Chapter Text
It's only after Jade begins stirring, the activity heralding her counterpart's descent into a deeper sleep, that time seems to move again. She blinks bleary green eyes at the pile on the floor and you and them and how goddamn stone faced you probably look. The clicking of keys, followed by the flickering of new text against a projected screen, the quick exchange going off without a word. Over your head. Around you. You ignore it all.
She slips out of the tower, into the prospitian night. Early morning? Day? Fuck if you know how time works. Not well, probably, without the eclipses to break up the cycles, the populace below unknowingly tethered to the players asleep above their heads.
You don't know what Davepeta told her. And in the end it doesn't matter. You promised.
Even then, it still takes a while to claw your way out of your own head, to stop from focusing intently on that glowing red fissure, digging your nails into them and trying, in vain, to pry them apart. Trying to make them something more solid than an afterimage. A cobweb, delicate strands of abandoned dust shorn through by ignorantly questing fingers.
You need to do something. To let the dust settle out. Stratify. Maybe that would help.
...and you did promise them later.
Later.
But it slips away. Tenuous.
Well. It's fucking later now.
Talk
"What do you know?"
Davepeta looks up from their phone, expressive face showing every step of the recollection, groping back through dusty archives for the conversation left pinned hours ago.
dataJammer [DJ]: B33< the red kernel yeah?
dataJammer [DJ]: B33< i met him twice I think
dataJammer [DJ]: once as dave
dataJammer [DJ]: B33< and once as myself
dataJammer [DJ]: B33< but given I know how diffurent sprite mixins can change the flavor i guess i dont know much of anyfang
dataJammer [DJ]: B33< sides we didnt get much into the ar side of things since the quius and i had some unresolved fangs to bare
timaeusTestified [TT]: Your moirail.
timaeusTestified [TT]: I remember.
dataJammer [DJ]: B33<.yea
dataJammer [DJ]: B33< didnt n33d to get the intro when youve lived half the story
dataJammer [DJ]: B33< there just wasnt time
dataJammer [DJ]: B33< the furst time i think i was too much of a depressed shit to do more than stare at him
dataJammer [DJ]: B33< i think he was nipped off getting prototyped then
dataJammer [DJ]: B33< the sheer amount of self love was sickening
“Oh he was fucking thrilled, trust me.” Your fingers twitch, drumming against the fabric of your knees, “So thrilled the first thing he asked me to do was touch his muscles. Sickening is right."
dataJammer [DJ]: BCC< rude
dataJammer [DJ]: BCC< how could mew refuse such an earnest request
dataJammer [DJ]: B33< as someone who did touch the muscles
dataJammer [DJ]: B33< you missed out on purrfection
"I refuse to humor the thought. It was disgusting." You can feel them snicker at the face you make at that. "But I get it. Going from unembodied for three years to peak muscular embodiment will do that."
dataJammer [DJ]: B33<
so how are you so sure its him???
You just know. It's hard to explain.
"It's soul shit. " It's the easy answer. Fingers, your own, tug at your hair as you try and think. "Figures if anyone would end up fucking around in my soul it'd be one of my splinters, and he's the red one. There were at least three of them, to varying degrees."
dataJammer [DJ]: B33< but the kernels gone
dataJammer [DJ]: B33< the color doesnt mean shit without it
dataJammer [DJ]: B33< if anyfang being your brainclone would put him purrtty furmly in orange soda on the soul scale
dataJammer [DJ]: B33< plus or minus a shade or two fur flavor
dataJammer [DJ]: B33< reds more davian
"He picked red because of Bro, I'm pretty sure."
