recollé ic inbox 5.0;

[parodeity]

DAVE STRIDER

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

VOICE | TEXT | VIDEO | ACTION

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[parodeity]

What if I had amnesia and forgot we ever met?

[windeity]

[...his grip tightens a little.] I'd try to get to know you all over again. Help you remember who you really are if you ever wanted, but at the same time I'd just try to re-meet you.

...sometimes I think even if your mind forgets things you don't forget how you feel about them.

[parodeity]

Would you try to get me to fall in love again? [ he's curious, okay. ]

[windeity]

[A very long pause because...like...he still thinks Dave's forgotten everything about the app so this question almost feels a little too close to him. Nevertheless Dave does remember him and loves him, so it's stupid to worry.]

I would hope that maybe you would give me a chance and I would do everything I could to try and prove we were supposed to be together. Yes, I would try, even if maybe you wanted something else.

[parodeity]

[ dave is a terrible boyfriend and should like

CLARIFY THAT????

instead he just kind of laughs. ]

Somethin' else like what?

[windeity]

[DAVE IS THE WORST BOYFRIEND...]

I don't know! If you didn't remember me there's no absolute guaranteeing you'd fall in love the same way and with me. Someone else might get to you first.

[parodeity]

I'd ask why you'd let them but we're both so demonstrably bad at actually hanging onto things that matter that the answer is like, self-evident.

[windeity]

I wouldn't. Let them, really, but it's more about you and your choices. You already know I'd give you everything in the world as long as I could, and if I couldn't I'd figure out a way how.

You being happy means a lot to me. [Which is why he let all of last month just go on its own.]

[parodeity]

Yeah, I mean, that's what I mean. If you told me right now you were dumping me to go date, idk, pick a random name from a hat, I'd kind of go "yeah okay, sounds legit" and just try to be your best friend again. I don't think I would actually stop you, and vice versa same story. It's the kind of people we are?

[windeity]

Does it ever worry you that I might do something like that? [Like. He doesn't want to or anything and he doesn't want Dave to go anywhere, but it doesn't hurt to ask.]

[parodeity]

Yes. [ but he doesn't specify which part worries him. ]

[windeity]

I do love you. Like. More than anyone. I can't even think of anyone I would date besides you even if I wanted to.

[parodeity]

I love you too. That wasn't the part that worried me.

[windeity]

Then what was?

[parodeity]

How easy it would be to break.

[windeity]

...[He just pulls him closer.] Explain to me?

[parodeity]

Why'd your last relationship break up, babe? Or mine, for that matter.

[windeity]

Because girls suck?

[parodeity]

Like for real. [ he smacks john's shoulder even though he laughed. ]

[windeity]

Because they wanted to leave and we just let them. [He tries to grab Dave's hand again since he smacked him :|]

[parodeity]

Yeah. You'd do it again with me. [ fine he can have the hand - no wait dave keeps it just out of reach and sits up. ]

[windeity]

I don't know. I already told you, I think, that you've changed that for me. [Dave sits up and John...doesn't.] Has it changed for you?

[parodeity]

I told you I thought maybe it had. [ he goes quiet for a second, but it's one of the pauses that's followed by words. ] Like. In some cases. If you genuinely just fell out of love with me, and into love with someone else, like - I don't know, would you do a thing about that in reverse? Of course I'm a selfish enough asshole I want you to be with me, but I also want you to be happy maybe more than I want that.

[windeity]

I think it's maybe a thing I haven't put too much thought into because I am very certain about how I feel about you. Like...even if there's a lot that separates us that I can't explain to you, you're still my favorite person in the whole world and I plan on sticking around as long as you'll stay.

I think maybe falling in love might be easier than falling out anyway. That's how I know I was never really in love with Vic.

[parodeity]

Yeah? [ he remembers that talk, sitting at the side of his high school pool. dave's restless again, shifting, and john didn't move so dave moves again, turning and straddling john and staring down at him in the dark and trying to think of words that make sense beyond the vague headache.

he only comes up with things john already knows. ] You're the only person I've ever been in love with in this lifetime.

[ it's said almost idly, even though he hadn't bothered to indicate he remembered any other, and then he leans down and kisses john because that's easier than words. ]