#friendsim hit different .

[incorrect-hs-quotes]

CIRAVA, peering around a corner with their missing eye: my god…

CHARUN: ..What do you see..

CIRAVA: nothing lmao. lets switch places

[dingodad]

If troll blindness causes their eyes to be red, as

shown with Terezi and post scratch Aranea, then why

does Sollux’s eyes turn black when he goes blind?

Does he just lose his eyes completely? Did he ever

have eyeballs in the first place or does he just have

open sockets with red and blue energy. It kinda looks

like blind Sollux he just has empty eye sockets. Did

being hit in the head just destroy his eyes entirely,

whereas Terezi retained the actual structures of her

eyes? I know its the same with every blind psionic,

since hiveswap shows they have the same black

eyes as well. I’m not sure psionics have irises or

pupils either but I’m not sure that extends to all

goldbloods. I also can’t help but think of how

Cherubs eyes become black when they become

ghosts, though this is probably a coincidence, since

they aren’t blind. This is a bit of a weird question,

sorry about that lol

the ways terezi and sollux went blind are pretty crucially different. terezi's eyes were burnt, sollux... i guess i don't know? people say "head trauma" but when you actually look at the series of events it's clearly a blow to the torso which leads to some internal rupture, and that's what causes him to cough up blood. so i guess it's super up to interpretation? the only thing that makes sense to me is that it had something to do with having his optic blasts countered by a beam of pure angelic light. in which case maybe they were burnt?? i don't know if there's any dialogue that elucidates this matter any further.

this certainly isn't the first time i've heard it suggested that he is literally just missing his eyes, though i've never really seen any reason to believe this. like, wouldn't that idea be communicated more clearly if his sockets were the colour of his blood? (but i DID watch an x-files episode just last night where victims' eyes were burnt out of their sockets by an angel's countenance - so i guess there's actually cultural precedent for this??) considering sollux' eyes can flash different colours it seems like the only reason they were red and blue in the first place was because they were brimming with concussive energy, ala cyclops of the x-men, so it doesn't seem all that odd that they could just change colour in the event of a traumatic injury that also caused blindness. (sollux never uses his concussive blasts after this, so far as i can recall, but he DOES use his telekinesis, which starts to appear in black+white instead of red+blue... so i guess those are just two completely unrelated powers??? it's really unclear!!!)

you would THINK this is what they were trying to evoke by giving folykl black eyes and a similar psychic deficiency, but i haven't retained enough about any of the hiveswap trolls to know if she's even blind. poinko suggested she was before friendsim ever released and descriptions of her development imply that she was conceived of as being blind - and that this was maybe changed into a purely psychic disability as the concept was refined? - but nobody seems to have ever listed this on her wiki article so i've got genuinely no idea if this idea manifested itself in any of folykl's actual appearances. i mean, i wouldn't have guessed that she was born with no eyes, but i really don't know.

the cherub thing i've never even been able to figure out to begin with. it does feel totally plausible that it's connected to sollux' thing, since both sollux and the cherubs go through various phases of being either one soul in two bodies / two souls in one body...? but i would also be very willing to believe that dead calliope DOES just have a skull with no eyes, since the cherubs have always had glassy "window to the soul" doll-eyes and have been known on occasion to take their eyes out and replace them with something else.

so. this is a really good question. i just don't know if i have the answers for it LOL

[davekat-sucks]

So is VfromHomestuck only saying Lanque is Eridan just for the creep factor since Lanque seems want to hit on everyone and that he acts rude towards others? Because if anything, when he mocked and verbally abuse Lynera during his Friendsim route, it would be more something like Cronus of being a harsh asshole. Maybe worse than Cronus that in his bad ending, Lanque leaves MSPA Reader after a one night stand. Closest thing I can see is Lanque not wanting to be in full isolation once he's grown up, as that's what most Jadebloods end up being after leaving the planet. That much like Eridan, the confines of someone close is something he does crave for. Then there's the whole difference of Lanque wanting to get out of his jadeblood lifestyle and duties. He has no interest in Mother Grub and wishes to do his own thing. Eridan himself, was content of his highblood status. Willing to help out Feferi and took his role as a violetblood sea dweller seriously because he was taught that it must be so. The start of his downward spiral began when Sgrub happened that his beliefs and the life he had grown accustomed to, can't hold up anymore upon Alternia being destroyed.

[jonayariley]

so i have been curious for the longest time since the couple was revealed in all your projects, and its piqued, idk if you've answered something like this before so if so just throw me the link if needed but i must know your elchixie thoughts.

like the hows, the whys, what hc's based off canon, fanon, whatever you have for em just, ramble bout em, i find myself curious on many a crackship and the urge to poke brains on the reasonings for em (and no offense i just, don't think i can go through so many fic chapters to learn some info on this ship sorry)

Oh boy oh boy you sure did come to the right place! I may have talked about this in other places, but idk that I've ever have someone just outright ask, and I think you'd probably be sifting through mostly commentary on Friendsim 2 to find any details and that's like... hours of video to watch, so this ask was a good idea!

I guess the heart of why I love the Elwurd/Chixie dynamic so much is a combination of "I can fix her" and "they should have talked." Allow me to elaborate!

Elwurd

So, I really like the idea of exploring how characters can grow and change (or, conversely, refuse to change) over time. When I was writing my Hiveswap novels (and I later carried this over to Friendsim 2, but those came first so they get first credit here), I really wanted to explore how Elwurd could evolve as a character. Like, in the original Friendsim and Hiveswap games she's kinda one-note - not, like, bad or anything... just she's gay and flirty and she's kinda a jerk sometimes. But there's only so much you can do with a character in a short visual novel route and a handful of dialogue boxes as a side character in an adventure game.

But I wanted to explore the idea of how Elwurd's outward "fuck everyone else" attitude might be something she puts up as a way of not having to deal with the horrors of her reality. The combination of being expected to support the Empire as a cerulean (something she doesn't have any interest in doing) and still being kinda powerless to actually do anything to change things. So she throws herself into escapism - drugs and booze and casual hookups. There's a line in Delightful Abattoir that I keep circling thematically with Elwurd:

I just want to not have to feel that pain all the time. So I do things to escape from it a few minutes at a time. Is that so bad?

And that's kind of where she's at in the beginning of her arc, headspace-wise. Like I said, I carried a lot of this forward to Friendsim 2, albeit with a more grounded take on the world that follows the original Friendsim.

Chixie

She's someone who exists in this precarious space - a lowblood who's in the Alternian entertainment industry, which already puts her under a very uncomfortable spotlight. As a marginalized person, you don't really have a lot of room to make mistakes in the public eye, because you're judged way more harshly for it - or seen as a representative for your entire class of existence as a person. So that's already a lot of pressure, added to the whole secret identity thing with the Mask.

And tbh, I see the Mask as being kind of an open secret - like, she doesn't even change clothes, so it doesn't seem like no one would be able to figure it out, but also I really like playing with the idea of the Empire allowing a certain level of performative/superfluous rebellion among the population. Basically, you can talk about it as long as you aren't actually causing problems. And that's going to be frustrating to Chixie too because she wants to actually make a difference.

I see her as someone with a lot of trust issues - not a lot of super close friends, and she's clearly not dealing well with the stress either, given that we see her in canon having issues with substance use.

In my Hiveswap novels and Friendsim 2, I added the extra layer of having to deal with having Zebruh as her manager - someone who wants to exploit her both from a commercial perspective and sexually (he keeps hitting on her in Friendsim 2 and in Delightful Abattoir they're in an outright abusive relationship at first).

Elwurd/Chixie

So, independently there's a lot going on, but the other part of this is I feel like these two would naturally run in some of the same circles. Elwurd is shown hanging out in a bar, partying, etc. in canon - and seems like someone who would absolutely be involved in the underground music scene and run in some of the same underground circles as Chixie, even if it was just to sell folks drugs.

