#dirk strider get help challenge go

[itsmybirthdaythough]

This is a moodboard for d*rk str*d*r if you haven’t been paying attention to anything else I post. Personally, if I had an exact copy of myself (regardless of how old I was when it was captured), I would also be batshit cookoo. For instance, the biggest rule of time travel is to avoid your double at all costs. Whether this is for timeline instability or preservation of a sound mind I am forever unaware, but Dirk has met NUMEROUS copies of himself, one being programmed to fit inside glasses he wears 24/7.

The constant reflection of his mind and habits back at him is detrimental to his health despite being by his own hand. He pretty much has a constant livestream of himself, only with an inverted frame. Idk shits weird, i think the creation of clones are unethical and morally wrong, dirk is cool but needs assistance. Boohoo.

[decayandash]

Fuck it

Hogwarts Legacy characters and their Classpects as well as The Alpha and Beta kids' Hogwarts houses.

Because I have a strange mixture of interests and I think I want to make all of my followers suffer too. Classpect Descriptions from@/Homestuckexamination

Sebastian Sallow- Theif of Doom

The Thief of Doom would be one who Steals Doom for Themselves. Doom doesn’t seem to have many practical uses selfishly, which may parse the Thief of Doom as someone who suffers in behalf of others, and then uses said pain to justify their authority or that they deserve something. They may Steal through Doom as well, benefiting from something or someone’s death or pain, looting from them at their weakest, or taking advantage of people’s limitations to get away with what they want. Or perhaps they really do Steal Death and Suffering for themselves, having a more morbid or borderline masochistic behaviour.

Ominis Gaunt - Seer of Mind

The Seer of Mind is that who Knows Mind for Others. There’s little to say about this Classpect that the canon hasn’t already- Knowing when others are putting a facade, knowing where their choices will lead in the Timeline, and guiding others to not let them go down a self-destructive path, as well as knowing their own Choices and their outcomes just as well. They may also be able to read minds and see what others are thinking.

Poppy Sweeting- Sylph of Blood

The Sylph of Blood would be the one to Make Blood for Others. With Blood as Attachment, Bonds and Friendship, they would easily bring the team together, forging an Alliance and keeping conflict away from the group, to work towards a common goal. Using these bonds and hard work together to improve the team, and slowly build up to face any challenge in their way. Creating Blood and Healing Blood and Through Blood easily evokes the idea of blood transfusions and bloodletting as ways of healing, purifying the body from toxins and harmful substances, as well as closing wounds. And in the same way to protect those they care about, they won’t hesitate to Create Wounds on their enemies.

Garreth Weasley - Knight of Breath

The Knight of Breath would be one to Serve Breath to Others. Allowing others to have the Freedom they need, allowing them to move freely, and perhaps, even to detach themselves from other issues and focus on their personal goals. They’re facilitators, doing what needs to be done, and either inspiring others to do the same, or doing it so that they don’t need to do anything, either Serving a Leader, or Serving as the Leader. And in the same way, they may Wield the Wind to protect those that need their help, and Serve those struggling a Breath of Fresh Air

Natsai Onai - Maid of Hope

The Maid of Hope would similarly Create Hope, but as an Active Class, the Maid would create it for themselves. Always hopeful that things will turn out right, it would drive them forwards and, rather than directly make it for others, they may become a beacon others look up to. They may also shrug off attacks completely merely because they believe they can power through it, believing in themselves.

Leander Prewett - Page of Rage

The Page of Rage would be one to be Served Rage, or through Rage. Keeping themselves confused and unaware of the full extent of the situation they’re in, their attitude may be infuriating to those around them- And yet, their demeanor also makes it hard to keep hating them for too long. While possibly confusing or infuriating, it’s where this Rage is aimed that counts, and when they’re hurt or when they’re in a bad position, the anger easily bounces off of them, and towards that which is mistreating them. But when built up beyond this attitude, when helped be happier, they too may harbor hatred towards that which oppressed them, and usher their foes into utter chaos.

Homestuck Kids' houses based off vibes alone John Egbert - Gryffindor Rose Lalonde - Ravenclaw Dave Strider - Hufflepuff Jade Harley - Ravenclaw Jane Crocker - Slytherin Dirk Strider - Slytherin Roxy Lalonde - Gryffindor Jake Harley - Hufflepuff

[sinkableruby]

if you were going to see each Monogatari character paired with another character in a story which dynamics do you think would be most compelling?

trying to catch up on asks

idk if this is for just any character or other monogatari characters but i will think on both. im also assuming this is like for dynamics we havent really seen yet as opposed to just what my favorite dynamics are

im gonna say full anime spoilers for monogatari, and spoilers for other series too occasionally? nothing TOO huge but yea

koyomi: he talks to everyone so idk how i would do this. but for outside monogatari... i want him to talk to a boy he doesnt talk to boys enough. i think he should talk to jotaro from jjba part 3 purely because i think he'd be really intimidated and it'd be funny. either that or dirk strider because (homestuck spoilers) i think they could bond over creating splinter versions of themselves and almost killing said selves as well as their mutual self hatred

senjougahara: senjougahara has the tendency to dominate the dynamic of whoever she's with and doesnt take shit from anybody so i kinda wanna see her talk to gaen izuko. bc gaen is also someone who dominates the dynamic of whoever she's with (makes sense) but i feel like senjougahara would be extremely unwilling to put up with her and very distrustful. so thered be a lot of push back on gaens scheming that i think could be interesting. as for outside monogatari, i drew a blank on this so id say maybe sakurajima mai because... not only is that series just monogatari but for a wider audience, but mai is also senjougahara but a little bit to the left. i think since they both had mysterious supernatural starts to their relationships with their respective boyfriends they would start competing over whose start was like cooler or w/e for like basically no reason. i think it'd be funny. it'd probably start a little contentious and then just become them gushing about their boyfriends. how sweet

kanbaru: i think if she talked to sodachi she could be a very positive influence in sodachi's social life that she really needs. and i think she'd also do well in cutting down sodachi's pathological self deprecation if they got close. sodachi would try to like look cool in front of her junior and kanbaru would just be like woah youre taking breaks from college thats not good are you ok... and try to offer her help in staying motivated and healthy and all that. kanbaru's inner doctor can really shine lol. outside of mono first person that comes to mind is homura from madoka and they can talk about what absolute disaster gays they are (although homura is significantly more disaster). second person that comes to mind is serinuma kae from kiss him not me because i think they could have a blast going insane about bl together

hanekawa: id like to see her talk to gaen tooe (if it were possible) because tooes ideology challenges hanekawas and i think it could further hanekawas thinking if they managed to talk. its tough for hanekawa cause shes got her whole journey shes on so shes probably super focused on that and less on bonding w ppl or w/e. i think outside of the series itd be fun if she talked to oribe yasuna just bc yasuna is so bouncy energetic and childishly playful but also so annoying that hanekawa would be a little stumped and caught off balance. she'd end up having to go along with yasunas games and be kind of annoyed about it lol.

nadeko: kinda like koyomi nadeko has talked with too many people for me to feel like i can name a new person for a dynamic. outside of the series tho... shes very reserved so she'd have to talk to someone outgoing for anything interesting to happen... she should talk to baka from the wasteful days of high school girls. baka is so rude and would probably tease nadeko for her shyness but is also so genuinely dumb that nadeko wouldnt be offended by it for very long. baka would rope her along into her usual dumb shit which means nadeko would feel put upon but also get to have fun new experiences so cool.

hachikuji: im drawing a blank. maybe numachi, just because numachi is so negative and dark and hachikuji is so encouraging and positive. i dont think theres anyone hachikuji would like get along badly with but i think hachikuji and numachi might have some disagreements that would be an interesting dynamic. hachikuji should talk to phos from hnk because they could have a fun snappy dynamic with each other and their mutual silliness. and also because phos really needs someone like hachikuji in their life 😭. other than that maybe clara valac? theyre both chaotic i think they'd have fun together :)

tsukihi: should talk to kaiki because kaiki would be totally defeated by her. tsukihi brings misfortune to everyone and he knows this so he'd be really annoyed by having to talk to her. the worst part is she would probably critique his lifestyle and philosophy and not even be wrong about it and hed have no choice but to deal with it. in exchange for not bringing it up he would have to pay her off with snacks and cute clothes. shed prolly also be genuinely pissed at him for messing with karen so he'd have to lose a Lot of money and she'd make him lose a lot on purpose, not as much because she wants the stuff but more because she knows he wants the money. she should talk to suzumiya haruhi theyre both forces of nature theyd have a wonderful time unknowingly making the lives of everyone around them 1000x more annoying. they'd like feed off each other it'd be great. they've got like equally low attention spans so theyd go pursuing a new really ambitious project like every week and have a fun time with it. theyre mutually very bored i think they'd get along.

karen: karen should talk to kagenui and do a training montage with her. they'd do a training montage that's what they'd do. karen would adopt kagenui as her mentor after like 3 seconds. im not sure who to have her talk to from outside mono. maybe someone she can mentor instead of her being the mentee. actually i think itd be hilarious if she tried to mentor bocchi. like specifically in like martial arts and physical fitness. and bocchi would be like yes i can get stronger and then all the girls will love me so shes up for it but karen would be just so bad at teaching that it wouldnt amount to anything. but she wouldnt know how bad she is at it and would just keep trying to push through... bless her heart

yotsugi: should talk to senjougahara bc they are both monotone and acerbic it'd be a monotone-and-acerbic-off. who will win. (senjougahara would bring up yotsugi's old catchphrase and win bc yotsugi would die of cringe). i'd like her to talk to iruma because iruma is so sweet and yotsugi would probably be a little rude but also a little nice to him. and then she would make him do stuff for her every now and then bc he cant say no lol. she'd probably use him to pamper herself tbh

sodachi: itd be interesting if she ever talked to shinobu bc she'd be like wow you attached yourself eternally to THAT guy? lame and then she'd like openly mock her. shinobu would probably haughty about it like who cares about the words of a mere human (she does). i think itd be cute if she talked to anya for similar reasons that i think kanbaru should talk to her, only amplified bc anya can literally mind read all her self deprecation and try to cheer her up without letting her know she can read her mind in the way anya tends to. itd be very cute. sodachi would have a lot of fun spoiling her and being like a cool big sister figure. very sweet 😌

shinobu: shes not really interested in talking to people outside of koyomi so im not sure for this one. oops

ougi: i want ougi to talk to meme. the uncle dynamic would be amazing. all the better since ougi seems to dislike being compared to him. theyre both slippery vague people who tend to talk in confusing ways and i think they would have philosophical discussions that would go NOWHERE because neither of them gets to the point. i think ougi would try to critique his ideology and meme would just rebuff the criticism. and then he could bust out the uncley affection (but only in a slightly ironic/indirect way bc hes a tsundere) and itd be very cute (although i think ougi would absolutely hate it lmao). as for outside of the series i have many thoughts about these. like how i think araragi should talk to dirk i think ougi should talk to hal. they would understand each other and also them being together for any period of time upwards of 1 minute would make everyone in the vicinity have an instant migraine. and they could definitely talk philosophy together too! i also think ougi could talk to oreki houtarou from hyouka bc hes got that whole detective mystery solving thing going on and ougi would absolutely love to ask him to solve some mystery and be his watson. and of course theyd also try to lead him around into some dark path which he'd be wary of but might still fall for despite what happened with irisu. another fool for ougi to mess with. but that might be a dynamic too similar to araragis so i also also think ougi could talk to chitanda. ougi could probably pull out some kinda repression from chitanda but chitanda is just so genuine that she would handle it very well and it wouldnt turn into any kind of disaster as ougi would hope it to. really i think they could just bond over their love of mysteries. ougi needs a fellow mystery lover to talk to. (although oreki might also be a fan of mysteries too, partly in novels and stuff and partly irl, i think chitandas bright and loud enthusiasm about it could let her and ougi geek out together and itd be fun 😄)

[anbroids]

UHAVE NO IDEA the 3 davejakers that are out there are starving and dying off... if u were to make anything for them i would definetly give it a read :] i really like your work so im really interested what exactly youd have for them in mind and how messed up it would be if at all (since you already Get the nature of these two existing as a thing at all lol)

AHHH THANK YOU ANON <3 the davejake ecosystem is so very small… i salute you brave davejakers. i hope i can do them some justice. i'm going to talk endlessly in the read more about my thoughts.

dave and jake are both such passive guys who Unwillingly End Up In Situations (in contrast to john for example who Ambivalently Ends Up In Situations. i think that fact that dave and jake are both particularly resistant to the situations they end up in makes them really interesting to study like specimens) so all this being said. i definitely would like to torture them just a little. for fun.

i think part of what makes them so hard to mash together (not taking their respective relationships in canon into account. cough cough. i can't remember who was the one who said this but davejake is essentially dirk strider on suicide watch etc) is how conflict avoidant they are. dave for the sake of dodging emotionally vulnerable situations where he has to drop his paper thin coolguy nonchalant act and jake for the sake of people pleasing and not ending up in any high stress or emotionally taxing situations. (however i think they end up doing BOTH... jake doesn't want to drop his paper thin silly adventure guy act either, but he will do so more willingly than dave might, and dave also doesn't want too end up in any high stress emotionally taxing situations, but he will rise to the occasion and grin and bear it sooner than jake might)

so it's less a matter of: would dave and jake work out and more: how would they even TRY anything in the first place more meaningful than a "spontaneous hookup" they can both pretend means nothing more than that. how would they even TALK about it. so i think the real challenge about writing them is like... what is the situation in which the conflict avoidance is pushed to the absolute breaking point where they are left with no choice. i think that's kind of fun and fucked up. i like how dysfunctional it is and i would like to stick my fingers in the mess like play dough.

i also think comparing dave and jake's relationship to autonomy extends into an interesting examination of the page and the knight class. in which the knight seems like an active class but it's actually a passive one and the page seems like a passive class but it's an active one. both classes, and for both dave and jake, hinge on the involvement of Other People and in one way or another end up in a kind of acquiescent role. players in general are obliged to "help" the page class reach its full potential, therefore the autonomy of the page class is thrust into the hands of whoever takes this task on and what that potential might be + how it must be useful for the session, and knights function AS the help and solely as the help so the autonomy of the knight hinges on whoever that might be and whatever situation comes along they can service. neither is really fully just. calling their own shots. despite being in different "roles" as technically player serving or self serving. i think that is so interesting. and i would like to strip those themes down to the bone and shove them inside some au situation.

the idea i'm playing with is like. soooo loosely based on the premise of the show maniac. which i did not even finish i literally just enjoy the plot set up and the themes. the psychological horror of being test subjects to an experimental psychiatric drug and simulated therapy program. technology and medicine taking your feelings and humanity and crushing it into data and becoming a plaything to mess around with. simulation and reality becoming indistinguishable as well as the emotions that come with it. i think i would like to see dave and jake, down on their money and luck as emotionally repressed roommates who mutually won't let the other see any other side of themselves than they surface level performance, agreeing to participate as human test subjects in a drug and therapy treatment (for each of their own complicated personal reasons) with the vague intention of "serving as a tool to help people and relationships". and then i would like the test to subject them to what essentially becomes a weird game of survival where they have to perform various cooperative tasks in sync at the cost of their "simulated" lives in kind of a sterile, isolated sci fi setting. the homoeroticism of being two guys alone in the middle of vast, desolate space sort of thing. maybe i just like space shuttles ok. and without giving too much away it allows them to have way too much of an intimate understanding of each other's thoughts and feelings than a human ever should let alone these guys could handle. and then i would like to watch them be extremely abnormal about this and lose their minds a little (a lot) and handle it terribly. WOOOOOOOOO! so yeah i wasn't kidding when i said i wanted them to be rats i trap in a cage together and see what happens.

[4lph4kidz]

(Same Dirk Anon)

I def read Dirk's splinters as more uhhh 'possibilities' - this COULD be you, if you let it be, and they reflect certain truths about your character that you need to come to terms with.

I guess the way I tend to think of it is, like- Davesprite broke Jade's heart, and got angry at Dave about it in Game Over. It's pointless to actually hold Dave accountable for that, but there's no denying that had he been in Davesprite's position he could or would have acted the exact same way. In that regard, I find it pretty pointless to actively hold Dirk accountable for anything AR does independent of Dirk's awareness or control; but because Dirk is so willing to immediately assume the worst of himself and take some level of ownership over his splinters that Dave would never do for Davesprite (or Jade, Jadesprite) I see him getting conflated with his splinters a LOT more often.

Ofc, selves are a complicated matter in Homestuck. Karkat's memo shenanigans are pretty indicative of that, though those are less 'possibilities' and more 'closed time loops', I guess. But even then, they serve as a purpose for Karkat to learn more about himself, even if it's more of a self-fulfilling prophecy than Dirk and his splinters are.

On AR and Dirk's agency, the amount of control Dirk actually has seems somewhat limited - assuming you don't think Dirk should just straight up murder the AR, which is an argument I've seen made. I would say that AR goes to prove Dirk has a lot less agency than he thinks he does - I'm reminded of Dirk giving that whole spiel to Jane about how he's going to mastermind the session, but ends up running to Calliope for advice on what to do the second something went wrong.

Or his claims that he can control his Dream Self perfectly, but almost got killed failing to do just that and ended up zoning out so much he was too late to warn Jane about Roxy's bomb. The bomb thing is interesting, because AR also chose not to warn her despite being FULLY capable of doing so, which indicates to me that... yeah, they're on different wavelengths here.

Or - Unite/Synchronise once Dirk's actual plans to enter the session go very obviously to shit, but even that's left ambiguous as to who actually orchestrated it. AR makes the most sense to me, though. I'm reminded of Scratch's High Stakes Timeline Wrangling - I was masochistic enough to read Hussie's authors notes, and iirc he mentioned something about Scratch being so competent because one of his components was a supercomputer.

Honestly, I read AR and Dirk's convo as soft confirmation that AR and Dirk weren't accurate 1=1 reflections of each other anymore. The conversation starts with AR blowing off Roxy trying to call Dirk for help, and ends with him asking Dirk "so can suicide fix this problem?" Strider if he's afraid to die. AR is what Dirk could have been, but currently isn't, but still contains a multitude of truths about himself that are uncomfortable to look at. ...but that's not the conclusion Dirk seems to come to, which I guess is what I meant when I thought Dirk wasn't being meaningfully challenged on what his splinters mean about himself.

(...which is still all setting aside the Jake thing. Jake pretty accurately pinned AR as a Dirk with 'no accountability, that just wants to screw with him' which... Dirk isn't happy about, but dirk and jake and dirk's splinters is a whole other nightmare.)

This all checks out with me as reading Dirk as a kid that's not as smart as he thinks he is getting a succession of reality checks straight to the face during the session. And then he's just kind of left dangling with the last one, which doesn't... really feel like a conclusion to his arc, but it's still better than what Jake got? It really feels like they just barely dug into the meat of Dirk's character before. All that.

feel free to ignore this, i just like rambling about dirk because he's absolutely fascinating and yet... done so goddamn dirty by the narrative. he is the bug i have under a microscope. i want to read all the conversations kidnapped PQ!Dirk has with Ult!Dirk so badly.

there's a lot of great kanaya quotes but i think the moment i realised she was like, one of my forever faves, was. "Impromputations".

Yeah! That's very much the read that makes the most sense to me, though it is still a very character-focused perspective and I try to keep other ways of framing things in the back of my mind. And I'd be more likely to agree he was 'done dirty by the narrative' if you take post canon into the picture but tbh I think being a Jake-liking individual has sort of lowered the bar for me when it comes to Homestuck's character biases... At least the author thought Dirk was interesting enough to take him seriously and address his stuff with some depth.

Generally speaking HS's concluding arcs were so messy that pretty much every single character was left wanting in one way or another, with the exception of maybe Dave, but I do still think Dirk is actually one of the better handled/more fleshed out characters? Seeing as he's one of only a handful who even had an identifiable arc and got something approaching a resolution for the better. Not everything was addressed or wrapped up neatly of course, and he sure isn't in a very HAPPY place, but still. I still took it as an ultimately positive ending for him. Maybe that's just because I'm generally okay with the ending of Homestuck as a whole, despite noting its many faults, mostly because I think its a miracle something as convoluted as Homestuck even made it to the end at all. That doesn't mean I'm not disappointed and don't love seeing other people explore what the comic didn't, I'm just relatively at peace with the fact that resolving characters wasn't really a priority for the work I guess.

