#but then i realize they’re talking about PQ vriska

[fefairys]

i think that vriska homestuck and vriska pesterquest are two distinct versions of vriska and i think that a lot of people are thinking more about PQ vriska than HS vriska when they discourse about her because they remember PQ more clearly than HS and so they don’t remember like… the true, canon vriska from the comic, they mostly just remember a version of vriska that was one person’s exercise in projecting onto a character to write about her experiences, but was actually not all that in character when you compare it to HS vriska. so the discourse goes nowhere because we are now talking about two completely different characters.

[tomatograter]

What are your Thots on jake’s pq route?

I already wrote some about it in this post where I discuss the problem with taking dirkjake as a literal parallel to tavris (Mainly, that it’s inaccurate to both situations and misrepresents the dynamics at play) but it’s been long enough since release that I feel like I can talk about it without that criticism being taken as a personal witch hunt. TL;DR: As a general rule of thumb I don’t cite Jake’s PQ as part of his characterization, and I think basing your Jakewriting on it will only lead you astray.

I liked a lot of the Pesterquest routes and the alphas were among some of my favorites, but I think when you play the four of them in sequence Jake’s really... stands as the odd one out. It’s almost as if he’s afforded way less sympathy from the get go for some indiscernible reason, or like MSPAR took a day to say ‘I can’t stand this kid in particular’ after dealing with waaaaaaaay more mindboggling troll customs or stupid dangerous situations that tested their patience and their limits. When it comes down to it, it’s mostly an issue of framing.

Let’s go with the “Just the Alpha routes” example, because I think that makes the overall context clearer and the response/reactions it gathered (or the lack thereof) easier to understand. The alpha kids were the last 4 Pesterquest episodes. They were also afforded entire volumes just for themselves, which cemented our expectations on “oh, they’re going to really dig into unexplored territory!” and for the most part, that’s what we got! It was really nice to see the internal mechanics of Jane as someone raised within a corporate echochamber, Roxy as a grieving, isolated kid, deprived of all human contact, and Dirk as a nerdy doomsday prepper haunted by private flashes of himself as a supervillain. It all works! Those are things the alpha kids were dealing with on the background of the broader Homestuck story, things we were only hinted at as the *larger* problems played out. It makes you understand their point of view. Except on Jake's route, where nothing about his life seems to be relevant at all? 

With Jane we get discussions about HIC and her family, with Roxy beautiful passages about a mother they never met and growing up alone— Same for Dirk, who gets a whole brother zapped from an alternate timeline. But on Jake's route there's not even an expansive dialogue path dedicated to Grandma English, Skaianet, the rebellion, or the giant red ship that came and murdered her in the night and then bombed his house, leaving him trapped inside his only surviving tower. No understanding passage realizing that this kid has had to fend for himself in an island full of Actual Giant Alien Monsters trying to eat him alive, or that he cremated his guardian specifically to avoid attracting predators to the scent of fresh blood drying on her mutilated corpse at the age of an actual toddler. The text refuses to dig into any of the psychological implications or impact an environment like this could have on a kid, which is even weirder when you consider MSPAR has met and helped Vriska get out of a similar situation. The whole thing with Jane in the previous volume has just happened, even, while Jake's particularities go unremarked. He was just supposed to deal with it. And that's because a choice was made to portray all of Jake's problems in this route as sort of... single handedly Dirk's fault? Something he should have Just Dealt with?

There's not even a hint that Jake knows Hal exists. Which is important! Jake can pick out Hal from Dirk based on *verbal cues*, and the fact that he considers Hal a barrier between him and his "real friend" getting to communicate with one another is a whole point of contention (and even comedy) in the story proper. Instead of examining Jake's isolation, or grief, or how he literally locks himself in his room and plasters it with cinematic posters to pretend he's just the main lead of a wacky adventure movie in the face of the immense shitshow outside, we get brobot acting nonsensically and threatening to break into Jake's room to beat him up. 

A general reminder on brobot: He was programmed to scout the jungle and deal with predators so Jake could a) Be allowed to safely leave his room (something he simply didn't do before age 13 out of sheer terror, and we know this because dirk and jake talk about it on his birthday conversation, when he first gets brobot) and 

b) Learn how to defend himself in the case of a surprise attack, with different combat settings adjusted to his level. The brobot has a novice mode Jake feels patronized by, but pushes him up levels quickly enough. In Homestuck proper, the brobot only enters "stalking mode" after Hal gets pissy with Jake for finding him out, and forcefully switches the setting on to make Jake work for the Uranium inside it. When you take Hal out of the picture, this plotline makes no sense! Jake's route is set way before the Alphas even think of entering the game, so this particular event hasn't even happened. Jake goes on to text Roxy and she turns the stalking setting off remotely anyways, so even if brobot was programmed to murder Jake in his sleep, or jump him inside the safe zone of his room (he's not) he has literally no reason to be acting like that when he's been set to Baby Buff Up Mode.

