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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[ There is a war about to begin in this city.

Trevor has been gone for three days now, with only the word that he's alive and not in danger, that this is important enough that the two of them will have to just deal with his absence unless it's a matter of life and death, and that it's church business.

(It's a boy. A boy under the age of five, who recovered from a bout of illness only to suffer from a terrible sensitivity to sunlight and a habit of screaming and crying in pain when brought into the church. He's been called upon to treat the late stages of a turning. In a boy too young to attend school. He could fucking weld with his anger, even though by some miracle this didn't end in tragedy.)

When he returns, he's exhausted. His grandmothers have kept him well fed throughout, but there's been precious time for rest. He stinks of incense, and he's changed into the spare clothes they keep at the entrance of the house for in case one of them returns covered in vampire blood. Or, in this case, the transubstantiated blood of Jesus of Nazareth.

He places an envelope into Alucard's hands. The handwriting on it is Agatha's, but it isn't addressed to some variant on Little Adrian. It's addressed to Viscount Adrian Tepes, House Dracul. It's sealed with wax, with the crest of House Belmont. ]

I'm- so, so sorry. We have a month.

[ Sometimes shit goes so very wrong that you have to issue an actual document of ultimatum prior to a declaration of war to your boyfriend. ]

[Alucard is in his office when Trevor returns home, phone in hand. He is listening to whoever it is on the other end, nodding his head on occassion and murmuring yes or that is troubling. His tone is the serious kind that betrays a deep anger at a situation he is going to bash heads in for, and having the envelop placed into his hands only makes it worse.

He only has time to glance down at it, at what it says, and then his eyes meet Trevor's for just a moment. There's a nod of his head to acknowledge Trevor and the letter itself, then his attention returns to the phone.]

I understand. I'll be there in half an hour. Please have all their medical records ready to be examined, as well as your current blood supply and a few clean slides. I'll bring my own microscope.

[He hangs the phone up, and there's no deflating from exasperation as there often is in these moments. Alucard instead opens the letter and he reads the contents. The word fuck is not uttered by the dhampir, but it shows on his face, all contorted and furious and resigned to the fact that someone is putting in a lot of effort to make trouble in this exact moment.

Trevor's scent causes the dhampir to wrinkle his nose, but there isn't much more.]

We do not have a month based on that phone call.

Viscount,

We have come to understand that Dracula's first inviolable edict, sacrosanct to all vampires under his rule since 1094, has been violated, and the target a child of our own congregation.

Neither we nor you can allow this to stand.

We demand the death of the one who did this, as is custom. We demand that it be slow. That it be agonizing. That every one of your people understands fully what happens to those who break the first law, so that none might follow in their footsteps.

Should this matter not be resolved before the Ascension of Our Lord in May, our hunt will become a Crusade. Pentecost will see all water in this city, from the Mississippi to the sewers to every drop of rain, run Holy.

Make them suffer,

Agafya Sanda Cristea

[ So that's a thing. Trevor looks at the ground as Alucard reads, exhausted and god, he does not want to give this letter to his boyfriend. But Agatha is right. Dracula's law preventing children from being turned before they could understand what it entailed is the only thing that kept the Belmont family's questing against the night at the only-mostly-ridiculous level it was at. And it was the lack of that law that resulted in them turning to the desperate, horrible measures they took.

If Alucard cannot keep Dracula's first law obeyed, he cannot rule the city. No matter how he feels. ]

The phone call. [ He repeats, quiet and subdued and maybe a little surprised. Because it's a hell of a day when that letter would somehow not be the most troubling news that one recieved. ] What news?

One of our associated hospitals is reporting similar symptoms that you have just returned from investigating, along with one straight up death. The dead man wasn't turned, so far as anyone's been able to tell, which means the matter was not survived at all.

[Alucard is careful as he folds the letter back up and he places it in the upper right part of the blotter that dominates his desk. His hand is already back on the phone, Agatha's number committed to memory. He doesn't dial, not yet, but she has to be kept in the loop about this. Whatever's causing this, it's for everyone to be aware of and updated about.]

There's too many potential origins for this, and we have to narrow it down as quickly as possible. This [he gestures to the letter] is an acceptable timeline, and I would deserve any retribution for failure if this cannot be taken care of within a month.

[He's too formal, too stiff, too composed at the moment.]

Let me call Agatha now and inform her that the matter is not isolated. She needs to know, and the more I keep her in the loop of this investigation, the better for everyone's well being.

[Finally, the vampire looks, really looks at Trevor. He's worn. That isn't the Belmont he needs right now, tired and worn thin.]

