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Blood Is Chapter 2-6
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: Do I really have to mention that I don't own Castlevania? If I did, we would have gotten to see Julius curbstomp Dracula, the storyline would have been neatened up a bit, and Dracula and Alucard would have just HUGGED already after the reveal in Lords of Shadow 2.
Summary: Lords of Shadow Continuity: AU to Mirror of Fate and Lords of Shadow 2: Trevor wasn't the only one that had the truth of his parentage kept from him by the Brotherhood.
A/N: Told you I was working on it.
6.
Gabriel lost track of the hours as he hid in the small space that Father Caleb had shown him. He ignored the sounds of the household searching for him as his mother walked around the house, tearfully begging for him to come out. His heart constricted with pain every time her pleas fell on his ears, and part of him wanted to come out and run to her, but that was overridden by the rest of him that simply didn't care. What did she hope to do? How did she intend to "help"? Could she make him human again? Could she make his uncle not hate him? Could she find Volpe for him? No, he didn't need her "help" such as it was. He could take care of himself just fine.
This isn't the answer, Gabriel.
******
It was the burning of his thirst that woke him hours later, when the sun was low in the sky. The household was settling in for the night, and Trevor was already asleep. Gabriel stretched as much as the small space would allow, and he trembled as he relaxed into the ratty blanket under him. Damnit, he needed more space. With that thought, he turned himself back into a rat and curled up in the folds of the blanket and went back to sleep. It was the only other thing he could do for the moment.
******
He was shaking when he next woke, when the sun was low in the sky, and he could barely see the outlines of the ceiling beams as he blinked his beady eyes open. His veins felt as though they were on fire; he needed to feed. How long had it been since he had last drank? Two days? Three days? He wasn't sure. He willed himself back into his normal shape, and he had to force the transformation. For whatever reason, his body resisted the change. He groaned as he went limp on the floor, as his muscles ached and trembled. He knew the butcher's wasn't far away, but the distance suddenly seemed like miles as he laid there.
Well, there was no help for it. With another groan, he twisted around to face the wall and felt for the panel that would open to let him out, but before he could find it, he heard footsteps on the floor on the other side of the wall, followed by a crate being pushed aside. He froze, and a second later, the panel was lifted up and pushed aside, which allowed light from a lamp to spill into the space.
"I thought I would find you here." came Father's voice. "Come on out of there, Gabriel. You've been hiding long enough."
"Do I have to?" Gabriel mumbled. "I'm so tired."
"It's been three days and two nights, Gabriel. I'm sure you're thirsty at the very least." The scent of blood touched his nose then, and he sighed in resignation and wiggled out of the opening. He sat up and leaned against the wall as he looked up at his father with tired eyes. Father knelt down in front of him and held up a familiar tankard. "Here."
Gabriel lowered his head to the rim of the cup, and he was glad that his father held it for him, as he doubted his own shaking hands could do the job without spilling the blood everywhere. The fire of his thirst eased as he drank, but it did not fade completely. After four days without drinking, the small amount in the tankard would not be enough.
"How did you find me?" he mumbled once he was done.
Father tugged him to his feet and steadied him when his legs shook under his weight. "Caleb only thought that I never knew where he was." Father replied as he slipped an arm around Gabriel's waist and began to lead him away. "And, well, let's just say he wasn't the first to hide up here. I believe I even left a toy or two in there years ago..."
Gabriel blinked. "Oh," was all he said as he was led out of the attic.
"Come, Gabriel. I think you need to be in bed."
"I'm still thirsty."
"Then we'll get you into bed, and then I will go get you more to drink. Come along now."
Gabriel didn't say anything more as he was led down the halls to his rooms, but he felt his gut twist with guilt when they walked into his bedroom as saw his mother sitting on the edge of the bed, waiting for them. She stood up to meet them, and Gabriel meekly allowed himself to bed dressed for bed and then tucked in. Mother then sat down beside him and began to run her fingers through his hair while Father left the room.
