You had, incredibly, succeeded quite well in conveying this story to them, you realized. In fact, it had taken much less time than you had initially thought it would. 'it,' being in this case, describing to your father and Jane's father where and what had transpired in the years that you hadn't seen them—or as Jane had so eloquently put it—"when I wigged out that day in April and when you saw me wig out that other day in the other April." This was, essentially, correct. Your birthday when the game had begun opposed to the stitched gap of time for your Sburbian existence that had seamlessly mended with their perception of the moments before the game started.
If was almost as if you had continually played a well designed game with killer graphics and an inconceivably stupefying plot for years on end and then had logged off without saving any of your progress. Thus, after an unknowably long nap, you logged back on to see your cursor hovering over the game progress that you hadn't left off on earlier but the point at which you had begun playing years before.
If reminded you of the Pokémon game you'd played in sixth grade on your Gameboy SP when you'd collected the first five gym badges and forgotten to save your progress and BAM!—there you were; right back in Pallet Town with your mom smiling brightly at you. Or for this real like application, your father standing in the kitchen making coffee and reading the morning paper. Never the less the example still applied however with cake and less motherly love in his fatherly eyes.
They'd taken it well, you thought, watching them even know as the two fathers—that were somehow one—blinked incredulously from you and Dave to Jane and Rose. You thought briefly that Jade should be here for this as the other three beta kids (yourself included) had been in the Crocker/Egbert household to discuss Sburb. She would have helped quite a large bit, you wagered, remembering the particularly memory alluding details she could have possibly supplied.
She might have also provided some sort of tangible proof to convince your father, you realized, more than the mirror image of his teen mother that sat on the sofa. Maybe seeing his aunt in teenage bucked teeth and round glasses would inspire him. If it would, you'd even have her bring along Mr. Egbert's young uncle; that gun slinging British fellow. Well, if Jane didn't kill him before he stepped off the transportalizer.
Speaking of, Jane had done splendidly in taking the uncharacteristically rude staring down from your father who you wagered was wondering exactly how she could be so liken to his mom. Jane shared mannerisms as well as a youthful version of your Nanna and you couldn't help but assume that your dad would notice such about her.
Similarly, you wondered if your humor was anything memory sparking to Jane's dad. Maybe so and yet perhaps his solemn speechlessness was credited to confusion, denial, and anger. You didn't particularly blame either of them if they descended into an irritated state of bewilderment and refutation after this explanation. It didn't make much sense, you thought suddenly, though the four of you had done your very best to reveal the details and assemble the truth as soundly as possible. It wasn't as if you expected them to fully comprehend this entire hullabaloo immediately; it would take time.
Which, speaking of, they seemed to be attempting very vehemently to understand what you'd all said. You father as well as Jane's stood pensively, statue-like as they deliberated the news. What were they thinking? Your dad had always been such a light-hearted and trusting gentleman that it pained you to see him so serious and grounded. Should you offer them a pat on the back or a seat on the couch? Maybe even a beverage to lighten the tangibly tense mood?
Maybe someone else would? You were, admittedly, perhaps falling into the affected radius of the bystander affect that extended throughout the room. Someone else might break the silence. Jane was sitting on the couch by Rose, fiddling with her pudgy hands while Rose straightened her skirt nervously. Dave was silent, waiting for shit to go down with a tense, hard body and a vigilant stare. You were the one in the room who had last spoken.
You'd just finished explaining the remainder of the events of the game and how you'd 'returned'. You still held Jane's cyan scarf in your hands and had been thumbing the separate strings of yarn absentmindedly. If you weren't mistaken, Rose had knitted it for Jane as a sort of ice breaker or maybe a welcoming gift. Ice breaker; if only Rose could knit another one of those.
"Not all at once, people." Dave says, both startling everyone in the room and effectively breaking the silence. Leave it to that prick to get the job done when it came down to smart assery and cunning. You give him a sideways glance, feeling all eyes turn to the two of you as you narrow your eyes at him accusingly. That probably was not the most appropriate thing to interject.
"It's not that big of deal. It's over. It happened and now it's in the past." He adds, looking away from your tense cerulean gaze and instead looking quite directly at Mr. Egbert. He then moves his eyes to Mr. Crocker and, without flinching, held that cold, unmoving stare. Those men were transformed, you thought, and it occurred quite painfully to you that they may have been better off never knowing about the game.
