dave mamahecking strider (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
callbacks) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
route_10652016-03-08 07:06 pm
callbacks) wrote in route_10652016-03-08 07:06 pm
Taking it slow, but it's not typical
Who: Dave Strider callbacks and all y'all's lovely faces!
Where: Goldenrod City
When: Throughout the month of March
Summary: Come bug Dave at his part-time gig at the nice combination café/bookstore. OR, if we have plans (or you'd like to make plans; hit me up at![[plurk.com profile]](https://plurk.com/favicon.ico)
asherdashery, it's public) I can write up a starter just for you!
Rating: Probably nothing over PG-13.
Log:
[Food service is...well, it's everything movies told him it would be. But as far as workplaces go, the café isn't half-bad. The bookshelves make everything seem quiet even during busy hours, and the comforting scent of paper and coffee fills the space. Dave actually kind of looks forward to his shifts there.
The best part, though, is making the latte art. It took him a while to get the hang of it, because it's got to do with as much science and math as it does art, but Dave is nothing if not a master of timing. Most customers will get a heart, leaf, or tulip, but at slower times of day, he might experiment with drawing a little more.
(He has, of course, also figured out how to draw a dick in your latte. But that's neither here nor there.)
He's a quiet, friendly server, and as long as it's not caffeine crunch time, feel free to request your favorite Pokémon. Or if you're the only one there on a slow day, just wait--he might surprise you.]
((OOC: So! Since this log is open all month, please give me the date you want our thread to go down. I'll also be updating a thread tracker of sorts below so it'll be easier for all of us to find the right thread. Threads do not have to take place in the café! I just provided that as a starter for people who just want to chill with Dave. I'm gonna be throwing a bunch of non-coffee-related starters in here, too.))
NAVIGATION
March 4 - Carolina and Karkat, lunch
March 7 - Kaneki, café | March 8 - Maka, café; Chihiro, café | March 9 - Naoya, Honeyed Souls | March 11 - Jimmy Two-Shoes, text-->action
March 13 Banjou, café | March 14 - Karkat, pale confession
callbacks and all y'all's lovely faces!Where: Goldenrod City
When: Throughout the month of March
Summary: Come bug Dave at his part-time gig at the nice combination café/bookstore. OR, if we have plans (or you'd like to make plans; hit me up at
Rating: Probably nothing over PG-13.
Log:
[Food service is...well, it's everything movies told him it would be. But as far as workplaces go, the café isn't half-bad. The bookshelves make everything seem quiet even during busy hours, and the comforting scent of paper and coffee fills the space. Dave actually kind of looks forward to his shifts there.
The best part, though, is making the latte art. It took him a while to get the hang of it, because it's got to do with as much science and math as it does art, but Dave is nothing if not a master of timing. Most customers will get a heart, leaf, or tulip, but at slower times of day, he might experiment with drawing a little more.
(He has, of course, also figured out how to draw a dick in your latte. But that's neither here nor there.)
He's a quiet, friendly server, and as long as it's not caffeine crunch time, feel free to request your favorite Pokémon. Or if you're the only one there on a slow day, just wait--he might surprise you.]
((OOC: So! Since this log is open all month, please give me the date you want our thread to go down. I'll also be updating a thread tracker of sorts below so it'll be easier for all of us to find the right thread. Threads do not have to take place in the café! I just provided that as a starter for people who just want to chill with Dave. I'm gonna be throwing a bunch of non-coffee-related starters in here, too.))
March 4 - Carolina and Karkat, lunch
March 7 - Kaneki, café | March 8 - Maka, café; Chihiro, café | March 9 - Naoya, Honeyed Souls | March 11 - Jimmy Two-Shoes, text-->action
March 13 Banjou, café | March 14 - Karkat, pale confession
no subject
[He's got his hands back, but he only moves one of them, smoothing his fingers down the side of Karkat's neck. If Karkat's stupidly snuggable, he's eminently touchable, too, in some inexplicable subconscious hindbrain way. It's weird, something about his baby fat to muscle ratio, something about the way he's shaped.
Maybe it's because he's not that big, or because he's vocal and always butting into things so Dave doesn't have to wonder as much whether he actually wants to be there or not.
(Maybe it's because Karkat's never hurt him.)
His fingertips graze over the ends of Karkat's hair in the back, and he rubs them in there again, gentle. Tries to pat the mess down. It's a mission impossible.]
If it only took hugging it out one time to fix people's longstanding brain problems, y'all wouldn't dedicate a whole quadrant to it for like the rest of your lives. And humans wouldn't spend fucking decades in therapy, either.
[His movements slow to stillness again, and then, speaking of hugging it out, he loops his arms around Karkat and resettles them both.]
You got time, all right? I promised you before. I'm not going anywhere.
[He breathes out right across Karkat's hair.]
