[ He asks it with a tilt of his head, but then drops the topic. This is more important. No matter how much he wants Sypha to be happy, this has to be more important. ]
We can't offer blood to you, and you can't harm us to take it. There has to be room for a technicality there. [ He bites down on this inside of his lip in thought, frowning. ] I could bring a human or animal here, they wouldn't be bound by the rules. But I would have to leave and I don't know how much time would pass here before I returned. It could be as much as she wanted.
[Alucard opens his mouth to respond to the first question, but Trevor has already moved on.
He considers the options as Trevor speaks of them, wholly aware that everything he says is correct. Their best bet is some kind of a loop hole, yes, but there's one thing Alucard needs to make clear.]
I would rather you don't leave.
[It seems like an invitation for time to move too slowly.]
Are you known to sometimes drop a knife and try to catch it as it falls, only to cut yourself by accident?
I could try, but if I'm doing it knowingly, she could still say that it's you taking what's offered-
[ He returns to worrying at his lip, and then there's a spark of pain and the taste of copper, and- it's perfect. He works the tiny cut open further. As long as he doesn't tell Alucard that there's blood in his mouth- ]
-I want to kiss you. Just once. Before things get any worse. [ It's an awkward change of topic, carefully crafted to not contain any lies the way 'I claimed him' was. ] Please.
[Alucard's nose perks. He knows what blood smells like, and it is now heavy in the air. It takes real effort to not sit up and go for the sources and...
...Alucard nods once. He understands the plan in truth.]
I owe you a debt of gratitude for enduring this all alongside me anyway.
[ It isn't what he wanted, but it's close. It's very much like the queen, to grant wishes but soil them slightly. Just enough to make them not real. He tears at the cut a little more, until it's as open as it can be without green blood dribbling from the sides of his mouth, and then presses his lips against Alucard's. Lightly at first, and then he opens his mouth a little, letting the blood flow into Alucard's. ]
[Alucard is careful with this, because there are a lot of layers involved in this single kiss that could set off nasty chain reactions down the line. The first is the most practical: blood, and how to get it.
That means when Trevor leans down, because Alucard still hasn't sat up properly, his lips are already slightly parted in anticipation. The color needs to be ignored, and once the kiss starts in earnest, he doesn't hesitate to open his mouth to allow the blood to flow. His moves over Trevor's lip gently, then rests on the spot where the cut is bleeding in earnest. What an easy thing it is to keep his tongue there, let the blood gather on the back of it, and then withdraw for only a moment before coming back for more.
The character of the kiss though, that's where everything balances. Alucard works this all on the presumption that Dracula will find out, and he will not be happy. So be it. It means that his hands rest atop Trevor's with a feather lightness, easy to communicate that the vampire has taken too much and ought to stop. It means that for all there are open mouths and tongues, there is a chasteness here that contradicts how their positions look to the world. It means that the message within is you've protected me. Thank you.
But time doesn't work right here, so who is to say how long this kiss truly lasts anyway.]
[ This is all for survival's sake, and he has to remember that. It's easy to forget, when he's leaning over Alucard, the vampire's hands soft and delicate upon his, having pulled away just slightly but not as much as he should. He holds his tongue over the cut until the bleeding slows, and he smiles, and he's about to speak.
And then there is a crack, like bones breaking. Then there is heat. Trevor doesn't know what's happening - did they somehow manage to break the rules despite all of that? - and so he lifts Alucard and runs, leaving the tent just as the spidersilk structure catches fire.
The woods are burning. In some places - queen's control over time is shattered, and parts of the space are further on in time than others - they're already reduced to ashes. Trevor pauses to plot a route but of here through the least dangerous stages of forest fire when a voice booms from above- ]
Bring my son to me.
[ -...well shit. Dracula can't appear here himself, not in eternal daylight. But he can still make his presence known. ]
[Trevor has, since Sypha's appeared and Dracula's absolute fury has been made known, been easier to deal with. Alucard is still unsure how he feels about the Belmont, in the end, but he's not so blind as to know he has an ally. Likewise, he isn't so blind as to know that in his father's eyes, all of this has happened because the Belmont was an idiot and tried to wed Dracula's son in the first place. The action brought too many eyes upon Alucard and his nature, and so...perhaps this was the inevitable end result.
