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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I know she will.

[It's the attacks Damien orchestrated all over again, but worse. They have to focus on finding him, putting him out of his misery before anyone else learns about what has happened.

This isn't a conversation they should be having in this moment. (Except it needs to happen.)]

Trevor's ideas will be better than mine, I suspect.

Cold-forged iron is the only one I know of. We'll test it last.

[ There's no response to that, but he hears it. He's considering quick ways to communicate the information. Still, even quickly, it might be too slow in a battle. ]

Not sure. We need to see if the skin will pass through it. I can take it out and try to push it through, or if you'd rather stay in control you can try to just throw the jar if you're willing to let me clear up the glass afterward.

[ He's not quite so far distanced from his emotions to force Alucard to touch the skin of his own will. If he wants to throw it, he'll clean it up. It just means he has to go into the tantrum room, which has always been off limits. ]

Very well.

[Alucard does not like the particulars of defining success, but when Trevor explains how they have to test it...

He swears softly.]

I'll get a pair of medical gloves. There's no point in cleaning up broken glass. I have a medical kit down here anyway.

[There are several of them littered over the house, born of his mother's knowledge that the castle was much too big and it was far wiser to leave a few kits in different parts rather than run to the opposite end of the world (or so it always seemed) for supplies.

So all he does is leave the tantrum room, go to a nearby closet, and grab a pair of latex gloves.]

I'll assume these don't create a barrier issue. Resume the test.

[Once upon a time there was a Speaker named Arn who was in Trevor's war, a mud dove, who wore white and had delicate fucking sensibilities and didn't want Trevor to be a part of his story anymore, and it's the very particular and deliberate way that Trevor pronounces his Speaker's curse on the necromancer that makes her realize where he must have heard it before.

You're going to hate it, he'd said. You'll kick me out of the bed, he'd expected. It makes her wonder if some part of him had sat there, petrified, already wounded and kicked and bruised from an identical conversation with a different Speaker, waiting for her to not just force him from her bed but to erase him from her life as well.

And yet.

And yet he'd loved her so much, wanted her to be safe so much, that he'd risked it anyway. Because Trevor will always destroy himself first, for the sake of the people he loves.]

Will you make me forget?

[The scars on her arms will still be there. The memories of the bruises will remain. But the necromancer's words don't have to. No matter how much he might want them to.]

Will you love me as hard as you can, until his memory is gone?

You're going to cast the ward again. Then you'll take the skin from the jar, and try to pull it through. If the ward is working, it'll resist.

[ Warning done, he proceeds to do this. Alucard's hands open the jar and take the skin from it, pinching it between fingers. Then he tries to move that hand through the shimmering air. There's resistance. He pulls harder. There's a hissing sound, the magic being pushed back bit by bit, allowing the skin to be pulled forward. And then it tears, a little scrap of it left between Alucard's fingers and the rest floating to the ground. ]

Seems to work. Hopefully it'll hold against the real thing.

You could tell her it is a month-long hangover.

[It's not actually funny, as jokes go, but she wasn't exactly trying very hard to make it so, either.]

There is...something. That I want to tell you, But. I want you to hear it, but I don't know if you will want to.

And if it doesn't? What is plan B?

[Under his own steam, Alucard crouches down and returns the fallen skin to it's jar. It is easy for him to think of it just as a sample, especially with the gloves on. Especially if he doesn't look at it for more than a few seconds. Then it becomes another reminder of exactly what this situation is.

Alucard pauses, eyes going back to his sword.]

We should also consider that casting and using a weapon simultaneously is going to happen. It would do more harm than good if you were trying to control both things, and the way I fight is different from your approach.

It feels like a month long hang over already.

[It isn't funny. Just true.

Then Sypha changes the subject entirely, and Alucard can only nod. His chin rubs against her shoulder, just a little.]

What is it?

If I could make you do anything, I wouldn't be stuck telling you stories. Now would I?

[ He can't lie. Even if he could, he can't make promises that he can't keep. ]

We'll never speak his name again. We'll track down every caravan that lost a member in the city and tell them that the monster is gone and to remember their lost friend but forget the thing that hurt them. But- no matter what we do, some part of you might remember. Some nights you'll wake up, and it'll take a moment to realize that you're there and not here. Maybe sometimes we'll touch you, and there'll be just a few seconds when you try to put a fucking icicle into us. I- nothing I can do will change that.

But we can give you better things to remember. Happier things. Enough of them to drown those out and keep them rare. And when they happen we can sit with you and hold onto you until you're grounded and you know for sure that you're here with us. And they'll happen less and less, then. Until they happen so rarely that they may as well be gone forever.

I've seen what a monster looks like, now.

[She says it very softly, guiding his hands to still on her stomach, more just holding them in her own than enjoying the benefits of their movement.]

