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 Posted: Sun Sep 25, 2011 10:18 pm
"Know him," Barth repeated. "Don't mind if he, zz mgn, tell him to help," he paused dramatically, "himself to the kitchen too."
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Posted: Sun Sep 25, 2011 10:20 pm
Calder frowned at such a response. It was hardly helpful, but he just had to steer the conversation and not wake up the boil. "Is he a nice friend?" Calder asked, trying to take on the voice of someone sweet and nice as if he could impersonate some other dream character in Barth's world in order to hide the fact it was actually himself asking. "Do you like him?"
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Posted: Sun Sep 25, 2011 10:34 pm
"Like him," Barth echoed, "nice."
Barth was not, specifically, dreaming. He was certainly not awake.
"Needs mrr medicine? Not...feeling well."
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Posted: Sun Sep 25, 2011 10:47 pm
Nice? What was nice? Was he just ho-hum nice or was he nnniiiccccceee? There was nothing to go on. Well, at least he didn't say he was bad, but what was he supposed to make of nice? Regardless, the boil, even in his sleep, was showing concern. It was rather touching, but then Calder felt horibly guilty for playing this sort of fruitless game. Sitting up, he ran a hand through his hair again, sighing as he looked around. "What am I doing?" He asked to no one at all.
He was hanging too much on a passing, teenage hormone-driven dream brought on by medicine and sickness. Was he just getting desperate after witnessing the romantic date between Riley and Malodore? Was jealousy raising it's ugly head in the form of paring him with whatever boil was around?
He really was pathetic, but even so, he looked back at the boil. Barth was nice to him, and he did let him play with his horns. Aside from that...well, there wasn't much aside their simple talks and ....whatever this all was. He came to Barth's to talk and pass time, and Barth tolerated his company. Even so, he had trusted him with his secret and that must have meant something more, but just because Barth trusted him didn't mean he was opening the door to that sort of relationship.
His ears dropped at the thought. He really was just getting lonely, and he knew it was because of countless failed relationships and disappointments. Right now wasn't the time to be getting depressed again. He had done enough of that in his own dorm.
Reaching over, he shook the boil again, this time a little harder. "Barth, wake up. I'm stuck."
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Posted: Sun Sep 25, 2011 11:09 pm
"Kitchen," Barth reminded him, even though the question had not been directed his way.
The shaking had an effect, though.
"Stuck?" Barth asked, suddenly more awake, the blur of the conversation becoming more real. Stuck. Thorns. Calder torn apart. Calder clinging to him... "Stuck, did they-" no. Fine again, Calder was alright. Stuck. ...Stuck, right.
Stuck.
They were surrounded by thorns, but not under attack. Calder couldn't get down from the bed. That was all.
Barth moved. The thorns began to recede.
"...Sorry about that."
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Posted: Sun Sep 25, 2011 11:16 pm
It seemed to work, which was by far the quickest Calder had managed to wake the sloth demon. Usually he had to almost beat the boil to get him to wake, but with the thorns, he seemed more sensitive to being woken. He guessed that it all steamed from the worry about him getting hurt. It had it's advantages to waking Barth up, he he did wish he would be more relaxed about them.
"Oh no. It was just like how I said you should try. You really got them very thick now. I just...needed to take a bath." He watched Barth move and watched as the thorns parted like storm clouds, dissolving to let in the light that was streaming from the windows. It made Calder wince and he rubbed his eyes. What time was it?.....Then again, What DAY was it?
"You can sleep again. I'm going to clean and heat up more tea." Now that he had medicine, he had to work to get up and take it. It was still an effort and the allure of staying in bed was still great, but Calder knew that after the bath and tea, he could camp back in bed all day.
Moving, he slipped out of bed, but still felt the need to hold onto things.
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Posted: Sun Sep 25, 2011 11:23 pm
"Mm," Barth said, having every intention of taking that advice. He remembered, belatedly, that he had not slept while Calder had been awake, in case...
"Yell at me if the thorns start. If you're up and about."
He'd try to keep them...subdued this time. Or at least hope they stayed on the side of the room opposite the kitchen and bathroom. He was just...tired. And right now, for a variety of reasons, preferred sleeping to thinking.
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Posted: Sun Sep 25, 2011 11:36 pm
"Okay. I'll wake you if I get trapped out." And with that, Calder moved off to the bathroom once more. It felt forever since he was submerged, and he warmed the bath to an uncomfortable heat simply because it was necessary and far from preferred. Submerged, he cleaned his hair, washed as much slime off, and then worked slowly to rub off moss and pluck the mushrooms that had gathered on his person. When that was done, he simply soaked a while, staring up at the ceiling and thinking. It wasn't productive in any way, and was more a question of 'why?'. Why did he have that dream in the first place and should he chalk it up to desperation, sickness, or simply the fact he had been spending a great deal of time with Barth recently. He had been nice to him, but he had been sick, and that could have just been him taking things wrong. He had jumped at the change to be called for help, and had been delighted he had been the only one Barth could trust. Were these all secretly feelings he had for Barth or were these things that lead to this dream?
