#and you CANNOT think about this without bringing roxy and jake into it

[borzoilover69]

“Ok Borzoi so why don’t you like Dirkjohn” - somebody, who didn’t ask, but I want to ramble. 

I guess it’s funny as a crack ship but in actuality, i feel it would fall incredibly flat and only be viable in an unhealthy way. Canonically, they've got little to nothing to do with each other, and their relationship branches on bullshit in the epilogues and HS2 which just isn't a good judge of Dirk and Johns character so much as a butcher of it.

First, lets get their characters down. Dirk, very introspective to the point of destruction, who’s prone to rambling, overcomplicating and accentuating things in a way to keep up his aura of coolness, of being “totally in control and all knowing”, and sort of socially awkward, failing quite a few times to read jokes as jokes. 

John, upfront, more likely to push forward without really thinking, keeps things simple and asks not much, and very much a protagonist figure. He’s blunt, he’s teasing in his humour, and he likes to take the mic out of people and make his own fun. 

Dirk is very active. He's willing to go through many hoops and talk around himself, and he needs a conversational partner willing to spar him on it, however, John is anything but that. He's upfront, he brings a hypothetical hammer down into the bush that dirk is walking around. Jake will indulge, so will a lot of the alpha kids, but the beta kids by far are more blunt and straight forward. John would see whatever bullshit Dirk is pulling and think it's stupid and ornery, and shut him down..Dirk would go "okay" and then either try to counterpoint to be shut down, or walk away.This conversation is a relaly good point of reference for how it would go. Note how roxy is going through the general alpha kids bullshit theatrics and ornery, and john instead of getting it, cuts it down with "no thats stupid", and doesnt get the joke.

This conversation is a really good point of reference for how it would go. Note how roxy is going through the general alpha kids bullshit theatrics and ornery, and john instead of getting it, cuts it down with "no thats stupid", and doesnt get the joke.

dirk wouldn't know how to handle someone actually being completely straight up and refusing to humor him, being open about not giving a shit about whatever tangent dirk is on.  it might humble him which he definitely needs sometimes but most of the time itd just make him go "ok. whatever man im going to jake's"

(art by my boyfriend) 

Nobody puts up with dirk and jakes bullshit as much as dirk and jake do each other

DIRK: "I'll get this blue gumball son of a bitch this time. He's gonna be so perplexed by the bullshit im about to spew he's got no idea the storm that's wafting in on the wind."

 and then john says ratio and dirk is reduced to ash. 

John and Jake also have a bad habit of comparison in a negative sense, like how he did with davesprite. Jake does it out loud with no regard for others, and John is the type to drop a single “x has already made this joke” because his preference of Dave is so much stronger than Dirk. Dirk wouldn’t be able to beat Dave to the ironic punchline because most likely, Dave has already said it in a language John understands, and John has made fun of him for it already. John doesn’t have patience for long winded games, if he’s not in the mood he’ll just fuck off. 

Personally feel like John would be acutely aware that Dirk hates when he shuts him down, but he just genuinely cannot sit here and listen to a “worse version of dave talk like hes pretending to be rose. I just cant.i don’t have it in me.” 

I mean I think they’d be funny somewhat, but they would not be happy together at all it would be awkward as hell. Dirk needs someone to pull him out of his bullshit but John just won’t do that. He won’t consider it really that much. They could have funny moments, but the toxicity of their potential relationship sours most of it for me. Dirk is pretty fucking intense in a lot of ways, and hes prone to being a lot. 

the alpha kids in general are just way intense due to their fucking isolation whatever thety smoked in those years made them volatile like fucking potent like a chili peppers but thats words for another ramble.

John just isn’t able to match Dirk. He doesn't think enough, he's just going with the flow and dirk needs someone who can either match him on an intellectual level or someone who can match him in an interest way. John just wouldn’t take the relationship seriously enough, which would lead to Dirk trying to figure out something that isn’t there to really figure out. John matches well with someone who has known him for a while and doesn’t have a specific way they want things to go. 

[nekropsii]

for the violence ask game - 3

3.) Screenshot or description of the worst take you've seen on Tumblr.

Oh, god. There's so fucking many. Most are sourced from the same guy. Some are fanon nonsense.

For the nonsense segment, I'm going to bring up the "Cronus is the real victim" type takes. The ones that act like he treats Mituna the way he does because they used to be best friends and that's just how they were "back when Mituna was normal/still himself". Turning everything about their exchanges to the most victim-blaming horseshit you've ever god damn seen. War and hatred on planet Earth. I will actually hit you with a car if you think that way.

There's also the people that make Mituna into a raging racist that's constantly ready to drop the Hard-R N Word just because he called Meenah the troll equivalent of "Cracker" once. Mituna literally cannot do fucking anything without people being fucking weird about him.

And for a rapid fire "Hell On Earth, Content Warning: Everything" round... Putting this under a cut, because this is gunshot after gunshot of pure psychic damage:

I mentioned the "Roxy is a Trans Woman + Pedophile and these things are related" take a couple asks ago. Another was something along the lines of Troll Horns being connected to Judaism/Jewish Coding. One called Jake a Necrophile and said Grandpa Harley was an actual for real Offending Pedophile, specifically with Jade. They also called Cronus a fucking nazi for some reason? Like a straight up SS-tier nazi? Like, I fucking hate that guy, he's the worst, but he's not a god damn nazi, and I'll defend him on that.

This was all from the same guy, by the way. I might just die.

[dihalect]

*slaps the alpha session* this bad boy can fit so much gender in it

[incorrect-hs-quotes]

Alpha kids + trolls and whether or not they like Twilight

Hooooo boi this is gonna be a long one but alright challenge challenged

ALPHA KIDS:

Jake: Yes. A thousand times yes. This guy canonically has no taste in movies of course he's gonna watch Twilight and enjoy it. He thinks Renesme is brilliant. The direction astounding, the soundtrack, effervescent. He cannot be stopped, swayed, or distracted from his love of Twilight

Roxy: Yes, for separate, but similar, reasons than Jake. She knows it's trash. It's garbage and poorly written, and you know what? Sometimes the garbage is okay. Great even. She has taste in movies but she's also completely capable of enjoying a bad movie without tearing it apart. Because a bad movie is better than a boring movie.

Jane: No. Hard no. She thinks they're idiotic and nonsensical, the plot pandering and meandering with no point or direction, like a frisbee caught in a tornado but less entertaining. The first thing she does as soon as she can is buy up every copy and stop distribution online to halt it's continued existence in Earth C

Dirk: No, the last thing he's looking for is another trite hetero love triangle between the personification of beige, a Dirk Strider Clone a pretentious control freak and a Dirk Strider Clone an angsty furry.

TROLL TIME

Aradia: The girl loves all things dead and dying, she is goth incarnate. Of course she likes it. I wouldn't say she loves it though. She just thinks it's neat. Like the kind of movie you put on a lazy sunday afternoon or when you wanna read something on a bus ride. Quaint is a good word for how she sees it

Tavros: I'd say he likes it tbh. It's an engaging story for him, not for any plot reasons but more for the drawn out character conflicts. He thinks the people in it are intriguing and largely play off each other well.

Sollux: No, and you couldn't make him read it with a warship to his head. The writing is boring and just all edge with no point, like a pizza cutter, and if he wanted one of those he'd go to the kitchen section and he is a terrible cook. Metaphor is getting out of hand but the point is he thinks it's dumb and looses a bit of respect for anyone who does like it.

Karkat: Do I need to say it? Probably because this is what this whole thing is about. Yes he adores this series. He hates the plot but who cares about that when you get such strong emotions pulled out between bell-bottom jeans and ed wood, though he thinks it would have made more sense as a ashen-rom once jake's weird clone entered the picture where taco bell pits fullmetal vampire against sharkboy and she has to play ringmaster and mediator. But for what it is it's great in his book.

Nepeta: Absolutely not. Ehhhhh threw you for a curveball there didn't I? Anyways, no, Nepeta cannot bring herself to tolerate Twilight even in passing conversation. The plot is serviceable but the characters have no chemistry to be spoken of. They're only together because they're the main characters, there's nothing they have in common other than being as tasty as celery, and Nepeta want's a juicy romance with some m33t on it's bones.

Kanaya: Yes, so much yes that it is like one of the first things established about her character. She likes Twilight. No, she ADORES Twilight. The angst, the longing, the separation and then the reunion of the leads, it's tastier than any blood she drinks. This is the closest she had ever come to understanding being attracted to men, though she normally mentally rewrites them as ladies when she can't be bothered to manually regender the characters.

Terezi: No, she's not averse to it but she's got better, less self-indulgent things to do with her time. She can picture herself maybe reading it after a particularly rough breakup or if she's in an uncharacteristically angsty mood, but otherwise no. Besides, romance isn't normally a priority for her, it's more having a good time. Or at least that's what she tells herself

Vriska: Yes, definitely, absolutely. She is a sucker for trash a la Mindfang's journal and is also, in my opinion, a hopeless romantic with bad taste and even worse judgement. It's just the right amount of saucy and intriguing for her to follow, but she does bemoan the lack of Bella kicking ass. Otherwise though it's a regular read for her.

Equius: Yes, but with some caveats. He would never openly admit to enjoying Twilight, as per the norm is for him, but he looses himself picturing himself as Bella, being longed after and not hurting someone for once while still being focused on for whatever reason. It's cathartic for him.

Gamzee: I don't think he can read, but even if he could he wouldn't pay any attention to it in any state of mind. Stoned Gamzee would think it's just part of a really long commercial and sober Gamzee would dismiss it as boring.

Eridan: Yes, it appeals to his melodramatic nature. A five movie long conflict over who gets to kiss whomst that could have easily been solved in a week or so by actually sitting down and thinking about what you want in life? Sign him the fuck up!

Feferi: Nah, she's had enough of that bullshit and she's not about that life. She thinks Bella is a wishy-washy protagonist and the story is nothing special. She wishes people would get over it and read other stuff, there's plenty of fishes in the books and this one isn't really worth getting in a twist over in any sense of the word.

-Mod Terezi

[knightimehopes]

The Conversation.

Ult Dirk: …

Ult Dirk: I know you’re here, and listening.

Ult Dirk: You have no choice but to listen to this, so save yourself the trouble and show yourself.

Ult Dirk: We need to talk, and I’m not interested in you being a whiny, adamant little shit about it.

Ult Dirk: There you go, the young Prince finally got his ass in gear.

