's a touch of something that might be sadness to his eyes.
"Hundreds. Many fallen to ruin, their masters long since gone. Their remains are scattered across the lands, hang silent and unmoving in the night sky above."
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Alucard's interest is beyond mild. There's surprise, but beyond that, real intrigue. He wants to just dive into the suggestion, find out the mechanisms, but it's a bad idea. Too demanding, and that D hasn't simply retreated somewhere into the castle feels like a small miracle.
"This thing you've drawn, I think I can backtrack at least a little bit of it's development to thoughts here. Even if your Dracula is not my father, he was a vampire and had the time to advance well beyond where humanity stands right now."
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D continued quietly. "They found ways to control the world around them in minute detail, even bend time in on itself, but none of it mattered in the end. Their people have been dead for centuries, they simply haven't accepted it yet."
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"And you truly wish to return to that?"
Maybe that wasn't the right question. Alucard's face is mortified as soon as the question leaves his lips and yet he's asked it all the same.
"Ignore that, it was inappropriate."
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"It isn't about what I want," he says quietly. "Humanity spent thousands of years enslaved to vampires. Even as a dying race, they treat people as little more than beasts and a single one can wreak havoc across an entire city. If those that choose to fight their inevitable end with the blood of others can be stopped by my blade, then that is my purpose."
"Perhaps once they have all faded to time, I will as well."
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"It's still worth asking," he murmurs, with that being the only protest he'll truly register here.
"Your home needs you, that much is clear. I'll see what I can recreate of this machine."
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He doesn't expect Adrian will accept the answer easily, even if he might not protest it, but he's young in D's eyes and their upbringings different to the point he can scarce imagine it.
"Even if you can't restore it, I won't stay any longer than you wish."
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That feels important to emphasize right now. D isn't being asked to scoot out now, and it isn't going to happen in the future either. There's no need for it, and...he has to really say this, doesn't he?
"It's...this is as close to any safe haven you'll have, and I'm glad to provide it. What I saw was simply a part of yourself, and I've be the worst of all hypocrites if I truly judged you for it, D."
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Time jump to later?
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End here?