[closed/incomplete]

[genkishi]

WHO: Genkishi (genkishi), Alucard (toothsomehound)
WHAT: Feeding the beast
WHERE: Alucard's house
WHEN: Evening, Day 149

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[toothsomehound]

At the sound of Genkishi's voice coming from another direction entirely, Alucard swung around to press his back to the wall. He brought his guns straight up again, senses swimming as he struggled to reconcile what his eyes saw and what his ears picked up. Finally settling on pointing one gun at each idea of Genkishi, he blinked blearily (it was still light out, and the sun was bright).

At the mention of blood, Alucard's head snapped up. Genkishi resolved into one, as well, and that certainly helped him in terms of picking out a target. The voice of the other man, so much more tightly neutral than was already normal, made him prick up his ears, albeit in a metaphorical fashion. After a brief internal struggle, Alucard eased his guns down and inclined his head to Genkishi, placing a hand to his temple. His voice, already fairly deep, was gravelly with misuse.

"My apologies. I... am not myself right now. Admittedly, I am impressed you managed to charm Cincinel." The dog in question trotted up to Alucard and pressed his nose into his palm, then sat down quietly at his side.

[genkishi]

Genkishi watched as one of the guns was leveled at him, at Alucard's indecision. He was so clearly ill that Genkishi was faintly amazed he had even managed to make the effort to stand there, let alone hold a pair of guns and aim them accurately. But it seemed that he had made it through to the still-rational portion of Alucard's mind, and that put him in a slightly-less-wary mood. Though his hand never left the sword.

"That is why I have come," he said, his voice still neutral. Carefully, he stepped forward and held up the bottle for Alucard to clearly see. It was an old wine bottle of dark green glass, half-full with a thick, dark, viscuous liquid that was clearly not wine at all. He set it down carefully on the floor between them before stepping back once more to lean against the wall, watching Alucard with caution and suspicion. "I have fulfilled your request, so you will stop being such an invalid."

He eyed the dog thoughtfully. "Truthfully, I do not see how you can draw such a conclusion. I simply made no threatening behaviour."

[toothsomehound]

Alucard chuckled a little at Genkishi's choice of words. "Invalid? Unfortunately, right now, the way I am, I am not invalid enough." He looked at the guns in his hands, looked at the wine bottle, and slumped to the floor, placing them at his side. "Did you find somebody after all? I am impressed, Genkishi." And grateful, too- he'd mentioned to those that asked if they could help him that no, no, a 'friend' was 'looking' for 'medicine', but he hadn't quite thought that Genkishi actually was. Alucard wasn't sure what to make of that. He decided to let it be for the moment and clicked his tongue for Cincinel.

"Bring," he said, wiping the sleep from his eyes with a hand. Genkishi was still safely stationed in his spot in the shadows, something Cincinel didn't seem to like- he kept his gaze fixed up the man, picking up the bottle in his teeth and shuffling it over to Alucard. The man chuckled at the dog. Cincinel was bigger than Alucard had expected him to get (and still growing), but he still had to drag the bottle along the floor with his teeth. "Cincinel is quite skilled, as you might note." He wasn't weak enough that he couldn't have gotten the bottle for himself, but it didn't hurt to keep Cincinel in practice.

Alucard uncorked the bottle and hurriedly took a swig of it, tilting his head back and downing as much of the blood as he could in one breath. Beside him, Cincinel settled on the floor and rested his head on his master's lap. A shiver ran through him after a moment, and he put the bottle onto the floor. Another shiver and Alucard opened his eyes to look at Genkishi.... rather curiously.

"You used your own blood?" He licked away a smear of it from his hands- it must have come from the cork. "My thanks, Gen." He hesitated, then narrowed his eyes in thought. Oh. "I thought I had outgrown that..." Alucard murmured, taking another long drink of the blood.

[genkishi]

Genkishi's eyebrows raised slightly, the only indication of surprise that he allowed to flit across his face. He kept his face of stoic indifference, containing his deep surprise that Alucard had so easily identified the source of the blood he had been given. And, of course, the dog was of interest, too, but more important was the surprising speed with which he had been discovered.

"You said without fear," he replied. "What better way to guarantee it? There was no way to make absolutely sure that whoever I took blood from wouldn't suddenly have cold feet in the middle of the procedure. This way, I could make certain what I was giving you was what you requested."

He studied Alucard and the dog for a moment, noting how the animal's eyes never left him. He had been right in treating the little dog with caution; its trick had cleary proved it was far more than an ordinary pet. What had Alucard been teaching it? Genkishi was certain that he was probably not going to find out, and if he were in a position to discover what the dog was capable of, he would have a far more serious problem than just the dog- namely, its owner.

"Consider it repayment," he said, inclining his head slightly to the pair on the floor. "For Toby."

