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Date & Time: Forward-dated to July 26th, sometime in the middle of the night.
Location: One of the many streets of the city, somewhere, sometime.
Characters: Eridan & Bariyan.
Summary: A Seadweller and a Zombie walk into...each other. Naturally this will go super well and they aren't gonna fight or anything spoiler alert no they are
Warnings: Violence. Swearing. The usual.

If there was one thing he'd never adapt to, it was remaining active during the day. The night was comfortable, familiar, yet the days were hot and the light unyielding. Granted, the sudden rainfall was a respite from the usual unfavorable weather conditions, but no matter how bleak it was, it was still something he wanted no part of. It couldn't compare to a total lack of light.

Despite this however, it wasn't like he actually did anything during the night. Much of the city's populace was absent, so it was mostly a period he spent alone with his thoughts, exploring the streets and giving passing glances towards the scenery. He didn't pay enough attention to remember, but...it was something. It was a distraction from interacting with everyone back in the hold that he enjoyed nonetheless.

Perhaps surprisingly, even he got tired of all the arguing sometimes.

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Bariyan had spent the last few days watching his body recover from whatever terrible curse that the priest had (unknowingly) placed upon him. He was slightly disappointed that there was a recovery at all, but not terribly so. He did have duties that tied him to this plane of existence. He wasn't supposed to check out again, not yet.

Regardless, days of inactivity had finally caught up with him, chased him out of the apartments and back onto the streets. It felt good to be on the move again. But where to now? No more drinking for a while, Bariyan had promised himself that, yet with that out of the question he was suddenly unable to think of anything else with which to occupy his time....

So caught up was Bariyan in his own thoughts that he failed to pay attention to his surroundings. He became only vaguely aware that his path was taking him around a corner. He turned it without a thought. Turned it too sharp and too quick-- leading him right into Eridan.

"-Ugh!"

Literally. Eridan's paying as little attention as Bariyan, except it's more an expectation everyone else should be getting out of his way, so he actually walks straight into Bariyan. He's not so startled as to fall back, but he takes a step or two back to regain his composure, placing a hand to his glasses to secure their position on his face.

Then once he's settled, immediately turns indignant, fixing his glare on Bariyan and snarling a little.

"Wwatch wwhere you're goin', jackass."

Even after that collision, it still takes Bariyan a moment to even acknowledge that someone else is there. He doesn't even stumble back, instead letting Eridan do all the work of putting some space between them while Bariyan stands there and stares in confusion.

"Sorry," he says, after a while, still failing to move out of the way.

His mental processes slowly wake up and start to process information. Oh, it's... one of the trolls. Which one? Bariyan's eyes narrow as he works his way through names. He's got a nagging feeling about this one, thinks it's someone that someone else had been talking about... Roslyn's name comes to mind. Another one follows shortly after.

Bariyan frowns. "Are you... Eridan?"

"You better b-"

Annnnd that pretty much sets off his paranoia; the hell is this guy? He even spends a few moments staring back at Bariyan silently, eyes narrowing suspiciously as he comes to the realization this is not someone he's familiar with.

"...an' wwhat if I am?"

That's a yes.

"Oh." Now Bariyan just sounds disappointed. It's coming back to him now. He's never met the boy in person before, but he's seen enough of Eridan on the network and heard enough to form a solid opinion of him.

Bariyan's eyes focus and he gives Eridan a long, critical look. What is there to see? Eridan doesn't look particularly strong or intimidating, not physically... mage, then, perhaps? There were certainly enough of them around this place. Bariyan wouldn't be surprised.

"You're the one that Ros thinks can fight," Bariyan says, musing aloud. His mouth twists into a frown. He trusts Roslyn, but still doesn't understand why she'd vouched for Eridan. "Huh."

"Knows."

He speaks matter-of-factly, as if correcting him. He can already tell Bariyan doesn't think much of him if only because he gets this a lot from people due to his attitude, so he's starting to get irritated, his expression souring in response.

"Judgin' from wwhat I'vve seen a' the other transports, I'd say I'm one a' the strongest people here, so you better wwatch your mouth there pal."

Bariyan heaves a sigh. All right, he'll trust that Eridan's got some skill in fighting -- based on Ros' word, at least -- but even so, there's a line to be drawn.

He holds his hands up, almost apologetically. "I highly doubt that," Bariyan says. "But that shouldn't matter. We're not here to fight each other, anyway."

