011 ♐ it's easy living in the house of your dreams ♐ ᴏᴘᴇɴ

[geometry]

Characters: Equius Zahhak (AU) and YOU
Setting: Floor 70, the machine.
Format: Starting in action, but I'll do whatever.
Summary: Equius gets his geek on in the worst conceivable way.
Warnings: Possible crushing, burning, or acid corrosion. YAY SCIENCE!


[...Wow.]

[There was no telling how big this floor was. The walls and ceiling were nowhere in sight, because they were completely covered by a massive breathing machine. There was a faint tinge of rust in the air here, and the outer reaches were further obscured by smoke of various colours. Metal parts clunked and ground against one another, making extremely unattractive noises as they did so. A truly staggering amount of the mechanisms here were burned or dented (or maybe they were supposed to be that way, since they were unfamiliar), but they all seemed to be working together towards... something that wasn't immediately clear. There had to be a million different platforms all around the place, but most of them were conveyor belts, carrying scraps of some kind of metal into a huge boiling vat of liquid that sizzled when something dropped in.]

[It was beautiful.]

[Not much to see here, Tower; just a troll, standing next to the staircase, gawking in amazement at the monstrosity in front of him. Judging from the oil streaks that have long since dried on this particular pair of pants, he could feel perfectly at home here... if he got an opportunity to look around. Right now, it's all unfamiliar. And way too big. All Equius can do for quite a long time is stand there and gawk. What could this thing be for?]

[He seems to want to find out, as shortly afterward he's examining the closer and less dangerous metallic innards. And then the slightly further metallic innards. And eventually he's crawling and jumping all over the place, still in view of the staircase, but observing mechanisms that could crush a hand and balancing on things that really ought not to be balanced on, all in the interest of getting just a little closer to that peculiar piece of machinery. It's just so interesting. He seems to be doing pretty well now; one of Equius' few talents is coordination and nimble movement. But who knows how long that'll last if someone startles him...]

Comments

[geometry]

[ ... ]

T-to tell you the truth, I prefer machines? But if you happen to be good at coding, it pays much better than that, and I... happen to be good at coding.

[papshooshing]

So who cares which pays better. Shouldn't you be doing what you want?

[ at least you CAN code. 8| ]

[geometry]

[ ... ]

[Equius takes off his glasses here. He knows what you're expecting, Karkat; red and blue eyes. He's met Sollux before. But unfortunately, that's not the case, and his eyes look just like any other young troll's.]

Doing what I want to do and nothing else, I would fall into trouble really fast. I have no psionics, so no help from that -- coding was the way I found to get money to pay for the mechanics. Parts can get extremely expensive.

[papshooshing]

[ he is squinting at that. it's true, he had been expecting the bi colored eyes. it's actually kind of a relief that he doesn't have those. ]

How did you end up so... Normal?

[geometry]

Bad luck in the caverns, I suppose.

[And on go the glasses.]

[papshooshing]

And here I thought I was the only one with shit luck.

[ nice to know that he's not the only one that fate has turned its back on. ]

So what's with the glasses?

[geometry]

They're... well, they're intended for use on a certain type of coding, but I just kind of wear them all the time out of habit.

[papshooshing]

So it's not to hide your eyes and make you virtually unreadable like your Ampora and Striders in general...

[geometry]

...No.

[Hiding his eyes was always sort of a beneficial side effect.]

[papshooshing]

All right... I'm starting to think that these little quirks you and that Eridan have are just things from your reality. It's kind of annoying and starting to raise my irritation levels fourfold.

[geometry]

...Sorry.

[He doesn't know what else to say.]

Um... well. I guess you're kind of quirky, too? I mean, you're not [an asshole] dressed up too much. That's. Not what my Karkat does.

[Equius, just stop.]

[papshooshing]

Your Vantas is also a Cerulean blood which means he more than likely borders the line between absolutely conceited asshole and insane fucknub.

[ 8| that's his opinion thusfar. ]

[geometry]

That is also true.

He... is kind of an asshole, isn't he. [Equius looks away from Karkat, putting one hand on his hip.]

[papshooshing]

Yes, yes he is. My conversations with him have been kept to a minimal because as much as I loathe said grubfisting bulgestench, there will always be one person I hate more. Therefore talking to him is nothing more than an a skin rash that can be healed by throwing on a shit ton of salve and moving on.

[geometry]

That is the strangest description of Karkat I have ever heard.

[Though really he should not be surprised. Hearing Karkat describing Karkat in a way that isn't completely skewed? SHOCKING. And weirdly accurate.]

He's more like a... a recurring headache, though.

[papshooshing]

Hey... He's not for me purely because he's not from my reality. Can't imagine what it must be like for you and yours.

[ now Karkat shrugs. and it's true, what he said. as much as he COULD project all his self loathing onto this Blue Karkat, it's not worth it. in the end, it's not him and there is no one that mutant blooded Karkat Vantas hates more than mutant blooded Karkat Vantas. anything else is just an illusion and he's not entirely going to fool himself out of that. ]

[geometry]

I... don't talk to him much, though our Kanaya does. I think. [Because he's a scary-ass motherfucker and Equius tends not to associate with those motherfuckers. There are other kinds he can tolerate, but Bluekat is a special case.] But, I mean, he's... [He shrugs here. It's still hard to describe exactly what he thinks of Bluekat. A lot of it had been blotched out by CERULEANS AAAAHHH over the years.]

[papshooshing]

Is your Kanaya as terrifying as the one I know when she gets pissed? See, I haven't talked to her at all but...

[ chainsaws. Kanaya is kind of terrifying with them and terrifying people tend to flock together. ]

[geometry]

...

Yes.

[Equius' voice takes on a remarkably hollow quality.]

[papshooshing]

Chainsaw?

[ he has to know. ]

[geometry]

Chainsaw.

Horrible chainsaw.

[Do you want him to get going on how shitty that chainsaw is, Karkat? Because he will. Even though he was pretty much the only person on Alternia who was willing to be Kanaya's chainsaw technician, he still hated it with a burning passion, and she threatened to use it on him more frequently than most other people.]

[papshooshing]

I don't know if I should laugh or hit my head on a hard surface repeatedly. Looks like some things really are universal constants. From the look you have in your eye you've seen her with it while in a fury.

[geometry]

Implying she's ever not in a fury... [If it were anyone else, he would feel kind of bad about saying that. But Kanaya? No.]

[papshooshing]

...What is she like that you're so fucking terrified?

[geometry]

She's. Very short-tempered. And we, uh, haven't gotten along in the past, so... yeah.

[WOW THAT SURE IS A FLOOR DOWN THERE. IT IS SO INTERESTING. EQUIUS CAN'T TEAR HIS EYES AWAY FROM THAT FLOOR.]