Roxy lalonde is sitting on her porch.

Haha, yeah right.

Roxy lalonde is PASSED OUT on her porch.

Be Dirk:

You are now Dirk strider and you have come to hang out with your good friend. As you round the corner, you can see Roxy, hanging upside down on her hammock. You sigh.

God, when is this girl not drunk? Everytime you try to have a serious convo with her all she does is fling herself at you and mumble incoherent gurgles. Then she barfs on your shirt.

As an early birthday present, her gift to you was to be sober during your birth-week or whatever that was. Rolal was not the one to make promises. In one hand was an empty wine bottle and in the other, a birthday card.

Looking closer, the card was a cheap card from Walgreens. On the front is a smiley wizard.

"Hope you have a magical birthday!"

If your birthday went anything like last years, it would not be anything near magical. That wizard doesn't know what he was getting in to.

Flashback?

No, you can't. Not now, anyway. Roxy is waking up.

Be Roxy

"Dirky?" You push your body up. You groan from the pain.

"Sup. How's that birthday present."

"I swear, I'll start tomorrow. Let me get this hangover over with." You drop back onto the hammock. Your head pounds.

Dirk sits next to you, petting your hair. He pushes his foot off the porch, rocking the hammock. Clutching your stomach, you sob.

"Stop, please. It really hurts." You curl up into fetal postion. Dirk pulls his hand away.

"Do you want to lie down? I don't have to hang around here. I'm sure my Bro and Dave need help."

You look up into his orange eyes. You felt so rude sending him home but you drank a little too much, a little too fast. He nods and stands up.

"I'll visit later. Tell Rose I said hi."

"Sure." You mumble. Rose opens the front door.

"Oh, hello Dirk. Is Dave with you?"

"Nah. He's probably on pesterchum though." Though you aren't looking at him, you can hear him walk toward you.

You close your eyes and slow your breathing. Dirk buys your act.

"Rolal fell asleep. Can you bring her up to bed?" Dirk picks you up, cradling you in his arms.

"Of course." Dirk hands you off to Rose, who struggles to hold you. Your arms hang at your sides.

After Dirk leaves, Rose drops you on the couch.

"Hey! He said bed."

"I know. We need to talk."

Be Rose.

Once again, your sister has put herself in a state of immense pain. Through therapy sessions, you have discovered that she suppresses natural hurt with such liquids on a daily basis. You hate seeing her like this. If 'fefetasprite' was still around, you could team up with her. Although the sprite had exploded, Nepeta and Feferi visited often.

Not often enough, however.

You are now sitting on the uncomfortable couch, surrounded by the menacing wizards. Roxy is hugging a plush squiddle wizard Kanaya made her for her birthday.

"Please, put down the stuffed octopus."

"It's not an octopus." Roxy snaps. She lovingly wraps her arms around the purple toy. You raise your eyebrows.

"Aren't you a little old for those?"

"I didn't come here to be interrogated, thank you very much." Roxy mutters. Her joyful attitude was clouding over with clouds of wine and headaches.

"You didn't come here at all, I dragged you. Now, can we please have a decent conversation? I have a life too."

"Big fucking surprise. Can I have mine back?"

"I am going to begin with or without you."

"Bye!" Roxy throws her torso into an upright position, just to fall back again.

"Ow."

"Roxy, what are your feelings on Dirk?"

"He's a studmuffin who likes dudes."

You nod and write notes in your notebook. You underline the last part.

"Do you know Jade's 'brother' Jake?"

"Yea." Roxy sighs. Once again, you take note. Roxy rolls to her side, her pink eyes widening.

"Do you know?" She asks.

"Probably." You answer. She is hinting at something so obvious, it isn't even hinting. It's telling.

"Everyone does. I don't know why I told him in the first place."

"Maybe it's because you wanted to have his bobies." You snicker.

"Wow, third time this week. I'm never going to live this down."

"Nope." You shake your head, imagining your gloomy sister in Dirk's face. Her eyes spinning, her outfit a cheery array of rainbows and sugar. You almost wish she could do that again, drown her pain with something other than alcohol.

Drown YOUR pain in something other than alcohol.

Be Dirk.

You are now on your way back to your new home. Smoke plumes in the distance.

"Dirk! Grab Mrs. Lalonde and call the fire department!" Your bro waves you down a few blocks away. You can barely hear him, but you do catch, 'call the fire department'.

As the phone rings, you run toward the fire. A skyscraper cuts through your vision of the sky.

The stone is crumbling, throwing embers onto surrounding roads. Smoke is surrounding the building like Damara's smoke. A crown of worry, a halo of destruction.

Is..is that your building?