subnautica ic inbox 4.0;

[parodeity]

TELEPATHY | TEXT | VOICE | VIDEO | ACTION

Comments

[parodeity]

how about i just dont get hurt when anyone else is
this is one of those moments where i just regret everything ive ever chosen to say so maybe i should stop talking until you get here really

[splinten]

I'd prefer it if you were regretting what you decided instead of what you said, and then undid that decision rather than just wanting to undo admitting a decision, but ok. See you in four minutes.

[parodeity]

look in the event youre busy i can go to rose or something if its something i genuinely cant do myself
it isnt like she isnt scarily competent with a needle and thread
although i do feel i probably take my life into my own hands when allowing her to use them on me
im not going to split someones attention re other peoples injuries
theres no reason triage order ever has to be a thing

[splinten]

I have dibs on you.

[parodeity]

i didnt say i would never come to you just in certain circumstances i might seek out alternatives

[splinten]

You shouldn't.

[parodeity]

oh my god
will it make you feel better if i let you redo what i already did for myself

[splinten]

Wait.
What?
Are you hurt?

[parodeity]

[ SMALL PAUSE as dave goes "wow that was a miscalculation" and considers suffocating himself with one of the decorative couch pillows. by virtue of having to be before tuesday and after sunday, his exploration date with rose pretty much had to happen on monday. ]

i dont have full body burns so im fine
minor scratches dont really constitute being hurt and werent even enough to bother with rose patching up

[splinten]

You got hurt and you didn't tell me.

[parodeity]

this still doesnt qualify as "hurt" and you were out and otherwise occupied
like i wouldnt even really call these injuries
theyre minor and training strife level
like
you training strife level not bro training strife level

ok see all of this still falls under the #regret tag on instaclam

rose was perfectly chill letting me meander back to the tower w/out insisting i go to the medbay though
which should at least tell you im fine if nothing else
since she probably would have fucking dragged me there if she thought it necessary
i wouldve mentioned it later when we traded info

[splinten]

How did you get hurt?

[parodeity]

like the stuff that left lasting marks im assuming were talking about here right
seriously nothing major
like three scratches total
literally stuck a bandaid on one and called it a day
but you can stick a new bandaid on if that helps

[splinten]

Was there other shit?
What happened?

[parodeity]

ok how about i catch you up when you get here burn boy
but idk some electrocution
we found electric eels
obviously only one got a shock in before we learned better
nbd

[splinten]

Electric burns are even more dangerous than what I got.

[That... may only be generally true because you know it isn't a FULL BODY BURN but Dirk has a right to panic]

[parodeity]

[ wow look it's only 15% health decrease by video game standards! ]

im fine rose didnt get shocked

[ implying he would not be fine if she had been shocked???? how is his health linked to rose's health, here. ]

its seriously no big deal
stunned me but no lasting damage worth noting
p sure youre the one more in need of medical treatment
especially since i am in need of no medical treatment
lots of medical treatment > zero medical treatment required

[splinten]

[Dirk probably shouldn't use flashstep speeds to go see Dave at this point but he does, down to the living room. He's actually still flying though because it spares him body contact? And also in swimming trunks. First aid treatment meant nanites so he's just. Burned. The arms and legs, mostly, since the nanites went straight to the head/torso areas to prioritize his health. So that's nice!

Anyway Dirk's floating midair in swimming trunks and his skin is burned and he's frowning at Dave to look him over because DAVE!!]

Show me.

[parodeity]

No, I'm suddenly on board with triage order. Stay still.

[ he got the burn kit, so. dave is...in pajamas, actually. he clearly had a shower sometime recently, and didn't bother to dry his hair properly because he rarely bothers to do that. it'll dry. there's a bandaid on his right cheek, so presumably something happened there, and otherwise just a bandage wrapped around his left forearm, so that's two out of three scratches he admitted to.

he will not hold still for dirk in return, let him stand up and - well actually this is a little worse than he'd hoped even knowing it was probably going to be bad. that definitely confirms that two people in one day would be too much, though. dave ignores the burn kit for the moment and reaches out towards dirk instead. ]

[splinten]

[He realizes Dave's going to do the time thing. There's a brief hint of tension: immediately, Dirk wants to ask Jake to get treated. Dave can watch as Dirk sets his jaw, tries to work the tension out. Forces himself not to fight and instead stay still and let Dave treat him.

