Not just because that isnt the Belmont he's used to, but because of what's happened. Sypha's done the smart thing in the short term, but she's put herself in a space where neither Trevor nor himself can dare to go.
Alucard's mouth thins, turning into a frown.]
He knows and he's furious.
[Paranoid is more correct, but Alucard knows better than to ever say such a thing.]
Oh. Good. I had been wondering how I would speak to him with the building warded so.
[ Only a Belmont would respond to 'Dracula is SO MAD' with 'good'. ] Are you able to speak with him? One of his own ran with us on our last hunt, imitating our own kind to violate your people's laws. We would have him know that our only quarry is the Cathedral of Arges, so that he might know the traitor for herself should she do so again.
That is my messages heard, then. Save for that he will be welcome to his anger on the day that he would not do the same. But that part seemed unnecessarily combative.
[ Local bunny gives 0 shits about Dracula's anger, but would rather not be rude for no reason. ]
I do not know, yet. If the girl is touched, sanctuary is broken, and we enter the building and do what we must. If she is not, we take the cathedral apart brick by brick, until either she is returned to us or we can enter. I suppose we shall see whether we hunt stone and wood or meaty, bony things tonight. The choice is with the meaty, bony things.
As a rule, Dracula is generally combative. Your patriarch will likely need to put new negotiations in place to deal with whatever the fallout of this is. He's...the reaction is strong tonight.
[Look, Alucard's exhausted but he can't NOT dunk on dad.]
The fae that normally travels with her, he's...I assume the one calling this hunt?
I would ask him his terms myself, but he does like to tear the tongues out of our messengers, and I do rather like myself as I am, whole and unscarred. I shall let my sire bear his wrath, once he wakes. It is what he is fondest of doing.
[ The rabbit-fairy nods. ]
Our brother, yes. Out hunt is small. Four in number, I think, so far as we are ever any number at all. Myself, my sisters and our brother. The cathedral should hold many, many hundreds of humans were they to hold their breath and stand very still on top of one another. But humans tend not to do such things, so I imagine there should be less than a hundred. It would be an insignificant number, were we not concerned with keeping the girl alive.
Mm, sounds like him. [SORRY DAD.] Wait. Has this been approved?
[Does Leon know about this at all?!]
They might expect some kind of rescue effort. Not from fae, but from Sypha's own people. Whatever's done, be careful. It could bring reprisals upon them.
[Alucard sighs.]
It'd be easiest if you could get a message in the building to her first. Tell her the plan, and then focus on removing her from the situation. Maybe...
[No.]
And be careful that it doesn't reek of magic. They'll call her a witch and try to burn her for it.
Oh, not at all. Our sire will dislike this immensely. There is a human saying about begging forgiveness and asking permission that I believe to be relevant, though I do not know that we intended on doing either.
[ ALL DADS WILL BE MAD. ]
You are invested in our success, son of Dracula. Despite his own anger.
Better to beg forgiveness than ask permission. [He says that much automatically, and at least Leon's also going to be furious. It gives the Dads something to be mad about together.
Alucard huffs.]
She is my mother's friend. I...care.
[Moreover.] I've demanded too much of your time that you should be reserving for this problem. We won't be here by daylight. I'm sure your patriarch will find us.
[ The rabbit fairy gives this some thought as she calls her steed - a one-horned horse - over. ]
You may ride with me, if you wish. It would perhaps be best that there be someone there to protect the girl by morning. We will be called away, no doubt. And our brother will be unable.
[ The unicorn stomps a hoof into the ground to mark the spot, so that they can find it again if they need, and the fairy climbs atop it. ]
I will leave a trail for you.
[ And with that she is gone, leaving in her wake a trail of hoofprints and long iridescent hairs from the unicorn's mane.
Just before dawn, at the end of the trail, there is the smell of blood. The rabbit fairy uses a delicate lace handkerchief to wipe blood from the mouth of another woman with great feathered wings and golden paws poking out from under her skirts. Another woman draped in a long cowl fusses over a collection of dogs as they squabble over very human bones. And Trevor is there, surrounded by his sisters, holding a slumbering Sypha in his arms. She seems unhurt, for the most part.
Soon, the griffon woman says. He is waking. He will be here soon.
The fae leaves, and Alucard returns to the clinic in the manner all vampires do. Dracula and Lisa are still arguing when he returns, and before Dracula can manage you left the house?! Alucard explains the particulars of the situation.
Which unsurprisingly launches a new argument of what to do and how best to help Sypha, and it eventually ends with fine, go at dawn but return to the castle, and Alucard having to promise (and lie) about bringing his cold iron with him.
