[OPEN] and then it just kept getting worse

[chronomancer]

characters: (jade!) Eridan Ampora and anyone willing to be subjected to movies, self-pity and shrugging.
setting: floor 14 - the media room
format: starting with action, but I'll match your preference
summary: Eridan has found heaven, aka, somewhere to watch movies and forget his life sucks quite as much as it does.
warnings: pity-party? Will add more as necessary.

[After making himself scarce for a bit, trying to get a hold of everything going on and finally finish untangling his goddamn reels, Eridan's wandering around the Tower landed him somewhere he almost dare hope wouldn't suck too much. He wasn't sure he wanted to tempt fate and ask how it could suck: there were movies he had never watched there. So after making sure he wasn't going to run into someone he didn't want to, he curled up in a beanbag chair and set up to demolish a pile of movies until he either felt better, the world stopped sucking, or he forgot he felt like shit because the world sucked.

If you enter the media room, you'll find his horns the most recognizable part of his silhouette against the screen where something vaguely violent but definitely adventurous is going on. He's folded his knees to his chest, resting his chin on his knees, and seems completely absorbed by the narrative trying hard to be heard over the explosions and Really Fucking Cool Shit going on in the movie.

Pester?]

Comments

[mutab1e]

[Sure, pester. ...Oh, self pity? Well, guess it's time to make it worse!]

[Equius enters to the sound of a loud scream and an explosion. He actually does cringe as soon as he goes in, and he can see the illumination of the horns against the brightness; it has to be Eridan, his Eridan, because only his Eridan would sit so religiously close to the screen. Next to him is a pile of film reels, tangled terribly. It does take Equius a moment to identify these, but when he does, he's just going to hover right there over Eridan. He doesn't cast a shadow -- hello light source -- but he does make himself known.]

What happened to these?

[chronomancer]

[Eridan startles for a moment, before recognizing the voice. He relaxes slightly, because for one thing, he's pretty sure Equius is not going to try to kill him all of a sudden.]

...I wwould like to knoww, myself. I havve words for whoevver's responsible.

[Eridan somehow manages to sink even deeper into the chair, eyes firmly planted on the screen.]

Possibly also a shovvel to the face, as soon as I get my hands on one.

[mutab1e]

[Seriously, Eridan, give it up. You might as well change your specibus to shovelKind while you're at it.]

...Should I try to untangle them for you?

[chronomancer]

[...you say like that he doesn't actually have one lying around. Somewhere. Where no one will ever see.]

[That actually causes Eridan to look up at Equius, surprised. Then he looks away, back to the screen.]

You don't have to, it's a pain.

[mutab1e]

[Yeah well, a technicality is enough for him. And when a jadeblood needs a favor done then Equius is going to be there to do it, especially when it's a simple matter of untangling some things...]

[...okay, a not so simple matter of untangling some things.]

[So with that Equius sits down on the floor beside Eridan, getting redy to sort out these reels. He has enough 'confidence' in his hands that he feels he can fix this without ripping it, like just another machine. Just another dangerous, magically charged, very fragile machine. Yep. He's got this oh god no he doesn't.]

[chronomancer]

...Equius.

[Eridan sighs.]

Thank you. Just. Promise me you'll stop if it starts drivvin you crazy. It nearly drivves me crazy about ten times a day.

[Hence why the reels are less of a puffy, giant mass of tangled reel now than when he first arrived, but still nowhere near back in working order.]

[mutab1e]

If I was upset by this, I wouldn't be a mechanic. Or a cook. [He actually sounded kind of confident in himself for a moment there!... But only a moment. Because in the next he gets startled by another explosion onscreen. He sighs and returns to the reels. It's monotonous work, but that's the kind of work he's used to.]

[chronomancer]

[Eridan sank back into the chair, sheepish.]

I'm sorry, I didn't mean to imply you couldn't do it.

[mutab1e]

[Blinkblinkblinkblink. And then--]

...Oh. No. No! That is not at all what I meant. No.

I'll do my best.

[chronomancer]

I knoww.

[Eridan smiles.]

