[PRP] Castle in the Ground (Calder + Barth + Zar)

[Toshihiko Two]

"There is quite a bit of acreage." Barth offered, tapping the moldy stone of a half-collapsed stairwell. The ever-October weather was beginning to warm, pumpkin sun spilling light in through old windows. Dried leaves covered the stone, brought in by the still-chilly winds.

Said acreage was mostly dangerous and unusable moors and wetland.

Real Estate in Halloween was a shifting business. Lands, like citizens, was in a regular process of either appearing or fading. Barth, of course, much preferred the cheery and cheap starter homes, with zero fixing-up sort of projects, comfortable amounts of heat and air, and no sets of stairs whatsoever.

But what he needed more than anything was space, and so they had cycled through home after home on Barth's designated budget of what he had been able to scrape together from selling his school projects.

Barth's rooms at Amity and his father's house had always been warm and luxurious, expensive furnishings weaved together with softness spells, more comfortable than any real material had any right to be. His father and mother had servants, of course, and at school his bath and kitchen had not been far from his bed.

"And plumbing. I'm told the plumbing works in err, one of the bathrooms."  

[Baneful]

Zar had grown up in luxury but had never perhaps been truly part of it, the servants for the most part had listened only to his parents and uncle while giving him short shrift. Every expense had been saved in his upbringing, leaving him to wear hand-me down clothing and generally to wander the vast mansion on his own. It certainly was not poverty but was something of its kin. This home had the lands, that was for sure - though it was hardly what one could call galloping space - and the house well.

Well it had a roof. It had that.

The cold had left Zar feeling sluggish, hugging himself and rubbing his arms as he critically stated. "Don't spoil us."

 

[Toshihiko Two]

"Well it's not like I like-" part of the stone shifted, nearly sending Barth into the floor. He recovered- "projects. But there's a pumpkin patch out back already-"

There was, or there had been once. There were probably wild pumpkins hidden in the weeds.

"And err, and space. ...Oh, I don't know," Barth sighed glumly. "Last week it was that place that was a co-share with a family of haunts, and then before it that cave in the Werewolf commune..."

He trailed off, gazing distantly out the window at the rolling property outside.

"This is close, isn't it? Don't you think?"

Barth badly wanted it to be. All this hunting and visiting and so forth was more effort than he had anticipated, and although there were glistening, ready-to-move in labs complete with equipment, but nothing within the reach of their current bank account.  

[Baneful]

Zar had vetoed living alongside anyone else as much as he was able, the three of them were plenty for his jangling emotional sensitivities.

"It isn't all that bad." he said, which was probably the most positive thing he'd said about any of the houses to date. It was a mess, it was leaky and cold, but it was wild and despite Barth's dislike of projects, Zar could see a point in the future where it could be looming, imposing and terrible, rather than just terrible.

"And it has significant tracts of land."

 

[MoonKitsune]

Calder didn't know much about houses. When his family wasn't sleeping in rivers or in the woods, they stayed at their one home. It was the only house as his family never moved out. To say the condition was "good" was a stretch and only if the relator was trying to sell it to a swamp thing. The walls were swollen from water, covered in moss and had a tree growing in the center, and half of it was in water.

This was his only point of reference of what made a good home when they went out. Zar and Barth came from dry, furnished, luxurious homes that had more land than Calder knew what to do with, which was why whenever he got giddy at looking at a house, they pointed out problems.

The haunts seemed friendly enough but something in Calder hunched up at sharing a territory when the occupants weren't part of his clan. Ghosts also put him on edge due to their unphysical forms which bothered him as a monster.

The cave was nice, but it wasn't wet enough. It barely even dripped, and Calder felt trapped in a corner when inside. There was no space to run and only one exit. His hearing also was thrown off by all the echoes.

Oh, and he hated werewolves. The smell of dogs kept him on high alert and stiff the entire time when they were there.

The door behind opened as Calder walked in, having trailed behind as he was distracted by the massive yard and came in holding a bunch of wetland weeds in his arms. "This place is AMAZING!" He beamed. "There is so much WATER and space and did you see how much grows here!" He held up the plants, the bottoms dripping with muddy water and roots that still wiggled with life.

