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

[What passes as a flicker of a frown, on a face as impassive as Dirk's.]

What are those?

[ dave stares at his phone. ]

She thinks my "new stance" on our relationship is "more emotionally balanced" than my previous one.

[Okay. Okay, dicey territory. Strider, do not fucking mess this up.

Again. Don't mess it up again, because you keep doing that, and this is why you hate yourself.

Breathe.]

I'm sensing a preponderance of air quotes here. Do I get to hear what the new stance is?

There isn't one. She's misunderstandin' some of the essentials, here. She just thinks that my admittin' to occasional mundane irritations with my Bro was an important part of expressing myself and coming to terms with my - I can't even with her. Anyway. She's wrong - he doesn't irritate me.

[ so far so good dirk

how long can you go without messing this up!! ]

[He is expecting to trip and smash headfirst into the ground any second now.]

He doesn't irritate you, but there are mundane irritations. [Is he following this correctly. Please help him.]

Yeah, with you.

[ rose thinks the "new stance" is healthy and wonderful and what-the-fuck-ever, but it's just been asides that dave has said about dirk while pretending he was talking about his brother. he made up activities for them all the time; assigning the version of bro his friends got some of the shit dirk had done didn't seem like a big deal at the time until rose started analyzing it. ]

[....It comes together.]

Ow.

[He does not actually seem hurt.]

You're an asshole.

[ he. just felt like saying that, okay. ]

I just came out to have a good time and I am feeling so memed right now.

[Dirk has no actual genuine objections to Dave calling him an asshole.]

So did your friends find out you want to kidnap me yet?

[ i

guess we can go there, sure ]

[...]

I mentioned it to Lalonde. She called me an idiot, but also told me that wanting to get you a cat proved I wasn't completely hopeless as a potential kidnapper. [Roxy approved of the cat idea?] English managed to say that it was a dangerous idea and a grand idea basically in the same breath. The impression I get is that he'd be all in if it weren't for those pesky government agents likely to kill you should we be discovered.

They both doubt my ability to actually look after a kid, which I don't really disagree with. I have reason to believe that should you ever accept my offer, my skills as a guardian will not be winning any prizes. I do not know the first thing about domesticity.

[...]

I haven't mentioned it to Jane.

[Because he's VERY sure Jane is going to shout at him.]

So you didn't tell them everythin'.

[ where he got that from is...unclear? he could be referring to so many things. like whether or not they knew dave knows about the number thing more than he should. that isn't what he's referring to, but it could be. ]

What did I leave out?

[Like. The Machine thing, yes. But that's not going to be told ever.]

[ ..........so basically they're going to find out at the worst possible time and yell at dirk at that point in time?????????? ]

...Nothin'. [ suddenly uneasy. he'd actually meant the part about them doubting dirk could take care of a child.

that was pretty much all he did the last time they met. or maybe that counted more as taking care of a combatant? ]

[yes]

You just said I didn't tell them everythin'.

[Like. He just said it? After a pause, Dirk takes out his phone and bricks it.]

Muffle your phone and you should be able to say anything.

[HE THINKS IT'S THE MACHINE THING?]

[ oh my god dirk ]

What did you tell them about the last time we met up?

[Oh.]

I didn't. It didn't really seem like their business.

It wasn't. [ or he doesn't like knowing people know about his shit haha ] But it kinda means they can't form good opinions.

About my kidnapping efforts?

About how you are with kids.

[ jesus he didn't want to SAY it ]

[Well. Dave is about to get tortured more because.]

You... Did you think that was good?

[DIRK THOUGHT HE LIKE. BARELY PASSED 'NOT TOTAL FAILURE' ON IT.]

[ i mean dave's standards for guardianship are not hard to lightly hop over, dirk. ]

You sewed me up?

[ amaze ]

That's less standard fare guardianship than field medic training. I meant more the... caretakin'. [So not the physical parts of it. He should. Maybe elaborate on that.] Not the keeping you alive and healthy, the important part of it.

[the stuff with the feelings that dirk is CLEARLY incompetent about]

[ yeah he completely lost dave, who looks. baffled. ]

Isn't the alive and healthy thing the important part?

It's the bare minimum part. [Not that Dave would know that, so, he isn't judging Dave for his bafflement.] The important part is the part where you feel safe, comfortable, and cared about.

You might not have noticed, but I'm not the greatest at emotions.

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject