[Dave hums quietly but doesn't answer for a while, still playing with Karkat's hair. It really is hopeless, but it keeps his hands busy while he weighs out and measures his words, puts some back on the shelf and looks for others.]

...I think it'll be okay.

[He trusts John, but that feels stupid to say, so he doesn't. He trusts Terezi, too, and that is stupid, given that the last time he talked to her she was hungover as shit in a downward clownhate spiral. Dave doesn't bring her up, either, just scoots up so he can rest his nose in Karkat's hair like it's his personal snoot nest. It means he's talking into Karkat's forehead, but whatever, Katkat can deal.]

Statistically speaking, there's got to be a timeline out there where we didn't...where shit didn't catapult so completely off the handle. Maybe John's whatever thing's gonna make it exist, I don't know.

[It certainly doesn't jive with Time as Dave understands it, but John's not a liar and this is too complex (and also, mean as hell?) to be a prank. He sighs across Karkat's hair.]

I just. Even if I personally don't get to partake in whatever bullshit reward's supposed to be waiting on the other side, I'd like to think that...I dunno. That some version of me could at least pull it off. ...That we could be okay.

[And he knows it doesn't work that way for everyone. Maybe it's just him. Maybe that's just the kind of personality it takes for a guy to rewind time like a spool of tape and turn into a bird.]

It's better than thinking we were fucked from the start.