[ Find willing donors, and see them repaid in work and protection. Hunt only when these rules are violated.
And if you cannot control your thirst, House Belmont will control it for you.
Sypha is the mediator among them, not Trevor. She navigates her way through dissent with easy grace, while Trevor crushes it. They make an efficient team. There is more work ahead, far more. Pomanders to be crafted for those turned unwillingly who wish to live peacefully but cannot trust their self-control, agreements to be mediated between new vampires and those who might be willing to make some trade to support them, rules about turning to be decided upon and enforced by Styria's hunters, training of those hunters and weeding out those who only want to hurt things-
For now, though, they are on the wagon again, Sypha curled up in the back of it while Trevor leads the horses. ]
Cold again?
[ There's not much point in asking, with the answer that Alucard is unable to give being so very clear. He gathers the reins in one hand, tugging a warm glove from the free one so he can lift it up to his shoulder, using it to block the wind from Alucard. ]
[There's another squeak. One squeak for yes, two for no, three means I'm cold, four for hunger or thirst, five for some other emergency. The cold is terrible, and Alucard's body is far too small to deal with it.
Rather than use the glove as a wind blocker, Alucard crawls into the glove itself, all but burrowing there so that he is both comfortable and safe. It's ideal until they can get into the inn and enjoy an actual bed.
There's whatever the bat version of a sigh is next. He's happy enough.]
[ Not what he intended, but probably more effective. He laughs, bringing the glove down into his lap so he can reach into it just slightly, resting his fingers delicately against Alucard. He's still alternating between being delighted by his tiny husband and terrified of hurting him accidentally, but he's favouring delight at present. ]
[There's a brush of fur against Trevor's fingers. Then that same fur rests there, which means that Alucard's decided to lean against said fingers and try to take advantage of the additional warmth that goes with them.
Not much further gets a soft squeak of yes, in an attempt to acknowledge what Trevor's said.
Home. He wants to be home home, traveling as a person again. Not this.]
[ It isn't much further. Just under an hour, and then Trevor is upending his tiny husband out of the glove and into Sypha's collar with only a medium amount of protesting from Sypha as she wakes very suddenly. That earns him the job of stabling and feeding the horses while she takes Alucard inside where it's warmer.
It's a little later when he enters the room, about to announce his presence but then falling quiet when he spots Sypha on the bed, already asleep again. Everything about his posture softens and he smiles, sitting on his side of the bed and reaching over. A lock of hair has fallen into her mouth and he tugs it free, tucking it behind her ear. It's the sort of very soft gesture he likely wouldn't make were she awake, or if he remembered that Alucard was present and just very very small. ]
Getting everyone to play nice took a lot out of you, hmm?
[Alucard's not happy about being upended so suddenly, but to be safe and warm in Sypha's collar makes up for it and quells all of his distressed, unhappy squeaks. Those melt into softer, happier noises upon being inside and in their room where he can make his presence known.
His Batness is wrapped up in a small blanket that sits on the table beside Sypha's side of the bed, all woolly and made warm. He's watching Sypha for the time being, his own face reflecting a besottedness with Sypha's sleeping form.
[ Oh, right. The husband is in fact here. He forgot about that. He stiffens suddenly, looking away and busying himself with preparing for bed, embarrassed about being caught being in love with his wife. ]
Are you going to stay there for the night? [ He asks, and he trails off at the end a little. It was meant to be ‘are you going to stay there or would you rather be in the bed’, but he remembered at last minute that yes/no questions are probably more convenient right now. ]
Tiny bat husband's response is a silent glare from his little bat bed. There's no easy way to respond to the question, as the answer is "I don't want to."
So instead he settles on the I'm cold squeak, in hope that Trevor will get the damn point.]
[ His shoulders sink again with adoration as he makes his way over to Alucard, lifting the little carefully wrapped package of bat. ]
Bold of you to trust me not to roll over in my sleep.
[ He returns to his side of the bed and climbs into it, laying Alucard down on his chest. Sypha stirs in her sleep, reaching for him, and he moves her always-too-warm hand so it’s resting over the tiny husband. ]
[There is an instant look of relief on the bat's face when Trevor picks the bundle up. Of course he trusts Trevor not to roll over while sleeping, and if that does happen, Alucard can risk changing back for a few minutes in order to put everything to rights before changing back.
