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 Posted: Fri Nov 25, 2011 9:18 am
It had barely been any time at all and Zar had already very much had enough, it was impossible to maintain any vestige of dignity when you had a tendency to floor yourself at any and every turn. The last straw had been earlier that morning, when after yet another mostly sleepless night, he'd gone to get a drink and on the way back with his prize, he'd slipped on one of the unexpected marble tiles in his way. The result was a rather undignified tantrum on his part right there and then in the empty hallway, followed by a tinkle of glass as he kicked the remnants against one of the walls.
Of course he'd picked all the mess up afterwards but that was beside the point
As a result, he'd taken his intent to do something about these damned hooves much more seriously, and after asking around a few unwitting people, he'd gathered that his most likely help was a chap called Barth, so here he was, expecting some scene from a laboratory within as he raised his hand and knocked on the door, tail once again nervously curled up around his feet.
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Posted: Fri Nov 25, 2011 9:33 am
The door was locked. There was a muffled, "Yes, hello? Who is it?" from inside.
Barth had recently determined that keeping a door locked was a moot point if he kept on opening it for everyone that knocked without announcing themselves. Even if he already had a sort of- built-in security system. He had liked his security arrangement better before Riley's little speech and the field trip that had proved her right.
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Posted: Fri Nov 25, 2011 9:35 am
Zar looked almost startled that there was a reply from within, putting on a distinct deer in the headlights look. Who was it? Who was he? In his panic, he fumbled over such an instinctive question.
"Er.. Erm. Zar."
Even though this didn't seem to clarify anything.
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Posted: Fri Nov 25, 2011 9:45 am
That hadn't helped at all, really. Neither the name or the voice was familiar. What was the security protocol here? It wasn't like his door was being busted down, and that wasn't a threatening growl.
"Alright, hold on, I've got to find the remote- really I should just keep it in my pocket..." There was not a sound of frantic shuffling from inside. It just took Barth a long time to look about and then reach to the couch-side table.
"Ah hah."
There was a mechanical noise, and the door came open.
Barth was on the couch. He had let the Curses book he'd been reading drop deep into the sofa cushions. The room was, thanks to Christof's efforts, neater than could be expected of a Sloth demon, but there were still unsorted piles of mechanics and half-finished or half-dismantled objects. His desk looked more like a shelf than a surface on which any work was getting done.
Zar's appearance confirmed it. He had no idea who he was.
"Bartholomew Mudd," Barth said, and although his greetings, like his door, were usually open in light of current circumstances he couldn't help some suspicion. "...Don't think we've met."
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Posted: Fri Nov 25, 2011 9:55 am
A remote, Zar at least was more assured he'd found the right person, though he didn't relax an inch, not yet, his heart still racing as he remained pretty uncertain who or what could be lurking behind the door, knowing this school, it could be anything.
As the door opened, Zar's curiosity won out and he had a good quick look around, little OCD instincts in his head rebelling at even the slightest disarray. But still, everything seemed to speak of someone who might actually be able to help him out. He eyed Barth carefully, nodding in as polite a way as he could manage.
"No, I don't think we have, I've erm. Only been here a few days really." Again with the erms and ahs, he hated them, his father's voice ringing in his ears that hesitation gave away your own ignorance. Oh well, he couldn't help it right now. He pointed lamely along the corridor in the direction of his dorm. "I stay along there. I just. Well I was told that you are good at well, making things." For just a moment he slipped into professionalism mode.
"I wanted to inquire about the possibility of requesting a construction for personal use."
Though he still hadn't taken even one step inside the room, talking from exactly where he was. Breaching any form of etiquette was almost as bad as mess to Zar.
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Posted: Fri Nov 25, 2011 10:33 am
"Well. After a fashion, more err, more the part directly proceeding the making. But yes. ...Err, come in. What needed constructing?"
Barth took in the suit, the tie, and experienced an eerie feeling he could not quite place associated heavily with offices.
An awkward pause.
"And err, I'm sorry, but are those post it notes?"
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Posted: Fri Nov 25, 2011 10:39 am
Zar stepped inside the moment he was invited, as if he'd been anxiously waiting on the word to do so, still walking very slowly and cautiously out of aquired habit in this building and stopping a little nearer to Barth. He was about to reply to Barth's initial question when his attention was drawn to his wings, he looked over as where he carried them slightly unfurled to either side and gave them a look as if he'd never seen them before before managing to get his nerves together and nod.
