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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[ There's a shift, once Alucard swears, and it's immediately visible. Like the strings of a puppet have been cut. His entire body sinks forward and he flops to one side, taking a seat next to Alucard. ]

Yeah. Between that and the silver, I ought to be able to track him down. Then- fuck, I'll figure something out from there. I'll take him to Father Robert, maybe, ask him to figure out where he's been the last couple days. Who he's spoken to.

[ Just tracking down someone who wasn't acting of their own free will isn't too helpful, after all. And he knows from experience how fuzzy the compulsion makes the memories surrounding it. Prompting a person to remember who they spoke to last before they entered the state of compulsion is far, far beyond his own social capabilities, and that's even assuming the victim is willing to talk and

coming up with a plan is hard. Thinking is hard. Alucard almost died. Because he was stupid and complacent. And that matters, and it shouldn't. Not half as much as the implications of it. But it's not 'the city almost got thrown into chaos' that every cell in his body is screaming, like it should be. It's 'Alucard almost died'.

Quietly, he offers a hand. ]

[Alucard does catch the moment that tension leaves Trevor's body in full. He wishes he could do the same himself, but at the moment he can feel every part of himself starting to heal up, and while the most painful parts of it are indeed past, there's still fire going through most of his nerve endings.]

Compulsion makes it too easy to cover one's tracks. [It's easy to guess what Trevor's thinking is. Likewise, it's easy to guess what must be done to whoever is responsible.

It isn't a thought he dwells on. Alucard needs to focus on powering through the worst of this, especially before Sypha returns home. She's going to have a fit, rightfully so, and then where will any of them be? The toll of this regency has been great, assassination was bound to happen, but all the same. Once there's one attempt, it'll be known. There will be more.

Alucard looks at the hand offered, and there's a worried noise.]

I think there was too much aconite steam on my hands. Is there soap and water...

[How fucking stupid would it be to just poison Trevor after all of this?]

But after...yes.

[To handholding, he means.]

Ah. Right. Thanks. I'll go fetch those.

[ Right. The poison. He- forgot somehow. Because trying to offer comfort was more important. He stands, and it takes far too much effort as if all the strength has left his body. It's only the absence of pain that keeps him from worrying about whether he has poisoned himself. When he returns, it's with a warm, soapy washcloth, a towel, and the bottle of rosewater. Because Alucard gets weird about his blood. If he's going to be coughing it up, it's best to be prepared for it.

The fish is probably going to go bad, isn't it? The garage is cooler than most places are, but it's still not a good temperature for keeping fish good. But then, Alucard's in no state to cook it. He'll just make sure to move it from the car later, before it smells too bad.

(that's a stupid thought. there's a city on the verge of war and all he can think about is trying to make it less inconvenient for two people.) ]

Clean up. May as well get the blood off your chin while you're at it. She's going to get mad with me if she comes home to you looking like I busted your lip.

[ It's a joke, if a weak and terrible one. As if the main concern here is Sypha misunderstanding the situation and being angry, rather than her understanding it perfectly. ]

She would, yes.

[It's something that gets a weak attempt at a laugh fromt he vampire as he goes about scrubbing at his hands with a little too much force to them. The water is plenty hot, and he just wishes it was scalding so that he could focus on something else.

The little bit of time between Trevor's departure and return gave him only a moment to register what a relief it was to have Trevor present for running errands. How it had simply been nice to be at the point where htey got along as something beyond someone who works for and lives in the same house as you. Friends, nearly, and protector when the situation had suddenly demanded it.

Well. That's a thought to think about much later.

His hands are nearly rubbed raw by the time Alucard reaches for the towel, and after that he has to rest them there for a moment or two, putting himself back to rights.]

...Thank you.

Sorry.

[ It comes out at the same time as the thanks, and he blinks in surprise at it because why is he being thanked for doing his job so badly that the vampire is coughing up blood. But he sighs and smiles anemically. ]

s'Why I'm here. Can thank my sisters, if you want. Never thought I'd need to fucking know werewolf medicine, but Enid said I ought to study that shit and here we are.

[ He takes a seat again, wrapping a hand around Alucard's. It's stupid and unnecessary. But he wants to help, and being present seems more useful than going to bring the groceries out of the car. ]

[Alucard almost says don't be, but he stops himself. Trevor's often a mystery, but some things are blessedly easy to guess. That he'll take this as a failure of sorts is one of those obvious matters.]

