First Specter; Text/Action

[grislytragedian]

Text A;

I find it a little weird that I was supposedly saved from the apocalypse when the apocalypse already came and went several hours ago.
Little late to the party there, mysterious letter-writer.
But whatever.
Accidents happen, nobody is perfect, and by the way: you have horrible taste in accessories.
To be honest, I am slightly more concerned with the fact that I appear to be alive again.
So I am guessing that I was either lied to or some other, outside force interferred with the way things were supposed to go.
Because this place seems like a far cry from what I was promised.
Or perhaps this is

[Nope, changed his mind apparently, abrupt subject change is a-go!]

Dave, Rose, Jade, please let me know if you ended up here as well, hopefully the four of us together will be able to figure this shit out.
And if someone would be willing to give me a more in-depth low-down of this place, I would appreciate it.
The letter was informative and all but I think a first-hand account might be better in this case.
In addition, I seem to find myself in need of a blacksmith or anyone who deals with weapons repair.
Alternatively: the location of the nearest alchemiter.
It seems that our kind, anonmyous host decided to break my weapon and shove it into a trunk when they saved my life.
And I would really rather not be caught unarmed.

Oh, and one more thing.
If anyone happens to run across a larger-than-average, bipedal, yellow salamander, please let me know.
Losing functionality of my sylladex seems to have made me lose track of Cheryl again.

Action B;
[A short boy in a rather dark outfit can be found wandering around the dormitory levels. It seems that he doesn't want to stray too far and chance getting lost or losing terminal access in case somebody answers his questions. He's clearly looking for something, pausing at every nook and cranny and looking behind every terminal he passes. Fortunately, he refrains from trying to barge into anybody's room. The search for his loving daughter salamander hasn't gotten quite that desperate yet.]

[Won't it be sad when he finally realizes she isn't here?]

[Feel free to bother him, it's not like he has anything that's actually important to do right now.]

Comments

[knightime]

ugh
ok ill meet you at your room
youd get back before i would get there anyways
holy shit why are you so far
im on the first floor
you better be glad i love you bro
i dont just casually get my ass up and travel that far for just anyone
im pretty much the best bro you could ever ask
anyways dont expect a reply back because im gonna ollie outtie to your room

[And off he goes! Except he's a cheating mccheaterpants and can float up the staircase. Hah.]

[grislytragedian]

[Welp...this is going to be a little awkward. Sounds like Alpha Dave is really close to Alpha John. Maybe he should have said something, oh well too late.]

[Even not being gifted with cool floaty powers, it doesn't take John long to walk down one flight of stairs and and walk all the way down to his room at the end of the hallway.]

[And now the waiting game for his not!bro bro begins. He folds his arms in front of him, kind of rocking back and forth on his feet as he waits.]

[knightime]

[Dave has gotten pretty good at knowing the layout of the tower, so it doesn't take him that long to find the room in question.

And it isn't hard for Dave to recognize John either. Just that...well that isn't John Egbert now is it? He's mixed between feeling incredibly disappointed and relieved. It doesn't show on his face though. He's been getting better at that too, but probably because he just tries ridiculously hard to poker face.]

So....[He kind of just drawls it out as he gathers his thoughts.] You obviously aren't a Strider. [Haha! A John Strider. Jesus, that would be all kinds of weird.] And I'm pretty sure if you were from an island, you wouldn't dress that way. I guess that explains why you type like you actually give a shit about being grammatically correct.

[He's feeling like this might be a really bad idea suddenly. Maybe he should stop trying to meet people in person.]

[grislytragedian]

[He chuckles a little at that, face cracking into a small smile. It's hardly a signature Egbertian doofus smile but even with all the metal and rubber now adorning it and small though it is, it's still pretty blatantly John. So is the laugh.]

Well you're right about that. I am certainly not a Strider, nor am I a Harley. And obviously, I am not the Egbert that you expected.

[He feels a little bad about that, not that it's his fault but from the sounds of things, the real John isn't here. And it kind of sounds like Real John and Real Dave are even closer than their alternate selves are. Shit, maybe he can adapt this into a screenplay later...yes. Yes this is a good idea, it will be his best work yet! Oh wait, they were having a conversation weren't they?]

You took it better than I thought you would. Though I guess I shouldn't be surprised since you are apparently married to an alternate version of yourself.

[knightime]

[Jesus Christ, all you Johns are actually huge, enormous dorks aren't you? It's like Johns were just meant to be total losers.]

