victory_road | [ text / action for new bark town ] (cw: blood, probably talk of death/violence)

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[ text / action for new bark town ] (cw: blood, probably talk of death/violence)

A. text

TWO TH1NGS

F1RST
JOHN 3GB3RT
1F YOU'R3 H3R3, W3 N33D TO T4LK

S3COND
W1LL TH1S WORK TO G3T BLOOD OUT OF CLOTH1NG OR W1LL 1 N33D TO G3T 4 D1FF3R3NT PRODUCT FROM TH3 N3XT TOWN?

[Here she's attached a photo of the standard bottle of liquid soap that comes with the backpack.]

B. action

[If anyone's on the lookout for newbies, Terezi can be spotted sitting by a flowerbed next to "Mom's" house. She doesn't look any less human than anyone else here, at least at first. Though her ears have a bit of a point, they're hidden by her black hair, and the sharpness of her teeth is concealed by her pursed lips as she taps away at her Pokégear. No, if there's anything to raise concern, it's the fact that she looks like she's had a bad accident with some paint, or perhaps smashed a box worth of Grape-Berry Double Homicide Gushers against herself. Teal and purple mar her shirt and even stick to her face and arms in places.]

[It doesn't really smell like paint, or the corn syrup-laden fruit approximant of candy, either. It's dry by now, but one might recognize the smell of blood.]

[Her starter isn't far: a Gible wanders about the flowerbed proper, occasionally casting a concerned glance back at her new trainer in between devouring whatever blooms might remain at this time of year. She'll settle for withered stems, too; she ain't picky.]

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[WHO'S TH1S DOUCH3B4G?]

DR13D
4ND COP1OUS
1 4M NOT SUR3 WH4T YOU M34N BY PURG4TORY >:?
1 4LR34DY H4V3 SOM3 THOUGHTS ON WH4T TH1S PL4C3 1S BUT 1 W1LL NOT OBJ3CT TO FURTH3R 1NS1GHT

Ouch. Sucks, but John's teen nanna down there probably has the right of it. She's the expert in these things.

As for this place... I hate to say it, but this isn't in the Medium. It may not even be in Paradox Space proper, and it's definitely not connected to the Game. We've got a few different timelines and so on jammed together just from our canon, and a lot of actors from other sources. For a while we actually had a handful of guys from John's favourite movie.

[My dropping a casual mention of 'canon' was deliberate, and so is my repeated use of John as a point of reference. I could say a lot, I could lay it all out in... oh, a thousand words or so, if I really wanted. But I don't want to scare her off.]

[When he keeps dropping the hints, how can she ignore the obvious? This is someone who's played the game, who knows John, but not someone she immediately recognizes. Orange text first pairs with Davesprite, but the quirk and diction don't match in the least. Orange, though. She's not exactly familiar with the post-Scratch humans, but she's run into... probably all of them? Thinking back to that run-in in the dream bubbles, the same time they first learned about the dancestors, and...]

HOLD ON
YOU MUST B3 D4V3'S T33N BRO
1 R3M3MB3R YOU
YOU W3R3 TH3 ON3 TH4T W4S L1K3 SOM3 W31RD GHOST 4ND TH3N SUDD3NLY NOT ON3 >:O

[The orange scent may not have been as strong as Jake's overwhelming herby greenness, but she was nosing in on him enough to notice it, still.]

JOHN'S T33N N4NN4 D1D M3NT1ON T1M3 B31NG W31RD BUT 1 4LR34DY K1ND OF 3XP3CT3D TH4T
CONS1D3R1NG 1 H4D JUST S3NT JOHN ON 4 M1SS1ON TO R3TCON SOM3 TH1NGS
BUT TH1S 1S NOT R3MOT3LY WH3R3 1 3XP3CT3D TO 3ND UP!
1 W4S SUPPOS3D TO B3 1N TH3 DR34M BUBBL3S
NOT SUDD3NLY HUM4N 1N 4 F1DUSP4WN KNOCKOFF >:[
MY 1NSTRUCT1ONS W3R3 V3RY STR41GHTFORW4RD TOO!

[Maybe she'd wonder more about the use of the term 'canon', but right now, there's some bigger concerns on her mind. And for all she knows, he could be using it less literally than he is.]

Edited 2020-10-14 05:58 (UTC)

[.....

Well. That answers that.

Good thing I didn't get my hopes up.]

I'm gonna stop you right there.

Yes, I both am and am not the Brain Ghost Dirk you're describing.

But seeing as I'm from your extremely distant future, I feel it's my responsibility to address your confusion and clarify some things.

This isn't John's doing. Or if it is, he's both more and less competent a Deus ex than even I could have imagined.

Because he's dead. Not just physically, but narratively.

[By a confluence of circumstance, Terezi has just heard from John, and with it had the main misconception cleared up. It's... not exactly a happy revelation. It takes a little before she gets back to—Dirk, okay, his name is Dirk—simply for a need to process things.]

[Not that Dirk exactly helps the situation.]

WH4T DO YOU M34N, D34D N4RR4T1V3LY?

Exactly what it sounds like. If you can retcon the events of a story, you can also perpetuate the same.

And it's a well-known fact that Paradox Space makes plenty of room within the bounds of narrative Reality for the dead to leave their marks. Dream Bubbles, resurrections, brain ghosts, and so on. Simple material 'death' doesn't mean anything. Not really.

John, though...

I'm sorry to say that John will never affect anything of narrative relevance again.

[Terezi stares at that for a good long moment.]

TWO QU3ST1ONS
HOW DO YOU KNOW TH4T
4ND WHY SHOULD 1 C4R3?
1'M D34D B4CK 1N P4R4DOX SP4C3
4ND 4CCORD1NG TO JOHN WH4T3V3R 'N4RR4T1V3' 1NFLU3NC3 1 M1GHT H4V3 H4D W1TH D1R3CT1NG H1M TO F1X TH1NGS H4S 4LR34DY H4PP3N3D
1F JOHN 1S 1N TH3 S4M3 BO4T 4T TH1S PO1NT TH3N 1 DO NOT S33 WH4T 1T M4TT3RS
4ND 1F H3 W4NTS TO T3LL M3 4BOUT H1S D34TH, H3 C4N DO TH4T 1N H1S OWN T1M3

And he's correct about your dead self's activities being set pretty firmly in the so-called "past." However, John is neglecting a few details, most likely because he doesn't actually understand anything I'm talking about, or that he's talking about.

You definitely should care, though. Don't worry, I'm going to explain why.

Ready? Great. Here it goes.

John's death of narrative relevance came about because he took a venomous tooth to the torso fighting Lord English. Which happened because he was following Rose's instructions as his part of an effort to revitalise canon from its accelerating decomposition. The blood loss and Heroic nature of his death killed his body. The unique venom in that fang killed his place in the evolving metafiction. No godhood or Godhood or take-backs of any kind. That's it. Dead in every literal sense of the word, meta and otherwise.

You with me so far? This is about 1/2 of the information, but only because I'm condensing it quite a bit. There's bound to be some data loss as part of the streamlining process, I just want to make sure none of it is an essential part of the story, if you know what I mean.

YOU R34LLY 4R3 K1ND OF 1NSUFF3R4BL3
D1D YOU KNOW TH4T
YOU W1LL H4V3 TO T3LL M3 4BOUT TH1S D3COMPOS1T1ON OF C4NON BUT WH4T3V3R, K33P GO1NG

Yeah, of course. No problem. I'll loop back around to it. Right after we finish this up.

Now. Here's where this should get more interesting for you. The only witness to John's death was you, Terezi. Not exactly you, obviously, but if John is a little weird about you, that's why. You two shared some very intimate moments before the end.

His end, anyway. Because the canonically-relevant version of you promised him you'd take his body back to Earth C with you for a funeral, but you didn't actually do it.