She was smart then. There probably weren't very many in the area at the time, I suppose.

[He's just looking to fill the air right now. Alucard would wish for a quiet, comfortable silence, and that seems to settle as Trevor takes Alucard's hand in his. It isn't as tender as Sypha does so, but there's something there. Some new texture and...

...oh.

The vampire's felt that kind of texture in a gesture before, and it absolutely was the first time Sypha tricked him into holding hands.]

Only a few that we knew of. Mostly caused trouble for each other rather than for people. Called us in to mediate disputes a few times.

[ This was his childhood, okay? Going around listening to the concerns of a supernatural population all terrified of the changing world around them. ]

Works differently for them. They use the poison to kill off whatever part of them is in contact with the silver, so that it can't keep them from transforming. Then, they turn human. If it works, their body rearranging undoes the worst of the poison. If it doesn't, they die.

I'd have suggested you try transforming, but I don't think yours works the same way? Or- I really don't know. That shit's- never read up on that shit.

[ He's babbling again now, if a little less mindlessly. He wants to fill the silence. Wants to tell Alucard things. Wants to try to give him things to hold on to, words and hands and stupid dolls, to keep his mind off the pain. ]

You're going to be fine. It's going to be a shitty next few days, but you'll be okay.

And your family never considered going into legal practice?

[It's very much a shit joke. Alucard can't even imagine being around to witness something like that in his youth. His father's sheer presence kept everything even handed and uneventful, and there are only a few days at all that he remembers his father not being home for a nights. In retrospect, he can imagine that his father was around the castle, but very far away.

This fucking job.

Easier to focus on Trevor and bullshit Belmont medicine.]

That's...a dangerous way to deal with the problem, if it potentially still means dying of poison. Just a different way to go.

[Alucard's quiet for a moment, then shakes his head at transformation.]

Wouldn't have worked. I didn't have the presence of mind for it. Still don't.

[The hand under Trevor's curls into a tight little fist. There's the pang of something inside, and fuck, it comes with a clamped down whinge.]

I may need a surplus of Potatobrands.

I don't knit that fast, you know. You'd go through a hundred in the time it took me to make one.

[ He laughs, and it's weak but it's there and it's real. He wants to be able to give him more potatobrands. He wants to be able to give him so much.

(Which isn't new. Not entirely. He's wanted to give Sypha the world since she first accidentally forced him into silence for an hour. He knows what it is. It's inconvenient, is what it fucking is. But right now- right now it's acceptable to indulge it.) ]

I'll do my best. [ And then, carefully uncurling Alucard's fist, he clasps his hand and pushes the fingers of it closed around his own palm. Not a potatobrand. But maybe it'll do, for now. ] I'll be here. And she will, once she's back.

I'll try not to destroy them too fast.

[He will. He will because control and Alucard are not exactly good friends right now. It means he's more than slightly concerned when Trevor laces their fingers together, but he doesn't protest. His hands are warm and there and very much not covered in poison, and that's all he can demand right now.

At the mention of Sypha, he does squeeze Trevor's hand. It's another fear reaction though, coupled with an awful deflating noise.]

What are we going to tell her?

[What he really means is how are we going to make sure she doesn't panic like we've been doing?]

She needs to know what’s going on. I don’t think she’s in danger, but I didn’t think that you were in danger either.

[ fuck. He doesn’t like how those words feel coming out of his mouth. ]

We tell her that you were attacked, that it made you sick and that you’ll need a few days to recover. And she’ll ask questions, and we answer them properly. She’s too fucking clever for her own good, she’ll know if anything’s kept from her. And knowing that’ll scare her worse than any of this would.

[None of them can know yet how severely the vampire will react when Sypha actually is in danger. There's a hint of it now, as even with all the pain, there's a sudden flash of alarm in the vampire's eye that nearly goes to impulsive.

He's grounded though. Trevor's grounding him, all practicality and planning.]

That'll...that'll be best. [She's going to be scared. Alucard's not sure why he isn't terrified yet, but that's probably just pain and exhaustion right now.]

Can you cook for the next few days?

