#i guess jade can be included in the davekat if you want

[cg4tg]

day 33

[davekat-sucks]

the funny thing is with pesterquest trolls, you can track the quality of writing and accuracy of sprites inversaly with the amount they show up in the routes/stories. Tavros and kanaya are the most accurate sprite and writing wise IMO and they are also basically non-existent!

also I will say in theory, doing FLARP with Vriska is actually a fun choice of story to do, with the whole getting your class and shit being enjoyable at least on a first go 'round, but it suffers from basically everything else in it. though that being said being able to ditch Tavros to do stuff with Vriska *was* funny as an ending. Very fitting.

Not sure if this is a controversial take on pesterquest but I think that the Alpha Kids shouldn't have been included at all, flat out. It should have been the Beta Kids, then the Trolls (with a similar overall goal of probably getting them all together and helping them get over their shit.) and then act 3 should be getting the trolls and the humans to interact in person as well (With possible interspecies makeout sessions in the implied but not shown future. headcanon what you want), and *not* doing the Davekat shit like the dream sequence leading into the Alternia stuff that the VN actually did (admittedly as a one-off gag, I'm fine with it. A reference to Davekat doesn't do much harm since it was just a dream and what not.) Realistically, even with Paradox Space bullshit, whats the point of having the Alpha kids in the initial batch of characters? I mean comparatively of course. If we had a complete overall story and then got Alpha Kid stuff post-launch maybe, then I guess that could work? I mean what do you even do with them overall, in a sealed off timeline? Its not like the Beta Kids or the trolls have any actual connection to them, especially when compared to the Kids and Trolls in the main story. at least when the timeline diverges in pesterquest the trolls have been trolling for years (from the kids POV at least) even if the Trolls didn't actually experience any of that. plus regardless of the circumstances you can't do a Pesterquest style game and *not* include the B kids and the trolls. Obviously.

I'll admit I'm not sure what the result of the Trolls pre-SGRUB should or would be with the Beta kids, since they don't exactly have a connection to them individually unless MSPA unlocks those memories or something? Or Aradia Does that? You know what, if you absuletly have to have The Alpha Kids in their for whatever reason, DIRK can do that. or maybe Nepeta can with her latent Rogue of HEART Player powers! That'd be nice, giving Nepeta an important but not entirely out-of-the-ass role. She deserves that, I think.

I mean if we want to continue down the road of more fanfic-esc world building just having the personalities clash for a while would be great fun. Explore the popular ships as blank-slate relationships. How do these characters interact as their initial selves in a vaccume? I'm not as sure John would be as quick to accept Vriska as a person before SBURB. Jade would be on the Hate-Train for a long time, though might actually get along with Tavros for once! RoseMary probably happens anyway (be it romantically or in Friendship). They just seem destined to get along tbh assuming they get any exposure with the other. Dave and Karkat probably DON'T get along because thats honestly how that should happen regardless, even if they do become friends over time. ect. If you have an entire act 3 to work with, so anywhere from 4-12 episodes at minimum, you can do a lot of fun stuff with that. go buck wild (but within reason.)!

genuinely can't wait for someone to just... make a fan version of everything post Beta-Kid for Pesterquest. Gog speed with the blessing of Troll Jegus to whoever attempts such an audacious feat of "We must do better than Canon" Fanfic. We believe in you!

[thewebcomicsreview]

Homestuck 2 Liveblog, Part 3 

(See older parts here or on Tumblr here)

Chapter 3: How Are your feelings

We’ve got a new ship, which appears to have sails for some reason, and it’s either rocketing forward with determination, or crashing. Presumably, this is the ship containing the Meatworld Crew, who set out to rescue Rose from Dirk’s mind control. God, this plot is so complicated.

In anyone else’s hands, this is just a microphone. In my hands it’s a pipe boat. 

The one spoiler I had for this chapter was that the ship design was stupid, and...yes. That says “Grandpa Harley” a lot more than the Theseus did, though I don’t think Canon Jake ever smoked.

Oh boy, the narration text is in the first person. It’s also lowercase, so one presumes this is Calliope, in Jade’s body? I thought Calliope was trying to maintain the role of invisible narrator, though, and she’s calling attention to herself more obviously than any of the other narrators.

Me on my way to steal your girl by possessing her and floating around all creepy for three years

JADE: the prince’s power grows.

KARKAT: JESUS CHRIST!

Heh. This art is really nice. Jade’s speaking in Calliope’s red text, so she is indeed possessed by Calliope. Poor Jade. Homestuck proper is 8,192 pages. The epilogue is 100,000 words, and we’re 100 pages into Homestuck 2. Jade has been stuck on a boat, possessed, unconscious, dead,possessed again, or otherwise out of the story since Cascade, all the way back on page 4,109. No wonder she became a hedonist. Of course, who’s fault is it that Jade missed the final battle.

(From Homestuck 1). 

I always read this as foreshadowing that Jade would get a big moment, and it never happened. Hopefully someone on the writing team remembers that Jade is supposed to roar to life and show everyone who’s the real master. But for now, alas, the real master is Calliope, hypocritically fighting for the free will of all by taking Jade out of the story again. Anyway, that was a long tangent and a lot of search (give me back the .txt file of the whole comic, Viz!) back to Homestuck 2.

Oh hey, DaveKat is canon now, I forgot. It’s mildly annoying that Dave and Calliope are in the same scene with the same text color, but whatev.

Aww, Karkat’s wearing Dave’s shirt. How cute. Less cute: Calliope’s added her red to Jade’s outfit, including her logo. She’s really just as evil as Dirk, isn’t she?

Also, I don’t know if this sprite style quite works for a “leaning up in bed pose”

This just looks odd. Probably doesn’t help that we’re see Dave without shades for I believe the first time ever.

KARKAT: OH, PARDON THE FUCK OUT OF ME FOR OVERREACTING A LITTLE WHEN MY GOOD FRIEND "POSSESSED JADE" BUSTS INTO MY RESPITEBLOCK AT 5 AM!

Aw, I missed this, a Karkat tantrum.

I like this dynamic. But if they’ve been on this boat as long as Dirk has been on his, Jade’s been possessed for three years.

Why are Dirk and Calliope’s powers growing, though? Especially Calliope, shouldn’t she be maxed out by now? She literally ate Lord Engl-

....

Oh

Calliope is powerful enough to escape Candyland because she ate Lord English, and Lord English is partially comprised of Dirk, so there’s quite literally a little bit of Dirk inside Calliope right now. That’s maybe something to keep in the back of our minds, but now I’m theorycrafting. 

The only way twenty-somethings can afford an apartment this night is if they live somewhere with a killer commute, which is why it takes three years to get anywhere

Okay, phew. So this Roxy is trans, but the Roxy on Candyland isn’t. That’s something I’m going to have to be careful to remember lest I use the wrong pronoun for the wrong one and everyone gets mad at me.

Dirk, like the coffee, getting roasted here

So, has this crew not been chasing Dirk for three years, or has Dave just been all “I sure am comfortable with you being trans now” incessantly from age 23 to age 26? I guess that’s pretty in-character for him. Everyone seems to not be used to a situation they should be used to be now so far, but maybe that’s just for our benefit as readers who can’t remember all this nonsense? 

I love how Kanaya the Fashion Troll is basically the only character in the entire franchise to go “Fuck I haven’t been onscreen in over ten years I should change my look”. The big bow is Rose’s from way back when her and Kanaya first met, which is a cute nod. 

Okay I get that they want to remind these things to the reader, but Dave. Dude. She’s your sister-in-law. She’s been your sister-in-law for 7 to 10 years depending on how long you’ve been on that boat and she’s been a vampire that whole time. Someone give this boy a set of flash cards, Jesus Christ! 

OBVIOUS FORESHADOWING ALERT: This story is about a “young prince”, and this is going to be a metaphor. The young prince is Dirk, the Prince of Time, and the Rose is....Rose. 

Aww, this is cute. I should have put on Kanaya’s Theme while reading this, it fits the mood of the scene really well.

Oh man, none of these people know John’s dead

fffffffffffffffff

Okay, so that’s 7 years between the end of Homestuck 1 and the Homestuck Epilogues. Dirk’s been on his boat for three years, but we’re with the Meat Crew at the start of their journey, (which means Roxy only recently came out as trans, which I guess makes it less weird that Dave is still processing it).

But god, this is a lot of timelines to keep track of. I guess it’s fun in a way, being intensely convoluted was part of the fun of trying to piece together Homestuck 1′s plot, but I think I’m this close to busting out a white board where and how old everyone is actually fuck it

God as my witness, I will one day have a vague understanding of what the fuck is going on in Homestuck and I will die trying! 

This seems metatextual, in that the characters are more complete when they have like a goal and stuff. Or it might be the Homestuck 2 writers taking a subtle jab at the Epilogue writers, that everyone’s better off having left the epilogues behind and moving on to Homestuck 2. That might be reading too much into it. 

Of course, as soon as I say that we cut from Dave talking about how everything’s better to Karkat talking about how everything’s worse.

Wait, non-god Calliope is on the ship? UGH, the whiteboard already needs to be updated! The epilogues implied she was too scared of god-Calliope to leave her room, so I’d assumed she’d stayed behind. Damn it.

Heh. Also: Huh? Karkat is making a lot of assumptions here, given that Terezi, Sollux, and Aradia are all alive, he never saw Gamzee die, and Vriska dying just made her more powerful.

And that’s the update! I like these character interactions, even though they’re mostly just sitting around and naval-gazing like in Act 6 and the epilogues, because at least it’s got some jokes it feels like it’s all going somewhere. And starting next month, it’s going to be going there twice as fast

[purebreadfidough]

Ok i finished the epilogue and, hm,

Let’s, go in stages here, I’m not here to be a literary genius but just write down what stood out to me because i read this whole fuckin thing and gotta gab about it. For the record I read Candy then Meat.

Uh, poor Jake? Fucking everyones got an iron in the fire for him, and he knows it but his own self loathing leads him to get mixed up in all these fuckin awful situations. Him being abused by Jane was horrific, and him being turned into a puppet by Ultimate Dirk was horrific. Also, poor Tavros, my soul was hurting when John tried to rescue him..

The Candy route was completely disturbing batshit. Even after all their talk of “what’s real” it kind of just.. Maybe seemed that they had only become resigned to their trickster-esque fates. Thanks for that one, Alt-Calliope... (I still love u tho). Gamzee was a laugh and so extremely disturbing.. The fucking MILK. I do NOT want to know where that shit came from. Oh god.

Watching two overpowered awful forces argue about “Their turn on the Xbox” was pretty funny, if unsettling in every single way. It seems the poor characters escaped the whims of Skaia only to become pieces for two desperate fanfictioners.. I want them to be Free, but I guess the only way they could is to escape the eye of the audience :/. Is it weird this reminds me of Undertale, where you had to stop playing for the characters to be happy? Undertale did it better, blease reassure me everyone’s gonna be ok if you’re going in that angle!! I want to see them Actually be happy!!

Ah yes, lest we forget to also say “Poor John”. I’m so sad he was delegated as the most convenient puppet to Calliope and Dirk. He could almost see through it in both routes... Probably moreso in the Candy route what with all that well-earned angst about his life feeling empty.

Hmm ok now Calliope. They were both so good.. Calliope’s loneliness in the candy route broke my got dang heart. And while I want to see Alt-Calliope get taken down every notch possible I did love them here too. I live for all the cherub shit man. Hell yeah I’m happy to see I’m still right about ‘benevolent’ cherubim being really fucked up by human standards. Also that Alt-Calliope still got in childish fights with Dirk despite the image they try to maintain is fucking hilarious.

I think we can all sit down and have a good “hey jade learn some boundaries please”, then say “im so glad davekat is canon, whether this includes jade or not”. Well that’s me at least. I’d say to attribute much of hte pushiness in the Candy route to Alt-Calliope’s fanfiction desires but that’s defintely a worthy yet sizeable rabbit hole to go so, let’s leave it at that lmao.

I miss ‘our’ Dirk, who was so afraid of turning into his other selves, only to be consumed by his Ultimate Self. He’s lost in a sauce of awful. Also looks like Jane didn’t escape her childhood brainwashing.. :(

Damn what else. The Candy shit was nuts but the jokes in it were fucking prime. Vriska becoming (Vriska), the FUCKING 4CHORDS REFERENCE, and OBAMA. GOD. THANK U FOR THE COMEDY GOLD. The little things in the Meat route, like Jade and Dave using their godtier powers to fuck with each other was also so good.

