middaeg | [Open] The Catch-all log, Alucard edition

[ Getting out of the city and past the Bright Wall makes Geralt less agitated. He knows what it is - the pressure of magic buildup, desperate for a release he can't quite grant without a Bond. Specifically, a Bond with a monster, a being that can devour his excess magic; a natural balance in this strange world.

But fuck that, so. He's just going to deal. ]

Hanging in there?

[ They've been quiet for most of this trek, covering up petalwolf trails, shooing lone animals closer to protected Wilder areas not offering much room for conversation. Not that Geralt's big on chatter anyway. He's not sure how much 'good' this'll do, but it feels wrong to poach creatures that are making it work in a dying world. They should be left to try and contribute to the struggling ecosystem.

It's nice to see Alucard looking less shell shocked and traumatized, if nothing else. ]

[Being outside of the city wall is a first. Alucard appreciates it, being outside of a city. He's grown up away from people, away from large groups. He understands the wilds like this, and it is an absolute comfort. Oh, he can't stay here like he wants, but it is a blessed break.

And it is doing good work. The petal wolves are lovely things, but they are still wolves. They can't be pets, at least not right now. Until this horrible darkness threatens them fully, they should be allowed to run wild and free.

He's pretty sure one day, he'll end up with one in his house. Or a pack. But that'll be a last minute conservation effort, not an immediate and selfish want.

Alucard has just scooped a pup up over a large log it was struggling with when Geralt asks his question, and he turns to the other man.]

I am, yes. You seem calmer yourself.

[ Geralt gets it - or at least, he knows enough about humans to track the logic. Cute, exotic things that made charming appearances digging in gardens looking for nice dirt holes to huddle down in. And maybe they do need a haven from the Cwyld. But they've been doing alright on their own, and to just cull the wild population seems ... quite bad.

Also, they're easy as shit to catch. Not much in the way of impressive hunting, at least to someone like Geralt. (His opinion may be skewed, Mr 'best tracker on the Continent'.) ]

I'm just not used to city living. [ Gonna ignore the fact that he has a problem until the last minute, yes. He's just a normal guy going stir-crazy within Aefenglom. ] At least not without serious work to occupy me.

Neither am I. [There's a soft snuffle from the pup Alucard has just helped, and his attention goes back to it. A little tail waggles before disappearing into the darker areas of the forest, and that puts a smile on Alucard's face.

It's good, being back in the wild part of the land.]

I don't like it. Too many people. Far too dense.

[ Geralt has been avoiding contact with the wolves themselves, not wanting to encourage contact with humanish creatures. And he's just not much of a pet person; his compassion for his horses, at home, is a necessity. Naming each horse the same thing is merely a way to cope with how easily the spindly creatures fall to monsters and bad weather. ]

The population is at least heartening given the plague, [ he says with a shrug. ] It'd be a bad sign for all of us if it were a ghost town.

[ Even as it is, there's enough empty houses to offer mirrorbound residences - nice ones, while the poor suffer in shitty conditions and risk infection. But that's society. No escape, no matter what world. ]

[Alucard's problem is that he is much, much too used to being in wolf form himself for doing something like this. It aches that he doesn't have the ability anymore, especially in this moment. That he keeps forgetting, keeps trying to shift and...nothing is an embarrassment.]

I suppose that's true enough.

[But it doesn't quite change the feeling of discomfort. Alucard breathes out, and his hands find his pockets in order to get comfy as they walk.]

We should be making plans on what to do with the adults once people realize they can't keep a full grown wolf as a house pet.

[ Too bad he's not a turnskin, he'd be able to eventually be a wolf ... forever! Hooray? Geralt's connection to their canine friends here is much more symbolic; the wolf's head medallion on his chest hangs dully, robbed of its enchantment, and probably looking a little funny, considering their efforts. ]

Plans like digging graves?

[ Shut up, Geralt. ]

[That earns Geralt a disapproving glare, one that looks perhaps a little too eerie in those golden color eyes.]

Developing ways to reintroduce them to the wild, and failing that, habitats in the general area where they can roam safely.

[There's a sound up ahead of them both, but it's far too high up to be a wolf. Owl, Alucard labels the noise, and keeps moving along.]

I don't need any more morbid thoughts today, thank you.

[ Geralt has been glared at by more things than Alucard can probably conceive of, even given his odd life. He just looks back at the younger man, his own gold eyes not relating any notice of the disapproval. ]

Wild animals eating idiots treating them like housecats isn't morbid, it's funny. [ And deserved. Natural selection, or something. ]

What'd you do at home? Save little dogs from overbearing rich ladies?

It's unfortunate for everyone involved.

[Alucard doesn't want to dwell any further, and frankly, that question is actually welcome. Hell, it even gets a laugh out of him, something short and brief.]

I didn't have the time to find a vocation when I was home. My situation changed quickly, and I came from the tail end of it to...[Alucard gestures towards the city behind them both.] This.

[ No one has a sense of humor in this city, it's a rough life. What's a guy gonna do if no one else thinks getting devoured by the family pet is funny? Oh, well. ]

'Time to find a vocation'?

[ Crunch, crunch. Hard to move silently when the undergrowth is this dead and brittle, though Geralt makes a valiant, inhuman effort. ]

How old are you?

