Look, maybe I thought that they'd look nicer on the outside. If I end up taking full watch the tonight, I'll let you and Sypha take watch tomorrow. Fair?
Flattery, in this minute, gets you absolutely no where but exiled to the carpet for extreme stupidity for defending things you patently know to be false.
[That kiss is much too brief, but Trevor moves before Alucard can try and force that issue. Too slow too late.]
Last I checked she was in the kitchen triple checking all the provisions. If she's not there, then my assumption is she's gathering a last minute bag from the bedroom. All the other equipment's here.
[ Sypha arrives first, after he leaves to find her, with Trevor in tow. Carrying both of the two books she couldn't choose between, of course. She's trying very hard not to seem too excited that they're finally heading out again, the circumstances surrounding it being what they are, but she's doing an absolutely terrible job. Trevor adds the books to whichever bags can fit them and then just watches fondly as she hugs Alucard as tightly as if they were leaving for a few months again.
In the mirror lies the distant outskirts of a town about two days' ride from the Trantoul estate. It's not the closest, which means a longer journey but also means that if something is in the estate, their arrival is less likely to set off alarms. ]
Daresay my spoken French is best. [ Literally the only language that he might speak better than Alucard or Sypha. And he still can't swear in it. ] Sypha stays on the outskirts with the supplies, I'll find horses for us. Are we to expect you in four hours, or four hours after sunset?
[That hug farewell is returned in kind. The top of Sypha's head is showered in kisses, because if this all goes to shit, they'll be apart for longer and will regret not doing the old good-byes.]
Four hours exactly. Perhaps an extra half hour if packing the mirror proves to be a greater difficulty.
[He had checked to make sure it was easily put into a trunk, Sypha had enchanted the thing to be certain, but they now all had to account for error. The trunk was the only think traveling with Alucard, all other bags were being passed through the mirror here and now.
Alucard's eyes remain on the location shown in the mirror. He's pensive, arms folded across his chest.]
[ Sypha goes first, watching for anyone who might witness them. Trevor starts work on bringing supplies through. It's quick work, with the mirror, made awkward only by the fact that only so much can go through it at once. ]
Five hours. After four, we make camp. After five we- do something. I don't know yet.
[ His goodbye isn't as overly fond and excited as Sypha's. He reaches out, drawing the hair away from one side of Alucard's face with a hand and tucking it behind his ear and then trailing his fingertips down the vampire's neck until he breaks the touch. ]
Don't make us improvise. We'll do something stupid.
[Aside from that very first time, good-byes of any sort have always been tense. Tinged with the concern of well, improvising, made worse after the specter of Carmilla. Even if this is just a few hours, that's there.]
I know you'll do something stupid. So I'll be there, if only to prevent that.
[Alucard's smile is faint and a little wistful at Trevor's touch. It's not Sypha's farewell. Something like that wouldn't suit. But before those fingers are withdrawn, Alucard reaches over to put a gentle hand on Trevor's shoulder and squeeze once.]
[ And that's it. He's pretty shitty at goodbyes and he's never really felt the need to improve.
Locating a pair of horses is easy enough, even if one of them has seen better days. A wagon is harder, but eventually there's someone willing to part with a rickety old thing for any price he can get. It's got maybe one journey in it before it's good for nothing but firewood and there's no way all three of them can ride in it along with the supplies, but hopefully one journey will be enough and he doesn't care that much about needing to walk.
Legs grow back, after all.
The topic of conversation as they travel is whether the horses need new names. Sypha thinks they do, because it takes her only two attempts to call the older horse by the name it was given, 'Useless', to feel like she's being unkind to it. Trevor disagrees, as the foremost victim of being given new names by Sypha. The set up camp at sunset and the conversation continues as Trevor skins a pair of rabbits and Sypha sets about helping him cook them. And then, partway through the meal, they realize four hours have passed.
The conversation ends at that realization, as they both eat in silence and wait. ]
[They're gone. The mirror closes behind them, and Alucard sets about packing it into the trunk he and Sypha have created to ensure it can travel whole and undisturbed. It is essential to so many things right now, least of all being the security of home.
Four hours let him put into place the final pieces of safety measures designed to protect castle and Hold. They blend into the forest. They will blare in fury if anything approaches, even birds. (Beyond the local corvids, nothing comes this way.) All is set. All shall be well.
Or if it isn't, they can get back quickly and do what needs to be done.
All the security takes an hour. The next three are dedicated to the spell that Sypha helped modify from Dracula's journals so that Alucard can travel as quickly as he can without leaving the mirror behind. It is all quiet concentration and too much intensity, traveling like a branch of lightening snaking across the sky. Stop at a point for only a moment, then onward, onward, onward until arriving. (There was another spell, but it involved fire. No.)
Light engulfs. The concentration it demands is almost agony, and there are flashes of countrysides Alucard does not know. Rivers. Fleeting things, all until there are woods, there is the smell of food and...
...and Trevor and Sypha.
He walks over to the fire, the dignity and grace undercut by slightly wobbly legs. The mirror's trunk is slung over his back.]
