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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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.

Sypha can do the work for you if she must.

[He's not ignorant on that front, that they've been being magic nerds when he isn't around. Moreover, and far more importantly, the hospital comes into view. Alucard mutters something in relief, and the accelerator is pushed onto the floor.

From there it's easy. Park. Nearly drag Trevor into the emergency room, run to the desk there and explain that there is a vein in this man's wrist and for the love of God this needs to be addressed.

The reaction is immediate. A flurry of nurses. Alucard's own hand finally taken from Trevor's, and there's a terrible spray of blood for it. (He wasn't kidding someone says.) Then...

...waiting.

Because for this part, Alucard can't be there. He goes to wash off his own hands, then sits quietly. Fills out the paperwork, lies on every part of it except for what the injury is, then waits.]

[ In the care of the hospital staff, he finally lets himself slip into unconciousness. He’s cold, for the first fucking time since coming to this city, and that’s probably a cause for concern. Alucard is taken aside and offered the telephone if he needs it and once Sypha knows what’s happening-

-he wakes up to Sypha’s snoring. She’s on a chair by the side of the hospital bed but she’s flopped forward onto his chest, sleeping lightly and holding his hand on the non-bitten side, at a time that is absolutely not appropriate visiting hours. She’s very good at talking her way into places she’s not allowed. ]

...Mphh.

[ She wakes when he stirs, offering him a tired smile before leaving to retrieve Alucard and drag him into the room, whether he’s allowed to be here or not. ]

[In the time between seeing Trevor wheeled off to have that horrible vein dealt with and the present, Alucard has been busy. Of course the most important phone call was the one made to Sypha (it’s dicier than I’d like, if you can bring us both clean clothes…), then the next several were to the appropriate parties. Agatha to tell her of a new interested hunter who probably needs help burning some bodies. The newspapers to start to exert influence over reporting, which took about two hours to hammer out. One of the younger vampires who he was supposed to have a meeting with (and was very understanding.)

Then it was the hospital. Speaking to the right on-shift nurses who were aware of certain arrangements and understood what could and couldn’t be reported from this incident. (Plus visiting hours were for other people.) Sypha had gotten there by the time Alucard was into the phonecalls with the newspapers, but he barely had time to say hello never mind sit with her. Or Trevor for that matter.

So when he walks in, there’s nothing but relief on his face. It stays there as Alucard sits himself on the side of the bed, Sypha scurrying to the other.]

It’s only 4 in the morning. You usually sleep for another hour or so.

What can I say? Apparently that whole shit was a very energising experience.

[ God, his voice sounds small and pathetic. He’s managed to figure out where he must be in the time since Sypha left to collect their vampire, and he doesn’t entirely like it. It’s been a bad few weeks for getting the shit kicked out of him, really. At least the tiger wasn’t made of cold iron.

Sypha is working on orders from the nurses, propping Trevor up on a few pillows and handing him a covered cup of water to sip at. He takes it in his left hand, not quite able to move his right as he would like. There are peices of fruit, after that. A lot of fluid and sugar, to start to replace everything that’s been lost. ]

I really, really need to stop fucking up my right hand. I need that hand.

You need a shield.

[It's an idle thought, said mostly to keep Trevor awake and talking. This is bad. This is bad because they're at a disadvantage like this. Trevor's skill with that whip, they need it. Alucard can't even touch it, and Sypha's own skills lie with magic, not with weapons.

There are a dozen things Alucard wants to do in this moment. They start with apologizing for causing this even if it wasn't anyone's fault except for how the battle went, they end with taking Trevor in his arms and holding onto him fiercely. None of them are options, because the first starts an argument and the last is impossible, what with the IV still getting blood into Trevor's system.

So Alucard settles for the comfort of the practical.]

They said you won't be released until tomorrow, to ensure that what's holding the vein together doesn't collapse. It's safer that you be here should that happen, rather than home.

[Home, after all, would be too far away. He'd be dead before even getting to the hospital.]

Everything else is seen to. Florence loves the new kid.

[ Trevor looks up in genuine horror at that. ]

But I’m the new kid!

[ Yes he’s being jealous of a teenage girl. This seems to be bothering him more than the almost bleeding to death. He’s finally lost his novelty! He’s going to be replaced! By someone who can do much cooler flips! ]

A shield or less tigers. Less tigers also sounds like a wonderful option.

[Of all the reactions in the world, that is one Alucard would have never expected. There is a short, sharp bark of laughter from Alucard, and he covers his mouth to try and stifle it.]

Trevor!

[Sorry it's...a lot. But he takes a sobering breath, and Alucard is better for it.]

We'll also try for less tigers, although I'm afraid that it isn't something I get the final word on.

They’re going to like her better! She has a gun! And does tricks!

[ aka the two documented favourite things of little old ladies. But there’s laughter, even if it’s at his own expense. And that is nice, at least.

He feels around for Alucard’s hand with his mostly-functional left one, though even that is weak from blood loss and just flops around the bed uselessly until it lands on somthing hand-ish. ]

We won. We still won. I’ll be more careful next time.

Your priorities are terrible, do you know that?

