FUCKED UP to be Davesprite tbh like he is Dave. By all accounts he is Dave Strider just orange and winged and no legs but mentally, and all that, he is Dave. He has all of Dave's memories - they're his, he lived them - he thinks like Dave, feels like Dave, reacts like Dave-- he has all of Dave's experiences. That's Dave Strider right there. He didn't stop being Dave when he was prototyped; what changed is how he's seen and treated by others.
And his best friends see him as a stranger. A stranger wearing their friend's skin. They insist on adding the -sprite to his name, which tbf is consistent with how all sprites are called in Homestuck and it might be weird to make an exception here, but fun his perspective... Sure there's another, not-sprite Dave out there, and he is technically the iteration these John and Jade know, but up to a certain point they are identical and that Dave isn't in contact with them on the ship? Davesprite is the only Dave present. They could just call him Dave. But they don't, reminding him every time they say his name that he isn't their Dave, he isn't the friend they look forward to seeing.
And Davesprite comes from a timeline where they died!! It's been a long time since I read that part and my memory is a bit fuzzy on the details but John definitely died on that timeline, and Jade was as good as dead. It was just Rose and Dave on Derse, and Dave went back in time to save his friends, even if it meant losing his life. And he succeeded! At both things!! John and Jade made it to the game, they're alive, Dave gets to meet them and spend time with them... And they don't see him as their friend at all. He's not the guy they've known for years. From Dave's perspective, those are two of his best friends and some of the only people in his life he likes and cares about, and they don't see it the same way. He practically lost all his friends at once.
Jade was better about it but JOHN. Oh, John just breaks my heart. Like, again, from Dave(sprite)'s perspective, that's his best bro. That's his best friend. That's his number one guy, who he loves, who he already lost once. Davesprite practically exists because he went to save him. And there he is, he's alive, his best bro... Who looks at him with disgust and contempt in his eyes. Who doesn't think he's real.
How the hell do you live with that? The psychological toll that takes?
Well. We know how. That shit is traumatizing and it shows. That Dave, who faced things the one from this timeline didn't, developed complexes and problems of his own, his "unique issues". And like a self-fulfilling prophecy, it set him apart from the "real Dave" in a way that further sets them apart and makes him easier to dehumanize.
I cried over this at work the other day.
