#a little dave strider core if im being honest

[chrisrin]

started reading 17776 for the first time and juice is absolutely my favorite so far.

they’re everything to me.

[biologybrat]

nine

9. why were you drawn to each one of your characters?

well! for dave, i really was enthused about the idea of playing a character who was interested in what i was, somewhere where i could happily babble about the things i love and really indulge in that longwinded, metaphor laden, souped up sort of style that i naturally fall into but have to curb for yknow, claritys sake quite a lot of the time or ease of communication: and that isn’t as appreciated on other muses because (elliot voice) he’s a strider. he’s allowed to talk. let him babble!! cause you kind of expect daves to be chatty, yknow what i mean? 

i don’t have other muses who are into the same things as dave is, like, i have an oc who’s very into environmental sciences, but even then, she’s very woodland oriented and not super applicable: whereas i have more free range with dave because my god, dave striders morbidity and jade harleys general scientific and gadgetry combined is like, the IDEAL, the only thing he’s missing is a little side of ai personhood questioning and delving into the human psyche, but he’s really nailed my special interests that range between “the interactions between humanity and their environment, primarily lensed in with a medical and morbid flair, and ransacking the hell out of history for fun facts about development” 

and it’s just… fun writing dave? he’s CHATTY, like my oc is, but he’s also just way more upbeat and loving, and explores themes of vulnerability but at his core is just… a good guy. a good guy who just wants to be loved, and who has some very sweet ideas about what constitutes love and man, he’s as in love with the universe as i am: he’s head over heels for science, the labor of love it is, the discipline, the rigour you have to exercise with it: and he’s very playful and whimsical about that (re: rekitting out a purple fitbit from a cereal box, or tracking his island just to have a pop up map of where frogs n bug friends are LOL) and of COURSE i’m just homestuck trash at heart who LOVES writing muses with my best fucking friend ahahah even if pubby drags me on main all of the time

to put it shortly: special interest man 9000. 

for my oc, although she’s shelved and on my backburner at the moment as academia grinds me into the fucking dirt and i just need to take a couple steps back from her because she is an intense muse to play, claudia explores several themes that resonate with me deeply? the after effects of childhood abuse and how that permeates your identity even as you grow older, and learning how to come to terms with who you’re growing into. the concept of the “idealistic” and the “messy” survivor and what its like to be considered a worse survivor for how you coped.  the idea of family being found, that family is intensely, deeply important due to a lack of having it as a child. how people in your life can change you, for better, or for worse: but how they’re a part of your story too. a love and appreciation for nature: for it’s brutality, the nature’s maw that dave speaks of is very much so present in her as well. being smaller than your anger, and learning self control because without it its so easy for you to hurt other people, intentionally or not. learning how to shed unhealthy ideals even if they’re what got you this far because you can change, you don’t have to be static: and learning how to take personal responsibility and exercise empathy? she also dabbles around with my own cultural background because i felt like that sort of accurate representation was important, and i saw like, 0 of it in any media reflected around me?so, succinctly: (elliot voice) fine bih im taking unexplored themes into my own grubby paws. 

my dirk and my AR are primarily reserved just for pubby over discord these days and theyre on and off muses, but dirk was always meant to be an exploration into reconciling what you are taught with what you experience, in particularly towards morality: (being lawful does not make something good) as well as struggling with emotional articulation and gradually learning how to… fucking show you care about people, dirk! (he cares deeply for his friends, but he’s terrified and awkward about emotions, which uh, big mood.) he also was the OG look into “usefulness = value” that capitalism beats people over the head with that dave struggles with, because they have a hard time finding inherent value in themselves for yknow, being living, breathing human beings who enrich the lives of others who love them deeply, and so default to acts of service to try to… validate themselves and the things they have in their life? also, personal responsibility again: i tend to have a few central themes you’ll find a lot in my writing, and growing into that arc is a BIG one, because it… can be scary, acknowledging your mistakes, faults, and flaws: but you gotta fucking do it sometime, yknow? dirk absolves his through religion, rather than family like claudia does, and dave doesn’t have it as bad, but would pin it onto his loneliness growing up, and AR is anger at the mechanisms behind his existence and dirk “stealing” his life from him.

tl;dr: emotionally constipated man 9000my AR was a convoluted character, i never really wrote villains before but? he was a deep trawl into identity issues, and the idea of humanity = personhood and all the ways that that sentiment is outdated and to be honest, kinda fucked up hahaha, i have a lot of strong feelings about AI characters and philosophy surrounding death / life, and AR was poking into “so what does happen to a thirteen year old dirk who just wakes up in shades and has to watch the “real dirk” take over his life?” and the deep set hurt of rejection from everyone around you as well? really about “so you give this guy an idealistic life and then tear everything about it away from him AND taunt him with the shadows of it on the wall and no means of making his own new start, whats left” as well as a general conscience foil to dirk: AR is angry, AR is inhuman, but AR is more genuinely emotional and lovable than dirk is, the stony monolith of a man he is, and… AR’s anger is rooted in some pretty fucking valid stuff? the way he goes around dealing with it isn’t, healthy in the slightest, but i always thought anger was an interesting narrative to explore and he and dirk really resonate with each other because theyre in this stupid fucked up cat and mouse game of revenge cycles that really does neither of them good, that hinders both of them: they both use each other to hurt themselves, even as they lash out at the other, and AR really manifests that inability to both take responsibility for your own life but also to let go of resentments that hurt you more so than help you, and how in blind pursuit of vengeance you really lose a lot of yourself and out on a LOT of really GOOD things that would be so much better to nourish with that same effort (in the style of macbeth and hamlet and their own arcs)tl;dr: angry robot baby