#you are seeing some weird shit that sounds stressful and frankly pointless

[statementlou]

.

[neproxrezi]

Are you participating in the proposed dbd boycott to get them to do a game health update?

yeah, i wasn't sure at first caus "dont play the video game for a brief period" isn't going to work but "this company has put all its eggs in one basket and they are frankly quite neglectful of said basket, everyone stop buying anything ingame for 3 months" has me interested

more than 'fix the bugs' or anything else like that what i want to see out of the game is them being less god damn stingy with cosmetics (you should not have to pay $10 for ONE FUCKING COSMETIC) and addressing the grind. holy shit the grind in this game is so rough and it could be fixed fairly simply (i'm in favour of removing perk tiers, to cut a long post short)

hold on im gonna complain about dbd under a cut caus itll get long, i love this game so much but oh boy it has issues

it's been said a million times already but dbd's grind made more sense when there were like 4 or 5 characters per side, there are now over 20 and each new one introduces 3 perks to each side

I want to write about the grind in this game for a moment. There are 95 survivor perks in DBD. Every perk has three tiers. Some of them are great, and many are kind of pointless. Realistically, I'd bet you're only going to see about 15 of those perks in action in most of your games. However, if you unlock a perk to be taught to other survivors (which I tend to do even if I don't particularly want it, out of a mix of completionism and a 'may as well get it out of the way' kind of thing), you can't get rid of it. It's in your bloodwebs forever. 95 perks. 285 perk tiers. Let's talk about how long that takes to claim.

You buy a new character in the next chapter. You have every teachable perk unlocked. The new chapter really excited you, and you want to claim every perk on the new character (who I am going to name... Doug), so you saved a lot of bloodpoints in advance. In fact, you played for days and days and saved the cap, which is a million bloodpoints. You buy Doug, after much excited testing him out in the PTB. You spend all million points on Doug. Doug is now about level 35 to 40, out of 50. Hm. Well, time to keep playing. The bloodwebs kind of gave you a bunch of crap stuff on Doug, and you don't feel like running Power Struggle, Ace in the Hole, Babysitter and Breakdown, so you can't play Doug yet. You go play someone else.

Solo queuing as survivor is a mixed bag, and your games range from getting 10,000 bloodpoints (pretty rough game where everyone got wiped) to 27,000 (a great match, maybe with a bloodpoint offering). You save enough to get Doug to level 50. In the later levels, you start being able to get two perks a level instead of one. Let's say from level 1 to 50, you collect a total of 65 perks, because I don't remember exactly when it starts offering 2 per level. Okay, there are 220 perk levels left. Because of the game's propensity for giving you the same perk over and over to get you lots of perks at level 2 out of 3, of those 65 perk tiers you've probably got something like 20 to 25 actual perks. You're missing like, 70. Best case scenario, the ones you picked up include a lot of what you want. Most likely, you've got like half a good build and some gimmicky crap to slot in alongside it. Worst case scenario, which has happened to me plenty of times, you have like maybe one good perk and a pile of gimmicky crap. So. How long is it going to take you to get what you want?

There are 220 perk levels to go. After level 50, the webs are all the same size. It costs about 50,000 points to level up, and you get two perk levels per bloodweb. That's going to be 110 webs to get everything for Doug. Which is 5.5 million bloodpoints. Oh no. How many points were you earning per game again?

If you play with friends, you're probably going to do better. I find this to be true even if me and my friends are playing without voice comms or anything, because I just sort of know these people a bit better. I know my friend who mains Lisa Garland is a hook-diving bastard, so I don't need to go rescue anyone. Ace, god bless him, makes batshit altruistic plays, so I certainly don't need to go protect my teammates when he's out there doing things like this. I think I'm just going to sit on generators in the distance, think about our final gen spread, and try get us out of here. I'd say if I'm playing well, and accounting for offerings and WGLF stacks, with friends I average 30,000 a match and by myself I average 20,000. Playing killer I average more like 60,000, but playing killer is a bit stressful sometimes and I'm very indecisive about actually queuing up for it, so I probably actually get bp faster as survivor. I'm going to call the average per match across everything 25,000, because for every good game there are plenty where you underperform, or things just go drastically wrong. To earn 5.5 million points like that, you're going to have to play 220 matches. A game, including queue times and whatnot, can take ten to twenty minutes. That's... that's going to take a while. And that's ONE CHARACTER.

