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 Posted: Fri Nov 20, 2015 9:42 am
Calder stared back at Barth. "...and you just never said anything about being related because why? I thought this kinda thing wasn't a demon thing. Sounds just like the clans." He whispered back before turning to notice the team shift and head after Grimhikd. He had been curious who it what te team was and was jus as impressed (okay they were very impressive) outfits that somehow worked for both forms. Inwardly he died just trying to think of the cost.
"Oh, I'll bring some chairs. I'll be right son you." He told the passing team and suddenly realized the gravity of the visit. There was a whole mess of people, 2 of which were relatives that Calder assumed Barth and Zar wanted to keep happy, at their home.
"Uhh, how about we all come inside? I'll start some tea." And whatever he could dig up for a snack. He honestly hadn't predicted to make much of anything today. Did they even have that many cups?
Calder turned back to Barth. "See if they are staying for dinner." With a smile to them, he gave a curt nod. "Pleasure to meet more members of the family. Please, make yourself comfortable." He gestured for them all to follow inside the house. While Ras didn't seem to be a sloth demon, he still wondered if the man got easily tired and standing about the lawn wasn't going to help.
He also had to wonder why Ras said Zar was te member of their bloodline. Wouldn't it be both Barth and Zar? he had to wonder if mating in family was for the same reason kelpies stuck to the same idea. To keep their offspring strictly as demons. Did that mean anything with Calder here? He wondered what would have happened if their children were monsters. What then? Why did he worry that he was somehow a kink in the family's plans?
The spiderling only looked back, quietly, many eyes looking Ras up and down. Then, it simple hissed "mine" as it gripped Barth.
Baneful Trillian died on me so here is a tag.
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Posted: Fri Nov 20, 2015 11:39 am
Gilda had not even considered the idea that Ras had had any involvement with Sam's line, blaming the other demon only for giving Ras the nudge it had taken to push him off the edge of his own innate despair. Her arrogance did not readily permit for entertaining situations where she was not the first and foremost desire and focus of the other demon's life. Still, it was a possibility which once set forth, troubled her subtly. She said nothing of it though, not holding onto worry long, instead pushing it aside and instead turning her attention to eyeing the castle and entertaining how best to improve it that it might not bring shame to her simply by association with its dilapidated halls.
Still, even eyeing the building her colour shifting core flashed dangerous and tense colours, on her guard with Ras so very fragile still and so very touchy. She decided there and then that she would reassure herself later as she was the only one who could ever do so.
As far as the distinctly insect-like scareling, she stated simply. "Zaram has a parent with certain elements in their lineage." Just about as irate with the idea of Maafune manifesting in one of her descendants as Ras was about Echo.
The oldest of the team of horses gave Calder a grateful nod as they passed but did not stop, apparently in a great hurry to get away from their mistress once dismissed.
Zar's link reached out instinctively as he was touched, leaving himself exposed to the full force of the other demon's sorrow but in turn leaving his own anxiety raw and open, a twisting writhing sea of churning worry and self conciousness, clasping fear and jealousy that twisted like tentacles and seethed in to fill up the sorrow, to hold it to him as if it was his own, wanting to be missed, wanting to be needed even though the emotions were not his and not to him entailed.
In the midst of it all Superbia's emotions gleamed like a brilliant star, immune to the tides of sorrow and jealousy that flowed around him, all curiosity and wild cold need for knowledge.
Just when it seemed Zar might lose himself in the embrace itself, glad to belong, his ear twitched, hearing the statement from his other son as he sat atop of Barth.
The self conciousness and anxiousness twisted in a way that was like the turning of a beasts head at scenting death on the air, all predatory rage and determination, a surge of loathing and possessiveness which boiled up monstrous in him as he forgot in the moment his cordiality as he glared at the small spiderling. It was not his. Not his. His tail lashed.
"I... I am glad." he stammered to Ras, but nothing of the wild fury abated. "Calder makes a good point, let us go indoors if you will join us." he broke the embrace only to leave the chicken-like child in Ras's arms make his way over to Barth and to pluck the scareling from him wether he wanted to be plucked or not.
"No." he stated, cold and calm, the link cut off entirely from the scareling.
Gilda did not wait any longer for anyone else but walked into the castle to investigate how bad it really was.
