[Summer has come and gone with little incident, and the castle has only become more and more hospitable to life. Most of the first floor is perfectly inhabitable now, with the kitchen working, all the rooms cleaned and most furnished, new rugs in place and Alucard's learned upholstery. There's a garden whose bounty has only provided and provided, and now with autumn on the horizon, it is time to prepare for harvests.
They've figured out how to be three. Three who go to bed, using Trevor as the mattress. Three who can cooperate and live together. Three who have figured out how to be intimate together, and so, so happy for it.
And then there are smaller kindnesses. Not gifts exactly, but ways to make life better. Which is what Alucard has in mind as he walks out to the garden now, followed by a guest who happens to be a centaur.]
[ He likes his garden. Their garden, really, but he’s the one who’s laid claim to it. The word suits him well, physical and filthy and sometimes difficult. Easy to take pride in, when it’s hard to find things to be proud of. And it all dies, every winter, and there’s a comfort to that.
He’s comfortable here in a way he never was anywhere before, in a way he’s still working on being within the walls of the castle proper. So comfortable that he doesn’t make a habit of wearing the eyepatch out here. ]
What is- shit!
[ He’d been in the process of turning toward Alucard and the guest and swiftly turns away again, fumbling around in his pocket for that strip of cloth that Alucard hates so much. ]
[ He goes quiet at that, bringing a hand up to his eye before he turns around. Feeling the stylised dragon burned into the skin over it. Even now it hums with nasty dragon magic. ]
You’re- you’re sure? It’s- [ He hesitates for a second, but the guest already knows about the brand now. ] -it’s the kind that sends the magic into your brain if you fuck around with it.
[ It’s not like they can die, but the idea of being brain-dead forever isn’t exactly a more appealing prospect. ]
Well sit, please. I'm terribly far to the ground in comparison to you.
[The centaur trots forward, standing up on his rear to try and make a better assessment. Alucard is quiet as he watches, because once Trevor is in range? The centaur starts to feel at the mark. Makes a few soft HMMM noises.]
These are old marks, but I've learned from those who dealt with dragon scars before.
[ He sits on the florr. Right there in the middle of his spinach patch. He's good at following instructions.
And as the centaur touches the mark, he freezes. There's no judgment, despite it being a brand used to mark traitors and the worst kinds of criminals, but it's still- difficult. Logically, he knows that this is good. Means that he can go about without that eyepatch that Alucard hates so much without worrying about people dragging him off for execution. It's just difficult. Alucard and Sypha don't touch it. He barely touches it, and it's on his own face. ]
It's in a more delicate place than most, but I've done eye removals before. Mr. Tepes, if I give you a list can you get what I require?
[Alucard nods. If they don't have it, he'll shadow walk to where he can get it. Whatever's needed.
Maybe it's silly, spending time and money on this. They live here, rarely go into town, and the thing causes no discomfort but emotional. But it feels important. Right.
So he's given the list. Alucard nods and walks back to the house, certain that they have everything. And in the mean time, the centaur looks to Trevor.]
If your home has everything, then we can begin. That will require you lying down though, and I'd rather not trample your spinach.
[ He'll be grateful later, but right now it's overwhelming. Wasteful. Terrifying. Something's clawing at his insides, the knowledge that that mark is the only proof that a massacre happened. Where else will the story be written, if not on his flesh?
There's a table, a good, sturdy one. They've used it for an healing bench for him before, so Alucard and Sypha didn't have to crouch to the ground to set bones or sew cuts. He leads the centaur to it, trying not to be too visibly agitated.
It'll be good. It means he can go into town more, maybe find work. Be around people other than the two of them. He just needs to deal with all the fucking feelings churning in his gut until this is done. ]
Can he be here? To watch for- I don't know. Magic shit going wrong. It'd be better that way. Safer. Probably.
[ He asks it as he perches on the table, lying back but motioning to Alucard. It's bullshit, what he's saying, and he knows it. It's just more masculine-feeling than saying he needs a hand to hold. ]
[Inside it is. The centaur brokers no dissent or disagreement, and so it's on to the table. A table that gets an approving nod from the creatures.
Alucard wanders in not very long after, a bucket of water in one hand and a bag of supplies in the other. For Chiros' part, the centaur takes them both and begins to set things up in an orderly fashion.]
Yes, that's fine.
[Alucard can guess that ther's more in Trevor's head than that, so he walks over. Puts his hand in Trevor's.]
No. I- no. This is- it makes sense. It’ll make everything easier. It’s just overwhelming. Had it since I was a kid and all, you know? Even if I don’t like the fucking thing, it’s- been there a long time.
