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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It was on sale and it freezes perfectly well.

[Look sometimes the bakery is trying to get rid of the baguettes and you don't say no to BOGO baguettes.

His eyes catch sight of the weapon, but the bread is threatening to spill everywhere. Alucard moves that bag and all of the others onto the counter first, and he is quiet as he does so. Mound of vegetables (green pepper, onion, celery for most meals plus root vegetables). Fruit, mostly apples, and then meat wrapped up in neat butcher paper and clearly labeled. Everything they ought to have eaten for the past week but failed to.

Everything goes away save for the bread (it has to go on the table across from Trevor) and for one package of butcher paper, and when Alucard unwraps it there are three whole fish in it. He reaches for the knife block and takes out the sharpest, most nimble of the knives within to start to deal with the fish.]

I think we can attempt sitting at the table tonight. I'll carry her down and back.

Right. It’ll be normal. She’ll appreciate normal.

[ Talking about Sypha’s care is easy enough. They can both manage that. He thinks he might even be able to maintain a pleasant conversation in her presence. But without it- without it there’s nothing.

(Alucard is a monster. And that fact wouldn’t cut half so deep had he been a monster all along. As it is, he can’t just think about how it sounds when he (his boyfriend. Who he is supposed to love, somehow) hisses and bares teeth and extends claws. He has to think about how he could have done it all along. Could have been the monster this city needed from the start. How all of those lives didn’t matter enough.)

The peices of the gun are so small. So delicately, precisely crafted. They don’t look like part of something made to kill. ]

I need to wash the sheets again, after this. She started shaking again, while she was drinking her tea.

Let me know how much stain remover is left after you start the wash. I'll make a new batch tomorrow if it's truly dire.

[Unsurprisingly, the house has it's own formulation for stain issues. It works too, far better than it probably has any right to work. Sitting down for an hour and fucking around with chemicals sounds blessed anyway, Alucard knows he needs it. Formulas and weighing things out and nothing else on his mind.

His hands flip the fish over. The fins and spiney bits have to go.]

Could you move the garbage can over towards me, please? My hands are full of fish at the moment.

[Because monsters, or at least this one, worry about cross contaminating food.

He's quiet otherwise. The knife is down, and there is tension starting to rise in the air again. Trevor should go do the sheets or something. Anything. It'll be easier over dinner when Sypha is there and they have to behave.

(That's the worst part of this, isn't it? It isn't going back to the beginning, it's going back to even before that.)]

Kind of in the middle of some delicate shit here, move it yourself.

[ That would be a ‘no’. Move your own fucking bin. He can’t afford to lose any of the parts of this. ]

[There's an annoyed noise, but nothing more. Just the sound of the trash can being shuffled along the floor by Alucard's foot, until it stops moving and he gets back to his own work.]

My apologies.

[If it is delicate work, he won't venture further conversation. As it is, he focuses on the fish, on getting the inedible parts removed and then opening up their bellies to be stuffed.

Silences aren't comfortable anymore. They haven't been since...since everything, and Alucard can still hear all of Trevor's shitty fucking opinions in his head. They're there when the silence becomes unbearable, and it begs a far worse question in the back of his mind: can that opinion ever be fixed now? If not then...

...fuck.]

[ The silence isn’t comfortable, but then neither was the talking. Neither is hands brushing accidentally when they both wrap their arms around Sypha. Neither is much of anything, these days. Everything is just a little uncomfortable. Maybe a lot. And he can’t just leave, because he promised Sypha that he wouldn’t. But fuck, things would probably be better if he could.

He finishes working on the gun eventually, putting the last piece into place and putting it down. ]

Don. Still need somwthing moved?

Herbs from the window box, please. Rosemary and thyme.

[He left a lemon out for the fish too. Alucard focuses on slicing it paper thin while he waits.

Sypha will notice that they avoid each other's touch eventually. Then what do they say? Alucard lets out an exhausted sigh, because this is so much easier when she's around to force them to talk about their feelings.]

We don't use that spell again.

[There. Something. Cracking this fucking thing because that spell is about 90% of the problem.]

Getting a little ahead of yourself there. It’s going to be a couple more days at least before I find out if I can use magic at all still, after that shit I pulled with Sypha.

[ Hopefully the magic will return. It’s hard to tell right now. But he goes to the window box and sets about pixking what Alucad asked for ]

But yes. Never again.

Mmm.

[The loss of magic is a concern. A huge one, because even if this goes to shit, Trevor can't be sent out alone. It's the same problem as when Damien first came to the castle's door with Trevor bound behind him and suddenly Alucard's white for that memory instead. He turns away, closer to the sink.]

Your herbs.

[ He puts them on the counter, next to the fish, then busies himself with drawing fingers across the marks still on the palms of his hands. ]

Anything else?

...Where do we go after the worst of this is past, Trevor?

