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[parodeity]

DAVE STRIDER

consider this your warning about stairs. itll just keep happening bro. im telling you man

VOICE | TEXT | VIDEO | ACTION

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[windeity]

I have. Maybe not always here, but in both places. I have. So...[A shrug.] Is it irrational to regret something that happened in another lifetime?

[parodeity]

Do you really think of it as another lifetime now?

[windeity]

No. It's a continuation of this one. Like a scratch. I think. I don't know, I know it was me and it was you and how things went before that universe disappeared, too.

[parodeity]

[ dave shifts, looping his arms around john's neck and dragging him in for a lopsided hug. ]

You haven't let me down before, your atrocious taste in mancrushes aside. When do you think you did?

[windeity]

[That's fine. He'll just kind of...tip over into him and hold onto his arms.]

Um. In the old life, a lot. [...] What do you remember about the end of the world when everyone was killed?

[parodeity]

...plenty. But that wasn't your fault, dude. [ if anything that failure was on other people ]

[windeity]

The stuff that happened after was. I'm finally putting it all together. Like what happened after the end occurred. And I'm sorry. I should have tried even harder to figure out a better solution.

[parodeity]

...You mean the part where you split the timeline?

[windeity]

Yeah. I think I get it now. The weird time-hopping power and Terezi's list and Roxy. I get it. That's what happened after everyone else permanently died.

[parodeity]

Babe, you can't change a timeline without that happening.

[windeity]

Roxy stayed the same. There had to be something, like going back further in the timeline and changing things that way without overwriting everyone. Why couldn't that be a thing?

[parodeity]

You took her out of her timeline. And as far as I can tell that maybe doomed every other version of her in the way it does. The thing is, dude, that version of me - of everyone - those specific versions were just doomed. There wasn't a way to save them because the very act would have changed them. Maybe less than you did in the end, but we would never have been those people. Those people were on a laser guided deathwalk. It's...an idea you get used to when you deal with timelines I guess. It isn't something the Heir of Breath was ever meant to have to deal with.

But it wasn't a failure. It was just time travel.

[windeity]

...is that why things turned out the way they did, you think? [Dave and Karkat and Jade living together, Dave dating Karkat, a universe where he was living with people but maybe not the right people.]

I don't know if it matters now since we're still technically different versions of ourselves, too, but that doesn't seem fair. You guys are the ones who did everything so...it's like.

[The main reason he never told Dave is because it sounds so goddamn stupid to him.] I don't want to replace you. In any timeline. Ever. And I did and I didn't mean to do it like that.

[parodeity]

They turned out the way they did because things were...different. With Vriska alive and sort of dominating Pyrope's time and doing...everything. [ he hooks his chin over john's shoulder, sighing. ] I know you didn't mean to. Change us. It's not something you would ever try to do. You didn't have a choice any more than I ever did whenever another version of me had to go and change things. Any version - any version of us would always have cared about you. And maybe it wasn't what it should have been, but don't...it's not your fault the universe is dumb as fuck.

[windeity]

I don't know. [...he's also just going to turn and plant his face into Dave's shoulder, more thoughtful than upset.]

Our universe was really fucking stupid, but I remember some of the conversations I had with you and other people after that which were kind of terrible. So I'm sorry about those, too.

[parodeity]

[ things dave should probably not do at this point: snort in laughter.

things he does: that.

at least he's done the inappropriately timed laughter at john before... ]

Uh, are you talkin' about that whole whatever the fuck with Vantas?

[windeity]

[He's fine with that and at least he's learned so he doesn't blatantly freak out like the first time that happened.]

Yeah. How much of that do you actually remember?

[parodeity]

The one where you were super awkward about me dating a guy? [ said like dave wasn't equally fucking awkward. ] Yeah, whole thing.

[windeity]

[Just. Slowly. Lifting his head to stare at Dave.]

The whole thing. For how long?

[But at least some of the marks on his face have started to fade away.]

[parodeity]

I mean. Since the day you asked me out?

[ haha... ]

I remember the part from callin' him back up on the platform after he flipped only since February, though.

[windeity]

...that conversation kept going? [Please kill him, thanks.]

[parodeity]

Yeah. Then we talked about your love life in a really awkward way. You know, to get "who the fuck chose this topic" bingo.

[windeity]

What love life? I am pretty sure I didn't have one of those? [Granted he kind of looks awkward suddenly because he's also sort of figured out that too.] What the fuck, why did we talk about love lives with Karkat so much?

[parodeity]

You sure about that? [ eyebrows raised. ] And fuck if I know. At least half of the time the dude invited it. One time he tried to schedule my relationship with Terezi so that he could be involved?

[ haha

that was weird. ]

[windeity]

[A huff. Whatever. He probably thinks Roxy in this lifetime is hot too.] His dumbass shipping chart...[...] Wouldn't that have just been a threesome?