JOSH DUN VS THE WORLD ✓

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE: HOW MANY TIMES HAVE I DIED?

YOU'VE DECIDED TO:
ASK TYLER ABOUT THE MULTIPLE TIMELINES

+3 timelines
-1 good decision
+2 hot chocolates
+5 days of anticipation

"How many times have I died?"

The sudden question startles Tyler as much as it does Josh. They were lying in bed one night, watching Live, Die, Repeat, when Josh had his revelation. It isn't anything new, but the movie makes something click in his brain.

Timelines. Multiple deaths. Obviously Josh isn't whatever the hell tom cruise is, but he feels the sudden need to have answers. Because if Tyler knows what's going to happen, then he must've known about Jenna's attacks, about how Josh would seriously get hurt, and maybe would even be able to stop it. But that's too much knowledge for one person, it must be driving Tyler nuts.

"What do you mean?" Tyler asks, leaning forward to pause the movie.

"I mean, you've mention timelines before, but you always say it plural, which means there's more than I know about. But you've only told me about one. How many other timelines are there."

"Oh." he clicks the pause button and looks back at Josh. "There's... three others. This is my fourth try."

"Holy shit. Three? come you haven't told me?" Josh asks.

"I don't know, I guess I was scared that if you knew about them then you'd end up repeating your mistakes and create a time loop. Trust me, time loops are very hard to break."

Josh sits up and his elbows, turning to Tyler. "But wouldn't it make sense to tell me what I'll do just so I know to avoid those specific choices? Maybe if I knew in advance, I wouldn't make those same mistakes."

"That's not how time works. It's malleable and delicate, and will fuck you hard in the ass if you don't know what you're doing. Any small error can create branches timelines, doomed timelines, temporal anomalies, paradoxes, shit like that."

"What made you such the time expert, Doctor Strange?"

"I've done this plenty of times to know what I'm doing and how to keep other people from fucking up the timeline."

"So, why can't you just tell me what killed me?"

"Because that'd be a big mistake on both of our parts, and I don't-

"Am I fucking it up?" Josh interrupts him, equal parts frustrated and unbearably curious. "Just from asking you this question? Am I becoming too self-aware! Is the universe going to kill me off?"

"Watch it, or it just might," Tyler shoots back.

Josh scoffs, shocked by his acidic tone. "Look, it's already hard enough for me to believe all of this has happened once before, and now you're telling me I was such a dumbass that I died three times. That shit is bananas! Just be honest with me!"

"You didn't die because of you, you died because of me!"

Tyler yells in his face, and Josh leans away, taken aback. "What?"

Terror blooms in Tyler's eyes, like some sort of realization, right before he throws the covers off his legs. "I shouldn't have said anything. Oh, god. This was a mistake."

"What was?"

"Me thinking I could go back and change the timeline myself. It was stupid, I never should've remembered. Maybe that would've been better."

"Wait, Ty, I didn't mean to make you upset, I'm just tired of not knowing the whole truth." Josh leaps out of the bed and stops Tyler before he can leave the bedroom, planting his arms on either side of the doorframe. "Come on, you can talk to me. Nothing you can say can drive me away."

"That's where you're wrong. I've already lived this conversation, and every other conversation that happens after. I know what's going to happen, and it's all because of me." Tyler tries to go under his arms, but Josh grabs him and holds him.

"What's going to happen?" Josh persists.

"Nothing, let me go," Tyler snaps.

"Look, whatever's going to happen isn't your fault, you can't control every choice a person makes."

"But I can, I just need to try harder. If I could just find a way to get there before he's aware of you and get it to stop-"

"Tyler, listen to me!" Josh shakes his shoulders, startling Tyler enough to stop rambling. "You're doing the best you can. I can see that, and so can everyone else. Whatever happens to me won't happen because of you."

"But-"

"I get that you want to protect me, but keeping the truth won't help." You don't need to tell me now."

Relief washes over Tyler's face. "Really?"

"Yeah, I'm not going to push you to do something you're not comfortable with. I'm not gonna lie, I really want to fucking know, but I can tell it really bothers you. You're more important to me than whatever fuckups I did in the other timelines."

"Okay. Thank you for understanding. I promise I'll come clean soon, it's just- I don't know how to describe it."

"I get it." Josh lets go of Tyler, who ducks under his arms anyways to grab something from the kitchen. He watches him, seeing the scar at the back of Tyler's neck. Another question surfaces, but he ignores it. "The truth can be a scary thing, especially if you know exactly what will happen when it comes to surface."

Tyler grabs two mugs from a cabinet and sets the down a little too rough. "It is. It's terrifying. Hot chocolate?"

Josh welcomes the change in subject with open arms. "Sure."