Squirrel Cabin, early Friday evening
After getting back from his handwavy trip to the mainland, Walter just took a nap to let the drops the opthalmologist had put in his eyes wear off. Everything was too glaringly bright with his pupils dilated for him to want to go to the job fair or hang out outside. It wasn't as though he didn't know what he was doing for a living when he left Fandom anyway. What was that U.S. military advertisement he'd seen? Ah yes, It's not just a job, it's an adventure. Too true.
Because of his particular requirements, his new contact lense would arrive next week, and he could get back to training and be done with the interminable headaches that resulted from one eye that worked and one that didn't. It was encouraging to know that at least one thing in his life was going to be back on track. As a compromise to his promise to Nadia, he had a pair of glasses coming at the same time with one corrective lense and one cosmetic one. No monocles. Ever.
He got up and picked up his phone, seized by the urge to talk to someone familiar, and very far away. He punched in the number and started to pace the cabin. If any of his cabinmates came in while he was talking, he would just turn and walk to a more private part of the structure, but he was too restless to just sit in his own alcove while he talked.
Walter had been waiting for an interesting story to tell, he had it, then things went a bit awry for a few days. Now that he had some breathing room, had recovered from his hangover, and thought he'd managed to put the worst of the emo behind him, he wanted to hear a familiar voice. He listened to the crackle, hiss, and ghost voices on the line as he called a place more than a thousand miles and six decades removed.
"Hellsing manor, how may I help you?"
Walter recognized Simmons' voice. "Simmons, Walter. I wish to speak to Alucard."
Alucard had been resting in his coffin when the telephone's shrill ring interrupted the silence of his cell. Alucard had spent the better part of sixty years regarding the things with distaste. They were unreliable and invasive.
The phrase 'up close and personal' had not yet been coined, but it was the sort of exchange that Alucard had felt he preferred. His opinion in this matter could, however, be subject to change ....
"Walter?"
"Alucard." Walter paced to the window and looked out. "How are things there?"
Awkward, but a start, he supposed.
"Tedious," replied Alucard as he sank into his chair, "Arthur agreed that his latest adjustment had gone awry and is intent on discovering why. I have not seen anything apart from the laboratory or the walls of my cell since we returned."
Walter frowned at that. "You seemed to have control by the time we left Poland. How bad is it?"
Alucard was silent a few moments.
"In order to find his mistake, Arthur has had to break apart the changes to me, step by step and rebuild from scratch. You've seen me in the aftermath of one or two of his previous errors. It is much the same."
Alucard's eyes glowed briefly in the room's shadows.
Walter closed his eyes. The people who judged Alucard solely on Stoker's novel and horror movies didn't know this side of it, and he couldn't tell them.
"I can divert you briefly with a story of the island's most recent unusual happening." He made a note to find some books he could send Alucard that would not disrupt the flow of time.
Alucard inclined his head, though there was no one in the room to see him.
"Very well, Walter. I would like to hear about your latest adventure."
"Last Friday night the entire island was visited with a strange hush. No one could speak - humans, animals, even the birds."
He briefly wished that he had more experience telling stories instead of reporting facts. He would spin out a tale of the silence, the strange sensation of speaking without sound, the instinctive reactions of the people around him to huddle around sources of sound like the television and radio.
Instead, he had the facts.
"We all woke on Saturday unable to speak. Saturday night, the source of the silence made itself known in attacks upon some of the island's residents."
"Were you attacked?"
Alucard almost hoped he had been. Walter spoke as though he were unharmed, after all. And, Alucard had always taken pleasure in seeing Hellsing's Angel of Death in action. He had no doubt that, even recovering from his injuries, Walter was more than a match for whatever had invaded that island.
If he felt a twinge of concern, he brushed it aside as unworthy of them both.
"No. I never saw the attackers. I know two of the people who were attacked, but everyone survived. They were demons, sort of minions and masters."
Was he curious to hear tales of Walter fighting? That must be it.
"Minions and masters?" repeated Alucard with a dry chuckle, "So are we all."