[ He tries to avoid emotional things even now, and this? This is an emotional thing. ]
What’s going to be there, when you’re done? Just- normal skin and a normal eye?
[It's hard, squeezing Trevor's hand in his. But Alucard does it all the same.]
I understand.
[And he does. It's a part of Trevor, older than himself or Sypha or anything else that is on the planet now. Perhaps it's too much, doing this. They can always use illusion to return it, if Trevor truly wants.
The centaur has his hands in the water and is scrubbing.]
Yes, that will be it. I can retain a copy as a glamour, if you'd like to preserve it in some fashion.
No. No. If it’s gone, it’s gone. If I could glamour it back I’d just be having to make this decision every day.
[ He squeezes Alucard’s hand back, then turns to him. ]
I’m going to try. But- [ He’s always hyper aware that he is large and strong. He tries to regulate his emotions because of that, to avoid expressing things physically. But he’s not sure he can with this. He felt himself freeze when Chiros touched the scar before, and his rational mind had nothing to do with that. He really doesn’t want to hurt this doctor if he panics. ]-if I start acting weird, I need you to keep me still. You can do that, right?
I’m big. And this is- a lot. [ He vaguely remembers it taking ten men to hold him down to apply the brand in the first place, and there’s a reason he doesn’t like even Alucard and Sypha touching it. It spooks him, and he doesn’t want to hurt them. ] It’s not a great combination.
[ He briefly considers asking to be tied down, but then thinks better of it. There's a balance to be struck here, between measures that need to be taken to keep him from hurting people and the sensation of someone fucking with his face while he's trapped like an animal that's liable to make him struggle more. Being entirely immobilised, at least at first, might be a little too much of the latter.
Dog's gone completely silent by now, just cowering under the table like the useless ratdog that he is. ]
I'm ready. Just be ready. Even if we do have a healer on hand, I'd rather not get anyone hurt.
[The procedure goes like this: the centaur first traces the brand itself with a thin bit of magic, mapping the size, shape, depth, and magical nature of it all. Then he withdraws, hovering at a workbench and mixing....something. It smells like ash, and so the logic is there: dragon ashes remove these kinds of deep burns by filling in the dead skin.
But it still requires magic, and that's the tricky part. When the centaur comes back, it's with more forceful hands and a magic that works to the depth of the burn itself, trying to rebuild layer after layer.
It isn't a fast process.
Alucard stays where he is. At some point, Ellis walks in and flops down beside Dog. Nuzzling carefully.]
[ There's a stab of pain, a warning against tampering. That, he can deal with. That's fine. And, true to the centaur's word about his expertise, it fades. The warding spells picked open like a lock. The dragon ash keeping the magic of the brand from sensing anything amiss while it's slowly dismantled.
And it is slow. It's mercifully painless after that first moment, but it's slow. It's slow and uncomfortable and for brief moments he isn't here. Isn't in this castle. He's back in the order's halls, and he's twelve but he looks like a grown man and so they pin him to the ground first and he doesn't know yet that that's a blessing, that it means that when they start to lead them all to the gallows he'll have had the most time to recover. It's a dragonborn above him, not a centaur, and the branding rod in his hand is heated with dragonfire and he can smell the burning of skin even before it touches him.
It's only for a moment. But long enough for him to do real damage, but long enough for his hand to move out of Alucard's to wrap around his neck instead. He catches it before he squeezes, hurriedly pulling it away with a breathless- ]
[Alucard is good at holding onto Trevor. He's mastered it since
everything has happened. And then Trevor's hand move and Alucard freezes.
He goes back to Einjar, to Trevor's neck, to what it must have really felt
like to have teeth on the neck, to have flesh ripping and--]
Yes. Yes okay.
[Alucard had insisted Sypha teach him a few ice spells. He murmurs
one, and those are Trevor's restraints for now.]
[ Good. Good. They won't hold him for long, but they'll hold him long enough, hopefully, for the shock of touching the ice to bring him back to his senses.
To his credit the centaur remains calm through all of this, only pausing in his work for a moment when Trevor moves. And only then to avoid getting the magic in th ewrong place rather than to back away. Trevor's not sure what to think of the fact that he had no questions about removing a brand usually used to mark the kinds of people who murder children, but it is at least good for him and-
-the brand doesn't even hurt. It can't, the nerves are burned away instantly. The sound is worse than the feeling of it, the hiss of skin disintegrating against the heat of the iron. Distantly, he can feel flesh sticking to the thing as it's pulled away. There are screams from somewhere that feels very far away right now, some of horror and some of pain. They should be horrifying, but he can't quite bring himself to let them do anything but wash over him. It's a while before he realises that he must have stopped struggling, because nobody is holding him down anymore. He blinks, and only one eye closes.
