oculusriffs | ic contact for reverienet

oh my christ no
im not embracing any bungs

[yeah. completely absurd.]

[he is still curious about what happened, and he still wants to ask. at the same time, joking around instead of admitting you have a problem or are in a mood is pretty standard Strider protocol, so it's all too easy to roll along with it.]

[but that last series of rambling texts sort of gnaw at him, too, because of how relateable he finds them. he knows what it's like to be alone in an entire city of people. hell, he never really even understood what it was like to be around people who actually cared about him until their Sburb session started.]

[he's not exactly quick to trust people here, Ryuji and Terezi, and ... well, maybe even Dirk, aside, but he is at least aware that there are people who care about him. and he'd really rather not lose that the way he lost it back home.]

[because he finds the idea of being alone again terrifying, too.]

something like a buddy system wouldnt be a bad idea
if we ever decide to send out an expedition at least
that way when you stake a claim on ryussia youd at least have a witness
someone to sign and notarize the paperwork you know

I can't believe you're talkin' about turning this into a bureaucratic thing. Freedom to do whatever the hell you wanna do and I have to sign a title or something?

Ughhhhh

Pass.

[He can't even begin to comprehend that there are some people out there, probably even some people on this station, who would jump at the opportunity to go on their own. Embrace the maddening quiet that probably exists down there.

But before even going down planetside, there are so many things they still have to figure out on the station. Ships to get there. Supplies. Rations. It's almost a hypothetical at this point to be worried over, but Ryuji can still speak to it like it's anywhere from a minute to a year away.

He puts his arm down for a spell, staring up at the ceiling just above his top bunk. Thinking about Dave, about his friends from home, about everything else that's gone on since coming here, he eventually just says what's on his mind.]

Yeah, a buddy system is probably a good plan.

If it ever does come up, promise me you'll take me with you. Or vice versa. Okay?

I know it sounds kinda dumb to say

But I don't know if being alone is what I'm actually afraid of... or just bein left behind

[now he can't help but wonder if this is also at least part of what's been bothering Ryuji. is it the footage of that one kid simply melting into nothing that was posted on the network earlier? Dave saw it. he didn't comment on it, because it's easier not to worry about it. he doesn't really want to bring it up, either.]

[worrying about his friends is all too easy, though. and whatever thoughts he has about himself or his given title, Dave is still intensely protective over the people he cares about. that's what a knight does, that's their natural instinct — both the storybook and the Sburb varieties.]

of course dude
im not gonna leave you behind
cant imagine anybody who would

[an affectionate thought said plain as day, for once.]

couldnt begin to guess what kinda stuffs down there
but id bet if theres any kind of threat it can be zapped
or maybe joked to death i dunno
but youd fit right in with any expedition either way

[He didn't know where that Jedi kid was, either- he had never been invited to his room before, so Ryuji did the only thing he could think of. Go from door to door to door and see if Ezra's name was still there. And when it wasn't, he knew that he had vanished, and that... was that, pretty much. It left a lot of questions, too- like did he get to go back home? Or... did he get sent to another reality, another station, maybe where there was another Ryuji, or not another Ryuji, or maybe even nothing there? It's a pretty fucked up thing to worry about.

Coupling that with the recent development of how to deal with his serial killer acquaintance from back home after he told Hajime he was, in fact, a serial killer... it was just a pretty crummy situation all around. Ryuji thought he could keep himself a little better together, but it left him with tiny cracks; worries that people would exit his life, and then the ones that were already there would end up wishing he would exit theirs.]

Hearin that is as good as eatin' a bowl of ramen, man

So, uh. Thanks! Sorry if I'm bein' a dumbass about this sorta stuff.

It's pretty easy to talk to other people about what's going on but when it comes to stuff about me, I dunno, I just sorta turtle up. Nothing against turtles of course, cause they're awesome. But yeah. Making other people heavy on account of me just feels kinda wrong, I guess.

[He wants to apologize again, too, but he already said it once.]

Man, you shoulda seen my lightning magic when I could use it forreal! Something's blocking my power. The best I can do lately is just a helluva lot of static friction and cool pikachu shit. But I guess it's good for makin' hair stand on ends?

if youre worried about being a burden or inconveniencing me then dont
its fine
i mean
i was pretty much literally leaning on you for a whole fifteen minutes
so its fine

[a bit blunt, and sincere. so, that's winding up to be the influence Ryuji has on him. Dave doesn't mind helping in his own weird ways if Ryuji needs it, though ... he'll just be pretty bad at admitting when he himself needs it.]

