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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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.

[They're getting good at moving around without dragging the other down onto the ice. Gloved hand in Sypha's, Alucard squeezes for a moment. Warm.]

We don't have to just dream about it. [Which the vampire says with the most swept away, happy sigh.]

Beyond Trevor's Christmas obligations, our responsibilities are limited. We can go wherever we want. Do whatever we want. We owe nothing to the world. Just each other.

You are so delighted about that fact, aren't you.

[She tugs on his hand a moment, trying to get him to pause in his forward momentum; they've only just started moving again, but she wants to look at him properly, and that's hard to do while flounder-skating side by side together.]

You should be, I think. You're finally free, my love.

It's not just about myself.

[He does pause after a few awkward movements. With her like this, that's an excuse for Alucard to hold both of her hands.]

It's knowing we don't have to hiss and swat at the fae at the end of October, because that's resolved. It's having made it clear that I'll never be a good politician. It's...everything.

[He can kiss Sypha's forehead like this, so he does just that.]

Think about it. This is the first time all three of us have been in a place where we haven't had to look constantly over our shoulders.

...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.

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.

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?

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.

I doubt it would be anything too dramatic. Nothing so severe as refusing to recognize Sypha Belnades.

[She squeezes his hand a little, looking up at him.]

But it may be that I am not one of them anymore, by their perception. I may have lost my right to be a Speaker, I don't know for certain.

[He squeezes back, and it's reassuring as well as a recognition of a very real concern. Maybe she has. And to force that loss of identity upon Sypha is so very, very cruel. Alucard can't fathom forcing it on her, and if that's the case, they'll find other places to be.

He kisses the top of her head, because those eyes are hard to take in this moment.]

We may not even have to see, if the idea is downvoted.

[This is the kind of stupid protective possessiveness that he's supposed to have. Not fending off the world of horrors and nightthings from either of them, just humans who'd hurt their feelings.]

Mmmm.

[The affection is welcomed and she accepts it gladly, tilting her head to make it easier for him to drop his kiss against her hair with a soft, satisfied little sigh.]

I do have to admit, I think I'm going to miss being your witch, a little bit. It wasn't all bad, to have people look at me and recognize at once that I was yours.

[That little sigh is everything, isn't it? Alucard lingers, his nose nuzzling against the top of Sypha's head just because he can.]

But what if things were to be reversed? Walking into the room with either of us, and you're the focus. The two of us are just yours. Your vampire. Your Belmont. The particulars aren't as important.

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