Allegrissimo polytrope (PRP)

[sleepZombie]

==> Arrive

When your vision clears and your head stops feeling all fuzzy and dizzy you glance around at what's around you. You are not sure where you are. To be honest your a little nervous because this doesn't look like how you thought it would. Had the scratch happened? Was this the new world?

Thick banks of fog roll along the ground all around you. You get the sense that the ground is kind of sparse, covered in soft grass, and a tickle of a breeze makes your hair flutter around your face. It's night time, so it makes your surroundings even creepier.

"Hello? Dave? John! Rose!"

You're voice does funny things... it sort of ECHOES but NOT REALLY, kind of FALLING FLAT at the same time. You frown and glance around, chewing on your lip before deciding that maybe you should check one of your many computers.

You decide to use your Squiddlejacket to access Pesterchum. You're thrilled to see familiar, comforting red and blue. You're also kind of happy to notice that some of the pointy headed, red frowny faces in the trollslum are also bolded as logged in.

-- gardenGnostic [GG] began pestering ectoBiologist [EB] at ??:?? --
GG: john!!
GG: john are you there :\
GG: what happened!? i saw you do the scratch and then this swirly thing happened and now i'm here! is this the new world

Nothing. Maybe he was busy, or not paying attention. You didn't want to consider any other option.

-- gardenGnostic [GG] began pestering turntechGodhead [TG] at ??:?? --
GG: dave are you there!?
GG: no one is talking to me!!!
GG: come on dave dont leave me hanging! :(

You're starting to get kind of desperate to talk to somebody. ANYBODY. So desperate that you reach out and contact your Fairy God Troll, who you were kind of mad at last time you had a conversation with him but since then have kind of forgiven.

-- gardenGnostic [GG] began pestering adiosToreador [AT] at ??:?? --
GG: hey!
GG: anybody home :O
GG: damnit..........

With a huff you do the only thing you really can do. You start walking. By whatever benevolent forces the wind picks up, tossing your hair and ruffled skirt around you and making you stop so that you can swipe it out of your eyes. The BREEZE also pushes the fog away and you realize with a gasp of amazement that you are literally standing on the EDGE OF THE WORLD. Or what appears to be the edge.

You're breath is taken away as you lean as far as you can without losing your balance to look down over the edge, your hair being blown back. It's kind of EXHILARATING, to be honest, and you can't help but kind of laugh a little bit.

[Jilak]

==> Dave: Be A Chill Bro

After what was admittedly a rather fun encounter with his best bro, John Egbert, young coolkid DAVE STRIDER decided to wander about alone for a bit. Mostly to explore, to get a good feel of whatever this Dimensional Island place had to offer. Admittedly, he wasn't expecting much. A bit of extravagance here and there, maybe, but it was very rare for him to be impressed. He was, after all, far too cool for such frivolities.

Retrospectively, he likely didn't need to go it solo. With his bro's COOL BREEZES, he might even have been able to get a bird's eye view. It would have been IRONIC considering his... less than stellar opinion of said FEATHERY ASSHOLES. But it would be silly. He realised he would get a much better view face to face from the ground. And so he walked.

--------

You don't get very far.

Specifically, you stop at what seems to be the edge of this place. After your visit to a FRIGID TUNDRA, you're at least grateful this place is warmer. But then you see... it. You see the Void.

The void is an interesting place. One's first visit to it is also quite interesting. Reactions range from the terrified to the amused to the mildly uninterested. But you react in none of those fashions.

==> Dave: Marvel at Void

Dave's eyes widened underneath his brilliant shades, his mouth gaping ever so slightly. It was amazing. That's truly what it was, amazing. This place... a mostly colourless void of nothing, the edge of that silly little island, hanging in the middle of an endless void. But for him, it wasn't colourless. Not in the slightest. Many people could see it, but very few could see it. Not in the way he did.

For him, it was like the music of the universe, the sickest of all ill rhymes playing out in front of him. The quiet peace of it all, the way this place hung in the air without a care while all around it reality faded away. He had to struggle to keep himself from bursting into an almost Egbertian grin, settling instead for a pleased smirk. He took a seat, allowing his legs to just barely hang over the edge.

In his somewhat awkward shuffle to find a nice sitting position, his shade slipped off, quickly falling into his extended right palm. He considered putting them back on, but... no. A marvel of this calibre deserved to be looked at without Rose-coloured glasses.

--------

This goes on for a few moments before you hear something. A beeping of sorts, coming from your shades. Someone seems to be pestering you. You consider checking, but don't imagine it to be incredibly important. You hate to leave a bro hanging, but really, you just want a moment to chill. You thought you'd heard a voice earlier, but you disregard it. It's unlikely that anyone else is hanging around here. Or at least, so you assume.

