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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[Alucard's watching her. Because of course he is, and he wouldn't have missed the glorious move of getting far too much cream on her nose. Then failing to retrieve it. There's no way to hide a smile at that, and it means that her question isn't as sobering as it ought to be.]

I did, yes. It's the first time it's ever happened.

Hmph.

[That's directed at the whipped cream, not at Alucard. Curse you, whipped cream, being right where she can't reach it with her tongue.]

...I promised you I would not ask how it happened.

[She hesitates a minute; a ponderous silence.]

I...am not asking.

Just use your finger. I won't judge manners.

[Or it's going to be there all night, out of reach and driving your nose insane, Sypha.

Now it is sobering though. The silence is what does it more than anything else, and Alucard props his elbow up on the arm of the chair, then rests his cheek in his hand. He's quiet for a long moment, then closes his eyes.]

People do very, very stupid things out of grief.

[She wrinkles her nose as she swipes at it with her fingertips, managing to get the spot of cream off, which is the good news. The dangerous news is that now it's on her fingers, and seeing no sense in wasting it, the only option remaining is to lick it off of them.]

...Then...

[She frowns, deeply.]

You...did it to yourself...?

No.

[He's firm about that point, but that also means there's only one obvious suspect. Alucard opens his eyes just in time to see Sypha finally solve the whipped cream problem, and it does help. Does coax out a little more.

What it doesn't cancel out is the sadness in his words.]

My father is...not in his right mind, at the moment. Wherever he is.

[She stills, as all of a sudden a lot of individual pieces of information all start to fall together, and add up into a great deal of sense.]

...That is why you couldn't go to your own people for help. Why you're here in this townhouse instead of...elsewhere. Because he owns this city.

[...But wait.]

What do you mean, wherever he is?

[He nods, confirming everything she's said. The townhouse, technically, is less because his father owns the city and more because the castle is painful to be in, but that is a petty detail.]

Exactly what it sounds like. He's fled the city. No one knows where he's gone.

You're saying he did that to you and just...left?

[Her expression is darkening now, as her brow furrows with uncertainty and something else, something approaching disapproval.]

He is not even close at hand to know if you've recovered from it, or —

As I said. Stupid things are done due to grief.

[Alucard's face is tired. Weary, it shows mostly in his eyes and with the little bit of slump in his body language. He's been doing a stellar job of avoiding this particular thought, and it's been in no small part due to Sypha just...being around. And if not around, providing him a good challenge that demanded all of his brain power.]

...I can think of some choice words with which to describe your father, but I will refrain.

[That may, after all, be rudeness past the benchmark given earlier. Saying them might mean destroying the house in a different way than just physically.]

But if he is gone, then...who is ruling the city?

Thank you, I'd rather you not invite trouble.

[That's less rudeness, more like asking dad to show up and respond.

Her question is met with a very, very dark look. In all of this (and all the glory of ignoring what had happened for just two precious days), there had been no answer. Just as the proper response to Sypha's querry now is a terrible, terrible silence.]

[It's a lack of response that makes her feel as though a block of ice has dropped into the pit of her stomach, and she sits up a little with undisguised alarm in her expression, no longer drowsy and satiated.]

...Then it is no longer safe here, for my people to stay.

[Her stomach twists, and she's not entirely sure it's out of worry for her people.]

You have another week.

[He says it calmly. (He is not calm. Them leaving is the right thing to do. The safe thing. He's being selfish.)

The situation is too terrifying for anyone to do anything yet. If all remains as is, then nothing will happen to anyone in this city.

The rules that protect people of this city do not protect Speakers.

[She curls in on herself, shaken, instinctively making herself small as she talks through the state of affairs, one step after another after another.]

We are the natural choice, for violence. We do not put up a fight when we are confronted. We are transient, so there is no one to miss us if we disappear. We are not well-liked, so who would care if a few Speakers were harmed.

[Her teeth sink into her lip, and she brings her knees up a little closer to her chest.]

When someone does act, we will be the first they act against.

This city's rules apply to anyone that enters it. Which means if anyone laid a hand on you and yours...

[He's trying to be authoritative, but it falls so very flat. (He isn't his father. He isn't meant to be. He's not sure why he's trying.) Alucard's face falls terribly fast as Sypha explains, and he understands her fear.]

How many days would it be until...?

[Until she must depart.]

...Someone would expect your father to hand out retribution.

[She finishes the sentence for him, glumly, missing his internalized distress only because she's preoccupied with her own — selfishness that she can't hardly be faulted for, really.]

They don't know. My people — no one knows. But you knew, and you were the only one. Now you and I know.

[And the horrible thing is, the Speakers will only know if she tells them.]

Yes.

[This is the first time the reality of what his father being gone means outside of the comfort of having someone else so hurt by loss that Alucard has truly experienced. The common law code of the city, it's unwritten. It's always been his father making decisions and the weight of his name ensuring all rules are followed.

It's an awful realization. One that sends him reeling in a way the horrible thing on his chest failed to do.]

That...yes. That is the truth of it.

[He wants to collapse.]

Why did you think we would have a week?

[She glances up, eyes searching, circling back to an assumption he'd made a minute before. He had to have had some sort of foundation for that thought, hadn't he? Something must've made him think they would stay safe for a week.]

What happens in a week? Why then, will the secret come out?

Knowing how information travels in this city, it'll take a week for everyone to realize he will take his time coming back.

[Alucard's never meant to be his father, but he doesn't live in ignorance of how society functions in the city. A week is a reasonable amount of time for everyone to figure out that it may be some time for his father to return.]

...There is a train bound west for California. I saw the schedule, it leaves this coming Saturday.

[She bites her lip, and suddenly she can't bring herself to look at him anymore.]

...It. Sounds as though we should be on it.

That's still a few days away.

[Not many. But...but it's something, isn't it?]

When does it come back again?

A week and a half after. So —

[She ticks a count off on her fingers, quickly, working the numbers.]

If not at the end of this week, then we will have to last until two weeks from now.

There would be other trains, but if that truly is where you mean to travel next...

[Then this train is the only option.

God, they've ruined their own evening.]

[She drops her head, staring down at herself, her knees, the pretty secondhand fabric skimming over them because she'd worn this dress for him, worn it to be looked at, because she likes him and she likes the attention he shows her and now it's all going to be gone. Gone, because the city isn't safe. Gone, because of who she is, what she is.

She doesn't even realize she's crying until something hot and damp spatters against the back of her hand, and she realizes her eyes feel swollen and tight with the blur of the tears in them.]

M...Maybe I should...go...

[There's too much quiet now. Alucard hates it. The sound of fabric catches his attention, but he feels terrible looking up and seeing Sypha hunched over and staring down, miserable.

He gets up from the armchair he's in and moves over. Dares to sit down on the loveseat next to her, and there is a very uncertain hand resting beside her. Offered without really offering, unsure if this is at any point appropriate.]

I ought to see you back.

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