And then there's something cold against his wrists, and it brings him back. He's here. Here and safe, and that eyelid has long since healed enough to close. He's still now, still and quiet, and the only indication that something's wrong is the smell of something dead and rotting under the table. Sorry, Ellis' nose. ]
[The centaur works with careful hands, his magic unfortunately a
thing that runs warm. Not hot, gods no, but warm enough to fill things
in. It's a little like having Sypha's fingers brush against exacting
spots, layer after layer after layer, and so it does.
Alucard keeps a hold of Trevor's hand, his eyes on the restraints, then
Trevor, and then the restraints. A pattern to make sure all is well, but
this is okay. Trevor communicated what was needed, and they were able to
provide. That's a blessing in and of itself.
Then Chiros' hand withdraws, there's a soft snort. It's matched by a whine
from Ellis, whose nose is finally overwhelemed.]
That should be it. But we'll let you rest half an hour before
inspecting the work.
[The ice melts away. Alucard walks over to where Trevor's head
rests, and there. A kiss, fleeting, to Trevor's lips.]
[ He's still. The kind of deathly still that people go when they don't want to be noticed. The smell of burning flesh is thick now, they've reached the last few. There aren't many people guarding those already branded. Not with all of them like Trevor is, immobilised by shock and metal chains, bodies shutting down in response to the trauma of the burns. He knows how this goes. There'll be a shout, soon, to drag them all to the gallows.
He'll be the strongest, the one who has had the longest to recover. He'll have time to break his own chains and those of the person next to him, to hoise them onto his back and to run. And he will run, faster than his body can truly manage, and he won't wonder why nothing stops him or what the small impacts against his back are. It'll only be when the pain takes over and his body starts shutting down again and he has to stop to vomit that he realises the boy he picked up is riddled with arrows, that he's inadvertently used them as a human shield. And he won't care.
So maybe it's better if none of that happens. If he just stays still and waits.
There's something cool against him. Lips. That's not right. That's not how this went. ]
Something smells like shit. [ He slurs his words slightly, not entirely present. It takes him a moment to even try to get his bearings, to go through a list of things that could logically be the source of a bad smell. Something dead. Himself. Animal droppings of some sort. People droppings of some sort. Or- ] -...it's Dog, isn't it?
[The dhampir can tell Trevor is in his own head. Deep in there,
memories that are far too painful coming to the surface. He runs his hands
down Trevor's face, trying to bring him back to the present.
Chiros has already left. A centaur can read a number of things, including
the room.
Alucard then laughs weakly as Trevor points out the obvious, and he peaks
under the table.]
...I'll clean that up.
[Ellis, for her part, is just nudging Dog to make sure he's okay.]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
USIR continuation
They've figured out how to be three. Three who go to bed, using Trevor as the mattress. Three who can cooperate and live together. Three who have figured out how to be intimate together, and so, so happy for it.
And then there are smaller kindnesses. Not gifts exactly, but ways to make life better. Which is what Alucard has in mind as he walks out to the garden now, followed by a guest who happens to be a centaur.]
Trevor?
no subject
He’s comfortable here in a way he never was anywhere before, in a way he’s still working on being within the walls of the castle proper. So comfortable that he doesn’t make a habit of wearing the eyepatch out here. ]
What is- shit!
[ He’d been in the process of turning toward Alucard and the guest and swiftly turns away again, fumbling around in his pocket for that strip of cloth that Alucard hates so much. ]
You have to warn me when we’re expecting guests.
no subject
[Alucard sighs, looking apologetic at the centaur before his gaze returns to Trevor with a calm certainty.]
If all goes well, you won't need to be dealing with it ever again. Chiros is a healer, and he specializes in removing magic-based brands.
Complicated ones.
no subject
[ He goes quiet at that, bringing a hand up to his eye before he turns around. Feeling the stylised dragon burned into the skin over it. Even now it hums with nasty dragon magic. ]
You’re- you’re sure? It’s- [ He hesitates for a second, but the guest already knows about the brand now. ] -it’s the kind that sends the magic into your brain if you fuck around with it.