Now, on the survivor side you only really need to do this once. They're all just reskins of the same gameplay loop. On the killer side, you need to re-earn those perks for every new character you want to try out, because they're all different. Miiiiillions and millions of points. Hundreds of games. I have no problem with the game having a grind, but at this point it's absolute insanity.

In my opinion, removing perk tiers would cut the grind down to a reasonable level. There'd still be a grind, which I'm completely comfortable with existing, but it wouldn't be excruciatingly long, and you wouldn't have to spend as long dealing with bad perks.

HOWEVER, on top of that is the fact that they just. Holy shit the game updates slowly. I don't want to blame them for that in a way of like "these developers are incompetent and lazy", I really do love DBD to bits and I'm sure they do work very hard on it. That said, its update cycle is really slow. Reeaally slow. I wish they either had a bigger team, made balance updates faster (a handful of perk adjustments once every six weeks is... very very slow) or something to just try make the changes faster. Even when things do change it always feels so anxious and tentative, I wish they'd experiment more often. The time they disabled bloodlust to see what happened was really cool!

Yeah in short I just hope the grind gets addressed more than anything else, caus that's the part I actually think there's a relatively straightforward solution to. Also, I never got to play the older events where you could do shit like earn cosmetics, but they sounded way fucking cooler than the new ones. The halloween one last year was absolute shit, it's weird that their special events would get worse over time rather than better.

Buuut I agree with Scott Jund that the Resident Evil chapter was bad news for DBD's long term health because the one thing that would really give BHVR a kick up the ass is competition, and every time they land an amazing licensed chapter they become harder to compete with. They have an absolute monopoly on asymmetrical horror, and I honestly think the game would be in a better state right now if they had some competition >:[

[disneychannie]

Let’s talk about love | l.mark

Pairings: mark lee x reader

Word count: 3.36k words

Genre: fluff // college au! (my fave)

Warnings: cursing

Summary: Though Mark Lee isn’t necessarily the most charming person on enough, he still wanted to be his first kiss to be as special. After the small encountered he had with you, he has never been so determined to love someone this hard before.

A/n: Sorry if this is messy I don’t even know what this is but enjoy...also this is not proofread as per usual

Mark was said to be quite vague as many would say.

He wasn’t one to know how to express his feelings perhaps only in certain ways that would always come out as awkward. 

Yes, he was known to be the most attractive amongst the campus and even during high school. Despite having girls and guys confessing to him, he would nicely and awkwardly turn them down because believe it or not, falling in love was one of the things he was the most scared of.

It wasn’t one of those typical scenarios where he gets heart-broken by the love of his life but it was frankly him being completely clueless about falling in love. 

He had always thought there were some kind of rule of falling in love or maybe a guide to teach him about flirting. It wasn’t his forte but the thought about falling in love intrigues him in a way. Watching his close friends having their own partners itched him even more to find himself a girl.

There’s just one thing, he completely sucks at flirting.

It would either come out as rude or just plain awkward. Till then, he would never put himself in that situation again and go on another date. Such a shame how all most of his dates ended up being his shyness as a turned off and completely bummed him out completely.

In fact, he had never kissed anyone before. There were some who he went out on a date with who tried to take his “first-kiss virginity” away, but he would always turn them down and make the situation even awkward than it was.

He wanted his first kiss to be perfect. The perfect girl, the perfect setting, everything. He wanted it to be romantic and memorable, like how all first kisses should be. It did sound like he was asking too much but he always thought he would only dream of having a perfect first kiss.

-

It was his 3rd year of college and he could not wait to survive one more year here and finally finish his degree. Music was everything to him. Producing, writing, singing, rapping, that was his ACTUAL forte. He got praised a lot by teachers, friends and random students about his music. He worked a lot with his senior Taeyong who he then befriend, definitely learning a lot more about music from the older.

Consistently, Mark had a reputation for never having the write’s block issue till one day. He couldn’t thought of anything to write and ideas of producing and it was driving him crazy. Nights spent wasting his time staring at the blank piece of paper in front of him, hoping that something, just something that would come in mind.

It was one of those nights for him. The dormitory he shared with his best friend Donghyuck who was a year younger than him. Despite them being in different majors, in reality they had so much in common.

He was sat on his desk, the small table light he had lighting up the dark room as he tried to come up with at least a line of lyrics. The coffee he had by his side wasn’t doing wonders and he was definitely coming on short of it. He was indeed sleepy but the assignment was due in two weeks and he couldn’t afford to sleep now.

Deciding on whether or not he would break curfew and take a walk around campus, he eventually did and left with his jacket. Winter was coming around and he didn’t want to catch a cold to add in to his list of problems. Thank the lord that usually there weren’t any security who would check out this late of the night which then would be pointless for the university to set up a curfew.

He usually had his earphone in all the time to get inspirations but this time he didn’t. Opting in just taking a walk to clear his mind out from all the shit he had to do. It drove Mark absolutely insane having to think about his assignment and taking a little breather is something he needed.

The campus grounds was as expected, quiet. The only sound that were audible were his sneakers and the sounds of crickets. He even walked around inside one of the dark buildings thanks to the moonlight that illuminating the halls of the building. I guess this was what he just needed. He felt fresh but apparently not fresh enough to come out with a line of lyrics.

He went deeper into the building where the music rooms were located and was met with the soft tunes of the piano. His heart beat quickened as he made his way to the instrument room, where every music major kids would go to practice. 

The sounds of the piano became louder as he got closer and from the small window that the door had, he could see a figure sitting on the piano stool, their fingers brushing effortlessly against the piano tiles. He couldn’t make out who it was but he was too mesmerised but the skills the figure had and it excited him in a way.

He noticed the song as a famous piece that he heard Taeil played before and it felt different when it was played by the person playing it at the moment. He thought he would’ve gotten away without getting caught when his phone started to ring which rang throughout the hall and made the stranger abruptly stop playing. His eyes went wide as he grabbed his phone from his pocket and saw that it was Donghyuck, who probably noticed that he wasn’t In the dorms. He cursed at himself and quickly went and shut the ringer off.

You on the other hand heard the ringtone. At one point you got scared because you’ve been sneaking out like this for the whole year now and it was weird that suddenly now there was someone who’s awake like you on the campus ground.

Getting up from the seat you walked to the door and from the small window attached to the door you could see a mop of brunette hair peaking. The person must’ve tried to hide themselves.

“Who’s there?” You said loudly.

Thanks a lot Donghyuck.

He didn’t realised that his hair was showing and he was about to sprint away when he felt the door come in contact with his body, forcing him to the ground with a loud thud.

Your eyes went wide as you went to the boy’s side. 

“Oh my god I'm so sorr- wait, Mark?” Confusion was written all over your face as you studied the boy infant of you who was still grunting in pain.

Mark looked at you and his heart literally skipped a beat. It was you, Y/n, one of Donghyuck’s close friend. The both of you have seen eachother before and even had lunch together with Donghyuck once but you never exactly talked to him before, just seemingly you were good friends with the same people. It was weird how you hang out with Donghyuck all the time when Mark is around but you never talked to each other properly before. Just a few ‘’hi’s’’ and ‘’hello’s” here and there but not once a proper conversation. You weren't a music major, instead you were majoring in Chemistry so he didn’t know how you had the access to the music room without a card that was usually only held by the music major students.

It was no lie that you were attractive tho. Mark has tried so many times to talk to you before but him being the shy boy himself, could not muster up even a simple greeting which results in you initiating it first. He would curse at himself for it but you were just too pretty that he gets all nervous when you’re around.

You weren’t a music major like him, instead you were a med student but he knew from Donghyuck that you have been playing the piano since you were a kid and it just sticked around you till today. He just never heard nor knew you were good at playing the piano.

“Uhm, hello?” You waved your hand infront of him and Mark finally snapped out from his trance. 

“Uh,” He started before sitting up properly when he realised that you were quite close to him that he could see the small features on your face despite the hallway being dark. “I’m sorry, I just, uh, was walking around and heard you playing the piano and I started to watch you- WAIT not in that creepy way tho I-,” The boy continued on rambling before he was cut off by you giggling.

Ugh even her laugh sounds heavenly.

You then got up from where you were crouching and brushed the dust off from your pants. Offering a hand to him, he hesitantly held it and you helped him get up. This was your first time being so close to Mark that you didn’t realise how he was slightly taller than you making you having to tilt your head upwards a little so you could face him.

“Any reason why you’re lurking around here at this time?” You started as you made your way towards your respective dorms.

He chuckled and shoved his hands in his pockets, suddenly feeling nervous over your simple question.

“I couldn’t think of anything to write and I guess I needed a little breather,” His words comes out hushed without intending for it to be.

You gently shoved him with your album and smiled up at him.

Oh fuck was he going to pass out

“Why do you look so nervous?” You said mirroring his action and shoved your hands in your pocket. “It’s just me, you don’t have to be so awkward,” You let out a small laugh to break the awkward tension.

“What are you doing awake this late?” He mustered to ask after a short silence.

