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Skaia Mental

Summary:

A large group of fucked up teens with delusions and homicidal tendencies are kept in one building. What could go wrong?

As it turns out, a whole fucking lot.

Notes:

Hi. I've never written a fanfiction here. Please hang with me, and if you have any suggestions please let me know!
Also davekat and the meowrails are my children and you can pry them from my cold, dead hands.

Song for this chapter: Stride from Homestuck: Act 6

Chapter 1: Chapter 1

Chapter Text

He rubs at his sunglasses tiredly, holding the sword in his hand like an extension of himself. Swinging roughly, he resists the urge to shudder as blood rushes down his nose and as he feels it stain his teeth. Striders don’t show emotion, Striders are the strong ones.

The swing goes wide, and he hits the roof of the old apartment building hard. There’s a rough crack, and as Dave passes out he sees more blood soak into the red-stained stone.

Failure

---

Dave sits up in the bed with a lurch, eyes brimming with tears and head swimming with a throbbing, stinging mass. Like usual, then.

The pale, cold room lit up with white fluorescent, and Dave figured it would be waking time soon. The nurses and therapists would arrive or wake up, and Dave would tell the shrinks about his dreams and they would make some psychological bullshit Rose would explain at lunch, and people would be quiet, and everything would be-

“Morning Dave!” AR said cheerfully, bursting in with a clipboard and his medication. His positivity burst open his internal ranting and increased the headache, so Strider extraordinaire took the pills gratefully and tuned out AR’s cheerful blabber.

He was a good nurse, if excitable, and Dave was glad he had gotten the better of the ARs. The fact that there were two was odd, and the fact that both had been assigned to Striders was actually beyond comprehension.

“Sup AR. What’s for breakfast?” Dave murmured, sliding on his aviators. The lights were too bright, and although the medicine helped with migraines it wasn’t exactly perfect.

“Oh, today there’s going to be eggs and cereal as usual bu- Oh, it’s apple juice day! You’re sure to like that, right?” He bumbled excitedly, checking Dave’s digital sleep log and checking his eyes, “I remember the time you smuggled a whole four bottles back here. Miss Paint never did figure out how you did it.”

Dave shrugged, and they headed off to the dining area. “A coolkid never reveals his secrets.”

AR laughed happily until he noticed the slight hunch of the teen’s shoulders, and said sadly, “Nightmares wake you up again?”

Fuck. The only ones who could tell are him and Rose I shouldn’t’ve let him know-

“Yup. I was going to talk to Doc. Snowman about it, I swear-“ Dave stammered before they were interrupted by the doors to the dining area, otherwise known as Derse. Nobody knew why, but it just… sounded right.

AR pushed Dave in with a small smile, and muttered playfully, “You’d better, boy.”

---

turntechGodhead [TG] opened memo ‘apple juice day’ on board ‘FRUITY RUMPUS ASSHOLE FACTORY’

TG: so

TG: y’all know the drill

TG: because

TG: my sweet apple juice children will go to none but me

TG: hand em over peasants

TG: give me the fruit of my endless labor

tentacleTherapist [TT] responded to memo

TT: Must we do this every time, Dave?

TT: We all are aware of your unhealthy love of apple juice and your possessive tendencies regarding it.

TT: We are all completely aware of the drill that is everyone relinquishing their apple juice to feed your addictive behavior toward it.

TT: But memos are too far.

grimAutilatrix [GA] responded to memo

GA: I Have To Agree With Rose

GA: This Seems Excessive Even For You

TG: well of course you agree with rose

GA: What Is That Meant To Imply

gardenGnostic [GG] responded to memo

GG: hey dave, what if i want to keep my apple juice?  :?

GG: i’m pretty sure you aren’t the only one who enjoys it!

ectoBiologist [EB] responded to memo

EB: yeah dave! What if I want apple juice too?

TG: woah woah woah cool down

TG: there is a reason I have the apple juice monopoly

TG: first because you can get two apple juices and give me one nothing stopping you

cuttlefishCuller [CC] responded to memo

CC: Do you M—EAN no-fin?

turntechGodhead banned cuttlefishCuller from responding to memo

TG: no fish puns

TG: anyway i also have an unironic love of apple juice

TG: look here I am admitting my love for something is unironic

TG: baring my throat to the hungry pun wolves here to devour me

TG: show of trust here

GG: you’re so silly dave! :D

carcinoGeneticist [CG] responded to memo

CG: WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING.

CG: ARE WE DISCUSSING APPLE JUICE OF ALL THINGS ON A BOARD THAT IS MEANT FOR THINGS THAT ARE IMPORTANT?!

