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

[MoonKitsune]

Ailsa did not move. "The host challenged a guest. What decorum?" She said flatly. "He challenged. He wanted a fight. My mate did not, but now he must. He insulted our territory and him..." She then glanced at Calder. "And him."

Calder turned to Barth, his eyes narrow and lips tight as he glared at the sloth demon. If eyes could strangle and might.

"I am my own clan. You are my clan. Zar is my clan." He looked out at his father and the incubi. "And you're not a pride demon, or a monster. So listen to me when I say my mother is right. Zar challenged my father. Not me." He said this part with thin restraint.

"You're insulting both of them by intervening."

Finley bleed but paid no mind, throwing the one hoof that wasn't glued with muck. "Conceed and I will stop."  

[Toshihiko Two]

"Right for their house. But not in mine. A challenge to Zar, or you- isssss a challenge to me," Barth hissed. If it had been just him on the floor, Barth would have conceded, of course. Finely could stomp and gnash and fight, but the house had been paid for by seeds, not out of a question of who could bite the hardest. Still, it was not him on the floor. He doubted Zar would roll over. Really, he shouldn't have to. Not here. And he certainly wasn't going to just let Zar be dissipated, or worse, maimed. Maybe a few nips weren't anything to Finely, but Zar's face and body were- well, all considered, he might as well be breaking his legs.

"I'll say it again. This is not acceptable."

Not that fighting was Barth's strong point whatsoever. Or that he liked being in this sort of position in the first place. The muck was not long-lasting, and the goolems shrieked and they shrunk, the floor area that they covered becoming sharply less and less.

While Barth himself did not move, vines snaked irritably around Ailsa's feet. creeping across the floor with slithery persistence.  

[Baneful]

Zar would not concede. Giving up meant giving up all claim he had to the basement, he would not even be able to face it again if he lost. It was important to his plans, hopes and dreams to have his own space underground and this just seemed like the way he'd have to prove its importance. He hadn't challenged anyone deliberately, he'd just wanted to keep them away from what mattered to him.

But he was losing, he was a predator built for prey already lulled into a false sense of security, for ambush and surprise, his coils around them, his venom effective on them before he struck. This was face to face brute strength and it was not his forte, already he was bleeding from his nose where he'd been struck with a hoof and one ear bore bite marks. The rest of his body was developing bruises all over and he teetered on his feet unsteadily, his shape beginning to waver around the edges.

He hissed and it was falteringly and snapped out desperately for one of Finley's hooves.

 

[MoonKitsune]

calder struggled between two hard positions; one were the laws and culture that dictated decorum and manners for his kind and the other was the basic instinct to protect those he wanted to keep close. There were consequences with both bit as it progressed, he knew something had to be done. Barth interfering would get him attacked and then his parents would be viewed poorly and never invited over again just because demons were idiots.

In a moment, a white mare was beside Finley and lightly nipped his flank to get his attention. When she spoke, it was not in a common tongue but that if her kind. A slippery language littered with clipped neighs and dotted by hoof taps, moving ears and head nods. Finley paused his assault to look at his daughter and then back at Zar before stopping to turn about. Thy spoke, Finley's words soft but strained and Calder looked up at him and sadly whispered back.

Ailsa sighed, a thin-lipped frown pressed on her features. "Consequences." Was all she said and Finley looked at her, unsure before turning back to Calder. Then the stallion rose up and trampled the other and Calder made no motion against the assault.  

[Toshihiko Two]

Barth sighed with relief as Finely finally backed off, mentally wondering why Calder hadn't said anything sooner- only for Finely to turn on Calder instead.

"Listen, we may have had a miscommunication-" The thorns this time did, in fact, tangle up around Finely's hooves as he reared back. And his middle, and his neck. They were prickly, and unpleasant, but mostly they were intent on dragging him backwards.

"I do not want fighting in the house. Not for territory. Not for dominance. Not for custom. Just, no general physical assaults on another creature."

