I used to care what people thought. [OPEN]

[shenunigans]

Who| Dave Strider and OOOOOOPEN
What| Dave arrives in Panem and has understandable feelings of confusion.
Where| Through the day and around the tower, specifically D9, the rooftops and the common room.
When| Now!
Warnings/Notes| n/a

So he's here. He's been through his little initiation. He pretended to listen as he'd silently wondered what the hell Jade was thinking sending him here. It's definitely a little more organised than most of the other times he'd been launched into buttfuck nowhere, but he's got more important things to do than hang around.

The fact that he can't zip around with his usual finesse is the most obvious thing, it makes exploring hard but he can handle it. Everything is a lot less alien than he's used to, it's the closest to earth he's seen in a while. That doesn't make it anymore comforting when he can't seem to find anyone he knows.

Through the halls he goes, opening doors that he's allowed to open with reckless abandon and murmuring to himself all the while. He doesn't realise that he seems kind of deranged and unhinged, it's a habit he's picked up from a loooot of traveling. When being sneaky isn't helping, he'll go out on a limb and call out into the void of the halls. "Yooooo, Karkat! Where you at?" There's a moment of silence as he listens for an indignant shout. "Look, man. I have Will Smith and shitty troll Will Smith here, you just need to come say hi, alright?" Again, he waits before calling out again. "Karkat? Terezi? Kanaya? Mayor? ..Rose? ....Gamzee?" He feels hella awkward just yelling to himself, but it's better than putzing around alone like a loser.

When he isn't searching for people, he's appreciating the fact that there is an abundance of food here. Hunger Games his ass, right? With food acquired, he's trawling around with the biggest bottle of apple juice they could provide and lounging around wherever he may go like he's a new and unexciting piece of furniture.

Comments

[frozenfractalsallaround]

Elsa manages to spot him in one of the halls, on her way back from a particularly rigorous training session. With so many people offering to help, she's taken it upon herself to try and train as much as she can on her own, as well. Whatever she can do to make things easier on those who have her best interest at heart.

When she sees him, she's immediately surprised. There are a lot of people here, to be sure, but after spending so long in the district suites, it's become rather easy to spot a new face, regardless whether or not she knows everyone here or not. Dave is clearly new.

New and looking for his friends, from the sound of it. A pang of sympathy wells up, because the chances of him finding them are pretty slim- until she realizes she recognizes a couple of those names. That's what really makes her stop, and she beckons him over.

"I think a few of your friends might be here," she says, her voice a little hesitant, if only because she doesn't want to get his hopes up. Then again, how common is a name like Terezi, anyway?

[shenunigans]

Dave is busily murmuring to himself and peering into doors when Elsa makes her approach, clearly not aware that anyone is watching him let alone doing something as heinous as pitying him. Then she speaks, and his surprise is apparent. He straightens up immediately, eyebrows raised behind his shades as he tries to puzzle out who the hell she is.

He doesn't know her, but.. damn. Just damn. Fuck, he's standing around like a nerd. He slouches his shoulders back, cool and casual and a little bit like he's having a stroke, lowering his eyebrows.

"Uuuuhhh, yeeeah?" He tilts his head to the side as if mining for information, but somewhere in him that lame, awkward teen in him is encouraging him to speak for some ungodly reason. "My girlfriend is here too and I think you might know her."

[frozenfractalsallaround]

It's hard for Elsa not to be a little amused by his reaction to her, the way he seems to straighten up the way he does, as well as his surprise. The people here can be surprisingly quirky, and she finds it all endearing on occasion, when she has time to think about it.

Her eyebrows knit together in confusion at his reply. "Oh?" she asks, clearly confused. "I haven't met anyone who's mentioned anyone like you," she continues. "What's her name?"

[shenunigans]

The last thing Dave wants her to feel is amused. Damn it. She should be impressed, in awe and maybe a little endeared to him. She doesn't look that much older than him, so he'll be insulted if she thinks he's a kid.

