We are strippers, Bro

muahahahahhaha.... patience my jade warrior....!! ...ok real talk tho a little peek behind the curtain. I would describe jade in this AU more as 'transmasc' than as a 'trans man'.. her relationship to gender is very complicated, and dirk is here to throw that gender relationship under a bus and build his vision of a perfect boyfriend out of the viscera . she's got a long and messy and violent way to go before she can settle on any sort of words for her identity. thats all I'll say on that though ehehe

in the meantime heres a NON CANON!!!!! slutty pic of him I drew further along in his testosterone journey . she gets really hairy my silly wolfboy

some pumpkins. for context my friend came over and we looked at vns made for the sega dreamcast for like two and a half hours and i took a break to draw dirk in this stupid fucking outfit from fragrance tale

In a similar way you can't fully connect with a friend or a partner. Something feels off, yet you can't let them go at all.

There is this vulnerability they can't reach, not yet. They are tired for working all day, rest over the couch, progress was made on the machine, maybe on their own relationship too...

Yet there is a lot of progress to do...

They look at each other at the other side of the couch, he can see her eyes but she can't see his...

Yet Dirk can't know what she is thinking, she is not like Jake, not at all. He can see the surface but he knows there is more, a deep he can't see over the murky swamp green waters, there are some plants and water lillies, but he knows that this is not place to put a foot in. He believes, he will start to sink if he put a foot there, or even worse, something will drag his ankle. He is not too far from the truth.

Jade can't see his eyes and yet she can make some ideas of what he may be thinking, he is not like Dave, not at all. Yet she can try to decipher this enigma made of man. He is like an island, far from her, maybe too far, she wants to swing toward it but she is not stupid, it's too childish to think she can swing toward an island without drowning and she is not a kid anymore. He reminds her to the ocean, it's fun to be around it, you can put your feet at the shore and be sure you will safe, but if you are not careful the waves can drag you in, and drag you more, and more, and more... You can try to swing toward the shore but the waves keeps dragging you deeper, and deeper, and deeper. She is curious how far she can swing before get tired.

They want to get deeper into their waters, the question here is who will reach the deep first?

Will be the Prince?

Or will be the Witch?

All the world will be your enemy, Prince with a Thousand Enemies, and whenever they catch you, they will kill you. But first they must catch you, digger, listener, runner, prince with the swift warning. Be cunning and full of tricks and your people shall never be destroyed.

Another perspective by @broromantic!