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

Entry tags:

[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

Oh. Hi, Wwilloww.

[Eridan offers her a tentative smile.]

Just stuff I found here.

We have a pretty good movie selection, don't we? [she says agreeably.]

Aradia had me watch the troll version of Indiana Jones, and let me say, that was a surreal experience.

You didn't like it?

[Have a very faint kicked-puppy look.]

Oh, no!

[She grins reassuringly, and props herself against an arm of the couch.] I loved it. It was just weird to see trolls in movies, and to hear things like woofbeast for dog and all that.

[She nods toward the screen.] Isn't it a little strange to watch human movies, for you?

Well... a bit.

[Suddenly, movvie talk. That just won't end!]

The social structure is a lot harder to followw wwithout signs and bloodcolors, and the lack a horns makes all background characters mesh into this... wweird, faceless lump that sometimes says somethin wwitty an that's a shame because I'd like to knoww wwho said wwhat. The lack of black, pale and ashen romances is kind a jarrin too, but I guess they make up fer it wwith the ovverwwhelmin flushed-like thing you guys'vve got goin on. Also, you guys really do have platonic hate dowwn to surgical science, wwoww. But it's not all that bad, really.

[...oh hey, turns out he can speak in more than clipped sentences sometimes. Who knew?]

[Ohhhh did she finally find something he's willing to talk about? Happily enough, it's one of her preferred topics, too. Willow is a veteran movie watcher and can quote tons off the top of her head.]

The social structure probably does seem vague and undefined to you guys, [she agrees.] And yeah, humans and platonic hate? [She holds up her hand and crosses two of her fingers.] Like this. We don't really go for the romance hate except in very rare cases.

So. Wwait. You do havve quadrants?

[Noooo, don't change the playing field on him! He had just gotten the hold of this!]

But you don't really do blackrom often? Howw does that evven wwork?

No, no, definitely no quadrants! [she rushes to correct herself.]

Just, um... how did I explain this last time? Okay, yeah, our relationships are a lot more fluid than yours, I think. Like anything resembling a kismesis would be considered really unhealthy and, and bad by human standards, but that doesn't mean it never happens.

[He looks confused.]

Unhealthy? Wwhy?

[...well, okay, blackroms sometimes ended in death or dismemberment, but you're dealing with someone who thinks that's pretty normal, Willow.]

Not to say that humans can't be violent, but we think that it twists someone, and... and changes them. [She hesitates while explaining this, because this is exactly what had happened to her.]

It makes them a different person. Once you've killed someone, you can't go back. Most humans go their entire lives without killing anyone, and they don't want to. Compared to trolls we're like fluffy bunnies.

Oh.

[He tilts his head to the side.]

I suppose... that makes sense.

[He's not entirely getting it, but at least he's trying?]

[Well, she gives points based on effort, anyway.]

... Maybe I should watch the rest of this movie with you, and if anything confuses you, you can ask me? I mean-- if you want.

...sure.

[Eridan nodded, not quite reluctantly.]

That'd be nice.

Okay. [She gives him a somewhat tentative smile herself, because Willow is not feeling nearly as confident as she had the day they'd met, and settles herself into an overstuffed armchair somewhere in the TV-watching vicinity.

She pulls one of her knees up to her chest and wraps her arms around it, glancing at the screen.] So what movie is this?

[Eridan doesn't exactly notice her lack of enthusiasm just yet, he just nods and widens his smile a sliver.]

It's called "Vvelocity", I believve.

[He will not admit he picked it for the v in the title. Shush.]

You know, I don't think I've seen this. [Looking with renewed interest at the screen now.]

Do you have the DVD case?

[Eridan nods, rummaging from the pile near the beanchair to fish it out. He offers it to Willow, curious. It reads "Furious and Fast."]

Should I play it back from the beginnin?

[She takes the case and inspects it, raising her eyebrows.] No, that's okay, I was just wondering who was in it.

Is this supposed to be like the Fast and the Furious, or just some weird interdimensional rip off?

Seein as I don't knoww wwhat the fast and the furious are, I wwouldn't knoww.

[Eridan blinks at her expression, curious.]

It's a movie from a couple years ago. This seems suspiciously similar.

[She's eying the screen as if trying to place it, but soon shakes her head. She's more interested in talking to him, anyway.] Are action movies your genre of choice or are you being adventurous today?

Oh.

[He's not really sure what to say about paradox space rip offs. Maybe it's a Thing, here in the tower. Eridan shrugs, curling in place again.]

Eh, I like movvies, in general. Pretty much all a them.

[He tugs at his shoelaces, fidgety.]

...I kind a like advventure films a lot. Sometimes it ovverlaps wwith action, though. It's not so bad.

Nothing wrong with adventure films! [she says, trying to assuage his nervousness and settling into her chair more comfortably. It's perking her up a bit to have a friendly conversation with someone, about something so trivial. So not life-or-death-or-romance.]

I like them because I get to watch someone else run away from life-threatening peril for once. Makes for a nice change.

Yeah, I--

[Eridan muttered something so quietly, it was unintelligible. It might have had something to do with the fact he was basically burying his face into his knees, trying to hide the fact he felt embarrassed at the confession.]

[When she didn't catch the rest of what he was saying, Willow glances over to him, away from the screen, and is surprised to find him more or less trying to hide.

Though she stays where she is, something about her posture becomes more receptive-- Willow leans forward, watching him attentively but not intrusively.] What is it? [she asks, quiet against the backdrop of dramatic music and racing across asphalt coming from the speakers.]

I like them for the happy endings.

[He fidgeted a little, trying to be assimilated into the depths of the beanbag.]

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