John thudded his fist against Dave's door. "Dave! We're going to be late!" he shouted, leaning up against the door. Dave was always one to drag himself out of bed, but he usually didn't sleep through his multiple alarms.
Dave groaned and rolled out of his bed, falling on the floor with his blanket to soften to fall. "Hang on." he muttered, his voice muffled by the blanket. He forced himself to his feet and outfitted himself in his uniform, albeit a bit sloppily so.
"Fuck you, Igor." Dave muttered to himself as he went to his door and exited the room. John crossed his arms. "You okay?"
"Fucking peachy." Dave replied, lifting his shades and rubbing his eyes. "I didn't sleep well, alright? I'll have to fight through today."
"Well, I hope you're going to be awake enough after school." John said. "I'm taking you to meet the A/V club people today. You said you wanted to join, right?"
"Oh. Well, yeah." Dave said. He honestly didn't feel like having more things to do after school; perhaps it was his current state of sleep deprivation that made him think as such; but it would be a good opportunity to meet more people. More people meant more social links and more Personas to use in the computer world so he wouldn't get his ass kicked.
More friends. The things that Igor had alluded to made Dave resistant to the idea of making more friends. Who wasn't going to make it to the end of the computer mystery? Would establishing friendships just put those Dave knew into mortal danger?
Dave affirmed himself that he wasn't going to let that happen. John was his best friend, Rose was his sister, and Jade... There was too much to lose for him to sit passive while Igor's prophetic allegory threatened at the doom of those he cared about. It seemed that Igor meant that some would make it out alive; Dave could only hope that he could make the number of survivors larger.
It was too much of a depressing topic to think about and Dave wasn't about to let some bullshit from a long-nosed fortune teller ruin his school year. After a yawn, Dave motioned to John that he was ready to go.
"Alright then. Come on, or else we'll be late." John urged. Dave yawned and followed. "Where are Harley and Lalonde?"
"They left before us." John replied. "Rose left in a hurry."
"Yeah, no shit." Dave replied. "Her Shadow was right, she gets pissed when something doesn't go like she wants it to."
"What are you talking about?" John asked, looking at Dave with a confused look on his face as he opened the dorm door and began walking down their route to class.
"Oh my god, please don't tell me you're that dense, Egbert." Dave replied, shaking his head.
"Dense?"
"Yes, dense. Thick headed. Come on, you watch all those shitty romance movies. You know the part when the dweeb gets the girl of his dreams but then realizes his childhood friend liked him from the start and had to suck it up?"
"Are you implying that Rose..." John said, stopping for a moment.
"I'm telling." Dave said. "And personally I think she needs to get over it and let you do what you want. I'm just letting you know, she might have a bit of vendetta against Vriska for a while."
John sighed. "I finally get a girl to pay me half a mind and then it goes sour with someone else."
"Yep. Pretty shitty." Dave said, continuing on their way to class.
"Thanks for the helpful advice!" John called out as he followed. Dave gave him a thumbs up without turning around.
Rose kept her head down at lunch, having declined any food. Her appetite just wasn't there. Jade looked at her with genuine worry while they waited for Jane and Roxy to return from the lunch line.
Roxy sat next to her with her tray of food and patted her back. "Doing okay there?" she asked. Rose sighed in response. She hated being this childish towards something, but she couldn't help it. She told herself that she wasn't going to act like a victim of the widely-used excuse of the 'friendzone', yet here she was.
Jade leaned over and whispered into Roxy's ear, letting her know what the issue was.
"Aw, hun." Roxy said, pushing her tray a bit away from her and turning to Rose. "Now listen, it ain't you, she just kinda got there first. But you know how all this goes, especially with chicks like Serket."
Rose lifted her head from her crossed arms, tilting her head at Roxy. She needed to hear some words of reassurance, no matter how embarrassing her current state was.
"Ya know, they'll be mega happy and stuff but then it'll be over in a few weeks." Roxy said, patting Rose's back. "They're not even dating yet, right? So no definites or anything. Chin up! Besides, he's happy. That's a good thing. Be happy for him at least."
Rose sighed, smiling ever so slightly. It was enough of a smile to make Jade feel better.
Jane joined the group a few minutes later. "What did I miss, Rolal?" she asked, sitting aside Jade.
"Nothin' important, really." Roxy affirmed. "Just some sisterly reassurance."
Jane nodded with a smile, being smart enough to figure out what was going on. "Well, that's what we're here for. Don't be afraid to come to us if you need someone to talk to!"
Jade nodded. "Same here. But you knew that already." she said with a smile. "What else are best friends for?"
Rose sat up, feeling much better. "Yes... Yes, alright. I apologize. I'll endeavor to handle this better."
"There ya go!" Roxy exclaimed. "Step one is sayin' it, but step one is good enough for now."
Rose's smile widened. It would be good for her to look on the bright side of things.
After the last bell rang, John took Dave to the science building where both the computer lab and the A/V club room were located. Upon entering, they were greeted by a few others who were sitting around doing nothing, save for one boy who was tapping away at a keyboard. Dave also noticed Roxy sitting on a bean bag with a laptop situated on her lap. "Roxy?" Dave said.
"Surprised?" Roxy said with a giggle.
"Roxy and Sollux are our best programmers." John clarified. "We're technically an A/V club that deals with anything the school needs; a presentation for an assembly, a playlist for a dance, or sound setup for a play. But off the record, we get to mess with programming languages and stuff all the time."
The boy at the computer turned around to face Dave and John. He wore some outlandish shades with different colored lens; one red, one blue. Dave could appreciate the irony of wearing 3-D shades when there wasn't even anything 3-D to look at; it was something that he would have to consider at some point to keep his irony level topped off.
The student spoke to Dave, his voice accented with a prominent lisp. "Hey, sup. Sollux Captor."
Dave tried not to smirk at the lisp. "Hey. Dave Strider." he said, shaking Sollux's hand.
"You're the one John talked about then. Hope you can handle all the audio better than most of the people here." Sollux replied, glaring at one of the other students.
John scratched the back of his neck. "Yeah, we've had some bad luck with running music for stuff in the past. So you being here is kinda a big bonus. You have more experience with this stuff than anyone combined. Maybe with you running the show, the school dances and stuff won't be complete snooze-fests."
Dave smirked and cracked his fingers. "We'll see if anyone can handle my sick fires, then. I'm in."
"Cool." Sollux said, wheeling back around to attend to the code he was writing. Dave knew little about programming; the minute knowledge he had came from John's attempts at coding over the last few years, and it was widely known that John was an excessively poor programmer, much to his annoyance. Whatever Sollux was working on was completely indecipherable to Dave's eyes.
"Sweet!" John exclaimed. "Okay, let me introduce you to the others then. You know Sollux and Roxy. Karkat's usually here but he decided not to come today. Then there's Mark, Greg, and Diane."
Dave waved to the last three that John mentioned. They looked like somewhat irrelevant people in the grand scheme of things, and Dave doubted he would be spending much time with them at all for some reason. A cool dude such as himself could only accept a select few into his exclusive social circle, especially when their friendships meant awesome Personas would come to be. Hopelessly generic folk such as Mark, Greg, and Diane just wouldn't cut it.
Dave took a seat next to a computer and examined the library of music that was sectioned off for events. "Oh, hell no." he stated as he looked through the radio favorites of the day. "Dude, really? Who comes up with these lists?"
"The administration basically tells us what we can and can't play." John said. "You know how it is with school authorities and censorship. We basically have to get whatever's popular."
"That's because they don't know what kinda shit I can crank out." Dave replied. "Give me a week. Me and Harley collabed on some stuff and I have hours of other sick beats I've made. They'll never know what hit their ears."
John smiled and shook his head. "Alright, I believe you. Dave, you're in charge of the playlists for whatever they ask us to play music for."
Dave nodded in response. Another outlet for his talents had been opened and despite what he might have expressed with his cool exterior, he couldn't be more excited.
After about an hour messing with the meager sound program that was on the school computer, Dave found himself sorely missing the badass setup he had on his laptop, and he longed to mess around with his tables.
"John, ready to go back?" Dave called out, turning in his chair. John was nowhere to be found; Dave then remembered that John had already left thirty minutes ago. The only people still in the room were himself and Sollux.
"He left already." Sollux said, repeating what Dave had already thought to himself.
"Oh, shit. I forgot." Dave explained, standing from his chair. "Well, I'm gonna head out. Good to meet you."
Sollux turned in his chair and nodded. "Yeah, you too. I'll see you when the club meets again." he said, offering his hand out to Dave.
Dave shook his hand again and nodded back at him. "Got it. Later, then."
Exiting the room, Dave found himself stopped by the now-familiar feeling of the announcement of a new social link being established. This time, it was a distinct male voice that spoke to him; or perhaps two male voices. Dave couldn't tell if it was that or a single voice with an echo.
"I am thou.
Thou art I.
The bonds that you forge will become your strength.
You shall receive a blessing when creating Personas of the Magician Arcana."
Dave was able to visualize a tarot card marked with the roman numeral 'I', decorated with two hands holding a flame and a pair of eyes looking over the flame itself. The card faded from view shortly after.
Upon returning to the dorm, Dave found Jade sitting on the sofa watching TV. Squiddles was playing; Dave wasn't sure if she was watching a show intended for young children ironically or because she sincerely enjoyed it.
Truthfully, Dave felt comfortable when talking to Jade, and he really needed someone to vent to about the things that Igor had told him. The words muttered by the Velvet Room's proprietor had been eating away at him since he woke up, and it was to the point that it was the only thing on Dave's mind. He couldn't decide how to feel about it, and a second opinion on it would help him understand how to feel about it.
