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integra finds herself caught,  tangled between some strange sense of poetry,  a certain flair for dramatisation one acquires in the company of vampires .  not a consequence of worry,  [or doubt]  seras had proven herself a survivalist of the highest order,  clinging to existence no matter which hand provides it .  “  you’ve done well━  ”  more so a duality of meaning,  where she to consider life merely the act of a heart beating,  blood pumping beneath the surface of the skin,  flowing through each vein .  a biological process long understood,  so that the human body may yet sustain,  seras’ merely a corpse cursed to never die .

it is how they have come to categorise life,  the scholars & philosophers of the past,  her tutors,  the texts of the helsing family dating back generations of their research into undeath .  a library’s worth of study that fuelled a young mind looking for answers,  personal tragedy as gasoline that burns beneath her skin even now,  an endless fire that will never cease,  without escape .  but would integra be a true heir to the name she should be allowed her own additions,  a new chapter in that research,  her own rewriting of their foundation .  

“  a masterfully executed operation,  reconnaissance in enemy territory worthy of hellsing’s finest .  at ease,  soldier .  ”  blue eyes that pierce any guard,  lids lowered in what could be appreciation .

what little of their legacy remains within walls stripped down over years of rebuilding,  it was left for integra to control .  a simple matter of a guiding hand offering direction,  stern orders delivered with the stomping of a boot that echo down the dusty hallways of the helsing manor .  if seras victoria is to manifest an yet unobserved evolution,  if she is to challenge what has been assumed about the vampire for centuries,  integra will be the first to note it .  “  once you’re fully debriefed you may await your next orders,  until then,  perhaps you’d be interested in some refreshments .  ”

@helsung:    just  as  i  thought:   you’re  alive  after  all.

     she  possesses  no  beating  heart  to  speak  of,   and  her  corpse’s  warmth  has  long  gone  cold.   the  girl’s  eyes  are  her  most  terrifying  feature,   far  beyond  her  unending  maw  or  her  amorphous,   shapeshifting  skin,   for  what  else  could  so  clearly  reflect  the  burning  pits  of  hell,   yet  seem  so  incredibly  hopeful,   all  at  once?   seras’  mouth  falls  open  slightly  in  surprise,   but  the  draculina  quickly  stands  at  attention  to  her  commander’s  words,   a  genuinely  happy  shine  exuding  forth  from  those  crimson  depths.   

        ❝   not  quite.❞     razor-edge  tools  of  destruction  aligning  her  soft  countenance  seem  almost  harmless  if  one  was  blindsided  by  her  heartened  expression.   seras’  mouth  easily  shifts  into  a  smile,   hiding  her  glistening  fangs  like  a  kitten  at  the  milk  dish,   not  a  ruthless  lioness  readying  to  pounce.   knowing  better  of  her  unique  condition,   nobody  in  their  right  mind  would  dare  challenge  that  notion  of  tenderness.   she  inclines  her  head  in  a  gesture  of  respect,   knowing  precisely  what  the  iron  maiden  means.

❝   my  standing  orders  were  not  to  die.   ❞    she  manages  a  pause  for  reflection;   warmth  fades  for  only  an  instant.   truly,   how  alive  are  you,   seras  victoria?   do  the  technicalities  even  matter  at  this  point  in  her  unlife?   she  supposes  that  if  integra  regards  her  as  a  living  creature,   she  will  trust  in  her  judgement  and  become  as  one,   biblical,   spinning  and  burning  eternal  like  a  spirit  in  a  wheel,   raining  hellfire  and  brimstone  down  upon  anyone  who  stands  against  the  humanity  the  hellsing  organization  strives  to  protect.

       regardless,   vampire  stands  unflinching  by  human’s  side:   seras  would  never  hesitate  to  uphold  her  sworn  duty,   to  protect  the  person  who  believes  in  her  strength,   just  as  she  believes  in  her  ideals.   the  two  make  quite  a  breathtaking  pair,   winged  valkyries  upon  the  horizon.   she  closes  her  eyes  contentedly:   this  is  where  she  belongs,   her  true  purpose,   her  home  eternal.    ❝   so  yes,   i’m  alive  and  reporting  back,   sir.   what  are  your  orders?   ❞

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we interrupt this slap fight of a presidential debate with a sertegra WIP

may it give you a serotonin bump

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Parts Unknown: Newfoundland

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Peter Cushing as Prof. Lundgren in The Beast Must Die (1974)

