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 Posted: Tue Apr 26, 2011 11:04 pm
Malodore couldn't see a thing - the plague doctor's night vision was atrocious, so when Calder cried out and threw... something... at something else, it honestly had no idea what was going on. "Don't!" it said, sharply... then stopped as Christof illuminated the situation.
".. cara mia?" it said, after one long, thoroughly nonplussed moment. "You aren't a lepus."
...
"... You aren't sitting on it, are you?" it asked, anxiously.
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Posted: Tue Apr 26, 2011 11:16 pm
Oh look. My Little Idiot was throwing things at her. Riley rolled her eyes and leaned hard to one side, letting the lamp soar past her and crash into the wall behind her. When she straightened up again, the flicker of candlelight gave color to the quickly panicking igor in front of her. Her eyes slit thin as it stumbled with it's words - another tongue, really? Because that went so well last time.
In response to Christof's bumbled excuses, she merely leaned in and snuffed his candle out with two fingers.
Oh, it's not? She whispered openly from the darkness. So, you all weren't convened together, doing science? Without me? Is that what you're saying, Christof?
Malodore's words and charmingly ridiculous question did wonders to soothe the savage beast. Yes. I am. Did you need it? It made for such a comfortable pillow. The amusement in her voice was barely readable.
Actually, I'm lying. It got away. Perhaps if you had not excluded me from your little rendezvous, I could have prevented that from happening. The humor was gone, now.
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Posted: Tue Apr 26, 2011 11:22 pm
"It got away? It got a..." Malodore blinked.
Its beak slowly opened in a smile.
And then, in the next instant, it threw itself at Riley, a highly questionable whoop! emanating from its throat as it wrapped its arms around her. "It got away! It animated! It's aliiiiiiiiiiiive!"
The plague doctor threw its head back.
"MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
... Damn, that felt good. No wonder crazy people did it.
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Posted: Tue Apr 26, 2011 11:33 pm
"Hi Riley," Barth said civilly, finally getting up from the couch. A lot of power. More power than anticipated. And if the animation was successful, that meant the energy transfer...he should probably check his fridge.
"It wasn't his rendezvous. His project, certainly." Tagged on was a thought he didn't purposefully send Riley's way, '...But my rendezvous.'
He picked up one of the blown candles on the way, and made a mental note to have his couch arranged closer to his kitchenette.
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Posted: Tue Apr 26, 2011 11:39 pm
Malodore's laugh sent thrills up and over his hunched back, his face flushing in the darkness. It... it was... it... it had WORKED?
Christof swallowed, and the temporary tongue felt sour in his mouth. "I... Th-that ith we er... I... thought I mentioned it... figured you were... buithy. With thingth. Dragonth and er. The like." He couldn't see her in the darkness, save for those glowing eyes and he carefully scanned anywhere else but there. His face was still twitching from the aftershocks of his rooftop venture, exasperated now by his anxiety. "Didn't want to trouble you with... with... thtupid Igor fanthieth." There was a touch of reproachfulness to his voice, willing his eyes to adjust. Every crackle of lightening gave him a brief moment to scan for any sign of the creation...
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Posted: Tue Apr 26, 2011 11:56 pm
Riley was mad, you know. She really was. Perhaps only mildly mad at Christof, but certainly quite mad at Malodore. This was difficult, if not impossible, to even convince herself of this fact, as it wrapped it's arms around her and - that cackle. How it buried deep inside her, taking hold of her heart and clenching it with a mixture of fear and delight. It wasn't fair. She was mad, damn it. Mad, not swooning. Definitely mad. Definitely not curling her arms around her mad scientist - because it was hers, despite the fact that it had just brought life to a creature for Christof. She wasn't jealous. Not at all. Not jealous.
She clung to her plague doctor and tried to look angry. Luckily, she found an escape from her failure at retaining her anger when Barth's stray thought caught her attention far more than his words did. It seemed jealousy ran in the family - of demonkind. Perhaps that was why she was not invited, after all.
I'm never too busy for science. Riley answered Christof, though she was looking at Malodore - because it should have known that. Christof's belittlement had her eyes finally turning to him, and she shook her head. You call this, stupid? How little you know your Mistress, Christof. I am offended.
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Posted: Wed Apr 27, 2011 12:11 am
Barth found another lighter in the kitchen, and borrowed a rubber dish glove from the sink, just in case. The refrigerator light would be off, of course. As he held the light above the sink, he got a minutely better view. Nothing was sizzling or sparking, which was a good sign.
But the kitchen was hazy with smoke.
And not from the candle.
