#ive finished all of arc 1 btw!! so we have a bunch of scenes i nthe backlog <3

[faunastanza]

Part 2: Floraverse starts getting weird and confusing

Try Try Again

God this arc. When people talk about where the comic lost them or where it stopped making sense, it's usually at this arc and for good reason.

Part 1 - Beleth (crossed out) Jupet

A burning Jupet lets go of the string that connected them to Beleth before the flowers reach them and falls into a pit in the angel world, wondering why they did that. They recall it was because there was nothing for them there, but when they hit the bottom of the pit, they also say there's nothing for them here either, and it won't be sad because it won't be anything. They then get angry and throw a tantrum about how stupid it was and a waste it was to let go, since they "weren't done" and now will never finish.

i don't know why the others put up with jupet honestly

A door nearby asks if Jupet's done with their tantrum and Jupet's like idk and the doors like okay we'll wait for you and that they all care about Jupet even though Jupet's being a big baby. The door say they're ready when Jupet is but Jupet doesn't want to go out looking like this (scribbly with a weird box x o head). The door says it's better if Jupet leaves it off but Jupet insists on putting it on, saying no one will recognize them otherwise. Jupet then turns into Beleth with a bag over their head and a bunch of broken strings coming off.

One thing that might help more of this make sense is that Beleth is actually a separate part of Jupet's soul put into a doll's body, which is why Beleth is such an autonomous and lifelike puppet, since no other puppets have soul bits like that. So Beleth is a separate piece of Jupet, which is why imagery between them keeps blurring. This doesn't get explained until way later but it makes more sense to just say it now.

The door says that Jupet won't be able to feel anything in her Bagbeleth... appearance? and Jupet freaks out about it lying to them and goes up in flames for a second. It then cuts to.... sigh...

Prologue IV, performed by The Theater Troupe

BagJupet sits down in front of a stage to watch a show and proclaims loudly to no one that they don't care about this and don't want to be here or anywhere. The strings off the bag head have got thorns on them now. We then get a title card for...

sigh...

Act I Part ?

with white Beleth. A white Beleth appears on stage and acts out some scene from BagJupet's past where they got hired to go to Trebol to work for Andre, saying they're excited they'll be able to use their dolls. BagJupet continues to be furious and shouts that they should have quit.

Act I Part II

The Beleth on stage and an Andre reenact a bit from Itchy Itchy where Andre caught Beleth reading comics on duty. BagJupet keeps screaming about how they don't want to see this and gets increasingly distorted into a jaggy black form.

Act I Part IV

Stage Beleth reenacts a bit from Itchy Itchy where the angel got hold of them and made them get lost in despair. Stage Beleth has the same hand-with-waveform angel coming out of their head. BagJupet shrieks about not wanting to think about this and demands they stop. Stage Beleth calls back disjointed dialogue from Itchy Itchy that kind of sounds like they're saying no to BagJupet now, which would be kind of a cool time loop if that was set up in advance. BagJupet is all spindly jaggies and screams that it hurts.

Act I Part V Prologue II

for christ's sake. what is this homestuck bs. SIGH. More Itchy Itchy reenactments, this time with Andre assuring Beleth that the angel is gone, although the angel is still dangling from their head. BagJupet screams at them to stop lying to them.

Act I Part ?'s title card is the pointy thing that played music in Before You Know It, the thing Amdusias's doppleganger was hanging out with.

Another Itchy Itchy reenactment, this time with Pride finding Beleth in the angel world. This is all taking place in the angel world still btw. Pride says its time to get out of this dump, while BagJupet screams that "we" can't, then berates themselves for being stupid enough to think they could.

Act II Part III

Reenactments from Broken Toy now, specifically the bit in Beleth's dream where they shout about what happened to their daughter while Jupet tells them they're sentenced to be forgotten. They do the "we must cast away the remnants of our selves and go through the doorway" bit, and BagJupet screams to stop.

Act II Part VI

Reenactment of the end of Broken Toy where Andre assures Beleth it won't hurt. BagJupet is so mad that they rip their own arm off screaming at them to stop or they'll make them stop. BagJupet destroys the stage and sets it on fire. Unperturbed, Stage Beleth keeps acting out their death, while BagJupet insists this has nothing to do with them. They whine again about how it wasn't done and they weren't finished, and an off-screen voice repeats them and asks if they're sure, and that they always regret it.

