The plan remains unchanged. We move when you and Sypha are ready.
[ They’ve never had a choice, and this doesn’t change that. ]
We expect more resistance, but the castle’s defences will protect us from the worst of whatever army he has. The bigger problem-
-a human forgemaster would be able to use my family’s tools. If you see him, you need to flee. Leave him to Sypha and I. To you, he’ll be as deadly as Dracula himself.
I'll take the blows. If we lose each other in moving forward, we may be on paths that twist away from each other entirely. We can't let each other out of our sights, do you understand?
[He gestures at the room, but he really means the whole castle. It branches and twists and turns, and there's no reason to assume Dracula would not try to use that to defeat a Belmont and reclaim his son.
And Alucard cannot promise that there's part of him that won't give in and just embrace his father after everything.]
You’ll die. [ He grits his teeth, shaking his head before continuing. ] Fine. We don’t separate. But whatever means this place has to keep my family’s tools from working, it uses them. And if we come across the forgemaster you stay behind me. Sara - the Morning Star - she’ll break bones on a human. She’ll kill you.
I can't promise. I will try and avoid it, but if it is between me taking a hit or scuttling our primary objective, then I will take the injury. Is that enough?
Castle, if we fail, take her somewhere safe. Back to her people, and then to somewhere without humans, where Dracula won’t turn his wrath. It doesn’t matter if it’s a harsh place, they’re hardy types. Just- somewhere he won’t look.
She has to be inside to tell it where to go.. It can't...can't reach out and grab her if she isn't inside. It's...it's connected to him though, you know. It is the clearest manifestation of himself in the world. Any safety it offers is temporary. He'll know where it is and she is.
[It's a noble, thoughtful notion. It just won't work.]
It doesn't think the idea will work. I don't either.
[ His shoulders slump. She won’t. She won’t run, no matter what he says. He could beg and plead, he could tell her the minute details of how Dracula intends to kill her. She won’t run. ]
Her tongue. He tears out her tongue, first. Then he- there’s a part of her brain, that lets her remember. She breathes him in as mist and he reaches inside her and cuts it apart and she just- stops knowing things. She’s alive, but she doesn’t know where she is or why she’s here. Just that it hurts, and that she’s scared, until he lets her die. I’ve seen it. He’s shown me. Please.
[Alucard forces the awful lump in his throat down. It's easy to forget what his father's capable of when Alucard is home. Wrapped up. Safe. Able to recover, to feel a tiny part of him that isn't just bitterness and a death wish.
He's never claimed to care or not to care. He's just let life and the world slide off of him, water off a duck's back. Focusing on survival to at least appease his mother.
But Trevor speaks, and Alucard truly cares about Sypha.]
You still have to tell her. Everything you just said to me. She may listen when she hears the tone in your voice. But you can't just...you can't decide for her. She'll resent that more.
-she won’t listen. She’ll just stay anyway, and she’ll know what’s coming. And- shit.
[ He takes a deep breath, composes himself again. Acts like he’s above this. Above going to a vampire and a castle and begging. There’s a terrible question that hangs in the air, if he’s seen what Dracula intends to do to the scholar of the prophecy, then the other two- ]
But you'll have tried. You'll have made yourself clear, and at that point, it's all on her. She's an adult, Belmont. If she wants to scrap out for survival or take another path, you have to let her. You can't save everyone.
[Alucard can't save anyone, but he's already known that. Known it for a long time.]
Mmm. That's why I won't make promises about what I will and won't allow to harm me. This isn't a situation that allows for such things.
[ He chuckles, and when he looks back up at Alucard it’s- easier. Less staring, less redness in his cheeks. Still the same asshole vampire underneath it all. It’s a small comfort, but a comfort nonetheless. ]
Forget everyone. These days, I’d be happy to save anyone at all.
[ It- sounds like it’s in good humour, at least. ]
[He isn't, and thankfully that pretty face of his is also deeply sour. Alucard just sighs. This is too much. His father's....everything...has made it too much.]
Just come in with no expectations. You at least get to be shocked at the result.
[ If Alucard betrays them, he betrays them. He deserves to choose, just as much as Sypha does. Trevor stretches, sucking away the last of the blood from where he caught himself on the needle, then heads for the door. ]
All done ruining your day, I think. I'll go ruin hers.
[ They win. It's Alucard who lands the killing blow, in the end. The forgemaster is nowhere to be found, even if the evidence of his work is all around them.
Once he can stand again, Trevor buries what the forgemaster left of his sisters. He leaves the two of them in the place where the castle and the hold meet, and he'd be done with this if Sypha hadn't asked him to come back with news from her people. And so he returns. He's almost looking forward to it.