His eyes went to look up now that he was inside and his mouth hands open. "Ohhh. It even has windows and doors."

He started to sniff the air as he walked, seeing if he could pick out any canine-related occupants of the past. He hoped not.
 

[Toshihiko Two]

Barth shook himself out of whatever he was thinking about, looking at first surprised, as if he was having a difficult time believing what he'd heard.

Something like hope crept into his features.

"Yes," he agreed, eager, "there's ah- there's some sort of curse, I think that's why the price is low- but, you know, it's a new millennia. And there's space- our space, I mean, not just the property, but from, err, from the rest of everything-"

From danger, and prying eyes, he meant.

"There's a crypt," crept a voice from behind Calder, Grimhold's slim and tall figure casting a shadow in the square of natural light. He was hunkered over, hat pulled over his eyes, a vampire used to pulling too many day shifts.

"Carved into the rock over the hill."

Barth looked over at both of them, encouraged.

"Yes. Yes, you see there are...plenty of those!" he was not sure why Calder had an armful of dead plants, "And crypts! Did you say crypts, are you sure?" The information hadn't mentioned them. Grimhold had very keen eyes. They'd...probably have to make sure those weren't...occupied.

The property wasn't empty of life, and Calder would probably caught hints of minipet activity. Their scents and markings and musks, unregulated and mostly vermin. There was also the permeating smell of wet, and further off, carried by the wind, deeper water.

"There are rooms," Barth hedged further. "Not furnished, but we can carry some of our old things up here." Barth's expression was distant again, seeing less what was and more on things he had thought about for a long time. He folded his arms, looking even more distant.

"The beds. Chairs."

There was space for an office, and...

"My equipment." He seemed to come back, "Well, you know, if you-"  

[Baneful]

Calder's gushing got a Look from Zar, of course Calder would like it, he would be happy with any soggy mud puddle they might stumble upon, the soggier the better. He found himself wondering if he would rot in this environment, certainly expensive materials would not last any amount of time without a dry storage environment. All of that seemed the last thing on anyone's mind however, everyone else was running off with fantasies about crypts, plants and equipment.

"I doubt we will find anywhere better." he said resignedly.

 

[MoonKitsune]

Calder stepped back from the look, lowering the plants as he looked at Zar before slowly looking over at Barth. "Well, we can fix her up. We have plenty of space to fill this place with whatever we want. Make it whatever we want." He slowly let his eyes travel back to Barth. "Have freedom to choose how we want it to be to be the most comfortable in it and call it home. Our home."

He slowly looked back up, frowning slightly as he tried to place himself in Zar's and Barth's shoes. "I know it's not a fancy mansion, but I've worked on my family home. I know how to lay stone, and I've gone to market. There are plenty of plants and minipets here that are good ingredients for things. I could catch some and get a bit of cash." He looked at the plants in his hands, slowly touching the leaves. "I can cook so that can save us a bit." But his eyes looked at the rickety stairwell. "I just…can't do the other stuff….like metal." He had no skill with that at all.

"I mean…….I think it's nice here." He mumbled at the end, before looking over at Grimhold. "Right?"
 

[Toshihiko Two]

"Foreboding," is all Grimhold answered.

"We'll- have to think about it," Barth corrected quickly, for him. "I only mean, it could be."

But it was the closest thing even approaching positive he had heard from...anyone. Grimhold and Zar had been their fair share of sulking and glaring, and Calder, while wanting to appear supportive, did have his thresholds.

Ultimately, however, it was Barth's decision.

Unusually for him, Barth straightened his shoulders.

"Right. I'm..." he looked as if he might say something important, "rather tired. I think I'm going to nap in the carriage, for a bit- you all can explore...or, err, the carriage is rather far, isn't it?"  

[Baneful]

Zar looked slightly critical at the word home, he wasn't sure if simply repairing moldy walls was what it would take to make this place or any place a home. He wasn't even particularly sure if he liked the idea of home in the first place, it seemed stable, unchangeable, somewhere to stagnate. It made him think of the vision he'd witnessed on his graduation exam where a castle had provided nothing but room to distance himself the way he had been distanced in the large mansion his family normally inhabited. Endless dust-covered rooms with preserved old furniture and no sound. "We do not have a great number of possessions to fill it up with." he commented with a shrug. He was not soothed by the idea of living in a dwelling fit for the budget a kelpie could pull in, nor any sort of reliance on Calder's income. As it was however, beggars couldn't be choosers.

