still, lay it bare. (open)

[geometry]

Characters: Yelloweq and you
Setting: Floor 4; lounge. Backdated to the fifteenth.
Format: I'll do whatever, yo
Summary: The events of the last few weeks, including this goddamn sickness, finally hit Equius... and leave him as a screaming, shaking wreck clutching his head in the corner of a public area.
Warnings: Freakouts. Cursing. Oh, so much cursing.

[It hurts. Make it stop. Someone make it stop.]

[For quite a while now, Equius has been having some... upsets with this sickness that's going around. As if he really needed to be sick alongside the freezing coldness of the Tower and the whole debacle that had gone down with Eridan the other day. Those two things alone were enough to break his brain. But as if destiny really had to make it worse, there seemed to be a few unpleasant side effects to this damn cold. Nothing quite seems... right anymore. He can feel it. Everything in his perception has been altered -- all that physics-breaking he hates so much, that gives him the headaches so bad he has to avoid some floors altogether? Well, it now follows him around. So to all other residents of the Tower, the fourth floor looks just like it would on any other day. But for the one troll now staggering down the stairs (he hasn't been able to walk straight for quite a while), it's just enough to push him over the edge for reals.]

Oh god. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No no no no no no no no nonononononono...

[...Or maybe it was that he hasn't eaten anything for two days. That could be the reason too. Really, there were a lot of reasons why he could have been pushed over the edge this month. Maybe he had just been good at keeping them bottled until now, hidden under an oversized coat. But now he was repeating the word "no" many more times than a sane, healthy person would, at least until they escalated into something else. Somewhere between a cry and a whine:]

Make it stop!

[Whatever the cause, the fact of the matter was: the walls were spinning. There was a heartbeat shaking the room like small, steady earthquakes. The floor tilted in ways that Equius' Spacey sensibilities didn't think possible. It was nauseating for a normal person, sure; but add that to the fact that even the perception of warped Space brought on the damn migraines (which had gotten much worse since yesterday), what he did next shouldn't have come as a surprise. Though to anyone else in the room, it certainly would have come as a shock.]

[Equius screamed.]

MAKE IT STOP MAKE IT STOP MAKE IT STOP--

[Loud and long, it was the kind of howling that could curdle blood, the #1 sign of a breaking mind. Someone on the next floor up or down could hear it quite clearly, since he wasn't that far from the staircase. And it didn't stop. It kept going for -- fuck, how long, a minute maybe? Something like that. We just don't know. Equius didn't know. He just screamed until his lungs couldn't do that anymore, and the lack of oxygen made his head swim even more, so he just kind of staggered off into the glass, letting his forehead loll onto it when he did. The icy coldness of the unbreakable glass made him scream more, but it was a sensation that wasn't the feeling of his brain leaking out his ears, so that was probably good. He threw his palms onto the glass too. Sure. Why not. WHY THE FUCK NOT.]

[He just kind of... keeled over from there, would be the best way to describe it. Eventually, all that was left on Floor Four was a troll trying to cram himself into the corner between the glass and the floor, clutching his head and shaking like a leaf, making these horrible pained sounds as he went. Fortunately, they were much quieter.]

[Equius won't be going anywhere for a while. Hope you guys brought earbuds.]

Comments

[hystericull]

[Oh, you better fucking believe that noisy shit traveled. Up the stairs it went, shattering glass, popping balloons and making babies wail in its wake before reaching a certain troll with a penchant for these kinds of noises. It was close enough for him to track it down, abandoning whatever plans he'd had to investigate. It was a fairly common sound, but rare was it to hear one with such desperation! It was almost invigorating, in a sense, filling him with a morbid curiosity.]

[Still perched on the stairs, Gamzee stilled, peering across the lounge until he found the source of that ungodly racket. It was quieter, now - which was a shame, to be certain - and he would have had only normal levels of instigation in mind had it not been a certain yellowblood in the midst of this particularly delicious mental breakdown.]

[After a while of observation (and deciding this thing wasn't going to do any more tricks like the original shriek had seemed to promise), Gamzee stepped on to the floor, approaching with a well-masked caution. He was stupid. Gamzee Makara was stupid in all instances of the word. But he was not stupid. He was not going to engage this fitful thing without exercising caution. He knew how it felt to be wanting to assimilate into the floor. He also knew how vicious it could make someone.]

