Too Many Striders: Black 2-A shenanigans redux

[fracturedsoul]

Characters: Dirk, closed to Black 2-A roommates (Dave, David, Daenerys) and anyone else with a reason to be there (mainly Jade and Jake, feel free to tag in if there's some reason your character would drop in though)
Format: Whatever
This log is: open to roommates
Location: Black 2-A

It's 10AM on Sunday morning, before the assembly, and if you've forgotten that Dirk Strider is a person who exists, then nobody could blame you, because he's been in the shower for the past two and a half hours.

Once Black dorm is completely out of hot water, he comes moseying back into 2-A, dressed in his Fortitude uniform with a towel wrapped around his hair. Feel free to complain, or, alternatively, to notice the shield symbol that is most definitely on the back of one hand even though the Players for the round haven't even been announced.

Comments

[knightime]

Dave is sitting up in his bed, Ben Stiller shades already on his face (did he sleep with them on even?) and looking fairly out of it. As far as one can tell when someone is out of it with sunglasses on. Mostly because Dave looks around and he seems to actually be confused with his surroundings.

He glances at his own clothes even and looks around again. Oh Jegus christ, where is he?

Dave ends up burying his face into the blankets on his lap. Did Dave look a little older? Taller? God who even knows. He's got a pounding headache and a years worth of memories is hitting him like a ton of bricks.

[fracturedsoul]

Dirk glances over at Dave, quirking one eyebrow. He's acting even weirder than usual. Is this about the corpse from the day before? Is he still freaked out about that? Okay, truth be told Dirk is still freaked out about it too, but he has a good excuse since it means he could just drop dead as soon as he gets back home. What's Dave's excuse?

"Need some more sleep?" he asks simply.

[knightime]

He looks up at Dirk and is going to- his iPhone isn't in his pocket. Duh. He grabs his PDA from his table and holds it out towards Dirk.

whats today?
how long have i been gone???

He doubts a year has passed in Rakuen. But he needed to make sure he wasn't suddenly missing time because he apparently went home. But if he went home, does that mean he left here? Or did he never leave here? Oh my god he's going to kill this place so much.

[fracturedsoul]

"Uh." Dave. Why are you so weird? It's not as though Dirk ever thought his bro was infallible, but you are still turning out to be way less cool than he'd been expecting.

"February 17. Start of Round Eight. You hit your head or something?"

[knightime]

fuck
fucking shit
fuck

That actually gets sent to Dirk's PDA. Dave runs a hand through his hair and he actually takes his shades off to rub at his eyes before jamming them back on.

no
i
its suddenly been a year for me
i mean
not here
god id kill myself if i was here for that long
no i wouldnt
i went home
except home is a shitty meteor
headed straight for your session
a session
that is like yours
except you are a girl
you met sis right???
yeah her
ugh wait what happened to her than???
i suddenly know whats going to happen jegus fucking christ
at the same time i dont understand jackshit
i also need like ten aspirins
because someone just jammed a years worth of bullshit into my head like this was a brilliant fucking idea
spoiler
it isnt

[fracturedsoul]

When Dave sends that message and Dirk hears his own PDA go off, he goes to dig it out of the drawer in the table by his bed. Finally he finds it and reads the message. Shit, why is everything having to do with Dave so fucking confusing?

"So-- what, did you get a memory charm? You're going to another session? How does that even work?" One where he's a girl? Wait, he's Sis? Or Sis is him, or. "This is not the kind of shit you spring on a guy while he's coming down from an ablution high. Why am I a girl?"

IN THIS REPLY. KIM TL;DRS IN BRIGHT RED

[knightime]

Because he's the knight of time. He doesn't quite work as linearly as he tries. Everything kind of just happens around him.

no
i went home
kind of
i guess a version of me is there and i just got all of whatever they experienced jammed into my noggin like santa and his sack of gifts
because im pretty sure im fourteen
theres no fucking way im not fourteen
ugh okay
let me start at the beginning
were playing sburb
my group
our session was doomed to fail
which is apparently actually normal except we did shit that also made our session ridiculously fucktarded
but we initiated the scratch and ollied the fuck out
your session is the result of our session being scratched
except theres a whole lot of ridiculous bullshit going on because
we were supposed to be scratched out of existence
but were headed towards your session
and your session is fucked up too because while ours was doomed
yours is null
which means your session can never be finished because your battlefield cant meet its fruition and were bringing ours to you instead
happy birthday btw
heres a battlefield and the reckoning
but sis is my sis
and apparently weve switched places
which means that sis was my guardian to me
but in this new session im the guardian
so it only makes sense that the sames gonna happen with you guys
your session is the result of whatever version of me initiated their scratch

Ugh. He's glad to finally figure out why these alternate stuff existed, but knowing was also very odd. Because, now he knows he's going to meet a younger version of Sis. And he can't remember why this bothers him so much. Why he doesn't remember where Sis is...