Should he say something? Apologize? Ask her if she was all right? He didn't know what to do, and her silence did worry him a little. Was she upset? Angry? Did she even care that he had vanished for three days?
"Are you angry?" he finally asked after a few minutes had passed in silence.
Mother sighed. "I am." she replied in a soft voice. "You frightened the life out of me, Gabriel. I didn't know if you had run off again, or if something had happened to you. For all your father and I knew, Volpe could have grabbed you somehow and hauled you off to be locked away."
"I just... I don't know what to do."
Mother's hand stilled. "I know, Gabriel, that you likely had no one to go to before when you were in trouble, but that is no longer true. Your father and I are here if you need us. You don't need to run away and hide."
"But what can you do?"
"I don't know, Gabriel, and we have no hope of finding that out if you won't trust us."
He sat up and looked at her. "I do trust you, but I..." He trailed off. Truthfully, he hadn't been acting very trusting, had he? His eyes found and tracked the large vein on the left side of her neck, and he shivered and forced himself to look away.
"This began with that nightmare you had days ago, the one that sent you running from the room." Mother said quietly.
He drew his knees up. "I'm sorry for all the trouble I've caused." he whispered. "It seems nothing's gone right since you found me."
"Don't say that." Father said, and Gabriel looked up to see him standing in the doorway, holding another tankard in his hand. He walked forward and handed it to him, and Gabriel sat up and drank it down quickly. He then set the empty tankard on the table aside the bed and bowed his head.
"It's true." he said. "I've made things so difficult for you. Maybe it would be better if I wasn't here."
"Absolutely not." Mother said. "This is your home, where your family is at. You belong here."
"But I -"
"Mathias Cronqvist!" Father barked, and Gabriel whipped his head up to stare at the man with wide eyes. "That is enough of that talk! You are home, where you belong, and you are staying here! That is final!" Father stood over him and gave him a stern look, and Gabriel suddenly felt like a six year old boy again, getting scolded by Master Cecil for staying up too late. "Am I understood?"
Gabriel nodded and bowed his head. "Yes, Father." He felt Father sit down beside him, and then he was engulfed in the man's arms.
"No matter what happens, Gabriel," he said, "we'll get through it together, as a family."
Gabriel closed his eyes and nodded against Father's shoulder, and he sat up and looked at him again when the older man's arms let go of him.
"Tomorrow Gabriel," Father said, "once you've slept and then fed, the three of us, you, your mother, and I, are going to sit and have a long talk. We will then figure out the best way to move forward from here, together." Father gave him a look that was almost pleading. "Please don't hide from us anymore, Gabriel. We love you, and we only want to help in any way that we can."
Gabriel didn't say anything as he was coaxed into lying down and tucked under the quilt. What was he going to do now? His parents whispered their goodnights, and he watched them as they left the room. What did they intend to do?
He laid awake, staring at the wall, for the rest of the night.
******
He skipped breakfast come morning, though he did go to the butchers to feed himself. Not long after, his guards ushered him to his father's study again, and he quietly went along with it. He made no move to knock on the door, so one of the guards had to do it for him, and he walked into the room without a word once the door swung open. The guards stayed out in the hall and closed the doors behind him, and he forced himself to walk into the room and sit on the couch in front of the empty fireplace next to his mother.
He felt a hand rest lightly on his shoulder. "Gabriel?" Mother asked. "How are you feeling?"
"Tired," he mumbled without looking at her, "I want to go back to sleep."
"Try to stay awake, Gabriel." Father said. "Otherwise you won't sleep tonight."
"Vampires are supposed to sleep during the day, not at night. I think... I think I need to quit faking it."
"Faking it?" Father asked. "What do you mean, son?"
Gabriel raised his head to look at him, and he winced when the bright light from the windows hit his eyes. "Exactly that. I am a vampire trying to act human when everyone around me knows the truth. My uncle hates me and is no doubt plotting against me." He lowered his head to stare at his hands. "Maybe.. it would be better if I just dropped out of sight for a while."
"You're leaving?" Mother said, sounding as though she was about to cry.
