[open] where is my mind?

[uncodlyawwesome]

CHARACTERS: Eridan Ampora & YOU!!
LOCATION: In the library, as well as up and down the halls near said library.
WARNINGS: Mentions of brainwashing, general post-assimilation woes, etc etc.
SUMMARY: Eridan doesn't know what to do with himself now that the assimilation has (somewhat) worn off. So, he wanders.
NOTES: Feel free to assume that by "halls near the library," I mean anywhere you can imagine your character running into Eridan. Seriously, just mention a different location and that's where he's wandered to. :) Dated to the day before jump, just to be safe.


Eridan's major regret in regards to the Strela Outpost Incident is that he allowed himself to be caught. He can't remember exactly what he'd been thinking, cornered in that tiny warm, lovely white room, but he's pretty sure he spent most of the hours in there berating himself for being so fucking obvious. He knows better now, though; he knows firsthand how to keep out of the way, become part of the school and not stand out or be too obvious. It'll be a good defense mechanism, if he remembers to use it.

Leaving the outpost had been the hardest thing to do in what felt like his entire life, though now he can't remember why, exactly. It had been fucking terrible, being a nameless number within some kind of fucked up groupthink type situation. Eridan prides himself in his individuality, after all, and getting stripped of that - of everything that was him - has left him with a sour feeling in his gut, like he swallowed some living, wriggling sea creature. It'll take a long while to digest, but he's got all the time in the world.

He'll get over it.

In the meantime, though, sitting in his room and watching people on the network has become some kind of chore. His room has become his during his stay aboard the Tranquility, and usually that's a good thing. He has a safe spot here, somewhere that's nearly entirely his and no one can take it from him. Lately, though, it feels too much like him - when he'd first gotten back into it after breaking through the haze of assimilation, it'd been kind of heartbreaking. It felt lonely and alone and very different from what he thinks he felt in Strela. That unease had faded over the last few days, but it still felt better to be walking, moving, left-right-left, getting his head to focus on things other than tiny white rooms and a quickly disappating feeling of belonging. So that's what he does - he wanders, pacing through halls and spending time in the library, downloading things about astrology and odysseys onto his communicator to read while he walks. A few articles on military history, shit like that. Things he likes, as an individual with good taste and a mind perfectly healthy and ready to learn. Things to get his mind off of everything.

He's going to get over it and move on and stop thinking about it. Really. The sooner, the better.

Comments

[circumitus]

Unlike a handful of others, Rey didn't get caught. She had known well enough to take the high ground when she needed to. In this case, scaling as many structures and getting out of sight as soon as people were getting dragged off had been Rey's immediate course of action at the time. All else that happened after that was just every man for himself.

Perhaps she wasn't exactly doing her job as she should, she realized, in a moment of reflection in her solitude and silence. Protecting people, that was. Knowing that she was at least somewhat capable of looking after someone under her wing (such as a mostly-blind man once), she didn't know why she stayed out of the way. It wasn't like she was an easy individual to move, anyway.

That said, Rey's movements were hardly ever considered stealthy. A few hundred pounds that belonged to a five-foot-seven woman treaded across the hallways and various rooms. It didn't seem like much at first. It did, however, mean something to the authorities on Strela when they had attempted to capture her at one point. As a handful had to learn the hard way, they were all quick to discover that she wasn't an easy subject to carry.

But that was then. Most of those passing days came and went with chaos and disorder. Two concepts that were very prevalent in the everyday routine of Rey's past lives. Now, this woman did her usual rounds. Just another day in the life. As if nothing had happened, nothing had changed.

There would always be something to look forward to around the corner of the next jump.

Also unlike many people, Rey did not come here to read. Books provided knowledge, and knowledge was a prohibited prospect that had been forsaken from Rey's vocabulary. There were no books here. Did not reek of the same smell of knowledge. The idea was all the same, right there in the data. A blind man named Tejinder Wakeman would have had a field day with this place.

For Rey, her interests lay with the gray-skinned boy, who she'd seen pacing around the halls. They may have spoken before, which also made him a subject of interest. She had left him to his own devices at first, and went and continued her patrol for awhile. But some time later, she returned to find that he was still in the general vicinity.

Curious.

She decided to follow. But, as usual, her heavy footfalls did not make Rey the most inconspicuous of stalkers.

[uncodlyawwesome]

Eridan wasn't the sort of person to ignore the sound of someone following him for long; that went double for when he was still dealing with the aftermath of something he refused to admit was seriously a big deal.

When he heard those heavy footsteps, he let them follow for a few feet before about-facing abruptly, bristling with his hands clenched, thinking both not again and just one more time. When he saw the woman who he'd gotten into a very... one-sided argument with being his not-too-subtle shadow, he scowled. "Wwhat the fuck are you doin'?"

[circumitus]

The woman regarded the scowl with a simple, green-eyed stare. For several seconds, she held onto that in the motionless silence, before she cant her head to the side.

At first, she debated on saying anything. The last time they'd spoke, she didn't speak at all. Maybe that was the norm. But then, for whatever reason, she decided against it:

"Walking. Moving my legs at a steady pace for a consecutive period of time." No mentions of following, or anything like that. Rey was a bit too straightforward for that, even when she does dance around the subject, in her own way.

[uncodlyawwesome]

Oh. Eridan quirked an eyebrow, leaning back a bit and adopting a more annoyed posture, rather than outright hostile. "You talk noww, huh? Good for you. Evven figured out wwhat the fuck wwalkin' is, I'm real proud. Except you're actually not wwalkin'." He pointed a finger in her direction, completely aware that there was too much space for it to seem like an attack in itself. "It's called stalkin'. That's wwhere you movve your legs at a steady pace for a consecuitvve period'a time wwith the purpose'a followwin' someone."

He barely resisted pushing his glasses up his nose as he asked again, "So wwhat are you doin'?"

[circumitus]

She only nodded once at the talking part, but ironically didn't even address that with words. Yes, she was practically catatonic at that time. Or something like that, it seemed... It was hard to say, when you were virtually trapped in your own head for a time.

Rey wasn't going to deny the stalking. That didn't mean she was going to give it validation, either. Far as she was concerned, she had every right to be suspicious.

"Apologies. I was distracted by your behavioral patterns." She stopped, her eyes blinked once and did not move. "You have been here awhile."

You also appear troubled. As if she knew a damn thing about people who had their own problems, what to do or how to even handle it.

[uncodlyawwesome]

Eridan didn't like the idea that someone had been watching him long enough to know his habits, even if it was only for right now and not some kind of constant, over-arching plot against him. Then again, what did he know? Maybe it was.

"Yeah, so? It's not a fuckin' crime to wwander around, is it? I'm pretty fuckin' sure nobody's called me out on it or tried to throww me in the brig for it, so wwhat's the big deal?"

[circumitus]

Touchy, wasn't he?

Rey didn't move, flinch, twitch a muscle or expression on that face of hers. She stared at the boy, calculatingly.

"I have said nothing about it being a crime." She paused. "I was just bored."

She really had no other excuse for her actions. Take it how you will.