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tampered2007-03-31 04:29 pm
banditfox.livejournal.com) wrote in tampered2007-03-31 04:29 pm
Log: Complete
When: March 30
Rating: General
Characters: Walter [![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
dark_butler] and Kurama [banditfox]
Summary: Walter and Kurama discuss youkai, vampires, and other oddities of life over green tea.
Log:
The day seemed blessedly curse-free as Kurama left his apartment to make the short trek to Building 4. He was in his human form, casually but neatly dressed and by all appearances completely harmless. Several seeds and cuttings were stashed in his long hair, hidden at the nape of his neck. It would be the work of an instant to transform any of them into a weapon if the need arose.
Kurama entered the building with no visible hesitation. He was still not happy about being so close to Arthur's apartment, and silently chided himself for being foolish as he knocked on Walter's door.
Walter opened the door after the barest moment's pause, enough to be polite when he could instead have pulled the door open under Kurama's rapping knuckles. An advantage to hearing that had seemingly only grown more acute since Alucard had shared blood with him.
"Kurama," he greeted, standing aside to admit his guest. "I'm pleased to see you free and well."
His flat was tidy, albeit rather spare in decor it might be noted as Walter ushered Kurama toward the living room. It seemed that the vampire had done little to put a personal mark upon the room other than a tea service that sat on the coffee table there.
Kurama resisted the impulse to stop and toe his shoes off at the entrance, mindful that he was not in a Japanese home. He modified his by now habitual bow into a simple nod of greeting. "Thank you, and thank you for having me."
If the lack of personalization in the apartment troubled the seemingly young man, he said nothing of it. He automatically made note of the furniture's arrangement and the placement of possible exits, something he would have done even in his closest friends' homes.
"I don't have many guests." Walter gestured to Kurama to be seated, taking a chair where he could easily reach the tea service. "Thus, if we wish to be optimistic, you may consider yourself one of a select few." He nodded to the pot and cups. "It's green, if that serves. May I pour?"
"Please do." Kurama had developed an appreciation for tea in his human life, but more than that, he was glad of the opportunity for conversation. "You seem to know your way around social niceties rather well for someone who rarely entertains," he remarked, not out of rudeness, but of a desire to learn more of his host.
Walter's lips turned up in a hint of a wry smile. "I spent more than fifty years in service to the Hellsing family as their butler and in other capacities." Surprisingly, for all his complaint of being unable to drink tea himself, Walter poured two cups of tea. He placed one in front of Kurama and leaned back in his chair with the other cradled in his hands. "So I am quite familiar with social niceties, even if my behavior since arriving here might indicate otherwise."
"By 'other capacities' I suppose you mean field work," Kurama said with a smile of his own. He had observed enough of the Hellsing family in his time with Arthur and Alucard to understand the basics of their mission and their methods. "One does not have to be peaceable to be polite."
"Yes, field work." Until he'd started to slow down. Age had been a bitter pill to swallow despite all his words to the contrary to Alucard what felt like a lifetime ago. "Polite came with time. Peaceable..." he trailed off and his smile changed tenor to something predatory. "... peaceable is for other people."
With another smile, this time one of approval, Kurama agreed. "So I have found as well." In his human life, he was the epitome of what a good son of a good mother should be—polite, dutiful, helpful. He was content most of the time, but could not forget what he had been. It was still difficult to balance the human and the youkai.
"I'm a poor host, speaking only of myself. I'm curious to know more of you than what I have gleaned from your exchanges with Alucard and Arthur." He turned the cup in his hands, making no attempt to drink from it, but apparently enjoying either heat or aroma or both.
"Don't be ridiculous. The tea is excellent, and I wished to learn more about you." Kurama had noted that Walter was not partaking of the tea. He had never seen Alucard consume human food, either, and supposed it must be part of being a vampire in their world. His own cup was half-empty by now. He took another sip before he continued. "You had questions about the ojigi and the kokuryuuha, I believe. If there are others, I will answer them insofar as I can."