It is not the easiest thing he has ever done. If there hadn't been promises made to the effect of letting Dave treat him, Dirk probably could not have done it. Luckily for Dave, Dirk considers keeping promises to him kinda a bit deal.]

[parodeity]

I'll stop myself before I pass out, if that's gonna happen. So trust I know what I'm doin' and don't stop me, okay?

[ that's not the most reassuring warning he's ever given, but dave's left hand closes around dirk's right wrist, and he figures he probably doesn't need the contact but it's helped the other times he's done this. it's way more than a cut on his palm or dirk's arm or even jenn's scar thing. dave's aware dirk's probably not going to be thrilled whenever he's done but doesn't consider it enough of a deterrent not to open his awareness of dirk's personal timeline.

it was sort of tiring doing the two cuts back to back. he's not a life player, and it's a fiddly sort of practice he hasn't quite gotten down yet. isolate the parts that aren't right and only speed those up, and pay the piper as you do - it's so much easier to just move people and things wholesale back and forth, or even to just speed up the plants, one whole object or network of objects and not pieces and parts.

he goes in sections. right arm, left arm, left leg, right leg. burns healing in slow motion that's absurdly fast. it's slow but not slow, a weird warped moment in time that's too long and too short as time knots up around and inside of dave. he's pale by the time he's done with the arms but doesn't hesitate when he keeps going, still standing steady and focused. when he is finally done he'll drop dirk's wrist and sit down on the couch, hard, but no fainting occurred so it's chill.

after a second's thought and a moment of quietly doing nothing but breathing he'll hold out his left arm in case dirk was serious about wanting to see injuries since he figures that's the worst scratch but it's still not an Injury, whatever. he clearly didn't bother to try to fix any of his own shit, because that didn't really matter enough. ]

[splinten]

[He feels himself healing and it doesn't make him less tense. He wonders if Dave gets it? He wonders if Dave realizes what Dirk is doing here, if he's okay with it or if it's something he's making himself accept because he'd rather have that than the alternative. It's like Sophie's choice, if both of Sophie's children had to be sacrificed or else someone will throw themselves into a fire. Letting Dave treat him instead of Jake—letting Dave exhaust himself—Dave's making his wounds heal up fast and Dave is going pale and Dirk isn't allowed to stop him but he wants to, he wants to say it's fine. He and Jake can sit this out together like ridiculous burn ward victims complaining about letting horses loose from the barn, or however that dumb story went.

And then Dirk drops to the couch and it shouldn't hurt as much as he does when he grabs Dave's arm but not to inspect it—he's yanking Dave in for a hug and holding to him and he doesn't care if it stings at tender flesh.]

You're an asshole.

[Seeing Dave do that was terrifying and Dirk doesn't want to let go of him.]

[parodeity]

Ow. [ is a mild complaint that makes zero sense but dave doesn't fight the embrace at all, just drops his head to dirk's shoulder with a sigh as he lets dirk resituate them. ] You say the sweetest things.

[ which is true sometimes but he's being sarcastic right this second so oh well. ]

Anyway you said it hurt to move. So, worth it.

[splinten]

Not worth it. [Dirk means it and that's in the way he holds Dave, tight and close and frightened.] You scare me so much, dude.

[parodeity]

Yeah, well, you had full-body burns so the feelin' is mutual. [ although he still feels it was pretty Worth It, dave also always felt it was Worth It to like, pile up dead daves into the stratosphere in order to protect his friends and the bullshit razorthin line of the alpha timeline. so. his opinion is maybe not the most trustworthy, admittedly, since personal sacrifice of everything he is has always been easier than anything else. ] I don't think I can do it twice in one day unless I come back from at least a day ahead or somethin'. I will probably pass out at that point after, though.