Prince of Heart- Jesus what am I gonna do with my life when this is over. This things nearly two fucking years old. Holy shit.
This things nearly two fucking years old.
I can't believe some like three of you have been reading this since day one.
The darkness spat Eridan out after a nano-second of entering it, like he'd just popped into reality, even if that was an in-apt word for it. He landed on his feet for once, nailing a landing he had blundered so many times before. His gaze rendered up, into the dreamland he willingly entered, and he found himself in the midst of an empty city, hive's strewn around him in a disorderly fashion, in jagged shapes and of various colours. He seemed to be in the middle of a street, wide enough for a hoofbeast to go up and down at the same time, extending down to the edge of what seemed like another dream-land, as he could tell from the dark hues of the grass from a distance. The buildings seemed creaky, not from old age considering it was a dreamland, but from the vast emptiness of it all. This wasn't a city Eridan recognised either, yet it seemed vaguely familiar. Maybe it was the same city he'd landed in when everyone met their other universe counterparts? It did ring a bell.
But there was no time to figure the mysteries out, he was on business. And first on the list, an asshole to find and talk through with. The ring must have brought him here for a reason; why the city in the middle of a street? There has to be one. He took a step to the sidewalk, his cape dragging up the curvature, and looked through a window into the block of a hive near him, taking in the desolate room inside. Nothing at all. He pursed his lips, and walked a few feet to the next hive and peered in, only to see the same. None of the interiors were decorated it seemed, and to a more startling point, none had entrances to them besides the windows. He thought about smashing one through and starting from there, but he heard a couple of voices from the alleyway next to him, so he decided to follow the sounds to their source. He rounded the corner, careful not to kick over a pile of garbage just around it, and saw two figures- a male and a female- conversing down the end of it. The ring did bring him here for a reason. He found the exact guy he was looking for; the leather jacket and slicked back hair gave it away.
Cronus Ampora, as ghostly as ever. Probably hitting on the girl with terrible tact and wit no doubt. Though… they didn't seem to be conversing as much as making hand gestures at each other. The girl he didn't recognise either, standing just shorter from Cronus by and a couple inches, though that still gave her a couple inches above Eridan. She wore a short skirt that barely reached halfway down her thighs, with some sort of olive green, woolen short sleeved jumper over a long sleeved collared black shirt, as well as a pair of thigh high socks and slip on shoes. Her hair was long, reaching halfway down her back, with a pair of pointy Nepeta-esque horns poking out the top.
Eridan lent against the wall, watching the two wrap up their conversation, with no clue of what they were saying, or rather signing. Though the two seemed to be enjoying themselves, as told by their wide smiles and occasional bouts of laughter. Eventually, the two stopped their signing, with the girl placing her arms against Cronus's chest, and leaning in to share a surprisingly passionate kiss between the two, an action that shocked Eridan to his core. WAS that Cronus? He didn't seem to remember the guy being able to pull in any ladies with his 'charm.' The two left each other's embrace a moment after, before the girl signed something really quick and turned towards the entrance to the alley to leave. That's when she spotted Eridan, and let out startled, tone deaf eek. Cronus followed her gaze, him too now staring at Eridan with blank eyes, and the three stood in silence as a smile formed at Eridan's mouth. Now he remembered a brief comment made a long time ago by Aranea regarding Cronus the last time he'd seen him about a girl sending Cronus 'not safe for work' pictures.
"meulin im assumin?" he asked, hiding his surprise from the two.
The girl blushed olive, giving a nervous laugh and replying, surprisingly loudly, "EXCUSE ME?"
Eridan was taken aback by the girl shouting her reply, cleaning out his ear. "uh wwhy did you just yell at me?"
The girl looked at Eridan, a blank stare from her white eyes, before Cronus jogged up beside her, tapped her shoulder, and made a series of hand gestures to her. The girl nodded her head, turned to Eridan, and continued to shout, "PURRTAINLY, THAT'S ME!"
"oh my GOG could you stop fuckin shoutin at me," Eridan said in a harsher tone.
"shes deaf babe, dont dwvell on it," Cronus informed him, before turning to Meulin and signing something out. The girl nodded, gave a polite smile and wave to Eridan, and walked off around the corner into the unknown.
Eridan smiled, something genuine for once, and turned back to his ancestor. "so. howw long has that been a thing cro?"
"jeez babe dont go spreading it around but… officially? a couple a swveeps."
"i thought you wwerent a matesprit type of guy? i fuckin thought you couldnt evven get a girl to speak to you for fivve minutes."
"look it's just… i dunno babe. wve started talking about fifty swveeps ago wvhen i got punched pretty hard by that fish babe meenah, but i guess talking's the wvrong word. more like wvriting to each other on one of the cigarette packs i had. and i just kinda started to dig her, y'know? she wvould laugh at my lines instead of hurt me, and wvas vwery fun to talk to, wvith all her excitability and actually wvanting to keep a convwersation going. i cant really explain it babe. she'd go on and on about wvho wvould make good and bad couples, and the traction and vwibes betwveen people, and i could just sit there for hours listening to her, wvriting dowvn my opinions as wvell. and babe let me tell you, she has a KILLER bod, wvhich i found out a few dozen sweeps in wvhen she 'accidentally' sent me a pic. that sparked something in me babe. i dunno wvhether it wvas the fact that she wvas the first girl to have red feelings for me in millions of swveeps, or the fact that evwery time wve met my ghost heart wvould jump outta my ghost bod. but i decided to learn sign language a couple decades ago."
Eridan raised an eyebrow. "wwas THAT wwhat all those spastic movvements wwere about?"
"yeah babe, it wvas. it wvas the hardest thing i'vwe evwer done, but i managed it."
"but you flirted wwith evveryone you met wwhy the fuck wwould she wwant your ass?"
Cronus shrugged, "your guess is as good as mine babe."
"yeah but then also wwhy the hell are you guys so secretivve?"
"gog damn it babe wvhy are you so fucking nosy today? it's because her fucking moirail scares the shit outta me. all he does is stare, smile, and occasionally flip the wing-beast at you. wvhenevwer i see him i get choked up for no reason as wvell."
"thats it? id be screamin it from the rooftops if i managed to catch her. you should go for it, uh, 'babe'."
Cronus sighed, "i knowv babe. but i just wvorry about howv she's going to be judged by evweryone for being wvith the guy evwerybody hates."
"if she has red feelins for you, she wwont care cro. fuck them. take all that douchey confidence you had wwhen you wwent to pick up evweryone and use it for good."
"are you sure babe? wvhat if it crashes the entire relationship like it probably wvill? i don't wvant the only person that likes me that wvay to hate me."
"cro its comin from me. theres so much bs i regret not doin cause i hated wwhat COULDVVE happened but noww ivve learned that you cant do that cause youll hate your life. you need to stop focusin on little chances of bad things and focus on the bigger chances of good things. its wwhy im here in dreamland after all. to… apologise."
"apologise? for wvhat?"
"for bein an ass to you. and another person here that i left on bad terms."
"being an ass…? oh right, i'd forgotten about that. all wvater in the castle moat babe."
Eridan feign-wiped his brow. "pheww wwell that wwent ovver easily. check one of the list."
"thank you though babe. i really needed you to tell me wvhat you did. good luck on your advwenture." Cronus gave Eridan a one armed hug, staying there for a few seconds, before running out the alleyway, waving to Eridan. "im sorry as wvell babe bt dubs."
Eridan smiled as he stared out the alleyway, let out a short chuckle to himself, a sauntered out the alleyway as well, off to apologise to the other person he knew was here that he had to apologise to.