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's sometimes hard to tell, in these moments, whether she's more of a nursemaid or a lover — and that's not an objection to either, all things considered. Alucard is healing, and as he heals she fusses, and as she fusses he parries, and as he parries she retorts, until soon enough they're tangled up in each other and laughing and somewhere along the way she remembers to start fussing again, and the cycle begins anew. He's looking better, however, with every passing day. He doesn't walk like a man with a gash cut down his chest. He's a little stiff in places, perhaps, and they have to be a little more careful than otherwise in moments when they get carried away with each other, but all in all he's doing well. He's recovering, and she's here to see it.

He's treating her to an impromptu picnic today, too, which she suspects isn't nearly as impromptu as he's pretending. (The coat is a bit of a giveaway, but the sandwiches are a nice touch.) The makeshift blanket he provides for them is just the right amount of "too small" to give her an excuse to curl up against his side, on the pretense of trying to stay atop it, when really she's so close that if she were to move in any more she'd end up sitting directly in his lap from it.]

It would be easier to talk about what I have not seen, I think. But — my caravan always tried to stay near the cities. It's true that Speakers are not well liked in the cities, but...

[She hesitates.]

Well. The rules are different in the countryside, you could say. Though we have been to some nice communities there, too. It's just that...there is more fear, I suppose, in the little towns. One sentiment tends always to prevail. So if they like us, then everyone seems to like us. But if they hate us...then everyone, from the oldest man to the youngest child, will hate us.

Cities have enough varied populations that the question of adding another isn't so hard to do as it is when there's a town where everyone knows everyone else. [He nods, following the logic of it.] And then the rest of the country is wilderness, still.

[Wilderness means it isn't developed, means that the infrastructure to travel doesn't exist yet. Alucard remembers his father speaking of the wildest parts of America that still exist, both with regards to the natural features of the landscape and the strange night creatures that only exist in America and who resented his presence in their territory. He had enjoyed that novelty of the new, or so it had seemed at the time. There was fresh and unexpected life in the country yet.

Alucard's happy for her weight at his side, pressing against where there's no scar at all. They've been good about not aggravating the wound lately, even at their most passionate. Her being where she is, it's almost starting to feel like a routine comfort.

He can't put his arms around her and eat at the same time though, so the sandwich is put in Alucard's lap in favor of both of his arms being around Sypha.]

Tell me about your favorite place then. Or one of them.

Mmmm, my favorite place...

[She hums under her breath, tilting her head to rest it on his shoulder as they gaze out over the river, food momentarily forgotten on both counts in favor of focusing on being close to each other.]

I liked the waterfalls. The ones between New York and Ontario? There are two people in total who have tried the stunt of going over them in nothing more than a wooden barrel. We went to preserve them; one was a woman sixty-three years old, who survived her trip over, and the other was a man whose barrel was ripped apart, and all they ever found of him was his arm.

[Which is sort of a gloomy part of the story, but.]

But I remember standing by the railing for hours, it seemed like, watching the water go over the falls. So many people come to see them that a group of Speakers did not attract much notice, or at least no more than anyone else. They're so loud, and the fall is so steep, and I couldn't imagine what courage it must take for someone, to get into such a tiny space and let themselves be swept over the edge.

Niagara Falls.

[He only provides the name. The rest is him being quiet, in listening to her and feeling her warm weight, the noise of the city filtered out. There's the river flowing just beyond them, and it's a mighty thing to watch it speed a number of boats that are out right now.

Alucard's never been there. Maybe he will. Maybe they can go together.]

It sounds like a liminal place. One of those in between spaces. [Like falling asleep in the back of a car as it travels or being spirited along a body of water on a boat.]

Have you ever gone back?

Mm, no, we only went the once. We didn't stay long because there was word of a vampire near there, and we were afraid of being targeted, so we left.

[She turns her head, pressing her lips to his shoulder and letting them linger there for a long moment, an extended kiss.]

I've always liked traveling by river best. Wagons and horses are one thing, and trains are such fun, and cars are...well, we never used cars, of course. But there are always interesting people on boats, and all the days are lazy, whether it's raining or sun.

I think that we could fix that, if you do want to go back one day.

[The need to take control of the city as his father did is not present yet. Alucard will regret thinking of future travels one day, bound as he is to the city and it's needs, but for now he can still think of all the travels he will take in memory of his mother's edict to travel. She wouldn't want things to change in her passing, and Alucard wouldn't be alone for it.

He smiles as the kiss to his shoulder. There's a moment of shifting, and Alucard rests his cheek atop Sypha's head, holding her in place.]

And it's easier to see the landscape change?

Yes. It's as though the world becomes two separate things: the river, and what lies outside the boundaries of the river. One stays the same while the other changes.

[She huffs a soft little breath, content with the weight of his head atop hers. They're carrying on openly, even brazenly, but the sun is out and that's in some ways better security than anything else they could hope for. And it's nice to have that freedom, to pretend to be nothing more than idle lovers amid the passerby — or even to be nothing more than that, for at least a little while.]

But I think with you I would want to ride the train. You would buy me a ticket; that would be different and new.

But even the river changes, with ebbs and flows and bends all the way down to the sea. It's just not felt the same way that other means of transportation makes those changes known.

[It's nice, this. What Alucard had hoped for, the food less important than the presence of each other and something to look out upon. There's no charged emotion like the castle still holds (it's getting better, and she's in his room when things are worse). Just the odd glance from those walking by, and their opinion isn't important at all.]

First class, naturally.

We always ride in empty boxcars. Usually we pay someone at the loading dock to let us on, and get in before anyone sees.

[She sighs a little, reminiscing. The last time she'd done that was the day she'd nearly left him, and then come running back.]

