#if anything i think it's a more interesting dynamic for the beta kids to be older

[seagullcharmer]

ok but fr what's the deal with fanfic making the alpha kids older siblings to the beta kids. they're the same age.

[charmikarma]

hallo it's me. (crookedgrifter) I'm back and I want your davejade / davejadekat thoughts. gimme

my thoughts huh ... i sure am a rambler so you're gonna get a whole essay on this

i guess in thinking abt davejadekat it always starts with jade. which is well enough because davekat has been talked to death at this point, hasn't it? i don't think i could tell you anything new or interesting about that dynamic at this point.

ANYWAY. jade. i kind of get into this in my polar express fic which ik you've read, but she is SO lonely. what the fuck are you supposed to do for ~10 years alone on an island with just a dog?? a dog who could take you somewhere else, somewhere with people, but he won't. and maybe jade knows why because of her dreams on prospit, but also maybe not! either way i think she puts a lot of faith in her dreams. it's kind of the only hope she has for the future.

i think she also has some hope in dave, this really cool dude she has this awkward internet middle school crush on. and dave is super cool to her too! i think it's implied he furry roleplays with her even?? cutest shit ever. i think this is the thing that has made me always love davejade ... they are just. so sweet to each other. dave clearly cares SO much about her.

the other thing about jade is... she's kinda fucked over repeatedly by the narrative, isn't she? she's the last beta kid introduced, so she has a lot less time to develop. the closest she really gets to developing is being really pissed off at karkat after her dreamself dies (i'll talk about this in a sec). her arc basically ends at cascade. her character arc ends in the dead middle of the comic, in a flash animation that contains exactly 0 character development. hussie says so himself in the author's notes. (don't even get me started on the author's notes jesus christ.) everything that happens on the boat is pretty much irrelevant, because it gets retconned out. instead she spends 3 years completely fucking alone, and we like... barely unpack this in canon.

so her life story up until this point is basically: raised by grandpa till ~3-5ish > living on her own till 13 > meeting dave briefly in the game > DAVE FUCKING DIES IN FRONT OF HER, WITH HER OWN BULLETS > she meets john briefly > JOHN AND DAVESPRITE FUCKING DIE > she spends 3 years alone with no solace except "yeah they had to die but you'll see them again in the new session" from alt!calliope and i guess a bunch of sprites and consorts and chess dudes. she says it herself: as nice as it is to have these folks around, they're not able to relate to her. they're not fellow thirteen year old kids. she may not be technically alone, but she is essentially alone, and she just 1. died twice in one day and 2. witnessed the deaths of several of her friends.

more on being fucked over by the narrative - jade actually has a kind of interesting dynamic with karkat in the middle of a5a2! what happens with this dynamic later on? fucking nothing!!!! like seriously i am so interested in this whole. self-hatred parallel that gets drawn between them and then how jade puts her foot down and is like you are fucking nuts. no more yelling at yourself. and it goes nowhere!! this dynamic exists for like, maybe 1% of the comic. it's really fucking sad honestly. even at the very end of homestuck, she has to be sidelined for being too powerful, thereby excluding her from all the endgame convos. like we cannot win with her

ok anyway, here's where i get into the stuff i think is really interesting. at the end of homestuck, alt!calliope tells jade that she's suffered enough, and that it's time for her to live her life how she wants to. we don't see how this plays out in homestuck proper, BUT...... the epilogues. sighs heavily.

i may be an epilogues lover but even i have to admit that jade's portrayal is.... a mess. i don't think it's wildly out of character, exactly, but it definitely toes the line... and it's definitely extremely fucking uncomfortable. it does, however, give me some insight into how i think about jade now, because while the minutiae don't really feel in character, i do think the broad strokes of what they were going for make sense.

jade took alt!calliope's words and said, fuck it. i will take charge! i won't wait anymore! i am going to have what i want. and she does get a lot of that! she gets to hang out with her friends, hang out with her brother, meet a ton of people, have a bunch of sex (presumably when she's older), and so on. but see... doing a lot of things doesn't really fill the emptiness she feels. she has so much love to give and not enough outlet for it. she needs all the love in the world and has nobody to give it to her. and she still has this big fat ten-year-old crush on dave strider that never went anywhere. but the approach she takes to life now is just... so incompatible with what dave needs. same for karkat. they both need a LOT of patience to come out of their shells, and jade is living life in the fast lane. the more she pushes, the more withdrawn they become. it is a disaster.

i want to fix it so fucking bad.

jade needs a lot of character development for all this to work, but the dynamic is absolutely there. some of their convos in early meat are so fucking funny dude, they are such good friends. it is absolutely not for lack of caring on either dave or karkat's part that things don't work out in the epilogues. it's this disconnect between what jade thinks is helpful and what dave and karkat need. i really want jade to find the balance between living at breakneck speed and waiting ten years for something to happen. i want her to feel loved for once in her damn life. and i want dave and karkat to stop being such depressing shut-ins. please guys you could balance each other out if you would just figure out how to communicate

anyway. there's your essay. it's mostly about jade. hope that's ok. i love jade harley so much my ultimate goal is to see her happy and mark my words i will figure out how

[autisticrosewilson]

YESSSSS PLEASE TELL US THE LORE ABOUT TH MUTUAL STALKER AU!!!!!! loved it 💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜

I want to talk about what's going on with the Omegaverse part because I have so many ideas!!

Bruce is an Omega, which won't be super important I just felt you guys should know. He's often mistaken for an alpha and though he plays up the stereotypically omega traits as Brucie he lets the criminal element believe what they want, most of the Justice League believes he's a beta because he never reacts to pheromones or anything and they've never smelled him without scent blockers.

Dick is an alpha but he's often mistaken for an Omega which he doesn't really mind, he's the Omegaverse equivalent of someone who goes by any pronouns.

Alfred is an Alpha, most people assume he's a beta from the sheer fact it's very odd for an Alpha to be subservient to an omega the way he is but not only does Alfred not believe in that dynamic essentialism shit, he still sees Bruce as a pup most of the time, which has the problematic effect of him more or less letting Bruce do whatever he wants.

Jason will be an omega, but due to malnutrition he's still unpresented. I'm going to write a thing about how him and Grant end up presenting :) but anyway in my au younger pups have this specific sweet milk scent but as they get older their real scent starts to come through and it gets more complex as they get older, along with the specific indicators of their dynamic after they present.

Jason's in that spot where his mature scent is starting to come through but because he hasn't had his heat that pup scent is still lingering. It creates a sort of uncanny valley for the nose to kids his age and adults but it makes him like catnip to pups because pregnant omegas also have that milk scent. This has caused some...less than fortunate rumors to circulate, because much like periods heats are usually delayed by pregnancy.

Kate is an Alpha who only dates other fem Alphas, and she'll be an important figure for Jason as he's navigating things with Grant. See the Todd's were also both Omegas, but Willis pretended to be an alpha at first because it was safer and then so no one was questioning how Jason was conceived. So Jason doesn't have the internalized queer phobia to work through (although he does have a lot of anxiety about his dynamic and what it means for him) but Grant very much does and Jason doesn't know how to navigate that. Kate will be the older queer person he turns to when he doesn't know how to go about things with someone who hasn't necessarily figured himself out yet.

Which brings me to Grant! He's so sure he's going to be an alpha, he never even entertains the thought of anything else. He's also unpresented in the first part, and because he hasn't even spared any thought to the possibility of not being an alpha, naturally he's sure that Robin is an omega. Because he loves Robin, that's the way things should be. Presenting as an omega really throws off his plans but does not make him confront his internal biases. Instead he switches gears to the sure conviction that Robin is an alpha, and he's going to be Grant's alpha.

Slade and Addie are trying very hard to cosplay as a perfect nuclear family. And failing miserably. From the outside it's an idyllic fem omega mother who stays at home with the pups and male alpha father who goes out to work, but the closer you look the more apparent the cracks are.

Adeline is the one with all the money and status, she's the older one in the relationship who had the position of power when they got together, she shows clear favoritism towards Joey based on the sheer fact that she doesn't know how to relate to her kids and Joey just happens to share her interests. She's too battle hardened and lethal to ever fit into the mold of a Proper Omega™️, but she tries because there are expectations that she has to meet to be considered respectable in the surrounding community.

Slade is exactly what you think of when you think of an alpha, masculine, strong, possessive. Jealous, stubborn, invasive. Determined, ruthless, the list goes on. But he's also significantly more emotional, promiscuous, and catty than the Traditional Alpha™️ is supposed to be. Every negative stereotype typically applied to omegas could easily also be applied to him. Flighty, codependent, a gold digger.

Joey and Grant expect to be an omega and an alpha respectively, it's what's expected of them just from how they act, so it throws everyone for a loop when the opposite is true. Presenting doesn't change their personalities though, Joey is still sensitive, soft spoken, and emotionally intelligent. Grant is still obnoxious, abrasive, and arrogant. Joey still wrinkles his nose at sports and can't stand hunting or fishing. Grant still climbs trees and picks fights. So they keep with this theme of the perfect family (two children, one alpha one omega) but neither of them perform their roles "correctly" which ostracizes them a lot, which only gets worse after the divorce. There's a very good reason that Addie tries to keep her kids out of the spotlight, and while most of it is for their safety, some of it is because the Kane's are old money and her father expects his legacy to be upheld and that requires an image to be maintained.

[iwasntcreativeenoughforaname]

I think that HIC’s tendency to keep around “lower life forms” that she deems useful/grows attached to is just a twisted version of Meenah’s desire to keep being with her friends in the dream bubbles because despite being mean, she genuinely cares about them

I never see enough of that. Of people remembering that the ancestors and the dancestors are the same people in more than genetics. Sure they have different ways they act and think as a result of Alternia and scratch’s influence, but the way they think and act really boils down to the dancestor’s original personality and just. Who they are in general

Meenah expresses desire to be a sister/mentor figure to Feferi because she wants to “show her how to be awesome” which to me seems like a clear wish for companionship from someone whom Meenah thinks will understand her. And she openly acknowledges that she finds the biological urge to kill her annoying.

