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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[Aha, so he doesn't like that name, after all. It's something she briskly makes note of; the game isn't fun if she's genuinely cruel, after all, and her silent apology comes in the way she runs a finger up and over Alucard's cheek, stroking lightly in a way that doesn't quite fit with the persona she's put on for their game, and a flash of something apologetic in her eyes as she does it. It only lasts a second, before she's back in character, but she knows Alucard, and he knows her. He knows what to look for. He'll know.

But then it's back to being his dark vampire queen, and his chin is back caught in her hand as she presses the pad of her thumb against his lips.]

I don't think I need to tempt you to lust for me, my lovely captive. I can see from the look in your eyes that you already do.

[Her fingers apply a touch of pressure to his chin; she guides his head to tilt a little back and a touch to the side, baring his throat just the slightest bit more, and giving Trevor more room to work on his side.]

Or are you saying you don't think I'm desirable?

[He notes the apology with a slight nod of his head. A silent thank you, one they can't linger on. Too much to do.

There would be more throat exposed if the top several buttons of Alucard's shirt were undone. Such as it is, Alucard can only be guided, hoping that the whine he does make now won't slow or stop Trevor's administrations there. It's a loud whine too, one that threatens to reverberate off the walls.

His hands have been gripping the rug these past few minutes, curling into it and pulling for all it's worth. One of them moves off of the rug, unsure of what he's allowed to touch in this absolutely ridiculous situation that all three of them are in, but he's pretty sure that putting it on the wrist of the hand still on his chin is fair game. When he wraps his fingers around it, there's pressure. The threat of moving that hand away, enabling one or both of them to respond before he can.]

Why would you need me when you already have someone under your sway?

[Because Trevor? God, Trevor's far too much right now, and Alucard is trying hard not to squirm in the Belmont's arms.]

Greed isn't an acceptable answer. It's the obvious one.

You have no right to tell me what is or is not acceptable. And don't think I didn't notice that you did not answer my question.

[She lets him grip her wrist without overt protest, as much because she's seen the way he's been threatening to destroy the rug in his attempts at retaining self-control, and sensing that his reach for her is as much out of a need for an anchor as it is an attempt to assert feigned control over the situation. As if amused, she scritches the tips of her fingers lightly against the underside of his chin, reminding him that she's still got him, even if he's got her now in return.]

I like to collect pretty things. And you are so very pretty.

[With a hint of a tug at first, she relays her silent intention to move her hand, letting him know implicitly what she wants before overtly drawing it away from Alucard's face — and her reason for it becomes apparent quickly as she reaches a little back and behind him, carding those same fingers through Trevor's thick hair instead.]

And you look lovely next to this handsome minion of mine, and I think you both would look lovely serving me. Why should I need a better reason than that?

[She leans in a little closer to Alucard, a smile playing at the edges of her mouth.]

If you were mine, I'd let you play with him the way that he's playing with you right now. Wouldn't you like that? Having my Trevor at your mercy?

[She's well aware, from earlier, that Trevor would. And she's nothing if not deft at weaving notions that cater to the both of them.]

I didn't think the answer mattered.

[The words are said as snappily as Alucard can make them sounds after squirming and whining. He manages well enough, at least from where he sits, and when Sypha's hand is freed from his grasp that same hand falls upon Trevor's thigh. It is, after all, right underneath where Sypha's hand forced his chin, and now it rakes over the fabric of Trevor's trousers.

He is at a horrible angle to watch Sypha run her hands over Trevor. To watch them touch, and that's terribly unfair too. Watching them kiss while standing over him, that was something the vampire didn't know he enjoyed so much until the moment it happened. He's too penned in to even shift and catch a glimpse of the two, and that's just as unfair as the rest of this.

Worse are Sypha's words. As ridiculous as this has all been (will continue to be, even after they're spent, if the vampire guesses correctly), everything rolling out of her mouth right now is hitting the vampire in just the right way. He's picturing it, giving into his own lack of patience so he can fall upon Trevor with more aggression than he'd normally dare.

Fuck.

The answer is in Alucard's eyes, yes, yes, yes. But Trevor's been relegated to just a minion for too long now, so the response comes with a breathy sigh.]

Would he even allow that, to be pushed around by a new creature?

[ He technically doesn't have to do this any more. He got the whine, that was what mattered as far as the order was concerned. He doesn't have to continue fumbling with the buttons of Alucard's shirt while his betters talk, then give up about halfway up and just stick his hands under it instead. He doesn't have to continue his assault on Alucard's neck, alternating between kissing and sucking and biting whatever of it he can reach.

He absolutely doesn't have to punctuate his response to this new plan with a slight roll of his hips, pushing the very clear evidence of how okay he is with this new direction against the small of Alucard's back.

