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JAKE: Dirk! Are you paying attention? This is the best part!
DIRK: You said that about nearly every scene in this movie.
JAKE: I am aware, but this movie just gets through to me so good!! It might be my favourite movie EVER!
DIRK: You say that about every movie we watch.
He finally tears his gaze away from the screen and looks at you. Apparently, he noticed you're not paying the movie any mind, because he looks at you with the same face a dog would make to its owner after they faked throwing the ball. He pauses the movie.
JAKE: Dirk, you don't seem so amused! Is there anything bothering you?
DIRK: Eh, I guess it isn't about the movie. I'm just lost in my own thoughts here.
JAKE: Would you care to indulge my wishes and share with me what is holding you back from enjoying such a cinematic masterpiece?
DIRK: Alright. But it's kind of complicated.
DIRK: I guess this whole "slice of life" lifestyle provided me with time to actually significantly process all of the stuff that has happened to me. Or, to be more accurate, us.
JAKE: Oh! Us as in, erm, Roxy, Jane, you and me or as in...
DIRK: As in you and me.
JAKE: Understood... Please continue!
He turns his body towards you, crossing his legs on the cheap sofa you two are sitting on. You decide to do the same.
DIRK: I spent all those years locked away in my house, watching the time pass. It was as if my own life wasn't mine, and as if my own body belonged to someone else.
DIRK: Puberty was exceptionally difficult. Understanding myself as a man and being so discontent with unwanted changes on my body made me horrifically afraid to show myself to the world. I resorted to fake confidence.
JAKE: Oh cheesus... I underwent something quite similar, I think. But it was moreso resorting to the "people-pleasing" side... Gosh, It is difficult to be so self aware nowadays! It feels so strange to look back to the teenager I was...
JAKE: Well! It is still your turn to talk, apologies!
DIRK: It's chill. I guess a feelings jam is more than welcome right now.
DIRK: But now that you mention it...
DIRK: Being finally in a proper long-lasting relationship with you brings interesting side-effects that I am still analyzing.
DIRK: Is our new-found self-awareness something adjascent from being a pair of Hope and Heart aspects? Is this caused by both of us godtiering or merely because of our bond interacting with our aspects?
DIRK: Or even, could this be totally unrelated to SBURB and any of its mechanics, and be otherwise related to the fact we are narrative tools to describe somehing bigger?
DIRK: Are we puppets in the working hands of an author?
JAKE: That... Sure is a lot to ponder about!
JAKE: I think I'd rather unattach myself from thoughts of not being in charge of my own actions, though.
JAKE: Isn't it possible we just... grew up?
JAKE: Looking back to the people we were, and how young we were, it isn't too far-fetched to come to the conclusion we simply aren't young lads anymore!
DIRK: I guess it is possible that our frontal lobes just developed, simple as that.
DIRK: It would be appetizing to think we bring out the best on eachother, despite having the exact opposite effect on eachother so many times in the past.
JAKE: Oh don't even mention it. : (
JAKE: But I do believe it is nice to relinquish on such thoughts about the past sometimes. Though I still feel regretful and ashamed...
DIRK: I feel it is imperative we remind ourselves of our past, even if painful.
DIRK: Now, more than ever, we should be aware of where we are, who we were and who we will be. I'm done with our relationship crashing and burning. I could use some self-reflection. We could.
JAKE: Yep!! Agreed, mate. I just need to express I am still truly sorry for my awful past behaviour... past me wasn't the best!
DIRK: Past me wasn't exactly delightful either. He could have used some antidepressants, therapy and time away from any sort of technological devices. On a similar note, my condolences for having to spend time with me.
JAKE: Pshh! Dirk, don't be silly! It isn't usually boresome or upsetting to be in your company and it rarely ever was!
JAKE: Hmm... Past me would probably thrive if he could let herself simply take her time with his relationship with being manly! By Gog was it tiring to play pretend all the time.
DIRK: I can relate. I'm glad I can just relax and let loose now. Specially regarding my body. Dropping the act overall is also nice, though. I found that bottling up feelings does, in fact, tend to make one emotionally unavailable and isolated.
DIRK: It's interesting that my young mind resorted to attaching itself to long lost superficial interpretations of late Earth's masculinity. I guess I needed something to make sense, since my mind and body felt overwhelmingly nonsensical. Coping with not being the right type of man is exceptionally tiring.
DIRK: This was to the point I couldn't let myself be seen in any way, leading to the creation of the Auto Responder. Or, uh, Hal.
DIRK: It's difficult as shit to do character development. The copy of my own brain I made when I was 13 to cope is now a trans female robot and I'm supposed to be chill with that. Awesome.
JAKE: I guess that is pretty silly indeed! It goes to show just how complicated our lives can get, though. I'm still not over the fact my grandma is now functionally my sister!
DIRK: I think the fact you share a last name with a skeleton-crocodile eldritch horror giant Hulk-inspired monster is more shocking than our incest-bordering ectobiological family tree, but what do I know.
JAKE: Cheese and crackers that is in fact a whole mess!
DIRK: That's my next point. The fantastical, weird and magical part of our lives makes it so that the actual emotional stuff happening behind it is overshadowed.
DIRK: We were too focused on saving ourselves, trolls, Lord English, weird ghost fusion sprites, godtiers, adventures and plots of the like to focus on ourselves.
DIRK: And for people on their formative years, that is, indubitably, deeply fucked.
JAKE: When you put it that way, it does seems like we should have been more focused on our own feelings... although, I doubt that was ever really possible anyway : ( there was always so much going on.
JAKE: It is enraging that I was placed in so many... peculiar situations regarding my sexuality and body! It was upsetting to feel like a piece of meat all the time!
JAKE: Being desired as an inherently masculine piece of meat didn't make it much better too!
DIRK: I feel you. We went through some sick bullshit, I'll tell you that. All the stuff I had going on with Roxy was suffocating, to say the least.
DIRK: I felt like I owed her my life just because I couldn't provide her children.
DIRK: As a 16 year old.
DIRK: Crazy.
JAKE: It is insane indeed! Feeling similar towards Aranea and Jane makes it difficult to not resent them in some way.
DIRK: I don't think it's wrong to hold hard feelings anyways. It wasn't fair on you.
JAKE: It wasn't fair on none of us : (
DIRK: Agreed.
DIRK: I think I had enough feelings jam time, though. I'm not really feeling this movie either, sorry.
JAKE: Eh. I guess we could use some make-out time?
DIRK: Now we're talking.