[CLOSED/OPEN] No words can heal a broken heart

[chronomancer]

Characters: [AU1] Eridan Ampora & [AU1] Equius Zahhak; Eridan Ampora and YOU.
Setting: Meadow floor (closed/backdated to the January event), Floor 64 (open/current)
Format: Starting with action but I'll match you.
Summary: Two logs for the price of one, lmao so I don't flood the comm: closing up aged up shenanigans, Equius is displeased and Eridan is about to learn just how much. Also back in real time, Eridan finds a deliciously tempting slice of home.
Warnings: Violence and swearing for the Equius log. Eridan being actually honest and pathetic and stupid, for the open one.

[Closed: Meadow floor.]

[He wasn't tired so much as he was trying to hibernate. He wasn't entirely sure trolls, undead or otherwise, actually did the whole hibernation shtick, but he could at least try. Save up his energy. Make his last feeding last. He was pretty sure things didn't really work that way but he was lazy and this was a good enough excuse. So there he is, as long as he is, lying on his back and sunbathing in the meadow without a care in the world.

Not that he didn't have cares. He had a lot of them, actually. But if he started thinking about all of them he'd probably implode. Or go on a rampage. Or both. Really, it was for the best of everyone involved, if he just laid there, soaking up sunlight and carefully thinking of nothing in particular.]

[Open: Desert floor.]

[It's so familiar it hurts, really. The heat, the sand, the occasional blast of wind. It's probably a bad idea to head out, and given the last few terrible ideas he's indulged lately, mostly as a result of the experiment last month, Eridan resists the urge to go.

But he wants to, dear god, he wants to so bad.

He's curled up on the sandy floor, barely two steps off the staircase, staring aimlessly at the distance and quietly drowning in nostalgia. He's never really stopped to sit down and miss life before the Game... but now he does and the wave of homesickness is almost entirely too much to handle.]

Comments

[caliginous]

[Karkat's angry swears are reduced to furious growls that stem from his chest, due to his inability to actually speak. All Eridan's antics cause is for the cerulean to squirm uncomfortably, freeing his other fist to throw it into the jadeblood's stomach repeatedly.

God help Eridan when Karkat remembers he's a psychic.]

[chronomancer]

[...he'll burn that bridge when he gets to it. For now, there's a couple months' worth of black frustration that has finally reached breaking point. Eridan grunts at the punches and instead sinks his claws deeper and shoves his knee harder in place, snarling quietly into Karkat's mouth.]

[caliginous]

[Karkat makes an indiscernible noise, unable to escape the claws or Eridan's knee fighting to fluster him. Eventually, he pulls his fangs free and tries to rip their mouths apart so he can throw his forehead into the other troll's in an attempt to gain some sort of leverage over Eridan's impossible lead.

He reaches for Eridan's wrists to try and throw him aside. He's fairly certain he feels blood dripping off his lips, but he can't tell who's it is.]

[chronomancer]

[Eridan pulls back, as Karkat releases him, laughing with a ghost of that dangerously deranged monster curled in it. The grip on his wrists tries to destabilize him, which makes him compensate by grinding somewhat further into Karkat. He barely dodges the headbutt, leering down at the cerulean with a thread of barely restrained madness.]

Fuck, I'd been meaning to do that for ages.

[caliginous]

[Karkat spits a glob of saliva and blood in Eridan's face, since he can't swallow it without being in danger of swallowing sand. He squirms again, trying to get more comfortable (which is basically impossible on a bed of sand with someone's knee in your crotch.]

Of course you have.

[He almost sounds smug, but its hard to be smug when you're so uncomfortable.]

[chronomancer]

[Eridan only smirks at that, ignoring the way spit and blood hit his cheek. He bares his teeth again, almost playfully.]

Always did think I'd be dead by this point.

[caliginous]

[Karkat snorts and relaxes for a second to give him the standard Vantas deadpan.]

You would be, except you cheated, Troll Edward Cullen.

[He doesn't bother to remind Eridan that Karkat himself has been a dead troll walking for the better part of two years. His sudden neutral expression gives a good hint at it, though.]

[chronomancer]

...see now, that's unfair. Because now I need to remind you that I'm still squishy and killable and not a bloodsucking undead abomination.

[Eridan shrugs very carefully.]

Kind of hoping to avoid that fate, really. It was fucking disgusting.

[caliginous]

Its not supposed to be pleasant.

[Pause.]

Get off me.

[chronomancer]

Yeah, that's the kicker, though. It was very pleasant.