That is, until you see her. Jade Harley, another of your three best friends. Or at least, you think it's her. It's a wee bit foggy. The wind helps, but you could also be under this island's mind control. That would be unfortunate. Either way, you pull your glasses out of your pocket, and push yourself to your feet. Were it anyone else, you might be anywhere from vaguely indifferent to almost mildly annoyed that your REVERIE has been interrupted.

But it's Jade, and so it's okay. You approach her, waving your hand next to your head a bit. Fog's getting all up in your grill.

"Sup, Harley."

[sleepZombie]

She wasn't sure how long she'd spent just... looking. Looking at nothing and yet everything, because there was a lot to see. She traced the rocky jut of the earth as far down as she could until it curved away from view, she watched the way the fog swirled and coiled and moved in the great wind that seemed to be caused by this sudden lack of existence. Out in the void she looked at the blank emptiness, searching for something, anything, and yet still seeing nothing.

It was absolutely, breathtakingly amazing.

Jade had just been considering trying to toss a few rocks over the ledge to see what might happen when she heard a familiar, smooth, monotonous voice. Immediately a smile spread over her features and she twisted around to look behind her and sure enough there he was.

Except. Except seeing him standing all tall and scrawny, that red-sleeved shirt and his sunglasses made her suddenly remember. The last time she'd seen him (how long? Probably only a few hours but it felt like eternity) he'd been laying on the ground, blood soaking red through the white. Tears jumped too her eyes unexpectedly and she turned and charged forwards towards her friend, arms reached out even before she got to him.

"Dave!" She thrust her arms through his, wrapping them around his back and holding on tight, squeezing him and pressing her face against his shoulder, her eyes shut tight. "Oh my god, wow! It's so good to see you again! After you died and I had to kiss you it was just kind of me. I'm glad it worked!" For extra measure she gave another squeeze, refusing to let go just yet.

[Jilak]

Dave was admittedly thoroughly surprised, though not to say he wasn't pleased. At least his eyes weren't playing tricks on him and he wasn't being mind-controlled by the spirit of Nic Cage. That would have been horrible. Not to mention, he didn't have the muscles for one of those GLORIOUS RIPPED WHITE T-SHIRTS.

In any case, he'd been about to make a remark that would likely have been RATHER COOL. Maybe some allusion to the island and the Little Monsters film. Perhaps a brilliant baseball metaphor, concerning running field goals. But as he opened his mouth, she rushed him, wrapping her arms around his back. He nearly lost his balance, but he managed to quickly put a right foot back to avoid too much of a wobble.

It was around this point that he remembered the last time the two had seen each other. Right. He'd just been killed. That couldn't leave the best impression on the individual. Especially considering her reaction to the Dave Terezi had tricked him into dooming.

Dave was, for a brief moment, unresponsive. Mostly he was processing things. It passed quickly, however, as a small smile danced across his lips. He wrapped his arms around the somewhat shorter girl's middle, and lifted her.

"Sorry you had to see that. But don't worry, I'm back. No big deal, really." Dave responded, setting her back down. He didn't release, however, in case she wasn't ready to. To be completely honest, he wasn't sure he was ready to either. He'd never directly say so because he was FAR TOO COOL to say so, but he was actually quite enjoying this hug.

[sleepZombie]

A small sounding giggle escaped the girl as she was lifted up, hands coming up to rest on Dave's shoulders and hang on as her feet left the ground. His voice was comforting as she felt it coming from his chest where there definitely was NO blood that had definitely not come from bullets SHE had shot from HER GUN into his back. Getting set back down she kept her face against his shoulder for a couple of seconds longer, a little tremor in her shoulders perhaps alluding to some stronger emotion she was feeling.

Jade refused to be like her Sprite, though.

Finally, after rubbing her face against his chest (painfully pinching her glasses into the bridge of her nose but oh well) she pulled away, leaving a tiny wet spot. Her face was kind of red but her excited smile was real enough. "Gosh you are just to cooool for that kind of thing anyway, huh?" She giggled again and finally let go completely. "So. Did you get through one of those swirly things, too? Do you think that was the scratch?" And then, because she couldn't not worry. "Have you seen Rose or John yet?"

Idly she looked out towards the void, off into the nothingness. There was no way they could have stepped through that vortexy thing to out there, could have they? She kind of got the feeling that they were okay... wherever they were.

