#problem sleuth pi

[clowncarousel]

Staying in your mind palace all by yourself beautiful?

[frogisanut]

is this fukcing ANYTHING!!!!!!!

[millisteak]

yayyyy

[pawsomelawsome]

pi doodle request, I think he looks cute enough to post on here

[beesgav]

wanted to practice heavy contrast because I'm super rusty with it

[feltcel]

hi im a schizotypal freak

both drawings i used for this

[a-piece-of-abstract-reality]

my ass forgot to post this yesterday uhhh

happy late pi day everyone!

[eyeballjazz]

@tarakau These were all too good for me to do just one...

[sumbier0]

Heho look at these silly creatures I found

[princeinsomniavoid]

He's held tightly in the crook of an arm, and though he is afraid he is safe. A hand threads it's fingers through his hair, the dexterous digits cradle his skull, pushing his face into the black velvet darkness of a shoulder, the fabric of the suit under his burning cheek cool and soft, and he is safe.

He's held like a prized jewel, like the rarest gold, like glass.

The man who holds him may be the most dangerous man alive, at least here in the city, but the Inspector is safe. He may be very capable of any number of awful things, of hurting him, but he is safe. In fact because this man holds him so fiercely he is, perhaps, the safest man in the world.

Not a soul dares to touch what Diamonds Droog covets as his own.

A poem that my PI fictiv beamed into my skull :] I hope the 5 other DDPI shippers enjoy it

[ultimatelyunassuming]

I should reread problemsleuth. I think ps should be the angel on my shoulder whos doing a shit ass job at guiding me

[homestuckreplay]

oooo did rereading act 1/2 feel different now that you've read problem sleuth???

yes, definitely! I have stopped looking at Act 1 as a complete beginning, and started seeing it as a continuation of something that was already ongoing (MSPA as a whole). like, when Homestuck started, a young man standing in his bedroom wasn’t logged as Homestuck page 1, it was MSPA page 1901, and the people reading it back then were almost exclusively Problem Sleuth fans.

I saw a post a while back (which I sadly cannot find again) saying something like ‘people who didn’t spend a year waiting for Problem Sleuth to escape his office building will never understand what it felt like to see John easily leave his house 10 days into Homestuck’ and I think that post is correct – that must have been a very strange and surprising reveal. Problem Sleuth is so based on video game logic that it’s often very literal, and its puzzles only have one solution. PS, AD and PI are trapped in their building, and need the Megaton Key to escape. in real life, if you were trapped in an office building, you’d have options. calling some sort of building manager or locksmith, leaving via an emergency back exit, smashing a window, finding a YouTube tutorial on how to pick locks, etc. but a video game can bar all but the ‘correct’ solution (aside from cheats, mods, etc), as can an author. Homestuck sticks to this in some ways – the alchemy sequence in Sburb’s tutorial level, for example – but overall it feels much more grounded in reality than Problem Sleuth does, and much more metaphorical (its title, for example). those things only feel weird now that I have PS as a comparison!

in popular culture and especially in music, people talk a lot about ‘second album syndrome’, where an artist whose first album was a big success really struggles with their followup. sometimes that’s about the massively increased pressure on them, but often it’s that they put all their good ideas into their first album and haven’t had time to develop any new ones. in my opinion disappointing followups usually fall into one of two categories – either they try to do the exact same thing as the first album and feel like an uninspired retread, or they purposefully try to make something as different as possible, and end up experimenting without a solid artistic vision behind it. conversely, the second albums I love tend to take the ideas of the first album and build upon them. the artist is still working in the space that really interests them, but is actively trying to learn and advance their craft. a well known modern example of this is Olivia Rodrigo’s second album GUTS (2023), which is primarily about the same breakup as her debut SOUR (2021), but written with two years of perspective on those feelings, reflecting on her own actions and on other people’s responses to her original songs about them.

I think early Homestuck is basically doing the same thing, taking the core ideas of Problem Sleuth such as applying video game logic, inventories and battle systems to reality, characters interacting with their own medium, and telling a high concept story through small, reader-influenced actions, and exploring those through a different lens. PS, AD and PI could enter cheat codes for their own game and re-enter saved states, but due to their 1920s setting, none of them played video games outside of the one they were part of, so the mechanics that governed their lives had no context to them. John and his friends do play video games, program computers, etc, and so they’re able to more consciously game the mechanics of their own lives. Homestuck’s inventory systems are more complex and variable than PS’ equivalents, giving readers far more options (and opportunities for jokes) with their commands. the beta kids are far more similar to the average MSPA reader in their experiences, interests and senses of humor than Team Sleuth were, so might on some level be based on the types of people who were already reading the site. so PS and HS have similar ideas, very different execution

(for what it’s worth I think if Hussie had made a full Midnight Crew adventure instead of making Homestuck, it would have been far more of a retread of PS’ ideas instead of an advancement, and probably would not have recaptured the magic that PS accidentally stumbled on. but that’s guesswork)

anyway something else is that John, Rose and Dave are all Problem Sleuth fans!! and that meant something more to me on this reread than it ever has before. John, for example, has a poster of Problem Sleuth acting all hardboiled in his office with his gun and candy corn. John tends to identify with main characters over side characters, and he believes the front that people put up, even when it’s pretty obvious to other people that they’re faking. Rose has posters of Fluthlu and other strange beasts from PS’ imaginary realm, because she’s interested in occult and esoteric ideas over humor and puzzles. She probably read/played PS for its universe-destroying monsters more than any investment in whether Team Sleuth escape their building. Dave already has merch for Midnight Crew and the Felt despite not being super into the new adventure. He’s someone who doesn’t tend to stick with things for too long, and is always trying to keep up with what’s new so that he can have an opinion on it – PS is over, so he’s moved on. having your new main characters be a fan of your existing work feels pretty self indulgent, but the way they each interact with that work is VERY true to the rest of their characterization.

