originally "normal conversation"
"...so then she's like, 'if you didn't want my help you should’ve just said!' which is like. SO out of the blue."
"no way?"
"yeah way. and she found all my missing sticky notes, but they were in the trash for some reason!"
"dude, that's literally so crazy."
"it is! i just don’t know what's up with all that."
despite the subject matter, the conversation tone stayed in fairly good spirits. the previous day had thrown homestar’s generally positive disposition off, so his solution was to take the day to relax with sprackle down at the pool. no actual swimming was taking place, however; aside from the lifeguard being out, sprackle had insisted on bringing in concession stand food, so instead the duo sat on the edge.
"i know i don't know marzipan as well as you, but i think we can at least rule her out for planting all that."
"oh, yeah, no WAY she did." the jock chuckled. "she was pretty mad."
sprackle pulled his towel tighter over his shoulders, suppressing a smirk. "so.. any other leads?"
"uhh..." there actually were, but would he get it? "... i'll get back to you on that."
"well, hopefully you figure it out." he popped a french fry in his mouth. "i totally get the whole 'garbage memory' thing, though. if someone was messin' with me like that, i'd throttle 'em into next week."
homestar just stared, bemused.
"...i-i mean in theory. you know i have no upper body strength."
"yeah, no, i got that. what about the garbage memory part?"
"oh." he blinked, then brushed his stray hair aside. "just.. you know.. some of the stuff you've been saying. familiar, is all."
"mhmm."
sprackle shoved a handful of fries in his mouth. he silently offered one to homestar, who declined.
"so.. this is gonna be kind of a weird question."
"cool. what's up?"
homestar gazed at his own feet through the water. "do you ever get those moments where you like.. i dunno.. i guess you pass out and wake up somewhere? except.. not really?"
the other man raised an eyebrow.
"..hang on, let me reword. you're still like, doing stuff obviously, because people are SAYING you’re doing stuff, but you have NO idea what actually happened?"
"oooh." sprackle giggled. "yeah no, i gotcha. i haven't had a moment like that in a while, though."
"wait, for real?"
"for real for real. blackouts are FREAKY, man. we're lucky we greyout more often, actually- some things are still lost but at least a good hunk of that time is still, like, salvageable."
homestar laughed. "for you, maybe. i do the blackout thing more."
"yeah, that's what i said."
"uh-huh. anyway. weird question number two."
"oh, we're doing a full interview now, huh?" homestar's conversational partner crossed his legs and clasped his hands together, smirking. "please, continue."
"okay, okay." the jock giggled. "so when you're like.. thinking.. do you imagine other little guys in your brain?"
sprackle paused. "..what kind of guys?"
"well, they kinda look like me, and i think they ARE me, but not really." he gently swung his feet in the water. "i told you about the bucket and grapes thing.."
"oh! was it.." sprackle blurted, but upon realizing how frantic he sounded, he cleared his throat and relaxed his tone. "did you uh.. imagine one of the guys?"
"yeah, i did! it was strong bad's idea, really."
sprackle gave him a quizzical look.
"... ok, strong bad heard me talking to myself out loud and told me to use my brain. and that guy was in there. so it was BASICALLY his idea."
"you think maybe y’all were talking to each other? you and the guy, i mean?"
"maybe. that'd be weird though, wouldn't it?"
the two laughed, sprackle's being more subdued as he brushed stray hair out of his face again.
"well sprackle, i'm just glad you came to listen to me about this stuff." homestar grinned. "i'd have asked strong sad, but i didn't want him trying to pick my brain apart or diagnose me with some rare thing i never heard of.. or something."
"oh yeah, uh.. definitely." he scratched the back of his head. "it's just crazy we had more in common than i thought."
"yeah man, i thought no way was anyone else gonna understand what the heck i was saying." the two shared a smile.
"..well, it's getting late.. and i'm out of fries. did you still wanna go to pom pom's thing tonight?"
indeed, the sun was starting its descent. they hadn't spent that long at the pool, but considering sprackle slept in until late midday again..
"oh, yeah, that! yeah, we can head that way. are you gonna wear that there too?"
"no way, i'm dropping this towel off at home first."
"i meant your shirt."
sprackle glanced down. "what'd i get, a stain or something?"
"no, i just usually see you in pink. the teal's nice though."
"oh yeah." his face flushed again, but he tried to laugh it off. "maybe it'll be a hit with those guys too."
