windeity | RECOLLÉ INBOX

[He can't even tell. Dave has sunglasses and he can't tell and instead he rolls his eyes up and glares at the thought bubble.]

Yeah. This bullshit started a few days ago. [But he looks curious as he glances at Dave's screen. He can't really read anything from where he's at, but.]

Why not though? I mean remixes are pretty cool, and yours are pretty good. I feel like with as many people as you know that shouldn't even be a problem.

I know. I only saw as far as "wow". [ why is he only honest about the dumbest shit...

but thought-sharing puts dave on edge, so he...has been trying to give people space about it. he still remembers seeing more than silver wanted him to, and he still feels a little bad for that. ]

Anyway, I don't really know a lot of people who have music as their thing. Yuri and Anya and I do dance, but they don't really do musical shit. J - my friend, one of the ones who left, she didn't really do much music shit either. I mean...she'd send me normal music, but nothin' she wrote. That wasn't in her wheelhouse. Rose has other interests that she focuses on moreso. It's just not a thing most of the people I know are capable of doin' or interested in. Dirk could, probably, but we just didn't.

[ he shies away from the stuff he knows is likely to cause a memory. okay, what else does he know about john's musical tastes that he has anything for...?

john has only himself to blame. ]

[An eyebrow raise. Again.] I can't think there's much in my head that I need to hide.

[Other than probably a lot, so. He's listening though and nodding along, about to say something to counter the point when Dave starts playing Fireflies.

And he grins.]

This is a personal attack. I hope you know that. [Unironically he actually really loves this song so that's something.] ...I finished my project I told you about, by the way. Tangentially related. I like this one, too.

I don't like bein' able to read people's thoughts. I'd rather they just tell me shit or not on their own?

[ there's a brief moment of concern. yuri. other people he knows have shit they want to keep to themselves... ]

I like the sound effects, though. Are you actually planning to tell me what your super secret project is, or did you just want to alert me that it was, like, done? Also I never fight fair, you may as well learn now rather than later?

That's fair. [He prefers that, too, because he's seen enough weird thoughts already as it is.] You can avoid my bubble then, it's fine.

[He hums under his breath for a moment.] Don't be a cheater. But also I kind of lied to you a while ago? About not writing. I probably should have phrased it more like I don't write music anymore because that is probably more accurate. So I had a song I wanted to pen and memorize and that was my project. That's all.

...Oh. [ write more music egbert. :/ :/ :/ ]

Can I hear it?

[Give him a reason to??? God.]

If you want, I guess. It's not something I am completely happy with but I am happy with most of it? Only because I am still tweaking it. I...have a keyboard under my bed? Or we can head to the music department and borrow one of the practice rooms for a more accurate sound.

[ like more accurate sound immediately interests him, but also hearing it quicker does too BUT ALSO: ]

Which are you more comfortable with?

Probably a real piano. [He looks a little sheepish about that.] I'm more used to that.

Then let's go steal a music room.

[ he'll just shut his laptop. ]

Cool. [He's still like 90% sure Dave is supposed to be in class right now but okay well. Whatever. So he gets up and grabs his keys fr his bag before heading for the door and letting Dave follow this time.]

How long have you been mixing?

Since I was a kid. [ both sides, so the vague answer works - because he answers for both halves of the whole now, and knows he's more one than the other. ] When I was, what, yea high? [ gesturing lower down ] I learned.

[ bro taught him; he taught himself. dave will follow, not grabbing anything himself but keeping pace easily. ]

That's really cool. I have never been great at making remixes but to be fair I only tried once or twice? Wasn't in my wheelhouse. [They head out of the dorm and they're on their way before he continues.]

I've been playing for forever, but I started writing when I was ten or something. I kind of stopped seriously doing it a few years after that. I wrote a few pieces as a favor to someone last year but not much since then.

I...have never stopped for longer than a few months. There was a stretch earlier this year, but I've done stuff since. Last thing before this was just a theme song for Chiyo.

[ ......................

because................................he could.................

dave very carefully does not ask what happened when john was ten (his dad left, he knows that much) or why it's only done as favors or why...anything. he got one piano cover out of john egbert and he's going to be allowed to hear one not-that, and that is probably enough for two lifetimes worth of wishes. ]

Apparently Shouto plays some shit, I should ask him to jam with me...? I think it might be more actor-y skills than a serious interest, though.

Dedicated. That's still cool. And also I hope her theme song is really bouncy and bright because that seems like it would fit the sunshine theme.

[He apparently doesn't mind that Dave writes theme songs for his friends. He's also grateful he doesn't push to ask and instead in his bubble there's a faint string of "I've sort of missed it" floating by.]

Even actor-y skills are better than nothing. I think I'm still wrapping my head around the fact he's an actor. [And into the music building they go.]

I would have hung up the photo he signed for me but that seemed weird? Also I made him sign it in the fanciest possible handwriting, so it looks like a forgery.

[ BECAUSE...

IT LOOKS NOTHING LIKE SHOUTO'S SIGNATURE ]

There is also a cat doodle. Also yeah, it's upbeat - Sunshine's theme, I mean.

That would probably be a little weird, yeah. Thanks for that. But I am also not surprised. You should let me hear Chiyo's song sometime.

