#unfortunate that they understand homestuck quadrants now

[crowskullls]

Zam wants to be ♠️ with Minute SOOOOO bad. And Minute has no idea why. He’s so confused by it. Reluctant and honestly pretty tame Kismesissitude

[zwoelffarben]

Not derailing this post which is having a very serious conversation about sex, sexnormativity, and such. There's a quote I want to talk about in that @curlicuecal in the conversation says and relate it to the culture surrounding the adoption of new media:

...if you spend some time talking to people with different experiences or learning about even one culture other than your own ... It just opens your eyes to perspectives and options you never even knew existed. And suddenly you have more colors to paint with.

I believe that the major success of homestuck and (unfortunately) harry potter as well as the major failure of Jame Cameron's Avatar, and minor failure of most YA dytopia novels wit harry potter houses correlate to this New Colors Principle: If you give people new colors to paint wit, they will paint with them.

let's skip over homestuck (we'll get back to it) and (unfortunately) talk about harry potter for a moment. The four houses are arguably the biggest part of potterhead culture, and that's more than just marketing. A lot of words have been written on how the houses function in canon, forming the basis for a bad positive feedback loop that ultimately radicalizes snape, voldemort, and other syltherins to bibotry; as well as other problems with their in canon implimentations. But, the thing that made harry potter so fucking popular, aside from the factors of success largely unrelated to the book itself, was that it gave people some fancy new astrology signs by way of the hogwarts houses. They were new colors to paint with, and its unfortunately what makes it so fucking difficult to kill too, because people don't want to lose access to those colors they found meaning in (I still internally identify wit a house, cringing as I do, because I painted myself with that color, and cutting that part of myself away, despite my acceptance of its necessity is a hard and painful process I'm probably never gonna completely manage.)

By contrast, the failure of James Cameron's Avatar to form a cultural splash is because He doesn't spend enough time really rexploring the blue people's culture in a way that's understandable to a human audience. A lot of the blue people's culture exists only as either a plot device or the mystical native trope, which kinda betrays his opinions on the real-life indiginous peoples his blue people are coded as. He had the opprotunity to create some truly fascinating colors, and had he done so by cooperating with the native people he believes are a "dead end society", and all he made was puce blue.

And now back to the other end of the spectrum, to quote myself, "Homestuck is a now concluded long running web comic series written by Andrew Hussie centering around the paradox inducing shenanagains of ten humans, twenty-four trolls, a number of cerebum, and several other species; as they all quest both for personal growth and to herald the birth of a new cosmic frog multiverse which the surviviors of the narative can settle into: It’s a glorious mess." That quote comes from an essay in which I use huusian troll romance to analysize the romantic-sexual attraction of a character from a completely unrelated media.

The popularity of homestuck stems, I argue here in part, from the absolutely unhinged pallette of new colors it created. You've got astrology^2 in the classpects; you've got the trolls with their lexusi, blood heirarchy, and romance quadrants; the leprechaun have their charms (which is itself taking the piss out of troll romance quadrants), the dichotomy of the prospit and derse dreaming, the cherbum, all the various ways to conceptualize the self brought about by shenanagains in paradox spacetime. Homestuck offers some 40+ new colors to fuck around painting wit, and cringe though the execution might have sometimes been, people did enfact fuck around and paint wit 'em.

People love having new colors to play with, and culture is driven by the desire to paint, but also to discover new colors to paint with. What an excellent metaphor, that I should note was made by a person who, at time of writing, has a homestuck icon.

[thatlittledandere]

Alright I'll bite for the Homestuck ship asks o.o (I barely have any understanding of Homestuck so I'm just picking things I recognize asdhklf): Favourite canon ship? Favourite rare ship? Do you have a crackship? Do you self-ship with any character? Do you use the quadrants in real life? Comfort ship(s)?

Yey thank uwu

Favorite canon ship: MEOWRAILSSS Nepeta and Equius make me so so emotional they deserved more time together frrr 😭😭♦️♦️♦️

Favorite rare ship: I don't know if I ship anything rare... Tavris isn't as popular as some others for either of them..? And I guess I do ship it now there's no other word for my condition. They're terrible together it compels me. Forever holding out for pitch tavris but unfortunately kismesis requires some level of mutuality and well. Tavros and Vriska just are not on an equal standing in any capacity ever. So there's that

Do you have any crack ships? As a rule of thumb no, never. It doesn't even cross my mind to ship characters without some catalyst in canon. Like straight up the thought doesn't occur to me. There needs to be something there to catch my attention and if there is something there in canon it isn't a crack ship by definition;;

Do you self-ship with any character? I got over my crush on Eridan now I'm stuck with this bitch of a boyfriend who I just can't stop pitying in the platonic, human sense of the word. Might fuck around and adopt him next

Do you use the quadrants in real life? WISH I COULD real life kismesis especially could be interesting tbh, but only if it's done PROPERLY and not the watered down misinterpreted version you know. Kismesis isn't just enemies to lovers it isn't hatefucking it isn't even just a love-hate relationship all of these definitions have some truth to them but are reductive. Where is the begrudging respect where is the strive to be stronger and to push the other to better themself as well where is the fundamental equality in mutual one-upping and catching up-- when Karkat talks I LISTEN

Ok I do use the quadrants to describe my feelings for characters so that's like, 50% real life I guess

Comfort ship/s? I never understood the whole comfort character/ship thing tbh like I guess I sorta get what it means but also the terms just don't fit in my mouth.

Homestuck ship asks

[seaweedsawyou]

Podcasts in review 2022

It was decidedly NOT a good year. Hence all the actual play podcasts.

Actual Play :/

These Flimsy Rituals - Divine cycle but fantasy. No seriously, they have Divines, the Rapid Evening, the Crystal Palace - and I'm 90% sure it's a coincidence. Severe lack of Keith J Carberry (or equivalent) makes it hard to listen to. Play their own system, Blades and a variety of other small games to expand the story.

Eidolon Playtest - Jojo stands in a tabletop world with moves such as "reveal your masterplan". Tarot card pulls are much cooler than dice. Their mini seasons (Giants? in particular) are a great place to start. The cast is mostly trans women who both loved and disliked Jojo (and Persona) enough to unionize and make something of their own - one of the characters in the current season is legit Naoto but good (trans). Play different versions of their own game.

Spout lore - somehow they play Dungeon World nigh gmless. The players supply the world, its geography, fauna, even reasons for this particular group of bad guys to kidnap them. Even if I consider the results of their world building inferior to some others, there sure take a ton of joy in creation (and that's beautiful). Also a TON of dick and fart jokes and the weirdest cases of no(?) homo from the cast. ALSO they do a goof (dndads style) by stealing from a more popular podcast thinking it was just a thing (princept as a gender neutral term for "ruler of a principality". look it up. there is only a urban dictionary entry from after partizan has started. a song, a firm and FaTT Wiki entry). Play Dungeon World and Blades (in bonus Patreon content).

Naddpod (Eldermourne) - there had to be a point where I put my foot down. No more dnd podcasts from now on.

The Unexplored Places (Deliverance, OH; Tango Sector) - Deliverance, OH is a cool name for a place to see monsters every week. Tango Sector is a cool name for a place to be scum and villains in, but the sum of its parts is less than. Catfishes: the Rock opera is a masterpiece. Play MotW, Scum and Villainy, Masks, Fiasco, smaller games.

Qomrades - a friend group that plays not dnd decided to record themselves on game night. Play whatever.

Tales Yet Told (Season 1) - discovered through their post in the FaTT tag here (good hustle). Cute (and sufficiently creepy) little story about siblings lost in the woods. Not in a rush to catch up, but I'm looking forward to. Play Babes in the Woods.

Rusty Quill Gaming - absolutely atrocious beginning (eps 2-8 are the same fucking combat encounter). The ending felt out of nowhere: was the fandom as analytical organ required to understand it? Grizzop voice makes me so happy it's illegal. Play Pathfinder (ugh) and a variety of games as bonus content.

Audio Drama :)

Wizards Seeking Wizards - it can be difficult to fill your quadrants when you are a wizard - but you should try anyway. Wacky wizards go on weird love, hate and friend dates. Product of voice actors in quarantine.

The Ballad of Anne and Mary - have you ever wanted to hear cool historical female pirates to sing about their life? Now is your chance. Product of actors in quarantine.

The Doctor Is Dead - ahhh!!!! Cool weird queer (thematically and otherwise) musical. Complete with astonishing songwriting and music. Favorite thing I've encountered all year.

Out of Place - alternate dimension puzzles are more fun when they are based in history (season 1), and not in sci Fi the author has read (season 2).

Beneath our Feet - doctor but not cool.