CG: NOT ONLY ARE WE ALL FUCKING FAMILIAR WITH STRIDER’S APPLE JUICE MONOPOLY

CG: BUT HERE WE ARE, HAVING A FRUIT JUICE MUTINY IN WHICH TWEEDLEDUMBASS AND TWEEDLEDEE ARE ACTUALLY DISPUTING IT

turntechGodhead banned carcinoGeneticist from responding to the memo

turntechGodhead closed the memo ‘apple juice day’

 

Dave sighed as he watched the various memos explode with color. As hilarious as it was, he wasn’t in the mood for watching teenage drama unfold. He glanced around as he fiddled with the half one bottle of apple juice, but the only ones in there were Nepeta and Equius, aka sweaty horse dude and roleplaying cat girl. They were in the corner being the cutest best friends ever. Sickening.

As the other patients dragged in Dave waved the others in the gang, a small pang of annoyance at their usual lateness. He didn’t blame them. The nurses and orderlies were always a bit overprotective, and today was no exception.

The first to arrive was John, surprisingly, his fluffy brown hair being blown around by a wind that didn’t exist anywhere else. He was here because he kept throwing himself off roofs to prove he could fly. Dave would believe his control of the wind if he hadn’t fallen and cracked his head on the pavement three stories below. Still, they way his T-shirt fluttered never seemed natural.

Rose and Jade arrived together, chatting between each other while PM and WQ watched happily. Rose helped Jade with the crutches, which were promptly abandoned at the end of the table. The snide glance Rose gave was all Dave needed to know a psychoanalysis was approaching, but the combined force of the Harleyberts was enough to keep them down for now.  

“Dave! What was with the silly meme-o?” Jade said expectantly, settling down and giving him a judgemental look. John was caught between snickering and dying of asphyxiation in the corner.

“… not only was it the finest memo on that lameass board, but did you just combine the word meme and memo?” Theresa, fuck, Terezi said cheerfully, plopping her plate down next to Dave with an evil grin, “Because that was the best pun I’ve ever heard. You go, Harley #2!”

Jade quickly raised her hand to high five Terezi, but pulled it back skeptically. “What do you mean “ Harley #2? I am obviously Harley #1!”

“Yeah, but your brother was landed in here because he toted guns around with him wherever he went and wouldn’t take them off, and then got mauled by a panther trying to fight it. That’s just inherently badass, if you ask me!” Terezi said nonchalantly, then stole a spoon of Dave’s fruit loops.

Jade looked down for a sec and John patted her on the back before glaring at Terezi angrily. “Still a sore spot, Ther- Terezi.”

Dave and Rose just shared a glance and stood up quietly. “Time for the daily dig-through of my psyche, y’all. Be right back.” He drawls as they approach the seating area in the corner, and Rose points violently to a beanbag and mutters, “Sit.”

He sighed and plopped down, and as she sat next to him she said, “What did you dream about?”

“Bro,” He sighed, “and a time where I had a fairly bad head injury in a strife. At least it wasn’t an alternate timeline death this time.” He notices what he’s said when it’s done, but before he can stammer out a long winded metaphor Rose stares him down. Her deep violet eyes say all he needs to know, and he turns away guiltily.

“You know how I feel about the alternate timeline thing, Dave. It’s a problem, and you just don’t let go. If you keep deluding yourself that there’s an explanation to you reliving yourself dying horrifically over and over other than what I can only assume was abuse, than soon you’ll expect me to believe that I’m actually a monster made of a mixture of sunlight and tar and John can control the wind.

“Dave, I’m trying to be sane again despite what every instinct in my messed up brain can tell me You should try too. “

She sighs and breaks the stare, brushing a white lock of hair behind her pale ear, and he looks at the amethyst ceiling. His face is blank again.

Funny you mention insanity, sis. We’re all mad here.

---

Dave didn’t remember when the nightmares started.

He was sure he was with bro, but back then sleep schedules didn’t exist neitherdidsleeporsafety

All he remembered was long, painful nights of dying over and over. Severed at the neck. Stabbed in the chest. Melted in a seething hot pool of metal and lava.

He had his own theories. Sometimes he was in hell, being punished for some crime he didn’t commit. Sometimes he was reliving past lives, or lives from a different universe, just mostly their deaths. Sometimes he was a god and living the lives of his worshippers, or he was a knight and dying repeatedly to save the day.  Whatever the case was, he didn’t sleep peacefully.

The scratching started in 9th grade. He woke up with more lines then he went to bed with, and these ones weren’t neat and red along his paper-white wrists. They were large and a dull purple, bruising and throbbing. Nothing he hadn’t dealt with before, but they kept coming back.

And they kept

coming

back

Someone noticed the bruises one day. They saw where sword scars crept along his sides, and called the police.

He never saw Bro again, but the scars didn’t leave.

Then one night he threw himself off the building in his sleep. He didn’t feel the fall, didn’t feel his arms and leg crack open on the pavement didn’t hear a mother’s horrified screams because the Mayor was falling an-

He woke up in the hospital.

He ended up here.