The refrigerator itself, easily the largest piece of equipment he owned (perks of having Gluttony in the family) was a twisted mess. The handle was still hot, and inside were the sludgy corpses of jollymeals and various other food-related minipets that had taken refuge inside the fridge.
Barth was no stranger to his minipets dying, of course. Circle of life.
But his entire fridge was out, and had been transformed into the site of a horrific massacre. He had never had a fridge that was so still before. Nothing moved. Everything was outright drained of Fear, fried and sucked out with the lightening. More important than the substantial damage came the cold and very clear thought. ...Christof owed him.
The mark in the palm of Christof's hand began to smoke and glow.
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Posted: Wed Apr 27, 2011 12:17 am
The corners of Christof's mouth twitched in that nervious way he had, eye muscles convulsively following suit thanks to the recent lightening jolt, as Riley's words echoed in his disjointed brain. Was... she angry? Upset?
He was behaving very un-Igorly and it worried him. Already the seam of the pickled tongue had begun to burn. And... so had something else. A light glimmered in the darkness and he lifted his hand as subtly as he could- but Mistress could see in the darkness couldn't she? There was no hiding it now. It wasn't spent now, though, was it? He hadn't fulfilled his end of things, but it had only been a small mark...
Not anymore, it would seem. As the weight of the scale of value shifted, so did the symbol glowing yellow as Barth's eyes on the skin of his palm. Light twisted and spread like veins spiraling down his fingers as the symbol expanded.
Apparently Barth had more value in his refrigerator than Christof had calculated. The light spread to the back of his hand and he glanced up at Riley's glowing eyes and back to Barth's flickering candle over his hunch just as lightening filled the room once more.
Oh, Hell's bells.
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Posted: Wed Apr 27, 2011 12:29 am
Riley was quick to notice the mark glowing on Christof's hand, and they both watched it transform in silence. When the change was done, and the glow was only starting to fade, Riley's mood was frighteningly unreadable.
Was she angry that Christof had been re-marked? It was clear by the reaction as to who'd done it. It explained what they were doing here - and, perhaps, a little bit about why she hadn't been invited.
Of course, this didn't take Malodore off the hook, but..
Her eyes turned to crescents in a startling change of mood, and her arms tightened slightly around the plague doctor.
Awww.. you two made up. She coo'd. Yes. You read that correctly. She coo'd.
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Posted: Wed Apr 27, 2011 12:53 am
Barth turned red as he shut the refrigerator.
It wasn't the same as before. The payment and the result had to be equal. When they'd first met he'd suffered endless bullying, prodding, and ordering around from Christof. Physical dragging, shaking, hitting. Going to rehearsals, earning the lead role, being humiliated, being soaked with water balloons, memorizing lines, working with an unreadable script. It had been, in short, an experience worth every bit of service he had wrangled from Christof in the time between the School Play's end and the Contract's expiration.
Lending Christof his refrigerator (temporarily) and helping with a bit of wiring was good for one returned project.
The price of Barth's refrigerator (destroyed) and the pets inside it (slaughtered) in addition to his aid in a successful project to cheat death...racked up. What, exactly, it amounted to Barth wasn't sure. He wasn't even sure if a reinstatement of their previous arrangement would satisfy the balance necessary. Just that the price had steepened.
"It, err, we...that is," Barth articulated, "not...the previous Contract was just filled, earlier. That's all."
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Posted: Wed Apr 27, 2011 7:37 am
It had been a state of instant panic that he threw the lamp. You saw some dark figure and associated one scent with something unwanted and you tended to want that thing destroyed (or at least stunned) the moment you saw it. Once everyone was sure he wasn’t just seeing something appear out of nowhere, he didn’t go for anything else to throw at her. Instead, he was very annoyed by the fact she had even shown up. Despite having his own mixed feelings about being here, they had been doing this all together. With people he came to know as his friends and company who he enjoyed. Riley’s presence soured that experience.
Still, it was rather hard to look at her, something that now made him wish he couldn’t even see in the dark. Despite feeling jittery about having pulled the switch in the first place, he was even more unsettled and uncomfortable with Riley there and what quickly escalating to a rather troublesome situation. Malodore’s laughing, something he had never heard, did not improve matters.
Gripping his sides, he looked around, wondering where the Lepus was. The creature that he had some minor part in bringing to life. While this was happening, he noticed more and more what was going on. Riley and Barth were fighting over Christof. Riley was placing blame on the boil for not inviting her. Then, most of all, the mark that Calder had not noticed at first grew to cover his arm. A mark, and from the expanding, something that wasn’t good about it.
