#Is an sburb session happening

[squidy-tee-png]

I wrote an essay in the tags because i cant decide

1. Yes they have to fight, 2. Tell me who’s fighting who in the tags! (I’ll add the most ridiculous combos in a reblog)

[wyfy-meltdown]

Just because I've gotten Knight of Space literally everytime I've taken a classpect quiz doesn't mean I'm not a Slyph of Hope!!! Follow your dreams and lie!!!

[alternianavenues]

Missing The Third

[rogue-of-light]

this hive is a FUCKING NIGHTMARE!!! (ref)

-KPA

ASKJLF

[thatonegaybastard]

Oh hey someone went grimdark in this session? Im gonna check it out

[animallover432]

Looking back, it’s clear that Bro Strider really wanted to be a major part of the beta kids session. He wanted to be a hero and be one of the main players. He purchases copies of the game for himself, intending to be the fourth player I guess instead of Jade? When he gives Dave his copy and leaves, the plan changes, and instead he decides to just enter the game with Dave. But before that happens he is the one to save Dave by cutting his meteor in half and throwing his rocket board to him. Once he enters, he immediately vanishes to fight monsters on LOHAC. Then he is the one to send his rocket board to catch Dream Cal, so he can send him to the ectolab, of which he’s briefly in himself. Then he goes fights Jack. He tries to initiate the scratch, but fails. At this moment it seems he was trying to be the hero to cause the scratch and create the new timeline, and of course it doesn’t work but the fact he knows about this is what’s has to happen is odd considering he seemingly never meets up with any of the other guardians. Of course Jack eventually kills him on LOWAS, and I feel like Bro genuinely believed he could’ve truly saved everyone, but alas just like post scratch Dirk, his attempts at being a hero are futile and in this case he was basically doomed from the beginning since he was never meant to play the game. It’s very similar to how Dirk fails in the game over timeline despite all that he tried to do because this is who he is. Only this time he failed because this version of him was never meant or be a hero of the game or be important, arguably bro isn’t even the “main Dirk.” Due to lacking a dream self or possibility to go god tier or any powerful abilities, he never stood a chance against Jack. His only purpose was to train Dave for sburb, and in trying to steal the spotlight from the beta kids he sealed his fate

[thewertsearch]

You get the Draconian Dignitary on the line. He asks what the hell you've been up to.

Looks like Jack’s still in contact with DD - something which had no reason not to be the case, but is nevertheless a very funny fact.

The guy’s a planet-destroying abomination, but still has mobster lackeys. Weird that that’s happened twice.

He makes sure you're remembering to keep the destructive impulses to a minimum. No more planet exploding or anything like that. You say yeah yeah. He says no point in securing power when there's nothing left to rule.

And DD’s even working to preserve the session! The guy's a bit of an unsung hero here, as we've all seen what Jack did to the troll planets. If he starts blowing up Lands - particularly LOHAC - we're fucked.

I wonder if this is Vriska’s doing, actually. We already know she can influence Carapacians, and she’s already done so to a Dersite Agent specifically.

Lousy stupid dignitary, all keeping your murderous tendencies in check. He's the most terrible guy you almost kind of didn't despise completely.

Jack genuinely cares about DD, doesn't he?

Something about that tiny spark of warmth is really getting to me. It's one thing to be facing a corrupted game character, but Jack's starting to seem like a person - and people tend to be more dangerous villains than NPCs.

lmfao

You attempt to humor the Sovereign Slayer's demands diplomatically. There's a narrow line to walk between obeying the orders of a clear superior and blindly facilitating a perfectly useless genocide. It takes a very savvy breed of psychopath to pull it off.

Ah, so DD knows exactly what he’s doing here.

Honestly, his cold, calculating style might make him more dangerous than Jack. I'm starting to suspect that if he got the Ring, the Players would already be dead, and the session would be on total lockdown.

The Slayer is yapping about some girl. Probably one of the young players who can no longer provide any serious threat to your rule.

Or not, since he apparently thinks the Players are no threat.

Like - really, Droog? The Sburb Players are no threat? The game's protagonists are-

Ah, I'm wasting my breath. The game probably forces Dersite Agents to underestimate the Players, so they don't just assassinate them in their beds.

You say fine, just send the droll after her.

Delegating the one murder you can't commit is a genuinely excellent idea...

