❧ text; un: alucard

[reposing]

Greetings.

I have a request to make and am willing to pay as one sees fit.
I need a coffin to be made with careful specifications. Some requirements would include ensuring that it is made with the intent to last for many years, the interior to be comfortable enough for a man to rest in, and perhaps a few other details depending on your skill set.

Before you ask, yes. It is for me.
Take that as you will.

Comments

audio.

[goneforawalk]

I'm going to be blunt. I have no idea what the hell you're going on about, and I don't appreciate my quiet existence being interrupted with the assumption I'm a threat.

[ hmmm what's with that voice. it's clipped, and sharp, and the accent will be familiar, but the cadence and tone are wrong. ]

If you have problems with me, so be it, plenty do, but I would rather my title not be taken in the meantime. It's a bad look.

If this is about my past, or the organization, or the war, or Integra Hellsing in specific, I want to know.

[reposing]

...You're not him. I would know his voice, even in my deepest sleep.

[There's a pause, but then his voice sounds more tense.]

Who are you to claim to be Vlad Dracula Ţepeş? Is this some kind of fucking game to you?

private. phew.

[goneforawalk]

I am Vlad Dracula Ţepeş. Do you think it's a game, to be an unending monster tethered to the earth? To be laid low by a human hunter, to be turned into his monstrous attack dog? To follow the whims of his bloodline, no matter how inane, no matter how detrimental to one's self? To be ripped from the most glorious battle of your existence with the end finally in your grasp? To have finally found a place within your cage where you're comfortable but aching, tired but at rest, only to have some upstart claim the twist on your title that your captor gave you as an insult?

[ he snorts. ]

No. I'm not the Dracula you know. You're from another world. There are plenty of them, so get used to it.

private;

[reposing]

What a terribly sad tale! [He barks out a bitter laugh.] Forgive me for not being so open-minded after I had to murder my own father.

Though perhaps you are so lucky to not have a son like me.

[goneforawalk]

I am, to put it bluntly, domesticated. I am no danger to anyone here that doesn't threaten humans. So, simply, you can give the Dracula murder a rest when it comes to me, though I'll admit the baser part of me is interested you beat him.

[ he pauses. father father father father-- ]

I have no family.

Tell me your real name. There's no way it's Alucard. There's a reason it's a stupid moniker. There's a reason people here refuse to call me by it and instead call me by name.

[reposing]

Adrian Fahrenheight Ţepeş. Son of Lisa and Vlad Dracula Ţepeş. The people of Wallachia saw fit to call me Alucard instead, his court whispering it when they thought I could not hear. The opposite of him. That is why.

It's stupid. It is more of an insult than anything. But it is all that I am now.

[goneforawalk]

I know no Lisa. Our worlds differ vastly. What is the year for you? It was 1999, for me, but if it is still Wallachia--

[ a beat. ]

That's a lie. You're never simply a shadow of your family, no matter who they are. I'm not going to call you Alucard.

[reposing]

1476. It really is different, as you say.

As I have told another, I am but a slave to my family's wishes. Now they're gone, and there is nothing but memories and a broken castle. I am just Alucard.

[goneforawalk]

I was still human in 1476. I was just Vlad the Impaler, the wild voivode. I had a human wife and human children. All gone now, obviously. Long gone.

Your family gave you the name they did for a reason. You should embrace that instead of wrenching your own heart out. In any case, as I said, the humans I meet here don't tend to agree to call me Alucard. They insist on an actual name instead.

Perhaps that would be good for you.

[reposing]

I was his only child. Father... went mad after Mother was killed by the Church. So I had to confront him.

I only won because he wanted to die.

You are considerate to suggest it to me. But it is not something I think I could actively offer. ...Call me whatever you wish, should we ever speak again.

[goneforawalk]

I see. Was she human still? I went on a rampage once, over the last human woman I feel deeply in love with. But my means and methods were selfish and I deserved the sound trouncing I received.

I'm familiar with that wish. It seems for the best you put him to rest, though it hurts. The victor in my battle was not so kind to me.

I will then. Adrian.

[reposing]

She was. They were deeply in love, and wonderful parents to me. She was determined to have him learn about the world, to open his resources and knowledge to others. It was tragic was transpired because of the Church.

So you have said. I would not dream of a tormented end for any man regardless of who he is.

I... could not call you Alucard either. Nor do I think I could call you Dracula. Is Vlad acceptable?

[goneforawalk]

I see. Mina didn't--love me. I was a monster. Selfish. Your parents' love was much better than my own history. It's regretful it ended the way it did.

Vlad is acceptable. I don't mind it.

[reposing]

To recognize your past transgressions shows much of your growth. It's unfortunate what happened to both of us, but there is a part of me that's not unhappy you're alive.

Thank you.

[goneforawalk]

Of course.

[ HE... SPIES INTEGRA ON THIS POST... ]

For the record, Integra Hellsing is that comfortable spot I mentioned. She's good, insofar as a master can be.

I'm loyal to her willingly, not by force. She's the only good thing to have ever come from the Hellsing family.

[reposing]

...Then I will be considerably less terse with her. Thank you for telling me.

[goneforawalk]

I thought I should clarify, after my outburst earlier. Her ancestors are the ones I have a problem with.

[reposing]

Something else we have in common, then.

I know no Hellsing, but the Belmont family has slaughtered hundreds of vampires. Some deserving, some not. Many of their skulls on display, like trophies. But there is one Belmont I do not regard as an enemy.

[goneforawalk]

It's much the same. My purpose, as a tool of the Hellsing family, is to decimate my own kind.

[ a pause. ]

Integra has... vision, where her family did not. To only focus on the threats against humanity and not the whole.

[reposing]

An unusual but welcomed change of mind. You think very highly of her indeed.

[goneforawalk]

[ bluntly: ]

She is kind to me. I would follow her to the ends of the Earth, should she bid it.

[reposing]

That is quite the character assessment. You love her deeply, then. Romantic or otherwise, it does not matter.

[goneforawalk]

[ a rough chuckle. ]

It's not romantic. Frankly, I excised that part of myself long ago. But no, you're right, this is good enough.

[reposing]

Mm. That does not surprise me. Father always considered Mother his one and only true love, and it is difficult for our nature to let go of those we've held dear in our hearts.

Still, I believe you.

[goneforawalk]

How very true. We do have a similarity, there.

I'd like to get to know you better, if that were amenable to you. The concept of a son, now, is... impossible, for me. Obviously that's not what you are to me, but I'd like to know you nonetheless.