[ He tilts his head, trying to consider how to explain hunting best. ]
From knowing that the monster has been hurting things and are scared of being hurt themselves, in Leon's hunts. And from chasing them. And from when they almost escape, and they think that they've gone unpunished, but you catch them anyway. And the meat. And from grinding their bones into meal and seeing the people they hurt picking flowers grown from their bodies. Or carving them into flutes and turning them into music.
[ As he speaks, his wings flick at the thought of it, eyes too bright and grin too wide. ]
[Okay, not as helpful as he thought. Alucard sighs, casting a side glance back to the speaker. They're better with words, aren't they? He's failing here, and he can feel himself failing. It's an unpleasant feeling.]
Doing all of of those things are choices you make. Choices that you make because they benefit you or give you pleasure in some way. They're also choices that have risks involved in them, because you could get hurt on a hunt. Or maybe someone will see you who shouldn't. But you make those choices all the same.
Where you go between hunts, those are choices to. Your will, your whim.
I don't even know if I want a husband. Or a wife. Or anyone. I need to learn those things in my own time, and being declared someone else's husband denies me that.
[Those words are automatic and accidental, but in them there's honesty. The messy kind that isn't careful and thought out, the approach that needs to be done with the fae.
But it is too late. The words have been said, and Alucard knows he must own them.]
You...you can't think of me as a given. Or as yours already, or husband, or any other preconcieved notion that you've built up based on what, meeting me three times over seven years? That is the first part of this. Think of me as you think of the people here. Individuals you're meeting. Getting to know. Working alongside with.
[ HE'S NOT SCARED OF YOUR DAD OKAY????? Even if he probably ought to be. He nods, wrapping himself up tighter until he's just a pair of half-grown antlers poking out of a bundle of velvety wings and fluff. ]
Talking later. Tired.
[ Sypha ruffles what she can reach of his collar in sympathy on her way to sit with Alucard to make sure he is okay and offer awkward, awkward apologies for her caravan containing an unexpected fairy. ]
I will talk to him later. See that he understands.
[He does feel bad, seeing the fae close up in on himself like this. It does suggest that there's some understanding in him, but it doesn't feel good. Alucard offers a very soft I'm sorry before he stands up and withdraws, giving Trevor precious space. He picks up the cold iron and pockets it.
Emotions are hard and cruel. Alucard knows that, and being the one to inflict that sort of harm hurts too. When they're far enough away, he inclines his head, accepting the apology and everything.]
Thank you. For that, and for your help. If anything changes with regards to murmurings of witches, please contact me as soon as you're able. Likewise, if there's a failure in recovery, you know where I am.
[ News of witches comes sooner than any of them would have liked. It's only a month before Alucard sees Trevor again. The speakers are not in tow, still at least a week's ride away, and the unconscious woman in his arms is not one of their number. The smell of smoke - thankfully smoke alone, and not charred flesh, is thick on both of them.
He can, at least, see the clinic. Crossing the iron gate into the garden, passing all the wards intended to protect the clinic from him, specifically, is another matter entirely. He makes it about halfway up the path before the cold and numbness becomes too much to stand. Once he falls, he throws pebbles at the door to try to get attention and then, once he loses the ability to throw them far enough, takes to trying to edges closer to it, inch by inch, putting his wings between the patient and the ground to keep from dragging her along it. ]
[Lisa is not at home. She is attending another patient in town, a man who is doubtlessly dying of cancer and needs ways to dull the pain until his last breath passes. Dracula is likewise elsewhere, as seven years ago a panther attacked his son under the guise of the fae, and she knows she has done the lord of all vampires wrong. Her attempts to remain hidden are not so much that as a game of cat and mouse, and tonight she has played a weak hand.
So Alucard is alone when Trevor passes through the iron gates of his mother's clinic and their smaller family home, and he leaves his cold iron behind the moment he looks out the window and sees another woman in Trevor's arms. He's out the door in a moment, and his instructions are what might be expected of a doctor's son. He doesn't have her education, but Alucard has been around his mother long enough to understand certain needs.]
Lay her down on the grass. Support her head to make sure she has an airway clear.
[Alucard is crouching besides the proper spot.]
Tell me what happened.
[All of his words are command, fueled by intent. Not to deal with Trevor, but to address the situation at hand for the patient's sake. The stench of smoke gives a few suggestions though, and Alucard hates it. He doesn't recall how to deal with smoke inhalation, not off the top of his head..]
[ It's difficult to move at all in a place so heavily warded against him, but he has orders. This isn't a question of whether he can do it, only that he must. He moves the woman onto the grass, putting his hands beneath her head to support it. ]
She breathed in smoke. [ He answers before he realises what he's doing. ] It made her throat- too small. The speakers couldn't stop to treat her, and my sister's medicine won't work.
[ The smoke was put there by the church. Fairy magic is struggling to budge it. ]
Okay. [He breathes out.] Okay. I'm not equipped to deal with this, but the doctor who lives here is.
[Doctor. Not his mother.
Alucard swears softly, and with that he moves his forearms under the accused witch, careful as he lifts her into his arms. He has to go get her. That'll be the best way to move forward. With that, he looks to Trevor.]
Go to the forest outside of town. I'll meet you at daybreak and apprise you of the situation. You were right to bring her here.
[ Speaking is- difficult, within the wards, when not instructed to. He nods, pulling himself up to his knees and slowly, steadily pushing himself back from the clinic. By now, he's starting to leave a trail of dead moths behind him, which is new and upsetting. He can feel his own antlers in the wards, and if Alucard hadn't already explained the way things were, perhaps that in itself would be enough to communicate even to him how unwelcome he is at this building.
Once he reaches the gate - thankfully he left it open and doesn't have to touch the iron of it again - he is gone in a (rather too small) cloud of moths.
At daybreak, the forest is quiet. About nine tenths of Trevor is there. His wings end abruptly in ragged edges, one of his hands is missing two fingers and one of his eyes isn't blinking and is a pearly white instead of blue. His clothes hang in a way that suggests a chunk of his chest is absent. It'll heal with time, but he can no more walk through the wards unharmed than Alucard could walk through molten silver. ]
[Alucard doesn't watch Trevor goes. He runs into the clinic with the woman in his arms, places her with enough supports on her head and neck to ensure that she will be able to breathe, and then departs. Vampire speed is not something he dares use in civilization unless he must, and now is one of the situations that demand it.
He finds his mother tending to a dying man. After a terse discussion, that care becomes Alucard's charge, and she runs back to the clinic as quickly as her own legs can carry her. The wind has already blown away the corpses of dead moths.
The man does not make it through the night. Alucard returns to his mother's side at three in the morning, exchanging the bad news for the good. The woman will endure, but she will need a new home. If those moths on the lawn were anything to go by, we may end up giving her this one Lisa says, because Dracula is nothing if not predictable.
It is slightly before dawn that Alucard finds Trevor. He's tired, and it shows in the slump of his shoulders and the fact he has his hair up in the messiest bun. His eyes regard Trevor, and he cringes slightly. His father's magic has always been powerful, but the effect of this is disturbing to behold.]
She'll be fine, but she can't return to her home. The cost will be her life if she does.
[ It is a good thing that Lisa's book was published anonymously, they'll learn, when the woman is well enough to speak. Her copy of it, and her attempts to teach herself to deliver children, was the decisive piece of evidence at the short trial.
Trevor nods, and when he speaks his tone is careful. ]
The Speakers sent me ahead. They'll be a week, yet. They have news. About the burning.
[ Kind of stating the obvious, there. It would be kind of weird if he'd brought a witch trial victim and didn't have news. ]
I- think so. [ He looks down at his hand, opening and closing the fingers that are present. ] I'm not sure. This is new. You really didn't want me there, did you?
[ He sounds a little put out, by that. But not as hurt as he was when they last spoke. And not at all, thankfully, anything like one would expect of an insulted fairy. ]
My father is extremely protective of our family, and a skilled magician in addition to many, many other talents. All of that was his work and his reaction. It is my understanding is that he...[Alucard doesn't know the full of it. His father has only let hints slip out.] He's had run ins before, and fears losing me fiercely.
[Alucard cringes as he looks at Trevor's hand. His father's work has always been a thing of cruelty when it wanted to be, and this is a warning more than anything else.]
A few towns over at least, if you can manage that. Masking your scent would afford you greater protection.
If you'd like my father to murder you or worse, then by all means, stay.
[Alucard knows very well what the consequences of Trevor's remaining in the town would be. His father's never been a man known for subtle behavior, and of late he has been on edge for other reasons.
It means he isn't teasing back. He isn't being comforting. Just honest.]
Like I said. If you can return to the speakers, that would be best.
[ In truth, he seems more dejected about his teasing being shot down than the damage done by the wards. The weak smile is gone almost instantly. He looks back at his hand to avoid looking at Alucard when he speaks. ]
There’s no sense in going to them, if I can’t be here. They’re coming here.
