Entry tags:
app to ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
wildestlands
APPLICATION
Player Name/Handle: Kelly
Plurk Handle:![[plurk.com profile]](https://plurk.com/favicon.ico)
tinybro
Preferred pronouns (optional): she/her/whatever
Player Status: Current Player
Other characters: Kaworu Nagisa
Invited by: N/A
Character Name: Dirk Strider
Fandom: Homestuck
Character Journal:![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
timaeus
Canon, AU, CRAU, Canon OC, or OC? Canon
Canon point: End of comic, pre-Epilogues
Age: 16
PB: N/A
SETTING BACKGROUND
Homestuck is about a group of kids who escape the end of the world together to play a game with the potential to create a new universe. The initial setting of Earth is generally the same as real life aside from some gaming abstractions (a very literal inventory system, restrictions on equippable weapons, etc). Dirk comes from an alternate timeline version of Earth, one where he and his friend Roxy are the last humans alive after an alien conquered and flooded Earth. Dirk and his friends escape the destruction of their universe and play through a game that functions as the propagation system for reality. Though their session of the game is inherently broken and unwinnable, they work with a group of aliens and the teen versions of their guardians from the original timeline to salvage something from their collective failures.
PERSONALITY
Dirk Strider is, more than anything else, self-obsessed. Not necessarily in a bad way, just...not necessarily in a good way either. He's self-assured at the same time as full of self-loathing. He can be self-centered, whether that means failing to consider others or blaming himself for things that really have nothing to do with him. He's self-aware, all too conscious of both his own impressive skills and worst faults.
Just a whole lot of "self", really. It's kind of a theme here.
Dirk has the title of "Prince of Heart", wherein the Heart aspect is representative of souls and identity. Dirk very strongly tied to his aspect on a conceptual level. Alternate selves – whether it's dreamselves or alternate timeline selves or whatever – are pretty common in Homestuck to begin with, but Dirk is particularly tied to his. More than that, he feels haunted by them – he sees himself from every angle, which gives him painfully clear perspective. He sees everything he hates about himself from the viewpoint of anyone who has to deal with him. He feels his faults are only amplified by his "splinters", every version of him making the same mistakes in fun new ways. More than once he likens his own self to an ocean that he's struggling not to drown in. He can't escape from himself – not even cosmic superdrugs can manage to change or influence him. For better or worse, he's always himself.
It's not all bad, but even some of his best traits are just a matter of perspective. He's good at taking charge and getting shit done, but that also makes him frequently pushy and controlling. He's smart – too smart for his own good, really. He always thinks he knows best in the moment. It doesn't help that he's extremely hyper-competent in a comic known for fuckups and comedies of errors – he often is right, at least in an objective sense, and between that and his domineering manner, he can often steamroll others during decision-making. It's great when shit needs to get done, but his failure to handle others' feelings properly often leads to interpersonal messiness. It's only in hindsight that he ever seems to recognize that he doesn't actually know best, and that belated recognition of how he hurts people is just another thing to hate about himself. He always manages to keep a cool head, to the point of seeming distant and aloof – "taciturn to the max about everything", as one of his friends put it – but in truth his aloofness is just a struggle to express himself borne of lifelong isolation. And despite all that, he does care for the people he's close to, deeply and fiercely. But he can come across as needy or desperate – to himself, at least. Other people are more likely to interpret it as overbearing or just being crazy intense, but as always, he recognizes and understands his own behavior all too well, and he's more critical of it than anyone else.
He really is crazy intense, though. Dirk takes everything to an extreme; he can't just like something, he has to be an expert in it, to the extent of writing academic papers that he has peer-reviewed by the AI version of himself that he created. He can't start any project without getting wildly carried away with it. And he's prone to weird power plays in his attempts to control everything. Even in his relationship with his love interest, Jake, he goes about everything in what Jake describes as "a really long term and esoteric courtship process that is bizarre but somehow makes perfect sense in his mind" and leaves Jake feeling like them getting together is sort of inevitable due to how Dirk is "just so relentless and aggressive about everything".
The saga of Brobot is a painfully clear example of all that Dirk is. A robot built as a simple wrestling partner for Jake instead became a constantly-lurking assailant frequently beating the shit out of Jake in the name of toughening him up and keeping him on his toes. And while there was a "novice" setting, it's implied that the wrestling in that mode became more like cuddling, which was likely an indirect romantic overture from Dirk while also being a passive-aggressive jab at the idea of needing a novice setting at all – layered, as all things Dirk tend to be. Dirk brushed off Jake's complaints about the robot, and even Jake had to admit the sense in it. But that's just typical of conflicts with Dirk – his pragmatism overrides everyone else's feelings, no matter how valid those feelings are, and he's convinced he's right up until everything blows up in his face because people don't live in a world of pure logic. And eventually, when Jake needed some uranium to power a machine, the robot-Dirk ripped its own uranium heart out and smashed it to pieces for Jake's use.
Yeah. Objectively helpful, but a maybe tad dramatic. Par for the course with all versions of Dirk.
POWER SELECTION
POWER TYPE
Canon Superpowers
FREEBIE POWERS
N/A
GAME POWERS
Canon superpowers:
ABILITIES
SAMPLES
Prose Sample
[This is...a lot of people.
It's not like Dirk's never dealt with groups of people before. It's just been a slow build, from fifteen years of total isolation to a handful of his three closest friends for a few months to a small group he only hand to deal with pretty briefly before winding up here in fantasyland. The small population of this village all crowded around is still a sizable jump in his exposure therapy, one that has him feeling tense and twitchy and ready to bolt.
Not that any of that is very obvious, of course. He's as unreadable as ever – it'd take a very perceptive person to note the new tension in his jaw and the faint furrowing of eyebrows behind his bullshit anime shades.
A stranger's hand reaches for said shades, and he smacks it away in a flash, like it's pure reflex.]
Step off. Like twenty steps, preferably, in whatever direction you want as long as it's away from me.
[Words don't seem to be having much of an effect on this mob – at least, his words aren't doing jack shit. There are probably people who could talk their way out of a mess like this, but he doesn't have a shot in hell at being one of those people when he's this agitated. He shoots a sideways glance past the villagers, hoping to see some other member of the squad. Backup, hopefully, or at least a distraction.
But no. He's alone, in the worst sense of the word, because he's very much not alone right now but the company in question is the problem and no one's coming to help. And Dirk is pretty sure no one would appreciate it if he pulled a sword on the common townsfolk they were theoretically here to help.
The taut thread of his patience snaps when he feels the calloused hand of a stranger grab at his arm. Physical contact is where his stress brain draws the line, apparently.]
Fuck it.
[There's a flash of movement, and then Dirk's just fuckin' gone. The villagers make noises of surprise and confusion, heads on a swivel trying to track him, but Dirk's already vanished around a corner and silently booking it away from this shitshow. Someone else can come deal with the locals.]
ADDITIONAL INFO
Let's just treat the weird Homestuck gaming abstraction hammerspace inventory system as a universe-based thing that does not carry over here, because no one wants to deal with that. He'll come in with nothing but a broken sword and his stupid Prince outfit, which is at least magically always clean.
Player Name/Handle: Kelly
Plurk Handle:
Preferred pronouns (optional): she/her/whatever
Player Status: Current Player
Other characters: Kaworu Nagisa
Invited by: N/A
Character Name: Dirk Strider
Fandom: Homestuck
Character Journal:
timaeusCanon, AU, CRAU, Canon OC, or OC? Canon
Canon point: End of comic, pre-Epilogues
Age: 16
PB: N/A
SETTING BACKGROUND
Homestuck is about a group of kids who escape the end of the world together to play a game with the potential to create a new universe. The initial setting of Earth is generally the same as real life aside from some gaming abstractions (a very literal inventory system, restrictions on equippable weapons, etc). Dirk comes from an alternate timeline version of Earth, one where he and his friend Roxy are the last humans alive after an alien conquered and flooded Earth. Dirk and his friends escape the destruction of their universe and play through a game that functions as the propagation system for reality. Though their session of the game is inherently broken and unwinnable, they work with a group of aliens and the teen versions of their guardians from the original timeline to salvage something from their collective failures.
PERSONALITY
Dirk Strider is, more than anything else, self-obsessed. Not necessarily in a bad way, just...not necessarily in a good way either. He's self-assured at the same time as full of self-loathing. He can be self-centered, whether that means failing to consider others or blaming himself for things that really have nothing to do with him. He's self-aware, all too conscious of both his own impressive skills and worst faults.
Just a whole lot of "self", really. It's kind of a theme here.
Dirk has the title of "Prince of Heart", wherein the Heart aspect is representative of souls and identity. Dirk very strongly tied to his aspect on a conceptual level. Alternate selves – whether it's dreamselves or alternate timeline selves or whatever – are pretty common in Homestuck to begin with, but Dirk is particularly tied to his. More than that, he feels haunted by them – he sees himself from every angle, which gives him painfully clear perspective. He sees everything he hates about himself from the viewpoint of anyone who has to deal with him. He feels his faults are only amplified by his "splinters", every version of him making the same mistakes in fun new ways. More than once he likens his own self to an ocean that he's struggling not to drown in. He can't escape from himself – not even cosmic superdrugs can manage to change or influence him. For better or worse, he's always himself.
