#04 - Baggage Check
15/7/20 08:41![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wandering_vanguardTitle: Baggage Check
Fandom: Castlevania (Both Game and Animation)
Prompt: It Was a Dark and Stormy Night (for![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
genprompt_bingo's Round #18.)
Rating: T
Length: 1,531 Words
Content notes: Takes place after both Sorrow games and ties into the Animation.
Author notes: I don't believe Soma and Dracula are one and the same, so there's that.
Summary: Yoko lets it slip who Arikado really is and Soma confronts him at long last about it. Julius rushes in expecting a mess, but is pleasantly surprised to see that both men haven't torn each other to shreds when he arrives.
Flashes of lightning illuminate the dark room and briefly reveal the pale, lithe man seated at the head of it behind a desk. With his usual disguise discarded, he awaits the coming of the storm and with the air so charged with tension, he doesn’t know what to expect in spite of being the one with all the answers.
A thunderclap resounds overhead and announces the Darkness’s presence.
A creepy sensation crawls along Arikado’s veins and into his bones, his very blood, and that chill overtakes the entire building. Another bolt of lightning strikes the ground somewhere just outside his office window, but he doesn’t flinch.
“I accidentally let it slip,” murmurs Yoko. “I-It’s not a big deal, though! Soma knows you too well to get that angry.”
The double doors suddenly blow open with tremendous force.
“He won’t, right?”
Arikado barely has time to register his charge’s presence before Soma slams him against the back wall, right between the two largest windows, and hoists him into the air by his throat. Surprisingly, the boy’s eyes are their normal hue, blue as a summer sky, but the indignation rolls off of him in waves.
“You,” he breathes, teeth bared. “You manipulated me.”
Sighing, Arikado quirks one of his brows upwards and croaks afterwards, “Everything I did was out of necessity and for the greater good.”
Soma grits his teeth harder and tightens his hold around Arikado’s neck. “Was it necessary to force me to drudge through that damn castle and chase after Graham?! To put my friends’ lives in danger?! Your own associates in danger?! Yoko almost died back there, remember?!”
“Were I not confident of your abilities then I would have left you at the barrier with Miss Hakuba,” continues Arikado in the same even tone of voice, made hoarse by the fist closed around his neck. “However, I saw untapped potential within you and made the selfish decision that you would be much easier to deal with than Graham Jones. Thus did I instruct you to venture forth and claim my father’s power for your own.”
The seething tendrils of shadow ebb as Soma starts to calm down and he releases his mentor with an exasperated huff.
“You should have told me who you were from the beginning,” he mutters and balls his hands into fists in an effort to stay his anger. “I’m tired of everyone keeping things from me.”
Arikado clears his throat and staggers to his feet. “It was out of – “
“Necessity, yeah. I’ve already heard that one,” scoffs Soma louder this time, folding his arms over his chest. “Try again.”
Straightening his tie and collar, Arikado regards him with a tip of his nose. “You are by far one of the most unruly wards I’ve ever had the displeasure of taking on, but there comes a time when the truth must come out. Now is as good a time as any thanks to a certain witch in my circle.”
“Yoko isn’t to blame for your mistrust of others,” Soma corrects him without batting an eye. “What? Julius has said as much when we’ve been alone.”
“I am known to your people as Alucard,” explains his mentor, snapping his fingers and all the lights suddenly blare on to reveal him. “My mother gave me the name Adrian Farenheit Tepes, which no, you may not address me by.”
Soma furrows his brows. “Adrian?”
“Your memories didn’t tell you as much?” Alucard asks, circling Soma as he does so.
“Again, I do not possess your father’s memories because I am not him. We’re two different people,” Soma argues under his breath, feeling aggravation creeping up on him and threatening to rouse the dark once more. “I just happened to be born with the same abilities as he and Graham both.”
“Ah, yes. The power to rule,” says Alucard as he stops in front of Soma. “Heritors of Darkness and Chaos, the Church called them, and few are they who are brought into this world. Yet between you and Graham Jones, I was forced to choose. You must understand my position.”
A third party chimes in, “It’s his duty to prevent Dracula’s rebirth in this world, as much as it is mine.”
