[It's a quiet enough spot at any rate, populated by a few others doing the exact same thing as Alucard and Maria: sitting down where it's quiet, close enough to food stalls if needed and far away rfom most of the hustle and bustle of the celebration itself. If the more relaxed air around Alucard is anything to go by, it suits him.
It's interesting watching Maria's crepe approach, which seems more focused on examining the individual compontents of the thing rather than deating it all in one fell swoop. That it isn't already a mess feels like a small miracle.
Alucard leans back a little, hands splayed on either side of him to support the weight. His eyes move from Maria to the stars instead, and he's quiet for a moment.]
I didn't think you were.
[It would require too much effort to make up a tale such as what Maria has already shared with him.]
I'm not sure that I should have the answers to what lies ahead in my future. Nor that I want to know.
[Maria nods a little, her expression thoughtful and serious still. It makes complete sense that he wouldn't want to know. She likely wouldn't either if she was in his place. It was the reason she hadn't delved into so much more -- Shaft, his father's resurrection and so much more.
If he could have a peaceful and relaxed air here, something she had never, ever seen from him in her own time, then she was loathe to disturb it with stories of things he couldn't change. Maybe? No, she doubted he could, particularly while here.
The pair can lapse into a comfortable silence then for a bit as she now devours the crepe more than examining it. The burble of the fountain is calming even as it makes her think of a stream and adds to some unspeakable itch to be out in the forest somewhere. Maybe she ought to go exploring later? She hadn't been much beyond the walls of the city before she left last time.
Instead she stretches her legs out for now and directs her own attention skyward too. Crepe gone she muses a bit, absentmindedly making sure the length of her hair isn't dipping back into the fountain or some such nonsense.]
Have you had any Bonds yourself thus far?
[He had asked her so it seemed like asking him the same thing couldn't be off limits.]
[That the silence isn't screamingly awkward says volumes to the dhampir. Maria is used to them. Comfortable with them. He didn't have any doubts prior about her claims to be from his future, but this? This clinches it for him.
As Maria gets through the crepe, Alucard closes his eyes and adjusts to the silence. It feels wonderful and all of the tension in him melts away.]
Two. Trevor and Sypha, as they're both here with me. I don't anticipate more.
[Ah, she ought to have guessed at least one would be that Trevor fellow. Now in some small way she almost feels bad for getting along poorly with him. Or at least for being so huffy and catty about it later. Lesson learned there, I guess.
Sypha she doesn't know in the least but there's definitely one thing she does know -- or feels, at least. There's a certain sense of relief much like when she first saw him, awake and all, in knowing that at the very least that he certainly isn't alone.
She ends up nodding to that even as she looks pleased.]
Mm, good then! No one ought to be alone if they don't want to be. And if I recall correctly Nessie and Mhairi are quite happy together so Bonding must be nice.
[Those are the only examples she has at present, of course. Last time it was still so early on that few had Bonded yet. Well, few from the short list of people she had become acquainted with anyhow.]
--I find it intrusive in many ways, if I'm being completely honest.
[Even now, Alucard feels real shame in admitting it. It shows in how he bows his head, how he drops the tone of his voice, how he looks to make sure no one has overheard it.
It's good, knowing how Sypha and Trevor feel even if they're not in the mood to communicate. But that doesn't change the sense of intrusion, a lack of privacy, the things the dhampir cloaks himself in most of all. To be forced into vulnerability is something he still doesn't appreciate.]
It makes demands of a person when they may not be ready to meet those demands yet. I understand the necessity all the same, but I don't always appreciate my emotions being broadcast.
[Definitely no surprises. Even from an outward glance Alucard certainly hadn't struck her as the emotionally open sort and she imagined Adrian for all his relative warmth in comparison wouldn't be much more amenable to being so open.
Had she hoped to change that? She gives the man a gently sympathetic look for a brief moment. Then she plants a hand to either side of herself much in the same way Adrian had done and leans back, considering the night sky once more as she rolls the thought through her mind.]
There's nothing wrong with that, I think. It certainly doesn't mean you care any less.
