parodeity | subnautica ic inbox 4.0;

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. ]

[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.]

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. ]

[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.]

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.

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.

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.

Please rest. We've got other healers, you're going to kill yourself like this.

[If Dave wants to be let go he can THINK AGAIN Dirk is seriously frightened and clingy as a result.]

But if it still needs doin' tomorrow.

[ stubbornly said into dirk's shoulder? he's not fighting being clung to but admittedly he just wants to sit down and they're sitting down so. whatever. this works. ]

I'm not goin' to kill myself, the ways in which I usually do that are banned, remember? Even if I could do them, with one exception.

No. Just shut up and rest. For fuck's sake you need to stop being a sacrifice.

Dude, me bein' a little tired is better than other people bein' a lot burned. But that wasn't even a consideration. It wasn't a sacrifice at the altar of you or anythin'.

[ more relevantly: ]

I should eat somethin'.

[Well that at least gets Dirk to let go.]

I'll get you food.

[He may be still in some pain but he has tons of anxious, distressed energy and he's going to use it.]

Us. You'll get us some food. And did I get everythin' or did you get other injuries too?

[ ...he clarifies: ]

Medkit for the rest of them. But.

That's it. [All the pain is just the last little bits of healing.] Stay put. [Dirk will get food but he'll be even more angry if Dave tries to follow.]

[ WOW DAVE IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWS no he just gives a thumbs up and goes back to slouching into the couch. he will probably have acquired a kitten by the time dirk gets back though. ]

[Dirk comes back with lots of food? Oats for IRON and apples and aj and water and oranges and oj for himself and some cold cuts because he has started making those for them and basically a ton of healthy things with sugar and iron because he has decided this is what Dave needs. He puts them down on the table and sits beside Dave.] I'll pet Macklemeow. You eat.

You're seriously ok, though?

[ dirk is fretting about dave dave has not stopped fretting about dirk? he does pass the cat over though - said cat protests because? he was comfortable? that lap was his he CLAIMED it? - to trade for a cold cut. ]

I'm fine. It was just some annoying as fuck pain. [The nanites made it non-lethal, at which point it just became something that made him cranky.Which Dave didn't help, but Dirk starts petting Macklemeow which does help, and watching Dave eat food also helps.

He kinda figured if he died, Godtier would just heal all the injuries. He might have even tried it except Jake was there and Jake would freak out.]

[ yeah that would have gone over swimmingly with everyone ]

A'ight, good. I've had burns before, I didn't want you to sit through 'em.

[ of course he's had burns before. like, putting aside his planet was mostly lava. ]

[See he could have hid it from everyone EXCEPT THAT HE WOULDN'T DO THAT ANYMORE, BECAUSE IT'S BAD. DAVE!!!]

From your Bro or from your planet? [He's frowning heavily because he thought Dave's Bro uses swords and—oh no his eyes widen.] Firecrackers and cherry bombs. Right.

He liked shit that exploded. Like you. [ said completely without ire or even any judgement. it's not like it's that big a surprise, is it? ] But I got a few from the very heat-oriented baddies on lohac, yeah. And like, the lava.

[Dave says it without judgement but Dirk feels judgement down on himself. Even the things that shouldn't feel bad somehow feel wrong when they're put through Bro, and really, is a love of explosions exactly a positive trait? Dirk offers his hand to Macklemeow so he can request permission to pet a kitten.]

They're not great. Like I said, electrical burns are more worrying from my point of view.

It wasn't enough to burn me. Just to incapacitate me for a few minutes. We handled it. The Bonesharks were more of a nuisance than the eels, tbh. And then the whole cave in shit. Kinda unsure why there's suddenly all this volcanic activity, but it can't be great news.

[...] Give that again, as a legitimate retelling with play-by-plays.

Our coordinates took us somewhere I'm p sure was new. The eel things and Bonesharks were all over the damn place, and weren't huge fans of us. Some strife occurred. There was a wreck, and we found yet another stupid gun. Lots of dead fish near some lava geysers - they started up about two weeks back. Then Rose found us some caves and we looked around them but there were tremors while we were in there, so pieces of the ceilin' kept fallin' on us. And we found some weird machine.

[ still kind of hazy on the play by plays. ]

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