Chapter Text
Try as he might, Dave remembered nothing from the first four years of his life. He remembered parts of the fifth, sixth, and seventh with more clarity than he remembered last week, but those first four years were all but lost to the unending stream of time.
A few times, he'd asked Rose if she remembered anything. She gave him vague answers, like, “bits and pieces,” or “sometimes.” Sometimes?! What did that even mean? When he tried to grill her for concrete details, she had this way of changing the subject or distracting him.
He figured it only made sense that she remembered more than him, her being a Seer of Light and all.
Rose had had her first vision when they were six years old. They were living on the streets of some dangerous, overheated, and unfriendly town. Dave hated it there. Those two years they were in that town were the earliest memories he had. In retrospect, he figured the constant heat might have been part of what kept them alive. In any other town, they probably would have frozen to death when winter crept in and night descended.
Dave and Rose were a team. Back then, they’d pull street hooligan-y hijinks to keep themselves alive. Rose would distract the vendor while Dave nicked the goods; Dave would infiltrate the shop while Rose kept watch. Basic tricks, and the amount of times they'd had to run for it was uncountable, but they were effective nonetheless. Effective in keeping them alive.
They were the same age, but Dave had always sort of… relied on Rose. Not that he would ever admit it to her. He'd always just felt like she would have done perfectly fine on her own, while knowing that he’d be dead twenty times over without her. She was the smart one, she always had been. The one with the plan, who always knew what to do.
So when she collapsed, one day, right in the middle of the street, eyes rolling in her head and lips muttering deliriously and incomprehensibly, Dave had been at a complete loss as to what the fuck he should do. More to avoid the stares of passers-by than anything else, he’d dragged the feverish Rose off the streets to try and get some sense out of her. When he asked her desperately what to do, her only response was something about “rain” and “light” and how much they needed to get out of that shithole of a town. Maybe not in those exact words, but in essence.
Dave had no arguments, and so, supporting his sister as best he could, he’d gotten them to the outskirts of town. It was so much colder there than the town centre, and the cold seemed to restore Rose’s senses enough to tell him, “East,” and point to the road they needed to take.
By the time they reached the next town over, a place where the weather see-sawed between torrential downpour and bright sunshine, Rose had recovered herself. Once again, she knew exactly what to do.
Ten years later, they were only now about to leave the Temple of Light, their tentative ‘home’ since that day.
Dave was relieved to finally be getting out. He knew from the beginning that he didn’t belong, didn’t fit in like the other kids at the temple. Not like Rose, who practically owned the place from the second she set foot over the gleaming, marble threshold. It stood to reason—she was a Seer of Light in a Temple of Light. However much Dave didn’t belong here, Rose did. It had been generous of the temple to take him in at all—he wasn’t a disciple, he wasn’t an acolyte, he wasn’t a Seer. He wasn’t anything other than Rose’s brother. That was the only reason they let him stay. That, and the fact that, thanks to his shades, there were very few of the temple's generally superstitious occupants who knew the true colour of his eyes. It had caused a stir in the early days, and Dave had thought about leaving just to save Rose the trouble. He hadn’t, though, because he was scared to be on his own. Then he got his shades, and the fuss faded into insignificance.
The shades were a gift from a friend Dave had never met in person, after he’d complained about how the brightness of the temple and town gave him almost constant headaches. That was, he supposed, the major upside of the temple: computation. A few weeks after they’d arrived, Rose had drawn him out of their shared quarters to show him the computer room, and walked him through setting up a chum handle and meeting people in anonymous private chat rooms.
“I shouldn’t think anyone around here will be too willing to befriend you,” she told him.
“Thanks,” he’d said drily, knowing she was right.
She smiled. “On the other hand, they seem far too willing to befriend me, and it’s getting… well, tiresome. But Pesterchum gives us an opportunity to befriend people our own age who know nothing of our circumstances, appearance, birthplace, anything.”
“We don’t even know our birthplace,” Dave reminded her.
She shrugged. “Not for now. These things have a way of catching up to you—soon, where one is born will be more important than ever.”
“I’ll take your word for it,” he grumbled. He had no doubt she was right, but wished she would be less cryptic. A few months later, when the war between Prospit and Derse broke out in earnest on the battleground at Skaia, Dave had rolled his eyes because of course; now the kingdom boundaries were suddenly super relevant.
Over the next few weeks after Rose introduced him to the computers, he spent a decent chunk of time in the computer room having conversations with the randoms Pesterchum set him up with. Most of them were assholes, but there were a couple who were alright, in a dumb, dorky sort of way. Fun to rag on. They went by the chum handles of ghostyTrickster (although more recently he’d changed to ectoBiologist, for some unexplained, and undoubtedly arbitrary reason) and gardenGnostic. He didn’t know their real names and they didn’t know his. They knew practically nothing about each other, and yet, by pure virtue of their conversations, the clashing of personalities via the exchange of colourful typed words on an LCD screen, they were friends. Rose became fast friends with them, too, having not made any real friends within the temple. Everyone wanted to be associated with the Seer of Light, but they didn't want to be friends in any meaningful sense of the word.