"Oh my feathers. Erm. Yes. Handy." He pulled one off to demonstrate, holding it up obligingly for inspection, before going through the back and forth tirade of people everywhere trying to pick something sticky off of one hand only for it to stick to the other, even while preoccupied with this continuing.
"And erm. It was shoes. Of a sort. For the bottom of my hooves." He lost patience with the bloody thing and crumpled it into a ball before pocketing it irritably, looking back to Barth with a smile and a nod. "I fall over quite, quite a lot lately."
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Posted: Fri Nov 25, 2011 11:56 am
They were post it notes. What did that mean. Did it mean something? He was just...it was like looking at the embodiment of a Monday.
"Very," Barth said, a little weakly.
"Right. Shoes. Well. There are...other students. You know. With hooves. I think Calder views horseshoes as the fetters of enslavement or something, though, so I'm not sure how he handles hard flooring."
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Posted: Fri Nov 25, 2011 12:02 pm
He couldn't help but raise a brow at this, in Zar's worldveiw, enslavement worked right into everything else, but he couldn't manage, no matter how he looked at it, to understand how shoes would be considered a form of it.
"I've not met anyone else with hooves since I got here at least to ask them, so not had any chance to find out. Back home we had carpeting, which was..a little better. But since I got here, I've had some...incidents and have started to envy the traction shoes might actually provide."
"I'm a very indoors kind of demon." Completely oblivious to the fact this was probably hugely obvious.
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Posted: Fri Nov 25, 2011 12:34 pm
"I don't mind the great outdoors myself, strictly, but I could do without the hiking. Or walking. Or anything activity related,"
Shoes. Well. Comfortable shoes were sort of in his realm of interests.
"...Alright. Could you fetch the tape measure, please? And a pen. They should be on my desk. ...Don't mind if anything spills, someone will get it later."
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Posted: Fri Nov 25, 2011 12:41 pm
Zar almost offered his own pen. Almost. It was the thought that counted. But his pen was sacred he decided.
Still, he didn't complain as he went to do as Barth asked, wandering over to the desk, still pained by the slight dissaray before him, used to pens being treated with almost reverential organisation. Frowning, he rescued one and sought out a tape measure. He succeeded only after a bit of careful shuffling around. Shuffling around which incidentally ended up the desk being somewhat tidier. Completely unintentionally of course.
"Here we go." He stated as he brought the two items over and held them out obligingly to Barth. "I mainly dislike the outdoors because of all the rain and dirt. Its not condusive to doing any sort of paperwork so not somewhere I have any real desire to be."
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Posted: Fri Nov 25, 2011 12:48 pm
"Yes, thank you," Barth said, making no motion to take either object. "Have a seat," he moved his legs off the couch, gesturing.
He was relaxed enough until Zar mentioned paperwork, wherein he recoiled as if Zar had suddenly taken the Christian Cross from his jacket and said Hail Mary.
"Desire?" He repeated, mouth gone dry. "Paperwork?" Those sentiments did not belong in the same train of thought.
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Posted: Fri Nov 25, 2011 12:54 pm
Zar gave Barth a baffled look at his response, but sat down on the couch anyway, before even attempting to explain himself, he wasn't one to turn down an offer of a seat when he felt quite as physically exhausted as he did right now after days of fleeting dozing and fitful dreams of dissaray and chaos.
"Well.. yes?" he offered "Paperwork is sort of well..what I do. Wrath demons do wrath. I do paperwork. A very specialised sort of Incubus. Plenty of fear to be had from paperwork." He had to smile, Barth had certainly made that point for him.
He turned to toss the pen up and down in one hand the way an expert swordsman might toy around with a blade. "Not a fan I take it?" He asked, feeling a little less jittery on more familiar ground.
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Posted: Fri Nov 25, 2011 1:00 pm
Barth shrunk lower into the couch.
"Not- not disputing that, no, certainly- certainly understandable...I'm a- that sort of demon myself, not incubus of course, ha ha,"
Now Barth had placed the officey Monday sort of feeling that had made him uncomfortable. It was not unlike that of a snake discovering it had been chatting up an eagle.
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Posted: Fri Nov 25, 2011 1:09 pm
Zar was actually set a lot more at ease by Barth's evident discomfort, funny how that went really. But he felt as if now they were on even footing. He'd been unsettled when he arrived, now for the moment at least, things were reversed. Still, he couldn't quite place what sort of demon Barth was. He wasn't the most observant individual outside matters of the written word, so even the decor of the room didn't give him any hints.
"Really? What sort? If you don't mind my prying."
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