WEEK ONE: SUNDAY, POST GROUP MEETING

[parodeity]

[ well, after That Meeting was over, dave would have hooked a hand on dirk's arm, said "a'ight, come with me" and dragged him off to an area where they can maybe be alone and have enough room for...whatever...the hell he dragged dirk off for.

dirk gets a measured look before dave crosses his arms - dropping dirk's - and says: ]

Ground rules for comin' with me into dangerous shit: you guard the rear, I'm on point. Solid?

[ before dirk can answer, he adds: ]

You're less familiar with weapons that ain't the damn katana. I'm more familiar with 'em. So, point's me. [ he's tense and hesitant when he continues with: ] ...And you guard my back. [ he's usually more than a little wary about having dirk at his back, so this is. probably progress? ]

Comments

[splinten]

Thanks. I liked yours a lot.

[Dave's second instinct is stupid, yes, as is his first, but Dirk saw that his words were like a gut punch and he has sympathy for that.]

Would it help for me to try to talk about your flaws? Admittedly if you asked for a list I'd probably blank out, but I can try to talk about them if it'd help you believe in the rest of what I said.

[parodeity]

I don't know? Sure.

[ this will go well or poorly let's find out which

dave is very familiar with his flaws so ]

[splinten]

[Yeah he is. Painfully aware of that. He doesn't know how else to go about it, though.]

I don't think it's the things you might expect me to say. You're capable and you're good, and you aren't any kind of disappointment or failure. Like I said, you're more than what I could've imagined and I really like you.

The thing is, I don't think you can recognize that in yourself. It's kinda self-evident in this moment, but you're way too willing to tear yourself down. Like, it's pretty self-destructive to ask anyone, especially me, to talk about your flaws. It seems to me like you don't really value yourself. I don't think you can even imagine yourself as being valuable and you act according to that self-evaluation.

It doesn't make you a bad person or worth any less. It sure as hell doesn't make me like you any less. I think, though, that it hurts you a lot. I can't help but think it isn't fair that you're so good and value yourself so little.

[parodeity]

[ that is...not what he expected so dirk earns a very honest if confused: ]

I'm a reset switch.

[splinten]

[Of course. Time player. And more than that: a kid raised by a guy who didn't care at him at all.

It isn't fair.]

You're worth a lot more than that.

[parodeity]

Are you knockin' my classpect?

[ it's a joke that isn't quite a joke. but. ]

I've never minded it. Even if dead daves are the enemy. [ he says it like a quote. ]

[splinten]

I'm not knocking your mythological role.

[It's what a Time player does. They're all bound by their roles, and Dave is a knight.]

It'd be hypocritical, anyway. I've been more than willin' to let Prince of Heart define my self-worth.

[parodeity]

What would you rather define it?

[splinten]

You should probably get to choose that for yourself.

[The game chose Knight of Time. Dave's Bro chose whatever Dirk got from that.]

Personally, I'd like to be defined by more than causing destruction. [It's what Prince means. It isn't what Dirk ever wanted to be.]

[parodeity]

Like by what, though? [ he wants to know a specific apparently. ]

[splinten]

[There's a little shrug.]

Creating things, maybe? Or at least protecting and caring for them. It's more or less an aspiration antithetical to my class, if not my aspect, but I figure that you at least deserve my efforts in that direction, given that you keep giving me opportunities despite your own experiences with just how destructive I am. So I'm tryin'.

[parodeity]

I'm not exactly doin' that. [ by his standards anyway. ] We just hang out in secret sometimes? Like. Not that the both of us aren't otherwise occupied for the most part outside of that. But maybe you should try gardening.

[splinten]

That's an opportunity. [Also.] I'd like to hang out with you more, but I won't insist on it outside of your comfort. [Since. Dave's reasons they discussed.]

I'm going to assume you weren't being sarcastic and say that gardening wouldn't help. I built robots, programmed things, remixed music, created weird movie pastiches, rewrote entire novels, invented academic theories, drew plenty, and made a goddamned sentient AI duplicate of myself. Plants are cool, and I have nothing but mad respect for people like Jake's Grandma, but it's not what I want to define myself by.

[parodeity]

You should just keep spendin' your time how you want to. [ vague even though dirk just said what he did. dave looks down at the ground and just shrugs. ] I was being sarcastic, for the record.

[ he can't help it. ]

We talked about this once before, sideways.

[splinten]

We've definitely talked about how you're sarcastic.

[parodeity]

No. When did you decide you don't know how to define yourself, or that you're admitting it?

[splinten]

I don't' know if I get the thrust of this one.

[parodeity]

When you were tryin' to tell me you were arrogant. [ like the day dave went Fuck Off and ignored dirk for like two days ]

[splinten]

You mean the day you told me to fuck off and ignored me going forward. I'm not sure it's a matter of deciding or admitting about not knowing how to define myself. I think I do know how to define myself. It's more that I'd like to aspire to something else.

[parodeity]

You'll eventually wish you'd let me. [ like, just saying. ] I can think of like five scenarios off the top of my head - and no, I'm not listin' them. But I don't know if you really do know how to define yourself.

[splinten]

You're the one who said I'm going to destroy you. That's pretty Prince of Heart to me.

[parodeity]

I'm not what defines you. And that's not...really about you. You're just a person who happens to kind of be standin' off to the side of a ten car pile up in progress. It's not malicious.

[splinten]

Hey, who knows. Maybe Prince is actually a passive class.

[self-depriciating classpect jokes??]

[parodeity]

[ unseen eye roll. he refuses to laugh???? ]

Hard to picture you as anythin' passive.

[splinten]

Hey, you couldn't picture yourself kickin' my ass, and I'm basically 2-0 here.