Heyyy, hey, motherfucker...

[He paused, twitching his nose. Itch. Itchy. Itchy itchy. There went a finger, thankfully only up to the first knuckle, this time. An itchy nose wouldn't deter him, however. Finger gracelessly wedged in nostril, he leaned down to properly address Equius with a sneer.]

Lose somethin' down there?

this is probably the most embarrassing tag i've ever written. equius. equius no.

[geometry]

[Equius convulsed again at the same moment Gamzee set foot on the floor. Maybe there was a bit more miserable squeaking, too, but (as Gamzee correctly observed) not nearly as much as he had promised. For all anyone could tell, maybe the mere footsteps of Gamzee’s big-ass clown shoes on the floor were giving Equius more feedback for his sensory overload. Whether they did or not, though, this puny yellowblood had no intention of turning back around to find out who else had wandered onto the floor -- nor did he particularly care -- until he heard a series of ugly noises in his ears that somehow drowned out the ringing. Oh god, the ringing--]

[--oh god, him. Equius couldn’t remember his name right now. He couldn’t dedicate all that brainpower. He couldn’t even see the bastard, since one corner of the room tends to be less open to corruption than the entire damn thing (even though the angle kept changing, oh god, he could feel it, the angle kept changing, three-dimensional structures do not work that way). All he knew was that there was someone talking now, and whenever he heard that voice he always died. Always.]

[He tried to get up and bolt like he normally does, body more or less moving on its own; but of course, he misjudged the distance, and ended up falling on his face in a frankly embarrassing heap. And of course, the sudden shock did absolutely nothing to sate his migraines, fatigue, and quickly-fraying nerves. So he screamed again. Not as loud as the first time, but it was better. Hopefully this entertains you, Gamzee.]

i think you mean equius yes

[hystericull]

[Gamzee is thoroughly entertained, thank you.]

[Maybe he'd been wrong about the "mental breakdowns make one more dangerous" bit. Maybe the opposite was true in Equius' case. To be fair, he'd only encountered a few of them in his lifetime, so he couldn't be the authority on all forms of psychosis that weren't directly related to himself.]

[With a cruel, honking laugh that was sure to scrape the eardrums out of the poor, writhing boy on the floor, Gamzee participated in what was now a pretty sick duet. If he may, Equius, he's just going to shove you onto your back with his shoe, keeping a foot firmly planted on a shoulder as he throws his ass onto a nice spot of yellowblood stomach.]

You're makin' some motherfuckin' pretty music for me, motherfucker.

[Time to pull the finger out of his nose and place a hand just in front of his eyes.]

If I be all closing at my motherfucking lookstubs, almost makes the whole fuckin' production pretty.

no i'm pretty sure it's equius no

[geometry]

[He could have been wrong, yes. Or he could have been absolutely right. Either way, it made no difference in this situation. In a normal state of mind, he would have been correct the first time; Equius would have snapped his shit like a new rave glowstick and gone killer on Gamzee’s ass. Right now, though – unless Equius suddenly developed an all-encompassing Spacey optic blast, there was no way in hell he was going to be able to even land a hit. His senses were too messed up for that. The eye beams would have all of the precision and delicacy of Sollux after eating the mind honey, but hey, at least they would hurt the fucker.]

[Unfortunately, Equius wasn’t at the level of destructive Spacey eye beams. He wasn’t even at the level where he could do something with his powers other than get horrible headaches from them. …At some point, he might, and they would be just as good as any psionics. Gamzee’d better hope that day doesn’t come, because if it does, he is going to be in for a world of lime-green Princely pain.]

[But for now? FUN FUN FUN FUN LOOKING FORWARD TO KILLING THE MUSTARDBLOOD—wait shit what’s going on?]

[As soon as Gamzee parked his ass down there, Equius moved again. Fast. His movements were pretty quick normally, and not being able to figure out what the shit he would be doing the next second put him much more into the mindset of an actual fight. This wasn’t an escape. Equius was being threatened by something when he was down, so simple troll insticts told him to fix that; he didn’t have enough brainpower to stop himself.]

