Catch All

[cryptsleeper]

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[miraclewhip]

The fuck part of this is explaining yourself?

[ He recovers, though there's going to be a hell of a bruise to deal with later. For now, he still has the whip coiled around Alucard's arm. It's not ideal, but it's better than having to get it to Alucard in the first place in the narrow corridor. He tugs. He's not going to dragging Alucard across the room and slamming him into walls in the same way that the vampire can, but he can at least pull the chain tighter.

He can hurt him, and right now maybe he wants that as much as he wants answers. ]

[cryptsleeper]

It's hardly my fault that you don't listen.

[Part of Alucard's hindbrain clocks that Sypha? She hasn't said anything. Done anything. Normally by now she stops their stupidity.

But he's still chained. In pain. And so Alucard slams his entire arm against the wall, looking to break the tension on the chain.]

[miraclewhip]

[ The slam pulls him forward, loosening the chain again. It's like a very unpleasant game of tug of war. He flicks his wrist, loosening the chain around Alucard's arm further until he can pull it away. New plan. If Alucard isn't going to give them answers, he'll take blood instead.

He takes the star of the whip into his hand, wrapping his fist around it. If the whip won't work, he'll just get the consecrated metal to Alucard the old-fashioned way. He dashes forward, ready to- ]

We'll leave.

[ He freezes halfway to punching a vampire. Sypha finally speaks, voice small. Not looking at Alucard still. ]

Just tell us their names so we can mark the graves, and we'll leave.

[cryptsleeper]

[Alucard is ready for that next move. He's halfway into leaping at Trevor when Sypha finally speaks, and...

...he almost crashes. Doesn't, he's too graceful for that, but her awful tone is enough to snap him out of fight mode. Ground him just enough to give the worst reply, his own tone firm and unyielding.]

They made an attempt on my life. Their names die with them.

[miraclewhip]

And so you thought it would be a good idea to put them on sticks? The way the hordes decorated Gresit with entrails? We thought-

[ -maybe it doesn't matter what they thought. They were wrong. He was no better than the night horde after all. ]

We have to bury them. This is wrong. Too cruel, no matter what happened.

Please, Alucard. Just this one thing, for the person we thought you were. And then we'll leave you.

[cryptsleeper]

I thought I would ward this entire part of Wallachia with ample means for people to turn back.

[He both is and isn't defending what he's done. Guess how much he cares.]

You don't have to do anything. You weren't here. Stop acting as if coming back here was a priority.

[He doesn't care. He doesn't.

He walks past Trevor. A last sign of trust - he turns his back to them both.]

[miraclewhip]

We noticed. Forgive us if we're not thrilled about pits full of spikes. Had a couple bad experiences lately.

[ Flatly. Yeah. The traps. That was a thing. He doesn't attack Alucard while his back's turned, but he doesn't return the morning star to his belt. ]

...and neither of us said a word about coming back here being a priority. It wasn't.

[ Is someone projecting, vampire? ]

[cryptsleeper]

So don't linger. Refresh your supplies from the kitchen and be on your ways.

[He's sure that he's far enough down the corridor now that he's out of range of the whip. Sypha? Less so.]

[miraclewhip]

Or what, you put us on sticks as well?

[ He follows, the morning star dragging across the floor, but still doesn't attack. ]

Or are we special? Will you hang us from the windows maybe? Use us to decorate the hallway? Pull out our organs to have us stuffed with sawdust?

[cryptsleeper]

Just go.

[Tiredness sneaks into the two simple words. Even as he keeps walking. Keeps trying to escape this conversation. Just let it end.]

[miraclewhip]

No.

[ No. He flicks his wrist again. Not to attack, just to make the chain of the whip ring against the stone. ]

I'm a Belmont, you're a vampire who lives in this castle and puts people on sticks. You know that can only end one of two ways.

[cryptsleeper]

As you are so very fond of saying, I don't care.

(He doesn't care and he uses his stupid speed to leave the corridor entirely.)

Il giorno giovedì 5 marzo 2020, miraclewhip - DW Comment < dw_null@dreamwidth.org> ha scritto:

[miraclewhip]

[ Sypha sinks to the ground. Trevor slams the handle of his whip into the wall.

They don't speak. Eventually, Sypha stands. She leaves, because the bodies still need to be dealt with. They bury the bodies, and Sypha performs the rites that the speakers perform for the nameless dead they find along the road.

They're skeletons in fucking nightdresses. It's hard to believe that they posed enough of a threat to warrant this.

Sypha can't bear to reenter the castle. But Trevor? Trevor has hunting to do.

