It...seemed like a good idea at the time.

[splinterself]

[So after getting the "Where is this, who are you, what is going on?" out of his system, Dirk Strider was purposefully and boldly exploring Mac Anu and was...kind of bemused by the fact that the city wasn't done up in purple and black.

...just saying.

He had ended up at the harbor and there he paused in his wan- purposeful exploring, as...you know what's incredibly distracting? Actually only having one self (at least for the time being) that he was aware of. Also the clothes. Also the fact that he still had no idea what the hell was going on, and, more importantly, what was happening with Roxy.

There was a certain irony in him spacing out just as badly as he did when he had multiple selves to juggle, one which was lost on the guy as he was spacing out, brooding.]

...

[Yeah, this was getting him nowhere. (And shit, the lack of purple really was throwing him off.) That was when he shook his head slightly, turned to the nearest person, and said:]

Hey.

[So verbose.]

Comments

Or rubber nipped, though if that's your thing I'm not going to judge you.

[splinterself]

[Jake, please. Patience. We have to draw this out for ten more months while the voyeurs speculate on if we'll do it or not.]

Educated guesses. [Really.] So how accurate was I? Please tell me it was closer than the responder.

no thank you

[hoperaider]

[DIRK.]

Surprisingly accurate. If he hadn't specifically told me I was dealing with a conjured version of you, I would've thought I was talking to the genuine article. To be fair, I'm not sure if this is a good thing or not. It seems a little...creepy.

Probably for the best, again, I'm not sure what sort of fashion statement that would make.

[splinterself]

[Place your bets, ladies and gentlemen, will these two fine young strapping specimens of manhood as depicted in my icon hook up, will Jake finally express himself with pelvic thrusts his shout poles and with a gun cocked and ready to fire a load of hot lead, or will it be the Land of Belts and Chastity over here?]

Man, just... [Shakes his head. It's odd, flattering, and very distracting.] Let's head somewhere else.

An awful one most like.

[hoperaider]

[It's all up in the air.]

Sure! Where would you like to go? I mean, we could stay in Mac Anu or we could go to a dungeon? Although, the dungeon does require us to form a party, since I don't fancy our chances of going at it alone at this level.

[Granted Jake's pretty sure they don't have anything to heal themselves with, but...uh...it'll be a character building experience?]

Likely so.

[splinterself]

[And he thinks about it for a moment.]

Maybe a dungeon, it's kinda [Weird.] getting old just hanging around Mac Anu. You know anyone else here yet? [All he's got is Jake and some random pirate.]

[hoperaider]

I was greeted by a few people, though I don't know where they've meandered off to. I haven't been able to find Jane or Roxy here, either.

[splinterself]

...yeah. Shit. I really wonder what they're up to. I thought I was alone here, but I guess I was wrong about that. [And really glad, though he'd never express it in such blatant terms.] Maybe they'll turn up too. [Hope's not his thing.]

/assuming Jake already knows about the Relic shit at this point woo

[hoperaider]

I'm certainly happy to see a familiar face around here. [Which also means that Dirk will be dragged around to various Areas whenever Jake sees him.] They most likely will, seeing as how this place appears to draw in people from various worlds.

[He smacks his forehead.]

Shit, I forgot we have to add each other on these Relic things! Better now than later, I suppose. [Jake takes the Relic strapped to his belt to show Dirk.] From what I've been told, we just hold them at a certain distance for a few seconds, and it'll add us to the friends list. It's apparently the only way to invite people into a party.

Works with me.

[splinterself]

Oh, right. [Pulls out his own.] I was checking mine out earlier but didn't really have time to look them over.

[Wait. Who the fuck is Far- oh.]

[hoperaider]

[Waiting...and...yay there's Dirk! Jake sends him a party invite almost immediately.]

They're pretty handy from what I've seen so far! Has anyone showed you the Chaos Gate yet?

[splinterself]

Not yet. I take it you're going to fix that? [This is FUCKING AWE- ...alright. It's ok. Cool, even. Adventuring with his best bro in the flesh.]

[hoperaider]

Of course! It's the only way to get anywhere outside of Mac Anu, after all. Come on, I'll even show you how to pick out the key words!

[And Jake is going to grab Dirk's wrist and fucking drag him all the way up to the Chaos Gate because how do those warps even work.]

[splinterself]

[There's no icons available which would describe Dirk's feelings at the moment, so instead enjoy a picture of a random feral rooster chilling at the side of a bike path, confused at the two wheeled devices and men and women in spandex and unfortunate shorts, and yet minding its own damn business.]

What the hell, English. [Note: he's going along with the dragging.]

omfg

[hoperaider]

[Somehow this is highly appropriate for Dirk.]

What? [What is personal space.]

Yup.

[splinterself]

[Also, all of the above? Canon.]

Dude, how far is it? [Goes along with the dragging still.]

[hoperaider]

On the other end of the city! [Jake is entirely too cheerful when he says this.]

[splinterself]

[And he just looks at Jake.] Ok. So... [He wants to ask if Jake had any thoughts on what they're going to do longterm or if they were really going to run across the city or speculate on the Batterwitch's next move. And yet...nah.] Man.

[hoperaider]

[Still keeping up a lively jog instead of a headlong sprint. They're luckily almost there anyway.]

Is something the matter? I haven't known you to have a lack of words to say. Or to not finish a thought, for that matter.

start;

[splinterself]

[There's a lot of things which come to mind for a reply. A veritable cornucopia of responses spilling forth like it's Thanksgiving and there's pie for everyone.]

[splinterself]

[For example, "How the hell are we going to get back and make sure everything's ok? We can't just pussyfoot around forever here while the Batterwitch has her way." Even if it would probably be a good time, and Striders never had problems with partying...well, at least when there's nothing else to do.]

[splinterself]

[Or possibly, "Just wondering if I still have an apartment, that's all."

Not that it mattered too much, but shit, was he supposed to leave the responder to sink sadly into the brine while he ran off with English into the sunset? That was just sick, man. Dirk owed it to his responder - a cognitive, fully aware entity that was a clone of his own brain - to keep him from doing his best impression of the Titanic.

And hell, what about Sawtooth? What was the poor little guy supposed to do without someone there to duel him? Exactly.]

[splinterself]

[There was even perhaps addressing the fact he had no idea what the hell his dreamself was doing right now and that worried Dirk more than he wanted to let on to anyone.

So no, this one wouldn't be a conversational topic.]

[splinterself]

[And for the record, any other talk about feelings was out.]

finish;

[splinterself]

[And that left the entire issue of personal space, but god damn Jake was happy and he couldn't bring himself to rain on that parade for a number of reasons, but that pie? It's gone.]

It's nothing. Just got a lot on my mind, that's all. Don't worry about it.

[hoperaider]

[Frown.]

Well...if you want to, I dunno, prattle on about it, I'm always willing to lend an ear. All you have to do is ask.

[Jake will let the matter drop, though. It's a fair assumption that Dirk doesn't want to talk about the issue(s) right now.

Well, now they're at the stairs leading to the entrance of the building keeping the Chaos Gate, at least. He let's go of Dirk's wrist.]

It's just up these stairs! Interestingly enough, we use a combination of three categories of words to get appearified into the dungeon. Mostly it's a three word phrase, but sometimes there's more than one word in a given category.