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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only | Expand All

[She aches for the way her grandfather breathes her name, Sypha, half chiding and half tender. She's not sure, now, how she ever could have thought he didn't know, not when he's reminding her of her late nights coming back to the camp and the way she'd mysteriously vanished not long after the son of Dracula had sought help from them and left. He kisses her forehead and whispers a note of pride into her hair, and she understands what a terrible burden it had been on his soul, to do only the least of what he could and no more, that night. He'd noticed she'd lost her robes. He'd noticed the sudden surplus of good food and supplies with no explanation. He'd noticed these past few nights. He'd noticed everything.

It will be grave danger for you, he reminds her, and she finds herself whispering back that the danger is something she can bear, but not the burden of leaving, when yet again they had done the least of what they could do and no more.

It's not the truth, not really, but it's enough to shed light on the real truth, to make him understand. This train may take her body away, but her heart will not leave, and to bear that separation will be nothing short of agony.

The train lurches. Time is short.

Go, then, he tells her kindly, and kisses her with all the affection inside him, and goes with her to help wrench open the door in the boxcar wall as slowly, slowly the wheels start to turn beneath them.

With everything she owns in the world held in her hands, save one, she jumps and she doesn't look back.]

[It's impossible for Alucard to accurately account for how long he's been in the bathroom. (In the future there will be a room in the castle for this, the other two will jokingly call it the tantrum hole, and all three are going to need to make use of it.) All he knows is that he has voiced every feeling he has, and now there is just exhaustion.

Exhaustion and the need to change his bandages, because there are spots of red in his shirt. He's gone and tore his stitches like an idiot. He had managed to avoid that this entire time, even with picking Sypha up and moving her about. Figures that this happens when se's gone (gone west), and he has to do it on his own.

Alucard sheds his shirt, and when he looks in the bathroom mirror (also a medicine chest, far better stocked than any home in the state), there's a wreck looking back at him. His hair is every which way, his cheeks are flushed red, his eyes are no better. There's matted dampness all down to his chin, and he pauses just long enough to use his shirt sleeve to dry those tears.

The shirt goes into the hamper there (it's just his clothes within), and he starts to undo the bandages. Looks down at the scar that is forming underneath them, and winces from it all. His father's handiwork is a horror of burnt flesh, stitches, and now red seeping out from the middle. He can sew it, but even glancing at what's down there makes him want to collapse on the floor again. How he isn't dead from this is still beyond Alucard. How he managed to get to he Speakers camp in the first place is probably a miracle.]

[She knows the way, by now.

She could do this with her eyes closed; it's only difficult from the prospect of doing it with the weight of her few worldly possessions on her hands, on her back. It's also ludicrous, madness; she's running through town in her Speaker's robes, the very town where she knows there is no Dracula to prevent some opportunistic vampire from taking a bite from her, and she doesn't care. It doesn't matter, not right now, because the only thing that does is running, and she is running.

She knows the way. She finds the house, ascends the steps. She's just run a mile, perhaps more, on foot and in sandals and in the daytime heat, and when the exertion of that finally catches up with her, it's going to hit her like the train she's just jumped off of, but for now it hasn't yet.

She drops her bag to free a hand; there's nothing breakable in it, anyway.

There's a bell, and she rings it, but when it's rung she simply switches for banging on the door instead.]

[He's finished stitching himself up when the doorbell sounds. It took longer than it ought to, and that is for all the terrible thoughts that came with every pull of the needle. He should bandage himself up before opening the door. It'll invite infection if he doesn't do this simple thing, this thing his mother would berate him for forgetting. (That's...that's a thought he hates, if only for the little bit of heartbreak that goes with it.)

The doorbell and now a terrible banging. There's force behind them, but only so much. There's no breath in his lungs. Hope is...it's dangerous right now, isn't it?

Dangerous and enough to power him down the stairs faster than he ought to be moving. Enough to nearly rip the door off it's hinges when he opens it, and by the grace of God she's there.

She's there, she's there, she's there, she's going to yell at him for bleeding again, she's going to see the wreck of the bathroom, and that's just fine because she's there. She's in his arms because he's already moved forward to embrace her, she's made a choice and it is to be here.