He does arrive at dawn. It is as a bat, a bat whose ears are ringing from a near full night of arguments, and preparation for the fact well now I have to let Leon into the castle to figure out what the appropriate response is. (Dracula's tone sounded more pained about that than anything else.)
The bat is a man, and Alucard stands in front of all of them. He looks as awkward as he feels, standing ramrod straight and feeling more than a little cowed.]
Your patriarch is to have words with my father on this. I want to warn you all of that fact.
[ The griffin growls, the woman with the dogs looks up only briefly before looking away. Trevor doesn't stir at first, clinging to Sypha, but eventually looks up at Alucard. ]
We know.
[ It's the rabbit fairy who speaks first, and she finishes making her oldest sister presentable for their patriarch's arrival. She smiles to Alucard, sadly. Trevor stands unsteadily, stumbling over to Alucard and holding Sypha out for him to take. He feels numb. He doesn't know what happens next, but he knows that it's going to be unpleasant. And he knows that he isn't going to be here to take care of her. ]
[He's failed to read the room, that much is quite clear. There's an apologetic look to the vampire due to that failure, but he can't do too much else.
He takes Sypha. Careful, holding her as delicately as he can without making the whole thing seem too intimate. That's always what the vampire's been afraid of.]
It'll probably be too safe.
[Alucard knows his father. He also sighs, looking at the fae with a much kinder face than he's ever before.]
Wish you had just said something before hand. [Then maybe there could have been another way.]
[ Trevor just purses his lips, looks down at Sypha one last time, and then looks up, swallowing as he meets Alucard's gaze, so much softer than it had been before. ]
I'm sorry.
[ The sun starts to peek over the horizon as he says it, and the rabbit fairy pulls her brother into line before Alucard can say anything more, dusting him down and straightening his hair and pushing him around to correct his posture. She looks expectantly at the woman with the dogs, who makes her hounds sit properly but not without sighing as if it's a terrible nuisance to have to do so.
Leon Belmont arrives with the sun, as he has done for four hundred years. Unlike his children, he appears entirely human, save for that when part of him moves through the shadow of a tree branch that part disappears entirely. His expression is impassive as he looks over the fairy siblings, and his voice calm and soft. ]
Who is responsible?
[ Trevor steps forward, and Leon sighs. Carefully, he takes from from his belt a small, jeweled box and holds it out. A single moth leaves Trevor, settling itself into the box. Leon closes it.
And then he draws his sword and plunges it into Trevor's chest. The rabbit fairy looks away as moths fall away from her brother, each tumbling to the ground in flames. ]
[Alucard knows he can't be around for whatever happens next. The shadows are growing long, and that is a cue.
For the dead travel fast he murmurs, and in the shadows there is a deeper darkness. Shadows are what allow for the quick movement of vampires when they need it most, and while there is a toll for moving through these shadows on Alucard (he is only half dead), it is still the quickest way to go.
The shadows don't close behind him either. Not immediately, it is the curse of vampire hearing that means he still bears witness to what goes on. He shifts Sypha in his arms so that if she stirs, she won't turn back and see what is done to her boyfriend.
Shadows begin to close behind him as the scent of burnt moths begin to fill the air. Alucard doesn't know if Leon has come from speaking with Dracula or if this is pre-emptive. He's terrified either way.]
[ Leon moves with the sunlight, and it'll be another few minutes before the sun strikes the walls of Dracula's castle. When it does he is there, before the doors of the great building. He dusts the moth-ash from his hands. ]
[Dracula's castle sits high on the mountains this morning. Alucard is inside before sunlight reaches it, and when he is there, the air is downright oppressive. He has seen his father's poor moods from time to time, especially with the matter of Carmilla over the years.
But this is another level entirely, and he hates it. He hates it as the castle directs him to a safe guest bedroom (there are no windows.) He hates it as his mother tsks and takes Sypha from his arms to examine her properly, and Lisa mutters about the most irrational I've seen him.
That's saying a lot. And so for the time, Alucard takes the form of a wolf and lies down on the end of Sypha's bed. Better to rest now. He'll need it.
The castle does not welcome Leon Belmont. It does not welcome him as the doors open with a deadly silence. It does not welcome him as the grand hallway stands illuminated by the sun, shadows within casting deeper and deeper within. It tells him to get out as the doors close behind him. It snarls for him to stay gone as the hallways twist and turn and guide him to where Dracula has chosen to have his words.
