is this alucard? i'm not really clear on how this all works
if this is alucard (and well, i guess even if it isn't) did you get that message too? about meeting up at the bar? did you actually go?
because if you didn't because you were too busy sulking [ pot, meet kettle, but okay johnny ] then i wanted to tell you i think this stuff is up your alley
( if Alucard had more patience for long cons and less depression going on...he might actually deflect Johnny by riding the wave of his uncertainty that he messaged the right guy. listen — Alucard was so close to considering going down to the bar and see what this ominous message was all about, until the unnecessary pot-shot about sulking. he wasn't sulking. (he's been sulking.) )
Of course I haven't gone. It's sounded a little too convenient coming from someone I don't know.
...Judging from the adamant tone, immature attitude, and the fact that you were crazy enough to answer the notice, I'm going to suppose that this is Johnny. ( this is off to a great start. )
Not sure that you know enough about me to know what my 'alley' is, exactly. ( as in, what the hell is about that his mind jumped to Alucard? )
[ Wow, Alucard. Guessed who it was in one. ] screw you. yeah it's johnny.
what makes you think NOT answering the notice is any safer? their powers are weak and weird but they can still get us killed pretty easily. if someone's offering up information i'm not going to ignore it.
and he HAD information. that's why i think you'd be interested. it's about how the magic worked with that crazy farm spirit. did you notice how what she was offering and saying didn't even make any sense? she was offering to trade favors with us as if she had powers, but she was so weak that her land was all rotten... this guy there says that he knows she was being controlled by those pendants.
guess that means someone who was telling me that 'blood sacrifices don't work' and that's how she knew the farm spirit was wrong way ahead of time was onto something.
you seemed really into how magic works. have you ever heard of exorcists?
this guy was talking about them. he wants people to go search where they used to live, for clues. i guess he's probably thinking those people had something to do with controlling the farm spirit.
( this is already exhausting, and exactly why Alucard didn't want to bother getting involved... but that choice hadn't been decided by the time Johnny managed to contact him. it's been a battle swinging between extremes, one dhampir's unwillingness against his own sensibility, emotions versus mind, with a prideful okami overseeing as if judgment herself.
he sighs. )
Makes one wonder exactly who he is that he supposedly has information, but seemingly isn't doing this job himself. ( of course, Alucard above all also knows that not everyone has the fortitude or abilities to make effective changes they know are needed. still...Johnny doesn't sound as cautious as Alucard would like. )
And if these exorcists really are so elusive, I'm not confident they would leave anything worthwhile behind to be so conveniently happened-upon.
( but it isn't impossible. moreover, if there's something that they can find that will shed light on whoever is behind all of this, the dark magic of reanimating corpses and taking control over shrine spirits, they might be able to formulate a way to get out of this strange city.
yeah. i think him not wanting to get involved himself is its own piece to this puzzle. he's a youkai, right? so the exorcists must still have power over them. remember, two sentences ago, the farm spirit being controlled by them? he probably doesn't want to risk going in. but since we're humans... [ Right, Alucard? Since you're both humans? ]
that's my biggest worry. what if OUR youkai, the ones inside us, can be affected by stuff in there? can the youkais that are possessing US get possessed themselves? are they already?
i wonder where they would have hidden anything. it'll be out of plain sight, for sure.
yeah obviously i'm going. i want answers. the sooner i get answers the sooner i can go home.
( Alucard wondered if the man with this job to give out was youkai as well... it only makes sense, but even ones that can emulate the appearance of humans, at least to a majority part? he knows demonic types can use glamours, but that's powerful magic for some. perhaps not all. )
Of course our youkai could be affected. That might be why they needed us in the first place.
Don't go alone. I'm sure you delight in being reckless, but you're of no use if you end up dead. Does anyone in this place even know what happens when one dies? ( and he doesn't mean make some guesses about it, either.
damn it. Alucard can feel his gut and his limbs itch with uncertainty about what he knows is going to happen: Johnny is going regardless of the circumstances. )
You need backup. Unfortunately, for the moment, I'm unarmed.
people come back from the dead here. [ A pause where he doesn't want to share more, but then...he thinks over his own impression and notices a hole in it, and it seems too dangerous to leave it sitting as-is. ]
i saw someone die during the fight with the farm spirit, anyway. but i think time...was not working right during that. like something wouldn't let us go forward if we picked the wrong choices. maybe we're not immune to dying unless it happens...when time isn't working? [ Will this world only save them if it helps the world at large, not just them individually? It makes logical sense, or as much as anything can, around here... ]
you'd only need weapons for other humans, anyway. these aren't youkai.
[ And somehow, just like that, it's agreed upon. Since when did Johnny start relying on the idea of someone around him while he's traveling? How did he get so used to the habit of arguing with someone about the best way to do every little thing while out on an important mission?
(He knows how, and considering the timeless, skyless days have turned into weeks and he's pretty sure months and there's been no sign of him, it's seeming like for whatever reason, Gyro wasn't chosen to come and help these youkai. Maybe it says something about Johnny himself that he was pulled through. Are the youkai looking for strengths or weaknesses?)
Regardless of Johnny's mixed feelings and mixed motivations in general, this puzzle's got him hooked. He only barely manages to wait until their agreed-upon time to meet up and then head north in the city. By the time they're meant to go, Johnny is irritable but quiet - focused on the task at hand. Considering that Alucard seems reluctant to speak unless someone hits on the exact topic he feels like educating someone else on that day, it makes for a very silent trip.
And as they come closer to the northernmost section and the air cools and sharpens, their own silence grows heavier. It's not just them, now - it's the city itself. Haunted and slow, the silence grows on them like a slime. Johnny almost feels a pressure to keep it that way, like something cold and heavy sits on his sternum, presses against his ears.
The city is rotten up here, waterlogged in a way even the rains from before hadn't accomplished in the district that they've been living in til now.
Johnny really thought he'd explored most nooks and crannies of this place, in his search for a horse. Had he just missed this section? Or had something warned him subconsciously away, before?
His chair means that exploring upper levels of any of these buildings would be tediously difficult, so he's stuck to first floors and alleys and even sticking his head on the damp earth, nose pressed to the ground-level windows, to check cellars. So far, nothing has moved, and only the wind and rushing water he's yet to spot has made any sound at all. It's just him and Alucard and their uncomfortable silence, broken only occasionally by discussing a left here or a right there. Johnny's not even sure anymore that he knows the way back, except that surely he'd know when he left this area and its haunting, oppressive aura.
