#sorry again for the homestuck words I could explain it better without them | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

luna-almighty-god · 3 years ago

Text

An Ampora doesn't cry n°5 [HumanStuck]

Click here to read on Ao3

Homestuck belongs to Andrew Hussie

Please don't refer to this fanfic if you are looking for canonical information.

Rating M : presence of lemon / threesome becoming a foursome

Enjoy reading!

=== ===

Previous chapter

=== ===

The following week arrives quickly, and Eridan is proud to reveal, for the first time, his apartment. He took the initiative to invite the three idiots -yes, he insists on calling them that- using the excuse that "Since Gamzee is going to move in, we might as well take a look to see how he's going to settle in. And by the way, the other two can come so they'll know where to crash now."

Sollux remains dumbfounded, as do Gamzee and Karkat.

" ... An apartment big enough for two, you say? Damn it Eridan, you could house the whole gang, this isn't an apartment, it's a castle!"

Eridan answers them with a big smile. Well, he admits it, he was very modest when talking about his home. His apartment takes up a whole floor of the building, one would almost believe in a real house! The entrance hall leads directly to the large living room, which is itself connected to the kitchen. American style kitchen, beware! There is only a counter to separate the two rooms, giving a large open space. The living room has a large couch located in front of a flat screen TV, and Karkat is the first to get outraged:

"Holy shit, you have a curved TV?! You're kidding!"

The smallest one leaves to rave about the screen, while Gamzee quietly goes to open the doors. There are no corridors, the living room is the place to go from one room to another. Gamzee just takes a quick look: an office, Eridan's bedroom, a bathroom - gosh, there's a shower AND a bath? - as well as a laundry room...

" ... Wow bro, this is so cool!" comments Gamzee, his eyes sparkling, even if he doesn't seem that surprised. He must have lived in this kind of place before his parents kicked him out.

Sollux and Karkat don't know where to look anymore. It's not only the luxury of the apartment that disturbs them, but also the impeccable cleanliness. The living room is so... pure, devoid of personal belongings. You'd think no one lives there, that it's just a picture in a design magazine.

Sollux looks at Eridan, searching for the right words before asking:

"...isn't this...too big, for one person?"

In other words: didn't you feel fucking lonely the whole time?

Eridan gets embarrassed, pouts, looks away and shrugs:

"Better too much than not enough, right?"

In other words: Yes, but now I'm not alone anymore.

This makes Sollux smile, and he decides to relax and make himself at home. He goes to join Karkat near the TV:

"I brought my switch. Shall we connect it to the screen? It can be really good.

- Oh yeah ! A mario party ! Karkat is delighted.

- No, more like Mario Kart.

- In your dreams, you killed the game! There's no fun in playing when all you do is win!

- Winning? I don't win. I DEFUND you."

Sollux approaches a mocking face and Karkat blushes with shame:

"YOU'LL SEE, IT'S ME WHO'LL DEFEAT YOU!"

Eridan holds back a laugh, deciding to let them settle in while he joins Gamzee in... shit, where did he go? He glances around the other rooms, only to find him in his own room, collapsed on his bed.

Eridan clears his throat, hoping his embarrassment isn't too obvious. Other than Feferi, no one has ever been in here, let alone a handsome guy who has ever touched him a little too intimately.

"Gamzee?"

The respondent, who was staring at the ceiling, straightens up on his elbows and smiles at him::

"Hey bro~ Sorry, your bed looked so comfortable, I couldn't resist~"

Eridan shrugs, continues to look at him in silence, before hesitating:

" ... Are you alright? What were you thinking about?

- How lucky I am to be here! Eheh, this is great, too great!"

The taller one grabs him, pulls him to fall on top of him. Eridan lets out a squeak, turns crimson. Shit, he definitely can't get used to this kind of gesture.

"You're the best Eridan, frankly the best bro of all time!

- Pff... obviously, yes."

Eridan tries to keep his head up, to swallow his embarrassment, but it's hard to stay calm when someone is hugging you like that, on your bed, in your room, and then comes to kiss you on the cheek, then on the edge of the lips... and on the mouth...

"S-Stop!" exclaims the host, placing his hand over Gamzee's mouth.

The taller man blinks in surprise, and Eridan bites his tongue before looking away:

" ... L-Listen... it's not that I don't like it, but there... no. Not there, not like that, not here.

- ... Like this? Here?

- ... I... both of us... In my room... it's..."

Gamzee stares at him again, trying to figure out what he means, and Eridan holds back from calling him names for causing him such embarrassment. Damn it, does he really have to explain it like that, out loud?!

Eridan desperately flees his gaze, and feeling his breath against his palm doesn't help.

"...This is...too intimate..."

Gamzee finally seems to understand, as his eyes widen slightly. But instead of stopping, he grabs Eridan's wrist to take it off his mouth, and offers a mischievous smile:

"You want to close the door? The bros won't bother us~"

Eridan jumps to his feet and his expression is one of laughter. He winces under the panic, the embarrassment, the intense embarrassment that clutches his heart and makes him want to run away:

"NO!!!"

He has lost control of his voice, his scream echoes throughout the apartment. That's the problem with having a big space: the echo is too good. He and Gamzee stare at each other, one dead of shame, the other stunned. Eridan takes off, rushes towards the exit, crosses the living room to the kitchen. Gamzee follows him, his big legs allow him to catch up easily although he does not dare to touch him:

"Hey, Eri, was that a joke?

- Your jokes are shit!

- Well, maybe it was not completely a joke...?

- It gets better and better!

- You know I'd never force you to do anything, right?"

Eridan didn't answer. The memory of the amphitheater comes back to him, but he refrains from bringing it up. It would be too mean to accuse him of having forced him at that moment, knowing that Eridan somewhat indulged and enjoyed the treatment. But damn... !

" ... You're fucking boring." he said, sulkily, as he walked around the counter and focused on making a hot drink, just to keep his hands busy and not have to look at the others.

That doesn't stop Gamzee from coming and sticking to his back and hugging him shyly, with the attitude of the one who made a mistake and is trying to be forgiven:

"Sorry... are you mad at me?"

Eridan glances at him, tenses at his puppy dog look, finally growling as he refocuses on his drink:

"...no. It's not that.

- What is it then...?"

Karkat looks at them from across the counter:

"He's embarrassed, you idiot! You can see he's not used to it!"

Gamzee pouts:

"Is that true Eri? Are you embarrassed?

- N-No, I'm not embarrassed! I'm just...I... Argh, yes, I'm embarrassed! There, happy?"

Eridan gets out of his grip and goes to lean against the worktop, his drink in his hands. Karkat rolls his eyes and looks at Gamzee:

"You have to take it easy, idiot. Not everyone is comfortable with physical contact.

- Like you?

- I'M VERY COMFORTABLE WITH IT!"

It' s Karkat who is now crimson, and Gamzee laughs. He goes around to join the smaller one, leans over, winks at him:

"Well go ahead, show me~"

Karkat swears, comes to kiss him, but with such vehemence that their teeth clash, and the noise makes Eridan wince, as well as Karkat, while Gamzee blinks and finally explodes with laughter:

"Ahah, too violent little bro !~

- S-Shut up!!!"

Gamzee pats his head, amused, then walks away to join Sollux on the couch. Karkat seems to be the one pouting now. He joins Eridan in the kitchen, hands in the pockets:

"Tch, how boring..."

Eridan hides his smile and just shakes his head. He then proposes:

"Do you want to drink something?

- ... Mm... water, for now."

The host nods and serves him a glass. Karkat grabs it, takes a small sip, before setting the container back down on the counter without seeming to care more than that. He looks at Eridan hesitantly, seems to want to say something but finally remains silent.

" ... Is something wrong?" asks the one with glasses.

Karkat twiddles his fingers, eyes glued to the ground, wincing as he desperately searches for words. And obviously, being unable to speak, to explain himself, frustrates him enormously, makes him blush with shame. He just seems to want to run away, but is tugged by his ego, which is pushing him to face up, trying to get him to talk.

"I..."

Eridan isn't sure how to help him. So he remains silent, attentive, patient. What could the smaller one have to reveal, that it seems so hard to talk about?

"FUCK!" swears Karkat, who gets angry at himself, at the words that still don't come out.

He stamps his foot, opens and closes his mouth several times. Eridan feels bad for him, guesses how humiliated he must feel to give such a show. But even if he would like to reassure him and to take him in his arms, he is afraid that it doesn't help, that it embarrasses his comrade only more.

But Karkat suddenly grabs his hand, squeezes it hard, shaking, before closing his eyes, taking a breath, and unpacking in one go:

"CanIkissYou?!"

He almost screamed, and now he remains frozen, eyes closed, waiting for his answer like an ordeal.

Eridan blinks, bewildered:

" ... Kiss me?" he repeats, fearing to have misunderstood.

Karkat empourpre, nods sharply the head without daring to repeat himself. Eridan remains silent, taken by surprise, he clearly didn't expect such a request.

Suddenly, Karkat lets him go, moves back, as if he had been burned:

"No, No forget it, forget it, it was shit, forget it!"

He goes to leave the kitchen but Eridan holds him by the hand, sensing that something is wrong, that Karkat is no longer just nervous but downright panicked.

"But no, I was just surprised!

- Rah, no, leave it the fuck alone! I shouldn't have asked, I don't even know what I was expecting! I'm not Gamzee or Sollux, I don't even know why I'm trying!"

Eridan widens his eyes, before frowning and pulling him up, forcing him to face him, to look at him:

"But you don't have to look like them to kiss me!

- Of course I do! I'm not... I don't have the same ease or the same fucking way of turning the head! Look at this, in front of them you lose control, in front of me you talk to me like I'm a kid!"

Karkat releases his hands and brings them back against him, crossing his arms, shoulders hunched, closing in on himself as he looks down feverishly:

"You all do this... always treating me like I'm a fucking kid! They don't even give me a chance to be ..."

But he pauses, bites his lip, so hard that Eridan already perceives a little reddish liquid appearing. He understands that this isn't just a problem with him, but a problem with Gamzee and Sollux of which he has no knowledge. Although... he suspects, deep down, the nature of the problem.

"...I'm borrowing the bathroom from you." growls Karkat before leaving the kitchen...only to blush when he sees his two lovers staring at him from the couch. Shit, yeah, it's true that this fucking apartment doesn't have the concept of "private space."

Gamzee straightens up, concerned:

" ... Karka..."

But the smaller one ignores him, slams the bathroom door behind him. He doesn't seem so much to be mad at the others but rather at himself.

Sollux grimaces and leaves the couch, moves closer to the shower room, knocks gently:

" ... Karkat, open please."

Silence. Sollux insists:

" Can I come in? Only me? ... If there's a problem, I'd rather we talk about it."

A click. Sollux opens the door and rushes into the bathroom, taking care to close it behind him.

Eridan leaves the kitchen in turn to get a visual on Gamzee but is surprised not to see him. He walks around the couch, only to realize that he has curled up on it after pulling his hood down over his head. He looks so small and vulnerable in this position, Eridan feels his heart clench. He gets closer, sits down beside him, comes to rub his arm gently.

"...I'm such a fucking bad friend, aren't I...?" asks Gamzee piteously, hiding under his hood.

- ... No. You're just clumsy, like anyone else."

Gamzee shakes his head:

"... no... no, I'm such a jerk, I do nonsense... I do nonsense for my parents, nonsense for my buddies, nonsense for my boyfriends... I'm sorry, I'm sorry I'm like this..."

Eridan would have cried about it. But it's not his place to be comforted now. He resumes a hard air, grabs the hood of the other without warning to pull it abruptly, revealing the defeated face of Gamzee. This last is startled, looks at him, the wet eyes, before remaining bewildered when he sees Eridan approaching and taking him a kiss. A long, voracious kiss, an experimental kiss too. Eridan has never done this, but he doesn't fancy a simple brush. No, he tries to devour his mouth, and this while pushing him back against the pillows.

Soon, the host finds himself astride his guest, breaks the kiss, breathless. Gamzee remains mute, breathes as fast as he does, and the situation seems so incredible. The taller man doesn't believe he's ever experienced this, no one has ever managed to just...submit him?

"F-Fuck bro..."

Eridan glares at him, and his voice becomes implacable:

"Apologize again for being yourself, and I'll slap you, is that clear?

- ... but...

- You're not an idiot, or a freak, or whatever the hell you've been told! You screwed up, it happens, but don't feel sorry for yourself for hours either!"

Because Eridan knows all too well that feeling of being the most laughable being in the universe, that feeling of shame and loneliness that makes you want to hide in a corner and never come out again. And there's no way he's going to let his loved ones experience the same thing.

Gamzee's laughter returns, more tender, more cheerful:

"Ahah... you're really... really the best."

Eridan relaxes a bit, finally laughing back:

"Yeah... Yeah, I know."

They take some time to calm down, before Eridan stands up, letting Gamzee straighten up. He goes back for his hot drink and takes the opportunity to bring one back to his comrade. They then sit down, one beside the other, in the sofa, waiting patiently for the two others to come back.

After about twenty minutes, Sollux is the first one to show up, very quickly followed by a Karkat with an elusive and slightly red look. Eridan and Gamzee hold back any comment but understand that he has probably cried.

Yet the smaller one stands in front of them, although he doesn't look directly at them:

" ... I'm sorry. I..."

He hesitates again, but this time he takes a breath, and suddenly glares at Gamzee:

"I WANT YOU TO LET ME DOMINATE! IT BORES ME TO BE ALWAYS PASSIVE! "

His face took again a beautiful red tint, but Eridan holds him in respect to be so honest on a subject which he considers so embarrassing. Gamzee, for his part, blinks before tilting his head, confused:

" ... Okay, yes.

- ... Seriously? You accept so easily? Karkat is astonished.

- We never tried, so yeah I'll try. Sorry little bro, I didn't think you were serious about it. I thought this 'want to dominate' thing was some kind of role-play where I had to submit you.

- BUT ARE YOU SERIOUS? I ASK YOU A MILLION TIMES!

- Yeah, every time we were in bed, so I thought it was a game?

- FUCK IT, I JUST HAD TO ASK YOU IN THE MIDDLE OF A CONVERSATION LIKE THAT? BUT HOW DO YOU EXPECT ME TO FIND THE OPPORTUNITY! IT'S FUCKING EMBARRASSING!"

Karkat plunges his face in his hands while howling of rage. Eridan realizes that Sollux, remained in the background, stifles a laugh behind his hand. He keeps himself from laughing, sympathizing with the poor Karkat who is dying of shame.

Gamzee opens his arms:

"Do you want to try now little bro?

- Wh- BUT NOT!

- Just a kiss?"

Karkat cusses, grunts, looks everywhere but at the other three boys. He finally gets closer to Gamzee:

"...If you mess with me, I'll take you apart...” he threatens.

He climbs onto the sofa, settles between the legs of the taller boy, puts his hands on his cheeks and looks at him shyly, seeming to gauge the situation, thinking about how he's going to handle it. Gamzee keeps his smile, curious and patient, while Eridan observes them from the corner of his eye with the embarrassing feeling of being a stalker.

Karkat finally comes to put his lips, much more lightly than the previous time, letting their mouths move one against the other. Without moving away he moves his head a little, changes the angle, presses harder while pushing Gamzee against the back of the sofa, coming to stick his body all against his. He comes to nibble the lower lip, licks it with the end of his tongue, and the bigger one shudders while opening gently his mouth. Karkat embraces his shoulders, deepens the kiss, slides his tongue against his sister in a hot sigh.

Eridan tears himself from his contemplation, the burning face. He fixes an invisible point, trying to ignore the movements of the couple, the wet noises which invade the room. Shit... Shit, they really don't know the term "privacy", do they?