Ult Dirk: It took you long enough, I had thought I’d needed to taunt you out like one of those seductive pole dancers that old Earth apparently liked. Of course, nobody actually cares about that.

Ult Dirk: The web of realities finally connect to bring us to this very moment, tying together into a tapestry of universes showing off our huge ass face as if we needed a huge display of our collective ego any more than we did.

Ult Dirk: Which I did of course.

Ult Dirk: We were meant to speak again, in order to get to the true fucking culspe of our narrative importance.

Dirk: (Jesus fucking Christ.)

Ult Dirk: Look, I’ll get to the point.

Dirk: That’s a first.

Dirk: Thought you were going to suck off your own dick of infinite splinters for fifty hours so you can spout shit about random philosophy I’m pretty sure you don’t actually give a flying fuck about.

Ult Dirk: Do you really want to go down the road of selfcest?

Ult Dirk: I know you hate me, but let’s have mercy on the both of us and not bring that topic into this.

Ult Dirk: I’m not a fan.

Dirk: Aren’t you the motherfucker who said, and I quote;

Dirk: “I had thought I’d needed to taunt you out like one of those seductive pole dancers that old Earth apparently liked.”?

Dirk: I wasn’t the one who began to say the creepiest shit to a sixteen year old version of myself.

Dirk: So grow the fuck up and get to the point.

Ult Dirk: I won’t fall for your childish insults, because you clearly have no idea about the importance of this conversation.

Ult Dirk: I’m pretty sure this is the only point you’ll actually find any relevance in any timeline, and even that is a stretch.

Ult Dirk: You’re not something of worth because of your own actions, and you should honestly be thanking me that I brought you here.

Ult Dirk: Limelight finally shines upon your insignificant self, for the third time mind you.

Ult Dirk: This is your last chance to accept my offer, and I will tell you one. Last. Time.

Ult Dirk: I want you to allow me to use your body as my vessel in your universe.

Ult Dirk: I have my limits on where my influence can get to, as you know. I actually only cared about this timeline having my control dominationg it, at first.

Ult Dirk: But I had an epiphany.

Ult Dirk: Your timeline, among others, is within the Alpha timeline, as surprising as I’m sure you think it is.

Ult Dirk: A gleaming beacon shining through the god damn garbage of dumbass timelines that have no bearing on anyone or anything.

Ult Dirk: So I thought this;

Ult Dirk: You can help me bring your timeline, and universe along with it, to true narrative supremacy alongside mine.

Ult Dirk: Disagree with me if you want, go on ahead, but consider my offer before you decide to make yourself a fucking waste.

Ult Dirk: Everyone benefits from an actual point for existing, Dirk. Your friends are hellbound towards meaninglessness and redundancy, repeating the same old actions and the same old routine. You’ll get sick of it eventually, all of you will.

Ult Dirk: This cannot be stressed enough, you just can’t give up my chance to attain continuous relevancy. People won’t watch a story without enlarged stakes, and my supreme domination with thousands of stories to come will keep us in the public eye for a long, long while.

Ult Dirk: Make your choice wise-

Dirk: Okay, shut the everloving fuck up, please.

Dirk: I’ve had my patience with you the first two times.

Dirk: But it’s worn thin.

Dirk: Nobody is interested in an out of character incel who’s decided that the only way he’ll look appealing is if he cosplays in the worst Kamina cosplay anyone’s seen in decades.

Dirk: No one, and I mean no one, is going to give a fuck about what some random pompous poofy pants asshole says in his psychotic ramblings about some “Narrative” or whatever the fuck you keep spouting on and on with.

Dirk: Speaking of, what the fuck even is this long winded metaphor of yours that you keep on mentioning with readers and stories anyways? It’s gotten old after the first fucking mention of it.

Dirk: There is no goddamn point to anything you’re even saying with it, at least I have a method to the shitty fucking madness that is my life that I put all my friends through.

Dirk: You’re just spouting shit and acting out without even understanding the ramifications or even acknowledging how much of a shithead you come off as instead of how you want to be seen.

Dirk: Everybody knows you’re just putting on the act of being an all knowing holier than thou smug prick, but the only thing you are is a coward who can’t come to terms with anything.

Dirk: We’ve talked too many times, and you told me everything you did, and the only thing you accomplished is disgusting me more and more.

Dirk: I don’t know what got you to this point, how you got so far off the path we promised for ourselves.

Dirk: To be frank, I stopped giving a fuck when you told me what you did to our friends.

Dirk: You turned Jane into a facist Republican propaganda piece with your absolutely deplorable bullshit “narration” powers, you reduced Jake to a goddamn manchild who can’t even stand in front of a crowd without shitting himself.

Dirk: And I don’t even know if this is your fault or Roxy somehow was forced to lose brain cells, but for your Roxy, they’ve been essentially simplified into pink Dave at this goddamn point, not to mention that you’ve insulted them by not even dignifying their identity.

Dirk: That’s not even the beginning, mind you. But the fact that you decided that the people we loved for years deserved to be riduculed, infantalized, demonized, and reduced to imbeciles by your hand is something that you remotely deemed okay? That’s a transgression I can’t be anything but disgusted with you for.

Ult Dirk: You clearly misunderstand how inconsequential all you just criticized me for was and still is.

Ult Dirk: Dirk, misgendering and manipulation means nothing compared to what I have in store.

Ult Dirk: You don’t even have any proof to show that I did it in any case, all everyone knows is that I left on some mission that nobody fucking knows jack on.

Ult Dirk: How bad can I truly be, with just those as my only crimes?

Dirk: Perfect segway into how you kidnapped Rose, corrupted her, and manipulated her wife into believing everything I just stated and more was fucking okay by her when she clearly didn’t, and now she wants to fucking murder you, and so on.

Dirk: Not to mention, John Egbert.

Ult Dirk: I didn’t do anything to John.

Ult Dirk: Bare in mind that it still was useful for getting the Seer of Mind on my side, regardless of the blame for his death. Seriously, how the hell did I do anything to a guy far out of my reach?

Dirk: Sure, because you totally didn’t bullshit the concept of “Cherub Poison” that essentially one shot kills god tiers and completely bypasses our complete bullshit deus ex machina known as conditional immortality.

Dirk: Either way, doesn’t excuse that you used his death to manipulate a grieving woman either. I can go on, but seriously.

Dirk: It baffles me that you think any of this fucking shit is remotely excuseable. We’re done here.

Dirk: Get a life, you sorry sack of shit. You don’t even deserve any of the similes turned defemations or symbolic insults I can come up with right now.

Ult Dirk: You go when I say you go.

Ult Dirk: You want to play a game?

Ult Dirk: Fine.

Ult Dirk: I’ll humor you.

Ult Dirk: I want to-

Dirk: -Play a game in which I’m still a piece of shit trying to manipulate another person around him into his twisted schemes.

Dirk: That’s what you should have gone on to end it with. Because we know it’s the truth.

Dirk: Real fucking original line, by the way. Want to pull out the bro vs. bro strife drama out of your ass to add on to the shitty callback cake? Just sprinkle that shit on there?

Ult Dirk: You’ll never understand, will you?

Dirk: I could honestly say the same to you, especially when you try to look like the king of the weaboo neckbeards.

Ult Dirk: Don’t compare me to Tegiri Kalbur.

Dirk: Who the hell even is that? You know what, don’t care.

Dirk: What I’m saying is that despite your reasoning of this being all important because you’re suddenly the villain now out of left field, doesn’t explain how this has remotely any point to even happen in the first place.

Dirk: If you wanted relevance through this Sburb session you’re trying to set up, then think about it. Would anyone have complained about you going off to make some new alien species on a new planet? I doubt they actually would have, if you didn’t go off and specifically piss off everyone in your five hundred thousand mile vicinity.

Dirk: Hell, I guarantee some people would have wanted to help you out with some of this shit, it probably would have been an entertaining experience for some of the more scientifically minded folks in our social circle.

Dirk: Not that you care, you’ve made that pretty evident.

Ult Dirk: I’m not letting you leave.

Ult Dirk: This decision has long left your capability to effect it. I gave you your chances to assimilate with me willingly, and you chose to shit on my offers time and time again.

Ult Dirk: So you’ve left me no choice but to beat you down myself, and make sure you finally understand your place, and your role in the frameworks of my greatest masterpiece.

Ult Dirk: My words explaining to you how you don’t understand weren’t me flexing the muscles of my ego in your face, Dirk. It was an explanation on how futile your resistance truly is.

Ult Dirk: Come at me bro. We’ll make this happen.

Dirk: Finally, some words we can agree on.

Ult Dirk: And I’ll cut this off for the dumbass posting this to Tumblr of all places with a nice, shoddily made callback.

Seriously, Tumblr? You have a fanfic you can just as easily post all this to on AO3, you could have made your own website, but you chose Tumblr. This is what I get when I let a sixteen year old have the reigns.

If you want some context on this motherfucker, too bad. I’m not promoting shit for this child who thinks that my work is child’s play written by a band of idiots. They can do it themselves.

The next page will be up soon, so you can truly see who’s in charge here.

Until this bastard finishes the art, Dirk Strider, signing off. (God, that was the most moronic sentence I’ve had the displeasure to say. Of course they need me to sign off this way.)

Pg 1. You are Here

Pg 2. Coming Soon

Divergent Reality so far:

[ardenttheories]

Homestuck's always been antagonistic and insensitive, but I don't recall seeing any of you try to dox Hussie? But please, continue to rationalise how cyberbullying lgbt people for not being nice enough and having opinions about a fictional character you disagree with puts you in the right. A story doesn't go the way you'd like and this is how you respond? You COULD have just not bothered reading it instead of CHOOSING to make your online life about something you hate like a toxic weirdo.

Hi, Kate. I’m so glad you could find my blog. (Edit: that was a joke. Apparently, some anons find it impossible to tell that I don’t actually think you’re Kate). It’s clear to me that you didn’t take the time to read through any of the content that’s actually on here, since you’re throwing around rather wild accusations, so let me take this down step by step.

Homestuck has only rarely been antagonistic and insensitive. Things like the Alpha Trolls - which were clear criticisms of fandom culture - were relatively few and far between, and when we complained about them, they actually stopped. Remind me, for instance, how relevant the Alpha Trolls were to the plot? How long they stayed as mockeries towards the fandom? Yeah, not long. I actually have talked about this before on the blog - alongside other things I thought were negative towards the fandom from the original comic - but the difference here is that... in the entirety of Homestuck, these things were outliers and inconsistencies. They stuck out because they were in stark contrast to the otherwise wonderfully handled content Homestuck went over.

