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You've reached Dr. Jonathan Reid. Please leave me a message.

Very well. I shall attend to your residence within the hour, if that would be acceptable.

[Presuming he receives an affirmative from Alucard, Jonathan will make his arrangements to take his 'dinner' break in the next hour, and will arrive at Alucard's residence precisely on the hour.]

Good evening. I'd like to know what these seals you spoke of are.

i'll see you then, doctor

[ alucard answers the door promptly, with baskerville trailing behind him. the dog stays behind him but peeks out, wagging his tail--alucard steps aside to let him in. ]

Thank you for being so prompt.

[ he shuts the door once they're both inside, gesturing toward the living area and the sofa. ]

In short, the seals are what Abraham van Helsing used to control me, and their power passes on from master to master. The only problem is, I have no master here, and I'm left in a difficult position because of it.

[Jonathan steps in and finds a comfortable seat on the sofa. He sits up properly, attentive to the other man's words. He does, briefly, use his shade vision to check if anyone else is in the apartment. The dog gets a slightly wary glance. Most animals don't care for him. He prefers plants, anyway. They're far less needy.]

How is a master established for you? By blood lines?

Yes, just so. Abraham's son Arthur took me on after Abraham died, and Integra took my reins after Arthur died.

[ he sits, sighing: baskerville hops up into his lap. thankfully, baskerville is very used to vampires, seeing as his dad is dracula, so he's pretty chill with more vampires being around. ]

I found out, upon my awakening from a long rest, that Integra has birthed no heir and intends to pass my contract on to the government upon her passing. I hadn't known that was even possible, but with that in mind, I don't trust the vultures in the government to use me properly. So she could grant me to other people, it's just unprecedented until the inevitable future in my home.

[ scratching the dog between the ears, he looks over at jonathan, expression curiously serious for him. ]

Here though, I'm bereft with no master to guide me. My powers are sealed away. I'm still strong, but without the depths of my strength I'm less than useful to any... efforts, put forth.

[ from his tone, jonathan will know that alucard means resistance efforts. ]

Rosalind is going to assist me, and I hope the mage Sypha will as well, but this is the life's work of a zealot and a madman that was passed on to his son to continue, so it's going to be...difficult.

[Jonathan considers the other man for a long moment. The mention of Rosalind makes his brow furrow. There's less anger there than there has been in the past, though. More uncertainty what he wants to do about the woman and his relationship with her.]

You are asking me to help your break your chain, then? Fully. And you ask this of me when I have railed against you for turning Madam Lutece, and have specifically wanted to turn to your master to keep you from turning others? You will forgive me, but I do not wholly understand your logic, sir.

I need to be able to defend me and mine while I'm here, doctor. I have submissives to tend to, and I won't be slowed down with my fangs blunted because a human thought he knew what was best for the entire world.

[ wry. ]

I know we don't see eye to eye about Rosalind, and you think I'm asking to be released from Integra, I can only assume? I assure you that it requires no seals for me to obey her every whim, but in her absence I am strung up and left to the crows, so to speak, without my abilities. Without her guidance. I need to be able to stand on my own two feet.

[Jonathan raises an eyebrow at that first comment because he can't say he mightn't have done something similar to protect the human race.]

I will help you, but I will require assurances that you will not turn another soul here. Use the husks of our enemies when you kill them if you have such a power and must, but not another true vampire. That is my price.

You're... giving me an ultimatum?

[ he smiles, faintly. it's charming. ]

Oh, I've changed my mind about ghouls. I'm going to eat their souls instead. Makes for much less mess, afterward. As for making true vampires, I don't wonder if your own world's situation colors how adamant you are, when my own world is vastly different. It interests me, your vehemence, when I, the progenitor of all true vampires in my world, knowing every risk and consequence, can tell when someone can handle it.

[ still: ]

As you say, nonetheless. Rosalind was special; I've no intention of fathering anyone else. Have you met my other fledgling? She arrived just recently. My pride and joy. My only fledgling in over a century, at home.

I am.

[Jonathan doesn't offer any other response to that smile. He assumes Alucard thinks he's being overly-confident. And perhaps the doctor is, but he stands by the ultimatum. The mention of eating souls earns a slight look of distaste, though.]

I have yet to meet your progeny, sir. It is good you have a better relationship with her than I had with my own maker. If you are going to stop making more vampires, though, then yes. I can help you. What have you tried, thus far? As I imagine you've made some attempts to remove them.

[ oh, he definitely thinks that. he thinks that a lot. he doesn't mind the distaste--he is what he is, after all. ]

Perhaps you will. She's very friendly. But fine, fine. [ he waves a hand, sighing. ] So be it. [ then he frowns, shrugging one shoulder. ] My hands are tied normally, doctor. Under my previous masters it was expressly forbidden to tamper with them, causing me to be unable to. Under Integra, I saw no need to.

[ a beat. ]

I do know that removal of the limb entirely does nothing. When they grow back, the seals are still intact.

Edited (that was not the right word) Date: 2019-04-12 01:34 am (UTC)

[As the first matter is settled in Jonathan's mind, he simply nods before moving on.]

I'd like to see your seals, please. And what were they made with. Perhaps if removing them is not possible, then adding to them will disrupt their power. Like scratching something out instead of trying to erase it.

[ 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.]

Can this hurt you while you're in your mist form?

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.

Can you store a full person within yourself?

[They're going wildly off-topic here, but Jonathan can't help the bout of curiosity.]

[ there's a pause and alucard gives jonathan the weirdest look. ]

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?

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.

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Jonathan Reid, MD