Aria of the Ascending Soul
Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
Beta By: Well, me, after some time passed so I could catch mistakes.
The hotel room in Japan was a rather small affair to the new guests, it still had the twin beds, with a vanity on the opposite wall. Since Yoko had never taken the Belmonts outside of her room save for Vatican celebrations, there was a certain amount of curiosity about a Japanese hotel. Well a hotel in general, but what they had peeked out of the window on the ride back had been interesting too.
The twin beds weren't being used at the moment, as Yoko had gone to bathe away the stress of the past few hours. Which gave Richter, who was jumping on the bed, time to feed his curiosity as to what he now looked like. After all the last time any of them had been in front of anything that resembled a mirror was at the Christmas celebration at the Vatican. And silver sheen fake balls were a poor substitution for a decent mirror for the Belmont.
So to anyone else it looked like a strangely self jumping toy dog, but the youngest of the Hunters' curiosity nipped at Juste as well. After a brief pause of thought the mage hunter took a turn jumping up and down to see what he looked like. Christopher was actually starting to think this might be a good idea as he heard the door to the bathroom opening. Though the only thing that was stopping him from joining on the bouncing 'fun' was that Simon was eerily silent. Juste and Richter were sandwiched on the bed between both Bearmonts. Simon was near the head of the bed with his back to the rest of them and his ears were twitching almost nonstop.
The door opened to the bathroom and Yoko walked out with a towel over her head as she dried her long blond hair. She dropped the towel over her shoulders and grabbed the bathrobe hanging before her then did a ninety degree turn only to stop. Well to be fair she was probably going for a full one eighty, but seeing three stuffed toys looking at her seemed to distract her. Juste and Richter had stopped jumping on the bed in an effort to maintain what was left of the 'Belmont Hunter Pride' that existed before well... The discovery that the actual hunters were all stuffed toys now.
"Hello Yoko, is there a problem?" Juste asked politely, only to have Christopher speak up.
"She can't hear us, Juste."
"She has a full body blush, who knew?" Richter noted in a cheerful tone, since well... save for the towel Yoko was naked.
Christopher quietly waved to her before commenting, "do you think it bothers her that we're looking at her?"
"I think it bothers her more that we've seen her for several YEARS and well..." Juste suggested before taking a hint to turn away. "Perhaps you both should look 'away'?"
"Don't worry grandfather, she just solved that for us," Richter answered as Yoko dashed back into the bathroom looking like she was trying not to scream. Though the fact that they had been frozen in place on her shelf for several years and had seen 'lots' of things... realistically that should have regist... oh... oh...
Both dog type plushy toys walked over and sat at the foot of the bed with Christopher as the reality of how awkward things were about to become for Yoko hit...
"'Oh I just use my plushy body like a puppet', he says..." A dark growl cut through any further talk from behind the trio.
"Sure, that's easy when you have a medium that you work with and are married to a witch who can see you. Do you know what I got for twenty years? I got a witch with elemental magic and the ability to shove souls into items. That's what 'I' got!"
Christopher, Juste, and Richter all turned to face Simons' back as the Hunter seemed to have started voicing some inner monologue. Occasionally looking between each other wondering what was wrong.
"I got a seven year old brat who wanted to have picnics and play dates because her 'impure blood' left her without any other girls to play with. I got a child who who made me do DDR despite me being A VAMPIRE HUNTER! A child who read me those 'vampire love story' trash bin filling garbage and I don't care if she was making fun of it. I don't care if she was smart enough to realize how stupid and wrong it was! I am a VAMPIRE HUNTER I don't need to hear about some desperate woman's wet dream!"
"For that matter what was Valencia 'thinking' when she let a girl not even fifteen years old read that OR fifty shades of gray? Seriously? I don't even 'like' books and I think those things were an affront to the written word. TREES DIED TO MAKE THAT TRASH!? And if the stupid sensationalism of victimhood wasn't enough there's the video games! My only silver lining was Yoko getting me a fight stick so I could actually play something. And ooh let me tell you 'that' is an adventure all its own! You'd think that someone from a bloodline of Hunters would have no problem with video game monsters. Well you'd be wrong with that witch!"
Simon turned towards the wall that was shared with the bathroom, taking no notice of the looks being shared by the other three plushies on the bed. "Oh no. Had to buy that collectors edition of Kingdom Hearts and Legend of Zelda... and make 'ME' play all the 'scary' parts and all the parts that were 'too' emotional for her?! What warrior holds a 'sword' like a baseball bat? WHO FIGHTS WITH A GIANT KEY?! And don't get me started on that stupid 'princess' who always gets kidnapped. She's an arcane archer of all things, why is she getting 'kidnapped' all the time? SHE IS A REINCARNATED GODDESS! DEAR GOD ACT LIKE IT ZELDA YOU STUPID BITCH! EVEN THAT BIMBO KAIRI FIGURED OUT HOW TO RUN FROM STRANGER DANGER!"
