#i think we are always in need of more aradia on this blog

[incorrect-hs-quotes]

AA: 0kay i asked my pr0fess0r h0w l0ng until all the c0ntinents f0rm int0 0ne big c0ntinent again and he said like eighty t0 a hundred fifty milli0n sweeps and i said "s0 if i take en0ugh gummy vitamins i may be able t0 see it" and he g0t really quiet f0r a wh0le minute and l00ked c0nfused i think he th0ught i meant it 0h my g0d

AA: what is it ab0ut me that makes it s0 easy t0 believe im a dumbass

AA: is my delivery just that g00d?

TA: iim WHEEZIING

TA: ii thiink he ju2t thiink2 youre phy2iically capable of achiieviing iit through gummy bear2 alone.

AA: y0ure right. he wasnt c0nfused. he saw the truth 0f what i said and he was afraid. d0nt underestimate h0w badly i want t0 be ar0und t0 name the next superc0ntinent

TA: pangaea part two: the gang2 back twogether

AA: pangaea tw0: tect0nic b00gal00

[thewertsearch]

Asks Comp - 16/4

I literally did not know The Baby Is You was a thing. To be welcomed back into the comic like this after four months is very on brand for Homestuck.

... and wow, its outro really does match the end of this song, doesn't it? That's even funnier than if he'd snuck some of Megalovania in there.

Ooh, that's another liveblog I'll want to check out when I'm done! I've never actually seen a Worm liveblog before. Adding it to the list myself!

Nothing's really changed since I've been gone! I make a conscious effort not to do much Homestuck analysis off-blog, since I want my journey to be fully documented here.

It's good to be back! I'm looking forward to a full reread when I'm done.

Would you believe I didn't even know there was a book?

I also didn't know the movie had two (allegedly) terrible sequels, which is very funny. Neverending story indeed.

Thank you! I can't take too much credit, though - most of my tagging system has been crowdsourced from askers!

At some point, before we reach the end of the comic, I'm going to have to formalize my approach to liveblogging Homestuck's side content.

What I'll probably do is give each of them the 'lite' treatment initially, but if they turn out to be more canonical than I thought, or particularly interesting to liveblog, I'll 'zoom in', and analyze them properly. We'll see how we go!

Could you imagine the relationship dynamics in your average troll soap opera? The shipping web for a single season would make our heads explode.

It's a fun question. What sort of object symbolizes everything?

The first thing I'd try would be a star chart, Dave's magnifier and a literal planetful of Grist.

Added to the list! Not until later later on, though - I'd worry that the opinions and theories of another liveblogger could interfere with my own, especially if they're talking about it with someone who's already read it!

I would find it hard to disagree.

Do people think Act 1 is pointless?

I mean, it is the slowest Act in terms of pacing, but slow pacing isn't always a bad thing. You sort of have to take it slow when your readers have this much to get to grips with.

...okay, maybe we didn't need quite as many Sylladex mishaps as we got. But we still needed some. Homestuck has a lot to introduce you to.

I always pictured an English accent for Hass - although, interestingly, I didn't picture one for Jade. As a headcanon, I like the NZ one better.

Where did Grandpa grow up again, actually? He was raised by Fake Mark Twain, who was from Missouri - but I don't have a clue what a Missouri accent sounds like, let alone one from a century ago. I have a funny feeling that it's not the accent I'm imagining coming from Jade.

Now that's a ship I'd never have seen coming. Props to Hussie for coming up with something more controversial than my Feferi<>Equius.

All four kids, with four endgame weapons, might be able to challenge Jack's current incarnation - but they're not going to get the chance. You've hit the nail on the head - he's semi-perfect Jack for a reason.

I have several theories for Jade's prototyping, and every single one of them would make Jack even more dangerous than before. It's just barely possible to challenge him now, but things will only get worse.

Read the room, Serket!

Would Vriska have tried to negotiate? She feels like the type of person who'd rather take a beating than admit they're outclassed. Plus, I'm not sure how much she'd have to offer Aradia, who seemed entirely motivated by revenge (and, possibly, secretly motivated by timeline stuff).

All that said, I would have loved to hear Vriska trying to worm her way out of this.

I love it! Please send in the completed house, if you get the chance. That's going to look so cool with a moving meteor.

And they're both easily distractible! This feels like two people who might actually get on surprisingly well, if they were in, say, the same high school class.

It's hard to say what's a rarepair, since I don't know what ships are rare in the fandom - although I'd have a few guesses about the most common ones.

If we're going for a ship with very tenuous connections, I will submit Rose x Feferi for your appraisal. They're both fans of the Noble Circle, and their signature colors are pretty close.

You know what, I'll just review all of your ships. Tavros/Gamzee - PB&J - is pretty cute. [] I'd recommend Miracle Child for a number of reasons, but it does include a well-written Gamtav. Jack/Droog is more <> to me than it is <3. Like One Sundered Star might be influencing that? I'm not really sure. Somewhere I think I saw a Jack<>Droog. Your pre-shipping chart post isn't in the chrono; also, I'm pretty sure the A6A6I5 ask is one of mine. Gamzee/Eridan is a rarepair; I've seen it, but not often, and it's a <> in the fic I'm referencing. Kanaya<>Terezi and Feferi<>Vriska are strange enough that I've never seen them anywhere, really. [] And finally, Vriska and Tavros. These two are the textbook example of why the ashen quadrant needs to exist, and they're a perfect pair for it. [] ~LOSS (8/1/23)

I don't even know if Carapacians have moirallegiance - but those two would definitely work if they did.

