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 castle is, naturally, well protected from hurricanes. It was not a defense that his father initally had for it, but one created after the first major storm the castle experienced. To call it a novelty would be an actual understatement, and that first storm had demanded castle repairs.

Not so much these days.

Alucard's lived through a few of the storms, he remembers the worst one happened before he was in double digits. His parents both explained the mechanics of the storm, made sure he understood how it worked and it was just going to be a part of living here, and that the castle would stand tall through all of it.

Not an approach Alucard would try with Trevor here and now. It was, in fact, far smarter to encourage the creation of a new map as a way to track the storm itself, and then a reliance on the sand to see how things fared in the immediate aftermath. There were more than enough spare rooms for making a mini-HQ of sorts, and that was where they were now.

The viewing mirror is currently watching a few trees sway wickedly in the wind, but Alucard's eyes are on the map.]

Half a day left to wait all of this out, from the looks of it.

And you're sure that this isn't someone trying to move the castle?

[ In truth, it's not even the trembling of the castle that's concerning him. It's the manic energy in the air, so thick that he can taste it. Every instinct he has, Belmont and Fae alike, is screaming at him that there is something massive, something terrible, that there is some great monster than simply cannot be fought.

Which is true, in a sense. It's like- it's familiar in a lot of ways, though none of the parts of it that seem familiar are related to weather. It feels more distant than shelling, at least from the relative safety of the castle. Less immediately bloody and terrible than machine gun fire. But all without the sole comfort that there's a human being behind it, one that might at any time see sense and stop.

He's tracking kinetic energy, right now, which is usually a useless thing to track (everything moves, all the time. it's potentially useful in rural areas but in a city full of people it's just a mess of sand following roads.) but that right now makes a good gauge for the force of the storm. The sand swirls about restlessly where there is flooding, and darts across the map for wind, turning and travelling around the edges to return to its starting point to move again like the water of a fountain. But his hand is on the charcoal again, and he stares at an empty section of the stone floor that could hold another anchoring glyph, just in case this is an attempt to steal the castle. ]

Positive. Five years back was far worse than this, the winds were even higher. New spells were put in place to make sure nothing happened.

[If Alucard was being selfish, he'd say that he preferred this kind of an emergency to any others he could think of. Storms, at least in the moment, were pretty straightforward to deal with. You hunkered down. You let science tell you what was going on and when it was likely to be over, and then you went out to deal with all the fallen branches on the property. Zero effort.

Not so much this time. Satisfied with the current information from the storm tracker, Alucard walks over to where the population map Trevor's invented is and he looks it over carefully. He taps down where the flooding is happening.]

This area takes a while to drain. It's going to pen a few people in for an additional day, since running water can be an individual-specific things. [Alucard pauses, then realizes Trevor's looking at the floor.]

The castle engines aren't moving, Belmont.

Fine, fine.

[ He's not entirely convinced, but he puts the charcoal down and looks back at the map. ]

I'm not sure bringing blood there from the hospitals is going to be an option. [ What was it that Sypha said? 'Try to be nice'? Well here he is, trying to let his first concern about vampires be their well being. Or at least controlling their hunger. ] I expect they'll be facing shortages. Do you think Sypha can bridge it? Tanti and I can make ourselves a presence there. Should keep anyone from getting too desperate.

[ They're yet to reveal he's a Belmont. But just 'A hunter who works with Florence' is enough to make some vampires wary. ]

No, it isn't, the living are going to need it when this clears. That's the priority.

[Alucard folds his arms over his chest, eyes still fixed on the map.]

I think that'll work, especially since Florence will have her enchanted galoshes which she refuses to share the spell for. [She can walk on water, Trevor.] There's also been a little bit of stockpiling between myself and the few allies of this house in expectation of storm season.

[The viewing mirror changes again. There's flooding in the streets.]

...just Tanti, then, if we're not having Sypha bridge it. I'm not having her carry me again.

[ Being carried around by a little old lady who is actually half your size is both uncomfortable and embarrassing. ]

Where will you need to be seen, in the aftermath of this?

Oh, I missed the story of her needing to do this.

[There's that little bit of mischief in Alucard's tone, the kind reversed for Not Work. He wants this story badly but...

...but work.]

I can't answer that until we see what's been flooded the worst and if anyone has had actual damage to their homes. The latter will require quick work if it happens, due to threat of sun exposure.

You did miss it. That was deliberate.

[ He looks back at the vampire map while Alucard talks, keeping track of the impact of the storm upon those. A few smaller piles of sand have fallen still, where the others shrink and grow slightly, almost like they're breathing. ]

Three younger vampires dead. One in the flooded area, likely running water. The other two are both in this area. Could mean sun exposure, though I'd expect the cloud cover to buy them enough time to find other shelter. Could be any number of other fucking things, in this-

[ And something strikes the castle. There's no damage, of course there's no damage, but there is a loud fucking noise and another shudder. Trevor flinches (he didn't even do that when having bones reset, not that violently), hissing out breath through his teeth and grabbing at the charcoal again. He doesn't scrawl anything on the ground this time but fuck, he hates this. ]

I'll ask Sypha later.

