Ascension

[princeofmelodrama]

It was supposed to be a routine press conference. Sure, it was Eridan's first conference, but he was prepared. His mind was focused on getting through the few tense minutes, and then back to work. He scanned the small crowd that had accumulated around the front lobby of the building of press and onlookers, and took a deep breath, as his intern came by to hand him a bottle of seawater to sip from. He thanked her and uncapped it, taking a long swig.

The CEO was standing at the podium, talking about how, as the cutting edge of medicine that they are, they were dedicated to the service of health, for both humans and trolls. And at that, he led Eridan into his introduction and Eridan stood a little straighter and adjusted his sleeve cuffs, taking to the microphones.

"Hello, thank you. Well," he said with an amused, charming smile, "How do you follow an introduction like that?" he got a few chuckles. "I'm Eridan Ampora, the new Vice-President a the department a troll health an' biology. I may be young, but that only gives me plenty a time to work for your health and take my time to get the best possible solutions to the health concerns surroundin' my - our - species' lives. I take personal pride in my work. I'm not without my own health concerns, and I believe it's a concern a our entire race to find solutions to our reproductive crisis. I stand here before you, to promise that within the next decade, there will be advances in that. Not only will we thrive as a species, but I am dedicated in findin' a way to extend the lifespans a the low end a the hemospectrum."

As he spoke, he kept his eyes focused on the cameras that were in the lobby, giving them as charming of a grin as he could muster. He didn't notice the slow-approaching human in a coat, nor did he notice the barrel of the gun pointed at him.

He also didn't notice the blue-blooded troll woman at the side of the crowd who was holding back a fit of laughter from how professionally he was acting. The gun went off and sent people scattering and to the floor, while Eridan winced at the pain of his wound, putting his hand up to his chest and bringing it back to see the large amount of dark violet on his fingers. And before he lost his strength, he was caught by the blueblood.

All he could see as he passed out was a sharp smile, and the last words he heard, were, "Always trying to make a big deal of yourself, Ampora. Where did you first wake up?"

He muttered, "Tampa. You look like hell, Mindfang." And passed out.

Vriska chuckled and shook her head, releasing her wings before flying out of the building with Eridan over her shoulder. She knew he would be dead long before they reached Florida, but she at least knew the way down there. And she had a sharp, clear image of where she would find his quest bed.

She drove, with no sleep and few breaks for food, until she hit the Florida state line. She rested, with the body of the seadweller in her back seat, covered with her clothes and stinking up the car. She only took an hour nap, before she headed out to Tampa.
Vriska didn't even need to go into the city to find the place to turn off. She was driving through a wooded area at night, headed south on the highway when she saw a familiar place that looked like it had once been a fort, or perhaps a large building, though it was ruined. She parked her car on the highway, and as she waited for the meager amount of cars to pass, she lit a cigarette and uncovered Eridan's body. She hoisted him to her shoulder again, and flew into the center of the ruins, where there was a stone block that looked like a bed, and dropped him onto it. "You're going to pay to have my car reupholstered," she said to his corpse, then she settled back against a tree to snooze and wait it out.

It was a long wait. Three hours went by as the hummingbirds congregated and landed on Eridan's body, and with a sudden flash of light which woke Vriska up, the seadweller ascended into the air and then was unceremoniously dropped onto the slab of stone. He woke up with a cough, glaring as he looked around at his surroundings, then down at his clothes. Instead of the tailored suit, he was wearing a rather poncey outfit with tights and satin, in gold and white. He then looked over at Vriska, squinting at her.

She just smiled. "I didn't even think it was going to work, but hey, look at you in your prince outfit. Almost good looking, if it wasn't for the fact that you're you."

"Oh, shut up," he grumbled, rubbing his head and then cleaning the dirt and smudges off his glasses. "An' thanks. What were you even doing at the press conference?" 

"Oh, a little birdie told me something bad was going to happen when they were crowning you the prince of medicine. You've got to live, I guess. You hungry?" She stood up and offered a hand up to her ex kismesis. "There's a diner about ten miles up the road from here."