Barth raised a brow as Barth straightened up, curious what he had to say on the matter, only to roll his eyes at what he opted to actually speak. "Shame." he said without very much pity at all. "Suppose you will have to walk back to the carriage." his tone became no less deadpan as he added. "Oh goodie, I can't wait to explore."

Toshihiko Two

MoonKitsune

 

[MoonKitsune]

He sighed at the comments. Barth was at least expending energy being more optimistic while boarding on his usual realistic nature. Yet, Calder wasn't sure if Barth really was looking at the brighter side of things or found the idea of looking at more houses a worse option and would have picked a dirt mound if it had enough room. Grimhold was – well, Grimhold.

"Alright." Calder said, clapping his hands together. "Grimhold, if you don't mind. Can you see if there is anything we should worry too much about in the crypts? Unless you'd rather explore elsewhere it would be nice to see if we have neighbors in there. I…don't do well in caves." He admitted before turning to Zar.

"And you can do whatever you wish as always. Maybe you could find SOMETEHING you like about this place or try to think about what you even want OR.." Calder said, walking over to Barth. "..you could take the easy away and continue to complain about every jackin thing."

"Come one. I'll take you to the carriage before I make a run around the grounds. I want to take a dip. I'm feeling too dry." He scooped up Barth and slowly walked to the door.
 

[Baneful]

Zar didn't reply to Calder or even look in his direction when addressed until he picked up Barth, the moment he did this, his full attention shifted to the kelpie and his pupils narrowed down to slits, his ears flicking back low and close to his skull, it was all he could do not to bare his teeth and hiss. It was a possessive gesture and it happened every time. Every time there was tense hostility, Calder overstepped the bounds of decorum and went straight for Barth with an air of propriety, as if he was /his/, there was no THOUGHT of sharing, there was no implication of it. It made him angrier than he could articulate, so he did not try.

"Have fun, try not to sink in a bog." he spat, clipped and cold, before with startling speed and agility leaping up, sinking his talons into the rotted rafters and hauling himself upwards in a slither of long slippery tail. Using his horns with that same surprising force to shove aside rotted dust, he pulled himself through the collapsed part of the stairs and leapt off the building, throwing his wings wide and in a rather dramatic tantrum, flying off to survey his new prison for who knew how long.

 

[MoonKitsune]

Calder was left in a moment of awe. He was always a ground animal and the idea of flying was a strange mystery to him, if not a terrifying one. He only went on a broom-ride once in his life and he had been screaming the entire time in a shivering heap. No, heights were not his domain, but that didn't mean he couldn't be amazed on others who so easily could fly up to the heavens and out of his reach.

Coughing a bit from the falling debris Zar left in his wake, Calder turned and headed out the door and to the carriage. "I don't get him. Always a hissy fit." He turned and nudged to pop the carriage door open before setting Barth down. "Text me when you're done napping. I'm going to ….cool off." He said, taking off his jacket to drape over the demon in order to be more comfortable (though he doubted Barth wouldn't sleep if he wasn't).

Shutting the door, he looked about and then up at the crumbling building. With a head tilt, he tried to imagine it greater than it was and tried not to let the smog of pessimism get to him too much. Would they make it? Would tragedy and conflict crumble their relationships as much as the castle was? Could he be of any real use to anyone here when so much as to be done and he had little to do in the way of income? He had no connections and there was so much to do. He could learn a bit about putting back together stonework and talk with Christof maybe. He could spend all day for a month catching things to sell to the witches and demons who made concoctions. But what of the unknowns?

He shook his head. "It will be fine. We're here and together. That's all that matters." A home was where the herd was, and they were here.

Shaking the bad thoughts to the back of his mind, he shifted back to the white mare and ran off. She had to check the lakes to see if they were holding anyone or anything that wanted to stake claim.