At her reaction, the tips of his ears are slowly turning red and his mouth pretty much dries out. Suddenly he has so many regrets and all of them are his fault. Quick to think on his feet, he's just going to dismiss everything as soon as possible and pretend he did not even attempt to woo some hot mama the second he saw her. "Well if she hasn't mentioned me then clearly she's not here. Damn." ANYWAY. "So what's your name?"

Probably by the main commons or something

[pythianjudgment]

Terezi is a wanderer by nature. On any normal day (or night), she's prone to ambling off through the tower just to find out what her fellow tributes are up to. As an arena approaches, she's often taken to even more rambling--more as a reason to get out of her room than anything else. Just as she's thinking she might scoot out of the tower for some well-deserved ice cream, she catches the scent of a very familiar human and his equally familiar apple juice. Stopping, she turns and blinks blindly down the hall at him.

It can't be. They wouldn't.

"...Dave?!" she calls, equal parts concerned and distressed.

[shenunigans]

Terezi is a worrisome creature at the best of times, really. Dave can't talk though, he's a wanderer too, he's probably more liable to get lost though. Like right now. He's starting to regret not leaving a breadcrumb trail or something around the place. Maybe he could dribble the apple juice on the floor instead- but then he'd waste it and it'd look like he pissed everywhere. Not a good plan, D Stri. Maybe he can find a help center somewhere around the corner. What he finds instead? Well, that's much more helpful.

"Holy shit." He's so goddamn eloquent, whatever. He's jogging toward her, apple juice scent rapidly approaching. "Look at you, you have your big girl pants on and everything. I thought you'd all abandoned me, I was like. A second away from having a breakdown, but you missed it. Can you smell the tears in my eyes though? --Wait shit, nevermind. Whatever. Where the hell are we?"

[pythianjudgment]

Terezi's not prepared for the rapid-fire bits of Dave Strider that she doesn't understand. She honestly has no idea what he means by her big girl pants, why he would think they had abandoned him, or why he's suddenly backpedaling on the tear joke. There is very little of what he's saying that makes sense, but as it slowly sinks in that he's really here, there's only one thought that really matters:

Wow, did she ever miss him. What an understatement.

"We're in Panem. It's a shitty Earth city that I don't think existed on your Earth. At least if it did, I didn't smell it anywhere on your boring historical timeline." Which means it's probably some sort of alternate timeline or universe or something... She's pretty sure that she doesn't have to explain that part to him.

She grins as she continues. "I could maybe give you a tour of the place, but I'm pretty sure this is a blubber-free zone! And since I detect the scent of saline on your cheeks, I have probable cause to give you a full facial pat-down. I am afraid you're going to have to remove your shades, Mr. Strider."

[shenunigans]

She's not the only one feeling conflicted and confused right now. Last he saw of Terezi she was.. a mess. In a lot of ways. He was probably not there enough for her, but she's always been fiercely independent so it's hard to say whether he should feel guilty for how it went down or not. Now she's here in Panini parlor and she's got her shit together, he has to wonder whether she's been here a little longer than he has. He might have been under the impression they all zapped in at once.

"Uh, well. There was a place called Panera Palace down the block, but unless this is a sandwich eating contest I think we might be smack bang in the middle of one of those alternate universes." He'll elaborate it all out anyway because he feels like being clever. "If I had to guess what year it was from the fashion, I'd say we're on the set of back to the future. The magical time when everyone in the eighties thought neon was hella innovative."

He sage nods before folding his arms over his chest defiantly. "The shades and I are a package deal. You gotta make exceptions for the A-list celebrities, inspector. Else I might just take my business and olly off some other place."

[hit_girl_mindy]

Mindy had decided after a rather stringent day of working out, to curl up with an apple and start to go over some Arena footage hoping to note some of the failings of the people in her district. This is really only serving to hype her up for what she has to do next: contact the only other Mentor in D9. Barbara and the other guy were back in their own district, meaning they had gone right back to two mentors again. Eva, being herself, was MIA, so it wasn't going to be the easiest talk. In the meantime, she can work on things her tributes needed.

BUT. She can hear the voice of someone new in her part of the tower so she pauses the footage, getting up to see who exactly was causing the disturbance.

"Hey, who's there?"

[shenunigans]

Having spent way too long on a meteor with only a handful of other people, Dave isn't really used to the concept of needing to be quiet in case he disturbs anyone. To his good fortune, he hasn't bumped into many people yet, but he's picked an eerily quiet day to do the rounds.

When Mindy finds him, he's sort of half pressed against a wall, tapping at his wrist communicator and growing increasingly frustrated that isn't working. "Don't tase me, bro." He murmurs, lifting his wrist only to catch sight of Mindy. He straightens immediately and then slumps right back down in an attempt to seem casual. "Daves there." He nods. "Who's here?"

[hit_girl_mindy]

Mindy covered her mouth to suppress the laugh. That little bit of pop reference was enough to have her thinking of home, and at least make her think twice about telling the guy off for yelling all over the place. Mindy was receptive to funny people. Hawkeye was proof of that.

"I'm District 9, Mindy MaCready. What are you yelling about, going around the tower. You lost someone?"

[shenunigans]

The poker face facade breaks a little when he gets a laugh out of her, the slightest bit of a smirk tugging at his mouth. It's been a daaamn long time since he's seen a human girl who wasn't his sister, so he can already feel the awkwardness bubbling up.

He raises a brow at her name, it seems familiar because he's all about pop culture, but it's been a while since he'd even thought about some of his favourite movies. He dismisses it as a coincidence and shrugs at her. "Dave Strider, distinctly confused. Also district 9, apparently." He seems like he doesn't understand the connotations. "Yeah, a bunch of 'em. You ever heard of a Karkat? Maybe a Terezi? Anything ringing a bell?"

in one of the downstairs areas with chairs?

[sleeplessinalternia]

"There are no Will Smiths in Panem," Karkat yells back. "You're a fucking liar, Strider!"

Wait. Why was Dave...

Karkat very slowly turns himself around in his armchair. Yep. That was Dave all right. And he looks... bigger than when Karkat last saw him? Maybe? Shit.

"Wonderful," he says, dully. "They got you too."

Now he'd get to watch Dave frolic with Terezi in Panem too--although it was better than her frolicking with the Initiate, Karkat guessed.

[shenunigans]

Jesus, Karkat. Could you blend any harder? Dave manages not to look like he's shitting himself in surprise, but an eyebrow shoots up anyway. The fact that he's padding closer way quicker than a nonchalant person would is totally not telling of how happy he is to see someone he knows.

"What, so they can drag my ass to panini but Will Smith is waaaay too important? Wow. Is that any way to think of your best friend, Karkat? I'm ashamed to know you right now." And yet, he's pulling himself up to sit on the arm of his chair like it ain't no thing. "So how much did you miss me? Too much? Way too much?"

[sleeplessinalternia]

"You aren't my best friend and I didn't miss you at all," Karkat mutters, crossing his arms over his chest. "And yeah, I know, they have no fucking taste. So-- when the fuck are you from? Because these assholes don't always kidnap people at the same time and I need to know whether or not I have to, like, mysteriously guard your ass from the future or some shit."

[shenunigans]

"I love it when you play hard to get, you sly piece of shit." He leans in a little to elbow at him almost playfully but mostly aggressively. "You're asking me, a time lord, when I'm from? Buddy, I'm from all over the place. There is literally no pin you can tack into the cork-board of my existence. So bitch, do not even try to pull the future card on me." He'll place a hand dramatically on his chest briefly before just letting it fall to his side. "Last I remember, you conference called me in to talk about Terezi and then Jade popped up out of nowhere and abracadabra'd us all over the universe."

[metalicarus]

He'd been minding his own business, heading out of the District 2 suites when a door opened right in front of him that he would have run into had he not jerked himself to the side.

What the hell?

Some blond kid came into view, muttering to himself and started to leave again. He should just let it go, there were plenty of crazy things and people here, but his curiosity got the better of him. "Whoa, hey there, kid. You lost or something?"

