animus_network | First Spell; Text/Action

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First Spell; Text/Action

[Text]

john lalonde i am going to KILL you.

[Action]

[[Once that ominous message has been left, the young girl abandons the terminal she found on third floor of dormitories and begins her hunt. She has an ass to kick and she will find it. There's a four eyed black kitten on her heels, batting playfully at her coat tails as they walk and under her arm is a very large book of some sort. Occasionally she checks a terminal as she passes because you'd better believe she will descend upon her friend like a hawk when he replies, but beyond that she's going to head down stairs to look on the floor below. Maybe go a few more floors down if need be.

She'll care about where exactly she is later. It's probably just like SBURB anyway. Do some exploration and eventually you'll run into some helpful creatures! Surely that's how it works.]]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I'm fine. [[It's a little snippish because she's still kind of upset with you. Just for a different reason this time.]]

Wait, so we were created like the frogs are bred sort of?

Well I don't really know what you did with the frogs but I assume it's a similar process? Something about slime clones. Anyway, it turns out that you and Dave are brother and sister and Jade and I are brother and sister and we were "born" [He lifts his hands for air quotes around that word.] in a lab and then sent to Earth on meteors.

Which is fine, this is apparently completely normal for SBURB. Though in our case, it didn't work out quite the way it was supposed to and the meteors somehow got switched around. In a way, we've all been living the wrong lives. My mom? She's not actually my mom at all.

She's yours.

[[...staring.]]

[[Opening her mouth, then closing it and thinking about this a moment.]]

Okay I can believe that we were created like that but it's hard to believe your mom is mine. Why wasn't she living with my dad if that's the case?

Because you're not actually related to your dad. Your real dad is Jade's bro. And Dave's grandpa and your grandma are Jade and I's parents. Which I guess makes your dad my half brother, technically.

Have you run into a Dave Strider or a Jade Harley yet today?

Ahaha no. That's not possible. I am one hundred percent Egbert, John. There is no way I am not related to my dad. And yes! I met a Dave Strider.

No Rose, you're not. You're like...maybe ten or fifteen percent Egbert I guess because you were technically raised by him. But that's it. You're superficially Egbert.

Dave Strider and Jade Harley are from the timeline as it should have been. If our meteors had landed in the right places, you would be Rose Lalonde and I would be John Egbert. Technically, we ARE them from a genetic standpoint, but from a temporal standpoint? We were never meant to happen. Jade had to back in time to fix the break, that's why she wasn't with me when I showed up on LOHAC.

Well superficially is good enough for me. No offense but fuck that noise, I am as Egbert as Egbert can get and no one will convince me otherwise. He's my dad and nothing will change that. [[That's apparently all that matters to her right now.

...except wait.]]

Wait, if killing us is supposed to save us...how do you save Jade then...?

[[Don't you dare tell her that you didn't save Jade, John. She is her best friend and if you didn't save her...]]

Well...okay. Look, here's how it works. Only a time player can fix a fractured timeline and if they're successful, the splinter and everyone in it just stops existing. But by dying, you can sort of...preserve your ghost in these things called dreambubbles. Which I guess are like some kind of weird doomed timeline depositories. If Jade had died with the rest of us, there wouldn't be anybody to fix the timeline.

But she promised me she would meet up with us, Rose.

[[...nope. That doesn't reassure her at all. Now she takes the invitation to sit down, just kind of unable to comprehend the idea that Jade may not meet up with them. That all they have is a promise and there's...nothing they could do to change that. Since she has to go fix it...

The four of them are supposed to stick together. Though she guess that was killed the moment John and Jade decided not to tell them any of this...]]

[John's silent for a while, letting Rose mull it over. It's kind of a lot to take in, after all.]

Rose? Jade Strider never breaks a promise. Remember?

...we were supposed to play together, John. The four of us, not two pairs of two. Why weren't we told about any of this?

[[She doesn't want to talk about Jade and promise keeping. It may be out of her hands to keep this one, so obviously avoiding the subject is the best way to deal with it.]]

Because... [He gives a clipped sigh and folds his arms in front of him, looking down at the ground.] Because it was hard enough as it was and I didn't want to worry you or leave any room for argument, okay?

John there wasn't any room for argument. If there was no way to fix it...but...

[[But she's still upset and disappointed and feels kind of betrayed and full of all sorts of sad emotions right now.]]

Really, Rose? Are you really sitting here and trying to tell me that you and Dave would have just accepted that plan and not tried to think of a way around it where nobody had to die? Hell, I didn't want to agree to it. I almost didn't, but there really just...there wasn't anything any of us could do.

Well yeah, maybe we would have, but if there's really no way around it we would have accepted it. And then...then we could have gone through with it together. Instead of just you and Jade having to bear that cross all on your own...

That's why we're friends, John. That's what friends do! And goddammit if we're going to face our death I would really rather do it knowing that! Facing it together! Rather than just...facing it together in a back doored sort of way.

John it feels like you guys didn't think you could trust us. Or like...I don't know...

...abandoned.

[Ouch.]

In Jade's defense? She wanted to tell you. She pretty much told me to tell both of you and said that it sounded like I didn't think you could handle it. Which isn't any more true than you saying it's because you aren't trustworthy.

[[She doesn't say anything to that, just fiddling with the buttons on her sleeves or her skirt or the bedspread and decidedly not looking up at him. Sorry John, but she's going to be a little hurt by this for a while.]]

[And he does nothing to break the silence for a while either. Not until he sighs, sounding somewhat defeated...maybe tired, who knows.]

Rose, please say something.

We're doing this together from now on. [[She looks up at him, frown being replaced by a small smile.]] No more hiding things from each other. If something's going wrong, we tell each other. Even if it means facing our death like that again. It doesn't matter how hard it might be to say, because once you've said it you know what? You'll have a friend to face it with you. And that'll make it easier.

Got it? From now on it's me and you. Not just you.

[He looks at her but doesn't say anything for a few moments. Then he looks back at the ground again.]

I killed Jade.

[This is what you meant by not hiding things, right?]

It was different...I mean she came right back, sort of but I still did it. And for her I didn't [He pauses, trying to figure out how to word this.] I only had one bomb.

[Hopefully Rose gets the implication without him having to flat out say "I killed our best friend with my own two hands."]

Edited 2012-08-06 18:09 (UTC)

[[She gets it and now there's a pang of guilt of making him having to admit to that. But at the same time it's better that it's out in the open. Keeping that all bottled up couldn't have been good for him.

John, hopefully you don't mind her reaching out to take your hand. She'd hug you instead, but she doesn't know how you feel about hugging so hand holding will just have to do for now.]]

...sit down with me?

[Actually, he could go for a hug right now, not that he's going to ask for one. But he'll sit down next to her on the bed either way.]

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