#swapped from: dirk | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

lilithschosen · 13 hours ago

Text

hanky panky

ships: Harper (Date Everything) x F!Reader, background Betty (Date Everything) x F!Reader (i can't stop myself ok) words: 4626 rating: E (NSFW) tags: smut, strap on sex, strap being referred to as a cock, voyeurism (.. your furniture is alive), strap sucking, breeding kink, size kink, Harper wants someone to want her!!!, Betty picks out the toy <3 summary: you lose a harness and run to the laundry room to find it already around Harper's hips. she tells you to go get something for it so she can cleanse the laundry room of Dirk's bad vibes since you helped them break up finally :) (ao3 link)

Somehow, in the throes of a deep cleaning of the bedroom, one of your strap on harnesses managed to disappear. You swear up and down you put it back after using it.

Ben-Hwa was no help, saying they didn’t have to account for parts of themself when you were the one to last use it.

The Hanks never even try to touch your sex toys, saying they were more than enough for one another and you. You pinch the bridge of their nose, shutting the closet door before Hank 3 could smoulder at you in hopes you’d change your tune.

Betty reminds you of the last time she saw it, smirking with a look down to her hips. You blush and wave her off, needing to find it before you get too carried away.

Then it hits you.

You had to swap the sheets after your activities with Betty. Surely the harness was balled up in the bedding, meaning Harper would have it.

You bolt down the stairs, speeding to the laundry room. Drysdale and Washford stand, entranced with one another that they don’t even notice you. Dirk was gone, thankfully, and Harper was twirling a dirty sock around her finger before she turns to look at you.

“Hey you,” she smiles, shoving the sock into the hamper next to her and brushing her hands on her dress, “What brings you to this part of the house?”

You return the smile, huffing from how fast you ran down the stairs. You bend over, grabbing your knees as you gulp down oxygen.

“You ran all this way just to see little ol’ me?”

You nod, shrugging, “Kinda?”

Harper pouts at the noncommittal answer. “What do you mean kinda? How does anyone “kinda” run down the stairs to “kinda” see someone?”

You stand, noting the way the vein in her forehead pulses. The same way it would when she’d argue with Dirk.

“I’m missing something,” you say slowly, not wanting to argue with the redhead, “I wanted to know if you’ve seen it?”

The energy in the room that was beginning to brim with a crackling anger immediate changes as Harper smirks at you.

You walked right into her trap.

“Oh, did you mean this?”

She lifts her dress and you instinctively look away, not knowing what to expect. You had just confessed your feelings for Harper the other day and the two of you were taking it slow since she and Dirk broke up. You didn’t want to be too forward by leering at her as she raises her dress.

You don’t see her lower it out of the corner of your eye, so you turn back to see what she was trying to show you.

Around her hips, under the dress, she has your harness on. You blush, mouth open as you stammer at her. She grins wickedly, the tip of her tongue poking out between her teeth, letting you stare at the empty harness fastened snug on her petite body.

“Didn’t take you long to come find it,” she drops the hem of her dress, smoothing it before lifting her head up to look at you, “I snagged it from Drysdale before he could go on about it. No one needs their dramatics about what you do upstairs.”

Drysdale glares at her over Washford’s shoulder. He takes the man’s bicep and whispers something to him before exiting the laundry room all while he still glares.

Harper waggles her fingers at him in a wave, smug at the fact you two have the room to yourselves.

“I was hoping you’d lose a toy too,” she steps closer to you, her tongue running against the back of her teeth as her eyes drag up your body, “I haven’t been able to thank you for talking sense into me the other day. Dirkie- I mean Dirk, fucking sucks.”

You stand awkwardly next to her, eyes flicking between Harper and the open doorway to the kitchen. While the laundry room was empty, the kitchen was not. You blush, knowing full well that anything that could happen in here will be heard by everyone else.

Harper brings your attention back to her by running the back of her fingers up your bare arm to the sleeve of your shirt. She wraps it around her pointer finger, sighing at you.

“I remember this shirt,” she drags her hand across your shoulders and places her hand against your collarbones. “I like it better when it’s on the floor, honestly.”

Your eyes widen at how bold she was being and you want to respond, but the words barely come out coherent. Instead, you stammer again, making her chuckle.

“Why don’t you let me help you,” she hooks her fingers into the collar of your shirt, pulling you flush against her body. You’re taller than she is by a good couple of inches, making her look up at you. “Go get something I can fit in the harness. Think of it as a way to purge Dirk’s bullshit from in here.”

You’re not too keen on how often she’s bringing up her ex-boyfriend, but you’re definitely interested in whatever plan she has.

“Y-yeah, sure,” you manage to say. Her eyes flick up from your lips, locking with yours, “I’ll be right back.”

Harper lifts on her tiptoes to ghost her lips over yours. You feel the heat of her breath over them before she grins. “Good.”

As you turn away from her, she swats you on the ass. You stumble forward, face red as you manage to clap your barefoot against the kitchen floor. Kopi and Daisuke look up from the table, only Kopi giving you a small smile and wave before going back to their task.

You clear your throat, cheeks still hot, but straighten yourself and try to stroll as nonchalantly as possible.

Arms chirps at you as you move around her, smacking her hand over her mouth to muffle her giggles. You brush it off, smiling briefly to Stella as you climb up the stairs with a slow purpose.

You keep remembering the sight of your harness around Harper’s hips and how she revealed it. The way she innocently lifted her dress, the hunger in her eyes.

Reaching the top of the stairs, you exhale all at once. You spot Betty and Mateo chatting on the bed as you enter your room.

“Oh, speak of the devil,” Betty grins, tucking a thick curl of her pink hair behind her ear as she stands up to approach you. “Have you found it?”

Your eyes widen, moving from Betty’s perfect face to Mateo behind her. He smiles at you politely, waving.

“Uh, yeah,” you mumble. You lean in closer to Betty, taking her arm to have her move in as well. “Harper has it.”

Betty bites her lip, looking over you. “Has it? Like, still?”

You nod, swallowing hard.

“Oh, baby,” Betty cups your cheek, breathing out an amused chuckle, “I bet you're about to make her really happy.”

You somehow turn even redder at the teasing. You turn away from Betty’s hand, trying to hide as you spin around and reach for the bedside table.

“Maybe I should pick for you. That way when she's fucking you, you’ll think of me too.”

Betty’s hands slip down your waist, her nails scratching down your thighs. You feel her pressing herself against your backside and you melt.

“Oh, no,” Betty laughs, patting your thighs before stepping back, “I'm not stealing you away from Harper. Whatever that girl has planned, it's good.”

She steps around you and reaches into the bedside table drawer. She rummages for a beat, audibly humming to herself until she grabs something with a quiet noise of elation.

Betty pulls out a thick, pink toy. Something you've always had but somehow matched the colour of Betty’s hair. It was bigger than the other toys you have and you only bought it to test your limits.

“Does this seem good enough?”

You clench your thighs together as best as you can before you nod again. “Thanks, Betty.”

You hold your hand out to take the toy from Betty, but she shakes her head.

She raises the toy up to her lips, eyes locked with yours, and presses a kiss to the tip of the toy. You whimper at the sight of Betty’s beautiful, plump lips held against the silicone.

It makes you ache.

She hands it to you after a moment with a wink. “For when it's buried deep inside of you, remember it's with love.”

Your stomach flips, heart fluttering as you take the toy from Betty. Your fingers graze hers and she smirks at you. She takes in your appearance, how flustered you are holding the thick toy. Your fingers wrap around it and you lick your lips absentmindedly.

“Don’t keep her waiting, sugar,” Betty muses, brushing the hair out of your face, “I don’t want her thinking I got you distracted.”

Mateo laughs, “No one needs Harper’s wrath now that she and Dirk finally split.”

You sheepishly nod at him and offer a quick nod of goodbye before looking back to Betty. She winks and presses her palm to her lips before holding it out toward you, blowing it at you.

Finally, you head out of the bedroom and scamper back down the stairs. You try to hide the toy you’re holding by clutching it to your chest with both hands wrapped around it. Koa gives an honest belly laugh as he sees you run by, hands on his hips while he shakes his head. Scandalabra gasps dramatically at the sight of you, holding his hand to his chest with a wide grin on his face before he zips off to shout what he had just seen.

The kitchen is just as packed as it was when you left, but everyone deliberately keeps you out of their vision. Freddy and Mitchell’s conversation picks up in volume, Mitchell turning to keep his back to you as you walk by. Daisuke has his eyes closed with his dishes in front of him, meditating with slow inhales while Kopi rubs at a mug with her forefinger. Beverly whistles, staring at the ceiling with her cheeks pink.

It was a bit obvious that everyone knew what was about to go down in the laundry room, and it makes you painfully aware of how wet you are because of it. Voyeurism wasn’t a new thing for you, especially now with so many people in your house now. Especially with everything Sophia has introduced you to.

Hell, you’ve slept with a couple of people in the kitchen before. Especially Beverly, you let her do things to you on the kitchen table.

Harper leans back against the counter, her elbows behind her and her eyes firmly on the doorway. The moment you cross the threshold, she rushes to you. She fists your shirt and groans through her teeth, quickly shifting to pin you against the wall.

“About goddamn time,” she rasps, “I thought you got preoccupied with someone else up there.”

The flame of anger in her eyes simmers down and you see that hunger in them again. She grabs you by the collar and tugs you down to her level, smashing her lips against yours with an all encompassing kiss. You close your eyes, shoulders dropping as you relax and kiss her back.

She consumes you, dominating the kiss with a moan as you open your mouth to let her lick into it. Her tongue massages against yours while her hands relax against your shirt, her palms splaying against your abdomen.

Harper bites your bottom lip, tugging it back before letting go of it with a grin. You whimper, eyes opening as you feel her hand over yours, taking the toy from you.

She rolls her eyes at the look of it, “I bet Betty picked this one for you, huh?”

You nod.

“Figures.”

She hikes her dress up again and slips the thick toy into the o-ring on the harness expertly. You watch with rapt attention, a little impressed at how easily she handles it with one hand.

Harper holds the toy at the base, whistling low at the sight while she looks down.

“You wanna get it ready for me, sweetheart?” she asks, looking back up at you with a cheeky, perfect smile, “I’ll hold your hair back, too.”

Your eyes widen at the thought and nod dumbly, mouth already falling open envisioning the feel of it. Harper’s nose crinkles with an added intensity to the grin. She turns away from you and hops up onto the counter she was previous leaning on. She lifts her dress up above the harness, bundling as much as she can in her hand before she tucks it under her thigh.

The pink toy bobbles intimidatingly, the weighted sway of it attached to Harper’s hips has your mouth watering.

Harper extends a hand out, batting her eyelashes at you. “Ready for me?”

You take her hand, letting her guide you over to her. You reach out and touch her bare thigh, fingertips slipping up to the edge of the harness while your other hand pulls out of Harper’s. You lean forward until the toy is eye level with you.

Harper scoops up your hair with a loose grip, letting you get comfortable. You stick your tongue out, looking up at her expectantly. She clicks her tongue in surprise while her other hand grips the base of the toy against her hips.

She tilts the silicone toy up and lets it drop back down, slapping the underside of the dildo onto your tongue with a wet smack. She hums, and repeats the action again. You know for certain everyone in the kitchen can hear it.

Harper stops after a couple more times of slapping the toy against your tongue, now letting it rest there. You don’t hesitate, immediately wrapping your lips around the pink dildo. You make sure to keep looking up at Harper as you swallow down half of the length without a second thought, not even a blink.

“Ho-ly fuck,” she gasps, voice thrumming with excitement, “I wasn’t expecting you to take that. You look so pretty with my cock in your mouth, baby.”

You moan at the praise, relaxing your throat as you try to take more of the toy. You want to take it all, but you have to pace yourself. You’ve never been able to get all of it into your throat, despite Sophia’s orders or Betty’s gentle coos.

You manage another fourth of the toy and your eyes water. You pull your head back off, dislodging the toy from your throat with a gargle. You roll your jaw back and forth while Harper watches you.

You grip the toy at the base, holding it firmly against Harper’s cunt underneath it and she inhales a sharp breath through her nose. Her grip in your hair tightens.

“I want you to fuck my face, Harper.”

You hear someone choke, coughing loud before trying to muffle the sound from the kitchen and you blush. Yet, you don’t stop yourself from sticking your tongue out and licking a stripe from underneath the head of the toy up.

Taking the toy into your mouth entirely again, you keep your hand around the base of the shaft and relax. The toy disappears into your mouth inch by inch. You ignore the ache of your jaw, the burn in your throat, and an overwhelming amount of saliva dribbling out around the toy as you take more.

Before you know it, the tip of your nose brushes against the fabric of the harness. You blink back the tears, and your shock, as you look up at Harper above you.

“You fucking did it, baby.”

She holds you there for a second, watching as the tears spill over and run down your cheeks then lets you sputter off of it. You don’t fully remove the toy, instead your lips tighten around the tip and you scratch your nails down her thigh.

Harper gets the hint with her tongue poking into her cheek. She rocks her hips into your mouth, forcing the toy in and out. She moans at the friction the harness provides against her clit, jaw clenching at it.

“You’re so sloppy with it, aren’t you?” she groans. She reaches down to swipe at the string of drool falling from the corner of your mouth, smearing it across your face. “Getting it nice and wet before I ruin you for everyone else to hear.”

She thrusts up with a quick snap, her backside lifting from the counter before slamming down with a thud. You gag on the toy, but remain still enough to keep sucking on it.

“That’s it, baby,” she praises. You keep your head lower than before, letting her fuck your face with an even pace. She makes sure to not force too deep into your throat, but enough that she can be stimulated with each thrust. “I bet you’re dripping right now, both your mouth and your cunt all wet for me.”

You moan around the toy, only for Harper to pull you off of it by your hair. The muffled sound is then ripped from your throat, moaning so loud it catches you off guard. You clamp your mouth shut with a hand over it only for Harper to yank it from you.

“I want them to hear you,” Harper snarls, jumping down from the counter, “I want everyone in this fucking house to hear what I can do to you.”

She shoves you forward, bending you over the counter she was just sat on. The dress falls, catching on the toy as she moves to stand behind you.

Harper grips your hips and presses against you, the toy slips between your thighs and you shiver.

“Harper, please.”

You clench your thighs around the toy, desperate to feel her. She fucks the toy back and forth, holding you still as drags the length of it against your clothed core. You whine, needing more.

“So pitiful, aren’t you?” Harper smacks your ass, soothing the spot just as fast as she struck you, “You need this, don’t you? Need me?”

You nod, holding your face against the counter top as you look behind you. Harper’s eyes connect with yours, her fingers hooking over your waistband.

“Tell me.”

You see hurt flash in her eyes, her eyebrows pulling in before she can control herself. You swallow hard, panting while she drags the toy against you again.

“I need you so bad, Harper,” you mutter, “I need you to fuck me.”

The corner of her mouth pulls up in a lopsided smile, tugging down your pants. She stops them around your ass.

“More.”

You whine again, pouting. “Harper, please! I need you to fuck me so bad. I need you.”

She grins now, tipping her head back to let the hamper lid slide off. She pulls your pants and underwear down just enough to let gravity do the rest of the work, having them pool around your ankles.

“That’s right, baby,” she coos, grabbing the toy with a hand while she palms at your ass cheek. She rubs her thumb out toward your cunt, prying your folds apart with an obscene sound from how wet you are. “You fuckin’ need me.”

Harper guides the toy to your entrance, slipping it into you partially before pulling it out. She rubs it through your folds, nudging the tip against your clit and you moan through your clenched teeth.

She moves it back up to your entrance and thrusts into you, filling you to the brim with a single motion. You feel your cunt stretch around the toy to take it all, a familiar ache of pain while the tip rubs into your cervix.

You remember how Betty kissed the tip of the toy, clenching around it with a whimper.

Harper tries to draw the toy out and grunts, eyes rolling into her head. “You’re so tight, sweetheart. My big cock is almost too much for you, isn’t it?”

You only grumble in response, rocking back against her with the toy. She gasps, fingernails digging into your bare hips as she bottoms out.

“Fu-uck, Harper,” you cry out. The toy slips into you again, your walls spasm around it to try and keep it still so you can adjust to it. “So good, so deep. Need you, need more.”

Harper moans at your words, cheeks turning pink. She can't fight back the smile she has on her face from them. Having you needing her, needing only her at this moment, filled her with a vigor she had never experienced before.

You try to relax your walls as best as you can around such a thick toy, letting Harper ease it out of you until you clench around the bulbous tip.

“Greedy thing,” she taps your hips, drumming her fingers against you, “I’m going to split you in half.”

She thrusts the toy in again, drawing it back out slowly and you cry out. The feeling of being filled so quickly and slowly emptied had your knees weak.

Harper keeps fucking you like that, snapping her hips into yours while inching the silicone toy out of you at a glacial pace.

It was maddening and addictive, rendering you a blubbering mess with your palms splayed out against the countertop.

She keeps it up, rocking into you with an even force and an extra bounce once she can grind herself against the harness. She starts to speed up her thrusts, fucking the toy in and out of you with equal speeds.

You mewl at her movements, tongue lolling out while you take every inch of her.

“Is this what Betty does?” she asks, mockingly, punctuating the question with a rough thrust and it makes you yelp. “Or Sophia? How about Dasha, or Beverly? Hm? Winnifred wouldn’t fuck you like this, but maybe River would while she watches?”

You can’t respond, unable to speak a word let alone a coherent sentence. Harper’s thrusts become faster and harder, drilling the thick toy in and out in a way that has you almost cross-eyed.

“I bet I’m the only one that has fucked you like this.”

She’s not wrong.

Every lover you’ve taken has a different way of pleasing you. Some have a stronger approach, some are teases, some are direct, some are soft. They’re all unique, and you love all of them and what they do to you.

She stares at you, waiting for a response. You nod, eyes rolling into your head as she fucks you.

Harper leans over your bent body, hand snaking between your legs to rub at your swollen and neglected clit. You scream as she touches it, hips dropping onto the counter as you lose the feeling in your legs.

You hear someone drop something in the kitchen and a gasp of shock, one you think came from Beverly. You throb around Harper’s cock thinking about how Beverly will be after hearing all of this when you talk to her next.

She picks you back up, holding you firmly with a hand on your hips while she continues to rub your clit with intense, determined circles. She keeps fucking you, more precise thrusts in to keep you filled while she grinds into the harness as well.

“I wanna cum in you,” she pants, holding her cheek against your back, focusing on her movements, “Fill you with me in ways no one else has. I bet you’d fucking let me, too.”

The thought of Harper filling you with her cum has you weak. You moan, lifting your hips as much as you can to let her sink in as deep as she can manage.

“I bet you’d let me fucking breed you,” she snarls, pulling your shirt up with her canine teeth, “You want that, don’t you? Want me to breed you?”

You mewl out a whine, nodding. Your cheek rubs into the pool of your own saliva on the counter. “P-please!”

Harper lifts her head up from your back in surprise. Her eyes twinkle with an adoration you haven’t seen before, hearing you able to beg despite how fucked out you were.

Your eyes remain locked as she fucks you, neither of you able to look anywhere else than at each other. Her lower lip quivers, thrusts growing twitchy and haphazard as her eyes unfocus and she succumbs to her pleasure.

“Fucking take it,” she croaks, slamming her hips into yours with a choked breath, “Take my fucking cum.”

You orgasm along with her, mouth open with a silent scream as she crumbles on top of you. You can almost feel what she was describing, the warmth of her love filling you along with the toy. Your body spasms as one orgasm blurs into another with a low, guttural groan escaping from your throat.

“Jesus!”

Harper’s head snaps to the doorway, seeing Dirk standing there with his hand over his eyes. She stands still, frozen in place while you blink hard. The second orgasm was abruptly ended at the sound of Dirk’s voice, sobering you up immediately.

You smack your lips together, lifting from the counter to clean your face up from the drool.

“Hey, Dirk,” you find yourself slurring, but able to speak, “We’re a bit busy right now. Can you come back later?”

He shouts, throwing his hands in the air as he turns quickly to leave. “Un-fucking-believable!”

Harper gasps, clasping her hands together as she swoons at you. Dirk grunts to himself as he stomps out of the laundry room, leaving you both alone. Or, as alone as you can be with the kitchen on the other side of the wall.

She rocks into you, grazing the tip of the toy into your cervix again. You whimper while gripping the countertop and you raise your hips for more.

“You're dangerous, you know.”

Harper bites her lip, palming at your ass cheeks to spread you apart. She watches with a groan at how sinful your cunt looks stretched out around her pink, silicone cock.

“Not the first time I've been told that,” you chuckle, bouncing backwards onto the toy, “I'm happy to hear it's a consistent comment though.”

Harper mumbles under her breath, frowning. She digs her nails into your ass, forgetting herself.

You wince, hissing at the bright pain. Then it hits you like a brick to the jaw.

Harper needed to be needed. She needed to know she was wanted and appreciated in all the ways Dirk never did.

“You know,” you begin, startling Harper out of her downward spiral in her thoughts. She flattens her fingers against your ass, rubbing at the crescent-shaped indents she left behind. “You can stay like this until you think it takes.”

Harper’s head tilts in confusion and your breath catches at how cute she looks in the moment. You smile at her, bashful.

“You filled me, silly,” you tease, “I've never had someone cum in me before, you're the first. How long do you think it'll be ‘til it takes?”

You tighten your internal muscles around the toy, holding Harper deep inside your pussy. She gapes at you, eyes wide while her heart thuds in her chest.

“I- uh,” she stammers, “As long as you want me, sweetheart.”

You moan, “I don't plan to be anywhere else for a while. Round two?”

Harper’s posture straightens, eyes bright with excitement. Her fingers wrap around your hips in the same way they were moments ago.

“You sure?”

You grin back at her. “I need so much more of you, Harper. All of you.”

#Harper (Date Everything) x Reader #Harper (Date Everything) x F!Reader #Harper (Date Everything) x Reader fanfic #wlw x reader fanfic #Harper (Date Everything)#Date Everything fanfic #lilithschosen #idfk what to tag this shit as man LMAO i'm so bad at this #anyway here's more brain rot #and of course i had to sprinkle in some Betty #after going through the Winnifred romance and hearing the poly stuff it just makes sense for others to just be cutesy about you yk #anyway impending “LC write a train being run on reader” fic warning because god damn

21 notes · View notes

exaltior-a · 2 months ago

Text

dirkhal fantasy/kingdomstuck ass au walk with me here ok. royal baby dirk is swapped with a changeling, Nobody notices that he was replaced until its too late and now they just have to raise this freaky faerie kid to think he's Human his whole life (transgender and autism metaphor, keep up) meanwhile the original baby grows up in the faerie realms or whatever and is permanently shaped by it becoming something that isn't totally human anymore but not quite fae either (another transgender and autism metaphor, obviously) and one day escapes from the faeries who kidnapped them and returns to find Their Real Faerie Kid They Abandoned For Being Unlikely To Live not only living their life but believing he's human too. then they meet and enter stage right comes anguish

#homestuck #dirk strider #lil hal #hal strider #also i imagine jake is around too obviously #frankly this could be a love triangle romantacy book plot for my beautiful princess jake english #you can choose which one would be Hal and which one would be dirk in this scenario but i imagine dirk as the changeling and hal as the OG #you could even have hal be a little younger than dirk physically to account for weird time dilation in faerie realms if you wanted #dorkhell

24 notes · View notes

seachick · 9 months ago

Text

if you like season 1 of Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency 12/10 recommend the new netflix movie It's What's Inside. it's got the same "what the fuck is happening????" body swapping confusion from the show.

#dghda #dirk gently #dirk gentlys holistic detective agency #its whats inside #netflix #GOTTA SPREAD THE LOVE FOR A GOOD INDIE MOVIE

56 notes · View notes

alterfall · 3 months ago

Note

Why do some of the humans' hair colors change? Do they dye it or did something with the ectobiology change?