And I knoww you knoww you don't havve to. Thanks Eq.

[mutab1e]

[And he's still not going to let you forget the nickname issue... but fortunately it's just a Look in your direction before he returns to untangling these fu-- stinking reels. What did he even do to them, anyway?]

Did they come like this?

[chronomancer]

[Good luck with the nickname thing. Don't make him give you a new one, out of spite. Eridan sighed, just as there was another explosion on screen.]

Yeah. Took me days just to get them manageable. They wwere nearly fillin up my entire trunk.

[mutab1e]

[Yes. His nickname is secretly Ekky now.]

[Equius looks down at the reels, frowning. They're not as delicate as he initially thought, which is good; even if he does have a total lack of STRENGTH, he was worried that he would rip something and... probably unwind the fabric of reality or something. He can't be responsible for that.]

[It's slow work, though, definitely. Mostly weaving things through other things. Fortunately, Equius is a patient troll, and he's always found untangling wires and things somehow calming... so this is a good setup for him, really.]

What are you watching?

[chronomancer]

[Eridan is slowly reaching that relaxed state again, all but devouring the movie with his eyes. Equius question gets him back to reality and he looks at his friend for a moment, before shrugging and resting his cheek on his knees.]

Human movvies. They're not as bad as I feared they'd be. Actually, some of them are pretty good.

[mutab1e]

[He never really did like movies. Never could afford them, and when he somehow did, they never wound up being good enough that they were worth it.] They did take influence from us.

[chronomancer]

They really did.

[Eridan snorts, somewhat amused.]

They could'vve taken after us on titles too, though. Movvie's nearly ovver an I'm still not entirely sure wwhat an Ultimator is supposed to be, much less wwhy that qualifies as a title.

[mutab1e]

...'Ultimator'? That's it?

[Okay, even he knows enough about movies to see that there's something wrong here.]

[chronomancer]

Exactly!

[Eridan rolls his eyes and waves a hand at the screen.]

And it's not even the name of the protagonist, but rather the vvillain. Wwhy wwould you title your movvie wwith just your vvillain name? It's not like he's the focus of the movvie either. It's ridiculous.

[He deflates a bit, shaking his head.]

At least the movvie itself is not bad, just vvery poorly titled.

[mutab1e]

No? [Equius finally looks up from the reels -- which look slightly smaller -- but is only able to catch the beginning of the credits. Son of a gun.]Hm.

If you're watching another one, would you mind turning the volume down?

...You know.

If you can hear it.

[WOW. Numbskull Zahhak is numbskull. SERIOUSLY, MAN, SERIOUSLY... Yeah, he's just going to look back at the reels now. Curses.]

[chronomancer]

[Eridan blinks.]

Oh, sorry. I'm just used to wwatching wwith the sound all the wway up.

[While the credits roll, Eridan reaches to the other side of the beanbag and grabs a bunch of boxes, offering them to Equius.]

Here, you pick the next one.

[mutab1e]

[Uh, what. Him? He doesn't know the first thing about movies, so he looks them over and picks one at random, handing it back to Eridan while the rest of the pile gets a new home behind both of them.]

[It's Con Air.]

[chronomancer]

[Eridan nods.]

I havven't wwatched this one either. Let's see howw it goes...

[And once the disc is popped in, the credits begin to roll and... Con Air.]

[mutab1e]

[Just... Con Air.]

[Ninety consecutive minutes of PAIN Con Air.]

[Let's do this.]

[...Or not, because it seems Equius has returned his attention to the time reels, and is only occasionally looking up at the movie proper. John would be so disappointed in him.]

[chronomancer]

[Eridan keeps shifting about. And spluttering. But mostly shifting around. As if he needed to find the right posture, to make Con Air stop being Con Air.

I give him forty minutes in before he falls of his chair with all that squirming.]

[mutab1e]

[Fortunately, Equius is mostly immune to the QUALITY ENTERTAINMENT that is Con Air, due to not actually giving a shit flying fuck ...fish. Flying fish. So when he next looks up, Eridan seems to be squirming around like a lunatic.]

Eridan? Is something wrong?