[He lets out a soft sigh, physically steeling himself.]
Right. You should know what an atom is... well. When you split one, it releases energy. Sometimes it's a little, and sometimes it's a lot - it depends on the element. If you fill a bomb with radioactive material and then set it to explode and split those atoms, you can release a huge amount of energy.
Do that over a city... and you can kill a huge amount of people. Even now they still don't know how many died directly from the bomb, because there was widespread structural damage. And right near the blast zone, some people were simply... vaporized. The first bomb in Hiroshima killed about twenty thousand soldiers... and between seventy and a hundred twenty six thousand civilians, including the injuries and sickness after the first few weeks. In Nagasaki there were between thirty nine and eighty thousand killed.
... But the long term damage was much worse. Cancer rates spiked - especially in children - in addition to birth defects. Radiation sickness was widespread - and deaths from those are absolutely agonizing. Not to mention that a good portion of the cities were destroyed. All in all it was a... an awful thing.
[He's familiar with how victors' histories will downplay deaths. The range of those numbers is dizzying. There's a heavy pause while the color drains almost completely from Jonathan's face.]
How could they - how could they justify that?
[He's from a few months before the incendiary raids on Tokyo began in earnest, too, after all. March Tenth is months away. He doesn't have a frame of reference for "the good guys" killing and leaving homeless hundreds of thousands of civilians. Then he freezes, some of the things Naoya said finally snapping horribly into place.]
You were there, too, weren't you. My - I'm sorry. I know I keep saying that, but....
[He is helpless in the face of that scale of atrocity.]
... I was. Abel - or a person who inherited some of his essence, since his soul basically shattered when he was killed - was my uncle that life. He shielded me from the blast, but died from falling debris. I lasted... eight or nine months? Considering how I was relatively close, it was fairly impressive.
[Anyway... the other question.]
They've justified it in a number of ways. Do any of them really matter, though? People always find ways to be more and more horrific.
[He takes a deep breath, in the manner of someone about to begin telling a story they've heard many, many times.]
So we don't know which came first, the Castle or Dracula. What we do know is that the Castle is alive, and a creature of chaos. That description came straight from the son of its master. It's never reappeared with the same interior twice, though the layout is always roughly the same. When its master is defeated, it... the exterior usually partially collapses, sometimes completely. Knowing what we do now, I think it's safe to say that's the chaos creature leaving the way a snake wiggles out of an old skin.
I don't know where to start talking about the one I've seen myself. It's not a normal manifestation, there are monsters the old stories definitely didn't describe, and with Brauner in charge it's... he's running his own power through it to control it.
[He's not quite bristling - after all, he's used to people recognizing the book.]
We're not sure if he's resurrected or not, Brauner's got the Castle's power so bound up with his own that for all we know he could be sealed off somewhere. As to the Harkers... who d'you think I'm named for?
[He heaves a sigh. He's not going to touch that "generic" remark, wouldn't even if he didn't have the kind of post-cry headache he hasn't had in years starting to clang around behind his eyes.]
Brauner is... we aren't totally sure. He was a painter when he was human, we know that much... the way he's got the Castle contained is running power through pieces of his work. He's taking its power for himself. He thinks of Dracula as a failure, since he's never managed to conquer humanity... he thinks he can do better.
... Ah, one of those types. So he's some sort of demonic mage or some sort? Do you have anyone searching for his paintings? Destroying those sounds like it would cut him off...
"Or some sort", yeah. Rumors were that he got himself turned on purpose, or did it to himself... and yeah, my partner and I were working on that. Not destroying, but neutralizing them, she'd match her power to the... I guess you'd call it current? Frequency? The way the paintings were real. We'd go in and fight through to the embodiment of his will in the painting, kill it, and that'd take care of that. Problem is we don't know how many he's got linked in. Could be eight, could be eighty....
Ah, like the Harmonizer. I understand. Somewhat similar to how Kazuya and his friends went inside of Kuzuryu's mind... but heh. Don't give up. Even if it takes forever, there's at least a solution.
