[HH] Philandrapiths (Barth and Lawr)

[Baneful]

Lawrence shrugged, weren't most people in his world ultimately created to serve every day of their lives? It didn't seem so outlandish that in halloween there were also similar situations. To Lawr choice was a bit of an illusion, if you were wired to serve you'd choose it anyway and think it was your own idea.

He shrugged. "What some people want isn't to be equals, deep down they want what they think they deserve." Without hesitation or even an inkling of fear he moved to sit on the same pew Barth was sprawled on, settling near his feet. "You do them a disservice by trying to treat them better. I was with another partner for a while, one of many, and he wanted nothing more than for me to hate and obsess over him the way I did my enemy at that time. I offered him equality and he didn't want it. Asking someone of that sort to do anything else than what their materials dictate is asking a bird not to fly."

"I liked him too but I don't have patience for those who reject my most generous offers." He shrugged. "Hah sons." He said with a smile. "I have two sons who can be quite the source of problems themselves, hunters both, of course." And there was a hint of sadness in the brief silence that followed, finding the briefness of all their lives in the face of Halloween a little concerning. "I had a daughter too, but the horsemen killed her." He added.

"And oh they could all certainly try I'm sure." He said. "But I'm not rendered dead quite as easily as it might seem, though I think I'd like to experience the more carnal sides of those threats." He smirked. " I've had ice crotch before and lived. And for just a heartbeat his gaze raked across Barth. After all they weren't /people/.  

[Toshihiko Two]

"Oh, that's a bit of a dim view," Barth said, but his feelings on the matter...and Christof's feelings, were...

"Ultimately I think it was less to do with that and more that the price for him is in limbs, not in seeds. I think he um, didn't want me hurt. Not that I disagree, I don't like me hurt either, but-"

His own eyes lit on Lawrence's missing hand.

"For him," he said, "I would. ...My condolences for ah, your own losses."

Barth's eyebrow raised very slightly at the proposition.

"So it wasn't an Oath proper, then? Not an Agreement. More of a...promise you don't intend to keep."  

[Baneful]

"I wouldn't really call it dim." he said. "Simply realistic, but perhaps realism is a little dim compared to people who prefer curious optimism." He didn't delve too much further into Barth's friend's situation, well aware that cultures were vastly different and perhaps whatever he was adhered to different rules than the humans he was used to.

"I have lost quite a bit." he said. "Not that I'm one to complain about my lot in life, I simply get on with it primarily, even when everything goes wrong, which it so frequently does. Hand, freedom, wealth, family, children. You make do with what you have when you get dealt such things."

He smiled softly. "Humans don't have Oaths. Not the kind your species does. We say things and then we try, sometimes we bend or break the rules, sometimes there are loopholes, sometimes we make those loopholes ourselves. I am still hoping to keep it. Just... well.."

 

[Toshihiko Two]

"Oh, you don't have to justify it to me. For all your friend- err, husband's talk I"m sure one day he, too, will find himself bored and alone with a devastatingly attractive secretary...Or demon. Or, you know, something along those lines."

The ceiling had a circle of stained glass, and gloomy light spotlighted the altar.

"My life's been working out pretty well, all considered."  

[Baneful]

Lawrence almost added that he wasn't trying to justify it to Barth but to himself instead, instead he let that thought go, because it didn't make any sense really. All he could think of was his books, his favourite ones that told of moonlit orgies, of heavenly rebellions and of mortals stepping outside of the boring bounds of their mundane domestic lives. His life wasn't mundane but still there was part of him his whole life which had felt almost drawn to this moment, the chapel was falling into decay but not quite enough to have shed its beauty and he was in the company of an honest to goodness demon.

"He will." he said, earnestly believing the statement when he considered it, because as far as Lawrence was concerned everyone else in the world was similar in motivation to him. "Everyone ultimately leaves. Perhaps it's not an issue in your world, but in mine it is, no one stays, nothing endures. everything decays and fades." There was no reason why Rodney would stay for ever when there'd be other people, when the disparity in their ages became too pronounced even for weapon bonds.

"My life used to be fine." he said.

 

[Toshihiko Two]

"Oh, I suppose I don't believe that either," Barth said, "A bit obsessive about, err, dying, aren't we? Taking it all rather personally. I was talking about the occasional temptation, not...spiralling into the void."
 

