towerofanimus | (no subject)

Entry tags:

(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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"I understand," she conceded. She'd been asleep for a lot of the day, so she couldn't be sure how many visitors he'd had -- if all of them wanted to talk about what happened to him, though, it makes sense for him to be tired of discussing it.

"I did," responded Kanaya. It was a moment of thought before she added, "...that world killed my moirail, too." She briefly indicated her bandages with a nod of her head. "These are from my attempts to protect him."

Her tone was reserved. She wasn't looking for pity, she merely wanted to offer kinship. Kanaya gave another half-smile. "I am okay, though."

Eridan nodded. She seemed nice enough, considering, so he was okay with talking to her. His fins were rising a little as he relaxed, no longer quite so stiff as at the outset.

"Wwho's your moirail?" he asked with curiosity. "I don't knoww evveryone, just wwonderin' if it's someone I knoww."

"The cerulean-blooded Karkat," replied Kanaya. "However, you may also know him as the 'the most insufferable nook sniffer to ever grace Alternia', or simply 'asshole'. I am not sure if you have met him directly, but if you have not, you should consider yourself very fortunate."

Despite her bashing of her alleged moirail, she sort of sounded fond while voicing all of that. They're so kind to each other. "That said, if you do know him, do not tell him I have referred to our relationship as pale in any sense. He will most likely deny the claim," the mutant advised.

Eridan gave her a look, flat and utterly disbelieving. "How can there be a cerulean-blooded Karkat? I met Karkat once here! He definitely had the same pure blood that the Karkat in my wworld does. If he's got cerulean blood, wwouldn't he be someone else?"

Oh. Did he not know about the alternate universes thing?

"I have also conversed with the Karkat you speak of, I'm fairly certain," she returned. The mention of "pure blood" made her wonder, but she was pretty sure that if there was a third Karkat in this tower, one of the other two would have told her. "My Karkat and I come from a doomed timeline. The hemospectrum is not aligned in the same way as the hemospectrum of the timeline that most of the trolls here come from, I think."

There's a momentary hush, before she ventures, "Is your name Eridan?"

"Wwait, really?" Eridan's jaw dropped and his purple eyes lit up slightly. "Yeah, my name's Eridan. And you're from my wworld? Wwhere the hemospectrum is revversed an' the sea dwwellers are on the bottom--"

No hang on, that didn't line up with what she said before about the cerulean Karkat. He paused, and started again. "No, wwait, you're sayin' that evveryone in your wworld has different blood colours than the ones I knoww? Wwhat colour does the Eridan in your wworld havve, then?"

Whoa, the seadwellers were on the bottom in his world? Abruptly, she understood how weird her own timeline must seem to people that were familiar with the alpha timeline.

"Yes, our colors are different," she answered patiently. "The Eridan of my world is of jade blood. I did not realize at first who you were."

Kanaya frowned slightly. "I apologize for any confusion. It was not my intention."

Him, a Jade blood? He scowls, almost offended. What kind of life was that, neither at the top, nor the bottom, but stuck tending the mother grub for his entire life.

"Wwhat a preposterous fuckin' proposition," he said, rolling his eyes. "But if you're not a Jade blood like the Kanaya I met before, wwhat kind a blood do you havve?"

"He is very kind," she vouched. "He assisted me on more than one occasion, even when I did not understand that that was what he was doing."

His question made her take pause, hesitating visibly. Well...maybe, if purplebloods were at the bottom where he came from, then...

"Um," she stuttered, pursing her lips. "If I tell you, can you promise me that you will not tell anyone? It almost got me culled in my universe, and I cannot imagine it would be much better here."

Eridan hadn't had too many people call him kind in his time, and he was a bit flattered, even if she wasn't really talking about him.

At her request, he frowned a little, nodding. "I wwon't tell anyone." Not that he'd have a reason to.

At that, she moved the covers aside and reached for one of the rolls of fresh bandages that had been set aside near her bed, for periodic changing. Kanaya had never been very good at making a point directly, so she would rather show him like this than tell him. Besides, without evidence, there's a chance he might not believe her anyways.

She began to unroll the gauze around one of her arms, and after a few layers, it began to show signs of coloration. By the time it was all the way off, there were spots where it was very obviously stained with a bright candy red.

Kanaya presented the bandage by holding up her bared arm, which was scabbed over in many places with a similar color, just dried and darker.

Oh god, why?

Eridan thought she was a ruby at first, but then the dried blood he saw at first gave way to a fresher patch and he stiffened. "You're a pureblood descendent a the Sufferer?"

Confusion colored her features, and she lowered her arm, subconsciously bringing it closer to herself to try and hide the multitude of injuries.

