#perhaps fred-durst-jesus made sure john and dave would meet so they could fight korrok. who knows

[axemetaphor]

i dunno if its ever explained in-text but i assumed since dave mentioned john got booted from the computer class for drawing an ascii vagina that dave thought john was funny and decided to allow john to keep annoying him /hj

my headcanon is theyre just a case of people who kind of instantly clicked. if you think about it they have some pretty similar traumas in a way and john seems to have an easier time letting dave know shit abt him (though later on it seems he has more of an easy time letting amy know shit abt him, to some degree; there's likely a lot of things amy wont know but dave was around for). ive always figured they just sort of click on that trauma level which is something thats pretty hard to find and tends to make people stick together. i personally also think it took a while for dave to truly trust him, tbqh, but that john wasnt overly pushy or anything, just tended to sit next to him in classes they shared, and talk to him--and while dave of course would not trust that at first, im sure plenty of bullying he experienced was people pretending to be his friend just to kick him whenever hes down why no im not projecting, john is such a genuinely nice person that certainly past some point dave would realize john actually does think hes neat. theyve got more in common than at first brush imo but that may be conjecture/projection on my part

i think it also may be worth noting that while dave was likely always pretty closed off due to his particular flavor of neurodivergence it also seems pretty implied that the bullying he experienced escalated over time throughout high school, resulting in the billy incident, and it's possible dave was less closed-off to other people when he and john first met at 14; it might be that his refusal to connect with other people is linked to that trauma. after all somehow he was also friends with todd (though todd doesn't exist anymore), but it's clear in book1 he hasnt made any friends past high school (this may have changed by book4 i think)

iunno where the "found his depressed demeanor 'funny'" bit couldve possibly come from but im not knowledgeable about stuff pargin may have said in interviews or blog posts or anything so maybe thats where that one comes from ? someone else may know.

how did dave and john become friends in the first place?? we know dave actively goes out of his way to avoid talking to people (ex: in book 1 he takes all his lunch breaks in his car to avoid the possibility of having to talk to any of his coworkers, also him having one friend his entire life). they met in a computer class in their first year of high school but that doesn't explain anything lol

the jdate wiki says that john approached dave because he "found his depressed demeanor 'funny'" but i dont have a source for that and i still find it hard to believe that dave would have even been receptive to john's approaches. anyone who knows what book that quote is from or has their own thoughts/headcanons about how they became friends, plz let me know