[Baneful]

"Wouldn't you be, if you were human? Can you even imagine what it might be like, knowing any moment might well be your last? Watching everything around you fade?" he shook his head, pushing away the thought lest the demon get even an inkling of just how obsessed he was.

"Either way yes, he likely will succumb to temptation in the end, he's just not had the sort of temptation I have or been faced with the sort of choices I have either. I can't help it if I tend to assert myself on opportunities and seize whims as they come my way. Half the time all it takes is a good yes and I'm sold."

 

[Toshihiko Two]

"Oh, if I was human, I think it'd be about the same. I've always been a sort of waiting to see what fate drops into my lap sort, with the notion that things will work themselves out eventually. If you worry too much about things outside your control, that's all you'll spend your time doing. Maybe you could do with a little less seizing and a little more...relaxing."

Lawrence struck him as someone who was a bit tense. There was a rigid line of control all along his perfectly-white coat, masking a frantic, anxious whirl of something exactly the opposite.  

[Baneful]

"I used to wait." he said. "But then things got a little more urgent day by day until the present where things are very urgent indeed." He'd never attain perfection in time if he didn't work at it, if he didn't keep moving and learning. Boredom was a stagnation he couldn't ever afford. "How can I relax with so very much at stake?"

Relaxation was a strange concept to Lawrence, for all his decadence and laziness it was essentially a foreign concept. Free time was spent ticking and ticking over to avoid boredom, constantly trying to outrun both it and time.

"Relaxing takes both money and effort, rather ironically."

 

[Toshihiko Two]

"It's a state of mind," Barth said, "and it's a refuge available for any sort of person. Stakes can wait. They won't get any more stakey in the meantime. Humans aren't sharks. If they stop swimming, they don't sink." He gave Lawrence a gentle look, "They float."  

[Baneful]

Barth got a dubious sidelong look for his comment, as if he was discussing something about as alien as emotions.

"If I stop swimming, I get bored." he said.

"How exactly does a demon relax?"

 

[Toshihiko Two]

"Oh, stretching a bit. Enjoying a good nap, or a long and hot bath. A bit of sex. Reading a leisurely sort of book in a topic that interests me. Designing a solution to a problem, especially one that's a source of unnecessary work. Not err, anything serious, but allowing myself to tinker a bit. Savoring a warm meal, or having something cool and refreshing on a hot day. Playing a game without being invested in winning. That sort of thing." Barth seemed to even enjoy speaking about it, relaxing even further as he went.  

[Baneful]

There was a flicker of envy in Lawr's expression at Barth's list. "None of those things would relax me." he said. "Barring perhaps sex." Baths were about cleanliness, books were about repetition, thoughts were about something similar. Meals were stress, drinks were stress, winning was everything.

"Everything takes thought, everything takes perfectionism."

 

[Toshihiko Two]

"Certainly not," Barth said, "a lot of energy wasted over something a bad turn could undo. ...And that a good turn could easily gift. Oh, no, it isn't worth it. That's, you know, above sort of stuff, isn't it? Never sin, never err, never lose some...imaginary grip or down you'll plummet. Of course we err. That's all part of it. It's half the fun. All the truly good stuff's in erring. And, I think, in the company along the way. Especially company that sticks with you through it."  

[Baneful]

Lawrence exhaled. "Grip isn't imaginary, it is very real and sometimes it is all that there is between normalcy and the most complete sort of hedonism. I suppose most people have reasons for not acting on their baser instincts, but not me. There is simply the fact that other people said to and that at a guess I assume some manner of indignity might ensue."

He made no comment about company that stuck with you through all the erring, having no one he could truly consider of that nature at all. Melvin had left, Rodney had threatened it.

He shrugged. "Part of me wants to touch you for instance, to see what a creature like you feels like and tastes like, but the part that prevents erring as you call it says I had probably better not because it'd possibly cause some kind of offence. I am not afraid, fear is a little extreme for me, but it simply causes a little inconvenience, and rudeness is unforgivable."

Drumming his fingers on the pew he lingered on the demon again. "Its impossible to ever relax when there is an absolute and very real risk of falling."