Mmm, experience has long since taught me that one cannot rule out the human element. If you like, I can walk out tomorrow and see if I am targeted the same way.
[Alucard sighs, and while he does watch Trevor undress, there's nothing really there either. Just a man taking care of getting ready for bed.]
They don't care for the accent, I can tell that much. Not thrilled to have a foreigner about. But it's a big enough community that everyone doesn't know everyone else. Nobody asking too many questions, at least not openly. Worst I've had is folk refusing me work.
[ He sighs, combing his fingers through his hair to get mud and leaves out of it. ]
Probably best if you don't talk too much, if you do. You talk stranger than either of us.
[ Four centuries in a box will leave one's vocabulary in languages that are not even one's first language just a little weird and outdated. ]
Used to insist to my tutors that I'd never need to know old Romanian, but here we are. Guess they got the last laugh.
[ He grumbles - he's tired - but he stands and moves to perch on Alucard's bed. There's a decent sized clump of some sort of plant matter in his hair, just out of reach. ]
Fell in a ditch while I was trying to lose the fucker. But they didn't follow me into the ditch, so I suppose it worked.
You'll have to speak English, out there. Not Ancient Frengreekmanian, or whatever you'd call this.
[ First if only because of the lack of branches in the castle. He tenses at the contact, as if expecting something bad to happen, and then relaxes. It's the tiniest thing, but after so long without even the tiniest parts of being cared for- it's nice. He chuckles, at that and at their stupid chimera of a language and at Alucard's comment. ]
Jealous that you're not going to be the only one with a bark?
[ Is he laughing at his own joke? Yes, he is laughing at his own awful, awful joke. Loudly enough that he has to cover his mouth with a hand to avoid waking Sypha. ]
Oh, of course not. Why [ Ahem. ] wood [ Ahem. ] I do that?
[ God knows why this horrible side of him is coming out now, of all times. He's tired, he's being shown the slightest bit of care, and- apparently being made comfortable around people leads to puns. He's having a good time with it, at least. ]
[ There's a snort of laughter at that, and Sypha stirs. Trevor immediately claps both hands over his mouth while she turns over and returns to her rest. He's still chuckling when he withdraws them.
It's a relief. To just talk. Talk like normal people with terrible senses of humour. He's been able to do that with Sypha, every now and then, but Alucard is different. Too close and too distant all at once. He's known him his whole life, and yet they've never really spoken. But here they are, with terrible tree and dog jokes.
He leans back a little, not far enough that his weight is against Alucard but closer. ]
That's not all of it? Shit, I don't know why I go to the markets for vegetables. I just need to fall of a few more ditches and we'll be fed for a week.
[Alucard's own laugh is very soft. It hesitates, unsure and uncomfortable, but it feels nice. It's a break in the tension at least, and that counts for an awful lot.]
There's absolutely nothing edible in here, I assure you.
[Alucard tuts, but he manages to remove the very last leaf and then awkwardly pats the top of Trevor's head.]
Yeah, nothing worse than a couple bruises. And a lot of leaves.
[ He should probably. Stand up, shouldn’t he? Stop sitting on Alucard’s bed. He falls silent for a while before actually managing that, sitting down on his own with a tired huff. ]
Anything that needs doing around here, if I’m not leaving tomorrow? If not, I’ll check over the cottage again, see if I can figure out anything about what makes it so the castle can use it.
[It's a little sad, Trevor getting up. He's warm, warm and human, and his absence means nothing but cold. The castle is trying so hard to be warm right now, but it's a struggle.]
Let's just investigate the cottage. Go from there.
[ He almost gets into bed but then remembers something, standing and picking up he cloak. Not too damp. He tosses it on top of Sypha who, as always, immediately reacts in her sleep to cocoon herself in the thing.
It’s his new favourite part of the day, watching her do that, and worth giving up the extra warmth for.
He doesn’t sleep soundly, never does sober, jerking awake at every one of the castle’s creaks and groans. One hand at a knife before his eyes open properly. Eventually, as always, this happens close enough to morning that he decides fuck it, sleeping is over.
