[THREAD: CLOSED] What can't be taught in school.

[soulparadox]

Who: Alucard and Nataku.
Where: Elysium, shopping mall.
When: 30th November, night.
Summary: Finding a pretty dress and sharing life lessons.
Rating: PG-13, for violence and creepy.
Other: Belial is the best teacher, ever.

Comments

[soulparadox]

Instead of answering directly, he felt like explaining where he was coming from first. To tell a young girl that he would like her to kill someone to prove a point seemed like it would not be the best course of action. As socially awkward as he was, Nataku did know a few things on how to converse with others. Not a lot, naturally, but enough.

"Alucard, did you know that you were special?" He closed his eyes as he began his explanation. This was so that he could remember exactly what he was told by Belial. Also, when his eyes were opened, they were assaulted by the florescent lights in the store -- which only made his head hurt. "You should take advantage of your power. Someone told me that the only thing that mattered in this world is the contentment that you feel. Because we are special, we deserve better. There is no reason to protect those that are weaker than us."

"Those that stand on equal footing of those that are weak may protect them, but those that are stronger should act in the manner which they feel." A long pause as it was obvious that this part of his speech made him a little uncomfortable. "I am uncertain how I feel. I do not care enough about the people as a mass to kill or not kill them. But you do. You so because you have real feelings -- you should just rid yourself of those lesser than you whenever you wish."

"And we will do that as soon as you pick out a nice dress."

[bird_0f_hermes]

Special?

This was certainly a change from the last conversation they'd had regarding Nataku's abilities, and considering she doubted that her 'brother' had any real inkling what her own were, this made for quite the unusual topic for discussion. Special? Doubtless both of them were 'unique' in various ways, but 'special?'

She grinned, lowering her head and clasping her hands behind her back, swaying gently. "There are many reasons that someone may wish to kill another, Nataku," she said quietly. "Motivators. Anger... jealousy... revenge... survival... boredom." She returned her eyes to his slyly. "Which of those reasons do you feel is most justifiable?"

[soulparadox]

Eh?

He stared into her eyes for s much longer time as he contemplated his answer. There was a slight concern that if he chose wrong, she may resent him for it. Tilting his head more, his neck craned over the bar that his head was resting on so that he was now staring at the floor rather than his sister. It seemed his disorientation had not completely faded. Yes, he remembered that he killed the person by the boxes accidentally because he felt a sudden rush of ... fear.

But fear was not one that was listed by his 'sister.' Still, the closest one to how he felt would be --

"Survival." He righted himself out of the clothing rack and returned his head to its rightful resting place. "But I have decided that I will now kill if I am told to kill. Is that not better?"

[bird_0f_hermes]

She shook her head 'no.'

"Wrong," she said, smiling patiently.

"No reason is more justifiable than the next. All deaths are equal, regardless the reason. But, you see..." Alucard moved forward, clasping slender hands around her brother's arm and guiding him away from the clothing wrack, "mortality is a gift, one so many take for granted. It's only natural they'd fight tooth and nail for every last scrap of it, hm? This is the only way to continue on living. And if they don't fight - well, then..." A sneer marred that pretty little face. "They don't deserve to keep it, do they?"

[soulparadox]

"Wrong?" His brows furrowed for a moment in confusion. If his head was not already tilted, he probably would have put it in that position on his own.

Had it been a few weeks before, he might have responded just a little negatively to being touched, but he had found that he felt closer to them than those in his own home. This was why when she came to take him away from his crutch, he was careful not to throw all of his weight onto her. He hesitantly walked away from what had been holding him up to follow after her lead. His free hand came to rest on his forehead to deal with his sudden dizziness, but he still tried to focus on every word that she said. "No. They do not."

Pulling his hand away from his own face, he rested on top of her head to give it a pat. "Little sister, you are quite smart."

[bird_0f_hermes]

"Of course I am," she said cheerfully, smiling up at him amicably. They had reached the double doors leading out into the mall when one of the clerks behind the counter called out to them - "Are you going to pay for that? Miss - ah, MISS--" Without glancing in the woman's direction, Alucard pulled the Jackal from within the folds of her coat, aiming dead-on between her eyes; there was a single shot. Blood and brain tissue splattered on the counter and co-worker behind her as her body fell backwards like a limp doll.

