towerofanimus | (no subject)

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(no subject)

Characters: AU Eridan Ampora and OPEN
Setting: Infirmary
Format: Either
Summary: Eridan was injured pretty badly in his nightmare world, and he's the Worst Patient Ever.
Warnings: Swearing and references to grievous injury likely. Otherwise, I'll edit it if necessary.

Someone bandaged his blistered wrists and put some kind of salve on his savaged back. The salves dulled the pain a lot, which was good, but Eridan knew it'd come back. He lay on his side, because lying on his back hurt too much, the blanket pulled up to his chin and his face buried miserably into the soft pillow.

He didn't know why the universe decided to dump all of the problems onto him. Why did he have to be the one sea dweller who was born into poverty, the only one from a world where sea dwellers were reviled instead of revered? Why did he have to be the one clapped in irons and whipped for something he never did? Why did Feferi have to be dead? The one light in his life, and she was gone.

Why did the universe always have to make him miserable?

Life was hard.

So hard.

And clearly no one understood.

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Oh, honey. [Willow sat on the edge of the bed, and reached forward to envelope him in a hug if he'd let her, awkward as the position was. She couldn't have stopped herself if she'd wanted to.]

It's okay, it wasn't real-- just let it all out...

[Oh, a hug is pretty much all he wants in the whole world, and he loses it completely, throwing his arms around her and clinging as he snivels into her shoulder, purple tears soaking into her shirt]

Howw d-do you knoww it wwasn't real...?

[Her voice is soft and soothing next to his ear, and she wraps her arms around him without hesitation, a full body hug. She couldn't care less about the oddly purple tears staining her shirt.]

Because I was in someone else's. It's just a really convincing nightmare, I promise. But it's over now; it didn't happen. She's okay, Eridan, everyone's okay.

[The soothing voice and full body hug are enough to penetrate his self-pitying misery, and his shaking sobs start to quiet. He sniffles again, his voice muffled against her chest.]

Reely? You're reely shore it didn't happen? I mean... other people from the towwer came to rescue me, yeah, but that doesn't mean it couldn't a been real...

I've seen things like this before, and I wouldn't lie about it, [she says solemnly, not offended, just trying to make him believe her.]

It took what you're afraid of most and made it happen. But there would be gaps, things that didn't line up. Things that happened without explanation. I know it's hard, but try to think about it more clearly.

[He swallows and takes a deep breath] W-wwell, yeah. I mean, no one explained howw they found Fef or discovvered she wwas a tyrian. [He draws in another shuddering breath, the gills on his neck opening and closing] And I dunno wwhy they wwould a thought Sol wwas necessarily dead nor wwhy I wwas the one wwho killed him.

...so...maybe you're right.

[She pulls back to meet him eye to eye, hands clasping onto his shoulders so they don't break contact.]

I'm definitely right, [she says firmly.] Mega super experienced in the land of weird and mind altering. It's no coincidence that the most horrible stuff imaginable happened to you all at once.

Usually it takes at least a few hours in real life for everything to turn that awful. Right?

[He lifts a hand to wipe away the watery purplish smears from his cheeks and nods]

Yeah, that's true. I mean, sometimes it seems like evverythin' bad is happenin' all at once, but it's nevver been that bad before. But the wwounds sure are real, Wwil...

Sometimes if you believe something hard enough, it becomes reality, and sticks with you. Remind me to tell you about the time I made myself invisible on accident.

[Willow leans away from him a moment to retrieve the requisite box of tissues from the night stand, and holds it out to him sympathetically.] Here. Take your time.

You made yourself invvisible by accident? [He doesn't really want to be invisible, but he's curious about this story.

He takes the tissues and cleans himself up, flushing purple with embarrassment]

You'vve been real good to me since wwe met, Wwil... I'm upright grateful for it.

[She smiles at him gently, trying not to find his use of 'upright' cute. She's been in his position way too many times to want him to be embarrassed.] I said we'd try to be friends and see if it worked out. This is a friend thing.

The invisible story is a little complicated, [she cautions, resettling herself on the bed with her legs tucked under, feet hanging off the edge. Smoothing her skirt beneath her habitually, she adds,] But I'll tell it if you want a distraction. I have way funnier, more cheer up appropriate stories, though.

[He likes that smile, though he doesn't know much about human friendship. He gets the impression that she uses the word differently than how trolls do, since the troll word for 'friend' is the same as 'enemy'.

He shifts and sits up, wrapping the blankets around them both and resting against her shoulder]

I think this friend thing is wworkin' out so far. An' if you wwant to tell me a different story, that's okay, too.

[Something in her warms as they huddle under the blankets. It makes her think of older times with Xander, which is a sure way into her affections.

