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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And so it would be better if I were safe and happy, and the only way to do that is to not be here at all. Safe, happy, and here — pick only two. Is that how it goes?

[She shrugs, off to go find a sink to wash her hands, but soon enough she's back.]

This is my home. I have never had a home before, with walls and a roof and a room that is all mine. I have never been myself before, either — not just one of many, a part of a whole, but myself, all my own. I've never had someone look at me like he looks at me.

[Is this defending herself, or a confession, or an explanation? She isn't sure. Regardless, it leaves her looking for something to do with her hands, never quite looking at the Belmont outright.]

I'm here because it feels right to be. And because if I were somewhere else, I think I would wake up wishing I were here. But when I wake up here, I don't wish I were anywhere else.

[ He listens. And he refrains from saying anything unpleasant, even if he doesn't have a whole lot to say in response. ]

Because you chose to be here, then.

[ And that's something he can't quite understand. Choosing. But it's good to hear from her own mouth that she's here because she wants to be. ]

That's hard to believe, is it?

[At least she doesn't sound affronted. Mostly because Trevor didn't sound accusatory, so perhaps we're actually discussing this civilly instead of irritably.]

You chose to be here too, though. Didn't you? Or at least to come here. He gave you the chance to leave, too, I think, and you didn't.

Honestly, when vampires are involved? Yes. But I'm pretty sure you can't compel someone to say shit like that. Too sentimental.

[ He shrugs. ]

The chance to leave. That's a polite way of saying he doesn't want me here, isn't it? [ Not that he's offended. Or that Alucard can be blamed for that. ] I'm needed here. The Belmonts have to choose someone to support, and he's as good a candidate as any. And the one least likely to be violently tossed out by Dracula for taking over in his absence.

My point is, you had the opportunity to go. It wasn't as though you blundered in here, realized you had made a terrible mistake, and found yourself trapped. You were given safe passage to leave, and you came back.

[...Although. Hmm.]

You know a lot about vampire politics, don't you?

I know European vampire politics. They're different here.

[ And that's technically a good thing, but he still actually kind of hates it. It's unfamiliar, and the unfamiliar has always meant bad things for Belmonts. ]

Vampires don't gather in cities in Europe. Not unless something's gone horribly, horribly wrong. It's easier to know when someone's gone missing in a small village than it is in a city, so we drove them into more rural areas. [ The bombings will have fucked that up. Vulnerable people flooding into rural areas, with less than ideal record-keeping. A good hunting ground. Ugh. ] Honestly, it's amazing to me that there can be this many sharing territory without all out war.

...Oh.

[Well. Hmm. No harm in confessing now, then, with that idea shot down.]

It's just that I was thinking...rather than always butting heads with each other over our thoughts on what he ought to do and how he should do it, perhaps instead we could cooperate with each other. Because you know things that I don't — I thought — and I...

[...]

I am better at not being a complete asshole when it comes to expressing my opinions.

[She also makes julienne fries!]

We do not agree on the methods. But none of us wants to see this city crumble, and whether we like it or not, he is the one now who is trying to hold it together with his bare hands. So why not give him all of the options, the opinions, and let him be the one to choose. A council of the two of us. Maybe then this will stand a chance of working out, for all of us.

I think you can aim higher than better at that than me, you know. But fine. If you think it'll work.

[ The matter in question is a small one for now. Two vampires feeding from the same man, a day apart from each other. He survived, hospitalized, and the two vampires were forced to anonymously pay for his doctor's bills and his wages from missed work. It could just be an accident. It could have just been a sloppy mistake. But none of them would have been so sloppy under Dracula's rule. ]

I think it's deliberate dissent. If it's not- they're still being less careful than they would be with his father at the helm. I don't think he can afford to treat it as anything less than insubordination, or to punish it any less harshly.

[ There. Not-awful enough? ]

It was a first offense, for the vampire who fed from him on the second day. I don't know that a careless mistake rises to the level of insubordination.

[But — this is good. This isn't shouting and bickering, this is laying cards on the table. Looking at a picture and voicing what they both see, through the lens they've been conditioned to see it through. And, with both of those pieces laid out, it may well be that they both are right. It may well have been an honest mistake — and it may also have been a mistake that would not have been made with Dracula's hand on the leash of the city.]

