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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A fresh start.

[That comes on the tail end of Trevor's remark about bullshit, a softer echo filled with promises of turning gazes from the past toward the future. It's a pretty little sentiment, a ribbon-ring, and she ducks down as best she can to give Alucard a kiss once they're all wearing theirs.]

Very well, so if Trevor is going to do garden work, then what are the rest of us going to do? Let's all play. Adrian, what silly job do you want to have, instead of your old one?

Tied u...was that a pun?

[A fresh start indeed. There's a soft hum in Alucard's throat, and he drinks in just the concept slowly. Carefully. Considering what it really means, because what he thought was a fresh start when he and Sypha returned to the castle (alone) was that only until Trevor was put into their hands. (A blessing, in retrospect.) That had been the start of politics.

He's careful, before he settles on an answer.]

Perhaps I'll just be a lab assistant for a while. Keep daylight hours again, which would feel like a novelty.

But that leaves you.

[Their Sypha (theirs) has been back with them for most of March. It's not enough time for a full recovery, but it is so, so much better than what it was. It's the only bright spot there, as trying to hunt down her assailant (they only call him that fucker) has been a nightmare. His workshop is burnt, but that means nothing. Trevor's tracking spells have bore no fruit either, and it makes the castle tense.

Alucard pretends that everything is fine, when he sits in office hours and listens to the city's squabbles. He apologizes personally to Theodora when Sypha's absence is noted, and he explains it away as first her traveling to visit her people, and then a late flu that has knocked more out of her than any of them expected while she was traveling back to them. Theodora doesn't quite buy it, but she accepts that there's something in the house that none of them will speak of.

(It's so dangerous. Trevor's the one suspects she's compromised by Carmilla. Alucard hates that Trevor's gut is rarely wrong.)

It's a place along the river that lights up one day, revealing the necromancer's location. Dusk. Spell components? the vampire asks, and in truth, he's just asking for the sake of starting the discussion on how to proceed. Sypha's not going out, and she's not being left alone either.

So it's that fucking spell, and the vampire is sent out into the twilight. He's as lowkey in dress as he can ever be without slipping into his working on the car clothes, translating into a dress shirt, waistcoat, and trousers. The sword at his side is already drawn when he gets to the river, and Trevor now knows that the vampire's intent is infinite for this man's destruction.

The sword sings through the air, aimed at the necromancer's hands. (Necromancers don't get to have hands.) To Trevor, that's a more important sign: proceed.]

It is absolutely a fucking pun.

[ He ignores the comment about these being silly jobs. Almost. He does give it a 'hmph', but it's short-lived after watching her attempt to fold herself in half to kiss Alucard. ]

It'd be nice, having you on daylight hours. You're prettier in the sun.

[She stumbles back a step or two, deprived of the security of Trevor's shoulder to aim with, deprived of her shield of Belmont reliability and expertise, but she remembers how to aim and how to fire and even as weak as she is, she's got the gun raised up in both hands, never moving it from where it's trained on Dracula's chest.]

I won't let you set him back to the way he was. I won't let you leave him lonely and miserable. And I will not let you put him through the sadness of losing someone who loves him again.

[She's starting to tremble. The gun is too heavy, her arms are too weak. But before that can overwhelm her, she pulls the muzzle of the gun to the side and yanks on the trigger, snapping off a round into the shoulder of the arm that's holding Trevor up by the hair.

Trevor can get through the door, with his Belmont blood. Trevor can snatch Alucard up and carry him with him. And they promised, they promised, that getting Alucard out came first, before anything else.

This isn't how the plan was supposed to go. But it might still work out to the outcome it's supposed to, anyway.

Maybe she'll even be around to see it.]

I want to be the star of a radio show. I have the voice for it, don't you think? Actually, I have all the voices for it!

[She would happyclap, but she's occupied with petting Alucard, which is infinitely more important.]

I'm not going to miss all of the stress and the madness and the vampire politics, but I think I might miss the dressing up to go dancing all night.

[Alucard would also agree that petting the vampire is much more important. He would argue that it's more important to turn his head so he can smooch against the palms of her hands though.]

If the dressing up is the issue, then perhaps film is the better way to go.

[Alucard pauses, then laughs softly to himself.]

Your people are still in California, yes? Perhaps they have connections.