Do you need me to complete this initial round of examination alone?

If you're going to the hospital? I'll tag along. I'd really, really like to be in a place where literally nobody is going to consider me an expert on anything.

[ He's had a child's life in his hands for the last three days and he hates it. Please, please take him somewhere where he's the actual last person who'll be called upon to act as a doctor. ]

And- just brace yourself before you call her? She's- fuck, I'm not sure there's a word for how livid she is about this. We had to get Tanti to be the voice of reason. [ Florence, the one arguing for mercy and patience. ] Talked her down from three days. I don't know that she's calm enough to even want this to end well right now.

[That kind of anger makes Alucard's face pale. There's paper with more color than him, and the hand that was resting on the phone retreats.]

I'll call her later when there's more information to be had then.

[With that finalized, the vampire rises to his feet, transforming into the perfect icy wall of imperial disinterest that he must always wear with his job.]

I need to get changed and take several pieces of my own equipment with me. I'll meet you at the car in ten minutes, and we'll drive in together. If...

[Alucard shakes his head.]

Nap in the backseat on the way there. You could use one of my depression naps.

Probably better that way. If she's still like this, I'll pass the information on.

[ In truth, he's no less furious. But it's not aimed at Alucard, and he's really far too exhausted to keep up any level of rage. He rolls his eyes at the suggestion that he sleep, but he doesn't argue. Napping in various cars is fast becoming the only time he sleeps. He's probably the only person to ever have managed to sleep in a car that has Florence at the wheel.

And true enough, he is asleep in the back of the car when Alucard makes his way to it, seatbelted very creatively (always! seatbelt!). ]

That may be best.

[Then the vampire is off, all cold purpose and steeled nerves, unhappy about the events and hurt by the letter's contents, if only because he cannot fathom having to fight against any of the women who have been his firmest allies up until this point. To have to protect people who dislike him greatly from them and their wrath. If there weren't other motivating factors, that one would be enough.

Alucard doesn't bother to wake Trevor up by the time he gets to the car. The vampire has had to change, and he's put on a pitch black three piece suit that has just enough gold accents to look somewhat noteworthy while otherwise being totally ordinary looking. His hair is pulled back and piled up, ready to do labwork the moment he is permitted to do so. A leather carrying case, large and boxy, is placed into the front seat beside him, and there's quiet as he drives them both to the hospital that has reported the problem.

He wakes Trevor when they arrive, and then leads them both in through a side entrance. Alucard walks through the halls without gathering a single question of should you be back here? as all they pass is lab room after office. He stops at one lab door and rests his hand on the door.]

If I tend to looking at blood samples, can you review documents and take notes on any commonalities?

Yeah- [ And he's interrupted by a long yawn, so he'll try again. ] -Yeah. I'll- I could use some of this sort of work, really.

[ Words. Nice, impersonal words, about people that don't have to exist as anything other than puzzles to be solved. He can detatch so much more easily than Alucard can. It's why he's good at going through Dracula's darker records.

Thankfully, Alucard's presence lends him some legitimacy, because he's an unwashed stubble man who hasn't slept properly in days. Nobody calls him out on being somewhere he oughtn't be in his presence. ]

I- have blood, too. [ Well congratulations. He PROBABLY means blood from the child victim. ] For when we're back. Need to do magic shit with it, but- I'd really rather be rested for that. And have Sypha around, just in case I find someone I shouldn't.

Tomorrow. Focus on that tomorrow. All we'll do when we get home is sleep. You already need it.

[It's the kindest way to say that Trevor looks like ten pounds of shit in a five pound bag. With that, Alucard walks into the lab and plows through all of the pleasantries. Doctor Alexander Scarpa, Trevor Belmont. A friend of Alucard's mother, one aware of the city's supernatural side. Older, in his 40s, thick mustache and with an Italian accent that comes out only over certain words. He speaks warmly, even as the situation and all it's direness is explained.

Four patients, now three. All with what was first thought to be TB, now privately murmured to be something darker. The fourth one died only this morning with the sun, hence the call to Mr. Tepes. (Not Lisa's boy. Not regent. Mr. Tepes. Alucard feels strangely better for those words.) Alucard unpacks the equipment he brought with him as the explanation is given, the microscope featuring not one lens to look down but two, and it's with a grim little smile he apologizes to Dr. Scarpa and that they can talk technical matters later.

The blood is over in the corner, labeled. I've left the records not far from them. I'll be on duty tonight, so please come find me in the east wing with questions or solutions.

With that, he's gone. With that, Alucard's already walking over to grab the blood, leading Trevor to take the records.]