Alucard's last comment had not gone unnoticed by Genkishi; he caught it with interest. Knowing the other, though, he felt it was extremely unlikely that he would be given any sort of explanation of what he meant by that. Then again, given Alucard's current state of mind, who knew? He kept silent, simply watching for now and waiting to see what effect his gift would have.

[toothsomehound]

In response to the question, Alucard shrugged. Already his head was starting to clear, though it would obviously take a bit more time before he could be fully back on his feet. "Even so," he pointed out, expression amused, "you could have done the same thing you suggested. Find a blood fetishist, so on." He licked at his cracked lips and frowned again- how bad were they, to sting like they did? "Mind that I am not complaining, simply... remarking."

Cincinel yawned and pawed at Alucard's lap, breaking the somewhat tense silence that had begun to build. "No offense to Toby," Alucard mused, scratching at Cincinel's head with a finger, "but I'm not sure he's worth a good pint or so of your blood. Well, more like- shouldn't I be repaying you? Since he did bleed all over your carpet." He chuckled a little at the mental image: a great big dog like Toby cowering, the somewhat slight Genkishi towering over him with as close to a stormy expression as he could get. Well, Alucard mused, twirling a feathery bit of Cincinel's baby fluff, dogs were perceptive like that.

Genkishi seemed interested enough in Alucard's comment that he couldn't help but explain. Victim as he was of his own intense curiosity, it seemed cruel to withhold such interesting little snippets. "I didn't know that there were any mafia bosses that were little girls, Gen." She was cute, he decided, from what he could glean from Genkishi's memories. Cute and sunny and a grave child. Hmm. He held a finger to his lips, still looking a little drugged though he didn't know it. "I won't tell."

I CAN FAIL!TAG THIS NOW THAT I HAVE NEW ICONS <3

[genkishi]

Genkishi watched Alucard's face begin to clear, noting the way he seemed a little more alert to his surroundings. "To state the obvious, if I were to approach a random blood fetishist and demand their blood, do you think that would go over well?" he asked, raising his eyebrows. "I am not willing to go through what it would be necessary to do to obtain blood from them, nor am I willing to run the risk of being infected with some disease. This is simply convenient."

He shrugged as Alucard mentioned Toby, not feeling like explaining that the rug had been ruined anyway and he had been considering replacing it for a rather long time. "Forget about the carpet," he said. "Consider it repayment, maybe, for being one of the few people in this town I can stand to hold a conversation with, who has the intelligence and skill to recognize my own game." Because it was true, there hadn't been anyone who had been his equal since...he couldn't remember since when. And if he were honest, he would have loved to prove himself against Alucard. Someday.

But at Alucard's final comment his breathing stopped for a moment. How...how did he know about Uni? Nobody knew about Uni. She had been hidden, she hadn't been a part of their family for longer than three months, and Gamma had always been so careful to protect her...who had told him, how did Alucard know? Did he, had he...had he taken that from Genkishi's mind? His normally calm demeanor rapidly slipping away, he drew two of his swords, gripping them tightly as his face drew darker with barely-contained rage.

"Explain." he commanded, the threat palpable in the air around him.

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[toothsomehound]

Thinking back to some of the odder characters he'd met in the city, Alucard wasn't entirely sure he could agree with Genkishi. He wisely held his tongue on the subject, though, and shrugged. He would pay the other man back eventually. There was no doubt in his mind on the subject. His mind veered onto a strange path for a moment, one filled with opening red eyes and slavering hounds and crawling, massing piles of centipedes, people screaming and- he jerked his head back up with a low moan and took another long swig of blood. Mentally resolving to start feeding himself better, Alucard forced his body to relax.

The complement, dour and Gen as it was, took Alucard off-guard. Peering at the other man around the bottle, he sipped some more. (He felt like an alcoholic, drinking something straight from the bottle like this.) He tried to say something, didn't know how to get it out, took another sip of blood, and ultimately gave up. That sort of thing- three languages he was fluent in, four more he was passable in, a few more he knew scattered phrases in, but he still couldn't find the words for it. So he drank Gen's offering and thought without words.

His eyes picked out the pause in Gen's movements long before his mind caught up with them, so he was ready when Gen drew his swords. Alucard consciously shut his eyes and loosened his limbs a bit, choosing to yield to Gen in order to potentially make him more at ease. "When somebody hides something so deeply, it tends to hide in their blood too. That's the best explanation I can offer you, my friend." His eyes drifted shut, and he could see the girl above him, above Gen, who was him. He could feel a weight in his heart, could feel the need for a task- killing to be done- but that weight pinned him down, weakened him, broke him. Alucard surfaced into himself and rubbed at his jaw with a finger. "Did you love her? Did she love you?"