[OPEN][BACKDATED] Stitch me back, one by one!

[chronomancer]

Characters: Jade!Eridan Ampora, and YOU!
Setting: Floor 15, the workshop.
Format: I'll start with action, but I'll match you.
Summary: In which Eridan pretends he knows how to sew. Spoilers, he doesn't. Backdated to before the Labyrinth event!
Warning: None? I'll add if necessary.

[It's really not that hard, he figures, to use his torn jacket as a pattern and make a new one with some scraps of red fabric lying around. It's just. Cutting fabric and sewing it together. How hard can it be?

Apparently, very hard and not really a project for the uninitiated.

He's left the whole mess on a workbench for now, focusing on patching up his other pair of pants. That, at least, he's relatively used to. It's not the neatest of stitch-work, but at least it'll hold.

At least, he thinks with grim amusement, he has two hands now, to do this. Otherwise it'd be well and truly hopeless.]

Comments

Late tag is late

[mutab1e]

[Equius had his own reason to come up to the workshop, and coincidentally it was much the same as Eridan; making new shirts. Plain black ones. He felt terrible even waiting on it this long, and he wasn't sure how much longer he could go just hiding from the Highblood with the offending symbol still on every shirt he owns. So...]

[His thoughts are derailed as soon as he sees the mangled corpse that could once be called a jacket. And yes, it doesn't take him long to recognize it as Eridan's... and sure enough, when he looks around, there's the jadeblood himself, hunched over something else. He creeps nearer and peers around Eridan's shoulder for a bit, soon developing a frown as he watches Eridan... well... not fail exactly, but...]

...Um.

[SHIT DID HE SAY THAT OUT LOUD. SHIT.]

Boo, you're never late for me. <3

[chronomancer]

[Yeah, you did. He looks up, sunglasses far down his nose that you can see his eyes. He blinks and offers a small, subdued smile.]

Hey, Eq.

[Please, by the love of anything sacred, refrain from asking about his arm. Please.]

Aw. <3

[mutab1e]

[The gods have smiled upon you this day, Eridan. Equius is instead focusing on your little arts and crafts project.]

You... accidentally folded the cloth in, down here. [He walks around and points to an area off the edge of the table.] Did you need a seam ripper...? [He looks around, figuring someone had misplaced it and that was why Eridan overlooked the misplaced seam. ...Yes, that's right. Equius Zahhak, the king of effeminately useful hobbies, can sew now, as well. Technically he's always been able to, but, you know.]

owo

[chronomancer]

[Eridan blinks again, watching Equius move around with... wow, that looks almost certainty. It's an odd contrast with Equius usual attitude, but frankly, Eridan approves.]

Did I?

[He kept his tone level, interested. Oh god, positive reinforcement. He likes you a lot when you're not being an idiot, Equius, we need to encourage more of it.]

Ah, maybe you could... show me how to fix it?

[mutab1e]

...Right. Of course. Erm... [He rifles around in the seams of cloth for a while, and eventually comes up with an odd fork-shaped tool.] Well... normally, you're supposed to use this to pull out every stitch you made, up until the error. Unfortunately... that would mean that all of this would... [He glides his finger from the point of the error up to the dangling thread.] ...If it were just a jagged stitch then we could just pull out the section, but the cloth would be all bunched up and, well... it would be very unsightly.

[He fingers the seam ripper for a moment.] ...I'll find a second one.

[chronomancer]

Oh, I see.

[No, he doesn't... well, not entirely. But he nods along anyway, following Equius explanation.]

Eh, won't that be too much trouble?

[He can work with unsightly, really. He's got a Ph. D. making unsightly look fashionable. Honest.]

[mutab1e]

[Eridan earns a funny look for that one.]

Well, you've already started it, haven't you...? [Regardless, he goes back to searching -- but then stops, remembering just then that welp. You can only do it with one.] Here. It's like... [He takes the long, sharp end of the fork and slides it under Eridan's most recent stitch. Then, it's a matter of pulling it up so the string comes back through the hole that the needle poked it into.] ...You can only do it with one, sorry. It's been a while since I've done this. [And with that he places the seam ripper in front of Eridan.]

[chronomancer]

...point. Let's see,

[He shrugs then, grabbing the seam ripper and giving the line of stitches a small wary look before he starts very slowly undoing stitches.

