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]

I'll be honest, I only said to bring the medical kit because I thought you'd get mad if I didn't mention it. [ He just got shot in the head. That's it. He's fine. ] But- thanks.

Sorry for the trouble.

[cryptsleeper]

[Alucard focuses on cleaning out the rest of the cut rather than on Trevor's words. It doesn't take long to do. Fishing around for the right bandage is the more time consuming effort.]

Easiest thing in the world to do.

[Far better than sitting and planning out how to avoid his own death. Alucard presses a large bandage to Trevor's head, then uses medical tape to begin to hold it in place.]

[miraclewhip]

[ He just holds still and lets Alucard work. It's been a heck of a day, hasn't it? He's lucky to have got out of it with a cut that looks nastier than it is and what he imagines will be a collection of pretty hellish bruises. ]

Not just this, for- shit. I should never have let it come to this. You should never have had to- any of this.

[cryptsleeper]

[Alucard keeps working. Even when he's done with the tape, he puts pressure to the bandage, careful as he observes how much blood seeps through.]

It doesn't matter. We're here now. [There's no point in regrets.] If we are to play that game, then I'll take it to the beginning. I could have left this city when my mother died. Abandoned it like my father did.

[miraclewhip]

Mm.

[ So that attempt at dancing around the topic's failed. He'll try another strategy in a moment, but before that there is one important concern. ]

Mind if I go back with you? I was meant to be staying here to support this place's hunters though the night, but it sounds like the district's safety was part of their deal with Carmilla. Don't think I'm needed.

[ Also a guy shot him. But mostly he's not sure he's needed here. That's the important part. ]

[cryptsleeper]

[Alucard is careful as he withdraws his hand, and he spends a careful moment or two making sure that the medical bag is sealed up and can be ready for action at the next call. He slings it over his shoulder again and starts walking.]

You said you were going to check maps anyway. No point in doing anything else, and your grandmothers need to know where this group has put their lot.

[He's moving slower, well aware of Trevor's wound and how it might impact him.]

[miraclewhip]

Right. I'll get in contact with Agatha once we're back.

[ It's so unnatural, to call her by name. But the other names he uses- those are for family. And Alucard isn't family anymore.

He's fucked up in all kinds of ways, hasn't he? ]

[cryptsleeper]

[Has she gotten any of Trevor's reaction to this shitty plan?

It's a bitter thought. Alucard doesn't voice it. He stays dead quiet as he gets to the car. Climbs in, revs the engine, and just waits.

He gets called for this, but nothing else. It will have to do. Alucard will abide it, because at least he is good for an emergency.]

[miraclewhip]

[ He takes the passenger seat, at least. He doesn't do that unless he wants to talk even normally.

Sadly wanting to talk and being able to talk are not the same thing. He gets into the car, tugs twice at the seatbelt to make sure that it's tight enough (and he has only become weirder about seatbelts since the brakes incident.) and looks over to make sure Alucard has remembered his.

And he sighs, because this is as good a way to talk as they're going to get. Neither of them actually looking at each other. Neither of them able to leave or to get so emotional that it might become dangerous. Just words.

It was how they actually managed to talk civilly the first time, wasn't it? ]

...you could have told us about it before the arrangements were made. Made your case. We'd have still fucking hated it, but- we could have fucking hated it productively. Found a way to make it better. This- you might be gone, just like that, and there's nothing either of us can do about it.

[cryptsleeper]

[The vampire's forgotten to put his driving gloves on. He has the medical kit between them as a buffer, and he's going faster than he'd dare under normal circumstances. His car doesn't have a demon inside it, and he's terrified that someone will see him out now. He doesn't have twenty four hours to waste in healing. They need to be home.

He doesn't want to talk. Not really. But the silence is so much worse.]

I know.

[What else is he supposed to say now? It's set, how this is going to be.]

You know I wouldn't have done this if I didn't know I'd win, correct?

[miraclewhip]

And Carmilla would find a way to weasel out of this if she didn't know that she would. That she hasn't means she has a reason to be confident or she's not planning to fight fair.

