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

Excuse you, all my theories are gold. Although the first one is probably more likely than the other ones, while still bein' not all that likely.

[ like. IT WOULD MAKE THE PLOT TWIST MORE BEARABLE but ]

What's not likely about two lovers starcrossed by shitty opinions about shitty comics?

The part where anyone would love smug mcdouchelord, mostly.

[ the guy whose face needs breaking ]

You're right. I was an idiot.

[They come to... a hotel room! And hey, Roxy's outside there too.]

Guess you were right, Dave. It is our mob guy. Dave, this is Lalonde. Roxy, this is Dave.

[im not rping roxy just imagine an encounter? Roxy is a hacker and a huge fan of the Machine and she likes appearing out of nowhere.]

Hey. [ and suddenly dave loses the ability to speak! or. well. roxy looks nice and effusive and all but dave was no more interested in meeting other members of dirk's team than he was the cop. it's...not exactly thrilling to know these people know so much about him, and that they had plans until dirk called them off. he draws closer to dirk's shadow and pretends it doesn't bug him.

despite a sudden desire to Not Be Chatty, he at least asks: ]

What're they doin'.

Let's listen in.

[Dirk turns n the bug. It cuts in on a conversation between mob guy and comic book guy! the comic book guy asks if it's enough, and the other dude says yes, five's enough. but there's one more debt that has to be paid. there is a comic about terrible writing, and how the guy keeps betraying his own fans. first with his writing, and now with this.

There's the sound of a cocking gun?

That is their cue to move. Roxy swipes a card to unlock the door and Dirk kicks it in. CUT TO: Latvian Mob guy pointing a gun at comic book guy's head, and several comic book fans bound and gagged.

SEE WHAT I DID I MADE IT SERIOUS AND STUPID AT THE SAME TIME by bringing back my prior reference to the Latvian mob smuggling children, but also, a murder over bad writing! I'm fucking awesome.

Anyway Dirk and Roxy are going to neutralize the threats now? They're both awesome.

Dirk will break comic book guy's nose as Dave requested. Dave SHOULD stay back.]

[ farrah is so awesome here is her praise: glory.

also wow it sure is! lucky! dave didn't talk to comic book guy alone. and also that he would never agree to go anywhere alone with someone. beyond...dirk, who doesn't count on the grounds dave has found it aggravatingly hard to ditch the guy?

he should stay back. but the should is capitalized like a dare and clearly dirk and his lady friend are dealing with...whatever, so dave will, you know, not stay back. there are several children comic book fans bound and gagged. he'll head over there to start rectifying the bound and gagged part.

like he'll try not to draw attention to himself but uh hope no more mob guys come in. though staying back wouldn't have done good there, since he would have been alone at the door instead of ~together~ inside the room.

he refrains from telling the comic book fans they were stupid to follow creepy mcdouchelord, because they've probably figured that out and mostly he just sticks to "it's ok, they're...enforcement."

or...whatever they are. "maybe superheroes" is not a thing he's gonna say. ]

[OH NO THERE ARE THREE MORE MOB GUYS! Dirk can neutralize two but Roxy is still dealing with the one dAVE YOU HAVE TO BE THE HERO!]

[ why r u like this!!!!

well. shit. dave doesn't have - haha turns out he does keep a pocket knife on his person and is completely willing to stab someone in the arm. he will? hopefully not get in trouble for this? look what is he supposed to do with all these people with guns because that's the first thing that comes to mind and was probably a pretty reckless and stupid thing to do but...he doesn't get shot?

he does have to scramble for the gun the mob dude drops, though, even though dave has exactly Zero training in that kind of thing he figures it would be better to have it than the mob dude have it?

plz don't let him shoot himself ]

[HOLY SHIT NO Dirk literally shoves the two guys that he was dealing with at Roxy because SHE'LL BE FINE and like full body slams the other mob guy?? and then smashes his head on the ground to properly concuss him and ziptie him and then goes over to Dave.]

Are you okay?

[Roxy makes a comment about Dirk not being gentlemanly or whatever but tbh she handled her dudes just fine and they are also getting themselves zip tied. Roxy is also calling Jane to get her over here to do the official Arresting things, so Dirk and Dave will have to book it soon, but first Dirk has to be sure Dave is totally uninjured and not at all hurt please??]

I dunno how to disarm it.