You shrugged and looked ahead at the dark pathway, the lamp post illuminating the little to nothing light to guide the both of you back to the dorms.

“School just started and I'm about to lose my mind, perhaps the stress getting to me,” You whispered the last part.

Mark could relate with you in a way. Despite taking a whole different major from you, he understand the pressure of having to do the best. You didn’t exactly explain more verbally but he understood your point. You were one of the smartest students in the campus and obviously the professors and teachers are going to want you to do your best. Same goes to him, being the best producer and writer for the whole music department took a toll on him and the peer pressure of his professor wanting him to do the best stressed him out. 

“Don’t worry Y/n,” He started as you guys arrived at your dorm. “You’re the smartest person I know and you definitely will live up to your teacher’s expectations but don’t go too hard on yourself, you’ll do fine,” He continued.

He was surprised by his own words. When did he suddenly get all the confidence from?

You gave him a small smile and rubbed his forearm which sent electricity to his entire body. He could feel shivers running down his back and suddenly the temperature become a bit too warm.

What kind of effect did you have on him, he think he’s going insane.

“Thank you Mark, you’re one hell of a producer, you’ll do great,” You said and finally brought your hand to your side again. “Thanks for walking me back to my dorm,”

“No problem,” He said returning the smile.

He was about to leave when you called him.

“Hey Mark?” You called out.

He turned around and looked at you with a questioning look.

You tucked a strand of your hair behind of your ear before speaking. 

“Let’s hang out more,”

-

That night, he told Donghyuck about his encounter with you and boy was it a huge mistake.

He couldn’t stop teasing Mark about how he finally grew balls to talk to girls and it was basically a session of Donghyuck telling Mark that he was finally a man which concludes in Donghyuck getting a pillow thrown at his face.

Ever since that day you and Mark have finally talked with eachother a lot now which makes Donghyuck happy because there would be no more awkward tensions between you and Mark when the three of you hangout together or when you are with your shared group of friends. 

You and Mark have finally gotten to know new things about eachother every day and at the same time the two of you have gotten closer with eachother. It was shocking news to the rest, two finally see Mark out of his own bubble and finally having the guts to talk to others without having them to initiate the conversation first.

Mark was stunned by his own behaviour. He was always too shy to even ask for help. He didn’t know what made him like this. Ever since he had that conversation with you, his perspective towards others changed completely. He didn’t know why he was never like this with the other guys, probably it was just something you could do.

After that night too, all new kinds of ideas roamed his mind as he finally found lyrics to write and sounds to compose. He was never one to write love songs, furthermore he had never even written one before but this time, he felt like his new assignment should be a love song. Soft, pleasant with a touch of melancholy to it which earned him an A+ and a pat on the back by his professor as a sign of congratulation.

He told you the news about it and you were now ecstatic to hear his project. The second you asked to listen to it, sweat immediately started to form on his forehead and dripped down to his neck. He didn’t want you to listen to it because the song was about you. How was he suppose to tell you that the song that got him and A+ was about you? He then told you that you probably don’t want to hear it since it was a sappy love song that would make you barf. But what Mark doesn’t know was that you were a total sucker for love songs and you were now more intrigued to listen to his piece.

He told you yes you could when he should’ve said no. 

For the first time ever in his 21 year of existence, he was anxious over a person. He had many episodes of him getting anxious but never when it comes to a person. He was scared that you would be creeped out by the song when you know it was about you. 

He met up with Taeyong the day before he planned the day for you to listen to the song just for moral support. He would go to Donghyuck but he knew that Donghyuck would end up saying some unhelpful shit that would just cause him extra stress.

Thank god Taeyong was all the help he could need. 

“I don’t know what to do hyung, what if she slaps me and thinks that I'm some sort of pervert for writing a song about her, what if-,” He continued on rambling. He had a problem with rambling too much that he starts to say things that don’t make sense the slightest.

Taeyong just laughed at the kid infront of him. Taeyong has been by Mark’s side ever since he started college and obviously he knew all about the deal with Mark and the problem he has when it comes to talking to women, he too knew how severe it seemed but ever since he started talking to you, it changed him in a different way, like how he became more comfortable talking to people.

“Do you like her?” He asked the 1 million dollar question to Mark. 

Here’s the thing, he never knew about his feelings for you. All he knew was that he liked being around you and want to spend more time with you. I guess you could say that he did have crush on you.

“I do, hyung,”

-

After the pep talk he got from Taeyong, his confidence level risen up a little, emphasis the little. He was still nervous but he felt like things would go better if he just shows you the damn song. 

