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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. ]
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. ]
no subject
[ this is.........................maybe not what dirk would like to be complimented on. ]
I. Might need help gettin' them out at some point?
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Just let me know, and I'll be there.
no subject
[ he's thirteen and should not be so matter of fact about this ]
no subject
[They should have come out days ago in fact. Dirk is barely resisting dragging Dave back to his apartment right this instant.]
no subject
[ his phone buzzes and dave checks it on automatic, going immediately still. ]
Maybe later. I should get going. [ has to get going, he means. ] I'll call you up another time? If you aren't savin' the world or whatever.
no subject
Dirk nods in affirmation.]
Message me any time. Before you go, though.
[He hands Dave a piece of paper. It's a new address, for an apartment not too far from Dave.]
I couldn't give it to you over Pesterchum, but I wanted you to have it. If I'm not in, the lock is pickable and there are no traps.
no subject
That was fast. [ or. not really. ] You should maybe get better security, though, since like, everyone hates you.
[ he means the mob and the cia and stuff? ]
no subject
A good lock isn't going to help me if they track me down.
no subject
[ as in.............dirk is doing the Opposite of that. but okay. dave nods. ]
...Later. [ later isn't later that night. dave goes home and there isn't a strife but there are mindgames. it isn't later that week, either, because he's occupied with bro and is only online intermittently and distracted when he is.
in fact pretty much the next real contact dirk will get is 100% his place being broken into at like 3am, although he's Out when it happens since otherwise dave wouldn't have had to do that part? hope the no traps thing was legit and also that his boxes are easily locatable because dave will just kind of. help himself to medical supplies and mentally add to his tally of shit he owes dirk before passing out on the couch? so?
also hopefully the cia and the mob do not find dirk's apartment in this timeframe but i'll call that dealer's choice. ]
this would have been a good point to start a new thread under here
no. It's just Dirk, opening the door, having noticed that the lock has been picked. That means his gun is out and he's on high alert, but also he realizes it may be Dave and so he will not shoot the first movement he notices. He doesn't call out; he does a visual scan for Dave.
Does Dave wake up hearing him come in?]
instead i made myself a screened table of contents? clearly makes more sense???????
anyway, dave is enough of a light sleeper he stirs blearily but he doesn't go for a weapon, exactly. all he has is a knife, probably? but also: fun with blood loss, probably, because why else would he look dirk up at 3am, sorry dirk.
since the couch is probably within view of the door he can confirm it's dirk and not, like, the cia or the mob. this is great, because dave doesn't feel like fighting either, and isn't sure he could even if he felt like it? ]
You own too many weapons. [ nnngh ]
i want the table of contents too???
Did you cut yourself on somethin'?
[Holy shit that is bad??? Dirk is moving over there at the closest thing to flashstep speed we have in POI au because oh no his future ward.]
edits it into the entry itself just for you
[ weapons seem to be in like, organized locations though? that's nice? "box of tricks" here is just dirk's first aid stuff. ]
I didn't bleed on your couch though so it's ok.
[ assuaging dirks concerns here. the kid is in jeans and a hoodie and politely took his shoes off at the door at some point so ? ]
no subject
[A quick check: Dave's breathing, and fingers to an artery to check his pulse.]
Have you had any water?
[It's the same as last time: Dave is injured and Dirk immediately kicks into battle medical aid mode. Blood loss means hydrate, stitches, and a donation if it comes to it. Dirk needs to get Dave's medical records—right, kid probably doesn't even know his own blood type.]
no subject
[ on the back of his head. the ones dirk hadn't taken out yet.
his pulse isn't as steady as it could be but he's not in immediate danger of dying, just now. he mostly seems to have managed to stabilize himself, although probably he needs more water and blood would, uh, ??? not a thing he knows how to do so he didn't do it and was settling for like, passing out. ]
no subject
[Random questions that totally aren't' about medical aid from Dirk Strider. He heads over to the kitchen to refill the water. Dave seemed to like it cool last time so he makes sure it is, and when he brings it back he crouches down beside Dave again and is perfectly ready to help him sit up and hold the cup if needed.]
no subject
[ dave can force himself to sit up without problems. he takes the cup and tugs off his hoodie hood which is a stupid phrase but that's what it is but anyway he tugs that down and he Definitely tore a stitch or two somehow. there's a little bit of blood though he...tried to kind of slap a bandage over it until someone else could look at it. ]
Were you savin' the world?
[ he'll drink the water. ]
no subject
[Dirk doesn't stop Dave from drinking, but he straightens up so he can get a proper look at those stitches. The bandaid of course has to come off.] Okay, we're going to have to redo these. I can get a kit to type you in a bit.
[Once Dave is stable and safe and Dirk has left Protective Mod. (Ok, Dirk never leaves that mode, but at some point it will be Less.)]
no subject
[ warily. ]
If you already know it you can just say so. [ he. just assumes dirk has better access to his medical records than he does lmfao. ]
no subject
[Dirk 'ill just steal some from the hospital, dont worry about it my rich friend will balance things out' Strider.]
I don't know it already. Your medical records are pretty scant.
no subject
[ also: that figures. dave...does not recall ever going to the doctor, ever. he is still not 100% sure he got those shots dirk says he probably got? ]
How would it work?
no subject
Of course, any blood type match-ups mean we borrow from each other. Lalonde's a universal receiver, so usually English gives her his blood. He insists I'm more likely to need mine. [Which is. true. so Dirk gives into it.]
no subject
[ haha hope dirk wasn't actually trying to stitch him up at this point or anything, although he's. probably still checking out dave's head if anything. ]
What was your grand master plan.
no subject
You still don't want us to have him arrested. It wouldn't be on child abuse charges. We have plenty of material we can point Crocker towards to get him locked up permanently. If you still don't want that, we have contingencies. [Asking for the clarification.]
no subject
What material? And what contingencies?
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icon selector is being an ass about loading so WHATEVER
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