He's still without breath. There's nothing but adoration as he murmurs her name, face buried into the top of her head.]

Sypha.

[She never told him to use her first name but too late. This is permission, so far as he can tell.]

I — stop! Stop, I'm covered in road dirt, what did you do to your bandages — stop!

[Except that she doesn't want him to stop. She doesn't want him to let go of her. The magnitude of what she's done hasn't even caught up with her yet because right now it still feels like any other day, any other arrival, except that the Speaker camp is gone and there's nowhere to go back to, and she's not leaving here again.]

I'm here...I'm here, please, stop — what have you done to yourself...?

[This is Alucard ignoring reason and sense, refusing to let go. Even if he's being yelled at for something he absolutely should be yelled at for. Because he is an idiot.]

Nothing, it's fine, I was changing them...

[It was more important to answer her at the door. She can see him all broken like this now, she saw him far worse already. The only thing ruling Alucard in this moment is emotion.]

Adrian —

[She doesn't want him to stop, doesn't want him to let go or to listen to reason, but she remembers — she remembers, and one of them has to be sensible, and he'll regret this more later if she doesn't.]

Adrian, you're bleeding, you don't want me to touch your blood, don't you remember? I'm here, I'm here, but you must listen to me now —

[It's only mention of blood that sobers his thoughts. Shit. Shit. He knows better.

He doesn't let go. He only takes a step back, hands still on Sypha's sides, careful to lead her into the house. There's none of his blood smeared on his robes, so this is fine. She's fine, there's no danger, he just has to get bandages from the bathroom and fix the problem then everything will be well.

It means Sypha can see the horrible mix of utter joy and total depression on his face. How they manage to exist at the same time is a question for the ages, one no one wants an answer to. New on his face is relief. Relief that she's here, that she's willing to do any of this that...

...that seriously, he needs to not be bleeding in his own hallway.]

I'll...be right back.

No. Come here first, you foolish man.

[She lets him get her inside, she drags her bags in, she listens to the door shut behind them, and the instant it's closed she reaches up and grasps his chin, dragging him down to kiss him hard and deep and satisfying.

She kisses him and it's familiar; she kisses him and it's new. She kisses him and it feels like I'm home and the weight of missing him starts to alleviate, and the weight of abandoning California is too far away to drag her down in the face of his proximity, his warmth.

She kisses him stupid, because the rest of this will go easier if he's stupid for her, and she knows it.]

Now you are going to let me help you get cleaned up.

[There's no protesting as Sypha rearranges them both for what isn't a first kiss, but feels like one. The first one for this new thing that they can dare to put a label on, because she is staying.

He kisses back, and the words welcome home are threaded through every little moment. The angle his head is at means that it is easier than normal to avoid entering fangs into the equation. His hands go up, grasp both of her cheeks to hold her where she is. This is madness, all of it, hardly real.

But it is so very real, and when the kiss breaks, he is gone and away, anchored only by her presence.]

Yes I...[Right. Breathing.]

Kitchen has the best lighting.

Go in and sit. I will get the bandages; I remember where they are.

[IN THE BATHROOM.............]

I can go get them, you should move your things into the living room--!

[FUCK!!!]

You are going to go sit down before you make that mess of your chest worse.

[...................wait]

Why do you not want me to fetch your bandages?

[Busted.

Alucard sighs, moving to lean on the wall.]

I accidentally trashed the bathroom.

[Please do not judge him.]

...Go find a place to lie down.

[She leaves this disaster of a man alone twelve whole hours and look what she comes back to.]

The rest of it, whatever it is, can wait until after you've let me take care of you.

[It's deliberate phrasing, designed to remind him as subtly yet emphatically as she can: she's here. She's taking care of him. He's not alone. She's here.]

[Look he thought you weren't coming back and there were just a lot of feelings that got had all at once, please let this disaster man have this.

There's no protesting. But Alucard does go into the kitchen because the lighting is better and if there's blood in there, it is easier to clean up.

(There is, in fact, blood in there. In the blood compartment of the refrigerator, which is actually the meat and cheese drawer, but never mind all of that.)