obviously there’s also a bunch of small references, like when Dave is described as ‘starting to flip the fuck out’ (p.465), or when John is commanded to ‘Fondly regard cremation’ (p.52), or my personal favorite, ‘CD: Punch clocks in faces to establish chronology’ (p.1180). Homestuck is always referencing itself too, with its many variations on doing an acrobatic fucking pirouette off the handle or stating immutable facts for the record or friendship being an emotion - specific turns of phrase that are used over and over to give the work its very strong voice and linguistic identity, keeping it cohesive even as it goes through wild shifts in tone, setting and art style, but without a greater ‘meaning’. the same way that a meme can circulate through different communities, platforms, even time periods, which makes it feel like there’s a singular ‘internet culture’ even though this is a huge and disparate place. so these references recurring from PS show that this concept I’d already noticed in Homestuck exists throughout MSPA and links these stories that seem like they’re taking place in very different worlds. I’m not someone who tries to pick out every tiny example of self-reference but the general idea does work for me.

anyway in conclusion: Problem Sleuth is very good and I don’t think it’s necessary to read it to understand Homestuck, but it has definitely changed my perspective on the early acts and given me some valuable context, which is very worthwhile!

[wachtelspinat]

Mr Wachtel i want to eat your midnight crew and problem sleuth fanarts(especially boxcars), ALSOO..

What do you think about HBxDD? do you have a favorite ship between MC and PS too or headcanons?

OOOOH BOY hello midnight crew related asks

first of all thanks a lot, really appreciate it. these boys are still very dear to me and i miss the mc fandom times a lot 😭

i've been through a lot of ships here and there regarding the mc and the sleuthes, and my heart especially melted when reading @eyeballjazz 's "hello, my lovely" (which has a wonderful portrayal of boxcars and pickle inspector aaaa and comedy and fun and please go read it).

as far as HB/DD goes, i haven't read anything as far as i remember that made it make sense to me (which is also a bit due to the fact that i see DD as a very miserable man and boxcars as someone who is a lot more empathic and able to see the good things in life and he deserves better 😭😭), which ofc, doesn't mean that i'm against it, i'm against no ship, we're all just playing with dolls here.

having been very slick-hyperfixated most of the stuff i've read and thought about was ofc SS/snowman or /sleuth...

but i think my fave ship is SS/DD since forever... my headcanon always has been that droog is so. hard. in love with slick but he would never let that interfere with the big picture. except when droog is droog and acts like the b*tch he is (meaning being EXTREMELY petty towards people in slick's life who happen to be more than acquaintances aka sleuth, snowman (but he actually has a lot of respect for her that borders on fear. because no one is a match for snowman and no one can piss on her leg and sees the light of the next day) etc.. slick on the other hand is not romantically in love with droog. but he know. droog is his right-hand man after all, bffs in slick's opinion, if slick is even capable of sth like a normal human relationship. so it goes like:

DD >>> would do anything for his tantrum fit of a boss.

SS >>> knows exactly what's going on but lets the man do his thing, indulges in physical stuff when he's drunk, doesn't acknowledge any of this when sober again, much to droog's dismay.

there is so much more aaa

had big feelings for DD/PI too but ever since i've seen eyeballjazz's vision of HB/PI nothing else regarding these two made sense to me anymore.

[bugtoast]

reading problem sleuth for the first time, and:

Why is it that every character Andrew Hussie writes is autism coded???? like im not complaining, in fact I wish to know what their arcane secrets are......

Pickle inspector is litterally the best character so far i will NOT accept any PI slander in this household

I have no fucking clue how this ties back into homestuck, i just know that it does at some point???

I keep seeing this grim reaper character in fanart of the series????? very confused about that

[hippoinspector]

THIS SATURDAY........... i will be opening preorders for my first round of intermission/problem sleuth/mobswitch merch on etsy!! preorders will remain open for 2 weeks (but i do plan on running them again in the future so dont worry if you cant get em this time around!) the lineup is as follows: -2" GUMMY CHARMS ($12 each, will have discounts available for bundles): lineup consists of ss, dd, ps, and pi (regular and mobswitch versions) as well as ad. im sorry hb/cd/delinquent fans i swear i will have them available in the next run i just do Not have human designs for them rn </3 -3" PERNICIOUS INNOVATOR PLAYING CARD CHARM ($15, different design on each side): based on a fun design i did for a sort of calling card for innovator a while back. front side is his magician outfit, back side is his regular outfit -3" PROBLEM SLEUTH OFFICE CHARM ($15, different design on each side): based on sleuths office, front side is more detailed version while the back has that classic problem sleuth feel. having this charm is said to make you feel particularly... hard boiled -DIAMONDS DROOG BILLIARDS REDRAW 8X10 PRINT & 58MM BADGE (print $10, badge $5, together $13): i like him :) i want to make more stuff in the future (including felt related stuff!!!), feel free to send me an ask if theres any specific kinds of merch (charms, stickers, standees, etc) that you want to see or any specific characters! please note that while i do ship internationally, i am based in the us and international shipping can be high! if you live outside the us, i would recommend gathering friends near you to order with to cut down on shipping costs! all prices are also in USD!

[dailyproblemsleuth]

Problem Sleuth, page 485

PI: Blindly take large amounts of pills.

You take a large dose of the powerful hallucinogens.

Author commentary: Those pills are going to turn you into a tall gangly woman and you know it.