deercountry | ( open ) I can't control withering wonders

All right. I doubt I'll get much sleep.

You wanna go to a bar around here or would you rather come to my place? I've got a couple of bottles of wine and half a bottle of whiskey I wouldn't mind sharing.

I'd like that.

Here. [ she sends him a photo of a highly detailed, hand-drawn map to her place from the lamp in Crenshaw. ]

I'll be there shortly.

[ The house is a two-floor Victorian cottage paneled in pale shades of cream and grey and lilac with a little wrap-around porch. The porch light is on and Sharon sits out on stoop, a sketchbook in her lap. She's dressed in a loose-fitting sweater and leggings with a pair of thick slippers over her feet. It's clear she's been out a while, her nose and cheeks a soft blue-red from the chill. ]

[ alucard arrives, dressed in a white shirt and black pants. his sword remains by his side, hanging low by his belts. he dips his head lightly when he sees her. ]

I'm sorry my memories put you off your sleep.

[ she snorts quietly at the apology as if waving it off, and closes her sketchbook on her pencil as she gets up to stand. ]

Nah, don't worry about it. Even if I hadn't seen your memories, I'd still be fighting sleep. I have nightmares pretty much every night. It used to be so bad I'd sleepwalk during them, and wind up in crazy places. I once almost jumped to my death. [ she says it all like it's nothing and not mildly traumatic. she motions for him to follow her into the house.

the inside is softly lit by the occasional stray candle and she leads him into the living room. there are two couches and two plush chairs all facing one another with a glass coffee table in the center. the fireplace is lit but it's the only light in the room. there's already a pair of glasses on the table, two bottles of wine, and a crystal decanter of a deep amber liquid. ]

So, what's your preferred poison? [ she flops down on the couch with a blanket over the back and pulls the blanket over to cover her shoulders. look, she's a coldblood and she's hypersensitive to temperatures. ]

[ alucard pulls up a chair, sitting on it politely, legs crossed. ]

Red wine will do, if you have it.

[ look at him, all polite and fancy looking while Sharon looks like she just climbed out of bed. ]

I do, actually. My friend brought me a few bottles of things she likes. [ She grabs one of the dark bottles off the glass table. ] I think she said this one was like a... a Dornish Red. It's sour and sweet and I don't know, sounded kind of nice. Gimme a minute to open it.

[ she'll disappear into the kitchen for a moment. there will be the sound of drawers being opened and quiet muttering (something like where the fuck is it) before there's a soft pop and the sound of victory. she returns to the living room. she pours him a glass before she pours one for herself. ] I don't know shit about wine. Or most alcohol. I only ever drank beer and vodka back home.

[ alucard takes the glass politely, giving her a deferring nod. ]

There is no shame in that. Vampires like fine things in general. It compliments the thirst. So it ends up being the substance I prefer over others.

[ she curls her legs up beneath her on the couch, her own glass of wine in her hands. ] D told me something similar. [ she says as she takes a sip. her nose wrinkles. this is an acquired taste clearly. ]

That vampires like opulence and the dramatic. [ there's an eye-roll when she says the word dramatic but there's a lilt of amusement in her voice. ] Is that your thing, too?

[ his look goes a little pinched at the mention of D. ]

Well, as I am half, it stands to reason I hold to similar tastes.

[ she raises a dark brow beneath her messy bangs when she notices the pinch in his expression but doesn't say anything ]

I'm half my mother but I don't have a knack for tailoring clothes nor do I crumble under cult pressure. [ to her, there's no logic there. ]

Fair point.

Still, considering who my father was, it's unlikely I'll escape the vampire stereotypes.

[ at the mention of his father, she takes another sip of her wine, expression turning a little thoughtful. everything she knows about dracula, she's learned from fiction. ]

Can I ask what he was like as you were growing up?

[ alucard falls silent for a moment, tipping the wine back and forth in his glass. ]

He was like any other father. Strict at times, warm during others.

That's a cop-out answer if I've ever heard one. [ she says bluntly but doesn't try to press him ]

My dad tried to not be too strict, and give me little freedoms where he could, but he was protective. It got worse when I was fifteen, though. A man attacked us in our own house, came at us with a weapon and my dad had to kill him. After that, he got a little stricter, taught me how to shoot, and made sure I always had a phone on me from then on out.

He was a damn good dad. I keep hoping I'll go to the beach when all the newbie squids start washing up and find him out there. I definitely miss him.

[ alucard hums lightly. ]

It is and it isn't. My father was Dracula. The greatest vampire the world has ever known. A general of Hell itself, the scourge of the Eastern region. He was the greatest repository of human and magical knowledge. None of this, he kept from me.

But he sat by my bed. Told me stories. Held my hand.

[ his hand goes to his chest where his scar remains. ]

And cut me down in his grief.

[ a frown tugs at her lips ]

His grief broke him. [ she saw his end. saw how he was as his actions dawned on him. there was something uniquely heartwrenching about it all and, still, it's not an image she can get out of her head. she takes a much larger sip of her wine, gaze distant. ]

You woke him up in the end.

Yes. And it meant something.

[ at least, for alucard. but he knows it does not dismiss the sheer damage and devastation dracula wreaked upon the world. the murdered, the innocent, the bloodletting. it was cataclysmic. ]

But he was still Dracula.

I couldn't have done what you did. [ her words hitch in her throat and she has to take another sip of wine to continue ] Maybe it's because I've been there, felt that kind of grief and rage, or maybe it's because seeing that broke my heart. But I couldn't have done what you did.

[ she's not disparaging his choice or questioning it but admiring it and the strength of will and mental fortitude it took to do ]

[ alucard falls silent. his gaze seems fixed on the wine in his glass. ]

. . . Perhaps it is for the best. That I could do such a thing that no one else could.

I-I don't know about that. I mean, it's going to haunt you for the rest of your life, Alucard. [ she wants to tell him that it's not fair but he already knows it's not fair. he had to do something no child should ever have to do. she saw him shake as his father reached out; saw the look of horror and pain in his eyes. ]

That is how it should be. When it comes to the slaying of kin.

[ he knows he's haunted. by the deaths, by the last screams he heard. and he's made some progress in moving forward, but it'll never go away. ]

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