This is so stupid, in a way that only makes sense because they know and love each other. In a way completely incompatible with any outside danger. It's the kind of thing that can only make sense with the knowledge that all of them are safe here, loved and cared for and-

-it all comes down to safety in the end, doesn't it, with Trevor? Sypha's small hand in his hair is a promise of safety. Her orders are a promise that everything will be okay if he just does as he's told. And this new direction that things are taking? That just means the protection of two people instead of just one. ]

That sounds fucking fantastic, actu- [ Wait no, in character. He pauses, taking a moment to return his lips to Alucard's neck and bite down hard. Because it's important to make it clear what level of horribly unfair being at Alucard's mercy ought to take. ] Whatever my dark mistress says. Whatever it takes for you to become ours.

She'll be done in- three quarters of an hour, I think. I'll call her back then.

[ Look, keeping a notepad by the bed exclusively for abusing magic to tell the others to get to bed to hug someone was the best idea he ever had. It's been there since after he got his magic back after Sypha's kidnapping, to alert Alucard whenever she woke up. And it's been useful since.

For now, he reaches up to take one of the braids she left in his hair before leaving to listen to her show, moving it forward to show him. ]

She was busy, while I was at church.

[They's had lazier Sundays than this. Also far more active and involved ones. This feels right for the moment, especially when Sypha's handiwork is demonstrated in full. Alucard laughs at the sight of all the braids, shaking his head to determine how many she's added this time.]

I'm always surprised she stops at braids and doesn't move on to elaborate sweeps up and off my neck.

[Alucard's stomach picks this moment to make itself known though, and the deep rumble of it can be felt through the bed.]

....Ah.

[Yeah guess who's been living off microwaved blood and nothing else.]

[ They're both laughing, and it's- nice. Normal. The way things ought to be.

(One day, it'll be better. Alucard will be Adrian, and he'll be wearing himself to nothing still, but with university work instead of all of this.)

Alucard stops laughing at the rumble, but Trevor only laughs harder, pulling him close to whisper in his ear. ]

Has someone been neglecting to eat?

Not forgetting. It's just been minimal.

[One meal a day most days, usually at 9 at night. The vampire huffs, even if he's pleased to be so close against Trevor.]

The schedule makes it harder to remember appropriate meal times.

Well your timing's shitty. You know how she gets about anyone pottering about in the kitchen making noise while she's trying to listen to the radio.

[ He's still close to Alucard's ear, so he leans forward to kiss his cheek. ]

Hang in there until she's finished, and we can have dinner together. Been a while since we've eaten around the table.

Mmmm. That plan requires getting out of bed, you know.

[Which isn't to say it's a bad plan. Just a plan with one small, complicating factor.]

And I very much wish to remain where we are.

[Spoiled princeling wants two things in opposition to each other, news at 11]

Hmm.

[ He lets go of the braid to have both of his hands on Adrian's back, one at his shoulders and one at the small of his back. ]

I'm not sure how much I trust Sypha with heating up the frozen meals. I could have her come take my place, and I'll bring food for us all?

[There's a low, content rumble as Trevor's hands return to his back. It's better. Warmer. Safer, or at least it's the illusion of it. An illusion worth clinging to for the rest of the day.]

Mmm. I think I can wait 45 minutes for that.

[The declaration had bought them a week of peace. There were enough scared old European vampires who remembered what happened in Dracula's wake and encountered enough Belmonts to be still. The younger ones, who were the ones on the sidelines far more deliberately because this was a fight for the older generations, were waiting to see if their elders had well and truly calmed down.

Then the brakes had been cut on the demon car and all hell broke lose. Attacks. Bodies in the streets. Every rule Dracula had ever laid down broke in either a big, dramatic way or a small but remarkable way. Carmilla still sat, removed from everything, and Alucard couldn't tear her throat out for the brake incident because that meant defending humans over the people he is supposed to lead.

Four days of putting out fires had culminated in the vampire sitting on Agatha's doorstep until he was granted a moment of her time. There was one way to end this, but it required her cooperation. Alucard did not suspect he would get it, but he had to try.

He was let in after an hour of sitting on the porch, letting Agatha's cat claw and scratch and hiss at him. When Alucard explained his plan, he was given fifteen minutes of absolute silence. Then agreement, with the caveat that if the end result didn't solve the problem, then every single promise in her original declaration would hold.

I accept and that had been that.

The vampire returned home after that. Went to the library to take out a book of spells, then sat himself down in the office to find was he was looking for. Tonight he would issue what might be his final edict as regent. How he did it was of grave importance, perhaps literally.]

[ A week. That's what the Belmont name was worth. A week.

Better than nothing.

The incident with the demon car had him more shaken than anything else. It was so mundane. So stupid. He'd prepared for all manner of terrible things and what had happened in the end was the most normal thing that could ever happen. And it had been aimed at Sypha.

