#nerdlord nolan

[editoress]

When will I commission art of the full Castlevania family including Nolan, the mortal human son who takes after Dracula

[editoress]

Hage, Nolan, Tabia!

Your basement fave is problematic

I cannot stress this enough, plays “Out There” from Hunchback where other people can hear it

tries to host small parties despite the dire need for discretion

will ask invasive questions at his own convenience

Old-Fashioned Loverboy is problematic

occasionally listens to his father’s terrible romance advice

launders money through a casino, never gambles

takes one year to ask if he can hold your hand

Local string bean is problematic

Is she, though??

lets other people boss her around

goes until she crashes, every time

[editoress]

What I learned from this exercise is that Baines is the Chosen One.  Duran is a very close second, but he’s just not as stupid.

[editoress]

Nolan/Adrian - "Must you loom like that while I'm reading?" Jim/Cutter - "Oh, it's far too late for that." Me/Megatron - "You're crying."

“Must you loom like that while I’m reading?” Nolan asked without looking up.

“I don’t loom,” Adrian retorted at once.  “You and Father loom.  I wait patiently.”

Nolan snorted and turned the page.  “And what has you waiting in such a menacing fashion?”

“Tomorrow’s Mother’s birthday.”

The book snapped shut.  Nolan finally looked up, but Adrian was already shaking his head before he could voice the question of gifts.

“Ah,” Nolan said, strained, “we’d better get busy, then.”

*

“Uh, no,” Jim said from halfway up a stack of crates, “I don’t think I need my wisdom teeth out.”

“Oh, it’s far too late for that.”  Cutter whirred menacingly at the bottom of the stack.  “They’ll all have to come out.  Shame.”

Jim scrambled further up.  “My teeth are fine!”  He pulled his feet up out of Cutter’s reach.  “Silver!”

Silver appeared far too quickly and silently for someone of his size.  There was a dishrag in his hands, which he shook at the scene.  “What in blazes is going on in here?”

Cutter shuffled until he was turned around.  “Mister Hawkins,” he intoned, “can’t take a joke.”

*

“You’re crying.”

“I was crying,” Melody corrects fiercely, but even speaking is still a risk.  She clenches a jaw against the tightness in her throat and adds, “I’m done, so just don’t.”

He begins to reach for her, but she dodges back, wide-eyed and angry.  He closes the distance with vicious speed and sharp metal brushes her cheek, interrupting damp tracks of tears.  His voice is thoughtful but otherwise unreadable when he asks, “Do you cry for Cybertron?”

She doesn’t answer.

[editoress]

I’m posting a quick scene of Nolan would have been up to in season two so that maybe I’ll stop talking about his Castlevania AU for at least 24 hours.

There was something uncanny about using the study as a war room.  Nolan could call up the memory of countless nights in this room, with a book in his hands and his father sitting just there before the fire.  But now the paper Nolan carried held battle lines, not sketches, and Dracula’s eyes were dull and distant.

“The raid went perfectly,” Nolan reported.  The strategy had been his.  He’d never had a knack for healing, but in the past months he’d found that in war, he was talented.  He saw resources and reactions in maps and the steps beyond every potential order.  “That was the last of the church’s strongholds.”

“We suffered very few casualties,” Isaac added.  “Our numbers will keep growing.”

“Good,” Dracula replied, but that was all.

Nolan stared at his father and willed him to show the anger that had brought them here.  To show anything.  “Who should we focus on next?”

Dracula waved a hand.  “Whatever you like, Nolan.  They will all die in the end.”

Nolan knew that was the end goal.  Dracula wanted them all dead---not just the corrupt killers, but the people who had let it happen, and the people who had kept Adrian in seclusion, and people who had never even heard of their family.  Bitter as he was, even Nolan wasn’t sure he had enough hatred for all of them.  All the same he said, “Yes.”

When he and Isaac were dismissed, Dracula was still slumped in his chair.  It was inherently wrong to see his brilliant, wry, dignified father watch the fire without stirring.  Nolan closed the door softly behind them and realized that the listlessness didn’t just worry him; it terrified him.

“What will we do next?” Isaac asked.

“I’ll take care of it.”

Isaac’s voice lowered.  “What about Master Dracula?”

Nolan was silent for a while.  He thought about Isaac’s somber declaration that love didn’t exist, and about how real and terrible and vital love truly was.  At last, he said quietly, “I don’t care how many strangers’ lives it takes to bring my father back.  We’ll do it.”

“I understand.”

Nolan would do this and do it well for as long as it took.  He wouldn’t lose both of them.

[editoress]

Actually, I don’t think I ever posted the basis of Nolan’s Castlevania AU here~.

The worst part was knowing that he couldn't have been there.

Even if he had heard in time, even if he had made it to Targoviste before she was gone, no mortal's anger and desperation could have saved her.  Nolan could hold his own.  He had grown up playing and sparring with a dhampir and fighting off superstitious locals; he had to be strong and precise.  But he could not have stopped hundreds of armed people.  He would never have been able to stop it.  He would only have been able to watch, and watch, and watch until she died, if they didn't kill him first.

That didn't stop him from wishing he had been faster.

*

The second hardest part was knowing that his father had hurt Adrian.

His father started explaining before Nolan could begin to ask.  "Adrian could not allow it."  His hand was covered in blood, and he was staring out the window.  "He would have done anything to stop me."

Nolan couldn't sense his brother the way his father could.  His heart, already shredded, ached at the sight of all the blood on the floor.  Not him, too.  But his father's features, though mournful and strained, did not carry the grief of having killed his younger son.