I never said I was expecting an Egbert.

[Dave just reasons that John was off back at home doing heroic things and being his usual heroic, stupid, lame self. Wow, he misses that idiot.]

I've been here for months. I've seen like four different Striders that isn't me and a purple pretentious Lalonde version of myself. I was due to meeting some different version of my best bro eventually. And look, the tower delivered. You can say it even blew my expectations out of this world. [That was so bad.]

[grislytragedian]

[Pretty much. Comes with the territory of being John.]

You didn't have to say it. If you're Alpha Dave, Dave as he should be, then what other John would you be expecting?

[knightime]

[Now Dave is starting to understand jackshit.]

Insinuating that all the universes had a Dave Strider and a John Egbert. The only reason you'd know this is if you were an offshoot specifically from my timeline and not like all these other universes where we're swapped around. [Oh no. No, no, no. Did he fuck up and cause their timeline?]

[grislytragedian]

Ah, so is that the deal with Red Jade and that other pissed off asshole? They're different universes not timelines?

[knightime]

Yeah. You'll get used to that here. There's a lot of swapping around and whatever bullshit you can regurgitate into this melting pot. [HAHAH. He must be talking about Rose Strider.] They're completely different universes from what I know and they're not aware of other instances of themselves until they arrived here.

[A beat.] You're from my timeline then? Not a different universe?

[grislytragedian]

[Yes he is definitely talking about Rose Strider. He's already not fond of her and much prefers his own Rose.]

An offshoot of it, yes. At least that's what the book said and Typheus confirmed it. Though I guess there's always a chance they were wrong. If Jade were here, she would know for certain. My Jade, I mean.

[knightime]

An offshoot. [Dave echoed. Uhh. Shit. Wow suddenly this was super awkward for him. That would mean that he must have caused this anomaly.

But if they were an offshoot...and John said he was still the Alpha Dave. Fuck, he's going to try and not overthink this.] I'm slowly understanding less and less the longer we talk. I'm not even surprised that this stupid game continues to throw the dumbest shit at us.

[grislytragedian]

Aha...well to be honest there are a few things even I don't understand. I don't know what caused the break in the first place and now I am not even sure if we managed to fix it or not. But it had something to do with meteors and portals.

[He pauses, quirking an eyebrow.]

Did I understand that part correctly, by the way? Are we all really slime babies who came to Earth on meteors?

[knightime]

[This is going to be the worst headache. What the fuck.]

Yes, we're the results of an ectobiology experiment gone terribly wrong and sent off the wreak havoc upon Earth via smashing meteors into it.

[God damn he'll bite the bullet. He wants to get this over with so he can help John acclimate here and then abscond like the hugest tool.] You're part of a Doomed timeline. Because you're an offshoot.

[grislytragedian]

[He laughs hollowly.]

Yes, that part I understood just fine, don't worry. It's just what caused the offshoot in the first place that's a little unclear. It sounds like something went wrong with the meteors or the portals or both, causing us all to land in the wrong places.

Jade went back to fix it but I have no idea if she managed it or not.

[knightime]

[Oh, so they're going to all eventually die. Welp, that escalated fast. He's not sure how to feel, other than terrible. Wow, why is he in charge of time again?]

It's Jade. If shit needs to get done, she got it done. But we're pretty much so derailed we found Narnia and the lost City of Atlantis on our joyride. You wanted to know about the Tower. I can give you a ridiculously long and crappy tour or I can just give you basic info and you can figure out which floors you like and which ones you'll avoid like the plague is in season.

[grislytragedian]

Mmm. Yeah.

[He has first hand experience with that. Jade why are you such an awesome badass in every timeline and universe? Still...he fucked it up the first time. THough the fact that a second alternate future Jade didn't come back probably means everything went okay.]

[Right?]

[Yup, okay moving on.]

Whichever is easier. Someone named Aleph mentioned a media room on the fourteenth floor. I think I like the sound of that room.

[knightime]

[Dave hates timelines forever and ever.]

Either will work. The tower is huge so you would be stuck with me for awhile. I now where the media room is, if you want to head there first. It's basically my hotspot since they have some sweet DJ equipment around.

[grislytragedian]

Sounds like a plan to me. Lead the way.

[knightime]

[Dave just beckons John to follow him and starts heading to the media room. He's gotten so used to the layout of this place. He's not sure if that's good or bad.]