Rather than asking any more about the attacks or the demons, themselves, he said, "Are you disappointed, Walter? Not to have faced your enemy?"
Alucard already knew the answer to that. "Yes. I wanted to do something."
He hesitated to tell Alucard about his impairment, but it wasn't something he was going to be able to hide. "I cannot properly use the wires at the moment. I am waiting for a corrective lens for my left eye."
There was yet another long pause.
"You are more than your wires, Walter."
"I have other means of fighting," he acknowledged. "But I can still hate this."
"My comment was directed towards more than your means of performing your duties, Walter," said Alucard in a tone half-amused, half-irritated, "But for how much longer will you have to hate your present circumstances."
Walter nodded, despite that being a pointless gesture in a phone call.
"A few days, perhaps a week. It is ..." humbling, annoying, frustrating, "... not forever."
Alucard heard and digested the pause.
"You're withholding something from me," he said, "I thought you wished us to be frank with one another once more."
"I do not like it," Walter admitted. "It frustrates me. Angers me. But complaining to you seems callous when you are enduring more."
Alucard froze at Walter's last words and a long silence stretched out on his end of the line.
When he spoke once more, his words were hushed but distinct.
"Say that again."
Walter felt the distinct pressure of a land mine under his foot.
"Complaining to you seems callous when you are enduring more?"
Alucard's fingers clenched and released on the phone's receiver a moment before he finally spoke.
"I hope your eye will be mended soon, Walter. From what you have told me of the place Arthur has sent you, it does not seem impossible. And, if that is true, I ... am glad you are there."
Before, Alucard had told him that he wished that Arthur had never sent him here. Now, he was saying he was glad he was there.
Walter closed his eyes and ignored the prickling behind his lids. He was far too emotional of late.
"Thank you. I don't know if I am glad I am here or not."
"You have not been gone long enough to be feeling homesick just yet, Walter."
"I think six months with one business visit is quite long enough to miss certain things," Walter answered as calmly as he could. "Although I can't say I actually miss what Arthur does to his study."
Alucard wondered if Walter missed what they did in Arthur's study. Fortuitous, really, that Sir Hellsing never kept track of how often his desk blotters had needed replacing.
"Are you hinting for a care package?"
Walter thought about it, but there was nothing he wanted from home that Alucard could realistically send. Hello, FedEx? I have a vampire coming in the post. Be careful when you take him over water.
"I am expecting a package from Arthur. I am sure that Pup would be very happy if you sent something that smelled like you."
Alucard's quiet chuckle pulsed across the years and down the phone line.
"I shall see what can be done. And, how is your little charge?"
"He is single-handedly - pawedly? - convincing some people that hellhounds are adorable and loving," Walter answered, not sure if he should be chagrined or amused.
"I created him to be your companion in my absence," replied Alucard, "Did you expect him to behave otherwise?"
"With me, perhaps, but he is quite affectionate with everyone he meets." Walter laughed in earnest this time. "Although he does have an interesting fondness for poking things with sticks."
"Precocious and assertive," said Alucard, his voice warm with approval, "Pup's ... mindset and the years and distance between us make it impossible to glean a clear view of his day to day life. But, I sense that he is content. And, completely devoted to you."
That gave Walter pause, but he'd always known that Pup was a small part of Alucard. Was it really reasonable that something like a hellhound familiar would have no connection with its creator at all?
His thoughts spun around each other a few times thinking of their connection, Alucard's statement, Pup's affection, and back again.
After a long silence, he finally found words. "He has been a faithful companion. Thank you for the gift of his company."
"You are welcome."
Anyone listening for it might have noticed Alucard's failure to seize the chance to make a comment about 'faithful companions'.
Walter didn't need to be listening for it, the thought had been on his mind quite a lot in relation to his personal track record. In the past six months, he'd not been a paragon of enduring faithfulness, and now that he thought he knew what he wanted, he didn't feel right asking for it for that very reason.
He promised himself that he would give himself a little time to clear his head, and then he'd ask.
He realized that he'd been silent for too long again and cleared his throat. "He is cozy with my roommate's cat."
"So, he has company when you're otherwise occupied. That is good."
