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 Posted: Fri Apr 01, 2011 9:57 pm
Barth listened with some embarrassment at Calder's recount of events. Their working relationship had not been paved with roses, he admitted, but past the brutality and gruff handling of the menial chores (which Barth did not care for either, to be fair, even if he depended on Christof to handle them), there were certain aspects about Christof he respected and admired. His intelligence. His inventiveness. That was what Barth found intriguing.
He could con anyone into keeping his floor clean. But with Chrisof gone, he would have to do a lot of conning. He found the prospect exhausting. More importantly, where was he supposed to find another student that knew the difference between series and parallel circuits?
"...But...then, you do think he'll come back, don't you?"
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Posted: Fri Apr 01, 2011 10:08 pm
Calder stared up at the ceiling, brow creased and serious as he thought about the matter at hand. Christof was just too hard to understand, and he didn't feel he was making progress at all. Was this was how friendship was like or was Calder just missing something? What was the vital key he needed to make a friendship stick and work? It was lost on him.
"I don't know, Barth. I honestly don't know. I've tried to think over and over what drives Christof and what he feels is important and worth having around, and ......and I'm just tired. I'm so tired of it. I've tried. Jack knows I've tried getting to him, but there is only so much I can do. All I can say is, that if there is no hope for him coming around to hang out with you, there is certainly no hope for me."
Calder rose up, unable to lay down anymore. "Just look at us. Every time I come, we wind up talking about him. I don't think he even thinks about us. He's oblivious to all of it." He shook his head, going quiet a moment.
Then, slowly, he looked up at Barth. "We're friends.....right? I mean, we don't talk much, and I only know you through Christof, but...I mean, if you are lonely or anything, I can come over whenever. I don't mind." He had no one else to see.
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Posted: Sat Apr 02, 2011 11:56 pm
Barth had thought he understood Christof, and that they had been on the same page. But clearly, somewhere along the line, he must have misinterpreted things.
He thought carefully about Calder's question. Not the first part, because the answer was, "Of course. At least I err, like to think we are," but at the specific nature of their friendship. "You can come over any time. And err, if you ever suddenly feel like doing laundry, I don't mind that either." Although that last bit would have probably meant something to an igor, he wasn't so sure about...whatever Calder was.
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Posted: Sun Apr 03, 2011 10:20 am
He smiled, glad that he could write down one friend down on his book. At least Barth was open and rather honest, so he hoped, about who he thought was a friend or not. It helped clear things up very easily. Not to say that should be an excuse for the Igor. He knew his ..sorta friend could express himself without talking. He did so all the time. Still, he wondered if it would be better if Christof realized that if he continued as he went, he would loose friends. They couldn't come to him all the time. Well, Barth wouldn't because he never came to anyone, but Calder wasn't about to always chase after Christof. He was going to put his hoof down on this point. Sometimes there was some need for tough love, and well, clarification if things didn't go as how Calder planned.
It would be a test at least.
"Thanks. I'll come over to keep you company, and unless you're dying under a pile of laundry, don't count on it." Then again, with the way Barth hardly moved, that was a possibility. "...or if the clothes you wear get a bit ripe."
He slipped off the bed, yawning. It was getting late, and without work, he really should be off. "It will be okay, Barth. Things will work as as they work out. He'll come. I don't think he could love you so much not to come." A weak attempt at optimism if not a selfish on in that if Barth was able to lure Christof out, there would be hope for Calder. If not, well........he didn't like thinking about that.
Still, he was bothered. "I'd rather not leave him alone with Riley though. I don't like him spending all his time with her." He still had yet to address that raw mark he saw before the island trip.
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Posted: Wed Apr 06, 2011 11:10 pm
"I hope so," Barth said. "You err, don't get along with Riley, do you? I thought- you were over for the Scarentine's Dance? She's right next door, you know."
Barth was friendly with Riley, although she paid attention better than most of the students.
"You've both had an effect on Christof. You and Riley. I know he...sewed back up, but for a little while, well, it was nice to be able to talk to him. And since he's had Riley's Contract he's been...happier, certainly."
Christof probably still had Riley's Contract, but what Christof did or didn't do with other demons wasn't really his business. It hadn't been even when the Contract was still in place, and he hadn't pried.
