[He does want to ask about the corset. But later, perhaps, or another day. The office's double duty as a costume workshop is not for the dhampir to comment on - only to observe and ask questions about the processes going on within instead.]
I've been getting used to it, as years pass. [A small, rueful little noise escapes his throat, offering an honest appraisal of himself.] Two years ago, I wouldn't have even thought about the possibility. Thorne dragged me from Wallachia at a very, very bad time in my life.
[Alucard leans back in his seat, arms sliding off either side of the chair he is in with a little less grace than he usually carries himself with. When he speaks, it is to Hilda, but every so often, his eyes move from her to a spot on the wall just beside her. Sometimes meeting the faces of others is difficult.]
There's a part one and a part two to this, and they're impossible to separate. One doesn't happen without the other. [His tone shifts slightly. He's given this part before. It isn't a story exactly, but the telling of it has taken on it's own sort of quality that lets the dhampir separate the emotions from the facts of what happened.] My vampirism comes from my father. My mother was human, and a skilled doctor in an age where medicine was sorely behind. For her advancements, the church of the area where we lived branded her a heretic and burned her alive. Neither myself or my father were capable of stopping the proceedings.
[Fact one, said. There's a long exhale.] My father, Dracula, never did anything by halves. He was centuries old, and small minded humans destroyed the one thing he cared about most. In his opinion, because no one had even tried to stop it, the whole of Wallachia should be erased from the map, every trace of humanity on it removed from the land. He gave the people of Wallachia a year to do so. I...disagreed with murdering an entire country. The individuals responsible? Understandable. But it was unacceptable to take it to the next level. It would also horrify my mother that such an action was carried out in her name.
We had a disagreement. We fought, I fled to recover. He summoned demons and gathered vampire generals to wage his war, and it became clear that the only way to stop his plans was to stop him.
[He can trust Hilda to figure out the plan without needing to say it.] I had help from a skilled magic wielder and a born monster hunter. We managed an alliance, killed my father, and managed to prevent the destruction of an entire country. In my grief, I needed time alone, not realizing I needed companionship instead.
That's the first part of it.
[Finished, his eyes meet Hilda's fully. There's regret in them, but not for the actions taken. Only that it was what was demanded.]
cw: patricide
I've been getting used to it, as years pass. [A small, rueful little noise escapes his throat, offering an honest appraisal of himself.] Two years ago, I wouldn't have even thought about the possibility. Thorne dragged me from Wallachia at a very, very bad time in my life.
[Alucard leans back in his seat, arms sliding off either side of the chair he is in with a little less grace than he usually carries himself with. When he speaks, it is to Hilda, but every so often, his eyes move from her to a spot on the wall just beside her. Sometimes meeting the faces of others is difficult.]
There's a part one and a part two to this, and they're impossible to separate. One doesn't happen without the other. [His tone shifts slightly. He's given this part before. It isn't a story exactly, but the telling of it has taken on it's own sort of quality that lets the dhampir separate the emotions from the facts of what happened.] My vampirism comes from my father. My mother was human, and a skilled doctor in an age where medicine was sorely behind. For her advancements, the church of the area where we lived branded her a heretic and burned her alive. Neither myself or my father were capable of stopping the proceedings.
[Fact one, said. There's a long exhale.] My father, Dracula, never did anything by halves. He was centuries old, and small minded humans destroyed the one thing he cared about most. In his opinion, because no one had even tried to stop it, the whole of Wallachia should be erased from the map, every trace of humanity on it removed from the land. He gave the people of Wallachia a year to do so. I...disagreed with murdering an entire country. The individuals responsible? Understandable. But it was unacceptable to take it to the next level. It would also horrify my mother that such an action was carried out in her name.
We had a disagreement. We fought, I fled to recover. He summoned demons and gathered vampire generals to wage his war, and it became clear that the only way to stop his plans was to stop him.
[He can trust Hilda to figure out the plan without needing to say it.] I had help from a skilled magic wielder and a born monster hunter. We managed an alliance, killed my father, and managed to prevent the destruction of an entire country. In my grief, I needed time alone, not realizing I needed companionship instead.
That's the first part of it.
[Finished, his eyes meet Hilda's fully. There's regret in them, but not for the actions taken. Only that it was what was demanded.]