"I am not really sure what you mean," confessed Kanaya. "I was the only one to my knowledge that had this color in my world, and it was far from a good or pure thing."

But...he said "pureblood", so maybe she was right. Maybe this weird color was revered in his timeline. That was one of the most surreal thoughts that Kanaya had ever been exposed to. Inwardly, she even felt a little bitter that she couldn't have lived in that world.

She reached for the fresh bandages and began to wind them anew around her exposed arm.

"It wwasn't a good or pure thing when the Sufferer livved," Eridan explained, waving a hand dismissively. "He talked about all this demonstrably fake stuff about peace and the hemospectrum bein' wwrong, and they killed him for it, and probably because they figured his blood wwas mutated."

He grimaced. "But then a few hundred swweeps later, the Summoner got inspired, I guess, and ovverthreww the sea dwwellers. Now the Sufferer is revvered."

Kanaya's eyes almost seemed to light up as he went on with his tale. She wasn't entirely sure who these "Sufferer" and "Summoner" people were -- she'd never bothered herself much with the lore of Alternia, and she didn't recall any of those titles from things she'd read -- but she just logged away the information as one of the many things about the alpha timeline she wasn't aware of.

"That's amazing," she eventually said, with a note of awe and a touch of a smile. So it wasn't her timeline, but somewhere out there, someone else thought that every blood caste deserved equal rights. Even irregularities like her.

As a realization sunk in, though, her smile began to fade. That meant...that meant this Eridan was in the position the Terezi of her world had been in. Being the lowest of the low herself, she wouldn't wish that on anyone. "...I am sorry for the position you are in because of that," apologized Kanaya quietly. "No one deserves that kind of treatment because of something they can not control."

Yeah, of course she'd be excited about this idea. He was all ready to get good and indignant about it, maybe brood a little, but then her attitude changed and she started apologizing.

"Yeah, wwell, that's obvvious to evveryone here, apparently, but no one in my wworld seems to havve an issue wwith oppressin' me an' my people," he said grumpily. "An' as I'vve explained to a feww people already, it's wworse than it wwas before, because at least the red bloods were land dwwellers, they wweren't looked dowwn on evven by the bronze an' golds. Sea dwwellers are oppressed evven by the other lowwbloods, because they're different."

She frowned, tucking in the last of her fresh bandages to give Eridan her full attention. Sure, it was great that lowbloods (or, former lowbloods, she guessed) were finally given the opportunity to achieve greatness, but...making other people suffer for it wasn't right either.

"You do not have to deal with that here," she reminded softly. "There are many other things to worry about in this place, but being oppressed for being a sea dweller is not one of them. Most of the trolls in this tower are used to your kind leading them."

She shifted a little in her position on the edge of the bed. "For what it is worth, I do not think any less of you," added the candyblood sincerely. Kanaya was no sea dweller, but she was certainly different -- different enough for the likes of even a yellowblood like Equius to give her shit for her blood.

Eridan toyed with the end of his scarf, which he was wearing even though he was otherwise dressed in hospital whites. It was like a security blanket.

"Wwell, there's no reason wwhy you should think less a me," he said archly, then sighed. "I knoww I'vve got nothin' to really wworry about because a that, but I'm not used to bein' thought of as a highblood. I don't knoww howw to act properly. Anywway, Sol is here, and he's not exactly inclined to let me get too far out a line and abovve my station. That fuckin' asshole wwill wwant me kept loww, evven if he's the only yelloww-blood wwho's puttin' on airs." He grimaced. "If wwe go back to my wworld, it'll matter howw I treat him noww."

Eridan's mention of going back to his world struck a strange chord in Kanaya. She pretty much had zero hope for returning to her universe, and the same amount of desire to. Rightfully, returning to her timeline would mean being erased in the Scratch. And, despite being resigned to her removal from existence previously, this second chance has restored her aversion to dying. This tower wasn't exactly savory, but at least she was alive.

"Then I suppose my best advice to you is for you to be yourself," she suggested distantly, preoccupied with the musings on her doomed universe. "Exercise caution around your Sollux, but begin a clean slate for all of the new people you meet. Simply having purple blood is enough for some people, regardless of behavioral expectations."

Kanaya gave a sigh after that, tugging the sheets up so she could replace her legs on the bed and lay back again. "I apologize. I don't really know what else to say."

"No, yeah, you'vve got somethin' there. I think that's good advvice." He shrugged his shoulders. "Evven if I'm not exactly like they expect, there's no reason they should assume I'm a lowwblood. Unless I go around tellin' people...wwhich is basically what I'vve been doin', so I guess I should stop," he finished with a wry grimace.

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