lucybox | whatever

whatever

EPISODE 1: meeting
EPISODE 2: the latvian mob
EPISODE 3: a concussion
EPISODE 4: bench talk
EPISODE 5: break-in

[ what would someone following the number connected to dave strider notice during recon? well.

dave strider, thirteen, gangly and edging on getting taller but way too skinny, angular and bony in a way that says he could stand to eat more food more often. he constantly wears shades. he equally constantly wears long-sleeved shirts and jeans in the houston heat. dave is too careful to ever let that shirt ride up enough to show what's underneath, and he never lets his shades get jostled off his face in public.

the kid has more of an online presence than his brother. he runs a webcomic with an avant garde sense of style and some truly disturbing strips that occasionally seem to correspond with times his number has come up; he sells shit on the site sometimes, t-shirts or book compilations or keychains. the money isn't saved but tends to get spent on groceries. he trolls internet forms at random but does seem to speak regularly to at least three other kids, and has for at least three years. these conversations are all mostly superficial even though the kids are close. the deepest he ever gets in them is with rose lalonde, who lives in new york. sometimes they talk about his dreams.

to each of them he only has positive things to say about his brother, whom he idolizes.

the other half of his computer use seems to go to online school, which dave does all right on. he only occasionally misses deadlines, but more frequently turns shit in ahead of time. he participates haphazardly on the forums as required, but aside from an odd sense of humor and a decent grasp on the subjects, he doesn't say anything worth reading.

following dave in person is harder. he doesn't leave the apartment often except to go to the store, or occasionally the library. he has hung out in the park once or twice but always goes home the second his cellphone buzzes with a text. his interactions with other people are limited; he's polite and casually friendly and charming to the grocery store employees and the librarian, and he doesn't turn people away when they talk to him exactly, but he never discusses anything of note and always excuses himself pretty quickly. dave doesn't like to be touched and doesn't let it happen, never needing to flinch back because he moves faster than that, and doesn't let himself get in the position where someone will try to touch him.

at the store he gets apple juice and bread and peanut butter. or junk food that keeps longer, kept at the back of his closet. nothing he has to refrigerate or heat up. at the library he gets art and film books or photography collections or comics or shit like my teacher is an alien or animorphs or pretty much anything. he doesn't usually check them out to go back home, unless it's a thing for school. when he signs his name on anything it's a careful angular scrawl and he likes to do it in red - dave always keeps a red pen in his pockets. at the park he tends to sit on a bench with good sightlines and sometimes he'll feed birds bits of torn bread and sometimes he'll scroll through shit on his phone (tumblr, random sites, pesterchum) but mostly he just kind of sits there and listens to music.

he downloads a lot of music. sometimes he mixes up new shit and uploads it, sending it to his friends or occasionally just keeping it to himself. dave maintains some social media accounts but is weird about them. there are disjointed quotes or phrases and oddly angled pictures and he seems to treat them like some sort of joke only he gets, but he's almost dedicated to them like he doesn't seem to be to a lot of shit. there's a blog he used to update but doesn't any longer about tony hawk and other things and every glimpse into his mind through his words is unclear and a little off.

a lot of the time he seems to be in the apartment alone. he isn't always, despite appearances, and he knows it. there's a ton of surveillance equipment inside the apartment and dave treats the cameras and recording devices with a casual weariness and wariness. his brother is constantly monitoring both dave and the equipment; fucking with that would probably be a bad idea for anyone paying attention, but it might be possible to jack some of those frequencies, if you're careful.

inside the apartment he mostly stays in his room. when he comes out he's nervous and cautious but nothing ever shows on his face. even in the sanctity of his own room this is true; dave doesn't emote when he can help it and even when he jumps when a trap goes off, his expression doesn't change an iota. when he speaks his voice is low and too-texan, but he doesn't usually unless he's outside of the apartment and has to. there is no point, since his brother seems disinterested in speaking to the kid. he rambles in his interactions with other people online but in person always cuts them short, seemingly uncomfortable with talking for too long.

the one activity that takes up most of his time, however, is training. at any hour of the day or night dave might be called to the roof. bro owns the entire building, and no one has ever called in anything about the striders. if they have, it was taken care of quickly and quietly and nothing ever got to the people who might have done something with it. bro watches everything and this is how things go: dave goes up the stairs with a sword in hand and once he's at the top it starts and then it keeps going until it's over. sometimes it goes on past that. it can take hours on end or only a few minutes, and there isn't any way to predict which it's going to be. eventually dave's left alone and he lies on the roof for a bit until he picks himself up and goes back inside the apartment. he patches himself up quickly and efficiently and doesn't complain at all. the most he has ever done is inform john egbert he got his ass kicked, and john assumed dave was exaggerating like dave always does.

