Omg thanks for all the reviews it made me unreasonably happy!
Trigger warnings; death, blood and strong language.
This is unedited, please review!
You're in The Land of Heat and Clockwork, running around and killing imps. You've done this countless times, trying to distract yourself from everything. It's going well, the situation is under control and things are pretty normal. That is until an ogre comes into your line of sight. Another shows up, and then another. Followed by these ogres is a group of numerous underlings.
God damn it.
You need to get away, preferably now. You look around to find yourself surrounded by bright red and bubbling lava. The horde is approaching quickly, blocking your only escape route. You won't be able to get passed them, but you have to try. You will not lay down and surrender. With the half-sword equipped you try to abscond.
Of course, the moment you attempt to get anywhere the group swarms you. The words 'can't abscond bro' ring in your head and you straighten up. You fight, you kill imp after imp, salamander after salamander until you're gasping for breath and covered in your own blood. You're almost safe, you've almost killed them all when you suddenly lose balance. You look and see a grinning imp pushed you. Before you can regain your footing you slip, falling into the lava.
What a stupid way to die.
Jade's planet is covered in snow, something you've never experienced before. The first time you saw it you were amazed, it wasn't anything like what you expected. The cold is such a nice change from overwhelming heat. There aren't any gears here, no bright red in sight, no loud clanging of metal and it's a breath of fresh air. You spent the first day running around with her, throwing snowballs at eachother and building shitty snowmen. You were having so much fun, and the fun hasn't stopped throughout the week.
You love looking around, exploring the land and searching for frogs. You've never hung out with someone like this, it makes you feel human. But today you ended up separating, deciding to go on different sides of the island to search for rare frogs. You were hesitant but Jade told you that everything would be fine. You try to keep her optimism as you look under logs and bushes. You push through some frozen foliage when a flash of movement catches your eye. You look that way and your heart stops.
Why does that agent have a gun?
Your first instinct is to run, run and take shelter. You don't think they've noticed you yet, and you try to use that to your advantage. You slowly turn around, moving back into the cover of the trees when you hear the cocking of a gun. You start to run but there's a throbbing pain that you hardly process. Looking down you see a hole in your chest. When you hear a barrage of bullets you feel the same burning pain over and over. Bright red pools on pure white snow and you feel yourself losing consciousness. Right before you fall face first you hear a mortified female scream.
Terrible timing.
Someone or something is following you, you're not too sure who or what. There's not many places to hide on your planet, everything is in plain sight. That is unless you were to climb in the metal structures, which sounds nearly impossible and stupidly dangerous. The chances of falling into the magma would be high. But somehow you know you're not alone, even though you've searched everywhere multiple times. You can sense it, it's making your hair stand up straight as you sit in your room.
You're anxious, incredibly on edge as you stare out the window and wait for something to happen. You know whoever's there isn't a friend, therefore it's an enemy. An enemy, a threat that needs to be taken care of. As you sit in wait you hear a clang outside your window, you hold your breath until a derse agent in a ripped outfit appears in your room. Before you can move, react, do anything they jump on top of you. A knife is pressed to your throat and you're gone seconds later.
How embarrassing.
You told Jade not to try to find her Denizen. You knew it wouldn't work out well. It was too early, we didn't have enough information or knowledge. There was no reason to go out and act prematurely. She didn't listen. She called you a worry wart and said everything would be fine. You haven't heard from her in 6 months.
You told John not to try and find Jade. You told him it was a stupid idea, that she was gone and there was nothing we could do to change that. He responded saying he was God Tier and he'd be fine, that he had to try. It's been three months and you haven't heard from him.
When John never came back you and Rose started to worry. You tried telling yourself that you could figure this out, you could make it work. You tried to convince Rose that everything would be fine, with your combined efforts you could mend the broken timeline. You tried to maintain hope.
Rose stopped answering your messages.
You honestly couldn't believe it, somehow everyone got themselves killed. Everyone in your session died and there's absolutely nothing you can do about it. They're dead because you couldn't do more, you couldn't talk them out of making rash decisions. You couldn't stop them from hurting themselves. You failed.
So you're sitting on the grated metal floor, watching lava slowly move and swirl. You have no idea what to do anymore. Go back and tell yourself not to let this happen? What good has that done before? Every time you tell yourself about something that happened another even dumber event falls into place. It's a never ending cycle that you're sick of.
You sigh, take a deep breath and pull out your turntables.
Time to try again
You're slowly strolling through the tombs, looking for nothing in particular. You figure if you explore long enough you'll come across something useful. So you're wandering aimlessly, looting whatever random useless artifact you find. Everything is going smooth until you come across a dead consort, then a prospitian followed by a dersite. This continues, bodies of game components lying about as you travel deeper into the dark tunnels.