You could fall asleep on my arm and cut my circulation the hell off, and I wouldn't even nudge you. You don't see that kind of dedication every day, bro. I am a rare and beautiful gift. Love me.
no subject
Countering any of the points raised is beyond him, though; between all the shooshing and holy fuck what even was that touch on his neck, Karkat's melting into a complacent puddle of goo again, hug returned with absolutely zero evidence of actual thought on his part. Humans shouldn't be so good at this, they don't even do quadrants. Either something's seriously amiss, his feelings for Dave are completely clouding his judgment, or Dave is secretly some kind of diamond savant.
Or, in his words, a "palequad Casanova." If humans had adult titles, that would be his adult title.
... Yeah. Wow. Fuck no.
Snorting quietly under his breath, Karkat gives Dave an uncoordinated nuzzle and lets his head thunk against his moirail's collarbone. Damn him for being so tall anyway.]
Pale for you. Same thing.
[Sort of, anyway. More quadrant lectures can wait; he's not eager to revisit that subject in a hurry. He'll do it later, assuming they're both feeling less emotionally compromised.
And... even if all of this has been sentimental enough for any and every romcom Karkat has ever seen, he has to add one thing more.]
I believe you, I think. You're still a fucking moron for agreeing to this, but I'm glad you did.
[All the romcoms. All of them.]
no subject
You're the one with shit-tier taste in humans, dumpass.
[Seriously. Pale crush on Dave, black crush on John? Karkat, no. That is backwards in every way.
Doesn't mean it doesn't get him right in the base of the throat, though. Doesn't mean he's not glad, all of the sudden, that Karkat can't see his face right now, tucked as he is into his chest. (The weird bump in his collarbone where the broken bone healed crooked when he was little, can he feel it with his face? It's kind of funny to think about.)
Doesn't mean he doesn't realize that, with 'Same thing,' Karkat just about said, 'I love you.' Doesnt mean the whole thing they're trying doesn't shift just slightly for him, doesn't mean he won't hold what was already a rich and weighty and fragile gift with more gravity, now. With more care. Whether or not Karkat knows what that means to Dave, he's just going to roll that feeling into a cool little ball and hang onto it, pressed deep into his chest where all such moments go.
'Just don't go anywhere. I couldn't take it if you did.'
'You're good too, Dave. All the bad things that've happened to you, you don't...deserve them either.'
'You are one of my very best friends and I always felt a little less lonely when talking to you.'
'But you have to promise to stay put. Don't try to stop me. Just let it go.'
'Dear Dave...Happy birthday!!!'
Shit. He'll do pretty much anything for Karkat, now, probably. Dave laughs a little, an unvoiced haha through the nose, and makes sure Karkat's gathered up close and comfortable and warm into him.]
I used to think you hated me. ...I dunno, maybe you did. I wouldn't've blamed you. So I guess I always figured, if you were gonna proposition me in a quadrant, it would've been in kismespades.
[He closes his eyes, smiling over Karkat's head.]
Glad you didn't.
no subject
[Except that it sort of is. Not the issue, and yes, Karkat's voice was muffled because he doesn't feel like moving yet. Or ever.]
We wouldn't have worked as kismeses anyway. All of my... I guess it was more like resentment than hate? Whatever the fuck it was, all that shit was more tied into your thing with Terezi than you, and that was entirely my fuckup with her. You being a douchebag didn't help, but it wasn't the real issue.
[It goes without saying that all of this is especially embarrassing in hindsight. All his lashing out at Dave, that fucking shipping schedule—god, that would have been such a disaster if they'd actually gone through with it, what had he been thinking?
Laboriously, he raises his head just enough to get a look at Dave's expression, then goes back to resting against him. Discussing this quadrant probably isn't that much safer, but...]
Becoming someone's kismesis just because they hooked up with someone you had red feelings for is a stupid thing to do no matter how you look at it. And... besides, you might piss me off sometimes, but you're really hard to hate for long.
[There would have been so much quadrant vacillation. Fuck, they probably would have gone through every quadrant if Terezi had gotten involved. It's a good thing that won't happen now.]
no subject
Dave's quiet for a moment, regarding his own thoughts from a distance, like they're something he can trap behind glass for long enough to examine, to see what they really are without having to touch. Like feelings are something he can pin like butterflies and preserve and understand.
They aren't, really, but you're really hard to hate for long strikes a faint chime in him he's starting to recognize as someone said something really meaningful to me and I'm going to have to pick it apart later to deduce what, exactly, it meant. It's a pleasant sound, like a fingernail against a little glass flute--even if it does weird things to him, makes him feel all unguarded and hushed.]
Hm. Yeah?
[He couldn't have been Karkat's kismesis anyway. Not just because he wasn't interested, not just because he didn't even understand what the relationship entailed, but because he didn't wanted to be hated. Couldn't hate Karkat, either, not ever.
He rests his face in Karkat's hair for a moment, just long enough to get used to the smell of his skin, before turning his head again, relaxing there comfortably.]
I'll take your word for it.