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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...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.

You can't walk all that way in your condition.

[She needs to change, she reminds herself. Needs to peel herself out of his foolish, pretty dress that he said suits her so well. It doesn't. She is a Speaker, and she will always be a Speaker, and things in the night kill Speakers, and there is no helping it, no changing it.

It's stifling, somehow. It twists her chest and tightens her throat and leaves it hard for her to breathe, and it takes her a minute to realize that it's because she's holding her breath to swallow back a sob.]

It's not that dark out.

[It's absolutely that dark out.]

I have a car.

[He says it flatly. Because while it's so kind that she thinks of what his physical aliments are, there's a simpler solution. One that means a quicker farewell, but one that is also much safer.

Alucard breathes out, and to hell with it. He puts his hand atop Sypha's thigh carefully. It is a light touch, easy for her to knock away.]

Yes, I'm sure no one will wonder where I've been or who I have been with, if I am returned to the camp I should not even be gone from in a car by —

[But the thought abruptly comes to a standstill as his hand brushes against her leg, whispers over the thin layer of fabric between his skin and hers, and she looks up at him slowly, with her cheeks still streaked with tears and her blue eyes uncertain.

She does not, however, knock his hand away.]

It's nothing to just...put you a block or two away....

[The words die on his lips. Alucard's certain that he's committed some terrible breech in protocol, done something unacceptable, and oh...

...he looks utterly broken at the tears on her face. His fault. His stupid fault.]

[She looks at him a minute, still feeling wrung-out and awful, despairing of the broken expression on his face and the fast-brimming wave of new tears welling up in her eyes, and before she can think better of it, before she can even think to begin with, she whispers: ]

Either touch me or don't, Adrian.

[Unfiltered. Reckless, maybe. Dictated by emotion, rather than rational thought.]

[Good news: that statement surprises him enough to wipe any sadness off his stupid pale face. It's replaced with a dumbfounded look, because wait. What? He hasn't moved his hand and...

...oh god the rest of him's moving without permission. Because sure this is an appropriate time to dare and attempt a kiss. Exactly dead bang on perfection.]

[She's ready and waiting for him, when he moves. She doesn't have the time or the opportunity to wonder if perhaps she knows what she's doing when it comes to this better than he does; what matters is that he angles in toward her, and she already knows what angle to tilt her chin at to meet him properly, and thus, there it is, a kiss.

It's a kiss that aches, laced through with warring emotion — with fear, with sadness, with the rawness that accompanies futility. It's filled with need; it's sharp with desire. She wants to be kissed, wants to be wanted, and the intensity of that aspect of it frightens her a little, because of how powerfully it hits her. This is hers, just hers, and there are so few things in the world that are, but it is and she doesn't want to lose it.

That's why, maybe, she doesn't waste time before pushing on him, guiding him to sit back far enough that she can climb over him and sit straddling his lap facing him. It makes it easier for her to kiss him, facing him head-on instead of having to twist to the side; it makes it safer for his stitches, because this way she can partially protect them as she leans into him. It makes it easier for him to hold on to her.

And it makes it impossible for him to get rid of her, because her weight is pinning him to the couch, and she doesn't want to go.]

When I told you I should go — why didn't you ask me to stay?

[There's a hint of desperation in her tone that she doesn't intend to be there, and yet there it is.]

Don't you want me to?

[Alucard is now certain that he shouldn't have done that, because does he need to have even more emotions to deal with on top of everything else? He's greiving twice over, for his mother and for his father's departure, he's living in fear for what the city might do as it is too finely balanced right now, he's well and truly alone for the first time in his life, and here he is kissing (and being kissed back) by someone who he knows will be leaving in just a few days.

It's a hurricane (he's familiar enough with those), and in the eye of it is the tiniest bit of normalacy, of happiness that the past few hours have provided. It's why when Sypha's emotions are all caught up in her response and how she moves on top of Alucard in full, he can only respond. Let instinct try and take over (he's dated before) with his hands resting on her hips.

Moreoevr, he tries to match her intensity once it's on full display. The need, the need is what he picks up on the most, and fuck if that's not an undercurrent to his emotional state as well.

He's pinned in more than one way.]

...How can I demand anyone give up their family?

[His response is soft and measured. What response did she expect?]

[It's only half the answer she'd asked for — the why of the puzzle. He doesn't address the more important of the two, the don't you want me to, and she's not sure if his lack of an answer isn't really an answer all in itself.]

I meant tonight. When I said that I should go back to our camp.

[It makes her shiver, though, to see where his mind had gone to instinctively. He's not thinking of her leaving or staying in terms of tonight; he's thinking of it in terms of forever.]

You look at me like you think I'm beautiful. But you can't say that you want me...?

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