He's ill-prepared for his family's work here, not quite trusting Alucard to run if he so much as tries to go the to hold beneath them for resources. They thought they'd be coming home to a friendly place. He didn't bring half of the shit he needs to win. But he's hurt. He's hurt and Sypha's hurt and-

-they'd thought he wasn't like this.

He said he was going to move the castle, and Trevor vaguely remembers the way to the engine rooms. He doesn't have a plan. Just go there, make a nuisance of himself. Prevent Alucard from working on the engines until he has to fight him. ]

[cryptsleeper]

[He is indeed in the engine room. Still sat in his semi circle. Taking notes. Ignoring the new wave of guilt and shame that has washed over himself in the last few minutes.

Alucard knows this new wave is of his own making. That this sort of action would all but summon the other two to the castle, seeing only the shadow of Dracula himself. Not the mad thing that he was for months prior to...

...he still can't name it.

They'll leave. They'll leave, he'll get the engines working, and they'll never see him again. The dhampir can be content in going mad, with all bridges well and truly burnt behind him.

They were never going to come back, until he did this.

Of course.

When Trevor finds his way to the engine rooms, he is ignored.]

[miraclewhip]

[ He thought that he'd attack on sight. He'd need to. Alucard has every possible advantage. And yet he doesn't. He just walks toward Alucard, Alucard in his fortress of books. ]

Why?

[ He wishes his voice didn't become so small. He's not sure when he stopped being angry, when he stopped being a pained thing lashing out. He misses it. Without it, he's just a pained thing. ]

I don't understand.

[cryptsleeper]

You didn't go to the Hold and find something to finish this. I could ask you the same question.

[Alucard doesn't look up. He has to keep his mind on his work. Just complete the work.]

[miraclewhip]

Seemed poor sport. None of my family had the hold beneath their feet when they came here.

[ It's not an honest answer. Honesty is hard. But he tries again. ]

I don't want to do this. But if you can't make me understand, then I can't leave a pale imitation of Dracula alive.

[cryptsleeper]

That doesn't seem to matter to anyone these days.

[Poor sport. He could almost laugh.

But he doesn't. So instead? Instead there's the horrible flippant thing that they met under Gresit. It won't bring understanding. It'll just move things along to the inevitable conclusion quicker.]

What is there to understand? You left. Two would be hunters seeking to destroy other vampires arrived as well as assistance in learning how to deal with the truly formidable sort that populated my father's court. They took knowledge, then took the elevator down into the hold to find someone to kill me with, but not before bedding me.

[...Oh, right.]

The Hold has an elevator now. The stairs were too hard to build back up.

[miraclewhip]

Oh.

[ That would explain the nightclothes. And he's still- he still doesn't like this. But it's hard not to slip back into old ways of speaking. It's comforting. And god knows they all need comforting right now. ]

-leaving people out there in their pajamas really makes it look like you've stolen some screaming unfortunate from a village at night, you know. You should consider the optics of your people on sticks.

[cryptsleeper]

Those were my bedclothes, actually. Borrowed.

[Alucard still doesn't look up. He doesn't want this conversation.]

Tell her. I won't repeat any of that again.

[miraclewhip]

You're right, that just makes it look like a very strange attempt at hanging up laundry.

[ Too bad, it's happening. He sits down on the other side of the book wall. They don't have to look at each other. They just need to figure out what the fuck to do. ]

You realise that if I tell her, we'll be staying here a while? You- do remember how she works, right? She was never going to say 'ah, yes. Our friend has lost his fucking mind. I'm going to accept this and move on'.

[cryptsleeper]

[No. This is the opposite of what he wanted.]

So tell her after you've left. When you're far away.

[Obviously she won't come back to aggressively yell at him or--

--oh.

Someone said the f word.

That just makes Alucard hunch over more. Trying to make himself smaller.]

[miraclewhip]

You really have forgotten how fucking impossible she is, haven't you?

[ He sighs. ]

I tell her. We restrict ourselves to a corner of the castle away from you until she's convinced that you're either not hedgehog-humping mad or not worth the effort or until you fix this thing.

...and you explain what a fucking ellevitatator is because I don't speak fucking bohemian.

[cryptsleeper]

An elevator is a platform that uses ropes and counterweight to move up and down a shaft. Like what Sypha did with the ice, but with a long term platform so that the Hold doesn't get flooded and I don't have float up and down all the time.

[That part's easy. The rest?

Nope.]

It will take too much time to fix this thing. You're both needed elsewhere, that much is clear. Just go, Belmont. At first light.

[miraclewhip]

We don't want to be needed elsewhere for a little while.

[ It's something of a raw admission. ]

We're tired, Alucard. She's tired. We came here because this is home.