She feels a weird compulsion to do something like kiss his forehead or run a hand through his hair, but that's such a bizarre, out of place, girl dating thought. A human dating thought, which he wasn't. And also, male, which bears repeating. Bad, bad Willow. She wrenches her thoughts back to reality.

Willow would have strong words if she knew 'friend' meant 'enemy'.] Friend thing definitely working out, [she confirms, dismissing her previous musings entirely.] Now, which story... Goddess, I have so many. Seven years' worth.

This might take a second.

[OOC: Trying to remember if there are any fish-related episodes, hahaha. But if not, there's always the musical episode, which is one of my favourites]

[It's not that friends are enemies, just that they're pretty much the same thing. A troll can't really trust their friends, but they don't necessarily consider having enemies to be a bad thing.

To Eridan, all this cuddling is like a moirailship, and while he feels bad palecheating on Feferi, he clings anyway, because he needs it so badly.]

I'm not goin' anywwhere, so take your time.

[Also the longer she takes to think, the longer he gets to cuddle]

[ooc: There is the one where the swim team turns into water monsters and Xander tries to infiltrate the team... The musical's just bad memories for Willow, unfortunately lol. OH WAIT. OKAY. I will totally ignore your suggestions, but thank you. XD]

[Willow could never turn an almost-friend away for cuddles after the trial he's just been through. She is all about the post-trauma cuddling.]

--Okay, I think I got it. Do you know anything about Halloween?

[OOC: LOL, that's OK!]

[He cocks his head]

Nevver heard of it.

It's a holiday that takes place in fall, and was originally about paying respects to the dead. Now it's more about scary things, and kids dressing up like monsters to go ask for candy from house to house. That's called trick or treating.

When I was seventeen, and back before I was any good at this magic stuff, we all got roped into supervising some kids on their trick or treating expeditions. We being Buffy, Xander and I.

Since this is Sunnydale-- that's my town-- it definitely didn't end up being a normal night.

Any questions so far? [Cause after this she more or less launches into crazy turning-into-their-costumes shenanigans, so she wants to make sure the background set up is comprehensible. Some things that seem really fundamental and basic to her seem to be totally different for trolls, so Willow thinks she should ask.]

[He thinks for a few moments]

Wwhy wwould you pay respect to the dead?

Oh, and wwhat's trick or treating?

Trick or treating is the kids dressing up as monsters and going from house to house, where people give them candy, [she clarifies.]

As for paying respects to the dead... [This is harder to explain than she'd have thought. It was such a basic aspect of human culture.] Humans have a thing where we all want to be remembered, I guess. We want to feel like the generations that come after us will appreciate what we've done and contributed. Traditionally Halloween was about pacifying angry or lost spirits so they don't come back to hurt you for revenge, but today it's more about fun parties and candy.

Oh, that sounds like a kind a interestin wwriggler game, i guess.

[He nods as understanding dawns. He thought she meant something about honouring someone's corpse] Okay, yeah, it's the same wwith trolls, except for that stuff about the dead people comin' back for revvenge, that sounds fake and implausible. But those wwho're alivve wwant to make their impact and be remembered after they're dead, that's just basic.

Oh, good. I was getting worried that we had even more cultural gaps than I thought. And then how would you get my witty references?

It's an absolute imperative for conversation that you get my witty references.

Yeah, bein' wwitty is important, that's somethin' I'vve tried to cultivvate myself. [He grins, though he's also being a bit serious] So wwhat all happened on this Hallowween Evve?

Well, it turns out that this old school buddy of Giles' -- Giles being our librarian and Buffy's Watcher, kind of like a, um, teacher slash guide -- showed up and wanted to cause trouble. He worships the god of chaos, Janus, and pretty much does stuff just to watch people run around like chickens without heads.

This time he set up a costume shop, and because all of us had to go supervise trick or treating kids, we had to get costumes ourselves. I was kinda... To be totally frank, I was a geek with less than zero self-confidence and a tendency to make an embarrassment of myself in social interactions pretty regularly. So I always went as a ghost with a big white sheet over me.

Buffy tried to talk me into going as some kind of sexually aggressive goth girl, but at the last minute I chickened out and threw the ghost sheet over everything so Xander wouldn't see me like that. Talk about embarrassing.

[Wow, he can barely believe she is so awkward. His wind tube closes up a little with the beginnings of pity. She feels outside and awkward in her own world, even though he can't understand why.]

I wwish I could understand wwhy someone wwith so many good qualities wwould have such low self confidence.

[She blushes faintly at the unexpected compliment, and tries to cover hurriedly.] Wh-- hey, this is so not a Willow pity party, this is a cheer up Eridan after his traumatic experience party.

Suffice to say my good qualities weren't exactly at the forefront, given I tended to make vowel sounds whenever a boy even spoke to me. It was a long process to graduate to whole words.

sure thing bb!

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any requests on which episode she should recount? XD

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