parodeity | subnautica ic inbox 2.0;

I know, it was more... [Time to just own up to something stupid. Do it, Dirk.] Worryin' whether or not I was doing the normal person thing right.

[WAS HE NORMAL TO YOUR DESIRED SPECIFICATIONS, DAVE

god he's a loser]

[ dirk...what the fuck.........this earns him a startled kind of confused look. ]

How would I know?? [ NEITHER OF THEM HAS THE BASIS FOR THIS, even if dave can guesstimate it from pop culture. it always seemed weird and alien even so. ]

You willingly gave up a bunch of time to grab textbooks and help me go through 'em with the intent to help me make some bullshit math and sciences course from them, so? I don't know where we fall on the normality bein' done right scale, but I - appreciate it?

[ and that's still such a small word. thanks and i love you and i appreciate it are all such small words. ]

[Oh.]

It's a thing I enjoy too.

[Maybe even double oh. Er. Uhhh.]

How goes it?

[WITH. DATA MANAGEMENT.]

You're right, I do mostly know how to make like, charts and graphs and shit.

[ incidentally he's also really good at money math but ??? ]

A few of 'em are newish, but. Shrug. [ why did he just SAY THE WORD SHRUG WHILE NOT SHRUGGING ] How's calculus?

Pretty familiar. What did you find that's new so far?

Moooostly the last chapter or so?

[ he's just skimmed anything he recognizes. ]

It doesn't look, like, hard. But I never taught myself any of it.

Do you want to learn it?

[The most important thing in Dirk's autodidactic methodology: does he care enough to learn.]

Yes. [ like, it's not SPEAKING TO HIM from the depth of his soul or anything, but: ] I'd like to not be stuck at "nearish to thirteen years of education, kind of, based on whatever I could teach myself" forever, I guess? Not for like...anyone else. But for me. I'd like to learn it.

[ and he actually has the time and resources to do that. it's one of those lowkey nice realizations. ]

Then put a post-it where the new stuff is.

[He hands Dave a RED POST-IT! You know, the tab ones. Dirk has his own set which are orange and he has put one or two tabs on the book he was looking at.

A little more quietly, after:] I think it's really cool you're doing this. In the way that actually matters, and not the one that doesn't.

[He respects it and he's happy about it. It's why he wants to help so much.]

[ he'll take the post-its easily and start putting them in the book. god this is so ridiculously organized of dirk, compared to...any educational plan dave has ever made ever. it's only half of why he tapped dirk for this project. rose probably would have been thrilled about it, too, if he'd asked. though she'd be better at english and shit, dave thinks. it's not a thing he plans to advertise, if only because he's habitually lowkey about the shit that actually matters to him.

his eyes flick to dirk when his brother speaks, although he never took off his shades so it's probably hard to tell. ]

Oh. [ he needs to come up with better filler text, fuck. ] I think it's cool you're actually willin' to help me with it. [ completely free of judgement or censure, although dave's not sure...why. he ever expects that to any degree from dirk. logically, he shouldn't - he's never once gotten it, really, aside from "don't hurt yourself". ]

Life would be easier if you could just like, have people hold on and compose a track instead of say words.

[ he remembers the shades thing belatedly and his still ongoing but unacknowledged verbally attempts to try to wear the shades less in the tower, and takes them off to just clip to the front of his shirt. it is still the easiest way to deal with them beyond killing sylladex space. ]

[Dave's shades go off, but Dirk's already were. There's something playing at the corner of his eyes.]

You could technically freeze me, make a composition, and then toss it over to me, only to wait two or more months before decoding it.

[ dirk is way too willing to commit to a course of action dave still hasn't even really said aloud they should do?????

also: dave makes a face, groans, and flops his head further back on the beanbag. ]

If you're gonna be like that about it, maybe we don't have to decode them at all. But - we can...do that. Whenever. Not today, I am doing maths. And sciences. But like. Later whenever. However, I promise you I will want to die and may actually expire from sheer embarrassment.

I'm not worried. Embarrassment isn't likely to be Just or Heroic.

[He is happy to let Dave die of it in fact. He stretches his foot away from his beanbag to poke Dave's.]

Trade me Data for Calculus.

[They can see what they need to learn in each other's books and then try another pair.]

[ dave promptly nudges dirk's foot back, and then. closes his book and tosses it to dirk rapidfire? he fully expects dirk to catch, while passing his book back SORRY DIRK ]

You're gonna die from embarrassment, too. I am takin' you down with me so help me god.

[He catches it easily yes while swapping over the one he's holding to Dave.]

We should be careful. That death might count as Just.

[ it's so nice and relaxing to hang out with someone whose reflexes are exactly dave's kind of bullshit. ]

It'd be worth it.

Cold, bro. Ice cold.

[Also flipping through textbook number two! He has a few more things to mark up on this one, because while some data stuff is stuff he has handled, he has not ruined a crocodile stock market.]

[ on the flip side dave is...marking more of the calculus since he straight up never got into most of that. oops. stock markets are his JAM though. if only because money management was at one point a thing he was in charge of. including stealing money from john.

honestly dave did not do anything very ethical in terms of money in game wtf ]

You'd be fine, don't front. Oh, hey, btw - do you have anythin' in particular you're interested in for dinner tomorrow?

[Weird how a kid who never got an education never learned calculus! Dirk doesn't know if Dave will need some more fundamental algebra to back it up or not but they'll get to that with their next books probably. ONCE DIRK HAS EVERYTHING MARKED UP he's going to tally it out, set up an approximate order of progress (obviously one that operates with multiple branching pathways and can therefore response to Dave's specific interests/desires and his speed on various subjects) and then organize the information they need according to these pathways and design lessons/practice materials for what he knows + hand off whatever he doesn't know to Dave's chosen teachers.

Dirk was not even this organized when he taught himself stuff.]

We've done tacos and nachos. Are there any other Cultural Heritage dishes I should catch up on?

[ well it's good to see dirk is taking his parenting duties seriously jesus christ ]

Fajitas? Funnel cakes. That's not a dinner food. Uhhh. Chili is actually our official state dish I think? Chicken fried steak. Cobbler of any fruit variety. Sweet tea. Honestly I can think of so many stereotypical Texan and southern foods if pressed, I guess?

We could... try to do a new one every week. [If Dave is ok with that? If Dave thinks it would be cool.

Dirk is resisting adding those things of self-questioning. He is attempting to get better at this.]

Yeah, that's fine, but like - which off of that list sounds, uh, the most appetizin' to you?

[ the basic problem: he doesn't know wtf to research to cook tomorrow together and so he was trying to foist the issue off on dirk. GOOD JOB, DAVE, probably he could have just, like, explained that. ]

Chili.

[Objective decision based on feeling like he wants that one.]

Chili it is. I'll make sure we have all the stuff by the time it's, like, dinner tomorrow.

[ PROBLEM SOLVED not that it was. really a problem.

ok you know fucking what, dave is just sticking a post it note on the cover of calculus and calling it quits. he knows none of this. ]

That'll be fun. You're probably gonna love calculus. [AND HE CAN TEACH MOST OF IT HOW EXCITING why is he so happy to teach math. because he's a nerd, probably.

Anyway he gives Dave the first of four algebra books: the elementary one. He also moves over the linear, multilinear, and abstract algebra textbooks.

It's fine, Dirk just grabbed five Geometry textbooks for himself.]

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

my computer CRASHED while i was halfway thru this tag

your computer hates strider bullshit

I GUESS i lost like all my tabs feel for me

i do pity you. I Do

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject