towerofanimus | Rendezvous of Doomed Veracities

Entry tags:

Rendezvous of Doomed Veracities

Characters: Jade Strider (

reddeadvirtuoso) and Dave Strider (

knightime)
Setting: Dave's Room, Room 1-04.
Format: Starting in action because idk why not but we can change if you want
Summary: It's been a long past few months, and with Dave's tower-versary coming up, maybe they both deserve a bit of a break.
Warnings: Talk of previous events, time being depressing, extreme Strider hug time

[Jade still wasn't a big fan of leaving her room much lately. The only reason she had was well-- her...future? self, bugging out during that last round of bullshit. It had been enough to scare her out of her room this time at least, because when she was back to her 14-year-old self, she was pretty sure that if she stayed alone in her room with these thoughts, she'd just about drive herself insane.

She still didn't really get it, and the seemingly rip in the timeline left a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach. Arguing with one's past or future selves was a really old joke by now, but she didn't want to be her futureself. Not the one that showed up. It was kind of a dull hope that that was some doomed timeline, but if it was, Jade was still smart enough to recognize that that was where she was headed right now.

Paranoid, uncool, borderline insane and still counting the seconds as they went by.

If there was one thing the rip had put in her head however, it was the sanity to... actually talk to someone? At least it was enough evidence that there was someone that would hear it and tolerate her bullshit. So it was that idea that led Jade to quietly lurk through the hallways and give a knock on Dave's door.]

Dave? Uh... [~~Can you talk again--~~] You there?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Dave had a lot of mixed feelings when he was young again. He remembered what his older self had said to others. Well, wrote to others. He could probably find all the paper with his writing on it and reread them, but he didn't need too. Your memory tends to be terribly good when you have to constantly figure out the nonlinear parts of your life.

Older him was content with who he was. Even though...even though he told someone else he'd no longer exist. Something that he had to resign himself too as soon as he realized it with his first corpse.

This was just really unsettling.

Dave snapped out of his thoughts and look towards the door. He was just sitting on his bed, his timetables sitting in front of him.] Yeah. I'm here. Sup?

[She'd be glad to know at least she wasn't the only one stuck on crazy thoughts.

Jade's not sure what she actually expected, but she did tense up a bit when he responded, and thought for a few seconds about just bailing. In the end she just kind of ended up standing there like a dumbass for a few seconds before she decided not to do that.]

It's Jade. [...] Strider. You busy?

[These two are the masters of thinking too much and having too much time to think about things. Their lives are hard. It'd be so nice if they didn't end up thinking so much, probably.]

Naw. This place doesn't really give us that much to work with when it isn't letting shit hit the fan. We get a ridiculous amount of downtime for some reason. What's up?

[Honestly, it was hard not to think when they had plenty of time to waste.]

They're just buttering us up for the next shit storm.

[She idles around the door a bit, before stepping inside a bit awkwardly, not quite yet closing the door.] Just uh. Kinda wanted someone to talk to. I guess? Kinda got bored with myself.

I guess so. But that's not until next month at least.

[They basically live day to day, month to month.]

Yeah? [He probably could get some help by talking himself, honestly. The recent events kind of shook him up, even if he was trying to not let it bother him.] We can talk. Talking probably would be a step up from us trying to keep shit under control.

I guess it'd be really stupid and B-grade movie luck to wonder if it'll be as bad next month, right?

[When he seemed OK with it, she stepped aside and slowly closed the door, but just kept kind of standing behind it. Even though it was closed.]

You uh... [...] Last month was real, right? The whole time thing? Am I the only one that remembers that...

It's Ruana. It's going to be worst next month. You don't even have to wonder.

[Dave isn't particularly fond of Ruana.]

No. I remember it. I'm stuck between wishing I didn't and fucking glad at the same time.

...I'm not the only one overthinking it right? Because it's been on my mind since we've been brought back to normal.

[Jade's admittedly still kind of hazy on the admins-- but after Halloween, it's pretty easy to deduce that Ruana was Bad.]

Fuck no, that's basically all I've been thinking about since everything decided to calm their temporal tits.

[Whoah there Jade, sounding a little too freaked out for your own liking there. Reel it in.]

