On Princes, of Heart and of Hearts

Chapter 2: The Prince of Heart

Suddenly, they're off, zapping through space and timelines, to Earth B, Texas, in the year 2425. Dirk Strider's apartment in the middle of the sea. They appear on the roof, walk over to the rooftop door, and knock. "Hello? Dirk Strider? I know your friend Jake! Let's talk!"

"You know Jake. Jake English, who was alive four centuries ago, on an uncolonized island in the middle of the ocean?" Dirk cautiously opens the door, just enough to see who he's talking to. He has a katana by his side, and although it looks like the same sort of crap they'd sell at an anime convention, MSPAR doesn't want to take chances.

"Yeah!" exclaimed the reader wholeheartedly.

"The first person I meet in my life is a friend-shaped future thembo who knows my best friend. Of course." Dirk swings the door open, stepping to the side to invite in their new acquaintance. The pair walks down the stairs silently, before arriving in Dirk's bedroom. "Alright. Sit on the bed or something, let's talk this out."

MSPAR sits on the bed as they're told, not wanting to be rude. They've heard a lot about Dirk from Jane and Jake, mostly that he's extremely cool, and that's obvious, based on his room. Computer stuff, turntables, horse posters, puppets, all these things the essence of cool, condensed into plushed form. This would be the perfect person for Zebruh! He's confident, and cool, and really lonely, and-

"So what do you want? I doubt I'd get a visit from a time-travelling wizard if they don't need anything." Their train of thought is abruptly derailed, though understandably.

"So basically, there's this guy, and uhhhh... How about meeting someone? You've been all lonely out here and I know a guy who would really like to meet you!" The small humanoid blurts out without careful consideration. The situation isn't really time sensitive due to the time-travelling nature of their powers, but they've not carefully considered exactly what their plan of action is.

"You want me to come time travel with you to make friends with a guy." Dirk says flatly, without any indication that this is any more a question than a statement.

"Yeah pretty much" they state plainly, hoping that their directness will help persuade this super cool and confident guy into going along with their plot, though not knowing what to expect.

"Fuck it. Maybe it'll be fun."

Dirk and the reader zap back to the makeshift hive, with Dirk reacting far less dramatically than anyone who's been zapped before. "So you just zap, there's no transportalizer or anything?" He asks, genuinely curious about the mechanics of such a power.

"Pretty much but keep it down, the guy's downstairs." MSPAR speaks in a hushed tone, clearly aiming to avoid detection from the impatient blueblood.

"I didn't realize this was a stealth mission. I thought I was meeting a friend." Dirk whispers, obviously skeptical but following their new friend's lead nonetheless. It's not like he has any other option when dealing with a spacetime-warping archwizard, he decided to himself.

"It's not, it's just... complicated. It's cool! I'll zap somewhere else, you can go down the ladder, make a friend, it'll be great! I'll be back in a couple hours to bring you home or whatever." They prepared their zapping power, to see if they couldn't go and make a new friend, or perhaps check on an existing one. They really just didn't want to stick around for Zebruh's awkwardness, compounded with the fact of introducing a new human to Alternia, but it'd be fine! At the very least, Zebruh would keep Dirk safe from any harm, if they went anywhere. It'll be fine.

"Why didn't you just bring me to see Jake, that-" But before Dirk could finish his thought, the reader had zapped away. Great. Now he's god knows where, god knows when, with a friend downstairs. Nothing left to do but go downstairs and introduce himself.