[ Lightning strikes. Right in the middle of their camp. ]
The fuck?!
[ Trevor scrambles away from it as Sypha stands, apparently overjoyed that god just tried to fucking kill them. But then Alucard is there and her arms are around his shoulders and that whole arrangement seems awfully unsteady.
So he stands and moves to Alucard's side, putting an arm around his back and under that trunk to take both of their weights before the pair of them topple over. ]
[Apparently no. No one agreed whose job it was to tell Trevor exactly how the spell worked because there was too much excitement over the spell worked!
Either way, Alucard looks just as pleased as Sypha is about the success of this, even as he leans into Trevor for support.]
Miscommunication, it seems.
[And also Sypha still has arms around him, so it's the weirdest walking trio to ever grace the Kingdom of France.]
[ It's not the first time today that someone has said that, is it? He leans down to lift Alucard and the trunk. It's a little awkward, with Sypha still hanging from Alucard's shoulders, but he brings the two of them over to where she was sitting before Alucard decided to be dramatic at them. ]
Rabbit stew. There's enough left for you. Unfortunately, because Sypha made it.
[ He's still chuckling, even when Sypha tosses a rabbit bone at his head. ]
I blame the basis of the spell. Would you have preferred we used the springing forth from the ground option?
[But he's being lifted at this point, and there's no point in remotely fighting any of this. The fire's warm, he has all his limbs (because those don't grow back), and once on the ground, the trunk is put aside.
But then the person responsible for dinner is revealed, and Alucard's nose wrinkles.]
I travel a continent in just a few hours, and this is how I am rewarded for it.
[ Alucard does not get a rabbit bone thrown at him. Which is terribly unfair. ]
I'd have been happy to cook, but-
[ Sypha huffs and insists that she will not be skinning and cutting up rabbits. And since neither of them will let the other do all of the work, there's really only one configuration that works here. Trevor hunts and butchers, Sypha cooks. ]
It's a wonder we ever leave home, when this is what there is to eat out here. But we have you here now, so at least we won't be living on this for the next season.
These parts aren't bad for hunting, and we don't know how long we'll be on the road. No sense using it if we don't need to.
[ Sorry, Alucard. Even after four years, Trevor's still not entirely accustomed to the concept of knowing when the next meal will come. At least not accustomed enough to think of even plentiful supplies as anything less than for emergencies.
He just laughs at the rabbit bone now tangled in Alucard's hair. ]
You going to be stable enough on your feet after a night's sleep to walk or drive the horses? The wagon can carry maybe whoever's leading the horses. If they're not me.
[ He climbed in there once or twice while loading the thing, and it's a miracle that it survived that. ]
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cryptsleeper) wrote2018-11-10 11:26 pm
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[ Excuse you they were both always like this. It just never came up on the way to Dracula because Alucard barely needed sleep at all. ]
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Look, maybe I thought that they'd look nicer on the outside. If I end up taking full watch the tonight, I'll let you and Sypha take watch tomorrow. Fair?
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[But the offer is...that's fine. And Alucard relents.]
Very well, that's fair.
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Maybe it is. Good a defense as any against being disemboweled. Once your guts are out, they can't get any more out.
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[How does he share a bed with this.]
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[ IS THIS BULLYING? IS THIS FLIRTING? It's probably both. ]
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Flattery, in this minute, gets you absolutely no where but exiled to the carpet for extreme stupidity for defending things you patently know to be false.
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[ And he leans in close to kiss Alucard's cheek and whisper- ]
And I'm taking full watch tonight, so you can't exile me anywhere.
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Fine, but this matter isn't done.
[No, it's done, he just refuses to relent.]
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[ They're fine. They're going to be fine. That's what all of this means. He kisses once more before he pulls back, on the lips this time. ]
Prepare the mirror, then. I'll fetch Sypha and then you can be rid of me for a few hours.
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Last I checked she was in the kitchen triple checking all the provisions. If she's not there, then my assumption is she's gathering a last minute bag from the bedroom. All the other equipment's here.
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In the mirror lies the distant outskirts of a town about two days' ride from the Trantoul estate. It's not the closest, which means a longer journey but also means that if something is in the estate, their arrival is less likely to set off alarms. ]
Daresay my spoken French is best. [ Literally the only language that he might speak better than Alucard or Sypha. And he still can't swear in it. ] Sypha stays on the outskirts with the supplies, I'll find horses for us. Are we to expect you in four hours, or four hours after sunset?
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Four hours exactly. Perhaps an extra half hour if packing the mirror proves to be a greater difficulty.
[He had checked to make sure it was easily put into a trunk, Sypha had enchanted the thing to be certain, but they now all had to account for error. The trunk was the only think traveling with Alucard, all other bags were being passed through the mirror here and now.
Alucard's eyes remain on the location shown in the mirror. He's pensive, arms folded across his chest.]
Go. I'll be there soon.
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Five hours. After four, we make camp. After five we- do something. I don't know yet.
