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

[cryptsleeper]

[Alucard's tired, but not tired enough to not realize he's entered bizarro world. Trevor Workhorse Belmont is talking about not spending a waking hour to prevent the outbreak of actual disaster for the entire city. It's enough to actually get the vampire to reach up, stilling Sypha's hands for just a moment.]

What plan?

[Is he alarmed? Slightly.]

[willpowerful]

Mm, no, we only went the once. We didn't stay long because there was word of a vampire near there, and we were afraid of being targeted, so we left.

[She turns her head, pressing her lips to his shoulder and letting them linger there for a long moment, an extended kiss.]

I've always liked traveling by river best. Wagons and horses are one thing, and trains are such fun, and cars are...well, we never used cars, of course. But there are always interesting people on boats, and all the days are lazy, whether it's raining or sun.

[miraclewhip]

She was just going to look sad at you until you gave up. It wasn't much of a plan.

[ It's a bad sign and a good sign. The good sign is that this is an indication that Sypha's presence allows him to think more clearly. The bad sign is that this is- about how out of hand things have become. He's having to plan for efficiency rather than maximum distraction from emotions. And efficiency means recuperation. It means healing. ]

Neither of us have been able to read your fucking handwriting in two days.

[ It means that they gain more time than they lose from a day of rest from not having to have Alucard dictate all of his notes to them because apparently doctor handwriting is genetic but only when one is sleepy. ]

[cryptsleeper]

I think that we could fix that, if you do want to go back one day.

[The need to take control of the city as his father did is not present yet. Alucard will regret thinking of future travels one day, bound as he is to the city and it's needs, but for now he can still think of all the travels he will take in memory of his mother's edict to travel. She wouldn't want things to change in her passing, and Alucard wouldn't be alone for it.

He smiles as the kiss to his shoulder. There's a moment of shifting, and Alucard rests his cheek atop Sypha's head, holding her in place.]

And it's easier to see the landscape change?

[willpowerful]

Mm!

[She laughs, delighted, at the sudden drape of cloth over her shoulders, and reaches back to one-handed try to flip up the collar so that it sits raised around the back of her head, more in the style of a cloak than of a coat.]

Ooooo, Trevor Belmont, I'll suck you dry before you can whip me.

[She stops short, brow furrowing, as her face assumes a quizzical expression.]

...That really does sound like one of those terrible novels, doesn't it?

[cryptsleeper]

[Alucard opens his mouth to protest that his handwriting isn't that bad, but...he pauses, then shakes his head. It has been that bad. He simply hasn't noticed it because of everything else.]

I can't even find the words to respond to that.

[He can manage a tired noise that might be a laugh otherwise. Sypha's hands are freed, and the tie is gone moments later.]

Sorry.

[willpowerful]

Yes. It's as though the world becomes two separate things: the river, and what lies outside the boundaries of the river. One stays the same while the other changes.

[She huffs a soft little breath, content with the weight of his head atop hers. They're carrying on openly, even brazenly, but the sun is out and that's in some ways better security than anything else they could hope for. And it's nice to have that freedom, to pretend to be nothing more than idle lovers amid the passerby — or even to be nothing more than that, for at least a little while.]

But I think with you I would want to ride the train. You would buy me a ticket; that would be different and new.

[cryptsleeper]

But even the river changes, with ebbs and flows and bends all the way down to the sea. It's just not felt the same way that other means of transportation makes those changes known.

[It's nice, this. What Alucard had hoped for, the food less important than the presence of each other and something to look out upon. There's no charged emotion like the castle still holds (it's getting better, and she's in his room when things are worse). Just the odd glance from those walking by, and their opinion isn't important at all.]

First class, naturally.

[willpowerful]

We always ride in empty boxcars. Usually we pay someone at the loading dock to let us on, and get in before anyone sees.

[She sighs a little, reminiscing. The last time she'd done that was the day she'd nearly left him, and then come running back.]

It's fun, in its way. We all spread out and claim a little corner of space for ourselves, and settle in and make it home, for the trip. My own little space. I always had a corner to myself because I was too young to be near the doors. And sometimes it would get cold — it always got cold, with nothing but metal for walls to keep the wind and the chill out — but someone would come and huddle by me, and share the warmth until we were through.

[cryptsleeper]

Not much of an opportunity to see what you're passing through.

[He says it quietly, thinking how traveling for Speakers is far more about the destination and learning the story rather than seeing the world. Alucard closes his eyes for a moment, breathing in everything around them. Sypha's warmth and the smell that suggests she's always just come in from the road. Their food, forgotten. A little bit of river funk, as the tide beyond the city seems to be going out.]

Were the rides always long ones?

[miraclewhip]

[ He shrugs off his jacket, leans his sword against a chair, and perches on the bed next to the two of them, fumbling with the buttons of the red vest underneath it. ]

It’s her idea, I’m just the one scrambling to justify it. Just- give yourself a few hours, at least. See if it helps.

[ And he sighs, lifting Alucard’s hand to kiss the inside of his wrist. ]

I meant every word. You know that, yes?

[willpowerful]

They always seem long. But maybe that's because it's harder to tell time, in a box with no windows.

[Time seems to have slowed down here, too. Maybe it's because the rhythm of her heartbeat feels slower than usual as she relaxes against him, lulled into a pleasant, dream-drowsy state as she remembers her stories and gives voice to them little by little.]

Sometimes when it rained the droplets would beat on the tin roof like drums. It would rattle so loud that no one could sleep, but that was exciting, in its way. To know that we were flying through a storm.

