so age shenanigans "lucy what do you use your musebox for" nonsense threads and holiday cards

[parodeity]

[ one day dave strider wakes up and the tower isn't familiar or comfortable. it's place he's never been with weird trappings of familiarity. there are things that are clearly his or that he...thinks are his? turntables unfamiliar to him in specific except they're his exact set up. clothes in the closet a little too big for his frame, but the pajamas he'd been wearing are just black pants an a loose t-shirt so those are fine. there's stickers on the top of the bunk bed frame, the bed he woke up in, and some are sbahj. there are pictures pinned places he's mostly ignoring because they're too odd, and it's...

not his bedroom. it's not his apartment. after looking out a window, dave's pretty sure it's maybe not his planet.

which, okay. sburb has only just become a thing and already dave is pretty sure bullshit is par for the course. but a little more warning would have been nice? or any warning at all. the workbench in the room he woke up in is weird and a little unsettling and so dave goes...down the stairs because he hears stuff down there and smells.

food?

that is a weird thing to smell in the morning. what the fuck. he'll kind of peer around the corner with as much caution as he can muster, figuring he doesn't see his own corpse so either this doesn't go sideways at all or it just hasn't yet and - ]

Bro. [ deadpan neutral surprise, because, yeah. that's...no, he's younger, but still. hm. reluctantly, dave stops peering around the corner and drifts further into the room, regarding the kitchen being used as a kitchen with well but not perfectly hidden dismay and concern. ]

Comments

[parodeity]

[ that sounds nice and all but follow up more important question: ]

We go on roadtrips?

[ like. together? that dirk wants to be on???????? with dave? dave sounds utterly lost at this aside, although most of that made him feel pretty lost. this one is just...ridiculous, though. ]

But you don't even like - he doesn't even like - [ a vague aborted hand gesture meant to gather up all the trips to the store where dave was pretty much left in a boring unlit room on a cold concrete floor, what the fuck ]

[splinten]

[Yeah he should have realized that would be mindblowing. Here's another one to bowl Dave over.]

Yes. I like spending time with you. You're pretty great and I like your company.

[parodeity]

So...you'd want to go nosehair trimmer shopping???

[ w...why the fuck is that what came out of his mouth. dave gets the singular why the fuck did i say that expression he gets at least 30 times a day, his brow furrowing as he closes his mouth and contemplates death ]

[splinten]

[....]

I... don't think I need a nosehair trimmer, but if you wanted to, sure?

Are my nosehairs weirdly long?

[dave does he need to trim his nosehairs and you just never told him because future you waS TOO SHY OR SOMETHING???]

[parodeity]

And you'd like take me with you?

[ not answering the nosehair thing oops ]

[splinten]

So you do think my norsehairs are weirdly long. Okay, yeah, I'd like us to go together, despite apparently this unwillingness to tell a bro when his nosehairs need trimming. That has to count as some kind of brotrayal, right?

[parodeity]

What, no, I don't know why anyone would need to trim their nosehairs - well maybe if they were heinous, but that wasn't the point.

[ WHY'D HE BRING IT UP, THEN ]

[splinten]

Then why did you. [He has no words. He gestures at his nose?]

[parodeity]

I dunno, that's what you get on shoppin' trips, I guess???? If you like, aren't in the hyperbolic playtime chamber.

[splinten]

The what.

[parodeity]

At the store. Have you ever seen an ad for Brahjstop? Nevermind they're probably just local. But like, the place where you leave kids? With the ballpits?

[ that doesn't sound so bad so far. ]

[splinten]

That sounds nice? You're, like, thirteen though. My research said those places were for younger kids.

[parodeity]

Yeah, they are. But also there are never any other kids? And also there aren't any balls. It's just like the depression where the balls are supposed to go but they like never put them in or maybe they took them all out after some epic debacle with the ballpit before my time? S'not well lit like at all. Really echo-y. Supposed to build character?

[ that sounds worse ]

By like hour five you start to get pretty philosophical.

[splinten]

[...]

You mean it's like solitary confinement in 21st century American prisons.

[parodeity]

I guess? I thought of it more like a DBZ trainin' chamber.

[ because.....................that made it less absolutely mind-numbing and lonely, and also he is an idiot. ]

But you'd want to go together.

[ no chamber. confirm, y/n? ]

[splinten]

I don't want to go to the kind of room that contravenes international human rights conventions, although if you were going to one I'd insist on going with you. I do, however, want to go shopping with you, yeah.

[parodeity]

You wouldn't drop me off in one, I mean. [ dirk is Older obviously that is a decision he could make? also, he's bro.

or...not bro.

this is getting confusing to dave. ]

Idk that it breaks any international human rights conventions though??

[splinten]

I wouldn't. [So they can clear that up

that said]

Solitary confinement is considered a form of torture under international law.

[parodeity]

I dunno if I'd call it torture? [ he obviously would also not call his training abuse, though, so. ymmv. ] But that could be cool. Not torture, a shoppin' trip where I'd get to see, like, the actual store.

[splinten]

Yeah, I'd definitely be down. No actual stores here, but when we get somewhere with them? First stop, Strider Bros Shopathon.

Was closing out tabs and noticed I never hit send oops

[parodeity]

That'd be cool. [ and that's how dave tries to play it. like he's totally cool and it's no big deal and he isn't thrumming with repressed nerves at the idea. and it's just an idea. it might never happen. he shouldn't get his hopes up or get too into the idea of a life that belongs to some other future dave. but it's both terrifying and weirdly nice to hear someone who looks so much like bro express a desire to spend actual time in his company. repeatedly. ] So is all this stuff alchemized, then?

[splinten]

[There's a flicker of—wait for it—a smile.] Yeah, it would be cool.

Stuff, though, we mostly build. URSULA has some things for processing and we do some 3D printing. Some of it is salvaged from shipwrecks.

[parodeity]

] yeah that's still enough for him to completely fumble the game again because what the fuck is his brother emoting at all??? especially a smile? holy shit he made bro smile and the guy just acts so casual about it, like they do this everyday. do they do this everyday? ]

Like how they do organs 3D printing?

[splinten]

[Sorry Dave. Dirk notices, and then wonders if maybe it'd be better if he didn't say he noticed. Dave seems overwhelmed already.]

Essentially. As long as we can get the materials, she can build most things.

[parodeity]

You're really smiley.

] he...meant to say something about organs, and yet ]