[So capriciously said, without a trace of maliciousness to it, like there was nothing more natural and true in the world than the fact Dave Strider was an asshole. In fact, if it weren't for the fact that he knows how much of a cheater he was, he'd probably throw down another thumb war rematch just for the hell of it, but since that'd go nowhere fast, he lets the other find whatever space he wants to take up, as big or as small as he feels comfortable to do, and settle in.
Oh, right- he just remembered something about a (really fucking strange) encounter he had with someone else on the station, and heads to the bunk beds. Looking at the difference between the top and bottom bunk, and the disheveled state of the lower one, it'd probably look like that one was his, but no- he reaches up to the neatly made top one and pulls down what looks like a package of something from under his pillow.]
Dunno if you're into it, but I managed to meet someone who had twizzlers? Uh... I dunno how, really, but he had a ton of em, and gave me some. Thought you'd like one.
[STRAIGHT UP CONTRABAND.
He tosses the junk food over to Dave. Only a few left, but he was only given a couple to begin with. Eh, might as well share the good fortune.]
[he's not much at all into black licorice, anyway, but at least Twizzlers have a bit of a sweeter tinge to them. and more importantly, it's not anything like the toast and whatever protein he could stomach that he's been living off of the past few weeks. it has potential.]
What the fuck, so you can get actual food here?
[where the hell are his bottles of apple juice and doritos then? but he turns the candy over in his hands, inspecting it. yup ... it looks legit.]
You sure you don't mind sharing? This thing's probably got more flavor than anything else on offer combined.
Uh... not quite. I really don't know how they're even here, but this kid had a bunch of just... stuff? In his room. Stuff that's like. Impossible. Maybe he got lucky or something and hit the jackpot with room claims.
Or it's magic.
Either way, it's kind of delicious magic and I ain't complaining about it.
[He finds a spot on the desk to park his ass onto, the lack of chairs and chill environs in this place really begged to question who the hell the interior decorator was and how he deserved a stern talking to.]
Nah, finish 'em off. I figured you'd enjoy it, so I saved the rest for ya.
[he'll just have a seat on the edge of the bunk and dig in, then — it's still not exactly his favorite candy in the world, but it is something to remind him that he does actually still have taste buds. and even though Twizzlers have pretty much no nutritional value, he somehow feels better. like the fact that he's not eating something cardboard-flavored may have given him more energy.]
What other stuff did that guy have? Makes me think I should have tried snooping in more rooms.
Candy... lots of outfits, too. Like, Nike branded shit.
[He got the hunch that there was way, way more stuff in there that lay in hiding, just judging by the way the guy carried himself, but Ryuji didn't press it. Being a thief is all about gaining small amounts of information over time to make judgment calls if something needs to be done. Not that he was outwardly thinking in that line of thought, honestly... he was experiencing the wild high of a sugar rush that was almost 3 weeks overdue.]
Tell me about it. All we got was some coffee cups and a few boring ass books scattered around here. [Whoever these nerds were living here before must've been the type to stay up late, reading.
He sighs, audibly, and peers over at the bed where Dave had situated himself. Oh, yeah they were supposed to talk about video games, but something else hits him that he wanted to ask before. And since Ryuji can't not ask questions that pop into his head---]
[the joke being that he loves them sincerely, for the fact that they are a joke in and of themselves. he loves them so much he has worn them for three years straight.]
My best bro from back home gave them to me — they're the shades from Starsky and Hutch, which means at one point Ben Stiller also had them on his weird face.
[And then the great reveal of his plenitude of feelings towards Ben Stiller comes unraveled; Ryuji's jaw drops because that's seriously...]
So that would make your best bro Owen Wilson.
[He wants to ask Dave if he wears them to sleep too, but he's not sure that he wants to know the answer to that question. Best to leave some mystery out there in the world. Either way, he leans back with his head against the wall.]
