#ignore the background. zoom into them instead cause i spent more time on them

[femmeetart]

"ye can keep it"

"oh I'd rather keep you than a hat"

[headinthestaticsky]

The Phenomenon of the Immortal Sun: Jasper Hale x Fleur Swan, Chapter 1

Summary: It was time for Fleur Swan to become Fleur Hale/Whitlock. She has started to adjust to the lifestyle of a vegetarian vampire as well as her powers, which she seems to develop a new one once in a while. But what happens when something happens that none of the Cullens are prepared for.

"Nature will get her way Though you took her for a fool Walking on the lake Frozen under you."

Run Cried the Crawling by, Anges Obel

When Bella got home from Vegas with Edward at her side it was the most pissed off my dad had ever been at her. He knew she would throw out the "I'll move away." Card on him but he wasn't fazed by it anymore. She was married, and a adult... he couldn't stop her. It was satisfying to see dad finally stand up to her, letting go of the fear of losing her. Bella eventually developed a guilty look on her face while Edward tensed by her side. She decided that she would have her honeymoon after Jasper and I got married, since dad would know we would both be out of the house. It confused me since she would have to wait 5 months just to go on her honeymoon, it also delayed her changing into a vampire. Since they both agreed to do it on there honeymoon.

Regarding me however my eyes are still a dark red rose color, which completely puzzled the Cullens. It confused me as well...knowing that after a year of transformation my eyes should be golden by now. I had never drunken an once of human blood but, my eyes were just as red as they were when I first turned. My blood lust got a lot better and I was beginning to gain control of my powers. It turns out I am also a shape shifter in a sense... I can transform myself into anyone I wanted to be. Things seemed to have calmed down it was nice to have a moment of serenity.

I stood in my room which was now void of my items being out on display. They were instead all in boxes stacked up on top of each other. Dad helped me out earlier in the day, it was nice to spend so one-on-one time with him while I still lived here. Bella was packing up too, excited to finally leave the house and become a vampire. She wouldn't let dad help her out however and spent her time locked up in her room. Probably waiting for Edward to enter and talk with her. I just sat down on my bed looking at my surroundings when I heard Jasper enter through my window.

"I was waiting for you to show up." I said grabbing him by the collar of his shirt and pulling him in for a kiss.

"Mmm, hello to you too." Jasper said.

"You're not going to believe who accepted my RVSP'd to the wedding..."

"Who is it?"

"My mom, her new husband is coming with her too."

"I hope they won't cause any trouble." Jasper grumbled.

"Well... the last thing I said to her was when I moved back down here when I was 15...I told her that next time I see her would be at my wedding. I then told her that she would enjoy the the open bar and her speech for me would be her barfing all over the place. So umm... be prepared for that to happen." I explained trying to hold in a laugh at the face Jasper made.

"Damn love...you're brutal sometimes."

"Thank you... that is so sweet to say!"

"You better get down to our place... Alice and Rosalie are waiting for you so they can throw you a Bachelorette party."

"Yeah... they'll probably break the house trying to get to me." I said and then began to laugh.

"Have fun darlin." Jasper said softly.

"You too, if Emmett, Edward, and Dean got you a stripper I will murder all of them."

"Don't worry about that darlin, we're merely going out to the woods to hunt bears... maybe a few mountain lions. Besides Edward won't be there anyway"

"Oh fun...wait, Edward won't be there?"

"Yeah... it seems he still holds a grudge after I called him a boy before the battle."

"Only a boy would be offended by that." I said

"I better go love you." Jasper replied and pecked my cheek.

"Love you too." I did the same thing, pecking his cheek. He left a few seconds afterward leaving me alone. I pulled on pair of boots and ran downstairs.

"I'll see you later dad, Rose and Alice are throwing me a little party."

"Alright Petal, love you."

"Love you too!"

I arrived at the Cullen's house in record time, my tracking ability had improved greatly. I zoomed up to the door and before I could open it Rosalie, Esme, Bree, and Alice stood there with excited smiles on their faces.

"The party has arrived." I said jokingly.

They all laughed and ushered me into the lounge room.

Bree had been living with us ever since the end of the battle, she struggled to conform to the diet after living off of human blood so long and she couldn't leave the house much since she was presumed dead. But Jasper has been helping her out a lot.

"I can't wait to see what you did with the venue outside... can I take a look?"

"No, you may not, Rosalie and I all agreed that you shouldn't see it until tomorrow. It'll be great with the pictures."

"Okay okay... is the dress finished?"

"Yes, now that you can see." Rosalie said, dragging me down to her room. A large vanity was set up with hundreds of makeup products. I turned around and saw my dress... it was beautiful.

(I know the dresses aren't exactly the same but just pretend the one showing off the back of the dress has sleeves haha.)

a"Oh my gosh Rose, you know my style so well."

"You're going to look beautiful tomorrow." Esme said, her gracious smile still on her face.

"Thank you guys so much... for everything."

"No problem Fleur, I can't wait for you to officially be a part of the family." Alice replied.

"So, how is everything back at home?" Rosalie said, already playing with my hair.

"It's tense...dad's pissed at Bella, Bella is pissed at dad. I still can't believe she actually eloped."

"Doesn't surprise me any... Bella's priorities have certainly changed." Alice grumbled.

"Yeah... not gonna lie though Alice they've always been like that, she just hid it from you guys pretty well."

"Yeah... I guess so." Alice said disappointment was on her face.

"Let's talk about something else...Fleur, did Jasper tell you where you two were going for your honeymoon?"

"No... he wants it to be a surprise, I can't wait to see where we're going."

"I'm sure it's going to be fun." Alice said, nudging me playfully.

"If I could blush right now, I would." I said.

Timeskip: The next day.

"Rosalie this is like we rehearsed it... smile and don't kill my mother." I reminded her.

"I'll try my best... Why does Bella have to be a bridesmaid again?" She said, brushing back my long black hair.

"Because I don't need my mother talking my ear off saying how selfish I am."

I saw Alice shake her head before going back to steaming my dress in the background.

"Fleur, Rosalie? Where are you guys?" I heard my dad call out.

"In here dad!" I called back.

"Renee get your butt up here your daughter is getting married. Get over this stupid grudge." I heard dad yell. Rosalie, Alice, and I all laughed.

"Aww, you look beautiful Petal." Dad said, smiling at me. I said Renee in the background she had a shocked look on her face.

"Thanks, Dad, you can thank Rosalie and Alice for all of this. Mom? You gonna come over? I'm not infected with anything you know."

She scoffed and walked up to me, we both gave each other fake smiles.

"Did you get plastic surgery? Your face looks... I don't know more sculpted." She said.

"No mother I just aged... the last time you saw me I was 15, I'm 20 now." I lied, everyone knew most vampires' facial features perfected when fully changed. But I couldn't exactly tell her that.

"Okay..." She said in a skeptical voice. I heard Rosalie growl behind me.

"Renee knock it off." Dad said he had a curt look on his face.

"Well since it's your wedding day we thought you needed something blue." Renee started, her face didn't look too happy.

"And something old, besides your mother." Dad joked, Rosalie and Alice let out a chuckle.

"Nice Charlie," Renee said rolling her eyes.

Dad then opened a jewelry box that had a hairpiece in it. I knew it was grandma swans.

"It was Grandma Swans, I added the Sapphires though, I thought it matched your ring pretty well. When the time comes around you can give it to your daughter." Dad said he handed it to Rosalie so she could put it in my hair.

"Aww thank you so much dad." I said I was lucky I didn't have my dress on yet so I could hug him.

"Should've saved this for Bella." Renee grumbled quitely.

"Oh no I forgot her veil, Rose could you come with me?" Alice asked.

Rosalie hesitated before answering.

"Sure..." They walked out a few seconds later.

"So... you stuck true to your guns. I didn't see you until your wedding day." Dad just looked at the two of us and walked out.

"Yep."

"How many men did you date before you got engaged to this one. I know how bored you can get." Renee said, implying I sleep around a lot.

"He's the first and only man I've dated." Renee's reflection was shocked in the mirror.

"Well... I knew my Bella would do that but... not, you." She said in a condescending voice.

"You have no idea what Bella has done."

"So who is he?" Renee said, ignoring my previous statement.

"His name is Jasper and he's an amazing, kind human being." I answered back, pride-filled my voice. I could suddenly feel Bella's presence behind the wall in the other room listening in on us.

"Sure... we all know women like you say that when the men have slept with you."

"You're childish insults do not bother me anymore mother."

"What childish insults? I'm stating facts." Renee said, acting innocent.

"Yeah, facts you convinced yourself are true."

"All I know is if my Bella wouldn't gotten married so young. So let's cut to the chase how far along are you?"

'I'm not pregnant Renee, I need to go help Rose and Alice find that veil." I got up to walk away when I got an idea.

"Oh by the way, Bella got married at nineteen in Vegas."

Renee just stood there in shock. I smiled in satisfaction.

"Enjoy the open bar!"

[mikenips]

You Can Never Go Home Again

“Artur?”  Pop a different tape in the player.  I can’t even watch that tape yet.  And I didn’t even know the guy personally.  Just one of those figures you see walking around town.  The type of character you wanna ask all the questions to.  But also afraid to approach.  Our inspirations will always hurt us more than the people we know.

“Yes.”  The smashed beak of a nose gets you first.  He’s a quirky looking man.  Wears those big, goofy glasses nerds wear in your 1950s nostalgia.  “You say your making movie on Bart?”

“Yeah.”  My camera shakes as I get outta the car.  Nearly dropped the fuckin’ thing.  Quick shot of the puddle it would’ve sunk in.  Brown.  With a faded can of Miller High Life pacing back and forth with the breeze.  You can tell someone shotgunned it.  Wonder if it’s a remnant of Pharm House.  The rusted whip-its in the street aren’t.  See more of them on the streets of Hamtown than ants or rats.  “It’s for a class project at Wayne State.”

“Good school.”  He nods.  Pats the head of the dog in the backseat of his Jeep.  Crack swooping down the front driver’s side windshield.  “Come.  I show you house.”

The house is set far back on the yard.  Red siding giving it that farm look.  Probably was a house for farm animals or something.  Smaller than the rest of the homes on the block.  But also stands taller.  Gets higher than the rest of the block.  No matter how much weed Bart shared with the neighbors as they watched from the safety of the porch.  Staring at the graffiti covered tree.  “Bart was good kid.  Good tenant.  Always remind me to pick up rent.  You know.  I forget those things sometimes.  Spent many nights drinking with him.  He was always out and about.  Caught him buying coke from a bartender one time.  Tell him he shouldn’t do that.  He laughed.  Said he knew.  So I laugh.

“Shame when I tell him I had to evict him.  But he’s real smart.  He knew he was in the wrong.  Admitted it.  Left like he was supposed to.  Can even tell he tried fixing the damages.  I give him security deposit back.  For the effort.  Plus now I have this artifact.  I see kids, just like you, checking it out all the time.  I don’t know how they find it.  But they come to the house.

“See!”  He points to a dip in the lawn.  Patchy grass attempting to cover the dirt there before it.  “I talk to Bart after he leave.  Ask for stories.  Why these kids come to my house?  Just to look!  He give me tour.  Now I do the same for you.

“In Summer.  He throw a big barbeque.  Neighbors sit on their front porch and watch too.  They all spoke highly of him after he left.  It was for the homeless.  And the bands play right out here!  Crazy right?”

The banister of the porch is cracked.  My head plays the video from Shithole’s Facebook page.  Dooley attempting to hurtle the three foot tall plank of wood.  Catching his Croc on it.  Yanks it all down before landing on the rusty screws and splintering bark where the dip in the lawn would be.  Brad running up and stealing his sunglasses.  The pit swirls to the fuzzed out guitar still ripping through the chaos.  Dooley coming to his feet and hurling the bass at Brad.  Ripping the jack from the body.

And the whole time.  Barf stands quietly behind the mess.  That smile cuts through the grainy video from somebody who clearly owns an Android.  No shirt.  Fringe vest.  Jeans torn to shreds.  Camera around his neck.  Sipping on a bottle of champagne.  Standing next to his grandma.  Claps triumphantly over the crowd.  “Kids.  The bands play.  They run around.  Hit each other.  I see it sometimes at the shows here.  So interesting.  Not for me.  But fun to watch.”

“Yeah.”  I laugh a bit.  “We call that a mosh pit.  Let’s out all that aggression people tell you it’s not ok to let out.”

“Mosh pit…”  He stares at the patchy lawn.  “It did make pit alright.  But Bart always cut grass himself.  Sometimes I drive past and see him doing it.  No shirt.  Drinking Stroh’s.  Make me laugh everytime.”

Get on the porch.  As he unlocks the door my camera takes in the front window.  Backstage seats.  See an occasional face in the footage of the show.  Bits of shower curtain still stuck to the red siding from front lawn movie nights.  “It crazy.  Still feels weird coming in.  I always give Bart his privacy.  I don’t want to intrude on him.  But when I see house after.  Maybe I should have.  Damages everywhere.  Look here at steps.”

His arm sweeps in the direction of the stares.  But the camera continues to film the rest of the walls.  A mattress in the middle of the living room.  Chipped paint and random bits of tape still clinging by an inch to the drywall.  Wooden chairs around the feet imprints of a coffee table.  Instantly I can scrap book various images and videos to fill the rest of the now empty home.  Some characters in black and white.  Others pixelated and grainy.  In off hue colors.

Zoom in on the wooden landing below the staircase.  Slivers of empty space dart across the square panel.  Trying to find an escape from the pressure dropping on it.  “Not many know this story.  Very old story from Bart’s twenty first birthday.  He said he didn’t know many people then.  And nobody knows what the future will find worthy of keeping.  So not so many videos of that party.

“Bart says a friend of his.  Record producer that joined the Navy did it.  Bart says he looks around living room.  Everybody pointing and gasping at the stairs.  Bart standing just inches from landing.  Doesn’t see him jump.  Flies from second story to landing on Bart’s skateboard.  And he break the floor.  Looks at Bart laughing and says ‘at least the skateboard is in tact.’

“Back of house or upstairs first?”  Camera fixed on the floor’s POV of the second story.  You can tell he never swept his stairs.

“Well.  The upstairs was the main stage for shows.  Let’s get shots of the rest of the house first.  Capture the essence of the party before goin’ to the main attraction.”

“Sounds good.  I like that.  I went to house party one time.  A friend of Bart’s.  Bart always invite me over here.  But I can’t impose on him.  I don’t know if I would want to know what he was doing.  Ignorance is bliss.”

The hallway splits into three rooms.  Pan camera left.  Once I start editing gotta superimpose the Instagram photos of that sink filled with two empty thirty racks.  One of the few photos from the twenty first birthday party.  The cigarette butt that blew up the gas station.

Spin one eighty to the second bedroom.  Which was really more of a glorified closet.  The yellow page of a legal pad still taped to the doorway.  Bart’s handwriting all over it.  “See.  He catch me.  I never wrote in lease that he can’t smoke inside.  But at least he kept it in the spare bedroom.”

We walk through the door.  Blue carpet singed and stained with spray paint.  “I still remember seeing videos as a teenager.  Can barely make out all those artists and musicians sitting in this room through the smoke.  I can hear Dooley, while looking dead at the camera, ‘nicotine hot box!’  Yelling at someone to keep the window closed.”

Tilt from the carpet to the window.  “Very funny story.  I assume this Dooley did.  Bart said he walks in the room.  Can’t breathe.  Can’t see.  Claustrophobic.  Tries to open window.  And somebody slams it from his hand.  Tears the blinds off.  Everybody laughs.  Now.  Blinds don’t close.  That’s still the sheet Bart hangs up over the blinds to block window.  Always wonder why he didn’t buy new blinds instead.”

The peacock couch is long gone.  A thirty five dollar purchase Bart made while on acid thrifting in high school.  Great clip of Cole Sanders from the Turds sitting on the couch.  Paisley shirt and leather jacket.  Looks like he’s trying to sell molly to teenagers.  Smoking Spirits.  Talking about listening to new wave.  While Echo and the Bunnymen play in the background.  The seam of his pants splitting wide open.

Tucked in the closet are various paintings.  “Do you know where these are from Artur?”

“No.  I find them hanging throughout the house after Bart leave.  Just lost artworks.  Some collage.  Some photography.  Some paintings and drawings.  All different people I assume.”

Flip through them.  Some standard CCS bullshit.  Some pop art homages.  Recognize the outsider doodle.  An original Cole Sanders.  Got a few hanging up in the apartment.  Then I see it.  Propped by itself on the opposite corner of the wall.  A surrealist portrait.  Oil on canvas.  A puke puddle of tie dye morphing to the doorways and walls of a house.  The colors give way to textures of fur and skin.  Even a slight haze of smoke.  The blobs lava lamp in the familiar image of Bart.  Camera zooms in on the interpretation of the image shared on Facebook this morning.

I recognize the style from the walls of Jenkem.  The holy grail in the mythos of Barf’s scene.  The piece Tara painted of him.  Something along the lines of paying him back after a bender that whole group went on.  She offered to paint him a portrait.  But the piece was lost after Pharm House got busted.  You can see it in a handful of videos all the way back on some people’s Instagram highlights.  If you know whose account to stalk.  “Can I take this?”

“Go ahead.  They just sit anyways.  Come see the bathroom.”

The white tile wall is stained orange.  Strands of hair stuck to it.  Stuck to the tub.  Stuck to the floor.  Stuck to the wall behind the door.  How the fuck do you even get hair stuck there?  A nice gradient of the off white tub fades from two circles to pitch black.  Two feet protecting some bit of fake porcelain from the dirt that would pool up.  “You know.  When I get house back.  The drains are all plugged in the bathtub.  So I cut into wall.  Take out pipes.  Pumpkin seeds!  There are pumpkin seeds in the drain.  Causing it to clog.  How do pumpkin seeds get in the bathtub?  I never ask Bart that.”

“There was one show here.  A band performing smashed a pumpkin upstairs.  Must’ve just gotten stuck to his foot or something.  Just trying to wash it all away.  Flush everything down the drain.”

Zoom in down the moldy drain.  Cutting off the rust colored stain on the bathroom floor.  Don’t even need to explain what that’s from.  I don’t know.  It seemed artsy at the time.  Now it just seems so pretentious.  The whole fuckin’ tour of the house seems pretentious.  Who does shit like this?  Maybe that’s Barf’s biggest illusion.  Getting people to create their own illusion of a home.  When nothing at all ever actually happened there.  Just a guy living life.  Never cleaning the bathtub because “the bathtub cleans me.”

“So this is my favorite part.”  Artur’s teeth crack the seal of his lips.  With the smile of a proud father.

Turn the corner at the top of the stairs.  A quick shot out the window at the top.  A toilet when Barf was too spun to figure out how to use stairs to go back down.  The master bedroom takes up the whole second floor.  The main stage.  Most people said they didn’t even know Bart actually slept up there.  Thought the mattresses were just decorative soundproofing.  Maybe the whole house was just a decoration.  “What’s that gash in the wall?”

“Cymbal.  Bart says hi-hat.  From Navy man’s going away party.  He says they cover ‘Blew My Mind.’  I forget the singer.  Chaos ensues.  How the hi-hat got behind the drummer?  Beats me!”

The famous send off show for the king.  Shitholes’s drummer.  Devil’s Night.  Dooley tryin’ to do coke off the amp during the set.  But the room had too many bodies.  Too humid.  Dooley yellin’ “it’s not working!  Fuck!”

“But this my favorite.  Look up!”  Tilt the camera to the angled ceiling.  A purple splatter that runs the length of the wall.  “Bart tell me he stand in back watching band.  Guitar gets stuck in chandelier.  Again.  Beats me how Bart never broke the chandelier.  Somebody as you said ‘moshes’ and falls into Bart.  His forehead hit bottle and it spills everywhere.  Even on ceiling!”

“So why’s that your favorite part?”

Focus back on Artur; with the same proud father smile.  “It’s jezy!  Good Polish boy drinking Leroux.  He always stay true to heritage.  Even that bar he buys.  Classic bar here from his grandparents’s time.  He buy it and revamp it for new kids to come to Hamtown and celebrate history.”

“That’s perfect Artur.”  The camera drops to my side.  But always keep it rolling.  Even when you think you got enough.  You never know what you’ll pick up on.  A random splice of life.  An absurd image that you never thought would mean something to you.  Like a still shot of a clump of hair in the corner next to beer a splattered and blown bass amp.  Probably Dooley.  He was famous for that shit.  “If you don’t mind I’m gonna get a few shots of the house from the outside.  But you can lock up and go if you want.”

“Of course.  Film!  Film!  Capture every moment.  That is why I don’t fix house.  This is history.  Other people need to see what happened here.”

As Art’s car takes off a neighbor’s voice calls from the porch next door.  The POV spins rapidly to the old black man.  “Are you another one of those punks here to do something crazy?  I’ll have you know this is more than some party house.  This is our neighborhood.  Bart never would’ve let stuff like this happen here.”

“No sir.  I’m actually working on a student film about Bart.  What do you mean he wouldn’t let stuff like this happen?”

“Well.  Bart threw parties.  And a lotta times they got outta hand.  But that’s what your twenties should be about.  Having a good time with your friends while you can.  But as the parties got bigger, they turned into free for alls.  Bart was trying to showcase new artists.  And it spiraled into this mess from giving everybody a platform to letting anybody do shit.  And now all these young kids show up and try to recreate those moments without really understanding what was going on.  How old are you kid?”

“Twenty one.”

“Exactly.  You were too young when Bart lived here to see what he was actually doing.  Things got outta hand.  But he always picked up the empty cans.  And he always made sure we felt welcome and comfortable.  He would move cars so we could park in front of our own houses.  He would pass the joint.  Bring us food he made.  He was providing a neighborhood for everybody to join.  Not just throwing parties.”

“So you think he was doing something good for the city?”

“He gave young people a place to celebrate themselves.  He just got carried away with it all.  And I don’t think it was him.  I think it was you kids that just looked at it as all fun and games that ended up with him being hurt.”

[blaperile]

Hiveswap Episode 1 Reaction Part 14: All Your Basement Are Belong To Us

Aight, time to head into the basement! Starting at 7:55 PM here, let's see how much of the basement we get done today! And also, I'm pretty curious to see if we'll be diving into our first strife today! I remember seeing footage in trailers of a monster inside the basement, and we haven't been in a strife yet SO FAR (plus, we've just got the flashlight working and have both the tap shoes and ballet slippers on us, so this is probably a great time to get into action for the first time! I'm very curious what that's going to be like, how it will work to actually do these battles. Is it going to be anything like the early Guardian/Imp strifes in Homestuck (with a few options on what to do), will it just be a cutscene, or will it be something more dynamic? Let's see!

Well, here we are! It's surprisingly light down in the basement, especially on the stairs, I'm not sure why Joey was so insistent on having her flashlight working before going down here. :P But uh... that music though! That's surprisingly haunting and dark, much more than in the rest of the house. No monster to be seen though, for now. Maybe that giant monster that chased Joey into her house was the only one that entered the house, for now, and is the monster that is stuck in the trophy room? Perhaps more monsters will only enter as soon as that kitchen window gets broken? ANYWAY, let's look around a bit! First of all, eesh, that lowest step on the basement stairs is broken in half. That looks pretty dangerous. Apparently their washing machine is in the basement? That doesn't seem very handy, considering you'd need to go up/down those basement stairs every time you want to do the laundry. Though I imagine it helps to not have too much issues with the noise upstairs, haha. And hey, there's a letter hanging on the wall. I can read a few words, but not all of it. I wonder if we can zoom in on it? And yup, there's that Typheus minion thingy! Which, now that I think about it, does suggest that Grandpa's visited the Sburb session already prior to finding Baby Jade. Pfff, there's also a bunch of hats of Grandpa there. This doesn't seem like an ideal place to be keeping them, to me. :P Those Hawaiian dolls also look pretty silly. Is... is that a narwhal trophy? 0_0 And of course, a fair share of blue lady portraits here too. I've been noticing something peculiar though. Throughout the house (especially in the living room and in the basement) seem to be a lot of stuff of Grandpa, but a severe lack of stuff that seems to be of Ms. Claire's, other than for example the jewelery box. Are the rest of that stuff mostly in the other part of the house, or did Grandpa get rid of her stuff after she died? :/ Alright, time to examine some stuff. Well, at least their washing machine is apparently still functional. I imagine they'd have a hard time replacing if it got broken, considering the lack of adults around. All-Season Magic Spice Mix && Washing machine ==> Pfff, yes. That's indeed a pretty preposterous idea. Cherub Key && Washing machine ==> And remember kids, always remove your priceless irreplacable heirlooms before doing your laundry! xD Tap shoes && Washing machine ==> ...Now I'm slightly curious if it's possible to active the washing machine once we've turned the power back on. :P Or at least, if it perhaps gives a different bit of narration then when trying this item combination again. Ballet slippers && Washing machine ==> No dryer? Welp, that can't be good. Ahahaha, that piece of narration when examining the laundry. When it first said "all neat and folded" I was immediately like "Eeeeeeh? That doesn't look very neat nor folded", and then the next bit confirmed exactly what I was thinking. :P Batteries && Laundry ==> I just want to find an excuse to say JOEY CLAIRE, EXTRAORDINAIRE whenever I can now. xD Pogs && Laundry ==> I didn't expect this nonsense combination would result into some more sadstuck. :( Poor Joey... Cherub Key && Laundry ==> Well, at least polishing the key with the sock didn't cause some more weird behaviour from it. Tap shoes && Laundry ==> Huh? I wonder if that's a box we'll find somewhere else in the basement. Maybe this is a hint that if we use the tap shoes on it it will cause an item to fall out of it, like with that box in the hallway closet? Hehehe, I find it pretty funny that we can't examine that Typheus minion in the background. Let's just ignore it, shall we? xD That unsettling knight with the shorts can be examined though... All-Season Magic Spice Mix && Knight ==> Well, as long as it doesn't get haunted, that is. :P Pogs && Knight ==> Oh jeez, why do the pogs keep causing more "Joey reflecting on life sadstuck". D: Cherub Key && Knight ==> Oh yes, I'm sure those knights would definitely have some KEY issues about it. ;D Tap shoes && Knight ==> I immediately shrugged off the fire-breathing lizard thing as just a funny joke referencing dragons, but plainWonder does have a good point that this could be a sneaky hint to that mysterious axolotl creature we saw in very early concept-art! Ballet slippers && Knight ==> All Joey needs is some shades now and then she's the punning master. B) Examining the Hawaiian dolls now... OOOOOOOOOOOOOH, well will you look at that! That's some interesting background information!!! This confirms that Grandpa HAS already been to the Pacific! Perhaps that for some reason he knew the Frog Temple was somewhere over there, but didn't know where exactly, and thus spent a long time exploring until he finally found it? If that's where he's been putting his main focus, that would certainly explain why he's always gone from home for such a long time! The Typheus minion does suggest he's already been to the session, so presumably by now he's found the Frog Temple and has made his first visit there? And maybe now he's mainly doing research into the Frog Temple and how to develop Sburb? Anyway, we've advanced a bit more to the left of the basement now, and I suddenly noticed those colorful dolls in those boxes in the background... Are those Squiddles? :O Batteries && Hula girls ==> Yes, that ukelele is presumably acoustic... and presumably fake. :P Pogs && Hula girls ==> Huh? Really? I mean, earlier on after the references to a Japanese variant I looked it up and found pogs might have originated in Japan centuries ago, but perhaps Hawaii simply made a similar thing? Pet treats && Hula girls ==> Yeah, they're pretty ridiculously big. Kind of like the Houseguests, actually. And especially that blue lady doll at Jade's house. Cherub Key && Hula girls ==> I'm sorry Joey, what are we doing to you! xD Tap shoes && Hula girls ==> Another hint that we're supposed to use the tap shoes on that pile of boxes! God, I wonder what's going to happen there. On one hand I think an item might fall out, like in the hallway closet, but plainWonder could be right too that a monster is hidden over there! Oh hey, we can zoom in on the blue lady portraits! Which, like plainWonder just noticed, indeed resemble the ones we've already seen! ...Oh. Oh dear. plainWonder's got a point, what Joey's saying here about that it's okay to ignore something supposedly precious to you as long as you're paying attention to something kind of similar... that could reference how in just a year, Grandpa will apparently completely abandon Joey and Jude and instead focus all his attention on Jade. That's pretty awful. :/ ...Oh no. Oh hell no. I also just realized the same could be said about Nanna: from what Nannasprite told us, it seemed like Grandpa cared a lot about her. And yet... he abandoned her and never came back to her, and instead he's admiring all these blue lady substitutes. That is freaking terrible. God, Grandpa.... :/ On the other hand... I'm suddenly thinking of Jake again, post-retcon Jake to be precise. He felt that he'd screwed up with everyone he cared about, and for a while decided he'd be better off alone and they'd be better off without him. Maybe Grandpa went through a similar phase, but unlike Jake he had no ACTUAL friends who could talk to him about it and have him make up with those? So instead Grandpa continued down this path, isolating himself more and more and abandoning Joey and Jude, just like he'd done with Nanna before. Welp... Again, I reiterate what I said before. I'd love to see things from HIS perspective some day. We know Nanna's side of the story, we know Joey's and soon Jude's, we know Jade's, and we even know Jake's... but we don't know what HE thinks about all this. Anyway, wow. That was surprisingly deep. Moving on! The narwhal now... Welp, yeah, it's a big house to dump a lot of stuff in. I guess the same could be said about Jade's home, haha...ha. Pet treats && Narwhal ==> Even in death... this narwhal won't eat pet treats. :P Random thought here: those tubes in the background, are those (or at least one of them) part of Jude's tube highway? I mean, the kitchen did seem to suggest the tubes went further down to the basement, at least. Huh, looks like we can't examine the box pile in the background. Then perhaps the one we're supposed to tap dance at is further to the left in the basement? Let's go a bit further... HOLY SHIT THOSE ARE BETTY CROCKER BOXES. D: Fortunately with the spoon logo and not with the fork logo, of course. But... eesh. I mean, yeah, I guess he did inherit the company like Nannasprite told us, but still. Hmm... the fact that there's actually only one pile of this stuff in the entire house and dumped on top of each other like thrash makes me wonder what Grandpa actually thinks of Betty Crocker, considering what Nanna told us he and she felt like about the Batterwitch. Hehe, no actual Betty Crocker logo on the boxes. Because of copyright, probably. But I like that they're still very recognizable, with the red spoon logo. And hey, there's the thing to turn the power back on! So this is probably the pile of boxes the narration was hinting at that we needed to tap dance on, and I suppose it will cause the pile to collapse and the switch behind it to become accessible? Let's first examine that mug in the foreground though... Eesh, looks like Mom taps into Grandpa's booze sometimes. Welp. Kind of like how Roxy tapped into her own mom's booze stash. You can even see some stuff inside of the mug apparently... yuck. Pfff, plainWonder's got a point that the caption on the mug ("I love 'staches") is probably supposed to reference this booze stash. Oh my god, those clever bastards. Cherub Key/Tap shoes && Mug ==> Yeah, while Mom is probably indeed a great babysitter and cares a lot about them, just like she'd later do with Rose, it's still clear that she's got some issues of her own. So, some skiing stuff over there! I wonder who owned it, was it Grandpa's or Ms. Claire's? Batteries && Skiing stuff ==> Welp, another combination that wasn't implemented. Cherub Key && Skiing stuff ==> Sudden resolution out of nowhere! Looks like Joey doesn't know either who this stuff belonged to. If it WAS indeed Ms. Claire's, then that's one of the few personal belongings of her that still seem to be around here! That purple cloth around the skiing stuff reminds me a lot of Eridan's cape with Kanaya's blood actually, haha. Ballet slippers && Skiing stuff ==> Well well, so Joey doesn't just practice ballet, she also studies the history of it! That's interesting. Oh boy, time to acknowledge the Betty Crocker pile! Let's first examine the box at the side, I'm not sure if it will provide a different reaction or not? Hehehe, a surprisingly small reaction to it. Looks like it's just general cooking stuff then and not really belongings of Grandpa related to Betty Crocker? Batteries && Betty Crocker box ==> NAMEDROP! :D I guess they probably couldn't use the logo, but referencing the name wasn't really a problem? Anyway, I love the reference to how in B2 Betty Crocker does much more than selling just baking stuff. Cherub Key && Betty Crocker box ==> Huh, okay, that's interesting to know that Ms. Claire was a good cook but this stuff ISN'T hers. Did Ms. Claire for some reason not like Betty Crocker and/or find it suspicious? Aaaaaaand it looks like while Joey knows what Betty Crocker is, she doesn't know that her pa inherited the company. :/ Let's wait with using the tap shoes for now... Hey look, examining the pile provides a different reaction! Okay then, then it should be safe to use the tap shoes on the box already. Tap shoes && Betty Crocker box ==> The hint can be hardly more obvious than this. xD Okay, let's look at the pile! Pfff, a small hint that Betty Crocker was selling some shady stuff back in B1 too. Also, apparently "circuit breaker" is the word for the thing behind it! Trying to "move the junkpile" screams at us louder than ever that we need to use the tap shoes on this thing, haha. Batteries && Betty crocker pile ==> I can't believe I almost missed the "step up your game" pun/hint. xD Pogs && Betty Crocker pile ==> It's fun to pretend. Kind of like Terezi's investigation of Tavros' corpse despite already knowing Vriska did it. :P Pet treats && Betty Crocker pile ==> Ahhh, the eternal Homestuck question of whether or not magic is real. Never gets old. :D Oh boy, time to use the tap shoes now and free up the circuit breaker! OH SHIT SUDDEN (short) CUTSCENE. Well, that came unexpected! It's taken a while, considering this is the first cutscene since the opening animation, hahaha. I assume the next one might be once we encounter a monster? I like how all the boxes are now moved to the side. Alright, let's examine the circuit breaker! I assume once we turn the power back on we'll get a conversation with Jude? Pffff, I love how every single item combination is just basically screaming at Joey to FLIP THE DAMN SWITCH ALREADY. xD Just before we actually go and flip the switch, I'm starting to wonder how the power went out in the first place. Did a monster come down here or something? Which raises the question, is it still here??? Anyway, let's get on with it and FLIP THE SWITCH. I wonder if it will immediately trigger another cutscene or not. Maybe it will just turn the power back on right here and that's it, or are we getting a montage of the power going back on throughout the house? Or maybe even summon a monster to this location and cause our first strife. 0_0 LET'S GO. ... THAT SURE WAS A CUTSCENE ALRIGHT. Oh man, turning the power back on startled a monster DOWN HERE! I have a very bad feeling that if we head back now, we'll suddenly be jumped on by this monster and WILL ENGAGE IN OUR FIRST STRIFE. This is really exciting!!! On another note though, I like how the basement looks right now, with the power on. I only just noticed that ridiculous giant purple doll in that pile in the background. Oh shit... I just noticed a black moving thing just at the edge of the frame to the right, on the blue lady portraits. THE MONSTER IS RIGHT THERE. I also just noticed that the black chain in the background is no longer shaking, like it first was before we turned the power back on. Moving to the right ever so slowly.... god that monster looks scary. IT HAS SO MANY ARMS. Anyway... it's time. Time to face our destiny and face this monster in our very first strife!!!!!! ...Wait no, before we do, I just noticed how the back part of the Typheus minion looks a bit different in this light now, for a second I thought it was a giant Smuppte doll with a giant nose xD OKAY. THAT'S ENTIRELY ENOUGH OF ALL THIS STALLING LET'S GET THIS SHOW ON THE ROAD *One strife later* Holy... CRAP. That was AWESOME!!!! First of all, I love how the Strife started out like the typical Homestuck strifes, with the "STRIFE!!!" text. It's just so awesome to see the return of that. I absolutely LOVE how Joey started out in an abjuring pose much like John's during the early Homestuck acts!!! That's an amazing callback. And then, all those punny attack names! God, there were a lot of them. Both from our side AND the snake's!!! What I want to say is that I think it's really cool that we could use EVERY item during this strife, and get some unique reactions out of those!!! That just provided me with an immense amount of nostalgia to John's first Imp Strife, where he basically used all items in his inventory against the Imp! I was kind of surprised that we couldn't use the flashlight itself against the monster, nor combinations of the items, but nonetheless, this was really cool! After we first used the tap shoes, for a short time we were pretty clueless on what we needed to do to abscond! We tried the tap shoes again a few times, trying to click on the other parts of its body, or when it's looking away. It took us a bit to figure out that we could use the ballet slippers to abscond AFTER we'd first used the tap shoes, haha. And the music!!! God, that was really cool strifing music. Man, this little Strife makes me so pumped for any upcoming strifes in the future! Alright, let's quit here for today. It's already 10:05 PM, next time we'll see what Joey and Jude have to say to each other now that the power is back on and this strife has happened. Come to think of it... it's interesting how we couldn't use the walkie talkie in the basement, just like we couldn't use it in the trophy room. Do those monsters somehow disturb radio waves? That's an interesting thing to think about.