Tick... Tock... Tick.. Tock...
Your name is Dave Strider, and you're the Knight of Time. The game ended and everyone was brought back to life, though only Earth was restored. The game had spewed out enough money for everyone to live comfortably (along with however many kids they had, and their kids, and their kids... and their kids...), but you still felt as if something was missing. Nothing was missing now, not yet, not at this hour. Five hours, twenty seven minutes, and eighty three point two seconds, that was the time. Sitting up and putting on his shades, Dave ruffled his messy hair. Just a few inches away was Karkat Vantas, an alien from a planet known as Alternia.
Yesterday, he had wandered outside and had been crushed by a tree that the neighbor had foolishly decided to cut down himself. The day before that it had been from choking on his lunch. Last week it had been from a falling vase from a six story building. The shards had cut into his head and the mutant had died from blood lost. What would today be? A slit throat from running with scissors, setting his hair on fire with Jade's curling iron, not understanding what the f*ck a blender is, tripping and getting stuck in an oven, or would Dave be allowed a day of peace? Everyone mostly kept their powers hidden and only used them at home for convenience. Not Dave though, Dave had the wonderful task of resetting time over and over and over again to stop the Knight of Blood from dying. Dave went to take a quick shower before going downstairs to make breakfast. Right before that though, he went to the "secret room" in the backyard. Just in case...
A few minutes later, he heard stumbling and swearing along with the sound of Karkat falling down the stairs. After checking to make sure that the troll hadn't broken his neck (again), Dave took notice of the shirt the smaller alien was wearing. It was just too big on him overall, so... aww, Karkat was wearing his shirt. Upon commenting on it, Dave received an earful of obscenities and a slightly flushed face from the grey-skinned troll. After breakfast, Dave felt a little reluctant to let Karkat out. It wasn't like the human could stop him though, so Dave decided to tag along instead. At least the majority of mistakes he had first made, like letting Karkat get drugged and killed/sold into prostitution/cut up for his organs/all of the above during the first few times. Karkat never seemed to remember any of it though, which was probably for the best.
Dave wasn't a hero. He couldn't save Karkat. Dave could only rewind the clock.
An arcade was an okay place, and Dave could follow Karkat around with the excuse of wanting to play the game next so he could beat the candy-red troll's score. Well, that wasn't that hard anyways... but it worked. Dave briefly scanned the area, seeing John and Vriska immediately run to the Dance Dance Revolution machine while Rose and Kanaya were trying to keep Terezi from licking... absolutely everything. There were only a couple of kids and teens here, and the majority of the older children were talking at the food court.
"HAH! Six hundred and nine points! Beat that, Strider!" Karkat spoke confidently, smirking.
"Sure bro, you suck at these games anyways," Dave sat on the seat that Karkat had climbed off of and began playing, keeping an eye on the other troll. After beating the score by a couple dozen points, he stood. A pissy Karkat was a lot better than a dead one. Dave stuck his hands in his jean pockets, watching as the younger played the game again.
A loud screech and the sound of sparking could be heard before the machine began to tumble and fell on Karkat. It was a quick death- his skull was crushed and still pinkish brains stained the carpet. The reddish color that both defined Karkat and filled him with fear was flowing out and forming large puddles. The yellow eyes that were glazed over with death rolled closer to Dave, bumping into his shoe. Bones had been destroyed easily, despite the fact that they were stronger than any human's. The pungent scent of iron was overpowering, making the human's palms feel sweaty. The entire arcade went silent, staring with a sort of morbid fascination. Dave's eyes, as crimson as the fluids beginning to circle around the cadaver, widened with a sort of familiar trauma.
"No... no, not again, not again, NOT AGAIN!" Dave screamed in horror, "Not again, this isn't happening again, no, please!"
"Dave.. calm down, it'll be okay, we should call an ambulance!" Jade spoke, already knowing that doing such a thing would be folly.
"No, move! I need, I need to-" the Knight of Time ran to the nearest clock, his hand glowing a very faint red before smashing the timepiece. Shards of glass cut into his hand, and he could hear a very faint sound, like water rushing over a waterfall, before everything went white.
Tick... tock.. tick.. tock... tik, tik, tik.
"a..e... Da... Da..e.. Dav.. Dave, Dave, WAKE UP STRIDER!" Karkat screeched into Dave's ear, rousing the human from his temporary entrancement. "I got six-hundred and nine points, nookwhiff."
"Yeah, that's cool. C'mon bro, this is a lame ass game anyways," He pulled the troll away from the machine, going to the smaller ones that had no potential chance of crushing Karkat.
"Do you hear that?"
"Hear what?"
"That ticking sound, bulgelicker," Karkat scoffed, scratching his ear. That sound was so irritating, and it kept showing up!
"I don't hear anything," Dave spoke with a poker face, not betraying his silent relief of Karkat's return.
"That's because you're half deaf or whatever the f*ck," the troll mumbled, the ticking sticking with him for the rest of the day.
These types of scenes became increasingly familiar for Dave. At least every three days, Karkat would die. A short circuited lamp, a broken shard of glass from a faygo bottle falling down his throat, the ceiling collapsing, a pair of dogs breaking loose and ripping open his intestines, a ceiling fan breaking and decapitating him, even things as ridiculous as being hit in the head too hard with a Wii remote, Karkat died from all of these things. Every time though, Dave rewound the clock. He made a habit of keeping a pocket watch on him at all times, just in case there wasn't a timepiece nearby.
One day though, it didn't stop. Dave rewound it over and over and over and over again.. but Karkat kept dying.
First, he fell off the stairs and landed on a spiked fence. Next, he was run over by a car. After that, a street light fell on top of him. So many deaths, and it just kept going and going and going... The human kept Karkat inside, but it wasn't safe in his own home either. It had been six weeks from Dave's perspective, and he would snatch the troll's hand away every time he came across a potentially lethal household object. Eventually, he kept Karkat in his arms (no more than a foot away from him) and led him to the room Dave had been preparing in the backyard.
White, padded walls surrounded them. Dave didn't want to have to do this... but it was for the best. Poor, little Karkat hasn't been himself lately... all because of some sort of ticking. That ticking made the troll afraid, so very afraid... It was easier this way; it was easier to bind the boy's wings and force him to stay within these safe, soft walls. Dave didn't like it when he had to tie the mutant's wrists and feet together so he wouldn't break his neck, but... this was for the best. This was alright, wasn't it? It was for the troll's own good. Even when Karkat cried, even when he screamed and begged and weakly spoke, voice nothing more than a child's whisper, to be let out and set free; Dave kept him there. It was better this way. Amongst these walls that grew stained with more and more red, it was safe. Karkat may bang his head against the floors and walls to break his skull or try to bite his hands off, but Dave would fix the other's mistakes. There would be no problems anymore. It would be a perfect little haven for them. They would be alright. There wouldn't be any problems anymore. No more death, no more despair, no more clocks that broke and ticked and cut into their entwined hands that bled red, red, red.
Dave ran his fingers through Karkat's raven black hair, noticing how still and silent the troll was when he slept. Or perhaps he wasn't sleeping again? Dave didn't miss the quivering that occurred when he brushed his fingers underneath the bags under the troll's eyes. The mutant wasn't dying or trying to run away, nor was he attempting to fight back against his captor-turned-savior. Quietly, the human murmured declarations of love, telling his flightless songbird how foolish it was to attempt to leave. Nothing could go wrong here that wasn't just Karkat being stubborn or ridiculous. The troll was still now, not moving under Dave's calm and firm touch. He was so relaxed and death-like... it must have been a kind of happiness. For the first time in a long while, Dave smiled.
Welcome to my Paradise.