this is the dawning of personal belonging
HEADCANON/RANDOM FACTOIDS
01. Dave speaks with a faint Texan drawl. The accent itself is barely noticeable when he speaks regularly, but becomes fucking obvious in highly emotional situations (nervous, angry, etc). With puberty and his voice cracking/changing, it'll also pop up. Typically it can just be passed off as a lazy, cool drawl because he's so mellow and chill.
02. He is almost bleach blond, though gets a little sandier in winter months. His eyelashes are the same color, but his eyebrows are actually kind of a dark. Also they are thick, but not super caterpillars about to consume his face.
03. Totally covered in freckles. It's mostly prominent across the bridge of his nose and his cheeks, but they are essentially everywhere: shoulders, collar, sides, arms, hips, back, legs. Everywhere.
04. He cannot cook. At all. In fact, he has never cooked in his life, and it's probably safe to bet that Bro hasn't either. Their kitchen is useless. The microwave has puppets in it. The fridge is full of shitty swords. As stated, if Dave wants any food/drinks in the apartment, he has to hide them in his closet. So he and Bro pretty much order out a lot, and Dave will occasionally stow away canned food (ie; ravioli and shit like that) in his closet with drinks that are room temperature friendly (ie; apple juice).
05. Dave spends a god awful amount of time on sites like TV Tropes and Wikipedia, going from link to link and reading the various tropes/articles on both sites. He's also a major contributor to both sites, and can be blamed (in his world) for the addition in Madagascar's wikipedia entry about them SHUTTING. DOWN. EVERYTHING. He also spends a lot of time on 4chan and Encyclopedia Dramatica doing just about the same thing.
06. He actually isn't that bad at drawing! In fact, Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff was going to have less terrible art at the beginning, but 1. he's a lazy teenager and 2. it's not as hilarious as the JPEG mess that SBHJ is now.
07a. Prolonged physical contact in the form of full embraces is kind of really awkward to him. The Striders aren't really huggers, aside from the occasional one-armed hug that includes a chest bump and pounding on each others backs. So he will mentally be pretty WHAT DO? when hugged by people he actually likes enough to allow the occurrence of hugs, though will act as chill as possible about it.
07b. That said, Dave actually gives some of the best hugs ever when he returns them properly.
08. He wears a watch on his left wrist, but turns it around so that the watch itself is on the inside of his wrist while the strap is on top. Lately he hasn't used it all that much, and the battery is pretty close to dying, but it's still a thing.
09. Though proficient in turntables, synthesizers, and remixing, Dave does have a broad knowledge of musical instruments due to just having so much time on his hands. He can play pretty much anything with a varying degree of success, though is pretty clunky at the piano, blows (ha) at woodwinds and brass instruments, and is okay with the violin but typically doesn't have the patience required for playing it (or other classical stringed instruments). He seems to like guitars and the drums the most.
10. He can rap, remix a phat beat, and he can play instruments, but he can't sing. Or, rather, he won't. It's not that his singing voice is absolutely terrible (it's not bad but he could stand to do it more often so he doesn't sound rusty), but it brings out the best worst of his Texan twang and (he thinks it) makes him sound like a country singer. Do not want.
11a. While Dave is more of a DJ than he is a dancer, he can dance, too. Seriously, this kid has way too much goddamn time on his hands. He can do a lot of b-boy tricks, such as flares, windmills, glides, and c-steps, along with popping and locking and tutting. You can also reference this motherfucking hipster for some mad, less b-boy related moves.
11b. When standing around, if the situation isn't a serious one and he's just bored, Dave will randomly start gliding, c-stepping, or just sort of start dancing outright while maintaining conversation. Typically he won't go all out, keeping his hands in his pockets and doing more footwork than anything else, but don't be surprised he if starts busting a groove spontaneously in the middle of talking to him in person.
12. He hears a constant ticking due to his status as a hero of time. It gets louder and tends to echo when he's actually utilizing his powers, and only fades just slightly when he's sleeping or zoned out. When allowed, he puts in earbuds or puts on headphones and cranks his music up to try to drown it out. It's usually effective enough.
13. Troll!Dave (Davi Strivus, FITE ME) has Brocrow for a lusus (giant, crow-like featherbeast), is still covered in freckles, and is a mutantblood. He types with karkats font color but his quirk doesnt change, and he says he does it for the irony. His shirt still has the record/broken record on it, but goes from red-and-white to black-and-heather-grey. His horns are goat-like, looking like a billy goat's somewhat nubby ones up until he hits puberty. They then grow longer and curve a little.