cryptsleeper: (Default)
Alucard \\ Adrian F. Ţepeş ([personal profile] cryptsleeper) wrote2018-11-01 07:51 pm
miraclewhip: (i21oWie)

[personal profile] miraclewhip 2019-11-24 02:31 am (UTC)(link)
What the fuck sort of question is-

[ Don't ask him questions when he's trying to kill you! Rude! He almost doesn't answer and just attacks again, but then he looks down the whip. The whip that's coiled itself harmlessly around Alucard's wrist. ]

-you knew her. Shit. You knew her.

[ The anger doesn't melt away, but something replaces it. He doesn't quite know what. ]

Let me- shit. Let me sit down. I'll kill you once you know.
miraclewhip: (ING5ycL)

[personal profile] miraclewhip 2019-11-24 03:03 am (UTC)(link)
I don't fucking know. Apparently most of it was made up.

[ He flicks his wrist, trying to uncoil the whip from around Alucard's wrist. it resists, just for a moment, and then falls to the ground. As does he, gracelessly, letting his legs buckle under his weight and drop him butt-first into the grass. ]

She was turned. Usually the dogs catch it in time, but it started in the brain. There's no way to avert that, even now, no matter how early it's caught.

[ He places the whip in the grass. It's similar to Juliet's own. The leather slightly darker. A small rabbit etched into the handle, opposite the family crest. ]

This is what we do, if that happens. What we've always done. We prepare them when we're young and just- keep them around. I have one for myself in case the worst happens, not that there's anyone for it to be any use to.
miraclewhip: (EkmBD4b)

[personal profile] miraclewhip 2019-11-24 03:33 am (UTC)(link)
I know- I know it's a couple centuries late, but I'm sorry for your loss.

[ He could tell Alucard more, give him a name, but Bluebeard is well known even among humans. Even if it was a few years both before and after his time, he can investigate. Giving him Bluebeards name may as well be giving him every grisly detail. ]

I- fuck. Look, I still kind of want to kill you. But since the whip isn't fucking cooperating and I didn't bring a sword, I can't. Let me rethink that 'doing this once I'm healed up' thing?
miraclewhip: (8BmNHW8)

[personal profile] miraclewhip 2019-11-24 08:44 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Should he follow? He hasn't been invited to. And he's still furious, even if that fury is tempered by all of this. And he should probably get back to the castle before Sypha realises he's gone and does something else stupid.

He stands. ]


Wait.

[ He's struggling as he hobbles after Alucard, but he can keep pace as long as the wolf is walking rather than running. ]
miraclewhip: 'I don't like it, I don't like it at all' (Wallachia man has feeling)

[personal profile] miraclewhip 2019-11-24 08:54 pm (UTC)(link)
Just- fuck.

[ He catches up and reaches out, resting a hand on Alucard's wolf head. ]

-I don't want you to be alone right now. I want you dead, not miserable. Let me- [ ugh, emotions are hard. He sinks to the ground, kneeling and wrapping his arms around Alucard's neck in a weird, uncomfortable hug. ] -let me stay with you.
miraclewhip: (ING5ycL)

[personal profile] miraclewhip 2019-11-24 09:09 pm (UTC)(link)
Suppose not. Then-

[ His arms shift, just a little. Wrapping something around Alucard. And then there are other arms, slightly thinner, wrapping around him from the other side. A warm weight against his back. A face with no stubble burying itself in his fur.

It's the whip. Coiled about his neck. Trevor ties it, then lets go of Alucard entirely. the weight and the thinner arms remain. He scoots back a little. ]


Like I said before. Take care of whatever you need to do. Then come back so I can kill you.
miraclewhip: no literally that's what's happening in this. (Default)

[personal profile] miraclewhip 2019-11-24 10:12 pm (UTC)(link)
Is that-

[ She pushes past Alucard, reaching out with a lack of caution that's unusual for her and dangerous in a place like this. It's a secret room, one that had clearly been bricked off centuries ago but that Dracula's rampage though his own home has revealed. ]

-it really is!

[ There is a single thing in the centre of the small room. An ornate reliquary of gold and crystal glass, and inside it- ]

The Morning Star! The Morning Star! It's been here, all along? Why on earth would-

[ No, she's not going to look a gift horse in the mouth. She turns around, gleeful, reaching out for Alucard's hands. ]

Adrian. I think- I think we can do this. This has to be a sign- we're not going to die here.
miraclewhip: (wuukvrd)

[personal profile] miraclewhip 2019-11-24 10:12 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Trevor doesn't care.

The castle moves, and Trevor doesn't care. It takes Sypha a few days to get the truth out of him, and she's furious with both of them, and Trevor doesn't care. She's too lonely to give anyone the silent treatment for long, and Trevor tries to care. She breaks down in frustration when he doesn't respond to her calls, and Trevor cares.

It's a little like kissing fire, save for that there's no lasting burn. It's painful and he can swear he feels his skin blister but it doesn't. It's probably a good thing that she's still furious enough with him that they don't kiss often. Only when she's lonely and afraid.

Alucard doesn't return, and Trevor doesn't care. Perhaps it's better that way. He doesn't have to kill him.

