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ironicusernameMLP
[Pandora, Day 194. Clay pot you smash, 1/1]
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic wiki article
Ok so this memory is basically Dirk discovering MLP and MARATHONING THE FUCK OUT OF IT but this is also a really good indicator of what his life is like on a day to day basis and also just..... it's a very Dirk memory and actually pretty formative.
This memory starts with a younger Dirk—I'll say about 7 or 8—digging around on the internet. He discovers an articles about bronies and, pinged by ponies and also mentions of irony and neo-sincerity (he is still a fledgling in the ways of irony, only just barely beginning to diverge from his bro's ironic theory) he torrents all the seasons and starts watching.
And it's the greatest thing ever. He watches it back to back to back, stopping only to get up and make himself some fish or ramen or to open another bottle of orange soda. He watches all three seasons straight through without sleeping (about 24 hours). Throughout it he has a running dialogue with Lil Cal and even though Lil Cal is a puppet Dirk talks to him, and evidently hears back in response from him, as though he were a completely sentient person. This is not just a child's runaway imagination—Dirk believes in Cal's cognizance like you believe in your mom's cognizance. Fact: Lil Cal is the shit, and alive.
After the first run through Dirk immediately re-watches it, this time much more carefully. I am going to assume that at this point he had either just started talking to Jake and co or knew that he would be. Either way he is fascinated by this concept of learning through the social relationship called friendship. By the end of his second run-through he has like an 80 page dissertation.
- Bro must be dead at this point, because that was like three straight days where I didn't see anybody but Cal, who I recognized as my caretaker. If my bro had been alive I am pretty sure I would have wanted to talk to him about this.
- At a young age he knew how to cook for himself! Nothing fancy, just boil water for ramen and cook fish.
- 95% of how Dirk learned to people comes from this show. I assume before he learned better Dirk was kind of a horrible conversational partner. He's smart enough that he could pick apart and steamroll over anything anybody ever talked to him said (THOUGH I would assume till this point he has mostly been in dialogue with dead people on old internet forums...) because he was right, and there was no reason not to! Basically this show opened up a whole new area of knowledge for Dirk: knowledge of his self, meta knowledge of how he came about that knowledge (at the end of every episode Twilight Sparkle writes a letter to Princess Celestia about what friendship has taught her that day), other people as sources of knowledge, and other people as OBJECTS of knowledge—their feelings, why they feel that way, what those feelings say about them, etc.
- So yeah as old as like, 8, Dirk did not really know about FEELINGS. MLP taught him not only that other people had feelings, but to examine his own feelings. Also feelings are a legit thing to have.
- This memory will give Dirk a firmer basis for interacting with people! He will probably be a lot more inquisitive.
- Dirk sure did basically teach himself how to be a social creature.
Dirk's feelings on this memory are kind of ambivalent. It confirms for him that he was, in fact, very under-socialized. This was, and is not, a big deal for him. He understands that he has been more or less alone for a long portion of his life— his bro has probably been dead since he was very young, and Lil Cal has been taking care of him ever since (Dirk still considers Cal a functional person and likely always will, though he recognizes that Cal is not a HUMAN person).
[Pandora, Day 194. Clay pot you smash, 1/1]
I used to wonder what friendship could be/Until you shared it's magic with me/Big adventure/Ton's of fun/A beautiful heart faithful and strong/Sharing kindness/It's an easy feat/And magic makes it all complete!/You have my little ponies/Do you know you're all my very best friends?
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic wiki article
Ok so this memory is basically Dirk discovering MLP and MARATHONING THE FUCK OUT OF IT but this is also a really good indicator of what his life is like on a day to day basis and also just..... it's a very Dirk memory and actually pretty formative.
This memory starts with a younger Dirk—I'll say about 7 or 8—digging around on the internet. He discovers an articles about bronies and, pinged by ponies and also mentions of irony and neo-sincerity (he is still a fledgling in the ways of irony, only just barely beginning to diverge from his bro's ironic theory) he torrents all the seasons and starts watching.
And it's the greatest thing ever. He watches it back to back to back, stopping only to get up and make himself some fish or ramen or to open another bottle of orange soda. He watches all three seasons straight through without sleeping (about 24 hours). Throughout it he has a running dialogue with Lil Cal and even though Lil Cal is a puppet Dirk talks to him, and evidently hears back in response from him, as though he were a completely sentient person. This is not just a child's runaway imagination—Dirk believes in Cal's cognizance like you believe in your mom's cognizance. Fact: Lil Cal is the shit, and alive.
After the first run through Dirk immediately re-watches it, this time much more carefully. I am going to assume that at this point he had either just started talking to Jake and co or knew that he would be. Either way he is fascinated by this concept of learning through the social relationship called friendship. By the end of his second run-through he has like an 80 page dissertation.
- Bro must be dead at this point, because that was like three straight days where I didn't see anybody but Cal, who I recognized as my caretaker. If my bro had been alive I am pretty sure I would have wanted to talk to him about this.
- At a young age he knew how to cook for himself! Nothing fancy, just boil water for ramen and cook fish.
- 95% of how Dirk learned to people comes from this show. I assume before he learned better Dirk was kind of a horrible conversational partner. He's smart enough that he could pick apart and steamroll over anything anybody ever talked to him said (THOUGH I would assume till this point he has mostly been in dialogue with dead people on old internet forums...) because he was right, and there was no reason not to! Basically this show opened up a whole new area of knowledge for Dirk: knowledge of his self, meta knowledge of how he came about that knowledge (at the end of every episode Twilight Sparkle writes a letter to Princess Celestia about what friendship has taught her that day), other people as sources of knowledge, and other people as OBJECTS of knowledge—their feelings, why they feel that way, what those feelings say about them, etc.
- So yeah as old as like, 8, Dirk did not really know about FEELINGS. MLP taught him not only that other people had feelings, but to examine his own feelings. Also feelings are a legit thing to have.
- This memory will give Dirk a firmer basis for interacting with people! He will probably be a lot more inquisitive.
- Dirk sure did basically teach himself how to be a social creature.
Dirk's feelings on this memory are kind of ambivalent. It confirms for him that he was, in fact, very under-socialized. This was, and is not, a big deal for him. He understands that he has been more or less alone for a long portion of his life— his bro has probably been dead since he was very young, and Lil Cal has been taking care of him ever since (Dirk still considers Cal a functional person and likely always will, though he recognizes that Cal is not a HUMAN person).