IIT'2 NOT A DATE (but it totally ii2)

[apocalypticduality]

After the prolonged exchange and pointedly NOT flirting, Sollux had stayed true to his proposal and had as close to a private discussion as he could manage with the girls outside the bubble, promising them that this would be the only favor he asked of them. He already had the disc sitting in the tray of his blu ray player and had made a call for a pair of pizzas, figuring that a supreme apiece would suffice, since toppings could simply be plucked off and left in the lid of the box. He sat down with his legs crossed in front of him on the couch, remote sitting in his lap and a case of soda sitting on the coffee table in front of him.

He didn't want to admit it, but the prospect of actually meeting up with someone he could legitimately geek out with was an exciting one.


_{[[for the purpose of the scenario he's got an apartment in Colorado, as if his relationship with Bro had gone the opposite direction.]]}

Comments

[fearofpiggies]

Dib wasn't sure what to expect, nor when to expect it. But it didn't take long at all. He barely had a chance to set his laptop aside and tell Eddie to secure all the perimeters and exits, and that he'd be back 'eventually' before he got dropped down into the same position he'd been sitting on the sofa, only onto Sollux's sofa, laughing at the instantaneous travel. "Okay, your friends clearly have the advantage," he noted with a chuckle and looked around the apartment from where he was, and then over at Sollux. He was taller and thinner than he was expecting, but not by much on either side of that.

[apocalypticduality]

"Told you I've got thome interethting friendth on my thide." Smirking faintly, Sollux reclined against the back of the couch and stretched one leg back out with the ball of his foot against the coffee table. "I figured that thinthe you thaid you weren't doing anything right now it'd jutht be more convenient to athk them for right now."

[fearofpiggies]

"At least it's an excuse to get out of my four walls for a while," Dib said with a smile, reaching over to grab a soda. "I can already tell a lot about this reality just looking at your place," he said as he opened the soda and took a sip. "One, the air is cleaner, except you smoke. There's vague similarities to apartments, so it's not all that different from my reality; albeit I have a feeling there's probably a lot of differences outside of the house situation," and he took another sip before leaning back as well, looking just as at ease as he could in this place as he ever could - which granted, wasn't much - "but I'm sure I'll get to those eventually. I mean, if your friends decide I should come over more often." He found it amusing - it was a totally different dimension, and he talked about it like it was hopping over to a neighbor's place for poker night.

Not that he was ever invited to poker night.

[apocalypticduality]

"The theadwellerth are very, very adamant about pollution. We kept our planet ath clean ath we could even while we ethentially ran ourthelveth off of it. There are lawth in plathe here that prevent even the motht ghetto platheth from getting dithguthting." Sollux nodded over toward the recycling bin placed out of the way beside his trash can. He took a can of soda for himself and popped the tab, taking a couple of swallows and watching Dib over the top of the can. "If you want to come over more often I can ask Roxanne to thet thomething up for you. Our rethident thienitht," he explained, "Doeth everything from geneticth to theoretical phythicth, all while hammered."

[fearofpiggies]

"Regulations must be more strict here. They tried that at home, but people in cities are still the worst kind of unclean," Dib said as he considered the implications of having seadwelling sentient creatures lobbying for cleaner oceans. There was a vast difference between Trolls and the aliens he'd already met, most of which were indifferent to pollution, or seemed to revel in it, like the roaches they essentially were. He raised an eyebrow to 'scientist' and bit back the initial reaction of dislike that crept up. "Sounds like my dad," he muttered, "Except I'm pretty sure he's never been drunk a day in his life. Though I've had my theories about some of the shit he did. I mean, when he created my sister, I'm pretty sure he was running purely on adrenaline and spite."

[apocalypticduality]

"It'th not ath carefully enforthed in landlocked platheth but anywhere that'th even remotely near a body of thaltwater big enough to houthe the royalty, littering and dumping are punishable by some heavy-ath fineth, occationally jail time."

Sollux' brow arched up at the change in expression. "A lot'th been done here out of a combination of adrenaline, thpite and thtubbornneth. Thome of uth have built our liveth on it. But Mom? Nah, she jutht doeth it becauthe of boredom, and to prove it'th pothible. You'd probably like her catth."

[fearofpiggies]

"Scientists are more than a little off their rockers, so forgive me if I'm just a bit hesitant to accept that at face value." He chuckled, and shook his head. "I'm sure she's just fine, and I do like cats, but I've been the subject of science my entire life, and it's kind of... not really the most comforting notion." He reached over to grab a slice of pizza, picking off the green peppers, but not the red, and then taking a huge bite.

[apocalypticduality]

"Ith that why you prefer your paranormal thtudieth? The dithconnect from acthepted thientific prothedure?" Sollux' brow arched up some as he grabbed a slice for himself folding it and biting half the piece.