I know you hide things from me, because you don't want me to see them. I understand that. I understand why. The things you must do, that you hate, because people expect them, or the city will collapse.

[She's quiet a minute.]

But there is nothing, ever, that you could do, that would make you a monster. Because now I know what a monster looks like. And nothing you've done, even the very worst thing you've done, even comes close to it.

[It takes such will not to tense up as Sypha begins. Even more will not to clamp on tightly around her, because the way they have settled is so very, very perfect. Serene. Soothing. (Alucard, as he and Trevor have learned, is nothing if not a fountain of endless will when the appropriate situation arises.)

More than that, he listens. Truly and with all his heart, because those words are worth their weight in the most expensive luxuries of the world. Gold and saffron and diamonds, and none of them are Sypha.

There is the question of how to respond though. Words don't seem right, not really. He could laugh softly, murmur something about how it is a very good thing they have a Belmont to help fight monsters, but it isn't the right tone. He could say thank you because they are words that mean so much, but that isn't right either. It makes it about him, when this is still about Sypha.

He settles for leaning forward, kissing her neck, then where her jawline begins, then what he can reach of her cheek. Words still do not come.]

Plan B is 'we both fucking die', so I just make sure I don't fuck up Plan A.

[ The thoughts that are coming through are just as neutral in tone, but grimmer. There's at least a hint of 'and we'd both fucking deserve it for letting this happen'. ]

I can't use your magic, so we ought to test that next. I'm not going to move you at all, but I'm going to take control away from you. See if you can still control the sword.

[ And Alucard's body falls limp, only doing enough to remain standing. ]

[The hint of the we deserve it is the truest thing Alucard's heard from Trevor's head so far. The least offensive as well. His own self loathing for letting this happen is...

...never mind. It will filter to Trevor and Trevor won't care, so Alucard won't waste the energy.]

Understood.

[This part? This part is actually the scariest so far. There's nothing to do, there's only standing. The sword, however, Alucard things get over here and it flies over. Hovers over his shoulder, and that's satisfactory.]

Belmont. I'm going to send it forward in an attack. Cast anything you can think of as I do so.

[ Not the ward, he'd been focusing that upon the sword just in case (the salt purification shouldn't affect Alucard, but he'd still rather not channel it through his body and tempt fate). Something else, then.

The glowing spell. That will do. He focuses it on the sword, writing the runes for it down quickly. He's going to need more paper for this, when it's finally time. He's already starting to run low. ]

[There's silence. Trevor hasn't let Alucard regain control of his limbs yet, and it is a smart choice. (Possibly not on purpose.) In theory, half of this fight will be with Sypha in Alcuard's arms. He can't fight and hang onto her, so this? This is a far better test than either of them expected.

Forward, and the sword sings through the air, the sound of it all the sharper in Trevor's head thanks to Alucard's own senses. It's a ringing sound against the air, not a bell but something fiercer.]

[ The sword is bright as it moves forward, slicing through the air with a sound sharper and higher than that of a bullet. Light from it catches on the ruined walls, the broken furniture.

He's actively trying to supress the shit, he really is a monster. It comes out still.

But the test is a success. Alucard can use the sword without his body being capable of moving. Trevor can cast spells at the same time. ]

Letting you go now. Careful not to fall.

[ And he does. ]

[The sword embeds itself in the wall. Alucard recalls it and it lands at his feet, neat and far away from the debris. They're banking so much on light being the most effective way of fighting this necromancer. If they fail...

...no. Failure isn't an option, and Trevor will make the monster comment again. The most response Alucard manages is a low, deeply annoyed noise. One that comes out just as Trevor lets go.

The vampire doesn't fall. But he does wobble unsteadily for a few moments before he straightens up. Everything in Alucard feels sick, and he can't tell if it's from the experiment or from the fact food has been a low priority.

He settles on the latter. Time away from Trevor is probably ideal at the moment, and so rather than return to research, Alucard goes to the kitchen.]

[ There is blood on the paper. He's only just noticed it, too distracted by his work to see it. Or maybe it wasn't there before, and it's just now appeared, little droplets of it.

It's only a few moments later, when he puts his hand on another book and leaves a great red handprint, that he turns his hand over and looks at the marks there. Four of them. Four deep, angry puncture wounds. And it's both surprising and not, because he knew that this was a side effect, but he's missed the way Alucard digs his claws into his own hands until now.

If they fuck this up, they both die. And they'll deserve it.

He's trusting a monster with his life. ]

[It's only been four days. In those four days all the little things that were left ignored for the week past have been seen to. Dishes (a disgusting pile) got done first, that was Alucard's domain and he felt a little ashamed of the tower. Laundry was whoever got to the next pile first. Today, while Sypha rested and Trevor saw to her, was groceries and cleaning both of the cars. (Cleaning the cars also included talking to te demon car and aprising it of the situation.)

