Thud-ud. Thud-ud. Thud-ud. Thud-ud. Thud-ud.
"Dave."
Thud-ud. Thud-ud.
"Dave."
Thud-ud. Thud-ud. Thud-ud. Thud-ud.
"Dave, goddamnit, I will bitchslap your face if you don't cut that shit out."
"Oh no. I'm so terrified, because as we all know you always make good on those kinds of threats. I can already feel my poor cheek stinging and tears pricking at my eyes, now sans-shades, which are shattered across the room from the sheer force of yo-"
Dirk flashstepped in front of his brother, face neutral as always, cutting him off. "Please. For the love of all that is good and holy in this world, please. Stop rambling," he grabbed the ball Dave had been bouncing against the wall and floor, "and stop doing that. I'm trying to work, and you're distracting as shit."
Dave sighed and leaned back in his red swivel chair rolling himself further from Dirk and over to his desk, where he booted up his laptop and grabbed for his headphones. Of course, Dirk knew what that meant. Dave had thoughts he clearly wanted to talk about, but as usual, they were going to do everything in their power to avoid talking about it. It's how they were raised, after all. Granted it came in handy at times, but other times, Dirk wished they would have been taught how to deal with emotions and stuff a little better.
Well, if they couldn't talk about it, Dirk could at least play 20Q and narrow down what the problem might be.
"Hey dude, you finish that report for Stein's class yet?"
"Huh? Oh. Yeah," Dave shrugged, plugging in his headphones and pulling up his audio editing program Dirk had helped make for him a while back.
"Oh. Good, that's good," Okay, not the report. Maybe not a school thing then? "Chain resonance is getting way easier, dontcha think?"
"Mmh."
"Our team seems to be workin together pretty well. Nervous about when we get switched up?"
"Striders don't get nervous, Dirk."
"...Right. So, how's Karkat?"
"He's. Fine." And there go the headphones. Bingo. Dirk watched him for a moment, wondering if he should keep prying. Nah, that's not what Striders do.
He turned back to his own project, making a body for Lil' Hal. The sly AI had been pestering him relentlessly. He knew he could do it, Dirk made robots for fun for fucksake. He just wasn't keen on having an entity with his 13-year-old personality and the world wide web at his virtual fingertips also having access to a physical from. He'd get into more shenanigans than should be possible for any being in this or any other universe.
But of course, his "birthday" was coming up, and he claimed if he got this, he would "never ever ask for anything else ever ever again," with obvious childish influxion, present even just over text. He'd been planning on giving him a voice for his birthday, a way to project himself verbally, rather than just in writing. But Dirk supposed he could just. Make a robot and give it a voicebox, make it sound like how his voice was at 13, but with a robotic tinge to it, for awesome and ironic purposes.
That was his current project, designing the thing. Would he make it human-sized? Or small, like Lil' Seb? Make it look like his younger self? Give it a totally different look? Or maybe just get out the blueprints for Brobot, and tweak it a bit? Of course, he'd need to tweak a lot. Brobot was only designed for strifing. Hal needed to be much more functional. Go big or go home.
Let's just figure out his appearance first, get to the inner workings, wires and circuits, later on. Of course he'd have to have the spikey hair that Dirk meticulously styled every day. But maybe he should have it go the opposite direction? More of a reflection than a copy? Did he consider Hal more of a reflection of himself? Or a copy of himself. Or, how about we do the thing, where we don't get onto that train of thought, because we get way too deep into it when we do. This is Hal, his Autoresponder, not Dirk. Hal is his own self now. With that in mind…
Opposite direction. He'd have to have the shades. But of course he'll need a symbol on his chest. Should he be sentimental? Heh. Yeah, fuck it. Why not? Throw in some sentiment for the irony. He'll finally have a heart, so why not make it a heart? Sure. A heart that glows as it powers him. Glows red. Yeah, he can have red be his thing, since he talks in red.
Wait, what if all of him glowed? Yes! He can make his body mostly black, and have circuit designs, and a heart on his chest, and they'll glow red. Ohhhh this'll be good. But his face. Maybe make it look like a more humanoid face? But still have the red designs, and the shades. And his arms and legs can look more legit too. Fuck, he was pumped just thinking about it. Hal would fucking love it.
Soon enough, his desk was covered in plans, and his hand was cramping. He decided to take a break, and jumped onto the bed. He glanced over at Dave again. He wasn't even working. Just replaying the same part of the track over and over. Reaching for the bedside table, Dirk felt around until his hand fell on plush felt. He grabbed it, and chucked it at Dave.
Dave grunted, but didn't turn or get mad, just smoothed his hair back down. Dirk's eyebrows quirked in concern. "Dave," he called, loud enough that he knew Dave could hear. No answer. "Dave," he said, more firmly. Nothing. "Dave my hand's cramped. Can you help?" Finally, Dave shoved off his headphones and trudged over to the bed. He was always willing to shove anything aside in order to help his brother. They both were.
Dave slid onto the bed and held out his hand for Dirk's, and started rubbing the tense muscles, massaging away the tension. His brow was furrowed in concentration, working the tendons to relaxation, then set Dirk's hand back down once he nodded. Rather than either of them returning to their tasks, they just laid there on the shared bed, staring at the ceiling in silence. Dirk cleared his throat and moved his arm, letting Dave know he could come closer. Which he did. Now, Striders didn't cuddle. They were just. Finding comfort in closer contact for a little bit. Dirk figured he'd wait a bit before continuing his questioning. Now that they had both acknowledged what Dave was upset about, he knew they'd get around to working it out at some point. For now, They'd just sit in silence, like they used to back home.