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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There's a little more to it than that, but yes. Something like a domovoi, if my mother identified it correctly. A household fairy of some sort.

[ He sighs, shrugging. ]

Usually I'm free to ignore this shit. You're powerful.

...Because for me to speak a command is, on some level, always an expression of my intent. Perhaps not enough to compel someone who is not inherently susceptible to it, but combined with your burden of obedience...

[Well. That's...more than a little unsettling.]

I'm — I'm sorry. I don't like the thought of...having you at my mercy, like that. So if you would rather I did not talk to you, or only talked through Alucard, or...whatever you wish done about it, I will understand. And agree.

Don't make it weird. I really don't give that much of a shit.

[ There's really nothing he can do about the disaster of a blanket, so he sets about unraveling it to try again. ]

Just be careful - I'd really rather not end up forced to walk in on the two of you to give you wrist updates again - and don't go telling me to jump off a cliff or anything and it'll be fine.

I was trying to be considerate.

[She grumps a little, slouching down in her chair and pulling her heels up onto the edge of the seat cushion, which sort of flies in the face of the idea of being considerate, but also: that's a concern for a different time and place.]

Has it been like that for you since you were born? Or was this something put upon you after?

Since baptism. It's- been a Belmont thing about a century now.

[ The blanket is begun again, and with it starts the sound of needles clicking. ]

You've heard of Bluebeard, I imagine? Maybe not the vampire, but the name.

I know the story. The rich man who takes wives and kills them, and keeps their bodies in his closet, and each new wife is always told she must never look inside it but then of course his curious new wife always does. I also know that story was based on a real-world account of a serial killer...

[...Wait.]

...who you are saying was a vampire all along?

Yes. Dracula's successor in Europe. Had a rare gift among vampires, let him control anyone he turned. Which was enough of a problem when he was taking human brides.

[ FAIRY VAMPIRES. WEREWOLF VAMPIRES. ANY MONSTER YOU CARE TO IMAGINE, AND IT'S ALSO A VAMPIRE. ]

We had to take desperate measures. First boy baptized of every generation belongs to the fair folk.

[ Which is to say that THAT detail was a deliberate move to fuck with a family that traditionally was religious and had male heirs. ]

...I am not quite sure I follow. The first boy belongs to them, and in exchange...

[She frowns, drumming her fingers absently on her knee, betraying the anxiousness she's harboring over a guess she doesn't particularly want to voice.]

One boy as a tribute, and in exchange the rest are rendered immune?

Right. In exchange, we could hunt the baobhan sith - Bluebeard's fairy wives - without them demanding one of us for each of their own.

[ He shrugs. ]

Like I said, desperate measures.

Then what happened after Bluebeard and his wives were defeated? Does the exchange between your family and the fair folk have a time limit or an ending clause?

[Because she'd be willing to bet that may not have come up in a situation that proved to be the result of desperate measures.]

And what precisely are the terms of their...ownership of you?

No. Not as such.

[ It's kind of over with him, but that's just a depressing thought. ]

Whatever the fuck they please. Some boys are taken as consorts, when they come of age. I wasn't. Some are called to work- that's happened a couple times. [ And then, with a sigh. ] Don't make it weird, but- sooner or later, we're all used for the same thing every other human they take is used for.

...So in exchange for the ability to hunt the baobhan sith —

[Which she pronounces perfectly, not missing a vowel or consonant.]

— the firstborn son of your family, forever, is given to the fair folk to be their tribute to hell.

[...Good job, Belmonts.]

That...is a terrible contract, and an even more terrible burden to place upon you.

Negotiation's never been a skill of ours.

[ Belmonts: good at whips, shitty at contract negotiation. ]

Appreciate you not making it weird. Last person I told started crying. Fucking hated that.

[ He makes it sound like people getting emotional about it is more of a bother than the going to hell thing itself. ]

It's already weird, Belmont. Very little I could do or not do would change that.

[This conversation is, after all, taking place between a witch who loves radio dramas and a fairy, aggressively knitting a baby blanket, as they discuss his someday sacrifice to hell.]

When are they set to take you...?

[ Excuse you, it's only weird if people get emotional about it. Until then it's just business as usual. ]

Halloween, some year or another. It's meant to be once every seven years, but- I may have lost count. [ nbd right? ] After stormy season begins, which is going to be the big test for the princeling. If he does fine, it's not a problem. If he doesn't, I'll- figure something out.

You lost count.

[Repeats the Speaker whose entire culture is founded around REMEMBERING IMPORTANT THIIIIIIIINGS this is the worst]

But they count from the year you were baptized, yes? And if I remember correctly, the church does baptisms upon infants so...

[...]

Are you saying you don't know how old you are?

Look, it's- not as stupid as you're making it sound.

[ He's actually kind of embarrassed about that one, gosh. Also yes, it is exactly that stupid. ]

I forgot a lot of shit. It happens. And I don't know if I was baptized before or after Halloween, so there'd be a year's wiggle room even if I knew.

Then at least, in the future, you will —

[But then she stops abruptly, biting off the thought before another sound can leave her mouth, and very slowly and carefully pieces together the rest of her sentence in her head before finishing it.]

...likely see some benefit, perhaps, in sharing important things with me, who is good at remembering, and can help you if you so choose.

Heh, well caught.

[ He shakes his head. ]

You don't always need to be so careful. Just- when there'd be intent behind it. There would have been this time, because I'm guessing you do actually want me to tell you. Apparently you just care a hell of a lot about your show.

I do. What I want is to help you, if I can — how I can, I mean.

[She sits back a little in her seat, fiddling idly with the fringe lining one of the throw pillows near her hands.]

Sometimes I don't know if you even realize that I like you, you surly man.

I- shit.

[ What.

Well. He'll process that later. For now he just puts his knitting down again, shuffling uncomfortably in the chair. ]

-I'll try to figure it out. The helping part. [ Figuring out the liking part is asking a lot of him. ] Not the time right now, but it might be worth seeing if you can't order me to not take orders. That kind of thing.

I doubt that would be possible, but I can think of at least a few other things that might help you. And if I say them, perhaps they will carry more weight than that of someone else.

[She swings her feet down, sitting forward with her elbows on her knees a minute like she's readying herself to get up.]

Would you come here for a minute, please?

[ He tenses, waiting to see if his body moves without his say so. When it doesn't he waits a few more seconds just to confirm, then stands and moves over. ]

'Would you' seems to be fine.

Mm. I was trying very hard to make sure it was your choice. Not just my intent.

[She waits, then, until he's close, and when he's over by her chair, she stands up and moves against him all in the same motion, lightly wrapping her arms around him.]

I'm sorry about making you be quiet. And — early on, I told Alucard that I would not promise him that things would be all right, because that was not something anyone could promise. But I will make you the same promise I did make him, back then. Whatever lies in the future for you, you will not be left to face it alone, Trevor Belmont.

[ He blinks uselessly at Sypha, just about managing not to flinch. She's- tiny, up this close. And soft. And warm. And in possession of absolutely no sense of personal space and is this just a thing she does? He's not unused to physical contact - it's hardly abnormal back home (where home refers to some nameless amalgamation of trenches and romanian and french towns) - but he's been under the impression that the Americas were stricter about what was proper. No war, here. All the things of the night under control. No real need to cling together. ]

-thanks.

[ What else can he say? Awkwardly, very awkwardly (is this really proper over here? isn't she practically married?), he wraps his arms around her shoulders. ]

I- the same, I suppose.

20s AU Post

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