[Equius reached up the arm that wasn’t trapped under a pair of legs and grabbed for whatever part of Gamzee he made contact with. (Depending on eyesight to tell him what he was snatching was a bad idea.) It felt like hair, a lot of hair, so he decided (in the loosest sense of the word) to push back with as much force as he could muster – pain into energy, you know how it goes – to hopefully slam Gamzee into the wall. And if not, he’d just yank it downward.]

you wanna fight about this punk

[hystericull]

[It was, in 20/20 hindsight, pretty stupid of Gamzee to let his guard down. Picking on Equius was just so easy and rewarding, that his mostly-impenetrable guard was momentarily forgotten in favor of complete focus on his torment of the kid.]

[In a flash that was admittedly quick, there were fingers twisting in his hair - an obvious attempt motivated purely by desperation, but dangerous nonetheless. In the time it took to be knocked back against the wall, Gamzee had decided that it wasn't very wise to get too ahead of himself.]

[The force of the collision hurt his spine, and that hurt encouraged a return blow. Namely, a wordless punch aimed at the pissblood's face.]

[wrigurun]

[Wriggle hung startled in the stairway. Never before had she heard such a sound come out of his mouth. If she hadn't heard it for herself she would have thought it impossible for Equius to achieve such a volume. With her ears covered it was clear the solution was to yell right back]

Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!

[She was tired and cranky, trying her best to stay awake and figure out who it was that kept taking her away but they were quick and crafty. If she lolled off to sleep for even a second they had already snatched her away. Every time she walked into a room and forgot why they'd already experimented on her and erased her memory. They could try and cover it up but she knew, she had evidence]

I don't know how to make it stop!

[geometry]

[As soon as Wriggle decided that the obvious course of action would be to contribute to Equius’ headaches, and somehow in her buggy mind thought that acting on that course of action would be the best idea, things just got a whole hell of a lot worse for Equius. And a lot of it had to do with the fact that loud voices? Don’t bode well for people with headaches.]

STOOOOOOP!

[That might actually have been louder than the previous ones. It probably was, considering the fact that his throat just kind of threw in the towel at the end there, and the word ended on a very unhealthy spluttering noise.]

[wrigurun]

I said I don't know!

[The antidote to yelling was surely louder yelling but the ringing in her brain was starting to make her head hurt too. Wriggle didn't know what to do, how to fix whatever it was that was wrong but after their last conversation she felt almost obligated to help despite the fact that she probably didn't want to just as much as he didn't want her help]

Just calm down! We can figure something out!

[geometry]

[Equius didn’t seem to offer any response to Wriggle’s proposal, but that was mostly because he was too busy curling up into a tiny ball with his hands over his ears. As fun as screaming matches with Wriggle were on a regular day, now he really just didn’t care about her when there was the more pressing matter of his brain is being ripped apart in systematic half-inch strips.]

[Looks like you’ve just got to figure that out on your own, Wrigs.]

[cutestprogrammer]

[Chihiro heard the screaming and when he see who it's from, he hurries over with great concern.

He does approach him cautiously though as Equius doesn't seem to be in a sane state of him.]

E-Equius-kun?

[geometry]

[Your voice is soft, Chihiro. Thank you. This makes you a hell of a lot better company than most other people Equius has seen today. As a token of his gratitude, you only get a shudder and a small whine when you talk.]

kill me... please...

[cutestprogrammer]

[it isn't soft for long unfortunately as soon as he hears that!] EHHHHH????????? K-k-kill????

[geometry]

[High-pitched wailing... oh god.]

[Equius joins in that EHHH with a scream of pain.]

SHUT UP!

[ceasetoexist]

[Goddamn. What a pathetic display. Not that Pokey can say he's doing much better. He's damn near ready to collapse from the constant voices he's hearing himself. And they're pleas for help.

And that no matter how hard he tries, he just can't block them out. Or find them, though he'd never admit to having actually tried to look for them.

He watches as Equius breaks down and thinks about continuing to just walk by. About leaving and not paying it any attention. But he just...can't. What used to be so easy for him has become excruciating, even if he may not recognize the person by sight.

He grimaces and then marches over to Equius, pulling on the back of his coat.]

Hey.

Get up.

[geometry]

[Equius pretty much flipped out as soon as Pokey went for the coat. The wailing started up again, though not as loudly as before; it was more out of fear than anything else, since he was well aware that he could do nothing to defend himself in this state.]

