[PRP] Moving Back in with the Folks (Barth + Calder + Zar)

[Toshihiko Two]

Babs's slime swirled, embarrassed at the Mudds and Monsters comment. Her own form was irregular- beautiful, but molded, with her features shaped in a way to suggest hair, and a small set of horns, and a whip-like tail, but all of it was made out of the same substance. Her dress was from the same era as Barth, semi-Victorian, with ruffles upon ruffles but with very...generous breathing room for her chest, and a pinched waist. A swirl of dead flowers sat behind her ear.

She curtsied, but out of a desire not to be threatening, did not extend a handshake.

"Bibble-Babble, just call me Babs. Everyone does. Oh, well, Barty's proud to be a Mudd, even if he's not, um, as- you know, close to nature as the rest of us. ....Thank you, Calder. Oh, I was hoping to see my Dent, but you never know with these things," she fussed with her outfit. Obviously she meant more than just see, with how large he was. "Big tests," she wobbled, "Oh, they weren't too hard on you, were they? Barty's constitution has always been on the delicate side..."

"It, err, was nothing," Barth said, turning all sorts of colors at this point. He smiled at Alisa in what he hoped was a charming manner- but was only mostly nervous. "Good to err, see you again. Yes, um, I am- err, do try- well, comfort, you know," he fussed with his own lapel, mirroring his mother's fidgeting. He was also trying very hard to look cared for, but if Zar kept up the Barty nonsense for the rest of the week they were going to have Words.  

[Baneful]

Everything very rapidly got strange and awkward for Zar. He was acutely and bitterly aware of the fact that his parents were watching him from far across the room, or at least Vadra was. And here he was, fraternizing with monsters, because surely Barth's mother was a monster and Calder's certainly were.

He smiled nervously, stiff and awkward in his posture. "Hi. Pleasure to meet you." and he delicately fingerwaved his talons. He didn't want to be seen being too eager or polite. He was rather overwhelmed even without the issue of presenting a good impression. The only thing keeping him going in fact was the juicy comments Babs was making about Barth's delicate constitution. This time however there were no smug comments or gloating because even beneath all the fear, anxiety and social awkwardness there was a hollow sort of sadness in Zar. Calder and Barth seemed to have very pleasant parents all told, and they seemed supportive. It was so alien to him he locked up against his will. Whatever charm or smugness he'd been radiating went AWOL and he was left the awkward and stammering creature he'd been when he first came to Amity, crossing his arms, pulling his wings in close and pushing his glasses further up the bridge his nose.

 

[MoonKitsune]

Ailsa hit her hoof on the polished ground below them in greeting and tilted her chin just so. "Nice to meet you. Yes, he is rather off the mark when it comes to ...natural." She said, regarding the demon.

"I hope you have been taking care of my son and not the other way around." She said, eyeing him.

Finley had let go of Calder at least to which the kelpie, a bit dizzy, held his head and fixed his hair.

"Barth got his diploma on his own. No help from us at all." He said, defending the demon on being called delicate. "Isn't that right, Rosebud?" He said, moving over to nudge the sloth demon.

"He does seem to like gathering." Ailsa looked to Calder and then glanced at Zar and down to his feet. "I hope this is love and not ....preference." She said, looking back at Barth.

"Oh my swamp blossom. Do be kind. I'm sure Barth is just a young heart in love. You know how even our young ones get when wanting a group. Safety in numbers." Finely said with a point of a finger, before moving over to walk around Zar and then giving him a hug too. He was quick, but strong to give him a tight squeeze and then let him go. "Hello there, Zar. I'm Finley, Calder's father. We heard so much about you. I hope your graduation went well."

"D..Dad. Don't just hug people randomly." Calder said, turning to scowl at him and stomping a hoof.

"Oh, Calder. You're hair." The man let Zar go a moment to move over to touch Calder's hair. "It's split. Have you been swimming enough?"

"Yes! It's fine. There...just weren't any ponds here." He said, yanking back from his now preening father.

Letting Calder go, Finley turned to Babs. "It's so nice to be welcomed to your estate."
 

[Toshihiko Two]

"...Preference?" Barth repeated, not understanding the pointed look at the floor at all.

"N-no, she means, err, most of the Mudds are elemental demons- Earth, and so forth, where I'm- well, not my father, obviously, err..."

"Oh, you're quite welcome, but it's not my estate- of course, this is Dent's place." Babs sighed, hand fluttering on her chest, "Naturally it's a matter of the heart. He's certainly not in it for business-"

"Alright, alright-" Barth cut his mother off. "Have you all, err, eaten? Found anything to your liking? We've- we've all um, not. Since the exam, and we're all on the peaky side-" It was not his normal sin to push, but if it would get them out of Alisa's deathglare, and away from his mother's namesake, so be it.  

