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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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[windeity]

I think there's one or two more presents under the tree for her. That's kind of like hiding them isn't it?

[parodeity]

...want to get up and do the christmas present time then? And then I will make you cereal. [ clearly high chef talents

he made john scrambled eggs once but hasn’t bothered since... ]

[windeity]

Not a bad idea. Am I playing Santa in the meantime? [He's working on sitting up at least.]

[parodeity]

Kinda feel like you’ll make fun of me if I ask any of the questions that immediately come to mind, so sure. [ is john letting dave dislodge first or is he just sitting up while dave is half sitting on him and half hovering how stupid is this ]

[windeity]

It's Christmas. I'm probably not going to make fun of you. [No he's definitely sitting up while Dave's half-sitting on him. John doesn't give a shit apparently.] What came to mind?

[parodeity]

[ john for fuck's sake. dave transfers his hands from the bed to john's shoulders so he doesn't lose his balance, but doesn't voice a complaint even if he has to shift to accommodate. ]

No way. I am not telling you. Maybe next year. What does playing Santa entail here, exactly? Are you going to sort the presents and hand them around?

[windeity]

Next year is like a year away. [Thanks John.] But yes, something like that. That's what Santa does, doesn't he? [And a Santa hat comes out of his sylladex and lands on his head.]

[parodeity]

You keep promising we'll be around that long. [ ...

there's an irritated groan at the hat though and he drops his head to hide in john's shoulder. that was. 100% what he was going to ask about. ]

[windeity]

[He doesn't comment on that, but he does laugh as soon as Dave hides his face. There's a shift as he kisses the top of his head even while still laughing to himself.]

Problem?

[parodeity]

I hate you. [ he doesn't, and sliding his hands off of john's shoulders to loop around his neck so he's hanging off him in a hug does not really support this supposed hate. ] What does this make me in this scenario, exactly?

[windeity]

[He's just giving him a stupidly fond look in response. That really doesn't support the hatred, Dave.]

Mrs. Claus, maybe? [He's snickering anyway.] Or a believer in magic. Take your pick.

[parodeity]

[ can't see his face if he hides it! foolproof. ]

You wish. But anyway. [ he pulls away and slides out of john's grip, feet hitting the floor as he goes to...feed mewpac because the kitten IMMEDIATELY believes that was the reason he got up. ]

[windeity]

[He's still laughing even as Dave leaves the bed, sitting up fully and stretching out, spine popping a little as he also slides out of bed. Mewpac gets Dave's attention while he goes to feed her, and John's busy heading for their tree to grab the presents to distribute. All of the gifts get tossed on the bed again without reading the tags and he settles, waiting for Dave to rejoin him.]

[parodeity]

[ let him pet the kitten for a second and then grab a second sweater to throw on. which ends up just being the candy cane suck it one over the top of his sleep sweater before he gets back on the bed and climbs over john so he can lean against the wall. ]

Okay, Santa, what first?

[windeity]

[He eyeballs the sweater before he shakes his head, Santa hat wobbling a little before he sorts out gifts.]

Uhhh. These ones are from me to you, and then these two are for Mewpac. [He hands over six packages to Dave. The ones for Dave are varying sizes: one envelope, one gift bag, one flat rectangular box, and one smaller box.]

[parodeity]

[ goddamnit john. ]

Let's open the Mewpac ones later, when she's like, not ignoring us. [ so he sets those aside? ] ...I assume we can just go back and forth so.

[ what's in the gift bag, i guess.

gifts from dave turn up one item for mewpac (to be set aside) and a small box, a weirdly misshapen lump of a present (with a bow), and a really ugly barney gift bag. ]

[windeity]

[Look.]

Yeah I have a feeling we are going to get ignored until she's done eating anyway. [He's obviously going to pick up the weird lump first and slowly start to poke at it while Dave takes the giftbag.

In said-gift bag is a book and a small red and black camera bag that seems to be made for both Dave's digital and his film camera.]

I know the sylladexes are a thing, but it kind of seemed like a "you" thing and it's easier to carry lenses and extra equipment in a bag instead of using up all of your slots.