He opted the meet up to be at one of the recording studios in the campus that he usually goes to and reserved it just for today. He wanted everything to be perfect. He didn’t want to mess things up with you.

He was pacing around the studio, trying to get rid of his risen anxiety when he heard a knock on the door and a soft, “Mark is that you?”

Oh god this is it

He wiped his sweaty palms on the surface of his jeans and opened the door of the studio with shaky hands. 

There you were.

You were in simple clothing but you looked mesmerising. 

“H-hi, Y/n,” His voice shook.

You laughed at his nervousness as he moved to the side to let you inside. 

“I’ve told you this a million times Mark, stop being so nervous, it’s just for me,” You said before sitting down on one of the chairs infant of the computer.

How could I not be nervous when I'm here alone with you.

He took his seat next to you and started opening the draft for his song. 

“What am I supposed to expect from this song?” You asked casually, looking at the shaken boy beside you.

“Probably an awful amount of sappy lyrics,” He joked.

Clicking on the draft he then leaned back on his chair as the familiar melody of the smooth guitar riff and soft beats come together. His voice finally came out and you thought that his voice was the prettiest thing ever. It was soft, honey-like with a touch of melancholy feel towards it.

In all words, it was perfect.

You were too engrossed into the song that you didn’t realise Mark staring at you majority of the time. His mind was running wild with what your opinion was towards the song, in hopes that you liked it. You looked cute with how concentrated you looked whilst listening, makes him want to tuck the strand of hair falling on your face behind your ear but he obviously had to restrain himself for doing so.

After the whole 3 minutes, the song finally ended. You were in awe with how the song came together and to say that you were in love with the lyrics was an understatement. 

Turning to Mark, you caught him staring at you and usually he would turn back but this time he didn't. He didn’t want to cower away this time. This was his chance, the chance to make you his.

Slowly, he came closer to you till he could practically feel your breath against his lips and he finally closed the gap. He was definitely shocked when you kissed him back.

Your lips moved in-sync with his and he could taste the cherry chapstick on your lips. It was everything he wanted. This was it, this was the first kiss he dreamt of.

He pulled away once he felt himself getting out of breath and you probably were too. The both of you were panting as you looked at each other’s eyes.

“That was my first kiss,” You said in between breaths.

“That was mine too,” He said, grinning. “I like you, Y/n, I really do. You have some type of spell upon me that I’m just so addicted with you and if you can’t tell the song was about you, I want to be with you.”

Instead of replying you brought him back to a kiss.

You knew the song was about you.

[bisexual-medal-alex]

HOMESTUCK 2: WHAT IS THE POINT

So Homestuck 2 has been out for around a quarter of a year now and despite my reluctance I have been keeping up with it and reading the main updates as they’re coming out. I’ll admit that there’s things that I like such as the new kids, Davekat and Roxy. But it’s not clicking with me the original Homestuck did and there’s a lot of in story reasons (and some meta reasons too) but there’s a big fundamental flaw of this project that everything wrong about this story revolves around, at least in my eyes. I’m having a hard time understanding what the point of Homestuck 2 is.

That is to say I’m having a hard time just grasping what’s at stake and why I should feel invested in it. On the surface I have a basic comprehension of the plot; Dirk gets so high on his own ego that he basically kidnaps and brainwashes Rose so that he can give the story a villain. And also Terezi joins him for whatever reason, a bunch of good guys and a ghost from another timeline are traveling to stop them and in an alternate timeline Jane is making a fascist takeover of their home while all of this is happening. That’s the basic summary of the story without trying to untangle all of the alternate timeline bullshit that is quite honestly harder to follow than anything in the original comic.

Don’t get me wrong Homestuck Classic is dense and hard to follow if you’re not paying attention. But I do feel like it had a point or at least a narrative structure that enhanced the story. Homestuck was ultimately a story about kids playing a game and it used adventure game tropes and conventions to not only make the world more cohesive but also to comment on said tropes and conventions. All of the kids struggled to meet the expectations thrown on them by the game, they all handled it in different ways from passively accepting their lack of agency to trying to wildly rebel against their fate and even then in some weird twist it always turned out that even their rebellion was predetermined by some higher power. I feel like the point of the original Homestuck beyond just being a silly story making fun of video games was a commentary on growing up and feeling like you have no control over anything in your life. Whether or not the ending was a satisfying way to end such a ambitious narrative like that is another debate entirely but for all of its faults the original Homestuck has a purpose.

Hell I’ll even go so far as to say I understood the point of the Epilogues and what they were trying to do. It was trying to be a commentary on the metafictional implications of continuing a story past “happily ever after” using the framework of a dark fan fiction. It makes sense to do it like this, trying to build on the themes of agency and choice that the original Homestuck started and having the characters feel lost and without purpose now that the “story” is over so while they’re still trying to settle into adulthood there’s also the existential threat of ceasing to exist without a plotline. And again like the original Homestuck they’re dealing with this existential stress in different ways either trying to live peacefully and explore their own identity or trying to be as disruptive as possible in an attempt to stay relevant. It’s supposed to be a story about how happy endings don’t exist and life still continues even after you close the book.

Putting aside for a moment whether or not the Epilogues succeeded in conveying those themes well, I think Homestuck 2, being a direct continuation of the Epilogues, is trying to build on those themes. The trouble is, again just speaking personally, I don’t understand how it’s trying to do it and it just seems pointless at best and like overly indulgent naval-gazing at worst. It comes down to A. Dirk’s role as the “bad guy” and B. How disconnected the story feels.

So in the Epilogues one version of Dirk becomes so self-absorbed after tapping into his highest potential that his god-tier powers grant him that he’s able to assume control of the narrative and as a result he decides that the best way to take advantage of this new power is to give the story a point by becoming a villain himself. I can accept all of that especially knowing that of all the human kids in the original Homestuck he was the most emotionally unstable and he always seemed to be stuck in his own ego. He always had that kind of narcissistic self-loathing where he hated himself but he also saw himself as the only person who could save the day and y’know despite fans not wanting Dirk to become a self proclaimed “bad guy” I can see why he was in a position where he would look at the possibility of ceasing to exist, see it as a problem to fix himself and think that the best way to do it would be to just embrace his most toxic personality traits and step into a new villainous role to drive the “plot” forward.

With aaaaaaaaallllllllll of that being said I do not understand his plan or why he’s doing any of the things he’s doing. I don’t understand why he needed to kidnap Rose and turn her into a hollow metal husk of her former self, I don’t understand why he roped Terezi along for the ride, I don’t understand why he’s taking a spaceship out into the middle of space, I don’t understand why he wants to play Spore and create two competing races of aliens on an uninhabited planet. I can guess and hypothesize why he’s doing these things, like maybe he took Rose and manipulated her into going along with his plans just so he’d have an intellectual equal and Terezi is in the best position to stop him so convincing her to come along is a good way to ensure she can’t help the heroes and frankly the whole alien thing coupled with the brief re-opening of the suggestion box feels like he’s trying to relive the glory days of Sburb like a middle aged dad trying to live vicariously through his son making him join the sports club even though he might not have any interest in doing so.

But I don’t understand the core drive behind any of these things and it feels like a hollow attempt to keep the story going even though it feels like everyone involved has already moved on. Maybe that is the point and I’m drastically overthinking Dirk’s role as a villain, he’s just doing all of this because he’s bored and doesn’t know how to continue the story in any meaningful way. It still makes the story feel hollow and it’s Hussie trying to be tongue-in-cheek about the fact that he wants to keep writing Homestuck but he doesn’t have any ideas on what to do with it.

Which is pretty obvious when you look at the B plot involving Jane becoming a fascist and having to deal with an uprising against her rule over Earth C. Hussie really wrote himself into a corner with the Epilogues focusing on two timelines; it might seem like an arbitrary choice to have a story where literary infinite possibilities coexist but then only focus on two of said possibilities but it did work in context of the Epilogues because it showed how profoundly your life can change just from making one choice over the other and it worked with the meta-narrative about stories and the theme of whether or not the characters have control over their lives now that they’re free from the “story”. But now the writers have to deal with the fallout of that decision and manage not only the plot with Dirk dicking around in space and a bunch of the characters coming to stop him, now they have to deal with the story of Jane holding onto her empire in TWO different timelines (well only if you’re paying for it but we’ll get to that).

I know Homestuck is famous for juggling multiple plot lines at once but the thing about that is that all of those plot lines were important for the overall story and that’s not the vibe I get here. It’s honestly not that interesting and feels like a distraction from what the story should be about. Nobody in this side of the story except maybe original flavor Vriska is aware of what’s going on in the other side of the story and the stakes are much less personal. I care more about Dave, Karkat, Roxy, Kanaya and Calliope/Jade trying to rescuer Rose and stop Dirk than I do Vriska dragging Gamzee’s corpse with a bunch of teenagers while Jane gets turned into a Donald Trump analogue.

And like honestly the fact that there’s updates hidden behind a paywall really bugs me. I understand that with the nature of crowdfunding you need some substantial incentives to get people to donate, I’m not shitting on crowdfunding as a way to fund your story and truthfully I don’t see anything wrong with having some bonus content exclusive to those who are willing to pay a little extra (trying my best not to sound like an EA or Activision executive here). But with a story like Homestuck, where the reader has been conditioned into seeing every update with every innocuous detail as something important that will later advance the story, having some updates be exclusive to backers feels wrong because you’re either saying that said updates aren’t going to impact the story so they’re just pointless fluff or you’re keeping critical story details hidden from people that can’t afford it so they’re missing out and really neither of those possibilities are a good look for your story.

And really the fact that Homestuck 2 used the Epilogues as it’s foundation is not a good idea because that’s a really rocky foundation. I know I spent a good chunk of this essay actually defending the Epilogues and their themes in a way but just because I think a story has some hidden depth like that doesn’t mean I think it’s good. It’s still needlessly grim with a lot of poorly handled character development the excuse from the creators of this being just a possible canon outcome for the series feels like a cop-out since this may as well be the main canon since nothing else for the series featuring these characters is advancing their story (unless you count Pesterquest which to be blunt feels like an extended apology for the Epilogues). Truthfully I don’t know if the Epilogues or HS2 have anything more profound to say about continuing a story past the happy ending than Into The Woods or a straight-to-DVD Disney sequel (not that I’m comparing an award-winning Broadway play to a Disney sequel in terms of quality I’m just saying I get more enjoyment and intellectual stimulation from the meta-narrative of Lion King 1 1/2 than Homestuck at this point).

Maybe I’m being too harsh to judge Homestuck 2 when it seems to have only barely just gotten started. It’s going to continue whether or not I enjoy it or not and maybe over time it will validate itself. But right now to me personally it just feels like a hollow imitation of what we used to enjoy about Homestuck.

[lamentalia]

Chapter 1: Alfred

Alfred peers down from the branch he’s lying in. He’d been woken up by the sounds of bickering, which is weird cause he hadn’t seen enough cats to overhear bickering in a while. Alfred yawns and stretches his shoulders and spine down through his tail.

There are two of them. Bounty hunter looking tomcats skulking around the tree line opposite of him. Alfred scratches the back of his ear then swivels both around to listen in on their not-so-quiet argument.

“—that village we passed, its one of those, you know? They’re so hard up for food they’re fuckin’ eating each other. They’ll pay us anything!” the shorter one says.

“Look I don't care. I came up here to hunt monsters. The backwater villages around here aren’t going to pay for anything like Ransen does for monster parts. I’m not going to waste my time.” The taller one replies.

“I’m telling you its easy money! I can smell him, he’s around here somewhere and we haven’t, found any monsters in this area yet. Its the opposite of wasting our time!”

Alfred lifts an eyebrow. The hell are they talking about? There hasn’t been any kind of prey animal around here in ages. He should know, his stomach has told him so every day for the last two years at least.

Alfred watches carefully as the shorter one spots one of his fresh claw markings on a tree.

‘Yes. This is my territory. Now go bother someone else and don’t be the kind of jackass I think you’re gonna be.’ He thinks, his eyes on them steadily.

Aaand he touches it. Yeah ok, its go time. Alfred jumps from his branch into the small clearing and walks toward them.

“Hey, Hi.” Alfred shouts to them. The two tomcats turn to him not looking especially surprised. Well, obviously, they’d been checking out his mark. They knew he was around. “Guys. You’re not going to find monsters or food up here. I take care of the monsters. There aren't many hanging around here right now. And of course the food is mine. You know. Territory.” He gestures to his mark helpfully.

The two trespassers look to each other and back.

“He’s younger than I thought.” The big, gray one says, eyeing Alfred.

“That’s because your sense of smell is shit. But forget fresh meat, we could probably make some decent money off of him to the right buyer in Ransen.” The short one replies, smirking, and now Alfred is confused again.

“Hey? Guys? The hell are you talking about?” Alfred’s getting irritated. “I know you city cats aren’t super into the whole territory thing but there are rules out here, you know.” He hates being ignored on the best of days, but these guys also sound like they’re up to something and he doesn’t like it.

“I’m not convinced it’ll be worth hauling him all the way back.” The gray one says unsheathing his long sword. “But I am getting bored.”

Well, this is something Alfred understands at least. Maybe they’ll be more willing to comply if he roughs them up a bit. He draws his dagger, lowers his stance and attacks first. No point beating around the bush.