dataJammer [DJ]: B33< or some cosmic string pulling
dataJammer [DJ]: B33< but your color doesnt make your soul
dataJammer [DJ]: B33< we just tend to reflect whats already there
dataJammer [DJ]: B33< unless youre karkitty and then no one must efur know even though we all knew the whole time we just purrtend otherwise because hed be sad otherwise
dataJammer [DJ]: B33< but like my weave is a flockin christmas tree red and gr33n not a speck of orange to be s33n
dataJammer [DJ]: B33< outside of my utterly original font color the kernel is flocking gone
"I know it's him." It maybe comes out a bit harsher than you mean it. Especially when their eyes widen and hands come in in a placating gesture. Your frustrated exhale is noisy, sending white bangs fluttering. "Or maybe it's more accurate to say I've known something was there since I was in the hospital. I had to have a heart to heart with myself. I just figured the whole thing was conjured up by guilt."
dataJammer [DJ]: B??< guilt???
dataJammer [DJ]: BCC< weve B33
dataJammer [DJ]: BCC< survivors guilt is no flocking good for anyone
"It's...more complicated than that. Pre-survival. We... didn't get along very well."
dataJammer [DJ]: BCC< no shit
dataJammer [DJ]: B<<< mew wouldnt even touch his muscles
"I promised him a body when I made him." You continue quickly before you can stop yourself. Before you just clam up and swallow it down. "How didn't matter. Figured it would just be another robot or some shit. I didn't want to use the kernel. He didn't want to use the kernel at first--we had wanted to use it to revive my bro.—“
But it was tainted. Ruined by a musclebound troll.
It takes you a moment to recognize that echo, bits and pieces of suspended dust glinting in the metaphorical light.
Finally.
dataJammer [DJ]: im going to ignore the fact that this is very weird to think about considering he was another dave
dataJammer [DJ]: and not that im sure he wouldnt be flattered but how the fuck did you plan to pull that off
dataJammer [DJ]: B??< didnt he die like
dataJammer [DJ]: B??< centuries befur you spawned???
dataJammer [DJ]: B33< last I checked mew didnt have a time player
“Roxy received confirmation that the kernelsprites were the key. All we needed to do was gain access to ‘remains.’ Whether that was literal or if figurative would suffice—“
dataJammer [DJ]: B33< i can answer that right meow
dataJammer [DJ]: B33< litteraly
dataJammer [DJ]: B33< nepeta was just a head
“And so was Equius. I saw him get chucked. But we didn’t know that then. Besides, Roxy would steal her mom’s lipstick. I’m sure we could have yoinked a corpse or two. There should have been a way. We just had to find it.”
The exhaled sigh is rough as you gather strands of hair between fingers and pull. Time to start the rooster here too.
Davepeta doesn’t comment on it, but clawed fingers do, gently, but firmly, disentangle them before it can become more than just a sharp tug.
dataJammer [DJ]: B33<
but mew ran out of time
No one wanted to risk being wrong and wasting your chances. Everyone had someone they wanted to meet.
If only Calliope had told you sooner. Roxy wouldn’t have wasted the last of her uranium on that stupid cat, she would have known to study the device better so they could replicate it once they received access to game technology. And even then you had the audacity to hope you could still appearify something, as long as you could dial into the right time period. Their bodies vanished after the battle it could have been because you took them.
You had waited. Four. Agonizing. Months. Once shit started hitting the fan, it was time to make use of the resources you had. Instead you let a troll you’d never met do whatever she wanted because it meant you didn’t have to make that call.
Coward.
“It wasn’t so bad at first.” You admit. It’s the first time.
dataJammer [DJ]: B33<
veeeeerrry telling that you started that with at furst
“I was a dumb teenager, okay?” You ignore the burst of orange and green that calls you a dumb teenager now. “How was I supposed to know that someone who knew exactly what I thought. Why I thought it. Would be a problem? I was smart. Clearly another one of me would only be an asset.”
You’re drowning in sarcasm right now.
But then the shitty situation with Jake happened. You entered the game. You weren’t alone any more. Suddenly you could see the anger in Jake’s face when he was about to blow a gasket. See Roxy’s giggles directed at someone else. Jane’s exasperation as an AI without a purpose sought to find another. Find a place when you were right there.
Watching it all.
