[Open] If I go crazy then will you still call me Superman...?

[chronomancer]

Characters: Eridan and YOU!
Setting: Room 1-10, showers, cafeteria, anywhere you want.
Format: Starting with Action, I'll match you.
Summary: Eridan finds himself back in the Tower after an extended absence. This wouldn't be so bad if he weren't currently very much shithive maggots and trying desperately to keep a lid on it. Please excuse the jumpy, nervous wreck, he swears he's trying not to murder anyone.
Warnings: Eridan's erratic behavior, lots of F-clusterbombs and potential murder if startled too hard.

Room 1-10

[The elusive fourth inhabitant of the room is finally back! You can tell because there's a person-shaped lump under the covers of his bed and a quiet chant of "oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck" echoing from the depths. Eridan is back, and this would be amazing if it weren't for the fact he's going through a slow-mo murderous meltdown.

Goddammit, Tower, he was almost done murdering himself!

Approach with caution. Or don't! Hilarity will ensue, since he doesn't have a weapon at hand. Yet.]

Bathroom.

[He looks disgusting. He kind of feels disgusting, too. After escaping his room with most of his sanity intact, Eridan sneaked about to get some necessary supplies and went about making himself vaguely presentable. That's why he's freshly showered - so freshly showered, his clothes are sticking to him since he's pretty dampstill - and trying his best to trim his hair into an acceptable length again. Also trying to salvage his claws with a file. They're kind of brittle and splintered, but at least they're not caked in jade blood anymore. That's always a plus.

Ignore the gun and the shovel within arms reach, someone is extremely jumpy right now.]

Cafeteria.

[Having made sure he doesn't look like a hobo - just mostly half starved and twitchy like a chihuahua after a close experience with NY traffic - Eridan gives in to the fact his insides are halfway through digesting themselves and inches his way into the cafeteria. He's trying really hard to go unnoticed, head tucked between his shoulders and eyes avoiding most people. Definitely not the most inviting of postures, but he can't help it. He's seated in a corner, all by himself, and spending as much time eating as he's looking nervously around the room. Without the sunglasses you can really see how jittery the eye movement really is.

Again, please ignore the shovel and the gun within easy reach, it's not like he's gonna shoot anyone or anything.

Hahaha.

...oh god.]

Anywhere.

[After a good meal, Eridan considers sneaking back to his room and hiding away until the circus in his head is over. On the other hand, he should really check out if there have been any changes in the tower - of course they've been, there always are - and maybe he'll be lucky enough to not run into anyone while he makes his way up the stairs.

That's totally a thing that'd happen, right?

...right?

Oh god, he's gonna get killed. Or worse.]

Comments

Bathroom.

[hystericull]

[Just because fang-brushing is a newly-instated rule, doesn't mean Gamzee has to like it. In fact, he's been standing at the sink dully, staring from the loaded-up toothbrush to the mirror in front of him and back with a look of distant disdain.]

[Until he hears snipping from a few sinks down. At that moment, the toothbrush is being raised to his foul, rancid mouth. The minty paste almost makes it to a single yellow fang - hope is almost within reach - until his eyes flick over to the wretched fool causing such a ruckus so early in the morning.]

[Motherfucker.]

[All hope for fresh breath is lost. The toothbrush clatters down into the bowl of the sink, flopping fangpaste everywhere, none of which is inside Gamzee's mouth. With zero reaction time, the lanky, unbrushed troll is flashstepping across tile, merely a whir of shadow, before colliding with the offensive hair-snipper.]

[And by colliding, I mean grabbing him by the collar of his shirt, hoisting him up, and shaking him more violently than a vending machine that's eaten your last fifty fucking cents.]

[chronomancer]

[The shriek is instantaneous. It's loud, shrill and feral, also followed by a swipe of the scissors in Eridan's hands, aiming for Gamzee's arms, rather than his face.

After a moment, however, Eridan lets go of the scissors and starts squirming instead, since he's recognized Gamzee and he's pretty sure he doesn't want Gamzee dead.

