Work Text:
EB: dave you're drunk
TG: no fuq you im jusdt
TG: fuxk
EB: dave you are totally drunk
TG: so whast if i hit the dancong juice a bittr too hardf
TG: ive still got more swahg than yull evr
TG: kjlasdfkjasdf
EB: dave?
TG: droppd my gogdamnb appljuixe
EB: maybe you should go to bed
TG: danciing queenas dont need bed
EB: did you seriously just make an ABBA reference?
TG: see that guirl
TG: watxh that scener
TG: dig iut
EB: how much did you drink?
TG: yuor ruing my momwent
TG: I havv to telll yo somrthin
Your name is Dave Strider and you are a plethora of things right now. You're a 17 year old teen boy home alone with a not-so-full-anymore liquor cabinet. You're also heavily intoxicated and about to do something you will most certainly regret in the morning.
TG: I lovcwe you
EB: what?
TG: whyt donjt you love mne tooo
It's true, you've been in love with your best bro since forever. You remember all the little moments leading you up to this moment, each one affirming that you indeed wanted your friend in a more than “bromantic” manner.
EB: dave, you're talking nonsense
TG: no yoouy knopw what?
TG: yorue noto alllowwed to talkl tilll imm done
TG: noonelse is amune to th e moves likke stridre
TG: excpet you
TG: adn I prcatically gvie my heaert to ypou
TG: ande whhqat do you dxo?
TG: ylou laughy it off aqnd gte swome flighfty brooad
TG: fcujck
Almost a year ago, John got a girlfriend. She's as hopelessly sappy and sugary as the derp, but she's mature enough to offset his child-like demeanor. She volunteers at the children's hospital and by all normal standards is a perfectly nice girl. But your standards are far from normal.
EB: liz is not a flighty broad!
TG: no shuyt up
TG: shews a total bicth
TG: shes got tooi big a nosde
TG: ands she totaklly thiunks yioure a dork
TG: whcich you aer but its paret of your charm
TG: asnd shees struck up
TG: shes noii goiod for you broi
EB: dave you don't know what you're saying
The only reason you're getting drunk off your ass in the first place is because for their one year anniversary, he's taking her on a trip to California or Florida or some shit. This wouldn't be a problem if it wasn't for the fact he was going to be gone during the 3rd of December.
More commonly referred to as your birthday.
TG: bros befoer hois man
TG: ithoguht it was gomna be you snd me agaijnst thre worlkd
TG: agaimnst thr en d of thr worlkd even
EB: you're still my best bro!
EB: no girl is going to change that
TG: io dongt wamnt to just be yoiur bro dammnit
TG: oi want to be youire boyfriemd
TG: and donmt start wioth thatff “not a homjosexuasl” shyit
Since the game you've closed up even more. Before you had a small bubble, sure. But after meteors and dead selves and chess boards that stretched forever, you shut off everyone, except those who had seen what you had seen.
EB: dave look...
TG: stopit
TG: l,ook jst
TG: forget hetr
TG: it can go b ack to beijng just us
TG: where thr only onsy dames in oiur lives asre our sistres
EB: I can't do that anymore
TG: pleaase...
EB: will you listen?
EB: I've gone years with just the four of us
EB: and you know what?
EB: it's not healthy!
EB: for any of us
TG: pledase wqont yiou just
EB: dave you've got to stop this
EB: we're worried about you
EB: jade doesn't know how to help you when she's way out in the middle of nowhere
EB: rose is researching all kinds of methods to help you
EB: she thinks you're suffering from some kind of post traumatic stress disorder
EB: and I've been there every time you've needed someone
EB: but we can't keep doing this
EB: not anymore
You know your friends were worried, and that they thought something was wrong with you. But they'd be like you too if they had lived what you had lived through. All the lives lost and all the death you had experienced first hand. Every single time they would die and leave you or every single time you had to leave them. The timelines where John died first were the ones you'd leave the fastest. Even if you just landed in another doomed timeline, any chance to spend more time with him was better than none. How many times had you left Rose or Jade to die alone in the dead ends that your fuck ups always lead to? How many times did Harley beg for you not to leave? How many times did Rose give you that short nod, knowing what you needed to do, but resenting you for it nonetheless? Was it so wrong to cling to your friends after that? Was it so wrong to be afraid of them leaving you instead?
EB: you've got to move on with your life dave
EB: and you can't make us feel guilty for trying to do the same
EB: we're almost adults for crying out loud!
EB: you can't just keep wallowing like this
EB: yes we went through hell
EB: but we can't just expect it to get better without some effort
EB: it's time to grow up and live a little
EB: I've got to go, liz and I are leaving early tomorrow morning
EB: good luck bro
TG: wasit
--EB [ectoBiologist] ceased pestering TG [turntechGodhead]--
TG: wait
You're struck by that gut wrenching feeling you always got when John died and left you, forcing you to go back and change everything yet again. You only wish you could fix your mistakes one last time. If you could leave this doomed timeline like you left countless others.
Of course, there is always a last resort to leave a dead end existence.
Take the last resort ==>
Your name is Dave Strider, you are 17 years old, still fairly drunk, and currently holding a shitty sword dangerously close to your wrist.
What will you do next?