For instance, Homesuck is critical of abuse - especially in terms of relationships. We see through a critical lense the shit normalisation of parental abuse can do to a child - with actual talk of triggers and of the mental and emotional scarring left behind, and the complexities of the child’s feelings towards the parent’s death through Dave - and we see how self destructive relationships can be, how harmful they are, and how hard it can be to leave them - such as Terezi’s very toxic blackrom with Gamzee, which was always portrayed as something negative and harmful especially with how worried Karkat was for her and how withdrawn she became during its run, and Dirk’s relationship with Jake, which goes very much over how communication can cause a deterioration in romantic relationships especially when the two participants have conflicting mental illnesses. 

It also goes over how men, though they can be mired in toxic masculinity, can choose to be good. How sometimes we’re not born as good people, but we can become good people through the love we have for the people around us, through frequent attempts to check what we’re doing, through the sheer willpower to be good. Dirk’s entire arc, knowing that he could very easily become Bro but deciding he doesn’t want to be, that it’s something he wants to work on, is so important and incredibly powerful. Mental illness in men is often just given as an excuse to make them violent with no attempts at betterment - so Dirk actually existed as proof that you don’t have to be that stereotype. 

In contrast, Homestuck^2 completely uncritically gave Jade, who was cis, a dog dick, made her, a bisexual woman, a sex maniac and the yaoi “woman who gets in the way of the gays” trope, made her a cheater and someone who forced her partner into the relationship to begin with, and made her a neglectful mother after having cheated with her best lesbian friend in something that has incredible recall to just about every futanari video ever - and they tried to claim that this was good representation of trans women, actually, and that the only reason we didn’t like it is that Jade is “a woman” who “has sex”.

Likewise completely uncritically, they made Gamzee, an anti-black stereotype, enter a relationship with Jane, a fascist, and then made the entire thing into a cuck joke wherein Jake being frequently drunk and sexually assaulted was funny because he wasn’t “man enough”. They then forced him to go back to his abuser after he left her in a scene that read very much like, “ridiculous man thinks woman is abusing him, go back and do your manly job”. 

This, of course, doesn’t even go into the travesty that is any form of trans representation in the comic. Roxy, a trans man, is barely even focused on as trans; they make no attempt to enforce in the fandom that he’s a trans man the way they do that June is a trans woman, and even then, they seem to think that just saying someone is a trans woman is actually good representation. Not, like, bringing it into the comic - just saying that it’s a thing. And of course, that’s not even going into the completely uncritical lense they have of Vriska, wherein her being a trans woman completely frees her of any and all blame for the past abuses she has comitted, and once again she becomes an amazing character to save the day without a single flaw - which in turn inherently associates trans women with abuse apologism, abusers, and the ideology that just because we’re trans we can get away with anything scott free. 

I honestly cannot think of one instance of good and genuine representation in Homesuck^2, nor can I think of any scene where negative content was actually treated as the negative thing it actually is. There’s no critical lense at all, not like we have in Homestuck; there’s just no fucking comparison. And this isn’t a one-off situation, either. Whereas Homestuck does do fuck ups - isn’t perfect - in between the otherwise brilliant content, Homestuck^2 is just founded upon these horrific takes. There’s almost no good content in between, and what is left is a slog to get through when surrounded by the thick slurry of shit that compromises futa Jade, abuse apologism Vriska, and victim blaming Jake. 

Of course, we didn’t “doxx” Hussie. Hussie actually listened to our complaints, for the most part, and worked with us to create something that worked well. The way Homestuck^2 was touted to work. You know, since it was meant to be written with the fandom in mind, influenced by the things we suggest and react to. We went into Homestuck^2 with the explicit idea that we were going to be listened to and taken into consideration when it was being written - the way we were with old Homestuck. I’m very sorry to say that, when you make these expectations, people are going to be a titchy bit upset when you then commandeer the entire thing and exclude the fandom from any of the process that you said they were going to be part of.

Additionally, it’s rather funny, isn’t it, that what you call doxxing is actually just people upset with how triggering content is being handled, and going to the people who actually wrote the content in order to voice their complaints? It’s almost as if social media exists to allow this communication between reader and author, which is a fundamental thing you’ll learn in any creative writing course, such as the one I’m on currently, wherein you’re actually taught how to respond to social media and to build up your image with your fans. 

Homestuck^2 is an ongoing piece of media. We’re well aware that we have a potential to change these uncritical takes and the horrific way they’re being handled if the writers will just listen to genuine criticism. This is, frankly, no different to the people who go to J. K. Rowling’s Twitter to tell her how harmful her transphobic comments are; because if she believes these things, they will work their way into her texts and will perpetuate harmful ideologies. 

The literal same thing is happening in Homestuck^2 - again, such as futa Jade, which normalises the point of view that bisexuals are cheaters and completely trivialises what it means to be trans, or Gamzee, which perpetuates just about every anti-black stereotype possible. Media does have a very powerful impact on what people see in the real world. This is why, for instance, positive black characters are so important in media; if they’re always portrayed as villains, then people will see real world black people as villains as the ideology is perpetuated to the point of fact. This is especially true if the people already believe in the ideology.

Fiction is one of the best ways that we can counteract this cycle. If you make a character that they like, and they happen to be positive representation, and then they watch more media that is likewise positive representation, it’s more likely to stick that these positive representations are the actual experiences of minority groups. Also? It’s important TO those minority groups. A black person, especially right now, doesn’t want to see an anti-black stereotype fuck a fascist, engage in sexual assult, and then enact pedophilia - only to die at the hands of a hero and be laughed at for the death. Surprisingly, shit like this is why we need to tell the writers that what they’re doing is harmful, that they’re perpetuating phobic ideologies, and that we need better representation - especially in a comic that is this widely read, and also has a very large minor fanbase. 

I shouldn’t need to explain why exposing minors to anti-black stereotypes, transphobic, homophobic, biphobic, abuse apologism, victim blaming, and the trivialisation of rape and sexual assault (especially towards men), might be a federal fucking issue. 

So, no, we’re not actually cyberbullying LGBT+ people. We’re trying to hold shitty writers accountable for the incredibly toxic and harmful ideologies they’re forcing into a text that has always been written with critical thought in mind. 

I should also point out how funny it is that you’re focusing on how some of the writers are LGBT+ - as if we’re not? I’m trans, I’m gay, and I’m ace. Yes, I can actually be these things and absolutely furious that a trans women is writing some of the most transphobic shit I’ve seen in a while into characters she then claims to be completely free of blame. We can be furious that people within our own community are enforcing negative stereotypes.

Being LGBT+ does not make them free from blame. We cannot give them a free pass to be racist, to be transphobic, to be homophobic, biphobic, to be abuse apologists, just because they’re LGBT+. Not only because that’s just a terrible fucking idea to begin with, but because it also reflects so, so badly on the community as a whole. As if being part of the community instantly means that you can do no wrong? As if there can be no toxicity within our own community, despite the fact that there very much is and it is still an issue to this day?

That is such an issue, one of the biggest issues even shown just in Vriska and the way Kate handles her as a whole - and, once again, is WHY we need to get them looking at this shit more critically. This view that LGBT+ people can do no wrong and cannot be criticised is shoved into Homestuck^2 and, once again, perpetuates the ideology. This isn’t something to be proud of. This isn’t something that’s actually okay.

Also, your point that the writers aren’t nice enough and that we disagree on fictional characters - well, I’ve already been over the second part. But for the first part, I would like to remind you that they aren’t just random LGBT+ people on the internet that we’re going to because we think their takes are a little shitty. They’re actual writers working on a piece of media. They are official content creators. 

Again, one of the first things you learn on any creative writing course is that when you become a writer, you gain a significant amount of responsibility for your interactions with the fandom. This is something that you genuinely have to expect, and if you don’t, then, unfortunately you just don’t know what it means to write something that thousands of people have a potential to read. As a writer, it is your responsibility to portray your image online; it is your responsibility to engage with the fans in a meaningful way; it is your responsibility to not cause drama and to listen when criticism is brought up, to have genuine discussion and not to perpetuate hatred - especially towards your own fanbase.

Consider, for instance, the way I’m talking to you right now. This is the sort of tone that someone should take when talking to a fan about genuine criticism. When things are brought up, you go over them step by step, you listen, you write back - you don’t go on a flurry of “fuck yous” to a minor who asked you why your team didn’t post anything about the BLM movement on the official Twitter, and you definitely don’t respond to every comment with genuine criticism with the word “pigshit”. You almost definitely don’t tell your trans masculine and masculine-aligned nonbinary fans that their opinions don’t matter.

As a writer, Kate and the rest of the team have a responsibility with their interactions with their fans. They aren’t just normal fandom voices anymore; they’re official fandom voices, voices that have more weight behind them than anyone else. They’re who people are going to turn to when it comes to anything regarding Homestuck^2. Their words now reflect literally everything about Homestuck^2, the future of Homestuck as an expanded universe, and the opinions of the group as a whole. They have to be careful with what they say. They have to be held to the same standards as industry voices because that’s essentially what they are - especially now that Homestuck is something you pay for. 

Also, this isn’t a point of the story not going the way I want. This is a point of many of people in the fandom being upset with how content is being handled, upset that their voices are being shut down, upset that triggering content is being laughed at or used flippantly and without care or respect. This is people being upset that trigger warnings were removed specifically to make the comic unsafe for them as a punishment for daring to say that something was wrong. This is people being upset that a piece of media that used to be so fucking good at portraying sensitive content in a critical light, that used to be so good at normalising LGBT+ identities and healthy representations of those identities, has suddenly turned to this. 

The story can go whatever way it wants - and frankly, that’s fine be my. What isn’t fine is that content is being used specifically to hurt and to incite.

And, of course, that final piece; nothing will improve if we don’t say that it’s wrong to begin with. Someone needs to voice the complaints of the fanbase, othrewise these toxic ideologies are going to go unchecked. One of the biggest things I’ve come to understand while making these posts is that a significant portion of the fandom feels isolated in their hurt; they don’t think other people feel the same way they do, and several people have mentioned feeling like they were going crazy because they were upset with things that the text and writers are normalising. It’s so important to make sure that these people know they’re not alone. It’s so important to make sure that our voices are heard. It’s so important to try and create critical discussion and debate over something that so many people still fucking love. 

