lucybox | na na na na na batman

[ look. if dirk loses him, he needs to be better at losing other people, too. ]

I think you're better at tech shit than me - not hard if you get into anythin' beyond bein' born in the information age - so we'll ignore that part of it. What I'm good at is disappearin'. You can call me Dave, I hate titles.

[ he doesn't use dirk's name. he won't, unless he gets it. there's a brief segue into how to distractions are Fun for the whole family and dave cheerfully engages in a few brief conversations with passers-by as they go. he had to learn the charm he employs on others, and a few careful misdirects will make it harder for people to follow them without being waylaid. ]

[Dirk doesn't like the way Dave smiles. It's easy and comfortable and it's fake-not-fake, the kind of smile that doesn't matter. He watches and even stubborn as he is he won't totally throw out the information being given to him but he doesn't have to appreciate it. His expression has reverted into a contained anger, something barely noticeable as not being neutral.

He still isn't talking. He is, however, using eye movement to make his shades look up the clue he just found for the three-pronged arch.

Look if random dude in this show got lame google glasses, i'm giving Dirk his really helpful computershades. that level of scifi is totally POI legit.]

[ it's the kind of smile Everyone gets. dirk hasn't quite yet aside from the sort of nothing-smile that comes with someone speaking calmly and quietly and patiently. it's not exactly patronizing, but rather dave seems a little detached in certain ways, and it isn't a habit he ever got over even though he's charming when he wants to be.

the smile is more real when he answers his phone on the first ring and listens to rose give him a brief puzzle run down. she gets a "the words you just said mean nothing to me in conjunction with one another but have a blast" in response. ]

One of these guys is military. [ to dirk, brightly, though the genuine smile flickered away when rose's call did. ] So I'm gonna have to ask you to go down that shady lookin' alley with me and pretend you don't see me doin' to him what I'm gonna do to him. It won't be lethal, but it ain't strictly legal.

[Dirk's shoulders get really, really tense. It was probably being asked to go down a shady alley and look the other way.]

I can take care of it myself. Just back off-dude.

[He'll disappear. He knows how to on a street as busy as this one. He can get away.]

I'm open to alternate suggestions to disablin' the dude.

[ if dirk has any, now would be the time. dave...chooses to not back off for the moment, although he still hasn't come within a foot of dirk or tried to touch him at all.

weirdly, dave hasn't tried to touch anyone at all, keeping a fair amount of distance between him and anyone he speaks to. it's habitual more than anything else. ]

However, he does have a gun and he probs will use it and I don't want him hittin' anyone but maybe me, although I'm kinda opposed to that as well on a personal level?

The alternate suggestion is we disappear. You know, like you were sellin' me you were so genius at.

Hey. I lost the non-military dudes? Cut me some slack here, kiddo.

[ hm. ]

Are you opposed to all shady routes, because that limits my options. Or do you mind if we do a little urban zigzaggin'. I feel you should not, since you made me go into a warehouse which was infinitely more shady than anyplace I care to spend more than two minutes in.

Urban zigzaggin'.

[He'll duck in and out of spaces but he doesn't want to be alone with Dave.]

It involves some shady places. But you're safe with me. Honestly probably stupid words to hear from any adult, I always thought, but hey. Or anyone who said that. Shit, maybe it's somethin' about hittin' your later years that makes you say bullshit like that? [ half to himself ] Whatever the case, let's see. I'm pretty sure the dude's French. Their courses cover - hm, let's do it this way -

[ he still doesn't touch dirk, speaking mostly to himself, but nods and then starts...

well, urban zig-zagging. he picks up the pace, only checking to make sure dirk can keep up, and starts swinging through stores and out back doors and around corners without bothering to check his location. he knows the city like the back of his hand; that's a survival tactic more than anything else.

he's quiet as they go and never looks particularly dangerous the brief moments they're alone, always simply checking dirk can keep up and that the tail isn't in sight. he won't stop the pace for about fifteen minutes until he's sure. ]

[Dirk has no problems keeping up through any of it. He's fast and he's acrobatic and he doesn't know the city as well as he did five years ago but he has five years of learning how to survive in every city to help him adapt. He only tenses up more when they're briefly alone (ready to slip out that knife but refusing to play that final move until he needs to) and otherwise stays calm, if still extremely wary. He's mentally filing information about Dave. In this world, information is everything. And if he has to get rid of a cop by threatening him with his own history, then that's what he'll do.]