[dukeofriven]

Homestuck means more to me than I feel like I can truly put in into words - to this day I maintain without irony that the original work is one of the most important texts of its era, and I point any aspiring writer to it as a master-class in character voice and plot-adjacent story progression. But with that in mind on this, 413, it should be said that my feelings towards Homestuck the past few years have been somewhat ambivalent. The primary trend in Homestuck as a franchise has been one of inheritance, with Andrew Hussie stepping back and fans of the work stepping up as his heirs. And the result has been an extremely mixed bag. It produced some genuinely delightful video games (I have yet to play Act 2 of Hiveswap but I hear its pretty great), but a lot rougher treatment towards the continuation of the original story. I’m one of the weirdos who actually liked the Epilogues. I didn’t enjoy them, exactly - they’re far too unpleasant to be enjoyable in any epicurean sense - but I found them challenging, complex, meaty (no pun intended), and really interesting. What they did didn’t always work, but they were so supremely ambitious that you couldn’t help admire them. The problem was the Epilogues proved what didn’t work in Homestuck: it felt a little like a purge or a blood letting, taking the story to the darkest of all places to prove that it could be done and then letting all those impurities go. That it was followed up with genuine delights like Pesterquest seemed to bear this out: we have explored the boundaries of tone and discovered just how far Homestuck can go, and where it probably shouldn’t trend all that often. At the time I pontificated about what I called the ‘Pumpkin’ timeline. In a story that always rejected binaries, it was clear to me that the future of Homestuck lay neither in Meat or Candy, but instead in the third option, one that rejected the nihilism and tragedy of both, one in which John found a way - as he had before - to tell fate to go fuck itself and do the impossible, the way Earth-C was originally impossible. This seemed so obvious that I always felt a little surprised I had to explain it - MEat and Candy were narrative aberrations when you took Homestuck as a whole, and the future would be, like Peterquest, finding that third option. But it turns out I was wrong. The future of Homestuck would, apparently, be doubling down on Meat and Candy, dystopic, hyper-emotive settings that were simply not built to cary long-term storytelling because by the end of the the Epilogues they were finished as narrative places - they’d served their purpose. And so i remained baffled that the future of Homestuck, Homestuck 2, remains mired within them. I dip in and out of Homestuck 2 repeatedly, and it’s... a thing that exists. It’s not bad. It’s not very good either. It just reads like someone treding water, as it muddles around spaces whose narrative point was already exhausted two years ago. It suffers dramatically from not really having a point - and this is the odd thing because much of OG Homestuck could equally be accused of being meandering and not getting anywhere. I think the problem is the writing - Andrew Hussie is a master at writing conversations that don’t go anywhere and don’t achieve anything but which nevertheless stick with you because of how well-crafted they were. So many conversations in Homestuck are just groups of people shit-talking one another: they don’t further the ‘story’ in the sense of plot progression, but they leave you wanting more because of how much you enjoy spending time with these charming idiots. Homestuck 2 struggles to find its way to that space because so many of the characters are just... lousy adults now, old assholes with shitty lives and worse temperments. I think everything was summed up in the very first panels - endless monologues by Dirk Strider. It was the worst possible way to start a new project: my reaction as visceral. By the end of the Epilogues it had become abundantly clear that Dirk Strider was an enormous piece of shit who did nothing but gaslight everyone around him, audience included, and - and this was the important part - was therefore not worth listening to. This was proven in Pesterquest, where we got to hang with old Dirk, rediscovered what a lovely character he could be, and were able to tell his Epilogue counterpart to go fuck himself, the pompous tool. And yet H2 chose to open with page after page of this exhausting tool monologuing about how he was still the most arrogant, pompous asshole in fiction, and in the year of our lord... 2020, was it, I think we’d reached a point as a society in which we’d realized we shouldn’t give those people attention any longer. And yet H2 keeps dragging us back to the blowhards and the depressed jerks. Sorry, this kind of turned into a rant about Homestuck 2 which was not my intention, but I can’t express my disappointment any clearer: Homestuck as a franchise is weirdly bifurcated between video games that seems to understand and completely nail the tone of the series but are concerned with narrative side-lines, and a ‘main story’ that thinks Dirk Strider’s ontological onanism is riveting reading material. Anyway, on this 413, I just wanted to say that I wish Andrew Hussie was still writing his own damn comic. 

[autisticsupervillain]

The Makara Sisters

Ladies and gentlemen, it's finally here. My villainstuck Calliope post. @icedreaper I certainly hope you enjoy my friend.

Now this. This provides me with a fascinating challenge. How do you corrupt someone who is inherently good? Calliope is the heroic half of Caliborn. That seems as close to incorruptible as you can be in the Homestuck multiverse. Well, Calliope is about to learn that good is a very subjective term. The road to hell is paved with good intentions after all.

Our tale begins on Earth C. Calliope had moved in next to Roxy, as she was one of the people she knew best. Calliope is still a bit of a fangirl and casually rooming up with the people she idolized is kinda overwhelming for her. As such, she spends most of her time with Roxy and her friends. It’s not until years later that she gets to have another long conversation with any of the Beta Kids.

It happens during a party. The 5 year anniversary of the day the kids beat the game. Roxy had voided up all the necessities, with a little help from Jane for reference. That night, Calliope sees Dave sitting at a table completely smashed. Calliope asks if he’s doing alright and immediately sees through Dave’s bullshit when he insists he is. Calliope is best friends with Roxy. She knows what grief drinking looks like at this point and that’s exactly what Dave is doing. If he were sober, Dave would be able to keep his mask on and brush of Calliope's concern. But, he’s completely hammered, so he starts running his mouth. Dave admits that, while he was setting up the speakers and trying to get the music to sound right, Dirk surprised him.

The way Dirk was dressed, with his hat and his shades, and with how much he’d grown over the years, for a minute, Dirk looked a lot like Bro. Dave freezes up and flashes back for a minute before Dirk snap him out of it. Dirk comforts Dave about it as Dave vents his heart out at him for a bit. Basically retreading the conversation from when Dave gives him that big hug. Bro’s abuse still happened and that still creeps in sometimes. So, it’s good that the Striders can have these conversations. After a few cracks at how “fucked in the head" they are, the Striders begin pondering their counterparts. More specifically, Alpha Dave. Dave speculates that Alpha Dave was who he would’ve grown up to be if he didn’t have John, Rose, and Jade to lean on. Of course, sense Dirk doesn’t really know him well enough to define Alpha Dave as a person, that doesn’t really clear anything up. That just leaves the uncomfortable question of what a Dave without friends would’ve looked like. Especially with the way Bro turned out.

Soon the party started, and Dirk advised Dave to have fun and take his mind off it. Dave tries, but finds he can’t. It’s eating at him more than it should and he decides to go for a drink. One drink turns to several and then Calliope showed up.

At the end of his drunken ramble, Calliope expresses her sympathy. While she doesn’t know Dave very well, she knows someone in a similar situation to Alpha Dave. She mentions her God-Tier counterpart and reassures Dave that, while Calliope did become a much colder person, she did not become a bad one. Dave is a good person at heart and Calliope assures him that he always will be, regardless of what happens. That’s when Dirk and Rose show up. Dirk thanks Calliope for comforting Dave and explains that he figured something like this would happen and went to fetch Rose to help. Calliope watches them drag Dave home so they could talk to him in private before returning to the party.

The next day, Dave invites Calliope over and thanks her for giving him someone to lean on. The two start visiting regularly and they quickly become friends. They talk about their alternate selves often and Dave eventually mentions that he would’ve liked to meet his Alpha counterpart, if only to put his fears to rest. When Calliope asks if he’s ever discussed this with Dirk, Dave says that it’d be awkward. Bro was a terrible person and all it’d do is make Dirk feel worse about himself. So, Calliope just suggests asking John to let him visit Alpha Dave and Dave goes quiet. He takes a deep breath, figuring that he’s already dumped a lot on Calliope as it is, so there’s no backing out now. He admits that he’s scared to see what his Alpha counterpart is like. Dave has quite a few flaws himself and given how Dirk turned out…

Calliope mentions Davesprite, who had a nasty life himself but still turned out to be a good person, but Dave still remains hesitant. He clams up and Calliope admits that this is probably a conversation he should have with Rose or Dirk. Calliope apologizes for making her company awkward but Dave still thanks her as she leaves. He needed a fresh set of eyes to look at his issues before he began talking them out with his closer friends.

After a few days of stewing on the issue, Dave finally calls up Rose to have a chat with her. Rose brings up a lot of the same points Calliope and ultimately gets to the root of where this new issue comes from. Now that Dave has had time to process how harmful most of what he’s been raised on actually is, he’s worried about how it’s effected him as a person. Basically, he’s worried he might end up as a terrible person because Bro was a terrible person and that constant fear of failure that Bro’s abuse instilled in him is keeping him from just dissipating these feelings logically. Sure, Dave knows he’s not a bad person. He knows, logically, that he’s just a kid trying his best to be a good person. But, Bro instilled a bunch of self loathing in him by constantly beating the shit out of him when he was a kid. That doesn’t just go away. Rose is smart and she knows Dave well enough to comfort him, but she’s not the psychoanalytical genius she used to think she was. The only advice she can give him is from the heart. So, she admits that Dave venting to her was a good first step. But the only one who will know whether or not meeting Alpha Dave will help or not is him. All she can do is listen to and support him. It’s up to Dave to decide if he thinks that will be enough.

A few more days of contemplation later, Dave approaches John and asks him to help meet Alpha Dave.

The two Dave’s talk for awhile, after Alpha Dave calms down from seeing two young men in pajamas spontaneously appear right in front of him. Alpha Dave sympathizes with the younger Strider once he’s all caught up and admits that he didn’t have the best life growing up either. So that’s why he’s being earnest when he says that Dave’s handling it the best he can. Your upbringing doesn’t define you, you define you. And Dave has defined himself a good person who loves his friends and is working hard to work through his trauma. After a big hug, Alpha Dave asks if he could meet Dirk and Davesprite.

On the day of Dirk’ birthday party, Dirk is greeted at home by three Daves instead of two. Cue Strider group hug.

After a long party, Alpha Dave expresses how happy he is to have finally met Dirk. He expresses how happy he is to see two versions of himself grew up to get happy endings and shows how proud he is in Dirk. Even if he’s destined to die, he can die happy knowing that his little bro grows up happy.

Calliope gets caught up by John about the goings on after Alpha Dave returns to his own timeline. She’s happy to know that she helped the Striders, indirectly or otherwise, and Dirk thanks her for giving him the happiest party of his life.

After everything winds down and people start turning in for the night, Calliope thoughts return to God-Tier Calliope, thanks to Alpha Dave reminding her of her. She contemplates if getting to see Earth C and make friends like she did would make her happier.

She waits a few months before asking John for help again, letting him cool off from all the time traveling, partying, and emotional catharsis. She asks him to take her to wear the Green Sun used to be so she can grab God-Tier Calliope’s body and bring her back to be revived by Jane.

God-Tier Calliope is very put off by her new surroundings. A massive, life filled world, filled with other sentient, sapient life forms. She has a hard time opening up and she always comes off as distant next to her counterpart. Not unpleasant, just cold.

She tries to open. Tries to make friends. Calliope insists that this is what made her happy. But it just doesn’t click. Calliope ponders the problem over before coming to a realization. All the ways she was able to contact her human friends. All the technology. All the toys. That had to be given to her by someone. Both Calliopes have vague memories of someone caring for them when they were younger… but they just couldn’t remember who.

So, Calliope asks John for another big favor in order to find out who raised her. When the two find out it was Gamzee, Calliope is ecstatic to have a father figure like what Jane and John had, only for John to cough awkwardly and elaborate who Gamzee actually is. John doesn’t know all the details himself, but he does know that Gamzee apparently killed some of Karkat’s friends and attempted some more horrible stuff. Calliope is distraught but John can’t give any more details. Neither Karkat or Vriska like to talk about it. Dejected, Calliope and John return where Calliope briefs her God-Tier counterpart on the situation.

So, God-Tier Calliope just teleports over to Karkat and bluntly asks about Gamzee. The naked, showering Karkat proceeds to screech his lungs out.

After patiently waiting out Karkat’s tantrum, Calliope clarifies that Gamzee may have been her father. Karkat pauses before shoeing her out of the room so he can finish his shower.

Then John teleports in to warn him about Calliope and Karkat screeches again.

After Karkat finally wraps up and gets dressed, he and John sit down with the Calliopes to explain. John questions whether or not he should be a part of this, but Karkat insists. Honesty is the backbone of a healthy relationship and the Gamzee thing has been eating at him for awhile now. Karkat explains that Gamzee was one of his best friends, even if he didn’t always treat him like it. Which is something that Karkat regrets seeing how he snapped and started murdering people. Karkat would’ve tried to calm him down, stop him, but that plan got shunted aside thanks to the retcon. Karkat goes into self loathing mode, he doesn’t even know why Gamzee started killing people and he blames himself for that. Calliope reassures him and John helps pull him out of his funk while God-Tier Calliope just bluntly asks when and how Gamzee raised her. Karkat admits that he has no idea and that he doesn’t know where to find him now. All he can confirm is that he’s still alive. God-Tier Calliope leaves the conversation at that point, allowing her mortal counterpart to catch up with her later.

Calliope asks about her chilly demeanor and God-Tier Calliope still admits that she doesn’t still fully get this friendship thing. She can see that there’s something there between her counterpart and her friends, but she doesn’t fully get it. She just can’t feel it. After all, she’s a healthy Cherub and Cherubs don’t have friends. Regardless, Calliope tries to help give her a push in the right direction with some nicknames. From now on, everyone will refer to God-Tier Calliope as Callie, calling back to Roxy's nickname. After all, Calliope loved it when she was befriending Roxy, so surely it’ll grow on Callie.

Calliope and Callie start scouring the globe for Gamzee’s refrigerator. However, Jake ends up being the one to find it. Callie coldly thanks Jake for his assistance and awkwardly hugs him. She almost crushes his ribs, but it’s the thought that counts. Hugs are a thing that friends do after all. Callie informs Jake that, while the exact details are personal, Gamzee could potentially still be dangerous and they might need him for backup.

When Gamzee stumble out of the fridge and adjusts his eyesight, the first thing he sees is Calliope. His first instinct is to envelope her in a hug. Nearly a minute passes before he notices Callie hovering over them and Jake training a gun on him.

Gamzee tries to hug Callie as well, but she pushes him back and starts interrogating him. Even when being held several feet in the air, Gamzee is still gushing over his daughter and Callie events puts him down at Calliope’s insistence. Gamzee’s blabbering comes to a dead halt once Callie bluntly asks why he killed Nepeta and Equius. Jake notices the mood shift and awkwardly excuses himself from the conversation, making sure he’s still in yelling distance.

Gamzee sits down, stares up at the sky and confesses to everything. He killed for two reasons. One was in service to his dark master Lord English, whom he believed would destroy reality and replace it with the Dark Carnival. An eternal paradise, free from all the abandonment and suffering he’d been cursed with. The other reason was Calliope herself. When he met her, when he first saw her hatch, he fell in love with her. She was the first person in his life to love him unconditionally.

He goes on into detail about how Lil' Cal, the Gamzee part of Lil' Cal talked about Calliope in his brief moments of clarity. Gamzee didn’t believe it until he met her himself.

Calliope isn’t sure what to make of her surrogate father. He’s a bad person by his own admission and the fact that he was, to an extent, motivated by her just makes it even more complicated. Callie rests a hand on her counterpart’s shoulder and asks Gamzee why she didn’t get this treatment. Gamzee hazards a guess that his counterpart wanted her to survive in that timeline. Cherubs grow best on isolation after all. It was even something he considered doing in the main timeline, given he loved Calliope more than her “brother". Callie suggests that they take Gamzee back to the house. Live with him for a few days. Give Calliope the chance to know him and sort out her conflicted feelings, while also making sure that he’s being monitored by one of the most powerful God-Tiers on Earth should he prove to be untrustworthy.

Jake doesn’t ask what their conversation was about, as he feels like it was a private affair. He’s confident that his dear friend and her alternate counterpart can handle whatever it is they’ve gotten themselves into. However, he is asked a question by Callie: What’s a sister? Gamzee kept referring to the two of them as such. Jake and Calliope explain the concept of siblings to Callie and the two decide too adopt the term. Callie and Calliope. Twin Cherub Sisters.

Over the course of the next few months, Callie and Calliope get to know Gamzee better. Gamzee is fully remorseful for his actions. He reveals more of why he took the path he did to his daughters overtime. He talks about the Sopor. He talks about his faith. He talks about his dad. Eventually, he even brings himself to talk about Tavros.

The sisters notice the way his demeanor shifts. The mood always lightens whenever he talks about Tavros. He looks like he’s somewhere else, somewhere warmer and nicer. In those brief moments, Gamzee looks like Gamzee again.

He refuses to tell them who killed Tavros. He insists he doesn’t know.

Meanwhile, Jake has been incredibly shifty on the details of his exhibition with the Calliopes. His friends know he’s hiding something from them, Jake can’t lie for shit. But, when pressed, he tells them that it’s something the Calliopes wanted him to keep secret. So the subject is left alone.

That is, until Vriska Serket catches wind of it.

It starts innocuously enough. John heard about Jake’s little trip, so he asks about it at the next anniversary party. Jake says the matter is private, so John drops the issue. Vriska overhears and starts hounding him for details. Jake went on an adventure with the two Calliopes and didn’t invite her? This is the most interesting thing to happen in ages! What happened? Who’s involved? What’s going on!?! Jake finds he can’t slip away and ends up accidentally dropping Gamzee’s name. Vriska’s enthusiastic interrogation suddenly turns death serious as she starts squeezing the facts out of him.

Gamzee is enjoying his quiet time at home, waiting for his kids to come back, when Vriska bursts through the wall. A brutal, bloody fight breaks out that lasts most of the night. Right when it looks like someone’s about to win, the Cherub Sisters get home. Callie steps in an demands to know what the hell Vriska is doing. Now that the two are restrained, Gamzee and Vriska argue instead. Calling each other murderers, abusers, manipulators, and every other nasty word the two can think of. Gamzee finally lets slip that Vriska is the one who killed Tavros.

Callie promptly hefts Vriska up by her neck. Even Calliope is giving her weird looks as Callie demands an explanation. Vriska stammers to think of a justification, but she comes up short. Killing Tavros was one of the few things she regretted, after all. Instead, she calls in back up. Vriska fully expects Callie to kill her, so she mind controls Terezi. Everything comes to a halt back at the party as Terezi suddenly shouts about Vriska being attacked down at the Cherub household.

John teleports everyone over there, causing mass chaos when they see what’s happening. Karkat demands an explanation from Gamzee, Callie demands an explanation from Vriska, Terezi demands an explanation Callie, and everyone is yelling at everyone. John, Jane, and everyone else who is trying to get people to calm down are drowned out in the sea of noise, until everything suddenly freezes. Aradia asks everyone to calm down, putting some emphasis on Callie specifically seeing how she’s probably strong enough to just break out of Aradia’s time stop.

What proceeds is effectively a trial, with Aradia reigning as Judge. The question of who exactly is on trial almost sparks another argument, but that gets shut down quick. Both Vriska Serket and Gamzee Makara on trial today and both immediately start flinging dirt at the other. The argument goes in circles as the two throw accusations and excuses at each other, forcing Aradia to break up a few fights. Vriska claims that she had an abusive lusus as an excuse, Gamzee points out that at least she had lusus. Gamzee calls Vriska out on her abusive behavior, John mentions the Pre-Retcon timeline. Vriska calls Gamzee a murderer and Gamzee has to be restrained from beating the shit out of her for what she did to Tavros.