They work. Trevor goes out - Sypha can't leave the castle like this - to gather information and they pour over it together. Sightings of Spring Heel in new places, spreading further and further outward from London's centre. A few incidents with night creatures trying to take the castle that are dealt with soundly.

And then Sypha falls ill. It's not dramatic, not from a physical point of view. She starts referring to herself as 'we' instead of 'I'. The spinning thing that is her heart slows, moving in short and predictable beats as a human heart might instead of spinning.

But through the connection, it's clearer. Sypha's voice and the castle's are no longer separable. Her thoughts in the summons are muddled. She would probably never refer to Alucard as my prince in a non-sexy setting. Something is wrong. Something is going very wrong, and if it is reversible if may not be for long. ]
miraclewhip: would like to remind you of this at every possible opportunity (Wallachia man does not care)

[personal profile] miraclewhip 2019-11-24 10:50 pm (UTC)(link)
[ It's just a little dizziness, she says, but her fingertips are icy cold and that thing in her heart is burning hot. Trevor lays her down in their bed, stroking her hair until she sleeps, and then leaves.

The castle is about day's walk from London proper, far enough out from the city and well enough hidden that the appearance of a new building hasn't brought suspicion yet. But it means that gathering information is a task that takes multiple days. He doesn't like leaving Sypha alone while she's unwell, but- shit, they need to find a building that the castle can inhabit and they need to do it soon. He might not understand the severity of her illness, but he can tell that the castle's heart is fucking with her.

It means that Sypha is alone in the castle when Alucard enters. There's the sensation of the entire castle tensing, preparing to defend her from attack, but then it recognises him. That it took so long is probably a concern in itself.

It's easier to tell the differences seeing them all at once rather than watching her change gradually over a month. She's more gaunt than she was. The glowing red stuff that makes up the edges of her body where it cuts off to reveal the heart is black now, like cooled lava rather than molten. The heart has grown to about a half again its size.

It's consuming her. It's going to eat her to survive, and then there'll be nowhere for it to find shelter and it'll wither away and die. It knows the consequences and yet it can no more stop itself from doing this than a flame can stop itself from burning down a candle. ]
miraclewhip: no literally that's what's happening in this. (Default)

[personal profile] miraclewhip 2019-11-24 11:44 pm (UTC)(link)
[ It’s an odd sensation, the castle reaching out to touch Alucard. Nothing actually does physically contact him, and yet the sensation is there nonetheless. Then comes the answer, a stream of information. The castle doesn’t speak in words, Alucard just starts knowing things that he didn’t before.

Too small. The bat would be too small to contain it. Even as a man or wolf, he doesn’t have the sheer willpower that Sypha does. Not enough to sustain it for more than a few days. It wouldn’t burn him away the way it’s doing to Sypha, but it would starve after a week or less. It needs a body again. A building. And to be sustained with magic until if can recover. ]
miraclewhip: no literally that's what's happening in this. (Default)

[personal profile] miraclewhip 2019-11-25 08:47 am (UTC)(link)
[ There's a long silence. It's not something that the castle's ever been asked before, not even by Dracula himself.

A flood of information follows. It wants so many conflicting things. It wants its first master back. It wants whatever monsters were used as its building materials released to terrorise the world of humanity once again. It wants to once more serve something great and feared and powerful, to be a symbol of terror, to command subservience to its master in whatever helpless fool sees it looming above.

But there are other things it wants. Deeper things. Things that can't be heard over the deluge of monstrous things until they repeat so much that they fade into the background and the quieter things can be picked out.

It wants to be something great in this new age, and it doesn't care whether that comes from terrorising humanity or serving it. It wants the books in its libraries to be read and their knowledge used to help people or to destroy them. It wants the equipment in its laboratories at work brewing medicines or poisons. It wants to be a home again, else it wants to be an engine of war again.

Its first master wanted it to be a symbol of terror. Its second, in her brief time with it, wanted it to be a symbol of hope. It doesn't mind which it becomes, so long as it can be one of them. ]
miraclewhip: no literally that's what's happening in this. (Default)

[personal profile] miraclewhip 2019-11-25 09:14 pm (UTC)(link)
[ The speaker's eyes are still closed when she stands, placing a hand softly on Alucard's head. The castle can try to offer comfort, right now. It has the capacity. It has the speaker's memories and knows what comfort is. ]

I wish to be what I was. [ It's using Sypha's voice, but Sypha would never have such difficulties with words. It pauses between each one, struggling to speak in a human tongue. ] At your side or at your father's.
miraclewhip: no literally that's what's happening in this. (Default)

[personal profile] miraclewhip 2019-11-25 09:56 pm (UTC)(link)
She would. But she is not here. She will not return.

[ The castle's tone doesn't change - that's a human subtlety that it can't even begin to manage. But the energy of the building swells with some sort of feeling.

The castle does sit, at least, even if it struggles a little with the concept. Butt on bed, it manages. It can't quite figure out what one does with the legs. Eventually it gathers them up against its chest, using them to shield its spinning heart. That is probably what one uses legs for. ]


I refuse to die. Should the speaker be the price of that, so be it.

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