Mirrors - normally I am very easily impressed by both women and ghosts.

The Tides - I really wanted it to be In Other Waters. Hard to do so without visuals or scientific basis.

Woe.Begone - I won't be listening to another Homestuck while also being personally victimized by the writer (/j but I refuse to elaborate).

Malevolent - possession narratives are sooo fun I will keep listening to another Homestuck 💛

Arden - when fem!Hamlet goes to the nunnery. Oh my god. Oh shit. O fuck. So unfortunate you have to get through the first season to reach the second.

Tech won't save us - host's name is Paris Marx, which makes everything else self explanatory. Your leftie tech podcast.

Various unnamed philosophy podcasts - not good enough to mention. None of them compare to the One (GSSB) which isn't even one primarily.

[abundantchewtoys]

Homestuck Epilogues Prologue, Page 2 reaction

The next part of the epilogue prologue. :P I wonder if Andrew has committed to this format for the entire piece, or if we'll shift to something else. I'd like at least one panel showing the author avatar typing this, but then again, he's dead like everyone else, and so, stuck in the bubbles. Speaking of, how could Aranea, Meenah and the other A2 trolls survive this? Will Jane use her revive powers on them to spare them a double death? As an aside, I'm glad the ==> arrows remain a thing even after the end of the story. Even though they're now mixed with simple >'s in the in-line commands. (We're mixing the story format up from the get-go, here.) I hope Rose's new apartment gets a detailed described. I'm expecting a lot of knitted ware lying around, for one. I also wonder how long it'll be until an OC is mentioned, and how much longer after until they get some sort of dialogue. Presumably it'll be the intermission-like dialogue, I mean us being shown what they say by John's or another's inner narration.

---

==>

"When you arrive at Rose’s apartment, you find her asleep on the couch. You slide the balcony door open, quietly."

If this was a fairy tale, John would kiss her awake. :P

But I fear the migraines might be exhausting her.

"Her eyes flutter open. She looks like a ghost, and not the kind of ghost that looks and acts exactly like an alive person."

Grim implications not withstanding, I'm reminded of Kanaya's first assessment of seeing her. "Skin as pale as a ghost!"

Wow, okay, so her condition is really nothing to sneeze at.

"All I’m trying to say is, I’m not backsliding, if that’s what you’re wondering."

So I guess the substance abuse, post-retcon, was still a thing, not just nipped in the bud by Vriska.

Well, it WAS a way for her to cope with her mom's death, that isn't something that just goes away by a slap on the wrist, even if it was on date night.

"ROSE: I struggled with substance abuse for a while, years ago. Remember?

JOHN: rose, jesus. i wasn’t going to accuse you of being a drug addict, and i didn’t fly over here to give you an intervention.

JOHN: it sounded like you had some important stuff to tell me, and the fact that you also seem to be sick is more than a little alarming!

ROSE: I wouldn’t say I’m sick.

ROSE: Just having spectacularly debilitating headaches as a result of my visions becoming more frequent.

JOHN: oh yeah.

JOHN: what are these visions you’re having?

ROSE: I’m a Seer of Light, John.

JOHN: i know."

I'm happy to see how mature John is being about all this. He's really grown into a proper adult.

Also, that they can still exchange sarcastic remarks shows the base of their friendship hasn't changed over the years.

"What are these visions you're having?", it's like John just became Rose's therapist. :P

"JOHN: so you mean like, your standard psychic visions about the future and stuff?

JOHN: what’s going to happen? should we be worried?

ROSE: It doesn’t technically pertain to the future. Well, not our future."

A potential future then? Or the future of the dead ghosts, their doubledeath?

I mean, I thought Rose's powers were meant to show the best possible future and how to get there.

That hopefully isn't implying that they're not... the main timeline anymore.

"ROSE: My abilities have broadened considerably beyond their previous horizon. They shed light on many unseen events. Past, present, future, in realities and frames of reference that have no intersection with ours at all."

And then Rose could see us, and all the fiction our universe has spawned. Including stuff about their clique! :P

"ROSE: It seems to be an unfortunate side effect of god tier abilities. They can advance at a rate beyond one’s physical ability to keep up with.

ROSE: Fortunately it doesn’t seem to be happening to anyone other than me."

So... what, could that mean Sollux & Mituna's psychic problems were explainable by a surplus of Doom powers, even though they weren't god tier?

