[ Ghosts should already be permadead!! There's no use explaining, though, because Natsuo's sure he won't be able to understand one way or another anyways. ]
Well. Okay. Tell me what sorta "dead" things I don't have to worry about. You still gotta eat and sleep and shit? If I punch you, does it hurt?
Okay, it like. Definitely hurts? It's just. [ he tips his shades down. instead of red eyes, his eyes are spooky pure homestuck dead white? ] ...Aesthetic, I guess, but also "haha the timeline ain't yours now".
Yeah, just. Most of my friends are maybe also dead, and the ones that aren't will fix things and some other alive Dave will take over. [ he waves a hand. ] Anyway, that isn't important. What's important is gettin' you out of here in one piece, which means I need to be in one piece. And also maybe that we'll eventually need allies, so like. I guess look around and lemme know if there's anyone who catches your eye?
[ letting natsuo pick those clearly can never go wrong ]
While we also try to avoid the whole bodycount thing includin' us.
[ Some of Natsuo's favorite people so far are Eichi and Akechi, please let Dave have better taste in allies ]
You can't rely on "some other alive Dave" to fix things- what does that even mean? There's you! You're still here and you can do stuff! You'll survive and you'll get out and you can go back and fix things!
[ none of this "let some other guy do all the work"? no ]
[ AH, A NAIVE IDEALIST it's like being linked to john or jade.
accordingly, dave just nods. ]
Okay. Just...be careful. We don't know who else we can trust, and it'd suck to tell shit to the wrong person and inspire them to pull bullshit. [ how is dave the cautious one here.
Mm... I'm not too good at telling who we can trust, but if somebody's not behaving, just let me know and I'll set them straight!
[ Naive... but straightforward, which is unfortunately Natsuo's way of doing things: believe in everybody from the start, get betrayed forwards and backwards, then make a judgement call. Too bad betrayal here ends in death.
Anyways, hope Dave learned from the previous fistpunch bc here comes another ]
[ CAN'T BELIEVE DAVE IS THE ONE WHO HAS TO APPLY CAUTIOUS PARANOIA TO TRUST only i can
also he. kinda learned. he casually shakes his hand out... ]
I'm okay at judgin' characters. So...I'll be paranoid about shit and you just keep up the optimism. And if we find any locked doors we can open 'em, and I'll experiment with my bullshit and maybe by the weekend I'll know what all I can do. No lies to one another, careful about other people, and we'll make our way downtown, walkin' fast - okay, wrong mood, but you get what I mean.
[ Like "friends," that makes him ridiculously happy- friends are people who get along, but partners are people who trust each other and work well together and build off each other's strengths, and he's 1000% sure that's what they'll be. ]
So, ballroom tonight, and then every night, we can talk about anything interesting that happened before bed!
[ FOR THE RECORD they can have a thursday night convo they will have shit to discuss but dave would have said wednesday "my lying skills are hilarious". ]
And we'll keep an eye out for locked doors you can work your mojo on. Just be sure to keep it on the downlow you can do that, since there may be doors people won't want us snoopin' around through.
[ Lying skills sounds like such an OP wish-granter skill, please leave deets. Natsuo has zero deets bc he does nothing important aside from networking, but he did bring back a pot full of tapestry ink. Just in case they ever need it, ig. ]
Mmhmm. All the important doors are already thereβ the kitchen, the dining hall, the... [ No, that's it. Just the food places. ] So it's probably okay if we just keep this to ourselves until we know the doors go somewhere safe.
[ THEY TOTALLY WILL NEED IT also dave may or may not have had something to do with redecorating that dorm.
...because that was a good use of his talents. ]
Yep. And even after that we can just...kinda unlock the door and just leave it unlocked and wow how did that happen? No need to drag you into it namewise.
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[ SO
look he said he wouldn't lie to natsuo. ]
But yeah, I don't plan to let anyone get Caledfwlch. I'll have to hook myself up with some kinda scabbard though...
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What d'you mean you're not alive? Were you talking with that one guy out there telling people they're all dead?! He's full of it! Don't listen to him!