Act ? Part ?

how many versions of the same character can you have in one scene

God, okay. Stage Beleth is now on stage with a stage Jupet while BagJupet watches. Someone calls stage Jupet for dinner while stage Beleth screams about not wanting to see this and that it has nothing to do with them. Stage Beleth grabs stage Jupet and says that this is all their fault and that they made them forget. Stage Jupet says they're sorry but Stage Beleth doesn't believe them in a "I'm sorry" "not yet you're not" exchange that'll get called back later. Stage Jupet keeps saying they're sorry while Stage Beleth keeps telling them to stop or they'll make them stop.

do it!

BagBeleth has the three lines on their face now like the thing in the Seeds Prologue and tells them to stop. Stage Beleth and Stage Jupet are puzzled, asking BagJupet that didn't they want to redo things? BagJupet says not this time. BagJupet says that it was their fault and they didn't try hard enough. They were having so much fun, they thought it'd be better to forget. AGAIN they complain about not being done and not finishing, and they say that if Stage Beleth and Stage Jupet do "that", then they never will.

stop whining

BagJupet says they're sorry again and that they ruined the play, but the actors say they like the changes that they made. BagJupet says they also like them, and Stage Jupet asks if they want to be shown the way out, to which BagJupet agrees. BagJupet says they're sorry they forget them, but Stage Jupet says its okay and "we" love them anyway. BagJupet asks why, and Stage Jupet just says that they'll always love them. BagJupet says they just hurt them, and Stage Jupet says that's never been true. BagJupet then says they don't deserve this or any of them, which Stage Jupet also says is not true.

They come to a door, and BagJupet says they're scared they'll mess up again and that they'll forget again. Stage Jupet says it'll all work out as long as they change back, since no one will recognize them as they are. BagJupet changes back to a normal Jupet with a jacked up black eye. They give Stage Jupet a hug and say they'll miss them all, and then go through the door and say they'll see them later.

Try Try Again Part 2: Lily and Jupet Take a break

you've got something in your, uh

This is back in color in the real world and I have no idea when this is taking place. Lily and Jupet both have entirely new outfits, and Jupet has plants coming out of the eye that was jacked up in the dream and some plants coming out of their mane too. They're on a boat heading somewhere. Lily mentions that most of TAL is inactive at the moment, and that she was lucky to get Jupet and most of what they have as far as she did.

Jupet whines about how they hate it in Owel and that they want to go back home, but Lily says this IS their new home. Jupet keeps whining and asks Lily what she does in Althar with TAL. Lily says that TAL is mostly involved with "reconstruction" and changed a subway station into a house, and now she mostly reads to get info for her. Lily is Jupet's mom btw.

shut uuuuppppp

Jupet acts like a baby a bit more, and Lily says that TAL's been expecting them, particularly since Jupet "left". Jupet keeps acting like a baby and eventually says they're sorry that they couldn't help Lily and TAL more. Lily assures Jupet that nothing was their fault and that it all worked out okay so it's fine.

Lily says that TAL can make Jupet a new eyeball, although Jupet is dubious since they thought they needed the weird plants coming out of their eye. Lily doesn't actually know one way or another, just that TAL took care of Jupet when they got back. Jupet asks how long it'll take, and Lily says it only take a few months for her legs, but eyeballs are more complicated so it might take longer.

what ARE these

Jupet and Lily wait at the dock for TAL to come find them. TAL apparently went to the wrong dock so has to check the others one by one. Jupet is concerned about how TAL is only "one" right now, and Lily says that most of TAL is inactive. Jupet asks if it's because TAL left Teslic Yard, to which Lily says kinda, and that the reason they had to leave was the same reason they had to deactivate everything. Jupet asks if that's why no one knew they were awake and Lily says yes and that she thought Jupet was a burglar at first, saying that a few archaelogist-like people break into wherever they were like it's a forgotten tomb.

Jupet asks why they had to leave, and Lily says that TAL said "it" was getting worse. So Lily went to try and find a priest since she and TAL didn't know anything about "that stuff". She had to find a priest who knew about that stuff, could do housecalls, and could be sworn to secrecy, but by the time she did and returned, apparently the "things" spread and got so destructive that TAL took Jupet and left for their safety. Then about a month later TAL had to deactive everything except a few "puppets" that got sent "up here". Apparently whatever the "things" were they messed with TAL's machinery.

