Sanson Laurent

@sanson-laurent

35/253 | Master | Vampire | Verse

816 posts

It took a few days for Naoya to adjust to his new life, when he first arrived, he was depressed as he tried to figure out what he did wrong that got him sold off and sent to Krovs. The first few days, Naoya stayed in the corner of the Undercroft and didn't interact with anyone as he tried to understand the predicament that he found himself in. He barely ate and slept, he was trapped not just physically but also mentally but as the days passed, he slowly started to find meaning.

What pulled him out of his mental prison and gave him purpose was preforming little magic shows for the others in the undercroft. Since he had a power-negating collar around his neck, he wasn't able to do any of the fancy tricks he had done in the circus which meant he had to go back to his roots and do basic tricks. At first, he used rocks and sticks but eventually he managed to convince the guards to let him have a stack of cards.

Naoya was sitting with his back to the door, mindlessly shuffling the cards and doing basic magic like making a King of Hearts suddenly become a King of Spades when he felt a pair of eyes locked on his figure. "Can I help you?" he asked the other without looking up. If Leviticus Ashe saw him do that, he'd have bashed his head in for being so rude but Naoya was tired.

@krovscastlestarters

Sanson had gone down to the Undercroft to search for... well, he wasn't really sure. Maybe he just needed a walk, maybe he wanted to talk to someone. Whatever it was, he passed by each of the cells, glancing into each without really seeing any of the people who might have been inside.

However, the sight of playing cards intrigued him. So far, he had yet to see any slaves given something so frivolous to play with. Pausing outside of the cell, Sanson watched the slave change the cards. "Impressive," he commented, reminded of the street magicians he had seen as a human. In a castle full of magical beings, mundane magic was a novelty. "Where did you learn that?"

"Really?" Manny raised his brows, shocked that sentiment came from one of the masters here by choice. Sanson did understand what this place was all about, didn't he? "Maybe I'm desensitized to it all, I find the "intimate" ones to be the most normal, I suppose."

"In such a place, they would be." Sanson valued choice and an intimate curse took that away. Blood and violence could be dealt with but anything else was...worse somehow, a very strange sentiment in the castle, but his rationalization made the slaves into deserving people. "Do you think they'll ever find the cause of all this?"

taliesin-mistry-deactivated2025

"Mumbai. You can imagine the climate shock." India would have been most people's first guess, looking at Taliesin, but once he opened his mouth it muddied his origin. Hearing that received pronunciation that had been beaten into him at boarding school could be quite jarring, if people weren't expecting it.

He narrowed his eyes. Of course they asked the Indian to look at the numbers for them. Rude, very rude. "You wouldn't ask me to look at your accounts if you knew why I was here." His father's corruption had been rather a lot worse than just cooking the books, but there was rather a lot of that going on too.

"I can, yes." France had cold winters, but nothing like this. However, he guessed it was far less jarring than coming from Mumbai. "Why are you here?" he asked. Every slave had a story. His reason for picking this one was simply because this was the first person he had run into down here that he hadn't seen before. He knew what the other slaves could do.

Sanson didn't look at outside news much, especially when he was busy. Theoretically, he was at the castle to relax and that meant less of the outside world. However, he couldn't shut himself out for good. Business had to continue.

#convo taliesin

Dostoevsky. Not someone he had read recently. Most of his reading was work related and rarely did he have time for anything else. Perhaps he would need to make time to reread some of his old favorites. "I have some novels I've enjoyed," he nodded, honest.

"Sanson, a pleasure." Not his real name, but he didn't use that anymore so there was little point in saying it. "Have you been here long?"

taliesin-mistry-deactivated2025

Internally, Taliesin rolled his eyes. I have some novels I've enjoyed. That was like saying you had watched a sports match, or did have hobbies. It told Taliesin precisely nothing. Externally, his face didn't change from its soft smile. Well, he supposed it did tell him something, that this particular individual was not at all forthcoming.

"A week or so," Taliesin hummed. He'd been rented a few times, mostly for manual labour, which was honestly a ridiculous waste of him. He had experienced a vampire bite, though, and there were a couple of puncture marks on his neck to show it. "I'm still not quite used to the climate in Russia." He could feel himself wilting like a plant from the lack of sunlight and warmth. "I assume you've been here much longer."

Telling others in depth information about himself wasn't why he was here. As a human, he had learned to keep personal information as close as possible and even after being turned, he had retained that caution. Perhaps it wasn't needed right now. However, he wasn't going to simply drop it.

Hm, not long at all. "You'll find it less bothersome as time goes on." Sanson particularly appreciated the summers. "Are you from somewhere warmer originally?" 'Warmer' was a low bar, he knew. "Yes, a few years." Long to a human, but to a vampire, it might as well have been a few weeks. "I need you for a task," he continued, pleased that the slave could read. "How good are you with accounting?"

#convo taliesin

"Oh definitely the one that causes people to start bleeding from randomly inflicted wounds or whatever it is," Manny explained. "Not only is it messy and likely dangerous in a castle full of vampires –– especially younger ones with hardly any control over their hunger –– that feed on the stuff, I've had one or two nearly pass out from blood loss."

The vampire blinked, stunned, then shook his head. Yes, that sounded awful. Blood and vampires were a terrible combination and with the younger and less experienced around, there was a great deal of danger. "I feel awful for them," he sighed, "the more...intimate spells are the most embarrassing, though."

"Fortunately, it's all temporary. Could also be worse too," Manny continued on his streak of trying to reassure Sanson regardless whether it was effective or not. He swung the leash attached to his own collar in his hand. "Could've been hit with one of them horny spells where you have to obey whoever hit you with it. Or just, like, be sexually frustrated for days with no one right on hand to help."

Sanson was very sure it could be worse. However, that was only partially comforting. He would much rather have something grotesque than embarrassing. "True... I suppose this isn't so bad. What is the worst you've seen so far?"

taliesin-mistry-deactivated2025

Taliesin turned to face the man addressing him. He shifted onto his side, propping his chin up on his knuckle, letting his legs rub together where he held them up, like a mating cricket. His gaze briefly flicked over the man's face. He looked boyish, maybe even a little nervous. Still, Taliesin had to be careful. Who knew what this guy's deal really was. Maybe he wanted to eat Taliesin.

"It's Dostoevsky. Enjoying is probably the wrong world. I'm finding it enlightening though. Are you a fan of Russian literature?" Taliesin could be incredibly congenial when he wanted to be. Charming, maybe even bewitching to the right person. His eyes widened, the full Bambi effect. "I'm Taliesin."

Dostoevsky. Not someone he had read recently. Most of his reading was work related and rarely did he have time for anything else. Perhaps he would need to make time to reread some of his old favorites. "I have some novels I've enjoyed," he nodded, honest.

"Sanson, a pleasure." Not his real name, but he didn't use that anymore so there was little point in saying it. "Have you been here long?"

#convo taliesin

taliesin-mistry-deactivated2025

Taliesin lounged, lasciviously, over a sofa, reading. Of course he knew how he looked, spread out on his back with his legs bent at the knees, one hand dangling idly, fingers swinging, except when he needed it to turn the page. His hair spread out in a dark halo around his head. That was the whole idea, to advertise. He was bored out of his mind and apparently the only way out was with an escort. So, an escort he intended to get.

He flipped another page of Dostoevsky. It wasn't giving Taliesin too much hassle, not with his talent for literature, but he found it a little dry and hard-going for his tastes. It was the kind of thing that required incredibly active reading to go in and sadly, Taliesin was in much more of a passive mindset. He paused, a twitch of a smile at the shadow falling over his page. "Yes?"

Sanson wasn't sure what he wanted, a common occurrence for the Frenchman now. With his Sire gone, he needed to somehow make himself relax without another person breathing down his neck. What was he meant to do? The man wasn't nearly as domineering as other vampires and preferred a sort of halfway point, but that wasn't what he was 'supposed' to do.

Shaking his head, he walked along in search of someone, anyone, and when his eyes landed on a slave he hadn't seen before, he paused. "Are you enjoying your book?"

#convo taliesin

"And now you've braved coming out, huh?" Manny asked, smirking ever so slightly. He held up his hand in reassurance. "Don't worry, I promise not to say your name. Or, well, I promise to try and remember not saying your name so casually."

"Something like that," Sanson sighed. Staying stuck in his room, while effective in the short term, wasn't really a solution. He had to learn to keep himself in check. "Thank you. I appreciate it. I've been lucky so far in that no one has called to me."

Yuta had finally settled into his role as the Enforcer and after doing his early morning run through the Undercroft to make sure that everything was status quo. After breaking up a small fight between two of slaves who were having a disagreement and bringing one of them up to the castle doctor to get stitched up. He decided to swing by the castle gym to get in a quick training session, he had been so focused on his job that he hadn't taken a moment for himself and this was the perfect opportunity to maintain his skills.