He looked at her and shook his head. "No, I'm staying, but I think it will be easier and safer for all of us if I stop pretending. Sleep during the day, stop having meals with everyone. Hopefully, people will stop thinking about me if they don't see me. If they don't think of me, then maybe they won't tell anyone that I am here and what I am." He looked from his mother to his father and then back again. "I'll always be grateful that you risked so much to bring me home, but I can't go back to being Mathias Cronqvist. I've been Gabriel Belmont for too long to do that."
"What about Trevor?" Father asked. "He goes to bed before sundown and wakes up after sunrise. When will you see him?"
Gabriel sighed. "I'll think of something. I can't keep going against my nature anymore."
Mother's hand cupped his cheek. "Are you certain about this Gabriel?"
"I am."
Now it was Father's turn to sigh. "We can't talk you out of this?"
"No. I have to do it this way."
"What else are you going to do?"
"I don't know. I haven't figured that out yet."
"You're not doing this just to hide from us, are you?"
"No," The idea had appeal though... In some ways he actually missed the quiet and isolation of Bernhard Castle as it was before the voices came.
Come back to us, my prince.
Gabriel shivered and stood up. "I'm tired. I'm going back to bed."
"Will we see you tonight?"
He paused briefly on his way to the door. "Perhaps." He opened the doors and went through, and he heard a two part sigh from his parents as he walked out of the room.
He ignored his guards as they fell into step behind him just outside the door. He only wanted to go crawl back into bed and sleep the day away. Maybe then, in the darkened safety of the nighttime, he would be able to figure out what to do.
******
Wolfram stood in the doorway of his son's bedroom, watching him sleep. The curtains were shut tightly over the windows, blocking out the sunlight, while the the fireplace was roaring as always. Gabriel was lying on his right side, facing the door, with his hands resting up on the pillow by his face. He wasn't moving at all, and when Wolfram stepped closer, he could see that he wasn't even breathing. He sighed quietly and sat down on the side of the bed; how could he have not thought about this? Yes, he'd known that his son was a vampire, but he had simply pushed it to the back of his mind. Yes, he'd brought the boy – man now actually – blood to drink, but he hadn't actually thought about it.
Vampires slept during the day and were active at night. They were considered to be the spawn of Satan and were actively hunted. They survived on blood alone and did not need anything else. Worst of all, they were hated and feared by humans. Wolfram swallowed thickly and placed his fingers on Gabriel's wrist to feel for a pulse; it was barely there, a faint fluttering under his fingertips. His skin was gray and cold to the touch as usual.
He took his hand away from the cool wrist. "Oh, Gabriel," he whispered, "I am so sorry, son. I was such a fool." He had risked his son's safety by asking him to be awake during the day, by asking him to join the family, by asking him to act human. Gabriel was right; he needed to quit faking it. It would be safer for him that way.
"I'm sorry, Gabriel." he whispered. "I'll do better from now on. I love you. Sleep well." With that, he stood up and walked out of the room, leaving Gabriel sleeping peacefully behind him.
******
For the next few days and nights, Gabriel kept to himself. He rose after the sun had set and went to sleep before it came up. He didn't see anyone, not even Trevor. His son's adorable face was on his mind, however, and on the fourth night after speaking with his parents, he slipped into the nursery to see the child. The guards at the door let him pass without a word.
He moved without a sound through the dark rooms, lit only by a single candle in the children's sleeping room, and he found Trevor, curled up in a little ball under his light summer blanket, eyes closed, breathing slow and even. Gabriel stood there for a moment, listening to that little heartbeat sounding in his ears, and then he reached out and scooped the sleeping child up into his arms and stepped out of the room. He settled down into a chair in the main room, and Trevor curled close to him and grasped his shirt in a tiny fist. Gabriel smiled faintly at the sight, but that smile didn't last long.