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a hot take for the day is that the hellsing organization wasn’t originally founded for the explicit purpose of hunting vampires & neutralizing supernatural threats to the united kingdom .  professor abraham van helsing, true to his profession, envisioned hellsing as an institution for the purpose of research & study of the supernatural, its first subject being the carcass of count dracula .  only later, after the madness of his discoveries overtook his judgement, did hellsing too become an organization that bend to the will of the crown, theirs greater than abraham’s, using the knowledge gathered by its founder for the purpose of vampire hunting .  as the turn of the century saw the world plunged into war, so too did the hellsing organization shift for the needs of the british state, becoming a private military suited to combat vampiric threats .  it was integrated as part of the united kingdom’s secret society, another pillar of the british aristocracy, the convention of twelve .  its founder was ordained as a knight, given a seat into british politics & shown the crown’s secrecy, & when the wars ended, a generation later, the hellsing organization could hardly revert back to its existence during times of peace .  its existence feels out of place, its war against vampirism manufactured, a relic of a different time, as old fashioned as the convention it leads .

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given how immediately ready & willing the hellsing organization was to offer seras resources & accommodation after her turning, even if integra questioned alucard’s motivations in the offering of vampirism, it wouldn’t surprise me to learn that this was not the first time hellsing has housed vampires that could curb their hunger & offered aid & humane ways to consume the blood of humans ( blood bags presumably stolen donated from local hospitals ) .  in the manga & OVA it’s difficult to really question the organization’s motives in the ruthless dispatch of vampires, as every vampire we encounter besides seras is monstrous & presented as an immediate threat, consistent with depictions of vampires in most related fiction .  however, the gonzo series shows us that vampires like seras do exist, one at least, & while seras is supposed to represent an exception to the rule, a unique case where the curse of vampirism doesn’t drown out one’s humanity ( which i like to imagine explains integra’s fascination, care & trust in seras which immediately replaces her uncertainty from episode 1 in the OVA ), if she exists as a possibility, it is hard to imagine others do not .  hellsing’s infamy among other governmental or religious organizations that tackle the supernatural is its willingness to utilize these forces for themselves, dabble in what is forbidden, extend an open hand to the threats it faces & sometimes, if the wind blows in the right direction, offer a different resolution .

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integra has natural brown hair & dyes it blonde, having visible brown roots that often times extend halfway her calf-length curls

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conceptually, i really like the inversion of integra being a woman who tempts vampires rather than being tempted by them ( at least within the confines of the english dubbed OVA, in the gonzo series she is offered vampirism & the finale implies her acceptance ) .  it’s not executed well, nothing in hellsing really is, but as a subversion of common tropes within vampire media, a young woman drawing a vampire in & offering them the indulgence of her blood is fundamentally a sexy idea .  if it were presented better & a more frequent element of integra’s characterization, i feel like there would be less confusion on her nature, as very little of her actions & demeanor communicate repression, she is a very indulgent woman who finds satisfaction in small displays of power, she requires very little persuasion to stop herself holding anything back .

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will i ever stop drawing integra?

no.

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hellsing NPCs which now exist because of me, jackal & baptise shooting the shit :

hellsing librarian, whom integra terrorizes by forcing him to move every book on british history to the crime section whenever a member of the round table comes to the mansion for a meeting, specifically to piss them off, resulting in the librarian being chewed out & forced to apologize & rearrange everything .  a bit of a pushover & a yes-man, dedicated to his work cataloging the centuries of research on the occult within the hellsing mansion library .  when integra isn’t terrorizing him, they can actually get along, & since integra spent her formative years learning almost everything her family’s records could teach, she helps him as best she can, grading his private work in the meanwhile ;

hellsing psychiatrist, whom performs monthly pscyh-evals on the staff & new hires, making sure they have the mental faculties necessary to work at hellsing & also ensuring that repeat exposure to the horrors dealt with by the organization isn’t affecting the quality of their work & service .  consistently tired & exasperated by the eccentricity of the sorts of people hellsing employs .  makes bets w/ integra on which members of the staff have been sleeping w/ alucard .  probably the most level-headed person on site, i mean, she has to be .  her vice of choice is drinking, to parallel integra’s smoking ;

hellsing guard, one of several, whom seems to conveniently survive every single attack on the hellsing manor no matter how sudden or severe .  his trick is that he always absconds at the first sing of trouble & returns only when the dust has settled .  everyone is aware of this, most frustratingly integra herself, but because she & the rest of the staff are always far too busy to deal with any incoming opposition, they never catch him in the act of fleeing & thus his employers can never prove his mutiny, saving him from ever being fired .  hellsing is always short on guards & they’re always hard to replace ( & thus the pay & benefits are out of this world :) ) .  integra grits her teeth thinking about him .