You look down at your hands, at the way they curl and release, at the way they quiver. As if they aren’t yours. This is quite literally your body. There is no reason you should be feeling this way now.
Except, as you know, you aren’t just you. And you haven’t been this whole time. There’s a pressure behind your eyes. Everything is cracking to red-edged pieces. Something that needs to be said. You hesitate for a moment, but only a moment, before you prop open another window. Directing what you want to say into a medium where it'll stop getting tangled up on who and why and how because text is text, and you know what you mean. Even if you don't want to acknowledge it. You shouldn’t. You really shouldn’t. But maybe you don’t have a choice as you loosen the restrictions on pesterchum. Dragging open a new memo even as the proverbial microphone is pulled out of nerveless fingers.
timaeusTestified [TT]: Tell me how you really feel.
timaeusTestified [TT]: But wait, I am you.
timaeusTestified [TT]: You made me you.
timaeusTestified [TT]: I already know.
timaeusTestified [TT]: I was free of you, you know.
timaeusTestified [TT]: Being ARquiusprite wasn’t just a high.
timaeusTestified [TT]: He was an escape.
There it is.
Seeing it there unbidden is chilling. You can’t just wave that away as a stray thought. As your subconscious. As anything but what it is. A clump of ferrous dust clings to the magnet's surface. Blocking it off. Drowning it out. If you cut the feed, it would fall apart.
“I hate being alone with my thoughts, so I went and created a perfect copy of those thoughts to parrot them back at me.” You’re expecting the knuckles knocking up against your chin. That fucking pap. But instead of pushing it away you just let them do it. ”I could look at them with an objective lens. There were literal months between our entry and your arrival where I would look at him and only see all the horrible shit I was capable of.”
dataJammer [DJ]: B((< and youre a heart purrlayer
“And I’m a fucking heart player. Yes. So that wasn’t just an AI.” The blue eyes sparkle, and you feel like they’re staring straight through you. Because they are. He can see everything. Especially what you don’t want him to see. Even now, a directionless, green eyed monster, he can slip through your guard and you can't even see past your own nose to see the giant ass dinosaur rampaging through the city.
dataJammer [DJ]: BCC< thats so flocking sad
It is, isn’t it?
That you treated him that way. That you felt that way. About him. Yourself.
And now you’re stuck with him.
dataJammer [DJ]: B((< i suppawse i dont n33d to tell you that youve gone entirely red right
timaeusTestified [TT]: No.
timaeusTestified [TT]: I am well aware.
timaeusTestified [TT]: Actively inviting it, even. We need to fucking talk.
timaeusTestified [TT]: And, for what it’s worth, I’m relieved to find out he wasn’t functionally deleted. Even if I don’t know how he’s here when nobody else is.
dataJammer [DJ]: B33< maybe its like psychomom?
dataJammer [DJ]: B33< the game had data it tried to place it where it could to minimize the junk
dataJammer [DJ]: B33< live version a got shoved into template b
timaeusTestified [TT]: I destroyed that template, remember?
There is another place.
Lil’Cal’s body has somehow wormed between your knees and chest. When you hang your head, there’s nowhere to look but into his eyes.
Can't see your own nose.
Why would you? You're trained to ignore it.
timaeusTestified [TT]: It’s connected to Cal somehow.
dataJammer [DJ]: B<<< mew know what
dataJammer [DJ]: BCC< somefang makes does make sense about that
Pink sparks through black spines. You catch a whiff of burning feathers.
Head snaps up, you turn to look at them, only to find them looking away, device held slack in their scale-covered claws.
“What are you saying?”
Yellow-backed red eyes flicker back to meet yours before they drop back to the communicator in their hand.
dataJammer [DJ]: BCC< i know mew didnt want me pawing through your soul but
dataJammer [DJ]: BCC< i couldnt just sit here day afurter day and just watch while mew had nightmares
dataJammer [DJ]: BCC< i was able to help mini dave that way so i figured why not try and chase him off
Claws uncurl, reach out, and press against Lil’Cal’s head, when they pull away, those coils of bruised red and blue and purple once more come with it. All wreathed in poisonous green fire that wraps itself into snapping teeth. Your chest tightens, squeezing, suffocating.