[fearofpiggies]

"Nah," Dib said with a shake of his head. "I respect the hard sciences, always have, but I've always been attracted to the unknown. That natural curiosity is something I've never been broken of in my life, and I'll see it through to my natural or unnatural end. I want to learn as much I can about the little corners of the world that people refuse to acknowledge. I used to want to show it off, give the world solid proof that what is out there is out there, but the world will never be ready to accept that there are things out there which are just as unexplainable as they are fascinating." He shook his head. "I know it sounds pretty selfish, documenting all of it just for my own desire to have proof, but I've been doing it my whole life. I don't want to turn back on it now. I've only just scratched the surface."

He grinned sheepishly as he took another bite of pizza to shut himself up. He'd caught himself rambling again.

[apocalypticduality]

"What? That'th not thelfish. Learning it all for perthonal conquetht, that would be kind of fucked but nah, jutht chathing the knowledge for knowledge'th thake, thoundth pretty noble to me. Keep on with it, there'th a fuckton around to learn and well, look at thith." He gestured between the two of them. "Meeting new lifeformth all the time right? Never gonna be able to thtop learning."

[fearofpiggies]

Dib blinked at the reassurance and encouragement, not entirely sure he'd heard Sollux right, but then a smile slipped across his face. "See, and here I was just over for some takeout and movies with an intellectual equal. This isn't even remotely a matter of learning about new lifeforms or whatever. I dunno, maybe it's the fact that Trolls are more humanoid than any other aliens I've come across that I just don't see you in those terms."

[apocalypticduality]

Sollux paused at that briefly, then slouched back against the arm of the couch. "Then that'th thtill exactly what it ith. Sorry, gueth I'm jutht not really uthed to thith." Shrugging a shoulder, Sollux finally picked up the remote and started the movie toward its title menu, grabbing for another piece of pizza as soon as he'd polished off the crust of the first.

[fearofpiggies]

"Wait," Dib said with a smile, shaking his head, "Is it supposed to be something else? Because I was sort of hoping it was, but I didn't want to presume. We kind of ended that on a pretty vague note." He shrugged vaguely and turned to look at the TV, not really interested in seeing the movie. As much as he liked it, he could recite it by heart at this point, and it was simply an excuse to come to this reality, to meet Sollux.

[fearofpiggies]

Dib nodded to that, smiling to himself. "That's basically how I run my setup at home. I really don't need servers, it's just the one tower that networks to my laptop and security system, but I'm not in charge of upholding a large chunk of internet society, either. I rent server space for my site and blog, but even those are horribly out of date. It's not like I really have time between school and work to keep up with them, and I don't really have much of an audience to pander to," he admitted. He looked up at the wires that crossed the room's ceiling, and meandered to follow them out the door, walking across the hall to lean against the wall, arms crossed in front of him. "I've been considering actually cancelling the account and keeping the POP3 address, because I get most of my clients from word of mouth, anyway."

[apocalypticduality]

"I'd offer to help get you thome more buthineth, but tranth-reality paranormal invethtigation might not be the motht booming buthineth. To be honetht, thith reality technically ithn't even real." Sollux joined him in the hall, leaning against the opposite wall with his hands in his pockets. "We're working on it though. Onthe it'th done I don't think anyone would be able to travel between here and anywhere elthe." He wrinkled his nose a bit at that and reached into his back pocket, taking out a cigarette case and tapping it against the inside of his wrist then flipping through his sylladex, which had been simplified from his original modus to something a good deal less cumbersome, still an Encryption modus, but one he could remotely access anything he needed at any time without fussing with incorporeal safes. He flipped open his cigarettes and placed one between his lips with one hand while the other tapped at a projection keyboard, dropping his lighter out of the air and into his palm. He hadn't thought to ask if Dib smoked but offered nonetheless.

[fearofpiggies]

Dib hadn't seen technology like that before and his head tilted in quiet interest, before he held up a hand with a shake of his head, turning down the cigarette. "So wait. How is it not real? It looks pretty real to me," he said with another arch of his brow, rapping his knuckles on the wall behind him. "Feels tangible. Then again, I've been in some pretty lucid dream states that are on par with this, so I'm willing to believe it." He couldn't be so certain that it wasn't a dream state, to be fair. He'd figured that if he was dreaming, he would dream up an alien that flirted and managed to keep up with him in many ways, and one that was actually quite attractive, even by human standards. Shit, especially by human standards.

[apocalypticduality]

Sollux took a moment to light the cigarette and take a short drag, blowing the smoke to one side away from Dib. When he spoke again it was a little slower, more careful. "Long story short, this reality's populated by people from other concluded SBURB and SGRUB sessions. The vast majority of us are dead, or in a sort of limbo state. This planet? It's only tangible to those of us that are on it. I don't pretend to know the details behind it, but it has something to do with the powers of Heart, Time, Space and Void working in tandem. There would be a lot more people around, but a lot of people are up there," he pointed toward the ceiling in a general indication of 'there', "protecting our asses from a lot of Outer Gods that don't like us and shunting us into an actual universe so we can keep existing. When we're made real, I'm pretty sure we're going to lose all our game abilities. So like I said, when we assimilate into another 'verse, traveling to and from might end up being pretty much impossible."

He looked back at Dib to gauge his reaction, the butt of his smoke clenched between his teeth.