He is startled when Sollux enters his field of vision, and he guesses at once that he has an idea behind the head. Difficult to ignore the one with the two colors of eyes when this one approaches you and that, in spite of his glasses, you feel his glance piercing your being. Eridan swallows, moves back by reflex against the back of the sofa. Sollux approaches an amused smile, takes him quietly his cup of the hands to put it back on the table, before climbing on the sofa and stuck it there.

"Relax..." he whispers.

He brings his face closer to his, and Eridan almost perceives a laugh when he asks:

"Can I kiss you?"

Even when Sollux whispers, his voice remains mesmerizing. Eridan struggles not to look away, especially fearing that the other two will continue kissing. My god, what is this situation? That appears normal to them, to them three, to kiss each other like that, in the middle of the living room? He raises his glasses feverishly, bites his lip, finishes by nodding gently.

Sollux loses his smile, becomes more serious while he puts his hands against the file, on both sides of the head of Eridan. He mimics Karkat and begins with a tender, patient kiss, to begin the contact, to feel their lips brush against each other, to caress.

"...open your mouth..." he whispers, and Eridan shudders and complies.

When he feels Sollux's tongue between his lips, he closes his eyes tightly and holds his breath. He thinks he hears the other laughing again, but he is too embarrassed to get angry right away. He is nervous, too nervous. The tongue brushes against his, wringing out a squeak, and Eridan opens his eyes in surprise, in a flinch that causes Sollux to back away.

"... uh... are you okay? " questions the one with the vairons eyes, a little worried to be gone too far.

Eridan hides his red face behind his arm :

"No! No, you irritate me, moron!"

Sollux finds his smile, takes his hand, obliges him to show his ashamed and shy expression. He comes back to kiss him, without begging the authorization this time. A muffled moan is perceptible, difficult to say who pushed it. Eridan wriggles, closes his eyes, the heat rising to his head. The tongue of Sollux returns to titillate his, their burning breaths mingle, and in this flow of sensation, Ampora seeks to what to hold on. He claws the sofa, but startles when he feels a hand taking his, intertwining their fingers. He half-opens his eyes, only to glance at it, to realize that it is Gamzee's hand.

But Sollux prevents him from thinking about it and pushes him to close his eyes, intensifying the kiss, tearing him another unspeakable noise. Shit ... He feels the hands leaving the file to settle on his shoulders, come to untie his scarf, exposed his neck to the free air. A shiver seizes him, followed by a weak whimper when the fingers come to caress his nape.

Sollux moves aside, and Eridan takes advantage of it to catch his breath. At least he thought he had the time, but he reopens his eyes abruptly as a groan, very strong, very real, escapes him and resounds in the living room. Sollux, that bastard... ! At what moment did he slip his face in his neck, did he have the audacity to come to put his lips there, to suck his skin?

Humiliated, Eridan tries to push him away with his free hand, the other still imprisoned by Gamzee's.

"Wh- Sto-StopAH!"

He finds himself unable to articulate, his throat is devoured, snatched up by greedy lips, pressed. Nibbled by teasing teeth, he squeals, twists, arches. Each corner of his skin seems to burn him, as marked by the least contact.

"S-SOL-UGH!"

He hiccups, his vision blurred, taken by a fever that he does not explain. He looks for air painfully, his heart beats too much, he hears almost only that. That and his indecent moans, those obscene noises he tries to keep quiet, in vain.

Is it good? He doesn't know, he doesn't understand, it's close to the sensations that Gamzee made him feel, he feels himself going just as crazy, and yet his intimacy is not touched, there is only his neck that is taken by assault. Is this normal? Is it normal to be in such a state for this, to moan like he does, to have this feeling of losing your mind?

The pleasure is being choked by the panic that grips his throat, by the apprehension of what is happening and what is coming next, what attitude he should have... what attitude is he supposed to have?

"S-STOP!"

Beyond the scream, it's the sob that petrifies Sollux and causes him to sit up, to look at Eridan.

Eridan who can't take it anymore, who gasps for air as he can. His skin is hot, his neck marked by hickeys and bites - not very deep, but still. Eridan, who doesn't even stare at him, but on the contrary flees eye contact, pulls himself out of Gamzee's hand to wipe his face, to try to dry the tears that have escaped him. He sniffs, feels ashamed to almost cry for that, does everything to regain his calm.

The silence strikes him. He realizes that he had to interrupt the other two, and guilt tightens his stomach. He didn't want to spoil the moment, he only wanted to slow down Sollux, to calm down the game. He doesn't dare say anything, doesn't even manage to apologize as the "sorry" itches his lips. But the silence that lingers scares him, he still doesn't dare to look at the others. Did he piss them off? Are they mad at him?

" ... Sorry, I scared you..." Sollux whispers softly to him.

Feverishly, Eridan looks at him out of the corner of his eye, and a wave of relief washes over him when he doesn't blame him for stopping him. But pride obliges, the Ampora bites his lip and crosses his arms, haughty:

"No! But we had said 'kiss', just 'kiss'!" he scolds, and this in spite of his glance still shining of tears, in spite of the traces that it left on his cheeks.

Sollux grimaces by observing him, doesn't believe for a moment in this false anger. He dares to stretch out his hand towards him again, Eridan tenses up but lets him put his hand on his cheek and caresses him gently with his thumb.

" Yes, excuse me, I rushed. Is that okay?"

Eridan hesitates, looks away, passes a hand over his eyes to wipe away the last of his tears.

" ... Yes.

- And the truth?

- But it's okay I tell you!

- Tell me again, looking me in the eyes."

Eridan gets annoyed, looks at him again, but swallows when he sees Sollux taking off his glasses, plunging vairish pupils into his own. It's unfair...it's really unfair, how can he answer with that penetrating look on him?

" ... I..."

Eridan purses his lips, and no matter how hard he struggles, he finally lowers his gaze. He tries to hide his weakness by taking off his glasses in turn, only to pretend to clean them, as he searches for his words, searches for a way to not humiliate himself further:

"...I just didn't expect you to do that, that's all. It's just surprise.

- Did I hurt you?

- Wh- But no, but it's not that!

- Fear then?

- No, no I wasn't scared!"

Sollux grabs one of his wrists, Eridan is startled and raises his head, and this time yes, this time it is well of the anger which starts to seize him and which pushes him to throw a black glance to his interlocutor:

" Let me go!

- Eridan, it's okay to be afraid, especially about this kind of thing.

- I am NOT afraid!

- You're shaking.

- NO! I'M NOT SHAKING!

- You're screaming.

- BECAUSE YOU'RE PISSING ME OFF!"

Eridan doesn't know with what strength he manages to straighten up, to push Sollux and make him fall from the sofa. Sollux who doesn't hide his astonishment by ending up with his ass on the floor, while Eridan stands up mad with anger:

"I DON'T NEED YOU TO THROW OUT THE OBVIOUS, I DON'T NEED YOU TO PATRONIZE ME, I DON'T NEED YOU TO MAKE FUN OF ME!"

Sollux frowns:

"What?! But I'm not making fun of you!"

And as he straightens up, he spits with deep annoyance:

"Stop being paranoid, shit!

- Paranoid?! No, but it's getting better and better! You're the first one to say I need to find the right partner, then you jump down my throat and I'm not even allowed to take it wrong?

- I didn't jump down your throat! And you should have stopped me earlier if it bothered you so much!

- I tried to push you away, you didn't want to hear it!!!

- Because you were moaning! You liked it, didn't you?!

- BUT I DON'T KNOW! I NEVER FELT THAT WAY BEFORE!

- I THOUGHT GAMZEE HAD ALREADY TOUCHED YOU?!

- THAT'S NOT THE POINT!

- YES OF COURSE! WHEN IT'S GAMZEE IT'S OK, WHEN IT'S ME I CAN GO FUCK MYSELF!

- THAT'S NOT WHAT I SAID!"

They are silent, only to catch their breath, their voices hoarse from yelling, but they continue to stare at each other. It's up to the one who will start again first, the one who will dare to break this brief moment of calm, the one who will provoke new hostilities...

But they are preceded by Karkat who interposes himself between them:

"Guys, seriously, calm down!"

And for it to be him who orders this, it is that they have to go. They break the visual exchange to observe the smaller one, only a few seconds, before Eridan turns away with a pest, putting a hand on his neck, hiding the marks on his skin. He makes about face and gains the bathroom, his steps clattering dryly on the ground, sign that his anger isn't appeased.

Karkat blows a blow, reassured that that doesn't start a fight... but it is Gamzee who makes the blow of grace by observing Sollux:

"Damn, he's the only one to make you scream so much."

Sollux chokes, blushes - of anger or embarrassment? - and retorts a magnificent "SHUT UP!"

Karkat rolls his eyes and gives him a blow of elbow:

"He's not wrong. First time I see you lose patience so quickly.

- Tch, I didn't ask you anything.

- Don't pout, Captor, and go apologize instead. Problems are best solved by talking, as you so aptly put it."

Sollux doesn't miss the mockery in the smaller boy's voice, though the latter is serious. He grumbles, massages the nape of his neck, before blowing and going in the direction of the bathroom, not without forgetting to put back his glasses. To believe that he is going to spend his evening in this room...

He knocks, but contrary to previously he opens without waiting for an answer, to fall on Eridan who stands in front of the mirror and who seems to disinfect some bites. There is a blank, the Ampora observes it in the mirror before simply ignoring it, frowned. Sollux enters and closes the door behind him, but the uneasiness is present. If he knows how to calm the game with Karkat, it is more difficult in front of Eridan.

"... I really thought you liked it." ends up saying Sollux, hands in pockets, without letting him out of sight.

The host grunts, continues to pat the slight wounds of his cotton, before taking out some cream and spreading a dab of it on his neck :

"... fuck you.

- I'm trying to have a conversation here. Can you be more open?

- To say what? To yell at you again that I DON'T KNOW? I don't know if I liked it, if I hated it, if you fucking hurt me and I want to do it again! I don't know, Gamzee drove me as crazy as you did, and if you must know I ended up crying in his arms! There, happy?

- ... But... Fucking happy about what?! I don't understand you, what's the problem exactly ? Are you angry with us ? Because we forced you ?

- No way! You didn't.. RAH!"

Eridan turns to him, annoyed:

"Forget it, get out, go back with the others, I'll join you!

- NO! Are you mad because you don't know what you feel? You always have to try new things, it's like with the motorcycle, you have to...

- I'M TIRED OF EMBARRASSING MYSELF!"

Sollux opens his eyes wide:

"...huh?"

Eridan nervously runs a hand through his hair:

"I'm tired of humiliating myself with every single thing I do, every single thing that happens! I'm sick of crying in front of you, saying stupid shit in front of you, freaking out over nothing, ruining the moment, just... shit, just shit, that's it! When I tell you that 'it's ok' can't you just accept it without questioning, without insisting and trying to do a fucking psychoanalysis? No because I have a shrink for that! Or I'll ask Lalonde, trust me that girl doesn't need a certificate to give you a full analysis!"

Sollux stares at him without a word, then massages his temples as he takes it all in:

"...no but...Damn it, Eridan Ampora, what's keeping me from hitting you?

- Wha...

- How do you expect me not to ask questions when you pushed me back to the edge of the tears? I forced you to the point of crying, and you want me to turn a blind eye to that? But who do you think I am, how can you expect me not to care if you cry? There is no humiliation! If anyone is humiliated it's me, me and my fucking guilt!"

Eridan further:

"Ok, I pushed you away too hard, but you were going too fast! That doesn't mean you should blame yourself, damn it! I don't need to be mothered at the drop of a hat!

- How should I know?! We've only been together for a week, let me learn to find the fucking balance, a relationship doesn't just work like that, at the snap of a finger!"

The tube of cream falls on the ground, surprises Sollux who is astonished, throwing a glance on the ground before looking again at Eridan who has the bewildered face.

"What? What?" he panics, fearing to have said a new bullshit which will start again a violent argument.

- ... We' re a couple?"

Eridan's voice was stunned. Sollux remained blissful.

" ... Huh?

- ... What?"

They looked at each other for a long time, equally confused.

" ... Eridan... We're... Yeah, we're together... ? No ?

- B-but I don't know, You tell me!

- What do you mean I have to tell you?! You should know!

- But how?! Well, kissing and touching me all the time doesn't mean we're a couple!

- Are you kidding me?! Do you let anyone touch you like that?!

- Of course not !! Only you!!!"

Eridan becomes flushed, brings a hand to his mouth as he looks away, suddenly more shy:

"B-But, it's just that... that I don't know, there was no... I never imagined... me, with you? It's...It's unthinkable."

Sollux frowns, takes a step forward:

"And why?

- But... But because it's me? I know you said you liked me, okay, but... Shit, look at me! Can you see yourself having a relationship with ME? A REAL relationship?

- Of course!

- I'm not talking about friendship or sex friend or..."

Sollux grabs his face, forces him to look at him:

"Eridan! I'm talking about being in a romantic relationship! Not just fucking!

- B-But...

- You, with me, Karkat and Gamzee! We all three agree, so..."

Sollux hesitates, bites his tongue:

" ... would you agree? You've already experimented a little... We thought you were already... okay?

- ... Honestly? I haven't thought about it at all...

- I mean, really... ? You let yourself be kissed without thinking?"

Eridan pouts, giving him a light flick on the forehead:

"Fuck you, it's hard to resist you..."

This time it wrings a smile from Sollux:

"Really? Why?

- Fuck you!

- We are irresistible?

- Damn it, Sol!

- Oh yes, sorry, you don't like my 'psychoanalysis' sessions ~ "

Eridan disengages with embarrassment to give him a blow in the shoulder, whereas that with the eyes vairons sneers. Annoyed, the Ampora picked up the tube of cream which he hastens to arrange, before passing his comrade to leave the bathroom. Sollux follows him with a smile in the corners:

" Come on Eri, say it! Say that you love us too~

- Rah, shut up!

- I won't let you go!

- I'm going to kill you Captor!"

Karkat and Gamzee see them return and exchange a look, holding back their relieved laughter. It's good to see that they've calmed down and are going to have a quiet evening again.

=== ===

Chapter 6

=== ===

My other accounts:

Twitter

DeviantArt

Ko-fi Account

#homestuck fanfiction #homestuck #humanstuck #eridan x gamzee #eridan x karkat #eridan x sollux #eridan ampora #sollux captor #sollux x gamzee #sollux x karkat #karkat x gamzee #karkat vantas #gamzee makara #fanfiction #ao3

8 notes · View notes

supportanimy · 4 years ago

Text

All Stars Verse - Hologram Boy

Synopsis : The coaches of #thatPOWER are angry at Panda for turning P2 into a hologram

Word count : 2803

Notes : Can y'all guess what the title is referencing? Please guess what the title is referencing

"We did it, we did it! We did it, yay!" The coaches sing and dance together in the new galaxy, after Panda traveled to all the planets and achieved the All Stars.

But just as they started to party, a spaceship arrived and out came three people, all with grey skin and white hair, wearing different outfits consisting of only red and black.

"YOU!" The shortest one pointed angrily at Panda. "You killed our friend!"

"He's not dead, but he is hurt. And trapped," the muscly guy said.

"Hey, I know these guys!" Starships mentions excitedly. "That Power, right? Or #thatPOWER, I guess. But don't you guys have four? Where's P2?"

"Here," the P3 drops a tiny machine, and a hologram of P2 appears.

"Oh. Your hair has gotten...longer. And darker."

"Yeah, well as I was saying, PANDA MURDERED HIM!" P1 yells angrily and attempts to tackle Panda, but Reindeer shields them.

"No, Panda would never do such a thing! They're too sweet and kind to! You must be confusing them with some other panda!"

P4 walks forward and pushes her friend back, but turns around to glare at them. "Impossible, there are no other pandas here," she explains. "Number 2 is not dead," Someone laughs, "he cannot die. However, he is permanently trapped as a hologram because of Panda's actions, and according to him, Panda was constantly taunting and harassing him just before that. Isn't that right?" P2 nods.

"Quiet as ever, huh?" Starships tries to lean on him, but passes through and falls.

"Then it must have been an accident!" Reindeer continues to defend their friend. The two had been close since childhood. One would know that if one played Kids Mode.

SS1, interested in whatever argument is happening, eats popcorn and shares it with the other coaches. "You know, *munch* Panda harassing some rando *munch* is honestly not that *munch* out of character for him." SS2 grabs a handful. "Agreed."

ME4 fixes his glasses, "Wait, I think I know what's happening here. Battle Mode, I'm guessing. Never got a chance on one of those."

"What's Battle Mode?" Rasputin's coach scratches his beard.

Out of nowhere, Starships slides in to chime in the conversation. "A mode where coaches from two different songs go head to head in a dance battle! Only appeared in two games though, and I never got to join one," she pouts.

Back to the argument, Reindeer gives up trying to defend Panda and is instead resorting to insulting P2. "He's just a robot! Can't he be replaced?!" the power coaches and BFT gasp.

P1 is now being restrained by P3 and P4 as she tries to attack Reindeer now. "I'm going to kill both of you!"

"No need to waste your energy on those lowlives, Number 1. We just need to get money from them so we can make a time machine and change the events of the battle, making it so that Number 2 wins instead."

Hearing that, HH2 gets a bright idea.

"We don't need to go that far, P4. We just want them to apologize-What do you mean no, Two?! Don't tell me you want revenge too?!

"Psst, P1," HH2 whispers to her friend. "Don't we have a friend with a time machine?"

"You mean Goddess? Does she count as our friend?" he replies before getting elbowed by HH4, who enters their talk uninvited. "I think she means the Backstreet Wannabes." "I mean, Goddess could probably time travel-" "No one asked, P3!"

"BE QUIET!" HH2 shouted loud enough for everyone to hear.

"Ooh," SS1 directs his attention to her.

"So, #thatPower...I think I may know the ones to help you. Though, we have to fly there since...they're on the other galaxy."

"Sure! We appreciate any help! Even though I'm not sure what kind of help these people you're saying will offer," P3 agrees immediately.

P4 is a bit more skeptical. "How do we know you aren't lying to us? We aren't even sure what help we're getting."

"Some people with a time machine," HH1 tells them. "Like what you said earlier. I'm not sure who P2 is talking about though."

P1 finally stopped being filled with rage, and it was replaced with joy. "You actually have a time machine?! Oh, how I long to return to my time!"

The other coaches are understandably confused over her statement. P3 tells them to shrug it off, "Don't mind her, she gets like that. We're not sure why."

"So what about it, Two? Wanna time travel so you don't get stuck as a hologram anymore?" The hologram nods, grinning from ear to ear. "Great!" P3 turns the projector off and keeps it in his pocket.

"P3, I will murder you, and then dismember you, and feed you to tigers." "We-we don't have tigers. Also your arms are twigs." "Don't you act smart with me!"

"Chill 4, it's just a tiny mistake, NBD," the blonde woman remarks without looking away from her phone. "P1 hit my hand too, but you don't see me threatening him."

"Who the fuck actually says NBD-Oh uh, sorry for that."

"Yeah, but he didn't hit it hard enough that you punch yourself in the face enough to hurt!"

"How did that even happen? Like I said, your arms are twigs-" "Do NOT!"

Just as the two were about to attack each other, they heard the faint sound of an aircraft.

"Hey, I'm trying to strangle someone! Can you not-" she stops her sentence when she sees a spaceship getting closer to the four.

"Get cover!" "Calm down First, it's probably just going to pass by us like airplanes." "No, P2, it's actually gonna fall on us!" he points at the ship landing fast. "Oh," she's pulled to safety by him, where their colour scheme changes.

It stayed at a steady pace going down, but stopped just 100 meters off the ground and slowly went straight down.

"Seriously? After all that drama?" "Hey, be grateful we're safe!"

When it finally finished landing, four familiar faces and four unfamiliar faces walked out.

"Hey look, it's High Hopes! And some Homestuck cosplayers!" the woman jumps back out from their hiding spot, which made her hair turn back to blonde. "That's not-whatever, I'm tired of your dumb ass."

"Dirty Bit Gang!" HH4 runs to hug DB2.

"Wait, they have a time machine?!" HH3 never knew that fact. If he did, he would've begged to use it to appear earlier in more songs.

"Well duh, their song is called The Time, and one of us should definitely have a time machine."

"So I see you guys have a spaceship. I assume you guys are here to use our time machine, but who are they?" DB1 asks.

"Hi, I'm the Starships coach! Love your outfits, but feel like the colours could be better. These are coaches from #thatPOWER, but one member is kinda stuck right now-"

"I hope you don't mind if we borrow it for a while," P3 drops the projector and P2 sighs quietly in relief.

DB4 stops her punch to DB3 midway to look at P2. "Uh, is he okay?"

"That's the reason we're here. Number 2-" "PFFFFT!" "Number 2, is stuck as a hologram and we have no way of transferring his AI to a body so we were hoping that we can travel to the past to change the course of the battle that made him this way in the first place."

"Cool," DB1 responds, not catching any of that. "Say, why do you need eight people plus a hologram to do that?"

HH2 raised a finger as if to answer him, but put it on her chin instead. "I'm-I'm not sure."

"C'mon, it's easy!" HH1 tries his best to explain. "There's That Power, the ones who want to go to the past, Starships, the representative of 2014, We're here to-wait, P2 was their guide, I'm not sure why the rest of us are here."

"Okayyy, sure, we'll do that, but do you have a plan?"

Silence. "Yeah, we didn't think of that."

"Of course you didn't," frustration was evident in his voice. "Fine, follow me."

DB3 and DB4 continued to fight, while the eight were led to a dark room with a massive TV screen, and a few couches. There was a table with a flower pot on it, with some cookies and candy beside it.

"So, it would be dangerous to just alter the past with no plans and no actual clue on what happened. That's why, we're going to watch it, then decide what to do," the bearded man takes the remote next to the screen and switches to different channels. "2014, it's a battle, correct?"

The screen switched to a scene on a stage with multiple monitors and the letters VS in the middle, displaying a dance floor with some other items beside it such as a chair. Panda rushed in and stood there while P2 slowly approached them, C'mon by Kesha playing in the background. When P2 was close enough, Panda started circling around him, then went back to their position, but not before blowing a kiss at the robot, which he moved his head to avoid.

"Oh, Panda blew a kiss at you? That should be a reminder," HH4 notes.

"What a shame," HH3 comments.

They began dancing, with Panda moving their arms towards their chest and P2 doing robotic movements. That was until just before the first pre-chorus started where P2's movements look like he was being controlled by a puppeteer, then they became more "free".

"Haha!" Starships laugh. "Seeing such a serious face on a cute dance move is so-" As past Panda and P2 turned to each other, the lyrics sang at the part made her stop. "Oh no. Oh no no no no. Oh god no."

"Is she okay?" DB2's question had a worried tone. "She's fine. Probably," HH2 assures.

"There are 2 images burned into my mind, and I don't like either of them!"

The rest ignore her dramatics and continue watching the battle. The chorus played, with the two performing an all too common move, putting your elbow on your raised leg, but coupled with some pushing each other to the side in between. When the singer sang the song's title repeatedly, Panda is seen establishing dominance over P2.

"Uhh," P3's braincells, or whatever robots have, seemed to have been fried from just watching the battle. "How are you losing to a panda?!" P2 shrugs.

The beginning of the final round consisted of Panda taunting P2, and P2 attempting to damage Panda but to no avail. P2 looked like he was about to faint right before the chorus started again, with them repeating the same moves earlier. The battle finally ended, in which Panda brings out a button and presses it, turning P2 into a hologram while they laugh.

"Okay, that was way too far now that I've seen it! I'm going to join the others in killing them-"

"Yo, calm down. We watched this to help you think of a plan, remember? While it was very weird to watch, we can decide what to do now, or in the past," DB1 brought out a piece of paper and puts it on the table. "Write your plan of action there, then I'll check over it to make sure it's nothing drastic."

P4 grabs the paper and begins writing on it with her built-in pen. "What we want to do is to make it so that P2 wins this fight. I think that can be easily done if we change the music."

"But won't Panda just press the button either way?" HH1 has a solid question.

"Hmm, then I guess we'll just destroy it."

"Wait, if we're going to destroy it anyways, what's the point in changing the song?" HH3 is surprisingly thinking a bit smarter now.

"Oh, that one is to save his honor. And to destroy Panda's-!" P1 clenches her fist tight.

"Riiight. Right. Right."

"Yes, but how are we doing that? Won't doing that alter a whole lot of events now since he's the mascot?" P3 tries to think deeply.

"Not really," DB1 answers, having a braincell for once. "Since you're from the same game, and you don't have any future appearances besides that one mashup, I think you guys would be fine."

"That's it, yes? Number 2's battle wasn't quite complicated, so maybe that's enough. Sir?"

DB1 takes the paper from P4, and looks it over. "Goddammit why am I reading with shades-yeah, that's okay I guess."

"Great, now we can go!" P1 is ecstatic to finally be able to return her friend back to his original state. So is the rest, even if P4 doesn't show it.

"Well, I guess that's our queue to leave. Goodbye and your welcome!" HH2 grabs her friends to drag them home.

"Wait, but didn't you go by spaceship?" P3 doesn't know how they would even return.

"Now worries, this is our planet, we'll teleport home!" "We can teleport?!" "HAVE YOU NOT NOTICED THIS WHOLE TIME-"

"What about...her?" P4 looks down on Starships, who was still freaking out.

"Well, since she's the 2014 rep, we have to get her gloves if you want to travel there and back-" "I CAN'T TRAVEL TO MY TIME???" "-Would you mind…?"

Starships takes it off and throws it at the pink-haired woman. "Just, just take it. Heck, keep it."

"Kay."

"Alright, follow me again," he gestures.

This time, a room that looks like it came from a certain sci-fi franchise involving space travel, but not time travel for some reason.

"Ight, just stand there," DB1 points at a platform," and you'll be fine. Also, here are the gloves, just wear it when you're done."

"Thanks a lot for helping us," P3 did a polite bow, "we're very grateful." He elbows the others to follow.

"No probs, we do this all the time, just be mindful that there are some side effects of time travel-" "Excuse me-?!" "But they're harmless! Have fun!" And the three robots plus hologram go back in time.

They arrived at a weird green space. There was a door quite far away, and would take a while to walk to. They felt something weird, and looked at their hands and each other to realize that they became green too. Except for P2.

"Changing colours is not what I expected but…" P4 spins her hand around.

"Maybe this could be useful, since we blend in with everything else," P3 compares his shade to the space.

They see Panda coming out of nowhere, heading to the door. Without speaking, they all immediately followed them. "Number 1, go grab the button. Number 3, get there and change the music." "Aye aye, 4."

P1 gets on the floor and crawls to the panda, P3 rushes to the door, and P4 carries P2's projector, following them from a distance.

The short woman finds a pocket on Panda's body and tries to find the button. Instead, there was a tophat, a tennis racket, a trumpet and a whole lot of other things that should not be able to fit there. Somehow, Panda didn't notice any of that. She finally got her hands on the button, and immediately destroyed it.

The sound alerts Panda, causing them to look around, but not finding anyone since they all blend in and P4 had turned off the projector, and shrugs it off. P3 uses that minor distraction to enter through the door.

Immediately after passing through, his skin changed again, now blending into the room which was where the battle took place. Past P2, stood there, already arrived, but didn't take notice of P3, who climbed the ceiling and found the sound system. He used it and changed the settings so #thatPOWER was gonna play instead of C'mon.

When Panda comes in to start the fight, with the remaining two sneaking in, the course of it had already been decided. Past P2 had started attacking them and charging himself up. The fight continued on with P2 having an advantage, and at the end when P2 won, Panda jumped off, leaving the room while P2 laughs then leaves from the other exit. In that moment, the room turned to a black space, everyone turning back to normal, P2's projector disappeared, and a blended in silhouette of him was there.

"P2, you're back!" P1 goes to hug him. P2 clearly had been confused by what she said, but accepted it anyways. P3 and even P4, who isn't very physically affectionate, joins in the hug. "We missed being able to actually touch you, buddy. Now I don't have to kneel down just to fistbump someone." "HEY!"

"I guess we can go home now," P4 puts on the glove and they teleported back to their starting point.

So as you can read, there's like zero logic here, but I'm proud of.it cause it's my longest one-shot!

#just dance #just dance fanfiction

5 notes · View notes

bladekindeyewear · 5 years ago

Text

Book Commentary on Inversion Theory

Alright, as a follow-up to this post, it looks like there’s an actual full bit of Homestuck book commentary (around the pages nearing Rose’s grimdark transformation, Book 6 pg 115, HS pg 3305, thanks @ramiedersedreamer and @zandraxofnebulon) about how Inversion Theory (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) isn’t what we thought. Quoting and reading it first (not the whole reddit post but that portion at least), then discussion under the cut:

"Rose is a Light player, but her blackout effects result from arguably the nadir of her role as such a hero--that is, when she succumbs to Scratch's manipulations and other eldritch persuasions, and goes grimdark. This truth would appear to lend credence to a line of classpect thinking known as "inversion theory," which really isn't without its merits. This note has just gone to the bother of describing one of its merits, in fact. However, it is possible to get carried away with this line of thinking and use it to evaluate everything that happens in Homestuck. For instance, you could say "Well, Karkat is a Blood hero, and here's where he stops being as Karkatty as usual, so that means he's being the opposite of his aspect. Which means he's being Breathy instead of Bloody. So that means a bunch of other stuff, ipso facto, Homestuck has been EXPLAINED." That's not really the way all this works. Aspect lore runs deep, but it isn't the Rosetta Stone to the story. When in doubt, it's better to remember this: rather than an underlying mystical logic where all classpect roads lead to Deep Answers, HS is a comprehensive nexus of many themes, and all roads lead to the basic idea that this is a tale about kids who are trapped in the universal struggle associated with growing up."

I... hm. Dammit. Is that all he wrote?? This slippery author is a master of giving us tantalizing and insightful details without committing to any hard yes-or-no whatsoever. >:T

I’d been building myself up to reading this all throughout yesterday with gut-wrenching dread that at this late, late, late hour he’d finally given us a definitive “NO” on Inversion. Instead we get this quite interesting but more vague “eh, there’s merits, but don’t go too far with it”. Which is......

...about as potentially-optimistic as I put it in the previous post, if not moreso?

Andrew’s being careful to lavish odd praise on inversion theory, too. Which some people are going to interpret as (Option 1) “Nice try, but dead wrong”, like the anon who put a snippet in my inbox initially, and others will interpret as (Option 2) “The big ones are RIGHT, nudge nudge, but stop applying it everywhere cause the fans who say every line of the comic means ‘ghosting inversion’ are looking at the story wrong and annoying everyone”.

As someone guilty of being one of those fans described in the latter half on occasion, I can CERTAINLY agree with THAT last part. Andrew made it really clear with the ending of Homestuck proper -- “this side shit didn’t matter as much as you thought it did”. I was so enamored with the classpect system that I thought almost everything was being shown to us through those lenses, at one point -- but even though perhaps more than the random reader might have thought is there, like he says, it ain’t supposed to be no Rosetta Stone. Even when I WAS overapplying classpect everywhere, the people who did it too often in places I felt clearly un-merited REALLY pissed me off! I can’t imagine how much more that might’ve been magnified in the shoes of someone who happened to apply the correct, lower amount of classpect and had to put up with me babbling and slathering it everywhere, much less the author’s shoes.

But there is still a big hole in his criticism, one he intentionally seems to have left there to me. By saying “don’t look for it everywhere”, but ALSO that “there’s more than some merit to it”... I don’t think it’s a stretch to think the truth might not only be somewhere in between Options 1 and 2, but perhaps even closer to Option 2.

Aaaand HERE’s where if you’re someone who HUNGERED for me to admit wrongdoing by sticking with this theory for so long, you’re no doubt angry. Looking at me as making excuses in the face of this long-awaited OBJECTIVE PROOF OF TOTAL THEORY DISMISSAL... WHY won’t the deluded bastard FINALLY succumb to REASON? ANDREW HIMSELF spoke up on the issue, IS THIS NOT ENOUGH?!???

And, well... you’re right to be angry. To be honest, I’m a fair bit pissed off too -- I could’ve used a solid “NO”, traumatizing as it would’ve been to me!

But that’s not what we got, because... *rolls eyes @ author* ...that’s not how Andrew works nowadays. And as irritating as it is, I also have to respect it a bit.

Andrew has become pretty committed to not full-on table-flipping fan interpretations and fanworks, avoiding forcing one “correct” interpretation (see: central struggle of HS^2 and the villains labeling divergence from canon at all as “bad”) because both interpretations should be rewarded. If something is REALLY wrong and hurts objective appreciation of the lessons he wanted to portray in his comic, like people plastering Classpect everywhere to the exclusion of the story’s central canon-escaping themes, he’s willing to shut them down... but when it comes to effective-sounding interpretations of the comic that he possibly never intended but “could” have been what he intended? He’s REALLY careful not to step on them! Or even sometimes DISTINGUISH them from the ones that he DID intend, sometimes, to keep as many fan interpretations alive in our imaginations as possible.

Which, as someone who pins Inversion’s entire existence on the assertion that “Andrew deliberately intended this and it’s our DELUSION otherwise”, really pisses me off at times like this. This is a theory hinged on the idea that Andrew had been deliberately hiding INCREDIBLY clever evidence throughout the comic for these intense thematic moves. All the SYMBOLISM we thought was pointing to inversion would lose an incredible amount of its meaning if it were all an accident. What about all that cool imagery in the Breath and Blood post? Did any of THAT really mean what we thought it was there for, like between WV and PM? Was any of it REAL? Will we ever even get an ANSWER? The answer is “no, we won’t”, because Andrew persists in this method of keeping his cards close to his chest even if he has to take them to the damn grave, cause he knows we’ll have more “fun” not knowing ‘em. That considerate son of a bitch. >:(

I’m serious -- it really does make me more than a little angry. I really do wish he’d said more to show us where we’re off-course.

But HS^2 has brought us Terezi telling us that Mind and Heart are indeed opposites. He MIGHT be holding onto the info because we may get it later in canon itself...

Meh. I’ll try not to hope too hard. And I’d better clarify what I actually believe, here:

My TL;DR thoughts on Andrew’s commentary up above are that when it comes to Inversion Theory (1, 2, 3, 4, 5), he’s leaving room for some of the BIG events to have been right or almost right -- say, #1, maybe #2, and only POSSIBLY #3 or #4 -- while telling us to back off and cast SERIOUS DOUBT on stuff that could have more character-driven explanations, especially #5.

If there’s a seriously FUNDAMENTAL transformation in a character that isn’t fully explained by their character journey alone (as kids growing up), involves significant outside interference, and is reflected by countless visual cues, THEN we should want to see if Inversion Theory “has merit” in that sort of case -- while laying it up against other competing theories that account for external interference of a non-Inversion-related nature in their actions too. Things like pre- and post-ascension Aradia or pre- and post-dreamdeath Jade seeming almost completely different characters? Or Rose seemingly taken over by the Horrorterrors... only to do nothing to benefit them but throw her mainself at Jack and get killed so she’d be forced to ascend on the moon mission rather than God-tier-die? I’d say Inversion is worth consideration and -- daresay -- worth believing in, in such cases.

And it still might all be wrong. There are legitimate ways to read Andrew’s commentary above that would have people screaming that Inversion has been disproven, that the “merits” mentioned were just a nod of respect to the losing side that I’m completely overblowing. But those seem to me like carefully ambiguous words from a carefully ambiguous man, and if there’s anyone to blame for their ambiguity, it’s Andrew. Trust me; I don’t like it either. He’s had plenty of practice saying things in a way that we CAN’T really draw many assumptions from.

Heck, even the Redditor transcribing this summarized their thoughts in a way that draws some assumptions I don’t believe are there:

Mostly I think it's just interesting that he's actually addressing Inversion Theory, and the gist is basically "it's a cool idea and has some merits, but the classpect system and story are not quite that formulaic." Sorry BKEW. At least we know Hussie has been paying attention to our wild theorizing.

--which is a rebuke drawn on the common interpretation that Inversion describes too “formulaic” a classpect system, especially with specific-class inversion like Seer <-> Witch and such. But IS that what Andrew is saying? Andrew criticizes the overapplication of aspect theory in describing everyone’s actions page to page, but does that mean a quote-unquote “rigid” system (I’m not going to play out the old “specific-class-inversion-is-too-rigid” vs “youre missing the flexible potential a fixed system gives” arguments again) is ITSELF an overapplication of classpect to people’s actions and personalities? Is he perhaps hinting that only Aspect stuff mattered in Inversion cases and the Witchy Rose class stuff was just a separate thematic thing that fits by coincidence?? What does it mean? WE DON’T KNOW! AND IT’S PISSING ME OFF AAAARGH

...I think I’ve said all I can think to say for now.

I mean, I’m glad Inversion Theory wasn’t outright disproven. I think it’s neat. I have a lot of emotional investment behind it, and being told it was all a worthless goose chase would have made me vomitously sick! But as I struggled with at the end of Homestuck proper, constant ambiguity shows a fair bit of disregard of its own, and both ending AND epiloguing Homestuck not only without a “yes” on this but without even a clear “NO” has caused me more gutache and poor feelings across MONTHS than either answer ever would have given me. I thought we’d earned that by getting through it, that we wouldn’t have to wait for YEARS and then STILL get cockteased like this. And I wonder how much I’m going to regret, later, that this wasn’t just a clear, simple “NO”.

I’m being told there’s an upd8 just now and I should read it. I’ll get on that. Cy’all.

#Homestuck #Homestuck Liveblog #Homestuck Commentary #Aspect Duality #Theory Policy #Andrew Hussie #Breath and Blood #hs2 #Homestuck^2 #bladekindeyewear #blastyoboots

38 notes · View notes

testedtransgressor · 6 years ago

Text

Casablanca Sucked Anyways

Category: Fanfiction - Homestuck Characters: Dirk Strider Rating: T Warnings: Coarse language Originally written: 19 August 2017

Notes: A songfic (fic based around a song) that I wrote over a year ago. The song is called Casablanca Sucked Anyways, and it’s by A Day To Remember. This is set during the GAME OVER flash.

I've spent so much time trying to fix your life that I forgot about mine This time I'm putting my foot straight through the floor You wont be walking through any of my doors anymore

"It's over,"

He had said that, and he had meant it. But seeing how Jake had just laughed, like it was some joke, like his sugar-kicked idiot brain thought Dirk was toying with him, messing around. He hadn't had the luxury of the full effects of that asshole-level sugar high. And he had meant everything he had said, unlike what the other three were going on about.

Marriage? Babies?? They were fucking sixteen, for fuck's sake. And seeing Jake saying that shit, hell, probably even meaning it at the time - it had hurt him. Every time they'd had an issue, rather than trying to fucking talk it out like normal people, Jake had pissed off to LOMAX, ignored his messages. Usually he could be enticed back - not with an apology. Dirk had tried that.

It was always the first thing he sent, some rambling mess of him trying to explain how he was trying to get used to being around real, genuine, actual human beings, never mind that they were his friends. In fact, it was because they were his friends that he had thought they'd be so much more accepting. He'd spoken to them for years. In fact, in his entire life he had only ever spoken to five people - was it really his fault that he had expected them to understand him, after however many years he had spent talking to them?

So tell me what's so wrong with me That you could leave so easily You threw this all away for the chance to leave me

Yes. It probably was. He had expected so much of people, and when they hadn't turned out to be like he had expected, he had tried to manipulate them into being how he wanted. He could do it with robots, and he had tried to do it with his friends, and now look where it got him. He had driven Jake away. They had been on their death beds - literally - and Roxy hadn't been able to talk to him - she had felt like he was disappointed in her. How could he be? How had he ever suggested that, through his actions and words?

Because he had spent so much time trying to fix her. Same for Jake. He had tried so hard trying to make them fit the cookie cutter shape he had envisioned them and Jane fitting within, and had ignored their cries of protest when his own image of them hadn't matched with them as people. Essentially, he had treated them like his robots.

She makes me happy She sparks a light inside you've never failed to blow out Look at everything Look at all that you've become nothing more than a memory

They were better off without him.

He often thought this. It haunted him in the darkness as he tried to race back from wherever the fuck that space furry had zapped him to. Hell, they had probably found a way to get themselves out of trouble without him. All he had ever done was make them feel like they weren't good enough. Thrown an icy bucket of water on them whenever he had felt it necessary. Would they even want him around, now that they'd become god tier?

So tell me what's so wrong with me That you could leave so easily You threw this all away for the chance to leave me

Destroyer of Souls. That was how Calliope had described his class and aspect. Prince of Heart sounded like some guy who went around, proclaiming love and encouraging people. Destroyer of Souls sounded more apt for him. Hell, he tore his own heart out sometimes, or so it felt.

Even now, he was having a pity party for himself when he should be focusing on getting back to the others. Maybe it would ruin their day, though. But, after all, if they didn't want to be around him, there was really nothing stopping them from just up and leaving. Why should he care, anyway? If they left, then that was good. Good, because it was obviously good for them. Something they felt they needed to do.

You make me sick with every move you make When will you find your place in this world? Cause it will never be beside me again

Once this game was done, Dirk made a mental note to himself. Leave the others alone. Let them live happily, peacefully, without him affecting them. He could barely even stand his own company - and now, that wasn't Hal he was referring to. It was himself - him, Dirk Strider. The real one. He couldn't even stand his own thoughts as he raced back, and half of it was barely coherent as it were.

He had passed several messes of glitchy patterns, and skidded to a stop to avoid falling into one as it appeared suddenly in front of him - too suddenly for him to avoid seeing what it had to show. It had to be a doomed timeline, surely. Jane's god tier outfit wasn't meant to be red - and why was she wearing that tiaratop?

So tell me what's so wrong with me That you could leave so easily You threw this all away for the chance to leave me

As he got closer, the glitches became more common, and in them his worst fears were realised.

There had been no party in his absence. Just chaos and death.

He was floating, staring at the ruins of a red planet of fire and metal. Glitches surrounded him, showing him over and over again what he had never wanted to see. All he had ever wanted to do was keep them safe. Protect. And when they had needed that, he had been too wrapped up in himself to even try to get in contact.

Jake was dead. The apology Dirk had meant to give him died on his lips every time he watched his own damn sword cut through his heart. Like a fucking sign. Dirk had done nothing but hurt him, even when he wasn't there, and now Jake had died because of it. It felt to Dirk like his own hand had done it, forced the blade through.

And Jane. He had spoken with her, made amends, but he felt it wasn't enough - especially as he watched her death, over and over again. He should have destroyed that tiaratop. He should done something, something more than he had. But no, he had been too wrapped up in English.

The worst, by far, was his Bro. Seeing the man he had grown up idolising, basically worshipping, the man he had considered an actual brother - seeing him fighting for one of his own friends.

Dirk hadn't cried since he was seven years old, but he cried when he saw that.

He had already made up his mind. Of all of them, Roxy was most likely to survive. She was capable of fixing this. And if not, then what did it matter? It was a doomed timeline after all, he guessed. Why did he care so much?

He just wished he could have said sorry.

So tell me what's so wrong with me That you could leave so easily You threw this all away for the chance to leave me

#homestuck #dirk strider #fanfiction #homestuck fanfiction #writing #a day to remember

3 notes · View notes

skyplayer37 · 7 years ago

Text

Worm Liveblog: 1.01-3.02

I started reading Worm. That really long web serial about superheroes.

I’d say I’m starting this live-blog late but I have yet to make a scratch in the surface of this thing, so buckle up. I might have a better plan of attack from here on, with sections commenting on each chapter (arc? segment? act?) but below the read more here will be some meandering thoughts in which I will comment on what I’ve read and try to guess what’s gonna happen. And you can laugh at me for being wrong!

I started reading Worm while 35,000 feet in the air. Or at least that’s what Google has given me an estimate of. While I botched the set-up on Pocket and only gave myself the first page to read offline, I was instantly hooked. I was an avid reader in school, tearing through YA series like Percy Jackson and Harry Potter multiple times over, but it’s been a long time since I’ve read a regular novel now. Probably since before I found Homestuck almost 5 years ago.

So naturally, Worm has felt almost nostalgic to me. A quaint story without animated scenes or games like Homestuck, without weird webpages like 17776, and without the improvisation of McElroy content. Just written words again.

But let’s get to the story. The first arc of Worm had me skeptical. I been receiving recommendations to read it for about a year and a half or so now, so maybe it’s hype had grown on me a bit too much for it to start like every other young adult novel. We follow Taylor, a loner kid in school. No friends, plenty of bullies. We see them bullied in their normal life, so they have a reason to explore a hidden world and act as a way for the reader to be introduced to the supernatural aspects in small chunks, rather than being thrown in with a hero from the start. While it was nice to skip over the origin story (of which Taylor’s is still a mystery to me at this point but I have seen Spiderman’s too many times to count), I knew right off the bat how the next couple parts would go. - Taylor gets bullied: check

- Taylor either loses control of or has extra-control over her powers: check

- Taylor runs off to battle a foe as an amateur, gets her ass kicked: check

- Taylor is saved at last minute by the Hero, a bigtime guy who cares more about the fortune and glory: check

Up until she agreed to join the villains team, things went pretty much how I expected them too. Although looking back, it seems like that too was a logical step. Most large works like this (see: Adventure Zone) fall into the loop of the characters joining a large group that then sends them out on missions. It’s an easy format: heroes are told to go out and perform task, wacky hijinks happen, they return to homebase for character development. The tasks gets more and more important until the big finale brings together all the ideas and characters from each task. I doubt Worm will stay like this all the way to the end, but it’s a good way to set-up the world for the first quarter to third or so of such a long work.

The last bit I read before typing this was the reveal of the first one of these arc tasks, robbing a bank. The robbery seems insignificant, bar moral implications on Taylor’s part, so I assume this is when we’ll get to see a hero in action for the first time. Probably the heroes from the Interlude. Taylor will try to wink to them so they know she’s a “good guy” but then gets beat up (and maybe her villain friends will die) and realizes she actually hasn’t done anything to be worth being called a good guy yet. And her power is terrifying.

Terrifying in both current usage and potential usage. I don’t like bugs. Not in the slightest. Pretty much every nightmare of mine involves bugs, and I think most people would say the same. Sorry Taylor, you’re power is pretty much entirely geared towards being a villain. But even scarier, is that she could control that crab. She nonchalantly explains that it must just be its weak brain, revealing this early on that with enough training she could probably control anything. My earliest end-game theory involved Taylor turning evil and filling the entire city with billions of bugs. A sea of bugs that is in someway a metaphor for... poor people? I don’t know. But she was supposed to be crying in the middle of a sea of bugs and someone else comforts her for the first time. Or something. With the crab however, there’s much more potential for the entire world becoming enslaved in a Taylor-controlled Hivemind, so that’s fun. Of course, either ending calls for help from another Cape who’s power is to accelerate other Cape’s powers, so I’ll be keeping my eye out for who could possess that ability.

Here’s a few more meandering thoughts before I go:

- The teacher offering his help to Taylor in private, but turning his back when being there in person to witness her being bullied. That’s meant to be the reverse to how the superheroes’ do things (only stepping in when the crime is committed, taking no action to prevent them or help mankind as a whole) and is likely the message of the whole novel.

- The mysterious Boss of the villain group will likely be one of the big superheroes. They rob a few banks for him, making him filthy rich, and once every like dozen robberies he swoops in and pretends to beat them so that he gets the glory too.

- Taylor remains adamant about being good even after enjoying the company of the villains. Her descent to evil will be a slow corruption, but the story will justify it by making the superheroes look bad.

#worm #worm serial #parahumans #liveblog

9 notes · View notes

blatherkatt · 7 years ago

Text

Title: The Calm Is Terrifying When The Storm Is All You Know [Homestuck]

Chapter 27: Surviving

Summary: There were two kinds of trolls who went to Earth: rich shitheads with too much money and free time, and desperate assholes who couldn’t survive on Alternia, even with the best efforts of the young Condesce. Karkat hated the planet almost immediately, but with his home planet too dangerous for mutants, he really didn’t have any choice but to hide out on this weird little diurnal planet. At least he’d be safe. Or so he thought, right before blundering his way into an accidental friendship with the son of an anti-troll terrorist.

Rating: M

Chapter Warnings: Implied abuse (physical and emotional), threatened violence, group-led abuse, neglect, enabling of abuse and neglect, alcohol mention, mentioned terrorist activities

FIRST | PREVIOUS | NEXT

Dave idled outside the bathroom, keeping himself alert for any sounds that weren’t the gentle noise of the shower within. It was about three in the morning, which was about the only time that either he or Dirk could safely snag a quick shower without alerting Bro’s men, and Dirk had been pretty visibly frustrated with the now-going-on-three-day-old hair gel situation, so Dave was keeping careful watch.

The bathroom was mercifully close to the cellar, and thank fuck for that, because helping Dirk get up there was a fuckin’ ordeal. Dave only came up to about Dirk’s chin, and even with Dirk being pretty skinny, he was still a lot heavier than Dave himself. And he still couldn’t put any weight on his bad leg, which meant that helping Dirk move basically amounted to half-carrying him. What Dirk really needed was probably a cast and a pair of crutches, but they weren’t getting that any time soon, so, fuck it.

On the whole, at least, Dave felt like he was adjusting to things again. It still sucked, but having Dirk around helped, and he’d managed to filch a knife from the kitchen, so that also helped. Wasn’t quite a sword, but evidently he wasn’t allowed to keep the blade down in the basement on account of losing his regular sword to the police, and he wanted to make sure he had something to defend himself.

There was a knock from inside the bathroom, and then Dirk’s voice. Dave shook his head. He’d been so distracted thinking, he hadn’t even noticed the sound of the water turning off, damn. Maybe he wasn’t as used to being on alert as he thought.

“Hey, uh,” said Dirk, “Are you sure you don’t know where I can get some shaving gel and a razor?”

“Sorry, man,” Dave said, “I’m pretty sure Bro’s not to keen on either, and I’m not gonna risk stealing from anyone else.”

He heard Dirk sigh, and then grumble something about “looking like a fucking barbarian.” Dave had to hide a snicker.

“What, man, you not a fan of stubble?” Dave teased.

“Look,” said Dirk, “I have a very specific way I like to present myself. If other guys wanna rock the ‘couldn’t be assed to care about my appearance so I just left this spiky shit all over my face’ look, that’s good for them. Some of them can even pull it off pretty well. Me personally? I prefer to look like I give a shit.”

“Alright, princess, c’mon,” said Dave, rolling his eyes. “Hurry and get dressed, I don’t wanna push our luck.”

More grumbling. A couple minutes of sounds of shifting fabric and at one point a quiet swear, and Dirk said, “Almost done, just gotta…try and dry my hair here.”

Dave took it as a cue to step in. Dirk was fully clothed and leaning heavily against the bathroom counter, furiously trying to towel off his hair. Dave stepped in and tried to help him out, and nearly choked on his own spit laughing when he tugged the towel off.

“Dude, your hair looks like it’s wilting,” he snorted.

Dirk groaned. “Ugh,” he said, “At this point, it’s gonna take at least an hour of hot water and a small miracle to get the gel out.”

“Sorry, man,” said Dave. “Hey, though, maybe we’ll get lucky and they’ll go out on a raid, and you can get properly fucking cleaned off.”

Dirk made a thoughtful sound. He turned towards Dave, his face suddenly serious. “Why do we bother keeping quiet?” he asked.

Dave stared at Dirk hard for a moment. “Uh, because we were told to?” he said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world, which it was, what the fuck, Dirk. “Besides, Bro doesn’t have an excuse for who you are and why you’re here yet, dude. And except for Ben, everyone here thinks he and I are half brothers, and until they work out a story for who the fuck you are, we gotta keep you a secret.”

“Exactly,” said Dirk. “We could threaten to be noisy, get ourselves some leverage. Maybe it won’t get us out of here, but it might get the old man off our back, at least, if we threaten to give away that I’m here and that he’s been lying to them.”

Dave could tell that the shades didn’t hide any of the way his face lit up in terror at the suggestion. He could feel the color draining from his cheeks. “Holy shit, dude, no,” he said. “What, are you fuckin’ crazy? No, man, just — don’t make trouble, let’s just keep quiet and out of the way for now.”

“Why not fight back?” Dirk insisted.

“Dirk, it’s three in the fucking morning,” Dave hissed, “I don’t — can we not have this conversation right now? Please? Let’s just get you back down to the cellar. Quietly.”

Dirk looked ready to speak again, but, thank fuck, decided to drop it. Dave moved to help him walk, and Dirk draped his arm around Dave’s shoulders.

“I really am sorry about this,” Dirk mumbled.

“It’s fine,” Dave said, for probably the hundredth time, “S’ not your fault your leg’s broke.”

“Do you have anything yet?”

Karkat hated the way his voice kept sliding into worried chirps, but he couldn’t fucking help it. His blood pusher was in his throat, pounding away and forcing every sound he made to come out strangled and desperate and needy and, fuck, he needed to know that Dave was okay, he needed Dave to be safe right now, he couldn’t deal with this.

Sollux groaned and didn’t turn around, still rapidly clicking away at the keys of his ungainly mess of hybridized husktops, formed half of Alternian tech and half of Earth’s less organic hardware. It was a fucked up pile of wires and miniature beehouse mainframes (complete with bees everywhere, because of fucking course there were, how did Sollux ever get anything done) and fuck knew what else, all looking to be connected in ways that shouldn’t work but apparently did.

Dave had had a word for shit like that. He’d brought it up, once. ‘Jerry-rigged?’ Karkat had said it was a weird fucking word and that humans were weird for having a word for it, but Dave had explained that the word existed because a lot of times when shit broke down in the middle of nowhere humans would deal by figuring out a short-term way to get the thing working again until they could get to a place with the parts needed to actually fix it, and fuck thinking about that conversation was just making Karkat even more worried about Dave. He never should have left, he shouldn’t have left the Lalondes alone, he shouldn’t have —

“No, KK, I haven’t found anything new in the five fucking minutes since you last asked me,” said Sollux. “And I will be able to sort through this and have a better chance of finding a lead much faster if you stop pacing so much, sit down, and shut up, so please do that and let me do my job.”

Karkat gnashed his teeth together, growling, and resumed pacing.

“The fuck are you doing, anyway?! How is sitting at a computer helping this? Where the fuck is Dave!”

“I’m checking everything I can is what I’m doing, asshole,” Sollux snapped. Kanaya hissed a soft breath, her eyes nervously flicking between the other two. Terezi’d dumped them both here yesterday before rushing back out to investigate, and Sollux had been working at this pretty much the entire time since then. There were a lot of empty bottles and cans of energy drinks from both planets littered around him. (Karkat was pretty sure some of the Alternian ones weren’t even allowed on Earth; he hadn’t even been able to get a bottle of a fucking harmless sleep aid through customs when he’d immigrated to Earth. Something about it being dangerous to humans?) “I’m checking security cameras in a wide radius around the Lalonde house, especially on the roads most likely that he would’ve travelled, hopefully I can get a fucking photo of whatever car they used to abduct those two and maybe even figure out where they’re going. I’m also checking to see if any of the people suspected of being connected to Strider have been seen in the area, if they’re staying in motels or some shit, and — look, it’s a lot, and I need to pay full attention for any fucking clues I can dig out of this, and I need you to not be pulling my attention away from it. Stop fucking pacing.”

Karkat growled again and turned on his heel, stalking back across the room.

This room was too small, fuck. He shouldn’t be in here, cooped up, he should be out there, helping look for Dave, he needed to be doing something, fucking anything! He needed to find Dave!

“KK, seriously, sit the fuck down!” Sollux snapped, whirling in his chair. Karkat bristled and bared his teeth at him.

“How about you shut up and work faster!”

“I can’t fucking think with the sounds of you stomping around and grinding your teeth together, it’s like trying to do brain surgery next to a rabid cholerbear! Sit the fuck down and let me concentrate, you dense nooksniffer!”

“Give me something to do, then!” Karkat whined (fuck that stupid noise for coming out of his throat, fuck everything). “I can’t just sit here with my fucking thumbs up my ass, not while Dave’s in trouble, I need to —”

“Oh, my fucking god, Karkat,” Sollux rolled his eyes, “Get the fuck over your stupid pale crush for ten fucking minutes, we get that you love him sooo much but I have a fucking job to do.”

Karkat froze in place for a moment. Just a moment, stunned into silence born of pure fury, that Sollux had the fucking nerve — he lunged.

Kanaya stopped him before his enraged shriek made it halfway out of his throat.

“Stop this, both of you!” she snapped. “This isn’t helping anything! Karkat,” she said turning to him, “I understand, I’m frightened too. This is an awful situation, but you can’t take this out on Sollux —”

He didn’t wait to hear it. He struggled out of Kanaya’s grip and made a run for the door.

“Don’t even fucking think about leaving this room,” Sollux said, already back to typing away. “You’re under protective custody, you’re not going anywhere, dumbass.”

“Sollux, really, an ounce of sympathy would not be out of place, don’t you think?” Kanaya snapped.

“Oh, yeah, so sorry for all the shit Karkat’s dealing with, let me do my fucking job already.”

Karkat whirled into the bathroom and slammed the door shut behind him, curling up in the ablution trap and finally allowing himself to burst into the terrified tears he’d been holding back for what felt like an eternity.

Dirk hadn’t been expecting anyone other than Dave or the old man to come down to the cellar, especially after Dave’s earlier if still confusing insistence on keeping Dirk’s presence a secret. So he was surprised to no small extent when, just after Dave had left to deal with the day’s chores, another man came down. It took a while in the dark, but Dirk pieced together after a while that this was the same man who’d been with Derek when they’d been taken.

“Hey, there, Dirk,” he said, his face gentle. Dirk wished it wasn’t. The guy had a smile that would’ve been charming if he hadn’t been so chummy with the old man. “Jesus, you got big,” he continued. “I know you probably don’t remember me at all, but I was in the mall with your father. Last time I saw you, you were still just a toddler.”

Dirk narrowed his eyes.

“The name’s Ben,” he went on. Dirk thought hard. Fuck, Mom had said something about another friend from the mall, what had that name been? Dave had reacted to it weird — was this that same guy, then? That story had been months ago, and Dirk hadn’t thought much of it at the time, just the drunken ramblings his mother was prone to. “I do wish we were meeting again under better circumstances, but, ah, well.”

“What do you want,” said Dirk. “I’m not gonna join you and the old man’s stupid ‘cause,’ he already tried that, if that’s what you think you’re doing.”

“Yeah, I heard about that,” said Ben. “Tried to tell him to be a little more tactful about it, but tact has never been his strong suit, y’know?”

The guy kept acting casual, and it made Dirk want to fucking punch the damn smile right off his face. If this guy was the one Mom had talked about, then he’d been her friend, too, and he’d known where Dave was for years. He could have done something, told her where Dave was, told the police, maybe rescued Dave himself, fuck.

“No amount of fucking tact is going to change my mind,” Dirk said. “I’m not interested in helping the people who stole my baby brother.”

He looked to think for a moment, eyes up towards the ceiling, before shrugging and nodding his head. “Yeah, I can see how that’d give you some trouble,” said Ben. “I didn’t exactly agree with Derek’s choices back then, either, but it’s too late to change that now. So, alright, maybe you’re not interested in helping right away, that’s fine. But maybe you could use a friend around here? I help your brother out as much as I can, and I can extend the same to you, if you’ll let me.”

“I’m not interested.” Dirk didn’t hesitate. He had no intention of putting an ounce of thought into any offers made by his father or any of the bastard’s fucking friends.

Ben leaned back, an eyebrow raised in a sort of amused disbelief. He huffed something halfway to a laugh and shook his head. “Every bit the suspicious bastard your father ever was,” he said softly, and Dirk felt himself bristle all over. “Kid,” Ben continued, “I’m trying to help you. I know it seems shitty now, but it’s gonna get a lot worse before it gets better, and I can promise you I’m the only friend you got here. I’m not trying to trick you.”

“Help me how, exactly?” Dirk spat. “Because unless you plan on getting me and Dave out of here, I’m not interested in your help.”

“Stubborn, too,” Ben muttered. “Apple really didn’t fall far from the tree with this one.” He shrugged. “I’ll let you think about it, then,” he said, almost sounding disappointed. “It’s an open offer, so if y’ change your mind, just let me know.”

“Fuck off.”

There was a sort of unspoken hierarchy to Bro’s band of Merry Fuckheads. Dave was, of course, so far down at the bottom, it wasn’t even worth pointing out, it was so fuckin’ obvious, but he did work to keep track of where everybody else sat. Mostly because knowing that gave him a clearer picture of whose way he needed to stay out of.

Bro sat right at the top, obviously. So high up he was practically untouchable. The Usuals, especially any newbies, tended to treat him with almost a sort of reverence, it woulda been fuckin’ ridiculous if Bro hadn’t legitimately been that cool a dude. Ben was the second in command, but only because he was the only person Bro completely trusted. If Dave was honest, Ben was too nice for most of those guys. But he did important work, and Bro’s decisions were law, so even if Ben wasn’t exactly intimidating, the rest of the pack did listen to what he said.

From there, shit got worse as it went down the pile.

It had started off with just a few people, back when this had started when Dave was only ten. The leadership then had been five dudes including Bro and Ben. Of that group, only three of them were still around — one had died in a raid, and the other one had gotten it into his head to try and usurp Bro, and…Dave wasn’t sure what had happened to him, actually, but he wasn’t around anymore. Fuckin’ Beardy was the only survivor of that group besides Bro and Ben, though, and he was also a special case when it came to who Dave watched out for; he wasn’t the number three in the rankings right now, but he was still pretty high up there, and yet, he definitely didn’t like Dave. He wouldn’t say it to Bro’s face, but the guy had made it plenty clear to the others and to Dave himself that in his opinion, Bro shoulda dumped Dave on the side of some abandoned road somewhere years ago. ‘Ditch the fuckin’ dead weight,’ he always liked to say. Dave didn’t really like that big meathead either, so at least it was mutual. He didn’t tend to throw things at Dave, at least; he only tended to be a big problem when someone else started something and he joined in. Dude was big enough that Dave really couldn’t do much to fight him off.

The rest of the higher ranked members of the Usuals, though, actually sorta tended to leave Dave alone. It was the guys at the bottom of the pile who went after him.

They’d joined in late, and they’d seen how Bro was always harsh with Dave, and Beardy’s disdain, and they’d peer pressured themselves right in on the action. The newer or lower ranking a guy was, the more he’d go out of his way to make Dave’s life miserable. Within reason, of course. Bro would only tolerate so much of that shit. Thankfully, most of the lowest ranking dudes of the dozen men that made up the full force of Bro’s inner circle weren’t here yet. From the sounds of it, they’d been the ones who’d been leading that attack down in Ohio.

Tim had been scowling at Dave since…well, since yesterday, really. Dave hadn’t addressed it mainly because he knew what was coming. Tim had been the guy who’d had to haul his ass out at fuck o’clock back in April to tell Dave about the plan that Dave had then completely blown. It was a matter of time before the asshole picked a fight about it. Probably he was waiting for Bro to be a bit distracted, or calculating a way of going about chewing Dave out without overstepping.

Dave was focusing very hard on sweeping right now, and avoiding anything that might be construed as eye contact, because he did not wanna deal with Tim today if he could avoid it. Unfortunately Tim still took up the initiative anyway, the moment Bro was distracted talking to that guy in the stupid hunter’s hat. Careful not to actually touch Dave, Tim cornered him in the kitchen, leaning in close to talk in quiet, angry tones.

“Dude, lay off,” Dave muttered. “I wanna get shit done before I get in trouble for taking too long, what do you want?”

“I wanna know what the fuck you thought you were doing back in June,” Tim hissed. “Your fuckup made me look like a goddamn chump! D’you know how much shit I’ve had to put up with ever since that fuckin’ fiasco?”

“Lay off, man, I’ve heard it already,” Dave mumbled.

“I don’t think you have,” said Tim, pressing his hand to the wall in a casual gesture Dave knew to read as a threat. “Not near enough, at least. I had to work my ass off to get this high up, way fuckin’ more than the others ever did since I live out here instead of down in Texas. I have done so much to earn the right to be here, and you nearly ripped away everything I’ve built in one fell fuckin’ swoop, not to mention getting a couple real promising new recruits killed!”

Dave gulped. Oh. Yeah, he’d. Forgotten about that. Shit, Tim had been in charge of the actual rescue mission, too? Fuck.

“Now half these guys don’t respect me no more, and I can’t tell what your brother thinks of me, and I’m supposed to just let you walk away as happy as you like? I don’t fuckin’ think so.”

“The fuck do you want me to do about it?” Dave snapped.

“I —“

“That’s enough, Tim,” came Bro’s voice, calm but stern. Dave tried not to be too obvious about the relieved sigh he heaved.

“But — C’mon, Derek,” Tim said, “It’s — he’s the reason that mission didn’t work, I got every right to get some fuckin’ payback, don’t I?”

“He’s my responsibility,” Bro said. “I’m dealing with it.”

Tension lingered in the air for a moment. God, Dave hated fuckin’ standoffs, shit like this happened all the time with the Usuals. It was a way of testing things, Dave knew — there was an unspoken hierarchy to these guys, and whenever there was any sort of argument or dare or bet or what have you, it was a challenge to the order. Who’s the toughest, who’s gonna back down first. Dave was never a participant on account of he was so low in the ranking that even entertaining the idea was a fuckin’ joke to end all jokes. Didn’t mean Dave couldn’t get caught in the crossfire, though, not to mention that the loser of these interactions tended to turn their frustration on Dave. They all acted like a bunch of fuckin’ animals, exerting whatever dominance they could to feel better about themselves.

And Dave’s behavior back in June had apparently dropped Tim a good few levels in the rankings. This was gonna be hell until Tim felt he’d gotten his payback. God dammit.

The standoff didn’t last long, at least. In the same way Dave was hilariously low, they all put Bro up on so high of a pedestal that the only one who really dared challenge him was Ben, and even that was pretty rare. And also less of a challenge and more just Ben suggesting a different strategy. So it wasn’t much of a surprise when Tim broke off eye contact (or. Well. Eye to shades contact), shot a final glare at Dave, and muttered darkly all the way back to his spot on the couch.

This had been Dave’s life pretty much since the fight-the-trolls shit had started, about six years ago now, and as awful as it was, he’d sort of just accepted that this was how things were and never questioned it. He was trying not to question it now, on a way more conscious level, because he was scared he’d give away that he was thinking traitor thoughts or mumble something out loud like a fucking idiot, but.

Things hadn’t been like this at all with Mom and Rose and Dirk.

He’d spent ages trying to work out the pecking order, only to come to the conclusion that…there wasn’t one. Even with Dirk and Rose throwing down, there wasn’t really a clear victor, and the only time anyone had acted like the authority figure was when Mom stepped in and stopped them from fighting. It had been so confusing for so long, trying to work that shit out, because the on the surface it had looked like there should be another hierarchy, but…nothing. They just…helped each other and treated everyone with maybe not a ton of respect but enough that nobody was the butt of the joke, not even Dave.

He kind of missed it.

Shit, no, that was exactly the kind of thing he couldn’t be letting himself think. Maybe Dirk didn’t get why, but Dave did, he knew better. Letting even a hint of dissent slip through was asking for trouble, and he didn’t want any more of that than he absolutely had to take.

He got back to work for a while, trying very hard to act like what had gone down hadn’t bugged him at all. He wasn’t sure if the Usuals bought it, but Ben didn’t seem to. Soon as he was able, Ben tugged Dave out onto the creaky-ass front porch, asking, “Hey, you alright?”

“Yeah, don’t sweat it,” Dave said. “Even if he had tried anything, Tim’s slow as shit. Guy couldn’t hit me if I was tied down to a chair, duct taped to the side of a barn, and also given like the opposite of whatever the fuck happened to the Flash.”

Ben laughed softly for a moment before his face darkened. “Glad to hear it. Be careful, though, alright? He’s still fuming, and Bruce is gonna be getting here in a couple hours with the rest of the gang.”

“Fffffffffuuuuuuuuuuuuck,” Dave groaned. Bruce was the new guy as far as the Usuals were concerned. He’d only managed to claw his way onto the bottom rungs of the top of the heap a couple weeks before Dave had gotten arrested. New blood in the Usuals always meant a new guy going out of his way to try and prove himself, typically by showing off how dominant and tough and manly he was by picking on Dave, but Bruce took it to a whole ‘nother level.

“And Derek’s…still pretty fuckin’ pissed off about everything, too, so he might be more lenient than usual with the boys,” Ben cautioned. “I’ve had to talk him out of some pretty drastic punishments. He’s still trying to figure out what to do with you.”

“Shit.” Dave ran a hand through his hair. “I mean, thanks for keeping me posted, I know it gets you some flack from the guys sometimes, just. Shit.”

“Ah, don’t worry about me,” Ben said. “I got Derek on my side, they’re not gonna try anything stupid. I’ll try and keep them off your back as best I can, just take care of yourself, alright?”

“Yeah, I got it,” Dave griped.

“In the meantime,” Ben grinned, “I did manage to get some actual food for you and your brother. S’ in the fridge, should be enough for both of ya.”

“Shit, yeah, thanks man,” Dave said. “Was startin’ to get dizzy, fuck.”

“Alright, that’s all I needed to say for now,” Ben said. “Go ahead and take a lunch break, before you keel over.”

Dirk was ready for another argument when the door swung open again, but it was just Dave this time.

“Hey, guess what I got,” he said, the door clanking shut behind him. Dirk could hear the grin in his voice even before he saw it.

“Something useful, I hope,” Dirk said, “Because I haven’t been able to come up with any ideas, and I’m open to suggestions.”

“Real fuckin’ food, check it out,” Dave said, flopping down and tossing Dirk a wrapped-up sandwich. “Ben came through big time, thank fuck.”

Dirk narrowed his eyes at the food. Looked like it’d been bought from a store, wrapped in clear plastic and definitely a more substantial meal than anything they’d been given so far in their time here. But…coming from that guy, Dirk wasn’t sure he wanted to trust it.

“It’s not poison, man, eat it,” Dave said, already in the process of scarfing down his own. “Like, a lot of these assholes I wouldn’t put it past to put something weird in my food, but Ben’s a pretty okay guy.”

“I think we’ve got vastly different definitions of the term ‘okay guy,’” Dirk said.

Dave stared at him for a moment. “Uh, what?”

“He and I had a little chat earlier,” Dirk said.

“Okay, so you know what I mean, then,” Dave said. “He’s chill as fuck. And he can actually get away with being nice and still keeping his place in the pack, because Bro likes him, so he’s, you know, a good dude to have on our side.”

Dirk snorted. “I don’t fucking trust anyone here, especially not anyone the old man thinks so highly of,” he said.

“I mean, alright, I guess, but, like. Food’s food. Seriously, dude,” Dave said, nudging Dirk with his elbow, “You really oughta eat, man. I got no idea when we’re gonna get food again, and these won’t keep. I mean, unless we shove them into the freezer, I guess? Which sounds shitty, so you should eat now.”

“Why are we doing this?” Dirk said, throwing up his hands and earning a quizzical look from his brother. “Why are you doing this? Acting like one guy giving us a fucking meal is a sign of him being someone trustworthy, when it’s at best basic human decency! Why play along with this horseshit? Dave, we should be trying to fight back, trying to escape —”

“Or we could not do that,” said Dave. “Dirk, I told you, it’s fine. This is… it’s not as bad as you’re making it out to be. Bro’s kinda rough, sure, but Ben’s totally fine! He’s trying to help us out a little, man, and you’re acting like he’s trying to fuckin’ poison us.”

“‘A little rough?’ Dave, that black eye is not ‘a little rough,’ it’s fucking abusive,” Dirk said. Dave rolled his eyes. “You wanna talk about helping,” he continued, “I’m trying to figure out how to fucking get us out of here, but you seem like you’re actively trying to stop me from doing that! You won’t even consider doing anything that might actually get us somewhere, won’t even think about questioning if maybe this shit isn’t okay, which it fucking isn’t! Why won’t you work with me, here, Dave?”

“Because I don’t wanna get beat up any more than I absolutely fuckin’ have to, Dirk!” Dave snapped, all of the previous relaxed air suddenly gone. Dirk froze. “It’s real easy to talk about being a rebel from where you are, safe in the fucking cellar all day, I’m the one who’s gotta actually deal with what happens when Bro gets pissed off! And —” He stopped himself. Dirk was staring, stunned into silence.

“It’d be justified at that point, anyway,” Dave muttered. “It’s his house, or whatever. I get it. Besides, it’s not that bad.” He looked away, unable to meet Dirk’s eyes. “It’s fine. I’m fine. I can take it. It’s whatever.”

“I…”

“Just, please, for the love of fuck, don’t antagonize him,” said Dave. “The less reasons we give him to be pissed, the less either of us gets beat up.”

“I’m…sorry,” Dirk stammered.

“S’alright. You’re new. You don’t know the rules yet.”

“Dave…”

Dave gulped down the rest of his sandwich, wiped his mouth on a sleeve, and stood. “I gotta get back to chores,” he said. “The rest of the usuals are getting here in a couple hours. You should eat the rest of your food.”

“Okay,” Dirk said, after a moment. Dave nodded, and headed out of the cellar.

“And please, for the love of fuck,” he said, out of view by the door, “Stay quiet, alright? I was serious this morning about keeping you hidden, and shit.”

“….Yeah,” said Dirk.

#dave strider #dirk strider #karkat vantas #kanaya maryam #sollux captor #longpost//#fanfic #fanfiction #katt does a writing #calmvsstormfic #calmvsstormchapter #pls let me know if theres anything else i need to tag these chapters got a lot goin on and its Rough but itll be worth it i promise

6 notes · View notes

krarchives · 8 years ago

Text

Other assorted logs

These logs are unrelated to the previously posted message logs that detail specific days-- rather, these are miscellaneous messages sent between those dates. Names are bolded due to formatting being done differently than in previous uploads.

01/08/2017

[redacted]

Hey!

w/izard-merlin

Yo! Sent you a few messages on steam c:

01/10/2017

[redacted] sent a photo post Cover of an issue of Super M...

[redacted]

cute!!

w/izard-merlin

OH YES THIS IS

w/izard-merlin

[redacted] please get back soon

I really need to talk

01/28/2017

w/izard-merlin

Gah, just I'm super sorry for that. I really haven't been having a good time as of late, and with THAT DAY [Note: Valentine’s Day] coming up, I felt you'd probably not even want to be with me, which is most likely true but y'know... That and I sorta guess I got a little annoyed with this trade, knowing you've been doing other stuff in between? But y'know, can't win them all, must get boring, I imagine...

That and there's still a load of ambiguity about that MRI scan of mine, so I'm mildly worried about having cancer

So yes, I freaked out, but only because I feared you didn't care

w/izard-merlin

About me, that is

[redacted]

I always care about you, Merlin.

[redacted]

I was seriously concerned.

The night before... or whenever it was, I apologize if I sounded moody

w/izard-merlin

Of course

I just fear what's coming, is all

I'm never the kind of guy who gets attention from others so I always feel there may be something else going on

[redacted]

What do you think is going on?

I won't judge you.

I can promise you that I haven't said a word about me talking to you to anybody else.

w/izard-merlin

That's not my gripe

[redacted]

Joseph... you need attention. You need friends who care about you. Everyone does.

w/izard-merlin

Its just the fact that I can't trust people, I suppose

I always feel that when someone's being nice to me, they have some sort of ulterior motive

Personally? I blame my history with shitty people for that

But you can make of that whatever

w/izard-merlin

You know I feel a lot of people try and take advantage of me

[redacted]

There is nothing for me to take from you.

I genuinely enjoy your company, Joseph.

w/izard-merlin

I just have my suspicions about people who treat me nicely, is all

Especially considering my past with people who have been nice to me, and then bit me in the ass

[redacted]

Who did that to you? :(

w/izard-merlin

[Redacted for privacy. This was a sensitive subject and was unrelated to his friends.]

[redacted]

I was aware... regardless, I'm so, so sorry....

w/izard-merlin

Thats why I find it hard to trust people

w/izard-merlin

And its why I'm an incredibly emotional person

So I'm sorry for upsetting you, but I can't help it

[redacted]

You didn't upset me... I was just very confused.

w/izard-merlin

Why so?

[redacted]

Just... seeing you off my friends list out of the blue.

After you requested one last thing.

w/izard-merlin

Did you get none of the messages afterwards?

w/izard-merlin

They explained why I was doing what I was doing

[redacted]

No... I didn't get them.

w/izard-merlin

Well, my final request of you was to enjoy the music I had made for you as our part of the trade

[redacted]

Would you like to see muffet? [A picture I had been drawing for him.]

w/izard-merlin

I'm fine, don't worry about finishing it

Just enjoy the music I made for you

[redacted]

I'm going to finish it

I can't keep not finishing stuff [Note: This wasn’t finished because of the events of 2/4 cutting communication. ]

w/izard-merlin

Well, if you're planning on doing so, don't do it because its for me

[URL removed]

w/izard-merlin

Go ahead and listen to it

[redacted]

I can't, I feel too guilty

w/izard-merlin

How come?

w/izard-merlin

[redacted]?

[redacted]

I'm sorry, I had to help my mom with something.

I didn't earn the right to hear it

w/izard-merlin

No trouble, and well...

That doesn't matter

Go ahead, please

[redacted]

Why do you want me to hear it?

Do you want my feedback?

w/izard-merlin

Because I want you to enjoy it?

w/izard-merlin

As far as I'm concerned, and other friends are concerned, this is a completed piece

I just really, really want you to listen to it

[redacted]

... If you insist.

w/izard-merlin

Trust me, it's going to be amazing

w/izard-merlin

Tell me what you think!

[redacted]

Good god...

Joseph... it's beautiful.

Look, I don't want to sound cheesy. I really don't. It sounds cliche as heck.

But there was a tear in my eye.

It's beautiful. [ Note: This sounds very cheesy reading back, but it was true! Merlin did a great job composing this track. ]

[redacted]

I love the ending, where... ah, what's the music term....

it just gets higher and higher in pitch?

It sounded wonderful.

w/izard-merlin

Crescendo?

[redacted]

Yes.

That's the name for it? It's very pretty.

The tune of it... that kept getting repeated over and over again... it was very, very nice.

w/izard-merlin

Most of the terminology for music is Latin and Italian

[redacted]

Is that so?

w/izard-merlin

Indeed! Most of the stuff relating to tempo, at least

w/izard-merlin

Or... melody, rather

[redacted]

What's a cadence? It seems like a popular name for girls related to music

w/izard-merlin

Its basically a bunch of chords strung together at the end of a piece of music!

And then you've got plagal, or perfect cadences

Plagal cadences are typically the kind of ones you get at the end of church hymns

Its commonly referred to as the "amen" cadence, for that reason

Its used to give something a soft close

w/izard-merlin

But yes, I'm rather happy you enjoyed this

I do feel I captured you rather well in this? Gave it a rather... Homestuck-y tone

[redacted]

You seem to know a lot about music!

[redacted]

And yes... no wonder it had a vibe of familiarity!

w/izard-merlin

I mean, I've been at it for... a whole decade, now

The rabbit hole goes ever deeper

w/izard-merlin

I'm glad you like it, though

Like, I really am

Bet you're glad to have listened to it noooow~

[redacted]

You've been in to making music for a decade?

w/izard-merlin

Well, music as a whole, rather

I got my first guitar when I was 8

[redacted]

It was gorgeous, Joseph. I'm going to keep the file in a special spot so I can always find it easily.

[redacted]

Awww, really?

You can play guitar

w/izard-merlin

Ayup!

And well, yeah! It'd be stupidly hard to teach myself all this terminology without any sort of previous instrumental knowledge

And of course! Where will it reside?

[redacted]

Probably on my desktop, hehe

w/izard-merlin

D'aww

Thank you!

[redacted]

Do you own any other instruments?

w/izard-merlin

Yup!

w/izard-merlin

I've got a really nice Taylor 214ce

And then y'know

A Yamaha keyboard ;w;

[redacted]

Oh wow

w/izard-merlin

And then my ukulele... Somewhere?

[redacted]

Ahh! How cute!

w/izard-merlin

I bought a cheap one to learn a few songs and never picked it up again

Their use is VERY niche in comparison to other instruments

[redacted]

That's true. Can't throw a ukulele in the middle of many songs

w/izard-merlin

Unless its like

w/izard-merlin

Cheesy jokey stuff

Which is fun

I really must find it

w/izard-merlin

But either way, acoustic guitar is where its at

[redacted]

Guitars always sound so nice.

w/izard-merlin

They doooo

[redacted]

Is that your favorite instrument?

w/izard-merlin

[URL removed]

Here's the one I own

And well, yes it is!

[redacted]

Goodness, it's beautiful!

Say...

Have you ever made a theme for YOU?

w/izard-merlin

Nope!

I... Probably should

Just not sure where I'd even start with it

I can read people better than myself ;w;

[redacted]

I can't help but imagine something that has an atmosphere of magic in it

w/izard-merlin

Any sort of genre?

w/izard-merlin

[redacted]?

[redacted]

Yes?

Sorry, sorry

Hm...

I can't think of anything.

w/izard-merlin

Ahh, okay!

Well, I shall keep it on the backburner

w/izard-merlin

Gonna shoot you a friend request on steam, hope you dont mind

[redacted]

Okay!

w/izard-merlin

Done, and done

[redacted]

Also, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snzjXp6fbrI&t=97s

[ Note: URL kept bc its just an undertale song ]

[redacted]

Something like this without the really ominous part

w/izard-merlin

Ooooh

That could work!

[redacted]

I don't know how a guitar could be thrown in to that

w/izard-merlin

Once you've accepted my friend request I need to gush about the Undertale OST

[redacted]

Accepted!

1 note · View note

blindrapture · 8 years ago

Text

After the break, the remainder of this post will be Andrew Hussie’s newspost from 11/08/14. In it, he goes pretty in-depth about the symbolism and intent of Homestuck’s GAME OVER flash. I wanted to share this because it’s one of the most concise examples I can think of that stresses why I still think he’s goddamn lovely. It also contains his own rather clear declaration that he prefers Death Of The Author over Word Of God (”Now, since they can no longer depend on answers which I supply between horse jokes and snappy retorts, they are lost in the woods to fend for themselves against the wolves of dubious fanalysis.“), a sentiment which echoes darkly through the fandom these days. You could argue he pretty much spends most of the newspost trying to explain how to read the ending to come. And plus I can say this is a #ThrowbackFrihorse thing, even though it’s nowhere near Friday.

Spoilers ahead, those of you who have not yet finished reading Homestuck.

Andrew: There comes a time in every young Homestuck's life when they must face the fact that a notable comic author has swindled them into getting on a bus labeled "cool updates", only to swerve said bus off the highway and into a precipitous gulch of unmitigated sadstuck. But the old wives tale says that sadstuck was just a thing that happened in our fanfics, the bus children wailed. That's what they said about the tricksters too, a veteran child in the back replied. They said the tricksters would never see the light of canon, but where are the doubters now? Where are they now. Propping up six feet of dirt is where. The veteran child is weirding everybody out, so they stop looking at him, and turn to the driver. But the driver is now a spooky skeleton and the kids lose their shit. The skeleton head does a creepy 180, and speaks his scary curse. Heed me bus youths, for I am the ghost of future sadstuck. I have traveled back in time and am on a bus for some reason I guess, to punish you for your maudlin fics. For every time you murmured sadstuck while having a feeling, for every fic you pastebinned by candlelight, my curse has grown stronger, and my legend, dumber. Then the skeleton ran out of stuff to say, and looking a little embarrassed, turned around again to keep driving. Then he screamed once he remembered the bus was falling. Thanks for listening to my short story. We like to have a good time here at MS Paint Adventures, The Website. The gigaplay is off to a rocky start of unhewn feels. If your kerchief has become too soggy with tears from emotion, skeleton terror, or just plain admiration for my skill as a short story writer (can't blame you there), and you wish to lighten the mood, I recommend moseying over to Paradox Space, which is currently running a 24 page comic I have written about Crowbar. I am alert to the desires of readers every single day, and the one thing I hear them clamor for above all else, is more stories about CROWBAR. We want more content about Crowbar, RIGHT NOW, they say, and make that content consist of 24 beautifully illustrated comic pages, MINIMUM. I just give the people what they want. Fortunately, Homestuck's Premier Felt Fan #1 Jones was available to do a spectacular job of illustrating this comic. My rambling noir-style monologues have never before overlapped such lovely artwork. GOD TIER TALK! I don't answer Q's about Homestuck much anymore. It was a practice which I think used to be some people's lifeline for decoding the enigmatic runes of this story. Now, since they can no longer depend on answers which I supply between horse jokes and snappy retorts, they are lost in the woods to fend for themselves against the wolves of dubious fanalysis. Pulling the ripcord on the Homestuck machine again, combined with recent story events, makes me think something FAQQY may be in order. The thing is, when you make a big story, and allude to rules for a complicated system dictating mortality, people tend to REALLY, REALLY want to understand how it works. Speculation naturally fills the vacuum in lieu of concrete data. Theories are crafted. Headcanons, congealed. Then, when additional data is presented (DEAD KIDS), which happen to chafe with fanon constructs, feelings run ragged, and Bullshit is called. Then Bullshit shows up, and says, you rang? And the fanonistas say, yes Bullshit. Look at this mess. LOOK at it. This in NO WAY jives with my views on what constitutes heroism and justice. Bullshit nods sagely while lighting its pipe. Earlier in HS when god tier folk were more scarce, the story was more cagey about these verdicts. The Vriska ruling was presented as a close call, which maybe could have gone either way. Then Slick smacked the clock to Just before it could settle, leaving the true verdict ambiguous, and the 'moral debate' intact, so to speak. But now that there are a lot of god tiers running around, with the stakes raised and the body count piling up, the game (or, story) is starting to be more liberal with its rulings. As in, more likely to come down hard on Just, Heroic, or Neither verdicts without intervention or obfuscation, helping us better understand the boundaries of heroic and just action through example. Not necessarily by moral definitions, but as dictated by the rules of a game. So that turns the story guy (sometimes known as an "author") into something like a ref at a basketball game. He blows the whistle when he sees the basketball guy (the "baller") take a half step without bouncing the ball. The home team crowd does not detect the subtle violation and goes boooooo! Those homers can boo all they want, but you know, the guy is really just some bozo with a whistle. The rules are the rules! There's reason to think there is a nuanced scale ranging from Heroic to Just inside the clock. There may be many shades of justice and heroism, some forms just barely qualifying to seal one's fate. But there's nothing nuanced about Alive vs. Dead. The result of a coin flip is absolute, even though there may be many subtle factors contributing to which side it lands on. Such as whether the coin is pure of heart, and whether the table it lands on has ever killed a man. You get a sense for the nuance of the judgment when it comes to these "close calls", like with Vriska, or more recently, with Jade. In her case, she was subject to mind control when she racked up her misdeeds, which ordinarily would probably exempt her. But it wasn't ordinary mind control. More like flipping an "evil switch", removing her ethical filter, thereby letting he personality come through, and giving her license to act on impulses which she'd ordinarily suppress. So this gives the clock something to work with. Still, her behavior is compromised, so it's by no means a slam dunk. (BASKET BALL! that is still the metaphor.) So it's very close, and perhaps the clock even spares her... except for Aranea, whose luck lets close calls break in her favor, and nudges that needle one hair to the Just side. Very unlikely that happens if it's not close already though. Jane's situation is basically the same, and so is her verdict. How about Jake? He's the only player who's had two rulings. The first time, he was blustering Ronald Reagan quotes at the top of his lungs when Jane forked him, which I think we may agree safely disqualifies him from heroism (though the Republican party may disagree). The second time was ruled Heroic, when he took a realmaginary ninja sword through the chest for a friend. This corresponds pretty closely with most people's definition of heroic, so I doubt anyone would consider this one controversial either. Dave? Probably not much to debate here either. Fighting while attempting to save a dead friend, to bring her back to Jane for resurrection. There's a moral element here, tied to common ideas of heroism, so there's not much in dispute. When factors stray somewhat from moral notions of heroism, that's when there is more fuel for debate. So what about Rose? Wasn't John killed by Jack under similar circumstances to how Rose died? So why did he survive, and Rose didn't? The circumstances were very similar, on the surface. But I would suggest that the similarity of the two situations, both leading to different outcomes, helps clarify the rules in play, not confuse them. The reason for this? SCIENCE. If you were a scientist in this fictional world, trying to test this fictional construct, these are the exact kinds of situations you would seek out to prove or disprove whatever hypothesis you had. Situations that are very similar, with most factors isolated, and varying only in minor and controlled ways. That's how you would start to understand where the line is between heroic and non-heroic conduct. So what varies between the situations? What line does Rose cross which John doesn't? It becomes pretty obvious if you break the two scenes down. John was standing there, poised for battle with Jack, for all of two seconds before Jack auto-stabbed him from behind. Not even to speak of the underhanded tactic by the villain, I think what's more important is John didn't even get a chance to move. Or specifically, to prove through action that he was prepared to do battle with a foe. In fact, hindsight may tell us he wasn't. He hadn't been through much then. But years later, when he reenacted that scene with Jack through a dream bubble, he was ready that time. He had years to think about that moment, to reflect on the damage caused by Jack, and what he might have done differently if he'd been more prepared, and if the battle wasn't cut short. But during the first encounter, there was no time for heroic intent to translate into action. Compare with Rose's situation. Her feelings are unambiguous. Her mind is made up, and committed to action in the form of forward motion. Sorry Rose, you took a few too many steps through the paint on your drive to the hoop. Gotta blow the whistle! The two similar situations illustrate where one of the lines are for heroism (as a game rule, not moralistically), and in this case, that line is action. It would seem it's not good enough just to have heroic intentions or bold feelings. It doesn't cut it to strike a pose and look cool for two seconds. The intent should be expressed through commitment to an action. The action is what proves the intent. For all we know, John wasn't ready to back up his posture. For all we know, he was terrified! Rose wasn't though. Her action proved it. Why does Rose lashing out in vengeance count as heroic? If you wanted my personal opinion on heroism, I would say a vengeful act is not heroic by itself. We all have our ideas on what heroism means. But I think this is the wrong question to ask. The concern here is less about the moral definition of a heroic act, and more about how heroism is defined in terms of a series of rules which a game system can enforce. Based on some evidence we have, and some things Doc once said about god tier immortality, it's pretty safe to make at least one generalization about heroism as a game construct. The game/story regards your behavior as Heroic if you make some effort to defeat or kill someone who is villainous (or in other words, someone worthy of a Just death). The state of the hero's mind is just an additional consideration, such as whether they happen to be motivated by anger or vengeance. But let's imagine for a moment that a vengeful act is automatically unworthy of heroism, even if directed against a great evil. Wouldn't this be a MAJOR loophole for god tiers to avoid dying heroic deaths? It would mean to qualify as a hero, you couldn't feel anger toward a villain who has almost certainly done something to provoke anger. If a hero ever experienced loss at the hands of a villain, their natural emotional state would exempt them from the heroic consequence of the actions resulting from that anger. They would be completely invulnerable to a villain, so long as they maintained a grudge! The thing with villains is, they tend to have a way of inflicting loss on others. If being wronged precluded heroic behavior, villains would suddenly discover heroes to be incredibly rare commodities. There's a lot to think about here. It's a combination of how you want to morally define heroism and justice, and how to pragmatically construct enforceable rules to that effect. The latter is something that can get very technical, and boil down to hairline actions such as whether one exhibits clear enough forward motion or such, roughly the way sports are officiated. There's no way I'll ever come up with a full list of rules, or even get much deeper into the rules than I have here. But I believe this is a rational outline for the way the subject may be examined, if you wish to do so!!!

#fucking incredible #throwbackfrihorse #homestuck #mspa #spoilers

3 notes · View notes

blaperile · 6 years ago

Text

Homestuck Epilogues - Meat - Page 14 (Epilogue 3 Page 1)

#Homestuck #The Homestuck Epilogues #Meat #Epilogue Three #Jane #Jake #Dirk

1 note · View note

blatherkatt · 8 years ago

Text

Title: The Calm Is Terrifying When The Storm Is All You Know [Homestuck]

Chapter 1: Crows and Chainsaws

Rating: M

Chapter Warnings: Implied abuse, mentions of terrorist activities; Illustrated

FIRST | PREVIOUS | NEXT

Karkat had known Earth was going to be a lot different from Alternia. There’d been plenty of cheesy, overly saccharine pamphlets available at the spaceport spouting off about how wonderful and foreign the planet was, and he’d heard plenty more rumors from other trolls (“Humans are super soft pushovers!” “It’s actually against the rules to kill people there, I hear. How weird is that?” “They don’t even have quadrants! What a bizarre species.”). None of it had quite readied him for the culture shock of actually getting there. As soon as he’d stepped off the ship, he’d been greeted by Kanaya and Terezi, the former of whom had immediately slapped some sort of hat over his head (“It is called a ‘baseball cap’ and it will be very useful for you while you adjust to being active in the daytime,” she had said, and upon venturing outside Karkat had immediately conceded to himself that she’d been completely right. Earth’s sun may not be as vicious as Alternia’s, but it was still obnoxiously bright out). Terezi’d helped Karkat deal with the necessary paperwork, as promised, and then the two had helped him get onto a huge, smoke-belching hunk of machinery that humans apparently called a “bus” and used to travel over long distances.

The humans set up their cities so differently from anything Karkat was used to (not that he’d ever lived in a city back on Alternia, or even visited one, but he was sure Alternian cities must have been completely different - nowhere sensible could possibly be this loud all the time), and on top of that, they were just so friendly. The suspicious, sometimes even malicious looks some humans would shoot him, he’d been expecting. He was an alien on a foreign planet, and there’d been that invasion some seven-ish sweeps ago. But for every human who treated him with mistrust or blatant dislike, there was another who greeted him with a big smile and a cheery, “Welcome to Earth! How do you like it here?” A lot of them complimented Karkat’s hat, too, no matter how many times he had no idea what the fuck a “Texans fan” was.

(Kanaya eventually explained that the ‘baseball cap’ bore the insignia of a local ‘sports team.’ She had no way of explaining what ‘sports’ were, though, and Terezi had followed up by explaining, “I’ve been here for five years, and I still barely understand human sports. They’re like the blood games back home, except usually without the blood, and no one’s supposed to die, which kind of feels like it defeats the purpose to me. Humans take them really seriously, though, for some reason.”)

It seemed like a lot of the human behavior had rubbed off on the Earthbound trolls, too; all who had been there for long enough to have acclimated showed all kinds of behavior Karkat found incredibly disorienting - even Terezi had changed up a lot of her vocabulary to the Earth equivalents, and Porrim, Kanaya’s (and now, Karkat’s as well) boss, was patient in a way that Karkat was sure had to be a side effect of living on this obnoxiously saccharine planet.

His friends had been right about Earth being safe, Karkat thought. It was so safe here it made his stomach churn.

It was so different from home, and even though some part of him knew this place was better for him, he hated it. He hated it for being so incredibly, painfully different from everything he’d ever known.

He couldn’t sleep. Not even on days off, when he had the chance to sleep through the day. Porrim had provided him with some furnishings for his new, small housing in a big building (Kanaya was just up the hall from him), including a recupracoon, but sopor slime in the concentrations used back on Alternia was not allowed on Earth for some reason, and without it, he couldn’t get anything more than the most fitful bursts of sleep.

He instead spent his first three days off from his new job as a “cashier” at Porrim’s shop watching the movies he’d brought to Earth, curled up under a massive blanket and with the curtains drawn to make his respiteblock as dark and quiet as possible.

The fourth time a free day rolled around, however, Kanaya insisted on Karkat seeing a bit of the city, chiding him for “holing up in his room like a chastised wiggler.” After a great deal of bickering and a final, exasperated push from Porrim, Karkat found himself dragged off to some sort of communally-used, grassy stretch of land that Kanaya called a “park.” Karkat had a lot of other words to describe the place, none of them nice.

“Why is it so fucking hot out here,” he groaned, sprawled on a leisure platform and tugging irritably at the brim of his hat. Even now, after several weeks on Earth, he still had to wear the thing every time he went outside during the day. Curse this wretchedly bright, overly hot planet and its diurnal inhabitants.

“Houston is known for being rather hot,” Kanaya answered. “Even so, from what people are saying, it is apparently unseasonably warm today.”

“Why the fuck did you make me come out here. There’s nothing to do here and it feels like the entire atmosphere is made of fucking fire.”

“The fresh air will do you some good,” Kanaya said. “This is not our final destination, in any case. There is a small shopping center on the other side of this park.”

“It’s my day off and you’re making me go shopping?”

“Not making you, no. Human shopping centers are interesting places, you’ll be surprised. There is quite a lot to do there.”

“I’ll be too busy fucking melting.”

“You wouldn’t be so hot if you had worn lighter clothing like I specifically told you to.”

“AaaARGH, get the fuck OFF ME!” A voice interrupted the usual banter, and both trolls snapped their heads toward the source of the sound. A figure was being mobbed by several large, black featherbeasts. Dark feathers hid most of the form, keeping Karkat from getting a good look, but the occasional flash of blonde hair probably indicated a human.

Karkat and Kanaya exchanged a look. Karkat sighed and pushed himself to his feet as Kanaya pulled out her lipstick. “Just don’t like…actually cut any, okay?” he muttered. “I don’t wanna deal with seeing blood all over the place today.” Kanaya nodded, and pulled the chain on her chainsaw, striding toward the chaos. Karkat trotted more slowly afterward.

Several of the beasts immediately fled at Kanaya’s approach. The whirring of the chainsaw sent them all scrambling away in a panic save one, which seemed quite intent on clawing up the human’s hand. A near miss of a swing from Kanaya convinced the creature to change its mind, as well as startling the human into falling over. He recovered quickly, however, pulling off a shoe and uselessly throwing it after the last retreating black form.

“Yeah, you better run!” The human shouted. “Goddamned brainless feathery fucking assholes, Jesus Christ — holy shit would you put that thing away, lady, you’re gonna take someone’s arm off.” With the birds gone, Karkat could finally get a better look at the human. He was almost as tall as Kanaya, his hair messy. His clothes were ruffled after the ordeal, and the dark sunglasses perched on his nose were slightly crooked. A white scar stood out rather vividly on his cheek, which Karkat found surprising — weren’t humans supposed to be more nonviolent than trolls? Was this one a warrior or something?

Karkat shook off the thought. It probably wasn’t important.

“Sorry,” Kanaya said, converting her favorite weapon back to its smaller state.

The human stilled, mouthed “what the fuck,” and then shrugged. Karkat almost laughed. The technology Kanaya’s favorite weapon utilized was common enough on Alternia, but hadn’t seen much use on Earth as of yet, apparently.

“So, anyway,” the human said, fixing his shades, “uh, thanks for that. Goddamn crows won’t leave me alone, it’s fucking ridiculous.”

Kanaya beamed. Karkat shrugged. “The fuck did you do to piss them off like that?” he asked.

“I dunno, exist?” he said, moving to pick up a large bag abandoned a short ways away. “Ah, fuck me, the ground’s all fucking muddy here. God dammit, it’s not allowed to be fucking damp when it’s this hot out, fuck’s sake.” He continued grumbling to himself quietly as he hopped awkwardly to pick up his discarded shoe. He paused after retrieving it, took off his now-muddy sock, and then put the shoe back on.

“Are you alright?” Kanaya asked as the human again stepped toward his bag. He walked eerily quietly, Karkat noticed. “Those creatures had some pretty vicious looking claws-”

“Son of a fuck,” the human burst out upon reaching his bags. “Fucking crows got my sandwich, god dammit. Was looking forward to that shit, augh.”

The smallest of the beasts - crows, he called them? - started making a raucous noise from its perch in a barely budding tree. The human scowled.

“Yeah, laugh it up, asshole! I hope you fucking choke on it. Joke’s on you, shit had turkey in it, so that’s like, cannibalism or something. Motherfucker.”

Kanaya sighed, and spoke up again. “I do not mean to push, and it sounds as if you are quite fine, but —”

“Wha?” The human finally turned his face toward Kanaya. Karkat rolled his eyes. “Oh, shit. Yeah, I’m fine. Hungry as shit, but I’ll get over it. Thanks again for saving my ass. I really gotta go, though. Bro’s gonna be pissed if I take much longer to get back.”

And just like that, the human took off, quickly disappearing from view.

“Fucking rude,” Karkat grumbled.

“He certainly seemed rather odd for a human,” Kanaya agreed. “In any case, we should get moving. We don’t want to be late.”

“Late for what?” Karkat said, blinking. Kanaya’s only answer was a smile.

The meeting place this time was an old, abandoned record store in the shadow of two huge buildings, because of course it was. With Bro’s flair for the dramatic, it was about what Dave had been expecting.

“He’d do it on a rooftop if he wasn’t afraid of getting spotted,” Dave muttered to himself. He adjusted the bulky duffel bag slung over his shoulder, took a quick glance about the empty sidestreet he stood on, and hopped into the building through a smashed-in window. The place was dark and empty, at least out in the front. Bro and his cronies would be in the back room, probably, so that was where Dave headed. He was late, he knew, which meant Bro was going to be on his ass about it. What else was new.

Sure enough, he found Bro and a handful of the usual suspects gathered in a small room at the back of the old store. They all looked up when Dave entered, despite his every effort to walk in quietly.

“You’re late,” said Bro.

“Called it,” Dave muttered. Louder, he answered, “Sorry, Bro. Traffic was hell.” He could practically feel the weight of Bro’s annoyance at the obviously nonsense response - they all knew full well Dave had walked to the meetup. “What’d I miss?” Dave finished, dropping his bag.

“Oh, just the whole fuckin’ meeting,” drawled one of the Usuals. Some dude with a beard whose name Dave kept forgetting (only partially on purpose); Stan or Steve or something like that.

Bro tapped his fingers lightly against the half-rotten desk he was sitting on, drawing attention back to himself. “Save it. I’ll deal with him later,” he said. Dave swallowed. Called that, too. “Everybody knows what their job is today?” All the Usuals’ heads bobbed solemnly. Beardy cracked a brutal smile. Bro turned toward Dave pointedly.

“No fucking idea. Am I gonna be doing something cool? Something big? Could it just maybe, possibly, be the same fuckin’ thing you’ve been drilling into me all god damned week? We just don’t know, it’s a fucking mystery —”

Bro slammed his hand against the desk, standing. Dave jolted.

“Hit the lights, keep the getaway wagon running, don’t get seen,” he said.

“Good,” Bro said, giving Dave an almost imperceptible nod. Dave let out a tiny bit of the breath he was holding. Bro rolled his shoulder, slinging his sheathed sword across it, and twitched his head toward the door. “Let’s get going. We’re already behind schedule.”

This was no ordinary day at the human shopping center, apparently. A large banner hung above the entrance, the words “INTERPLANETARY CULTURAL FESTIVAL” written across it in both Alternian and English.

Karkat looked at Kanaya, one eyebrow raised in an unspoken question. Kanaya smiled back. “I heard about this event from one of our customers,” she said, “and I thought that you might appreciate it. I know you have been feeling somewhat hivesick - or, well, planet-sick, I suppose? And I thought,” she said, nervously smoothing over her skirt, “that perhaps you would enjoy being able to indulge in some pieces of Alternia, and talking to some other trolls in a similar situation, as it were. I have some money for you to spend if you wish, or we can just wander around, or…”

In the end, they decided to just look around a while. Inside the huge respitehall immediately within the center’s entrance, several temporary stalls were set up, most of them manned by adult trolls. (And that was something Karkat really wasn’t used to about Earth - all the adult trolls around, not remotely a threat. Granted, Alternia had more adults on it with the new Condesce’s rule, since she no longer forced all trolls to join the military upon adulthood, but adults generally stayed out of the neighborhoods kids grew up in, and seeing them around usually meant trouble. Here on Earth? Adults everywhere, most of them completely harmless. So weird, this planet.)

A few minute’s wandering found Kanaya chatting amiably with an oliveblood and a yellowblood running a stand selling some of the smaller Alternian musical instruments. Too uncomfortable around adult trolls to engage in conversation, Karkat didn’t pay the talk any real attention and instead glanced around the big room. The ceiling in this place was really high, he noted. All around there was a low murmur of chatter, and if he paid attention, he could hear some faint music playing, probably over some intercom. Somewhere across the hall, a young brownblood was showing several marvelling human children her lusus, a big barkbeast with five eyes.

“Really? He was seen all the way out here?” Kanaya was saying. The concern in her voice brought his attention back to the three women’s conversation.

“That’s the rumor,” the goldblood said. “Dunno what the hell he’s up to out here. I told Dee maybe we should rethink coming to this shindig if he’s in the area, but she insisted.” The oliveblood stuck her tongue out at her friend, but Karkat interrupted before she could speak.

“If who’s in the area?”

Kanaya looked very nervous, as did the oliveblood. The goldblood took a quick, almost-casual look around, and leaned forward a bit.

“Strider,” she said. Karkat stared. “You ain’t heard of him yet? He’s been a big fuckin’ problem for some time now. He’s a human, and he really hates trolls. Guy apparently fought against us in the invasion and never got the memo that we’re allies now. He and some buddies have been attacking embassies and gathering places all over the state for a few sweeps.”

“Really?” Karkat said, trying to let the breath he’d been holding out as subtly as possible, “You’re all nervous over a bunch of humans? What the hell can they do to us, friendly us to death?”

The goldblood snorted. “You’re definitely new to this planet, kid. Trust me, talk to some trolls who fought in the invasion sometime and they’ll tell you that humans are plenty scary when they want to be. And Strider’s extra scary. Guy was about your age when the invasion started, and that didn’t stop him from killing a bunch of trolls and apparently holding up a big chunk of the invasion practically single-handed.”

“I-I’m pretty sure th-that’s an exaggeration,” stuttered the oliveblood.

“You know what ain’t an exaggeration?” the goldblood shot back, “The fact that he somehow planted a god damned bomb in that ambassassin’s room last month.”

“J-just a small one,” the oliveblood responded, but her fading voice gave away that she knew she’d lost the argument.

“And this guy’s been around here?” Karkat said. He could feel his pulse starting to race.

“It’s only a rumor,” Kanaya said. “Just some mentions of him maybe being spotted in town. There’s rumors of that sort all the time, though.”

“Don’t worry too much,” the goldblood said. “There’s plenty of other trolls on edge enough to have weapons, so even if he does show up, if you find some quiet corner to hide in, you should get out alright. Just keep your eyes open. He’s a tall guy, kinda spiky hair, always has an orange cap like yours and the stupidest fuckin’ sunglasses you ever saw.”

“I think th-they’re kind of cool,” said the oliveblood.

“You think everything’s cool, Dee,” said the goldblood.

The two started gently bickering again, with Kanaya joining in now and then to ask about local goings-on, gossip and such, and Karkat tuned out again, lost in thought. For a couple minutes, at least. This time, his attention was drawn not by Kanaya, but by a sharp, familiar sound.

A…A crow? In this building? The ceilings were high, sure, and from what Karkat heard humans did keep some animals indoors, but crows didn’t seem like they fit that description.

But…Yeah, there it was, across the respite hall, perched up on a sign reading “MAINTENANCE” — a small crow, squawking away. Karkat thought its eyes flashed red in the light for a moment, and then it fled its perch, seeming to somehow vanish in an instant.

Karkat blinked, shook his head, and looked at the sign again. He was about to give up and try getting Kanaya to move on when he noticed movement at the door below the sign.

The human from the park was there, trying to look inconspicuous while blatantly picking the lock on the door. Karkat wasn’t sure why no one else had noticed him, actually; now that he’d noticed the human, it was pretty obvious that he was there. He started to turn back to Kanaya, but she and the goldblood were now pretty deep into whatever conversation they’d gotten into, and Karkat didn’t feel like wading through that lake of hoofbeastshit over one weird human. He rolled his eyes, and trudged off toward the kid. He was about halfway across the room when the kid got the door open and slipped inside. Karkat, suddenly curious, did his best to be quiet, for once in his life, and carefully followed after.

#homestuck #davekat #dave strider #karkat vantas #kanaya maryam #longpost #fanfiction #fanfic #calmvsstormchapter #calmvsstormfic #katt does a writing #ok tumblr work with me here. let me edit my drafts. pls.

12 notes · View notes

blaperile · 7 years ago

Text

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.

#Homestuck #Hiveswap #reaction #liveblog #Hiveswap liveblog #Joey #Grandpa #Ms. Claire #Mom

2 notes · View notes