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 tiger is now, for all purposes, essentially three-legged. Oh, the fourth leg is still attached, but with the tendons cut it's not going to be any use to it. And that's one of the few advantages you can count on with necromanced monsters - they don't shrink away from pain, but it also makes it difficult for them to work around injury. Were it living, the creature might feel pain and adjust the way it moves to account for the damage. It's not, and so it keeps trying uselessly to put weight on a leg that can no longer hold it.

It'd be slightly more comfort if it didn't feel like the thing had just succeeded at ripping off his arm, but it's still good. Hard for it to use those front legs to swipe at anything like this. It's bought them more time, even if the thing gets past Trevor, and made it safe to fight more defensively.

He switches back to the whip, using it to harass the tiger back toward the empty stands. ]

[Alucard's managed to land 3/5s of the party on the ground by the time Trevor has switched back to the whip. They know how to tumble out of the net just so, they just run like Alucard's asked them to when they're on the ground. He doesn't have to look over to know Trevor's using the whip either. The horrible crack of it is a comfort to his ears.

(What vampire ever loved the sound of a Belmont's whip?)

(Hang on. Phrasing.)

But as Alucard starts to scramble back to the platform, because he still has to have vampire shit undercover, his nose catches something else. Magic has no smell, so neither does necromancy, but Alucard knows what death smells like and it is coming from behind him.

His feet are on the ground. He turns, and walking through the nearly empty tent is a man too sharply dressed, a man walking too calmly for this moment, a man Alucard is willing to bet his life on as the instigator of all of this.

He doesn't see what's being drawn out. (It is a simple doctor's reflex tester.) All he knows is Trevor's surname is on his lips before anything else.]

Belmont! Behind!

[ He turns, and there is a gentleman there. All dressed properly to the point where it almost looks like he's wearing a costume of himself, with a finely waxed mustache and a pair of pince-nez.

And then he looks away from him and back to his task, because somehow the tiger is moving again. Faster than before, accounting for its injured leg now, as it it's no longer working from a dead thing's flawed instincts but being controlled-

The man pays no heed to this and instead leans over the tamer's corpse, tutting quietly, and places a pill into the man's mouth before striking his wrist with the reflex hammer. It twitches. ]

Oh, but is the human body not a splendid thing? Look at you, my man, a full recovery!

[ -Trevor can't really turn to pay attention to this, though, because the tiger is moving faster than it was before. It pounces, and it's all he can to to stop its jaws with his arm to keep it from snapping them closed on anything more vital. ]

[Fuck every inch of this. Alucard taps into his natural speed, and to hell if he is going to no longer rely on obscuring the vampire thing now. The other two circus performers, they're gaping at him, but Alucard snaps we need to move you both and the process from before repeats itself in double time. They're down. No slow motion flight and no landing on the net this time either. He speeds them across to the entrance, puts them down, and the necromancer is applying his trade.

Alucard does not stand and revel in the sight of forgemastery. It is a horror in concept, and what it procduces is worse. This tiger. Whatever the tamer's corpse is about to become. Alucard doesn't care. There's no more humans here, he can do what he likes, and what he does first is let out a snarl that is most certaintly not human.]

Your work is not welcome in this city.

[That's the only warning he gives, and the necromancer does not seem terribly interested in what Alucard has to say. There is only the work of forge mastery, and soon enough, Alucard using his entire body to slam the necromancer away from the corpse. Away from the corpse and into the side of the tiger, sending the animal askew for just a moment.

Alucard knows he's within whip range. That's okay. He can take the hit, he's tested it once with Trevor and it can be managed.]

[ There's no whip. There's no whip because two things happen. First, the tiger gives a horrible, gurgling yowl and thrashes briefly before falling still. Secondly, the slam also knocks Trevor over, because his arm is still inside the tiger's mouth.

The source of the former becomes clear soon enough, when Trevor forces the mouth open to pull his bleeding arm and silver knife free from the inside of the animal's throat. ]

Fuck.

[That's too much blood. That's so much blood and there's two very different parts of Alucard vying for dominance right now.

He is protector of this city in his father's absence and that means any threat is to be destroyed. This necromancer, with his terrible instrument (Alucard knows it for what it is, and it's a pretty good joke all things considered), is a threat. He's made an attack as is, not on the night creatures of city but on the normal residents. Unforgivable.

He is also 200% responsible for Trevor getting chomped by a tiger and Trevor needs his hands to do the things he was born to do. If he doesn't help now, the consequences could be so very dire. Dire and the circus' animal tamer is making a horrible groaning noise.