"I believe what Dave means is that what has transpired is unalterable. Whether we acknowledge what happened or remember what has occurred is irrelevant, arguably. What is imperative is that we all move on together and effectively." Rose supplies eloquently, stilling her hands in her lap and taking the fathers' stare just as unflinchingly. Perhaps it was trait Strider's and Lalonde's possessed in their arsenal of behavior combat. It was a useful tool which you wished you could master. Maybe then you could look your father in the eye without seeing his dead body lying on checkered tile and in a pool of his own blood.
"Do you…believe us though?" Jane asks, talking for the first time in quite a while, though she had aided in the story elaboration. You father had watched her in particular, in between cold glances at you and confused glances at Rose like he was trying to remember something. Did he recognize her likeness to her mother whom he had met during the game? Irrelevant, you reminded yourself, such as Rose had said. Do not dwell on details of the game, though you mustn't repress or suppress them. Gog, what did that even mean?
"I don't know but I want to believe it and I don't want to. You're my child and I trust you, Jane. But how can I possibly believe a story like that? I'm not even entirely certain I understand it all." Mr. Crocker replies tersely, uncrossing his arms in a gesture that accounted for the first movement he'd made in the prolonged time you'd been expressing all this elucidation and observing all these explanations.
Your father gives Mr. Crocker a sidelong glance as if he too had been seconds away from saying just the same thing. They were so similar it was alarming yet they were different. It was if they possessed the identical core traits and genetics yet their individuality had developed away from each other and, thus, was marginally diverse. Like twins reared apart.
"How can we prove it to you?" Jane answers, looking from Rose to you and Dave fleetingly. Your first conceivable solution was to show them the transportalizers and perhaps even take them to the Lalonde's home. The futuristic technology would no doubt convince them and if not, then perhaps the sensible confirmation of your validity from practical adults such the Mom Lalonde duo would do the trick.
But what if that didn't work? Jake and Jade could come over. In fact, you felt guilty thinking you'd left them out of this. But it'd all happened so quickly! Maybe the help and proof they could have provided had merely slipped your mind amongst the intensity and confusion. Jake could spark remembrance within Mr. Crocker when he recognize the bucktooth yet youthful grin of Poppop Crocker and Jade the sweet bucktooth smile of Grandma English. And maybe your dad would recognize Jake as his Uncle Harley? Gog, you had to stop thinking of Mr. Crocker and Mr. Egbert as different people or this was going to remain confusing. Damn that scratch.
Ugh, you were still struggling to understand this ectobiological/biological/adoptive bullshit and it was supposed to be your field of expertise. Honestly, it was still perplexing to you how all of these people were existing at once in the same time and plane. You couldn't help but think it was all a very delicate balance and that something even trivial could send it tumbling into tumult.
"We can take you to the Lalonde's lab in Rainbow Falls. I still have a transportalizer." You look between them, wondering quite desperately if your suggestion would prove useful in helping them see the truth. Rose nodded reassuringly at you when you gave her a cursory glimpse, adding to your confidence as you stood abruptly. You took a deep breath, offering the fathers a small smile as you clasped your hands together in front of you.
"Just wait a second. Let me get this straight," Mr. Crocker begins, putting his hands in front of himself, palms up, and looking at you accusingly. You wagered that asking questions was probably an improvement on his part. At least he wasn't in denial.
"John is my half brother? And my daughter is actually my genetic grandmother? But Ole man John—Poppop—is my father?" He finishes, gesturing to Mr. Egbert and looking to you for confirmation. You mentally check over his family tree swinging, carefully, then take a small breath before replying.
"…Yes. Sort of. Well you and my Dad are kind of the same person? But wait till you meet Jade and Jake. It only gets more complex, unfortunately, though really it's actually very fascinating." You say, stopping yourself from continuing any further and wringing your hands nervously as the fathers look from you to Jane to each other. Rose and Dave were watching quietly through this, though you knew they both were supporting you. Dave's knee pressed reassuringly into your calf, the point of contact served as an anchor for your stability and a means for which you pressed forward into this ordeal.
"Are they related to us too?" Mr. Egbert asks, pointing rather rudely from Rose to Dave as if he'd lost a part of his gentlemanly self in this dispute. He also leaves his gawk upon Rose, staring as she returns his stare and quite suddenly responds to him. She had yet to speak directly to him which, you wagered, was attributed to some mental conflict involving her likeness to her 'mother' and the relationship she'd had with him.
"You're vaguely familiar. That scarf…" he trails off, closing his fist slowly and pursing his lips as he backs from his statement, recoiling as if his memory had failed him once more to his own irritation. Should you tell him how he knew about Rose's scarf and, more importantly, her mom? That would involve, you dreaded, telling him about his death. You'd skipped that detail during the great explanation and you were very appreciative to find that neither Rose nor Dave mentioned that you had omitted it.