After testing out the sparring swords and finding one that had a decent weight to it, Yuta stepped into the sparring ring to get some sparring in with the staff. After spending over an hour sparring with whoever was willing to step in the ring with the Enforcer, Yuta finished off his workout using the punching bag.

As he was unwrapping his hand wraps, he felt a pair of eyes on him and he smiled. "Did you enjoy the show?" He asked them, not even bothering to look to see who exactly was staring at him but he hoped that it wasn't a councilman. He didn't want to spoil what was so far, a promising day.

@krovscastlestarters

Sanson...wasn't much of a fighter. He would never claim to be. His work was administrative at best and mostly paperwork at worst, but he didn't mind that. Still, with Remus gone and the other's business interests in his hands for the foreseeable future, he didn't know what to do. To keep the business, he had to be able to defend it, not just from hostile takeovers of the mundane kind, but from those who might try a more...old fashioned approach to transfers of authority.

Before he left, Remus had taught him some swordplay and hand to hand work, but he was still far behind where he needed to be and thus Sanson went down to the gym. He stayed to the side, watching those fighting, far better than he could.

When the fight stopped, he was about to move closer to try his own hand at whoever might be willing, but paused to watch the other on the punching bags. It was only when the man spoke that Sanson realized how much he had been staring. "Ah," he coughed, "My apologies. I shouldn't have watched so closely."

"Oddly how? Is it the stripping or the orgasming type?" Manny asked cause those were the only two name-related spells he knew of floating around. Fortunately he had an in with one of the magic consultants who gave him a list of the spells to expect ahead of time, all for professional purposes of course. It wasn't at all because the two of them bonded over their share of disliking surprises.

"...The latter..." he answered reluctantly. Telling someone else felt like handing them something to use against him, but he felt it better to admit strange behavior now rather than wait for it to just happen through the course of conversation. "I've been keeping to my room for most of the day."

"Fair. Probably been a weird week," Manny said, smiling small as he watched Sanson. "What spell's messing you up right about now? You seem like you're pretty out of it."

"People keep coming up to me for strange trysts and then when someone says my name, I start behaving oddly." Perhaps he shouldn't have said anything, but he felt better telling someone what was going on.

Silver took his time scanning the library shelves looking for a book. He was trying to find something new. Something out of the norm for him. Now that he had a literal life time he could read anything and everything. Which also meant he would get more than one book at a time now.

He landed himself in the romance section. One spot he usually avoided, but he wanted to give it a try. He laughed at some of the titles and covers as he looked through them. Honestly he didn't know how some of these got published. But it might be amusing and maybe he would like them. So there he was, reading a few pages and laughing at some of it. "Do people really read these?"

@krovscastlestarters

Being in the library was, more often than not, an attempt to find a good, quiet place to work while pretending he was getting some social time. He didn't hate other people, more they made him nervous and he would rather just work. However, that wasn't healthy. This way, at least, he could talk a little.

Moving through the books, he couldn't remember where a few histories were and wound up near the romance section. Hearing the other speak, he glanced over. "I would guess so. They keep publishing the books, which means they make money, so someone much enjoy them."

"Uh, this?" Manny answered, furrowing his brows in confusion as he gestured to the leash in his hand again to answer Sanson's question. The leash that hadn't been strapped to his collar seconds earlier. "You good, man? Seem like you're a bit distracted."

What was he supposed to say? That people saying his name was making him act in entirely undignified ways? That he couldn't think straight and kept getting distracted? That the leash looked really fun to grab? Sanson swallowed. "It's been a...weird day..."

Manny didn't know what he'd done to deserve such treatment. One minute he'd been minding his business and the next he felt a strap of leather down his front connected to the collar around his neck paired with an overwhelming arousal and frustration. Sexual, of course, because what else would it be in Krovs during Spring Mischief? He glanced down as he picked up the leash in his hand and turned, raising a brow at the nearest person. "Was this your doing or..?"

@krovscastlestarters

Sanson was really hoping he wouldn't run into any trouble. He already felt odd and like just one little thing was going to make him do something embarrassing. However, he couldn't stay in his suite forever and started walking the halls, hoping for some relief. What he found was less than helpful. "No, I didn't do this," he sighed, looking the other up and down. "What's happened to you?"

Say My Name

"Absolutely no one talk to me. No one."

Irresistible

"I will be hiding in my office. Everyone seems to have lost their minds."

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