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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[Alucard waits quietly. He holds a palm to his chest, trying to staunch what he can of the bleeding. It is a fool's errand, but he tries regardless because what else is there to do? He has received all the aid that he could ever demand from anyone at the moment, and he is grateful for it.

Likewise, he's grateful that this camp is far, far away from many prying eyes. A bleeding man on the streets here at this time of night? Normal enough. It's a thought that almost makes him smile, until the terrible truth of why he's here in the first place comes up again. Alucard wants to cry from it all, and he can't. Not yet.

His mind wanders through various ways of trying to express grief. He could sob for hours now, or else become an ice cold wall, or perhaps wander the bayous until his legs finally ache. They're all possibilities, and he is considering each one when Sypha approaches.

He takes everything in his non-bloodied hand.]

Thank you.

[He feels the note. But he doesn't look at it. He walks away, careful with his gait. Disappears around the corner.

Then stops long enough to examine the note.]

[It's very short. There wasn't much room for words, and so she didn't mince words.

(Comical, isn't it. A Speaker, writing things down.)

Wait where the path forks, it reads in thin, scratched letters. I will help you.]

Mm hmm.

[ The eternal curse - it's easier to talk to Alucard when he's a dog, but it's impossible for Alucard to answer. And the only ways that Trevor knows to be nice usually involve checking in on people.

He shakes his head - forget it, it doesn't really matter if Alucard's worried about what comes next. It wouldn't change what comes next at all. Instead he just starts talking. About the storm, at first, and then about the plans his grandmothers had for weathering it (or not weathering it, in Florence's case, but patrolling her neighborhood with her magic galoshes and the little capelet she had him knit for her, with runes to anchor and shield her. And then about the congregation of the church as a whole. About Dana' new baby, and how the whole knitting group worked together to figure out how to fit a ward against illness into a cute design for a blanket. About their drive to collect preserved food to send to those who needed it after the storm. About how two people had fainted when Florence showed up to Sunday Service five minutes late and splattered with blood, and how Agatha had smiled and made a performance of teasing her for the bad job she'd done at 'making strawberry jam'. ]

-they'd come for the communion wine, of course, trying to take it from the church's storerooms. But Bunicuta goes to midnight mass every other night, so they run into her instead. And then they get it into their heads to threaten her-

[Crossroads. Alucard isn't sure he can make that walk, but he doesn't get a choice right now. He's already going in the right direction, so all he must do is keep walking.

It is terrible. Every step hurts, everything feels like a knife all along the wound. Alucard can feel how close he is to wanting to fall down, and he does so only once he the crossroads themselves.

He falls all at once. A mess of limbs and a groan of agony.]

[Alucard fights the urge to close his eyes and just listen. It's important that his eyes stay up on Trevor. He's listening. He cares. All of this is important because it's important to Trevor. And it's...nice, listening to the more ordinary parts of life. It is one of the things he hasn't had since his mother died, that connection with the more human world. It had been finding Sypha and begging for her help, it had been mourning, and then it had been taking on the work of the city. Precious time for the little things.

Vampires have a version of this, but it isn't the same. Human family connections don't exist. There's sires and there's their offspring and the little stuff, but parents and grandmothers and all of that...he misses it. His mother was a bridge to that world, and now it's just Trevor telling stories about the church that fill the gap.

Besides. The babas wouldn't tell him the communion wine story, and it's funny. Thankfully, laughing translates in wolf vocal chords.]

[She's late getting there — later than she'd like to be, at least. But back at the camp Sypha has been a quiet flurry of secretive activity, finding a bag for supplies and sneaking back into the remedies tent to collect far more extensive a haul than the meager offering they'd extended to the vampire. She finds some cloths and adds them; she finds a little bread and a flask of water, and whimsically tosses in a few of her candies for good measure. She adds a knife, with some reluctance.

Then she waits, and when activity has returned to the camp as usual, she steals away.

She wonders if he found the note. If he stayed. If he'll just eat her and be done with her, and this was all just a trap all along. Well, so much the better if it is. He can have her, and maybe it will sate him enough to leave the other Speakers alone.