Sburb, right? [That felt tough to even say, what the hell]
[Dave cares a lot about John, okay. also, not only has he slept wearing the shades, he has in fact worn other eyewear over them. if he is anything, he is dedicated.]
[but right, video games. the original topic at hand.]
Well, the ultimate goal of Sburb, through a series of extremely stupid and roundabout quests and battles, and if you happen to be lucky enough, is to create a new universe.
One of those water stains on a piece of wood that resembles the likelihood of good old JC would still rank higher than him, but, he digs it. Ryuji would say similar things about Ren. He understands the concept of best bro-hood way, way too damn much.]
Sounds kinda cool, but I thought this was one of those building-sim games. Never saw any of those that had battles in it.
[Not yet getting that the game he was talking about layered itself right into the perceivable realm of reality.
Yeah, it is. But even though you start off by building up your house, what you're really doing is helping build the final battlefield.
We never got this far, but based on what I've been told, if you manage to win, you get to go through a door to the new universe and claim the ultimate reward.
[whatever that is. nobody Dave knows has ever explained further than the fact that it is "the ultimate reward." he can only assume, given the fact that the god-tier status exists, that it has something to do with being gods of the new universe.]
[It's okay, I've accepted this into my heart already]
Watch, you get to the end and it's like the mecha anime where it's just a blank room with the words "CONGRATULATIONS" written on a white screen with blank ink.
[That would actually??? be the worst thing that could ever happen, and he'd uninstall so freaking quick.]
Just to mess with ya. But uhh... sheesh, I can't even imagine what a game would offer as the ultimate prize. Godhood? Like, the ability to go back with unlimited resources and build everything as you want it to be?
[He has to pull the brakes on this entire thing to make a very deep, very insightful comment about the state of Dave's universe and the game that tormented him over the past few years---]
Wow, that musta been pretty shady. Stealing their hard earned cash like that. And no one bothered to investi-gator you?
[Little did he know how much Dave was a god's honest crookadile.
And now that that's over, and he hates himself a little bit more than he did a minute ago.]
It lets you level up even higher, but honestly, the leveling system was stupid and arbitrary anyway. But you also get conditional immortality. The ability to fly. A comfy set of magical pajamas. Divine stuff like that.
[It's bad when your loser friends rub off on you and you become an even higher level loser.
Never to be mentioned of again, but hell, if he isn't scratching the back of his head and smiling like he thinks he's the best worst goddamn thing that graced this side of the station.]
This game kinda sounds like bullshit.
Although no one can deny how awesome comfortable pajamas are.
[something like a genuine smirk threatens the corners of his mouth. there's nothing that he's said here that would blatantly indicate Sburb isn't just a computer game, that it's the actual, completely fucked up reality he's been living for three years. he hadn't even touched on the worse corners of paradox space and how easy it is for everything to go completely wrong.]
[and yet, he finds those two sentences oddly comforting. like maybe the guy understands more than he's letting on.]
[Dave chews on a Twizzler thoughtfully for a minute.]
Don't think you could sum up Sburb any better than that. Definitely not nearly as fun as Solitaire.
Eh. Maybe we can find a pack of cards in a room or something. At least you'll be occupied for hours.
[With their E-rank luck though? It'd probably be missing exactly one card. Probably a spade, just for the added ironic effect.
He doesn't exactly let on that he's starting to get the feeling that this is bigger than just a game, but it also doesn't freak him out to even know if it was a possibility- that this sort of stuff could exist out there. He looks at Dave, sees him about to offer what looks like a crook to the corner of his lips, and... cool. That's good enough. But so as not to stare, his eyes wander over to the pillow on the bunk.
Although his life wasn't a video game, he wants to come clean and tell him about Yaldabaoth's game. The one where god pitted two kids against each other and stacked the odds so high against them, all to declare that humanity couldn't, and shouldn't be in control of their own desires. Ryuji was real fucking tired of games that had no winning condition.
At least, if you play by the rules.]
Kinda weird though. I mean. Solitaire never gave me any time powers. [Bluntly put.]
