fearofpiggies | (no subject)

Entry tags:

asylum

(no subject)

It hadn't even been two months in his new apartment when Sollux pointed out that the rumor mill had been running about who he was, and what he could do. Word had gotten around that he was the one who'd upgraded Vriska's prosthetic arm, and despite really keeping to himself for the most part, Dib had been getting calls from around the country about if he could help fine-tune their equipment as well. He was surprised to see that so many people were looking for that kind of work, and it felt as if he was one of the only ones in the industry with the know how and expertise to really do a good job of it.

He'd been taking work as a private eye besides doing the occasional tune-up on cybernetic parts that, from what he'd noticed, all came from the same maker - someone with whom his boyfriend (?) and friend Vriska were both acquainted - yet he never bothered calling the guy. He figured if word got around as fast as it had been, he'd be getting a phone call from the maker himself, instead of the other way around.

Sollux had offered to introduce him to his friends, but schedules seemed to interfere with social time, and every time he put aside a few hours, things didn't pan out, so he pretty much called it a wash.

What Dib was currently doing, however, was something involving, surprisingly, not the inside of his house, or any house for that matter, but the animal shelter in a town nearby. He'd been told that there was something spooking the animals beyond the usual nervousness that animals taken into shelters had. He hadn't recognized the voice on the other end of the phone, but he certainly recognized its owner when he came to the shelter to have a look around.

"You're still an enormous douchebag, Cass, thanks for reminding me that you exist."
"Hey, no worries, mate. Hey, since you're here, I've just gotten off work, would you like to go have some supper with the guys and me? I've a feeling you'd get along with at least one of them." Cass grinned up at his prodigal friend, and waved him to follow him back.

"Oi, Tavros, you about ready to call it a night? I'm dragging everybody out for dinner. S'on me." He said into the back office, grinning wide as a wolf as Dib followed quietly along, clearly unsure how to hold himself in this situation. Cass looked over his shoulder at the bespectacled man in the trenchcoat, then at Tavros. "Oh, and this is Dib, he's comin' along. New arrival, as it were, though we've known each other a few years back."

Dib managed a slight wave and a nervous smile as he said, "Hey."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"It's a lot like this? But... well, it's different from what I'm used to, too. For one, it's not as technically advanced, but on the other hand, it's not as polluted. And I know that trolls figured out interstellar travel, so you guys had that up on us, even though I kinda sorta managed that on a regular basis personally. I kinda came into possession of a small, er, interplanetary... thingy. It was kinda like a puddle jumper plane but only for interstellar travel. Nothing huge like a ship or anything, but I got by with it." He shrugged and took a sip of his beer. "I guess for you guys extraterrestrial things were pretty blase, just, y'know, sorta boring. We didn't have an official first contact that any higher parties confirmed or anything, but we had aliens coming to Earth for a long, long time. Hell, my... well, it was kinda like a platonic kismesis, I guess. He was from Irk, which was a lot like trollkind, at least insomuch that they invaded planets to use their natural resources and all that. Though I think trolls have the foothold in that thing. At least you guys have your own brains." He grinned and hushed as the waitress came by to drop down his burger. He'd gotten just comfortable enough with beef from this world where it didn't upset his stomach as much.

"Between you and me, I'm pretty sure there are a few of us that don't really have their own brains either," Tavros muttered. He'd met his fair share of dumbshit trolls just as much as he had humans in his time living here, that was for certain. "And well, I know this isn't really normal for anyone, at least where it comes to cohabitation. Before all of this I'd only ever met a couple of humans and even then, we didn't really get along." He took his own order with a quiet thanks, starting to pull his chicken apart with his fork as soon as it was put down. He dipped a piece of it in the sauce over his pasta then blew on it and popped it into his mouth. Human food was still weird to him, but it was pretty good, in spite of that.

Dinner was relatively quiet, between the occasional smalltalk, a question here and there about Dib's paranormal interest and eventually coming around to the topic of Tavros' gaming habits. He mentioned offhand that he was a DM but didn't really make much of a big deal of it, feeling that Dib wouldn't be all that interested in sitting around with him and his friends in a campaign, especially one that had been going on for months now. He did enjoy talking to Dib though, even as meandering as their conversation was.

