"Dude, when's the last time you cleaned under this bed?"

"I doubt you have any room to fuckin talk."

You watched Bro pull out piles and piles of dirty clothes from under your bed. "What kinda pjs are these?"

"That's my god jammies."

Bro snickered and you tossed a dirty shirt at his face. He pulled boxes from beneath your bed and started rummaging through them. You had your arms crossed as you stared at your closet. You yanked a big duffle bag off the top shelf and almost crumbled beneath it, luckily Bro didn't see your near death experience. you unzipped it to find a bunch of shitty swords. That's where I put them! You thought as you picked a couple up, each more bent and dull than the first. You riffled through it, careful of what blades were actually sharp, before you found something black at the bottom.

You managed to get the pointed shades out of the bag without scratching them too badly. "Bro," you called and before hr even looked up you tossed thek at him. They landed in his lap and he smiled before putting them on.

Now that's your Bro if you ever saw him.

He shoved all your junk back under your bed and you kicked the swords into the closet. He smirked, "You kept my swords?"

You shrugged, "They're mostly shit." He agreed and the room grew silent. You stared at your feet. "You can have them back."

"You sure?"

"Yeah. I don't like the looks of em."

"Why?"

You three up your arms and sat on your bed, "I don't know, Bro, no way it could have anything to fucking do with you attacking me with them all through my childhood! No way, no goddamned way that's it!"

Bro took a breath. "I should've never started that with you."

"You're damn right!"

"you we're good though. I've bet you've gotten even better."

You rolled your eyes under your shades, "I'm not fucking strifing with you again. Ever."

He shook his head and sat on the other side of the bed. "That ain't what I mean. I just mean...like...I'm proud of you. You're a man now, more than I ever fucking was. You're a hero, Dave."

You grumbled something under your breath.

"I mean it. Look at this place you've created. Look at all the good shit you've done. You're fucking incredible, squirt."

You shrugged, "I mean...I guess."

Bro shook his head, "Don't give me that shit. You're fucking awesome. All those years you we're looking up to me and I was a sack of shit. All the shit I did to you...and look how great you turned out despite that!"

You felt the edge of your mouth twitch up into a slight smile. "You really think so?"

"Hell yeah."

You leaned forward and folded your hands together. "You're real different now, Bro."

He nodded slowly. "I've had a lot of time to think. I'd like to say I'm some kinda fucking "changed man" but that ain't for me to say."

You say back and shrugged. "I dunno man. I'm still not really captain of the Bro Strider Fan Club anymore but if I walked by the door to a meeting, I might hang around and listen for a bit."

Bro smiled, "That's progress, lil man."

"Anyway," you said, "you've got your shades now and ive got some 'god of the new world' shit to do. Fly around. Ding dong ditch civilians. That kinds shit. So I guess…"

"You'll see me later?"

You shrugged, "Yeah. I'll see ya later."

Bro gathered his things and you followed him out of your room. You plopped down on the couch as he opened the door. "Later."

You clicked on the tv, "Later, Bro, love ya."

Bro's face cracked into a big smile and you didn't even register what you had said. He left without another word.

Life is pretty boring when everyone you knew died in the apocalypse. You laid on your hospital bed. The mail lady entered with some breakfast. You thanked her and nibble at it. You looked outside your open window at the unfamiliar landscape.

Man were you bored.

You knew who you wanted to go see but you didn't want to bother him while he was busy being a god and stuff. You wanted the lady wrapped in gray cloth gathering up some garbage from your room, her wings sort of slowly flapping behind her the way a cats tail does when its content. You had to do something to repay her for saving you.

She had relayed the story back to you that had happened while you were knocked the fuck out. She said she had carried you through into this new world and brought you here and you had almost immidiately recovered. She made it sound like a miracle of the game but you knew she had worked hard to patch you up. You felt your hands over your chest where the stitches had been. There was a scar and the skin beneath it felt funny. It kind of tickled sometimes when you traced your fingers over it.

You asked her again to repeat who had made it through. That Dad guy had another version of himself who had made it but you doubted that one would recognize you. That druken Lalonde you used to see in the chat rooms hadn't made it either. She told you that there was a different version of you here too. Well, she had explained, not really - but kind of? - it was complicated. You figured you could find your way over to Dave's neighbor hood and walk around and perhaps meet some of the others, maybe get a better idea of what the kid, scratch that, man was like now.

You jokingly asked the dog-bird-mail carrier why she hadn't brought your truck with her but she didn't understand. She began explaining the dynamics of how she would have had to fit the truck through the doorway after you explained what a truck was. She told her to get the stick out of her ass and she almost smiled before you asked her for a ride.

She was significantly stronger than Dave and could just hold you in front of her as she flew. She didn't need directions either as she dropped you off on Dave's doorstep. You gave her a salute as she flew off. Guess you would need to find your own way home.

You knocked on the door, just to see, expecting no answer. To your surprise you were met with a very familar answer: "What ever you're selling we fucking are not interested!"

The door opened to reveal a boy a bit smaller than Dave with messy black hair and gray skin. He guessed this was one of the trolls he had learned about.

"Who the fuck are you?" The boy basically screamed at you.

"Dave here?"

The boy stared him down, "That's a fucking shit answer. Nice to meet you Mr. Dave Here."

You rolled your eyes. "I'm new around here. Bro. Now where's Dave?"

"Out."

"Where?"

"A place."