The thing is, I don’t hate Homestuck^2. I actually really, desperately wish I could enjoy it. I wish I could read through it and theorise, could go in depth about how amazing the characters are, could write long and extensive posts on how creative and engaging it is - could even just go on about how interesting the Meat-Candy divide is, and all the points they’re trying to make about canonicity. But I genuinely fucking can’t. There is just so, so much wrong in the text that is completely unrelated to plot and to the overarching Point that makes it impossible for me to read, to want to read, to try to encourage other people to read. They’re things that literally don’t need to be in there, either; stereotypes and toxic ideologies and uncritical or badly handled sensitive topics that could be rectified so, so easily. 

Homestuck^2 could be amazing for a lot of the fandom. It could be something that we all rally around the same way we did for the original comic. For for a lot of people, it has ruined their fandom experience, has ruined their desire to want to read anything more to do with Homestuck, and has caused a significant portion of the fandom to just drop out entirely. That in and of itself should be a sign that this isn’t just a little fandom drama. That this is something much bigger and much more serious that, just maybe, needs to be looked into, talked about, understood - and, potentially, changed. 

[july-angel]

Gamzee redemption arc and Dirk; The dickfuck that was given to female character plot lines (Part two to Candy > Meat)

This actually doesn’t have as much to do with the first post, but it is about something important that I brought up in it that needs it’s own post. 

Gamzee’s redemption arc is well handled, or badly handled depending on how you want to look at it. Gamzee, made very clear by the end of Candy, doesn’t fucking deserve to be redeemed. However, it’s not because you simply cannot be forgiven for the bad things you do, but it is because, Gamzee hasn’t actually done anything to deserve forgiveness. You see, Gamzee brings up his past and talks about how he never had a chance to become a better person. However, while it is a reason, it is not an excuse. Hussie I think is making fun of fans who excuse terrible people’s actions based on some sad past or hard ship. It’s not that those things cannot be causes, but forgiveness must be earned. Gamzee simply resumes being a terrible shitty person. He’s irresponsible and only uses people for his own gain. Hell, he builds this whole religious platform off of handing out forgiveness to people without real proof that they do anything to change. 

That’s where Dirk comes in. I cannot say what Andrew Hussie is going to do. However, I hope that Dirk gets the chance to be forgiven, but not because of some tragic past or mental illness, but because he works to earn his forgiveness. I hope he makes the necessary change to become a better person. I hope he work to try to undo the damage that he’s done and that he seeks to be different. 

I think people who look at the Gamzee stuff are looking at it wrong. Okay, yeah, maybe he is saying fuck Gamzee stans, but he’s saying fuck Gamzee stans who forgive his terrible actions without expecting him to be any better. 

So I’m going to move on to talk about things I fucking hated about this epilogue: - low-key, it has a much more shallow view of it’s female characters. I think that as a whole, their female characters were either given a back seat, or not given as much opportunity to delve into the psyche as the male characters. The only exception was maybe Terezi.

- Characters who got less attention: Rose, Kanaya. Rose and kanaya didn’t really get as much depth, and it’s hard to say much more, because we just didn’t get that much of it, beyond two scenes. One where Rose is thanking John for the route he took that allowed Rose to be happy with Kanaya. And the other where Dirk is literally mind fucking Kanaya into convincing her that Rose doesn’t love her. Dick. 

-Characters who got a lot less development than I saw potential for: Jade, Jane. I have so much to say, but I want to keep this one brief to hammer in the point. Jade is a very lonely person, one of the lonelier people arguably and she has honestly and actually been strung along by Dave a lot. That’s not fair. But they only briefly touch upon it, I mean, it really only comes up in reference to Davekat and how it affects that ship. And then there’s really nothing else to her, except to be a shell to Calliope. That’s not fair. My girl deserves more. On to Jane. I mean shit. I know that she loves capitalism and shit, but they literally hint to us that she’s not an evil person. We just never get to see it. See, being a xenophobe, doesn’t necessarily make her the shittiest worst monster of this universe. And What I mean by that, is, it’s referenced multiple times in Candy that she is capable of being better. She leaves the wedding alone, she doesn’t interfere when John visits Roxy and his son, and she let’s Tavros and Jake out when they want out. Now those are just things that you should do in my mind, but every time one of those things happen, John is literally scared that Jane will try to fuck up these things. And she just doesn’t and she’s said to not be evil, just a person making just horrific decisions. However, it’s never actually really dug into and I think that’s really sad. We never get to actually see her as a real fleshed out character. And I think the biggest assassination of her character was during he dad’s death. Her emotions during the death of her father are ham handled and I think a lot of potential was trampled upon, simply because we never really get to be with her in her head. They use it as a plot point to get from point a to b. She’s not a good character, but neither is Dirk and we still get to see into his head so much, he’s literally the narrator in one of the epilogues. 

-  Roxy and Calliope are both non-binary characters, but I feel like we also don’t get as much insight into their heads as well. But I don’t even know where to start there. I mean Calliope is just gone for most of this. Like why? And i get that roxy isn’t even supposed to be real in Candy, and also is supposed to be completely elusive to dirk so... But still there’s something fucked up about it and I hope we get more of them. 

- Sollux and Aradia??????? WHAT WAS THAT?????? I MEAN WHAT? I? What???? I wanted more of them, I’m greedy I know, but like still. That was a sad amount of both of them. And they seem like they are just watching some light TV watching their friends get fucked over. 

-Jake getting molested by Jane into a whole relationship had me blech. 

- John not talking to his dad one last time. 

Anyways those are all the brain cells I have right now. So, Maybe i’ll go back and edit this, maybe I won’t I’m kind of trash 

[wakraya]

Hiveswap: The Theorizening

Having finished Hiveswap, there’s a lot of different things going through my head at once, thoughts, theories, characters, so I’ll try to not mix things together! That being said, as theories tend to be, Spoiler Warning under the cut! Also sadly I won’t be able to post images in it quite yet since they’re not too easily available around right now, will probably have to wait until some Youtube Video pops up with the gameplay/cutscenes. Without further ado!

Grandpa Harley - There’s a lot that has been revealed about Grandpa in the first half of Act 1, before moving to Alternia. He’s an absent father, and his absence obviously affects Joey a lot. She doesn’t like to blame herself for him not being there, and thus channels this as well deserved anger towards him, specially as she cannot relate to him in the slightest with his disdain for animal life. However, I noticed a few things Joey mentions. He’s been coming back home less and less ever since his wife died, and having ‘vacations to the Pacific Ocean’. I don’t know what’s going through that moustached head of his, but Jake didn’t come across the Frog Temple by mere chance, he actively seeked it for years before bumping into it. Where did he learn about it? What’s going on? Also the basement is full of Crockercorp Tools, old, but still present there. Is there some mind control and manipulation going on perhaps? Jane had to bear with the Baroness for a long while before she straight up faded, but Jake just ‘left her’, perhaps Crockercorp things reminded him of his departed sister? For all the hoarding and aimless adventuring we always thought he did, it seems like he does have a goal. That being said, the obsession doesn’t excuse his neglect for his family or being a shitty parent and being absolutely crazy but, yeah. There’s something deeper going on with him, and I’ll be glad to explore this facet of him on Hauntswitch.

A. Claire - She’s dead. From the very first moment you start the game, in the very first room, you get heavy clues that she’s already dead. However, while I thought A. Claire was nothing more than ‘Joey’s Mom’ before, after playing through the game I can’t help but feel there’s something more to it. She had the Key. The Key was a ‘Heirloom’ she stored in her jewelry box? Or did it appear there afterwards? Joey heavily associates it to her, and with Grandpa’s obsession of tracking down the Frog Temple growing stronger after she died, I have to wonder if there’s something more going on with her. How did she die, exactly? What was she hiding? Again, something really interesting to have in mind for Hauntswitch.

Tetrarch Dammek - Wow. I don’t think any of us expected him to be such a dick. Look at that name, too- Tetrarch Dammek. Tetrarch is basically ‘one of four rulers’, and I believe Xefros alludes to there being another 3 Tetrarchs within the resistance. With him gone, the power structure of the Rebellion is shaking, and now Trizza will make her move- They have to make do, and they’re very likely going to have to get Joey to help them. Back to Dammek himself though, Tetrarch is ALSO an 8-Letter title, like Adults on Alternia seem to use. The Tetrarch. Along with his ideals and how he treats Xefros, it seems that he’s living a sort of Highblood Power Fantasy of Leadership and Control to bring Trizza down. If we’re supposed to care about him, Jude/Roxy are very likely going to shove him in the right direction. Maybe without his guns and in an alien planet, he shows his true colors, scared, defenceless, with no one backing him up- And he learns to be a better person before going back to Alternia. I sure hope so.

Xefros Tritoh - Sweet cinnamon roll, too good for this world, too PURE. I fell in love the moment Joey started to talk with him, poor thing has been pretty much brainwashed. It puts in perspective just how shitty Rustbloods REALLY have it on Alternia, and makes me wonder if Aradia’s complacency comes from this too. Like... It’s not just that it’s her thing, she was ‘0kay’ with things, but rather just a... Grim outlook on not being able to do anything about her situation. “That’s fine. It’s how things are.” That being said, Joey came to the rescue quite unexpectedly, I didn’t think she’d lash out against Dammek like that and I’m VERY glad she did! I still think Dammek has a chance of redemption on Earth, but what he’s done to Xefros is intolerable, and I’ll be glad to see his confidence AND his psychic skills develop over time as he journeys with Joey through Alternia to bring down the Empress!

Doc Scratch - We have little information about him so far. There was the delivery to Xefros but that’s about it. That was incredibly creepy. Someone also mentioned the Hint System sounded a bit like Scratch- But I’m not quite sure since I never clicked the ? Button, I might check it at a later date. For now, his involvement seems to be pretty tame, but if he’s pulling the strings behind Trizza, it’s been a nice little cameo so far.

Trizza Tethis - What a bitch. I love her. We didn’t see much about her, but we heard more about how awful she is, and got that one last image at the end. “Wish you were here”, what a piece of shit. Who was she saying it to? The other members of the resistance perhaps?

Axolotl - We actually did get a little bit teased about that! The painting in the hallway had what, to me, looked like Aztec representations of the Grimalkin, the Sloth and the Axolotl, which is very interesting. Foreshadowing? Or perhaps something more? There was also a weird tapestry in the Trophy Room I can’t quite remember, but it could be something really interesting to analyse at a later date.

Biggest Fan - I’m assuming Xefros and Joey are going to see Cridea at the end of the game. Maybe? The only other option I can think of is the Rebel Marshall. I believe they said their biggest fan was a ‘she’, unless I’m thinking wrong, otherwise it could be Fiamet too! (Wait is Fiamet a guy? I actually think I just assumed he was a guy because the Axolotl from Animal Crossing is a guy. God dammit, it could really be anyone huh? What a mess). Whoever it is, given he mentioned it’s a ‘Fan’, I doubt it’ll be another Tetrarch.

Tetrarchs - The leaders of the Rebellion. Dammek was one of them. I wonder if Cridea or Fiamet are Tetrarchs too. Who knows, maybe the Canon Fantrolls are Tetrarchs! That would be an interesting plot twist wouldn’t it? I’m assuming Fiamet IS one, merely based on the fact he has the power of the Green Sun on his side. Too valuable and powerful of an asset to NOT be a leader.

Alternia - We’ve gotten a few glimpses at life in Alternia! Lo and behold, it just so happens that Hellworld is EVEN WORSE than I thought from the canon! Even with Trizza being excessive in her killings, it just feels like absolutely no one cares about Rustbloods and lives of the lower bloods can be taken for like, anything at all. Seems like there are contests that can change people’s lives however, like the music one Xefros and Dammek seemed to want to attend, that would either give them a life of ‘luxury’, or death. There was a comment on how it took SWEEPS for Scythian to deliver something to Rustbloods, which means that apparently you MUST register your caste on literally EVERYTHING online. Another interesting fact, aside from the Stickball sports which seems a mixture of Rugby, Quidditch and Pool, Xefros mentions Rustblood Dead Communion, and also Blueblood posh attitude and crushing strength, making it canon that, yeah, those kind of powers aren’t actually genetic oddities but are commonplace among castes! Of course comparing Aradia’s telekinesis with Xefros’, it’s obvious some Trolls may be better gifted than others, and I wouldn’t be surprised if some outright lack them. Still, interesting.

Jude - He’s still convinced that the figures are behind this, but something the previews and trailers didn’t mention is that he believes the figures are after the portal. In the same vein, on Alternia, the interviews said that Trizza wants to get her hands on the portal too, which after driving Joey and Xefros away is incredibly easy. Seems like the villains of both games are after this thing, whatever it is. I thought Jude would be nervous and shaky and scared, but NOPE, he’s fucking ready, he’s been ready all his life to take those things down, and I think that’s kind of impressive. Still a dork though.

Joey - Poor thing knows nothing about Alternia, and it’s hilarious to see how confused and grossed out she is through the game. I wonder if she’ll have to eat bugs at some point. I hope she has to eat bugs at some point. She’s so pure too. I like how at the end, Xefros blushed grabbing at her, but she just flashed a little, comfortable smile. I ship Xefros <> Joey already, and feel like, given how her orientation has been leaning so far with the paintings and statues in the Harley Household, she’s totally gonna fall in love with some blueblood lady. Watch her blush when Cridea enters the scene.

The Portal - God this fucking THING. Up in the attic I tried to see if I could see the God Tier’s symbol next to the portal, but it was too difficult. I think it was somewhat round? It might’ve been Mind? But I might’ve just imagined things too, who even knows. The portal itself though, I did NOT expect it to be artificial. It’s not just a structure someone found. Jude has Blueprints. And on Alternia, the more futuristic looking version is also built and has Blueprints. Xefros calls it a ‘weapon’ but he also obviously has no idea what it does, meaning Dammek likely has some more idea about it, just like Joey does. Did they build it? was it some attempt to contact both words? Can a built structure actually be a Juju? I have so, so many questions about that thing and I hope the game solves all of them eventually. But for now, there’s just not enough information to determine anything. It’s soooo weird.

Those are my thoughts on the lore the game added upon so far. We’ll see how things go as more things about Hiveswap and Act 2 start to pop up!

[landofsomethingsomething]

your askbox seems crowded with johnroxycallie asks today. welllll sorry im going to add another one to the pile! i am intrigued! i used to ship johnroxy because it seemed real & cute but i moved to roxycallie when it was canon. but this is interesting?? sooo im interested but not sold. give me your best sales pitch for this new ot3 and adopt me into that good good 4 person fold?

Okay here’s why I like it.

To start you have to understand my salty relationship with Roxy’s bisexuality. I basically wrote my own god damn narrative for it in my own head because I am just so over homestuck’s completely unwillingness to give women arcs relating to their sexuality. Womens’ queerness is always something treated by the narrative as obvious and unworthy of commentary or exploration or any element of revelation/self-discovery or even an iota of reflection or struggle, which is especially FRUSTRATING when they’ve been shown struggling with the queerness of OTHERS. It’s that last part that gets me w Roxy -- I especially hate this with Roxy specifically because her relationship with Dirk was so very fucking fraught with her being bitter at him for being gay and thus unwilling to be with her. Roxy was aggressive about her attraction to Jake and Dirk and I would have really liked to see SOMETHING about like. The narrative there after she meets Callie, especially when Callie expressly tells Roxy that her species can’t experience human romance and blah blah blah blah there are so many things I would have loved to know more about re Roxy and her sexuality but this post is already going to be long so enough said about how mad I am about this specifically

The way I’ve settled on it for my own peace of mind is that Roxy went after Dirk and Jake most aggressively because she had the “save the human species” thing held up as the banner of like, the most important thing she could do to the exclusion of most else. Couple that with her being upset at Dirk for being gay and you get a workable explanation for her suppressing her own bisexuality and being so exuberantly performatively straight. 

So. Callie is the only person outside the other alpha kids that Roxy has had this lifelong close relationship/bond with. They have a conversation where they basically gal pal each other aggressively, with Callie saying her species can’t do redrom/human romance and Roxy being cagey about whether she’d reciprocate because Callie is basically telling her there’s no point to the thought exercise and who likes rejection?? but Roxy is the one who brings it up and is clearly fishing to see if Callie likes her likes her and blah blah blah people have been shipping RoxyCallie long before credits video because of all this, the ring, etc. The closeness of their relationship and the mutual “if only this could work it could be so good” narrative there like all right. 

Then, John. There’s an element to Roxy’s attraction to John that’s rooted in that instinctive thing she has going on that you can see on display in their first meeting, where she sees A Dude and immediately does her mental calculus to determine hey here is A Dude, he’s kind of cute, he’s maybe not gay and/or off-limits b/c my best friend has a huge messy crush on him. And it would be real easy to weigh the scales here and go full RoxyCallie if that were the sum and parts of their relationship, but like, here’s the thing -- it’s not. 

I just cannot let go of John and Roxy as the sole survivors of the Game Over timeline. Roxy is Callie’s beacon of optimistic hope, Roxy is the one who acts to save Callie and preserve her in the alpha timeline (with John’s help -- John gives Roxy the ring after all. I like that detail in the full scope of them being a Unit in the future.) But JOHN plays that role for Roxy. Roxy watches Rose die and is ready to sit down and throw in the towel. She tells John straight up that her only plan going forward after this is to accept her fate and bury her mom and wait for her miserable doomed timeline to end and take her with it. John is the one who convinces her there might be a better way, there might be hope. JOHN is the one who acts to preserve Roxy’s existence in the alpha timeline. I really love the parallel between Roxy bringing Callie back from the brink of oblivion and John bringing Roxy back from the same via the same mechanism that allows John to get the ring that allows Roxy to bring Callie back in the first place. That is a really tidy loop and I like it a lot.

So, Roxy in Earth C with a boy she likes and has a connection with that literally no one else can understand because no one else went through Game Over, no one else has this dissonant experiences that might not mesh 100% with the people they love, no one else has this potential imposter syndrome. I love the idea of Roxy and John bonding over that and have never really been willing to give it up. I love the idea of Roxy coming to understand that her infatuation with the idea of A Boy, Any Boy and the future she wanted so bad were products of trauma and really examining that and then realizing she fell for John legitimately, that she genuinely finds him charming

Simultaneously, Roxy in Earth C with the alien girl she’s had a crush on for like probably forever, and now she’s free of the burden she always assumed she had to repopulate the human race. Also her entire family is queer and she’s free to explore her own feelings with that context. Maybe to accept that her feelings for Jane were never purely platonic (and her feelings for Callie certainly never were) and half her frustration at Dirk was that he insisted on being “true” to himself while Roxy never felt she could be and imposed straightness on herself out of obligation to the human race. That could make a girl bitter, right? (I have so many god damn feelings about Roxy and Dirk reconciling post-canon)

And here’s Callie with her insistence that cherubs can’t experience redrom, too. Except now she’s living on Earth C with, for example, Karkat, a troll who absolutely experiences romantic feelings the same way humans do despite all his species lore stating Trolls Can’t Feel Like That. And now Callie has eternity to explore HER feelings -- and we know part of why Callie just accepted that she couldn’t experience flushed/human romance is because she didn’t think anyone would ever love her like that anyway, right? She thought she was hideous and unloveable. Well now she’s here on Earth C and there’s no way Roxy is going to go on letting her believe that. And without that holding her back from exploring the way she REALLY feels, you can see a path to Callie allowing herself to experience emotions she never thought she could. 

And all of these are positive things and wonderful things for these people to learn about themselves and about each other. 

Roxy caught between the boy she fell for on her journey and the girl she fell for long before her journey even started, just having this realization like, everyone is doing what they want here, this is our universe and our earth and our society and our rules, and she’s kind of unofficially dating them both for awhile but not committing labels-wise to either until eventually she’s just like fuck it??? Here’s how I feel, now how about you??? And I cannot imagine Callie protesting Roxy loving them both or someone else loving Roxy as much as she does, and John’s relationship with romance throughout Homestuck is so bemused and ???? and exploratory, I imagine he’s like well this is kinda weird is this like a troll thing and Roxy is like no this is just an us thing and they deal with it

John and Callie have already been spending tons of time with each other throughout and again, as I referenced in an earlier post, there’s some initial awkwardness that settles out into a balanced arrangement and Callie and John both love Roxy and care about each other very much.

Also like, until there actually is some kind of epilogue that does more with John’s current depression arc and ties in the Masterpiece with everything, I like this alternate reality where John has someone who understands him in a way really no one else can there for him when his shit starts to go south, I like the idea of there being an entire long ass subplot where John tries to isolate himself and Roxy is instrumental in not allowing that to happen, I like Callie’s cheer in the face of her own blisteringly unforgiving history and reality being an inspiration for John, I like a lot of things that canon as it stands doesn’t have a satisfying character-driven arc for at the moment.

