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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Ohhh, is that it. You want to be good at this to compete with Trevor.

[Ohohohohoho. She skates over a little closer, wobbling only as she tries to remember how to properly stop without crossing her skate blades and falling over herself, and reaches to take his hand in both of hers once she's managed it.]

Well, you won't improve just by sitting around on the ice. You have to get up and practice!

Don't be ridiculous. I am not foolish enough to think that I'll be as good as anyone in a day versus a lifetime.

[Showing that he figured it out? That's different.

With Sypha taking his hands, the vampire gets to his feet by floating rather than demanding she take his weight. Sypha may be an ice mage as much as she is a fire one, but he's not going to knock her onto the ice if he can avoid it.

His feet land on the ice carefully, and there is an immediate wobble. From Alucard, it's like watching a newborn horse find it's feet.]

You are trying too hard to treat the ice as though it is dry land, I think.

[Not that she's really an expert in this herself, by any means, but this much of the art form, she has managed to pin down.]

It's not. You have to accept it as its own thing, and treat it as such. The movement is different. The way it moves with you is different. To slip on the ground is an unexpected event, yes? But here it's not just to be expected; it's a part of the experience. So, you must not fight to stand still; you have to learn to accept how the ice moves you, instead.

I am not.

[He's...no, he's not pouting, just nearly. Alucard frowns, but he listens to Sypha carefully before he even tries to formulate a response.]

I think I need to learn by doing. You went perhaps a little too poetic in description.

[Which actually is an excuse to hold Sypha's hand. Shhh.]

If you fall and pull me down with you, you're going to make it up to me for a month.

[She huffs a little, but lets him hold her hand, waiting patiently for him to take the lead so that he can go at his own pace as he starts working out how to glide across the ice.]

And I will hold you accountable for the bruises.

So I spoil you even more for a full month. At Christmas. Which means that we won't see hide or hair of Trevor to begin with. Yes Sypha, that's an excellent threat.

[That sounds like the BEST IDEA. But that's for later. Now is about actually trying to figure this out, and the vampire wobbles forward inch by tiny little inch, working to find balance first.

Which is stupid because he is good at balance. Excellent, even, and aware of that fact. His next few glides are just as wonky, like he's thinking too hard about which foot must be where and when.]

Don't forget the part about the bruises.

[She clucks her tongue, shaking her head slightly as she watches him, and an idea comes to her gradually.]

Mmm. Are you afraid to fall?

I haven't forgotten about the bruises!

[He's trying not to gesture as he responds. Which isn't going well.]

And don't be ridiculous. That's normal enough.

[However falling in front of her...]

Then why are you skating as though you are afraid to?

[She makes a slow turn, wheeling a half-circuit until she's in front of him, facing him. She's not nearly good enough yet to try skating backward, but she's at least steady enough to not fall over when Alucard inevitably bumps against her from his forward trajectory.]

I think what you should do is commit to falling. Accept that on this next pass of yours, you're going to slip and fall. You can catch yourself by floating, anyway, so it won't even hurt. But — try it with confidence, having already accepted that you're going to tumble. And see what happens.

I at least know the answer to the question is because you are better at understanding my inner motives thoughts most days than I could ever be.

[It is one of the many reasons the vampire loves Sypha.]

All right then. But you also need to move. I don't want you underfoot.

Under-skate, you mean. But yes, I would prefer not to get caught on your blades.

[Using one of his hands as steadying leverage, she shuffle-steps a little way over so that she's out of his path and able to pivot to better watch him as he goes.]

Edited 2019-02-21 23:55 (UTC)

Just my fangs, apparently.

{He made a joke??? about it??? That's progress!!!

Alucard's next few movements are just as awkward as before, wobbly and ridiculous. But after those are out of his system, there are a few more confident ones. He is absolutely not skating in a skillful manner, but he's gotten used to the pattern of movement without overthinking it. (Which was the problem. Overthinking the movement. Plus fear of falling in front of Sypha.)

And it's all fine until the vampire realizes that he's at the end of the little pond, and he tries to break just to land face first in the snow.]

— Oh!

[Well. That's...not great. One minute he was soaring like an eagle on a pogo stick, and now he's...facedown in a snowdrift, and she's still in the middle of the frozen pond, and not exactly in a position to run to his side.

