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[reposing]

« goodnight » TEXT ✧ AUDIO ✧ VIDEO ✧ ACTION ALUCARD ✦ CASTLEVANIA
RESIDENCE ✦ Residency
GEMBOND ✦ Amethyst

"Leave a message. Or don't."

INFO ✧ PERMISSIONS ✧ KINKLIST ✧ EXTRA

Comments

[savewell]

I said rude, not disgusting! But come now, I'm barely scandalized. Is that your very best?

[reposing]

Look, I've little reason to be rude to you yet, give me time.

[savewell]

Yes, that's about what I expected you'd say. When you couldn't do it.

As a matter of fact, you've done just the opposite, and been kind to me while you were trying to be rude.

[reposing]

Goodness. Perhaps you are indeed the rudest of us both.

It's a bit difficult to be when someone has been kind to me in return, truthfully.

[savewell]

I most certainly am NOT!

...Though, if you'll pardon me being a bit forward, there is something I've been meaning to ask you. It's nothing awful, I promise.

[reposing]

Being forward is not the same as rude. Please, ask me what you wish.

[savewell]

Do you always keep your hair so long? I think yours might be longer than mine, even, and mine always gets in the way if I don't pin it back. How do you keep it from going all a mess?

[reposing]

I have for ages, yes. Though I'll admit it's gotten a bit longer than usual in the past few months. I'll admit that I don't exactly have typical means to keep it as it is.

[savewell]

[A few months...hmmm. That's not the first time he's mentioned that interval of time this conversation.]

Well, it does look very fine on you. You might do well to trim the ends a bit, though. You've gone a little uneven at the bottom.

[reposing]

Ah. You're probably right. I'd sort of ignored certain things before I was heading out to Danesti.

[savewell]

You were lonely and keeping to yourself, I imagine. It's understandable.

But never mind that. I didn't mean to make things glum all over again. You can ask me something strange and invasive if you like, to make things even.

[reposing]

Something like that.

It's fine. It's a bit difficult to avoid, I imagine. I suppose I might ask, what happened to your father?

[savewell]

Oh. Well, um. The physicians said it was his heart. His heart failed him.

I'm not sure if there's a simple way to explain it, but. There was a certain creature that demanded a yearly sacrifice of us, and it happened that this year, the sacrifice was to be me. So I had...gone, and said my goodbyes, and I suppose you can imagine what the thought of it did to my parents — my father especially.

After I was saved, word reached them that I had been spared, and the shock of it all, so much in so short a time...I think it was just too much for him.

[reposing]

I see. A lot for an older man. And I imagine there were not many doctors prepared to help him.

You feel at fault?

[savewell]

They tried everything. It was horrible to watch them running in and out, bringing this herb and that ointment and this spell and that remedy. And all the while it was like we were all holding our breath, hoping that this one would be different than the others, but none of them changed a thing.

I feel...I'm sure it sounds nonsensical, doesn't it, but I do feel responsible. I didn't want or intend it, but...it was because of what happened to me, that it happened to him. It's hard to be the cause of something without feeling in some way at fault for it.

[reposing]

Even if it was not your fault, what you feel is understandable. It's not unusual. When my mother died, I felt it was my fault, even if I had nothing to do with it.

Is he still unwell?

[savewell]

No, he's all right now. A kindly fairy sent word to me of a magical fruit with the power to cure all ills, and offered to send me to the land where it was growing, to retrieve it for him. She didn't tell me I'd have to go beyond a waterfall, through a troll's cave beneath the mountains, across a chasm, through a swamp, and past a waiting cobra to get it, but once I was there, there was no helping it.

...That's why I can't sleep. It's too dark, and I keep thinking I hear the growling.

[reposing]

You were on quite a journey to save your father.

Rosella. This may be forward, and I would not be offended if you declined. Still, I would like to offer: would you feel safer staying with someone else right now?

[savewell]

That wasn't even the half of it. She spirited me away on a moment's notice, yes, but it wasn't until after I'd already gone that she told me she couldn't send me home again, unless I did something for her as well.

...Would you think very poorly of me if I said I would? I know it's only the dark and devices.

I'm trying so hard not to let it bother me...

[reposing]

Bit of an unfortunate corner she put you into. You were trying to beat time as it was.

I would not, Rosella. I can be on my way now if you wish.

[savewell]

Time was something none of us had a lot of. I was so exhausted by the end of it that I barely made it back to where she was waiting for me.

You're sure you won't be too put out? You must at least let me make it up to you somehow.

[reposing]

How long was your quest?

Not in the least. I'll be by soon. If you wish to make it up to me, then I will not stop you.

[savewell]

A day, all told. But it was right on the heels of that other business I mentioned, so...closer to two days, without any sort of rest in between.

I do wish to. Knock, then, when you get here; I'll be up and waiting.

[reposing]

So now that you have the chance, you're kept up by unfamiliar devices reminding you of troubling events.

Of course. I am on my way.

[And of course, true to his word, Alucard arrives with gentle knocking to her door. His state of dress is no different, only in that he lacks his sword and shield and seems to be better kept now. Slightly less disaster than before.]

[savewell]

[Thank goodness she'd had the foresight to pick up a robe to cover up with, when she'd been perusing the Noctian shops in search of pieces to pad out her current wardrobe a little. It's not long enough to cover her chemise entirely, but it'll do well enough to suffice — and it's better than getting all the way dressed again, just to greet her midnight guest at the door.

But even as tidied up and put-together as she can make herself on the relatively short notice, it's still fairly obvious that Rosella's been having a bad night, when she tugs the door open. She's got her hair braided simply back and tied off with a ribbon, but it's gone lopsided and rumpled from a fair amount of tossing and turning, and the beginnings of circles are threatening under her eyes.]

Good evening. ...Or is it morning, by now? Well, one or the other — do come in, Alucard.

[She says, as she tugs open the door and permits him entrance to her little apartment, where the kitchen light is on and the refrigerator is indeed humming and clunking as such things do, and at least one other lamp is lit all across the front room into the bedroom area, such that there's a definite path from one end of the apartment to the other, without Rosella having to set foot in shadow the whole way across.]