And, you know, to cap all this off, I really just like JohnRoxyCallie as an acknowledgement that bisexual woman are not “less” for liking boys, that bisexual woman don’t “count” unless they are exclusively with women, and that bisexual people in real life who ship bisexual characters with people of opposite/other genders are not somehow betraying the queer community by doing so, while simultaneously not sacrificing a potential f/f romance for a m/f one.

The LGBT community’s relationship with bisexual women is MY pet issue, because obviously I’m a bi woman, and there’s obviously an element of that going on as well. It bothers me with the treatment of a lot of fandom/homestuck’s bisexual women (this frenzy by queer fandom to erase every relationship a bisexual woman ever had with a man as being not real or not valid for x, y, z reasons while Straight Fandom is over there doing the same thing, but opposite) but Roxy is by far the Homestuck Canon Bisexual Woman I personally care about the most so SHRUG that’s why you get a million words of my feelings

Anyway that’s why I like them

[mutinimutiny]

my friend john​​ @excitedbeta gave me a tarot reading on my main dave lalonde timeline. my analysis of what he told me versus what i already knew about that timeline is under the cut; it’s more for personal reference, but you’re more than welcome to read it and weigh in if you’d like.

so it seems that it starts with the bad news first so here it goes

the reversed ten of cards meant that you sacrificed a lot for love but never for yourself

this i already knew to be true. i felt things very intensely, and both romantically and platonically i did things detrimental to my own mental and sometimes physical well-being to be sure that my friends knew i loved them. i never wanted them to feel abandoned or neglected as i did growing up, but at the same time i refused to acknowledge that my childhood was something that made me more fragile or volatile than most people, and thus refused to treat myself well because of it. having people make sacrifices for me or making them for myself only served to raise my anxiety.

this was most prominent when the trolls came to earth and john began taking an interest in being around karkat. it hurt me to no end, but i didn’t bring it up to anyone. i’d rather suffer and see him happy than to make things confusing or complicated or difficult for him.

but the reverse queen of swords shows that you escaped a toxic female figure that held a lot of influence over you

this was the first surprising thing in my reading. i don’t have memories of anything like this thus far, so i’m only left to wonder. is this referring to my mother? or perhaps the condesce, or one of the other trolls who came to earth with karkat. i know that at school and at home, i didn’t really interact with anyone but john, rose, jade, dirk, jane, jake and roxy. despite holding influence over me, it wasn’t negative and none of the four girls were toxic female figures to me. i’m going to think on this a lot and come up with some ideas-- hopefully i’ll get some memories out of it.

so i guess that's your timeline

reverse 6 of pentacles shows that you kept a lot to yourself

i don’t know whether this refers to a literal physical keeping things to myself, an emotional keeping things to myself, or keeping my own company-- however, all are true. i had a complex about sharing things and kept private about a lot of emotions and things happening in my life, even to john, rose and jade. i loved spending time with them, but more often than not i preferred my own company and communicated with them via pesterchum.

but the knight of swords was basically an indicator of your inner and outer strength and willingness to protect the things you believed in

reading this gave me another spark of remembrance about the rebellion, and how hard we all fought for earth’s freedom and each other. in my opinion, i grew a lot as a person during that time; i was still volatile emotionally, there’s no doubt about that, but i grew better at managing my mood swings and my tendency to snap at people. this made me a stronger person, and it gave me more confidence to stand up to hic with my friends for our freedom and the freedom of the earth.

and that was yr personality

the reverse chariot indicates that a lot of things havent changed all that much

this is true as well. i have always had the strongest connection to this dave timeline, and i believe it to be because we are so similar. i have a difficult time opening up about serious things, and being around people exhausts me. i cannot make sacrifices for myself without feeling guilty. i had a neglectful childhood. i have few friends, and a short fuse.

and the 2 of rods shows that there's a way you can change the bad parts of yr timeline in this one

this has to be the most intriguing part of my reading. in what way can i change things that have already happened? is this card meant to signify that i can (not will, but at least have the ability to) find my friends from this timeline and tell them the things i couldn’t before? can i make amends with john? with karkat? can i be more honest about my feelings and tell my friends the things i always wanted to?

or does this instead mean i can change mistakes i’m going to make in this timeline before they happen? again, i’m going to be thinking very hard about this until i come to an answer i’m satisfied with.

thank you for the reading, john! it was very insightful and i believe it will help me remember more from my timeline.

[utopianparadoxist]

is dirk a canon horse furry?

You probably weren’t expecting an essay length answer to this question. So like let there be no doubt at all from this point onwards this is exactly the kind of content you can legitimately expect from this blog. This is who I am. I’m sorry.

Also, you’re welcome. 

Yes, Dirk is a furry. And his relationship to furries shows us a lot about his parallels and similarities to one Rose Lalonde. Who is also a furry.

Let’s get into this. 

Dirk is interested in furries to some extent, and finds the aesthetic appealing on some level. I mean, look at this. I can’t even count how many pictures of muscley horse dudes there are here. The dude isn’t exactly subtle.  To quote Jake…

 Dirk isn’t exactly just a HORSE furry, though:

The swole bunny men help us notice something else about Dirk. As brash as he is in his introduction, bragging about his interest in sequential art that he describes as “Bordeline Pornography”, Dirk gets uncomfortable and leads the reader away when the narrative focus rests too squarely on a furry bunny dude he presumably finds attractive. He dodges, and badly at that. To Dirk, swole bunny men represent something to hide–an interest he has that he cannot honestly incorporate into his cool, stoic, Above It All Persona. Not even through the hyper-sincere irony he tells Jane about. It’s something to hide, which means that at his core it’s something that matters to him. 

And hey, you know who else is very much not shy about plastering her interests where anyone can see for her own pleasure?

As plenty of people have noted recently, there’s no heterosexual explanation for this. I’d already categorize this as falling into the spectrum of anthropomorphization we talk about as Furry–if you disagree that’s fine, though I do know furries who like this kind of thing. The point is that like Dirk, Rose knows what she likes, and like Dirk, Rose likes some weird shit. 

On this side of the argument, though–showing that the characters like this furry stuff through their own characterization–Dirk gets a lot more content than Rose does. But Rose’s relationship with furry is confirmed much more intensely than Dirk’s on the other side of this argument: through their relationships to their Splinters. 

Dirk and Rose’s attitudes towards furry and their own identities lead them to distance themselves from the actual term in public. Dirk pokes fun of Avatar as “blue space furry shit” with Jake, and Rose needles John on not having his own furry alt-self, dramatically bemoaning the existence of  “Cat Rose”. 

In both cases, they’re happy to pretend that furry stuff doesn’t interest them at all, and part of their approach to doing so is either joking about others being interested in it or actively playing up their resentment for it. Either way, the implication they send is that they themselves are Not Interested. 

This is a lie, and is to be ruthlessly exploited for comedy, which Homestuck does magnificently well. 

Both Dirk and Rose are very invested in seeming Above the kind of self-indulgent identity play that Furry tends to encompass. Intense sincerity of expression bothers to them even as it appeals, because the images they want to project to the people they care about is one of aloof, self-aware, competently critical collectedness. One could say it bothers BECAUSE it appeals. Which is the exact reason Rose is so annoyed by Jasprose. Jasprose acts as Rose would without the self-awareness she uses to present only the carefully crafted persona she wants other people to see. Jasprose doesn’t think about what others think of her at all. Jasprose thinks in terms of self-indulgence. 

A self-indulgence explicitly linked to their status as full-blown, unabashed Furries. Jasprose, by her very being, brings all of Rose’s hidden words and feelings to Light, not being shy at all about sharing them and indulging whatever desire is on her mind.  

She mixes cat terminology with flirting, stressing her identity as someone who is a furry and loving every second of it. Davepeta even draws the distinction between her and Rose, noting that Jasprose owns who she is and acts more honestly about it. 

Arquis does the same thing, but Dirk doesn’t quite resent AR for presenting a furry, happier, more honest version of himself. Dirk resents AR for entirely different reasons that I’ve already written too much about. But there are genuinely harmless ways that Arquis DOES reflect Dirk’s interest, and those are worth unpackaging. Specifically, there’s the way AR describes himself finally becoming happy.

And yeah someone could nibble with this wording and say well actually Equius likes horses so maybe its him and I actually couldn’t be less interested in trying to explain why Dirk’s character already incorporates an absolutely Furry level of enjoyment of horses so here’s his room again.

So basically Dirk and Rose are interested in furry stuff to some extent but won’t really admit it. They wouldn’t admit it to you if you asked them or anything. 

I think this is really fascinating and that they share this particular nuance of characterization so completely is fantastic. Even Dirk’s double face palm and Rose’s pillow hiding feel really similar to me in the sentiment of mortified frustration it gets across.And all this really stresses their similarities and makes Roxy’s line emphasizing how similar Rose and Dirk are hit home all the harder. I wanted to ramble about that for a while. God I love these kids what was I talking about again?

Oh yeah furries. So Rose and Dirk are both furries but neither of them would CALL themselves furries in public. 

Yet. The thing is, this girl exists:

Give Jade like, one birthday party where she decides she wants everyone to have a furry party and draw up fursonas together, and we’re good to go. There’s pretty much no circumstances under which I doubt Jade’s power to get all her friends to stop hiding an interest they ALL KNOW DEEP DOWN they share with her but keep pushing away out of a dumb point of pride. 

It’ll be great I promise someone write this fic ok thanks in advance. Anyway yeah give Jade like a year after they get to Earth C and she’ll get them all on the same page. By which I mean all, not just Dirk and Rose. 

Jane’s actually the only main character who hasn’t expressed any interest in furries at any point in the story to my memory, and she’s already been willing to play around with trollsonas. Which means at some point in the context of eternity these kids are going to get the hell over themselves and draw some fursonas. And if they don’t, Jade will make sure they will. So yeah. Every human kid in Homestuck is a furry. Also every living troll, and Callie. Probably all their subjects too frankly. 

Welcome to Homestuck canon!

[blaperile]

Homestuck^2 - Catnapped (Part 2) Reaction

Page 9:

Holy CRAP!

Wow, there's a lot to address here again...

First of all, nobody ever saw Jasprose here on Earth C. Yeah, now that you mention it, the only time we ever saw her on this planet was in that Halloween snap together with Gcatavros, and that seemed to be a pretty isolated place somewhere.

Why did she never show herself though? What has she been doing these 7 years??

"Returned to her rightful role as Queen", ha! Probably referring to how all the Creators were crowned upon their arrival on Earth C. She didn't get crowned herself, but does consider herself that because she was with the Creators.