"You met Rose's mom in the Medium of the Pre-Scratch universe for a short time before…you, ah, died." You say, trailing off so pathetically you almost preyed they didn't hear your last words. Looking down at your hands and shifting uncomfortably, you found yourself continuing. He needed to know, deserved to know the truth of his fate.
"Jack killed you and Mom Lalonde. I found you both dead in the castle in Skaia. I think you had been having a dinner date or something." You finish, rushed and tactless as if your words were falling over each other in a quick, jerky procession. You could feel Dave's hand pressing lightly on your back and knew quite suddenly that he would be there to support you. Lamely, you thought, tears were prickling in your eyes and a slight blush was setting itself on your once flushed features. You wouldn't cry in front of them, however, and one shaky breath later, you successfully swallowed the rising panic you felt.
"You found me murdered?" Mr. Egbert asks after a moment of silent deliberation. His body visibly loses tension, you notice, as your eyes finally find him and you once again revel in the realization that he wasn't dead anymore. He takes a small step toward you, unsure whether he should embrace and console you or to punish you for telling a particularly destructive lie. But, thankfully, you began to see the signs of belief lighting in his eyes and knew quite solidly that he believed everything you'd said.
"I…yes…" you answer quietly, flicking your eyes around his face and searching for the conflicted emotions swirling there. He was so deeply concerned for you that it moved something sentimental within you yet a tinge of regret and sorrow made you feel immensely guilty for telling him. In all honesty, you could've left out his death as a detail. It wasn't entirely necessary in explaining his role in the game…
"I'm so sorry, son." He replies slowly, yet he didn't put a fatherly hand upon your shoulder or extend his solace any further. Was it because you were in front of your friends and he didn't intend to embarrass you? Maybe. Or maybe he blamed you because you'd played the game and brought him into it thusly. No, you couldn't go on and tell yourself something like that. You had to make amends with the introspective conflict rattling your skull and darkening your thoughts. Forgive and move on, John Egbert.
"It's okay. It wasn't your fault…you're here now. We're all here." You say confidently with a shaky smile that you offer to both fathers. You sense Dave gathering himself from the stair step behind you, putting one hand on the banister and the other at the space between your shoulder blades. It comforted you to know that there was someone, quite literally, backing you up in all of this. Jane then stands too, smoothing her skirt much the way Rose did and taking a deep breath from the tense air.
"That's absolutely right, John. Perhaps Roxy's mother as well as my mother can elaborate further. " Rose says formally, joining the others in standing and giving a small sweep of the arm towards the stairs. She looks at you as if waiting for you to make the first move. The others seem to follow suit and before you knew it you were once again the leader of a bunch of kids and confused parents. You wondered quite brightly what made them always look to you as if you were actually capable of steering this massive shitstorm.
"The transportalizer is in my room. I have been hiding under my bed for the past while. It'll take us to Rainbow Falls—where the Lalonde's live in New York—relatively quickly." You explain, turning to mount the stairs without another moment's hesitation and carefully maneuvering past Dave. He followed you without thinking and suddenly you found yourself noticing that Jane and Rose had begun moving towards the stairs in following as well. Pausing, you watched the fathers as they processed this exodus carefully before decidedly following pursuit. Incredible.
Though you felt like a blind leading the blind, you continued into your room standing on the humming transportalizer as everyone filed into the room to stand about it. The fathers furrowed their brows accordingly, crossing their arms and looking distastefully at the flat, stout pedestal of metallic transportalizer. You looked down at the fractal pattern on its face, scoffing your converse against it and clasping your hands behind your back absentmindedly.
"So during the game, these things were pretty much on every plane—The Medium, Planets, Derse, Prospit, and even the Ecto Lab in The Veil, just to name a few. Jade was too lazy to use the stairs at her house so she had them everywhere around the central stairwell haha…" you say by way of explanation, watching your father's reaction as he seems to recall the places that you mentioned. Though it was a bit of a far stretch, you hoped he remembered them; actually remembered them instead of recalling the events you retold.
"How do we use it? Do you just type in the address and, ah, go?" Mr. Crocker asks, raising an eyebrow when you tap your foot against the transportalizer inattentively. You turn your attention to him yet seem to address your father as well. Hopefully this wouldn't need too much of an explanation.
"I'm not really sure of the inner workings. That's more of Rose's mom's expertise. When I use it, I just think of my destination…" you pause remembering the modern, chic, and imaginatively angular home perched on a waterfall of Adirondack State Park. You thought of Observatory, the Mausoleum, and crashing through Rose's bedroom wall from LOLAR's second gate and breaking her Totem Lathe. Iridescence began pouring from the mute monochrome surface of the transportalizer as it hummed to life beneath you. A slight thrill went through your tense body as air from the cooling fans blew through the vents and lifted your hair and clothing.
