Dirk Strider

Dirk Strider is one of the main characters of the popular webcomic Homestuck, and a character in the Chaos RP controlled by DarkAlex06. He is an alternate version of Dave's bro, and he is also the Prince of Heart.

His associated symbol is an orange hat.

Early life
Dirk was born sometime during the 25th century, where the world had been completely flooded due to the melting of the ice caps, and had been conquered by the Condesce, the empress of the planet Alternia. He and Roxy were the last two surviving humans.

Dirk mainly grew up alone on a flooded and destroyed apartment above a high-rise building in the now-flooded Houston. However, at some point, he met Calliope, who gave him access to Trollian, which allowed him to contact people from the 21st century.

Dirk also became very smart in his childhood, making robots and AIs from the resources of the flooded city he lived above. On his 13th birthday, he managed to make a full copy of his brain and use it to make an AI duplicate of himself, that he would use as an auto-responder.

He has also been able to access his dream planet, Derse, very easily, eventually gaining the ability to transfer his subconcious to both his awake and dream body, which made him learn a lot about the video game Sburb before he started playing it.

Homestuck
After successfully stopping an assassination attempt on his head on Derse, Dirk eventually begins playing the video game Sburb alongside his friends Jane, Roxy, and Jake, but was eventually caught up with drones deployed by the Condesce to kill him in the waking world. He manages to deal with it in a bit, however.

Upon successfully entering the game, he pressured Jake into getting in a relationship with him, which ends up not being a very healthy one - Dirk became too clingy, and would not leave Jake alone, and Jake's lack of communication eventually culminated in their break-up half a year after playing the game.

Eventually, while attempting to turn God Tier, the moons of Derse and Prospit explode, thus killing the kids and allowing them to ascend into godhood, Dirk becoming a fully-realized Prince of Heart. However, they are immediately attacked by the Condesce, who has managed to sneak into the game's world, and Dirk is zapped away by a possessed Jade.

He ends up flying through the Furthest Ring for a while, until he finally makes it back, where he discovers that Jade has been restored back to normal, and he meets Dave. He is sent off to fight two alternate versions of Bec Noir, along with Dave.

Upon arriving at the site of the battle, Dave and Dirk have a heart-to-heart about their respective childhoods, which allows them to reconcile and restore their sibling relationship. Dave and Dirk then fight the two villains alongside Terezi, eventually killing them both.

After the battle, the players have successfully won the game, and have now been given access to their own universe.

In the Knitterverse
However, Dirk's happy ending doesn't last long as he is sent into the Knitterverse along with Dave and Karkat.

They spend quite some time in the Knitterverse, getting an apartment and exploring some of it's parts. Eventually, Dirk decides to head off on his own to study the Needles and see if he can find a way to get everyone home without the Needles.

He eventually finds Dave, Karkat, and Roxy in the river clearing.

Personality
Dirk's personality is very similar to Dave, given the fact that, genetically, Dirk is Dave's son. Like Dave, Dirk is, at first glance, yet another stereotype cool guy, obsessed with "irony" and putting up the image of nothing bothering him. However, Dirk does have his own personality traits.

Dirk is very smart, capable of building many robots on his own with only a few parts, and has made many AIs in his time. But his intelligence, useful as it is, does give him a lot of issues over control - He feels the need to constantly have every situation under his control, as a way to show that he is capable.

Dirk is also a lot more laid-back and less hot-headed than Dave, using many intellectual quips along with his "ironic" gestures, similar to Rose, but he can also be very stubborn - He constantly attempts to "teach" his friends, which makes him difficult to cooperate with. Despite that, he does genuinely care about his friends, but his many introverted years have given him difficulty communicating.

Dirk also seems to hold a lot of self-hatred, which is rubbed in his face with the amount of alternate versions he has, going as far as to almost kill his auto-responder AI at one point. However, his self-hatred has also made him more reasonable and empathic than Dave's bro.

He is a very big fan of horses (although he claims that this is not the case), puppets, and robotics.

On his own

 * Enhanced Swordsmanship: Despite not having a formal trainer besides himself, Dirk is naturally capable of using blades and swords very easily.
 * Flash Step: Unlike Dave, Dirk taught this ability to himself. Dirk is capable of going so fast that all that is left behind is just an afterimage, as if he has teleported.
 * Flight: Due to his status as a god, Dirk is capable of flying.
 * Soul Manipulation: Thanks to his status as a Heart player, Dirk is capable of manipulating souls in different ways. A Prince of Heart is one who destroys souls with souls. This allows Dirk to utilize animakinesis in the ways listed below.
 * Soul Removal: Dirk is capable of ripping the souls out of others by shooting pink lightning at his opponent's heart. When done, the opponent will feel empty and, well, soulless.
 * Soul Destruction: After ripping out someone's soul, Dirk is also capable of destroying the soul, thus killing the person whose soul has been taken.
 * Alternate-Self Merging: Dirk is capable of merging with his splinters, and/or taking over their body, although the full extent of this power is unknown.
 * Psychic Shield: Due to his general laid-back attitude, Dirk is able to negate the effect of anything influencing his mind. Whether or not this is a Prince of Heart ability, his own ability, like the Flash Step, or something else entirely, is unknown.
 * Conditional Immortality: As Dirk is a god, he is unable to be killed.. Most of the time. If Dirk dies in a way that is heroic, like sacrificing himself to stop a greater evil, or just, like dying while being corrupted, he will die for good unless revived by someone else.

With assistance

 * Hope Construct: By combinating Dirk's Prince of Heart powers, and Jake's Page of Hope powers, Jake is able to create a splinter of Dirk that exists in his mind, appropriately called Brain Ghost Dirk, and can only be seen by a Seer of Mind like Terezi, or anyone who can see the invisible.

Equipment

 * Fetch Modus: A set of cards that operate like an inventory system, which allows Dirk to store objects and later take them out again.
 * Rocket Board: A rocket board that Dirk has had for a long time, capable of fast flight. Dirk uses it to get to places fast.
 * Strife Deck: Similar to the Fetch Modus, a Strife Deck is a set of cards that operates similarly to a 'Weapon' slot in RPG games.
 * Bladekind: Dirk's primary Strife Specibus is bladekind, meaning he can use any kind of blade.
 * Unbreakable Katana: Dirk's main sword, having had it since he was a child. Despite what it's name may imply, it can actually be broken, but only by Caledfwlch, Dave's sword. It is also one of the seven legendary weapons of cherubim folklore.
 * Puppetkind: Another one of Dirk's Strife Specibus is puppetkind, which allows him to use puppets as weapons, although he does not this one as often as the rest.
 * Fncysntakind: Yet another of Dirk's Strife Specibus is fncysntakind, which allows him to use fancy santas as weapons. It is considered to be one of the most deadly Strife Specibus, somehow. Don't even ask.
 * Fancy Santa: A small little figurine owned by Dirk, which he uses for battle.

Trivia

 * His theme is "Stress" by Toby "Radiation" Fox.
 * Dirk's eyes are orange underneath his shades.
 * While not explicitly stated, Dirk is implied to be gay in Homestuck.
 * While Dirk is 21 years old towards the end of Homestuck, this Dirk is taken from right after the Ultimate Reward, meaning that he is 16 years old.
 * On the VS Battles Wiki, Dirk is depicted as being 2-A.