[Had he worried about that? Had Trevor or Sypha? Would she if she was faced with being Bonded? She had known they entailed an emotional connection alongside the sharing and balancing of magic.
Would she herself like being that vulnerable? She's always been more than willing to help others when and where she could... but that wasn't really the same as allowing herself to be helped in turn.]
When one is used to relying on themselves in one way or another it's hard to give up that control, don't you think? Even in little amounts.
With the way they talk about bonds here, it feels otherwise.
[They're so important. Emphasized. Treated as something special but also something public. Alucard understands that to normalize bonds is to help ensure that they continue to be used in the fight against the Shades and all things that lurk in the dark, but truly? It feels all too often that the true intimacy and personal nature is glossed over.
He breathes out, and God. Maria really does know him, doesn't she? Perhaps for even longer than she's letting on.]
I believe you are entirely correct. [He has been so self reliant, until the prophecy asked him to be otherwise.] Are you sure that I'm so distant from you?
[She seems bemused at admitting that, as if amused by her own folly and flaws.]
I thought though from what little experience I did have that maybe you had similar troubles as well. To do for others is one thing but to do for yourself is... a bit more taxing, hm?
[There she huffs out a laugh. She's starting to delve a little too much into thought here isn't she. Is this really the time for deep emotional reflection? Her thoughts had always been so focused on others that she did little real thinking on herself to be bluntly honest.]
What everyone else thinks about bonds doesn't much matter. You're the one dealing with it. And you're the one that defines the bonds you do have, yes?
[Glancing back at him her brows perk up, bemusement replaced with soft curiosity.]
Do you want to be that open some day? With anyone?
[To show them all the dark corners and sad thoughts and so on?]
[There's a faint hint of fluster in his voice, which perhaps is the real thing that would be out of place with the Alucard Maria has met. He seems a distant, colder creature. The thing Alucard wanted to be after he killed his father. The thing Trevor and Sypha have refused to allow.]
I don't think you're wrong. About either point, doing for oneself and where the court of public opinion should stand on bonds. [Why would he be this cold with someone like this though?
He's projecting that assumption. There's so much that could change in 300 years, he knows that.]
--I think that it's...[He knows what this answer is. He's going to be messy as he says it.] Trevor and Sypha witnessed the worst thing that I have done. That means I'm already as open as I could be with anyone. I think in the future it will be harder. It'll force me to put those acts into words, and that will be the real thing I'm judged on.
[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?
[There's a doubtful look in his eyes at the claim that no, he isn't self centered. Alucard can only point to this conversation to contradict that simple fact, as they have done naught but focus on him and his particulars rather than truly turn to Maria.
She knows him in her way, after all. He knows nothing of her, and in that there feels a certain imbalance that ought to be corrected.
Her words though. They give Alucard pause, if only because they seem to address both himself and the future. It is a strange but fascinating balance, and Alucard doesn't know the best way to address them.
A sad, distant smile flickers across his face.]
I can only say that I will try. [Try and hope for the best.]
Your future. You've met me, but you've said so little else.
[Huh. Well honestly it's not that much of a surprise. It isn't that Maria doesn't think she's worth talking about but, well, she'd much rather learn about others so.
She's ready to brush off talk of so much sadness however so with still perked eyebrows and curiosity on her face she offers:]
[Maria has to pause and think on that. Oh she had a basic enough knowledge of history given her upbringing but Maria isn't really the sort to concentrate on it too in-depth either.]
I believe Wallachia has been part of the Ottoman Empire for some time now? There was a war in ...
[Hold on here. She can almost here the scolding tones of her tutor now.]
1690, I think? Well the first of many anyhow between the Ottoman Empire and Russia. Peasants serving lords isn't so much a thing now as it once was thanks to serfdom being done away with.
[Her eyes narrow a little as she tries to remember what had been happening to the country in this past year. Frankly her sights were too set on Richter so...]
Nicholas Mavrogenes was the latest prince I believe. He was taken off the throne a few years ago so there's been another war from that unfortunately.
[She looks a little apologetic.]