Barth said this slowly, but then again he said most things slowly.  

[Baneful]

As Finley backed off, Zar let out a hiss that was practically an exhale. He didn't understand why he'd been attacked for trying to defend something important to him - something he did not often do, if at all - and was more than a little dazed by it. He recoiled, staggering back, dripping thick black blood all over the floor. Disengaged from the fight, he had no further desire to strike the kelpie and backed up into the stairwell to the basement like a snake sidling into a burrow.

He was outraged when the kelpie started to attack Calder instead, but there was nothing he could actually do.


 

[MoonKitsune]

The thorns had not stopped Calder once before and it in no way stopped Finley. Though the kelpie was surprised that Barth had intervened at all again with not goo but thorns (not a one-trick pony it seemed), he then resumed. Shifting to his other form, he broke the thorns as he threw his body down to the ground, breaking the thorns and then shook the remnants off. He stood, eyes not white but calm, but body scratched, and regarded Calder who moved in front of Barth.

Finley looked to Zar as he slunk back and then back to Barth and then Calder. "They have a lot to learn." He informed Calder, who lowered his head and let his ears fall back as he stood before his father. Ailsa reached over to where the bottle had been and took a glass, taking a drink and downing it down in one gulp before walking over.

"They don't know better." Calder admitted.

"And whose fault is that?" Ailsa said, reaching up to stroke her husband's neck before h shifted and pressed the wrinkles free. Brushing his hands over his coat, he frowned when a finger went through a hole.

Calder said nothing because it could not be argued.

"He should be disappointed for that challenge." Finley said, and Calder too nodded. Then Finley looked to Barth. "Him too. Nice tricks. Didn’t expect both of those. A odd bit of magic there." He said, looking to Babs. "Can see some influence though."

"For someone like a monster, he knows nothing about it." Ailsa said, glancing at the slinking Zar.

"I suppose the invitation is done." Finley said. "I would have liked to make dinner."

Calder only kept his head low. "No….it's not deserved." He all but growled.

 

[Toshihiko Two]

Barth looked alarmed at Calder's obvious anger, and he wasn't happy at all about Zar's injuries either.

Babs tilted her broad-lipped glass, which was laced with poison, towards Finely, before taking another sip. "Oh, yes, well. He doesn't bring them out for just anyone." Babs was frankly surprised that Barth had used them at all.

Babs looked after Zar sympathetically. "Well, that's probably because he's not a monster. Thea, dear, would you mind terribly finding the anti-scarring potion? I'm sure I packed some, just in case. Zar... come up and have a terrorquila, won't you?

Barth sighed. "No, the invitation stands. As long as we can all not attack each other. It's been a long day. I shouldn't like to send you home on an empty stomach."  

[Baneful]

Zar wasn't used to being scolded, his entire life he'd been used to a sort of blank, distant reinforcement, if he did the wrong thing, he was ignored and shunned, if he did the correct thing he was thrown some trifle of reward. Faced with disappointment he was helpless and hopeless. He felt stupid and ignorant.

The worst blow was the comment that he was like a monster but knew nothing about it, making him back further into the stairs, head lowered. He might even have turned and slunk off into the basement itself if it hadn't been for Babs and her reassuring comments, they were sufficient to coax him back, slinking like a kicked animal to the table where he shifted back, as much a mess in his pinned shape as he had been unpinned. "I could use a drink." he said politely to her, refusing to make eye contact with anyone.

 

[MoonKitsune]

"Oh, I suppose I should feel honored - though considering the circumstances, I'm not." Finley pointed out, moving over to the table to get himself a glass. He downed it in the same quick fashion his wife had and set it back down. He tilted his head, regarding the taste with a simple hum of consideration.

He looked over at Calder, who shifted but did not come over, instead looking away from everyone.

