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 Posted: Sun Nov 09, 2014 11:09 am
Calder was not giving either of them any mind as Zar tried to continue saying it was a hallucination. "You just want to leave." He grumbled through his now-sharp teeth.
Since Calder was preventing the carriage from being rescued (if that was even possible at this point), Zar would say anything to make him stop.
"Everything here feels real. How do I know you're the real ones then," To prove this, he kicked Barth again.
He didn't want it to be real, but everything said otherwise. Every part of him hurt and that was too real too, along with the anger that twisted through his system. Pain and hurt from being lied to all these years, hurt from believing every word, anger that he felt so much for them with all his heart, and s multitude of reasons to hate himself for this happening now. He hated himself for having too much pride to take the offer to put on the reigns, hatred he even considered it, and anger that they even offered it at all.
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Posted: Sun Nov 09, 2014 2:35 pm
"Oof!" Barth rolled over, some, hissing with pain, and he'd already been through quite a lot this- whatever time of day it was, and he felt as though he'd know if it was a dream.
"Christof. Pull yoursssself Together. Grimhold, Get the carriage back in order. I need to be in Bloodhurst," he lied.
The head grunted, and made a rolling effort, and Grimhold gave him an annoyed look, but swooped down to lift part of the wheel with unnatural strength. Still. There was no marked tug. The actions were perfunctory.
"They're not Mine," Barth realized aloud, definitive. He'd know. Calder, however... Barth clutched his stomach. "That's 4/5. Odds aren't in your favor."He eyed Calder with a certain amount of coolness, and seemed to consider something, but decided against it.
"Nngh. Could you...could you not- your hooves are on the hard side, you know. If this is a spell, it's a convincing one. How did we get here? Zar, where did you come from? Before the treadmill-"
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Posted: Sun Nov 09, 2014 2:47 pm
Zar's look of delight at the trouncing Barth was roundly receiving iced over and froze as he was forced to recount his own nightmare. "It was the school. It was closed." he said. It was not really the truth, it was not really a lie. "I felt the..." he twitched one paw, tempted to touch his chest before he dismissed the reflex entirely, pushing away all of the welling sadness associated with the vision in one fell swoop.
"You should just keep kicking him." he said cordially to Calder.
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Posted: Sun Nov 09, 2014 2:56 pm
Calder looked down at the sloth demon, frowning as a tear rolled down his cheek despite his clenched fists.
Barth's talking aloud was received simply as Barth talking to him. This Barth, who wanted to leave. This Barth, who was giving orders and wanting to leave this place and Calder behind as quickly as possible. This Barth who looked at him and told him that the odds were not in his favor.
Reaching down, Calder grabbed the demon by the cuff of his shirt and dragged him up, easy to do given that he already tenderized the usually motionless demon. Holding him up with one arm. he looked right back to him - a bit less cooly as the demon had done. "Odds may not be in my favor, but I can tear each and every one of you apart if it means it."
He leaned to whisper. "I'll tear you apart like you tore my heart apart. I'll down you with me and my sorrows."
"...there is a river nearby."
Barth was easy to carry and Calder knew he would have no problem taking him, but Zar, - what was his angle?
He turned to look at the incubi. "I know you said you don't love anything, but you aren't going to fight for him either? Is that what you're about? You were going to go with him and have that life and leave me without mine? Is that what makes a demon like you happy? Are you grateful for nothing out of this when I have nothing left now?"
He held up Barth a little higher. "You won't even fight for him?" Calder looked at Barth. "If not, then the odds are less in your favor." He glanced at the broken Christof. "A lot less in your favor." He growled, flashing a row of sharp teeth.
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Posted: Sun Nov 09, 2014 3:08 pm
"L...let's not do anything rash," Barth said, dangling from Calder's grip. "Al-alright, school was closed you said?"
School being closed didn't make any sense.
"We're...is this even the City? Were you- let's see, is this something err, is this something you're afraid of? Maybe it's something I'm afraid of. Calder, listen, if you are Calder- I haven't- I haven't done any heart tearing. Lately. And I'd rather like my innards to stay that way. You know I'm not very good at drowning. Can we talk about this?"