You probably just weren't playing the right Solitaire.
[it's a weirdly apt metaphor, if you think about it. you start with a deck of cards, shuffled any which way, and with a bit of strategy and a lot of luck, you end the game with all four suits arranged in order. as it should be.]
[it's the same deal with Sburb. it's trying to work with or around the cards your session has dealt you. it's attempting to rearrange the rules as you understand them, even if your little video game rebellion turned out to be something you were meant to do all along. it's sequencing frog DNA like suits of cards. it's attempting to make something as it should be.]
[in any case, Ryuji seems to have a knack for finding the actual meaning behind the jokes and sometimes plain absurd shit Dave says — so maybe he'll take that Solitaire comment for what it actually is. it's an acknowledgment that Ryuji was right — and it's a thanks. for understanding.]
I don't mind telling you more if you're curious. Rose has a lot more working knowledge than I do, though; she even wrote a nigh unreadable GameFaq about it.
[And as someone that gets frequently bored and ends up in mischief, that's never really... that good of a thing. But it's also an unintentionally layered statement, an extra slab of cheese somewhere hidden between the metaphorical sandwich buns.]
Hell yeah, man! I gave you twizzlers... that's clearly the olive branch of revealing deep, dark life secrets.
[And there's... 50? 60? 80? people out there in the station that he can't trust farther than he can throw them. Even if this information isn't TOP SECRET CONFIDENTIAL, it feels like he can open up a little more to Dave. Attempt to grow that small ring of confidence that currently contains 2 people into maybe 3. Either way, it's... kind of nice, and relaxing.]
Don't think I've got any of those — no interesting ones, anyway — but Twizzlers taken.
[Dave is infuriatingly bad at even admitting he has basic teenage problems, sadly. they're always hidden somewhere in whatever other points he feels like making — and even then, they're the sort of hints that only look really obvious in retrospect.]
[but honestly, this is a start? it's not like he's going to waltz up to a rando and get into the finer points of alchemizing, so some measure of trust is there.]
At least from my perspective, though, a lot of the game was just fucking around until something big happened. But I also had a lot more time on my hands compared to the others.
[Considering Ryuji overshares just about everything other than the stuff that actually matters? Dave's in good company in that department.]
That's kinda what we're doin' now, though.
[The fucking around aimlessly until something big happens... having a stupid amount of time on their hands. At least, Ryuji doesn't think that they're caught in a video game? Hopefully.]
Man. I still can't wrap my head around that time stuff. Like, you think about it, right? Any point that you've ever regretted something in your life, you could just go back and have a do-over.
[He has to actually stop himself for a moment. He breathes through his nose, and gives out a soft huh.]
I don't know if I would. Mistakes are kinda what makes me, me. And trust me, I've made a lot of 'em.
[Dave pauses to think about that for a minute — rather, to think of how to explain this in a way that would make sense to someone who isn't a time player. he probably would have brushed it off and agreed, if he didn't already know about the weird time stuff already happening on this space station. and there's still something about Ryuji's situation with his friends that he finds a bit risky.]
That's not a bad way of thinking.
Because you are you — and if you were to go back and make a major change like that, you'd basically be saying that the way you are now isn't the way you're supposed to be. You'd have to accept that the past Ryuji you went back and changed things for is the "right" one now, and is the one who will go on to live in a future you're not invited to. You would just be a future Ryuji from a splintered timeline who came back and changed things, and in the process, erased your own future.
That's something that has to be done sometimes. [Davesprite had done it. if he hadn't prototyped himself, he would have died along with all the rest of the Daves out there whose futures no longer existed. it's sort of the same deal for the Dave sitting on a bunk bed eating Twizzlers in space.]
For the most part, though? It's not worth the sacrifice.
It's not like he'd go back just to do something for himself, but the allure of changing history to work out something that could've saved someone did have something behind it that felt almost right. He could've saved Akechi. It's a dumb, stupid thought that only lasts a minute, but... there's nothing about him that he'd change. Maybe relive the last few moments of that exchange, say something different, change the outcome to let someone continue on when they shouldn't have died. It's fleeting, though, and doesn't last, and the ramifications of that thought are unsettling.
But doing that would doom himself, in this world, living and breathing here, where he was sitting in a room with Dave talking about video games, existential crises, and the knowledge that, for the most part, it worked out somewhat okay. He looks over to the other, trying to gauge any insight to what was going on in the other's head as he explained, but it doesn't come to him naturally, so he sits and tries to sort out how he actually feels about that.]
Listen... I... [And it's complicated, really.] I'm not the type of guy who really cares what happens to himself. In my own world, I guess I kinda gave up caring about me and put the lives of others in front of me. [He looks down at his lap, not sure what he means to make or say out of all this.] If it meant bein' there for the people I care about, I'd just do it. Make it better for them.
I guess it's kinda a distorted way of thinking, huh? But I'm happy knowing... that what I did, even if it wasn't enough, was everything that I coulda given.
[He rubs the back of his hand against his mouth. Weird shit to think about.]
Personally, I think having a mastery over time travel means not actually using it. Like those old karate masters who sit around all peaceful-like in their dojos and snark at their students, at least until someone provokes them.
I have no idea if that's actually a thing or if that's just an idea I've got in my head, by the way. I might be thinkin' of Yoda, and maybe the karate masters are actually ringing up completely sweet ass whoopings 24/7. Like, just roundhouse kicking all the way to dinner, and through a sea of freshly pulverized skulls dumb enough to stand in the way.
[if there's anything readable at all in his expression, even with the shades hiding his eyes, it's weariness. it's a point he's tried arguing before, complete with another weird karate metaphor, and it's part of an argument attached to a memory that still stings.]
Look, I guess the point I'm trying to make is that I get what you mean. But even though I don't really have much insight into your timeline, based on what you've told me, it's pretty safe for me to assume that it's the "right" one. If you had the chance to change something, whether it's through time travel or some other roundabout bullshit shenanigans, doing so at your own expense is bound to end in a way you're not expecting.
[time traveling always invites the risk of death, one way or the other. most of the time, it's his. oftentimes, it's others'.]
[but anyway, this is a very tl;dr way of saying, don't do something reckless and get yourself killed, Ryuji. because despite this whole spiel, and despite the fact that he would rather be the Yoda of time travel, Dave is also a complete hypocrite and will absolutely use time travel to save you.]
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no subject
[So capriciously said, without a trace of maliciousness to it, like there was nothing more natural and true in the world than the fact Dave Strider was an asshole. In fact, if it weren't for the fact that he knows how much of a cheater he was, he'd probably throw down another thumb war rematch just for the hell of it, but since that'd go nowhere fast, he lets the other find whatever space he wants to take up, as big or as small as he feels comfortable to do, and settle in.
Oh, right- he just remembered something about a (really fucking strange) encounter he had with someone else on the station, and heads to the bunk beds. Looking at the difference between the top and bottom bunk, and the disheveled state of the lower one, it'd probably look like that one was his, but no- he reaches up to the neatly made top one and pulls down what looks like a package of something from under his pillow.]
Dunno if you're into it, but I managed to meet someone who had twizzlers? Uh... I dunno how, really, but he had a ton of em, and gave me some. Thought you'd like one.
[STRAIGHT UP CONTRABAND.
He tosses the junk food over to Dave. Only a few left, but he was only given a couple to begin with. Eh, might as well share the good fortune.]
no subject
What the fuck, so you can get actual food here?
[where the hell are his bottles of apple juice and doritos then? but he turns the candy over in his hands, inspecting it. yup ... it looks legit.]
You sure you don't mind sharing? This thing's probably got more flavor than anything else on offer combined.
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Or it's magic.
Either way, it's kind of delicious magic and I ain't complaining about it.