His interest ran more along the line of having never heard or such a thing than wanting to join, and it seemed as though by the end of Tavros' explanation, he was at least willing to come by one night to watch how it worked. "I'll have to check it out, maybe look at a couple of the books you told me about. I mean, I've heard of RPGs for computer and consoles and stuff, but tabletop is completely new to me." He wondered if it was from the fact that they didn't have it in his version of earth, or perhaps he'd been sheltered from it for whatever reason. Once desserts were being ordered, Dib had found it pretty easy to talk to Tavros, despite the nervousness between them. He grinned a little once his slice of pie was handed over, and he laughed a little. "You know, I really think Cass is just a little bit magical? I mean sure, nothing too outrageous, but I really do think he is. He probably wound up getting blessed by one of the gods he used to hang out with or something, and now he knows exactly how to make people have a good time. It's like his gift or something. Usually I'd hate going out like this, but this was fun."

"That wouldn't really surprise me, to be honest. How else would he put up with absolutely everyone and still be able to walk out of his house every morning without a plan to throttle them all?" Shaking his head, Tavros finished off his coffee and the slice of pie he'd ordered, sitting back with a content little grin and glancing around. They weren't the only ones that had finished eating; most of their party was just waiting for the checks to come around. "If you want, you can sit in on the next game night," he offered. It would go better than the first (and last) time he'd invited Dave and Karkat over to play, at least.

Dib chuckled quietly at the first, but the next, his head tilted and he considered it. "Sure," he said finally after he finished off what little he had left of his beer. "Sounds like fun! Here," he said, reaching into one of his jacket pockets to pull out his phone, "What's your number? I'll send you a text so you can put me in your address book, we'll get in touch when it's time for that. Honestly, I probably should get out of the house more often. I mean, for more than just for cases."

"Yeah, I can't imagine that you'd get out much even where Sollux is concerned. He doesn't really get out of the house much either, but he's not really social anyway where he doesn't have to be." Shrugging, Tavros gave him his number and waited until the bill was brought around then stood and stretched, standing up on his toes briefly then holding out a hand to help Dib out of the booth. "I guess we can talk more later on. I still have to get home and feed my cat and everything so I guess we can talk later? I'll let you know for sure what time the game is so we can do that. If you're interested when it's over I can show you how to build a character and everything so you can play, too."

"That sounds pretty awesome!" Dib said with a nod, standing before sending Tavros a quick text so he could have his number in turn, and made his way out of the pub with a wave to Cass, who told him not to be a stranger.

It was a couple weeks later when he took Tavros up on the session sit-in. He arrived after the address was given to him, with soda and the offer of paying for pizza. His brows arched high at the height of Tavros' matesprit, and of his clown paint, and he immediately made the mental connection of the rumors. But he was pleasantly surprised at the amiable, mellow way Tavros' matesprit acted, and he was put at ease - or as close to it that Dib ever got - rather quickly, as he took a seat off to a corner, ready to watch.

While Gamzee seemed to be content to stay back out of the way and watch, himself, Tavros seemed to run the show, setting things up while a few others arrived and seated themselves, each of them carrying with them a binder or folder or notebook that held the stats and changes and occasionally sketches of their characters. There were a few books situated around where Tavros was sitting, one of which he offered to Dib so that he could look things up if he got confused about something to do with stats or rules. There was another that looked more like an encyclopedia with information on scads of creatures in the 'verse in which their game was being played. He was enthusiastic about it, and it seemed like the rest of the group enjoyed it as well, handfuls of dice held close to each of them.

When someone finally mentioned that they were getting hungry, the others spoke up as well and Tavros looked back around at Gamzee and Dib to ask what they'd want on their pizza before he made the order.

"I'll eat anything on pizza," Dib said as he perused the book at length, as he'd been doing while paying attention to the game itself. "Just get whatever, I'll snag off of whatever pizza gets close to me," he said with a brief smile. Gamzee's smile, however, got wider and he started listing off everything he wanted on his pizza - it started off as hawaiian, but started getting more complex, with black olives and mushrooms, and baked tomatoes, and sausage, and, and, and...

Dib chuckled, turning to Tavros to see what he'd do with his still-rambling matesprit's stoner desires.

