#calmasis is so interesting to me…

[tentacledwizarddraws]

day 9: wizard battle

[runearcana]

Calmasis is a kind of forgotten *God* of the trolls of my AU session.

A group of 12 of his very magically-inclined species combined their genetic material with that of axoloytls and moths. Calmasis *domesticated* them very early on to take on cultural behaviors and develop cultural identities of his own preference. He did this after killing off the rest of his associates so he could take personal control over the project.

Calmasis is a demiurge figure.

There is an extremely rare hair color mutation that causes a trolls hair to be white or silver from the time of the trolls hatching to their death. Its literally unheard of, thats how rare it is for their people.

Calmasiss people were blood-casted and grey-skinned [like trolls] but had white hair instead of black and their eyes were entirely white. 

The cherubs are his personal creations.

It is possible he and his associates used ectobiology and may have been the ones to create the Trolls Universe through their version of Sburb.

Zazzerpan was one of his species:

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/proxy/ozSSK75Y9P3PHF-LCobFSV9hlxKsdi6l5KLSorUcMKgdS36RmhnaRqhCFHH-1HwSfDl3Kfs2avJd90khthZfcF9EQIimP6K3eFCRyyEKOsakCIw

Calmasis:

They also created the Juju artifacts that the cherub species reveres.

One of the first things he did after the trolls development was complete was to give lusii to the trolls as surrogate parents.

He acted VERY similar to Doc Scratch in that he played a role in the Trolls development from behind the scenes.

In fact, it is my belief that Doc Scratch is connected to Calmasis in some extraordinary way and that if we want to learn more about Calmasis we should learn more about Calmasis.

Off-topic, kinda, but I see Hussie as a Seer of Space.

back on topic, I do think that Hussie is connected to Calmasis as well somehow.

Colonel Sassacre's Daunting Text of Magical Frivolity and Practical Japery is connected to Calmasiss species somehow and the book itself seems to be an allusion to the bible.

They may have been the original writers of the book, or influenced humans into obtaining it somehow.

Dirk might also be linked to Calmasis due to the fact that he is trying to create his own session. It is possible Calmasis people were the original creators of Sburb/Sgrub.

I find it interesting that there are signs for *true* libras, scorpios, whatever. I think this gives us clues about the personalities and roles of Calmasis player group. Calmasis was obviously the lime-blooded of them.

There are a lot of links to the number 12 in Homestuck.

Calmasis wizard species is obviously related to the Disciples, and the 13 character should be a Jesus figure. My theory is that their Jesus figure was linked to the cherubs appearance.

So cherubs could be the rumored 13th blood caste of trolls.

Could their sign be Ophiuchus, between Scorpio and Saggitarius?

Later myths identified Ophiuchus with Laocoön, the Trojan priest of Poseidon, who warned his fellow Trojans about the Trojan Horse and was later slain by a pair of sea serpents sent by the gods to punish him

Limebloods blood color can mutate to candy red. Does this mean they have connections to cherubs?

Lusii have blood colors relating to the trolls they adopt, so its possible they were created by members of Calmasis species with the corresponding blood color.

Another theory is that Ophiuchus trolls had candy red blood, which actually does make a lot of sense to me too.

Okay, so I figured ou something pretty cool.

Cherubs are more often red blooded and lime-blooded trolls are more often lime-blooded.

Lime-bloods will become red or lime based at the time of their birth but are probably almost or mostly lime.

Cherubs have inner battles with themselves with two distinct personalities that determine what their blood color will ultimately become.

So was Calmasis a lime-blood or a candy red blood?

What about his enemy Zazzerpan, the leader of the group?  

I think the answer will lie in how the candy red and lime-green blood colors talk specifically about whether they are good or evil.

Calliope is a good cherub, and has lime-blood.

Caliborn is an evil cherub and has candy-red blood.

So now we must ask ourselves, is Calmasis the good character in the story or the bad character in the story?

He was an antagonist character, but he also had anti-hero tendencies or something like that.

Zazzerpan seems more fitting as a good character because his disciples except for Calmasis looked up to him. He seems like he would be a creator type.

I think the cherubs are the evil blood-caste for the trolls while the lime-bloods are heroes.

Karkat acts a lot like Caliborn personality-wise. Maybe this is the typical cherub personality. Its the red blood trait.

Lime-bloods could be more like Calliope somehow, but further clues could come from learning more about zodiac interpretations of the Ophiuchus sign.

Ophiuchus is the only sign that does not have an opposite sign. Hence there is no polarity to experience.

Caliborn who plays the role of Calmasis, and Calliope who emulated Zazzerpan [from the homestuck wiki]

but their caste is obviously linked to Calmasis because even Calliope role-plays as him and Lord Englishs puppet Doc Scratch looks like him.

So that means Calmasis has candy-red blood.

Zazzerpan has lime-green blood.

[theorynexus]

42: Don’t look for the Meaning of Life here. Monty Python’s circus has flown elsewhere.

This is so cute. It’s almost not fair. ;w;

***a sudden flurry of shout poles emerge above my head***   Well... this was unexpected.   To some extent, it makes sense, considering the complicated nature of Cherubs and their mating. It further makes sense in the light of Calmasis, who seemed to be a-gendered in Calliope’s fanfiction/stories (if I am remembering things correctly), which I suppose might to some extent have been projecting the subtleties of her desire, will, and nature in more ways than one.

I am just as stunned by the Narrator, but at the same time, I am so amused by their reaction that it’s hard to actually take in the gravity of what Roxy’s saying, and to think about it in light of Roxy’s history+character, generally.    Wow. Honestly, I am a little overwhelmed by that revelation, and I think I’m going to have to return to it at a later time other than one little dalliance into a statement of curiosity: Is this related in some way to her Void Aspect?

Haaaaahhh. This shrieks of sudden insecurity. This is particularly interesting in light of the presumed Heart Aspect that is floating around in the Narrator’s existence because of the seeming Dirk dominance that’s going on (made more obvious as they’ve been dwelling on the stuff in Universe C, and become more casual in their narration, in this last bit).  If that insecurity is in fact a thing, it could speak to potential internal exertion on Rose’s part upon Dirk’s otherwise firm and very self-knowing psyche. Something to think about.

“Allow it.”   Pffft.  (I wonder if this is representing the Narrator loosening their reigns on things a little bit, relatively speaking, or if it’s simply a matter of the aura of Void surrounding Roxy that’s interfering with things, just as with Mom’s own Void messing with Rose’s ability to detect her in Act 2.) Related:  I do in fact think that the Narrator might secretly be uncertain about/have difficulty wrapping their head(s) around the concept of non-binary and/or a-gendered existence, especially since they conflate the two, and obviously are projecting insecurity about the use of “they/them” to reference either/both of them.   (Honestly, it’ll take me a while to not constantly try to apply a “she/her” to either of them, probably. It is very surprising, especially for Roxy.)

Yeah, I guess dealing with an alien race that presumably has at least sequential hermaphrodity as their norm, and which may determine their sex purely based on mating outcomes, rather than anything beforehand (yet while still presumably retaining their gender/lack thereof) prooobably naturally would bring up questions like that.  It’s definitely a complex topic, and I’m sure aliens being added to the mix would make things even more complicated for humans in real life when it comes to the discussion than it is as of now.

Indeed, “Reasonable thoughts,” compounded with Jade’s confused, uncertain reaction (which reads similar in tone to a stereotypical parental, “Have you tried to stop being gay?” reaction, at least to me) and the Narrator’s refusal to deal with it again afterward suggest that they are being quite judgmental about it, probably due to their mechanistic and highly Light-emphatic views of reality engendering them with a desire to categorize and concretize everything. This desire likely makes them struggle not to reject anything they can’t quite get a proper grasp of due to the barriers of void surrounding it (as is, to some extent, the matter with issues of gender, I suppose this story is suggesting, and as is the case especially with the nature of the MSPA Reader, who the Narrator clearly rejects and dismisses as important because they can’t peer beyond the indistinguishability of all of us from an insider’s perspective).

I mean... yes and no?  Gender roles and whatnot are definitely constructed socially and only distantly relate to biological features of the sexes, but gender identity, broadly, generally comes with being human, I should think (regardless of what you identify as, including a-gender identities).  Obviously, gender is a slippery concept, but I would suggest it’s not one that is completely baseless or undeserving of acknowledgment like that.  It’s just a matter of individual identities being more nuanced than the traditional male/female divide with its cultural baggage might suggest to those that don’t recognize that some of what goes into defining gender comes from biased sources of tradition and law which affect the way one thinks of it. To summarize what could be a very long and controversial/awkward conversation, I would suggest this:  Gender is something of an inherent part of the ego, related to but not fully requiring or dependent upon the various group identities one will take in the process of going through life. Such a kernel of self-identification will naturally build up through one’s development as a child as one begins to develop a more solid sense of self and a reflective understanding of the separations existing between one’s self and others. Obviously, this will be very malleable, early on, which is probably related to why many/most societies begin to attempt to ingrain concepts of gender roles into individuals early on. Regardless of whether one agrees with the idea of pushing such ideas on a child or not, the development of gender identity ought to be regarded as superseding this interference, and overall an innocuous part of what it is to be a human. (That said, with factual matters out of the way, I understand why Roxy would want to get away from the idea of gender as understood/developed in our own history, given how close she is [fudge] they are with Calliope, and how she they think of themself. It is not wrong of her to desire to dismiss such things as wholly constructed beasts.)

***snickers***    Screwed up on the tense of that verb, there, after you messed up on their gender, Narrator.   ;3

Ahaaa. I had suspected this might be the case, but hesitated because I thought Callioped must have taken to gendering themselves first.  Caliborn seemed to be a bit slow with most things he interacted with/adopted, so that didn’t seem like a good assumption to make.  I guess enthusiasm doesn’t necessarily predict chronological placement, but still, it makes it seem like Calliope did this later than him. Hmmm.

In this sense, gender roles definitely seem to have a strangely influenced path through Paradox Space. How curious. Roxy’s following summation of/declaration concerning the idea was quite humorous, as well.

Not something I knew/remembered about her.  On the other hand: THERE WERE STILL CHESS PEOPLE!!!  D:

Is this meant to suggest that Jade is more comfortable with her gender, now (if so, why?  Dog body/hormones?), or is it meant to suggest that the narrator thinks that being non-binary is immature/a fad that Roxy will grow out of?

Hehehe~  Ectobiology is fun.