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Posted: Fri Nov 20, 2015 1:26 pm
"Err," Barth said, looking at the son Zar was gripping dangerously with some anxiety, "he's a bit young for disciplining, isn't he...?" Barth had watched Zar's ear swivel dangerously at the word, and was not quite oblivious to the reasoning. "It's...um, it's the only word he knows-"
"Thank you," Rasputher said, touching Zar's wrist with the tip of one long claw, the smell of flowers reaching Zar's nostrils, and all at once holding the scareling seemed like such a burden, and his fury misplaced and hardly worth it. His fingers seemed to have a mind of their own, and they fell open not unlike a blooming flower.
When Zar's grip relaxed, not quite by force, Ras relieved Zar of the spider gently, bringing both scarelings to his chest, which was half-shirt and half-feathers.
The madness, the jealousy, the possessiveness, the despair- Ras knew it very intimately. It was too bad Zar had turned out to be an incubus, all-considered. If he had a choice, the bloodline would not have been so badly cut. But Zar remained his and hers.
"We will stay," Ras said, without an estimate of how long staying meant.
Ras looked startled at Gilda's depature, and hurried (as much as he was capable) after her through the threshold, shielding her from any dust or dampness with one blackened wing.
Gilda's feet had not, in fact, touched the ground since they arrived, and the soft heads of flowers seemed to spring up and cushion each step.
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Posted: Fri Nov 20, 2015 4:04 pm
The spiderling did not want to be pulled, but as it was transferred and realized it was his other parent, it curled its arms about the hands holding him and looked up at him. At Zar's "no," the scarling only curled its limbs more around Zar to grip him. "Mine." It said back, not liking to hear a no, and now claiming Zar's hands as its own property.
Not realizing the danger, it was soon removed and pressed into feathers. Familiar with its brother, it jerked only at the unfamiliar smell, but soon tried to grip the feathers, collecting any loose ones it could find and using its two mandibles to nibble on a feather.
Inside, Calder threw some cushions back from the floor up on the couch and picked up the laptop and a blanket off the table.
As Glinda walked, Calder noticed the flowers and then glanced at Barth. "…"
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Posted: Fri Nov 20, 2015 5:21 pm
Zar released the spiderling before he even realised what was happening, left with the scent of impossibly sweet flowers in his sensitive nose and - in the place of the anger and jealousy which had raged in him - nothing but a hopeless sense of loss and self conciousness in its place. It left him dazed, feeling like he had skipped his usual tantrum straight into the part where he wanted to find somewhere to curl up and wait for death, left hopeless and lost in the wake of his own inadequacy.
The others left, Zar lingered outside, simply staring at the ground, apparently lost in thought, fixated by his own confusion and the emotions which he did not understand how to deal with.
Inside, Gilda was looking over the property with a look of absolute horror, at a complete loss. "How does anyone live like this?" she asked. "Even Sam's house is better than this. This will not do at all. Is it all like this?" she asked Calder. "I will of course get my workers in to repair some of this damage, I imagine the stonework will be acceptable with a great deal of work, but at present it is hardly fit to live in. We shall sleep in the carriage for now, until it is brought up to code. We will nevertheless dine with you, a sacrifice indeed given the state of the place."
She wasn't even sure animals would live in such damp and fusty dust. "I am simply staggered, how cheaply did you purchase this castle? No matter what you paid you paid too much."
The chick snuggled up to his sibling and looked grandly over the house in an imitation of the older demon. "Too much." he repeated archly.
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Posted: Sat Nov 21, 2015 11:46 am
Barth was not exactly able to hurry back into the house. He looked after his (honestly much more quickly-moving and somewhat intimidating) Uncle, and stepped forward to nudge Zar's hand with his own knuckle.
Barth's fear was not as strong. His was emptied of the rich outcry of meaninglessness, of the desire to give up. Instead, it was only a very small buzz of calm.
"Alright?" he asked softly, and some of his thorns, also comparatively barren, brushed themselves over the ground where Gilda had previously stepped, scattering the flowers. It was a bit petty, and a bit possessive, but Barth felt slightly...infringed upon.
Ras looked over the run-down halls and sighed, it had a certain atmosphere that he felt was fit for most creatures (and a creature such as himself) but certainly not Gilda. And certainly not her heir.
"What clever scarelings," Ras praised, wing still held over Gilda, "The halls should with gleam with all the power and opulence befitting a member of our bloodline."