Her sandals make scuffing noises along the dirt path as she makes her approach, and as she rounds the bend to the crossroads —]

Oh —

[If this is a trap, it's a good one. The bait is perfect to have her scurrying over, dropping down to one knee to try to get a look at him.]

This is not exactly what I had in mind when I said to wait for me, friend.

[Alucard doesn't bother to get up. It'll look pathetic if he does, and some terrible part of him still gives a shit about dignity. He hasn't had it since the start of this horrible farce, and he won't have it for months to come. A speaker finding him collapsed at the crossroads shouldn't rankle as it does.

He lifts his head slightly. That's about all he can manage, and even then it's just to make eye contact. To acknowledge that she's there, and that he's quite exhausted from exerting himself. Otherwise he is so very still.

There's enough energy in him to reply though.]

Couldn't be helped.

-and so she leaves them tied up outside the church with a note criticizing their behavior and a pamphlet on the dangers of excess drinking.

[ He smiles, running his hands through Alucard's fur. ]

It came up in the sermon, though not in exact words. A lot of talk about doing what's right, and about god putting us where we're needed. And then what was very obviously the priest trying to be subtle about telling everyone to just ask him for the wine.

Let me help you onto your back.

[More specifically, let her sort of un-heap him and get him instead into a position where she might actually stand a chance of helping him. She's not really sure about the wisdom of spontaneously touching an injured vampire, but she starts with his legs first, trying to sort of pull and rotate him into a supine position.]

...To do this, we must have an agreement between us. I will not ask what happened to you, to cause this. But you must tell me the things I need to know to treat you. Do you agree?

Agreed. Anything that touches my blood needs to be destroyed.

[That's the most important part. This young woman being here is probably a risk to her people and their safety. He cannot jeopardize anything else in addition to that simple fact.

He's cooperative though. Lets himself be unheaped because there's something easier about having a person who isn't himself directing all of his limbs, the rest is on gravity and momentum to follow her lead.]

[Alucard covers his nose with one of his paws. The universal face in hands gesture, translated into wolf. What a ridiculous farce, and what a ridiculous group of humans that attend it. A community that's bound by...this much gentle ripping on each other as it is faith.

The winds have died down outside. Oh, it still howls, but it isn't as bad as it was. Not by a longshot. Alucard's ears flick back and forth, careful to understand it all. The storm still has so much rain to give them.]

Do you require someone else's blood to heal this?

[She's simply got to be blunt about it; there's really no time for anything else. Shucking off her top layer of robes, she moves up to his head and lifts it unceremoniously, just long enough to shove the cloth underneath it as a makeshift pillow.]

Also. I have a steel needle and a silver one. If I suture this, which will pierce better to make the stitches?

Not immediately. It can be seen to when I'm home, there is a supply from one of the hospitals we arrange with.

[He's trying to be quick. Anything else is unhelpful to the speaker and....

...and the pillow comes with a little grateful noise.]

First one. Silver will only burn.

Very well.

[She digs in her bag, finding the flask of water and one of her towels, which she reluctantly holds out to him.]

I assume you do not want me to touch your blood, so I need you to clean it off yourself first. This is water to rinse, and the towel to blot.

Nothing for a while.

[ He withdraws his hand. ]

If you're doing this for my sake, I think there's no need anymore. I'm sure you're sick of me talking to myself.

Do you have gloves?

[He asks it as Sypha hands him the flask. He can pour the water down his front, use his non-bloodied hand to wash out the dirt that has doubtlessly got itself caught in the wound. There's a horrible hiss as he does so, one that is enlongated for as long as he is scrubbing through everything.

Then there's the towel. It hurts in it's own way, but it is a little easier. Just by a hair.]

[Alucard gives Trevor a very soft final nudge, then withdraws. He makes a point to transform behind Trevor's back, and it takes a moment for him to reply. Alucard first needs to shake out his hair and rub his hands. Back to human form.]

I like listening. [He says it softly, and there's not a single lie in the words.] Truly.

I can't imagine why. Shit's boring.