... In other news, can they overload Lord English with Time?

"JOHN: yeah, can’t say i’ve noticed anything like that.

JOHN: or improvement in my powers for that matter."

He hasn't been practicing them either, I suppose. Then again, after you've drilled a hole to a planet core and moved an entire different planet to another dimension, as well as rewrote your own timeline, there's few plateaus left to grow towards.

"ROSE: It’s not about gaining additional power, so much as the gradual dissolving of the boundaries between your own awareness and that of your many doomed selves who perished in other timelines."

D'aaaahhhhh, that sounds a lot like what the sprites^2 experienced!

Actually, Davepeta mentioned something about this, didn't they? Something about become their best version through this process?

Didn't it have something to do with the Ultimate Riddle as well? Well, that would certainly quantify as something to know about "to learn what it all means".

But, I got to say, why would John be any less affected? He had doomed selves too, and this isn't just a Light thing, just because it has similarities to Rose's powers.

"ROSE: It’s a slow and apparently rather uncomfortable accretion of knowledge. Perhaps I’m the only one to notice any change, since my aspect explicitly relates to knowledge."

Mulling it over, I think the reasoning here is that, since there's so much knowledge to go around between the Roses of all timelines, she's getting more crammed inside her than anyone else.

So even if they don't just 'merge' into her, just increase the knowledge she can fall back on, and one point she'll reach a limit.

Sounds really painful and I don't want to imagine the migraines now.

Way to get screwed over by an otherwise very useful skill to have. That's Paradox Space for ya!

"ROSE: But in totality, I have pieced together a greater understanding of our present situation and all the events that led us here."

She has become self aware to an extent then. Useful, if they're going to have to fight English.

"ROSE: There’s a different scale I’ve come to understand. Another dichotomy that’s less... emotional, I guess?

ROSE: Consider, instead of the word “good,” using the word “essential.”

ROSE: And what exists at the opposite polarity from essential is...

ROSE: Something that is best not to contemplate."

Yeah, Paradox Space is much more impersonal than is 'good' for anyone.

The Horrorterrors are a good example, their game is a long and incomprehensible one.

And, if you don't fulfill your role in the timeline, you're basically fodder to use against LE. :/

It sounds to me, Paradox Space might be forcing them to join the cause or become doomed.

"ROSE: I really should cut it out, and just start from the beginning."

Once upon a time, in Paradox Space...

Blaperile has a theory she may know LE's backstory now, that would be a good story to tell here, but John already knows parts of it.

So maybe there's something new we'll learn.

"She points with purpose, as if to say, there. Right there, precisely, is where the green sun would be, if it still existed.

ROSE: The green sun is gone.

JOHN: what??"

Last time Rose pointed in a context with the Green Sun, she pointed away from it.

Oh yeah, they couldn't have known about Alternate Calliope changing the Green Sun into the Black Hole!!!

"ROSE: It has been destroyed. At least, from the current frame of reference it has.

ROSE: It still existed, and therefore in a way that’s hard to explain, currently exists, over a nearly infinite span of time, presiding over the birth and death of countless universes."

It's interesting how Universe C's timeline overlaps with the death of the Green Sun.

Does that mean Jade lost her First Guardian powers? (And GCATavrosprite too, I guess.)

Would she regain them, if she were to travel back to an earlier point in the timeline?

"ROSE: But this universe, our universe, is not one of them."

Oh, if Jade didn't have her FG powers, she would've noticed so, by now.

Unless the Green Sun's influence does something else. Well, for one, Earth C won't have its own First Guardian.

"JOHN: you saw this in a vision?

ROSE: No. Jade told me.

JOHN: she did?

JOHN: how does she know?

ROSE: She can’t draw from its power anymore. She no longer has the ability of a First Guardian.

ROSE: It has been this way for several years. I suspect she has kept this fact on the downlow, however."

... Oh, so she kept it secret for seven years. That's... huh.

Well, you know, they are friends, but even between friends secrets can exist.

She might not have wanted distress to grow, since the others wouldn't enjoy their Ultime Reward otherwise.

"JOHN: that’s...

JOHN: surprising, i guess?

JOHN: or maybe not. i dunno, it’s not like she tells me a whole lot these days."

Adults don't share as much as children... That's a sad fact for many.

"ROSE: It’s also not like she’s had any particular need to unleash the full fury of the green sun, not while she’s been gallivanting around with Dave and Karkat under whatever perplexing social arrangement they have settled on."