Alucard was being kind. For him. If Walter were without guilt, his comment would be nothing, and if Walter were guilty, then how could he fault Alucard anyway?
"I would be unhappy if he were unhappy. He does not deserve it." Nor did Alucard, not because of him at least.
"You have never made Pup unhappy, Walter," said Alucard, "I just told you that he was content, did I not? You have never given me cause to regret sending him to you. His existence is a happy one and you have made him love you in so much that a creature of his sort is capable of love."
Walter smiled. He loved his hellpuppy, too.
"Does his happiness please you?" The idea brought Walter a strange solace and if Alucard said yes, probably brought Pup a lot more Walter time and toys.
"Pup is my creation, a part of myself. Of course his happiness pleases me."
"Good." He could give Pup as much love as he wanted without any guilt and without feeling like an ass for sentimentality.
"Is there any curiosity about this place that I may satisfy for you before I go?"
Alucard paused, thinking.
"Nothing off hand, no," he said, "I shall have to think of something to ask you the next time you call. Ah, though I am curious to know how well that photograph you took before leaving came out. I confess, I could scarcely believe that device you used was a camera."
"It turned out very well," Walter said, smiling a little at Alucard's familiar vanity. "I will send you one of myself using the same camera, if you wish."
"I wish," replied Alucard, "And, I shall endeavor to send along something for Pup."
"I'm certain he will be very happy to have something from you." Walter was.
"And I will put a package in the post for you right away."
"Thank you, Walter. I am glad you called. I enjoyed hearing your voice."
"Thank you for taking my call. May I call you again?"
"You needn't ask my permission to call me, Walter. But, yes. I will take your call. I shall look forward to it."
"It shouldn't be too long before I have another unusual tale to share with you. Good night, Alucard."
Alucard chuckled.
"You may call me even if you do not have one. Good night, Walter. Do try to take care of yourself."
"I always try to," Walter said before hanging up.
That had been ... refreshingly painless. He wandered back into his alcove and picked up Pup to pet him, wondering at Alucard's choice to call him "Walter" throughout the conversation.
[ooc: Many thanks to union_jane for her assistance. That Walter made a call is okay for broadcast, contents would be NFB. Any Squirrel who wants to talk to him afterward will find him in his alcove with Pup.]
Because of his particular requirements, his new contact lense would arrive next week, and he could get back to training and be done with the interminable headaches that resulted from one eye that worked and one that didn't. It was encouraging to know that at least one thing in his life was going to be back on track. As a compromise to his promise to Nadia, he had a pair of glasses coming at the same time with one corrective lense and one cosmetic one. No monocles. Ever.
He got up and picked up his phone, seized by the urge to talk to someone familiar, and very far away. He punched in the number and started to pace the cabin. If any of his cabinmates came in while he was talking, he would just turn and walk to a more private part of the structure, but he was too restless to just sit in his own alcove while he talked.
Walter had been waiting for an interesting story to tell, he had it, then things went a bit awry for a few days. Now that he had some breathing room, had recovered from his hangover, and thought he'd managed to put the worst of the emo behind him, he wanted to hear a familiar voice. He listened to the crackle, hiss, and ghost voices on the line as he called a place more than a thousand miles and six decades removed.
"Hellsing manor, how may I help you?"
Walter recognized Simmons' voice. "Simmons, Walter. I wish to speak to Alucard."
Alucard had been resting in his coffin when the telephone's shrill ring interrupted the silence of his cell. Alucard had spent the better part of sixty years regarding the things with distaste. They were unreliable and invasive.
The phrase 'up close and personal' had not yet been coined, but it was the sort of exchange that Alucard had felt he preferred. His opinion in this matter could, however, be subject to change ....
"Walter?"
"Alucard." Walter paced to the window and looked out. "How are things there?"
Awkward, but a start, he supposed.
"Tedious," replied Alucard as he sank into his chair, "Arthur agreed that his latest adjustment had gone awry and is intent on discovering why. I have not seen anything apart from the laboratory or the walls of my cell since we returned."
Walter frowned at that. "You seemed to have control by the time we left Poland. How bad is it?"