"Perhaps if we start with simply defining what ojigi and kokuryuuha are." It was difficult to ask questions about things he was entirely ignorant of. "I'm sure that other questions will present themselves as a result."
"Fair enough." Kurama set aside his cup and slowly pulled a seed from his hair. He set the unremarkable item on the coffee table. "This is the Makai Ojigi Sō. It is one of the more dangerous plants in my collection. A mature specimen will attack any source of heat or movement. It is also capable of feeling and acting on emotion. I rarely call on it. Alucard is one of only two opponents to escape it."
"Interesting." Walter leaned forward to examine the seed more closely without touching it. "By any source, am I to take it that it would attack you as well?" It didn't surprise him that Alucard had escaped it, but he was curious how it would stand up to being pruned as it were.
Kurama almost smiled and lifted his tea cup to his lips again. "It might if I became distracted or too weak to hold it. Like Hiei's kokuryuuha, it can be difficult to control. Just four years ago, I would not have been able to safely use it in this form."
"Right. With this," he nodded to the seed on the table, "I take it that an ojigi is some form of seed and/or plant to which you have some sort of affinity?" He didn't go so far as to say magic. "What then, is a kokuryuuha?"
"The name does not translate especially well." Kurama briefly considered this difficulty before he went on, choosing to omit the translation in favor of a definition. "It is essentially a dragon composed of the dark flames of the demon realm. Very few can master the technique."
Walter raised an eyebrow. "I would say not." As he had expected, a small bit of information raised quite a few questions. "I admit that I had assumed this was some sort of inherent ability of yours, but you seem to indicate that both you and - Hiei, was it? - Hiei have been training with these skills."
"All youkai possess certain inherent abilities that humans would consider magic. We would not be so prominent or so colorful in Japanese folklore if we did not. I suspect the same could be said of vampires in Western tales." He retrieved the ojigi seed and tucked it away again. "Youkai with ambition practice and sharpen their skills. Power comes from innate potential, but also from experience and age. In that, we are not unlike humans."
"That says to me that you are a youkai with ambition," Walter observed, leaning in to freshen Kurama's tea. "But what does a youkai have ambition for? Wealth? Temporal power? Something else?"
"Thank you," Kurama said as his host poured the tea. Once Walter had finished, the kitsune turned his attention to the questions. "I wanted wealth, power, territory. Most youkai do. Some have nobler intentions. Some have darker." His expression sobered as he recalled encounters with those of the latter sort. "Scruples lose their importance in a world where you are lucky to live to adolescence relatively unharmed."
Walter chuckled at the latter comment. "I believe I understand that sentiment more than many." His own tea had cooled past the point of being a pleasant warmth in his hands, so he set the untouched cup back on the tray. "I even understand the tendency to pocket interesting items, although I did lose that habit after joining Hellsing."
"It is a difficult habit to break, and a dangerous one to indulge." Even when he was supposedly behaving himself, Kurama made use of the skills that had served him so well as a thief. "Arthur must have had his hands full with both you and Alucard in the house."
"You'd be surprised," Walter demurred, smiling nostalgically. "It didn't take me long to be the one with the hands full. Arthur had a tendency to... relieve stress in expensive and..." he looked for a tactful word, "...problematic fashions."
Kurama raised an eyebrow at that, considered, and then shook his head. "That does not surprise me as much as it probably should."
Walter chuckled again and shook his head. "Imagine growing up with Alucard in the house, knowing that someday you'd be responsible for him." He felt so many things for and about Arthur; it was difficult to pin it down. Much frustration paired oddly with much respect. "I don't think that results in a normal person at any time."
"Perhaps not," Kurama conceded. "My human upbringing was relatively orthodox, so I cannot say I understand entirely what that must have been like. I find it remarkable that a human family has so thoroughly integrated vampires into its fabric."
"Yes," Walter's expression remained polite, although now it was a mask for something he was not going to get into with an outsider. Despite Kurama's brief period of servitude to Arthur's ego. "Your human upbringing? Were you not born as you are?"
