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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It has to be a request?

[Alucard doesn't quite frown, but it's etched in the lines of his face all the same. It's such a strange little detail, and reflecting on the earlier matter, the ladies were doing that, weren't they?]

...Leftover from military service?

[Because that would be logical. Being raised to fill a role, then going into training for an even more rigid hierarchy.]

I- yes. Mostly.

[ That's part of it, at least. It'd be easier to work around it if it weren't for that. ]

I told you. We needed to take desperate fucking measures for Bluebeard.

The fair folk?

[The reaction hedges on the incredulous. Trevor has no reason to lie, and it explains so terribly much. The requests. Some of his behavior which is too feral for Alucard to be comforted. If the overall directive in the Belmont's life is to stick to the mission of his House, then...

...then this is the only thing that could result.]

Yes. First boy of very generation.

[ Bluebeard took more wives than just the human ones. The fae he killed and turned when he travelled through Ireland became the baobhan sith, spread out from Ireland across Europe. No doubt a few of them made it to America with the Irish immigrants. Nothing could be done about them without the leave of the fair folk's courts. That was the deal they made. The Belmonts could hunt any fair folk that treated with vampires without consequence, and in return- ]

Incidentally, if I vanish on All Hallows- sorry about that. Not really my choice.

I see.

[Alucard is very quiet. They're still halfway up the driveway, he put the car in neutral at some point because this space between the gates and the castle itself feels like it's the only place where they can keep this conversation going. It should have happened months ago, but Trevor forced too much so quickly.

Beyond this information though is another little truth. It's why a Belmont would be so easily swayed by a compulsion.

At the mention of Halloween though, Alucard shakes his head.]

The city has it's rituals and I will be otherwise occupied, be at the festivities or the graveyard.

[Because there's two parts to this. He only cares about the one.

The next question is testing the waters. Trying to ask in a way that doesn't skirt compulsion.]

Tell me, with...with how this works, are there ways of exercising free will?

There should be. [ Emphasis on 'should be'. ] I'm not being controlled, I'm just- we're meant to be trained. Weird meditation shit, so we can instruct ourselves. But the fucking war started, so- [ So he was trained in military service instead, which doesn't exactly put priority on learning to give oneself instructions. ]

I'm not bound to follow instructions from anyone, unless I choose to accept that kind of shit. But without them, I can only follow my basic nature. And my basic nature is apparently an asshole.

Tricking the brain into certain paths to make things easier. That much I do comprehend. Neuroscience was no one's specialty in this house, nor was psychology, but...

[He's falling off on his own path. Of nerd shit. Because this is the most obvious reaction to "your weird Belmont's impacted by fae shit."]

So if I just said "don't be an asshole," would there be any effect?

'Don't be awful' worked for the speaker.

[ He shrugs. ]

I told you before. You just have to tell me to shut up.

[ 'What would you have me do?' ]

She has a name, you know.

[Pet peeve. One that shows with the way Alucard growls it out.]

Look. This is...[How to explain this without getting more asshattery thrown in his face? Alucard hates when the world sees a thing and reduces it to something flat and without nuance. He isn't Adrian, he's Dracula's son to his peers. (No. Subjects.) Sypha isn't Sypha, she's the Speaker or Alucard's witch. To not acknowledge a person's humanity is to forsake the things his mother taught him.

This is also about control. Which is the thing he shrugs off in his own home, because there he is just himself.]

I do not want this to hedge into compulsion. Or to make it feel as if you are even more a prisoner of this house than you may already feel you are. So I need you to tell me what things make it easier.

I know that she has a name.

[ You're literally talking about how this works and you're failing to just tell him to call her by name, Alucard. ]

Bunicuta would be able to tell you better than I can. She grew up with my Grandmother and her brother, she knows how they had to talk to him to make him- normal. [ To make him more human than fae. ] Instructions can be wide-reaching, but they can't be vague. 'Don't be awful' is about as vague as can still work, and it works for the speaker because she can define what 'being awful' is.

[ But he sighs. ]

You're not controlling me. I can still refuse. If you were using this bullshit to control me, you'd know. It would be creepy as fuck, because I'd be working from your basic nature instead of my own.

