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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So I'm, what, a test subject?

[ If he minds that, it doesn't come across in his voice. It sounds weak, fragile, but grateful. ]

No. Only proven effective solutions. I only take risks if I must.

[Alucard knows that there are medical journals that are effective and others that are experiment only. He intends to start with the former.]

Right now, I won't put any more risks on your head unless I absolutely must.

I trust you. And- sorry. For forcing this into your hands.

[ He wants to think as if things are temporary, as if even if it isn't, there'll be something that Adrian can do. It's difficult. He doesn't think like that. Doesn't assume that things will work out okay. He doesn't say anything more for a while, breathing becoming steadier. The only indication that he's still awake is the way his fingertips graze over Alucard's hand. ]

It isn't as if we expected this. There's nothing to apologize for.

[The vampire keeps talking after that. Filling in the 45 minutes with nothing in particular, mostly just stories of Sypha's life that she has shared with the vampire. A few stupid things they did before Trevor was even in America, how dumb the dates were. He avoids mentioning how on edge the city was, because that's the route to selfish fucking princeling.

He's there when Trevor rises, having at some point made sure that between the vampire getting up and that moment, Trevor's face was using Alucard for a pillow. On the vampire's side of the bed are piles of books, and they make the mattress sag terribly.

They smell like old library, but without an oppressive musk to them. Just aged paper and vellum, the faintest bit of wood polish from their shelves. And Alucard remains where he is until Trevor makes any noise or indication that there needs to be a change in position.]

[ Some mornings, when he wakes up, he's in a thousand different places.

He's in a small room in Romania at the Transleithenian border, on a mattress that belonged to a lot of people before it was his, with a duty that belonged to a lot of people before it was his, and everything smells of leather polish and annointing oil and every door has a posy of liverleaf hung from the frame. He's in a boarding house in Bucharest, and he doesn't remember the last time he was sober and he has a bottle of- shit, he's forgotten what it is, but it's good for making sure that things stay that way. He's under the fucking earth, in a grave he dug himself, and if he pulls the taller, bonier man in his arms closer than maybe he'll escape frostbite for another night. He's at a worker's hostel in New Orleans with a broken wrist and no good reason to wake. He's chained to a wall and there's a stabbing pain in the side of his neck and he doesn't care.

It's harder to figure out which of those places is real when he can't look around.

The thing under his head is- something living. Ill, maybe, being so cold. (Arn? Is he going to be ill again? He's not sure he can manage another bout of sickness.) There's a weight to one side, something pulling down the mattress. (Not Arn, then. He took pride in never having slept anywhere but the earth beneath them.) It smells like the hold, almost, but he would never be lying with someone there. Even he isn't shitty enough to-

It's that self deprecation that brings him back to reality. Because of course it is. This is Alucard. Definitely Alucard, Sypha isn't so bony and certainly isn't so cool to the touch. And he's reading, by the sound of pages turning and the smell of old paper. Reading a fuck of a lot, if the weight on the mattress is anything to go by (It's not Sypha, that weight. Her weight moves with her breath). ]

...still hurts like fuck. [ He says eventually, unsteadily reaching out hands to figure out which part of the boyfriend he's lying on. Chest, apparently. How the tables have turned. ] In case you wanted an update.

Oh, I imagined that much.

[He says it with a stupid, overly fond warmth that the vampire always reserves for the other two in the hours that they can simply be themselves. There is a moment of the vampire shifting so he can put the book he's reading aside, and then there is a hand on Trevor's back, the other resting on his shoulder.]

I was able to locate an appropriate painkiller for the situation, but it needs to be taken on a full stomach, which means breakfast before we can see about dulling that issue.

[Nothing in the room smells like breakfast, but that is neither here nor there. Alucard simply falls quiet, letting Trevor become more comfortable in being in the waking world in spite of the darkness around him.]

Don't really- [ He frowns, then tries again in French. He's not trying to English with the headache he has right now. ] -don't really feel like breakfast.