The kitsune accepted Walter's reticence without comment. "Nineteen years ago, I was injured past the point of physical recovery. I fled to the human realm and claimed the body of an unborn child. It was my intention to return to the Makai once I became strong enough, but my mother is a good woman. I stayed for her. If she suspects that I am not the son she was meant to have, she has shown no sign of it."
Interesting. Walter's perception of Kurama shifted with that information. Not positively or negatively per se, but that was not what he'd expected of the man - or youkai's - tale. "Your mother must be exceptional indeed. How long did you exist before you took a human body?"
"Over a thousand years," his guest answered readily enough. "Other youkai were terrified of me." Kurama shook his head and scoffed at himself. "I am still the youko, but my mother taught me to be human as well. It took a long time to realize I could be both."
Impressive. If Walter hadn't recently made the acquaintance of two vampires each over 2000 years old, he would have been even more impressed. "So, a thousand years is exceptional even among your kind?" He left the matter of being human out for the moment. Later it would raise interesting questions about what Lacroix wanted of him, versus what someone like Arthur would want - one to see him stamp out the last of his humanity, the other to hold to it as something precious.
"Yes. There have been older kitsune, more powerful ones, but like me, they are rare." Kurama watched Walter closely, curious as to what he would do with this information. It was nothing that most of the Makai and Reikai did not know, so he did not mind revealing these facts.
Walter was impressed. Now not so much with Kurama's age as with the way he had taken the matter of being even temporarily enslaved by Arthur. Other than the unwillingness to see Arthur, he was remarkably calm. A thousand years' worth of mask? He would be interested to get to know him to figure that out. "And those seeds you use? Are they rare among your kind as well?"
Kurama's eyes flashed gold and faint threads of silver ran through his hair as he smiled mischievously at Walter. "Maybe, but let's leave that question for another day. Hiei will tell you that I can put even the most cautious opponent to sleep with talk of gardening." He stood, and was fully human once again. "I've kept you from other pursuits for too long as it is. Thank you again for your hospitality."
Rating: General
Characters: Walter [
dark_butler] and Kurama [banditfox]Summary: Walter and Kurama discuss youkai, vampires, and other oddities of life over green tea.
Log:
The day seemed blessedly curse-free as Kurama left his apartment to make the short trek to Building 4. He was in his human form, casually but neatly dressed and by all appearances completely harmless. Several seeds and cuttings were stashed in his long hair, hidden at the nape of his neck. It would be the work of an instant to transform any of them into a weapon if the need arose.
Kurama entered the building with no visible hesitation. He was still not happy about being so close to Arthur's apartment, and silently chided himself for being foolish as he knocked on Walter's door.
Walter opened the door after the barest moment's pause, enough to be polite when he could instead have pulled the door open under Kurama's rapping knuckles. An advantage to hearing that had seemingly only grown more acute since Alucard had shared blood with him.
"Kurama," he greeted, standing aside to admit his guest. "I'm pleased to see you free and well."
His flat was tidy, albeit rather spare in decor it might be noted as Walter ushered Kurama toward the living room. It seemed that the vampire had done little to put a personal mark upon the room other than a tea service that sat on the coffee table there.
Kurama resisted the impulse to stop and toe his shoes off at the entrance, mindful that he was not in a Japanese home. He modified his by now habitual bow into a simple nod of greeting. "Thank you, and thank you for having me."
If the lack of personalization in the apartment troubled the seemingly young man, he said nothing of it. He automatically made note of the furniture's arrangement and the placement of possible exits, something he would have done even in his closest friends' homes.
"I don't have many guests." Walter gestured to Kurama to be seated, taking a chair where he could easily reach the tea service. "Thus, if we wish to be optimistic, you may consider yourself one of a select few." He nodded to the pot and cups. "It's green, if that serves. May I pour?"
