Untitled

Celestial of Kindness. Bottom. Slave. 100. Asterios.

[sabrael-gibson]

"I mean it is kinda convenient we are here. Waiting. Unable to leave. Might as well have them keep us in good condition." Gibson was not a fighter, he was a survivor sure but he wasn't one to buck the shackles unless there seemed like a decent chance it would really happen and he couldn't see that happening anytime soon. "Well let's see. I summoned by witches and trapped in their basement in a containment circle while they used me as a battery for their magic. When the vampires busted in on them and took all of them- they found me too. A fun bonus I guess." he shrugged.

"Oh um but how does the fake person pick who the winner is? I don't think I get it still." Gibson sat down at the table none the less watching as the cards were distributed. "Um no I can't speak them all. Just read most of them. I think I was born somewhere in France. And you still speak 3 languages so that's super impressive. I can't speak Korean at all so even broken is impressive."

[asteriosmergo]

"Not convenient for anyone except the masters. Seems like a pretty unbalanced system if you think about it. Why should we live caged while they get to do whatever the hell they please?" Aster listened in slight horror to Gibson's story about being trapped in some witch's basement.

"That's fucked up," he finally managed. "So do you feel indebted to the vampires? Or is it more like, out of the fire and into the frying pan?"

"I had a pretty good life up until now. I was being trained by one of my superiors to sort of... blend in with humans. Just watching them, it wasn't really clicking. My mentor asked me one day to investigate Krovos Castle, because he thought I'd be good at it. And one of the vampires tricked me into a contract." He gave a bitter laugh at the memory. "I thought I was getting a job as a goddamn bartender. But instead, they locked me up down here. And I've been here ever since."

Aster was still certain that he'd die before he ever got free. And he just might. This life was aging him beyond his years. He felt so much older than his 100. He used to be like Gibson. Young and stupid and full of sunshine. But something in him had been eclipsed as soon as he was shackled. One of these days he might just bite off his own leg to get out.

"If we're talking reading, you still have me beat. I can barely read English." Aster snorted. "No, the fake person won't be judge. We can just pick out a card for them."

[doctorflorian]

Florian was on his weekly trip down to the Undercroft, he was bandaging up a familiar when he saw someone returning to their cell, once he finished, he walked over to the other. He knew the look on Aster's face, it was one that he was use to seeing down in the undercroft, it was the look of someone who just returned from a session with a master. The kresnik was about to say something when Aster spoke first and Florian raised an eyebrow. "Not exactly the most friendly thing to say." he chuckled and leaned back against the wall as he stared down at the other. "I'm Florian, the head doctor here."

[asteriosmergo]

Aster bristled slightly when the man introduced himself as a doctor. He'd always had an unreasonable fear of needles and sharp things. Doctors were lumped in with that phobia. It might seem silly given that he had the amount of tattoos he did, but the gun was very different to shots. Aster did his best not to hold it against Florian. But he was going to need to get drunker if he was going to talk to a doctor, whether or not they seemed kind.

"I'm not exactly the most friendly of people. Hi. Aster." Aster shook the bottle of booze. "You want some, or not?"

Aster took another shot, feeling himself numb just enough to calm his nerves. "So. What kind of doctor are you?"

[sabrael-gibson]

"I am sure if I got hurt they would patch me up. They want us to be in good form for the uh- you know. Vampires." Gibson shrugged, he knew some of the other slaves were sensitive talking about the masters. It was what it was if you asked him at this point.

"Oh I don't know how to play Cards against Humanity. But I like humanity why are we playing cards against them?" he asked with a tilt of his head, taking the name more literally than he should. "It is nice to meet you Aster." going to the shelving that held the games he began to look through the boxes. "Oh huh? I mean I can read and write in Latin but I don't remember learning Latin. Mostly like bad French I think? Some German. The place I was before here didn't have a lot of English books till the last few years." he said with a little shrug. "A nice person taught me to read. Actually funny story their whole family was really nice to me. Before them it was their father, and before them their father. They gave me books to read and told me about the world."

[asteriosmergo]

"Sure, whatever's most convenient for the masters, right?" Aster snorted. This kid was either very new or had been drinking the cool-aid for too long. He was sort of afraid that he'd be like that one day. Just a dewy-eyed moron who'd thoroughly warmed up to the idea of having everyone treat them like an object. He wanted to reawaken something within Gibson. Make him remember that the vampires were his enemy. "How'd you end up here, anyways?

Aster found the sleek black packet of cards.

"It's this game where you have question cards and answer cards, and whoever is asking the question picks their favorite. But we'll probably have to play with a fake third person since you need at least three people." He took the cards and separated them into sections, dealing five to each boy and the imaginary third player. "You know a lot of languages, shit. I think I can speak latin too. But I can only speak really broken Korean."