There's a moment of radio silence. He says you mean the COURTYARD Droll? He wants to be sure this is the same droll you're talking about.

...which has already been ruined. Even Jack knows that the Deuce is more likely to help Jade than kill her.

[aj-jesterdude]

ok i need to fucking talk about the hsbc upd8. holy shit. so good. but i wanna focus on our new friends, gavageCunctation and their crew. So first thing I noticed was that all of them have the same two-letter combinations that the trolls did. gavageCunctation [GC] -> gallowsCalibrator is also [GC]. they also mention an AA (Aradia's was apocalypseArisen) and a TC (Gamzee's was terminallyCapricious). So what's the deal with that? I've got no clue. Maybe Ult!Dirk threw that in for me specifically to puzzle out. Now what does gavageCunctation actually...mean? Gavage is "the administration of food or drugs by force, especially to an animal, typically through a tube leading down the throat to the stomach." Cunctation is to hestitate or delay. So...delaying forced eating/forced intoxication? Perhaps this relates to the way they're hesitant on playing the game. Cunctation could also tie into their quirk. Speaking of their quirk! It's a bomb! the "o" is the bomb, the dashes are the fuse, and the * is the spark. They use it to switch tones, bouncing between a nonchalant carefree sort of vibe to a more serious, "Doomer 8ullshit" one. It runs out right at the end of the conversation, and their computer explodes, so maybe it's a way to track an actual bomb in their room? They mention this being a common occurance:

GC: mine was alright, almost got my stupid ass blown to the high hells as per usual but not much other than that...

GC: haha that would be devastating right? GC: and it could happen so easily.

GC: o-------*

GC: a petrifying thought...

GC: o------*

GC: yet i still stay up to my buccal mass in volatile materials.

GC: it's a real addiction haha...

They also do it with their parentheses! (like so!)---* Really neat quirk!!! Now onto AA and TC. We have very little to go on with them. AA is described as an oracle, but also *not* an oracle. Seemingly magic, and a manipulative meddler fussy type. Odds are she's Rose's species, that sounds very Rose. I think GC might be a Satyr. AA is oddly insistent on playing the game, it seems... TC we have even less. All we know is that this SBURB session is described as "TC's game". Maybe they're the one who compiled the code like Sollux did? That's all we got for now and just. I'm over the moon. New species...finally...anyways thanks for reading this I guess

[conceptofjoy]

hi joy!! idk if anyone has asked this before? but ive noticed that you draw hal taller than dirk which is REALLY cute. im super curious about how you hc that happening :o basically i just wanna know more about your dorkhell and like when u talk abt them lol i literally cant get enough

OOH ok so its something i thought up over time. so basically sburb spits hal out as a "reloaded save" of 13 yr old dirk because she cant catch a fucking break (if she looks back on it now, they honestly prefers it that way instead of an outright duplicate or being glasses). hal's grateful for a body but hates that they got this like, hand me down body i guess? not even the right age too. dirk's actually the one that asks jane if catching up hal to the rest of them is possible cause during all this, hal's having hella post session depression. she's kinda pissed he went to jane without asking first but Fine. What ever.

it's a strenuous process that takes almost a year of different sessions. you know how growth spurts are, it hurts, youre hungry, you have to deal with other gross puberty stuff. plus, hal's starting point at dirk's 13 yr old self was malnourished as fuckkk, they didnt want to risk him getting like osteoporosis right, so they had to plan a lot, put him on meal plans and such. jane asks if she wants to try T while doing it and hal's like actually? Yes. much to dirk's surprise.

hal ends up a few inches taller as a result, with a smaller chest and other testosterone effects. dirk's kind of using hal as a guinea pig to see if he wants to try it in the future.

[mewmewdoppio]

This au was inevitable.

Also Bill would NOT be a troll in this AU.

The basic idea is that Bill is a Cherub that was born without a twin and through the complete isolation he faced, decided to dig up a SBURB session and play it, destroying his universe. He isn't able to complete it properly so he uses his powers as a Lord of Space to find another universe to create a way for him to hop into it and take over the session that would happen there. He disguises himself as a gold blood troll when he contacts a bronze blood named Ford, who had a mutation just like him.

Ford starts to construct not only a way for Bill to hop dimensions but also the game itself. It isn't until the game is complete that Ford realizes his mistake and tries to shut it all down. The game is started temporarily by Stan and Ford's fight, pulling Ford into a space between dimensions before the game is quickly paused. Canon typical stuff happens etc etc.

