Dirk Strider (Ultimate) (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
uber_marionettist) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
victory_road2020-08-10 12:35 am
uber_marionettist) wrote in victory_road2020-08-10 12:35 am
This road is going nowhere [Closed]
Who: Dirk Strider and Hythlodaeus.... Emet-Selch shows up around comment #80
Where: Goldenrod, XIVhaus Garden
When: August 15th shhh this is forward dated
Summary: Can't believe Dirk is the one cornering someone else for acting weird for once tbh
Rating: PG except for swears? [EDIT] ....convo got nsfw around comment #70
Hours after Dirk finally slept (and then woke up again) while Emet did not, Emet himself falls asleep (the natural way) and Dirk is left... free. Free to wander the house on his own. Free to track down some answers. Or rather, to lie in wait for the source of his questions and then ambush him for said answers.
Hythlodaeus has generously yielded all the clues he needs to establish the location; a sad, dead excuse for a withered 'garden,' comprised though it is of a single dead tree and an open sky, with sunlight streaming from overhead and soft, gently buzzing fuzzbugs by the dozens. No special preparations are required for this--though he does take the time to let Salome out of her Pokeball to circle the sky overhead, it's for his convenience and not out of any desire to threaten the eight-foot neurotic with a jealous magical bird. (In fact, it's for the lack of that desire that he sends her spiralling up and out of human line of sight.)
Then, he just has to wait.
Where: Goldenrod, XIVhaus Garden
When: August 15th shhh this is forward dated
Summary: Can't believe Dirk is the one cornering someone else for acting weird for once tbh
Rating: PG except for swears? [EDIT] ....convo got nsfw around comment #70
Hours after Dirk finally slept (and then woke up again) while Emet did not, Emet himself falls asleep (the natural way) and Dirk is left... free. Free to wander the house on his own. Free to track down some answers. Or rather, to lie in wait for the source of his questions and then ambush him for said answers.
Hythlodaeus has generously yielded all the clues he needs to establish the location; a sad, dead excuse for a withered 'garden,' comprised though it is of a single dead tree and an open sky, with sunlight streaming from overhead and soft, gently buzzing fuzzbugs by the dozens. No special preparations are required for this--though he does take the time to let Salome out of her Pokeball to circle the sky overhead, it's for his convenience and not out of any desire to threaten the eight-foot neurotic with a jealous magical bird. (In fact, it's for the lack of that desire that he sends her spiralling up and out of human line of sight.)
Then, he just has to wait.
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Hythlodaeus gives a soft little smile of acknowledgement before taking his seat. He tucks right into his food, realizing suddenly that this has left him ravenous.
He doesn't drop his manners or quicken his pace; his languid movements serve to feed him all the same. One his swallow, he speaks to the thoughts floating around in his head.
"Then it is simple enough to add an antechamber. The mystique will surely bolster what interest is already there. I have been told that there is no "gay scene" to compete with, and we know well what happens to beasts without competition," he says with exaggerated air quotes.
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Well, not yet anyway.
As Hythlodaeus picks up the conversation again, Hades glances at him with an appraising look, an eyebrow quirking at the suggestion of an antechamber, but then he goes on to speak of this 'gay scene'. Hades is an intelligent man, and it doesn't take a genius to figure out the meaning through the context of the conversation, however the word does catch him all the same.
"Really, is that what the term they choose for us? How interesting." He means it too, primarily because it almost seems a little random by his measure. Really, it makes him wonder the terms they use for the other sexualities, but that's hardly the point of the conversation. His mind is rarely idle, however.
"Nevertheless, there are far better conversations to have over breakfast. Especially when not all parties are particularly interested in the topic." He says, glancing at Dirk with a sympathetic smile. He got the cue, loud and clear. It's obvious Hythlodaeus did not.
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The sfougato is, thankfully, still warm.
He has a full mouth when Emet asks the most unwelcome question possible, and it spares everyone whatever irritable noise of would have come out of him immediately otherwise.
"Call me gay and see what happens."
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Hythlodaeus serves himself a second slice of sfougato as he finishes his first slice. He sticks that reaction into his mental pocket to ask Steven about later.
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Not that labels like that mean anything at all to Hades, but Dirk, unlike Hythlodaeus and himself, grew up knowing the phantoms of a mortal world long since lost.
Instead of pressing the issue, Hades focuses on his food, nodding a little solemnly to Hythlodaeus' proposition that Dirk picks the topic. Since Hythlodaeus' own choices have done little to ease any tension, and Hades is in an ill position to think of entertaining topics at the moment, rather more like to speak of his concerns on the current topic.
Though, he is glad to see Dirk finally eating. That concern being put to rest, finally.
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Dirk finishes chewing. Swallows.
Sighs.
"Look, you just can't parrot whatever terms you pick up uncritically, or without doing some actual research. If you don't know the history or what kind of discourse is attached, then you don't know enough to say it. That's free advice, and I suggest you take it because it's for your sake, not mine."
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He doubted it was a slur. It was on a drop down menu on Gravlr.
"Who do you think the resident expert on these matters is?"
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Shaking his head, he sighs. He should have figured that Steven would have given Hythlodaeus information without any sort of history attached nor proper explanation. Turning his attention to Dirk, he continues, "if I am to learn of the context of such a label that could very well pertain to me, I suppose I would much rather learn of it from you, than aught from him. Well do I know he drowns in his biases."
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Dirk has eaten over half of his slice of sfougato, and he'd intended to finish it before getting involved at all.... now he gives it a final, reluctant glance before resigning himself to the fact that he will not get to finish it until this conversation is over.
Looking up, however...
"....."
He meets Emet's gaze before turning his face to Hythlodaeus from Emet and back again.
"One of these answers is only going to make sense to one of you."
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He turns back to Dirk and shrugs and laughs.
"Well, I don't understand, and I don't see any reason I need to start right now." Said plainly and with acceptance of the situation.
And unlike Dirk, this does not prevent him from eating. He starts on his second slice.
"...Don't be shy. You can eat."
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"Hythlodaeus, do not food push. He will eat if he is hungry--besides your constant need for chatter is more like as not what has been keeping him from eating, than any assumed shyness." His attention returns to Dirk, "but as you were saying? If aught at all, I can explain what I must to Hythlodaeus, if what you are about to say entails what I might suspect."
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Him?
Really?
No, that's gotta be an attempt to get a rise out of him. What the fuck.
He raises an eyebrow at Hythlodaeus, then simply shakes his head before turning to Emet.
".... Steven's from a good decade or so before the Condesce seized power, but he's also read some of Homestuck."
He pauses, realising that with Emet doing at least some of the talking, he might actually be able to do some more eating.
"He just hasn't read enough of it."
Dirk puts his fork back into his sfougato and puts that in his mouth.
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He turns towards Hades, resting his head on laced fingers. “I trust you understood what he had to say, and you can keep me occupied with your chatter instead.”
One by one, the cutieflies begin to float into the house. They look like they need some dire brushing.
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That explanation is enough for him to start with at least, and with an affirming nod to Dirk, he turns his attention back to Hythlodaeus. First he finishes the last part of his slice, washing it down with a drink of his juice, he then settles in to ignore the first part of what Hythlodaeus says, to focus on the next.
...Except he pauses for a moment to look at the procession of Cutiefly. With a shake of his head, he goes back to looking at Hythlodaeus.
"I am confident you are aware of the philosophical argument that all fiction is in essence its own reality, while all realities are likewise fiction, yes? As in, our very lives, the world we come from, the events we have lived and suffered--while very real for us, may very well be fiction to another world entirely. It does not make our experiences any less real, nor any less fictional for those removed from our reality." He figures it'll be best to start here, even if Hythlodaeus would likely accept the explanation starting from the gate about Dirk being some illustrated online story.
"Well, the story that recounts the events of Dirk's own reality and those in which he experienced such with is named Homestuck. Through these toils of he and his, did he achieve his own completion and thus ascended to Godhood--becoming the narrator of his own tale. In essence, he is similar to Lord Zodiark in ability: he can rewrite reality as it needs to be, though not without its limitations."
Hades pauses for a moment, but then decides to continue. Should he stop for Hythlodaeus to pick this apart with questions, they'll be stuck here all day. So he continues before Hythlodaeus can start to ask anything.
"In the reality that Steven is from, this is but a mere work of fiction, no more real to him than any other novel based on the imaginings of its author. No more real than any story you could concoct on a whim. Yet, as we see, Dirk is very much as real as you or I." As he explains, he gestures with his hands as he is wont to do. Getting a bit more lively as he speaks of it. It really is fascinating to him, and speaking of it is a pleasure in and of itself.