He still didn't know what to do. He still didn't know how he was going to handle everything. No doubt, Volpe was planning something and would move against him in time. Zobek was likely also plotting against him, and he would be a fool to think that Satan had just meekly accepted defeat. No, they would come after him, and they would destroy anyone that stood in their way. Maybe he should leave, he thought, but the realization that his enemies wouldn't hesitate to use his family against him (again) killed that thought quickly. He'd already lost his wife; he couldn't bear to lose anyone else. He looked at his son's sleeping face again and realized he couldn't leave this behind anyway. He carefully ran his claws through Trevor's hair, and the boy stirred.
"Papa," he said softly, and then he went still again.
Gabriel sighed. So now what? If he couldn't run away, then what could he do?
Fight. Fight against those that stand against you. Fight against those that would harm you and your family. Fight against those that would bring ruin to the world.
Gabriel nodded. Yes, that was his only option. But... he had destroyed the one weapon that could have helped him, and even if he knew how to repair and rebuild it, the gateway to the realm where he had left the broken remnants was in the collapsed ruin of Bernhard Castle. Even if the lower levels were intact, he wished to avoid that place. He had a feeling it wouldn't let him leave a second time. His parents had told him that its voices had gone silent after its destruction, but he still didn't trust it.
Come back to us, my prince.
Gabriel shivered, as he stood up from the chair and moved to put Trevor back to bed. If he didn't have his old weapon then... he would have to come up with new ones, he supposed. He doubted that a standard sword would work against his foes, and truthfully, though he knew how to handle them, a whip had always felt more natural to him. Yes, he'd been taught how to handle swords, but after he had first laid hands on the Vampire Killer at the age of eleven, he'd never looked back.
He laid Trevor in bed, and the child made a soft sound as he was tucked in. Gabriel smiled faintly, lightly brushed his hair out of his face, and he spent another moment watching him sleep before he slipped out of the room.
He wandered the quiet halls of the house as he thought, glad that he had convinced his father to leave the guards during the nighttime hours. They still watched him while he slept, but he was free from their constant presence after dark, and he relished that now. He'd been in their shoes once, and he didn't think he could ask them to follow him around as he wandered aimlessly all night.
Now, what to do?
Whether he liked it or not, he was going to have to fight, for himself and his family. It seemed that there was no escaping that. He had no Vampire Killer, and no man made weapon would work against those he would face – except for Volpe of course, but he wasn't worried about him at the moment. Well, he was, but he would be easy to defeat once he was tracked down. Zobek and Satan on the other hand were be far more difficult to defeat.
So then, he would have to find his own weapons.
Or create them.
Gabriel stopped in the middle of the corridor as that thought ran through his mind. Create them, yes, that would work. Carmilla had had her raw power, plus her children, to use against him. And Laura had had the "toys" she had made for herself, as well as her own considerable power. Power that he had no doubt inherited, even if he had made no real attempt to use it. And he couldn't forget the power that he had stolen from that demon. There was no way to know what he was capable of, but there was one way to find out.
The sound of the cooks and kitchen staff rising from their beds to begin the day's work fell upon his ears as he turned on his heel and strode down to his parents' rooms. He needed to speak with them, urgently.
******
The feel of someone in the room with them, a predator looming over her, that made Edeline's eyes fly open as he she went from deeply asleep to fully awake instantly. Her clouded eyes couldn't see well in the darkness, but she knew immediately who it was; only her son put off that kind of presence.
"Gabriel?" She sat up and was just barely able to make out his faint outline standing by the bed. "What is it?"
"I..." He hesitated, and her brow furrowed in worry. "I need to speak with you, with both of you."
"Now?"
"Now."
She turned her head to face her sleeping husband, and she grabbed him by the shoulder and shook him. "Wolfram." He startled and mumbled something. "Wolfram, wake up."
"Edeline?"
"Gabriel needs to speak to us."
Wolfram came awake quickly then. "What's the matter, son?"
She heard rather than saw Gabriel wave his hand, and the small lamp aside the bed lit itself. "I just now learned how to do that." He said in a quiet voice. "It was so easy. It's been nearly a year since I was turned, and I just now figured how to do that."
