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[parodeity]

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[splinten]

If I don't leave space for you on my desk, you just knock things off.

[SO. YES? DAVE, YOU ARE A CAT.

But Dave points to the rest of it. And it's hard, because he doesn't know how to put it. He doesn't know how to not make it a trap.]

Isolation is... it isn't a choice I get to make. I don't get to decide if I reach out a hand or not. I don't get to chose between talking to someone or not talking. No one forces me to talk, it isn't that isolation is having other people's company imposed on me. I mean it isn't a choice because it just isn't possible.

I don't know how much sense that makes. It's the lack of choice but it's because the options just aren't there.. It's... me building robots and pretending Cal is a real person, because I didn't have Pesterchum and I didn't understand Derse, so I had to make my own friends. You can reach out a hand but there isn't even anyone there to refuse you.

[parodeity]

Then stop puttin' stuff in my space.

[ oBVIOUSLY.

there's still no twist of the lips - at least not after his annoyed order to not. put stuff in his spot. but after that everything smooths out again, and dave just. thinks.

he's not sure what he thinks, but he tries to look at the picture dirk is painting all the same. ]

What was your apartment like? You saw mine. Not my room, but - the parts that mattered.

[splinten]

Uh. [He thinks about it. Wants to describe it. Keeps hitting how boring it was.] I could... show you? It'd probably bore you.

[It's empty and lonely and nothing he ever did made it less of either.]

[parodeity]

If you're okay with it?

[ he's curious. ]

[splinten]

I don't mind. I'm just not sure you'll find it very interesting.

[parodeity]

Do you ever find anythin' about me boring?

[splinten]

...No.

[Dave is a jerk.]

Then... whenever you want. However you want? Telepathy or dreampods. It isn't that engaging either way, so it doesn't really matter which kind of tour you want. The most dangerous things were just the ocean. And Squarewave, when he really wanted to rap battle me.

[god he loved squarewave]

[parodeity]

Dealer's choice.

[ whichever is easiest. he's not sure telepathy would have been easier for his. he'd be too worried about emotions slipping through. ]

I don't really have a lot of plans until, like, February.

[splinten]

[Dirk makes a guess on February. Under the circumstances, he feels his guess is not a thing Dave should be doing? But. They'll get to that when they get there.]

Dreaming would be easier for the physical aspect. [The emotional aspect, of course, comes across most in telepathy. But then, the dreamscape does some of that too, sometimes.]

[parodeity]

Your call. You let me pick for mine.

[ february is valentines and he'll organize something for everyone and might have calmed down enough to swap stupid valentines with rose and hotaru and whoever else. party planning is a good distraction. ]

[splinten]

[Yeah, that's his guess.

He gives it another moment of thought.]

I'll do the dreaming so you can get the physical space. And if you want the rest, I'll just... open that up for you, if you ask. [Dirk is still convinced Dave doesn't deserve having to suffer Dirk's emotions, but at least he is learning to ask if Dave wants it.]

[parodeity]

Okay. We can do that...whenever you want?

[ dirk actually might have plans with people, unlike dave who nebulously does whatever comes up. he should ask hotaru if she wants him to cook her breakfast again sometime. it was the first time he'd bothered with breakfast in a while, when he'd offered. ]

[splinten]

I can do it whenever.

[Now. In a hundred years. Whenever.]

[parodeity]

May as well, then.

[ do it now, he means. they keep flipping topics too fast like always, but at least he thinks ? they kind of agreed to do the thing they came here to talk about doing maybe but.

dave lets go of dirk's hand and sits up, and then. just will get out from under the umbrella thing dirk set up. ]

[splinten]

[Dirk takes apart his umbrella, puts it all back in the sylladex. With a nod of affirmation, he starts to fly off to the monolith.

Like, they could use the ones on base but that'd probably make Dave en more unsettled so. No.]

[parodeity]

[ good call dave would be iffy about using the on base ones so YET ANOTHER FAMILY ROADTRIP.

it makes him miss the actual roadtrips they no longer go on. dave will be minimally chatty during the trip, though if dirk gets antsy about silence he might express some dumb opinions about the starsky and hutch television series? ]

[splinten]

[At least there's that. The route to the pods is easy now, and Dirk doesn't hesitate to drop into his. Dreaming has always been a non-issue for him. When he comes out into the dreamscape, though, he does pause.]

