[ places her hands on his shoulders, in a sort of gentle grip. hopefully a stupid song is playing in the bg rn. ]

Dave. Listen to me, for once. If your brother hated you, that is not your fault. That just means he's a huge jerk and doesn't deserve you. [ things to figure out later: why bro sucks when dirk is so caring. ] You are the best person that I know here. A reckless idiot with no sense of self-preservation, but still the best. And I don't know what to say to make you realize that, but... just try to believe me? Believe me, because I believe in you.

[ lowkey wishes dave's sister and her like of psychology was here rn ]

And personally, I like to think I'm a great judge of character.