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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...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.

...Oooh.

[Oh, now that's cheating. What a cheater, appealing to her sense of possessiveness about her lovers. That's such a dirty trick, and she loves every moment of it.]

My dark servants, hmm?

[Sypha PLEASE.]

Better known as your husbands?

[Alucard's not exactly opposed to that route at the moment, but he's smart enough to know trying to discuss it on ice skates is a choice they should not be making.]

We'll figure it out after New Year's. Although I think I may vote for a quiet night in this year.

[Theodora will kill them. That's okay.]

I would feel bad, I think, about stepping on a husband of mine. Less so a dark servant.

[Is she trying to make him blush? Probably. But luckily they're not really moving anymore, and they're nice and close, so she can abandon holding his hand in favor of shuffle-gliding forward for a hug and wrapping her arms around him instead.]

You know, I was thinking we should go out on New Year's. One last time, like a farewell. Your chance to attend as just Adrian, and nothing else.

[She hums a little, rubbing her cheek against his still-damp coat.]

But if you want to stay in, I support that too.

Oh, that's the distinction you make?

[Well, mission accomplished. The vampire is indeed blushing, just as he's leaning in closer for Sypha's warmth. Back home, the warmth was nice but often pointless given the heat and humidity. Here, in these mountains and with all the snow, the vampire is far clingier. Sypha's not just a hearthfire she is absolutely a furnace and he just wants to wrap up in her warmth.]

We can just see what we're feeling that evening, I think.

[His arms are around her now too, and he squeezes gently.]

I'm fairly sure that outside a small circle, I won't be terribly missed.

And the people who miss you are the ones that love you.

[She turns her head and bumps her forehead lightly against him, a gentle little headbutt born of pure affection.]

You know that, don't you? Now that you are not ruling over them, they're free to simply love you.

[That headbutt really is like a kitten headbutting a large dog. It's too cute, and he kisses the top of her head again for it.]

I will admit, there is a very...petty [read: DAD] part of me that would rather nothing to do with most of them, given how their ever generous support, help, and actively plotting against me forced us into a terrible place.

[He's actually never told them that. Either of them. Recovery had become wedding planning had become preparing to deal with the fae, and now...now he could actually admit to things.]

I am aware of how unkind that sounds.

I think at this point you are entitled to be unkind.

[He's entitled to everything after what he suffered on behalf of that city, frankly. It didn't let him off the hook for the still-stupid decision of taking on Carmilla on his own in the way that he did, but she's not above conceding just how much the city owes him specifically for it, either.]

I just mean that you shouldn't let the politics overshadow the people. At least not entirely.

Not being involved with any of it so far has helped immensely.

[Because that fight put a damper on many social gatherings for months after, and Wedding Planning was more important than general social engagements. Hell, much of the city's social life hadn't picked back up, and that was a year later.

This is not what they set out to do, admittedly. But it feels nice like this, talking with such a different world around them both.]

I'd be happy just hermiting away with you both, I realize.

Mmm, no, I don't think we can have that. No hermiting, there's too much left for you to do, still.

[She's teasing, and her tone makes that clear. There's no more heaping of obligations upon him, not anymore. Not when he's done the share of two men and then some, keeping a city from crumbling to its knees for months on end.]

You have university to attend, don't you? And a world to travel. And things to see, and faraway places at which to kiss me and make memories. Much too much to do, for just hermiting.

Even if hermiting is an excuse to kiss you both for very long, uninterrupted periods of time?

[Which is really to say like we're doing now.]

I suppose we had best figure out where we intend to make a home before anything else is arranged.

I would have that no matter where we go.

[She laughs.]

In fact, I think I will make a list. All the places I intend to have your kisses. On trains and steamboats and in cars, and in every state in the nation, for starters.

You've forgotten in the air. On the ocean. Egypt, of course.

[His voice is all warmth as he adds to the list, the silences not so much silence as thoughtful rumbles of what else to add.]

Maybe it's just easier to say everywhere.

You could kiss me in the air right now, if you wanted to.

[She murmurs, as she settles back just enough to get her arms up and around his shoulders, up on her toes like standing on a dance floor together, and she can't put her feet on top of his when they're both wearing blades on their skates, but the implication is still sort of there anyway.]

You could lift us both. You could do it right now.

[Alucard knows a request when he hears it. He can also see that trying to stand on tip-toes with ice skates is a losing proposition for them both, as he's already starting to move backwards by accident.

So with arms secure around his shoulders, Alucard's own arms make sure they're snug around Sypha's waist before there's any upward lift. The ascent is gentle, controlled, and the look on his face is entirely focused on Sypha and not on how they're moving.

Said look is stupidly besotted, all soft smile and adoration in his eyes. This is ridiculous. They're bundled for winter chill, ice skates on their feet, and they're floating for no reason other than she asked and he can oblige.]

Higher?

[A foot off the ground is plenty safe.]

[Truly this is the fun of having a vampire husband, along with all of the other perks that come with it. One minute there's slippery ice underneath her skates, and the next there's nothing at all, dangling from her arms and the hold of Alucard's around her as they float up into the air.]

If you can manage.

[One foot was fun. Two would be delightful, though three might be pushing it.]

Skating can't compare to dancing on air, can it?

As you wish.

[He dares only an extra six inches up for the time being. Over dry land and without blades on their feet, the vampire would go higher. Such as it is, this is safe, and his hold on her remains just the same.]

It's much easier than skating too.

[Every time there was a slower dance at one of those parties, Alucard was so happy when Sypha was on his feet, letting him guide the both of them. They can't do that right now, and he has something more important to do anyway: obliging her with a kiss. He nudges her gently, hoping that Sypha will know to tilt her head just a little.]

Mmhmm. I like being in your arms.

[She tips her chin up, gravitating to the proper angle like a flower seeking the sun, and lets him kiss her as long and as much as he likes. It's quiet out here, and the chill in the air has the world soft and still, and everything tactile seems all the more amplified because of it.]

So sweet to me.

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cryptsleeper - 2019-02-24 19:25 (UTC) - Expand

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