He's happy enough when Trevor settles the bat package down on his chest. Sypha's hand though, that's perfection and there is a soft, content noise from the tiny little bat that becomes a chirrup of yes! when Trevor asks.
A bat shouldn't look so content, but there it is. The happiest bat.]
[ He chuckles at - all of it, really, but the happy bat noises are just the icing on the cake. ]
I like you like this. [ And he reaches to scratch Alucard behind the bat-ears, the same way he does when he's a wolf, only much softer and only with one finger. ] You're cute.
[ Reflecting only a little on how his life is kind of bizarre, he rests his other hand over Sypha's and traps Alucard in a tiny, loving, safe hand-and-chest cave. ]
[There's a grumpy noise at the word cute, but it is all mollified with Trevor's touch (as such things always are.) The quickest way to the vampire's heart is through affection, be he a bat, a wolf, or person shaped.
Like this, sleep comes so easy. So simple. There's only the reassuring warmth of Trevor and Sypha, being tucked somewhere tiny and safe, and then there is rest.
Strangely, bat dreams are closer to person dream. Alucard's wolf form, when it does allow for dreams, are simple. Based on hunting, on running, and he sometimes mimes the actions of dreams in his sleep. As a bat, things are as fully developed as ever, and perhaps that is because to be a bat is to be closer to his vampiric heritage.
It would most certainly explain why when he stirs in dreams, it is with Carmilla beside him, admiring a new piece of torture equipment. The pomander is gone from his neck, but it has been replaced with something far crueler and worse.
His father had refined the concept of a breathing apparatus for when the throat was otherwise closed. It involved placing a tube into the wind pipe, allowing for air to flow freely at a lower point. It was clever. Good for surgery, although his mother had never needed to use it. The hard part was sterilization and keeping the site clean.
It doesn't matter in this particular moment. Alucard is a vampire, he cannot get infected. Alucard is a vampire, which means silver burns. Alucard is a vampire, which means that having a breathing tube made out of silver and his mouth sewn shut with that horrible black thread is the height of agony, and Carmilla knows it.
She's talking. Alucard must make it clear that he isn't listening, or that he's struggling, because there's a hand grabbing his chin and pulling him close so that he can listen properly.
The pain can't be that bad, can it? Mm. Perhaps I've overdone it.
[ The blanket is still wrapped around Alucard, meaning that the thrashing about is padded slightly and doesn't wake Sypha. Trevor stirs, though, at the feeling of something crawling across his chest. Fucking rats, probably, not realising that he's not dead enough to eat yet.
Except that he's in a bed rather than a gutter, and the tiny thing moving about on his chest is- ]
Mmph. [ He lifts Sypha's hand up off Alucard, his first thought that they might have put too much pressure on him by mistake. Maybe that he's too warm. It's dark and his eyes are going to take a while to adjust to that so he looks in the vague direction of where Alucard should be. ] Something wrong?
[The worst part is that waking doesn't happen. Not immediately. There is still a tiny bat squirming around in the blanket burrito he's been wrapped in.
In dreams, the next breath is agony, and Carmilla pauses before she says more. She's terribly close to Alucard after all, and he may yet find strength to try and press the piece of silver sticking our of himself against her skin.
But for now that isn't happening, and there's something new to taunt with. It is remarkable that you can manage this much physical pain. I imagine that you'll struggle much more when your pets finally die and you realize how foolish you were not to turn them, just as your father did.
They're words that stop Alucard cold, and Carmilla tuts softly. And it isn't as if the opportunity hasn't presented itself time and again. You've been feeding from the Belmont, after all. One slip of your teeth and you don't need to worry about wretch human life spans. Or is it because you don't actually know how the process works?
There's a wretched moment as Carmilla leans in. As teeth tear into Alucard's neck, perhaps making a point, perhaps making things come to a close, and it doesn't matter. He jolts awake suddenly, the tiny bat no longer on Trevor's chest but Alucard's normal form.
He's wild eyed and trying to sit upright. He's not home. Shit, this isn't home at all, this is her homeland, no wonder the dreams....]