It's fun, in its way. We all spread out and claim a little corner of space for ourselves, and settle in and make it home, for the trip. My own little space. I always had a corner to myself because I was too young to be near the doors. And sometimes it would get cold — it always got cold, with nothing but metal for walls to keep the wind and the chill out — but someone would come and huddle by me, and share the warmth until we were through.

Not much of an opportunity to see what you're passing through.

[He says it quietly, thinking how traveling for Speakers is far more about the destination and learning the story rather than seeing the world. Alucard closes his eyes for a moment, breathing in everything around them. Sypha's warmth and the smell that suggests she's always just come in from the road. Their food, forgotten. A little bit of river funk, as the tide beyond the city seems to be going out.]

Were the rides always long ones?

They always seem long. But maybe that's because it's harder to tell time, in a box with no windows.

[Time seems to have slowed down here, too. Maybe it's because the rhythm of her heartbeat feels slower than usual as she relaxes against him, lulled into a pleasant, dream-drowsy state as she remembers her stories and gives voice to them little by little.]

Sometimes when it rained the droplets would beat on the tin roof like drums. It would rattle so loud that no one could sleep, but that was exciting, in its way. To know that we were flying through a storm.

Yes, I imagine that could destroy one's sense of time.

[Alucard lifts his head from Sypha's after a moment more. It's replaced by one of his hands, as now there are terrible flyaways that need to be smoothed down. It's work involves a careful touch, and so little by little, he starts to smooth down her hair.]

Made better if there was thunder rolling in the distance?

Sometimes you couldn't tell what was thunder and what was the train itself.

[She makes a pleased noise as he starts to pat her down, leaning eagerly into his hand and inadvertently destroying a fair portion of the work he's trying to put toward getting her hair back in order.]

Have you ever seen a house with a bay window made all of glass? We saw houses sometimes that had them, and it made them look like castles. Not castles like your castle, but like things out of fairy tales. I used to daydream about sitting in one, and the cushion would be soft and printed with a floral pattern, and I would curl up and read in the window while it rained, and be surrounded by the rain but completely safe and dry...

[She sighs.]

I never told anyone about that dream, not even my grandfather. Those were two things Speakers don't think about: houses and books.

[This isn't helping at all. Alucard can't say he minds though, as it's more opportunity to just sit and play with Sypha's hair. It's fine and thick and wonderful in the sunlight, catching the afternoon's rays perfectly.]

A house like that is built to watch the river go by. What you've just described sounds like the ideal place to spend a long and lazy vacation, or to retire to.

[They'll go someplace like that. Find a hotel or a rental property and that will be all that they do for a week when they're not in bed with each other. It might be nearly as nice as this moment now.

No houses. No books. Now she has both in spades.]

Out of everyone, I expect he might have understood best though.

I don't think I've ever been on a vacation, you know. Our work is never done, and traveling to places is our life.

[She sighs again, softer this time, and pushes into the stroke of his hand.]

So maybe this is my first one. Vacationing with you by staying in one place.

[Except that it's forever. But she doesn't voice that part of it.]

Tell me a story now, in return. Something happy that you remember.

Hm. [He won't still his hands, but they slow quite a bit as Alucard tries to think. Happy is hard, when most stories involve his parents and thus a very, very complicated mix of emotions right now.]

Well, you make it hard. You've seen far more of the world than I have, you know. And while this may not be a competition, it's hard not to see it that way.

So tell me a story about living life in one place. Having a house with walls that never moves. I don't know anything about how that feels.

[She rubs her cheek against his shoulder, nuzzling.]

I think those stories would kill the mood.

[He likes being not sad. But there's something else he can run with.]

Recall that I can be a wolf if I wish. Now, I want you to imagine having that power when one is a teenager, and whose definition of rebellion may just be sneaking out on rare occasion.

I want to curl up with you sometime when you are a wolf. I'm sure your fur is so soft.

[She will BURY HERSELF in it.]

Where did you sneak out to? How far did you go?

That can be arranged.

[HESS THE FLUFFIEST it's true.]

It was just the tail end of our carnival season, which means that among other things, there are a great number of festivities where if one is drunk enough, they'll feed a dog if you are sweet enough.

[Alucard smiles a little, even if Sypha's not at the best angle to see it.]

I simply wanted to experience the festivities from another perspective. I did not anticipate the stomach ache or dealing with the repercussions of it foe two days afterwards.

Oh, so you convinced those unknowing bystanders that you were a very sweet dog, and they gave you treats.

[It gets a laugh out of her, trying to imagine it. Not that she can't picture him being sweet in his other form, of course, but of how drunk one would have to be to mistake the massive wolf that he is as a dog.]

Did you get caught sneaking back home, is that it?

Exactly so. These things usually involve a stunning amount of alcohol, and I am very good at being polite while in that form.

[He big, he fluffy, he patient. That means many treats.]

No. The problems began when I wasn't getting out of bed because my stomach was in rebellion.

Ohhhh, and you got in trouble. Your stomachache betrayed what you had done.

[It gets a giggle out of her, at least, from trying to imagine it. It's charmingly domestic, somehow, and refreshingly normal, even for a story that comes with all the trappings of a very weird and unorthodox upbringing.]

Were you punished for it? By more than just the stomachache.

Extremely bland food for a week was both cure and a reminder to never do this again. It doesn't qualify as punishment precisely, but....

[He shakes his head at the memory and at protesting at about day five of flavorless rice and potatoes.]

I had the weirdest definition of teenage rebellion.

I don't think I ever engaged in teenage rebellion, actually. I'm not sure what I would have done to rebel in the first place. Wrote things down?

[Which she did, but like. Was that out of rebellion? Not really.]

I suppose my time of rebellion didn't come until after I had met you. You're a bad influence!

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