The castle doesn’t have running water, not yet, but Sypha heats water for them to do their respective morning rituals. Trevor’s doesn’t really involve the water so much, beyond splashing it onto his face. ]
[Alucard's a wolf before long, but he doesn't sleep either. He's slept for 400 years. He doesn't need anymore sleep.
Instead, he is still. Processing everything he can, quietly as possible. He knows Trevor doesn't sleep deeply. He's fine with that, because it means he's not alone in that particular failure.
He does wash in the morning. Face and hands. As much as Alucard wants real bath, he'll wait for the castle to be ready for that. So he stands quietly, waiting for the other two.]
[ The contents of the house are the same as before. Same bones, same bottles. The kitchen area looks to have been used for cooking as well as mixing poisons or medicines.
There’s an egg. A hollow one, its contents long escaped from the shell through a crack and desiccated, thankfully long beyond the point of stench. It’s not much different to the other remnants of daily life left here, at least until their searching knocks it aside. It rolls, revealing the other side of the empty eggshell. ]
The fuck.
[ There, bleached in white on the brown eggshell, is a simple phrase. ‘THE LORD WILL BRING YOU LOW’ ]
Alucard walks over towards it, his hands pointedly in his pockets so that he doesn't touch it. Or even think about touching it.]
Well, there's fortune telling techniques that rely upon cheese, you know. [He says this calmly. Matter-of-factly.] Maybe this is akin to the cheese technique?
Shit. Can’t even get a good breakfast without portents of doom.
[ He does pick up the egg. It’s gross in theory, but it’s dried out. ] Mm. Probably a stupid question, but I’m guessing your father had a fairly low opinion of my God?
Thought it might be people getting hurt in a building that made it so the castle could go there. That would have happened at the abbey, and it looks like it happened here. But- shit, I’m not so naive as to think that there’s a lack of houses that people’ve been killed in.
[ If that was all the castle needed, this would be easy. ]
But contempt for God? Someone really, truly believing themselves to be more powerful? That’s rarer. If that’s the key-
[ There’s a sound at the door. Wood scraping on wood. Someone’s barred it. Outside, there are voices. ]
The Austrian girl was right. The witch really is back. Listen to her moving around in there.
[ Then comes the smell of smoke, as the thatch of the roof begins to catch alight. ]
Perhaps. I mean, we could try simply asking the castle at this point, it may be the more straight forward way of getting information out of--
[Alucard goes ramrod straight. The word witch catches his ear, but oh that smell of smoke.
What happens next is a rush. Perhaps better characterized as a panic, because he first lunges for Trevor to try and grab him. He gets the Belmont by the waist, then barrels for the door. There's smoke. They're talking about witches and there's smoke, and Alucard is clear through the door. Never mind a bar. He's used himself as a barrier to break through.]
This is familiar. The smell of smoke, the crowd of people. The cold, dead body next to him as it all happens. There are more shouts. Jeers. Calls of 'that's her, with the frenchman' that send Trevor looking around for Sypha before he realises that there's just smoke in their eyes and it's Alucard they mean. ]
She's- shit, she's in the- [ He swallows, and the air is already thick enough with smoke that it burns. The thatch is damp, producing a horrible, choking amount of the stuff. He doesn't know what the fire will do to the castle. He doesn't know what will happen if it doesn't have a shell of a building to inhabit anymore.
He doesn't know what will happen to Sypha inside the castle if something happens to it. ]
Leave! [ He slams the door shit as he speaks, hoping that that'll be enough to indicate to the castle that he's talking to it and not to the people outside. Despite all appearances. God, he hopes that the castle understands his less-than-perfect English. ] Go somewhere else! [ And then, narrowing his eyes at the nearest man, the one holding the torch- ]
-We'll find you, wherever you go. When you think you're safe.
[ How to threaten a crowd and communicate an escape plan to a castle at the same time, a tutorial by Trevor Belmont. ]
Alucard's always looked like his mother. He used to take pride in it, but now? Oh. Oh, that's a horror to hear, and his instinct is to transform into a wolf. Tear out throats, because he isn't his mother. He'll defend himself, even if there's no point in life right now. He's...
Sypha. They still have to find Sypha.
Leave! and the ground beneath them both rumbles. The castle's replied, and oh, oh it's moving. It has Sypha in it and it will go.