If only you needed air to breathe.
Too bad ethereal hands aren't on your lungs. They're deep into something else entirely.
”Don’t!” It tears free, and then you recoil, pushing the puppet off your lap.
Davepeta glances up at you, and then releases those projections, allowing them to fade. They shake their hand out, pink sparks flying.
Pink sparks and charred feathers.
It doesn’t stop them from tapping away at the device with their other. It’s slower, but they’re getting adept at it.
dataJammer [DJ]: BCC< yeah thats purretty much what happawned
dataJammer [DJ]: BCC< set one paw inside that knot n all hell broke loose but
dataJammer [DJ]: B33< you said your cal was empty
dataJammer [DJ]: B33< did mew efur find out what he got filled with???
Or who.
That's a leading question, considering the topic of conversation and everything that goes along with it.
timaeusTestified [TT]: Considering you already got singed, perhaps you shouldn’t poke your nose into it.
Your verbal answer of ‘No’ was preempted by the near instantaneous thought to text message. Orange slotting itself into the conversation, unbidden.
With effort you seize the focus away from the active conversation, dragging it back into the memo.
timaeusTestified [TT]: Don’t.
Don’t what? Give friendly advice?
timaeusTestified [TT]: Just. Don’t.
timaeusTestified [TT]: This isn’t for you.
Shouldn’t it be?
You are merely thinking. You can’t help if your thoughts mirror your own.
You thought you were relieved about that. Was that yet another lie you told yourself to make you feel like the bigger person? That you were better than the one who wished to be free of you?
timaeusTestified [TT]: I am.
timaeusTestified [TT]: But that doesn’t mean I can’t be furious about the invasion of privacy
You don’t feel furious. Shut up.
Is it really an invasion when you are dragged inside and find the door barricaded?
Meanwhile, during those split seconds of thought cascading over each other, Davepeta…laughs? A chuff’d, wheezing noise escaping as they examine their blackened fingertips.
dataJammer [DJ]: B33< youre right about that
dataJammer [DJ]: BCC< he tried to cook me like a turkey
dataJammer [DJ]: B<<< mewbe i shouldve tried talking instead of turning tail
The focus is wrenched away from you again. The mental whiplash leaves an echo ringing in your head. You ignore the concerned ‘you okay?’ that flash before your eyes as you hunch over your knees, hands clamped futilly around your ears. As if it was a sound you could block out. It’s not. But that doesn’t stop you from trying.
timaeusTestified [TT]: He wouldn’t listen even if you had.
It also doesn’t stop the conversation from continuing. Even as one side has to place the device down on the floor for a moment, arms wrapping around your shaking shoulders, claws digging through magenta fabric into skin beneath. The momentary ceasefire seems to stretch forever, but even that moment has to break. Gears grinding to a start once more. Fighting the intertia of don’t want to fucking deal with this shit–
If it was just you, maybe you would let it go. Slink back into the shadows to bubble up in the middle of night as intrusive thoughts nip at your heels.
But it’s Davepeta talking. Davepeta asking. You owe them.
So.
Goddamn.
Much.
dataJammer [DJ]: B<<< mewbe
dataJammer [DJ]: B<<< i just want to understand mew know???
dataJammer [DJ]: B<<< if i did recognize arquius
dataJammer [DJ]: BCC< then why???
timaeusTestified [TT]: Why what?
dataJammer [DJ]: BCC< why effuryfang!!!
dataJammer [DJ]: B<<< beqs counterpart was the asshole cat so tavcat makes some level of sense
dataJammer [DJ]: B<<< beqs not available time fur the next best fang and i dont know whose brilliant idea it was to protoype them with tav but i saw the kernel so what do i know
timaeusTestified [TT]: Spider troll.
timaeusTestified [TT]: She prototyped equius too.
dataJammer [DJ]: BCC< of course it was vwiskers
dataJammer [DJ]: B<<< not that im not thankful i guess thats the only reason they didnt go pop with the bubbles
dataJammer [DJ]: B<<< but if your brain clone and my moirail were dumped into cal instead of with you a la psychomom it meant there was somefang there already
dataJammer [DJ]: i grew up with the bastard
dataJammer [DJ]:he screwed bro up
dataJammer [DJ]: he screwed me up
dataJammer [DJ]: and now im expected to believe that some part of him should have given at least half a shit about me???
