Ascent of Eternity (Swallow and Misty)

Trevor crossed his arms grouchily and simply grumbled a "Thank you" in response to Sypha.

There was then a very apparent awkward silence.

(Cue the "camera" repeatedly cycling between each of their faces as they stand in awkward silence--for several extremely long minutes)

Perhaps Alucard could have jumped in to break the silence... But he made no attempt to do so.

"... Well, time certainly won't fly by while we're doing absolutely nothing," Sypha finally piped up again, desperate to clear away the looming awkwardness. "There must be some way we can take our minds off of this wait...!" she pondered aloud.

"'Fly by', huh? That reminds me..." Grant once again turned to Alucard. "... Changed your mind yet?"

With a calm, faint hum of a sigh, Alucard turned to Grant. "... No."

As soon as he got another negative response from Alucard--that is, without so much as a quarter-second delay after Alucard had finished speaking--Grant let out a very frustrated scream, threw his hands into the air over his head, and stormed to the other side of the "tower".

"... Wow," Trevor said simply in reaction to Grant's outburst, climbing atop a freshly-fallen block of stone.

Alucard's gaze slowly followed Grant across the tower, a bit of exasperation showing through in his mostly-composed expression.

"Oh my... He's getting himself very fired up over this, isn't he?" Sypha remarked about Grant, swiftly climbing another fallen block next to Trevor's.

Trevor nodded. "Yep... He's being such a child. I don't think I can take much more of it, to tell the truth," he grumbled, shooting a glare in Grant's direction.

Sypha was silent for a moment, watching Grant in the distance with a frown. "... Hmm... Maybe I should try talking to him," she mused, stepping down from her block.

"Well, if you think that's going to help... Sure, knock yourself out," Trevor responded with a sigh and a little waving gesture of his hand. Quite honestly, he didn't think any good would come out of attempting to reason with Grant, but he wasn't going to stop Sypha. At least she would distract him temporarily, if nothing else.

"Alright... Well, I'll hopefully return soon," Sypha replied to Trevor as she prepared to cross the tower, dipping her head. Taking a deep breath, she then approached Grant.

Alucard, standing in his usual, obscure space off to the side, briefly gave Trevor an uncertain look from the very corner of his eye. He also seemed to be doubting that Grant could be stopped this easily, at least somewhat.

"... Grant," Sypha spoke upon reaching her destination. "You know... This climb is going to feel an awful lot longer if we choose to dwell on it," she told him, meeting his gaze and speaking in a tone that was both gentle and firm.

Grant, who was pouting with his arms crossed, looked over at Sypha when she approached. As she spoke to him, he just continued to pout. "Yeah? Well... It would be a lot SHORTER if"--he turned and hollered in Alucard's direction--"FANG BOY OVER THERE"--he turned back to Sypha--"would actually help us out..."

A faint and rather unamused grunt rose from Alucard's throat when he was referred to as "Fang Boy".

"It does sound like a simple solution, yes..." Sypha began in response, but then gave a little shake of her head. "... But Alucard refuses to go through with it for a reason. If it wouldn't exhaust him so greatly, I imagine he would already be helping us out." As she spoke, she momentarily glanced upwards. Surely they were nearing the top by now? Though she made an effort to keep quiet about it, Sypha was growing more restless, herself.

"I dunno..." Grant stared suspiciously at Alucard. "Look at him. See him there? He's just... starin' at us all from way over there. I bet he's secretly laughin' at us inside, that weasel."

"What?" Sypha turned her attention to Alucard, then back to Grant. "You honestly think he's-..." she started, then paused abruptly with another glance between the two. "... I mean, it IS difficult to tell what he's thinking most of the time, but..." she remarked thoughtfully, but then quickly shook her head. "Him? Laughing at us...??" Once more, she glanced from Alucard to Grant. "... Alucard?" She was apparently having trouble picturing this.

"Well, sure!" Grant responded, pausing to hop up onto a freshly-fallen hunk of rock. "Why else do you think he'd be standin' around over there, watchin' us suffer? There's gotta be some reason why he's not just..."--he paused and waved his hand around--"... I dunno, flyin' up there by himself to scout it out or whatever."

Sypha admitted to herself that, at the moment, she couldn't exactly disprove Grant's claim, but she still chose to have hope in Alucard nonetheless. "Well, I guess that is rather strange," she agreed. "But it can't just be that he's amused by all this...! After all, this quest is important to him, too," With a puzzled expression, she stared towards Alucard again.

"HEY. DON'T THINK WE CAN'T SEE YOU OVER THERE, LOOKIN' ALL SMUG," Grant suddenly called to Alucard, basically cutting Sypha off before she was even finished speaking.

Meanwhile, witnessing everything, Trevor could currently be seen in the process of burying his face into his palm.

When Sypha's words were basically cut off by Grant in a most jarring fashion, her expression went blank, and one of her bottom eyelids could be seen twitching slightly. "... Rude." She muttered plainly.

Hearing Grant shouting at him yet again, Alucard--gradually beginning to show his irritation more and more--met his gaze from across the tower. "... What are you on about now?" he called back, his voice growing somewhat exasperated.