towerofanimus | [OPEN] and then it just kept getting worse

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?]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Not really. I spoke to Dave once, briefly, and I also spoke to Rose but I wasn't quite myself then. But nothing to really say that I got to know any of them.

Oh. I mostly talked with Jade and sometimes Davvid.

[Eridan rolls his eyes behind his sunglasses.]

I'm. Actually sharin a room wwith him here.

Oh, really? Well that must be nice, to share with someone you already know.

Wwell.

[How to put this tactfully and nicely?]

It's exactly what I expected.

[That is, equal parts lulz and hair-pulling frustration.]

And you were expecting what, exactly?

...Davvid.

[Eridan runs a hand through his hair, the gesture practiced enough he avoids his horns entirely.]

Just. Davvid. I'm goin to assume you havven't met him if you don't understand.

[She shakes her head]

I don't think I know any of the humans from your session.

Oh. They're...

[Eridan shrugs a little helplessly.]

They're not bad, not really. Some a them can be a little frustratin though.

[Grumbling.]

Especially wwhen you're tryin to savve their sorry asses and they just wwon't listen.

I don't think that's an exclusively human trait. I don't think I've found one yet that I haven't seen in trolls before now. Maybe you're just being harder on them for being human?

Maybe.

[He lets that admission sink in for a moment, eyes fixed on the screen as he thinks. And then he snorts, bitter.]

Maybe it's just that I couldn't fix it, if they screwwed up. Wwith the others... wwell, tough shit, rewwind the goddamn thing, doom yourself and try again. But not the humans, their timeline wwas set. I hated wwatchin them fuck up, and I hated not bein able to stop wwatchin them fuck up.

[He curled up a little tighter.]

I hated that no matter wwhat I told them, it still played out the wway it wwas supposed to, evven if it sucked. An I already kneww that, evven before I started lookin. Kneww it like I knoww the wweight of a paradox about to snap into doom.

[He gave her a paper-thin smile.]

But I'm a shitty Hero of Time, so I tried anywway an got pissed wwhen it didn't wwork. An then got frustrated wwith them, because it's pretty damn hard to be pissed at Paradox Space at large. Fucker doesn't givve a shit, you knoww?

It's natural to want to stop things happening. But their timeline, if it could have been saved, was for their Time player to manage, not you. If it's anything like our session, the mere act of trying to avoid fate was often what led to that fate taking place.

[She reaches out to give his shoulder a reassuring pat]

It wasn't your fault. It's hard, knowing that you can only do so much even with power over the timeline but it wasn't our doing. Any of it. The alpha was inevitable.

Maybe their Hero of Time wwould havve been better off it they had had someone else showwin them the ropes.

[He snorted.]

She has twwice as much more spine than I do. So I probably just made it wworse tryin to help.

I think she's lucky she had someone to show her the ropes at all. I didn't, and I didn't really do much to help Dave either...though I do know Terezi talked to him a lot.

Anyway, I still think you did your best within what the timeline allowed.

The alpha is inevvitable, right?

[Eridan offers her a tiny twitch of lips as a smile, but it doesn't really color his voice.]

You just do wwhat you can an leavve it at that.

Pretty much. The sooner you can accept that, the sooner you can make peace with your true role within the game.

[She knows he's not fully convinced and offers a reassuring smile, on the off-chance it might help coming from someone who knows only too well the power of inevitability]

Yeah.

[He laughs a bit hollowly. Oh yes, be at piece with his role in the story. You know, scratching everything for good.]

I had a lot more time than others to figure it out, so I suppose it wworked out as it should havve.

That's the good thing about being a Time hero; we always have plenty of it.

[She can't help but joke about it. It's something she just hasn't got tired of yet]

[Eridan chuckles, deciding to let it go. He offers her a lopsided grin.]

Pretty much, yeah.

[OPEN] and then it just kept getting worse

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