Quick author's note: Apologizes for not having clear indications of where different sections separated. I forgot that ff doesn't leave in my extra spaces. Previous chapters have been fixed with separations and I will try to remember to add them before publishing in the future

As it turned out, sleeping inside the bubble was not as crazy an experiment as Dave had vaguely hoped. It was not a trip to a dream self, or an encounter with frightening beasts of the universe. There was no travelling at all.

When he fell asleep, he ended up on memory lane.

Dreams were just memories. Not even the important ones really. They could be ones that had been long forgotten because there was no point in remembering them. Sitting at the breakfast table at the age of six eating Fruit Loops; pushing the grocery cart when Bro dragged him along to shop with him; an average day at school listening to the average boring lecture.

Everything that had ever occurred could be reached in sleep. This could have been useful if Dave could choose what memories he watched, but that simply was not how it worked. They came randomly, like dreams, only the content happened to be his life.

For now though, his mind seemed to be working through his earlier years. There was not a single flash to Sburb.

When Dave woke up after a simple memory of turning on his fan because it was hot, he sighed and shrugged. It should not have surprised him that sleeping would be so tame as to just be a skip through the memory fields considering they were in a memory bubble.

What he did find interesting though was that it was definitely warmer than it had been when he went to sleep. In fact, Dave was sweating under his blanket and shoved it off in disgust. Why was it suddenly hot like—

Dave groaned.

It was hot like it was in his last memory of the middle of summer. Of course this bubble would change according to his memory dreams. Of course it would choose the last dream to be during the hottest damn season.

And of course, Dave was pretty damn sure that he was not going to be able to sleep again for a while. The boy was not the least bit tired and now he was too hot and needed a shower.

Dave was trapped in this memoryscape until the next time he could get himself to sleep.

"Fuck."

There was a grumble from down on the floor, and it was then that Dave realized that he had the whole bed to himself. The boy sat up and looked over to find Tavros sprawled out on the ground and looking generally uncomfortably hot. His pajama bottoms were rolled up as well as his sleeves, and his blanket had been left to lay in a pile off to the side.

And he was definitely awake.

"The weather better down there?"

"Uhh, no, not really," Tavros grumbled. "I uh, thought maybe if I wasn't so close to you, but no. It's still really, uh, fucking hot."

Dave nodded in understanding before swinging his legs over the side of the bed and getting up. Normally he would laze around in bed for a while, but when it was warm like this it was better to get up and get shit done. First the windows were shoved open as far as they could go followed by him cranking up the fan as high as it could go.

"Does it, uh, usually get this hot on Earth?"

"Depends on where you are and when," Dave said with a shrug. He moved to his dresser to pick out a new t-shirt and put it on after he tugged his sweat-soaked one off. "Doesn't it get hot on the planet of the trolls?"

"Alternia."

"Whatever."

"Not, uh, not quite like this, at least where I lived," Tavros explained. "This really, really sucks." He was sitting up now and eyeing the fan. Before he could make another move though, Dave tossed a tank top at him which gracefully draped itself over the troll's horns.

"Change into that. Your shirt looks like it's gonna boil you alive."

Tavros picked up the tank that was, frankly, more of an undershirt than anything. But Dave figured that since they did not even have underwear, an undershirt would be beyond the troll's understanding. The tank top was held up and inspected with curiosity.

"It's not black." It seemed like a particularly odd comment, but then Dave noted that black seemed to be the theme of Tavros' clothing. Maybe trolls just wore black.

"Only dumbasses wear black in the summer."

"Oh." With that, Tavros put it down and started to pull his shirt off. Dave could not help glancing over, curious to see just how the troll managed to take off the shirt with those huge ass horns in the way. It turned out that the shirt material was stretchier than it appeared and easily stretched enough to get one horn through and then the other.

Putting the tank top on seemed to be more difficult since the earth cotton did not have the elasticity that Tavros was used to. The shoulders snagged on his horns and with his arms already up into the arm holes, it was hard to tug it up enough to fix the problem. When Dave could not stand to watch anymore of the pathetic display, he told Tavros to stop moving and let him do it.

It was not surprising that Tavros was grey all over, but it was still weird to look at. On top of that, the troll did not have nipples or a belly button. His torso was pretty much just skin covering muscle and bone.

Kind of weird, if Dave were to be honest.

But the tank top was eventually on and Tavros was left to change into some shorts while Dave left to cool down the apartment. There were several fans around, and luckily the memory was one from when they had an air-conditioning system that kind of worked. It did not go any higher than medium, but it was something at least. After a couple of tries, Dave got it running again.

