#being sucked into the homestuck rabbit hole

[scopekale]

i assume you all would know or have an opinion on this

should i read Homestuck or Homestuck BETA first?? should i even be reading both???

[cemetrio]

Hi! Hope you dont mind me asking but what was Jelliesprite prototyped secondary with? Becuase she looks normal as a sprite but she wouldnt be able to touch Scar (or anything else really) until she prototypes a second time, less she prototype with scar. I recetly went down the homestuck rabbit hole lol sorry if i ust missed it!

hey anon! that’s a pretty good question, with a pretty long answer. so if you’d like to skip the explanation...

tldr: jelliesprite does not have a secondary prototype (this is subject to change), and players cannot prototype with their sprites.

long answer ft. waaaay more explanation about canon sprites (under the cut)

so we actually discussed the “sprite interaction” thing ourselves a few months ago, while we were deciding on the initial prototypes for everyone’s sprites. but basically, canon homestuck was kind of inconsistent about this? on one hand, there was some heavy insistence that single-prototyped sprites could not interact heavily with players, lest the players get prototyped themselves. but on the other hand, there were canon depictions — albeit minor ones, in one-off scenes — showing some interacting with their sprites. you can see examples for both of these in this post i found.

in the end, i think the general consensus that we found while looking at other people’s discussions about this was that there has to be an intent to prototype, for living things. merely interacting with the sprite isn’t going to suck a player in; that would defeat the point of the sprite, which it to guide the player, assisting them throughout the game. it wouldn’t make much sense if players could just… unintentionally prototype by accidentally stumbling at their sprite or something.

but this is ambiguous as hell, and we also don’t really have to follow canon 100% since sburb in act 7 works as a cross between sburb and minecraft game mechanics. soooo we’re tossing it out the window and saying “active players in the game are immune to prototyping with their sprites”. key word being active — dead players, or players from an alternate timeline (such as doomed ones) do not fall under this category, and are thus able to prototype with sprites. this is due to nbt tags. i’m not so well-versed in this, so i’ll just let reshie’s explanation do the job.

Nbt tags are a data string unique to most object in Minecraft, even players have their own tag, which is a fucking long, unreadable chain of characters (that you may have seen while overing an username in chat)

In Minecraft sburb, sprites have in their code a blacklist of tags; their assigned player and other players from the active game.

Anything coded from these blacklist tags can't prototype with the sprite.

However, players tags are so unique to a point a player's tag from a different timeline won't be the same as the one from the main one.

because of this, scar isn’t at risk of accidentally prototyping with jelliesprite when they interact! we hope that explanation makes sense!

as for whether she has a second prototype… we’re actually still undecided for now. the nature of a homestuck au is that the scale of such an au is so massive that there are still quite a number of smaller details we have yet to work on — secondary prototyping included. (having 26 characters will do that to you, i suppose)

[prince-liest]

fic writer interview!

How many works do you have on AO3?

37, though another one is going up tomorrow because haunted AO3 hours started and I don't want to post it in the middle of the night on a Monday. Also like 4 or 5 more in reserve from zines/bangs. I'm kinda impressed with myself, but also, side-eyeing y'all with fic counts in the 100s. Phenomenal. Effervescent.

What's your total AO3 word count?

257,246

How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

In chronological order of first fic on AO3: Percy Jackson, Soul Eater, Steven Universe, My Hero Academia, Dragalia Lost, Avater: the Last Airbender, the Witcher, and Genshin Impact! That's 7 fandoms and I'm not counting Homestuck (I only wrote OC stuff) or D&D (same thing).

I also have works from Axis Powers: Hetalia and Katekyo Hitman Reborn! on Fanfiction dot hell that none of you will ever see. I definitely posted and deleted a Twilight OC fic once.

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Dish Duty | ATLA

The Sword of Damocles is Swinging | MHA

The Ancient Art of Jerkbending | ATLA

Dishabille | MHA

Summer Break | MHA

ATLA is a powerful fandom so I'm not surprised both my ATLA fics made top five. Dishabille's popularity continues to pleasantly surprise me. Damocles is only surprising because it isn't first. I am so proud of Summer Break and that entire Shinsou series, I'm glad it made top 5 and is gonna break 1k kudos soon. <3

(Now get Dog-Tired up there, I fucking love that story. q^q)

Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

To quote Mido: I do, but not consistently. Q^Q I read them all and I really want to reply to them all, but I very frequently simply to not have the energy. I have it posted on my AO3 profile, though, so hopefully it doesn't hurt anyone's feelings... I have recently been trying to at least answer all new incoming comments and not let the backlog increase! (That said, the backlog is over 100.)