—

Matthew scopes the situation from the cover of some trees just out of view of the clearing. There are two tomcats. Al’s only engaging one of them and he’s running circles around him.

Matthew leans against the tree beside him to watch their progress. Al never needs help in one-on-one battles but the cat hanging out on the sidelines is suspicious so he keeps an eye out.

Sure enough, after a particularly close call, the bigger one fighting Al yells to the smaller one to start Singing. Matthew peels off the tree and watches carefully as the smaller of the two takes out a flute and begins to play. He can see the big one’s whole aspect change and begin to take the advantage over Al.

He’s a sanga. Matthew had thought as much. There’s little reason for another cat to hang around watching his companion get played around with if he’s not being kept in reserve for something like this.

Speaking of which. Al’s not really in trouble yet, but there’s no reason to let this continue. Time for Gilbert’s Rule Number 1 for fighting against synced pairs. Matthew takes a sturdy, crooked branch in hand and runs around the edge of the clearing toward the sanga. He whistles a familiar note to alert Al of his plan.

—

Alfred isn’t surprised that the short one turned out to be a sanga. For some reason, none of the sangas he’s encountered have ever entered the fray and he figured that’s what was going on here. He IS sort of surprised that these guys manage to sync at all, even if they’re doing it poorly. They must be strangers who combined recently for convenience.

Enhanced by his sanga’s Song, Gray, the touga’s, movements have gotten sharper and he’s finally able to keep up with Alfred’s quick movements.

Alfred thinks that maybe its time to put some muscle into this, when suddenly he hears a familiar whistle. Any stress he might have been feeling melts away immediately. So much so, he starts laughing.

“The hell are you laughing at, kid?” the touga asks calmly, striking again with his big sword. Al catches it with his dagger again, grinning.

“I was just thinking. Your sanga should really learn how to fight.” He replies, cheerfully fending off another strike. Gray looks confused, then uncomfortable as he jerks his head up in the direction of his sanga. Alfred lets him.

They both watch as Mattie bursts through the tree line directly behind the sanga.

He notices, but too late. Before he can even take two steps in retreat, Mattie has laid him flat out cold with a strike to the back of his head.

The touga’s jaw drops and before he can look back again, Alfred slams his fist into his face as hard as he can. He falls to the ground like a bag of rocks. Eh. He’s a tough guy, he can probably handle it.

“Hey Mattie! Thanks!” Alfred looks up at his twin brother with a cheeky grin. Mattie returns it with a smile that’s wryer than his usual one which pings Alfred as bad news. Hmm. He begins to search the touga’s clothing for anything useful.

“Whats up, bro? Something happen?” He asks offhandedly, finding some small polished stones and some nuts and dried fruit in a satchel. “Score!”

The small stones are used as currency among the more transaction-reliant Ribika and have never been all that useful out here, but when they find any, they stash them away just in case as Gilbert had recommended. The food is obviously the real winner here. He pops a small red fruit in his mouth as reward for a job well done. It’s tart and sweet and it makes him really want to eat more…

“Hey Al…” Mattie says, bringing his attention back. Alfred looks up.

“Yeah?”

“I think it might be time to consider getting out of here.” He says looking down and scratching his neck. His ears are lowered and he’s got that worried look again.

They’d been “considering” leaving their home and territory for a while now, making what-if plans and backup strategies, so this topic is nothing new, but the timing is fishy. Alfred leaves the touga with the rest of his stuff. He’s not totally cruel. An unarmed cat is as good as dead around here now-a-days. He then stands up and walks over to his brother to focus on what it is that’s got him all bothered.

Which could really only be one thing by this point.

“You found the Void nearby?” Alfred asks seriously. Mattie nods and raises his hand, showing off the bloody bandages on his right hand. Well, shit.

“It’s on the north side. I didn’t have time to check the perimeter before I heard your fight and rushed over here but I think its pointless, anyway.” Mattie sighs. “There’s not enough food, the number of monsters is increasing, it’s been a long time since Gilbert or Tino and Sven have stopped by, frankly I’m really worried about them, and now the Void has shown up—”

“Hey Mattie.” Alfred interrupts him. No point getting riled up about it now. “I get it. I agree and I’m worried too.” He claps him on one shoulder and bumps his nose against the other in a show of affection and an attempt to calm him down. It does the trick.

“Lets check the sanga for loot and get home. We can prepare to leave after dinner, yeah?”

Mattie lets out a gust of air in conflicted relief.

“Yeah. Yeah, ok.”