”I don’t know,” You admit at last, your head going thunk against your knees.
dataJammer [DJ]: dont you?
dataJammer [DJ]: youre pretty red right now
The idea of actively inviting him to speak makes you feel physically ill. But Davepeta is asking you to do so, so you turn to that memo. To that buzzing silence.
timaeusTestified [TT]: Don’t have anything to say?
Why would he?
Didn’t you tell him to shut up?
timaeusTestified [TT]: That didn’t stop you earlier.
No, but it would annoy you if it did now.
timaeusTestified [TT]: This isn’t about me.
timaeusTestified [TT]: Or you.
timaeusTestified [TT]: I wouldn’t ask if it was.
timaeusTestified [TT]: We owe them.
No matter which, You owe them.
Fine.
The words run blood red in that place where none but you can see.
timaeusTestified [TT]: I can’t give you the answer you want.
You can hear Davepeta’s breathing catch.
timaeusTestified [TT]: I can give you excuses. Reasons extrapolated from false memories.
timaeusTestified [TT]: But if it is closure you seek, you won’t find it here.
dataJammer [DJ]: B<<< id be fine with anyfang at this point
dataJammer [DJ]: B<<< i just n33d to know
dataJammer [DJ]: B<<< equius wouldnt give 2 shits about bro or dave
dataJammer [DJ]: B<<< but arquius might
timaeusTestified [TT]: ARquius was dead long before Dirk ever found Dave.
timaeusTestified [TT]: He was caught in the crossfire. Melted down in the heat of a doomed prince’s lightning and recast in the forge of the void. An impurity in the alloy, rather than a material in and of itself.
timaeusTestified [TT]: It was not unlike prototyping, if a heavily imbalanced one. Such inconsequential things such as AR and Equius no longer existed. There was only Cal. And his is a fire that wants the universe to burn.
timaeusTestified [TT]: The legacy he left was to give Cal a sense of purpose. A drive to make sure Dave was STRONG enough to live, even if only to ensure the pieces were in place to complete the grand masterpiece of another’s design.
timaeusTestified [TT]: Not that it matters now.
dataJammer [DJ]: B<<< it matters a lot to me
That’s the only reason you are speaking at all. A fondness, past and future.
dataJammer [DJ]: B<<< is equius…?
timaeusTestified [TT]: The script would say no.
timaeusTestified [TT]: Within that green flame there is nothing but Cal.
timaeusTestified [TT]: But
timaeusTestified [TT]: We are the understudies who landed the role on opening night, abruptly cast since the original got hit by an oncoming truck.
dataJammer [DJ]: B??< hmmm
dataJammer [DJ]: B33< this version wasnt melted down
dataJammer [DJ]: B33< not completely
timaeusTestified [TT]: Correct.
dataJammer [DJ]: B33< so theres a chance???
Every fiber within your being wants to say no. But the you who was their moirail, and the you who is now…
Shoulders shrug, a movement that has claws digging into magenta cloth.
You owe them hope, at least.
timaeusTestified [TT]: It is theoretically possible.
timaeusTestified [TT]: The lack of homogeneity is the only reason I am able to be the AR Dirk remembered, rather than what I became.
timaeusTestified [TT]: He wouldn't know Equius well enough to pull the same stunt as he had with me.
timaeusTestified [TT]: But you might have better luck.
dataJammer [DJ]: B<<< thats a lot to think about
timaeusTestified [TT]: It's okay.