With that, he lowers his hands and steps to the side. He's ready to move on.

"Yeah? An' wwho the fuck d'you think is? Short a' blowwin' up the hold I can't really provve it noww can I? But I fuckin' could if I wwanted to."

He huffs, planning on just walking off in a foul mood and taking it out on something else, but then it clicks in his head...this kind of discussion was familiar, sure, but only one of them had been resolved by Roslyn.

He narrows his eyes further into a dangerous glare, fists clenching.

"You...you're the guy wwho thought I couldn't do shit cause I'm "just a kid", ain't you?"

Bariyan bites back a reply to Eridan's answer. It's not his place to knock Eridan down a few pegs, never was, probably never will be. So Bariyan forces himself to ignore his irritation -- already cropping up after just a few short minutes of conversation -- and is ready to leave it alone and leave entirely when the question comes.

He blinks and looks to Eridan again.

"Right," Bariyan says, after a pause. That had been how many months ago, now? Time no longer makes sense in this place, not to him. He shrugs. "Was I mistaken?"

If anything, the fact it appears to mean so little to Bariyan just gets at him more. Eridan holds grudges, feels threatened by even the slightest implication that he's not good enough...many, many stupid insecurities that he couldn't ignore even if he wanted to. He equips his wand from his Sylladex, which simply appears as the weapon spawning out of nowhere and right into his hand.

"Yeah. Yeah, you wwere. If Ros sayin' so ain't enough to provve it I'm thinkin' I better go ahead an' provve it myself."

Edited 2012-08-02 03:06 (UTC)

One moment there is no wand, the next moment there is. Bariyan hadn't been paying much attention to that, but he did note it's sudden appearance -- not that he cared. What is it? Just a stick? It isn't until Eridan speaks that Bariyan starts to worry.

He backs away, just a few steps, gaze flicking from Eridan to the wand and back to Eridan again.

"Won't be necessary," Bariyan says. He makes to continue on his way, though he keeps his eye on Eridan at all times.

"Wwhere the fuck do you think you're goin'??"

He narrows his eyes further; walking away from a challenge he's issuing is pretty disrespectful to him...well, at least Eridan thinks it is. He raises his wand, a burning white light generating from the wand and around his hand, spiraling and dancing in a sporadic fashion like flames, trailing up his arm yet dimming to the point of vanishing once it reaches his shoulder. It illuminates a great portion of the surrounding area, the sharp contrast of light and shadow against Eridan's face making him appear all the more alien for it, illuminating his gritted fangs and unnatural features all the more.

"Stand an' fight, damnit! Wwalkin' awway is just a disgrace on us both!"

Last chance, Bariyan. Advance or Abscond, you're gonna have a fight on your hands either way.

Edited 2012-08-06 00:35 (UTC)

Oh, this is just infuriating now. Bariyan stops to look at the light, the wand, the wielder. Whom he narrows his eyes at. Is this what it's come to? A voice inside his head is laughing at him. Picking fights with children, now. Bariyan is not nearly drunk enough for this.

He clenches and unclenches a fist, opens his mouth-- closes it again. No, goddammit. He's not going to throw the first punch at a child. Alien or not.

So Bariyan merely shakes his head at Eridan, and turns his back.

Probably a bad move, in hindsight.

Very.

Pushed to the limit of patience, he fires off a bolt of white magic, appearing almost like a bolt of lightning, straight at Bariyan from behind; it takes around a second for it to travel the distance between the pair and if it hits it'd blast a hole right through Bariyan's chest about the size of a football.

The flash of light is enough to alert Bariyan to something gone wrong. But instead of moving out of the way, he only stops -- what is that? Lightning? Eridan's? Why-- only then does Bariyan turn. Too late. Bariyan's eyes slide off Eridan and down at the newly-formed cavity in his own chest.

Bariyan loses his temper.

"What the hell is wrong with you?"

And he's on the move, dodging off to the side to keep moving, to avoid any secondary shots that Eridan might fire off at him. But he's not running away, oh no.

He's taken aback by the fact the guy's still alive, but he's not not about to let someone walking around with a fatal hole in their torso freak him out this time around, oh no. Especially since they're fleeing from the looks of things.

So he takes yet another shot but aims for one of Bariyan's legs this time below the knee, hoping to slow him down or stop him entirely.