He understands what she really means though. He'll thank her for it stupidly and desperately when she comes back in.]

[...So.

She sees what he meant about not wanting her to fetch the bandages, when she sees the state of the bathroom. The abandoned needle, the poorly-discarded bandages. The half-closed hamper with a shirt sticking out. The claw marks in the walls.

It makes her heart ache; she closes her eyes, taking a slow breath, and then makes herself take up the medicine chest without touching anything else in the bathroom, pausing only long enough once she's left to close the door and then duck down to his room to find a clean shirt to bring with her.

Then, it's back downstairs, making plenty of noise the whole way so that he's aware of the presence of someone else in the house, unable to forget that he's no longer alone here.]

Kitchen.

[He calls it out so that there's no searching for him. He heard how quiet she went in that bathroom, and when Sypha walks in, he has the grace to look embarrassed by his behavior.

Apologetic even, if the thin smile on his lips is anything to go by.]

I...I did say I trashed it, did I not?

You did.

[And here she comes, draping his clean shirt over the back of a chair before hauling the big medical kit right over to him and crouching down to get a better, closer look at his stitches.]

...Did you redo these yourself? — What am I saying, of course you did, I saw the needle. Mmm.

[It's far better doing this in a house than in the actual fucking forest. For one thing, the kit has gloves, and she snaps them onto her hands efficiently before reaching carefully for him.]

They'll do, I suppose. I'm not going to take them out and redo them again. But you shouldn't have hugged me at the door, it'll need to be disinfected now.

It won't happen again.

[The big medical kit is, actually, not the Big Medical Kit. Alucard knows that the Big Medical Kit is thrice the size of the thing Sypha has, and it's divided into people, vampires, and unsure? because his mother was nothing if not extremely well prepared for dealing with the weirdness of the life she ended up living.

Alucard's careful not to move as Sypha completes her inspection. The stitches are competently done, and that's the best that can be said for them. The little bit of blood that is there is already dried.]

I know, I know. [He pauses to push some of the hair that has escaped and tried to dangle over the area instead.] You knocked before I could start and...what would you have done if I didn't answer right away? I could do nothing else.

I would have waited, you silly thing.

[She's humming under her breath as she looks around for a wad of gauze and something labeled as salve, and inspects it a minute before daubing it onto the pad so that she can start carefully cleaning him up.]

...And then I would have broken a window.

Sypha!

[It's incredulous. It's delighted. And he's laughing for it all, because he hasn't learned that such a response is standard for her yet. He'll still laugh in the future, but it will be fore the predictability, and for the lightness of it all.

The only person in this city who'd break into one of Dracula's homes for no reason than to just see Adrian.

Such a laugh means he doesn't hiss or recoil from the salve, or even register much of the work she's doing.]

I see you are calling me Sypha now, and not Miss Belnades.

[Admittedly, the laughter makes it a little harder to clean him up, but she's not about to complain. She'll never complain about the sound of his laughter, not when it's filling him up too full to leave behind any room for tears.]

There. That should hold you, my love. Now let's get the bandages on.

[She's already reaching for them, neatly discarding the gauze in a small bag for easy disposal later.]

Forgive me the impoliteness, this...felt close to permission to do as I might ever imagine.

[In truth, he's amazed the matter wasn't corrected on the first or second date. Or third. Or until now.

His laughter slows, and as she reaches for the bandages, Alucard inches forward in the kitchen chair. Sypha needs more room to wind the gauze around - sitting with his back against the chair just won't work.

And here she's commenting on just using a name, Sypha has said my love and there's a stupid, awestruck look on his face for it. (He won't ask if she means it, he knows she does but...)]

It's my name. I've been calling you Adrian since the day you gave me yours; I don't know why it took you so long.

[With deft, sure movements, the pads go on to cover the stitches, and then she nimbly holds them in place as the bandage wraps around and around him to secure them.

She's nothing but efficient, until she finishes. It's only after she's done that her fingers move back to his chest and wander a little, tracing aimless lines against his skin for the sole purpose of touching him.]

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject