==>
Like so.
TEREZI: 4444RGH NOT 4G41N!!
Oh simmer down.
What I'm trying to communicate to Terezi here is that there really doesn't need to be a panel showing anything at all, for a given beat of the story. Obviously most of you know this already, since lots of stories get by just well without a single visual element.
For the sake of precedent, I'm saying that we can cloak the visuals entirely and continue with narration alone, replacing the panel with a block of text like this, which we can call a "prattle" from now on. Such a device will be vital going forward, and so I dedicated some time at the outset to acclimatizing you to its effects. Its purpose is extremely practical. Things have been going a little slowly for a while, but now see how much we are able to accomplish with just a few short statements.
Terezi begins feeling a bit impatient with all this metaphysical discussion, and decides to turn her energy back towards that most noble of pursuits: pranksterism. She starts sending a constant stream of rapid-fire commands through the terminal, her fingers fluttering over the keys like the wings of a thousand migratory monarch butterflies.
And just as quickly I spring into action, performing every last one of her instructions to the letter, no matter how brazen, physically strenuous, or narratively questionable. The layout of the entire room is rearranged. Furniture is overturned, books are defaced and posters desecrated. Objects are picked up, put down, discarded, combined, separated, and ejected from sylladexes in all manner of directions.
Terezi's debasements aren't confined merely to fucking around with the upholstery, oh no. Her commands start to take a turn toward the slapstick. Pratfalls, feats of contortion, and increasingly ridiculous facial expressions are called for. She has me undertake the most intense workout routine paradox space has ever seen, all while whistling the entire discography of the Swedish pop group ABBA, which she's taken a liking to recently for some god forsaken reason. (... And which coincidentally was a favorite cultural weapon of Her Imperious Condescension back on Earth, centuries ago. Mamma Mia in particular was repurposed as a sugar-coated propagandist piece, calling for worldwide submission to the Batterwitch's dictatorship. "My my, how can I resist ya," as the old saying goes.) Various arcane and legendary dances are exhumed from the tomb of antiquity and performed with anachronistically reckless abandon on every horizontal surface available. The Charleston. The Mashed Potato. All the numbers from Riverdance in alphabetical order.
Then, I'm instructed to sit smack in the middle of the carpet and begin slapping myself silly. Just absolutely go all in, and hold nothing back. "H4H4H4 STOP H1TT1NG YOURS3LF," Terezi cackles, as for thirty uninterrupted minutes I obediently clobber myself around the face, until my cheeks are glowing brighter than the heart emblazoned on my chest.
You're welcome.
TEREZI: H4H4 OK TH4T W4S PR3TTY GOOD
DIRK: *huff* *huff* See? *huff* I told you,
DIRK: *COUGH*
DIRK: *pant*
DIRK: I told you I could have fun.
TEREZI: Y34H YOU SUR3 SHOW3D M3 1 GU3SS
TEREZI: 1M GL4D 1 GOT TO W4TCH 1T 4LL THROUGH TH1S SCR33N TOO
TEREZI: S1NC3 1 WOULD N3V3R H4V3 B3L13V3D YOU 4CTU4LLY D1D 1T 4LL OTH3RW1S3
TEREZI: 3V3N THOUGH 1 ST1LL... H4V3 NO FUCK1NG CLU3 WH4T 1T 1S W3R3 3V3N DO1NG H3R3 >:/
TEREZI: C4N YOU JUST HURRY 1T UP SO W3 C4N F1N4LLY G3T OFF TH1S SH1P????
TEREZI: HMMM, COM3 TO TH1NK OF 1T, M4YB4 1 COULD 3ND TH1S R1GHT NOW BY TYP1NG TH3 R1GHT COMM4ND >:O
DIRK: I'd rather you didn't.
DIRK: It would be inelegant.
TEREZI: WHY DO W3 3V3N H4V3 TH1S TH1NG 4NYW4Y? 1 THOUGHT TH3Y W3R3 FOR 3X1L3S TO US3
DIRK: Well, normally they are.
DIRK: And normally, those are the only people who would ever use them. A terminal's function is to act as a means of communication between two disparate parts of a time loop, a passage through which information can travel that aids in such a loop's successful completion.
DIRK: And within the context of the game, that's all they're used for.
DIRK: But beyond that, they're a convenient and effective means of subtle psychic suggestion at a distance.
TEREZI: 1T DO3SNT S33M 4LL TH4T SUBTL3 TO M3
DIRK: Well no, it's not.
DIRK: At least, not for us right now.
