(It hits and even Alucard jumps because it truly has been so close. With the bishop on the ground, with him muttering of witchcraft, Alucard takes a few steps towards the man, perhaps too boldm)
Witchcraft? That you survived at all seems closer to the mercy of God.
[ The crowd murmurs. The guards who were approaching Alucard stop. It seems that nobody, really, knows what to do. The Tension is useful, though, giving Sypha time to leave the building and get a head start on leaving. Once she's a little way away, one of the moths flies by Alucard's ear. Trevor doesn't have a way to speak to him, like this, and so he has to just hope that Alucard understands the message. She's safe.
The crowd doesn't disperse, but nor does anyone move toward Alucard anymore. Even the bishop has fallen mostly silent, as someone runs into the square with a local apothecary in tow. ]
[Alucard does note the moth as it goes by, and he doesn’t know how to signal to it properly. All he can do is maintain his presence in the situation.
There’s a risk to it, that much he is aware of. But there’s the apothecary. There’s a murmur of faint heartbeat and then there is a correction. He’s dead.
Dead by an act of God. Alucard draws himself up to his fullest, his most quasi-arrogant state, and his finger lands on the man who looks as if he is the second in charge, if the man’s spot on the little scaffold is anything to go by.]
Do better by your flock than encouraging only fear.
[It’s a risk, leaving now. Departing with his back to the crowd, striding towards the city gates. If they all fall upon him, then there will be worse consequences. To bank on shock, it isn’t wise, but it’s the only card Alucard can play.]
[ They don't. A few follow him, try to speak with him, but even those disperse before too long. Sypha waits beyond the town's walls, sitting with the things they brought with them and Trevor's moth box. She's shaken, hands clenching and unclenching around handfuls of her robes.
Trevor reforms just as Alucard arrives, speaking before he can. ]
The medicine man was seeing to him, when we left.
[ Was covering his body, would be the full truth. Lies are difficult for his kind, but leaving out information is not. She nods, staring at her sandals. ]
Medicine is far more advanced than many expect. We may live in hope that such judgement would come with a deep re-evaluation in one's life and choices.
[Alucard only nods in agreement with Trevor.]
We need to take care with our own departure. I cannot be seen with a Speaker that I was supposedly chasing not several hours before.
[His eyes go to the woods, and then he settles on an area that looks particularly deep.]
Regroup in two hours then. You'll be safe, that much has become apparent to me.
[The fae's protective. That's stating the obvious, and Alucard has to fall behind. Go west, find a place to change.
Dawn arrives in full, and with it, there is a bat retreating to the forest.]
[ The forest is better suited to Trevor than the city is, and he is a little more comfortable there. A little, because his speaker is still shaking and the vampire doesn't seem to trust her because of her association with him.
She gives in to exhaustion, after a while, physical and mental and emotional, and lets him carry her along with their things. When he stops, in the deepest part of the woods, he props her against a tree. They're still there when Alucard arrives, Trevor back to one eye watching over a slumbering Sypha. ]
[Alucard has been a bat for a few hours now. Of all his forms, it's the one that goes unnoticed. As a wolf, he's big and fluffy and dangerous. As a man, he's a little too striking. Like this, he's tiny and unobstrusive and that'll have to be that.
He approaches the two as a person though, having taken a little bit of time to pull his hair back and up off his neck. The forest's thickness means that there are tree branches that snap and snag in his hair, and that is also a gold mine for someone that knows how to track.
There's a clearing of his throat when he enters the space they've carved out for themselves. This feels close to intruding on something more intimate.]
Will you be able to meet up with her caravan from here?
They've moved on. It'd take us more than a week to catch up with them. We'll go a few towns on, rest until these are ready.
[ He motions to the box of bugs. Soon, he'll have his wings back. Then he'll be able to take Sypha to her people, no matter where they are. To anywhere she wants to go. It'll take as long to wait for the moths to finish changing as it will to catch up the normal, human way.
As he speaks, he doesn't look at Alucard. Only at Sypha, exhausted by all of this. The next is- it would be accusatory if it were less awkward. ]
[It's a sentence that while it searches for words, is said with total and complete sincerity. They are ideal for each other. Sypha's a practical saint, and she knows words better than most fae might.
