20s AU Post

[cryptsleeper]

"Land of the Dead" (Watch on YouTube)

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.

Comments

[miraclewhip]

I'm not going to do anything stupid because someone else ends up with a fucking whip.

[ It's not like he's done a whole lot to earn trust, but ugh. ]

Fine. Tanti has work for me anyway. Wards that need breaking, someone's trying to hide shit from her.

[cryptsleeper]

Good, spend the weekend helping her.

[The thing is to happen on Friday night. Being without the Belmont in the house for the rest of the weekend will be a small blessing.

The pie's not getting eaten at this point. Alucard collects his papers and piles them on the kitchen table, then takes the plate where his now quarter of a sandwich has been abandoned. He puts it in the fridge for now.]

[willpowerful]

[Magic, they both say in unison, except it's an uncoordinated response so it comes out a clatter of sounds and syllables, one in Trevor's deeper register, overlaid with Sypha's softer tones. Old magic. Bad magic, Trevor clarifies, and that's apparently how this conversation is going to go, nothing coherent or well-organized, just pieces of information scattered like newspaper clippings.]

He's not...alive. Or — not living. James mentioned something once, that might be this. He's animated, but that's not the same as alive.

[She means your dad didn't fuck it up when he killed him, Trevor supplies from the backseat. It took. Somebody just made it un-take.]

[cryptsleeper]

Somebody.

[He breathes out the word. It's a millstone around the three of them.]

Someone else is in charge of all of this then, and picked a useful tool of psychological warfare.

[Someone is gunning for the city. Someone is trying to cut the city off at it's head. Someone already knows where there are exposed weaknesses, and what should be a victory is about to become so much worse.]

[miraclewhip]

[ Belmont doesn't care. Belmont's eating his childhood comfort food. Might save some for Sypha, if she's lucky. Might just eat the whole fucking thing and then figure out how to process this shit somehow. ]

Should I be suspicious that you're so eager to have me gone? If it's a sex thing, I already fucking heard the two of you.

[cryptsleeper]

Coronation is on Friday, I don't want your opinions for the weekend.

[Also yeah, it's a sex thing.]

[willpowerful]

To hear Alucard tell it, what was left to die was my future.

[Now, the screws. It's assembled; it just needs to be fastened on. The fasteners are made for small fingers — a woman's fingers. She lines them carefully, screw and bolt, and starts winding them together.]

You came here to kill Dracula, or so you said. We came to save the story of his wife, when she had died. I am not sure where the rest of my people, my family, are right now; I know that they were heading west by train. But I abandoned them, and our calling, and now I am here. And they are not.

[miraclewhip]

You realize it's possible to just ask me to shut up, right? I can do that, just tend not to.

[ But whatever. He could treat this thing like it matters, but in truth, it's the only part of this shit that doesn't. And he's been taking literally everything else far too seriously, making sure Alucard remembers his responsibilities. This, he can afford to treat with all the dignity it fucking deserves.

And maybe treating it with exactly as much dignity as it deserves will be helpful. Or maybe it'll be awful. Either way, it's better than the previous topic. ]

But fine, have your wild 'becoming vampire king' sex. Thank you for considering the damage that your girlfriend does to my eardrums for once.

[cryptsleeper]

[Well, if Alucard thought he couldn't get more blindsided by the Belmont's...everything....here it is. He just heard all those words leave Trevor's mouth.

His jaw is just sort of hanging open.]

[miraclewhip]

To save the story-

[ He's heard that exact phrasing used before, hasn't he? ]

Wait, shit. Speaker?

[miraclewhip]

I guess you didn't realize that you can just ask me to shut up. Well now you know.

[ And if Alucard doesn't actually want that pie... ]

[cryptsleeper]

Thank you for demonstrating exactly why I don't want you in the castle for that weekend.

[The pie is his. Alucard's done on just about every level.]

[willpowerful]

Yes. Well — perhaps former Speaker, now. To hear vampire society tell it, I am Alucard's witch. I suppose it all depends on which version you hear. Try taking a step, carefully, and see if those braces wobble at all.

[She sits back, dusting her hands on her knees, but stays crouched in case she needs to adjust it again.]

Which is also why I am still here helping you regardless of whether you deserve it, Belmont.

[miraclewhip]

You're welcome. I can pretend it's serious, if you prefer.

[willpowerful]

[They really should not be having this conversation while Alucard is in control of a moving vehicle, Sypha thinks, but no, he'll get them to Agatha's, at least. Perhaps then she can convince him to let her drive home, while Trevor and his broad chest console him in the back.]

It...

[She hesitates.]

It is not something he could have done on his own. No. If I can study him, before he is dealt with, I may be able to pin down what was used to work this upon him.

[cryptsleeper]

As always, I'd prefer you not be here at all. For the time being, I can at least excuse myself from your presence.

[Vampire out. And oh, Sypha's gonna hear all about this one.]

[miraclewhip]

Of course it is. And so I know you'll keep helping no matter how shitty I am, so that's nice.

