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 Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2013 4:21 pm
Barth had been buried very deeply in the deweaponization research, which had lead him to several conclusions.
One, that it must ultimately involve messing about with Fear cores.
Two, that minipets did not have Fear cores.
Three, that messing about with Fear cores in general was not a very good idea.
Still, he had the same basic theory: knots that could be tied, could be untied, and so on and so forth. Although over the course of his research, he had come across other possibilities. And possibly a tantalizingly easy solution. Drifting about Halloween were items. Powerful items. Sammy had already acquired one that temporarily imposed a shift in shape. If he could just...sort of, stop off and pick up one of those sort of items, it would make all this reading and researching and inventing very...skippable.
What made it more tempting was the fact that said items didn't need to be gathered from the four corners of Halloween. From what he understood, they could be accessed from their very own Weeping Forest.
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Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2013 4:55 pm
While Barth was working, Calder did not disturb him because, out of the day, it was far too easy to do. Instead, Calder went to a friend's house and decided that, once a decent amount of time had passed, that it was time for lunch. Already making good on his offer to Zar, he opened the door and peeked around, noticing Barth reading a big book.
"Shhhh. He's working." Calder whispered to Zar behind him before tip-clopping his way into the room and heading for the kitchen where he left a stew slowly cooking a while back and was now checking on it to see if it was nicely cooked.
Making his way over, he lifted the lip and peeked in, smiling as he saw the pot boil and bubble slowly back at him. There was a pungent fishy smell along with something strangely sweet.
He whispered back to Zar. "It's done. If you sit, I'll make you a bowl." He said.
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Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2013 5:05 pm
Zar was excited. This was remarkable because excitement was not a state of being that came naturally to Zars anywhere. He wasn't even sure why, simply that something about visiting Barth in his natural habitat tickled some vicious and primal side of him. He edged around the door with surprising stealth for a demon with hooves, stooping just a little with his horns out of habit - some doors were a safety hazard and had terrible clearance.
"Working?" he asked softly, with the same intonation a lion might use to say "Zebra?"
He sidled over to the chair and sat down almost obediently, his tail throwing coils around the legs out of sheer instinct.
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Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2013 5:30 pm
Barth flinched at even the whispered sound of the word work.
"Researching," He corrected, leaning back away from the book and guilty putting some papers over the book in question, "in an...idle...sort of- err. what is he doing here is he visiting? how did he get past the lock?"
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Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2013 5:34 pm
Calder perked up to see that Barth was done for the moment with his "research" and smiled to now being able to bother him. "Oh, I invited him for lunch since I made so much. I was going to tell you but you were busy, and I didn't want to disturb you." He pulled out some bowls and started to fill them. It was a good thing Calder had good hearing or else he wouldn't have heard Barth at all - silly demon.
"How about you take a break and eat with us?" He opened a basket to pick out some breath and buttered them before moving to the table where he three bowls of floresce stew down with three pieces of buttered bread and then went to fetch something to drink. Once he managed to get tea, he returned and filled their cups and sat down.
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Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2013 5:43 pm
"Oh yes. Please do join us Barth. It would be delightful. If you could spare the time on your busy schedule." Zar crooned, resting his chin on steepled claws but didn't look around. It would be rude to start eating immediately if there were to be more to the table.
The very tip of his tail though, started flicking at his hooves.
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Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2013 5:57 pm
Invited him.
Barth looked absolutely despairing at the additional terms of busy and schedule.
"Less research, even," he said, "more- leisure reading. Exotic...locals, and so forth. I'm not," he made a strangled noise, "busy- I," he stopped, considering them both.
And especially the ease with which they just walked right into the room. And sat down on things. And, now that he was looking, had very strong-looking hoofish sort of legs. Probably excellent climbers.
"was wondering," he said more smoothly, "about how either of you would feel about embarking on err, on a businessss venture. Adventure," he added for Calder's sake.
Even though he personally found adventuring sort of horrible.