After a while or running about the grounds, she found himself a muddy bank and let herself sink into it until only her upper back, neck, and head were visible. It was nice, cooling, and above all, relaxing. She let herself close her eyes a moment, ears up to listen and just take a moment to think as she rested her head on the grass.  

[Toshihiko Two]

Barth appreciated the help, although he would have dozed on the stone steps just as well. He needed some time to retreat, think, and compare.

They did look at other places, but it was this one that Barth kept coming back to. In spite of the dissent they had experienced (and Barth was sure that with the household's makeup being what it was, there would be more dissent), both Calder and Zar had been able to use the space to diffuse tension. In a cramped apartment, this would not have been the case. He had his own reasons for wanting both distance and land.

The only thing that stayed his claw was that he didn't want to stunt or interfere with Zar's ambitions. He asked him later if, considering certain aspects, was an area closer to the city necessary to proceed.

It had not been.

With great difficulty (for him) and some help, he finally got around to the necessaries. Negotiating Placing a downpayment. Signing documents. But at the end of it they had...well, a lot of dreary land and a stack of dilapidated stone. But it was their- his dilapidated stone. And it was a beginning.

Of a sorts.

All three of them were graduated. Grimhold's Debt had been...transferred. They were beyond the boundaries of the school, and their families.

...At least, Barth hoped that was the case. It may have been a little premature to assume that their past would now be out of their lives, and beyond its ability to interfere with their futures. Christof's family certainly was not. Barth thought...well, and, he had really shown Christof no indication that he could handle...but, he was willing. He still wasn't sure if Christof had even wanted to- they'd talked at the cabin, some. But he did not think Christof had much confidence in him. So, Christof had not yet graduated. Perhaps, to delay... But Barth was a demon of temptation, never force. If Barth would stomach the accusation that he had any virtues, his would be patience.

For now, he focused on the property.

Barth did not do any of the heavy lifting when it came to moving in, of course, but he certainly had ideas of where things should be. The family behind him business had, in fact, proved premature. His mother, who was very excited about all this, had come out to help. Or, rather, had come out to hug each of them quite a lot and say how exciting it all was and have some of her people help. There was a basement, but Barth's things mainly stayed on the ground floor. The garden and ground wildlife had not been cared for in ages, and a more responsible property owner would control the population of vermin.

His priorities, for the main part, were the beds.

Oh, and the Equipment.  

[Baneful]

Zar had been a lot quieter than usual throughout the house-choosing process. Normally he had a great deal to say on any given subject, particularly one considered important to his future ideals as this one certainly was. But he could not truly relax, no matter how he tried. Instead of articulating himself what he said in response to every proposed home was breif and negative or non-committal. It was much easier to be dismissive of everything than to pretend he had any idea what truly constituted a home and show his underlying ignorance to all and sundry.

He'd been relieved to be permitted his input in private on at the very least the location of the home itself and things had been settled.

At Grimhold's Zar had gotten a chance to speak with one of the Nightmares who his uncle rode and had gotten a better perspective of the state of his household. He had apparently been the priority for some time, with his mother and father both out to retrieve him and if not dispose of him then at the very least to re-educate him in how he should be behaving. He was informed that that had changed, in the aftermath of the dinner that Ardenter had held there had been certain family complications which had meant that he was no longer the one that held prime focus for the ire of his mother, his uncle was public enemy number one for the perceived infractions he had committed against decency.

In short, Zar was safe for now, and that was about all he could hope for.

There was a smidge of jealousy that Barth's mother had turned out for the moving in, the slime ghoul was inherently likeable to him, she held no overt pretenses and seemed to be a genuinely likeable sort. It made him consider if there was some reason in upbringing for Barth to need someone like Calder around, filling the niche of unguarded pleasantness and bustling concern, but thinking too long on this made him consider his own mother, vain, lazy and neglectful and he tried to think about something else entirely.

Zar had no real possessions other than his clothing and a few nicknacks which all stowed neatly within a large black trunk fastened with a silver lock. It was rather disappointing as the sum total possessions of a life went, but the day was young so to speak, there was still time to amass whatever he wanted.

He amused himself through the moving process simply by being as flamboyant as possible and calling Barth Barty in amicable fashion whenever time and space allowed, it helped to keep his spirits up.