Here's the other notes: Stan and Ford are bronzebloods that came from the same egg and both have mutations that aren't blood color related, Fords is his extra fingers and Stan's isn't discovered until adulthood, where his eyes don't develop. Stan wears contacts occasionally but stopped as he got older. Their lusus is a chimera (lion, goat and snake). Stan's horn was broken at one point before the portal incident and he replaced it with a gold fixture. Mabel and Dipper are bronzebloods from the same 'family line' (exact hex code) and also came from the same egg. Their lusus is a two headed bear. Wendy- Rust Soos- Bronze (feels a kinship with the pines more bc of this) Gideon- cerulean blood EASY WHAT ELSE Pacifica- Violet blood that carries on ancestor legacy and pretends to be a fuchsia blood horns go north and west lol Fidds- Olive blood Candy- Teal Grenda- Indigo

[weirdmageddon]

I'm taking the plunge because why not:

What are some headcanons regarding small, silly things that happened during the 3 year trips on the Golden Yard and Meteor?

oh lets go i love this sort of ask. no meteor crew stuff sorry im kinda tired but

on the prospitian ship:

the crocodiles are never recovering from that shit bro. un-stonks

alchemizing sessions. probably with mundane household devices like toothbrushes or something. patterned toilet paper. davesprite absolutely remakes the sbahjifier for himself but i think he also likes to hand draw them from time to time. also john and jade alchemizing bathing suits and going swimming on lolar and hanging with the turtles. casey can come too. floaties on casey

the sbahj canon diverges. so many sbahj in-jokes exclusive to the prospitian ship. unfortunately the retcon make it so none of this ever happens :(

he’d never say it but davesprite likes it when john and jade fall asleep on him doing whatever, it makes his presence feel wanted and appreciated by the people he sacrificed his self and humanhood for good for. sorry for immediately going into davesprite but good god is he tragic. oh yeah heres more. he’s still part dave and shares the same history with john and jade that alpha timeline dave does. john gave him his shades on his 13th birthday in december 2008, he sent john the con air bunny and jade a physical copy of sbahj as furries in the mail. he is identical to alpha dave in relation to his friends before the timeline splits off. dont forget that 4/13/2009 was also his first time meeting his online friends john and jade in person, even after 4 months chronologically of sburb grinding—nearly a year with all the time shenanigans—and going back to day 1, since john and jade were dead in his timeline

tries not to cry cries anyway but only when he knows theyre asleep. pov when the weight of everything suddenly hits you (you are an emotionally repressed 14 year old)

also because he’s fucking fluffy and absolutely knows it and probably thinks to himself “yeah this is the best possible use for these otherwise pointless breast feathers” and yall already know he craves cloth mother plus probably has nesting instincts

(source)

adding on to that also i think people forget sprites are actually fucking LONG and his wingspan is fucking huge he could be a pillow and a blanket at the same time

i wrote davesprite jade cuddles and john thinking about mushrooms and davesprite thinking about how they contribute to the ecnonony

^ john toked too hard on the lowas mushrooms by accident one time

it feels like pajama parties would be a common occurence just the vibes im getting. literally jade is seen sitting on a pile of squiddles and theres plushies fucking everywhere you know they got up to plushie mayhem. do you think they ever alchemized them. look how lived in that room is they all contributed something

jade resumes gardening :) but theres no sun :( but she alchemizes some plastic plants :D but its not the same :(

canonically the imps in johns house just gave up tormenting him and started hanging out and having snacks on movie night

PENIS!

imagine looking up into the sky and seeing a giant casey the size of a planet sleep. jade resizes stuff for fun like this just to introduce some novelty to their lives

this is something

davesprite has beavis and butthead do america (1996) in his collection somewhere in his apartment on lohac

yall theyre watching johns fuckin spongebob dvd box collection. you KNOW john owns the spongebob squarepants movie (2004). and the best thing is it brings all of them together without any of them objecting. they all love spongebob

when the episode jellyfish jam comes on johns like “wow, pretty much this exact scenario happened to me with the imps.” (arthur flashback sfx)

DAVESPRITE: yeah well you didnt have a giant sound system did you

jade warps dave’s bro’s sound system from lohac and sizes it up. they put on stadium rave and the entire fucking house shakes

[homestuckreplay]

check out my 13-monitor gaming setup

(page 872-876)

Bad news. Everyone’s IP address and physical location are being tracked by an all powerful/evil gaming corporation who are using it to send meteors down to our houses for the crime of gaming. There’s a lot to be said about the capacity for surveillance that all the Skaian technology has, and the ways these kids have been monitored without even knowing it. There are SO MANY meteors on this screen, meaning a LOT of people are playing this game. But there are more meteors than games, suggesting that Sburb was built around the pre-existing meteors – presumably so some people could be saved from this apocalypse, I don’t think it is so kind as wanting everyone to have a great final day on Earth.