[ He returns his hand to his side, but doesn’t look up from the spot in the air where it was. ]
Compromise. [Alucard doesn't know why this is what has finally made the fae deflate as he has, but there's scant hope that the next few words might help. The speakers, at least the one who's truly working with him, they seem to be good for the fae.
Dwelling on why isn't something Alucard has the luxury of time to indulge in at the moment.]
Go back to them until you're a day out from here. Then they can go and come back to you as is safe for everyone. No wards and my father will be ignorant.
[ He doesn’t want to go back to the speakers. Not like this, at least. It’s embarrassing, to have missing body parts, and he’s coming to care more about what Sypha thinks of him than he does most people. But Alucard is asking him to, and trying to do human interaction isn’t working. Maybe just following instructions will be better. ]
I’ll try. [ A long, awkward pause. ]...Thank you for helping her.
[ He nods, and then he is gone. It’s only after he’s become moths that he remembers that people traditionally say goodbye instead of just vanishing when the conversation seems done. The moths themselves don’t seem to be in great condition, some of them flying in odd ways, a couple even dropping out of the air even now. But as far as methods of getting around go it’s either this or walking.
Sypha arrives a little over a week later, out of breath, having made the journey quickly ahead of her caravan just to demand to know why the fairy is missing so many parts. ]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
From knowing that the monster has been hurting things and are scared of being hurt themselves, in Leon's hunts. And from chasing them. And from when they almost escape, and they think that they've gone unpunished, but you catch them anyway. And the meat. And from grinding their bones into meal and seeing the people they hurt picking flowers grown from their bodies. Or carving them into flutes and turning them into music.
[ As he speaks, his wings flick at the thought of it, eyes too bright and grin too wide. ]
no subject
Doing all of of those things are choices you make. Choices that you make because they benefit you or give you pleasure in some way. They're also choices that have risks involved in them, because you could get hurt on a hunt. Or maybe someone will see you who shouldn't. But you make those choices all the same.
Where you go between hunts, those are choices to. Your will, your whim.
Why would you deny that to others?
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Is there a better way? [ He asks eventually, cautiously. ] To make you not go away and find a different husband? I don't want that to happen.
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[Those words are automatic and accidental, but in them there's honesty. The messy kind that isn't careful and thought out, the approach that needs to be done with the fae.
But it is too late. The words have been said, and Alucard knows he must own them.]
You...you can't think of me as a given. Or as yours already, or husband, or any other preconcieved notion that you've built up based on what, meeting me three times over seven years? That is the first part of this. Think of me as you think of the people here. Individuals you're meeting. Getting to know. Working alongside with.
I understand this hurts.
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And there is nothing I can give you to change that?
[ It's pointless to ask. He knows it is. But making deals is what his kind does. ]
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[A single word, all too firm.]
Will is important. Mine is equal and as great as yours. Let us begin there, and see where things unfold. Who knows where the future goes from here.
[There is a pause, then a softer, more apologetic tone.]
And believe me when I say this? This is better than what would have been the fall out of doing things your way.
[Alucard 200% knows his father would start shit with the fae to get his son back. He'd rather not be Helen of House Tepes, thank you.]
no subject
Talking later. Tired.
[ Sypha ruffles what she can reach of his collar in sympathy on her way to sit with Alucard to make sure he is okay and offer awkward, awkward apologies for her caravan containing an unexpected fairy. ]
I will talk to him later. See that he understands.
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Emotions are hard and cruel. Alucard knows that, and being the one to inflict that sort of harm hurts too. When they're far enough away, he inclines his head, accepting the apology and everything.]
Thank you. For that, and for your help. If anything changes with regards to murmurings of witches, please contact me as soon as you're able. Likewise, if there's a failure in recovery, you know where I am.
no subject
He can, at least, see the clinic. Crossing the iron gate into the garden, passing all the wards intended to protect the clinic from him, specifically, is another matter entirely. He makes it about halfway up the path before the cold and numbness becomes too much to stand. Once he falls, he throws pebbles at the door to try to get attention and then, once he loses the ability to throw them far enough, takes to trying to edges closer to it, inch by inch, putting his wings between the patient and the ground to keep from dragging her along it. ]
no subject
So Alucard is alone when Trevor passes through the iron gates of his mother's clinic and their smaller family home, and he leaves his cold iron behind the moment he looks out the window and sees another woman in Trevor's arms. He's out the door in a moment, and his instructions are what might be expected of a doctor's son. He doesn't have her education, but Alucard has been around his mother long enough to understand certain needs.]
