#goddamn you first homestuck now this

[dizordlizord]

just saw one of your fave musicals is frankenstein and i used to have SERIOUS brainfunk about that one

Musical I am extremely normal about

[quinton-reviews]

Hi Quinton!! I have been a HUGE fan of your stuff since a friend sent me the Tobuscus Fallen Titans (I used to watch him back in high school and was like "huh, wonder what happened to him after those allegations") and I gotta say, it is REALLY FUNNY every time my fiancé and I watch the iCarly videos again, because when you cover Gibby's stunt double breaking his ribs, you cut to a clip of The Official Podcast. I used to play D&D with one of the main dudes from the podcast, so when he talks during that clip I do a goddamn double take literally every time.

Anyways, I remember an original Patreon stretch goal being a Fallen Titans on Homestuck! I was really big into Homestuck in my early 20s, and was wondering if that's still on the table at some point? If not that's fine, I understand plans change! I just love Fallen Titans lol, the Fred episode and the Neil Cicierega unFallen Titans are some of my favorite videos of yours!

That's a real funny story!

So here's the rundown on the Homestuck video. When I first started making long videos, they were actually inspired by the relationship I had with other YouTubers at the time. I used to watch, like, H3H3 and Filthy Frank, etc; and I'd always see people obsessed with the versions of creators from the past. Like, "Oh 2015 H3 was the best" and "Oh 2012 Frank was peak." So I had this idea that it would be crazy if H3 posted, like, a video he spent a decade on and you got a new video with 2015 H3 10 years on. (I don't watch H3 anymore ironically)

So the original idea for the "long video" format was that it would be cool if, throughout a long, analysis/review/recap video, you kept noticing someone get older. Maybe my months, maybe by years. That's why I always like to get a haircut when I start one of these videos. If you scrub through and you see my hair get longer and messier as it goes on I think that adds something magical you can't fake.

So... My pitch to the Homestuck video was that it would be funny to work on it just once per year. To record one segment, say "That's it for 12 months", and then come back around to it. And when I was making the iCarly and Victorious videos I actually recorded a few minutes of the video! I think it was two segments in total. But then I had a bunch of personal stuff happen and my work drive has been much lower, so any "back burner" video hasn't gotten much attention since then.

Now that the iCarly mini-series is done with, I want to focus on some short one-off videos I can make before April. But once that's done with, I would REALLY love to start work on a few more long-term projects which will take months or years to finish. I think returning to work on the Homestuck video, to at least get the first 20-30 minutes done, would be a great idea this summer.

Now, if you want to know my pitch for that video, here it is. The video is not a recap of the creative history of the franchise. I do not get into drama, community hell, lawsuits, or other YouTubers. My idea is this: you always hear about Homestuck as an outsider but you never hear about the actual content. Most franchises on Earth I know something about, even and especially if I've never been interested in them. I can tell you a bunch of facts about wrestling and MLP and the Fast and the Furious simply through cultural osmosis and having friends who are into those things.

I can't tell you the plot of Homestuck, who the characters are, what the themes are, nothing. I've known a lot of people who were into Homestuck but nothing about the series!

So I thought it would thus be funny to make a video about a bunch of people who know nothing about the series starting from the beginning and giving their reactions, even if it's been years since it all started. I call this part of the video the "Homestuck Book Club." So the next step is me picking out the members (who all have to have no history with it) and making sort of a podcast setup. We'd then read and record every six months or so, IDK.

This is why the video has been stuck in production hell! Everyone who wants to work on it and messages me about it already knows the franchise. I don't want spoilers, I don't want people writing for the video who get it already. I want to capture the "what the fuck is this" energy of three dudes just getting in the middle of it.

Also, I think that I really like the theme of the video capturing our lives as they go by, capturing us aging and changing. If you came back from the future and told me this video comes out in five years, I'd say great. If you told me it comes out in ten years, I'd say awesome. Until then, the latest edit will always be on Patreon, even if you have to dig a little.

[triptychgardener]

Hello sorry if this is a bother but I am asking in good faith where is the reading for transmasc nepeta. I’m asking this cuz of your last ask (the June one) and I see aradia Dirk and Jane. Thoes all I have seen post and analysis about. But I have not really seen anything about nepeta.

Okay so first thing you gotta understand is that gender in Homestuck, for lack of a better way to say it, can be understood in how characters reflect and relate to each other. That being said to understand Nepeta's gender, we gotta understand the gender of at the very least one other person.

Dave.

And more specifically.

Davepeta, Homestuck's very own first(ish) trans character.

Davepeta is noted to be a sort of platonic ideal of existence for both Dave and Nepeta. Somehow, through a strange series of cosmic coincidences, these two end up making an odd sort of parallel. Both having a strange relationship to a man who loves him some goddamn horses. The whole Akwete Purrmusk thing. I mean, Dave canonically engaged in semi-nonironic furry roleplay with Nepeta offscreen, and given what we know about what becoming a furry in Homestuck means, it's not a leap to describe this as their ideal form.

But, although we don't see a lot of Nepeta's character arc, we do see a lot of Dave's. He struggles his whole life under an incredibly oppressive masculine force (both of Bro and, indirectly, Lord English), and once the game is over ends up deconstructing and largely rejecting that.

So when Davesprite, who's also probably been thinking about this for even longer, bereft of purpose or identity, finds a kindred soul in a spunky catgirl... well the rest is Davepeta.

And similarly, there are points in the story where Nepeta acts kind of uncomfortable with how others see her as exclusively something to be protected. The whole "Dear, sweet, precious Nepeta" grates on her early on, as Equius uses it as an excuse to control her actions. The whole of moiraillegience as it is originally explained (i.e. one party helps to calm down an especially brutal and violent person from outbursts of anger, and in turn that person will protect the more docile, even-tempered soul from external harm) even kind of FEELS like the way heterosexual relationships are portrayed in a lot of conservative spaces, where women are nuturers and caretakers while men are protectors. And Nepeta is supposed to, in this situation, be the person who helps Equius manage his emotions, which she feels some consternation at!

Now, over the course of Hivebent, their relationship appears to evolve and get a bit more balanced, but it still carries these overtones of "I will protect you, and you will handle my outbursts." Notably, when Equius goes to seek the Highb100d, and leaves Nepeta behind.

And of course not after roleplaying as each other.

Which. I mean come on.

But notably, Nepeta doesn't just stay put! She doesn't really want to be protected all the time! And when push comes to shove, she leaps out to defend, or at the very least avenge, her best friend.

And then, we don't really see Nepeta for a while!

Until we get to the end of the comic.

During their whole "date", Nepeta seems a little uncomfortable with Jasprose's affections. She may be a bit flattered, but Jasprose also fully admits later that she was frankly looking for any girl she could fall in love with after the tragic death of her girlfriend and possible more tragic untimely resurrection.

But then the pivotal handshake happens, and we get to see who is perhaps the most happy being in all of Homestuck.

Then we get into some of the only actual discussion of gender in Homestuck. We don't get much besides that, for both of their lives, Dave and Nepeta both felt something was missing. Something felt wrong that they couldn't quite place that made them both miserable. I don't think it's a massive stretch to say this could be gender dysphoria.

And when they combine, they feel the fullness of the gendered experience they were missing, melded together like a two-piece puzzle.

Now while the abovementioned "strong identities as a boy and a girl" might throw you off, I would point to what Victoria Lacroix said about this passage: note the lack of the word "respectively." I rest my case.