[They have to eat. He won't be in any shape to do it.]

Yeah, no problem. You're probably going to need to be on easy foods for a couple days, though. We can have the forbidden fish another time.

[ It's only for a second, but Alucard's grip is almost painful when he implies that Sypha might be in danger. But it fades. And even if it didn't, it's not like he'd mind that much. ]

I'll do the telling. You do the- being comforting and demonstrating how not dead you are. s' probably the best way to go about it. She deserves-

[ -She deserves for her boyfriend not to be the bearer of bad news. Not if he doesn't have to be. He should just be a source of comfort for her. ]

-that's the best way.

Wrap it up in foil and put in the freezer then. It'll keep longer. [It's too warm for soup, and even just lightly roasting it would result in food that's too difficult for the vampire to eat right now.

He'll trust Trevor's food decisions. They'll be miles better than Sypha's, that much is a well known fact. There's another unhappy noise as they have to discuss how to tell her what happened, but Trevor is right about demonstrating how he is't dead is the most important part.]

You'll probably be needed for a bit after anyway. She'll be worried about you too.

[Because of course she will be. There's no person with a bigger heart.]

Yeah. I should- [ He should stand up and get the fish before it starts to go bad in the late September heat. He doesn't particularly want to. ] -in a little while. I-

[ And it hits him. It's been hitting him for a while, but he's good at ignoring being hit. But shit, shit. Alucard and Sypha are more important to him than anything. And he almost died. If he hadn't run out of yarn on the exact right day. If he'd cycled to the shop rather than accepting the ride. If there weren't human enough in Alucard to let him survive a while with silver in his airway. If there weren't vampire enough in him to survive the horrible cure. If werewolves weren't close enough to being dogs to prompt Enid's interest. If Alucard had been less generous with helping him gather Belmont Things- If any one of thousands of little things hadn't happened, Alucard would be dead in an alleyway and none of them would know until he didn't return home. They might not even know then. Maybe they'd assume that some business had kept him away from the castle until the next morning. Maybe the papers would find out first, and Sypha would have woken to an empty bed and come downstairs to a story ended on paper, the way her people never wished a story to end. ]

-fuck. [ And everything is gone from his voice when he speaks. There's no terror. No distress. Barely even exhaustion. ] Thank fuck that worked.

[Alucard knows he's missed something. It's in how Trevor trails off, it's the tone of voice that completes the sentence. He doesn't know what he's missed, and in truth, Alucard isn't happy about it. (There are other things to be unhappy about. This one is small, so it's easier to focus on.) Trevor's train of thought, he and Sypha have both learned, can be a thing that makes the man harder to live with and harder to talk to, prompting them both to worry.

They worry about him a lot more these days, it feels.

The vampire tries to sit up straight, and he actually manages to do so without too much agony.]

You're the only person who would've come up with such an antidote.

[And isn't that the truth? Only the Belmonts, with eight centuries of knowledge to pass down, would be able to come up with ways to remove silver from a half-vampire's lungs in a minimally invasive way. There could be other things they come up with in time, but for now...

...Trevor's right. Fuck. Damien forcing his hand was the best thing that ever happened.]

This home needs you.

...yeah.

[ He'll start to doubt it again later. But right now, it's hard to argue against. This needed a Belmont. Needed the only living Belmont. So he agrees. For once in his fucking life he agrees that he's important. Needed.

The problem is that a Belmont being needed is always bad fucking news. ]

I'll- the fish. Do you need a blanket or anything, while I do? And- water. I'll get some water. And- thank fuck. The other way would have involved lung stigmata so- shit, I'm glad the werewolf way worked.

[ He feels too cold all of a sudden, even though logically he knows it's just as unbearably hot as it's ever been. And he's babbling again. ]

Thank your God.

[There's probably a correct term for house guardians back east that Alucard can't think of. Domovoi are Slavic, if he recalls correctly, but he's in no frame of mind to think of technicalities right now. He'll just take the luck or blessing or whatever it is and call it all a win for the time being.]

I'm fine. [There's a blanket slung over the back of the armchair anyway.] Although for the future, I feel as if you need to explain lung stigmata when you come back.