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Posted: Thu Apr 07, 2011 10:38 am
It was the understatement of the century. "Yeah, we don't get along at all. At first I just didn't like her because she was a mistress, but it's more than that now. She's a perfectionist who thinks she knows better than anyone and feels she is entitled to tell you her opinion as if it's advice you should know and that you shouldn't think your way is right when she clearly knows best. It pisses me off. I don't see how you can even say she is any good when she burned that mark on Christof."
Even speaking about her made his tail swish more quickly and his ears turn about in distaste. "Christof is happy with her because she tells him everything like she tells everyone how to do things. It's not good for him. He is happy breaking his back for anyone, but especially Riley. I don't know if he has the hots for her or if she reminds him of his other master, but I wish he'd pick someone else to hang around. I actually like you as his master better than her as a mistress.You at least don't demand too much of him and you guys seem to have fun. Then again, what the hell do I know about what would make him happy. I bet if I told him to mop the floor and then stomped on his hand, he'd be in bliss."
Calder moved off the bed, huffing, ready to pace but more in the mood to outright tear something apart. "I wish her contract with him ended."
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Posted: Wed Apr 13, 2011 10:45 pm
"Contracts are very serious, you know. To me. To Christof, too. I don't expect you got that impression, having mine. I'm err, admittedly not much of a taskmaster. But there are Rules. ...I don't know what sort of demon Riley is, specifically. I've never met or heard of one like her. But my sort of demon is...the Ordering and being Ordered, it can go both ways."
He looked at Calder over a pillow.
"...Do you understand? Some rules are arbitrary. School rules, Halloween Town laws. The Rules of Contracts are Binding. ...You're not a creature who has them ingrained, I suspect. Christof knows the gravity of them."
They were in school, and shielded in some respects from each other. Outside of school, how easy it was to with a handshake barter a life, a soul away....someone else's or your own.
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Posted: Wed Apr 13, 2011 10:56 pm
He wasn't feeling like being lectured, and huffing, he flicked his tail, narrowing his deep-green eyes over at Barth as he continued to go on and on about contracts and how he didn't understand. That he wasn't a creature that understood. What did that mean?! Was he saying something about kelpies?!
"I know enough about contracts. I've had plenty enough to know. You're not the only demon I talk to, Barth. And you know what, as long as you know what you are signing up for, they're not so bad. I got plenty of stuff done with mine and now I'm back to being contract free. Like that." He snapped his fingers as if it had been that simple. "I could probably get plenty more without any effort and still retain my independence. It's not but a bit of chores here and there. I do that sort of stuff back at home. Easy."
"You guys thinks that being a demon or being an Igor puts you all in some sort of club or something. That you all just know, but anyone can get a contract, and it's not hard to figure them out and understand. I don't even know why my parents warned me about you. There are plenty of demons. Nice demons, and Christof should just pick from the best group. He acts like there isn't a whole flock of demons out there happy to make a contract. I could step outside and get a contract and one that would do great for me, and be back without any bother." He huffed, flicking his tail.
"Don't say I don't know cause I'm not some fancy demon or patchwork. I'm smart enough to make a contract. I'm smart enough to understand them."
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Posted: Thu Apr 14, 2011 8:37 pm
"I suppose you're right," Barth said, not bothering to muster up the effort to correct him.
The eventual goal was to bring Halloweeners around to that mindset, anyway. Not so bad and easy. Well, sometimes.
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Posted: Thu Apr 14, 2011 8:53 pm
He felt glad that, as a demon, Barth was not arguing the point. Then again, it might have been less impressed if he knew that Barth was probably just not willing to exhaust himself with arguing. What negative effects he was having on Calder went unnoticed to the keplie, who felt he was not only a bit smart, but better educated on demons and contracts with his small experience with two of them.
Seeing as they had already followed that tangent, and he had felt rather confident with his understanding, he followed through with a thought. "Are you ever going to talk to Riley about that sore mark she had on Christof? The one that looked like she clawed it on and where Christof trashed his room and came here all mean and quiet?" They still had yet to talk to her about that, and since he really couldn't look Riley in the eye after that whole lake episode, he was hoping Barth would.
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