"Hey, Har?" Dave called, his hands in his pockets.
"Oh, hi Dave!" Jade answered, turning her head and waving. "Need something?"
"Yeah, actually. Can we talk for a bit?" he asked, avoiding looking directly into Jade's eyes. "It's kinda important."
Jade's eyes lit up. "Of course we can! Just give me a sec!" she exclaimed happily, running over to slip on her shoes and to grab her favorite jacket; a black zipper-hoodie with a white symbol that resembled a spiral galaxy decorating the back and the left side of the front. Once she was ready, she accompanied Dave out of the dorm.
"What's this about, Dave?" Jade asked, placing her hands in her jacket pockets as they walked down the sidewalk.
Dave took a deep breath. "Alright. First thing; you can't tell anyone I'm freaking out about this. My image as a completely cool badass would be FUBAR."
"Umm... okay?" Jade murmured. "What's the matter?"
"The dreams are happening again." Dave admitted with a sigh.
"The ones in the Velvet Room with the long-nose guy?"
"Igor, yeah. But they're not dreams, Jade. I'm pretty much convinced that what Igor says is right. It's not a dream but it's not reality either. He's been right about everything so far, but..."
Jade stopped walking and turned her head to Dave, catching him on the shoulder to turn him towards her. "But what?"
"He said something last time. He said something like 'how many of your friends are going to make it to the end of your journey?' and it just really got to me. I think he's saying that someone's going to die and they're going to be someone I'm friends with."
Jade was speechless for a moment, unsure how to respond to the grim revelation. "Well... it's dangerous in there, so... maybe he's just warning us about it. To let us know to be careful?"
Dave shook his head. "This dude spouts some real prophetic shit. He's never been wrong. He's had other guests in that room too, so I have no fucking clue how long he's been doing this fortune telling thing. If he says something is going to happen, it's going to happen."
"Well... He didn't say how many?"
"No. Just that he wondered how many would make it."
"Oh, Dave..." Jade sighed, looking down at the ground. "This is really bothering you, isn't it?"
Dave placed a hand on his forehead out of frustration. "If anyone wonders why I never want to take the lead of something, this is why. I can't handle this shit. I don't need to be the main character in some game that some godly asshole is playing with us, or whatever this computer world bullshit is. I wish Igor would just tell me what the fuck is going on, but he says he can't."
"Sometimes the person who thinks he'd be the worst leader ends up being just the person everyone needs, Dave." Jade said, crossing her arms behind her back. "You're really selling yourself short here. If anything happens to us, it won't be your fault."
"Yes it will!" Dave shouted, a little louder than he had intended. Seeing Jade's widened eyes, he calmed down. "Yes it will. I'm the one who gets these super-special powers that somehow makes me stronger than everyone else, so naturally I have to be the one who leads the charge into the creepy, unknown computer world filled with strange things that want to smear the walls with us. What am I supposed to do if one of you gets hurt? We have no clue what will happen."
"You're right, we don't. But if Gamzee's really trying to hurt people by forcing them in there, it's a risk we're willing to take." Jade said, placing a hand on his shoulder. "If we don't, who will, right? You're not alone either. We're here to help. You're not the only one who can stop anyone from getting hurt. And people care about you too."
Dave rubbed his temples. "What should I do then?"
"Why should you change anything?" Jade asked. "I think you're doing fine with what you're doing right now. Keep making friends, Dave. Having friends is great! And it's even better if it means you get more Personas from it. If you do that and keep getting more powerful, then you'll be better at protecting everyone. If you do that, we'll be fine."
Dave sighed and leaned against a street light for a moment, taking in all that Jade had said. "Alright, Har." he said, finally. "You've convinced me. I think I'll sleep easy tonight too. Provided that Igor doesn't drag me into the room again."
"It sounds like he's just doing his job." Jade pointed out. "Don't get too mad at him. I'm sure he's helping as much as he can."
"Yeah, I guess." Dave muttered. "Man, it's weird how this whole Persona business has made pretty much anything that comes out of my mouth believable."
"We wouldn't have all been together in this situation if I didn't believe you anyway, silly." Jade replied with a smile. "That's what friends are for."
"You're right." Dave affirmed, a genuine smile creeping onto his face. "Thanks, Ha- Um, Jade."
Jade smiled and nodded. "Of course!"
Dave looked around. "I guess we better get back inside before everyone starts wondering where we went."
"Eh, we're not too far, but I guess you're right. It's starting to get cold." Jade said, walking back with Dave to the dorm.
"Good. Cold weather is the shit."
They reached the door, but Dave stopped Jade as she reached the door handle.
"Seriously, thanks for listening to me. I was serious about not telling anyone about this, alright?"
"My lips are sealed. Your secret is safe with me, Mr. Cool Guy!" Jade replied with a sincere smile.
Satisfied with her answer, Dave held the door open for Jade and retired to his room for the night for some much-needed sleep.