When Dave was eight, he saved up the meagre pocket money he earned doing chores around the Temple and bought himself a handheld device so he didn’t have to sequester himself in a corner of the computer room to be able to talk to his friends. So while the past twelve years hadn’t been great, they hadn’t been especially terrible.
On their sixteenth birthday (a rather understated affair), Rose said, without even looking up from her book, “We’ll leave here soon.”
“Soon? How soon?”
Rose only hummed thoughtfully.
A few months later, she came to the door of their shared bedroom and said, “We’re leaving tomorrow.”
He sat up, placing his device down beside him. He’d been having a (playful) argument with EB about some shitty motion picture star he idolised. Dave hadn't even seen the mo-pic in question, it was just fun to rile the guy up. “Tomorrow?” he asked. “Fuck, finally. Where are we going?”
Rose frowned. “Derse City.”
Dave blinked. “Seriously? Aren’t they way up on their security at the moment? Drones and shit?”
“Yes, but…” She looked hesitant for a moment. Dave rarely saw Rose looking hesitant. “We need to go there. I know a way in, it just… won’t be easy, is all.”
“Right. Yeah. Okay. When is it ever easy for us?”
“Indeed,” she said gravely, but smiled anyway. “You may want to let our friends know that it might be a while before we can contact them again. I will be doing the same, of course.”
“Oh, yeah.” Dave hadn’t thought about that; his singular notion had been about finally getting out of this fucking temple. “I guess I’ll do that.”
Rose nodded again and disappeared from the doorway.
Dave picked up his device again.
EB: look, bottom line is: mcconaughey is a pariah of the art of acting and being a manly badass, and you’re just jealous that you’ll never be that talented!!
EB: so THERE!
EB: ...
EB: uh...
EB: TG?
EB: you there?
EB: haha, did i seriously own you so hard that your device exploded or something?
EB: that would be hilarious.
EB: but also unfortunate i guess.
EB: hello??
TG: hey
TG: im here
EB: where did you go?
TG: nowhere
TG: TT wanted to talk
TG: moving soon
EB: moving?
EB: oh that’s cool.
EB: if you’re going somewhere less sunny i guess you wont need those shades anymore, huh?
TG: uh fuck that these shades are part of me now
TG: when im dead some embalmer or undertaker or whatever the fuck will be trying to pry them from my face
TG: but fuck no they wont let go
TG: i am one with the shades
TG: now and forever
TG: so fuck the guy who ever tries to separate us
TG: you know the troll quadrants?
TG: well
TG: these shades are my matesprit AND my moiral
TG: these shades and i TRANSCEND troll quadrants
TG: trolls are always like: you dumbass humans you dont understand troll romance, its too complicated and your soft little hornless heads are too dumb bluh bluh
TG: fuck you trolls why dont you try getting your head around the bond between me and these SWEET SHADES
TG: trolls: oh FUCK its too much for my carefully segmented understanding of relationships to even COMPREHEND!!!
EB: wow shut up already!
EB: great, ok, you and your shades have a fucked up and illicit and yet strangely loving and unhealthily co dependent relationship.
EB: i am happy for you!!
EB: so when are you moving?
TG: tomorrow
EB: wow, short notice!
TG: yeah thats how it is with TT
TG: im used to it
TG: it only took sixteen fuckin years but yeah thats just her sometimes.
Neither EB nor GG knew that Rose was a Seer. They just thought she was hella fucking smart, which... wasn't untrue.
TG: anyway wont be able to talk with you and GG for a while i think
EB: oh. that sucks.
EB: how long?
TG: no fuckin clue
EB: naturally.
TG: yeah
TG: one of these days TT is gonna give me some super vague answer to something really fucking important
TG: and im probably going to flip all my shit and fly right off the fucking handle
EB: will you do an acrobatic pirouette off that handle?
TG: what no
TG: fuck that
TG: i will do a majestic fucking double backflip turnaround off the handle and land in a cartwheel and end in an arabesque before promptly flipping some more shit
TG: because
TG: that is definitely a thing that i am physically able to do
TG: with a sword in my hand and everything
He was only half-lying: Dave was pretty handy with a sword. He hadn't had much else to do in his free time for the past twelve years, other than bugging EB and GG, and that wasn't something he could do constantly. Learning to fight seemed like a good idea for no reason in particular.
EB: right, of course.