But that seems to have solved the problem, and the smoke clears just enough for Alucard to skulk behind trevor. Gold eyes peering out of the dark. Saying nothing, because Trevor said not to.]
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[Alucard sighs, and while he does watch Trevor undress, there's nothing really there either. Just a man taking care of getting ready for bed.]
Mmm. How are the townspeople reacting to you?
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[ He sighs, combing his fingers through his hair to get mud and leaves out of it. ]
Probably best if you don't talk too much, if you do. You talk stranger than either of us.
[ Four centuries in a box will leave one's vocabulary in languages that are not even one's first language just a little weird and outdated. ]
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[She knows all the old languages, but the point stands.]
But I'll keep that in mind and-- oh come here you're never going to get at the stuff from the angle you're at.
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[ He grumbles - he's tired - but he stands and moves to perch on Alucard's bed. There's a decent sized clump of some sort of plant matter in his hair, just out of reach. ]
Fell in a ditch while I was trying to lose the fucker. But they didn't follow me into the ditch, so I suppose it worked.
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[Trevor was not the only one. Just the last one.
And the first Belmont he's had to groom like this. Alucard stands up slowly, and there. That's--
--nearly an entire branch. There's a soft snuffle as Alucard extracts the thing, trying his best to be gentle.]
You're almost a tree now.
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[ First if only because of the lack of branches in the castle. He tenses at the contact, as if expecting something bad to happen, and then relaxes. It's the tiniest thing, but after so long without even the tiniest parts of being cared for- it's nice. He chuckles, at that and at their stupid chimera of a language and at Alucard's comment. ]
Jealous that you're not going to be the only one with a bark?
[ DOG PUNS. ]
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[Because there's only the Kingdom of Romania now, or that's what Alucard has come to understand from all of the newspapers.
He keeps working though, picking smaller pieces out first and--]
Are you kidding me?
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Oh, of course not. Why [ Ahem. ] wood [ Ahem. ] I do that?
[ God knows why this horrible side of him is coming out now, of all times. He's tired, he's being shown the slightest bit of care, and- apparently being made comfortable around people leads to puns. He's having a good time with it, at least. ]
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I can't beleaf you managed to get this dirty.
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It's a relief. To just talk. Talk like normal people with terrible senses of humour. He's been able to do that with Sypha, every now and then, but Alucard is different. Too close and too distant all at once. He's known him his whole life, and yet they've never really spoken. But here they are, with terrible tree and dog jokes.
He leans back a little, not far enough that his weight is against Alucard but closer. ]
That's not all of it? Shit, I don't know why I go to the markets for vegetables. I just need to fall of a few more ditches and we'll be fed for a week.
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There's absolutely nothing edible in here, I assure you.
[Alucard tuts, but he manages to remove the very last leaf and then awkwardly pats the top of Trevor's head.]
Take a look. Pile's on your right.
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[ He turns to look at the leaf pile and - wow. He managed to end up with so, so many leaves. ]
Shit, that’s more leaf than I have hair. [ And then, a little awkwardly. ] Thanks. It’d have been uncomfortable, sleeping on all that.
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[Alucard can feel the awkward settling in, and there it is. They're both terribly awkward without Sypha there, aren't they?]
You're welcome. You're otherwise unharmed?
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[ He should probably. Stand up, shouldn’t he? Stop sitting on Alucard’s bed. He falls silent for a while before actually managing that, sitting down on his own with a tired huff. ]
Anything that needs doing around here, if I’m not leaving tomorrow? If not, I’ll check over the cottage again, see if I can figure out anything about what makes it so the castle can use it.
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[It's a little sad, Trevor getting up. He's warm, warm and human, and his absence means nothing but cold. The castle is trying so hard to be warm right now, but it's a struggle.]
Let's just investigate the cottage. Go from there.
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[ He almost gets into bed but then remembers something, standing and picking up he cloak. Not too damp. He tosses it on top of Sypha who, as always, immediately reacts in her sleep to cocoon herself in the thing.
It’s his new favourite part of the day, watching her do that, and worth giving up the extra warmth for.
He doesn’t sleep soundly, never does sober, jerking awake at every one of the castle’s creaks and groans. One hand at a knife before his eyes open properly. Eventually, as always, this happens close enough to morning that he decides fuck it, sleeping is over.