His youkai has been bristling but silent. Johnny's wings retracted days ago and the skin over his shoulders has mostly healed, since the incident with the farm spirit's discovery. ]
Hey. [ Johnny clears his throat. Breaking the silence after so long feels strange.
Alucard's over by the edge of the staircase in the latest abandoned building they're exploring. Johnny's eyeing the sink. ] I'm gonna check the cabinets. You want to go upstairs? [ It would make the first time they've separated since they started...that's probably fine, right? Nothing's happened so far. ]
( irritable but quiet — is it a good thing, or a bad thing that Hakagemachi has two entire people that reside in this particular manner?
it seems as though it would have happened like this regardless of the two demeanors; once they enter the section of the northernmost residential area, the air feels like a pressure. the only sounds are idle water trickling, the creaking of old hinges, and the moping shift and crackle of once-possessions left forgotten and unwanted as gravity, an anomaly as it is, shifts within and outside of these abandoned things littering the vacated dwellings.
it's so quiet that Alucard can't even lose himself in the mid-tone roar of his own cycling thoughts, and his own youkai doesn't breathe a single intent into his ears.
it's just his breathing, and Johnny's, and the movement of their feet — until they're finally inside houses and the hollowness of the walls echoes every little thing that they touch, move, and open, yet something about this place...seems to even swallow any of the minor disturbances they create. inexplicably, perhaps even impressively, Alucard is left feeling sufficiently unsettled.
Alucard awakens to Johnny's sudden voice — snapping out of the bubble that his focus and the icy chill of the air had cocooned him into. his cohort suggests that they separate. in the surprisingly short life that Alucard has lived, he's been taught a lifetime or two of knowledge; he knows immediately, between his own learnings and the instincts of the okami at his back, that separating is a bad idea.
but they've netted nothing thus far, in this time they've spent searching; has it been minutes, or hours? such is the case in any part of Hakagemachi, where time stretches and constricts without rhyme or reason, and being in this place alone makes the sensation nearly unbearable. he looks at Johnny, not with an eye of pity, but one of consideration; Johnny can't accompany him up the stairs, and it's a risk to forego any inch of these houses from their search. they'll have come here for nothing if they didn't execute a thorough approach.
it's clear that Alucard doesn't like the idea, but— ) Fine. But check every door for anything suspicious before you open it, lest you wish to trigger an unpleasant surprise. Tatsuo is no puzzle enthusiast. ( luckily, Alucard has studied some very sensational (read: controversial) styles of engineering where he comes from, but he isn't a wizard. literally.
and as Alucard begins to lift and set careful booted feet upon each step of the staircase, he adds in a cautious, but nevertheless reluctant mumble, ) And God help you if you catch yourself in some guillotine, I won't make it in time to save you from losing a hand.
[ They share a thought, here: Johnny can't search upstairs with Alucard, not without some serious maneuvering, but Johnny also isn't willing to see yet another upper floor go ignored. He doesn't want his stupid legs keeping them from finding whatever it is that might be hidden here.
Johnny scoffs, leaning in towards the cabinets. He stays in his chair not out of convenience for bending over so deeply to peer into them, but in case he needs to retreat quickly. He can't shake the sense of paranoia, that whoever lived here before wouldn't leave it pristine, abandoned and helpless. Not if they're actively pulling shit even nowadays. Either someone's gonna jump out of the shadows at them at any moment, or...
Or something is.
He sighs as he picks up a small scrap of paper inside the otherwise-emptied cabinet. ] Yeah, yeah, I'm checking. [ 'You're not the only one who's paranoid', he could say, but what's the fun in giving any part of himself away so directly? Also he's still pissy about Alucard not even wanting to come along at first. ]
...I need to learn how to read these letters. They're... [ He sighs, aggravated at their lack of anything to show for searching all morning, but intent on the characters on the scrap of paper in his hand. It's probably a goddamn grocery list. ] Beautiful. [ He goes with honesty, oops. ]
( Alucard takes each step carefully, reluctant to set his hand on the banister should it be a piece to a trigger, but not more reluctant than to find out one of these steps is on a pressure plate. the heels of his boots aren't even audible as he sets them down on the wooden steps while he climbs.
his focus is on his movements, on the sounds around him, every creak, every shift, his senses melding with Tatso's to gauge any telling little detail that might be the prelude to a mechanical betrayal. which means...he captures everything that Johnny says, even as he makes it to the top landing, an achievement as much as it is still a continuation of the ensuing journey. he shouldn't let himself get distracted, he knows that, and can sense Tatsuo thinking it, but it's an unconscious move when he turns to look over the railing at Johnny, attention caught on him. )
Your youkai should be able to read them. ( spoken softly as possible while still being audible, before he turns away again to assess the area upstairs. ) Whether they're willing to translate for you is another—
( Alucard stops when he notices a rug blanketed over the floor, and he thinks he's caught a possible set-up. it's cliche, but tried and true, and refusing to walk over it blindly, he reaches down and grabs the corner of it, peeling it back intending to reveal some sort of a pit trap underneath.
as he draws the rug up off of the floor, he feels — the slightest tug under his pull. instantly, he drops the woven thing, hand going free and rug going limp into a pile on the floor. he can't see what it was, but then he hears a click. )
Shit—( short and sharp, tense between his teeth; Alucard pivots and bolts, realizing the rug was attached to something. ) Johnny, stop, we have to—
( something shifts underfoot, and it upends his balance. a panel in the floor slides open so quick, he can only try to regain his footing — which the opening is relying on. his other foot goes to plant onto the floor, but it's only a small void now, and when his foot hits the bottom, about one foot deep into the floor, he lands on a trigger.
instantaneously, a maw of metal snaps shut around his calf. Alucard groans in alarm from the pain, but only for the swiftest moment; his arm goes up, and his own teeth sink in around the layers of cloth wrapping around his limb, silencing him as he reels. )
[ Johnny is quiet for one long moment, staring into the back of the cabinet and halfway through sweeping up the dust with his forefinger to gauge how long it's been since anyone touched it. ] They can read these characters?! [ Appalled fury is a quick wash, adrenaline useless in an instant but still dousing Johnny in its ire.