here's another thing to notice: dave strider is used to being watched. he's paranoid about it, trying to read from every tiny clue in his life what will happen next and coming up blank. so when there's an extra pair of eyes he notices after a few hours, and he doesn't like the feeling. he picks himself up off the roof and ignores a broken wrist and too many cuts to count and probably a few cracked ribs in order to lean over the edge of the railing, eyes scanning surrounding buildings with a tense little frown.

it's pointless to tell bro. it might be bro. is he supposed to confront the change or ignore it? it's impossible to tell when bro wants him to roll with something or dig his heels in, and if he can't figure it out quick before the inscrutable time limit runs out, bro will probably be disappointed. and also maybe mad? it's hard to tell if bro ever gets mad or anything else at all, but dave would like to avoid that eventuality and measure up, so...

so.

right.

he can't spot who might be watching him but he didn't expect to. he can never spot bro in the apartment, either. so maybe he needs to change the location? maybe this is counter-surveillance training. it's not the usual so it has to be something else, after all. he's too tired to think it through but that doesn't really matter because there's probably a time limit and he shouldn't be too tired for it so he can't be.

the next day dave will completely disregard his usual daily schedule and leave the apartment. his injuries are taken care of even if he's oddly careful about his wrist, a makeshift brace involving a wrist watch making it casual. dave can always make his walk seem easy and relaxed no matter what he's hiding. he doesn't go to any of his usual locations. instead he goes to the movie theater, wastes precious grocery money on a ticket for a random action movie, and immediately ditches through an emergency exit in the theater once he's zipped in.

he loiters around out of sight to see if he can catch anyone coming out after him.

there are a dozen other little trips and traps like that planned if his simple first-ditch effort doesn't work as he zigzags around the city with absolutely no gameplan, testing the waters to see what comes up. there's no possibility of waiting for probably-bro to explain himself, because bro doesn't do explanations. so. time to figure out the rules as best he can and hope it's what he's supposed to be doing.

the lack of any ominous texts to his phone is either encouraging or terrifying. dave can't be fucked to figure out which it is, exactly. ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I'm aware. [Dirk didn't build the Machine??? although you could easily do an au where he did BUT IN THIS ONE JAKE AND JADE DID.] There's a reason that human self-determination is a pretty big deal here. It gives us the numbers, but we have to decide what happens next.

So what changed?

[ dave could. stand to clarify the question? MAYBE GIVE ANY CONTEXT, AT ALL?

he means what changed that the reason of "'in danger from one threat to your life, right now,' to 'in danger always, from a lot of people'" didn't stop dirk from halfway explaining this time. ]

[Weirdly: Dirk gets the leap.]

At this point, it's less dangerous for you to know than to know enough to speculate and maybe get yourself hurt in the process. This system is supposed to be a government secret. Anyone who knows the truth would be lucky to get the black hood treatment.

But it isn't going to tell anyone you know. As long as you don't do anything that would alert the authorities about your knowledge, you're safe from them.

Do your phone friends agree with your assessment?

[ or. did dirk just throw himself into hot water. ]

Also: do you ever get tired of soundin' like a sci-fi thriller.

My phone friends don't know [THAT'S WHY HE BRICKED HIMSELF] and all the goddamned time.

[ that opens up like a million more questions and dave seems to consider asking one or two, but finally settles on: ]

Ok. [ he'll stick around and go to the comic thing until dirk, like, takes out the latvian mob or whatever? ]

Are you sure? Gunfire is a probable future occurrence here.

[Dirk: wants a thing. gets that thing. then questions because no that isn't right, maybe it should be the other way.]

They already saw me talkin' to you.

[ A SHRUG. it's not like his own description isn't recognizable? pasty blond kid in shades. skinny. wearing a bunch of red. ]

So it ain't like I wouldn't need to worry about the mob even if I went and did my own thing. Though you could have just pretended I was, like, an annoyin' kid on the street. That could have happened.

[ dave stop bitching? ]

You're a pretty persistently annoying kid on the street.

[He didn't think he could throw Dave off?]

Ok, well, the point stands that I may as well stick with the unhinged shooter dude as long as there's more of those runnin' around more immediately interested in shooting me maybe?

[ even though he still disapproves of shooting people, in general? ]

If you changed your mind just say so.

No, it's cool. Stay. [He just. Doesn't know how to handle this now. He made a mistake now he got the thing he doesn't know what to do with the thing.]

If you don't wanna be 'kid,' what do you wanna be? You didn't seem to approve of me addressin' you by your first name. [He got that impression? perhaps mistakenly because Dave hated everything Dirk did so]

Yeah, there's a reason for that.

[ after a second and a huffed breath of irritation, dave holds out his hand. the right one, since the left wrist is still, you know. healing. ]

I'm Dave.

[ DON'T JUST FUCKING USE PEOPLE'S NAMES WHEN THEY HAVEN'T GIVEN THEM TO YOU DIRK. ]

[Oh. My God. Dirk takes the hand and shakes it.] I'm Dirk.

[ this is? a pretty normal objection, dave feels? he drops dirk's hand pretty fast after shaking it, but. ]

You've said. You'd be less creepy if you didn't flippantly refer to private shit or things people never told you, by the way. Kinda.

Not bein' creepy is not really my priority when I am tryin' not to let people die on the advice of an AI that constitutes the biggest breach of privacy in the history of humankind.

Ok but have you considered people would talk to you for longer if you didn't start off with "Hi, I'm Dirk, I'm a creepy motherfucker" but went in for somethin' more lowkey and less that?

[ he is Paraphrasing. ]

It usually isn't my approach. Usually, our numbers don't identify me before we're ready to approach them.

[BELIEVE IT OR NOT, DAVE, YOU ARE AN EXCEPTION]

[ dirk wins. a puzzled look? ]

How do people not notice you followin' them?

[ he hadn't even fully seen dirk so much as felt someone following him around. whatever tipped him off, it was just...years and years of knowing that feeling and noticing it intensifying.

do other people not have that?

dave stands, not abrupt, as the bus nears the stop they should be getting off on (he thinks). ]

[Is Dave. Genuinely confused by this?

Holy shit.]

Most people haven't had your trainin'. [He barely resists air quotes.] Believe it or not, but it is genuinely not common for people to have your level of awareness about their surroundings. Even criminal types are usually not that alert. [He tilts his head, thinking about it as he heads to the back exit.] Some military people can pick up on it. Usually just the ones with covert ops training.

I mean, I figured like, John wouldn't be able to. But aren't the people who get involved in whatever shit you're into usually not normal? i.e., the latvian mob.

[ they probably should have noticed dirk sooner, actually. -10 points from the mob. ]

Ok, so what's your usual approach, batman? Wait, you're not well-dressed enough for that. [ hm. ] Joker.

[What. The fuck?]

I'm not Batman [he says in a Kevin Conroy voice] or the Joker. [HE DOESN'T SAY IT IN A MARK HAMILL VOICE] We're not from comic books.

[Blah blah getting off the bus.]

Like I said, most criminals, including the Latvian mob, are not as alert as you are. Only time we come across someone this aware is if they're from a situation like yours or they're former covert ops of some kind.

Approach depends on the number. Early recon can help us out. Sometimes it means undercover work, sometimes it means tailin' people until they need the rescue.

You kinda talk like you think you are.

[ from comic books, dave means. his hands are jammed in his pockets, though his left hand more carefully. he does not look around and moves very casually, like nothing is wrong at all. ]

What does "rescue" even mean.

[ he still has no idea what the fuck they were trying to do for him. ]

Usually, it means someone is shooting at them, or about to put somethin' nasty into their food, and we remove the threat and tie 'em up nice for the cops or we drag them out of there until we can tie the threat up nice for the cops.

[also Dirk will just accompany Dave to the line for Comicpalooza tickets I guess? Because they're doing that now.]

[ WELP. DAVE DIDN'T WANT TO KNOW THAT? he doesn't want bro to go to jail or something, christ. it's his own fault if he can't handle the training. which he can. ]

What do you think your mob dude is gonna even do?

[ time to change the topic entirely as they wait in line. dave pulls out his phone and starts messing around with it, but he isn't doing anything more interesting than checking in with jade, who is apparently awake now, and leaving john and rose a few messages for whenever they get out of school. ]

That's what we're here to find out. Hell, we could even have it wrong, and he could be the target of a Green Lantern geek's unbridled rage for something he posted online about Sinestro. [Which. Probably warrants explanation:] He's really into that franchise.

The job is to surveil the dude until we find out and then stop the bad thing from happenin'.

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