Paradox Space Won't Stop Him

CHAPTER FOUR

You drift off to the soft hums of the TV, shades poking downwards against your freckle-filled cheek, and you think you sleep more comfortably than you'd like to admit that afternoon.

==> Dave Strider: stop reminiscing.

Why? What's so wrong about thinking back on how you just hung out with alternate, younger you and bromanced it out a little bit? It was the first time you'd actually chilled out since you'd gotten there, anyway; Jesus. No one's capable of actually, full-on reading your mind anyway, from what you've learned about the rest of the people around here. Or more specifically, what your Rose has learned by doing her little psychologist gig on everyone without rising any suspicion. She even got the handle of Little Rose, although you think she probably realized she was getting analyzed right as it ended and it did leave her with a slightly sour face from what you could tell. It was kinda funny honestly. Little Rose has a long ways to go, my dudes. Even though she's literally already in her early twenties.

Will Dave actually have a growth spurt if he ascended when he was only a teenager? Or is he going to be shorter than you forever? Are you going to grow once you get impaled on some quest bed that's supposedly yours? You have no fucking idea.

It honestly doesn't matter right now. Right now, you need to get to the communal kitchen and whip up some shit to eat, because you haven't done so already. Obviously. You can feel your own stomach eating itself up. You sigh softly as you feel the squeaky soles of your feet against the marble of the room once you walk in; here you go. It's Dealing With People Time. You're an adult, you should honestly be used to this already.

The smell of slightly burned toast, and the sound of some sizzling eggs (and hopefully bacon) are the first things you're aware of. Then, comes the fact that there's a soft light coming out of the opened windows while the literal artificial light is switched on in this big ass eating/chilling area. It really is just one big building in the middle of your settlement, separated into two different rooms; one's the kitchen, and one the public chilling area from the looks of it. You're currently walking around looking for some stuff to make pancakes. You really, REALLY miss some good fucking pancakes. You ended up squatting to look properly into one of the drawers and weren't too surprised once you almost tripped on your own laces and almost ate some concrete, and upon just falling on your ass with a little baby bag of flour splotched all over your plain, white T-shirt, you get up and casually dust (flour?) yourself off with the blankest face you could've ever, ever managed. And then you're being laughed at.

You turn around, looking at one of the occupied tables and see the man in the flesh, Dirk Strider, slightly snickering at that obviously sick stunt you just pulled. Oh. Who are you kidding? That was literally so fucking embarrassing. You make sure not to give away the fact that you knew it was embarrassing, though. You had a Reputation to Uphold.

However, you don't hear him when he suddenly stands beside you, and you didn't exactly hesitate a little bit to almost bonk him in the face with your katana, although you guess that also caught him off-guard, because, next thing you know he's pointing HIS katana at you. Looks like yours, though. So it probably was yours. You see yourself leaving it for Dirk if you knew you were going to get fucking slaughtered. Just as quickly as you pulled it out of your ass, you put it back in your sylladex, and he did the same.

Having nothing to do with your hands, you began dusting off the remains of the flour and take a moment to look at him; at Dirk. He's much taller than Dave, you note, and he has many more freckles, he's much more tanned. Wearing a pair of baggy, black pants and a white T-shirt. Wow, you've almost got matching outfits! You could totally go to prom like this now. You should stop getting so off-track when you're talking to yourself in your own head.