Lost In Time (MSPA)

It has been said that there is a time and a place for everything.

Well, Dave Strider knew a thing or two about time.

He'd spent what seemed like days, maybe even weeks, hopping through the time-space continuum; it had probably only been seconds by his friends' standards. He'd done his best to focus on only previewing events that would give him some insight into what the team needed to do next, but he'd found that there were some places and some time periods that the Timetables just wouldn't let him go to. He assumed that these were probably important events that he wasn't meant to see and that it was a good thing the Timetables kept him away, but he couldn't help but be a little frustrated about the whole situation.

All the work and searching and never finding quite what he was looking for started to build up within him, until he felt he was fit to burst. It was then that he decided he could waste a few precious seconds of normal Earth-time on indulging a whim or two. Hell, he might even find out something useful.

He decided that he was going to jump many years into the future and find out just what the fate of their race was going to be. What he found absolutely floored him. He was on a planet much like Earth, though it wasn't actually their home planet, and it was covered in cities and towns and farmland; most importantly it was inhabited. There were hundreds of thousands, maybe even millions of people on that planet.

He was so excited and shocked by that revelation that he almost missed the oddity that was staring him in the face: all the people seemed to be some sort of strange human/troll hybrid. As soon as the though occurred to him, Dave knew who to credit. It had to have been Karkat, with his ectobiology.

Dave wasn't complaining, exactly, that human and troll genes had gotten all mixed up in the new universe's primordial soup (as a matter of fact, Karkat was probably considerably more upset by it), he was just very surprised. He took a while to stroll around one of the cities, looking closely at the humantrolls all around him; they all seemed to have been gene-spliced differently. Some of them had Troll horns, some didn't. Some had pointed ears or sharp teeth, others didn't. Most of them had black hair, but there were plenty who did not. A few even had the Trolls' gray skin, though most of them seemed pretty human in that aspect. It was during these observations that Dave came to the one really shocking conclusion: all of these people were made from some combination of just the twelve trolls and the four human kids' DNA. As soon as he realized it, he was able to pick out individual traits and match them to their origin.

He sat down on a bench, watching the humantrolls pass by wordlessly, rather floored. It was only a few moments later that Dave's face was plastered with a look of pure, open shock. He watched a young man walk past him, then quickly got to his feet to follow him. The guy was tall and thin, but well built. He was wearing dark shades, but Dave could make out the familiar shade of bright red eyes hiding behind them. It was like staring at himself, save for one major difference: that bright fucking red hair. There was only one person who that ridiculous shade of red could have originated from.

He had to follow him. He had to. It was necessary.
So follow he did.

- - - - -

Dave had followed the guy to a club and watched him perform and, gogdamn, the man could sing. Dave had been floored. He had to congratulate Karkat for this marvel of genetic engineering.

- - - - -
When he reappeared in his own time period, he was a little thrown off but, once he got his land legs back (so to speak), he headed straight for Karkat's room and knocked on the door.

"Yo, Karkat! Lemme in a sec, I want to talk to you."

"What do yo want, you annoying grubfucker?" Karkat asked as he threw open his door, looking about as pissed as usual. "Here to annoy the proteins out of me like your dimwitted 'friend'?" he asked, using the word as an insult.

"No, actually," Dave said with a grin. "I actually came to congratulate you on a job well done. In the future that is. You're actually pretty fucking cool, Karkat."

"Though I am glad you have come to admit it, I must ask why you have come to such a conclusion." Karkat asked with a suspicious glare.

"Want me to show you? No... Can I show you? Gog, you have to see what you've done, Karkat. I don't even know how to begin explaining it, because I know next to nothing about your ectobiology shit, but it is fucking amazing. You are a genius," Dave said, unable to even try and keep up his stoic cool-guy facade. He was excited, fucking thrilled; he really wanted to just take Karkat and show him.

