[it's Dave's turn to sit up, because that was some straight up awful and dark shit that he doesn't know what to do with; he had a hard enough time sorting himself out on that three-year meteor trip, much less anybody else. which is probably why the thing he winds up focusing on is:]
You ... want to prove your worth to me.
[that's a notion that's so wildly different than how he'd always viewed his own Bro that it's... well, it's enough to make Dave think that in his desperate attempts to read the guy flopped on the floor in front of him, that he'd gone and misread him anyway. tried to put too much of a terrible person on a dude's shoulders, someone who didn't really deserve that — no matter how much he might argue that it's still him. he doesn't really give a shit about the rules of splinters right now.]
[this isn't Dave's test to pass, though, and even if it weren't someone he desperately wishes he could have some sort of familial relationship with, he'd probably still at least. try to untangle this mess? run as much risk of making it worse as he does unraveling it.]
You don't need to prove anything to me, dude. [there's only one person on this Moon Base that he is comfortable being 1,000 percent sincere around, doesn't mind sharing his feelings with, and that's enough to encourage him to aim for at least 100 percent around someone who deserves it.]
I mean, unless you feel like proving your mountain climbing chops or something. But, I'm being kind of unfair — on a lot of different things that I don't really know how to get into. I've had a year to try to process everything that happened back in our session, and I just —
[ho boy. he pauses, then tries again.]
When I said that it's something, it is. It's something because ... I'm not alone anymore, I guess? You'd probably get where I'm coming from better than anybody — and I dunno, maybe it's the same for you. Or, I could do the same for you. Terezi understood, because she's got a bunch of different memories from different timelines jumbled up in her Mind powers or whatever, but it's not the same.
Also, I don't really know what the space jail visitation rules are and I'd rather not find out when I could just climb a mountain and tell you about some dumb magic bullshit that's happened since I got here.
— Wow. That was a sorry fuckin' attempt at a joke. You can forget I said that last thing if you want.
no subject
You ... want to prove your worth to me.
[that's a notion that's so wildly different than how he'd always viewed his own Bro that it's... well, it's enough to make Dave think that in his desperate attempts to read the guy flopped on the floor in front of him, that he'd gone and misread him anyway. tried to put too much of a terrible person on a dude's shoulders, someone who didn't really deserve that — no matter how much he might argue that it's still him. he doesn't really give a shit about the rules of splinters right now.]
[this isn't Dave's test to pass, though, and even if it weren't someone he desperately wishes he could have some sort of familial relationship with, he'd probably still at least. try to untangle this mess? run as much risk of making it worse as he does unraveling it.]
You don't need to prove anything to me, dude. [there's only one person on this Moon Base that he is comfortable being 1,000 percent sincere around, doesn't mind sharing his feelings with, and that's enough to encourage him to aim for at least 100 percent around someone who deserves it.]
I mean, unless you feel like proving your mountain climbing chops or something. But, I'm being kind of unfair — on a lot of different things that I don't really know how to get into. I've had a year to try to process everything that happened back in our session, and I just —
[ho boy. he pauses, then tries again.]
When I said that it's something, it is. It's something because ... I'm not alone anymore, I guess? You'd probably get where I'm coming from better than anybody — and I dunno, maybe it's the same for you. Or, I could do the same for you. Terezi understood, because she's got a bunch of different memories from different timelines jumbled up in her Mind powers or whatever, but it's not the same.
Also, I don't really know what the space jail visitation rules are and I'd rather not find out when I could just climb a mountain and tell you about some dumb magic bullshit that's happened since I got here.
— Wow. That was a sorry fuckin' attempt at a joke. You can forget I said that last thing if you want.