[Baneful]

Zar felt like an outsider no matter what he did and the vulnerability started to toughen up as it always did into defiance and aggression, he'd dealt with a lot more bitchiness than this and he was done tolerating it from people who weren't even his parents. His tail dropped to the floor, tightly coiling and he narrowed his eyes first at Calder because rosebud without a trace of mocking and irony before leveling his irritation at the boil's mother.

"Oh don't worry. He is only with me for my hooves." he said icily. "I wouldn't want love from either of them. I am not a moron."

Further hugs only made him worse, giving Finley a polite nod. "It did." he said before the boil was off again. This time his irritation switched to Babs. "My family are rather wealthy I'll have you know." he said coldly. "And as I've stated I don't want anyone's heart, even if they had one."

And then finally, after doing the rounds, he landed his attention on Barth. "There's nothing to eat and I am not going over there."

In the middle of Zar's defiant rant, someone else joined them. "Oh you started the meet and greet without meeee." whined a very tall, very broad demon clad all in heavy armour and intermittently taking bites out of an entire roast cockatrice he was carrying. Thor beelined for Zar who was not at all in the mood to be touched and completely ignored his indignance in the same way he ignored Alvadra's every single day. He reached over to ruffle the Incubus' hair, knocking his glasses askew as he threw his free arm around his shoulder, shaking him vigorously. "HELLO ZAR"

"And hello there all you beautiful people!" he boomed at Babs, Finley and Ailsa. "I'm Thor, Thoraz, Zar's uncle! His BEST uncle. I'm so happy to hear about all this! My sister and her husband don't tell me anyyyything."

He turned his attention to the two suitors his son had decided to settle down with and his grin broadened even further - displaying some of the very familiar qualities of Zar's serpentine smile. "Now let me get a look at you!"

Barth had the unfortunate honour of being closer to Thor than Calder. Zar was handed the cockatrice, which he took grimly and Thor beelined towards the sloth demon, picking him up firmly by the shoulders. He peered at him. "Kind of scrawny!" he mused before leaning in to sniff Barth. "Good hygiene." he remarked. "You come from good stock though with this banquet hall. Oh. Right. Rude. Sorry." he set him down again. "I'm glad you took on little Zar! He's always been very lonely and he's just so USELESS at all the things we want him to do. But he tries hard and that's what counts right?"

He gave Zar a smile over his shoulder and a thumbs up. Zar gave him the most weary look he could muster but finally conceded a return thumbs up when the intense stare didn't abate.

"AND YOU." he bellowed rounding on Calder and heading over to repeat the strange examining and sniffing ritual. "Very clean. Foresty. You look soft and good." he remarked. "I like monsters! SALT OF THE EARTH."

He stepped back and clapped his hands. "WONDERFUL. I hope to see the lot of you over by the table! I want to get to know you all, practically family now!"



 

[MoonKitsune]

"Can a monster not be used for business? I heard he's a inventor. Or is it more housekeeper?" Ailsa said, wondering out loud. She had to wonder that, from what he son told him, that Barth wasn't just using Calder at times for personal gain or to continue to his soft life. That he wasn't making Calder worse or loose his way. However, after all these years, she didn't hate the demon either.

It was simply a test and reassurance for her. It also wasn't natural to keep things such as these to herself.

Finley and Ailsa both stomped their right hooves in greeting to Thor. Calder smiled, doing a much lighter stomp of his hoof to mimic his parents now that he remembered, but beamed at the uncle. "Hi!" He said, liking this man uncle and the way he held himself. He also liked that he forced Zar to thumbs up.

When he was picked up, Calder's ears went back only because he never liked feeling his hooves leave the ground. Being sniffed was not foreign to him and was often a hello for his kind - if not a wary one.

"I'm not soft! I'm strong and work out!" He huffed, flaring his nostrils. Set down, he straightened his jacket.

Finley found this was a great time to help Thor's suggestion and took his son's arm. "Yes. Yes! Dinner. Shouldn't keep everyone at the table waiting. You boys are our guests of honor after all. We should all sit and have plenty of time to talk." Ailsa followed, walking alongside him and returning to take their seat.

Calder moved over to Barth and Zar. "We should sit before everyone comes over. I'm STARVING!" He whined.  

[Toshihiko Two]

"We~ell, it's not a species thing, dear, we arranged for Barth to couple with a perfectly lovely monster, ooh, who was that?"

"Obsidian," Barth supplied warily, and he'd have to get that sorted too. Apparently Sammy's twitter comments hadn't gotten around, which was...fortunate.