Rose knows that, and so do I, but we're the only ones who do know right now. We're supposed to be light years away from Earth C already, taking us to the next phase, to do what has to be done. To correct the mistakes of past authorship and return our reality to its former glory. Or at least instill the name of canon with the integrity that through narrative negligence began a process of painful degradation a long, long fucking time ago.

Except, obviously, I'm not. I'm here. With you. And... John. Who has absolutely jack all intention of doing anything to help.

[She and John... what. They what. Intimate? What?]

[The rest is more or less easy to figure out from context, but there's, uh, still a mental stutter to working out what to even say after that little speedbump.]

H4V3 YOU NOT H34RD TH3 PHR4S3
L3T SL33P1NG B4RKB34STS L13?
1 4M PR3TTY SUR3 TH3R3 1S 4 HUM4N V4R14NT OF TH4T ON3 4ND 1F NOT YOU H4V3 NO 3XCUS3 4FT3R KNOW1NG FUTUR3 4LPH4 T3R3Z1
1F 4NYTH1NG 1S GO1NG TO B3 4WKW4RD NOW 1T 1S B3C4US3 YOU 1NTRODUC3D TH3 TOP1C! >:I
SO WH1L3 YOU'R3 BUSY SH4R1NG TH3 FUTUR3 P4ST P3RSON4L BUS1N3SS OF P3OPL3 WHO 4R3 NOT YOU
DO YOU R34LLY H4V3 4 GOOD R34SON FOR TRY1NG SO TR4NSP4R3NTLY TO R3CRU1T M3 TO YOUR T34M?
1 4M ST1LL TH3 D34D ON3
TH3 ON3 WHOS3 T1M3L1N3 W4S R3TCONN3D OUT OF 3X1ST3NC3
1F 1 COM3 B4CK TO P4R4DOX SP4C3 W1TH YOU 1T W1LL JUST M4K3 TH1NGS W31RD 4ND PROB4BLY 3ND W1TH M3 DY1NG 4 S3COND T1M3

Edited (Terezi's quirk sure makes spotting typos more difficult) 2020-10-15 06:25 (UTC)

No, no. Your renewed canonical presence won't be doing anything so annoying or messy.

I have it on good authority that breaking one's Self out of this place puts you exactly where you once were in time and space, apparently with no memory of this nonsense at all.

As far as continuity is concerned, you're still going back to your dream bubble, where you walk for an interminable amount of time until you find Vriska and have a really emotional reunion. It's all very touching, one of those rare feel-good developments of well-earned cathartic payoff this story is really lacking in.

Heavy is the mantle of metafictional reality, just between you and me--if I didn't have the full Titanweight of the narrative world on my shoulders, I'd be jealous.

As it is, though, I really only have one favour to ask of you.

I need you to talk to John for me.

ok i can't take it any more!
dirk, this is public! i can read it! i can read all of this!
is this some sort of weird game where we all pretend that i don't know you asked terezi to talk to me and then we play telephone or do that thing in sitcoms where one person isn't speaking to the other person so they say everything through a third party? that's really strange!
my problem has never been the messenger, dude!

No, John. As much as I do enjoy them, this is not a game. This is me being aware of you, and the fact that it doesn't matter whether I ask her privately, publicly, or we turn this into an irritating and argumentative menage a trois.

If she realises I have a fucking point and says even two words to you, you'll know that I put her up to it because out of the four of us (hello, Jane) no one else knows what any of this is about except for me.

So, to that end, the point of asking Terezi to talk to you is actually that you and Terezi have spoken more than five sentences to each other over the course of canonical history, because yes, I do think my role as messenger has been part of the problem.

[These two get their messages in at least in part because Terezi is just having a moment off in New Bark Town. Vriska. She gets to meet Vriska. She wishes not for the first time and certainly not the last that her nose could perceive things better, that she could smell the truth or falsehood off his words.]

[But... honesty or lie, the dream bubbles would still have the chance for her to meet her again, to meet all her dead friends after everything else. And this place, this world—what does it have for her besides an admittedly endearing dragon?]

