Your name is Dave Strider. You are 25 years-old and time has all but stopped around you. You were supposed to die with a smile on your face and meet your lover in the afterlife, whatever that was in the real world. But instead you are watching him watch you die, something you had hoped would never happen. You watch as his face turns red, the veins on his forehead pulsing angrily, his blue eyes shaking in fear all the while he is slowly calling out your name. You feel that the tears welling up in your eyes are being lifted off of your face as you continue to fall.
Your lips part as you start to scream out his name but everything is so slow you can't even hear yourself.
How did you get here? How did everything turn out so badly for you?
He was never supposed to see you die. He was supposed to stay dead so that you could die and be with him. So how did you get here?
Your name is Dave Strider and you are 16 years-old. You are safe with your friends but you don't know where you are. You don't care really, you are happy enough knowing all three of them are alive. Your happy reunion seems to be cut short, however, when you hear a familiar scratchy, angry voice yelling at you from the bridge connected to your platform "WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE!".
"Karkat?" You hear John shout out beside you. He's dorky, so it's okay that he PCHOOOOs his way over to Karkat and hugs him. Clearly the troll doesn't like, considering he starts yelling, "YOU DUMBFUCKASS! GET YOUR GRUBBY HUMAN MONKEY PAWS OFF OF ME! I'M NOT ONE OF YOUR HUMAN PILLOWS THAT YOU HUG BECAUSE YOU'RE AFRAID YOU NOOK SUCKER!" His angry yells are met only by John's chime-like laugh and his goofy dork-boy smile.
"Karkat! You're here! But… How? Did you have one of those weird doors in your house too?" John asks, tilting his head to the side. The troll nods his head and looks around. "Yeah. I'm not sure if the others have found theirs though. I was TRYING to get out of my respite block but then this STUPID door sucked me in and now I'm here. With a bunch of humans… I swear, Egbert, if you fucked this up I WILL NOT hesitate to throw you over into that dark abyss right there."
His threat is met with smiles from the girls. They had understood long ago that it was just Karkat trying to understand what was going. "I see the Strider-lusus is alive. Are the rest alive too?" He asks, his eyes narrowing as he spots Bro lurking beside Dave while the others nod. "Wait, what did he just call me?" Bro asks. You feel a small smirk pull at the corner of your lips and shrug. "Some stupid alien term for guardian." You respond plainly. "I WILL HAVE YOU KNOW STRIDER THAT IT IS A PERFECTLY NORMAL TERM! IT MAKES MORE SENSE THAN GUARDIAN BECAUSE WE ALL KNOW THAT GUARDIANS ARE OUT TO DESTROY EVERYTHING IN THIS GOGDAMN FORSAKEN UNIVERSE!"
You roll your eyes behind your shades, sighing in exasperation. "I'm sorry, I blanked out the moment you opened your mouth. Want to run that by me again?" You say tilting your head to the side to indicate you don't care at all about what he has to say. At least it's comforting to know that things are still the same with everyone. Karkat enters a one-sided yelling match with himself while John tries to calm him down. You look at Bro and notice he's confused. He's back to his old ways and so are you, so you understand that the small clenching of his jaw means he doesn't get it. "He's one of the aliens from the game. He likes to talk too much. He'll be fine." You say. "You know… I think I'm just going to go back for food. Come back when you feel like it, little man." Bro says as he turns around to leave.
"Wait!" You shout, finding yourself grabbing his wrist. Totally uncool. "How are you going to get back?" You ask, trying to hide the quiver in your voice. You just got your Bro back and you don't feel like losing him again. You remember the tube had only two buttons to press anyway; the friendly Pester Chum icon that brought you into this world and the evil, glaring Sburb icon. "The Sburb icon takes you back to your home, Dave. Against better judgment it was the first button I pressed and I returned home. A cruel joke, but safe nonetheless." You hear Rose's calm voice say.
Both you and Bro are staring at her. He just nods at her. "Stop by whenever you want, little sis." Bro says, looking at her. He's probably understood that this is Rose, the other half of the "twiny combo" you had mentioned earlier. He tips his hat at her before walking off. You cough slightly and try to get back your cool but you know that Bro is going to get on your case for that slip-up later. "He seems nice. I guess we'll be having, brother-sister-father quality time sometime soon then. You should come over for some brother-sister-mother quality time too. Oh… And don't worry, I won't tell anyone how uncool you were." Rose says smiling. She walks off to meet John and Jade who are still trying to get Karkat to admit he missed them.
You stand still watching the other four. None of this makes sense. You had hoped that leaving the game meant the world would be normal but it makes less sense than it did before. You sigh quietly and tilt your head up, hoping to just stare up at the darkness and make sense of everything. You don't see darkness like you expected. Instead, you see… the Hero of Heart symbol? You start walking past your friends, still looking up. They call out for you but you're far too interesting what is above you. You cross the bridge that leads over to the center that connects the platforms you and your friends came from. There is a fifth platform that you assume Karkat came from as it was just a transportation tube thing on a round platform. You look up again and see that the symbols for the post-scratch players are above you. The platforms aren't like yours however. Yours are lit up and moving. Theirs are just dark and almost dead looking. Did that mean the others didn't make it?