[ Which- well. That is why, isn't it? That's why Trevor cares about it so much. Because it's one tiny thread connecting him to a normal that he's never had. ]

But- thanks. Didn't realize I'd hate this shit so much. Maybe I'll see if I can convince Sypha to teach me her tricks, let me sleep through the next one.

[ The maps have long been just meaningless piles of sand. He lost focus maybe half an hour ago. He could reset them, but knowing more right now probably won't do much good. ]

So. I'm staying.

It's the nice kind of boring.

[Funny, the reason they're both clinging to it is terribly the same. Alucard stays where he is, arms at his side, just...watching. Contemplating many conversations had lately.]

And in truth, it seemed the only useful thing I could do at the moment. Sitting and watching maps move around helps only to a point. The rest invites anxiety. We're...not at a point where any of us can do anything.

[More importantly. More important than maps, than this work, than anything else.]

If you want. Sypha and I both hope that you will, but...if the terms of our agreement are filled and you don't want to, then we'll understand. The choice is yours.

It's doing something. [ The maps, that is. And everything else in his life. Coming here to kill Dracula was doing something. Staying was doing something. Going to feed Agatha's lovely cats is doing something. Knitting potatobrands is doing something. Everything comes down to taking action, trying to take control of something. ]

Both of you? [ He looks away at that, staring at his piles of sand in thought. They're both so kind to him. Better than he deserves, in truth. Alucard's a shitty vampire, a shitty leader, but he's a good person. And Sypha doesn't seem to care either way about him being better than he is at anything that matters, as long as he remains kind. Neither of them were built for this the way he was. Neither of them deserve any of this shit. ] I'll stay. As long as I can.

I didn't bring any, I'm sorry. If you need more water, tell me and I can make more.

[WITCHCRAFT.]

Be gentler with yourself. Don't scrub, just...stroke. Like this.

[She motions vaguely for him, trying to mime the appropriate method and level of care.]

[Alucard doesn't touch that first part. The ever constant need to move forward, like life might devour you if you don't, is not something that he finds helpful. It fills him with terrible dread, and he has enough of that in his life.

The second part is much easier.]

Yes, both of us. The castle would be strange without your presence. [The city, likewise, would not survive without Trevor's presence. Alucard's accepted that Trevor's attitude, the harsh thing that undercuts everything Alucard's mother taught him to be, is very much needed to keep things standing. He'd be dead twice over without Trevor's advice.]

Thank you. That means a lot to us.

I think it's enough.

[He doesn't even blink at making more water. She's a Speaker, it could be some kind of metaphor or. Or whatever. Alucard's decided that minimal thinking is best right now since there's someone else to help.]

Slightly too late for that now.

[But apparently he has enough in him to gently be a bit of an ass.]

[ As long as he can. It might only be another two months or so. But it's not the time. It's never the time. He doesn't know if Alucard understood when he explained the situation to him, but he's not really keen on having the conversation again.

People tend to get emotional about the 'getting dragged to hell' thing, for some reason. He doesn't really care too much anymore. Every All Hallow's Eve would be spent with his mother clinging to him, his sisters gathered around, Leontine and his father glaring at the window and daring anything to come for him, and he had been afraid then. After that, Enid would send him pictures of dogs and packets of sweets, and he had been resigned. And after that, it would generally be dedicated to drinking and waiting and he had just been ready. Now he's- still not afraid, but apprehensive. He doesn't like the idea of leaving the other two.

Mostly, though, he'd rather not have to deal with them being upset at him. He falls into a comfortable silence for a little while, listening to the sheets of rain striking the castle. That, at least, is nice to listen to. Almost relaxing. It's a bit later when he speaks. ]

Once she's awake, I'll set the maps up again. We can use those and the mirror, see if it's enough for her to focus on to help people remotely. If nothing else, ice made with that filthy fucking water ought to be opaque enough to keep the sun out for a few hours.

I imagine the castle would likely resist the attempts, anyway.

[...Although. He did get in, back when he first turned up on Alucard's doorstep. And he is a Belmont. And — hmm.]

Or do you think you could disrupt them? If you were able to, that is, in the absence of the house rules.

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Page 11 of 141

20s AU Post

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