[Open Class] Cave-In (Barth + Zar)

[Baneful]

Zar watched him and said nothing, the words seeming far and distant to him, hearing it said out loud, having it narrowed down to the crux of the thing as if he was held under a magnifying glass made him feel pinned out and vulnerable. He didn't know what he would have said if he'd had a chance, a formal arrangement. It sounded like his father's kind of business. Words to pin you down, words to take away your freedom, to make you manageable.

He made to move towards the two and once again the floor fell out from under him but this time only him.

He fell with a heavy thud and a rustle of wing membranes, and stayed there for a time, head hung, cloaked by his hair and surrounded by the dark water. He didn't want to try again and this time there was light up ahead, a way out.

He shapeshifted then, finally allowing himself what he'd held back, throwing forward his taloned soft padded paws, his hooves skidding on stone as he ran, and ran with everything he had out of there and away. They weren't far from the dorms. They weren't. He could get back on his own.

But the further he ran the more he felt like some invisible leash tugged him back, until the gallop turned into a canter, into a walk and he stopped, looking back over his shoulder.

And he waited. Waited because maybe Barth would need him to get back to the dorms, or if he didn't really need him, maybe he'd use him, because he was there.

 

[Toshihiko Two]

Desu pressed a candy into Barth's palm, and he nearly went white as Zar seemed to completely and suddenly disappear. "Wh...where-?"

≧(´▽｀)≦ "Zar-kun has some more searching to do. This Cave is makes you really search your kokoro, ne~?"

Barth sat up on his own, somewhat irritably.

Desu busied to open up a backdoor to the cave that must have been there all along, presenting it proudly. (✿◠‿◠)ノ The door was full of daylight, and more importantly, a way out of the damn cave. Even more importantly, it was less than five feet away.

Standing up was a process. Still, Barth managed it. He could not safely rub his throat. He cleared it instead. "Domo," he hissed, and inclining his head very slightly to the architect of their mutual and prolonged torment on what had been a dangerous walk with more divulgence than he had intended to discuss, he pivoted instead.

The fall was just as bad the second time.

And while Barth knew he had not been deposited into literal hell, it was not altogether dissimlar.

This was more walking than he did...ever, and he could feel the disintegration of his last vestiges of energy. The cave was bathed in fire. Everything was much heavier without anyone to lean on. "Zar?" he tried, voice rough. Still, he picked himself up for what felt like the millionth time, took a step, and started again down what seemed like an endless path.  

[Baneful]

It said a lot about Zar's life that what had appeared to be light at the end of the tunnel was, in fact actually fire. Lots and lots of fire. He waited uneasily, and found himself doubting whether Barth would come by this way at all. Maybe Desu would transport him back to his dorms, maybe there would be another way. He felt like he should move onwards and try to finally find a way out of here, but the idea of taking another step wasn't something he could face.

Fire was in some ways more upsetting than water, he couldn't see well and the flickering light and heat dazzled his senses, everything was light and sharp shadow and there was nothing to taste on the air as he flicked his long serpentine tongue that wasn't heat and ash.

He didn't know which way to go and didn't have the willpower to pursue finding out. So instead he sat, curling his tail about him dejectedly, a hellish silhouette against the flames who felt anything but.

He should have just told the professor he wanted out while he had the chance. He'd do so if he got another.

 

[Toshihiko Two]

Pressing on was not something Barth was capable of doing quickly. But he did press on. In spite of the fire. In spite of the walking. He folded his arms around himself, shutting out the thick smell of smoke and the latent memories from the cornfield.

Zar was not going to try to murder him, he told himself.

This walk was not going to kill him either. But the heat was making him increasingly woozy, and his progress, though determined, was slurred by shuffled steps and what felt like a bearing, steady weight of gravity.

It was an even greater challenge to keep his eyes open.

He was soon in between, not sure if he was drifting off, or in the cave, or elsewhere. But he kept walking. And it was what seemed like a great deal of time later that he almost stumbled over Zar.

Barth was, frankly, out of it, and after 2 such walks was on the brink of collapse.

He swayed unsteadily, standing over Zar finding himself very suddenly tongue-tied.  

[Baneful]

Zar didn't notice Barth until the other demon was almost upon him, the heat was too confusing and at the same time almost mesmerizing to watch. He'd watched the fireplace the same way for extended periods of time when he'd been younger, it was the single unregimented thing, a piece of wildness that was allowed into their home, color in the grey that his father insisted on. Here there was just too much of it, too much wildness. And it felt apt when he set it next to his emotions.

It was only when the familiar silhouette blocked out the dancing lines of flame and when - flicking his tongue - the other demon's scent filled his nose that he realized he was there. And locking down the link, because he didn't want him to know how pathetic he felt, he rose to his feet and lowered his head to nudge between one of Barth's arm's and his side, lowering his shoulders in a silent gesture that invited him to rest on his back, his tail tentatively waiting to help him up if he chose.

