[OPEN] How much of it's genetics? How much of it is fate?

[chronomancer]

Characters: jade!Eridan & YOU! 
Setting: Workshop
Format: Starting with action, but I'll match you.
Summary: Eridan emerges from his self-imposed exile for a while to clean his rifles.
Warnings: Eridan's deadpan. Potential violence if he gets pissed; lots and lots of rifles. Gamzee. Gory, ironic death via Gamzee. Goddammit, Gamzee.

[He started off with one. And then he doomed himself a few times. And well. It wasn't like he could just let them go to waste, when they started piling up.

Laser rifles need a different type of maintenance than the usual kind, but it's still maintenance in the end.

So there's a sullen troll, half hidden behind a pile of guns, carefully cleaning one by one. It's a methodical and repetitive process, but it's not like Eridan seems to mind too terribly. He's just minding his business, but hey. Maybe if you ask very nicely, he'll give you one.

Maybe.]

Comments

[selfinteresting]

I thought so...ah, well, I'll figure something out.

[She shrugs and sighs. It was worth a shot, anyway.]

I imagine you get some good target practice around here with all the monsters.

[chronomancer]

[He bites the inside of his lip a little, then shrugs.]

Things can get pretty hectic, yeah. Have you been here long?

[selfinteresting]

No, it's been around half a week. Who else would come right up to you like this, right? Only a strange woman who's new.

[chronomancer]

[He shrugs.]

...it's not like that. I just haven't been around for a while.

[He shrinks again.]

And it's not like I know everyone or anything. But most people around here tend to be pretty friendly.

[selfinteresting]

Oh? That's a relief.

[But that first part strikes her as much more important.]

...Did you go home, then?

[chronomancer]

[And now he looks distinctly uncomfortable.]

...for a while. Sometimes they send you there.

[He shrugs again.]

Not that everyone agrees it's really home, though.

[selfinteresting]

[She notes that, trying to press the subject lightly.]

And you? If it's anything like on those video screens, then I'm sure it isn't. If that worried you, then you shouldn't worry.

[chronomancer]

[He smiles, fangs peeking under his lip, and expressing wholly too cynical for what appears to be a teenager.]

My world was well and truly fucked before I ever got here. So it doesn't really make much of a difference to me, either way.

[He snorts.]

It's just not somewhere I enjoy visiting.

[selfinteresting]

[Giggle] Oh, well, in that case. As I see it, most of them are, it's only the severity and obviousness that changes.

[chronomancer]

It's really just a matter of tense.

[He shrugs again.]

Between a world ending and the world ended.

[Excuse him and his time puns, it's a bit of a chronic thing. /badum tiss]

[selfinteresting]

[/laugh tracks]

You're certainly right about that, it can make all the difference. I can't imagine a world worse than this if everything I hear is true, but, I'll certainly believe it.

[chronomancer]

[Thank you, thank you, I will be here all week.]

Worse is relative. Some people actually like this place, compared to their own world.

[selfinteresting]

That's exactly what's astonishing to me.

[She shrugs.]

Then again, it's all a matter of perspective.

[chronomancer]

You get used to it, trust me.

[His tone kind of implies that's not a good thing, though.]

[selfinteresting]

You can get used to just about anything. That doesn't mean it's enjoyable.

[chronomancer]

Eh, sometimes it's not so bad.

[A small pause.]

And sometimes it's worse. You just sort of learn to roll with the punches.

[selfinteresting]

Don't worry, I'm used to that already. We old people have been through plenty.

[More specifically someone in her position, but, whatever, whatever, she likes to say everything's because of age.]

[chronomancer]

I'll take your word for it.

[He shrugs.]

I don't really know much about human culture and such.

[selfinteresting]

So I'm not mistaken in taking you for something other than human, hm? I don't think it's too difficult to understand, we're a little too simple.

[chronomancer]

Yeah, I'm not.

[A small pause.]

And you're really not, honest. You're kinda bafflin' sometimes.

[selfinteresting]

You think so? Maybe you're trying to read too far into things when there's no reason to. There are a few simple models all humans adhere to.

[chronomancer]

I think either the humans I know all extraordinary somehow, or the models you talk about are more incidental. Correlation doesn't imply causation, you know.

[selfinteresting]

Of course I know that, but it's to do with the way we're raised, how we're taught in society. No one strays too far or they'll never survive.

[chronomancer]

Human society seems a lot more forgiving than mine, in regards of straying from the socially acceptable, though.

[selfinteresting]

That depends on several things, mostly what exactly it is you're straying in. What is it like for yours?