Sooo I guess the biggest thing here is, ID REALLY LIKE FOR THEM TO EXPAND ON THE FIGHTS BEING FOUGHT HERE. There’s gonna be some kind of trans-narrative-universe showdown between Alt!Calliope and LE, and Everyone vs Ultimate Dirk? I want to fucking see it! Don’t leave us hanging man I’ve already spent 3 years hanging on to hope for an epilogue. And I wouldn’t really Call this an Epilogue proper due to it. MAYBE if we’re lucky we’ll get a few more chapters tying these two universes together properly, but. We all know how it be.

In conclusion, I think it’s all pretty neat and interesting, but not really satisfying.. There was that thing that was said, about how hussie ‘used meat and candy together’ when writing the comic proper, so maybe we have a chance in hell of getting a conclusion? But I’m not gonna hope too hard here.

[homestuckss-moved]

SLOTS FOR BACKUPS

Here’s the list of people who need backups, just DM asking for a slot, and if it isn’t taken, I’ll give it to you! Thank you so so much to everyone who has offered so far to be a backup; let’s try to get these filled really quickly!!! You have until the 31st to finish the backups!

We‘re all good on backups! Thank you so much everyone!!!

SLOT 1: TAKEN adiosCali8rator , Fan fiction, Fan art, Other , “ Anything davepeta, nepeta, rosemary, jaderoxy, or jadecallieroxy related “ , NO:  Nsfw, angst, gore

SLOT 2: OPEN asexually-homeschooled , Fan fiction, Fan art, Other , “ Anything with Roxy or Callie, Dirkjake or Rosemary “ , NO: Furry, NSFW

SLOT 3: OPEN ask-tipplegnostalgic , Art , “ The 12 first trolls (karkat and cie), alpha or beta kids, if shipping boy x boy prefered, though rosemary is great. I adore Egberts and Striders. “ , NO: Gore, Angst, Blood

SLOT 4: OPEN badgersthename , Fan fiction, Fan art, Other , “I like Striders, Vantas's, Jake like fuck me up. Dirkjake <3<3 DaveKat “

SLOT 5: OPEN clitclip , Fan fiction, Fan art , “ Anything Vrisrezi, Demonstuck, sickfics, Davekat, Calliroxy, and any combination thereof!” , NO: Makaras

SLOT 6: OPEN craske , Art, “some Eridan, pale erikar or happy Tavros” , NO: Suggestive, NSFW

SLOT 7: OPEN danxiously , Art, “ davesprite, Dave, and Dirk, Sollux, SOLKAT “ , NO: NSFW, Angst

SLOT 8: OPEN evieoftheisle , Fan fiction, Fan art, Other , “ i love AUs and cool fashion? and romance and friendship cliches. Fav characters: John, Karkat, Dirk!! Fav ships: johndave, dirkjake?? fav friendships: BETA KIDS “ , NO: Gore, NSFW

SLOT 9: OPEN feathercadence , Fan fiction, Fan art , “ anything davetavkat related; davetav; davekat; tavkat; johndave please. “ , NO: NSFW

SLOT 10: OPEN galacticjacket , Fan fiction, Fan art, Other , “ Jade and/or Aradia being really cool during a strife, or just hanging out in hightops; Replay AU angst; fancytier “ , NO: nsfw, no ships, no revealing outfits.

SLOT 11: OPEN gelatinousbaby , Fan fiction, Fan art, Other , “ Sprites? I don't really care :p “ , NO: NSFW

SLOT 12: OPEN groeuf , Art , “ tyzias & terezi joey & xefros badass pose, any character “

SLOT 13: OPEN hissmycookies , Fan fiction, Fan art, Other , “ Nepeta and Equius was one of my favorite relationships :3 Maybe doing cute fluff things like teatime, having fun in the snow, or killing hapless goblins? Hmm...looking back on Homestuck the other troll quadrants are really interesting. Any depictions of a spade or ash relationship would be cool. Luscuses Lusci UM large white fluffy animals interacting with their associated character? “ NO: “ Homestuck was a while ago for me, so nothing to obscure I guess. no nsfw or anything over-the-top gory either “

SLOT 14: OPEN imlovroselalonde , Fan fiction, Fan art, Other , “ Davekat fluff, Roxy & Rose sisterly bonding, the alpha kids having fun together “ , NO: “ If you're a minor don't write me smut (if you're over 18 then it's fine), not into incest (even ectobiological) “

SLOT 15: OPEN jangnan , Fan fiction, Fan art, Other , “ erisol, arasol, or solkat would be neat “

SLOT 16: OPEN just-another-bumblebee , Fan fiction, Fan art, Other , “ john egbert, gamzee, dirkjohn and johnkat are both great 2 (also gamkar) “ , NO: NSFW

SLOT 17: OPEN lunaeclipsedoesart , Art , “ Jade Harley/davekat/Troll kingdom rulers hanging out together “ , NO: NSFW

SLOT 18: OPEN mcl-imagines , Fan fiction, Fan art, Other , “Hiveswap characters, My otp erisol, or cheesy platonic stuff involving my fav trolls: pyropes, amporas, peixes, serkets. “ , NO: “ Gore of any kind but particularly eye trauma. Also please don't include anything with self harm (unless its just scars, and not the focal point of the piece) or anything with realistic insects. “

SLOT 19: TAKEN missplacemat , Fan fiction, Fan art , “ Sisterly lalondes making trollsonas/ Roxy and jane being Beautiful Pastel Girlfriends/ jade and nepeta being Beautiful Strong Girlfriends/ lesbians of your choosing “ , NO: Incest, pedophilia, angst

SLOT 20: OPEN msawesomeiscool , Fan fiction, Fan art, Other , “ PepsiCola, NepKat, Rosemary “, NO: Gore, NSFW 

SLOT 21: OPEN neatgirl , Fan fiction, Fan art , “ i really like calliope, callieroxy, 80s fashion, and nostalgic kids on bikes aus. hurt/comfort involving recovery from alcoholism is also ok! “ , NO: “nothing where either of the characters refer to the other as "hun" or "hon" please! other than that im good with anything. “

SLOT 22: OPEN nocturnalfighter , Fan fiction, Fan art , “ davekat, lgbt headcanons, happy post game celebration “, NO: “ gore, nsfw, nepkat as <3, no bro allowed “

SLOT 23: OPEN nopersdopers , Art, “ Fluff, cute, or something a lil bit steamy “

SLOT 24: OPEN otakumadness15 , Art , “ Anything that has to do with rosemary, the scourge sisters and davekat (or just Karkat, I really love Karkat) “�� , NO: Gore, angst and nsfw

SLOT 25: TAKEN poptartsplat , Art , “ Janeroxy, rosemary, beta kids being goofy teens, aradia “

SLOT 26: OPEN rainbowdrink , Fan fiction, Fan art, Other , “ rosemary or davekat! or, if the person doesn't want to do a ship, they could simply use one of the four characters listed (rose, kanaya, dave, karkat) by themselves :) “ , NO: Vriska

SLOT 27: OPEN truereset , Fan fiction, Fan art, Other , “ 1) fanart specific: i'd love to see a god tier outfit redesign! kanaya or aradia if you please. i'd love to see a creative take on their god tier outfits! 2) modern outfit designs for any of the signless' group, OR.. 3) the ancestral trolls (preferably of signless' group) adapting to culture shock, in a post-game/post-revival alterniearth scenario 4) johnkat, in general. you kno. that Gay Shit 5) think of the most obscure, oddest sounding, least compatible bloodswap you can. /That/ “

SLOT 28: OPEN satons-hoard , Art , “ My Troll ocs, My ocs interacting with other people's ocs, My ocs interacting with canon characters (Candy gore is fine) (Please contact me for character references. “ , NO: Gore, NSFW

SLOT 29: TAKEN spaceykiddo , Fan fiction, Fan art , “ beta/alpha kids as a family, rose and jade being cute, fluffy davekat “ , NO: any kind of violence/abuse, gore, angst, nsfw, sad stuff 

SLOT 30: OPEN technicolortheorist , Art , “ I would say something that represents the gifter, something that comes from the heart! I'll be sure to see it's beauty and investment upon receival :D “

SLOT 31: OPEN aura-sketch , Art , Joey, jude and roxy all having some kind of happy Christmas shenanigans maybe? Or some rosemary under the mistletoe? Or maybe rose trying to teach kanaya how to bake or something like that. Feel free to have fun with it and add your own spin! I'd prefer the first option but if you aren't really caught up in the hiveswap hype the other ones are cool too “ , NO: “ No gore please, and I'd prefer something happy to be more in the holiday spirit, but it's okay if there's a tiny tinge of sad as long as it's mostly happy if that makes sense? Just no full on sadness I guess “