He oozed slowly and smoothly towards the dining chair.
Then edged on the side of the chair furthest away from Zar.
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Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2013 6:03 pm
Calder was sipping his tea first when he heard the word "Adventure" spoke and perked up. "Adventure? That sounds fun. What sort of adventure?" Barth usually never wanted to leave his room that him suggesting an outing made the kelpie's heart skip a beat. Maybe all that reading was getting to the demon, and Calder hoped that the demon had a reserve of energy.
"Oh, I've been wanting to go out for a while with you." He said, giddy as he handed Barth his supper so he wouldn't have to pick it up. He then picked up his own bowl and started to eat. "Zar, you should get out of your room more often too!" Oh yes! It was like his dream. Both horned boils walking into the woods together and bonding. Maybe they could all nap together under the pumpkin sun!
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Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2013 6:15 pm
Zar was trying very hard to be poised and calm. It was normally effortless, normally he was so bored he was afraid he might simply dissipate from the tedium, today it wasn't easy at all. He almost wished he'd brought his notepad along to alleviate some of the tension with therapeutic note taking. Instead, he flicked both of his decidedly goat-like ears back in Barth's direction, listening intently to what he had to say. A business venture. Well. That was about one of the most dangerous phrases a demon could banter around, it wasn't something to be said lightly either.
He disregarded the frivolity of the word adventure. Adventure implied heroic deeds exaggerated to provoke emotion in the individual processing the word, a positive spin on what was typically a dire excursion. It sounded rather physical for a demon as.. recumbent as Barth.
His eyes narrowed to keen slits as Barth sat, and it took all of his self control not to edge closer to try and unnerve him. Instead, he remained courteous to Calder who had been kind enough to bring him here in the first place and took a spoonful of his stew, flashing razor sharp fangs in a smile as he finished it.
"I would feel entirely ambivalent about that particular proposition." he said with silky smoothness. "I would be inclined to inquire as to what I might stand to gain from this particular investment of my rather valuable time."
His smile softened as he eyed Calder, slitted pupils relaxing back to normal. "This is wonderful, as always, by the way."
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Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2013 6:31 pm
"Yes, well, you know, I've thought about that, and you'd... Get to keep what you'd found?" That bit was unavoidable. Most of these Artifacts were on the clingy side, bonding and so forth. Which meant Barth would have to come along. Which was unfortunate. But Calder could carry him through any uphill bits, and Zar could test out any minefield bits. In and out. Easy. In theory.
"And a Greekish adventure. Sammy brought back that...item thing of hers, you know, and a few more people have. Some of them are capable of shape-shifting, some of them, err, a bit more."
Barth waffled.
"I'd also be able to throw in something inventy, I suppose." Christof could make it. Hell, Christof could probably design it.
He rolled an eyeball free of the stew, looking at Calder.
"And err, yes, I thought the time together would be..." he reddened, "nice. Um. But it's important, you know. Err. For the project. To have some powerful items at my disssposal."
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Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2013 6:39 pm
Calder's ears were up and attention seized by the idea of other items like Sammy's own reigns, and if his eyes could sparkle, they would have as he looked to Barth. "You mean there could be MORE items like the one Sammy found? I...I didn't think there could more like those. OH, Barth. You should see Sammy's, I mean, she used it on Siddie and it was -" He placed a hand on his mouth, having to take a moment. "I want you to try it." He admitted to Barth, his cheeks going a bit pink at the admission but still wanting Barth to know. "Just once."
He hoped Sammy would be less of a prude with the reigns and let him try them on Barth just once.
Oh, but his mind went wild with ideas. Items that could make people change into horses was one thing, but think of what else they could do. What if there were ones that could make triple horns on anyone!
Fanning himself a moment, he looked to Barth with a smile. "I'm on board for whatever you need me for, darling." To which he looked to Zar. "And you have PLENTY of time, Zar. You coop yourself in your room too much doing nothing. You even said you were bored anyways, so you should come and stretch your legs." He also winked, tilting his head in Barth's direction to hopefully, silently, tell Zar that this was a great way to be friends with the sloth demon.