In the past four days, other things have made themselves evident, mostly that the other two will speak about Sypha and her care and nothing else. A week's worth of soured feelings (monster) and stress. Everything was stressed too easily between the two.

Such behavior would have Sypha yelling at them to talk, if she was around to see it. As it is, Alucard is aware of it but there is no desire to talk about the matter. Her care is more important. Anything that could threaten it must fall by the wayside.

He comes into the kitchen laden with grocery bags. There may or may not be one that's just Entirely Bread.]

[ It's harder, when Sypha is asleep. But she needs to sleep. She needs it so much. But when she's awake, she talks. She talks a lot. And he answers, and it's only mostly an overly performative way of confirming that both of them are still there. She's asleep now, though, with the aid of a medicine that Agatha learned from the speakers of the old country for dreamless slumber.

And that means finding something to do. Speaking with Sypha leaves him raw, bruised, in the last kind of place where he wants to be alone with his own thoughts.

Except most of the things that need to be done are already done. The room he used for his spells needs cleaning out more, but that'll leave him in no state to return to Sypha when she wakes. There's too many horrible things there that she can't be exposed to (the smell especially, not right now).

It's the gun that he means to give her that he works on, in the end. He's already taken it apart and cleaned every part of it twice, but a third time couldn't hurt. Just to be sure. Just to be safe. And he's putting it back together when Alucard returns. ]

The fuck would anyone need that much bread for? We expecting to fight off an army of ducks?

It was on sale and it freezes perfectly well.

[Look sometimes the bakery is trying to get rid of the baguettes and you don't say no to BOGO baguettes.

His eyes catch sight of the weapon, but the bread is threatening to spill everywhere. Alucard moves that bag and all of the others onto the counter first, and he is quiet as he does so. Mound of vegetables (green pepper, onion, celery for most meals plus root vegetables). Fruit, mostly apples, and then meat wrapped up in neat butcher paper and clearly labeled. Everything they ought to have eaten for the past week but failed to.

Everything goes away save for the bread (it has to go on the table across from Trevor) and for one package of butcher paper, and when Alucard unwraps it there are three whole fish in it. He reaches for the knife block and takes out the sharpest, most nimble of the knives within to start to deal with the fish.]

I think we can attempt sitting at the table tonight. I'll carry her down and back.

Right. It’ll be normal. She’ll appreciate normal.

[ Talking about Sypha’s care is easy enough. They can both manage that. He thinks he might even be able to maintain a pleasant conversation in her presence. But without it- without it there’s nothing.

(Alucard is a monster. And that fact wouldn’t cut half so deep had he been a monster all along. As it is, he can’t just think about how it sounds when he (his boyfriend. Who he is supposed to love, somehow) hisses and bares teeth and extends claws. He has to think about how he could have done it all along. Could have been the monster this city needed from the start. How all of those lives didn’t matter enough.)

The peices of the gun are so small. So delicately, precisely crafted. They don’t look like part of something made to kill. ]

I need to wash the sheets again, after this. She started shaking again, while she was drinking her tea.

Let me know how much stain remover is left after you start the wash. I'll make a new batch tomorrow if it's truly dire.

[Unsurprisingly, the house has it's own formulation for stain issues. It works too, far better than it probably has any right to work. Sitting down for an hour and fucking around with chemicals sounds blessed anyway, Alucard knows he needs it. Formulas and weighing things out and nothing else on his mind.

His hands flip the fish over. The fins and spiney bits have to go.]

Could you move the garbage can over towards me, please? My hands are full of fish at the moment.

[Because monsters, or at least this one, worry about cross contaminating food.

He's quiet otherwise. The knife is down, and there is tension starting to rise in the air again. Trevor should go do the sheets or something. Anything. It'll be easier over dinner when Sypha is there and they have to behave.

(That's the worst part of this, isn't it? It isn't going back to the beginning, it's going back to even before that.)]

Kind of in the middle of some delicate shit here, move it yourself.

[ That would be a ‘no’. Move your own fucking bin. He can’t afford to lose any of the parts of this. ]

[There's an annoyed noise, but nothing more. Just the sound of the trash can being shuffled along the floor by Alucard's foot, until it stops moving and he gets back to his own work.]

My apologies.

[If it is delicate work, he won't venture further conversation. As it is, he focuses on the fish, on getting the inedible parts removed and then opening up their bellies to be stuffed.

Silences aren't comfortable anymore. They haven't been since...since everything, and Alucard can still hear all of Trevor's shitty fucking opinions in his head. They're there when the silence becomes unbearable, and it begs a far worse question in the back of his mind: can that opinion ever be fixed now? If not then...

...fuck.]

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Page 59 of 141

20s AU Post

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