[ Not that he was exactly holding back. He takes a step. The whole thing is stable, though he doesn't take his hand from the wall to risk falling. ]

For example - you're as shitty a speaker as he is a vampire if you think there's no story worth remembering here.

[willpowerful]

Perhaps the next time I will simply gag you before I start my work, then, and spare myself such treatment.

[Good. The design holds up; that should improve matters. Not that making the Belmont more mobile is actually that great of an idea objectively, but he's going to be mobile whether they like it or not, so. Here they are.]

Did I say I thought there was no story to remember here?

[miraclewhip]

[ Trevor is different at the knitting group. They're warm, familiar, and they bring out something that he probably ought to have been, a part of him that he was robbed of. He makes stupid puns and he listens intently to stories about friends of friends of friends and he volunteers for little jobs that will come up during the week, from the Belmont-relevant to things fixing a roof before the stormy season or helping Florence with her broken car. He smiles in ways that aren't sneers and he talks about dogs and complains about the heat even as the rest of the group laughs at him because summer is only just starting. Even Alucard's presence doesn't affect this, and he talks to him as he would to anyone else in the room. And he's bright, and he's warm, and it's gone the moment he leaves.

Florence rides back with them, and he keeps up conversation with her easily enough, but it's stiffer now. Cooler. And then once she's gone, the struggle returns. He's not talking to Adrian, who Bunicuta knew since he was three, any more. He's talking to the lord of this city. The man who has to keep this shit under control. And so the only thing he can force out of his mouth is intelligence. ]

It doesn't do permanent damage, that spell on Godbrand. She's been doing it since I came here. And he knows. He just won't do anything about it, because Agatha terrifies him.

[ Conversation is hard. ]

[miraclewhip]

Neither of you have actually tried asking me to shut up, you know.

[ He takes his hand from the wall this time, taking another step. He's unsteady, but the thing on his leg holds up. And so he sits down, leaning forward to talk. ]

Said you abandoned your calling. Isn't that the same thing?

[cryptsleeper]

Ripping on Godbrand is an international sport. There are people who remember the landboat incident in Quebec and...it was special.

[In theory, Alucard only drove Trevor to knitting group because Sypha had the other car. The truth was that he needed to talk to Agatha about work as well, and they had spent a very quiet half hour in the kitchen, all hush tones and tut-tut-ing. It was about as pleasant as the matter could be, and that was mostly because he's grown up around these three. (They were also genuinely kind about his mother's death. Far better than many.)

It was worth it though. He saw a different man there, and the only question on his mind now is why that man can't be the one that lives in the castle with himself and Sypha? (He knows. It's because it's his father's castle. It's because Trevor is still, technically, a prisoner in all the ways it matters. It's for a million other tiny reasons.)]

I can't tell the story properly, but it was chaos.

[miraclewhip]

Apparently he called Agatha something that even Florence won't repeat, when she started hunting. She says she's going to keep doing this until he sends her a signed apology.

[ Can Godbrand write? Probably not. ]

Apparently I have to take over for her once she's dead. Hence-

[ He motions to the knitting bag. He's been practicing lately.

It's something that's familiar and comforting to Trevor, though maybe less to Alucard. The constant talk of when people die. Florence has already demanded that everyone give her all of their things once they're dead. Agatha gives them all tasks to complete for her, from feeding her cats to tormenting Godbrand. She wants her ashes taken back to Transylvania, when he goes home (when he goes home, which is an instruction to outlive her and live to be able to go home). It was a common thing amoung his own family, with death haunting them constantly. And it's comforting to go back to it. ]

[cryptsleeper]

That....hm. The man hasn't bothered to learn an alphabet yet, so it'll be eteneral indigestion.

[Godbrand 200% cannot.]

And she's much too young to be talking gallows humor yet.

[It isn't humor Alucard has ever liked. He likes it less when it's those he cares for making the jokes, and this moment isn't exactly helping that feeling. But Alucard doesn't venture more commentary as he comes to stop at a light. He groans.]

This one takes five minutes to change, I swear.

[willpowerful]

I don't want you to shut up, I want you to stop being awful. If you are not capable of that, then yes, I want you to shut up. Next is the wrist; I have an apparatus for that, too.

[It was, perhaps, strategic that she decided to work on his ankle first. She has a suspicion that the wrist will be a harder sell, somehow, for a man who does his work with his hands. Hopefully the success of the ankle will make him more amenable to having a good portion of his arm immobilized.]

Whether there is a story here or not, I didn't stay for the purpose of collecting it. My intent matters. It was not to be a Speaker, that I stayed.

[miraclewhip]

That's good, because I'm much to shitty at knitting for her to die any time soon. My Godbrands all look kind of like potatoes.

[ He just watches the light, then looks around. He isn't used to the scenery yet, largely because a lot of his time in the city has been spent either stuck in someone's basement or on what was meant to be bed rest except for his inability to remain in a bed or to rest meaningfully.

Everything is- really, honestly, much too big. Nothing in Europe was ever built for cars, all tiny streets. It's a constant reminder that he really doesn't belong here. ]

You practically need the five minutes to get to the other side of the road.