Then please use it.

[LOOK. Look. He wants Trevor to understand things under his own reason without being told to.]

I'll call her tomorrow then. She's going to have my ear off about never catching onto this. [He sighs, shaking his head.] Fae never really made it here, they were repelled before they gained a foothold. Theodora is the only person I know old enough that would even potentially remember attempts, and I think she was out of Salem and down here by that point. Not turned either.

[So a long, long time ago.]

Sypha's going to be better at this than I am, that much I can say with confidence.

[It's her skillset, words.]

Given that my basic nature involves being less of an asshole than you are...

The Americas got lucky, then. Repelled by what was already here, I imagine? I doubt they'd ever have taken well to being forced into cities. I'm amazed that vampires can tolerate each other in close proximity. Fae are-

[ Fae are just their basic natures, just as Trevor is. You can't really keep a lot of them in one place without conflict, because they're actually incapable of playing nice when not bound by rules. Imagine an entire city of Trevors. He nods at the instruction to use Sypha's name. ]

You'll know if you have control over me because I'll be sulking in the library all the time.

Mmm, yes. What's already here needs a lot of territory, and some of them would lead to very, very violent clashes. Wendigos spring to mind, they're cannibal spirits, the Algonquians know them best. I'll let your imagination fill in the rest.

[It'd be fucked up, that's what it'd be. Alucard's wasting gas right now, he knows this, and so he finally starts to get the car out of neutral and drive the little bit of distance left to the garage.]

I don't sulk, I think.

[The garage door opens without a noise.]

This will take me some time to learn. My instinct is to rely on explanation and reason to help others understand a thing and make a choice about it.

I wouldn't worry about that. My basic nature is very good at telling people when they've fucked up.

[ He grabs his knitting bag, with the little potatobrands on top of yarn and (normal, non-silver) knitting needles. ]

You never told me if it was a request. The Godbrand dolls. Except for the eyes.

I'm good at worrying.

[Which is what he really is doing when he's sulking in the library. The door that connects the garage to the rest of the castle is already open.]

How vague is "don't work tonight, and do something that helps you relax"?

That would be an instruction to seek out alcohol. Given that that's kind of fucking difficult here and I'm fairly certain it's not what you want, you may want to try again.

Glad I asked.

[Alucard's still not sure what to do with this.]

What's the closest version of that that also avoids alcohol?

Hmm. If you still want to be vague-

[ He gives it some thought, because he's not used to actually being the one to figure out his own orders. ]

Specify something constructive, [ making the potatobrands probably does not count as constructive, but the practice should. ] or non-harmful.

Constructive is too worklike and you do that constantly. [The vampire has noticed that much. He's locked the car now, and all that's left is to just head inside.]

Non-harmful to yourself is probably the better wording, I expect?

Probably, yeah. Non-harmful in general- I don't know if the potatoes count as harmful to Gorbrand if they can't be used. Might hurt his feelings. That could count.

[ He shrugs. ]

Sorry for the trouble, I suppose.

It isn't trouble. It...it's different, and nothing I would have ever thought of, in truth. Just as much a revelation as the gentleman I just met in your grandmothers' house for the first time. I'd like to see more of him.

Wait, shit, was there someone there?

[ This can't even be blamed on fairy bullshit or belmont bullshit or war bullshit. This is just him being a turnip. ]

[OH MY GOD.]

I was talking about you, Belmont. It was like night and day.

Oh.

[ Oh. That's a first, isn't it? It's hardly been a secret that the vampire wants to see significantly less of him until now. Also. Possibly literally the first time anyone other than his grandmothers has said something nice about him in a long time, not including Damian's comments about value and rarity. ]

I'll- try, I suppose. Don't see why everyone in this fucking city seems to prefer when I slack off. But I'll try.

[ It's because you're less of a shitty person when you're slacking off, you turnip. ]

...Because when you do that, I can actually talk with you. Like this. Which is much nicer than discussing work and politics constantly. This feels like the first time I've been able to do that since you got here.

[From Alucard's tone, that fact bothers him. Significantly.]

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