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[parodeity]

DAVE STRIDER | RED | #E00707
TEXT | ACTION

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[parodeity]

You grew up. [ by which he means john might not have...noticed...at thirteen... ] Jerk move, obviously.

[windeity]

[He pushes at Dave's head a little which. Is hard. When they're leaning into each other but whatever.]

How dare I start to notice things about my friends. I am clearly terrible.

[parodeity]

[ john is so bad at tactics. dave is never going to fall asleep at this rate, john. ]

I feel like a dad whose kid just got too old for Christmas, obviously. How will I survive these trying times?

[windeity]

[It's the morning, Dave can take a nap later!!]

I am sure you will manage. [A shake of his head.] ...looking back on it I kind of think maybe my dad was wondering the same thing.

[parodeity]

Probably. He really, really loved you. I could tell that much from an entire timezone away. And it's actually really hard when people you love don't have as much time for you as they used to, even though it's sort of...natural, I guess? Like. With Rose, I guess. It's part of growing up, but they call them growing pains for a reason.

[windeity]

Yeah...in retrospect maybe I was being weird about stuff. I don't know. I haven't thought about it much but Ochako asked me what my parents did and instead of telling her about how ectobiology worked I just left it as my dad was dead. That seemed easier at the time.

[parodeity]

Your dad is your parent. [ a shrug. ] The genetic donors you never met don't really qualify. And jesus fuck don't bother explaining ectobiology unless you feel like confusing people.

[ sometimes dave gets that urge... ]

I don't think you were being weird about it. I mean...you're the pinnacle of normality, or you were at thirteen. You were growing up, and you wanted some space, and that's, like. Normal. If the game had never happened you would have gotten over it.

[windeity]

Yeah no I know, that is kind of what I thought, too. [Dave please be nice to people.]

Rose did, too. You remember how she used to talk about her mom.

[parodeity]

Yeah. [ the only one of the four who didn't complain about their guardian, in fact, was dave. ] Neither of you ever really meant it. Or you did, but like...

[ he shrugs. ]

You could tell, listening, that you just wanted to grow up. It wasn't about really minding the things they did but maybe about minding feeling younger than you wanted to feel. She wanted to stand on even ground with her mom, I think. But sometimes when you're clambering for that even ground you lose sight of other shit?

[windeity]

[A huff of laughter.] When did you become the expert on parent-child relationships anyway?

[parodeity]

I watch a lot of movies. [ but. ] And it's more knowing how the two of you work than parent-child relationships do?

[windeity]

I guess you have a point. But at the same time...I don't know. Yeah. He's still my dad so even with all of the dumb bullshit at the end of the day I guess I still miss him sometimes, too.

[More than he'll own up to but this isn't about John being sad.] Growing up is just weird. That's all. The game did not help at all.

[parodeity]

Don't be like that. It's not "sometimes", is it? [ john spent most of their session looking for his dad. ]

[windeity]

[He sure did, and then he found his dad's dead body and the world had to keep going.]

...a lot.

[parodeity]

You never have to like, pretend you don't. Even if we don't talk about it?

[ why doesn't dave see an ounce of hypocrisy in this statement. ]

[windeity]

I pretty much had to fight you for hours to talk to me when you thought it would upset me. You can't use that as an excuse not to do it again.

[i.e Dave doesn't notice it but John does to an extent..]

[parodeity]

[ ah. ]

I maybe don't want to get stuck in a feedback loop of stupidity where you don't tell me you're upset because you don't want me to be upset you're upset and vice versa.

[windeity]

Okay, you're right, that is stupid. So what do you suggest so that is maybe not a thing we are doing?

[parodeity]

I mean, I guess the mature adult response would be to like tell one another when we are upset and then deal with it as a team, but we can also just choose the suppression olympics? I am a gold medalist.

[windeity]

Yeah, I noticed. [Internal sighing x2.] Are we ready to be mature responsible adults?

[parodeity]

I don't know. Are we?

[windeity]

I'd like to try. If that's okay. Suppression obviously did not work out that well for us in the first place.

[parodeity]

I don't like bein' on opposite sides of anything with you.

[windeity]

Which means you don't really agree. [A frown.] Can I ask why...?

[parodeity]

No, holy shit! [ just blurting that out and shit that doesn't clarify - ] I mean, no, it doesn't mean I don't agree. It means I'd way rather try the preschool share circle thing with you than do this again, where we're on different teams and we just - don't talk.