"Show me what?" Karkat asked, immediately wary at the term 'Ectobiology'. "If it has anything to do with grubs I'll fucking kill you." he snarled

"It doesn't, it doesn't," he said, trying not to laugh. "Just... come here. I need you to put your hands on the Timetables with me if I'm gonna take you along for the ride." He slowly (so as not to totally skeeve the Troll boy out) pulled him over and turned him so they were facing the same direction. The Timetables appeared, floating just at his fingertips, and he took Karkat's hands and put them precisely where he wanted them. "If you move your fingers without my help you'll fuck it up and we'll end up somewhere totally random and potentially dangerous. So hold still."

Karkat stiffened. "I don't like this idea" He stated simply but made no move to move or leave, too afraid to 'fuck something up'.

"It's cool, man. It's cool. Just let me lead you."

He spread Karkat's fingers apart, positioning his own on top of them, and placed them at specific points on the Timetables, giving each of them a careful and gentle spin, their surroundings suddenly blurring and changing. He moved their hands so that they brought the left Timetable to a stop, then spun the right one quickly, not stopping it for several long moments. When both Timetables were finally at rest, they were standing in an alley behind a club in the distant future in a new universe.

"Now let me show you your handiwork, Karkat."

Karkat looked around. "Where the fucking hell are we?" he asked with a scowl.

"The future," Dave said, rolling his eyes. "The distant future."

He let the Timetables disappear back into the aether and led Karkat into the club, pointing up at the stage where the show he'd witnessed earlier was going on. "Do you see that? Well, all of this really, but mostly that. You made that, Karkat," he said, He watched the young man who looked so much like him parade across the stage and listened to his electrifying singing voice with a grin plastered on his face. "You see why it could only have been you, right?"

"He's a troll human hybrid" Karkat replied sharply.

"Yeah. But so is everyone else here, if you look. But what do you notice about him in particular? He's the reason I'm so fucking pleased with you right now. I mean, damn, Karkat. You fucking outdid yourself."

"... I think most of his human DNA came from you." Karkat replied. "At least that's what his physical appearance is telling me."

"I think so, too. But I'm going to be honest with you... He's cooler than me. And I can't sing like that. I mean, do you hear that? Jegus."

"So the troll Dna he has makes him like that then. So what?" Karkat asked

Dave laughed and shook his head. "But which of the trolls do you think that DNA came from, Karkat? Where would he have gotten that bright red hair?"

Karkat groaned. "From me. Fuck." He facepalmed. "I made a hybrid from our DNA. Brilliant. Note to self. Kill Future me"

Dave laughed and put an arm around Karkat's shoulder. "It's really not that bad. It kinda skeezed me out, too, when I first realized it but, hey, the end result is amazing. Why fuck around worrying about the means when the end turns out so well? You can't deny that he's a paragon of just... awesome; so whatever you did worked. You can't tell me you aren't proud of this?"

"Trolls cannot feel pride you grubfucker. We feel Hate and Pity. How many times do I have to tell you?" Karkat growled

"Karkat, you know what? Just shut up and enjoy the music, would you? Admire your handiwork."

Dave pulled Karkat over to one of the far walls and leaned against it, closely watching the man on stage, though he'd already seen the show once. Even if Karkat couldn't feel pride in what he'd created, Dave was plenty proud of him. He couldn't even take his eyes off of what he supposed was technically his progeny. His and Karkat's, if that wasn't weird enough.

Karkat leaned next to Dave and just listened to the music. Dave was right, it was very good and very catchy. And, as he watched the hybrid, he could begin to see things that Dave probably didn't know. Things that Karkat never told anyone.

"My gog," Dave said reverently, mostly to himself, "what a piece of work. This is just beautiful to watch."

He was a little disappointed when the show ended and their guy headed backstage, but he tried not to show it. "I wonder if they have any cds we could take back with us," he said, thinking aloud.

"Why would you do that?" Karkat asked. "Then it will have existed already and he won't sing it. You have to think about this shit,asshat."

"Yeah. Yeah, you're right. Sorry. I just... damn he can sing. I mean... shit Karkat, does he get that from you? Because I know I can't sing like that."