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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[The next several days are dedicated to not quite depression napping, but close. Depression dozing, because Alucard drifts off wherever he's put for a few hours at a time. The library is the room that prevents it the most: he sits and reads, bundled in a blanket from the chest downwards that he thinks may have been a cloak at some point, leaned against one or both of them. He hasn't taken the stupid ribbon off his finger either, unless he's in the bath. (Good practice he says.)

Most of Carmilla's marks are now gone, a combination of Sypha's intent mixed with blood, the depression nap, and the fact that Dracula was once Mathias Cronqvist and there's a part of him that still is. The deepest marks have left thin, jagged lines on the vampire's side, and the gash on his thigh will always be there. So long as the vampire has a cane right now, he can move under his own steam. He cooked last night.

(He doesn't use the cane often. In all of this there's been the opportunity to admit he really likes when Trevor hauls him around, and that's been that.)

His father though that's...Alucard's feelings have been trying to settle. Any treatment has seen the vampire either asleep or being extremely terse, something hardly reacted to with kindness but not dragged into an argument yet. When he learns the particulars of what happened after his father entered the mansion there is the breathless laugh and stupid pride of you shot him?! followed with, I can't believe that he's in the afterlife we've imagined for ourselves. It is followed by a far purer strain of anger at makimg a case for the other two because of-fucking-course. Of course.

Alucard's feelings have settled enough that he trusts himself to talk to his father like a reasonable adult. What he doesn't trust is his father, which means there is a very, very large table in between them, and the request that Alucard not be left alone in a room with the vampire. (He might have sneaked in Belmont incense just in case.)

So here it is then. A year and change of abandonment, a near death, and Alucard still has to make the opening move, because his father is just like that.

His tone is so very calm and measured.]

Father.

Adrian.

[ The Belmont is silent, seated at a far wall. Three quarters of the length of Vampire Killer away from Dracula, to be precise. The Speaker is next to him, closest to the door. They are here as silent witnesses and nothing more, he was told, but Dracula can smell silver on both of them. They are heavily armed for mere witnesses.

Hardly surprising, considering the topic of their discussion. ]

You may speak.

[Alucard's hands remain flat on the table. That's for himself. To keep him from speaking in anger. He knows how this needs to go, how he needs to treat this as coldly and clinically as possible, because they're both emotional idiots who once one starts, the other is only going to follow up, and it's the worst negative feedback loop known to man.

He hates that he's forced to go first, but it isn't a surprise.]

They were here when you weren't.

[A simple statement of fact to begin with. Testing the waters.]

That much is abundantly clear, yes.

[ Dracula is, for the moment, calm. But that means little. It can change in an instant. ]

If you wish, you might explain to me how their invasion of my kingdom, of my home, should earn them mercy and not wrath.

To begin with: you were not home. You were away with no indication of when you were to return. The castle recognized my authority before anyone and anything else did, and so when I invited them in, that was under my own power as the only person in this house.

[There are other paths to take. The castle though, that's important.]

The manner in which you left is a factor as well, or did you fail to notice that the biggest scar that is on myself is from you? [His hands are still flat on the table. That's good. That's Alucard checking in with himself.] Sypha was the only person who offered medical aid at that point after mother died, and you know very well how she would react if she was aware of what injury you landed on my person. She was also the only person to help navigate my grief.

[Alucard's eyes narrow slightly.]

I'm well aware she fired a gun at you. [He's stupidly fucking proud of it.] Given the last encounter I had with you and what it resulted in, her reaction is completely and utterly logical.

[ The mention of the scar earns no response from him, but the mention of what Lisa would have thought of it makes the air of the room grow heavy, almost crushing. Through the corner of his eye, he sees the Belmont put an arm in front of the Speaker as his claws scrape into the table. ]

She would understand that you needed to learn. [ He growls. ] That you needed to understand what the people you keep me from protecting you from would do to you. That you needed to feel some fragment of the injustice done to her before you had any right to speak in their defense!

[ And, quick as it came, the actual weight of the air is gone. His hands are hands once again, not clawed. ]

I have failed you to have coddled you so. It shames me that you could not bear such a thing alone.

Humans are social creatures. Most are also not 800 years old who have had multiple lifetimes to know how to deal with being alone.

[Alucard can't even react to the claws. Or to the way that he sounds like Trevor the first few months that the Belmont was living in the castle.

They've gotten off topic.]

To the point then: you weren't here to protect me. You left. You never gave indication of when you return. I was injured and mourning, and I found those who could provide what you failed to, giving it freely. [He's sort of leaving out certain details like Trevor stabbing him. That's for later.]

Would you prefer that I point out that you answered to no man when you wed my mother? Why am I held to a different standard?

You found a Belmont and a Thief of Secrets, and you thought anything they gave was free.

[ Mentioning Lisa again is dangerous, but the only furious response this time is a narrowing of the eyes. ]

I answer to no man because no man has dared make me answer. You are not '800 years old with multiple lifetimes'. You are a child, and one who cannot bear a simple lesson without running to animals for comfort. That is the difference.

