[ alucard smiles benignly before tugging off his gloves. sure, the seals are visible on the backs of them, but their real power rests in the way they're carved into his hands. he offers one of them over: the marks are precise and perfect, the scars raised like keloided skin. ]
All I remember is the scalpel. I don't know what he did to it. [ a beat. ] They go all the way down.
[ bone deep scarring this neat and tidy? weird, but apparently possible. ]
[As a surgeon, Jonathan can appreciate the precision required to make such scars. That doesn't stop it being utterly brutal.]
Are you harmed by holy water or silver, perhaps? Or there may be some other way to enchant he blade as I imagine you'd simply heal from a regular cut. Do you recall if you were given anything before the surgery? Medications?
I was harmed by them back then. He kept me in silver shackles. [ with a half shrug. ] Holy water, salt, wild roses, garlic, the whole nine yards. Staked me to the table to keep me still. But no medications, no. I wasn't allowed to use my mouth for anything, really, and he didn't inject me with anything.
He made me immune to them later so I could use them against other vampires. I'm not--sure what could actually hurt me, anymore.
[Well, that's rather horrifying. Jonathan tries not to think about some of the injuries he's seen on the battlefield that might replicate what Alucard is describing. There had been a group of soldiers they'd rescued from the Germans in his second year. One of them, an officer, had been tortured to the point that he'd broken completely. There was no joy, no anger, no sorrow, only existence, in spite of his horrible wounds. He hadn't even needed an anesthetic for a surgery to remove some shrapnel from his arm. Shellshock. Jonathan had seen it often in the trenches and back home, as well. But that man had struck him as the worst patient he'd seen.]
You've told me Father Anderson is a danger to even you. Why? If you're truly immune to all of these things, what does he have in his own arsenal to destroy you? Perhaps such a weapon could be used to adjust your seals.
Mostly because of his tenacity and strength. His weapons are blessed, though that doesn't really bother me, but normally he has so many of them that he can overwhelm even my healing for a short time. Just not indefinitely. I can't... die, so to speak, anymore. Are you familiar with the concept of Schrodinger's cat?
[ well, that's a weird segue. ]
There's a stronger holy item, here, but I took it into my body to hide it from him and my body rejected it outright, so I'm not sure if we could use that to our advantage in any way.
Really? [Well, he's intrigued.] May I see this item? And what do you mean your body rejected it? Simply that it spat it out? Did it cause any damage to you?
I don't feel comfortable using it long-term, as it doesn't belong to me, but I'll go get it.
[ he gets up and disappears into his room a moment--he keeps it hidden so that anderson can't use it, after all. eventually he returns with an item wrapped in a towel that is most certainly burning him through it, judging by the steam coming from his hand. he doesn't seem too put out by it, though. he's used to pain. ]
It burned me so badly from the inside that my body spit it out.
[ he carefully unwraps it, and within is a large crucifixion nail. ]
Saint Helena's nail. Anderson brought it with him. He used it in our final fight, at home. I beat him despite it.
[Jonathan watches Alucard's hands smoke with more than mild concern. Still, fortune favors the bold. He reaches out to pick up the nail. If Alucard lets him, absolutely nothing happens. There's no burning effect for the young Ekon. Perhaps if the thing were being brandished by a priest, that might make a difference, but just as it is, holy and blessed objects in and of themselves don't affect him beyond holy water.]
You'll have to remind me who St. Helena is apart from a volcano, sir.
[ alucard watches this with interest: that it does nothing to jonathan is... well, fascinating, especially since it even effects him. he smiles faintly, crookedly, and nods. ]
Saint Helena was briefly Empress of Rome and the mother of Emperor Constantine. It's believed by the church that she's the finder of the true cross where Jesus was crucified, and she used the nails to aid her son's endeavors. That said, the Vatican came into possession of said nails, and Father Anderson by extension. I was led to believe that he was not, as such, granted permission to use it.
[ so, like, literally one of the nails used to kill jesus? wild. ]
My, but your world does seem to be stepped in the Christian tradition. [Jonathan is a complete skeptic, but he can appreciate that other worlds are different from his own. He holds the nail up and then presses it into the palm of one hand until it draws blood.
There's nothing beyond a simple wound, though, and Jonathan watches as his natural regeneration heals it up almost immediately.]
Well, I did become Dracula when I made a deal with the Devil after a decades-long crusade in God's name, so it kind of sticks with the mythos.
[ wry. alucard isn't a skeptic: he knows god exists. he just hates him. there's another pause as he watches him, eyes narrowed, before shrugging. ]
It managed to damage the--I'm not sure how to explain it. My mass is much larger than my body. There's a...hollow, for lack of a better term, within me, where I store souls and also physical objects. It encompasses all my being in every form, and it burned me from within that space.
Well, if Father Anderson ever does prove to be too much, perhaps you could act as his temporary prison. We could test it, if you'd like. Given my own constitution, I'll likely be able to survive and I can document the conditions within you and whether they could sustain a human.
Not like that. I mean their souls. Do you really want to sit around in a void surrounded by the souls of the LIES staff I've eaten? The Veracity guards I devoured? I still have them all.
[ they took his previous souls from him when he arrived, so this is all new stock! ]
They look the same as when they were alive, it's not very interesting.
[ a beat. ]
When my seals are completely released, I can use them to fight for me. A personal army, so to speak. When I'm sealed, if I'm killed, one of the souls takes my place in death. So a little like an insurance policy.
[Jonathan can't help the look of mild distaste that flits across his features once more. He's done horrible things to men's bodies with his abilities, but this business of souls. Having never believed in them, it's difficult enough, but knowing that people like Alucard are collecting them just to remain immortal and to fight for him is troubling.]
[He shouldn't judge. He really shouldn't judge, but Jonathan is judging right now.]
Hmm...
[As he doesn't have much in the way of leverage, Jonathan considers that he'll need something else before he tackles that particular issue associated with Alucard.]
Well, to get back to your seals, do you have anyone else looking into them that I ought to consult with?
[Dead people that Alucard is somehow trapping within himself. It would be one thing if it were just a body, but if there is such a thing as a soul, then Jonathan would typically prefer not to abuse such a thing, whomever the enemy.]
Madam Lutece may not wish to work with me, but I've yet to meet Ms. Sypha. Mr. Tepes hasn't mentioned her.
So I've gathered. Perhaps Adrian will be a go-between for your research if you can't work things out. As for Sypha, I'm not actually sure she likes me, due to the whole Dracula thing, so we'll see. She's newly arrived.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2019-04-16 12:20 am (UTC)From:All I remember is the scalpel. I don't know what he did to it. [ a beat. ] They go all the way down.
[ bone deep scarring this neat and tidy? weird, but apparently possible. ]
no subject
Date: 2019-04-16 04:58 am (UTC)From:Are you harmed by holy water or silver, perhaps? Or there may be some other way to enchant he blade as I imagine you'd simply heal from a regular cut. Do you recall if you were given anything before the surgery? Medications?
no subject
Date: 2019-04-16 05:01 am (UTC)From:He made me immune to them later so I could use them against other vampires. I'm not--sure what could actually hurt me, anymore.
no subject
Date: 2019-04-17 07:02 pm (UTC)From:You've told me Father Anderson is a danger to even you. Why? If you're truly immune to all of these things, what does he have in his own arsenal to destroy you? Perhaps such a weapon could be used to adjust your seals.
no subject
Date: 2019-04-17 09:10 pm (UTC)From:[ well, that's a weird segue. ]
There's a stronger holy item, here, but I took it into my body to hide it from him and my body rejected it outright, so I'm not sure if we could use that to our advantage in any way.
no subject
Date: 2019-04-17 09:52 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2019-04-17 09:57 pm (UTC)From:[ he gets up and disappears into his room a moment--he keeps it hidden so that anderson can't use it, after all. eventually he returns with an item wrapped in a towel that is most certainly burning him through it, judging by the steam coming from his hand. he doesn't seem too put out by it, though. he's used to pain. ]
It burned me so badly from the inside that my body spit it out.