[ He’s trying to unwrap the tiny blanket. Maybe it’s too tight. Maybe it’s keeping him from breathing. Or maybe just too hot. He finally manages to get hold of it and then there’s the sudden impact of the thing on his chest weighing significantly more. It’s hardly a weight that he cannot handle (oh, he has handled it many times before), but it’s still a lot when it’s unexpected. It takes a moment to catch his breath. ]
[Holding still absolutely isn't happening. Not immediately, not until Alucard's sat up in bed, all the blankets now draped around his shoulder, and then realized that he's...
...he's fine. He knows where he is, he doesn't need to have his hand on his throat in order to protect it.]
No. [He breathes out. He can still speak.] Just a dream.
[ He reaches up blindly for Alucard, pawing at air until his hands fall against him and then navigating them to his sides so he can lift him and deposit him between Sypha and himself. Sypha, with her uncanny ability to know when she is needed, attaches to his back immediately, even in her sleep. Trevor strokes a hand through Alucard’s hair. ]
[This isn't their bed, so it isn't made to comfortably accommodate three. But that's fine. Being almost too close feels right. It is needed, that much he knows, and out of instinct the vampire buries his head against Trevor's shoulder. (It does not register that that is where he has been feeding from. Not right now.)
He shakes his head no, then realizes that it's hard to see the gesture in the dark.]
[ He just makes a noise of understanding at first, pulling all of them in closer so they don’t risk either Sypha or himself falling out of the bed. Alucard’s hair brushes against his neck and his heart beats twice as fast, but he manages not to react in any other way. It’s progress. ]
People who never existed really have no right causing so many fucking problems.
No, they don't. But we are where she was never from. Perhaps...
[It's bull. That isn't why Carmilla is back and the vampire knows it. She only ever appears to torment the vampire for his own worst thoughts now, the selfish horrible things that his father would do in another life, or that any other decent vampire would do without hesitation.
Alucard doesn't even realize his hair has brushed against Trevor's neck.]
Doesn't matter. She was there. Sewed my mouth shut.
[ He remembers the sewing, the long gouges down Alucard’s legs, laced through with that foreign twine like a boot might be. It’s enough to cut through his own shortness of breath and the distant sound of cracking.
Even his fucking trauma agrees that Alucard is more important. Awkwardly, because they are working with limited space, he brings a thumb up to Alucard’s lips, brushing it across them. ]
Nothing there. [ And then, because he’s a shit and doesn’t have any reason to believe that not being a shit would help, he smirks. Tries to, at least. It’s badly acted. ] But I could check more thoroughly, if you like.
[There's a part of the vampire that's mortified that they're at this place again. This trauma's not as important as Trevor's, the one that they're still working through. Carmilla, Carmilla is done and dusted. Ancient history by their standards, and yet...
...it's comforting, being together like this. Squished in, warm flesh brushing over his lip. There's a soft noise, faint.]
I think that'd be for the best. Kissing a bat is harder.
[ That’s all the encouragement he needs, so he leans it closer. It’s only a quick kiss - he really, really does not want to risk making Carmilla into a sex thing - but it’s a kiss nonetheless. A real one, not one of the many many tiny kisses to the forehead his bat form has been receiving from Sypha. ]
She never existed. Even if she did, we’d never let her touch you again. You know that, right?
[He murmurs it after the kiss, and this time the vampire's far too in his own head to realize he's pressed his head up against Trevor's neck entirely.]
[ He can hear the cracking now, his breath coming quick and shallow. He can ignore it. He can endure it. Alucard needs him, and he can endure near enough anything if there's a reason for it.
He's been thinking about that a lot lately. About why the feeding seems easier than anything else. It's because there's a purpose to it. Because even if Alucard doesn't need the blood, it's something he can give. And that- feels better than anything else could feel bad.
This is easier still. He endure, and he can curl his arms around Alucard and Sypha both, pulling all of them tightly around their vampire. A wall of adoration (a wall of fragile, short-lived humans) between him and anything that could come close. ]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
cryptsleeper) wrote2018-11-10 11:26 pm
no subject
And if you cannot control your thirst, House Belmont will control it for you.
Sypha is the mediator among them, not Trevor. She navigates her way through dissent with easy grace, while Trevor crushes it. They make an efficient team. There is more work ahead, far more. Pomanders to be crafted for those turned unwillingly who wish to live peacefully but cannot trust their self-control, agreements to be mediated between new vampires and those who might be willing to make some trade to support them, rules about turning to be decided upon and enforced by Styria's hunters, training of those hunters and weeding out those who only want to hurt things-
For now, though, they are on the wagon again, Sypha curled up in the back of it while Trevor leads the horses. ]
Cold again?