I hadn't realized there was so much fighting until now. I'm afraid I may have spent a number of years since the Belmonts took me in concentrating on our hunt of the night creatures. My studies in history have fallen off for that sort of training.
[Well and the Belmonts while better liked now than they once were weren't exactly the same nobility as the Renards. Mostly due to the whole fighting thing, though the Renards weren't without their own weaponry.]
The Ottomans were only just beginning to exert control in my time, but--
[There's some good things in this. Serfdom being abolished is a big one, but fighting? That's familiar. A little too familiar, all things considered. Alucard grew up away from the world, but with Trevor and Sypha, he understood certain things all the same. The chaos of growing up in Wallachia as Vlad III tried to keep the Ottomans out. The ever growing stresses of fighting an empire. The fact that what his father did created more opportunity for the Ottomans to exploit.
He sighs, offering a very faint laugh.]
Wallachia inivites this, I think. There's a natural chaos to it, no matter what one does or who may be in charge.
Very well. I wouldn't necessarily say we're friends with some of the more religious around us but they haven't really bothered us either.
[She thinks of Richter though.]
But then it also means no one truly remembers the family. Perhaps it's better that way but it does have downsides. Richter... he was afraid of being forgotten in the end, I think. With Dracula in his grave once more I think he couldn't see what purpose he could serve or what important he might have left.
That's good. [Near warmth almost rolls off Alucard. That the Church is leaving the Belmonts be? That's beyond good. That's amazing. He doesn't ask if it's true for all of Wallachia - he can settle for now.]
There's some value in being anonymous. It prevents things like the excommunication that-- [Maria probably already knows.]
He'll find purpose. No one should be defined by Dracula's legacy.
[At that she nods firmly. He would eventually and of that she had little doubt.]
I suppose with the trouble his family has been through in the past he certainly deserves it. I don't know much of what happened of course.
[She doesn't miss the warmth though. Things click nicely into place as she recalls a distinct moment in the castle.]
Oh! That's who you must have meant then!
[... Well, not him him but ... ah, time is so complicated.]
We ran into each other several times within the castle while I was searching for Richter. I had hoped you had seen him and while you did recognize the Belmont name, I had thought you must know Richter. Then when we met again later you said there was a Belmont in the castle but you didn't know if it was Richter or not.
[She nods some to herself.]
It certainly puts Richter's disbelief it was you into more perspective then.
[How was it he put it? "That was over 300 years ago!" ... Hadn't he mentioned Trevor then too?
Oh dear. Maria sighs to herself. She'd have to think of a way to apologize to that brute of a man, wouldn't she.]
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Maria Renard | Castlevania | Faun
or i could be an idiot who put the reply tag in the old thread because tabs are apparently confusing
[It's a quiet enough spot at any rate, populated by a few others doing the exact same thing as Alucard and Maria: sitting down where it's quiet, close enough to food stalls if needed and far away rfom most of the hustle and bustle of the celebration itself. If the more relaxed air around Alucard is anything to go by, it suits him.
It's interesting watching Maria's crepe approach, which seems more focused on examining the individual compontents of the thing rather than deating it all in one fell swoop. That it isn't already a mess feels like a small miracle.
Alucard leans back a little, hands splayed on either side of him to support the weight. His eyes move from Maria to the stars instead, and he's quiet for a moment.]
I didn't think you were.
[It would require too much effort to make up a tale such as what Maria has already shared with him.]
I'm not sure that I should have the answers to what lies ahead in my future. Nor that I want to know.
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If he could have a peaceful and relaxed air here, something she had never, ever seen from him in her own time, then she was loathe to disturb it with stories of things he couldn't change. Maybe? No, she doubted he could, particularly while here.
The pair can lapse into a comfortable silence then for a bit as she now devours the crepe more than examining it. The burble of the fountain is calming even as it makes her think of a stream and adds to some unspeakable itch to be out in the forest somewhere. Maybe she ought to go exploring later? She hadn't been much beyond the walls of the city before she left last time.
Instead she stretches her legs out for now and directs her own attention skyward too. Crepe gone she muses a bit, absentmindedly making sure the length of her hair isn't dipping back into the fountain or some such nonsense.]