Alucard was silent a few moments.
"In order to find his mistake, Arthur has had to break apart the changes to me, step by step and rebuild from scratch. You've seen me in the aftermath of one or two of his previous errors. It is much the same."
Alucard's eyes glowed briefly in the room's shadows.
Walter closed his eyes. The people who judged Alucard solely on Stoker's novel and horror movies didn't know this side of it, and he couldn't tell them.
"I can divert you briefly with a story of the island's most recent unusual happening." He made a note to find some books he could send Alucard that would not disrupt the flow of time.
Alucard inclined his head, though there was no one in the room to see him.
"Very well, Walter. I would like to hear about your latest adventure."
"Last Friday night the entire island was visited with a strange hush. No one could speak - humans, animals, even the birds."
He briefly wished that he had more experience telling stories instead of reporting facts. He would spin out a tale of the silence, the strange sensation of speaking without sound, the instinctive reactions of the people around him to huddle around sources of sound like the television and radio.
Instead, he had the facts.
"We all woke on Saturday unable to speak. Saturday night, the source of the silence made itself known in attacks upon some of the island's residents."
"Were you attacked?"
Alucard almost hoped he had been. Walter spoke as though he were unharmed, after all. And, Alucard had always taken pleasure in seeing Hellsing's Angel of Death in action. He had no doubt that, even recovering from his injuries, Walter was more than a match for whatever had invaded that island.
If he felt a twinge of concern, he brushed it aside as unworthy of them both.
"No. I never saw the attackers. I know two of the people who were attacked, but everyone survived. They were demons, sort of minions and masters."
Was he curious to hear tales of Walter fighting? That must be it.
"Minions and masters?" repeated Alucard with a dry chuckle, "So are we all."
Rather than asking any more about the attacks or the demons, themselves, he said, "Are you disappointed, Walter? Not to have faced your enemy?"
Alucard already knew the answer to that. "Yes. I wanted to do something."
He hesitated to tell Alucard about his impairment, but it wasn't something he was going to be able to hide. "I cannot properly use the wires at the moment. I am waiting for a corrective lens for my left eye."
There was yet another long pause.
"You are more than your wires, Walter."
"I have other means of fighting," he acknowledged. "But I can still hate this."
"My comment was directed towards more than your means of performing your duties, Walter," said Alucard in a tone half-amused, half-irritated, "But for how much longer will you have to hate your present circumstances."
Walter nodded, despite that being a pointless gesture in a phone call.
"A few days, perhaps a week. It is ..." humbling, annoying, frustrating, "... not forever."
Alucard heard and digested the pause.
"You're withholding something from me," he said, "I thought you wished us to be frank with one another once more."
"I do not like it," Walter admitted. "It frustrates me. Angers me. But complaining to you seems callous when you are enduring more."
Alucard froze at Walter's last words and a long silence stretched out on his end of the line.
When he spoke once more, his words were hushed but distinct.
"Say that again."
Walter felt the distinct pressure of a land mine under his foot.
"Complaining to you seems callous when you are enduring more?"
Alucard's fingers clenched and released on the phone's receiver a moment before he finally spoke.
"I hope your eye will be mended soon, Walter. From what you have told me of the place Arthur has sent you, it does not seem impossible. And, if that is true, I ... am glad you are there."
Before, Alucard had told him that he wished that Arthur had never sent him here. Now, he was saying he was glad he was there.
Walter closed his eyes and ignored the prickling behind his lids. He was far too emotional of late.
"Thank you. I don't know if I am glad I am here or not."
"You have not been gone long enough to be feeling homesick just yet, Walter."
"I think six months with one business visit is quite long enough to miss certain things," Walter answered as calmly as he could. "Although I can't say I actually miss what Arthur does to his study."
Alucard wondered if Walter missed what they did in Arthur's study. Fortuitous, really, that Sir Hellsing never kept track of how often his desk blotters had needed replacing.
"Are you hinting for a care package?"
Walter thought about it, but there was nothing he wanted from home that Alucard could realistically send. Hello, FedEx? I have a vampire coming in the post. Be careful when you take him over water.
