rakuen | The water line begins to rise

Entry tags:

The water line begins to rise

Characters: Dave Strider and everyone ever
Format: Any/Whatever
This log is: Open
Location: Mostly Pool; But eventually Black 2-A
Summary: Despite being told otherwise, Dave still goes to work. He ends up buying memory charms and heads over to the pool to try and swim a little. Swimming at this time of year is stupid. Dave thinks this is incredibly stupid.
Warnings: Sad attempts at swimming, stupid Striders, feelings everywhere, language, and whatever labels you can attach to a Strider, maybe mentions of death

The best way to keep his mind off things? Ignore it completely. It was such a useless tactic. Something that would backfire on him eventually, if it hasn't already. It's becoming more obvious that sleeping is becoming harder for him to get. And with that small memory charm tucked with his other ones, he was beginning to wonder if he should just yank it off and leave it off somewhere. At the same time, this memory was something that belonged to another Dave. A memory he didn't seem to even own. It scared him and confused him. On one side, it couldn't be that he had forgotten it. His Sis was alive and well. She was a message away on his PDA. On the other, he felt like something was amiss. Whenever he thought about it, it hurt. In many ways. Well, mostly in the form of a headache. But his heart ached too. It left him slightly panicked. Even if Bro wasn't who he grew up with, it was still a version of Sis. A version that died. And it freaked him out. It just added on to whatever else plagued his mind.

He got up early (did he even sleep? he can't remember) and headed to work. Things were always slow and mostly mundane. He liked it that way. Just letting whatever music played in the shop to distract him for those few hours. While he was weary, it was nice. He stopped by the shop. Recette wasn't there, but the mayor instead. Weird. He left with two memory charms. He wasn't sure who would get the second one yet, but he knew where one of them was going.

Of course, instead of giving it to said person, he ended up redressing and headed to the pool. The lake was still somewhere he refused to approach. Of course he's still scared. Even if he denies it otherwise.

He threw the towel to the side and stood at the shallow end of the pool. He just stared blankly. Dave must have looked so awkward. Skinny and pale and covered in freckles. His trunks, a bright red that contrasted strongly with his skin. He finally put a foot into the water and almost wanted to go back to the dorm. Holy shit it is balls fucking cold. Who the hell actually enjoys this bullcrap??! He grit his teeth and finally settled into the water. He could at least tread water to some extent. Actual swimming? Not so much. Oh, dog paddling. If you could call his sad excuse of paddling as that. Most of the problem?

Dave didn't want to dip his head into the water quite yet. That feeling of suffocation still lingered in his mind and he was still trying to ease himself into it. Treading water is really fucking hard to do when you're shivering your ass off. God, he's already considering getting out again. Why is it so goddamn cold? Isn't spring supposed to be warm or something? Dave never ventured too far from the shallower side, but he was getting better. Even if it was slower than he hoped.

If you hadn't caught him at the pool, you'll probably catch him heading back to his dorm, shivering under his towel and smelling strongly of pool water. A hot shower and maybe he can get to sleep tonight.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Oh boy. More words. If there is one thing Dirk is loving here it is all these words Dave is spewing at him. Words words words. He focuses on just deciphering them to keep from freaking the fuck out. Because a Strider -- whatever that means, he's the only fucking one from his world -- doesn't freak out.

"This is such bullshit. We were doing so well with all of these coincidences up until now. Where did we go wrong?"

At what Dave has to say next, he sighs and covers his face with his free hand. Facepalm. "No, whatever, it's fine. You can't talk, I can't read minds. It's not your fault I was a fucking shut-in until I wound up here." Dave had gone and spilled his secret about not being able to swim, as obvious as it already was, so Dirk feels it's only right to reciprocate. Plus he feels he should offer up some excuse for suddenly spazzing out like a moron.

'One of us is forgetting something. I have no fucking clue what it would be, but apparently it's something. Guess we'll have to go stock up on some memory charms. Well lucky for you, there's one in our room waiting for you.'

Oh hey. He somehow threw that in smoothly. Yep. That isn't worth questioning. Just tossing that out there.

'If it helps any, me talking is standard issue.' He's not self conscious. Nope. He's fine being mute. No problems whatsoever with it. 'Don't think any of us are really social. Kind of horsed around on the internet a lot.' And his relationship with Sis was strained at best. They weren't exactly social and it didn't help that Sis tended to not be around a lot at times. He was kind of just used to staying on the computer. Didn't really care about making friends with kids who saw him with a disability.

"Wait, there is?" Dave had gotten him a memory charm? That surprises him. He's sure Dave is uncomfortable around him. "Thanks. When I've got the dough I'll return the favor."

Hah. It figures that that's another connection between their two sessions. At least some of the players being complete social failures who never get out and only socialize online. Although Dave at least has a sister, so that's odd... But he's not going to push the subject. "Yeah, the whole apartment being surrounded by an ocean thing? I'm basically the only human being for hundreds of miles."