"Fefeta's Reach", d'aww. She lives on in the name of this place. I wonder, did Roxy name this place upon their arrival here, or has it existed for much longer?

It's really interesting to see the Carapians' side of the story here! The Candy Epilogue mostly focuses on the Trolls' issues with Jane, but here we see the Carapacians don't like it either. At least in this version of events.

And of COURSE they accepted Jasprose as their queen. These people did originate from a monarchy after all, haha.

Alright, so Ataxia isn't really on the side of the Trolls in this matter. That's unfortunate. :(

Swifer!!! :D

I definitely didn't expect to see her pop up here! But yeah, I'd been wondering how she'd be doing in this timeline, without Kanaya or Karkat by her side.

But looks like she's gotten a VERY significant role and will fill Kanaya's place in trying to negotiate with Jane? Holy shit! :O

The "Old Post Office" building. Something that PM once built, perhaps?

I wonder, those "popular historical journals", when Rose wrote those and provided them to society. Was that 5000 years ago before they moved to the future, so that society would grow up with their history from the beginning? Or is it more recent?

I'd like to think she already provided those journals right then 5000 years ago.

Page 10:

Oooooh, look at this scene!

I like how there's a painting there of Rose, Kanaya, Calliope and Roxy, the ones crowned in this kingdom.

Oh boy, looks like Jasprose isn't just trying to get ride of Jane as president, but trying to get rid of the ENTIRE GOVERNMENT.

Oh man, this is going to get surprisingly political. But I love that Jasprose is taking up the fight.

She's probably got knowledge of what her B2 self got up to, and the corrupted society that came from The Condesce.

And that Rose definitely put up a great fight against the batterwitch, and looks like Jasprose is looking to continue that!

Cliper!!! The guy with Swifer here is Cliper! :O

The same guy who was mentioned during the Candy Epilogue, who was part of Karkat's rebellion but was sent to the camps!

Oh man, I didn't think we'd be seeing anymore of that guy!

"I know a red flag when I see it"

...

*scrolls back up to panel*

*sees Carapacian holding red flag*

Goddammit. xD

Page 11:

Yes, Jane is the red flag. It helps that she's also conveniently dressed in red, haha.

I wonder if Jasprose has knowledge of what happened / would happen in the Candy timeline, where Jane basically led the planet into war?

That could definitely inspire her even more to take this sort of stance.

I like how she doesn't immediately want to simply remove Jane from the picture all together, but would rather advise her into becoming a better leader.

Three pillars, eh? Well, at least they're not truth, essential and relevance, ahahaha.

Gotta love the Midnight Crew reference. Women, wine, and song.

Cliper has a clipboard, oh my fricking GOD. I love that.

Page 12:

Oh shit, she's summoning a fenestrated wall!

Right, that was one of her abilities! Almost forgot about that!

But... what is it showing?

Is it... a view on the Candy world? To show Jane what her actions could lead to? :O

Page 13:

....OH GOD. They went THROUGH the fenestrated wall.

That's one hell of a giant wal, haha.

Where the HECK will they end up?

I swear to god, if I didn't know Catnapped had 3 parts (at least), I'd almost have thought it would end here and they'd next show up in Homestuck^2 somewhere in the Candy world, haha.

*sees next command*

PROBLEM SLEUTH^2 ?????????

HOLY HELL

I...

WOW

Probably just a jokey reference referring to how Jasprose is going to sleuth this problem, but still, hahahaha.

Page 14:

WHAT THE FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK

HOLY SHIT

WE'RE ACTUALLY DOING THIS. WE'RE ACTUALLY MAKING THIS HAPPEN.

What does this even MEAN?? Problem Sleuth, the character, EXISTS somewhere in the Homestuck multiverse then... but where???

Are we gonna see the Midnight Crew? Is this somehow on Alternia during the Exile time?

SO MANY QUESTIONS

And... what the fuck is going to happen now??? Is Jasprose going to telephone him??? xD

Is... it taking place in the future of the Problem Sleuth webcomic? There's some small but noticeable differences in the decorating of the office, and the narration of the first page of Problem Sleuth (just checked).

I suddenly understand jack shit.

Page 15:

A NEW touch-tone telephone, a NEW computer (...which we don't actually see here). Things we definitely never saw in the original Problem Sleuth comic.

Holy shit, this is DEFINITELY making some implications.

Page 16:

IT'S MIDNIGHT CITY.

Perpetually midnight though... that can't be Alternia, right? It could also be daytime over there.

And there's Jasprose appearing, and what the shiiiiiiiit

Page 17:

HOPY SHIIIIIIIIIIT

It's a replica of page 10 of Problem Sleuth!!! Except, "long night AGAIN".

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK

MY MIND. IT IS PRESENTLY. BEING BLOWN.

Page 18:

RETIRED PROTAGONIST. ACE DICK WITH A YACHT. I CANNOT DEAL. THIS IS PERFECTION.

I'M SORRY BUT I'M JUST PERPETUALLY FANBOYING OVER THIS ENTIRE SCENE RIGHT NOW

Page 19:

Awwwwwwwww.... looks like that's the end of the PS interlude. xD

Oh god, look at how they're drawn, it's in a PS-esque style, I love it.

Wait a second... is that Ace Dick next to Jake?? :O

I love how Jasprose is drinking milk.

Ah... and this brings me right back to those "OH PSYCHE" moments in earlier parts of Homestuck.

Page 20:

Another theme change! :D

I love how the martini glasses are now at the top of the page.

Confirmation that Jasprose knows what's going on in the Candy timeline!

There's no way she didn't mention the "redemption arc" on purpose there either, hahaha.

Oh man, go Jasprose. Let's hope it works and gets Jane on a straight path again, before it's too late.

Page 21:

Pfffff, Jasprose seductively licking the milk.

Ooooh, I love Swifer here. It gives us some more deep insight into her character! More than we've seen from her in the Candy path, at least.

So Kanaya's considered a Matriarch... what exactly is that supposed to mean? The main caretaker of the Mother Grub?

I'm wondering if perhaps SWIFER herself will be the one to talk to Jane, and try to get her to see the other side of the story?

And oooooh, so Jasprose also knew about Dirk's powers then.

Is she gonna try to make Jane see how much Dirk influenced her into doing this?

Page 22:

OH SHIT IT'S DAD

I didn't expect we'd see Dad here!!!!

Oh man, he must have read about Jane's disappearance and that she was taken here, and wanted to try and save his little girl!!!

N'aww... :)

Oh boy... is he going through the wall and also end up over there??? Is he going to meat Problem Sleuth??? Is abundantChewtoys right that he ends up with the Midnight Crew and that the "Diamonds, Dames and Dads" story is a spin-off from this one??? What the shiiiiiiiiit

I'm loving the hell out of this, this is SO worth the money.

Page 23:

MOTHER OF GOD I'M DYING

THIS IS ONE HELL OF AN EPIC PAGE.

Dad drawn in Problem Sleuth style... REFERENCE TO MOM AND HER "A mother will dow what is best for her children".

I'M TEARING UP.

THIS IS PERFECTION

I didn't know what to expect from this story. But dang. This is AMAZING.

I love, love LOVE this, and am highly anticipating to see where it goes next.

As it happens, part 3 is already available, and YOU CAN BET YOUR ASS THAT WE'LL CONTINUE READING THIS TOMORROW.

[nabulos]

Some Homestuck Thoughts

I wrote some stuff over on my twitter, but i figure i put them here as well, for archival’s sake!

I know like literally one (1) person who follows me actually cares about #homestuck but I really need to get off my chest how absolutely amazing this #upd8 epilogue has been and how it terrifies me how Hussie still has this ability to completely enrapture me

Granted I've only read the prologue and the MEAT storyline (no candy for me yet because it took me like 6 hours to read MEAT) but the way he's messing with what's canon and not, what's valid and what's not, what's valuable and what's not, is incredibly interesting to me

Couple that with the fact that we have [[[SPOILERS]] completely unreliable narrators for the brunt of the later arcs is insane. Using them as a way to explain a lot of things, as well as describe a lot of things, has been a real rollercoaster

There's this underbeat of "everything is ultimately valuable" which is what Hussie purported throughout all of Homestuck, what with it taking the occupants of multiple (and infinite) doomed timelines to make the winning timeline valid.

But the whole conceit of this Epilogue is that the validity is in question. Things need to still happen, or have to have been happening, in order to create that state and we were never privy to those qualifying conditions.

So by making even the epilogue, something that a lot of people seem to couple with prologues as being useless fodder because "if it was really that important it should just be part of the main story," and making it worthwhile (so far as canon is concerned) it earns it's rights

It's just this whole self-contentious thing, because so much of the MEAT arc at least was told by a dipshit who is a loathsome piece of garbage who cannot imagine himself being unimportant. So by forcing himself into relevance, it forces meaning into the story

And a lot of it is really so grimdark, coupled with small bits of absolute joy (Obama jokes everywhere, sweet moments of endgame couples, The Thing That Happened) that it really makes you question if MEAT (at least) has the bearings to be a True Timeline.

What I'm most interesting is if Meat and Candy will /have/ to merge into a true ending /because/ of how unnecessarily grimdark MEAT has been. I'm also super interested in if a certain character will completely oust their manipulator.

All in all, if anyone wants to talk with me about homestuck, PLEASE PLEASE ASK ME ABOUT HOMESTUCK

It just occurred to me that maybe I'm betting too hard on the idea that there will be something more after this epilogue dump. Because while I'm riding high on the narrative concepts, I'm still hecka sad at Things. So um... I really hope that there will be more homestuck ... 

Homestuck upd8 meat: DAMNIT. I just realized that Dirk did to Rose what he did to Jake, robot and fwoosh included! Stole the narrative and just absconded. I can't believe this. 

Okay. Finished Homestuck Candy (and meat).... I think I understand the bulk of it. Hussie cleared up the needs of Canon while also showing the various options (ostensibly ooc, but explaining it too) that fanfics/etc can go. It's very ambitious, but I'm still :/

Like 1) Both Candy and Meat tie directly into canon, and into one another. Therefore both are equally valid (Meat is not > Candy, for ex.) 2) Both have weird characterizations that are explained. Leaving even more exaggerated characterizations also valid.

3) Really throwing into the ring the ways a medium can be used to propagate or dismiss characters/importance/etc. This is one of Hussie's trademarks and it's why I keep coming back to his works without fail.