What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

I don't tend to do angsty endings (I am a hard lover of angst with a happy ending), but I've written some questionable and bittersweet ones. I think arguably the best contendor for angstiest ending is probably Kindred Spirit. I wrote it to low key revenge myself on @thegc4life for insisting that Shinsou gets a hug (he does! technically!) and it certainly ended ominously.

Do you write crossovers? If so what is the craziest one you’ve written?

As much as I love "Edward Elric gets transported into X universe and proceeds to kick everyone's ass" crossovers, I don't relaly write any. I do enjoy full transplant AUs, though, and the one I recently posted on AO3 is an MHA-at-Hogwards AU called the Birds and the Mares that I wrote for the HP/BNHA Zine!

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Deeeeepends on what you mean by 'hate.' :X has gotten two comments (one much politer than the other, haha) complaining about my use of the r-slur in Shinsou's internal narrative in one of the chapters, but one person backpedaled and said they understood the purpose of it while the other (more vehement) one never replied to my explanation. That's all, though!

Do you write smut? If so what kind?

Yeah. It's never going on my main AO3 (and the one time it did, I orphaned the fic). I have a side account I might post it on once I get over the fact that people who know me also know about the account. It's all 100% PWP of stuff I personally am into, and I have a very specific set of things I'm into, so... idk, feels a little personal! ^^"

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

No, but I've had people adopt general concepts I used (fabulous!) and steal my RP OCs back in ye olde fantroll days (not at all fabulous! incredibly hurtful, actually). I am vehemently opposed to plagiarism, even of concepts. It feels so gross.

Have you ever had a fic translated?

Someone in the comments mentioned that they are translating Bloodied Hound into Russian and I am SO EXCITED. I desperately want to read it. Of all the languages, it happened to be the only other one I'm decently literate in! I also want to show my grandparents. I really hope the person follows through. <3

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

I've roleplayed a lot, but I can't see myself ever co-writing a fic. I'm not even sure how it works, to be honest!

What’s your all time favourite ship?

Urgh. Pass. I can't pick one. Perils of a multishipper.

What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

I was going to proudly say "I never post things I don't plan on finishing!" but in reality that is a lie, because Falling Down A Rabbit Hole exists from back in 2015 and is in fact the reason I made that rule for myself. ^^" Honestly, what's there still holds up, but the reality is that I didn't actually come up with a plot, so there's nowhere for it to go.

What are your writing strengths?

Interesting/relatable/funny dialogue, and also writing feelings in a 'show, don't tell!' kind of way that leaves strong impressions with people!

What are your writing weaknesses?

Plotting out long stories with good pacing! People thought Damocles had a plot, apparently? Joke's on you, it was a series of "I wanna see this happen" scenarios that I made Hawks suffer through and subsequently strung together like a haphazard multicolor plastic bead necklace that I told everyone was actually pearls.

That's why all my stories after Damocles are either short or split into a series. Shinsou's Bad Days is my attempt at proper pacing, hence it being so episodic.

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

I'll do it if I know the language well enough (so, Russian and ASL, I don't trust my casual Japanese), but I'm generally a stickler for making things come off naturally, so I otherwise will instead try to find the closest tonal equivalent in English (such as having Childe call Zhongli "professor" instead of "xiansheng"). Sometimes there just isn't one (like Kazuha calling Beidou 'big sis' but in a way that doesn't sound kiddish and overly casual for him), though, which sucks. :( Language is cool!

What was the first fandom you wrote for?

T. Twilight. QUQ I wish that fic still existed, it was like a single chapter of two multicolored hair OCs befriending Alice Cullen and being cool. I deleted it but I SHOULDN'T HAVE. IT WAS HISTORY.

What’s your favourite fic you’ve written?

This totally changes with each new slew of fics I post. I think currently it is Dog-Tired because despite being unsatisfied with the title, I think the story itself turned out amazing. I also am extremely happy with the entire Shinsou's Bad Days series (including upcoming installments).

Tagged by: @touchmycoat (THANK U LOVE <3)

Tagging: anyone who's read this far, LOL. seriously, though, I have a lot of writer moots and I don't have the time to tag them all but PLEASE do this and tag me so I can read it if you are so inclined! <3

[cyberneticlagomorph]

On the fifth day of the apocalypse, nothing happened.

Or more accurately, nothing NEW happened. 

