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]

...

[That's, uh, kind of a tall order, Karkat.]

[But he tries anyway. Takes a few deep breaths. Grounds himself. Stops doing stupid things with his hands, and shoves them into his pockets instead. Yeah. This is as close as he's going to get to calm.]

Alright.

[papshooshing]

[ and Karkat is just watching with some irritated mortification. this is not how things should be... well what he means is that there's just no reason at the moment to be wound that tight.

just what the fuck is wrong with all of the people from that corner of the universe? ]

[geometry]

[A lot of things, Karkat. A lot of things.]

Uh.

[His gaze wanders back to the machine again. He just can't seem to keep his eyes off of it.]

Do you... know anything about this, by any chance? Not even this system specifically, just... mechanics or coding in general.

[papshooshing]

[ Karkat's eyes drift to look at the machines. Zahhaks and this sort of thing...

he shakes his head. ]

I did coding, but pretty much everything I made would turn into a virus.

[geometry]

...By itself?

[Wow.]

[That's either a sign that Karkat is really good... or really bad. Depends on what he meant by "turn into a virus". Equius wasn't fond of them himself, but...]

[papshooshing]

[ Karakt huffs, and looks to the floor. ]

I used to tell myself it was on purpose...

[ he's just that bad at coding. ]

[geometry]

[ ... ]

Then... why did you keep doing it...?

[papshooshing]

...Besides other things, such as pride getting in the way, I didn't want to let people think I was one huge fuck up.

[geometry]

...Your fuck-up capacity isn't determined by your ability to code.

[I mean, look at him.]

[papshooshing]

According to the Captor I know? It kind of is. He would ride my stupid nubs about it all of the time.

[geometry]

I disagree.

[Shrug.]

There's no correlation there whatsoever.

[papshooshing]

Would you like to apply for the position of my best friend?

[geometry]

...

[He looks a little bit alarmed by that-- yeah, no, okay, not a little bit alarmed. Really alarmed.]

[Equius would be a really bad best friend for you, Karkat, just saying.]

N-no?

[papshooshing]

[ rubs at his face. people.

lighten.

the fuck.

up. ]

I was joking...

[geometry]

...Oh.

[Really bad.]

Sorry.

[papshooshing]

The original sentiment behind the joke was that I actually appreciate the fact that you do not correlate fucking up with one's ability or inability to code. The fact that yes, I really am a massive failure at just about everything I attempt non-withstanding, it did make me feel a little better for about 3.6 seconds...

Until you proved that your reality has almost no sense of humor whatsoever.

[geometry]

...It really doesn't. [Either his personal reality or the universal one, whichever it was. Though he supposed that his universe had a bit better sense of humor than he himself did, or else he wouldn't exist. Because there's something hilarious about a creature as failtastic as him, don't you think, Karkat?] But, uh, I'm glad you felt better. For 3.6 seconds.

[papshooshing]

[ that isn't funny at all. go die in a ditch.

at least that's what Karkat would say if he knew that was on Equius' mind. ]

Any idea what this thing could be doing?

[geometry]

I have no idea yet. [His attention drifts back to the mechanical innards.] If I could just find some sort of terminal or other control center, it wouldn't be so hard to get in, but...

[papshooshing]

Please don't kill yourself in the process. I have an inkling that it would not reflect well upon me when next seeing your boytoy.

[geometry]

[Spluttering.]

[Oh, so much spluttering.]

W-what?!

[papshooshing]

What... He is your flush quadrantmate, right?

[geometry]

W-well, yes but...!

[fhsdjfkldghe]

[papshooshing]

But what, Zahhak?

[geometry]

D-don't call him that!