cryptsleeper | 20s AU Post

20s AU Post

Current Carmilla plot outline
--Post-fire, Carmilla and Mr. Peanut team up mostly to use each other. Carmilla's spent the past several months (since November, it is now February 1925) networking, and it's clear to her that Alucard's not suited for the position and that the other two are the obvious weakness. Mr Peanut needs something back, so this is perfect on her end. Mr Peanut can only imagine the joys of vampire blood in his work, and he'd like an army of vampires for his own ends.
--Shit stirring from Mr Peanut (all of March?)
--Mr Peanut also begins to sell mis Miracle Serum, which has vampire blood in it.
--Gang is very much trying to murder Mr Peanut during this.
--Start of April, vampire gets a call from one of the blood bank contacts that 3 patients have come in and are displaying some bizarre signs. Investigation yields the fact that they're in process of turning, and they've all taken the same serum.
--Additional investigation reveals O FUCK IT MR PEANUT
--Meanwhile Carmilla's been made aware of a familiar she didn't sire, so she knows something's up. Big fight with Mr. Peanut and thus Mr. Peanut is left depowered
--Gang commits a murder
--Carmilla's well sured up on her contacts now, and it's time for open rebellion (mid-April)
--In a more subtle attempt to let Alucard just step aside, she cuts the breaks on demon car and shows up to gloat/suggest he not pull a dad and go to deal with his grief quietly while she runs the city. The how he wants to do it is up to him (black widow joke goes here.) Treffy and Sypha walk in.
--1 week of straight up rebellion; feedings, no help from allies, need to do damage control instead of fight carmilla, every dracula rule is
--MEANWHILE IN GRAVITY FALLS, triangle shows Vlad what's up to try and psyche him out, somehow this finalyl snaps Vlad out of his depression and he heads home
--Just in time for Alucard and Carmilla to be tearing each other to bits in one of the bayous, it's not going well
--Vlad coming in means the king of vampires is accosted by a belmont with a pair of blessed knitting needles and a speaker with a fucking gun and he's just like what the shit happened to the world while i was gone
--Wards around the fight means that only demon car can break the wards, everyone has to pile in.
--Carmilla gets her ass kicked AND SENT TO THE JUSTICE DIMENSION

THEN THERE WERE FAERIES.
--Prior to all of this the vampire and Sypha have done a shit ton of research on how to get their Belmont back
--Sypha has also been practicing debating with dad, which leaves everyone Very Tired.
--When Trevor is actually snatched up (1 year after marriage, it takes fae effort. Taking Arn's shape fails, so it's a lot more kidnapping by force), Sypha and Alucard go into Faerie
--But they're playing this as politics, not as heroes rescuing their damsel, so that means the faeries are just "wait what now excuse u?"
--There are 3 gates and 3 trials (the particulars we're still bullshitting.) Each is asked to sacrifice 3 things. (Alucard: voice, his titles as bestowed upon by his father and his people, i forget the third; Sypha: her human form (she's a birb), fuck what were the other two)
--They enter the court at the end of the third trial. After LITERALLY ALL THE TITLES Sypha declares she Speaks for Trevor Belmont
--Claim debate over Trevor, turns out that the rules are in Sypha's favor.
--But that means debating to leave Fae without giving up what they've chosen.
--Sypha lawyers it all out, Alucard is a safety deposit and hangs out with Fae!Trevor
--In the end, safe passage out of Faerie consists of Sypha giving up her memory of the necromancer (billed as a great mage she studied under), the vampire gives up his immortality, and Trevor is replaced with Carmilla (dad was aware of this option and OK with it), but Trevor has his ability to swear taken. He now soundslike a rubber ducky when he tries
--Everyone gets home okay, except for the AU of this AU where the gang fails, but Trevor's on their doorstep like a bat out of Hell because time doesn't work right and he's been in Hell for a WHILE.

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Of course I'll be fucking prepared. It's hardly like the two of you are going to let me do anything more strenuous than looking at books for the next couple days anyway.

[ The necromancer brings the worst out in him. The most desperation to win, the least need to survive it. Apparently makes him as combative toward the vampire as he was when he first came here, too. Though that may in part be the splitting headache. ]

Unless the lecture's done, would you mind turning on the lights? It's fucking weird having the darkness be disapproving at me.