He's never been alone before. Always had his siblings. Even at the church he always had the interrogators there, even if they didn't care much for him. And for better or worse he always, always had Dracula's presence in the back of his mind, burned into him. Loneliness is new. He doesn't care for it. It's- nice, returning to the castle. Comforting (and isn't that an odd thing for a Belmont to feel). Even when there's nobody there to greet him.
They'll be at the library. They're always in the fucking library. ]
[Alucard spends a week in his father's coffin, after all is said and done. It amplifies the guilt, yes, but it lets him rest. Recover. Reconcile the man he grew up with with the face of the monster the rest of the world knew. He's wrapped up and protected there, safe. He'd stay there forever, but Sypha comes down and drags him out, telling him he must live in the world. At least for a life time.
He protests. But Sypha's a force of intent, and so he does not remain in the coffin. She barely lets Alucard be, and he wants to hate it on principle.
But he can't, because Sypha is impossible to direct anger at for any real length of time, and he soon gets used to the presence of another. They are in the castle after all, and it is safe.
She worries about Trevor. Wants to know where he is, what he's doing, and in that Alucard feels an awful pang of guilt. He should have insisted they both go together. Let him in the coffin but...
...and then he returns. The castle tells him that the Belmont is at the door, and Alucard tells it to let him in. Then he's out of the library entirely to meet Trevor halfway.
Alucard turns a corner and Trevor is there. For his own part, Alucard's returned to a healthy weight. He's clean. The cloak is not on his shoulders, for it's too warm. His dress is still plain though, and bare feet scruff over the floor.]
Of course she has. Pretty sure the day she doesn’t fuss over something is the day we’ve found a shapeshifter taking her place.
[ His armour is flecked with the mud and dirt of the road, but it’s bloodless and doesn’t look to have suffered the kind of scrapes that would imply a nasty fight recently. ]
She’s still making you stay awake, then. Wasn’t sure you’d be here when I got back.
[She'd be better off with Trevor anyway, wouldn't she? He was the soldier, the knight in slightly-not-shining-armor-at-the-moment that solved all her problems. What good is a sad vampire, in the end?]
There's a side room here so you can get out of all that metal.
Pretty sure you’re meant to marry me before you ask me to undress the moment I get home.
[ He’s still laughing at his own absolutely-just-a-joke as he moves into the side room and sets about loosening the many, many straps holding all of the metal on him. Jokes aside, it’ll be good to be free of the weight of it all.. ]
She’s at sea, best as I can tell. A vampire called Godbrand made port back at Braila to gather what remained of her forces. They expect her to need at least another year before she can leave her coffin safely, let alone do anything more. [ He sighs, setting down a pauldron. ] Sorry I couldn’t do more. Hard to catch up with a boat by horse.
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[ They’ve never had a choice, and this doesn’t change that. ]
We expect more resistance, but the castle’s defences will protect us from the worst of whatever army he has. The bigger problem-
-a human forgemaster would be able to use my family’s tools. If you see him, you need to flee. Leave him to Sypha and I. To you, he’ll be as deadly as Dracula himself.
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[That much is clear.]
I'll take the blows. If we lose each other in moving forward, we may be on paths that twist away from each other entirely. We can't let each other out of our sights, do you understand?
[He gestures at the room, but he really means the whole castle. It branches and twists and turns, and there's no reason to assume Dracula would not try to use that to defeat a Belmont and reclaim his son.
And Alucard cannot promise that there's part of him that won't give in and just embrace his father after everything.]
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Promise me.
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[Surviving Dracula is unlikely, after all.]
I can't promise. I will try and avoid it, but if it is between me taking a hit or scuttling our primary objective, then I will take the injury. Is that enough?
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[ Both. Not all. They should talk about that. ]
I- have a favour to ask. Of the castle, if I may.
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[ They won’t. They can’t. But if they do. ]
Castle, if we fail, take her somewhere safe. Back to her people, and then to somewhere without humans, where Dracula won’t turn his wrath. It doesn’t matter if it’s a harsh place, they’re hardy types. Just- somewhere he won’t look.
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[It's a noble, thoughtful notion. It just won't work.]
It doesn't think the idea will work. I don't either.
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[ He doesn’t want her distressed, but- ]
She survives this. Please.
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You have to say this to her. Not me. Not the castle. Her.
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[ His shoulders slump. She won’t. She won’t run, no matter what he says. He could beg and plead, he could tell her the minute details of how Dracula intends to kill her. She won’t run. ]
Her tongue. He tears out her tongue, first. Then he- there’s a part of her brain, that lets her remember. She breathes him in as mist and he reaches inside her and cuts it apart and she just- stops knowing things. She’s alive, but she doesn’t know where she is or why she’s here. Just that it hurts, and that she’s scared, until he lets her die. I’ve seen it. He’s shown me. Please.