The question takes Alucard by surprise though. He blinks once, then tilts his head.]
She told me not to offer you food, but you didn't want it from her either. And- you don't want to be near her.
[ He frowns. Alucard disliking him hurts, but he's starting to understand it. Him disliking Sypha, though- ]
She's not going to take you away or keep you anywhere. And she's not going to let me do it. You shouldn't- [ He can't demand Alucard feel anything, even if it's something as normal as wanting to be around Sypha. ] -she's trying. You should at least tell her that you don't want her there. She deserves that much.
That wasn't my inte...(the vampire trails off, and his face is one of true embarrasment for his behavior.) I suppose my intent doesn't matter if that is how it is being read. All I thought I was doing was holding myself apart so that you two did not have to concern yourselves with me any more than needed.
[Alucard's tone is firm enough to not invite contradictions. His arms are folded across his chest, and he considers everything carefully for a moment.]
She's...unique, even from what I know of the Speakers. How you came to meet is no where as important as the fact that you both seem happy in each other's presence. I'm glad for you both. Such meetings are always miracles.
[He's be lying if he said that there wasn't a touch of his own parent's story in that. It would be an outright lie to say he wasn't relieved for it as well. Finally, Alucard's eyes settle on Trevor.]
If, in the course of our work over the past few days, I have hurt you further, I am in fact very sorry. I did not intend it, and to have caused it regardless brings me shame. If you'd rather me write an apology to her, so that you're without my presence from here on...
[ He's trying to word something, and it's difficult. ]
-when we meet people, they're either hurting people or being hurt. And the ones who are hurting people, we hunt. And the ones that are hurting, they want to be safe. More than anything else. I didn't know-
[ He's only ever met monsters and their victims before. People who need to die and people desperate for safety. ]
-the speakers don't want to be safe, even when they're being hurt. And they don't want the people hurting them hunted. That's- the same as you?
[Alucard is quiet, and he considers what Trevor's really saying here.]
Your interaction with this world has been so focused on justice and suffering that you miss the little in between moments. And that hurting and being hurt are not the defining parts of being human - only a facet. Speakers are selfless in a way that a great number of people aren't but. [There's something else here too.]
You and Sypha don't always speak of such things, do you? Do you just talk, or enjoy the quiet together?
I didn't know there were humans who didn't need to be safe. [ And then, awkwardly- ] I am sorry. I won't take you away anywhere.
[ He looks up at that, finally meeting Alucard's eyes for the first time since before coming to the clinic. He doesn't understand the significance of the question, but he understands that there is a significance. ]
She likes to tell me stories about humans. She says I need to know them.
[Alucard opens his mouth to respond to that very first part, but oh, that's never the point. He nods.] Thank you for saying as such. I know that words are bonds for your kind. Forgive me if accepting it is....difficult, please.
[It will never be accepted by Dracula. Alucard's own eyes are apprehensive, but there's understanding in them too. That Trevor apologized is a massive thing. That he said those words, that's even bigger.]
She doesn't like that I hurt you. She is- scared that you are still hurt. And she worries it must be lonely, to be the only one of something. And she thinks you are very handsome. And she worries that she might have hurt you, as well, by staying with me.
[ ...okay one of those might have been unnecessary but Sypha did you really expect a fairy to keep secrets. ]
Six more years. The deal was that I stay with her and her people until the next hunt.
[He says the words softly, and there's a lot of things going on in that statement. There's fondness, there's a hint of embarrassment, there's still the confusion over why any of it matters at all to Sypha when she has far more important things to focus on.
Six yeahs, huh?]
And would you want to stay with her even after the deal is done?
I don't have a reason to stay with her anymore, and I would miss home and my sisters and their humans. But I think- I would want to stay where she is anyway. To be hers.
[ Trevor if you turn this into wanting Sypha to put you in a cage then everyone's gonna kinkshame you. ]
I suspect she will. Let you, I mean. Stay and go between places when you need to.
[Oh this is 200% kink shaming the Belmont.
But in all of this, it's very clear that Alucard doesn't fit with this configuration. As it should be, he thinks. No awkward feelings, no threat of his father.]
If you want to rest as well, go ahead. I'll stay for a while more.
Stay until she wakes up, at least? She'd want to hear it from you, that you're not upset with her. She wouldn't believe me.