Soma looks over with a gasp, “J-Julius?”
“Yoko told me what happened and that you were on your way to ‘confront’ Arikado,” Julius stops himself mid-sentence to meet the dhampir’s displeased gaze from across the room. “I mean, Alucard, and I figured I’d play referee in case things got out of hand.”
Julius takes a quick look around the room and smiles.
“Glad to see your training is paying off,” he says and claps Soma atop his head, ruffling his hair some. “The office is intact and Alucard is still breathing which is more than I had even hoped for.”
Thunder booms as Alucard glowers back at both men. “Well, there is the small matter of him assaulting me and leaving an enormous crater in the wall behind my desk.”
“You’re lucky that I didn’t run you through,” Soma grunts, hands twitching to summon Claimh Solais to end the bastard right there. “I just decided that your life wasn’t worth dirtying my hands.”
Chuckling, Julius clears his throat when Alucard shoots him another look. “He is your mentor, though, kid. You should have a little more respect for him.”
Soma’s shoulders slump and he almost wilts a little at the admonishment. Julius always did have a curious sobering effect on the boy, Alucard notes with interest.
“I’m sorry,” he apologizes at length. “Sometimes I just lose control. It’s hard to keep everything in check when it feels like there are so many things trying to get out all at once.”
Julius’s big hand finds his shoulder this time and he squeezes it with a little smile. “It’s okay.”
“This ‘Heritor of Darkness’ thing,” Soma adds, “does it make me a monster?”
“Hardly,” Alucard drawls with a roll of his eyes. “The only monstrous thing about you is that impertinence of yours.”
Pursing his lips again, Soma plants his hands on his hips and click his tongue. “You must be the Antichrist, then, because you’re brimming with the shit.”
A smirk finally tugs at the corner of Alucard’s lips. “Fair enough. I prefer my wards to be lively.”
“The livelier, the better,” whispers Julius. “Believe me, I know.”
Soma laughs and looks up at Julius with a smile. “Did he train you, too?”
“Along with my former Master, Jonathan, and the rest of the Church, yeah,” answers Julius, relaxing at last. “Anyway, I’m glad that I didn’t have to come up here and separate you two. I know that Yoko will be relieved to hear it, too.”
Alucard huffs, “If she’d learn to keep her mouth shut, then this all could have been avoided.”
“Hey, hey,” Soma pipes up again, grasping a fistful of Alucard’s dress shirt as he pulls him down to his level. “First of all, Yoko made a mistake. Second, I don’t appreciate being kept out of the loop when it concerns my own fucking life, thank you.”
“Very well. No more secrets,” Alucard says in that obnoxious monotone of his. “In exchange for a stricter training regimen and earlier schedule, though.”
Soma pushes him away with a grunt. “Fine by me.”
“Well, since we’re getting everything out there,” Julius speaks up again, stroking his chin. “There’s an undead Belmont living in the Church’s basement. Rumor has it that Alucard here turned him centuries ago because they just couldn’t bear to part from one another.”
Turning to Alucard with his mouth agape, Soma laughs out loud. “For real?”
“Out of my office,” Alucard growls and points to the door. “We have sparring in the morning at four and if you’re late, then so help me God…”
“Fine, fine!” Soma waves him off and passes Julius with a big grin. “See you there?”
Julius nods and watches him walk off with an added spring in his step.
“Was it really necessary to tell him about Trevor and I?” mutters Alucard as he goes about straightening his desk.
“It’s just a little payback for that shitty deal that went down last week,” Julius says nonchalantly, turning with a shrug. “You know, the cult and all those damn bugs?”
Alucard jolts a little with recollection. “Oh, that.”
“See you bright and early, then,” Julius shouts as he makes his way out of the office as well.
Giving up on the messy state of affairs, both office and home, Alucard reassumes his disguise as the asshole director of the SDF, a lithe Japanese man with shoulder-length hair and a permanent scowl on his face, retrieves his coat, and locks up for the night.
As he’s waiting on the elevator, though, he can’t help smiling at the expression he just knows he’ll see on his husband’s face when he returns to the Church and tells him what transpired here tonight.
