[OPEN] you tried to keep me warm

[chronomancer]

Characters: Jaderi and YOU!
Setting: Media floor.
Format: Starting with action, but I'll match you.
Summary: You know what? Screw this. Eridan is going to watch movies and not go shithive maggots for a change. Yes. This is a thing he's doing. Totally.
Warnings: Eridan going shithive maggots and probably being mildly creepy. Eridan's mouth. Bad musicals. Event stuff, too.

[He should probably let people know he's back. Probably. Probably. Should probably do a lot of things, but he's not really feeling it. He's feeling a lot of things, but that's not the point.

What was the point?

Oh, yeah.

Right.

Watching shitty musicals and singing along and most definitely not doing something stupid. Stupider. Was stupider even a word? It should be. Probably was. Probably should go find the others. Let them know he's okay. Haha. Right. Equius and Jade. Jade and Equius. And the rest too. Sure.

What's he doing here again? Oh right. Musicals. Nice, soothing musicals. Always know where you're standing with a shitty musical, really. Same with a rifle. You're either shooting it or you're getting shot. Either you live or you're dead. Either or. Always, one or the other. Goddammit, life would be so much easier if it were a musical. Worse comes to worst, all you get is a shitty, subpar dance number that no one will ever remember again.  Like that. God, that's a terrible number, and somehow he still remembers the song anyway.

So hey, there's this scrawny, thin boy curled up on a couch with a few blankets, softly singing along the worst musicals known to man. And trying really hard to not do the batshit crazy thing. Because god knows no one needs him to do the batshit crazy thing. Ever. At least he doesn't bite?]

Comments

[reddeadvirtuoso]

[You didn't have to go out and find Jade at least, because there she was, parading around with half a skull and a horribly shredded up costume and dyed skin, sunglasses missing, and not a hint of a her usual "too-cool-to-care" tone of voice when she spoke.]

Well, look who finally showed up again.

[chronomancer]

[There's a long pause.]

...what in the grubfucking hell are you wearing?

[Yes. He's staring. But he's also kind of more worried about her than anything else. He just wants to keep where he is, curled up under the blankets and slurring along awful songs, but if they did something to Jade.

If they did something to Jade.

Oh. Wow. Hi, murderous rage. Long time no see. We thought you'd left the building. You know. Permanently. But it's okay, it's chill if you want to stay. You know what, why don't you settle in the pit of his stomach, churning like an angry, broken thing? Sooner or later he's going to kill someone, right. And then you'll be happy.

...what was that thing he was trying not to do again?]

[reddeadvirtuoso]

Costume. It's Halloween, motherfucker.

[Hey, whatever happened, she seemed pretty happy right now, with a slight facetious shrug as she spoke.]

[chronomancer]

Oh.

[He pretended that meant something to him, so he just shrugged a little.]

I'm about to royally embarrass myself, alright? So don't kill me til I'm done.

[reddeadvirtuoso]

You have no idea what the fuck Halloween is, do you.

[Uuuunsurprised.]

[chronomancer]

Nope.

[Excuse him, he's just going to go over and steal a hug.]

Don't give a shit, either.

[reddeadvirtuoso]

[Well. That was. Unexpected. She wasn't defensive about it, but she didn't make much effort to return the hug either.]

What was that for?

[chronomancer]

Shut up and tell me you're okay.

[Despite the decidedly tight hug, though, he's not doing much else. His breathing's still almost normal. And he's not crying or anything. Really, he just needs a hug. And maybe a moment to remember that being shithive maggots is a Bad thing we don't indulge in. Right.]

[reddeadvirtuoso]

[Alright, he was obviously distraught, so she did at least bring up one arm to give him a half hug and a pat on the shoulder with the hand that wasn't holding the shield.]

Chill out, I'm walking around perfectly fine, aren't I? You're worryin' too much again.

[You know besides the missing skull and the lack of a gratuitous amount of curse words.]

[chronomancer]

You sure?

[He'll worry about that. In a minute. Okay. He's just. Working on priorities here. First priority is not dissolving into frothing rage. Frothing rage sucks. He can't quite remember why, but he remembers thinking very clearly that frothing rage sucks. So not indulging in that. He's just going to concentrate on her breathing and how much he's missed hearing it and then slowly sort out anything else.]

Because I do one hell of a pissed off possessive moirail routine. People pay to see that shit.

[reddeadvirtuoso]

'Course. [Yeah she has no idea why he's being weird about this right now.]

Well, Rose...kind of went nuts yesterday. She blew up a bomb in John's face and really yanked our chains!

...No seriously, they were wrapped around our necks and everything. Pretty sure I heard a snap. [In spite of that, she grinned confidently.] Nothing to worry about though; I've got it under control. The next time she shows up with her schemes again, I'll be waiting.

[chronomancer]

Rose?

[Yep, still not letting go of the hug, but hey. He's not clinging that much anymore. It's back to those "draping one's self on Jade Strider's shoulders" deals he's so fond of. Except from the front rather than the back. Sort of.]

Rose Strider?

[reddeadvirtuoso]

[Someone unperturbed by the fact that there's a much taller alien somehow draping from the front. This ain't about logistics, man.]

Nah, Rose Egbert. [Said with a shake of her head.] From some other crazy alternate universe.

[geometry]

[WHOOPSIES someone's in here better go!!!!!!!!]

[If Eridan can take his attention away from the musical for a second, he might hear some very heavy and decidedly unhealthy panting; no points on who that turns out to be. Equius had been running across the halls, down the spiral staircase. He'd made a habit of running everywhere recently, because there has to be some part of that horrible place that wasn't dead, he just hadn't found it yet!]

