usir | [closed] Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare

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[closed] Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare

Character(s): Trevor+Alucard
Status: Closed
Location(s): Mountains outside of Krimnos at a certain falling apart home
Date(s) 22 March - End of the month
About: Clearing out the castle and generally trying to make it home again
Warnings: Probably allusions to patricide; finding a dead body; others to be added

Note: Castle is not representative of Usir canon castle, just roll with me on this

[They had been here once, in the dead of winter, all bundled up and trudging through the snows to simply see what had become of a home whose three spires pierced through the forest's treeline. What remained was a shell of the home built by Alucard's father, still imposing and with a single spire remaining, but precious little else. Within the halls were destroyed pieces of furniture, looted rooms, and broken glass, along with signs that it had been a place of shelter for travelers over the years.

It could be salvaged though, with enough time and money. That had been clear, and now with the matter of Einjar completed, time and money was an option. Not much, but enough. Enough for there to be firewood in the kitchen, enough daylight to spend clearing out room after room, enough to buy stones to secure unstable things and ensure a delivery. Most importantly: enough to buy new locks, making it clear that the ruin is no longer deserted.

The work is slow. Careful. Limited, but that was expected.]

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[ Firewood in the kitchen is all it really takes for the castle to seem like a home, in truth. Firewood and a little work to clear away things so broken to be genuine dangers. Just the kitchen, warm and mostly clean and usually smelling of whatever dinner was, with the collection of curtains and rugs and blankets near the fireplace to sleep on at night, is a luxury. Moreso than any of the inns they've stayed at, even with Alucard going out of his way to find places that could accommodate him.

He's used to what he's used to, and the rug by the embers of the kitchen fire will always be more comfortable than any bed could be.

There's one more essential task to be done, before the work can move from ensuring that the kitchen is safe and the walk to it from the front door can be made without risk of tripping or other injury to clearing out and reclaiming the remaining parts of the castle. And- maybe 'essential' is a strong word. 'Important', perhaps.

Making it clear from the outside that the place is now a home.

He leaves installing the locks to Alucard, his own hands being unsuited to the delicate work that it requires. For his part, he's clearing the path to the front door of all of the things that the avalanche brought with it. Fallen wood, animal bones, stone from the broken parts of the castle. All of it needs clearing away. ]

Poor bugger.

[ It's not a frozen animal corpse this time, but someone who must have been on the mountains at the time of the avalanche. Human. ]

Alucard! When do we next head into the city?

[Alucard is only on the other side of the door, still struggling with the lock.

Well, one part of the lock, because for this to be a proper home now, he has to think beyond himself and tiny little housekeys that he can hide away on his person. The locks he had bought, they were supposed to scale up and down depending on the user's size, but it isn't working.

Or.

Wait, he's still Alucard sized. That's the problem.

The front door opens a crack, allowing Alucard to reply.]

We still have about a week and a half's worth of food left, so the answer is whenever we feel like it. I need a hand in here for a moment though, if you can spare it.

Think we can set out tomorrow? Got a fucker here must've got caught in the avalanche. Someone's probably missing them back in the city.

[ He's careful with the body. Respectful, as much as he can get. ]

Give me a little while? I'll get them into the wagon and pack them with snow. Don't want them thawing and stinking it up.

[Alucard steps out in full when he hears the reason that Trevor is asking. The cold of the early spring is no matter at all, there is only the concern that they both must see to this grim task.

His eyes go from Trevor to the corpse in question, and there's a soft sigh at the sight. Poor man indeed, there are limbs at deeply unnatural angles.]

We can set out tomorrow. It'll let us get additional supplies as well.

[They need more nails for repair work and a few more provisions would not be amiss.]

Thanks. Better we get them back home than leave them out here to feed the wildlife.

[ The task of putting the ill-fated man into the wagon is a quick one, and packing snow around him only made slightly less so by the fact that there isn't as much of it as there was a few weeks ago (she isn't here). It probably isn't needed, the air's cool enough to have kept the body frozen this long, but it'd be exactly their luck for the weather to turn just as they have a body to deal with. ]

Probably on his way to the castle when it happened. Trying to get out of the shitty weather.

Agreed. There may even be someone who recognizes them along the way.

[The village that represents the end of a day's journey between Krimnos and the castle has not exactly accepted the two of them, but know them both by sight now. Know that they go just one more day out, and they can at least pay for room and food without really bartering. They're hard to mistake, after all, Trevor being as big as he is and Alucard just looking distinct.