Most of your people barely faked their grief for what happened. They had no comfort to give, and you didn't either.

And if that feels like a refrain, father, it is.

And theirs murdered her! And you would call that better, somehow?

[ WHY CAN'T YOU JUST DEAL WITH GRIEF BY RUNNING AWAY TO OREGON LIKE A NORMAL PERSON. ]

There is no comfort. Not in the world their kind made. You will learn to live without.

So you propose...complete isolation from both worlds?

[LOOK WE ALL DON'T WANT TO FIGHT TRIANGLES DAD.

Alucard ventures a tired sigh into this all.]

Your people would have had me die for political power games. It would have happened much sooner if it wasn't for these two. Things that no, I was not prepared for, and the reason I had no preparation for it was because you did not expect me to and neither did my mother. The plan had always been for me to be a part of the world, just as she wanted you to be.

I intend to honor that. My mother would object on every level to being removed from the world. You know that.

Your mother would want to be here! She would object to being stolen away from us! She would object to seeing you driven into the arms of her murderers, to people who only mean to use you or do you harm!

[ This will get nowhere as long as the topic remains close to Lisa. The claws are back, though they only drum on the table as he calms himself instead of clawing at it. ]

Speak to me as my subject, and not as my son. What gain I, what gains my house, from my suffering these interlopers to live?

[Of course the problem at the heart of all of this is impossible to talk about. The thing they need to talk about the most. Alucard knew it would be fraught, but now they're talking politics. That's objectively worse.]

You have how many other allies of that woman to deal with and you're going to focus on the two people who kept this house in power instead? There's nothing gained.

[He wants to issue an ultimatum. That if anything's done to the other two, then it's going to be through him. But that's stupid and risky, and Alucard can't force that on the other two.]

I don't know how many times I will need to underline the fact that I am only here because of them. That I'm theirs as much as you'd curl around something and proclaim mine to the ends of the earth.

This house would have remained in power regardless of their presence!

[ Regardless of the presence of its regent.

The only difference would have been the number of casualties, a number that means nothing to Dracula anymore.

The problem is that all things that would be reasonable discussion topics are impossible to talk about. What Lisa would have wanted. Whether he was right to do what he did (Dracula has never once cared if he was right to do what he does, only that he could and that nobody could stop him). And especially, especially, the topic of his son, of Lisa's son, belonging to someone else.

A human, one who knew him only as the son of a doctor and a scholar, would have been perhaps tolerable. One of his own people less so, but perhaps he could have come to accept it. These two, who belong to both worlds, are unacceptable. ]

What is the difference between her and them? Usurpers, all of them, who came into my kingdom and laid claim to power that was not theirs!

The house? Doubtlessly. Myself, left alone with a whole city without it's patriarch and no idea of when he'd return? No. You would have returned to an empty house with either my corpse in it, or found me in a shallow grave. Then what would you have done, all traces of her well and truly gone? The thing that you were going to do in the first place and would have hurt mother most of all.

[His voice should not be calm when saying that in theory, I'd just be dead and yet, here they are.]

I stepped into the role you have stewarded for centuries because it was myself or someone else who you'd destroy upon return. No one wanted the role for that reason. So I took that power, and I needed a cabinet, since this was a position I was never supposed to have nor taught how to manage. These two were were advisers and desperately needed at that. There were incidents that happened that never would have occurred because your lack of presence was known and people were daring. Save...that woman...all of them were dealt with. Did you know that one of your own used necromancy to resurrect the bishop who started this whole mess, and that was on that woman's orders? That's the kind of incident I am referring to here.

[Alucard breathes out, finally.]

So if you accuse them of the crime of usury, then I also must be accused, because I not only allowed for it to happen, but I am the architect.

You are.

[ His claws only continue to drum on the table, even at the discussion of his son's death. Of Lisa being hurt. Of that bishop. But his shadow is long, not quite matching up to where it ought to be given the position of the light fittings, and there is the sound of scraping and cracking as deep grooves form on the stone floor and walls at its edges.

The castle heals like a living thing where it's cracked, a black tar-like substance welling up and clotting and hardening to form scabs over where his shadow rends the stone. ]

My wife was murdered in the name of protecting the people of this city from devils. I gave this place only what it wished for - a city without the devil. Without laws. Without guidance. And you took that from them, forced order upon them once more, and expected it to end well. Every misfortune suffered in my absence you have brought upon yourself in subverting my wishes, and I owe no debts to those who take advantage of foolish children.

[Those claws are just a promise of things getting worse, which they clearly are. Alucard is careful to keep his eyes not only on those claws, but on the shadows. They're a far more reliable indicator of what threats may truly be brewing, and...they're present now.

The castle, in theory, shouldn't listen to the younger vampire anymore. Still, a squeaked please to the building gets brewed up in Alucard's thoughts.]

You left no indication of your intent. You did not correspond. I do not live in your head, I do not divine things, how was I supposed to know any of that? As a parent, you did not account for my safety or well being at all.

[His one hand does move, resting on the cane. Alucard's not sure how this next part is going to go.]

