speakerstone | Inbox (Prismatica)

don't worry
that wears off pretty fast
i mean the thinking it's weird to smell everything thing

you need to make the house smell like you and then it'll die down
just go around and touch everything in the house
leave your clothes out on couches and stuff
make it smell yours

i don't really get angry with sanguis anymore
but i think that's because of alucard
he's iris
it has kind of a...
i guess you could call it a moderating effect
it takes the edge off

sanguis needs something to protect so find something you can be really intense about and that should calm you down too

i've been doing some research into this kind of thing so

Well! I didn't realize you'd been quite so absorbed in the science of this. I've been doing some studying, myself.

But this is helpful. As much as I'm reluctant to go around my house like a dog marking territory, it's nice knowing it isn't unbearable for long.

I don't suppose you have any experience with the other effects of our moon? I haven't sprouted any new ears or horns just yet, but time will only tell. That seems just a touch less easy to adjust to.

well
i usually turn into a wolf
but sometimes i wind up a dragon

what i'm saying is there's a pretty good chance you'll end up with a tail sooner or later
so have some clothes on hand you don't care about too much

also be careful if you do end up a dragon
your voice gets weird sometimes

...a dragon. An actual dragon?

Clothes noted. And...should I ask what you mean by weird voices? Or should I assume you're being purposely vague for our collective comfort?

well, yeah
i mean scales and horns and stuff
not a whole dragon like the one i had at the beach
he's different

depends on how much you really want to know about the shit i get up to with alucard i guess

it's that kind of weird

...Huh. Only sort of dragon? Half- dragon, as opposed to a whole one?

We can leave it at that for both our sakes.

i'm saying i don't turn into a giant lizard
just a guy with some dragon stuff

how much has he told you anyway
about us
me and him i mean

A giant guy with some dragon stuff!

He's told me a few things. That you helped him work through Iris. That you're thoughtful, but you might seem abrasive at first. Cloyingly sweet, romantic things, mostly, but it sounds like you make him happy.

i'm the same height as alucard
what the fuck

yare yare of course he did
he just

i hate it when he's sad

Doesn't make either of you any less giant.

[Alucard's a bit of a twunk, anyway. Jotaro is...less that. Same height, different width.]

...whatever you've done to make him happier, thank you. I hate seeing him consumed by his sadness.

he gets scared you know
just like anybody else

maybe people assume he doesn't because they figure vampires don't get scared or whatever
or because he's so good at acting calm
but he does

Of course I know.

He's slow to open up about how he's scared, most times. But I've seen it on his face. There are things he's seen that anyone in their right mind would be terrified by.

yeah
me too

you're talking about his dad right
i saw what happened

...you what??

I mean, yes, I was, but

How is that possible

oh there's this thing here
it's like
hmm okay let me think how i explained this to alucard way back when

okay so
in the future there's a way to record performances
like the way you can write down a story in words in a book
you can record people acting out a thing
the visuals and sound
it's called a movie

anyway
they've got machines here that can basically make movies out of memories
so about half a year ago he and i went in the machines together
i showed him my memories
he showed me his

so i've seen his castle and his dad and stuff

I see. Like a distance mirror, but for crossing over gaps of time, rather than space.

[There are divination spells and artifacts that can perform something similar, but piecing together the language would take even a skilled magician ages. Also...good to know, all of this. Not just because these movies sound immensely fascinating to her, if only she could carry this knowledge back to her people, but because she doesn't ever want to be in a situation where she sees Lindenfeld burn over again.]

How much did he show you?

it was kind of an accident
he just wanted me to see the castle
like a tour
that's how i found out about you breaking it by the way

but being back there got him thinking about his dad i think
so then it sort of
changed
right out from under him

it was going to make him kill dracula again
but i didn't let it
i got in the way and i did it instead
told him to close his eyes so he wouldn't have to watch it

[Don't bring up the castle. Not right now. The time for redemption comes later.]

Jotaro. I know we hardly know each other, but can I ask you something?

...Something you can't tell him about. At least not for a while.

[This is a bad idea. She knows it. They must trust each other so much, he has Alucard's best interests at heart. But this thing is weighing down her heart like she's circling a black hole, fighting against its pull. She needs to tell him, and she doesn't know how.]

i won't lie to him
whatever it is, if he asks me about it directly, i won't pretend i don't know

but
i'm listening

and i don't go telling secrets that aren't mine to tell

I appreciate it. I want to be the one to tell them, in the end, but...well.

[Just because she needs to talk about this doesn't mean she likes doing it. She can't remember a time in her life where telling a story has been this painful, personal, this stained with blood and suffering. And she's not doing to tell him everything at first blush. Not yet.]

When Trevor and I were out on the road, we ran into a town with monks. Suspicious monks, creeping around a priory oozing magic from the walls.

Long story short, there was a portal to something called the Infinite Corridor down in the basement. A sort of dimensional door, usually invisible to the naked eye. They'd found a way to see it and to open it. Mostly by accident, but they had intent and the will to see it through.

They wanted to use the portal to bring Dracula back from hell.

what the fuck
is that

what the fuck is that a thing people can just do
drag people back from hell
what the fuck

Yes, I know. If you can somehow control it, the Infinite Corridor contains windows to many different realms. Hell is only one of them.

It must sound absurd, doesn't it? I burned his body, but I saw him alive as ever in Hell. Looking straight through us. We were able to put a stop to it, so it isn't like our friend is about to get a sinister knock on the castle door, but...

Some monks left town before we knew what their plan was. They said they were going to spread the word, and it's not as if there are portals scattered just anywhere in the countryside, but we needed to stop them.

That's the last thing I remember from back home.

but that means you don't die when you're dead
you're still there
you just go somewhere else

...

like what happens to people when they come here holy fuck
what the fuck

that's incredible
that means you could save everyone
you could use that thing and save everyone holy shit

You need to lose something to open the portal. Something of a great personal cost. Even if you had some way to control it, it isn't that simple. Countless people have died in the pursuit of what you've said.

You can't just bring people back on a whim. It isn't right.

it's not like it's that much different than how my life usually goes
getting sucked into bullshit i can't control just because it has to be me
at least this time i'd save some people maybe

but whatever
i don't have access to the thing anyway

and it's pretty obvious that it bothers the hell out of you

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