parodeity | subnautica ic inbox 3.0;

[Dave moves fast and Dirk responds quickly—stands up, grabs Dave. Steadies him.]

They attacked you?

[It is the first explanation he can come up with and he's looking Dave over, looking for any hint of injury. He is going to be dragging Dave to bed in about three seconds if not stopped.]

What, no.

[ he's fine, really. or, well, there aren't any injuries. nothing not self-inflicted, since he has a stupid warper-induced headache again without any shadow of a doubt. and has otherwise just kind of run himself into the ground all day. longer than a day, actually, but whatever.

dave tugs away before he decides that was a stupid idea and he just stays there, still leaning against the desk. ]

I backtracked. Then I double-checked my work.

[ he'd maybe considered doing it vaguely at least once or twice before, but then john was back and didn't remember anything and dave had been upset enough to not second-guess himself. ]

Wanted to know how the fuck John got here.

[Dirk tries to ignore that Dave pulling away from him hurts.]

Okay. So Warpers bring us here. That fits your earlier theory.

How many hours since you last ate or slept?

[ it sucks that he can never honestly say "i don't know" to questions of time. ]

A while. I don't want to eat anything right now. [ it's less petulant and more resigned. sleep - he probably should, but he's not about to just yet.

shit, no, he hated the vague answers he kept getting about when, so - ]

Breakfast this morning. [ still too vague. he forces his way through specifics without waiting to be asked. ] Twenty-seven hours and change. Sleep's nearer thirty-two. I've gone way longer with way less without issue, that's not important right now.

[ so he's only at around half a day extra, maybe, given dirk talked to him at three am nineteen hours ago. ]

I tried to eat lunch? [ that's not the same thing as actually eating lunch, but dave feels belatedly guilty for failing. it just wasn't worth it. ]

Thanks for trying. Can we sit?

[Dirk is on his feet now so this is now a valid question. Dave can't sleep but he should rest.]

Jesus.

[ he should have looped out more time to chill out or something, he's making things worse. it's not an uncommon feeling or thought - fucked it up again, made the wrong choice, can't actually fix it because whatever mistakes he makes are set in stone these days.

dave's not sure how that makes him feel on a day to day basis.

he ends up just boosting himself onto dirk's desk, slouching terribly. ]

I'm good, just stupid.

[Dave isn't resting, he's jittery like there's something to be done. But there isn't. It's definitely not anything Dave can do. Their best shot is talking to the planet but it has a Two-Face personality and a personal affection for the Warpers. He doesn't know it can help.]

Sorry. You're thinkin' you wanna act on this? At this point I'm not up on any ideas.

No. What would we do? We're just as trapped as ever.

[ dave has never quite believed knowledge is power or anything so optimistic as that. knowing specifically the ways in which you're helpless doesn't really do anything to make you less helpless. it just means you're explicitly aware of the ways in which you suck. ]

Rose agreed to fuck off for two weeks with me. You're not sitting.

We can find ways to keep the Warpers away from us. It may not be perfect but it could help. Signal interference or that sort of thing. We could try talking to the planet again to see if it's doing this or if it's something else.

[Dirk sits when Dave tells him to. He doesn't touch him, worried about being shoved away again.]

Kharaa trip? Okay.

Does it matter? [ what's doing it. probably it does matter. but he's not sure if they want to stop it or not, or anything. john's back, that's...sure a thing. jane will never be here if they fuck with the warpers, not that there's ever a guarantee she would be - ]

We'll leave eventually. Rose and I, not general us re warpers or what the fuck ever. [ he's not remotely willing to drag rose through time in his current state. even if dave doesn't think he'd make a mistake, it's not worth the risk. ] What's up?

It matters if it keeps people from being yanked unknown across spacetime. It also matters if we can learn to control it and decide when and where we come and go. We also still don't know why our memories get messed around sometimes and other times don't. You said none of us felt like we were from dead end timelines and it all matched up. That's something we can try to deal with.

[Dirk isn't optimistic but he's stubborn and persistent. He isn't giving up on Jane.]

Aside from you, nothing. I spent most of the day doing nothing.

Maybe I'm wrong.

[ it's a useless avenue of thought but one he's been down too many times. maybe something is tricking him; maybe he's wrong.

maybe it doesn't fucking matter if everything they are can be undone as easily as has always been the case. ]

You never do nothing.

[He gestures at the desk they're sitting on: it's all computer chips.] They're what we need for basic processing in more computers. It's automatic work.

[So it's nothing.]

Nothing on this planet has messed with your time powers without you knowing about it. When it happened to Rose, she knew the second she came out of a trance. You aren't wrong.

[ there's a shrug as dave rubs at his jaw. ]

I didn't know about all my blocks until I hit them.

[ he lets his hand raise to his shades and takes them off. there's no tremor to his hand because he makes sure there isn't, but his gaze - bloodshot red eyes - is on the floor more than anything else. ]

Can we have the time travel talk?

Okay.

[Dirk takes off his own shades (always on when he works to maximize the amount of too-much-work he can do) and puts them aside on the desk.]

I understand it now better, although I don't know if I can articulate it better. But I've come to have a better feel for how it works when you use time travel. It's like a dimension of physical space that you have better control over.

Right, but can we skip to the part where you tell me you're not down with it?

[ that's not how a talk works but that's the part he needs to hear right now. ]

But sure, that works as well as anything else as an explanation. Time and space don't actually matter, except as constructs.

[ dave just holds his own shades loosely in his palms, flipping them over a few times to examine them from all angles. ]

I am down with it. I like having pockets of the fabric of reality that belong to just us.

[That is not what Dave asked him to say.]

[ he gets a quietly exasperated look for his trouble. ]

Dirk.

You wanted me to cut to the part where I said how I feel. So that's how I feel. My issues are in continuity of selfhood and a feeling of being inaccessible to others. But I considered it in terms of selfhood and splinters, and it's something I can reconcile with, particularly with my dreamself operating. So we should be okay now.

So, what, you'd say yes if I asked you on a trip?

[ jfc that wasn't the answer he was expecting? so there's annoyance in his tone even though it's unwarranted. ]

Yes.

[suck it dave]

[ this time dirk earns a string of dave just swearing under his breath for a bit while dave drops his shades into his sylladex so his hands are free to jam the bases of his palms into his eyes.

the pressure doesn't help but at least it blocks his line of sight. ]

[Dave. Why.

Dirk sits patiently through this.]

[ how fucking dare dirk say yes?

wait. ]

Are you sayin' your dreamself stays split off temporally?

[...no bc i never asked if that would happen]

I'm saying that I have enough splinters operating here that any continuity of self I'd like is maintained. Like how when my dream and physical selves were knocked out, I shunted over to Jake's brain splinter of me. So it isn't an issue.

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