[ Because he can't lie, but he's perfectly capable of being wrong about things, and she knows that. But with that he's moths again, some fluttering to rest in Sypha's hair and collar but most settling on the tree above her. Naptime. ]
Alucard sighs, and he settles on top of a tree stump that's a few feet over from Sypha. She's asleep. Trevor's asleep. He isn't, and he's going to fix that when he returns home. (Being stuck inside for much of the winter, he took a great many long naps.)
This is being on the outside looking in. That much the vampire knows because he has done it all of his life. But there's a new element in it, the part where there were feelings involved not towards the fae, but for the Speaker.
Doesn't matter now, does it? And that's for the better. It's safer for everyone involved too, because Dracula isn't going to react to Alucard coming home after a job well done and no other strings attached.
Unless this nightmare keeps up, he likely won't see either of them again. Also safer for everyone involved.]
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Witchcraft? That you survived at all seems closer to the mercy of God.
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The crowd doesn't disperse, but nor does anyone move toward Alucard anymore. Even the bishop has fallen mostly silent, as someone runs into the square with a local apothecary in tow. ]
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There’s a risk to it, that much he is aware of. But there’s the apothecary. There’s a murmur of faint heartbeat and then there is a correction. He’s dead.
Dead by an act of God. Alucard draws himself up to his fullest, his most quasi-arrogant state, and his finger lands on the man who looks as if he is the second in charge, if the man’s spot on the little scaffold is anything to go by.]
Do better by your flock than encouraging only fear.
[It’s a risk, leaving now. Departing with his back to the crowd, striding towards the city gates. If they all fall upon him, then there will be worse consequences. To bank on shock, it isn’t wise, but it’s the only card Alucard can play.]
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Trevor reforms just as Alucard arrives, speaking before he can. ]
The medicine man was seeing to him, when we left.
[ Was covering his body, would be the full truth. Lies are difficult for his kind, but leaving out information is not. She nods, staring at her sandals. ]
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[Alucard only nods in agreement with Trevor.]
We need to take care with our own departure. I cannot be seen with a Speaker that I was supposedly chasing not several hours before.
[His eyes go to the woods, and then he settles on an area that looks particularly deep.]
Regroup in two hours then. You'll be safe, that much has become apparent to me.
[The fae's protective. That's stating the obvious, and Alucard has to fall behind. Go west, find a place to change.
Dawn arrives in full, and with it, there is a bat retreating to the forest.]
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She gives in to exhaustion, after a while, physical and mental and emotional, and lets him carry her along with their things. When he stops, in the deepest part of the woods, he props her against a tree. They're still there when Alucard arrives, Trevor back to one eye watching over a slumbering Sypha. ]
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He approaches the two as a person though, having taken a little bit of time to pull his hair back and up off his neck. The forest's thickness means that there are tree branches that snap and snag in his hair, and that is also a gold mine for someone that knows how to track.
There's a clearing of his throat when he enters the space they've carved out for themselves. This feels close to intruding on something more intimate.]
Will you be able to meet up with her caravan from here?
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They've moved on. It'd take us more than a week to catch up with them. We'll go a few towns on, rest until these are ready.
[ He motions to the box of bugs. Soon, he'll have his wings back. Then he'll be able to take Sypha to her people, no matter where they are. To anywhere she wants to go. It'll take as long to wait for the moths to finish changing as it will to catch up the normal, human way.
As he speaks, he doesn't look at Alucard. Only at Sypha, exhausted by all of this. The next is- it would be accusatory if it were less awkward. ]
Why don't you trust her?
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[It's a sentence that while it searches for words, is said with total and complete sincerity. They are ideal for each other. Sypha's a practical saint, and she knows words better than most fae might.
The question takes Alucard by surprise though. He blinks once, then tilts his head.]
Is that the impression I've been giving?
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[ He frowns. Alucard disliking him hurts, but he's starting to understand it. Him disliking Sypha, though- ]
She's not going to take you away or keep you anywhere. And she's not going to let me do it. You shouldn't- [ He can't demand Alucard feel anything, even if it's something as normal as wanting to be around Sypha. ] -she's trying. You should at least tell her that you don't want her there. She deserves that much.
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I owe you both apologies then.
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[ He sits, looking over at her. ]
I- [ He scrunches his face, looking for the words. ] -we don't run into humans like her often. Or like you.
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[Alucard's tone is firm enough to not invite contradictions. His arms are folded across his chest, and he considers everything carefully for a moment.]
She's...unique, even from what I know of the Speakers. How you came to meet is no where as important as the fact that you both seem happy in each other's presence. I'm glad for you both. Such meetings are always miracles.
[He's be lying if he said that there wasn't a touch of his own parent's story in that. It would be an outright lie to say he wasn't relieved for it as well. Finally, Alucard's eyes settle on Trevor.]
If, in the course of our work over the past few days, I have hurt you further, I am in fact very sorry. I did not intend it, and to have caused it regardless brings me shame. If you'd rather me write an apology to her, so that you're without my presence from here on...
[Melodramatic fuck.]
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[ He's trying to word something, and it's difficult. ]
-when we meet people, they're either hurting people or being hurt. And the ones who are hurting people, we hunt. And the ones that are hurting, they want to be safe. More than anything else. I didn't know-
[ He's only ever met monsters and their victims before. People who need to die and people desperate for safety. ]
-the speakers don't want to be safe, even when they're being hurt. And they don't want the people hurting them hunted. That's- the same as you?
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[Alucard is quiet, and he considers what Trevor's really saying here.]
Your interaction with this world has been so focused on justice and suffering that you miss the little in between moments. And that hurting and being hurt are not the defining parts of being human - only a facet. Speakers are selfless in a way that a great number of people aren't but. [There's something else here too.]
You and Sypha don't always speak of such things, do you? Do you just talk, or enjoy the quiet together?
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[ He looks up at that, finally meeting Alucard's eyes for the first time since before coming to the clinic. He doesn't understand the significance of the question, but he understands that there is a significance. ]
She likes to tell me stories about humans. She says I need to know them.
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[It will never be accepted by Dracula. Alucard's own eyes are apprehensive, but there's understanding in them too. That Trevor apologized is a massive thing. That he said those words, that's even bigger.]
She's right. And you're happy, listening?
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-she cares about you. Worries about you. I didn’t want for you not to trust her, just because i am here.
[ And the answer to that question comes immediately. ]
Happier than anything.
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[The vampire goes still for a second. He doesn't know why the next words come out of his mouth.]
Why....?
[Why does she care at all.
Easier to focus on Trevor.]
Good. I am sure it will remain that way for a long time to come.
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[ ...okay one of those might have been unnecessary but Sypha did you really expect a fairy to keep secrets. ]
Six more years. The deal was that I stay with her and her people until the next hunt.
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[He says the words softly, and there's a lot of things going on in that statement. There's fondness, there's a hint of embarrassment, there's still the confusion over why any of it matters at all to Sypha when she has far more important things to focus on.
Six yeahs, huh?]
And would you want to stay with her even after the deal is done?
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I don't have a reason to stay with her anymore, and I would miss home and my sisters and their humans. But I think- I would want to stay where she is anyway. To be hers.
[ Trevor if you turn this into wanting Sypha to put you in a cage then everyone's gonna kinkshame you. ]
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[Oh this is 200% kink shaming the Belmont.
But in all of this, it's very clear that Alucard doesn't fit with this configuration. As it should be, he thinks. No awkward feelings, no threat of his father.]
If you want to rest as well, go ahead. I'll stay for a while more.
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[ Because he can't lie, but he's perfectly capable of being wrong about things, and she knows that. But with that he's moths again, some fluttering to rest in Sypha's hair and collar but most settling on the tree above her. Naptime. ]
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Alucard sighs, and he settles on top of a tree stump that's a few feet over from Sypha. She's asleep. Trevor's asleep. He isn't, and he's going to fix that when he returns home. (Being stuck inside for much of the winter, he took a great many long naps.)
This is being on the outside looking in. That much the vampire knows because he has done it all of his life. But there's a new element in it, the part where there were feelings involved not towards the fae, but for the Speaker.
Doesn't matter now, does it? And that's for the better. It's safer for everyone involved too, because Dracula isn't going to react to Alucard coming home after a job well done and no other strings attached.
Unless this nightmare keeps up, he likely won't see either of them again. Also safer for everyone involved.]
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