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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[ A week. That's what the Belmont name was worth. A week.

Better than nothing.

The incident with the demon car had him more shaken than anything else. It was so mundane. So stupid. He'd prepared for all manner of terrible things and what had happened in the end was the most normal thing that could ever happen. And it had been aimed at Sypha.

The rest, the rest is business as usual. He doesn't have clean and dirty clothes anymore, he has inside clothes and outside clothes, and one collection of clothes is covered in dry blood and the other is not. They've not really had the luxury of time for laundry day. Right now, it's inside clothes. Today has been dedicated to recovering from yestderday's beatings and tracking everything more than it has been actively going out and getting things under control, and the library is full of those ugly, ugly maps of his, all covered in salt and sand and measuring how absolutely fucked they are in a thousand different metrics. The hunters of Garden District's churches have fallen silent and he can't find them. Florence is there, picking up the slack. Lakeview is, as always, safe enough in the hands of the women of the Holy Trinity Cathedral. Katerina is with Agnes, moving between districts to move supplies and information between groups of hunters that have never traditionally worked together. ]

Garden District's likely to be struck hard tonight. Tanti's headed there now to find out more, but the hunters have either warded themselves from me or they're dead. Without anyone to stop an attack-

[ He says it as he enters the office as if he were telling Alucard about the weather. They can deal with how horrifying this is later. ]

-I'll be going there after sunset.

Wait until I've given you leave after sunset.

[Alucard does not look up from the book in his lap. He knows that word will spread from Agatha to every single hunter in the city about how this is going to end. How they manage the fallout and regime change, if that is what happens at the end of this, is their business. Alucard does not get a voice in it, and at this point, he doesn't want it. He'll be dead and free of giving a shit about an entire people that clearly have no love for him.

He flips another page, then nods satisfied. Found it, and the book is put on the desk. Alucard's eyes then meet Trevor's, calculating for a moment before he begins.]

Agatha and I had a long discussion today, after her cat greeted me in it's usual way.

[The cat is the least insult he's bore over the past...it seems much longer than a week.]

There is a direct route to ending this, but neither of you are going to like it. I need you to sit.

Of course.

[ And he does sit, in the chair that vampires who come here with problems use, opposite Alucard. It's with a sigh. ]

I don't fucking like anything these days. Tell me what I need to do.

[ Because this is a thing that he needs to do, right? He's the shield, the protector, the attack dog. The Belmont. ]

Witness what may be my last act in ruling this city.

[Nothing more than watching.]

This ends with her and myself fighting until the other perishes. There's no reason to let things roll on until the deadline, not when one can cut to the chase and demand trial by combat. It forces her to own the violence that has erupted and her part in it, rather than permit her to be one or two degrees removed. Or it calls her out on being a coward who has chosen to fight this way rather than confront me outright because she knows she'll be destroyed.

[Alucard's hands rest on the book.]

Agatha will abide the fight to ensure fairness. Should I lose, she will see that my corpse is returned here before it can be used as a political prop. She also has a copy of my will, as does James. [Weirdly enough, he's been the most reliable here. At least for parties and socializing, because yelling about shitty science has been kind of a life saver.]

No.

[ It's cold. It's calculated. It's- none of those things. It's desperate and terrified and exhausted with cold and calculated's skin pulled over it like a bad halloween costume. ]

You can name a champion for trial by combat. Name me. Let me fight her. I was born for this.

It means nothing if I do not perform the act.

[Trevor knows this. They all know it.]

I cannot accuse her of cowardice in one breath and refuse to show my face in the next.

But-

[ He hates this. He hates this so much. ]

There has to be a way that isn't-

[ There is, isn't there? The one that he thought of when this started. ]

-let me kill her. Give me leave, and I'll have it done before midnight.

No. Because they will demand your head and heart, and that belongs to us. Not them.

[He's firm. There's no fear in his voice when he says it, only the calm possessiveness that he has always relied on to ensure the two are safe from anyone that means them harm.]

