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 want to use it on him.

[She bites her lip, soft at first but then increasingly harder as she stares at the slack, unconscious features of their vampire.]

So that he can't resist when we feed him. ...Or.

[Or give in to instinct, and take too much. But it's not as though she really wants to voice that, any more than she wants to dwell on this plan in the first place.]

...Well. I do, still. I'm still a Speaker.

[Which does, perhaps, put a slight damper of sorts on the otherwise optimistic thought, but. There are nine words she's never forgotten since the day that she first heard them, etched into her soul as deep as the story of Dr. Lisa Ţepeş, a memory to be preserved above all else: This will happen again. This will always happen again.

The war is over, but she still carries Trevor's gun. She will always, perhaps, carry Trevor's gun. And she will always still be a Speaker, despite it and because of it.]

But with you to protect me, perhaps I don't have to look quite so much as I would otherwise.

[ The pain was normal. Horrific, but normal. But he saw Arn again. Arn wanted him and this man took him away. Said that he was theirs, as if yet another fucking thing had any right to lay claim to him.

No. This is Adrian. And he is theirs. He has said so himself so, so many times. And the person between them, hair worn like a speaker's- ]

They're not- [ Shit. He knows this, he knows this. They're not Arn. They're someone else. Someone just as important. Fae dreams always do this to him, fuck with his head like this. ] -who are they?

Oh.

[ It's a solid plan, more pragmatic than emotional, and 'cold and pragmatic' is usually his job, isn't it? He nods, taking a small item from the collection of Shit That Might Be Useful that he dragged down here, making sure to hold it by the chain (not pure iron, safe). A tiny piece of myrrh resin in a cage twisted from iron wire. ]

Light it and- [ Shit. Smoke goes up. Usually the thing would be tied around a vampire's neck and their head would be above it. Not the case when he's laid on the floor. ] -can you push the smoke from it down, so he has to breathe it in?

[It's a bad dream hangover. That's how Alucard lies to himself that Trevor's sudden memory loss is completely normal and explainable. He's fine. Just disoriented. It was a terrible fucking dream after all, why shouldn't he be allowed to have this?]

Sypha. Our Sypha. [He's soft spoken, making sure not to wake her. The last thing she needs is this.]

You were asleep.

I...have been giving that a bit of thought too, you know.

[Alucard is aware that Sypha's being practical. He is too, in his way, although it will still come off as overly optimistic and maybe too hopeful. With Sypha's hands still in his, the vampire tries to explain.]

We're past the point of needing the things in the castle to help us deal with the fae. We...should start thinking about moving out entirely, or at least I want to have a discussion about it with all three of us. [It's such an artful way of admitting he's sick of his dad.]

When Trevor and I were waiting, Los Angeles popped into my head as a form of...fae insurance, I suppose. That if someone tries to go back on what we've agreed to, there's a wealth of Speakers to help. Perhaps if we were living there, it would also be safer for you.

Right. Sypha. And-

[ This one is easy, because her chest is pressed against his. ]

-a woman, then.

[ Look just because he can't remember a fucking thing doesn't mean he can't lower the tone of the conversation entirely accidentally. But it does return to him. This is Adrian, and this is Sypha, and this is their room, half a world away from the place where he was born and sold. ]

I- sorry. Usually-[ what happens usually? he knows this one. ] -the two of you are asleep, and I can figure this shit out on my own.

Yes. That's not difficult to do.

[Maybe it will be better in the end if it's her idea, she thinks to herself. Alucard can never stand to be mad at her, not for long. She's much harder to be mad at than Trevor is, so it's better that the blame for all this rests on her shoulders.

It's manipulative, but when hasn't she been, when it comes to dealing with vampires? She's the regent's witch, manipulation is in every breath she takes.]

Does he need to breathe it in continuously, or will it last a while even if I'm not holding it to his nose?

You want to move us west.

[What an interesting feeling, she muses, to discover that there's apparently an emotional difference between traveling with a rooted home to return to in the end, traveling with no set place to call home the way that the Speakers do, and now this — the notion of picking up one's rooted home and moving it somewhere else. She's never had reason to experience the latter one before. It's...strange, somehow. Sadder than the other two, on some level, because it feels like losing something in a way that the others don't.

But there will be plenty of time to process that foreign emotion, and the fact of the matter is, she knows that Alucard is probably right. It would be better to be away from Dracula. It would be safer for Trevor to be somewhere else. And the Speakers —

Oh. Hmm. There's a thought that hadn't really occurred to her, until just now.]

What if they won't take me back, after what I did?

Like this, a little should keep him calm for a while. And it's probably best not to use too much. We'll need to watch to make sure he doesn't stop breathing as is.