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20200209

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vojvode‌.

IF IT IS INDEED AN ORDER, then it doesn’t seem to faze him. the only hint he’s heard her at all, in fact, is the peculiar way his gaze begins to shift; the photo to integra and from the corner of an eye. he’s still bent uncomfortably at the waist — hands in his pockets — and yet he doesn’t waver or reposition. stock still besides that awful thrumming one only notices in moments such as these.

he sees no sense in denying any one of her accusations. if integra wants to know something, she’ll know it, and there will never be any stopping her in the pursuit. alucard’s only wish is that he won’t have to spell it out for her, really, and he does feel like it’s a rather workable request.

❝  then i suppose it must be me.  ❞ her deduction skills are no doubt up to snuff. not that it would take much of them to figure this one out, given context, and she knows just about everything, already. if it is alucard, as they both very well know, and he has no recollection of placing himself there——?  

❝   - ———  of  course  it’s  you .   ❞   deep sigh follows her remark ,  the tone of somber practicality .  arms fall to her side ,  fingers dig into her palm ,  forming fists ,  nails threatening skin .  where there was once the softness of a quiet night ,  the harsh edges of the iron maiden dulled by liminal moonlight ,  all is sharpened again .

integra moves away from the desk ,  towards her father’s bed ,  where a little girl ran to hide her tears ,  where everything felt a little less lonely ,  even  if  no  one  was  there .  she takes a photo off a nearby drawer ,  frame held gently between her hands .  it was a picture she must’ve stared at a thousand times ,  her mother mere weeks before her death ,  cradling a baby in her arms ,  wearing a smile integra always wished she could’ve seen in person .  she stares at it once more ,  wondering if this time she would see him somewhere in it ,  darkness looming over them ,  a  memento  mori .

❝   is this an ability of yours we've yet to catalog ?   ❞   or a consequence ,  she thinks ,  of everything they have done to make him into what he is .   they let his blood pool in the foundations of the manor ,  coagulate within its walls ,  wrote their legacy into his skin & used it to pave the halls .  it was no wonder she found him in their memories too ,  they  forced  him  there .

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"Yknow, I could always just bite your wrist or somethin' instead."

❝   don’t  get  ahead  of  yourself ,  police girl .   ❞   it was a suggestion that caused a certain sense of anxiety ,  she trusts seras wouldn’t try something so foolish without first asking ,  yet the question itself that proves another suspicion .   ❝   i believe you’ve read the file on vampirism available to all hellsing staff ,  & are aware a vampire’s bite is enough to spread their poison through our veins .   when i asked you not to bite the hand that feeds ,  i was acting out of self-preservation .   if you’d like a less direct feeding ,  i’d rather start filling up blood bags .   ❞

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sampatii.

✧*｡ ||   a lackidasial twist of his hand, wrist flicks palm faces out. a gesture that reads with the response ‘ naturally. ‘  to her statement. ＂ i come from two very important magical families that should never have had the chance to meet & breed, yet here i am today.

            && unlike the ancient practicers of  times before us, we have had generations to master these spells & teach them forward down. even so, magic comes at a price always it’s never truly easy. even for someone who lives & breathes it as i do.＂

there  was  always  pride  in  a  correct  assumption ,  yet its feeling fares little against to the infinite curiosity with which she beams ,  eyes trained directly on his person ,  laser-focused for the purpose of study .   ❝   then i suppose you’d be willing to share your teachings with another ?  my family has dabbled in magic for generations ,  but ours are of the occult ,  spells drawn in blood meant to seal & bind .  i  wouldn’t  mind  knowing  what  else  is  possible .   ❞

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vojvode‌.

