wait do we know whether it was sid or nate who came up with the idea to have nate build a house right next door to sid?
we do not!!!! and it’s a plague upon my waking soul that we don’t. here’s the facts:
-nate buys the plot of land to build the house on in 2015, after the summer of love in prague, cannes, santa monica, et al.
-he builds the house, construction goes until 2017. he gets about a week at the new house that summer, despite the fact that it’s not entirely finished
-as late as november 2017, the house is not quite finished. at this time, we first hear about the “i’m moving” prank.
-sid has been joking (read: insinuating in increasingly serious ways) that it just so happens that he’s going to move away around the time construction finishes and nate moves in next door
-as late as november 2017, nate still earnestly believes this and mentions it offhand in an interview when asked about being neighbours
-the jig is up by the summer of 2018 at the latest. sid, verbatim: “i told him it’s all good, i’m not going anywhere.”
-???
this does not answer whose idea it was but does answer questions that no one thought to ask, for example:
q: was sid aware nate was building the house?
(a: yes, and probably referred real estate and construction guys, because i don’t earnestly believe that a 19 year old nathan mackinnon did all that by himself at the height of his sophomore goof era)
or, q: did one or both of them talk themselves into it after spending all summer together and realising they wanted to spend as little time apart from each other as possible?
(a: like, probably, because what the fuck is up with that timing. this is peak “we should open a bar together” drunk 3AM shit. except way more codependent and on a yacht in france, i guess)
or even, q: does the psychosexual competitiveness enter the bedroom?
(a: yes, literally, it makes nate’s entire bedroom and house exist in the first place. i fucking guess. notably it does not enter nate’s gym though)
and of course, q: does this mean that there’s a non-zero chance that nate put the house up for sale in 2022 just to fuck with sid?
(a: yes, unfortunately we may all unwittingly be witnesses to elaborate foreplay, or whatever the fuck you can call that.)
anyway, getting back to the actual question, given all that, it seems that the two likely options are:
1) Nate suggested it. it was maybe a joke, but Sid picked up on it, found it to be a great idea, and promptly arranged for Nate to buy the land and set him up (possibly via Pat) with his construction guys. insane level of “yes, and”-ing.
2) Sid suggested it. Nate, all of 19, had something like an emotional orgasm about his teen idol/crush telling him to move in next door and immediately agreed to literally everything Sid wanted. This option is insane because it means Sid spent three months next to Nate and decided to keep him forever.
While option 2 is delicious for concepts of sid being greedy and possessive (and i would love to read that fic) i do think option 1 is likelier irl. either option though: bonkers. especially re: the prank.
