spellbinders | [WORLD TWO

Entry tags:

[WORLD TWO | INTRO LOG]

Who: All coven members
Where: In and around the new world’s apartment building where the coven is staying
When: Day (the calendar isn’t syncing for me hELP)
Open/Closed: Open to All

You’re in a room. It’s pretty bright — blindingly so, even. There’s something very stark and very clean about the place, and also the person you’re sitting in front of. You’re sitting? You’re sitting. There’s also a pane of very powerful plexiglass separating you from the uniform-clad person who is now speaking to you.

It’s impossible to transcribe what they say verbatim, but here’s the gist of it:

- You’re being welcomed to a city called Shehui. Depending on who you are, the level of technology may be light years ahead of you or child’s play.
- There’s a very strict policy about magic. While there are measures put in place to prevent magic from happening, this is still something that they reiterate over and over. They don’t want to take chances.
- Crime is also frowned upon. Small infractions will result in credit deductions, while major crimes will get you banned. Antisocial behavior is also looked down upon. You’re locked in the city for your initial eight weeks. You can leave afterwards, but trying to break out of the city or cause social unrest will result in monitoring and a potential ban.
- This city is supposed to be somewhat relaxing. Is it a free pleasure cruise? No. Is it a self-contained society that runs on community and indulgence? Yes.
- You’re being given an allotment of credits in order to stay in the city, which is what the economy there runs on. This goes on for quite some time.
- You’re being moved to a housing location. Despite the slotted speaker in the middle of the plexiglass, the only time you have a chance to ask questions is when a small slit opens in the bottom and a package is slid towards you.
- What’s in the package? There’s a credit card-like apparatus that has apparently taken a picture of you. It contains a place to write your name, an identification number and barcode. It also has a thin strip near the top that has scrolling script floating by. It states “WELCOME TO SHEHUI. YOUR ID WILL UPDATE WITH COMMUNITY NOTICES AND PERSONAL PINGS FOR JOBS AND VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES RELATED TO YOUR INTEREST.” It’s a lot to take in, but that’s the long and short of it.

Have questions? The person will reiterate a few times that there are information desks around the city. That’s all for now…now you’ll be traveling to your next destination: your new home.

The floor slowly lowers as if you’ve been in an elevator the whole time. It connects to several other glass containers, much like your own, all suddenly clanking together in a chain. After a short wait, the chain begins to move — quickly. Faster, maybe, than you’ve ever gone before. It’s hard to even make out the scenery when you’re zipping past everything so quickly.

Where does this trip lead you? The ground floor of your new apartment building. The plexiglass cases open up and you’re in a hotel lobby. There’s a flashing board on the wall — NEW ARRIVALS, COME HERE.

The apartment building is locked up tight for three hours in order to let new arrivals get their bearings. After that, the ground floor lobby doors open into the city of Shehui. There’s a lot to take in, but let’s cover the biggest bases:

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Your dad knew you when you had about zero world experience, which tends to make for an easy dupe.

[Just saying.

Also fuck Loki, again? Just fuck him.]

I did want to manipulate people. That was part of the problem. I always knew I sucked at emotions and interacting with people, so I wanted to be the archmanipulator, puppeting all of my friends for their own good. My plan was to orchestrate events to help them fully realize their potential and win us the game.

Except it turns out I'm not even that great at manipulation. All my friends thought of me as the genius puppet master, but I was just a colossal fuckup. Rather than making my friends better, I hurt them and made a disaster of everything.

Oh. Oh, geez. That's really, really, really awful? I'm sorry.

[Geir PUTS HIS CHIN ON DIRK'S KNEE so he can nudge him comfortingly better, because that sounds horribly upsetting? he'll have more thoughts on this in a second but wow that sounds like TEN KINDS OF TERRIBLE NEWS to live through for literally everyone Dirk just described.]

[GEIR. Dirk pats him but it's kind of awkward.]

It was awful, but I don't really deserve the apology here. It was my fault.

[this is not entirely untrue, but also,

literally every homestuck currently in game has tried to claim responsibility for Game Over, and Dirk is no exception]

You tried to do what you thought was a good thing for people you liked and it blew up in your face. That's terrible? Of course I'm sorry that happened to you.

[Dirk you are so weird sometimes??]

[No, Geir is weird.]

You're ignoring the arrogance in assuming I knew best and trying to push people towards it. You don't manipulate your friends, that isn't okay.

I'm not ignoring it. It hurt you too. It was a mistake and it makes you unhappy. I just thought about that first...?

[DIRK IS WEIRD??]

Dirk, how long ago did this happen?

[No Geir. But instead of getting into that argument, he gives Geir more Facts. Geir needs Facts for learning dragon reasons and thus Dirk shall give them.]

It all ended just before we were brought here.

[oh, wow. Dirk has so many more reasons to be upset about his life than Geir ever knew?? this is extremely sobering.]

I-I didn't realize.

[Geir really does seem bothered by this? Dirk isn't sure why. He gives him a pat on the nose to help Geir chill?]

It's okay, dude. You can't know things that you're not even aware you don't know.

I know, but-- I mean, you've been really kind to me, when you've had a lot to think about yourself. Thank you.