(Brobot does end up spontaneously pulling himself apart to give Jake his reward after this)

Which brings me to my other problem with the general framing of this volume; the alpha kids don't feel present in Jake's life as friends at all. It's all "romantic options" and "shipping discourse" and MSPAR making these silly logic jumps to justify insisting on this line of query, and all it does is completely flatten out anything of interest having to do with Jake as a Person, to build up an image of Dirk as being suspicious and shady for his volume and more or less come to the conclusion that Jake sucks because he just Cant Choose Who To Date Between All His Friends! And that's why jake is just like tavros… and dirk is just like vriska! Or something. 

And just as a reminder, here's Jake talking with Roxy so I don't have to explain why that feels like a weird choice to me. (click to zoom)

And then there's the endings. On the vriska ending, MSPAR just ends up weirdly angry at jake for being such a piss baby and not getting that he's tavros and dirk is vriska so he had to… uh… take all his anger out on this 13 year old alien girl he has never met and teach her a lesson to prepare to do the same on dirk, or something. And on the other ending Jake mentions his pen pal, is zapped to meet jade, they have some non-committal greetings and then a cosplay party where Jake insists that he totally likes Lara croft not because she's a femme fatale and he relates to that, because he's never ever in his life thought of anyone being interested on him. Or Something. He likes Lara croft for normal reasons only. He wears really tiny shorts and does sexy poses because he's not aware at all of how other people find him attractive. He's just too dumb to get this, or the shipping thing, or that he's tavros and Dirk is vriska (who the hell are these people?).

Jake feels like an afterthought in the grand scope of events. Sidelined on his own episode. This volume is busy with rehashing age old fandom arguments that have little to do with his character, because said arguments were started and maintained by bored teens engrossed on fighting online instead of analyzing Homestuck; we introduce vriska for no interesting reason at all (thank god at least Jake has enough decency to say he's not into hitting on 13-year-olds, because that would have been particularly rancid.) And aside from catchphrases and old slang sprinkled liberally into his dialogue like a fog making machine, none of the motivation for the character is there. What does he want? What does he fear? Why does he act like the way he does? What would accommodating him look like? What would helping him look like? We get this on Jane's volume, Roxy's volume, and Dirk's volume. To really heart-wrenching and dramatic results, too. You get to know who they are, where they live, what they want, what they fear, what might help them get better, but Jake is just sort of There. He's a burden. MSPAR either ends this volume berating him for not doing what they want or finding him weird and confusing and like they don't know each other at all, and the fact both of those were marked as dubiously bad ends in the game files speaks for itself, I think.

[the-hs-etaverse]

Neprezi

Gonna ignore some of the PQ-confirmed canon here. Long rant, be warned. It also gets a bit depressing.

I feel like Equius and Nepeta have been moirails, or have at least known each other, for quite some time. My guess is two sweeps by the time of Sgrub, maybe more. And it’s evident from [S] Remem8er that Vriska and Terezi have known each other for a similar length of time. Since Vriska and Equius are neighbours, it would only make sense that Terezi and Nepeta would, at some point, meet each other irl. I assume they hit it off really well. They’re both enthusiastic feral gremlins, it only makes sense.

So, like, despite Vriska’s and Equius’s protestations, they all hang out fairly frequently. Vriska and Equius do Not Like each other, and I doubt Vriska and Nepeta get along well, but Equius has a begrudging sort of respect for Terezi. “D--> She has sufficient b100d, though her mannerisms are not %eptable for her status” So it’s really the fault of Terezi and Nepeta that they all keep hanging out. Vriska and Equius are just like “siiiiiiiigh, fine”

I’ll get into the “Annoyed vs Annoying” dynamic some other time, cuz that’s the funnest part of their group dynamic for me. (Most fun. grammar jane.)

But Terezi’s Very touch-starved, cuz she technically doesn’t have a lusus yet, and she lives in a tree house in the middle of the woods pretty much alone. She’s not gonna admit to it, of course. She is a Strong Independent Troll and she don’t need no hugs! Okay actually she really wants them but she denies it vehemently. But, like, there are two people that she gets hugs from, and that’s Vriska and Nepeta. Vriska’s not really a hugger, but Nepeta? She’s like the textbook case of the Personal Space Invader. She’s VERY huggy. And since Vriska has to like fend her off with a stick and Equius can only accept so much cuddles in public, Nepeta just cuddles with Terezi constantly. ^w^

Yes, it’s a wonderfully cute headcanon, but, like, it’s part of the reason why Terezi ends up developing a flushed crush on Nepeta. Another part of it is probably Terezi projecting some repressed or unrecognized feelings about Vriska onto Nepeta, cuz, like, Nepeta’s her other best friend? She’s gotta have feelings for someone she’s close to, and since it’s obviously not Vriska (spoiler alert: it totally is but she doesn’t realize for like 6 sweeps), it’s gotta be her! Right? >:]

Anyhow, so yeah, they’re like 5 sweeps old now (I think that’s a reasonable age for it) and Terezi’s having her first Crush Ordeal. But she’s not gonna tell Nepeta about it, no, of course not. Only idiots tell people about their crushes! And it’s not like Nepeta would return the feelings! Yeah, and this goes on for like half a sweep, and Nepeta has no friggin’ idea. She’s, uh, how did I put it earlier, she’s more interested in ships to be than the ones that are right under her cute little nose. But, like, Terezi crushing on Nepeta gets fairly obvious. Vriska knows, and Karkat knows. (Equius is, wrt relationships, as dense as a sack of cement.)

But then Nepeta tells her about her crush on Karkat, and Terezi does not handle that well. Because, obviously, this means Nepeta isn’t flushed for her in return. This is what she’s been fretting about for half a sweep. So she has a crisis, and she bottles it all up completely because she hates dealing with her emotions. (Cold hard facts, that’s where it’s at!) And Terezi, on the surface, stays mostly the same, but she gets rather more frigid towards Nepeta. Like, their friendly chat roleplays become, on her end, more and more facetious. Nepeta doesn’t really notice; she’s better with social interactions in theory than in practice.

And Terezi also unconsciously decides to sabotage the possible Karnep relationship. So she starts talking with him more, turning her annoyance and deep-seated resentment into a way to sort of flirtatiously bug the heck out of him. You know, as preteen boys are wont to do? And she ends up tricking herself into thinking she has feelings for him. She doesn’t. It’s just her projecting. She definitely likes him, she eventually overcomes her resentment and genuinely improves her friendship with him, but Karkat’s sort-of feelings for her (yeah, he is sort of flushed for Terezi, though it might be more vacillating than anything) aren’t truly returned.

(how can I write with such nuance about relationships and not be good at it at all irl? like nepeta, i’m better in theory than practice, I guess)

So, then, a few 'gees later (I will make a proper Alternian calendar at some point!), there’s the Scourge/Charge Debacle. Aradia is got gud, Tavros gets broke, Vriska gets bombed, and Terezi gets blinded. So yeah. Friendships = broken. The Equius, Nepeta, Terezi, and Vriska gang stop hanging out entirely. Vriska shuns Terezi and vice versa, the former turning to Eridan for... well not exactly friendship, and Kanaya for, uh, sort-of friendship. And Terezi has now voluntarily isolated herself from virtually everyone she was really friends with. Her relationship with Nepeta is tense and insincere, at least on her end. Her relationship with Karkat isn’t genuine yet. Her relationship with Vriska has been smashed into itty-bitty pieces. Her relationship with Equius has kind of vanished. Aradia is gone, and Tavros is too afraid to talk to her. Sollux is still around, but he’s not quite the same guy he used to be. Terezi never talked with Kanaya overmuch (except when she learned sewing from her), but once Vriska kickstarted the moirallegiance with her, out of a deep-rooted sense of jealousy, communications there virtually froze. She was never close with Gamzee or Eridan or Feferi.

As Sgrub begins, Terezi has become a rather isolated individual. She always was one, but now she’s even more so. The few connections she still has are laced with insincerity. She has retreated into her mind, because it’s where she feels safest. Once the session is over and the trolls are all stuck on the meteor, she wants to start trolling the humans because, well, it absolutely is fun for her. But also, because it’s the only way she really knows how to interact with anyone anymore.

Nepeta’s death struck a chord in Terezi, I believe, if perhaps not quite as strong of one as Vriska’s death did or almost did. She tamped it down, of course. Nepeta’s dead now. She can let the feelings leave. That’s one less weight off her chest. But she also is grieving, wholeheartedly, though she refuses to let herself know. She takes a picture of the Nepeta ghost falling into the black hole instead of trying to save her, because she’s still trying to convince herself that it doesn’t matter anymore.

But it does, and it did.

The first love bites the deepest.

[snowtimeisbesttime]

Thoughts and questions on Volume 8, routes 1 and 2! ...Better late than never, huh?

~ROUTE 2~

-hell yeah, Pesterquest Megalovania!!!!

-and of course, there's no better time to get punny than this one.

-ah-RAH-dee-uh (/a'radia/, 4 syllables???) as opposed to /a'radja/ (ah-RAH-dyah?, 3 syllables)?? *disclaimer: i have no idea how to do fancy or non-fancy phonetic transcriptions in other languages than spanish orz*

-it's actually and clearly pronounced “best troll” jsyk

-Is ghost communion really that rare on Alternia??

-so. twitch plays pesterquest huh? Entire bunches of alternate MCs going wild whenever we click the good end options?

-Thanks for streamlining the whole savestate stuff aradia!

-I'm guessing the Big Spoiler was 1: meeting “our” Aradia, and 2: all the pieces we set in place for the future... like, we went apeshit enough to doom an entire reality, and reality did indeed crack, but then those cracks fixed themselves...... have we secured the Pesterquest timeline from assorted meta intrusions?

-Can we assume the powers that be are boned because of our temporal shenanigans?

(-what's up with regular PQ!Aradia, then? The girl that according to Tavros' route died not even a sweep ago?)

-Re: MC getting Funky Powers due to entering the Medium all those times: are they timebound??? heartbound??? They seem to be able to pop into the trolls' Prospit whenever they want... (are they specifically scorist???) and last but not least... they have a Class!!

-that sure was a Glimpse of Rosemary........ sure would be nice to have them meet in person...

-We finally remember our Friendsim friends, but are unable to reach them no matter how hard we try... because they're in a whole different reality than Pesterquest, perhaps? At least we make frens with a sweet eldritch squiddle... even if we soon forget them too...

-Feferi for Volume 9??? she has been alluded to in both routes... bringing bubbles and sims irl aplenty... then again we were literally outside sollux's house in vol6 and here we are...

-*aradia yeets dave's ac thing into space* wow if he absolutely HAS to meet his end then make it quick at least...

-The quest for more friends doesn't end here, though!

~ROUTE 1~

-Pesterquest 8 more like Sweet Jams: the Visual Novel.

-I was expecting Fiduspawn GO to NOT be a phone game and have actual real monsters... then again regular Fiduspawn does have them. Glad Tavros could easily catch that Wolvulpine instead of having it escape all the fiduballs ever (then again he's probably got the mythical gamer skill of actually landing curve balls or whatever figo has)

-Friendship is the greatest source of power, at least in some Alternian cartoons... that sure is an interesting thing to juxtapose with the entirety of alternia, as spelled out in this very volume

-Not talking about things isn't going to work for everyone- and it sure didnn't for Kanaya either (rose's alcoholism in the game over timeline, the entire thing with vriskan...)

-Of course, Vriska couldn't NOT appear in Volume 8.

-aaand we're back to the Thing with these two. Which more or less is: Vriska's got good intentions (she canonically and explicitly thinks of tavros as a friend, because she didn't feed him to her lusus) BUT she can't force Tavros to speedrun self-confidence because 1- as a page (the magikarp class) he's got to do stuff at his own pace and 2- doing that only brought suffering to both of them.

-And sure, Alternia sucks and it isn't going to stop sucking in a day, but Tavros isn't going to grow three self-esteems in a day either- nor is he going to forgive Vriska just like that. And it seems she isn't going to realize all of this stuff in a day, either. Basically, if they're going to ever make up, it's going to take a good while.

-Really hope we didn't lose Vriska's friendship though...

-Looks like Tavros using Prospit to escape his life's a thing he does whenever given the opportunity, but... wouldn't he wake up on his own eventually??? like, he's got to eat and stuff in the waking world doesn't he??? do dreamselves just never get tired*??? did he literally sleep away the trolls' entire SGRUB game????

*Dream Jade did grow more arms in order to play her eclectic bass to the fullest, so maybe dreamselves CAN ignore physics and stuff if they feel funky enough to do it??

-Also, MC was able to wake up Dream Tavros even though the trolls are also in a No SGRUB AU (or are they?)... and Dream Karkat also woke up because reasons apparently... where does this leave Jade and the kids?? are the trolls still going to play the game? Kanaya seems pretty sure that it's not happening, but... (is she still awake on prospit??)

-Kanaya takes the whole “fixing space” spacesylph thing to a new level: Home Renovation

-Heiresses just get the fanciest tech, don't they?

-We know the beta trolls were meant to be the most epic SGRUB players to ever exist, and that the entirety of Alternia has been explicitly fine-tuned to make them what they are... and now we know that extends to them literally having access to the SBURB building menu.

-If we succesfully separated Pesterquest from weird meta bullshit in Aradia's route, and they DON'T have to play the game anymore... then Alternia DOESN'T have to be Like That anymore... and therefore Vriska and Terezi might have the best chances at actually changing things for the better that anybody ever had.