In Friendsim 2, I added the layer of having Elwurd basically acting as a roadie for Chixie's band sometimes - she's just kind of hanging out in the same places and with the same people (like fellow dissatisfied cerulean blood Mallek) and the whole "just trying to avoid thinking about this shit too much" attitude is gonna drive her to do something to keep her mind off the existential bullshit that is her life. Why not help a pretty bronze blood carry an amp and run some cables, right?

I really like the idea of these two eventually talking and starting to connect over some similarities - disgust for the Empire, a feeling of helplessness in their lives, a desire for things to be different somehow. They don't take exactly the same angle towards things - I'd say Elwurd is far more self-destructive and Chixie is more kind of "rage against the machine" about it - but I think there's enough common ground that they could end up talking and getting closer.

I've always liked the headcanon that Chixie is demisexual - probably a good deal of personal bias going into that (and - yknow - "vibes"), but it's a fun element to toss in there. That means that Elwurd/Chixie is always going to be something that's a slow burn and is always kinda fragile. In Friendsim 2 you have to line a few things up right for them to actually consider being matesprits, and in the Hiveswap novels it takes a while for them to end up together.

And, like, I feel like their attitudes temper each other. Elwurd finds someone to ground her self-destructive tendencies, and Chixie finds someone who helps her feel less isolated and less inside her own head all the time. They both still run in the same circles, and Elwurd always struck me as someone who'd be down with the idea of fucking over the Empire, so the whole Mask/rebellion thing isn't a hard sell.

Anyway, that turned out very much longer than I expected, but I hope it gives you some insight into why I keep gravitating to that ship! As far as I can tell, it's a pretty uncommon one and it's like - just something that worked its way into my brain and now I'm obligated to include it literally everywhere!

[friendsim2]

Looking back on the game so far is there anything you’d change? Is there a character you would’ve written differently or made more/less important?

(director/lead writer responding)

This is a tricky question to answer, because there's not really any one singular thing that I'd personally want to change in terms of, like, "I really don't like how this came out at all." And with some time for it to marinate, I really enjoy a lot of the elements of what we ended up doing (and there's some aspects coming up that close the loop on a couple things I'm excited for folks to see), although I do have a few things:

More low-end machine testing for the walk-around segments. Especially the Volume 3 style stuff, because there was a solution to the initial issues with control responsiveness and I wish we'd delivered it out of the gate being less frustrating to play. I was actually watching a livestream where someone was using the keyboard and realized just how bad it was. As it stands now, it's actually quite good (I re-wrote the control handler to use PyGame instead of RenPy's control layer), but on release it wasn't great.

Someone mentioned having a Marsti walk-around segment related to Volume 4 and I think that would've been really cool. Volume 4 was already one of our longest routes, so I don't know where we would've stuck it in, but I still think it's a neat concept.

I wish we'd had the resources to put something akin to the Volume 1 trial sequence into Volume 8 - I think it would've been thematically appropriate, but it also would've required a bunch of sprite resources we didn't have and additional time spent on a volume that was already a decently chunky amount of writing.

Character-wise, I'm pretty happy with the balance of how folks were written. I know some people were disappointed we didn't focus more on certain characters - and I'll readily admit that "I like writing this character" plays a role in how to prioritize stuff (which, to be fair, it did in the original game too). But also, I think even the characters that're less of a focal point still got some decent development (and yeah, you'll see more Vikare/Zebede coming up as supporting characters). I wouldn't have minded having a bit more Folykl and Kuprum since they were a lot of fun to write. Kinda wish that I'd wrapped Lanque back into Volume 6 and 7 a little bit more.

I feel like the prologue volume probably could've used another pass of editing. It's the first thing I wrote for the game, so you can definitely see where the tone of the original Friendsim and Pesterquest is more of an inspiration, and the game's unique voice hasn't quite started to shine through yet. Which I suppose would be considered a high point if you really wanted "Friendsim, but again" but also I feel like the differentiation for "this is going to be a sequel, not a repeat" doesn't really start to hit until Volume 1 starts. I'm not unhappy with the writing, but I can't help but feel a little so-so about it, especially since I'm really happy with Volume 1 as folks' first major experience with the game and its writing.

This is so incredibly out of scope, but I think it would've been neat to make the entire game a full-on Act 2 style adventure game merged with visual novel elements for literally every volume. It would've been a huge amount of work, required a different engine (or significant work to make the Volume 7 walk-around engine scale up better), and cost a bunch more money but can you imagine how cool it would be!

[selenesaysstuff]

yeah friendsim sucks but sometimes the grand highblood saying you have nice legs hits different

[marvus-xoloto]

i actually NEVER NOTICED that mallek had his own longboard. jesus i’ve been making all of this elaborate hoverboard lore when the longboard was right. there.

[freak-loving-geeks]

hi. have you seen my boyfriend today. no? well now you have. he is very good and sweet and amazing and ajhsdgfsjdfhj i love him sm. have a good day.

do not reblog.

[reversalsun]

Explaining Rainbow Drinkers

I’m a decade wiser and return to the Homestuck fandom with a degree in biology and a desire to use it for evil. Lets talk about Vampire Troll Girls.

We get very little from the actual canon of Homestuck about Rainbow Drinkers, just Kanaya, Porrim, and a few hints of lore scattered about. Still, they’re one of the most interesting parts of troll culture - rare and strange, feared but also obsessed over in fiction and mythology. They may be analogous with vampires in the pop culture fascination surrounding them, but I don’t believe that they’re all that similar in function. So let's speculate on how Rainbow Drinkers could function on a biological level and how they fit into greater troll society. 

Rainbow drinkers don’t seem to be literal undead, but rather a functional state that some Jadebloods have the potential to enter into. Yes, Kanaya only becomes a rainbow drinker after “dying”, but death isn’t strictly what made her a rainbow drinker. In fact, I’d argue that Kanaya never actually died - rather she reached a near death state. This state, I believe, did kickstart her transformation. 

The most important thing to zero in on here is rainbow drinker being an inborn trait. Contrast this with how vampirism in human mythos is treated like a pathogen - no one is born a vampire, you become one via infection. RD is hardwired into Jadeblood biology, but it isn’t expressed in their default state. This raises a question: what causes a Jadeblood to undergo transformation into a rainbow drinker? Answering this is a little difficult, as we have a pitiful data pool of one to draw from. Nevertheless, we can examine Kanaya (as well as some dubiously canon content) to extrapolate a bit more about sparkly troll vampirism. Kanaya undergoes transformation into a RD when she is blasted through the stomach and seemingly killed by Eridan’s science powers. Off screen she regains consciousness, begins glowing, gulps down some friend blood, then returns with a vengeance. How do we explain this without leaning on the supernatural? Let's start by drawing on real world bloodsuckers. 

Little may be known about Alternia, but planet Earth is abound with creatures that subsist on blood. Mainly the trait is seen in bugs and parasites - this lends itself to our cause, as trolls seem to be more insectoid than mammalian in nature. Hematophagy (blood drinking) is a trait that has convergently evolved in creatures across the planet - that is to say, hematophagic creatures aren’t genetically related. The trait crops up on its own because it's widely useful, not because of a shared ancestral nematode. Vital fluids, after all, are incredibly prevalent and are in sure supply wherever animals live. It’s not farfetched to say that hematophagy would appear on other planets - especially planets like Alternia that are host to carbon based lifeforms similar to Earth’s. 

We can safely assume that blood drinking would work in the same way on Alternia as it does on Earth. That means rainbow drinkers face the same difficulties that Earth’s vampires do. Blood is not only difficult to obtain, but it’s also difficult to digest. So how do rainbow drinkers solve these conundrums? 