“Bloody idiots,” he murmurs with a smile and gets onto the elevator once the doors open. “Every last one of them.”
Fandom: Castlevania (Both Game and Animation)
Prompt: It Was a Dark and Stormy Night (for
genprompt_bingo's Round #18.)Rating: T
Length: 1,531 Words
Content notes: Takes place after both Sorrow games and ties into the Animation.
Author notes: I don't believe Soma and Dracula are one and the same, so there's that.
Summary: Yoko lets it slip who Arikado really is and Soma confronts him at long last about it. Julius rushes in expecting a mess, but is pleasantly surprised to see that both men haven't torn each other to shreds when he arrives.
Flashes of lightning illuminate the dark room and briefly reveal the pale, lithe man seated at the head of it behind a desk. With his usual disguise discarded, he awaits the coming of the storm and with the air so charged with tension, he doesn’t know what to expect in spite of being the one with all the answers.
A thunderclap resounds overhead and announces the Darkness’s presence.
A creepy sensation crawls along Arikado’s veins and into his bones, his very blood, and that chill overtakes the entire building. Another bolt of lightning strikes the ground somewhere just outside his office window, but he doesn’t flinch.
“I accidentally let it slip,” murmurs Yoko. “I-It’s not a big deal, though! Soma knows you too well to get that angry.”
The double doors suddenly blow open with tremendous force.
“He won’t, right?”
Arikado barely has time to register his charge’s presence before Soma slams him against the back wall, right between the two largest windows, and hoists him into the air by his throat. Surprisingly, the boy’s eyes are their normal hue, blue as a summer sky, but the indignation rolls off of him in waves.
“You,” he breathes, teeth bared. “You manipulated me.”
Sighing, Arikado quirks one of his brows upwards and croaks afterwards, “Everything I did was out of necessity and for the greater good.”
Soma grits his teeth harder and tightens his hold around Arikado’s neck. “Was it necessary to force me to drudge through that damn castle and chase after Graham?! To put my friends’ lives in danger?! Your own associates in danger?! Yoko almost died back there, remember?!”
“Were I not confident of your abilities then I would have left you at the barrier with Miss Hakuba,” continues Arikado in the same even tone of voice, made hoarse by the fist closed around his neck. “However, I saw untapped potential within you and made the selfish decision that you would be much easier to deal with than Graham Jones. Thus did I instruct you to venture forth and claim my father’s power for your own.”
The seething tendrils of shadow ebb as Soma starts to calm down and he releases his mentor with an exasperated huff.
“You should have told me who you were from the beginning,” he mutters and balls his hands into fists in an effort to stay his anger. “I’m tired of everyone keeping things from me.”
Arikado clears his throat and staggers to his feet. “It was out of – “
“Necessity, yeah. I’ve already heard that one,” scoffs Soma louder this time, folding his arms over his chest. “Try again.”
Straightening his tie and collar, Arikado regards him with a tip of his nose. “You are by far one of the most unruly wards I’ve ever had the displeasure of taking on, but there comes a time when the truth must come out. Now is as good a time as any thanks to a certain witch in my circle.”
“Yoko isn’t to blame for your mistrust of others,” Soma corrects him without batting an eye. “What? Julius has said as much when we’ve been alone.”
“I am known to your people as Alucard,” explains his mentor, snapping his fingers and all the lights suddenly blare on to reveal him. “My mother gave me the name Adrian Farenheit Tepes, which no, you may not address me by.”
Soma furrows his brows. “Adrian?”
“Your memories didn’t tell you as much?” Alucard asks, circling Soma as he does so.
“Again, I do not possess your father’s memories because I am not him. We’re two different people,” Soma argues under his breath, feeling aggravation creeping up on him and threatening to rouse the dark once more. “I just happened to be born with the same abilities as he and Graham both.”
“Ah, yes. The power to rule,” says Alucard as he stops in front of Soma. “Heritors of Darkness and Chaos, the Church called them, and few are they who are brought into this world. Yet between you and Graham Jones, I was forced to choose. You must understand my position.”
A third party chimes in, “It’s his duty to prevent Dracula’s rebirth in this world, as much as it is mine.”
Soma looks over with a gasp, “J-Julius?”