Indecision is a curse, even as the necromancer is pinned against his now dead tiger, the whole of Alucard's strength pressing into the man's chest. There has to be a neat way to deal with this, and so Alucard tries to do his level best. Grab the man's wrist, force him to his feet, spin just enough so that when Alucard lets go, he'll slam his head into one of the tent poles. It's enough time to scramble over to Trevor. He has a minute to inspect the wound at most.

The tamer is moving. Getting to his feet and his eyes are so cold.]

Did it hit a vein?!

Shit- shit. Yeah.

[ He's calmer about this than he really ought to be. He's always calmer about these things than he ought to be, though in this case the beginnings of lightheadedness are really contributing to his demeanor a great deal. He lifts his arm, keeping it above his heart rather than below.

And then things grow worse. Because the acrobat, the young one who was so excited about this, is back. To help. With a rifle that's far, far too big against her small form. Her eyes dart from the fallen forgemaster to the rising corpse and- ]

Oh! Doctor! [ She sounds delighted rather than horrified, which isn't abnormal from the little they know of her, but there's also a note of familiarity to her voice. She rushes over to the forgemaster, putting her small shoulder under his arm to lift him to his feet while she gets a fuller grasp of the situation. She sees the tiger dead. She sees Trevor bleeding, and she shakes the forgemaster. ]

Doctor, 're you okay? The gentleman here needs treatment, too!

[ ...whether she realizes it or not, she's just given their forgemaster a hostage. ]

[This just got about a billion times worse.

Trevor needs to get the hell out of here. That is step one. Step two is dealing with this not-going-to-be-a-hostage situation. Three is the necromancer and the new revival combined, step four is going the fuck home. So that means the first thing Alucard does is make sure that he's between Trevor and the forgemaster.]

Kit's in the car. I can handle the rest.

[Alucard doesn't say it as a command, because there's a chance that it could conflict with Trevor's nature, with what this is which is his family's work. The medical kit lives in the back seat of the car, and all Alucard needs to do is slip the keys to Trevor. Vampire Inconveniencer can be carried, wrapped up in his own coat to deal with the problem of his flesh burning at the touch.

The tamer is up on his feet too. He's disgusting, all gored flesh half knitted together because the forgemaster's work was interrupted, and Alucard has to take a chance that the horror will throw the young miss off just enough to allow for a diversion.]

...Behind you, there's--

[Good. There's an ungodly groan from that thing. It'll have to do.]

[ The tiger's corpse had been clean, delicately maintained. It had just about looked like the real thing. The tamer's does not, and once she gets a better look at it the young woman scrambles back, hesitating for only a moment before she shoots the thing. It's not much more distance between her and the forgemaster, but it's a little more. ]

...trusting you with this. [ Trevor mumbles. He'd resist more, but fuck, he can feel himself growing more and more dizzy and his body growing more heavy. He doesn't have much of a choice but to leave this in Alucard's hands. He gets back to his feet, keys clenched as tightly as he can in his bad hand, a throwing knife ready in his good one as he moves carefully past the forgemaster and girl. ]

Get moving.

[And that is a command because this next part has to happen quickly. Trevor's got the keys, he can take care of this much, and with the gun being fired, there's confusion. Confusion that means Alucard can speed himself between performer and forgemaster, his own hands now claws, claws that tear into the newly resurrected corpse.

He's restrained only because of the audience of one watching this now. She's also holding a firearm, so that means he has to be careful. A firearm that's she's holding up and slamming into the side of the resurrected man, so at least there's sense in her. Alucard yells at her to but go, and she just whacks the thing on the head again.

So she's staying, which isn't acceptable but between fighting with a headstrong teenager or getting out of this situation, Alucard knows which one to go with. He in turn spots the forgemaster starting to run.]

[ He does, as best he can, stumbling out in the direction of the car and of something to stop the bleeding.

The girl smashes the butt of her gun into the tamer's head a third time, and this time there's a crunch of bone followed by a horrible moist sound. The ressurected tamer falls still again and she pushes herself to her feet, looking about herself. ]

Doctor-? What happened to him? 'd he catch the same thing as the tiger?

[ The forgemaster isn't listening, though, he's trying to make his escape. He really, really was not anticipating running into Alucard here. He takes two things from his now slightly mussed up coat, an intricately made iron ball with a piece of resin inside it and a lighter, and he lights the resin inside the ball before throwing it in Alucard's direction and running. ]

[The tamer's down, which gives Alucard a split second to try and run after the forgemaster. Any concern he had about safety is gone now, as the young woman's taken care of the problem at hand. He lets his legs go as quickly as they can, claws outstretched, struggling to grab onto any part of the man. Trevor can track him if Alucard can get just a scrap, an inch of hair or cloth or anything, but--

--the thing smacks Alucard in the face. It doesn't hurt, not really, but then there's a terrible whiff of it, and the world around him starts to shift. He slows down, slows down terribly. There's no desire to run after the man, violence isn't allowed. He can't...