[ It's a little better, at least. He still fucking hates this. Alucard still thinks he's right. But he can talk about it, for now, without hearing someone else choose death over what protection he can offer them. Without every word out of Alucard's mouth morphing into I have never known. ]

[cryptsleeper]

Oh, I expect her to not fight fair. Why do you think I've already followed your rose and salt advice for my sword?

[In a fair fight, he wouldn't be doing that at all.]

Or use rosewater as my cologne of choice to begin with.

[It's the little things. Small defenses that no one will be able to clock until it's too late.]

I am coming back from this. I'm not leaving you two, even if you refuse to look at me again.

[miraclewhip]

...that's the most pathetic version of not fighting fair that I've ever fucking heard.

[ VAMPIRE, YOU'RE BAD AT CHEATING. He meant bringing extra people in or laying traps or taking a hostage or something, not causing allergic reactions. ]

You sounded pretty fucking resigned to leaving us before.

[cryptsleeper]

Something, something, cheating isn't in my basic nature.

[LOOK. Look.]

I have to account for all possibilities. The worst one is the one at the forefront of my mind because it impacts the only two people in this city worth caring about at this point.

[He sighs, hanging a left.]

It's the point we all fixated on, and so here we are.

[miraclewhip]

And you've made the announcement? There's nothing that can be done, now?

[ He must have. He was ready to before Trevor left, wasn't he? And he turns that thought over in his head - there's nothing that can be done. So far as this ever was in his hands, it's out of them now. When he speaks again, there's a rawness to it that's so often hidden by anger of humour or anything other than the soft defeat that's there in the absence of everything else. ]

You better not make me dig another fucking grave. I'm so tired.

[cryptsleeper]

This ends come dawn tomorrow. Unless she doesn't show, in which case we have pretext to hunt her.

[He didn't demand a response from Carmilla when the announcement. Her presence would be response enough, or else she was well and truly game for hunting.

Alucard hates that rawness. He wants to pull over. Pull Trevor to him, but he can't. He has to keep driving, or else there's no discussion to be had at all.]

I won't. We're all too tired to bare any more of this.

[miraclewhip]

[ He's already had one boyfriend funeral this year okay???? ]

...do I still owe you a ring?

[cryptsleeper]

[FAIR.]

Wasn't aware you still wanted to give me one.

[miraclewhip]

That wasn't a fucking answer, vampire.

[ There's no irritation left in him, just that raw emptiness. That tired nothing from when they first met, blinking out of compulsion to a vampire who wouldn't just give him the death he wanted. ]

[cryptsleeper]

[Back to square-fucking-one. When neither of them need to be at that place.]

I have to give yes or no answers instead of the honest one, which is I don't know where we stand anymore and I'm terrified to ask?

[miraclewhip]

You're marching off to a fight to the death, and you're terrified to ask a question.

[ Well. Honestly, same? But he can still be shitty about it okay. ]

Where do you want us to stand?

[cryptsleeper]

Yes I'm terrified to ask a question!

[The vampire's grip on the wheel tightens a little too much, and he nearly slams the horn.]

And it doesn't matter because what I wan't isn't as important as your feelings. I already made Sypha cry tonight, you've decided you don't want me, so I'm entitled to fear but I'm trying to respect what you're feeling as well, and I'm allowed to be scared of your responses because guess what's more important to me right now!

[miraclewhip]

Well, shit. If that's your idea of a good fucking answer then no wonder you're terrified to ask questions.

[ There's still no emotion in his voice, just exhaustion. ]

If what you want wasn't as important as our feelings, you wouldn't be doing this. So if you could please have the balls to continue being a selfish fuck long enough give me a straight fucking answer when I ask you if you still want me to love you or not then that would be wonderful.

[cryptsleeper]

If I still want it, yes. [There. Firm answer. He then snarls at himself for saying it, because selfish fucking princeling hit too hard.]

Going to keep calling me selfish until we're home?

[miraclewhip]

Then yes, I still owe you a fucking ring. Was that so difficult?

[ Yes, clearly it was. But he breathes out, and there's finally something in his voice again. It's soft and afraid, but it's something other than the raw, gaping empty wound that there was before. ]

Only if you act it.