animus_network | .004 ♒ chronicAugustus began drowning in self-loathing. [Text]

...Oh. [He just wanted to know which one it was, jeez. The look on his face suggested that he didn't quite agree with Eridan's explanation of her, mostly because he isn't describing her in positive enough terms, but he doesn't quite know if he should say something about it or not. It's hard, man, hard. Are you supposed to say that sort of thing around friends?]

[Distantly, he realized that he couldn't quite remember Aradia's face anymore, and pointedly shoved that observation BACK IN THE BOX WHERE IT BELONGS.]

[He offers Equius a lopsided smirk.]

Really, it's always the quiet ones.

The quiet ones... what?

[Eridan arched both eyebrows.]

Apparently we're never quite what people expect us to be.

Apparently... [Guess who never got to that point with Aradia? Or, uh, talked to her at all? The answer is this guy.]

...I don't know what I expected you to be, when I met you.

Heh, that one's easy.

[Eridan shrugged again.]

Let's see... general consensus is that I'm a snotty, arrogant, haughty, better-than-thou hermit that wants nothing to do with anyone ever. And before the game, people assumed Feferi was the pacifier between us, which also means I'm that guy you stay away from, because you don't know when he's going to snap and cull everyone in sight.

[He chuckled wryly.]

Granted, the morbid humor doesn't help, but most people don't get that it's humor. I think it's the sunglasses. They're the symbol of my coolkid douchebaggery.

...

[Okay, so he already said that he wasn't sure what he was expecting. But he was pretty sure it wasn't that.]

Really?

[That. Wow, that is really different from the reality, isn't it.]

...I'm a jadeblood and I'm a guy, Equius. And if that weren't weird enough, add the whole reversed schedule and living in the middle 'a nowhere and people will try to fit you into a trope.

[Pause.]

...that and to be fair I didn't like most trolls I met, anyway, so I never bothered to get to know them, or let them get to know me.

I guess that's true.

[Granted, he tried to fit everyone into a trope, yes. But they had always been either "above my level" or "below my level", nothing more. Either way, he had no desire to interact with them. Still, it meant no way he could really continue the conversation with his thoughts on the matter of other trolls; he had none.]

[So, taking a leaf out of Eridan's book, he just shrugged.]

[Eridan shrugs back, absently rubbing along Equius' spine. This is nice. This is really nice.

Obviously, Eridan is sure he should leave now. He doesn't stick around when things get nice, unless necessary. Which sucks.]

Are you okay?

[This is really nice. Comfortable. And he's not even shaking-and-blushing anymore. Man. This is like the most alien feeling in the world, seriously.]

[Can't they just... hang out here? For a little while longer?]

Yes. ...Thank you again.

[Yeah, okay, Eridan really doesn't want to leave. He knows he has to go back and deal with that post he made, and he'll probably end up jumping back in time so no one notices that he pretty much dropped everything to talk with Equius. And huh, that's a little telling but he's not thinking about it.

So he should leave, obviously. But then, the insidious voice points out, if he's already going to need to jump back in time, what's the damage in staying here and making the jump a little longer?]

You'll tell me, right? If you're not okay?

[Eridan offered Equius a small, soft look. It wasn't really a smile, per se.]

You'll let me help, right?

[Eridan probably had a post to get back to, yes. A pretty Important post, that he was going to read out of curiosity a couple of days later, to prove to himself that he didn't get punched in the feels just talking to this stupid jadeblood, and he could totally read the stupid jadeblood's conversations with others just as easily as anyone else. He would fail miserably, and of course, after getting to a certain point, flip his shit and run for the hills.]

[But not yet. That's later.]

I will. [Never mind that that's not even Eridan's job. They're not pale, not pale at all. (The pale infidelity here was kind of staggering when he thought about it, but he wouldn't be thinking about it for a while.) Nah, they were just... friends. God that was weird. But they were.] I promise.

[See, the conversation that explains the difference between a friend and a moirail might be interesting. And by that I mean sad as nothing else.]