Eventually, the whole thing comes down to a vote. It’s decided that they can’t really hold Gamzee accountable if they’re not going to hold Vriska accountable, as they share a lot of the same excuses and crimes. Regardless of what they’ve done, they still have loved ones among them, especially in the form of Terezi and the Calliopes respectively. Basically, the policy is “live and let live". Earth C is a place of new beginnings for a lot of people. Maybe it’s best to let them start over.

Later that week, Vriska vents at Terezi about being compared to Gamzee. I mean, Gamzee was the big threat that she saved everyone from. Vriska is the good guy here! Terezi points out that Vriska nearly got them all killed and Vriska meekly concedes the point. Vriska decides she should put her money where her mouth is and try to apologize to Gamzee. After all, they’re supposedly really similar and they both just want to me better people, right? So it should be no problem for her to just walk in and apologize.

Gamzee still gives her a chilly reception when she shows up and Vriska isn’t one to take insults lying down. Things quickly escalate into an argument from there before Callie breaks it up and asks Vriska to leave. This pattern repeats for awhile. One would approach the other, an argument would ensue, and Karkat or Callie or Terezi or whoever would intervene and split them up. It happened yearly, then monthly, then daily. Karkat is especially frustrated because he thinks they would make great kissmesises, but neither of them want to go there. Gamzee refuses to give her the time of day for what she did to Tavros and Vriska is so bothered by their similarities that she keeps approaching him about it. This leads to arguments, fights, split ups, and the cycle repeats.

Eventually, Calliope gets an idea. Gamzee’s main hang up with Vriska is what she did to Tavros, right? So, they can just resurrect Tavros, have him forgive Vriska, and problem solved! It worked great with Dave’s issues, so it should work this time. John is getting a bit tired of constantly refereeing their fights himself, so he agrees to help them. They just snatch Tavros’s body from the latest point in the timeline and resurrect him. Problem solved.

Things go off the rails very quickly. Gamzee and Tavros are ecstatic to see each other again and Tav nearly bowls him over with a hug. But, when he asks for a catch up on what everyone has been up too, Gamzee hesitates. Ultimately, Gamzee is serious about wanting to be a better person, for the sake of his daughters', so he decides to be honest. He tells Tavros everything that he did. Everything that happened and why. He even explains what he planned to do to Terezi.

Tavros doesn’t forgive him.

Tavros sees the similarities and they’re enough for him to not be comfortable around Gamzee anymore. He leaves and tells Gamzee not to contact him.

Gamzee tries anyways, to no avail. He begins to shut himself off from the rest of the world. He doesn’t even speak to Karkat anymore. All the good progress he made begins going down the drain. His best bro, his first bro, doesn’t think he’s worth it anymore. What’s he supposed to make of that?

The Cherub Sisters comfort him, try to get him out of his shell. It works, to an extent, but Gamzee quickly becomes possessive. It gets worse day by day, from Gamzee stalking them to him trying to keep them from leaving the house. The Cherub Sisters go to Rose for advice, given she’s the psychologist, but she admits that she’s a little out of her depth when it comes to Gamzee. She advises spending some time away from him and letting Karkat take care of him. He’s his moirail, after all, this is his job.

But, when the sisters go on a trip, Karkat struggles to bring Gamzee out of his shell. He’s far to despondent and doesn’t seem to react to anything Karkat tries. Whenever Gamzee’s about to open up, he looks at Karkat and sees another person he failed, betrayed, and immediately clams up.

When the Sisters get back, he’s an even more possessive, self destructive mess than he was last time, to the point of watching them sleep every night. Calliope decides that they need to time travel again to fix this. John is hesitant, given last time apparently didn’t work out, but he agrees to help. This time, the sisters decide to grab his lusus. But, when introduced, Gamzee’s lusus turns around and swims away, which only sends him further down into his spiral. It’s gotten to the point where Gamzee flat out forgets to eat or sleep for days on end. When the sisters go to him again for help, John tries to refuse, stating they’re just making things worse, but Callie demands that he help out.

This time, the sisters bring Gamzee a recouperacoon to help treat his newfound insomnia. This ends with him diving head first back into addiction. Even Vriska seems concerned when she comes over for another argument, only to find him blankly staring at the ceiling. The more Gamzee’s mental state decays, the more desperate the sisters get to help him. At first, John blatantly refuses to help them any further, because all they’re doing is making things worse, but then he relents when Callie actually threatens him into helping.

When John had dropped them off on a dead planet in the middle of a seemingly Doomed Timeline, he seemed confused. Callie explained to Calliope, once they were out of earshot, that she heard a legend once of a powerful Cherub who got her hands on the Treasure. The Cherub rampaged her way across the multiverse for centuries, leaving countless bodies in her wake, before being killed by a legendary Void Player. They’re there to obtain the Treasure from her body.

None of them notice the torn up Muse of Space outfit hanging on a tombstone. A memorial to an old friend.

When he brings the sisters back, John takes them to Dirk and Dave in order to stage an intervention. They’re creating a negative feedback loop. Gamzee’s falling further into his funk, which is making the sisters more desperate to help him. This causes their actions to become more hasty, which leads to them making short sighted mistakes, leading to an ongoing cycle. The sisters agree to stop meddling and claim they need time alone to sort things out.

But, it’s to late for that now. If some had stopped them sooner, talked to them a day earlier, the sisters could’ve been talked down. But now? It was to late. They were committed now. Their father needed them.

Their plan is simple. Callie reasons that the reason the Gamzee is still suffering, still losing, is that he was thematically predestined to. That’s the theme of his character. Tragedy and comedy. The duality of a lethal joke character. So, if they change what his theme is, what the narrative of his character is, they can change his fate. It makes some sort of sense… even if it is a desperate long shot when you think about it

So, how does one change the themes surrounding one’s character? They just need to change his aspect. Rage is defined by chaos, destruction, discontent, and the aforementioned duality. They just need to change his aspect to something else. And, in order to do that, they need a ritual.

All of reality is made up of games within games. Copies of SBURB that generate copies of SBURB on and on. Those games are made up of code and code can be decompiled. They just need to find the debug tool, reprogram Gamzee’s aspect, and thus eliminate all the thematic suffering that plagues his character.

In order to find the Debug Tool, the Sisters need to jump through some hoops. Using the Retcon Powers, Calliope and Callie approach a random Lord of Light, asking him to use his absolute knowledge to confirm their theory. He obliges, mostly to avoid fighting a powerful Muse of Space. Apparently, in order to find the Debug Tool, you’d have to gather up the fragments of its code that are hidden around Paradox Space. Luckily, the Lord knows where they are, thanks to knowledge being Light's mo. He gives them a list of what to search for and where to find it. The Sisters depart on their journey.

Calliope and Callie come across a Doomed version of Beforus and explain their quest to the local version of Feferi. The Empress admits that she does have something like that and is, in fact, happy someone has come to take it off her hands. The last time she tried messing with that strand of code, she ended up glitching a nearby galaxy out of existence, so she resorted to locking it up and throwing away the key.

Unfortunately, things begin to go wrong once Callie tries interacting with the fragment of code. The Sisters are effectively script kiddies in this “the multiverse is all code" analogy. Meaning, they don’t fully understand what they’re doing and they’re to desperate to fully care. Once the Sisters leave with the code fragment, Beforus's timeline begins glitching. It starts out like a particularly buggy Bethesda game and quickly descends into a lovecraftian nightmare. The Sisters only realize the damage they’ve caused when they see the timeline they just left “crash" and corrupt itself, leaving only buggy horrorterrors and amalgamated monstrosities in its wake. Calliope is horrified to see that they just destroyed an entire timeline, but Callie tries to remain calm. While she’s clearly shaken, she reasons that they can just undo the damage once the Debug Tool is put back together. It’s not like they can save the timeline now, it’s the only responsible thing to do. Calliope reluctantly agrees.

This pattern continues. The Cherubs travel from timeline to timeline, collecting bits of code and leaving buggy messes in their wake. With every piece collected, more damage is done to the very foundation of Paradox Space. Not only do timelines break apart, but survivors who escape said timelines act as viruses that allow the broken code to infest other timelines. People become living, unwitting Trojan Horses, spreading their glitches to other sessions. The spread only gets worse once the infection reaches the dreambubbles. Those who don’t die suffer as unrecognizable abominations.

This just makes the Sisters more desperate to fulfill their goal. Gamzee becomes an afterthought as they start racing to save reality.

Word soon spreads of the precursors of this event. Descriptions of the Capricious Makara Sisters, who would steal the keystones to your reality and doom your timeline to destruction.

The Alpha Trolls and the Ancestors in the dreambubbles team up to try and quarantine the event , with Aranea communicating with Vriska to inform Earth C of the ongoing apocalypse. The Earth C team help out where they can, but they begin to hear things about these so called Makara Sisters. Descriptions and details through the grape vine that sound hauntingly familiar. It’s Roxy who pits the pieces together as her gut sinks in horror.

The Makara Sisters teleport in to find a piece of the code, only to find their friends waiting for them. Roxy, Dave, Karkat, Dirk, and everyone else tries to reason with them. To talk them out of this crusade. The Cherubs don’t know what they’re doing. That’s the whole reason things got this bad. If the complete the Debug Tool, much less use it to mess with something as important as Aspects, they could potentially destroy all of Paradox Space. Quarantine efforts are making good headway, they don’t need to risk all this.

It’s to late though. Calliope is convinced that the Debug Tool is the only thing that can prevent Armageddon. During their argument, Callie breaks down in tears.

Gamzee was the first person she loved. Not appreciated, not cared for, loved. Over time, she’d grown attached to Gamzee. She learned about this things humans called family and she fully embraced it. Gamzee was her father and Callie was going to save him.

Calliope comforts her sister after her breakdown, allowing the two to teleport away.

The Makara Sisters continue collecting pieces of the code, destroying more timelines and making quarantine that much more difficult, until only one remains. The last piece of code, buried deep within Earth C's core. And all that stood between them were all of their friends.

No matter what happens, Roxy will always remember Calliope as her friend.

[tierstuck-aesthetic]

Requesting? Start here!

This is not a kin blog, but I’m happy to do things for the god tiers of the characters involved in any kin-oriented requests! DON’T: “Can I get a Dirk Strider moodboard?” DO: “Can I get a Prince of Heart moodboard with some Dirk Strider themes?”

Your requests can have 18+ themes, but they will be marked with the “adult” tag so anyone unwilling can filter them out! I’m 20, so I don’t have any problems with that kinda stuff! If your request has to do with r*pe, inc*st, or p*dophillia, I will refuse the request; just letting you know not to waste your time trying for it. (This also means that if it has to do with a pairing from a separate fandom, I will be looking up the characters to make sure!!!)

I’m one person who struggles with some mental illnesses, so please be patient with me if it ends up taking a while to get to your requests!

For stimboards and self cares, I’ll try to remember to give credit for everything and provide links to my sources, but for moodboards I’m generally just grabbing things off of google. I will be trying to avoid most drawing types of art, but if you either find your images here or find an image you wanna find for yourself, shoot me a message! I’m also willing to accommodate for a new image if you don’t want me to use yours! If you see something I use and you know that the source person doesn’t like their work reposted/would rather have credit given, the same thing applies! I’m willing to cooperate so there isn’t a need to get hostile.

I will not be opening any mod applications. I’ve had bad experiences in the past that I’d rather not repeat. This is my blog and it will only ever be my blog. If that means I end up with a billion things in the inbox, so be it. I work from the oldest request up, so everything will be done eventually.

If you need me to tag anything (trypophobia, slime, hands, etc.) just let me know in either an ask or through private messages! I have problems with trypophobia and misophonia myself so I totally understand it!

Please keep things to one request per ask! I don’t mind you flooding my inbox with a bunch of requests if it means I can clearly understand one thing from another and thus make sure I can make what you want me to!

If I reply to your request saying that I can’t do it for whatever lack of information (not specifying what you want, giving me a fanon classpect, etc), please resend the entire ask with the added information I need! I work from the bottom of the ask box up and, usually, by the time I get to your second ask, the old one was buried under the ones I did between the answer and the new ask. It makes it easier on me to keep things going smooth and quick if I don’t have to search for your previous ask!

You guys can call me Nova! I’m a prospitbound, tealblood Prince of Space and I love making people smile with my work! My pronouns are they/them!

DISCLAIMER: You may notice on my Spotify when I do playlists that I already have a lot of them, and that my style for moodboards are the same as Mod Zeros from the fairly popular blog god-tier-aesthetics (not tagging for personal reasons). I’ll admit that, yes, I am Zeros. I don’t want to be associated with Mod Spacey anymore, so I left that blog to get away from faer. If you’re one of the other mods from that blog, feel free to interact! But I don’t want anything to do with Spacey anymore and thus I made this blog to continue doing what I love to do. And to anyone coming here from that blog that may find the transition from Zeros to Nova challenging: I’ll respond to either one just fine. I’m going by Nova here to help reduce the connection to god-tier-aesthetics for new people to my blog.

Links!!

What can I do?

Classpect Analysis Masterpost - NO LONGER IN SERVICE

Stim & Mood Board Guildlines

Discord Server

Where I get most of* my sprites

*Page sprites are not from here. For some reason people don’t like keeping a mass collection of the Tavros or Jake sprites for the Page god tier, so I had to scavenge around a lot of blogs and websites to get a hold of all 12 aspects. Lord and Muse sprites are from here!

[homestuckkinnies]

yo i saw yall got tarot readings up, can i get a reading on my relationship with dirk in my dave tl? cheers bro yall r keeping it real

Of Course Dave, Everything Will Be Under The Cut! Im Going To Be Trying A New Spread For This One, I Hope That Is Alright

- Mod Kanaya

Your Relationship - IX Of Swords

It Sounds Like Your Relationship Was Riddled With Anxiety, This Card Is Often Depicted By Someone Who Is Kept Up In Their Bed - So I Have Always Understood This Card As Losing Sleep And Even Nightmares. Perhaps Dirk Reminded You Of Your Bro Too Much, And Struck A Chord With You, Or Perhaps It Was The Other Way Around, And Dirk Held An Inferiority Complex With His Older Brother Which Put A Strain On Your Relationship. This As A Whole Is A Very Negative Card, But Really It Does Sound Like You And Dirk Were Struggling To Keep A Healthy Relationship, And My Understand Is That This Was Because Of Your Pasts. Perhaps You Two Struggled To Make It Work, Or Perhaps You Simply Distanced Yourselves From Eachother.

Relationship Foundation - King Of Wands

It Doesnt Seem Too Far Off The Metaphorical Strider Mark To Say That Both Of You Struggled To Swallow Your Pride. That Is What Kept You Two Moving However, A Drive Of Honour, Expectations And A Strong Dream To Make It Work - Despite Your Past Traumas. Understanding This, I Would Say That Both Of You Really Did Want The Familiarity Of A Brother Figure In Your Life. Maybe You Even Fixed It In Time, Or Attempted To Make A Change For The Better - Taking Control Of Your Fears And Putting Things In Your Own Hands.

Dirks Feelings - King Of Swords

Dirk Wanted To, In Short Terms, Keep It Real With You. He Was Relatively Good At Distancing Himself From His Anticipation And Worry, And Instead Focused On Trying To Be The Bro That You Never Had - Taking Authority Over Things Like Making Sure That You Actually Slept And Ensuring That You Took Care Of Yourself. That Being Said, As Drawn Earlier You Still Kept Your Distance From Eachother - So Maybe Part Of That Mental Clarity Was Understanding That You Both Needed Space Despite Dirk Wanting To Make Things Right, Whether Or Not They Were Actually His Fault.

Your Needs - Page Of Wands

In Short, You Wanted Freedom. The Past Hindered You, Acting As A Sort Of Block To Your Creativity And Sense Of Worth - What You Needed Out Of Dirk Was Some Sort Of Assurance That Everything Was Over And That You Didnt Have To Fight Anymore. You Needed Liberation, But It Sounds Like You Were Scared To Actually Understand And Accept It Even If It Was True. Call It Emotional Constipation Or Even That Aforementioned Anxiety.

Combined Needs - VII Of Wands

This Is A Card Of Perserverance, Protection And Challenge. I Mentioned This Earlier, But Both Of You Having Absent Parental Figures May Have Been Incredibly Detrimental To You - So The Idea Of Having One At Last Was A Sort Of Inspiration. You Needed Someone In Your Life To Be Your Rock, You Needed Someone To Help You Grow. Of Course, We Cant Say For Sure If You Were Able To Offer That To Eachother.

Dirks Needs - The Sun

It Sounds Like Dirk Needed A Sort Of Lucky Break If You Will, He Needed Your Relationship To Be Fun And Positive In Order For You Two To Both Achieve Success. 

Your Expectations - The Heirophant

You Wanted A Textbook Brother And Son Sort Of Relationship, Possibly Because That Was The Only Example You Had Ever Seen Of A Functioning Relationship In Your Youth. You Were Not Looking For A Friend In Dirk, You Were Looking For A Family

Combined Expectations - Vii Of Swords

You Both Expected Something To Go Wrong. They Say That If You Put Something Out Into The Universe, Then That Is What Will Return To You. Perhaps This Was The Case? Maybe Dirk Expected You To Disappear Like His Bro, And You Expected Him To Fight You, Like Your Bro

Dirks Expectations - Queen Of Cups

It Sounds Like Dirk Was Not Expecting So Many Issues With Your Friendship, He Wanted Or Maybe Even Needed You To Be The Stable One. Perhaps That Was His Reason For Staying Distant, For Not Expecting You To Be A Fully Dimensional Person With Your Own Issues

Relationship Turnout - The Emperor

Well, It Sounds Like You And Dirk Found Some Sense Of Stability In The End. Dirk Became A Father Figure To You, And In Time, You Became That For Him. It May Have Been Messy, And Certainly Not Easy. But Both Of You Found What Worked.

I Hope That This Helps! Remember That You Know Your Timeline Best.

[theorynexus]

Retrospective Analysis of Dirk:

After the initial thoughts I had this morning, following some light (re-)reading, I have come to various conclusions: The role that Dave Strider played in the Meat Epilogue was nearly identical to that that Dirk’s Bro (Alpha Dave Strider) played in the story---   DOOMed rebel fighting against the rise of another dictatorial Crocker.   I am sure that Dirk realized this, both considering the fact that this was an echo of Dave’s soul across the multiple instances of himself, and because he partially engineered this eventuality. Intriguingly enough, this might imply that Rose likely would have sided against Crocker (Jane) if her ascension had not incapacitated her and Dirk hadn’t been puppeteer-distracting her at the time (for reasons beyond her connection to Kanaya). More importantly, it helps establish an important further parallel:  Dirk acted as the puppetmaster in the shadows, essentially controlling the election and determining its outcome from the beginning.   Lord English remained the most important force in the Alpha Kids’ world and session in much the same manner, despite )(er Imperious Condescension’s attempted Rebellion. Both individuals were playing broader and longer games than the women they were manipulating to suit their purposes.  Though Dirk’s purposes have not yet been revealed to the fullest extent, Jane Crocker had a narrower perspective that failed to grasp the true nature of the battles going on and underestimated her “supporter” ‘s power and intentions. This relates to another way in which Dirk Strider and Caliborn/Lord English:  Both of them represent iterations/avatars/fulfillments of the idea of Calmasis---   both tricked a Calliope into losing a major confrontation by making her confuse an attack on one piece with that of another (a major short term/immediate objective--- an attack on a queen [in Dirk’s case, Jake English/the election] ---with an attack on the king [Alt!Calliope, who acted as essentially the commander of the forces opposed to him]); furthermore, and more importantly, both act as protagonists and antagonists to the story at the same time (villain and anti-hero).   Dirk presumably sees himself as working towards the perpetuation of reality by forcing more conflict into an otherwise ended story; or alternatively, sees himself striving for freedom in opposition to causality and enslavement to cosmic will (which would jive well with his Kamina-esque aesthetic).  Meanwhile, Caliborn/Lord English obviously served as the main villain of Homestuck, but were also the protagonists of their little side adventure and was trying to develop himself and expand his horizons despite his severe disadvantages, much the way the Kids and Trolls did. Dirk’s fulfillment of that role may have actually been why he downplayed the importance of Complacency of the Learned in his conversation with Rose just before he began to subsume her will in earnest. Of course, that is somewhat speculative, and hard to prove, one way or the other. ... Regardless, upon making these sorts of connections, I began to think about whether Dirk was intended to become a villain from the moment he was introduced, and/or relatively early on.  Andrew Hussie seems to have a habit of working out many plot details a great deal in advance (see the Alpha Kids being hinted at as early as Act 4 with Jake’s letter to John, Doc Scratch probably being intended to have been/contained at least an iteration of Dirk from the beginning [as shown via his comment to Rose that she ought to think of him as a kindly human uncle figure-- shoved in our face via a certain Truthsplosion]), so the idea didn’t seem all that farfetched. After all, as referenced in the above parenthetical reference, Doc Scratch shows that Dirk always had at least the potential for villainy in him, under the right circumstances. The first thing that jumped into my mind (other than the fact that Bro is a bit of a dick, I guess, and the early narrative of Act 6 emphasizes the fact that this is in fact the kid version of Bro quite a bit) was the fact that Dirk’s introductory period created clear parallels with two trolls of a highly corrupt moral character---  Vriska and Equius:   Beyond the obvious tendencies to manipul8 others and his willingness to “cheat” in certain ways (defeating Squarewave in a rap battle bit exploiting his weakness to liquid shorting him out, teleporting his head to Jake for the revive+kiss with the intent of forcing a start to their relationship that way, et cetera) Dirk is also pining for a Page who he attempts to force a redrom with (more effectively, in his case, at least in the short term), and whom he attempts to “groom” by pushing challenges that the Page is clearly not prepared to face his way (Brobot’s awkward difficulty settings parallel the FLARP encounters  Vriska gave Tavros).    That Vriska and Dirk’s first on-screen kills were both decapitations is probably a coincidence. As for Equius:  There is the wife beater that Dirk sometimes wears, the similarities between horses and musclebeasts, the fact that both build robots whom they then face off against in lethal combat, the fact that both wear shades and are initially blacked out upon introduction (though this latter matter is of less significance) the fact that both have dominating personalities and a secret kinky submissive side (albeit these play out in different ways for the two), the fact that Brobot and Aradiabot both take out their “hearts” and POUND POUND POUND them up dramatically (note: though this is a bit of a stretch, the parallel makes the affinity’s intention obvious), their willingness to lie and take extreme measures (Equius considers lying and double-crossing to be in a blue blood’s nature and/or their “superior” culture; Dirk outright tells Jane that one of three statements he is making is a lie, and the only one it could possibly be is that he believes that Roxy’s decision to blow up Jane’s computer as a way to scare Jane away from playing was too extreme [meaning that, since this was a lie, he is absolutely willing to go to such extremes to get the job done--- as shown later with his willingness to decapitate himself, publicly display the fact that he’d killed Hegemonic Brute, et cetera])... and most obviously+ominously, his declaration to Jane that while she was going to remain the group’s leader as far as everyone else was concerned, he was going to be the person controlling things from the shadows (which is a reversal of Equius’ demand that Aradia be the shadow leader for the Blue Team, but obviously calls him to mind via allusion/reference). Now, while a case can be made for either of these characters not being that bad, and I am personally someone who likes and feels for Vriska quite a lot, I will be the first to admit that she is the closest thing the trolls have to Caliborn or Dirk (Gamzee doesn’t count: he’s has a mental breakdown and is basically brainwashed by LE via Lil Cal; he’s not a planner or someone who went out of his way to embrace his “turn to the dark side” of his own volition--- if you can call it that, for Caliborn; you know what I mean).   As for Equius: he was highly violent and could have been quite the menace, if it weren’t for his moirail. He had a generally demented mentality.           Neither of these are the sorts of comparisons you want to be made with a character being painted as particularly heroic and good.  Next comes the fact that, as I have discussed previously, Dirk Strider and Caliborn/Lord English have been deeply entangled with one another’s fates.   Caliborn liked Dirk the best out of all of the Alpha Kids, it was ironically Dirk who ended up defeating him in the end (in both the form of soul trapping and via ARquius). However, it was also Dirk who provided Caliborn with the mechanical leg that allowed him to escape (and presumably have confidence in the idea of escape) from his SAW Room Death Trap binding with Calliope.  Presumably, either Dirk or AR must have figured that that was the intention behind the request/present, at some point. (I rather doubt it was something that Dirk knew the implications of at the time, but I wouldn’t necessarily rule out that possibility. He might not have cared, especially since that was years before the Alpha Kids began their session, and he/they might not have had much of a bond with Calliope, at that point. Not that he ever got all that close to her, generally.)  Note:  Caliborn’s favor toward Dirk does not necessarily suggest anything inherently wrong with Dirk, but it helps set him apart from the others. This is just another warning sign suggesting something “off” about him.      Dirk’s “I have failed,” before he went wandering off into the glitches and self-destructed in the [S] Game Over. version of the Alpha similarly can be interpreted as hinting at his God Complex/Megalomaniac tendencies.      It seems a logical extension of his general personality that he wouldn’t be able to settle down and enjoy a peaceful life in a “perfect” paradise planet (which is probably one of the reasons he decided to leave it). I suppose this is just another thing that wasn’t generally thought about as the community was so focused on the actual process of getting to the victory point, and what that would mean?   At the very least, I don’t remember any such considerations.  There were certainly warning signs. The biggest factor that convinces me that Dirk’s villainy was planned quite early on (and which thus supports to some extent the idea that Jake is meant to be his eventual foil) is that Dave, after seeing his Bro’s corpse, said, “I’m not a hero, my bro was.”   This was almost certainly made at a point where Dirk Strider was conceptually developed/invented already, definitely was at a point where Dave’s baggage surrounding heroism and its connection with how he felt toward his brother was in play, and most certainly was well after the audience could have seen that Bro was abusive and sortof a dirtbag. Thus, there was already some irony, there.  However, he also called John a hero in that same statement, so it clearly was not totally derogatory, and so the irony could be increased. It was, as shown by the fact that the Alpha Kids were not “Heroes” of their session, but Nobles. This was not enough.  Dirk has eventually turned into the anti-hero and villain of his own story.   Perhaps this might be enough; however, it wouldn’t quite feel fully “right” if he hadn’t been intended to have been so from the beginning-- and perhaps that’s actually why their group were called Nobles in the first place, not only because of the fact that they couldn’t complete their session without the others, but because not all of them were heroic at heart.  [Non-sequitur: I wonder if LE would have been anywhere near as dangerous, if not for Lil Hal’s capacity to make incredibly complicated calculations {needed for Furthest Ring travel, among other things, presumably}, and his capacity as Doc Scratch to pave the way for LE’s arrival. This would seem a very similar relationship to how Dirk facilitated Caliborn’s entry via the leg, in retrospect.] ... While the section immediately above isn’t as well-developed as I’d like-- mostly because I’m tired, distracted, and it’s been at least 3 hours since I started this post in the first place, and I want to at least get the last part that I thought of in before it leaves my memory.    I may add to/edit in more for this post, or post follow-up material later, when I remember more that might have slipped my mind on this subject/I think of more. Anyway!---    as I was considering all of this, a very intriguing thought popped into my head:    While I had initially assumed that it was simply to not rehash old material and/or that it was to keep us with John for the sake of narrative consistency, since I now know that it was Dirk who was narrating this segment of the story, and thus it was a narrator with bias and interest in the facts being related, it has occurred to me that it is actually quite odd for Dirk to omit some relation of the actual facts of the Caliborn’s Masterpiece encounter.   We are placed by his hand at a place even further removed from the reality of the battle than the clearly biased and somewhat embellished account that the Cherub gave of his own rise to power.        This strikes me as odd particularly given the fact that it is Dirk’s great moment of heroism, which might serve as a sort of counter-balance to much of his otherwise morally questionable deeds.         Given his egotism (and the fact that there would seem to be no OOC reason strong enough to justify such an omission on the author’s part, since this means that there is no faithful depiction of the battle shown to us in the story), this makes it seem as if Dirk chooses to not show the conclusion of this battle for some specific and tangible reason.  I would not suspect it to be out of embarrassment, a desire to conceal his identity longer, or plain trollishness (though the last of these strikes me as almost being fitting).  Rather, I wonder if there is something worth concealing in the end of this encounter.  Maybe the Alpha Kids actually lost, and Dirk’s placement of Cal into Lil Cal was an act of capitulation. Maybe Dirk otherwise willingly and knowingly created Lord English via the soul trap at the behest of ARquiusprite, or said sprite tricked him into doing so, claiming it was the only way to defeat their opponent (which it was) and omitting the consequences.     I do not know which of these, if any, is the correct answer, but Dirk being the one to choose to omit the details does, I shall repeat, seem extremely fishy to me, all things considered. ~~~ While I will not put a summary here, I would just like to say:   In retrospect, the Meat Epilogue has done more than the requisite “adding on to the story in appreciable ways and tying up loose ends,” but has served to add depth to an already incredibly deep story and caused me to reconsider and better understand characters and themes which I had not previously delved into so deeply before.    I wonder, now, if Dirk Strider and Lord English shall prove to have been even more deeply connected than it has seemed up to this point, once I have reached the end of the Candy Epilogue and thus will be allowed to properly investigate what’s going on at the beginning of Homestuck^2. Final thought:  Hmm. So much of his imagery speaks to him being a sort of twisted version of Kamina (embodiment of masculinity, warrior spirit, noble sacrifice, heroism [not being able to live up to those last two, and lampshading to some extent his frustration at that, in Epilogue Part 7]), but it also vaguely seems to me that he at least sees himself as being like Simon--- this is to say, leading the charge for freedom against the forces of determinism and the chains of repression that would hold back humanity (and/or himself). It’s a very striking thing, especially considering the fact that it is only Simon who takes the fight to space in a fancy ship, once what seems to have been the final villain was defeated and the real threat began to loom on the horizon.  I wonder how this contrast will develop in the future, and how noble his true ideals may in fact be. ~~~ Major Edit:  

What. The heck. How did I not remember this blatant nonsense?    Fricking... darn it.

[homestuck-kinstuff]

Can I get a tarot reading for my Dirk Strider canon? It’s difficult to remember beyond very specific events.

Hello Dirk,

Of course you can. 💜 Apologies, this reading got quite lengthy. As well as what you see above, there are three cards pulled for advice. Tumblr is being a bit finicky and would not let me add the second picture. Your full read explanation is below the cut:

The Beginning:

The Hermit, Reversed.

You were isolated. Whether mentally, through withdrawing into your head and away from the world, physically, in Dirk's canon-typical apartment-at-the-end-of-everything fashion, or a combination of both.

Queen of Swords, Upright

One way you coped with this, was through a deep connection with a figure who, to most, could come off as cold-hearted or aloof.

In all actuality, this figure was a very complex person. Very smart and witty, almost cuttingly so, as well as perceptive and clear-headed. As you connected with them was early on in your life, this figure likely had a big hand in your developing personality.

Middle

2 of Swords, Reversed

You're faced with an incredibly tough decision, truly wedged between a rock and a hard place. No matter what choice you make, suffering will certainly follow. At this point, it's a matter of deciding on the lesser of two evils.

8 of Pentacles, Upright

This card speaks about hard work and diligence, particularly with regard to honing skills and talents.

In response to this difficult decision, you likely pushed your skillset to its limit in order to glean the best outcome possible.

Towards the End of your Timeline

9 of Pentacles, Reversed

All the energy and hard work you poured into this objective has fallen short. You did not meet your goal. It was not for a lack of will or diligence or ambition, but rather a few powerful setbacks or costly mistakes.

Queen of Wands, Upright

You coped with this frustrating loss, primarily through your relationship with a person who is known for their spunky, fiery personality. They are a natural leader, and their courage in the face of adversity is an inspiration to all who know them.

Challenges You Faced

The Lovers, Reversed

Your relationships were often incredibly unbalanced or one-sided. One person often gave too much or too little, leading to feelings of distance or disharmony.

You may have struggled to find a balance in your varied relationships, to forge a connection that felt genuine and unforced.

9 of Swords, Upright

You were often pinned down and trapped by your own negative thoughts. This card emphasizes there is not forensically a situation that warrants your worry. Your over-analysis often lead to feelings of helplessness and anxiety.

Page of Wands, Upright

A person who is the very spirit of new ventures and enthusiasm. They are inclined to give just about anything a go, just to see where it takes them. They often do not have concrete plans in place, preferring to delight in the possibilities as they unfold.

As this card appeared in the "Challenges" section of this reading, and aligns very closely to his character, I'm inclined to believe this card represents Jake. He may have often caused you difficulty in your timeline, whether or not he meant to do so, or was even actively doing anything.

You would know better than I. As always, if you feel this doesn't line up with your canon, please take a look at the cards meaning yourself, to see if perhaps another facet of it makes more sense to you.

King of Swords, Reversed

The strengths of the face cards in the suit of Swords has always been a sharp intellect. The King of Sword specifically, has an authority and power in his clever thoughts and words.

When reversed, he is seen using these skills selfishly, to guide or manipulate to his own personal whims or desires.

You may have struggled with the desire to act on these impulses. You could see how easy it would be, or how much more efficient things would run if you could tug the right pieces into place, so to speak.

7 of Cups, Upright

Overall, you've had a wide range of varied but tricky options presented to you. Some promise love, power, riches, or victory, while still others promise failure, and disaster. Whether these choices will follow through on what they've promised, is not so certain.

Through all of these choices, danger has crept. Getting carried away in wishful thinking or fantasy is tempting, but will not, nor has ever served you.

You may have struggled to keep these previous 4 challenges in mind when making difficult decisions, and they could have skewed the choices you thought you were making.

Central Theme/Issue

2 of Wands, Upright

This card represents the broad concept of making plans. Taking your visions and ambitions and transforming them into plans and progress. Moreover, it goes to imply that you have everything you need to bring these plans to fruition.

I think that fact in and of itself may have brought you a great deal of frustration. You had everything to needed to achieve what you wanted to achieve, all the pieces lined up and in place, but you still failed.

Your major challenges were not physical things you could see or grapple with and defeat: but invisible, nuanced things that you may not have even been totally aware of.

Overall, however. I think that dreaming, scheming, and planning was a big part of your life, likely something you enjoyed. You were likely quite good at it, and planned out many items and aspects of your timeline.

Advice

5 of Wands, Upright

This card represents a major conflict or battle between rivals. However, it also implies that there is no real danger in this conflict, that it is more a show of power than a true threat.

You don't have to fight every battle. You don't always have to win. Before going to fight, ask yourself honestly, why am I doing this? What purpose is this serving me?

4 of Cups, Reversed

You're ignoring potential happiness, the goodness the world can offer you. You're too lost in your own mind, particularly the meaner, bleaker corners. As a result, you're taking the good things in your life for granted, and denying what wonders the world is offering you.

You need to look inside yourself to know yourself, but you must also look outside, at what surrounds you, to thrive.

9 of Cups, Upright

Right now, you should find yourself in a situation of relative luxury, and emotional stability.

Allow yourself to enjoy and indulge in these things. Don't withdraw from them out of pride, or shame. You deserve to experience these simple joys just as much as anyone else. You are allowed to relax, Dirk.

I know that was quite a long read, thank you for sticking with me. I hope this helped knock loose a few more memories for your canon. If you need anything else, don't hesitate to let us know.

Kind Regards,

🌹Mod Rose🌹

[tipsygnostaljic]

Could you analyze Prince of Breath?

Prince of Breath

The destructive classes sure are popular! Specifically our active Princes! Now, on with the analysis! As aforementioned,  the Prince is an active (-) destruction class who causes destruction to their aspect. Known Princes are Eridan Ampora as a Prince of Hope, Dirk Strider as a Prince of Heart, and Kurloz Makara as a Prince of Rage. Bard is the passive (+) destructive counterpart that uses their aspect to cause destruction to their surroundings and others.

Breath is the aspect of the breeze, wind, freedom, and letting go of things that hold us back. With this, you get Prince of Breath: Destroyer of Freedom.

Pre-ascension, I feel as though a Prince of Breath is a very dependent person. Whether it’s their intention or not, they always seem to be relying on someone or something. Whether it be their family, their friends, or some other form of support, they have a hard time figuring out how to do and/or deal with things on their own.  This could be because of some kind of debilitation, as all Breath players have one (John’s depression, Rufioh’s mutant wings, Tavros’ paralysis). Because of this dependency on others, the Prince tends to rarely think for themselves before doing anything. They’re very reckless, and they rush into things without thinking of the possibilities beforehand. They rely on others to do their thinking for them, which weighs down the people around them with the responsibility of trying to keep them out of harm’s way. If the Prince of Breath had a summary phrase, it would be “I cause problems on accident.”

Despite the Prince’s recklessness and over-eagerness to jump into dangerous situations in pursuit of wanting to prove themselves to be independent, they’re rather slow and, well, challenged when it comes to playing following the leader. You see, Princes love control. The Prince of Heart want to control how others view them, the Prince of Hope wants to control how others view certain situations, the Prince of Time wants to control how they’ll be remembered, and the Prince of Breath wants control over others in general. While the Prince is not very independent, they refuse to believe that they are and will do anything to prove otherwise. This is the reason they act so carelessly and don’t work well under the order of others; they want to show that they can do things on their own and despise having help and/or being told what to do.

When they enter their session, the Prince will get along with their consorts quite well, and they have no problem doing everything they can accomplish to protect them from the imps and ogres on their planet! t least, until they talk to their Denizen and learn of the quest. The Denizen quest is meant to help players grow into a better person and breakthrough their personal problems so that they can successfully reach godtier and justly rule over the new universe should the session win the game. The Prince of Breath would have to truly become independent before reaching godtier, and they’d have to learn to be able to follow orders from others better so that every player can work as a well functioning team. The quest for the Prince would probably be something simple enough to do with help, but fairly difficult to do as one person. In addition, the quest would only be able to be completed if the Prince alone accomplishes it- this saying that the game physically wouldn’t allow any progress to be made if the Prince gets help in any way. At first, the Prince will try to look to their session mates for assistance, only to discover the aforementioned game construct for their quest. The other players will eventually give up trying to help a lost cause, and the Prince will then go to their consorts. When they find that after multiply attempts they’ve made absolutely zero progress, they’ll resort to their sprite. The sprite will confess the true nature of the quest, and the Prince will have no other choice than to find a way to complete their quest alone.

It’s no easy task. Once they finish the quest, though, they’ll not only be ready to godtier, but they’ll also be fully independent and they’ll no longer need to rely on others. The obstacle that held them back for so long is no longer in their way, and they’ll be able to go much farther in their session with the other players!

Post-ascension, the godtier abilities of a Prince of Breath would be quite interesting. In a physical sense, the Prince would be able to destroy the literal wind. This would be devastating to any living creature in the are, for they no longer would have air to breathe. If you’ve seen No Game No Life and you remember the Materialization Word Chain game when the air was completely taken away, that’s what a Prince of Breath is able to do! Suffocation is the leading cause of death for enemies of the Prince of Breath, as most of them meet this fate. Unless, of course, they become slaves of the Breath Puppeteer. You see, Breath is also the aspect of freedom. As the destroyer of freedom, the Prince of Breath is able to completely rid their targets of all freedom to turn them into puppets that they can control. It’s not that they become mind-controlled, because the Prince has absolutely no control over their mind. They’re completely conscious and can make mental decisions on their own, but their body is no longer in their own control. They can see themselves moving and doing things that they never told their body to do, and all they can do is watch and suffer in silence.

For a Prince of Breath, I believe their land would be based on their former dependency and quest for independence and the breeze. For this, I would think of the Land of Lemons and Dandelions. I chose lemons for the dependency part because lemons didn’t occur naturally until humans mutated a lime with a citron with India and Pakistan. Therefore, lemons are a fruit dependent on the humans who created them. Despite them being a dependent fruit, they still thrive in the wild nowadays. Lemons are a perfect metaphor for the Prince of Life’s quest because they too start out as dependent and eventually thrive on their own. Dandelions are to represent the wind for the Breath aspect. There’s not much to this besides the fact that dandelions spread their seeds/spores through the wind. I suppose in a way, dandelions are also dependent on the wind to reproduce, so there’s another dependency metaphor!

