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

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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

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...

Yes.

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

[papshooshing]

Chainsaw?

[ he has to know. ]

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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.

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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?

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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.]

[papshooshing]

The one I know has a temper, but it's not as short as mine... Maybe it's a red blood trait?

[ you are so odd, dude. so weird seeing this guy so timid. ]

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Yeah, um... "bloodrage", she calls it. Maybe it's a... a mental condition? I don't know.

[Sorry, Karkat. He doesn't mean to. Kanaya is just a really awkward subject. Guess who, uh, completely failed to reconsider the hemodickishness despite being ridiculously close to the bottom?]

[...Yeah.]

[papshooshing]

Yeah... I can't say I have that. Forget that I considered it to be a blood thing for even one moment. Maybe Maryams are just hemocidal maniacs.

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Maybe.

...Is the jadeblood one a hemocidal maniac also? [She seemed okay. He kind of liked her.]

[papshooshing]

[ Karkat shivers at one particular memory... ]

She hacked off Tavros' legs while he was asleep with no remorse.

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His legs?

[Quietly, so that those two words don't turn into an all-out shriek. As it is they're just very, very high-pitched.]

H-he... he w-w-wasn't a... a brownblood, w-was he...?

[papshooshing]

Yeah... He was. See, Vriska sort of liked Tavros and Kanaya had a flush crush on Vriska...

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[Equius stopped listening about two words in.]

Oh god. Oh god. Oh god...

[Yeah, Karkat, uh, you're not the only one with flashbacks.]

[papshooshing]

[ groan ]

Is there a reason you're hyperventilating on me?

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U-uh... [Yeah, he just stammered on 'uh'.]

The l-legs... we... we found 'em.

[papshooshing]

[ and that... that makes his blood run cold. Karkat swallows, hard. ]

What...

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...inthefreezer.

[Tiny voice. Tiny, tiny voice.]

[papshooshing]

What the fuck were his legs doing in the freezer?

[ doesn't Vriska carry them on her person or something disgusting like that? actually.... Karkat has no idea what became of those legs... not that he really wants to know. ]

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I don't know!

[ ;A; ]

[papshooshing]

What did you do with them?

Oh god... Does Gamzee know? Does Tavros know?

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W-we just lef-left them there, I don't know! That's gross!!

[ ;A; ]

[papshooshing]

You left them there for someone else to find and also suffer that awkward feeling of what the fuck do I do?

[ he has his best judging face for all of ten seconds. ]

...Yeah okay. I can live with that. It's pretty damn gross and I wouldn't have done shit with them either.

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I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I didn't know what else to do!

[Ten seconds is more than enough time for him to crack.]