FINALLY, SOMETHING FORCES HIS SMUG FACADE TO FALTER. alucard knows immediately that he’s never seen them before, and not only has he not seen them, but he’d never knowingly been captured in any of them, either. in fact, when these photographs were taken, he was still quite soundly broken and bound, and rotting in that cell. he’d barely even been conscious, let alone pulling pranks.

and what is he supposed to tell her now? that even he wasn’t aware of the extent to which he haunts this place? that her grandfather has damned her, damned them both? soaked the foundations of her ancestral home in so much of his vile blood that it stains even her most treasured memories like some fucking curse? 

she always forgets it was her who’d traded his bloody shackles for a slackened leash.

he’d often had to do this when integra was still a girl. not lie, really, but tell most of a truth. it often saved the both of them an uncomfortable spot of trouble. ❝  no.  ❞ he replies succinctly, off-handedly. no hanging vowels, no uncertainty; just an answer to a question much like any other. ❝  i can’t say that i recall any of these.  ❞ and then it’s time to move swiftly on to another subject. luckily, there’s another figure in that landscape; one very much human, and out pruning the trees. alucard leans toward the image some, like he can’t see as well from where he stands. ❝  is that ms. kaminski? do you know if her daughter ever got that acceptance from UCL?  ❞

she  could  almost  laugh  at  the  banality ,  how blatant an attempt to course their conversation it was .  her vampire was hardly a creature of subtlety ,  yet the poor effort to mask a struck cord was something rarely observed ,  a moment she would almost confuse as human .   ❝   don’t  deflect ,  alucard .   ❞   is a sharp remark ,  it cuts through the cold air carried into the room ,  & integra wonders if it was meant as an order .

he  always  forgets .  for as well as he knows her ,  watching her grow into the woman she is now ,  integra has had the same time to understand him .

❝   if this isn’t another of your pranks ,  then what could it be ?   ❞   hand brushes past the photos ,  the many figures hidden in each ,  the infinite possibilities of a satisfying explanation .  a revenant clouded in shadow to serve as reminder of hellsing’s sin ,  hidden even in memories meant to be happy ?  some pity attempt to frighten his captors ,  a manifestation of suggested freedom ?  perhaps it was a power yet unknown to either ,  an unknowable haunting greater than anything she has seen ?   ❝   you are the only ghost left in this manor ,  hellsing has done well to bury the rest .   ❞

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❝   & yet you make  your  tricks  seem quite simple ,  unlike the ancient practices they’re derived from .   ❞   it’s was a knowing taunt ,  seemingly misinformed as to gain further explanation .  these rites were not the dwelling of the inexperienced ,  & though she has but only read of them ,  she was blessed with a keen sense for further truth .   ❝   have quite some power ,  do  you ?   ❞

✧*｡ ||    ＂ no, magic is far more complicated than just waving my hands & wriggling my fingers.＂ except he’s lying out of irritation. of course it’s that simple, for him at least. // @helsung​

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vojvode.

DESPITE HER ENTIRELY FAULTLESS RATIONALE, he still can’t quite help the mild surprise with which he finds her. he is far more beholden to the past than she is these days — or, perhaps, as she has ever been — and it is, unquestionably, for the better. something he is both acutely aware of and glad for. integra has a power the likes of which a revenant such as alucard could never truly understand; the ability to forge a future for herself. to become something new, to grow. 

why, it’s downright enviable, some might say. but even he knows the difference between remembering the past and wallowing in it, and she has never been one to wallow.

thus, alucard is not concerned.

❝  find anything interesting?  ❞ he asks, and makes no secret of peering over her shoulder. he’s smiling in the way he’s usually wont to do, like all the world’s a show and he’s merely among the crowd. 

eyes  move  away  from  the  shadows  behind  the  door ,  following ,  slow , contemplative ,  as they extend through the room ,  beyond it ,  a convulsing mass overtaking the walls meant to protect from them ,  casting doubt on the legacy which forms them ,  molds them into a shame crawling on her back .  she turns back to the various documents scattered on her father’s desk ,  to the photos among them ,  snapshots of the unknowable void that was everything preceding her birth .  events she can only interpret from the bias of those who lived through them ,  a hundred accounts of some prelapsarian greatness she can only hope to grasp .  the shadows were among the photos as well ,  a dark ,  tall figure hiding behind another door-frame ,  behind the smile of her mother & father .

❝   nothing  i  haven’t  seen  before .   ❞   is her reply ,  continuing this uncharacteristic gentility ,  barely an echo in this room empty of everything but an all consuming past .  she speaks less to alucard as he is now ,  & more so to the figure which haunted hellsing before her time .  she looks at another photo ,  a shot of the manor from outside ,  & spots it among the many windows .  would it not lack all detail ,  integra would think it was laughing at her .  she is no stranger to alucard’s games ,  he likes to haunt this mansion like the ghost he is ,  a remnant of centuries worth of bloodied history ,  seeking levity from his purpose in the startled screaming of her staff .   ❝   although i don’t remember if i ever noticed you in any of these ,  is this your idea of a joke ?   ❞