"With that being said, Dirk is several centuries ahead of Steven's point on the developmental timeline of their similar worlds, though they are divided by different instances of reality. Reflections, in a sense, much akin to the Shards and the Source of our frayed reality. Needless to say, if one might have had more time to learn of the history of his own civilization in a factual and decidedly less biased manner, it would be Dirk. Though, I suppose in practice, it may be Steven."
Hades glances to Dirk, not quite to check on him, but in a sense he is. Merely to keep him somewhat included in the conversation, without needing him to properly engage. Just a small gesture that he's not being discluded while Hades is discussing him like a mere topic of intrigue.
"As for the matter of the Condesce... She was an extraterrestrial invader who subjugated Dirk's world ere his birth, and lead man to his inevitable doom. Dirk was one of two survivors, though that is a bit of a misnomer, seeing as he arrived well after the fall of mankind. Nevertheless, he was able to survive in his desolate world, and was able to research into the civilizations of the past. Those from ages ere Steven's own present, and those that were."
He supposes here is as good as any to pause for Hythlodaeus' questions. he could go further into the depth of 'Homestuck', but it's always better to start with some foundation, and then add to it.
"Ere I continue, have you any questions--or you any additions?" As he asks, he first looks to Hythlodaeus, and then Dirk.
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Facetious though his words may sound--and bland neutrality though his face may wear--Dirk really does find Emet's recounting downright fascinating.
The bare essentials, plucked from the narrative spun almost solely by Dirk Strider himself... and who doesn't like to hear a story about themself?
"Keep going, I'm into it."
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It’s mostly a bunch of yes, continue.
He looks back to Hades, then to Dirk, considering his words carefully before he speaks. There is one niggling thought, and he can’t help but want to peer at the last page and see.
“You have suffered through unimaginable pain, yet emerged victorious. Strangely, I cannot help but feel unease within my heart for you with that parallel to Zodiark. Who might seek to shackle you?”
The cutiefly queue finally reaches Hythlodaeus, the lot of them squeaking and beeping for his attention after that very confusing knock out. Two of them bring over the soft bristled toothbrush. He takes it in his massive hand and lays his palm flat for the first one to rest upon and receive its brush out. The rest begin to float ambiently around, growing bored of the line.
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If Dirk's into it and wishes for him to continue, that's a good sign. That, and it seems like Hythlodaeus is keeping up—he isn't surprised, that's very like him. That, and what Dirk went through isn't horribly abstract from what their own reality foisted upon them. Their troubles were reality spanning, and nowhere near the mundane troubles that someone like Steven deals with.
However, Hythlodaeus' question...well. It's an astute one, again not surprising. Indeed, if Dirk is his universe' Elidibus and by extension Zodiark, then there was bound to be someone to oppose him. Someone foolish enough to do so.
"She is named Calliope." Hades answers simply enough, glancing to Dirk for a moment, before turning to Hythlodaeus, "and she is every bit as a petulant spinner of lies as the mortals' dear Mother."
He's about to add more, but then...Hythlodaeus begins to brush his Pokémon at the table, and Hades' face scrunches with distaste.
"Really. At the table? Can this not wait?"
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That said, there's really no benefit to explaining the lore about Cherubs to Hythlodaeus. It's not relevant.
Of course, at that point a whole gaggle of ragged cutieflies bumbles in, en queue and on cue.
Emet beats him to the punch, so he just raises an eyebrow, finishing off his slice of sfougato before any wayward bugs decide to land on it.
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“... I suppose I can delegate,” he says, calling over the eldest of the yamask. For the exchange of a poffin and the signed promise of more where that came from for everyone, the yamask floats off to gather the others.
Within but a moment, the yamask brigade is back, gently corralling cutiefly. That calm yamask takes the tooth brush in its grip and floats away, leading the cutiefly away as if he were the pied piper. One by one, in the background of Hades’ recounting, the Yamask hold the cutiefly one by one, petting them and brushing them out.
“...go on.”
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"...Right then." He shakes his head with a slight roll of his eyes, "as I was saying, Calliope is the one standing in opposition of Dirk and his designs. There is far more about her than merely a name, and that she shares a similar ability to alter the course of reality, but she is scant the focus here." In fact, the focus was the cultural significance of whether or not Steven or Dirk would be the better source for the information about this so-called 'gay scene'.