[varenychenko-moved]

[kuwentista]

are we okay? i'm not okay.

[thenekosimon]

The last thing Simon expected after a long meeting was to run into an unruly and tragic sight. The other looked like a semi truck hit him full force. The smell of the alcohol was in the air and the smoke burned his nose a bit. He never liked smoking. Weed and herbs were one thing, but the tobacco always was the worse. "I'll join you, but put out the smoke first. Or at the very least keep it away from me. Unless you want raw salmon smell on your shoes." It was a half joke as the neko gave a small, slightly nervous grin. Looking at the bottle he tilted his head. "What's tequila? Is it good? I usually stick to wines or fruity drinks. Not much of a drinker nor am I a hard liquor type." He paused and then made a zipping motion over his lips. "Sorry. I'll be quiet and drink now." He really wasn't used to non cheery people. Which he should have been given half the council have looks on their faces like they were just born from a donkey's ass. Well... he questioned if some of them actually were. He'd have to ask Raphael next time.

[asteriosmergo]

"What? Does smoke make you puke?" Aster asked. He didn't want to make anyone uncomfortable, so he put out his cigarette. He could always smoke the rest of the pack later.

"Well, Don Julio is a tequila for non drinkers. Just try a shot. Maybe not more than one if you don't usually drink. But this shit is good, I promise." He offered the boy the bottle. Searched his face for one bleary minute. If he knew this person, he couldn't remember them. But he didn't think they were a slave. They had a certain... freedom about them that slaves lacked. There was light in his eyes still. "I don't think I've seen you around here before. Where do you work?"

[mannythejaguar]

Manny knew he smelled something fishy happening in the Undercroft. The scent of tequila alone burned his sensitive nose from where he stood at the checkpoint on duty. Not wanting to get in trouble for slacking on the job he decided to investigate, soon coming upon Asterios with a bottle of the stuff and a cigarette — both things considered contraband down here for the prisoners.

“Hey, I don’t blame you,” the shifter replied. “But you know you can’t have that shit down here. Who gave you that stuff?”

[asteriosmergo]

"Oh, fuck off," Aster muttered. He'd stolen them from the master's room, but the guard didn't need to know that. "Come join me. It might help to loosen you up."

He gave the bottle an inviting shake. It was halfway gone now, and he wasn't terribly buzzed. But if he got to bully some high and mighty guard, it'd make his day. He took another shot, feeling it spread down his chest to warm his fingers. "You need to lighten up. What's your name?"

[sabrael-gibson]

"I'm ok, I'm ok I promise." Gibson said with a gentle laugh as he rolled over and off his ass onto his feet. Patting himself down as if to examine himself for anything that was broken, which was ridiculous seeing as he wasn't actually falling from too high up at all. Just his normal height. Gibson smiled at the stranger and held a hand out to him so he could introduce himself. "I'm Gibson, I prefer to be called Gibson. It's nice to meet you."

He was delighted when the other told him he would play a game with him. "Ok! What do you want to play? I can play most board games except Monopoly, it's diametrically opposed to who I am as a being."

[asteriosmergo]

Aster watched the man dust himself off and check himself for injuries. He was relieved to find that there were none. "Glad everything still works."

"Monopoly is an ass game. Let's play something fun, like Cards Against Humanity." It wasn't strictly a board game, but it was a lot more fun than any board game he'd ever played. If anything down here could be considered fun and not just distractions and wastes of time. He didn't know what he'd rather be doing, but pretty much anything beat what he was doing now. "Hi, Gibson. I'm Asterios. You can call me Aster."

He motioned for Gibson to follow him as he went hunting through the room for board games. But something Gibson had said stuck in his mind, and he found himself growing curious. "What did you mean, you just learned to read English? What did you read before?"

[asteriosmergo]

For: Anyone! @krovscastlestarters

Location: The undercroft

Asterios wasn't drunk, but he had plans to be very soon. It was always difficult to be inebriated with his celestial tolerance, but he was going to fucking try anyways.

Nothing in particular had happened today that was out of the ordinary besides a session with a master. Despite his rotten attitude and feigned incompetence, the master had kept him for longer than he would've liked. Tried to be his friend in spite of not knowing him in the slightest.

Aster needed to drink away the sensation of hands on his skin. Fingerprints lingered like brands under the heavy leather jacket he wore to keep himself from any more sensations. He felt an unreasonable urge to bite something, to rip at something with his fingernails. He'd settle for drinking everything into numbness.

He very nearly missed the eyes on him as he opened his bottle of Don Julio. Poured himself a shot with hands that trembled ever so slightly. He took the shot, feeling it burn down his throat. Sucked on his cigarette. Only then did he turn to the person who was watching him, not even bothering with a smile. Instead, he hoisted the bottle of tequila in a questioning manner.

