[It's three weeks of investigative work. Of talking to everyone they can about every aspect of this, Trevor to anyone willing to trust a Belmont with the safety of the city's supernatural, Alucard and Sypha to anyone who sees them as the better option. Of going back to scenes of attacks, relying on Trevor's insights and Sypha's magic, Alucard there only to provide theories or string things together when the other two's brains have ached for too long.
There's no pattern at first. Vampire, witch, ghost, everything's had a claim made on it, and that means that it's more likely human. Human enough to know about the city's stranger side, potentially human enough to mingle with them freely. (It's a thing that could cast greater doubt on Sypha. Alucard hates it. Trevor's a non-factor because his surname does all the work.) A small number of people, but they all check out.
So then that leaves the question of self-loathers, which exist, but they are quickly gone through and dismissed. Nothing.
There's quiet one night as the three ponder it all yet again, Alucard sat on the floor of a room they've now reserved for investigation and a makeshift evidence locker, Trevor pacing, Sypha re-reading their notes. It dawns at once. Every attack has involved something blessed. Clergy, then, or those with close ties.
Trevor hates the implication, Alucard snarls out of instinct because what hasn't been touched and destroyed by religion lately, and there's a screeching match into the night. A demand to run the plausibility by the Church Ladies, which is done, and then there's a horrible truth. Rumor only, they warn, but if it is true then...then it's a horrible truth.
Supposedly the murderer of Lisa Tepes has been seen again.
(Alucard keeps it together until they're home. He excuses himself to the basement, and he does not emerge until the next day. He looks like shit. He doesn't speak to either of them, doesn't share a bed with them for five days. Too much is wrapped up in this.)
All that is left is to find the man and put him to rest again. Just as his father did.
So that means being here. Now. On one of the crossroads, because that is where he has been sighted. Strange and frightening in and of itself given what crossroads can mean and do, but Alucard has not had the ability to sit and be thoughtful since this thing was revealed to him. He has been barely contained rage.]
no subject
There's no pattern at first. Vampire, witch, ghost, everything's had a claim made on it, and that means that it's more likely human. Human enough to know about the city's stranger side, potentially human enough to mingle with them freely. (It's a thing that could cast greater doubt on Sypha. Alucard hates it. Trevor's a non-factor because his surname does all the work.) A small number of people, but they all check out.
So then that leaves the question of self-loathers, which exist, but they are quickly gone through and dismissed. Nothing.
There's quiet one night as the three ponder it all yet again, Alucard sat on the floor of a room they've now reserved for investigation and a makeshift evidence locker, Trevor pacing, Sypha re-reading their notes. It dawns at once. Every attack has involved something blessed. Clergy, then, or those with close ties.
Trevor hates the implication, Alucard snarls out of instinct because what hasn't been touched and destroyed by religion lately, and there's a screeching match into the night. A demand to run the plausibility by the Church Ladies, which is done, and then there's a horrible truth. Rumor only, they warn, but if it is true then...then it's a horrible truth.
Supposedly the murderer of Lisa Tepes has been seen again.
(Alucard keeps it together until they're home. He excuses himself to the basement, and he does not emerge until the next day. He looks like shit. He doesn't speak to either of them, doesn't share a bed with them for five days. Too much is wrapped up in this.)
All that is left is to find the man and put him to rest again. Just as his father did.
So that means being here. Now. On one of the crossroads, because that is where he has been sighted. Strange and frightening in and of itself given what crossroads can mean and do, but Alucard has not had the ability to sit and be thoughtful since this thing was revealed to him. He has been barely contained rage.]