TAL, all knowing God machine, spindly piece of chewing gum

Jupet asks how close Lily and TAL are to getting them back home, but she doesn't know. Lily then says that Jupet was dead for several years, although to Jupet it only felt like a few seconds. Jupet apologizes for leaving and says that they were trying to help but just made things worse for Lily and TAL. Lily says its alright and that she wasn't sad until several months had passed and Jupet wasn't awake, since it took "him" only a month. A jackal type dude shows up and asks for Jupet, and it turns out the jackal is TAL in a disguise. TAL offers to make Jupet a new eyeball.

Try Try Again Part 3: Jupet gets an idea

Jupet's doing some kind of hypnosis thing with someone and says they're in their room.

Act ? Part III

Jupet says they're working with one of TAL's "finger puppets", a cat doll that looks like a fluffier Beleth that has machinery instead. Jupet trims down its fur and paints it white Beleth colors to make it "look cooler" and also less like something TAL would use. The hypnotist asks why Jupet is taking one of TAL's finger puppets to use for themselves, and Jupet says they're tired of playing with their action figures (all toy versions of Beleth, Cat n Fox, Doctor Nurse, etc) because they break, and TAL's don't break.

TAL puppets are very customizable and can do pretty much anything, and Jupet doesn't think that TAL will care if they borrow one. The hypnotist asks what happens if one of TAL's puppets breaks. Jupet insists that it can't break, while it cuts to white Beleth with the flowers in her eye, and then a burnt, shadowy puppet with no hair or features with a burnt out eye socket.

the lone shadowy burnt cat puppet thing

The burnt-out shadowy one says they're rebooting, and is in a greyscale kind of place unlike one seen before that sort of looks like its on fire. Its text is glitchy and broken and it says its link with TAL has been broken. Meanwhile Jupet says that if the puppet breaks, they won't be able to get a new one and that it can only be this one, because this is the one they chose. The shadowy one asks for Jupet and sees a pit. The hypnotists asks what Jupet wanted to do with the puppet, and Jupet says they wanted to help, but they can't remember who gave them the idea to do that.

Try Try Again: Part 3 Encore I (sigh): Jupet sees a witch

Still doing the hypnosis thing. Jupet says they're in an underground bazaar they go to with with Lily often to go see a witch.

Act ? Part I

got something on your face

The witch is Orobas with long hair and the freckles on her cheeks briefly turn into that same three line thing from the Seeds Prologue. Lily leaves Jupet alone with Orobas, which Jupet says Lily does often, but it's fine because no one ever bothers them. Orobas says she can see the future and offers to tell Jupet their fortune, but they refuse, saying they're not supposed to take anything from strangers when Lily isn't around. Orobas really wants to tell them anyway, although Jupet says their name is Azlyn, not Orobas. The art gets really weird and Jupet has the three line face now.

Take V

some of the weird forms they take are pretty hilarious if you ask me

Jupet and Orobas are in the greyscale world again, where TAL is in the back coming out of some kind of machine with a bunch of shadow people around her. Jupet and Orobas's forms keep changing and at one point Orobas kind of looks like a beholding siren, which isn't important now but keep it in mind for later. The gimmick with this is that all the text is crossed out, then the scene repeats with a few less words crossed out, until finally it reveals all the text. It counts down from Take V to Take I and it takes forever.

In Take III you can see TAL attached to an unconscious Jupet. In Take II you see TAL over all the Jupets from Beleth's dream. In Take I, it's Beleth's dream with all the Jupets again but you can't see TAL. Orobas is aghast at all the dream Jupets murdering each other while the actual Jupet is pretty flippant and unconcerned. Orobas is upset that she can't solve the problem, and Jupet says it's not her problem to solve.

The hypnotist asks Jupet what the fortune was. Jupet said it was that "strangers don't exist", which Jupet doesn't think is a fortune but Orobas disagrees. Lily comes back and they leave.

Try Try Again Part 3 Encore II: Jupet gets a ticket

Still doing the hypnosis thing. Jupet says that Lily dropped them off at their favorite comic book store and they got a comic they like (Suit Yourself, the same one Beleth was reading in Broken Toy) but it doesn't look right.