[cryptsleeper]

[Under far more normal circumstances, Alucard would be reaching over to try and at least help Trevor with the buttons. That's not happening, not with Sypha doing the same thing to Alucard right now, and not with the vampire's current hand-eye coordination.

(Did he even go into that party armed? Alucard genuinely can't recall.)]

I suspect objections would be overruled anyway.

[A statement met with a very prompt mmhmmm from Sypha as the last button on Alucard's vest is undone and now it's just his dress shirt that's a problem. It's strange not doing anything, watching the world shift and move around him instead. Alucard's not sure how he feels about it, but with Trevor's kiss, that he knows where he stands.]

You wouldn't have said it if you didn't. I know. I've known for a long time now.

[cryptsleeper]

Yes, I imagine that could destroy one's sense of time.

[Alucard lifts his head from Sypha's after a moment more. It's replaced by one of his hands, as now there are terrible flyaways that need to be smoothed down. It's work involves a careful touch, and so little by little, he starts to smooth down her hair.]

Made better if there was thunder rolling in the distance?

[willpowerful]

Sometimes you couldn't tell what was thunder and what was the train itself.

[She makes a pleased noise as he starts to pat her down, leaning eagerly into his hand and inadvertently destroying a fair portion of the work he's trying to put toward getting her hair back in order.]

Have you ever seen a house with a bay window made all of glass? We saw houses sometimes that had them, and it made them look like castles. Not castles like your castle, but like things out of fairy tales. I used to daydream about sitting in one, and the cushion would be soft and printed with a floral pattern, and I would curl up and read in the window while it rained, and be surrounded by the rain but completely safe and dry...

[She sighs.]

I never told anyone about that dream, not even my grandfather. Those were two things Speakers don't think about: houses and books.

[cryptsleeper]

[This isn't helping at all. Alucard can't say he minds though, as it's more opportunity to just sit and play with Sypha's hair. It's fine and thick and wonderful in the sunlight, catching the afternoon's rays perfectly.]

A house like that is built to watch the river go by. What you've just described sounds like the ideal place to spend a long and lazy vacation, or to retire to.

[They'll go someplace like that. Find a hotel or a rental property and that will be all that they do for a week when they're not in bed with each other. It might be nearly as nice as this moment now.

No houses. No books. Now she has both in spades.]

Out of everyone, I expect he might have understood best though.

[willpowerful]

I don't think I've ever been on a vacation, you know. Our work is never done, and traveling to places is our life.

[She sighs again, softer this time, and pushes into the stroke of his hand.]

So maybe this is my first one. Vacationing with you by staying in one place.

[Except that it's forever. But she doesn't voice that part of it.]

Tell me a story now, in return. Something happy that you remember.

[cryptsleeper]

Hm. [He won't still his hands, but they slow quite a bit as Alucard tries to think. Happy is hard, when most stories involve his parents and thus a very, very complicated mix of emotions right now.]

Well, you make it hard. You've seen far more of the world than I have, you know. And while this may not be a competition, it's hard not to see it that way.

[willpowerful]

So tell me a story about living life in one place. Having a house with walls that never moves. I don't know anything about how that feels.

[She rubs her cheek against his shoulder, nuzzling.]

[cryptsleeper]

I think those stories would kill the mood.

[He likes being not sad. But there's something else he can run with.]

Recall that I can be a wolf if I wish. Now, I want you to imagine having that power when one is a teenager, and whose definition of rebellion may just be sneaking out on rare occasion.

[willpowerful]

I want to curl up with you sometime when you are a wolf. I'm sure your fur is so soft.

[She will BURY HERSELF in it.]

Where did you sneak out to? How far did you go?

[cryptsleeper]

That can be arranged.

[HESS THE FLUFFIEST it's true.]

It was just the tail end of our carnival season, which means that among other things, there are a great number of festivities where if one is drunk enough, they'll feed a dog if you are sweet enough.

[Alucard smiles a little, even if Sypha's not at the best angle to see it.]

I simply wanted to experience the festivities from another perspective. I did not anticipate the stomach ache or dealing with the repercussions of it foe two days afterwards.

[miraclewhip]

So you know that I won't let anything happen to either of you. I wouldn't be going along with this if a day's rest would hurt our chances.

[ He didn't go the the party armed. It made a stronger statement, that way. Said that he didn't need to. Sypha's making quicker work of Alucard's suit than Trevor is of his own - this is the second time he's worn it, and the first time was just to check the fit. He doesn't know how to get himself out of anything fancier than his church clothes in a timely manner.

He smiles down at Alucard, and in the same tone he's used for every other title- ]

Ours.

[miraclewhip]

Oh my, oh no! Whatever shall I do?

[ His frightened maiden voice is terrible. He's trying very hard not to laugh throughout it and breaks by the end, holding tightly to his tiny vampire so that he doesn't knock her to the side with the force of it. ]

Shit, it really does. [ He leans up to kiss her. ] You should tell stories, you know. Sounds like you'd be good at it.

[ Trevor Belmont, stater of the obvious, deduces that speakers are good at telling stories. ]

[willpowerful]

Oh, so you convinced those unknowing bystanders that you were a very sweet dog, and they gave you treats.

[It gets a laugh out of her, trying to imagine it. Not that she can't picture him being sweet in his other form, of course, but of how drunk one would have to be to mistake the massive wolf that he is as a dog.]

Did you get caught sneaking back home, is that it?