[He finds a spot on the desk to park his ass onto, the lack of chairs and chill environs in this place really begged to question who the hell the interior decorator was and how he deserved a stern talking to.]
Nah, finish 'em off. I figured you'd enjoy it, so I saved the rest for ya.
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[he'll just have a seat on the edge of the bunk and dig in, then — it's still not exactly his favorite candy in the world, but it is something to remind him that he does actually still have taste buds. and even though Twizzlers have pretty much no nutritional value, he somehow feels better. like the fact that he's not eating something cardboard-flavored may have given him more energy.]
What other stuff did that guy have? Makes me think I should have tried snooping in more rooms.
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[He got the hunch that there was way, way more stuff in there that lay in hiding, just judging by the way the guy carried himself, but Ryuji didn't press it. Being a thief is all about gaining small amounts of information over time to make judgment calls if something needs to be done. Not that he was outwardly thinking in that line of thought, honestly... he was experiencing the wild high of a sugar rush that was almost 3 weeks overdue.]
Tell me about it. All we got was some coffee cups and a few boring ass books scattered around here. [Whoever these nerds were living here before must've been the type to stay up late, reading.
He sighs, audibly, and peers over at the bed where Dave had situated himself. Oh, yeah they were supposed to talk about video games, but something else hits him that he wanted to ask before. And since Ryuji can't not ask questions that pop into his head---]
What's with the shades, by the way?
no subject
[the joke being that he loves them sincerely, for the fact that they are a joke in and of themselves. he loves them so much he has worn them for three years straight.]
My best bro from back home gave them to me — they're the shades from Starsky and Hutch, which means at one point Ben Stiller also had them on his weird face.
no subject
[And then the great reveal of his plenitude of feelings towards Ben Stiller comes unraveled; Ryuji's jaw drops because that's seriously...]
So that would make your best bro Owen Wilson.
[He wants to ask Dave if he wears them to sleep too, but he's not sure that he wants to know the answer to that question. Best to leave some mystery out there in the world. Either way, he leans back with his head against the wall.]
Sburb, right? [That felt tough to even say, what the hell]
no subject
[Dave cares a lot about John, okay. also, not only has he slept wearing the shades, he has in fact worn other eyewear over them. if he is anything, he is dedicated.]
[but right, video games. the original topic at hand.]
Well, the ultimate goal of Sburb, through a series of extremely stupid and roundabout quests and battles, and if you happen to be lucky enough, is to create a new universe.
no subject
Probably not.
One of those water stains on a piece of wood that resembles the likelihood of good old JC would still rank higher than him, but, he digs it. Ryuji would say similar things about Ren. He understands the concept of best bro-hood way, way too damn much.]
Sounds kinda cool, but I thought this was one of those building-sim games. Never saw any of those that had battles in it.
[Not yet getting that the game he was talking about layered itself right into the perceivable realm of reality.
Am I getting homestuck yet?]
no subject
Yeah, it is. But even though you start off by building up your house, what you're really doing is helping build the final battlefield.
We never got this far, but based on what I've been told, if you manage to win, you get to go through a door to the new universe and claim the ultimate reward.
[whatever that is. nobody Dave knows has ever explained further than the fact that it is "the ultimate reward." he can only assume, given the fact that the god-tier status exists, that it has something to do with being gods of the new universe.]
no subject
Watch, you get to the end and it's like the mecha anime where it's just a blank room with the words "CONGRATULATIONS" written on a white screen with blank ink.
[That would actually??? be the worst thing that could ever happen, and he'd uninstall so freaking quick.]
Just to mess with ya. But uhh... sheesh, I can't even imagine what a game would offer as the ultimate prize. Godhood? Like, the ability to go back with unlimited resources and build everything as you want it to be?
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Don't know about resources. It's pretty easy to cheat some moronic crocodiles out of their money in the stock market and buy everything early.
Godhood though? Maybe. It's already a thing built into the game.
no subject
Wow, that musta been pretty shady. Stealing their hard earned cash like that. And no one bothered to investi-gator you?
