So Many Striders - Now With Illustrations!

Ooh, a riddle.

TT: Well, things that can't be bought or stolen are generally those that aren't physical, so I assume some other non-physical "item" would be the payment.

TT: *The humble horse says, thoughtfully, pondering the riddle set before him by the brave and kind sphinx.*

TT: Alternately, it could be something that only has value due to the non-physical meaning attached to it, such as a kiss or a hug, or the giving over of a beloved keepsake.

 

DP: B33 < *a scoff escapes the cunning creature's mouths before they dive pounce the unfortunate equine in a tangle of mane and hooves*

DP: B33 < >B<< you need to PAY ATTENTION to me hal

DP: B33 < i demand tribute

DP: B33 < in the form of a reschedule

DP: B33 < i haven't s33n you in furever. is something the matter? did i do something wrong? did arquius do something wrong? i'll swat him

 

TT: *The poor yet beautiful horse falls before the mighty sphinx, lying beneath their majestic leonine body, and cautiously gives them a nuzzle with his soft nose.*

TT: Neither of you did anything wrong, and no swats are required, except maybe for me. I should have told you approximately forever ago but going outside freaks me out. All those people and all that open space are still too new to me.

TT: It's why I didn't help the three of you move in there, as well. Sorry for that too. You probably could have used another pair of strong legs.

That was humiliating. Not because he believes Davepeta will think less of him for knowing it, but because he's the one who's meant to be able to help other people out, and he worries that they won't ask him for help any more, knowing this about him. It's stupid to feel this way, especially as there's not really much he can do for them anyway that it wouldn't be more convenient for Arquius to do, separated by distance like this, and he knows it's stupid, but frustratingly that doesn't help make it go away.

 

DP: B33 < nope

DP: B33 < too late

DP: B33 < swats have already b33n delivered

DP: B33 < cannot be tamed

DP: B33 < im sure he did something to deserve it

DP: B33 < i will not swat you though as that is a perfectly legit reason to not be able to hang out in the pawcific way we planned

DP: B33 < lets just stream a movie in a group chat

DP: B33 < as for moving we had an army of people all in possession of legs. i think you might be forgetting how jarringly large our group has become. davesprite is still recovering even though he spent most of the time wrapped around john

DP: B33 < theyve gotten... close *wonk*

DP: B33 < i think its because so few of us remember that other blissfully vriska free timeline

DP: B33 < B<< two whole defunct timelines that davesprite has to remember dead friends from

DP: B33 < thats as many as two ones

DP: B33 < and thats terrible

 

TT: Alas, poor Arquius. He was too young to end in such a way as this. I was about to go the whole "swat me I demand it" route but I feel that would be making a mockery of his memory.

TT: Streaming a movie together sounds like it would work much better. No going outside, just comforting technology and the sound of my siblings' voices.

TT: I'm glad Davesprite and John are... close *wonk*. Dude needs someone to bring him out of his shell a little more, if you'll excuse both the hypocrisy and the bird/egg pun. Is it still early stages, or should I look into renting a tux to video chat their commitment ceremony?

 

DP: B33 < oh hal

DP: B33 < john is *ahem* Not A Homosexual remember?

DP: B33 < sorry just a sec, my eyes rolled out of my head and down the hall

DP: B33 < look at what john made me do, having to gimp around after my escaped looknubs

DP: B33 < abelism

DP: B33 < anyway

DP: B33 < if davesprite n33ds out of his shell then what do you n33d mr shut-in?

DP: B33 < not that i blame you, i think you were the one with the least purractice being out and about before getting a rockin meat suit

DP: B33 < anything a smol catbird can do to be of assistance? its the least i could do after you worked your ass to the ass bone for us

 

TT: Mr Shut-In needs to work slowly towards going out onto the street and suffering the watchful eye of the public. Maybe practice with google maps' streetview first.

TT: It wasn't any bother to help you out, Davepeta, you're family. And more important than that, you're my friend.

TT: Dirk and I are going to work on a few things that might help me out. I'll keep you posted on how that goes, if you'd like?

Bless communicating via text, it makes undoing "It wasn't any bother to help you out, that's what I'm for." so much easier than talking aloud.

