post sburb au starter

Things have been rough, though that's an understatement. The game was hard. 3 years worth of nothing but everything being hard. Hard and bloody and cruel and unusual. He and everyone he knew and cared about had to die, or watch their loved ones die, or both. Their minds and bodies were stretched to their limits and even in their dreams they couldn't find solace. Everyone went into depression, though some harder than others, some resorted to drinking to ease the pain, some went literally insane. They won, though. As rough as the game was, as breaking the game was, as defeating the game was, as defeating the inhabitants of the game was, as everything that came with sBurb was, they beat it. Though it still haunts him, haunts his friends, haunts everyone involved. Especially in their dreams.

Bro tells him not to dwell on it. TO push past it. It's over now. Things are easier now. The dead are even back to life now. Their entire universe was reborn, rewritten from the beginning and fastforwarded three years from April 13th, 2009. It rewrote itself, to include everyone from both iterations of both universes, to all inhabit Earth. Those who lived there from the beginning, like John, had their personal history mostly untouched. Those like the trolls, Roxy, and Dirk, had their entire backgrounds changed to jam them in, to fit in the style of this Earth, which included turning all the trolls into humans. Everyone retains their original memories, though, which made assimilating into a normal Earth life rough. The trolls had it hardest, their situations too convoluted to go into, but they're doing well enough. Though they argued it wasn't fair that everyone had to live in the human's universe. Didn't the troll's universe come first? Rose theorizes that it was because the Troll's universe had already been devoured by English. The human universe apparently had something left to salvage and restore. And even then, it was restored to, technically, it's prescratched condition. No Condesce takeover.

And everyone that died in the game, has been brought to life. That was why Bro is able to tell him not to dwell on the game. Though how could he not, honestly.

But even aside from the haunting remnants of sBurb, things have been rough. For the humans of the scratched universe, their entire lives had been rewritten, and they now had histories they do not remember. According to this universe, Roxy had always lived with Rose and Mrs. Lalonde as the slightly older daughter. Jake and Jade had both been raised by a dog, and had been adopted by businessman-hunter-scientist-philanthropist-etc Mr. Harley. Jane and John had apparently always been siblings, raised by their two fathers(For some reason or another, both Mr. Egbert and Mr. Crocker came back into life as two seperate beings. They've happily accepted their new 4-member family unit.). Dirk had always lived in this too-small apartment with the other three Striders. Three, because Davesprite also still existed. Now neither Dave Strider or Davesprite, his new history, whether he accepts it or not, is Davis Strider, Dave Strider's identical twin. Apparently alt-history Bro was shitty at names. Dirk, Jr., Dave, and Davis? Really?

There were still fragments from the session, of course. Besides the memories. But none of these remnants show themselves more openly than in Davesprite-turned-'Davis'. Even compared to the trolls, whom still sported just slightly gray-tinted skin and just barely yellow-tinted eyes, and eye colors the color of their original blood(and even their new blood, though predominantly red, came in a rainbow of different hues.). Dav(e?)(is?)(esprite?) still had barely orange-tinted skin and hair and eyes, still a bright yellow hue to his blood. Still feathered, though they're scant and focus mainly on his elbows, neck, and upper back(and groin, but like he's going to tell anyone about his downy pubes). Scutes, though also scant and not nearly as hard as they were on his previously more avian forearms, still grew from his elbows to his fingertips(he'd taken to wearing long sleeve shirts and an old pair of Bro's gloves). And wings. Not nearly as large as they were, of course. More the size of chicken wings, which he kept folded flat against his back under his shirts at all times. He never got his dick back. At least he doesn't shit from his vagina anymore. Davis Strider is classified as XY intersex. At least he doesn't get periods. He has yet to take a phys. ed. course in school.

And things have been rough. The Strider apartment is too small for one adult and three teenage boys. To top it off, the 2 different versions of the Strider apartment, pre- and post-scratch, fused into one. Which of course trapped the three teens in the one bedroom, behind a giant bust of Snoop Dogg. Bro was assholishly reluctant to move it. For the first while after that, they had to share the 2 bare mattresses on the floor between the three of them. Initially the two mattresses had been stacked to further seperate the sleeper from the floor, and they were much less comfortable unstacked, not to mention shared. Eventually, after a couple weeks, Bro got a bunkbed, but even then. The twins had to share a bunk. Dirk claimed the top bunk and set up some sort of fort. Dave was a kicker. Davesprite hogged the blankets. And as the weather heats up from April onward, the three teenagers sharing the one room were miserable, always grabbing a chance to be alone and away from stuffy, muggy bodyheat and teenage boy stonk.

School was strange. Before sBurb, Dave and his friends were 7th graders. Suddenly they're in highschool three years later. That's three years of schooling, of teachers and acquaintances, that they don't remember. As far as their teachers and classmates know, these eight teens stumbled into school on April 14th, 2012, dazed and confused and having forgotten a good chunk of what they learned. But with a lot of studying, they managed to catch up. Mostly it was memorizing new maths. It's not like you learn much else in high school that you don't forget over summer vacation anyhow.