"He will not die," his father said as if reading his thoughts.  "But he will sleep.  It will take him a long time to heal."

"How long?"

"Long enough."

Nolan understood.  He hated it, and he would not have done the same, but he understood.  Nothing they could do to Adrian would hurt him more than making him watch people suffer, even if they deserved it.  He had their mother's gentle heart.  They had grown up believing that Nolan had it, too.

Adrian didn't deserve this.  Neither did he deserve to watch the carnage that would come.  But Nolan—Nolan would watch.

Let his brother sleep.

[editoress]

Castlevania AU---playing around with the idea of Nolan being the elder (mortal) son of Lisa and Vlad.  Turns out?  I love it.

This was just the kind of work Nolan enjoyed losing himself in.

The warmth of the afternoon air strengthened the smell of spices in the workroom.  The only sounds were the various chirps of birds and spring insects, and a periodic rustle as Nolan stripped the leaves from dried herbs.  There were nine more bundles, crisp and waiting, on the table.  After careful consideration, he picked the pestle up and ground the leaves down to make room.

His mother was often too busy for this, for the very same reason that she needed it done.  The surrounding countryside was never short of people who needed healing.  That was not Nolan’s forte, but he could ready the medicine they would need.  Preparation required patience and steady hands, but no superhuman abilities.

Nolan had nearly finished off the bundle when the door slipped open and closed with only a silent flash of sunlight.  Heavy fabric rippled through the air as a cloak was flung aside.

“You don’t have to be so discreet,” Nolan offered without looking up.

“Sunlight may not be fatal,” Adrian retorted, “but it’s far from pleasant.”  He was silent for a moment.  “Mother needs more starflower.”

“Tell her I’m working on it.”  When Adrian didn’t protest, Nolan looked up at him.  “Is it bad?”

Adrian shook his head.  “I believe she’ll be fine.  Mother’s there with her.  She didn’t...”

“Go on,” Nolan said gently.

“She didn’t smell like she was dying,” Adrian allowed stiffly.

“That’s a useful sense for a doctor.”  Nolan emptied the mortar into the waiting packet.  The dried arnic was nothing but a fine powder.  “Here,” he said, and tossed the mortar and pestle both at his brother, who as usual caught them deftly.  “I’ll get the starflower and you can get started.”

Adrian was at the table in a blur of speed.  “For someone who is so proud to not need vampiric powers, you are oddly quick to use mine.”

“You look like you need something to do.”  Nolan gave him a quick smile and went to search the bundles hanging from lines in the windows.

“I sensed she didn’t want me there,” Adrian said very suddenly, almost too softly to be heard.

Nolan paused in his search to eye his brother’s straight posture and slow movements.  “Of course Mother wants you there.  She’s thrilled you want to be a healer.”

“Not Mother,” Adrian amended, “Maria.  The woman she’s tending.”  He set the mortar and pestle down without a sound.  “She fears me.”

Nolan’s brows lowered.  It wasn’t an unusual reaction to either Adrian or their father, but it never went unnoticed.  “Then she deserves bronchitis,” he said icily.  He returned to his search.  “But you and Mother will be gracious enough to help her anyway.”

“Nolan, I don’t blame her.”

“Of course you don’t,” Nolan sighed.  He picked out the starflower and joined his brother at the table.  “You’re Adrian.  You haven’t got an ignoble bone in your body.”

Adrian’s expression almost lightened but didn’t quite.  He began working on stripping and grinding the flowers rather than meeting Nolan’s eye.  “Is it so wrong for them to fear someone more powerful?  To resent someone who will never suffer the way they do?”

“It is if it makes you suffer.”  It was an argument they’d had more than once.  Nolan would have felt better if he weren’t alone in it.  Unfortunately, his greatest ally in this particular fight was away traveling.  “Can you tell when Father will be back?”

“Hmm.”  Adrian closed his eyes.  For a moment his face cleared completely.  Then he looked at Nolan and replied, “In two weeks at most.  He’s on his way home.”  With the slightest of smiles, he added, “He misses us, too.”

Nolan smiled back.  When the starflower was ready, he said, “I can take that out to Mother.”

“No, I’ll go.”  With a single graceful motion, Adrian pulled his cloak back on.  He was going back out to face his ungrateful patients with that immovable immortal air.  “Thank you, Nolan.”

Nolan waved him out.  In two weeks, his father would be back and they could try together to talk some sense into Adrian.

[editoress]

Bit of a space case, but heart in the right place. Loyal to a fault, but sensitive and timid - at least until I get to know the person. Then I’m a riot. I like someone who’s loyal and kind, who isn’t afraid to talk, but is patient when others are silent. Headstrong and funny. I HOPE I DID THIS RIGHT 💙

It’s such a toss-up between Halle and Nolan.  Help me out here—

Nolan is the totally mortal human son of Dracula and Mina.  He’s very aware of the supernatural, but he wants to make his way in the world by his own merit, not by powers beyond the human.  He’s very good at math.  He’s softspoken and intense and very thoughtful.  Almost shy, really, and certainly easily flustered when it comes to flirting.  He cooks and secretly reads romance books.  He runs a half legal financial business.  He would enjoy your thoughtfulness and intelligence.

Halle is the daughter of the story’s villain, so she’s still figuring out how to do good.  She’s a talented (but rarely used) assassin and an even better collector of secrets—but a lot of the secret-gathering ability comes from a very real kindness and willingness to listen to people.  She’s gentle and smiles a lot.  I think you could help her connect that moral journey.