What punishment do you think is fitting, then?

No feeding from humans for a year, under threat of social exile. If he can't be trusted to check his prey's condition, he has no right at all to take from them. The hospital can supply him - and if supplies are scarce, he goes hungry.

[ He thinks. Honestly his first instinct had been that the vampire responsible should have had his fangs filed down. It's still a tempting suggestion, but being listened to is calming him down. ]

Or ridicule. Vampires are proud fuckers. Tell the whole community how careless he was, how close he came to getting all of them caught. Make him a laughing stock, and make it clear that anyone who speaks with him will be a laughing stock as well.

My thought was similar, at least to the latter. Hospitality is important to these vampires. Prestige. To be forbidden to see and be seen means losing advantage and opportunity.

[She hums a little, considering.]

Yet if the punishment is too harsh, then he will have to expend his own resources to monitor the vampire for compliance with it. It would be a gamble, I think. He would reap great benefit from the example, if it were successful. But if the vampire were to circumvent his punishment, he would appear unable to enforce his commands.

Right. A month of stigma would get the message across effectively to everyone, that mistakes - or 'mistakes' - aren't going to be treated any less harshly in Dracula's absence than they would be in his presence. But it also invites genuine dissent - it gives every vampire here a chance to ignore it. For every one that does, he loses authority. He'd at least need everyone with a notable amount of influence on his side. As for the feeding-

[ He sighs. ]

-here he anywhere else, I'd suggest leaving the task to the local hunters. But the ones in that district- they're not on bad terms with him, but they don't seem too competent. Going by records from before Dracula left, they've let a lot of things slip them. I wouldn't want to rely on them.

So for the first, perhaps, we determine every vampire who has plans to host an affair this month, and either secure their agreement to ban the vampire, or make plans to attend ourselves to provide the deterrent. Perhaps both, to avoid suspicion.

[But as for the monitoring of the feeding...hmm.]

As for the other, what about a tether? If there were a way to monitor him, say through the distance mirror, it might make things easier.

The first is seeming like the safest option, I think. But it's a lot of work, none of it I can help with. I don't like putting forward something that has me do nothing while the two of you do so much.

[ He can't even attend the gatherings with them, since they need to wait for the time to be right for Alucard to demonstrate how he has brought the Belmont Family to heel. And also they probably need to wait for Alucard to develop a strong enough stomach not to be terribly ill at the idea of demonstrating such a thing. ]

As for monitoring him - that I can help with. I've not used a distance mirror in a long time, but I can use- [ He gestures to his desk, at his badly drawn map and jar of sand. ] -that shit.

Mm. But the important thing is, it's a plan. And if need be, you can do part, and I can do part, and he can do part. And then he is at least not left wondering what to do about this all on his own.

[She glances toward the map, though, and her eyebrows go up.]

Can you show me, sometime? How you do that.

Do you think he'll accept it?

[ Trevor doesn't have a whole lot of faith in their vampire, sadly. ]

I'll try. Your magic doesn't have components, does it? It just needs you.

I think he is inclined to accept good sense.

[That's not actually an answer, Sypha, but good job nimbly deflecting that one.]

Not exactly. Fundamentally, yes, it only needs me, but sometimes I use other things, as tricks or as focuses. And I can make magic stick to things, which makes them a little magic themselves. But I don't need...eye of newt and hair of cat and a bubbling cauldron, or anything like that.

I- was that meant to be an insult? It sounded insult-ish.

[ But. Not being awful, so he shrugs. If anything, he sounds kind of amused. ]

Can you tell me about the focuses? That sounds the closest to some of what I use.

Well, um — hold on, stay here. Let me go get something, and it will make showing you easier.

[She leaves him there, just briefly, and after a minute the sound of her footsteps on the stairs is audible; a minute or two passes, and then the footsteps thud-thud-thud again, and then she's back with an item in each hand, which she brings over to show him.

First, the one in her left hand — a deck of tarot cards that have clearly seen a lot of use, or at least have been made to look that way.]

This is a trick. Say you've come to me, and you want me to tell your future. That is clearly ridiculous, but I want to make sure you sit and stay a while with me, so I look you over, make you talk to me a little, learn something about you, and —

[She brings her free hand palm-up near the short side edge of the card deck, and with a slight swivel of her hand, a single card shifts to jut out of the deck.]