"Do you think they made it?" You hear John ask beside you. You were too deep in thought to notice your friends were all around you. You shrug. "Maybe they stopped existing at the end of the game since they were from the post-Scratch universe." You suggest. "Uh, hello fuckass! I'm here! I'm the product of a Scratch and I'm here! Do you even use your brain!" Karkat yells. Behind your shades your left eye twitches. Here it goes, another hour yelling match with himself. Time to hunker down and ride this crazy troll wave.
Ten minutes into the Karkat v. Karkat yelling match you take matters into your hands. One "Hup!" and a supplex later the messiah troll is out like a light. Of course, that left you with the task of carrying Karkat around while he was unconscious. You all decide to take him back to his home. You mention the transportation tube that was on a symbol-less platform. It's a tight squeeze, but you all fit into the tube. There are two buttons in this tube though; Pesterchum and Trollian. Naturally you have to press the Trollian icon. You are all transported to an area similar the one you game from, except it's made to accommodate twelve people and not just four. When you arrive, the other trolls are having their own happy-fun-time reunion. They seem to have made it out okay and alive. You're the only one that notices that their ancestors' platforms are also off.
Without realizing, it turns into a sixteen, well fifteen because Karkat was still out, person committee whose purpose is to try to make sense of what happened. You don't know how long everyone talks but everyone is okay with the conclusion that the game ended properly and you all won a gift from the universe which is this new peaceful one. Jade and John both agree that a successful end to the game deserves a party. The trolls are intrigued and agree and you all find yourselves parting ways to make preparations for this shindig tomorrow night.
You're on your way to your symbol when you hear John calling out your name. "Hey! Wanna come over?" He asks, smiling. You really have nothing better to do and Bro did say you could come back whenever you felt like it. Nodding, you flashstep your way over to him. "You know, we haven't had any best bro time since this whole thing started. Soooooo, I thought we could have a movie night!" He says once you're both in the tube and he's pressed the button to return to his home. "Egderp, if you make me watch Con Air, I will do a pirouette off of the handle and make sure to smash-in the television." You say coolly.
You hear him laugh and for some reason your heart jumps. It was a feeling you had hoped would have died in the game. "Awwww, fine. How about we play a video game?" John asks, his blue eyes looking up at you, glimmering happily. You can tell he's relieved that the game is over; you had learned to read his eyes very well considering you had spent most of your time around him watching and understanding him. You could detect the slightest change in his demeanor and tell if he was happy, upset, afraid… He was just happy now and that was enough for you. "Fine." You reply once the door opens. "But if this one ends the world, I will throw you at Karkat and let him destroy you." You joke. He laughs and you smirk a little bit.
You had never really been in John's house. To see it in its normal state was nice. He gave you the grand tour of course. When you mention the harlequins he just smiles and shrugs. "They're harmless now… So I guess I like them now." He answers. You notice the hesitation but you don't call him out on it. He tells you that his dad went off to work after having been reassured that everything was fine. "I want him to meet you though! And Rose, and Jade and Karkat and Vriska and—" "I get it John." You cut him off before he names everyone off. He laughs and drags you up to his room. You look around and notice the drawings that should have been there on the walls were gone. That was comforting at least. That probably meant that yours were gone too.
"You like my Nic Cage poster, huuuuuuuuh?" He asks grinning as he goes to look through his games. He doesn't seem to notice the wall drawings are gone. You look over at him and see that beautiful smile of his, his dorky buck teeth just making him look like he was happier than he was. Wow, what was that feeling? You felt like the air was being sucked right out of your lungs. You forgot what you were going to say and just shrug instead. He laughs and teases you before pulling out his games.
"You choose what we play first!" He says. He's in front of you now and you can swear you smell him. Your eyes travel to his lips and you fight the urge to just dive right in and kiss the hell out of him. But you seem to control yourself well enough to choose the ironically obvious choice from the group of games. "Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero." You say, your face expressionless. He rolls his eyes however. "You would choose that, wouldn't you Dave." He laughs and goes to pop the cartridge in. He sits on the floor and pats the seat next to him. "Or are you too cool for the floor." He teases. You suppress a smirk and move to sit down beside him. "I'll destroy you, Egbert." You say calmly, taking the controller he offers you. Of course, your mind travels to places where it shouldn't with that phrase but you do your best to keep your cool.
You two end up playing until his dad comes home. John formally introduces you two. You're thrown off by the business man get-up when suddenly there's pie on your face. He and John both laugh while you're left standing there with pie on your face. They offer you a towel and then invite you to dinner. You want to stay, but you aren't sure if that means more pies to the face. Besides, you kind of want to hang out with Bro for a while. "I'll see you tomorrow, Egbert." You tell your friend, fist bumping with him. You give a nod to Mr. Egbert and leave.
You're giddy as you leave, making sure no one is around as you smile to yourself brightly. You just spent the entire afternoon with John. Just the two of you. No one else. That was good, right? You're about to enter the transport tube home but freeze.
You are Dave Strider. You are 16 years-old and you have fallen in love with your best bro John Egbert.
What the fuck.