That dirty goddamn thing living in his brain never wants to tell him anything useful—
Johnny turns around so quickly he nearly loses his hat, stuffing that paper into his pocket to free his other hand and wheel himself in a tight half-circle and face the stairs. He approaches them just as Alucard's warning is cut off into a clear groan of pain, a sound that also ends in a strangled noise. ]
What happened?! [ Johnny's voice is raised, shouting immediately to be heard, and the shock of another loud sound after so much quiet only encourages his already increased heart rate to climb up faster.
He ends up wheeling back from the bottom of the stairs to their side, trying and failing to lean in a way so that he can make out what's happened up the stairs, but the staircase is narrow and he can't see, dammit. Alarm for not just himself, but real concern for the other man, hits him with a spike of adrenaline. He's antsy as he waits and it makes his tone sound more aggravated. ] What's going on, Alucard?!
( Tatsuo is like an alarm in his head, all of her basic instincts lighting up as flares in his thoughts, seeking anything that she can recognize as a threat, or a solution. it's overwhelming with the pain of a simple man-made trap, but Alucard is far from immune to pain, and what's more, he's known for weeks since arriving here that he isn't everything of the dhampir he was back home.
he gasps, releasing his arm from his mouth, fang marks staining two points at the top of his forearm, the sleeve of his garment slowly building blood. his mouth comes away clean. )
Shh.( it's almost difficult to tell if Alucard is shushing Johnny, or hissing in pain, but clarification soon comes on a harsh, sharp whisper. )Keep your— voice down...
( shock is setting in, at least, and Alucard looks down to confirm what he already knows, and sees the sets of metal teeth enclosed on his leg, which is still in tact. he thinks, grimly, that the device isn't meant to sever his leg completely; it's more effective to keep him in tact, and therefore, trapped.
he swallows hard, breathing unevenly. instead of whispering, he takes the reigns of his body and navigates through a low murmur, making himself as audible as he can. ) I fell — into a trap. My leg's caught in the floor. ( from here, he looks for something, anything that looks out of place in the decor, the interior build. there has to be a way of releasing the trap... )
[ For the first time since they arrived, Johnny's youkai does something other than sullenly hide in the very back of his mind, as unreachable as it's ever been. There's a spark of curiosity laced with malice and fear - Johnny can't tell if it's happy Alucard is stuck, or afraid for him.
Or just afraid it's next.
Johnny's quiet by chance more than acquiescing to Alucard's command, trying to get his bearings once more in his own mind. He swallows and scans the ceiling above him, wheeling away from the stairs, looking for anything that looks like a way out. There doesn't seem to be any clear hole meant to collapse in the ceiling, no obvious spot for a person to be dropped right through the floor to crash below... ]
Like a bear trap sort of trap? Or more like a rabbit snare? Did it hurt you or are you just stuck?
[ Johnny's voice is audibly panicked, but here is the first time he shows his true colors in peril - he's demanding and upset, yes, but he's analytical and already clawing around for clues to the solution.
He sighs in frustration. His own voice is barely undergoing an attempt to stay quiet, but at least he's not quite shouting anymore... ] I don't see anything down here that looks like a switch or something meant to let you fall all the way through the ceiling...
Actually — yes. It's quite like a bear trap. Hopefully that answers your other question.
( Alucard doubles over, sitting on his free leg folded onto the floor, and lowers his hands in carefully to test the trap, trying to pull at the jaws and see if they might loosen... they begin to ease apart under his baseline strength, no benefits left to him from his father's blood, left only with what his own two hands can do.
but there's a tension cog at the base where the jaws are hinged, and pushing the jaws open shifts the cog. Alucard hears the click and the jaws snap a few degrees tighter, jumping out of his hold and crunching deeper into his calf. he barks a surprised and especially pained sound, clipping the sound in his own throat as much as he can. well — that didn't work.
breathe through the pain; he can feel the assault lighting through his nervous system, skin breaking into a sweat, skin tingling as if embers from a fire were brushing onto him, but overall, Alucard knows he's fine for now, and will have to continue to be for long enough to figure out how to get out of here. )
No, I'm meant to be trapped. I imagine— that must be the beauty of its design. Disarming it must be out of my reach from here. ( almost sounds like it would be useful if he had that sword on him right about now... except, from where he's sitting right now, Alucard isn't seeing anything extremely out of the ordinary...
until he remembers the trigger. Alucard turns and looks back at the now displaced rug, still half-laid out where it had been set. when he had dropped it and turned, he hadn't peeled it fully away. from how he's situated now, he'll have to bend over his right leg, currently sitting in the teeth of the trap, if he wants to try to reach for the rug and peel it the rest of the way from where the trigger had been laid...
but it's still all out of reach of his wingspan; if Alucard were to bother trying, he would never reach it anyway.
in his mind, spinning with tactical planning, he's up here because he's the only one of them that could make it up here. Johnny isn't even on his mind as an option to call on to bring upstairs to inspect the trigger point under the rug. instead, Alucard's trying to think of what else to do. ) I — moved something that set the trap off. Naturally, I can't reach it now. Even if the trigger doesn't double as a way to disarm it, it should give us a clue... ( it's a grim consideration, but Alucard might just have to muster up his strength and just bear with the most logical, and most unpleasant, idea that he can think of. one that he's still trying to put words to — he might just have to tell Johnny to go back into the city for help, and leave him here to wait. )
How injured? Are you gonna be able to walk when we— [ Johnny cuts himself off at the noise, however strangled, Alucard makes upstairs. He feels adrenaline beating through to his very fingertips, heart rate climbing even though nothing's endangering him.
He looks around; no clear switches or anything on the ceiling or walls. But then as he listens to the rest of what Alucard says, through the haze of panic and wanting to have someone else answer all his questions and figure this out, Johnny is still noticing the way some of this stacks up. ]
If it's meant for youkai, or friends of them... Maybe they would want you alive to torture you for a while. Get information or some sort of desperate barter out of you... But this is a house. People lived here. There's gotta be a release switch. They wouldn't let someone rot in their upstairs....
[ Johnny is fretfully going back and forth downstairs, looking for hints and coming up empty-handed. The idea of leaving to find help doesn't even enter his head.
He comes back to the stairs and looks up them. Maybe twenty steps. It has a banister, wooden and old, but it seems sturdy. He reaches out and touches it, and then tugs with purpose. It creaks but doesn't budge visibly. ]
I'll look at it. [ He declares, determined. He sighs and then reaches out with both hands for the banister and, gradually while he waits for his body weight to shift with his movement, stretches out from his chair.
