[PRP] Summer Visitor (Calder & Barth)

[MoonKitsune]

It felt strange to be on campus when break was still going on, and to see the school almost vacant. No crowds of friends walking across to hurry to their next class, or a few laid out on the campus lawn and debating if they should go to the cafeteria. It was quiet, and Calder's clip-clopping hoof-falls seemed to echo on the sidewalk as he entered the school grounds. The canteen on his pack jostled, clacking against his pack as he looked about. He missed school even more than before. It was a miracle he was even permitted to leave and he was at least grateful Murchudh had allowed that much. It was even better to LEAVE his band for some time even if he had to go back after his visits.

Sighing, he looked at himself, adjusting his trimmed, tailored clothes and checking his hair once more. He hoped Barth wouldn't make fun of his appearance or bring too much attention to it. How he missed his tattered clothes and felt strange with his hair not littered with sticks.

Without any real need to think about it, he walked to the demon dorms, entering without any problem and finding it just as quiet. A few lights showed that a few students were living here over the summer, and he passed by them before heading up the steps to Barth's room.

He hoped he was in.

Then again, he hoped Barth hadn't died over the summer. Maybe he got a nice goblin to take pity on him and help him out with...well, everything.

When he approached the door, he noticed it didn't smell like anything was rotting. At least not from this side of the door. Hoping for the best, he knocked and waited, adjusting the straps of the harness that attached to his pack.  

[Toshihiko Two]

Barth was, predictably, doing nothing. He was draped upside down on the couch with a Curses book draped over his face as an impromptu shade. The warm October summer rain was a good excuse as any to stay indoors (not that he left his room very often in the first place), and he was not going to volunteer to take any summer classes he didn't have to.

With Christof out of town, he wasn't getting much progress done on his projects either, although he had been doing some minor (and probably dangerous) experimenting that, like Christof's attempts to cheat death, probably veered less towards machinery and more towards philosophy. Ultimately, though, there would be a Device.

He was dealing in energy and forces, and had delved back into his Curses book to see the techniques used in his area of interest, before indulging in a nap to chew over the information.  

[MoonKitsune]

Calder waited on the other side of the door, adjusting the straps to his harness pack before tapping his hooves free of dirt on the ground. When a minute or so passed, he tried knocking again, and felt that he could bang on the door without any success if Barth was asleep......or dead. Frowning, he pressed his ear to the door, wondering if he could hear something, before testing the doorknob. To his luck, it creaked open and Calder poked his head in.

It was delightfully refreshing to see the room pretty much in the same state of posh elegance meshed with the explosion of tools, machinery, and rolled up blueprints. The life of a rich inventor certainly didn't do anything for their decor, but it was vastly different to the manor he was staying at with Murchadh and he found it far more inviting.

Stepping in, he searched the door and gave a quiet. "Barth?" Without any answer, he closed the door and looked about before spotting the slender body and long legs of the demon sprawled over his couch. Walking over, he lifted a corner of the book and smiled at the sleepy expression of his dear friend.

My! His hair was longer, and he seemed to have forgotten to shave....though maybe he never had a reason to till now. He certainly looked more rugged. He wondered if he could braid a few strands of that long hair before waking him up, but he was much too eager to wait.

Grinning, he took the book and, marking it with a pencil he found on the floor, he set it on the table and then leaned in to whisper in his ear. "Ohhh Barth. Bbbbaaarrrthhh. It's time to wake up noooowwww. I have something special for yyyoouuu." He poked the boil's cheek before, unable to resist, touching his horn.  

[Toshihiko Two]

"Put it...anywhere," Barth mumbled, uncrossing his ankles and then recrossing them in the opposite fashion.

The book was still over his eyes.  

[MoonKitsune]

A bright flush crossed his face at such a suggestive comment, and he shook his head to be brought right on track. Feeling a tad dirtier for it, he removed his hand from Barth's horn and shook his shoulder. "Aren't you even excited to see me? I had to hoof it all this way to see you. You could at least say hello first." He even brought some snacks just like he promised!

Huffing, he rose up and went over to his pack, undoing the buckles and straps before rooting about in his belongings. Luckily he packed light. After a bit, he pulled out two tins and one jar, before moving over and setting them on the table, clearing it off a bit first before looking back at the still reclining demon.

Frowning, Calder took one of the sweet-marinated snow-worms from the jar that Barth seemed to like and called out to the demon again. "Hey Barth. I brought something sweet for yoouuu. Something you wannnntt." He tried shaking his shoulder again with his free hand. Really now. What sort of reunion was this?  

[Toshihiko Two]

"Mm, sweet of you," he repeated. The shaking was enough to dislodge the book, which revealed that his eyes were still decidedly closed.

He reached sleepily towards the offered snow-worm anyway, grasping it delicately between two claws before drawing his hand back to where it had been folded on his chest. The worm, naturally, got marina all over his jacket.

Barth did not seem very bothered by this.

