WEEK TWO: FRIDAY, ROOM 112

[parodeity]

[ and as soon as they're there, he simply hauls off his shirt (still has glass wound bandages, what up) and apparently dave felt the need to wrap his entire left arm and hand in bandages for some reason. he just holds it out, and raises his eyebrows. ]

Five minutes.

Comments

[parodeity]

I really don't. 'Cause I figured it out, the secret to my entire childhood. So...can you just please go and spend time with people who aren't me??

[splinten]

The secret isn't that it's your fault.

[He takes in a hard breath.]

You talked about gettin' tossed off a roof. You know what I got Jake for his thirteenth birthday? I built him this robot that looked just like me to stalk him in the jungle and attack him out of nowhere. That was my idea, that I came up with by my own stupid self. It had no scalin' of trainin', it went straight to beatdown and assumed that would be enough to help Jake level up. And I figured it was a brilliant idea for helpin' him. I thought it was a fantastic present.

The secret is that I need other people to keep me in check, and whatever version of me raised you didn't have it. You were a literal infant when he threw you off the roof. There wasn't a damn thing you could've done to stop him, not when I couldn't be stopped by my best friend saying the idea made him a little uncomfortable. Not when it took me all this time and hearing about what you went through to realize what I'd really done.

That isn't on you. The evidence doesn't add up and the timeline doesn't work.

[parodeity]

[ quietly: ] It's been five minutes.

[ and it still feels like his fault. this person, whoever he is, cares about people even when he does shit. and dave keeps finding new ways to break him.

so thirteen years of exposure to dave might've broken bro that much, right? or there's something just fundamentally unloveable about him, or...both. ]

If it helps, I don't think I could say the words to Rose anymore, either.

[splinten]

It's okay.

[Dirk walks over to Dave. He hugs him and holds him tight and he presses his face into the top of his head.]

There was somethin' wrong from the start. You've just made me care about you more, not hate you, with everything you did. The only variable that makes sense is something happening long before he threw you off a roof. You don't believe me, but it's the truth.

[He lets go of Dave, but doesn't go far yet.]

Let's say you're right, though. Even then, I forgive you.

[Quieter]

You want me to go now.

[parodeity]

Yes. [ he does. that's true. and he didn't let himself hug back. ]

I can't forgive myself. [ which is fine, and normal, because he doesn't usually. but it's not for sins so great as what he's managed to rack up since waking here, and he's had a week to hate himself for every one of them.

more, because he hasn't stopped since he made any single decision. ]

Please go. And just. Spend your time with everyone else here? [ the girls and his friends and everyone else; the people who will make it worth dirk's while. ] I can't keep doin' this to you.

[splinten]

You aren't doin' anything to me right now. You're just... being someone I can't not care about. As messed up as we are, you're still what I want. You're the Dave for me.

I'll wait for you tomorrow.

[parodeity]

Yeah, I am. You just don't know to blame me for it yet.

[ like. ] Give it a year and some change. I'll see you later.

[splinten]

I'll give it a year if you give that year to me.

[He gives Dave one more brief hug, even knowing it won't be returned. But then he'll leave.]

[parodeity]

[ it isn't, and dave shuts the door behind him without a word and then presumably ? attempts to sleep but it's up in the air how well that goes. ]