[Fear is not new to him. Fear and him are good ol' drinking buddies, companions that don't really like each other but have grown used to the familiarity. Fear is not a surprise. Even panic he knows how to deal with. The game taught him how to handle panic and act instead of freezing and whimpering in the face of certain death. The fact that they're foreign doesn't make them any less real, and Eridan finds himself accidentally baring his teeth at Karkat, as he debates with himself whether he should let the panic get a hold of him or if he should try to get a hold of himself as he knows how. He doesn't know which one is more likely to piss Karkat off more, and he's in his head and that alone is enough to make him want to run and find a shower and scrub the Cerulean's presence off until his skin bleeds green. He steps back into the wall, teeth still bared and forced to look at him in the eye.

Oh well, good to know what his nightmares the next few nights will be about.]