First, the method. Most terrestrial bloodsuckers are nocturnal - and not just for the spooky aesthetic. Fluttering, crawling, and slithering in on a sleeping host lessens your chance of being swatted on impact. Almost all hematophagic creatures are stealth feeders, and Rainbow Drinkers are no different. Trolls are a nocturnal species, but Kanaya is stated to be diurnal upon introduction. It would make sense for her and other potential Rainbow Drinkers to have a natural proclivity for daywalking, as it's much easier to feed from a sleeping troll than a waking one. Kanaya is also able to withstand the fierce, burning Alternian sun - a force which is enough to blind Terezi, and leave any troll who walks out in it for too long with a scathing sunburn. Even Jadebloods that are not currently or will never be rainbow drinkers are likely to exhibit non standard troll sleeping patterns, as they live primarily in the brooding caverns - dark, underground caves where the sun cycle wouldn’t really matter to them. When they do leave their caves to hunt, the glowing, white skin of a Rainbow Drinker would likely be a large boon against the Alternian sun’s devastating rays. In Friendsim we’re told that Lusii’s bright white coats help to protect them from the sun. It’s likely the same for rainbow drinkers; the color white reflects all wavelengths of light far better than any other, thus their radiance and pale complexion provides them an extra level of defense when they’re out hunting. Friendsim also vaguely mentions Rainbow Drinker extract in Tagora’s route, where it’s used as a luxury skincare/beauty product that makes a troll’s skin look literally radiant. Very little is said about the product itself, so it may be a hormone or a secretion derived from Rainbow Drinkers. In the case of the latter… Kanaya and other Rainbow Drinkers might just be really greasy? 

Now, in canon Kanaya theorizes that Rainbow Drinkers glow because of their home in the near pitch black caverns. It’s true that even with trolls' natural night vision, more light sources would be a boon. Animals that thrive in the dark like cats and wolves can’t magically see without a light source, rather their eyes are specially adapted to reflect even scant amounts of light. Animals that live in true darkness, like those found in the depths of caves, are more commonly blind. If no light is present, even night vision fails. With the mother grub’s natural habitat being subterranean, her special attendants possessing an internal light source would make sense. 

We have to change gears now and reckon with the How of troll blood drinking and Kanaya surviving. First: how can a troll survive on blood? We know that all trolls - even Kanaya, subsist on diets of foods akin to what you and I eat. Is it even possible to suddenly switch to a blood diet? The answer is yes. Blood drinking comes in two forms: obligatory and facultative. Obligatory, as the name implies, refers to creatures like fleas and ticks who only consume blood, whereas facultative refers to creatures that have a mixed diet of blood and other foods. Mosquitos for example only drink blood when they need to produce eggs. Rainbow Drinkers are likely similar - mainly eating standard troll goodies, but being able to rely on blood if the going gets tough. Natural resources may be scant in the brooding caverns, and the ability to survive on blood would be incredibly advantageous for those living there. Blood would of course be in no short supply given the population and purpose of the caverns. The implication I’m getting at is well… not every grub survives the caverns trials, or even the caverns in general. Between imperial drones, hoards of lusii, and difficult terrain, the brooding caverns can be dangerous. It would make sense for the troll denizens living there to be exceptionally tough and capable of “recycling” the grubs that don’t make it. Horrible. I’m sorry. But that’s nature. 

The transformation into Rainbow Drinker could very well be triggered by shock or extreme physical duress. After undergoing the transformation and taking a nice sloppy drink from her friends, Kanaya begins to exhibit increased physical abilities. Natural durability and rainbow drinker abilities serve Jades well in their special role as mother grub attendants, and I think that’s in part how Kanaya was able to survive Eridan’s attack. That, and the noticeable difference in how she and Feferi were hit. Fef was hit in the chest while Kan was hit in the stomach. Assuming troll biology is comparable to our own, cleaving out the lungs and heart is a lot worse than cleaving out the stomach. Now don’t get me wrong, both are awful, But if one of the two was going to survive, it would be Kanaya - not only is she a durable Jade (see above), but as a facultative blood drinker, it could be possible for her to have a separate stomachs for blood and food. The digestion process of the two is completely different, so throwing all of it into one pouch might not be a good idea. Outside of durability and luck with the placement of the blast, this could be why Kanaya was able to get back on her feet. And she’s a Sylph, a natural healer class. But this isn’t a classpect analysis, so I’ll leave that discussion for people wiser than I. 

Jadebloods are stated to be the second rarest blood type out there, and those that are able to turn Rainbow Drinker exemplify how badass the whole caste is. It’s likely that they don’t possess these skills because they’re the chosen attendants of the mother grubs, but rather these traits are why the mother grubs chose Jades as their keepers in the first place. As much as I wish we’d gotten more info about Rainbow Drinkers from canon, it was fun to explore how they could potentially work, and it really cemented Jades as my favorite caste. Anyway, please excuse me while I go draw myself a Rainbow Drinker trollsona. 

[heuristicallyinclined]

SPF Five Million or Whatever

Summary: Mspa Reader figures they need some sunlight and recruits a few friends to help them get it.

Rating: T for language

Notes: I haven't written any of the jades before and I really love them and tried my best to capture their dynamic. I really love imagining Mspa Reader's adventures between Friendsim and Pesterquest. I feel like the games were really just scratching the surface of their shenanigans.  

(AO3)

You are pretty sure that people need about twenty minutes of sunlight a day to stay healthy. 

Or at least that is what you think it is. You never really thought about it too much to be honest. Having spent a decent amount of time outside walking, you figured you were getting your daily dose in without much effort, and maybe you just didn’t realize how good you had it, not living on a planet that even passively was trying to kill you. Because right now, you know for a fact you’re getting the ideal amount of sunlight on Alternia, which in your personal experience is fucking ziltch.

You tried it once and learned pretty fast that what might leave you with a healthy glow on Earth, would leave you well done on Alternia, a disgusting state for any piece of meat to be in, let alone your body. So that was clearly an Earth exclusive recommendation. 

Still, you think some sunlight would do you good. 

Especially since you were starting to feel this constant exhaustion after a few months on Alternia. After ruling out your questionable diet and semi existent sleep schedule, you were left with the fact that you were likely getting a vitamin D deficiency. 

Frankly, you have not survived your various trials and many tribulations here on Alternia to let rickets be what finally kills you. Absolutely not. No. You’re too proud to die in the lamest way possible on a planet with significantly more respectable and less preventable ways of dying. 

This does mean you’ll have to face off with the Alternian sun, which really isn’t that much better on the lame death scale. Last time you got caught out during daylight, you got really lucky. You aren’t counting on a second time where a gorgeous cowgirl, alien Lassie, and a lot of dumb luck would happen to rescue you from your own poor life choices. 

So this time, you were going to try to be smart about doing something this monumentally stupid. You were going to get water, a floppy hat, and some ice packs. Now you just had to not do this alone, especially when you knew someone who touted the merits of the buddy system. 

Luckily, you also know a few people who could withstand the sun’s rays. 

Finding out that jadeblood sun resistance was in fact a real thing and not just the latest in fucking with the local alien made this a whole lot easier and left you with a few options to consider. You figured Wanshi was too young to be kept up that late and that you’d rather not traumatize her if this went sideways. Bronya mentioned being busy with a new brood hatching and managing the herd of lusii they attracted to the caverns so that was a no go. Lanque would likely be otherwise occupied or at least claim to be and you’d rather him not see you like this if you could help it. That left you with Daraya, who you knew would be up and likely be down for some alien shenanigans. But most importantly, Lynera.

One massive check in her favor is she already had experience inconspicuously carrying your injured body through the caverns unnoticed by literally anyone else to a secondary location So discretion was clearly already a strong suit of hers. The context for how she even got that much experience in the first place is none of your business, especially now that you’re friends. And you’d say you two were actually pretty close after all the time you’ve spent hanging out with her in the caverns and going out on little cafe trips.