He can still engage his core just fine — honestly if anything he's even more in tune with it now than after years of horseback riding — and there's only the light thud of his numb, limp legs slamming into the stairs as he ends up hanging from the banister. He's gripping it like he's on monkey bars, and begins sliding one hand and then the other further up along the banister, tugging himself along...
Of course, dragging his lower half with him makes for quite an odd series of bumps as he goes, ignoring it since it doesn't hurt him except to upset his balance as he drags his knees off the floor and onto their first step. ]
Bold to assume this place used to be a home to people. ( something about it... perhaps it really used to be a residence, maybe there was a time when people used to live here, imprinting their day to day moments into the space, laughing and ruminating and existing. logically, arguably, it's possible...
but Alucard looks over the space and can't shake the feeling that it is, instead, more satirical than that, designed to blend in and disarm someone of their healthy caution. perhaps repurposed from what it used to be, reassigned, stolen away just as they all had been to become this dumping ground for undesirable youkai. Tatsuo can't build an impression on any of it beyond her displeasure at being here.
especially now that they're trapped here within it. Tatsuo knows her flame can do nothing against metal while preserving the safety of the host...at least, not comfortably, anyway. but she also knows he's been stripped of his ability to fully survive something like an unconventionally brutal escape; such is the exchange of being given a vehicle to survive. there has to be something else...
but then, there's a sound that cuts through Alucard's thoughts, creaking, thudding, that's been rolling rhythmically through the air for what he realizes has been some short amount of time. he looks up from the trap, brow furrowed and temple gleaming, to the direction of the stairs— )
—Johnny? ( Alucard straightens his back, craning his neck for a view that still won't be granted to him, adrenaline ringing in his ears. what's happening? what could be climbing the stairs, and how did Johnny not alert him to it? )
[ What, does Alucard seriously think this entire house, maybe even multiple of the houses - hell, most of the town - might be some sort of front? That's a pretty wild guess, although it's also one that's letting Johnny's imagination run wild with theories about how it could or couldn't be plausible...
...All of which is stuff he'd totally be commenting on, if he wasn't concentrating on carrying himself up the stairs with just his arms. This would actually be easier if he was hanging directly from a beam or something to cross a river. Instead, each time he has to drag his lower body up a step, his own body offers up some level of resistance to the idea. He's making progress, and it's pretty fast considering the fact that he's not just hopping up the stairs two at a time, but twenty stairs' worth of space is still taking him a little bit to ninja warrior his way past. ]
Yeah, [ he grinds out when Alucard calls his name. Alucard sounds...paranoid. Maybe he's more injured that he's letting on? Johnny can't imagine a bear trap is being kind to a human leg. ] 'm coming.
[ And he is. Johnny's hands will appear in view first, one reaching left, his weight switching arms, then the other reaching left, moving maybe half a foot at a time, having to hold himself parallel to the banister with sheer strength one-handed while he shifts each hand.
He's breathing a bit heavier, now, but Johnny doesn't complain as he finally has his head in sight of Alucard. He glances over and - yeah, the other guy sure is kneeling on the floor, one leg at an impossible angle that Johnny hopes means it's just disappearing into a false floor and not broken at that point.
As he clears the last bit, Johnny lets go with his forward hand and instead places his palm on the second story floor, leans towards it, and then finally lets go with his far hand and catches himself in a loud heap before he face-plants the floor. ]
...Fuck, [ softly, but with feeling. His legs are still on the stairs. He'll drag himself the rest of the way in a second.
God, he's going to have so many bruises to discover on his legs next time he bathes... ]
( for the disconcerting lack of logic that's going on right now, Johnny's response is curt and nearly nonchalant. shortly, Johnny's hand step into view on the banister of the stairs, one by one, slowly unveiling arms dragging their body of ownership along, which in turn reveals-- )
Johnny!( if you were hoping for Alucard to sound heartfelt and excited, well...he's unfortunately not. ) Are you insane? The banister could be compromised; do you want to end up like me? ( Alucard's heart is now racing to attempt an escape of its own, right out of his body; for being his knight in shining armor, he suddenly feels as if he's in more danger than before. ) You need to traverse as if every inch of this place is designed against you, lest you wish for the both of us to become permanent fixtures to it.
( Alucard sounds nearly panicked, yet something behind his eyes shines differently; it's a good thing that he has Tatsuo as the backdrop to his thoughts these days, fiercely intelligent as he is, he's still so young of mind. his alarm boils up to anger, but the wolf has thoughts of her own, seeing the selfless valiance of a man refusing to sit idly behind a lack of ability. in fact...Alucard might not be thinking of that display so forwardly, the knowledge of it definitely settles in the pit of his chest. Johnny should have gone out to find someone to help them both; instead, the ridiculous man has thrown himself right into the fray...and for what? to help him?)
[ Johnny can't say he was expecting Alucard's endless gratitude - this is not his one and only friend from back home, after all, and even Gyro would probably have something negative to say about a rescue this haphazard - but this is not a decision Johnny makes entirely lightly. It is dangerous and he should leave, except for all that little factors that added up together into him staying put.
He's curious about this place too. His youkai, for all its faults, emboldens him about what he could theoretically dig himself out of. And perhaps just the smallest shred of humanity, stretched out to a man that's shared a few clever insights with Johnny even if they've never really gotten along--
And then Johnny gives an attempt and that attempt is marked as falling dreadfully short, and what little scarred tissue that makes up his self-esteem takes the brunt of that disappointment. ] Because being careful really kept you safe, [ he snarls, although it comes a half-beat after his expression is openly stricken and hurt. He's already shoving it aside in favor of aggravation.
Johnny's still catching his breath, but he presses himself up enough to drag himself forward and then turn around to sit on his ass, facing the stairs, so he can pull his legs up off the steps with his hands. ] Besides. In theory, I can fly. But the jackass in my head only wants to help if my body is in danger.
So I need to be the one to help you, but if I got caught, I'd just put on my mask and let that demon-thing give me enough power to break out. [ He says this like it really was his plan from moment one and like it makes perfect sense, as he flips over to look over Alucard and the rest of the room at large, one initial scope for clues. ]
Exactly. If I still managed to fall into a dreadfully mundane trap such as this, then I don't want something to happen to— ( Alucard trips on his unprecedented words, just as Johnny argues his heroic logic. part of him expected Johnny hadn't thought this through, but that idea doesn't settle entirely well; he's impulsive as hell, dangerously so, but he isn't...stupid. Alucard knows that.
but what truly snaps his voice out of his throat is what he realizes he nearly says. it isn't 'I don't think you're capable,' because even if he didn't think so, Tatsuo would never allow him to say it. what it is...