Is the troll blood color change because of something different with the ectobiology, or is it a troll biology headcanon that their environment can affect their physical development? Like how some reptiles develop as male or female based on temperature and not genetics, or something like the Kyre from Cassiopeia Quinn (https://www.cassiopeiaquinn.com/comic/xeno-log-002, https://www.cassiopeiaquinn.com/comic/alium), where young trolls absorb DNA from being around their lusus and develop to match them? Or is it just standard bloodswap logic where there doesn't need to be a reason for, it's just an AU.

Hey there, thanks for the big ask! Hope you don't mind a big answer, because it's me again.

ALTERFALL is an AU, and we don't try to adhere it to any sort of continuity with Homestuck proper, like something like - say - the Crow Strider AU does. There's no in-universe diegetic reason why the AF session didn't turn out like canon Homestuck, it wasn't Rose getting the ectobiology wrong or anything like that; but the ectobiology *is* different, which is why everyone's genetics are different from canon. For example, Jade and Dirk are actually related via ectobiology here, rather than Jade being related to John/Jake/Jane and only being a Strider via adoption. This was the inspiration for making Dirk's hair black and so on (so to answer your question, it isn't dyed!). If we left it alone, every pairing of human would be in some way related either through blood or adoption, and that would make it weird when Rose and Jade kiss.

That's right. It was all for yuri. Our dark agenda is revealed.

In any case, we didn't actually decide on all of these elements (changing blood colours, changing genetics for the humans, that including changing hair colours etc.) all at once, and it wasn't all just for the sake of it being an AU. If anyone's interested in a bit of production history, take a peek under the cut.

ALTERFALL originally started as a 'guardianswap', where it was *just* changing who raised who among the Beta Guardians and their charges. When it came time to think about the trolls, we thought of their lusii the same way, and decided to change the trolls' blood colours as the easiest possible justification for how that would've happened. This is why Terezi doesn't have Crabdad, because Crabdad was created specifically for those with the candy red blood mutation which no player of the Beta Troll session has (see: page 4056 of Homestuck). Presumably Crabdad was never created at all in AF, because the Signless would've had no vision of a second coming of one with his blood.

I don't remember why we decided to swap the trolls' last names. Could just be for that 'Classic Bloodswap' feel, because a lot of the Troll surnames' meanings refer to things that don't apply to them in ALTERFALL, or something else. I forgot! It was definitely something that came up in conversation though.

As for human genetics, we *did* eventually decide that they would change to match the Guardian swappings, but it wasn't something we set out to do from the start. When we realized the whole weird shipping situation and decided to say that their ectobiology was different in this universe, the Alphas hadn't been designed yet, and I was the one to suggest we should swap their hair colours to show it off. Hydro HATED it at first, which is fair - quick 'n dirt edits of the original HS sprites didn't exactly do the concept justice - but once the first design passes were made, we very quickly began to like it.

As a treat, here's what those first passes looked like.

Hope this was interesting.

-SF

#asks #alterfall #from SinFrog #tl;dr there's a lot of old bloodswap/kidswap-isms in ALTERFALL #But I think it's funny that rather than set out to fulfil these tropes #We kinda just stumbled into them naturally #Life's funny like that!

14 notes · View notes

conceptofjoy · 1 year ago

Note

How did you figure out your classpect? most things point to knight of time for me and i cannot handle having the same classpect as DAVE????? and ur like THE homestuck expert to me (constantly based takes :3) so im curious how u figured urs out cause i am struggling because i have no idea wtf im like and its worded all weird

hmm partially was because i had known the time thing for years before i got back into homestuck but when i re analyzed it, it still held up.

then theres this beast of an analysis. i agree w most of it! i think theres some class stuff that im raising an eye over i guess, tho but over all, its good. i think it should maybe analyze classpects in the relation to the story more rather than characters as individuals if u get what i mean.

i think some classpect r easier 2 glean bc there r other character categories that help if ur able to identify as one of these:

red girl (dave, aradia, arquius, damara/handmaid)

green girl (callie/al, kanaya, jade, porrim, snowman)

pink girl (roxy, meenah/hic, feferi)

blue girl (snowman, vriska, aranea/ mindfang, june, jane, terezi)

puppet (cal) lover which has a pre and post soul-sealing distinction (all dirks, equius, caliborn, and gamzee)

prospit/ derse

if your class falls into the swapped around dancestor groups like how bard and prince got switched for makaras and amporas

and uh… there r others but they are eluding me. you dont have to be a Girl to be in those categories, just have a complex relationship with patriarchy. also some categories have characters that overlap w each other like equius/hal. their red girlness plus exploitation under patriarchy is hella interesting.

so if youre looking at like the green girl area and going oh shit! me for real! then u should look into space. you can relate to the theme of one character or character group and then the actions of a character from a different group. thats a simplified explanation of a classpect, how a person is effected by system of power, and what they do in response to it.

roxy’s class interacting with her pink girlness is why she was the one to kill HIC, and void has ties to the outer gods the fuchsias can interact with.

jane turns red and aradia turns blue when being their most exploited. they revert back when back to their true selves slash colors when freed.

vriska overpowering gamzee was symbolic of her pushing back the rage and or patriarchal themes he represented. light deals with plot while hope and rage deal with reality, those two things are closely intertwined bc they all exist within a story.

#long ass post oops #n like theres characters outside those groups but i hope that helps u get what u need 2 look out for #d talks #ask #im so red girl.. face palm

51 notes · View notes

homestuck-fanauthor-coalition · 3 months ago

Text

The Homestuck Fan Author Coalition has revealed its gift swap collection! Authors were asked to write 3-5 Homestuck related prompts, and then they received a set of prompts from another author to write.

Follow the link above to the collection, and once you've read through all of the entries, vote on your favorites using our voting form! The voting form is open through May 3rd!

All Fics Submitted

your hands protect the flames

Davesprite survives the explosion that took John on the ship, and now he's survived the end of the game. How does he find his place on the new world when there's already a Dave?

Always watching

Jake appreciated the gesture, he really did. But sometimes he missed the privacy he had before Dirk sent him the damn robot. For one, he was pretty sure it watched him sleep.

A sickness by another name (wouldn't be sweet either but with luck, it would at least look much more tame)

A good handful of decades after the events of the last book, Jade Mountain Academy opens its doors yet again to a new generation of dragonets, all of them ready to learn and get a good education... except one. Timekeeper is just trying to survive. Or, what happens when you throw Homestuck characters, the Wings of Fire world, and a high school AU into a blender.

In which Two Trolls whom are Friends in the Human Connotation of the Word Attempt to Bake as well as One of Them Tries to Be a Good Friend by Partaking in the Other's Interest Without Actually Understanding it

Just two buds trying to bake some mother fucking bomb ass pies.

Conduction of Heat in Solids

‘Heat transfer is an area of thermal engineering that focuses on the transport, exchange, and redistribution of thermal energy. The three modes or ways that heat can be transferred have been termed conduction, convection, and radiation.’ Nepeta Leijon has achieved the dream of every mutant lowblood wriggler in Alternia: she has defected the empire and joined Starfleet. She has a Federation citizenship and has successfully avoided imperial culling! It only, you know, came at the expense of never being able to see or talk to her beloved moirail ever again.

you were always my problem

Terezi and an alternate universe Vriska take a walk through the dream bubbles.

dis-ease

Even the strangest and most unsettling of dolls deserves to wear something that doesn’t physically harm the gander bulbs of passersby.

holding my breath with a baseball bat

Today is your sixteenth birthday. Normally on your birthdays, Feferi bakes you a cake and you make a dumbfuck wish and blow out candles. Today is different.

suffer the children

raising a kid is hard its hard and nobody understands

franz freudinand

Five times Dirk Strider and his AI Proxy Lil Hal run into the Red Scarf, Lighter, and the one time that Dirk actually gets something out of the interactions. But not without some fumbling and failure along the way.

A Time to Kill, A Time to Heal

"Maybe that’s what it takes to divert a timeline. Just one child to be offered a chance. A chance to prove themselves to the world, that if the world was willing to smile down at them, they would eagerly smile back." Vriska Serket can't save the world, so she saves herself instead. Well, technically a younger version of herself. But sometimes, that's all you need.

Pride and Prejudice and Horses

Jade Harley is super excited to start her very first undergraduate research project! The only problem is, the graduate student whom she's working with is kind of a jerk. No, scratch that, he's definitely a jerk. Will she be able to find common ground with him?

Haunting On The Top Floor

Karkat Vantas' life is changing fast. New home, new landlord, new...ghost? boyfriend? Look, it's complicated. When he moves into his new apartment, his landlord is a dick, the pizza is mid, and something is there with him...but is it the horror story he thinks? Or is there more to meets the eye in his apartment?

This Time Around

Jane Crocker finds her friends and loses them, again and again.

Glimpse Into An Alternate Journey

Jade is very glad she did as that suspicious note suggested, and chose to shrink down the ship and drag John through the portal to the meteor.

Weaver

There's a prophecy, and it goes something like this: "When the war has lasted twenty years, the Dragonets will come. When the land is soaked in blood and tears when the land is soaked in blood and tears, the Dragonets will come. Find the Seawing egg of deepest blue-" Blah blah blah Nightwing Skywing Mudwing Sandwing Three queens Brightest night blah blah blah. Prophecy isn't real, there's not a single Skywing alive hatched within two weeks of the brightest night, and you aren't going to be an adult till the prophecy is over, so you won't get to leave the Nightwing Palace either. You could always run away from the palace of course, but you're too much of a coward to do that.

Away with the fairies.

Tavros spends a night with Nepeta and Roxy and has loads of fun!

Playing God

Rose has ascended to Ultimate Self, but with so much power comes so, so much responsibility.

Angel Among the Stars

A young woman pretends to be asleep in her bedroom. It just so happens that today, the 30th of November, 1928, is not this young woman's birthday. Not yet. And soon she will be free of the cage she's been kept in for nearly eighteen years.

#homestuck #homestuck fanfic #homestuck fic #HSFAC Writing Events #Mar Comp 2025

19 notes · View notes

i-only-ever-asked-questions · 11 months ago

Text

Good Omens Through the Decades

UPDATED!

This is a timeline of all the events that have happened related to Good Omens, from its inception to its publication to its future plans; editions, adaptations, failed adaptations and the like.

I originally wanted to have this post ready for the anniversary in May, that didn't work, it just kept getting larger. Then I wanted to do it for the anniversary of Season 2 in July, that didn't work either, for the same reason. So I am just going to post it now, a random date and hope for the best LOL. And guess what? After a fun and fruitful chat with another fan who prefers to remain anonymous, I added a couple of events a few trivia here and there (thank you!). So, a little bit of warning: it is loooong, lots of things have happened in 34 years. At the beginning I was going to put all the references at the end of the post, but they are a lot, so I put them in a document instead.

*Yes, of course I am aware of the allegations. But this is about the history and the world of Good Omens which is so much bigger than one person, even if that person started the whole thing. It is ours now. It is Terry's and Rob's. It is David and Michael's, Douglas McKinnon's, David Arnold's and the rest of the cast and crew. It is Colleen Doran's, Dirk Maggs's, Terry Gilliam's, Vicki Larnach, Jim Hare and Jay James Moody's. It is Stephen Brigg's and Martin Jarvis's. And so many other people who have brought or will bring its many iterations to life. It is the fans'.