[Alucard would rather cling to something more pleasant, but...no. In this room that's harder to do, this room is for work. So he switches the viewing mirror to right outside of the castle itself, tsking softly. There are now trees laid across the road that leads to the castle's gates, which means dealing with that before anything else can be addressed.]

They're young, so they're not used to the particular skill set needed for weathering a storm. I know one of them grew up in this state, so the concept of a hurricane isn't new but...

[Then there's the hurricane again, and Alucard catches Trevor's reaction. It's hard not to.]

We're in the worst part of it. It'll pass soon.

Fuck, fuck.

[ He's been through worse, he's been through so much worse, but he knew to expect it back then. This was just supposed to be weather. Just a storm, like the ones back in Romania. Just a burst river, maybe a few damaged or fallen homes, maybe four or five deaths in total.

He's just about managing to not scrawl on the floor. Or worse, not to just put his back against the wall and wait to be buried. All of this is familiar in a horrible way. But he breathes, and he manages to calm down at least enough to think again and grew up in this state and.

He went and did it again, didn't he? Fucked up the 'be nice' order. Forgot that vampires are people. People who apparently know each other and give a shit about each other, in this part of the world. ]

-did you know them? I'm- sorry. [ The panic hasn't entirely left his tone, but there's an attempt at sympathy there now. A little shame. ]

[There's a moment that Alucard debates responding to Trevor's question. He didn't really know them, they didn't travel in the same circles, the kind of coldness that means Alucard's doing his damn job. Trevor is, however, making an effort here. Being nice, he's trying to care.

He's also reacting to the weather too strongly, and that means Alucard dismisses the viewing mirror for now. Slips into his wolf form. Walks over to where Trevor is and immediately tries to get under one of Trevor's hands, because Trevor's usually better off when Alucard's not person shaped.

This seems like a good time to be not person shaped.]

This is weird now I know that it's you.

[ But he doesn't let that stop him from petting Alucard, because weird is- probably fine. This is probably a gesture of pity, which means that he's probably doing a shitty job of hiding just how much the storm is getting to him.

And fuck it, it's easier to talk to the dog than it is to talk to person-shaped Alucard. ]

Don't have storms like this back home, is all. Keep thinking- keep thinking we're being fucking shelled.

[You turnip it's because he cares.

There's a soft huff to the first statement, but as Trevor explains, the wolf just blinks to show that Alucard understands. It makes sense that the storm is all too new, but the comparison to the battlefront is a surprise.

(It's a point of contention between Trevor and the entire country, isn't it? That those battlefronts were hardly as seen by the men and women of the US versus Europe, dealing with it for four years.)

He presses in a little closer. Because pets. Keep him doing that, keep him talking and reasoning things out.]

[ There's another crash and a snap - probably a large branch striking against the castle walls. His fingers tighten in Alucard's fur, but he manages not to yell this time. It's easier to tell what the noises are with Alucard here to calm him. ]

Well, turns out I fucking hate big storms. Good to know.

[ And he resumes petting, still tense but- it helps. ]

I'll go out to the mortuary once things have calmed down and any bodies that are going to be claimed by families already have been. Pick myself out a corpse, if you still want rid of me. Shouldn't be difficult - white man, brown hair, have Sypha burn one side of the face to explain the missing scar.

[There's a sympathy whine at hating big storms. They're not fun for anyone, and the castle's height makes them so much worse than they ought to be. But

...damnit. Wolf form can't respond to that second part, not in a meaningful way. Alucard just shakes his head no, because right now being comforting is much more important than correcting Trevor.

So that's a change.]

[ He raises an eyebrow at that, but just continues. ]

We can discuss the specifics once we know the situation. I'm not going fucking anywhere if you don't have this all under control. But if you do- I'd stay, if you'd allow it. Someone needs to feed Bunicuta's cats while she's off on business. And they hate you.

[ And also he doesn't have anywhere else to be, or any people he'd rather be with. The latter may not be obvious, since he still spends a good half of his time being a shit. ]

[There is a softer huff. One that suggests agreement with all of this, but damn if he doesn't want to come out and say we want you to stay, if you'll allow it. Because he and Sypha have talked about this already, and beyond that conclusion, there's been a feeling of beyond just fondness for the Belmont. Even if he's terrible and rude.

Agatha's cats are the devil though.

There's a gentle paw at Trevor's chest. Kind of a wolf hug. An attempt to be reassuring and communicate he's wanted.]