...I mean... you think that's really gonna happen one day?

[Dave doesn't really mind Dax at this point but Ruana and Jason were definitely on the list of people he really fucking hates.]

No.

I mean maybe some of the things might overlap, but I can't imagine it being like that. We already kind of made sure that we don't walk down that route just by doing nothing.

But...I mean. We'll have to go through all that emotional crap they did right?

[Right. Being aware of it kind of prevented it from happening? Or just made it happen anyway. She's seen both in time travel movies. You know, before she learned to hate them.]

...I don't wanna turn out like that, Dave. [She leaned against the wall and slowly slid to the ground, keeping her gaze down.][Fuck, why can't she talk?!] I'm scared.

[He puts his arm around her shoulders, hopefully being comforting.]

Then don't. You got a bunch of us around so you don't have to turn out like that, you know. If you need to talk or even just hang, I'm around. I don't think I'm ever not going to be around. [He's kind of resigned to this at this point.]

[It helps, a little; and instead of leaning against the wall, she sort of half leans against him, though..trying not to be too obvious about it.]

But you can't change the future. Just like you sure as fuck can't change the past. Not if it's already set like that, can you?

[He wordlessly brings you a bit closer. He knows better man. He knows.]

Who says that's our future though? [Dave isn't going to believe it.] We can prevent it. [They have time at their fingertips. They can change things. That's not going to be what they grow up to be.] I'm not going to let you turn out that way, Jade.

[She let out a meek sniffle, and well-- everything be damned, she turned towards Dave and clung to him like an infant with a death grip, burying her face in his chest while her glasses slid up onto her forehead.]

I-I don't want it to turn out like that! I don't wanna be like that and I don't want YOU to be like that either a-and-- B-But what if we can't do anything about it?! I-I tried to change things and do the same f-fucking thing when Bro died but I couldn't do anything to stop it--!!

[And she didn't want to start missing Dave's voice like that too.]

[Dave gently wraps his arms around her, rubbing her back lightly. Dave doesn't cry, but it's mostly because he doesn't want to get upset when Jade was so upset already.]

It doesn't have to be that way. Maybe we were never fated for that. Like Davesprite's timeline not supposed to continue. Maybe that one wasn't meant to either, but we have the advantage of knowing that now. [His grip tightens a little.] Hey. We both couldn't save Bro. You don't have to take that weight by yourself.

C-Can you do that...? [She was still sniffling quite a bit, but she had at least loosened her grip and was audible enough to be heard properly. For the most part.]

Can you see a doomed line... and be part of it without going back to it? [Why the fuck didn't these stupid stupid powers have a manual.

At the last part though, she goes silent for a moment, almost with a small degree of hesitance, before speaking again.]

It's just not fucking fair.

I don't know. [At least he's being honest with Jade instead of trying to give her false hope or something.] But this isn't the game and we don't even know what that entire week was about.

I mean. I was decades older last week but was that actually me? It seemed like me at that time was pretty sure he wouldn't be existing passed whatever happen. [That was a really sad thought. Like the Tower purposely brought those versions of them to existence for a week only to make them disappear again.]

But we can take this chance now. We know what we can become. If we don't forget about them, we don't necessarily have to become them.

[Right. It's not the game. They weren't really stuck my game rules. Just how were the rules of time they learned supposed to apply?]

I didn't know what the fuck the... older me I guess was thinking. But do you think they knew they were doomed anyway in the end?

[Kind of harsh in hindsight for them, but... damnit she didn't have time to worry about every doomed line.]

....Y-You think we can really do it. [It almost had the inflection of a question, but it was more of an affirmation for herself.]

[He's under the impression things here just don't work like it should. Or at least, how they think it should.]

I think he knew. I don't remember everything but I think he always knew. [And that was really sad. But maybe you live with that fact. After all, to keep using their time powers, they had to accept that they might become a doomed timeline. And Dave knows he would do it to preserve the alpha one. You had to sacrifice a lot for this.]

We can try. Because some iteration or timeline will or has.

[She felt bad. She'd spent the entire game-- arguably months longer than her other friends had-- hoping and praying that she was doing it right, being terrified of becoming a doomed line, no matter how necessary it was. And here she was, praying to whatever cosmic entity that could possibly exist, that those weird versions of them were Doomed-- so that they could keep being the Alphas, so that they-- wouldn't end up like that.