1985-1990 - The Book

1985, Jan - Terry and Neil met for the first time when Neil interviewed Terry for Space Voyager magazine after "The Colour of Magic" was published [1,2] *For years they both wholeheartedly believed it had been at a Chinese Restaurant during February. Some time after Terry passed away Neil found his diary for 1985 where the entry said it had been in January at an Italian Restaurant [3]

1987, summer - Neil wrote the first 5000 words of a story and sent it to a few friends, including Terry; "An exchange in Marlowe’s The Jew of Malta, combined with a late night viewing of The Omen and a love of Richmal Compton’s immortal Just William stories, had put a story into my head, about a demonic baby-swap that goes wrong, in which the Antichrist grows up to be a nice kid, with a dog and a gang" [1,4]

1987, Oct - Sandman began and William the Antichrist went into the back back back burner [1]

1988, spring? summer? - Terry called Neil and offered to either buy the idea or write it together; "About a year later I took it out of the drawer and did see what happened next, even if I couldn’t see how it all ended yet" [5]

1988, summer - They wrote it together (do you really need a reference? 😉)

1988-1989 - First draft took about nine weeks. After Richmal Compton's estate did not reply to the request of using William Brown and his world, William became Adam, Pepper and War became female and the book got a new title (Good Omens by Neil) and subtitle (The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch by Terry). The second draft took about four months. There were still about five more months of polishing and editing and auctioning and more editing [4,6] *Good Omens was the first Terry book that ever went to auction. It ended up going for £150,000 [7]

1989, Halloween - During the World Fantasy Convention in Seattle, Terry and Neil started plotting what could become the sequel to Good Omens and called it "668 The Neighbor of the Beast" [6,8] *The real-life experience of trying to piece together the plot of a soft porn movie using little free increments from hotels' pay-per-view over time probably made it into the sequel around here [7]

1990, May 10. Book published in the UK - Hardback published in the UK by Victor Gollancz (with whom Terry had already been working) to be followed by paperback by Corgi on May 23, 1991 [8,9] *After the first UK edition was published (Gollancz), several changes were made to the text to make it easier on US readers and to polish it a bit. The new text was used by both the US publishers (Workman) and the UK publishers of the paperback (Corgi). Gollancz was unaware of this alternate text until about 2009. They started using the Workman/Corgi text starting with their next edition in 2014 [9]

1990, Sep. Book published in the US - Hardback published in the US by Workman to be followed by paperback by Berkley on March 1992 [9,10] *UK editions list Terry's name first and US editions list Neil's name first. This was done because Terry was more known in the UK and Neil was more known in the US [7]

1991-2004 - The Movies

1991, Feb - Hollywood Studio Sovereign Pictures hired Terry and Neil to write an adaptation of the book for a movie. The studio had some specific requirements such as Crowley owning a night club, Aziraphale working as a curator for the British Museum, Tadfield with an abandoned pier and a miniature town in it and Satan. They ended up rejecting the script anyway [11] *It was at this point that Terry suggested Buddy Holly's "Every Day" as the theme for Good Omens. In this script some of the angels used for the series got started like Gabriel and Sandalphon and a big sequence had them use their haloes like frisbees inside the British Museum [11,12,13]

1992, Jan. Movie Script - Terry declined to write a second script, but Neil stayed and wrote one. In October the company got taken over and all dreams of a movie died [11,14] *In this script Crowley tries to run away to Alpha Centauri

2001-2002. Terry Gilliam Movie deal - Since about 1999, when he obtained the rights, and throughout the 00's Terry Gilliam tried hard to make a movie. The closest he came to it was in 2001-2002 when he got as far as casting the parts (Johnny Depp as Crowley, Robin Williams as Aziraphale, Mme. Tracey and Hastur, and Kirsten Dunst). But he couldn't get a US studio to invest the last $15M and the movie project collapsed [13,15,16] *Terry had received, back in 1989, a copy of the book asking for a blurb. The letter got lost and he thought the book had been sent as a pitch for a movie [16,17]

2004, Jun 20th - Hill House Publishers created the "Neil Gaiman's Preferred Edition Series" with limited editions of American Gods, Anansi Boys and Neverwhere. As a bonus for the subcribers, Hill House printed the 1992 movie script under the name "A Screenplay." Only 500 numbered and 52 lettered copies were ever made [11,18]

2005-2010 - The Sequel (and the Audiobooks)

2005, Jun - Terry and Neil met at the Audie Awards in New York and plotted a little more of the sequel. This was when the South Downs bit was thought up [19,20]

2005, Dec. Crowley and Aziraphale's New Year's resolutions - The list of resolutions came out sometime between Christmas and New Year's at Harper Collins' website [7] *The well-known idea of Crowley gluing coins to the sidewalk is not in the book at all, it came from this list

2006, Feb 28. New edition - The book was reissued in the US as a hardcover in two different versions. The text is the same but one version has a white cover with Crowley and Neil's name listed first, and a second version has a black cover with Aziraphale and Terry's name listed first [7,21] *This time the explanation for the authors' name order was to make sure the book could be found both under "G" and also under "P"

2006, Jul. Briggs Audiobook - ISIS released in the UK an unabridged audiobook read by Stephen Briggs in CD, MP3CD and cassette (it won the 2008 Audiobook Download of the Year by audible.co.uk) [22,23]

2009, Nov 10. Jarvis Audiobook - HarperAudio released in the US an unabridged audiobook read by Martin Jarvis in CD [24] *Martin Jarvis is the same narrator who recorded the Just William audiobooks, a nice Easter egg related to the origins of the book

2010, Sep 23 - Terry and Neil had dinner at a sushi restaurant in Cardiff and decided that the book should be adapted as a TV series and not a movie anymore (as per Terry Gilliam's advice). And if it goes well, the rest of the story, the unwritten sequel, should be adapted too [8,13,15] *It was around here that the idea of the sushi restaurant cameo with both of them being patrons started

2011-2013 - The Stage (and a failed TV series)

2011, Feb. Terry Jones TV series - Terry and Neil agreed to a deal to adapt the book into a four-part TV series made by Terry Jones and Gavin Scott. At the end they didn't quite like the script though [13,25,26]

2012, Jun - Amy Hoff's The Cult Classic Theatre was granted permission to adapt the book to a stage play [27] *One of the conditions was that no footage would be taken/made available and the script would not be shared/sold

2012, Aug- Narrativia was established as the production company that would handle all of Terry's work adaptations. The production of the TV series and of The Watch were then transferred from Prime Focus [28,29] *Narrativia was first revealed at "The Watch Team Interview" panel during the Discworld 2012 convention on Aug, 26th [28]

2013, Mar. Stage Play - Amy Hoff's play was presented on March 20-23 and 27-30 at the Cottiers Theatre in Glasgow [30]

2013, Apr - BBC drama producer Heather Larmour pitched a radio drama adaptation to the BBC [31]

2013, sometime. The Musical - Vicki Larnarch and Jim Hare, "two hippies from Sydney", had met with Terry and Rob about six months prior. Terry's interest had gotten piqued when they showed him The Chattering Order Nuns song and he asked them to come back with a showstopper and a few more songs. They came back with "All Living Things" and they got the green light to go forward with the adaptation [32]

2013, Dec 11 - In a meeting at The Groucho Club, Terry and Neil enter into talks with the BBC to adapt GO to TV [33]

2014-2015 - The Radio Drama

2014, summer - Dirk Maggs adapted the book into a Radio Drama and gave Terry and Neil a cameo as police officers pursuing Crowley [31,34] *In July, Neil advised Dirk to get Terry's recording asap, before he couldn't do it anymore. They did it in the summer and that day ended up being the last day Neil and Terry saw each other [35]. The rest of the recording happened during autumn [13]

2014, Aug - Terry asked Neil to make the TV adaptation of Good Omens, "I know, Neil, that you are very, very busy, but no one else could ever do it with the passion that we share for the old girl. I wish I could be more involved, and I will help in any way I can" [12] Neil, of course, said yes

2014, Dec. BBC Radio 4 Dramatisation - The six episodes aired between December 22nd and December 27th, 2014 on BBC Radio 4 [36]

2015, Jan 15 - Random House UK released the BBC Radio 4 Dramatisation in CD [37]

2015-2019 - The TV series (and some luxury limited editions)

2015, Mar 12 - Terry passed away 😢

2015, Mar 25 - Terry's funeral. As soon as Neil got back home, he started writing the script for the TV series [12] *Sometimes signed copies of the third draft of the pilot (dated 25 July 2015) appear in eBay

2015 - Jay James-Moody joined the team to produce the musical [32]

2016, Aug 1 - First read-through of the series script [38] *The scripts were finalized right before SDCC 2016 which was held July 21st-24th [39]. Both Maggie Service and Tim Downie were present in this read-through [40]

2017, Sep 18 - 2018, Mar 10. Season 1 shooting - Season 1 started shooting at St. James' park (with the 11 years ago scene) and ended in Cape Town, South Africa [13,41,42] *The read-through before shooting occurred on Sept 13, 2017 [43]

2017, Nov 13 - Full development reading of the musical at the York Theatre in Chippendale, Sydney, Australia [32,44]

2019, Feb 8 - The social media campaign to promote Season 1 started with a tour of the Chattering Order of St. Beryl, an acapella choir that traveled to different cities for events and TV shows [45,46]

2019, Apr 25. The Chattering Order of St. Beryl's video - The video "That Brand New Baby Smell" was released in YouTube [47]

2019, May 3 and 4 - Workshop production of the musical at IPAC in Wollongong, Australia. About ten days before the series premiere Vicki, Jim and Jay showed Neil and Rob a recording of this show [32,44,48] *Although a full recording of the workshop exists, they are not allowed to share it until it is finished

2019, May 21. Companion Book - A companion book to the TV series with interviews and behind the scenes photographs written by Matt Whyman was published by William Morrow [49]

2019, May 21. The Script Book - Headline Publishing Group released a script book in both hardback and paperback (The US edition by William Morrow followed on Jun 11th). All editions of the script book include an "Other Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse" deleted scene. An exclusive edition for Waterstones included an additional deleted scene (Aziraphale in the 1800). A hardback edition limited to 1000 copies with white cover included four different deleted scenes (thugs visiting the bookshop, Leonardo DaVinci, the televangelist and Crowley clothes shopping) and a series of sketches made on set by Lorna May Wadsworth. On Jan 15th of 2020, a paperback edition with the white cover was released; it contained all five deleted scenes from the other editions and a sixth one (Aziraphale trying to sell a book); this edition does not include the sketches however. [9,50] *The script book was created so the production could pay for the death of Agnes Nutter, a scene (and a character) originally written by Terry which was too expensive to film [3]

2019, May 23. The Illustrated Edition - The Pratchett Estate and Neil agreed on a revised definitive text. It was published in five versions collectively called the Definitive Edition. Two versions were published by Gollancz which they called the Illustrated Edition; a standard hardback with black cover and a limited edition in a slipcase with white cover signed by Paul Kidby, the illustrator [51,52]

2019, May 30. "Unholy Night" - The Chattering Order of St. Beryl's released their album "Unholy Night" on Amazon Music and other digital platforms [53]

2019, May 31. TV Series - Season 1 premiered in Prime Video 😊

2019, May 31. Soundtrack - Silva Screen Records released the soundtrack in CD, vinyl and mp3/wav download [54]

2019, Jul. The Definitive Edition - The other three versions of the revised text were published by Dunmanifestin, the company established by the Pratchett Estate to handle Terry's intellectual property. All editions were limited: The Occult Edition (July 1st) with only 1655 copies in a black clamshell box, the Ineffable Edition (July 4th) with 666 copies in a deluxe box including ephemera, and the Celestial Edition, made to order with only 24 copies [52,55]

2019, Aug 2. The BBC Radio Drama Collectors Edition - A vinyl box set by Demon Records included four LPs printed in black and white in illustrated wallets, commentaries by Neil and Dirk and a set of tarot cards. An Amazon exclusive limited edition of 500 sets also included a print signed by Neil [56]

2019, Aug - Neil pitched Season 2 to Amazon [57]

2019, Oct 28. Blu-ray and DVD - Amazon released the series in DVD, Blu-ray and steelbook limited edition Blu-ray (PAL) for the UK. The US version (NSTC) followed on November 5th in both DVD and Blu-ray, there was no steelbook edition for the US market [58]

2019, Dec - John Finnemore joined as co-writer of Season 2 [57] *In this meeting, John stated that he needed to know the ending before he could write so Neil came up with the ending of Season 2 in about 5 minutes right there and then