“Yoko told me what happened and that you were on your way to ‘confront’ Arikado,” Julius stops himself mid-sentence to meet the dhampir’s displeased gaze from across the room. “I mean, Alucard, and I figured I’d play referee in case things got out of hand.”
Julius takes a quick look around the room and smiles.
“Glad to see your training is paying off,” he says and claps Soma atop his head, ruffling his hair some. “The office is intact and Alucard is still breathing which is more than I had even hoped for.”
Thunder booms as Alucard glowers back at both men. “Well, there is the small matter of him assaulting me and leaving an enormous crater in the wall behind my desk.”
“You’re lucky that I didn’t run you through,” Soma grunts, hands twitching to summon Claimh Solais to end the bastard right there. “I just decided that your life wasn’t worth dirtying my hands.”
Chuckling, Julius clears his throat when Alucard shoots him another look. “He is your mentor, though, kid. You should have a little more respect for him.”
Soma’s shoulders slump and he almost wilts a little at the admonishment. Julius always did have a curious sobering effect on the boy, Alucard notes with interest.
“I’m sorry,” he apologizes at length. “Sometimes I just lose control. It’s hard to keep everything in check when it feels like there are so many things trying to get out all at once.”
Julius’s big hand finds his shoulder this time and he squeezes it with a little smile. “It’s okay.”
“This ‘Heritor of Darkness’ thing,” Soma adds, “does it make me a monster?”
“Hardly,” Alucard drawls with a roll of his eyes. “The only monstrous thing about you is that impertinence of yours.”
Pursing his lips again, Soma plants his hands on his hips and click his tongue. “You must be the Antichrist, then, because you’re brimming with the shit.”
A smirk finally tugs at the corner of Alucard’s lips. “Fair enough. I prefer my wards to be lively.”
“The livelier, the better,” whispers Julius. “Believe me, I know.”
Soma laughs and looks up at Julius with a smile. “Did he train you, too?”
“Along with my former Master, Jonathan, and the rest of the Church, yeah,” answers Julius, relaxing at last. “Anyway, I’m glad that I didn’t have to come up here and separate you two. I know that Yoko will be relieved to hear it, too.”
Alucard huffs, “If she’d learn to keep her mouth shut, then this all could have been avoided.”
“Hey, hey,” Soma pipes up again, grasping a fistful of Alucard’s dress shirt as he pulls him down to his level. “First of all, Yoko made a mistake. Second, I don’t appreciate being kept out of the loop when it concerns my own fucking life, thank you.”
“Very well. No more secrets,” Alucard says in that obnoxious monotone of his. “In exchange for a stricter training regimen and earlier schedule, though.”
Soma pushes him away with a grunt. “Fine by me.”
“Well, since we’re getting everything out there,” Julius speaks up again, stroking his chin. “There’s an undead Belmont living in the Church’s basement. Rumor has it that Alucard here turned him centuries ago because they just couldn’t bear to part from one another.”
Turning to Alucard with his mouth agape, Soma laughs out loud. “For real?”
“Out of my office,” Alucard growls and points to the door. “We have sparring in the morning at four and if you’re late, then so help me God…”
“Fine, fine!” Soma waves him off and passes Julius with a big grin. “See you there?”
Julius nods and watches him walk off with an added spring in his step.
“Was it really necessary to tell him about Trevor and I?” mutters Alucard as he goes about straightening his desk.
“It’s just a little payback for that shitty deal that went down last week,” Julius says nonchalantly, turning with a shrug. “You know, the cult and all those damn bugs?”
Alucard jolts a little with recollection. “Oh, that.”
“See you bright and early, then,” Julius shouts as he makes his way out of the office as well.
Giving up on the messy state of affairs, both office and home, Alucard reassumes his disguise as the asshole director of the SDF, a lithe Japanese man with shoulder-length hair and a permanent scowl on his face, retrieves his coat, and locks up for the night.
As he’s waiting on the elevator, though, he can’t help smiling at the expression he just knows he’ll see on his husband’s face when he returns to the Church and tells him what transpired here tonight.
“Bloody idiots,” he murmurs with a smile and gets onto the elevator once the doors open. “Every last one of them.”
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