[Davesprite turns his head to look at Beckett, absorbing that intense gaze, with an expression that's guardedly flat. For all no one's giving him shit about the idea of not returning (some have even suggested it to him), this is the first he's gotten such an emphatic response apart from maybe Karkat.]

... "Meant" is kind of a weird word for it, Beckett.

[He'll leave the topic of his future to sit there.]

Time loops say it was going to happen anyway. I'm the living loophole the game counted on to get some shit done. Friend died? Oh fuck, better get this teenager to turn himself into a bird. Better have him around to go get this sword made, too. Our whole session was built on loopholes and metaphorical cheat codes the whole time, though. If you want to go by the standard flow of the game, what all this Skaia-given knowledge in my head tells me is supposed to go down on the player's personal quest, then fuck no, this wasn't "meant" to happen. But the alpha timeline says wait a sec, yeah it was. Milk a doomed timeline for all you can get, then evade the death price. Do a hard reset, but transfer for the data before it can be wiped. Invade a whole other session you were supposed to be erased to accommodate, why not. So.

[He gives into that shrug he denied himself a moment ago.]

I picked it my own self, if that counts for anything.