Lay her down on the grass. Support her head to make sure she has an airway clear.
[Alucard is crouching besides the proper spot.]
Tell me what happened.
[All of his words are command, fueled by intent. Not to deal with Trevor, but to address the situation at hand for the patient's sake. The stench of smoke gives a few suggestions though, and Alucard hates it. He doesn't recall how to deal with smoke inhalation, not off the top of his head..]
no subject
She breathed in smoke. [ He answers before he realises what he's doing. ] It made her throat- too small. The speakers couldn't stop to treat her, and my sister's medicine won't work.
[ The smoke was put there by the church. Fairy magic is struggling to budge it. ]
no subject
[Doctor. Not his mother.
Alucard swears softly, and with that he moves his forearms under the accused witch, careful as he lifts her into his arms. He has to go get her. That'll be the best way to move forward. With that, he looks to Trevor.]
Go to the forest outside of town. I'll meet you at daybreak and apprise you of the situation. You were right to bring her here.
no subject
Once he reaches the gate - thankfully he left it open and doesn't have to touch the iron of it again - he is gone in a (rather too small) cloud of moths.
At daybreak, the forest is quiet. About nine tenths of Trevor is there. His wings end abruptly in ragged edges, one of his hands is missing two fingers and one of his eyes isn't blinking and is a pearly white instead of blue. His clothes hang in a way that suggests a chunk of his chest is absent. It'll heal with time, but he can no more walk through the wards unharmed than Alucard could walk through molten silver. ]
Is she alive?
no subject
He finds his mother tending to a dying man. After a terse discussion, that care becomes Alucard's charge, and she runs back to the clinic as quickly as her own legs can carry her. The wind has already blown away the corpses of dead moths.
The man does not make it through the night. Alucard returns to his mother's side at three in the morning, exchanging the bad news for the good. The woman will endure, but she will need a new home. If those moths on the lawn were anything to go by, we may end up giving her this one Lisa says, because Dracula is nothing if not predictable.
It is slightly before dawn that Alucard finds Trevor. He's tired, and it shows in the slump of his shoulders and the fact he has his hair up in the messiest bun. His eyes regard Trevor, and he cringes slightly. His father's magic has always been powerful, but the effect of this is disturbing to behold.]
She'll be fine, but she can't return to her home. The cost will be her life if she does.
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Trevor nods, and when he speaks his tone is careful. ]
The Speakers sent me ahead. They'll be a week, yet. They have news. About the burning.
[ Kind of stating the obvious, there. It would be kind of weird if he'd brought a witch trial victim and didn't have news. ]
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(There is a quiet concern on the wuestion, all born of the fae's current statem)
I cannot vouch for your safety if you remaon here.
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[ He sounds a little put out, by that. But not as hurt as he was when they last spoke. And not at all, thankfully, anything like one would expect of an insulted fairy. ]
How far do you want me to go?
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[Alucard cringes as he looks at Trevor's hand. His father's work has always been a thing of cruelty when it wanted to be, and this is a warning more than anything else.]
A few towns over at least, if you can manage that. Masking your scent would afford you greater protection.
no subject
So you want me to- go somewhere safe, so a bad thing doesn’t happen.
[ He does understand that this is a different, non cage situation. But it’s close enough, at least in his eyes, to tease. ]
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[Alucard knows very well what the consequences of Trevor's remaining in the town would be. His father's never been a man known for subtle behavior, and of late he has been on edge for other reasons.
It means he isn't teasing back. He isn't being comforting. Just honest.]
Like I said. If you can return to the speakers, that would be best.
no subject
There’s no sense in going to them, if I can’t be here. They’re coming here.
[ He returns his hand to his side, but doesn’t look up from the spot in the air where it was. ]
I’ll move on. Tell her I’ll find them when I can.
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Dwelling on why isn't something Alucard has the luxury of time to indulge in at the moment.]
Go back to them until you're a day out from here. Then they can go and come back to you as is safe for everyone. No wards and my father will be ignorant.
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I’ll try. [ A long, awkward pause. ]...Thank you for helping her.
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[And that isn't an instruction. It's a request, one that has real concern. With that, Alucard nods, and he pulls his coat tighter around himself.]
It is the very least we could do. We'll look after her. Promise.
[He is sincere. He is so tired.]
Speaking of, it's likely my turn to do just that so the doctor can rest.
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Sypha arrives a little over a week later, out of breath, having made the journey quickly ahead of her caravan just to demand to know why the fairy is missing so many parts. ]
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