And you'll have to make a case for going with us yourself, I think. We...sort of forfeit the right to negotiate about your future and your well-being, earlier.

[She did, at least. But you know. Crazy things happen sometimes when your father-in-law is Dracula.]

But he will listen to you, I think, when you do. ...I hope.

[She really, really hopes.]

We have- fuck. [ Yeah, that cut's reopened with a vengeance. Literally everyone here is fucking bleeding. ] -a cover, in the car, to keep the back of it dark. I'll set it up.

[ Look at him resisting the temptation to point out that they're prepared to deal with just about any vampire need, because someone left their boyfriend responsible for all of them. He just stumbles out, going to the back of the car and pulling out a thick cloth to block the back of the car from the light from the front window and a pair of screens to cover its own windows.

They're going to have to figure out seating arrangements. Dracula needs to be in the back. Alucard needs to be in the back with him, more than likely. Either he or Sypha need to be in the driver's seat, even if the car ends up doing most of the work.

...which means either leaving Alucard alone with his father, or one of them has to be in the dark with Dracula. ]

[What was that Trevor was saying about good job keeping his blood inside him? Regardless, things have come to an uneasy standstill in a situation literally no one likes, and so maybe their combined agreement that no one is happy right now will at least be enough to get them to cooperate toward getting back to the castle.

She knows Dracula won't let her get near Alucard, not right now, but she sneaks a glimpse in his direction, anyway. He looks...still peaceful, at least. Maybe the Belmont incense is still working.

Hopefully Dracula hasn't noticed that, either.]

...What about Carmilla?

[Because there's a little time yet while Trevor gets the car set up, and it occurs to her that, well, in all the heat and fuss, nobody's actually asked that yet.]

[ Dracula plucks his son out of the air, looking over the half-healed wounds left from the battle. His tone had seemed dark a moment ago, when he had asked Sypha to justify his allowing the two of them to live. Now, now it is suffocating. Compelling. The kind of voice that could order someone's heart to stop and be obeyed. ]

She has been granted a kingdom of her own. May her reign be long, bloody and glorious.

[ And Sypha finds herself suddenly overcome with a need to respond to that in a particular way. Whether she has the will to resist it or not, she can hear the words in her head, in her own voice.

Long reign the Lady of the House of Justice, with her Crown of Silver and her Throne of Olibanum. ]

[And that? Sypha had been rattled before, but that's the moment when rattled turns to terrified.

There's compulsion, and then there's this. Compulsion she understands; compulsion is something she's used, even, usually with care but sometimes not. But this? This is greater, more oppressive, more encompassing than just an order or a whim imposed on her. This is the weight of a magic she couldn't begin to hope to stand against, played out in an arena where she is supposed to be a master in her own right.

He puts words in her mouth, in her mind. He dictates the story, drops it fully-formed into her mind and forces it out through her puppeteered tongue, and she speaks the reply like a call and response at Trevor's church whether she wants to do it or not.

It's a block of ice dropped into the pit of her stomach. It's every warning her culture ever spoke of, all brought into practice in an instant.

It's the sudden, and very real, understanding of why her grandfather had tried to turn Alucard away, to avoid the chance of bringing this down upon them from Dracula's notice.

Her lips feel dry, when she finishes the response he compels from her. Her skin must be white as a sheet, and not just from the bloodloss. And she's left speechless, for one of the rare times in her life when words simply fail her, but this time it's not because she's distracted or teased or happy; it's as though they've simply been ripped right out of her altogether.]

[ Dracula says no more, carrying Alucard into the car the moment that the protections against the daylight are set up there. Trevor doesn't even get a chance to place himself between him and Sypha this time, he just climbs in.

Trevor runs back into the house, looking Sypha over (she looks so much worse than she did only a moment ago). But she seems unhurt, at least. Everything else can - has to - wait. ]

One of us needs to be in the driver's seat.

[ Even if the car is driving itself, appearances are important. And the other needs to stay with Alucard, so as to not leave him alone with his father. ]

Do you want to-? No. Whatever Dracula just did, he doesn't get to do it again. You do that. The car's probably shaken, it'll prefer to have you there. Just let it handle the driving. I'll stay with Adrian.

...The Belmonts fought things like him...?

[That's all she can manage to say, for a few seconds, still caught up in the paralysis that horror forced upon her before Trevor's presence shakes her out of it enough that she can at least regroup. But it's a visible thing, the way that she has to pull herself together, drawing her focus around her like a blanket and compressing it down into a solid, tight little thing that she can use.]

I — all right. I'll...I'll drive. Are you going to be all right, with him?

Yeah. We- historically, it's never really gone well. We're doing fucking brilliantly right now, what with neither of us being dead and all.

[ He's retreating into gallows humour, the way he does when faced with awful things. He reaches up, stroking her hair. ]

I'll make sure he uses a seatbelt and everything. Just ask the nice demon to get us home, okay?

...Yes. At least none of us is dead.

[Not even Carmilla, apparently, which is the most unnerving part. And it would be nice to take more time to properly enjoy the comfort Trevor offers, but unfortunately the sun doesn't stop rising even for the sake of a stolen moment of tenderness, and they really need to go.]

Don't worry about the car. We'll get home all right, I'll make sure of that.

[He looks a mess. That head wound is bleeding again, and wounds to the head always bleed so much. Not the best position to be in, when he's about to end up in a dark backseat with a pair of vampires.]

...Here.

[She can't easily tear her robes, and the bandages are still...somewhere below, probably, so she just shucks them off entirely and presses the mass of still-warm cloth against his chest.]

To clean your face.

[ He looks down dumbly at the robe (it's precious, he knows that, all caught up in the story of leaves in hair and jumping off non-metaphorical trains), just staring at it before he nods and smiles. It's genuine, so far as he can manage right now. ]

If this is just a ploy to guilt me into doing the laundry, it's working.

[ And he wipes the worst of the blood away, holding the robe against his head. ]

Drive safe, okay?

You always do the laundry.

[At least when it's covered in blood, as it so often is. But she touches the tips of her fingers to his arm, the slightest hint of a nudge, and starts to guide them both for the door and the car and the vampires waiting, huddled in the darkness inside it.]

Mmhm. I suppose we will see if our little demon is feeling better, after all.

[They have a home to get to, and a slaughter to leave behind, and that transition can't happen soon enough.]

Guilty, guilty as charged.

[ Cleaning blood off clothes helps him to relax, okay?

He takes her hand as they go to the car in the hand that isn't holding a robe to his head, then squeezes it softly before getting in to the darkness of the car's back seat.

It's time to go home. ]

[The wolf whines once in response to the question. Like this. He'll explain the logic come morning, but for now, it'll do.

Said wolf is also still refusing to move. Instead he flicks his ears back, and the paws on Sypha's leg just stay where they are. He's content like this, and there's a low rumble from him to make that much clear.]

I meant the necromancer would be prepared, Belmont. Your level of preparation is beyond question.

[Most days, at least.

But then Trevor finishes his thoughts, and the vampire freezes. The hands holding onto Trevor's let go, and one goes to his face - specifically to carefully hold it in place as the vampire leans in to get a look into his eyes.]

The lights are on. They've been on.

[ Oh. Oh, that makes more sense. It's hard to connect different thoughts together right now.

Alucard's attention to Trevor's eyes gives him a perfect view of them darting from side to side in sudden horror. The pupils are reacting to the light of the room, though one is always just slightly larger than the other. He looks uselessly across the room a few more times before his eyes still, staring into nothing in particular. Alucard's hand is there, he can feel it holding him still, and he tries to use that as a waymark to direct his gaze at him but falls short, staring over his shoulder instead, eyes unfocused. ]

...shit. Shit, no.

[ That kind of terror has only ever been in his voice before once, when he begged Alucard to kill him on their first meeting. ]

[Back then, that terror was something Alucard ignored. He did not know a Trevor Belmont, he know the horrible pain in the ass begging for death on his doorstep and only that. A problem to be dealt with by shuffling the man off into the night, his desire unfulfilled.

Now, now that note wrenches through Alucard as sure as a lance through him. It's pained, and there's so many reasons for it. They didn't just fuck up a little, they've fucked up a lot. This could be permenant. Trevor will not forgive himself if that's the case. (A useless shielf, no matter how much Alucard and Sypha protest it.)