[ And also if Dracula wanted to kill him before, just wait until he learns that Belmont tools are being used on his son. ]

And we need to figure out- [ Who's going to be the one to bleed at him. ] I don't- I'm not sure I can carry him out of here if I'm any less steady than I already am. Not without jostling him around too much. I don't suppose you have any 'carry the vampire around' spells?

[ Please don't make him ask you to be the one to give. ]

Edited 2019-02-23 14:32 (UTC)

[She's quiet then, for a minute. Not that she has a minute to think about any of this, when time is so precious and help is so needed, but she thinks about it anyway. Drugging Alucard to overrule his objections. Trevor, left despondent by the recognition that if this is taken to its natural conclusion, he might not be enough.

Both of them, both of her boys — this stupid regency has taken so much from both of them. Demanded so much. Put so many scars upon them.

(Alucard's scars are on her arms. She'd told him he had to beg himself for forgiveness for those, not her.)

She licks her lips, teeth still worrying at the lower one; it'll be chapped and nicked by the time this is through.]

I could...try wind. Ice would do but I don't think he can stand to be lying on something so cold for so long. But wind is fickle and hard to...

[A pause.]

Are you sure you can carry him, as you are now? If you're not made any less steady.

Moving someone when they're hurt like this is- there's no 'sure' about it. Fuck, I wouldn't be sure even if I were at my best.

[ And he's not, even if Dracula didn't manage to get to him. He's still unsteady, head still bound up from his lucky miss last night, bleeding only just stopped from when Dracula needed Belmont Blood to break his own spells. ]

I think I can carry him without fumbling or dropping him right now, and that's the best I can manage, and I don't think I can do that with a pint or so less blood.

[ But he doesn't want to ask this of Sypha. And more than that- Alucard can probably forgive himself, sooner or later, for him losing blood. It's what he does. They're used to it. Sypha- if he knew, he wouldn't forgive himself. ]

So either we find some way to insulate him from the ice, or- [ He hates this. ] I'll talk you through it. We'll try to make it as painless as possible. I'll make sure the two of you are both safe. And he doesn't find out about this.

I can make you let me do it. If — if you need to be forced.

[Whoever would have thought that compulsion could be turned into a kindness, and yet it's far from unfamiliar, between the two of them. Forcing him to tell the truth, forcing him to be able to do what he knows he needs to but hates to admit.

But she nods, and musters a tiny flame to light the myrrh, and shapes her fingers into the crest of a tiny wave as she begins to gather the smoke together and guide it down to Alucard's nose and mouth.]

But I need you. I need you, Trevor, and he does, too. We can't do this without you, so it has to be me. And I want it to be.

[There's no ganging up on each other, not anymore, but there does seem to be some merit in ganging up on Alucard a little, just by virtue of the way that they're positioned and how relatively easy it is to reach him by comparison. She's taking stock of all the little things that get the reactions she wants (her memory is so useful for so many things, and cataloguing the things that please her lovers most is just one of them), keeps her one hand wrapped around behind Alucard both to give him the benefit of her nails and because it gives her a little extra leverage to rock harder down onto Trevor.

Which he's more than earned, she thinks breathlessly, with the way he's at the back of her neck like a promise, where it tickles, breath hot like the fire they compare her to. They're little notes of possessiveness, like Alucard's hand on her side, offering a different kind of satisfaction that pairs well with pleasure.

They're a web of hands and connections, and amidst the haze of it all it's easy to get a little lost, which is why there's a little flicker of gratitude when Trevor seems to gather up enough presence of mind to guide her to touch Alucard, moving her hand where it needs to be. They work well in tandem, she muses with velvety approval, and licks her lips until they're wet enough to find her voice.]

Good boy.

[Is that for Alucard, for giving her what she wanted? For Trevor, for guiding her so? Maybe it's both. Maybe it doesn't have to be clarified.

When her fingers curl around Alucard, there's the faintest hint of a chill in her palm — a kiss of magic, offsetting the sticky heat that has otherwise collected there.]

Don't use the teeth. The mark they'll leave is- he'll know.

[ There's a packet of razor blades in the medical kit. Not that they let him use them for the usual reasons, but they're sharp and kept clean by the paper they're wrapped in. Useful things to have. He unwraps one. Takes out other things - rose oil. Gauze. A dressing pad. ]

Give me ice. Tell me to help you. And hold out your hand.

I love you, so much.

[She's watching Alucard; he's gotten at least three or four solid breaths of the incense by now, and so she spreads her fingers and drops her hands, allowing the condensed smoke to dissipate away into the air. That should help, she hopes. With relaxing Alucard, even unwillingly; his heart rate will slow, he'll bleed less. He'll hunger less, hopefully, for the blood that they give him.

Her blood. She swallows hard, nodding, and pushes her sleeves further up toward her elbows as she extends a hand.]

Help me give my blood to him, Trevor.

[She can almost taste the blue magic of intent running all through the words.