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crouching_sin) wrote2018-07-29 02:04 am
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15strangers]
cw: ... nagasaki and hiroshima, cancer, awful things, etc.
[He lets out a soft sigh, physically steeling himself.]
Right. You should know what an atom is... well. When you split one, it releases energy. Sometimes it's a little, and sometimes it's a lot - it depends on the element. If you fill a bomb with radioactive material and then set it to explode and split those atoms, you can release a huge amount of energy.
Do that over a city... and you can kill a huge amount of people. Even now they still don't know how many died directly from the bomb, because there was widespread structural damage. And right near the blast zone, some people were simply... vaporized. The first bomb in Hiroshima killed about twenty thousand soldiers... and between seventy and a hundred twenty six thousand civilians, including the injuries and sickness after the first few weeks. In Nagasaki there were between thirty nine and eighty thousand killed.
... But the long term damage was much worse. Cancer rates spiked - especially in children - in addition to birth defects. Radiation sickness was widespread - and deaths from those are absolutely agonizing. Not to mention that a good portion of the cities were destroyed. All in all it was a... an awful thing.
cw: mass civilian casualties?
How could they - how could they justify that?
[He's from a few months before the incendiary raids on Tokyo began in earnest, too, after all. March Tenth is months away. He doesn't have a frame of reference for "the good guys" killing and leaving homeless hundreds of thousands of civilians. Then he freezes, some of the things Naoya said finally snapping horribly into place.]
You were there, too, weren't you. My - I'm sorry. I know I keep saying that, but....
[He is helpless in the face of that scale of atrocity.]
cw: death mention
[Anyway... the other question.]
They've justified it in a number of ways. Do any of them really matter, though? People always find ways to be more and more horrific.
no subject
"Who needs a Dark Lord when we can do this to ourselves"....
[He shakes his head, eyes clearing.]
I didn't... it was cruel of me to make you answer that, even if I didn't know. I said I'd tell you about the Castle if you did, though, didn't I?
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So we don't know which came first, the Castle or Dracula. What we do know is that the Castle is alive, and a creature of chaos. That description came straight from the son of its master. It's never reappeared with the same interior twice, though the layout is always roughly the same. When its master is defeated, it... the exterior usually partially collapses, sometimes completely. Knowing what we do now, I think it's safe to say that's the chaos creature leaving the way a snake wiggles out of an old skin.
I don't know where to start talking about the one I've seen myself. It's not a normal manifestation, there are monsters the old stories definitely didn't describe, and with Brauner in charge it's... he's running his own power through it to control it.
[He shakes his head.]
Give me somethin' I can focus on to answer?
no subject
Dracula's castle? So he's not dead? No Harker to k -
[He stares at Jonathan for a moment before laughing.]
Of course. Morris. That makes sense.
no subject
[He's not quite bristling - after all, he's used to people recognizing the book.]
We're not sure if he's resurrected or not, Brauner's got the Castle's power so bound up with his own that for all we know he could be sealed off somewhere. As to the Harkers... who d'you think I'm named for?
no subject
In any case, I suppose I should ask... who's Brauner?
no subject
Brauner is... we aren't totally sure. He was a painter when he was human, we know that much... the way he's got the Castle contained is running power through pieces of his work. He's taking its power for himself. He thinks of Dracula as a failure, since he's never managed to conquer humanity... he thinks he can do better.
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
[He makes a noise that's not quite a laugh or a sigh, somewhere between the two.]
Of all the people... but you've been kind to me. Thank you. I just... I wish there was something I could do.
no subject
Unless you have the sort of power that can help beat up the future King of Demons - or God Himself - there's not much you can do.
[He'll... ignore that 'kind' comment.]
no subject
My father did. He didn't pass it on before he passed on. I'm sorry.
no subject
I was being sarcastic, Jonathan. I didn't expect you to. It's fine - there's no need to beat yourself up over it.
... Though what kind of power did he have, out of curiosity?