[Alucard hasn't turned back to face him. His focus is on the sink. One hand moving to run over the herbs, get their essential oils up and into the air.]

This is not sustainable.

The fuck should I know? Not used to everyone surviving the worst of anything.

[ He’s not sure Alucard is right about that. He’s yet to encounter anything that wasn’t sustainable if you grit your teeth hard enough. ]

If you want me gone, wait until October like the rest of the world.

[The good news is that statement finally gets Alucard to snap his head up. The bad news is that it means Trevor is getting one of those looks from the vampire that beyond Disappointed can mask about a million other feelings.]

Don't you dare put words in my mouth.

Fine. Put words in your own, then. What is it that you want, if not that? I'm behaving myself. I'm pulling my weight as best I can until the fucking magic comes back. And I can't leave any other way. Actually can't. Her orders come before yours.

[ He chooses to see Disappointed. And so he doesn't care. How many people has he disappointed in his life? Why would Alucard matter more? ]

So if you want something other than that, spit it the fuck out. If not, deal with it a couple months until the situation resolves itself.

[There is a very tense silence from the vampire. He settles on the words, and when he asks them, his voice is very small indeed.]

I want to know if you are now only looking at a monster, and one you'd rather no longer have at your side, Trevor.

[ That catches him off guard. His gaze turns downward. Oh. he heard that, didn't he? ]

I've- [ And he tests the words with his mouth carefully before speaking them. They're soft. But they're also the truth, and truths from Trevor are always hard ones. ] -always been looking at a monster. I just forgot for a while. I shouldn't have. Stupid of me. It's the sort of mistake that gets people like me killed.

[ The second question, though, he doesn't answer. ]

[Yes, yes he did. Multiple times, you turnip.

Alucard rests one hand on the counter. Easier to mar the countertop than the sink. He can cover it with a cutting board or dishes so Sypha never sees it. (She'll see it.)

How do I make you forget again? It isn't a helpful question, it's a desperate and stupid one.]

And the other part of my query?

Of course I want you by my fucking side.

[ He says, as if he's been making it perfectly obvious this whole time. Not even he thinks he's been making it at all obvious. ]

But this- [ And he extends a hand in a gesture of helplessness, motioning to Alucard's hand on the counter. No claws yet, but every part of his control worn so badly that he's had to prepare the the eventuality. ] -this is what you are.

This is what you are, and you couldn't be it when a hundred thousand people needed it. Only when she did. Only when you did. And I mistook selfishness for humanity.

[ He sighs. ]

I love you, but I don't know who the fuck you are.

Because you've made that so obvious lately, to the point where if my hand accidentally brushes over yours you nearly recoil.

[There's hurt there. Real hurt, because in the process of recovering Sypha from this nightmare, they've seemingly lost everything else. That is a price, a very high one, and Alucard hates that they're paying it now.

Worse is I mistook selfishness for humanity. That's the point where Alucard's attempt to just look disappointed fails, and there's heartbreak on his face instead, all slackjawed devastation and trying not to shake.]

I am who I always have been. You've simply interpreted the same thing in another way and...

[He doesn't have any more words. They die on his tongue.]

...and I was interpreting it wrong. All this time. I know. This is what you've always been. You were just better at hiding it before.

[ He doesn't look at Alucard's face. He can't. ]

How many monsters do you think have put their hands on me? How many do you think have meant well? I have- shit to figure out.

You ass.

[The words should come out with anger. They're hollow. They're terrified.]

Controlling all of those inheritances from my father is about humanity. They're too easy to slip into and never return from. [And you wanted me to be like that from the beginning.]

And the lives of every man and woman and child in this city weren't worth that risk. But breaking things in the basement was.

[ He wanted him to be a monster all along. But this was wrong. The wrong time. The wrong reason. ]

[This. Again.]

Breaking things in the basement was better than going outside and turning that on anyone besides myself.

I’m not sure why you think that makes it better. You’re not just a monster, you’re a monster who doesn’t think he can control himself.

I don’t know what you want me to say. That things like you kill things like me? Steal us from our cradles and crash our skulls before we become a threat? Drain us try and throw us into filthy rivers to bloat up like balloons? Slit our throats and wash in the blood? Or that things like me kill things like you? With silver and holy water and fire and faith and whatever the fuck else we can find.

[ He sighs, shaking his head. ]

I love you, but when I needed you to be a monster, you weren’t. And when I needed you to be a human, you weren’t.

I was clarifying a point, not trying to make it better. [He was trying to make it better.

Truth is...hard. Alucard listens, but there's a terrible cringe as he does so because Trevor isn't wrong. They're the exceptions, or at least that's how it has felt for the past few months. He wants to respond with I'd never do any of that but what the hell is the point?

His eyes focus on the counter. There's been no changes in his hands. They're rock steady, the fingernails still nails rather than claws.

Then something slips out that absolutely shouldn't.]

You weren't either, this past week.

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