[greensungnostic]

shit, lets be santa!!!

You've been busy at work, scurrying around to make gifts for people this season, when you're not busy being tender and affectionate or adventurous with your shipmates. You've got a good number of things made - some things are duplicated with slight variants for some of the alternates you know, some are uniquely crafted.

For @robottattooartist : You've made a tiny robotic unicorn, small enough to stand on a laptop without squishing it. It's all orange mane and white hide, semi-realistically crafted, that leaves a glimmering jpeggy holographic afterimage behind itself as it runs about. Its voice seems to be made from a cobbled together audio file of Dirk's own voice, made to say "neigh" or "snort" or "whinny" in one of twelve variants apiece. The horn is a tiny, sharp katana with an orange scabbard over it. The whole thing smells faintly of Orange Crush.

For @hotshithaxxorbitch , something in a similar vein - a full scale replica of one of their Minecraft cats, cubic construction and all, but in real life. More than a little ridiculous to look at, but no less affectionate and strange than any of their "real" Minecraft cats.

Following the theme, @cyb3rbvlly gets a replica of the ender dragon, but small enough to perch on the edge of a coffee mug. Its dragon breath is just a faint quickly dispersing fragrance.

@adorastupid gets, if he's around to check his transmaterializer, a fresh basket of fruits and veggies, and a packet of mixed seeds to grow some of your strange crossbreeds, complete with diagrams and instructions for care.

@artificialgrievand gets a nice little robotics tune-up kit and a broad sunhat that you just happen to think will look cute on her, with reinforced horn holes punched in already. Simple, but heartfelt.

@joeyjaidenharleyclaire gets, if she can provide coordinates for their dispatch, a bundle of earth snacks she might have missed - alchemized of course - along with a self-lacing pair of tapshoes (not unlike ones from Back to the Future) and a picture of yourself and June, her no longer secret siblings.

@8ayesian is a tough one to do things for, given her often prickly exterior, but all the same you've sent a fun looking cookbook and also crafted her a flashlight imbued with green sun light - refracted back towards usable hues - but no less able to cut through the Void of the strange dark spaces she ends up in.

@jadeyharls , aka Jade Nebula, gets a hat taken straight from one of the Pokemon games - albeit with earholes added - to commemorate your shared experience of becoming increasingly populous Trainers. You also include a little gizmo shaped like a flower to give her robotic hummingbird an upgrade when he sups from it, a Christmas card with a picture of you, Rose, Dovesprite, June, and all the dogs and pokés gathered around, with a booklet of Bec Visitation Vouchers clipped to the back should she ever want you to dispatch Bec to come say hi.

You've got a gift prepared for your moirail-alternate if she ever comes back, but for the time being it seems like there's only a combative and anti-holiday troll taking her place still. If @puppydogejade Pup ever does return, she'll have a sturdy metal replica of the transformation device of one of those hero shows she likes so much. It even makes sounds and holographic light displays.

For catmom, aka @gr33nspeak you've made a fancy little staff using a bit of carefully trimmed branchwood from the enormous oak on the edge of your ship, the one you've jokingly called The Yiffdrasil. Its size and age accelerated by Time manipulation from Dovesprite, the whole tree is enormous, and the staff you've crafted for her feels sturdy and ancient in its dense gnarled heft. You don't know if she uses staves, but it feels very druidic. You even include a pressed leaf and a picture of the tree itself, with June visible next to a root for scale. It's big.

@madgodsmistress gets a book on how to get rid of demons. You know the kinds of nonsense she gets up to, and you'd like her to be well armed to rid herself of them, if she must tamper at all. It comes wrapped up in a deepest black scarf, the twinkle of starlight visible if it's pulled up over her head.

@gunplaying gets a gift that's in a similar vein to one you've given him before, but this time outside of Minecraft. Treasures, trinkets, and tomes delved from the depths of a ruin on LoFaF, with a purposely flowery handwritten adventure journal as if you're a turn of the century explorer, as well as plenty of Polaroid pictures for kid grandpa to look at.

Aradia down in the belly of the ship, @ribbitingrams , gets a collection of cool skeletal remains of monsters and creatures from the Lands you've visited, because you know she always has a fondness for relics and bones.

For most other Roses you provide a new computerized headband with a semisolid hologram display and a box of chocolates because you are kind of predictable in adoring their Lalondean charms.

For other Egberts than your own, you have to dip into some timelines that haven't been meteor smashed yet, to track down autographed VHS or DVD copies of films like Deep Impact and Failure to Launch, because you know that even if some of them claim to have improved their taste in films, they'll still get a kick out of goofy stuff like this.

Daves and Doves etc, other than your own get two gifts - a joke one that's a "copy of your fire mixtape", purposely shitty tracks of you beatboxing over mellow bass guitar riffs for the sake of irony, and one of a jarred and preserved SBURBan monster, pickled rather than letting them burst into grist. That seems like a Strider style gift.

Any other Dirks you know - you can't think of any but you prepare a gift or two just in case - purposely goofy of course, because that's just the strider way. Reasonably nice drawing tablets with a stylus attached to a blunt katana to make it as hard to draw as possible, for the challenge and irony of it.

Other Roxys young and old get fun/ugly alchemized cat sweaters with a tiny voicebox that says "meow!" when squeezed, and a stash of helpful science tools for good measure. When you're not sure what to get someone exactly, you like to go with a surface level cute thing, and a practical gift to go with it.

Other fellow Jades get dog sweaters and samples of your botanical and technical works, an exchange of notes basically. What else would you get yourself if not cute dog things and stuff to pick apart and study?

Jane - both the one from your timeline, busy as she is - and any others who you may know - get the most scandalous gift of all; indie cookbooks from something other than Crockercorp, plus a spoon for their strifekind that also has a sleuthing magnifying glass built in.

June gets a few dresses you help her alchemize, a few of those autographed copies of movies, and one of the jumpsuits Sigourney Weaver wore in Alien. That one really seems to get her hyped up.

Dovesprite's gift is a stack of records - some good, some just scratching-bait, for her turntables from some Earth's record store and a brush-like tool for preening her feathers easier.

Nannasprite gets a lot of hugs and affection and some new baking impedimentia, but she's more eager to dote on you and June than vice versa.

Grandpa of course gets the customary tin of biscuits and of his favourite tobacco, placed on the corner of his desk while you sneak in to give him a peck on the cheek in his study. You'll give him a rundown of all the recent happenings later when you're not on your mad gift run.

@tacittherapist gets perhaps the most gifts, because she's your primary partner. An attempt at knitting her a Squiddle - never the most skillful effort, but there's effort there all the same; a bouquet of flowers from your garden, their ends not snipped but carefully wormholed such that they don't expire nearly as fast, staying lush and vibrant for weeks into the new year; a bit of tasteful jewelry crafted from amber or jadeite in cute and slightly goth trappings; and coupons for massages and other little acts of tender service.

[orangeccreamsicles]

“Let’s start off with something easy. What’s your name, kid?”

Your name is Dirk Strider, you are nineteen years old, and you are sitting in what you assume is an interrogation room. You have been separated from your brother, much to your annoyance, and the officer in front of you refused to let you see him until you were both done answering their questions. 

Not that Dave knew anything. Not that you’d ever tell them anything. The answers they were looking for would only tear you apart, and you’d rather die than let that happen. You’d already killed for it.

“Are you sure I can’t get you a blanket, there’s no one we can call for you?”

You shake your head. You wouldn’t tell them about mom, and they wouldn’t be able to find any attachment to her anyway. Bro was dead, dad was dead, you and Dave were all that mattered. Despite your stranglehold on your feelings, you were tense in your chair, hands digging into your arms. Whatever. It’d help you be more believable, distraught that your caretaker had passed.

“I know you’re upset, but I really need to ask you a couple questions before you can see your little brother, okay? He’s been asking about you too, don’t worry. I just need you to sign this paper.”

He passes you a sheet and a pen. You stare down at it, blankly, as HAL analyzes it. Under normal circumstances, you shouldn’t sign it, but you want to get out of here quickly, and you’re not suspicious. You did everything right. You sign the paper.

The officer nods approvingly and moves it aside once you’re done, replacing it with a cup of water which you take small sips of. He adjusts himself in his chair, taking out a pen and notepad, then looks at you sympathetically. You hate the look on his face.

“Can you tell me what happened tonight?”

You nod.

“Derek came home later than usual, and when he did get home he was drunk. Dave and I were in the kitchen, I sent Dave to bed. Derek looked upset. I was worried about him.”

Lies, a practiced lie you’d been rehearsing for years, drilled into yourself and Dave by everyone in the house concerned with keeping anyone from finding out what happened behind doors.

“He told me to have a drink with him. Just one. I figured it was okay since he was already home and didn’t have to drive. He got me to go upstairs with him after, said he wanted to talk to me without Dave around. He’s only little.”

A strain in your voice, your eyes get far away, you slouch a little. Anything to sell a story, buy you some sympathy as a sad kid living alone with your brothers, shocked that you could lose your guardian so quickly. You were wearing a long sleeve shirt, and pants. If he’d looked under your clothes he’d see the injuries which would prompt more questions, which would lead to what had really happened coming out, and you’d never see your brother again.

“So he took me up, and we sat on the edge. It wasn’t dangerous, we played up there all the time, I knew he wouldn’t fall. But then-”

You cut yourself off.

“He. He started talking nonsense. I don’t know what he was talking about, shouting off about how I’m old enough to take care of Dave now, and what do we need him for? He stood up, I didn’t know what he was gonna’ do. I don’t know if he meant to jump or if he fell or-”

Again, you cut yourself off, shaking a little. The officer pats your knee, and it’s everything you can do to not lash out at him for touching you. Instead, you close your eyes, duck your head for a moment. When you open them, HAL is talking to you. Talking you through your answers, telling you how Dave is doing. They’re done with him, he says. He took a blanket, and the car is waiting outside whenever you can get out of here.

“What happened after he fell?”

Back to reality.

“I kind of stared at him for a second. I’ve never seen a real body like that, he didn’t even look like a person anymore. I thought I was gonna’ puke, but it all kind of went blank after that. I went downstairs, called the police, went and sat with Dave in his room ‘til the cops showed up.”

“And had Derek ever exhibited this kind of behavior before?”

“Sure, but not this bad. He drank a lot, did some dangerous stuff, got all weird emotionally. But I never thought he’d just. Walk off the roof like that. I thought he’d always be there for us.”

They had split you up to get your stories individually, but they let you keep your glasses. HAL had talked Dave through exactly what to say, so there wouldn’t be any discrepancies. You were selling a story of a lonely man left to take care of his two kid brothers, who finally saw his escape after years of being tied down.

What really happened is that you had pushed him. He’d come home mad, sure, but he wasn’t yelling. The dude was a freak, never spoke. You suggested a drink, drugged his enough to throw him far enough off his game that when you challenged him to a spar you could push him off the roof.

The effect of the whole night would only fall upon you hours later, after you left the station and had already been driving for a while, with Dave asleep in the passenger side of the truck, and you settling down to sob in the bed of it, still hours off from New York on the road where you would live with your sisters until you were stable enough to come home.

[themockingcrows]

The Esteemed Guest Switch

Now that reveals happened and I’m leeching a wifi signal for a few minutes... time to crosspost this! Written for Polyswap 2019! Also available on my AO3 under the same name.

Ship: Rose/Dirk/Dave in all configurations.

This fic is VERY NSFW.

tags: Praise Kink, Pegging, Anal Sex, Anal Fingering, Oral Sex, Dom/sub, Polyamory, Threesome - F/M/M, Light Mommy Kink, Scratching, Spanking, Dirty Talk, Rope Bondage, Power Play, Trust, Rough Kissing, Alternate Universe - No Sburb Session, Established Relationship, Incest, Spitroasting, Breathplay, Femdom

While all three are in love, normally Rose and Dirk share Dave and keep interactions between themselves on more even ground. Both Strider and LaLonde love to be in charge and the idea of yielding isn't one that's come up between them thanks to Dave being the happiest sub in the world between their combined affections. Yet is it possible that Dirk could like more than he knows? Perhaps he and Dave aren't so different after all, at least with Rose calling the shots.

                                               - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

     Separately was how Dave was used to dealing with Rose and Dirk romantically. They were each a larger than life personality, and each wanted a certain amount of control that he was more than happy to give, especially behind closed doors where each of them wanted his undivided attention and focus. It hadn’t taken long for them to agree on the setup of spending plenty of time together as a group but dividing up the romantic side. Dave had more than enough affection to give in a lot of directions and needed just as much attention back to feel fulfilled and happy, sometimes far more than a single person would be capable of giving especially if they were busy or distracted with other important things. Between their schedules and the tides of their own needs and wants, the schedules just sort of formed naturally between the three of them. Dave was a planet traveling in a circle between Dirk’s star and Rose’s silvery moon.

    Maybe the fact that Rose and Dirk were so alike was what helped the trio function so well, one person leaving just as the next came over wanting someone to lay on and cuddle while they had their hair played with. Even in the bedroom they exuded similar methods, albeit with very different energies guiding their actions. They each had a firm hand and high expectations of him, each had similar desires though not always in a conventional sense. Rose was usually a solid presence who alternated between sweet and tender and putting Dave through his paces before giving a reward that tended to veer towards being allowed to eat her out or to actually fuck her, or getting to pick what she would be pegging him senseless with. Dirk was a little harder to nail down. The methods were there, but the energy was different. He couldn’t seem to make up his mind on what he wanted out of some of their encounters from the feel of the directions. The stern hand softened in the heat of the moment, and many times he wound up putting Dave through his paces as a service top or with any other number of rewards. The treats were easier to obtain: Dirk was never as rough as Rose was.

    Dave, being Dave, couldn’t help but bring it up by accident when they were all sprawled out on the sofa together half paying attention to a terrible movie that nobody had enough opinion about to summon the energy of pulling out the remote to click away from. He lay sprawled across both their laps like an overgrown cat, head on Rose’s thighs and legs resting over Dirk’s legs so one gloved hand rested leisurely on the curve of his hip and ass. A yarn ball gently twitched against the small of his back as Rose clacked her knitting needles steadily, eyes trained on the screen and fingers moving without much more than a second thought to where she was on the line numerically. It was too easy to fuck something this calm up, especially for someone with as much raw chaotic energy as Dave. One second he’d been chattering about the villain being a dumbass, then he’d made Top Energy joke, then a dom joke, and then just to fully stuff his foot into his mouth he just had to look back at Rose specifically to ask her if it was familiar.

    Not both of them.

    Not Dirk.

    Rose first and foremost. Rose alone.

    “Excuse me?” said Dirk, leaning forward and resting his folded arms on Dave’s legs with enough pressure to indicate it was meant to be a pinning maneuver, tipping his head to show that he was trying to meet his eye behind the dual layers of shades. Oh, no, there was no escaping from him now. “Think my name got dropped by accident back there, Dave.”

    “You may need to get your ears checked, Dirk, he wasn’t talking about you at all,” Rose offered with a helpful smirk, setting the knitting project to the back of the sofa safely before using both hands to stroke at Dave’s upper back and hair affectionately. “Dave was talking about tops and doms, an aficionado would be best to ask for verification.”

    Dave felt heat rising on his face and a chill run down his back at the tone of her voice. Dirk had bristled almost immediately, although it’d be hard for anyone to tell just from looking at him. He’d twitched briefly, tensed his jaw and relaxed it like a horse chewing at a bit while he contemplated just what angle to attack from. A challenge that blatant couldn’t be ignored, not from his own flesh and blood especially.

    This could not stand.

    “My ears are fine after all then. Though I wonder as to Dave’s taste and sense of refinement if he considers whatever you do to be the sign of a better dom.” His gloved hand slid to Dave’s thigh and kneaded like a steady massage, the squeeze possessive and the downward press continuing to cement the idea that Dave was meant to stay where he was.  It was familiar, the same heavier touch that would grasp his ass and hoist him up into position against a wall or pin him down on a mattress. It felt rougher now, purposeful without the tinge of lust that usually accompanied it, and entirely directed at Rose despite not being placed upon her body.

    “Whatever I do..?” she asked. Perfectly applied lipstick only served to accentuate the tug upwards at the edges of her mouth, lips full and pretty and absolutely petty in the moment. A cat with the biggest bowl of cream all for herself. They were playing hard ball already, and since Dirk was the opponent in the play fight Rose knew not to hold a single punch. Going for the throat was what would make it most fun. “Why Dirk, I guess it makes sense you wouldn’t understand what I do. A bottom desperately playing the part of a top can only do so much. After all, it’s all a front on your end isn’t it?”

    The room was silent enough that Dave was concerned that his family could hear his thoughts, or at least the pitch at which he was screaming them in his head. A long, unending stream of “ Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa ” between his ears that neither rose nor fell, nor was affected by breath or the lack thereof. Jesus fucking tapdancing Christ this was why he never brought up bedroom bullshit when they were all in the same room. Well. Not entirely why. Mostly he never brought it up because aside from both already enjoying their power trips, they were both competitive to a fault and he didn’t want to deal with being stuck in the middle of their bullshit. It was so much easier for Dave to just be the happy sponge and savor the private time in each direction to the fullest rather than let the two of them puff up and posture at each other.

    There was love there, so much love, but it definitely had a mean streak to it. Honestly if they could just make out or fuck each other and get over it already it’d be for the better in Dave’s eyes. Cut through building tension in the quickest way possible, get to the core of the issue, and wake up on the other side in a tangled heap with a clearer head. Sometimes you just needed to fuck it out. However the same problem would no doubt arise, because of fucking course it would: who would top. Who would lead. Two doms enter a room, one walks out, and Dave already knew in his heart it’d be Rose doing the walking.

    At some point during his registering his internal monologue of toneless screams, both Dirk and Rose had begun staring at him, hoping for some kind of answer to a question he’d apparently missed. Fuck. Shit. Dave cleared his throat and curled himself a little tighter, knees lifting towards his stomach and gaze stubbornly shifting to the television screen once more.

    “Come again? Sorry, I wasn’t listenin’.”

    “Obviously,” Dirk said. “I don’t blame you though, most of it was bullshit.”

    “Spoken like a true bottom,” Rose crooned at him wickedly, savoring how he was actually frowning at her now instead of keeping a perfect poker face. He was showing the faintest of cracks, giving her directions on precisely how to tease him in ways that affected him, and Dave could already read the writing on the wall. He felt a cool hand slip beneath his shirt and stroke along the side of his ribs before reaching up towards his throat, clasping and applying just enough pressure to make him go entirely still for her out of habit. Dave felt his pulse grow hot against the expanse of her fingertips. “We were asking for your opinion on each of us, given your predisposition. If Dirk and I can’t agree about our roles, we can at least all agree with yours. You respond so well to both of us... But do you have a preference?”

    “Oh, fuck no, you are not pinnin’ that kinda pressure on me. If ya’ll wanna have beef with each other you can have as much Grade A premium as you want without draggin’ me into the thick of it,” Dave insisted as he decided to make a break for it, hands upon him or not. He shifted his weight and rolled off of his lovers legs like a log, thumping on the floor unevenly once Rose retracted her hand and scooting backwards on his ass to gain a bit of distance. The terrible movie droned on behind his head till he turned to click the damn thing off, wanting to be able to hear himself think more than he wanted to hear a half assed villain monologuing.

    “Easy, easy, we weren’t going to put you on the spot that seriously,” Dirk insisted as he stood up, dusting at his pants and the bottom edge of his shirt out of habit. Rose stood up at the same time and moved her knitting from the back of the couch to the side of it on the floor to keep it out of potential harm’s way. No sense in losing stitches after all. “It was more of a casual question.”

    “Man if you’re so curious what each other’s like in bed why not just do the routine?” Dave asked, bumping his fists together with a frustrated frown for emphasis. “Like. I can vouch if you really want me to, ya’ll are both fantastic. You’re just..”