C4N YOU TWO T4K3 YOUR DUMB BOY 4RGUM3NT SOM3WH3R3 3LS3!
Y3S W3 4GR33 3V3RYON3 C4N S33 3V3RYON3 3LS3'S M3SS4G3S WH3TH3R TH3Y W4NT TO S33 4NYTH1NG OR NOT
1T 1S 4LMOST 4S DUMB 4S TROLL14N M3MOS
JOHN 1 4GR33 W1TH YOU TH4T D1RK 1S K1ND OF 4 J4CK4SS BUT YOU ST1LL N33D TO GO B4CK 4ND T3LL M3 WHY YOU W3R3 DUMB 3NOUGH TO TH1NK TH1S W4S TH3 4FT3RL1F3
4ND D1RK C4N YOU L4Y OFF TH3 S3LF 1MPORT4NT HOOOFB34ST SH1T FOR LONG 3NOUGH TO 4CTU4LLY 3XPL41N WH4T YOU M34N B3TT3R?
YOU 4R3 DO1NG 4 GOOD JOB OF SOUND1NG L1K3 YOU H4V3 4 H1GH OP1N1ON OF YOURS3LF BUT NOT MUCH 3LS3 >:|
WH4T DO3S C4NON D3C4Y1NG M34N?
4ND WH4T DO YOU M34N 4BOV3 4BOUT TH3 N4RR4T1V3?
STR41GHT 4NSW3RS ONLY!

Edited (idk why but Terezi using question marks always slips out of my mind) 2020-10-16 05:13 (UTC)

I just said I was getting to that part. The first pass was me keeping my story short so I could get to the point before you blocked me.

Theoretically, if John hadn't butted in before he'd been invited, I could have expanded on those topics already.

But it's fine. I'm not upset. It's just that your time isn't the only thing being wasted here.

Now, onto those answers I promised.

Obviously, the narrative and the decay of canon are connected topics. Canon, as I assume you know, is the metafictional framework John is tampering with when he alters events without the constraints of timelines or continuity.

If 'canon' is the bounding container of what we consider to be the prime form of reality, the narrative is canon's mechanical interior.

And if canon is the bounding form by which reality is held up, what do you think happens to us and everything in it when it begins to depreciate?

Anyone?

John, I know Rose explained this to you. This would be an excellent time to demonstrate that you'd been paying attention.

Edited 2020-10-17 01:21 (UTC)

[Oh crimeny.]

Dirk, I really don't mean to pry, honestly I don't, but considering how heated the conversation is becoming, perhaps...maybe you should leave your "what's real and what's not" conversations for a different time?
Terezi did just arrive here after what I assume is some rough stuff, after all!
And considering how serious you take this, it might be a bit much for someone to absorb right now? Perhaps?
Also she asked you for straightforward answers and you are giving her questions in response to her questions!

>:T
NOW 1 S33 WH3R3 ROS3 G3TS 1T FROM
N31TH3R OF YOU S4Y 4NYTH1NG TH3 SHORT W4Y DO YOU
BUT M1SS T33N N4NN4 J4N3!
1 H4V3 H4D 4 SH1TTY SH1TTY D4Y, 1T 1S TRU3
BUT 1 C4N H4NDL3 TH1S
THOUGH YOU 4R3 R1GHT TO DOCK H1M FOR NOT B31NG STR41GHTFORW4RD >:]
D1RK, YOU C4N CUT TH3 COND3SC3ND1NG TROLL SOCR4T1C M3THOD R1GHT TH3R3
OBV1OUSLY YOU 4R3 S4Y1NG TH3 UND3RP1NN1NGS OF R34L1TY 4R3 UNR4V3L1NG
4ND YOU 4R3 TRY1NG TO PROP UP TH3 M3CH4N1SMS HOLD1NG 1T TOG3TH3R
WH1CH 1S NOT 4 B4D TH1NG TO DO BUT YOU H4V3 R34LLY PUFF3D UP YOUR 3GO 4BOUT TH3 WHOL3 TH1NG!
YOU WOULD NOT 3V3N B3 1N TH3 POS1T1ON TO DO TH4T 1F 1 H4D NOT TOLD JOHN HOW TO F1X TH3 T1M3L1N3 F1RST
4ND 1 COULD NOT H4V3 DON3 TH4T 1F H3 D1DN'T H4V3 H1S R3TCON POW3R
SO B4S1C4LLY
YOU OW3 H1M 4ND M3 4L1K3 >:]
SO WH4T DO YOU W4NT M3 TO T4LK TO JOHN 4BOUT 1F H3 1S 4S N4RR4T1V3LY D34D 4S YOU CL41M