But he knows why other him would be awkward. Other him saw his Bro's dead body. That must be really awkward, holy shit.

[fracturedsoul]

Wow. On the one hand, Dirk's not going to deny that it's nice to have all of this information laid out for him. Answers a whole lot of questions. On the other, it just raises more questions, and it sure is a hell of a lot to dump on a guy all of a sudden.

Their session is doomed. He stares at the screen, not letting the slightest trace of emotion show on his face, but it chills him to read those words. But Dave and the others are going to fix that? With their fucktarded doomed battlefield? Except that's an alternate "Dirk is a girl" session. What about his session? The one he's already fucked up by killing his own waking self, which is what he's going to assume happened there because he doesn't think he could handle being a murderer, even of another him.

"Oh. Okay, cool," is all he says. "That explains a lot."

[knightime]

it explains absolutely jack shit
except
welp i guess this shit is still happening regardless of where i am
fuck
oh god fucking shit

Oh god damn it. If this is going on while he isn't there, but he's still there. That makes him an alternate timeline him. Either one who's Doomed to death or one who'll cease to exist.

Maybe he doesn't really want to go back anymore...

all i know is
apparently with your group
my group
and a bunch of trolls that still hadnt died
were going to win somehow

But Jack Noir is still alive. He's on their tail and they can't beat him yet at their level. What's going to happen? Jack Noir will kill them. Dave visibly winces. Shit. More memories he can't remember.

[fracturedsoul]

...Trolls. So, maybe what Feferi had to say wasn't all that outlandish. Still, Dirk is entirely sure that that won't go well when they all finally meet up in the game.

He sits down to consider what Dave is saying. As he does, he removes the towel from his hair and checks his reflection in the PDA screen. "When Jake hadn't noticed I'd gone missing I thought maybe time might have stopped back home. Either that or he might have been some alternate instance of my bro from a world where Rakuen hadn't found me and tossed me into its windowless white van. But if everything's still happening back where you come from, to the point where the you back home's memories can suddenly show up and break in and set up camp in your head..." Hm. He runs a hand through his hair.

"What's that make us? Are we splintered-off duplicates of ourselves? On the one hand, it's reassuring to hear that things aren't being fucked up by us being here..." Maybe that's what that corpse is, too. A duplicate of his waking self.

[knightime]

Let Dave tell you about the troll kids. And how ridiculously uncool they are and not as crazy shit as the Condesce is.

Dave is just staring down at his PDA screen. He won't look anywhere else.

they tell us we go back home
whether thats true or not
welp well find out eventually
what will probably happen is we just become whatever we were at that moment
kind of like
we were the same person so well eventually be that person
at least speaking in time loop form
if i make a stable time loop
that version of me will eventually be me anyways
so if you go back
you become that you that was doing whatever the fuck he was doing at that time

Still. He isn't sure how that worked with himself. While it seemed like anyone else don't exist. Davesprite was the evidence that it had existed at one point. But as a Doomed Dave...

They'd eventually die, making the timeline officially dead.

Shit, he's just going to not think about this. Considering he'll have to eventually die again...

[fracturedsoul]

That would be nice. All that stuff Dave told him about doomed timelines is hella fucking worrisome. If they could just go back and pick up where they left off and not be dead or anything, shit would that ever be nice.

"They said most of us would go home." He feels the need to be contrary. "Six of them didn't last time. Even then, that's assuming they're telling us the truth. Which, while a comforting thing to cling to, isn't a guarantee we have."

As calm as he sounds, he's not much better off than Dave in this regard. He's fifteen. He doesn't want to die or be trapped in an alternate universe forever. He just wants to go home and play this game and... hopefully win, somehow, now that he knows their session is fucked and its only hope lies in refugees from another fucked session.

