towerofanimus | Cause we're just under the upperhand

Characters: Dave Strider and anyone who wants to run into the teen
Setting: Around the Tower
Format: Either
Summary: Dave is running from something only he can see because of his illness.
Warnings: Paranoia, Insanity, the usual Animus problems

[Dorm Levels]
You might be lucky to run into Dave here. He's been kind of absent from the dorm levels as of late. You might have been lucky to catch him the few days he actually has been in his dorm, but he usually only tries to sleep before disappearing off again. His poor Pokemon, Missy, has been waiting at the foot of his bed for him forlornly. At least he brings her food before disappearing again.

Right now, he's wandering aimlessly the floor. He keeps looking behind him, expecting something and sometimes he'll pick up his pace as though he has seen something.

He'll eventually start making his way to the stairs though. He really doesn't look like he wants to stick around here that long. He looks exhausted and his movements aren't up to par as they usually are from the looks of it.

[Floor 48: Graveyard]
Dave has started frequenting this floor, even if it was morbid. He kind of just like staring at all the names across the headstones. He makes daily visits to some of his friends' tombstones. He knows there's nothing in them, but it makes him feel better to leave flowers or something once in awhile.

Right now? He's running. He's running as fast as his feet can take him. He's mumbling and tripping over his feet and it looks like he's running from something. What it is? Well, no one else can see it. Only him.

[Floor 40: Storage Room]
He's basically tried to wedge himself in some corner, hands clutched over his ears and threaded in his hair and he has his face buried against his knees. Dave likes floors like these right now, because he doesn't think people frequent them as much. The less he has to be around people, the better.

[Floor 25: Meadow]
Dave had been going to this floor to avoid the cold. For some reason, it stays in Springtime weather, which he isn't going to complain about because it beats the rest of the tower. But he'll move soon. He can't stay on a floor for too long. If he does, the creatures trying to control him will find him and try again.

For now though, he's going to take advantage of the fact that he can be relatively warm for this short moment.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Pot calling the kettle black. Shouldn't you be in bed too? This ain't no one way street. It goes both ways, kid."

"You're a kid too." Romeo argued, "And you're sicker than me."

"Now you're just getting technical with me. Okay, I agree, we both should probably be in bed. Except I have a friend who won't let me sleep and it's just more convenient to not be in the same place for too long." Fucking clockwork creatures.

"Well that's not very nice of him!" Romeo frowned, "Do you want to go sleep in my room, I'll make sure Gamzee and mister Veigar and your friend don't disturb you!"

"I'd like that except I'm here because it's been following. Like the entire time. Like ever since it started following me, it hasn't stopped." And it really freaks him the fuck out. Unfortunately.

Romeo looked behind Dave worriedly, looking for the stalker, instead he was faced with two people fighting each other, anger in their eyes and blood staining their clothes. Romeo closed his eyes and pressed his hands against them trying to make it stop.

"We should hide, so it can't find you."

"Kind of what I've been doing." Since it's gotten this bad. But he's a little worried about Romeo's condition. "You okay though? You still look like shit. We both look like shit. What's up?"

"It's the bad people." Romeo told him seriously. "I think they made us sick. And then the other bad people keep talking to me and I don't like it, they keep telling me that being bad is good and I don't understand why. And they wont stop fighting."

Well. Bad people, yeah. "Yeah, I guess that kind of sucks." He doesn't know how to help. Heck, he doesn't even know how to help himself. "You don't believe them though, right?"

"No I don't." Romeo reassured him seriously, "I know bad things is bad."

"That's good. Than this is all mostly a huge pain in the ass for you."

"Uhuh, but they keep fighting and killing each other. Everywhere and they wont stop" His demeanor cracks a little and he looks like he is about to cry, but a moment later he punches the air. He will be alright.

"You're trying a bit hard," Dave says. "It's okay to not be alright. At least right now. That's pretty hard to deal with."

"But if we stop keeping our spirits up the bad people will win." Very intense staring. This is important Dave.

"It doesn't mean they win." Oh my god, this kid. "It's alright. You don't have to keep your spirits up all the time. There are other people around that will make up for it if you're not feeling as well. Bad people don't win because there's a lot of other people around so you're not alone to handle those bad people."

"It does," He sneezes again, "They want us to cry so we got to be happy to stop them."

Dave was right though, they did have to all work together, because one person couldn't fight the bad people alone.

"You're right, but everyone's sick so we all got to keep our spirits up the best we can, even if it's just a little bit so that there's enough to stop them winning."

"Making us cry is such a dumb goal to accomplish. They want us to give up. To let them win. To say we're done. Crying isn't any of those things." Not that Dave really cries all that much. He's much too stubborn to get like that.

"You can still cry and still know you're going to beat them. It's not like doing one thing negates the other. It just means you got enough of a heart to actually do it," Dave says.

"Well it is a little bit." Romeo told him before sneezing again and rubbing his nose. "It's harder to beat them when your spirits are low."

"It's called a temporary set back. Man, taking vacations is a thing. Bad people take vacations too. Good people take vacations. Don't you got comic books where the superheroes are doing stupid shit and relaxing or sometimes they get sad? I mean, it's kind of just a human thing to do. Even non human superheroes get sad." Dave cocks his head to the side a bit.

Romeo shook his head, "What's a comic book?" He didn't know any hero stories where the heroes got sad. Molly had gotten sad sometimes but she always managed to keep her spirits up, even when she felt sad.

"Holy shit. You never read a comic book before? You're missing out. It's basically people in colored underwear running around saving people and having issues up the wahoo. And there's a shitton of man pain most of the time. Shit is great." Yeah, that was probably the worst way to explain comic books to anyone. Take it or leave it.