The physical setup of the lab terminal is similar to those in WV’s bunker – industrial pipes feeding soulless gray screens where every pixel is visible – but Rose’s has a lot more screens, some just displaying spirographs. Comparing page 874 with 733, both stations feature coordinates, both have the same transparent projection of the world map on the left, and both have similar diagrams on the right of small orbs radiating from a central orb. I theorized this as the Skaian cosmology as WV’s screen features four surrounding orbs, like the four planets they drew on the walls – in the lab, there are eight surrounding orbs. It’s interesting that there’s a discrepancy between the terminals – is there some information, some secret planets, hidden from WV that are available to the lab operators?

This lab is monitoring sessions, but its own meteor is already close to impact, so the lab isn’t necessary for the sessions to continue. Some setup work was done here and now Skaia is tidying up after itself with a meteor unrelated to Rose’s house/Sburb session. Speaking of which, not all meteors have sessions, but do they all have potential sessions? The tiny meteorites in the forest probably aren’t, unless the bugs are playing Sburb. So is this conclusive proof that Rose will play Sburb, because she has a session meteor, and this will definitely happen no matter what? Or is it just prophesized that she will play (by at least Nanna and Jade) but that prophecy could still be undercut? Rose understandably isn’t trying to change this prophecy, but it is an important distinction in terms of free will.

I’m gonna take a wild guess and say that the two biggest meteors correspond to Dave and Jade’s locations. We know from previous coordinates that Jade lives in the southwest Pacific, and the meteor there has a while before touchdown – it may even be the last to fall. The presumably first Skaian meteor also fell there, and led to construction of the frog statue (p.757) and established Skaia’s power on Earth, so it’d make sense that the final meteor would be cleaning up its own mess. The second biggest meteor has no coordinates, but looks like west Texas geographically, a place Dave could reasonably live. There’s always room for a fakeout, but so far every story beat (except within media, like the Midnight Crew) has taken place in one of the four kids’ locations, so it’s a fair bet.

Hey, what’s up with the pink teapot and teacups in this lab? This inclusion is such bait for the adventure game/user command format of Homestuck. Such an anomalous item is just begging for someone to click on it and try to interact. Like so.

> Rose: See if the tea in the pot is still hot.

[deepseaspriteblog]

Meet Edie Helmont, the second member of the Steampunk Victorian SBURB session!

I said in my previous post about Vale that he's the sole rich kid among a group of commoners but my ideas for this session has since evolved. While he's still the richest, two of his fellow players are pretty well off themselves with only one of them being from a struggling background.

Edie was raised by Doctor Helmont, a well-known and respected researcher who was a part of the Magnus Corporation's SBURB project. Despite being fairly young, Edie was recruited into the prject as well and has a lot to prove that she belongs there and is more than just Dr. Helmont's granddaughter. She's not technically masquerading as a man, but she doesn't bother correcting anyone who thinks she is. This version of SBURB takes place in an alternate history but unfortunately sexism is still abundant so she feels that her masculine appearance makes it easier for others to take her more seriously.

Edie is a brilliant mind who doesn't buckle under pressure, she's a bit tough to get along with. Even moreso than Vale. She automatically assumes the worst in people and treats everyone like they don't like her (which is of course a self-fulfilling prophecy in itself).

Also, I decided to go further with the alchemy theme. The Magnus Corporation (owned by Vale's family) is trying to achieve perfect alchemy and happened to find a "manual" to achieve it. Unbeknownst to them, this manual is actually for creating SBURB and the alchemy machine they're trying to make is the alchemiter.

[valle-de-sombra-de-muerte]

Homestuck Reread: Act 4, Part 2/4 (p. 1523-1668)

Read the previous post here.

Time to finish the first half of Act 4. I can't believe how long this is compared to the previous ones, and the upcoming Acts will only get more expansive from here on.