"I am expecting a package from Arthur. I am sure that Pup would be very happy if you sent something that smelled like you."
Alucard's quiet chuckle pulsed across the years and down the phone line.
"I shall see what can be done. And, how is your little charge?"
"He is single-handedly - pawedly? - convincing some people that hellhounds are adorable and loving," Walter answered, not sure if he should be chagrined or amused.
"I created him to be your companion in my absence," replied Alucard, "Did you expect him to behave otherwise?"
"With me, perhaps, but he is quite affectionate with everyone he meets." Walter laughed in earnest this time. "Although he does have an interesting fondness for poking things with sticks."
"Precocious and assertive," said Alucard, his voice warm with approval, "Pup's ... mindset and the years and distance between us make it impossible to glean a clear view of his day to day life. But, I sense that he is content. And, completely devoted to you."
That gave Walter pause, but he'd always known that Pup was a small part of Alucard. Was it really reasonable that something like a hellhound familiar would have no connection with its creator at all?
His thoughts spun around each other a few times thinking of their connection, Alucard's statement, Pup's affection, and back again.
After a long silence, he finally found words. "He has been a faithful companion. Thank you for the gift of his company."
"You are welcome."
Anyone listening for it might have noticed Alucard's failure to seize the chance to make a comment about 'faithful companions'.
Walter didn't need to be listening for it, the thought had been on his mind quite a lot in relation to his personal track record. In the past six months, he'd not been a paragon of enduring faithfulness, and now that he thought he knew what he wanted, he didn't feel right asking for it for that very reason.
He promised himself that he would give himself a little time to clear his head, and then he'd ask.
He realized that he'd been silent for too long again and cleared his throat. "He is cozy with my roommate's cat."
"So, he has company when you're otherwise occupied. That is good."
Alucard was being kind. For him. If Walter were without guilt, his comment would be nothing, and if Walter were guilty, then how could he fault Alucard anyway?
"I would be unhappy if he were unhappy. He does not deserve it." Nor did Alucard, not because of him at least.
"You have never made Pup unhappy, Walter," said Alucard, "I just told you that he was content, did I not? You have never given me cause to regret sending him to you. His existence is a happy one and you have made him love you in so much that a creature of his sort is capable of love."
Walter smiled. He loved his hellpuppy, too.
"Does his happiness please you?" The idea brought Walter a strange solace and if Alucard said yes, probably brought Pup a lot more Walter time and toys.
"Pup is my creation, a part of myself. Of course his happiness pleases me."
"Good." He could give Pup as much love as he wanted without any guilt and without feeling like an ass for sentimentality.
"Is there any curiosity about this place that I may satisfy for you before I go?"
Alucard paused, thinking.
"Nothing off hand, no," he said, "I shall have to think of something to ask you the next time you call. Ah, though I am curious to know how well that photograph you took before leaving came out. I confess, I could scarcely believe that device you used was a camera."
"It turned out very well," Walter said, smiling a little at Alucard's familiar vanity. "I will send you one of myself using the same camera, if you wish."
"I wish," replied Alucard, "And, I shall endeavor to send along something for Pup."
"I'm certain he will be very happy to have something from you." Walter was.
"And I will put a package in the post for you right away."
"Thank you, Walter. I am glad you called. I enjoyed hearing your voice."
"Thank you for taking my call. May I call you again?"
"You needn't ask my permission to call me, Walter. But, yes. I will take your call. I shall look forward to it."
"It shouldn't be too long before I have another unusual tale to share with you. Good night, Alucard."
Alucard chuckled.
"You may call me even if you do not have one. Good night, Walter. Do try to take care of yourself."
"I always try to," Walter said before hanging up.
That had been ... refreshingly painless. He wandered back into his alcove and picked up Pup to pet him, wondering at Alucard's choice to call him "Walter" throughout the conversation.
[ooc: Many thanks to union_jane for her assistance. That Walter made a call is okay for broadcast, contents would be NFB. Any Squirrel who wants to talk to him afterward will find him in his alcove with Pup.]