[He's still laughing, face in one of his hands. It feels good to laugh, it helps the tension of the day break. Sypha's laughing too, which is far better than having to look up from the phone yet again to see her face worried and unhappy that Alucard's still bound to all of the clean up of the situation.

Alucard's hand moves so that they're resting on the shitty hospital bed and shitty, starchy sheets. Better to keep things confined at the moment.]

We'll have less tigers next time. And know we're working against a forgemaster, which should help considerably.

[It won't, but Alucard can't know that yet.]

Did your family have much on the concept?

My priorities are fine! I want to keep my grandmothers!

[ He’s pouting now. How can you all not tell that this is a big deal? He’s always been a youngest child, he doesn’t know how to deal with having a little sister! ]

On forgemastery? It’s a rare skill, we could never find a practitioner willing to answer questions. Most of our information came from encounters, but one tends not to encounter a forgemaster so much as one encounters his work. It’s a form of magic that allows one to control the flesh of night creatures, to make them into shapes more appropriate for one’s needs. But it can also be used to corrupt the flesh of the dead, to turn them into night creatures.

[ He shrugs with his one good shoulder. ]

I wish I could tell you more, but- forgemasters are secretive. Even we had trouble rooting one out to get answers.

[This is new and honestly it's amazing. Alucard stuffs the last of his laughter though, vowing to return to this point. Being an only child, this entire pouting about sibling things is a novelty to him. And he is sooooo telling Trevor's grandmothers.

What the Belmont's had amounts to so very little. Alucard's lips set in a thin frown, and his free hand drums unhappily atop his own knee.]

So to divine the motives of one is more likely to be wild guessing instead of anything we can go forward with with any kind of confidence.

[ YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND he has always, always been the baby. The baby of his family. The baby of the soldiers. The baby of his grandmothers! The three of them are the only group he’s been in where he hasn’t been the little cute one. NOBODY WILL LOVE HIM IF HE IS NOT LITTLE AND CUTE! ]

To divine the motives of any one of them who’d show themselves so brazenly? Near impossible. Any that we’ve encountered were working to keep people away from them. It’s- not a skill that lends to being beloved by many.

[CONSIDERING VAMPIRE THINKS LITTLE AND CUTE ARE WHATEVER THE OPPOSITE WORDS ARE GOOD FOR DESCRIBING HIS STUPID BOYFRIEND WITH GIANT TIDDIES this is never not going to be funny.]

Well obviously, anything coming back from the dead is going to put people off. But our situation is something that means we have to figure out motive, if he's allied with anyone who'd see greater harm, or if he's simply mad.

He made an undead tiger. I think that ‘mad’ goes without saying.

[ He sighs. ]

Let me come back to this when I have a sensible amount of blood in me? Not to ruin the great display of bravado I’m undoubtedly maintaining, but it’s like thinking through fucking knee-deep mud right now. I think brains might need blood to work right.

Of course.

[It's bad form, this, jumping into work rather than worrying about Trevor's well being. Some of it is confidence, the fact Alucard knows that the Belmont will make a full and perfect recovery. The rest is quiet fear and knowing he can't hop into the bed beside Trevor and smother him with affection.

He'd really, really like to do that one.

The next best thing is to lean over and kiss Trevor for just a moment. Not because he's worried (he's worried) but because what else can he do right now?]

[ Oh, normally he’d be more than happy to jump into work in a situation like this. He appreciates that it’s an option. But this isn’t something he’s ever been trained for, and he can’t think right now, and the last thing he wants to do is to give them bad information.

He settles into the pillows he’s propped up on at the kiss, smiling. This is an ongoing fucking theme in their lives these days, isn’t it? The two of them not being able to offer as much comfort as he wishes that they could because he did something stupid, like covering himself in annointing oil, or getting hurt badly enough to need all these fucking tubes in him. ]

So- tomorrow. [ And he smiles, and he’s a little too tired for it to be as awful a smile as he’d like it to be. ] When we’re home. Tell me what we do tomorrow.

[When they get home (and he and Sypha will have to go home at some point, if only to shower and to change and to make sure that they have what they need for the next few days), there will be a moment of guilt from the vampire because as far as he's concerned, this is on him. He miscalculated in an attempt to deal with the forgemaster, and he's rendered Trevor like this. His fault. Forcing Trevor to take more damage than he should.

Alucard pulls back from the kiss, and his own face is just worn thin. He'll nap for a few hours later.]

We follow any and all doctor's orders first. I'll cook a backlog of meals today that way we can microwave whatever whenever we're hungry. Then we sit and figure out where the forgemaster is operating out of so we can track his movements.

[ God, he looks tired. They both do, and Trevor is certain that if he could see himself he’d look just as shit. But none of them are TOO tired for just a little ribbing. ]

...not that I mind getting back to work. But I give you an invitation to say romantic shit, and that’s the best you can manage? I should have asked Sypha.

...Fuck.

[That's how tired he is. He missed the obvious opportunity, and Alucard just rests his forehead on the terrible hospital mattress so that Trevor can't actually give him more shit.

(Trevor's going to give him more shit, he deserves it.)]

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