The inscripted grey stone walls are stained with red and you're starting to think you should turn around. You're basically walking straight into a trap, and that's stupid. You were trained better than this. Right before you can move to leave you see the offender. The moment you realize it's Jack you know this is bad. This really should not be a thing. You retrieve the half-sword quickly, him pulling the katana out of his chest.
You hold your own, you fight him with every little trick and skill you can muster. For awhile you think you're winning, but quickly realize this was a bad idea. A very, very bad idea. You're getting tired, short of breath and exhausted while he's still going strong. You're losing and you can't let that happen. You try to pull out your turntables and go back but before you can access your Strife Deck you see a sword coming towards your chest. This is followed by a searing pain and you lose consciousness.
Idiot.
You wake up with a small gasp, sitting up in bed. With shaky movements you feel your neck, then your chest, only to find you're totally uninjured. You let out a small sigh of relief and bury your face in your hands. You're so use to doomed timelines, it hardly bothers anymore. Still, reliving all that pain is taxing.
You grab a blanket and go to the kitchen to get a glass of water. When you enter the livingroom you see Bro sleeping on the futon. Why is he out here? It's too early for him to be home from work. Maybe he got off early and passed out before he could go to bed. You put the blanket that was over your shoulders on him and move to the cabinets. After getting water from the sink you walk back to your room, closing the door softly.
You don't exactly want to rest yet, you're not ready for that. Even though these dreams don't affect you very much they're not a very fun experience. So you grab another fluffy blanket off your bed and wrap it around yourself. Shuffling to the desk you sit in the office chair and roll over to rest your arms on the windowsill.
Sighing lightly you watch the street. You've started to identify some vehicles and people that show up regularly. A blue truck you always see comes speeding by at 11:47 pm, followed by the police blaring their sirens. You watch cars dart passed, someone running a red light and nearly hitting a jaywalking pedestrian. You wish people were more careful, they don't seem to care about anyone other than themselves.
Your phone buzzes on the bed, bringing you out of your trance. You scoot over to look for it but can't see it anywhere. It's probably buried under pillows and clothes. You search the covers, disturbing a sleeping Mayor while doing so. Eventually you locate it and look at the screen. Dirk messaged you, you've been wanting to talk to him. It's been awhile, too long. Quickly, you open the chat.
TT: Hey you awake?
TG: sup
TT: Do you dream about the doomed Daves?
TG: yeah dude all the fucking time
TG: honestly i just woke up
TT: What happens?
TG: i die over and over
TG: thats about it
TG: why do you ask
TT: I keep having these weird ass dreams about my splinters.
TT: I doubt it's like doomed timelines but it's fucking me up.
TT: It's just me, all of my horrible unbelievably shitty qualities shoved into my head to taunt me every single time I try to rest.
TT: I thought I was done being harassed by myself, with AR gone I could finally think.
TT: But no.
TT: Me being able to think will never happen.
TT: I can't sleep anymore because my dreams are a bigger pile of bullshit than my life.
TT: I'm exhausted.
TG: damn
TG: that sucks balls
TG: but its like you said those are only your negative qualities
TG: and those make up a very small portion of who you are
TG: imo
TG: your mind is playing some fucked up games
TG: its making you focus on the shit all versions of yourself hate
TG: so its like amplified or something
TG: and that blows
TG: im sorry man
TT: At at least you don't think I'm a major piece of shit.
TT: Leave it to the Striders to overlook obvious faults.
TT: But there's a reason I brought this up, I wasn't going to dump my feelings and run.
TT: In my dream I heard Cal. But as we both know my version of Cal was empty.
TT: Are you picking up what I'm putting down
TG: fuck
TG: i dont like what youre implying
TG: what do you mean "heard cal"
TG: do you mean that creepy fucking laugh
TT: Yeah, the insane laughter. It was loud, and I'm talking you can hear anything else loud.
TT: You really can't think if Lord English is up in your brain.
TT: You know all the weird subliminal crocker batterwitch shit?
TT: In the background you can hear some sort of talking that felt very similar to forced thoughts and ideology.
TG: that makes me very uneasy
TG: do you think thats what my bro heard
TT: That's the conclusion I'm coming to.
TT: But keep in mind what he did is still incredibly fucked up.
TG: yeah i know
TG: but it explains alot
TG: thanks for telling me
TT: No problem, I'm going to shower. Talk to you soon.
