He's just toying with his food
is a series of Vs. Dave and Bambi fanfics written by MazeWithoutTint. It merges the recursive mods Dave and Bambi: Golden Apple Edition and Vs Bambi: Strident Crisis into one universe, with an additional nod to the Hortas Edition and Manny Edition mods.
The first fic in the series, OMG GUYS THERE ARE ALIENS HERE IT REAL!!! (not clickbait), (Yes, that's actually the name of the fic.) revolves around Ringi, Bambom, and Bandu visiting the 2D world for a day, with Dave and Bambi showing them around the nearby city.
The sequel, Turn Around and Shake My Hand, came out shortly after the first fic in the series did.
He's Just Toying With His Food provides examples of:
- Adaptational Heroism: The Trixes lack malevolent intent in this fic, and Badtrix has to live with the irony that he's the least like his template Expunged. They're all actually quite thrilled to meet Dave, and Butchatrix only attacks him because he thought the former algebra teacher was cheating.
- Adaptational Name Change: The unfinished Dave from the original Golden Apple Edition didn't have an official name. In this series, the unfinished Dave is called RECOVERED_PROJECT, although he tells Dave to just call him REC for short.
- Armor-Piercing Question: To Ringi in chapter 5 of Turn Around and Shake My Hand:Bendu: Where is your cat?
- The Cameo: The ice cream shop Dave and the Golden Apple cast visits is implied to be ran by Bamibo. Though Dave assumes Bamibo hates his job, this isn't actually the case (it's the ice cream itself he dislikes.)
- Canon Welding: Rather than Brobgonal or Barbu, Expunged has to deal with Hellbreaker, the antagonist of Strident Crisis, as a reflection of its mistakes in creating life. Later, in order to deal with Hellbreaker personally, Expunged transforms into a form also borrowed from the mod.
- Cerebus Retcon: Expunged suffers from clinical depression, which is implied to explain some of their more irrational behaviors.
- Continuity Nod: A brief Call-Back to the continuity of the mod Strident Crisis is mentioned when Expunged references a time it had to get help from Hellbreaker, the antagonist of Strident Crisis. Just as in the original mod, Expunged considers them an uncontrollable mistake.
- Fourth-Wall Observer: Bendu is aware of the fact that he's in a story, and hangs a lampshade on Bambom's lack of lines in chapter 5 of Turn Around and Shake My Hand.
- Humanoid Abomination:
- Expunged is a mixture between this and a god of chaos.
- Like in his original appearance, what little we know about REC is that he's clearly not meant to exist.
- I'm Cold... So Cold...: This trope is often mentioned in Turn Around and Shake My Hand.
- Left Hanging: The first fic just ends abruptly, with Turn Around and Shake My Hand not explaining what happened afterwards.
- Lost in the Maize: Happens during Dave's second nightmare in Turn Around and Shake My Hand, which is how he encounters the strange figure.
- Mythology Gag: Expunged marks the danger-filled rooms in its house with detailed eyes. This references how the mods Strident Crisis, Hortas Edition, and Manny Edition have one such eye as its Red Right Hand, with the latter two mods (As well as Strident Crisis, if Scopomania wasn't scrapped.) also giving it an additional form as a single large red eye.
- Nightmare Sequence: Happens twice in Turn Around and Shake My Hand. Once in chapter 1, which forces Dave into an And I Must Scream situation, and then again in chapter 6.
- Noodle Incident: Near the beginning of chapter 9 of Turn Around and Shake My Hand, Bambi is soaked in water when he teleports to the principal's office. While Bambi does say later in the chapter that Expunged sprayed him with the water hose, why Expunged sprayed him is never explained.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
- In chapter 3 of Turn Around and Shake My Hand, Bandu mentions that when the 3D realm turned gray for a few seconds, Expunged got genuinely scared.
- Later, in chapter 7, Expunged is clearly exhausted from searching for the anomaly too hard, to the point where the narration states that "His grin wasn't as big, his eyes were droopy and he was as still as a statue."
- The Blank: REC, like in his original appearance, doesn't have any resemblance of a face.
- Wham Line: Oh boy. There's a lot of these.
- Near the end of the first fic, Dave asks Bambi if they enjoyed the day. Bambi's response?
Bambi (Actually Expunged): "Oh, yes, definitely~ [...] I had a lot of fun. And it was super nice to hang out with you. I truly must admit that today went a lot better than I thought it would, even with my brother being who he is... annoying as hell. But still lovable."