[Eridan grins a little wryly, a little too sharply. He lets out a shuddering breath before he slowly pulls away.]

[caliginous]

[The slow movements were a bad idea, because Karkat seems to have remembered that he's a psychic and seeks to hold Eridan in place once he's just far away enough so that Karkat can move freely...

And the cerulean throws his knee straight through to Eridan's crotch once again, his fist swining upward to plow into the side of the jadeblood's head. Only then will he straighten up and shake the sand from his person, adjust his jacket and fix his tie.]

That there, what I just did, was also very pleasant.

[He flexes his fingers and his knuckles crack a little before he lets go of his hold on Eridan, continuing to fix his hair and other such messes now that he's back on two feet.]

[chronomancer]

[Eridan whined and snarled at the onslaught, though admittedly it was far less violent than he'd have expected. The comment, though, got to him. He cracked a very meanspirted laugh, the ghost of something feral curled in the back of it, and didn't bother to pick himself up from the ground.]

You can damn well kiss my nook, Karkat.

[caliginous]

You would enjoy that far too much.

[He flicks a hair-full of sand at the other troll. Yes, worse could have happened, but judging by the way Karkat was pointedly not looking at Eridan, he's keeping himself in check for...whatever reason.

Only Karkat knows how Karkat works, after all.]

[chronomancer]

Damn right I would.

[Eridan snorts, unfazed by the sand and instead kicking just a little in Karkat's general direction.]

[caliginous]

Keep dreaming, bulgegulper.

[Once Karkat is certain he's gotten all the grains of sand off his fingers, he checks his lip to see if its still bleeding. He really doesn't want to try and explain that to Kanaya.

Or Jin.

Or anyone, really.]

[chronomancer]

Bit pretentious of you, isn't it? To assume you've got a place in my dreams.

[Now he's just being a bitch for the sake of being a bitch.]

[caliginous]

[Karkat sporfles a little.]

Did you forget who you're talking to?

[That being Karkat Vantas, Thief of Heart, Empath, and Egotistical Douchebag Extraordinaire.]

[chronomancer]

How could I?

[Eridan smirked, revealing the fact there were faint traces of blue and jade staining his teeth.]

Still dealing with the fucking aftertaste.

rolls back to this after con death

[caliginous]

[The other troll's lips purse carefully when he looks over his shoulder to spot the state of his teeth. Something settles in his stomach that he does his best to pointedly ignore.]

Savor it. And do me a favor and make sure you don't get too attached. Brush your fucking fangs sometime in the near future.

[Karkat does, however, quietly dab at his lip with his tongue, trying to get it to stop bleeding. He stuffs his hands stiffly in his pockets to keep them from shaking. Its so hard not to indulge, with all the frustration that's festered and built up over the past year.]

/gathers up in arms

[chronomancer]

[At the word "attached", Eridan lost it, cracking up with a feral laughter that made his lack of a few screws more than a little blatant. He kicked some sand in Karkat's general direction as a result.]

It's too late, hon. How will I go on living without you now? Oh, that's right, without the urge to projectile vomit every third step.

[caliginous]

If you wanted me that badly, maybe you should have said so.

[It was a fairly smooth statement, almost a statement of the obvious and thus meant to be an insult. Nobody needed to tell Karkat anything they were feeling, because he always knew.

Still, the kick of sand forces Karkat's hand, his psychic powers seeking to throw Eridan to his back in the ground while bending his shoulders backward uncomfortably -- painfully if he decides to struggle.]

Don't get smart, nobody will recognize you.

[chronomancer]

[The abrupt change drags a grunt out of his throat as well as a snarl. He made himself continue laughing, nonetheless.]

I don't recognize myself half the time, darlin', that ain't much of a threat these days.

[caliginous]

Are you going to keep talking back? Are you that much of a masochist?

[Karkat's tone is short. He's focusing -- whatever he's about to be doing obviously takes a lot of concentration, as he's turned back to glare down at the other troll.]

[chronomancer]

Dunno, are you gonna play along? Because there's no point in putting up a show without an audience.

[caliginous]

[Its that point that Karkat decides Eridan needs to be kicked down a notch. Unfortunately, his time in the tower had snapped the chains off of most of the cerulean's limitations.

So he doesn't answer verbally. He keeps concentrating on Eridan before his eyes roll briefly in an attempt to keep following the command his powers are attempting to execute.

In a few short moments, Eridan will begin to feel the effects of a heart attack as the organ briefly ceases to function.]