[ They're good cats! You just have to. Have a strong tolerance for being skinned alive in order to love them. ]

Come on, you know Sypha told me to be nice. I can't make an unpleasant joke about you grabbing my chest.

[ It's a complaint. And also an attempt to get around an order by talking about that thing he's not allowed to do. But it's warm. He gets the message. ]

I'll stick around. I'd never find my way out of your big fucking country anyway.

[They are NOT GOOD CATS Trevor they hiss and try to bite him!!!

The chest comment gets a side eye. Because it deserves it (and also, shit. He knows.) As for the rest, well, it seems something has finally penetrated that thick skull.]

Awoo.

[It's soft, but also very pleased.]

[ He should probably be a little more cautious about shit like that. Not that for all its many, many other flaws, vampire society has ever been in the business of questioning things said between two men the way humans might (god knows that the only reason that Florence's thing with the first Vampire she ever swore to kill is an open secret instead of just plan public knowledge is that both of them enjoy the performance aspect of it). But Alucard and Sypha are practically married.

He doesn't really like to think of himself as in the habit of inviting that kind of unpleasantness upon himself. And he can't exactly go about making this all weird if he's going to be staying. ]

I'll take that as permission to stay.

[ He scratches Alucard's ears, because that is absolutely not making this weird, and looks over the maps again. The sand that's representing the floodwater is starting to slow down its swirling. ]

Water's going to stop rising soon, with any luck.

[There's a nod of Alucard's head. Yes, it's permission. He'd rather ask, he'll do it later. Explain it away as he thought it was more important to just be fluffy for a while longer, which it absolutely is. The other two care, and sometimes the easiest way to meet Trevor's needs is to just be like this and say nothing at all.

Alucard huffs softly at all those ear scratches. They do feel nice, and they also seem to have done what they've needed to do. He's...calmer, at least a little bit. Enough to be talking about fucking work because Trevor's ability to turn off sometimes does't exist.

He sighs. Avoids the map for now. The storm's not passed over them just yet, and there's another horrid crash against one of the spires.]

[ Work is easy, okay? Work is good. Work is something other than what seems like the entire contents of a forest headbutting the castle.

He yelps at that one, followed by a quiet string of curses. ]

Fuck. [ He curls his fingers in Alucard's fur, trying to calm down. ]

How are you holding up? I know the storm's probably nothing for you, but-

[ This is where the work begins. The storm is terrible, but the worst of it is going to be in the aftermath, putting the pieces back together and stopping anyone else from putting them back together in the wrong way. ]

[Alucard just nuzzles Trevor's wrist. It's the easiest part of Trevor to reach right now, and he leans his weight into Trevor just a bit. A warm and comfy fluffy weight, because that's what is needed right now.

There's also a look of I can't reply to something like that in this form, coupled with a wearier snuff. He'll take the storm to what comes next any day of the week.]

Mm hmm.

[ The eternal curse - it's easier to talk to Alucard when he's a dog, but it's impossible for Alucard to answer. And the only ways that Trevor knows to be nice usually involve checking in on people.

He shakes his head - forget it, it doesn't really matter if Alucard's worried about what comes next. It wouldn't change what comes next at all. Instead he just starts talking. About the storm, at first, and then about the plans his grandmothers had for weathering it (or not weathering it, in Florence's case, but patrolling her neighborhood with her magic galoshes and the little capelet she had him knit for her, with runes to anchor and shield her. And then about the congregation of the church as a whole. About Dana' new baby, and how the whole knitting group worked together to figure out how to fit a ward against illness into a cute design for a blanket. About their drive to collect preserved food to send to those who needed it after the storm. About how two people had fainted when Florence showed up to Sunday Service five minutes late and splattered with blood, and how Agatha had smiled and made a performance of teasing her for the bad job she'd done at 'making strawberry jam'. ]

-they'd come for the communion wine, of course, trying to take it from the church's storerooms. But Bunicuta goes to midnight mass every other night, so they run into her instead. And then they get it into their heads to threaten her-

[Alucard fights the urge to close his eyes and just listen. It's important that his eyes stay up on Trevor. He's listening. He cares. All of this is important because it's important to Trevor. And it's...nice, listening to the more ordinary parts of life. It is one of the things he hasn't had since his mother died, that connection with the more human world. It had been finding Sypha and begging for her help, it had been mourning, and then it had been taking on the work of the city. Precious time for the little things.

Vampires have a version of this, but it isn't the same. Human family connections don't exist. There's sires and there's their offspring and the little stuff, but parents and grandmothers and all of that...he misses it. His mother was a bridge to that world, and now it's just Trevor telling stories about the church that fill the gap.

Besides. The babas wouldn't tell him the communion wine story, and it's funny. Thankfully, laughing translates in wolf vocal chords.]

20s AU Post

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