[Little did he know how much Dave was a god's honest crookadile.
And now that that's over, and he hates himself a little bit more than he did a minute ago.]
What does godhood get you? More bridges?
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What the fuck, Ryuji.
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It lets you level up even higher, but honestly, the leveling system was stupid and arbitrary anyway. But you also get conditional immortality. The ability to fly. A comfy set of magical pajamas. Divine stuff like that.
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Never to be mentioned of again, but hell, if he isn't scratching the back of his head and smiling like he thinks he's the best worst goddamn thing that graced this side of the station.]
This game kinda sounds like bullshit.
Although no one can deny how awesome comfortable pajamas are.
no subject
[and yet, he finds those two sentences oddly comforting. like maybe the guy understands more than he's letting on.]
[Dave chews on a Twizzler thoughtfully for a minute.]
Don't think you could sum up Sburb any better than that. Definitely not nearly as fun as Solitaire.
no subject
[With their E-rank luck though? It'd probably be missing exactly one card. Probably a spade, just for the added ironic effect.
He doesn't exactly let on that he's starting to get the feeling that this is bigger than just a game, but it also doesn't freak him out to even know if it was a possibility- that this sort of stuff could exist out there. He looks at Dave, sees him about to offer what looks like a crook to the corner of his lips, and... cool. That's good enough. But so as not to stare, his eyes wander over to the pillow on the bunk.
Although his life wasn't a video game, he wants to come clean and tell him about Yaldabaoth's game. The one where god pitted two kids against each other and stacked the odds so high against them, all to declare that humanity couldn't, and shouldn't be in control of their own desires. Ryuji was real fucking tired of games that had no winning condition.
At least, if you play by the rules.]
Kinda weird though. I mean. Solitaire never gave me any time powers. [Bluntly put.]
no subject
You probably just weren't playing the right Solitaire.
[it's a weirdly apt metaphor, if you think about it. you start with a deck of cards, shuffled any which way, and with a bit of strategy and a lot of luck, you end the game with all four suits arranged in order. as it should be.]
[it's the same deal with Sburb. it's trying to work with or around the cards your session has dealt you. it's attempting to rearrange the rules as you understand them, even if your little video game rebellion turned out to be something you were meant to do all along. it's sequencing frog DNA like suits of cards. it's attempting to make something as it should be.]
[in any case, Ryuji seems to have a knack for finding the actual meaning behind the jokes and sometimes plain absurd shit Dave says — so maybe he'll take that Solitaire comment for what it actually is. it's an acknowledgment that Ryuji was right — and it's a thanks. for understanding.]
I don't mind telling you more if you're curious. Rose has a lot more working knowledge than I do, though; she even wrote a nigh unreadable GameFaq about it.
no subject
[And as someone that gets frequently bored and ends up in mischief, that's never really... that good of a thing. But it's also an unintentionally layered statement, an extra slab of cheese somewhere hidden between the metaphorical sandwich buns.]
Hell yeah, man! I gave you twizzlers... that's clearly the olive branch of revealing deep, dark life secrets.
[And there's... 50? 60? 80? people out there in the station that he can't trust farther than he can throw them. Even if this information isn't TOP SECRET CONFIDENTIAL, it feels like he can open up a little more to Dave. Attempt to grow that small ring of confidence that currently contains 2 people into maybe 3. Either way, it's... kind of nice, and relaxing.]
no subject
[Dave is infuriatingly bad at even admitting he has basic teenage problems, sadly. they're always hidden somewhere in whatever other points he feels like making — and even then, they're the sort of hints that only look really obvious in retrospect.]
[but honestly, this is a start? it's not like he's going to waltz up to a rando and get into the finer points of alchemizing, so some measure of trust is there.]
At least from my perspective, though, a lot of the game was just fucking around until something big happened. But I also had a lot more time on my hands compared to the others.
no subject
That's kinda what we're doin' now, though.