Roads were cleared, people were rescued and fed, ushered into bunkers and hospitals by superheroes and aliens and furries. Everyone was largely scared and confused, but grateful.

Skulduggery Pleasant was there at some point! 

And the not-really-teens-anymore Titans, She-Ra, homestuck trolls, anime characters, demons, fairies, and innumerable other beings that crawled from all corners of the multiverse to lend a hand.

It was beautiful.

It was chaos.

Avengers Endgame wishes it was this cool. 

On the sixth day, the black sky cracked like an eggshell, golden light seeping through the gaps like runny yolk.

The sun had returned. 

It shattered the darkness like glass, banishing the dark and hungry things that had flourished in this weeklong night. Sending them scrabbling for their vile dens.

Volunteers and evacuees alike cheered at the bright blue sky, and the cowardly star shone all the more brighter. Even though, deep down it was ashamed of itself for abandoning its post, getting eaten by an angry omnicidal Angel isn't something anybody wants, so running away is perfectly valid in this situation.

Well… not really, but I feel bad for the poor thing. 

For a moment, there was peace and quiet, and Hope as the last of the evacuees were loaded into emergency vehicles and sent rumbling on towards the last bunkers with available space.

Jack stopped his search for the End and raided his cellars, treating all the volunteers to fresh hot stew, buttered bread, and strong coffee or cocoa. His Ma, Harley, lent a hand.

There was brisket, latkes, and sufganiyot, spinach matzo lasagna with white sauce! There was pizza, soda, tofu, burritos, cookie cats, grubloaf, and so many other things that everyone brought from back home. What started out as a thank you lunch, quickly became a victory potluck.

A witch in training sets a massive pot of soup onto the makeshift buffet table and everyone immediately swarms it hungrily, she purrs proudly as her dish is praised. 

A dish of sugar cubes, oatmeal, and apples is brought out for Swift Wind, She-Ra's mighty steed.

Faces are stuffed, stories are swapped, wounds are healed. And not just the physical ones. 

Someone tells a joke so hilariously bad that soymilk comes squirting out of Beastboy's nose.

We could End things here, with everyone happy, healthy and safe, with full stomachs and fuller hearts… but you know we can't, dear readers. As much as I want to, as much as you want me to. 

I can't. 

A Plot Hole opens wide, in the middle of a ruined street with a sound like tearing paper and literary agony. Ink splatters the ground like blood from a fresh wound, and from it crawl Spoilers and Continuity Errors. Seven times seven voices echo from the Hole's drooling depths, shaking loose out of context snippets from the next Narrative over, "You think you've won?" snarls the End of Everything as She slithers out of the ink and emptiness, "You might have gotten all of the humans to safety, might have put my Horsemen out of commission, but I'm. Still. Here."

Green fire curls from her lips and forms a single Word, and then the Narrative starts to shudder and scream. A portal tears itself open above the tables laden with feasting heros and sucks them out of their seats like boba pearls through a straw, many of them scramble to stay put or at least snag the last slice of pizza but they are all forcibly expelled back to their homeworlds without so much as a goodbye. 

Although their exit is rough and abrupt they hopefully land safely, without too many bumps and bruises. They're outside of my grasp now, but I hope I can at least give them that much.

Only Jack is left, the portal snaps shut before he can be pulled through it and gravity quickly sends him plummeting into the feast table with its half full plates and sharp silverware. He stares up at the End, wincing in pain. 

She stares down at him, all seven great green eyes blazing with HATE, "It's time that you and I finish this, don't you think?" She smiles then, lips curling over venomous fangs that would make any snake self conscious. Another fiery Word and the world changes, becoming terrifyingly familiar. 

Oh Jack… I'm so so very sorry...

The world is Ending, and it's all your fault. 

The sky is a green-gold mirror, broken, reflecting everything that ever was and everything that will ever be within shards of Dreams that fall like verdant rain and distort the landscape around you as they crash haphazardly to the ground, like glass meteors, shattering on impact. Glittering splinters of impossibility cut your cheek as they fly by, you can taste the bitterness of your future in the pain. 

Before you stands the End-of-Everything, with a head wreathed in flame, Her serpentine form stretching away into forever. Nothing around Her burns or even smolders, no, it grows. Patches of green swallow impossible structures, strangling their foundations until they lean dangerously, drunkenly across the deserted street you stand on. Plants spring forth from places they were never meant to, devouring everything they touch like a cancer, they tug at your feet as you walk. Moss and vines try to crawl up your legs, only to be torn apart with each solemn step. 

In your hand is a sword. An old and heavy thing, carved from the bones of a beast Higher than you, among the rabbits and snakes and suns carved into the blade is a Word of your own, it means "to assemble a name from scars". The tip drags across the seething wasteland of invasive life and makes it blacken and wither. 

You are tired and alone, but you cannot rest until it is done.

The End-of-Everything hisses as you draw near, and speaks in seven times seven tongues, “Do you know who I am?” She says, Her choir of voices crackle and snap like a forest on fire. 

There is an edge of frustration to Her tone, as if She were just as tired as you. You stare at Her with empty exhausted eyes, She has invaded your dreams and asked you this question more times than you can readily remember, and each time, you have failed to answer correctly. 

Stubbornly, you clutch your blade white-knuckle and it grows lighter in your hand. Just a hair, just a touch, but you can feel the weight leave as the dying embers of your resolve glow just a little brighter. 

“You are the End of Everything,  but I am the End of You.” 

[mutually-screaming]

for death and he

Fandom: Homestuck

AU: Godstuck, but with more cults

Chapter(s): 1/??

Ship/Pairing: Dirk/Lil Hal

Summary: Hal needs to feed to survive at this point in his everlasting life. Being a god isn’t easy, especially not when you have virtually no followers. But he’s not god now. He’s a leech. And he needs Dirk to be his host if he wants to survive any longer as a god.

Author Note: Chapter one! I hope you all enjoy! I will be posting this on Archive of Our Own as well, and links will be provided once I do so! I hope you enjoy!

This party sucked.

It wasn't the fact that the party itself was bad, but the suckyness of the party predominately came from Dirk himself. Things that he used to enjoy, like this shitty party, felt like they were slowly getting crappier and crappier over time. Whether it was boredom or how they always seemed to go the same, he couldn't quite tell. But it sucked to Dirk. Everyone else was having a good time, and part of him was jealous of them for that, but he felt like it sucked.

But of course it sucked for Dirk. Dirk Strider, forever sitting on the couch, making boring idle conversation, waiting to get himself drunk. Dirk Strider, always embarrassing himself when he gets drunk. Dirk Strider, waking up in the morning with a shitty hangover and a will in his mind that he was never drinking again. Parties weren't awful, but he just couldn't get why he wasn't enjoying them anymore.

Maybe because of the monotony of his actions at these parties, or maybe he was becoming more of a homebody. The latter option made the most sense to him right off the bat. He was spending more time at home, but he blamed that mostly on school and how it was so vigorously kicking his ass at the moment.

The blonde took a sip of probably one of the grossest IPA's he's ever drank before setting the bottle down and deciding he was done with it. It was almost full.

Music played, people were dancing, the air was hot and humid with their sweat. It was kinda gross. Deciding he needed a break, he shoved his way out of the living room and into the back yard, greeted by a cold yet refreshing gust of night air as he stumbled upon what seemed to be a beer pong tournament? Except all frat-dudes involved seemed way too fucked up. Amber eyes scoped the scene before settling upon three mostly empty tequila bottles on the floor. Ah. Tequila pong.

Considering the last time he decided to play the one way alcohol poisoning game of Tequila pong, he decided against it. Nope. Never again.

Reasoning being, nobody wanted to watch him try to jump from the roof and into the neighbor's pool and fail again. That entire incident ended with a broken wrist and a written apology.

But see? He used to think this was fun. Now he was bored, tired, and couldn't wait to put on his pajamas and fuzzy socks when he got home.

He needed to find Roxy.

Turning around to head back inside, he struggled through the living room and made his way towards the kitchen, only to run into a very frazzled looking Jane dealing with a very stoned freshman he didn't recognize.

"Hey, where's Roxy?" Dirk asked, grabbing some paper towels and handing them to Jane as she tried desperately to clean up a green mess that the freshman seemed to have spilled. The freshman seemed cool with it. Hell, Dirk wasn't even sure if the freshman noticed that he had spilled half of whatever the fuck that green stuff was all over the front of him. He was blazed as fuck.

"Last place I saw her was in the garage getting more drinks, but that couldn't have been more than twenty minutes ago," Jane replied, gratefully taking the paper towels and using them to sop up the green mess. "By the way," the brunette huffed, straightening up and dumping the dirty trash into the bin, "This is Gamzee, he's the foreign exchange student I've been mentoring."

"How's it been, brother? Long time no see," Gamzee grins, his voice deep and laced with an accent he didn't recognize. The stoner reached over and clapped a large hand on Dirk's back, possibly getting some of that goop on his shirt.

Dirk has never met this kid in his life.

"Uh...it's been good," Dirk says slowly, taking a step away from Gamzee as he turned back to Jane, "Look, if you get the chance to talk to Roxy, let her know I'm headed home. Glad for the invite though, that was cool of her. Don't think this kind of stuff is my thing anymore though." Hm. Maybe a little too much information for now. He didn't want to offend Roxy for inviting him to these, he knew she genuinely enjoyed them and that he used to too. But might as well be honest, right?

"Oh, uhm, alright," Jane replied, seeming a little taken aback by Dirk's bluntness. "I'll talk to you tomorrow?"

"Yeah," Dirk nodded, briefly eyeing Gamzee warily before making his way out of the party. Part of him kinda felt bad for the guy. He seemed stoned out of his mind. But hey, at least even he was having a good time.

The party had been hosted at a nearby fraternity house that was only about three blocks from the school, making it only about a twenty-ish minute walk back to his dorms, which wasn't too bad. Pulling his phone out of his pocket, he quickly sent a text to Roxy, just in case Jane didn't get the chance to relay the message.

headed home. thanks for the invite.

Dirk knew Roxy worried about him sometimes. Especially these past few months since his particularly messy breakup with his ex. But that was a story for another day.

It didn't take long for him to reach his dorm, quickly changing out of his plain jeans and t-shirt and into his beloved fuzzy socks, sweatpants and hoodie. It was a cold night and he might as well get comfortable for the night.

Flopping onto the bed, he couldn't help but lie there for a second. The room was completely quiet, other than the gentle hum of the heater running and the soft thump of his heart beating. Glancing at his clock on his desk, it was only ten forty-five. It wasn't even that late. But why did he feel so fucking tired? He lied still on his bed for as long as he could manage, legs dangling over the side as he shifted and shoved his face into his pillow, only to immediately sit up in distaste as a red line formed across his face from his shades.

Right. He was wearing those.

Dirk took them off and set them on his desk next to his bed before getting settled in. Snuggled in a thick duvet, laptop in his lap, he grabbed his glasses off of his desk. Trading comfort over style, he guessed. It was a miracle he could get those wack-ass shades as prescription, but he was from Hollywood and wasn't about to read too deep into this and you shouldn't either.

Was he tired? Yes. But it was more like the slightly sleepy that led into boredom that led into him browsing the internet for a couple of hours.

An hour and a half later, Dirk found himself falling down the rabbit hole of food network youtube videos on how to make gourmet gushers when an unfamiliar notification popped up. It was from Pesterchum, what was essentially a remake of the now outdated Skype, but he didn't recognize the message that appeared.

autoResponder [AR] began pestering timaeusTestified [TT]

AR: Hey. Ever wondered what ascension is like?

The name autoResponder immediately made Dirk think this was a bot messaging him. But that didn't make sense. The only way someone could message him would be if he gave them his username himself, but he couldn't remember giving anyone his username recently. He honestly didn't even use Pesterchum that much lately anyways because of how busy he's been with school. This totally had to be a bot. But it hadn't sent him any weird links yet or offered to show him boobs. Or maybe it was a hacker trying to give his laptop a virus. But he could handle that. Maybe it would be fun to fuck with this guy. If he was going to try to send him a virus he would well deserve it.

Just as he started to type a response back, he got another message.

AR: Ever wondered what happens after death?

Dirk's fingers hesitated. Now this was starting to sound a little more religious-y. But it gave more of the vibe of those signs you drive by on road trips. The ones paid for by Biblethumpers who had nothing better to do but shove god in every aspect of life, including road trips apparently.

Another message.

AR: Ever wondered what happens when everything becomes void, Dirk?

Dirk closed his laptop.

[abundantchewtoys]

HS Epilogues, Meat p26 reaction

Well, we unexpectedly went on a little hiatus there, in our liveblogging. It's just one of those things you got to find time for doing, you know?

So, last time in Homestuck Epilogues, Dirk was present for Rose's ascension into omniscience. Although he did state he still had a manner of control over her, and was going to do something to anchor her to her living body. So, you know, they're not on equal footing just yet, in part because Dirk hasn't relinquished control of the narration to her.

I hope the POV switches to John again, but since we just had a page from his perspective, it might be going back to Kanaya? Or Roxy, but Dirk might not want to spent more time around her "unfathomable" mind than is necessary for the plot to advance. It's not something you'd relish, as a supposedly omniscient narrator.

---

"Jade kicks her shoeless feet behind her slowly, as if she’s swimming with the current of the gravitational waves pulling her ever closer to their source." Oh! I didn't think we'd see her again, at least in the Furthest Ring. Thought the Black Hole had already swallowed her up. Though maybe as a Space player, and one with a connection to a seven-year-more-experienced version of herself located outside of canon and thus with more guaranteed conditional immortality than normal, she might be able to... resist getting thorn to pieces, as she crosses the event horizon? Unlike, presumably, every other being sucked into this thing.

"the ruby slippers are gone. She kicked them off hours ago, as if to jettison all hope of returning anywhere resembling a place she used to call home. The fond remembrance of such a place no longer has any pull on her.

Now, something else entirely is pulling her." Welp, guess the Black Hole is kind of hypnotic, ain't it? Or maybe it's Alt Calliope's strong personality.

"Believe me, I’m sympathetic to the temptation. It’s always just there, isn’t it?" To jump into the void? I don't think it's ALWAYS there for everyone Dirk, but thanks for the unique perspective into how your mind functions.

"There’s something about being alone for so long, it makes time feel like it doesn’t exist. She knows this almost better than I do." ... Yes, well, Lonely Jade did, and it seems as if she might have taken over, or melded with, Reload Jade? So yeah, her three years of isolation would indeed have given her some inkling of the feeling of loneliness that Dirk and the cherubs must have experienced, being physically alone all their life. ... Right, of course her childhood on Hellmurder Island would have also done that regardless.

"Jade also knows well enough by now that time doesn’t actually exist in a literal sense, the way we generally understand it. It’s just one aspect of many, and the complement of her own, Space. It therefore can be neutralized by the introduction of her essence. Reduced to white noise or soft light. The continuum of time is therefore demonstrably an illusion. The field of sequential moments and physical conditions that stretch on and on, resulting in the mirage of loneliness, is pure projection from disproportionate attention given to a single side of one cosmic, polar pair of ideas: time." Ah yes, aspect exposition time! To quote the swamp bender: "Time is an illusion", huh? We're going that route? Well, sure, but for most people a rather convincing one, no matter what your Aspect is. Though it would be interesting to see what "disproportionate attention" given to Space would result in... Despite a ravenous Black Hole consuming an entire realm, I guess.

"It’s my way of saying, and thereby alerting her mind to what she already knows, that this feeling of all-consuming solitude and despair haunting her since childhood—it’s in her head." Like, I can only root for Dirk in trying to save Jade from whatever Calliope has cooked up, but he's still manipulating her for his own purposes.

"The ticking of time is a little contrivance in her mind as a byproduct of imbalance, of the vast disparity between her limited self and her Ultimate Self." So, what, his past is as real to Dirk right now as his present and future?

"It lives rent free there the way Dave once did, and for this version of Jade, probably still does." Funny how that points to this still being Reload Jade more than post-canon Jade.

"Maybe Dave broke her heart a little, and he keeps doing it too, no matter how many different timelines they try out." Okay, see? This applies to post-canon Jade! It seems to swing around from moment to moment, the direction the narration points into. Though, I guess post-canon Jade might really benefit from absorbing her pre-retcon selves memories regarding her relationship with Davesprite, to assess how to go about handling Dave on Earth C.

"She slips closer to the event horizon, still making no effort to impede her descent. My persuasion skills are admittedly a little rusty. Bear with me here." So very rusty, so very unused recently. :P But yeah, she's different from Rose AND John, so he'll need a different approach.

"In my experience, there’s something about being alone that can take a person’s limited meat-engine and make it imagine that it can see beyond the confines of its own electrical processes. Make it believe that it is ascending to a place where it can see the four dimensions spread out beneath it like a set of windows." Is he... paraphrasing Jade's current mindset? Or his own, isolated on B2 Earth? Sounds also as if he's describing a medidative monk, kind of.

"Like sheet music. Like a garden, where Jade used to spend so much of her time with her hands in the earth and her head in the clouds, dreaming about flowers that bloomed in six colors and grew when she played them a song. Was that real? It’s hard to tell. But it made her happy, didn’t it?

Isn’t that what she needs now?" Ooh, so he's trying to persuade her to turn around by getting inside her head and trying to figure out what made her most happy. Being omniscient, he might just have a hard time distinguishing the important bits from the trash? He seemed to describe it in such a way, as if Jade might sometimes have been daydreaming in a way it overlapped with dreaming on Prospit! And so, she might have created a space for her dreamself that didn't stick to the confines of the dreamroom.

"Isn’t it reasonable to presume that’s the only thing capable of persuading her to slow her descent—to being invited to imagine, fake or otherwise, that which once made her happy? That which could still make her happy, if only she’d slow down, think about it, and do whatever is necessary to place herself in those surroundings again?" So, he's trying to shake her out of it by thinking happy thoughts. :P

"It’s possible that manning the other end of a suicide hotline, transmitted through pure thought in a metatextual format, may not actually be my true calling." (He actually kind of sucks at this.)

"I’m doing my goddamned best here. She just isn’t slowing down, for some incomprehensible reason." So, uh, what's stopping you from pulling a John and just, like forcefully move her thoughts to where you want them?

"Perhaps my touch is too soft. It wouldn’t be the first time." Said no one ever that ever knew you. :P

"Perhaps the limits of persuasion itself are being tested by the most powerful gravitational force to ever exist?" Now that'd be something! That a pure manifestation of an Aspect could overcome narrators of omniscient inclination.

"Or perhaps it’s true that insistence is just the more effective half of persuasion.

So I’m insisting now." Took him long enough.

"Jade Harley will not go into that hole. She does NOT want us to all to see what happens when she unsettles the spirit residing there." So Dirk also seems to be convinced she's survive? Or maybe he thinks that, adding her to the matter inside the Black Hole, would upset some kind of balance.

Basically, he's like: "No, Alice, don't go into the rabbit hole!" and "No, Dorothy, don't look behind the green curtain at the wizard residing there!"

"she does, though." OOOOOOoooooohhhhhh!!!! Battle of the narrators!

Guess Alt Calliope's eon-long isolation, coupled with her Spacey thing, gave her the same powers as Dirk's. So that answers the question whether ghosts can grow into an Ultimate Self! It has interesting implications regarding Aranea and (Vriska), for one!

"Fucking yikes.

Jade throws on the brakes. I say she does. But by now, the gravity is overwhelming. Is she even trying to resist, or is it just that it’s useless to try? I’m not... I’m not sure I can tell?" Wow, yeah, so here we see what happens when Dirk encounters another narrative force of equal or greater power. He loses the ability to discern everything. But Alt Calliope remains eerily silent, only 2 comments from her so far.

"Jade realizes, preferably before it’s too late, that this is fucking serious. She needs to turn this around. She doesn’t want this. She doesn’t want to die.

she wants to return to me." ...? Eh? Does Alt Calliope see herself as THE Self now, devouring all other beings into some sort of hivemind gestalt? Or does she refer to the time Jade (either version) spent with Calliope (either version)? Seems a bit stupid if she'd mean that. On the other hand, it might be a childish response, a desire for affection so deeply rooted into the main Calliope, that Alt Calliope during her ascension absorbed it.

"All right, I’m done messing around.

YOUR name is Jade Harley. YOU decide, right now, that you do not want to die. You resist the pull of the black hole with all your might. What would killing yourself accomplish? Sure, most of your friends are dead. But John is still looking for you. Do you want to let him down? Do you want to crush his soul? Do you have any appreciation for what he’s going through, Jade? He can take you home. To your new home, Earth C. The home I made for you, Jade. Your friends are all there, alive and well. Rose, Dave, Karkat, slutty adult Jade, Jane, Jake, Roxy, me. You wouldn’t want to disappoint them. You wouldn’t want to disappoint me, would you, Jade?" Well then!! Pffff, I didn't think a Strider could ever evocate "Stern Fatherly Disapproval" like Dad Egbert/Crocker can, but here we are. Let's just skim the implications of taking a teen Jade back to Earth C to live with adult versions of her friends, as well as Dirk's less than gentle tone here, and agree that her survival is definitely desirable, just cuz IT'S ABOUT HER, SURVIVING.

Still, you have to wonder what Dirk's ultimate plans for her are. I'm starting to doubt he'll be successful, though.

"You’re close now, to the ceiling of the cancerous deformity. Too close. Just skimming the edge of this thing’s vicious horizon." It's like he's describing the event horizon as a quantum vacuum decay, which for all we know in science, it just might be.

"You dip your toes through the place where the singularity is snapping everything apart at the seams. It’s so loud that it’s completely silent. You can already feel yourself stretched thin, distorted, pulled out with your descent elongated for all eternity." I suppose there's no one suited for pulling her out at the last second, is there? No chance for Davepeta to make a last-moment re-entry into the epilogues.

Blaperile points out something significant to me: Dirk has attributed Jade the "you"-ness factor! It would be cool to have Jade come on par with John in the epilogues, but I doubt it'll last past this page.

"When you look down, the stripes of your witchy tights go on and on for miles. Please, Jade. Don’t ever say I didn’t try to stop this.

she closes her eyes and lets go." Is... Alt Calliope going to take over the narration for a bit here, on the next page?

We have three potential candidates for taking up narration at this point - and no sight of Andrew Hussie, the author avatar, who could have been a fourth.

Welp. Now Jade's really gone. I have to wonder what this means for post-canon Jade, who fell unconscious with the sight of the Black Hole seared into her eyes. It can't have been a pleasant thing that happened to her, there. I just hope Alt Calliope hasn't taken over her body like a true puppeteer, giving Dirk a run for his money.

[theamberfang]

Browsing; Journal 469

I barely feel like even writing this post; I still seem to be quite down and distracted like I was yesterday. Remembering how passionate and excited I was about Homestuck a couple of weeks ago, it almost makes me wonder if I could be bipolar, but I strongly doubt that. I really don’t have much history with anything that could be described as a manic state—ADHD still makes more sense to me.

Anyway, I finished watching Steven Universe: Future today. It was pretty nice, and Steven’s journal of self-discovery felt pretty relevant, considering the goal I set for myself today. I exchanged a few messages with Spark about it. And I couldn’t help but continue to compare SU with Homestuck: more specifically this time, Future with the epilogues.

About that meditation/thinking though, I didn’t really managed to decide too much regarding what I want to do this week. I did settle on being okay with just playing through the rest of Night in the Woods without worrying too much about writing about everything. I also became more confident about wanting to get a new computer; my current laptop being so old is just way too limiting—it struggles to open the start menu when I have a web browser open. That’s about all I managed to think about before I got up to look for food and/or get back on the computer. Again, I’ve been pretty distracted, but that means I could be happy about managing what I did there.

As for getting a computer, I can probably talk to Skull or that trans couple that I know. My maximum limit that I’d be looking to spend is probably around $600—which I still have saved in cash from birthday/holiday gifts through my late teens and early twenties. I’d still have some left over, but that would honestly be most of it there. Still, I think it would be worth it considering how much time I spent on this old computer. I mean, I spend more time on the computer than I do in bed [for, you know, sleeping].

Mom also did offer to contribute to me being a new computer a while ago, but I’d probably have to know what I’m looking at and what it would cost. At the least, I’d probably need to narrow things down to a few definite options.

The maximum I’d hope for is something powerful enough to handle video processing and streaming with relative ease, but that sort of thing is almost definitely out of my price range (and I don’t have the connections to finagle something). My minimum would be something that can play a games like Team Fortress 2 or Warframe on medium/default settings while still being able to have a web browser and/or other applications on in the background. I suppose a major thing I’d be looking for is a decent graphics card: certainly something better than I’ve had on either of my laptops (because laptops probably don’t tend to have powerful graphics cards). Otherwise, I’d like something that is easily modded/upgraded (which mostly means not-a-laptop, but maybe there are PCs that are more convenient to open up and modify).

Actually, considering how much I’m attached to the idea of getting a new computer, I wonder if I’m actually down about feeling like my current computer sucks. I mean, it does, but maybe I’m paying more attention to it than usual. If I am, it’s probably because of the way it couldn’t handle Them’s Fightin’ Herds. I’ve also been watching a lot of Team Fortress 2 stuff on Y*uTube (I’m just in that rabbit hole now), and I don’t feel like this computer would be up for playing it. Not being able to play these games (or the perception that I can’t) is leaving me feeling more limited and restricted than I had felt before.

Oh, something else that I thought of during my moment of meditation is that I could dedicate whole weeks to stuff at a time, instead of trying to have myself jump from different tasks from day to day. So I guess this week could be dedicated to looking up and asking about computers?

Week’s Focus

Search for a new computer

Thurs and Sun: Shower

I could try to schedule different segments for my focus this week, but I’ll just have to wing it

Whimsy List

Search up computer listings via G*ogle, Am*zon, and wherever else

Dance

Sing

Ramble maybe?*

Journal

*(Oh, I guess I didn’t talk about Rambling on my secondary blog. That’s actually another thing I managed to meditate on, and I’m down with only writing on it when I really feel like it. I shouldn’t feel obligated to do anything with it.)