She ignored the screams as the other patrons scattered like mice, ducking behind clothing wracks and shelves, running towards the escalators as if she honestly had nothing better to do than pay attention to rodents. Tisking under her breath, she returned the gun to it's place within her coat, once more smoothing the front of her new dress.

"I think today will be fun, Brother."

[soulparadox]

Nataku was about to turn to tell them that he would not mind paying for the dress as the dress had a specific purpose that...

He did not even get a chance to finish his thought process as to what he was going to say when he saw the person he was going to talk to was now missing the essential parts to hear what it was that he had to say. He looked after his 'sister' in mild concern. Remembering Vargret and the trouble that he had gotten into with his own actions, he did not wish for Alucard to face the same.

Having no time to take to respond to her, for which he would apologize later, he sent his ribbon out to deal with the survivors. To those that were heading to the escalators, he wrapped the ribbon around the forerunner's waist to pull them back towards the double doors. This not only knocked the others running into a pile of confusion on the floor, but kept them from getting much further. Slamming the body of the victim on the floor a few times, he made sure the individual was dead -- which was obvious both by the bloodstain and the fact that the face suddenly resembled raw meat.

Taking the body tied to the ribbon, he used it as a bludgeoning tool for the other survivors. When the body became broken beyond repair, he simply grabbed someone else that was either partially dead or dead to continue with what he was doing. Eventually, the store became coated in a lovely shade of red. He was glad to have worked quickly and that the human body was so frail before he hurried to get his 'sister' out of this 'danger zone.'

"I apologize for ignoring you earlier." He picked her up so that he could jump to the nearest building with her in hand rather than leave her to the response of the police. As they soared through the air, he commented in an offhanded tone. "Do not leave witnesses. You will get in trouble later if you do."

[bird_0f_hermes]

...To surpass Alucard's expectations - a true rarity.

It was beautiful, this scene unraveling before her eyes; the ribbon went to work like a snake unwrapping from it's master's midst, ensnaring it's hapless victims and thrusting them about like nothing more than bags of flesh and bone. Which, veritably, they were. The gore that testified to Nataku's bloody intent was absolutely picturesque. The perpetual thirst flared up at the sight of so much deep red fluid staining the floors, the walls, the merchandise. So sad, to see it go to waste.

She made no efforts to halt him as he grasped her up into his arms; instead, she found herself laughing - a sound with a most manic, unsettling quality to it. "Wonderful," she said in response. "It's beautiful! Now I see." Her original intention to take a leisurely stroll through the store leaving bloody masses in her wake would've been pleasant, but this... Ah...

[soulparadox]

"I am uncertain if that is the correct response, but if it makes you happy..." Landing on the building, he carefully set Alucard down before staring back at the store with some nervousness. He hoped this would not cause Vargret trouble later. It was his intention to kill someone in an alleyway rather than massacre an entire store. Yet, this was not something that he could apologize for -- that much he knew -- without getting Alucard in trouble as well. It seemed like he would just have to wait until later. Would this be something to share with Johan?

That reminded him.

"I did not know you carried a gun." This statement was said with a deadpan tone and meant to be taken as 'now I know that you do.' He had not been particularly surprised when she killed that clerk nor the fact that Johan allowed her to have such a powerful weapon. For the first, he partially blamed himself because of the talk that he had just given her. For the second, if Johan believed this to be the correct action, he would not argue with it.

"Oh." The stickiness of the blood had already seeped through the fabric of his clothes from his ribbon. It meant that it would be best to remove it from his person than allow it to continue to stain his clothes. Pulling said ribbon off of his body, he noted that it no longer had the pristine look as before but was turning a hideous dull copper, dripping with the blood of the shoppers and clerks that he had killed. He turned to Alucard before stating the obvious, "It seemed to be ruined."

[bird_0f_hermes]

Alucard merely smiled. "Oh, I'm just full of surprises." She wasn't boasting - more like simply teasing him, though with his social awareness, she doubted he'd understand. Not that it particularly mattered to her. "You were afraid of us being seen. Is something the matter?" Apparently, Alucard wasn't at all concerned with the authorities putting a crimp in her old fashioned fun times. To her, it was of no consequence - she would simply have to alter her form to something less incriminating. As for Nataku? Well, he would've been an innocent bystander caught in the crossfire. She supposed his method was... 'tidier'...