A shiver ran down his back that had nothing to do with air-conditioning. It was deeper and more invasive feeling than that. Before Dave could consider why, there was a couple yelps from his bedroom. One of them most certainly did not belong to Tavros.

Aradia was shuffling out of the bedroom, looking flustered but also amused. Behind her was Tavros who was finishing buttoning his fly, his face a deep, burning mahogany.

Dave could not help a smirk.

"Welcome back to the Strider bubble. Hope you're enjoying the trip so far. I hear the view on the way in is nice," he greeted. The female troll rolled her eyes, but there was definitely amusement on her face. Tavros on the other hand squawked.

"Dave! That's, uh, seriously uncalled for!"

"Well, I don't think that Aradia asked to check out your troll dick either, so we'll call it even."

"To be fair, I did drop in unexpected," Aradia pointed out to the boy, obviously trying to mediate a bit. Dave shrugged.

"He should have been careful where he let it all hang out. I mean, unless you didn't mind. For all I know, it really was a nice view-"

Tavros stammered out, "Seriously, stop!" as he moved to clamp his hand over Dave's mouth. The boy was faster, grabbing his wrist, but when it came to strength, the troll was harder to fight off. The two struggled against each other until Aradia finally shoved them apart.

"Alright, enough! I didn't come to watch you two argue like a newly announced blackrom," Aradia stated with a smile. Tavros attempted to explain to her with an ever increasing number of stutters that that was not what their relationship was, but that they were like friends, but not bromantic partners since those did not really exist.

Dave just crossed his arms and asked, "Then what did you come for?"

"Was in the neighborhood and thought I'd see how you were settling into things here!"

"Cool. Once I get some pants on, I'm going to have some questions for you."

"Tavros."

"Yes?"

"What did Dave mean? Wasn't he already wearing pants?"

"Uh, well, I guess that humans wear these things called underwears. It's like, a layer of clothing under their clothing, I think."

"That's pretty silly."

"Yeah, that's what I said. But uh, he seemed pretty convinced that it was weird that we don't."

"Hm. Well, the more I know now. And Tavros?"

"Yeah?"

"It wasn't such a bad view."

"Uhhhhh, oh, wow, um. Wow. I don't, uh, know what to say."

"You're welcome!"

Dave went straight for the important questions. Now that he was a bit more settled, it was time to figure out what the hell this whole living in a bubble thing was going to be like.

"When we sleep, all it is is a stroll down memory lane, right?

"Pretty much. Except that since this is a dream bubble, it is affected by your memory dreams. This apartment itself will stay more or less the same as it was in your last memory of it, but the wider environment will change with your memories. But since this is your bubble, only your memories will make a difference. Tavros' won't change anything as long as he's not in his own bubble."

"So that's why the weather changed."

"Yup!"

"Are we going to age at all? Or are we stuck in these kid bodies for eternity?"

"Mm, that's kind of a tricky question. You have some control over it, but you only get that control with time. If you think that you're supposed to be getting older, then you will. But you have to genuinely think you should be older, not just wishing or imagining you are. So you have to know that time has passed."

"So I have to wait for a while before I can think I'm supposed to be that much older?"

"Yes."

"Alright."

"Uhh, but does that mean that we'll eventually be really old?"

"Not if you stop thinking about your age. If mentally you don't feel you're any older than you are physically, you will cease to grow."

"Cool. Now, when you came into the bubble-"

"Let me guess. You felt a creepy, invasive sort of feeling?"

"Yeah."

"That would be because I came into your bubble! You'll get the same feeling when other bubbles run into yours, only a lot stronger."

"But it won't bother me after a while?"

"Not once you see who it is, or at least that's how I understand it. I've heard though that sometimes it doesn't go away if you don't want the person in your bubble."

"Uh, so, I don't think that I've ever felt anything, you know, like that."

"Because this is Dave's bubble, not yours."

"Oh. Right."

Soon thereafter, Aradia announced she was just making a quick visit – that she had to go elsewhere already – and bid the two goodbye before disappearing again. No doubt she was getting things done for the greater good of reality.

Dave and Tavros on the other hand did what selfish, not saving the world things they needed to do. Tavros went to go sit by the newly-discovered air-conditioner while Dave went to take off his pants again as he saw nothing wrong with the male troll seeing him in his underwear. It was too damn hot for decency amongst friends.

Perhaps it was easier to give up on reality than Dave had originally thought. There was a whole new world out here, and as dull as it was in comparison to offing enemies and rigging stock markets, it was new and it was his.

This was not alpha Dave's bubble.

This was motherfucking dead Dave's bubble.

This belonged to him.