[ It’s not like they can die, but the idea of being brain-dead forever isn’t exactly a more appealing prospect. ]
no subject
I'm sure. And if you feel it's too much of a risk, we'll stop. Agreed?
no subject
[ He sounds less than certain himself, but turns back. Finally looks at the visitor, scar and all. ]
What do I need to do?
no subject
[The centaur trots forward, standing up on his rear to try and make a better assessment. Alucard is quiet as he watches, because once Trevor is in range? The centaur starts to feel at the mark. Makes a few soft HMMM noises.]
These are old marks, but I've learned from those who dealt with dragon scars before.
no subject
And as the centaur touches the mark, he freezes. There's no judgment, despite it being a brand used to mark traitors and the worst kinds of criminals, but it's still- difficult. Logically, he knows that this is good. Means that he can go about without that eyepatch that Alucard hates so much without worrying about people dragging him off for execution. It's just difficult. Alucard and Sypha don't touch it. He barely touches it, and it's on his own face. ]
You can get rid of it?
[ His voice is a little choked. ]
no subject
[Alucard nods. If they don't have it, he'll shadow walk to where he can get it. Whatever's needed.
Maybe it's silly, spending time and money on this. They live here, rarely go into town, and the thing causes no discomfort but emotional. But it feels important. Right.
So he's given the list. Alucard nods and walks back to the house, certain that they have everything. And in the mean time, the centaur looks to Trevor.]
If your home has everything, then we can begin. That will require you lying down though, and I'd rather not trample your spinach.
no subject
[ He'll be grateful later, but right now it's overwhelming. Wasteful. Terrifying. Something's clawing at his insides, the knowledge that that mark is the only proof that a massacre happened. Where else will the story be written, if not on his flesh?
There's a table, a good, sturdy one. They've used it for an healing bench for him before, so Alucard and Sypha didn't have to crouch to the ground to set bones or sew cuts. He leads the centaur to it, trying not to be too visibly agitated.
It'll be good. It means he can go into town more, maybe find work. Be around people other than the two of them. He just needs to deal with all the fucking feelings churning in his gut until this is done. ]
Can he be here? To watch for- I don't know. Magic shit going wrong. It'd be better that way. Safer. Probably.
[ He asks it as he perches on the table, lying back but motioning to Alucard. It's bullshit, what he's saying, and he knows it. It's just more masculine-feeling than saying he needs a hand to hold. ]
no subject
Alucard wanders in not very long after, a bucket of water in one hand and a bag of supplies in the other. For Chiros' part, the centaur takes them both and begins to set things up in an orderly fashion.]
Yes, that's fine.
[Alucard can guess that ther's more in Trevor's head than that, so he walks over. Puts his hand in Trevor's.]
If you'd rather not, I understand.
no subject
[ He tries to avoid emotional things even now, and this? This is an emotional thing. ]
What’s going to be there, when you’re done? Just- normal skin and a normal eye?
no subject
I understand.
[And he does. It's a part of Trevor, older than himself or Sypha or anything else that is on the planet now. Perhaps it's too much, doing this. They can always use illusion to return it, if Trevor truly wants.
The centaur has his hands in the water and is scrubbing.]
Yes, that will be it. I can retain a copy as a glamour, if you'd like to preserve it in some fashion.
no subject
[ He squeezes Alucard’s hand back, then turns to him. ]
I’m going to try. But- [ He’s always hyper aware that he is large and strong. He tries to regulate his emotions because of that, to avoid expressing things physically. But he’s not sure he can with this. He felt himself freeze when Chiros touched the scar before, and his rational mind had nothing to do with that. He really doesn’t want to hurt this doctor if he panics. ]-if I start acting weird, I need you to keep me still. You can do that, right?
no subject
no subject
[ With his free hand, he gestures to himself. ]
I’m big. And this is- a lot. [ He vaguely remembers it taking ten men to hold him down to apply the brand in the first place, and there’s a reason he doesn’t like even Alucard and Sypha touching it. It spooks him, and he doesn’t want to hurt them. ] It’s not a great combination.
no subject
We'll begin whenever you say so.
no subject
Dog's gone completely silent by now, just cowering under the table like the useless ratdog that he is. ]
I'm ready. Just be ready. Even if we do have a healer on hand, I'd rather not get anyone hurt.
no subject
[The procedure goes like this: the centaur first traces the brand itself with a thin bit of magic, mapping the size, shape, depth, and magical nature of it all. Then he withdraws, hovering at a workbench and mixing....something. It smells like ash, and so the logic is there: dragon ashes remove these kinds of deep burns by filling in the dead skin.
