[ 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 But before those fingers are withdrawn, Alucard reaches over to put a gentle hand on Trevor's shoulder and squeeze once.]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. ]
[That's a fair point, and Alucard doesn't try to argue it. He settles for taking out the bone that's in his hair (rude, Sypha to which there's only an even ruder laugh).
At the comment regarding the wagon, Alucard's eyes go over to see what Trevor's on about and...flinches. Yikes, that is a sad and sorry looking thing, even in the dark of the night.]
I'll be fine come morning. If there's a real issue, I'll find some way to keep myself on one of the horses while I rest. Trusting that wagon with a person seems ill-advised at best.
I should have realized there'd be a problem finding one on short notice in the middle of nowhere.
[ In Gresit, coming across a wagon and horses whose owner would no longer be using them was easy enough, with so many dead or seeking shelter in the city with no intentions of leaving its walls. Coming back to Wallachia, they'd first stopped in a port town frequented by merchants, and so a wagon was a fairly normal thing to just arrive in need of. Less so a fairly normal town in the middle of France. They're lucky that they have this one, terrible as it is. ]
Well, hopefully it'll only have to hold together for a few days.
There were about ten other things you were also attending to at the time.
[Which was all to say don't worry about it, and in the end, there were worse problems than a suspect cart. There had been no issue with the spell and Alucard had arrived whole. All their equipment was with them. The first trial would be getting to the estate, the second would be entering it. All other things were footnotes.
That night, it is Alucard who falls asleep first, his face pressed to Sypha's side as the three pass the time. This is normal too, Sypha's stories filling the air until the rough concept of bedtime and now watch begins trickling into their heads. The spring nights still have a chill to them, and there is fortune that the sky is clear for the night.
[ Sypha falls asleep mid sentence, just like she always does, curled tightly around Alucard with a thick blanket wrapped around them, mumbling the last few words into his hair before falling silent. It's okay, she's told that story before. He already knows how it goes. And he begins his watch.
He watches the two of them, mostly. Chests rising and falling in the pale light. Sypha's short, curly hair moving softly with each of Alucard's breaths. He does actually attempt to wake her after the first four hours but when her response is to make half-awake complaints about the cold and bury herself further into Alucard's arms, he just throws another blanket over the two of them and lets them sleep. ]
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cryptsleeper) wrote2018-11-10 11:26 pm
no subject
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.
no subject
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.
no subject
[ 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. ]
no subject
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.
no subject
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.
no subject
[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.]
no subject
[ 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. ]
no subject
[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.]
no subject
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.
no subject
[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.]
no subject
[ 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. ]
no subject
At the comment regarding the wagon, Alucard's eyes go over to see what Trevor's on about and...flinches. Yikes, that is a sad and sorry looking thing, even in the dark of the night.]
I'll be fine come morning. If there's a real issue, I'll find some way to keep myself on one of the horses while I rest. Trusting that wagon with a person seems ill-advised at best.
no subject
[ In Gresit, coming across a wagon and horses whose owner would no longer be using them was easy enough, with so many dead or seeking shelter in the city with no intentions of leaving its walls. Coming back to Wallachia, they'd first stopped in a port town frequented by merchants, and so a wagon was a fairly normal thing to just arrive in need of. Less so a fairly normal town in the middle of France. They're lucky that they have this one, terrible as it is. ]
Well, hopefully it'll only have to hold together for a few days.
no subject
[Which was all to say don't worry about it, and in the end, there were worse problems than a suspect cart. There had been no issue with the spell and Alucard had arrived whole. All their equipment was with them. The first trial would be getting to the estate, the second would be entering it. All other things were footnotes.
That night, it is Alucard who falls asleep first, his face pressed to Sypha's side as the three pass the time. This is normal too, Sypha's stories filling the air until the rough concept of bedtime and now watch begins trickling into their heads. The spring nights still have a chill to them, and there is fortune that the sky is clear for the night.
Full moon. Good for watching.]
no subject
He watches the two of them, mostly. Chests rising and falling in the pale light. Sypha's short, curly hair moving softly with each of Alucard's breaths. He does actually attempt to wake her after the first four hours but when her response is to make half-awake complaints about the cold and bury herself further into Alucard's arms, he just throws another blanket over the two of them and lets them sleep. ]