Give it up for chapter 3, baby! Who's ready for more Dave? Hopefully it's you, because that's what you're getting today.
Speaking of Dave, a lot of his chapters will be full of introspection and internal monologues, so I hope you like that stuff! Content warnings for mentions of nausea, referenced kidnapping and panic attacks, and very slight nyctophobia. See you at the bottom of the page!
Right Hand (slang): reliable, helpful, or useful; often referring to something that assists
Everything in this place was yellow. Every blank wall, every inch of the thin, damp carpet, even the lightbulbs hidden under the light covers on the ceiling came in various shades of mustard and old cheese. Dave found that the color was making him motion sick. Was that even a thing? Apparently, it was.
He paused to lean against the wall, swallowing thickly. When he'd awoken in this strange office-like building, he'd hoped that someone would be around to ask for directions. As time went on, though, the deafening silence of this place made him feel afraid not just of being alone, but of not being alone.
He still wasn't sure how long he'd been wandering around, but he knew he couldn't panic again. He'd spooked himself earlier, his dry eyes and the shoddy lighting making him see something that wasn't there, and he'd run off in a blind panic, calling for help. The stifling lack of reverb eventually made him realize that crying wouldn't solve anything.
And so, he continued walking, stumbling through the hallways and rooms that melded into each other. After all, what else was there to do? There had to be an exit. There just had to be.
Dave thought back to where he'd been just hours ago; his tiny prison cell on the Toppat Clan's infamous airship. It was his own fault that he'd ended up there. He'd been stupid and left a flashlight out in the middle of the museum floor, only remembering at the last second as he was leaving and rushing back in to grab it. It was the end of his shift, the graveyard shift, and he would have gone home and continued living his life, like he should have.
But then he'd heard some voices coming from a back room, and he'd been too stupidly curious to stay out of it. He wasn't sure what he'd been expecting to see inside, but it certainly wasn't Mayor Fredrickson trying to steal the Tunisian Diamond. He'd been spotted, chased, cornered, and captured in less than two minutes. Honestly, it would have been embarrassing if he weren't so terrified.
He'd spent a long time in that prison cell; he tried to keep count for a while, but he was never great with numbers. One time, he had tried to look as sad and pathetic as possible, in the hopes that they'd pity him and let him out, but all he'd gotten out of it was someone screaming in his face and a solid punch to the gut. He avoided making eye contact with any of them after that.
Dave didn't have a lot of family- they were distant by nature- but there was one person that he knew for certain would be worried about him: Rupert Price, his childhood friend.
Rupert was everything Dave was not: brave, strong, charming. Dave knew how to fire a gun, sure, but he wasn't nearly confident enough- or reckless enough- to punch a convicted killer in the face like Rupert did, and he definitely didn't have Rupert's social know-how for office politics. Even so Rupert always made time for him, and they were practically inseparable. Dave didn't want it any other way.
An old memory flash through his mind that made him breathe out a quiet laugh. Back when they were in middle school, there'd been some sort of Halloween festival in town, and one of the big attractions was a giant corn maze. They'd gone in together, determined to get the treasure at the very center. Getting there had been surprisingly easy, but getting out, for some reason, was not.
Hours had been spent treading the same paths over and over as the sky grew brighter, then darker as night approached. Dave was convinced they'd be trapped forever, but Rupert had come up with a brilliant idea: if they stuck to the wall on their right, they'd eventually reach the exit. There was some logic about it Dave didn't get, but it saved their skins; they stumbled out of the maze, tired and hungry, just as the police had arrived. Their parents yelled at them, but the officers had been surprisingly nice about it all. They even let them sit in the back of a police car and gave them some juice boxes. Overall, not the worst day of his life.
Dave blinked and stopped walking. That… was technically what was happening right now, right? He was in a maze- sort of- and he couldn't find the exit. Therefore, if he used the method Rupert had shown him all those years ago…!
Dave eagerly slapped a hand against the wall on his right. There was a clamminess to it that made him feel queasy, but that was okay. He was gonna find that exit, and nothing was going to stop him!
Something had stopped him. Dave sat on the floor of another hall to rest his legs, hand still planted firmly on the wall, and stared into the pitch black darkness the corridor had brought him to. If he wanted to keep the pattern, he had to go in the dark.
Dave did not want to go in the dark.
Technically, he did have a flashlight- the very same one that had gotten him captured (for some reason, they hadn't taken it away). But it was an incredibly dinky little thing, barely able to light the floor two feet in front of him. If anything, it would just act as a beacon for any monsters or strangers to track him down in the darkness with.
There was no one here. He hadn't seen hide nor hair of another living being in this place (minus the trick his eyes had played on him earlier). There was no one to be afraid of. Nothing to fear. No monsters to pop out at him and eat him alive. Nothing at all.
Dave had been telling himself these things for a while now, and it was not helping. There had to be a way around this; he'd been doing so well up until now! Maybe he could stick with the "right hand plan", minus the dark bits? But no, he knew Rupert's method was tried and true: he had to go in the dark.
Rupert wouldn't hesitate. He'd march right into the darkness, one hand on the wall and the other holding Dave tight and close. He was always warm, somehow, like a heated blanket. The thought made a tear come to his eye, and Dave quickly shook it away. He could hold Rupert, in real life, if he could just brave the dark. And really, when comparing the thought of hugging Rupert to the actual act of hugging him, was there even a contest?
Taking a deep, shaky breath, Dave got to his feet and sidled along the wall, hoping that if he kept his eyes open wide enough, he might see anything that was coming before it saw him.
Given how much walking Dave has ahead of him, he'll be less inclined to talk out loud to himself, since it would tire him out more quickly. He's gonna need all the strength and energy he can get.
Hmm, that corn maze sounds familiar, somehow... almost like someone mentioned it before...
Dave was, in fact, a police officer, especially in this AU since Henry doesn't exist, so Dave had more time to do police-y type things, like holding a gun. Unfortunately, his more nervous and gullible nature didn't coincide very well with a lot of the other officers at West Mesa. Good thing Rupert was there to have his back!
Speaking of West Mesa, since Henry doesn't exist (and therefore never Broke the Bank), Rupert and Dave were laid off at a later point due to budget cuts and things of that nature. Luckily, they managed to get new jobs in the city, with Rupert taking the night shift rounds of the neighborhood while Dave got the graveyard shift of guarding the museum. Then again, given how Dave ended up getting kidnapped, can you really call that "lucky"?
Anyway, I think I'm going to leave the notes at that. Next Monday: more Rupert! Also coming today, and everyday for the rest of the week, God willing: Stick Ship Week 2024! Rather than doing a whole week for each ship I like, I'm just going to do a week's worth of prompts for my favorite ships. Once I get the first one written and refined, I'll (hopefully) post it later today! Keep an eye out!
Don't forget to check out this week's "cover art" for the chapter on my tumblr! Anyway, I'll see you later. Until then!