Now full disclosure, my personal headcanon for Nepeta is genderfluid transmasc. The whole affinity for roleplaying lends itself to a more shifting identity and I just think Nepeta, given more time, would love exploring the little nooks and crannies of gender.

This isn't going into the more complicated shit with Gender when it comes to Equius and Dirk and all that other stuff. Here's a quick summary so you can see exactly how my brain is broken.

Anyways, thanks for the question! I hope I answered my thoughts on the topic adequately! If other people have more to say about this, please feel free to add on!

[cringefail-clown]

ngl im not like, lineless art specialist, honestly i went lineless fairly recently (like lets say may 2023 when i started drawing art for homestuck), before that i was making art with lineart only, so take my process with a grain of salt lmfao but i hope it clears out some things!

lets dissect the recent dirkkri art ive made:

i start out with sketch, as you usually do. depending on how im feeling or how complex the pose/background is, i make it more or less detailed. for more basic poses i might even stick to a simple gesture drawing and go straight into laying out the colors, it really varies a lot. it might even change in the further process, like how i moved dirks shades from his head to be sticking out slightly from behind his arm, clipped to his shirt, because i didnt like how busy the area around the faces looked

one advice i can give is to not spend too much time on the sketch. its job is to guide the laying out of flat colors and thats it! dont make it too fancy, dont get lost in the details - you can add those later on when youre doing the flats. its fine if the sketch is messy, youll fix it in later stages of the process!

next i do the flat colors! i tackle it one thing at a time - for example with dirks head i started on separate layers with the general shape of his face, then added his facial features, then i drew the hair, then added his neck, the crown, and lastly his piercings. i then merged them all together - you dont need to leave it all separate, best way is to group things together and merge so you dont get lost with all the layers (like how kankris arm on the front is one layer including his sweater sleeve and his hand).

i highly recommend naming your layers - im a little on and off with it myself, but seriously it makes your life easier later on when you spot a mistake and have to shuffle through bazilion layers to find it lmfao, especially when your drawing includes multiple things that overlay on top of each other like in this example. dont be like me and take a second to name them asksks

next to the rendering! i sometimes completely ditch this one, just leaving the flats as they are, but when i want a drawing to have more oomph i have some more steps to the process. its pretty simple - shadow, gradient map and highlight layer on clipping masks connected to the flats. in this one i used light gray for shadows (first layer to generally darken the drawing, second for defining shadows). same with highlights - one color.

the real star of the show is the gradient map, seriously, its a goddamn miracle worker. in krita you can add one by clicking on the plus sign to add a new layer and choose "add filter layer", then in the menu open the "map" category and here should be the option of adding gradient map. you can do it on your flats, but its destructive, and on a separate layer you can always change it if you dont like it later on. mess with the colors and tadah! it now looks fancy as shit and makes people think you know color theory!

last but not least you can add some bleeding light on a separate layer that isnt clipped to the flats to give it more dreamy appearence! i also added an example of how my layers looked in a group at the end of the drawing process.

and thats it! hope it helps, and have fun drawing!

[classpectpokerap]

karkat goes through some changes

homestuck

tentacleTherapist [TT] began pestering turntechGodhead [TG]. TT: It's come to my attention that you've been having some difficulties with Karkat. TG: "oh hey dave" TG: "how are you doing" TG: "good good yeah i know its been ages but ive got a question for you" TG: "hows karkat doing" TT: My apologies. TT: If you'd like to restart the conversation, but frontloaded with pleasantries, we can do that immediately. TG: nah jigs already up TG: theres a suspiciously empty bag and cat just fucking headbutting everything in existence TG: the elephant in the room is eyeing me flapping its monstrous goddamn ears blinking its sad eyes TG: walking around crunching the bones of the dead horse that ive been beating TT: Dave. TG: yo TT: Are you okay? TG: hell of a fucking question TG: i mean TG: im doing fine TG: im coping TG: its not like im the one in the relationship who woke up three feet taller and more intimidating overnight TG: with literally no clothes that fit TG: and an unrecognizable goddamn complexion TG: you know that blush palette kanaya got us that one time is basically junk now TG: we were so excited to literally never use it but now its become mandatory TG: the thrill of ignoring a gift is all evaporated TG: at least we still have that fucking popcorn maker that june got us rotting away in a cupboard somewhere TT: Dave. TG: im extremely normal about this

TG: its not every day your boyfriend of five years grows into a giant troll monster TG: leaving behind a molted skin of his days of being a regular troll monster TG: that one was TG: genuinely extremely fucking unpleasant to discover TT: I can only imagine. TT: Kanaya's more-or-less confirmed to never be able to molt again, thanks to her immortality. TT: Waking up next to, essentially, the skinned corpse of your boyfriend, while an adult with his face is crying next to you, seems incredibly distressing. TG: yeah TG: it uh TG: we didnt actually realize what the fuck was in the bed until a few hours after karkats first "oh god im like your human professor hulk" cry TG: what the fuck was the deal with professor hulk by the way TG: like why was he in the movie TG: did they just not have the budget to shoot mark ruffalos unaltered face TG: every film the guys in has a budget for ruffalo shielding an audience exposed to a noncgi ruffalo is well and truly fucked TT: Dave. TG: im fine

TG: its fine TG: its just TG: kind of a big fucking deal TG: mostly for him TG: i think hes the first mutant to pupate into adulthood for literally more than the timespan of two universes TG: its like getting run over by the puberty truck and somehow ending up with muscles out of it TG: the same kind of injury logic that created handsome squidward TT: Mm. TT: I figured something like that would be the case, emotionally. TG: as always you are the genius of our time TT: I have one more question. TT: Do you need Kanaya and I to come over to make more clothes for him? TG: wow TG: thats genuinely a really nice offer TG: yeah come over whenever TG: karkats been tarzanning it for a little too long TG: not that the primal look isnt fantastic at times but uh TG: well lets just say theres only so much i can handle at once TT: We'll be right over. tentacleTherapist [TT] ceased pestering turntechGodhead [TG].

[wisteriasymphony]

Inceldrien!AU - Dead on Arrival

(co-written by @pyrusinc )

DISCLAIMER: offensive and derogatory language, homophobic slurs. These guys are 4channers.

“Fuck you, you— dumb bucket of festering discharge!”

A silence cut through the room, slaughtering the tension with it. As the argument laid dead and bleeding on the floor, Adrien looked into Claudia’s eyes for what might’ve been the first time. 

“…You’ve read Homestuck?” He asked. 

They somehow spoke it in unison: “Past me is the dumbest bucket of festering discharge I ever fell ass backwards into.”

A few more breaths as they studied each other. Then, Adrien sat back down on his couch. He felt like he was going to fall over, maybe even through the floor. Suddenly he had no clue where he was, or what he was doing. And yet he was curious.

“You didn’t tell me you read Homestuck.”

Her tone matched his in its humble honesty. “You never asked,” she confessed, sitting down beside him. “How far along are you?”

For what had to have been a good half an hour, Adrien had the first real conversation in his life about something he was interested in. Gabriel would never really be able to understand half of the things that Adrien could talk about anyways, and it wasn’t like people were ever clamoring for these sorts of opinions from him. All of his accumulated knowledge of Homestuck and MLP and such could only ever be expressed on image boards or forums, and it was only now that he realized it felt so much better to say these things out loud. He was making her laugh—He, Adrien Agreste, was able to make someone laugh from something he said!—and she was responding enthusiastically, like she knew everything he wanted to say before he could even think it himself. He leaned back onto the couch as he kept talking about the best classpects, Claudia would lean back as well and prop up her chin with her hand, and for a moment she even tucked a lock of hair behind her ear and he noticed it as it happened.

 It was only as Adrien reached for his Mountain Dew that he realized just how wrong and stupid and disgusting this was. Why of all things did he have to be enjoying her company? Claudia’s company?

He set down his drink as soon as he picked it up, turning his face away from hers. Adrien didn’t want to make it clear that he was panicking. 

“Get out,” he interrupted in the middle of one of her sentences that he wasn’t even listening to anyways. “You should go.”

Claudia’s words caught in her throat. Goddamn her for letting her guard down, for actually letting herself talk to Adrien. There was no reason to even be upset, and yet there she was, body suddenly numb as she scrambled to figure out just what she said that Adrien was suddenly so mad about. It’s not like she had a reason to care anyways—Why the hell would she ever give a shit about what he felt? It wasn’t like she was having a good time, that simply wasn’t possible. At best, Claudia was humoring that idiot, there was no way she was enjoying herself, there was no way that she found his smile something worth looking at when he talked. Adrien Agreste was the most irritating, pathetic, retarded putrid fuckwad she had ever met in her life. And it was a blessing that he was finally cognizant enough to give her the chance to leave that she’d clearly been itching for, even if it didn’t feel right to stand up after sitting still for all that time. 

So it didn’t catch her off guard. Nor did it hurt.

“Fine,” she spat back, grabbing her things. “I’ll go. You’re an asshole anyways.”

Adrien knew that Claudia could’ve shut the door harder, maybe even slammed it shut. But despite that... it was the loudest he’d ever heard that door get shut in his life. The last echoes of it lingered for hours after she was gone. 

—

There was a certain silence that fell over the places the two would normally argue. The traffic died down significantly over the next week, as if a solemn understanding had somehow made its way through without actually being shared, and the whole site was in an awkward phase of mourning. Claudia stopped posting entirely, and that included her short stories—no creepypastas, no jokes, no snide retellings of conversations. She knew he’d be able to read anything she posted, no matter where it was, and that sucked out all of the joy. Adrien made it clear he didn’t want to hear her thoughts, so she wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of seeing her share them. Radio silence. 

Adrien would click through every board until his fingers ached. General, Paranormal, Music, Anime, News and Politics—Somewhere there had to be something. The faintest whisper of activity, a muttered comment or snide chatter of her voice, something she would try to hide from him in vain. Adrien couldn't tell exactly why he felt this pain in his chest as his search continued to draw blanks. He felt like shit, but there was no reason for it. No justification for that gnawing, rolling discomfort settling in his stomach that made it impossible for him to focus on himself or even get up from his chair: Adrien had every right to kick her out. He couldn't put a finger on the cause of the pain, but he could put his fingers on his keyboard. And so he continued to look. Not eating, not sleeping. Just searching for something.

Click, click, click. 

He doesn’t want to admit he knows, but he does. Maybe the screen will eventually burn through his retinas and he won’t have to put effort into thinking about why that flash of hurt across her face when her mouth snapped shut mid-sentence wouldn’t exit his mind. Maybe the ache in his fingers will distract from the image of her hands (which had been animatedly gesturing the entire conversation in what can’t be cute, but instead the most annoying thing in the world) suddenly freezing and falling to her lap. Maybe he’ll just die on the spot from all this, and he won’t think about missing her presence. 

He wasn’t going to apologize.

He wasn’t going to apologize.

He wasn’t going to apologize.

intothetrash@aol.com sorry. -a.a. creepytan@aol.com i don’t want to talk to you

Adrien found it hard to look at the screen. It was just an arrangement of pixels. Letting out a sharp breath, his fingers flew to the keys without really even thinking. 

I SHOULD BE THE ONE WHO DOESNT WANT TO FUCKING TALK TO YOU CUNT YOU REALLY THINK YOU CAN ACT LIKE THAT?? DO YOU HEAR YOUR STUPID FUCKING SELF?? YOU FUCK WITH ME LIKE THIS ALL THE GODDAMN TIME THIS IS CALLED KARMA YOU DUMB FUCKING SLUT

Delete, delete, delete. The cursor flew back to where it was, erasing everything. Adrien took his hands off the keyboard and clutched his head, sighing as his palms dug into his eyes. 

He didn’t actually think any of that. None of it was true, and he didn’t have it in him to convince himself otherwise. It wasn’t her fault that she made him feel so horrible, even if he wanted to want to feel that way. Adrien just felt so tired staring at the screen, at those seven little words—“I don’t want to talk to you”, so much stupid pain somehow in just seven words!—and he couldn’t understand why, not consciously. In his gut he could feel the reason, though. He did deserve to feel like shit for what he said, and for everything he’d ever said to her. Adrien had called her names, berated and belittled her, insulted her very existence. It was only the crime of causing that distraught look on her face that brought even the notion of wrongdoing to him. Somehow, he’d been horrible to her so many times, and it was all fine? It didn’t mean anything tangible. It was fun.

There was nothing fun about the way the light in her eyes dimmed.

intothetrash@aol.com i deserve that. but you can still talk -a.a. intothetrash@aol.com even if it's not to me. -a.a.

God, as if she needed his fucking permission for shit. Did he really think that everything she did online, anything anyone ever did online, was just for his entertainment? She wrote for herself, damnit, not some greasy failure who thought the world revolved around him just cause his daddy brought home a big paycheck. If she wanted to get off the internet forever, she could, and Adrien wouldn’t be able to do shit about it. Claudia wasn’t just going to give him more of her stuff to look over just because he was so benevolent as to approve it. 

But also, if this was the first time he’d ever apologized for something in his life, Claudia could believe it. When would anybody ever ask for an apology from Adrien Agreste, heir to the multimillion enterprise that was Maison de Mode Gabriel? Claudia couldn’t imagine him in a positon where he was required to repent. Plus, given his caustic personality, it’s not like he’d ever freely debase himself with an apology to any random person… So what did it say about him, about her, that he was willing to reach out on his own like that? Make an entirely new email just to reach out to her?

And, well… what did it say about her that she’d even checked? She rarely used creepytan@aol anymore. How did she know that it was him?

creepytan@aol.com ok

She just wouldn’t think about it too much. Maybe it was sweet, in some twisted way, but that didn’t have to mean something to her. It was nice to just be able to breathe again, to post the next creepypasta she’d been holding onto for a few days now. Claudia knew he’d probably be one of the first to see it, maybe even within seconds, but that wasn’t necessarily a new thing. Obviously Adrien had been stalking through her shit online. That was how their whole shtick went. As she cues up the Paranormal board, Claudia decides she doesn’t care if he sees her talk again. Whether she believes herself is a different story, a story she doesn’t want to listen to. Either way, the boards are revived, and traffic flows once more on those shared spaces. There’s a silent sigh of relief, all in understood unison, by the denizens of those foul internet crannies that the silence was over.

Still, though... something must have happened. It’s unusual for Creepytan and Richfag to not cross paths for this long. Minutes, hours, then days. The concept is unthinkable: They’re practically all over each other, like rabid dogs clamped shut on the other’s tail, running around in circles. They’re both posting, sure, but there’s been no interaction…

File: [wtf.png] CREEPYTAN V RICHFAG LOLFEST DEAD?  Anonymous 02/10/12 No.275607 >bros >wtf happened

[paradoxcase]

@wellhappybirthdaytomeiguess:

Spading is found in the always accurate Urban Dictionary as slang for sex. Probably a regional variation. :P But leave it to Gideon to make anything sound dirty.

@badcatcait:

A note on the spading thing! I think it’s slang in New Zealand specifically for flirting…but it’s also a Homestuck reference. It’s known at this point that TLT has its origins in Homestuck fandom which Muir was big in. The aliens in Homestuck have 4 types of romance based on card suits—spade/black romances are a kind of enemies-to-lovers situation where they stay enemies and hate each other but are romantically involved as well. Perfectly describes Pyrrha/Wake’s dynamic ♠️

Is there a source for it being NZ slang? Wiktionary usually lists major regional variations and slang for these sorts of things

I wouldn't put it past being a Homestuck reference, though, they did have that kind of relationship

@wellhappybirthdaytomeiguess:

Theory is that one reason John didn't 'fix the holes' was that it might make his daughter more beholden to him. We know he could likely have done so. Instead he turned her into a construct. Also, a sort of callback: GtN: “Half a dozen tendrils came after her. They would have given her an interesting array of new airholes for speed.” And then from NtN: “Those are my speed holes. They help me go fast,” said Kiriona quickly.”

If John ever was trusting of the people around him, I guess he probably moved past that since the last book, haha

and this hits hard: Gideon talking about Harrow, in HtN: “You could always leave everything else behind, but you never got rid of being so absolutely fucking goddamn sad.” And Nona talking about Gideon, NtN: “Nona had never seen anyone so sad in her whole short life.”

No one in this story is having a good time at this point. Even the villains aren't having a good time

The audiobook narration of this chapter is fantastic. Moira Quirk uses her Gideon voice, but gives it a bit more meanness of sorts, more snappishness. It's so good.

Ooh, that sounds interesting!

Do you think, generally, that Gideon seems...meaner...now? A bit of the 'came back wrong' trope?

@dreanner95:

@wellhappybirthdaytomeiguess I personally would say that she seems meaner because we are watching her from Nona's POV. Nona doesn't like her because of how she talks to her family but the way Kiriona talks is not really that different to how she talked to people back in GtN. Now we just don't have her POV anymore to factcheck how she really feels.

I think part of it is that it's through Nona's POV and we aren't getting Gideon's perspective on things, but also I think she definitely is being meaner. Like compare how Palamedes was treating her and reacting to her in the first book versus this:

[grassbreads]

im curious, whats your favorite longfic??

Oh my god anon you are enabling me so hard right now. Are we sure you're not some deep splintered section of my subconscious that split off just for the sake of sending me this ask?

Anyway, my favorite fanfiction is a Homestuck fic by oxfordroulette called Vanitas Vanitatum. This mildly pornographic novel-length fantasy au dirkjohn fic is genuinely, independent of actual Homestuck, one of my all time favorite written stories.

Vanitas Vanitatum is the third fic in a long series, but it's technically a standalone. The first fic in the series is a jadekat fantasy road trip adventure, the second one is about jadekat getting dragged into a bunch of mysterious royal intrigue at Jade's arranged marriage to Eridan, and Vanitas Vanitatum is about the aftermath of that intrigue. John Egbert ascends to the throne of their country after the death of his and Jade's evil mother in the previous fic, and he's totally fine guys! He's definitely absolutely having zero mental health troubles!

Dirk, our pov character, enters as a new member of John's secret police. He slowly befriends his new king/boss and, in doing so, begins to discover the extent to which John is totally definitely okay! He's fine Dirk so you can stop asking! And because he's Dirk Strider, when he discovers how John is struggling, he immediately wants to Fix Him. Enter a twisted mess of genuinely falling in love and horrible shadowy puppet master schemes.

Vanitas Vanitatum is the ultimate "I can fix him" romance. It is an "I can fix him" romance to the extent that Dirk's desire to "fix" John becomes one of the fic's main conflicts—in addition to John's genuine mental health crisis and the political crisis that's happening around them. If you know anything about my taste in fiction, you're probably looking at "dark fantasy story about a guy trying to unravel and understand his crush's mental health problems" and going "okay yeah. I see why Andie is obsessed with this."

If you're a Homestuck fan, even if you're not usually a DirkJohn person, I cannot recommend Vanitas Vanitatum highly enough. It's well-written, it's funny, it's heartwarming, and it's absolutely heartbreaking. The plot is twisty and, especially if you've read the rest of the series, absolutely filled with delicious dramatic irony. The way oxfordroulette writes Dirk's pov is an absolute treat. And while the fic is fairly nsfw (there's only three actual sex scenes if I remember right, but lot of discussion and thinking about sex in the interim), the real porn in this fic is the food and costume porn. The author knows what the people want, and it's decadent food descriptions and crazy fantasy royalty outfits. It's also illustrated!

Honestly, if the fic didn't require an understanding of troll romance quadrants to make any goddamn sense, I'd be recommending it to non Homestuck fans as well. It's just a really good story.

Here's the official summary:

You've determined the hobbies of the monarch you serve are as follows: 1. Ill-timed pranks. 2. Cooking. 3. Subconsciously pulling elaborate political schemes off perfectly, ad infinitum, every one of which inches his mind closer to some ineffable dark chasm you're curious to find the depth of. Anyway, he makes damn good lasagna.

Read it here :)

[max-nexus]

KGTAC Analysis Pages 2229-2425

First Analysis Previous Analysis Sburb Dog Analysis Next Analysis Hell yes! KGTAC Act 2: Home-Skillet is back baby! Here is my analysis, not too much lore wise outside of me noticing some things i missed before but I'm just glad it's back!

KGTAC PAGE 2229

2229: Well this is new! The author seems to be distancing themselves from Homestuck even more. The old house in the Beta looked like Rose house in it's vibes with a dash of John's in it's exterior

HOME-SKILLET BETA PAGE 193

KGTAC PAGE 2230

2230: Ana's house didn't have an outer area like this at all. It sorta looks like she lives in some sort of city here. Although this background looks so goddamn weird, It's like the sidewalk juts upward constantly here. 2235: Ooh, interesting. The next page animation has direct parallels!

KGTAC PAGE 2236

2236: In the Beta it was "Ana: Play a jazzy saxophone refrain." The music here is actually the same as before, it's generally the same as before at the start, just a different environment. The nanny seemingly walked into another house? Then we start seeing a bigger difference. A Showtime remix starts playing as we see FRED TRY EATING HIS GREENS LMAO. This is what we in the business call A REALLY COOL ANIMATION. i kinda wish it was actually playable but that would've been a lot more work. THEN FRED STARTS DANCING. Goddamn we can just make a full Fred Wilmore sprite sheet now, can we. That was an amazing animation. well worth the wait! Now on the theory crafting side of things. The only thing that come to mind is that Fred was expecting EDMOND to be there to eat his greens. Despite as it says in Page 2118 of the holy text "Unfortunately he ran away when you were young. He was a very good dog, though" Though to be fair, we don't know what Fred considers "young". Fred might be one of those kids who considers himself from 2 years ago "young". Another weird thing is that the STRIFE text is in the opposite direction when compared to homestuck... No look! HOMESTUCK STRIFE

KGTAC STRIFE (extracted)

2237: I wonder what HIP stands for? This clearly will be incredibly important in ACT 2 DAY 5 ROLL 2 INTERMISSION 3 2244: What's with the red eye? I guess it's just to represent that he's utterly manic right now. 2245: Beautiful animation! This also gives us a better look into the living room here which is nice for anyone looking to make a recreation. (I was actually trying to make one a while back...) 2246: We see a big package (probably his computer) there. It has a watery logo. Kinda looks like a surfboard on a wave? 2247: There's Photochat! 2248: Oh that's a different box, also it's published/made by SKYACOM. Interesting... 2252: Ok so we know that logo belongs to a company called GREENROOM now (Like, is this a reference to Doc Scratch? His room was green, i guess it could also be the felt manor back in Homestuck's Act 3 Intermission. Could also be nothing.), also we now see the desktop! Interesting it says INDEX for the home button, we also now have the EXACT TIME which is 5:30 PM, this will be useful for setting up a timeline! (Not that I'd really bother doing that right now.)

