na na na na na batman

[parodeity]

if you give me lyrics i'll put them here. never say i don't sometimes occasionally learn from my mistakes

Comments

[splinten]

I'm not bettin' with you. [Dirk why are you being such a jerk.]

[parodeity]

Which is a good call, because I'm p sure I'll win? [ like. there is no way the entity behind this is 1) not evil and 2) maybe not even human??????????? ]

[splinten]

[Oh right he's being an ass because Dave is annoying. Back to not talking to him, then.]

[parodeity]

[ a flicker of a grin that fades into something more serious. ]

For real, though, if you're the genius you're supposed to be - don't make a choice you can't take back without thinkin' it through. I mean, you can and probably will, but. I think it would've been nice at your age if someone had told me "hey, maybe pause and consider it before you do it" even if I then proceeded to fling myself off a building or whatever.

[splinten]

Protip from, you know, the entire fuckin' history of rhetoric: patronization doesn't go so hot as a persuasive tactic.

[parodeity]

Not tryin' to be. [ a shrug. it occurs to him that he can tap out and tag megido in. he tries to think: what the hell would he have wanted at the age sixteen?

whatever bro wanted, to keep the peace.

unhelpful at best. but it isn't like dave at thirty-something has learned to stop doing that when pressed, really, outside of battle situations. ]

I imagine the answer is yes since you've said so a few times, but I'll ask anyway: you want me to fuck off, right?

[ he'd have to wait until she was in position before ghosting, but - maybe that's what's best for the number. aradia, unlike dave, doesn't get messed up by feelings, and people don't read her as anything at all. it's easy enough to text her while he talks to say they may have to trade jobs.

with a warning the kid can make tails, she'll probably be impossible to spot. she's annoyingly competent like that. ]

[splinten]

I don't trust you to.

[Point blank and sharp and walled off. Angry, in his way.]

You have a promise to The Light Of Your Life, whoever that is. If you did fuck off you'd just use some other way to ghost me. That's the fuckin' point of whatever you're doing, right?

Just fuckin' relax, dude. It's a game. I'm here to win, nothin' else. I'm not going to be heartbroken when the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow is just a Billy puppet laughin' in my face.

[parodeity]

If I fuck off, I won't bother you again.

[ no promises about what anyone else would do, but hey. ]

And I've already told you what I'm doin'. I've also warned you it ain't a game, but I can't say more unless you figure it out, so whatever.

[splinten]

How the fuck is it not a game?

[It's making Dirk angry, all this bullshit.] Yeah, there are private-military guys stalkin' me. Whatever, I know why. That doesn't make it any less of a game than it is, it just means the risks are higher.

[parodeity]

Just...pause a second.

[ low-voiced and calm, still. ]

And ask yourself why someone would ask you to steal those files.

[splinten]

To release 'em and wreck Silverpool for their criminal actions. I've got it set up to get to the newspapers when it needs to. That includes if these dumb assholes kill me.

[Meaning Dirk sets ups contingencies for his murder????]

Games like this will target enemies of the instigators sometimes. As long as those are bad people, I consider it a plus.

[parodeity]

Smart. But what if the instigators are worse people?

[ also stop setting up murder contingencies you jackass ]

[splinten]

Then they'll get their comeuppance when someone goes after them. This one, though, would be pretty hard to trace.

[Implying..... that Dirk tried to figure out who it was and found he couldn't.]

It'd be interesting to meet someone on that level.

[parodeity]

[ um ]

When did you try to trace it? [ suddenly, dave is a lot more concerned. ]

[splinten]

[Dirk's eyebrows move up a fraction.]

Why does that matter?

[parodeity]

How long? Did you get hacked back??

[ he's opening up his phone to send some frantic queries @ rose. does he have to be concerned about assassins. more assassins. ANY ASSASSINS.

shit he should stop texting rose if there's any chance they're being watched extra closely. dave's identity can be burned as long as no one else's is, he's fine with that for a given value of fine. ]

[splinten]

[Okay. This is getting interesting.]

Yeah. I ended up destroyin' my computer and bookin' it.

[On the bright side since this is a recruitment method Samaritan probably isn't trying to kill Dirk yet.

When he doesn't give these habits up after joining Samaritan, though...]

[parodeity]

[ dave doesn't relax but he slows his frantic texting by a hair. kind of. he's still apparently feeling an intense need to open a dialogue with whoever the light of his life is about...whatever he's worried about. ]

How many people have you clocked followin' you? Before you met up with me.

[ although samaritan doesn't really need human agents to follow people around. dave bites his lip, because the kid probably will not agree to go dark, and there isn't a real need for it now if the thing isn't killing him, but still - ]

What all do you have connected to shit right now?

[splinten]

[He made the guy panic. The guy knows what this is. It's freaking him out and he won't tell Dirk.]

Not sure. Seein' you threw me off. [He'd noticed the other guys then got confused by Dave and then there were guys again.]

I always keep everything bricked until I need it.

[That... is a weird attitude for a fifteen year old to take? Look, it doesn't take knowing about Samaritan to be incredibly conscious of a society where information is constantly recorded and repackaged for use by others. And Dirk likes his privacy.]

[parodeity]

Okay. If you need it, can you use my phone instead for a bit?

[ he halfway considered saying "can you use a network if i give you the information" but that wouldn't be just putting dave himself in danger, which is negligible as a concern. he cannot give up their secure network information without placing everyone he loves in danger.

he can try to minimize the kid's use of non-secure networks for as long as possible, though. he already deletes every conversation and call he has as a matter of habit. ]

[splinten]

[Something is going on here. Something is going on here and Dirk doesn't know what.]

I won't need it.

[Not a yes but hey it's not a no, either.]

[parodeity]

Just if you do. Please?

[ he opens his mouth a second time to ask if they can try to avoid security cameras, figures that sounds shady enough to set the kid off again, and closes his mouth instead. sometimes dave learns. or at least he knows he's saying the wrong things, because honestly the kids he gets best were the ones like him: the ones raised by people who hurt them, not people who actually gave a fuck. ]

[splinten]

Maybe.

[it's the one universe where 'please' won't work on Dirk! amazing.

(for now)]

We have to walk from here.

[So Dirk will stand because walking is important.]

[parodeity]

Where's the destination? Sunny said somethin' about gps coordinates but I didn't have a chance to look 'em up.

[ walking is fine. dave shifts back into casual mode, although he's scanning the area with affected disinterest that covers legitimate concern and a need to figure out who he has to worry about before the kid gets killed before...ultimately getting killed or taken. shit. he has to figure this out somehow, and yet.

dirk if you take him to a bar he'll just. sigh. ]

[splinten]

We're here. If you wanna dodge the cameras, don't follow me.

[Because next stop is in fact the three-pronged arch, which means Dirk is on top of an archway and is about to walk straight into the middle of the road to check out the Nautilus sign.]