Have you had any Bonds yourself thus far?
[He had asked her so it seemed like asking him the same thing couldn't be off limits.]
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As Maria gets through the crepe, Alucard closes his eyes and adjusts to the silence. It feels wonderful and all of the tension in him melts away.]
Two. Trevor and Sypha, as they're both here with me. I don't anticipate more.
[
unless we want to fix that]no subject
Sypha she doesn't know in the least but there's definitely one thing she does know -- or feels, at least. There's a certain sense of relief much like when she first saw him, awake and all, in knowing that at the very least that he certainly isn't alone.
She ends up nodding to that even as she looks pleased.]
Mm, good then! No one ought to be alone if they don't want to be. And if I recall correctly Nessie and Mhairi are quite happy together so Bonding must be nice.
[Those are the only examples she has at present, of course. Last time it was still so early on that few had Bonded yet. Well, few from the short list of people she had become acquainted with anyhow.]
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[Even now, Alucard feels real shame in admitting it. It shows in how he bows his head, how he drops the tone of his voice, how he looks to make sure no one has overheard it.
It's good, knowing how Sypha and Trevor feel even if they're not in the mood to communicate. But that doesn't change the sense of intrusion, a lack of privacy, the things the dhampir cloaks himself in most of all. To be forced into vulnerability is something he still doesn't appreciate.]
It makes demands of a person when they may not be ready to meet those demands yet. I understand the necessity all the same, but I don't always appreciate my emotions being broadcast.
[In that? There are probably 0 surprises.]
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Had she hoped to change that? She gives the man a gently sympathetic look for a brief moment. Then she plants a hand to either side of herself much in the same way Adrian had done and leans back, considering the night sky once more as she rolls the thought through her mind.]
There's nothing wrong with that, I think. It certainly doesn't mean you care any less.
[Had he worried about that? Had Trevor or Sypha? Would she if she was faced with being Bonded? She had known they entailed an emotional connection alongside the sharing and balancing of magic.
Would she herself like being that vulnerable? She's always been more than willing to help others when and where she could... but that wasn't really the same as allowing herself to be helped in turn.]
When one is used to relying on themselves in one way or another it's hard to give up that control, don't you think? Even in little amounts.
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[They're so important. Emphasized. Treated as something special but also something public. Alucard understands that to normalize bonds is to help ensure that they continue to be used in the fight against the Shades and all things that lurk in the dark, but truly? It feels all too often that the true intimacy and personal nature is glossed over.
He breathes out, and God. Maria really does know him, doesn't she? Perhaps for even longer than she's letting on.]
I believe you are entirely correct. [He has been so self reliant, until the prophecy asked him to be otherwise.] Are you sure that I'm so distant from you?
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[She seems bemused at admitting that, as if amused by her own folly and flaws.]
I thought though from what little experience I did have that maybe you had similar troubles as well. To do for others is one thing but to do for yourself is... a bit more taxing, hm?
[There she huffs out a laugh. She's starting to delve a little too much into thought here isn't she. Is this really the time for deep emotional reflection? Her thoughts had always been so focused on others that she did little real thinking on herself to be bluntly honest.]
What everyone else thinks about bonds doesn't much matter. You're the one dealing with it. And you're the one that defines the bonds you do have, yes?
[Glancing back at him her brows perk up, bemusement replaced with soft curiosity.]
Do you want to be that open some day? With anyone?
[To show them all the dark corners and sad thoughts and so on?]
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[There's a faint hint of fluster in his voice, which perhaps is the real thing that would be out of place with the Alucard Maria has met. He seems a distant, colder creature. The thing Alucard wanted to be after he killed his father. The thing Trevor and Sypha have refused to allow.]
I don't think you're wrong. About either point, doing for oneself and where the court of public opinion should stand on bonds. [Why would he be this cold with someone like this though?
He's projecting that assumption. There's so much that could change in 300 years, he knows that.]
