There are a lot of things Dave doesn't understand. Nuclear physics, for one. How anyone could think Snoop Dogg isn't the greatest rapper--the greatest creative genius of any musical genre--of his generation. He doesn't understand a good two thirds of the things Karkat says to him because most of them involve either troll society or troll anatomy, neither of which he has studied extensively.
Dave doesn't know how to get meaning out of faces, out of the emotive layers of words. He doesn't know the language. But he does know how to read the particular stillnesses of a body.]
Karkat...
[Dave's holding him, there's no way he doesn't notice how Karkat stops, how long it takes for him to say anything. His palm is flat between Karkat's shoulder blades, and he rubs between them again, moves his hand up to cup the back of his neck before he shifts back to look at him. Lifts his other hand slowly to the side of his jaw.]
I'll try. I...don't say stuff you don't mean, Karkat, it's okay or it isn't but I don't want...
[He doesn't want Karkat to fuckin' martyr himself for his sake. He doesn't want him to say it's okay when it isn't.
He doesn't want to be Bro.
He searches Karkat's face, feeling like he's hiding even while he's right there. He doesn't look away. His voice stays hushed.]
Please don't go along with something you don't want to.
[action]
There are a lot of things Dave doesn't understand. Nuclear physics, for one. How anyone could think Snoop Dogg isn't the greatest rapper--the greatest creative genius of any musical genre--of his generation. He doesn't understand a good two thirds of the things Karkat says to him because most of them involve either troll society or troll anatomy, neither of which he has studied extensively.
Dave doesn't know how to get meaning out of faces, out of the emotive layers of words. He doesn't know the language. But he does know how to read the particular stillnesses of a body.]
Karkat...
[Dave's holding him, there's no way he doesn't notice how Karkat stops, how long it takes for him to say anything. His palm is flat between Karkat's shoulder blades, and he rubs between them again, moves his hand up to cup the back of his neck before he shifts back to look at him. Lifts his other hand slowly to the side of his jaw.]
I'll try. I...don't say stuff you don't mean, Karkat, it's okay or it isn't but I don't want...
[He doesn't want Karkat to fuckin' martyr himself for his sake. He doesn't want him to say it's okay when it isn't.
He doesn't want to be Bro.
He searches Karkat's face, feeling like he's hiding even while he's right there. He doesn't look away. His voice stays hushed.]
Please don't go along with something you don't want to.