[It goes back to that first time- when Ryuji asked Dave if he somehow knew he was going to nationals for track, would it influence what he does now so that he becomes complacent with the thought of winning... enough so that it would change the outcome of his next heat. The human effort behind determination was meant to be undisclosed, unencumbered with the weight of a deterministic outcome. The best part about being free to make your own choices in life was that, well, the script wasn't there for you to follow. That sort of line of thinking was what him and his friends fought for, in the end; whether or not it was a god telling you what you had to do and removing your free will, or yourself doing the same thing, in order to avert danger... that wasn't freedom.

So depending on how someone looks at it, Ryuji is either the worst friend to have as a time player, or a really good one. And whether or not there's an Alpha Dave who looks at the same string of events in a tangential semiform of reality, it becomes pretty irrelevant. Screw the past, don't worry about the future, live in the moment. Or something like that.

Maybe not this current moment, though. He grimaces unhappily when Dave pulls the monkey pajamas out of the cupboard. Whereas Dave's efforts fruited a delicious apple from the space gods' grace, Ryuji was continuing to have his head held under water (at least, until Dave finds that comic).]

Yeah. Really. This ain't what I wanted to find in there at all. Who the hell comes up with this shit? It's just embarrassin'.