Mostly.

Usually.

He thinks.]

...hi.

[hystericull]

[The scissors slice a few ribbons off of Gamzee's arms, sending droplets and rivulets of dark purple across the gray skin there. He pays them no mind, however, since he was more or less expecting a violent reaction. It's also unsurprising that he hears the metallic clang of the same shears on the floor a moment later. All of this is delayed, though, because he's too focused on the realness of fabric in his fingers, and the weight of a body in his hands, and most of all, the heat of anger building up in his chest.]

[There was something he hadn't felt in a while - not since the brief flicker that had sparked during his encounter with Feferi. That stupid, sheepish, fucking "hi" that squeaked out between rattles was putrid enough to send him over the edge, much to the protest of the center of his forehead, which gave an aura of alert that he was too furious to give the time of day.]

SHUT THE FUCK UP!!!

[It felt so good, screaming like that. He hadn't screamed in forever. It sent a splitting headache straight through his skull. It made his jaw jerk and his fingers tremble, but he kept going. Until Eridan was thrown against the wall, until those bony knuckles of his were raised and slammed across the thick of Eridan's jaw. Then, he stopped, because his face was all twisted like the muscles had been pulled taught, and his limbs were jerking and unresponsive. It made him stumble backwards, made him fall on his ass.]

[It hurt to get angry, but it was a triumph enough that he was even able to throw a punch.]

[chronomancer]

[The first reaction was anger, and it flared through his veins like fire. Then came the panic, almost instantly, and it smothered the anger for long enough that Eridan could flinch back from the shout. He was a little too focused on his own issues - mainly, the rising screech in the back of his head and the sudden, burning urge to murder a motherfucker that he didn't really notice anything odd about Gamzee.

The shaking and the slamming in the wall only served to make him whine and protest, all the while trying to drown out the urge to retaliate. It was the punch that really did it though. Gamzee's fist shoved Eridan's face into the wall, horns clattering loudly and lip splitting and bleeding freely. And as he slid down the wall, a loud, angry growl built up in his throat.]

Makara.

[hystericull]

[Sorry, were you hoping for a fight? Now that he has you all riled up, Eridan, Gamzee's going to submit himself to the calming sedative that is hidden behind the fugly scar on his throbbing forehead. His face twitches, his eyes flick back and forth, eventually settling on the bloody jade stump he'd just assaulted. Still there. He was still there.]

[He didn't say anything more, not yet. Instead, he tried mocking the growl that was given to him, although his attempt was feeble at best. What a fearsome warrior Gamzee had become. If he wasn't so calmed down right now, it would make him sick.]

room 1-10 she knows where you live dickwad

[reddeadvirtuoso]

[At first she didn't think much of... uh, anything. She was passing by pretty normally, when she could have sworn she heard the sound of someone flipping their shit behind the door. It was a moment later when she realized-- well, hey, that's Eridan's door, and on further consider well damn was that Eridan's voice??

She could hope so, at least.

Permission be damned, she threw open the door with little reservations, nor much fanfare either.] Eridan?

[If it was any consolation, she wasn't looking too hot either-- though it was mostly the fact she looked like a twiggy little freak and her hair was getting much longer and messier than she usually had it. And maybe her voice was a tad bit softer and raspier than before-- she wasn't exactly in the habit of using it as much anymore.]

uh huh

[chronomancer]

[The bundle in the bed flinched at the sound of his name. Then hissed, then flinched again, the muttering ending abruptly as he curled up further.

You see, if he didn't acknowledge you, you weren't real. Obviously. That's totally how it works.]

[reddeadvirtuoso]

[A reaction. That was good enough for her!

Good enough that she crossed the room to where the bundle was trying to hide, and started pulling on the covers.] Eri--!! Come on dude...!

[chronomancer]

[Tugging on the covers to keep himself bundled up, Eridan whined in the back of his throat, totally not okay with the recent development. At the same time, having Jade around was good. Jade helped to keep a lid on the crazy, but holy fuck, he wasn't really in the right frame of mind to appreciate it.]