...Alucard covers his nose with his shirt. Whatever this is, he can't be exposed to it. It dulls him, and that means he must focus on other things instead. Girl with a firearm. Better, safer, fuck. Just retreating from the thing is improving his own state.

He isn't moving fast, for the smell of the resin is starting to perfume the air. Alucard walks back, trying to play it off as just being calm about the situation, and pauses to pick up the whip. It hurts, but with the stench in the air, it doesn't hurt as badly.

Now for the important part.]

I'm not a doctor, but I think you're right about what was caught.

[Because technically, technically that's true. Alucard's careful as he gestures to be followed.]

And you had impressive timing.

[Walk. Walk with him and get out of here. Please.]

[ The girl does follow, but she also has a thousand questions to ask. She’s bright-eyed and full of adrenaline and is the corpse going to walk around again and are there more of those and do you think her uncle would mind if she kept his gun and went looking for them. It’s only when she stops asking questions and starts explaining her side of the story that Alucard might be able to appreciatre just how lucky they got.

Because ‘The Doc’, as she calls him, had been about to start attending to the injuries in the crowd when she’d told him about the fighting in the tent.

The fuss in the tent was probably the least awful option.

She’s hard to shake, one of those kinds who’s been waiting her whole life for this kind of thing to happen, the type who would have gone looking for monsters sooner or later no matter what. Perhaps it’s for the best that she found them while in the company of people who could take care of her. (On which topic, the promise of an introduction to Florence is what finally convinces her to sit down and rest and finally process the events of the evening and let Alucard be for two seconds.)

Trevor is near the car, sat on the pavement with his bandaged arm resting on a bench to keep it above his heart. The bleeding hasn’t stopped completely, leaking through the rushed dressing and binding, but it’s at least slowed. He’s- somewhat responsive, turning to look at Alucard when he approaches but not doing anything so strenuous as waving. ]

[There's something about managing to be so bright eyed in the face of so much horror that's admirable. A skill to be sure, although a truly untested one. This incident, it's nothing at all if it's one's first encounter with all the dark things of the world. (It is everything for the three of them, it is conspiracy and it is a problem.) So Alucard lets her keep talking. And talking. And talking, because it means he's getting back to Trevor with the absolute minimal amount of panic he could have for the situation.

Which, by the time that they reach the car, is about to skyrocket. Alucard had a plan in progress that developed as they were walking, and now he knows he has to put it into action. He takes Trevor's wrist immediately and applies pressure over where he knows the worst of the cut is (the Belmont may have the vampire's wrists committed to memory, but the reverse is true too). Looks his new and far too excited companion in the eye, and explains what needs to be done.]

There's clean up we cannot attend to, and if you want that introduction to happen, you must do this or else it shall not be. The tiger and the man within, the bodies. They need to be burnt so that no one else can use that type of magic on them. So much of this is about preventing others from seeing things, and to learn that work is essential. Do you understand?

[The gravity in Alucard's voice seems to bring the point home in full. She nods, says that it makes sense, and that she can grab some of the fuel from the fire swallowers while no one is looking. Satisfied, Alucard nods, and she is off. (She gave her name. Katerina, like the Great.)

Then his eyes are on Trevor, hand still where it was.]

I can't fix this. You need to go to the hospital.

Fuck.

[ It’s not the first time that something has been beyond Alucard’s abilities to repair, or at least beyond his ablities to get him out to the castle in time without the delay making things much worse. It doesn’t make it better. The hospital means questions. It means records being kept. It means that what happened tonight can’t disappear half as easily as it ought to. It means Alucard having to turn to collegues of his mother’s, using her name as currency to make patient records that are too dangerous vanish.

There are a few things he wouldn’t have forced him to do weven when he was at his worst and most desperate, and that’s one of them. ]

Sorry. Went and fucked up.

I miscalculated in the moment.

[Alucard opens up the front door, and it's a testament to the build that the front is just one long seat, as is this back. It means Alucard can climb in without letting go of Trevor's wrist, it means he can keep applying pressure even as he gets comfortable in the driver's seat. Turns the engine on. Puts his free hand on the wheel.]

It won't take me long to deal with the question of paperwork, the nearest hospital is one of the ones within the city that there are the standard arrangements with. [Blood. He means blood, because in the end, it's always about blood, isn't it?]

They'll need to keep records of the treatment administered, but names will be redacted, and then after a week I can make everything else go away. The only reason anything has to get documented is for the sake of their supply tracking.

[He takes that seriously, because it helped any such place function. His mother would disapprove of doing anything less.]

