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?]

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...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.]

... Tell you a secret? Whenever I know a movie's going to have a sad ending, I turn it off at the part where it's still happy.

[She's smiling softly, staring down at her hands.] We get enough sad endings in real life.

[He blinks at her, before he smiles sincerely.]

...I wish I'd thought of that.

[She feels totally victorious to get a smile out of him like that.]

Well, now you have! So no more sad endings required. Moulin Rouge is the one I do it with the most, because that ending just makes me bawl. ... Sorry, I don't know what unwieldy title the troll version has.

[Considering what she just said, he shouldn't ask, but his curiosity is piqued enough he blurts it out without thinking:]

What's it about?

[Then he shrugs awkwardly.]

Ah, but you probably don't wwant to think about it, sorry.

Are you kidding? It's one of my favorite movies ever! I just... can't watch the ending. [She gives a sheepish look.]

It's a romantic musical about a playwright that falls in love with a dancer-slash-singer-slash-prostitute while pretending to be someone else, and the guy that he was pretending to be eventually finds out and is majorly jealous. It's all very dramatic, but Ewan McGregor has the most amazing voice... Especially when he sings Elton John.

[Willow sighs dreamily.]

...yeah that doesn't sound like it has a happy endin'.

[Eridan's not sure who Ewan McGregor is, but he's probably a great singer, judging from Willow's reaction. Eridan hesitates a moment, taking a deep breath, before he gives her a lopsided smile.]

Maybe you can showw it to me, wwhen wwe get out a here.

[There. He was being... positive, shudder. Isn't that what all his friends want?]

[She smiles back, feeling shy about it and much more reserved. It's hard for her to admit, but... she's a little lonely, in a way that she hasn't felt in years and years, from before Buffy came to Sunnydale. It affects her a lot to be away from her friends at a time in her life when she was trying to change who she was, not to be that person anymore who was addicted and manipulative, and made bad choices. Sometimes these days half of her pep was an effort to convince herself to cheer up and be who she'd used to be, before the magic.

They didn't know each other that well, but his words reminded her that all of her friendships started somewhere. Willow was grateful just to hear it.]

Maybe even before then, if they have a copy of it here. I'll have to look for it. I was worried you wouldn't like musicals, but if you're game, I'd love to.

[Eridan began to notice her reservedness, bit by bit as time passed and the awkward, urge-to-flail feeling failed to manifest. He shrugged awkwardly, unsure if he should ask... or if this change of attitude was somehow his fault.

It probably was. He felt bad, but he didn't know how to say it without making things awkward. He ducked his head.]

...I'm alwways up to wwatch neww movvies, so sure. I'll trust your taste, Wwilloww.

[By contrast she's perking up bit by bit as the conversation goes on, and she wonders why he's suddenly awkward again. Maybe he has a time limit and has to revert to form after too long being friendly.

No, that's an uncharitable thought, she scolds herself. Even if it is funny.]

I appreciate it. Do you have a favorite? Or... should I stop talking over the one you're watching, maybe?

[And here it is, the moment of truth. That's a pretty straightforward offer to shut up and let him be. He could take it, right? And not come off as a jerk? Right? Right.

Of course he can't take it. Eridan shrugs and rests his chin on his folded knees.]

It's okay. It's just... explosions and stuff.

If you're sure. I don't want to bother you or anything.

[After a moment of hesitating, she adds,] But it is nice to spend time with you, without a crisis or anything like that.

...a crisis?

[Oh god. Eridan looked rueful. Had he imposed himself on her at a bad moment? Oh god, there he went, screwing shit up. Fuck.]

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another tag that is histerically sad, in retrospect:

pfffff aww he's such a sad, awkward bb.

yeeeeeeeeeep.

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