It's the words on his way to the castle that make Alucard sigh, even as he fiddles with the lock on the outside part of the door.]

That is the only con of reclaiming this at home, I suppose. The shelter it provided to those passing through is about to be denied to them.

It's hardly as if you'd deny them if they knocked upon the door.

[ Fucking softhearted vampire. ]

It did good, while you were away from it. Probably saved lives.

[ Safety and shelter. There's more of Lisa in the castle's recent legacy than there is of her husband. That's something, at least. ]

No, but it isn't as if we'll always be home either.

[He looks back down at the locks on the doors, considering that simple fact. Alucard wasn't always home when everything in this castle stood as it ought to either. It feels...more wrong now.]

I know. Maybe it's worth putting something else on the property for when we're not here and the doors must be closed.

[Nothing much. Just a shelter. A small fireplace. Something.

After another silence, Alucard gestures to Trevor.]

Hold out your hand.

The stable'll be good enough, now the cold's lost its edge. Gives us time to figure shit out.

[ His grimmer task done, he returns his attention to what Alucard needed, holding out his hand. ]

Mm. Like how to build something from the ground up. I...the attempt I have been making at a book case is unique.

[He has books now, mostly in the form of his own travel notes. Those lived on the shelves of the vast library that was once a part of the castle, along with his mother's medical notes and father's research papers. It's reclaiming the past, inch by inch.

Alucard places a key into Trevor's hand. A small thing at first, it immediately glows a dull orange, then scales itself up so that it fits comfortably there. The lock shifts too, clearly now the right size to accomodate it.]

Yours. In case I have arms too full of supplies and I need you to open the door instead.

[That's not the real reason and they both know it. It's for emergencies. Should they get separated. Should one die for a time.]

's a bookcase as long as it holds books. And it just about does that.

[ He turns the key over in his hand, shoulders sinking. ]

Shit. I guess I live someplace now. Not lived anywhere since- shit. [ Very eloquent. He pockets the key, shuffling one foot in the half-frozen dirt of the road, suddenly eager to change the subject because god forbid he admit to being happy about something. ] Did you need help with something, or did you just want to give this to me?

It did. The shelves all just slanted at horrible angles and the whole thing collapsed.

[Alucard isn't proud of it, but that's better than the first few attempts that have all just been wood abominations.

At least Trevor avoiding emotions is an easy and obvious thing to deal with. Far easier than woodworking.]

This was the help. I couldn't get it to scale up properly, so I figured the key had to be in your hand to make it so.

Hunh. [ He pats his pocket, half-considering examining the key further, but thinks better of it. Holding it feels just a little too much like having an entire feeling about something. ]

Wait, shit, you're saying that you needed a literal hand. Was that a fucking pun? Did you try to tell a fucking joke and I didn't notice it?

....

[The silence says everything, as does the face of the vampire which moves from minor mortification to something close to actual joy. And there's a laugh that follows, startled and delighted.]

Neither of us noticed it, it seems. It is a pretty good joke though.

[Alucard grins though, because all of this means that the good mood from Einjar has endured.]

Test the lock though, just to make sure it works. Then we can figure out a time table for trying to get back to the city.

[ooc: this is a quick work tag; if you want to jump to exploring new shadow skills I can write that transition/starter when im home]

Look at you, accidentally growing a sense of fucking humour.

[ He puts a large hand on Alucard's head, messing up his hair with a laugh before addressing the matter of the lock. The keyhole is no larger than a pinprick, far too small for any but the most specialist lockpicks to fit into. Clever. ]

So the magic in the lock responds to the key. [ He's mumbling under his breath, trying to get a feel for how this works. Sure enough, the pinprick eats away at the metal to reveal a larger keyhole once the key approaches it. ] And the key changes size so I don't fuck up and fumble it?

[ Simple enough to get his head around. And sure enough, there's a click when he turns the key in the lock and another when he turns it back. ]

I've always had it. There just wasn't much time to show it.

[There's another faint laugh as the hand ruffling his hair. It leaves a disaster on top of Alucard's head, but that's an acceptable price to pay for this moment.]

Precisely so. I figured that it would be easier for you, and because it's a more unique spell, it makes it harder to break in.

[Alucard smiles. Actually smiles, because now they're a little closer to this really feeling like home.]

I'm going to go start dinner.

[The journey back to Krimnos proper takes two days, but the identity of the frozen corpse is confirmed the first night when the two stop for the night in the same village they always stop over in. There's a name given for next of kin and a rough address (a city quarter). A perfectly middle class family with strong ties to the part of the city that thrives on invention, and that is that. The rest of the trip is grim, as is the handing over of the body itself. There's tears from the next of kin, there's relief to know what happened, but it's all tiring to go through.

The night they spend in the city, Alucard thinks he sees a movement beyond himself. When he turns, it's just his own shadow, cast long in the fading sun. Longer than it ought to be, but he's emotionally exhausted, and struggling not to react to that fact. There's been flashes of gold in his eyes already today. He's clearly seeing things.

Two days to get back home. A few hours to put all the new supplies away, fifteen minutes spent watching Dog hiss at the little box with a blanket Alucard's set up for the possum, allowing it to have it's own little bed near the kitchen's fireplace. Then dinner, and putting it all away. There are high shelves, and the dhampir isn't above using his ability to float to reach those places.

He lands, and his shadow is not where it ought to be. It's a curiosity this time, and it sees the dhampir occupied for the rest of the night, seated in front of the fire and trying to see exactly how this all works.

The conclusion? He needs to tell Trevor. Which means waiting until bedtime, or whenever else Trevor reappears in the kitchen. When that happens, the constantly worried dhampir attitude is back, hidden under that usually calm exterior.]

I...have discovered something that I am not exactly sure I should be able to do.

[ Sorting through what remains of the castle's own furnishings is a task left to Trevor for a whole collection of reasons, and the least of them that lifting things and moving them around is what he's good at. There are things that are simply, objectively, beyond repair. But all of them are things from Alucard's childhood. Connections to a time lost to all of them. It would be unkind to force him to be the one to dispose of them.

Alucard will need to sort through the things that they can put back together still, but that can be later. When the immediate tasks are done and they need to decide how best to spend time and effort. For now, the evening's work is done. ]

If you're going to make me explain puberty to you I'm leaving.

[It's been a blessing that Trevor's here at all, for all that Alucard has been outraged at either one of them being pulled from well earned rest. Having him go through the most personal of things, it's...it makes everything seem less emotional than it is. There's focus. He'd do the same for Trevor if asked.

Alucard scowls at the comment, because of course he does. It's a part of this too, the way they interact when Alucard isn't near sleep and using Trevor as a bed. (That's...that's also emotionally charged, but for very different reasons.]

As if I didn't have that discussion with my mother in the most highly scientific way possible. [Because he sure did.]

I'll explain. Watch my shadow for a moment.

I'm guessing it took four days and every other word was about seven syllables.

[ But he does look at the shadow, watching carefully. ]

You going to make butterfly shapes with your hands or something?

Don't be rude.

[He bristles, but only a little. What tension threatened to rise in his shoulders sloughs off, only for it to return in full force and then some a moment later. It happens the first few seconds Alucard taps into every power available to him as a dhampir, and now is no exception.

At first, the shadow grows longer. A trick of the firelight, except it doesn't flicker and move about. The length increases, and then the shadow is no longer just Alucard's head and shape of his torso. It is a thing unto itself, and it moves along the kitchen walls with all of the dhampir's normal movement.

And the dhampir isn't moving at all.]

What the shit.

[ Trevor is calm enough, though Dog's hissing suddenly increases in volume as he expresses his displeasure first with his own hindquarters and then with the rest of the room. Mumbling something about 'fucking dog, what's your problem', Trevor reaches out to try to touch the shadow, seeing if he can pin it in place with a hand. ]

[The shadow does dodge. It weaves around Trevor, before Alucard recalls the shadow back to himself entirely. The hissing from Dog is a little too much to bear right now.]

I don't know. I've never been able to do this before.

[Alucard turns so he can face Trevor, the concern clear on his face.]

And it doesn't feel related to any...recent events either.

I've heard of vampir that could do similar but- I didn't think that was just something that happened. I thought it was a learned skill.

[ Maybe if he'd finished his training he'd be more use here. As it is, he just has to grasp at what he was able to learn before the executions. He rubs at his bad eye in thought, shifting the eyepatch around as he does (he's willing to take it off in the castle these days but even here he still wears it most of the time). ]

So it just moves around on its own?