"…and it just sort of zaps you there." You finish, taking your hands from behind your back and relinquishing the memories of the Lalonde mansion. The transportalizer below you stilled and lost both his glow as well as its allure with your thoughts. The fathers don't seem very impressed, you think dully, and furthermore could stand to be surprised. Definitely stand to be surprised.
"Of course you more than likely do not recall the lab, Mr. Egbert and Mr. Crocker. Therefore it may be wise for you to travel with someone else. Why doesn't John take Mr. Crocker? And Jane accompanies Mr. Egbert. You could certainly stand to become acquainted with one another." Rose addresses you before looking to Jane questioningly. Jane returns her stare, blankly for a moment, before answering quite embarrassingly.
"I, uhm, I don't think so. Maybe you or Dave should?" Jane replies, pulling her mouth to the side and twisting her hands in front of her. You didn't think it was a particularly embarrassing thing not to remember the lab. Maybe she only thought it was an especially tense faux pas on her part because of her friendship with Roxy. Honestly you didn't know if she'd even ever been to the Lalonde residence.
"I volunteer as tribute." Dave supplies quite suddenly, raising his hand slowly. You wondered if he was volunteering to take on your father to save Rose the embarrassment of his questioning stare. Or perhaps he just wanted to get to know his boyfriend's father better. Either way your eye twitched in unease.
"Great." Rose says tersely before motioning for Dave to stand with Mr. Egbert. He does so hesitantly, perhaps realizing that he was going to stand with his bae's dad, as he might put it. Or maybe that Texan's idea of southern hospitality had him questioning his sanity in confronting the man who fathered his boyfriend. Weren't fathers, like, territorial over their daughters in the south or something? Not that you were a daughter nor that your father knew about the two of you. However you weren't particularly sure if your father would react to the news of your relationship with Dave as calmly as he had to the revelation of SBURB.
Nervously, you reach your hand to Mr. Crocker, wondering if he would even comply with being the first of the two to use this foreign, impossible technology. He had no reason to trust you, really, besides the memories of Poppop he might harbor and the reassuring look Jane was giving him. You hoped that would be enough and, more importantly, that you'd both make it safely to the lab.
You offer him a small smile as he steps onto the transportalizer bravely, ignoring your hand and smile coldly. He certainly wasn't identical to your father, you thought, though you oddly didn't blame him so much for his wintriness. It had been you who had turned his quite suburban life upside down with your talk of ectobiology and timelines shenanigans.
You look up embarrassedly at him just as he looks down his narrow nose expectantly at you. Pursing your lips after a deep breath you quickly imagine the Lalonde mansion in all its modernist glory and mentally summon the mechanism's whirl of both light and time. Instantaneously, you feel the pad disappear from below your feet and Mr. Crocker's hand fearfully grasp your forearm as the same gut wrenching sensation defrosts his frigid demeanor towards you.
Space bends and creaks around you in the seconds you were suspended in this dimensional alcove of transportation. Though your eyes are closed against the blood warm rush of air, you were almost certain the vivid opalescence and oil spill of rainbow hues flew past your forms. You'd looked once, though the brightness had blinded you as if you'd tried staring into the sun too long. Regardless, it was all vastly relative and passed almost as quickly as if it'd never happened. You almost wished it hadn't.
"I think I'm going to be sick." Mr. Crocker groans, releasing your forearm and taking a shaky step backwards off the round platform. You do the same, unaware of both when the next person would arrive and what would happen to someone occupying a space of bendable space that very suddenly held another occupant. It might be an interesting experiment, you thought, to see what would happen to someone standing on a transportalizer when another person arrived. Maybe they'd be cut in half like a particularly nasty sy-fy horror or maybe they'd be shoved aside into the pocket of interspacial travel, lost in space. No doubt a question for a Lalonde mom.
"I should've told you to hold your breath…sorry." You amend, watching as he uneasily straightens his black tie and presses a fist to his mouth. Pushing your hands deep into your cargo short's pocket, you turn from him to watch the green glow of the active Lalonde transportalizer and bite your lip nervously. Gog, how long would it take them? Had something gone wrong?