[The fucking around aimlessly until something big happens... having a stupid amount of time on their hands. At least, Ryuji doesn't think that they're caught in a video game? Hopefully.]
Man. I still can't wrap my head around that time stuff. Like, you think about it, right? Any point that you've ever regretted something in your life, you could just go back and have a do-over.
[He has to actually stop himself for a moment. He breathes through his nose, and gives out a soft huh.]
I don't know if I would. Mistakes are kinda what makes me, me. And trust me, I've made a lot of 'em.
no subject
That's not a bad way of thinking.
Because you are you — and if you were to go back and make a major change like that, you'd basically be saying that the way you are now isn't the way you're supposed to be. You'd have to accept that the past Ryuji you went back and changed things for is the "right" one now, and is the one who will go on to live in a future you're not invited to. You would just be a future Ryuji from a splintered timeline who came back and changed things, and in the process, erased your own future.
That's something that has to be done sometimes. [Davesprite had done it. if he hadn't prototyped himself, he would have died along with all the rest of the Daves out there whose futures no longer existed. it's sort of the same deal for the Dave sitting on a bunk bed eating Twizzlers in space.]
For the most part, though? It's not worth the sacrifice.
no subject
It's not like he'd go back just to do something for himself, but the allure of changing history to work out something that could've saved someone did have something behind it that felt almost right. He could've saved Akechi. It's a dumb, stupid thought that only lasts a minute, but... there's nothing about him that he'd change. Maybe relive the last few moments of that exchange, say something different, change the outcome to let someone continue on when they shouldn't have died. It's fleeting, though, and doesn't last, and the ramifications of that thought are unsettling.
But doing that would doom himself, in this world, living and breathing here, where he was sitting in a room with Dave talking about video games, existential crises, and the knowledge that, for the most part, it worked out somewhat okay. He looks over to the other, trying to gauge any insight to what was going on in the other's head as he explained, but it doesn't come to him naturally, so he sits and tries to sort out how he actually feels about that.]
Listen... I... [And it's complicated, really.] I'm not the type of guy who really cares what happens to himself. In my own world, I guess I kinda gave up caring about me and put the lives of others in front of me. [He looks down at his lap, not sure what he means to make or say out of all this.] If it meant bein' there for the people I care about, I'd just do it. Make it better for them.
I guess it's kinda a distorted way of thinking, huh? But I'm happy knowing... that what I did, even if it wasn't enough, was everything that I coulda given.
[He rubs the back of his hand against his mouth. Weird shit to think about.]
Pretty sure I'd make a real bad time mage.
no subject
Personally, I think having a mastery over time travel means not actually using it. Like those old karate masters who sit around all peaceful-like in their dojos and snark at their students, at least until someone provokes them.
I have no idea if that's actually a thing or if that's just an idea I've got in my head, by the way. I might be thinkin' of Yoda, and maybe the karate masters are actually ringing up completely sweet ass whoopings 24/7. Like, just roundhouse kicking all the way to dinner, and through a sea of freshly pulverized skulls dumb enough to stand in the way.
[if there's anything readable at all in his expression, even with the shades hiding his eyes, it's weariness. it's a point he's tried arguing before, complete with another weird karate metaphor, and it's part of an argument attached to a memory that still stings.]
Look, I guess the point I'm trying to make is that I get what you mean. But even though I don't really have much insight into your timeline, based on what you've told me, it's pretty safe for me to assume that it's the "right" one. If you had the chance to change something, whether it's through time travel or some other roundabout bullshit shenanigans, doing so at your own expense is bound to end in a way you're not expecting.
[time traveling always invites the risk of death, one way or the other. most of the time, it's his. oftentimes, it's others'.]
[but anyway, this is a very tl;dr way of saying, don't do something reckless and get yourself killed, Ryuji. because despite this whole spiel, and despite the fact that he would rather be the Yoda of time travel, Dave is also a complete hypocrite and will absolutely use time travel to save you.]
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