I had the single weirdest, most random dream in the history of any dream I ever had

How that translated into this? Not even I can say

I'm weird

Shout out to all the little moments in this fic where characters are actually in character

9. Back stories: Captain Dirk Strider

Once the sky cleared the pulse of magic coming from Robin stopped, without the force to pull against the three of them stumbled, Benedict was the worse as he had made sure that he would take most of the load, his sight was blurry and his aura oversensitive, at such a level in fact that he could feel the small almost unnoticeable magic coming from the two Striders, a spell much like the one Karkat had been using when they first met, only it didn't last more than a day as he could now sense the constant applications, Dave still had black eyes so he was faster at doing it than Dirk whose real eye color he had been able to see if only for a few minutes, they had gone back to the black he was more used to but the orange was engraved on his memory, if only he could place where he had seen it before

Robin was used to forgetting things that didn't have much to do with anything important, or rather they were filed in the back of her mind for when they were, right now the fact that the Strider brothers hid their real eye color with magic was the one thing to come back from there, sure she had it in mind more frequently than other things, mostly because she could constantly feel the soft hum of energy they radiated, but she had forgotten what color the eyes had looked beneath the black and now she was trying to put the pieces together as to why it seemed important all of the sudden, she sighed as she knew thinking too hard about it would get her nowhere

Dirk glanced at the mermaid knowingly, she was having troubles with something, last night she hadn't been as excited as he remembered her getting over particularly wild storms, something had been in her mind but had disappeared into concentration once the storm worsened, the new navigator seemed to be on edge as well, glancing her way every now and then, it made him wonder just how much the merman knew Robin

Dirk Strider knew better than anyone that befriending one Robin Aresta was no game, sure the mermaid had the qualities of a good friend, but where she went trouble followed, that he had learned on his own, he could still remember their first meeting even though it had been so long ago

It had been eight years ago, or four sweeps as Robin preferred to say, he was young and stupid and knew nothing about relationships, and he had fallen in love with a merman that had gotten himself stuck on the town he lived with his family, after being turned into human by the lack of water they other was stuck, Dirk was the one to find him and since the other had no way to get back home like this Dirk was the only option

Him falling in love with a creature that was made for beauty was no surprise, the other trying to escape as soon as he could was a bit hurting but deserved, the queen of the Atlantic herself showing up to take the merman back home was however incredible and surprising, even the merman had been surprised

Robin was only 56 sweeps back then, or rather 112 human years old, she was young as well, but much more mature, after helping the boy, the merman apparently was Dirk's age, back into fins and tail she gave Dirk the scolding of a lifetime, but one couldn't be angry when being scolded by a magical creature that was older than any creature should be, there wa also that feeling that surrounded Robin, powerful in too many ways

After clearing the mess Robin told him she would get Jake, and here the merman looked at her in confusion, as if wanting to know how he knew his name, somewhere safe and would come back at night to discuss a few things with Dirk

The teen waited for her on that spot, because that's what you do when an ancient magical mermaid tells you she'll be back, you wait for her. Luckily Robin did comeback and after teaching Dirk about a few things , actually had a normal conversation with him, she asked how things were in the world as she hadn't been on land for a long time, when he failed to answer she told him he had a worrying lack of curiosity, which he countered with the fact that he was still there

The encounter repeated itself many times, mainly because Robin was bored out of her mind, when the blonde told her he wanted to be a pirate and sail the seas with his brother and cousins, discovering treasures and living amazing adventures, the mermaid led him to a ship; a fine vessel with a weird name, getting it was chaos in itself but what followed after was worse, even Jake was thrown into the mix together with a mermaid named Jane, how they had gotten out alive and well was still a mystery to him

He had to admit Benedict seemed to actually know what he was doing, much unlike the previous royal company, he wondered if they were related, it was a maybe. The merman was now chatting with Jade it seemed, probably talking about magic considering Jade's expressions, the troll Robin had dragged along was with them

"It Is Very Uncommon For A Mutant To Act So Freely in Public"

Speaking of trolls

"Though My Judgment Might Not Be to Be Believed Considering I've Never Seen A Living One"

Kanaya had been an odd addition to the crew, though thinking about it John and Jade weren't any better, the rainbowdrinker troll, Dirk still had troubles not making an ironic comment about the name, was proper and calm, way different that what you'd expect of a pirate, but she could and would cut you in half if you crossed her

"So he's a mutant, wait, he is a he, right?"

Kanaya raised an eyebrow at him

"I Do Believe Karkat's A Male, Yes. He Also Has Candy Red Blood, His Eyes Show As Much, Which Is A Mutation For Trolls"

Dirk nods, because why in the world wouldn't the troll Aresta included to his crew be just as much of a mess as everyone else on board, kinda made him wonder what would make Benedict one, the guy seemed completely normal so far