The rest, the rest is business as usual. He doesn't have clean and dirty clothes anymore, he has inside clothes and outside clothes, and one collection of clothes is covered in dry blood and the other is not. They've not really had the luxury of time for laundry day. Right now, it's inside clothes. Today has been dedicated to recovering from yestderday's beatings and tracking everything more than it has been actively going out and getting things under control, and the library is full of those ugly, ugly maps of his, all covered in salt and sand and measuring how absolutely fucked they are in a thousand different metrics. The hunters of Garden District's churches have fallen silent and he can't find them. Florence is there, picking up the slack. Lakeview is, as always, safe enough in the hands of the women of the Holy Trinity Cathedral. Katerina is with Agnes, moving between districts to move supplies and information between groups of hunters that have never traditionally worked together. ]

Garden District's likely to be struck hard tonight. Tanti's headed there now to find out more, but the hunters have either warded themselves from me or they're dead. Without anyone to stop an attack-

[ He says it as he enters the office as if he were telling Alucard about the weather. They can deal with how horrifying this is later. ]

-I'll be going there after sunset.

Wait until I've given you leave after sunset.

[Alucard does not look up from the book in his lap. He knows that word will spread from Agatha to every single hunter in the city about how this is going to end. How they manage the fallout and regime change, if that is what happens at the end of this, is their business. Alucard does not get a voice in it, and at this point, he doesn't want it. He'll be dead and free of giving a shit about an entire people that clearly have no love for him.

He flips another page, then nods satisfied. Found it, and the book is put on the desk. Alucard's eyes then meet Trevor's, calculating for a moment before he begins.]

Agatha and I had a long discussion today, after her cat greeted me in it's usual way.

[The cat is the least insult he's bore over the past...it seems much longer than a week.]

There is a direct route to ending this, but neither of you are going to like it. I need you to sit.

Of course.

[ And he does sit, in the chair that vampires who come here with problems use, opposite Alucard. It's with a sigh. ]

I don't fucking like anything these days. Tell me what I need to do.

[ Because this is a thing that he needs to do, right? He's the shield, the protector, the attack dog. The Belmont. ]

Witness what may be my last act in ruling this city.

[Nothing more than watching.]

This ends with her and myself fighting until the other perishes. There's no reason to let things roll on until the deadline, not when one can cut to the chase and demand trial by combat. It forces her to own the violence that has erupted and her part in it, rather than permit her to be one or two degrees removed. Or it calls her out on being a coward who has chosen to fight this way rather than confront me outright because she knows she'll be destroyed.

[Alucard's hands rest on the book.]

Agatha will abide the fight to ensure fairness. Should I lose, she will see that my corpse is returned here before it can be used as a political prop. She also has a copy of my will, as does James. [Weirdly enough, he's been the most reliable here. At least for parties and socializing, because yelling about shitty science has been kind of a life saver.]

No.

[ It's cold. It's calculated. It's- none of those things. It's desperate and terrified and exhausted with cold and calculated's skin pulled over it like a bad halloween costume. ]

You can name a champion for trial by combat. Name me. Let me fight her. I was born for this.

It means nothing if I do not perform the act.

[Trevor knows this. They all know it.]

I cannot accuse her of cowardice in one breath and refuse to show my face in the next.

But-

[ He hates this. He hates this so much. ]

There has to be a way that isn't-

[ There is, isn't there? The one that he thought of when this started. ]

-let me kill her. Give me leave, and I'll have it done before midnight.

No. Because they will demand your head and heart, and that belongs to us. Not them.

[He's firm. There's no fear in his voice when he says it, only the calm possessiveness that he has always relied on to ensure the two are safe from anyone that means them harm.]

It ends tomorrow night. This city cannot sustain rebellion any longer.

Besides, it's already agreed upon.

[Over-fucking-ruled.]

You belong to us!

[ He doesn't do outbursts often. Not emotional ones. But now, over this- he slams his open palms against the desk, shouting. ]

The fuck do you think you're doing, trying to play martyr like some kind of floating fucking vampire Jesus? You can't do this. We won't let you do this.

[Well, he knew to expect this. The weariness that the vampire has had since this began returns to his face, and he moves the book aside for the time being.]

I do. But you share me with the machinery of this city. You know that. [For a time, it's all you saw me as.] It'd be you or me in this situation, sacrificing one for the other, because the only way to bring this to an end is to cut the gordian knot that is Carmilla's desire for this city. Even if I just handed her the keys, she'd hunt us all to the end.

[No peace. No safety. Nothing but running.]

It is about my father's blood, Trevor. So it has to be me.

[Yeah not helping the vampire Jesus thing.]

It doesn't have to be you at all. You can't just decide that-

[ But he can, can't he? Because one of them is regent here, and the other is just the Belmont. Trevor's shoulders sink. ]

Give me a list. Those who ought to be warned before Bunicuta's crusade. If the worst happens, I'll get them out of the city before I join her.

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Page 77 of 141

20s AU Post

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