"Obsidian. She isn't here? ...But there's helping with his business, which I'm sure your Calder will do, and, hm, a merger- ohhh, your Uncle's so strong," Babs cooed, patting Thor's bicep.

Barth was heavier than he looked, and hung limply in Thor's grasp, giving him a slightly frazzled and bewildered expression. "Yes, err, thank you. I think." He said, in response to the comments on his hygiene. Once freed, Barth tried to unrumple his coat. He did incline a slight eyebrow at Zar's loneliness and trying. He managed to smooth his jacket somewhat.

"Yes," he said more quietly, "we should eat. You don't err, you don't have to worry. About him. Them. Either of you, I..." Barth fumbled. Eating. Eating would mean less talking.  

[Baneful]

"You can be soft and still tough!" Thor said with a big friendly smile at Calder. "This lovely ghoul is a case in point." he gave Babs an incline of his head. "I'm sure you are very strong!" He practically dazzled with pride at his delight at the compliment on his own strength.

"YES. Food!" he clapped his hands again, whirling to retrieve his cockatrice from Zar's claws. He gave Zar another encouraging wink. "Good tastes." he said, all pleased smiles. "Though I just know that Sir Scuttles and Aura aren't going to like the monster thing." he made air quotation marks as he said it. "Though I think they are already PRETTY UPSET WITH YOU. Vadra made such a racket and mess when you stopped doing his work for him." He patted Zar reassuringly on the shoulder before lowering his voice.

"But he's always so angry. He gets careless when he's angry." There was a moment where Zar's expression went blank, as if listening to the link rather than the words spoken. He jerked in surprise as Thor stood up straight again. "Enjoy your meal. I'll talk to you later!"

Waving his half eaten snack at the others he headed off back to the table, giving Aura and Alva the same jovial sort of smile.

Zar shallowly exhaled as they were left at least somewhat on their own. He gave his greasy claws an irritable look before holding them up, extending his very long tongue and cleaning them off. "Well I am worried." he said. "So."

He still found himself dwelling on that flash of emotion his uncle had permitted him access to, the first time he had ever been able to get any idea of what he was looking at. There was something huge, old and most unsettlingly - smart - about the gaze that had turned on him and congratulated him (?) on making his father angry. It had left him curious and uncertain about what he even knew about Thor at all.

"I won't be eating but I can sit." he said.  

[MoonKitsune]

Calder was staring at Zar licking his claws wtih his long tongue for a bit longer than normal before his stomach grumbled again. Right. FOOD!

"Well, there is nice food things. Maybe they have something still moving. I hope they have phish!" He said, closing his hands together. That or carrots. He'd love some carrots right now.

He followed the demons and found three free spots at the table, sitting himself down and letting Barth sit in the middle seeing as Zar liked Barth more than him - he guessed.

At the table, he looked at all the food and since Thor already had a cockatrice leg, started to reach out and pile his plate. He was SOOOO hungry after sleeping for several days.

When his plate was high with foods he knew and didn't know, he reached out and picked a leg of something roasted and started to eat. "It's good." He said, looking to Barth as he chewed.  

[Toshihiko Two]

The spread had most things that could be imagined and some things that couldn't.

What Zar was looking for- the raw to the unprepared foods, were smaller, and in various bite-sized cages. Fluttering, flying things. Warm, furry, crawling things, no longer than the palm of an average hand.

The carrots were the size of a forearm.

"Oh, more important than strong. Malleable." Babs said, still admiring Thor's arms, "I always taught Barty that, too. Dent's so busy, he never got to see his father very much..."

"That's...that's quite- err, alright." Barth said, clearly not keen on the idea of meeting with his father much, if at all. "The um- the work" and Barth always had difficulty with that word, "thing, wasn't all Zar's fault..."

He allowed himself to be lead to a chair.

"Y-yes, something to, err-"

Babs put together a plate, plopping it down in front of Barth, "All the slow-moving ones, I know you like those, and a soup." She squeezed Zar's shoulders and giving Calder a kiss on the cheek. "Going to mingle, congratulations to all three of you."  

[Baneful]

Zar just couldn't get enthusiastic about things that were small, even if they were still moving. Some part of him craved the satisfaction of having to really expend energy even just in the act of eating, somewhere between a fight and a meal. Calder at least seemed to be enjoying things, a fact that as always he envied. Oh to be so relaxed and easygoing, instead he was tense and awkward, his tail wrapping tightly around his hooves in nervous coils, afraid to leave even an inch on the floor in case it was snatched and he was pulled over to his father who sat, still watching him now and then with eyes covered by the hood yet completely unhindered.