"Please do." Kurama had developed an appreciation for tea in his human life, but more than that, he was glad of the opportunity for conversation. "You seem to know your way around social niceties rather well for someone who rarely entertains," he remarked, not out of rudeness, but of a desire to learn more of his host.
Walter's lips turned up in a hint of a wry smile. "I spent more than fifty years in service to the Hellsing family as their butler and in other capacities." Surprisingly, for all his complaint of being unable to drink tea himself, Walter poured two cups of tea. He placed one in front of Kurama and leaned back in his chair with the other cradled in his hands. "So I am quite familiar with social niceties, even if my behavior since arriving here might indicate otherwise."
"By 'other capacities' I suppose you mean field work," Kurama said with a smile of his own. He had observed enough of the Hellsing family in his time with Arthur and Alucard to understand the basics of their mission and their methods. "One does not have to be peaceable to be polite."
"Yes, field work." Until he'd started to slow down. Age had been a bitter pill to swallow despite all his words to the contrary to Alucard what felt like a lifetime ago. "Polite came with time. Peaceable..." he trailed off and his smile changed tenor to something predatory. "... peaceable is for other people."
With another smile, this time one of approval, Kurama agreed. "So I have found as well." In his human life, he was the epitome of what a good son of a good mother should be—polite, dutiful, helpful. He was content most of the time, but could not forget what he had been. It was still difficult to balance the human and the youkai.
"I'm a poor host, speaking only of myself. I'm curious to know more of you than what I have gleaned from your exchanges with Alucard and Arthur." He turned the cup in his hands, making no attempt to drink from it, but apparently enjoying either heat or aroma or both.
"Don't be ridiculous. The tea is excellent, and I wished to learn more about you." Kurama had noted that Walter was not partaking of the tea. He had never seen Alucard consume human food, either, and supposed it must be part of being a vampire in their world. His own cup was half-empty by now. He took another sip before he continued. "You had questions about the ojigi and the kokuryuuha, I believe. If there are others, I will answer them insofar as I can."
"Perhaps if we start with simply defining what ojigi and kokuryuuha are." It was difficult to ask questions about things he was entirely ignorant of. "I'm sure that other questions will present themselves as a result."
"Fair enough." Kurama set aside his cup and slowly pulled a seed from his hair. He set the unremarkable item on the coffee table. "This is the Makai Ojigi Sō. It is one of the more dangerous plants in my collection. A mature specimen will attack any source of heat or movement. It is also capable of feeling and acting on emotion. I rarely call on it. Alucard is one of only two opponents to escape it."
"Interesting." Walter leaned forward to examine the seed more closely without touching it. "By any source, am I to take it that it would attack you as well?" It didn't surprise him that Alucard had escaped it, but he was curious how it would stand up to being pruned as it were.
Kurama almost smiled and lifted his tea cup to his lips again. "It might if I became distracted or too weak to hold it. Like Hiei's kokuryuuha, it can be difficult to control. Just four years ago, I would not have been able to safely use it in this form."
"Right. With this," he nodded to the seed on the table, "I take it that an ojigi is some form of seed and/or plant to which you have some sort of affinity?" He didn't go so far as to say magic. "What then, is a kokuryuuha?"
"The name does not translate especially well." Kurama briefly considered this difficulty before he went on, choosing to omit the translation in favor of a definition. "It is essentially a dragon composed of the dark flames of the demon realm. Very few can master the technique."
Walter raised an eyebrow. "I would say not." As he had expected, a small bit of information raised quite a few questions. "I admit that I had assumed this was some sort of inherent ability of yours, but you seem to indicate that both you and - Hiei, was it? - Hiei have been training with these skills."
"All youkai possess certain inherent abilities that humans would consider magic. We would not be so prominent or so colorful in Japanese folklore if we did not. I suspect the same could be said of vampires in Western tales." He retrieved the ojigi seed and tucked it away again. "Youkai with ambition practice and sharpen their skills. Power comes from innate potential, but also from experience and age. In that, we are not unlike humans."