[ He manages not to flinch at the contact this time. He had the energy to flinch last night, all full of terror. Now he just feels drained, lifeless. ]

-still can't see.

I know, but you unfortunately need to humor me and eat regardless.

[Alucard's bedside manner needs some work. But he can pay attention to little things. French is fine, so long as Alucard can reply in English. The problem is body language.]

We'll give it a few more days. Research is going to be slow going too, I'm afraid.

-at the table. I want to walk to the table. I'll eat if I can get there.

[ He's bargaining with himself as much as he is Alucard. If he can manage to walk to the kitchen table, then he isn't hopeless. Food won't be wasted on him. ]

Okay. But you're taking my hand on the stairs. Is that fair?

Fair.

[ In truth, he's not sure if he'll be able to even make it to the stairs without help. But he has to try. He has to prove to himself that there's at least something left in him. Enough to make it that far. If he can make it that far, then that's something that can be improved upon.

He feels around for Alucard's arm, following it down to the hand on his shoulder. ]

When you're ready.

One second.

[One second to move a few more books. One second to kiss the top of Trevor's head with a too light kiss, because there's so much swelling that more pressure would be unwise. One second to unwrap himself entirely from Trevor, and to hope that this isn't the horrible attempt that it's likely to be. To pray quietly that his Belmont is going to just get so into his head, declare himself useless and then be lost for weeks.

Alucard lets go.]

I'm ready. Edge of the bed is to your right.

[ He reaches out to his right, feeling for the edge of the mattress to determine how much he needs to move his feet. This is where he meets the first difficulty, because he needs to push himself into a sitting position. That's a motion that unavoidably means straining his back (there are very few motions, he'll come to understand soon enough, that don't mean that). He managed it last night, when he was full of terror over the sudden darkness. But now he doesn't have that adrenaline, just a quiet dread in his aching bones.

He manages eventually, with a pained groan and a few seconds recovery afterward before he immediately regrets it. The room is still spinning. Everything is spinning. He couldn't even confidently say whether he is sitting up or not. He stands anyway, then stumbles forward until he can brace himself against the wall.

He can do this. ]

[It is instinct to run to Trevor's side. Wrap his arm over Trevor's shoulder, support him, guide him along. Alucard wants to do it desperately, to be the one being leaned on for once rather than vice versa. The other two always do this for him, it's only fair he be able to do it in turn.

He doesn't try. At most he stands a few inches from Trevor's left side. A silent witness, and there to rush in when he absolutely, utterly must. He can't say anything either, because that will break Trevor's concentration, and then he'll fall, and then where will they be?

Alucard stands so still.]

[ The drafting table. A few feet to the side there's the drafting table and then the bookshelf. After that is the corner of the room, and then the next wall. Then, a little way along that, then there's the door. He moves along the wall, one hand bracing himself, until his extended hand touches the drafting table, and then measures how far away he'll have to be in order to not trip on the stool that sticks out from it a little.

This is strategy. Comfortable, comfortable strategy.

The most difficult stretch so far is here. The drafting table to the next wall. If he gets turned around, then he'll end up tripping at the fireplace to one side, else reaching the door too early and walking straight through it and being in a different room without knowing. He knows he has to be careful. He knows that he has to be careful to stay on course, but the second that he lets go of the drafting table the room twists around him and he's stranded. He's stranded in Dracula's Fucking Demon Castle and he doesn't know where he's going and he doesn't know how to get back. He stumbles forward anyway, feeling around himself, but his arms don't touch the wall when it feels like they should. ]

-Adrian.

[ Help??? ]

[He hates watching this. Alucard knows he can't look away, because the minute he does is when he'll be needed. So all Alucard can do is hover, and wait. He presses tiny hopes to whatever God answers to a Belmont that this will be temporary. That Trevor will at least reach the door and be satisfied with progress. That...

...that hope is garbage, and now Alucard's needed in earnest.