KGTAC PAGE 2253

Homestuck Page 6

2253: Wait what the hell! Random Act 1 Cursor Appearance? This sorta popped up in Act 1 of Homestuck due to the fact that Homestuck was originally designed to be made entirely in flash. It's interesting that it's showing up here. Maybe it means something, maybe Cole didn't want to animate Fred grabbing Photochat then putting it into the pc. 2255: Hm he's been to a library, maybe there is some credence to him being of the mind aspect (/j) 2264: Ah! I can't believe Cole was so bold to do it so early to kill off such a major character so early, to the forgetful ones in the audience back in my analysis of the FLOPPY DECK (my beloved) i talked about the fact there are only 3 points on the floppy deck, when the BETA Floppy deck had 4 points. I made a crackpot theory that one of the character's would die in Home-Skillet as a big event early on in the story. And well, here we have it folks! Fred is dead, dead dead, deadity dead dead, dead. What a bold move. his death moved me to tears. KGTAC RELEASE

2265: Sweet! Just putting this to note but the pages for this day's of updates (2/3/24) weren't released all at once, we had to wait like an hour when Photochat was downloading. The images were actually uploaded before this and i probably saw them before most because i decided to check because i noticed some pages were being released 1 at a time. Just putting this for historical reasons for anyone reading this in the far future in the [S] END OF ACT 2 flash when Nan unites everyone for the big fight against LORD HUSSIE (/j, man I'm including a lot of jokes in this one) because this small detail would probably be forgotten a few years from now. Heck, I'd probably forget it. 2276: LMAO 2279: Farty Gas, an excellent choice of a name good sir (Lol) 2285: Holy heck, Fred says frick! Also i love the fact he wrote this as if it were a letter, even ending it with a "Take Care" Zimodo in the comment section summarized it best. MEME

SIDENOTE 1: I just noticed… For some reason there's barely any "NAME: DO STUFF" in the ENTIRETY of Home-Skillet. Its mainly just DO STUFF, like seriously. it's not set up like a standard Homestuck command at all. Even KGTAC ACT 1 + INTERMISSION did that when a character was doing stuff. It wouldn't even be forced. Like in pg 2236 it could've been "[S] Ana: Play the sax in triumph." but it's just not? Like before the HIATUS, there was like 1 use, now its like half-n-half and I'm not sure if this is intentional or accidental. Even worse, we started seeing a lot of the standard Homestuck command structure starting February, not before... so even after the Hiatus the command structure didn't include names. Is it because Ana and Fred are talking to each other to prevent confusion or is there some deeper reason... PRE HIATUS

FEBRUARY FOR SOME REASON

2295: Death theory… (Specifically, DC can't enter into his session as his FLOPPY DECK, seemingly died in a valiant battle against time. This is incredibly bad for when you're playing the game that kills you when you don't play it. Now of course this is assuming that HomeSkillet is operating under the idea that the meteors are like destined to hit you and not that the games summon the meteors (I personally don't understand why people think that, was that ever confirmed or is that just popular fanon) But overall, this likely doesn't bode well for DC) 2303: ARG WARNING, DEAR GOD I HAVE TO SOLVE A MYSTERY NOW THESE ARE IMAGES… or not It looks like BrainFuck so uh… Yeah i don't think it means anything big (aka i don't know how i'd even transcribe the text into a working program! Also thinking about it, this might be the item duplication thing i joked about earlier, y'know with the fact that if items are just code on a floppy disc, whats preventing people from copying that floppy. Or in this case putting something on the floppy disc to get an item. Unknown: Crosshair activated towards sector 121 09

newone: Crosshair activated towards sector head_port 1 fuck

(Might actually be helga port 1?) We can guess that these are the coordinates for the meteors, for obvious reasons. And somehow P(ee)P(ee) did something to affect these coordinates. Very interesting. 2311: Light aspect /j 2326: Yep, it's green. Took you awhile farty-gas. It took you page 28 of the BETA to do that. 2332: Reference to Poltergeist 1982, Just noting this because i looked it up. 2335: Welp, that's confirmation. Edmond is dead, Grandma just sorta hid the fact because he probably was 5 at the time. 2359: YES! NO SYLLADEX GAMING! I'VE ALWAYS WANTED TO SEE A SBURBVENTURE WHERE A CHARACTER DOESN'T HAVE A SYLLADEX. (To the point I've always imagined making a character for one that doesn't have one, or has some notable issue preventing them from using it fully.) 2390: Music is the same, the art is different when compared to the BETA version KGTAC ACT 2 2390

Home-Skillet BETA PAGE 159

2410: If you don't want to waste time by leaving things behind, try carrying them Doofus. Too big? That's what the FLOPPY DECK is for Farty Gas. 2411: Interestingly enough, the image for the timer (381.gif) is in the wrong order if we'd line up these images as if they come in 1 after the other. As if it was meant to be put in a different order. Presumably after page 2404 (Because that's 380.gif) SIDENOTE 2: there is a unused image here! I guess to improve the pacing this got cut out last minute. 376.GIF

2420: I'm just going to show my comment here

2425: Fun fact, i saw this image like 20 seconds before the page went up, because ever since the loading screen, i've been checking for that sort of stuff. It looks like we are about to hit an [S] Page. SIDENOTE 3: The Saxophone was always there lmao, i can't believe i missed it, it was even referenced in the text of 2186. I guess you miss stuff when you end up analyzing nearly 100 pages worth of content while trying to balance 6 college classes at the same time.

SIDENOTE 4: These have all been pretty good panels so far, I love all the work that's been put into them, with all these details, especially early on when Cole went and animated the runs there.

So that's the end of the analysis, I'd like to thank everyone here, I should do a re-reading of Home-Skillet to see what I've forgotten. I hope you enjoy and lets see what comes next! Sorry that it took so long, i wasn't exactly putting in tons of work to get this out soon. There's no rush. Y'know.

Nope, In my usual fashion, Digging up one thing digs up another. And I've discovered CONSTUCK. An April fools joke made in 2022 that i missed which is a "KGTAC RELEASE" with Act 1 just being the "Beta" https://mspfa.com/?s=27317&p=1490 1: Ah yes, Karkat 2: A general thing i've noticed is that it looks like each panel was drawn by a different person. 9: What an amazing reboot. KGTAC DISCORD GOES TO A CONVENTION PAGE 52

CONSTUCK PAGE 12

12: Holy **** Lois! KGTAC Server goes to a convention? Honestly, i had to dig a bit to figure out this is commentary on it as i never read this. The turnaround here is insane tbh looking into it, March 25th the public apology comes out, March 29th the commentary on it on it comes out as an April fools joke. Mildly impressed. Though i can't help but feel bad for the people behind KGTAC Server goes to a convention here being referenced like this. Personally speaking I'd keel over and die here, though to be fair it just takes me remembering something stupid i did a decade ago to make that happen. 13:Lmao "astrosized into out" 28: Now for the reason why I'm looking at this. FRED WILMORE STRIKES AGAIN 30: Helga? I can't remember who that is… also Nan's here and her dialog implies she's writing Home-Skillet. Maybe lore important, maybe the author is just speaking through Nan as some extra commentary on KGTAC Discord goes to a convention. 31: Nan is a Muse of Time? Neat! 32: And now for the main reason im here… TO BE CONTINUED… This if it's not just a silly April fools joke draws a direct connection between ACT 1 and ACT 2 of KGTAC. It's not much to go off of due to it's dubious canonicity but we already know MSPFA exists in the actual comic itself thanks to mspa reader to cite a more recent example and also NAN went on MSPFA in the flash [S] It was the ideas it inspired (and also uh, Act 1 takes place in what could be considered Earth, modern day. So MSPFA existing makes sense) Thanks to these facts it means that it's not impossible this is a sign of things to come, that perhaps we see how ACT 2: Home-Skillet fits into ACT 1: Karkat goes to a Convention

And now this is the end.

Also while looking i found some unlisted pages! read em if ya want! https://mspfa.com/?s=27317&p=1057 https://mspfa.com/?s=27317&p=822

Now this is REALLY the end, No PSYCHE X3 Combo's here….

See! it's just the end. Thanks for reading my analysis, Here's to the next one. I'm also less busy as of late so i should be able to get these out more frequently than when KGTAC took a break before, so i don't think i have to change the general format of this series. 1 MONTH LATER....

Me in 3/17/24 Land here. Man this took a while, as i said before, i wasn't making this a high priority because I'm working on a MSPFA called CHAINED + 4 college classes gives me time only if i make time for it. But yeah, I hope you enjoyed this analysis, if you noticed something i didn't, have any questions, or your own theories. I'd like to here em, my asks are open!

[madam-melon-meow]

The Good, The Bad, and The Alternative; a homestuck fanfic. Chapter 28, an excerpt.

Sollux reached under the table and pulled out the mic he brought for announcements, and the backup mic in case the first one ran out of battery. He set them on the table in front of his laptop. "You guys wanna do this now?" He asked.

Gamzee reached for the mic, chuckling. "For sure, my brother."

"Hold up." Dave raised his hands. "How do I know you're not about to fucking cheat again with all your extra shapeshifting bullshit?"

"Aww, c'mon my ninja, you're not still all broke the fuck up over that shit, are you?" Gamzee said smugly. "I'm just using the gifts God done gave me."

"Fuck you, man, it's a rap battle, not a whole goddamn cinematic instrumental and Foley orchestra- just cause you can make a airhorn sound out of your ass after rhyming 'cool' with 'tool' doesn't make that shit a good bar. Fucking disrespectful to the art form." Dave crossed his arms, a stank expression on his face.

"Ease up, big D, shit's no different than dropping the mic- it's about the motherfucking performance- getting the fucking crowd going." Gamzee didn't seem to have a clue how invested his opponent was in this argument.

"Alright, alright, how 'bout I start making it rain Jacksons into the audience, would that be cool? Just the performance, big G. Just flexing the fortune I've been given." Dave kissed his fingers and pointed up.

"Shit, dog, that kinda sounds like motherfucking bribery, that money ain't part of you." Gamzee pursed his lips and shook his head.

"Would, uhm. We? Be the audience?" Tavros asked quietly. "Cause, uh, I think that might be fair play. If so."

Gamzee turned around, utter betrayal across his face.

"T, you're gonna motherfucking backstab me?" Gamzee asked.

"Sorry, Uh. I was just thinking, like- booster packs aren't free." Tavros admitted shamelessly.

"Hey wait a second-" Now John spoke up. "If the people here- your friends- are going to be the audience, wouldn't pretty much all of them favor Gamzee anyway?"

"Yeah wait a fucking second- are you trying to fucking play me?" Dave asked Gamzee, gesturing towards the mics.

"Holy fucking shit- I'm not gonna sit here all night while you four bitch about your rules." Sollux snapped. He pointed at John and Tavros. "You two- you'll be the ones in the battle. The better rapper will be the better teacher- so start training them- you've got 20. Nobody will favor either of them cause pretty much nobody knows either of them." He said with absolute authority.

"What?" John yelped.

"Uh, I agree with John. What?" Tavros's wings buzzed anxiously.

Dave and Gamzee looked at each other, competition burning in their eyes.

"My boy John can douse yours on any day of the fucking week." Dave said.

"Haha you don't even know what kinda shit they got going on in the Fae, gonna turn this motherfucking dance floor into a gallows." Gamzee said. "C'mon, T."

Gamzee grabbed Tavros's arm and dragged him off. Dave did likewise with John.

Ready to experience the rap battle of your dreams? Read on here to see what our heroes of breath have to say!

[homestuck-fanauthor-coalition]

@orangestorapples

> Be Dave Strider. It is officially the first Saturday after school started, and you are honestly so glad for the break because goddamn. Waking up early and going to bed earlier fucking sucks. Uncle D told you that your sleep schedule should adjust eventually, and if it doesn't then you can try taking melatonin gummies. If that doesn't work either, then he'll take you to a doctor to get something stronger. Something something wanted to exhaust all his options for over the counter shit before he went to that point. In the meantime, you can catch up on sleep when you're at Aunt Rosa's after school and on the weekends. Except for this weekend because today, Dirk gets to go horseback riding. And he's stupid excited about it. You, on the other hand, are bored out of your fucking mind in the car, so you think there's no better opportunity than now to text your best friends. You only hope that Jade is still awake, with her much later timezone than yours and all.

Chapters: 69/?

Rating: Teen and Up

Archive Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence

Category: Gen

Fandom: Homestuck

Relationships: Dirk's Bro | Alpha Dave Strider & Dirk Strider; Dirk's Bro | Alpha Dave Strider & Dave Strider; Dave Strider & Dirk Strider; Rose Lalonde & Dave Strider; Roxy Lalonde & Dirk Strider; Rose Lalonde & Roxy Lalonde & Dave Strider & Dirk Strider; Jake English/Dirk Strider

Characters: Dave Strider; Dirk Strider; Dirk's Bro | Alpha Dave Strider; Dave's Bro | Beta Dirk Strider; Rose Lalonde; Roxy Lalonde; Rose's Mom | Beta Roxy Lalonde; Roxy's Mom | Alpha Rose Lalonde; Ben Stiller; Owen Wilson; Donald Glover

Additional Tags: Hurt/Comfort; Angst and Hurt/Comfort; Abusive Dave's Bro | Beta Dirk Strider; Post Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD; Childhood Trauma; Psychological Trauma; Implied/Referenced Underage Drinking; Implied/Referenced Underage Drug Use; Alternate Universe - No Sburb Session

[drmrspancakes]

My thoughts on “Strange Creature” - by Estelle Allen

I really wanted to make a small review of this album because it's such a departure from Estelle's other work as well as her first full album! I have listened to this album ~5-10 times all the way through and I have avoided watching any interviews or other reviews of this album.

Overall I am extremely impressed by this album and I look forward to picking it apart for months to come. The vocals are simultaneously distorted yet raw in delivery, the production is top notch and very textural. Some songs are bops and some are downright depressing. Estelle is iconic for this release, no doubt.

Worm

The vocoded voice makes me think of something inhuman trying to communicate, combined with the lyrics it invokes a sense of yearning to connect with someone but you're not sure if you're quite ready. I think this a badass opener for an album. 

2. Chrysalis 

This was one of the two songs that were released as teasers and I loved it. Before listening to the entire album I felt a strong connection to the “Chrysalis” being a metaphor for going through gender transition. After listening for a while I believe this song is more about grappling with the intense feelings of meeting someone new who you click with. 

I enjoy the use of the caterpillar-to-butterfly metaphor as well as the insect imagery to describe people you meet while putting yourself out there. 

3. Strange Creature 

I love this song for how it expresses the feeling of having a crush on someone but you are still getting to know each other. The production on this song is also where I feel like it begins to ramp up, its unable to hold back anymore and the lyrics reflect that;

“Got your neck in my mouth and they’re gunning for me

So what? Maybe I'm a monster

I’m not sure, but you never mind”

4. Girlfriend

This was the other song that was previewed (paired with Chrysalis) and if you only heard those two songs one might assume that this album was going to be a standard love album but Goddamn Estelle played her cards right. 

This song is literally exactly how it feels when you can’t stop fantasizing about a romantic interest. The bubbly and upbeat instrumentals really help to sell the giddy energy of this song. Also based Homestuck and Dark Souls reference. 

5.  645

My first thought was this was the antithesis to “2:45 AM” by Elliot Smith. At this point in the album's story I imagine at this point Estelle and her romantic interest have started dating and are soaking in the honeymoon vibes. The backing vocals seriously make this song so textured and rich while also complementing the swelling instrumentals in the latter half of the song. 

6. Ortolan

This song feels like a small look into one of the many conversations that were had on “645.” I really like this song, it not only feels like we the audience are peering into her personal life for a split second, it also foreshadows the rest of the album. Definitely one of my favorites.

7. Sycamore

I'm struggling to really articulate what I think this song is about concretely but I believe it talks about how Estelle wants to really commit to this person and sees potential in them but knows that its probably not reciprocated.

8. Centipede

This one tears me apart, its so bittersweet and I literally want to cry when I hear it. This song's use of distortion and chopped vocals are supreme in the way it conveys that confusion and grief that swallows you when shit starts hitting the fan. I think this is my favorite song on the album but its really close between this and Porch.

9. Cornflower

The title of this song is a reference to a line in “Girlfriend,” which she says “Will you be my Estus? And I'll be your cornflower.” I think the intention is to show their love blossoming in “Girlfriend” and now its wilting fast. I think this the counterpart to “Strange Creature” in the sense that at this point Estelle is coming to terms with the relationship coming to a close. Someone once described breakups to me like losing a rotten tooth. It was hurting you and you're glad that it's gone but you swipe your tongue over the empty space dozens of times a day adjusting to what you were so used to.

10.  Porch

No notes, go off Queen. No but seriously this was the dopest  when I first heard it, I legit pogged. I think this song is what makes this album come together %100. It competes with “Centipede” as my favorite but I have to say that the chorus is so fun to sing and the vibe is immaculate.

11. Ray

I think “Ray” might be about how things are over but it wasn’t all bad. Back on “Chrysalis” She mentions how she feels like she’s trapped in a Sisyphean dream and I interpret this as the challenge to really let go of someone.

In “645” there was a voice memo that played in the beginning, presumably from the love interest of the album. When “645” opens the context is still happy so it seems to fit right in. Now that we are at “Ray” its a haunting echo of what was. As far as outros go I felt underwhelmed at first but I think that feeling is the melancholy of going through the relationship from beginning to end. “Porch” had so much intense emotion behind it and “Ray” does as well but its so chilling in delivery.

I also feel like the way she seems to sort of "leave the door open" so to speak might also be related to the Sisyphus line mentioned in "Girlfriend." This is absolutely a wonderful closer to this album. 

[hms-no-fun]

I've been really enjoying your take on Girlboss Jane which I don't see people run with very often. What drew you to digging into that angle on the character as opposed to going another route with her?

jane's turn towards fascism in the epilogues was quite controversial in the fandom (despite the fact that it's entirely in-character, i mean literally the first thing we see her do in the comic is threaten to buy and privatise the us postal service), so as with a lot of character choices around the periphery of the truly *central* cast of godfeels, i wanted to play with that tension.

should be plainly obvious at this point i wrote godfeels to be sort of a distorted mirror of the epilogues. early on i was asking myself a lot, how can i do something *different* with these characters that doesn't come across as a fix-it of the epilogues, but rather as something that adds to them in some retrospective sense. so in the candy timeline you've got fascist jane and bolshevik-lite revolutionary karkat at war with each other... my thought was, okay, what if the universe conspired to match them up together at an early enough age that they could have some kind of influence on each other's politics? and janekat, i dunno, it's such a cursed ship, it's like scientifically engineered to annoy a particular subsect of homestuck fans who think davekat is sacred. no one in this fandom appreciates divorce fever enough btw, that's why i made sure to shatter rosemary. death to endgame ships!!!

anyway janekat is so obnoxiously cursed i saw it as a challenge. because the thing is that the epilogues have several VERY cursed ships. difference is i find they lean a bit too hard into a sort of meanness about them, so the most important thing for me was to do it in a way that felt GENUINE. blackrom forced-communization janekat has some gas. but it can't be easy, you know? it goes so much deeper than just whether or not jane has money or is a CEO. because capitalism on earth c is a weird superfluous ghost that i don't think functions in any meaningful sense? when she says it's a cultural thing i don't see that as entirely ingenuine. ideology runs deep, and what makes jane perfect for this role at this particular moment in godfeels is that we can peel back her layers with karkat before things get too far-gone for that to make a difference.

but all that aside i just think girlboss jane is fun to write. it's actually amazing how far i've come from early godfeels, when the prospect of writing the alphas TERRIFIED me. i think my earliest roxy shows that in a big way, though i also think that's metatextually quite fitting given her voidy thing. now i LOVE writing the alphas! jake and jane especially have become treasured inclusions, precisely because they're just so fucking obstinate. they put up such a Face and refuse to acknowledge that it's performance. it is a really gratifying challenge as a writer, just overall, trying to keep all of these goddamned characters feeling unique and themselves. i don't know if i always pull it off but it's so much fun to try!

[missingrache]

10 fandoms 10 blorbos, very belatedly responding to a tag from lovely @windsweptinred:

1. Bioshock: Mark Meltzer

This man is the subject of my very first post on tumblr, he must be included here, I adore this sad fuck.

2. Homestuck: Diamonds Droog

A toss up between him and Slick. I was and am a Homestuck Intermission girlie and this must be acknowledged.

3. Dragon Age: Justice

I have many many Dragon Age faves and DAO and also Awakening is so so important to me, but Jorstin here is the fellow I have the most distinct and personal opinions about and is, aside from OCs like my Brosca Warden, Avi, the only one I have a strong rp/fic voice for. He’s such a weird and cool dude!