There's a puppet warning. I had a pile of hats and smuppets at the foot of my bed, and Lil Cal usually was on my desk. There weren't really any anywhere else. It's your call if you want to skip my bedroom.

[parodeity]

I assumed.

[ that there would be puppets, he means. dave rubs the back of his neck, shrugs. ]

The rules about puppets only involve, like, attackin' me with them still.

[ so you know just don't do that and they're good??? ]

[splinten]

That won't happen. I guess we'll start there.

[Get the biggest part over with. He starts conjuring that room up from memory. It stayed the same almost all of his life so it isn't harder. Posters on the walls, the window looking out onto the sea. The achingly hot summer and his fan. Computers, turntables, tv monitor, wardrobifier. Puppets and hats at the foot of the bed, SBAHJ merch scattered around. Lil Cal, without the katana, in his Derse pjs. The TV screen currently showing Geromy, after Dirk's conscious choice not to keep it flickering through his salacious ironic (?) animal people things, because let's just not put Dave through that when puppets are also in the room. Those stupid pictures of Starsky and Hutch. Seagulls, the sord tucked safely away, the rocketboard nearly set aside. A few robot parts here or there but no loose weapons.

Despite himself, an overwhelming sense of... boredom. Sort of. Tired, lonely boredom and isolation. There is no one in this house. There is no one in this house. Dirk is alone and even his own mind can't trick Lil Cal into being alive. Everything is so quiet, and nothing inside a house makes a noise without Dirk having intended that.]

So... yeah. Welcome to my bedroom.

[parodeity]

[ why are there furry horse posters. why is this the thing dave focuses on first. why is dirk the way he is?? dave's eyes slide over cal and the smuppets but he doesn't focus on those. his eyes stick to the stiller pic over the closet, and he leans back in faint surprise. ]

Huh. [ the pic of the gray dude nearest cal, too. dave stares at that, though it's close enough to cal it could be misconstrued.

third picture near the tv, too, and he flips his gaze there after a second and snorts. ]

The fuck. [ the quiet isn't something dirk likes, but dave...relaxes further. it's strange to see the bones of his own room, mostly different, and to not feel constantly on guard. but mostly: what the fuck. ]

[splinten]

[It's. The furry posters isn't it. HE LIKES HORSES. Look, at least Dirk's horse posters aren't as bad as Equius's? Or, you know, Bro's awful puppet porn posters. Dirk is tasteful relatively. Leave him alone.

Anyway that's what he assumes is the wtf, not the other posters.]

Which part?

[Because he assumes that but Dave relaxes so. He isn't sure.]

[parodeity]

It's just so stupid. You were four hundred years and a universe away, but I was in this room, too. Who starts a paradox? No one can, I guess, or it wouldn't be one.

[ he drifts over to dirk's desk. ]

Why do you have a miniature version of the pony Rose's mom gave her. What paradox is this. Why is life stupid? Did Rose's pony survive the impact post-scratch and not become a baby bib?

[splinten]

[It is pretty stupid, admittedly. And it's part of why Dirk wanted to show Dave at all. He wanted Dave to see the ways things were different, and the way they were the same.]

No. I don't think? The story is that my Bro had a horse a lot like this with him during his rebellion, but normal-horse-sized. [Why is that the story.] Roxy genetically engineered Minihoof for me.

[parodeity]

He would have. John was the ectobiologist, remember? He like. Gave everyone shit. I am pretty sure half of the shit he gave us was later killed or used to kill?

[ actually. come to think of it. dave frowns. ]

No one should ever help John make that connection. But anyway I got that dude.

[ POINTS TO THE HORSE. ]

Phone tags

[splinten]

Huh. I guess he survived the impact in the alpha timeline. I always thought Maplehoof was pretty cool.

[ does this mean Dirk's horse thing is because of that. Let's not think about it.

The computer is open to Dirk's chat client if Dave risks looking that way. Five contacts, no new messages. But an extra pair of shades is blinking on the desk beside some spare robot parts. Hi, AR. Good to see you will never leave Dirk's subconscious. ]