Rose has to be doing this on purpose. Using big words she knows John won't understand. She's stroking her own ego by acting intellectually superior to someone who might genuinely be mentally impaired.

Rose is still seething about Dave. John clearly has no idea what's going on between them and thinks she's perturbed by Dave being able to watch her constantly. But yeah nah, she's still bitter about how she barely survived entering the game (and jealous that Dave is schmoozing with Jade).

In Terezi's first appearance, she has nothing but animosity toward the humans. She even goes as far to say that she'll be pissed at them even when the rest of the trolls warm up to them. Uh huh. Strange how that part of her personality gets quickly swept off to the side.

Terezi used to be such a nasty, annoying edgelord and I kind of miss that about her. Her character progression is honestly all over the place, which I'll get into deeper as we move along.

Rose drinking the martini is framed as her making an "important decision [...] without supervision." There's something to be said about how one of the first things she decides to do as an independent person is try to emulate her mother. As the only adult presence in her life, Mom is her only frame of reference for how adults behave.

PM's brief encounter with Jack is fun. Jack is no-nonsense and knows his job inside and out. He's also determined to pursue every opportunity to avoid actually doing said job.

So much suspense is being built around this package. It's so important that PM is willing to betray her own kingdom for it. Of course, this all amounts to probably one of the worst reveals in the whole comic. There's no satisfaction upon learning what's in the box and as soon as the reveal happens, it's swiftly forgotten about. Yet there's so much narrative weight being assigned to it that I cannot even begin to fathom what Hussie's thought process was when writing this.

Dave and Jade spend several pages combining the alchemiter with the other Sburb devices. This is to condense everything into one space so the characters don't have to scurry from the different devices to craft items. But we haven't been seeing much scurrying lately since Hussie has been skipping over the crafting process anyway, probably because it's lengthy and repetitive. It may be convenient "in-universe" but I don't see what use this has from a storytelling perspective.

There's a reason "John do what I say" is a bit of a meme. Because he will follow commands no matter who's issuing them. Even if it's someone as unpleasant as Terezi.

Terezi is transparent in her motives. She is uninterested with what the rest of the trolls are doing and just wants to spread chaos in the kids' session, basically fucking around and finding out. John still decides to follow her directions because ????????

I might as well screencap the entire conversation between Dave and Rose here because it's great stuff. Rose puts on a sanctimonious act about killing the ogre she had just mercilessly thrashed, all to annoy Dave. This is the kind of back and forth I love to read.

Also note the metaphors Dave uses at the beginning. "whipping that ogre like a rented mule"? "sailing that ogre down the mississippi with a runaway slave"? Again, not to bring race discourse here, but I don't think he'd say that kind of stuff to Rose if she was black. If anything, he'd probably be more tasteless about the metaphors he's using. You know how teenagers can be.

Did he just call himself Rose's pimp? 😳

Hmm I wonder what might motivate Dave to give Kanaya bogus advice about winning over Rose. Between this and his earlier log where he turns the tables on Tavros, I do think it's interesting how Dave is shown to consistently out-troll the trolls. The key must be to not give a shit.

Dave calls Kanaya "bro" twice in this log and seems to mistake her as a man here. John will repeat this mistake later on. Kinda odd that the troll the fandom depicts as sultry and feminine is actually super stoic and awkward to the point where multiple characters think she is male.

I love how Rose is making passive-aggressive remarks about Dave to a total stranger. And calling him "that guy" as if he isn't living rent-free in her head.

Rose is getting a lot of joy out of using Tavros as a proxy to annoy Dave. She even offers to help him out in writing disses (because of course she'll jump at any opportunity to write).

I really love the ending of this log too.

Kanaya is a total dork in case it isn't clear already.

Tavros puts so much effort in his diss rhyme against Dave, but Dave's completely ignoring him to draw more SBaHJ. Tavros never attempts to troll Dave after this which, again, is a fucking disgrace.

Where is the version of Homestuck where Tavros is Dave's bumbling pupil in the slam poetry arts, constantly brushed off until Dave eventually (and reluctantly) decides to take him under his wing, if only to stop him from embarrassing himself? It would be a good role-reversal where Dave inherits Bro's position of the master instead of the student, and maybe get some perspective for why Bro was so dismissive and distant from him all the time.

I guess this kind of obvious character growth is too much of an advanced writing technique for Hussie to implement, so he didn't.