DIRK: But that's because your presence as a guiding influence has been revealed.
DIRK: Earlier, when I hadn't realized you were there, it was more difficult to discern.
DIRK: I could have gone on for quite a while, not realizing that the instructions were anything other than spontaneous ideas from my own imagination, if you hadn't gotten too greedy.
TEREZI: WH4T C4N 1 S4Y, TH3YR3 C4LL3D SUCCUL3NTS FOR 4 R34SON
TEREZI: 4ND 4PP4R3NTLY TH4T R34SON 1S TH4T TH3Y 4R3 D3L1C1OUS >:P
DIRK: No, I mean you started being too obvious.
DIRK: Your personality bled through to an extent that was impossible to ignore, and so the spell was broken.
DIRK: But if someone with a lot of skill gave it a try, there's no reason why you couldn't keep providing commands indefinitely, with the commandee none the wiser.
TEREZI: HMMMMMM
TEREZI: W3LL ON S3COND THOUGHT, TH4T SUR3 SOUNDS S1N1ST3R 4S SH1T!!!!!!!!
DIRK: In the wrong hands, maybe. But don't worry.
DIRK: It's just part of the plan.
TEREZI: TH3 *3V1L* PL4N?
DIRK: Evil is a very... reductive word.
DIRK: I prefer to think of it as just a regular-ass plan.
TEREZI: 1S 4LL TH3 OTH3R STUFF 1N H3R3 P4RT OF TH3 R3GUL4R 4SS PL4N TH3N?
DIRK: Something like that.
TEREZI: TH3R3S...
TEREZI: 4 WHOL3 LOT OF JUNK???
TEREZI: WOW
TEREZI: 1 H4V3NT SM3LL3D SOM3 OF TH1S G4RB4G3 1N SW33PS
TEREZI: OH W41T
TEREZI: 1S TH4T...?
TEREZI: ...
TEREZI: 4444444444CHH!!!
TEREZI: BL3333CH HOUGHGHGH 4CK!!!!
TEREZI: PFFFFFPTHTH PFFFF PFFTH!!!!!!!
DIRK:
TEREZI: 3URGH
TEREZI: 3V3RYTH1NG 1N H3R3 1S SO DUSTY >:[
DIRK: That's what you get for nosing around in our secret storeroom.
DIRK: I'd ask you not to contaminate the ectobiological equipment with your own genetic material, but,
TEREZI: Y34H TOO L4T3, SORRY >:|
DIRK: Whatever. I was about to clean it anyway.
TEREZI: 1 DONT S33 WH4TS SO S3CR3T 4BOUT TH1S PL4C3 4NYW4Y
TEREZI: 1 M34N TH3R3 4R3 ONLY THR33 OF US ON TH1S SH1P
TEREZI: 1TS NOT L1K3 TH3R3S 4NYON3 TO 3V3N H1D3 TH1NGS FROM
DIRK: ...
TEREZI: OR 4NYTH1NG WORTH H1D1NG FOR TH4T M4TT3R
TEREZI: HMM
TEREZI: WH4TS TH1S TH1NG OV3R 1N TH3 CORN3R
TEREZI: UND3RN34TH TH1S B1G SH33T TH1NG
DIRK: Don't look in there.
TEREZI: OH SHHHH 1M ONLY T4K1NG 4 P33K
DIRK: Terezi.
DIRK: Listen to me.
TEREZI: 1M JUST L1FT1NG UP TH3 COV3R 4 L1TTL3 W4YS!!!!
DIRK: Terezi please stop talking right now.
TEREZI: D1RK HOLY SH1T
TEREZI: W
Terezi stops talking immediately, her mind suddenly free of any and all inclination to take a look at what's behind the curtain. What curtain? In fact, she is quite certain there have never been, and never will be, any objects covered by fabric located anywhere in the storeroom.
TEREZI: 4444URGH YOU 4SSHOL3!!!
DIRK: I did ask you to stop.
TEREZI: OK4Y 4CTU4LLY FUCK TH1S
TEREZI: WH4T 4M 1 DO1NG H3R3?
TEREZI: WHY 4M 1 3V3N W4ST1NG MY T1M3 W4TCH1NG YOU RUN 4ROUND 1N YOUR STUP1D ROOM FULL OF TR4SH, T4LK1NG TO YOURS3LF??
TEREZI: 1V3 GOT 4 SH1P TO CR4SH
She turns toward the door and walks out, past the command station, down the hallway, and into the control room, where she begins the necessary preparations for taking the Theseus out of orbit and down to the planet below.