2020-2025 - TV Series Season 2, a new Audiobook and some other adjacent projects

2020, May 1st. Lockdown Video - A short video about a phonecall between Crowley and Aziraphale was created by Narrativia and The Blank Corporation for the 30th anniversary of the book. It was released in the the official YouTube account of the Terry Pratchett Estate (@terrypratchett6025) [59]

2020, summer - Neil started writing the script for Season 2 beginning with the opening scene for episode 1 [57] *The last scene written was Gabriel organizing the books by first letter of first line. It was planned as the last scene for Episode 2 but at the end got moved to another place [60]

2020, Sep 16 - Season 2 was officially greenlit (along with Anansi Boys) [61]

2021, Mar 26 - The Hillywood Show announced the Good Omens parody project [62]

2021, Jun 29 - Amazon announced Season 2 in a press release [63]

2021, Oct 18 - 2022, Mar 1. Season 2 shooting - Season 2 started shooting in the Bathgate studio. Some scenes were shot on location in different parts of Edinburgh and other areas [64,65] *The read-through happened over October 14th and 15th, three episodes per day [66], David had to attend via zoom since he was still in isolation from Georgia's covid [67]. On the other hand, Michel McKean (Shadwell in Season 1) was present for that zoom read-through but had to be drop out also for covid reasons [68]. Peter Davison (David's-father-in law) was asked to play Job's part after shooting had started (possibly replacing Michael McKean?) and Ty Tennant (David's son) was cast too after shooting had started but through audition [69]. Maggie Service was in the very first shot of the season and also in the last day, first one in last one out as she said [70]

2021, Nov 2. Full Cast Audiobook - HarperAudio released in the US a full cast audiobook with Michael Sheen as Aziraphale and David Tennant as Crowley. The audiobook was later released in the UK on January 14th, 2022 [71,72] *The original cover for the audiobook was designed by Henry Sene Yee; a lavender background with drawings of Crowley and Aziraphale facing away from each other. After Season 2 was released, the cover changed to one of the promotional posters [73]

2023, Mar 15. Good Omens HQ - The Terry Pratchett Estate and Neil Gaiman created Good Omens Headquarters. The headquarters launched official accounts in several social media platforms and a website that keeps track of collector's items as they are being revealed [74]

2023, May 10. Good Omens Parody - The Hillywood Show's parody premiered in their YouTube channel (thehillywoodshow) [75] *Amazon Video partnered with Hillywood to announce the premiere date for Season 2 within their parody video. Neil, Maggie Service and Daniel Mays appeared as guests

2023, Jul 28. TV Series Season 2 - Season 2 premiered in Prime Video 😊 *As part of the promo campaign two days before the premiere, Amazon screened the first two episodes in cinemas in several cities free for Amazon Prime members

2023-2024 - The Graphic Novel

2023, Aug 1. Graphic Novel - The Kickstarter campaign to fund the graphic novel adaptation with Colleen Doran as illustrator launched [76] *At its closure, 36,867 backers had pledged £2,419,973 (notice it is pounds, not dollars)

2023, Aug 25. Season 2 Soundtrack - Silva Screen Records released the soundtrack for season 2 in CD, vinyl and mp3/wav download [54]

2023, Dec 14 - Season 3 was officially greenlit [77]

2024, Apr 18 - The Graphic Novel Pledgemanager site launches for people who missed the Kickstarter campaign or to add extras to an already existing pledge [78]

2024, Jul 13 - Vicki Larnach, Jim Hare and Jay James Moody appeared as virtual guests at Nullus Anxietas 9, the Australian Discworld Convention 2024 held in Adelaide, to talk about recent push for the musical [79]

2025 - The Future

2025, January - Season 3 is scheduled to begin filming [80]

2025, Spring - Graphic novel is scheduled to be released [76] *The original release date was in July of 2024, however in April of 2024 it was announced that it would need to be pushed to the Spring of 2025 (Update #20)

There should be a special mention of a fan created musical parody for YouTube that was in development in Russia by 62Media. This was completely fan made and not connected to the Pratchett Estate, Neil, the BBC or Amazon (which is why it is not in the list). Unfortunately it had to shut down due to COVID [81]

Fun fact: During the tour to promote the book, back in 1989-1990 the song "Shoehorn With Teeth" by They Might Be Giants became the unofficial anthem of the tour since that is what they always ended up singing when things went too crazy [82]

#good omens #good omens book #good omens movie script #good omens musical #good omens stage play #good omens graphic novel #good omens 2 #good omens 3 #good omens radio drama #good omens through the ages (I mean decades)

47 notes · View notes

yall-hate-kids-tourney · 6 months ago

Text

Jane Crocker (Homestuck) vs. Anakin Skywalker (Star Wars)

Y'all Hate Kids: Screwed By The Writers

Propaganda below the cut

Jane Crocker (Homestuck)

(cw: brief mentions of assault)

The fandom blames her for the melodrama and problems in Act 6 and shit even though it was ALL the alpha kids who were terrible communicators and having relationship drama. She encouraged Jake to try having a relationship with Dirk even though she liked him too, she wants her friends to be happy even if she isn't. The fandom basically makes her the Stupid Bitch Who Gets In The Way Of Yaoi even though she quite literally made the yaoi happen. She's a victim of Act 6 being messy and written badly. Then we get to the epilogues/sequel. While she's an adult there, it's clear the writers just kinda hate her. She could definitely be a villain but they completely misunderstand her character in order to make her flat and completely in the wrong- even though some of the things she's saying in regards to Troll and Human society intertwining. It isn't looked at with nuance, Jane is just wrong and everyone else has to kill her. Like... hello??? If you're going to make her a villain do it right. Misogyny my nemesis.

"Jane Crocker is initially introduced when, in order to win the game they have been sucked into, the original four kids travel to a universe where their grand/parents have been swapped with them and selected to play it instead. She is the grandmother, now granddaughter of John Egbert, the first introduced character, and her hobbies include detective fiction, baking, wondering how to tell one of her best friends that she's in love with him, and avoiding frequent attempts on her life.

To explain that last one, she is the heiress to the Betty Crocker company and national monopoly, aka. Crockercorp, and has big plans about the good she can do when she finally takes power. As she finds out in the game, the company is a front ruled by the Condesce, an alien queen from another universe who was gathering power on Earth so that she could leap into the game and thus take over the world it would create. And she's happy to let Jane rule with her, so long as she puts on this computer and OBEYs.

After she is mind-controlled by the Condesce, Jane has little role in the rest of the story -- she is put to sleep and cured offscreen, and only shows up as a bit player in the final fight with no dialogue whatsoever to resolve her arc. However, she does have one scene with her crush, Jake, while she is not herself that colours a lot of the audience reaction to her.

Some context: During the game, she had chickened out during her confession to Jake, and he then proceeded to use her for relationship advice when their other friend, Dirk, succeeded in becoming his boyfriend. After one of these chats where Jake reveals he forgot her birthday, she blows up at him for using her, which is the last normal conversation they have in the comic.

By the time she is being controlled, Jake is being held prisoner, and so with her inhibitions removed and priorities redirected towards Crockercorp, she tells him all about the future he'll have as her consort and repeatedly harasses and threatens him. Because there is never any closure for this moment as both characters are shoved to the background, this is the fandom's last impression of Jane, which is used as evidence of her true nature whenever anyone needs to justify their hate for or demonization of her.

Although Jane has plenty of casual conversations with her friends early on that demonstrate her true character -- she is supportive of her friends to a fault, and is initially given the role of team leader but ultimately is too passive to fill it, one of the many reasons for her friends' frayed unity. However, absolutely none of her traits and decisions are important to the plot, and her arc is dropped with her potential left unfulfilled, leaving it easy for her to be overshadowed by a single dramatic moment she had while explicitly out of character.

And that should be the end of the story, but it gets worse. In 2019, Hussie released the Homestuck Epilogues, an explicitly ""dubiously canonical"" prose novel with two routes that many fans found so damaging and distasteful that they left the fandom entirely. Between the book itself and the ensuing flame wars, the fandom was reduced to merely a fraction of its size, and most of the people now remaining belong to the camp that liked the Epilogues, or at least saw it as part of canon.

In both routes of the Epilogue, Jane, now an adult, becomes the authoritarian president of Earth C and coerces Jake into an abusive relationship. This is worse in the Candy Route, where she is described as a fascist, declares a policy of genocide against trolls, regularly drugs Jake to have sex with him, and uses their kid to blackmail him into staying with her. All of this ultimately causes her to be cast as a central antagonist in the HS team's ongoing comic ""Homestuck^2"" that continues off of the Epilogues.

All of this follows from an extrapolation of her behaviour while mind-controlled, which is somehow still applicable to her character once she is back to normal. Now, the popular excuse for her mischaracterization is the backbone of current official Homestuck content. And because her being an antagonist is key to the story, most fans of the sequel (which is now the majority of online Homestuck fans) have to buy into the justification for her actions in order to properly suspend disbelief and keep reading. Thus, it is nigh impossible to find anyone who will engage with the canon -- and I mean /actually/ canon, not postcanon -- version of Jane.

Addendum: Although canon Jane is a teenager, I have to discuss how her adult postcanon self affects her perception and basically erases the original character. Nonetheless, since postcanon Jane can hardly be called the same character, I don't think this affects Jane's eligibility."

Anakin Skywalker (Star Wars)

So poorly written for such an insane fandom that the actual child actor, Jake Lloyd, received enough hate mail to make him quit acting.

#yall hate kids tourney #screwed by the writers #round 1b #Homestuck #HS #Jane Crocker #Homestuck Jane #star wars #anakin skywalker #cw assault

18 notes · View notes

bladekindeyewear · 11 months ago

Text

HS^2 bloggin’ mainline 2024-08-04

(Previous post - current page 440)

Breaktime's over, it's about time to continue! Expect me to take a handful of days between each posting-day like this just to pace myself, and have time for fun video games and other such. But I've been really enjoying finally reading more HS2 too, especially seeing such hopeful stuff like this last pair of pages really hitting home on the optimism! Let's get back to it.

Meanwhile...

Wait did we SEE her keel back over like this? Alt!Callie in this younger/teenage corpse of Jade Harley's body I mean? When did that happen? *thumbs back through old pages...* Let's see here... my browser still glitches the fuck out seizureways at the few pages that were Blacked Out, so i'll use a backup browser for those... no, further back... oh wow I forgot Aradia got such a cool Calliope-supporting outfit to show off she's on their side, literally zero memory of that and that's some FINE drip...

Oh shit wait, so it happened back over here??? (289/290)

--I figured back then she'd gotten a snap headache because of having to abandon possessing Jade's MAIN body in the struggle Alt!Calliope had with Jade's consciousness culminating around page 168, but these cuts are all so far apart-- and being knocked out of the other Jade's body shouldn't have knocked her out of this CORPSE. So is somethign entirely NEW going on that has to do perhaps with Dirk Strider's plans to maintain control of the narrative when the other kids arrive there?? Hmmm.

Anyway now I know where that bonus panel I'd accidentally glimpsed with "god-tier bodies don't decompose right" that I mentioned last blogging session came from. But why the fuck?

==>

Gosh I've missed seeing panels like this.

Wait, why are we cutting to CANDY JOHN like that's relevant here? Wasn't he in Roxy's secret lab last we saw him? Does THAT have something to do with this?! Oh shit.

(John: Investigate noise.)

Following Roxy's instructions, you proceed in the direction of the noise to go and meet up with your old friends. You approach where you thought you heard them, but to your surprise you hear an unfamiliar voice grumbling something incoherent.

JOHN: uhhh, rose? jade? JOHN: ... kanaya?

Hm? What was going on upstairs again, Karkat met up with the other liberators right? Okay let me not be so lazy and go back and check again...