[ He sets about looking through the records. It's not really work that lends itself to staying awake, but standing to read through them at least makes dozing off difficult. His handwriting's suffering from tiredness, but that's about it.

He looks for the obvious things first. Signs of strange cuts or markings on the body. A few on one patient. The boy had had open sores from a bout of chicken pox that had turned nasty. But nothing consistent. Blood type, and whether they would have been given blood transfusions. None have, and there are no matches there.

There is one thing, though. He taps his pen against the desk to get Alucard's attention. ]

This is weak as fuck, but- [ There's no connection between these conditions at all, only that they were there immediately before the turning started. ] -all of them came in for something other than the sypmtoms of the turning. Shortness of breath in one, pain from a broken toe for the other, heart problems in the dead man. The boy at church, too. He'd just come away from a nasty scrap with chicken pox. They all must be fairly close to here, to have come to this hospital instead of another.

The same doctor, maybe? Maybe they'd have seen someone else before bringing it to the hospital.

[Alucard is staring into the microscope he's brought from home when Trevor catches his attention. He's been running slide after slide under the viewer, one hand scribbling in messy script on the notepad beside him.

He can multitask. Has to in this moment.]

That's not weak. It means that there could be a force outside of the hospital that created this problem. We aren't biting the hand that feeds us for a blood supply. [The meaning of it, however, that's the real question. Alucard tuts, finally stepping back from where he has been pressing his eyes. There's a moment to rub at them, just to get used to seeing a non-magnified world.]

A primary care doctor might be the right way to go about it. Did any of the records note a referring physician?

Shortness of breath was referred here, so was dead man. Broken toe dragged herself in, looks like.

[ He's referring to all of them by symptoms, instead of names. It's wrong of him. It's dehumanizing. But they're not people, just puzzles to solve. ]

Shortness of breath looks to share a doctor with the boy, unless it's two men with the same name. Dead man doesn't.

Assume it's the same doctor for now, I can ask Dr. Scarpa in a bit.

[Alucard turns so that he's leaning against the lab's workbench, arms folded across his chest. There have to be other factors....]

They're in the same hospital because of a shared geographic region of the city, but that makes me wonder if the shared geography goes beyond just this hospital's jurisdiction. Is there a common neighborhood at hand?

Not between all of them. Shortness of breath's about a twenty minute walk from the boy, the others are further out.

[ He thumbs through the reports again, sighing. ]

The other hospitals you have arrangements with. Could you get in contact with them? Tell them the symptoms of turning, see if there's anything going on there? I'd like confirmation that it's restricted to this area.

And- the blood samples. Anything from those? And how many strings would you need to pull to get them out of the hospital?

[ He might be able to learn more from them, but he's not going to be doing any fucking magic in a fucking hospital full of sick and vulnerable people. ]

[Lack of names isn't something the vampire is going to fuss about. If anything, he prefers it. Keeps it clinical. Impersonal. Much easier to focus. His own mind is only focused on the stack of reports that Trevor is touching.]

I could, yes, but that'd be something to do at home. Don't need official phone records here tracing anything back to this matter. [But confirming the area, that's good.]

The samples from the victims confirm what we already know. The ones from the current blood supply are all non-vampiric in nature, which means that that this has the chance to not be an infected supply issue. That's already supported by the matter you were attending, as there would have been no blood transfers in the course of chickenpox unless he was hospitalized at some point.

[Alucard uncrosses his arms, brushing over the microscope gently.]

It'd be easier to just take some sample slides out rather than the entire set of samples. I don't know if there's much value in doing so though.

Mm. I wanted to try some of the tracking shit on them. But it might not be worth it. I don't know that I can get that much out of a slide, and I already have the boy's blood to work with. If it's liable to be the same source, I probably shouldn't push my luck.

[ And he shakes his head. ]

The boy didn't even come to the hospital. We treated him at Bunicuta's house. Whatever it is, I doubt it's anything here.

[ Which is more concerning than it sounds. Because there are hospitals that aren't going to be getting in contact. ]

I can always request additional samples later at the price of sharing something like this. [His shoulder rolls back to the microscope. Is he bringing doctors with nerd power? He sure is. Alucard's pretty sure it's the least compromising thing he's ever done for this job.]

Hm.

[Alucard's eyes go back to the blood samples, thoughtful.]

If the geographic factor is true for all of these patients, then in theory it's true for the vampires that live in the area as well. I'd like to know how many vampire territories these individuals cross over. One or two wouldn't be strange, but if it could in theory be a different vampire per-person that's...an issue.