It ends tomorrow night. This city cannot sustain rebellion any longer.

Besides, it's already agreed upon.

[Over-fucking-ruled.]

You belong to us!

[ He doesn't do outbursts often. Not emotional ones. But now, over this- he slams his open palms against the desk, shouting. ]

The fuck do you think you're doing, trying to play martyr like some kind of floating fucking vampire Jesus? You can't do this. We won't let you do this.

[Well, he knew to expect this. The weariness that the vampire has had since this began returns to his face, and he moves the book aside for the time being.]

I do. But you share me with the machinery of this city. You know that. [For a time, it's all you saw me as.] It'd be you or me in this situation, sacrificing one for the other, because the only way to bring this to an end is to cut the gordian knot that is Carmilla's desire for this city. Even if I just handed her the keys, she'd hunt us all to the end.

[No peace. No safety. Nothing but running.]

It is about my father's blood, Trevor. So it has to be me.

[Yeah not helping the vampire Jesus thing.]

It doesn't have to be you at all. You can't just decide that-

[ But he can, can't he? Because one of them is regent here, and the other is just the Belmont. Trevor's shoulders sink. ]

Give me a list. Those who ought to be warned before Bunicuta's crusade. If the worst happens, I'll get them out of the city before I join her.

Do you really believe that these creatures would accept anything else, Trevor?

[He's asking genuinely, because he has to drive the point home.

Alucard shakes his head slowly. At....at this part, he's willing to let the regent act drop entirely. Adrian surfaces, just for a moment.]

Is there anything I can say to convince you to leave with Sypha instead?

I-

[ He has to stay with her. He promised. Promised to replace whatever he took from her. But he can't expect them to go on as normal, can he? He isn't replacable the way a Belmont is.

And if Adrian dies, he's already broken one oath. What is two? ]

I'll send her back to her caravan. I won't leave her alone. But- she can't be left with just me, because I can't stay.

[ And then, softly- ]

I came here to die, Adrian. On my own fucking terms, before anything more could be taken from me. I don't know-

[ -he doesn't know how to survive losing anything else. ]

Edited 2019-02-18 20:13 (UTC)

We asked her to give up everything, Trevor.

[He's never Trevor. Not in here. Adrian sighs, and he holds his forehead in both of his palms, elbows resting on the desk.]

One of us needs to walk out of the other side of this. And you know that if there is any way out of that contract, it is to ask Speakers to help.

[Adrian has begged everyone else in creation, it feels like. What's one more person?]

Please, Trevor. Please get out of here with her. Don't leave her to deal with this aftermath alone.

You're asking me to let you die. To let you die and then give up all I have left of my family and and turn my back on the people who loved me first to pick up the pieces.

[ He's calm, now, and that somehow has more gravity to it than the shouting did. He just leans his elbows on the desk, burying his face in his hands, breath becoming ragged and shoulders shaking. ]

Selfish fucking princeling.

Your confidence in my ability to win this is astounding by the way.

[The words are soft. He wants them to break the tension, but they fall too flat. Trevor's right. He's being selfish. But what else can he do now?]

I don't know how to look after either of you if this fails. I just know I need to. I'm sorry.

[He could have left the city before this all began. Left when recovery with Sypha began, have the city shatter without his presence. Alucard didn't. He stayed.

So this is where it ends.]

[ He doesn't answer. He wants to snap again, to snap at Alucard for daring to make a joke of this right now (and isn't that a changing of roles?) he can't bring himself to. He can't bring himself to do anything but shake, breath steadily becoming more choked. ]

Very well. [ It's a long few minutes later when he speaks, lowering his hands, eyes too red and voice too strained. He doesn't meet Alucard's gaze. ] This was a fucking mistake. I'll get her out.

[There's another I'm sorry in there somewhere. The vampire isn't exactly making an effort to be audible right now, and this is the conversation, part 1. He still has to tell Sypha. Has to ask her to help write whatever he'll say to bring this to an end, and that conversation will go shitty too.