Excuse me for a second, I'm going backwards to review and post some older HS2 stuff for a bit:

No they left, then John came from his destroyed old house to his and Roxy's NOT-old house, then they transportalized downstairs to the secret lab buried "hella underground" not directly under the house, where Calliope is wearing... suspiciously the EXACT new outfit that Aradia is wearing, and gives her hints that she enjoys all sorts of alternate stories like watching Roxy be in a relationship with John here in Candy instead of with herself in Meat, and added fuel to our obvious theory suspicions that Meat Alive Calliope is the author-narrator shaping the (Candy) timeline with her wall drawings and Muse of Space powers, and that they are... standing in the location in their reality that corresponds to the exact center of the singularity / black hole they're trying to stabilize? I'd forgotten about that... and then Calliope told John that alt!Calliope and Aradia and such had broken out of the black hole's event horizon for their mission, while Calliope explained that (Candy)'s timeline is so WEIRD because they've been disconnected a little TOO much from the canon of reality, like a fanwork that strays a little too far from the source material, so they need to stabilize it somehow AND NEED VRISKA (to either steal some relevance back from Canon or to get swapped there with something else or, something else we might have theorized?) but I had plumb forgotten that they SPECIFICALLY say that for their plans to work they needed John to leave and do something:

ROXY: this is finally where u come in jegbert ROXY: we gots quests for yous CALLIOPE: hee hee, yes. CALLIOPE: or *a* quest, to be specific. JOHN: oh boy!

ROXY: i mean yeah ur gonna obvs facilitate it in a sense ROXY: but only by going and busting the person who can actually help us outta normal earth jail CALLIOPE: we need yoU to free vriska from the clUtches of oUr misgUided friend jane, and bring her here, to the singUlarity. ROXY: weve been calling it the plot point CALLIOPE: yes, the plot point is a key part of oUr plan. CALLIOPE: as far as we have been able to sUrmise, the only remaining method for escaping oUr grim confinement depends on leveraging the UniqUe properties of this location to create an event of sUch catalcysmic proportions that it simply cannot be contained within the black hole any more. CALLIOPE: something SO dramatic, so hyper-relevant, that it becomes ontologically impossible for anyone to ignore it. CALLIOPE: for that, we need an individUal of sUfficient narrative cloUt, so to speak.

Right, Vriska's constant focus on making herself one of the most relevant characters to Canon and her powerset actually making her perfect TO do that as a Thief of Light (relevance/importance) makes that a good plan. And I fully expected one possibility was that they somehow allow her to break through to the Canon Meat timeline and both (1) influence it some way, and (2) get to a place where she could eventually reunite with Terezi Pyrope finally instead of just having left her a parting message, which may or may not happen if Meat Terezi is going to focus possibly a bit more on her relationship with John(June) once somehow resurrected or such but would definitely be amazing to have them reunited when Terezi spent SO MUCH TIME looking for her that she wasn't even part of the (Candy) timeline of events? Enough re-theorizing let me keep re-reading-- And... oh right,

CALLIOPE: and to liberate her, who better than the embodiment of the aspect of freedom itself?

I'm sure I was happy as hell to see that explicitly spelled out in canon for once instead of implied, because it may have been obvious to those of you who follow theoryblogs but one of the big reasons I'm glad to see these things made more explicit out in HS^2 is so even casual readers can pick up that these aspects always had these additional more important purposes that line up with all the events that happened in the past of the original comic.

But anyway. John's about to go on his bust-Vriska-out-of-prison quest:

And it's not like he has other plans. He may as well do this! It's at least going to get him involved in things again, if nothing else. He turns to go, and then hears a sound. It's the sound of feet and knocking on doors, echoed through stone and digital static.

And then,

JOHN: did you hear that? ROXY: wha ROXY: oh yeah uh ROXY: i may have messaged rose and kan and jade to check on them too ROXY: so its prob onea them showin up ROXY: they don't need to know bout all this tho ROXY: we got time to chat with them b4 u go get vriska JOHN: i'll go stall em. ROXY: thx babe ROXY: oh is it 2 soon for that joke or JOHN: no, weirdly enough, that one's fine. ROXY: oh good ok see u up there soon!

And that's where we left off-- wasn't it their kids' team who got back into their house or something? Eh I'm done looking, now I at least know there was A NOISE that was playing through the monitors from the topside of their house above the teleporter that he's running to intercept.

Okay, past catch-up over. Back to present liveblogging. Looks like this isn't Rose and Kanaya like John expects, from the sound of it-- but the way John's running down a hallway makes it look like this is INSIDE OF THE LAB STILL, so the question is who is down here or CAME down here or...

(==>)

Oh, Sollux is helping Roxy and Calliope out with their project, playing on Roxy's pink retro consoles. That shouldn't actually be too shocking should it.

Wait, how is he playing video games if he's BLIND? Robo-eyes? It's gotta be robo-eyes.

(==>)

Stare

(==>)

Sandwich stare

(==>)

SOLLUX: eating a sandwich.

Brilliant. And yeah he lives here-- but he's actually LOOKING at stuff isn't he, with eyes of some sort? Even though he's still using the 0 quirk? Tell us what's up with that!

(==>)

John stop thinking this is a relationship between Sollux and Roxy, your divorcee/ex. Unless it is, which would be pretty cool honestly.

(==>)

SOLLUX: y0u w0rried im m0ving in 0n y0ur ex? JOHN: ...hmm. SOLLUX: ... JOHN: hm. hmm. hm. JOHN: hm? HMMMM. SOLLUX: what is g0ing 0n here. JOHN: sorry, i had an answer but then i started actually considering it. JOHN: am i jealous? JOHN: hmmm... SOLLUX: if i tell y0u straight up n0 we arent h00king up will y0u st0p? JOHN: ...maybe? SOLLUX: g0ddammit.

I'm really enjoying all this for some reason.

JOHN: are you still hanging out with that creepy alive girl? SOLLUX: SOLLUX: 0n a spiritual level. JOHN: cool! JOHN: is ... she also dating roxy? SOLLUX: what? SOLLUX: idk.

I'm pretty sure I get excited at the idea of literally ANY relationship potentially happening between all these characters I love.

(==>)

Oh no John is offloading his personal problems on him in longform conversation. He doesn't want that! XD

JOHN: and it only changed because i started talking to people again. SOLLUX: (i did this t0 myself why did i ask) JOHN: i guess in gamer terms it's the same as screwing yourself over by not checking every non playable character dialogue box. JOHN: any one of them could have the clues you need.

Feels kind of like we're doing the thing from that Steven Universe: Future episode where Steven is critically upset that important things happened in the lives of his friends offscreen somewhere he wasn't around to be aware of it, when realistically as a person you can't keep up with everything, especially not John who kept to himself in a slump for a decade as he puts it in some of the conversation I'm not fully requoting.

Okay Sollux dunks on John a bit, possibly deservedly... and to some extent, in a misogynist gamer phrasing typical to Sollux, John's lack of agency? Which I think would improve somewhat once the gender issues Roxy alluded to both upstairs and in the lab with him are resolved in part, because he can't be FULLY comfortable swept up in a relationship while he's still considering herself "he"...

SOLLUX: i have n0t been able t0 play this game the wh0le time because s0me0ne was talking 0ver the s0und. JOHN: oh! JOHN: sorry : (

Oh he's been using sound-only and audio assistance to play the game like a speedrunner almost instead of seeing it. That explains that.

(==>)

I don't quite understand the shape of that thing to the right of Sollux's head, like there's some sort of watermark over it WAIT THAT'S A DOOM SYMBOL WATERMARK TAKING UP MOST OF THE FRAME WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON HERE

SOLLUX: w0rds d0nt mean much. SOLLUX: 0nly acti0ns.

(This is a perfect sort of thing someone for someone on the Life/Doom spectrum to say, which would be MUCH MUCH HARDER for someone on the Light/Void spectrum to say or especially a Light player. Doom being about the consequences of one's actions in part and all.) Is he about to use some Mage of Doom powers visibly onscreen?

(==>)

Ohhh. So he was making a dramatic Doom Prophecy that will matter to John's choices in the future if he heeds the right lessons, while also hinting toward the nature of Doom itself as I covered. Got it. That's fun! Also it was a pink cat pillow behind his head, that's the thing I was having so much trouble seeing.

(==>)

SOLLUX: WAIT. JOHN: !

He's gonna ask him to pass him a soda from across the room or something.

(==>)

SOLLUX: change my game f0r me.

This is so cute.

(Be Vrissy.)

GODDAMNIT JAILBREAK AGAIN LOL

Vriska the elder has decided to take it upon herself to test if you measure up to the arduous task of being a Vriska. For your first test: find a way to bust out of this dump. What will you do?

Stop judging her on your stupid Vriska standards, Vriska! I hope the way this plays out eventually plays straight into the idea that this very-Vriska-like-but-not-quite-Vriska individual has her own unique strengths. I'm not sure I mentioned it earlier, but when I said that it's possible that Vrissy is a Mind player, I'm actually really excited to see the comic demonstrate that (regardless of whether or not Vrissy is or isn't completely genetically identical to Vriska) because not only would it be a good lesson for the original Vriska that Vrissy has her own value, it's also a great Classpect demonstration of how the difference in their characters and action styles amounts to a different effect on reality in the form of a Hero Title that is different...

...and in fact now that I think about it, even though it may have rubbed me just slightly wrong somewhere inside that Vrissy and Vriska could have different Hero Titles even if they WERE genetically identical, I'm actually gonna turn around and say I've decided I love that, because if Sburb gives the genetically identical Vrissy a different title and she unlocks a different powerset purely because of the unique combination of nature *AND* nurture that resulted in her, that would emphasize much more properly that Sburb isn't FORCING or pigeonholing you into a Hero Title that doesn't suit you, it really is reading into your future and soul to tell you THE MOST EFFECTIVE WAY you PERSONALLY would find right to influence reality around you. That makes the lesson of its title assignment and the answer to the Ultimate Riddle that I've long discussed a STRONGER answer, not a weaker one.

And I'm encouraged by the very first thing Vrissy tries being something the original Vriska would NEVER have tried first, which Vriska over here probably is gonna be snide/discouraging about:

(Vrissy: Call for help.)

Have we SEEN their chumhandles before? I feel like we've seen Vrissy's before at least-- "adamantGriftress" is an awesome chumhandle for her, and I know for SURE I've already seen thespiansGlamor as Harry Anderson's. Who the fuck is glutinousGymnast, is that Yiffy's handle, and what does glutinous mean again?!?? (I had to google it just in case, it's New Tavros's handle. Glutinous is "like glue in texture; sticky.", often referring to sticky rice or baking dough. Ew. Stickiness sort of implies the opposite of Breath doesn't it...? And he's a gymnast?)

Now. Who the fuck is "recidivousGainsayer"? Vrissy didn't know Yiffy existed, so she wouldn't have her in her phone already unless they'd been internet friends without knowing each other personally, which would be... kinda sweet really. And Yiffy is certainly rebellious, but she seems more recalcitrant than recidivous, though I can't rule it out, especially since she's basically grown up at a boarding school; a quick google to see if we'd seen the chumhandle before also highlighted someone commenting that "RG" doesn't follow the ACGT DNA pattern, and even if you switch to RNA it just swaps the T with a U. Could be that this is a chumhandle of one of the characters we had been following over in the Bonus Comics or something.

You're pretty sure that would be an automatic fail on Vriska's test. But even if it wasn't, it isn't like you could message anyone; not anyone worth talking to anyway. There's no service in here, the only bars you've got are the ones on the windows.

Yeah, Vrissy at least knows Vriska well enough to know what she'd approve and disapprove of most broadly, unfortunately. I hope she comes to understand how Vriska should really not be her role model.

Oh not this again--

(Vrissy: Get key.)

Vriska drew this shitty key on the floor "juuuuuuuust in case you need a reminder of what you should be working towards ::::)."

Vriska, you asshole!

(Vrissy: Try the door.)

You fruitlessly pull on the bars. Vriska says it looks like it's still locked. Yeah???????? No shit, you tell her. You're just trying to see if you can get a guard's attention. She says ooooooooh that's a good idea.

If you don't keep complimenting her I'm going to be very cross with you, Vriska.

Hm, it'd be really fitting and interesting if Vrissy Mindgames her way out of this one by putting on a façade of distress and convincing the guard to barge in, maybe saying Vriska's escaped or such.

(Vrissy: Get a guard's attention.)

One of those guards Jane intentionally had all dress like Dave to taunt Jane about Dave's death or just make them harder for her and Rose to stomach fighting, right.

Maybe you should use some of your SICKNASTY BRAIN EXPLOITABLES on this jabroni.

How much practice does she have with her psychic powers? All Aranea was able to do with Cerulean psychics on humans was get a vague sense of the emotions of people around her toward her like she always does, and Vriska WAS able to put a human to sleep or wake them in another universe but only when trying so hard that her Light symbol flashed in her eye, emphasizing that a Cerulean troll who WASN'T using the powers of a God-Tier Thief of Light wouldn't necessarily be able to do the same to a human. Stealing wakefulness or stealing through wakefulness, wakefulness being a part of Agency and thus Light, where Void is associated with sleep and dreams, et cetera. (Vriska put people (like Jade D:) to sleep FAR FAR MORE OFTEN than she woke them up, and when she woke John that one time it could have been considered "stealing THROUGH Light" because it deprived him of an opportunity in his dreams to meet his Dad as his dreamself just to give Vriska the selfish opportunity to speak with him at the exact time she'd wanted to speak with him.)

Also, if Vrissy DOES refer to her Cerulean mind powers as "sicknasty BRAIN exploitables" that does put Mind more in mind than usual... and exploitables could just be flavor or it COULD be a reference to EXPLOIT, the theoretical Knight/Page action verb?! --Nah that's probably a stretch.

(Vrissy: Use your Sicknasty Brain Exploitables.)

You apply the focused totality of your psychic power into this douchebag's cranium. Frustratingly, it looks like this guy is resisting your psychic enthrallment so he can get at that donut. Other than occasionally making Tavros dance when he's being boring, you honestly don't do this much.

Holy shit, if she could make New Tavros DANCE, this actually means that Vrissy has more control over human minds than Vriska ever had?!? That or New Tavros is uniquely impressionable, which is ALSO a possibility; the original comic itself emphasized that the "impressiona8le" were more vulnerable to her abilities... those who had less control or agency over themselves.

Also, Vriska had only just met her first humans when her psychic talents were limited to making them sleep-- Vrissy grew up alongside other humans, and that might just be enough for her to understand their minds enough to do some occasional manipulation.

Your mom is always like, "You Need To Listen To Me Vriska Its Important To Keep These Skills Honed In Case Shit Gets Real", but shit so rarely if ever gets real so mom should get OFF your CASE!!!!!!!! Until now, you guess. Wow do you hate realizing your mom was right about shit. ANYWAYS, LAY OFF THE FUCKING DONUTS AND GET OVER HERE ASSHOLE!!!!!!!!

On the one hand, it's unsurprising that Vrissy didn't keep her talents honed for battle or anything, and wouldn't have invested nearly as much energy into exploiting people with psychic powers as Vriska's twisted childhood forced her to; but on the other hand, like I said, this is STILL a bit more direct influence over humans than Vriska ever had, even if it's not working right now!

(==>)

Hell yeah!!!!!!!!

HOLY SHIT SHE ACTUALLY OUTCLASSED ORIGINAL VRISKA IN CONTROLLING A HUMAN MIND.

Is Vriska going to feel jealous?! Holy shit?!?? Or is this old hat for her now and she's gonna say she could do it all along, or a retcon along those lines or-- gosh just PLEASE I WANNA SEE VRISKA JEALOUS AS FUCK OF VRISSY'S PSYCHIC TALENTS PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE HAVE ORIGINAL VRISKA GO "WHOA HOW DID YOU DO THAT"

(Vriskas: Exit the cell.)

Damn that felt good. After locking up the guard you turn to Vriska and ask her what next. Vriska says that now it's time to fuck some shit up. You like the sound of that. You ask her if there's any specific shit or place she wants to go fuck up. She says you'll just walk around until you land somewhere cool. You both laugh. You ask her what her real plan is. She keeps laughing as she walks away.

That's definitely her real plan. But anyway-- UGH, missed opportunity here. I guess we're just supposed to take it as a given that if original Vriska had had enough time, or grown up more, she could do the same thing to impressionable-enough humans as she did to trolls too, or the like.

(==>)

ALARMS BLARING, GUARDS RUNNING-- yeah they didn't cause this, this is some other assault on the Jail, right?

Okay, that's a lot of goons. You suggest to Vriska that you should go the other direction. Vriska says nah this is definitely where we wanna be. She says between the two of you, you've probably got enough luck to take this whole place off the map if you really wanted. You ask her what the fuck she means by that. She says you know like with your Thief of Light powers. You tell her you don't have anything like that. She says huh, weird!

VRISKA WHY THE FUCK WOULD IT BE WEIRD, VRISSY DIDN'T PLAY THE GAME OR GO GOD-TIER, YOU DIDN'T KNOW YOU HAD LUCK-STEALING POWERS UNTIL YOU PLAYED THE GAME!!!

Wait, let's back up a sec.

Vriska is smart enough to know that you CAN tap into your Hero Title powers even if you're not someone who's hit God-Tier. As a gleaner of deep lore about the game, Vriska ALSO would put together that the powers you get in the game are inherent to you even before you PLAY the game if you're skilled enough or high up on your echeladder enough to access them, so even if she never Stole Light directly before she played Sgrub, she technically COULD have. Maybe she figures Vrissy, as a coincidental genetically identical alt-version of her, should have access to the same powers just by virtue of having the same genes and training from her Seer of Light Mom knowing she'd have that potential in her genetically, OR, hear me out--

Vriska has already let us know that she's PLANNING ON STARTING A NEW GAME SESSION which we all figure will include Vrissy and the other kids as the players, and Vriska probably figures those kids will be the players too!

So, and I know this is some 3D-chess assumption-maneuvering here and I might be way off base, just taking so much from this single exchange...

...My guess is that Vriska thinks Vrissy ought to ALREADY HAVE inherent Thief of Light powers deep inside her and untapped, because she thinks Vrissy is going to be a PLAYER and thus ALWAYS WOULD gain her powers! Powers which she, of course, would ASSUME would match hers given their genetic similarity-- she would ASSUME Vrissy would also be a Thief of Light.

Except that none of the way Vrissy has actually behaved has resembled a Thief of Light much at all, and Hero Titles are inherent to your PERSONALITY and its method of action of influencing reality around you... and we already have background hinting that matches MUCH closer to her character and her behavior/actions in dialogue with others that she may be a Mind player.

Vriska didn't scold Vrissy for not having tried hard enough to develop the Thief of Light abilities she ASSUMED were inherent to Vrissy. She instead seems confused that she's never manifested any, and said "huh, weird!". Despite the knots in her psychology, both Vriska's smarts and her hero title are likely hinting to her that there might be some flaw in her assumptions here-- something that's keeping this from being a sarcastic scolding and instead telling her something isn't right about the knowledge she thought she had at hand.

(==>)

Vriska says that's perfectly fine as she always prefers a challenge. Vriska Serket, the daring Thief of Light and her imitation kid Vriska sidekick against countless foes. Marquise Spinneret Mindfang leading her Neophyte Bluehair, it's a tale for th- w8 w8 hold the fuck up. You ask her what the fuck does she mean "imitation.

Of course, just because Vriska isn't going to be an asshole in that PARTICULAR direction was never any assurance that Vriska wasn't going to be an asshole. She still views (Vrissy) as the less important version of the original her, and she's still going to frame everything in that light because of course she would, it's still in her nature and she still hasn't fully learned her lesson yet.

(==>)

I'm at the image limit so I'm gonna hold off on posting Vriska's hilariously condescending greasy expression and Vrissy squinting hilariously absolutely having fucking none of it:

Vriska says to not let it get to you, but she's pretty much figured out that this whoooooooole timeline is phony. You know, inauthentic. Fake. Bogus even. She says it's somehow the off brand equivalent of a universe and she really hopes you kept the receipt. You assure her that both you and this timeline are in fact, real as shit. She doesn't seem convinced. She says it's mostly from the little things she's noticed. You ask like what, she's only been on this planet for like a day and a half. She gestures vaguely and tells you to give her a boost so she can reach that ventilation shaft.

Yeah, the way this version of reality isn't as tethered to Canon means Vriska isn't going to take it seriously-- she shares Dirk's view of the (Candy) timeline in that regard, really. And they BOTH are going to receive their comeuppance and learn their lesson.

Phew-- that image limit was a good sign, I was already hitting the limits of my energy for the day, that was hours of liveblogging and typing. I guess we'll leave off here until another day! As I said at the outset, I'm still going to be pacing myself and only doing liveblogging every few days like I mentioned, but that doesn't mean I'm not VERY MUCH enjoying this and very looking forward to where it's going. If I weren't liveblogging, I'd get there a lot faster, I assure you, but then you wouldn't get to see me go off on random Classpect tangents about stuff you already guessed! :D

See you in a few days!

#Homestuck #hs2 #Homestuck Liveblog #Homestuck^2 #spoiler #spoilers #Vriska #Vrissy #Vrissy Lalonde #Light and Void #Life and Doom #Heart and Mind #Classes and Aspects #John Egbert #Sollux #Calliope #alt!Calliope

30 notes · View notes

hms-no-fun · 9 months ago

Note

What was it like going from writing Homestuck characters throughout Godfeels to your original characters? Was it intimidating after so much time spent with just the Homestuck cast? I believe Lenore was the first to appear in a minor role at first, but then you have the Moon war crew, the Halo's AI and Epigone all take center stage as villains (especially those last two), but I guess you could also argue June's headmates were kind of OCs? How was it writing them in the beginning compared to now?

honestly, i never found it particularly intimidating. when i started Godfeels, i never planned to write beyond John and Jade and Terezi because they were the only characters whose voices i had a handle on. as the series continued and became more of a full-cast affair, that was the most intimidating part. learning how to write a convincing Dirk or Jane or Roxy or even Rose. the key i think is that Homestuck characters are a collection of traits which express personality in a few key ways. this is true of all fiction but it's an explicit narrative mechanism in Homestuck proper. i used to talk a fair bit about narrative building blocks, the ways Homestuck is perfectly designed to train you in the act of remixing characters. like, if i said "Jade Lalonde" to you, you'd probably have a pretty clear idea of what that character looks like despite the fact that this character does not exist in Homestuck. this is the nature of HS's hyperflexible mythology. the hardest part was just learning how these characters speak and why, which required a lot of revisiting the original comic and a multitude of drafts, and i still don't think i really got them down until well into GF3.1. the intimidation mostly vanished once i felt like i could set these characters up in a room and let them play off each other without me having to pause every few minutes to question their authenticity.

honestly, bringing OCs into Godfeels felt pretty natural. i understood the existing cast and the world they existed well enough that it was easy to invent interesting oppositions. of course it helps that, going into 3.1, i knew we were always heading towards The Land of Many Unique New Guys. i wanted to do new things with the existing cast and break from the established patterns of the series, and that meant blowing shit up and changing the status quo. most of the fiction i've written in my life has been original, so really, once i gave myself permission to do so, inventing new guys was practically second nature. frankly, this setting (particularly with the EWL) is a guy factory, because it takes HS's hyperflexible mythology as a foundation and then metaphysically incorporates the existence of MSPFAs and fan sessions to expand the possibilities. Homestuck characters are equations whose variables are remarkably elastic, so it's quite natural to shuffle the old variables around and swap some out with new ones. i think it's fun trying to find a type of guy that we've never seen in Homestuck but that still feels like a Homestuck character. the OCs i've brought into the fold in GF3 aren't independent creations that i shoehorned into this universe-- they were designed for and with this universe.

and then yeah, i mean, going back to GF2 even before Risk and Dare entered the scene, June herself is functionally an OC because she's a fusion of June and Vriska. that's the entire conflict of the story, is that suddenly John's become June and she's a Vriska now. i used to joke that she was my self-insert until a handful of haters decided to canonize it and use that as an excuse to write Godfeels off entirely (which is probably for the best tbh). really, i just wanted to relitigate the Vriscourse through the lens of a human character, explore the appeal of having a Vriska-like grip on your own agency and the ways that might turn out to be destructive. the hard part was finding a realistic middle ground between John and Vriska. by the time we got to 3.1 and the plural arc really kicked off, doing the headmates almost came as a relief. i'm having a lot of fun writing Dare because they're kind of the first time in this story i've actually been able to write a straightforwardly John character. it all feels fairly natural since, like i said, the entire process is supported by Homestuck itself.