EB: sorry for my mistake, i wont ever mix up your gymnastic choreographies ever again.
TG: its k i forgive you
EB: have you told GG yet?
TG: about my gymnastic choreographies??
EB: no, you asshole! about the fact that you’re moving.
TG: nah i was gonna do that after you decided youd had your fill of glorious hunk for the day.
EB: oh ha ha, yes you are so hunky
EB: im swooning as i type.
TG: its ok i have the same effect on everyone
EB: JK. :P
EB: if i’m ever in need of glorious hunk, the only one i need is the one and only matt mcconaughey.
EB: but i’m not ever in need of glorious hunk, because i am not a homosexual.
TG: are you sure
EB: yes.
EB: are you?
TG: no i think im in love with you
EB: <3
TG: nah fuck off
EB: </3
TG: anyway i should probably go tell GG. TT will probably talk to you soon too
EB: yeah, she already is.
TG: aw yeah look at me im just like her all making predictions that come true and shit
TG: fuck yeah
TG: anyway i should stop talking
EB: do you even know how?
TG: not really
EB: lol!
EB: well, anyway, i hope moving goes smoothly for you.
TG: thanks
TG: talk to ya when i talk to ya i guess
EB: see you!
-- turntechGodhead [TG] ceased pestering ectoBiologist [EB] --
-- turntechGodhead [TG] began pestering gardenGnostic [GG] --
TG: hey
GG: hey yourself!! :D
GG: whats up??
TG: oh you know
TG: chillin
TG: cause im a chill guy
GG: hehe yup!
TG: anyway
TG: just thought i should let you know
TG: TT and i are moving and it might be a while until we talk again
GG: oh no :(
GG: do you know how long it will be?
TG: nope
TG: you think i get details about these things
TG: fuck no
TG: im like TTs dog, she tells me “were gonna do the thing” and im like “welp i guess were doing the thing not like i have any fuckin say in the matter”
TG: because it always turns out exactly how she says anyway
GG: hehe she is very smart like that
GG: i think shes lucky to have a brother like you though! :)
TG: aw shucks
TG: i mean fuck yeah she is
TG: damn
TG: the shit i put up with for her sake you wouldnt believe it
GG: im sure i wouldnt!!
GG: anyway ill miss you guys :(
TG: it might not be that long like i said i have no idea
TG: TT might give you a straight answer if you ask her idk
GG: well ill miss you anyway!!! :(
TG: aight
TG: be sure to keep EBs ego in check while were gone
TG: without me to knock him down who knows what could happen
TG: kids head might straight up fuckin pop like the fucking hindenburg
GG: aw thats a little harsh!
TG: nah its all in good fun
GG: i guess!
GG: ill keep an eye on him, dont you worry ;)
TG: thanks
GG: youre welcome!
TG: make sure to keep yourself out of trouble and stuff too
GG: oh dont worry about me :)
GG: thank you for caring though! <3
TG: np
TG: shits just par for the course in the field of friendship
GG: haha, of course!
TG: anyway i should probably sleep now
TG: who knows what ungodly hour of the morning ill wake up to TT shaking my shoulder all gentle like
TG: giving me that cryptic fucking smirk and saying something cliche
TG: like, “its time”
TG: im trembling with anticipation i can hardly fuckin wait
GG: im sure itll be great fun!! :)
GG: sweet dreams, TG!!!!
GG: message me as soon as you can ok??
TG: will do
TG: see ya
GG: byeee!!!!! <3
-- turntechGodhead [TG] ceased pestering gardenGnostic [GG] --
As Dave had predicted, it was ridiculously early when he woke to Rose gently shaking his shoulder. But instead of giving him a cryptic smirk and saying something cliché, she looked notably tense, whispering, “We need to leave now, and quickly. Before anyone wakes up.”
Dave dragged himself into a sitting position, rubbing the drowsiness from his eyes. “We’re sneaking out?”
Rose nodded. “Do you really think the Priesthood would let me leave so easily? I’ve been planning this for weeks. We can leave via the crypts before the morning ceremony, and by the time they discover we’re gone we’ll be halfway to Derse City.” She pursed her lips. “Well, maybe not halfway, but too far for them to catch us.”
“You’ve been planning this for weeks and you never thought to, I don't know, tell me anything?” Dave demanded.
Rose rolled her eyes. “I know I should have mentioned it, but it wasn’t the right time. Now get dressed, quickly. Dress for walking. Bring only what you need. Leave rations to me.”
As he was so accustomed to doing with Rose, Dave did as he was told.
By high noon, the Temple of Light and the town surrounding it were little more than a speck on the horizon, and growing smaller with every step they took in the opposite direction. Towards Derse. Towards something new and unknown.
TG: im trembling with anticipation i can hardly fuckin wait