postictal | ic inbox; entranceway

fine don't ask her
you're the one who said it

[And thus Tim and Jay's fragile sense of cooperation decoheres and crumbles after about thirty seconds, and no one was surprised.]

[The forces that keep the multiverse in motion breathe a collective sigh of relief.]

didn't realize just mentioning it was enough to lock me into finding out

[But dammit, now he actually wants to. Thanks, Tim.]

[Jay, oh my GOD.]

no one's locking you into anything
do whatever you want

that's what i'm planning to do

look do you want to watch a movie

what

[He knew this was a bad idea.]

a movie

do you want to watch one

[Why.]

[Why.]

[He - ]

[Okay, wait. No. This makes sense. He figured the two of them must've talked since she saved their asses.]

did clem tell you or something

[Wait. What?
Is there something he's supposed to know? Is there something he's missing?]

did clem tell me what

she saved our asses so i said she should watch a bad movie or something sometime
like i guess as a thank you

is that

were you not

[For a moment he was relieved because he could accept this sort of awkward offer for socialization as a misguided attempt to pay Clem back, which made it marginally easier to stomach than the thought that Jay just offered that out of the blue out of a genuine willingness to interact with Tim more than necessary.]

[But it wasn't, and he did, and ]

[Well.]

oh

[Oh.]

this isn't
*sent too early
this isn't that
i was just going to watch a movie

[Just a distraction, that's all it is. And that's all it was before this all started, when everything Jay did was a 'distraction', wasting away into nothing in a studio apartment.

Does he really feel like he needs someone to supervise him? To keep him from, what, backsliding into whoever he was before he picked up the camera?]

it's less weird if there's more than one person

i mean it's fine if you want to

[Good GOD can he stop being a socially stunted middle schooler about this.]

do you want me to ask her

wait are we combining plans

[Ah yes, Jay thinks, this is why he never engages in social interation. He's getting stressed out over a movie night.]

how many movies are happening tonight

you said it'd be less awkward if there was more than one person

wait
no
i meant

it's less awkward if its more than just yknow
me
alone
in front of a tv watching a movie
one person

but we can combine plans sure

is that ok

i mean
we don't have to

i'm just not really the movie guy
you know

[Alright, now this is slowly creeping back toward familiar territory. Tim's not the movie guy, and Jay guesses that, in absence of Alex, he is.

He scrolls back up, to where Tim described him and Clem's plans. Bad movies. He can do bad movies.]

sure

you want me to pick out one, or should i get i dunno
a pile so you guys can choose

do you know a lot of bad movies

[There's a joke about Marble Hornets in there. But they're both probably better off not thinking about Alex Kralie. Not right now.]

[Ha-ha. Yeah, he would, wouldn't he?]

side effect of studying this stuff

or just hearing alex complain long enough

or just who i am as a person i guess

[He can't blame all of this on Alex, but at least a few of the ones he knows are his fault. A few others were ones he picked up from overhearing other classmates talking. Most just came from the internet.]

there are worse things to be

[He could be Alex, yuk yuk]

are you sure?
seriously we don't have to

[Tim's giving him an out, which is...startlingly nice of him.

[Is he sure?]

[...]

[Screw it, why not.]

nah let's do it

you have a genre preference?

just
nothing psychological

i guess

[It's too much like his life.]

[Yeah, that...makes sense.]

got it

shouldn't be hard
the kind of bad movies people watch on purpose aren't like that a lot of the time
a lot more monsters and bad special effects, a lot less
weird disturbing navel gazing
if that makes sense

[Jay has a couple "auteurs" he'll be sure to avoid. Mostly because their stuff's actually "good", he guesses, from a stars-or-thumbs-or-whatever perspective, but also because it sounds like Tim wouldn't take them too well.]

should be fine
but if anyone starts talking about loops of unhappiness i'm gonna throw up

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