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.]
...no need. There'll be no- [ Possum shit. ] -he just makes that smell when he gets upset.
[ He's back in the present, at least. The smell is- actually very good for being sure of that. Dog continues to play dead, he'll be like that for a while now. Trevor doesn't get up, just lets his gaze drift from Alucard to the ceiling and back. He's here, safe. Those people died a long time again, all of them, in the fires of a war they wanted. ]
That's- uh. That's why I don't like the two of you touching it. Fucks with my head, and the last thing I want is to hurt one of you. [ And then quieter, because he doesn't want to be ungrateful. Because this will help, just maybe not in that way. ] I don't know if this'll change that. It's- fucking dragons.
[It's said with an exhausted sort of laugh, the kind Alucard almost
always makes when he's exhausted and in disbelief but so happy for it.
And for not having to clean up possum poop.
Ellis isn't happy though. She walks out of the room because her wolf nose
is too sensitive to deal. Alucard shakes his head as she goes, attention
returning to Trevor.]
In truth, I can't imagine what it does. [He can guess pretty well,
but.] I know. I know. But at the very least, there's freedom of
movement if you so desire it.
Yeah. It's- It's good. It's just hard. It's hard, and-
[ He sighs, tilting his head back so he's looking what would be upward if he were standing upright. Behind him, upside-down. There's less of the vertigo that would usually come from doing that one-eyed. ]
-I'm grateful. I'm more than grateful, I swear. I just- it's like it never happened. The official records are long gone. That's- the only real record that was left. It's like they were never there. Like I was never anything until I found the two of you.
[ And doesn't that last part sound just a little too close to the truth. ]
[Alucard debates just sitting down on the floor next to Trevor's
head. That doesn't feel right for the moment, so instead he just starts to
float, his hand finally settling on Trevor's cheek. His fingers move and
stroke it softly, but he does precious little more.
What a thing it is, being this tender and dealing with a smelly
possum.]
Surely some of the records survive.
[Says the man who lost his family's library.]
We could have something created just by us, if you'd like. [If only
to avoid that last little part that hits far too close to home.]
I'll think about it. Once my head's a less fucked up.
[ He sighs. ]
Maybe- maybe this is for the best. The Belmonts. The Speakers. Dracula. A bunch of shit the world forgot. That it never really wanted. That it doesn't need anymore.
There's just us, and we don't have to be anything at all unless we want to.
[ ...maybe that's the most terrifying part about this. With the removal of that brand? He can choose not to be a Belmont. Or he can get to choose, for the first time in his life of his own free will entirely, to be one. ]
[That feels like the most fair way to do it, as far as Alucard's
concerned. And as Trevor keeps talking, Alucard considers the weight of
what's really being said.
Speakers, well, maybe they should endure. Dracula's legacy, no. Best
forgotten. that of Lisa Tepes? That can change, but even then it can be a
small thing.
They've already spoken so much about what is owed to the world. That
they're just themselves, no strings or binds, that's been a powerful
thing. This? This just reinforces he freedom.]
[ He tries to sit up, groaning. He knows he wasn't sedated in any way, but it's still a massive effort. Like jumping between the past and present knocked all the energy out of his muscles. ]
Going to go to my rug.
[ And he doesn't say that he'll need help, but the effort involved in just sitting up and the amount of trepidation it seems to be taking just to push himself down from the table? Yeah, he probably needs help. ]
[ He takes a few unsteady steps once he's been 'helped' down from the table. He doesn't tend to get drunk enough for it to affect his coordination. It'd be expensive to, at his size. But this is probably a good approximation of how it would look. ]
Shit, maybe not the rug. Maybe the floor.
[ The rug seems so, so distant right now.But no. Alucard gets all upset about him lying down on florr, even though it's perfectly good and mostly clean, despite what the smell would suggest. ]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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[ 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?
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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.
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[ 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?
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[ 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.
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We'll begin whenever you say so.
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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.
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[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.
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[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. ]
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[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.]