 

DP: B33 < aw hal *curls around the pretty horse, sheltering him with a warm, fluffy wing*

DP: B33 < youre my furiend too

DP: B33 < you k33p me updated on purrojects and ill k33p you updated on things here no matter how boring ARquius is or how furustrating davesprites inability to clue in dorkbert

DP: B33 < we n33d to get you out and about too. i dont have people to embarrassingly and invasive ship you with, youve hardly met anyone!

 

TT: *The horse whinnies, resting his head against his friend's strong body.*

TT: That sounds like a fair deal, I'm up for it. The current plan is to get me a device I can type with easier, first, as that tends to be a thing I have to revert to if I'm stressed.

TT: And I'm not going to lie, dude, I'm a little glad you're not shipping me around yet.

 

DP: B33 < feliiine i promise not to ship you without purrior consent

DP: B33 < but that means you HAVE to tell me if shit starts going down. i am unironically interested in your happiness and well b33ing

DP: B33 < whoops, ugh

DP: B33 < ARquius is bothering me, which means its time for me to go bother davepeta so that we can, ugh, do things

DP: B33 < BTT

 

TT: I will let you know as soon as something definite starts to happen in my romance department, I promise.

TT: Or rather, I purromise.

TT: Have fun with your doing things, dude. Talk to you later.

 

Dirk is very frustrating. This isn't an opinion, it's an objective fact, and Hal is certain of it. He'd forgotten quite how annoying it was when Dirk stubbornly insisted over and over that the only right way to do anything, especially when it comes to an electronics project, is the way that he's decided is best. How annoying is it, I hear you ask? Extremely. It isn't helping that the best external model they could find is a fairly old piece of tech, even more so than everything in this world, set as it is in a time more like that of Jake and Jane's than theirs and Roxy's. There's no D.I.Y. robot kits, and definitely no invading drones to offer up futuristic alien technology once they're defeated. Instead, they're stuck with shitty dumb phone parts that are laughably large for their intended purpose.

Said shitty dumb phone parts are arranged beside their case on the work bench they're both sat in front of, Dirk on his stool and Hal on one borrowed from the kitchen that is just too short to be able to rest his arms comfortably on the bench. They'd decided to both draw up their own proposed blueprint and then combine their ideas for the actual product, and all three blueprints are also on the bench, the combination one covered in crossings out and angry scribbles.

Hal brushes a strand of hair out of his eyes with one hand, and continues to try to tug the tool Dirk's holding out of his hand with the other. "Dude I am telling you, you're going to fuck it up and damage it if you do what you said, and we'll have to order another to get the parts we need again. I would like to actually have this to use within the month, you know?"

 

The project isn't complicated. On the contrary, the design is simple and functional. Well, HIS design is. The combined design is a bit of a mess. The complicated part was working with prefabricated materials that were both delicate and frustratingly out-of-date. To be fare, they were only out of date for what Dirk was used to working with, but perfectly modern in their present context.

Every time he started to lose himself in the rhythm of the project Hal jarred him out of sync. He was making mistakes, losing the flow, and constantly being pulled back from just diving in and making it hapen. It was irritating as fuck.

"If you would let me DO this without second guessing every little thing it would be fine. I won't damage it if you'd just let me concentrate." Hal reaches over to try and remove a tool right from his hand and he grits his teeth. Rude. "LISTEN. The way you want to do it isn't going to work in the long term Hal. If you want this piece of shit to actually last to the end of the month we have to take some risks. Look, I'll order a couple more for spare parts right after this but the goal is to not need them." It's like Hal doesn't remember Dirk putting together Saw and Square, robots that were capable of taking an absurd amount of abuse before needing any sort of repair.

He can feel Hal hovering and maybe Dirk also has a bit of a thing about touching/personal space because it makes him want to punch something. "Back off Hal. Can't you work on the casing or something?"

 

"I'm not second guessing, I'm flat out telling you you're doing it wrong, Dirk. My way is going to work just fine, you just don't like taking the reliable path instead of the risky one." Hal makes a frustrated sound in the back of his throat, grinding his teeth together for a moment. He's trying to stay calm, but god, so much for Dirk fucking wanting his input, huh? Arguing with Dirk like this is making him anxious, which makes him more argumentative, which makes him anxious, etcetera. His knee keeps jumping in a few brief jitters, before he clamps it still again, leg hooked around the leg of the stool. He breaths in through his nose, then huffs the air out again. "I know the goal is to not need spare parts, Dirk, and that's why I'm letting you know that doing it like this is going to end up with us needing them."

