i'm counting back the number of the steps

[heirterosexual]

Characters: John Egbert, Dave Strider, and anyone else who wants in.
Setting: Cafeteria! Saturday the 20th.
Format: Whatever goes.
Summary: Boys, candy, boys in pink skirts. John needs to get out more.
Warnings: Language, teenage boys being jerks to each other.



John was actually starting to get used to and almost enjoy his costume. The pants were a little tight but the jacket was actually sort of cool. He didn't pull the look off terribly well with his coke-bottle glasses, but thankfully he hadn't lost those to the costume since he sort of needed them to see. He had fallen into the habit of always having a candy cigarette in his mouth, to complete the look. He felt like maybe being in character would help his chances of getting candy.

So far it wasn't, really, but he had a good enough haul as it stood.

Currently, he was sitting at a table with his candy all strewn across it, sorting it and counting the individual pieces. He frowned.

"Why is it always banana laffy taffy? Banana is gross."

Comments

I FEEL GUILTY FOR TAGGING LIKE THIS BUT THESE TWO NEED TO INTERACT MORE...SORRY......

[grislytragedian]

A few tables away sits a boy in a ghost costume. But not just any boy. Should John happen to look up from his candy, he will notice that beneath all the ghostly makeup, this kid kind of has his face, albiet with a much more somber expression and less unruly hair. His plastic pumpkin sits next to him on the table, filled with quite a bit of candy. However Jolal doesn't seem to share his counterpart's enthusiasm for checking out his haul, preferring to keep his blank stare fixed on the wall opposite him.

Were it not for the fact that his Rose died from not having enough candy when the clock struck midnight, he might be a little more chatty. Not that he has an opinion on banana laffy taffy. Even before he got his braces, he's not sure he's ever had the stuff.

WWEH, NO THAT'S OKAY.

[heirterosexual]

He scowled and peeled the taffy from its wrapper and chewed sourly on it, glancing around the cafeteria as he did so. Thus his gaze eventually fell upon his Lalondeish counterpart, and his plainly unhappy expression. He frowned and scooped his candy back into his own pumpkin, bringing it with him as he slid over to John.

"...hey, why the face?"

sob gdi rose why did you have to be dead on the 20th

[grislytragedian]

"Huh wha--" John snaps out of his daze, looking over to figure out who his new companion for the time being is. "Oh. You."

He's still not entirely sure how he feels about his other self. Their first conversation, aside from being awkward, didn't exactly impress him. In fact, there was a while there where part of him could kind of see where Rose Strider was coming from with her whole 'all Johns are annoying at best' thing. That being said, he's not entirely sure if he wants to dive into a feelsy conversation with his other self just yet.

"It's nothing. Nice costume."

Serious? Sarcastic? With such a neutral, kind of flat tone to his voice, it's hard to tell.

/sits on

[knightime]

"Hey, what's with the long face? You look like death got real friendly with you."

Dave isn't actually aware of what's happened to Rose. It probably makes him a shitty friend, but he's been kind of paranoid that John might kick the bucket if he isn't constantly hounding the other to get candy. Even more so, he doesn't want John to ever die while he's here. But he should have been paying attention more to the other alternate universe pals he has around. "You okay?"

Dave just takes a seat next to him. Poodle skirt and all.

[grislytragedian]

It only makes Dave as shitty a friend as it does John. Because he's been doing the exact same thing with his own Egbert. Only he kind of failed at it this time, despite how hard he'd tried.

He chuckles hollowly. "Death and are pals for life, I thought you knew that." And then he notices Dave's costume... "Nice skirt."

[knightime]

"Doesn't matter, dude. Don't eat the candy." Dave didn't seem bothered at all with his current predicament. Sure, he was stuck wearing the poodleskirt and the pink jacket, but he seemed to be completely fine with it. He just sat down next to John, shades and pokerface still in place.

"It's better this way since I don't think eating this shit is going to be a very good idea. It's probably the worst idea, to be honest."

[heirterosexual]

"Why not? That's what candy is for. To be eaten." He peeled the piece of offending banana Laffy Taffy out of its wrapper and bit off a piece of it, scrunching his face up at it. "Yep, still gross and banana." He folded the wrapper back over it and dropped it back into the pile.

[knightime]

"Because it's candy from the Tower. It might just suddenly fuck you over. Suddenly you're ripping hearts out or some morbid bullshit like that." Dave might or might not have had this happen to him. On more than one occasion.

quietly sidles on in here

[gloomyapoplectic]

Kanaya seemed to have lucked out in regards to the costumes -- that is, she didn't appear to be wearing one at all. She looked a bit of a mess, but it was a rare time when she didn't.

She didn't seem to recognize either boy as she passed by on the way out of the kitchen, oatmeal in one hand and chainsaw cradled in the opposite arm. (If there was one thing that Kanaya liked to be prepared for, it was Tower monsters.)

She actually could have pulled off a "chainsaw murderer" costume if someone didn't know what she looked like normally.

hello dear :>

[heirterosexual]

John was still sorting and counting his candy idly when Kanaya happened on by, unassuming with her chainsaw and her oatmeal. He blinked at the chainsaw for a moment.

"Whoa, nice prop!"

hello /)UuU(\

[gloomyapoplectic]

"Hm?"