Hm. If that was recorded among you and yours, then that's probably a natural skill coming to light.

[Alucard fights the urge to reach up and take that damn eyepatch off himself. It's pointless to have it on in the house (home) as far as he's concerned. Who else is going to see it? But those words don't leave the vampire's lips, and he settles for glaring at it.]

No. I have to direct it, and it takes an immense amount of concentration. What's more important is that I can get a sense of what's around me when I do.

[ Sir this is his emotional support eyepatch. ]

If Dracula was capable of it, being here again might- residual magic bullshit. It's a guess, but it's all I have. You have my blessing to check the old Belmont place for anything that might tell you more, but fuck knows if there's anything still there.

[ Dog is, at least, finally calming down and hissing more quietly at his bed before dozing off again. ]

I honestly can't recall if he did this or not. He might've been able to and I never saw.

[But that does brush against something else. Alucard goes very still, even as Ellis trots herself over and curls up next to Dog's box.]

Would...you want to go and see what remains of it?

Not particularly.

[ There's no emotion in it, not really. ]

I wanted it to be a shelter, not a monument. If there's still anything there, then it's not doing its fucking job. If there isn't, then it's hardly mine anymore.

Then I'll leave it be.

[It's a simple conclusion. Alucard knows that if he goes, he'll feel compelled to tell Trevor the state of it. If it stands. What remains.]

You haven't come across anything in cleaning the rooms out that might have triggered this, have you?

Edited 2019-03-29 23:19 (UTC)

Nothing out of the ordinary, from what I've been able to tell. Almost like a normal fucking house. Except big, and abandoned.

[ Because it was a normal fucking house, once. It's hard to remember that when he's only ever known Dracula as the Belmonts knew him. ]

Likely because all the things that made it extraordinary are lost to time.

[His eyes go to the second attempt he's made at a book case. It is next to Dog's bed for now, and there's just two things on the set of four shelves: Alucard's notebook, and a second journal of books he remembers being in the house once. The rest of the shelves are given over to personal items and equipment, along with the few items Alucard found in the remaining spire that were clearly once his mother's. It feels like a mockery of what the house once held. It feels like the first step towards making it home again.

It's a stupid, impulsive thing that happens next. Trevor's close, and Alucard's hand just reaches out to try and take Trevor's.]

[ Alucard's hand is small, and it doesn't really fit comfortably in his. Except that it is comfortable, no matter how awkward it is. His shoulders fall, whatever he was going to say is gone. He lets out a long breath. ]

Shit, I live someplace.

[ It's not the first time he's said it in the last few days, but there's always a tone of wonder to it. Relief. ]

[Alucard's not paying attention to awkward. He's thinking about the warm weight of it, and how it right it feels to be standing awkwardly like this when Trevor states the obvious with such relief in his voice.]

You do.

[He turns his head from the fire to Trevor, and there's a thin smile on his face.]

I regret that your Dog has a nicer bed than you do though.

It's the way of things. Even if he's an ungrateful shit about it.

[ Speaking of, he squeezes Alucard's hand before moving over to his collection of rugs and old curtains by the fire. It's plenty nice. Perfect. Warm and safe and comfortable. ]

He looks content enough about it now.

[Dog has his charm points. They're usually when he's asleep, and being curled up in a box with a fluffy blanket is absolutely a charm point.

Ellis has curled up in the box besides Dog. She's happy where she is, warm and safe.]

They both do.

[Alucard makes sure he's out of the way as Trevor gets the bedding out for the night. That's something else he's been thinking about, proper beds.]

Are there any rooms with fireplaces that look like they could be converted into a more permanent bedroom space?

Mn. [ He lays out his bedding, lying down in it as he thinks. ]

There's a- I think it was a reading room, upstairs. Relatively clear, windows intact, big fireplace. You could use that.

[ You. As in Alucard could. It doesn't occur to him that his own good sleep spot might be being moved to someplace else. Far more likely that Alucard just wants a normal people bed again. He can hardly blame him. Human-sized types tend to get picky about these things, don't they? ]

Will you fit through the door?

[Alucard knows the room. First floor, and it was one of the grander rooms, which meant a taller, more imposing door frame. A large-ish fireplace too, albeit not quite a competitor to the one in the kitchen. It'll fit them both easily enough, but there's little point in converting it if Trevor's struggling to go in and out.]

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[closed] Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare

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