I don't want something to happen to you.
and that sits strangely in the pit of his cold stomach, and he can't understand why the concept matters so much. it's...natural to feel that way about someone you're partnered with for safety. is it his pride? because Alucard only came here to make sure Johnny wouldn't hand himself in danger, and only wound up doing that for himself?
Alucard is made to surface from a submersion he didn't realize he'd slipped into, eyes awake and hard as he blinks into the present, looking at Johnny. sweat has his hair sticking to his temples, pain wandering through his body in waves. self-aware remorse bends his expression, but they don't have time for him to try to walk his own ass through unprepared apologies. )
—Yes. ( they need to focus on this first. Alucard swallows and looks back over to the half-crumpled rug. ) I attempted to move it to check for any trap, but it seems it was a trigger to another.
Not my brightest idea. ( but what else could he have done? if anything, it might have triggered either way, and wouldn't it have been worse not to bother checking an obvious detail? ) I didn't notice anything obvious under the rug; I'm not entirely sure the mechanism is hidden there with it.
[ 'I don't want something to happen to--' and it rings between them, awkward and obvious and hard to avoid looking at. Johnny just stares, eyes wide and not able to hide how hard it's hitting him to read the rest of the implied sentence. Offense at being offered help when he doesn't need it is so easy to feel and so familiar by now, but it doesn't cover the full extent of his emotions about being offered anything. And this isn't help, but a brief hint that Alucard cares--
Johnny swallows, hard, and sits up taller, shoulders back entirely because his body urges him to give in to how tired he now feels. ] Okay. So leave the rug alone.
Whatever releases it, it would be wherever the people controlling it would want to be standing, or reach for. So they wouldn't need to turn their backs to get to it, but it would be far enough away that something the size of any random youkai couldn't reach it...
Or. [ Johnny looks back over at Alucard. And damn, he doesn't look great, sweating and breathing heavier, but he doesn't look like he's about to pass out and Johnny can't do anything about it until they get the trap to release anyway, right? So... ] Or maybe it's not a...physical release?
Wouldn't exorcist humans have magic, in a place like this?
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
prelude to incoming bad decisions and crying
if this is alucard (and well, i guess even if it isn't) did you get that message too? about meeting up at the bar? did you actually go?
because if you didn't because you were too busy sulking [ pot, meet kettle, but okay johnny ] then i wanted to tell you i think this stuff is up your alley
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Of course I haven't gone. It's sounded a little too convenient coming from someone I don't know.
...Judging from the adamant tone, immature attitude, and the fact that you were crazy enough to answer the notice, I'm going to suppose that this is Johnny. ( this is off to a great start. )
Not sure that you know enough about me to know what my 'alley' is, exactly. ( as in, what the hell is about that his mind jumped to Alucard? )
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what makes you think NOT answering the notice is any safer? their powers are weak and weird but they can still get us killed pretty easily. if someone's offering up information i'm not going to ignore it.
and he HAD information. that's why i think you'd be interested. it's about how the magic worked with that crazy farm spirit. did you notice how what she was offering and saying didn't even make any sense? she was offering to trade favors with us as if she had powers, but she was so weak that her land was all rotten... this guy there says that he knows she was being controlled by those pendants.
guess that means someone who was telling me that 'blood sacrifices don't work' and that's how she knew the farm spirit was wrong way ahead of time was onto something.
you seemed really into how magic works. have you ever heard of exorcists?
this guy was talking about them. he wants people to go search where they used to live, for clues. i guess he's probably thinking those people had something to do with controlling the farm spirit.
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he sighs. )
Makes one wonder exactly who he is that he supposedly has information, but seemingly isn't doing this job himself. ( of course, Alucard above all also knows that not everyone has the fortitude or abilities to make effective changes they know are needed. still...Johnny doesn't sound as cautious as Alucard would like. )
And if these exorcists really are so elusive, I'm not confident they would leave anything worthwhile behind to be so conveniently happened-upon.
( but it isn't impossible. moreover, if there's something that they can find that will shed light on whoever is behind all of this, the dark magic of reanimating corpses and taking control over shrine spirits, they might be able to formulate a way to get out of this strange city.
however, a thought strikes Alucard suddenly— )
Don't tell me you're planning on going.
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that's my biggest worry. what if OUR youkai, the ones inside us, can be affected by stuff in there? can the youkais that are possessing US get possessed themselves? are they already?
i wonder where they would have hidden anything. it'll be out of plain sight, for sure.
yeah obviously i'm going. i want answers. the sooner i get answers the sooner i can go home.
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Of course our youkai could be affected. That might be why they needed us in the first place.
Don't go alone. I'm sure you delight in being reckless, but you're of no use if you end up dead. Does anyone in this place even know what happens when one dies? ( and he doesn't mean make some guesses about it, either.
damn it. Alucard can feel his gut and his limbs itch with uncertainty about what he knows is going to happen: Johnny is going regardless of the circumstances. )
You need backup. Unfortunately, for the moment, I'm unarmed.
However, at least I know how to be quiet.
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i saw someone die during the fight with the farm spirit, anyway. but i think time...was not working right during that. like something wouldn't let us go forward if we picked the wrong choices. maybe we're not immune to dying unless it happens...when time isn't working? [ Will this world only save them if it helps the world at large, not just them individually? It makes logical sense, or as much as anything can, around here... ]
you'd only need weapons for other humans, anyway. these aren't youkai.
[ And somehow, just like that, it's agreed upon. Since when did Johnny start relying on the idea of someone around him while he's traveling? How did he get so used to the habit of arguing with someone about the best way to do every little thing while out on an important mission?
(He knows how, and considering the timeless, skyless days have turned into weeks and he's pretty sure months and there's been no sign of him, it's seeming like for whatever reason, Gyro wasn't chosen to come and help these youkai. Maybe it says something about Johnny himself that he was pulled through. Are the youkai looking for strengths or weaknesses?)
Regardless of Johnny's mixed feelings and mixed motivations in general, this puzzle's got him hooked. He only barely manages to wait until their agreed-upon time to meet up and then head north in the city. By the time they're meant to go, Johnny is irritable but quiet - focused on the task at hand. Considering that Alucard seems reluctant to speak unless someone hits on the exact topic he feels like educating someone else on that day, it makes for a very silent trip.
