I mean the shit I wrote off as impossible when I was a kid was the shit you threw your stats into. And the shit I did to exhaust myself was pretty much the shit you considered impossible.
Okay, I get it now. This probably goes with not learnin' how to self-reflect properly in the realm of things we never got real instruction on how to do. I don't know that either of us made the better choice. At the very least, all my efforts didn't result in a better fighter or a more competent ally. Mostly they resulted in really weird robots and AIs.
How does it go with not learnin' how to self-reflect properly?
[ explain, please. dave...is not sure how to reply to the parts about being a better fighter. he apparently lucked out there through sheer daily abuse.
he's not sure bro is responsible for the competent ally part? except he might be, because that's how dave learned to adapt and give way. ]
That wasn't the stuff you spent time on that I really considered worthwhile. The fightin' shit.
We weren't exactly sat down and talked to about how to respond to our respective unbearable situations by anyone. Like with self-reflection, we never got the kind of environment and support we needed to learn how to answer the expectations put on us and the time we needed to fill.
I never invented anything new or advanced any of the fields I picked up. I just learned what other people had left behind, like I did with everything else. Anyone can do that. We've definitely had tech people in here better than me, more than once. People use me for it mostly because I've been here longest and am the most workaholic tech left around.
[Dirk isn't modest but he doesn't think it's that remarkable. The only robot he ever felt was truly worthwhile was Huggy Bear/Lil Seb, and that was because of the bunny he put inside.]
I think you underestimate how difficult that kind of shit can be to learn. Or like...I'm pretty sure you're underestimatin' some of what I know you can do?
You're already catchin' up fast, and you're operatin' in multiple fields. The only reason you won't be able to do what I can do in a couple years would be if you decided you weren't interested in the subject.
[As simple as that. Dave is at least as smart as Dirk, if not smarter.]
And now we're into the overestimatin' me portion of the morning.
[ there's simply no way he's going to ever come close to anything dirk or roxy or even rose can do intellectually, but it's nice dirk is deluded enough to think so, he supposes? ]
I am not sure this battle is as epic as was advertised.
My estimates on this front are extremely accurate. Your aptitude with statistics and the stock market already proves that you're capable of processing and analysing large amounts of data complexly, on the fly.
The stock market was run by crocodiles, it wasn't exactly rocket science.
[ dave disagrees with this assessment, although admittedly he tends to disagree with most positive assessments of himself unless...tricked into it like dirk, sometimes? wow. at least he used to pretend to believe the positive assessments of himself and talked them up, back when he was thirteen. ]
I mean, some monster movies deliver for a given value of deliver? But I guess it's hard to name one that has monster-to-monster combat that's, like, stellar?
That wasn't anythin' special. It wasn't, like, calculus.
[ dave will fight back? though there's literally no ire in his tone. it's matter-of-fact. ]
I think that's bullshit. You could totally make a good monster vs monster movie, you just, like...have to give them maybe more backstory, I guess? And like...well that might diminish the monster movie genre cliches?
And yeah, probably. But not like...easily understood ones. They gotta be mysterious. Just enough to go on so you can fill in the blanks yourself, you know?
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[Calmly and casually. It's just how it is to him.]
You mean that you've been able to relax a lot less now that you're here?
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[Does Dave think of loving and understanding people as something you do to exhaust yourself until you can't feel? That doesn't seem right.]
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[ like. shit that didn't have any effect on improving his person. literal time wasters, mindless. ]
But I guess it wouldn't be incorrect to say I was constantly exhausted tryin' to love and understand someone who wasn't ever gonna do it back.
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[ explain, please. dave...is not sure how to reply to the parts about being a better fighter. he apparently lucked out there through sheer daily abuse.
he's not sure bro is responsible for the competent ally part? except he might be, because that's how dave learned to adapt and give way. ]
That wasn't the stuff you spent time on that I really considered worthwhile. The fightin' shit.
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[That is his logic, anyway.]
What was the stuff?
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[ dave can fake a bunch of knowledge and has an eclectic base, but he never really taught himself an entire branch of science or anything. ]
Bein'...I don't know, competent at shit that's actually useful.
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[Dirk isn't modest but he doesn't think it's that remarkable. The only robot he ever felt was truly worthwhile was Huggy Bear/Lil Seb, and that was because of the bunny he put inside.]
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[As simple as that. Dave is at least as smart as Dirk, if not smarter.]
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[ there's simply no way he's going to ever come close to anything dirk or roxy or even rose can do intellectually, but it's nice dirk is deluded enough to think so, he supposes? ]
I am not sure this battle is as epic as was advertised.
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[Dave is smart?]
Are they ever?
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[ dave disagrees with this assessment, although admittedly he tends to disagree with most positive assessments of himself unless...tricked into it like dirk, sometimes? wow. at least he used to pretend to believe the positive assessments of himself and talked them up, back when he was thirteen. ]
I mean, some monster movies deliver for a given value of deliver? But I guess it's hard to name one that has monster-to-monster combat that's, like, stellar?
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[Dirk knows what he sees. Dave is smart. He will fight on this.]
My theory is that the lake of a real sense of scale through the human perspective diminishes all monster vs monster fights.
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[ dave will fight back? though there's literally no ire in his tone. it's matter-of-fact. ]
I think that's bullshit. You could totally make a good monster vs monster movie, you just, like...have to give them maybe more backstory, I guess? And like...well that might diminish the monster movie genre cliches?
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[So it's good.]
How would you do a monster vs monster movie?
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[ real questions: does caliborn do this kind of math ]
Like, here? Probably claymation would be cool to do.
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[that means rereading caliborn's sections and i won't do it]
That'd be cool. I think the loss of practical special effects really hurt the industry.
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[ he will keep up this calm debate? ]
I like oldschool special effects. Besides, I'd kill it at stop motion shit.
[ he is. really good at remembering how things should be in a given scene and like
time powers
yeah ]
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[He worries about having this debate right now but he is. Really bad at letting people be Wrong.
Dirk sucks.]
Would you give the monsters backstories?
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I'm not better at math than you?
[ sounds fake? ]
And yeah, probably. But not like...easily understood ones. They gotta be mysterious. Just enough to go on so you can fill in the blanks yourself, you know?
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You are? Is this like you not realizin' you're faster than me.
[It keeps happening.]
I follow. Any in mind?
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[ still sounds fake ]
Yeah. A few. I'd have to give it more thought, but probably I'd draw from shit I know.
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[this is a silly debate.]
Can I hear one?
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