[In what little time they've chatted Maria had ended up both marveling at and saddened by the myriad of differences. It's terribly easy to classify the Alucard she only vaguely knows and this man -- Adrian, she reminds herself -- as different people.

They aren't. It's almost frightening in a way to think how despite the surprising fluster to his voice and the messy, perhaps awkward way he explains things at this moment. Could three hundred years bring so much difference? Or... no, perhaps not so much true difference but simply a veneer, an image worn.]

You're far from self-centered.

[Her tone is gentle but solid. She isn't insistent on the opinion but it's clear she believes what she says.

Those acts, those deeds he can't quite force himself to voice, the judgement that comes with such ... how heavy. She can almost hear Richter's words, empathizing on how hard it must have been to kill his father and Alucard's admittance of how it wasn't an easy thing to do.

"The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing."

She rightfully fights the urge to lay a hand on his shoulder and laces her fingers together as she settles her hands into her lap.]

You are not your past, Adrian. What the future will be is yours to shape. There is nothing you have to do right this moment. If you must put those acts into words then take your time in finding them. Don't feel forced to voice them simply because you think you should.

[But-- the words she had so wanted to say to the cold man she had gone after seem clear now, by far and away clearer than they had been when she went after him anyhow.]

Just don't shut yourself away because you can't find those words right now, alright?