She slumped a bit at that.]

If there's all these iterations of us, then... there's like some of us that screwed up and some of us that didn't. Maybe this is the chance we get to split from the wrong one...?

[Wishful thinking?]

I...don't think there's a "wrong" timeline here. [He's going to admit it. It's easier to think they're alpha and that everything else is doomed. But arguably, those versions of them lived a long time. In a place like this where dying isn't permanent...is there such thing as a doomed timeline?

It really makes this time business hard.] Here, it's a lot of different timelines, but that doesn't necessarily make them Doomed anymore. Just different. If you think that this is the point where timelines diverge, than yea. It probably is.

But it isn't really like they screwed up. They lived for awhile. There's some success to that.

[Huh. That was a concept she'd never thought of before, actually.

Surprisingly, it sort of snaps her out of her melancholy, if only for her to stare out into space trying to comprehend the idea. It was true though-- they always came back, so did anything count as a doomed line anymore?]

Fuck. My brain hurts. [Hmph.]

They did live way too frikkin' long to really be doomed, I guess. Instead of doomed ones I guess it's just...alternate ones?

Right? This isn't time shit we should be forced to deal with, goddamn.

[But it kind of is a nice thought. Not ever being doomed.]

So basically, alternate versions of ourselves can be brought here and all the timelines branch off but don't necessarily end doomed. Way to fuck up whatever game mechanics we understood. Shit, I think after all of this is done, I'm hanging up my time cape. Fuck this noise.

Infinite alternate branches, it just sounds like whoever's in charge in this universe gave a single fuck about anything.

[Maybe if she pretended that was an anger-inducing thing she would be angry and that's way better than being sad?]

I wanted to hang up my hood like a year ago. Before I even got these powers. I will retroactively turn them back in for a limited warranty.

This entire set up is probably meant to fuck us over, let's be honest. Not allowed to be happy, ever.

[Dave sighs a bit. Tired.]

If we hung up our hoods, who'd make sure their friends didn't decidedly fuck up? Gonna be honest. I wouldn't want to see the mess John makes if he had what we had. That's just asking for disaster. [He's grown to hate what SBURB gifted him. But if it meant helping his loved ones out, he'd take it.]

[If there was one thing she could say about her powers, it was at least that they were meant to help her other friends, but-- She...hadn't really been very good at that anyway, had she.]

Pretty sure your John wouldn't make the best Time Lord ever. [She was trying to bring the humor back, but...]

...Then again, if I'm supposed to act like my John actually is, I guess I can understand how I screwed up so bad.

[it was an idle observation.]

You know, time isn't exactly something that can easily be grasped. I don't think you're exactly bad at it. It's hard to be good at it. [He doesn't even really like using them anymore.]

You kind of also have to accept that what you're doing is basically killing versions of yourself multiple times along with others and that's not exactly a walk in the park. The more you think about time, the more it becomes harder to grasp.

[Even he doesn't have the most perfect grasp either.] And in a place like this, I don't think our time powers really help us as much as they do in the session. We were built for the session. This? Not so much.

How come you and Eri make it look so easy then?

[She's well aware it's not, and she's aware they both have issues-- but everyone always seemed to have it together except for her.]

I fucking hated that stupid Sburb game, but-- a-at least then we'd be useful, right? We'd sort of know what to do, even if we were just faking it? [Even she thinks she's grasping at straws though.]

We just put up the biggest fake bullshit facade to make it seem so. I guess I already saw myself die so quickly upon using my powers that I kind of just resigned to the fact that it would be far more normal than anything else.

[Just because the timeline seemed to move smoothly doesn't mean there weren't a lot of bumps on the way.]

We're plenty useful as we are. Just...we aren't useful here like we are in the game. Here, I don't think it matters at what power we have at our disposal. But hey, I sure as hell appreciate having you around. It makes things easier. I think that's a lot better than being able to make a million time loops. [It doesn't really save them from figuring out what to do here, but maybe they should remember that they're not the only ones at a loss of what to do.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Rendezvous of Doomed Veracities

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject