#sleuth your problems ~ problem sleuth universe

[susiephone]

Note: I'm a 1997 baby, so obviously my choices are largely influenced by what was popular when I was in school - and what was popular with my friend group.

[queerjaneweek]

Queer Jane Week 2024 is happening soon!

From Sunday, July 28th, to Saturday, August 3rd, celebrate the Maid of Life with all your 2SLGBTQA+ headcanons and visions of Jane Crocker, Jane Egbert/Nanna and Nannasprite!

Join us in creating works of art, fanfiction, edits, headcanon lists, cosplay, etc. Tag you works with #QueerJaneWeek or #QueerJaneWeek2024 !

Day 1: July 28th: Pride: Display Jane’s pride through the flags, symbols and colours of your headcanons.

Day 2: July 29th: Hobbies and Interests: Showcase Jane’s likes, interests and hobbies through a queer lens. Baking a rainbow cake? Dressing as an inscrutable French detective? Something to do with pranks, comedy, Problem Sleuth or even Pony Pals!

Day 3: July 30th: Family: Jane or Nanna with Dad, Jade, John/June and/or Jake. Maybe also the Peixes. Sharing in their pride or supporting one another. No incest/ectocest.

Day 4: July 31st: Ship or No Ship: Romantic, queerplatonic, platonic or Jane proudly declaring being aro and/or ace.

Day 5: August 1st: Wildcard Day: Anything involving Jane Crocker being queer.

Day 6: August 2nd: Alternate Universe: Any AU you desire, whilst still showcasing Jane’s queerness. Kidswap, speciesswap, crossover, whatever.

Day 7: August 3rd: That’s So Gender (or not): Any delightful gender headcanons, from agender to xenogender, unlabelled to gender non conforming, showcase your headcanon, or perhaps one you hadn’t thought of before or see rarely.

Tag your posts with #queerjaneweek or #queerjaneweek2024

[greenerteacups]

I am very interested to see if you have any thoughts on religion in the Harry Potter universe, your characters (specifically Draco and McGonagall) seem to have a pretty good understanding of the Bible ("who is this Methuselah of a rat?") But it seems odd to me that none of the pure-blood families in Canon have any overt religious beliefs. Even the muggle-borns don't seem to have any which is rather absurb when you think about it.

I'm sure you've answered this question before but I am a poor internet sleuth and outside of cntrl F'ing your books I don't know how to find out your previous response(s).

Thank you for your continued work and hope all is well with you and your family

I'm in solidarity with you about the intransigence of the Tumblr search function, which is useless, and honestly one of the perks of Tumblr as a social media site is that basically no one can find anything you've ever said unless they saved the link on sight or are willing to commit hours to scouring your blog for it. Privacy ICON!

My brain is itching like I've written about this before, but I think the answer would be that most pureblood wizards in Britain are culturally Christian, because Hogwarts observes the religious holidays of Easter and Christmas, but not religiously (we don't see any wizards going to church). Since Christianity way, way predates the Statute of Secrecy — although the SOS is just barely younger than Protestantism, conceptually, which is another chip on the pile of my increasingly un-crack "wizards are culturally Catholic" headcanon — the schism between wizarding and muggle culture would postdate Christianity. So you'd have familiarity with the Torah, the Bible, the Quran (respectively). You'd have cultural familiarity, too, because a lot of the literary touchstones would make use of Biblical references, so the Bible would still be a necessary cultural text for students. (The way my English teacher put it was: "I don't care if you don't believe one word of this, but a whole lot of books you do want to read will make more sense if you've read it.") The question would then become how much stock wizards put in those beliefs, which is ultimately a question of whether Jesus Christ is unusual qua wizarding standards, to which the answer is: yeah, he might be! The miracles break several of the established rules of magic in the wizarding world.

The other problem is that if wizards aren't Christian, then they still can't be pagan, because pagan magic in-universe is just straight-up technology. I've incorported pagan festivals into my fanfic because it makes sense to me that wizards who use these pagan ceremonies and traditions would celebrate it, but as we know it, the wizarding world isn't a terribly spiritual place. The most we get is the idea of Merlin as a kind of prophet/Christ analogue, which would be my starting point if I wanted to flesh out a full system of pureblood religion — probably some offshoot of Catholicism that incorporates pagan elements and recognizes Merlin as a prophet, possibly with conflicting sects fighting over the divine status of various muggle prophets.

[homestuckreplay]

CLOCKS DESTROYED: 5/1000

(page 1155-1172)

SO. THIS INTERMISSION, HUH. It’s all laid out pretty clearly. The Midnight Crew are trying to rob the Felt’s vault as revenge for the Felt robbing a casino they like (which we’ve already seen on page 833), and any amount of death and clock destruction along the way is just a bonus. It’s a sort of hardboiled noir villain pastiche, nobody here has any morals or is any worse than each other, and narratively the tone is more sarcastic and mean – ‘all aboard the idiot wagon!’ (p.1165) and ‘[i]t is for little children who poop hard in their baby ass diapers’ (p.1167). Time is important, games are important, and the mysterious leader Lord English is important.

It’s a lot of fun reading the point of view of an intentional villain – the narration has that slight over the top ridiculousness that makes it easy to get swept along in these schemes and also want to see these dead green torsos, in contrast to the Midnight Crew’s brief appearances in Acts 1-3, where we saw them externally and they seemed pretty stupid.

I know as well that there’s a lot of references to Problem Sleuth here – the inventory system, the hats full of candy, the item duality, the suggestion to build a fort, etc – which I’ll be reading in full soon so I’ll talk more about that then.