"That says to me that you are a youkai with ambition," Walter observed, leaning in to freshen Kurama's tea. "But what does a youkai have ambition for? Wealth? Temporal power? Something else?"
"Thank you," Kurama said as his host poured the tea. Once Walter had finished, the kitsune turned his attention to the questions. "I wanted wealth, power, territory. Most youkai do. Some have nobler intentions. Some have darker." His expression sobered as he recalled encounters with those of the latter sort. "Scruples lose their importance in a world where you are lucky to live to adolescence relatively unharmed."
Walter chuckled at the latter comment. "I believe I understand that sentiment more than many." His own tea had cooled past the point of being a pleasant warmth in his hands, so he set the untouched cup back on the tray. "I even understand the tendency to pocket interesting items, although I did lose that habit after joining Hellsing."
"It is a difficult habit to break, and a dangerous one to indulge." Even when he was supposedly behaving himself, Kurama made use of the skills that had served him so well as a thief. "Arthur must have had his hands full with both you and Alucard in the house."
"You'd be surprised," Walter demurred, smiling nostalgically. "It didn't take me long to be the one with the hands full. Arthur had a tendency to... relieve stress in expensive and..." he looked for a tactful word, "...problematic fashions."
Kurama raised an eyebrow at that, considered, and then shook his head. "That does not surprise me as much as it probably should."
Walter chuckled again and shook his head. "Imagine growing up with Alucard in the house, knowing that someday you'd be responsible for him." He felt so many things for and about Arthur; it was difficult to pin it down. Much frustration paired oddly with much respect. "I don't think that results in a normal person at any time."
"Perhaps not," Kurama conceded. "My human upbringing was relatively orthodox, so I cannot say I understand entirely what that must have been like. I find it remarkable that a human family has so thoroughly integrated vampires into its fabric."
"Yes," Walter's expression remained polite, although now it was a mask for something he was not going to get into with an outsider. Despite Kurama's brief period of servitude to Arthur's ego. "Your human upbringing? Were you not born as you are?"
The kitsune accepted Walter's reticence without comment. "Nineteen years ago, I was injured past the point of physical recovery. I fled to the human realm and claimed the body of an unborn child. It was my intention to return to the Makai once I became strong enough, but my mother is a good woman. I stayed for her. If she suspects that I am not the son she was meant to have, she has shown no sign of it."
Interesting. Walter's perception of Kurama shifted with that information. Not positively or negatively per se, but that was not what he'd expected of the man - or youkai's - tale. "Your mother must be exceptional indeed. How long did you exist before you took a human body?"
"Over a thousand years," his guest answered readily enough. "Other youkai were terrified of me." Kurama shook his head and scoffed at himself. "I am still the youko, but my mother taught me to be human as well. It took a long time to realize I could be both."
Impressive. If Walter hadn't recently made the acquaintance of two vampires each over 2000 years old, he would have been even more impressed. "So, a thousand years is exceptional even among your kind?" He left the matter of being human out for the moment. Later it would raise interesting questions about what Lacroix wanted of him, versus what someone like Arthur would want - one to see him stamp out the last of his humanity, the other to hold to it as something precious.
"Yes. There have been older kitsune, more powerful ones, but like me, they are rare." Kurama watched Walter closely, curious as to what he would do with this information. It was nothing that most of the Makai and Reikai did not know, so he did not mind revealing these facts.
Walter was impressed. Now not so much with Kurama's age as with the way he had taken the matter of being even temporarily enslaved by Arthur. Other than the unwillingness to see Arthur, he was remarkably calm. A thousand years' worth of mask? He would be interested to get to know him to figure that out. "And those seeds you use? Are they rare among your kind as well?"
Kurama's eyes flashed gold and faint threads of silver ran through his hair as he smiled mischievously at Walter. "Maybe, but let's leave that question for another day. Hiei will tell you that I can put even the most cautious opponent to sleep with talk of gardening." He stood, and was fully human once again. "I've kept you from other pursuits for too long as it is. Thank you again for your hospitality."