And as they come closer to the northernmost section and the air cools and sharpens, their own silence grows heavier. It's not just them, now - it's the city itself. Haunted and slow, the silence grows on them like a slime. Johnny almost feels a pressure to keep it that way, like something cold and heavy sits on his sternum, presses against his ears.
The city is rotten up here, waterlogged in a way even the rains from before hadn't accomplished in the district that they've been living in til now.
Johnny really thought he'd explored most nooks and crannies of this place, in his search for a horse. Had he just missed this section? Or had something warned him subconsciously away, before?
His chair means that exploring upper levels of any of these buildings would be tediously difficult, so he's stuck to first floors and alleys and even sticking his head on the damp earth, nose pressed to the ground-level windows, to check cellars. So far, nothing has moved, and only the wind and rushing water he's yet to spot has made any sound at all. It's just him and Alucard and their uncomfortable silence, broken only occasionally by discussing a left here or a right there. Johnny's not even sure anymore that he knows the way back, except that surely he'd know when he left this area and its haunting, oppressive aura.
His youkai has been bristling but silent. Johnny's wings retracted days ago and the skin over his shoulders has mostly healed, since the incident with the farm spirit's discovery. ]
Hey. [ Johnny clears his throat. Breaking the silence after so long feels strange.
Alucard's over by the edge of the staircase in the latest abandoned building they're exploring. Johnny's eyeing the sink. ] I'm gonna check the cabinets. You want to go upstairs? [ It would make the first time they've separated since they started...that's probably fine, right? Nothing's happened so far. ]
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it seems as though it would have happened like this regardless of the two demeanors; once they enter the section of the northernmost residential area, the air feels like a pressure. the only sounds are idle water trickling, the creaking of old hinges, and the moping shift and crackle of once-possessions left forgotten and unwanted as gravity, an anomaly as it is, shifts within and outside of these abandoned things littering the vacated dwellings.
it's so quiet that Alucard can't even lose himself in the mid-tone roar of his own cycling thoughts, and his own youkai doesn't breathe a single intent into his ears.
it's just his breathing, and Johnny's, and the movement of their feet — until they're finally inside houses and the hollowness of the walls echoes every little thing that they touch, move, and open, yet something about this place...seems to even swallow any of the minor disturbances they create. inexplicably, perhaps even impressively, Alucard is left feeling sufficiently unsettled.
Alucard awakens to Johnny's sudden voice — snapping out of the bubble that his focus and the icy chill of the air had cocooned him into. his cohort suggests that they separate. in the surprisingly short life that Alucard has lived, he's been taught a lifetime or two of knowledge; he knows immediately, between his own learnings and the instincts of the okami at his back, that separating is a bad idea.
but they've netted nothing thus far, in this time they've spent searching; has it been minutes, or hours? such is the case in any part of Hakagemachi, where time stretches and constricts without rhyme or reason, and being in this place alone makes the sensation nearly unbearable. he looks at Johnny, not with an eye of pity, but one of consideration; Johnny can't accompany him up the stairs, and it's a risk to forego any inch of these houses from their search. they'll have come here for nothing if they didn't execute a thorough approach.
it's clear that Alucard doesn't like the idea, but— ) Fine. But check every door for anything suspicious before you open it, lest you wish to trigger an unpleasant surprise. Tatsuo is no puzzle enthusiast. ( luckily, Alucard has studied some very sensational (read: controversial) styles of engineering where he comes from, but he isn't a wizard. literally.
and as Alucard begins to lift and set careful booted feet upon each step of the staircase, he adds in a cautious, but nevertheless reluctant mumble, ) And God help you if you catch yourself in some guillotine, I won't make it in time to save you from losing a hand.
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Johnny scoffs, leaning in towards the cabinets. He stays in his chair not out of convenience for bending over so deeply to peer into them, but in case he needs to retreat quickly. He can't shake the sense of paranoia, that whoever lived here before wouldn't leave it pristine, abandoned and helpless. Not if they're actively pulling shit even nowadays. Either someone's gonna jump out of the shadows at them at any moment, or...
Or something is.
He sighs as he picks up a small scrap of paper inside the otherwise-emptied cabinet. ] Yeah, yeah, I'm checking. [ 'You're not the only one who's paranoid', he could say, but what's the fun in giving any part of himself away so directly? Also he's still pissy about Alucard not even wanting to come along at first. ]
...I need to learn how to read these letters. They're... [ He sighs, aggravated at their lack of anything to show for searching all morning, but intent on the characters on the scrap of paper in his hand. It's probably a goddamn grocery list. ] Beautiful. [ He goes with honesty, oops. ]
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his focus is on his movements, on the sounds around him, every creak, every shift, his senses melding with Tatso's to gauge any telling little detail that might be the prelude to a mechanical betrayal. which means...he captures everything that Johnny says, even as he makes it to the top landing, an achievement as much as it is still a continuation of the ensuing journey. he shouldn't let himself get distracted, he knows that, and can sense Tatsuo thinking it, but it's an unconscious move when he turns to look over the railing at Johnny, attention caught on him. )
Your youkai should be able to read them. ( spoken softly as possible while still being audible, before he turns away again to assess the area upstairs. ) Whether they're willing to translate for you is another—
( Alucard stops when he notices a rug blanketed over the floor, and he thinks he's caught a possible set-up. it's cliche, but tried and true, and refusing to walk over it blindly, he reaches down and grabs the corner of it, peeling it back intending to reveal some sort of a pit trap underneath.
as he draws the rug up off of the floor, he feels — the slightest tug under his pull. instantly, he drops the woven thing, hand going free and rug going limp into a pile on the floor. he can't see what it was, but then he hears a click. )
Shit— ( short and sharp, tense between his teeth; Alucard pivots and bolts, realizing the rug was attached to something. ) Johnny, stop, we have to—
( something shifts underfoot, and it upends his balance. a panel in the floor slides open so quick, he can only try to regain his footing — which the opening is relying on. his other foot goes to plant onto the floor, but it's only a small void now, and when his foot hits the bottom, about one foot deep into the floor, he lands on a trigger.
instantaneously, a maw of metal snaps shut around his calf. Alucard groans in alarm from the pain, but only for the swiftest moment; his arm goes up, and his own teeth sink in around the layers of cloth wrapping around his limb, silencing him as he reels. )
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That dirty goddamn thing living in his brain never wants to tell him anything useful—
Johnny turns around so quickly he nearly loses his hat, stuffing that paper into his pocket to free his other hand and wheel himself in a tight half-circle and face the stairs. He approaches them just as Alucard's warning is cut off into a clear groan of pain, a sound that also ends in a strangled noise. ]
What happened?! [ Johnny's voice is raised, shouting immediately to be heard, and the shock of another loud sound after so much quiet only encourages his already increased heart rate to climb up faster.