 

[MoonKitsune]

Calder watched as the slow-worm moved on Barth's jacket, smearing marinade all over his nice clothes and trying to make an escape down his chest and around his neck. Calder reached over and picked it up, biting the head off before setting it back in the jar.

He was not amused.

Not at all.

Licking his fingers, he scooted over and then grabbed the demon's horn tight in one hand and started to lift it up. "OY! WAKE DA BLOODY ELL UP!" He bellowed, his accent thick as he tried to wake the demon. He wasn't going to be sprinkles and clovers when the boil wasn't even awake to say hello!  

[Toshihiko Two]

Barth yipped, now very awake and certainly not used to being steered around by his horns.

"Hold on, help, don't kill me, the breaker must have overloaded is all, I didn't- err...hello, Calder."

He seemed to notice that his jacket was sticky with marina, and attempted to wipe it off with the hand that was also sticky, to little effect.

"Not the horns, please. What, err, are you back already?"  

[MoonKitsune]

His ears were back and eyes dark and narrow. "Of course 'm nut back, ya bloomin bampot! I'm visitin! " He paused, shaking his head and dropping the horn and Barth in turn. Now he got him all flustered and it always took him a few minutes to untangle his tongue from his natural dialect and work it back to "proper" speech. Else no one would get a lick of what he was talking about.

Grumbling, he got up and headed over to the small kitchen that Barth kept to look for a cloth and use some water to wet it. Once done, he came back and tossed it on the demon's chest.

"I came back to visit you. Like. I. Said." He measured his words as he worked to get them back in sensible order and to quell his temper. Summer had been stressful enough to not explode on his friend.

Calder plopped back down. "....and to see that you weren't dead and buried under all of your things."  

[Toshihiko Two]

Barth sagged back into the couch once Calder released him. He picked at the washcloth a bit, then left it where it was.

"Still alive," he confirmed. "You look, err, nice. Did you just get back from something...formal?"  

[MoonKitsune]

Calder went rigid on the couch, and reached up to touch his hair a moment and look at himself. "Uh...no. I was ...told to dress appropriately. I'm supposed to dress this way." He looked away a moment. "I got some new ones...and the rest were burned." Murchadh had been rather strict on not seeing such 'tattered rags' again. Calder had to hide his old scarf to keep it from being tossed out, but had to wear his nicer clothes at all times.

"I'm supposed to be dressing this way." He said, not really wanting to stay on the subject of him and his current state of dress. His eyes went back to Barth. "You look...." His eyes went to the now stained shirt and scruffier features. ".....scruffy. Are you letting your hair grow out now?"  

[Toshihiko Two]

Barth felt his chin. "A little, I suppose. I was depressingly busy. I just haven't bothered to have it cut since I got back. ...I'm growing out a beard, though. Sinister is the goal. ...I think it's a good way to go about adding a smidge of menace."

He made a tactical decision not to ask about Calder's wardrobe being burned. He assumed Calder didn't want to talk about it.  

[MoonKitsune]

Calder reached over, touching Barth's stubble for a moment with a amused smile before leaning back. "It's certainly got that evil twin air to it. With I could grow one." Ah, the may woes of being a kelpie and lacking any real ability to grow facial hair. It was a very rare occurrence that any of his kind could grow any real facial hair. It went against looking like this gender or that. You could trap more when you looked like either this or that.

Calder stroked his own smooth chin and sighed in dismay. He wondered how a mustache would have felt and gave up trying. "Who's going to cut your hair? Do you have a stylist? Ohh. You should grow it out too and get a pony tail so we can match. They're very in fashion, ya know?" He turned his head. "...or I can braid it for you." He grinned at the memory.


"Whatcha been workin on?"  

[Toshihiko Two]

"Evil original is what I'm aiming for. I am not opposed to the occasional salon day. It's just all the walking. And leaving my room. Certainly not in this weather."

Barth gently retrieved the Curses book.

"This and that. I don't usually veer into the mad sciences, but it's only a little dabbling. Christof mostly completed the Doom Buggy, did you see it?"  

[MoonKitsune]

"Mum says dabbling is like putting your foot in the water. Eventually you just fall in." Calder reached over and grabbed the headless slow-worm he had taken from Barth before and started to finish it in one long SLURP before chewing. Once done, he looked about.

"Never been to a salon. Everyone I know just knows how to do their own hair. I know fillies as young as 4 that can do a french braid and that's with flower additions." He said rather matter-o-factly. "Are you just going to let it grow all out like that because you want to or because you're just afraid of some water? It's gorgeous outside. Was soaked for nearly the entire trip. Just lovely."


And he had walked all the way here, though he doubted Barth would want to hear about that. He only now just got the demon awake.

"I haven't seen what Christof made. He was locked up in your room for a bit, but I couldn't tell you what he was workin on. What's a Doom Buggy? Is it a beetle made out of metal? Seems really weird to make."