Act ? Part II

Jupet goes to see a storytelling show run by someone named Flagg. Flagg has a suggested donation thing of one dollar which confuses Jupet. They ask what happens if no one donates, and Flagg says that they'll run out of money and it'll be a lot harder to put on shows.

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Jupet gives Flagg a dollar and they give them a ticket, which they say is theirs now and that they should hold onto it. Jupet protests that that's not what the ticket says, and Flagg says that even if Jupet's name isn't on it, if someone else picks it up, they'll know who it belongs to and will return it. Jupet continues to insist that's not what the ticket says, and Flagg just tells them to hang on to it.

Flagg starts the show with Jupet as the only audience, which is very reminiscent of the first part of this whole story. Since Jupet is the only one at the show, Flagg says they can pick the story, and offers what they say are the best ones. The three options are The Lonely Door, Island Elsewhere, and Monsters in the Dark.

Jupet asks if any are scary, and Flagg says that they aren't, traditionally, depending on what you think is scary. Jupet picks Monsters in the Dark.

Try Try Again Part 3 Encore III: Jupet sees a play

The hypnotist asks if Jupet's there and gets no response. They appear in the greyscale world where a mole with a long line running down asks for their ticket. The hypnotist doesn't have one, which makes the long mole upset. When the hypnotist asks who the mole is, it gets even MORE upset. The hypnotist asks about how to get a ticket, but the show's already started. There's a glimpse of one of the troupe members behind it, maybe Chisel, but who cares. They hypnotist asks if they can see the show anyway, and the long mole says okay but they'll owe it and that there's no going back. When the hypnotist asks what they'll owe, the mole just asks them if they're ready or not.

THE DIRECTOR PRESENTS: Act ? Part IV Prologue IV as performed by Encore (for christ's sake)

a real whiz-banger of an idea

Opens with a shot of Jupet in their outfit from the second part with the plants out the eye. Both this Jupet and the hypnotist are sitting in front of the stage. Jupet says this is where they got the idea, after the play. On stage, a Jupet actor and a Flagg actor exchange tickets. Jupet says they forgot their comic book and had to go back and get it, and Flagg reminds them not to forget their ticket. Lily and Jupet go home where Jupet reads their comic book and says they got another idea that goes with the first one. The first one was to help, and the second one was how.

gimme gimme gimme

Jupet says they have to go "nowhere" and runs towards the stage, where giant paws are stringing up the white Beleth puppet that stage Jupet is holding. The hands take hold of the Beleth doll which wakes up while the stage Jupet passes out. The stage Beleth, now alive, readies themselves to jump into a portal, while planteye Jupet says "I am going nowhere". Beleth jumps into the flower lined portal which closes behind them.

The hypnotist asks what's through the portal. "Nothing". What happened to the finger puppet? Nothing happened to it. Where is it then? It isn't. The hypnotist asks Jupet if they can take them to the finger puppet. Jupet starts getting the pen scribbles of the angel world and tells them to hurry.

I'M COMING FOR YOU

The shadowy burnt cat thing from before charges at Jupet, shouting their name, while Jupet tells the fire to hurry. The hypnotist yells at Jupet to wake up and they snap back to the real world. Jupet asks if it worked and if the hypnotist got anything, but they're too freaked out to say anything. A scribe nearby wrote down a lot of it though. Jupet asks where Lily is, and the scribe says she went to get TAL.

The hypnotist says to look at "the talisman" which looks like a ticket. It now has some of the longmole's ranting and a note to "bring your friends".

Here goes nothing

spooky

This one runs along concurrently with the next two.

Shadowy burny cat thing that has an X over the bad eye wanders around the grey scale world which is very pointy. It comes across a pit that has a lot of footsteps leading towards it. Cat thing jumps down the pit and ends up at the bottom which looks like the bottom of the pit from the other times Beleth/Jupet fell down here, but it's a lot more detailed in the greyscale world.

They go through a door into a backstage looking kind of area with movie posters with Beleth and Jupet's silhouettes crossed out. They make it to the stage where BagJupet was watching the show, and pass by a curtained door that has IV on it and a bunch of footprints in and out. On the back of the stage are five Troupe symbols, with the one for Andre broken with a hole in it. They go inside and there's a lot of weird imagery and Andre talks about how much he loves doing art. The pressure of everyone watching him gets to him though and he starts to doubt himself. Gradually he gets lost in despair and wonders if he ruined things by even trying in the first place. He can't find inspiration "here" and laments that he's letting everyone else down. There's some parallel imagery here of bagJupet which is odd.

