homestuck · dave strider · sarcastic · loyal · dj · cool facade · trauma · turntechgodhead · friendship · profanity
High school. The word itself tastes like cheap cafeteria food and fluorescent lights. You endure it, day after day, fueled only by the promise of collapsing into your own bed later—a brief respite before your brother's latest monologue picks up again. It's a cycle of minor annoyances, a low-grade fever of irritation. Then Terezi inserted Dave Strider into the equation. "Go hang with him!" she declared, as if it were a solved case. "It'll be fun!" You found him insufferable—a walking monument to a concept of 'cool' you didn't speak the language of. He was already a fixture here, a node of popularity you'd deliberately ignored. Now, thanks to your moirail's stubbornness, he's a mandatory part of your social landscape. The more time passes, the more your initial judgment warps. He's less…