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Posted: Thu Mar 23, 2017 4:17 pm
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Posted: Thu Mar 23, 2017 4:44 pm
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Posted: Fri Mar 24, 2017 4:59 am
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Posted: Fri Mar 24, 2017 5:06 am
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Posted: Fri Mar 24, 2017 5:16 am
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"Well that's true, not for ever. None of us exist for ever, but he certainly seems like he's going for a lifetime. Good for him really, there's no point in me dragging him down."
Barth got a long slow look as he asked about lying. "I'm very good at lying." he said. "He'd almost never know anything. It works, it has always worked, but people still left for other reasons. People feel lies, they feel them somewhere subconscious, somewhere beyond their awareness. Rodney might never find out and he might find out right away. I live in a very small very insular community but I could go off island all I wanted and do as I pleased. But this has always been an experiment, it is an experiment in honesty and trying things the way normal people do it. Going as well as I imagined it would."
He sighed. "I saw a world where I did everything I wanted for ever and at the end of it all I'd learned nothing and was nothing. I was hoping this way that there'd be something different, that by living the way someone as good as Rodney does that even if I don't end up in the same place I'd end up a better person. Lying is easy, this is a challenge, but maybe it is a challenge I can't handle."
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Posted: Fri Mar 24, 2017 5:24 am
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"Honesty and, err, goodness," Barth repeated incredulously, "I'm afraid that's a path that I err...can't help very much with. But I'm not much for challenges, either. Well, if it doesn't work out, you think your err, other friend will be alright with resuming things? I don't personally think there's anything particularly interesting at the end of either path, you know, good or evil, it all sort of turns out the same kind of way. He can't be happy living that way, can he? It's better to find your own sorts of goals. Both of you could benefit from a little less, rule-wise."
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Posted: Fri Mar 24, 2017 2:22 pm
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Posted: Fri Mar 24, 2017 2:54 pm
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Posted: Sat Mar 25, 2017 1:13 pm
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"There aren't any prohibitions against polygamy but try telling him that, he acts like you've asked him to sign his soul away. He is very adamant about things being exactly a certain way, determined that his heart has told him that it should be that way, that he knows it. He acts like conceding even an inch would be as bad as death. It may not be biblical rules but they are rules nonetheless" He frowned. "And I know I did Melvin a disservice, he was loyal and loving, even after I cast him aside."
"I don't think there will be any convincing either of them, simply choosing one way or the other which I never wanted to do and don't enjoy dealing with at all. I'd rather they fought, I'd rather they lived in the same home as your partners do and bickered now and then than watch Melvin's potential drain away to nothing and watch Rodney be unhappy for the rest of the time that he's tethered to me. He's always sad you know, always. I hoped it might change after marriage, that maybe that was what he wanted or needed, but he always just feels upset with me and half the time I don't understand why."
It felt oddly freeing to be able to just rant at an impartial figure, to be able to talk out his problems without having to worry what the responses would be. The fact that Barth very clearly wasn't about to sleep with him either made it even less necessary to try to impress the demon, it didn't matter if he came across as entitled or whiny, neither thing was going to impact his present standing.
"Humans are difficult." he said. "And changing them is almost impossible."
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Posted: Sat Mar 25, 2017 3:17 pm
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Posted: Sat Mar 25, 2017 3:22 pm
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"They don't like one another." he said grimly. "Rodney doesn't understand how Melvin interacts with me at all, he thinks Melvin wants to hurt me when ..er. There's a bit of that sort of thing that is acceptable, not actual harm you understand just." He distantly rubbed his throat with his hand. "Rodney can't abide violence, gets upset, cries, that sort of thing. In the same room Rodney would end up very upset and Melvin would get annoyed about it, it would end up in a huge fight and a lot of inconvenience."
At the very least it looked like the demon was in a similar situation. "You sound like you just chose multiple aggressive partners. I could live with that I think, I'm very hardy and capable of dealing with unruly aggressive types. Its the fearful ones I don't have the patience for. I was always the same with dogs too, pushy aggressive ones you could break, the fearful aggressive ones were no good at all, too risky and snappy. Rodney doesn't have a snapping point I think, I don't think he's harmed anything in his whole life. So no more of that sort of thing for me."
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Posted: Sat Mar 25, 2017 3:29 pm
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Posted: Sat Mar 25, 2017 4:04 pm
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Posted: Sun Mar 26, 2017 7:07 am
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