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Posted: Sat Nov 21, 2015 12:57 pm
"Well, the other places weren't as good as this one was." Calder said, trying his best to make small talk with a pair of demons who seemed to view their place so terribly despite how fond Calder was of it. He didn't have to wonder what they would have thought about his home if they thought this wasn't great. They also didn't seem to consider they were 3 students fresh out of college without anything. It had only been Barth's blessing of funding that even allowed this and that wasn't something they could rely on all the time. It called for frugality and work-around thinking, something Calder at least knew. Bartering was at least a skill he practiced.
"There were certain….requirements we were looking for in a home." A lake. Land. A big enough place for them which extended to their family's newest members.
Looking around, he looked at the things that still needed repaired that he hadn't had the ability and they didn't have the funds to fix. "It's…..awfully nice of you to help though." Even if it seemed solely to protect her grandchildren while also claiming them in some way. While he liked the help, he also wondered what she would feel entitled to as a result.
He looked up where the stairs just broke off and then started up again, a place he could and probably would never visit. He managed to get the necessities repaired. The gaping holes that made him worry something would crumble on top of them, and cleaned what he thought needed to be cleaned. At least it wasn't leaking as badly – not that he had actually minded that. His family home was half submerged after all.
"It's not all that bad. I mean, I've seen Barth's and Zar's home so it's not like that, but it's not bad." A rat moved from one corner of the room and dashed down into the kitchen.
Glancing, he noticed that both Barth and Zar were still outside and tensed, finding himself alone with both of them. "So…..how long have you two been mates?"
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Posted: Sat Nov 21, 2015 2:02 pm
Zar didn't know what to do without his anger and jealousy and was still a dazed mess when he was nudged by Barth, the resulting deluge of confused and tormented emotion was hard to make head nor tail of, stretched somewhere between despair and panic, even Barth's fear seemed only to have a sedating rather than curative effect on the confusion and hurt he felt. Zar did not deal well with having the tenuous wall he kept between himself and his self conciousness and sadness removed.
He stepped away from Barth, remembering in a state of addled panic the way the spiderling had stated that he was his and how sorely that tapped into his greatest fear about having scarelings at all. What he had was stretched thin before, now it was stretched even thinner, between three competitors rather than just the previous one. As they grew they would cost more than the fear it had cost to create them and his usefulness would have expired.
"I am fine." he stated coolly, in the usual proclaimation of his emotional state even when the link said so undeniably otherwise. Maybe Ras and Gilda would take the scarelings away he thought, and for the first time found himself wishing this was the case, that the problem would simply be removed from his sight, perhaps that was why they were here.
Somewhat distantly, he eyed the scattered petals and said flatly. "They are very pretty."
"Clever scarelings." the chicken shaped scareling mimiced, before experimentally fitting together some of the other words and eagerly applying the logic puzzle of grammar to them. "Gleaming, opulent scarelings!"
Gilda nodded to Ras. "Indeed, this home is but a hollow skeleton, it needs flesh on its tired body, it needs to breathe."
When Gilda turned her attention to Calder it was always with a certain predatory edge of keen attention which was rather reminiscent of Zar when he was in a mood. She was trying very hard to be pleasant which was why she did not immediately ask the kelpie what on earth they could have been so desperately requiring that this shack of a castle was deemed adequate.
"I am helping those who cannot help themselves evidently. What on earth do any of you even do? I assume that none of you have any employment other than Barth's ill-fated and ill-planned inventions." She doubted any of them could even fight or properly hunt, it was rather sad.
"You have seen Zar's home?" she asked, raising a brow. "That is interesting as I have heard that Vadra refuses point blank to allow anyone into his home and has done so for a very very long time. You wouldn't lie would you?"
There was a flash of movement and the rat very quickly found itself stomped under a very lethally taloned foot, impaled on the raptor-like talon which flicked down and disembowelled it before it reached the kitchen. It had not paid her due respect and therefore was judged accordingly. When it stopped twitching, she extended the foot in front of her with perfect balance and simply held it there, dripping the blood of the fallen creature.
"That is a complex question and depends on how you define mates."
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Posted: Sat Nov 21, 2015 2:32 pm
"They're a bit much," Barth said, a bit more flatly, and ignoring the flinch, placed his hand on Zar's lower back, steering him with light pressure doorward.
He answered Ras and Gilda cordially, "The main investment is in the land. I wouldn't hear of them seeking employment in some sort of..." Barth winced, "paper pushing job. Or...food service. For now, we've only just gotten settled, and I expect the err, business will manage its way forward shortly..."
Without Christof.