You lock your phone and put it the pocket of your sweatpants. That conversation gave you alot to think about, to ponder until you can eventually fall asleep. You move your hand, absently running your fingers across the tan concrete. Humming lightly, you rest a cheek on your arm as you inspect your surroundings. Some people run down the sidewalk like their life depends on it, other people stroll slowly with nowhere to go. It makes you really sad when homeless people wander onto your street. You wish you could do something to help them.
You spot a group of drunken college students passing at 1 am, you watch them almost every night. You don't know how they can get so intoxicated so often. Sometimes you think they notice you, but that's probably just you seeking attention. Tonight one of them is being carried, obviously way too drunk to walk. They're all chatting until one of them unexpectedly falls flat on their face. He starts bleeding from his nose and you have to look away. You hate blood, you hate it so fucking much.
You try to push that to the back of your mind and go back to watching curiously. Everyone fumbles around, laughing at and mocking his misfortune. He sits on the ground, using his shirt to stop the bleeding. They all look so happy, for some reason it makes you happy too. You smirk lightly, tracking their movements and tapping against the metal window frame. As the group starts to leave you see one of the girls stop and look up at you. She smiles brightly before waving. You jump, stare and wave back awkwardly.
Now that they're gone you look up at the smoggy sky. Every night the darkness is different. Sometimes you can see bright and shining stars, even planets. That's when you look for constellations, searching for the trolls. Unfortunately the only thing you see tonight is the bright moon surrounded by fog. Still, it's a better view than The Veil and surrounding meteors.
You're not exactly paying attention when a small crow flies up and perches on one of your arms. You smile and sit back, letting it rest on the edge of the window. With slow movements you shift and bring your hand to pet it softly. The moment your fingers touch its feathers it fluffs up and caws loudly. You twitch before shushing it softly.
"Quiet," you whisper, copying its caw only much softer. This time when you stroke its feathers it coos lightly. You coo back, sounding almost the same as the bird. You're pretty good when it comes to imitating bird calls. It comes to you naturally and the little crows always respond in turn. You think they understand, you hope or you're just stupidly chirping at birds.
You stroke and pet its shiny black feathers, rubbing under its neck and face with the softest of touches. You keep this up for nearly 5 minutes with a silly grin until it suddenly hops on your lap, moving to your arm and then shoulder. It runs its face on yours, a soft warbling coo leaving it constantly. You giggle and smile happily as it continues to fluff up and nest into you.
You begin to realize it's falling asleep and don't know what to do. You can't kick it out, this is super cool. Crows only talk to you on the roof, they never come to your room anymore. You carefully roll over to your desk, using your arms as a pillow. Slowly you start to doze off, and when The Mayor climbs into your lap the soft purring of her body lulls you further. You fall asleep, hoping to dream of nothing.
You wake up to the buzzing of your phone right next to your face. You huff before groaning, you have one hell of a hangover. You blindly grab the device and blearily look at the screen. You got a Pesterchum message? You never use Pesterchum. Curious, you open the chat and before you can type they start up a steady stream of text.
TT: Hey there, I'm Dirk.
TT: Knowing Dave he hasn't exactly told you who I am. He probably doesn't want to, "complicate you with game bullshit."
TT: I'm you in an alternate timeline called the Alphaverse, I played the game with Dave, I'm his brother.
TT: I'm here to say one thing.
TT: You're probably telling yourself that this is a new chapter, that without Cal everything is chill. But Lord English no longer influencing you doesn't make up for what you did. Just because Dave forgives you doesn't mean everything's okay.
TT: He's scared, he's terrified that you're going to "snap out of it" and hurt him. While you think Cal is no longer an issue he still has a place in Dave's heart and mind.
TT: Think about that.
Holy fucking shit.
That was like a horrible, creepy peek into your own mind. This is weird, very weird and it's making you nervous. Despite your uncertainty you can admit he made alot of good points. Reminding you of things you've been avoiding, all the really heavy shit you've pushed to the back of your mind. You stare at the screen for a long time, re-reading the message. You feel unwanted emotions bubbling to the surface so you lock the phone and lay down to fall back asleep. It's too damn early for this.
Cal is laughing, that's all you can hear. He's laughing and laughing, like he heard the most hilarious thing. It's so loud. It's like he talks to you, you can make out small nonsensical phrases between the chuckling, the hysterical giggling that won't stop. It haunts you. It makes you feel crazy, like you're going insane. No matter what you do you can't escape his eyes, his grin. He knows, he knows everything and just keeps laughing, you don't think he'll ever truly stop.
Why won't he shut the fuck up?
HAA HAA HEE HEE HOO HOO