Out of all my ships you flagged as rare, I think my favorite is Feferi<>Vriska. I just think they'd gel weirdly well together!

[acearadiamegido]

@rosenmarille Ooooo boy no bingo here but still

infodump under the cut!

-making it fucked up: I THINK they can flip blackrom sometimes. as a treat. they are both so sweet and so kind and they complement each other SO well. but that is only because they are diametrically opposed in some ways! i’ve elaborated on this point more in some other posts i think, but aradia finds comfort in independence, and often distance. she was forced for sooo much of her story to take action and be the hand that guides the timeline even in ways that she may find personally distasteful. and as a result she gets to the end of homestuck and she renounces all action and all responsibility for anything that happens because, well. she’s sick of it! it is SO much to put on her little 13 year old shoulders.

meanwhile jade wants soooo desperately to act, and to connect with the world around her. she wants to fix things! she wants to help her friends! and she is CONSTANTLY prevented from doing either of those things. she’s unconscious, or she’s trapped on an island, or her dog is keeping her out of the ruins, or she’s being mind controlled by an alien. this is ALSO a lot to put on a kid.

anyway they ultimately both value a lot of similar things, but when something goes wrong, i can see them getting into some real fucking conflict about how to handle it! i’ve compared them to ruby and sapphire from steven universe, in the episode where they argue and unfuse. aradia is the one who distances herself from the problem and tries to comfort jade by saying “hey look at the big picture! eventually none of this will matter! we don’t need to worry, or involve ourselves.” because that is comforting to HER. but to jade that sounds so cold and uncaring! to her, there’s a problem that they could potentially be working to FIX and aradia just wants them to sit there and do nothing?? that feels selfish. it also feels like a threat to her agency, because she’s never been given the option to get involved before! jade wants to finally take her chance get right into the thick of things and do her part to make everything better. which, to aradia, is lowkey threatening to HER agency! she doesn’t want to be tied down to the results of whatever happens, or be held responsible for making sure everything comes out okay. because she has always had that pressure on her to be the one to act and to guide things away from disaster.

so when they both get into that space i can totally see their nastier sides coming out. and i think that is very fun and interesting!

-i can make it so stupid: i already have babey. follow my daily doodle blog @autisticaradiamegido for gems such as:

this will also cover the very specific in-my-head scenarios lmao

-thematically delicious: see my AraJade Manifesto

i know i said this on the arasol post but i am also mentally unwell about these 2. this is the ship where i sit in an unlit storage room stringing notes together on a bulletin board. there is so much here

[divineerdrick]

Homestuck Upd8 - 12/17/2023

I'm pretty sick, but not sick enough I'm not gonna read the upd8. Let's do this! Calliope! Missed my Muses. Oh! Teasing us with free Jade! Boo!

Uh . . . what's going on with this Jade . . .

What . . .

I'm not liking this . . .

Aradia? What's going on?

Okay . . . now there's two of them. I thought the whole point was that they only won that battle the one iteration. But Paradox Space is infinite and . . . you know . . . full of Paradoxes.

Hah! Love the callback to characters regarding each other. So apparently this isn't the first time this has happened. Apparently Dead Calliope has done this before. And also apparently, they always need a host body to exert the kind of control we've seen.

This is giving me some God Tier splinter vibes. The whole idea that becoming a God Tier eventually exposes you to all the version of yourself, as we've seen with consequences.

The fact that Aradia and Davebot aren't worried unfortunately doesn't fill me with comfort.

Okay! I'm loving this dynamic. Now I'm really wishing Dave had been able to try and give Aradia the business after Terezi got John killed. This is fantastic!

Whew! For a second there I though Aradia was peacing out again. But she peaced back in. Crisis averted!

We're getting into some discussions about the timeline. It's interesting because the Live Blog that inspired me, Discard and Draw, spent quite a bit of time analyzing the dead John timeline from above. The timeline Terezi created by messing with John, and more accurately by Dave turning Cal into a sprite, was doomed. That timeline wouldn't result in the Lord of Time's stable time loop, and couldn't exist. But if that timeline hadn't happened, Dave couldn't come back and stop the prototyping and John's death in the first place. The same is true for all the dead Dave's and doomed Aradia-bots. So if that's the case, what really counts as an "important" timeline.

Also, it looks like becoming a robot hasn't help Dave deal with his sexuality much. He could just be falling back on gay jokes, but I think that's something he's still dealing with in this timeline.

Hah!

And we will never know . . .

And now Calliope is once again possessing "Jade".

I'm not gonna lie. I unabashedly loved every moment of that!

So it definitely looks like we've gotten a little bit of insight into just how Calliope's powers work and a bit more introspection on Homestuck's timeline. Maybe this is a hint that the HICU is going to be looking at threads the community was interested in and potentially explore them in this new iteration. Maybe we'll see Boot's beloved Inversion Theory make a come back.

Also, a side note as an AraSol fan: I love the short little glimpse into their relationship. At least that was how I interpreted it. I'm sure other people might read a different relationship, but that feels pretty in tune with what we've seen for Sollux and Aradia, regardless of what you think the nature of that relationship is.

[kyeterna]

So I was thinking about Star Team's inspirations and like the two biggest ones that have influenced the way both Rainder and I wrote Star Team (as in vibes, not story as much) were Katana Zero and Spiderman into the spiderverse, as we were both obsessed with those two pieces of media back in late 2018 (when Star Team really took the shape it has to this day). And for the longest time I always assumed that story wise it is more similar to Katana Zero (still the similarities are very superficial) while S:ITSV is mostly vibes. But then the more I thought about it, Star Team could easily work in a spiderman setting. Nora specifically would make a good spider person imo, hell even in the story proper she sometimes uses her scarf as a grappling hook (so in the spiderman setting like how the web is used). Plus Star Team is a few steps removed from being a superhero story so I said screw it, let's do this.

Spidernora au lessgo. It doesn't have 1 to 1 parallels to spiderman proper stories, but shhhh I am gonna be silly here. Also this au has a lot of similarities with ST proper, much like the Catalyst au (hey another "pretty much" superhero au), just with some adjustments to the relationship dynamics and the world a little.

For spidernora's design I had to go with the classic pink-blue-white Nora look (walking trans pride flag). While Nora is not head covering hijabi, she still wears clothes that would align with the rules (loose fitting, covering the entire body), so I tried to not make their spidey suit skin tight. They get poofy pants instead of a skirt because it is probably easier to move in and I cannot imagine her wearing a skirt/dress unless she's wearing baju kurung. Aaanyways robo backpack with robo limbs designed by Terrance (lower) because what is a spider without 8 limbs (though if needed the backpack would provide them with two extra robo limbs, making is 10 total. Nora never uses them out of principle as the scarf does most of the heavy lifting anyways). Anyways stretchy scarf made of special self replicating material to work almost like web. As for powers, aside from the sticking to walls and spidey senses, she has (way too much) heightened senses and can jump really high hence the jumping spider associations. The bun part of the name is because you cannot take away the bunny parallels from Nora in any au, over my dead body. In this au they'd have a relatively more normal childhood compared to star team proper. Now how normal it is for them to run away from home in both timelines ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Moving on we got the one and only, the legend themselves, Maya Marah. She is pretty much the same character as with proper Star Team, but the Star Team blog (now named spiderblog) has the added feature of a conspiracy board where she tries to figure out who J. Spiderbun is. Eventually she does discover who is behind the mask (I mean it's her roommate, and her other roommate works with her) and decides to not reveal it. She ends up becoming the man in the chair for Nora. What's her secret? I ain't spoiling ST so easily hahaha.

The third roommate, Terry, everyone's favourite alien. I mean his role is pretty much the same as Star Team proper but he is more of Nora's assistant than Maya's here. Also the circumstances of U.S.O are different and can't go into it without spoiling Star Team.

IT'S THEM IT'S THEM but they get demoted for this au. Imagine being just captain and vice-captain of the police (cringe). In this au Aradia and Damien unfortunately don't become friends with the Nora-Maya-Terry trio but still act as sort of antagonists (in the sense that they try to stop J. Spiderbun from doing their thing, much to Aradia's dismay). Damien and Maya are still sworn rivals. Anyways can't wait for Damien to inevitably die trying to save a chi-

I KNOW clockstopper's design could use some work, it's a first draft of sorts (If I ever decide to revisit this au) but HEYYYY LOOOK it's Nora's eternal narrative foil, the disaster herself Rena!! What do you mean a spiderman finding out one of their friends is a supervillain isn't a canon event? It is in my heart. Rena and Nora still have The Fight for the same reasons pretty much, only difference being that what happened between those 4 years of them not being in contact is veeery different. Well.... hm... anyways if I continue this section I will end up rambling about the renora dynamic and we don't want a 10k page rant do we. As a villain she usually has 0 agency, but when she does stuff that seem out of character it's when her real character shines through. Maybe she gets redeemed down the line woooo

Lightning round because it is getting late, I feel bad for not giving Jack a dedicated page like the rest of the team. Jack is central to the main arc of the au, as he is the one most closely connected to Dr Faith (ooooh who is she~ I actually can't explain anything more without spoiling actual Star Team so-). Hey isn't it funny how Ender and Maya are the two characters who are the most alike their canon counterparts- Rose 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🛐🛐🛐🛐🛐 she's never looked better, she deserves being a corrupt billionaire that does some unethical stuff from time to time and by that I mean frequently.

The rest of the characters would have a less significant role but sone type of role nonetheless. Anyways this was a fun little thing and not to be taken too seriously, I just love talking about my blorbos (star team characters) and putting them in different situations (there are a billion ST aus)

[arachnidsgamer]

(( ALSO third! If the Homestuck gals got a tour of the factory, what sorta karmic retributions would there be? I imagine Vriska would do something dumb like trying to lead the way instead of Wonka, walk off the scaffolding while bragging about not needing a guide, and then fall into a machine that turns her into sentient blueberry gum. Which Terezi then chews, fully aware of the side effects, just to fuck with Vriska.

((Naaaaah ok let's see about making a coherent tour for the beta gals, and yes anons I'm going to be lame and only focus on the girls because I'm gay, you want co-ed stuff we can talk stuff later.

So first things first you have to narrow down who is on the tour. Obviously Vriska is on the tour because she abuses her luck to get in, I feel like Terezi would also get in just to harass Vriska. I think Nepeta would also end up there though that's because she happened to someone dead with a ticket or just happens to find some trash near the forest and in it is a ticket. Last two are hard picks because I'm feeling like Feferi owns the place or has an heiress is automatically in a position of authority so I suppose that leaves Kanaya and Aradia as the last tour goers which I think makes sense!

Now I'm not going for total karmic retributions, I'm going for more of a logical "where would they fuck up" and for ease of this situation I'm just going to use the book/movie room line up.

So first one out in the candy forest room is sadly and maybe shockingly Nepeta! I 1000000% see her going full on cat LARP mode and she immediately starts to stalk and pounce through the plants. That said she probably doesn't see a drop off into the river and plunges STRAIGHT in and whoops! "Probubbly shoulda warned her aboat that but oh well!"

Next one is going to be a TURBO shock for everyone who follows this blog and pays attention to me lmao but inventing room is Terezi and it's not because of hubris and mocking Vriska about the gum being blue. It's purely from a total sensory overload. The colors, the smells, the tastes, the sounds, ALL OF IT just blinding Terezi a second time over and as such leads to her taking a sample of the wrong product and hey she was close to being blue already so it's not THAT much of shift for her!

Ok now we get to the hard part because the final 3 are where I have issues picking who gets what you know? After thinking it over though I feel like Kanaya ends here. Now I always have the HARDEST time making something kinky for this so we're not kinking it this time and the scenario plays out that Kanaya makes some dumb pun/play on words about the room and Vriska trips her over the guardrail and sends her into the chute. She's fine just dirty later and loathes Vriska just a little bit more for ruining her outfit.

Now I'm sure literally everyone is surprised I have Vriska making it this far I legit think she'd just be so bored by everything else that getting the television room would be the first thing to interest her since she could make it all about herself. You know the drill, hits the button jumps in front of the camera and ends up tiny Serket. Probably ends up working as an intern at the factory afterwards doing commercials where she poses with the candy and saves them money on doing greenscreen shit.

And we have Aradia as the winner! Honestly I had a scene where Aradia drops out in the sorting room instead of Kanaya so you could swap them and it'd both be fine. You could argue that Aradia would end up enjoying the chute and treat it like a slide cause she's a freak but whatever! Enjoy this WAY too long and overly thought out tour idea lmao.))

[a-fish-with-feelings]

47, 48, 82, 90! ❤❤❤

AAAAHHH!!! hI SOUP I MISS YOU SO SO MUCH 🖤🖤🖤 OH MY GOODNESS THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR SENDING ME SOME ASKS 🖤🖤

alrighty here we go-

47- patron troll? are you happy with them?

my patron troll is aradia! i’m over the moon with having her as my patron troll honestly, who wouldn’t want a ghostly frog girl ❤️

48- zodiac troll? are you happy with them?

hehe my zodiac troll is terezi and i 100% believe i have slowly but surly become more like her as i’ve gotten older. if you would have asked me this question years ago i would have probably said i didn’t resonate with her just because of my ampora obsession but i have grown to embrace my inner terezi.

82- favorite homestuck moment?

i know this might be cliché but how iconic was jake smooching dirks severed head? or kanaya goin buck wild on my boy eridan? maybe it was just all the amazingly intricate flash animations? you know what i might not be able to pic a true favorite moment until i go back and reread it (mostly because it’s not very fresh in my head and i have not read homestuck2 or played pesterquest, honestly haven’t read anything past the absolute last page of homestuck if anyone has anything good to say about either i will gladly read them i have just heard some very disappointing things and i don’t want my view of my literal favorite to be ruined 😭)

90- favorite homestuck au?

there were so many incredible aus from back in the day i’m literally foaming at the mouth thinking about it. especially because of all the ask blogs we were on! we were in the trenches! there were sooo many good ones and so many aus that i had just created with my friends because fuck it we could!! i’m not sure that i can choose my absolute favorite because i am low key still coming up with homestuck aus to this day but one au that will always be close to my heart is dietystuck, words can’t describe how much that au/ that group of people mean to me. they were the first ask blog to take me on and give me a chance when no one else would. i wouldn’t have met such amazing people if it weren’t for that blog. people i can still hold dear and call friends to this day.

if im mentioning deitystuck i really do feel the need to mention charm, i really can’t talk about deity without them. i am so lucky that charm and kaitra gave me a chance and i was able to be a part of those blogs and be able to look back on my friendships so vividly. i really wouldn’t have met half of the people i have or had some of the opportunities that i had if it weren’t for them, yeah lots of drama happened but looking back on it years later it really is just water under the bridge. i can look back at my memories fondly almost to the point of wanting to go back because i really haven’t found a spark with anything else in my life. but nonetheless i am still so so greatful that i can say that i made such fond memories with these people. especially charm, we grew apart in time but that doesn’t mean i don’t cherish them less, i am forever in debt to them. rest in power, multiple people and i will never forget the talent and the creativity that brain of theirs blessed us with.

thank you for sending me some asks and letting me reminisce, soup, youre incredible and are also included in on one of the people i hold dear from my homestuck days, the rest knows who they are they don’t need me to remind them 🖤 i hope we can chat soon and catch up some time. anyone who knew me from back in the homestuck days that feels like catching up (or just talking about homestuck in general) don’t be afraid to message me!!

[psychodon525]

So.

I just read Candy. I haven't touched Meat yet, and will do so tomorrow.

I'm seeing a lot of people who are upset and angry at the epilogues, and honestly? I liked Candy. The first 20 pages or so were hard to get through, especially THAT page, but once I got nearer to the end, I couldn't put it down. It feels like, (as dumb as it is to say this about epilogues,) Hussie is setting up for some really cool shit, and I'm super excited to see where things go from here.

There were some characterizations that people might deem as being out of place, but honestly? Oh wait uh, spoilers under the cut I guess.

Rose felt perfectly in-character for having all her Seer powers taken away, and seeing her happy for the first time ever was so fucking refreshing, she deserves it.

Kanaya as well. So happy, and I just wish we got to see more of her.

Dave and Karkat were perfect together, and I’m sad that they didn’t get together, but I suppose it’s okay considering that Karkat fulfilled his destiny of being a leader of an army, and Dave got the Big Plot Shit that happened to him, so in a way, the Dave we have now, DID get to spend eternity together with Karkat. (Also Dave’s eulogy was the most heart-wrenching thing I’ve ever read, I haven’t cried like that since... Homestuck.)

Jane was extremely upsetting. I don’t know if y’all read Bladekindeyewear’s blog, but they had a theorypost a long time ago about Jane’s ultimate fate as being the servant of Lord English, and that she’d take the new title of the Batterwitch, and in Candy, she essentially did. John totally lampshades it all by saying that she’s nothing like what he remembers his Nana as being, and I think if we get more to this story after this, it’ll be cool to visit what that essentially means for Jane.

Jake is a fuckhead, and I always hated him. And then Candy happened. Now that couldn’t be further from my feelings. He’s still by no means my favourite, but the chapter where Jane uh... Anyways, let’s just say I feel for him. And he opened up to John about his feelings, and not only did what he said make sense, it got John to finally get off his ass and try to be a good father which...

John. Jeez this kid messed up. He was unsatisfied with the way paradise was, and he still chose to stay in it because ??? His life starts off going exactly how he wanted it to go, where he married Roxy, and had a kid, and was a good dad, but he couldn’t get out of his own head that he had fucked up and everything was “wrong” somehow, so he ended up getting right back to where he started. LITERALLY! He went and hid in his old house before Jake and Tavros came and knocked some sense into his skull.

Jade is complicated. There’s some implications of some things I’m not going to get into, but besides that, honestly? She pretty much fits exactly the mold I’d have expected of her living in a society where she can do anything. She’s just doing whatever she wants, and a lot of that is sex, and I mean... Sure. I don’t like what she did to Dave or Karkat, but I think she literally didn’t realize that she was doing that. I think she genuinely thought she was doing them a favour, and she seemed happy with it all. I didn’t like what happened between the three of them as a result of her actions, but I also don’t think it was bad characterization or anything.

Vriska’s self-realization was really genuine, and I loved it. Also shoutouts to Vriska (Vriska) for the callback. Great meme 10/10

Aradia and Sollux were a nice reunion, even though they didn’t really... DO anything? idk, I’m always happy seeing happy!Aradia.

Callie uh... idk, she just effed off the face of the planet through the whole thing pretty much? I imagine she’ll be pretty important in Meat? Dead Jade was something that the story desperately needed, and that Callie gave us some super important information, and my brain is exploding just thinking about the implications of it all, and I fucking love it. I’m going to say it again I FUUUUUUUUCKING LOOOOOOOOVED THAT SHIT!

I saw the word “Obama” and went through literally every stage of grief, but ultimately it ended up in one of the best speeches in Homestuck, and legit made me think of one of my best friends who has almost said the exact same thing about gender and sexuality verbatim. And then it also lead to the hypest paragraph of text that’s ever been written.

“And then, time seems to stop altogether. As if the aspect itself has suspended its forward motion, bowing before the unprecedented transformation taking place. It defers to its greatest knight, risen anew. “ HELLO?!?!?! WHY ISN’T ANYBODY TALKING ABOUT THIS? IT’S SO FUCKING HYPE AND I CAN’T BELIEVE Y’ALL

Roxy. Roxy is my favourite character in the comic. She’s one of my favourite people ever. She continues to be that. That shit she said about gender? That’s some real shit. She’s fucking valid, and everything she did in Candy makes total sense given the context of what she said in her last talk with John. It’s totally not crazy to believe that she did all those things, and said all that, and felt those things.

We’re not going to talk about Dirk because there’s some shit going on that I literally don’t know enough about to have an opinion on. Maybe after Meat I’ll revisit Dirk in like a... theorypost? I’ve never made one of those before, but we’ll see.

Anyways, the Epilogue I read so far was a good read. I ultimately enjoyed the experience, and I’m honestly excited for Meat, and whatever new experience is in store after that. Candy made my brain happy in a way I haven’t felt in a really long time, and I’m thinking of making some theories about what happened here, and what it means for the future. It’s exciting.

Also if you read this without having read the upd8, first of all, what’s wrong with you? Second, please don’t read Candy if you’re not in a good headspace. There’s a chapter I described at the top of the post simply as “THAT chapter” and it goes into detail of a character making plans to, and actually committing suicide. It goes into detail about how the death felt, and it makes the whole thing seem as if it was a good thing. I am not okay with this chapter’s existence, and narratively, you could probably just skip that one and still get the same takeaway.

[fantroll-purgatory]

Hello! It’s 2am, I’ve been rewriting this for 3 hours because words are the hard and I’m just tired. (Sounds like you are ALSO dealing with Time! But, that doesn’t make you a Time player either- let’s get into it.)

World: Alternia

Name: Tempus Facrem

“Tempus” means “time” in Latin, and “Facrem” is derived from “factorem” which means “maker”. Assuming I’ve not beansed the name (which is very, very possible), it should mean Time Maker which compliments her story and classpect nicely.

Age: ~8 sweeps

Theme/Story: Tempus is a hobbyist clock maker who’s hive is located in a quiet area of Alternia who tries her hardest to keep to herself and keep out of bother. Despite this, she’s often commissioned by trolls higher up the hemospectrum than herself and almost never has time to do her own thing or even make a clock for herself. I try to follow the general theme of time with her overall.

Goals: A general overview would be appreciated, as well as some suggestions for whatever I couldn’t decide on. As Tempus were originally created for a casual and definitely not canon-compliant Lords and Muses only RP session, I couldn’t adapt everything. (I am going to open my review here, because a General Overview of a character like this, by nature, turns into a Overhaul. I talk about Overcommitment To Gimmick A LOT in my reviews, because it plagues many fantrolls, ESPECIALLY Time Players.) (Your Troll is not the first Clock Themed Time Player Fantroll I’ve received, and I always point to canon. Aradia? Damara? Dave? When are any of these characters clock themed? You use the word “Time” 28 times in this profile, which points, once again, that that’s kind of her only thing.) (I will tackle alternate Aspects for her under Classpect. Much of this review is going to be trying to tease a more rounded character out of this. Perhaps your initial RP had more character for her? But, if there was, it hasn’t translated through to here.)

Strife Specibus: Sniperkind (or maybe riflekind, I can’t decide) (Riflekind is more general, and it’s what Jade uses!)

It also leads to some interesting questions you can ask yourself about her character- is she good or bad at guns? If she’s good at it, where did she learn and is this a passion? Is it just for protection or is there more? And if she isn’t good at it, why did she choose to pick it up and why does she stick with it? 

Fetch Modus: Honestly no ideas here, chief.

I could probably make a cuckoo clock joke here, but I honestly don’t want to reinforce the already drowning-in-time theme. 

God I could more jokingly apply a TikTok reference here. She has to make a musical.ly about the object in question. 

Or if she’s fascinated with universal constants, she could have a more abstract time system, like an Orbit system. All the cards are locked into a central ‘orbit’ and can only be uncaptcha’d when they line up in particular ways. 

Really, fetch modi usually involve alternate interests or coding jokes and it’s hard to think of any of those to apply here. I’d expand on her interest set and then come back to this!

Blood Colour: With reference to Fir3h34rt’s hemospectrum chart, between scarlet and cardinal.

I know we’re already making a lot of change recommendations and we’re hardly even half way, but I have to say that she really doesn’t read like a rust to me. We have to remember that rusts are rooted in Aries. The extended zodiac says rusts are wild, they crave adventure, they love drama, they’re dynamic, they’re quick to anger, they’re incautious- where is that in Tempus? 

Further, clockworking isn’t a very low maintenance career. Most of the rusts we see have “menial” labor or things they can do on their own, adventuring out into the world without much equipment. If a rust can’t have prescription glasses, how are they getting a clock studio? Where is she getting the materials? Where did she get the startup materials? Did someone else act as her patron? Why? 

This kind of niche skill and dedication to a craft isn’t something we see as emblematic of rusts, it’s something that’s more in line with bluebloods. That’s not to say I necessarily think you need to make her a blue (though I think it would be an interesting twist on the character and a good way to migrate her away from the obvious Aradia association). I just think you need to bring more of that Rustblood Fire to her, even if it’s repressed. Where’s the boiling under the surface tension? The desire to throw off her shackles and run free? 

Her theoretical EZ symbol with your current assignments would be The Headstrong. Where’s the headstrong? 

Symbol and Meaning:

A minimalist empty hourglass. Represents a lack of time. (I don’t have a better sign off the cuff, but refer to my comments above as to why I think this is a poor choice.)

Handle: I’m also not sure what to put here. This was another detail that I just couldn’t adapt. Her original handle was timeyWimey because she was meant to be a Lord of Time and my humour isn’t very creative. (I… actually think that’s pretty cute.)

Quirk: Regular capitalisation. Vowels are replaced with respective numbers, unless if the number created from the quirk is greater than 12. e.g. My n4m3 1s T3mpu5 F4cr3m.

Again we can kind of see the overcommitment here. I can’t fault you too much for it, but you might want to step away from the clock thing Too strongly here. You say she likes rhythm, tempo. Maybe you could think of different speaking patterns instead. Find syllabic patterns to give her, or even just chop her words curtly, monosyllabic. Ex: Give. Her. A. Drone. One. Syl. La. Ble. At. A. Time. It. Is. Slow. But. She. Is. Pa. Tient. Are. You? 

But I again recommend looking more into her interests and then coming back to this later. 

Lusus: Greater Skarthi, a dog-sized beetle with two horns. A very relaxed lusus who taught Tempus the value of patience. They share a good relationship.

I honestly think she could use at least a little conflict. Having a soothing lusus relationship is easy, sure, but how about the interest of trying to focus on her craft when her lusus routinely wrecks her shit? The stress. The Drama. 

Interests: Tempus is fascinated with clocks and rhythm as a whole, seeing time as a universal constant that should be respected. She chooses to respect time by making clocks, and prior to her being frequently commissioned she used to make them in a variety of shapes and sizes through different methods for entertainment or to pass the time. (So… her entire interests are clocks and Time. A Time Player is not like this. Let’s look at Dave’s intro page:  “Your name is DAVE. It is an UNSEASONABLY WARM April day. Your BEDROOM WINDOW is open to let some air in, and your FAN is cranked. Arguably even more cranked would be your FLY BEATS, which brings us to your variety of INTERESTS. A cool dude like you is sure to have plenty. You have a penchant for spinning out UNBELIEVABLY ILL JAMS with your TURNTABLES AND MIXING GEAR. You like to rave about BANDS NO ONE’S EVER HEARD OF BUT YOU. You collect WEIRD DEAD THINGS PRESERVED IN VARIOUS WAYS. You are an AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHER and operate your own MAKESHIFT DARKROOM. You maintain a number of IRONICALLY HUMOROUS BLOGS, WEBSITES, AND SOCIAL NETWORKING PROFILES. And if the inspiration strikes, you won’t hesitate to drop some PHAT RHYMES on a mofo and REPRESENT.” Homestuck ACT 2, Page 312) (Aradia gets kind of a free pass for her intro page because she is… well… a ghost. And her stated remembered interest is Archaeology, not Clocks.)

This is where you have to ask your self some additional questions. How might she have gotten into clock making? Did she start with woodworking? Was she inspired by something else? Did she just do it out of convenience because she didn’t have one? Does she just like DIY in general? Because DIY could be a very interesting origin point for a character like her. A lot of self-crafts DO take a lot of patience and you can capitalize on that character trait in ways besides saying it. 

And, of course, you should ask what she does in her downtime. Unless she’s a workaholic or is in extortionist circumstances, most people have downtime. Does she have unfair contracts keeping her working constantly and stopping her from pursuing old intrigues? Does she miss her other interests? Or does she choose to burn the candle at both ends and neglect leisure? Because if neither of these are the case, she needs other hobbies. 

Appearance: Has long black hair, similar to Aradia’s but slightly shorter and a tad tidier. Her horns share the ram aesthetic of Aradia’s too, however they have significantly less curling and point downwards and forwards. Wears a tool apron with her symbol on it over a dark grey jumpsuit. (I would absolutely love it if you could draw your interpretation of her to see how it compares to mine, but it’s absolutely not necessary.)

Personality: While she isn’t particularly optimistic, Tempus is good at looking at a situation from different perspectives which can be confused for optimism. In reality, she’s far more calm and relaxed under pressure than she is optimistic. She’s incredibly patient, both with people and in a literal waiting sense, thanks to her lusus. As she has the patient of a saint. when she does rarely get frustrated it’s usually very small scale. In spite of this, she’s prone to cursing, but not often to directly insult someone or something and more for comedic effect. (I think we have the beginnings of a solid character here. The thing that she’s really missing is the Time sense of fighting. She’s got this serene, steel will which is a useful trait, but where’s the STRUGGLE? Where is the drama, where is that draw to cyclical destruction.)

^^^ You’ve given us red on red, here. Time and Rust together have an inherent drama and tension. I really think that’s what we’re missing here. I think you could easily do something with the fact that she’s been put on commission to so many highbloods. Is she playing up her patience? Is she putting on airs for her professional career? Does she have a fury boiling beneath her skin? If she about to snap? Is she one snide violetblood comment away from tearing a clock off the wall and committing murder? Is she trying so hard to be a patient person but god people make it so HARD don’t you just want to go APE SHIT? 

Lunar Sway: Prospit, as she’s loyal to her acquaintances and often employs a creative approach to problems, even if they aren’t the most efficient ways of doing things. She also lives in the moment as she doesn’t always have the time to plan ahead. (Checks out to me.)

Title: Maid of Time. Don’t have much commentary regarding that :/ sorry

(And here it begins. Is this character a Maid? I don’t think so- Maids have a pretty classic character arc of being pushed around and then snapping and going absolute bonkers- Aradia beats Vriska to literal death, Kanaya chainsaws Eridan, and Jane…. oh boy, half of Act 6 is Jane’s.) (Is this character a Time player? I often use the phrase “Chosen by Time” in my reviews, because Time players are so DISTINCT, and required by Sgrub/Sburb. Time players aren’t chosen to be such because they like clocks or time, but because they have traits that allow them to whether the endless destruction and struggle that the Red Mantle puts on their shoulders. She needs a core of restlessness, a core of churning, if placid. EZ says that “at their worst they are ruthless, defensive, and impulsive”, which I think helps put them into perspective. Time players can and will lash back out at you.) (I think… this might be a Void player. She’d need an overhaul just to be something other than a walking clock reference, but she has the makings of one of those. A draw towards creation but in a lowkey sense, expanding on things that are already known…) (Otherwise, she may be a Space Player. She has that creation focus, and she reminds me more of 1-4 Jade than any Time player in Canon. Jade also leaned very heavily into her Time inversion for most of her life, to the point where she received Seer of Time powers for quite a while.)

I have to agree here. I think if you wanted her to be a Maid of Time you’d really have to lean into what I addressed under the personality section. She has to be ready to SNAP. Her narrative would have to be about being pushed around and then she lets go and finally embodies the full chaotic force of time.  Otherwise, she’s just not a time player or a maid. Space player is where I’m leaning, personally. They embody the patience and mutability you describe here way more and they also tend to be of the craftier and more hands-on sort. Void player is also a great way to go for a creative. You’d have to lean into her interest in the universe, in the unknown- you address her caring about universal constants, but why? That’s the sort of question the Void assignment would ask. 

[classpect-crew]

Can I get a bit of help? I'm trying to understand myself better but I can't find what classpect would be best for someone who hides behind a 'mask' to spare others from having to be burdened by his emotions? Thank you so much!

I think the most difficult aspect (heh) of Classpecting is that someone’s personality doesn’t always give the best insight into their true Classpect, and it’s often more about their goals, their passions, and how those affect how they interact with the world around them. That said, I think I can help you narrow this down if you feel this is a big part of your individual journey.

Whenever people mention a “mask”, my mind immediately goes to the Knight, but I’d like to explore some other options as well. While Knights are very well-known for their tendency to wear “masks” around others, it’s also a tendency for people who haven’t quite reached their full potential yet, or even those who have some past trauma that’s keeping them from feeling like their emotions are anything but “burdens” upon others. I think this is more true of you, which leads me away from the Knight. With that in mind, this opens up a lot of potential for your Classpect.

First, we should consider which side of the Active-Passive scale you lean toward. The question you should ask yourself is this: when you examine this feeling that you’ve been burdening others with your emotions, where does that feeling come from? Do you ever feel like someone else is pushing all of their troubles on you, or is it something you only feel about your own issues? Basically, are you treating yourself with the same kindness that you might give to others, in terms of how much your emotions matter compared to theirs?

I don’t want to make too many assumptions, but as someone who’s been in the same position for many years, I get the feeling that you have more patience with others than with yourself. In this way, one might be inclined to say you’re on the Passive side, since Passive Classes tend to affect the world in a way that benefits others moreso than themselves. However, I truly believe a lot of Classpects are meant to challenge us. Think about Rose, for example: she was given the very Passive title of Seer, and her role was to be a knowledgable advisor to her team. Of course, for someone who clearly valued independence, this was a big challenge for her. When she ultimately went Grimdark—inverting into a Witch of Void in the process—she proved that she wasn’t yet able to handle a Passive role.

I believe your case may be the opposite, however.

You may be very used to being in a “Passive” role. Even the way you’ve explained it in your message tells a lot about who you are and how you feel about yourself: words like “spare” and “burdened” give me the impression that you think of your emotions and your struggles as things that are meant to be locked away, so no one else has to “deal with them”. Maybe you even feel sometimes that people “put up with you”, and part of the reason they “can” is because you wear a mask around them. You’ll notice I’ve put a lot of these phrases in quotes, because these may be fears or beliefs of yours, but they’re not necessarily true. In fact, I’m guessing they’re insecurities of yours. (Trust me, I’ve been there, too. I know exactly how this feels.) I think the Classpect system would try to challenge you to come into your own, and to develop into a confident person with a sense of individuality, placing healthy value on your own emotions and recognizing your own struggles. With that said, I think you’d be more suited to an Active role—specifically one that starts out rather Passive before really developing.

A few come to mind already: Witch and Maid. Players with these Classes—particularly the Maid—tend to start out very Passive in nature, either relying on others or just not yet having a strong sense of self. They also tend to have low self-esteem, as we can see very well with Jane, and some even have a fear that they’re “burdening” others with their problems. The biggest challenge for both Witches and Maids is to begin to value themselves and realize that they’re worthwhile, and they don’t have to hide themselves away to let other lights shine instead. They—you—get to learn what it means to stand tall, and that can sound like a scary idea at first, but once you get to that point, you’ll realize how good it feels to see value in yourself and exist independently.

What it really comes down to, as far as the difference between Classes, is how they affect the world around them. Witches will manipulate what’s already there, increasing or decreasing their Aspect as they see fit. This is seen most clearly with Jade, of course—she manipulates spatial dimensions at will, and she has a lot of power because of it. Maids, on the other hand, bring their Aspect into creation. Such is the case with Jane bringing life to a desolate planet, or Aradia spamming timelines like there’s no tomorrow to create her bot army. To be honest, it’s hard to tell exactly what your Aspect might be, and that’s because Aspects are so flexible and vast in their associations. To be perfectly honest, I don’t just want to slap down a label and say “here you go!” without knowing more about you and what might fit. Your Class can be defined by how you interact with the world, and from what I’ve gathered about you, I’m guessing the closest ones are going to be the Witch and the Maid. Your Aspect, though, is a lot more complicated, and I’d need to know a lot more about your motivations, your ultimate goals, and how you interact with the world before I can really narrow it down. You’re absolutely welcome to send another ask about it if you’d like to remain anonymous, or you can also message me privately on this blog if you’d like help narrowing down your Classpect the rest of the way.