[He has an argument for that, but it dies somewhere in his throat. Dave had moved and now he was in front of him and this hut is so fucking small and there's really nowhere for either of them to go from here. There's so much he doesn't understand, and even more he doesn't realize he doesn't understand. He wants to argue that it's his fault as much as Dirk's, the same argument he'd already had with one Strider...

...but this isn't about that. Dave's trying to make it about that, but John's not going to let him make it about that.]

I know. [He doesn't, but it doesn't matter. He can fix the mistakes. This was something bigger.] It doesn't matter anymore, I can still fix it. I can make things right again once we get back. But I think...I don't have an answer, really. I get it. When you feel like you failed everyone, you probably don't want to be around those people very much. And like I told you, everything with him and Jake is awkward and even moreso since Jake has issues too, I guess. So you're the next on Dirk's list of people, and if isolation means being desperate for anything solid then...[A shrug.]

Both of you sometimes suck at communicating. Must be a Strider thing. [A half-hearted teasing grin.] But it comes back to that whole weird thing where they think we're heroes and we're just...us. I just wonder if Dirk knows what limits are when it comes to trying to make something work. It's not like you know when to give shit a rest when you're really stubborn about it, too.

[There's a short pause before he looks away.] Maybe he just doesn't understand why the hell this would be weird on the flipside.