Alucard's hands withdraw after a moment.]

I'm getting the advanced medical kit. I'll..

[He walks over to a corner of the room and then returns, putting something soft into Trevor's hands. An older stuffed toy. Something to squeeze.]

I will be right back. Promise.

[Somehow, the vampire's voice is calm.]

[ He turns the toy over in his hands, trying to make sense of what he's been given. It's soft. Cloth. There's some resistance to it if he squeezes it, too much for it to be a blanket or bundle of clothing. There's a seam that he can follow with a finger, along the underside of it. About the length of his forearm, with four growths coming up from it, two on each side.

Paws, he realises eventually. It's one of the dolls from Alucard's room. He puts it down, trying to get up out of bed and just get the fucking lights. Alucard can't have been right. He just needs to turn on the light. And to do that he just needs to stand up and walk across the room.

Which is a painful and difficult process. Very little of his body wants to move, and standing up straight is just about impossible. And then when he finds his feet comes the dizziness, and the room spinning around him. Even blind, he can feel it turning, and after only a few steps he has no idea which direction he's heading in. His hands glance against that old drafting table of Alucard's and he clasps at the wooden frame of it desperately. He's still there when Alucard returns, carefully planning the next section of his journey to the lightswitch. ]

[His mother kept a smaller lab at home. She was a doctor, she had an actual office and there she kept most of her work equipment. Home was for matters that required advanced medical technology, along with her housecalls bag. It's a big, brown satchel, carefully organized and with a ew more advanced pieces of equipment than a dcotor might ordinarily have.

Alucard walks with the same sense of calm purpose his mother did when she had that bag. It meant emergency. It meant the utmost professionalism. It meant not reacting with any more than a grunt at walking into the room and seeing Trevor out of bed, leaning against the drafting table. Alucard only heads over so he can take Trevor's hand and start to guide him back to bed.]

Trevor, I want to ask your permission to invoke following orders right now. I don't know if any of that will override pain sensors, but it's vital I take a look and try to assess damage right now.

[ He could have done it. He could have got there. He was halfway there. He just needed to push off from the table and walk to the wall, then use that to brace himself and- then he'd be at the light switch, and this could all be resolved. He gives an almost feral noise when Alucard takes his hand, trying to pull away and do just that, but one step away from the table and he's already lost his way and his whole body slumps forward painfully in despair. He lets Alucard lead him. ]

Fine, do whatever you have to. Just turn on the fucking lights before you do.

...You want to stay with me.

[Whether she's intuiting or projecting, one has to admit she's getting pretty good at this. She moves her hand back again, petting behind his ears, before stroking her hand back further past his neck to the top of his spine and letting it settle there almost possessively.]

All right. If you show me where you will be most comfortable.

[This is going to be a nightmare.

Alucard says nothing until he has Trevor's hand in his, and they're at the edge of the bed. He stands for a moment more, carefully considering what the right order of words is for the moment.

There.]

Trevor, sit down on the edge of the bed. Hands on either side, use the bed frame to brace yourself if the pain becomes unbearable.

[Alucard feels sick just even saying the words.]

The lights. Turn on the fucking lights.

[ He knows. He knows that the lights are on. But at the same time, they can't be. This cannot be a thing that's happening. Not now. Not with the city wrapped in such chaos.

But he sits as he's told, bracing himself for pain. ]

Please. Please turn them on.

[Every word hurts. Every word is a reminder of just how badly they have miscalculated, because for Trevor to lose vision even temporarily is the worst possible thing to have happen. They city is barely under Alucard's control right now. It will explode if they aren't careful and...and Trevor makes them be so very careful.

Alucard focuses on the requirements of now. He reaches into his mother's bag and pulls out a small flashlight. Clicks it on.]

Stay still. I need to check your eyes, okay? If you even see a bit of light, tell me.

[He uses one hand to make sure Trevor's eyelids don't blink. The other hand shines the light in, and Alucard tries to assess how the eyes are reacting to light at all.]

Please.

[ His pupils shrink as they should, but Trevor doesn't react at all. His voice just cracks into something raw and tiny and pathetic. ]

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Page 100 of 141

20s AU Post

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