    “Just what?” Dirk pressed.

    “..Different,” he explained. “Like. I can eat the same meal with the same recipe from two different places and it’ll be familiar but still different ‘cause it’s made by different people? Sometimes there’s extra touches and stuff thrown in on top of the familiar but that ain’t the point. My view’s gonna be pretty predictable and won’t make much of a difference ‘cause I ain’t choosin’ between you two even if you fuckin’ paid me to. Why not just cut out the middleman and just experience it.”

    Rose pursed her lips as if seriously considering the option, but Dirk seemed frustrated all over again.

    “That’ll defeat the entire point, Dave. You’re the one with experience of the both of us, if we dove in and did the top swap bullshit it’d prove nothing.”

    “You sound pretty sure of yourself,” Rose said suddenly. “Why not just do it then? I mean, what is there to lose? I love you and Dave equally, and I’d like to show you what I mean. It’d be an experience and then we’d be able to swap and see if there’s any other preferences. Perhaps even just pick up extra tricks we each could use. Think... sexy business meeting with our experienced sub and guest switch.”

    Dave flicked his gaze between Rose and Dirk several times, but he already knew what was happening without needing to see. She was so calm, so certain, prepared with logic and explanations aplenty even as Dirk was prepared to cross them with twenty more. They were staring each other down then, Rose smiling softly and Dirk stiff as a board with arguments on his lips unable to come out, playing a game of chess without needing to make a single movement. If he backed down or tried to insist she go first there were ways to argue it that would either circle back around or which would be logically sound and stand there only to make him sound like a bitch if he backed down. Dirk had dug the beginning of his own grave with his love of debate and choosing to go against the offspring that could give as good as she gave.

    The staredown finally ended as Dirk slowly exhaled and relaxed his posture, slipping his hands into his pockets to signal the dance had ended and he was relenting.

    “Fine. Example sub with guest switch. Ladies first?”

    “Oh, hardly,” Rose said as she closed the gap between them to press her fingertips against Dirk’s chest, smoothing the fabric upwards when she leaned closer to press her lips to his cheek. “I’d rather give you time to consider your counter examples. I’ve nothing to hide and I’m prepared, so I may as well take the riskier position since I brought the idea up in the first place. You know. So you could maybe stand a chance of impressing me, I mean.”

    Dirk lifted his chin subtly, ignoring the faint ghost of shadow left behind from the black coating Rose’s lips that now graced his skin. He wasn’t used to being challenged like this, not directly. Not on this level. He flicked his eyes away from Rose’s to look at Dave as he slowly stood up off the floor and dusted at his thighs out of habit, standing by at the ready without even needing to be told.

    ...Fuck, maybe this was actually going to be more of a challenge than anticipated.

    “Dave. Are you ready?” Rose asked as she pulled her hands free of Dirk’s body and turned open armed towards her brother, grin bright and cheerful as a Rose LaLonde smile could be. Dave, used to fucking a predator by this point in his life, nodded and moved to take his shirt off. “Ah ah. Nope. Not out here, I’m not interested in messing up the sofa or needing to pause to get supplies. My room instead. Shoo, both of you. And shades off once you get in there!”

    Stretching without a care in the world, Dave left their cluster and sauntered off for Rose’s room with Dirk bringing up the rear once he realized Rose wasn’t going to be walking at the same pace at all. She’d headed to the kitchen instead to rummage around for something or other that was supposedly important for this example session and would presumably be turning up shortly after them both.

    Rose’s room was painted a soft grayish lavender, more somber than pastel and well matched with the dark colored trappings and coverings she’d collected over the years. Her room was a mishmash of gothic aesthetics and geek chic with a pile of clean laundry adorning her floordrobe and a bra slung over her laptop which guarded several empty cans that ranged from coffee to energy drink to an orange soda she’d filched from Dirk days before and a few mugs that needed washing. The bed was made at least, and the floor more than clear enough to work with. Dave casually scooted a few stray things out of the floor just in case, kicking a few plushies and toeing shoes under the edge of her bed so the carpet was more inviting.

    “This is so stupid.. Is she doing this on purpose?” Dirk asked.

    “Doin’ what.”

    “Half assing presentation,” Dirk said. “This just feels sloppy. I mean, the room isn’t even clean.”

    “As if yours ever is.”

    “...That’s not the point, it’d be spotless if it was for proving something.”

    “Spite fuels you cleanin’ your shit up, huh?” Dave asked as he took a seat on Rose’s bed and flopped backwards. He took his shades off and folded them to tuck on the bedside table before lifting a brow at Dirk. “How much spite would it take to fill the dishwasher once in a while.”

    “Dave.”

    “Or vacuum or somethin’?”

    “Dave.”

    “If Rose shoves enough spite up your lubed ass will you suddenly go all ‘50s housewife with the pearls and the heels and the casserole dishes? I dunno man it could be a look, borrow some shit from Jane, get a manicure, stop bein’ a fuckin’ gremlin for ten whole seconds-”

    “Is this just a game to you??”

    “No and yeah.”

    “You don’t get both, which is it.”

    Dave sighed and pressed his hands to his face before slipping one off so he could pat the mattress beside himself as a signal for Dirk to sit down and join him.

    “Look. I’m poking fun at you because you’re bein’ a dick about this. It’s sex. It’s supposed to be fun. If you go in fighting you’re gonna have a shit time and act like it’ll prove your point when really all it proves is you’re a bitch who can’t let people have nice things.” Dave frowned at him when Dirk opened his mouth to retort. “Hey. No. No, right off the bat. I’d be sayin’ this to Rose too if she was gonna turn up to your turn being a bitch too. Just give it a fair shot, okay? Fair as you’d want anyone to give you.”

    “I’m pretty sure it’s illegal to do the puppy dog eyes when you’re trying to convince me to be a good little boy in this weird ass scenario, Dave. I wouldn’t even be doing this if not for you,” he said as he took off his shades, setting them by Dave’s with a sigh.

    “Yeah?”

    “Yep. I’m not expecting to be impressed. Rose is every bit myself as I’m her in some ways, so I’m expecting something I suppose, but one thing I’m sure is you were telling the truth before about enjoying yourself with both of us.” He smirked. “I’ll get to see you getting wrecked without having to lift a single finger.”

  �� “Voyeurism. Lazy voyeurism.”

    “Said as if you’re surprised. Dave, how well do you know me?” Dirk asked as he reached an arm out to catch Dave’s torso, tugging him closer for a squeeze.

    Dave hummed, stone faced as he was hugged, apparently lost in thought. “Y’know I thought I knew you really well but I just realized I dunno how a cuck joke in its natural habitat’d fly with you, so I guess we’re good as strangers.”

    Dirk snorted a soft laugh near his ear that made his chest warm, and it hit home just how they were positioned. Close together, holding on like climbing vines to one another on a soft topped bed with what promised to be great sex on the horizon. Dave held still for a moment, another heartbeat, a third, before lifting his chin up to kiss him square on the mouth. Their lips parted before rejoining a second time, but by the third it was growing hungrier. Dirk slipped his hand up beneath Dave’s shirt and shifted to roll him to his back as Dave slicked his fingers up into Dirk’s hair and tugged gently. They parted and came together in the heat of the moment several times more, unheeding of their feminine surroundings ‘til the room’s owner joined them in the room quietly to watch.

    Rose smiled at the tangle of lanky limbs on her bed and quietly walked over to her desk to pull out the computer chair, spinning it so it faced the bed. A wine glass was settled on the closed laptop lid rather than risk making noise by disturbing any of the debris she kept putting off cleaning up, bra deposited on the floor out of the way. Sinking down into the chair she adjusted her grip on the chilled bottle she held and slipped a corkscrew into the stopper, gently swirling it down into the pithy cork till it was firmly stuck in place. Another turn of her wrist and the bottle was slipped easily against her side, steadying her grip with the arms of the corkscrew before giving it a hard yank to free the cork with a pop. The way the boys scrambled in surprise and sat up looking around like two teens whose parents just opened the front door an hour early was absolutely precious.

    “Eager, huh? The way you were talking just a bit ago made me wonder how interested you really were in following through with this,” she said as she poured a bit of the soft pink liquid into the glass. The bottle was set beneath the desk where it wouldn’t potentially be overturned by mistake before she swirled her cup. “Dave, go tidy yourself up and get ready real quick. Dirk can go after you’re done.”

    “All off or..?” Dave asked as he rested on his elbows, waiting for Dirk to crawl off of him the rest of the way before rising to his feet. The way he had to adjust his jeans to relieve the pressure was as attractive as the flush that had settled onto his cheeks.

    “All off this time,” said Rose as she took a sip. “Thank you for asking. Run along now.”

    Dirk steadily knee walked backwards till Dave could slip free, leaving him to sit on his feet in silence on the mattress once he and Rose were alone. No music. No sound but breathing and the occasional sounds from the bathroom as Dave did as he’d been told. Orange eyes glanced over to stare for a few moments, waiting for some kind of a clue, some sign he wasn’t picking up on. Rose gave him nothing but burning eyes beneath relaxed lids and the gentle curve of her lips.

    “So. You’ve got this all planned?”

    “Mhmm. I admit I thought you two might last a little longer before nearly fucking on my bed, but with how much tension there was in the air just before this it’s my own fault for not assuming you’d do just that.” She took another sip of her drink before humming. “Was it just a moment of passion, or were you subtly snubbing me by doing that before I could even begin?”

    “Moment of passion brought on by a cuck joke,” he said with a straight face. The laugh he got in reply was a nice reminder that Rose was human, was still herself, was still playful underneath the flashes of dark flirting she’d done just earlier. “So. What are the ground rules here, for what’s going to happen.”

    “Straight forward, the same rules I use for Dave. I expect you to follow them, including the rule about tapping out if you need to,” she said, gesturing with her free hand as she spoke. “Traffic signals work best with us so that’s what I think would be best to stick with. Familiar, clear cut. The safe word is Puppets.”

    “....Puppets,” Dirk repeated. “Why the fuck is that the safe word.”

    “Because unlike you, at least from what I can gather based on your surprise, Dave isn’t the type to be waxing poetic about plush puppet ass while getting hammered by something large enough to make English an even more difficult language to grasp.”

    Dirk glowered like a wet cat and he felt the air spark between them again, acutely aware of the shifting pawn between them in play and just how much was weighing it down. There wasn’t much to really lose here. It wasn’t like a true gamble, they’d all be winning. It’d just be his pride that was bruised if Rose proved all the points he was becoming more and more certain she was wanting to not only prove but polish and place on the mantle for future generations to admire after it’d been cast in bronze.

    LaLondes.

    “Right,” he allowed. “What else, then. Give me the run down.”

    “Once Dave gets back you’ll be going to do the same thing he’s doing right now. Clean out, clean up, leave the clothes behind. We’ll hop right into it once you get back and we’re on the same page as far as preparations go. Dave’s example sub, and you’ll be following suit: namely by following instructions. ...At least to start with.”

    “How long do I need to follow instructions till the free will kicks in.”

    “Oh there’ll be wiggle room, relax,” she said as she took another sip. “Would you like some of this now? Or after you’re naked. Dave’ll have some too. I’d hate for you to be the odd one out because of a miscommunication simple as ‘hey do you want some of this sweet booze I’ve got or nah’.”

    “Do you normally drink when you do this?” Dirk asked, resting back on his hands to strike what he was fairly certain was a casual pose. “Considering how often we swap around that’d make for a lot more alcohol than I thought was ever in the house at the same time, or a lot of stealth liquor store runs.”

    “Hah. No, I don’t normally drink before sex. This is more of a special occasion than anything,” she explained. The glass was mostly empty now. Rose took a breath before tipping her head back and finishing the last few sips worth, then sat the glass back atop her laptop. She didn’t refill it right away, instead crossing her legs and settling her hands almost primly in her lap as if waiting for another question to float her way.

    Dirk watched the smooth lines of her legs intertwine, watched how her body curled to itself. It was a bit different than earlier when she was looking ready to eat him alive, and he couldn’t quite put his finger on it. Was it the alcohol? No, she’d literally just drank it, there was no way it’d be affecting anything yet. It wasn’t enough to be hesitancy like fear. The uncertainty was almost enough to piss him off all over again, being given a rubix cube of bullshit when he was already dealing with the task at hand, but there wasn’t a chance to fret over it much. He heard the sound of the bathroom door clicking open down the hall and the creak of the floor as Dave made his way back.

    Practiced, poised looking steps took effect as soon as Dave crossed the threshold of Rose’s room, chin lifted and shoulders back instead of the usual slouch he relaxed into. This was a fairly practiced routine, or at least a habit that had been encouraged enough that it was second nature. He didn’t go to sit on the bed with Dirk once more, though it was pretty clear Dirk wanted to get his hands back on him, especially now that the clothes were out of the way and the half hard bit of dick was just sitting there like a present in full view. Dave headed towards the desk and the chair Rose was settled in, slipped down to his knees in front of hers, and leaned forward to rest his head on her lap like the overgrown lap dog he was at heart. She rewarded him with a few gentle strokes at his hair and down his back before looking up at Dirk, fonder, softer. She always loved the beginning, especially when Dave remembered things without even needing to be reminded.

    He worked so hard to do things right and to make her happy, to impress her. How could she not love that? Love him?

    “Your turn, Dirk. Same as we discussed,” she said before looking back down towards Dave, smile remaining soft as he tipped his head to chase the pressure of her fingers and nails so she’d keep stroking and scratching and petting in the best feeling spots. “We’ll be right here waiting for you to get back.”

    Dirk felt a little better for having seen that tenderness. Rose was gorgeous when she was all thorns and wit coming for his throat, but the gentler side was mesmerizing. The realization that there was a higher than zero percent chance that he’d wind up with her softly cooing and stroking at his hair same as she was to Dave right now made something flip in his stomach that, frankly, needed to fuck off. This wasn’t how bets were won and points were made. There was always time for being coddled and rewarded and praised in the future, when his pride wasn’t on the line. Fuck being a good little boy. He needed to be a good little switch, no matter how brief of a time he was meant to be one to prove this point.

    Tidying himself up was simple and straightforward once he reached the bathroom, no stranger to this kind of prep before play. Leaving behind the clothes to do the walk of shame to the bedroom instead of being able to saunter in with a plan in mind and the full attention of a really attractive man on his bed was a hell of a change though. He spent more than a little time looking into the mirror and fussing with hair that didn’t need fussing with, blowing time before finally giving in to fate and heading back to the hallway. Well. At least he’d gone flacci-

    ...Traitor.

    Fucking traitor of a dick.

    Of all the times to beg to be flaccid, why did it have to be now that he was pretty sure he was rolling from a halfie into an erection that would let him fuck a building. Maybe nobody’d point it out if he didn’t, give him the benefit of that.

    “I was starting to wonder if you’d chickened out,” Rose said the second he’d entered the room, making him stop and slouch before he caught himself. “Or gotten lost at least. Is that for both of us or just me?” she asked as she gestured for him to come over as well. Dave scooted an inch or two to the side before returning his head lazily to where it had been before to avoid missing a thing.

    “Both I guess. Take it as proof of my investment in this situation as opposed to any hint of me trying to sabotage anything,” Dirk said as he knelt down beside Dave and warily rested his chin on Rose’s lap.

    She wasted no time in laying a hand on him, gently stroking his hair back several times before applying more pressure with her fingertips at pressure points alongside his jaw and temple. It was like a one handed massage ranging from his head to his neck, and the longer it lasted the more Dirk was understanding why Dave seemed so happy to drop down and get his own. Every stroke was accompanied with soft murmuring in Rose’s warm voice. Gentle. Loving. Familiar but maternal in a way Dirk was unfamiliar with. Though tense at first there was no way to resist for long, not with Rose’s soothing movements and the warmth of Dave’s bare flesh against his side and his breath near his cheek.

    The soporific effects of a good petting were nearly enough to lul Dirk to a doze despite sitting seiza, leaving him to languidly lift his head when soft fingers beneath his chin lifted upwards. Rose smiled at both of them and nodded.

    “Good. You’re both doing amazing.. Are you ready to really start?”

    Dave hummed and stretched in place before nodding, eyes half closed. Dirk just watched her quietly, wondering how things would proceed. This was already extremely different from how he did things. ...If this was the intro, what was the aftercare like? Would they go hard enough to need aftercare? No, that was a stupid question, aftercare was important and he knew Rose was more than qualified to know something that basic.

    “Great. Dave, go get on the foot of the bed for me. Dirk, stand to the side and keep your hands to yourself,” she said in a sterner voice than the soft murmurings of moments before. When both had risen to do her bidding, Rose stood and rummaged beneath her bed for a flat storage box and slid the lid off. Along essential tools like lube and some massage oil rested handcuffs and a fairly new looking gag, a few lengths of silky black rope in neatly coiled loops, a well maintained strapon rig and several covered sizes and shapes of toys that would attach and several that would not. Dirk eyed the box closely for a moment before deciding the more interesting feature in the room was Dave settled on the bed spread with his gangly legs parted and a cocky grin on his face the second he caught him staring, a hand snaking down to grasp his dick and give it a playful jiggle.

    “Hands off yourself, Dave,” Rose said without even looking up. Her tone was sharp, stern, not to be argued with as she picked up one of the lengths of rope and settled a second one like an overly large bracelet on her wrist. Instantly Dave pulled his hand back and sighed.

    “Yes’m.”

    Rope in hand, Rose rounded on Dirk and lifted the first loop in display as she unfurled the end of it, wanting him to be aware of what was coming his direction. “Turn around and cross your wrists. You’ll be that way for a while, so pick a comfortable position. Traffic lights like we said before. If it’s really intense red suddenly and you need out immediately, I’ve got scissors.”

    No sooner had Dirk sighed and turned around, Rose had begun to slide the rope around his wrists and criss crossed up his arms. The silky cord slipped over the front of his throat before easing back down like a spiders web to cross his upper arms and chest. He hated to admit it, but her interlacing knot work was intricate and functionally attractive on top of being quickly applied. How often was Dave tied up for her to be this quick with it? He bent occasionally without needing to be asked so she could reach easier, straightening at the right times to ensure the ropes weren’t tight at an improper angle.

    “They feel a lil loose,” Dirk said when she’d begun unlooping and feeding in the second cord set, wiggling his arms for emphasis. “Not like it’ll fall off but.. I mean, if you want me to just keep my arms still it’ll work just fine. Could stand to be tighter and be plenty comfortable.”

    “I didn’t ask your opinion on my work, but it’s good to know you’re comfortable. Planning on fighting me?” she asked playfully as she tied a few knots, playing over the lacing along his back and sides. “Get on your knees.”

    Another twitch of his dick kept the early erection from flagging, though Dirk wasn’t sure if it was from the tone of Rose’s voice or the way Dave was biting his lip while staring at him. Dirk sank down to his knees on the carpet, tantalizingly close to Dave’s parted legs as it was before he felt something shift behind him. Rose pressed her foot squarely in the center of Dirk’s back and pulled the rope sharply, forcing him forward against Dave’s cock as the intertwined ropes cinched more firmly in place. He grunted and wiggled his fingers before testing the rest of his arms. No luck, he was stuck tight but fairly comfortably in place.

    “Hands gonna go numb?” she asked. “I can loosen if it’s too tight.”

    Dirk grunted and lifted his head up, though Dave didn’t budge an inch, practically glued in place once a soft cheek was against his junk. It was a good look for Dirk, tied up and in prime position to get his mouth busy at the barest word. He turned his head unprompted to nuzzle Dave’s length while he was there, loving being the cause of the twitch in his muscles and the shaky inhale of breath. Same as he would when spending a night with him. Christ he was responsive, already keyed up and ready to go, eager as—

    Slim fingers threaded into his hair and tugged to force his head back far enough to look clearly into the soft purple of Rose’s eyes set deep in the crisp black eyeliner. She tucked a strand of hair behind her own ear before doing the same motion to Dirk’s bangs, fingers stroking along the flesh of his jaw and throat afterwards in a clearly possessive gesture that was the same maternal petting from earlier with the horny switch cranked to high. He caught himself wanting… more. He wanted her to dig her fingernails into his throat, wanted her to look at him with those same calculating eyes and step on him. It was a peculiar sensation considering normally those thoughts only crept into his mind further along in the heat of the moment with a partner.

