They come and they go, and they come and they go

[knightime]

Characters: [OU]Dave Strider and Open to anyone
Setting: Floor 48, Floor 25; Room 2-01(Closed to Jade Strider)
Format: Either
Summary: He's not involved with the Halloween stuff, but he's got some stuff on his plate anyways. It's gotten much quieter with more of his friends disappearing.
Warnings: Language mostly


Floor 48
Dave is doing his routine visit to the Graveyard. He leaves flowers at the graves of those he knew. It's just something he does now, since he can't speak to them anymore. It ensures that he won't forget them. People from his universe that have come and went. Those from other universes that he got attached to.

As he browses through the rows of tombstones, he stops when he sees two familiar names sitting next to each other. He stands in front of those two tombstones for a very long time. They've been around so long that he didn't think they'd leave. He should have considered it happening when Bro left. He finally drops some flowers on John's and Rose's graves before continuing through the rows and maybe just hoping a bit that he doesn't see new, familiar names on the rest of them. When he sees that Feferi has also joined the rows of tombstones, he feels a slight pang. She'd been through so much like him and she's gone now too. She's been here probably around the same amount of time as him. It's honestly kind of painful to see that she's gone now.

He's been here so long that he should have guessed this would have happened. He still kind of hoped it wouldn't happen again. He knew better.

Floor 25
He doesn't really return to his room after the Graveyard. Instead, he heads to the meadow floor to lie in the flowers. He was here earlier to grab the flowers, but he finds himself returning to it. It's peaceful here and he closes his eyes, trying to not think too much.

Dave is getting pretty tired of everyone eventually disappearing from this place.

Floor 14
He's got headphones plugged in. He has music on pretty high that it drowns out everything around him. He isn't too much in a good mood to try and converse with others it seems. He bobs his head a bit to the music, getting lost in it. It's just one of those days where you don't want to really deal with anything right now.

Room 2-01
He's been dragging his feet to check. He didn't see her name on any of the tombstones, but he was still scared. He didn't want to arrive and see that her name was no longer listed. He's relieved when he arrives and her name hasn't been taken off yet. Relieved, because she's not gone.

He finally knocks on the door. "Jade? You there?" He tries to keep his voice steady. Calm. He didn't want to seem like something was wrong.

Comments

[longwinded]

"At that point you kind of just have to ask yourself what is the better alternative. Do you want to live forever in the wasteland or try to make it here." Neither existence is really better or worse. One is away from everyone, and one could possibly be watching your friends suffer.

"I made sure you and the other Dave were still here. Ha." He snorts. "I thought everyone was just...gone."

[knightime]

"Yeah, except we know there's an ending here. We know there's a certain amount of time left for us in this place. You don't really know how long an eternity is by yourself." It sounds really fucking depressing though. He doesn't want the latter.

"Yeah, well. This makes the third John and the second Rose that's gone through here. Wish you guys would stick around, y'know? It gets a little tiring to retell everything. Morbid story time with Dave Strider is starting to get stale and pouring my heart out like a teenage girl over and over again loses its charm after awhile."

[longwinded]

John wants to be optimistic and say something like, 'oh they will come back' , but it seems pointless. Their time here is up, and the rest of them have to endure what this tower has left for them. It really is fucking depressing. John doesn't know what to say, he hopes John and Rose are together.

"I'm not going to leave." He makes that firm. He plans on staying here as long as this place would keep him alive. He won't go down without a fight. "We're in this for the long haul."

[knightime]

It wouldn't be a very good thing to say to Dave, who knows better than to believe that.

"You don't have a choice whether you leave or not. I'm pretty sure all of us are thinking or saying that, but it's out of our hands." He sighs, looking down at his feet. "Doesn't matter though. People still keep pouring in here and getting booted out. We'll probably see others appear at some point."

[longwinded]

They both know better. Words would be cold. Too cold.

"Well, then we'll just hope for the best and hope nothing shitty happens. I mean. We've already been through enough shit. I'm sure we can take more." He shrugs, he isn't particularly interested in seeing more people come only to see them go again.

[knightime]

"Speak for yourself. I...I don't know how much more I can take," Dave admits. In a month or so, it'll be his second birthday here. February marks his second year here. "There's only so much bullshit someone can handle before enough is enough." He runs a hand through his hair, keeping his gaze to the ground.

"Let's be real. I've probably been passed that point for awhile."

[longwinded]

His face falls. He doesn't really know how to comfort Dave. He hasn't been here as long and he hasn't endured what the other has endured. He could see why he would be at his wits end. "I don't really know how to help you. But you know I'm always here to listen to the bullshit. You don't have to suffer it alone."

He falls silent again for a moment. "Don't give up just yet, okay?"

[knightime]

"Can't give up. Nothing changes if I give up, so I couldn't even if I wanted to." He's stubborn. Just, he's also exhausted.

He sighs. "Getting tired of talking about it to someone, only for them to leave. But I guess it's also shitty not to know the full events of this place. I don't really even know everything from the beginning and I missed a few months."

[longwinded]

"Like I said. I don't really have any plans to let this place take me, whether it is in my hands or not." He elbows Dave. "So don't keep it in. Kay it on me, alright? Like I know I'm really shitty at telling people things. But I don't want you to like...bottle that stuff up."

[knightime]

"I guess. But I don't really want to talk about it here. As much as I find the graveyard to really boost the spirits up, it's not really the kind of place I'd consider for having real talk. I don't know if that's just me though. Maybe you enjoy insightful conversations amongst the dirt and empty graves." He's kind of rambling. Maybe he's stalling a bit.

[longwinded]

"I'm not going to force you to talk about anything. Just know that you can talk to me. Sounds really fucking sappy, haha. But that is what bros are for, alright?" John is so bad at comforting, but hey, it was worth a shot.

[knightime]

"You give me an option to not talk about it and I'm gonna take it, y'know." Dave was good at not talking about things. Especially his problems. It was awhile ago anyways. No need bringing up things from the past, right?

[longwinded]

"Then we don't have to live in the past. I mean the offer is still out there. But moving forward is also supposedly really effective." They do what they can. John is aware he can't force Dave to do anything. He does what he wants.

[knightime]

"It's hard to just move on," Dave replies. If he could fully move on from it, then he would. It's not so easy though. There's still a lot that sits in the back of his mind, never truly letting him out of its grasp.

[longwinded]

"It isn't like we'll forget them, but I'm sure they wouldn't want us to be doing...I don't know. What we're doing right now." Dave is more trouble than John is, and John is aware of that. It's just not being able to do anything to help Dave escape it for a moment is what bothers him.