[ Because Geralt's pegged him as .. pretty old, with his seriousness and his vaguely elven stature. Mixed, he figures, though with what is anyone's guess. ]

Twenty.

[He adds no note about aging quickly, not based on the last time and Sypha's rudeness. But he's honest enough about the response, and well aware that he carries himself as someone older.

Or at least someone more mature than his current age.]

I grew up guarded away from most of the world.

[ The f u c k. (Probably a good thing he doesn't mention his aging. Geralt would probably return him to the city and try to find a parent stand-in.)

Anyway. The look the witcher gives him passes quickly, more concerned with paying attention to their surroundings. ]

Oh?

[ So did Geralt, but he can guess that it wasn't for the same purpose. Find a vocation. His isolated upbringing was for the singular purpose of crafting a monster hunter. ]

[It wouldn't work anyway.

Alucard's able to keep walking, even as the subject matter turns to the least favorite part of well, all of his circumstances at the moment. His voice is neutral, but clearly that is due to effort.]

My father was what this place would identify as a Monster - a vampire - but such a term carries no positive association in Wallachia. [Just kinda glancing over why for now.] My mother was perfectly human. To say that there were concerns about my safety would be a small understatement.

[ Geralt's first instinct is to ask why bother having a child if you have to raise it like that, but even his shaky grasp on manners prevents him from uttering it aloud. That instinct is born from his own life, anyway; wondering why his mother would go through the hassle of bringing him to term. ]

Does being part vampire make you more vulnerable?

[ He seems to be doing alright out here. ]

At this point, being human makes me more vulnerable.

[Alucard wants to just be a wolf and run through the woods. And that mental image at least puts a pained smile on his face.]

For example, the work we're doing now? If I was home, I could transform into a wolf and simply talk to these creatures in their own ways.

So why were you hidden away? You make a habit of eating people, or something?

[ Geralt feels like he's missing something. Beings with less available power than Alucard roam around within society, or in the fringes of it, just fine. Hell, half of Geralt's werewolf encounters at home have been with pacifists cursed by shitty humans, living their lives quietly and harming no one, just trying to hide what happens at night.

Being half vampire, having that kind of shapeshifting ability - doesn't sound like there's anything to be worried about, unless he makes himself a menace. ]

Concerns for my safety. [There's a thin, pained smile at that.] My father had little trust of humanity, even as he loved my mother and myself. A small village, that was fine. But beyond that...

[He trusts Geralt to fill in the rest. He's a smart man after all.]

I was bookish and kept to myself anyway. It worked well enough.

[ Geralt is torn between calling bullshit on the logic of someone so powerful needing that concern, and understanding that humans are an unchecked menace composed entirely of hate and panic. A human, or even ten humans, are no match for a witcher on his guard, and yet Geralt was still killed by a mob of them. One of the most powerful sorceresses on the Continent was torn apart.

Shit happens. Maybe that, he can understand. After a while he offers, ] I guess if I ever thought that kind of protection was an option, I might have preferred it for my daughter. I can understand the instinct. The world is inescapable, though.

It is. The three of us learned that in the worst possible way.

[Alucard pauses after the words leave his mouth. It's the first time he's remarked upon everything since it happened, and to a stranger. That feels like an accomplishment of sorts. Some kind of step in dealing with the grief.]

The word witch is a death sentence there.

Sorry to hear that.

[ He's been saying that a lot lately, to various people. And he is, generally; it'd be nice if there was at least one world out there that could get everything right. But that's a fairy tale. The world is inescapable. You learn the hard way or a harder way, and that's just how shit is. ]

Mm.

[ It has been, at different times in Geralt's world. Different places; it certainly has been in Redania, in recent years. He's not thinking too hard on it, though, sensing something out there creeping closer - and not a petalwolf. Something shifting through the earth. ]

Tree, [ he murmurs. ] Wilder called them 'ents'. Corrupted.

[Alucard doesn't say much more. He's already made a big step, and maybe it's better that Geralt is...well, he practically doesn't react. For better or worse. At least Alucard can speak and know that there won't be overwrought reactions, and that's something, he supposes.

But then--

--he doesn't look back to the man. Just ahead.]

How close to us?

[ Geralt isn't deliberately cruel or dismissive, but he's also not inclined to make an effort to seem otherwise. It just doesn't occur to him, most of the time.

Things to consider some other time. ]

Half a mile. [ Geralt tilts his head, listening, watching the ripples the sound makes, experiencing it like a dot in the distance, wriggling away. ] It knows we're here. Not sure what nearby it's connected to.

[ Plants. Doesn't matter what its roots are linked with, but they should keep moving, and away from the ent. ]

Worth trying to destroy, or smarter to avoid?

[Alucard's question is barely a whisper. Moreover, it's thrumming with tension, the desire to do something if it's safe enough to do so.]

I can only bow to experience right now.

Avoid. The shade creatures out here are infected. You don't want to get tagged.

[ Cwyld exposure is not automatic Cwyld infection, and just the infection isn't a death sentence - plenty of people in the walls are infected to some degree, and managing, working towards remission research - but there best prevention is no contact. ]

Let's watch what the wolves do first.

awroo 🐺

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