Heheh, confirmed for opacity! Just like how Dave & Karkat's initial "thing" never got assigned to a quadrant.

"JOHN: how did that happen?

ROSE: It doesn’t matter much, for our purposes."

Alternate Calliope confirmed for not appearing in this epilogue.

"ROSE: There was a cataclysmic event. A suicide strike by a very powerful being. Much like the one Dave and I attempted, once upon a time."

Remember that time, John? Can't believe Cascade could ever qualify for "simpler times", but here we are.

"ROSE: The entire sun was swallowed by a supermassive black hole.

ROSE: I digress though.

You press your eyes shut, just for a moment. Behind them you see a black hole so supermassive that it spans the width of eternity."

John is adding things up faster than usual!

I have to wonder whether his 'dream' was actually the memory of a doomed John, being swallowed by the black hole.

"ROSE: There’s really no route through this expository garden path that will adequately cushion you from the bottom line, John.

ROSE: You will need to travel back into canon and defeat Lord English."

'canon', pfffffff. I guess you could say, canon is everything inside the Green Sun's reach.

But oh boy, the implications of someone travelling back from beyond the end of the story!

I mean, I know we've been shown the path this'll probably take, ending with the kids inside the plot hole, and then Vriska using it on LE, after which... Something something.

But still, I can now imagine John travelling back to other places in canon.

Probably this time around, the panels in question won't be altered. I guess?

"> Shrug and try to look casual.

You pull off the most casual shrug that a guy has ever shrugged when being presented with the inevitability of his own fate. If Rose were looking at you right now, she would be totally convinced that you are approaching this topic with a level of nonchalance that is entirely plausible and genuine. You’re sure of it.

JOHN: yeah, i had a feeling that was going to come up again someday."

Classic John. Perfect response.

Can you imagine Frodo giving Gandalf the shrug like this?

... It's like Young K in MiB3. "M'Okay."

You know, if they were travelling back into canon, you could wonder how they ended up fighting Caliborn, since that was in a timeline outside the Green Sun's reach.

At least, I figure, since Universe C begetted the cherub session.

But then I thought of this: when Caliborn took over the narration, he made those things canon, and thus also the 'future scene' rendered with clay figurines where he defeats the kids!

"JOHN: when exactly is the point of no return?

ROSE: Today."

... Way to postpone this, Rose. I guess after today, the Black Hole swallows Universe C???

I can understand John trying his best not to think about having to fight LE, since semi-forced obliviousness is his forté, though.

"JOHN: why?

ROSE: Why what?

JOHN: why do i need to go back and beat him?

JOHN: i mean, sorry if this is a stupid question. i guess he’s a huge awful monster, and that’s just what you’re supposed to do with huge awful monsters. take them down for their crimes, and such.

JOHN: but why does he actually need to be defeated at all?"

Valid question, since LE made himself a staple of spacetime and all.

"to be honest, it’s been years since we’ve even bothered thinking about any of this, and everything seems...

> Take a look around and survey the current status of all life on Earth, which is totally possible to do from the vantage point of a single apartment balcony."

Ah, impossible command prompts, how I missed you.

Everything seems fine, until the black hole opens up in the sky and eats a frog that is your universe.

"JOHN: fine?

ROSE: Of course everything is fine here.

ROSE: We’re outside of canon now.

JOHN: yeah, i know. what does that actually MEAN though?

JOHN: are you saying this isn’t really happening?

ROSE: Of course it’s happening.

ROSE: Just because certain events take place outside of canon, it doesn’t mean those events are non-canon.

JOHN: oh."

I guess this is a way of saying: little is ever going to happen in Universe C that has effects in the parts of the multiverse that the Green Sun touches.

And vice versa.

Also, in a meta sense, for people not enamoured with Homestuck ending and writing their own endings, those efforts are not being discredited here.

"ROSE: In other words, there is an important distinction between events which can be considered to occur inside canon, outside canon, and those which are not canon at all.

ROSE: The day we went through that door and claimed our reward, we passed a threshold between continua marked by differing degrees of relevance, truth, and essentiality.

ROSE: Those are the three pillars of canon.

JOHN: what?"

Ah yes, a scientific exposition on the nature of fanfiction seems in good order right about now. :P

I'm taking a guess that the epilogues are "essential" to wrap up the huge dangling plotline about LE, but that doesn't mean they are THE truth about post-ending Homestuck.

Or even that the events in this story are really relevant to enjoy Homestuck proper.

"ROSE: Any event said to take place inside canon will have nonzero values of relevance and essentiality, while maintaining an absolute foundation in truth, by definition.

ROSE: Whereas events outside canon have diminished values of relevance and essentiality. Or, for the most part, can be considered neither relevant nor essential at all.

ROSE: But such events can’t be said to be untrue either. Instead, it’s better to regard their truth value as highly conditional.

ROSE: Are you still following?

> Say “oh, yeah. totally.”"

This is Andrew's version of the M3KYT mantra. "Just enjoy this story, folks!"

"JOHN: oh, yeah. totally.

ROSE: So to be clear, everything that’s taken place here on Earth C since we exited canon can be considered completely irrelevant, and for the most part, absolutely inessential. Yet none of it can be called untrue.

ROSE: At least, up until precisely today. "

So, yeah, they're going to become relevant to the story again, but that doesn't have to mean that Jane having usurped the Felt, as well as other events from the snaps and things we haven't even seen happen, are going to be given even a passing mention, hahah.

"ROSE: Events that are formally non-canon have no truth whatsoever, by definition.

ROSE: They may have relevance and essentiality values that are nonzero, or even quite high, but only as projections along an imaginary axis, resulting from highly subjective frames of reference.

ROSE: But due to those events having no truth, and thus carrying no real weight, the other properties are basically rendered meaningless."

Aka, fan fiction is not something to dismiss out of hand, but it isn't, like, a holy text.

"You can feel your eyes go wide as the gears in your head slow to a stop. The implications of what Rose is saying are as vast as they are completely incomprehensible. Your mind has just been BLOWN.

ROSE: John?

ROSE: Are you okay? Your pupils have gone quite wide, thereby facilitating the appearance that your mind has just been blown."

Ah John, he hasn't changed.

"JOHN: i just wouldn’t have thought to put all of this in such a jargony way.

ROSE: Sorry. That’s kind of what I do.

JOHN: it’s fine. i’m just a bit rusty is all.

JOHN: it feels like it’s been so long since i did, or even thought about... anything that mattered at all.

ROSE: Yes, the longer we live outside of canon, the more tenuous our relationship with canon becomes."

Aka, the fans are growing up and moving on, so additional stories in the same universe become less likely to be accepted as canon as time goes by. :D

"ROSE: As long as we live outside canon, everything that happens will technically be “real,” but only conditionally.

ROSE: There are certain crucial events inside canon which must happen in order to continue to prop up the legitimacy of events here on Earth C. "

Ooooooh, so Rose's saying they need to go back and fill up some plotholes, hahahahahahah. Glorious.

"ROSE: And you specifically, John, have a responsibility to make sure those events take place.

JOHN: and i take it that means going back and killing lord english?

ROSE: Yes.

ROSE: His defeat is the keystone to this entire continuity.

ROSE: Much like his life, in some sick way, governed the overall design of the bridge which that keystone was holding up.

ROSE: But without it, all of this falls apart. Every thing we’ve been through, in a way that’s impossible for a single mind to fully comprehend, becomes retroactively discredited."

They can't both have entered the Universe AND not have gone back to fight Caliborn at some point. Otherwise, their nature as being "the alpha selves" is cast into doubt.

Especially since John led them to Caliborn with retcon powers.

Of course there could be space retJohns flying about, but that's speculation, not (yet) truth.

"JOHN: so... reality will be destroyed, or something?

JOHN: hasn’t that already sort of happened?

JOHN: i mean, when all the black space started cracking?

ROSE: No, this consequence isn’t physical, or even a disruption of the timeline. It’s more of a conceptual unraveling.

ROSE: If you miss the chance to authenticate canon events, something will take place that’s a bit difficult to describe, but I’ve encountered a term for it.

ROSE: It’s called “dissipation.”

ROSE: Like, a notional fading. As if something, somewhere, is undergoing a process of “forgetting,” and we are what is being forgotten."

So I am definitely thinking this refers to the fandom, in subtext.

But does Rose refer to what happens in doomed timelines, to the folks that don't die but are erased with the timeline ending?

... "Dissipation Island" would suck as a reality tv concept.

"

ROSE: All ideas, people and their full potentialities, possible outcomes and their specific unfolding, all these things live inside conscious frameworks.