The castle doesn’t have running water, not yet, but Sypha heats water for them to do their respective morning rituals. Trevor’s doesn’t really involve the water so much, beyond splashing it onto his face. ]
Ready to head back into the cottage?
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Instead, he is still. Processing everything he can, quietly as possible. He knows Trevor doesn't sleep deeply. He's fine with that, because it means he's not alone in that particular failure.
He does wash in the morning. Face and hands. As much as Alucard wants real bath, he'll wait for the castle to be ready for that. So he stands quietly, waiting for the other two.]
Yes, if you are.
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There’s an egg. A hollow one, its contents long escaped from the shell through a crack and desiccated, thankfully long beyond the point of stench. It’s not much different to the other remnants of daily life left here, at least until their searching knocks it aside. It rolls, revealing the other side of the empty eggshell. ]
The fuck.
[ There, bleached in white on the brown eggshell, is a simple phrase. ‘THE LORD WILL BRING YOU LOW’ ]
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What the fuck is the egg.
Alucard walks over towards it, his hands pointedly in his pockets so that he doesn't touch it. Or even think about touching it.]
Well, there's fortune telling techniques that rely upon cheese, you know. [He says this calmly. Matter-of-factly.] Maybe this is akin to the cheese technique?
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[ He does pick up the egg. It’s gross in theory, but it’s dried out. ] Mm. Probably a stupid question, but I’m guessing your father had a fairly low opinion of my God?
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[Alucard isn't terribly weirded out by the egg. He simply watches, curious.]
Why?
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[ If that was all the castle needed, this would be easy. ]
But contempt for God? Someone really, truly believing themselves to be more powerful? That’s rarer. If that’s the key-
[ There’s a sound at the door. Wood scraping on wood. Someone’s barred it. Outside, there are voices. ]
The Austrian girl was right. The witch really is back. Listen to her moving around in there.
[ Then comes the smell of smoke, as the thatch of the roof begins to catch alight. ]
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[Alucard goes ramrod straight. The word witch catches his ear, but oh that smell of smoke.
What happens next is a rush. Perhaps better characterized as a panic, because he first lunges for Trevor to try and grab him. He gets the Belmont by the waist, then barrels for the door. There's smoke. They're talking about witches and there's smoke, and Alucard is clear through the door. Never mind a bar. He's used himself as a barrier to break through.]
Belmont, where's Sypha?!
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This is familiar. The smell of smoke, the crowd of people. The cold, dead body next to him as it all happens. There are more shouts. Jeers. Calls of 'that's her, with the frenchman' that send Trevor looking around for Sypha before he realises that there's just smoke in their eyes and it's Alucard they mean. ]
She's- shit, she's in the- [ He swallows, and the air is already thick enough with smoke that it burns. The thatch is damp, producing a horrible, choking amount of the stuff. He doesn't know what the fire will do to the castle. He doesn't know what will happen if it doesn't have a shell of a building to inhabit anymore.
He doesn't know what will happen to Sypha inside the castle if something happens to it. ]
Leave! [ He slams the door shit as he speaks, hoping that that'll be enough to indicate to the castle that he's talking to it and not to the people outside. Despite all appearances. God, he hopes that the castle understands his less-than-perfect English. ] Go somewhere else! [ And then, narrowing his eyes at the nearest man, the one holding the torch- ]
-We'll find you, wherever you go. When you think you're safe.
[ How to threaten a crowd and communicate an escape plan to a castle at the same time, a tutorial by Trevor Belmont. ]
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Fuck.
Alucard's always looked like his mother. He used to take pride in it, but now? Oh. Oh, that's a horror to hear, and his instinct is to transform into a wolf. Tear out throats, because he isn't his mother. He'll defend himself, even if there's no point in life right now. He's...
Sypha. They still have to find Sypha.
Leave! and the ground beneath them both rumbles. The castle's replied, and oh, oh it's moving. It has Sypha in it and it will go.
But that seems to have solved the problem, and the smoke clears just enough for Alucard to skulk behind trevor. Gold eyes peering out of the dark. Saying nothing, because Trevor said not to.]
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WAIT SHIT THIS ONE SHOULD HAVE BEEN FIRST
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