Christopher made a slight gesture offering for either Belmont to try to calm Simon down, after all the guy never went off like 'this' before. Sure the trio were rather new comparatively speaking but Simon never went off like 'this' ever since he got an audience.
"OH and those online games? Couldn't figure out what was making that stupid witch cry until I made the mistake of turning on the voice chat! What a bunch of lazy good for nothing diaper filling wastes of space. Let me tell you something, a 'man' is more than just our gender! This age is filled with the most lazy, self entitled good for nothing whinny crybabies I have 'ever' seen! They live in their mothers' basement, or let their women do all the work and when there happens to be a girl around they lose their collective minds! Seriously? Your confidence is so pathetic that you can't even fathom that something that requires BUTTON PUSHING could be done by girls? TRY HUNTING VAMPIRES YOU LIMP DICKED FAILURES OF EXISTANCE! TRY FIGHTING A LORD OF DARKNESS WHILE YOU ARE DECOMPOSING! I WANT TO SEE YOU TRY THAT YOU BUNCH OF FILTHY COWARDS!"
Yep, clearly Simon was having a breakdown at that point, though on the plus side he was letting it out, despite the fact that the trio had 'no' clue what he was talking about.
"Though in a way their obnoxious behavior made turning on the webcam and bringing the focus down all the better. The sweet, sweet silence as a pair of teams watch themselves get wiped out by a 'teddy bear' on a 'FIGHT STICK'! I AM SIMON FUCKING BELMONT! I DESTROY THE WEAK!"
Richter seriously wanted to say that he could take on Simon, yet... letting this out seemed to be the better course of action. Especially when he thought about how easily Simon could punt Trevor, and when Richter thought on it. The only 'kick' he actually had was a mule kick and uh no.
"Living life as a complete toy, no freedom of movement or ability to make my awareness known for what felt like 'ages'. Forced to watch the Lord of the Rings over and over until that stupid witch could actually see 'all' of it because she kept falling asleep amid the marathon. I DIDN'T EVEN GET ANY TYPE OF SAY UNTIL SHE TURNED 18! EIGHTTEEN! I WAS STUCK LEARNING THINGS I HAD NO BUSINESS KNOWING!" He raged throwing back his head and screamed at the ceiling.
"Tampons? Pads? Cups? I HAD TO DEAL WITH FIGURING THAT OUT WITH HER?! WHY!? When I was alive we had a simple agreement! When it was 'that' time of the month I don't piss her off and I get to wake up a man and not an eunuch! Why are there so many stupid ways to deal with a simple issue of bloodloss? The homicidal rage would strike me as more important to deal with!"
"Tampons?" Juste asked, his head tilting to the side.
"Pads?" Richter echoed in confusion.
"What's wrong with cups?" Christopher asked shrugging slightly.
All three earning what would probably have been a manic stare had Simon his human face, instead they got the slow, frightening, turn of Simon's bear head towards them.
"I'm sorry... Please continue," Christopher stammered out with a slight shooing gesture of his new paws. Juste and Richters' ears were now seemingly plastered to the back of their heads in growing wariness towards Simon's rage.
There was a teddy bear standing on a twin bed, his paws swaying back and forth slightly and for anyone else it was a peculiar, but amusing sight. Yet the tirade was alarming and confusing, Juste could only assume it was because of how well Trevor had settled in his state. For Juste, himself, he felt like he was on his hands and knees, like he had been stuck in a dog suit. Simon 'should' have had an easier time because of how he was allowed to walk on his own two feet. Yet giving this outraged tirade Juste wondered if Simon would have been happier as a dog partnered with a medium than a bear with a witch.
"A 'Cup' or I should say 'lunar cup' is designed for women during their cycles. Designed to eliminate the trash that is left from the other two."
Simon bit each word out with this fake saccharine tone intentionally raising the pitch of his normal voice. It was spoken with the tone of recitation as though he was reading a box or a guide of some sort and given what this 'cup' turned out to be... Christopher started backing away to the edge of the bed while nodding. Hearing his notable more harden warrior descendant with his powerful voice try to shift so hard in the opposite direction was... Well all he could say was, "I see..."
Simon looked down at his paws and grew quiet for a moment, giving Richter and Juste enough time to slip off the bed, grab Christopher and pull him down as well. Then working to hang off by their paws to watch Simon, just in case.