...please don't be mad at me.

Cafeteria I'm so sorry...

[savedbyasong]

[Shion spotted the troll, he hadn't seen him in a long time but it was the same troll he had tried to help in December, and the food. He was only here to make sure that no one ate the food. Which was poison.]

Stop! Don't eat that!

ahaha, perfect~

[chronomancer]

[Eridan made a panicked noise at the yell, visibly startled, then he flinched and... folded in, ducking his head and hunching his shoulders as if to make himself smaller.]

Sorry!

[Oh for the love of---don't pick a fight with him, oh god, please don't pick a fight with him. He might die. After he kills you, that is. That'd suck.]

[savedbyasong]

[Oh no he had scared him, he didn't mean to scare him. Shion blinked at him worried.] Don't be sorry, I'm sorry, I didn't mean... I just mean it's poison, I don't want you to die. I have food if you want some, non poisoned food. It's nice. [He feels awful please look at him.]

[chronomancer]

[Eridan raised his hands, half in surrender, half in a placating gesture.]

Ah, it's okay, don't worry. I'm not really that hungry.

[This would be a lot more convincing if he didn't look like he's starving. Whoops.]

Haven't been around for a while, so I didn't know. Sorry.

Bathroom -- i wish i could say i was sorry, but you cant give me a prompt like that

[caliginous]

[Karkat is still slowly coming to terms with his encounter with Empress Feferi. There is no way to simply prepare oneself to stumble on a tyrian in the midst of a fit of frustration and anger, so he had to settle for calming down after it was over. A quick cold douse in the shower to shock out the pit in his stomach, a warm soak to calm him down. He's aware of Eridan the second he walks down the hall, frowning to himself as he takes note of the myriad of terror taking over the jadeblood.

How typical, when he was trying to relax. Its not hard to ignore it once he takes a stall away to shower himself. Maybe he should just vacate the area before he notices him -- he's not in the mood to deal with additional insanity today. But then, the odds of him getting out without Eridan noticing him are slim to none. He'll just have to wait until he leaves.

So Karkat will take a moment to wrap himself up in a towel from the waist down after he turns the water off. For once, his body is completely free of scars from abuse in the tower, no doubt to Jason's kind surgery work from the weeks prior. He made a point to look at himself in the mirror at least once a day to make sure he didn't fuck with anything else, never for as long as he used to.

Being in the same room as Eridan amplified the awful feeling in his gut that stemmed from his empathy and the jadeblood was taking too long. Impatient as ever, Karkat will take a moment to slip out of the stall and attempt to walk out of the room without acknowledging the other troll...even if he has to pass by him to pick up his belongings from one of the sinks. He says nothing -- because if he says something, it won't be kind, and he seems that rifle out of the corner of his eye.]

50RRY N07 50RRY

[chronomancer]

[Eridan was minding his business, alright. That's all he's trying to do. He's twitchy and easily startled, but contrary to Karkat's belief, not really paying as much attention to his surroundings as he usually does. What with having limited mental resources and squandering most of those away in the tedious process of not flying off the handle.

At the sound of the stall door opening, Eridan freezes for less than a second, before he's dropping the scissors into the sink and aiming a rifle at Karkat's face.

There was a pause.

A blink.]

...sweet mothergrub's tits, don't do that!

[And then reluctantly, the rifle was lowered and he sagged a little, clearly relieved. Definitely more than he normally would, in Karkat's presence, but in his defense, at the moment Karkat is the lesser of two evils.

The greater one is still inside Eridan's own skull.]

i'm gomen

[caliginous]

[Karkat stares down the barrel of the gun in an almost resigned fashion. Great, another death to add to the tally, how many more times was he going to have to die before he stayed dead or people gave up?

But then Eridan lowered the rifle, and the cerulean's brow furrowed tiredly instead, one hand still busy keeping himself covered.]