[knightime]

they probably know more than we do
which isnt reassuring but
hey
we dont have anything to lose at this point

Dave actually looks up at him. Something just occurred to him.

well be the same age when we meet
i mean
other me
who will
oh fuck this shit
yeah well be the same age i think

That's a little strange to realize. If they're starting their session, and he still had two years left worth of traveling.

god damn three years is a long time to sit on a meteor doing jackshit and dream bubbles

[fracturedsoul]

Dirk notices Dave's head moving out of the corner of his eye and glances up, only moving his eyes behind his shades to read the message.

Oh, hey. That's something to think about. He wonders how much Dave will have changed by then. How he's going to react when he sees Dave in person, in the game, with all of his memories of Bro intact. Will Dirk even remember any of this? How is that going to work? And it won't be the same Dave, if there even is any Dave at all since Dirk is a guy and what if it doesn't happen the same way in his world. Way too many variables to juggle and consider. He barely knows where to start.

"Could be worse." Dirk would know, having spent the past fifteen years in the same apartment. "Okay, what are dream bubbles?"

[goodboybestshot]

Of course he's here. He stayed the night, after all. Dirk offered and he wasn't really looking forward to spending a night with a bunch of people he didn't know. So he was given the bed of someone who wasn't in right then, hopefully they wouldn't mind. He slept pretty good considering how eventful the previous day had been.

He was just a little startled by waking up to find he wasn't dreaming. Not dreaming and that there were still people around him. That was going to take a lot of getting used to.

Oh. Huh. Where was Dirk? Ah, he was probably taking one of his infamous infinite showers. Silly fellow. That was fine, he would wait til he got back to see what the itinerary for the day would be.

[theillbeatknight]

"Good day. If I may ask, are you Jake Egbert?"

It was hard to be sure, but this child looked like Sir Jake. He was far too young, though, and with two other Striders in this room, one of whom was apparently a different version of David himself, he might be from someplace very different.

[goodboybestshot]

Jake paused and looked up at who addressed him. He blinked because- OH it was that other version of Dirk's brother that came in today. He didn't get a chance to talk to him the night before due to shenanigans.

He was about to greet the gentleman when he let what he asked sink in. Egbert?

"No, sorry, my friend. My name's Jake English."

[theillbeatknight]

"My apologies. You look and sound quite like someone I have seen around in Prospit's city."

Maybe, though...

"Are you from the same enclave as this other David?"

He gestures at the Dave who is still sleeping.

[goodboybestshot]

Jake glances over as he gestures and then back at this other, older Dave. Hm, that was a bit tricky to answer but he'd do his best. He rubs the back of his neck.

"I suppose that's close enough for me to agree. We are, but we aren't. Its dag nab temporal shenanigans is what it is. However, I think what I can say is that Strider's enclave and my enclave are very closely linked, but still separate. Did that make a lick of sense?"

Because he really wasn't sure if it did.

[bloodandfire]

[Dany wakes from her sleep when Dirk enters the room. It's been a bit odd sharing the room with all these Striders. They're all very... odd. And she doesn't understand their technology. Or most of what they say really. They have this really fanciful language that often leaves her feeling as if she's been offended]

Good morning, Dirk.

[she says in a I-know-you-used-all-the-hot-water-and-I'll-end-up-with-a-cold-shower voice]

[fracturedsoul]

Morning, Targaryen. [ He knows she knows, and he doesn't care. A guy's got to have his ablutions. ] What's up?

[bloodandfire]

[But must he abuse the miracle of water not heated by fire? She loves it, except when Dirk uses all of the water. What are you even doing in there for that lo- no, don't answer that.]

We have assembly today. [she rubs her chest, missing her dragons] Do you think you will be Player or Weapon?

[fracturedsoul]

[ In answer, he just holds up his hand to show off the shield symbol on the back. ] Weapon. Looks like my battle marriage husband's a Player.

[ Yes, he will forever call Links "battle marriages". ]

[bloodandfire]

[she looks at her hands before remembering that she's not linked to anyone, whoops] But assembly hasn't started yet... how is that possible?

switching tag style for this sorry

[theillbeatknight]

"Not at all, I'm afraid. I don't grasp the significance of temper.."

[is he losing some of his composure

blame the translator for this]

"...temperature mannequins. But, I doubt that this will last. Maybe on another day."