recollé ic inbox 3.0;

[parodeity]

DAVE STRIDER

consider this your warning about stairs. itll just keep happening bro. im telling you man

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[parodeity]

[ fight him @ john ]

I also am not bad at my job, which helps? Like, admittedly I fuck around on my phone, but it's always when I don't have other shit to do and it goes away when actual customers come in. [ GENERALLY... ] And I guess maybe it is. I...am used to it?

[windeity]

So I count as an actual customer now? [He notices the phone went away, Dave.] I think I would be used to it too if I had been around as long as you have. It still sounds strange is all.

[parodeity]

If you buy somethin', I guess? [ so NOT YET...he shrugs at the other statement. ] You either learn not to get attached or you get attached and prep for the worst. Or I guess you pretend not to acknowledge it.

[windeity]

[He lifts his eyebrows, giving Dave an appraising look before he decides to let that thread of conversation go for a little bit. It explains some things, he thinks, but he's not in the mood to go in circles about it yet.]

How would you feel about getting a plant?

[parodeity]

For the dorm? [ his eyebrows go up. ] I mean, I'm not opposed, but neither of us have the green thumb.

[ ...dave you work in a flower shop and do just fine with flowers, but ]

[windeity]

Yeah. Just a little one? How hard can it be? All we have to do is water the thing and make sure it doesn't bake.

[Also yeah Dave you work in a flower shop. So.]

[parodeity]

Are you sure we're at the get-a-plant stage of our relationship, Johnny boy?

[ dryly. but he does gesture towards the area with some potted flowers and cacti and whatnot. ]

[windeity]

Ha. Ha. It's not like we're getting a cat together or anything. [He's petting the cat one more time though before he moves to go check out said-potted plants.] I am just saying it'd be nice for the room to have some life to it. Just because we're stuck in one single room doesn't mean it can't look less...blah.

[parodeity]

Is that a jab at my decorating skills? Because my side of the room ain't blah; you're the one with all the gray shit.

[windeity]

A thing that is not my fault? Blame the dumb city. [He picks up two small succulents to hold in the palms of his hands.] Something like this.

[parodeity]

I do already. It's weird that so many people I know have gray eyes now. [ he shrugs. ] Those are fine with me. I can keep you from killin' them.

[windeity]

Tell me about it. [Speaking as someone with gray eyes. And holding gray plants. He frowns lightly but there's a shrug.] This will look a little more normal if green comes back. But the purple and pinks it in should be good enough. Also I think it will take a lot to kill these.

[parodeity]

A'ight. And I voted for blue the other day... [ also dave rings out the two plants and PAYS FOR BOTH ]

[windeity]

I appreciate your thoughtfulness. [It's a semi-dry tone, but he looks surprised suddenly.] Dude! The point was for me to pay for the plants...

[parodeity]

You paid for coffee? Also, I get a discount.

[windeity]

That kind of goes against the whole point, but okay. So we are even and now it's back to being my turn for coffee again. [But he's picking up one of the plants to examine it closer, grinning slightly.]

We didn't have a garden or anything at home but a few potted plants always hung out on the window sills in our kitchen. So thanks. [For indulging him in his weird wants and whims, basically.]

[parodeity]

It is definitely still my turn for coffee. [ dave. laughs. it's quiet because it's dave and he's not that loud in person, but. ]

And it's chill? I don't have any rules beyond what I gave you, decor-wise. So, like...have at it, man.

[windeity]

Even if we have a coffee maker now? I cannot win, can I? [But he visibly brightens at that laugh. Additionally he's also eyeballing the counter. Is there room up there for him to jump up and sit next to the cat, because that is a thing he's contemplating.]

Right. Saw. Not a big deal, still a shitty franchise. [There's a small yawn.] It always amazes me how you are both one of the most confusing and most easygoing people I've ever met.

[parodeity]

How am I confusin'? Also, you should go back home and nap.

[ there is definitely enough room on the counter for that. ]

[windeity]

No. I have a lab in a few hours, so I need to be awake for that.[Then up on the counter he jumps, hauling himself up and settling so he's not crinkling paperwork or disturbing the cat, clutching his coffee and making himself comfortable.]

Anyway, are you really asking or are you testing me?

[parodeity]

Asking. I don't actually test people all that often.

[ mOSTLY true... ]

[windeity]

That's good to know. [There's a small pause though.]

I don't know, I guess! I think it is just that sometimes you say things that I really don't understand and that I don't want to ask about because it seems shitty to do so. Sometimes I cannot tell if you really like me or if this is just...[A shrug.] Obligation isn't the right word. Ugh, ignore that, that part doesn't matter. The point is that talking to you is sometimes an exercise in learning to read between the lines, but I am getting used to it and I don't mind.

[And then, the thought bubble.]

(As long as you don't, I mean.)

[parodeity]

[ when dave thinks, he thinks in red. paragraphs of rapid-fire courier in his hex code, doodles and music notes and a mile a minute. he doesn't say all of it, not always, and there's a sense of disjointed mania whenever those thought bubbles pop up. ]

I really like you.

[ a calm statement.

the bars to showtime, "thankfully it was space itself", the half-formed thought that he shouldn't like anyone as much as he keeps starting to because holy shit wasn't it bad enough with dirk and rose and jade? masochist. ]

[windeity]

[Holy fuck, Dave. He can't help but let his gaze flick up to the thoughtbubble, watching the scrawl after scrawl of thoughts and notes and doodles, everything that makes up the Dave Strider he currently knows. He doesn't know how to decipher it and almost bitterly he thinks that perhaps the old version of him would know better.

Luckily, that thought process doesn't show up in his bubble. Instead, he finds himself thinking slower than Dave's manic state, blue and slightly gray sometimes and while there are a lot of starts and stops it settles on one thing.]

("Someone you can talk to about the little things, who distracts you from the big things. Who listens to you even when it's stupid, and who agrees to help you without much of a second thought even if they're not sure why. Just...a best friend. Someone you'd die for.")

[Dave's own words reflected back and John allows the words to sit there for a little bit before they disperse.]

...okay. [It's hard to think of what to say when he wants to say so much, so there's another sip of his coffee before he tries again.] I think maybe we should make it clear, too, that I thought you were cool even before I remembered you. I don't think you need me to clarify that? But just in case. I'm not really used to people that I can just do this kind of thing with.

[parodeity]

[ "i think you might actually be that cool" flicks by when john says cool and dave's eyes snap up. ]

You think I'm cool? [ absurdly it makes him think of sitting on the rooftop with dirk. he remembers asking that - no, asking you don't think i'm cool - but he remembers another part of it.

what is it about me that's important then and there hadn't been a single answer that'd made sense. is he on the other side of that now? ] I'm not, really.

[ like, he'll argue he is a lot of the time, but - ]

I mean, yes and no.