#dirktav

[issueskviz]

rarepair that im pretty embarrassed to like but whatever

[caligvlasaqvarivm]

Dirk and Tavros is a pretty cute ship I never considered before. Do you have any thoughts on how they would get together or how their relationship would work?

Getting together is a... tricky one, given the way all the characters end up post-canon, and the fact that I'm a canon analysis blog and not really a fanfic writing blog. But relationship wise.

So uhhhh here's my genuine belief. I mean this as nonsexually as possible. Jake and Dirk don't work out because they're both bottoms, but Tavros is a top 😢

Basically, we get a really good picture as to why Dirk and Jake don't make it - Dirk requires a pretty intense amount of emotional vulnerability, and he's highly deferential to his partner. His texts to Jake reveal that he is more than happy to tailor their dates to Jake's preferences, and go along with anything Jake wants to do, but in exchange, he's basically begging for a level of open, vulnerable, sincere communication and emotional frankness (Heart players, amirite?) that Jake is just too much of an oblivious dummy to provide.

I mean this with as much love as is even possible to have, but Jake is not exactly the deepest puddle in the playground tarmac, nor is he particularly in tune with what emotional turmoil he does experience. This doesn't mean he's a bad guy, but it does mean that Dirk fundamentally wants from his partner something that Jake is simply incapable of providing. In fact, the intense level of emotional vulnerability that Dirk demands intimidates Jake into leaving the poor guy in read while he desperately tries to get his feelings in order, something made even more difficult because he is, by nature, just a really wishy-washy, easily influenced guy. He has a genuinely hard time recognizing that he Just Kinda Isn't That Into Dirk because, I mean, maybe he is? how can he say for sure if he is or isn't? it's not like we have an example of him meeting someone who is actually his type and him losing his shit over it like the hormone addled teen he is oh hi aranea.

What I'm saying is, their compatability is terrible, because at the end of the day they're both pretty deferential people. Jake does best with partners who take firm stances and drag him along with them, overriding his wishy-washy bullshit - we see this in his communication breakdown with Jane, too, where Jane trying to be a polite people-pleaser means she can't just bring herself to say outright "you're being a dick and hurting my feelings," which unfortunately, Jake does need spelled out for him in plaintext. Because he is an idiot.

And Dirk also wants a partner he can defer to. As Dirk says in his reconciliation with Jane, he put Jake on a pedestal - the Jake in his head was a goofball, sure, but he also clearly bought into this fantasy of being, like, the broody morally-ambiguous second-in-command shadow puppetmaster behind a bumbling but truly paragonic hero. You know what I'm saying? Like that yeah, Jake is kind of an incompetent dummy, but his heart is in the right place, and Dirk's fantasy was sort of them being this power couple where Dirk's the guy pulling the strings and making the sacrifices and getting his hands dirty so Jake's heroism can go off without a hitch. This is exactly the fantasy that Hal enacts on Dirk's behalf. Hal also mentions that Dirk's original plan was a much more lowkey version of this - Dirk wanted to be Jake's client player so that Jake would be able to "save" him.

But Jake's really just not that guy. He has pretty major performance anxiety, turns out to really hate being put on a pedestal or shoved into the spotlight, and has difficulty taking any sort of major stand one way or another.

Anyway, you'll note that these are all problems that Tavros does NOT share. Tavros is, in fact, based in Peter Pan, and one of Peter's most defining character traits is his eternal cockiness - literally described as the cockiest boy in the world. The things that make Tavros so embarrassing are in fact these Peter Pan traits - no matter how much people bully him, he somehow still walks out of it with an irrational arrogance, like he's moments away from becoming the coolest guy on the team. Like Peter, he just never learns his lesson.

Let's remember how he got countertrolled by Dave so hard that he blocked the guy, and then decided to drop the worst bars anyone has ever heard as a form of payback (Dave left him on read), and he spent the next page congratulating himself on how sick his fires were. Or how he realizes that he accidentally killed Jade's grandpa, but still tries to get her to date him by being like "yeah but look at the amount of bravado it took to ask you out... surely that heroism deserves to be rewarded". or how he thinks he has a chance at vriska after they spritesplode, and then decides she's actually mean and he's better than her, giggling to himself about how bad he owned her while flying away (and everyone can hear him).

now, these repeated negative incidents do in fact leave him emotionally injured, as we see in gcatavros's speech to jake about how he likes to run away from relationships before people realize that he sucks. but he also rebounds like, super fucking fast and easily. It would not take much to reinflate his ego.

And here's another thing about him. He's also WAY emotionally vulnerable and communicative. Like to an embarrassing and often uncomfortable degree. Like, even in his first convo with Vriska, he's like oh yeah, rufio is my self confidence, kanaya told me to give it a name, she might have been playing a joke on me, i guess im worried about that, but i still did it. Like Tavros why are you telling her all of that. But, look, that's fucking catnip to Dirk, yknow? hes literally on his hands and knees begging for a crumb of insight into Jake's emotional landscape, and here Tavros is just spilling out every single thought he has with zero filter whatsoever to literally anybody who will listen.

So he's got this exact same bumbling, cringefail, naive but unerringly idealistic bent to him as Jake does (Pages 🙄), this "one-of-a-kind" attribute that Brain Ghost Dirk lowkey reveals is what drew Dirk to Jake in the first place, but unlike Jake, he knows exactly what he wants, he asks for it readily, and he's communicative to a fault. And also, like Rainbow Dash, he is spunky and associated with flight.

Again, we already know that Dirk is incredibly deferential to his partner's preferences. So I ask of you: would Dirk not fucking love playing fiduspawn with Tavros? Would he not find tavros's incredibly terrible rapping endearing to the extreme? would his stupid gay heart not flutter at Tavros's brash displays of completely unwarranted, audacious bravado?

Listen, it would be so fucking funny. Tavros would 100% assume the dominant position in that relationship regardless of any objective evidence to the contrary. He would unironically and proudly declare that he has made Dirk his bitch after spitting the most vile rhymes to ever grace paradox space. Dirk will never emotionally recover from this

[hs-rarepairs]

Round Two!

Which Rarepair Is Better?

Dirk Strider/Tavros Nitram

Dave Strider/Tavros Nitram

Voting ended onFeb 12

Propaganda:

Dirk/Tavros

Dirk has a thing for pages. Tavros could do with someone willing to give him a chance

Dave/Tavros

i legit think this wouldve been better than davekat honestly. dave could teach tavros to stand up for himself and tavros can help cure dave of his irony poisoning ♡

[karkrank]

[terminallytoreasnore]

it’s christmas

[urfavesarequadranted]

dirk and tavros morails

Tavros Nitram and Dirk Strider from Homestuck are moirails!

[cryptar]

A SHITTON OF HOMESTUCK FIC RECS

The Vienna Game

Pale Solrezi, Rose n Dave are AIs, the world building absolutely FUCKS.

Caffeine High

Red Dirktav and Pale SolTav, a coffee shop au, IN SPACE.

General Vantas Gets Hitched

JohnKat, Fantasy arranged marriage au with political intrigue.

Your Cold Bare Hands, They Hold Too Tight

DirkJohn, Crockercorp Striders and lots of homoerotic fighting, Alpha Dave is. Hot.

Something Involving Arson

DirkJohn, One if my favourite fics, makes you laugh but has an underlying mystery that makes you wish it wasn't a oneshot, in a good way.

The Finer Details Of Gay Cluckbeast

DaveJohn, they get married, as bros, of course.

How To Stop Time

Davesprite, Jade and John on their three year journey, featuring minor jadedavesprite, aroace john, and lots of emotions.

Hot Disaster Dumbass Factory

Pale Soldave, University AU, Eventual Heavy Angst, It's a shitshow.

Dire Straights

DirkJohn, Earth C, John is so deep in the closet it hurts.

Catacombs

JadeKat, DirkJohn, Fantasy + Political AU, Three long fics that are all incredible.

Godfeels

Multiple Fics, messy coming outs and themes of self discovery, June Centric, Junerezi, June is powerful and finally herself and that scares people, So much angst omfg.

Dayvhe's Broken Diamond Club

Trollstuck, Slowburn Pale Soldave and other quadrent and non-quadrent bullshit.

Knight Of Spades

Doomed Timelines, Pan-Quadrent Davekat and Polyamorous Meteor Crew, not even fucking around this fic changed something in me.

So What’s The Return Policy For Emotional Damages?

Non-Sburb, RoseMary, First Meeting with snarky broads and shittier flirting.

Ruby Red

Short n sweet RoseMary, seriously, my teeth are rotting over here.

There will be Singing about the Dark Times

Non-Sburb Davekat, Alternia is horrible, Revolution Based.

meeting people the old fashioned way

Crackfic, University AU, Davekat, first meeting. Enough said.

So we dont kill the ones we love

Non-Sburb, Davekat, VERY EXPLICIT SO HEED TAGS, Troll/Human Society, Criminals, God I love fictional politics.

Cozy as fuck in here

DaveJohnKat, Crackfic, John catches Dave and Karkat making out in a closet, literally and figuratively.

Special Delivery

DirkJake, Non-Sburb, Dirk is a pizza guy and Jake is a rich kid with ISSUES.

You Can't Break That Which Isn't Yours

Transgirl Rose Fic, Very Gender, Much Introspection.

But I cannot lose a friend and a lover

Pesterlog, Earth C, Post-Divorce June and Roxy being mates, Junes trans but doesn't know it yet.

Loophole

Pale Johnvris, Adoption Fic, Petstuck, Sad Ending, Thinking about this one actually made me tear up.

In Which Dave Strider Gets a Roommate (and a Little Bit More)

SolDave, University AU, there is nothing more homoerotic then having a roommate.

Alternate Universe

Magical AU, University AU, Amnesia, SolDaveKat, can't say much without spoilers, but TRUST ME OKAY.

Space Bro

SolKat, Post-Sburb, Reincarnation? I guess?

Lost Teeth Like White Jewels

Hemostuck AU, Pirates, Erikar, Karezi and even more parings, seriously, what more could you need.

mary, mary, quite contra- is that a fucking wasp

University AU, Minor Rosemary, Crackfic, Wasps, Karkat and Kanaya being bros.

A Joker's Not Even A Real Playing Card Anyway

Crackfic, Crossover, Spades Slick ends up in Gotham, hilarity ensues.

Eschewal

DirkJake, Angst, Psychological Horror, Oh god someone give Jake a fucking hug PLEASE GUYS.

[hairscare]

I don’t actively ship this but once I read a Tavros/Dirk fic that was really cute

orange boys