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Replacement || Seth & Erik

With work rather quiet today, Seth decided he’d take an extended lunch break back in his suite to hang out with Shade and Todd. Turning down the hallway, he caught sight of a familiar face, doing a double take as it took his brain a moment to fully process who it was. It’d been a while, but he remembered Heinrich’s old friend and second-in-command from the few visits he’d made to the castle in the past. He hadn’t expected him back in Krovs any time soon given, well… 

“Erik?” he called out, stopping in his tracks to meet the older man. He offered him a small smile, wondering if he knew about Heinrich’s retirement. He had to know, didn’t he? “‘S’been a while. What brings you to Krovs this time?” 

@vonackermann​

Erik almost ruled out the young witch as another random passerby had it not been for Seth calling him out. His steps came into a halt before he was looking up from the report he was reading halfway through. “Seth.” The Aswang nodded slightly in acknowledgement, returning the other’s smile with a curl of his lips. Unlike with Mathias, both him and Seth have been better acquainted. Still, Erik can’t help but to feel the start of some gnawing sensation in his gut when he was reminded of Mathias’ outburst in his office few days ago. Would it be the same with Seth? Erik prided himself being able to adapt to any situation, but comforting or dealing with someone grieving was never his forte. He was even hard on himself when it came to that after all. “Council matters. Official capacity this time.” He arched a brow as he met the other’s gaze. “Thought the staffs were all informed of it?”

Avoiding the castle wasn’t as hard as Mathias thought. He had no real reason to go there now that he was a villager. He enjoyed his time in the village too, feeling the freedom he once had before he was taken from his home. It was nice, and perhaps the road to recovery would be easier now. That sense of hope was quick to wash away though.

A slave came into the cafe, and mentioned that there was a new councilman, and while Mathias normally wouldn’t care, where the councilman was from caught his attention. A new councilman of Germany.

The necromancer stopped thinking altogether now. He ran out of his cafe, and into the castle. He didn’t think about all the memories he had in that place, nor the pain he suffered there. All he could think about was this new councilman taking Heinrich’s spot.

Mathias stormed into what he assumed was the man’s office, his eyes a bright green, as his magic swirled around him. He glared at the vampire he saw, unable to accept that someone would come in and take Heinrich’s spot.

“Y-You….Th-This isn’t your place. Get out!”

@vonackermann​

He was having an audience with some of the staffs when a person stormed into the office. It didn’t take him long to recognise who it was, in fact it was almost instantenous; how could he not when said person had also been the subject of quite a number of private conversations with Heinrich, especially the recent few years. Erik waved off the one of the staff’s sharp gaze,no, there was no need for their intervention. “Please leave us be, gentlemen.” 

As the staffs took their leave, Erik leaned slightly against the still pretty much bare desk, regarding the young necromancer nonchalantly despite the magic swirling around him. While they have crossed paths during the few times Heinrich brought him along to Berlin previously, they didn’t actually managed to get more familar with each other; a fact that the Aswang was starting to regret now. It would be easier and less complicated had Heinrich been around with them. “I’m afraid this is technically and officially my place, Mat- Mister Attano. At least for the time being.” Hell he wasn’t even sure whether to address the necromancer with his first name as Heinrich would or not in this situation.

The street was evidently more lively now than during his last visit years ago with more buildings being set up along it— cafes, various independent retails,stalls and painted homes were among what he could notice as he walked. Erik stopped by to view some trinkets being displayed on one of the stalls. It was then as he was viewing that a hand reached out to pick the item close to him. What caught his attention was not the item of course, but more to the ring adorning delicate long finger.

Dragons rarely forget what had been in their collections and in this case Erik was sure that the ring had once belonged to him before he gifted it to someone. The prospect of meeting said someone again after a long time was enough to trigger the Aswang to reach over to take the hand by the wrist firmly. “Isabelle?” He called out before he could properly look at the other’s face; the way saif name left his lips proposing that there had once been some kind of intimacy between him and its owner.

Merek barely had time to look Erik over eagerly before there was some kind of creature running toward him and pinning him down to the couch.  The psionic flailed gracelessly for a moment in complete surprise before he settled again, finding himself nose to nose with some animal that he didn’t recognize.  The councilman was hardly the first to bring a pet to the castle, though this was certainly a first time for Merek being greeted this way.  He blinked up at the creature and then glanced toward Erik.  “Ah.  He’s…quite something.”  The servant raised a hand to awkwardly pat the beast on the neck.  “Do you mind calling him off?”

