genessia | [Video]

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[When the feed clicks on, it does so mid-bounce as if the device had been tossed aside with little in the way of regard for what happened to it. Those watching it was spared most of the camera shaking if only because the room in which the broadcast originates is pitch black save for three points of illumination. The first two show the shadow-cloaked face of Vlad as his eyes appear to burn with a hellish flame. The third seems to be a small crimson stone, glowing in the darkness, pulsing softly almost as if mimicking a heart beat. When Vlad speaks, his voice is restrained, but the fury is more than evident.]

I have spent quite some time in this place, and during that time I have learned quite a bit of the nature of the realm. Those of us chosen to be ripped from our own worlds seem to have been plucked from them to serve as protectors of the realm, to keep the barriers around the cities in place so that what lies beyond at bay.

It is because of this that I was willing to accept the peace offering that was returning my wife to my side. However, she is no longer here. Sent back to the fate that awaited her in our world; to be tortured and burnt at the stake for the crime of showing compassion. What this realm seems to have forgotten is that I am not as forgiving as Lisa.

[He pauses, clenching his fist around the stone, dimming the lights further but allowing the shifting shadows that fill the room behind him to become a bit more visible.]

Perhaps it is time I remind Genessia why I am called Vlad the Impaler...

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[The Doctor had made one or two attempts to meet with Dracula before; perhaps he should have tried harder, in hindsight, to forge some kind of connection. His first reaction, though, is his regret at the news.]

...I'm sorry. I'd spoken to her, she'd mentioned-.. well, what I suppose she'd heard from you.

[He pauses a moment, peering into the video attentively.

He's confident Dracula isn't an idiot. Even without knowing him, having only known Lisa briefly, that seems like a safe assumption. So if the threat bears any seriousness at all (and he gathers it very well may), he knows perfectly well that there are innocents who stand to suffer--arguably nothing but innocents. And really, he knows all too well that anger can outshine compassion, even in someone known for the latter, which may not be the case, here, so much. So he takes a different approach entirely.]

Just so happens I know a thing or two about loss, myself. ...more than a little older than I look at a glance, been around a bit, and the way I see it, when you've lost someone you cared for, there's just one question: what would they want to be remembered by? Sometimes all we can do for them's to build a monument they'd be proud of.

[He pauses a second, briefly troubled by the intrusion of another, obviously distressing train of thought.]

...not sure I'll always live up to that. But it's something to aim for. For their sakes.

[Another pause, this one deliberate, rhetorical.]

So. You want to build a monument, good, but, well, she's your wife, you tell me, what's the sort of monument she'd be proud of?

Monuments...

[There's an unamused huff from the shadows.]

Any monument that bears the name Tepes would be sought out and erased simply by virtue of my existence. Before she was murdered, the Catholic church called her "the Devil's bride." There is no monument to her genius there, and anything created here is temporal at best.

If you've 'been around a bit' I have a question for you. When you die, what is waiting for you?

[The Doctor raises his eyebrows, listening patiently--although that's not quite what he'd meant. Before he can comment, though, he winces at that question, taking a moment to collect himself... and make sure the video's locked. He smiles, but somehow a hint of his age and history's there in his eyes, set within that youthful face.]

...if you'd asked me that before I came here, I'd honestly say I don't know. My people've got... traditions, but, well, not sure I'll ever see them, again. Used to think my days were numbered.

Now... well, depends on what you mean by "die," I s'pose. From my point of view, I'll become someone else. ...someone I'd rather not become, someone who'll make mistakes I've tried to learn to not make again.

[He pauses there, a moment, with a slight shake of his head.]

I don't mean to put up a pile of bricks, and certainly not where the church has a say in it, I mean here. Where people knew her, appreciated her, wish they'd known her better. What d'you want her monument to be, here--something to remind everyone who she was, something she'd be proud to see if she were here again, or something she'd regret?

[The Doctor's smile tightens, there, something darker tucked away carefully behind it. He suspects it's not exactly the kind of answer Dracula's after, but at the moment, it seems like the more important one.]

You asked what's waiting for me. That's what's waiting for me, that choice, and now I know I'll make the wrong one--wrong enough that that person would rather I forget her than keep doing what I did in her name. ...your choice, of course, but I hate to see people repeat my mistakes, even the ones I haven't made yet.

That is where we differ. I've seen what awaits us after Death takes us. Courtesy of Death himself. Where she is now, she does not know, nor does she care what happens in the realm of the living.

She is truly in a place I cannot follow by sheer virtue of what I am. What I was created to be. I will never see her again, but every time I have died, I've been resurrected to the same hatreds and selfishness. Her death was a catalyst, and opened my eye to how truly and utterly loathsome humanity was, and in my talks with those who were ripped from their worlds, that seems to be a constant throughout the worlds, and this place is no different.

You ask what she would want, when she has been taken to paradise to never want for all eternity. She has no wants. All that is left is the filth that remains in the living. Better to let them die now than to compound their sins.

Mixed bag, humans, I'll give you that, but you know they're not all bad--and you know it's not impossible she'll show up here again.

[He's trusting Dracula's clever enough to understand that's not a dubious promise of hope, but a warning.

His smile's sardonic as he regards Dracula, sitting back a little. The man's almost a foil; what if he'd never made those age-old promises to himself? What if he'd refused to learn the hard lessons he'd learned--or which he at least liked to think he'd learned?]