It was Ailsa who stood beside Zar and with a firm fist, knocked on his head three times. "Not monster –still. Challenge size or make fight worth." She huffed, walking past him with a flick of her tail and a roll over her eyes at the clear stupidity of the snakeish demon. "Graduated and no sense."

Finely nodded to that. "At least do it for something important – like love." The kelpie smiled to his wife who then moved over and stomped on his hoof. He whinnied before curling his hoof up, frowning at her.

"Stupid demons. Not worth show." To this she waved a hand at him and his idiocy before she went for another glass.

"I suppose I should start dinner or …" He looked to Barth. "…you said you weren't sending us away without a meal. From what Calder said, I didn’t think you cooked at all."


"I'll make the fire." Calder grumbled and left them alone as he walked out.

 

[Toshihiko Two]

"What, me? Oh, I do- cook, actually. I mean, I have before. I'm capable of it, certainly." Barth was just glad things had calmed, somewhat. He looked after Calder, concerned.

"He has cooked. The boogeyman had to come over. They thought there had been a murder. I got a call," Babs hissed delightedly, as if confiding some very good gossip. She poured some generous helpings of alcohol for each person at the table (although significantly none for Barth). From a jar, she pinched out extra helpings of still-writhing worms to drop in Zar's glass.

Barth blushed. "I...can," he tried again.

"We've always had cooks. Dent just loves big meals, especially with family. Did you find that potion? Oh, good. Here, dear, let me see," Babs examined Zar's face, touching him with pleasant and slippery fingers while wincing. "Ooh. But don't worry, we'll get it cleared right up."

Her emotions were a strange, but if they had a flavor they'd be sort of a sharp but crisp, tart lemon-bubbly variety. Friendly, pleasant, but with a smooth and practiced underlying bite, the tartness mingled effortlessly with the sweet. She had mostly sympathy for Zar, although there were some lurking biases and ire towards certain races- not that she was racist! That she kept professionally covered with a sugary lid.  

[Baneful]

Zar had to firmly push down the desire to bite Ailsa for knocking on his head. Instead he grudgingly tolerated it with as much goodwill as he could drum up, smiling faintly in a fixed sort of way. When rapped, his head made a curious knocking sound, all thick spongy bone and horns.

He didn't retort to Finley either that he had been standing up for something important to him, or he would not have cared one iota. Instead he just endured all of the the slights and insults as best he could, focusing on his drink instead, resisting the desire to immediately take a swig of it to instead raise a brow at Barth for his mother's stories. The boogeymen eh? It would be worth ribbing him over later.

What he did not expect at all in his mire of humiliation was the more gentle contact from the slime elemental and was immediately suspicious but compliant. His own emotions bled over before he could stop them, the usual heady masculine musk and arousal but underpinned strongly by humiliation and upset. He didn't bother to cut it off, finding her emotions interesting and seeing no reason to conceal his intentions.

"It is fine, it will be fine. But I thank you for your concern." he gulped the drink down, worms and all in one go. "I am no good at these cultural interactions."

He found himself wishing more than a little that he had a parent even a fraction of the gentleness and earnestness that Babs represented.

 

[MoonKitsune]

"I certainly don't think we need the boogeymen here today." Finley said, and grabbing himself one last drink, cracked a link in his neck and turned. "Well, I'll help get started then and see if the kitchen even works."

Ailsa decided to stay with Babs and the rest of them should anything be said or needed.

Calder had not returned all day and it wasn't till evening that his presence was made know by the now blazing bonfire outside the house. Crackling, the tower of flames set the yard ago. Luckily it was in a patch of un-swampy land.

Finley had made a stew and roasted a few squrrels and fish among some mushrooms to make kabobs. With the fire outside, Ailsa took chairs and a table outside.

"Fine fire for welcome a new home." By now the man was flushed a bit in his features. Ailsa showed no indication that the terrorquila had even affected her.

The table was set for dinner. Calder did not come but instead stood in front of the fire and watched it.