His lips curled into a smirk that was threatening to turn into a full blown grin as Orion pressed its snout against Merek’s neck before moving lower to the psionic’s chest, sniffing his scent without a care for his comfort. “Why should I?” Erik murmured light-heartedly as he stood next to the couch with his arms folded across his chest. “Seems to me like he finds you....tasty.” He let his pet continue to sniff at the servant only letting out a sharp whistle when Orion began to move even lower down Merek’s torso. “Nein,Orion. Hör auf damit. Geh in deine Ecke.” Thankfully as frisky as it might be, the Chamrosh was obedient to a fault. It leapt off the couch and trotted away, of course not before licking at the psionic’s face. Erik moved to settle on the couch then, offering a handkerchief to the younger male. “Might want to wipe that off first if you’re thinking of kissing me.”

A crate. They managed to misplace a whole damn crate. And to top of that someone managed to be careless enough to let his ten-year-old Chamrosh escaped when loading his belongings into his suite. Erik could feel a headache coming on as he tempered down the fire threatening to erupt from within him. No, it won’t be good for him to lose his calm this way. He was better than this. The unfortunate staff trembled slightly when the Councilman’s serpentine glare were cast upon them. “Two days. Or I’ll have your head.”

After they scurried away to begin searching for the crate, Erik took the opposite path. While it have been indeed a long journey all the way here from Berlin, it hadn’t feel right to simply succumb to the urge to retire to his suite just yet. Searching for his exotic frisky pet would probably do him good as he could not only stretch his legs but also check out both the castle and if possible the town nearby to see if there have been changes to them since his last visit. Hours passed by before he caught the sight of the familiar monstrosity; at that moment wagging its tail in excitement while seemingly engrossed in a staring contest with another person few metres away from it. “Orion, aus.” The Councilman commanded firmly.

When Merek had heard about just who was going to be paying the castle a visit, he’d practically demanded to get his suite prepared.  Mostly because he had a plan.

Erik had left quite an impression on the psionic, even if the master hadn’t spent all that much time in Krovs beforehand.  Merek wanted to be one of the first that the councilman saw when he came back, which was half the reason that he’d demanded to get things ready.  Whistling softly, the servant got all the normal things set – bloodwine in the fridge, furniture all straightened and neat, etc. – and then added his own touch.  Namely a very large banner that he’d bought for this occasion, the words ‘WELCOME DADDY’ an almost obnoxiously bright purple.

Merek stepped back a bit to make sure it was positioned just right and then took a few seconds to struggle with moving the couch directly underneath it.  That done, he heard the handle of the door turning and cursed quietly, quickly stripping out of his clothes and sprawled, naked, across the couch.  He propped his cheek up on his hand, grinning widely, and then winked.

“Evening, Councilman.”

@vonackermann​

When he eventually retired to his suite, it was to the intention to call it a day. He was not expecting at all of course to be greeted first thing first with the ridiculously worded banner with bright purple fonts. Erik’s gaze trailed down from the banner to the figure sprawled across the couch in all his naked glory. “Merek Hopper.” His pet Chamrosh took the opportunity at the same time to dash inside,heading straight towards the couch before jumping on the psionic earning a chuckle from the Councilman. “I see you’re enthusiathic as ever. Well, meet Orion then.” He closed the door behind him before making his way towards them, watching with amusement as his half wolf,half eagle pet proceed to pin the servant onto the couch as it sniffed at him. “Both of you are well-matched.”

It wasn’t everyday that Ben let his guard down. Truthfully, he should have been paying attention, but his mind was elsewhere. He had been talking, rather rudely as always, to a younger vampire when something he said set the other man off. Most of the time, other’s just stormed off once they realized they couldn’t change Ben’s attitude, but not this one. There was a metallic flash, and a sharp pain the suddenly burst from Ben’s side. 

Well fuck.

He stared down at the blade in his side, then back to the younger vampire. “That’s not very nice…” Before Ben could put his hands on the other vampire, someone approached. The councilman offered them a smile, the knife still plunged into his side, “Look at this sweet gift this little one just gave me”.

@krovscastlerpg​

He was not actually expecting to come across such incident this early, it had not even yet been a day since he stepped into the castle after all. But then again, this was also not something unsettling much for the Aswang. And from the smile that was plastered across the other councilman’s face, not one for him either. Erik let out a soft chuckle and shook his head as he proceed to approach the pair, in a way blocking the young vampire in between them next. “Youngins of late. Always too reckless.” He murmured as he met the other’s gaze. “Maybe you could show this one how it’s actually done?”