[ Putting away the groceries and the fish is good, mindless work. Lets him get his bearings. Planning what to cook is a quick enough task- he doesn't get anywhere near as creative as Alucard does. He splashes water on his face (it doesn't really help, just brings everything into sharper focus) and fills a glass, bringing it back and setting it down on a coaster.

He has his coat on, when he returns. The long blue one. It's far, far too warm for it, but he still feels cold. ]

So, you still want to know about lung stigmata? Because I would have thought that the name was pretty obvious.

[Alucard's curled up on his end of the sofa by the time Trevor's back, having snagged the blanket from off of the armchair and someone managing to cover all of himself with it. It's the sort of thing where if transformation wasn't likely to cause more problems, he'd probably just be a wolf for a few days. It's much easier in that form. Thought isn't as complex. Things are simpler.

Because right now? None of this situation is easy to understand. Trevor's been important to this house for months now but not like this. Not in Sypha ways, and that's...he really has no idea how to deal with it. If he can even mention it to Sypha.

He doesn't pick his head up and off the arm of the sofa when Trevor returns, but he remains focused on Trevor all the same. The coat has a questioned look, but...no matter.]

Proceed, because it'll be helpful to know specifics. A name like that can invite theories.

[ He sits on the floor next to the sofa, leaning against it and reaching up to offer a hand to Alucard again. It's a useless gesture, but it's the one that seems like it'd be closest to being welcome of all the ones he can think of.

(He wants to do more. He wants to pull both of them into his arms, hold them against him and keep them safe. That would not be welcome.) ]

It's- old Belmont business. If someone's at risk of turning, you put transubstantiated communion wine into them. Then the bad blood comes out. And it makes nail holes to do it. Nail holes and thorn holes and spear holes. But it works the other way around, too. Profaned sacrament is pretty fucking potent stuff, if you're treating a vampire. But- you know. Coughing up the silver's better than it coming out through rusty nail-holes in your lungs. Probably.

[ It's easy to talk about this stuff. Belmont things. Things he's memorised. Things that are comfortable, that feel like family and home. Even if they do involve lung stigmata. ]

[Why he's on the floor, Alucard has no idea. The sofa is much more comfortable, and by virtue of trying to fit himself under the blanket, he's taking up only a fraction of the space. All the same, he takes Trevor's hand, and he rests it down on the sofa so that it too is covered by the blanket.

It's fine. Alucard's a thing of touch, this is about all he can handle right now. It'll temper things when Sypha comes home, negate the need for him to utterly collapse on her yet again. He demands too much of her.]

But it would be an option if the silver had been in the system for far too long. Probably quicker and more direct, although it would also require breaking ribs and needing to be careful of the depth of the nails, as to not go all the way through or pierce the heart.

[What fun, light conversations they have.]

Better to have it in the arsenal than live ignorant of options.

[ He’s sitting on the floor because it’s closer. Closer feels helpful. ]

Right. It’s- cells, I think? That’s what Enid called it. The bloody stuff you coughed up. You use the aconite to kill the cells that the silver touched, then your healing puts them back. But if it’s been in your system too long and touched damn near everything, then killing that much of a body at once is- bad, probably.

[ ...okay so he might be out of his depth trying to explain Belmont medicine to an Actual Medical Student. ]

So you use the sacrament for if it’s been too long, or if you think that healing might be compromised. Or for humans, since we don’t do the healing thing.

Interesting. [And he means it.] The process tries to parallel cauterizing a wound, but without literally filling one's lungs on fire. It can only work on things that have a regenerative property.

[The part about length and killing damn near everything gets only a soft noise. Trevor's right, and....well that's terrifying. This cannot ever happen again. Ever.]

The sacrament's harder to make sense of, but I suspect that as a matter of faith, it'd be folly of myself to try.

[ He shrugs. ]

It just works. Always has. Couldn't tell you why, nobody ever explained it to me.

[ Maybe he'd have found out, eventually, if he hadn't gone off to war halfway through his training. As it is, he just squeezes Alucard's hand at that noise. ]

Sorry. Maybe not the best subject to be discussing right now. Point is that we didn't have to do that, and that's- you know- always good. [ It's an awkward attempt at making the situation seem brighter. A genuine one, but an awkward and terribly unsuccessful one. ] I'm guessing puny human painkillers don't do shit for you, since you're not demanding them?

20s AU Post

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