It will be painful to be apart from either of them now, but that too Alucard understands to be a necessity. He'll survive.
He's careful as he licks the remaining few drops of blood from his lips, and then Dracula makes his presence and his fury known. Alucard isn't shocked by that, the sudden fire in the woods, and the way dark clouds roll in over head, thunder echoing through them along with Dracula's voice.
The woods they are in are still woods, but there is a familiarity to them that Alucard knows cannot be on accident. They're the same woods that saw the Belmont first get the dhampir out of trouble when neither of them was fully grown and now that is the forest that is ablaze with Dracula's rage.
[ They're close to Lupu. He only vaguely recognises the place, but he knows that much. He places Alucard down carefully, trying to suppress his instinct to keep running. Dracula won't let this fire get out of control, surely? Not so close to the village under his protection.
And he stays.
Perhaps (definitely) foolishly, he stays. Because he needs to see Alucard returned to his father's side. Because this could still, somehow, be a trick of the queen's. He takes a breath, braces himself, and looks about for Dracula. ]
[Dracula is here. The fires cast shadows that are too long, far too long, they waver and wrap around the trunks of still standing trees, and those too ignite. Alucard stands where he is, and is a gesture that makes it clear that he has no fear of this moment. The shadows pass by them both for now, (even Trevor is spared, at least for the moment).
Ahead, and really who is to say how far ahead this is, be it miles or mere feet, the flames twist and contort, forming a skull and then Dracula's head. It speaks in Dracula's voice, commanding and furious as darkness finally settles upon the land.]
Sídhe.
[The intonation is not addressed to Trevor. It is to something dead ahead of Dracula's gaze, and it drips a cold, calculated fury.]
You will be given a chance to explain why you stole my son.
[ The long twilight is over. Dawn will come, soon, but for now Dracula can walk upon whichever land he wishes to. Dracula's visage is miles high, but it isn't that that Trevor freezes in terror before.
Titania floats up to be at eye level with him, her entire body only barely the height of the space between his eyelids.
At least, if one considers the beautiful, delicate queen to be the entire body.
The light of the flames reflects from something dark and slimy and massive behind her, from a thread between it and her back. From teeth, visible for only a moment before they're gone again.
The whole of the beautiful lands - the place that Alucard has been in for the last few hours or days or months - is her body, and with the glamour damaged by Dracula's magic it can finally be seen for what it is - a great, dark, twisted creature that looks like it might have come from the depths of the sea, all flesh and teeth.
A great tongue emerges from- somewhere on its body, snaking up to come oh-so-close to licking at Dracula's cheek but stopping at the last second. Deals are deals, after all, and he is Leon's until he makes the first strike. ]
I should have thought it obvious. I wanted to. Nobody stopped me.
[Dracula is not cowed by the reality of the thing in front of him. He has known this truth for some time, the real nature of Titania, for it is a type of magic and Dracula is nothing if not a master of that. A part of him, the part that is still Matthais, wonders if Leon knew this part going in. If he knows at all.
The rest of Dracula is still all fury, sobered only by the knowledge that real retaliation is what the Queen desires most. It is torture to withhold revenge as he would have it under any other circumstance, revenge as every other vampire would expect of him. But Dracula, even in his red hot fury, manages to cling to a little scrap of reason, one brought about by arguing with Lisa about what to do.
Alucard catches only a glimpse of what Titania is. He understands the real reason Trevor told him to look away now, and he does that here. Trevor's shoulder recieves an entire faceful of vampire, one that murmurs We need to be anywhere else.
Dracula hears that though, and beside Alucard a small, darkened patch appears. He understands what that is, a means to return to the castle. He moves towards it quickly.]
You will always be stopped.
[There is a calmness to Dracula's voice. That's the scariest part of all.]
You shall find that the humans of these lands have natural disasters that help them in the production of their food and goods. There will be fewer wild lands for you and yours, and your revels shall have to account for that. New iron mines shall be found, making it far harder for your whims to be pursued. And you shall then be Queen of old, half remembered stories that not even Speakers waste their memories on, because what value is there in such a relic?
Should you touch my son again, all of these predictions shall happen in an instant.
[Dracula cannot have a war. But Dracula can both strike at the Queen's weakness and honor the deepest wish of his wife, and that shall have to be enough, for this denies her the war they both want.]
[ Trevor is more than happy to be anywhere else. Even Dracula's castle - terrifying not for its master but for its mistress - is a better place to be than here. ]
You mean to move humanity forward? To see their fear of the dark fade away? My darling- [ She chuckles. ] You have inspired more fear than anything else. Made me strong. And I am more than willing to bet on you continuing to do so. You are not a patient man, are you? And humans learn and grow so slowly, and their time is so, so, short...
[ She takes one of the flowers from her hair and tosses it into the waiting maw of her writhing, twisting mass of a body. Trevor pulls his arms around Alucard, leading him to the shadow, and they're gone as the queen moves on to a truly dangerous topic. ]
...I wonder when the source of your newfound compassion will fade away. You will make war, then. You will rip my children limb from limb. You will gouge out their eyes and fill the sockets with molten iron and you will never touch me. They will fear you, and I will grow stronger. You will run out of my children and turn back to your wife's kind and rend them apart. The pretty ones, the ones that look like her, you will tell to run. And you will chase them and you will tear their beautiful hides from their bodies with your teeth. You will stalk the night in a coat sewn from their skins to feel her embrace once again and you will give the world something to fear. You will feed me. All monsters do.
[In a moment, Alucard is through the darkness. To be at the castle is already a relief from the heat of the flames, as is the fact that his mother is already there and waiting for him. There's no time for the vampire to waste, he wraps his arms around her immediately. There's no point in denying that the ordeal was terrifying, that what he just saw was beyond words, and that to be home is the greatest thing he could ask for now.
But as for Dracula, there is only renewed heat to the flames. They're nearly white now, blinding, and they suit his own mood far too well. There is wisdom in not responding to any of the threats, as much as he wishes to. There is wisdom in not tearing the Queen from limb to limb as she stands before him.]
Your crown will crumble and you shall cease to be.
[ It's good, to see Alucard back here. Safe. The wings shrug themselves free from his shoulders, flying back to Trevor in a cloud and mostly making it. Mostly. A few fall to the ground, having brushed against Lisa's gentle hands.
She is terrifying. A living embodiment of curiosity and doubt. Lisa looks up, just for a moment, tilting her head and trying to make sense of him and it's all he can do not to scream. ]
You're- probably sick of having me around. [ He manages to gasp out. ] You'll be safe, with her, and-
[ He pushes something small and silvery into Alucard's pocket (his memory of the kiss - he shouldn't keep it if he only has it because Alucard was in danger) and leans close to whisper. ]
-my name is Trevor Belmont. Use it to find me, if you need help.
[It's a lot. It's a lot overwhelming because just with that one hug, Lisa understands her son's immediate medical needs as well as the emotional ones. She does the kindness of withdrawing into the castle's great gaping doors to allow just a moment of privacy.
The thing in Alucard's pocket is...he isn't sure what, exactly, but it's not an unpleasant weight to have there.
He nods, understanding. A real name, that's a hell of a thing to give freely.]
I'll remember it. [More importantly though:] Go, before he goes home.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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[ He asks it with a tilt of his head, but then drops the topic. This is more important. No matter how much he wants Sypha to be happy, this has to be more important. ]
We can't offer blood to you, and you can't harm us to take it. There has to be room for a technicality there. [ He bites down on this inside of his lip in thought, frowning. ] I could bring a human or animal here, they wouldn't be bound by the rules. But I would have to leave and I don't know how much time would pass here before I returned. It could be as much as she wanted.
no subject
He considers the options as Trevor speaks of them, wholly aware that everything he says is correct. Their best bet is some kind of a loop hole, yes, but there's one thing Alucard needs to make clear.]