I make the card I want jump into my hand. The cards themselves are not magic; the magic is making the one I want appear when I need it to.

[Somewhat whimsically, she flips over the card — the Nine of Wands — and sets it face-up on top of the deck before placing the whole thing aside. Then, she takes up the other item she'd brought — a piece of paper with writing on it.]

This is a focus. On this paper is a spell. I don't know the spell, and it is not something I could simply cast whenever I please, like making fire or creating ice. But I could use this paper to cast the spell on it, once, and it would work. But then I could not cast that spell again, unless I had another paper like this.

[ He's taken a sheet of his paper and the charcoal by now, though he's yet to do anything with it. ]

Bad job. That guy has far more curtain poles than I do.

[ He listens otherwise, though, occasionally glancing to and from the card in an attempt to figure out of that's a stealthy callout. The focus is interesting. ]

That's- similar to this kind of spellcraft, I think. Not the same. I know the spells that I'm using. It's the- there's a lot of decisions involved in even the simplest spell. Hundreds, most of them you probably make without really thinking. I'm- [ ...how to put it. ] -not good with decisions. At best, I wouldn't be able to use the spell at all. At worst, it'd end up coming out as a reflection of who I am, rather than what I want it to do. And I'm an asshole. The written components of the spells are- I suppose you could call them a declaration of intent.

[ Look English is his fourth language he doesn't realize that he just accidentally said that this involves marrying magic. ]

I...think I see. So you have to be taught the spell, yes? Like — say, baking a cake. For you, magic needs the recipe and the ingredients already made for you, and following them is what adds the intent.

[if you like that spell so much why don't you MARRY IT]

Or like...sewing. You can make a dress, but you need the pattern pieces, and the materials, and to cut them out properly and stitch them together. You are sewing a spell together, with all of these components.

I'm not sure what led you to believe I'd be good with baking or dressmaking metaphors. [ Oh just you wait, Trevor. Just you wait. ] But you're about right, I think. Even if a spell has no other components, I'd need the written part. And the need for it to be written means I'd at least need a surface to write on and something to write with, which means they become components in themselves.

[ He draws a rectangle on the paper. He's not putting any effort into making it a decent match for the shape of the room itself, in part because he can't be bothered but also because he was told not to map the castle. ]

The main components for this are sand, salt, charcoal and water. There's other shit, but it's all more specialized. This, for example- [ He finishes drawing the spell out below his rectangle, then pours sand onto the map, where it stacks itself into two piles, representing himself and Sypha. ] -technically would be much easier with the spell drawn in ink, rather than charcoal. It doesn't make much of a difference at this scale, but if I wanted to find a specific human in the city, ink correlates to human intelligence and invention, where charcoal is the classical element of fire. It would make it easier to use the ink to find a person.

Hm!

[She's leaning over to watch him, unmindful of personal space, as her eyes track over the movements of his charcoal and the way that he sets up his spell components.]

So the base format matters, but changing the components alters what it is...say, targeted to do. And if, instead of ink or charcoal, you used blood — would that be the best way of finding a vampire?

[Sypha that's sort of morbid.]

...Hypothetically!

Blood is complicated. The general rule for it is please don't, not unless it's something to do with that specific person. You generally don't want parts of people's bodies getting mixed in with your magic. Which- probably also true for baking cakes, I suppose.

[ Not that that has ever once stopped him. But Belmont blood is a pretty specific component in itself. ]

Grave dirt, for vampires. You can use it to replace the sand, else mix it with water and make the written component with mud. Generally don't need the specific components for that, though. Belmont and all. Vampire bullshit comes naturally. Fishmeal for werewolves. Whole fucking list of different components for mages, though most of them are better to track the magic than the mage themselves.

Hmmmm.

[She's listening intently, taking mental notes as he rattles off the various components, cataloguing them internally and making sense of them as he describes.]

But for a specific person, you would want to use a specific component from them personally, if you could? Say I did want to find a very specific person. I would need the map to direct me, but then I would need something specific of theirs as well?

[Hmmm, redux.]

And if I wanted to find them over a great area, I could start with a very vague map and narrow it down from there with more and more specific maps. Yes?

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