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The AU that saves Eridan, Tavros and probably Feferi from dying during Murderstuck!
Once Eridan and Vriska find Mindfang's journals and read about the Summoner, Eridan becomes interested in using him to his advantage. Vriska finds Tavros. Despite her efforts to swat him away, Eridan keeps intercepting her plans to talk to him, arguing, and fighting over the poor bull boy just trying to live his life.
After calming down and having a civil conversation about the custody of the lowblood (without him present), Vriska is reassured that Eridan only intends to use him to help with his duties in feeding Feferi's lusus. She relents and times are worked out for when Eridan can have him working and when he's offlimits for her. She even starts to see Eridan as a partner; making the wimpy boy more like the Summoner by working out and flexing his powers.
So Eridan begins 'kidnapping' and forcing Tavros into helping him. Rudely at first, telling him that a few lusi's lives are worth the greater picture, as the fate of everyone now rests on his small shoulders. If he doesn't help, everyone's blood will be on his hands (not the truth, but it's enough to guilt him into being compliant).
A routine is established when Tavros accepts. Eridan picks him up, they meet up with Feferi (at least she's nice to Tavros and always thanks him for his help!), they do what they have to do, then Eridan takes the bullboy back. It's usually a whole day affair that happens once every week.
As time passes, Eridan's hopes with Feferi aren't fulfilled. Despite her having more time to herself now that Gl'bgolyb gets full for longer, she'd rather use it to foster new relationships and talk to other trolls than to spend it with him, prematurely seperating herself from Eridan bit by bit.
Eridan is baffled. One day, while on duty, Tavros catches him checking out his unread messages to Feferi. Ehen she doesn't show up like usual at the end, he asks about it, and Eridan says she's busy. After a while of silence, Tavros asks if Eridan is okay. He did not expect the wave of venting that followed. It was the first time it happened. Not the last. Since then, his encounters with the bronzeblood are less hostile. And towards the end, without Fef, they spend a little longer on Eridan's boat just talking.
Then, the FLARP occurs. The poor boy is left paralyzed waist down and with his previous friendgroup (Terezi and Aradia) unresponsive. Even Vriska has kept her distance. Tavros feels scared, hurt and alone. He hadn't expected Eridan to knock on his door again, ready to pick him up. When he saw Tavros, he was shocked.
Vriska hadn't informed him of anything that had happened. He's mad. Vriska broke their Summoner! Eridan huffed and glanced down at the bullboy now in a wheelchair. He noticed how his usual, uneasy smile had been completely wiped. He didn't look like Tavros anymore. He was... smaller.
Eridan wiped his face with a groan, weighed his decisions, lifted his arms up in the air and shouted.
'Wwell wwe still havve a job to do! Let's figure it out!'
Tavros, with a wheelchair, ON A SHIP? It took a lot of trial and error to figure out how to make it work, but Eridan didn't give up. And he was surprisingly gentle, not even getting mad at Tavros.
For the first time in their business relationship, Tavros felt... safe.
In the end, part of the solution was to get the job done quicker. But the pair unexpectedly found themselves lingering once they got on shore anyways. Like they wanted to keep talking... so, Tavros invited Eridan inside. Surprisingly, the fish boy accepted.
During this time, they found out they have a lot in common. They love fantasy and can spend whole afternoons debating their favorite media. They start seeing each other even outside of Lusi duty, just to hang out and play. Eridan isn't as pushy with Feferi anymore, his time being taken up by a new troll. An actual friendship is being formed (though Eridan DOES NOT call it that... yet. If prompted, he will insist that he is still using the low blood. Really, Tavros is just a way to get closer to Feferi! She has a soft spot for lowbloods, getting one of his own will make her interested in him again! And surely by spending less time with her, he's making her jealous...?) .... It's a lie.
When it becomes clear to himself how much he likes Tavros (pale), he switches gears and starts forming the idea that, well. Eventually Feferi is going to move to his red quad anyways, so why not... keep Tavros close and single for when that position opens up? He'd be a good moiral...
Then the shit you'd expect goes down as the game starts. Eridan is broken up with. He's DEVASTATED. Tavros is busy with Vriska, but when he reads messages from Eridan about needing another talk, he gets worried and looks for an opportunity to text back, being distracted and getting on Vriska's nerves more.
His chance occurs after Vriska 'breaks up' with him, finally realizing they wouldn't work as red rom. Tavros finally gets the chance to properly exchange texts in between playing and it's really helpful for the both of them in their respective sessions (Tavros gets to talk about how it went with Vriska and Eridan gets madder on his behalf.)
When they finally meet up, it's because Vriska dumped Tavros on Eridan's planet to 'help with the Angels, isn't she so thoughtful?' In actuality, she did it because she was sick of Tavros ignoring her and hoped he'd get caught in Eridan's crossfire but he actually helped calm the situation down and soothe the angels. Good shit!
Now the pair stick together, and Eridan at last, nervously (but trying and failing to act like he isn't), asks Tavros if he'd officially be his moiral. Tavros eagerly accepts!!! Their destinies of being lonely in the meteor crumbles with this timeline.
Eridan cant help trying to show off that he has a new moiral, talking him up in any conversation. In a way, it's to make Feferi jealous, but mostly, really, it's because he's happy he's finally got something good going on. Everyone largely rolls their eyes and ignores it, but Tavros always beams when Eridan does it.
They are cute and wholesome, even on par with the meowrails. Imagine these two giggling to themselves in the corner, always having each other's back, Eridan defending Tavros from Vriska and trying to fight his battles, Tavros intervening when things with Sollux look bad, Eridan giving confidence lessons haughty prince-flavored, Tavros trying (and being really cringy but endearing with his sincerity) to be Eridan's wingman with Nepeta.
Nepeta sees through their pale quadrant and putting them on her shipping wall, feeling like their visits to her have become less annoying and more interesting as she tries to come up with ways to get them to realize their deeper feelings.
Eridan still thinks about joining Jack Noir in this losing battle, but it's second to focusing on what's going on with Tavros's crush. Tavros tried confessing to Jade as Eridan instructed him to, gets rejected the same way publicly, and is embarrassed, but Eridan is there to blow up at Vriska for making fun of him. Instead of Murderstuck killing the two of them, Eridan and Tavros have been in Eridan's room trying to 'get over Jade' after Eridan's insistance. A moment is shared as they joke around where Eridan nudges Tavros and realizes he feels sparks when Tavros smiles at him and tells him he might have had a terrible confession, but he's never felt this good before, being with him. That's when Eridan has to call the whole thing off and they check the texts on the grouo chat. They stumble back outside to find that Vriska, Nepeta, and Equius have died. The murder clown is still out there. Sollux, Kanaya, the matriorb, and Feferi are still safe and sound.
There's more players, more hope as they meet Rose and Dave for the first time. That's where I end the AU for now.