Okay.

[So he'll just sit there and hug Equius and wonder what the fuck he's even supposed to do now. Right. Well, when Equius gets tired of him, he'll kick him out. Surely. Right.]

[How sad is it that the one troll from their world with a functional moirallegiance has to have that discussion in the first place?]

...Can you do the same thing for me?

[His voice is kind of dazed, from being pretty much unable to brain anything else right now. People really start to appreciate positive, safe environments when this is pretty much the second person in their life they've ever been able to share it with, and the first person has been gone for eight months.]

[Pretty sad, actually!]

Mmm?

[Eridan looks at Equius for a moment, taken out of his circling thoughts. He blinks.]

Ah. Sure.

...I might have to hold you to that, you know.

[No keeping secrets from the non-confrontational yellowblood, yo.]

...I suppose that's fair.

[He sounds wryly resigned to that.]

Mhm.

[Oh, wow, that was a pretty strange noise he just made there. Primarily because he almost never says anything that's not a word or a horrible unnatural shriek.]

But you're alright for the moment, right? I mean... [He was about to mention the post, but on second thought, maybe that would be a bad idea.]

...I fucked up.

[Eridan sighs, reaching again to scratch the back of his neck, and absently fiddle with a string, there.]

Like. Really fucking bad, you know? And I snapped at people I shouldn't have and said shit I really should have kept to myself. And just, in general, made a mess of things. Which is a thing I do often enough, as it is, but hey. At least I figured it out. Might as well apologize for it and stop fucking up.

[He shrugs.]

At least I'm not murderously pissed off and unstable anymore.

[That makes two of them, at any rate.]

[He nodded. Not fucking up would be a really great idea, especially in this tower. Though he guessed it's not like they haven't already hit absolute rock-bottom fuckup anyway. ...Well, Eridan had. Equius had just been sitting in his corner for the past month and a half and distracting himself with menial tasks, as usual. At least there's no room for serious repercussions there.]

[It suddenly dawned on him that aside from the whole incident in the kitchen, he had absolutely no idea of what Eridan had done wrong in the first place. What a quality friend he is, huh?]

Yes, stable is good. Better. I guess. ...Drat.

[He'd almost forgotten he was a horrible awkward derp for a second there.]

Well, it's less troublesome, at any rate.

[Eridan offered a lopsided smirk, slowly lowering his hand.]

Sometimes you just... need reminders.

[No, he's not creepily fingering the string dipping under his shirt, shut up.]

[Okay, yeah, that's getting a bit too weird for his tastes.]

...Um, Eridan? What are you doing?

Mmm?

[Yeah, okay, putting his hand away now. Back to hugging, right.]

What?

With... with the necklace.

[Too late for that, Eridan, sorry.]

[action equius, prince of fanboyism]

[action eridan, bard of foot-in-mouth]

[gira, muse of can't-even-do-this-anymore]

[action fi, lord of trolololol]

[action equius, waste of time]

[action eridan, vast of space]

[action conversation, circle of nonsense]

[action conversation, pinnacle of wisdom]

[action conversation, king of drag-out]

[action fine, fine, I'll leave you so you can go and stalk the horribleness in that thread]

[action never leave me bb ;_;]

[action blah, alright, but it's not like I like you or anything!]

[action also you should tell me where this stalkable thread is because i'm stupid]

[action http://animus-network.dreamwidth.org/127527.html?thread=11090983#cmt11090983]

[action i'm already stalking that thread fool]

[action have you finished stalking it to the end?]

[action every single tag]

[action FOUR DAYS]

[action the TWEWY references that can be made... but yes FOUR DAYS]

[action there'll be a movie too]

[action yup p much. best four days ever.]

[action will Bl'hakyetkokún save them, though?]

[action I don't think even Bl'hakyetkokún can help them now]

[action blasphemy! Bl'hakyetkokún can do anything!]

[action I am so sorry for doubting you, o Bl'hakyetkokún! Forgive me my sins!]