Are you sure? It...it all sounds really complicated and I can see why some certain fellows might be depressed at some of the wording going around here.

[Please stop calling John "narratively dead" that. That sounds so depressing and mean??]

it's ok, jane, i know i'm dead!
uh, though i guess there is an extra venom element to it i didn't know about but all that does is make me more confused. i have the same question as terezi!
if i am two different kinds of dead, how could i possibly still be relevant to canon? i have already offered to help dirk with his least illegal plans to get out of here, that should be enough!
dirk accuses me all the time of trying to play the dead card but if everything rose and he have said about the narrative is true, he still hasn't explained how a dead guy is supposed to do anything. are you asking terezi so that maybe she can seer of mind her alternate self a message to send you my corpse to use in some wacky weekend at bernie's shenanigans? does that not work unless i am spending all my time here being a Protagonist?
sorry about all this, jane and terezi, i am just tired of this same dumb argument. hope you're bringing something new to the table, dude!

John, even if being dead is the truth of things, that doesn't mean you can let someone tell you that you don't mean anything...
And I'm going to be honest, I have no idea about any illegal plans or anything akin to Weekend at Bernie's going on, but I would hope the me from where you came from would like to know what's happened in order to, you know, uh, do the Lifey Thing? Or if I can't do that, then at least put you to rest?
This is an incredibly upsetting discussion, geez.

Here I was about to say this isn't getting any kind of heated, but I've just been proven wrong, so how about let's stop arguing over how dead John is or isn't and instead shut up and listen to me, the one person in the room who actually knows what's going on?

UUUUUUUGGGGGHHHHHHH
J4N3 1 UND3RST4ND YOU 4R3 CONC3RN3D
4ND 1 C4NNOT S4Y JOHN 1S UN1NVOLV3D FOR OBV1OUS R34SONS
BUT C4N YOU BOTH M4YB3 B4CK OUT OF MY THR34D SO 1 C4N T4LK TO D1RK 4BOUT TH3 R3ST OF TH1S 4ND G3T 4 PROP3R 4NSW3R?
1 4M MOR3 TH4N C4P4BL3 3NOUGH OF D3C1D1NG WH3TH3R 1 W4NT TO H4V3 TH1S CONV3RS4T1ON R1GHT NOW
4LL MY FR13NDS 4R3 D34D!
T4LK1NG 4BOUT TH1S 1S NOT GO1NG TO M4K3 MY D4Y 4NY WORS3 TH4N 1T 4LR34DY H4S B33N
1F YOU N33D TO T4LK TO D1RK YOURS3LV3S TH3N 1 4M SUR3 YOU BOTH H4V3 OTH3R W4YS TO M3SS4G3 H1M
BUT R1GHT NOW 1 JUST W4NT TO KNOW WH4T'S GO1NG ON

For fucks' sake. We're not in canon. The narrative isn't

Well, it's not. It's just not. Whatever happens in this place is sealed off tighter than David's unsculpted asshole, his unassailable sphincter hidden for all eternity between two furiosuly clenched marble glutes.

So he's not dead and he's the only continuity-adherent part of canon that I've got besides me.

But we're only ever going to be able to affect this world from within its rule structure. Dunkass.

Edited 2020-10-21 05:21 (UTC)

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[ text / action for new bark town ] (cw: blood, probably talk of death/violence)

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CW nsfw statements about Michelangelo's David

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cw: r slur

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