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[protegge]

[the chorus of blondie's CALL ME, sung extremely poorly but with great enthusiasm]

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[oculusriffs]

[geez, they're two peas in a desperate-to-do-right-by-their friends pod, aren't they?]

[Dave doesn't smile. he's not all that prone to them. that, and it's hard to find reassurances when the only thing keeping you tethered to this spot right here, so you can have this conversation in the first place, is a radio. every time he looks at it, he just thinks right back to that moment — when someone finally figured out how to break that piece of shit SORD..... and his spirit while he was at it.]

[but, you know? Mista's doing a pretty damn good job of nudging him toward trying to feel better. and despite how mad at himself he is right now, at least, with the same radio he hates to look at, he's got one more shot at fixing it. undoing the damage he's done.]

[not being such a goddamn loser fuckup.]

I, uh. [wow, that came out super awkward. he rubs at the back of his neck, a bit of a learned gesture.]

Thanks, man. I needed to hear shit like that more than I thought I did.

[protegge]

[The look Mista gives him is . . . it's not knowing, really? Not smug enough to be that, and frankly Mista's too goofy by nature to ever come off as wise. More than anything it's an I-get-it look, an I-know-it's-awkward-and-it's-okay look. It's always going to be a little weird, he thinks, for anyone like Dave or like him or like Ryuji or whoever — people who want so desperately to do right by the people who matter to them, but who get caught incredibly off-guard and made uncomfortable when it's turned back on them.]

[He's self-aware enough in this moment to include himself in the group. On a bad day, maybe he won't be. This isn't his bad day, though; it's Dave's. So he gives a lopsided grin and a ducking nod and makes a vague noise of understanding.]

Yeah. Sometimes you don't know it until you hear it.

[He's been the recipient of a shonen speech or two. Which this wasn't, because he doesn't do them. It was just honest. But the principle is the same: sometimes you need a kick in the pants.]

[Speaking of which, kind of — sorry, Dave, the heartfelt moment's on pause for just a sec. Mista can no longer resist the urge to loop an arm around Dave's neck, drag him close, and thoroughly mess up his hair. It's not quite a noogie, but the threat of noogie-ing is very real and present.]

He'll tell you the same fuckin' thing, I bet. I'll bet you — a hundred stupid Faerunian dollars.

[oculusriffs]

Hey —!!

[MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMM!!!]

[there's no amount of flailing that he could do here that could save him — though that's partly because he understands something he wouldn't have even a year or two ago. sometimes, people are physically affectionate, and that manifests as not-noogies, and there's not really anything Dave can do to stop it.]

[it's kind of nice, actually. he didn't really grow up having people in his immediate vicinity care about him, so. it's nice. and even though he puffs up like an angry bird, much like his bird hair is already mussed up, he doesn't really mean it.]

You're right, though. Those 100 Faebucks are basically yours.

[protegge]

[Mista's not at all booksmart, but he makes up for it by being pretty people-smart. If Dave actually fucking hated being touched, he'd back off. It's not like Dave would be his first prickly friend or anything. Before the Bureau, pretty much all he had was prickly fucked-up weirdos for friends; this is pretty comforting, actually. And Dave isn't about to unleash a deadly neurotoxin on Mista if he jumpscares him, so this is in a lot of ways a huge improvement.]

[All that said, once the not-noogie subsides, he relinquishes his grip into a loose Bro Hug, easy to wiggle out of and punctuated by a light thump to Dave's opposite shoulder.]

He's a good guy. You're pretty lucky.

. . . You guys need a fuckin' break, though, seriously. [Can he somehow orchestrate a long weekend mini-vacation for Dave and Ryuji because if so, Lucretia, he wants to talk.]