[He really, really didn’t appreciate having his throat suddenly being constricted, and for that reason he promptly began to scrabble against the wall, looking for anything to cling on to; unfortunately, because one surface was glass and one surface was carpet much too short and tightly-knit to grab, he failed in this venture.]

[But at least he was able to grab onto the front of his coat and try to pull it away from Pokey... and over his own head. As if this was going to do anything to protect him.]

No!

[ceasetoexist]

[Pokey's grip loosens, stunned, at the wail. It mingles too much, too easily, with all the screaming going on in his head. For a moment it's as if Equius' cry joined the tortured choir that was going off in his head, and the shock was just too much for Pokey at the moment. Equius pulls his coat away from Pokey easily.

The shout of NO! however, jolts Pokey back to reality with relative ease. No one screams at him like that. Not right now. Can't this moron see he's trying to help him?]

Get up you idiot! You have any idea how quick you're going to freeze to death if you just stay out here? I mean if that's your pleasure uh, go ahead! But don't say I didn't warn you!

[geometry]

[Fortunately, he stopped wailing, because Pokey wasn’t yanking at him anymore. But he still seemed reluctant to take the human’s advice.]

I can’t!

[At least, not without someone else to keep his balance.]

[sawthelockdown]

[Asako sniffles juuuust a bit when she gets to the floor. It's just a minor cold. No big deal, nothing's wrong - and if it's a flu instead, she can deal with that too.

... Someone flipping out in the corner? Not quite so much.

So it is with some confusion and a tilted head that she walks over - not too close, of course - to ask yellow!Eq:] You okay? What happened?

[geometry]

My heeeead!

[Equius was writhing against the wall, more and more frequently as Asako got closer. (Surely he can't... feel her footsteps or anything, that would be silly...) The question was: had that response been directed at Asako, or at the room in the general like the rest of his little pain-freakout? We just don't know. But it happened. And it was a pretty accurate representation of what was wrong with him, all things considered.]

[sawthelockdown]

[Thankfully, Asako doesn't get too close, and she just crouches down instead of continuing to walk.]

Do you need aspirin?

[geometry]

[Aspirin...?]

Won't help!

[It never helps. Unfortunately, these migraines happen to be a sort of... "power" of his, exploited by the tower admins. No amount of medication will take it out.]

[disgracedvoid]

[Well, this was new. Unfortunately new was not synonymous with good. Darkleer let out a strangled growl of annoyance as he approached the boy, resisting the urge to grind his teeth if only because broken teeth were not a thing that usually made a situation better.]

Zahhak.

[Sharp, soft and unamused. Yay, Dadleer wants words with you, kid. Long words. Hell, Even a musical number if necessary.]

[geometry]

[...All you get in response to this is a quiet, strangled noise.]

[In a reaction similar to the incident with Gamzee above, Equius didn’t exactly register that this was Expatriate Darkleer speaking, only that it was a person with a voice that he recognized as being completely terrifying. He might also have been fearing for his life right there, but then, he never really had looked at Darkleer and not feared for his life, so that may be just par for the course.]

[In other news: Gira should stop talking in serious tags.]

[disgracedvoid]

[...Gira can write serious tags? Oooh, maybe Fi should drop the thread, or she'll ruin the seriousness.

In other news, it's too damn early in the day for Darkleer to be feeling so facepalmy and yet... well. He looks down at Equius with a rather put upon twist on his mouth.]

Is there a particular reason you're screeching yourself hoarse or is this a common occurrence I should resign myself to?

[There's a brief pause.]

You're not even listening to me at all, are you.

[geometry]

[Obviously, Gira will write the thread all by herself, and it will be the most serious thread in the history of Animus. Except not really, because roleplaying with yourself is just sad on a kind of very universal level. But while she contemplates that, we return to Darkleer watching as Equius experiences the fine, fine side effects of being a very passive person having a very active Space class. (If only he had gone God Tier. Now that would be scary.) Equius only understood about half of those words, the other half being either drowned out by the noises inside his head or simply not comprehended. But he was listening. He was. Honest.]

Nnn.

[This announcement comes out much more weak and pathetic than he had initially planned it to. Equius knots his hands up in his hair, as if this will somehow alleviate the pain.]