I like how Karkat starts off being a jerk but stops in his tracks because he too is a fan of cheesy movies. Also, I liked Serendipity. It's not great, but it might as well be a masterpiece compared to a lot of the garbage John likes.

Terezi's reaction makes it seem like she really wants to see Karkat's "bone lump." I can't imagine Karkat being outwardly flirty at all, so the idea that he may have expressed any kind of fondness for her must be something she has to read herself.

As a sprite, Jaspers' personality is like a cat voicing thoughts relating to his natural instincts. He focuses mostly on food and expressing affection toward Rose. Anything else he says, like information about the game, is stuff he says without any comprehension of what it means. It's like the game placed that knowledge in his mind and he just thoughtlessly repeats it. I do like that.

The closure Rose expected from Jaspers is about what one would expect (or at least, until her dream self awakens). I wonder what she really expected from asking a cat what it meant by meowing at her.

It only took over 1300 pages, but John has finally responded to one of Dave's messages. He does this in a very detached, oblivious manner, not mentioning the previous messages Dave sent him that he missed. He wants to skip all that time when Dave was in distress and ask only about the recent happenings upon his entry.

I feel bad for Dave, considering his "best friend" is pretty much a plank of wood. And not the fun kind of plank like in Ed, Edd n Eddy.

In what might be the most poignant page of the comic in my honest opinion, Dave and Rose have been trapped in this doomed timeline for four months. Dave is keen to stop wasting any further time and to go back to the past to reverse the actions that led to John's death, but Rose seems very reluctant to let him go. Her words are chosen to imply Dave might be too hasty and to suggest that he should stick around a little while longer "to gather information."

But that isn't the real aim of why Rose wants Dave to stay. She knows that as soon as he leaves, she will die. Trapped in a universe where she's the sole surviving human, it's a cold and lonely death she'll experience. Dave seems to know this too, but tries to assuage her worries by telling her not to think about her impending doom. Perhaps he also doesn't want to think about it, and that's why he wants to leave quickly so as not to dwell on how he's essentially condemning her to death.

But really, four months alone together as the last two humans in existence? That's a lot of off-screen time we aren't shown. And yet it's treated as this brief afterthought, a scene only used as a means to bring Davesprite into existence. I wish we could've seen more of this doomed timeline, more of Dave and Rose realizing their hopeless situation and the harrowing choice they ultimately need to make to set things right.

Yes, it's only a brief page that never gets brought up again, but it's one that sticks in my mind and refuses to leave.

John is being unreasonably (and uncharacteristically) obstinate here. Normally he has no problem following orders unless they place him in direct harm. Why does he trust Terezi so much over his supposed best friend? He ends the log suggesting that he'll listen to Dave, but the next page shows him blasting off anyway. What a prick.

People want to portray Terezi as some master strategist, but she really isn't. She's very single-minded and only ever considers outside information if it aligns with her set goal.

Remember when Terezi said she intended to stay pissed at all the kids forever? That didn't last long. And now through the power of memes, Davesprite has turned Terezi into a good guy now.

Considering how weak most of Homestuck's villains are, it's a real shame we lost out on one who was genuinely effective, engaging, and menacing so soon.

Oh, so I guess the Frog Temple really was "planted" when the meteor first hit Earth ages ago. I'm not sure how satisfied I am with this explanation.

[S] Jack: Ascend not only serves as a big flash to mark the midpoint for Act 4, but it also celebrates the fact that Homestuck turned one year old at this point.

Anyway, Jack's "Joker moment" is when the Queen force-femmed him. Just thought everyone should know that.

So if John's big "awakening" moment was about learning that his dad isn't really a clown, Rose's moment was triggered by being left all alone in a dead timeline and just waiting for the universe to extinguish her life. These are very comparable events! The fact that Rose's future dream self is shown to merge with her present self means that she likely remembers the events of the doomed timeline as well. What a nice load of trauma to be shouldered with!

Here we get the only time the box's contents have any real use: when it turns the Black Queen into soot and blood. Good to know that this MacGuffin only ever serves the villain in a meaningful capacity.

This part of the comic had some good moments, but I'm conflicted. When I revisit these "high points" in the story, I'm reminded of how Hussie never expands upon them and how they just end up as wasted potential. I fear this will set the mood for the remainder of this reread, which kinda sucks honestly. I'd much rather talk about more positive stuff and things I like, but they're few and far between with all the negativity surrounding them.

Read the next post here.

[rogue-of-light]

just finished relistening and i forgor how emotional the song makes me OOUUGUUGUGUGHGHGHG (pos)

also WAAAAH grabbing nekane by the shoulders and violently shaking xem!!!

FEEL BETTER MORON!!!! (LH)

-KPA

YEAH this is a very emotional song </3

ZJDJSJSJSJD

Another good one is goodbye my danish sweetheart but that’s more of like a “bad end” type of song route, or at least what nekane is convinced will happen if xe says anything </3

[thewebcomicsreview]

Hate to tell you this, but the HSBC update just got updated.

I get that they wanted to keep the Hell Arc confined to page 666, and it'll make the archival experience pretty cool, but hard refreshing the site didn't let me see the update to the page due to cache bullshit, I had to use a different browser. So let's liveblog now before it breaks again:

Looks like we're back to Tavros. I guess it makes sense that the first path to update would the one where they could reuse the talksprites.

So, as directly stated by Davepeta, Vriska is trapped in a time loop, where Tavros doesn't remember anything that happened the previous day, just like in the movie Groundhog Day. That Davepeta called out the movie explicitly in-universe as the reference makes me wonder if events will follow the rough plot of that movie. It's clearly what Davepeta wants to happen, but...Vriska....

Anyway, Vriska offers to let Tavros decide what to do today, for the first time. It took two whole years for her to try that, but she is the Thief of Light and not letting anyone else decide what to do is literally her cosmic role and stuff, so I guess that tracks. And what Tavros wants to do is....play a game.

Last update I said that Vriska saying she's done some things wrong while shrugging and laughing is the ultimate distillation of Vriska, but her having won everything and being miserable about it is also the ultimate distillation of Vriska. She's a woman of contrasts, that Vriskers.

The use of the phrase "session" here outs this line as having Deeper Meanings. Having SBURB sessions over and over so we can play forever is literally Dirk's plan, and most of the fandom is assuming a Candy session is coming.

So, even though they're talking about playing FLARP (the troll DnD game, which is apparently PvP), this is also an argument over whether or not Homestuck should continue. You can't really "win" if the game keeps going, but that doesn't mean you're stuck doing the same thing over and over.

I know Vriska is Problematique, but I'm still taken aback by her 2000s kid usage of "gay" as a general-purpose insult, and not just because trolls don't have a concept of "straight" or "gay". Apparently she doesn't even know what it means and learned the word from Da-

Oh, it was just to set up this line for people to screenshot. Alright. Fine.

brb, gotta go post this in the hard to use reaction images channel on the discord and have someone complain it's easy to use.

Tavros accuses Vriska of projecting her own fears onto him, and then gets into a tangent about being a "soft" female fairy and Vriska takes him up on playing this new "game for girls" and he panics and changes the subject. There's a...lot....going on there.

Vriska starts to have an actual breakthrough, when suddenly Aradiabot appears. Wait, is this where Aradia and Ult!Dave went?

We fade to black and I thought that was it, but apparently not. This being a visual novel makes it feel like a much bigger update than it is, and also kind of makes you read each line a bit more carefully. It's a good way of having multiple meaty (or, um, candy-y) updates in a short stretch of time, and that's kind of an important part of the "feel" of Homestuck that no one can really replicate.

Oh, I do not care for this talksprite.

The downside of this format is that it's harder to liveblog, I think, but basically Aradia is complaining about the Vriska Cycle of "Do bad thing, self-flagellate to be redeemed, repeat".

Vriska justifies it because she has to take action and set people straight and stuff, and if this conversation/game isn't leading to the return of "(Vriska)", the OG timeline Vriska who died and got a ton of character growth before post-retcon Vriska stole her girlfriend, then what is it building towards?

A lot of these lines make good single-panel memes. Yes, Vriska, you are the problem in nearly every situation, even (especially) when you're also the solution.

Aradia sa- oh for fuck's sake this is unreadable, guys. Anyway she says that getting into a routine leads to stagnation and slow death, which, mood, but also is about Homestuck itself as much as it is about Vriska.

Jesus Christ, how long is this update? This page is a full on Pesterquest game when the other five routes are finished.

Oh, okay. That's it. Vriska levels and we get a bunch of fire-themed pun ranks for her, of which Skinner's Bane is the best