[ besides the vague shit dave says, there's not much to go off of. he wears a too-nice suit and there's the glint of a badge at his belt when they move through a certain alley. he wasn't lying about being a cop (except how he was, because he didn't used to be). he definitely has at least one gun on him, well-concealed. he's wearing cufflinks. the stupid shades are in place and he doesn't once remove them or lower them.

he seems more concerned about dirk's well-being than anything else going on, checking constantly.

when they hit the end of his stupid game of hide and seek he backs off further, apparently unwilling to make dirk any more uncomfortable than dave thinks he has to. ]

The light of my life says she thinks you have to go somewhere in particular. Do you? I can find us a good path anywhere in the city, pretty much. I promise not to interfere unless you're traffickin' drugs. Please don't be traffickin' drugs.

Is that who you were on the phone with?

[Thanks, Dir. Real helpful reply.]

Yes. She said a bunch of bullshit about where she thought I should go next, and also blah blah blah weird seashell shit. If you tell me they're not seashells I will tell you what I told her which is "okay whatever update me next time you need me to give a fuck about weird seashell shit".

[ calm, honest. dave lets his hands slip into his pockets. it doesn't seem to be grabbing for a weapon so much as dave being uncomfortable not doing something with his hands. ]

I'll leave the details to the people better suited to thinkin' about them. I still have just the one goal, stupid though you may consider it to be.

What if I ask you to leave?

...Honestly? [ he...appears to think about it. ] If it comes down the wire, when you're lookin' death in the face and you tell me to not help you, I - [ would have issues with it because he's a self-sacrificial idiot and knows it ] - would try to respect. Not sure I'd succeed because there's gut instincts to consider, but hey.

[ it doesn't seem that far off to say; it isn't like dirk isn't clearly expecting some danger from people here, for...

...dave is still unclear what's happening, actually. hm. ]

I'll leave you alone as soon as time's up. What I said earlier. Two days tops. You have my word, and I never break that. [ not that it means anything to a kid who doesn't know him, dave guesses. ] She said you need help. The woman I was speakin' to earlier. Neither she nor I are good people by nature, really, but that's what our job is: help. It's more self-assigned than anythin' else, but. Also I am crap at explainin' shit but also I guess most of it sounds like pure bullshit even if you try, but - honestly, I'll try to stick around for the time limit to make sure you're okay. I can't help it. I gave her my word, eons back it feels like, that I'd always do everything I could for the damn job. So.

[So what he's saying is that what Dirk wants doesn't matter.

Classic adult. Classic human.]

Whatever.

[He'll be changing direction to get on the main street. If lady on the phone knew there's a place to be she's probably worked out the next clue anyway. He can't throw them off if they'll know where he'll be.

Step one is, actually, grabbing a bus. He does not have cab fare and he still doesn't want to be with Dave in private.]

[ "whatever" and dave freezes before he follows (pays the bus fare first if he can, but won't push it), and he's quiet until he takes a seat one over from dirk and says something soft-voiced: ]

I really am sorry. [ but he isn't the military's dog any longer and he was never really his own person as such. he's rose lalonde's tool (she'd never call him that, but it is true) and she wants to save the numbers as a tribute to the mother who'd created the machine before she died. ] But I think your life has value. So.

[Dirk pays his own fare, gives Dave a cold and neutral look if he tries. Money is the least metaphorical iteration of debt and Dirk won't let himself have any here.