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but no ok. dave just kind of shrugs. ]
No, I like, got stabbed. It was a whole thing. My home is a little weird about death, honestly. I know I'm dead, I don't think most of y'all are.
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[ How does it work? He doesn't want to find out, tbh ]
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Well. Okay. Tell me what sorta "dead" things I don't have to worry about. You still gotta eat and sleep and shit? If I punch you, does it hurt?
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Timeline's like... what those women were sayin' about stories, right? It's still your story! It's still your timeline!
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[ letting natsuo pick those clearly can never go wrong ]
While we also try to avoid the whole bodycount thing includin' us.
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You can't rely on "some other alive Dave" to fix things- what does that even mean? There's you! You're still here and you can do stuff! You'll survive and you'll get out and you can go back and fix things!
[ none of this "let some other guy do all the work"? no ]
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also maybe now isn't the time to explain homestuck. :|a ]
Well. Either way, we're both determined to get out of this, yeah?
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He doesn't like the sound of Dave just dismissing all of that, but he's right- the end result's what matters. ]
I'm determined to get everybody out of this. I promised Akechi I'd protect everybody.
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accordingly, dave just nods. ]
Okay. Just...be careful. We don't know who else we can trust, and it'd suck to tell shit to the wrong person and inspire them to pull bullshit. [ how is dave the cautious one here.
he holds out his fist for a fistbump though? ]
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Mm... I'm not too good at telling who we can trust, but if somebody's not behaving, just let me know and I'll set them straight!
[ Naive... but straightforward, which is unfortunately Natsuo's way of doing things: believe in everybody from the start, get betrayed forwards and backwards, then make a judgement call. Too bad betrayal here ends in death.
Anyways, hope Dave learned from the previous fistpunch bc here comes another ]
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also he. kinda learned. he casually shakes his hand out... ]
I'm okay at judgin' characters. So...I'll be paranoid about shit and you just keep up the optimism. And if we find any locked doors we can open 'em, and I'll experiment with my bullshit and maybe by the weekend I'll know what all I can do. No lies to one another, careful about other people, and we'll make our way downtown, walkin' fast - okay, wrong mood, but you get what I mean.
Partners, yeah?
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[ Like "friends," that makes him ridiculously happy- friends are people who get along, but partners are people who trust each other and work well together and build off each other's strengths, and he's 1000% sure that's what they'll be. ]
So, ballroom tonight, and then every night, we can talk about anything interesting that happened before bed!
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[ FOR THE RECORD they can have a thursday night convo they will have shit to discuss but dave would have said wednesday "my lying skills are hilarious". ]
And we'll keep an eye out for locked doors you can work your mojo on. Just be sure to keep it on the downlow you can do that, since there may be doors people won't want us snoopin' around through.
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Mmhmm. All the important doors are already thereβ the kitchen, the dining hall, the... [ No, that's it. Just the food places. ] So it's probably okay if we just keep this to ourselves until we know the doors go somewhere safe.
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...because that was a good use of his talents. ]
Yep. And even after that we can just...kinda unlock the door and just leave it unlocked and wow how did that happen? No need to drag you into it namewise.
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That's a good plan! We'll be like... like... shadow avengers!
[ unseen warriors of justice!! ]
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[ THIS IS THE WORST TEAM UP but maybe they will accomplish
idk
shenanigans lbr ]
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[ fistpunches
THEY'LL ACCOMPLISH..... SOMETHING........ ]
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Honestly? Same. [ THEY CAN KEEP DOING IT ANYWAY! ] We should have a brief nap before we get a move on for the whole ballroom thing.
[ breaking and entering...AS A TEAM ]
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Aah, I'm too excited to sleep, but you're right. We'll be up all night for it.
[ Which we could play out or handwave? since it's an empty ballroom but also Lucy isn't it like 4AM for you... ]
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Yep. And we want to seem awake to everyone else tomorrow mornin', too.
[ so power nap it is... ]
You cool with sharin' a bed?
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I don't think I kick a lot, so it should be okay? [ Because that's the concern here: Dave's spine. ]