Prince of Heart- Man can't wait to completely ruin some dramatic moment with Eridan's Heelys. It's all gonna come together, you'll see.

Eridan landed on his hands and knees sometime later, the transportation through memories never really leaving much space for the illusion of time. He opened his eyes slowly, adjusting to the new environment as he did per usual, and stared at the smooth, wooden floor for a few seconds. He heard voices seemingly nearby, muffled by a wall, and made a mental note to check it out as soon as he could. Slowly glancing up, he began to examine the room around him; the place seemed to be made of the same light brown wood as the floor, though it was much rougher and courser than the planks under him. There were numerous shelves filled with DVD's, all in some strange language that Eridan couldn't read and barely see from that angle. A single open window shone rays of light upon a two person couch, facing a blank television that had yet more DVD's scattered around it.

Eridan stood up carefully, maintaining a careful balance, and stumbled over to one of the shelves. He grabbed one and took a closer look at the cover, depicting what seemed like a young, scantily clad girl piloting a mechanised vehicle, covered with numerous weapons. No such thing as overcompensating, Eridan said, but that machine would never be as powerful as Eridan with his wand. And now that he had Heelys, he was even mobile. Half troll, half machine, all he needed was a weapon back. Man he hoped he got one before the new session.

Eridan chucked the DVD away, frustrated he couldn't read the title, and went in search of the voices he heard. A short door stood in the way, too small for even the Prince, which Eridan easily pushed open and ducked under inside. The voices became louder, two males and a female, seemingly laughing playfully. The room was set up similarly to the previous, with the exception of a large oval table in the middle, completely covered in equipment for some strange card come. Several round tokens were scattered at each person, and some were piled up in the middle. One of the boys noticed him, allowing a better look from Eridan. The boy had large Tavros-esque horns coming out from beneath his black and red hair, and wore a strange red and black outfit covered with bones on the front. The strangest thing was his pair of rust coloured wings that adorned the back of his six foot two figure.

The boy waved him over, calling out to him, "oh… hey there dude!"

The other two looked over, revealing the old buddy Cronus and perfect girl Aranea, causing Cronus to groan angrily and Aranea's face to light up.

"Eridan!" She exclaimed happily, giving him a surprisingly uplifting feeling from his frustrated emotion, and stood up. She noticed his downer mood, and she gave a concerned look. "Aw, what's wrong?"

Eridan sighed, "these fuckin dream bubbles are the problem i swwear to the signless. evvery single damn time it brings up some bad memory and this time it wwasnt evven my memory one of the stupid doomed vvriskas. and on that topic wwhy the fuck is it alwways some memory wwith her? one wwhere i fuckin fell back in black lovve wwith her no less."

Aranea placed a hand on his shoulder, and reassuringly asked, "Are you feeling alright?"

Eridan pouted. "not really."

The Sylph pulled him in for a hug, which Eridan happily returned, and a loud grunt was heard from the table. "do you guys mind? vwe still need to finish this game."

Aranea pulled away and rolled her eyes. "Alright Cronus, I was just greeting a friend."

"vwovw, thats a fucking fantastic thing that I don't giwve a shit about babe."

"come on doll… lets just f1n1sh the hand."

Aranea nodded her head and looked back at Eridan. "Alright, just sit at one of the chairs, and we can talk after the game."

Eridan followed her to the table, watching her sit at the end of it and taking the seat just around the corner from her. Cronus went back to his hand, and the other kid gave Eridan a polite nod.

"n1ce to meet you… by the way! names ruf1o."

Eridan didn't give a response, and laid his chin down on the table to watch the game unfold in front of him.

"alr1ght… so i guess ill just… call," Rufio said, placing a subset of his tokens into the middle of the table with the slide of his hand.

"wwhy the fuck are you speakin like that its annoyin," Eridan asked.

"1 dont know dude… why do any of us speak the way we do?"

"it's a wweird combination of short pauses and confidence like wwhat the fuck is your deal?"

"vwovw, thats fucking rich coming from you," Cronus added.

"oh dont you get me fuckin started on you you human identifyin wweirdo."

Cronus banged his fists on the table and stood up. "do you vwanna fight me shortstack? because i vwill fucking END you."

"8oys, come on!" Aranea pleaded. "Cronus, you wanted to continue the game, did you not?"

"the only game im continuing is the game of kicking my ancestors ASS vwhen vwe get outside."

"ill kick your ass back to life i dont need magic or science."

"guys… come on… we can sort th1s out-"

"hey, heres an idea, how about you go off and kill more of your lowved ones?"

"wwoww at least i had lovved ones!"

"OH MY GOD," Aranea yelled, "WILL YOU TWO SHUT THE FUCK UP?!" She garnered the twos' attention, Eridan slightly recoiling in shock. "You sit us down here Cronus to finish this game, and then you turn around and just start FUCKING AROUND with this pathetic little spat you have with your ancestor? What the SHIT is wrong with you?"

"oh, come on babe, he started it."

"I. Do not. Give a shit. This is ending until we finish the game. So sit the fuck down, finish this God damn hand, and then I can go a8out continuing the story a8out Eridan as your ancestor, 8ecause we ALL know that's where we're going next! Do I make myself clear?"

Eridan and Cronus nodded, Eridan feeling a strange mixture of fear and red feelings for the spider girl. Cronus and Aranea sat down, Aranea noticeably frustrated and Cronus a little embarrassed, and the Bard picked up his cards.

"i uh, i call," Cronus stuttered, pushing a bunch of tokens into the middle of the table.

"Good, now I call." Aranea did likewise. "Now, show hands."

The three placed their cards on the table, revealing the cards to have a couple of numbers on them. The three looked into the middle of the table, where five other cards were situated, and the two guys groaned whilst Aranea rejoiced, reaching over the table with her short stature and pulling all the tokens into the middle.

"vwhy the FUCK did vwe think it vwas a good idea to play with the chick of light vwho has fucking LUCK povwers?"

"Don't play the game if you can't handle the 8ad ending."

"vwhatewver, i dont giwve a shit. just tell the story about my avwesome ancestor to the trash teenage wversion of him."

"With pleasure!" She turned to Eridan. "So, where were we when we last paused? I believe Eridan was captured by Feferi, Gamzee was killed, and Eridan escaped custody with Vriska. So, I guess we'll start again at the point where the two return to Eridan's base!"