Dave leaned against the wall. He was in a dreambubble, just kinda looking at the ghosts. There was Kanaya's dancestor, her name was like, Porrim? Yeah that was it. There was Kankri, lecturing Karkat. You couldn't help but snicker at the look on the crabby troll's face.
"What are you laughing at?" A voice came from behind. He turned to see another ghost, one that seemed slightly familiar, but just barely. She had long black hair and glasses and was wearing blue jeans and bright red shoes. He raised an eyebrow at her.
"Do I know you?" He asked.
"Nah. But technically, I know you." Dave rolled his eyes.
"Wow, how cryptic and scary!" He said sarcastically. "That is so fucking cliche I might puke." The ghost chick crossed her arms.
"Not cliche. Truth. And if you wanna know cliche then look in the mirror." Ouch. That was actually pretty good. Dave crossed his arms back at her.
"Who the fuck are you?" He asked.
"Vriska Serket." She answered surprisingly easily. She had a kind of stance that seemed familiar to Dave but he couldn't tell why exactly why. She pissed him off more than what was reasonable.
"Oh, you're the chick that kind of killed Aradia and Tavros and made Terezi go blind." He could tell by the way Vriska's fists tightened that he'd hit a nerve.
"That's low, Strider." She hissed. "Well I don't exactly care about what you think of me. Yeah, I killed people and I'm not gonna pretend I didn't. But that's the past, and it's over so fuck it and fuck you. You don't know shit about me." Dave smirked at her. She was losing her temper already.
"Well, I know enough to know you're a goddamn bitch that kind of betrayed her friends."
"Shut the hell up."
"Sometimes I wonder how people like you can be so disgustingly horrible that it makes people sick." He asked sweetly.
"And I wonder why you're trying to be such a big bad boy and piss me off when it ain't doing anything." She asked just as sweetly. Damn.
"I'm just being truthful here, Serket. Which is more than you could ever say." Vriska pressed her lips together and narrowed her eyes.
"Everyone's got their flaws, Strider." She said. "Who are you to judge when you have so many of your own?" Dave flipped her off.
"I'm fucking flawless." He told her. Vriska widened her blank white eyes.
"Oh, I'm soooooooo sorry!" She said clasping her hands together. "Let me get the human paparazzi! They'd looooooove to get some shots of you!" Okay, she was good. But Dave wasn't going to let her win.
"I know, right?" He said. "But the sad truth is they'd swoon at first glance. I'm just too perfect." He shook his head sadly. "I'm too fucking hot for my own good."
"Oh, Mr. Strider!" Vriska made her voice high-pitched and giggly. "You're so amazing and flawless and hot! Yeah, right." She scoffed. Dave looked at her coolly.
"Well I wouldn't expect somebody like you to know what true awesomeness is. I mean, didn't you date Eridan?" Vriska made a face.
"I broke up with him, douchebag." She said. Dave rolled his eyes. "Now why don't you go fuck yourself? With your shitty sword." This was getting hard.
"Nah. That's saved for shutting up little bitches who think they're so much better than everybody else." Vriska narrowed her eyes at him.
"At least I tried to save my friends. Even if I failed." Her voice was quiet. Dave felt like she'd hit him. That was harsh.
"Does saving your friends mean stabbing somebody in the back?" His voice was equally quiet. Vriska smiled the ghost of a smile.
"Actually, I was the one stabbed in the back. Quite literally." Oh. Yeah. Terezi had stabbed her. Fuck. That didn't turn out how he expected.
"Leave me alone, spiderbitch." He said, his voice cold. She raised her hands innocently.
"Alright, you can get touchy. See you later asshole." She stalked away. Dave watched, trying to figure out what was so unnerving about a short ghost girl that couldn't even really hurt him.
Later, Dave was awake and back on the meteor. He was still a bit shaken up and confused from the conversation with Vriska. He stared in a mirror trying to figure out why she unnerved him. He pulled his shades off and stared, just stared. Then it hit him. For the second when he realized it, he saw Vriska staring back at him. The same stance, her chin lifted and set jaw, with a tense body, like she wanted to fight. The same eyes filled with anger and desperation and hopelessness. She'd reminded him of himself. Just a lonely teen with a superiority complex.
No wonder why he'd hated her so much.