He didn't say anything at all either. He felt bad for even making the other boil walk that far when he could have waited closer, and then found himself resenting his own weakness for thinking even that much.

 

[Toshihiko Two]

Barth sank gratefully into Zar.

Zar was alright. In spite of the fire, they were still at the school. He was not sure how much of the cave was real.

He had been so, so tired. He wasn't sure if he had been sleeping before or not. It wouldn't have been long before he had been dragged into sleep anyway.

He dreamed not of fire, but snow, a dream place Zar would be familiar with. Barth sat on the stoop of a beautiful and empty house, a nest of furs between him and the stone, and spiced wine steaming from two silver goblets.  

[Baneful]

Zar's fur was soft, more like cashmere than the expected coarseness of goat fur, thick and warm. He looped his tail once around the girth of his body like a saddle and then the rest firmly around Barth to keep him steady and safe. He walked onwards through the cave, finally having the direction and motivation to escape. He still didn't speak, because he simply didn't know what to even begin to say, there was nothing to say, the L word had robbed him of his voice.

Still, the power of being drawn into Barth's dreams was always great and even as he walked he found himself drifting, slipping off into a doze. Yet it wasn't proper sleep, it was on the cusp of sleep and waking, that place where the body yearns to give in but the brain knows better.

He appeared still, hazy and unclear in the Sloth demon's dreams, looking much like he had when they first met, still afraid to give himself wings that worked. And distantly he remained aware of the beast, still walking, still him, but far away and running on instinct.

He sat down next to Barth, and still he said nothing.

 

[Toshihiko Two]

Barth picked up a cup, not with long claws but in a normal and dexterous hand. The cups could have floated, if he desired. The taste wine could have appeared in their mouths just from thinking it. Still, he handed the goblet to Zar.

"It doesn't have to be me," Barth said quietly. Fog curled into the air. The overlap blurred the temperatures between here and there, a layer of chill in the oppressive heat of the fires. "I'm not the only one who deals with sleep. Or who dreams."  

[Baneful]

Zar took the goblet, and like this it was strange how different he looked, as if the act of daydreaming while in his natural form split him clean in two, where one was the health and confidence and the other was the sadness and insecurity made flesh. He seemed to forget parts of him existed now and then when they weren't important to what he was doing and they would fade away like mist. He sipped the wine and it hit some hunger he could not really define. He did not speak for some time still.

"It doesn't have to be." he echoed and he wasn't sure if Barth was saying it to hint that he should leave, that he was becoming too much of a burden to deal with, that there would be other people and he wouldn't be so much of a problem. It made him feel sick. "I guess you are right."

He clamped down on his feelings even more and savored the ability Barth had to create, to craft dreams that were far more vivid than his own. "I got a letter you know." he said. "From an Envy Sin. Calls himself Hassad. Someone in my family - evidently not my parents - contacted him. He offered me room, board and work when I graduate."

 

[Toshihiko Two]

"Board?" Barth repeated. The atmosphere, which had been crisp, still, and pleasant, was cut through with a wickedly cold gust of air. It was significant that he had zeroed in on that, even over the word work.

"I thought..." Barth felt a sharp and deep pinch of pain. "But, of course, it's your decision. To pursue..." He rubbed his face, not picking up his own goblet, finishing with resigned and tired despair, "...whatever."  

[Baneful]

Zar didn't understand Barth's reaction, from what he could gather he was doing him a favour. At present he was simply a burden, chipping into what was for all intents and purposes an individual who belonged to Calder and Christof. He was more baggage than he was worth and Barth hadn't really - despite his earlier comment - chosen him, he had been a stray which showed up on his doorstep and had refused to go away.

"You thought what?" he said. "It has been made clear time and time again from various sources that I am essentially just a drain on resources. You referred to me earlier as a creature that you ultimately found. This would be a chance to be professional, to feel needed for what I am capable of, in control. Not just giving myself away for free, not feeling like I am causing grave inconvenience every single time."

He set down his goblet and wrapped his arms about himself against the breeze. On the outside the fire seemed distant and far away.

 

[Toshihiko Two]

"That I chose. Every time I have spoken plainly, I have regretted it. I operate much better given vagueness and time. With you- that ability of yours makes the first difficult, and we're both running short on time. But...very well."

This was very nearly the last thing they had to do before they could take the graduation exam.

"I'm older than you. I have had a very lonely century. You are the first creature who has met with me here, where I spend the majority of my time. You have seen what is always waiting for my physical body. The apartment. The pile of trash."

The snow swirled, and instead of peaceful, frozen gardens part of the landscape changed to a dank room with a sour, unwashed smell. It was hard to find the furniture in the piles of garbage. They were not themselves in the room. They were still on the house's stoop.

"Still. I would be fortunate if that was the only danger. My fortune is connected to my family."