Edeline blinked. "That's interesting, Gabriel, but why now?"
Gabriel waved his fingers through the flame, but it never flickered, nor did he show any sign that it was hurting him. "I realized something, that my enemies are not going to sit idly by while I live my life. Until they – Volpe, Zobek, and Satan – are dealt with, I will never be truly safe. I'll never be able to relax, because I'll always be looking over my shoulder, waiting for an attack."
"You're not going to go after them, are you?" Wolfram asked, and Edeline nodded in agreement with the question. The mere idea of her baby going out there, all alone, to hunt them down – it made her stomach clench just to think about it.
"No." Gabriel said, and Edeline sighed. "I'm not going after them." He looked away from the lamp and looked at her. "But I think we can agree that it's only a matter of time until they come for me here, and right now, I wouldn't be able to do a thing against them. My combat cross is destroyed, and the pieces are out of my reach. No mortal weapon is going to work against the Zobek and Satan, so I have no other option but to turn myself into the weapon needed."
"What do you mean?" she asked as she felt her heart sink.
"Laura was powerful, as was Carmilla, yet until just now I have never attempted to use any of the power that Laura gave me. Nor have I given any thought to what I took from the Forgotten One. I need to learn. If we are to survive what is coming, then I need to be able to fight. I won't be able to do that if I just sit idly here."
"Are you leaving?" Wolfram asked, and Edeline felt her heart skip a beat.
"No, not completely." Gabriel sighed. "I need to see what I can do, and I cannot do that safely here. There are people that could see me, and I could accidentally kill someone. I will have to move away from the house to do this, but I will come back during the day if at all possible."
"Where are you going to go?" Edeline asked, and Gabriel looked out the window.
"Not far." he said in reply. "Just far enough away from the town that it will be unlikely that anyone will see or hear me. Depending on how many people wander through the forest, I might have to go further, but I won't know until I get out there. I would like to come back here to sleep during the day though."
She heard Wolfram get out of bed, and Gabriel turned to look at him. Edeline shook her head; what was she still doing just sitting there? She also got out of bed, and the three of them, by some unspoken agreement, moved over to the sitting area. Gabriel lit the fireplace with a nod of his head, and Edeline stared at the crackling flames for a moment, and then she looked at him where he sat at the other end of the couch.
"How did you do that?"
He shrugged. "I am not sure. I just... willed it to happen."
"I assume this is something else that we can't talk you out of?" Wolfram asked, and Gabriel shook his head.
"If we are to have any chance of coming out of this alive," he replied, "then I have to be ready." He looked at his father. "I won't get that way by just sitting here, doing nothing."
Wolfram didn't say anything for a long moment, and Edeline turned his attention to her son. She edged over to sit right beside him, and he turned his head to look at her. "Are you sure about this, Gabriel?"
"I am." he said simply.
Wolfram sighed. "It seems that we can't stop you, and truly, I don't want to."
Edeline turned to stare at her husband in surprise. "Wolfram?"
"He's right, Edeline. Right now we're just waiting for an attack, and if that attack comes from a Lord of Shadow or the Prince of Lies, there is little we can do to protect ourselves. I hate to push this on you, Gabriel, but you are our best hope here."
"I don't mind." Gabriel said. "I've been humanity's last hope before. At least you're being honest with me instead of manipulating me into it. Besides," He smirked, "it was my idea after all. You're just agreeing with it."
They shared a quiet chuckle over that and went silent for a few minutes.
It was Wolfram who broke it. "Gabriel," he said firmly, "I am not going to stop you, and in fact, I agree that you need to learn what you are capable of. However, your mother and I would still like to know that you are safe, and we would like to see you. I'm sure Trevor would also like to see his father once in a while too. So, for those reason, I would like you to try and come home at least every other day. I'll have the servants ready a bath for you and a change of clothes, so you can bathe and sleep here. When you get home, I don't care what time it is, wake either your mother or myself, so we know you made it safely back. Can you do that for us?"
Gabriel nodded. "I can."
"Good. One other thing. When you feed out there, make sure you hide the husk. We don't want a panic about a vampire prowling the woods to start."
"I understand."
Edeline slipped her arm around Gabriel, and he gave her a faint smile before he laid his head down on her shoulder. "When will you go?"
"Tomorrow night, once everyone is asleep." he said. "I'll probably spend that first night looking for a suitable place and somehow coming up with a shelter should I lose track of time."
"Promise me that you'll be careful? And that you'll come home if you run into any trouble?"
"I promise, but it won't be forever, you know. I just want to learn what I can, while I can, and then life can back to as normal as it can be for us."
"I just worry, Gabriel. Once you were taken from us, and once you ran away."
"I'm not running away, Mother, and I swear I will be careful." He stood up. "The sun is coming. I should go to bed."
Edeline stood up with him. "Will you visit Trevor before you go?"
"I will."
She stood up on her tiptoes to kiss him on the cheek. "Then sleep well, Gabriel. I love you." Wolfram stood up, stepped over, and wrapped Gabriel in his embrace.
"Take care of yourself, son, and let us know when you make it back. I don't care the time."
"I will, Father."
"Then safe journey."
Gabriel looked back and forth between them for a moment, gave them a faint smile, and then he walked soundlessly out of the room and vanished down the hallway to find his bed. Edeline stared after him and didn't move, even as Wolfram came up behind her and placed his hands on her shoulders.
"He needs to do this." he said softly. "For his peace of mind as well as our safety."
"I know, but it still feels like we're using him to save ourselves."
"He wants to protect us, Edeline. He wasn't manipulated into it. He wasn't offered an impossible reward. He just wants to keep his family safe; how can we tell him no?"
"I have a feeling that he would have done it even if we had."
Wolfram laughed quietly, though she couldn't hear any real humor in it. "True, he's very headstrong."
She turned to look at him."He gets that from you, you know."
He smiled, a genuine one. "You'll never know how much it delights me to hear that." He raised his eyes to look at the open doorway that their son had gone out of. "Come, we might as well get ready for the day."
"True. I doubt I could sleep after what he said anyway."
"He will be fine, Edeline. We have to believe that."
"I'll believe it when he comes home safe."
Wolfram sighed. "So will I. So will I."
******
The day passed normally, and Edeline tried to ignore her brother-in-law's delight at Gabriel's continued absence from the family dining table. She forced herself to go about her duties as lady of the manor and resisted the urge to go look in on Gabriel while he slept. Instead she shared gossip with Sonja and Kristina and spent some time with her grandson. She deflected his questions about his papa by telling him that Papa was sleeping as she tried not to think about the possibility of Trevor growing up without his father.
That night she and Wolfram readied for bed at their usual time, but instead of lying down, they both watched out the window and waited. She couldn't see far beyond the glass as the last of the sunlight faded from the sky, but she had no doubt that Gabriel would be able to see her, and she wanted him to know that she was watching. About an hour after full dark descended, Wolfram sighed.
"There he goes." he said quietly, and Edeline cursed her fading sight. This could be the last time she – no she couldn't think of that! She couldn't see anything beyond the glass anymore, but she looked anyway, and after a moment, she saw a brief flare of light, a small burst of flame, and she smiled as Gabriel let her know he was there. The light lasted only a second, and then Wolfram whispered:
"He's gone."
Still neither one of them moved from the window. Instead they both watched the direction their son had gone as the moon rose in the sky overhead.
Power: 5 -- Power 7Back to the Main Archive
no subject
As for Gabriel's confused expression, that is, indeed, far too cute a mental image in my mind! XD Especially with his reaction to the cheerleading dress being based on Alucard's outfit. ;) *Runs off, cackling, after patting poor said vampire on the head*
I've just read the ff.net comments. Nice idea. Lol, I can also all too easily envision Gabe losing his temper at his uncle after he crosses the line a bit too far, and wham! powers emerge. Gabe manages to stop himself killing Cordrin.... but not after a well-deserved mauling.