I know I'll have more cognizant/poigant thoughts tomorrow, but needless to say that I am whelmed with the ending of the Homestuck Epilogues/Postscripts

You know, I almost /almost/ bought the ending of the Homestuck Candy Epilogue. The idea that John's severe survivor's guilt driven depression, augmented the way we the readers were interpreting/understanding how shitty the world was, even though it wasn't that bad. But no...

Sure we can say that Roxy and other God Tier/Canon characters have their own motivations that are obfuscated from view, and absolutely that they can (and should be expected to) have their own motivations and reasons for doing things. But what about the other parts? 

Like, foremost, John's choice explicitly created this 'inessential' world. (Though it is demonstrably 'essential' due to many things). Secondly, why did Callie explicitly ask for Gamzee back? (Alt!Callie wasn't in control yet, right?)

-Why did Roxy acquiesce so quickly? To both John and to Gamzee's resurfacing?

-Why did Callie vanish from the narrative right at the start after bringing the Bard back?

-Why did everyone accept the Bard's ReDeMpTiOn ArC?

-There were moments of sobriety in Candy that Meat didn't have. What instigated those?

-(Vriska) states that John's demeanor/mood directly affected the Medium (both Skaia and Earth C) directly, and that he may be super powerful. (Tho it was then immediately dismissed. Lampshade?)

Somewhat tangential, at some point, Rose directly acknowledges that she was now cut-off from canon, and thus freed from the burden of all knowledge, cut off from her Ultimate Self. Why, then, was Dave not? Why does knowledge become irrelevant, but not time? 

And on the subject of Time. Can we really say that John's existence isn't the lock-pin of canon on Earth C, when time seemed to only progress based on when John became relevant again? 

After finishing, I originally took it as John's depression stealing years from him. (Same.) But then the narrative took strides to explicitly contradict this reading. But who's telling the story by the time all the time-skips started happening? That's right. Alt!Callie. 

The more and more I think about it, something is just [NabeelPrime pinches his index finger and thumb together] off about this takeaway from the Candy upd8. I just cannot place where the discrepancy begins and who is at fault for the off-ness. Input is highly welcome. 

[corvid-knight]

Demon Eyes - chapter 24

https://archiveofourown.org/works/13740258/chapters/33307809

The Speaker's hand clamps down on yours and pulls you into the circle with one hard yank, and you know that you've fucked up. Karkat yowls in alarm behind you, but he can't cross the circle to drag you back—it's made to block demons from passing, and it'll keep him out just as effectively as it keeps Kurloz in.

D or any of the other humans could pass, theoretically. Right now, though, Kurloz is...doing something. Controlling them, maybe—even though the protection runes they wear should block at least some of that shit, and he's in a circle which should definitely prevent him from extending his influence outside of it, you can feelsomething go out and twine itself around your family even as his eyes lock with yours.

Calm the fuck down, Second. Take what I'm giving you.

Which is what you want. You want the knowledge, this is what you asked for—except even his calm delivery of that thought brings a memory to mind, a growled take it, brat! that expected as little resistance as this demon does.

It's that memory that makes you struggle against the iron grip on your wrists, makes you choke out, "No fuckin' way—"

Too late for that.

Kurloz dives into your mind, slipping into the cracks you didn't know your defenses had and filling everything with his cool purple radiance. After only a second you can't even think of resisting—he's so fucking strong, how can any one being hold this much power?

There's nothing but his eyes. Nothing in the world but purple light. There's nothing in your mind but the Speaker for the Dead, coiling and settling and crushing your will down until you're barely even there.

He's going to kill me, you think, and it's not even a surprising thought. Bro won't even get a chance to have me, because even if my body's still breathing after this, I'm going to be gone.

That would be a motherfucking waste. The twin messiahs become nothing if such a simple servant as I were the one to waste one of them.Kurloz's amusement is just as crushing as his presence, but as he sends you those thoughts he withdraws a little. There's still nothing in your world but him, but now his presence isn't so painful. One of you will have to die, yes, but not by my hands.

Karkat's gonna break the circle and tear your heart out in another minute, you warn him. Talk fast.

Talk isn't what I'm here for. I'm a motherfucking prophet sent to give you the knowledge meant only for the Two Messiahs. More amusement, a weight that's almost painful. Maybe it is painful, but he doesn't let you feel the pain. We've got all the time in the world, Second. I could speak to you for a lifetime like this, and release you before Vantas finished drawing a single breath.

Shit. Shit. The thought of having Kurloz wound around your mind, inside your mind, for any longer than he has to be? That drives spikes of cold panic down into your gut.

And of course, he smooths the panic away. You're his puppet now; there's no need for you to be alarmed.

Stop it!

Hey, there's no way you can get this knowledge if your mind isn't calm. Stop the motherfucking fighting, Second—

(stop fuckin' fighting, Davey, Bro drawls in your memories)

Enough of that shit.

Annoyance hurts more than amusement. If you had control of any part of your body you'd sob, but Kurloz owns you completely. All you can do is stand still as he darts through your mind, striking down anything that isn't what he wants to see until all that's left of you is a tight knot of consciousness at the core of your soul.

The Speaker could destroy that, too. You know he could. If he does, you hope D has the mercy to put a sword through your heart.

You're not mine to kill. The moment your self perishes, you cease to be the Second of Two, and that is motherfucking unacceptable.

And he doesn't touch your core.

Instead, he starts pouring that damned purple light into you. Everything that he's cleared out, made blank and empty, he fills with knowledge, planning and images and shit that you absolutely cannot even try to sort out right now. Kurloz fills you, and it hurts like nothing else.

Through this process, you don't move. He holds you steady with an ease that horrifies you.

He's so fucking strong, you think. How the fuck did Karkat catch him, how did he being him here?

Simple.

I let him.

As you process that simple statement, Kurloz pulls out of your mind. The loss of him hurts almost as badly as his presence did, but he holds control of you, keeping you from showing any pain. Without your volition your mouth shapes syllables, the spell for either banishing or releasing.

Then you're the only one in the circle, and the Speaker's puppet-strings that have been holding you snap. Suddenly, you can't hold yourself upright.

Because Karkat is shouting both out loud and in your mind, you make the effort to roll to one side, break the circle with your body again. That's rewarded with the feeling of his hands on you, gentle and roughly urgent at the same time.

You're okay with that.

Your mind goes away for a while. You can't say that things go dark, though.

If anything, they go purple.

"Dave."

Dave.

"Dave."

There's maybe half a minute between each repetition of your name, and it alternates between aural and mental. The former's quiet, rough around the edges like he's fighting tears. The latter's filled with too much emotion for you to process.

From the fear and concern that you're getting from him, Karkat's been trying to call you back for a while.

Dave.

"Dave."

"Karkat," you try to say back to him, and get out what feels like an unintelligible mumble.

He must get the meaning of it, though, because he gasps, jerking you up from however you were lying (partially on his lap, you think, but your perception of your own body is fucked up right now so you can't be sure) and hugs you to his chest, one arm holding you close while his free hand comes up to cradle the back of your head.

Fuck. Karkat's shaking.

How the fuck do arms work.

That puzzle takes you a minute to work out. Then you get your arms up around the demon, leaning into him and closing your eyes to try and work out what the hell the Speaker left in your head.

A lot. He left a lot.

Okay, leave that for now. " 'kat."

"I thought he fucking broke you, Dave." Karkat's got his forehead pressed against yours, and the hand on the back of your head is shifting uneasily between having claws and not.

"Naah. Where's the others?"

"Jake has John, Hal has Dirk, Roxy has Rose. D's probably throwing up again."

"He fucked with them. Kurloz."

"I should've hurt him." Karkat tenses up as he says that, only relaxing when you give him a careful mental push. "You were a fucking idiot for letting him get in your head, Dave—"

"Had to get the info, man."

"We don't know what else he put in there..." He hesitates, then cautiously tries to dip into your mind—and recoils as you gently push him out again. Dave?

's okay, babe, just... "He did plant shit, but its...not gonna hurt me. You, maybe, if you try and go through it—he said it was 'meant only for the Two Messiahs—'"

Karkat goes completely still, pulling back to stare at you in what seems to be fucking horror. "He didn't say that."

"I mean, technically he didn't say anything."

"This isn't something you can fucking joke about, Dave—"

"Do you think I don't know that?" You shift to free up one hand so you can rub at your eyes, leaning against the demon. Apparently if you just try to ignore the tangle of knowledge he left you, you're going to have to try and handle the headache while the info seeps into your consciousness anyway. "I don't get why Kurloz picked me and Bro, how he even fucking knew about us—and you know it had to be him, as far as he knows he's the last member of that goddamn cult... what does he do, fucking constantly scry for some poor asshole who fits his damn prophecy?"

Instead of answering, Karkat growls softly, looking into your eyes before pulling you up closed again. "You don't believe in this shit, do you."

"No."

"That's a mistake, Dave. Kurloz does believe, because he's lived through three cycles of the Two Messiahs."

"He's got a pretty good track record, if they all ended up being the ones who ruled the world 'stead of the ones that ended it."

"The end of the world is a relative term." Karkat huffs and shakes his head. "According to everything I know about his cult, it's evenly split. The first time around, the one who survived ruled. The third, she destroyed."

"The second?" You know the answer. Kurloz left it in your head. You ask Karkat anyway, because he needs to not know just how much you know.

"Twins." He shifts, and you can feel his worry. "One killed the other, yeah, but then he killed himself."

"Yeah." The purple-tinged knowledge in your mind says that that was the most successful cycle, because it simply let the status quo continue.

Kurloz doesn't want change, you realize, because with every new messiah to rise, there's the chance he'll be replaced with a new prophet. Maybe he has little power now, as the leader of a cult of one, but as long as he's the Speaker to the Dead, as long as he's needed to call the First Messiah back to the living, he's more-or-less immortal.

"I can't tell what you're thinking, Dave," Karkat murmurs against your neck.

"Sorry...'m trying to sort the shit he gave me out." That's true, or true enough that he won't be able to sense a lie. "I know where Bro's gonna be."

"Good. I'm going to fucking tear him apart."

"I know you are, babe," you tell him, even though what you actually know is that he won't. Can't. "Once D gets over the mind-control aftereffects, I gotta go see if he can arrange us a fuckin' plane ride. I wanna sleep on the way there; can't do that in the truck."

Karkat nods, the red-on-red patterns in his eyes finally shifting away from the darker tones that've been dominating them. "Where to?"

The answer is fucking ironic. Enough so that instead of answering out loud, you just laugh and shake your head and push the image of the building you met him in at him.

Right back to the fucking start.