towerofanimus | i'm counting back the number of the steps

Entry tags:

i'm counting back the number of the steps

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."

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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.

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?"

"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.

"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."

"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.

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."

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.

John's mouth quirked into a slight frown at the reaction to him, but shrugged it off. He set an elbow on the table and his chin in his palm, raising his eyebrows and just staring for a while.

"...I don't believe you, but 'kay. Thanks. Yours, too."

"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.

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!"

"Thanks. It's not what I would have chosen but at least I didn't get stuck in something embarrassing."

"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."

"Yours is probably different, but at one point my chumhandle was ghostyTrickster, so it works out really well in my head." He had to consciously remind himself that he shouldn't offer other-John a piece of his candy because of the weird stuff that had been happening to people without it. He shrugged, instead. "But you're also a different John so it may not suit you as well, I dunno. Personally I don't really think I pull off this slicked-back hair look, but apparently somebody likes it."

John's grin was broad as he shoveled his candy back into his pumpkin with a sweeping motion, getting up to inspect the weapon. He skid to a halt just shy of her when she explained it wasn't just a prop. His eyes went wide, and then his grin seemed to broaden to an impossible level.

"...whoa! Super legit, you take this Halloween business seriously!"

"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.

So basically, they are the best shitty friends ever. But at least both Egberts aren't dead.

"Woah, you're getting into my best friend territory. Cut that shit out." Dave puts his hand to his face as though he were a blushing virgin. It would work if Dave didn't have such a deadpan look to his face. "Gotta look good in everything they put me in."

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."

"grislyTragedian. I like ghosts though so it works, even if it doesn't match my chumhandle." He's still not even bothering to look at his candy. He has enough for today and some pretty decent headway for tomorrow too. Or enough to share with others if need be. Jolal has an uncanny knack for finding candy even in the most obscure hiding places.

"And slicked back hair is better than say...a mohawk or a mullet."

Small consolations, I suppose.

"Who is? Me or Death? And you totally rock it."

John nodded with a grin and folded his arms over the table, leaning forward and resting his head on them, turned to look at Jolal. "Neat," he said, picking up a hand and gesturing with it a little. "Mine's been ectoBiologist for what feels like forever now, I changed it like a dumbass trying to get rid of some of the trolls bugging me." He chuckled, shrugging his shoulders. "We see where that got me."

He tilted his head thoughtfully, and then nodded. "I'd look really, really dumb with either of those. Like wow, so dumb."

"I've eaten like three pieces over the course of the last couple of days and I've not gone Saw on anybody yet," he groused, fiddling with some of his other wrappers. He quirked his mouth funny.

"I'm afraid I don't see where it got you. The trolls didn't exist in my timeline, after all. But I'm guessing they still bugged you in spite of the change or something?"

"I'm pretty sure Terezi's the one that said it at one point. So it was really dumb of me to think changing my chumhandle to it would get them off my back." He thought for a second. "Wow, no trolls in your timeline. Wild. They don't exactly exist... in our timeline, but Rose and Dave are on the meteor with most of the ones that are still alive at... current-time in my timeline, back home." He frowned. "...wow it feels weird to think of the game as home."

"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?"

Kanaya leaned back a little when John approached, her eyes widening in surprise. She wasn't prepared for such an excited reaction.

And, well...

"I'm not entirely certain what this 'Halloween business' in question is," she admitted. "Though I have been able to conclude that it is a human holiday."

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i'm counting back the number of the steps

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

WWEH, NO THAT'S OKAY.

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

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/sits on

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quietly sidles on in here

wweh.

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hello dear :>

wweh wweh wwibble

hello /)UuU(\

v__v

/)0w0(\

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whoops i derped.

rofl as did I.

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

OH NO JOHN WHAT A CUTIE