And there's that foggy feeling in his head. Instinctively, he wants to say Roxy is the closest person to him in terms of physical distance. But are there really no humans living anywhere closer than New York?

'Yeah. Looks like you're popular. Don't worry about it. I just had money and I don't do that much with it anyways.' He doesn't really care if the other does or not. He didn't buy it so Dirk felt obligated to return the favor or anything. He just knows it's annoying to not have your memories. Speaking of which. Seven weeks and he's only gotten one back. Eh... He isn't forgetting anything important anyways. Probably. Right?

'Ocean thing? You mean water? You're surrounded by water?' Seeing as Dirk tends to speak a little more intelligently than ocean thing, he's suspecting what one of the memories Dirk can't recall. Wow, this place sure does like taking water related memories. Wow.

"You're speaking a foreign language, Dave. That or your hand's started shaking, which I absolutely cannot blame you for. Should've known no one could handle skin-to-skin contact with Dirk Strider."

Because he didn't use the word water earlier in this conversation and he didn't take it totally in stride when Dave did also. That didn't happen.

Dave can't help but grin a little. 'Oh my god, dude. It made you forget a word. This place basically just went at a dictionary and used white out and selected a word at random. Let's replace dictionary with your brain though, and there we go. You seriously can't say what this is can you? What fills up this pool.' Sorry man. It's kind of funny of how useless and ridiculous a memory like that can be, yet be so annoying at the same time.

"Uh." Wow, it's kind of embarrassing how ridiculous this is. Letting out a deep breath, Dirk just sort of sinks a bit lower into the liquid surrounding them, whatever it's called. Of all the words Rakuen could have picked. Seriously? "Yeah, no, it's a mystery. I mean, I could call it dihydrogen monoxide but who does that except four-hundred-year-old smug assholes trying to prove a point in Congress?"

'I spent a good while calling jade and john that guy with the buckteeth or the girl with the glasses. This place basically takes some really important shit or some really stupid as fuck things that just makes your life difficult. Be glad you didn't forget you can't breath water.' Poor, poor Lemina...

Dave was shivering slightly. Augh. It's getting cold in here.

"Breathe what?" Dirk's mouth quirks to one side in confusion.

He's shivering a bit too, from the cold as well as Dave's weird hand-spelling shit. "Look, I'm gonna go. Maybe that memory charm you said you got will clear some of this stuff up, or at least tell me what all this weird aquatic stuff is."

He pulls his hand away from Dave's, and it suddenly feels naked. Well, it is naked, since shorts are all he's wearing, but that isn't the point. Once he'd gotten over how strange the sensation was, it had actually felt kind of pleasant. He probably needs to practice not being a failure at this, come to think of it. If the entirety of his human contact consists of dragging Roxy's drunk sleepwalking ass back to bed -- not a very intimate thing, really; he's never actually touched her skin and wow fuck it's so creepy to actually be thinking in those terms -- how is he going to maintain his composure when he finally deals with the whole Jake issue?

'Shit. This is stupid. The liquid we're sitting in.' Wow that sounds really dumb too.

Dave let's him pull away, and he honestly kind of wants to follow the other. Partly, because he still had some questions and he was curious to see what Dirk might remember. But it wouldn't be cool or ironic to do that. Being a puppy following the other around is as uncool as a Strider can get.

But it's also fucking cold in this water.

Maybe he'll wait until Dirk leaves before getting out himself. He lets his hand fall back to holding onto the edge of the pool instead. Well, it wasn't so bad at least. He'll have to ask Dirk about the tattoo another time or something...

Yeah, come to think of it he is pretty glad he remembers he can't breathe... whatever this stuff is. He feels sorry for whatever poor asshole got saddled with that bit of amnesia.

Dirk hauls himself up out of the pool and looks back down at Dave. He'll be fine if he realizes he can't swim; kid's not dumb enough to go into the deep end for shits and giggles, right? "See you later. I'll let you know if I solve the mystery of the irreconcilable Houstons."

And he turns to go.

Dave nods lightly and even waves a little. Once the other leaves, he'll pull himself out of the pool and dry off. God damn, he didn't really do so much swimming as freezing his ass off.

He's sure Dirk will tell him whatever he remembered, anyways. No need to go make yourself look uncool in the process.

After showering, drying off, and getting dressed, Dirk walks maybe a little too briskly back toward their dorm. The cool air is even chillier when his hair is wet and he doesn't need it to dry all weirdly.

The room's empty when he gets inside, which he's okay with. He locates the memory charm Dave left for him pretty quickly on the table beside his bed; okay, that leaves no question as to whose it is. But he hesitates before he picks it up. This could be something major. It could entirely shake the foundations of his world as he knows it.