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Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2013 6:59 pm
He'd get to keep what he found. He wasn't entirely sure how he felt about this, as far as he was concerned, outside was a place filled with disorganised and ultimately entirely useless objects. He couldn't begin to fathom what could simply be left sitting around in the open that would be worth salvage - that was just inefficient.
The powers he mentioned however were slightly more tempting, though on some level smacked of demonic trickery. What did seem to seize his attention however was the invention, his ears subtly perking against his will at the mention.
He was about to say that he would consider the offer when the other demon displayed what amounted to an almost embarrassing level of what Zar termed romanticism with his comment to Calder. What he was about to say died on his lips, left with a slightly lip curled incredulous sneer instead.
Nuru was gone and there was something about affection or at the very least, pleasant intentions that grated on his core like nails on a chalkboard. His irritation only grew as the conversation meandered off into places he couldn't follow it but which left him vaguely uncomfortable overhearing it. He turned his attention fixedly on the stew, his excitement flatlining into a more predatory emotion.
"I do not relish "stretching my legs"" he said a little more coldly than he meant. "Unnecessary expenditure of energy is inefficient." he explained. "I could join you both." he took another spoonful, eyeing Barth with subtle derision. "But I would be loathe to intrude upon your "time together""
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Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2013 7:15 pm
"Yes. Some are more...physical buffs," he cleared his throat at the mention of using Siddie's reigns.
"Yes. Well. We could ask." He said, oddly red again.
Zar spoke up, suddenly very chilly. Ugh. Paperwork demons. Why had he ever used the term business venture.
"No no. Not at all. You'd be. Um." Barth tapped his claws on the desk, losing his nerve. While he liked the idea of Zar going through minefields, he wasn't sure he liked the idea of spending an afternoon with him. ...Or with Calder spending the afternoon with him. "Ah. Well. You know. Perfectly understandable. You don't have to go. ...He doesn't have to go," he told Calder.
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Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2013 7:22 pm
Calder's ears dropped, frowning at not only Zar's tone, but his resistance to come along. More openly deflated then the rest, he breathed out. "Well, I guess I can't make you go along. I mean, I can understand not wanting to waste energy, but I guess that's something you and Barth have in common." He said, still hoping that the pair could get along and just drawing comparisons. "....though at least Barth wants to be busy this time around." He mumbled as he poked his stew.
"I just thought we could all hang out and have some fun, but I guess you only want to eat with me instead and nothing else." Calder looked up from his soup and made his eyes as large as he could as he pouted.
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Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2013 7:36 pm
There was something about Barth's blush that held his rapt attention, poking at instincts he'd managed to leave well enough alone for years. It wasn't helping the predatory feelings which were making him feel less like a businessman and more like something that would follow a lost traveller through a forest at night. It was all very unprofessional. He straightened his tie and pushed his glasses up his nose with a claw, he gave Barth a narrowed look. He couldn't be sure if his reticence was a manipulation tactic, seeking to make him join in whatever venture he had planned for a lesser cost, or if the other boil was simply so scatterbrained as to turn on a whim. He doubted the latter, he didn't seem brash or quick enough to make snap decisions without weighing them out first.
Calder though, seemed far more honest and gullible helpful, even if Barth was keeping whatever cards he possessed close to his chest, his vested interest in the Kelpie was evident. He dipped some bread before viciously devouring it in that strange split second of no manners at all that he seemed to display when eating. He acted as if it hadn't happened. "I am not objectionable to hanging out, as you term it. Nor am I objectionable to.." he very neatly traced a razor sharp claw around the bowl as he used Calder's phrasing. "Anything else."
He gave Barth a half lidded smile as he said. "I wouldn't wish to impose. I am not precisely an outdoorsman. My expertise lie in other fields."
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