awashlogs | lifting the time travel ban for the sake of potato chips

Entry tags:

lifting the time travel ban for the sake of potato chips

WHO: dave strider & ignis scientia. or telly.
WHERE: flavo, random field no longer random
WHEN: we are in APRIL!
WHAT: gardening, featuring time shenanigans
WARNINGS: dave's a fucking moron, ignis is less of a moron, it'll even out

[ dave knows about the usual amount one would expect a city boy who had zero interest to know about gardening. you put things in the ground, you water them, time occurs. eventually, food occurs also. he's a little bummed that ~~ignis~~ telly doesn't have apples or whatever but he's more or less resigned himself to the idea of a life without apple juice.

or at least a decade. it's getting on up there, passing the three year mark, so.

he shows up for the gardening, happy to be out of the house and away from any idea of cleaning for the time being, dressed as ever in his dumbass magical red pajamas. ]

So, Tel, do we need to like...do things to the soil?

[ he waves vaguely, having no real idea what Things would entail. weeding? ...poking at it? how do you Make Ready the soil? ]

I don't think time travel will really do that part. Maybe. Anyway, I am ready to go whenever you are, though. Man, you know what I want? Potato chips. Or potato pizza. Is potato pizza a thing? We should make it a thing.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Okay, so this is...quite possibly one of the more bizarre experiments he has ever agreed to subject himself to in any capacity, but at this point the things that Ignis would do for Real Food™ are fast approaching the things that he would do for Noctis Lucis Caelum, which is A Lot™. Granted, there are certain issues with the escapade, chief among them being that Dave is presumably the only one capable of time traveling here, which means that Dave also needs to be instructed in the appropriate manner of accomplishing this feat alone, because there's not going to be anyone else there to do it with him.

Fortunately, Ignis is hardly unfamiliar with the concept of teaching people how to do shit. He's probably prepared a handy guidebook with a checklist of steps. He is here. He is Ready.]

We've selected this particular plot because the composition of the soil seems most optimal for what it is we're trying to grow — that is, a potato and an onion. Theoretically I suppose we could attempt to fertilize it by having you go even further back and cultivate a pile of mulch, but that would take a while...

[He reaches into a bag, though, and produces a couple of dead fish along with the vegetables they've selected for this project. They are mutant and horrifying, but apparently fish.]

So we'll have you use these as fertilizer. Plant the vegetable, place the fish on top, cover things up. In theory, that ought to suffice.

[Hmmm.]

And in the event that this works, I'll scrounge some oil from the general store and make fries. Will that do as an alternative?

[ dave can, theoretically, take people with him but lucy forgot to ask what would happen to those people so she just did that. but anyway he's listening with a kind of bemused look like he has no idea what ignis is on about actually but he's just going to do as he's told anyway...?

he's a good child. when he's not being a stupid child. which. unfortunate. ]

Oh, holy shit, I would kill for a french fry? Only not actually. What I would actually do for a french fry is set up stupid potato time loops, wait for them to grow from that, and then look at you really sadly until a french fry occurred. But, like, metaphorically we can pretend all of those complicated steps are actually in fact me killing for a french fry. I am killing time, that counts, right?

[ but okay he is.

taking...the dead shit...and the vegetables. lord. ]

Rest assured, I have made enough french fries in my day to comprehend their persuasive abilities on teenage appetites. If this works out, I'll give you a tomato to plant and you can have your fries even with ketchup.

[LIVING THAT HIGH LIFE. FRIES AND KETCHUP. EVERYBODY ON BOARD THE TRAIN TO FLAVORTOWN.]

Suffice to say, if you can make these grow, I can make them into palatable food. Of which you will be among the first recipients, I can guarantee.

At least there aren't any nuts I know of.

[ randomly. but look: john's allergic and dave has had enough of dead friends, consider.

but okay. right. ]

Ready to go? I mean, I am ready to go, are you ready to watch magic happen, I guess. Which is basically not magic, since it is just time travel.

I would know magic when I saw it, rest assured.

[But anyway, moving on.]

You're clear on what it is you need to do? Small hole, seed plant, fish, cover it up solidly but without packing the soil down. Fairly straightforward, I believe.

Yep, I'm good at followin' orders, don't you worry 'bout it.

[ the supplies go into his sylladex and he calls up his time tables and scratches the records -

and freezes. the mental clock in the back of his head (the back of his heart) scrambles, going haywire as he tries to figure out when he went. this can't be right. there's too much, too many things and images and if he were anyone else he'd probably scream but instead dave automatically bites through his lip like that's any better. john-terezi-vriska. minato, okuyasu, keith - people he recognizes and doesn't, people he knows he's never seen.

it's a good thing he's used to death, maybe, or he'd scream.

as it is ignis gets the dubious pleasure of the records disappearing and dave standing immobile for a few minutes, eyes blown wide behind his shades, so that's fun? ]

[The thing is, Ignis has seen a look like this on a teenager's face before.

Well — sort of. It's not the exact same look, and the teenager in question isn't exactly a teenager (anymore). But he's seen this sort of jarring, encompassing something or another when the Astrals started reaching out their (filthy) hands for Noct, and while it's undeniable that he's known Dave for fewer days than he's known Noctis in years, there's still something in him that reacts — that part of him cultivated into being a caretaker, that sees a problem and snaps to attention to fix it.

Dave is still, and silent, and seemingly paralyzed. He looks as though he's frozen on a hair trigger, and it makes Ignis not want to touch him, expecting that if he does, Dave will jolt or scream or react on sheer instinct. What he needs isn't to be jarred, he thinks anxiously, but to be reeled in. The right kind of bait, isn't that right, Noct? A proper lure for every catch.

So.

Without moving, he softly whistles a bird call — the sort of noise that fades easily into white noise, but that's discernible nevertheless. And as he does, he watches Dave's expression, looking for any minute sign that he might be tracking the sound of the noise.]

[ none of the deaths - known and unknown - are pleasant to look at. it's worse that he can't move, heart pounding in his chest but unable to even reach out a hand when he sees his best friend dying again, and again, and again. other people, too, but he's already let jade die and that was terrible and it haunts him every fucking day that he couldn't save her, and he can't repeat that. not without utterly breaking.

the sound helps, though. a clear whistle that isn't coming from anywhere he can see.

john, you fucking idiot dies on his lips and he thinks. what was he doing? come on, something's wrong, he was just supposed to go back and plant some seeds - john wasn't even in the past here, this can't be right.

did he travel at all? that question sounds like rose and dave tries to think it through. the second he tried, and the scenes haven't stopped - so maybe he just has to stop trying.

that's easy enough to do: surrender and just kind of sway and topple, landing on his knee hard as he lets go of his grip on time, and okay yeah there's gray sunshine and he hates it but it's a little better than nothing and ignis looks alive so john and terezi are fine.

they're probably just fine? ]

[All right, well. That's not good at all, and that means Operation Don't Touch Dave™ is going right out the window in favor of an alternate plan, which happens to be Operation Fuss Over Dave™.

So he sinks down carefully near him, just in his proximity, and gives Dave a second or two to realize he's there before lightly reaching for his arm.]

Dave. Look at me? Dave.

[ he doesn't flinch, at least, although there's still some disorientation and dave worries for a dizzied moment he's going to be sick.

he isn't, though. ]

That wasn't fun. [ it's muttered, but wow, okay. time travel is definitely Not A Thing currently - at least not here. he's maybe going to have to check elsewhere, stupid idea though that may be. ]

Really, because from the outside in it seemed as though you were having a barrel of laughs. Is it all right if I touch you?

[Thanks, Ignis, for that dry-as-a-bone sense of humor.]

Pick a point on the horizon and watch it, if you can. It'll help with your focus.

[ no one has ever actually asked for permission to touch him before, like, ever. so dave looks at ignis with blatant surprise for a second before he nods and half reaches out himself. he couldn't move a few moments ago or reach out at all, and another person existing...helps. ]

I don't think the powers that be are in favor of time travel?

Can you tell me what happened? From my point of view, you didn't go anywhere — I'm not quite sure if you were supposed to or not. But you only went perfectly rigid for a spell. Immobile, really.

[Deftly, with the practice and confidence of someone who's clearly handled a number of situations akin to this one before, he catches Dave's hand and moves it to his own shoulder, mostly just so that Dave has the benefit of tactile contact while Ignis carefully starts to pat him down and look him over.