With the pacing, I actually like it that you're taking your time to develop the characters. You flesh them out, and that is somethign critical to giving a fic soul. You connect with the characters, and care about them, even if the only emotion you feel is hatred for a character, because they're that nasty. It's like while I agree that LoS2 had a lot of faults to it, one of the trilogy's strengths was that you can emotionally engage with Gabriel and Trevor, and see why they become who they turn into.
no subject
Okay, now you've GOT to describe that for me! XD
Cordin... You seem to be looking forward to his demise more than anyone else I think. ;) Not a bad thing, but I find it humorous. Truth be told, I haven't settled on what's going to happen to him in the end once he plays his part to kick off Everything, but we'll see.
Thanks! *blushes* I've told people who've asked me about LoS2 to not play it for the gameplay (which has serious issues with fake difficulty) but to play it for the characters. Some people are intrigued while others are chased off, but that's their loss.
no subject
Lmao, I'm just picturing it designed to look like a black dress with a lace up print on the bustline (representing Al's lace up trousers), and a print to look like his coat over the 'top' of the 'underdress' (all done in print probably). Top layer and underdress would be very cool however, even if impractical. The sleeves from the arm down, which end in (fingerless?) gloves encorporated into the sleeves, would be styled after Al's arm armour, with leggings with built in shoe covers, would look like Al's leg armour. Yes, my brain is weird. XD And no, I'm not actually a fan of cheerleading. The mental image is just amusing, and just a little bit wrong.
Cordin's an arse, and deserves his comeuppance is all. Besides, venence is Gabe's game. He can be an arse like that, and he needs his vengeance on people who've wronged him. ;) I like reading endings, etc, that are right for the fic, even if they're not happy endings necessarily. Some of the reason I'm a fan of Lilith Saintcrow's books.
I play LoS2 for the characters and storyline. I like the combat, it's fun. But the modern city is dull compared to the sumptuous castle ares, imo. It's not the city teased at in the epilogue of LoS1, and enemy variety is lacking, and the pacing feels off - the second and third acolytes are rushed compared to the time spent on the first one. The reunion between Gabriel and Marie, and Gabriel remembering Alucard, as shown in the trailers, are the game highlights, and make me choke up every time.
no subject
If I could draw clothing with any degree of accuracy, I would love to draw that dress idea. I just love it. XD I'm not fond of cheerleeding either, but I love your idea. Long skirt or short? Mid length?
Gabriel's need for vengeance has been calmed a great deal since he has a family there to help heal his battered soul. That's not to say that he won't get even with a few, but vengeance is the last thing on his mind right now. I enjoy a well done bad ending, but it irritates me when the characters go through hell, fight like lions, go through amazing character development - only for the author to shoot the shaggy dog and render all their hard work pointless. (To this day, I like to pretend that the sucky sequel to Chrono Trigger was never made for doing just that.) And if you're wondering, I already know how Blood Is is going to end. I had the ending solidified in my mind by the time I was done with Chapter 3. XD Once I finish Power, I expect the story's posting speed to pick up considerably as I know most of what is going to happen in Everything.
I didn't care much for the combat. Even after getting alot of combos and new attacks, the mobs' tendency to block and get cheap shots from off camera irritated the hell out of me. Fake difficulty has no place in modern video games, so I want to scream when I see it. I did enjoy the characters and story immensely though, and I grinned like an idiot all through the cutscene with Dracula and Alucard towards the end. I just barely managed to stop myself for yelling "Just fucking HUG already!". XD
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The dress would be longer at the back than at the front, but would be longer than your average cheerleding dress.
I agree with you. Like I said, you need to go for the ending that's right, and not necessarily a bad one just because.
Oh, that bit of the combat does annoy me. It's one of my biggest niggles on Lord of Darkness setting when fighting Satan especially.
Lol! Yup, that's what I was thinking as well. It's a wonderful cutscene. I'd have loved to have seen more of what went on between them in the intervening years between MoF and LoS2's prologue.
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Ah now I see it! XD Great idea.
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