A long time ago, when you were just kids, growing up in Houston, you and your best bro buried a box. A sort of time capsule, though you never expected to dig it back up. Leave the aliens to find it. Or the ghosts.
Now, having grown up and drifted apart, it was a heck of a shock when you dug it up.
It was decorated with gears and dripping blood. Made up symbols to identify each other. A terrible self portrait of the two of you, made by your inexperienced hands. Digital pictures of your faces, still chubby from baby fat. He was... smiling, something he never did when he grew up. So were you, terribly 'ironic' pointy anime shades covering your eyes and much of your face.
You think you were around six or seven when you made this. Letters written by both children scatter all around the box, bad spelling and handwriting. Grey and red are wonderful colors together, you think.
FEBRUARY 18, 2014
WOW IT'S REALLY WEIRD TO THINK THAT PEOPLE IN THE FURTURE MIGHT BE READING THIS. I ALWAYS THOUGHT THAT DAVE AND I WOULD BE LIKE IRON AND BRIGHT RED NIGHTS. WITH POWERS AND WE'D HAVE A DROGON AND FOR SOME REASON I IMAGINE HER NAME BEING TEREZI.
dude i think your just talking bout actuall tz. like you know, our frend.
OH MY LORD STOP BARGNG IN ON MY LETTUR DAVE.
just tring to lighten the mood dude.
that rhymed.
NO. NONONONO. NOOO. DO NOT. START. RAPPING.
can't stop the music dude
it's likke building up inside me i just gotta let. it. go.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. THE SINGING IS EVEN WORSE.
stop your winning dude i was just kidding
WHATEVER. LETER OVER.
-KARKAT VANTAS
-dave strider
Besides the incredibly wonderfully hilarious letters, one of the thing catches your eye.
turntecGodhed carcnoGenetisits
bros 4 lief
(Once again, spelling, past me. Spelling.)
It almost brings that single ironic and manly tear to your shaded eyes. You always take for granted all of the friends you had when you were young. Now you are left with a snarky sister and a distant brother.
After sifting through tons of pictures and letters, you come upon a disk, something not common nowadays. Yet you and your family are suckers for old technology so you manage to have an ancient seeming computer that takes it.
The video loaded quickly and started playing almost before you could get the headphones on and slump in a chair. It was you, Karkat, and both of your respective siblings. You suddenly remember spending hours upon hours sitting, watching the stars with just the four of you in middle school.
You instead decide to focus on the old scene. You can almost predict it before it happens.
The boys were running in the Stri-Lalonde's small backyard, tripping and laughing as they fell.
Rose and Kanaya preferred to stay aside in the grass and talk about more mature things. Whispers of Nancy Drew and scary stories were barely heard.
"Hey Dave! I bet you can't outrun me to the house!"
"Karkles do you even know who you are talking to here? I'm Dave flipping Strider. I can outrun you, Vantas. Easy."
"Oh yeah right you're just saying that. I'm like a fox. And nobody can catch the fox." He almost giggles at the end of his sentence, clearly just egging Dave on the way children do
Little Dave, however had other plans. He currently had his favorite red cape strapped to his neck.
Whenever they wore the matching capes, the two young boys felt like knights, defending the princesses that were their sisters from the ever threatening aliens and ghosts.
"You're on!" Dave shouted.
They both broke into a run, not knowing exactly where they were going but clearly enjoying the feel of the wind in their hair.
The small blonde turned suddenly, ending up in front of Kat. He held out his cape in the way of the still running boy.
Karkat, not knowing what to do and not being able to stop in time, did the next best thing in his situation. He crossed his arms across his face, knowing he was going to fall.
And fall he did. He ended up tangled in Dave's cape, not being able to escape. He was vaguely chuckling but still a bit annoyed.
The saboteur ended up about equally tangled into the piece of fabric. He, however was losing his breath due to laughter. It was perhaps the funniest thing to ever happen to a seven year old.
The two girls had hurried over, worried for the fate of their siblings, but it all boiled down to getting
Dave to stop giggling long enough to get him and his best friend unstuck.
You still find yourself having to at least chuckle at the elementary school age shenanigans. It was a pretty awesome prank. There was, however, about a 110% chance that you would have won that race. But it was all for memories, you think.
The video ends and you sigh.
This must have been before you discovered your powers together.
You had forgotten how fun being a kid growing up in the backyard of a scientist and puppet maker. Being friends with a boy who you had the most amazing adventures with was possibly the best thing that could have happened to your still developing mind.
You regret that fight. You regret the distance you put between each other. You regret calling him terrible things and accusing him of not caring. You regret deleting his contact from your phone.
The disk ejects from the computer and you notice something. A date on it reads April 13, 2014. The date on your phone is June 16, 2057.
Now, being a twenty year old time traveler, you put your foot down.
You reach down into your stock of power and rewind.
Sneaking into sixteen year old you's phone, you write something in the notes.
carcinoGeneticist
Who cares about split timelines. At least one Dave, in the multitudes of other timelines, gets to be happy.
Your name is Dave Strider, it's the year 2023 and you just found a familiar handle on your phone. You type it into Pesterchum.
turntechGodhead [TG] began pestering carcinoGeneticist [CG] at 16:37
TG: hey bro
TG: remember me?
CG: WHO THE F-
CG: ...
CG: DAVE?
TG: yeah
TG: so uhhh
TG: how's the powers goin' for ya
CG: FINE. THAT'S HOW.
TG: really cuz you'd think that it might drive a guy insane being able to like... hear everybody else's blood
CG: SAME GOES FOR YOU, STRIDER. A TICKING CLOCK IN THE BACK OF YOUR MIND FOR ETERNITY COULD DRIVE MOTHER TERESA TO BE AN AXE MURDERER.
TG: touche
CG: I MISSED YOU.
TG: me too bro
This was written for my english class and thus has a lack of curse words. (I am only in 7th grade so they still badger you about that)
The assignment was to write any story you could imagine but it had to have either sci-fi and or fantasy elements. Hopefully blood/time powers are enough? Also Dave is in the future so? I don't know I like it enough to post it here.
(The letter in bold is misspelled in parts on purpose. They were still children)