There are no windows here. There is a fireplace with embers glowing in it. There is a long table beside the fireplace, and a chair at the head of each table. It is all by design. It is all to maximize distance, and within those choices there is a bare minimum of safety accounted for.
Dracula is already seated at his end of the table, cold and impervious and anger radiating off of him like a dark and extremely furious sun whose lands need such hate. It is only his eyes that regard the Belmont as he enters.]
[ The castle is dark, and Leon moves from flameless, cold torch to torch, vanishing into nothing in the shadows between them. He simply does not exist where the light does not touch, and has not in centuries. Has not, save for on that one night every seven years.
He knows the castle, no matter how little it cares for him. It is the angry, twisted child of one that he fought through centuries ago, new wonders fashioned from old parts. He follows the path that it gives him, requesting only a candle from it, so that he not vanish entirely.
(He relieves it, the candlestick is on a table a little further down the hallway. But it is offered grudgingly, the candlestick a beaten, tarnished thing that the castle seems to have pulled out from the darkest parts of itself just to offer the greatest insult that it can, and the candle burned so low already that his meeting with Dracula will not be a long one without an additional form of light. The castle wants him gone as soon as possible.)
He bows when he enters the room, moving to his own seat and placing the candle upon the table to illuminate him. Next to it, he places the small box. ]
I understand that my children have been hunting in your nights without your leave. [ He does not recognise territory in terms of geography anymore, only in terms of time. Wallachia means nothing to him, but sunset does. It was night, and not the night of all hallows, and so it was Dracula's territory. ] I imagine that you wish to discuss with me how this might be made right.
Remove that thing from the table. I do not want it.
[As an opening to settling an insult, it's most certaintly a choice. But there's something else in there, a very, very dull kindness that recompense not demand sacrifice of a child. An old law that only the two of them understand the reason for.
His eyes are as dark as the rest of the room.]
What is it about the current generation that has encouraged flaunting of written and unwritten rules, Belmont? One does not try to claim an ungiven night without incremental steps towards such boldness.
[He's starting low. Calm. Which is not a good thing at all. It means that Dracula is working up to a point.]
[ Leon nods, taking the box from Dracula’s sight. There’s a satisfaction in it, a note of hope. He has not forgotten. ]
I understand it to be desperation. Old powers, injured and lashing out, making their own claims upon the day and night alike. [ The church, he means. ] The young ones do not understand how best to deal with these things.
But then, you said rules, and not rule. You wish to enlighten me about these steps, do you not?
[There's a scant movement of Dracula's fingers, and the embers in the fireplace change. There are true flames now, the fuel they're devouring unclear and not worth asking about. The glow means that there is an hour of light at least.]
Very well. Your answer gives me no sense of how they are being taught to control these impulsive responses - some of which I realize are inherited traits. Or am I more correct in saying that they have learned nothing at all, based on past and recent events?
[He's also kind of angry about trying to kidnap his son. Maybe. Is he trying to parent shame? Abso-fucking-lutely.]
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Not just because that isnt the Belmont he's used to, but because of what's happened. Sypha's done the smart thing in the short term, but she's put herself in a space where neither Trevor nor himself can dare to go.
Alucard's mouth thins, turning into a frown.]
He knows and he's furious.
[Paranoid is more correct, but Alucard knows better than to ever say such a thing.]
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[ Only a Belmont would respond to 'Dracula is SO MAD' with 'good'. ] Are you able to speak with him? One of his own ran with us on our last hunt, imitating our own kind to violate your people's laws. We would have him know that our only quarry is the Cathedral of Arges, so that he might know the traitor for herself should she do so again.
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[DON'T MAKE THE VAMPIRE MAD COME ON rule 1 Belmonts.
Alucard pauses at that though. It's why his father's gone after Carmilla so hard, isn't it? She hid herself in the hunt.
He breathes out. Shit.]
I'll inform him, but i think he knows the traitor. What will come of the cathedral?
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[ Local bunny gives 0 shits about Dracula's anger, but would rather not be rude for no reason. ]
I do not know, yet. If the girl is touched, sanctuary is broken, and we enter the building and do what we must. If she is not, we take the cathedral apart brick by brick, until either she is returned to us or we can enter. I suppose we shall see whether we hunt stone and wood or meaty, bony things tonight. The choice is with the meaty, bony things.
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[Look, Alucard's exhausted but he can't NOT dunk on dad.]
The fae that normally travels with her, he's...I assume the one calling this hunt?