Or looking for someone, that was a possibility too. He probably couldn't help too much if that were the case, he was more familiar with places than people at this point.

[shenunigans]

Basically, having people all around is weird for Dave right now. The meteor he'd been chilling on had been fairly isolated and everyone on it was a degree of loud that made them easy to hear from a distance. He can only assume that wherever he's been transported is a planet, but he has no idea if there's a few people, a lot of people or a helluva lot of people around.

As such, door manners are on the down-low while he's trying to stealth out all the info he needs. He barely notices that he almost slammed a door into someone until they talk, but he'll try not to look surprised. "I'm not sure if lost is the right word for it." He lifts his shoulders into a small shrug. "I have no idea who you are or how I got here, but I got the rundown when I arrived. We're not in Kansas anymore and all that jazz, right?"

[metalicarus]

Jet scoffed but smiled at the reference. "Something like that. More like Colorado or something, based on the maps I found." How old was this kid? Another teenager pulled into this mess? It just put him on edge and made his hands itch to do something about it. But he couldn't, not yet.

"Welcome to the combination Survivor and gladiatorial games that serve as this place's entertainment."

If this kid was new, he was probably looking for someone familiar, it's what Jet would have done if he'd woken up in the Capitol and not in the middle of the Games.

"What's your name and who're you looking for?"

[observationalhazard]

Hanji notices the newcomer in the District Nine suites. She was the newcomer a few days ago herself, so it's not like she's judging him for that. Instead, she decides to make friends (although they're all so young here - half the tributes aren't much older then Eren or Armin). She swings herself lightly over the back of the sofa and settles down next to Dave without much ceremony.

"Hey there! Welcome to District Nine. Our home for the forseeable future. At least until they decide to make us kill each other."

There's only a little bit of irony in her tone.

[shenunigans]

As a newcomer, Dave hasn't precisely figured out how districts work, not to mention living arrangements. It's not that he isn't used to living in close quarters with a bunch of assholes, but these are strange assholes. He barely reacts when Hanji swings over beyond taking a sip of his juice. On the inside, the screaming in his head is resounding. What is talking to people, right?

He raises a brow at the comment, just barely smirking. "So we're roomies, huh? Looks like they're giving us the full college-experience, murder games for food and grades to kill for included."

[observationalhazard]

Talking to people is easy. Hanji just doesn't notice when people call her crazy or weird or eccentric or a half dozen other things. Just go out with a smile and everything will be fine. Right? Right.

"College?" Hanji arched a brow. Well, maybe. But the only colleges around were for people with money.

"I guess so! I've never been, so I couldn't say!"

She reaches over and gives his hair a ruffle, "I'm Hanji Zoe - looks like we're going to be District-mates. Whatever that means to these people."

[tis_allgood]

Cuthbert has been wandering the tower trying to find something interesting to do. He has to stop when he hears someone calling out, especially when he hears the names. It doesn't take him long to figure out where the inquiry is coming from, even less time to see that he's someone Bert doesn't recognize.

"And just what business do you have with my grasshopper, stranger?"

[shenunigans]

Well the lack of recognition is mutual, but it shouldn't come as a surprise to either of them by now. Perhaps a little to Dave, because he'd been so sure this was a timey wimey universe switch. Alas, his title as Hero of Time here is about as relevant as being a Porn Star in a Nunnery. Just an intriguing abundance of knowledge that means fuck all to your audience.

A brow raises right over his shades, momentarily slipping on the fact that trolls are technically insects. As such, it comes off pretty damn confusing to him. "What's it to you, Mister Miyagi? I'm not about to escort them to the Cobra-kai, I just need to ask them a few things."

[tis_allgood]

That's just as confusing to Cuthbert as Cuthbert is to Dave. He has stop and give a moment's consideration to this stranger before he continues.

"I could not answer for them, leastways not the sort of answers you might seek. But I can be concerned over my closest friend and what a stranger, and a strange human no less, wants from him."

Bert didn't remember much about what Karkat had told him about other humans from his world, so that definitely wasn't his assumption meeting a human who knew Karkat.