No one's gonna fix me when I'm broke

[knightime]

Characters: Dave Strider, Shadow!Dave, and everyone else who wants to play
Setting: Some hallway on Floor 1
Format: Either
Summary: Dave finally catches on that the other Dave wandering around isn't an alternate timeline Dave, but his shadow. He confronts it in all the wrong ways. Cue boss fight.
Warnings: Obligatory shadows warning. Probably death. Probably nothing nice.

[It took a little hopping around, but Dave finally found where his shadow was. He was fairly pissed, considering they probably had spoken to plenty of his friends or acquaintances by now. He gripped the sword in his hand tightly. Just gotta kill it right? Then this could all go away.]

Man, what the fuck is your problem?

I don't know what you're talking about.

[Dave leaps at his shadow, sword at the ready, but fighting yourself proves to be difficult when they're just as fast and strong as you are.]

You sure as hell know. It would be nice if you didn't blather about inane bullshit.

But it isn't inane. You were too scared to talk about it, remember?

Oh hell no. Nothing you said was true. It's all a load of shit. You're a load of shit.

[There's some loud crashing and if you have the misfortune of being on the first floor of the dorm level, you might be seeing a lot more than you really want to see.

The figure was still the same size as Dave. But it was now surrounded by burning corpses, too damaged for anyone to identify. The shadow itself had peeling skin everywhere and a large gaping hole where the heart would be located. Floating over the hole are clock hands, slowly ticking off the seconds like an actual clock would. You probably don't have much time to stare though. You better either run or do something about it.

There's another crashing sound as Dave is sent into the nearest wall.]

Comments

[knightime]

[Dave doesn't even need her to say anything, leaping forward at it. Dave is conscious that it's likely more Daves will appear. Not stable time loops one, but Dave who'll probably die trying to take this boss down.]

Maybe find someone with one. Or get lots of buckets. The trolls can deal with our shitty cleaning products.

[restitchtime]

Better go grab someone from the hallway to run that for you then, because we're kind of all fucking tied up here.

[Rose flits in between the doomed Daves, hoping to use them as cover to see if she could get closer to the shadow and hit something vital. at the very least she'd be able to scope it out better]

[knightime]

You know, if this shithole doesn't have the heart on him, than it has to be somewhere. [Dave paused, glancing at the burning corpses. He knew what they were, which means.] Aim for the corpses. At worst, it'll give him less to throw at us.

[restitchtime]

All right, it's your berserk alter ego monster.

[and really, who would know better than Dave what to hit on this thing? she weaves out from behind a doomed Dave and launches herself at one of the corpses, sliding down its back slowly as her seam rippers do their work. she's too close to the flames for this to be safe but she doesn't really give a fuck about that right now.]

[knightime]

[Dave is just making guesses at this point. But this thing has got to have a heart somewhere and if it isn't where it should be, it might as well be in one of the people he cares about.

But he keeps the shadow distracted from Rose, by keeping in close proximity and trying to attack it head on. It makes it impossible to completely dodge everything that it throws at him, but it'll hopefully be worth it.] I'm really enjoying this month. It's like everyone got together to have a shitty feelings pow wow in all the wrong ways.

[restitchtime]

[nothing in this one. Rose drops from it and curses softly under her breath as she shakes her hands a little - yeah, those are definitely burned. no time to bitch about it, though, as there are still other bodies to batter. she sprints off for the next one]

Guess that's what happens when we're not entertaining enough for our lords and masters upstairs. Got to shake shit up themselves if we won't.

[knightime]

[Dave bites back a cry of pain when one of the arrows actually hits more than just a little nick. He froze up for a little longer than he intended. He got caught up by Rose's burns that he momentarily panicked inside. He grit his teeth and forced his attention back on his Shadow. She wasn't being tortured and burned alive, you idiot.]

It's like they just spend all their time with a hat full of slips of paper with shitty horror tropes year round. [Dave narrowly flashsteps away from where his shadow tries to slam another one of the burned corpses into the ground where he just was.]

[restitchtime]

Hey, watch your ass! [she calls over to him at the shout, glasses flashing eerily in the firelight as she slams into the next corpse. she could take this just fine if she had to; there was no way she was letting anything the tower threw at her slow her down]

Wouldn't surprise me if this was just an elaborate coffee break joke for them. They definitely have too much fucking time on their hands.

[knightime]

[He worries because he cares. But he has to constantly remember that she's fine on her own and this thing wanted him dead. not her anyways.]

Longest fucking coffee break I've ever seen.

[He parries some of the clock hands with his sword.]