"For fucks sake," you hissed under your breath. You stared at him in silence for a hit before he abruptly slammed the door in your face. You sighed and turned around and started down the street. They all looked so different from each other, not at all like the stacks of apartments you were used to. Some looked straight out of a scifi movie.

Eventually you stumbled upon what looked exactly like your apartment building. The bottom floors looked like they had been nearly melted away. You had no idea how somehow got from the bottom to the top without stairs or even floors. You remembered how Dave had flown and wondered if whoever lived her could do that as well.

You were thankful you had your clothes back by now as you gripped one of the support beams for the frame of the apartment and began to climb. It wasn't hard for someone like you to scale the building in just a few minutes, however you did have to take a break when you pulled on your bad shoulder.

you made it to the first actual floor and found the door. You knocked and were answered but no one was in the doorway. You looked down to see some kind of robot bunny. It almost felt nostalgic somehow but also like the way you feel after deja'vu. It stepped back and called out that there was a visitor. You stepped in and were instructed to remove your shoes. Okay, weird. You stood awkwardly until a boy appeared from a hallway. He stared at you and you stared back.

You had heard at one point that if you meet your double, it will kill you. Something about the guy's My Little Pony wristband said you should be able to hold your own against him. "You are-" the boy started slowly.

You had this urge to tell him you were him from the future here to warn him but you decided against it. "Dave's bro."

"I thought you died?"

You shook your head. " I got pretty close but I made it. I thought I'd come see how alt me was doing."

Dirk shrugged, "Watching anime."

You raised an eyebrow. "Anime? Why aren't you out like, fuck I don't know, cutting trees in half with a sword or riding a skateboard or literally goddamned anything else?"

Dirk shrugged again, "I mean, I'm working on a new bot too. I'm not you."

You nodded. That made sense. You had been told it was complicated, but that's hard to remember when your talking to yourself from ten years ago.

"I'm gonna cut tonthe chase," you replied. "How do I fix shit with Dave? Surely you know what happened. Fuckers probably told everyone. Y'all hate me now, just like him. But I wanna fix it."

Dirk nodded as he sat on his couch. "Sit down." You obeyed him and it was weird how similar your posture was. You mirrored eachother in almost every way. "Now tell me what you did."

You sighed, "Dude, I know you know already." He shook his head and told you to continue. "I fought him, and hurt him, and made him distrust me and-"

"Nah, not like that. I mean theres one word you can use to describe what you did."

You thought for a moment. "I hurt him."He shook his head again. "Fuck I don't kno-"

"Abused, man. Thats the word im looking for."

You took a deep breath and looked down at your hands. "Yeah, I mean, I guess I did…"

"I'm not helping you til you admit that."

"Alright, fine, it was abuse. I abused Dave. It was child abuse, I was physical and neglectful, I'm a fuck up and I should've let someone who knew what they were doing take care of him."

Dirk nodded, "How do you feel about what you did?"

"Fucking bad, what kinda question is that? It eats at me every fucking day. I feel like shit for what I did to him." You hung your head and folded your hands on the back of your neck.

"How do you think Dave feels about you?"

"He hates me. He completely hates me. He'll never fully forgive me but he doesn't understand what I was goin' through when I-"

"Stop. Don't make yourself excuses."

You sighed and regained your train of thought. "Right. That doesn't matter. I hurt Dave, I abused him, and I feel bad for it."

"Your done."

"What?"

"Your done. Now just leave him alone. Let him heal and stay out of his life."

"Fucking what? No. I want him back. I'm changed."

"You can't force him to like you again."

"I ain't forcing shit! I'm just letting him know what's up. If he says he can't forgive me I'll leave him alone."

Dirk shook his head. " Nah, listen, you've got the upper hand. However he feels he's gonna forgive you cuz your above him. Your his bro, you raised him. Unless you can even the playing field with him, your relationship is always gonna be fucked up. Once you hurt someone like that...you should just...leave them alone…" Dirk trailed off and you looked over at him.

"What's your last name, kid?"

He looked up at you, "Same as yours."

"Right. Strider."

Dirk shrugged. "So?"

You smiled and shook your head as you stood up. "Striders dont give up. We dont back down or take no for a fucking answer. We give 110% all the time until qe get what we want. And I want my bro back and I'm gonna get him. I don't know what the fuck you're all hung up on but I suggest you take what I say to heart, kid."

You turned around and left his apartment. Dirk watched you go and you heard him say something under his breath. Something along the lines of: "This can't end well."

You laid on your couch suffering through a terrible troll romcom but it was better than whatever Nick Cage movie John had going in his room. Karkat was on the other couch and you almost thought he could be crying. You got up and retrieved sandwich supplies from the fridge. You began to assemble something to eat when there was a knock on the door.

You answered it, ready to send away any sales people. Why were there so many of those in this new universe, anyway?

Instead you found your Bro.

"Dave."

"...Bro?"

He took a step instead and you thought you heard Karkat growl almost. Bro took your hand and tugged you away from the living room onto your porch. "Dave, I'm sorry to be so abrupt but. I need to know Will you ever be able to forgive me? If you can't I'll leave you alone but if there's even a chance then I will do anything to-"

You smiled, "I think I might. I mean, I want to. Ive been pissed off for so long at you. I need to, for myself. And...all my friends say I'm stupid for this...but I want give you another chance."

Bro's mouth hung agape. "You sure?"

"I'm sure." You held out your fist for him and he slowly started to move his towards yours. At the last second, you flattened your hand against his fist. "Turkey, motherfucker!"