Now, this is certainly a fun and interesting extension of the connection between individual versions of a being with a single oversoul that I didn’t suspect would be possible.  I wonder if it’s because of the lessened relevance that was mentioned concerning those in Universe C that Rose mentioned near the beginning of the Epilogue.

[wizardlyghost]

holy shit yall i just had a homestuck inspiration

so about two years ago i got thinking about the significance of complacency of the learned. we only get brief descriptions of the books, but we know some plot points. its pretty explicitely implied that theres a relationship between the villain calmasis and cal(iborn)(liope), but then i started to think maybe it was significant beyond that. we know that there were twelve members of the complacency, hunted down and killed one by one by calmasis, and this is often taken to be symbolic of the twelve trolls, but this never added up to me; lord english doesnt have any direct interaction with the troll session, as well as the fact that by the official end of homestuck there were still seven trolls standing. so given that numbers in this saga are always significant, who else could it refer to? perhaps the twelve players to claim the ultimate reward; eight human kids, three trolls, and a revived cherub (dont fuckin @ me vr*ska took off before the final battle even started and g*mzee was locked in the damn fridge).

this makes things interesting because it implies that the story doesnt start until the epilogues, and i guess that makes sense, because after defeating the game they have become complacent, and they are the literal masters of their world; parallels between them and the wizards are apparent. twelve powerful beings, presumably each with a counterpart.

zazzerpan, i think, is dirk, or at least meat epilogue dirk. a master chess player who has never lost a match even to gods is certainly a description that fits. taking into account his unexplained power over the narrative, we can also safely call him the most powerful of the complacency. however, this brings to the table an interesting twist; meat dirks nemesis is dead calliope, which throws into question the assumption that calmasis is the counterpart of lord english. in fact, with the last page of the meat epilogue taken into consideration, calmasis could be considered to be the united adult versions of calliope and caliborn.

this would mean that the chess match played beyond the death of the king was homestuck itself; the king was lord english, the objective of the game his demise, and his defeat unexpectedly not as final as hoped

[photochoco]

When I was in elementary school, all the way into high school, I had a nifty thing called a 504 plan. It basically saved my life academically because it allowed me to have tools and techniques otherwise not allowed in school to help me focus and to curb my anxiety and trich. Part of the deal was at least 2 times a year, I would have a meeting with my mother, my counselor, the school social worker, and one of my teachers, to assess how I was doing and to see if the plan needed any tweaking. These were normally no big deal and were over super fast.

Except for one year.

If memory serves it was my sophomore year. I was an avid Homestuck reader, among many other webcomics. I also loved to peruse the wiki’s of the projects I was interested in, Homestuck being one of them. I can’t say I spent a lot of my computer time wisely; reading comics, writing fanfics, collecting art references. What I was not aware of was the degree to which the school computers tracked your activity.  So the end of the meeting comes, and my counselor and social worker wanted to talk about my computer activity. Evidently, there was a particular image I had looked at that had bothered them. They turned the laptop around, and this image was on the screen, staring us all down.

And I swear to fucking god, every drop of blood within my body went rushing to my face. The unholy, nauseating mixture of shock, horror, and embarrassment that exploded in my gut and raced through my veins was unbearable. Death would have been a mercy, a BLESSING. I had no words, what could I say about this gif of a man in weird cosplay under rapid fire stabby assault by a pirate cyborg while a mustached white centaur looks on in mild perturbation?  I seriously though it was gonna be the end of me. I promised to never go on the site again (I never did until I got my own laptop) and I thought for certain my mother, who was witness to the whole thing, would ban me from Homestuck forever.

That never happened, but I still go through the five stages of grief whenever I see the gif of Andrew Hussie in Calmasis cosplay being compulsively stabbed by Spades Slick the Cyborg while an Arthour clone looks on.

[abundantchewtoys]

HS Epi: Meat p19 reaction

I... don't really know what to expect anymore.

What could the wallet contain. A Dad note. A Terezi note. Or captchalogued people?

Odds are even we won't be seeing it right away. Though I'd dread to see Dirk's omniscient narrative voice take over narration of the post-victory scenes.

Still, Dirk should know better by now than to rely on his strong points this much. They're not evened out by a reliable moral compass all the time, and he's seen the results of that before. Guess with great knowledge comes great arrogance.

"Anyway, back to the B Plot." Ah yes, the B Plot. On Earth C. Featuring A2 trolls Karkat and Kanaya.

"Right about now, Jade should be wrapping up her political presentation to Roxy and Calliope" Ah, skipping right to the end of that, are we.

"Jade’s got this disarming combo of head-in-the-clouds flightiness and the kind of legit, down-to-earth cred that can only be earned by having done something like cutting open your own grandfather and stuffing him full of polyurethane foam." Ah yes, one of these definitely led to the other.

"neoliberal austerity measures" How often can we repeat the same 3 words?

"

Roxy groans upon hearing the phrase “neoliberal austerity measures” for no less than the third time in this presentation." Roxy the audience surrogate. Since it's our 3rd time too.

"JADE: as i outlined here in graph b-2 JADE: and here in figure a-6" It's a good thing timelines can only be scratched the once. A6 Alternia would have been a dreadful sight.

"JADE: and here!!! in this very spooky drawing i dictated to callie JADE: (great drawing by the way!!!) CALLIOPE: ^u^" Hah, Calliope's drawing skills have found another use! Political Powerpoints.

"JADE: the thing is that jane is an establishment leader JADE: shes looking at doing things the way our old universes did them JADE: shes pretty convinced that shes going to be able to replicate the capitalist hierarchies that earth had but in a more “responsible” way JADE: but none of that stuff actually worked!!!!!" That's a nice summary of the things that are wrong to Jane's approach, actually. Though it doesn't provide an answer to the underlying problem yet.

"ROXY: and u think karkat can do better? JADE: i think its worth it to give him a chance JADE: hes a leader of the people AND hes experienced firsthand what happens when establishment goes too far JADE: which i imagine you can sympathize with!" This really feels like a boardroom conference, with Jane trying to get a preliminary backing out of a captain of industry.

"Her graphs are floating around the living room in disarray." Hah, she's using her space powers for this in another mundane application. Though... not in any offical setting, it seems. Roxy and Calliope's home.

"CALLIOPE: i’m... CALLIOPE: going to get Us tea and snacks. woUld yoU like some, jade?" To be fair, Calliope's probably going to follow Roxy in her eventual decision, anyway. Her childhood fascination with trolls might have been abandoned for new interests, or she might trust her friend's judgment in matters political.

"Calliope excuses herself from the conversation, and flees to the kitchen, seemingly making no attempt to disguise the fact that she is in fact fleeing." What a cutey. Calliope might in fact be trying to flee anything reeking of negativity, associating it with black romance and such.

"Jade deflates as she watches her go, sensing that her presentation wasn’t the slam dunk she was hoping for." It's so easy forgetting that the narration is also at least in part steering the story at this point. >_<

"ROXY: well i gotta say ROXY: this has been a hella convincing argument all in all ROXY: buuuuut idk if i can help u out" Maybe they would actually like to stay neutral?

"She and Calliope live in a belfry above New Prospit. One end of their living room is an oriel window that looks out over a public park. The other disappears into an arcading hallway lit at the far end by a giant stained glass window that Calliope made herself. The corbels supporting it have windy, abstract shapes carved into them." Artsy! I didn't know what to picture for their living space, but actually Calliope taking to carapacian art-deco and giving it a cheruban twist really works!

"That’s what keeps Jade Harley flitting from couch to couch, relationship to relationship. She can’t stop thinking to herself that “home” comes awfully close to rhyming with “alone.”" Home Alone, huh?

"Home is John, who doesn’t call anymore. Home is when Rose and Kanaya welcome her in from a cold night and help her set lyrics to her sick basslines. Home is here, snorting at Roxy’s irreverent method of storytelling and admiring Callie’s art. Home is Dave and Karkat." This REALLY reminds me of the Tramp, as he had a home in every street he frequented.

"ROXY: im alls ABOUT the sowing of discord among my childhood friends" She's had quite her fill of the dramas. That's a valid reason to stay out of it. She'll just have to weight it against the downsides of not influencing the outcome of the election in any positive way.

"JADE: dirk got to you first ROXY: not even ROXY: i got no problem tellin dirk where to stick it lmao ROXY: but dirks not the one running JADE: you think hes NOT the one pulling the strings behind the scenes? ROXY: sure but give janey a lil credit" On the one hand I'm glad Roxy's got such a backbone, on the other hand, off course we know Dirk's still influencing the outcome at the moment. Also, uh, he's got no issues invading the lives of his friends personally, even after telling us off on the subject first.

"ROXY: but shes yknow JADE: ruthless? :B

Roxy frowns. Jade is being pretty unfair." I get the feeling Jade is less good at filtering her words lately. And I also get the feeling Dirk is starting to sow a little conflict.

"ROXY: shes gotta be miss perfect all the time for the billboards n press meetings ROXY: always wearin those power suits trying to look like a big bad bitch JADE: you mean like....... the condesce? ROXY: wow ouch JADE: im not just imagining it though, right??? JADE: you see it too JADE: not to dredge up something horrible from your history JADE: but her whole image is just kinda...... *woof* ROXY: is that what you guys think? ROXY: u and dave and karkat?" It's something they should have brought up via intermediary channels to Jane on beforehand. Not let fester until all they could think of to "stop" her was introduce a late-to-the-party candidate.

Jade might also be doubly upset with Jane for seemingly mirroring the Condesce, as they were both brainwashed by her.

"Roxy leans forward and stares Jade down, like she’s searching for something behind Jade’s eyes." That's the same thing she did with John! Guess she's trying to find out some of her secrets.

"Jade unwittingly responds in kind, looking for meaning behind Roxy’s gaze. But she comes up empty. And to be honest, so do I." That unfathomable personality might be your spanner in the works, Dirk. I can only hope she's secretly onto him. Her Void powers manifest the 'obscurity' different from Equius.

"In the spirit of full disclosure, Roxy’s the only one left I haven’t been able to crack. Her mind remains a total enigma to me, just like it always has." It's interesting, since they share so much in childhood upbringing, progeny, demeanor even at times...

"invisible, even to increasingly omniscient parties such as myself" *coughDocScratchcough* ... What would Reload Roxy be doing right now, assuming the session's timeline didn't stop when Caliborn's soul 'left' it?

"ROXY: but shes not betty crocker ROXY: and i luv her and i dont wanna hurt her feelings" N'aww.

"ROXY: and thats p much all there is to say on the matter" Second time the phrase's been used in the epilogues!

"CALLIOPE: oh, i’d rather stay Uninvolved, thank yoU." Passive player to the brink.

"CALLIOPE: i feel like interfering in both politics and a personal argUment between my friends woUld be impolite as well as kind of... stressfUl, to be honest. JADE: yeah JADE: sorry callie i probably shouldnt have put all that on you CALLIOPE: less apologizing, more snacking!" It's nice to see they're cutting her some slack. A horrible childhood, an early death, a spiel as a ghost... Oh, sure, she's one of the good guys and as such would have some responsibilities in the end, but it's nice for a change they don't expect too much from her. Maybe a bit too little for her own good, but still.

"Calliope claps her hands together. It’s a bright noise. Her tone of voice is bright too. All these years and she still can’t believe that she has so many friends. She smiles at Jade, and Jade smiles back. The tea tastes great. The cakes are even better. Callie’s an artist in everything she does." ^u^ Aww, that warms my heart at least.

"JADE: wow callie youre such an amazing hostess!" ... Well, she's a more excellent host than Doc Scratch, for sure!

"ROXY: psst not “her,” “them”" ... I see! Well, guess we'll be getting some more insight into the androgyn bodies of cherubs and how Calliope has updated her self image over all these years? Caliborn still had the giant eyelashes, so it stands to reason there were also other, more masculine traits to Calliope's body even when she still shared it with her brother.

"JADE: oh wow!" Oh, I figured Jade already knew about Calliope's preferred pronouns, but it seems not!

"CALLIOPE: bUt i did take comfort in “being a girl” for a very long time. this is something i’ve only recently decided." ... I just remembered how Calmasis also was this androgynous figure. ... I wonder if Calliope will be thinking about a name change.

So, I don't think Roxy's haircut is a sign she's genderfluid now too, but I imagine a lot of fanart has already been created for butch!Roxy by the time I read this.

"ROXY: m-me too actually" Oh. N-never mind then. That caught me unaware! I didn't see that in Roxy. For one, despite all the pink and the ponies, she didn't seem like she felt "trapped" in a role to me. Unlike Calliope, where I can see how she might have felt obliged to embrace everything not-Caliborn.

But this does shed a whole new light on Mom's overly childish and girlish bedroom in the lab. Like she was trying to compensate for something. Uhm... It might also be one of the main reasons behind her drinking problem. Her embracing girlish, adult woman habits but never feeling like they 'fit'.

Well well. Homestuck's main characters continue to be representation incarnate.

"Wait.

   What?" PFFFFFFFFFF. I love it. Dirk's reaction is gold. Guess this completely blindsided him too and didn't shed any more lights on the inner workings of her mind than he thought. So even if he knew she was holding something back after the "yea", and maybe encouraged her to keep speaking, he didn't know what to expect.

"Roxy? Seriously?

Like I said, fucking inscrutable." Dirk has NOT just had an "I knew it!" moment.

"I never would have guessed. Not that I’ve spent much time contemplating issues related to gender. I’m pretty secure in my expression of masculinity, and..." That's a suspiciously specific acknowledgement, though, Dirky boy. :P

"You know what? Fuck this. I don’t owe anyone an explanation of any sort on this topic. I’m confident with who I am, what I am, my gender, as well as my understanding of the concept. You want my honest opinion? It’s fucking fantastic. Good for them. Both of them, I mean, but also, both of them in a singular fashion, since each one can now individually be referred to by the conventionally plural word “them.”" Pffff, of all the things. I didn't think this would have Dirk fly off the handle in such a Dave-way, while still narrating, but I'm happy to see it. In an out-of-story sense, Dirk is currently the audience surrogate, showcasing what a "true fanboy"'s reaction could be like, if they were both shocked to the core but mature enough to get over their shock without throwing around accusations and tantrums.

But yeah, at least the aloofness is gone from his voice, for just this time.

"I’m ecstatic for this personal development they’ve embraced, for the people they are, the lack of gender they identify with, and the pronouns they prefer. I’ve got no problem with it whatsoever, and frankly, it’s fucking insulting anyone would ever imagine otherwise." I can picture him speaking through gritted teeth, it's glorious! 'This is good, this is fine. I am doing great!'

"ROXY: ahah hahaha hell of a way to come out" Ooh, so she's not even out to Jane or Rose yet!

"ROXY: what even is gender" That is SUCH a Roxy thing to say. Also, almost stoner like. Picture Gamzee going like (in his quirk): 'Have you ever really THOUGHT about gender, man? I mean, really THOUGHT about it.'

"Jade looks at where her hands are folded in her lap. Bites her lip. She has her own concerns about this, her own thoughts. Reasonable thoughts, I’d say." "ROXY: i mean that was all stuff from our old universe ROXY: whyd we even bring it here right? JADE: right" I think for Jade it's not something she'd discard so easily! I mean, it all depends on whether 'gender' is something antigonal to your self image, in the end, I guess. If it isn't hindering you... that's how you stay heteronormative in some or all elements.

"Calliope takes a teacake between two of her claws and eats it delicately, hyper-aware of the horrible gnashing and snapping her powerful jaw is capable of.

CALLIOPE: my ideas aboUt gend—

SHIT. Between two of /their/ claws." HAH. Oh my god. The narration cut off Calliope. ... Pffff, though it IS a good callout, since I've been using gendered pronouns still to refer to Calliope. Whoops!

"CALLIOPE: i sUppose i only thoUght of myself as a girl because my, Um... CALLIOPE: my brother took mascUlinity qUite serioUsly." A) Still not saying his name :P B) Using his preferred pronouns.

"CALLIOPE: by which i mean, he became very enthUsiastic aboUt all the things it sUpposedly meant to be a boy. CALLIOPE: cherUb existence is dichotomoUs, bUt not in the same way hUman biology is. CALLIOPE: i sUppose oUr view of hUman cUlture indirectly inflUenced alternia’s development, which in tUrn affected yoUrs, which is something i’ve had a lot of time to think aboUt since we came here." Oh right! Lord English & Doc Scratch helped shape Alternia's development, so in a lot of bad ways there was a focus on power and masculinity, which may have trickled down into Earth's because of who created our universe, and thus it might all have been a self fulfilling prophecy, what Caliborn's gender identity is concerned! Guess we were due another one of these loops. :P

"ROXY: so much of what earth c thinks what boys and girls “SHOULD” do comes straight from the imagination of a bunch of dumb teens ROXY: which is totally FUCKED JADE: sure" Yes, and so much of what Earth C "should" be like, as a victory state reward planet, and the epilogues by extension, exists only in the imagination of a bunch of dumb humans spread over this globe. :P I reek a callout. Not undeserved, mind.

"She probably would have loved being a “they” when she was a teen." (Referring to Jade.) I'll grant you that, Dirk. But I thought you were doing paraphrasing other people's thoughts for the course of this conversation?

"i liked the idea of dirk" He'll love to hear that. :P Well, you know, Karkat had the same thing, he loved the idea of Condesce as a powerful leader, if not always the result of that leadership.

"ROXY: and also literally no one else on the entire planet was alive at the time

ROXY: but we had some babies without even bein consulted about it anyway so w/e" Context!

"JADE: personally im a big fan!

And like that, Jade’s smiling again." Nothing like Dave & Karkat to lift her mood. :P

"The storm clouds pass so quickly in her world, you almost wouldn’t have thought there was anything wrong at all. Roxy and Calliope certainly didn’t notice.

But there is something wrong. And this time, they’ll notice." Uhhh, wrong with Jade? Or something wrong with Earth C in general? Besides Dirk taking over, I mean. Oh no! ... Calliope left the kettle on! :P

"JADE: i... JADE: i.........

Jade drops her tea. The cup hits the floor and shatters." ... Is she passing out?? Just like Rose??

... Oh no. This doesn't have anything to do with John going back, retconning the timeline, and some of their selves being killed right? It shouldn't influence them, since they're from a different timeline, but with the talk about canon and relevance and truth and shit...

Is Dave going to pass out next???

Did John accidentally change the Reload timeline to be the alpha one, and is the future adjusting to the changes??? Or is it due to something to do with Lord English' powers in killing a different 'real' version of them?

"She takes in a sharp breath. She’s not feeling well suddenly. She’s dizzy, feverish, seeing things beyond her field of vision. A blinding flash of light. A black, perfect circle, burning a hole in her eyes." Wow. Just like John, she gets a vision of the Black Hole! So, maybe it's more like she gets backlash from suddenly absorbing the memories of Reload Jade.

"She doesn’t look bad at all— Jade wears unconsciousness well, having spent the better part of her life napping." Aaaand we're back in sleeping beauty terrain.

"But she can’t hear her. Jade is somewhere else right now." Uhhhhh. I thought they didn't really dream in the dreambubbles post-victory no more?? Also, those were all destroyed by LE, anyway.

Dang. That's weird.

Are the B1 kids (adults) actually going to be gathering in the Furthest Ring in 'person'? But why, and how? ... There isn't anything like a 'dreambubble self' body that persists in the Furthest Ring that John could have woken up like how you could wake people up on Derse and Prospit. ... Now I'm reminded of an old fanart I made of a green moon circling the Green Sun, with green dream selves for all humans & trolls we knew at the time (B1 and A2). :P

[blatherkatt]

Well, Hey, If You Need A Wingman

Summary: In which Rose is a useless lesbian, John is a dirty ice cream stealer, and Kanaya doesn’t actually have any dialogue and may have forgot to take the whites out of the wash. Contains Rosemary, John and Rose friendship, and a good old dose of the Sexuality Panics. [humanstuck fluff] 

“—Nope, I’m paying and that’s final!” John’s voice rang into the ice cream shop, nearly drowning out the bell as he swung the door open.

“John, really, it’s not that big of a deal,” Rose insisted, but John shook his head adamantly.

“Nuh-uh! We’re celebrating! I don’t care if fourth place isn’t considered a big winner, you still placed in a national contest, and I thought your entry was really cool! I mean, it was kinda hard to read, sure, but whatever, it’s worth celebrating, so I’m buying!”

“It was hardly my best work, honestly,” said Rose. She’d already had to deal with her mother being somewhat obnoxious about Rose’s modest entry into a national contest for high school works of fiction, but, well, at least John was keeping his own version of commemoration rather quiet. She still hardly felt it was necessary, though. For goodness’ sakes, she’d written the piece long enough ago that she felt hardly any attachment to it, now…

John was already busily looking at the options available. There were some with peanuts, which was a little worrying, but he’d come prepared with a bit of emergency medication if it came to that, and made sure to warn the vendor as he folded the newspaper he’d been reading. He waved Rose over, insistently. Honestly, he really hadn’t understood the story she’d written at all, but it was still cool that she’d placed so high in a competition with so many entries. And, well, more than that, it was a good excuse to get Rose out of the house for something other than school! She’d been so stuck in her own head lately, and he was really hoping some fun out and about would help her relax a little, or at the very least give him a clue as to what was eating her.

With a roll of her eyes, Rose finally caved in and picked out her own dish. When John paid, the worker said, “Have a nice date!” in a perky voice, and Rose surprised John by responding almost too quickly.

“We’re not dating,” she said, her voice flat. She picked up her dish and informed John that she was going to pick out a table, whatever it was that was on her mind lately clearly coming back in full force. John winced, stammered out an apology to the server, and hurried to sit himself next to her in the booth she’d chosen (but not too close! Didn’t wanna make it weird, after all).

“Hey, are you okay?” he asked.

“Perfectly fine,” said Rose. “It’s a lovely day out, and I’m spending it with my very dear friend. What on Earth could I have to be unhappy about.” She sounded just a touch bitter as she said it.

John twirled his spoon around in his bowl, nervous. “I, uh, I’ve noticed you’ve been kinda off lately. Is it, um…Oh, has your mom been doing that thing again where she acts like we’re gonna get married just cuz we grew up together? I know that annoys you—“

“That’s not…exactly it,” she said. “It’s related, technically, I suppose, but…” She shook her head. “I’m sorry, John, it’s…It’s very personal. I’m fine, really I am.”

“Is it about wizards?” he grinned, knowing that he was giving her a free pass to change the subject. “Did Gandalf fall down a hole again, is that it?”

She flashed him a grateful look, and took it. Better to waste time shooting the breeze about something meaningless than to spend it talking about her thoughts as of late. “Oh, hardly,” she said. “Please, Lord of the Rings may have been foundational, but we can’t spend all our time dwelling on our founders, Genres move on, John. Honestly, update your references.”

John laughed. “Yeah, sorry, silly of me. I oughtta be talking about your goofy wizards! Like, uh, Zazzlepants?”

“Zazzerpan. John, really, I could’ve done much better than that thing I threw together for this competition, you don’t have to force yourself to bring up something so trite. Anyway, I’ve since moved on to more interesting fictional wizards in my own works.”

“Well, tell me about them!”

Rose sighed, her exasperation mostly pretend. It really had been too long since the two of them had just hung out, and it was nice to have someone to share these things with who didn’t feel the need to mock them for being admittedly deeply self-indulgent. Conversation carried on as she described the rough outline for the grand story she’d begun to envision, coupled with the occasional breaks to eat a bit of their ice cream, or for John to crack a joke (one of which actually inspired some very real plot development, she’d have to scribble it down somewhere before she forgot).

And then, she walked in, and the world ground to a stop.

John was still babbling on about how, in his opinion, the wizards ought to stop trying to beat Calmasis with trials of wits, since Calmasis was obviously a genius, and should instead just prank them so hard they had to give up in shame, but Rose suddenly couldn’t take her eyes away from the new customer who’d just entered the tiny ice cream parlor. This wasn’t the first time their paths had almost crossed, leading Rose to believe the girl lived somewhere in the area, but each time, Rose had felt her breath taken away. So lovely was she, always with her stunningly green eyes and her always elegant clothing, she might have passed for something straight out of a painting—especially after she picked out her ice cream and sat down alone at a table some distance away from Rose and John, perched with her spoon resting temptingly on her lip for just a moment, the light from the window casting her into tones of ethereal beauty, highlighting her wistful gaze at the world beyond…

“What are we looking at?” spoke John in a stage whisper, right next to Rose’s ear, causing her to nearly jump. Realizing her mistake—staring in public, with John right there, God, she’d nearly given everything away!—she tried to pull herself together, fighting the blush that threatened to creep across her cheeks.

John tipped his head, now feeling a little worried. If it’d been Dave, he wouldn’t have thought anything of his friend zoning out all the sudden, but this was Rose! “Are you okay?” he asked. “You seem real distracted all the sudden!”

“No, I’m quite alright,” she said, trying a little too hard to be chipper and fooling no one. She stirred her ice cream, now seeming like she was trying not to look the way she had before. John looked over that way himself again, but he didn’t see anything weird this time, either. Just some girl who’d walked in a few minutes ago, sitting sorta awkwardly by herself and looking maybe a little lonely. Other than that, there was nothing over that way, just empty tables and a big framed black-and-white photo of a historical building. John never got why some places did that, it was sorta weird.

He looked back at Rose again, and caught her sneaking another glance at the girl, before quickly turning back to her ice cream. And just like that, it clicked.

“As to your suggestion, I’ll certainly take the idea into consideration,” she said, “But the trouble with it is that Calmasis is—“

“Oooh, I think I know what’s going on,” John said, grinning.

