[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

[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.]

[chronomancer]

Sorry.

[Just for good measure, and then he puts the thimble on and goes back to work himself, trying to find a pattern or something to make sense of the complicated art of sewing.]

[mutab1e]

[...Oh god, yeah, okay, he's done.]

[Literally as soon as Equius finishes off the last stitches, he's stood up and around the table, unable to stand Eridan's mangling of a perfectly good garment.] Here-- um... [Whoops, can't sound like he knows what he's doing. He keeps forgetting that Eridan is still above him. It's harder when they don't speak over Trollian as much.] That stitch you're using... it won't hold up for very long... shall I show you a different one?

[chronomancer]

[Eridan looks up at Equius, blinking behind the sunglasses, before he shrugs.]

Sure, I'd appreciate that.

[He really would, and it's nice to see Equius not cowering about something. Well, for once Eridan's utter ineptitude about pretty much everything ever is paying up. At least a little.]

[mutab1e]

[He nods, kneeling down next to Eridan and pulling up a few pieces of scrap fabric. He babbles a little as he rigs the needle.] ...Obviously these will have to last for a while, so it wouldn't do to have shoddy construction, no... erm. Not saying that yours is... shoddy... but it needs to be stronger than this, I mean, if it's going to last for any extended period of time without ripping to shreds every other week... I've been there, it's really better to do it early... erm.

Okay... here. See, the gaps between your stitches are very large, which means they won't stand up to very much... really, you'd only use this length for holding things together temporarily. Basting, it's called. Really... see, you have to go back around like this... [And off he goes.]

[chronomancer]

[At least Eridan knows better than to agree with Equius about how shoddy his sewing is, that'd only send the poor boy into a ramble about how that's not what he meant, blah, blah, blah. Besides, Equius did know what he was talking about, it was much more interesting to listen to him as he explains. Eridan is a good audience, too, listening attentively.]

...ah, I see. You're right.

[Have a small gratitude smile.]

This one's better.

[mutab1e]

Yes... it's a much better situation, really, because these would have driven you to come back sooner or later to fix them... and I might not be around at that point.

[Oh shit.]

[Was that humor?]

[That was humor.]

[He kind of half-twitches his way into a smile.]