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 Posted: Mon Dec 05, 2011 6:47 pm
Barth had never hurried a project, so this was a first. It was mostly Christof doing the work, but while Barth usually looked over things casually and suggested a smidgeon of adjustment here or there, he had instead spent the week bothering Christof and fretting over every tiny detail.
It had to be just right.
Or he might come back for adjustments.
But after this, it was done, finished, and he would never have to speak to Zar again, and if they...shared a class or something, he could just drop it. He had invited Calder over too, as a sort of buffer and since he had seemed interested in something to reduce sliding. Bothering Christof, however, had not even stopped even while they were waiting to deliver the stupid things.
"Now, now if he asks you to sign something," Barth told Christof, "Don't. And...and if he brings waivers," he said the word with a certain shudder, "you'll have to deal with them because I'm sure he'll want copies- and copies, and copies," Barth was sinking deeper into misery and despair every moment.
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Posted: Mon Dec 05, 2011 7:17 pm
Calder was very excited to actually be asked as a sort of additional insight for one of Barth's projects. FINALLY he would be useful for one of the giz-ma-thingers that he and Christof created, and he happened to feel rather proud of that fact. If he could say he knew something, he at least knew about walking around the campus with hooves. True, he wondered how Barth would pull it off. He'd had problems before walking on campus, but only inside buildings. Usually the monster dorms were rather...sticky on the floor or at least covered in some dirt of residue to let you have a nice grip on the floor. As for the classrooms, he just made sure to tread lightly, hold onto things, and hope that there was a Gunk Beast nearby to walk behind.
Sitting pretty on the couch, Calder watched the door for their guest. He'd only met Zar once and that was before the attack. They hadn't really had a chance to talk. He was rather excited about it all. A hooved stranger. New projects. He was practically bouncing in his seat.
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Posted: Mon Dec 05, 2011 9:04 pm
Christof had been spending a lot of time in the Mad Science labs lately. There had been so much to do, the device for Mistress, and this new project as well. It was... odd, seeing ANY form of urgency in his Master's voice, but the immediacy of the project had almost made him want to drag his heels out of spite.
He was incapable of doing such a thing, unfortunately, and had therefor been juggling his time, working on one while the other was curing or cooling before returning to the other. The Mad Science professor had even returned from his last hospitalization, and had been quite pleased to see him taking care of the classroom and have even helped him out with the chemicals he needed to complete these 'Rubbers'.
He looked exhausted and disheveled as he shouldered the door open, all three arms filled with various boxes filled with large rubber blocks.
Barth had started talking the moment he had returned with the molds, listening quietly as he set them down ont he coffee table in front of Calder, nodding faintly. With a sigh, he signed, 'He-seems-nice. Don't-know-why-you-don't-like-him.' Well, he did know. But that didn't mean he would be an enabler.
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Posted: Tue Dec 06, 2011 7:38 am
Zar at least didn't have far to go to get to Barth's room, so had left it until the last possible moment to leave, working through a large swathe of delegated work from his father before he headed off. However, this didn't prevent him from remembering to bring a folder with various official looking papers contained within it, amongst them materials and labour cost waivers, patent contracts officiating the creations themselves in design to their owners and various other documents that made him feel that bit safer to have.
It was a show of gratitude, who didn't love to have everything all officiated and pinned down on paper?
In any event, it wasn't long afterwards that he showed up at the door, giving it about the most dull evenly spaced knock possible, and then waiting, tail flicking back and forth at his heels almost eagerly, he always felt a bit more confident armed with documentation.
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Posted: Tue Dec 06, 2011 8:48 am
"Of course he's nice, all the really nasty demons are-" Barth looked up at the knock, positioning himself so Christof was between him and it, and maybe huddling a tad closer than was necessary.
"...Some...somebody get the door," he hissed.