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[ The rabbit-fairy nods. ]
Our brother, yes. Out hunt is small. Four in number, I think, so far as we are ever any number at all. Myself, my sisters and our brother. The cathedral should hold many, many hundreds of humans were they to hold their breath and stand very still on top of one another. But humans tend not to do such things, so I imagine there should be less than a hundred. It would be an insignificant number, were we not concerned with keeping the girl alive.
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[Does Leon know about this at all?!]
They might expect some kind of rescue effort. Not from fae, but from Sypha's own people. Whatever's done, be careful. It could bring reprisals upon them.
[Alucard sighs.]
It'd be easiest if you could get a message in the building to her first. Tell her the plan, and then focus on removing her from the situation. Maybe...
[No.]
And be careful that it doesn't reek of magic. They'll call her a witch and try to burn her for it.
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[ ALL DADS WILL BE MAD. ]
You are invested in our success, son of Dracula. Despite his own anger.
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Alucard huffs.]
She is my mother's friend. I...care.
[Moreover.] I've demanded too much of your time that you should be reserving for this problem. We won't be here by daylight. I'm sure your patriarch will find us.
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You may ride with me, if you wish. It would perhaps be best that there be someone there to protect the girl by morning. We will be called away, no doubt. And our brother will be unable.
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[Dad would freak the fuck out right now.]
I will travel as my kind does to be there at dawn. If not, spirit her here in that same timeframe.
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[ The unicorn stomps a hoof into the ground to mark the spot, so that they can find it again if they need, and the fairy climbs atop it. ]
I will leave a trail for you.
[ And with that she is gone, leaving in her wake a trail of hoofprints and long iridescent hairs from the unicorn's mane.
Just before dawn, at the end of the trail, there is the smell of blood. The rabbit fairy uses a delicate lace handkerchief to wipe blood from the mouth of another woman with great feathered wings and golden paws poking out from under her skirts. Another woman draped in a long cowl fusses over a collection of dogs as they squabble over very human bones. And Trevor is there, surrounded by his sisters, holding a slumbering Sypha in his arms. She seems unhurt, for the most part.
Soon, the griffon woman says. He is waking. He will be here soon.
Trevor nods solemnly. ]
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Okay, that's a choice.
The fae leaves, and Alucard returns to the clinic in the manner all vampires do. Dracula and Lisa are still arguing when he returns, and before Dracula can manage you left the house?! Alucard explains the particulars of the situation.
Which unsurprisingly launches a new argument of what to do and how best to help Sypha, and it eventually ends with fine, go at dawn but return to the castle, and Alucard having to promise (and lie) about bringing his cold iron with him.
He does arrive at dawn. It is as a bat, a bat whose ears are ringing from a near full night of arguments, and preparation for the fact well now I have to let Leon into the castle to figure out what the appropriate response is. (Dracula's tone sounded more pained about that than anything else.)
The bat is a man, and Alucard stands in front of all of them. He looks as awkward as he feels, standing ramrod straight and feeling more than a little cowed.]
Your patriarch is to have words with my father on this. I want to warn you all of that fact.
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We know.
[ It's the rabbit fairy who speaks first, and she finishes making her oldest sister presentable for their patriarch's arrival. She smiles to Alucard, sadly. Trevor stands unsteadily, stumbling over to Alucard and holding Sypha out for him to take. He feels numb. He doesn't know what happens next, but he knows that it's going to be unpleasant. And he knows that he isn't going to be here to take care of her. ]
Please. Take her somewhere safe?
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He takes Sypha. Careful, holding her as delicately as he can without making the whole thing seem too intimate. That's always what the vampire's been afraid of.]
It'll probably be too safe.
[Alucard knows his father. He also sighs, looking at the fae with a much kinder face than he's ever before.]
Wish you had just said something before hand. [Then maybe there could have been another way.]
She'll return to you soon. Promise.
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[ Trevor just purses his lips, looks down at Sypha one last time, and then looks up, swallowing as he meets Alucard's gaze, so much softer than it had been before. ]
I'm sorry.
[ The sun starts to peek over the horizon as he says it, and the rabbit fairy pulls her brother into line before Alucard can say anything more, dusting him down and straightening his hair and pushing him around to correct his posture. She looks expectantly at the woman with the dogs, who makes her hounds sit properly but not without sighing as if it's a terrible nuisance to have to do so.
Leon Belmont arrives with the sun, as he has done for four hundred years. Unlike his children, he appears entirely human, save for that when part of him moves through the shadow of a tree branch that part disappears entirely. His expression is impassive as he looks over the fairy siblings, and his voice calm and soft. ]
Who is responsible?