Andre continues sliding down and says he doesn't want to paint and hates it. Shadowy catthing travels through some more weird Beleth-esque imagery to find a weird thing knocking on a floating door. The background gets colorful as Andre comes out of it.

Try Try Again Part 4 : Work in Progress

There's a bunch of weird shots of Beleth and Jupet with angel stuff on them or missing eyes and such on the walls. Andre's trying to do a painting of Beleth and all their dolls together but gets mad and smashes it.

Try Try Again Part 5a: The Writer

guess what i do

A new character named Paige shows up that looks like she has a fountain pen for a head. She narrates what they're all doing (because she's the writer see, get it) and say that Andre's calls for help summoned her over. Andre says he's suffering from artist's block and can't find any inspiration, so that's why they called Paige. Paige says that it isn't a lack of inspiration that's holding him back but the fear of what'll happen if he fails OR succeeds. There's a knock on the door and it freaks Andre out although Paige is unconcerned and says there are many doors here, and she knows where the sound's coming from. Andre grabs a painting and tells the person behind the door that the painting isn't finished yet and that they're not allowed in here, in "my creation", and that they shouldn't be anywhere. He's about to ask how the person behind the door got there, but Paige narrates that Andre already knows how and why they got there, and that both things are his fault.

note that andre's mask is cracked in half now

Paige narrates that Andre looks around the room at all his paintings, and that he painted "so many worlds" but none of them were good enough and were all failures. He was angry each time he failed, and each attempt retained a bit of that anger. Each of those bits glommed together and became "something else entirely". Paige says he should have burned the paintings, to which Andre says that they're all important and that burning them would be a crime. Each failure is a step on the stairway to perfection!

The doorknob starts to open and Andre paints over the door and it disappears. The door reappears anyway, but it has a silhouette of white Beleth on it. He's about to burn it but stops and waits for it to fully reappear. It does and the silhouette disappears and the knocking starts up again and Andre's like FINE i'll be right out >:|

don't get ink on me

Andre complains to Paige that he shouldn't have asked for her help because it never ends well for him (or anyone). Paige knows he doesn't mean it though since they're members of the, sigh, Troupe, and sometimes emotions get the better of them, and they hug in their little squiggly forms which I'll get into later. Andre apologizes and they hug again and he tells Paige to close the door behind him. He reaches for the door and it opens.

Try Try Again Part 5b: Mr. 5: Epilogue IV (SIGH)

mr 5 sucks

The thing knocking on the door is Mr. 5, he looks a bit like the angel that messed with Cress back a million years ago. Mr. 5 is surprised Andre came, and Andre says that this is his world and his creation. Mr. 5 says it's just a painting, and Andre says that it's HIS painting and he didn't put Mr. 5 here so get out. Mr. 5 says Andre drew a door and doors are for knocking on and going through and taking you different places, and Andre says not MY door get out. There's a lot of Beleth/Jupet imagery in the background during this.

Andre says the door is closed for repairs, and Mr. 5 says it isn't since it's already finished, and Andre says it ISN'T finished and that's why he had to call Paige to help him. Mr. 5 insists that Andre finished the painting and didn't have any trouble of it all, and shows a shot of a normal white Beleth and goes see look, it's right here.

Andre is a bit taken aback by this and asks if he really made it. Mr. 5 says that Andre felt so guilty about having to burn Beleth and not being able to do more, to which Andre protests and says that doesn't sound like him at all. Mr. 5 backtracks and says that's not what happened and they must have forgot. Mr. 5 says that "[Beleth wasn't] remembered" and Andre didn't paint them and Andre's like yeah I was there when I wasn't doing it it was awesome lol.

andre's the best character when glip isn't projecting all over him

Mr. 5 clarifies that Andre didn't need to paint Beleth since they died and ushered in a wave of disease and destruction, thus Andre had no time to paint, and then after everyone died he had no reason to paint. Mr. 5 asks why Andre didn't want to paint anymore and Andre says that art does not exist without an audience and it cuts to a shot of the shadowy cat thing watching them GET IT.