[But to Trevor's point, which means reaching out to squeeze his wrist since he can't do much more:]

As are you. Even if we're both meant for night things.

[ It hurts. He can feel the skin of his scalp start to tear away from his head at that long cut from yesterday. Dracula's speaking an inch from his throat, now. He's going to die. He's going to die and leave the two of them alone to deal with Alucard's insane fucking father without him.

And then there's a bang from the Saint-Etienne and Dracula recoils. Consecrated silver bullets are consecrated silver bullets, even to him. His grip loosens enough that Trevor's hair can slip through his fingers and he topples to the ground, pressing a hand tightly to the dressing on his head.

Dracula's nails extend into long claws as he draws himself back to his full height, and Trevor stumbles to his feet to put himself back between those claws and Sypha, but he only uses them to pluck the bullet out of his shoulder. He extends his hand, holding the bullet between his claws at arm's length as if it were something extremely smelly until Trevor finally gets the message and takes it from him, pocketing it. ]

Very well.

[ He is unimpressed. But the appeal to the effect of Lisa's death upon their son, at least, seems to have saved them both from death. ]

You both live until he has the chance to make his own case for your survival. But I do not leave his side, and so he does not go by daylight.

[ Running water.

He's trying to protect himself from vampires, somehow. It's no use against Alucard, but they can't be certain that the man knows that. If he's not trying to protect himself against Alucard, that means there are other vampires that he's dealing with. As if there weren't already more than enough reasons to hate every last bit of this.

If it weren't for the situation, there'd be a novelty to being able to tap into Alucard's intent. All his studying, everything Arn taught him on the nights when they just talked and talked to avoid thinking too hard - most of it is locked away from him by his own weak will. But Alucard, Alucard is capable of all of it. He just needs to be directed.

There's a yell of pain. An index and middle finger hit the ground. Right hand. Which would be ideal, if the man weren't, from Trevor's observations, left handed.

But he's human. He hurts like a human, and it's the most satisfying thing in the world to hear his choked cry of pain through Alucard's sharp ears, every tiny tremble of the voice in it. He clutches at it, caught off guard for one precious moment, and then breaks a small glass sphere at his neck, releasing a dark fog that coils around him.

That's his escape plan, and that's Trevor's cue. He finishes scrawling the spell just in time for a beam of light to lance through the necromancer, cutting through the fog and keeping him from whisking him away and replacing him with one of his dolls. No. He fights as himself. ]

Speak for yourself. I'm meant for carrying around vampires. And setting up bake sales. And teaching sunday school. And gardening, eventually.

[ He's not really introspective enough to appreciate what that means coming from a man who a year ago couldn't imagine a world where he didn't have to fight some horrible thing or another to the death. ]

You can still dress up pretty and dance without having to. You could just do it because you want to. Tanti would take you as her guest, even if Adrian doesn't feel like any more parties.

[Alucard doesn't even think about running water being a defense against vampires. It's one of those little things that he has never had to dealt with, thus his mind never wanders to that as a problem. With so many of his father's people living in the city and finding ways to deal with the problem, it is still a thought that would not occur.

It's an alien sensation, taking pleasure in seeing someone in pain. That...was not as his mother taught him. But in this moment, in hearing the necromancer yell out, there is nothing but pure satisfaction in the vampire. Good he thinks. A fraction of what we've been through.

The fog is thick, but they know about it now. Can anticipate it, and Alucard is content to be in the back of his own head as the beam of light is passed through Trevor's scrawling hand and made real through Alucard's body acting as the channel. This next part though, recalling the sword to Alucard's hand and then preparing to rush the necromancer though, that's pure Alucard.

Choking back any snarl of righteous anger? Alucard's not sure. All he knows is that there's intent humming through his veins, building up and up and up as he bodily slams into the necromancer, shoulder driving the wretch of a man into the ground.]

[ Finally, finally, they have him as himself. Just a human. Just a human who will fucking die when it's told to. A hand, three fingered, reaches out for Alucard and dissolves into nothing, only managing to deflect the sword itself from piercing through the necromancer. There's another rush of satisfaction despite that, feeling his shoulder (Alucard's shoulder) slam into the man's ribs with enough force that it'll leave a bruise even on Alucard, if only for a moment. He feels something break inside the necromancer. Perfect. They caught him off-guard, they stripped him of his defenses-

He seems shocked, genuinely shocked, until he meets Alucard's gaze. And then he understands, smile slashing across his face to reveal gritted teeth. ]

Aha, there we go! The answer to all of my burning little questions. M'lord, it hardly becomes a man of your station to make oneself into a pet for a brute like that.

