Catch All

[cryptsleeper]

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[miraclewhip]

Where the roses stop growing.

[ He lets Alucard lead, in no particular hurry. ]

You'll know if you go too far. If you return quickly, nothing ill should come of it.

[cryptsleeper]

I'll walk the grounds in full tomorrow so I know where all the lines are.

[They reach the last door, and at it, Alucard pauses.]

...Thank you. I understand you did this for your own gain, but my mother wouldn't live otherwise. I am grateful.

[miraclewhip]

You'd be the only one in Wallachia capable of gratitude, then.

[ That would be a rude bear way of saying you're welcome. He leaves with a growl, leaving Alucard alone with Sypha. A deer corpse appears by the kitchen door a few hours later, along with a basket of winter vegetables.

The source of the vegetables, as it turns out, is the estate's gardens. They're vast and, if not beautiful then certainly functional and more carefully maintained than anything inside the house. All vegetables, barely any of the roses at all.

The bear makes itself scarce when Alucard moves around the grounds. As he said, the roses are dotted around as far as the belmont grounds stretch. Where they stop, Alucard's hands and feet grow colder and heavier.

There are two rabbits at the kitchen door when he returns, and the basket has been filled with vegetables again. ]

[cryptsleeper]

[So it goes.

Alucard spends the first week learning the estate grounds. The boundary lines are the most important, because they're the ones that will leave nothing but stone behind. Then he learns his wing of the estate proper, and then explores everything else. It's a careful, methodical thing that he breaks up with doing as he is asked: talking to Sypha as if she is still flesh. Reading out loud whatever book he selects, although for now most of them seem to be on architecture. Simply being present.

With all of that is the bear's delivery of food. The venison, the rabbit, even the vegetables. They're taken care of with deep care. The furs are set aside to try and treat if they are able. Their blood is taken. Things are cooked.

He leaves some of the meat outside of the doors. For the bear. Because Alucard is sure that he must eat as well.

By the end of the week, Alucard has gotten the pattern of life down. The next part, the next part is where struggles begin. The first of which involves finding the bear late one morning in the garden.]

Bearmont?

[Alucard's tone is polite and cautious.]

[miraclewhip]

[ He likes his garden. What started out as something necessary to maintain some shred of humanity has long become something of a hobby. It makes winter a miserable time, but spring will be coming in a month or so, and there's work to be done to prepare.

He stops digging (with his paws, of course, rather than a shovel) and looks up, ears twitching as he tilts his head. ]

Is there something you need?

[cryptsleeper]

Well.

[Alucard has a book in his arms. But his focus is on the bear. There's no attempt to step forward, as Alucard knows he's about to ask something delicate.]

I would like to start to work on my half of our agreement. About curse breaking. But that requires me to ask painful questions.

[miraclewhip]

I didn’t ask this of you.

[ It’s dismissive. He shakes mud from his paws. ]

You just need to stay here, nothing more. The curse will attend to itself.

[cryptsleeper]

[Alucard frowns.]

That doesn't sound right.

[The dismissive tone means he's hit a nerve. That he needs to press carefully.]

Let me try? I need something to occupy my mind while I reside here.

[miraclewhip]

Very well.

[ He huffs. He doesn’t like this. He has his own strategy for this fucking curse, and he doesn’t know that Alucard already ruined it by finding a way to tell his father the truth. ]

What did you need to know?

[cryptsleeper]

The first thing I have to know is if I break your curse, is Sypha's also undone?

[miraclewhip]

I don't know.

[ He finally moves out of the patch of what will hopefully be radishes come springtime, getting closer to Alucard and looking him over. ]

She's like this because she fucked up and broke her word, not because of this curse. Just stay, treat her decently, and she'll be fine.

[cryptsleeper]

[Alucard wants to press just a hair more. Clarify if him keeping his oath frees her. But no. Bad idea.

So he focuses on the Bearmont instead.]

This curse then. You said you don't remember things?

[miraclewhip]

This isn’t necessary.

[ He huffs again. This is foolish. Dangerous. Completely unnecessary. He’ll fuck up, like the speaker did. ]

I don’t know if there is anything to remember. I am the curse, I don’t know if I was anything before that.

[cryptsleeper]

It is. I'm more likely to try and escape before our terms end if I don't have something that can consume my thoughts.

[Then he'll be like the Speaker, he doesn't say.]

May I ask if you were fully grown or a cub when you found yourself here?

[miraclewhip]

I’ve always been-

[ Wait. Escape? NOPE. In an instant he’s on two legs instead of four, towering over Alucard and snarling. ]

You do not leave.

[cryptsleeper]

Then you answer my questions.

[HE AIN'T SCARED OF NO BEAR.

Alucard only stares up at the bear with a frown. SON OF DRACULA, TRY AGAIN.]

[miraclewhip]

[ Well shit.

He doesn’t really have a response to that, because he did kind of make a vow of his own that Alucard would be safe so long as he did as he was told. And he’s not breaking any rules right now, just saying that he might.

This really is just like the speaker all over again. He drops down to all fours and stalks past Alucard toward the ruins of the house. ]

I have always been like this. One day each month, I am human. The human was small and mostly hairless and has grown to correct this.

[cryptsleeper]

[One could say they're smarter than your average bear.

Alucard falls in line, following after Trevor without missing a beat.]

I see. So he's matured to adulthood over the years. [Years that Alucard has to guess roughly align with the destruction of the state.]

What are the details of the curse, as you understand them?

[miraclewhip]

I exist. Vows made to me must be kept. The roses will not allow the innocent to be harmed where they grow.

[ That's- really basically it, so far as he understands. ]

Perhaps something would happen to people who tried to work this land without my leave. I wouldn't know.

[cryptsleeper]

[Well, that explains the mechanism of how his mother was saved.

Alucard nods quietly.]

Would the human on the new moon perhaps know something?

[miraclewhip]

[ He shakes his head, heading for a part of the more ruined side of the estate. The place he moves to was probably a large fireplace once, but it clearly hasn't had that use in a decade at least. It's a den now, packed with furs over layers of earth to keep it insulated, the chimney filled up with clay. ]

I doubt it. I don't think he knows anything I don't.

[cryptsleeper]

Okay.

[Alucard will ask anyway. The worst that he can do is fail.]

I brought a selection of books from my father's library in an attempt to find something that will help.

[e walks over to the old fireplace, running a hand over the old and worn mantle.]

I was saving some of the animal furs from the game you've brought back. Would you like me to treat them so you have additional furs?

[miraclewhip]

You don't need to- Ugh. Do what you wish.

[ He should have figured out some form of entertainment beyond 'read to stone waifu', shouldn't he? Then this wouldn't be happening. He reaches out a paw, making a dismissive gesture. ]

This is all I need. Keep them for yourself.

[cryptsleeper]

[Yeah Trevor, you fucked up. And these books are already being read to stone wife so shut up.

Alucard sighs, aware that he's now hit a brick wall.]

Very well.

[He then pauses, then remembers he has forgotten to share something important.]

From time to time, I may not be human. I can be a bat, or--

[Awooo, buddy. There's a wolf in front of you now. The wolf makes a soft huff then it turns back into a person.]

Just so that you know there has been no trespasser.

[miraclewhip]

[ The wolf gets him to pay attention, at least. He raises his head, moving forward and sniffing, then falls back. ]

I understand. I won't hunt anything that smells like you.

[ And then, after a long moment, he snorts. ]

Adrian?