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Dave Lalonde is a (relatively) average boy. He lives with his mother in a mansion on the outskirts of New York. He’s homeschooled and pays little attention to classwork, but he’s still smart.
Dave’s mother works all night to make enough money to keep their lofty mansion. Dave appreciates this very much. Dave’s mother loves him very much.
When Dave’s mom isn’t working, she’s cleaning around the house or doting on him. Sometimes it’s hard to find her. She disappears into the shadows of the house. The telltale sign of a martini glass clinking is the only trail she leaves.
Dave’s mother likes to spoil him. She buys him all the music equipment he wants, new film for his camera, and cool clothes. Sometimes, she even helps him preserve dead things. Never without a drink, though. She says she’ll get squeamish without it.
Dave isn’t upset when he finds his mother passed out on the couch, nor when he holds back her hair after too many drinks. Dave loves his mother, and his mother loves him.
When Dave entered the lab inside Jaspers’ mausoleum, he realized what his mother had been doing. His mother had been preparing for the game. Dave appreciates his mother’s work.
Dave doesn’t understand why his mother never told him about the game. Maybe she thought it would change the course of intended events? Dave doesn’t think too hard about it.
On LOLAR, Dave sits on the dock next to the martini glass. He eventually picks it up and drinks it, gagging at the burn in his throat afterward. Dave cries while screaming for her to come back. He yells about how much he loves her.
Dave quickly tires of Doc Scratch. He says too much and explains too little. Spurred by anger, Dave smashes the cueball the Doctor gifted him. He feels the need to vomit, to let out all the bad things that are welling inside him.
When Dave finds his mother’s corpse, he screams. He screams louder than ever before. John stands behind him by a few feet, covering his ears. Dave screams at his mother and John’s father; he curses Noir and the Horrorterrors that have cursed his family. John doesn’t know what Dave is saying.
Everything Dave is feeling is continuously spiraling. He’s been exposed to horrors beyond his comprehension, his mother’s death, his anger and grief, and now, John’s death. Dave sobs while he attacks Noir, unrelenting and venting his frustrations with himself and everything around him. Dave’s mother no longer loves him and will never love him again.
Dave is always bored out of his mind on the meteor. He has his sister and many friends. There’s nothing to do with them, though. When he finds a bottle containing a mysterious liquid, Dave isn’t hesitant to drink it.
In the worst-case scenario, it tastes bad. If it’s poison, Dave will die and come back to life. If it isn’t, nothing happens. Dave drinks it.
It’s alcohol, he quickly realizes. Dave has found a large bottle of alcohol. He decides to keep it. It reminds him of his mother. The mother who died loving him. Dave takes another drink.
Dave doesn’t realize he has a problem until Rose points it out. She says kids his age shouldn’t drink, and it won’t help him. Dave just laughs and waves her off. Rose hides her expressions well, but the slant of her brow is all Dave needs to know she’s upset.
Dave feels better when he drinks. His brain feels lighter, and his mood is better. He feels like his mom is still there. Sometimes, he wonders what his mom would think if she saw him. Does it matter? Dave’s mother loves him.
When Dave meets his teenage mother, he’s dying. Dave forces his mother/daughter to hold him while he dies. He watches her face contort as tears roll down her cheeks.
Dave’s mom, Roxy, says she loves him. He says it back. Dave loves his mother, and she loves him.
When Dave meets his teenage mother, she dives into him. He nearly topples over with the force she rams into him. Dave smiles and laughs with his teenaged mother/daughter. They play twenty questions, and Roxy makes good fun.
The two of them are very similar, Dave realizes. They always had been. Roxy tells Dave about how he was in her timeline, and he tells her about his.
Dave loves his mother Roxy, and Roxy loves Dave. They are mother and son, father and daughter, brother and sister. Roxy and Dave Lalonde are lovers, not fighters.