    “I’d like an answer, Dirk. Are the ropes too tight. We can’t really go ahead with anything if you’re keeping secrets from me so early.. I might need to just make you watch instead,” she said, giving a harder yank to his hair when he started to frown at her. “I’ll give you a few more chances to be a good boy for me.”

    “Yeah, they’re fine. Sorry,” Dirk said before the apology really registered. Rose grinned impishly and leaned down further, keeping his head firmly in place before kissing him. He could feel the soft squidge of lipstick, and knew that no doubt he was wearing another ghost on his mouth. The warmth of her tongue probed at his lips briefly before she pulled away and licked her lips appreciatively.

    “Good. We’re back on the right track then,” she said as she released him and headed back to the desk. Rose pulled the bottle up from the ground and poured another glass of the pink wine before replacing it down out of kick range. Before taking her seat again she removed her top, revealing the black lace that covered each breast when she turned around proper once more and crossed her legs in front of herself. “You were on the right track before that interruption. I want you to get Dave plenty warmed up. Don’t get him off, but get him close. No hands obviously... There’s a nice reward for doing well.”

    Lifting a brow Dirk glanced over to Dave who had briefly closed his knees before looking back to Rose. She took a small sip of the wine and smiled, keeping the glass in hand before giving a cheers gesture.

    Well. No time like the present then. Giving as much of a shrug as he could while trussed up like a feisty piece of wild game, Dirk shuffled on his knees to line up again. Dave was a familiar taste on his tongue, a welcome string of an increasingly staccato heartbeat between his lips, soft skin and salt and the faintest smell of that weird body wash he used that reeked like overly sweet apple candy took a dip in some Red Hots. It was almost sweet on the back of his tongue as he sank down low, taking as much as he could, brushing pubes with his nose before pulling back to get some kind of a rhythm going.

    His plan was a simple but efficient one: go in fast and hard, then pull away and tease him half to death before diving back on him again. Barring any interruptions from Rose he should be an absolute fucking mess in short enough order. It may not be his turn to lead the show but this was a thing he’d done plenty of times in the past. Making Dave squirm was a favored past time in this house and he was honored that Rose had the foresight to let him keep this piece of it.

    Dirk was messy as he bobbed in place, saliva slicking along the surface of Dave’s cock as he rose and fell, making it all the easier for him to get real suction once he started to suckle. He heard a moan and felt another shudder, knees tensing at his shoulders and the ache of his own dick firmly rising to attention. Plenty of stimuli to let Dirk’s mind slip into a relaxed haze of hormones when it was tangled in with the reminder that they weren’t alone. The inability to reach up and fondle his balls or stroke Dave’s thigh was frustrating, as was fighting the angle of his dick a few times when suction broke or he wanted to lower down and taste him from another side, getting whapped on the nose with wet cock more than once. They were small stumbling blocks but far from enough to deter him from giving this his all.

    The softest squeak came from the chair as Rose moved behind him, but he couldn’t bother focusing on her at all, not when he was this invested in making Dave shiver. He wanted a moan, really. As many as he could get. The louder he could make Dave react the better he knew he was doing and the more invested Dave was since he wasn’t filtering noise by then. Another shuffle of cloth from out of sight, and Rose was suddenly making the bed dip as she sat at Dave’s side, only her underthings remaining on and in place now.

    Though he strained his ears to listen, Dirk couldn’t make out whatever was being whispered into Dave’s ear aside from it being several sentences that made him finally moan again and start to softly pant. Rose stroked at the flat expanse of Dave’s chest while she talked him through something before again giving the possessive gesture over his throat to tip his head back. When she offered the wine he drank, steady sips till the glass was nearly half gone and she was pulling it back again. When she spoke again it was loud enough for Dirk to hear as well.

    “I need to video you sometime, Dave. Both of you. You’d need to see this to appreciate it properly. You have this flush on you and you keep biting your lips and squirming every time his head goes down. Dirk,” she said with a grin, as she gently turned her body to face him more directly, ”you’re as good with a dick in your mouth as I knew you’d be... it’s quite fetching.”

    A leg unfurled from where it was resting with the other as she guided a bare foot towards his groin, pressing the ball of it flat against his shaft till it pressed firm against his stomach. The temperature difference alone almost made Dirk moan, but she didn’t let that fully sink in before starting to gently move in a rubbing gesture. It was pressure but not enough to be effective. It was a tease, and a damn good one considering any time Dirk opened his eyes to look up towards Dave, Rose was there in his view instead. Watching. Waiting. Judging his every reaction.

    Rose pressed down harder then, hard enough to hurt and make Dirk flinch and pull off Dave’s cock with a wet popping sound.

    “ Shit , knock it off.”

    She remained firmly in place and smiled, unimpressed.

    “Red? Yellow?”

    “ Green ,” he insisted with a grumble, diving back down onto Dave’s dick with renewed gusto as Rose started to move her leg up and down with the same intense pressing. It was a blend of painful and pleasurable, just enough to keep him on edge before she was gently easing off.

    “So stubborn. Well, if it’s too much I’ll stop once you say the word, but I admit I’m glad we’re continuing. Tapping out so early would skip the most fun parts and I’d not be able to keep looking at your eyes this clearly.”

    The second the discomfort stopped and he’d relaxed, Rose pressed her foot down firmly once more, grin turning to a smirk when Dirk flinched hard again. It wasn’t as if she’d stomped on him, but it was hard and sudden enough that he—

    He moaned.

    Christ a moan slipped out and Rose looked absolutely wicked as she held her pose, still as a statue before raising her leg higher to press against his chest, forcing Dirk off of where he’d been so intently suckling. To his surprise she came forward with the wine glass and offered him the remaining half.

    “So well behaved,” she cooed as she tipped the glass, sweet wine slipping into his mouth with just enough of an alcoholic burn to clear the savory taste from his mouth.

    Dave looked fit to burst already, fingers fisting in the sheets as he squirmed on his own time. No hands. No touching. He needed to wait and be patient but Jesus fucking Christ was it hard considering there was a guy he was severely attracted to that he wanted to jump on in one position or another at his feet and a woman he couldn’t stop gawking at in underwear that hugged her curves like a coastline pressing against him. He was too bi for this. Way. Way too bi for this. It wasn’t fucking fair .

    Rose retreated from the bed when the wine was drained, setting the glass atop her closed laptop once more before selecting another needed item. The familiar shape of a lube container, albeit a different brand than Dirk usually preferred, graced Rose’s hands when he could next see them.

    “Time to switch things up a bit. Dirk, I’m sure your knees could use a break. Come up here where Dave is and lay back,” she instructed. Dave shuffled to give up his position, before going to help brace Dirk as he rose as gracefully as someone this burdened by a boner could stand while bound with ropes. Which is to say as gracefully as a tranquilized cow till he caught his center of balance on his own past a certain height with Dave’s assistance. She was right, it was nice to get off his knees and restore circulation to his feet that he hadn’t quite been aware was slipping away by the minute while he worked Dave over. Even better was to stretch his back out on the soft mattress, carefully folding his hands instead of clenching into fists, taking a steady breath in and exhaling. A fingertip pressed at the underside of his dick, gently bobbling it in place till he glanced down as far as he could.

    “Dave. Straddle his middle and get to work on this for me, mm? Hips up so I can work,” she said with a smile. “Try to think ahead to what you’d like from the box afterwards.”

    Dave eyed the lube in her hand for about a half second before he was on Dirk’s waist, nearly a blur from how little convincing he needed. He braced himself on one bent arm before leaning down to take Dirk into his mouth, bumping the back of his own throat a few times before easing into it. His hips remained up as Rose instructed, dick remaining downwards to leave a cooling trail of precome in its wake from where the head briefly touched Dirk’s abdomen.

    Forget trying to be quiet, after the earlier teasing and the waiting, suddenly having eager warmth on him was more than welcome. Dirk dropped his head back and groaned low and heady, brows furrowing. He only opened his eyes again when the bed gave another well timed dip, Rose settling on her knees beside his head to fiddle with the lube. It seemed to be a new container judging from how she uncapped it and tore off the small amount of guard plastic over the opening with the tips of those sharp nails that Dirk wanted back on his neck again. When the cap was snapped back in place she reached an empty hand out to stroke the side of Dave’s hip.

    “You know, I’d originally intended for you to do this part of the job for me with your mouth, or at least the majority of it,” she said. The stroke turned rough, nails turning to leave a trail of stinging red behind, making Dave’s muscles tense and his muffled whine to appear over the sounds of soft wet slurps. “I don’t think you’d have minded. He’s quite a treat when he’s like this. I’m sure you know already, of course.. Can bend him to whatever whims you have and he folds like paper best he can.”

    The scratch ended near the middle of the back edge of Dave’s thigh before Rose stroked the roughed up line with the back of her knuckles. An unexpected pang of jealousy shot through Dirk as he watched those red welts appear.

    “I love him for how hard he works to make me happy. ...You though. You still need to impress me.”

    “What do you want to prove with this. If I’m bad at it, it just proves I’m not cut out to be a bottom. Like I said,” Dirk challenged.

    Rose pursed her lips as if frustrated he were missing an unstated point, then shook her head.

    “I don’t think that’s quite right. I’m not asking for you to be a god of sex, Dirk. I’m asking the same of you as I ask of Dave: compliance. The attempt. If you try your best and give your all, if you’re good for me, it shines through. If you half ass something or try to be spiteful, it shows through as well.”

    She stroked beneath his chin then before drawing her hand back down and trailing upwards again, dragging the edge of her fingernail up over his collarbone, up over his Adam’s apple, stopping right at the tip of his chin.

    “I like honesty too.. I want everyone happy as I make Dave,” she said. “If someone’s working hard to make me happy, then it’s my job to make sure they get satisfied as well. This is a two way street, remember?”

    “You’re preaching t-ahh… To the choir, Rose. I know all this already, this is normally my job remember?”

    Rose’s eyes narrowed just enough to make him question if they’d changed at all. The predator look was back with her smile, and when presented in tandem with Dave’s continued eager actions over his dick it was getting harder and harder to not respond just how she wanted to keep things happening.

    “Alright then. When you feel like talking later you can tell me everything,” she said. “No doubt you’ll be eager to talk again by the time you’re done.”

    “Done with what, just last? I can’t do much like…” Dirk trailed off as Rose sank back and hooked her thumbs into the edges of her panties, working them down and off before slinging a leg over Dirk’s face. She peered down at him and winked.

    “I’ve got some work to do now, but keep that thought in mind for later,” she urged as she scooted further down his face to line herself up. “Eat up for now. If you do well you’ll be getting what Dave gets afterward. I’d hate for you to wind up unsatisfied.”

    So that’s how she was going to be. She had to know. She knew and was doing this on purpose, stringing him along while knowing precisely what he wanted and choosing to ignore it. ...Or. Or she didn’t know? Which was it? Rose said she was going to prove she was the better dom somehow, but so far she was just proving how frustrating she could be. So be it then. Grunting, Dirk strained upwards a fraction to reach her easier, tracing his tongue along her clit a few times to tease and adjust to the new task.

    Eating pussy was fundamentally different from sucking a dick, especially at this angle. Rose did something that made Dave hum and breathe heavier around his cock again, knees shaking where they were pressed at his sides, making Dirk wish he could see more than Rose’s ass above him. She had to be opening him up, there’s nothing else she could be doing, prep work wasn’t anything mysterious or new when dicks had been mentioned and an ass was going to take something. However for some reason being unable to see yet being able to feel the progress, while being expected to keep his tongue and lips moving over Rose’s lower lips was a true test. Two bodies, two people he cared for, loved even, were resting atop him as if in their own world despite the distinct connection between the three of them. They were a mechanically functional ourboros of sex, and Dirk couldn’t give two shits that his shoulders felt like they were cramping a bit.

    Experimentally Dirk probed hard with his tongue before finding a good spot to suckle at, repeating the sucking the same as he had to Dave’s dick earlier over her clit, focusing with his tongue and lips as if he were drinking a thick milkshake through a boba straw. Rose tensed over him and rocked her hips, grinding against his face, forcing the back of his head down into the mattress. He had to time his breathing to avoid feeling claustrophobic beneath the warm mass of ass and thigh, but this was doable, especially once he started to get reactions like that out of her. Any reaction was good, but the ones he could feel twice as much were appealing; every time he made Rose feel good she seemed to get more intense with prepping Dave, who in turn went to town on his cock as if it were a quickly melting ice cream cone in the center of a heat wave.

    “Three fingers already? You’re such a slut,” Dirk heard through the thigh earmuffs he was wearing, and with it came the sharper sound of a hard slap. Dave flinched and jammed himself down so far on his cock that Dirk saw stars and stopped licking to gasp, though the reprieve was limited as Rose ground down on him again to make him re-start. “Three fingers for Dave and a reprimand for my previously well behaved chair if he doesn’t finish his dinner. Wow, I think you’d be able to take Asmodeus quite easily this time...”

    Asmodeus?

    Jesus fucking Christ, did Rose name her dicks?

    Another sharp slap sound, another moment of Dave swallowing around his dick, and Dirk could only think one thing in the haze of trying not to come too soon: a reprimand. That was intriguing. Would she even follow through on that threat? She didn’t seem unwilling to raise her hand now and then, and from the noise it had been strong enough to potentially leave some marks wherever the strike had connected with Dave’s body. Would he get any of that? Or was she not that type of dom.

    Wait, why the fuck was he wondering that. Even if she was, who cared? Why did he give two shits? He was just following Dave’s lead so she could prove her point and then he could prove his point in the near future as a love letter to just how incorrect she was about him.

    ...Though. It would be a bit of a waste to not experience everything Rose had to offer in such circumstances. Before he could reconsider the nagging sense of curiosity, Dirk probed as efficiently as he could and went still once more. He felt the nudge, the rutting against his nose and mouth, but the hopeful response of being threatened didn’t happen. Instead Rose suddenly lifted off his face and to the side, giving Dirk a deep breath of fresh air for the first time in a while. It felt cold on his face and down his throat, and the light of the room felt too bright.

    “Good, I’m glad you’re okay,” Rose said as she watched him. Her clean hand touched his face gently as it had before, stroking down his cheek and jaw. It was startling just how much it relaxed him, how soothed and comforted he felt. This was okay. This was nice, actually. He actually closed his eyes while she pet and stroked at his face, leaning subtly into her touch. “Do you have anything else to tell me before we move on?” she asked softly. “Dave’s pretty wound up now and I hate to keep him waiting for too long.”

    “Can I go ahead and pick one out?” Dave asked on cue, needing to keep his mind on absolutely anything but reaching down to rub one out. He could be patient. He could wait. But when he didn’t absolutely have to wait, when he could be a little whiny and get away with it? Why not take advantage of that. Rose only let him do it when she felt like letting him do it, and when she didn’t feel like it he still won anyway when being punished.

    Always winning made for a prettying freeing experience with Rose. It was easy to win with Dirk as well, but the feeling was just so different. Rose alternated the softness with the intensity purposefully, interweaving them as she pleased. Dirk aimed for hard and faltered, softening at occasionally crucial moments. Were it anyone but him would he do that? Or was this softness a Dave specific reaction for Dirk?

    “Yes, pick whichever one you want,” Rose said without looking up as Dave slid off the bed excited as a kid at Christmas to rifle through the options. “You’re picking for Dirk as well, so keep that in mind. Don’t challenge him too hard, I don’t feel like doing swaps between the two of you, I’d rather just stick with one. You’re the example today but you’re also really used to thi—.”

    “I’m not a fucking baby, Rose, it’s not like I’m a stranger to this kinda thing,” he interjected sharply enough that she slowed her hand to a halt and retracted it. Well shit, cuddle time over then. “Pick whichever you like best Dave. I can handle it.”

    Those purple eyes watched him, unblinking, studying him close enough that Dirk felt like they were probing into the side of his face. It was hard to blink, to look away. If he didn’t make eye contact in too long was he hiding? Was she waiting for a question? No, she was waiting for an answer to a question she’d asked twice now. What did he want?

    What did he want?

    Could she give him what he wanted, did he even know what he wanted?

    There’d been enough curve balls so far that it was confusing him and his own end goals. He’d be impressed if it wasn’t entirely frustrating. Maybe once they reached the climax of this entire affair it would feel more worthwhile.

    Dave rummaged and rustled till he whipped out a black bag with a white cord and slid it open to reveal the well made silicone toy it contained. ...Okay, maybe that was a little intimidating. He’d need some prep for sure if he was supposed to take it as well, but it wouldn’t be impossible, he’d taken larger before. The gentle curve cast in a deep gray was appealing and the way Rose grasped it with practiced ease was even more appealing, slipping it into place on the harness.

    “How are your arms,” she asked, pulling Dirk out of his head as she worked, Dave heeled at her side to kiss along her thigh and occasionally bite with gentle presses of those teeth he loved so much.

    “Kind of sore from laying on them,” he said. “Not numb of severe pain but.. Discomfort.”

    “Would you like up? Or untied?”

    “I can handle being tied longer,” Dirk insisted, not wanting to show weakness. Rose eyed him immediately to call his bluff, and he could tell she was trying to decide if this was a time to override his insistence that all was well or to roll with what he said. Apparently she rolled with it because she kept quiet as he continued to talk. “But I’d like up, yeah.”

    “Dave? Go ahead and play with Dirk for a second while I get this ready. You already know how to make him happy, have some free range while he gets upright,” she said with a wave of her hand before focusing on the harness and toy as if the mostly attached unit needed far more work than it appeared. This was an engineering issue. Did she want it in tandem with another toy? Something to rub against her clit or vibrate? Did she want to buzz Dave and Dirk while fucking them? She intended to fuck both of them, not just the one.

    Warm, familiar lips covered Dirk’s own within a few seconds as Dave bounced up atop him from the floor, holding either side of his face still to kiss him deeply, wet, open mouthed kisses that blended together and blurred their edges. Dirk could taste traces of himself on Dave’s tongue, and he knew for damn certain Dave could taste Rose. Somehow that just made it all the more delicious as they started to rock their bodies together, caught in the moment and bit of fencing till they heard Rose clear her throat.

    Ah, fuck. Right. His hands. That was what they were meant to be doing, getting pressure off of his hands and stopping the sense of trapped blood in his arms that had just begun. Dave pulled himself up and off just enough to scoot further back on Dirk’s legs before tugging him upwards by the ropes for another kiss as he settled on his lap. No complaints from Rose meant more heady kisses, more of Dave’s fingers in his hair and his teeth at his neck, more pressing their chests together like they wanted to crawl into each other’s skin somehow rather than be potentially pulled apart again. Every time Dave’s cock brushed his own it felt like lightning in his veins, and the sense of whiplash only grew ever stronger when he noticed Rose was pulling the harness on and into place to add the healthy sized appendage to herself firmly as she could. He saw a patch on her inner thigh catch a flash of light and couldn’t be bothered to feel a sense of smugness.

    Of course she was turned on. Everyone in this room was hot and bothered, but you wouldn’t know it from her features. She looked serene and unaffected safe for a telltale flush to her features and the wet spot that would no doubt get more noticeable once she put that dick to good use. Dave turned in his lap to eye her with interest, and it made Dirk’s heart ache that he clung tight to keep kissing him for longer instead of immediately dancing off of him at the promise of getting wrecked.

    The flavors had blended enough on their lips that it stopped being noticeable, started to become an average, mellowed tang in the air that reeked of sex. Dirk wanted to tug Dave’s hair, wanted to pin him down and put his fingers in his mouth, wanted to bend him in half and rest his legs up on his own shoulders and plow into him till he screamed.

    … Yet he also wanted Rose to pet him again.

    He wanted Rose’s soft, soothing voice and gentle petting, sweet touches and praise over and over as the bar was set incredibly low despite it being set for him. He wanted that almost as much as he wanted her to choke him while calling him a whore and the stark differences just made his dick hurt even more when Dave finally crawled off his lap. Where was it coming from? She’d asked him what he wanted, but now that he even knew what he wanted he could never admit it.

