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

[splinten]

[His eyes widen.] Did it get more infected?

[parodeity]

...Not exactly.

[ LIKE...MAYBE????? he tries not to look at his arm in general atm. ]

It's just whatever. The rash settled wednesday.

[ into red eyeballs, but you know, let's not explain why we felt the need to wrap the entire thing. ]

[splinten]

Let me see.

[parodeity]

[ well he was just going to have dirk look under the bandages if he Wanted but since this is the only way to get around having a full-on conversation, fine. he tied it off around his shoulder so he has to start there, undoing the knot one-handed without any problem.

he doesn't bother to remove more than like, a bicep's worth of bandages but THAT'S KIND OF ENOUGH TO SEE WHAT'S GOING ON. ]

[splinten]

[...Well.]

Fuck. Do they hurt? Or do anythin'?

[He reaches into his pocket to get the camera]

I can take a picture to see—

[parodeity]

I...guess you may as well do that and your chest if you still have shots.

[ ACTUALLY. he supposes. he does not answer if they hurt or do anything, just kind of looking genuinely displeased since his Goal was to never tell anyone ever. ]

[splinten]

I haven't used any this week. [Dirk takes out his camera and takes a picture of Dave's rash, then yanks off his shirt to take a picture of his tattoos. The rash comes out as normal.


...The tattoo says "Have a nice day."


Dirk stares at these photographs and silently hands them to Dave.]

Cool. Awesome. We can go back and use it for whatever was on the walls at the library.

[parodeity]

[ why...didn't they think of that earlier. dave looks annoyed as he looks at the pictures (DUH, THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN SMART), but nods. ]

Whenever you get the time. [ at least his eyes are just eyes. he starts to do up the bandage one-handed again, tying it off neatly and efficiently. ]

[splinten]

We have to do it today. [He's quiet.] I don't trust my innocence to mean I won't get this pinned on me.

[parodeity]

You can swing by there on the way to the clinic. [ where you are going next. god. ] ...But I wouldn't worry about that.

[splinten]

After last week? [Yeah he's worried.]

...Come with me.

[parodeity]

The less time we spend together, the less chance I have to do you more damage.

[splinten]

You can't really do me more damage. [He's quiet, watching Dave.] You won't cut me off from Jake, right? That's the last thing you could do to hurt me. And you know I'd let you do it, but you're not willin'.

So the more time we spend together, the less hopeless I feel. As long as we spend time together, I know I haven't fucked up so badly that I can't even get to be near you.

[parodeity]

...You're not the one who fucked up. That's about five minutes. See you tomorrow?

[splinten]

Dave. [He takes hold of Dave's hand.] Tomorrow evenin', please. After the trial.

Please.

[parodeity]

[ he doesn't pull his hand back, mostly because he seems to have halfway given up on doing that kind of thing. ]

Not if you get voted to get killed.

[ dave definitely does not deserve any of those last hours. ]

But otherwise, fine.

[splinten]

If I get voted to get killed I want to say goodbye to you.

[parodeity]

No. That's for everyone else here. I'm a shitty enough person I can't make you stop doin' this, the thing where you got tricked into thinkin' you give a damn about me, but I'm not gonna take up what I don't deserve any more than I already did.

[splinten]

You've got it backwards. [His teeth are set.] You didn't trick me, dude, I'm not stupid. I know you're a stubborn hypocrite who likes to decide he knows who's best.

But you're a good person, and I care about you. I don't regret meeting you, even if I regret all mistakes I've made that hurt you. If I am going to die, I want to get to say goodbye to you.

[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. ]