Chapter Text
John remembered for the first time as he was blowing out the candles on his 13th birthday cake. Jane was on his left, clapping madly as John managed to douse every candle with his breath, assuring him a birthday wish. Dad was sliding the cake towards himself so he could cut it. John had been thanking them for all the hard work they'd put into backing it (even if Dad spent most of his time baking regardless) when his first vision flashed before his eyes.
It was some blonde kid in sunglasses. He had a smirk on his face, and his casual posture was oddly friendly. This image passed quickly as images of letters flashed in John's head, all reading "Happy Birthday!" in some colorful lettering.
Jane's "Earth to John!" And slight tap in the head brought him back to present day. It was April 13th, his birthday, and he had some cake to eat.
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Lying in bed, John couldn't sleep. He was stuffed with cake and content with presence, but something seemed off. He was too disturbed to go to bed, though he couldn't place the cause of his disruption. The sheets were cozy, and he wasn't cold despite the usual chilling weather in Washington. He didn't feel sick.
As he lay restless three names occurred to him, and he felt content. He didn't know anyone named Jade or Dave, but a girl had moved in next door named Rose. John decided to talk to her.
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"Out of the way, John!" shouted Jane as she launched herself up the stairs, nearly colliding with John as she stuck the landing. She had a fake mustache on, along with one of Dad's hats, and John couldn't help but giggle.
He asked, "What's with the get up? Did you get grounded again?"
"Nope! I'm going on an adventure, and Dad can't know I'm gone alright?"
John furrowed his eyebrows and bit his lip. "Are you going to be grounded if I tell on you?" he asked.
"Aww, are you worried about me, little brother?" she said as she ruffled John's hair out if place.
"If you're doing drugs I'm telling Dad," he replied, messing his hair up to its usual and proper position.
"Ha! I won't be gone long," she said, climbing out the window and onto the tree abutting the house. "I'll be back before you even notice I'm gone."
John gave a slight wave, and began to turn away when heard Jane cry out. Turning back to face her, he saw that a strong wind had knocked her from her perch, and she was dangling from an adjacent branch she'd grabbed in her fall.
"I'm okay!" she shouted to John, though her widening eyes revealed to him that something was very wrong.
Jane returned from her excursion four hours later with two pumpkins. It was the middle of April, but she'd decided to go pumpkin carving. John couldn't even fathom how's she'd obtained pumpkins, considering how they were a fall plant.
He chose not to question his sister's methods, however, as the attempts often lead to headaches and face palms. Instead he enjoyed himself as he gutted his pumpkin.
He and Jane spent a good twenty minutes comparing designs. Jane decided on a house cut into different sections. She kept looking over at John to see what he though about it, but his answer was the same every time: "It's not as cool as my ghost!"
Jane just messed up his hair, accompanied with groans of, "Come on! Your hands are covered in pumpkin guts!"
"What's it matter? You're going to have to take a shower after this anyway. Unless you've got someone special coming over…"
"Gross!"
"Oh right! Rose is out of town."
"Jaaaaaaaane," John whined as he threw a pumpkin seed at her. It stuck in her hair, and as she floundered to get it out John couldn't help but laugh.
"That's it, mister!" Jane squealed as she threw some seeds at John, most of them landing in his hair or bouncing off his face. They launched into a pumpkin seed fight, and the half carved pictures were forgotten for a little while.
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There was a knock at the door, and John flew down the stairs to let the visitor in. He threw the door open to find Rose waiting on the welcome mat with a purple present.
"I was told that someone was turning fourteen," she said playfully. After she set down the present on the small coffee table in the living room, John gave Rose big hug. They remained in the embrace for a good long time before John pulled back.
"I need to show you this cool biology kit I got!" he shouted, pulling her by the arm after him as he raced up the stairs. After running down the hallways he cast open the door to his room and ushered her inside.
Gratuitously Rose calmly stepped inside the room and glanced around as she usually did. There was a microscope on John's desk, its light on. John smiled widely as she noticed this.
He began, "I've just been taking cells from the apples that Dad keeps bringing home. One of the slides turned out really cool though; you should check it out!"
Rose smiled and walked over to the desk. Peering into the microscope, she saw instead of an apple cell tiny writing reading "made you look :B"
Pulling away she rolled her eyes, "Very funny, John. How's Jane, by the way?"
"Hasn't been at your house every waking hour for the past few months?" he asked back.
"That would be a bit of an exaggeration," answered Rose, though she internally admitted that Roxy and Jane spent copious amounts of time together. She made a mental note to look further into their relationship to one another.
"I'm glad that you got adopted by Mr. Fedora," John said offhandedly, flouncing down into his bed.
"My father's name isn't Mr. Fedora, John. You've known him for longer than I have you should know this."
"Sure thing, Ms. Lalonde-Brinner."
"John-"
"I'm getting those visions again, Rose."
They'd spent a long time talking to each other about the outlandish dreams that they seemed to share. There were too many similar elements for them to ignore, but John still felt very strange about the entire situation.
"Have you ever met Jade or Dave?" John asked quietly.
"I've had a few conversations with Dave, but I am under the impression that he does not have much computer access in this reality," she responded.
John looked up at her quizzically before giggling.
"What is it, John?" she asked slightly impatiently. He just pointed towards a mirror on his table. Picking it up, Rose saw that she had black rings around her eyes where she'd pressed them against the microscope.
"That's really mature John."
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John remembered everything at 16. He was hanging with Rose, complaining about how lonely he was now that Jane was in college, when it seemed to him as though another life played itself for him. In a moment, John saw all of his session: the trolls, Jade, Rose, and Dave. He remembered flying about using his "windy thing." He remembered Jack Noir an the golden boat. He remembered the tumor and Lord English.
And then he remembered that he was sitting on his front porch with Rose, rocking back and forth in ridiculously large rocking chairs.
"Rose," he began, "do you remember Sburb?"
She inhaled calmly and exhaled forcefully before saying, "How much?"
"All of it."
"Even the part were you proposed to Dave?"
"What? I did that!?"
"You know, for a prankster your pretty bad at detecting jokes."
"Roooooooose!"
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In the following two years, they never find Jade or Dave, though they both try several times to contact him through pesterchum. They find Karkat in the 11th grade, but he never spends much time talking to them.
On October 15 of their freshman year in college, they are studying together wen John gets a call from an unknown number. The area code shows it not to be a telemarketer, so John is confused as he picks up the phone.
"Hello? Who is this?"
The response was near hysterical, "John, this is Jade. They sewed wings onto Tavros, John. They sewed wings onto him."