--I think that it's...[He knows what this answer is. He's going to be messy as he says it.] Trevor and Sypha witnessed the worst thing that I have done. That means I'm already as open as I could be with anyone. I think in the future it will be harder. It'll force me to put those acts into words, and that will be the real thing I'm judged on.
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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?
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She knows him in her way, after all. He knows nothing of her, and in that there feels a certain imbalance that ought to be corrected.
Her words though. They give Alucard pause, if only because they seem to address both himself and the future. It is a strange but fascinating balance, and Alucard doesn't know the best way to address them.
A sad, distant smile flickers across his face.]
I can only say that I will try. [Try and hope for the best.]
Your future. You've met me, but you've said so little else.
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I haven't?
[Huh. Well honestly it's not that much of a surprise. It isn't that Maria doesn't think she's worth talking about but, well, she'd much rather learn about others so.
She's ready to brush off talk of so much sadness however so with still perked eyebrows and curiosity on her face she offers:]
You're welcome to ask whatever you like then.
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[It's a wide place to start, but it seems easiest to begin with the impersonal.]
i'm not a scholar, i just abuse wikipedia very thoroughly
I believe Wallachia has been part of the Ottoman Empire for some time now? There was a war in ...
[Hold on here. She can almost here the scolding tones of her tutor now.]
1690, I think? Well the first of many anyhow between the Ottoman Empire and Russia. Peasants serving lords isn't so much a thing now as it once was thanks to serfdom being done away with.
[Her eyes narrow a little as she tries to remember what had been happening to the country in this past year. Frankly her sights were too set on Richter so...]
Nicholas Mavrogenes was the latest prince I believe. He was taken off the throne a few years ago so there's been another war from that unfortunately.
[She looks a little apologetic.]
I hadn't realized there was so much fighting until now. I'm afraid I may have spent a number of years since the Belmonts took me in concentrating on our hunt of the night creatures. My studies in history have fallen off for that sort of training.
[Well and the Belmonts while better liked now than they once were weren't exactly the same nobility as the Renards. Mostly due to the whole fighting thing, though the Renards weren't without their own weaponry.]
wallachian history is also chaotic as shit
[There's some good things in this. Serfdom being abolished is a big one, but fighting? That's familiar. A little too familiar, all things considered. Alucard grew up away from the world, but with Trevor and Sypha, he understood certain things all the same. The chaos of growing up in Wallachia as Vlad III tried to keep the Ottomans out. The ever growing stresses of fighting an empire. The fact that what his father did created more opportunity for the Ottomans to exploit.
He sighs, offering a very faint laugh.]
Wallachia inivites this, I think. There's a natural chaos to it, no matter what one does or who may be in charge.
[But in that, something else.]
What is it like with them now?
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[At least that's who she imagines he means.]
Very well. I wouldn't necessarily say we're friends with some of the more religious around us but they haven't really bothered us either.
[She thinks of Richter though.]
But then it also means no one truly remembers the family. Perhaps it's better that way but it does have downsides. Richter... he was afraid of being forgotten in the end, I think. With Dracula in his grave once more I think he couldn't see what purpose he could serve or what important he might have left.
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There's some value in being anonymous. It prevents things like the excommunication that-- [Maria probably already knows.]
He'll find purpose. No one should be defined by Dracula's legacy.
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I suppose with the trouble his family has been through in the past he certainly deserves it. I don't know much of what happened of course.
[She doesn't miss the warmth though. Things click nicely into place as she recalls a distinct moment in the castle.]
Oh! That's who you must have meant then!
[... Well, not him him but ... ah, time is so complicated.]
We ran into each other several times within the castle while I was searching for Richter. I had hoped you had seen him and while you did recognize the Belmont name, I had thought you must know Richter. Then when we met again later you said there was a Belmont in the castle but you didn't know if it was Richter or not.
[She nods some to herself.]
It certainly puts Richter's disbelief it was you into more perspective then.
[How was it he put it? "That was over 300 years ago!" ... Hadn't he mentioned Trevor then too?
Oh dear. Maria sighs to herself. She'd have to think of a way to apologize to that brute of a man, wouldn't she.]