It's not all bad, but even some of his best traits are just a matter of perspective. He's good at taking charge and getting shit done, but that also makes him frequently pushy and controlling. He's smart – too smart for his own good, really. He always thinks he knows best in the moment. It doesn't help that he's extremely hyper-competent in a comic known for fuckups and comedies of errors – he often is right, at least in an objective sense, and between that and his domineering manner, he can often steamroll others during decision-making. It's great when shit needs to get done, but his failure to handle others' feelings properly often leads to interpersonal messiness. It's only in hindsight that he ever seems to recognize that he doesn't actually know best, and that belated recognition of how he hurts people is just another thing to hate about himself. He always manages to keep a cool head, to the point of seeming distant and aloof – "taciturn to the max about everything", as one of his friends put it – but in truth his aloofness is just a struggle to express himself borne of lifelong isolation. And despite all that, he does care for the people he's close to, deeply and fiercely. But he can come across as needy or desperate – to himself, at least. Other people are more likely to interpret it as overbearing or just being crazy intense, but as always, he recognizes and understands his own behavior all too well, and he's more critical of it than anyone else.
He really is crazy intense, though. Dirk takes everything to an extreme; he can't just like something, he has to be an expert in it, to the extent of writing academic papers that he has peer-reviewed by the AI version of himself that he created. He can't start any project without getting wildly carried away with it. And he's prone to weird power plays in his attempts to control everything. Even in his relationship with his love interest, Jake, he goes about everything in what Jake describes as "a really long term and esoteric courtship process that is bizarre but somehow makes perfect sense in his mind" and leaves Jake feeling like them getting together is sort of inevitable due to how Dirk is "just so relentless and aggressive about everything".
The saga of Brobot is a painfully clear example of all that Dirk is. A robot built as a simple wrestling partner for Jake instead became a constantly-lurking assailant frequently beating the shit out of Jake in the name of toughening him up and keeping him on his toes. And while there was a "novice" setting, it's implied that the wrestling in that mode became more like cuddling, which was likely an indirect romantic overture from Dirk while also being a passive-aggressive jab at the idea of needing a novice setting at all – layered, as all things Dirk tend to be. Dirk brushed off Jake's complaints about the robot, and even Jake had to admit the sense in it. But that's just typical of conflicts with Dirk – his pragmatism overrides everyone else's feelings, no matter how valid those feelings are, and he's convinced he's right up until everything blows up in his face because people don't live in a world of pure logic. And eventually, when Jake needed some uranium to power a machine, the robot-Dirk ripped its own uranium heart out and smashed it to pieces for Jake's use.
Yeah. Objectively helpful, but a maybe tad dramatic. Par for the course with all versions of Dirk.
POWER SELECTION
POWER TYPE
Canon Superpowers
FREEBIE POWERS
N/A
GAME POWERS
Canon superpowers:
- Soul Manipulation: Dirk is capable of ripping out and destroying a person's soul, as well as sealing it into an object. This is not a quick process, but it's incredibly painful for the victim. It requires a great deal of focus and effort, and if the process is interrupted then any progress is cancelled out.
- Dirk's powers as Prince of Heart make him immune to outside mental/emotional influence.
ABILITIES
- Very capable fighter; he's extremely fast and agile and a talented swordsman. Basically a goddamn ninja.
- Skilled in robotics and programming.
- Good at strategizing and thinking on his feet.
SAMPLES
Prose Sample
[This is...a lot of people.
It's not like Dirk's never dealt with groups of people before. It's just been a slow build, from fifteen years of total isolation to a handful of his three closest friends for a few months to a small group he only hand to deal with pretty briefly before winding up here in fantasyland. The small population of this village all crowded around is still a sizable jump in his exposure therapy, one that has him feeling tense and twitchy and ready to bolt.
Not that any of that is very obvious, of course. He's as unreadable as ever – it'd take a very perceptive person to note the new tension in his jaw and the faint furrowing of eyebrows behind his bullshit anime shades.
A stranger's hand reaches for said shades, and he smacks it away in a flash, like it's pure reflex.]
Step off. Like twenty steps, preferably, in whatever direction you want as long as it's away from me.
[Words don't seem to be having much of an effect on this mob – at least, his words aren't doing jack shit. There are probably people who could talk their way out of a mess like this, but he doesn't have a shot in hell at being one of those people when he's this agitated. He shoots a sideways glance past the villagers, hoping to see some other member of the squad. Backup, hopefully, or at least a distraction.
But no. He's alone, in the worst sense of the word, because he's very much not alone right now but the company in question is the problem and no one's coming to help. And Dirk is pretty sure no one would appreciate it if he pulled a sword on the common townsfolk they were theoretically here to help.
The taut thread of his patience snaps when he feels the calloused hand of a stranger grab at his arm. Physical contact is where his stress brain draws the line, apparently.]
Fuck it.
[There's a flash of movement, and then Dirk's just fuckin' gone. The villagers make noises of surprise and confusion, heads on a swivel trying to track him, but Dirk's already vanished around a corner and silently booking it away from this shitshow. Someone else can come deal with the locals.]
ADDITIONAL INFO
Let's just treat the weird Homestuck gaming abstraction hammerspace inventory system as a universe-based thing that does not carry over here, because no one wants to deal with that. He'll come in with nothing but a broken sword and his stupid Prince outfit, which is at least magically always clean.