It's not exactly the greatest or most medically thorough checkup in the world, but the fussing is apparent; he's checking heart rate, the temperature of his forehead, the dilation of his pupils through the shades. Standard, wellness-oriented things.]

Take your time.

[ heart rate is pretty high but not medically worrying - it's like he's run a marathon, or got a bad scare, but he looks...calmer. calmish. like he's used to hiding how he feels, maybe. no temperature, but he tenses in surprise when ignis checks even if he relaxes right after.

wide eyes, red, behind his shades. ]

...I did go back, except it wasn't...right. I should have gone from here, you should've seen me disappear, and I saw...things.

[ how to describe them? ]

People dyin', mostly.

[Red eyes. That's something he associates with MTs, not with human boys — is that why Dave keeps his shades on the way that he does, he wonders? Or is something like that normal, wherever it is that he comes from? Certainly it's not normal in the grand scheme of things, but then, neither is time travel.]

Trying to take yourself back showed you...visions of people dying?

[It's a testament to his self-control that he manages to hide the chill that runs down his spine. There's a vision of his own that he can't get out of his head, and perhaps he never will.]

The people that used to inhabit this town, you mean?

[ maybe? he's not sure. ]

I saw John a few times. [ he's too frazzled to explain who the fuck john is. ]

Is that your friend who can fly, like you? With the glasses.

[Yes, this is all he remembers about John Egbert, but it's enough, probably.]

He's here with you. He's the one you saw...?

My best friend. He's one of the people. [ the one dave focused on the most solely because he let one of them die already.

and he couldn't do anything, again.

he kind of desperately wants to text john but the fucking laptops can't leave the houses and work so that's out. ]

You, too. Just... [ he gestures unsteadily with his free hand. ] Everyone.

...Come on, then. Let's get you back to him.

[Because the thing is, he understands. He gets it painfully well — better than perhaps anyone in the whole of this town realizes. It's as though the whole world slides slightly out of place, creating a sense of wrongness that can't be remedied until there's that tangible confirmation of they're all right, to make the vertigo end and the world snap back into place.]

You'll feel better, I think, to see him.

- No. I mean, yes, I will, but I can do that...after. He'll come if I just go back to...

[ his house, the place he stays alone, and pulls up the message board.

probably. ]

This is still important. Option one is off the table, but I've sped shit up before, so instead of "I go do a thing", we should try "I do a thing to a thing that is here".

[ is this really the time - but dave's used to shoving his feelings aside for Later and the food issue is probably still an issue. focusing on that instead is easier than untangling whatever it is he's feeling. ]

It's hardly more important than your well-being.

[And yet, if Dave is determined to push through it — well, it's not as though that's an unfamiliar sentiment to Ignis, of all people. How can he tell him otherwise, if Dave insists?]

Are you quite certain you want to continue this? There'll be other days.

Yeah. I mean, I'm sure. I want to... [ do something worthwhile. feel less useless about the restless itch under his skin like he's failed. dave maybe knows that starting a garden won't really do much more than throw a hello kitty bandaid over those feelings, but he wants to do it anyway.

sometimes the bandaid helps a little bit, for a little while. ]

Do you ever just really need to do something? Something tangible.

...I constantly need to "just do something".

[He gets to his feet, offering Dave a hand to help him up as well if he wants it.]

I don't believe I've yet gone a week without someone reminding me of how badly I need to "chill out", frankly. But...yes, I understand the sentiment. Doing something is an outlet for a feeling that hurts to keep bottled up inside.

[ he takes the hand because he likes contact that isn't violent, when he can get it. dave never seeks it out, really, never reaches out and takes it - but that doesn't mean it isn't a thing he doesn't want. he just never knows how to initiate those casual positive platonic touches that other people find to be second nature. he never learned them. sometimes with rose or john or jade it's a little easier, but it's difficult with other people and even with them at other times.

he lets go quickly, before he flirts with "you're being weird and clingy, strider" territory. ]

Besides, this is somethin' important. Right? [ and it doesn't require him to fight anything, which is...

new and exciting, really. even frog breeding hadn't been that, because he'd known intimately how it would end. ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

lifting the time travel ban for the sake of potato chips

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject