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[parodeity]

DAVE STRIDER

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

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[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.

[windeity]

[He blinks slowly because that was definitely a reaction he wasn't anticipating. A hand goes for the cat again, mostly giving himself an outlet for nervous energy while he tilts his head curiously.]

Not in the conventional way, no, but that is way too much effort. [There's an amused little chuckle following that.] I think you're weird and fascinating and cool in situations where most people would be flipping their shit. [Outwardly, at least. But he keeps that to himself.] I think you're someone unlike pretty much anybody else I've ever met and that alone is pretty cool, yes.

What do you even mean yes or no?

[parodeity]

[ he ignores the question and just kind of laughs again, this time a little more hollow and a little less genuine, but like. ]

There's no damn reason to lose your shit with most of this crap. I know it makes me sound callous and inhuman and what the fuck ever, but it's just - another fuckin' post scratch situation, so what?

[ there are worse things in the world ]

You're...yourself.

[windeity]

I don't really know what that means, Dave. Me being myself in what regard? What you're used to? Now? Both? [There's just a light frown.]

I don't think it's inhuman given what I've figured out about whatever happened back there. Just. Maybe obviously don't say that to people who aren't--post-scratch?

[parodeity]

You're just... [ too real

its like dirk but worse

dont say that you cant say shit thatll cause shit ]

...You're a really good person. One of the best I've ever known.

[windeity]

["Which me though?"]

Are you sure? Maybe I'm secretly an asshole and you just don't know it yet.

[parodeity]

You went to get your nails done with Anya. You...

[ he shrugs, and looks away. ]

You've done a million little things that say you're not secretly an asshole. I know how to spot people who aren't right.

[windeity]

[...there's an echoing shrug.]

...I didn't mean to come here and start that conversation, dude. Also have you ever seen Anya's face? Telling her no is about on par with kicking a puppy. It's awful.

[parodeity]

I'd tell her no if she ever asked me to do anythin' that I seriously took issue with. Probably?

[ i wouldnt answer questions for her about things i would for yuri ]

[windeity]

Probably. [There's a shrug.] You can still do everything and give the world to a person while telling them no. I am just saying that I do not have that limit with too many people.

[parodeity]

[ an eyebrow raise. ]

You're a stubborn little shit when you wanna be?

[windeity]

[A smirk.]

Well, yeah. But not everybody has the advantage of knowing that already?

[parodeity]

I...does that bother you?