He ends up wheeling back from the bottom of the stairs to their side, trying and failing to lean in a way so that he can make out what's happened up the stairs, but the staircase is narrow and he can't see, dammit. Alarm for not just himself, but real concern for the other man, hits him with a spike of adrenaline. He's antsy as he waits and it makes his tone sound more aggravated. ] What's going on, Alucard?!
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he gasps, releasing his arm from his mouth, fang marks staining two points at the top of his forearm, the sleeve of his garment slowly building blood. his mouth comes away clean. )
Shh. ( it's almost difficult to tell if Alucard is shushing Johnny, or hissing in pain, but clarification soon comes on a harsh, sharp whisper. ) Keep your— voice down...
( shock is setting in, at least, and Alucard looks down to confirm what he already knows, and sees the sets of metal teeth enclosed on his leg, which is still in tact. he thinks, grimly, that the device isn't meant to sever his leg completely; it's more effective to keep him in tact, and therefore, trapped.
he swallows hard, breathing unevenly. instead of whispering, he takes the reigns of his body and navigates through a low murmur, making himself as audible as he can. ) I fell — into a trap. My leg's caught in the floor. ( from here, he looks for something, anything that looks out of place in the decor, the interior build. there has to be a way of releasing the trap... )
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Or just afraid it's next.
Johnny's quiet by chance more than acquiescing to Alucard's command, trying to get his bearings once more in his own mind. He swallows and scans the ceiling above him, wheeling away from the stairs, looking for anything that looks like a way out. There doesn't seem to be any clear hole meant to collapse in the ceiling, no obvious spot for a person to be dropped right through the floor to crash below... ]
Like a bear trap sort of trap? Or more like a rabbit snare? Did it hurt you or are you just stuck?
[ Johnny's voice is audibly panicked, but here is the first time he shows his true colors in peril - he's demanding and upset, yes, but he's analytical and already clawing around for clues to the solution.
He sighs in frustration. His own voice is barely undergoing an attempt to stay quiet, but at least he's not quite shouting anymore... ] I don't see anything down here that looks like a switch or something meant to let you fall all the way through the ceiling...
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( Alucard doubles over, sitting on his free leg folded onto the floor, and lowers his hands in carefully to test the trap, trying to pull at the jaws and see if they might loosen... they begin to ease apart under his baseline strength, no benefits left to him from his father's blood, left only with what his own two hands can do.
but there's a tension cog at the base where the jaws are hinged, and pushing the jaws open shifts the cog. Alucard hears the click and the jaws snap a few degrees tighter, jumping out of his hold and crunching deeper into his calf. he barks a surprised and especially pained sound, clipping the sound in his own throat as much as he can. well — that didn't work.
breathe through the pain; he can feel the assault lighting through his nervous system, skin breaking into a sweat, skin tingling as if embers from a fire were brushing onto him, but overall, Alucard knows he's fine for now, and will have to continue to be for long enough to figure out how to get out of here. )
No, I'm meant to be trapped. I imagine— that must be the beauty of its design. Disarming it must be out of my reach from here. ( almost sounds like it would be useful if he had that sword on him right about now... except, from where he's sitting right now, Alucard isn't seeing anything extremely out of the ordinary...
until he remembers the trigger. Alucard turns and looks back at the now displaced rug, still half-laid out where it had been set. when he had dropped it and turned, he hadn't peeled it fully away. from how he's situated now, he'll have to bend over his right leg, currently sitting in the teeth of the trap, if he wants to try to reach for the rug and peel it the rest of the way from where the trigger had been laid...
but it's still all out of reach of his wingspan; if Alucard were to bother trying, he would never reach it anyway.
in his mind, spinning with tactical planning, he's up here because he's the only one of them that could make it up here. Johnny isn't even on his mind as an option to call on to bring upstairs to inspect the trigger point under the rug. instead, Alucard's trying to think of what else to do. ) I — moved something that set the trap off. Naturally, I can't reach it now. Even if the trigger doesn't double as a way to disarm it, it should give us a clue... ( it's a grim consideration, but Alucard might just have to muster up his strength and just bear with the most logical, and most unpleasant, idea that he can think of. one that he's still trying to put words to — he might just have to tell Johnny to go back into the city for help, and leave him here to wait. )
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How injured? Are you gonna be able to walk when we— [ Johnny cuts himself off at the noise, however strangled, Alucard makes upstairs. He feels adrenaline beating through to his very fingertips, heart rate climbing even though nothing's endangering him.
He looks around; no clear switches or anything on the ceiling or walls. But then as he listens to the rest of what Alucard says, through the haze of panic and wanting to have someone else answer all his questions and figure this out, Johnny is still noticing the way some of this stacks up. ]
If it's meant for youkai, or friends of them... Maybe they would want you alive to torture you for a while. Get information or some sort of desperate barter out of you... But this is a house. People lived here. There's gotta be a release switch. They wouldn't let someone rot in their upstairs....
[ Johnny is fretfully going back and forth downstairs, looking for hints and coming up empty-handed. The idea of leaving to find help doesn't even enter his head.
He comes back to the stairs and looks up them. Maybe twenty steps. It has a banister, wooden and old, but it seems sturdy. He reaches out and touches it, and then tugs with purpose. It creaks but doesn't budge visibly. ]
I'll look at it. [ He declares, determined. He sighs and then reaches out with both hands for the banister and, gradually while he waits for his body weight to shift with his movement, stretches out from his chair.
He can still engage his core just fine — honestly if anything he's even more in tune with it now than after years of horseback riding — and there's only the light thud of his numb, limp legs slamming into the stairs as he ends up hanging from the banister. He's gripping it like he's on monkey bars, and begins sliding one hand and then the other further up along the banister, tugging himself along...
