Open Post 001

[2020mod]

• Step one: start a thread in this post!
• Step two: specify who the thread is for (or open) in this post!
• Step three: make people reply to this post!
• AND THAT'S THE WAY YOU DO IT.


And don't forget, there's still the ooc discussion post! And nothing needs to be contained to this post! Create new logs to your heart's content! This AU is yours, so have at it!


musebox • rules • character list

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[enigmaestro]

"It's a bit sentimental. Don't you think?"

There he was, with his hands folded behind his back. Just at the threshold of that warehouse. It was too great a risk, he wanted to chide Eridan. Too great a risk to have this.

After all, hadn't Eddie proven that? With his very presence?

"I mean what is that?" He pointed to a death machine, in the far corner. "Really."

[amoray]

Eridan froze for a long moment, hands still on the warehouse shutter. It couldn't be, it was impossible - but as he turned slowly on the balls of his feet, primed to leap, it was true. Eddie Nygma really was there, wasn't he?

He was half elated. Half terrified.

"Pyroclastic Induction Dewice." It was all he could think to respond with, and it came out an undignified choke. He took a wary step towards Eddie, stunned.

"You're... actually there? You're aliwe?"

[enigmaestro]

"In the sense that I am not a figment of your imagination, yes. Yes, I am here." He stayed in his position, his feet against the floor. No sudden movements. No accepted invitations, not just yet. This was a meeting dangerous for the both of them, the height of irresponsibility. He knew he was being trailed daily, after all, and simply hedging his efforts of eluding his keepers bore no promises.

But Eddie needed to. He had needed to see his son again.

"Eridan."

The name was nearly foreign on his lips, a name unspoken for months. Years.

"Hello."

[amoray]

Eddie didn't have to make a move; Eridan stepped forward, arms open, and crushed him into a hug. The warehouse was momentarily neglected; his status as a dangerous import, neglected. He'd never been particularly careful anyway.

"It's Arkady out here."

He paused. His voice was heavy with emotion, and he couldn't bring himself to rein it in.

"I thought they killed you, Ed. You didn't... it's been so long."

[enigmaestro]

The hug jolted him, surprised him. Human contact like this was so foreign to him. He took a moment before responding in kind, mirroring the motion. Two narratives ran his mind, one stricken by the traitorous touch (Katurian-born) and one burning with familiarity, recognition. He remembered Eridan, he remembered these emotions.

"Arkady, then."

The name resonated from his teeth.

"And they did, almost. I was captured for -- a year, it's been over a year. I've been gone for over a year."

[amoray]

"Yeah, you have."

Eridan stepped back then (only a touch reluctantly, to his credit), looking Eddie over. Something - something Eridan couldn't put his finger on, exactly - was different about the Riddler.

Belatedly, he took a step back, put a hand on the shutter.

"You want to come inside? It ain't safe out here." A beat. "You can tell me what happened."

Because you didn't get caught for a year and stay alive without something happening to you. Without there being something valuable about you to make you worth keeping around. Eridan didn't have much more than his imagination to go off of, but that was more than enough.

[enigmaestro]

"You want to know what happened," he murmured. It was nearly a challenge, a dark secret in the clench of his fist and the brief sneer on his lips. "Is that what you want to know, Eridan?"

He popped a smile, just by the final second.

"It isn't an easy story, you understand." Edward paused, drawing a careful breath. "But definitely one more suitable for closed doors, yes."

An acceptance of his invitation.

"You would have been proud, I think. Of their techniques."

[amoray]

"I figured so," Eridan verbally shrugged, stepping back inside the warehouse and gesturing towards the sole chair. The sooner they were both inside and he could close the shutter, the better - it wasn't readily apparent what was inside the warehouse when the shutter was about half height open, but nonetheless, the entire situation was more than passingly weird. Even suspicious. "It's why I worked so damn hard to make sure they newer got me. In case I ended up bein' more waluable aliwe than dead."

He paused a beat, glancing almost nervously back at Eddie.

"We can go as slow as you want. Talkin' about it. But I wanna know what happened to you."

[enigmaestro]

His measured beat did little for the atmosphere, only adding a strain between two bodies. Obvious tension, blatant hesitation. A formula hinting at distrust.

"They told me you were dead. They said terrible things, they told me everyone was dead. My family," he began. "After the interrogations, after the water." He didn't attempt to hold onto anything, not a wall or a door, when speaking of this. The fought the impulse that his torturers trained in him, that weakness after confession.

"They really didn't like me, Eridan."