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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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!

You'd have to be doing it out of spite, I think. Or too much headstrongness for your own good. The latter seems to be more natural to your person.

[He's going to grin because he is RIGHT and he knows it.]

Yes. Me. A terrible influence who you decided to take a liking to while I was bleeding everywhere.

Because you looked so sad, when you were bleeding everywhere.

[And speaking of being headstrong, she's going to take that as open invitation to reach over and carefully move his sandwich out of his lap so that she can fill the now-vacant space with herself, instead.]

So I decided to be kind to you, and look how I have been repaid. Such a terrible influence.

[This condemnation doesn't carry a whole lot of weight when she's in the process of leaning up to kiss him, naturally.]

[The sandwiches were never the point anyway.

There's a content hum from the vampire as Sypha declares his lap hers now. Being smaller means that it's an easy thing to wrap both his arms around her and rest his chin atop her head, enveloping her entirely. They've done this plenty of times over the past several weeks, but never in public. Never like this.]

Repaid in sandwiches and a room that has a dresser full of little drawers. I suppose only one of those counts as a bad influence.

[It's perfect, the kiss. All carefully angled lips and Alucard's hair getting in the way juuuuuuust right, preventing anyone else from seeing a moment so soft and intimate.]

You're a worse one though, [he says it only after the kiss breaks.] Brazenly kissing me for the world to watch.

Oh, I love my little drawers.

[She would clap her hands, except for the fact that to do it she'd have to move them off of his shoulders, and she's absolutely not going to do that, not for anything. Not when she's going to chase that first kiss with a second and a third, each much quicker and more fleeting, playful like she can't get enough of him and has to keep coming back for more.]

And if you object to my kisses, I can stop. If you want me to.

[She tempts, with a grin.]

Did I say that I wanted those to stop?

[To prove his point, the vampire makes quick work of all these quick and fleeting kisses. Unfair and he's greedy right now, so his kiss is firmer. The kind that begs the other person to stay, stay and be selfish a moment longer.]

Mm —

[They're really carrying on, aren't they, out in the open and yet somehow so deliciously anonymous, desperately in love and chasing passion between them for as long as they can hold on to it. It's the same sweet fervor as they'd shared back before, when they'd thought she was leaving in a smattering of days, except that now there's no sobering deadline on the horizon, except perhaps the imminent sunset that will put a damper on their ability to stay anonymous.]

Besides, if I were being brazen, you would know it. This is...subdued, I think.

By our standards, doubtlessly.

[He smiles when he says it, because they have terrible standards for subtle. It's a thing born of the first few dates, Alucard knows that much. They had run headlong into something they weren't sure the timeframe of, and for that subtle was pointless. Now it would always be as such in the face of much greater things.

Alucard pauses, grinning down at her.]

We could be more brazen, if you'd like.

More brazen than this? What are you thinking?

[She hums a little, basking in the warmth of his grin —

(how natural it is for him now, to see him grin, to see that flash of his teeth glimmering behind lips pulled back in delight when he'd looked so sad when she'd met him, his face filthy, his chest a mess of blood and tattered skin, how he'd wept so much from his sadness and his isolation and even when she'd run back to him he'd been so shattered, so fractured, and now look at him, look at him soaking in the sunlight and wearing a smile that comes so easily to his face)

— and lets it draw out one of her own, the edges of her mouth turning up in his infectious mirth.]

I have a few ideas myself, but I want to hear yours.

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