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[parodeity]

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[splinten]

[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.

[parodeity]

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.

[splinten]

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.

[parodeity]

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?

[splinten]

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.

[parodeity]

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.

[splinten]

[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.

[parodeity]

[ 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?

[splinten]

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.

[parodeity]

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. ]

[splinten]

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.]

[parodeity]

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

Dirk.

[splinten]

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.

[parodeity]

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. ]

[splinten]

Yes.

[suck it dave]

[parodeity]

[ 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. ]

[splinten]

[Dave. Why.

Dirk sits patiently through this.]

[parodeity]

[ how fucking dare dirk say yes?

wait. ]

Are you sayin' your dreamself stays split off temporally?

[splinten]

[...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.

[parodeity]

[ he drops his hands and scowls at dirk. ]

That makes zero sense. [ mostly because dirk's talking like a heart player and dave's thinking like a time player. ] You're always continuitous to yourself.

[splinten]

I thought we were doing the time talk, not the heart talk.

[parodeity]

Yeah, well, I thought the obvious answer was "fuck no", so there.

[ they can obviously both! be! confused!

there's a lot dave should probably say, or things he should ask.

he's never sure where to start and he's not sure he wants to try, so he ignores all of it for the time being. ]

I'll...take it under advisement.

[splinten]

[That is. Such a weird sentence.]

Okay then, so we're good on that? Aside from you apparently needing time to process not getting the answer you expected.

[parodeity]

I don't know. Probably.

[ he won't ask dirk to flip out with rose on the kharaa thing because of various reasons, and has to adjust when he'd asked solely so he could crush the instinct to ask dirk for help. ]

I checked departures, too. Just the two of them. [ john and homura. it's easier to talk about the warper thing than any of the issues he's refusing to acknowledge. ]

[splinten]

[Dirk will give Dave space. Dave can decide for himself what to do next; Dirk has given his answer.]

Warpers?