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He's never claimed to care or not to care. He's just let life and the world slide off of him, water off a duck's back. Focusing on survival to at least appease his mother.
But Trevor speaks, and Alucard truly cares about Sypha.]
You still have to tell her. Everything you just said to me. She may listen when she hears the tone in your voice. But you can't just...you can't decide for her. She'll resent that more.
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[ He lets his head hang, then shakes it weakly. ]
-she won’t listen. She’ll just stay anyway, and she’ll know what’s coming. And- shit.
[ He takes a deep breath, composes himself again. Acts like he’s above this. Above going to a vampire and a castle and begging. There’s a terrible question that hangs in the air, if he’s seen what Dracula intends to do to the scholar of the prophecy, then the other two- ]
-we just won’t fail.
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[Alucard can't save anyone, but he's already known that. Known it for a long time.]
Mmm. That's why I won't make promises about what I will and won't allow to harm me. This isn't a situation that allows for such things.
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[ He chuckles, and when he looks back up at Alucard it’s- easier. Less staring, less redness in his cheeks. Still the same asshole vampire underneath it all. It’s a small comfort, but a comfort nonetheless. ]
Forget everyone. These days, I’d be happy to save anyone at all.
[ It- sounds like it’s in good humour, at least. ]
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[He isn't, and thankfully that pretty face of his is also deeply sour. Alucard just sighs. This is too much. His father's....everything...has made it too much.]
Just come in with no expectations. You at least get to be shocked at the result.
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[ A long pause, and he looks between Alucard and the door, trying to decide something. He closes his eyes, takes a deep breath and- ]
You live, if things go as he wishes. We both do.
[ If Sypha deserves to know, so does he. ]
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[Alucard shakes his head no, and soon he has his head in his hands, massaging his temples slowly.]
I need to be ignorant. I may waver in resolve otherwise, as agreeing to this work has been hard enough.
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-well. You deserved to know anyway.
[ If Alucard betrays them, he betrays them. He deserves to choose, just as much as Sypha does. Trevor stretches, sucking away the last of the blood from where he caught himself on the needle, then heads for the door. ]
All done ruining your day, I think. I'll go ruin hers.
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[She always does.]
I may just go rest more. I'll find you both later.
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Once he can stand again, Trevor buries what the forgemaster left of his sisters. He leaves the two of them in the place where the castle and the hold meet, and he'd be done with this if Sypha hadn't asked him to come back with news from her people. And so he returns. He's almost looking forward to it.
He's never been alone before. Always had his siblings. Even at the church he always had the interrogators there, even if they didn't care much for him. And for better or worse he always, always had Dracula's presence in the back of his mind, burned into him. Loneliness is new. He doesn't care for it. It's- nice, returning to the castle. Comforting (and isn't that an odd thing for a Belmont to feel). Even when there's nobody there to greet him.
They'll be at the library. They're always in the fucking library. ]
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He protests. But Sypha's a force of intent, and so he does not remain in the coffin. She barely lets Alucard be, and he wants to hate it on principle.
But he can't, because Sypha is impossible to direct anger at for any real length of time, and he soon gets used to the presence of another. They are in the castle after all, and it is safe.
She worries about Trevor. Wants to know where he is, what he's doing, and in that Alucard feels an awful pang of guilt. He should have insisted they both go together. Let him in the coffin but...
...and then he returns. The castle tells him that the Belmont is at the door, and Alucard tells it to let him in. Then he's out of the library entirely to meet Trevor halfway.
Alucard turns a corner and Trevor is there. For his own part, Alucard's returned to a healthy weight. He's clean. The cloak is not on his shoulders, for it's too warm. His dress is still plain though, and bare feet scruff over the floor.]
She's been worried about you.
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[ His armour is flecked with the mud and dirt of the road, but it’s bloodless and doesn’t look to have suffered the kind of scrapes that would imply a nasty fight recently. ]
She’s still making you stay awake, then. Wasn’t sure you’d be here when I got back.
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[She'd be better off with Trevor anyway, wouldn't she? He was the soldier, the knight in slightly-not-shining-armor-at-the-moment that solved all her problems. What good is a sad vampire, in the end?]
There's a side room here so you can get out of all that metal.
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[ He’s still laughing at his own absolutely-just-a-joke as he moves into the side room and sets about loosening the many, many straps holding all of the metal on him. Jokes aside, it’ll be good to be free of the weight of it all.. ]
She’s at sea, best as I can tell. A vampire called Godbrand made port back at Braila to gather what remained of her forces. They expect her to need at least another year before she can leave her coffin safely, let alone do anything more. [ He sighs, setting down a pauldron. ] Sorry I couldn’t do more. Hard to catch up with a boat by horse.
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time for some EXTREME MOOD WHIPLASH
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