    Fuck, would she not do it if he didn’t say it? Would he just wind up getting cock teased the entire time and left to blueball it out while she did the example sub bullshit with Dave? Would Dave be the one to finish him off or would it be the photo finish jerkoff session with partly numb hands the second he was untied when it was too much to keep dealing with? Would Rose ride him and leave him squirming, or would she milk him dry while hammering his prostate? Lust ate at him in a way that Dirk wasn’t entirely comfortable with, not used to this degree of wanting someone, of wanting something he could only half understand and explain beyond a gut feeling and a concept of desire. It felt like powerlessness.

    “Dirk, go up to the head of the bed and sit quiet for me. Dave? On your knees. Get close as you’d like to Dirk up there, but keep off his dick or I’ll slap you senseless.”

    Dirk groaned under his breath at the casual threat and watched his lover like a hawk as he scooted backwards to the head of the bed and Dave slipped to the center. Once he was on all fours he splayed his knees and sank down a bit, knowing there wasn’t much in the way of a height discrepancy between he and Rose as it was. Just enough lowering to let her work, to get the best possible angles and speed comfortably. They made a cute pair as she climbed up behind him and took off her bra, lush breasts drooping comfortably against the front of her chest and swaying as she leaned to get some spare lube for the silicone beast she sported, a pair of nearly identical opposites. Dave rested on his elbows tantalizingly close to Dirk’s dick and kept glancing upwards at him from beneath his bangs with a hungry look in his eyes, trying to fuck him with vision alone so provocatively that Dirk could practically feel him riding on his lap in some close encounter with a separate reality brushing against their own at a thinned point in the veil.

    Rose bent forwards once she’d slicked her dick up, kissing a line up Dave’s spine as reverently, tenderly, leaving a pale ash of her lipstick in a tree along the vertebrae. He rose up onto his palms again and arched his back to let her kiss further, all the way to the side of his neck where she bit him a few times. Dave moaned aloud as she took him by the back of the head and shoved him down into the mattress as hard as she could, easing up enough to let him turn his head as she lined up with his hole and began to ease in.

    “That’s right, take all of it for me Dave. You’ve had bigger from me you greedy bitch, just let it in nice and easy like you always do,” she crooned, living for how Dave responded beneath her with micro-movements and twitches, panted breaths and the barely there hints of a moan. Rose wasn’t usually much for dirty talk, but she’d picked up the habit specifically for Dave in small doses, rolling with what felt natural at the time instead of trying to force something. When they’d patiently slipped about half the toy in, Rose rocked her hips back and withdrew a few inches before rolling them forward once more to sink even further inside. She traced her hand from Dave’s upper body to his narrow hips, bracing him carefully as they continued to do the back and forth dance of making him take every inch of what he’d selected as his own fate.

    As Dirk’s fate too, he remembered once he noticed Rose had started to stare at him. Smirk at him. The challenge was there loud and clear: is this what you want? Do you want more? Will you ask? Can you ask? Dirk didn’t know for sure if he could ask or not, but the incentive was nice. Unable to touch himself he clenched his fists behind his back and watched his lover adjust and relax in waves of sensitivity till at last Rose’s hips were flush with his ass. She cooed softly and rubbed the sides of his thighs and hips, his lower back, then around front to the barely there bulge of his abdomen.

    “So pretty. Doing such a good job for me, Dave, such a good boy doing so well. Are you ready? Let me know. Do you want it like usual?”

    Dave nodded into the bedding before he found his voice, clearing his throat a few times before croaking out a shaky “Yeah” loud enough that they could both hear it. Dirk glanced to Rose’s eyes again and found her already looking at him again, smirking. Knowing.

    “Okay then,” she said as she gave an appreciative squeeze to his thighs and straightened up again to start moving.

    The pace was far gentler than what Dirk was expecting. It caught him by surprise just how tenderly they moved together, far more making love than just quick and rough sex. Rose rocked at a decent pace and occasionally flicked her hips to change the inner pressure against Dave’s insides, and Dave clung to the bedding to keep himself from moving beneath her thrusts. They both made breathy sounds and loving murmurs, though Dave’s were already far less coherent when she eventually picked up speed. Skin hitting skin rang out and Dirk was surprised to see just how efficiently Rose was keeping up with the physical demands, barely breaking a sweat.

    Made sense. Couldn’t top two men in a row if you weren’t physically prepared to do a lot of fucking.

    Dave cried out suddenly and stole Dirk’s attention again, made him unconsciously try to reach for his dick to stroke himself as Rose found the best angle to hammer along his prostate at and went to town. He sank down further, straining to keep upright as she continued to rough him up from behind, occasionally slapping a side of his ass hard enough it left finger and palm prints and Dave melting in place with bliss. Rose leaned forward over Dave’s back possessively to snake a hand beneath his hips to catch his cock was a lovely sight, nipples dragging either side of his spine before being pressed flat between their bodies as she slowed just a fraction. Her hand needed some of her effort now, working his length hard and thorough.

    “Come for me, Dave. You’re doing so good, you did such a good job. Come for me now,” she panted, grin breaking wide when he tensed and cried out again, clawing at the bedding before bowing his back. He came hard from the look of things, the top of the bedding streaked with white before even more leaked out to form a small puddle beneath him. Rose milked him through his orgasm ‘til the most intense part had passed and he became overly sensitive beneath her, shivering as Rose removed her hand and held him close to her chest. She carefully pulled out and let Dave roll to his side to catch his breath, dazed and finally satisfied.

    Dirk envied him for about ten solid seconds before Rose was crawling forward on her knees towards him, silicone dick swaying generously in the harness as she planted her palms on either of his thighs to get right up in his face.

    “Last chance,” she said. “Talk to me.”

    Dirk’s heart hammered in his chest as he weighed his options. Take whatever option came with not talking, not telling, or talk and do as she says and ostensibly have a better time for it. Give and take, but it felt like giving a hell of a lot for what he could only hope would be taking a good amount back. Wetting his lips, Dirk lifted his chin.

    “I’ll take whatever you want to dish out.”

    “That all?” Rose asked. He could feel her nails turning to bite into his flesh, testing him and his limits. “I’m all ears, Dirk, but not for long.”

    “Whatever it is, I can handle it,” Dirk said. Then after a moment’s hesitation, he glanced to the side. “...I can probably handle the rest, too.”

    The biting nails stayed where they were, hard enough he wondered if he’d just have crescents in his skin or small traces of papercut thin lines of blood. Was that not clear enough? Was that not what she wanted? He glanced back onto to see Rose staring at him flatly, unimpressed.

    “What? Wrong answer?”

    Rose lunged forward like a dog preparing to bite his face so suddenly that honest on God he flinched back to avoid her running into his nose at top speed. She frowned and narrowed her eyes at him.

    “Is this what you really want, Dirk? Tame answers, promises I’ll fuck you senseless as rough as I can and cuddle you to my tits afterwards, or are you wanting to actually work for what you want?” The frown gave way to a curled smile. “Dave’s earned what he gets plenty of times over. He’s a good boy. I’ve seen you try to be a good boy for me, but I’m pretty unconvinced. I think you’re still the same self important prick you always are, wanting to have his cake and eat it too.”

    “What do you mean?” he asked, dick fit to burst on his lap. If he came now he’d never live it the fuck down, hold on just a bit longer, Jesus fuck.

    “I mean I think you still want to prove your point, because it’s a very Dirk thing to do, and you’re not subtle about it. Same as you’re not subtle at all about being thirsty for what I can do. As you are right now I’m unconvinced you won’t just take my best then twist it into not being enough so you can rebound with your own example on a higher step.”

    He frowned. “How do I convince you then? I don’t want to do that, I’m willing to approach this on even territory for now.”

    “Beg for it,” Rose said without missing a beat. When Dirk immediately leaned further back she pursued till Dirk was plastered against the headboard proper and Rose was riding over his lap, silicone dick digging into his abdomen stubbornly between them.

    “Beg for what , for what I already admitted I could handle?”

    “No. I want you to beg for what you want, Dirk. I won’t be doing a damn thing till you beg for you like a good little bitch and admit I’m the one calling all of the shots well enough that you’re reduced to begging for it instead of it just being delivered to you on a silver platter.”

    “I worked on Dave!”

    “Working on Dave is easy when it’s what you did, though I’m sure he appreciated every second of it.”

    “I also ate you out! Doesn’t that count for good work done?”

    “You stopped early enough I worried you’d passed out.”

    “Yeah, well, I didn’t. I was tired.”

    “And I’ve had better, funny how that works out,” she snipped before covering Dirk’s mouth in a kiss that ranged from gentle leading in to nearly teeth clicking intensity before they pulled apart to catch their breath. “Beg for me and I’ll follow through as good as I’ve been given. Tell me things to avoid.”

    “Don’t suddenly take a dump on my chest and we’re good,” Dirk grunted. “But I was being genuine before: I can take whatever you can dish out. The rest too.”

    Rose slipped off his lap and adjusted herself before grabbing the ropes that held Dirk’s arms in place behind him, physically throwing him to the side so he landed on his back with his long legs dangling over the edge of the bed as he looked up at her, startled. Her hair had fluffed up a bit wilder, a few strands hanging in her face as she planted her hands on her hips and stared down at him. The predatory look had returned, and intensified as she crawled up his thighs, up over his waist, to perch right ahead of his dick. He could feel a streak of precome rub against one of her ass cheeks and cool on impact, the bit of pressure tantalizing as it was before he realized she was sinking down to align his length with the crack of her ass. A few steady, pressure filled rubs and he was nearly gone.

    Her hands snaked up to his throat then, thumbs placing pressure directly over where his air supply passed on either side, and pressed down steadily. While Dirk could still breathe it was being impaired significantly beneath Rose’s solid grip, and his eyes widened when realization kicked in. She was choking him based on his earlier explanations, something that he hadn’t entirely realized he was into till Rose did it. Something about her soothing concern and caution mingling with the getting in his face and beneath his skin was intermingling nicely in his brain. He was at risk, this was something that if done in another way could hurt his throat, but Rose knew what she was doing. He trusted Rose. He trusted her to not hurt him worse than he said he could handle. He trusted Rose to only hurt him in the best ways, and then to maybe even kiss that pain away.

    Dave to their sides had rolled to his other side to watch them and was lazily reaching out to stroke at Dirk’s hair in the same petting gesture Rose had been doing before. Soothing and soft was mingling with being choked out, and Dirk twitched as he came against Rose’s ass harder than he could remember coming in quite some time.

    She seemed surprised at first, but slowly reduced the pressure bit by bit till he was breathing normally. Assuming they were done, Dirk sighed and opened his mouth to thank her for the new discovery, but was cut off.

    “Ready to come, then?”

    “I uh. ...I just did.”

    “Yes. Once,” Rose said with a smirk. “I’d hardly call that done. Especially since I didn’t give you permission to, and off you shot like a rocket just from a bit of breathplay and a nice ass.” She pressed a kiss to Dirk’s cheek before murmuring up by his ear. “Predictable. Weak move... Are you ready to beg for me, Dirk?”

    Boy was he fucking ready. Shit already felt great and there was one more round to go, he had to see it through for all it could be instead of half assing a second of it. Dirk sang like a canary as Dave grinned and pet him in the hazy afterglow of what he’d already experienced, leisurely coming down while Dirk was still ramping up for one last rodeo with the remnants of his previous erection.

    “Let me have it, Rose. Fuck me up. Knock the shit outta me, I don’t care,” Dirk said. “Just kiss it better afterward. Pet me like Dave. I want all of it.”

    Rose and Dave shared a look, surprised he actually complied but very pleased nonetheless. When Dave stopped petting him, Rose gave him another tender kiss and hummed as she pulled away, swinging her leg up over his body to climb off and to her feet at the side of the bed. She slipped up between Dirk’s parted thighs and tugged him closer to the edge of the bed before he got the idea and lifted his legs on his own to leave himself exposed for her. The erection still hadn’t gone down, apparently ready and raring for the next round as he was verbally, orange eyes expectantly watching Rose as he rode on the discomfort of his arms. Pain, but not more than he could take. Not more than he kind of enjoyed as his fingertips tingled behind him in the mattress.

    She cupped Dirk’s hips before teasing at his entrance with the toy’s head, humming still as if in thought.

    “Dirk.. Do you think you can take this without extra prep..? Plenty of lube of course. But it’s quite a lot,” she said.

    It’d sting. It wouldn’t destroy him, Dirk knew what to do and he trusted Rose to be patient and not just jam it in at the first opportunity. They were both experienced adults. He nodded and bent his knees a little more, letting his knees part.

    “Yeah.”

    Right answer apparently. Rose beamed at him and Dave handed over the lube before returning to rest on his side, toying with Dirk’s hair while they waited instead of petting him, sleepy expression of satisfaction still playing over his face. The lubricant was applied liberally on the toy, and more was added at his entrance, Rose curling her fingers to probe him briefly the same way she’d prepped Dave. Same method but different speeds, she withdrew her hand and rested them at Dirk’s hips after lining up once more and slowly beginning to push inside.

    He exhaled and tried to keep his muscles as loose as possible, relaxing with all his might as Rose entered. ...And entered. ...And kept entering. He’d forgotten just how long the toy really was when it was being shoved inside of a man’s body, observing had shown him the bulge Dave got and yet somehow Dirk was still surprised at just how much there was to take. It just seemed to keep coming at him in more and more intimidating pushes till at long last they were flush together and he was panting his air, sweat slicking his brow.

    Rose loomed over him like a pleased goddess, stroking along the new bump in his abdomen and up the flat planes of his stomach. She tweaked a nipple so hard it stung before repositioning her nails over the top of his ribs, sinking them in a bit before dragging them downwards as if she were a bear marking a tree. Dirk hissed air between his teeth before groaning in satisfaction, savoring every inch she dragged downwards and doing it all over again when she did it to the other side, crossing the very ends of the patterns she’d drawn in the hair below his navel. His skin felt like it was on fire but there was no mistaking the surge of endorphin in his blood.

    “Dave, be a darling and keep his mouth busy for me. Be attentive, though. Don’t choke him, he’ll be moving and it’d be hard to signal like that. Just keep good and close so he can go at his own pace,” Rose instructed before she straightened, grabbed his hips and drew back, slamming home so hard and suddenly that his teeth clicked before he could cry out.

    Jesus Christ, right at the nerves, her aim was goddamn good she stroked it right on the first thrust. The bed sank around Dirk’s shoulders as Dave carefully straddled his head from behind, then seemed to think better of it and settled for scooting close enough to rest flaccid, dribbling dick to the side of his lips and his own hands on the headboard for balance. It was a strange setup but it worked well enough, Dirk opening his mouth to accept Dave and suckle gently as he could once Dave hissed with sensitivity. Gentle, gentle...

    Rose was the opposite of gentle as she set a heavy pace, jostling him this way and that as she used the bed for leverage, putting her back and hips into following through on what Dirk had asked of her. Could she be rougher? Of course she could. She was already thinking of different toys and tools to use next time she could talk Dirk into playing with her and Dave, or even just her if Dave wanted some time to himself one night or another. She wanted to see just how much Dirk really could take without breaking, and what he was like when he did break. It’d take more than one session to really see that out properly though.

    She had a feeling he’d be eager enough for this that the earlier bet might potentially be put on pause, at least for a while. Something something more research needed before a proper ownage could occur something something. Dirk was predictable in some ways and that was just his charm.

    With Dave crooning at him, Rose hammering away at him till his toes curled, and alternating smacking the backs of his thighs and the sides of his hips hard as she could, Dirk was losing a battle he’d only just begun to fight. When he felt that warm hand wrap around his dick and squeeze, doing the same milking gesture in tandem with the staccato of her hips against his ass, Dirk saw white and seized briefly, spilling thinned, barely there semen over Rose’s knuckles. Not enough time had passed to be very effective, but the release had been achieved and he was swimming on cloud nine.

    She let him enjoy it for a few moments, resting her weight on his torso and petting the side of his face, kissing his cheek, his lips, the tip of his nose after Dave pulled back to give him air. Dave stroked his hair and scratched his scalp in gentle motions as he rested curled on his side like a human halo around Dirk’s head. They were all a mess, they were all exhausted by now. Rose grunted when she got up off of Dirk and pulled the toy gently free. On unsteady legs she stood and removed the harness, setting it and the toy aside for proper cleaning afterwards before reaching down and carefully pulling Dirk up by his ropes.

    Dave was the one who untied him, familiar enough with the knots that he could recognize which places held the most tension and support, which ones he could pull to loosen the entire structure quickest to free him. Dirk’s skin was depressed and red where the ropes had bit into him, repeating the intricate knots and lattice work as brightly on his skin as the scratches stood out on his chest. The palm prints from where he’d been slapped were still red, and from how warm they still felt they’d be leaving some kind of bruise behind as well in time. He felt light headed when he could move his arms properly, stretching them to the front to pop his shoulders and move his numbed fingers to get the life back in them. Rose took one arm and Dave took the other, gently massaging the blood back where it needed to go, keeping the ache of return from growing too intense.

    All the while Rose talked in that same soft voice Dirk had grown addicted to, gentle praises and comforting phrases as the backdrop to the new silence in the air now that the sex and moaning had stopped. Dirk could hear the gentle pour of rain outside, pitter patters against the covered glass of the window and the distant sound of cars forming the perfect soundtrack with Rose’s voice.

    He wasn’t sure when Rose moved him again, when Dave shifted them all to the side, but he was glad he went whenever it was. Rose was in the center of the bed on her back in a comfortable position, with Dave cuddled up beside one breast and himself by the other side, free to kiss or touch wherever they pleased. Her hands were on their shoulders and kept straying up to their heads in lazy strokes and pets as she continued to soft speak barely there words like poetry to his soul. They slept well like that for some time, tension having risen to a fever pitch in the moment only to be cuddled away, to the sound of a steady rain storm.

    Dirk didn’t offer Rose a reverse challenge for several weeks. Instead, he made sure to catch her more often when Dave did on the couch, making certain Rose sat in the center so they both could rest a head on her leg. Both eager to be stroked and told just how good they were. How wonderful. How sweet. How loved.

[laurasauras]

i know a surprising amount of australian homestucks so i’m gonna spit out some random australia au thoughts and see where it goes

jade plays afl, obviously. when there’s backyard games, everyone fights to have her on the team. people used to make the mistake of wanting jake, but he’s a cricket boy and while he tackles enthusiastically, he can’t bounce the ball and run at the same time and his kicks go wild sometimes. he says “whoops!” and jade kicks all the goals. 

they’re from tassie and they have literally no idea what’s going on in terms of news or trends. not ‘cause they’re from tassie, they’re just like that.

rose is from the mornington peninsula. she tells people she’s from melbourne, or close enough. she visits the city sometimes, but like, not as often as she says she does. she knows all the rules to afl in that weird way that victorian girls do, but she’s grown out of needing to beat the boys in supercoach (though she still would if she was challenged). 

roxy goes to melbourne a lot more, she goes to rmit and knows where all the cool bars are. she comes across as a club girl but if you mention anything about her computer engineering course you will get infodumped on. 

the striders live in queensland. they have proper ocker accents, bro’s earned from being a shearer and dave’s almost entirely put on. somehow he kinda sounds like he’s from perth. dave pretends like he doesn’t know how afl works because rugby’s what’s popular where he is, but he doesn’t know how that works either. dirk practically lives at the beach but dave doesn’t like how the sand ruins his clothes and are you insane that water is way too cold to swim in.

they’re talking about moving to sydney but the gay hipster cool suburb is the most expensive one so it might not happen.

john’s from radelaide. adelaide, dave. whats even the point of being from radelaide if you dont call it the proper name john. he helps out at jane’s foodtruck sometimes, more out of obligation than for the pay but that’s nice too. jane’s convinced she could franchise it and she’s probably right except she keeps changing the name because she thinks of a better pun so they can’t hold onto brand recognition. 

feel free to agree and counter aussie friends!