[ That, at the very least, is a relief. Last time, it had been one of the hospitals that doesn’t have any dealings with the supernatural community. This whole thing is going to be a nightmare for secrecy. He doesn’t need to make it worse just because he managed to slice through something important.

He follows Alucard into the car carefully, allowing him to keep applying pressure. He’s not resisting the idea of going to the hospital, only apologfising for its necessity. That’s probably a bad sign. Usually he puts up at least a token resistance to this kind of thing. ]

No deaths other than the tamer, at least from what I could see. A couple injuries, some severe. An ambulance was leaving with the worst of them when I got out.

[ He lets his head fall back against the car seat, sighing and repeating something he’s been saying all too much lately. ]

This is what success looks like. [ This- this horrible shit. This is the best they can hope for right now. And that’s upsetting. ]

We'll know for certain in a few hours. A severe injury could add to the death toll.

[As they begin to drive away, Alucard catches the hint of smoke in the air. Good. That much is done, and he can be happy for it. It is permission to slam his foot on the gas pedal, and pray his own car handles half as well as the demon car does in a real emergency.

He still hasn't let go of Trevor's wrist. He can feel how wet his own hand is with Trevor's blood, and it is a blessing he took that nutrition earlier tonight otherwise this situation would actually be worse.

Except Trevor's comment does make it worse, as there is a dark reply that Alucard cannot stop from escaping his lips.]

It wouldn't be his definition of success by any measure.

[ The bandage and dressing are just about useless by now, having grown saturated all too quickly. It’s the pressure that’s keeping the situation just about managable, but even with that-

This would usually be the point at which the conversation died, because sometimes even Sypha can’t do much for Alucard’s spirits when he gets like this. But the conversation is serving an important medical purpose right now, keeping him concious. Which means it has to continue. Which means it’s time to clumsily fuck around with Alucard’s feelings about his father while too lightheaded to think through his words. That’s probably fine. ]

This whole fucking thing is him succeeding. He wanted to fuck off and damn the consequences. And lo, he has fucked off and the consequences are damned all over the place.

You know what I meant.

[The response is sour, and Alucard hangs a sharp right. He's in a terrible mood, this has all gone terribly, there's a forgemaster running around, and his father would have probably killed the man by now. Alucard snarls at that particular thought, speeding merrily through a traffic light.]

We have a five minute drive left, three if I'm quick.

[Let that terrible statement be what Trevor latches onto instead. Please.]

He isn’t doing to be disapponted. He doesn’t fucking care enough for that.

[ It’s harsh. He’s got better at softening himself without being asked to, but it’s difficult where Dracula is concerned. Not even out of old Belmont grudges anymore, just because he remembers the state that just seeing him for a second left Alucard in. ]

If it were reasonable to expect you to be his equal, we wouldn’t be needed. If you’re not then the failure is ours, not yours.

[He doesn't care is...not delicate wording. The good news is, Alucard is almost certain that Trevor doesn't see him flinch from that statement. The only reason he flinches is because it is all too true. His father doesn't care. His father hasn't cared in over a year and it still aches some days.

Like today. Like right now.

He wants to find something to argue about. Alucard needs it, it'll be enough to get him through this horrible fucking car ride with Trevor still too bloody.]

That isn't how any of this is judged and you know that. If it were, we'd have outright rebellion for a Belmont and a Speaker running this city instead of his son.

[ It’s a reasonable point, even if Trevor is doubtful that the judgement of people not named Dracula is half as important right now as the judgement of a man who will never care enough to pass it. ]

We’ll have this in hand before anyone gets the chance to judge. And if they do, enough to be a danger- your father didn’t escape judgement and rebellion by being infallible.

[ He just crushed it. ]

Methods to be abhored.

[He says it softly, and there's the sign for the hospital. Thank God, thank God, thank God, there is only one more horrible fucking minute of this. Of falling into the oldest argument, the first argument they had when Trevor was first on Alucard's doorstep.

He hated them for what they'd force himself to be, but now Alucard has other reasons to hate them too. What it would force Trevor to be, what it'd demand of Sypha. That is too much to ask of them.]

I think I managed to get a scrap of that forgemaster's clothing. Can you use that?

[ Finally, finally he drops the topic. It’ll be a while before he can safely drink, after this kind of blood loss, but when he can he’ll sit with Sypha and only Sypha and they can go through a bottle or two (the priest at the church is always happy to give to his congregation, within reason) and complain about Dracula long into the night.

He’s growing too lightheaded to make decent arguments anyway. Alucard’s question, though, he can answer. He could talk this kind of shit in his sleep. ]

Ought to be able to, at least assuming that the good doctors’re willing to let me use the hand for writing.

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