While the plot seems straightforward, there’s a couple hints to the contrary, especially ‘Best to avoid DIE (6) in any direct confrontations unless you want a temporal mess on your hands’ (p.1170). The Felt engage in ‘despicable time shenanigans’, and this is probably why the mansion has a thousand clocks that all need to be smashed – including the one Slick brought in with him. Without timekeeping abilities, it’s harder to mess with time. There’s also the fact that Slick either can’t or won’t kill SNOWMAN, the potential ‘significance’ of the rules card to blackjack (p.1169), and of course the connection between Spades Slick and Jack Noir.

Slick doesn’t recognize humans – the picture beneath the rug is right-wing comedian Jeff Foxworthy, and the laptop is Bing Crosby – while Jack has intimately encountered Dad Egbert, also a human. Jack liked the name Spades Slick but didn’t recognize it as his own – although it’s possible he could have been renouncing an old name, saying he’s no longer that person. And when Slick loads mspaintadventures, he reads actual Homestuck, not just the low poly Homestuck intermission from the Midnight Crew. So some kind of parallel universe might be more likely than progression through time, or even time travel.

Just having the Crosbytop is another link to Dad Egbert, who had the Bing Crosby photograph in his room. That photo plus any laptop would alchemize the Crosbytop. I love the idea that some of the Midnight Crew’s possessions could be things the kids have alchemized that got moved around through time and space – Slick’s hat is a regular hat, but could also be Dad’s hat + some oil collected from an imp. (side note: having a backup hat is such a Dad Egbert thing to do.) (side side note: if Dad kept candy in his hat, would it be Gushers, to combine his two great loves of his son and Betty Crocker?)

Slick doesn’t understand the term ‘captchalogue’, but does have an inventory system – and he has a rules card for blackjack which has a bar code on the reverse, not unlike how captchalogue cards have captcha codes. The card is also a key, so presumably the code can be scanned to unlock something, similar to how captcha codes can be used to create items. He also has a similar bar code on his arm (p.1163) just like the one on WV’s arm (p.677), although WV had no inventory system at all besides picking things up, and he recognized humans (John) immediately.

In the heist plans, Slick’s ‘heavy muscle and expert safecracker, Boxcars, is headed straight down to the vault’ (p.1172). There’s a small image of the vault here, and if I’m not VERY mistaken, we’ve seen ‘Boxcars’ with this vault before – carrying it to contain Dad Egbert (p.957). So this vault may also have traveled in time, or passed back and forth between the two gangs, or appearified, or SOMETHING. The link between these stories really isn’t obvious to me but I’m enjoying the mystery of it.

The intermission is incorporating color into the narrative text, especially green, which is used for ‘THE FELT’ and ‘LORD ENGLISH’ (p.1155), and all the individual Felt names (p.1170-1171) besides the O in SNOWMAN. Other colors are used for the Felt’s numbers, matching the colors of their hats. This isn’t the first instance of color in the narrative text – Jade’s red ‘<3!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!’ to her grandpa on page 919 jumps to mind – but it’s VERY rare outside of characters’ notes and chatlogs, so stands out here. That shade of bright spring green is also very similar to the green on the Sburb logo and on John’s shirt; the only color seen on page 1. So, green in general, or this specific green, might have some overall significance. It definitely links the Felt to being Sburb NPCs, same as the Midnight Crew – could they be the inhabitants of the planet John’s on, and he’ll get to interact with versions of them in Act 4?

As further evidence for this, Sburb NPCs all seem linked to long-established analog games – WV, PM, and the light and dark kingdoms have been linked to chess (p.423-4, 721, 844; modern ruleset invented ~1500), while the Midnight Crew are linked to playing cards (modern deck invented ~1500s), and the felt to pool (invented ~1400s). This is different to the beta kids – John, Rose and Dave are all linked to in-universe video games such as Sburb, Problem Sleuth, And It Don’t Stop and Grand Snack Fuckyeah as well as John’s full collection on page 31. Jade as usual is a weird outlier who exists somewhere between the two, and is linked to real world board games, which are more modern (at least in their trademarked, commercial forms) – see page 772. Games are definitely a key motif in the story, so I’m keeping track of what games characters are linked to, and which characters don’t play games at all (Dad Egbert??)

[princeinsomniavoid]

Finding out that the reason Sepulcritude is called that because its a pun on Sepulchre [A synonym for tomb], and or Seppuku, and the attack is literally an all out last ditch effort that kills the user [PS] when power for the attack is depleted is giving me new complexes I think

What if I chewed through drywall? What if I put my cpu in a blender? What if I went outside and contracted rabies what then.

Quote "...Once PS is turned back to normal, he will die unless someone can give him the will to live." [From the problem sleuth wiki] WHAT IF I BEAT YOU TO DEATH WITH HAMMERS im going crazy. Granted the "someone" in that sentence has a hyperlink leading to Hysterical Dame's wiki page but shut up for a second nuh uh the "Someone" is me actually, I will be receding into the forest and you will not find me ever again.

I hate this stupid fucking asshole, he's so fucking dumb and I hope he dies. But he's going to live forever because I say so, he's GPI's perfect idiot, im going to kick his ass, and then kiss him on the mouth and also kick him in the dick, he doesn't deserve to have it. What do you mean he's meant to be Spades Slick's narrative foil? Kill yourself.

If you put Sleuth and Slick together in the same room they will immediately start kicking eachother in the teeth and then they'd have the worlds most nasty sex but in a schrodinger's cat style way, where you wont know whats actally happening until you open the door, they are simultaneously fucking and killing eachother. Sleuth single handedly saves the universe via self sacrifice and also because hes literally the most handsome man alive, Slick single handedly ends the universe by selfishly killing his bitch of an ex wife because he's awful and ugly inside and out.

I think Hussie is a fucking idiot and I hate him.

Anyway im normal you can give me a fictional man to look at and ill be so normal about him i promise you can trust me im not going to ship a pipebomb to your mailbox im not hiding under your car and im not living in your attic :]

[localnerdcase]

hey, quick word of advice for anyone making a mspa inspired reader-command comic, don't just do what the command says.

early homestuck (, jailbreak and problem sleuth) operate under "fuck you" logic.

take problem sleuth for example:

a misguided mspfa artist would decide to render this panel in excruciating detail, but it's kept simple because, hey, the last two adventures weren't anything major, why would this one be any different?

just looking at it, what do you see? okay, if you've read problem sleuth, you know what's really happening in this picture and what's behind it.

but if you took it at face value and just wrote it as is, you would turn up with "a detective is in his office. a gun is sitting on his desk, next to it is a phone. behind it is a window and a chair. there is a safe on the wall." [citation needed]

this hypothetical parallel universe problem sleuth is quickly forgotten about in the history of the person who made it and in mspfa history.

...but nothing in the room works the way you think it would, see that window on the door? it's actually a piece of paper attached to the door, also the door is locked. see that safe? it's fake, and there's a clown painting behind it. that window? it's a portal to another dimension.

and this information isn't given to the audience at first, all they know at first is that this is a detective story, and the description "You are one of the top Problem Sleuths in the city. Solicitations for your service are numerous in quantity. Compensation, adequate. It is a balmy summer evening. You are feeling particularly hard boiled tonight." before the 'what will you do?' prompt.

go and read the first 10 pages of problem sleuth right now, here's a link: (https://www.homestuck.com/problem-sleuth), it's also in the unofficial homestuck collection.

a summary of what you (hopefully) just read: "get the gun" "there is no gun in here (there's a key where the gun was in the artwork)" "get the key" "why? the door isn't locked" "open the door" "you can't" "punch the door" "why would that work? the door's locked" "get the key" "you got the gun".

this is also done to simpler effect in homestuck's intermission: "be spades slick" "you are now hearts boxcars" [sic].

early homestuck had slightly less of this effect done, because of the more story-focused writing homestuck as a whole had, and even ditched the reader commands because of it.

if you want story from the start, just write the comic yourself. if you want reader commands from the start, take a more comedic tone.

when problem sleuth became more complex later on, it was because the logic was starting to layer onto itself, and more named ("named") characters were being added and continued to exist. also hussie is a huge nerd who can keep track of these sort of things.

but back to the main point, don't just do what the reader's command says, the readers are expecting you to do something funny or interesting with your command, if you just do what they say in a simple or uncreative way, they're not going to humor you.

problem sleuth's "puzzles" are bizarre, surreal and abstract at times (best described as "weird"), but they still are puzzles with solutions, BUT, those puzzles' solutions are made by the audience, more like the readers are "breaking" the logic presented to them by the story.

if you have only one solution to a problem, you're better off making an actual game, just writing the story yourself in accordance with the character's arcs, or leaving it up to a poll.

-a guy who has written exactly one mspfa and barely reads them anymore.

[booze-hats]

Cigarette Statement

"In dreams and visions lie the greatest creations of man, for on them rests no yoke of line or hue. Forgotten scenes, and lands more obscure than the golden world of childhood, spring into the sleeping mind to reign until awakening puts them to rout." —H.P. Lovecraft

You really wanna know what I was doin' in there, detective? You sure about that? Y'know, most people know better and stop before they get answers they don't want to questions they shouldn't be asking. Here, hold this for me, yeah? The metal arm's unsteady. Yeah. Just gonna light a cigarette. Where was I? I was telling you what I was doing in there, that's right. You lived here a long time now, you know every good story starts a little bit further back than most folks probably think. No, it's not the beginning of time, stupid fuck. Jokes are supposed to be funny. It's yesterday. We're going back to yesterday. Shut the hell up.

Yesterday at about two o'clock in the afternoon, I woke up. Stop snickering. Not one fuckin' thing I've said this entire time's been funny. What's your problem? You gonna let me tell you this story or not? You're the guy who wanted to know what I'm doin' in your fake window. I already got all my answers 'cause your stupid ass was late for work. You'd know if you opened your office on time. Idiot.

That's what I thought. Yup, that's where we were: yesterday, two o'clock, I woke up. Woke up from a dream like none anybody ever had before then. You keep asking smartass questions, I'm gonna bust your damn lip open. Yes, I know that for a fucking fact. Because I was the one who had it and everybody else has shittier dreams than me. Especially you.

I woke up in the middle of the desert, lookin' back at town. At some point, in my sleep, I got up, got dressed, and I figure I musta caught a cab out to the edge of town 'cause my truck wasn't nowhere to be found, and I walked just like I'd been doing in my dream. I wasn't in the desert in my dream, though, I was awful far away. It was dark and cold and everything a guy could touch was pitch goddamn black and felt like metal. I was walkin' around and I walked into somethin' soft, so I ripped it down, and I saw everything that ever mattered in the universe. Everything. What do you think it looked like? You wanna know, I wanna know what you think. No, it ain't all the money in the world and it ain't a gun, ain't a knife. It ain't women, men, drugs, ain't power. Corpses might be your best answer yet, Sleuth. No. I woke up. I saw this city, with the sun burnin' over the top of it, shinin' off the river. I reckon it must've been two 'cause of the sun, but I stood there a long time before I started walkin' back. Felt like old times, before there was a city at all. I reckon if I was just a few feet further back, all I'd have seen was the sand dune I was standin' on.

Anyways, I stood there for a while and then, I started walkin' back. Or, I thought I was walking back. I started walkin' toward the city, but at the bottom of the dune, there was water. It looked black, like everything in the dream I had. Couldn't see the bottom. I walked on down to it and it took me a second to look at myself and I looked different. I saw myself for real, right there, with everything I ever wanted right in front of me, all my eyes was open. I can't tell you what I mean by that, there ain't words for it, pal. I leaned down real close to the water and I kept lookin' at myself. What I saw wasn't the future, wasn't the past. I saw myself just like I am for the first time in my life. I figured I had to look awfully long to make sure I can remember later 'til I get the chance to see it again. When I looked enough, I took a good deep breath and then, the water didn't move. So I blew on it again and it didn't do nothin'. When I touched it, it was cold, fast, wasn't never still, I reckon it just moved so quick that it looked still. I pulled my hand out and it was pitch black, dripping, and I saw myself in my hand. And something inside me, it said to eat it, so I did. Now you're asking good questions. What did it taste like? Well, I figure it tasted something like human blood.

Huh? Yeah, I'm okay. Feel great, actually. Really. I'm sure. Interrupting me again. Where was I? I put my hand in the water and it felt like ice. It was all covered in that inky stuff and it shone black in the sunlight, like metal. It was beautiful. And it was delicious. By the time it'd all dripped off and the rest of it dissolved into the sand, it was today. The sun was on the edge of coming up again. By the time I got back to town, I heard myself in my ear, talking in a million voices, and I told myself that I needed to be somewhere quiet, and detective, I broke straight into your office and puked that stuff up in that nice new trash can and fell through your open window with my head spinning. Really, I oughta go to the hospital and sue, but I'm still a little bit woozy, so you should light me another one of these, yep, huh? No, it was my flesh hand, that's why I'm not touching the smokes with it. Hurry up. The first thing I did when I got upright was try to light a cigarette and the shit on my hand went up like alcohol, but it didn't burn me none. Didn't hurt. Didn't stop. It just kept burning the prettiest purple you ever saw. And I looked at it for a while, and I felt time like nobody's ever felt it before, I felt a million years in just a minute and then I heard you shuffling around. I stopped focusing on it and it stopped, so I suppose I musta kept it going somehow. I crawled back through the window and managed to take you by surprise by accident.

Huh? What do you mean? I told you everything you need to know. Oh. Shit. Yeah. What do I want from you. Good point. Mm. I dunno. I reckon I meant to ask you aout that dream I had but got lost givin' you shit about interrupting me. What do I want from you. I just came here to be somewhere quieter, didn't actually get up to nothing in the window. All I need you for is lighting my cigarettes, it seems. You're real good at it, too. You got any clients today? Really? Shocker. Didn't expect you'd have any all week, much less today. I'll be goddamned. Good case? No? No, I suppose infidelity ain't never fun when you have to investigate it, is it? Are you loyal to your woman, Sleuth? No, no, I believe you, you just paused funny. I ain't got no reason to accuse you of lyin'. I believe you just fine. You're loyal to her. I seen her a few times, out with you, she's blonde like you. Beautiful woman. I see why you picked her, if you did. I couldn't get close enough to see what color her eyes were. What color are they, detective? Blue? I bet they're pretty blue. Yours ain't but you ain't blond naturally, are you? You dye it. Didn't look like she did, did she? Didn't think so. She's pretty like you are. Nobody ever regrets looking at her. But just by the way you answered that question, I don't think she's the only thing you look at, is she? I believe that too. You don't look at nothing else. No pretty photos, no faces passing by, no bodies packed together in crowds hurryin' down the street.

You ever look at men? No? Can I be real candid with you? I don't believe that but I ain't here to question it. No, ain't an insult. I look at men. Like men more than broads, most days. I just clocked you and you don't have to admit it, but you're, what? No. I'm fine. I'm, a little dizzy. Hell no, I didn't come here to call you a homosexual. Oh, god. I reckon I did lose the plot. You figure you can hand me that trash can real quick? I need to puke again.

[dingodad]

Two things:

Do you think "English" as a name for topspin relates to black hole stuff?

Do you think "Lord English" as a synonym of "Huge Bitch" might bring us back to Problem Sleuth, where Mobster Kingpin became a black hole by concentrating his mass in a corset?

it certainly could? intuitively, an "English" spin applies to the billiard ball, and not the hole - but I guess in homestuck (and in astrophysics?) those are doubles for the same thing...

this is way above my pay grade, but a black hole's spin actually does have a lot to do with its physics: in particular, a black hole has to be spinning in order to act as a gateway to infinite parallel universes. so it's not like this line of thinking is totally divorced from what we're talking about.

to a layman, the science surrounding this stuff is obtuse to put it mildly, but the above video is a great visualisation of a bunch of the more arcane applications of black holes in relativity. spinning black holes in particular come up at the 29 minute mark.

the only way the "umbra" in Calliope's trolltag has ever made sense to me is as a reference to a psychological "umbra", or shadow - i.e. a "uranian umbra" is your gay split personality, so to speak. but since "uranian" has a double meaning (a WEALTH of double meanings, really, since "Urania" was also one of the mythical muses) it stands to reason that "umbra" should also have some hidden astronomical aspect as well... in which case, is there anything a "spinning shadow" could be OTHER than a black hole??

on the Kingpin: it's all a little over my head, sorry... if we're talking about a "bitch" that's so "huge" it distorts spacetime I can only think of the Vast Expletive which "rung through the cosmos" with information "encoded in its wavelengths", like some kind of gravitational wave. but if we're talking about Lord English and wearing corsets, the mind can only travel toward crossdressing and genderbending. in which case, by wearing his girl-version's corset and becoming a black hole, Mobster Kingpin kind of embodies his own "uranian umbra"? ha ha ha.