[It's sweet. Dirk would feel bad arguing.]

No problem, dude. You're pretty great company, anyway.

Mmmmmmh. Good...

[Geir narrows his eyes, a clear sign of thought. he's not arguing with Dirk saying he's good company -- that's subjective -- but he wants to actually think this through, now.

after a good few minutes of just SITTING THERE THINKING WITH HIS CHIN ON DIRK'S LAP LIKE A LOSER, he finally ventures:]

Okay, I came up with a thing that makes sense to me about what you said happened, and also kind of explains why I like you so much even though you keep saying you're terrible. Can I say it?

[IF ONLY GEIR HAD THE VOCABULARY TO SUGGEST THAT HE HAS A HOT TAKE]

[AS IF DIVINELY BLESSING THROUGH A FOURTH OR EVEN FIFTH WALL]

Sure. Give me your hot take.

[Geir tries to lay out his premises and the pathway they took as logically as possible. he wants Dirk to be able to follow his thoughts.]

Um. I know I'm new at this, and I probably like a lot of terrible people, but you being terrible doesn't actually make a lot of sense to me. So if I just start thinking about it from "Dirk isn't terrible," it's like...

You cared about your friends, but you knew you were bad at dealing with people. So you tried to get around that by manipulating them, like you said, and obviously that didn't work. Okay, so far that looks kind of terrible. So you tried to be... "idealized Dirk," I guess?

But you also got embarrassed that you were bad at people, so in your... picture of Best Dirk... you don't mention that part at all. Best Dirk wasn't somebody who practiced a lot and got better at feelings. He's just someone who could manipulate people really well and didn't ever have to be bad at something. That was the part that was confusing me earlier, when I asked if you ever practiced. You didn't say "I tried to practice talking to people but I kept getting scared and lazy and tricking them instead." You said "I tried to be better and I just ended up being myself."

So that makes it-- by your, um, definition, "Dirk" is someone who can't talk to people and tries to trick them instead to cover it up, but "Ideal Dirk" is still just someone who's so good at covering up his weaknesses that it didn't matter that he was ever bad at them. There's no way for Best Dirk to magically get better at anything, and all you were practicing was more tricking people. And then tricking people didn't work, and you were still bad at talking to them. So it makes sense that you think you're terrible.

I don't think you're thinking about Dirk when he's willing to admit he's bad at things at all. I've met him, and he's explained a lot of things to me even when he's embarrassed, and he's really nice. So that's why I like you.

[that's possibly the longest speech he's made to Dirk, even in their conversations, which get pretty wordy for Geir. he looks at him anxiously to see his reaction.]

[Oh. That is really a lot of words. And, because it's Geir, it's easy for Dirk to follow the logic of them. It makes sense and it works pretty well with how Dirk was thinking. "Best Dirk wasn't somebody who practiced a lot and got better at feelings" reminds him oddly of some of the phrasing in his Bro's movies, which kind of drives home another painful point from what happened here with Dave, but he tries to push that aside.]

I ... don't think I can argue with the logic that you set out there.

[It's very solid?

The reaction Geir gets: kind of baffled??]

Oh! Okay, good. I thought it made sense!

[Geir wins the logic game, and a possible prize is, maybe Dirk will stop saying he's terrible? that would be the BEST PRIZE.]

[No, that isn't the prize. But he does win at least!]

It does. You're really good at this, Geir.

[He wins pats on the nose. And Dirk still not knowing how to respond to this? So: nose pats.]

[Geir will take nose pats at literally any time, but especially victory nose pats. he leans into Dirk's hand.]

You never get mad at me for saying stuff, even when it's about you...

It isn't like you mean any harm by it. You're learning.

It's still nice of you. I want to get good at talking to people, too.

[he's familiar with past Dirk's dilemma.]

I think you're pretty decent at it. You've been learning social cues and how yo restrain yourself. That can be difficult.

It's a lot of work, and different people are different. I see why you were trying to get out of it.

[he considers their conversation thus far.]

I really wasn't ignoring anything, before. I can see why you say you were arrogant and made bad decisions that hurt people. It's just... not really my place to tell you what to practice? You never do that for me.

I used to do it to my friends a lot. I'd tell Jake to be more skeptical and Jane to be more open-minded. I... pulled stunts, to encourage that, because at least if they made mistakes practising with me, it would be in a safe environment with someone who wanted the best for them.

But the truth is I'm someone who doesn't have any business telling anyone what to do, not the least of which because I have no damn clue myself. All I did was hurt their confidence.

Oh...

[Geir's eyes widen. Dirk's logic was good. it makes sense. that's a dangerous trap, he realizes. he should watch for that, when he's trying to logic things out himself.]

Oh, I might do that. That doesn't even look like arrogance if you're just thinking about it, does it? That's sneaky.

Yeah. You can make all sorts of things seem like the okay thing to do if you rationalize them the right way.

[And it's Dangerous and Bad.]

The problem is they never really agreed to it. If they'd expressed an explicit desire for that, sure, that could have been okay. But I just pushed them into it and ignored the hints that they didn't appreciate what I was doing.

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