[ THE GUN, HE MEANS? which he won but yeah he's holding it and also the safety is probably not on and he's probably holding it wrong. rip. at least his fingers are nowhere near the trigger?

dirk may want to take it away though.

in terms of injuries dave didn't manage to cut himself but his wrist did get banged up (again) and is still sort of broken or whatever so that's always fun.

typically of dave he does not, like, bring attention to this. ]

[Dirk gently takes the gun away.]

You put the safety back on like this. If you need to, you can drop the whole cartridge. [He shows Dave how to do both.] Crocker's going to be showing up soon. We need to get out of here, and we should re-set your wrist. [YEAH HE. Knew that was there all day and can tell Dave hurt it again now.] Lalonde will take care of the kids and the baddies. Crocker will have enough evidence to take care of them all.

[ well, dave watches the demonstration closely and can probably repeat it exactly if asked to do so, but. yeah he doesn't want to stick around for a Cop especially since he sort of stabbed mob guy #3 a little bit. ]

I can take care of it at home. [ re: his wrist. he doesn't bother to argue that nothing is wrong with the wrist since that might be pointless, but he doesn't have to accept help with it, at least. maybe. ] Do we gotta leave by a weird route or can we just go out the front if we leave now?

We can take a normal route if we leave now.

Lalonde, see you in a bit.

[He is like. in FULL ON protective mode with Dave now? He's barely keeping himself from putting a hand on Dave to keep him safe and steer him to some place not dangerous.

When they're in the hall]

You're sure you won't let me see to that wrist? It's the least I can do, gettin' you into this.

You already bought me lunch.

[ like it's some sort of balancing scale, but also - he's never had anyone offer to take care of his injuries before. bro...might have done it once or twice, back before dave was considered self-sufficient, but it's pretty hard to remember that far back. ]

It's cool. I ain't met an injury I can't first aid so far.

[ and he isn't sure if he wants anyone else trying. ]

'Sides, it's not that bad. It'll heal in a few weeks. [ or months. it's always hard to tell with this kind of thing, honestly. ]

Lunch doesn't cover bringing you into a second combat situation.

[Like. That's not how it balances out there kid.]

The cookies cover that part, then.

[ SUDDENLY THOSE EXIST WHEN IT'S IN HIS FAVOR THEY EXIST. ]

The cookies are from Jane.

[He wasn't even going to push the point but he disagrees with this argument.]

Then you can pay for my bus fare home and we'll call it even?

[ apparently this is now a bargaining situation. ]

We don't have to call it even, Dave. It just... [God. What the hell.] Basic decency isn't something you owe me a debt for, and you were part of the team for this case. I won't make you let me set your wrist or fight you on makin' it even, but a bit of food and some bus fair doesn't balance out against that. You helped save people. A lot of them. That's worth more than cookies and a bus ticket.

Then, [ he doesn't want to say yes to the wrist thing just because, honestly, he isn't used to that and on some level dave doesn't really buy that people reach out to help instead of harm. not with him. ] You can owe me one, if you gotta.

[ a favor. he has no idea what the fuck he would even ask for, when mostly what he's asked for is nothing, inaction and no surveillance, but he's trying to find the right thing to say in the way kids who are regularly hurt try to do. the words that will make the other party happy enough to let them off the hook.

dave has never been good at finding those words, but god does he always try to find them. ]

[Dirk quiets for a moment, but if Dave can read microexpressions then all he'll read is a certain sadness.]

Like I said, Dave. We don't have to worry about that.

I just wanted you to know you helped a lot today, and I appreciate it. Thanks.

...Sure. I'll probably keep my day job and all, but it was...not boring?

[ not that he has a day job. aside from, uh, sales from his comic site. which are always kind of questionable, since his fanbase isn't as big as dave makes it out to be. ]

I should really get home just in case though.

[ in case bro reappears from wherever, he means. no texts to get home so bro probably isn't (or just didn't care where dave was?) but he wouldn't want the guy to expect him somewhere and be disappointed. ]

Can I... come with you for the bus ride? Just in case some of the mob hasn't gotten the memo.

[This is a dumb excuse. He is just worried. But, because Dave seems antsy:]

No problem if that's a no. Strangers with candy and shit. Or, uh, cookies.

[ MORE MEN WITH GUNS is enough to make him pause as an idea, despite being antsy. ]

...Ok. But I'm gettin' off a stop before my block in that case.

[ THOUGH dirk may not have to wait for sheer chance for the next contact from dave? when he gets off? ...dave strider is a work in progress ]

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