andrew

"dersite knight of time here. id like to emphasize *dersite* because a prospitian knight of time and a dersite knight of time are two very different people. yes i know "haha funny youre such a dave strider larper how ironic" no this is just how i am

regardless though:

the knight part of my mythological role plays a part in how i would wield my aspect and how much i know about my aspect, as well as how my aspect manipulates my personality. being a knight of time, im a people-person. i cant function well without other people because im part of an ensemble of heroes. the aspect of time is all about death, acceptance, bravery, strength, injury, mistake, and most importantly, coordination. the sigil for time is a gear. gears cant function on their own-- they need the other cogs to assist them, too. its a factor in why space and time are such an important aspect pairing.

with that said, knights are people that do things because they *know* that no one else can do it other than them. everything they embark on is done because its a duty. a task. its just something that they need to do. because of this mindset, they subconsciously hold expectations for others, verbally discussed or not withstanding, but more importantly, themselves. they think of themselves as a stereotype or that they have a script theyre endlessly reading off of that dictates how to behave. thats where their "facade" comes into play. personally, due to being a knight of time, my "facade" slips pretty easily because *im* pretty lenient about how i present myself until it matters to me. however, that doesnt mean that its easy to get under a knights skin. infact, the facade is *apart* of a knights skin. they hide behind it because its easier. they dont get questioned if their behavior is normalized and solid, rather than fluctuant. people usually know what to expect from a knight because of this. their facade can be anything-- being cool, being put together or stoic, being emotionally secure, being smart--absolutely anything, as long as it makes them look better and people have a reason to talk to them. thats why they do it. the enigma thats behind a knights thick skin is what they strongly believe to be what people are drawn to in themselves. the knight isnt gonna give them the satisfaction if thats what people stay in line for. sometimes, they even have *multiple* layers behind how they present themselves. a knights personality is *usually* intentionally some sort of form of cliffhanger because thats what keeps people hooked. a knights personality revolves around their front.

now, what knights *do* what their aspects is fight. knights fight either WITH their aspect or fight THROUGH their aspect. canonically, daves main weapon for a while is caledscratch, a sword he manipulates to change forms with a record on its hilt with time. if he rolls it to the future, the sword is half-severed, and if he rolls it to the past, the sword is fully in tact. dave *physically* USES time to fight. canonically, karkat uses his influence and status of leadership (or at least tries) to whip his friends into shape. he commands them to do not what he does, but what he says, because he (usually) knows what hes doing. karkat *symbolically* fights THROUGH blood. this is simultaneously REALLY FUCKING IMPORTANT INFORMATION YOU CANNOT FORGET WHEN TRYING TO WRITE A KNIGHT and "meh itll come to me when it matters"

mythologically, a knights jobs are to assist the space player with breeding the genesis frog. you can see this being done with karkat assisting kanaya and dave assisting jade respectively. possibly because they are, well, *knights.* they defend, they protect, they fight. space players are obviously very prone to harm because of the dersites hatred for them, and because of how fragile the aspect of space is. it could easily go wrong, and knights are *never* wrong, at least they believe to be so, which is why they help.

when it comes to their mythological roles, knights are people that have a good grasp on their individual aspects either prematurely or very quickly. they are *naturally gifted* with the knowledge of their aspect, which is why you see dave use his powers for absolutely everything early in the comic--creating timeloops just for the sake of timeloops-- hence using a timeloop to abuse sburb's currency system, and its why you see karkat be so confident in his leadership and romantic knowledge. its because they know what theyre doing, and they know that they know what theyre doing. knights are extremely self aware, with their aspect and with their own personalities (sometimes even others' behaviorisms), painfully so, *because* they know what theyre doing.

a knight of times knowledge of time symbolically could be that they know how much time they spend doing a thing and how much time they burn, what time it currently is, maybe even how much time there is until the next big thing like with calendars or something. (theres also a huge headcanon that dave has an internal metronome-style clock in his head that counts seconds and minutes post-godtier, which i think is pretty cool. its usually associated with obsessive-compulsive disorder, so take that with a grain of salt, but i just wanted to mention that)

self awareness of ones aspect is a knights biggest strength-- however, its a double edged sword, walking hand in hand with their biggest weakness: being unable to take things as they come. they *know* whats going to happen, they *know* whats in it for them, all because of their knowledge on their aspect.

dave knows that any mistake he and his friends make can cost their lives, he knows that time traveling at all is painfully capable of fucking up absolutely everything in the stream of their timeline, he knows that *he* will die at some point. but he cant stop it. he has to live with the knowledge that he has to die. karkat knows that his leadership and his influence could cost him his own life and reputation, he knows that he has to mend his friends' relationships because if he doesnt, everyone will destroy eachother AND themselves. but he cant stop it. knights are a *servant* to their aspects, they simply cant defy them. they hate it. they hate it so much that, sometimes, they wish they didnt know at all. they *have* to know it though, because if no one else does, they know they have to

id like to reiterate that knights *do not* enjoy their jobs (karkat being fucking sick of trying to lead people intentionally later into the comic, dave outright refusing to use his powers when jade commands him to) and do them because they KNOW theyre obligated to.

(i believe this is why knights are sometimes paired with maids, seeing that maids enjoy their jobs and knights dont. while the topic of pairings is up, id like to mention that their immense knowledge of their aspects is the reason theyre paired with pages, seeing that pages know almost nothing of their aspect and start with basically no abilities or courage, and that in contrast, knights know majority of their aspect and start with most of their abilities ((if any)) and courage. pages are also servants to their aspect, so theres that too)

now, lets address the slowly shrinking and pulsing gear shaped elephant in the room

time is endless. time doesnt stop nor fluctuate, its constantly solid and it moves. urgently or leisurely is out of the question, because it has no attitude. it moves and it takes and it *will leave you behind.* it is everything death, everything inevitable, everything constant or perpetual, everything meticulous, everything coordinated. everything about time is *planned* and *arduous* and *specific.* being timebound, you dont need (or really want) to know how specific it is or the reasoning behind it, just what you need to do to keep stuff moving

(sort of unrelated: fun fact, did you know everyone on AND off earth experiences time differently?? kind of self explanatory, but i wont go on a tangent. just look into this stuff its pretty cool)

i would also like to mention that time is the aspect most associated with music???? the two characters weve seen time traveling are dave and aradia, whom of which use music boxes and turntables on gears ("timetables") respectively. possibly because music is all about timing and coordination, which is what the aspect of time is, however the solid reasoning behind it im unsure

what you NEED to take away from the time aspect is that the job of the timebound is to GET SHIT DONE. i would honestly go more into it but i feel its at least somewhat self explanatory (plus, im not a professional classpect expert. PLEAAASE go check out smarter people than me and their take on aspects if you want to know more, i am literally just some dude on the internet that gets bored and decides to read up on things im curious about)

tldr; being a knight of time, you naturally have a good grasp on the aspect of time. youre fully aware of the risks of fucking with time, what being time-bound means, the inevitability of time, and what time demands. youre painfully self conscious of everything about yourself, as well *as* of time, and youre never fully transparent until your resolve shatters