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

[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.

[splinterself]

I'll keep it in mind, English.

[Yeah, no.]

Really, so...any word or is there a list? [Would they have fun with synonyms, antonyms, and the thesaurus?]

[hoperaider]

There's a list of words to choose from in our Relics. It's honestly a cinch to understand. Each combination brings up a different type of dungeon, and we can view the stats on them by looking at the Relic's screen.

[Going up the stairs and opening the door, holding it out for Dirk since he's a gentleman and shit.]

[splinterself]

[He pauses, but this is Jake's thing, so...sure, he'll be a good friend and go through first. If it makes him happy.]

Nice. Wouldn't want to imagine what things would be like if we had to formulate our own word combinations. [Probably would have more boners.

...

Seems easy enough.]

[hoperaider]

[Dick Dick Dick are the area words and it's a level 50 dungeon with a huge fucking boss at the end.]

That would certainly put a seemingly limitless variety of combinations to choose from, so I think I'm glad that there's a finite pool of words to choose from.

[It'd take forever to explore all those dungeons! Anyway, he walks up to the...floating disk of what looks like a very small Star Gate and takes out his Relic. Jake motions for Dirk to get over here so he can show him how to do this.]

So, this is how you pull it up and everything.... [And he explains how to do it because the narration is too lazy for that bullshit.] ...And that's about the short of it! Is there a particular dungeon type you wanted to run off to?

[splinterself]

[He obliges and I'm going to use the personal space icon just because I can. There.]

Something that doesn't involve water. [There's the slightest of smirks.] I'm pretty sure I've seen more than enough of oceans to last me for a while. [Thankfully he's not hydrophobic.]

[hoperaider]

Fair enough! [He grins and goes through the different fields...and only one type of dungeon doesn't have any sort of water with it. It looks like a Japanese dojo combined with steampunk, which fits given the theme. It's also a level 1 dungeon, which is good.]

This look alright to you?

[splinterself]

Yeah. It looks fine. Nice place to get a feel for the game and see if you learned anything from brobot. All those years of jungle predation has to have done something, right? [That was still one of his best moments ever, FYI.]

Anything else we need to do before we head out?

[hoperaider]

[He's not even going to dignify that question with a response.]

Well, I would suggest getting healing items, but we're sadly lacking in funds for that. With any luck, there might be some lying around in the dungeon for us to have on hand. We can head out right now if you think you're ready?

[splinterself]

Hell yes. [...ok, dampening the enthusiasm, bringing it to a cooler level again...there.] As ready as I'll ever be. Sure you'll be fine without your usual guns, though? That gun you've got looks more like Rox's thing. [Probably he is, but best make sure before there's a TKO.]

[hoperaider]

[Haha, Jake saw that! He waves his hand.]

My grandmother gave me lessons on general handling of firearms, so I'll be fine with the bayonet. It looks like it operates similarly to a shotgun in terms of aiming, and I haven't seen anything regarding ammo, so I assume that there won't be a problem with reloading. I just prefer using pistols.

[Okay, yes, guns being established as cool no matter what out of the way, Jake is going to enter the words! It's actually a really weird feeling being transported from the Root Town to the Area. Jake can't help taking a look around the hall they are in, admiring the architecture a bit.]

[splinterself]

[And he follows, and...fine, the hall is pretty cool, he'll gawk a little too.

It feels a bit strange being somewhere without the ever present Lil Cal, his best friend and the puppet who had gotten him out of a number of dangerous situations. All he had was a sword, and he could kick ass with it, but still. It see-...looked like puppetkind and fncysntakind wouldn't be getting any use today.

...Jake really had a point about that. Dirk couldn't even have 'it seems' or variations thereof in his action tags without feeling vaguely annoyed. (And holy shit he's on a fucking adventure with Jake. Holy shit. Holy. Shit.)]

This place definitely beats Derse. [Taps a wall with the tip of his sword. It's a wall. Seems wally.] You know, I still can't believe you trusted me the first time when I told you my story. [And yes, he's ready for STRIFE and all that.]

[hoperaider]

[He's not too worried about being attacked in the halls, since from what he's been told the monsters are usually in groups in the rooms. Aside from that, he and Dirk are quick to improvise on short notice.

Jake turns to look at him, blinking.]

Why shouldn't I have? You have never given me reason to doubt you, despite your trollish tendencies and constant trials of patience. Aside from which, I could tell you were being serious, believe it or not! It would be pretty idiotic, foolish, and downright bigoted of me to call myself any sort of friend if I couldn't recognize that.