Happy Veterans Day, everybody, Antoni here, with another fan fiction recommendation. This is Lethean Caresses written by ZoZo1770 back on February 9, 2014, starring two of my most favorite Soul Calibur warriors of all time Siegfried Schtauffen and Kilik and they are a couple in this story, which I really love with a passion. It’s rated M, it’s in English, and it’s under Angst/Romance.
I know a lot of people who support Kilik and Xianghua as a couple will be out for my blood, but as much as I like that couple, along with Siegfried and Cassandra and to some extent Siegfried and Sophitia, I absolutely fancy the pants off of Siegfried and Kilik as a handsome, sexy, and awesome couple. Think about it, both of these gentlemen have very haunting pasts, what with Siegfried murdering his father, Frederick, for mistaking him for an enemy bandit, and Kilik murdering his half-sister, Xianglian, when he was under the influence of the Evil Seed, they are of the same age and born in the same month of February, with Kilik being three days younger than Siegfried, both carry huge and long weapons, Siegfried with his Zweihänder and Kilik with his bo staff, they are both the fan favorites in the gaming community, and in Japanese they are respectively voiced by two of my most favorite male Seiyuu, Nobuyuki Hiyama as Siegfried and Souichiro Hoshi as Kilik.
The very interesting thing about Hiyama-sensei and Hoshi-sensei when it comes to the characters they voice together there is a certain Ho-Yay atmosphere going between said characters. It could be a fan thing, it could be kind of canon in the show, or it could be interpreted by fan fiction authors and fan artists as belligerent sexual tension. On top of that, while Nobuyuki Hiyama specializes in a lot of passionate heroes, tragic anti-heroes, maniacal villains, and even comedic characters all thanks to his rough, wide-ranging, husky tenor voice, which can reach baritonal low notes, Souichiro Hoshi specializes in a lot of youthful, boyish, and a lot of boy-next-door characters all thanks to the soft-toned and light tenor voice. Speaking of which, both of them have really gorgeous singing voices. Hiyama’s singing voice has that smoothness and coolness which make him very alluring, whilst Hoshi’s is youthful and gentle. When you put these two together, their voices blend gorgeously with Hiyama’s earthier and rougher timbre being a fine complement to Hoshi’s airier and more delicate timbre. Don’t get me wrong I also love Grant George as Kilik and Crispin Freeman as Siegfried before he got Darrin’d by Roger Craig Smith as these two also did phenomenal jobs of embodying them, but I can never go wrong with Hiyama-sensei and Hoshi-sensei for their amazing works as Siegfried and Kilik.
With that said, let’s get on to the fanfic. I will warn you that this is not for everyone to read, mostly because it is rather erotic with our two heroes making really passionate yet painful love to each other. That’s pretty much the entire story and I’m sure some of you are feeling hot beneath the gussets. Yes, the plot is rather minimalistic with two men caressing, kissing, embracing, and making love to each other, but this minimalistic plot is more than compensated by the language and stylistic devices. Let us not forget that Lethe is a river in the Underworld, which is meant for forgetfulness, hence the title Lethean Caresses. What we have here in this story are two men tormented and tortured by their sordid pasts that they find solace, comfort, intimacy, and such strong and mutual affection for each other, so much so, that they yearn to forget their earthly pains by making strong love to each other. There are only two pieces of dialogue, which are just the words “Bitte.”, or please in English said by Siegfried and “Look at me.”, said by Kilik, as the imagery, atmosphere, wordplay, and many other stylistic devices I could barely name off the top of my head help to make this story a huge blast to read from beginning to end and of course, make it extremely interesting.
Speaking of language, I found no typography errors whatsoever and even though a super small of punctuations were a bit questionable, that did not distract from the enjoyment I had reading this fanfic. The vocabulary has a lot of distinction as it is vivid, colorful, and just plain excellent in a somber and melancholic way. The overall language manages to manipulate my emotions so masterfully that I was so rooted in Siegfried and Kilik’s erotically intimate tale.
Speaking of our two male leads, Siegfried and Kilik sell the story. Their chemistry with each other is so effective, as their personalities blended so well, and I have to give ZoZo1770 a lot of credit for bringing in this much action to the both of them whilst keeping them sufficiently in character. I can sense the tension, the passion, the steam, and the longing for solace going on between them and it is a marvelous experience. On top of that, I can see their moments of intense intimacy playing in my head, all in courtesy of the great use of such poetic language, which showed eloquence, passion, and allure.
Overall, I am absolutely astounded by this dark and haunting tale of erotic pleasures going on between such tortured souls as Siegfried and Kilik. With such magnificent poetry in the passages and an overall haunting yet darkly romantic atmosphere to move the story along, this is a major must-read especially if you like Yaoi, Soul Calibur, or of course, Siegfried and Kilik just making out with each other. With that said, I give this an A+. I spotted no grammatical errors, I was not left bored, and the action going on between Siegfried and Kilik was thrilling, which were the biggest strengths of this story. Well, that’s all for now, and tune in later for my review of the Vokalensemble Kammerton’s Evensong at the Heiliggeist Kirche and until then, have a great day everybody.
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