"I used to have hands. Human hands that were strong, fingers and palms and I could wield Vampire Killer with ease slaying everything that confronted me. No abomination from Hell could stand before me and survive regardless of curse or age." He lifted up paws trembling with emotion towards the wall where on the otherside was Yoko. "Generations of Hunters RUINED BECAUSE OF YOU YOKO! HOW IS SOMA GOING TO FEAR US?! ARE WE EXPECTED TO STAB HIM WITH A Q-TIP YOU IDIOT?!" He roared, raising his paws to the sky as though to ask God to answer him. "The first idiot who harms a hair on the head of his brat IS GOING TO GET US ALL KILLED! ANYONE WITH NO PROBLEM SLICING THE HAND OFF AN OFFICIAL, IS GOING TO SCORCH EARTH US!" Simon continued, unrelentingly before dropping one paw down to wave the other as though he still had Vampire Killer at his disposal.
"Are you seriously expecting Julius to keep saving humanity at his age? His two sons aren't even in trained fields of combat. One's a DOCTOR for Gods' sake! What's he going to do? Check for a pulse on Soma? Proscribe two holy water pills and tell Soma to call him in the morning if his insides don't dissolve?!"
Richter decided that, despite not understanding anything, Simon said, one day he would understand and crack up from this tirade. But today was not that day.
"We're doomed, I've been reduced to hunting idiot kids who are getting lost in the Vatican, Soma knows we're the Belmonts. The human race is doomed the moment someone hits Alucard..." Simon seemed to settle down in a remorseful tone as he dropped his paws to hang by his sides. "And I have no idea why I've been punished like this."
"Maybe its from the wanton destruction of your constant hunts? We 'were' only supposed to slay when Dracula was causing issues, not just hunting Dark Children down for fun..." Richter pointed out lifting his face enough so his nose was squished but visible.
"That's it? Just kill a few non humans and I get condemned to 'THIS'?! What's so great about what Trevor did? 'I' fought Dracula 'twice' once while a decomposing CORPSE! What did Trevor do that was so great? Gather an elite crack team of specialists to fight for him! And what was so great about 'them'?! A bedsheet with tits, a pirate so stupid he got lost on LAND, he's a damn PIRATE GET ON THE OCEAN YOU MORON! And a marble statue with the occasional pulse, THAT IS WHAT!" Simon whipped his head back up to stare at the ceiling before shouting, "I'm the most powerful Belmont ever and I deserve better than being trapped in this demeaning form!"
Richter lifted a paw up while saying, "Actually I..." only to have Christopher smack him away from the edge of the bed and sending the youngest of them to the floor.
"Don't make him angry at 'us'." Juste hissed down at his grandson who was flailing in an effort to right himself.
Simon stood there swaying slightly, which Christopher could only assume that it was because they couldn't breath. More than likely the Belmont would have been heaving breathes after that tirade he had just gone on. Unlike Juste or Richter, Christopher's posture allowed him to 'see' the room better than the younger hunters. So he had seen when Simon would go on his silent tirades and how his bear body would express that rage.
He also saw how serious Simon took getting ready for 'work' when he would have to rescue the 'dumb kids' in the Vatican. Or how he still enjoyed playing on his fight stick and despite the 'stupid kid who fought with a giant key' or 'dumb princess'... Well that stack of games was more for 'him' now than Yoko and Christopher knew that Simon occasionally enjoyed his games. He saw the occasional fist pumps that the hunter gave when he played the older games. Working to perfect himself online in those fighting games, mentioning he could win 'evo' with a blindfold... whatever 'evo' was.
Not to mention that he was aware of when Simon said 'witch' he meant 'bitch'. Regardless of what he yelled at the wall, Christopher knew that Simon cared about Yoko. Maybe not in the beginning, maybe he was fury incarnate in those early days. But that had mellowed out clearly and despite no longer having a place on the battlefield, Simon seemed ok with where he was. When he wasn't around Trevor at least. The message he had painstakingly wrote out for Yoko hadn't been a lie, and had been thought over deeply for a long time.
"Feeling better now?" Christopher asked tentatively.
Simon straightened his posture and was silent for a moment, possibly internally checking himself. The very tips of his ears did what Christopher considered a 'cleansing ear twitch' that reassured Christopher enough to start climbing back on top of the bed.
"Yeah, actually I feel a lot better, come on, I'll teach you how to use a remote control. Since they tend to bind them to the furniture in hotels." Simon answered before turning around and walking towards the night stand. Sounding so calm it was impossible to think he had just gone on such a rage fueled tirade a minute before.
Leaving Richter and Juste silently sorting out who would study the 'remote' and who would try to check on Yoko. But at least the Belmonts were free of being stationary victims of Yoko's magic, and that was a start!