Well, I was going to wait until you moved your sorry nook out of here, but you take too fucking long to preen yourself.

[He notices the relief, but doesn't comment on it. It was almost nice -- since his forced betrayal the month prior, nobody trusted him again. He was under everyone's radar as a traitor, despite not having control of himself. He still had Kanaya and Jin to talk to (and the occasional John Egbert when he could stomach his optimism), so that had been enough for the time being.

Until he had run into Feferi but..he wasn't going to talk about that.]

I though they got rid of you.

[He doesn't sound happy or relieved -- he doesn't really sound like anything.]

[chronomancer]

[Eridan slouches somewhat as Karkat berates him, but after a moment, he turns back to what he was doing, carefully setting the rifle by the side. He grabbed the scissors and went back to trimming his hair, because he couldn't stick around without doing something with his hands. For all he's twitchy, having to concentrate on where he cuts is helping a little. He let out a shrill, awkward laugh.]

Me too.

[geometry]

[Eridan may have felt the sensation of someone staring at him from across the room. Of corse, he could have easily waved it off as oh, some side effect of his imminent psychosis. But there was actually someone looking at him from across the room, with a very attentive stare. And after a little while of him eating pretty much nothing and the starer keeping on staring, who else should come out from the kitchen door but one Equius, hell-bent on delivering this huge plate of fucking A+ chips and guac.]

You.

[Ohh, gurlfrand, you're in for it now.]

Eat.

[chronomancer]

[Eridan was, at the moment, a bit too busy shifting about and being fidgety, so he didn't actually see Equius until the plate was delivered.

And then he shot up half a foot off the ground and nearly fell off his chair, holding onto the table with one hand.]

...oh god, oh god, don't---

[Oh.

Welp.

Awkward.

Excuse him while he hunches over a little more.]

...hi.

[geometry]

Whoa, shit!

[And as Eridan jumps, he jumps too. Reasons they're not moirails, 1 of 5,326.]

Oh, fuck, did I startle you?? Sorry! Sorry. I'm... sorry.

Uh.

Hi.

[Let him just casually shove his hands in his pockets with the most "just gonna leave now" look on his face.]

[chronomancer]

[Equius outburst at Eridan being startled... only made Eridan startle again. Yay. He flinched and raised his hands in surrender.]

Fuck, no. Uh. It's cool.

[Pause.]

Chill. No biggie.

[Most. Awkward. Smile. Ever. Please ignore the split lip and the missing fang, it's been a long day and he's been in this fucking tower for two hours.]

...hi. Uh. Again.

Cafeteria, because....

[repeatingsun]

[Solas, unfortunately, is in full "believing in poisoned cafeteria noms" mode. So when she sees what she thinks is a newcomer (or possibly a returnee?), she goes over to talk with him. ... Hmm, he seems jittery. Not a good sign.

Maybe he was here at one point, which...means she should probably be nice about this.]

Hello.

[Hi, Eridan. There is now what looks like a human teenager headtilting at you.]

0w0

[chronomancer]

[You'd think he'd be prepared. But he wasn't. He really wasn't. Even that greeting startles him a little. He recovers enough to offer the mother of all awkward smiles. Partly because it's the most piss poor excuse for a smile ever. Partly because he's got a split lip and he's clearly missing a fang.

Please be ignoring that, thank you.]

...er. Hi.

Re: 0w0

[repeatingsun]

[Ohhh dear, this is more serious than she'd thought.]

Are you all right? [Pause.] Oh dear - you didn't eat anything in the cafeteria yet, did you?

[That's more of a "you didn't do the dangerous thing RIGHT" tone instead of a "oh dear you need to get some food in you" tone, there.]

[chronomancer]

[Unfortunately, telling those two tones apart is a bit above his skillset at the moment. He just sort of recognizes the potential disapproval and hunches over some more.]

...no?

[Oh god, please don't be angry at him. He's angry enough as it is, he can't handle two people being angry, when one of them is himself. Please don't make him shoot you...]