[ There's not much point in asking, with the answer that Alucard is unable to give being so very clear. He gathers the reins in one hand, tugging a warm glove from the free one so he can lift it up to his shoulder, using it to block the wind from Alucard. ]
no subject
Rather than use the glove as a wind blocker, Alucard crawls into the glove itself, all but burrowing there so that he is both comfortable and safe. It's ideal until they can get into the inn and enjoy an actual bed.
There's whatever the bat version of a sigh is next. He's happy enough.]
no subject
Not much further now.
no subject
Not much further gets a soft squeak of yes, in an attempt to acknowledge what Trevor's said.
Home. He wants to be home home, traveling as a person again. Not this.]
no subject
It's a little later when he enters the room, about to announce his presence but then falling quiet when he spots Sypha on the bed, already asleep again. Everything about his posture softens and he smiles, sitting on his side of the bed and reaching over. A lock of hair has fallen into her mouth and he tugs it free, tucking it behind her ear. It's the sort of very soft gesture he likely wouldn't make were she awake, or if he remembered that Alucard was present and just very very small. ]
Getting everyone to play nice took a lot out of you, hmm?
no subject
His Batness is wrapped up in a small blanket that sits on the table beside Sypha's side of the bed, all woolly and made warm. He's watching Sypha for the time being, his own face reflecting a besottedness with Sypha's sleeping form.
There's a yes squeak to Trevor's question.]
no subject
Are you going to stay there for the night? [ He asks, and he trails off at the end a little. It was meant to be ‘are you going to stay there or would you rather be in the bed’, but he remembered at last minute that yes/no questions are probably more convenient right now. ]
no subject
Tiny bat husband's response is a silent glare from his little bat bed. There's no easy way to respond to the question, as the answer is "I don't want to."
So instead he settles on the I'm cold squeak, in hope that Trevor will get the damn point.]
no subject
Bold of you to trust me not to roll over in my sleep.
[ He returns to his side of the bed and climbs into it, laying Alucard down on his chest. Sypha stirs in her sleep, reaching for him, and he moves her always-too-warm hand so it’s resting over the tiny husband. ]
Better?
no subject
He's happy enough when Trevor settles the bat package down on his chest. Sypha's hand though, that's perfection and there is a soft, content noise from the tiny little bat that becomes a chirrup of yes! when Trevor asks.
A bat shouldn't look so content, but there it is. The happiest bat.]
no subject
I like you like this. [ And he reaches to scratch Alucard behind the bat-ears, the same way he does when he's a wolf, only much softer and only with one finger. ] You're cute.
[ Reflecting only a little on how his life is kind of bizarre, he rests his other hand over Sypha's and traps Alucard in a tiny, loving, safe hand-and-chest cave. ]
no subject
Like this, sleep comes so easy. So simple. There's only the reassuring warmth of Trevor and Sypha, being tucked somewhere tiny and safe, and then there is rest.
Strangely, bat dreams are closer to person dream. Alucard's wolf form, when it does allow for dreams, are simple. Based on hunting, on running, and he sometimes mimes the actions of dreams in his sleep. As a bat, things are as fully developed as ever, and perhaps that is because to be a bat is to be closer to his vampiric heritage.
It would most certainly explain why when he stirs in dreams, it is with Carmilla beside him, admiring a new piece of torture equipment. The pomander is gone from his neck, but it has been replaced with something far crueler and worse.
His father had refined the concept of a breathing apparatus for when the throat was otherwise closed. It involved placing a tube into the wind pipe, allowing for air to flow freely at a lower point. It was clever. Good for surgery, although his mother had never needed to use it. The hard part was sterilization and keeping the site clean.
It doesn't matter in this particular moment. Alucard is a vampire, he cannot get infected. Alucard is a vampire, which means silver burns. Alucard is a vampire, which means that having a breathing tube made out of silver and his mouth sewn shut with that horrible black thread is the height of agony, and Carmilla knows it.
She's talking. Alucard must make it clear that he isn't listening, or that he's struggling, because there's a hand grabbing his chin and pulling him close so that he can listen properly.
The pain can't be that bad, can it? Mm. Perhaps I've overdone it.