"I'm getting drunk. You can either fuck off or join me. Just, please, be quiet."

[vanquishings]

open starter — location: the game room bar.

As far as keeping a low profile went, deciding to essentially infiltrate the town’s police department entirely for his own gain likely wasn’t the best course of action to take, but Abbàn had never been the type to do anything in half measures – being one of the first voices to call for a declaration of war against the vampires all those centuries ago was likely a prime example of such a fact. His impromptu meeting with Tiernan had been informative to a degree, though the cons seemed to outweigh the pros if the councilman’s reactions to his prying were anything to go by. Still, any consequences of such an action could be worried about at a later date.

Nursing the vodka soda he’d ordered without wholly meaning to – there’d been a brief scan of the drinks menu and a flippant wave of his hand alongside the request to ‘just make something’ – the former general curiously scanned his gaze around the game room from his seat at the bar. The castle’s layout was still vaguely familiar from his time spent occupying the residence when it was still under Fae occupancy as a fortress during the war effort but the atmosphere within it nowadays was irrevocably tainted. Lingering within it wasn’t the smartest move; even with Faust’s magic still doing a wonderful job of keeping his true identity safely hidden from perception, skulking around the enemy’s domain as brazenly as he was would undoubtedly become an issue sooner or later. It took Abbàn a moment to register the unmistakable feeling of being watched as he shifted in his seat. “Is there something I can help you with?” He made no attempt to face the stranger in question, a lazy smile spreading across his face as he readjusted his uniform to look at least a little professional despite the shirking of his duties. “The whole staring from a distance thing isn’t particularly subtle.”

@krovscastlestarters

[asteriosmergo]

Asterios hated anyone in a suit as a general rule. Whether they be master or guard or even bartenders on a break, they always wanted something to do with him. They always found something for him to do, whether that was inviting him to sit down with them, or give him some chore to do. All without even the slightest shred of decency or kindness. So Asterios made things difficult in return. He deliberately did things as slow as he possibly could, or pretended such incompetence that nobody would ever ask him to do things twice. He also liked to play with fire and twist everything the masters ordered him to do and do it wrong. It'd led to several punishments, but he never minded. It just meant that he'd succeeded in getting under the master's skin.

The kitchen staff was currently in chaos because one of its servers had called in sick. Asterios had the bad luck to be taking a smoke break around the back door to the kitchen when a manager demanded that he go take their place. As if he knew how to wait tables. But the manager didn't seem to care, shoving a pen and paper into his hands and tossing him into the chaos of the restaurant floor.

Despite the amount of people sitting down, nobody seemed to need anything. Without anything to do, Asterios slunk into a corner so he could watch the chaos of the dining room unfold. Already, he was overwhelmed by the sheer amount of conversation going on. He found it difficult to focus. He wondered vaguely if it'd be worth the punishment if he were to just leave: he truly wasn't doing anyone any good by being here.

As it turned out, leaving would've been the right answer. He'd been staring in the direction of some guy for perhaps too long, and made the guest uncomfortable. He could barely hear the complaint, but his disapproving face was one that Asterios was intimately familiar with.

"Pardon me, sir. I didn't mean to stare." He faked with his fakest polite voice. Suits loved that voice. He hoped it'd cover up his having no clue what he was doing. "Do you need anything? A refill, perhaps?"

[sabrael-gibson]

Location: Undercroft Common Room

Gibson stretched his legs as he stood on his tip toes, walking forward in a straight line, his arms outstretched like a tight rope walker. Not that he had ever been to a circus, but his last foray into a master's chambers they let him watch television and he had seen a movie about it. The celestial always dreamed of heights, and being up on a rope like that seemed thrilling- though it's not like he'd worry about falling. Normally anyway, because in this instance he did fall as his rather mundane sense of gravity made him trip over his own feet, tumbling down onto his ass staring up at the ceiling.

"I honestly am a lot more graceful than this I promise." he said sitting up, aware of the eyes on him. He was built like your stereotypical jock so perhaps grace was not what one thought of seeing him for the first time anyway. "You wanna play a board game? I learned how to read modern English last year and I am much better at them now."

[asteriosmergo]

"Ouch," Asterios said out of reflex as he watched the other fall. It did look a bit painful. "Are you okay?"

He'd been trying not to laugh as he watched the stranger pose and take entirely too delicate steps for his large size. He felt safe enough in the presence of another slave. Safe enough in the Undercroft. So he didn't waste time with hostility, or his usual bite. Besides, this person had just made a fool of themselves, and it'd be silly for him to be mean to them for that. There was very little to find joy in these days.

"Sure, man. What do you want to play?" Asterios asked.

[asteriosmergo]

[asteriosmergo]

[asteriosmergo]

[asteriosmergo]