With the hand she doesn't have extended, she summons ice in a similar fashion to the way she'd given him the ball of flame earlier, and offers it out to him.]

[ The order coils itself around his heart like a snake, and this no longer becomes a matter of what he can do or what he wishes to do - this is only a matter of what must be done. He takes the gauze bandages first, wrapping the ice inside them so it can only chill and not burn with its coldness and holding it against Sypha's arm.

The wrist, just clear of where it bends so that she can still move it while the cut heals. ]

I'm going to make a cut here. [ He says, killing time while he waits for the ice to numb the skin. ] It hopefully shouldn't hurt too much, but I can't promise anything. You do need to be careful of his blood while you have an open wound. That's the purpose of the rose oil, it'll stop any turning. Just in case. Once the cut's made, you need to hold your arm over his mouth until I tell you to stop or until you start to feel faint. Whichever happens first. The worst shouldn't happen if he hasn't used his fangs to make the cut, but if it does- I'll be here.

[ And he takes the razor blade from out of its patterned paper. ]

When you're ready.

[It's the usually that has the vampire's attention. Hell, he's trying to find a way to sit up without disturbing Sypha at that, which really just means he's propping his head up with one free arm while the other is still wrapped around Sypha's middle. Still protective. Maybe a little bit more on edge thanks to what feels like the combined powers of their shitty, shitty imaginations.]

How...frequent is that sequence of events?

[He doesn't like this not one bit nope!]

I don't get to make unilateral decisions anymore.

[Which the vampire considers an absolute relief. But it also means he could be outvoted. Stay in the city even if he doesn't want it, although hopefully that will still mean no longer being in the castle.

The thought of Sypha's people not taking her back though, that's new. Something he hadn't considered, and it shows on Alucard's face with a thin frown. Usually he's the killjoy.]

Well, then we deal with that should it arise. Something about the ones out there makes me think the issue won't be as hard. Besides. [What do those speakers do? They write. To write they need stories.] Their business is stories, and yours haven't been shared with your people yet.

[Alucard is already to protest when Trevor's hand leaves his thigh. It's warm and it's rough and it's a part of Trevor and that's all Alucard wants. Their touches, their mouths, their limbs, any and every part of him that can reach the other two. A whine of protest starts to take place, but it dissolves into a breathier gasp when Sypha takes him in hand.

He expects warmth. There's something else instead, and the chill is just enough to keep his hips thrusting steadily there rather than wildly and without direction. The warmth in him is still there, closer than ever, but it isn't going to boil over. Not yet. (He always tries to restrain himself until one of the others finish first when it's all three of them like this.)

He still has his hand on Trevor's shoulder to steady himself. That hand moves, allowing the vampire to press in closer, his hand able to reach the top part of Trevor's spine. The effects of movement there have long been a promise of wonderful, perfect Belmont noises, and Alucard uses the pads of his fingers (never his nails) to put all the pressure he can there. To draaaaaag everything downwards as far as he can reach, and as he does so, the hand on Sypha tightens as well. Palm moves upwards, now on her breast and grabbing it a bit rougher than he might otherwise grab.

Through it all, the vampire is trying to say both of their names at once. It comes out as pleased and heady nonsense, and it's strung together with the word soon.]

...got weird this time.

[ Which isn't much of an answer, is it? But it makes sense as one to him. This exact sequence of events is new and strange. ]

Once a month or so, I suppose?

Why haven't you ever--

[No, the vampire knows why. No point in sharing something like that as far as the Belmont's concerned. Alucard breathes out softly.]

Weird because I was there?

Weird because-

[ Because he passed the tests. Because he didn't let go at the first one. Because the tests were different this time, crueler and more personal. Because-

-wait. ]

You were-? [ Shit. That fucking spell. He sighs, half burying his face in the pillow. It's all he can really do without letting go of or waking Sypha. ] Shit, I'm- sorry.

....Unless I also had an extremely specific dream involving the fae, Belmont, I believe so.

[Dracula, she thinks nebulously as she listens to Trevor's explanation, is going to kill them for this, and when he tries she's not going to give a damn, because this is going to ensure that Alucard lives.]

I'm ready.

[She's not, on some level, if only because this is all new and foreign and dizzying, and it's hard to say she's ready for what's about to happen because this isn't the sort of thing that people are supposed to be able to be ready for. This isn't normal or natural. This is a crisis, and they're all just lucky that they happen to have present amid this crisis one of the few people in the world who was trained from birth to be ready for abnormal, unnatural things.

But this might hurt her. And Trevor, like Alucard, would sooner stake his own heart than hurt her.]

Don't hesitate.

[She keeps her eyes open, and tries to breathe steadily, and keeps her eyes on Trevor and not on the blade.]

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Page 91 of 141

20s AU Post

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