...And what do you know, he's better at undoing things than doing them right the first time. No one was surprised.]

[mutab1e]

[Equius nods, watching him go.] Be careful you don't nick the fabric.

...

Do you mind if I, uh... work on something else in the meantime?

[He glances back over at the mountains of cloth.]

[chronomancer]

Oh.

[Eridan smiled.]

Of course, I'm sorry, thanks for your help, Eq.

[And now he'll go back to undoing all he's done wrong. Whoops.]

[mutab1e]

You're welcome.

[And then he's off, flitting all over the place, measuring fabric and drawing patterns and... whatever people do when they need to sew things, I don't know. Eventually he's got everything sorted out, and is back sitting across from Eridan, doing his own stitches -- pretty quickly, mind.]

[chronomancer]

[By the time Equius is back, Eridan has started stitching again. He's tortuously slow and nowhere near even or presentable. But he's trying. Honest.

And then he pinches under a claw and there goes the string of profanity as he sucks on the offended finger and glares death at that needle.

Jesus, he's bad at this.]

[mutab1e]

[At the first word, Equius jerks his head up again.]

What happened?

[Though it soon becomes apparent what happened. Equius frowns and... attempts to talk about it.]

...Um. I did that a lot too? When I was... starting out.

[chronomancer]

[Oh. Hey. You were here. Crap. Er. Eridan cleared his throat. We're gonna pretend nothing happened, okay? Okay.]

It's okay, I'm just not very good with delicate work.

[mutab1e]

Keep trying. [His voice, surprisingly, doesn't seem to be very tense at all. He turns back to his own work, but only gets about thirty seconds in before he looks up again and asks:] ...Do you need help?

[chronomancer]

Ah, it's okay.

[He offers a light shrug.]

I'll manage, and you've... got your own stuff to do.

[He blinks.]

What are you doing, anyway?

[mutab1e]

Um, making shirts.

[He looks down at the mass of fabric. It's not exactly shirt-shaped yet, but he knows how to get it there. However, he doesn't think he wants to tell Eridan why. Not... yet. It will come out eventually, so why bring it up before then?]

[chronomancer]

Oh.

[Eridan looks at the pile of fabric curiously and then at Equius own shirt and frowns.]

...there's a good idea.

[mutab1e]

What, do you... want to make something else instead?

[He looks a bit confused at that comment. Though it's mostly because his mun is a dumbass, no worries.]

[chronomancer]

Ah, I'm...

[There's a long awkward pause as he finds the right verb,]

trying to replace one of my jackets. Since I ruined one with the... arm... incident, and the other one has seen better days.

[But at least he's finally managed to save himself the shame of bloodstains, mostly.]

I still have a couple shirts but I should probably make new ones rather than... use... the ones with... blood.

[Sob, his poor wardrobe, filled with bloodstains.]

[mutab1e]

...Oh, you... oh.

Right.

That would... be... for the best.

[Excuse him as he casually walks into the other room and stabs himself repeatedly with poisonous arrows.]

[...Okay, that's better!]

...Uhm... I'll help you, if you want, after I finish with these.

[chronomancer]

Eh, it's okay, you don't have to.

[He offers a small, wry smile.]

I'll be oka--grubfucking shit.

[Yeah, that'd. Be another needle under his claw. Goddammit.]

[mutab1e]

[O_O]

[That emote, right up there? That is his expression right now.]

Um... could you wait here for a moment?

[He stands up again and starts looking around the room, peering into boxes and under more mounds of fabric, until he finds a few thimbles -- might as well have one on hand for himself. Yeah, he had the same idea as Kanji.]

Here... put this on your finger. It should help, if that's a... recurring problem.

[chronomancer]

[...and Eridan promptly shuts up and looks properly chastised by the look on Equius' face. Smooth, Ampora, smooth. He watches Equius squirrel away, half dreading he'll just run away and never come back, but then he's offering the thimbles and Eridan relaxes a little. Good, one thing he doesn't have to feel guilty about, that's good.]

Yeah.

[He grabs the thimbles with a grateful little smile.]

Thanks, Eq. And... er, sorry about that.

[mutab1e]

You're welcome. [Damn, he almost eases up there, and then--welp.] ....Um. It's fine, really. It just... surprised me, that's all.

[And he sits down, slips on the thimble, and commences sewing again.]