But it still requires magic, and that's the tricky part. When the centaur comes back, it's with more forceful hands and a magic that works to the depth of the burn itself, trying to rebuild layer after layer.
It isn't a fast process.
Alucard stays where he is. At some point, Ellis walks in and flops down beside Dog. Nuzzling carefully.]
no subject
And it is slow. It's mercifully painless after that first moment, but it's slow. It's slow and uncomfortable and for brief moments he isn't here. Isn't in this castle. He's back in the order's halls, and he's twelve but he looks like a grown man and so they pin him to the ground first and he doesn't know yet that that's a blessing, that it means that when they start to lead them all to the gallows he'll have had the most time to recover. It's a dragonborn above him, not a centaur, and the branding rod in his hand is heated with dragonfire and he can smell the burning of skin even before it touches him.
It's only for a moment. But long enough for him to do real damage, but long enough for his hand to move out of Alucard's to wrap around his neck instead. He catches it before he squeezes, hurriedly pulling it away with a breathless- ]
-shit. Alucard, I need- immobilize me. Now.
no subject
[Alucard is good at holding onto Trevor. He's mastered it since everything has happened. And then Trevor's hand move and Alucard freezes. He goes back to Einjar, to Trevor's neck, to what it must have really felt like to have teeth on the neck, to have flesh ripping and--]
Yes. Yes okay.
[Alucard had insisted Sypha teach him a few ice spells. He murmurs one, and those are Trevor's restraints for now.]
no subject
To his credit the centaur remains calm through all of this, only pausing in his work for a moment when Trevor moves. And only then to avoid getting the magic in th ewrong place rather than to back away. Trevor's not sure what to think of the fact that he had no questions about removing a brand usually used to mark the kinds of people who murder children, but it is at least good for him and-
-the brand doesn't even hurt. It can't, the nerves are burned away instantly. The sound is worse than the feeling of it, the hiss of skin disintegrating against the heat of the iron. Distantly, he can feel flesh sticking to the thing as it's pulled away. There are screams from somewhere that feels very far away right now, some of horror and some of pain. They should be horrifying, but he can't quite bring himself to let them do anything but wash over him. It's a while before he realises that he must have stopped struggling, because nobody is holding him down anymore. He blinks, and only one eye closes.
And then there's something cold against his wrists, and it brings him back. He's here. Here and safe, and that eyelid has long since healed enough to close. He's still now, still and quiet, and the only indication that something's wrong is the smell of something dead and rotting under the table. Sorry, Ellis' nose. ]
no subject
[The centaur works with careful hands, his magic unfortunately a thing that runs warm. Not hot, gods no, but warm enough to fill things in. It's a little like having Sypha's fingers brush against exacting spots, layer after layer after layer, and so it does.
Alucard keeps a hold of Trevor's hand, his eyes on the restraints, then Trevor, and then the restraints. A pattern to make sure all is well, but this is okay. Trevor communicated what was needed, and they were able to provide. That's a blessing in and of itself.
Then Chiros' hand withdraws, there's a soft snort. It's matched by a whine from Ellis, whose nose is finally overwhelemed.]
That should be it. But we'll let you rest half an hour before inspecting the work.
[The ice melts away. Alucard walks over to where Trevor's head rests, and there. A kiss, fleeting, to Trevor's lips.]
no subject
He'll be the strongest, the one who has had the longest to recover. He'll have time to break his own chains and those of the person next to him, to hoise them onto his back and to run. And he will run, faster than his body can truly manage, and he won't wonder why nothing stops him or what the small impacts against his back are. It'll only be when the pain takes over and his body starts shutting down again and he has to stop to vomit that he realises the boy he picked up is riddled with arrows, that he's inadvertently used them as a human shield. And he won't care.
So maybe it's better if none of that happens. If he just stays still and waits.
There's something cool against him. Lips. That's not right. That's not how this went. ]
Something smells like shit. [ He slurs his words slightly, not entirely present. It takes him a moment to even try to get his bearings, to go through a list of things that could logically be the source of a bad smell. Something dead. Himself. Animal droppings of some sort. People droppings of some sort. Or- ] -...it's Dog, isn't it?
no subject
[The dhampir can tell Trevor is in his own head. Deep in there, memories that are far too painful coming to the surface. He runs his hands down Trevor's face, trying to bring him back to the present.
Chiros has already left. A centaur can read a number of things, including the room.
Alucard then laughs weakly as Trevor points out the obvious, and he peaks under the table.]
...I'll clean that up.
[Ellis, for her part, is just nudging Dog to make sure he's okay.]
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)