dude tell me abt pale dirktav??
OKAY SO I read this really great flushed DirkTav fic a while back and basically all the reasons why they worked out great in flush are also reasons why they would be excellent in pale but like okay so Tavros seems pretty meek, right? Seems like he’s easy to push around, and to a certain extent sure, he is, he’s perfectly willing to let people who know more than him about a given Thing take charge about the Thing. But like when you get to stuff he knows he’s a stubborn little shit, and he’s got a good moral compass that takes an EXTENDED barrage of negativity to start nudging (and even then he bounces back fairly quickly once removed from the toxic source) and so then we have Dirk. He’s innately led to people he thinks he can control because he’s got some moral problems- but he’s honestly trying to work through them- but that doesn’t change that he’s sorta instinctively leaning towards people he can get to do what he wants and Tavros is just all sweet smiles and pretty eyes and Dirk comes in like “yes hello I am here and in charge” and Tavros just looks at him, shakes his head, and pats his arm with a “oh honey.” And then Dirk proceeds to get the greatest paradox of his hyper-analytical life because Tavros is so???? Sweet??? But he will hesitate -5000 seconds before hoisting Dirk’s ass up over his shoulder like a bag of feed and make him sleep/eat/get like ten minutes of fresh air, Dirk, this isn’t, that hard. And Tavros gets someone who is very upfront and frank about how smart Dirk thinks he is and EXACTLY HOW Dirk thinks he’s smart, highlighting Tavros’s strong points and praising them accordingly (much the same as he does with Jake) but also remaining aware of Tavros’s faults and helping him deal with them in a roundabout “oh me am I helping” way that allows Tavros to feel like he’s accomplished the progress on his own, even though Tavros sees through Dirk and knows all those little tricks and ploys are really just meant to help and Tavros APPRECIATES that bc Dirk isn’t forcing anything, Dirk is just painstakingly lining up the situation to the point where Tavros would be silly not to achieve progress/personal growth.
tl;dr Tavros won’t take Dirk’s bullshit and will take care of him and Dirk gives accurate, meaningful feedback and provides opportunities for Tavros to grow