By the end of their 10th year, their grades had dipped but then went right back up to normal in time for their report cards to all be decent. Dirk did well. Dave and Davis(Davesprite) did ok. But without the daily escaped to a (barely) air conditioned public school, the three teens were quickly growing irritable. Bro didn't want to move the whole family group to a new apartment. He didn't want to leave his apartment at all. But he knew something had to be done about this crowded situation...

Back in the game, Davesprite had... started something. With John. More accurately, John had started something with him. Or they started it together, really. They both approached the thing pretty awkwardly. But it was a thing. And it grew. They were a thing, together. It was nice, though fleeting, as even though John denied it, they both figured Davesprite wouldn't last once everything sBurb brought was over and done with. He was supposed to be doomed. They made the most of it while it lasted.

And yet... it continued to last. He didn't vanish. Even if he had died, apparently it wouldn't have mattered, as everyone that died was brought back. And they, as a thing, despite being seperated between Washington and Texas, kept going. They texted and pestered each other day and night. More than once Davis almost, or did, have his phone confiscated at school. Thank God the teachers never cared to read his text messages aloud. They weren't always innocent. And it was rough, the distance, despite having started out as only knowing each other through the internet. They had grown accustomed to each other's company over the three years they spent together. But that didn't stop them. Even in the few short months they spent in the rewritten universe, they'd sent each other little gifts and occasional letters(even if they could always texts, nothing beats a sincere letter in the mail). They each got webcams and would chat on skype, though Davesprite usually waited until he either had a room to himself, or until the sun went down so he could go on the roof while it cooled down for the night. But with school and distance, they couldn't see each other in person. And it was rough.

Bro noticed, though. Of course he did. And he factored it in quite nicely with one of his ideas for a solution to the crowded apartment problem. After a month into summer vacation and just after the 4th of July(because of course he'd wait until after he had Blow Shit Up night with the younger Striders), Bro got into contact with Mr. Egbert. And they got to talking, about possibilities, about Davis Strider. Mr. Egbert and Mr. Crocker had, very soon after arrival in the rewritten universe, moved the family to a new home. Like hell were they going to force John and Jane to share a bedroom. That would just be rude. They needed their privacy. Their new home, only a couple blocks from the previous so John and Jane could still go to the same school, had a mostly unused basement. Bro was factoring that into his ideas too. Mr. Egbert and, by extension, Mr. Crocker, agreed with Bro's ideas, and the three of them did some planning.

Halfway through July, Davesprite/Dave/Davis was pulled aside by his Bro to be told a surprise. The surprise was that he was getting kicked out. Or at least, that's what ran through Davesprite's mind when Bro told him he was moving out. Born of his insecurities as a 'copy' of the 'real' Dave, for even a moment he thought maybe there wasn't room for him in his family anymore. Bro nearly punched him. He told him, the apartment was small and they werent getting a new one, and it'd be easier if someone left. Dave and Dirk had no where else to go where they'd be as happy. Davesprite did. Bro just wanted all three kids to be happy, and to hit two birds with one stone, he was moving one of the kids out, and sending that kid to live with his boyfriend.

And for the first time in months, Davesprite was estatic. He was going to see John. Not just see John, but live with John. Mr. Egbert and Mr. Crocker had converted the basement into a living space just for him. And he was going to see, live with, go to school with, be with John. For that, he gave his Bro a rare hug, before running off to message John and see if he'd been keeping it a secret, or if it was a surprise for him too. It was. One wonders if John even bothered to ask why his Dads were buying furniture just to put it in the basement.



Several days later, Davis Strider stepped off a plane at Sea-Tac Internation Airport in Seattle, Washington. Readjusting his carryo-on backpack on his shoulder, heart beating so hard in his chest he can feel it pulse through his body, hear it in his ears; he follows the overhead signs making his way towards baggage claim, towards where families and friends and acquaintances await beyond the security checkpoint for the arrivals they're looking for. Each step taking him that much further to his reunion with John, to his new life in Washington. He almost can't believe it's real, and the closer he gets to where the Crockerberts are witing, the more he has to blink hard, subtly pinch his cheek, attempt to wake himself up in case it's only a hopeful letdown of a dream. And when it wasn't, when he was still awake and still in Washington and still several steps closer to John, his breathing quickened, his lips felt dry, and he found himself stopping for just a moment to look at his reflection in a window and fix his hair. But nothing he did to try and make himself look cool and nonchalant changed that he was nervous and excited, and when he finally stepped over the threshold beyond the security checkpoint, his hair was slightly ruffled, his eyes were wide behind his shades, there was an orange-tinted flush to his cheeks and his ears and sweat under his bangs and on his palms and the corners of his lips twitched as he stopped to scan for the Crockerberts waiting for him, and to all the crowd he looked like a lovesick teenage boy waiting for his happy reunion.