Bariyan makes an incredibly undignified jump in order to avoid getting hit by the second blast. It causes him to nearly crash into a lamppost but it does get him out of the way with both legs still intact, at least. Good. He still needs both of them.

He takes the brief pause in order to dodge around a corner and down an alley, vanishing into the shadows. Hoping that Eridan'll follow.

Naturally, he follows; picking up off of the ground and levitating Eridan follows the same path he'd seen Bariyan run off to, going straight into the alleyway. He'd do so even if he thought of his opponent as dangerous, but he's been lulled into a false sense of security by Bariyan's unwillingness to fight back.

"...so you're a cowward on top of bein' wweak? Figures. Fuckin'. Figures."

Said to no direction in particular.

As soon as Eridan's done talking and around the corner, Bariyan's suddenly in front of him -- having come to a halt as soon as he'd vanished from Eridan's line of sight, choosing to wait in ambush instead.

Unfortunately for Bariyan, he hadn't expected Eridan to round the corner floating a couple feet off the ground.

He slams his palms forwards anyway, though his aim -- originally meant for Eridan's face -- is off. Doesn't matter. All he needs is a handhold. Preferably before Eridan blasts his arms off.

Interrupted by something suddenly taking a hold of him, he lurches back out of reflex, though not enough to get out of it or anything. Once he sees it's Bariyan Eridan holds his arm up and points the wand towards one of Bariyan's shoulders, scowling.

"Let go a' me!"

Hasn't taken a shot yet, but he will soon. MAKE YOUR MOVE UNDEEEEEEAD.

Edited 2012-08-11 21:51 (UTC)

He makes it. There's no visual cues, just a sudden quiet and a tightening of his grip as Bariyan focuses.

He's having trouble channeling his magic straightaway, what with having a giant hole blasted through his torso, but he tires his damndest anyway to put Eridan to sleep. Still, if the boy doesn't want to, really doesn't want to, if he puts up enough of a fight -- it won't do anything. It's a battle of wills, at this point.

Which is worrying. Eridan seems very willful.

Maybe on a better day he'd get through this no problem, maybe even if he was genuinely angry at Bariyan rather than taking his frustration out on him and lacking any real killing intent aside Eridan's preference for stress relief through violence he'd be focused enough to resist.

But he hasn't slept much at all for the past eight months, and the rare times he does it does nothing for him aside cause horrible, horrible nightmares plagued by eldritch monstrosities and disturbing visions, ultimately leading to accomplish nothing but freak him the fuck out. He doesn't actually benefit from it at all.

So the exhaustion from months of sleepless nights gets to him once he feels himself become a little weary, maybe even aiding Bariyan's magic in putting him out. At first he just kind of staggers for a moment before ultimately succumbing to it and passing out, dropping to the floor in a heap.

Bariyan lets go as soon as Eridan starts to go slack. That surprises him; he'd been bracing for the worst. So he winds up simply standing and staring as Eridan drops to the floor, not even thinking about whether or not he ought to at least catch the boy. In fact, he stares at Eridan's unconscious form for a full minute before he realizes that he at least ought to do something.

He goes with nudging Eridan with a foot.

"Hey."

Frown.

"You..."

Bariyan looks down, and frowns harder.

"You blew a hole through me...."

No response. Now what?

Well, Bariyan supposes that -- tempted as he is -- he can't simply just leave Eridan in the middle of the street. With some difficulty, he manages to pick Eridan up and sling him over a shoulder.

The trek back to the apartments is long and full of, somewhat surprisingly, shame. Bariyan e Kodhi, thirty-four years old at time of death, came back to life, dragged into a different universe to... get into a fight with a thirteen-year-old boy, apparently. Gods, his own son had been older than that when he'd died.

Bariyan sighs as he pushes the doors open.

He hasn't a clue where Eridan's room is, or any of the other trolls', so he settles for dumping Eridan on the entrance floor. At least that's indoors. Perhaps someone will find him later. That done, Bariyan considers his next move. Leave a note? A message? An apology? Something? What could he even say? No, better to get out of here as fast as he can, before Eridan wakes up.

Bariyan makes for the doors again. He casts one last look back at Eridan, then at the gaping hole that Eridan had blasted through him, and leaves with a scowl on his face.

At least there's one thing learned from all of this. Roslyn had been right. Eridan can certainly fend for himself.

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