Christof probably wanted it. He’ll probably be very happy. This is his decision. Don’t get upset. However, he found it hard not to and felt even sicker. The feeling of not being part of this grew heavy on him. Everyone else was happy with creating undead things. Everyone else was smart and could understand and appreciate the science behind it. Everyone else was eager to be a part of it. Everyone else had no problem with Christof being marked constantly.
And then there was Calder.
He swallowed hard, not knowing where to move. Barth, who’s mark was now eating up his best friend, reminding him again that Barth had not done this to be a friend, but wanted something. Servitutde. Not Malodore, who was wrapped around Riley (and her little finger), delighted by the project. Not Christof, who seemed frightened and yet enjoyed being mark in the first place. For someone who took on a master and a mistress, he wondered why he was always afraid of them. Shouldn’t he pick owners that he liked? That would protect him? Not make him feel as every decision he made was wrong. Was this how Riley enforced the idea that, without her, Christof could do nothing and all his choices were the wrong ones.
“Christof can make his own decisions without you present, Riley. He has a life to, and not every moment is consumed with thinking that you should be there for each part of it. Give some slack to the leash. Can’t you see you’re choking him?” It was a hard statement from a serious deep voice. Green eyes glimmered in the dim light, the white hair of the kelpie seeming to glow on its own.
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Posted: Wed Apr 27, 2011 10:56 am
Christof's face had flushed again and he was thankful for the darkness as he twisted his hands in front of him, "Er... thort of... Thomewhat. Er. Ith complicated and-" He began, voice weak and trembling as his eyes glanced back up to try to catch Riley's expression. At the sight of her smile, his stomach twisted. What did that MEAN?
Calder suddenly flew to his aid, and his head wrenched around to gape at the white hair in the darkness. Was... was he CRAZY? "Calder thut up!" He finally managed to hiss, shaking now with anxiety. At least with the pickled tongue in, he had no need to give the Kelpie a smack.
His head was still spinning, aching, and trobbing, and he wondered if another lightening bolt would get rid of it. He swallowed, rubbing the fresh mark that was dimming into invisibility in the darkness. "I didn't mean to upthet you, Mithtreth... I jutht thought..."
He was being very unIgorly. He was giving commands. He was taking charge. Igors weren't supposed to take charge, nor give any sort of commands. That's not how Things Worked. They also didn't launch their own projects, collecting a team of top scientists he could locate.
"Um." He wobbled, the headache pulsating behind his eyes, his voice wobbling, "We... thould probably... find it before it er... ethcapeth."
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Posted: Wed Apr 27, 2011 6:00 pm
Malodore was capable of being pretty thoroughly blinded by Science, Medicine, and other interesting things... but even the plague doctor could tell that the mood in the room was starting to go south, and fast. Its beak clacked closed audibly, though it couldn't see anyone's expression in the dark.
... Except Riley's, and it didn't really like that particular curve to her eyelids.
"Cara mia, it is like this..." it began, then stopped. Instead, it opened itself to her, bringing forth a variety of emotions and mental images. It started with the two of them curled in bed, and Christof's intrusion, laden with the emotional tang of that moment. That overlapped with something Riley hadn't been present for - Malodore going past her door, and glancing at it longingly for a moment before deciding inviting her in wasn't its decision to make.
Cara mia, is it really so bad that Christof has his own life? He is so confused. I know you felt it here- The sight of the patchwork at the foot of its bed, awkward and lost. Christof after striking Amrita. Christof's rotting tongue at the dance. All of it, bundled up into one package that Malodore could never be eloquent enough to express verbally.
Be angry at me if you must. Its body tensed subtly, as if preparing for that anger. But he does not deserve it.
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Posted: Wed Apr 27, 2011 7:00 pm
Malodore was playing dirty. She wanted to believe it was because she was a bad influence.
I am angry with you. She pressed a claw against it's chest gently, but there was no anger in her voice. In fact, it sounded subtly provocative. Stupid cackle, making her swoon. So very angry.
As far as the tone of her voice was concerned, every time she said angry, at this point, she really meant infatuated.
She let out a brief sigh, and her eyes fluttered to Calder for less than a second, before ignoring his presence entirely. His opinion, and his dissent, meant nothing to her. This was made clear by the way she barely reacted to his words. Her eyes rested instead on Christof, touched with regret for a moment before she waved her hand to the left. It went that way, when the lights were off. Go on and find it, then.
Though her eyes remained on Christof, a private thought slipped into Malodore's mind. I'm too hard on him. I can't help it, sometimes. A moment of pause, and then her eyes slit. I hate it when you're right. And you're almost always right. I'm sure that's the only reason I keep you around.
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Posted: Wed Apr 27, 2011 7:15 pm
Barth held up the candle.
"Here err, refrigerator destroyer. Come out, come out wherever you are."
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