[...That was a lie. There was nothing there. But it didn't stop him from looking. And later, around a week in, it didn't stop him from firing at shadows, either.]

[Which, uh, might explain why Equius had his bow loaded and pointing right at the couch as he descended the last floor. It's a pain to fire when he's this tired, and he'd probably miss anyway, but it's not like his shitty weapon can do any actual damage anyway.]

[chronomancer]

[He doesn't like heavy and decidedly unhealthy panting. What if it's a monster? What if he has to shoot it?

What if he can't stop once he starts?

But he can't die. He hates dying. It sucks. It really, really sucks. Taking a deep breath himself, he pushes himself up, rolling a little to kneel on the couch and look over the back at the source of the panting, rifle at hand.

And then he sees Equius and slumps down a little, going slack.]

...hey, Eq.

[It's a little tired and somewhat hoarse, but hey, at least it's not the bubbling panic he's trying very hard not to give in to!]

[geometry]

[Well shit.]

[He stares a lot longer than normal at the jadeblood, making no move to lower the weapon. What's worse, the panic that Eridan is taking like a champ? Equius, not so much. It's pretty clear just from his expression that he did not wake up on the sane and healthy side of the bed today, nor did he wake up on that side of the bed for the past two weeks.]

[Why did there have to be someone down here? Maybe it was a little ridiculous to want to be alone right now, but he did; to be alone and sit in the corner and summon Bl'hakyetkokún alone for the first time and just nuke his mind on something for a while.]

[But, you know.]

[Someone else is here. Eridan is here.]

[He mumbles an apology for god-knows-what and starts to go back up the staircase. Maybe he'll just lock himself in his dorm. That sounds like a good idea.]

[chronomancer]

Equius.

[Eridan slid off the little mound of blankets he's been in for the past few hours. He didn't want to, really, but given the expression on the yellowblood's face? Yeah.]

You can stay, I was just leaving anyway.

[Please buy his stupid empty smile. C'mon. You know you want to, Equius. He's leaving you half of a blanket fort already set. C'mon.]

[geometry]

[The stupid empty smile does nothing, predictably.]

[You know what else does nothing? Equius. He just stands there, looking at Eridan -- well, maybe "at Eridan" was a strong term. Rather, he was looking at the general mass of space where Eridan happens to be located. Things he did not want to deal with on the first day back: this. Why had he even come out at all. This was stupid. There were monsters and people down here.]

[...Whatever noise that was, it didn't seem to fit into any form of a word. It takes a few tries before he becomes understandable.] S-s-stay there... I...

[His voice sounds pretty bad. Guess who's done nothing but scream for the past two weeks?]

[chronomancer]

[Yeah, he's keenly familiar with that process. Eridan winces a little, raising his hands in what he hopes is a placating manner, but at least stops advancing.]

It's okay.

[Things Equius voice is doing to help Eridan's current anger problem? None. But he'll focus on Equius first. Helping people who are hurt is always more important than hurting people who deserve it. Right. And it's not just because at the moment he doesn't know who exactly is to blame for this and he's not so far gone yet to just rain violence on anyone. Knowing the kind of jumpy, neurotic wreck Equius usually is, Eridan doesn't want to crowd him. Mind, it's hard. It's really hard to not just move in and fuss. But hey, focusing on not upsetting Equius is good enough at keeping him from giving in to the angry, angry things already twisting in his gut. Right.]

Do you want some water?

[geometry]

[...]

[After a few moments, he lowers the bow... slightly. He seems to be glancing around the room a lot, as if there were some monsters hiding in the corners that hadn't shown themselves even after hours of Eridan sitting there being a sitting duck. But what if there were clever ones, ones that did exactly that? Hiding monsters, that had to be what was going on here-- wait. Shit. Eridan. One of the monsters had. Infiltrated his mind or something. Or it was a shapeshifter. Oh shit.]

[The progression of this thought was displayed perfectly on his face; needless to say, there's more backing up. And that bow, it's right back up again.]

...Eridan?

[Ow.]

You're real, right?

[Might as well throw the second question in there because Gira is A+ at writing tags.]

[chronomancer]

[Gira is A+ and perfect and you better not be badmouthing her, okay.

Eridan offers a wry smile and a small shrug.]

'm gonna assume you don't want me to go all philosophical on you about this, hon, and just say yes. Yeah, I'm real, as far as I can tell.

[He stays in place though, waiting. He'll wait for as long as Equius needs, really. He knows what it's like to be in that frame of mind. It's not very pleasant.]

[geometry]

[WHAT NO OF COURSE NOT HAHAHAHA... HA HA HA... Ha ha... ha.]

You sure?

[Because obviously, the best way to detect a possible demon mind-controlling your matesprit is to ask them.]

[chronomancer]

[Don't make me start on the praise be to Yevon Gira, because we'll be here all night.]

Pretty sure.

[He offers another smile, which he hopes is reassuring.]

[geometry]

[No need for that, tyvm~]

[Anyway, he spends a full thirty seconds just watching Eridan. Waiting. Waiting for that bastard to just lunge for him, in which case this arrow? Is going right through that Aquarius symbol.]

[It's still pointed at that symbol as he finally decides to take a step forward. His fear clearly hasn't eased much at all.]

[chronomancer]

[You made me use a FFX reference though. I might have to now, anyway...

Eridan keeps himself in place. A little unkind thought squirms its way through his mind, mocking. He feels his lips twitch a little, but otherwise he controls himself.]

I'm not going to hurt you, Eq.