Still, he assumed he should eat, that it was only polite and reached for one of the furry creatures, eyeing it grimly before swallowing it in a fluid gesture that unhinged his jaw for only the shortest flick, his profile contorted nightmarishly before it settled again. He was about to more slowly torment a second when he realized that he had just overheard Barth stand up for him and offer to shoulder some of the blame that his father had clearly leveled at him. It knocked him for a moment and he just stared at the sloth demon.

Breaking this stare only to give Babs a smile and a pleasant nod, he quickly returned it, one brow raised quizzically.

 

[MoonKitsune]

[Calder's plate was a mix between a salad and a buffet, with eggs of this and purees of that laid on vegetables and leaves of different plants that were probably meant to only serve as a garnish than the actual entree Calder was making them.

Chewing on a leaf covered in some sort of purple caviar, Calder swallowed, wiped his mouth on the napkin quickly and then turned to Barth and then to Zar.

"Okay. So my parents are Finley and Ailsa. Who is who here? There are so many demons here. I can't even tell who is from who here. They all look so different!" He wanted to memorize these faces, know these people, as they were all connected to his life now. He wanted to know who would support them and who he would have to watch out for.

Calder reached over and dragged two of the overly large carrots to sit beside his plate, and also drank half a glass of water. He was very, very parched.  

[Toshihiko Two]

Barth avoided Zar's stare as best he could, using his fork to pick at a thoroughly-melted eyeball.

Finally, he offered a meagre, "Well, I couldn't let you take all the credit. When it comes to not working."

He looked glancingly at the Banquet in response to Calder's question. "All of them?" He took a breath, as if he was going to name off every family member, politician, celebrity, and business owner...then decided against it. Family alone would take far, far too long.

"That's my father," he decided, not looking too much. "Ardenter. The...largish demon, without a shirt. And over there is-" he looked suddenly sharp, "Samuel. My grandfather. What's he doing here?"

Samuel was over by one of the buffet tables, holding a single cracker in between two sharp claws, and looking as if it had insulted everything he had ever stood for. His expression, and indeed everything about him, was pinched. He was handsome otherwise, with a face that might have belonged to a 40-year old human male, and only a hint of natural greying in his temples. His clothing was ragged and dully colored, patched and frayed and with the look of an item that had been washed and repaired far past its natural use.

"Ohh," Barth groaned, sinking into his plate, "we need to move out."  

[Baneful]

The stare lingered for just a moment after Barth's comment before Zar conceded, the surprise and fluttery shock subsiding. "Oh. Right. Yes. That makes sense, you always were rather greedy on the inaction front" It hadn't been more than that, he was sure, just a simple misunderstanding in the moment. He tried instead to focus on Calder's inquiry.

It was, all told a question that Zar was glad that Calder asked, he hadn't been able to pick out who was who from the throng and had far too much pride to ask, for all he knew there was some who's who of demon society that he was expected to know by heart but did not. Ardenter he noted, his faint suspicions confirmed. He was certainly imposing.

Samuel he'd heard of and followed the gesture keenly, looking over the slightly worn out looking demon with a frown.

"An understatement." he exhaled.

Zar gestured too. "Thor. Thoraz, you have met. My uncle." He frowned.

"Over there is my father." and he tried not to catch the tall, slender man - who was holding food in four separate tentacles - eye. His robe and hood mercifully concealed most of his features, only the faintest flicker of mandibles as he took a bite of some confection or other. "Vadra. I'm sure I have told you. He is a tentacle demon." Zar was unaware that he was not actually a demon at all.

"Next to him is my mother. Aura." He gestured to the too-perfect succubus who was at present making eyes at a wealthy looking demon futher along the table. "I don't want to speak to either of them."

He didn't feel like any more food.

 

[MoonKitsune]

Calder leaned on the table, craning his neck to look at each demon that was pointed out. Ardenter at least loved his food, and Calder wasn't sure why Barth didn't like him. Then again, neither Zar or Barth seemed to like their relatives.

Maybe Calder could help fix that?

He looked at Zar's dad too, who was hidden under his hood and very hard to see.

"Oh..." Calder said when Zar seemed not to want to talk to his own parents.

"Well, I think it's nice to say hello. They did come ALL this way because of you. That means something, right? They probably are proud we graduated!"

Before either of them could say anything, Calder rose up a bit from his seat. "Uh...I'd just like to say thanks for putting up such a big party, Mr. Ardenter! And for being so nice to us Babs. Oh, and for coming all this way Vadra and Aura.

"Um.. Actually for everyone to come. I'm Calder. Uh...It's nice to meet all of you." He said, hoping his voice could be heard over the chime of dinnerware and dinner conversation.