[It takes a bit of talking and coordinating but John manages to snag them a practice room solely by explaining he's taking a composition class and needs to test something. Which. Is actually true. He's in a composition class but this isn't for that. It's when they're in the room with the door closed that John heads over to the piano and lifts the lid for the keys.]

So this isn't bouncy or anything but I wanted it out of my head. It's not exactly the same as what I sent you yesterday and I am not entirely sure what it is but I sort of figure if someone is going to listen to it it might be you since I want to keep working on it and you are sort of stuck with me.

[ dave will just head over and sit on the edge of the bench, shrugging. ]

I don't mind you doin' whatever, it's not like it'll keep me up or anything.

[ HE WOULD NEED TO SLEEP FOR THAT TO BE A CONCERN catnaps...they're where it's at. ]

Also, I don't need shit to be bouncy even if I do make most of my stuff uptempo.

[A shrug.] I like the uptempo.

[There's a pause though because he's not going to call Dave on his not-sleeping thing that he's starting to notice. Instead, he flexes his fingers a bit before he presses on keys, sliding right into something Dave might recognize eventually. As he plays, a series of notes and bars seemingly float on a breeze and surround John in a circle so that's new, too. But he's perfectly content to play to the end.]

[ ...yeah, it doesn't take long. the first few notes are enough. the version he knows is the remix, has the overlay, but the bars of the piano are clear and familiar and he's looped the songs and listened to them again and again. he knows the symbols, knows who was responsible for what, and he remembers this.

showtime.

it's a good thing john isn't looking at dave when he recognizes the song because there's something almost openly stunned and hurt and wistful in the same way he always feels out of place and like there's some sort of open wound when the others are nearly but not quite who he keeps expecting or waiting for.

remove the beat, remove the rough finish because he'd been thirteen when he'd thrown it through his shit, and look at the base: dave knows this song.

it's something like resignation that moves him to eventually lift his own hands and place them on the keys further down, playing without really having to think about it. it's easier than focusing on missing someone who is and is not right next to him. ]

[…

So that's it then. Suspicion had been mildly right, something he's both elated and nervous about and it's for that reason he refuses to look at him even when Dave turns and begins playing along.

How is still a mystery that John doesn't quite get? He gets that there's something here, that Dave is someone to him and it was much harder to deny the more he started to remember. Even remembering what he does, it isn't nearly enough to know or understand.

Music is easier. It's both hilarious to him and kind of painful that this isn't upbeat and cheerful, that it's a song from a dream that someone else picked up strands of and can mirror right along with him and it doesn't surprise him when Dave finishes the song right along beside him. His hands rest on the keys and conveniently his thought bubble remains dim and silent.]

It's a song I heard. [It's a quiet, casual explanation.] Part of it, anyway, and then I went back and wrote the rest of it. [It feels strange to say "I wrote it when I was 13" because that's admitting to things and also he has a weird feeling that it was actually composed at a younger age.]

[ there's a brief shrug, and dave doesn't offer up the title. he doesn't pull his hands back, either.

he's spent this lifetime learning to play piano from a mother who he thinks might not even be real. dave knows john still has him outclassed, but it's easy enough to clumsily move into something else without speaking about it, a little awkward at first with the change in speed before he adjusts rapidfire. his hands move exactly as fast as needed, and then a little faster, and he thinks it would be nice if he could say it's a time player thing.

knowing too much and never having anyone else keep pace. remembering things he shouldn't - hadn't his post-scratch self probably done that, with that stupid nic cage museum or whatever the fuck dirk mentioned once? - and being just enough off from synching up with the people who mattered most.

well, he'd had rose. at least that.

it can't be a time player thing, though, because aradia - ami, she's ami, and dave isn't sure she'll let him call her aradia again after the last time, when she didn't know how to fight - doesn't remember much at all. ]

[It's only by nature of John being John that he picks up on the way the song should go and he immediately jumps in once it begins to repeat the lines. He doesn't remember the song yet and maybe he will later but for now it's solely skill that's allowing him to keep up. The music loops in ways he catches, closed circles and tracks he catches threads of as he follows Dave's lead even with his eyebrows furrowed.

This isn't his song. It still feels like home even if it isn't his, and he knows Dave remembers it more than he does.]

This one isn't yours. [It's meant to be a statement, but it sounds more like a question. Second-guessing himself.]

Picky.

[ his shit doesn't always translate well to piano, and from what he could tell he'd preferred to mess with their shit and remake it. when he hits the end of aggrieve, he slides into rediscover fusion as best as he can for piano, knowing it loses a lot from not having, well...all the sound shit involved.

a solo instrument had never been his style back then. it's easier to translate rose and john and jade to piano keys. ]

No. I can just tell. [But he doesn't try to follow along with this one, letting Dave play and sitting with his hands in his lap and watching the keys. It's the most bare form of music and he tilts his head a little before he hums to himself.]

You're...a multitasker, Dave. You don't know how to settle on just one thing, or maybe it is more like you just don't want to. You add and take away and rehash everything to be something of your own with multiple working parts. The reason my remixes suck is because I can't do that. You can. So yeah. That is how I can tell.

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