"So, you're both Jane's grandpa and her grandson?" Mr. Crocker asks, breaking the silence and your staring match with the emerald pedestal. You look over at him, noticing his wondering gaze as he looks from futuristic technological advancement to ultramodern scientific development that occupied the lab. You wanted to explain every invention—the Alchemiter in the corner, the Totem Lathe by that, the Apearifier next to the Sendificator, and the Transmateralizer (which did both the Apearifier and the Sendificator's job, rendering them useless, you thought).
"Uhm yes." You reply, shaking your thoughts back to his question and away from the innovative inventions around you. He had crossed his arms over his chest again, closing himself off and effectively discouraging your responses.
"But I thought I was her genetic grandson." He continues, squinting at you as if looking for some semblance. You thought he looked sort of odd without his fedora and pipe, though you certainly restrained your impulse to say so. That was probably unwise to do. Instead you carefully considered his question and replied as tentatively as possible.
"You are. So you're my half-brother." You say, shrugging and turning your attention back to the transportalizer. It was humming with a considerable amount of energy, you noted, perhaps indicating that another traveler was soon to arrive. Half-brother, you thought. Weird.
"And your son." Mr. Crocker adds, uncrossing his arms and instead letting them hang loosely by his sides. Weirder. To think he was actually your son?
"Yeah, well Poppop's son but y'know." You amend, probably for your own sanity as well as his. His silence makes your skin crawl and so hesitantly you look over at him, wondering vaguely if he was still breathing.
"Alrighty." He says, pursing his thin lips into a sort of encouraging smile. That part sure reminded you of your father. The encouragements, support, and concern for your own self-esteem. It made you miss what you'd had with your dad before this game had gone down and made you question whether you could rebuild that in the future. That also seemed like a question for a Lalonde.
"Alrighty?" you ask, not quite understanding if those were his only questions. In all this weird plot shit and ectobiological shenanigans, those were the only questions he could come up with?
"Yep." He replies, nodding slightly and looking away from you to gaze at the transportalizer. Maybe he would have further inquiries later, when the initial shock had subsided. He actually didn't seem so freaked by the transportalizer either.
"Alrighty." You respond, thinking that you could just glimpse a change in the transportalizer's occupied space. Taking a small step backwards to give them space, you watch as Rose and Jane appear on polychromatic pedestal in a radiant flash of emerald light that has you blinking dark dots out of your vision long after they'd stepped off the transportalizer.
"I think Dave is considering escorting your father to prom." Rose tells you, rolling her eyes and coming to stand beside you leisurely. Jane tentatively gives her father a smile of reassurance as she comes to stand beside him as well. He returns it, displaying his infinite support for his child and the kindness in his eyes that made them crinkle at the corners.
"What?" you turn your attention back to Rose, giving her the kind of questioning stare that could only be provoked by a Strider's insolence or incredulous gumption. You figured your ignorance would be amended, however, by the re-ignition of the transportalizer's whimsy and mastery of space.
"Oh my Gog, Dave." You groan, watching in humiliation as he steps from the device with your fathers arm looped through his. So that's what Rose meant by saying that Dave was taking your dad to prom? For the love of all that was holy, you wondered how you stayed friends with that lunatic.
"Jealous?" Dave retorts, giving your father's forearm a firm patting before releasing him all together. Mr. Egbert glances at him quickly, amused by his antics, or so you hoped. It felt so odd to see your father with your boyfriend, as if their convergence of presence could somehow out you. You would tell your dad some time about Dave…now was certainly not the time though it was pleasant to know they at least seemed to get along.
"Hardly." You reply, mouthing 'sorry' to your dad as Dave then joins you. As a second thought, you watch your father from the corner of your eye, examining his tense poise as he looks about the lab in much the same manner of wonderstruck that Mr. Crocker had. His hands are shoved in his black dress pants pocket as he slowly meanders to stand near his ecto counterpart, eyes wondering and distant as he does so.
"My mother should still be here. I'll check her, ah, office." Rose says, turning towards the wooden door with the frosted glass that Mom Lalonde had been left through much much earlier. Rose adds a small 'excuse me' as she walks purposefully to the door though you see her nervously wringing her hands. You admitted you were nervous as well and rightfully so.
Though the explanation had gone smoothly and the transportalizer'ing had, you wondered how the fathers would take the rest of the news. You harbored concerns of your father's reaction to Rose's mom, most significantly. The feeling intensified as Rose disappeared behind the frosted glass after a small knock and polite pause.
It occurred quite suddenly that this was what the foreseeable future would consist of; easing your father into the familiarity of the game and helping him cope with this newfound knowledge. Though you were confident it would be wholly possible with the support of your friends, the undertaking still left you raw and churning inside. Flicking your eyes between the fathers, however, it became evident that telling them had been the right decision and that was certainly something you could be sure of.