Zar had offered his help, which Barth knew had been vulnerable and heartfelt. But Barth hadn't really done much inventing in months, mostly poking about here and there. There was no one to really call him on it, and he had offered some fumbled explanations about results and these things taking time, but there was a difference between a set of hands handing him a wrench, and a second set of creative input. He had explained a bit of the fumbling to the scarelings, who were both bright and curious, but everything had stagnated. Which it tended to do, with him.
He looked towards the room that had been the hopeful beginnings of something like a laboratory, and waved a claw nervously.
"I don't mind redecorating. I'm sure that Zar and Calder would feel much more comfortable with some softer and less-leaky surroundings. Just err, if that room over there, you'd leave, there are some, err...projects-"
Piles of wishful thinking.
"That are still in progress. You'll need to consult Calder for any changes made to the stables, and err," he looked at Zar, "what do you think, did you want anything done to the lower floors?"
"Mating is a matter of joining, not the physical technicalities of a match," Ras answered Calder, relocating the scarelings to one arm as he slickly moved to one knee and held Gilda's now-sullied claw. He removed the rat tenderly and brought the blood on each talon to his lips. "And we have always been joined."
"Or, um, the...upper floors. Or the, middle floors," Barth continued awkwardly, not entirely at home with watching what could have been his doppelganger clean Zar's grandmother's feet.
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Posted: Sat Nov 21, 2015 2:51 pm
The question of employment had his ears turning back, not at all wanting to be judged for potentially not being as useful as he could be or even accused of laziness. Despite being with a Sloth demon, that didn't mean he had adopted the same lifestyle. "We are just …busy!….working on improving the house and getting everything settled first." He half lied, in all honestly just not knowing where he should go from here. It had been a question he had no answer to and it had been bothering him. His plans had gone from having a happy family, but his career plans had somehow took a spot on the shelf he otherwise ignored. He hadn't exactly had family that worked before and was nervous about the idea of it.
Her quick hunting was impressive, but a threat was still a threat, and he was rather annoyed she would decide to do it in their home. He looked at the rat and then back up to her. The nervousness only came in remembered that it really hadn't been in Zar's home at all. "Oh, no. I mean. I'm sorry. I got mixed up. It was Barth's house. He father invited us and our relatives for a party."
There was a glimmer of relief in seeing Zar and Barth return, and he let Barth handle the two demons. "I'll be right back. I'm going to start some tea for everyone." He'd need to find several kettles to make enough.
He stepped out (more like stiffly ran) to start some water on the stove.
Tula turned to his brother, who was shouting this word and that, before he reached out and wrapped two of its limbs over him and hissed softly to him. …..gea-ming…"And find that less alluring, used its old favorite. "..mine."
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Posted: Sat Nov 21, 2015 3:24 pm
Zar let himself be guided, his pace that of a tired old nag, tail slithering forlornly after its master, not even held aloft from the ground the way it normally was. He couldn't seem to pull his thoughts up from the grim sadness which had taken the place of his fit of pique. Gilda's words dug rather deeply into him also, deeper than he thought they might. When he had worked for his father at the very least he had had a prospect of a future even if it was a bleak and slim one at least it was there for him had he wanted it. If he had kept at it for a hundred, maybe a thousand years he might have gotten a promotion to something better. As it was he was heir of a fortune which he could not fully cope with and found himself in a position where one day he might very well end up managing paperwork all over again along with maintaining tabs on an unruly brood of relations who wanted him dead. He wasn't sure if it counted as a better or worse future than what he had had before him prior, at least before he wasn't tethered helplessly and rendered vulnerable by love and with his fear taken from him and shaped into competition more able to learn and grow in the ways of the world.
He watched the display of affection with initially revulsion and scandal that someone would so openly do such a thing in someone elses home, but this thought twisted into a thrill of longing that there were people out there who did such a thing, who stated their devotion so openly and in such a way as to leave him feeling small and inadequately tended in comparison.
Gilda spoke up before Zar could, the gem in her chest swirling all manner of warm and satisfied colours as she was tended to by Ras., "You live in the basement?" she asked, zoning in on the query regarding the lower levels. Zar looked away grimly at the floor. "Look at me when I speak to you." she snapped and it was almost against his will he found himself meeting the place where her eyes should have been when she spoke. "And answer me."
Zar's tail curled in almost pained loops behind him as he replied. "Yes. You can do whatever you like down there. I have cells, I need a pool area, right now it is just an oubliette I use."