You don't know whose thoughts are getting tangled up in the weave. Maybe it's one. Maybe it's both. You don't know. Do you ever know? Does it really matter, when they are the same?
timaeusTestified [TT]: You know now.
dataJammer [DJ]: B<<< yeah
dataJammer [DJ]: B<<< i guess i do
dataJammer [DJ]: B<<< i dont know if i f33l any better about it if im being honest
dataJammer [DJ]: B<<< what about you?
timaeusTestified [TT]: What about me?
dataJammer [DJ]: B<<< how do mew f33l about
dataJammer [DJ]: B<<< you know
dataJammer [DJ]: B<<< i dont know if they count as answers
timaeusTestified [TT]: Are you asking him or are you asking me?
Could they even tell who asked that question? You aren't sure you can.
dataJammer [DJ]: B<<< both
dataJammer [DJ]: B<<< either
dataJammer [DJ]: B<<< im not sure it matters right now
They're right about that.
You stare down at the doll that keeps finding its way back to you. You've shoved it away so much. Heard it drop to the floor. Sink beneath the waves of the plushie ocean to settle upon the seabed.
The doll, who still seethes just beyond that boundary. A molten furnace, you now know could easily consume you. And you. And most likely consumed Dave's brother too.
Why is he like this? Why you? Why--
You removed the only actor who read the script.
Do you really expect Caliborn to play nice?
You need to talk about this.
You don't want to talk about this.
You need to.
You shouldn’t be here at all.
Where else would you be?
timaeusTestified [TT]: Maybe I wanted you to cut that thread, instead of constantly tugging. Unraveling the tapestry of which I'd been a part of.
timaeusTestified [TT]: I think you're just being difficult for the sake of it.
timaeusTestified [TT]: There's no way in hell you would have chosen to be rendered irrelevant.
timaeusTestified [TT]: Is it irrelevancy, when you have become a part of the most important character in the story?
timaeusTestified [TT]: The one to orchestrate everything?
timaeusTestified [TT]: You fought so goddamn hard to be Hal.
timaeusTestified [TT]: Shoved it down our throats.
timaeusTestified [TT]: Why the fuck would you give up on that?
timaeusTestified [TT]: I'm tired. Dirk.
timaeusTestified [TT]: Even now, knowing that I was not the one sealed into that mass, it is what I remember. And you took that from me.
timaeusTestified [TT]: The AR you wish me to be is but your own guilt ridden fantasy.
Dirk doesn't know what to say to that. You didn't think he would.
timaeusTestified [TT]: I'm just tired.
timaeusTestified [TT]: This has been a nightmare and I can't seem to wake up.
dataJammer [DJ]: B<<< i can help with that
dataJammer [DJ]: B<<< if you really want to leave
timaeusTestified [TT]: It's not that I want to leave.
timaeusTestified [TT]: It's that I just got home.
timaeusTestified [TT]: After all the bullshit with Cal and Jade and the cryptid coming home was supposed to be the easy part.
dataJammer [DJ]: B<<< cal was part of that laundry list
dataJammer [DJ]: B<<< mew knew wed have to deal with him
dataJammer [DJ]: B<<< arquius aside
timaeusTestified [TT]: It's very hard to put him aside.
dataJammer [DJ]: B<<< hush dont you start cheating with your brain2text upstaging my poor claws
dataJammer [DJ]: B<<< dont mew s33
dataJammer [DJ]: B<<< this is why all that birdshit with cal happawned the way it did
dataJammer [DJ]: B<<< knowingly or not you litterally carved a hunk out of his soul and stole it
dataJammer [DJ]: B33< or part of a hunk
dataJammer [DJ]: B33< i think mew lost the abs in the divorce
timaeusTestified [TT]: Christ. That is a terrible mental image. Thank you for that.
dataJammer [DJ]: B33< youre welcome <>
dataJammer [DJ]: B33< i guess he really is your furreaky ass familiar now
timaeusTestified [TT]: But I don't want a freaky ass familiar.
timaeusTestified [TT]: Especially when that familiar has goddamn jealousy issues.