In his sleep, the bat thrashes suddenly.]
no subject
Except that he's in a bed rather than a gutter, and the tiny thing moving about on his chest is- ]
Mmph. [ He lifts Sypha's hand up off Alucard, his first thought that they might have put too much pressure on him by mistake. Maybe that he's too warm. It's dark and his eyes are going to take a while to adjust to that so he looks in the vague direction of where Alucard should be. ] Something wrong?
no subject
In dreams, the next breath is agony, and Carmilla pauses before she says more. She's terribly close to Alucard after all, and he may yet find strength to try and press the piece of silver sticking our of himself against her skin.
But for now that isn't happening, and there's something new to taunt with. It is remarkable that you can manage this much physical pain. I imagine that you'll struggle much more when your pets finally die and you realize how foolish you were not to turn them, just as your father did.
They're words that stop Alucard cold, and Carmilla tuts softly. And it isn't as if the opportunity hasn't presented itself time and again. You've been feeding from the Belmont, after all. One slip of your teeth and you don't need to worry about wretch human life spans. Or is it because you don't actually know how the process works?
There's a wretched moment as Carmilla leans in. As teeth tear into Alucard's neck, perhaps making a point, perhaps making things come to a close, and it doesn't matter. He jolts awake suddenly, the tiny bat no longer on Trevor's chest but Alucard's normal form.
He's wild eyed and trying to sit upright. He's not home. Shit, this isn't home at all, this is her homeland, no wonder the dreams....]
no subject
[ He’s trying to unwrap the tiny blanket. Maybe it’s too tight. Maybe it’s keeping him from breathing. Or maybe just too hot. He finally manages to get hold of it and then there’s the sudden impact of the thing on his chest weighing significantly more. It’s hardly a weight that he cannot handle (oh, he has handled it many times before), but it’s still a lot when it’s unexpected. It takes a moment to catch his breath. ]
Shit. We weren’t suffocating you, were we?
no subject
...he's fine. He knows where he is, he doesn't need to have his hand on his throat in order to protect it.]
No. [He breathes out. He can still speak.] Just a dream.
no subject
[ He reaches up blindly for Alucard, pawing at air until his hands fall against him and then navigating them to his sides so he can lift him and deposit him between Sypha and himself. Sypha, with her uncanny ability to know when she is needed, attaches to his back immediately, even in her sleep. Trevor strokes a hand through Alucard’s hair. ]
Something you have to talk about?
no subject
He shakes his head no, then realizes that it's hard to see the gesture in the dark.]
She came back.
no subject
People who never existed really have no right causing so many fucking problems.
no subject
[It's bull. That isn't why Carmilla is back and the vampire knows it. She only ever appears to torment the vampire for his own worst thoughts now, the selfish horrible things that his father would do in another life, or that any other decent vampire would do without hesitation.
Alucard doesn't even realize his hair has brushed against Trevor's neck.]
Doesn't matter. She was there. Sewed my mouth shut.
no subject
[ He remembers the sewing, the long gouges down Alucard’s legs, laced through with that foreign twine like a boot might be. It’s enough to cut through his own shortness of breath and the distant sound of cracking.
Even his fucking trauma agrees that Alucard is more important. Awkwardly, because they are working with limited space, he brings a thumb up to Alucard’s lips, brushing it across them. ]
Nothing there. [ And then, because he’s a shit and doesn’t have any reason to believe that not being a shit would help, he smirks. Tries to, at least. It’s badly acted. ] But I could check more thoroughly, if you like.
no subject
...it's comforting, being together like this. Squished in, warm flesh brushing over his lip. There's a soft noise, faint.]
I think that'd be for the best. Kissing a bat is harder.
no subject
She never existed. Even if she did, we’d never let her touch you again. You know that, right?
no subject
[He murmurs it after the kiss, and this time the vampire's far too in his own head to realize he's pressed his head up against Trevor's neck entirely.]
She voices everything a vampire ought to do.
no subject
He's been thinking about that a lot lately. About why the feeding seems easier than anything else. It's because there's a purpose to it. Because even if Alucard doesn't need the blood, it's something he can give. And that- feels better than anything else could feel bad.
This is easier still. He endure, and he can curl his arms around Alucard and Sypha both, pulling all of them tightly around their vampire. A wall of adoration (a wall of fragile, short-lived humans) between him and anything that could come close. ]
What ought a vampire do?
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)