The room spun into a very tall, very thin house. Inside the house was a winding staircase, with portraits hung on both sides of the wall. Each portrait had two dates. They seemed oddly less like keepsakes and more like trophies.

"A family which my grandfather will, at the first opportunity, dispose of to further consolidate his very vast wealth. He has had many years of practice. My father is his only son. It won't be much longer. Continuing to depend on that income will lead to my murder."

And the murder of his family. There was another change, his father's house, with his father's many spouses and Barth's many siblings. The vast halls were thick with the fog of dissipation, and blood bubbled up through the carpet.

"On graduation I had planned to officially cut myself from my family's financial ties. This decision would amicably dissolve my engagement with Obsidian. Her parents did not barter for an impoverished son-in-law. While I have always enjoyed a certain quality of living, I am not picky. My hours are not spent in the waking world. But I do need an income. And I would like to affect change on a large scale. I would like power, influence. Christof would make that possible."

Machinery, factories, and at the end of the line, convenience. A creeping ease into the lives of not just Halloween, but Humanity.

"His master, Dr. Fell, deals in body parts. If Christof wants to be my partner, which is by no means certain... He would prefer a mistress, which I am not, and someone altogether more subjugating, which I am not. If I have managed that, I must negotiate for his freedom. Fell has no interest in seeds. My limbs are likely to be the subject of that negotation. If he has the opportunity he will kill me and anyone traveling with me, harvest the parts, and sell or destroy Christof."
 

[Baneful]

Zar listened to Barth without a flicker of emotion or reaction, determined to keep his own cards close to his chest at this point no matter what. The other boil regretted speaking plainly, of course he did, it was something which could give away his plans and intentions to people who could theoretically use them against him. Zar did not count himself as one of those people, if he was a better demon maybe he'd find some interesting use for the times when he was allowed some simple glimpse of Barth's intentions, but the fact of the matter was that he was not a competent or particularly willing demon.

He remembered the apartment, the mire of rubbish and hopelessness, the smell and mess rankled his obsessive compulsive nature and made him wish - despite the fact it was simply a dream vision - that he could somehow organize it and remove it even as a possibility.

Zar learned more about Barth's family as time progressed, but he had never encountered it in such an immediate and visual way. He had never considered for even a moment though that Barth's wealth was tenuous or risky, it had always seemed like an easy and open well of fortune that would last as long as he needed it to. Ultimately the fortune meant little to the Incubus who already found himself at the lowest possible financial ebb. If it wasn't for the possibility of Barth taking him in or a job offer from someone equally wealthy, when he graduated he would be completely destitute. He'd found himself considering taking the forests in his natural form and living like a monster. He was a terrible demon.

But it made sense that Barth would not need money ultimately. He could create anything he wanted here in his dreams, the outside world was irrelevant in the long run - which in itself hurt too, the outside world was where people like him were trapped.

And once again everything came back to Christof, the way it so often did. Christof who could provide money and influence, Christof who could make things, who was smart and functional and useful. And some part of Zar iced over at the thought that Barth would have to compromise himself and would willingly do so over a sullen creature who hardly wanted to deal with him anyway, who considered him somehow inadequate because he was neither female - when gender was a laughable concept - or dominant.

And there was nothing he could say. It would not be prudent to say that he thought it was stupid to hang so much on someone who had proven indifferent in the past, to take such personal risk over a pipe dream with so many potential pitfalls and dangers. All it would do would be to push Barth even further away. But he would not lie and say that he felt it was right either.

He closed his eyes again and shallowly sighed. "Those are certainly problems." he said.

Round 3 life 1 remaining
 

[Toshihiko Two]

Barth was irritated by the dismissal. Why did he bother? Yes, his own destruction was a minor inconvenience. And why should Zar care about it?

He had just told Barth he had another job offer, and here Barth was in spite of that, pouring out the concerns and threats that he hadn't divulged to anyone else.

To someone soon to be possessed by another demon- idiotic. It was all idiotic. All because he had hoped-

"Yes," he said.

The blood and machinery and musky, unwashed smell were wiped from the landscape, back into an endless snow field.  

[Baneful]

Barth shut down on him, and it hurt, almost physically to experience it, but part of him felt it was deserved, that he'd earned it. And there was relief too, because he cared, he cared so acutely and painfully about every threat on the other demon's life that it was difficult to hear. And every time, all he could think was that he was stupid for being so torn up about the danger when Barth had other people who were better than him stepping in for him, who would step in for him if Zar was gone.

He felt hollow and cold as the view reverted, the heat from the flames by now long forgotten in the other world he held only tenuous regard for.

"I didn't come into any of that." he said finally, frankly. "It's Christof you need, clearly. All I ever brought to the table was my own dangers and risks. My family want me dead, specifically me, and have a great deal of wealth they are willing to expend to achieve it." For all he knew the letter could be a trap, it had not come from anywhere he recognized after all. But when it came down to it, he didn't care. "The forces behind my family take pride very seriously."