Kanaya paused at the comment, stopping in her tracks to look at John. She blinked dumbly at him a few times, apparently needing a moment. But, that moment seemed to be enough to trigger the recognition.

She gave an uncertain smile. "Hello. Um..." She shifted the weapon a bit in her arm. "I am afraid it is not fake."

[knightime]

Dave kind of recognized her as Kanaya. Just...not the Kanaya he was used to seeing. So this was kind of a strange deja vu type feel. But it was probably alternate universe shenanigans as usual. But it means he doesn't mind calling her out when he sees her walk by.

"Hey, Kanaya."

[gloomyapoplectic]

She stopped to face her addresser with mild confusion.

He looked like David. Alright, fair enough. He wore lens-based vision enhancers like Jade. John mentioned a "Rose with Dave's last name", and he hadn't meant Rose Egbert...

Dave Strider, then?

All of these timelines were such a bunch of hoofbeastshit.

"Hello," she greeted, after taking a moment to figure out what David (Dave?) this was. Hesitation followed after that, preceding a curious, "I am going to attempt to pre-emptively circumvent confusion by asking if we are somehow acquainted."

ollies on in here..........

[septette]

"Maybe they thought you were a monkey," says the twelve year old girl popping up a few tables away, dressed like some kind of devil. Except, of course, those wings on her back seem to be real, and not costume. And she's got way too many burn scars covering her body for it to be costume either. Recognize the voice at all, John?

"Aren't humans supposed to be related to them?"

hi hi hiiii

[heirterosexual]

"Rude, monkeys are hairy and a lot smaller than people usually," John quipped, still sorting his candy. He glanced up at her question and blinked at Remilia for a while. His eyebrows knit together.

"If you believe in the theory of evolution, sure," he offered. "Remi?"

[septette]

"Not like I could tell!" Lololololol. Though she does rifle around in her bucket, fish out a cherry-flavored laffy taffy, and chuck it in John's general direction. Sorry if it hits his face or something oops.

"Yes. Hello, John."

[knightime]

"I guess so. But I like to think we're a little pass scratching our butts and picking our nose and doing a little parlor trick for a banana. Apple is the shit, anyways."

He glances over at her. He gets the feeling those burn scars aren't part of the costume, but doesn't say anything about it.

[septette]

"Horses like apples, don't they?" Snrk.

i thought i was late but then it was only two days yeeeaaaah

[reddeadvirtuoso]

"It's a curse from the magical voodoo powers. Some asshole way back when moved a mummy's sarcophagus, tainting all of the laffy taffies to host a hideous, banana-esque taste. Only some of them were able to avoid the curse, but they're always the minority."

Yep, Jade's just walking on up to John's table in which she is pretty sure is some stupid copy of a Captain America costume she knew it totally was though, stopping in front of his table and looking at all of the candy laid out.

She probably thinks he's John Lalonde or something though. Whoops.

aww ye

[heirterosexual]

He chewed idly on the end of one of the wrappers of his candy, glancing up as Jade approached. He blinked slowly, frowned. Short hair, sunglasses, Jade's atom shirt but in red. His mouth quirked funny. That was also a hilariously Dave-like rant about banana laffy taffy.

"...Wow, you must be Jade Strider," he deduced, a grin pulling his mouth upward at the corners.

[reddeadvirtuoso]

"Ding ding ding, A+ work John. You don't even need a gold star effort because you fucking aced it."

Typical Striderian lingo, but it was hard for her not to crack some kind of a grin around Johns and Egberts. So you get the bonus of getting both, except then she had to take a moment to look confused.

"Wait, which John are you supposed to be? I swear to god this is getting fucking ridiculous."

NEVER LATE BABE. GIVE ME ALL YOUR CR

[knightime]

"It's like trying to find the diamonds in the dirt. Except its a sea of shitty yellow taffy with only a few apples and cherries mixed in."

Sup girllll. While you're Captain America, Dave is a fucking chick. It's like he's going to end up in girl clothes for the rest of his life.

Not that he's all that bothered apparently. "I think I got the short end of this costume party shtick."

glub glub glubs her way in here 5 days later

[argoncharybdis]

Not wearing a costume sure had it's advantages. You know, such as not having to worry about dying? Nepeta certainly thought it was a plus. However, having at some point made her way into the cafeteria that day, she overheard a boy near by complaining about the flavor of his candy!

Looking around, she found the source of the voice and noticed that he was (hopefully) in costume. Looking down at her basket of candy, she walked over and held out the bucket, grinning.

"You can take some of mine if you'd like! I purromise there's no banana flavor in here. I think I gave those all away already."

omg kawaii

[heirterosexual]

John blinked up at Nepeta and her candy offering, giving her a once-over. She was still wearing a shirt with a troll emblem on it, so maybe she wasn't in costume.

"Aren't you supposed to keep your candy, though? Or are you just collecting it to hand out to other people?"

IM SO LATE IM SORRY SCREECHES

[knightime]

Dave glanced over at the voice. Oh god damn it, more trolls he doesn't recognize. Why is he still not used to this? It's been months.

But she doesn't look like she's in a costume so... "Why are you collecting candy? There isn't a reason for you to do so, right?" He'll ask for her name in a bit. She's a troll, but not one he's talked too as far as he knows.