[twistedtummies2]

Gathering of the Greatest Gumshoes - Number 9

Welcome to A Gathering of the Greatest Gumshoes! During this month-long event, I’ll be counting my Top 31 Favorite Fictional Detectives, from movies, television, literature, video games, and more!

SLEUTH-OF-THE-DAY’S QUOTE: “How do you think this all works? By being big and being bad.”

Number 9 is…Bigby Wolf, from The Wolf Among Us.

“The Wolf Among Us” is a video game made by the now-defunct developers Telltale Games. The game was based on the comic series “Fables.” I’m going to come right out and say it: I have never read the comics, and I have basically no real knowledge of them or how the characters and lore in them may differ from the established points in “The Wolf Among Us.” HOWEVER, very thankfully, the game is able to stand up on its own two feet regardless, and so are its characters, so even someone who has basically no knowledge of the source material can still enjoy it.

The game is a sort of choose-your-own-adventure sort of deal; a point-and-click adventure where the player’s choices every step of the way affect how the story plays out, the kinds of relationships you form with other characters, and so on. Some choices are more important than others, but virtually every choice of note is worth pondering. The plot is a combo of film noir crime story and dark fantasy: it takes place in a world where various characters from the world of fiction, after their universe was mysteriously destroyed, have fled to the “real” world in order to seek refuge. They’ve established their own city, called “Fabletown,” where real world problems combine with fantastical adventures, as they struggle to build new lives and survive in this different universe, and hide their identities from the “normies” who exist beyond the borders of the city.

The main character is Sheriff Bigby Wolf. Bigby, as you may have guessed from his name and the title, is the Big Bad Wolf of fairy-tale infamy himself. In the world of the game, Bigby is a werewolf, who can transform from a human to increasingly more wolf-like forms, his true and ultimate form being a GIGANTIC feral beast bigger than elephant, able to create hurricane-force winds with his breath alone, and more than capable of swallowing a person whole. Needless to say, with this kind of setup, and his reputation as one of the greatest, most archetypal villains in history, Bigby isn’t exactly a popular Sheriff. Many fear or distrust him, and those that don’t typically still keep their distance for one reason or another.

Because of the playstyle of Telltale games, Bigby’s exact personality can shift depending on the choices the player makes: he can be sort of a gentle giant, who looks rugged and tough but really isn’t that bad. In contrast, he can be much more morally and ethically dubious, an anti-hero closer to Dirty Harry, who walks a very fine line between a man and a monster. However, regardless of the choices you make, a few things remain constant: Bigby’s general demeanor is that of an almost stereotypical noir-style detective. He’s gruff, grumpy, coarse, and can’t seem to go five seconds without having a cigarette. He’s often cynical and sarcastic, very much the sardonic hard-boiled sleuth. The character is voiced by Adam Harrington, and he does a phenomenal job giving Bigby the airs of such a great archetype, while also injecting vulnerability and sympathy into his portrayal.

The most notable constant of all, however, is Bigby’s motivations: even if you make him especially nasty, it’s usually pretty clear that this Big Bad Wolf is racked with guilt over his past. He knows the stigma that hangs over him is VERY well-deserved, and he legitimately wants to try and help people and make things better. Even when he makes questionable decisions, the majority of them are still justifiable in some fashion or another. He doesn’t want to be seen as the bad guy anymore, he wants to try and start a new life. It’s up to the player to determine if Bigby is truly able to put away the vicious, cruel, beastly sides of his personality and turn over a new leaf, or if his efforts and desires are all in vain.

Even though Telltale officially closed down in 2018, the first game was so popular that it was eventually revived for an upcoming sequel, made by the remnants of the Telltale staff with help from AdHoc Studios. The new game is set to release sometime this year, though no official release date has been given. Whenever it arrives, I look forward to seeing how Bigby’s story continues, and what new paths and new cases will await him in the future.

Tomorrow, the countdown continues with Number 8!

CLUE: “Just one more thing…”

[tenaciouschronicler]

Feburary 1-4 2025 2010

A whole bunch of shit happens that we already saw.

A stab first ask questions later approach is really good for avoiding paradoxes. Slick is very detail oriented in this regard, whether from dealing with the Felts time shenanigans or just his nature, taking note of a clock being or not being destroyed to orient himself to the timeline.

Finally Slick incapacitates Sawbuck without further injuries and time jumps.

Some little bit of character building that I like is seeing Slick try and come up with witty one liners. Hes not patient enough to make his attempts any good, and he has a hard time coming up with them on the spot. Im also leaning towards Slick naming his weapons himself to try and make one liners.

Moving on, Slick takes the time to update his hit list with current deaths and expected ones adding in a doodle of Snowman. On that point, I know this intermission is darker than the main comic but I was not expecting the gruesome decapitation gif.