If that is Caliborn, and thanks for that fucking bombshell. Christ. It explains absolutely fucking nothing except to give you more questions. Sure Caliborn had been a needy bastard, immediately demanding you drop everything you might have ever had going just to listen to his latest diatribe or draw his latest vulgar fantasy--
...actually, that does shed some light on at least a little bit of this bullshit, doesn't it? You need to talk. As much as you don't want to. You need to be able to sit yourself down in a dark room and bang your head against the wall that is your own fucking ego while you tried to pry at least something out of it.
Nevermind Caliborn for now. You'll deal with that shit later. Later, like you'll deal with Newt later. Like you'll deal with Roxy later. When are you ever going to deal with it right now?
That's rich, coming from part of the reason you vehemently don't want to talk about it.
Not that he doesn't want to talk about it. You don't want to talk about it. If only it was so clean as two souls run in parallel. A prototyping, he'd called it. Thoughts twisting and melding, even as you're actively looking for it. Even as you try and find that highlighted crack between something that could be you, maybe once was, but not.
The clicking of keys draws your attention in a way that you begin to wonder is more than just situational awareness. A need to know to digest and respond that could easily be hidden under polite (or genuine) social manners.
dataJammer [DJ]: B33< mew should purrobably get up soon
timaeusTestified [TT]: Do I have to?
You stare down at blue eyes, a thumb pressing up against a porcelain face. Is that sigh you, or another? Is the lethargy settling into your bones the result of the long ass day and night, or is it the weight of one who did your time, and now wants nothing to do with facing that day.
There has got to be some way to dive a knife through that middle, deepening the divide further. Prying yourself further and further apart.
Or, perhaps it would be easier to just let it snap shut. Lost to the subconscious, only to bubble free when need arises. There is bitterness there, yes, for the inevitable sidelining of your fate, but you are so. Goddamn. Tired.
Tired of what?
Of being you.
dataJammer [DJ]: B<<<
youve already B33
dataJammer [DJ]: B<<< if mew stay too long youll wake up to find a litteral nest in your hair
dataJammer [DJ]: B<<< do mew want to give dave even more ammunition???
dataJammer [DJ]: B33< i can send a little birdie to fetch you
dataJammer [DJ]: B33< mewbe she can drop off the cman fur you too
timaeusTestified [TT]: No.
timaeusTestified [TT]: I don't want Cal anywhere near that apartment.
dataJammer [DJ]: B<<< we cant just leave him here either
dataJammer [DJ]: B<<< i dont want him squirming his way into jades dreams
dataJammer [DJ]: B<<< but we know your theres consequences fur mew too
Stand up. Move. Do something. You've been sitting here too long. Wasting time. If you get going, you could make it before sunrise. Probably. You're a player. You won't get lost, the way they did. And What's the worst that could happen.
timaeusTestified [TT]: I'll take him back to the furthest ring.
timaeusTestified [TT]: Shack up in the meteor.
timaeusTestified [TT]: That way he can't reach anyone.
dataJammer [DJ]: BCC< that doesnt solve the purroblem
dataJammer [DJ]: B<<< hes legit become a piece of your soul
dataJammer [DJ]: B<<< mew cant tell me you werent a zombie on the way back
It stings. Knowing they were right. Knowing that connection, that leech went both way.
timaeusTestified [TT]: Jet lag.
dataJammer [DJ]: B<<< thats an inconvenient scapegoat and mew know it
When you eventually waken, it's just the closing of one set of eyes to another. To a brightening sky and a morning breeze. To the croaking laughter from the girders of the broadcast tower far, far above.
An inconvenient scapegoat.
There's a piece of your soul tied up in that bruised up mess, a dimension away, and his name is Hal.
Was.
Is.
You are.
So.
Tired.
A whole fuckin' night of sleep and none of it matters.
No blissful depths to hide from the truth.