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Post by Herbert von Krolock on Jun 28, 2017 20:41:13 GMT -5
He'd given serious thought to just finding new glasses, but the truth was, his credit card was also his father's, and at home with the glasses, and whatever money he'd earned on his own in the Alucard getup he'd long-since burned through - so he had to go back to doing that. Two nights in, he'd had a guest who'd been to his father's party. Their delight in seeing him was proportionate to Herbert's sense of being doused with cold water upon seeing them, insofar as what Herbert did these days could be called 'seeing'.
He didn't have to come up with rent money for himself and Alex, though. That was the biggest source of relief. After spending a couple of nights crashing at somebody else's place on the couch, a mortification Herbert didn't know if he'd have felt beforehand, but which was probably more painful than the fires of hell themselves as a thing he had to fling Alex into just because of his own fuckup, Alex came back excitedly to announce they could move out, they'd found a place - and he had the apartment keys in his hand. It was Loki's old place. Turns out the old boy had moved out just to get away from Herbert's own father. Haha, he had said hysterically, doesn't that make the four of us?! What a happy coincidence! but he had seen Alex pale and he'd swallowed it and shut up.
It was funny how seeing Alex's face change whenever Herbert Did Something made Herbert's heart sink but his mood steady. Nothing at all like he'd felt with his father. Nothing at all like he'd felt with his father for centuries.
But the glasses situation was getting to the point of awfulness and so was having all their things at the house, so Herbert, arming himself with all his unearthly charisma, persuaded a couple of friends, one of whom had a station wagon, to pop over to the place with him, pack, and scurry out.
This was going more or less as planned until....
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Post by Graf von Krolock on Jun 28, 2017 21:09:38 GMT -5
"Herbert?"
The place was still clean from Teja's assistance, but it was still dark in there, and it gave Johannes's appearance at the end of the hallway all the billowing horror of a nest of spiders fanning out in the direction of their unfortunate disruptor.
"Herbert, is that you?"
His voice had taken on a croaking quality, and he stayed in the shadows, hanging on the threshold like a clod of moss.
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Post by Herbert von Krolock on Jun 28, 2017 21:13:27 GMT -5
"Shit," Herbert whispered. His friends had frozen, though he could hear their hearts hammering away. As they looked to him in dawning panicked confusion, he hastily gestured them out. Everyone picked up whatever was left nearby - it was mainly Herbert's old things left, things he couldn't pawn, he didn't think it mattered; surprisingly, the fate of his material belongings mattered very little to him now; he'd gotten Alex's things out and that was important, now he didn't feel so much of a fuck-up - and hurried out of the place, while Herbert drew himself up to his own, very tall height and strode towards his father with a confidence he didn't feel. In matter of fact, his legs felt like jell-o shots; but never mind that.
"Papa, you are here! I've just come to get a few of mine and Alex's things - so sorry to have left the place in this condition-"
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Post by Graf von Krolock on Jun 29, 2017 9:34:50 GMT -5
Johannes spread his arms in the dim light, and his long hands looked like claws.
"Herbert," he said, smiling in an odd, exhausted way. "You came back- I knew you would. Come here, my darling boy..."
As he moved into the relative glow of the hall light sconces, his form lost some of its shapelessness- he was in the dressing gown again, but clothed beneath it. The dressing gown, in fact, looked too big on him, and as he drew closer it was obviously one of Herbert's own, a cast-off in dull, serious colors that Herbert had never liked to begin with. Johannes was not a small man, but Herbert's dressing gown seemed to shrink him by comparison. It seemed to nearly drip from him, like a bird covered in oil.
"Please forgive an old man his follies, my child. Come in, and let me bring you some of that plum wine. You always did enjoy that plum wine, Herbert."
He offered Herbert his arm, with a soft, insinuating smile. His face was fuller, his skin less dull than usual, the sallowness having turned a healthier, livelier-looking olive, but his hair had been cut off, bluntly and unevenly, close to his head. There were smaller wisps of it settled on the collar and shoulders of the dressing gown.
"You'll pardon my appearance, I hope," he said, nodding at his arm expectantly.
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Post by Herbert von Krolock on Jun 29, 2017 9:44:49 GMT -5
When Herbert had first come to America, he'd gone to see one of the moving pictures - vati had known about such things, but didn't see the point in rigging the old castle with one of them, to the distress of both Herbert and Sarah. It had been one they'd now call a B-flick, but to Herbert it was magical. A team of explorers visited a setpiece representative of a lost island full of larger-than-life animals, all of which were dangerous. But halfway through, they had been attacked by a giant, man-eating plant, its leaves long and broad enough to swallow a man whole. Herbert had lost some of his excitement at that. He'd slept in coffins all his life, so he knew he wasn't claustrophobic. But something about it had seemed... smothering.
Herbert felt like he was being eaten by a giant man-eating plant now, but pity for his father made him push that notion aside.
"You need some tidying up," said Herbert in German with a firm, but playful disapproval. "Let's get this evened out, at least-"
Maybe his father would forget about the wine if they focused on his hair.
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Post by Graf von Krolock on Jun 29, 2017 9:50:21 GMT -5
"What?- ah, yes. I suppose I do not regenerate so quickly as you have. Yours could come back in a day or two, to my recollection, but I, alas, am slower..."
He sounded jovial.
"Perhaps another week, then. Your timing is impeccable, my boy- I am nearly ready to leave this place behind."
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Post by Herbert von Krolock on Jun 29, 2017 9:54:37 GMT -5
"Oh, vati, no," he sighed, realizing with a guilty start that he was feigning most of his unhappiness. "Why?"
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Post by Graf von Krolock on Jun 29, 2017 9:58:32 GMT -5
"There is so very little for me here and now," Johannes said, in an even, knowing tone. "Perhaps I will fare better and less painfully elsewhere."
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Post by Herbert von Krolock on Jun 29, 2017 9:59:51 GMT -5
"The girl liked you, though," said Herbert, with a strange, out of body sense of awareness that however true this might be, she - and her fiancé - had also just moved out of their apartment to avoid him.
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Post by Graf von Krolock on Jun 29, 2017 10:07:22 GMT -5
"She is married," Johannes retorted, carefully emotionless.
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Post by Herbert von Krolock on Jun 29, 2017 10:08:29 GMT -5
"I didn't think that was an impediment," said Herbert with a rather unpleasant smile.
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Post by Graf von Krolock on Jun 29, 2017 10:11:32 GMT -5
"You incorrigible boy," Johannes laughed.
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Post by Herbert von Krolock on Jun 29, 2017 10:15:01 GMT -5
"You don't have to leave," said Herbert after a pause, as he followed his father to the bathroom to trim his hair more symmetrically. "Just because the girl is married and the party...." There was a too-long pause. "There are so many girls in New York, vati, I can think of so many who would want to meet you."
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Post by Graf von Krolock on Jun 29, 2017 10:30:31 GMT -5
Johannes hovered outside the doorway.
"I do not believe I care to meet them any longer. Come, downstairs- you must at least receive the sligovica."
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Post by Herbert von Krolock on Jun 29, 2017 10:33:59 GMT -5
"I don't want any-"
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