[ Trevor steps forward, and Leon sighs. Carefully, he takes from from his belt a small, jeweled box and holds it out. A single moth leaves Trevor, settling itself into the box. Leon closes it.
And then he draws his sword and plunges it into Trevor's chest. The rabbit fairy looks away as moths fall away from her brother, each tumbling to the ground in flames. ]
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For the dead travel fast he murmurs, and in the shadows there is a deeper darkness. Shadows are what allow for the quick movement of vampires when they need it most, and while there is a toll for moving through these shadows on Alucard (he is only half dead), it is still the quickest way to go.
The shadows don't close behind him either. Not immediately, it is the curse of vampire hearing that means he still bears witness to what goes on. He shifts Sypha in his arms so that if she stirs, she won't turn back and see what is done to her boyfriend.
Shadows begin to close behind him as the scent of burnt moths begin to fill the air. Alucard doesn't know if Leon has come from speaking with Dracula or if this is pre-emptive. He's terrified either way.]
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Mathias.
[ He does not knock, just says that one word. ]
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But this is another level entirely, and he hates it. He hates it as the castle directs him to a safe guest bedroom (there are no windows.) He hates it as his mother tsks and takes Sypha from his arms to examine her properly, and Lisa mutters about the most irrational I've seen him.
That's saying a lot. And so for the time, Alucard takes the form of a wolf and lies down on the end of Sypha's bed. Better to rest now. He'll need it.
The castle does not welcome Leon Belmont. It does not welcome him as the doors open with a deadly silence. It does not welcome him as the grand hallway stands illuminated by the sun, shadows within casting deeper and deeper within. It tells him to get out as the doors close behind him. It snarls for him to stay gone as the hallways twist and turn and guide him to where Dracula has chosen to have his words.
There are no windows here. There is a fireplace with embers glowing in it. There is a long table beside the fireplace, and a chair at the head of each table. It is all by design. It is all to maximize distance, and within those choices there is a bare minimum of safety accounted for.
Dracula is already seated at his end of the table, cold and impervious and anger radiating off of him like a dark and extremely furious sun whose lands need such hate. It is only his eyes that regard the Belmont as he enters.]
Belmont.
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He knows the castle, no matter how little it cares for him. It is the angry, twisted child of one that he fought through centuries ago, new wonders fashioned from old parts. He follows the path that it gives him, requesting only a candle from it, so that he not vanish entirely.
(He relieves it, the candlestick is on a table a little further down the hallway. But it is offered grudgingly, the candlestick a beaten, tarnished thing that the castle seems to have pulled out from the darkest parts of itself just to offer the greatest insult that it can, and the candle burned so low already that his meeting with Dracula will not be a long one without an additional form of light. The castle wants him gone as soon as possible.)
He bows when he enters the room, moving to his own seat and placing the candle upon the table to illuminate him. Next to it, he places the small box. ]
I understand that my children have been hunting in your nights without your leave. [ He does not recognise territory in terms of geography anymore, only in terms of time. Wallachia means nothing to him, but sunset does. It was night, and not the night of all hallows, and so it was Dracula's territory. ] I imagine that you wish to discuss with me how this might be made right.
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[As an opening to settling an insult, it's most certaintly a choice. But there's something else in there, a very, very dull kindness that recompense not demand sacrifice of a child. An old law that only the two of them understand the reason for.
His eyes are as dark as the rest of the room.]
What is it about the current generation that has encouraged flaunting of written and unwritten rules, Belmont? One does not try to claim an ungiven night without incremental steps towards such boldness.
[He's starting low. Calm. Which is not a good thing at all. It means that Dracula is working up to a point.]
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I understand it to be desperation. Old powers, injured and lashing out, making their own claims upon the day and night alike. [ The church, he means. ] The young ones do not understand how best to deal with these things.
But then, you said rules, and not rule. You wish to enlighten me about these steps, do you not?
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[The box is gone. Good. They're both better for that option being so very literally off the table.]
The matters of the church and other human things are not my concern. They never have been.
[It is a slight lie, because Dracula cares in so much as these things can pose a threat to his family. But he can protect them so easily.]
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[ He looks up at the candle. For the moment it is still burning without issue. ]
Your home has offered me limited time, Mathias. If you wish to hear a different answer from me, it would be prudent to ask a different question.
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Very well. Your answer gives me no sense of how they are being taught to control these impulsive responses - some of which I realize are inherited traits. Or am I more correct in saying that they have learned nothing at all, based on past and recent events?
[He's also kind of angry about trying to kidnap his son. Maybe. Is he trying to parent shame? Abso-fucking-lutely.]
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