He lets go of his hold on the tool in Dirk's hand, slowly so he won't jerk it forward by accident, lifting his hands in a show of giving up. "But hey, if you want more delays because you've broken one of the integral parts, who am I to object? I'm only the guy it's being fucking built for, you know?"

 

Dirk carefully lifts the tool away and tries not to set it down too heavily on the work station. He's stubborn but he's not stupid enough to attempt this while frustrated, then he really will break it.

"You ARE second guessing because I know for a fact that if you'd let me concentrate I'd be more than capable of doing this perfectly fine. You're just shoving yourself in at every teeny micro-step because you want to be involved for its own sake! We BOTH know you couldn't even pull off your flimsier, clunckier design if you tried." Hal has a good grasp on how things are put together but very little experience with physically manipulating small, delicate parts. He doesn't have the practical skill Dirk took years developing. "If you need me to do it for you then let me fucking do it for Christ's sake."

 

Hal scowls, resisting the urge to cross his arms like some petulant child. He rests one on the work bench, the other in his lap, hand smoothing down the fabric of his trousers. His other hand curls into a loose fist. It's incredible that he'd managed to forget just how annoyingly stubborn Dirk could be when they disagreed on something important.

"No, you think that if I let you concentrate you'd be capable of doing it perfectly fine. I'm not- I never said I should be the one to do the fucking physical making of it, obviously I'm not as good at that as you and thanks for the reminder. Yes, Dirk, I need you to do it for me. Does that make you happy? All I'm saying is that I need you to do it using the way that I have told you will actually work, not the one you think will. I mean, the idea was that we'd do this together, or had you forgotten."

 

"If I'm the one doing the physical making of the stupid thing then I'm pretty sure I'm the one most qualified to choose my methods! You're not 'working together' on this with me, you're fucking micro-managing elements you can't understand because you don't have the experience I do. I'm not asking you to tongue bathe my asshole here; I don't need you to admit you can't do it. I just need you to chill on the backseat driving for five fucking minutes while I concentrate." Dirk deliberately breaths out to calm his nerves and turns his shoulder to Hal, blocking him out for the moment. If he can just get this part done they can move on and it'll be fine. He picks up his (HIS, not Hal's) tools again and starts to get back to work.

 

"Well, forgive me for failing to see how you doing everything according just to your own plan while I sit here and watch is the same thing as working on it together." Rubbing a hand over his face, he sighs. "But fine. Whatever." When Dirk fucks up like he's so obviously going to, Hal doesn't want the fact that he was talking to be blamed for the failure, because the only way he can see that going is Dirk ordering one replacement part, banning him from the room, and doing it exactly the same way again. Which would fail, then he'd find some other way to blame Hal, do the same thing again... and it'd be even longer until Hal gets a device he can type on comfortably.

"Just- be careful with it, yeah?"

 

Ah, well, he does have a point there. "Thank you, and yeah of course. It's going to be fine." Dirk's shoulders relax and he stops hunching over the parts like a possessive gargoyle so that Hal can at least follow what's happening. He shuffles the parts around minutely and shifts the tools in his fingers until they sit exactly right. Each component clicks together in his mind and he can see each tiny step it'll take to get there like individual beats in a song. He gives his heart a few breaths to slow down from his quickly fading annoyance; all it takes is a moment and then nothing else exists.

 

Honestly, letting Hal see what he's doing probably wasn't a good idea on Dirk's part. Sure, he'd be twitchy and nervous if he couldn't see how it was going, but now he can see, he's twitchy and nervous and he can see how Dirk's going wrong (at least, wrong according to Hal). He bites his lip, fingers tapping on his thigh. He's being good, he's not setting Dirk off because that has bad results such as Dirk fucking up and blaming him or Dirk deliberately breaking things or people, not that he's still hung up on that or anything he's totally cool, they're cool. But if Dirk just moved his wrist a bit to the left then he could rest it against the bench and not rely so much on not getting a muscle twitch or something that would ruin the part he's working on.

... If he just. Waited until Dirk lifted the tool clear, then guided his wrist to the more optimal location, that wouldn't count as interfering with how he's connecting the parts. And, technically, that's what Dirk told him to stop doing.

Still chewing on his lip, he shifts his hand on the bench a little closer to Dirk's, taking his own weight off that arm. He waits until the tool is held safely above the components, and reaches forward, fingers closing on Dirk's wrist. "If you move to here-"