Pre-Soul Reaver Adventures

[razielim]

Young Raziel comes across an ancient library, dense with magic and without a speck of dust to be seen anywhere as though it had been full of avid readers and loving caretakers only yesterday.



Kain scrounges up whatever armor he can to finally gear up his fledgling and sends him off to explore some ruins while he attends to more critical matters. Raziel does as he’s told but remains miserable the whole time. Kain has to deal with a child clingier than ever before when they’re finally reunited.

I think I’ve hinted at it in Inktober posts, but I imagine that Kain’s sons had a fundamentally wack fledgling experience compared to all other vampires in history. Bereft of their human memories and raised on the outskirts of society, they remained half-animal, half-child for decades, and carried the emotional codependence they developed with their sire and brothers for the rest of their lifespans, even if they managed to bury the resulting existential agony under centuries of expertise and command. Even their own eventual progeny had more stable upbringing. Considering he’s the oldest and had no one except Kain when he was raised, and then got heaped with eldest-child duties, it’s a miracle Raziel ever manages to have a functional thought after being cast into the abyss by his figure of Mother, Father, Brother, Companion, Friend, Husband, Lover, God.


As Raziel begins to adapts to sunlight, he is able to join Kain on more adventures. Arriving in a new town, Kain lays out his plan. Listening as best he can, Raziel tries to avoid saying or asking anything naïve, which would get him left behind again.

You know how in Carry On, Simon mentions that the only reason Baz gets away with flying under the radar as a vampire is that he looks too much like one? It’s too cliche for him to be a vampire, so he just gets a pass.

I feel that much the same thing happens to Raziel whenever he’s outside of central Nosgoth, in regions where vampires had always been more foreign novelty than fact. Peasants look at him - the sharp eyes, the pale thin face, the inky black hair, the natural grace of his posture, teeth as white as snow, perfect skin - and on top of his starkly vampiric features, they see his oddly haphazard armor that looks as if he doesn’t care too much about losing limbs, his bad-yet-flattering haircut, and his intimidating clawed gauntlets and baffling absence of any sword*, and very strenuously think, “I’m sure he’s a very nice boy, despite being cursed with unfortunate complexion and tragic fashion sense.”

Unfortunately, this does not extend to soldiers and mercenaries, who take one look at him, take a look at the crowd who is politely treating him as a fellow human, take a deep breath, and think, “Welp. We might as well kill this vampire-looking idiot just in case.”

Meanwhile, Kain looks just enough like a vampire that peasants, soldiers, and mercenaries alike all look away immediately upon laying eyes on him, very much not wondering whether or not he’s a real vampire, in the hopes that if they don’t acknowledge his existence, he’ll turn out to have been completely imaginary. (If Raziel is walking next to him, nobody even registers him - he’s completely eclipsed by Kain’s presence.)

(In central Nosgoth, they are both attacked On Sight if not wearing disguises.)

*Kain doesn’t trust him not to hurt himself with large sharp objects. He found Raziel some beastly clawed gauntlets which had likely been a novelty piece for their human owner, but very fortuitously compensated for the fledgling’s lack of claws. Raziel still occasionally manages to stab his own eye out with those (usually while rubbing his face sleepily), but they’re a lot better than a sword, which the fledgling drops immediately if spooked, and every once in a while swings so recklessly, he looses a limb (or worse, stabs and immobilizes himself). Kain especially likes that due to Raziel’s obsessive wearing the gauntlets even in his sleep, his dumb child is never without a weapon. And unlike properly-armed combat, the fledging seems to need no training to defend himself with these claws, moving even somewhat gracefully on pure instinct.


Left behind again, Raziel sits and waits for Kain to return, blissfully unaware of his surroundings or the trouble fast approaching.

Fledgling Raziel is literally a toddler.

He pulls off any pieces of armor he finds uncomfortable, no matter how many times Kain puts it back on for his own good. He has comfort items that he wears or carries at all times no matter how impractical or useless. He rubs his eyes with both fists at once when he’s sleepy, and it is very difficult to rush him when he’s sleepy. And of course, he would rather be around Kain than do literally anything else, though if Kain seems to be staying put somewhere Raziel can see him, in no danger of running off again, Raziel will happily explore and eat without Kain holding his hand. No concept of personal space, and he stares at things openly with his mouth ajar.

Just… decades of this.

Every time Kain tries to speed up his development, he sets himself back by another three years. In fact, Raziel’s brothers develop a lot faster because, by then, Kain is practically a paragon of patience and their eldest brother is a lot more indulgent and understanding than their sire. And even then, it still takes years for each one to reach what can only be described as their adolescent stage. Which, being marked by excessive rebellion, grumpiness, and violence*, is a lot easier for Kain to deal with, considering those things are his area of expertise.

*Even in adolescence, Raziel threw curveballs Kain was not equipped to deal with and for the most part not repeated by his brothers, being more horny, capricious, and melancholy than anything else.


Baby vampire once again forgets he’s supposed to be a lean mean killing machine, but only because he wasn’t particularly hungry when he was attacked.


“We need to go, child. You’ve done well.” A voracious fledgling on his hands, Kain doesn’t have time to figure out dressing or arming the feral monster he’s created. He can only try to get Raziel away from each grisly corpse before any city guards come around.


Raziel charming Kain back down to an agreeable mood after a frustrating setback. Or as Zephon calls it, “Sucking up and then sucking.” (He’s just jealous about the sucking.)


Butts Studies


“I feel so exposed. Are you certain we won’t be spotted?”

“We absolutely will be spotted if you continue looking out at the guards like that. Move urgently, Raziel.”


Raziel stalking his target.


An intimate moment in their private courtyard.
I technically only censored this for tumblr.instagram, but I've gotten so used to seeing it this way that the uncensored version feels weird to look at so I'm sticking to this version.


Still his beautiful Raziel.