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.

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He wasn't sure how to feel about that. On the one hand, if the Condesce were alive in his own world, she would be an enemy of his moirail. But on the other hand, she was living proof that the histories he'd read were true, that once sea dwellers had ruled the land dwellers.

He twisted the topaz spade-shaped ring nervously on his finger, visual proof of his own subjugation, in its own way.

"In my wworld, you're dead," he offered lamely. "The Sufferer's people wwon and the sea dwwellers are on the bottom a the hemospectrum."

At the mention of the Sufferer and a victory, her teeth grinded against one another with an awful sound, coupled with the unmistakable sound of knuckles cracking. Dead. Of course. No doubt exactly the way she would have ended up, were it not for the rescue.

Again, Condesce doesn't look up, instead trying to force her hands to be gentle on her own wounds in the midst of the sudden wave of fury. It was difficult, to say the least.

"Fascinating," she finally managed, in the form of a hiss.

Eridan could only conclude that he'd offended her, which wasn't his intention. He had just wanted to get that bit out of the way, so she would understand who he was.

"It's a fuckin' terrible situation," he said. "Wwith sea dwwellers bein' persecuted on a nightly basis by the dirt munchers an' keepin' us under their heel."

He bit his lip, then approached cautiously. "Can I help? It's hard to bandage your owwn wwrists."

The Empress continued her cleaning process, pulling the cloth away only when she was satisfied that they were as pristine as they were going to get. The cloth left behind was now dyed her rich, tyrian hue -- she would have to take that back with her to make sure nobody saw that either.

"Rather insulting that you've permitted such things," Condesce added smoothly, eyeing him out of the corner of one condescending eye. She pressed a dry towel to her skin.

The offer of help caused another narrow of her eyes, though no hiss or growl of displeasure. She had to weigh the pros and cons. Have people ask about a shitty bandage job...or let the younger troll help and leave the avenue less open.

He blinked, then scowled. What, he was to be personally blamed for the failure of trolls centuries ago?

"Me?" he snorted. "Maybe the ones wwith the armies an' wweapons an' millions a loyal followwers shouldn't a let a bronzeblood wwinged fanatic take them dowwn, hundreds a swweeps before I wwas evven hatched. Wwhat I'm supposed to do about it is beyond me."

Maybe he wouldn't help her, after all.

Had the Summoner not already been defeated in her timeline, she might have injured Eridan out of fury just then. But alas, it seems all his outburst does is cause her to raise her eyebrow.

"You or any other seadweller could easily overpower a lowblood," she added smoothly, choosing not to personally victimize Eridan. "Unless the seadwellers of your generation are content with being the slaves."

She carefully applied the burn ointment to her wrist with her dominant hand, showing no outward signs of pain. But boy did it sting.

"Yeah, one a the land dwwellers, sure," Eridan said irritably. "But they breed like fuckin' rats and you knoww it's true. And if it wwas so easy, then wwhy did you lose in the first place? I'm not content wwith bein' a slavve in the least, and I am not a slavve, besides! I'm a smuggler, and a pirate, and don't take any drugs. I'll tell any gold blood wwho has a problem wwith it to tell it to the point a my knife, make no mistake. I am not like wwhat you're insinuatin' at all!"

Condesce finally turns to give Eridan a very cold stare of warning, an eerie calm surrounding her as she placed the tube back on the table. She didn't reach for the bandages.

"That's just it," the Empress replied icily. "I didn't lose."

If she heard any of the rest of his statement, it doesn't show. She just continues to give him that horrible glare before turning back to wrapping up her wrist. She didn't quite miss it, nor the part about the drugs, but she wasn't curious enough to ask about that after being insulted so blatantly.

Oh. Well she has a point. "Wwell, yeah, obvviously not you. But a vversion a you that's probably almost identical, though maybe not. And anywway, it definitely wwasn't me, because I hadn't evven wwriggled."

He swallowed and sat back down on the cot, drawing one knee up to watch her. Apparently all he was able to do when it comes to this troll was to put his feet in his mouth, so maybe it was better not to say anything.

It wasn't like she was his Empress, or that getting in with her would help him in any way. He had Sollux, who was a proper gold blood and had powers, too. Maybe if they'd hit it off, it'd be different, but it was clear she had no interest in doing anything other than insulting him.