Gilda seemed to judge him harshly for his inclination to seek the floor, to seek the basement, the dark and the dingy depths rather than to stand proud and fearless, so many of his habits spoke of a worrying level of breeding and an even more worrying defacit of pride.
"Fine." she said. "And we will leave the storeroom alone." Because what else could a room full of the projects of a sloth demon even be?
Calder had left without even asking if anyone actually wanted tea (she did not) and she judged him for his inattention to manners before excusing the expectation as he was simply a monster and to expect manners from a monster was to expect conversation from a minipet. She was not surprised that they had been invited to Ardenter's home at all, the man relentlessly enjoyed parties and invited all who were interested to stop by. She of course rarely did, because she had standards which Ardenter certainly did not.
The other scareling did not object to being held and claimed, aware in an inherent way that was absolute that he could not be claimed and belonged to no one but himself.
"Projects." the scareling expounded "Ratcheting box wrench, affixed, preventing corrosion and rust, facets of light, optical lenses. Rust is oxidisation! Scarelings synergy projects!"
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Posted: Sat Nov 21, 2015 4:12 pm
At this, Barth finally seemed to perk up some.
"Yes!" he said, "Optical lenses. He put together a reflective network the other day in the dining room, you know. I would, of course, like to do some projects with you. Err, you know, if you concentrate the light it has destructive capabilities. Any energy, really, if there's enough of it..."
He did not use simplified language with either of the scarelings. He kept his hand on Zar's back.
Ras's face ended up stained with blood, but Gilda's feet ended up wickedly sharp and completely clean.
"You have been teaching them quite a bit of language. I bet soon they'll speak eloquently as well as intelligently." Ras rose. "My light, did you mention that our great nephew was also an avarice demon?"
"Ah, yes, err. Ssssloth," Barth filled in.
"The castle is bare of flowers. Do they not grow in the chill?" Ras asked.
"Not one of my skills, I'm afraid," Barth said tightly, and his tongue became riddled with an unpleasant buzzing sensation.
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Posted: Sat Nov 21, 2015 5:37 pm
Calder returned shortly after, having started some kettles for tea and stood as close to Zar and Barth as he could while also eyeing the scarlings in Ras' arms.
"Oh, what are you saying, Barth? Plenty of stuff grows here." He said, lost on what was being discussed.
"Um....Is there...anything in particular everyone would like for dinner?"
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Posted: Sat Nov 21, 2015 6:00 pm
The small scareling looked deep in thought at Barth's comment, as if searching for some word mentioned in passing and after a brief pause came up with it. "Laser!" he peeped, proudly fluffing up against Ras's feathers, completely unperturbed by his brief time lower to the ground.
Gilda set her foot back on her bed of flowers and tenderly stroked Ras's hair with one of her four hands. She smiled a little cruelly at Barth's evasive comment about the flowers. "He is barren and thorny." she said to the other demon. "All stem and no beauty." And as far as she was concerned it was more reason to be wary of the other demon and to worry about Zar's choice and wether he would ultimately be exploited.
Zar all the while positively radiated sadness and insecurity but was kept from veering off into leaving by the simple fact of Barth's contact with him, plying him with just enough of a reassurance that he was wanted there, that he should not actually turn and leave that he stayed.
Gilda raised a brow at Calder. "I will have my staff bring some food for myself and my darling worm. I cannot imagine the kitchens here supplying sufficiently excellent food at the moment." She did not bother to excuse any offence this might bring to the kelpie, blunt by her nature. "You should not offer what you cannot supply, it is almost rude."
Zar said quietly. "You know what I eat."
Gilda glanced over. "Rats." she said blankly. "I can all but smell it on you. Eat too many and you will turn into one, you are already getting there, slinking in basements."
Zar didn't reply, feeling she was correct in a lot of ways and simply tolerating the criticism and protesting only via the medium of the link itself.
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Posted: Sun Nov 22, 2015 9:13 pm
"Yes, a laser," Barth said indulgently.
"I'm afraid not all of us have poetry in our cores," Barth said, "I imagine my garden would be very different from my Uncle's."
His gardens and landscapes had only entertained one visitor.
"Forgive our meagre supply. ...Zar uses the upper and lower floors. He's permitted me to use the ground floor. I'm not very good with stairs. A err, chef was...next. On the priority list. Or some kind of house manager. I was saying the other day about the...staff. Issue."
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