[ he carefully unwraps it, and within is a large crucifixion nail. ]
Saint Helena's nail. Anderson brought it with him. He used it in our final fight, at home. I beat him despite it.
no subject
Date: 2019-04-17 10:03 pm (UTC)From:You'll have to remind me who St. Helena is apart from a volcano, sir.
no subject
Date: 2019-04-17 10:21 pm (UTC)From:Saint Helena was briefly Empress of Rome and the mother of Emperor Constantine. It's believed by the church that she's the finder of the true cross where Jesus was crucified, and she used the nails to aid her son's endeavors. That said, the Vatican came into possession of said nails, and Father Anderson by extension. I was led to believe that he was not, as such, granted permission to use it.
[ so, like, literally one of the nails used to kill jesus? wild. ]
no subject
Date: 2019-04-19 04:30 am (UTC)From:There's nothing beyond a simple wound, though, and Jonathan watches as his natural regeneration heals it up almost immediately.]
Can this hurt you while you're in your mist form?
no subject
Date: 2019-04-19 04:36 am (UTC)From:[ wry. alucard isn't a skeptic: he knows god exists. he just hates him. there's another pause as he watches him, eyes narrowed, before shrugging. ]
It managed to damage the--I'm not sure how to explain it. My mass is much larger than my body. There's a...hollow, for lack of a better term, within me, where I store souls and also physical objects. It encompasses all my being in every form, and it burned me from within that space.
that should have been steeped...
Date: 2019-04-19 05:25 pm (UTC)From:[They're going wildly off-topic here, but Jonathan can't help the bout of curiosity.]
i gotchu
Date: 2019-04-20 12:53 am (UTC)From:I've never tried. I can encompass people in my mass in other forms, but I've never tried to just hold someone within me while I'm shaped as I am. Why?
no subject
Date: 2019-04-21 02:23 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2019-04-21 02:57 am (UTC)From:You realize I keep dead people in there, right?
no subject
Date: 2019-04-21 03:17 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2019-04-21 03:52 am (UTC)From:[ they took his previous souls from him when he arrived, so this is all new stock! ]
no subject
Date: 2019-04-23 02:44 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2019-04-23 02:47 am (UTC)From:[ a beat. ]
When my seals are completely released, I can use them to fight for me. A personal army, so to speak. When I'm sealed, if I'm killed, one of the souls takes my place in death. So a little like an insurance policy.
no subject
Date: 2019-04-24 01:58 am (UTC)From:Are they aware?
no subject
Date: 2019-04-27 02:56 am (UTC)From:or, well, here he kills lies workers, but that's not important. ]
Not really. It's not cognizance like we have. It's a lot... simpler.
no subject
Date: 2019-04-27 03:33 am (UTC)From:Hmm...
[As he doesn't have much in the way of leverage, Jonathan considers that he'll need something else before he tackles that particular issue associated with Alucard.]
Well, to get back to your seals, do you have anyone else looking into them that I ought to consult with?
no subject
Date: 2019-04-27 05:55 am (UTC)From:[ bland. but then at jonathan's question, he nods. ]
Rosalind. [ pointedly. ] Adrian. Adrian is trying to get his friend Sypha to agree as well.
no subject
Date: 2019-04-27 06:42 pm (UTC)From:Madam Lutece may not wish to work with me, but I've yet to meet Ms. Sypha. Mr. Tepes hasn't mentioned her.
no subject
Date: 2019-04-29 02:08 am (UTC)From:So I've gathered. Perhaps Adrian will be a go-between for your research if you can't work things out. As for Sypha, I'm not actually sure she likes me, due to the whole Dracula thing, so we'll see. She's newly arrived.
(no subject)
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