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[parodeity]

DAVE STRIDER

consider this your warning about stairs. itll just keep happening bro. im telling you man

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[splinten]

Thanks, Elder Gods.

[There isn't even a pause this time, just a slight frown that someone not Dave would have a hard time reading. Dirk is getting better.]

Decapitation comes up too often with me. Apparently that's what I did with the Dersite agent. And then stuck the head on a pole in the middle of Derse with a message for the Condesce.

[parodeity]

Why.

[splinten]

Because one of my aliens said I should stop pretending to be asleep and send a message to the Condesce that we weren't going to take her shit with the attempted assassinations she kept tossin' our way.

[parodeity]

Wow. Sure sounds like the type of person you should 100% listen to, there. Will you promise to not decapitate shit all the fuckin' time.

[splinten]

It was the nice alien. Also, I'd spent my whole life hidin' from the Condesce, and she'd just killed Jane and Jake's dreamselves and tried to have mine killed too. It was nice to start a rebellion and tell her to go fuck herself.

[He kinda enjoyed it. Honestly.]

I promise not to decapitate shit all the time though. Myself or others. It comes up way too often.

[parodeity]

You don't say.

[ as the person who had to personally behead dirk at one point he feels entitled to saying that in a really dry tone. ]>

[splinten]

I said I won't.

[LEAVE OFF]

[parodeity]

Yeah, you did. But what the fuck do you think the most difficult memory I have is, exactly?

[splinten]

I don't know? It has been noted that you don't always feel inclined to tell me them all.

[parodeity]

It was killing you, you complete idiot.

[splinten]

[...]

Oh.

[...]

I figured somethin' else would have beaten it out by now.

[parodeity]

Like what.

[splinten]

Like Rose's death.

[parodeity]

I didn't raise my own fuckin' sword and cleave her head from her neck. You've decapitated shit in your memories. You know exactly what it feels like. You have to cut hard enough to get through the bone. Or fast enough.

[ it'd sucked standing there looking at her and knowing he couldn't do anything at all, that she was going to die and he couldn't save her, but - ]

I didn't kill her. I watched her die, but I didn't cause it. Her blood wasn't everywhere.

[splinten]

[Oh.]

Okay. Yeah.

That was a really fucked up thing for me to ask you to do.

[parodeity]

[ dave twists his hands together to keep from reaching out. ]

Just keep your head on your neck and I'll be happy.

[ ... ] And your neck attached to your body. All the pieces and parts properly accounted for.

[splinten]

[Dirk pauses and notices his hand.]

I will.

Can I put your hand on my throat again? Or do you not want to be touched.

[parodeity]

It's weird when you ask permission.

[ which isn't a no. he stops clenching his hands, at least, and kind of looks at dirk off to the side, uncertain. ]

[splinten]

It's always weird. This is a weird thing.

[Gently, he takes Dave's hand, and pulls it up to his pulse.]

I enjoy it.

[parodeity]

...Why. I know why I do [ because while he has nightmares about bro and the training and his deaths and rose's and john's, and jade's now, dirk's deaths feature pretty heavily. it's the death dave directly caused, and he's consistently terrified upon waking that it wasn't fixed. ] but why the fuck do you.

[splinten]

[His pulse is steady under Dave's hand, as Dirk searches for a way to explain it.]

There are two connected reasons, I guess. It means that I'm still able to help you. But it also just means that you're here with me.

[parodeity]

I didn't say you weren't able to help me. Just that you can't.

[splinten]

That's tricky semantics, bro.

[parodeity]

It's one of those facts I think you're better off not knowin'.

[splinten]

It's also the truth. [He doesn't pull Dave's hand away; he lets it rest there.] So I asked if you had objections before I did this.