The boy's Bunicuta's territory, I can get you a list of active vampires there easily. Everyone else is just outside of it. There'll be information about older vampires in the records, but these things change hands all the time over verbal agreements. I'll- do my best.

[ He puts down the reports, then walks back to a chair and lets himself flop down into it, head in his hands. ]

Shit. Just- shit.

We have our own records of these things too, it can be crosschecked.

[They're in work mode. They're in public, in a lab, looking through records and blood, and all the vampire wants to do is swoop in and wrap himself around the Belmont. There's no good way to do it. Not without drawing too many questions.

The most he can do is walk over to Trevor's side and rest a too-cool hand on Trevor's shoulder. Squeeze gently, trying to pull Trevor from his own thoughts.]

When have the odds ever favored us?

Fucking never. Should be used to it by now.

[ The Ascension. They have until the Ascension. If this is all the same vampire, then it's the work of a few hours to find the culprit once he's rested. And then they'll capture them, and there'll be an execution, and Alucard will be half-broken for a week or so in the aftermath and it'll hurt for everyone, but they'll all be safe. ]

Think I've got everything worth getting from the reports. And I'm guessing you're not allowed coffee in the labs. So I'm going to head back out to the car and sleep 'till you're done. Reaching the point where I'm a little useless.

Then we'll be fine.

[It's false confidence. They should never take refuge in a terrible fact like they're always in the position to fail. But they all need something to cling to right now. A way to keep head above water.

Alucard reaches into the inner coat of his suit jacket to fish out the keys. Once he finds them, they're offered to Trevor rather than the more usual toss.]

I'll wake you up when we get home. I want to see if I can ask the patients anything before we depart, and you don't need to be around for that.

Mm. 'f I forget to tell you later - really, really don't touch the fucking laundry hamper, once we're home. I'll deal with it when I can.

[ In truth, just admitting he needed to sleep's knocked most of the awake out of him and he takes the keys with a mumble of thanks (it's good that Alucard handed them over, because he'd have never caught them). It's hard to believe right now that he's sober, let alone that he's a soldier and a vampire hunter trained from birth.

And he does go to sleep in the back of the car again, upper half of his body sprawled over the back seat and tangled up in seatbelts. And he sleeps through the drive back, only waking once the car pulls to a halt. ]

Mmph.

[ The seatbelts. He can't figure out how to free himself from them. ]

Understood. I think it's your turn this week anyway.

[Because there are jobs the vampire always does (cooking) and there are jobs everyone rotates on. Dracula's demon castle still has domestic upkeep requirements, after all.

Alucard doesn't leave the hospital for another four hours. He asks for permission to see each patient. He's introduced as Dr. Carte, and the questions begin. Questions about the last few weeks, strange encounters, anything and everything that makes vampirism clear and obvious. When that fails there is discussion of doctors, of pharmacies, of any little thing that could provide the right clue.

He's ready to give up when the last patient (she's young, would be hale and hearty otherwise, she has a fighting chance against this with the right care) says something about trying something new from a vendor at a market. Alucard goes still at that. Gets the name, gets the market name, and then asks Dr. Scarpa to ask the others if they've taken something similar. (Alucard makes his excuses for leaving. Mostly he's sickened by the half-turned states he's seen and needs to process the more awful parts of the people he's supposed to lead.)

Alucard's just getting out of the car when he hears Trevor fighting with the seat belts. In truth, he had almost forgot Trevor was back there.]

For the love of--

[He opens up the back door and clicks the damn thing open.]

We're home. Let's get you to bed.

[ Four hours is a strange amount of sleep. Too much for a quick nap to get a second wind. Too little for anything that could be called a proper sleep. It just leaves him disoriented.

Alucard frees him (he'd managed to turn over in his sleep, getting his wrists tangled in the seatbelts. Doesn't make it wrong to use a seatbelt. Always seatbelts. He's stubborn about this) and he stumbles to his feet. And for once in his life, he's all too eager to put aside work. He can't yet. Not until they're past the front of the house, the open door to Alucard's office with that ultimatum still on the desk. But soon.

Soon he will not be solely responsible for treating an almost-turned child (his grandmothers know a lot, but they're none of them Belmonts. None of them were ever prepared for this the way he was). He will not be a month out from being forced into war against the two most precious people in the world. He will just be in their own bed, in the coolness of their home, safe and comfortable and maybe even not alone.

He doesn't wrap his arms around Alucard yet (that's for when they're past the office, once they've crossed the threshold of the living room. For once he's Adrian). He does put a hand on his shoulder to steady himself as he steps out of the car, because he's not entirely confident in his ability to do so without landing face first on the floor. ]

Please. 'm very tired.

20s AU Post

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