Mr. 5 says he remembers now and that when the world was dead, Andre tried to leave it by painting a door and going through it and now he's here. Andre says that "here" isn't anywhere, they're nowhere currently. He says that Mr. 5's memory is terrible but that his is perfect, and he asks Mr. 5 if he knows who Andre is.

Mr. 5 says that Andre is no one, that they were lost in a fire that burned down the same stage the cat thing passed by earlier. Nobody cried about Andre dying because no one knew who Andre was. Andre says nope, I'm Andrealphus the painter, I escaped the fire with plenty of time to spare. He says he remembers the smell of the smoke and the heat very clearly. He says he painted a picture of the fire that looks very realistic, and repeats several times that he is Andrealphus the painter, and he's a painter, and that's who he is (which is how to protect yourself from an angel, which was mentioned way back when).

sigh. double is making an andre copy on the left while paige writes the frame of the painting (?), chisel is opening a door, and andre is riding the music one in the real painting (?) towards the door

Mr. 5 says that he remembers now and that Andre is a painting, and when the world moved on it didn't take him with it and forgot him. Andre says nope, he moved on with the world and he's here in it and everything's fine. Mr. 5 gets angry and insists that Andre isn't real and is an illusion. He pulls a tooth out to use like a knife to which Andre's like :/ how ugly lol. Mr. 5 tries to stab Andre while saying that he was forgotten and died a long time ago and shouldn't be here, to which Andre is like WOW, coming from YOU?

This last bit is a bit hard to follow. Mr. 5 again says there was a fire, and Andre says he escaped. Mr. 5 asks him where he escaped to, and Andre says here, to which Mr. 5 says this is nowhere. After some back and forth Andre starts freaking out, and Mr. 5 says that Andre isn't here and isn't anywhere and goes to uncover something on the stage. Andre really freaks out about how he's not here and Mr. 5 is like exactly, you're nowhere, and reveals a big painting of Andre. From what I understand, I think this is a real-life painting of Andre on the walls of the house where Glip lived? You can't tell that from the art itself in the video though, I had to read that somewhere else, soooo... this reveal doesn't really work. But I'm pretty sure that's what's going on. The video ends in static and then it goes back to normal comic pages for a while.

i seriously can't tell

Mr. 5 says that he found him, and Andre in the big wall painting is like well damn, how'd you do that. Mr. 5 says they remembered the story Andre told before about escaping the fire, and says that Andre sacrificed "a sibling" to escape to safety. This sibling is either Double or Extra and I can't tell the difference because they're basically the same and WHY DO THEY EVEN EXIST UGH.

Anyway. The Andre by the door who is greyscale is revealed to be Double/Extra god, I hate these two, and talks in rhyme a bit about bluffing and trickery. They say they're both "something and nothing", to which Mr. 5 says that they escaped the fire last, bringing "nothing" with them. "Nothing" could erase the Itchy Itchy disease, so that's what they used, but it went too far. So to erase "nothing", they needed "something" - an act, a story, a place, a song, a picture - and it has shots of various little bits of Try Try Again so far so they could commemorate and remember it.

At this point, the longmole shows up to the shadowy cat thing and is like HEY you're not supposed to be in here, or anywhere. Mr. 5 continues haranguing Andre about how he couldn't accept his "vision" and that it was almost too much to bear, but it didn't matter. Longmole agrees and says that no matter how many times they try, it won't work, and they wish that they'd see that. Nothing matters since the door was still open (what door?).

Longmole says it's almost time for the last door to open. Mr. 5 says that each new ending paved the way to greater tragedy, with a shot of Median dead as the victim of a new pandemic. Longmole asks how many times its been and that they weren't done. Mr. 5 goes on about how everyone's hearts fell to despair and they couldn't remember who it was they were trying to commemorate, which tore them apart with shame.

Mr. 5, I think, at this point says how rage consumed them about there being nothing and passion got extinguished. And... I think this is Mr. 5, these pages start getting very abstract, talks about forgetting things and trying to earn their hatred, but not being able to, and how they want to rewrite his story and they shouldn't. There's a sort of vague shot of Cress reaching for her flower while Mr. 5 says he'd stolen from "you" and asks whether he should exist, then to just forget it. He says he wished there was an end and that he wanted the secret to die with him.

cress?

It then cuts to the longmole saying they have no regrets, even though it'd be easier to stop and take peace in nothingness, with the same phrasing as that dream Beleth had a long while back. Longmole says existing is hard and difficult and isn't sure why anyone bothers, but here everyone is and here shadowy cat thing is regardless.