"At the root of it all is an Ouroboros-like game of sorts that both brings about the end of worlds as well as the creation of such. It is indeed referred to as the simplistic moniker 'The Game', but it is scant so simple," he pauses a moment to finish off his juice, "Dirk's reality can be affected by something akin to coding, as if the universe itself is a machine, yet it is not one. Not really. Regardless, when one runs the specified coding for such an ominous game, it sets off the necessary mechanism to spur the progression of their very own Final Days."
For a moment, Hades' expression goes a little grim, but in an instant it's gone, continuing on as if he was not afflicted by the thought at all.
"Needless to say, Dirk and his companions whom of which suffered through such a malignant game came out victorious, which then earned them their own fresh new universe, one in which they would serve as gods for. However, this was ere his true and proper ascension to Godhood, just to be clear. While he and his became gods after a fashion, it was not through their trials and tribulations with this sadistic situation they were made to weather, that Dirk rose to such power, though it did make such possible."
Raising his hands to gesticulate as he talks, he continues, "rather, they were given the chance to facilitate the development of a new world, to become the stewards of this fresh reality. To guide it to peace and prosperity—not unlike what we had sought to do with our own after the Final Days..."
He breathes out a soft breath, a small pause for himself and Hythlodaeus.
"Which brings me back to my point. Young though Dirk may be, he has far better qualifications to inform us of the cultural significance of such terminology and its history, than someone as daft as Steven. Both is he familiar with the society that Steven existed within as well as what came before and after from an unbiased standpoint, but likewise was he the cultivator of mortal civilization in his own reality."
cw 'gay and homophobic'
What Dirk finds even more interesting, though, is Emet's narrative--how effectively and efficiently he reframes the specifics for his audience. There's something gripping about hearing the same connections Dirk made between their stories and roles spoken aloud, and yet in reverse.
"Thank you," Dirk says, folding his hands in front of him, as though that settles the matter.
"And with all that said, you will probably hook more fish by calling it a 'gay bar.'" He enunciates the last two syllables so distinctly that it offsets them even without finger quotes.
"If Steven's having such a gay old time that he's chasing wedding bells, it's probably not that far off whatever idyllic homosexual fantasy environment he'd imagine."
The not me, though is silent but present.
He shifts, resting his chin on his hands.
"Maintain your image, dress like you don't suck dick, dream about marriage and kids and a picket fence."
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“...Is there a... reverse of that manner of dress... Perhaps the cabal attire for— for those with dick-sucking preference that I should know about or be wearing to broadcast this information?”
And then quickly adding—
“Do your clothes... oh my, should I have known already by your manner of dress?”
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However, when he lists off this supposed fantasy, he can't help but look a little baffled at the criteria--yet Hythlodaeus tops it entirely with what he says. With owlish eyes, he stares at him wordlessly...honestly, what can he say to that?
So, for the moment, he's just...stunned. Utterly flabbergasted.
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He takes a second to swallow some grapefruit juice, clear his throat and his head before he takes a stab at what he sincerely hopes is not a lost fucking cause (but fully expects to be exactly that.)
The juice helps, at least. He's developed a taste for it; the concentrated one-two punch of acidity and flavour really does something. It's bracing, but also refreshing.
"Fashion isn't just body coverings. Fashion is communication. A conversation in a visual language. Fabric, colour, cut, stitch... individually, these are barely phonemes, let alone morphemes. But once you add the complement, conformity, or contrast of what you wear both with itself and against the backdrop of society present and historical, then you have words, the makings of your first impression and your end punctuation."
He stops, finishes his glass of grapefruit juice.
"Shortcuts happen, but they come in and out of fashion in a matter of months or years, rarely decades. For example: Steven almost overlaps with the practise of men carrying a visible bandana or handkerchief of a certain colour to advertise what his dick likes. But by the time Homestuck existed for him to read, that was already redundant, more like a kinky callback to an earlier era of homosocialisation than anything."
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In this moment, several things lock into place and he experiences his second epiphany for that morning.
"...I see! If you would forgive how my size dictates much of my choice as well as the myriad variables, what conclusions would you draw about me based on my appearance?"
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