I would rather you don't leave.
[It seems like an invitation for time to move too slowly.]
Are you known to sometimes drop a knife and try to catch it as it falls, only to cut yourself by accident?
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[ He returns to worrying at his lip, and then there's a spark of pain and the taste of copper, and- it's perfect. He works the tiny cut open further. As long as he doesn't tell Alucard that there's blood in his mouth- ]
-I want to kiss you. Just once. Before things get any worse. [ It's an awkward change of topic, carefully crafted to not contain any lies the way 'I claimed him' was. ] Please.
no subject
...Alucard nods once. He understands the plan in truth.]
I owe you a debt of gratitude for enduring this all alongside me anyway.
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That means when Trevor leans down, because Alucard still hasn't sat up properly, his lips are already slightly parted in anticipation. The color needs to be ignored, and once the kiss starts in earnest, he doesn't hesitate to open his mouth to allow the blood to flow. His moves over Trevor's lip gently, then rests on the spot where the cut is bleeding in earnest. What an easy thing it is to keep his tongue there, let the blood gather on the back of it, and then withdraw for only a moment before coming back for more.
The character of the kiss though, that's where everything balances. Alucard works this all on the presumption that Dracula will find out, and he will not be happy. So be it. It means that his hands rest atop Trevor's with a feather lightness, easy to communicate that the vampire has taken too much and ought to stop. It means that for all there are open mouths and tongues, there is a chasteness here that contradicts how their positions look to the world. It means that the message within is you've protected me. Thank you.
But time doesn't work right here, so who is to say how long this kiss truly lasts anyway.]
no subject
And then there is a crack, like bones breaking. Then there is heat. Trevor doesn't know what's happening - did they somehow manage to break the rules despite all of that? - and so he lifts Alucard and runs, leaving the tent just as the spidersilk structure catches fire.
The woods are burning. In some places - queen's control over time is shattered, and parts of the space are further on in time than others - they're already reduced to ashes. Trevor pauses to plot a route but of here through the least dangerous stages of forest fire when a voice booms from above- ]
Bring my son to me.
[ -...well shit. Dracula can't appear here himself, not in eternal daylight. But he can still make his presence known. ]
no subject
It will be painful to be apart from either of them now, but that too Alucard understands to be a necessity. He'll survive.
He's careful as he licks the remaining few drops of blood from his lips, and then Dracula makes his presence and his fury known. Alucard isn't shocked by that, the sudden fire in the woods, and the way dark clouds roll in over head, thunder echoing through them along with Dracula's voice.
The woods they are in are still woods, but there is a familiarity to them that Alucard knows cannot be on accident. They're the same woods that saw the Belmont first get the dhampir out of trouble when neither of them was fully grown and now that is the forest that is ablaze with Dracula's rage.
Alucard swears softly, then nudges Trevor.]
Best that I'm on my own two feet here.
no subject
And he stays.
Perhaps (definitely) foolishly, he stays. Because he needs to see Alucard returned to his father's side. Because this could still, somehow, be a trick of the queen's. He takes a breath, braces himself, and looks about for Dracula. ]
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Ahead, and really who is to say how far ahead this is, be it miles or mere feet, the flames twist and contort, forming a skull and then Dracula's head. It speaks in Dracula's voice, commanding and furious as darkness finally settles upon the land.]
Sídhe.
[The intonation is not addressed to Trevor. It is to something dead ahead of Dracula's gaze, and it drips a cold, calculated fury.]
You will be given a chance to explain why you stole my son.
no subject
Titania floats up to be at eye level with him, her entire body only barely the height of the space between his eyelids.
At least, if one considers the beautiful, delicate queen to be the entire body.
The light of the flames reflects from something dark and slimy and massive behind her, from a thread between it and her back. From teeth, visible for only a moment before they're gone again.
The whole of the beautiful lands - the place that Alucard has been in for the last few hours or days or months - is her body, and with the glamour damaged by Dracula's magic it can finally be seen for what it is - a great, dark, twisted creature that looks like it might have come from the depths of the sea, all flesh and teeth.
A great tongue emerges from- somewhere on its body, snaking up to come oh-so-close to licking at Dracula's cheek but stopping at the last second. Deals are deals, after all, and he is Leon's until he makes the first strike. ]
I should have thought it obvious. I wanted to. Nobody stopped me.
no subject
The rest of Dracula is still all fury, sobered only by the knowledge that real retaliation is what the Queen desires most. It is torture to withhold revenge as he would have it under any other circumstance, revenge as every other vampire would expect of him. But Dracula, even in his red hot fury, manages to cling to a little scrap of reason, one brought about by arguing with Lisa about what to do.
Alucard catches only a glimpse of what Titania is. He understands the real reason Trevor told him to look away now, and he does that here. Trevor's shoulder recieves an entire faceful of vampire, one that murmurs We need to be anywhere else.
Dracula hears that though, and beside Alucard a small, darkened patch appears. He understands what that is, a means to return to the castle. He moves towards it quickly.]
You will always be stopped.
[There is a calmness to Dracula's voice. That's the scariest part of all.]
You shall find that the humans of these lands have natural disasters that help them in the production of their food and goods. There will be fewer wild lands for you and yours, and your revels shall have to account for that. New iron mines shall be found, making it far harder for your whims to be pursued. And you shall then be Queen of old, half remembered stories that not even Speakers waste their memories on, because what value is there in such a relic?
Should you touch my son again, all of these predictions shall happen in an instant.
[Dracula cannot have a war. But Dracula can both strike at the Queen's weakness and honor the deepest wish of his wife, and that shall have to be enough, for this denies her the war they both want.]
no subject
You mean to move humanity forward? To see their fear of the dark fade away? My darling- [ She chuckles. ] You have inspired more fear than anything else. Made me strong. And I am more than willing to bet on you continuing to do so. You are not a patient man, are you? And humans learn and grow so slowly, and their time is so, so, short...
[ She takes one of the flowers from her hair and tosses it into the waiting maw of her writhing, twisting mass of a body. Trevor pulls his arms around Alucard, leading him to the shadow, and they're gone as the queen moves on to a truly dangerous topic. ]
...I wonder when the source of your newfound compassion will fade away. You will make war, then. You will rip my children limb from limb. You will gouge out their eyes and fill the sockets with molten iron and you will never touch me. They will fear you, and I will grow stronger. You will run out of my children and turn back to your wife's kind and rend them apart. The pretty ones, the ones that look like her, you will tell to run. And you will chase them and you will tear their beautiful hides from their bodies with your teeth. You will stalk the night in a coat sewn from their skins to feel her embrace once again and you will give the world something to fear. You will feed me. All monsters do.
no subject
But as for Dracula, there is only renewed heat to the flames. They're nearly white now, blinding, and they suit his own mood far too well. There is wisdom in not responding to any of the threats, as much as he wishes to. There is wisdom in not tearing the Queen from limb to limb as she stands before him.]
Your crown will crumble and you shall cease to be.
[It is said with far too much certainty.]
I shall await it with great patience.
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She is terrifying. A living embodiment of curiosity and doubt. Lisa looks up, just for a moment, tilting her head and trying to make sense of him and it's all he can do not to scream. ]
You're- probably sick of having me around. [ He manages to gasp out. ] You'll be safe, with her, and-
[ He pushes something small and silvery into Alucard's pocket (his memory of the kiss - he shouldn't keep it if he only has it because Alucard was in danger) and leans close to whisper. ]
-my name is Trevor Belmont. Use it to find me, if you need help.
no subject
The thing in Alucard's pocket is...he isn't sure what, exactly, but it's not an unpleasant weight to have there.
He nods, understanding. A real name, that's a hell of a thing to give freely.]
I'll remember it. [More importantly though:] Go, before he goes home.