[ He's gasping for breath, but he doesn't seem afraid. ]

The ol' master can only see what you see. Isn't that right, m'lord?

[ It is right. Trevor can't, for example, deflect the massive, three-fingered hand that rises up to grab at Alucard from behind, lifting him. But it doesn't hold him in a crushing grip, as the hands did previously. It just lifts him and slams him on the ground a little way away. Inconvenient, not the most pleasant thing in the world to happen, but nothing even close to dangerous to Alucard. ]

[They've miscalculated.

Amazing, how mages operate. How they can take a single glance, break everything into it's component parts, and know how something works. Even if the something is bullshitted nonsense between a fae-vampire hunter and a dhampir son of the most feared vampire of all. Terrifying when it hapens in moments like these, because they win said mages just enough time to strike.

Alucard doesn't respond to the word pet or brute. He keeps at the task in hand (Trevor should be proud), hand going for the necromancer's throat until that horrible hand takes Alucard and lifts him off the ground. The vampire snarls then, trying to get one foot to the wrist to break the hold, but everything moves too fast. He's slammed onto the ground, but that's fine. Alucard is on his feet after a moment more, and then he's off again.

Vampire speed this time. Faster. More deadly. Certain that as his arm and sword extend, the hand that is free will have more magic to it and...

...Trevor?]

[ There's no answer, not at first. The necromancer stumbles to his feet. There's blood. There's a lot of blood, from his severed fingers and nose and mouth. His breath is raspy and moist, like his ribs punctured lung when Alucard tackled him. But even through the next set of shadow hands come from within his field of vision, nothing stops them. They grasp at Alucard's arms, dangling him by them.

A few thoughts come, but they're all nonsense. Not even any good swear words. And then there's silence again. ]

Oh dear, oh dear. You really do have a terrible habit of giving me your things, m'lord.

[Easy as anything to slice through shadow. To land on the ground, roll, and this time direct his sword at the necromancer's feet. Fuck his ankle up, severe tendons, make moving impossible. His mother's medical knowledge, but used to harm rather than heal. She'd be furious about this.

(Alucard will apologize by way of leaving flowers at he grave come morning.)

Trevor's thoughts are still there. Fading. Alucard can't react to them. Not now. The necromancer can't have satisfaction, just as he gets no words out of the vampire. The most he gets are the noises that come with the sheer physical exertion of effort, and once Alucard is sure that his sword will land true, he is no longer human.

There is a wolf, and it lands only feet away. Teeth barred, sights on the necromancer's throat.]

[ It cuts. There is more blood, another rasping cry, and no clever response this time. Only another of those glass spheres, more fog from it, and Alucard alone with a pool of blood and nothing else. No doll, not this time, not badly injured as he is.

Trevor's thoughts don't return. For a moment or so, he's still there. Just silent. And then the connection falls away. ]

[Wolves cannot swear. They don't have the right vocal chords. So Alucard takes human form for just a moment, putting sword into sheath.]

Fuck.

[Golden opportunity to deal with the problem: gone. Trevor's status: unknown. So Alucard swears one more time, and then he is gone. A bat, because that's a fast enough travel time without drawing attention to himself.

He knows the way home. He'll always know the way back to the castle, it's a beacon. The castle recognizes his presence and authority over it, and in so many ways, it's a blessing.

When Alucard gets to the front door, they're already open for him. He touches down on the ground in human form, but he moves as vampires do to where Trevor ought to be.]

[ He doesn't need to go far. Sypha is already there when Alucard makes it home, having dragged him onto the couch of Alucard's office. It's the closest one to where he was working. Also, a keen demonstration of what the other two seem to think of his 'no sleeping in the fucking office' rule.

He's drifting in and out of unconsciousness, only managing a few seconds at a time. Sypha's laid him on his side to avoid putting pressure on a large swollen lump on the back of his head, and while the vest he wears under his shirt is still on (the shirt itself isn't - it wouldn't be the first time that the heat's rendered him unconscious, and that had been Sypha's first thought), it's clear from the state of his shoulders that it's hiding a massive collection of purple and yellow bruises.