“Well, of course you do, I’ve just laid out for you the entire rough plot I currently have set down of what may well be my magnum opus.” She was really talking fast, pretty obviously trying to derail him, but John would not be swayed! “I’d feel insulted if you didn’t know what was going on, as it would mean that I’d either failed to explain, or that you’ve not been paying attention.”

He snorted. “Not with that, I mean what’s going on with you! You like her, don’t you?”

Rose dropped her spoon, startled. Bingo. The look she gave him was real scared, though, so he added on quickly, “I’m not gonna be weird about it, promise! I won’t tell anyone!”

Tension drained out of her with a relieved sigh. “I’m…thank you, for that,” she said, picking her spoon up and stirring her ice cream again. “It’s been a rather…recent realization, and I’m still sorting out that I’m…you know, gay.” She looked around nervously as she said the word, fearing someone might be watching, but the shop had only three customers, and the server was quite occupied with the Sunday comics. She let out a breath she’d been unaware she’d been holding. “I’ve no idea how I’m going to tell mother, nevermind the rest of the world, so I’ve been keeping it to myself for now.”

“For what it’s worth,” John said, “I think I only figured it out because of how you’ve been looking at her. I had no idea thats what this was about! Sorry you’ve been dealing with it alone.”

Rose sighed, and nearly cursed herself for how lovelorn it must have sounded. “How can I not stare at her? Look at her, she’s like something straight from some gothic romance, an enchantress here to draw away the unsuspecting into her dark embrace, some unknowable entity full of knowledge mere mortals could understand…”

(John just thought she looked mostly like she’d forgotten something and was trying to remember what it was, but he let Rose keep talking. Gosh, she was adorable right now.)

“—She’s something sublime, in the sense of—oh, Jesus, stop looking, she’s turning this way, stop looking!” Rose turned her face down, suddenly intently focused on her ice cream again. John looked away too, but hazarded a glance out of the corner of his eye and saw that the girl wasn’t looking at them at all, she’d just sorta turned to look at one of the black-and-white photos on the wall.

“You should go talk to her,” said John.

“I-I couldn’t!” Rose hissed.

“Why not?”

“She’s a complete stranger! I’m not—I couldn’t bother her, it’d be, be, be uncouth, I’d be a nuisance!”

John rolled his eyes. “Rose, she wouldn’t mind, I’m sure of it! I mean, when I wanna be left alone while eating, I hunch over and eat fast and stare at my phone, you know? But she looks really bored, and she’s eating super slow—I think she’s taken maybe three bites of her sherbet this whole time? You should totally ask her to come over and sit with us, see if she wants some company!”

“I couldn’t possibly…”

“Sure you could! Go for it!”

Rose bit her lip. “I don’t even know how I’d engage the conversation in the first place…”

John laughed. “Just say you like her shirt or something, I dunno. Rose, c’mon, you’re like, one of the best people with words I know! You can handle one conversation!”

“No one can be eloquent in the face of the very goddess of beauty, John.”

“Oh my God, Rose, she’s just a person. I bet you she’s just been trying to figure out if she turned the lights out at home before she left this whole time, you goof. She’s not gonna bite you just for talking to her! Who knows, maybe she likes girls, too, and you guys’ll hit it off!”

“Let’s not get carried away, now,” Rose said, having to force down a blush that threatened to consume her whole face. Still, she’d be lying if she tried to claim that John wasn’t starting to wear her down—perhaps there was a chance, and if she did invite the girl to sit with them as John had suggested, it wouldn’t be as if she needed to take on the entirety of this first conversation alone…

John nudged Rose with his elbow. “Go on! You got this, and I got your back! Go talk to her!”

She took a deep breath. “Alright,” she said. “Alright, I’m going for it.” She stood up, hardened her resolve…and turned back, just for a moment, to fix John with a long and meaningful look as she said, “Thank you.”

He grinned, flicked her a thumbs up, and, as soon as she started talking to the girl, stole a big spoonful of her ice cream.

[pixie-styx]

Today marks the 2nd anniversary of this blog!

Stats and highlights:

Posts: 105

Followers: 417

Total notes: 15712

Notes in past year: 10912

Notes in past 6 months: 1799

Top 10 popular posts in past 6 months:

Karkat x Clover

Classes Chart

Emerald Eye of the Storm

Dave the Archaeologist

Jack loses arm parallels 

The Mirthful Messiahs: Lord English and Calmasis?

Classpect Profile Guide

“Maimed Clown. Undead Cat. Impaled Crow. Omnipotent Dog.”

413 Followers

2X3Prong Day

Most popular posts of all time (not including above, which are in bold):

Dave x Karkat Quadrants

John <3< Terezi?

Skaia’s clouds and Alt!Calliope

Vriska’s Return and the Alpha Timeline’s Fate

Vriskagram horse omen

Eight-ball dream bubble 

The First Guardian of Beforus

Something I find interesting is how so many of my most popular posts involve “shipping” observation/speculation of some sort. I’m not sure if that’s a testament to the fandom (most likely) or to me being a Blood player (possibly) or both, but it amuses me.

In the past year, Homestuck has ended and the credits have rolled. Now we have Hiveswap coming soon and a possible epilogue to look forward to. Hopefully both will provide answers to many important questions that still remain.

As always, thanks for your support (and patience), everyone! Here’s to another year!