[restitchtime]

Does that really surprise you? [another dud. with the number of corpses on this thing it's going to take way too long to go through all of them. she doesn't really want to given her vulnerability but it looks like it's time to pull out the violin and send some of her own copies into this]

[knightime]

[Her time loops were probably more stable than Dave's at the moment, considering Dave is pretty sure that any of his copies won't be seeing passed this battle.]

No. But sometimes I like to think that a coffee break is actually a coffee break and not a full course dinner.

[restitchtime]

[they probably are, considering her Sight. a clone appears at the alpha's side, pulling her out of the danger zone as she continues to play and the other clones get to work on the corpses. she answers Dave over her shoulder as she goes]

Better stop that shit before all the disappointment wrecks you. Hell will freeze over before that happens here.

[knightime]

Good thing I;m not disappointed. Been here long enough to just be tired of this usual bullshit.

[He really should shut up and stop talking to her. It makes it harder to concentrate on his Shadow throwing shit at him. At the same time, he's kind of glad she's there to talk with.]

[restitchtime]

Glad we can actually do something about this particular bullshit, then. Wouldn't want to exhaust your delicate sensibilities.

[with the addition of a couple more helping hand the corpses start falling more rapidly, even with the Shadow's interference. there's maybe three left after ten minutes of body shredding.]

[knightime]

[Of course it would be the last one they would get to. It's probably the tallest corpse that was hanging. Why they didn't grab that one first, is probably hindsight.

But his shadow seems to go even more berserk the more corpses they take down.] Oh, this is cool. He keeps trying to shoot more crap at me. [Which hurts.]

[restitchtime]

[one of the time clones pauses in dodging the onslaught as they try and get within striking range of the remaining corpses, looking over her shoulder to call out to Dave]

Can you keep up with it or do you need somebody to help keep your ass safe?

[knightime]

I'm cool.

[He just thinks he's done with fucking with shit for the next week or something.] You got a job to do and I'm doing mi-[Going to quickly throw himself out of the way. Those things are getting faster and larger. Holy shit.] It would be convenient if this were shit I could do. I feel like I got shafted in powers.

[restitchtime]

Don't. Unless you're really aching to become your own worst damn liability, in which case please feel free to writhe in fucking envy all you want.

[seriously, who would want to have their alpha self basically open to any attack conceivable while pulling time clones? it's a recipe for disaster if it's not managed right.

said time clones hit the last bodies with a thud, the sound of flesh being shredded soon floating through the air as they get to work]

[knightime]

It's basically become an unspoken rule not to be jealous about time powers in general.

[For the first time, the shadow's smile drops as he hears the thud of the last body. And for obvious reason too. The shadow starts summoning more clockhands to shoot at the clones trying to rip apart the body and send them at them.] Incoming. [Dave swipes across, using his sword to block some of them, but he can't get all of them, with so many.]

[restitchtime]

On it.

[how many clones does it take to rip open a body? just one. the extraneous clones all turn to meet the incoming storm of projectiles, blocking them with their seam rippers and their bodies if necessary. they're ultimately expendable, and getting this over and done with is priority.]

[knightime]

[Dave, in the meantime, was back to distracting his Shadow. He swung his sword at it, only to be blocked by a large clock hand used as a blade. Well, of course it would know how to use a sword. Duh, it's him. But at least it was being thoroughly distracted.]

[restitchtime]

[damn right it was. finally, with the tortured sound of ripping flesh, the Rose clone digs out the heart. she stares at it for a moment almost contemplatively before getting this spectacle over with, driving a ripper into it and twisting it cruelly.

she hopes it hurts like a bitch.]

[knightime]

[His Shadow makes a loud screeching sound. It wasn't human sounding at all. Dave backed up quickly, wincing a bit at the sound. Oh yeah, that definitely had to hurt.

His shadow starts burning up at an alarmingly quick rate, along with all the bodies that were attached to him.

It isn't long before the only thing left is scattered ashes.]

[restitchtime]

[the Rose clone curses lowly at the sudden inferno around her, skipping back to where the alpha is slumped. she nudges her lightly to bring her out of the stupor; she straightens up and they both watch the fire flicker.

Rose looks around warily, biting on the inside of her cheek unconsciously]

Is that it..?

[knightime]

[Dave lets his sword clatter to the ground, also kind of just slumping to the ground. He shouldn't let his guard down so quickly, but honestly, there wasn't anything to be guarded about.]

Holy shit, I'm going to piss if it isn't.

[He wearily picks himself and his sword back up incase though.]