[anyway, this paragraph is here to point out that Ryuji used the word forreal. it's not the first time he has, but it is the first time that i sort of get the context.]

the pikachu thing makes a lot of sense tbh
have you actually tried zapping anything lately

[But it's completely okay that Dave became his backpack for a little while. Ryuji's being hypocritical here, of course, but it's hard to break stupid habits.]

Oh, yeah. I mean. That's okay, I've got back muscles for days anyway.

Note taken, though

I'll just have to inconvenience you a little bit more then

[How far can you make it into this 47 second challenge?]

No way, dude! There's so many electronics around here, I don't wanna mess anything up.

I mean, maybe I could give it a whirl but it'd have to be a controlled environment.

I've pretty much been stickin' to that spell I used on you that time in the bathroom

You know, the strength up one?

[i can't believe how intensely the first 10 seconds of that video continue to haunt me.]

yeah alright thats fine
i can handle it
but anyway
i bet there are enough science nerds on board who can set something like that up for you
like a zapfree zone
if you really wanted to try
just out of curiousity
is there stuff you can do aside from electrifying shit and also hulking people up

[Just think of it as a study into the human condition? It's

For real.]

The thing with my persona is that I really can't share the fact I have one with a lot of people. I'm supposed to be living like that superhero who works for the newspaper

Glasses 'n all

Nerdy as shit

But I can't... I've never been great at hiding shit

Uhhh anyway I can kinda smack really hard. I guess that's underestimating it, or something. It's like god is putting divine power into my hand and I just kinda unleash that in the bitchslappiest way I guess

[im suffering]

i guess that makes sense
even moreso in superhero stories like this one where the supervillains not really obvious
kinda wonderin where that puts me though
does that make me like batmans butler
i dont really know anything about the service industry
or maybe like lois lane

[DAVE.]

uh
mega punching sounds pretty alright
definitely better than dicking your way through a video game with a broken sword

[Oh...

...

that's kinda gay, Dave]

Maybe. How well can you rock a pair of heels?

[RYUJI.]

Anyway, better than swording through a video game with a broken dick.

[and he's just ... naturally going right along with Dave and his Lois Lane blunder.

...

that's kinda gay, Ryuji]

im not wearing that shit
i like being able to walk comfortably thanks
if i ever find a printer im printing out that last text btw
framing it and putting it on the wall in the mess hall
shit sakamoto says

[takes one to know one]

Cool but I'm takin' royalties

I better be super compensated for this shit

I'm practically a modern day Confucius

Edited (sup grammar) 2018-06-25 02:53 (UTC)

well alright
if you want to be philosophical lord of the space toast
since i kinda feel like thats the closest thing weve got to currency here
that titles all yours

I seriously don't think anyone has ever called me philosophical in my entire life, so I dunno how am I'm supposed to take that.

But now that it's out there in the world I'm gonna turn a buncha toast into currency and open up the first international bank up here. At least I'll be bringin' home the bread.

You did this

All you man

you say that like im supposed to have an ounce of regret

Sure thing Lois

[He's smirking so hard right now.

No regrets, huh?]

yeah yeah

[nope, no regrets at all. Dave just thinks he's made himself the butt of a dumb superhero joke of his own design — what he'd actually accidentally implied here, the suggestion that he could be the Lois Lane to Ryuji's Clark Kent, the guy standing by waiting for Superman to sweep him off his feet, will go unnoticed until they're standing in the middle of an even more awkward situation.]

[oblivious to his own words as always.]

anyway
everythings cool over there then

[Unmild mannered loser by day, disaster by night! Is that the right superhero? I honestly have no idea about any of this stuff.]

Yeah

I mean, I don't actually know, but... yeah, we'll see

All I know actually is that talkin' to you made it a lot better

[yeah, that's close enough. Superman's pretty great at solving problems, or at least hanging around until someone who's having a problem is able to pull themselves out of it.]

id be lyin if i said i wasnt curious
cant really bail you out of a jam if i dont know the story
but you seem like you always figure your shit out one way or another
so im gonna go ahead and not worry about it

[so, at least from Dave's perspective, the comparison probably isn't too far off. he doesn't mean that dismissively, either, he's just saying that he's fine with being the comedic relief, if that's what Ryuji needs out of him. that's what he's good at; he always has been.]

[the not worrying about it part is a lie though. he also always internally worries about everything related to his friends.]