I promise you, I've seen what humans can do... to themselves, to whoever gets in the way, people, innocents, whole species, and I stop it when I can, but... without them, there's no Sarah Jane, no Rose, no Amelia, no Clara, no River--no Lisa. They can be atrocious, 'course they can, atrocious' easy, but they can also be amazing, and you know that, no matter how... furious you may be with them.

I've got a feeling she reminded you of that. ...we need someone to remind us, now and again.

And so you propose I do nothing? I sit in apathy mourning her loss while my adopted daughters had their mother taken from them? That I send the message that this place can do whatever it pleases to them and I will be the obedient stooge, locked in this prison?

Those native to this place aren't even human. They have no souls, they are simply puppets milling about their preordained lives as this place sees fit. You would have me place their well being above those that are real?

Whot, apathy? You think I'm talking t'you right now because I believe in apathy?

[The Doctor gives him a bit of an incredulous look.]

Of course not, you're hurt and you're angry and you should be, obviously, but why d'you think she was with you? Because you were clever? Powerful? Snappy dresser? She obviously believed you can be something better, something more than just a lot of hurt and anger...

[He trails off a moment, peering into the screen.]

...and if she believed it, then I'm inclined to believe it, as well.

So, no, not apathy, never apathy. We do something in their names, something they'd be proud of, something amazing, and that's the sort of monument I mean. She was a doctor, yeah? So do something in her name that a doctor would do--be brave, be kind, try to make things better than when you found them.

You can teach the world to fear and hate your name, or to cherish hers. I know which one I'd choose, if I were in your place.

Whatever I was when I was with her was because of her, not me. I was created in hatred, and have lived in hatred my entire existence. The twenty years with Lisa were the only exceptions.

The world feared and hated the name of Dracula long before I met Lisa. It is why her methods were deemed witchcraft. She learned them from me. She was not just a witch, but the bride of Satan.

I simply showed my world what happens when the one human holding shut the gates of Hell is murdered in the name of their 'God'. I seek to teach the same lesson here.

Created in hatred, sounds impressive, but I promise you I've seen things that hate like you wouldn't believe, and I can say that because for you, there was an exception. Don't you see what that means?

[He pauses a second rhetorically to let it sink in.]

It means you've got a choice, like I said before. Sure, it took someone amazing like Lisa to make you see it, but you still have what she gave you, and no matter how furious you might be, I don't think you really want to throw her gift away. Doesn't mean it'll be easy, or that it won't hurt, but we owe them that much, at least, even when they're not with us anymore, especially when they're not, when they can't remind us, can't tell us we're going wrong.

So, let's be honest with ourselves, shall we? We're not really talking about teaching anyone anything--teaching is hopeful, and it places the student before the teacher. It's not even about revenge, you're cleverer than to be so sloppy picking your targets that you'd really conflate anyone here with the people responsible for her fate. I think we both know what it's about: that misery loves company, and that there are things we don't like to face. But Lisa did something exceptional, and I'd hate to see you express your grief by erasing it just because it makes you uncomfortable.

[The Doctor deliberately isn't saying exactly what it is, the better to get Dracula to think about it. A declaration's way less insidious than an idea you outline and prompt the other party to flesh out himself.]

What I have are two girls, scared and motherless. If we are going to take this line of reasoning, Lisa would want them to feel safe in their own homes, and we are already targets of humanity's wrath simply by virtue of our teeth. I seek to set an example that they are off limits and that I will tear down all that seek to harm them.

[There is truth to the 'misery loves company' angle, but at the same time all he can hear are the Chaotic whispers of death and murder in his ears.]

I appreciate what you are trying to do, but I'm afraid you are barking up the wrong tree.

Whot? No, sorry, I thought you just said you planned to declare war to keep the children safe, but I'm certain you wouldn't actually say something that stupid and mean it. You start a war, that creates sides where there were none, and it puts children on one of those sides. A thousand years I've traveled across billions of years of time among more galaxies than you can count, and I can tell you no child has ever been made safer because someone started a war.

[He's clearly beyond exasperated, and pauses just a moment to rub his face before he continues.]

You're the only one who can decide if you're doing this, but make certain you understand what you're actually doing. You're not talking about a warning or revenge, you're talking about forcing everyone else here to protect the people they care about from you, and let me tell you from experience, anyone close to you will get swept up in it and they'll be the subject not of prejudice but personal resentment afterward, something that burns a lot hotter and isn't so easy to correct.

...I'll do what I can to keep them safe, whatever happens, all my friends will, but if you do this, we both know it's going to get out of hand, and neither of us can make promises about what happens then.

The lines in the sand have already been drawn, long before any of us came to this place. They are vilified and hated as I am simply for being what they are. A choice they had no control over. To the humans, they should've offered themselves up for execution, and their continued attempts to simply live are an affront. We live because we fight. And there is no safer vampire than one surrounded by bloodshed.

[He pauses for a moment, swirling his wine glass of blood idly as he listens.]

You underestimate me and my abilities, as well as my intent. I have no plans on containing what I plan to unleash. However, my defenses will keep me and mine safe from it.

You could try to change all that, we could, we can help them learn to be better, if we have the strength to be.

[The Doctor sighs exasperatedly at that last part, shaking his head, and he smiles ruefully in answer. Why does it always seem to come down to silly things like pride? The special irony doesn't escape him, either, although he's pretty sure that won't be too fruitful to bring up, at the moment.]

You realize, you follow through on that, I'll have no choice but to stop you.

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