whatever

[parodeity]

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. ]

Comments

yes and i'm proud

[splinten]

You do get better all the time. Fuckin' up, though, that's the human condition.

[He puts his hand on Dave's glass. The reason he said all this is the same reason he compliments Dave, the reason Dirk told him he does: Dirk doesn't bullshit. Not when it counts. Dirk thinks Dave is smart and capable. He knows Dave is in an abusive situation. He has very carefully avoided that word but he isn't going to lie about the rest. He understands how the Machine works, so he knows why she picked this kid. She wants them to get him out of that situation.]

You're doin' good with the water. Do you think you could handle somethin' light to eat? I have crackers and bread, some fruits. [He'll go out and get anything he doesn't have after he's been with Dave long enough to be sure Dave isn't suffering from internal bleeding or otherwise at high risk.]

[parodeity]

What fruits? [ he could probably put more actual fruit in his diet so as long as he's actually considering accepting the offer he may as well go for the thing that isn't usually there. crackers and bread keep longer, so he does have those semi-regularly. kinda. ]

[ as to the human condition: ] It's the worst I ever fucked up. This is probably the nearest I ever came to anythin' like death, and your machine didn't catch it - [ he pauses. ] Second nearest. But you didn't look me up six years ago. [ when dave was seven. ]

[splinten]

Oranges. Bananas, apples. One avocado.

I didn't have this job six years ago. What happened when you were seven?

[parodeity]

[ hm. he wants an apple, but. that might be a little too hard to chew right now? ]

Can I have a banana? [ that should be easy enough. no resounding crunch when you bite in. as to when he was seven: ]

I got sick.

[splinten]

What did you get sick with? Also, sliced or in the peel?

[He'll go get that banana HE THINkS DAVE SHOULD HAVE IT SLICED but the most important thing is feeding him.]

[parodeity]

Don't care.

[ he figures this will net him an in the peel banana since who would slice something given the option to not? ]

I dunno. I mean, I never got diagnosed or anythin'. We didn't go to a hospital. I didn't have to strife for a little bit after the first time we tried while it was happenin'?

[splinten]

[Surprise on Dave: there is a sliced banana happening. He puts it on a plate and everything. When he comes over, he puts the plate down on the table beside Dave, where it will be easy for him to reach without having to move.]

You got sick enough you think you were close to death, though?

[parodeity]

Bro didn't make me strife. [ clarifying. there is never any condition so dire dave isn't expected to do that, so he assumes he was at death's door or something. ] I know I had a fever and shit. I couldn't think.

[ this is the fanciest banana that has ever happened to him ever. he will eat one slice though. ]

[splinten]

[Hopefully he will eat more than one slice eventually. The banana produced several, just for him.]

I'm not clear on somethin' here. How do you know he didn't make you, as opposed to just not doing any the way he sometimes randomly decides to?

[parodeity]

That was when I was seven? [ like that's an explanation at all. dave elaborates: ] He did more...regular trainin' when I was younger, I guess.

[ not regular normal or regular as in with explanations. but regular as more consistently occurring with less keeping him on his toes. that was when he was still getting a handle on using a sword. ]

I think he came into my room a few times to look at me. [ not check on him, dave doesn't want to say, but - just to look. maybe to see if he died or whatever. ] And they only stopped, the strifes I mean, when I couldn't, like - do it.

[splinten]

[Dirk, for a moment, is quiet.]

Like I said, the Machine can't read thoughts. She predicts actions based on massive amounts of data, but she can't determine what your brother thinks or feels. If she were active at the time, I think what she'd flag as anomalous would be a guardian with the financial means to take his charge to a hospital or a doctor never doing it. She wouldn't be able to say why that guardian did, just that the action that would be best for you would be getting you medical assistance, and doing otherwise is potentially risky behaviour.

[parodeity]

[ dave isn't even sure what he wanted at the time, or now, was the hospital. he doesn't want to talk about what bro was or wasn't thinking. he says instead almost too quietly to hear: ]

I think I tricked myself about a thing, when it happened. When I was delirious.

[splinten]

What was it?

[He thinks he might have a guess.]

[parodeity]

[ does he, though? how right is it? because when dave speaks again, after a long pause, it's a memory never quite forgotten, but always shoved back down: ]

Just a thing. When I was in bed? One night I think I was cryin' and I was really confused. I thought someone was brushing my hair back from my forehead, just - you know how in tv, sometimes, the moms or whoever do that for the kids? Like that. Just steady and even and there. [ however: ] I'm pretty sure I did it for myself.

[ at the time he'd pretended otherwise. ]

[splinten]

[The guess was right, for what it was: not the details, Dirk didn't have those. But he imagined that if a sick, delirious kid, who never was shown an ounce of affection or care, isn't sure whether or not he imagined something, then that something is almost definitely some proof that his guardian actually gives a shit.

It hurts.]

It's a tough call to make. If anyone knows... [Well.] She can't talk to us, and he isn't sayin'.

[parodeity]

[ dave thinks maybe he does know. he's been quietly scared or sad about it for years but it was never worth saying aloud. it's easier to not. ]

What did your family do when you got sick? As a kid? [ john's dad took off work and made him soup and sit with him watching dumb movies. rose's mom would dose her with medicine and read her stories. jade didn't seem to get sick often, but her grandfather looked out for her.

mundane fairy tails, bittersweet and sickening and comforting. ]

[splinten]

[he worries about telling Dave. but Dave asked, so Dirk will answer. he nods to the bananas; Dave should try to eat a little more.]

It was just my brother. He had a busy job, but when I got sick he'd cancel everything to come home to me. Dude wasn't super keen on doctors as a rule, hated going to them for himself, but for me he'd go to any waiting room and stay as long as it took to see me treated. He'd stay by my side and make up the dumbest, most absurd goddamned stories you've ever heard in your life, or watch movies with me or whatever. He was really bad at soup at first, but he figured it out enough. Perfect chicken broth for a sick kid.

[A pause. Dave asked, though, so.] He did the forehead thing. Used to say it was his brotherly right to fuck with my hairstyle. Dude was pathological about ruffling my hairdo.

[parodeity]

[ it's impossible to picture. another mundane fairy tale, but he's heard them from all his friends because they told him or he asked, curious. it's a thing out of reach for dave strider but it's...nice? it's maybe nice. to know that it hasn't been out of reach for other people. rose and john and jade will never fall asleep delirious and wonder/know they comforted themselves. dirk didn't have to do that, either. ]

Do I have medical files?

[ may as well ask the stalker. ]

[splinten]

Birth certificate, a few files from all the shots you have to get or they start to harass your brother. That's it.

[No records of any hospital visits in his entire life aside from that. That's another thing the Machine probably flagged; English certainly did.]

[parodeity]

So I got the shots?

[ why

is he asking this ]

[splinten]

[As long as he's still conscious, Dirk doesn't care.]

All those required by state and federal law. Have some more banana slices, dude.

[parodeity]

I don't remember gettin' them. [ but okay. he will eat two more slices having been reminded of their existence. ] Do you do anythin' for fun?

[splinten]

I like mixin' music. I also build and program robots.

[parodeity]

You what. [ about. part two. not part one. ] Like...roombas?

[splinten]

No. Like, uh...

[He goes back to the closet. Out comes a box? The symbol on it is this. When he opens it up, Dave will see Squarewave's head, and other parts. Clearly, the dude is still under construction.]

This one is Squarewave. I'm programming him to get in rap battles and make terrible 90s references. Obviously the main body is still incomplete.