Alucard, March catch-all [open]

[cryptsleeper]

Who: Alucard + ????????
When: Throughout the month
Where: Garden class, caves, and around Aef itself.
What: March catch all for activities and adventures
Warnings: Added as needed



Garden classes, start of the month
[Gardening feels like something safe to begin with. Not that plants can't go terribly wrong in so many ways, but because it's so connected with earth and the physical. Getting over the brand of witch has taken far too long. This is a solid place to start.

Today's focus on growing through magical means rather than mundane ones is honestly enjoyable. Alucard's sat with a small spreadsheet he's made himself, walking through various growth rates on daises with spells.

Daises he's run out of, because of course. His eyes move around, and there's a frown suddenly on his face.]

We're entirely out of experimental plants for the day? Or are we meant to reset any we're working with as not to cause additional waste?

Northern Outpost, middle of the month

You're in my light, I'm afraid.

[Alucard knows it sounds rude. Pretentious even for himself, but the act of copying the cave art that is embedded in the cliff face demands exacting light so that the details can be just right, and all without ruining the art long term by light damage.

It's a nice thing to do, to sit in the cave and reproduce section after section. Moreover, he's good at it, the current chunk of painting coming along quite well.]

Or if you could just move off to the right a little, please?

[He isn't that particular.]

Here, there, and everywhere else within Aefenglom
[While he isn't around at all during the full moon - there is a vigil to sit, and a fully vampired Trevor to help through the first day of the worst of all of this - Alucard makes a point to get out of the house at least once a day.

Mostly that means finding a spot in a park or at one of the bars to people watch, doing precious little else. He's been better at people lately, but this entire world? After everything it's thrown himself and the other two into? That demands holding everything at arm's length.]

Wildcard
You know the deal

Comments

Garden Classes

[petcromancer]

[Hector's faun magic hasn't manifested reliably, but he's still been attending classes religiously, in the hopes that through careful study, he will gain mastery of what power he has left. He's brought Cezar along with him, because witches come in and out with familiars and he didn't think anyone would question it.

He has one pot of daisies at his work station, and so far, he's only managed to make one fold up into a bud and then unfurl again. He's not burning through specimens nearly as fast as certain witches.

He doesn't notice Cezar's absence until he hears a little yip at another workstation as the pup plods over to a friend he recognizes and dances for attention. As Hector looks up to find his pet, he sees Alucard, surrounded by an absurd amount of spelled daisies and meticulous notes. He looks...

...he looks so much like his father, the way he'd been when Hector had first met him. Hector can't summon up any anger at the son, looking at him in this moment. This is all that is left of the first man Hector ever respected.

He takes his plant and sets it on Alucard's work station. It's not like Hector was making any headway anyways.]

You're going through them twice as fast as anyone else. Reset them.

[He makes a grab for Cezar so he can get back to desk, but the dog ducks him and keeps darting around Alucard.]

[cryptsleeper]

[Cezar breaks Alucard's attention, but only because the pitter patter of little doggy feet? Those are out of place in a classroom, and that means there's someone else here he'd really, really not deal with.

He picks his head up, catching sight of Hector before the pug grabs all of Alucard's attention. It's not fair to ignore the dog, so Alucard leans down, rubbing under Cezar's chin.]

Go back to your person, hm? It'll be better.

[The dog likes him, Hector doesn't. That's just fine. But too late, Hector's here.]

Resetting doesn't allow for a longer term study of certain spells.

[petcromancer]

[Hector rubs his temples. He is trying, for once, to look past his grudge. Lord Dracula, give him patience.]

This isn't your father's laboratory. It is a free class. If you want to do extended trials, you're going to need to get your own specimens and make an independent study of it.

[Cezar doesn't seem like he's going anywhere while those chin-rubs are happening, so Hector takes the opportunity to glance at some of the spreadsheets. He wants to know what he's supposed to be learning from this class even if he can't do the spells himself yet.]

[cryptsleeper]

It was only a question, Hector.

[Alucard's in work mode, which means he's both more clipped and less inclined to really pick a fight.

The spreadsheets are organized by spell going down the columns and immediate result, five minutes after, ten minutes after, half an hour after, an hour after, longer term, additional notes across the top. Alucard's handwriting is terribly neat, and below the spreadsheet is a handful of additional notes.]

[petcromancer]

'Reset them' was an answer.

[Look, Hector understands the struggle of wanting to dive in deep to a study and not being afforded the proper resources. He had to go to Dracula's castle to find a decently funded grad program stocked laboratory to work with.

He taps his finger on one of the spreadsheets, careful to touch only blank paper, not any potentially smudgeable ink. Damn, it's no wonder Vlad had always frowned over the chicken scrawl of Hector's notes, if this is what he was used to seeing from his pupils.]

You have enough information to start with, at least. From these preliminary results, you could rule out further study on some of these spells, and focus your home study on the ones that were more effective.

Here, there, and everywhere; cw reference to alcoholism

[bolstafir]

[Arm's length is the most comfortable way to interact with people in general, in Qrow's opinion. Enough distance to leave if you needed space, and to protect them from the most dangerous parts of yourself, but close enough yet to be there if you were needed.

It's the way Qrow has always lived his life, and although he's made effort to build connections enough for intelligence gathering in Aefenglom, he still finds himself holding himself apart. Some habits die hard, even if the reason behind them have been rendered moot by this world's magic.

...Of course, there's a difference between holding yourself apart by choice and being forcibly ripped from your loved ones, and some days that gets to him harder than others. It takes something as simple as a handful of rose petals scattering as a florist attends his wares to make him painfully aware of the fact that he neither has seen his nieces in a month, nor does he have the ability to do so if he wishes, or even to contact them with a message through the Scrolls or a written letter.

He ends up taking his bruised feelings to a bar, as he so often does, intending to nurse them in peace, alone, but the various celebrations in town mean that the bar he chooses winds up being packed. Apparently, even having his semblance locked away can't prevent all bad luck, in the man for whom the odds are never in his favor. Qrow sighs, and pauses before the nearest empty stool, before asking the man sitting beside it--]

This seat taken?

[He looks like he's considering taking it regardless of the answer. But picking a fight even before he's drunk seems more trouble than it's worth.]

[cryptsleeper]

As you like.

[Alucard's response comes after he only just briefly looks at the gentleman in question who's asking. He seems fine enough, and seating is far too limited for single drinkers at the moment.

The dhampir's own glass is barely touched, the way he holds the stem of the wine glass suggesting that it's more for affectation than real drinking anyway.]

northern outpost

[freeing]

[ It had been her first time traveling in such a way here. It was not as if they were brought by boats collectively like they had been in the darker city months ago. She ventured in a small caravan, approaching the Northern Outpost with only a few attacks by shades. Fortunately, those traveling with her had disposed of them quickly.

With little time to settle, she is off to make deals – mainly with any travelers needing supplies. She needed farmhands to help run the growing fields, Nier's methods of maintaining the integrity of the crops ensured each row had begun to flourish.

She had ventured out with one such traveler who was more a miner than a farmhand, but he required her assistance in one thing or another and regretfully, she finds herself in an echo of a situation she was on briefly...

Alucard's voice was familiar, but not one where she would recognize, she stumbles to the side – over rocks and obviously frazzled on her own with the miner – who goes ahead to begin inspecting rocks for any plant-life which may be of use for medicines.

Her attention, however, remains on a certain someone. ]

We have to stop crossing each other's paths like this, then.

[ Briefly, a nod: ]

Ser.

[cryptsleeper]

[Alucard finally lifts his head, and when he sees who it is he's chided for the cliche of being in his light? He feels a faint twinge of red in his cheeks. A twinge he tries to recover from gracefully.]

We do indeed.

[He pauses the work in full, placing his current work down on the ground so that Dany has his full attention.]

You're hardly here to help with copying, I assume?

[freeing]

No, unfortunately. I am a travel companion to someone more well-versed in this area than I. His services were offered in exchange for my help with acquiring a few hard to find plants for his wife.

[ It was simple enough. ]

And you are... studying, as you were in Dorcharcht?

[cryptsleeper]

Then I presume your time here will be brief?

[It's a question of genuine curiosity rather than a judgement.]

In so many words. They've been seeking copyists to make records of the paintings in this cave, and that is work I'm well suited to.

[freeing]

I'm not quite sure. I have no ties here nor reason to stay much more than I am needed.

[ The farm wasn't exactly needing her there, but she still feels almost exposed straying far from it. This place was new, the dangers of it only briefly touched upon. ]

What reasons, may I ask? Do the paintings hold importance?

northern outpost

[mensrea]

Oh, sorry.

[ Much like Aefenglom’s resident vampire- (with a lowercase “v”) turned-Witch, Stiles has decided to make a copy of the cave art. His canvas is simply the open spread of a notebook, with the images sketched with messy albeit fairly accurate lines. Once the blond man airs his request, he obediently shuffles to the side – the wrong side. Given how distracted Stiles seems, it may be difficult to tell if it was on purpose or not.

(It was.) ]

[cryptsleeper]

--The other right.

[Alucard's nearly done for the day, and he has no patience left in him to deal with someone acting like this with, so far as Alucard can determine, no reason and with no provocation.]

I'm nearly done and that's the last section I need to work on.

[mensrea]

Whoops, my bad.

[ This time, he sidles in the correct direction – out of both Alucard’s lighting and view of the walls. But the move is short-lived; the notebook snaps shut as he finishes his own copy, and then he’s ambling over to where Alucard is seated with an air of curiosity. What he sees earns the other man a low whistle of impressed appreciation. ]

Wow, you’re like…actually good at that.

[ Compared to him, at least. ]

[cryptsleeper]

Copying these pieces isn't worth the time and effort if they don't look like the original.

[Most people just say thank you, Alucard. But he does at least nod to acknowledge the compliment.]

I enjoy draftsmanship. It's nice to have the opportunity to indulge.

[mensrea]

[ Fortunately, Stiles is more than accustomed to dealing with all sorts of personality types. The lack of humility hardly seems to deter him. ]

Draftsmanship… Uh, like architecture and stuff? [ It’s not a word he hears used often. ] Don’t the Monsters interest you at all? If you’re into anatomical drawings, I mean. It could be pretty useful to have different pieces showcasing the variations in species.

[ As he speaks, his eyes dart from canvas to wall and back again, comparing. Stiles is searching for a human error, a discrepancy he can point out just to be a little shit. So far, he’s left wanting. Dammit. ]

Gardening

[inlikethebrume]

If you need some, I have additional ones you can use.

[An unfamiliar voice to him no doubt but she is holding some of the needed flowers out for the man. Her own have a slow start but for someone who believes her growing skills lacking, it's progress. But wow, to run out of things to use? He has to be pretty good at that.]

You're pretty good at that.

[cryptsleeper]

[Alucard lifts his head, but-- oh.

He takes only two, aware that supplies are thin and perhaps, perhaps he shouldn't hoard all of them.]

Thank you. On both accounts, that's very kind.

[inlikethebrume]

[She doesn't mind it as long as it goes to a good cause. And he's definitely faring better than her so why not.]

Oh, think nothing of it. You seem to have a better understanding on growing and could use it more compared to myself.

[cryptsleeper]

You're finding this particular lesson to not be your wheelhouse?

Closed to Sypha

[cryptsleeper]

[They're through the actual worst of the Trevor situation. Not enough for Alucard to make now who's the vampire Jesus comments, but enough for them to all settled into the new version of normal, like water being poured out against rocks and then coming to equilibriate against it.

They all have their comings and goings. Trevor's are only at night now. Alucard's finally gotten himself working on at least a little magic, what with the plant based classes on offer right now, and he goes to that new outpost too. They need draftsman to render cave paintings on paper. Alucard can do that. Damn well, if he does say so himself, given how good he was as designing his entire crypt under Gresit.

He works on an actual house for the three of them when there's time. It's nearly done - the basement level is an entire set of living quarters for Trevor with no windows at all. Safe but not a tomb. The bedroom perhaps larger than it needs to be. There's individual rooms for the other two on the second floor, mostly for putting things.

It's the first floor that's the question. Kitchen. Library. Living room? Maybe. He isn't sure what else is truly needed at this point, and that's what he's working on this evening, hunched over a large sheet of paper and tapping his pencil against the floor with mild irritation.]

[strongspirited]

[There's a knock. Of course. And then the door bursts open, because Sypha is just like that. Living in houses is weird, living in houses is for suckers, even.

Crossing the room, she smiles down at him.]

...Alucard. I want to bond with you.

[Yep. Just like that. She has decided.]

[cryptsleeper]

[A come in doesn't even leave Alucard's lips before Sypha bursts in as she does. The hello that tries to follow also dies, because Sypha is Sypha and she's ever down to business.]

Well I appreciate your making a decision without discussing it with me first, but humor me: can we discuss this thing you've settled on?

[strongspirited]

You can say no.

[She knows he won't if she presses though.]

But yes, of course.

[She settles down in another chair, watching him with a blank expression.]

Do you have misgivings?