Alucard hasn't lifted his head at all. What he manages next is a strangled noise, the kind mostly reserved for the tantrum hole when he's decided to just sob in there instead.

This probably breaks a rule about having emotions in the office. Who fucking cares.]

[ There are no more words, just a resigned sigh and then the scrape of the chair moving backwards on the floor. A few seconds later, the door opens and closes, and Trevor is gone.

It's nearly sunset when he returns. He doesn't look at Alucard, gaze firmly upon a chair off to the side. ]

I need your leave to go to the Garden District.

[ Rules. He's good at rules and orders. He was told to wait for leave to go, and so he's waiting. ]

Edited 2019-02-18 21:19 (UTC)

[The vampire is sitting on the floor. For the first time in the offices' history, he has gotten a fire going in the fireplace, heat be damned. He needs it soon, and his father's instructions demanded a raging flame.

Scattered around him are all of the notes and observations about Carmilla that aren't in use in the library itself. History. Allies. Her own skills and failings. Everything needed for a fight. Alucard has drawn a map of the interior where this is all to take place. He has a sheet of tracing paper over it, and he is drawing every option over it to account for movements. What form he may take. How much damage he can sustain before she'll actually have an upper hand.

He can't bring himself to look up when Trevor walks in.]

Garden...[Oh. Right. The thing they were talking about before the world went shattering down.]

Mmm. Will it just be the two of you?

[ He looks over everything. The notes. The maps.

He means to try to survive, at least. That's something. ]

We're to be meeting with the hunters there. She's not found them yet, and she needs help getting into their headquarters. [ A pause. ] So yes. More than likely. Just us.

[He wouldn't have even thought of the fight if he didn't think he couldn't win, you turnip.]

There's a hollow book in the library that has a skeleton key in it. [It being Dracula, the skeleton part is pretty literal.] Row 45, shelf C, blue binding. I don't know if it'll help you at all, but I'd be remiss if I didn't tell you about it.

[He's still writing on the map. Calculating how quickly he can heal multiple broken bones, if the math is anything to go by.]

Whole night job or are you expecting to move around?

[ Look it was a very death-focused announcement! ]

Depends what we find there. Likely to be until midnight, at least. Interrupted by dragging some hunters to the hospital, if they're still alive in there.

If there's no trouble by midnight, I'll come back and leave Tanti to patrol the area herself. We're expecting an entire district with no active hunters to get hit hard, but Theodora's kin have been spreading the word that Tanti will be there. It might deter the worst of them.

[ He scans over the notes once again. ]

Rose oil and salt. The mixture I use to neutralize blood. Treat your sword with it. We know you can stand it. She shouldn't be able to.

[WELL HE'S NOT GOING TO NOT BE PREPARED FOR THE WORST?]

Mm, I'd almost suggest you take the demon car to make getting them to the hospital easier. My understanding is that it actually likes Florence. [Because she's a speed demon WORSE THAN SYPHA that's why.]

And by back here you mean the monitoring room. That's...probably for the best. None of us can be everywhere at once.

[Alucard wishes it was otherwise. He also suspects he needs to keep himself indisposed, focused on Carmilla and Carmilla alone tonight.]

Thank you, I will. [He's pretty sure the sword is down in the tantrum room.] I...if you don't need anything more from me, please go and do what you need to.

Very well.

[ He doesn't take the sketeton key or the car, and it's only partly because he doesn't think he needs either. And, in fairness, he doesn't. The defenses keeping Florence from just kicking down the doors of the unused factory that makes up the Garden District Hunters' headquarters are simple enough spells to break.

They find the hunters alive. Alive and, miraculously, unharmed, and only trapped in here by whatever those wards were and he has a thousand questions about why he couldn't find them earlier but none of them matter in comparison to the relief of not being faced with a room full of corpses.

And then a lot of things go very wrong, and the radio in Alucard's office stutters to life. ]

Park. South Garden district. Medical kit.

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