Calder jumped up when Christof showed up, smiling wide, but he was atad disappointed it wasn't Zar. That still didn't mean he wasn't happy to see his buddy. He also wated to see the project too. He waved to his friend, seeking up to look at the boxes. ''He doesn't look nasty to me.'' Actually, he seemed rather nice. When the knock came, Calder jumped up. ''It's him!'' Moving over, Calder opened the door. ''Hhhhiii Zar.'' He said, ushering him in.
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Posted: Tue Dec 06, 2011 11:31 am
Christof merely grunted a greeting, crouching down at the coffee table with his pocket knife to start popping the tape off of the molds. Hopefully there would be no bubbles or they'd have to postpone this test-fitting. But he THOUGHT he got the mixture right, thanks to Professor Norvegicus's instruction.
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Posted: Tue Dec 06, 2011 12:43 pm
Zar actually almost jumped back in surprise as the door was opened with a great deal more ...enthusiasm than he was used to. He allowed himself to be ushered in without so much as a word for a few moments, holding his folder like a life raft, before finally lining up his braincells enough to get at least a smidgen of his confidence back.
"H..hello Calder." He recalled the other boil's name from their meeting at the hunter..incident. "And Christof" he added as his gaze fell on the instantly recognisable boil by the coffee table.
Only then did he notice the boil he was looking for and smile a little more broadly, a gesture that more showed off his canines than seemed particularly friendly. "Oh! And the man himself, Barth too."
"How is everything coming along?"
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Posted: Tue Dec 06, 2011 1:24 pm
Barth winced. The wobbly, nervous smile he sent back was nothing resembling predatory.
"Thank you, Calder. Yes, err, fine, it's all fine, very good, Christof," he said, nearly strangled, taking sudden interest in the molds and not in the bundle of papers in Zar's arms, "how's the batch looking?"
Calder shut the door, smiling as he moved over to sit on the floor near the table and gestured to the seats around them. ''Take a seat, Zar. Christof brought the molds in. I haven't peeked.'' He pointed out, as if stating to a parent that he hadn't shaken a present.
He looked at the folder Zar brought but just thought he was going to do homework after. Nothing more and looked over at Barth who seemed a little on edge. He'd been jumpy all week and it bothered Calder. He placed a hand on the boil's knee. ''Don't worry. I'm sure they turned out great.'' He had no idea that this wasn't inventor's jitters and all about Zar.
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Posted: Tue Dec 06, 2011 2:47 pm
Suddenly feeling a bit on edge, as he realized all eyes were on him, Christof was quick to carefully pop the molds open, pealing out what looked like a very odd cross between a pot holder and orange rubber sandal. Before anyone could grab the sheet of rubber from him, he carefully looked it over for any imperfections and once satisfied, immediately began to cut away the flash before handing the nearly "finished" rubber to Calder before moving to another mold. It looked too small for his hooves at first, but the material was entirely stretchy- one size fit all, apparently.
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Posted: Tue Dec 06, 2011 3:55 pm
He was only too happy to take a seat, daintily sitting down in one of the seats that Calder pointed out. He was actually surprised how excited he was to see what the others had come up with, the prospect of being able to walk around without always having an eye on his feet being a nice little prospect.
His gaze did however follow back to Barth as Calder reassured him, nodding in agreement. "Reguardless of how they might turn out I'm grateful for all the effort." Some little niggling sense told him that perhaps it wasn't apprehensiveness about their reception that was making the demon seem anxious. It took all his self restraint not to try and test this theory a little further.
He was distracted from these thoughts as the rubber was cut and looked rather impressed at the efficiency of Christof's work. Eagerly sitting forward in his chair to get a better look. "Though they are certainly looking good so far."
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Posted: Tue Dec 06, 2011 4:57 pm
"Mm," Barth said reprovingly, "interesting color choices."
And by interesting he meant this is jeopardizing being done with Zar forever, and what exactly was Christof trying to do. Draw it out?
He looked briefly at Zar. Was it the suit and tie? It wasn't a lab coat, but... he shuddered. How much paper was in that folder? Maybe it was unrelated. But he had paperwork stashed away in his coat, and he was carrying the folder in the open, deliberately...
"But as long as you're happy," He said to Zar, with another forced smile.
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Posted: Tue Dec 06, 2011 5:09 pm
Calder took the 'shoe' that was given to him an held it in both hands. He looked at it, then at Christof, and then back at the booty. It was orange. It was orange. It was in no way as lovely and elegant as the shoes he saw many other students wear or in those glass windows at the Maul were many ghouls were cluster and point out their favorites. There had always been some strange appeal other creatures had for shoes, and he was hoping he'd get a pretty shoe too. Instead, he got an orange stump.
He guessed he couldn't expect anything fashionable from Christof after all. The boil thought bloodstains and a light dusting of dirt was considered fashion forward.
As it was, he tried not to visibly frown at the color and style of the orange stump and sat in a way to access his hoof. His friends had worked hard to make these and he'd just have to wear it. Why orange? His hoof was black after all! He even polished them for the occasion, and now he was going to be a dull orange thing on it. Where was those laces other people had? The leather layers? The converse cloth or crazy designs?
He held it to his hoof and frowned. "It's small." He said, looking up. Apparently he didn't get stretchy and nudged his hoof tip pathetically into the boot before giving up, looking like the disappointed stepsister to Cinderella's Ugly slipper.
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Posted: Tue Dec 06, 2011 6:40 pm
"Hrnn," Christof grunted irritably, his face previously beaming at the Kelpie only to fall into a frustrated frown as Calder didn't seem to jump for joy at the sight of them. He thought orange and black would have been nicely Halloweenish. Taking the disk back, he stretched it a few times experimentally to illustrate before holding it up to the base of Calder's hoot and letting the rubber straps snap into place. The disk itself stayed hidden under the hoof, showing only the little dashes of orange line where it gripped the slope of the foot snugly. He cocked his head, rearranging it until it was on nice and straight and wouldn't flop.
That done, he beamed, quickly fetching the next mold to pull out a more complicated lime-green affair he had prepared for the hooved demon.
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Posted: Tue Dec 06, 2011 6:59 pm
Zar glanced at Barth as the other demon spoke, giving him a little smile of his own, certainly not faked, but once again still not hugely friendly, an edge to it not normally present in his normal mannerisms before he seemed to flit back to the task at hand.
Regarding the shoes, he looked on with barely concealed facination. He assumed the orange was perhaps just a prototype, so didn't immediately object to the colour in question, simply stuck to function. He wasn't one to generally make well advised comments on colour in any event, his tie rack testament to that.
"It does look a bit tiny." he offered, in agreement as he peered at the shoe on Calder's - wonderfully shiny - hoof.
Thankfully Christof was on hand to demonstrate how they fitted properly. "Ah I seee." he stated with a nod. "Ingenious." The simplicity of the design was most commendable he thought, rather glad he'd brought the patent forms for the benefit of the others, they seemed something that could certainly catch on..if the issues with colour weren't carried to the final creation.
He wasn't slow either to see if he could have a look at his own footwear, catching a glimpse of some very green rubber in the patchwork's hands. Green. His smile took on a very feral giddy sort of edge. What would his father have to say about his son wearing such a wild colour of shoe as that? Green!
He tore his gaze away, not wanting to stare, nervously chuckling. "Erm.. very interesting colours indeed." It wasn't quite as amusing when it was your own footwear in question.
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Posted: Tue Dec 06, 2011 7:23 pm
"Yes, they err- Christof's got it," Barth said, as Christof stretched the rubber demonstratively to fit Calder's well-groomed hoof. It was easier to relax when he focused on Calder. "We'll have to test them, of course. The kitchen should probably- err," he looked at Zar again, fumbling, "...be alright."
He was just waiting to start taking forms out of the folder. Barth could sense it.
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