landofsomethingsomething:

remember when karkat threw a total shitfit in front of everyone on the meteor and dave laughed hysterically and reminded rose of how he’d told her about how great karkat is, see, rose, I told you about this guy, see?? Obviously it’s meant pejoratively like – pft look at this asshole who has never learned even a single strider rule of cool – but there is no way there wasn’t an underlying fascination with the sudden presence of someone so expressive and I like to think that even that early on, in that moment, dave was genuinely experiencing a little thread of excitement at the thought of spending time with someone who wore his heart so transparently on his sleeve

he goes into it in this mocking way because at that point it’s the only way he can really express that kind of emotion while maintaining his superior frame but I always read that shit has half genuine delight that he had no fucking clue how to process at the time

I imagine so many of their early interactions just being karkat pontificating endlessly about his many grievances, limbs flailing, volume irregular, pacing around with the boundless energy of the perpetually enraged, and dave just kind of laughing and telling himself silently he’s so much better than this guy while shrugging off this increasing and perplexing sense of deep discomfort, not with karkat and his performative fury but with the way he finds watching it so fascinating? why does the relative peace and quiet of being alone in his block at night keep him awake choking on his own completely fucking ridiculous existential anxiety while sitting on a metal floor listening to karkat “sandpaper for your auditory cortex” vantas screech about bullshit for hours is so fucking mesmerizing?