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Posted: Sun Nov 09, 2014 3:14 pm
The Incubus gave the kelpie a look he generally reserved for the genuinely stupid. He was completely out of control on his own emotions, babbling and threatening to drown Barth who didn't even seem to think that Calder was even real.
Sighing heavily, Zar stepped forward and twisted his tail back around Barth, reaching out to seize any part of Calder he could get hold of. "We have established I am real. I have the Mark."
He did not like making himself any kind of emotional conduit, it was a horrible crowded feeling, but they would, if they paid attention, be able to feel the other individual's emotions. And then he let go, baring his teeth and stalking away from two of them with disdain, out of fighting range.
"This is not what I'm afraid of." he said.
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Posted: Sun Nov 09, 2014 3:30 pm
The slithering of Zar's tail was something he generally welcomed, but he wanted nothing more now than to rip it off, tearing it into pieces and tossing it into a swamp for the phish to eat. The hold wasn't long, and Calder grip tightened around Barth, not wanting his hostage to be taken.
In a flash, he felt the general confusion and worry the other demon was feeling, as the general.....flavor it that was what you could call it...did not feel like Zar to be mistaken as such.
Looking at Barth as the tail relaxed and left them, he was left just as confused but still overall hurt. He had no idea what the two of them were talking about, it it could have been a private conversation they were continuing while in the carriage. Stuff that didn't include him anymore. Conversations he was no longer part of - or maybe never had been.
Was it the mark then?
"Ok...we'll talk then...........................did you only intend to keep those you mark around, was that it?"
His grip loosened, but only because Calder couldn't keep up holding Barth this close to him without it hurting more. He dropped the demon and looked down at him.
"....or do you want to talk about how long you it was until you stopped loving me?"
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Posted: Sun Nov 09, 2014 3:47 pm
The landing wasn't soft either. Barth didn't make any effort to get up after. The link, brief and intense, had been Zar and also Calder. The actual Calder.
"It is you," Barth said from the ground, more softly. "No. I still- Think. How did you get here? What were you doing just before? I was asleep, in my bed. Then I was awake, and on a treadmill churning into a fiery pit. Not that...I mean, I keep on waking up, so I might have- walked. Sometimes, in my sleep...but nevertheless. Zar came and got me. We flew here, and you were destroying that carriage... Calder, I still...ah, I," and much more quietly, "love you. I do want a future. ...Preferably a future without tissue damage."
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Posted: Sun Nov 09, 2014 3:54 pm
Zar watched, content not to shift out of this shape where emotions did not manifest as expressions in the same way.
His ears twitched at the word love, but other than that he seemed wholly disinterested in the entire conversation.
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Posted: Sun Nov 09, 2014 4:06 pm
he was left confused by the explaination but the reassurance that Barth did not hate him, did not cease to love him, was enough to make his smoking eyes flicker and go out, turning from a bright white to a milky gray to a dull green as they started to return back to color, though not fully there yet. Tears still stained the corner of his eyes and his cheeks were flushed red as he looked at them.
Calder looked at Barth and then at Zar and then slowly sank down to his knees, looking at the demon. "So....you're not leaving me? You're not running away with Zar and Christof to be happy and finacially secure and with a demon who..is...." He didn't turn his head to look back at Zar, and he leaned in to Barth to whisper. "....prettier than me?"
He leaned back, looking doe-eyed at him.
"I was....in my room and taken. Then I was dumped here. I thought, since everyone was....was leaving, maybe my time was up and they were kicking me out. You guys just knew before me or something and - well, didn't care to tell me anyways. You were all here and ready to go....were going.......and said things........." His voice had gotten smaller and smaller as he spoke.
Not wanting to think about it, he was quiet as he knelt there, hands on his knees and looking at the stone road before he glanced up. ".....you flew?"
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Toshihiko Two generated a random number between
1 and 13 ...
1!
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Posted: Sun Nov 09, 2014 4:17 pm
"No! What, no, err, look, me, run-? Of course not. I'm not going to leave."
Barth relaxed significantly now that physical violence was off the table.
"Taken."
So, they were taken. By who? He looked at Zar, who was looking every inch like he was ignoring them, minus his ears.
"Right, well," Barth sighed, "Not the most unusual situation we've been in."
It got slightly more unusual when the door to the carriage creaked open, and instead of the interior, beyond was what looked like...an office?Quote: 1. Prompt - A Letter To My Future Self -- You step into a room. Except it now isn't a room anymore. A quick look down at yourself reveals that you've changed. You know that you're still you, and part of you realizes that you are your future self. Describe a day in the life of your future self, the future that you see your character in. If in a group: it is up to you whether you want to solo it, or go create a future-based PRP thread to RP it out.
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Posted: Sun Nov 09, 2014 5:31 pm
Zar turned to look as soon as the carriage swung open and shifting out, even as he made his way over - swithering in-between for a moment as some nightmare combination of beast and man - and headed straight in. He didn't wait for anyone else, he'd satisfied his end of the deal by retrieving Barth from his peril.
On the other side there was that feeling again as everything changed around him and resettled itself. Changed? Had anything changed? His room was exactly as it had been, richly furnished, somewhere between demonic decadence and sleekly refined slime pool for his more unique needs. No everything was just as it had been before, he was sure of it, even hesitating in front of a mirror thoughtfully. His reflection was normal, his six long horns majestically framing his features, sharp and perfect with not an inch of puppy fat anywhere. He was dressed as he normally was in tailored fashions of the day. He even checked his planner, but as he'd anticipated it to be, it was empty. This was his day off, time away from the hustle and bustle of his many callers. The "glamour" business was demanding of his time.
But he needed something to demand his time.
The castle was vast, he'd always known it would be, and the distances therin felt even more vast for how sparsely populated the place was. Well, sparse in adults. Barth and Calder had cultivated some enormous brood of scarelings and it had left the Sloth demon a mere sliver of his former self, sapping his energy as fast as he could regenerate it. It made him nauseous to think of it, but he had never said anything, he was not someone to intervene in other people's dreams.
Not any more, anyway.
He hated the scarelings. He assumed it was how he was designed to be, trained to be, after all his parents had resented him. Even now with both of them gone, no longer a threat he'd never warmed to the idea of scarelings.
He was their lodger, more or less. Not smart enough to help in the labs, not fertile enough to fuel the army of little monsters and demons. He slept with people often, never opening his side of the link, always searching for something and never knowing - or never admitting even to himself - what it was he sought.
The day played out the way every day did, contacting his secretary over at the magazine, declining a meal - he was booked for a very specific client later that week - and simply whiling away the hours of one day in a very very long life.
He saw the others only once, Calder glimpsed passing a room with something between battery chicken style cages and stables, all lined with scarelings. The kelpie didn't see him.
Barth he saw only in the elaborate oil painting that hung over the dining hall fireplace where he sat alone and drank his wine. He didn't bother him any longer.
It was only as he lay down on his bed to rest - not sleep, not any more - that he found himself wondering if the change he'd felt that morning had simply been some last vestige of wishful thinking, sputtering and going out like a dying candle.
----
Zar shuddered as the vision faded away, but said nothing else of it.
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Posted: Tue Nov 11, 2014 8:24 am
The carriage opened and instead of showing the Other Zar and Barth holding each other, it was simply an office. An office that he looked and then he was no longer on cobblestone but in a hallway and checking into a now messier office, filled with various blueprints and containers of gears with a pile of paperwork that was not being addressed and had not been addressed in some time. It would be checked over by someone else – but defiantly not by its neglecting owner.
Barth wasn't in his office, which meant he was either working upstairs in the attic lab, where much larger projects were held or taking a nap in one of the many couches, lounge chairs, or unconventional surfaces of the house.
Calder, slightly taller than before, stood in a worn sweater and kilt, any dangling chains or pouches long since forgone in lieu of scarlings. He could tell he had more muscle definition, his fur about his hooves were longer, and his tail had been cut short and ribboned tightly to keep it from dragging on the ground. His hair had been braided and was now so long that it nearly reached his tail.
It was quiet here, and had been for some time. He moved down the hallways, past the extra rooms were had and would remain unused, and to the few rooms that belonged to their offspring. He had made plans for more occupants but life hadn't allowed it. It had been hard enough on both of them just to get the ones they had.
They were not home, had been off playing with friends after school. Their things were tossed about the floor and bed unkept. It was hard to tell scarlings to keep their rooms tidy when the rest of the house often looked like a scrap yard.
He could hear the distant clanging of metal and whistles of steam from some distant room, and he glanced up, feeling some reassurance that he wasn't alone, but they were busy and he would only be disturbing their work. It wouldn't make sense to go anyways when he'd be ignored for gears and sprockets.
He moved past the library and then to the kitchen, all cleaned and well kept, and sighed at the time keeper on the wall, a robot that clinked and ticked the time away. It was a nice gift from Christof, but it was horrible in reminding him he still had hours before he could make dinner. It was these times he didn't know what to do with himself.
He hadn't planned enough. They grew up too fast, and soon Amityville would take them forever.
Sitting down, he undid his braid and started to comb his hair, looking at the clock.
Once they were gone, there would be more hours for him. Then what?
Rattled, he decided to check on the boys.
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Posted: Tue Nov 11, 2014 5:25 pm
Barth could sense/see the others, in a vague and dreamlike way. He was comfortable with dreams. He only wished he knew what this was.
Were they both really so gloomy about things?
He was older, but he aged slowly. By 20, he had still looked 6. His father had only kicked him out of the house after 113 years of mooching and wheedling. Barth had always been about the long game, and this- school, his friendships, this business were connected to it, were not immediate gratification five second deals, but on the whole still not long-game exactly.
He had a dignified touch of gray at his temples. He had a lineage, and a legacy. Samuel was long-dead, and in spite of the burden of wealth that brought, Bartholomew Mudd had weathered the churn of intrigue, betrayal, and changes of power.
His reputation, in spite of his reach, was one of a harmless (if eccentric) researcher. He wormed his way out of politics and weaseled away from most serious discussions or conflict, but still, politics managed to be a good percentage of things.
The world, theirs and his, had changed, but thankfully many of the Old stories repeated themselves. The world did not spin on his claw. After all, there were seven sins. Sloth, and he himself, had always been the cooperative kind. One who is slack in his work is brother to one who destroys. So it was with some satisfaction he was able to build on more than just his own vision.
Keeping a House well-fed meant more than grocery shopping.
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MoonKitsune generated a random number between
1 and 13 ...
2!
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Posted: Tue Nov 11, 2014 5:43 pm
Quote: 2. Prompt - In Their Shoes Now You step into a room. Except it now isn't a room anymore. It's now a classroom, and the students within it are staring at you in a mixture of interest, disinterest, boredom, and several of them are doing a rather poor job at attempting to hide their skellyphones as they text one another beneath their desks. It suddenly occurs you that you are now a professor. What subject are you teaching? How are you teaching it? If in a group, you may solo it out or hold a joint class as a PRP. Or, you may prp hanging out with your fellow professors in the Teacher's Lounge chatting about daily life.
Zar had been successful, and Calder was sad that he had not included himself more with the rest of them. Had his dreams for the future in no way related to them aside as a distant observer? And yet, Zar wasn't happy either despite a full book and the attention. He would be useful and needed by those around him - and yet?
The world faded and Calder stood in a pool, the water curled around him as feels passed by his legs, otherwise ignoring him as he stood with a box beside him. He was wearing plaid swim trunks and watching as many students, most paddling slowly and staring wide-eyed at the water, while a few tried to paddle as best they could with the floaties they were given.
P.E. Swimming lessons and those that Calder was good at, but like any class, he couldn't just teach them basic swimming. His parents always threw him in the deep in to prepare him for REAL swimming. This was a valuable lesson for these students.
He reached down to pick the whistle from around his neck and whistled it. "Alright. Remember to grab the rings around the eels' necks. Just don't do it while they lit up. Alright. Oh, and make sure to keep moving or else you'll get nipped by these guys." He said, patting the box before opening the hatch. A school of sharp-toothed turtles swam out, ready to snap any noses that were too slow. "Alright. Keep moving! Those with rings will be able to leave the pool!"
The scramble was on, and Calder blew the whistle for class to begin.
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