9/15 GREEN TORSOS DEAD

2/9 GREEN TORSOS DEADENED TWICE

1/15 GREEN TORSOS DEAD FOR THE FIRST TIME, BUT IT'S AN ALTERNATE UNIVERSE TORSO, SO YOU GUESS MAYBE IT DOESN'T COUNT(?)

One death indeed does not count since this timelines Stitch is alive. Droog says as much when he and Slick start hashing out the current state of affairs. Droog has Stitch making effigies of the MC and their hats so he and Deuce are aware of Slicks injury.

I wonder what has to be done to designate an effigy to someone. Visually the only difference is a little bit of height and the hats but theres gotta be more to it. Either way Droog has Stitch fix the effigies eye but it doesnt work correctly.

Your sprite was flipped the wrong way.

I find this really interesting. It seems the effigies are static in placement and without knowing exactly how someone is facing repairs can be done to the wrong side. Im curious why that is. They undo the stitching and Slick faces the correct direction gaining the scar weve seen echoes of.

Getting his bearings, Slick takes the time to admire Snowmans Lance. "She'll have to pry this thing from your rigid severed arm if she wants it back." Foreshadowing anyone? Im telling you, the injuries Slick is obtaining are more than coincidence. There has to be an underlying reason for this to have a focus.

That aside, Slick takes another moment to follow a nonsensical command.

You can't BELIEVE she saw you horsing around like that. You will never live this down.

Lmao, absolute peak comedy. Especially when the focus goes to Snowman and she just fades out. 10/10 reaction. Now she'll never take you seriously as a threat.

After that display, the MC are finally gathering around the safe and ridding themselves of the multiplying Eggs and Biscuits. Stitch almost manages to make a break and get revenge but Slick has great timing.

So we are gonna dig into this a little. @homestuckreplay has said that theres lots of bits that are callbacks to Problem Sleuth and now we are getting links to pages from that comic to hammer that home. On top of that @reeseskups also had this to say:

So it seems to me that in a way the link to PS is supposed to mirror the Years In The Future posts we had with WV. Furthermore, while I dont think Hussie will tie the two comics, theres no doubt that we are supposed to come away from this with an understanding that there will be a time where everyone weve seen so far will be in the same place/time. It does also add something I was wondering about the seemingly out of character moments of Slicks nonsensical actions. In a way hes the reverse of WV who was also an 'outside' the narrative character. While WV gained autonomy after joining the narrative and is being gently led by it, Slick is being shackled by the narrative and being forced into the path it wants. This makes them great foils on this comics journey and echoes the sentiments I made about the beta kids own roles in the narrative back in my comparison essay.

All that aside back to the intermission, the explosion from the future is now the present killing Trace and Doze bringing everyone to the same point in time at last. Only five members, not counting English, are alive. It seems we are getting closer to the end of this intermission.

[folatefangirl]

@ficreadingchallenge Finished my first full card at last!

List of fics below the cut!

Bodyswap: Problems With Body Swaps

Fandom: Star Trek: Discovery

Ship: Katrina Cornwell/Mirror Philippa Georgiou

Rating: Mature

Author's oldest fic: WIP Amnesty: Clara and her Nutcracker Prince (dates back to 1998!)

Fandom: Nußknacker und Mausekönig | Nutcracker and the Mouse King - E. T. A. Hoffmann

Ship: Marie | Clara/Nußknacker | Nutcracker

Rating: Teen

Found family: Monsters Under the Bed

Fandom: Stardew Valley

Ship: Genfic

Rating: Teen

BIPOC main character: Your Necro Questions Answered

Fandom: The Locked Tomb

Ship: Griddlehark

Rating: Teen

New (to you) pairing: Mirror In The Sky//What Is Love?

Fandom: Midnight Mass

Ship: Beverly Keane/Dolly Scarborough

Rating: General

Part of a challenge or event: Leave What's Heavy

Fandom: Yuri on Ice

Ship: Victuuri

Rating: Teen

Epistolary: we've been here forever (here's the frozen proof)

Fandom: Red White & Royal Blue

Ship: FirstPrince

Rating: Teen

Secret relationship: criteria

Fandom: House M.D.

Ship: House/Wilson

Rating: Teen

5+ year old fic: On Aman's Shore

Fandom: The Silmarillion

Ship: Genfic

Rating: Teen

Medieval AU: baby, i'm a house on fire (and i wanna keep burning)

Fandom: She-Ra

Ship: Catradora

Rating: Teen

Time loop: trial and error

Fandom: Scum Villain

Ship: Luo Binghe/Shen Yuan

Rating: Teen

Hurt/comfort: Friendship Time of Year

Fandom: Batman/DC

Ship: Genfic

Rating: General

Free space: ithir

Fandom: The Rings of Power

Ship: Celebrían/Elrond Peredhel

Rating: Teen

Soulmates: How it didn't happen

Fandom: The Locked Tomb

Ship: Griddlehark

Rating: Teen

Future AU: i’ve been waiting all my life (and now i’ve found you!)

Fandom: Heartstopper

Ship: Nick/Charlie

Rating: General

Ghosts: ending my long days with you

Fandom: Word of Honor

Ship: Wenzhou

Rating: Mature

Under the influence: i just want you to know who i am

Fandom: Sk8 the Infinity

Ship: Matchablossom

Rating: Explicit

Longfic: Not Quite Shining

Fandom: The Locked Tomb

Ship: Griddlehark

Rating: Explicit

Take your fandom to work AU: Theme and Variation

Fandom: Hannibal

Ship: Hannigram

Rating: Teen

Newest fic in tag of your choice ("bullet points"): here is what you know

Fandom: Critical Role

Ship: Vexleth

Rating: General

Pets: The Hazards of Unsolicited Toy Advice

Fandom: Red White & Royal Blue

Ship: FirstPrince

Rating: Teen

Genderbend/rule 63: a polishing of mirrors

Fandom: MDZS/The Untamed

Ship: Wangxian

Rating: Mature

Mission fic: True Colors

Fandom: Star Wars

Ship: Genfic

Rating: Teen

Only one bed: Competition

Fandom: Game of Thrones

Ship: Braime

Rating: Mature

This was an excellent challenge to force me to sleuth tags in ways I don't normally do and I found some interesting fics to read in the future along the way.

Fic from first fandom: An Overview of the Foods of the Redwall Abbey Universe

Fandom: Redwall

Ship: Genfic

Rating: General

[tranquilspot]

[S] STRIFE!

Ha ah! Halloween season jumpscare~ You thought you'd seen the last of me (and this liveblog)!

This 'fight' is funny and laughable. It isn't really to be taken seriously. DAD lighting the candles on the cake can be seen as threatening (and dangerous!) if you was none the wiser that is. It's the boy's birthday, and his dad is aggressively celebrating it. Makes me wonder if strifing really is a custom in Homestuck, or if it's specific for the universes that will play SBURB/SGRUB. Whichever is the case, it's a mock battle is this situation. Or perhaps ageing IS threatening to John. Adulthood (or rather adolescence here) is a scary thing.

Colors, logic, art appreciation

I can't stop appreciating the art style and the dedication to its scarce (for now) details.

Like here, the very moment the candles are lit the flames go bworh! (damn and all at once?)

That's a transition frame, right? So neat. The nuance between the predominant black and white style and the colors is well-done. Less is more. The 'STRIFE!' logo thingy appears (two colors, kinda echoing to the candles. Flames = threat; but also Rochefoucault's quote from earlier?! hmm thoughts for later) and we have a brand new concept shown to us: Strife options. Aggrieve and abjure. By the way neon green and sky blue goes well together, it almost hints at John's and Jade's exchanged colors duality. Color theory is great once you get the hang of it! Aggrieving is offending someone. Rather than a physical attack, it suggest an emotional one. "I don't want your overwhelming love dad, or your stupid cake". Something among those lines. Also, he's such a dork making those movements with his hands. It looks like pseudo kung fu moves. He attacks and a lot more green appears on screen. Freakin' love the flash game effect on the background, and the simplified Slimer looming behind John, as if it was his familiar/symbolic beast having his back. Comical and kinda scary, with his ridiculous small eyes and large mouth. So he strikes, and is auto-pastried which is a pun on Auto-parry, a term and running gag from its predecessor Problem Sleuth. Still on my color observations (what can I say, I'm an artist that love art) this AUTO-PASTRY! is magenta kinda (but not really) close to the batterwitch's fuchsia. Guess I was too eager with that one. However it's nice to see there's different hue of the same color

The flashing dual color thing will also be used later for kernelsprites and ^2 sprites (this duo is Jasperosesprite^2's). The joker magnet echoes to the 'auto-pastry!' text, emphasizing the fact that the cake has comical properties.

Then he slides back into his previous position, simple and efficient (battle and artistic choice wise). If Aggrieve was an offensive and active tactic, Abjure is its opposite.

But before he reacts, it's DAD's turn to attack with a RPG naming system, like the Final Fantasy series (probably a tribute). 'Guardian Rubric: Coddlebrand'. Rubric is a title, but can also be a rule or a explanatory note (school). Is 'guardian' here a category or is he actually grading John on the spot? Perhaps the remaining word will shed some light.

Coddle is overprotecting, so that's what John could rejecting. Brand is a label, so is it a category or insincere 'marketing'. Depends on the point of view we position ourselves: Dad's or John's.

But here's a succinct (even subliminal) text that appears during the cake attack: 'Dotesmite!' What does it could mean? *do some research* Ooooh I see. Crushed by fatherly affection. Smite is hit, but according to world reference there's also a biblical meaning: kill/strike down. John in itself is a biblical name, but I don't see Dad Egbert being cruel to his son. He ain't Abraham. From there there's not much left to do in this flash. I'll just note that the movement effect during the Abjuring is reminiscent of John's windy powers, the blue and yellow colors coincident with his future God Tier outfit. Harmonious improvisation on Hussie part, for sure. Welp! We're done with this first Strife flash. It's writing was very laborious for unknown reasons and I'm very very sorry for 2 months of inactivity. Thank you for your patience, and I'll see you soon for the rest of Act 1. —> Coming soon

[queerjaneweek]

I am here to announce the inaugural Queer Jane Week!

It is an entire week to showcase your 2SLGBTQA+ headcanons about the one and only Jane Crocker. There are seven days with themes for you to create art, fanfics, edits, etc.

It takes place between July 30th - August 5th.

The specifics are listed under the read more:

July 30th: Pride: Display Jane’s pride through the flags, symbols and colours of your headcanons.

July 31st: Hobbies and Interests: Showcase Jane’s likes, interests and hobbies through a queer lens. Baking a rainbow cake? Dressing as an inscrutable French detective? Something to do with pranks, comedy, Problem Sleuth or even Pony Pals!

August 1st: Family: Jane with Dad, Jade, John/June and/or Jake. Sharing in their pride or supporting one another. No incest/ectocest.

August 2nd: Ship or No Ship: Romantic, queerplatonic, platonic or Jane proudly declaring being aro and/or ace.

August 3rd: Wildcard Day: Anything involving Jane Crocker being queer.

August 4th: Alternate Universe: Any AU you desire, whilst still showcasing Jane’s queerness. Kidswap, speciesswap, crossover, whatever.

August 5th: That’s So Gender (or not): Any delightful gender headcanons, from agender, to transfem, to transmasc, to xenogender, unlabelled to gender non conforming, showcase your headcanon, or perhaps one you hadn’t thought of before or see rarely.

-

Tag your posts with #queerjaneweek or #queerjaneweek2023

-

EDIT: You can also include Nanna Egbert and Nannasprite!

-

Here's the link to the mobile about.

Here's the link to the desktop about.

[homestuckreplay]

Banished! To The Horse Realm

(page 1328-1348)

One thing about whatever far future planet this is taking place on is they have the Kool-Aid Man. Perhaps a true constant of all worlds.

As it hurtles towards the finish line, this intermission hits maybe its three best jokes all in a row. Following all the other time powers we’ve learned about, Cans’ being that he clocks you makes me so mad. Honestly the joke would work even if he just punched really well, but, it gets followed up with Diamonds Droog grocery shopping and the Spirited Horse calendar.

Droog grocery shopping is funny to me because imagining any of these guys going about their day to day lives is funny. The knowledge that their city has cars and grocery stores opens up so many possibilities. Do these guys have families or roommates or perhaps even pets? I can imagine Diamonds Droog with a wife and kids but I can also imagine Droog living in a cool bachelor pad with Slick where they share groceries. Do they have hobbies outside violence, porn and playing cards? There’s also casinos, so do Slick and Deuce meet up for a whiskey on the rocks over the craps table every Thursday? Is this true of the Felt too? Do Eggs and Biscuits have day jobs working in an actual kitchen? Does Stitch freelance as a ballgown designer? This is what the next intermission will be about hopefully.

Anyway the edits of Hearts Boxcars into each month of the Spirited Horse character is an all timer. Imagine you’re trying to take some justified revenge on a rival until they banish you to the farmland to atone for your crimes. Cans’ powers are probably the worst to be on the receiving end of, and might have the longest term impact (besides Snowman’s). Like, what if Boxcars had plans? He probably had a concert lined up for next month, and maybe his daughter has a big birthday coming up?

There’s another Problem Sleuth reference where Boxcars hurls Eggs’ torso towards Cans ‘in an attempt to placate him with the red meat’ (p.1333) under a flashing gif reading ‘BATTLE TECHNIQUE: TORSO FLAIL’, which links to Problem Sleuth page 218, where Ace Dick tries the same move on a nearby beast. While Ace Dick is successful in placating the beast with the red meat, it doesn’t work for Boxcars (leading to horse antics). The Midnight Crew originally came from Problem Sleuth bonus content, and have interacted with them in Homestuck canon (p.833), so it’s fun to think that they’re beholden to the laws of the PS universe as well as the HS universe, or a hybrid between them.

After the good goofs things get very real, very quickly. Slick wrenches open the safe with the crowbar despite Clover’s warnings, proving he was able to risk any amount of bad luck and also the lives of his own gang in order to get to English’s secret treasure. Like either Slick is just this ruthless all the time and willing to throw his friends under the bus at a moment’s notice, or this is the ONE cause he is ride or die for.

I would lean towards the second option because it seems like the vault used to belong to Slick himself, judging by the spade scanner and Slick’s arm holding the code to get inside. And I would guess this is some Skaian technology since Slick and his barcode were likely programmed on the ominous planet. I’ve noted before how a construct who looks like Boxcars is carrying a safe that looks like English’s on page 957 – could this be Jack Noir’s equivalent safe? Back when Spades Slick oversaw the affairs of a dark kingdom, he owned this safe and keeps something important in it; Snowman knows this because she was there too, and while she can’t get inside, she can betray Slick by giving the safe to English? Maybe??

If so, she really doesn’t want him getting back in, or she’s just pissed off with him and taking revenge in general. She looks extremely cool standing framed in the doorway holding a gun – the circle of white behind her looks like a giant cue ball guiding her plans from behind. They have a cool but brief fight and she teleports away, locking him in the vault.

I mean. Clover did warn him about the bad luck.

But now I understand why there was just an extended conversation between Slick and Droog about the right-left eye and the sprites’ abilities to face in different directions.

By brute force destroying the entire mansion (including 1000 clocks) and killing every character except three, this intermission has managed to tie up most of its threads, except for the two biggest open questions: what is in this safe, and who is Lord English?

[dailyproblemsleuth]

Problem Sleuth, page 1,542

Next.

The majesty of your personal charm spreads throughout the cosmos. Legend will speak of a great CHAMPION OF PULCHRITUDE. Scribes will scrawl His praises. Bards will wail His glories. Poets will bleed their inkwells dry and weep them full again. Men of character will breathe this story their passion; as warrior blows white conk on jagged rock; as paramour puts flushed lip to lover's mouth. Men of spirit aflame, open of shirt and snug of pantaloon; rose-breasted men with swiveling hips, nimble legs and restless hearts; men whose vehemence of temperament fills their throats with melody, their footwork with rhythm. The fiery cluck of learned, genteel men as these will pique the ear with tales of this Champion.

A Champion, who by mettle of His glowing personal charm alone, saved the universe.

Author commentary: Look at all the semicolons in that purple prose. Semicolons make everything extra fancy. All of you aspiring literary giants out there might want to take some notes.