He doesn't respond to what Dave says. He is sure Dave believes it. He's sure it is in its own way true. But Dirk Strider in any universe needs someone real to latch onto, and after five years without he doesn't care about a stranger deciding to value him.

He's wrong, anyway. Dirk's life doesn't have value. It has borrowed worth from the life that tried to give it meaning. The worth is the only thing that has kept him alive so far.

Now he just needs to find enough to pay it back.]

She said you like music.

[ "she", "sunshine", "light of my life". a dozen little nicknames dave does use, but he's also very, very careful to never use rose's name with other people. the others, too, especially now and when they know little about the situation. ]

I'm bad at shuttin' up. You remind me sideways of a guy I used to know, that probably has somethin' to do with it. [ steady silence and neutrality. he's decades away from that mattering. or at least a decade and a half. ] So what's the seashell nonsense, anyway? I know the phone number was a math problem, I like that kind of shit, but the grafitti wasn't my jam.

Why does Big Sister know what I like? I can't imagine that's in any of my official records.

[Dirk's life is plagued by ironies whether he knows it or not and that 1984 joke gets to be part of it. He ignores most of the rest of it. It's filed away because right now he doesn't know what to do with it.]

Probably not. But she has a way with knowin' shit about people that quite frankly I would be fine with her knockin' off sometimes.

[ a wry tone, fleeting. there's affection there, too, though. ]

She didn't seem to think whatever we're doin' is very clear. She said you're a genius, so you probably find it moreso. I know at least two people who might want to give you a run for your money with computers, but I'm not one of 'em. I'm better put to use in less intellectual spheres.

[ self-deprecating but calm. rose and jade and captor handle being brilliant. aradia in her own way, too. dave can do math and bullshit charm, sure, but he doesn't bother to pretend he's more than what h eis. ]

[There's a lapse again into silence. Dirk is registering what Dave is saying. What he's looking for it is the angle.

He thinks he can work it out. 'Trust me. Let me save you.'

He isn't interested in either. But the dude has already made it clear he won't listen when Dirk says 'no' so he doesn't bother trying. He'll wait him out and slip away.]

[ joke's on you, dirk, there wasn't an angle to his rambling! dave is literally just rambling to occupy himself. he's never been able to play the stoic military man well (he can but it's unsettling and everyone prefers when he doesn't) but more than that he's never been good with quiet.

rose has suggested therapy. dave has ignored her. ]

What's enlightenment supposed to be? I mean, I can make an educated guess based on tropes and what my gut feelin' says it will be, without herself sayin' so, but I may as well ask what it is you think you're searchin' for. Not that you're goin' to tell me. And not that I can't guess that, either, I suppose.

[ i warned you he'd critically fail this ]

Me, if I offered people enlightenment, I don't think I'd make it like somethin' philosophical or even like a prize like money or shit? What would be the kicker to do would be like...a comic strip. Only it couldn't make sense. Enlightenment would need to be a question still, or maybe a joke.

[Dirk can kind of picture a comic like that. His brother used to draw them, in that godawful art style of his. He liked them.

He is not going to offer this information to a stranger. Or like. Any information? He already has too much.

The silence isn't stony, exactly. The kid tries but Dirk is not Dave's Bro despite any resemblances. The fear and unease and anger are all there for sharp eyes, quiet naturally and muted by choice, but there.]

[ wow now dave can't draw the comic he's suggesting for dirk in that same godawful art style, what am i meant to do now!!!

dave keeps talking mostly to himself and doesn't seem to mind he's getting no input. megido frequently gives him the silent treatment to allow him to talk himself out, and no one has ever really tried to break him of it.

well. the military kind of did. they succeeded for a while. ]

But it would have to be a joke that didn't make sense. Because the point of it would be, like - it'd be ironic, right? You're lookin' for an answer but the answer would be there are always more questions. And also maybe somethin' about butts or whatever.

[ he's like over thirty ]

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