Longmole says they wanted to give up on this world but when they look at shadowy cat thing, they remember. They remember the passion for the journey (shot of Beleth and their puppet strings), all the people they met (pictures of Amdusias and Biff and such), being honored to take part in imagination (shot of Paige), discovering their purpose (shot of Doctor Nurse finding Median unconscious), being instilled with hope for the future with (shot of Andre reaching out to the big paw from Broken Toy).

i'm sorry but this shot of jupet is hilarious

So, it turns out that Longmole is Jupet in YET ANOTHER FORM who is also Glip, who is also Beleth, and basically this whole page is a big metaphor for self-insertion and the creative process. Jupet has the three lines on their face like the Seeds Prologue again. Anyway, GodJupet apologizes for ruining their stories and worlds, and says that they get so lonely in their own world that they thought faking a ticket (REMEMBER FLAGG AND THE PLAY???) to theirs would be fun, with a shot of Beleth. Even when everyone found out they didn't belong, they still let GodJupet/Beleth/Glip pretend they did.

I've mentioned squiggly/alt forms. Troupe members have very simplified little abstract forms that appear in certain contexts, where they look like little birds or lizards, and more detailed and lifelike forms in other contexts, like Andre's normal appearance in the comic. It signifies different levels of reality, I think? All the abstract forms look similar though which is very annoying because they're already hard to tell apart.

Anyway, BelethGlipJupet cries about how it made them so happy that everyone accepted them as part of their world even though they were an outsider, and asks if it'd be okay to try again with all of them. They still don't think they deserve a second chance, but they get one anyway, and they say they're glad that they're at the end with all of them together, and they all go through a door that has rainbow colors inside. Also the shadowy cat thing is just a normal looking cat thing now. THE END!!???

Cast Roll

A cast page for Try Try Again which is goddamn incomprehensible much like everything to do with the Troupe, the most irritating group of pretentious fourth wall breakers you can imagine. Anyway. They're just embodiments of various creative processes.

Longmole is actually called Doublemole, or the Director. Person who puts everything all together in the right place. Glip.

Encore. Want to see the same scene over again but slightly different? I guess that's what Encore does. Who cares.

Masked Sun, with the subtitle of Eternal Optimist. Masked Sun is one of Glip's personas in the comic so... I wonder if anyone's made a bingo game with how many characters in Floraverse are Glip self-inserts.

Speckle, the abstract creator. This is the mole with the buckets who threw paint everywhere in that dream of Beleth's. They're coloring I guess. Andre's a painter and the artist, obviously.

Sample and DJ Birdie, the two things for music. Sample's the pointy thing that showed up in Amdusias's thing in Before You Know It.

Marble is "a hands on learner" and I don't actually know what they do. Chisel is " the sculptor" and makes stuff I guess, like objects and props. Chisel looks kind of like a spider.

Double and Extra, the role-player and the improv artist respectively. I hate them. They double people for the sheer purpose of being as confusing as possible. Someone acting weird? Someone die? Something off? Haha maybe it's Double/Extra! Maybe it isn't! They look exactly like the original character so you can't tell them apart! Maybe that twist doesn't even matter because Double/Extra did it actually!! God I hate them. For the record Double looks like a big lizard spraying ink everywhere and Extra is a worm with x eyes. They played the roles of the stage Beleth and Jupet in the show that they put on for bagJupet in the first part.

Paige is the "alternate" author and the writing process, obviously. There's another one called Nemo who's "the dreamer" and I don't know what they do, beta-read or something I guess.

don't let me (the author) forget the troupe (aspects of the author), reborn husk of TAL god computer that was the vessel for beleth (the author) and now is a another vessel of the author that supervises the others (aspects of the author)? Jupet and the normal cat thing are on the last page holding hands, with Jupet saying "Don't let me forget!" to cat thing and it saying "I won't!" in return. Their captions are "Inadvertant Avatar, Jupet" and "Ghost in the Machine, The Assembly Line" (get it, T A L, GET IT). The last shot is of Mr. 5, known as the Perpetual Paramnesiac, who says "you didn't wait for me".

And that's it. That's the end of Try Try Again. Did any of that make sense? No? Get used to it. It's just going to get worse.