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Posted: Sat Sep 06, 2014 10:36 pm
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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.
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Toshihiko Two rolled 1 6-sided dice:
2
Total: 2 (1-6)
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Posted: Sat Sep 06, 2014 10:58 pm
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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.
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Baneful rolled 1 100-sided dice:
61
Total: 61 (1-100)
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Posted: Sat Sep 06, 2014 11:15 pm
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Toshihiko Two rolled 1 100-sided dice:
95
Total: 95 (1-100)
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Posted: Sat Sep 06, 2014 11:23 pm
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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.
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Baneful rolled 1 100-sided dice:
56
Total: 56 (1-100)
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Posted: Sat Sep 06, 2014 11:40 pm
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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.
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Toshihiko Two rolled 1 100-sided dice:
53
Total: 53 (1-100)
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Posted: Sat Sep 06, 2014 11:55 pm
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Baneful rolled 1 100-sided dice:
92
Total: 92 (1-100)
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Posted: Sun Sep 07, 2014 8:23 am
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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.
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Posted: Sun Sep 07, 2014 10:14 am
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Baneful rolled 1 100-sided dice:
10
Total: 10 (1-100)
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Posted: Sun Sep 07, 2014 10:29 am
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Posted: Sun Sep 07, 2014 11:32 am
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"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."
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Baneful rolled 1 100-sided dice:
68
Total: 68 (1-100)
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Posted: Sun Sep 07, 2014 11:40 am
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Posted: Sun Sep 07, 2014 12:48 pm
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"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."
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Baneful rolled 1 100-sided dice:
4
Total: 4 (1-100)
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Posted: Sun Sep 07, 2014 1:15 pm
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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
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Posted: Sun Sep 07, 2014 1:26 pm
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Posted: Sun Sep 07, 2014 1:38 pm
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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."
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