20s AU Post

[cryptsleeper]

"Land of the Dead" (Watch on YouTube)

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.

Comments

[miraclewhip]

[ Spoken like someone who is absolutely not a Belmont. He waits, sighs, and lets his hand fall to his side again. ]

Sometimes, this is what- shit, you probably know how the sentence goes by now.

[ This is what victory looks like. Tears and fish and rejected attempts at reconciliation and everything broken beyond repair. ]

[cryptsleeper]

I hate those words.

[They've been overused now. They ring too hollow for this moment.]

[miraclewhip]

You don’t have to like them for them to be true.

[ He doesn’t try again. Not offering his hand, anyway. Alucard doesn’t want that, and he doesn’t care for the rejection. ]

Whatever becomes of us, it was worth it.

[cryptsleeper]

The meaning is dulled with overuse.

[Alucard turns the faucet on to fill the silence. Washes his hands because they're still covered in fish smell and there's enough sense of him to be aware he's been standing over the sink with raw fish on his hands for far too long.]

I never apologized for marring your palms, did I?

[miraclewhip]

Never asked you to.

[ Kind of hoped he wouldn’t notice, in fact. Because that little detail of the spell seemed like something too likely to dissuade Alucard from doing what was needed. ]

Didn’t think you knew.

[cryptsleeper]

[Alucard wipes his hands on the nearby dishtowel, careful and possibly buying himself time.]

Wasn't the right time to say anything. [Under any other circumstances, it would have because he hurt Trevor. The stupid bugfuck fear for Sypha was the only thing that convinced him of compromising himself.

Finally, Alucard turns back to Trevor, his face pale pink and splotchy. He barely can pick his arm up right now, but he gestures to the hand all the same.]

May I?

[miraclewhip]

My fucking magic. Consequences of it are on me, not you.

[ And he reaches out to take Alucard’s hand, cautious and delicate. ]

[cryptsleeper]

[That's a nice lie to have handy. Blaming the magic instead of their personalities and how they handle crisis. Trevor who's been trained for it and whose fae nature makes it easier to put nose to grind stone and power through. Adrian who lived too comfortable and spoiled a life (princeling) where real terror and tradgey never struck, leaving him with precious few coping mechanisms.

Alucard takes the hand like it's glass. He's barely putting any pressure there, like this is too delicate and overwhelming a task. (It is.) He guides the hand up to his lips, and the kiss he presses over the injury is just as light and barely there.]

[miraclewhip]

[ And it’s no different than it was before all of this. Soft and careful, as if he were made of spun sugar rather than flesh and spite lanced through with magic. Everything that Adrian had been before. ]

...I’m going to touch your face. [ He says it flatly, the same way he warned Alucard about moving him about with the spell. And then he does so, free hand stroking over Alucard’s cheek and temple before combing upward into his hair. ]

[cryptsleeper]

[The flat tone is a near terror, but that fades just as soon as Trevor's hands ghosts over his cheek. He needed this a week ago. Just for a moment. Just to be reassured in all the ways that steel and grit and sheer furious purpose weren't.

It's not quite normal, but it is close enough. Enough for Alucard to close his eyes and simply let this happen, the hand still so gently latched onto Trevor's guiding it downwards to Alucard's hip.]

[miraclewhip]

[ He still loves him. He still loves him so much. Guided, his hand comes to rest on Alucard’s hip. The other strokes through his hair, settling on his back and oulling him close. ]

My monster. My Alucard. My Adrian.

[ All of the things he is, none of them matter half so much as mine.]

[cryptsleeper]

[Being so close means that Trevor can and will feel the flinch at that second word. Monster. Stings like princeling does. Maybe even worse, is the vampire is forced to admit it. One thing he can protest that he isn't. The other is impossible to deny.

But mine. That counts for a lot, and he doesn't do much more than focus on being held, on having an impossibly comforting hand on his back after this.]

[miraclewhip]

[ He does feel the flinch. And perhaps he ought to care about that more, but- It’s true. And he needs to remember it, even if Alucard doesn’t. He can’t go denying what he is, because that would be as horrible as denying that he is a Belmont or Sypha a Speaker.

If he can’t love him as he is, then he can’t love him at all. ]

‘m here. I’m here. [ It’s what he’s been saying to calm Sypha when she needs it. ] Whatever the fuck we both end up being, I’m here. Your Belmont.

[ His human. His fairy knight. His shield. His Trevor. ]