when it comes to the Upsilon kids, i was inspired by the Omega kids of HS2/HSBC fame. i originally planned GF3 to be a mirror of the post-canon project, and that meant responding to their OCs with my own. but i didn't want that response to be linear! i didn't want them to feel like Another Group Of Homestuck Kids, nor an obvious direct response to the Omegas. GF3 is about escaping your normal and learning to live among new people, so i was very deliberate in keeping the direct-relations to a minimum. i'm sick of everything being about the characters we already know. it makes sense for HS2/HSBC to have the Omegas be the descendants of the main cast, so i figured i'd let them have that. the closest direct response is Edie, who felt necessary not just for the existence of Yiffy, but also because of Kitty from Kittyquest and the various other alternate interpretations of Jade's daughter that followed. i like the idea of "Jade's daughter" being a uniquely responsive variable, someone who is paracanonically defined by the absence of singularity. then came Dana, modeled after Dirk precisely because of his antagonistic role in GF2. they're both parts of an ongoing conversation with Homestuck-- OCs yes, but not entirely original either. Lenore happened as a result of my involvement with Vast Error, which is actually a huge inspiration for GF3 in general for how it takes Homestuck's template and changes many of the rules without feeling fundamentally unstuck from that context. that their version of Sburb is called The Game and operates on an entire different yet somewhat familiar logic is what gave me the idea to explore the Universe Engine as a system of infinite variables that the EWL must directly respond to. it can be anything. it can have anyone. and because Repiton is existentially cut off from Homestuck, i liked the idea of Lenore being this lone escapee from VE's continuity who's totally unable to go back or learn anything about her home that she didn't already knew before she left. last to the party was Alphi, who needed to be a combo breaker. six-armed muppet dressed like a prep! just an entire alien. she's by far been the most difficult character to figure out, but doing so was part of what gave me confidence in the Upsilons conceptually. these four characters should not get along. they are diametrically opposed in many respects, in stark opposition to the other kid groups who typically enter the story already friendly.

so you can see, then, how the act of writing the Upsilons is also an act of commenting upon the Betas/Alphas/Omegas. i want to see what it takes to make four people who hate each other fall in love with each other. i want to see what rhymes and what opposes. the fundamental challenge hasn't changed-- it's the characterization. once i've found their voices, the rest follows on naturally. everything new in this story is built from the bones of what came before. that's the entire project, top to bottom. yes we're in a completely new setting with a bunch of new characters after obliterating the previous status quo, but it IS still Homestuck. the hardest part of selling all these new guys was simply developing the circumstances which allowed them to emerge. in my own head i've always seen the gargantuan wordcount of Chapter 8 as the necessary cost of fulfilling that ambition. hopefully now, with 3.2 A1 and B1 finally in the can, you can see for yourself how despite all that's changed, Godfeels is still having the same fundamental conversation today that it was in 2019. albeit with a few new arguments :)

#sarahposts #homestuck #godfeels #OCs #writing OCs #homestuck fanfic #longpost

23 notes · View notes

wizardlover124 · 1 year ago

Text

"It was never that serious," said Rose Lalonde calmly. — a deranged rant on update rose + philosophy

now that rose has officially hopped onto the "nothing matters" track of things i'm inclined to believe faux-absurdism is a sleeping agent in the strilondian neuroticism paradigm moreso than a real plot point but yeah anyway i have mixed feelings

on one hand i can definitely see why people don't like her / think she's ooc. the classic process of "cause major change in a character" goes inciting incident -> development -> big blowout moment demonstrating the change (appropriated + bastardized from mr freytag himself), and in my personal opinion the comic jumped the gun on this one? we get the inciting incident (candy timeline's irrelevancy) and both irl timeline and character arcwise are plunged straight into the blowout with very little time in between. there's a tiny hint with the light symbol playing a role (more on this later) but for the most part it feels sudden and unjustified if you're insane about rose + understand sufficient epilogues metaphilosophy + and are coded specifically to like this type of shit you Get Exactly What's Going On and fucking dig it. if you don't, you think they've put her through a meat grinder and i can see both

on the OTHER. dear god i'm sucking on the sweet teats of knowledge and absurdism like a baby at the bath. her swapping her constant need of "why" to "why not" and both rose's constant struggle with Light mixing with the irrelevancy of candy and coalescing in one big idgaf war except.

except on the third hand it's worth mentioning that she's also half-assing absurdism so bad that it gets pathetic. her last line "I knew you would forgive me anyway" actually solidifies this arc as one big tantrum that they plan on developing into Not A Thing (hopefully) because she doesn't tell kanaya "I knew it wouldn't matter." the forgiveness is what she focuses on. the forgiveness matters. kanaya still matters to her whether this dumbass light player is consciously aware of this or not and i think ironically KANAYA knows this better than she does which is part of her saying she refuses to mediate this one. on a rosemary level this is jaw-dropping on a character level BOOOO

MAKE HER ABSURDIST! make her sit there and do things not for the sake of kanaya but literally only to do them. make her sit there and genuinely believe the only obligation in reality is to live it. dirk fails at being a true absurdist too he starts injecting meaning into life like there's motherfucking nothing and rose actually acknowledging there's zero meaning whatsoever but living anyway and in that process learning to love life (juxtaposes jake's adventurer) would juxtapose her to him but NOOOOOO she has to sit there and go Well there's no meaning to Life. It was Never that serious. Fuck you. but then refuse to kill herself (thereby proving camus right once again) then now what. now What. Ohhhh "nothing" matters cool then die. dirk's suicide was meaningful because he broke that formula okay he went There's no meaning to life? Ok. then immediately hung himself he DEVOURED that sequence he subverted absurdism back into existentialism which is cool but ROSE COULD PERPENDICULAR THAT!

#homestuck #rose lalonde #homestuck meta #homestuck analysis #dirk strider #hs

72 notes · View notes

tlbodine · 6 months ago

Text

Overthinking: Why I'm Afraid of Bees

Why I'm Afraid of Bees came out in March of 1994, the 17th Goosebumps book. I never read this one as a kid, but I do remember the cover. It's pretty iconic, and it cracks me up. He looks so shocked but also slightly embarrassed, which is an objectively hilarious response to becoming a bee. A+

So did this turn out to bee a hit, or did it leave me feeling a sting of disappointment? Let's overthink it.

First, the Plot:

Gary Lutz (Lutz the Klutz, and you knew that was going to be his nickname) has a rough life. He's the last to get picked for sports, makes a fool of himself trying to impress his crush, gets beaten up by bullies, AND is tormented by his beekeeping neighbor. He's scared of bees (and dogs, and the dark, and...), his parents are out of touch, his sister is annoying, even her cat hates him. The only thing he really enjoys is playing computer games.

Frankly, Gary's life sucks, so it's no wonder he jumps at the opportunity to take a vacation from himself. He answers an ad for a program called Person 2 Person, which lets people swap bodies for two weeks to try a new lifestyle. He gets matched with athletic Dirk Davis, who wants a nerd to pass his math tests for him.

Unfortunately, something goes wrong with the equipment during the transfer, and Gary ends up in the body of a bee instead. Dirk Davis has his body...and the bee is in Dirk's. Oh no.

Gary spends a while buzzing around living the bee life, trying to get someone, anyone, to help him while evading various threats and dangers. Eventually he does make contact with the lady running the program, but she tells him Dirk doesn't want to give his body back, so Gary is out of luck.

Dissatisfied with this answer, Gary goes to deal with Dirk and discovers that he's living his life better than he was. He's become popular and athletic, he's a cool skater guy now, his family all like him. Meanwhile Gary is a bee. Bummer. Luckily, being a bee has SOME advantages, because he can lead other bees to attack Dirk! In the frenzy, Gary stings him, feeling temporarily triumphant before remembering that bees die after using their stingers, oops.

Luckily he awakens back in his body, unharmed and well. He's grateful for a new lease on life, no longer afraid of bees, and...curiously fond of flowers now....

Overthinking It:

This book combines two primal horrors: the horror of being trapped in an alien body, and the horror of someone else stealing your life and living it better than you.

Unfortunately, I struggled to really engage with either concept in this book, largely because the tone and style felt so distractingly off.

Let's just address the elephant in the room here. In a lawsuit between Stine's publisher (Parachute Press) and Scholastic, it was admitted that Stine sometimes used ghostwriters to help him flesh out outlines into drafts, which he would edit. I had my suspicions about this book and looked it up and -- wouldn't you know it, but the allegations say this began after book 16.

I don't think Stine had all of his books ghost-written, but I do think this one is, and it suffers for it a bit because it simply misses the mark for the brand.

Here's my analysis as someone who's read a lot of these back to back:

The broad strokes of the plot feel very Goosebumps-y. We've got weird science, a bullied kid with a sibling, a cat who's a menace. I believe that the concept of "a kid tries to body swap and gets turned into a bee" sounds like a story idea that Stine would come up with, and it tracks that he was reportedly inspired by a Robert Sheckley novel, Mindswap, as well as (I'm sure) the Vincent Price version of The Fly.

But a lot of the details don't feel Stine-ish. The book is lacking his goofy humor. There's not as much banter and jokes, and the characters overall feel kind of flat, especially the bullies and the little sister (both stock tropes Stine writes a lot of). It's hard to explain and I don't have a paper copy to quote but just...it feels a little off. The ending shoehorns in a moral, which Stine generally doesn't do, and the final twist falls kind of flat. I feel like if Stine wrote it the book would be funnier, idk.

More telling, imo, is the book is missing a lot of signature words and phrases that Stine uses all the time in his writing. You can (and others have) play bingo with Stine's recurring vocabulary because he's quite consistent with it. In Why I'm Afraid of Bees, I noticed a startling lack of: characters thinking they're a riot, "I opened my mouth to scream but no sound came out," voices that are tiny and shrill with fright (Gary's voice is tiny but only as a bee), characters saying "huh?" a lot, "gotcha," guys described as "tough-looking." Gary does at least frequently think of himself as a jerk, so there's that.

The book is filled with bee facts and seems to really want you to feel empathetic toward bees and stop killing them, which is a beautiful and noble message but feels super weird in a Goosebumps book.

So...yeah. Idk. I can't prove this was ghost-written, but it certainly feels like it could be. And compared to Monster Blood II, which I am reading right now (the next in series), which certainly DOES feel like Stine's work, this one stands out even more.

Also, this is a silly gripe, but it distracted me the entire book. What is the whole deal with Person 2 Person? How is this company in business? Why don't they charge any money for the service? How do they do the body swap without both participants in the same room? What do you MEAN she simply can't make the other guy give Gary's body back? Just. The entire thing is nonsensical.

I actually didn't hate this book -- a lot of the bee adventures are genuinely thrilling -- but I kept getting distracted and pulled out of the story.

(Also there is some very funny, extremely dated computer talk in there. Please enjoy the detailed descriptions of Gary connecting to electronic bulletin boards, leaving "electronic notes," and getting game tips for what I strongly suspect is a text-based parser adventure game like Zork. Amazing cultural relic. Worth a read just for that.)

If You Liked This, THESE Will Really Give You Goosebumps:

Shout-out to Robert Sheckley's Mindswap and of course the trilogy of The Fly, Return of the Fly, and Curse of the Fly, wherein Vincent Price gets turned into a fly. Compare and contrast with the Cronenberg version of The Fly from the 1980s, which leans hard on the body horror.

I think this book also pays homage to another 50s pulp classic, The Incredible Shrinking Man.

For a different horror take on body-swap hijinks, try Freaky.

#overthinking goosebumps #goosebumps #why i'm afraid of bees #rl stine #tim jacobus #horror books #bookblr #books and reading #currently reading #book blog

12 notes · View notes