[ His goodbye isn't as overly fond and excited as Sypha's. He reaches out, drawing the hair away from one side of Alucard's face with a hand and tucking it behind his ear and then trailing his fingertips down the vampire's neck until he breaks the touch. ]
Don't make us improvise. We'll do something stupid.
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I know you'll do something stupid. So I'll be there, if only to prevent that.
[Alucard's smile is faint and a little wistful at Trevor's touch. It's not Sypha's farewell. Something like that wouldn't suit. But before those fingers are withdrawn, Alucard reaches over to put a gentle hand on Trevor's shoulder and squeeze once.]
Until then.
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[ And that's it. He's pretty shitty at goodbyes and he's never really felt the need to improve.
Locating a pair of horses is easy enough, even if one of them has seen better days. A wagon is harder, but eventually there's someone willing to part with a rickety old thing for any price he can get. It's got maybe one journey in it before it's good for nothing but firewood and there's no way all three of them can ride in it along with the supplies, but hopefully one journey will be enough and he doesn't care that much about needing to walk.
Legs grow back, after all.
The topic of conversation as they travel is whether the horses need new names. Sypha thinks they do, because it takes her only two attempts to call the older horse by the name it was given, 'Useless', to feel like she's being unkind to it. Trevor disagrees, as the foremost victim of being given new names by Sypha. The set up camp at sunset and the conversation continues as Trevor skins a pair of rabbits and Sypha sets about helping him cook them. And then, partway through the meal, they realize four hours have passed.
The conversation ends at that realization, as they both eat in silence and wait. ]
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Four hours let him put into place the final pieces of safety measures designed to protect castle and Hold. They blend into the forest. They will blare in fury if anything approaches, even birds. (Beyond the local corvids, nothing comes this way.) All is set. All shall be well.
Or if it isn't, they can get back quickly and do what needs to be done.
All the security takes an hour. The next three are dedicated to the spell that Sypha helped modify from Dracula's journals so that Alucard can travel as quickly as he can without leaving the mirror behind. It is all quiet concentration and too much intensity, traveling like a branch of lightening snaking across the sky. Stop at a point for only a moment, then onward, onward, onward until arriving. (There was another spell, but it involved fire. No.)
Light engulfs. The concentration it demands is almost agony, and there are flashes of countrysides Alucard does not know. Rivers. Fleeting things, all until there are woods, there is the smell of food and...
...and Trevor and Sypha.
He walks over to the fire, the dignity and grace undercut by slightly wobbly legs. The mirror's trunk is slung over his back.]
I seem to be whole.
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The fuck?!
[ Trevor scrambles away from it as Sypha stands, apparently overjoyed that god just tried to fucking kill them. But then Alucard is there and her arms are around his shoulders and that whole arrangement seems awfully unsteady.
So he stands and moves to Alucard's side, putting an arm around his back and under that trunk to take both of their weights before the pair of them topple over. ]
Shit, you could have warned me.
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[Apparently no. No one agreed whose job it was to tell Trevor exactly how the spell worked because there was too much excitement over the spell worked!
Either way, Alucard looks just as pleased as Sypha is about the success of this, even as he leans into Trevor for support.]
Miscommunication, it seems.
[And also Sypha still has arms around him, so it's the weirdest walking trio to ever grace the Kingdom of France.]
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[ It's not the first time today that someone has said that, is it? He leans down to lift Alucard and the trunk. It's a little awkward, with Sypha still hanging from Alucard's shoulders, but he brings the two of them over to where she was sitting before Alucard decided to be dramatic at them. ]
Rabbit stew. There's enough left for you. Unfortunately, because Sypha made it.
[ He's still chuckling, even when Sypha tosses a rabbit bone at his head. ]
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[But he's being lifted at this point, and there's no point in remotely fighting any of this. The fire's warm, he has all his limbs (because those don't grow back), and once on the ground, the trunk is put aside.
But then the person responsible for dinner is revealed, and Alucard's nose wrinkles.]
I travel a continent in just a few hours, and this is how I am rewarded for it.
[Unfortunately hunger wins out on this one.]
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I'd have been happy to cook, but-
[ Sypha huffs and insists that she will not be skinning and cutting up rabbits. And since neither of them will let the other do all of the work, there's really only one configuration that works here. Trevor hunts and butchers, Sypha cooks. ]
It's a wonder we ever leave home, when this is what there is to eat out here. But we have you here now, so at least we won't be living on this for the next season.
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[The part about not skinning rabbits gets ignore because that's just a debate no one is having tonight.]
Also, this is why you two got too much food upon every single return. I knew things were dire.
[And now he gets the rabbit bone thrown at him. Worth it.]
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[ Sorry, Alucard. Even after four years, Trevor's still not entirely accustomed to the concept of knowing when the next meal will come. At least not accustomed enough to think of even plentiful supplies as anything less than for emergencies.
He just laughs at the rabbit bone now tangled in Alucard's hair. ]
You going to be stable enough on your feet after a night's sleep to walk or drive the horses? The wagon can carry maybe whoever's leading the horses. If they're not me.
[ He climbed in there once or twice while loading the thing, and it's a miracle that it survived that. ]
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