Trevor calls for him, and Alucard is there in a moment. One hand has Trevor's in it, the other is slung around his shoulder tightly. Trevor's progress was fine. More than Alucard expected, and he knows it was because the Belmont mind for strategy is second to none.]

I have you.

[A simple fact. More than that, Alucard keeps them both walking.]

[ He slumps in defeat, letting Alucard guide him. Didn't even make it as far as the door. Didn't do any better than he did last night, even. And now- now Alucard could be leading him anywhere. He trusts him, of course he trusts him, but it's unnerving, to not know at all where he is.

This isn't home, after all. It's a fucking demon castle. People like him die here. People like him come here to die. ]

Stairs. When are the stairs?

[ He asks, trying to get at least some idea of where they are. ]

[Alucard's already ushered them both out the bedroom and into the corridor of their wing. He's holding fast, like it's going to help Trevor get out of his own horrible head. (It won't.)]

A few more feet. We're not past the palace of Sypha's radio shows yet.

[The vampire got comfier furniture for just that a few weeks ago as a belated Christmas gift. They're moving at as normal a pace as Alucard can force, and then he comes to a stop.]

Okay, stairs are here. The railing is just to your left.

[ His hand falls onto the railing, and he tries to take a step forward. He tries, but every cell in his body is screaming that this is a very bad idea. He can barely stand up. His grip on the railing isn't firm enough to save him if he falls. And he trusts Alucard. He trusts Alucard to catch him. But he'll still fall. He'll still risk making this worse.

He can't do this. ]

...Adrian, I can't-

[ He clenches his jaw. He can't do this. He can't go down the stairs. Not with just Adrian's hand. He needs to lean against him, to be certain that he won't fall if he stumbles. But in order to achieve that he needs to ask for it. ]

-I'm sorry.

[ Not quite. ]

Don't be. Even with just a head injury, you've done amazingly well.

[His mother would say it better. Alucard doesn't know what the right way to say it is, and so he can just pull Trevor by a little bit.]

Arrange yourself on me first.

Don't want- no carrying.

[ He can cling to that, at least. That he can do this on his own two feet, even if he needs support for it. He has to cling to that one thing.

(Being lifted into Alucard's arms is for happier times. If he lets him do that now, it's giving up on happier times ever coming to pass again, somehow.)

He reaches out to touch Alucard, trying to map him out, work out which parts are where. And he wants to wrap his arms around his shoulders, but he can't lift them that high. Not without the pain becoming unbearable. He settles for just leaning against his body, hands pressed against his chest. ]

Have to walk it. Just- I just need help.

Understood.

[It would be the easiest way to deal with it, but Alucard knows that if Trevor is insisting about something in particular, it is with reason. He has some thought in his head that has the request be a logical one, and the vampire has to honor it.

He's still, letting Trevor figure out what the best way to move for him is. All of this is under Trevor's steam, or it is not at all.

Alucard adjusts to the weight on him. It's nothing at the end of the day.]

Okay. When I stay step, that will mean move your leg down. Will that work for you?

[ The logic behind it is the same logic behind the thought that coming here, that seeing Dracula with his own eyes and facing him, would make everything right. The exact same logic. There's a thing he ought to do, a ridiculous task that nobody else would think to ask of anyone, and he has to do it because somewhere in his head it's become the one thing that will make things better.

They're probably lucky that what he's settled on is as simple as 'going to the kitchen' ]

Yeah- yeah, that works. Just- humour me with this shit, and I'll humour you and try to eat.

That's a fair trade if I've ever heard it.

[Alucard's careful as they reach the edge of the landing. His grip on Trevor isn't iron, but it may as well be for all the vampire tries to pull Trevor to him and keep the Belmont there and as rock steady as the vampire possibly can.]

First step. You'll get sick of my voice soon.

[He's calm though, so calm. Trying to be a beacon in a storm, if only by voice alone. The kitchen is a good goal. Important.]

Never will.

[ He takes a step forward and down, and the dizziness is awful but Alucard is right there - it's impossible for him to fall. ]

That's one.

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