[Jilak]

Dave was almost overjoyed, to be completely honest. Ironically, but still. Already he'd bumped into two of his friends and been pestered by one of the Trolls. Scratch or no Scratch, whatever it was that brought them all here seemed to be benevolent enough. It even gave him his SICK DUDS back. So perhaps Lalonde would make her way here, and perhaps they'd beaten Noir. That would be nice, not having to worry about getting random teleport stabbed like a chump. Or like one of his many Doomed selves.

It brought up another interesting query, however. Was he a doomed Dave? Being whisked from death to some island floating in the middle of nowhere didn't seem like something Paradox Space or the Alpha Timeline would allow. These were all VERY INTERESTING queries but things he chose not to dwell on. Because honestly, it didn't matter. He was okay, Jade was okay, John was okay, and Rose was probably okay. And that was cool with him, alpha Dave or no alpha Dave.

"Yeah. I think that's how everyone gets here. Like it's some kind of weird time-space door and it's all like 'bro come on hop inside me' and you're like 'what no'." He avoided answering her question about it being the Scratch, if only for a moment, because to be completely honest he wasn't sure himself. John had been able to explain a few things, but...

"Bumped into John a little while ago. He's probably still flying around the island in his ill pyjamas. As for Rose..." Dave paused here. The slightest of pauses. Due to Dave's general silver tongue, it would likely be noticed, but he quickly continued.

"I dunno, she's probably in a library reading up on psychology, looking for an excuse to put more people on her couch." Dave finished, chuckling. His eyes were drawn once more to the void-y, vortex-y thing next to them.

"It's sick, isn't it? An entire hospital's been quarantined just to hold its shit. And the president's all trying to get a vaccine made just to keep down the ill flames its growing." Dave adjusted his shades a bit. He had to admit it, the island had managed to impress him.

[sleepZombie]

Jade gave a little nod, her face lighting up at the mention of John being here. She seemed content with Dave's explanation of where Rose was. She trusted him, and if he said she was alright then she would believe that as well. "It is! I just can't believe that so much NOTHING can be right there!" She sounded kind of breathless and exhilarated all at once, which she was. Jade wandered forward, getting even closer to the edge that ended abruptly in a jut of grass and dirt. It seemed sturdy enough, at least!

Leaning down she picked up a rock, then pointed out into the void. "There's no deflection of light. Even though we can see the moon clearly in the sky out there it's completely nothing. Which also means that there's no gravitational redshift when there really should be." She threw the rock out as far as she could, watching as the powerful wind that gusted up from somewhere out there in the inky darkness buffeted it a bit, only to finally drop down and out of sight.

She began to eagerly pace along the edge. "There's no strong gravitational field so it's not like there's just some black hole out there. But the wind is so strong, like there's some kind of vacuum out there... but the rock just kind of fell! I wonder if you would just sort of fall forever if you tripped over the edge, or if maybe you'd break through whatever into space even though it really doesn't seem to be any kind of space outside there! It's just!"

She whirled around, her eyes bright as her mind and mouth worked a mile a minute. "Dave, it's just nothing. That is soooo WEIRD, right!?"

[Jilak]

==>

You can't help but chuckle at Jade's technobabble. While you are in no way an idiot, there is very little of it that you understand. The bits that you do understand, however, you have to agree with. The void out there, it is really just that. Void. You are awed by it as much as you are, somehow, worried by it. Not an overt, obvious worry. A subtle one. A worry in the back of your mind, slowly gnawing at your person. Before when you called this void 'sick', you meant it in the cool, ironic way you always do. But now, looking at it, really looking at it, some part of you can tell that it is sick. A portion of space and time that exists but doesn't at the same time.

-----------

Dave crossed his arms, daring to take a few steps towards the void, now standing naught but a few inches from its edge. He raised a brow.The island had indeed done its job. It had done the impossible(row row fight the power), and shocked and awed the cool kid. So instead of responding with a casual 'heh, yeah' as he perhaps normally would have, Dave's eyes were dull as he went into a miniature rant of his own.

"It's like time's just missing a few pages of its lyrics book. Like there was some sick beat just waiting to happen, but someone ripped out the ending, leaving nothing but... this. There's this huge gust of wind and things can fall, but nothing's moving out. It's like it's in its own bubble, like Ben Stiller in that one shitty movie. No, wait. All of his shitty movies. I was right. This is the sickest fire to ever be spat. The fire at the end of the universe." Dave responded, giving the void one last look before turning to face Jade.

"Rest of the island's pretty lame, though. I could show you around, I guess. Not much else to see besides coffee shops, bottomless canyons, and holes into hell, though." Dave finished, sliding his shades down just a tad.