Caliborn’s weird homogay crush on Dirk. Is a thing.
And then he got to spend years, years with Dirk.
And part of Cal’s personality knew
EXACTLY
how to fuck with him.
I take back everything bad I’ve ever said about Bro. The fact that Bro didn’t outright molest/murder Dave is a FUCKING MIRACLE.
Magnets and rainbows all up ins.
The implications. I cannot deal with this. No wonder Bro wanted to train Dave so hard. No fucking wonder Bro was always drawing creepy-ass comics about “wanting to play a game.” No wonder when Davesprite prototyped him, all Calsprite did was laugh.
Caliborn was finally able to get Dirk to draw whatever he wanted for him. Whenever he wanted.
I am now and forever creeped out by the idea of Lil Cal compelling Bro to flash step him everywhere. Like Cal’s living some kind of fucked up half life through Bro/Dirk. His very favorite person and weirdo crush. The guy who he just happens to have a soul shard of sharing his creepy puppet body. *shudder*
Just look at their apartment and the things Dave goes out of his way to voice his desperate, brittle acceptance of. The puppets, creepy comics, and mind games scream Caliborn. The barrage of phallic imagery that was wildly inappropriate for a child is pretty Eq, not to mention the creeping miasma of sexuality that was just… urgh. Then add the sticky film of fear (chucklevoodoos) and anger/rage trickling from Gamzee. Finally, the way it all meshed perfectly together with Bro since AR would know exactly how to get in Bro’s head (BEING A SHARD OF HIS SOUL AND ALL) and you’ve got a perfect storm of the worst thing I’ve ever had the misfortune to think about. The training and the physical abuse ramped up to 11 and done with a totally unequal power dynamic (unlike the also uncool but not nearly as fucked up Dirk and Jake situation) also seems very AR/Caliborn-like. That’s not even to mention both Eq’s and AR’s thing for control, and the issues ALL FOUR (well, three and a half, haha) people in there have with the color red and fuck, Dave is amazingly lucky to have made it out of there alive.
And UGH. Caliborn’s thing for platonic affection, the normal kind
of affection you’d give a child so that they grew up healthy. No wonder
Bro has minimal contact with Dave, Lil Cal’s influence would get all
kinds of wires crossed. The only non-evil solution would be to forgo
physical affection all together.
Also, lets consider, Caliborn’s first and foremost talent has always been his dominating personality. I have no doubt he would have been the dominating presence in Lil’ Cal. With just a touch of Gamzee’s ability to get in people’s heads… I’m upset just thinking about it. After lord knows how long of being exposed to him it’s amazing that Bro wasn’t a shambling husk that existed to do Cal’s bidding. The biggest, strongest, prettiest (that crush is still a thing) puppet ever, just for Caliborn. Bro was kind of half way there, but he somehow managed to mostly protect Dave from it which… I’m crying. Maybe Caliborn didn’t want to influence Dave so much or maybe the shades helped. Maybe Bro had a kind of subconscious idea of what was happening to him, I don’t know.
But he wouldn’t really have any way to fight it, not with Gamzee’s powers and Caliborn’s force of personality. It’s so messed up and sad, and it explains SO MUCH. And the way everyone just… desperately didn’t notice Cal was KILL IT WITH FIRE levels of fucked up speaks to a touch of voidy don’t notice don’t look magic.
All this, oh my god, I just want to go on about what they said about how “Bro had a kind of subconscious idea of what was happening to him” because he did. I’m a strong believer in Bro knowing A LOT MORE than he should for who he is. He did so much in the game, so much to help Dave and his buddies. Maybe the game gave him a way to fight Caliborn/Cal, though he didn’t seem to lose Cal until he died, but he changed a lot in the game imo.
He started the scratch, he helped give Dave more time, he was able to navigate the gates, something even the kids struggled with, easily to get his rocket board back, and he was able to go fight Jack. Bro always knew what was happening, because Bro tried to keep one step ahead of everything. A lot went downhill for him, and all this makes sense for how completely different Dirk and Bro are, and this is so interesting, especially to someone like me who has studied Bro in detail, it all makes sense.
Bro is so fucked up, and the shit he did was bad, but without Cal’s influence things would have been so different and I feel for Dave right now.