And then we see this same dynamic but in a messed up way, where Condy is dead set on Jane being her heiress. There’s assassination attempts, as is expected of the heiress and empress, but when she finally has Jane in her proximity she forces her to her side and promises her a planet. And when she dies, Condy gets super pissed and kills Aranea in a fit of rage. Considering Jade was also alive, this could have been rage at hard work being wasted. Or maybe the loss of an heiress who she wouldn’t feel the need to kill, which I think the idea of interested HIC the same way it interested Meenah

We don’t properly see the ancestors aside from condy, so anything else would really be speculative or headcanons, but there’s definitely a basis for what I’m saying here. The dancestors and the ancestors are the same people the way the alpha guardians and the beta kids are. There’s different bits due to their environments, and they may be twisted and their logic may be warped. But at the end of the day it’s still them

Dualscar definitely had an interest in music

And mindfang definitely spent hours telling stories to any person in her crew who would listen

[theshadowrealmitself]

Thinking about the post I made about an omega getting transported to a universe without the a/b/o dynamics (unfortunately can’t reblog that original post with this addition cause both posts are gonna be scheduled) and I think a situation like that would really help give me what I want out of omegaverse

What I really want out of omegaverse is all the world building stuff, how a society and its people would function in that situation, but most of the time it’s a reimagining of intense misogyny, which is not my cup of tea

But I think a situation where a person goes from a society like that (without the omega hate) to a society where a/b/o isn’t a thing, would really highlight how different things would be

Technically the omegaverse society is different depending on the author, so I’m making up my own version, and adding in aliens:

Heats and ruts can cause health problems, the stress it puts on your body every month can lead to a ton of issues down the road, and honestly you just don’t wanna have your life be disrupted that much, so going on suppressants is common, especially for people who are single

But going off of suppressants can be deadly, and sometimes your suppressants can start being less effective as time goes on, so calling out of whatever to make sure you can go to the doctors and have that all figured out is not only normalized but also encouraged

(But now you’re suddenly in a universe where Humans don’t go through all that and you’re running out of suppressants and you’re just hoping the scientists, Vulcan ones who are strangely extremely interested in your heat suppressants and keep asking you about rut suppressants?, can quickly figure out how to make more)

Depending on the situation, scent blockers can be used (mostly in the maternity ward, so the medical staff don’t accidentally get their scent on the kids and accidentally cause the parents to instinctively think they’re trying to take away their kids), but it’s more of a personal preference

Alphas, omegas, and even betas can scent mark things, but alpha scents are usually just more noticeable because they tend to be more territorial and aggressive, doesn’t mean that omegas and betas aren’t scent marking things for the same reason, so just because you can’t smell an alpha around, doesn’t mean you aren’t encroaching on someone’s space, you can also tell people’s emotions from their scent

(You hate that in this new universe, no one can smell that you claimed stuff and you have to remember to verbalize it, you also hate that the only ones who can smell you are aliens who have to be weird about it because they aren’t used to Humans smelling like that)

I can never think of anything cool for betas and I hate that it’s usually just like “betas are usually just how Humans are irl”, so what, they don’t have cis guys that can get pregnant and cis women who can sire kids? boring! but I can’t think of anything fun for them!

Claiming bites are a thing, but mostly a thing of the past, still, you never touch go near an omega’s through without explicit consent

(If another fucker tries to go near your neck again you’re losing it at them >:/)

Nests are a big thing, even outside of heats, and kids, and stuff, it’s just really beneficial to an omega to have a safe, soft, place they have complete control over, their instincts demand it

(Apparently nesting isn’t a normal fucking thing for Humans in this universe?? you can’t find the round mattress with the round frame that has a headboard that goes around a majority of the bed to kinda cocoon you anywhere, that’s like, the most basic thing you’d used to find in stores, and now you keep having to find specialty shops that cater to extraterrestrials to find anything remotely similar, or figure out how to replicate it yourself, this is so frustrating!!! you’re gonna be so much more frustrated when you try to find the other supplies needed for nesting)

Instead of heats and ruts being quick things, there’s still a lot of time and clarity before it hits them, so like, let’s say if it’s a default alpha/omega, the omega will obsess over their nest and get it just right while the alpha get their scent on everything else in the room to let everyone else know to fuck off (if it’s any other pairing, then whoever feels the most comfortable fighting if a trespasser comes by, [even though that almost never happens, but there’s always that instinctual worry that if will happen] is the one who gets their scent on everything else and makes sure the room they’re in is secure)

(I love the idea of this omega getting a temporary Vulcan partner because their heat came on quickly, and Vulcans understand their predicament, so the omega is stressing over their nest while the Vulcan is walking around, methodically trying to scent everything because they know that also serves to make the other person not scenting feel secure in that scenario, and then, because I feel like Vulcans are a little bit of control freaks (lovingly) the Vulcan goes over to fuss with the nest as well and the omega is strangely content with that)

That’s what I have for now, may add stuff later

[whamss]

Ok I have to ask because you have such based takes on rose as a character,

1) do you read fan fic/ if you don’t what’s your general take on fics interpretation of Rose and other characters in homestuck

2) if you do, please I am begging for any rose character study / rose&kanaya pieces you like, anything will do I just would adore to hear your thoughts. Ao3 is like a drought of mischaracterization of Rose & Kanaya and it hurts my soul.

Oh man, I don't read nearly as much fic as I wish I did not gonna lie, I'm so lazy! (And I suffer from chronic daydreamer disease, where instead of reading fanfic I walk in circles in my room and put Rose Lalonde in Scenarios). I have a few that I've read over the years that I've liked a lot though, so I can try to compile a general list:

the ennui of too late and too little

Starting with this one because it was just posted (and I just read it) and I think it's fantastic! Kanaya POV but Rose-centric, with a particular focus on Rose reflecting back on her childhood with her mom as Kanaya and Rose wander through the wreckage of her childhood home. There's a lot of sweet Rosemary banter in here, and I think the characterization is fantastic. It's a good one if you're like me and want to see Rose actually go through the motions of understanding her mother, balancing her newfound sympathy with her Mom's situation and the things she actually put her through. Her feelings are complicated! And I think the author captured the nuances of how Rose might deal with that very well

And, trying to unfold for you, was brittle

Following the theme of fics about Rose and her mom is the Vampire Slayer Rose AU. This one has slightly less of a Rosemary focus (although it's still there), but explores Rose and her mom's relationship more directly in a way that I think is fantastically developed. It's a very interesting read, albeit a little hard to describe Why it's good unless you read it (read it! It's good!!!). I know you're not asking for Kanaya-centric stuff, but if you like this fic (and are okay with reading or skimming over a tiny bit of smut) I think that this author writes a lot of very solid Kanaya fic. Particularly recommending We Face Back All The Way, a Fallen London AU where Kanaya tries to save Rose's soul from a contract with Dr Scratch, and Where the River Narrows, a fic where post-game Kanaya deals with the precarious future of her race, and wanders the dreambubbles in hopes of solutions (and deals with Some Bullshit along the way. And yes, there's Rosemary. Who do you think I am!!!). From there I also think this is a pretty good author to scroll through in general, lots of bangers in there

Yarn Interpolation

This is a Rose-centric series of two fics that I think is very good. Doomed No Sburb AU where there's no game but Rose's powers develop enough for her to know what she's missing. I don't quite remember the exact specifics of this, but it's a very good beta kids fic with Rose mourning the wife she never met and platonic JadeRose marriage. It's cute and sweet, and I remember it being a fairly cathartic read

Show the Lights

Grimdark Rose comes of age and deals with some internalized homophobia along the way. Fun stuff! This was one of the first Rosemary fics I ever read so I hold it close to me, but I think it's a pretty good fic where Rose reckons with her feelings for Kanaya against the prospect of procreation and the continued survival of her species (in between the desire to feel useful to her group as her friends embark on an Egbert rescue mission). Some smatterings of a very fun pitch Vrisrose dynamic in here as well, as a bit of a bonus

love left her screaming at the screen

Speaking of Rose dealing with internalized homophobia, if you spend enough time shifting through Rosemary AO3 you've probably already read or at least heard of this one but I still think it's good enough that I should include it. Very reminiscent of what it was like to be a lesbian teenager in the 2000's, Rose deals with these preconceptions at the end of the world, through an unrequited crush on Jade and Slightly More Requited feelings for Kanaya. This fic was good for me specifically as someone who was always urked by the fact that Rose's sexuality is never really discussed in depth in Homestuck proper (compared to characters like Dave, Dirk, and Jake), and beyond that I think it's a very interesting exploration of how the bigotry and politics from Earth might stick with the kids, even when everyone who would judge them is long dead. This is another author who's fics I think are fun to sit through as well, lots of good Rose and Rosemary stuff in here (will give a particular shout out to think about staying alive, a Rose Strider AU, which is great for those of us in the Put Rose In A Situation camp who also love good gen fic with Rose and Dave)

Reviews Of Young Adult Novels, Mainly Those Prominently Featuring Vampires, And Containing At Least One Love Triangle

This one is just plain silly, but it's one of my favorites. Rose is an alcoholic who writes young adult novels, and Kanaya is her greatest online critic. Sort of an Urban Fantasy, more of an alternate No Game timeline, with a lot of canon elements sprinkled in (classpect powers are still a thing, Dave's that played the game timeline jump, things like that). This one has a very fun Rosemary dynamic, and in general I think Rose's characterization in this is wonderful. It's unfinished but I think it stands very solidly as is, so if you're looking for something goofy and fun to read this is a great fic to turn to

Vermeil Tarnishing

A shorter one shot AU where Rose is a Derse priestess captured by Prospit. This is a fun one I think, lots of fun dialogue with little glimpses into fictional politics, which ends with a bit of a bang. Not a massive Rosemary focus, but the bit of them that we do see is very fun!

> Rose: Reorient

What kind of mutual would I be if I didn't recommend @awellreadmannequin 's Rose fic? Post-game Rose, dealing with her addiction and the mounting threat of a relapse, visits Roxy and Calliope. Very good characterization, Rose's thoughts are rambly and meandering and she is very much Going Through It, but things get better, you know? Good Rose angst, great study of her character with little discussions of philosophy sprinkled in. A look at how Rose's more ironic childhood interests might grow into something more genuine, and take her down a more hopeful path, with some very sweet Rosemary moments near the end of the first chapter and little hints of vrisrosemary in thoughts and dialogue (in Rosemary's hearts). It's still a work in progress, but I think that the first chapter alone is a great read with a very hopeful conclusion, and I look forward to seeing how it pans out, and I think that other people should read it!!! (Best read on a computer or horizontally on a tablet)

[omegaverse-daily]

(Hi! Please do tell me if this post is anonymous, Imao, can't let my moots know I actually fw Omegaverse and think it's pretty interesting)

(Sorry for any mistakes, English isn't my first language)

I have two questions, but also some HCs!

When does a pup get their hierarchy? when they're newborn?? Do they get it based on genetics or anything?

About the Hcs: Omega pups usually get more attached to their toys, specially if it was a big part of their lives, like if a omega pup get a toy, you can bet they'll probably grow with this specific toy, and even maybe still let it roam on their room when they're older.

Alpha pups get pretty... Uhm... "bite-y" with their parents. It's not uncommon for you to find an alpha pup suddenly and aggressively snatching their teeth's on their alpha dad/mom, but being sightly more gentler with their omega dad/mom. This can lead to the confusion of other people, seeing the parents suddenly with so many bite marks that aren't big enough to be from their mate..

Beta pups (I love betas, they're so cool | or this is only cus I'm a beta please don't make us look like normal, boring people. I hate this) Beta pups usually are the ones who ask more to be picked up on laps, or just carried around! They like being on their parents comfort while also feeling the thrill of being in a high place, so imagine when a parent get their beta pup on their piggyback, you can be sure that kid will be giggling all the way over.

That's it! Hope you liked it! Hope everything is alright with the mods and have a great day!

It’s anon babe! And in my verse I like them being born with their dynamic, so your headcanons are right up my alley! There is like a genetic background but simply I do not know enough about genetics to tell you what :/

(I also don’t love the moots knowing that I run this blog lmao hopefully they don’t or they’re cool with it x.x)

-km

[lifesver]

GET TO KNOW THE MUN !

what made you pick up the muse you have ? : my friend typecasted my muse type when the victims concept art was announced. just immediately pointed out the horror jock like yep. that'll be the one u like. and then i played the tcsm beta back in may me and rae started wildly theorycrafting.... and well my demons have been winning since. i love a jock who is kind of fail but trying his best like you got me there.

is there anything you really enjoy writing ? : i'm a creep i'm a weirdo i love exploring horror and the many themes that can coexist in it. ig i like to kind of examine trauma and the healing process through the lens of the slasher genre, as well as where horror and love coincide as themes. i think there is underrepresentation in just....... letting slasher final kids have some kind of healing arc, or letting their story continue in general? seeing them before and after the things that happen to them? and i can't always do it but i do also like to kind of dive down into slasher horror and light gore and just practicing writing dynamic action scenes and what a character's thought process is like during those kinds of moments. i love an opportunity to be mean to my blorbo

is there anything you don't like to write ? : probably just anything needlessly like... melodramatic between characters? i have no interest in plots like genuine jealousy and love triangles and interpersonal shit like that, mostly because i write horror and there are so many more interesting things to focus on imo? and because not enough slasher content casts seem like they actually care about each other lmaooo. is this a callout post about gun.'s take on the friend group? perhaps.

how do you come up with your headcanons ? : dude i just receive the prophecies and act like im on twitter tossing my every stupid thought into the void.

do you write in silence or listen to music ? : tbh i usually write either in silence or in a deranged third way (writing between games of overwatch) my adhd sometimes demands that i am doing several things at the same time and sometimes i can sit down at the coffee shop put on some instrumentals and just slam some replies in

do you plan your replies or wing them ? : hmmm a bit of both? i usually have to start by winging it, which usually involves me dropping in whatever reaction dialogue immediately comes to me. kind of work around that, save and close the draft, and then think about the reply a bit until i eventually know where i'm going with it LOL

do you enjoy shipping ? : i do with friends! i'm not actually a huge like... ships person in a general fandom sense and i rarely feel any particular way until something is compelling to me in fanon, but i can ship most things if it's with a writing partner i like! simply ask rae we will be creating ships 0 people are thinking about shout out leland/connie tcsm tommy/jenny f13 and jake/adam dbd. i also usually go hard on the slowburn, and that's just like, personal comfort for getting to know my muse and my writing partner's muse, but also just think slowburn rules

what's your alias / name ? : kels.

zodiac sign ? : pisces sun, gemini moon, aries rising.

Birthday? : march 20th!

favorite color ? : a sort of pastel pink-lilac

favorite song ? : feel that it must be go your own way / fleetwood mac

last movie you watched ? : oh jesus i fear it was hellraiser: revelations

last show you watched ? : icr if it was an episode of goosebumps or true detective tbh

last song you listened to ? : putting the dog to sleep by the antlers....

favorite food ? : veggie burritos probably. or honestly like. just a really good bagel cream cheese LMFAO

favorite season ? : spring (:

do you have a tumblr best friend ? : rae and i have been in and out of these trenches for years i fear

TAGGED BY : @solarisgod thank u!!! mwah mwah <3

TAGGING : all my fellas

[omegapheromone]

WuWa omegaverse dynamic headcanons, pt. 1: Alphas

I headcanon Calcharo as an alpha for 100% self-indulgent reasons. I think he's hot, I'm an omega, I'm mostly into men only and generally prefer alphas for the most part. What more do I need to say? I'm kissing him on the mouth as we speak btw /j

Honestly I don't know too much about Changli, I haven't been looking at spoilers too much and avoided trailers bc I wanna form my own opinion when she's added to game but I just get an alpha vibe from her? (she and jinhsi are married btw)

As for Jianxin, I think she could be a beta as well, but I think something about the way she was shown in the story so far made me think Alpha, just more of a loner type? I have some more thoughts on why I think she's an alpha but rn my brain isnt working enough to explain

Jiyan. While he has a more gentle side I think it's hard to imagine him as anything BUT an Alpha. I mean, he started out as a medic only to end up as THE general guy whom everyone looks up to. He's like literally THE protector of Jinzhou.

Lingyang is an interesting case to me actually. I could see him being either an alpha OR an omega but ultimately I think he'd more likely be an alpha with omega-like behaviors. Especially the implications that he is/was an ancient Suanni just kind of make me lean towards him being an Alpha even if his personality is fairly omega-like. It's just a sort of vibe I get? Plus idk I'd feel kind of strange about calling the one single small guy an omega, it's just kind of a tired stereotype to me? Like I was contemplating on placing him in a "hasn't presented yet" cathegory, were it not for the fact that he indeed implies quite strongly he's likely very old and also a mythical creature assuming a (mostly) human form. Idk I just think we need more small guy alpha representation overall.

Yinlin. Listen man. She throws puppets around, uses their strings as whips to crack in her ult animation, she looks like she's going to step on you whether you want it or not. Even in her story quest, I get the feeling she'a got a specific type of charisma that makes me think of Alphas. So, I tend to see her as an alpha.

Finally the absolute DILF that is Yuanwu. Brother. There's NO WAY he's anything but an alpha. Not only does he own a boxing gym and constantly bring up how he's glad to help others become stronger and teach people how to defend themselves or just get healthier, but he's also literally just such a gentleman. The fedora is a little cringe but good lord, this dilf makes me think of like, a divorced Alpha man with maybe one teen/adult kid who is doing what makes him happy (running his boxing gym lol) and enjoying tea. He probably has a really healthy and amicable relationship with all his exes, but never hooks up with them. His very essence just gives "confident and moderately wealthy man who went to therapy and healed himself, now he's just dedicating his life to his hobbies and interests but offers guidance and emotional support to whoever needs it". Guy is an alpha for sure.

[marisoft-paint-adventures]

Pgs. 309 - 384

so there’s this guy.

he has an intro.

and

he’s pretty cool.

he’s so cool he has a shitty galaxy reflection in his shades.

his name is David and his room looks like this.

Dave’s room is the most kind of guy room ever, I can just feel his entire personality here, and I can also feel the “this dude has no parental guidance outside of an equally unorganized brother” energy.

Dave is just a hyperspecific Guy, a real type of Guy, he’s even described as liking obscure bands and shit, Hussie was airing something out when making him.

Anyway, these are your copies of the beta you received in the mail recently. You've labeled them with your name in BOLD RED PRINT to distinguish them from your BRO's copies, who labeled his in kind. Neither of you really gives a shit about this game or has any intention of playing it, but you'll be damned if you'll let that get in the way of your campaign of one-upmanship.

the Lalondes and Striders have a lot of parallels going on between each other with their dynamics and situations. 1 thing that sets them apart is that the perception of an insane mindgame rivalry seems to be more truthful on Dave’s end compared to Rose. Rose thinks that even a fucking fancy pillow is some kind of symbol of scorn and spite in the waterfall of irony and insincerity. while there’s not much seen out of Dave and Bro’s relationship on a normal day, the stupid ass stealth moves that Bro pulls out in order to get Dave’s goat really implies that there is a genuine absurd rivalry going.

also they’re just brothers. when there’s brothers in fiction, they either hate each other or like each other but still fuck with each other just for the sake of Being Brothers.

Dave: Bleat like a goat and piss on your turntable.

You would never consider allowing any fluid even remotely resembling urine to touch your beloved TURNTABLES. That would risk breaking them, and a world without the gift of your godly science just doesn't sound like a place you want any part of. While you're at it, you might as well wipe out human civilization with a meteor or something ridiculous like that which will probably never happen. That sort of thing only happens in stupid idiot movies for stupid idiots.

You will however contemplate bleating like a goat for IRONICALLY HUMOROUS purposes at a later date.

Dave is so lame.

FUCKING APPLE JUICE BABY. YEAH LOVE THAT SHIT. TOP 3 FRUIT JUICES ON THE TIERLIST WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

he’s gonna say it, he’s gonna say the thing.

yeah this is the OS design I’m attached to the most, I grew up with Windows 7 which basically did everything Vista did but a bit more glassy, so this is up my fucking ally. look at those GRADIENTS, look at all that GLOSS, it’s so fucking good.

HE SAID IT.

I love Hussie’s fake UI I love it.

I also love Dave Strider’s blog, he said the n-word on it

not joking you can check for yourself.

FUCKING SWEET BRO AND HELLA JEFF YEAAAAAAAAAAAAA.

SBAHJ is so damn interesting because it’s the Homestuck thing that has the furthest reach out of the entire comic but at the same time people don’t even know it’s Homestuck.

true story: my 1st ever exposure to Homestuck without even knowing it was when I was like 12 years old and watched a fucking VanossGaming GMod video in which they played that masterpiece SBAHJ map.

seeing a giant shittily compressed texture that just said AIDS which spun around in a circle and fucking instantly killed anything it touched was literally formative for my sense of humor.

the backstory is also absolutely beautiful, imagine dropping your armature Gamer Webcomic™ on the Penny Arcade forums only for Future Homestuck Artist Andrew Hussie to come in and completely shit on your comic by turning it into the worst form of art you have ever seen which would then turn into its own popular comic.

I really like the utility of SBAHJ as an in-universe source of memes and in-jokes for all the kids to reference rather than forcing relevance by shoving in memes that were popular at the time. it really helps make Homestuck feel... not exactly timeless per say, but more relatable in way that supersedes generations.

I say this because I fucking know for a fact real ass memes come in later on in the comic and they get really fuckin annoying.

I would kill someone for a Midnight Crew adventure, you would not believe how far I would go for this to be real.

TT: In some cultures the persistent refusal of a lady's invitation to play a game with her would be a sign wanton disrespect. TT: Either that, or flagrant homosexuality.

STOP JOKING ABOUT DAVE LIKING MEN YOU DO NOT KNOW OF THE FUTURE CONSEQUENCES IT HAS.

it is here where Dave and Rose immediately become the best fucking character dynamic ever.

TT: Sometimes I wonder how you are ever allowed to pay for meals in restaurants. TT: It must be hard to keep a low profile when you're always overhearing awed voices whisper, "It's that guy who has a blog." TG: seriously TG: dudes be worshipping me left and right TG: i cant hardly walk down the street without stepping over torsos of the prostrate TT: Navigating the urban landscape I'm sure is difficult enough without an obstacle course of deferential flesh and skyward asses. TT: Perhaps adapting the art of parkour to your unique environment would help? TG: yeah! TG: i mean damn TG: like theres this scruffy little shit at my feet TG: an orphan or something i dont know TG: face flush on the pavement TG: im like dude you listening for a stampede of buffalo or something? TG: he braves a look at me then gives my shoe a little kiss and scurries the fuck off TT: Heavy is the crown. TG: yeah TG: not kicking oliver twist in the fucking face every day is my gift to the world i guess

also the little "yeah!" he does in excitement of parkour before he corrects himself back to serious coolguy mode is fucking perfect.

aw what the fuck put that shit away.

Dave’s Phat Beat Machine may be a silly joke about shitty fucking DJ machines that have weird pre-made beats and sound effects but some of this shit slaps when you play them at the same time ngl. 11 and 12 together is really fuckin good.

also Captain Planet is in this flash.

maybe Dave is cool, no one else could catch and open that apple juice with such finesse.

this is a really great series of expressions, he is so mad. he can’t stop thinking about PISS.

HE’S SO MAD.

oh god.

oh god they’re here.

You glance at one of the many RADICAL PUPPETS in your BRO'S collection and nod in approval. Is there anything not awesome about your BRO? No, you think not.

this is not cool this is very not cool.

why is the little man in the SHOWER, bro does not BATHE, he is made of WOOD.

he is simply having a terrible, terrible day.

why did he do this.

HOLY SHIT IT’S DAVE’S IRONIC SELF PORTRAIT.

this is why Dave’s sylladex shit is the best sylladex shit, sheer frustrating mathematics leading to renaming items into weird synonyms and yelling out shit to fucking send out swords.

LOOK AT HIM.

he changed his tune so fast, he went from imposing and about throw down to just...

:o

now how will he play the funny Sburb??? what will he do to get out of this situation- WIZARD.

GIANT, STONE, WIZARD.

girl is not having it.

it is here we get the entire downlow of this maddening mother-daughter relationship through the totally not biased eyes of Rose. I mean look at this shit:

Your mother clearly has no real affinity for these damnable things. She only collects them to spite you. If anything, she finds them even more repellent than you do. She's just a committed woman.

A while ago you gave this as an ironic gift to your MOM for mother's day. You even customized it with a drink holder to support one of her ubiquitous ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES. She "liked" the gift so much, she had it bronzed and put on this pedestal. She even left it plugged in so it can still be turned on now and then. But never to do any cleaning. It never leaves this display.

The PRETTY PRINCESS DOLL has been sitting there for months, ever since your mother got this abomination for your birthday as a totally PASSIVE-AGGRESSIVE gesture. You decided to make it much less abominable by knitting Her Majesty a new head and new arms. Now it brings a mischievous smile to your face whenever you walk by. Your mother hasn't removed the doll yet, and probably never will. She would never be the one to blink first.

This was a drawing you did of your cat JASPERS when you were younger, along with a poem about him. Your mother bought this ostentatious $15,000 frame for it, and had it welded to the door.

Using the colorful MAGNET LETTERS, you recently left a succinct message, which may or may not have been directed toward anyone in particular. But you couldn't find the letter W, so you just stuck two V's together.

Your mother then purchased a fresh pack of W's and left them there for your convenience. Appreciative of the thoughtful gesture, you left her a sincere THANK YOU NOTE, which you had legally notarized, and then marked with a drop of blood.

But part of it was touching the floor, so your mother was kind enough to lift the lower portion of the document with a VELVET PILLOW.

this entire cavalcade of fucking overly professional stupidity really just symbolizes the daily Lalonde struggle. again, way more of an actual thing compared to the baking menace in Washington, Rose does not feel loved enough, she projects contempt onto every action of her mother, even if they’re completely genuine, who’s also literally an alcoholic. but at the same time, this is ridiculous. I can bet that the mere thought of any of this coming off as mean-spirited to Rose is just flying over Mom’s head because she’s too busy cleaning shit or getting drunk. she’s so sincerely nice but also too damn ignorant, while at the same time going completely overboard in every sense just because she can. “oh look at this!! my daughter’s very own drawing!!! it’s so nice!!! let me put it in an expensive frame and then weld it straight onto the fridge!!! :)))))” and then Rose sees this and just goes “SHREW!!! DAMNED SHREW!!!” meanwhile Mom’s just taking this as “oh she’s spelling words on the fridge!!! :))))) but she has no Ws..... :((((( I’ll buy some for her!!! that will satisfy her needs!!! :)))))” and I guess Rose takes a break from the absolute scorn she’s building up in her system to make the most polite ass note all like “Dearest Mother Lalonde, I thank thee for this humble present.” and notarizing it with BLOOD. of course this has to end with Mom walking in, seeing this note and going “how thoughtful!!!” and then sliding a god damn pillow just for the presentation.

it is my firm belief that the Lalondes are just kind of off the fucking wall inherently, literally all of them just do wacky shit like this without question.

fandom mischaracterizations are so frequent that they’re not even a surprise, but this concept of Rose being this completely serious and levelheaded girl who’s always moody and brooding and never puts up with stupid shit is something I cannot understand how anyone picked up from her. she has a sense of humor, a really damn good one, a lot of the comedy can be attributed to her dialogue. she’s not dead serious, she literally knits Lovecraft monsters in purple for goofs and does something like the above while no one is around. and in no possible way is she running on full logic and reasoning because she plays weird mind games with her mom and later on just goes insane and destroys shit for the hell of it. there really is more to Rose than just “goth = serious smart.”

a lot of this extends to Kanaya as well because I guess people just write the 2 of them as the same person, as we all know, couples can’t be together unless they completely overlap on the Venn diagram of their personalities, hobbies, and interests, but that’s for later.

AND THEN SHE PAYS FOR THE FUCKIN MAGNET. WHO DOES THIS.

MOTHER JUMPSCARE.

And of all things to be doing during a power outage. She's up to her IRONIC HOUSEWIFE routine again. That mop bucket doesn't even have any water in it! What an absolute madwoman.

I like how Rose calls this some kind of weird irony chore that no sane individual would do without a hint of joking, she really expects too much out of Mom. a real core part of this relationship is how Rose assumes that her mother is operating on the same high level thinking as her, when in reality she’s just doing actual housewife stuff genuinely. the bucket being empty is even part of Rose overthinking all of this, Mom’s using a Swiffer, she doesn’t need water, she just brought the bucket because it completes the housewife look.

I don’t know if that latter part was intentional or if Hussie just didn’t know how Swiffers worked.

NYOOM.

SICK TRICKS.

ah fuck.

the Strider household is such a very specific home aesthetic of “complete fucking disaster, the likes of which you have never seen, owned by 2 dudebros who like Eminem.” this visual style is so poignant that the best way Dave fixes a window is with straight black tape, how classy.

big fan of how everyone talking to Jade starts to smile, she just has that energy. I mean look at Dave, you see that single raised pixel? that’s him smiling! he’s got joy! and he’s so much more genuine when he’s talking to her too, she’s literally the one person in the friend group where he can drop the whole image of “I am so fucking Cool and Real and Awesome and Swag.” they play off of each other really damn well, no wonder DaveJade is a really big ship.

TG: say hi to your grand dad for me too ok GG: ._. GG: yes i guess an encounter with him is almost certain GG: it is usually........ GG: intense!!! TG: well yeah isnt it always with family

this is the non-embarrassing parallel to John talking about Dad with Rose. Dave’s probably thinking to himself, “ah yes, she too knows of the struggle of high octane anime fights in the middle of the house.” meanwhile Jade’s talking about yelling at a corpse.

also JADE KNOWS THE FUTURE??? HUHHHH???? HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE???????????

[chilaios-bi]

NSFW Prompt Rules

Things I'll Write

1. Soft Safe SFW Vore

yeah you heard me right

2. Mpreg

and pregnancy in general

3. Trans Character

but only if you're okay with it being written by me, a cis author who has little experience writing trans characters (something I'm working on so this might improve)

4. Monster Laios and/or Monster Chilchuck

5. Dubious Consent

as in 'Fuck or Die' 'Sex Pollen' 'Something Made Then Do It' 'didn't explicitly ask for consent but they're both into it'

6. Top Laios/Bottom Laios and Top Chilchuck/Bottom Chilchuck

i don't have a preference for whose on top both dynamics are interesting

7. Breeding Kink

8. Pregnancy Kink

9. Size Kink

10. Plot Heavy

11. Other, unless it's on the 'No' or 'Maybe' part of the list, feel free to ask

12. Genderbending to F/M

normally I have an issue with making a gay ship straight to ship them, but with Chilaios, I think one of them being a girl could only make things Worse and More Complicated, and therefore more interesting!!

Things I Might Write

1. Omegaverse

i don't care if who the alpha/omega is or it they're betas or both alpha or whatever, but I'll only write omegaverse if it includes mpreg because I use it more as a plot device for a kid or pregnancy fic than anything

2. Light Bondage

like ropes, holding someone in place, vines, tentacles, not handcuffs or rope burn, or chains

3. Past Noncon

only if the one doing the noncon is not a canon character

4. Attempted Noncon

only if the one attempting the noncon is not a canon character

Things I Won't Write

1. BDSM

other than the previously mention light bondage

2. Somnophilia

3. Bestiality

4. Watersports

5. Age Play

6. Pet Play

7. Scat

8. Burping

9. Farting

10. Stuffing

11. Miscarriage

12. Gore

13. Daddy Kink

14. Noncon

15. Genderbending to F/F

i just have yet to write f/f nsfw so i'm not comfortable with writing it for a prompt yet

[another-dra-anew]

mekaru cuz she's neglected tbh 🥺?

im so fucking guilty of neglecting her. i neeed her to make friends so i can start spinning her in my mind with characters im already obsessed with so she can be More in my brain as her own character. mekaru pls pls just start being more authentic and love urself-

cw she has so much internalized homophobia. that’s all tho

-My identity hc for them

canon lesbian!! has a lot of comphet tho. like, a lot. like, only character to upload the “fact” they’re het to their report card. 

- Thoughts on their home life/family

ya know. i think she’s lying to herself about how much she likes kids. i don’t think she’s inclined to them but playing babysitter all the time has made her p child adverse. however admitting this means realizing she can’t gain “i am a normal respectable non-offending person who no one has any reason to have any issue with” points by raising 2.5 kids. so. yeah she just chooses to keep lying to herself

- How i feel about their canonical writing/handling

tbh i think i do a bad job portraying her comphet? buuut. to take a step back and think neutrally about things, i think that’s predominantly a result of, again, the role she plays in the story, and the fact we’re not in her head. we can judge how well i write her comphet when we get to pick her brain a bit more in ftes. id rather have a more subtle, more accurate depiction, then one that’s made inaccurate with how in your face “wow my bestie is so pretty if only girls who liked girls were real…” it is. (<- not that portrayals like that are bad/wrong, it’s abt enjoying yourself while not feeding into negative stereotypes! i just don’t really want to depict her comphet in that more lighthearted manner).

- The one thing i’d want to make canon about them

again. this is prolly just gonna be stuff which didn’t happen in canon but could’ve if things were different? w/mekaru i think if she studied psychology more and like. Dedicated herself to it she could easily rise to shsl psychiatrist level. this is canon but i think that she’s specifically interested in medicine when it comes to treatment of the human condition. she likes and grasps it all, but the history of assorted pills is where she Shines

- My number one favorite ship for them

okada my beloved <3. (obligatory: okada aimi is mekarus bestie! she’ssss. sapphic, i don’t have anything more specific/anything otherwise canon for her. she likes mekaru and thinks mekaru likes her back (she’s right), buuut. she hasn’t confessed because she thinks she’ll be rejected (she’s right, again.) she’s trying to gently tug mekaru into having a Revelation but it hasn’t been going v well for her.

- …Now everyone else i ship with them

i used to say that like. tomori was probably her gateway into her moment of Realization. i can still see that being true but i think it was less genuine desire to date and moreso.  mekaru projecting what she feels she needs to be onto tomori then seeing tomori being queer and going. hmmm. anyways tho. i kinda like her w/kurokawa but i think kurokawas just v shippable? poor okada tho i think she’d would be crying and throwing up if she found out mekaru dated a girl from hpa before dating her.

also tho i kinda think she’d be cute w/hatanami. sorry okada :(

- The thing i will NEVER ship

she is in fact still a lesbian, folks! uhh past that tho im rotating her with different girls and i don’t like the idea of her and inori like. at all for some reason

- a dynamic/relationship i wish was explored more (in canon, or in fandom)

i think it’d be neat if she. i don’t know got to have friends. id like to chat abt her interacting with tomori more!!

- thoughts on their design (appearance-wise)

im really happy with her redesign! her personality and demeanor changed from the first one she had here, but her fit didn’t change, and it really just didn’t work. also it’s kinda matchy with linujs actual beta design for rei iirc? so that’s funny

- A music-related thought- a song that reminds me of them, or what their music taste is, etc

lol. little miss perfect from write out loud/etc. uhh past the obvi one i had to list… first love/late spring - mitski comes to mind less in a. struggling with growing up and loving seriously as an adult and moreso. fear that comes with realizing ur in love with ur bestie (u are a teen with severe internalized homophobia). again apologizing for my inability to stick with what the song is actually about at least this one was semi accurate. please know i will go to war when it comes to respecting mitski as an artist and not dismissing her experiences and what she’s saying. 

[beta-adjacent]

The Great Gatsby Placement HCs🍾

I feel like this story is one of the more interesting ones to flip dynamic archetypes, not only because we should generally re-explore gender/sexuality during the turn of the 20th century, but also because this book specifically toys with ways to have social/interpersonal leverage. I really struggled to cover that here adequately (I’m kind of a basic bitch lol), but I’d love to see an AU where conceptions like “masculine/leader/protector alpha” changes entirely

Daisy: omega.

An annoyingly easy placement for me. I feel like for her to be driven to have an affair with Nick, she'd need to be one, if that makes sense? She needs that feeling of being equal and being in a traditional marriage of "man x omega woman" or the epitome of “object of desire” Really would emphasize that I think.

Beta works too? You’re not going to see me actively fight that

Nick: any dynamic

I and I think most others would see him as a beta. He’s an observer, he finds it natural to fall into the background of whatever bullshit his life is surrounded by, he often finds himself a mediator between other parties, I lowkey kind of kin him, etc.

I’d also take Nick as an alpha who refuses to step into the spotlight, which adds an interesting nuance for him admiring Gatsby ("do I love him or wanna be him?" type beat).

And I’m down to argue to defend omega Nick too, though I’ll be honest, I only really considered it because Nick was played by Tobey Maguire in the movie, haha.

Jordan: beta or alpha

Really, I just want to emphasize she and Nick are foils.

Honestly, I'm kind of in love with Jordan being whatever dynamic Gatsby initially presents himself as, because there's meant to be this kind of hollow relationship thing happening between Jordan and Nick and ✨fucked up implications in dynamic parallels✨ are tasty (listen, Nick was already on thin ice considering how this motherfucker specifically liked how androgynous Jordan was; please let me do this shawty)

I’ll also say omega could be fun because we’d be working with an omega athlete

Gatsby: literally anything works

I don't know how many times I've seen transmasc Gatsby since I started looking up fanworks, but what I do know is that the idea is stuck in my mind forever. That is to say, it almost feels imperative for Gatsby's narrative to hide his dynamic or to excessively flaunt it because it was the one thing he could rely on in his youth.

I personally find myself the most in love with beta Gatsby, masking as anything he finds fun for that day, using the most expensive perfumes and tech.

Alpha Gatsby who follows his dream partially because “I’m no real alpha if I can’t make it big” or “I’m an alpha so I’m destined for greatness”.

I love Omega Gatsby specifically because it means we’re now playing with the classic “omega-mask as-not omega” trope. Like are you fucking KIDDING me?!?!?!?!? TEXTBOOK ANGST for this genre HOLY SHIT.

Point is: any dynamic for Jay is stellar, including pan/inter/fluiddynamic, because he can use it as yet another way to masquerade (or as deluded inspiration for his idealism, haha)

Tom: alpha, but consider…

Tom’s old money, the traditional foil for the new-wave moonshiner Jay. So alpha is just kind of a no-brainer, especially if we’re playing with Jay being this aspiring alpha/putting into question what makes an alpha.

But. But but but PLEASE just imagine a Tom who’s ALSO insecure like Gatsby in his second gender. Beta or omega Tom is insane to me, and this is really where I wish I had the brains for an non-traditionalish AU, because I want to see Tom/Daisy’s personalities/interactions to be totally flipped from the “ideal” alpha man/omega woman couple.

[squirreltastrophe]

Homestuck thoughts (omg I love homestuck homestuck beloved bbg)

THE ASK I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR FOR MONTHS YAY!!!!! I'm gonna format these in a (really long sorry lmao) list cause that's the most easily digestible format I feel :3

also I've only read up to not far into act 5 part 2 so there is admittedly a lot I don't know :P I definitely don't have the anything close to the most objective opinions on junk

JADE IS MY FAVORITE I LOVE HER!!!!! I threw together a crappy little jade cosplay once I made a little tail it was so cute :3. honestly Jade is the biggest motivator I have for actually reading Homestuck cause I love her sosoososo much and I'm really interested to see how she develops!!!!!! every day I wake up and the first thing I look at is a print of her on my wall I love you jade harley

speaking of characters I like I love nepeta SO MUCH and like 80% of the reason why I haven't read more Homestuck and choose to consume fan content instead is cause I'm scared for her to die :(

jadepeta is horrifically underrated (I know they don't interact really shhhh) and probably my favorite Homestuck ship :3!!!! doggirl catgirl yuri! they can be cringe together! they parallel each other in their loneliness!!!! they can help each other know that they ARE wanted and needed and loved!!!!! what more could you want!!!!!!!!

I love karkat a lot too :3 hes just like me fr too many emotions for his own good

oh I love June too!!!!!! just like me fr as well!!!!!!!!!

big davekat fan I am basic <3. however I do wish I could find homestuck fics that aren't focused on them lol

dunno how to feel about vrisrezi? I haven't gotten to the part in the story where they're more fleshed out and stuff. they seem uh? not great for each other? which is why I'm kinda surprised I see people shipping them so much. maybe they get better idk. THEY ARE SO INTERESTING THOUGH OH MY GOD. I WANT TO PUT THEM IN AN ENCLOSURE AND STUDY THEM I NEED TO LEARN ABOUT THEM MORE

I really really really like rosemary HOWEVER lots of fan content (specifically fanfiction I have found like 2 good rosemary centric fics) doesn't explore them really I feel and this makes me kinda sad :(. they're just the lesbians and are happy and love each other and that's great but their dynamic could be so much more!!!!!!! the competition!!!! them being at different levels of being invested in the relationship!!!!! rose not opening up to kanaya!!!!!!!! the drama!!!!!!

don't understand davejade :(. don't dislike it I just genuinely don't get it idk

not a vriska fan she is terrible (where I am at least) HOWEVER this doesn't mean I don't want to pop open her brain and examine her psyche

I think the only troll I just flat out hate and don't think is interesting is equius honestly? idk hes creepy :(. and racist :(. with some of the other trolls I go okay you are definitely very very VERY flawed. but I want to see why you are this way (especially eridan). with equius he's kinda just terrible and doesn't seem all that fun to explore. my opinion could change though maybe I haven't given him a fair chance :P

i think a really big reason why I'm so attached to the beta kids is cause they remind me of me and my bestest friends tbh

I have no opinions on the alpha kids honestly. just haven't gotten to where they're introduced and haven't looked into them that much :P. I think roxy's gonna wind up being my favorite of them though she seems so silly!

dont really care about dancestors for the same reason

I think my favorite thing about homestuck so far is how big the theme of loneliness is? especially with the beta kids (in my mind at least). like I don't think any of them mention friends besides each other and Jade literally lives on an island completely alone. I like how all the beta kids deal with this loneliness in slightly different ways too! and then troll society is so hostile that it's almost impossible to make meaningful connections. I'm just a sucker for when a group of characters are outcasts and weirdos but they find community in each other! :) gotta be one of my favorite tropes

another aspect I really like about Homestuck is how it takes things that exist in videogames only and adapts them to its world (captchalouges are the first example I think of)

my classpect is either witch of space, knight of space, or witch/knight of heart I cannot decide

I think I'm a prospit dreamer? but i'm not sure I really don't know all that much about derse and prospit

i kinda just pretend homestuck 2 doesn't exist frankly that is a whole can of worms I am terrified to open

that is all for now but I might add more opinions when I think of them later idk :3! dunno how much sense this list made but its ok sigh. interested to see which of these opinions change as I read more of the comic!!!!!

[seeingteacupsindragons]

@itsjustalark Continues:

My writing: I've three stories that i want to write in the future but only one im currently working on. That story is still very young and in its beta stages. I have a light idea of the plot and world but nothing sharpened to perfection yet. It's a character focused adult fantasy which focuses of two friends(Alex and Kel) whose relationship evolves to something far deeper than a romantic one. It explores a relationship that could have been beautiful in a perfect world but because of the corrupt and rotten world they live in and the different roles they have to play in it and their own inherent flaws, their relationship is always at risk of succumbing to that darkness and turning toxic. And the first book (yes there are more than one books that cause i got carried away) is really them fighting against their respective destinies and denying the roles the world has already decided for them and trying to stay together throughout it all even though they come from different worlds. And there is so much more details about the world it is set in and and the magic system which is so inyegral to the story but this post is alreqdy long enough so ill stop here. Let me know if you wanna here about it and ill go off. [[I cut your snippets here because it feels strange posting other writer's writing without it being innately linked to them and I'm not sure you'd want me to do so. But I did read them]] Ill stop now cause otherwise ill just keep going and this post will never end. This project is really close to my heart and im really proud of what ive written so far. It originated from the merging together of a playlist and the fanfic of a fanfiction so now im trying tor write scenes based on the songs of a separate playlist i created for the story (sorry if i sound unhinged). Mostly cause i tried writing the story cronologically and it just wasnt working out. For some reason my mind cant think staright. Instead it thinks in fragments of quotes, flashes of certain imagery and vibes. So that was fun. Thank you giving me the time of youre day. I really enjoyed it.

Ahahaha, it sounds like you took a lot of inspiration from Sherliam and/or a lot of very specific Dynamics in fiction that I can certainly think of but not necessarily name. Of course, Sherliam started and ended quite cute and wholesome for how it seemed to go, and I'm not sure that's what you're intending with your stuff.

I tend to be a very chronological writer because if I don't, I don't really end up with anything written that makes any sense; I sometimes will write various bits of scenes or make notes about future things out of order and inevitably by the time I get there, it doesn't work anymore.

Outlines hate me. But a lot of stories are non-linear even by the time they're finished. I'm not sure if that's what you're doing, but it could be.

Anyway, Kel and Alex seem cute and the orphanage-y thing Kel is in is fascinating from your snippets. Am a little interested in when most of the story takes place, though, because they seem to be smallish kids but the writing doesn't seem like a story for/about smallish kids. Hmmmm.

Part 2 of 2.

[nuctua-larc]

GAHHH I LOVE ALL OF THIS THANK YOU!!!! I wasn't TOO surprised about all the davejade hate mostly because girl in the way of gay ship is a cardinal sin(apparently??) and the epilogues did NOT help matters. Plus theres all the Jade plot being shoved to the side in canon on top of fandoms general idea that bi characters can say theyre bi but if they express attraction to the opposite gender theyre no longer?? Bi?? idk about all of it but the point is I was SO glad to see a fellow davejade shipper,, our community is small but mighty.

Anyways all that to be said Im gonna try to give this the same amount of effort!(still so happy seeing this giant ass response to my ask like!!! i win. ive won) Also...This is not going to be near as comprehensible as yours is the tagents are immense, just a warning.

1. Frog breeding

Ok first off I gotta say that I love the flower breeding analogy going on here it really does help put the genesis frog mission into perspective!!

Its definitely... very odd how they didnt really elaborate on anything that happened with that mission. Honestly during my first readthrough I didnt see ANY of it. And this was mostly because I read the entire comic in one sitting and at that point was a little tired and didnt realize I was supposed to click on the pictures, plus I just didn't notice the banner(which I typically still dont, and have to go back everytime I get to it). I think a big issue the webcomic has for me is that while it is rather long it tends to put the focus on the wrong things.

We've got things explained through sprite prototyping, the sylladex, and moduses. A lot of the games mechanics are explained in an insane amount of detail, and yet, one of the most important aspects of the game(quests, genesis frog). I mean, Rose doesn't even get to look into the quest at all. Unlike most forms of media Homestuck doesn't any sort of time limit--no season deal, chapter limit, nothing tying it to being a certain length. Thats why its able to have extended wacky hijinks! And while I do appreciate the slow silly parts, or at least, I know that the parts I find boring someone appreciates, theres also a lot of unutilized space for them to actually SHOW us the important parts they left out. And yes, Im saying homestuck shouldve been longer. This is the hill I will die on.

Anyways, all that being said the whole idea of Dave constantly groundhog day-ing the game, reliving the same hour or minute over and over to make the game successful is just... SUCH an interesting concept. Not to point out the sollux parallels but pulling double-duty is something of a theme with him.

The day itself is a constant. The trolls pester them at the same times no matter what, John goes off on his own to godtier, Rose destroys her planet and goes grimdark, and Jade works to create the new universe. People die when they have to, they do what they have to, and he can't do anything more than preserve the best course of action. Even if that means Jade has to kill the first person she's seen since she was four, even if that means He can't hug her before she has to do it. Again the CONCEPT is wonderful, and we hear other characters tell us about it, with karkat mentioning her freakout and dave mentioning how he didn't want to upset her, but we're never SHOWN it.

Number one priority in a hypothetical alt comic, let these touch starved kids hug

2. Davejade vs Jack

If I'm being honest here, the dynamic with Jack Noir and these two is just...so underutilized. They had Jade fight the two superdogs in the finale. Well...fight as a loose term here, in all honesty she flew around for a bit before getting punched into the ground, but in general while all the beta kids have a connection, narratively Jade and Dave have the biggest to me. For jade theres the obvious connection with Bec, all three are tied via the first gaurdian, abilities and care for one another, and I do genuinely like the weakness they gave Jack in that he just. Cant hurt her. Dave's connection is through Jade, with their first fight in the banner and my personal favorite fight sequence with him defending her in the game over timeline.

It just...felt like these two things were introduced, the idea that every time they meet he dies, the whole self sacrificial situation he keeps putting himself in and the tragedy of hypothetical survivors guilt even if hes still alive. One of many plot points introduced with no real conclusion because they never really TALK about it. Personally I would've loved to see her genuinely fight Jack. Maybe she teams up with Peregrine against Jack or maybe she just kicks ass on her own idk. Let her get revenge!! Or maybe even...idk....show the freakout after he dies? You know? Because if something big happens that has a heavy effect on one of your main characters you should...show it?

3. Grimbark

I'm not gonna lie...grimbark makes no sense to me. Grimdark in general makes no sense to me, especially in the context of Jade versus Rose. With Rose, it was the overtaking of a great darkness, a loss in humanity and a sole focus on rage and destruction powered by grief. While she'd been destroying the game prior to this, slowly allowing herself to succumb to the horrorterrors in a misguided effort of finding information, the death of her mother causes the big switch in her completely abandoning restraint and forethought.

It manifests in her being unable to speak, at least in that of any human language. She's angry and focused on nothing else but her revenge against Jack, a decision that leads to her demise.

In contrast to hers Jade is perfectly capable of speech, her 'switch' is triggered by the Condencse without any emotional reason(which is a small gripe, I'm fine with the mind control situation. However it would've been a little nice if there had been a prior snap moment for her that allowed for the grimbark thing to happen). She too acts violently without speaking, in this case to serve the Condensce's will. However I think the issue here is that unlike Jane's robo-mind control, grimdark never really felt completely divorced from the character. Jade in her grimbark form is just...so fundamentally different from Jade that I can't even imagine a scenario in which she would be pushed to act like that.

Personally I would've enjoyed a more emotional shutdown situation. Witches and Seers are(not sure if canon or not but in general) very opposite classes. Witches are a class that takes action while Seers are the ones to plan. So for Jade instead of a one track mind of grief induced rage, maybe it's cold calculation, brought on by constant isolation. Jade's been through a lot, and even in the game over timeline where Davesprite is there and John's alive she still seems...lonely.

And during the game over plotline I kind of would've liked to see Jade successfully get revived! First off because for a proper retcon where each group has its own issues leading up to the final battle, having all three perspectives present(Terezi for the meteor, Roxy for the alphas, Jade for the ship, and then John going through with all the plans) would be helpful...I also just want some sort of reaction to his death. It's the second time it's happened and maybe then we'd have an opportunity to *see* how that had hurt her the first time. Eventually I wanna write out an alt game over situation...give this girl sme FOCUS! she deserves it!

4. Music!!

[cracks knuckles] ok. so I actually have a lot of thoughts on this. First off, that post has been living in my mind, cat rotating in microwave style for a hot minute(btw seeing you reblog my tags,,, I keep winning >:000!!!). Second off music theory and music in general is a bit of an obsession of mine so imma elaborate way more than is really necessary.

Their band name is SpaceTime Continuum. The opportunity is right there, how can you NOT. I absolutely love the idea of lead vocals\woodwinds jade and the robots being bass and guitar respectively. And I said this before but Dave is so percussion to me. That man is BUILT for the drums let him POP OFF!!

But also I love the idea that like...during the three year timeskip they both react to the boredom by learning new instruments. And then they meet up after everythings said and done and they're like wait..we both ended up learning instruments that compliment each other really well. So like, Dave picks up the drums of course, and a bunch of other percussion based instruments, but then it'd also be fun if he like...picked up the trombone or something. He seems like a brass guy to me. Also...lowkey seems like an acoustic guy to me. Like he's chords/fingerpicking on acoustic to Jade's melodies and badass solos on electric! And the further complimenting going on in that she's a bass player that matches well with percussion(linking song here as an example to the fuckery they could do here)

And then more with woodwinds and brass matching well together like they naturally gravitate towards things that compliment!! Also vocally I like the idea of duets, her taking the lead vocally while Dave does harmonies. As far as general sound SOLELY for vocals not so much for vibes the Civil Wars comes to mind(dave cannot escape the country vibes).

And the time player powers can and SHOULD be exploited for the sake of harmonies the possibilities are endless here.

When it comes to character arcs them being in a band would be good for them…they both have a love for making music, sure, but also it would give Jade the connection she’s never been able to have before. For me there’s not greater connection to someone than to jam out on some musical collaboration. My best friendships are made through people who I sing with. Then for dave, being raised for the express purpose of battle, being able to completely divorce from that and do something thats just…fun, that doesn’t serve any greater purpose. It’d be!! So good!

OK OK SO!!

First off!!! Hello fellow davejade enjoyer i see you. Second off—what sort of things do you wish you could’ve seen with these two in canon :0. Could be expansion on canon scene, arc direction, or just a new scene entirely. for me personally I would’ve loved to see some genuine fighting collaboration going on. I felt VERY teased with all the magic combo’s in collide.

Third! I know they do a lot of music collaboration in canon, and I’ve seen some things with them making a band together post canon. What sort of sound do you think they’d have/what artist do you think they’d sound like?

Thank you :))

okay god theres so much i wish was expanded on in canon with regard to dave and jade

this post is swan dive into homestuck meta and took me over a day to write. so i would appreciate feedback or discussion on this if you'd like, reblogs appreciated!

despite this question being posed as davejade related, my answers here are actually relevant for anyone interested in homestuck meta as well.

it’s just recently come to my attention that there are a a handful of people on twitter who are vocal davejade dislikers. i didnt know it was actually disliked until i looked it up on twitter, i honestly thought it was a joke blown out of proportion but no they exist! it surprised me a lot to see people think they "lack chemistry". not only because knowing what i know about them thats a ridiculous insinuation, but also i haven't seen the vitriol on tumblr. probably because we can actually poast about it on here in an unabridged manner which thus enables better, deeper critical analysis and engagement with the media. i think also people forget that dave strider is canonically bisexual and are too yaoipilled + facing the consequences of the epilogues to even give davejade a serious look/analysis. (dave dates terezi and karkat in separate timelines, thinks jane is hot, thinks roxy is a babe but shoves it down when he discovers she’s his ectomom lmfao. davesprite—an extension of dave himself—dated jade! but i'm going to cover that in more depth in this post since theres a lot of misunderstandings about the nature of that relationship in fanon.)

(as a side note according to what some people have told me in inbox and what ive seen lol i think that ive been inadvertently been getting people into davejade. it's all in my davejade tag here in chronological order if you'd like to get a Whiff. be sure to read the tags on posts in there too!)

even though theres a lot in this post as it is, it doesn't cover everything ive talked about wrt davejade, and i think it would benefit readers to have complementary posts alongside this for the full picture with stuff it doesn't cover. there's a ton about why theyre cute and why i think they work well together in that tag.

here's some highlight analysis posts, but be sure to check the tag because there's a more in there:

post a / post b / post c / post d / post e / post f (← one of my favorite ask responses ive ever gotten)

i think a huge chunk of the issue has to do with how the narrative handles dave and jade. one of the most damning things to me is how glossed over their canon interactions were in act 5 despite them collaborating on one of the most important things in the story. i haven't talked about this yet but i'm going to do so here. because they’re put on the backburner by the focus of the narrative during act 5, people who don’t read carefully will miss the implications that are there all along in canon but easily passed over.

under the cut ive separated it into multiple parts

1. Jade’s Quest: What Frog Breeding Entails

this is an analysis examining apart exactly what jade and dave did while frog breeding. i wrote it while high which was extremely enlightening and it allowed me to comprehend it and hopefully explain it in an understandable way. i also discuss how shitty the lack of on-screen communication between jade and dave was for this part and the next.

2. Jade & Dave vs. Jack Noir

ive discussed this one before on my blog so it's not as dense (see davejade tag). but i still sewed the gifs together and discuss how unfortunate this was to be be delegated to a banner at the top of mspa and the neglect of that whole arc despite the outcomes of it being reissued by characters thousands of pages later

3. Davesprite and Grimbark Jade

i get into davesprite's head here and try to make his motivations about the breakup clear to the extent that i can infer because jesus fuck i love these characters way too much ive known them for a decade i understand their core personality structures and why they think what they do and what is most likely to happen when extrapolating. not to toot my own horn btw .. but what im saying is i am confident in my interpretation based on canon. i also talk about how grimbark jade changed the way the fandom perceives their relationship, leaving davejade on a low note instead of a high note. and then hs epilogues had even worse consequences for davejade but i wont get into it because it was character assassination all around and doesnt deserve my time or yours. but if you wanna know what i think, here

4. The music question

where actually answer this ask like it's an ask and not an essay

1. Jade’s Quest: What Frog Breeding Entails

i wish we could have seen what collecting frogs entailed for the two of them. what exactly were they doing? jade’s quest is one of the most interesting.

before i start i want to take a tangent and say the frog breeding reminds me of back in 2020-2021 when i would breed hybrid flowers in animal crossing new horizons to get a very specific gene sequence for these flowers to not only use to breed for hybrids, but to get known gene sequences that i could use to “check” the genes of other flowers. the goal is to get two parent flowers whose sequences when bred would make a specific phenotype 100% of the time.

this sounds complicated but here’s what i did for the lilies:

(“rare island” refers to one of the first acnh patches that removed a nook miles island from the pool that had hybrid versions of your native flower of very specific phenotypes for each color. i wrote out the breeding chains to get parents that would always breed that exact flower found on the rare hybrid nmt island that is no longer available.)

the cleanup ALL TO GET the white 2-2-2 lily looked like this. and after i got white 2-2-2 lily it was smooth sailing

after all that i could use the orange 2-2-0 lilies and white 2-2-2 lilies made in the black lily process and get rare island orange 2-2-1 lilies 100% of the time. in mendelian genetics these numbers (2-2-1) are quite literally RR-YY-Ww.

RR-YY-ww (orange) x RR-YY-WW (white) = RR-YY-Ww (orange: heterozygous Ww gene)

and all that effort into getting white 2-2-2 lilies enables me to get it over and over again now. i don’t have to repeat that process to get rare island pink lilies. all i need to do for the pink 2-0-2 lilies is breed two default bag red lilies (2-0-1) together. 50% will be red (2-0-1) lilies, 25% will be black 2-0-0 lilies, and the last 25% will be pink (2-0-2) lilies.

anyway sorry back to the main point. FROG BREEDING. it just reminded me of it. now that i think of it the frog breeding process also reminds me a lot of artbreeder back from when AI was only a fun little toy 4-5 years ago

ok so have a look at what kanaya says about what jade must do. this is the coolest quest imo because of how it progresses and how long it actually is

here’s how it works. remember back in act 2, when the wayward vagabond needed to tie a longer cable to descend down the ship (and refused to give up the ones that made up his mayoral sash)? he used the appearifier in the ship to appearify the extra cable across the gap to his location? that’s how the appearifier normally works when when it’s locked to the present. it’s very straightforward.

when jade appearifies a frozen frog, it shows us this exact thing. she appearified the actual frog itself (the same way WV appearified the actual cable across the gap) to her exact location. it can get the frog out of the ice in the way WV could untrap serenity from the amber. if something’s destiny wouldn’t otherwise be changed, it will not be paradoxified, it will just simply itself be warped to that location, with precise carving if it is somehow trapped inside of something else.

if you could appearify it to your location right now, you wouldnt be able to take it out the appearifier’s crosshairs in person later to alter its destiny because the object won’t be there at that time. it wouldve been with you the entire time. unless you decide to take the appearified item back to that location so that you could appearify it in the past, but that’s the most pointless time loop ever and doesn’t change its destiny.

for this icicle frog jade and dave weren’t capable of changing its destiny anyway, because it was completely encased in ice, and just didn’t bother to go after it. partially because it was with jade at the appearifier the entire time anyway and she can’t exactly put it back in there in the future. the point is, besides jade appearifying it to her location, the frog had no other possible routes of destiny. in that part of lofaf where she appearified the frozen frog from, the ice is too deep to get anything out of it (other than appearifying it) and i’m not sure the forge would have melted it in time before their reckoning ended anyway.

the goal of jade and dave is to target frogs on the appearifier screen and trust that their future selves follow through in altering the frog’s destiny. if so, then the frog’s paradox slime will appear instead and its genes would be collected in addition to creating offspring between multiple paradox clone frog genes. then, dave and jade would necessarily have to go out adventuring and find the frog so that they end up following through for their past selves.

if i understand correctly, jade is creating all the frogs on her planet that grow up with manually modified genes. these frogs must be genetically altered from their parents so that the frogs she creates don’t grow up to become one of their parents (as they’d be identical). the mutant offspring frogs “generation A” she ectobiologizes will eventually mature from tadpoles to frogs, assisted by dave’s time travel. then she will eventually target “generation A” with the appearifier to get their paradox slime to fuse with some other frogs’ paradox slime and create new slightly altered frogs “generation B” (and then follow through on altering the “generation A” frogs’ destiny so their slime and genes can be paradoxified by jade and dave’s past selves). repeat until the genes are fine tuned for the genesis frog.

this is why i compared it to my breeding in animal crossing. getting the genesis frog reminds me of the blue rose paths. i worked with the garden council back in the day and i used backwardsN’s “cesspool” method, except i honestly gotta say my white 2-2-2 lily thing was much more involved and carefully maneuvered in a way that i imagine frog breeding is more like. backwardsN’s “genepool method” was basically making a red-orange-black rose primordial soup and waiting for a blue rose to emerge out of it, just increasing the chances seeing a blue rose sprout the next day after watering with each generation of offspring. you KNOW my ass was using time travel, even if i happened to get lucky and got a blue rose without even finishing the big turtle plot. without time travel, most players (95%) will get their first blue rose before these # of days. (open up advanced tag)

there must be so many daves running around to help her going back in time all within the span of a few hours while still having their own linear, older timelines that are much longer than the “time stage” they’re actually functioning in. this sounds complicated but it’s not. think of this “time stage” as analogous to the 3 days until the moon falls in majoras mask. it’s the “time window” all the time travel takes place within, but link doesn’t become a day younger when he travels to a day ago. the timeline of his “self” is older but is kept within the confines of the 3-day timeframe. similarly, in tears of the kingdom, two master swords exist simultaneously for most of history, but the one on the light dragon’s head (who was above the cloud barrier before the upheaval btw) is further ahead on its own linear timeline: it starts as the other, pre-gloomed master sword → broken by gloom → sent to the past to be repaired → renewed over time, existing at the same time on the “time stage” as its own pre-gloomed past self but ahead on its own linear timeline

now imagine this but within the “time stage” of just a few hours on 4/13/2009. kanaya says frog breeding ordinarily takes weeks. multiple daves can exist simultaneously because they’re operating in the same few-hour-timeframe but one can linearly be days ahead of another. it’s the exact same thing as breeding flowers in animal crossing for irl days but to your game it’s whatever date you have it set to. your irl progress isn’t lost if you go back a few days in settings. i’d often find a week in june to use as a “time stage” to loop through when it would rain at least one hour on each day of that week which would save me the hassle of watering my flowers every day before time traveling to the next.

it must’ve sucked for dave to hear jade say the same things over and over again. the novelty probably wore off pretty fast lol…… dave says he saw his future self fighting and dying to jack and knew that’s what he’d eventually have to do as well. every single dave at all points of his linear timeline understood that and it probably settled something horrible into his heart.

im imagining during the original run dave was thinking to himself: “im bored but cant alter anything about this without creating a doomed timeline. if i dont see my future self hugging jade then i cant hug her even though i really fuckin want to. note to future self: hug jade. aww shit look at me go guess i remembered. hell fucking yes cant wait for that to be me in a few hours” and gives a thumbs up

future dave pov, hugging jade and watching his past self give him a thumbs up from afar thinking to himself: “ahaha i remember exactly what i was thinking there” and gives a thumbs up

but anyway. goddamn. JADE AND DAVE. what did hussie do to you.

this is a goddamn atrocity.. what the hell man. i wish we could have at LEAST seen the text file jade sent to kanaya. we got to see ConversationWithAVeryStupidGirl.Txt but not daveisafunnyguy.txt?

i mean i GUESS the humor is delivered through this

and like, yeah that is pretty funny? but i feel like the single laugh this gives me is nothing compared to the joy i wouldve gotten out of seeing what dave has to say about the cloning apparatus for ants here and talking himself into circles about frog procreation enough to make not just gigglehouse jade laugh, but kanaya too

we spent so much time learning about the mechanics of the punch designix and hardly anything about creating the seed of the actual new universe. we learn about it through kanaya and karkat messaging jade, instead of dave and jade working that out through SHENANIGANS. even though this is JADE AND DAVE'S session. it’s fine that kanaya is helping them, as she should, but we’ve seen parallel pesterlog conversations before so i dont get why we didn’t get that here! jade and dave frog breeding is one of the most important events in homestuck, and yet it was terribly glossed over. everything in the story, their futures, are predicated on their success. not just in their unwinnable session, but the one they split up for 3 years and escape to.

at first i thought, maybe their lack of shown interaction has to do with hussie working out the intricacies of pesterlog/dialogue thing? as he once stated on tumblr:

shoshaumbay asked: In the intermission of act 6, it says that they get to talk. Does this mean that their guardians couldn’t talk to them before and that is why they left them notes all around their houses?  The achievement badge only upgraded their ability to speak to each other as presented through the comic. I.e. it permitted them to speak to each other… WHILE WE WATCH! Do you think all the trolls were hanging out together, not talking at all? Or Dave and Jade were doing all that frog hunting without a single peep?? That’s ridiculous. On the other hand, abstraction weaves itself through the Homestuck reality, and it can be hard to pin down where abstraction is to be taken literally. The truth is, there is not much distinction between the layers of abstraction and the reality they are meant to stand for. John was both literally named on his 13th birthday, and not quite, because that’s silly. The guardians are both literally silent automatons, and not really, as there is indication through allusion they function as normal people too. And the kids went through a huge adventure, achieved immortal god status, and even then had to gain a few more levels just to gain the achievement of simple dialogue as a literal upgrade, as well as not literally, because that makes no sense. The reality is inseparable from the way the story is presented and the way the “game” is played. But those abstractions are also a facade for a more life-like reality beneath it as well.

then i realized, this is not only an arbitrary cop out that affects my enjoyment of the comic in retrospect because they wind up being able to talk later anyway and that makes me feel cheated in these moments, but also still actually awful within these parameters because hussie breaks his own rule here, proving he could have shown us dave and jade talking in person at any time regardless of needing the gift of gab achievement for us to watch them as readers. recall this is also the first time john and rose met in person (at least when rose wasn't asleep):

2. Jade & Dave vs. Jack Noir

this is where i take out my frustration over this being delegated to a banner at the top to the point where readers forgot it occurred.

i wish their time on lofaf frog breeding and fighting with jack was front and center and wasnt just in the banner at the top of the page. it makes it seem not as important when it completely was, considering that characters brought up what had happened in that scene multiple times.

it is significant because it is at that point that jack noir has killed all of the kids at least once. the only one left being jade who he refuses to kill due to bec’s loyalty

THIS IS WHAT THE REFRANCE (foreshadowing)

jack noir killed john on his quest bed which allowed him to ascend to god tier. then he killed john AGAIN but it wasn’t a heroic or just death so john was revived

jack killed grimdark rose. john smooched rose’s corpse, allowing her to take over on derse.

jack killed dave by redirecting jade’s bullets into dave’s body instead. jade smooched dave’s corpse, allowing him to take over on derse.

after jade shoots him through jack, he’s down for the count. she kisses him and he wakes up on derse; all he and rose have left of “themselves” in an existential sense are their dreamselves. they didnt know they were going to ascend to god tier delivering the tumor. they assumed they were just going to die like for real and not come back which is why dave went with rose since he didnt want her to die alone.

it was also an important point since her time spent with dave on lofaf is the first in-person contact jade has had with another living human since she was probably 4 years old with her grandpa.

for jack noir, we got [s] seer: desend and [S] ==> (3696) which were hella impactful. seeing jade and dave essentially go through the same thing but with an extended battle sequence honestly kinda warrants a flash in my mind. (the sad thing is that unite synchronization was originally written with those pages in mind (the track was originally called redshift) but of course malcolm brown couldnt have known what was going to happen unless hussie commissioned him for a specific track for a specific story beat, probably like whatever he did to coordinate cascade’s music with toby ahead of the 10/25/11 release of the flash and publication of volume 8 on bandcamp)

i think one of the worst parts is that entire conversations were referenced, but cut or never written.

this is a real forgotten homestuck fact: jade was completely freaking out after filling dave with bullets until karkat had talked her through it. very easily forgotten since even though it being referenced twice we never actually saw the conversation. (i overrode the black scratch background so it's easier to read)

wow thats so crazy i as a member of the audience dont in fact remember! would it have killed to write it my guy

and we find out thousands of pages later dave was thinking more about how it wouldve made jade feel to watch him die than knowing he was about to fucking die. if you even care btw

i wrote more about this here

3. Davesprite and Grimbark Jade

davesprite—an extension of dave himself—dates jade but breaks up because he feels inadequate at being the dave that he thinks jade deserves. NOT because they fought or anything. they were still on good terms. davesprite just felt inherently unlovable. john seemed more upset about the breakup frankly.

what davesprite did was because he thought it was in jade's best interest. there is nothing to suggest it was a fight / clash break up. they still seemed to be on good terms, davesprite asking where she went and all. jade says the breakup “is complicated” and “hes going through a lot of stuff”. given the context i think it's reasonable to assume that davesprite's thought process was: “we're coming up to the new session soon and youre going to meet up with dave again and i dont want to make shit awkward with you dating knockoff dave. you deserve to be with real dave instead so im gonna cut what we have going here in advance and distance myself from your life”

jade probably protested about saying how he's just as real as “real dave”, but davesprite made his decision already. im sure it wasnt easy for davesprite to break up either. with emotions running high (sadness, not anger) he probably just left to be alone and distance himself from jade, and seems to harbor guilt about it as we see in the log. that's probably why he wasn't at john's movie party. this is just speculation on my part but it doesnt seem in character for the breakup to be explosive because jade seemed more understanding than john. sad, but understanding.

i feel like a lot of people forget this. grimbark jade made it seem like davesprite did it to hurt her, or for this to mean that dave and jade are not actually good for each other, which is a wild mischaracterization of what happened but the one that stuck with the fandom nonetheless.

not only that, but davesprite's existence tragic and he's understandably depressed. after spending about a year in sburb (accounting for time travel) without john or jade, only to go back and give up your personhood to advance the alpha timeline and become forgotten is fucking crushing, and i think the breakup is also about davesprite coming to terms with that trauma, being okay with his existence as a sprite instead of being a bootleg stand-in for the dave that jade knew.

basically what vintagegamebro says,

it was such a tragic way for them to part for 3 years with no communication, and it was only proceeded by more tragedy because jade then had no one but davesprite to turn to, and davesprite needed anything but romance at that point

grimbark jade isn’t a good reflection of jade’s actual self. she pushed the mayor into lava for fucks sake which normal jade would never dream of doing, grimbark jade is straight up unhinged. i’m sure jade was hurt because all breakups hurt, but it was blown out of proportion (see how calm she was above a few days after the breakup?) because of Evilness. but also as @vintagegamebro mentioned it also felt somewhat … “off”? or out of left field? especially seeing what the nature of the breakup was from both sides in the above screenshots.

when dave says “theres no way i would have done that to you” i genuinely believe him. i have no reason not to believe him. look at him above asking for questions and clarification. thinking about how what davesprite did, a version of himself beyond his control and how it reflects on himself, i think it's obvious dave cares a lot about how jade feels about him

even after this confrontation in the game over timeline, dave laid down his fucking life to defend her corpse from the becs in he hope she could be revived by jane

and to think that after all this he still chose to save her, like always, probably knowing he had little to no chance, just because he cares for her, her life and who she is beyond this moment, really meant a lot for them. i really, really was mad that this would be the last time they would truly ever be together in a way that to me mattered

4. The music question

i wrote this post regarding instruments with this song in the back of my head if its anything. takes about 12 seconds to start after you press play for some reason

this too, closer to the “style”. i like imagining dave going apeshit on drums