[Ryuji's just not cagey enough for this specific brand of bullshit. And that's pretty much the reason why he's dealing with what he's dealing with at the moment.]

Dude I barely scrape by getting out of shit by the skin of my teeth

Who the hell made up that phrase anyway? Skin of your teeth. It doesn't even really make sense

Like... your teeth don't have skin

It's dumb

But I guess... true and all, you did promise to look after me if I end up doin' something stupid

I told Hajime some stuff about one of the people on the station from back home. Someone that we don't really get along with too well on account of some kinda messed up stuff that happened back in Tokyo, but... I dunno. We're tryin' to rehab our relationship with 'em but it's rocky and kinda sucks hard core. And the thing that I talked about is one of those sorta things that's probably gonna screw everything up and honestly I feel kinda horrible about it

Like it's just. It's me, y'know? Sometimes I don't know how to control myself and I get angry about it and I'm just so damn tired of always being the type of person that messes it up for everyone else. It just ain't cool.

[oh. interpersonal issues. this, admittedly, isn't Dave's area of expertise at all — he has no problem calling people out when it's warranted, but trying to advise on relationships standing on very delicate grounds? that's better left to the pros. he'd make a terrible whatever the word was. aus-something. australian. no wait.]

[the concept of quadrants never really sat all that well with him, so he never tried too hard to be properly clubways with anybody, anyway.]

[but for Ryuji's sake, he'll try. so, here goes nothing.]

regardless of whatever layer of skin your teeth have got
you just got done admitting that you scrape by anyway
so once again im basically completely right
dont really think i have any good ideas to give you
but i understand how you feel
ive blurted out plenty of shit that wound up causing problems
if anything youre not alone on that

[I can't believe Dave is Australian.]

Well yeah. You did bring by a first aid kid, remember? So even the scrapes'll be manageable.

I'm gonna just try to lay low I guess. I told Ren about it and the other guys, too. And it's only right to tell the other guy too. Even if it's my eff up, I'm not gonna lie about it or try to cover it up. That's just not really my style. Whatever, I'll take whatever hate's owed to me.

Anyway, so that's what's been buggin' me. I've been kicking myself in the ass about it, but uh

I like talkin' to you, it's kinda got a way of calmin' me down.

[man, he'd take some vegemite to put on the space toast at this point. and also, he's never actually had vegemite, so he has no idea if he'd even like it or not anyway.]

[at some point during this conversation, he'd left his spot where he was watching the planet below and returned to his quarters, sprawled out as comfortably as one can on an uncomfortable space bed. and reading that last text gets something of a smirk out of him.]

alright so
bailing you out of panic jams it is
its cool though
dont really know a lot of people willing to own up to themselves like that
so at least from where im sitting
uncomfortable as this stupid room is
thats gotta count for something

[And you'd think with how close Australia actually is to Japan that some of it would make its way into their markets. But, no. One day Dave will have to learn what natto is, if he doesn't have a clue already. Then he'll know true pain.]

Guess it kinda depends. This station's a new start, right? We don't know how long we're gonna be on it, but it seems like it's gonna be like this for a long time. Whatever the hell was goin' on back home doesn't really matter anymore. It's sad when you think about it like that, but it's also freeing in a way. You can be whoever you wanna be.

Unless you're tryin' to be comfortable in these janky ass beds. That's probably never gonna happen.

[why do you want to see Dave suffer through natto!!]

you really think so

[there's a thought he's been unconsciously afraid to let in. maybe it's because, as shitty as this place is, there's a lot he has to lose by being fazed or zapped or whatever back home. there's a timeline here, and when he visualizes it, he sees that there's a future, an unknown, and he can see himself walking toward it. that's not really a luxury that the dream bubbles afford.]

[it's like one of those things where you know it's too good to be true, because you can see how rotten parts of it have become right there on the tin, and it'd be smart not to get your hopes up about it. he figures pretty much everybody else on board would be better off back home. and if he were the uber-ironic kid trying so hard to be as cool as possible about everything like he was when he was 13, maybe that line of reasoning would make it easier to convince himself not to get close to anybody. but Dave is a lot more sensitive and desperate for affection than that, and he can't help but let people in anyway.]

not the bed thing
i know a battle im never gonna win when i see it
i mean
im thinking i kinda like the idea of shedding my title
knight of time is pretty fuckin stupid anyway
just plain old dave is fine
or dave of guy if you insist on the nomenclature
thats pretty fuckin stupid too i guess
but at least its new
and if anything theres cool people here to start over with

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