He had never had to deal with a situation where he may or may not like a friend simply because he never had friends.
And for what had to be the dozenth time, Calder replayed that dream to find some meaning, but all he notice was that his heart kept beating faster. Either because he liked the dream or knew it was wrong, he couldn't figure out.
Out of the bath, dried, and into a fresh shirt, Calder went to the kitchen and fiddled with the micro-grave that Barth owned until he finally managed the buttons and heated up some hot tea. He then loaded it with sugar, noticing that Malodore had no sense of taste and it reflected in his overly-strong tea concoction (Calder couldn't really call it tea), and went back with a hot mug. Luckily the thorns left a gap, and he crawled in, being careful with his cup, and sat in a cleaner spot to sip his tea. He simple watched Barth sleep again and wondered.
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Posted: Mon Sep 26, 2011 6:24 pm
Barth was only dozing now, half-awake in the worry that a deep sleep would mean overgrowth. So much worrying lately. The deep sleep was normally something Barth avoided unless it became unavoidable, due to exhaustion. But now it had been creeping up on him. He wondered if it was classwork, or something else.
He felt Calder sitting on the bed, and rolled over, yawning, and giving Calder a very small smile. ...Did Calder want to talk about last night? Did he remember last night? Barth decided to approach the subject in the most round-about fashion possible.
"You're looking better this morning."
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Posted: Mon Sep 26, 2011 6:35 pm
Calder was sipping his tea, wincing every so often. Drinking tea all his life, he was a bit picky about the taste, and this certainly was made by an amateur, but Calder couldn't complain too much. It wasn't like he went out into the woods to get this medicine. Bearing with it, he at least liked that he felt warmer instead and not warm on the outside. His stomach was also glad it had something in his system, and he continued to slowly drink, enjoying the lazy day of what had become a very lazy week for him.
When Barth spoke, he lowered his mug and smiled in return, feeling a little warmer and not due to the tea. "Yeah. I do feel better. I don't feel like opening my eyelids is like lifting 200 pounds or that my arms weight a ton. Everything isn't as warm either. I hate feeling that hot." He sipped his tea again, looking around, and then back at Barth.
"Sorry for being such a mess....but I saw your thorns. They are getting better." He tried to turn the conversation to somewhere comfortable, but he found the ease in talking hard. He couldn't stop analyzing every passing feeling in order to see if there was evidence of any deeper feelings he might have been ignoring in the past for the demon.
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Posted: Mon Sep 26, 2011 7:48 pm
"Thank you, I think. They're um, well, they haven't...bothered anybody yet."
Barth knew the feeling Calder was describing. He couldn't remember a moment when his eyes and limbs didn't feel that way.
He looked at Calder's shoulder.
"...I know it's none of my business, but err, is that West's mark? Under there."
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Posted: Mon Sep 26, 2011 8:07 pm
Calder jerked a bit, burning his upper lip with some tea as he lowered his mug, not able to grab his arm to discretely hide it and finding that there was really no point. Barth had already noticed and it wasn't like he could hide it in some way that he could trick him to see it wasn't there. While it really wasn't Barth's concern, there was something strange about having a friend as a demon and yet having another demon's mark. It was like saying your best friend wasn't good enough to come to first.
He felt guilty.
"Um...yeah.." He licked his upper lip free of tea and looked at his arm a moment before looking into his bug. "I just...ran a errand for him and he's just...ya know...watching out for me in return." He tried not to make eye-contact with the sloth demon as he took another sip. "Nothing against you. I ...sorta asked the first demon I saw." He took another sip, very small.
"Don't tell anyone. I ..don't want it getting around I'm getting marked." This was now his third one when in the beginning of the school year, he would have laughed at the idea of getting marked. This one, he practically begged for. Was he getting as bad as Christof with these? He hoped not.
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Posted: Mon Sep 26, 2011 8:12 pm
"Oh no, I wouldn't err, I wouldn't say anything." Barth was going to ask why Calder hadn't considered him, but Calder beat him to it. Still, the answer was...lacking. It seemed like a rushed way to get Marked. Why the urgency?
"Why the first one you saw?"
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Posted: Mon Sep 26, 2011 8:19 pm
He moved his mug, swirling the tea around. "It just didn't matter which demon it was. All demons can make a contract." He moved the mug back to his lips despite just taking a drink seconds ago. "It didn't matter which." He took another sip, feeling his cheeks flush as he refused to look so much as a millimeter in Barth's direction. Why was he pressing? He never engaged in this sort of talk before?
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Posted: Mon Sep 26, 2011 8:46 pm
"Ah," Barth said, in a sort of resigned way.
"Sorry. I shouldn't- that's alright. West's a good choice."
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