She took the ribbon delicately from his hands, crimson eyes glimmering in amusement. "Ruined? Hardly so," she said in an almost breathy tone. "It smells lovely now, don't you think?"

[soulparadox]

"The police will be upset about this matter in the morning. Or perhaps, later at night." He explained relatively calmly. If it was known that he had done something to help "fix" the situation, would he be taken away? That seemed unacceptable to him. Belial had told him that he should care about his own contentment. Being with in the Liebert household had made him quite ... content. "I did not wish for you to get into trouble."

Another pat on the head for Alucard.

Nataku stared after her when she took the ribbon. A protest was hanging in the air as he did not want her to ruin her dress on the blood of victims that he had killed. However, what was done was done and it seemed like she was quite happy with all of this. Who was he to disrupt her fun? "I do not think so. But if you like it, you may keep it."

[bird_0f_hermes]

He was so silly, concerned with trivialities like the authorities and yet completely lacking the awareness to be concerned about his own well-being. Surely it was more dangerous for him to be rushing about as he had in his condition rather than allowing her to take care of the mess she had made. Ah, but what a glorious portrait his work had created, instead...

She placed one end of the ribbon in her mouth, staining her lips red and smiling. "Do you feel remorse, Nataku?"

[soulparadox]

If he had not spent so much time in the circus, he might have been troubled by her putting the ribbon in her mouth. He would have said that that was most likely dirty and she should not ingest such things. But, as it was, he considered this behavior fairly normal. She just was getting into the odd behavior that he saw around Belial and her "friends" a little early.

"Remorse?" He parroted the word back to her first before he thought about what was asked of him. It seemed like such a strange question. Nataku could not start thinking on if he did until he found out the reason for it. "Why would I feel remorse?"

[bird_0f_hermes]

Alucard laughed, wrapping the ribbon daintily around a finger as she played with it. "Most humans are in possession of a pesky thing called morality," she explained. "Something bred into them, along with compassion. Empathy. The lack of which is considered... unusual. And yet, there are a great many things you lack in that category, hm?"

Where had he been created? Alucard already knew that this boy was not a natural creation of the cycle of life. Someone had bred him into what he was now - or perhaps, neglected him. His desires to find a proper home would fit that assessment. Nataku...

"Most humans value other human life as sacred. Human life is sacred. A gift. To take that gift away - it's a deed many would consider the work of a monster."

[soulparadox]

"Bred into them." Nataku could not keep looking at his 'little sister' as she spoke. It was not that he was upset with what she was saying, but rather, that he felt just a little ashamed of himself for not having the things that were supposed to be bred into people. While it might have been wise to tell her that he did have them, it seemed wrong to lie to her. "Yes. I do not have empathy. I do not understand people or why they do the things that they do."

"Monster? I am monster?" He tried to stop himself from repeating the words back to her in a question. It seemed like they would be a monster if her definition held. They had just murdered quite a few people, but the connotation of being a monster was not a positive one. Was he concerned about this? Didn't he want his sister to be thought positively?

If that were how things should be and would make him content, he would try to change her belief. "But we are special, are we not?"

[bird_0f_hermes]

Whoever Nataku had been speaking to had rubbed off on him in uncertain ways. She merely slipped an arm around his waist, laying her head against his side. "No, no; we're not special. We're just unique, brother. Johan is special."

It was true; the ribbon-weilding, socially-inept boy at her side and Alucard were alike in as many ways as they were different. Both were pawns; both were dogs; both were monsters. They did as they were told. Nataku had just as little freedom as the nosferatu, even - but in different ways. It was sickening and endearing, both at once. She realized she was laughing and slowly sighed.

"You're like a child in a body that doesn't suit you," she said. "You are innocent and untainted, yet already soiled beyond repair. Such is the nature of humanity. Two sides of a coin, you see? On one side is the capability of compassion, empathy, love... and on the other... the capability to pursue acts of heinousness and violence against another's soul." She rubbed his back gently, guiding him away from the shopping center.

There was a quiet sort of lull, almost meaningful, before Alucard quietly said;

"The police will see your face on the surveillance tapes."