Drop politics, because the point isn't politics, it's family. What are your obligations to me as my remaining parent? Because you failed on every conceivable level until last week.

[ The top layer of stone under his shadow cracks into dust with the sound of bone scraping against stone. The Belmont is standing now, between him and the speaker, hand on the whip at his hip, the speaker's white-knuckled on her gun but not taking aim yet. Even Dracula himself seems to be caught off guard by his own rage, eyes going wide and shadow quickly retreating to where it ought to be, the floor oozing that thick dark bloodlike substance as it heals itself. Claws sink away into his flesh.

All these centuries, and this is still new territory to him. The same way every part of Lisa's existence was. ]

I have failed you. [ He finally admits, to that. ] I failed to protect you. Failed to prepare you to exist within your own world. Forced you to seek shelter from the last people who ought to provide it.

[ And he was doing so well! For about three seconds! ]

I will not do so again. This is protecting you, Adrian. From a people who stole secrets from God himself and will not hesitate to rip your own from your tongue. From a family of pretenders to a greater man's name, who have been ready for centuries to destroy you. These humans will do to you what humans did to your mother, Adrian, and I will not stand by and watch.

Stop that right now.

[He...he isn't sure where Mom Voice came from, but that was mom voice. Alucard tries not to look taken aback by the intonation, but the moment of surprise remains.]

Projecting your failures onto people who managed to do what you failed to will only earn you my anger from here until whenever I reach the natural conclusion of my life span. You've never cared a moment about religion, so that excuse is nonsense. And if a Belmont wanted to kill me, it could have been done at any point. Note how that hasn't happened.

[At this point, the vampire does stand up, using the cane and the table to make the movement as smooth as possible. He is so sick of justifying himself to everyone.]

I need not care for religion to know that any who could steal secrets from God are not to be treated with lightly. Not by those of us with secrets to keep.

[ DRACULA THINKS SPEAKERS ARE GONNA STEAL THE SECRETS OF HIS AIR CONDITIONING SYSTEM

The Belmont does move when Alucard stands, and Vlad bristles visibly as he dashes to Alucard's side to make sure that he doesn't fall, dragging the speaker along behind him. The shadow trembles as he watches the two humans take their place at either side of his son with practiced efficiency, but ultimately stays where it ought to be and the castle is spared further damage.

He covers his face with a hand, sighing. ]

I do not care for your anger, Adrian. Nor for your love, or whatever it is that you mean to leverage next. Only your safety. You will stay here. The humans will leave unharmed, if you wish, as payment for their service to you. And you will be safe.

They're going to figure out the microwave eventually, you know. Half the point of my going out into the world was to help improve lives, like she did.

[LOOK A LOT OF PEOPLE WOULD BE HAPPIER WITH AIR CONDITIONING.

Alucard's so fucking relieved to not have the other two on the sidelines. He lets it show for an unguarded moment, relief written all over his face even as his posture remains tense and in that practiced negotiating regent mode he was forced to perfect.]

If they go, I do as well.

[He isn't about to drop the e-word. Hell, this is pushing everything considering that what his father has said is about as reasonable as anyone could anticipate from Dracula coming home to a kingdom on the brink. But this is worth pushing for, because there's no point in any of this if they're apart.]

No. You do not.

[ Dracula does not stand. He hardly needs to. He lowers his hand, looking up at Alucard. ]

You do not leave this place. Not to go with them, and not for any other purpose. You will stay here, Adrian, where you are safe, and nothing else will enter these walls again. I was foolish in my grief, and almost lost the last piece of Lisa Tepes. I will not make that mistake again.

I refuse this.

[Alucard remains balanced on the cane and the table, and even at this height he is still eye level with his father.

He knows the riddle. Safe. Happy. Here. The middle one is about to be torn out if he doesn't fight for it.]

You're acting out of fear. Again. She wouldn't want you to isolate yourself from the world, and mother would be furious if you isolated myself. They're staying. I will limit my movement, but I will not be a shut in and I will never be alone again.

You do not have a choice.

[ And he does stand at this, and it's only a blessing that he keeps his hands against the table rather than slamming them down. The light above them all flickers and dies, and in the darkness Dracula's shadow covers the room. Scratches appear on the table's surface, in the three's clothing, along the walls, never injuring but promising it. There's the sensation of a hand stroking Alucard's hair lovingly before a lock of it falls to the ground. ]

I can keep you here. I can destroy the two of them. I am Vlad Dracula Tepes and the world itself bends to my will. I am giving you the chance to save them, to stay here of your own will. And you are testing my patience.

[Both of Alucard's hands go to the cane. He's not above trying to attack with it, even if it's death at this point. Better than being alone. Better than being here alone.

He tenses at that sensation of a hand in his hair. Raw fear flashes across his face, the kind that was on his face when he came back on Halloween night. For once, Alucard doesn't care that his father's seeing that raw emotion.]

I'm aware. [He's far more confident than he feels.] Of all of that.

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I'm just not going to bother with icons because believe it or not trevor has no appropriate icons

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