By now, Tavros was used to this kind of thing from Gamzee and when he was ready to order, he asked after a regular supreme, then asked for another that had everything a supreme had, plus everything else they could possibly put on a pizza as well. He didn't even seem to care that he'd have to pay extra for all of that, clearly intending to eat some of it himself while everyone else went for the more normal of the two pies. He got up to go for the soda that Dib had brought and had been stashed in the refrigerator with the rest of Gamzee's pop, pouring several different flavors into an assortment of cups. It was a relatively streamlined process, something that had happened enough that everyone knew how to make it go as smoothly as possible.

At the arrival of the pizzas, Tavros was once again the first one up and moving and making sure that everything was as it should be, tipping the delivery boy and making brief conversation then sitting the pizzas down on the coffee table for everyone to get at.

Dib handed over the money for the pizzas, happy to help out in any way, and curled around his soda and pizza as he listened and ate, watching the group quietly. They had decided to take a break to eat, and while they did, they discussed their favorite shows, and while Gamzee was content to settle and listen as he ate, draping himself around Tavros after he sat down, Dib got into the discussion as well, once they started talking about a show he'd recently gotten into as well.

Once the game got underway again, Dib followed along with renewed interest, asking one of the nearby guys for a piece of paper and a pencil, sketching out what their surrounding area would look like, with a fairly accurate rendering of where they'd been already had looked like during their session. It was more technical than artistic, more or less a blueprint of the dungeon, before he considered the logical possibilities of what would be ahead, and laid some lighter lines down for those before handing them off to Tavros with a slight shrug.

Tavros had resumed the game before the pizza had been completely decimated and sat with a slice on his knee, a paper towel in hand that he wiped his fingers on and took the sketch from Dib, looking it over with interest. He started to work out in his head how things were going in comparison to the story framework they were laying down, on top of the pseudo-blueprint, nodding to himself then at Dib with a rather impressed little smile. He continued on with the campaign until someone finally mentioned that they had things to do in the morning, the game having run on well into the evening. They cleaned up the area while making general small talk, then started out until all that was left was Gamzee, Dib and Tavros, who was still writing for a minute until he too could put his things away with everything accounted for. It all had a place there in Gamzee's apartment just as it did in his own.

"So, think you'll wanna play next time?" he asked Dib as he settled down at Gamzee's side. He didn't know if Dib had anything to do the next day, but he didn't want to ask and seem as if he was trying to hustle him on out the door.

In fact, his day was just about to start; Dib had a case involving a night owl whose girlfriend was convinced he was cheating, and had to get to Denver to go various nightclubs and tail the guy. He smiled to the offer. "I can come early next time and we can set up a character and all that for me. I've got to dash, it's about the time that nightclubs open up and I have to go pretend to be a barfly for a little bit, for a case." He smiled a bit as he watched Gamzee continue to drape himself over Tavros and drift off to sleep. "I'll leave the two of you to your own devices."

"Have fun with that. I can't imagine it'd be all that fun. Especially if you're not going to actually drink while you're out," Tavros shrugged, leaning back into Gamzee and easing just enough to one side to let his matesprit lean more heavily into the back of the couch. He added after a moment, "Maybe next time you have the time available you can actually get a look at my legs. Since you were all interested in them before, and all."

"Oh! Right, I forgot completely about that," Dib said with a grin as he made his way to the door. "I definitely would love to see those as soon as I'm able," he added, "Take care, Tavros. Goodnight, Gamzee!" He waved over his shoulder as he left, considering for a moment that he had made a fairly hasty retreat, and wondered if he sounded rushed or aloof, and that really wasn't his intent.

Tavros let him go without comment, waving him off then closing the door behind him and returning to Gamzee's side to curl up against him and finish off the last of his soda before finally deciding that it was time for the two of them to retire for the night. It had been a good day and promised a good night's sleep.

The next game night was held at Gamzee's place once more, and everyone had chipped in money the night before to order a large amount of chinese from one of the delivery places. The food was supposed to arrive maybe half an hour after everyone else had come and settled in, giving them ample time to sit and wait as Tavros assisted in setting up Dib's character. He'd printed out fresh sheets to start from, and was busily explaining the basic stats and what they meant in the game itself, giving a better layman's perspective on what Dib had already read in the books.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only