Because having one's head and back slammed with some force into the stone path by the river is nothing to Alucard, but it's not quite nothing to his humans. ]

[Alucard's nearly divebombing to Trevor's form on the sofa. Never mind the no sleeping in the fucking office rule, it was there and it's softer than any floor, so they have to use it.

Concussion. That's the obvious thing, and so is the lump on his head. Alucard's careful to unbutton the vest and the shirt, and then the extent of what's happened becomes clear. That fucking spell. They never tested to see how damage moves across the the connection.

The office doesn't have a medical kit. Of course it doesn't, there's no reason for it to have one. It's the office, the place of paperwork and only that. There are so many boundaries in this part of the castle, things put in place to ensure politics never truly invade every inch of their lives.]

Ice everything right now. I can't assess if there's broken bones until he's conscious.

[There are probably broken bones. Alucard doesn't know, and he's not about to start feeling all over Trevor for them. Not with all the other bruises.]

Mmm, but then whose toes would I stand on, when I don't know the steps?

[She divides her petting equally; a few strokes of the hair for Alucard, a brush of fingertips against the cheek for Trevor. Back and forth, once and again, letting Alucard kiss at her hands when he so desires, never hindering him from anything he wants because he's the one getting spoiled today.]

And who would be there to rescue me when the vampires scatter broken glass everywhere?

[She laughs, softly.]

We should go to see them. My family, out west. They're neither vampires nor grandmothers, but I know they would love you both very much. Like I do.

[ He wakes up briefly a few more times, but it's a few hours later that it sticks for longer than it takes to mumble out a swear word or very belatedly attempt to scrawl some letter or another with a piece of charcoal that he isn't actually holding anymore.

He's in their own bed when it finally does, still turned onto his side. And fuck, it hurts. His head feels like it's splitting and the room won't stay still and he can't move his arms to reach for the bedside lamp and check the clock without pain blooming across his back. He tries a few times, but it grows unbearable before his fingers touch the light switch.

(It's an odd action to attempt, since the lights are on.) ]

Mppphfuck. Fuck- fuck. Ow.

Careful.

[The vampire has been sat at the edge of the bed since Trevor was moved there. Carrying the Belmont was his job. Sypha's ice magic was hers. Then there had been a very long argument that boiled down to "why did you go after that fucker without including me?" and "you are both so stupid." Both points were impossible to fight against, and the vampire didn't try. He simply looked guiltier and guiltier.

(There's going to be bad memories stirred up in her head too. They're really the worst, aren't they?)

Alucard takes both of Trevor's hands in his, directing them to squeeze him rather than reach for anything else.]

Don't move your head. You're concussed.

[Her hands are shaking, but she doesn't drop the gun. She couldn't get another shot off if she tried, not without having it go wild and probably just lodge into a wall somewhere, but she keeps it aloft anyway, fueled by will alone.]

Then let us stop wasting time and go, before the dawn comes. The hour is late for vampires, and he needs to go home.

[It's, perhaps, the makings of a very shaky truce. A truce as shaky as her arms are, at this point — but at least they are no longer something just to be brushed aside and ordered about. Their claim to Alucard is, at the very least, recognized, if not acknowledged.]

Hm. Coming home smelling of dirt and roses would be nice.

[Alucard's smile is soft when Trevor speaks of purpose. It's one he's come to define for himself, not something driven by what his family demands. It feels...it's right, isn't it? Bonds chosen, not forced. He can't kiss Trevor at his current angle, but later he will.]

Sypha, I would bet three rare books from this house that Theodora would oblige both points in a heartbeat and that is not born of being a good host.

[He laughs softly at his own statement. No vampire is subtle.]

Then let's do that, when I'm robust enough to travel. I...probably owe your grandfather an apology anyway, for daring to pin a speaker to one place.

[There's something unspoken in that though. Robust enough to travel also includes dad being okay with it and boy, that's..there's going to be a lot to deal with there, huh.]

You're too much of a gentleman for that.

[More like he gets too tongue-tied around her to even come close to suggesting it, but gentleman works, too. She knows him well enough to know that casual innuendo isn't something he does well (or at all), but overthinking is something that happens all too easily.]

There are pillows enough, and I don't need the fire lit to appreciate it.

[...She is, evidently, figuring on sleeping on the floor.]

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20s AU Post

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