Really, she was the ideal candidate for this by every observable metric. Well, almost.

While she is loyal enough that you knew that she would help you hide a body if asked, she has also threatened enough people for perceived slights against you that she would very likely be the reason there was a corpse hanging around in the first place. So having Daraya be there too was probably a safe move. 

Oh it’s all coming together now.

You were feeling really good about this. Your confidence in yourself, your friends, and your planning abilities carried you through two difficult conversations. One with a veneer of apathy trying to conceal some very real concern, the other incredibly loud and extremely worried, but you got through them and that’s what matters. 

So here you are at the brooding caverns, tucked away inside the turn just before the mouth, clad in some cool guy shades from Cirava, a sun hat from Charun, some shorts from Remele, and a Xoloto brand tank top complete with strategic ripping that makes it basically impossible to wear anywhere in public without a layer underneath. 

Your friends are right here with you. Lynera is alternating between pacing and fretting over the placement of your sun hat for the seventh time to really make sure your hair doesn’t ignite. You know it won’t and you told her it won’t, but you let her fuss. She just needs to do something with her hands to stay calm. You can at least let her have that with what you’re about to do. Daraya checks her palm husk again for the time as dawn steadily approaches. You take a deep breath in, psyching yourself up. 

So you never actually figured out what the Alternian sun equivalent to twenty minutes of Earth sun is. But you think a minute should be enough to do it and not pass out. It feels about right. You have based this off of no math whatsoever, but you’ve done worse with less prep, so you’re not going to let some nerd shit stop you. Especially not now, when you hear Daraya sigh. You know that it’s show time. 

You look at her to confirm as she pockets her device and you see some light begin to stretch into the cavern’s entrance. She looks at it too, frowning as it approaches.

“▲▲ try not to fry your pan ▼▼"

You give her a reassuring smile and run up through the mouth of the cave, and stop just past the entrance, arms up wide and outstretched, like you were doing the YMCA dance and lost rhythm just past the first letter, ready to receive that sunlight you so desperately craved. The sun hits your skin and there is a comfort in feeling’s its warmth after living in eternal night.

You really missed this.

...

Actually, you know what? No you don’t. Fuck this. 

That “gentle warmth” quickly became a scorching blaze and to your credit, you made it a solid ten seconds under the full wrath of that relentless bitch they called a sun before you decided to quit while you were ahead and conscious. You dash back towards the entrance, uncomfortably aware of every step you take. Lynera stops nervously pacing and stiffens when you reenter the shade and runs towards you. Daraya is ready and quickly hands you a water bottle. You struggle to open the cap because of the condensation making the bottle slick and it exacerbates the painful tingle you’re feeling all over your hands. And your face. And your everything actually. 

You continue struggling until you finally succeed in twisting the cap off, but your victory immediately proves to be a hollow one, as your tight grip on the bottle has water going everywhere. 

God. Damn. It. 

You’re vaguely cognisant of a screeching sound somewhere behind you, but you have more important concerns right now. By some absolute miracle, a decent amount of the water seems to have gotten on you and saturated your top, soothing the skin under it. You feel less like you’re on fire and more like you had marinated your entire body in icy-hot for a few hours before getting deep fried. 

You’d like to believe that that is a much more manageable situation. Your skin can’t tell much of a difference though so you waste no time and pour the rest out all over your face like you were a champ who just scored the winning goal instead of a dipshit speedrunning skin cancer. 

Daraya mercifully cracks a cold one with the boys and pours the contents of another water bottle on you like you were a plant she forgot to water. The cool sensation on your skin causes you to sigh in a relief that doesn’t last long, before you lose contact with the ground. Lynera has you thrown over her shoulder and starts quickly making her way back into the caverns to her respiteblock. The physical contact takes that previous painful tingle and absolutely fucking floors it, bringing you to a familiar world of pain that your ass was very content not revisiting. Daraya keeps pace behind the two of you with her arms crossed the face of someone who is totally not panicked.

You try to calm them, telling them you feel better already. Really, you mean it. 

This just causes Lynera to speed up and Daraya to grimace down at you instead of giving you an actual response. 

While, yes, you resent having flesh, you actually feel really awake right now. 

Daraya narrows her eyes. “▲▲ you mean from the pain? ▼▼”

No. No. That's different. And way more familiar. 

God. Despite looking like a freshly hatched octogenarian, Lynera can really book it. 

She carries your limp, increasingly dizzy body with ease. You knew she was deceptively strong and fast first hand, based off of her being able to immediately able to knock you the fuck out and lug you back to her combination study block murder dungeon. Honestly, being able to do anything with an alien discreetly deserves commendation. Commendation up and out the wazoo. 

You’re about to attempt to try to verbalize that thought, but just before the turn to get to Lynera's study block, she suddenly stops. She nervously glances between this hallway and another adjacent one one. Daraya almost bumps into her but stops herself just in time. 

"▲▲▲ what are you doing? We said we were just going to put them in a spare recuperacoon ▼▼▼" Daraya whisper yells. 

"They're a new color Daraya !!!" Lynera whisper yells to the point of negating the whisper part of the whisper yell and more just using a normal speaking volume with a hiss. “-they need !!! A medicull kit !!!”

Oh. You glance down at one of your dangling arms. That happened fast. In retrospect, you should have mentioned that was a thing that would potentially happen. How did you forget that?  

“▲▲▲ and do what? A medicull kit could make them worse. We don’t know shit about aliens ▼▼▼”

“-!!! well how would you know all of their injuries were taken care of! that we didnt miss anything!”  

“▲ they’re fine. We just, I don't fucking know? Rotate them in the slime? ▼”

“-like some sort of !!! rotisserie cluckbeast !!!” Lynera indignantly whisper shrieks. 

"▲▲ No!▼▼" Daraya quickly defends. The way her eyes quickly glance to the side seems to imply that's kind of exactly what it's like. 

Just like them rotisserie chickens. 

The longer their arguing went on, the more uncomfortably aware you were getting about the fact that you had a body and Lynera's clothes felt like steel wool grating against your poor skin. That and describing what they were doing as “whisper arguing” was becoming more and more of a stretch as it went on and started to get louder. You were worried you were going to attract unwanted attention. 

It is as soon as you have that thought, that a door opens, and you see an irritated Lanque groggily peek his head through to find the source of the commotion. 

His face remains still at first, blinking tiredly as he takes in the fuckery and only opens the door wider when the other two turn at the sound of his door opening and he registers you slumped over Lynera’s shoulder with a single raised brow. 

You smile and wave at him, despite how lightheaded her turn had you feeling, and Daraya quickly pulls your hand down and stands in front of you like there was nothing to see here. You let out a weak, “ow,” as she did, your flesh protesting at the touch. She glances back at you quickly, before exasperatedly turning to look back at Lanque with her arms crossed.

“▲▲ what? ▼▼”

He measuredly looks at the scene before him. Really taking in all of the bullshit before side eyeing Lynera. 

“You threW the alien into broad daylight? EVen for you, that's crazy.” He almost sounds surprised, before smiling sweetly, “NoW Who’s going to tolerate you?” 

Lynera sputters something, clearly offended, but Daraya cuts her off with a groan, 

“▲ they literally need sunlight to live Lanque ▼”

His face twists. “Are they a fucking plant?” 

“-no!!!" Lynera considers for a moment before yelling again just as loud. “-most likely not!!!”

He looks from your trio, to the small puddle of water forming under you, and glances back to the trail of water you apparently had dripping from you this whole time. 

You know, you’re really starting to see the plant angle here. 

“▲▲ look they just needed some stupid sunlight and we hung around to make sure they didn’t just get too cooked or whatever. What, are you going to tell Bronya on us? ▼▼" Daraya half mocks, half asks.

“No, of course not.” Lanque almost seems offended. “I don’t see any reason to inVolVe myself With you tWo Watching the alien give themselVes sun sickness.”

You ask no one in particular what sun sickness is.

“-can aliens get sun sickness???” Lynera asks with a newfound panic.

Lanque irritatedly replies, “HoW Would I knoW?” 

You feel briefly dejected that no one answered. Until another thought crosses your mind. It wasn’t related to anything occurring at the moment, but it was weird enough that you don’t know how this was the first time you had ever really thought about it. Maybe the events of this morning were what it took for you to even be able consider this quandary. 

Why do they say troll before a name? Like troll Will Smith? Doesn’t that imply there is another kind of WIll Smith? Like if they’re all trolls, why say troll? Oh shit, is that why they do it? Did you tell them about human Will Smith or would that be like human Whillh Smithh? Human Willhh Smyyth? 

You rack your mind for other ways of making Will Smith a valid troll name, concentration evident on your face. 

Lanque looks at you like you’re an idiot. “What the fuck are you talking about? You're just repeating the same name.”

The spelling? You narrow your eyes as you consider the spelling. It is the clearest thing in the world right now to you. It’s spelled different Lanque.

“I can’t hear how it’s spelled.”

Daraya’s eyes widen. "▲▲ They fried their fucking pan ▼▼ " 

You still don’t know what sun sickness is, but you strongly suspect you may have it, especially since most of what happened afterwards was kind of a blur. 

What you think you can remember is the sound of someone coming. Quick, determined footsteps that you couldn’t recognize, but Lynera clearly could as she stiffened first. She maybe said something about Bronya doing a curfew round? You think? Either way, it had everyone else on immediate edge and was enough for Lanque to decide this wasn’t worth staying awake for. He made a final comment and you heard a door shut, leaving your trio behind. 

Daraya and Lynera exchanged words, finally remembering the “whisper” part of whisper yelling. They came to an agreement of some sort with Lynera nodding and heading to her studyblock and Daraya going off in the direction of what was probably Bronya.

Mentally, you are pressing F to pay your respects. Physically though, you register your orientation rapidly shifting. While you weren’t crazy about your position over Lynera's shoulder, what with her sweater vest grating against your torso and all, it turns out you enjoyed being moved out of it even less. The blood running away from your head had you feeling woozy in a whole new way.

To her credit, Lynera did not just immediately dunk you into the recuperacoon a la Space Jam like you’re sure she wanted to. She instead carefully lets you sink into it with a gentleness that starkly contrasted her worry. Normally, you would say that being put into a vat of slime is not an experience you would be looking forward to. Right now though, you’re loving it. It is an absolute godsend as it acts a cool balm against your skin.

Lynera continues and gingerly removes your shades and places them on an end table next to your sunhat. You were about to thank her and let her know she was in fact “a real one,” but you got cut off by her grabbing a handful of slime and smearing it on your face. 

You sputter and instinctively try to move away, but you’re no match for her. She’s dealt with fussy grubs with sharp teeth for way too long to actually be deterred by your feeble efforts to resist. You don’t know how you’d rate the experience between, “children haphazardly covering you in slick grease paint” to “alien clay mask ensuring you don’t have enough skin to even entertain having clogged pores,” but you aren’t in a position to be opposed to it. It actually feels kinda nice when it’s in a smooth, even layer and not a huge fucking dollop on your face. 

When she’s done, she wipes her hands while saying something to you. You don’t really register it, so you just kinda smile and nod. It’s your usual go to when you aren’t quite sure what is happening around you and it hasn’t led you too astray in the very many times you’ve done it. You’ll just ask her what she said in the evening.

Lynera seems pleased and starts moving to turn off the lights. Before she does, you thank her. She smiles at you, the corners of her eyes crinkling, and glances back at you as she goes, leaving you feeling warm inside and out for two extremely different reasons. 

You settle down, trying to get cozy. You're not going to pretend you know much about sopor slime. You assumed it comes from a plant and haven't tried to confirm that little theory of yours because you need to believe that for your own sake. It's plant goo. From some kind of alien aloe vera or something. An extremely fleshy plant just ripe with goo for the taking. If you ever learn otherwise, no you didn't. 

After you wake up and wipe off the slime, you find that you’ve healed surprisingly quickly. You’re still very tender to the touch, you find that out real fast, but your skin looks a lot less irritated than when you last saw it. This bit of good news and vitamin d that you assume you now have coursing through your veins that hopefully was not mostly used up on healing your skin, puts a little pep in your step as you get ready for the night. Before you exit the caverns, you feel a pang of hunger.

You can practically hear Bronya reminding you how breakfast is the most important meal of the day, so you walk into the meal block, figuring that no one would mind too much if you grabbed a breakfast bar or two before you left. Maybe you’ll even get lucky and find the ones that kind of taste like peanut butter and are crunchy for reasons you’d rather not identify. You aren’t alone when you enter. Lanque is there, sitting at a table. He looks up from his palm husk and eyes you.

“Did you change color?”

Yeah. Humans being exposed to sunlight makes them create a protective pigment so they're more able to be exposed to the sun.

“I’m fascinated.” he says, anything but. “So you're going to turn jade?” 

No, more of a slightly darker version of what you are now. 

He hums, now totally disinterested and looking back down at his chittr feed. Guess the limits of your rainbowdrinker like attributes have worn off on him. 

Anyways, this just means that this will be easier next time you go out during the day. 

That statement gives him pause. Lanque looks up from his palm husk, looking out before glancing at you dubiously. 

"Next time?" 

[framecaught]

Transmedia Storytelling: A Perspective on the Homestuck Epilogues

First of all, thank you for reading my first post! I created this blog to document some of my research for a directed study project. I’ll be looking at Homestuck from an interdisciplinary lens but focusing especially on its formal artistic qualities and place in art history. The blog will contain various points of analysis which I develop over the course of the project. For my first piece of writing, I wanted to tackle (from a new perspective) what I view as a complicating factor in the controversy surrounding the Homestuck Epilogues.

Rather than critiquing the Epilogues’ content or making a judgement about their overall quality, I want to explore a specific criticism which has been echoed time and time again by fans. In an article for the online journal WWAC, Homestuck fan-writer Masha Zhdanova sums up this criticism:

“No matter how much members of the creative team insist that their extension to the Homestuck line of work is no more official than fanwork, if it’s hosted on Homestuck.com, promoted by Homestuck’s official social media accounts, and endorsed by the original creator, I think it’s a little more official than a fanfic with thirty hits on AO3.”

Between attacks on the Epilogues’ themes, treatment of characters, and even prose-quality, fans have frequently referenced the issue of endorsement and canonicity as summarized above. Although the Epilogues and Homestuck’s other successors (including Homestuck^2 and the Friendsims) attempt to tackle themes of canonicity within their narratives, critics of the Epilogues contend that this philosophical provocation falls flat. While the creators argue that the works should form a venue for productively questioning canonicity, fans point to issues of capital and call the works disingenuous. In Episode 52 of the Perfectly Generic Podcast Andrew Hussie explains that, to him, the Epilogues are “heavily implied to be a piece of bridge-media, which is clearly detached from the previous narrative, and conceptually ‘optional’ by its presentation, which allows it to also function as an off-ramp for those inclined to believe the first seven acts of Homestuck were perfectly sufficient.” As Zhdanova paraphrases, a critical view posits that this “optional” reading is impossible. The company ethos and production of capital inherent to the Epilogue’s release—their promotion, their monetization—renders their “fanfic” backdrop completely moot, if not insulting.

Why does appropriating the “aesthetic trappings” [1] of AO3 strike such a chord with critics, though? What’s wrong with the Epilogue creators profiting from their work? Other officially endorsed “post-canon” materials, including the Paradox Space comics, Hiveswap and Friendsim games, have not inspired such virulent opposition. The issue comes down to the association between the AO3 layout and the separation from canon. The Epilogues ask us to read them as “tales of dubious authenticity,” but critics assert that this reading makes no sense in the context of their distribution. It’s not exactly the endorsement or monetization that prevents a “dubious” reading, though. After all, Hiveswap is also endorsed and monetized, yet fans have no problem labeling it as “dubiously canon.” So what is it about the Epilogues’ presentation that seems so incongruous with their premise as “dubious” texts?

I’ve come to understand this issue through the lens of transmedia storytelling. First conceptualized by Henry Jenkins, “transmedia storytelling” involves the production of distinct stories, contained within the same universe, across different media platforms. [2] This allows consumers to pick and choose stories across their favorite media outlets, since each story is self-contained, but superfans can still consume All The Content for a greater experience. The Marvel franchise with its comics, movies, TV shows, and other ephemera, is a great example of the transmedia phenomenon.

How does Homestuck fit into this theory? In an excellent article [3] for the Convergence journal, Kevin Veale lays out a taxonomy for Homestuck’s role in new media frameworks. Rather than dispersing different stories across multiple media platforms, Homestuck combines the “aesthetic trappings” of many media forms into one massive outlet: the Homestuck website [4]. It’s almost like the inverse of transmedia storytelling. Veale describes this type of storytelling as “transmodal.” He further defines Homestuck’s storytelling as “metamedia,” meaning that it manipulates the reader’s expectations of certain media forms to change the reading experience. So, despite its multimedia aspects, Homestuck structures itself around one monolith distribution channel (the website), the importance of which directly feeds into what we know as “upd8 culture.” The Homestuck website itself, as a “frame” which encapsulates Homestuck and the other MS Paint Adventures, takes on a nostalgic quality; the familiar grey background and adblocks become inextricably linked with the production of the main, “canon” narrative.

Homestuck itself—the main narrative—is a transmodal venture. However, as of writing this post, the Homestuck franchise has taken a leap into transmedia waters, starting with the Paradox Space comics and continuing with Hiveswap, the Friendsims, and Homestuck^2. All four of these examples fit the definition of transmedia ventures: they contain distinct stories still set in the Homestuck universe and are distributed through fundamentally separate media channels from the main comic. Which is to say, crucially, none of them are hosted on the Homestuck website.

This is where I think the issue arises for the Epilogues. The Epilogues, from what I can tell, aimed to present themselves as a transmedia venture rather than a transmodal one. Firstly, they try to act as a “bridge-media,” or self-contained story. They can be read as a continuation of Homestuck, but can also be separated or ignored. Secondly, they take on a distinct format (prose). Hussie notes in PGP Ep. 52 that the Epilogues were originally only meant to be published in print, functioning as a “cursed tome.” In short, they were intended as a transmedia venture: a self contained story, distributed through a separate medium (prose) and separate media channel (print), to be embraced or discarded by consumers at their whim.

Instead, when the Epilogues were released through the main Homestuck website, readers couldn’t help but interpret them as part of Homestuck’s long transmodal history. Rather than interacting with a new distribution channel, readers returned to the same nostalgic old grey website. The AO3 formatting gag makes no real difference to readers, as Homestuck patently appropriates the aesthetics of other platforms all throughout its main narrative. This issue of distribution (print versus website), which in turn produces either a transmedia or transmodal reading, is the crux of the criticism I mentioned before. Despite the creators’ protests, readers failed to see any “question” of canonicity because the Epilogues fit perfectly into the comic’s preexisting transmodal framework, supported even further by the nostalgia of the website’s very layout. The Epilogues read as a transmodal contribution to Homestuck’s main channel rather than a post-canon, transmedia narrative (like Paradox Space or the Friendsims) as they were intended. This created a profound dissonance between the fans’ experiences and the creators’ intentions.

How things might have turned out differently if the Epilogues really had been released solely as “cursed tomes,” the world will never know. In PGP, Hussie cites the importance of making content freely accessible on the website as a reason for the online release, which is certainly a valid consideration. Even though the print format offers a much clearer conceptual standpoint as a transmedia “bridge-story” [5], issues of capital and accessibility may still have come to the forefront of discussion. As it stands, though, I think the mix-up between transmedia and transmodal distribution was a key factor in the harsh criticism the Epilogues sparked.

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[1] I love this term, “aesthetic trappings”, which Masha Zhdanova uses, so I’ve overused it to some degree in my post.

[2] Henry Jenkins, Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide, 2007: pg. 98. You can also find a description of transmedia storytelling on his blog.

[3] Veale, Kevin. “‘Friendship Isn’t an Emotion Fucknuts’: Manipulating Affective Materiality to Shape the Experience of Homestuck’s Story.” Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies 25, no. 5–6 (December 2019): 1027–43. https://doi.org/10.1177/1354856517714954.

[4] Although the Homestuck website shifted branding from mspaintadventures.com to homestuck.com before the Epilogues’ release and has shifted its aesthetic somewhat (re: banners and ads), I treat the core “website” as the same location in my post

[5] Hussie points to numerous fascinating experiences which might have arisen from the print distribution. He describes a tome as “something which maddeningly beckons, due to whatever insanity it surely contains, but also something which causes feelings of trepidation” and references the sheer size of the book and “stark presentation of the black and white covers” as elements which produce this trepidation. The ability to physically experience (through touch) the length of the Epilogues and the impact of the book cover were lost in the online format. Although the Epilogues have been released in their intended book format now, the printed novel still won’t be a “first reading experience” for most fans. 

[gooberjam]

Please always feel free to give more of your takes as to why the homestuck epilogues are bad, you always manage to hit the nail on the head. Would also like to know your thoughts on Hiveswap and the Friendsims, if you have any.

honestly i could go for a long time. i’ve been kinda in the process of writing a whole dang ass essay about it just to clear my own head about my thoughts on it so i’m sure i’ll touch on why the epilogues and hs2 fucked it.

hiveswap and friendsim is interesting in contrast to the epilogues and hs2 bc i actually really enjoyed them? hiveswap had it’s grievances for sure; severely delayed release, buggy gameplay, the fact that the rest of it still hasn’t come out lol -- but in general i enjoyed the characters and the set up of everything. i felt excited playing it and it seemed like a really quality tie-in to the homestuck universe like you could taste it (tho i think i gotta revisit sometime soon bc sometimes the first time you experience stuff related to things you’re already into you’re leaning p hard on bias)

the friendsim is good as fuck because that format, the format we saw in pesterquest, actually REALLY works there! what’s the difference-- these are all new characters! we don’t already know basically everything there is to know about them, so we don’t need all the exposition pesterquest subjected us to which ultimately ruined a lot of the character you’d expect from like dirk or vriska or tz or literally anyone. the beta kids had good routes but after that it kinda sucked ass?

anyway, friendsim is really great and i enjoyed every episode of it. again, a good dive into the homestuck universe had that real good flavor to it mm yea..

i think the main flaws of pesterquest and hs2 is a fundamental misunderstanding of the medium they’re using in order to share their stories? like i said with pesterquest-- the visual novel gameplay style lends itself to exposition, having characters that want to open up to you and tell you how you’re feeling. you can do this really well if you allow for the time needed to become close enough so certain types of characters will open up to you, but pesterquest didn’t provide that time, and the time it DID have it decided to dedicate to 1) things we’ve already seen and know and 2) some whacky wild headcanons made ‘canonical’ for some reason who knows

hs2 is just a clusterfuck which manages to wear the corpse of homestuck like a haphazard onesie, clubbing the mummified remains of a horse. it neglects the format of the original comic in ways that subtract more than add, and every time i check in on it every once in a blue moon it’s like walking into a public bathroom where there’s a dude letting out a wet sloppy diarrhea dookie into the stall closest to the door. 

[peachy-artist]

Time for me to write an essay on Mallek and MSPA Reader’s relationship. Hiveswap Friendsim spoilers down below!

So, actually, I’m not done talking about this yet and I need a distraction from all this stress life is forcing me into, so let’s talk about this some more! Let’s do a full-on analysis of Mallek’s and MSPA Reader’s relationship!!!

(these tags are from this post by the way; please give the artist some love for good art and making me think on this)

I’m going to try to go through this chronologically, but it’s Homestuck and you know how that goes.

When MSPA Reader first meets Mallek, he literally takes their breath away. Of course, the joke is made that the MSPA Reader can’t catch it now because they drove away and their breath is miles away by now. But, take the joke away and MSPA Reader is looking at Mallek, unable to breathe. This could be for two reasons: they’re fearing for their life as they have been kidnapped by a blue-blooded troll (understandable) or they immediately got attracted to Mallek (also understandable). I’ll be honest, I think the former is more likely as MSPA Reader actually mistakes Mallek as an indigo blood at first, but let’s just put all clues on the table, just in case.

But wait!! MSPA Reader spends quite some time talking about Mallek’s appearance right after. There’s not much of a need to do this. Right after stating that Mallek’s “straight chillin’”, they could have shown Mallek’s image to show what he looks like. Describing it in text means that the MSPA Reader themself is thinking about it. So maybe it’s not so unlikely that MSPA Reader is immediately attracted to Mallek after all.

Let’s get the counter-argument out of the way. Mallek could be checking you out because he thinks your a robot and MSPA Reader is brainwashed into friendship and will befriend anything that moves. But consider...MSPA Reader could be mistaking their attraction for friendship because Doc Scratch messed with their head. Who’s to say that MSPA Reader wouldn’t recognize their attraction for something more if they had a clear head?

Let’s consider this textbox. Mallek comes in the 11th volume. MSPA reader has spent some good time in Alternia and should know by now that nobody blends in. By this time, they met Chahut. They met Azdaja. They met Zebruh (oh gosh, Zebruh...). They met Kuprum and Folykl. In a world where everybody stands out, everyone blends in. So why would MSPA Reader have noticed someone like Mallek. One word. Attraction.

Okay, I do actually think MSPA Reader is leaning in because they think Mallek thinks they’re a terrific friend and they finally found someone who understands. But, I think that actually helped boost up MSPA Reader’s romantic attraction to him! Once they started thinking “*gasp* maybe?”, it’s hard to let that connection go, even after being shot down.

We’re not discussing much on Mallek’s part right now because his main attraction to MSPA Reader at this point is thinking that they’re a robot. But, like I said, we’re putting all clues on the table.

All right, now we got the two different long endings. I’m gonna go with the bad one first, where MSPA Reader lies and says they’re a high-tech robot.

HAHAHA, MY HEART STOPPED AT THIS PART. Okay, but for real. There is NO reason for a flirty smile if you’re just interested in cracking a robot. And it could be that the MSPA Reader is misinterpreting it. But then the questions stands as to why they see it as flirty. Is it because they themself are attracted to him? Le gasp!

Even the MSPA Reader feels that Mallek was hitting on them. And note that they didn’t do their usual “I just want friendship, bud!” Instead, they’re bewildered and confused and in love. 

Do I need to explain this one? I don’t think I do.

Nice choice of words, Mallek. Thank you for proving my point further.

More focus on his appearance that would only be necessary if MSPA Reader is attracted to him HMMMMMM...

Okay, bad ending done and clues have been put on table. Now to turn the magnifying glass to the good ending, where MSPA Reader confesses that they are not a robot.

Okay, I know the MSPA Reader has this super power to make even the most inhibited people open up, but this here is a clue and on the table it goes! Mallek takes MSPA Reader to his special place after just meeting? HMMMMM...

Yeah, Mallek could have easily went, “Well, you’re not a robot. Bye!” There was no reason for him to keep hanging with MSPA Reader. Unless, of course, he’s attracted to them now. And now that he knows that they’re not a robot, it’s safe to assume it’s romantic attraction than just interest!

More focus on appearance!

MSPA admits to trying to be flirty! This is big, seeing as before, they avoided flirting like the plague. They just want friendship! But they sure seem comfortable with Mallek 👀

Some more focus on appearance! Also, MSPA Reader is touched that Mallek came to save them.

It’s a crime for me to post this text box without Mallek himself. Anyway, MSPA Reader almost drowned and instead of being like, “Man, trolls sure are violent”, they are enamored with Mallek being shirtless and his piercings. 

And here’s the great slip of the tongue. Coolboy Mallek who so flawlessly hit on MSPA Reader in the bad ending fumbled and confessed that they think MSPA Reader is cute. He’s so embarrassed that he flushes, instead of just trying to play it off as no big deal. He’s vulnerable now and is confessing that, yes, the MSPA Reader is cute and he is attracted to them!

He’s stuttering now and trying to change the subject, trying to distract MSPA Reader so they don’t realize he basically just confessed his attraction to them. Also, this leads up to him with a very big moment...

Mallek’s sign!! Mallek gives MSPA Reader one of his hoodie’s with his sign on it. The infamous hoodie that MSPA Reader wears for the rest of this game and Pesterquest. Signs are a big deal for trolls. In Hiveswap Act I, Xefros tells Joey that even using the same typing quirk as another troll is reserved for special relationships. In Galekh’s route, he looks to the matching hoodies in shock because wearing the same sign is a big deal.

Mallek should know this. He’s lived in Alternia his whole life. He knows sharing a sign is a big deal. MSPA Reader also has been in Alternia for a while by now and likely realizes that sharing a sign = a big deal. So Mallek suggesting MSPA Reader wear his sign and MSPA Reader stating that they “can’t think of anything [they’d] like more”? They’re basically matesprits at this point, let’s be real.

Okay, I am no where near done talking about this. I still wanna analyze their relationship in Galekh’s route and maybe Pesterquest too, but this is long enough as is. So, assuming I don’t lose steam, gonna end it here and keep the rest for a part two!

[hyperray]

I had a dream about Hades having a major update

I just had a day dream and I've got this dream where Hades had a lot of changes, and I want to write about it before I'll forget So the training room has gotten really large, there are new weapons added but Skelly is gone for some reason In the middle of the upper left end, there is like a daily present thing that looks person-sized, it was the first thing that was shown to me And 6 weapons surrounded it on each side, while on the down end there are still more weapons. One of those weapons was a huge double-edged ax that looked like a square on a stick The first one, the default Zagreus one, had red but mostly had a topaz-like color. The second one was all silver and looked like a big razor The third one was all red, the middle of the square blade had orange diagonal paraklel stripes, and dangling from the down end were 10 feathers The attacks were that you could hit hard but strike slower than the other weapons, because if it's size. And the special attack was a continuous spin that was mid-slow and you had extremely little control of where it moved. The second new weapon I remembered was right at the end, where at the down left corner there was the shield and sword of Steven Universe. Lol, imagine calling out his name before the Hades fight. And when Zag was about to get the Ax weapon I openly said that I hoped there was a sythe. There were also new trading items, the items that replaced buying the weapons were. I think it was candy, scones. They had a big, round, and light green thing at the center while it was circularly surrounded by dough. There were also two new gods, both of them were moon gods but with different genders. The first one, the male one, had a remakrable chin and stared at me very seriously. His chin and jawline looked like Boldir's from Friendsim but exaggerated and it would be the first thing you'd notice off of him. The second one was a woman who had a laughing mask on like a Harlequin Idk what they were talking about, but the first one either admired my actions or told me to take things more serious. Something like that. So then he goes out of the chamber, out of his room and there was one new character that was also a talking head like Dusa, but not a Gorgon, but a skeleton head. She was pitch black, had long and triangular eyes, she looked mad, and had big, squared, unedged teeth down there but no jaw. She was called a Chaos Elemental. And said something about having the desire to see the daylight being related to the concept of Chaos. Some philosophical stuff. After I've read that name I've hoped there was an order equivalent and that the Chaos Elemental woman was engaged with an Order Elemental guy (There weren't and she wasn't, at least that wasn't shown). I think if I had imagined that, Zagreus would be very confused about how two exact opposites could happily be engaged with each other and that they would explain that it is kinda like a Ying-Yang thing. And that's all I can remember.

[mostly-mundane-atla]

I'm really surprised there isn't more blatant fandom overlap between Avatar and Homestuck, specifically with re-imagining the Avatar characters and some little plot elements on Alternia. Not only for both having anti-war and anti-imperialism themes with emphasis on what it does to children who grow up in that environment (the friendsim does really well with that), but also because the setting of Alternia justifies things like a bunch of kids traveling with a large animal companion (citizens get automatically conscripted and booted off-planet once they hit age of majority, Alternian trolls are raised by a lusus instead of adults of their own kind) and color coding characters (Alternian trolls have different colored blood with their blood color indicating where they fit on the caste system; interestingly, according to the hemospectrum, the Fire Nation characters would be of the lowest and weakest caste, only faring better than mutant bloods which are supposed to be culled upon hatching instead of allowed to grow up, and Yue would be the most powerful and hardest to kill).

On the flipside, I'd also love to see how some of the Hiveswap Friendsim characters would interact with the Avatar-verse during the events of the original series. Characters like Tyzias, who is being forced into an unjust system and uses it as an opportunity to push for change from the inside, or Zebruh, whose understanding of his privelege as someone in a higher caste ends at knowing it can persuade others to accept his creepy advances, or Polypa, a homeless assassin whose awful experiences have pushed her to universal misanthropy, or Cirava, who barely escaped being sold into slavery by their friends and mutilated themself to get rid of the ability that made them valuable, or Folykl and Kuprum, who are overall nasty people to be around but also have to worry about being forcibly euthanized and enslaved respectively. They're all just teenagers.

[snowtimeisbesttime]

Thoughts and questions on Pesterquest Volume 7, routes 1 and 2!

-Considering how we get to Equius in his route, Nepeta just sat down next to Sollux at the top of the list of Potential Volume 8 Guys. We know their names, where they live, and we've also accumulated a good bunch of mutual friends. Also i just really want to see them..... (sollux could also share a volume with aradia (or feferi, or even eridan i guess), but we've had some eclectic troll groups so it could be anything)

~ROUTE 2~

-Terezi makes the :? face, all's good

-Getting hit in the head real hard counters retcon powers, apparently.

-Of course Vriska immediately tries to reconnect with Terezi once she's able to (read: is no longer forced to routinely murder random trolls)... its all in the vrisrezi.

-We get a snippet of Alternian Law, and it basically says that if you exist (/consume resources) on Empire territory while being 1- a mutant, 2- an alien or 3- a criminal against HIC aka a rebel, you Must perish. Considering that MC gets by perfectly fine in Friendsim (them having crimson blood was the biggest danger), but Joey apparently has to disguise herself as a troll.... oh boy I wonder what could bring such a change in the law!!!!!!!!!

-Speaking of changes in the law, we've got 3 versions of legislacerators now: from the ancestral era (said to be a mix of prosecutors and bounty hunters), from Hiveswap's time (where they seem to actually have a good amount of power even in Alternia- see Tirona deleting MC's criminal record), and finally, from Hivebent's time (iirc Terezi said in Homestuck that it was pretty much an office job- she's probably basing her whole thing in her route off what she knows about the legislacerators from her ancestor's time, which she also canonically liked better.)

-So, based on what we see in Pesterquest, legislacerators would have seemed a bit like performers, putting on a show for the audience- which does kinda fit with them working close to subjugglators. (It should be said that we have very different frames of reference for those three versions; respectively we have Neophyte Redglare, the five Troll Call teals -which are focused on their own, very different things- and Terepy Pipes herself.)

-why yes, mc's wearing a maryam original. (they haven't acquired any new clothes this volume though...)

-Actually the coin flip thing's brought Terezi a lot of pain... obviously when she killed Vriska all the way back then, which haunted her enough to have her explicitly tell John to prevent it from happening; there's also that one doomed Dave that went to sleep in his quest bed and later got jack noir'd...

-As it turns out, Terezi's just trying to keep her loved ones safe while hoping she might eventually be able to change things from the inside... just like another friend of us. And when MC instinctively tries to zap to Tyzias, they pop up at the Weird Hallway Of Tposes again. Which Terezi can describe as a nexus of metaphysical realities because she's dreamed about similar places.

-and we knew that whatever tyzias tried to do hadn't worked, because hivebent's alternia still sucks, but. Either we're purposefully barred from interacting with Friendsim friends because this is Pesterquest we're playing, or we can't reach her because she's dead. All there is to see now is if the Scourge Sisters will succeed where so many failed...

-Terezi does kinda get uncomfortably close to the Truth Behind Things when she says that they're all victims of the big picture... and that when they fight, the one who painted it laughs because they've already won...

-Looks like her first reaction when faced with the loss of Vriska is to get clowny... this isn't the first time Gamzee's been a distraction.

-Also, what he says when we zap to his hive implies that he's aware that he gets murdery whenever he's not high on pie, and in fact eats the pies to NOT be murdery... so why'd he run out in the meteor, again? Wouldn't he make sure to have a renewable source of them, if the alternative is killing his friends?

~ROUTE 1~

-Even if they can't consciously access their memories from Friendsim, MC still has them- and can use them for zap locations. God I hope they do go back to their hive and look through everything...

-mc: “Oh, Equius. Maybe he's chill.” equius: *currently beating the shit out of a robot*

-He does try to be cordial at first, if only because MC's friends of Gamzee. And then Karkat speaks for MC's sheer friendship power, which then kicks along the whole friendship thing.

-MC kinda looks a bit like Aurthour. This is certainly a thing. (also was aurthour's eye already bruised in equius' good route and i forgot?? or was that a ~fancy temporal bullshit holdover~ from his short end???)

-He didn't want to kill MC, even if he can't bring himself to say it. (iirc he was amongst the only ones to NOT attempt to kill anybody back in murderstuck, together with Karkat...)

-Equius has a fancy gamer chair.

-Of course the second MC shows him their teleport powers he wants to go see Nepeta. I mean say what you want about Equius but the guy's got his priorities straight. And of course as well, the T-pose guy from the funky troll hell nexus hallway of metaphysical realities won't let us skip ahead to her. (tpose guy speaks in white, just saying)

-On the one hand, acquiescing (for now...) to the wishes of someone he perceives as being of higher status of him isn't out of character from Equius. On the other hand, by now whenever any character shows hints of getting their minds fucked with by the narrative I immediately reenact that meme with the samurai holding a cat and a sword and other synonymous memes.

-At least MC and Equius get to talk about society, friendships, and the role they both play in people's lives. And we get confirmation that while big strength is an indigo thing (and that not every indigo has it), Equius' STRENGTH is on a whole other level.

-And in case getting to see the Nexus Hallway in both Equius' and Terezi's routes wasn't enough, in Equius' bad end we start screwing up the timeline in a... more esoteric way. Um, thank fuck we didn't get Paradox Space (comics) involved too, i guess?

-Horns are really sturdy, and we don't get to learn more about troll biology because whenever Equius starts talking about it whomever he's talking to bails. Admittedly, the first time was kinda understandable.

-how did equius break his horn? yes

-How in the fuck did grub Equius get to the Caverns??!?!!? Was he found by a random jade when his meteor landed?? Did our No SGRUB AU make it so the beta trolls were hatched regularly???