4. DC Comics/Animated Universe: Martian Manhunter/ J’onn J’onzz

My BOY. I love him most in the VERY specific comic pictured above (1988 miniseries that establishes the Martian gods as being flaming horrorterrors, as we see in Sandman w/L’zoril Dream, it’s GOOD SHIT)—but also in general. Criminally under rated and under represented. A sad fuck, a shape shifting horror, a stranger in a strange land, a bereaved parent, Doing His Goddamn Best. AND sometimes a noir detective send up.

Anyway, speaking of comics.

5. Sandman: Dream of the Endless

I am thrilled to be here in the year of our lord 2024 enthusing about and making friends over this scrunkly wet cat that I first encountered and dearly loved in high school. (I am more than halfway through my 30’s now, so it has been A WHILE). I’m counting Sandman and DC as separate affairs, sorry not sorry.

6. Our Flag Means Death: Izzy Hands

Loved him even before S2, fascinated, I want to put him in a jar and shake him but also keep him safe forever. I am a little soured on the show after s2, but I have dressed up as Izzy and would gladly do so again so he belongs here.

7. Supergiant Hades: Achilles

This SPECIFIC version of Achilles, who has died and continued growing through his pain and regrets and who is a surrogate parent to my BOI Zagreus, is. Fascinating. To me. I was so angry at first to find myself liking him as much as I did! It’s masterful how much characterization Supergiant implies with relatively little. He’s coming after Izzy on the list bc I came to them both in similar ways, looking at myself falling in love and going oh my god HIM? Seriously? And being like yup that war criminal there is my son now!!! (And now of course I’m fond of him all across the mythological/classical board, oh my god Hadesgame what have you done.)

8. Star Wars: Alexsandr Kallus

The only space nazi redemption arc I will accept. (Although I am watching Andor with friends right now and three double agent gingers across the begins to suggest a pattern which is very entertaining to me.)

Anyway A+ arc, love this bastard man, love his giant cat husband, single-handedly keeping me invested in Star Wars, hope his gay happy ending never gets messed with.

9. Les Miserables: Inspector Javert

Another character that I went oh my god REALLY??? That Guy??? About. But he’s so /funny/ in the Brick and Stars is lovely enough that I learned how to play barre chords on my guitar Just For That and look. Look. He is a bastard but he is MY bastard and I will read every redeemed!Javert fic that crosses my path forever the end. (Also a side note: Kallus was originally sold to me by @lokivangelist as “space Javert”)

10. The Witcher: Dandelion/Jaskier (all versions, but repping Hexer below because that’s my favorite!!!)

Throwing a curveball for the last slot! I’ve got a sad dad/monochrome aesthetic/loyal right hand/shapeshifting nonhuman/rigid worldview kinda pattern happening above, and my boi here slip slides away from almost all of those. Except for the loyalty. This man is an absolute ride or die for Geralt and I love that about him. He is also an obnoxious fuckboi but I love that too, especially in a story as heavy as the Witcher frequently can be. (My runner up for this fandom was gonna be book!Lambert, who is similarly narratively savvy and good at puncturing the heaviness of a scene without being straight up comic relief.)

There they are! Ten blorbos, I climbed that whole mountain and now I’m heading to bed. (Will tag folks tomorrow perhaps? But also feel free to invite yourself in and do this and say I tagged you if you like, because I am curious what my mutuals and etc . might choose!)

[save-the-spiral]

okay im just now getting into w101 fanfic even tho ive had an account since 2008.

FIRST OF ALL.

holy shit did you know theres an official wizard101 fanfic page STILL HOSTED ON THEIR SITE updated as recently as 3 years ago. what the hell

your nb wizard fic where they become a prof wrenched my heart open. belladonna crisp trans headcanon is so goddamn real

cantrips. like. okay. so. let me explain this one: i just got back into the game like a month ago and cantrips BLEW MY MIND. as a kid i LOVED the spell quests where the rules of w101 were seemingly broken and spells were cast outside of battle. it always felt like early w101 "deep lore" was about the spell circles -- go into Dalea Falmea's tower with the classic textures, for example, and there's a really fascinating visual that represents all the possible points of the like... swinging compass thing. it got removed in the new texture rerelease but it's super striking! we see the spell circle ALL THE TIME and we have NO IDEA what the symbols on it mean and why and then when cantrips were introduced and we can just. DO ANY MAGIC ANYWHERE?????? that blew my mind is there fanfic with cantrips or that examines spell circles (more spell circle headcanons: the only reason such a young wizard is allowed to fight monsters is because the spell circle stops these beasts from tearing them limb from limb, instead forcing them to fight thru the magical proxies of cards. another hc: being sent back to a world's hub when you run out of HP is the spell circle activating a failsafe for you.) (be interesting to see a p101 fic which deals w the pirate like. PERSONALLY SMACKING PEOPLE AROUND vs the wizard w their protective magics... that always interested me) but yeah! cantrips, archmastery, all the Weird Edge-case Lore

wizard101 fanfic is so real im gonna post a homestuck crossover soon

HI <- saw this ask and forgot to respond/post it!

YEAH .

I've never actually checked out the official fanfic page!

unfortunately i have memory issues so i cant remember if/when i wrote this fic but based if i did

I Also Love The Edgecase lore and the stuff abt the like, constraints of the game. which i know you can easily bypass in fanfic (like saying the pet snacks are objects, not cards, etc) but its FUN to work with a unique and interesting system already implemented in the game as the structure of this universe. Also YEAH . pirate101 fics are so different bc when i write them i haven't really written any with gunslingers so its all Up Close and personal fighting (i have a pirate101 tag i think you can look through for that, also one extended fic on my Ao3 for it)

FOLLOW YOUR DREAMS POST THAT HOMESTUCK CROSSOVER FUCK YEAH

[pocket-deer-boy]

Okay i was gonna go to sleep but actually i’m pissed about this thing that’ll at most effect like 2 other people BUT.

(Alice if you’re reading this and you still plan on reading homestuck this is gonna make no sense love youuu <3)

It really really pisses me off when people pin down Maids in homestuck as a passive servant class. Were we reading the same story. Are you sure about this

Let’s just dig into Aradia because that’s just the part of homestuck I’m at right now. Early on, Aradia does read as intensely passive, of course. As a ghost, she passively accepts servitude, being told in voices and whispers what changes to enact on the world, what to destroy, what to do next. It’s also implied that she’s not exactly happy with this arrangement, however. She has no feeling at all. She doesn’t remember anger, she doesn’t remember joy. Once she gets her robot body, however, one of the first things she does is take revenge on Vriska, nearly killing her. Otherwise, her dynamic remains unchanged, now instead of taking orders from voices, taking orders from the timeline itself. An arrangement she’s not particularly thrilled about:

Just a few panels earlier, after being told by Diamonds Droog to “skip to the end” of the narrative, she has this to say:

She fucking HATES servitude. She wants to do her own thing. She craves freedom, on some level. She just also accepts that this servitude is something she just has to work through at the moment. It’s unpleasant but temporary. It’s work. When she god-tiers, she revels in the fact that she finally has some goddamn control over her own self, and pisses off to go have her own adventures.

One of her final acts is just to watch the medium collapse in on itself, something she worked tirelessly to make happen, the fruits of her own labor: the ending of the comic. Because she just loves making destruction happen so fucking much. Really, she’s an artist.

Maid’s stories are generally all about a struggle against servitude, be it imposed by the batterwitch, alternian society, ghosts, future selves, the narrative, etc. Maids are all about breaking free from these constraints and doing what they want on their own terms.

Anyways that’s why among other reasons Maids are an active class. I view them as an active creator class, with sylphs being their passive variant.