"Do you have somethin' I can wear that isn't this?" He said, waving down at his clothes. "I look like a fuckin' Shakespearean mess." 

"Just think about what you want it to look like and it'll change. You're a God now, idiot." Vriska said, starting to lead the way back to her car.

Once he was in a rather brightly colored suit, and settled into her passenger seat, they started back down the highway. They barely talked, and Eridan pointed out that if she wanted to stay at his condo to sleep it off for the night, she could. It wasn't a far drive into the city, or to his home. He'd only been up in Boston for the conference, to begin with, and as he called to let them know that he was perfectly okay - that he had spent some time in a hospital out of state, and would be back in to work the next day. Vriska rolled her eyes at his persistence, but didn't argue.

Once they got to the apartment, he pointed her to the living room, and to the couch. Before he could walk off to get cleaned up and ready to make dinner for them, he turned and rubbed his face, muttering, "Vris... What the fuck happened. Where are we? Clearly you know somethin' about this place."

"What do you remember?" She asked, and he ran down the basics - he remembered that they'd been in a game together, and that he'd gone insane, and killed Fef and Kanaya, blinded Sollux, and destroyed the matriorb. She nodded to that, and then he explained that he remembered his death, and the next sweep of being in a dream bubble, alone.

"Wow, I didn't even get the right Eridan? Well, that sucks. Okay, well, you're still in a dream bubble," explained Vriska, lighting a cigarette and making Eridan wrinkle his nose at the pungent smell of the smoke in his house. He was sure to get sick from the secondhand smoke if she did that more than once. She continued. "We were told by one of our denizens that we had one last chance to make a life for ourselves if one of us wished on a pretty powerful juju. Nepeta found the juju and wished that everybody who had ever been in the game had a second chance at a normal life. And now here we are. A lot of players are above, guarding the bubble from the Outer Gods as we're being towed through the Void, into a safe place to inhabit. While they work to get us safe, others are working to making this bubble a reality. At least, that's what I've been told."

"Told by whom?" Eridan said, having taken up a lean against a wall, arms crossed.

"Who told me isn't important. Let's just say it's the same guy who told me you were in danger. He was right about you, so it stands to reason that he's right about this, too. I don't think that knowing that much is safe, though. Can you pretend we're supposed to be in this world?"

"I've been doin' a good enough job a that since I woke up in it. Where are the others?"

"All over. And just like you, they're going to wind up dying and needing me to fly their stupid corpses to their beds. I'm hoping to save myself the trouble. Maybe warning them might help. I'll see. Who knows." She sighed out some smoke, ashing her cigarette into her hand. Eridan rolled his eyes and grabbed a small pot, offering it to her to use as a makeshift ashtray. She smiled wryly in thanks.

"So this is what you're doin' now. Playin' the knight in shinin' armor to the dyin' members a our session. That's a bum wrap." He shook his head and put his hand on her shoulder. "For what it's worth, I've got to thank you. It's shone some light on the last few years I been here. I've always felt this is surreal."

"Years? How long have you been here?" Vriska said, her brows arched high.

"A little over four years. Why?"

"Well, I don't know about everybody, but I showed up here two years ago. Gamzee," she said with a roll of her eyes, "Was here for just over two as well. Equius and Nepeta have been here for three, so I thought, well, they'd be the first, since it was her that made the wish."

"It's possible I've been here since before the wish was made," Eridan pointed out. "If this is a dream bubble. My own dream was fuckin' borin', I probably just fucked off to this place, since at least others are around."

"Mm, that's possible." Vriska looked around at the condo and its lavish furnishing, before looking up at the seadweller, "Go make dinner, shrimp." She smiled sharply. He huffed and shook his head.

"Fuckin' women, always tellin' us to get in the kitchen," he sassed, walking off to the little kitchen to start up a dinner, adding over his shoulder, "You'd better not get comfortable here, Vris, I'm kickin' your spidery ass out tomorrow!"

"Yeah, yeah, just keep thinking you can!"