towerofanimus | (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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Okay, perhaps that had been the wrong thing to say. Accepting as she was of her own position, it hadn't really occurred to Aradia that some might not be so at peace with their standing.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean...I suppose what I meant was, in a way we can understand each other. Besides, being of low blood doesn't always mean we're destined for bad things even if it might seem that way for you right now."

Though admittedly it was the game that had allowed her to push past the small matter of being killed so she could eventually become what she was now. Deciding to change the subject, she focused on the rings.

"I see you're fond of rings too...though not to the extent my world's Eridan is. I guess they relate to your quadrants?"

Since he had mentioned a kismesis and, well, no troll of her age could confuse the symbols of romance.

"It's in no wway the same," Eridan growled, his fins flattening a little, not inclined to let this go quite so easily. "Yeah, maybe you havve some bad things to deal wwith, bein' a lowwblood under the heel a the sea dwwellers, but I'vve read history. There's no mention a the lowwbloods bein' considered vviolent before the hemospectrum wwas flipped. You wwere nevver mandated to take sopor pills to keep you docile. And sea dwwellers wwhere I come from are much more vvisible. At least you are a land dwwellin' troll and havve somethin' in common wwith the bloods immediately abovve you, instead a persecuted evven more than the indigos and blues just for havvin' fins."

He paused for breath. He wasn't angry, but he did have a tendency to ramble if you got him talking about politics and the subjugation of his people.

Then it occurred to him that she was trying to change the subject. He looked down at the rings and subconsciously covered the topaz one with his other hand, embarrassed. "Yeah, I'vve just got these. Sol gavve me the big ugly one, fuckin' arrogant goldblood asshole. I don't evven knoww wwhy I keep puttin' it on." Despite his efforts, he did sound a little proud.

Aradia's face fell as Eridan laid out the differences in their society. She had never really stopped to consider that there might be further ramifications of the hemospectrum being turned upside down. Even in her own world, she had accepted her position and never really ventured into any form of politics. But when he put it like that, the troll society she knew seemed like a paradise by comparison.

"Eridan, I'm sorry...you're right, that was the wrong thing for me to say. I shouldn't have assumed things would be the same."

She had to fight to smother the smile as he mentioned Sollux being his kismesis. She'd heard about her world's Eridan's attempts at soliciting black romance from Sollux so it seemed fitting somehow that his opposite would have succeeded where the one she'd always known had failed.

"I could offer a guess but I think I've tasted enough of my own foot for one evening."

Wait. She just apologized and said he was right. He blinked at her for a few moments, gobsmacked, and then glubbed quietly in the back of his throat.

"Wwell, I suppose you couldn't'vve knowwn about my circumstances," he said magnanimously. "It's just that things are different, you knoww, wwhen an oppressor is ovverthrowwn, compared to things just bein' the wway they'vve alwways been. An' also because wwe are practically a different species in the wway wwe look, it makes it easier for prejudice to continue."

He squirmed a bit. "But it's not precisely your fault that you didn't knoww, so you're forgivven, officially."

As for the ring, that was not really open for comment. He should throw the damn thing off the tower, just out of principle... but then probably Sollux would actually dump him, so maybe not.

Aradia nodded. "That makes sense...I'm sorry you had to get caught up in that. It still surprises me sometimes how one apparently simple change can affect so much. But nothing the Empress did was enough to make what your society did to you okay."

That much, she knew. Yes, she'd heard tales here or there of the power wielded by the Condesce and how she used it to maintain her reign of terror, but nothing of that would seem to justify turning society on its head in such a brutal manner.

Then again, they were trolls. Subtle wasn't really in their nature.

"Anyway, I should probably let you rest." She wasn't going to pry into why he was here - that was for him to volunteer, or not.

He nodded emphatically. Oh sure, the lowbloods had been enslaved and culled with impunity, but things hadn't really gotten much better, except that things had been turned on their heads. Her Imperial Luminescence had a good reputation, but for the fin-face on the street, that meant little.

"It's completely an' totally fuckin' unconscionable," he agreed haughtily.

He blinked slowly. "Wwhat did you come in here for, in the first place?"

She shrugged lightly. "Like I said, I was curious. Though I'm not sure what, exactly, made me stop in the first place - I don't normally stay long on this floor. I wasn't looking to disturb anyone."