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]

So are you.

[He's a little incredulous, a little too exhausted to be that.]

You have no idea how you're keepin' me alive right now, do you?

[parodeity]

I don't think I'm as main a factor as all that.

[ veering conversationally: ]

It wasn't just about wanting to deserve something, was it?

[splinten]

You are, even if you don't believe it.

...The training? [Dave stop taking u-turns??]

[parodeity]

You would've been better off without me here.

[ it's not a statement that hurts, because hurt is a thing that isn't happening right now, so he continues with his other topic, implacable and calm: ]

It wasn't about bleedin' to prove you deserved somethin' or whatever, was it? Or whatever grandiose explanation you're tryin' to say it was, always. That isn't the full truth, is it? Sometimes it was probably just to feel a thing, even if it was a really stupid thing. Or to try to stop feelin' them.

[splinten]

I'd die within two days of Jake's death without you.

[It's true.]

...Yeah. Sometimes. Human motivations are pretty complicated things. I've spent a long time trying to pick apart and fully understand mine.

[parodeity]

That might have been better off for you.

[ but it's too late for that. they're locked into whatever this is and dave can't shut the door entirely until he's dead, and then he never has to think about any of it ever again. he can find a corner and sit down and just not care to his heart's content, and then he can end. he imagines dirk will maybe figure something out that isn't just dying after death for himself. maybe dirk will meet rose someday.

rose would probably like that. ]

You're too much your aspect.

[splinten]

...One, do not want to hear that from the Time player who called himself a reset button. [FIRST OF ALL.] Two, Heart is about the soul, not emotions. [Everyone always calls him over emotional as a Heart player and he has NOT.]

[parodeity]

I'm not sure the soul and emotions are so disconnected as you'd like to imply they are. And my thing is literally a game mechanic. That's what time players are for. Our planets are huge reset buttons, too.

[splinten]

I'm for destroying myself and others, which is a also a game mechanic. I literally halfway yanked out a spiderbitch's soul.

[This argument is... stupid? He is focusing on the wrong part.]

[parodeity]

A thing you tried to do isn't the same as bein' a thing you were made for.

[ ???? isn't the spider troll dead. ]

[splinten]

I'm reasonably confident that yankin' out and wreckin' people's souls is the only thing my God Tier ever gave me. My aspect sure as fuck didn't give me anything but the obnoxious ability to operate my wakin' and dreamin' body as well.

[parodeity]

Did you ever try to do anythin' else with it.

[splinten]

You're implying I didn't think of enough creative applications for 'Destroyer of Souls.'

[parodeity]

...I don't know that it actually matters. [ he's not really engaging in the topic that much anyway. ] You won't buy whatever I say, nor should you, and it ain't like either of us knows enough about the other's aspect to bother givin' a good argument.

[splinten]

[Ah. He quiets.]

I'll listen to you.

[parodeity]

I don't really have that many thoughts on the topic to start with.

[splinten]

Tell me them? There are probably things I missed.

None of us really did much with our aspects before it all went pear-shaped. [WELL Roxy but he doesn't know that]

[parodeity]

[ an empty gesture to the side, more habit than function. ]

Some splinters need to be destroyed. Some need to be caused. Some need to be reconciled. Probably.

[splinten]

Blondie, Angel Eyes, and Tuco.

[Why go for the Western joke, Dirk?]

I'd like that. It'd be... nice, to work with it like that. Reconciling splinters was probably part of whatever personal quest I might've had.

[parodeity]

I broke swords.

[ the stock markets were an unrelated thing. ]

[splinten]

...For your personal quest.

[parodeity]

...There was, like, time travel involved??

[ to

break swords. ]

I never said it wasn't a deeply stupid personal quest.

[ the degree to which it is deeply stupid is not yet clear to him. ]

At least I kinda bothered, doubt anyone in the universe can convince Rose to "play the rain" or whatever her bullshit was.