Of course, dragging his lower half with him makes for quite an odd series of bumps as he goes, ignoring it since it doesn't hurt him except to upset his balance as he drags his knees off the floor and onto their first step. ]
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but Alucard looks over the space and can't shake the feeling that it is, instead, more satirical than that, designed to blend in and disarm someone of their healthy caution. perhaps repurposed from what it used to be, reassigned, stolen away just as they all had been to become this dumping ground for undesirable youkai. Tatsuo can't build an impression on any of it beyond her displeasure at being here.
especially now that they're trapped here within it. Tatsuo knows her flame can do nothing against metal while preserving the safety of the host...at least, not comfortably, anyway. but she also knows he's been stripped of his ability to fully survive something like an unconventionally brutal escape; such is the exchange of being given a vehicle to survive. there has to be something else...
but then, there's a sound that cuts through Alucard's thoughts, creaking, thudding, that's been rolling rhythmically through the air for what he realizes has been some short amount of time. he looks up from the trap, brow furrowed and temple gleaming, to the direction of the stairs— )
—Johnny? ( Alucard straightens his back, craning his neck for a view that still won't be granted to him, adrenaline ringing in his ears. what's happening? what could be climbing the stairs, and how did Johnny not alert him to it? )
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...All of which is stuff he'd totally be commenting on, if he wasn't concentrating on carrying himself up the stairs with just his arms. This would actually be easier if he was hanging directly from a beam or something to cross a river. Instead, each time he has to drag his lower body up a step, his own body offers up some level of resistance to the idea. He's making progress, and it's pretty fast considering the fact that he's not just hopping up the stairs two at a time, but twenty stairs' worth of space is still taking him a little bit to ninja warrior his way past. ]
Yeah, [ he grinds out when Alucard calls his name. Alucard sounds...paranoid. Maybe he's more injured that he's letting on? Johnny can't imagine a bear trap is being kind to a human leg. ] 'm coming.
[ And he is. Johnny's hands will appear in view first, one reaching left, his weight switching arms, then the other reaching left, moving maybe half a foot at a time, having to hold himself parallel to the banister with sheer strength one-handed while he shifts each hand.
He's breathing a bit heavier, now, but Johnny doesn't complain as he finally has his head in sight of Alucard. He glances over and - yeah, the other guy sure is kneeling on the floor, one leg at an impossible angle that Johnny hopes means it's just disappearing into a false floor and not broken at that point.
As he clears the last bit, Johnny lets go with his forward hand and instead places his palm on the second story floor, leans towards it, and then finally lets go with his far hand and catches himself in a loud heap before he face-plants the floor. ]
...Fuck, [ softly, but with feeling. His legs are still on the stairs. He'll drag himself the rest of the way in a second.
God, he's going to have so many bruises to discover on his legs next time he bathes... ]
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Johnny! ( if you were hoping for Alucard to sound heartfelt and excited, well...he's unfortunately not. ) Are you insane? The banister could be compromised; do you want to end up like me? ( Alucard's heart is now racing to attempt an escape of its own, right out of his body; for being his knight in shining armor, he suddenly feels as if he's in more danger than before. ) You need to traverse as if every inch of this place is designed against you, lest you wish for the both of us to become permanent fixtures to it.
( Alucard sounds nearly panicked, yet something behind his eyes shines differently; it's a good thing that he has Tatsuo as the backdrop to his thoughts these days, fiercely intelligent as he is, he's still so young of mind. his alarm boils up to anger, but the wolf has thoughts of her own, seeing the selfless valiance of a man refusing to sit idly behind a lack of ability. in fact...Alucard might not be thinking of that display so forwardly, the knowledge of it definitely settles in the pit of his chest. Johnny should have gone out to find someone to help them both; instead, the ridiculous man has thrown himself right into the fray...and for what? to help him? )
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He's curious about this place too. His youkai, for all its faults, emboldens him about what he could theoretically dig himself out of. And perhaps just the smallest shred of humanity, stretched out to a man that's shared a few clever insights with Johnny even if they've never really gotten along--
And then Johnny gives an attempt and that attempt is marked as falling dreadfully short, and what little scarred tissue that makes up his self-esteem takes the brunt of that disappointment. ] Because being careful really kept you safe, [ he snarls, although it comes a half-beat after his expression is openly stricken and hurt. He's already shoving it aside in favor of aggravation.
Johnny's still catching his breath, but he presses himself up enough to drag himself forward and then turn around to sit on his ass, facing the stairs, so he can pull his legs up off the steps with his hands. ] Besides. In theory, I can fly. But the jackass in my head only wants to help if my body is in danger.
So I need to be the one to help you, but if I got caught, I'd just put on my mask and let that demon-thing give me enough power to break out. [ He says this like it really was his plan from moment one and like it makes perfect sense, as he flips over to look over Alucard and the rest of the room at large, one initial scope for clues. ]
...Was the trigger under that rug?
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but what truly snaps his voice out of his throat is what he realizes he nearly says. it isn't 'I don't think you're capable,' because even if he didn't think so, Tatsuo would never allow him to say it. what it is...
I don't want something to happen to you.
and that sits strangely in the pit of his cold stomach, and he can't understand why the concept matters so much. it's...natural to feel that way about someone you're partnered with for safety. is it his pride? because Alucard only came here to make sure Johnny wouldn't hand himself in danger, and only wound up doing that for himself?
Alucard is made to surface from a submersion he didn't realize he'd slipped into, eyes awake and hard as he blinks into the present, looking at Johnny. sweat has his hair sticking to his temples, pain wandering through his body in waves. self-aware remorse bends his expression, but they don't have time for him to try to walk his own ass through unprepared apologies. )
—Yes. ( they need to focus on this first. Alucard swallows and looks back over to the half-crumpled rug. ) I attempted to move it to check for any trap, but it seems it was a trigger to another.
Not my brightest idea. ( but what else could he have done? if anything, it might have triggered either way, and wouldn't it have been worse not to bother checking an obvious detail? ) I didn't notice anything obvious under the rug; I'm not entirely sure the mechanism is hidden there with it.
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Johnny swallows, hard, and sits up taller, shoulders back entirely because his body urges him to give in to how tired he now feels. ] Okay. So leave the rug alone.
Whatever releases it, it would be wherever the people controlling it would want to be standing, or reach for. So they wouldn't need to turn their backs to get to it, but it would be far enough away that something the size of any random youkai couldn't reach it...
Or. [ Johnny looks back over at Alucard. And damn, he doesn't look great, sweating and breathing heavier, but he doesn't look like he's about to pass out and Johnny can't do anything about it until they get the trap to release anyway, right? So... ] Or maybe it's not a...physical release?
Wouldn't exorcist humans have magic, in a place like this?