Or it could just be the name of that one liquid. Either way.

After taking a deep breath, Dirk picks the memory charm up and fastens the thin silver band around his wrist. And then... Shit.

Holy shit.

No wonder Dave didn't know Texas was flooded. It isn't, for him.

It makes sense. There are other people here from the past. It completely explains everything. Dave isn't some alternate universe whatever. He's Dirk's ancestor, albeit at a young age.

...or an alternate universe version of his ancestor but either way.

He stands there, dumbfounded, for several long moments before turning and barreling back out of the room. He's definitely going back to the pool and yeah, he's lost his cool. His eyes are wide behind his glasses and anyone looking at him right now could read him like an open book.

Dave was no longer at the pool. He left awhile ago and even showered on the first floor. He basically hijacked the shower there since Dirk apparently takes the longest fucking showers. He is not waiting that long for your ass to get done, holy shit. Who takes that long in the shower? He wasn't going to freeze his ass off waiting for you to finish.

Of course, that also gave him time to head to the library to pick up some books. While, he would never tell anyone, he did actually practice signing by himself. It at least made sure he wouldn't grow rusty from not using it. Now with John gone, he had no choice but to just sign to himself if he wanted to stay at least decent at it.

...Wow that was a depressing thought.

Dave was heading back to the dorm though, book tucked underneath his arm. It was a little chilly out, and his damp hair wasn't really helping in making things any less cold.

Still, he took his time, his movements slightly sluggish.

Okay, so maybe Dirk takes the longest fucking showers in the world. Can you blame a guy for liking to be clean? No. You can't. So it's no wonder that he runs into Dave pretty much right outside the Black dorm building. Almost literally, in fact. He just barely stops short of actually bumping into him.

Yeah. That's him. That face, those shades -- aren't the same, of course they're not, he's only thirteen. He's Dave Strider. It's him.

Dirk is just staring, and probably making Dave a little uneasy. Finally, he just spits out one word.

"Bro?"

Dave stops and just stands there blankly for a minute or two. Uhh...

Okay, when he expected Dirk to come tell him about something, he didn't think the other was going to almost charge at him like this. This is kind of weird, if only because he is now completely and utterly confused.

He finally fished his PDA out of his pocket.

what the fuck did you remember???

The worst part is, he isn't refuting the fact that Dirk called him Bro. Because in some alternate universe, he had a Bro and not a Sis. It was very likely that...

Aww hell naw. He is not going to even let this line of thought get the time of day until he knows what the fuck is going on back in the session.

i mean
...
wait
just
what???

"Shit." Dirk draws back and reaches up to rub at his forehead with one hand. What is he doing? Deep breaths, deep breaths... aaaand he's calm. At least on the exterior. On the inside, Hurricane Dirk is still raging fierce with winds reaching hundreds of miles an hour, but at least he looks cool on the outside again.

He can't embarrass himself in front of Bro. He can't fall to pieces and make the coolest guy ever to live think he's a fumbling moron.

He pulls out his PDA to read what Dave is typing. And then, because he doesn't trust his voice to stay level, he types his response back.

I rushed out here like a fucking imbecile in the heat of the moment, but come to think of it I'm not sure what's safe to tell you.
The threads of causality lie in check and one wrong move could completely unravel the masterfully-knit time sweater adorning our reality.
The year is 2424 for me. What about you?

That should be safe to say, at least until he knows what Dave's answer is.

Considering Dave is pretty sure that Dirk thinks he's kind of a pansy thirteen year-old, it's hard to really think about the other as a fumbling moron. He's still trying to seem cooler to Dirk. He's failing miserably at that, though.

Dave wonders why Dirk switched to text, but doesn't comment on it.

so youre in the future???
its like 2009 for us
i mean when we started playing sburb beta

It made sense. Kind of. The difference in times. Houston could very well be covered in water then. But that didn't really explain everything. Did that mean they'd eventually win? Dirk couldn't be some direct descendent or anything. He wasn't going to dwell on it though. Until he actually knows what becomes of his own session, he couldn't really say anything about Dirk's session.

More like you're in the past.

It's 2009 and Dave is thirteen? That can't be right. He should be at least twice that age. But Dirk doubts that Dave is lying; if it were really the late 80's for Dave like it should be, how could he have played Sburb? Would any machine back then have been able to run it?

The Sburb alpha wasn't even out by that date.
It seems strange that there would be a universe out there that's so different from my own, and yet so similar.
I mean, for want of a nail and everything.
You were born 20-some years after you should have been, but you're still named Dave Strider and you look exactly the same as you should at the age of thirteen.
Not everything's the same, of course. You can't talk and Rose is blind, for one. But all other things considered you still wound up monumentally fucking similar to how you should have been.