[parodeity]

[ yeah so the misshapen present is

a bowl?? lovingly hand made although the approximation of “bowl” is like. he tried its kinda lumpy and wavery. painted on the sides are dave’s best approximations of soccer and baseball shit which means there’s like, other sports tossed in confusedly? there’s also less confused pianos and music notes and cats and stars.

it’s really really ugly. it also has various candies in the bowl portion which john is better off focusing on. ]

I am going to collect a bag for every day of the week. Thanks, babe. [ he will do the long flat package next ]

[windeity]

[...Dave...he can't help when he grins and holds up the bowl, eyeballing it as he turns it around in his hands. It's. He tried, and frankly it's adorable and also hideous and he loves it. He's picking up one of the candies though.]

Variety and stuff. Pottery class? This is cool. It'll be good to keep on my desk for stuff, thanks. [He's also offering him one of the candies? But then he notices that Dave's picking up the flat package before he pauses.]

Ah, okay. So with that one...I'm not going to be offended if you don't like one of them. [Inside the flat package are two hoodies. One is this thing, and the second is a zip-up hoodie that's red with white accents. On the back though is the Time symbol. A casual godtier hoodie that was apparently custom-made.

But he's also grabbing the small box next.]

[parodeity]

That one last. [ SUDDEN DISTRESS or embarrassment? please break your staunch biggest present always last policy john, for some reason??? dave pauses with the hoodies in his lap, eyeing john. ]

[windeity]

What? [Okay, so. He stops and he's holding the box, staring at Dave before he just...puts the box down and picks up the Barney bag? Okay, he'll open this instead.] Okay, sure, that one last.

[parodeity]

Cool. [ also guess dave is opening the small package next because he’s doing envelope last but.

inside the fairly large barney bag is a neatly framed original ghostbusters movie poster that he spent way too much fucking time bidding on so don’t nail it to the wall like a lunatic, john? there are autographs. he figured falling back to their roots wouldn’t be the worst thing, even if he’s fidgety about it. there’s also for some reason a stuffed slimer plushie. no one needs that. ]

So...yeah. [ at least it’s not another bowl right ]

[windeity]

[...he stops completely and sort of just stares? What the fuck though? The Slimer plush goes into his lap and sits there as he just holds the poster and continues staring at it.]

...I used to have one of these in my room. [Quietly. He doesn't specify which room he means but he figures Dave will know he means from their old life.] Not with the signatures or anything but...holy fuck, dude. [He's pretty legitimately happy about that and he grins finally.] This is awesome. Where did you even find this? I love this.

[I hope Dave was prepared for the fact that Slimer's going to live on their bed now along with Liv Tyler who's carefully tucked up by John's pillow. But anyway. Inside the smaller package is a watch. It's fancy as fuck, and there's also a certificate of authenticity that says that the dial of the watch is made out of a rare dinosaur bone that's estimated to be about 150 million years old. John got extremely, extremely lucky in an auction himself.]

[parodeity]

[ okay obviously he knew that slimer would live on the bed and he just accepted that was how life was going to go?? liv tyler and slimer and mewpac. ]

The internet is a vast and mysterious place, and I am adept at navigating through it? It helps that I got this like...a while ago. [ when the internet actually fucking mailed things back, because this was always the christmas plan for john. dumb ghostbusters shit. he very carefully cinches the watch on his right wrist as he talks, the reads the certificate.

he taps the watch, thoughtful and a little hesitant. ]

It feels old. [ john what the fuck did this COST also that means the envelope is next ig ]

[windeity]

Yeah, same. Guess it's a good thing we were both prepared? [The poster carefully gets put to the side where it will be safe and he's already eyeballing where they can hang it up. Slimer remains in his lap and he's holding the smaller package but he's not opening it yet.]

Is that a good thing or...? [He's suddenly not sure.] It's in good condition and has a fresh battery, I checked. [What if he never tells Dave how much the entire month of December cost. He's been doing his best.

As for the envelope though Dave will find a handful of papers. The first is a print-out confirmation for a Groupon for dance lessons for both of them since John seems intent on following through with that. The second is a URL that leads to a song Dave may have heard before, now complete and fleshed out on John's Soundcloud account. And the third is the handful of sheets and then the finalized version of Dave's birthday song so he has a physical copy of the music as well.

There's also a letter.]

merry christmas! i had a whole draft earlier that i had to throw away a couple of weeks ago because things changed, but i think that is okay.
it was a good change. it was the better change.
i hope christmas has been good so far because i am kind of way too excited to spend 2018 with you!
i don't have anything to say i haven't already. i don't know how to say some things, but i think you know all of them anyway. it's cool...i think i really, really like dating my best friend, haha.
love you.
-john