[fearofpiggies]

Dib's reaction was hard to gauge, considering he wasn't what would be considered very expressive, but he did understand the implications of it. "So you're all refugees kinda floating around in an unstable pseudospace, trying to get all your shit together so you can have a chance to exist? That... okay, that sorta blows. Not gonna lie, that's one of the more out-there things I've heard. Totally plausible, though, considering the dynamics of this quasi-game I've heard about. It's actually not so much a game, I've found, as much as it is a dimensional gateway that uses technology in addition to some really archaic alchemy to bring people into another state of existence. So it's totally possible that the dimensional gateway funneled everyone into the same dimension, and that the people who are trapped inside that dimension could potentially affect its physical parameters to create, well, just about anything if my research on it is solid. It wouldn't take very long at all to create a permutation of Earth, or really any planet out of nothing but the consciousness of those within it, in the laws of this dimension." He knew he was rambling, but this time, he didn't much care to stop. "So basically, this whole thing makes a lot of sense, but... no, that probably wouldn't work. From what I heard about things, everyone who plays, so to speak, winds up having a destroyed planet, so using the same power you guys used to bring me here wouldn't do much good to bring you guys back."

[apocalypticduality]

"Yeah, pretty much. There'th altho a large helping of thome very old kind of proto magic. The dream bubbleth themthelveth were a rethult of thome Outer God fuckery tho that we could keep going in our game." Having an emissary of the horrorterrors on their side had certainly helped. "We can't go back to Alternia. There'th no Alternia to go back to. Thame with the Earths that a lot of thethe people know. Tho yeah, the refugee thing ith pretty much right on the dot." Shrugging, Sollux headed into his bedroom, stepping around the deep, wide pod filled with its dual-colored slime to grab an ashtray off the side table. There was a bed crammed in as well opposite the dual-monitor computer setup, power strips lining the baseboards and wires held together with zipties snaked along the floor around the legs of his desk. "Careful where you thtep, man."

[fearofpiggies]

Dib followed behind, his eyes scanning through the room quickly before settling back on the pod, brow arching. He did a little mental inventory and made an assumption that it was likely something sleep-related. Bedroom and all. He didn't really hold much of a theory of it, though he did ask, "What's this thing?" as he thumbed towards the pod. But it was clear that it was only an observational question since he really didn't wait for an answer to look down at the computer, instead, grinning a little. "Oh man, I wish I had my coat with me, I'd be able to give you a third screen for whenever you got tired enough where you didn't want to focus on a static point. It floats. I have an extra, because I had the spare parts. It's not really that big, but it helps for when you're stuck coding and really need to lean back." He attention was drawn to the tower itself, however and crouched down to look through the window to see the inner workings.

[apocalypticduality]

Sollux glanced back at his recuperacoon, then grinned and settled into the wheeled chair sitting in front of his desk, leaning back in it comfortably and pulling up the platform on which his keyboard was fitted so that he could type. He moved his glasses up to rest on top of his head and smirked slightly as his eyes flashed, one of the wireless monitors lifting off its place on his desk then hovering upward a few feet to hold there where he could see it while resting his head. "Not that I don't apprethiate the offer, but I think I've got it covered." He quirked a brow at Dib, then tapped a key to bring the computer out of sleep mode. The desktop was a movie still, a bleeding Sufferer chained up and screaming at an uncomfortable crowd of onlookers.

[fearofpiggies]

Dib watched with amusement and then shook his head. "Sure, but telekinesis requires effort," he argued mildly with a lopsided smile, as he felt the minor shock of his blood-borne nanites shorting out nearer to Sollux as he used his powers. "Ow," he murmured. "Okay, apparently your telekinesis actually affects my nanobots, that's different." He stepped back and shook his arm to make it stop feeling like pins and needles. "S'a good thing those filter out pretty fast."

[apocalypticduality]

"Not much effort on my part," Sollux shrugged then tapped a couple more keys, a modified panel in the wall flipping out, the base of his monitor anchoring to it. When it was firmly in place he let it go and glanced back at Dib. "Never had anything fritth out on me before like that. Unfamiliar tech, I'm guething hyperthenthitive. You ok?"

[fearofpiggies]

"Yeah, I'll be fine," Dib said with a nod, "They'll reprogram to become immune to stuff after exposure like that, it just takes them a little bit. They're actually immune to most anything except a heavy electromagnetic field, or a really high EM pulse." He wrinkled his nose at the thought. "I've had that happen a couple times, and yeah, that hurts like a sonofabitch." He settled down at the edge of the bed to rub his arm and looked over at Sollux. "Though being sensitive to high EM fields actually comes in handy, so I really haven't gone through the trouble to find a way to make them immune to that."

[apocalypticduality]

"Yeah, I can thee where that would be useful," Sollux agreed, spinning around in his chair and facing Dib with a small smile. "Ath for your quethtion earlier, that'th a recuperacoon. It'th where I thleep when nightth get bad. The thlime in it's basically a thleep aid and a muthle relaxant. Pretty good for numbing minor painth too."