What can he tell Dave? What should he tell Dave? This clearly isn't the same instance of the same person, and knowing that calms Dirk a bit. Just an alternate version of an epic historic hero. No biggie.

same thing
jegus christ

Dave wonders what the world is like that far in the future. Maybe he'd find out eventually.

On the other hand, he really didn't want to know what things were like then.

thats because nothing in this game ever makes sense
i stopped making sense of it when it decided to give a thirteen year old time powers
what
okay
so im still me in your universe
thats kind of cool
just fyi rose can see
well she used to be able to see because she said she could
apparently you can forget how to see
only in this place its normal to forget something like that
god damn it this place is so stupid

Hahah, Dave would honestly think you're making fun of him. He wasn't a hero...

"Oh." He's good with talking now, though he is clenching his PDA pretty tightly. "Yeah, you're pretty famous. So is she. I'm still cogitating and speculating on what's okay to say and what's not, but I might as well let you know I'm directly genetically descended from you. Keeping that much under my hat would just be caginess for its own sake considering how confused we've been for the last week."

Looking up from the PDA to the other boy, Dirk puts a hand on his chin and considers. "Rakuen is pretty messed up, but it's not every day you get to meet Dave Motherfucking Strider in person. Even an alternate kid version of him." Might as well hint at his legacy. He wants to see how Dave will react.

Famous? What does that mean? Although he can see Rose being famous. He wasn't sure how, but he can imagine her famous. But him? Famous? Is Dirk trying to make fun of him or something?

ectobiology
i guess thats not surprising
this is all just one giant incestrous clusterfuck anyways

Dave literally blanks. His mind and face and basically everything. He's always said that as a joke. As a kid just pretending to be cool. He was pretty sure it didn't fool anyone at all. And even if it did, it seemed weird that Dirk would make a pretty big deal out of it. Dave considered being smug about it. But he...actually had no idea what Dirk meant about it.

okay
so dave motherfucking strider
sounds like a pretty fucking cool guy in your universe
youre implying something huge
and its going right over my head
or youre fucking with me
im almost more inclined to think your just shitting with me for your own laughs
but neither of us are laughing

"Ectobiology?" Dirk doesn't bother to hide the confusion in his voice.

"Yeah, okay, I'm totally fucking with you. Right after putting on this memory charm you got me I decided to make up some ridiculous story about how alternate you was a visionary and a heroic badass four hundred years ago, just completely off the top of my head." And that confused tone dulls a bit, back to the deadpan tone he usually uses, though inwardly he feels a bit annoyed by that remark. Why would he make up something like this?

"Look, this is some pretty heavy shit, but considering you're not the same guy it might be okay to tell you. Or it might not, I don't know, you're the time guy. If you want to hear it, we should go inside."

you never got the lowdown about ectobiology???
dont worry about it
its basically a lot of
what
wow
and
why the fuck does this shit exist

He frowns just a little bit. Well, okay. It was pretty left field to think that Dirk was messing with him. But it wasn't like he was usually in decent company either. But he almost wants to tell the other that saying he was a heroic badass was bullshit. It had to be. He knew himself. He wasn't anything close to resembling a hero.

But he didn't. Because that would be admitting to Dirk things he only had told Terezi...

Dave rubs his temples without thinking, a headache coming on. Why did he have that conversation with Terezi? Right after...right after what? Shit. He really was missing important memories.

im not going to explain the temporal bullshit that comes with being in charge of time
but alright
its fucking freezing out here anyways

Sburb is clearly fucking with them. Maybe something he tells Dave will strike the younger (???) boy as important, though; it might clear some things up. So he turns and gestures for Dave to follow as he heads back into the building.

Once they've returned to their room and Dirk has ascertained it's still empty, he shuts and locks the door behind them. Rose or Jade barging in would be okay -- Jade... who is Jade? When he considers Dave and Rose's relations to himself and Roxy, one obvious possibility jumps to mind, but she can't be, not if she was part of their session... Wait, but the corporation she owned was... But she'd raised Jake, so she couldn't have been... -- Okay, this line of thought was giving him a headache, so he pulled off his glasses and rubbed at his eyes for a second before putting them back on. Start over, Dirk.

Rose or Jade barging in would be okay, but he doesn't want to have to explain shit to Daenerys, or Sora on the off chance that she's woken up in the last few hours. So, door locked.

"Do the words 'Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff' mean anything to you?"

The water line begins to rise

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pretend he didn't use the word water a few tags up goddamn

LMFAO OH RIGHT YOU DID USE IT...huh. WELP /pays attention

I RELY ON YOU TO KEEP ME FROM BEING STUPID. YOU'VE FAILED ME.

YOU ARE RELYING ON AN IDIOT. THIS WAS BOUND TO FAIL

If only we hadn't gone all night without sleeping...

#Good life decisions #nope

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