It's more like slow shuffle-skimming, ultimately, but she gets there eventually.]

Adrian! You were doing so well, but now you do have to master turning...

[By the time Sypha gets there, the vampire has at least pulled himself out of the snowdrift, and he's standing in the snow rather than on the ice to avoid falling. There's snow all in his hair, and the vain thing he is, Alucard is mostly concerned with getting the stuff out.]

Braking would also be good. Braking might be better than turning, I expect.

[Alucard hisses suddenly, and his hand has to dive into his sweater to pull out another clump of snow.]

It gets everywhere!

Be glad it's not the wet kind, or it would stick and you'd be even more miserable.

[This is helpful. She is helping.

She's also shuffling over closer to the edge of the pond, arms outstretched as if to try to help him clear some of the snow from where it's clinging to his clothes.]

You've really never encountered snow like this before, have you...?

[Alucard's happy for the help in clearing all the snow off himself. Because he doesn't like it. He likes the things that snow requires, like warm fuzzy sweaters and blankets, but snow? He's not finding any good arguments in favor of it.]

You've lived in the same city I did my entire life! If it ever snowed there everything would shut down.

[Which would be amazing, but not the point.]

It was very rare for the three of us to travel, and it was usually before snows hit.

You and your home that stays in one place and your little world you spent your entire life in.

[She's teasing. The fact that she's helping brush snow off of the hard to reach places is a mitigating factor, probably.]

...Where did you go, when you did travel? Were you old enough to remember where they took you?

[He grumbles. Of course he does, this is vampire bullying at it's rudest! And he's soon free of snow, giving him no excuse not to step back onto the ice.]

I think San Francisco once, but I was very small. I mostly remember the harbor seals. New York City when I was a teenager, there was some medical convention my mother was attending and we made a week of it.

[And this is the part that won't surprise:] I spent much of my time in the museums and the parks.

Mmm, there are not many of those in New York City, are there? Parks, I mean. The area is so small, and so full of tall buildings.

[But what's most important about this storytelling is that Alucard is talking about his mother in a way that doesn't seem to be dragging up tears. And that's a rarity so precious that she doesn't want to call attention to it, even, for fear that even looking at it will shatter it somehow.]

What was in the museums?

The Metropolitan Museum is in one of the parks, technically.

[Alucard's careful as he tries to move forward again. It's an easier movement now, but he's much more interested in this memory.]

Paintings, naturally, but beyond that there were ancient sculptures that I had never seen before. Not just Greek and Roman things either, but material from both the Near and Fast East. The things from the Near East were...beyond words. Dripping in lapis lazuli that was so dark blue I got lost in it.

Needless to say, I was on my own to explore during the day.

Your father could not go out in the day, yes? And your mother was at the conference.

[There's something about the notion of Dracula being confined in a hotel room until nightfall that's somehow absolutely delightful, even if Sypha's never actually seen the interior of a hotel room except in pictures before.]

Things brought here from all the way on the other side of an ocean. Can you imagine what it must be like to travel so far? Farther even than Trevor did, coming to us.

Correct. It was nice, exploring a new city under my own steam. There were a few mages there, looking at the things behind glass in the Egyptian section and taking notes.

[Dracula was absolutely stuck in the hotel room the entire day, and it was during the summer to boot. He did not enjoy this.]

I cannot. And these are things thousands of years old. Uncovered in tombs and under centuries of rock and [there's a happy sigh, and the vampire's careful when he reaches the end of the pond. He brakes!]

Trevor would hate it, but I'd like to take you one day.

To Egypt?

[It's a good thing they're both slow as balls when it comes to this skating thing, because it's a good excuse to keep pace with each other, which means the conversation can continue without it getting lost in the distance that would result between them when the different lengths of their strides inevitably separated them.]

Or to New York?

...Yes?

[Alucard knows that answer, at least.]

New York would be easier. Trevor hates the weather at home, Egypt would be a nightmare.

[He turns around very carefully, waiting for Sypha to pick what way they shall go next.]

Perhaps, but I want to go. I've never been as far as Europe, much less Africa!

[She waits for him to get oriented, then takes his hand again and shuffles her own feet into position before heading them back toward the middle of the lake.]

And imagine seeing the pyramids. Those are almost as old as the Speakers are! I think it would be such fun. It's fun to dream about, anyway.

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