I had an idea but haven't seen DP in so long, worried I couldn't get any dialouge right. Premise being that Clockwork, having already crossed the line this far, considers a risky movement on the board. Sure, the greatest chance for Danny to learn his lesson and have a better future is well-calculated, but the longer he considers Dan's existence without the filter of Vlad's story the more evident it becomes that despite everything, there's still human within the ghost. (This following the hc that his human half wasn't killed and Vlad was lying to use Danny from the past, it was a post I saw here awhile ago). Clockwork's seen how he reacted initially to Jazz, and any other moments in that ruined future of missing those gone.
So the change is simple. Dan overshoots his trip to Danny's timeline, and instead of going to take the SATs he runs into someone he could never anticipate: Dani.
He wouldn't know her at all, have no context for HOW he's supposed to know her other than adapting in the moment and rolling with what she says. Forcing him so off-guard that he doesn't notice how he's being diverted from recreating his timeline. He doesn't notice when it becomes natural to laugh at pulling pranks and stupid jokes he hasn't heard since before the accident. And when he does notice, it's too late to forget what his heartbeat feels like. He's in too deep, he's gotten too close, and he wants to keep feeling alive again.
You got me with that picture of the 2 together this morning. Just wanted to run what it inspired by ya.
Untangling paradoxes were as simple as working out a kink in code, often just moving through time to alter something small. Nudging a brick an inch to the left, or startling a flock of birds a second sooner. He came to learn that the Butterfly Effect wasn't real except when it was. Fractal learned fairly quickly that altering the timeline didn't happen on accident. It wasn't as simple as 'accidently' stepping on a bug ten billion years in the past and causing sheep to be the dominant species instead. Changing something had to be done with intent, the universe over all was a self regulating force.
So when he came up with the idea to alter Dan's timeline, to make it so Danny, his Danny, didn't have to go through the whole convoluted mess... Well it would have been nice to have been surprised by it working.