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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?
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[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.]
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[ He's back in the present, at least. The smell is- actually very good for being sure of that. Dog continues to play dead, he'll be like that for a while now. Trevor doesn't get up, just lets his gaze drift from Alucard to the ceiling and back. He's here, safe. Those people died a long time again, all of them, in the fires of a war they wanted. ]
That's- uh. That's why I don't like the two of you touching it. Fucks with my head, and the last thing I want is to hurt one of you. [ And then quieter, because he doesn't want to be ungrateful. Because this will help, just maybe not in that way. ] I don't know if this'll change that. It's- fucking dragons.
[ Isn't that just the constant refrain? ]
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....Your Dog.
[It's said with an exhausted sort of laugh, the kind Alucard almost always makes when he's exhausted and in disbelief but so happy for it. And for not having to clean up possum poop.
Ellis isn't happy though. She walks out of the room because her wolf nose is too sensitive to deal. Alucard shakes his head as she goes, attention returning to Trevor.]
In truth, I can't imagine what it does. [He can guess pretty well, but.] I know. I know. But at the very least, there's freedom of movement if you so desire it.
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[ He sighs, tilting his head back so he's looking what would be upward if he were standing upright. Behind him, upside-down. There's less of the vertigo that would usually come from doing that one-eyed. ]
-I'm grateful. I'm more than grateful, I swear. I just- it's like it never happened. The official records are long gone. That's- the only real record that was left. It's like they were never there. Like I was never anything until I found the two of you.
[ And doesn't that last part sound just a little too close to the truth. ]
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[Alucard debates just sitting down on the floor next to Trevor's head. That doesn't feel right for the moment, so instead he just starts to float, his hand finally settling on Trevor's cheek. His fingers move and stroke it softly, but he does precious little more.
What a thing it is, being this tender and dealing with a smelly possum.]
Surely some of the records survive.
[Says the man who lost his family's library.]
We could have something created just by us, if you'd like. [If only to avoid that last little part that hits far too close to home.]
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[ He sighs. ]
Maybe- maybe this is for the best. The Belmonts. The Speakers. Dracula. A bunch of shit the world forgot. That it never really wanted. That it doesn't need anymore.
There's just us, and we don't have to be anything at all unless we want to.
[ ...maybe that's the most terrifying part about this. With the removal of that brand? He can choose not to be a Belmont. Or he can get to choose, for the first time in his life of his own free will entirely, to be one. ]
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Whatever you decide, I will abide by.
[That feels like the most fair way to do it, as far as Alucard's concerned. And as Trevor keeps talking, Alucard considers the weight of what's really being said.
Speakers, well, maybe they should endure. Dracula's legacy, no. Best forgotten. that of Lisa Tepes? That can change, but even then it can be a small thing.
They've already spoken so much about what is owed to the world. That they're just themselves, no strings or binds, that's been a powerful thing. This? This just reinforces he freedom.]
I think that is fair and wise.
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[ He tries to sit up, groaning. He knows he wasn't sedated in any way, but it's still a massive effort. Like jumping between the past and present knocked all the energy out of his muscles. ]
Going to go to my rug.
[ And he doesn't say that he'll need help, but the effort involved in just sitting up and the amount of trepidation it seems to be taking just to push himself down from the table? Yeah, he probably needs help. ]
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Careful, careful.
[For all Alucard resents being called willowy or being compared to a mosquito, the way he flits abou to just shove Trevor off the table? That's a lot.
...Shit.
About that rug.
Never mind, Trevor will see it when he sees it.]
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Shit, maybe not the rug. Maybe the floor.
[ The rug seems so, so distant right now.But no. Alucard gets all upset about him lying down on florr, even though it's perfectly good and mostly clean, despite what the smell would suggest. ]
-'s see if I can make it.
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[Alucard doesn't know how much he can do to help, but he'll do his best.]
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[ Walking straight is hard. He's exhausted. Dizzy. ]
Need to lie down. Close to the ground.
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