ROSE: The further removed we get from authentication of canon events, the less relevant they become, and they slowly fade from the conscious frameworks which kept them stable."

DEFINITELY a reference to the fandom.

"JOHN: so i just retcon-poof back to english and start like...

JOHN: brawling with the dude?

ROSE: Don’t be ridiculous. You wouldn’t last a second."

You're not the fisticuffs kind of guy, John, those genes went to Jade.

"ROSE: You’ll need a team.

ROSE: Also, you don’t want to just dive headlong into a battle with his hulking adult form. That would be tactically foolish, and furthermore, would skip over some very important steps needed to authenticate canon."

So yeah, Rose is definitely in the process of skimming important details, like she did during the session.

She definitely seems to have a grasp on the requirements for success, but people being in the know hardly ever seems to be one of them.

"JOHN: like what?

ROSE: I mentioned that English’s defeat was the keystone to the continuity. But this is an oversimplification.

JOHN: yikes. well, we sure as fuck wouldn’t want to simplify anything."

Insta-Classic.

"ROSE: The true keystone, which is a necessary component of his defeat, is the juju."

Cal then? Blaperile thinks the Plot Hole. Or is it the sucker perhaps?

Cal needs to be filled with Caliborn's essence for LE to even exist in the first place, so...

"ROSE: The house-shaped object you stuck your hand in to gain your retcon powers.

JOHN: oh yeah.

ROSE: While empty, it resembles a gap. Like a hole in canon, whose only purpose is to be filled."

Oh. I stand corrected.

"ROSE: In serving that purpose, it grants one with the radical canon-altering powers that would be needed to fill it.

ROSE: Once filled, it becomes solid. No longer a gap, but a serviceable, load-bearing wedge in our continuity.

ROSE: Like a keystone."

So, nice term, but a house-shaped keystone isn't that servicable. :P Neither is a mousepointer-shaped one, and the Sburb logo is both.

"ROSE: And once delivered to English and directed his way, it empties itself again, releasing its narrative-bridging payload."

Aww yeah, so they WILL be set free. Glad to have that out of the way.

"It functions as a weapon, and in some manner will bring about his demise.

JOHN: in some manner?

ROSE: It’s a complicated artifact. As old and unfathomable as anything else in Paradox Space, like the green sun, or English himself. Don’t worry about it for now.

ROSE: The important thing is that, in the due course of your travels, you end up loading and unloading this weapon."

So, will nothing be done with Scratch's gun anymore then, & the cueball analogy that might have been able to defeat Lord English?

Are all other items rumored to be able to kill him real red herrings... Or will John need to travel back to the places we last saw them & collect them?

"JOHN: how am i going to do that?

ROSE: Once you set things in motion, it should just happen naturally through the narrative momentum of your journey. I’m really just warning you about it, rather than instructing you.

JOHN: ok. thanks??

ROSE: You’re welcome."

He won't be thankful after the fact, that's for sure. :P

"Rose looks at her phone. You recognize Kanaya’s distinct typing style in the window. Rose’s thumbs begin to fly across the keypad. She continues to text as she talks."

I'm guessing Kanaya is at work at this time, at the Mother Grub's cavern.

"JOHN: so if we’re going to go back and kill him in time to “authenticate canon,” i guess we have to get going soon.

JOHN: like today?

ROSE: Yes.

JOHN: are you sure you’re actually up for a fight though? no offense, but you’re looking a little worse for the wear.

ROSE: I’m not going."

I don't think that's possible, since Rose should be there for the fight.

They can't very well replace with Jasprosesprite^2, that's for sure!

"JOHN: oh.

ROSE: None of us are. Only you.

JOHN: what?? but you said... "

Uuuuhhhmm, but where could John even pick up living versions of his friends!

... Also, it would be rather awkward for a 23-year-old John to meet up with 8-to-10-years younger versions of his friends alone, wouldn't it?

"ROSE: John, this is the victory state.

JOHN: what the hell does that even mean."

Pfff, she means this is the 'good ending'.

"ROSE: When we went through the door, and passed beyond the threshold of canon, we effectively retired from bearing any responsibility for influencing canon events. We’ve all been sort of decommissioned as active players on the cosmic stage, with severely diminished relevance attributes."

Hah, so none except for John with his retcon powers can be expected to hold relevance to canon?

... Blaperile has a good point that this doesn't hold true for Terezi then.

Neither does it for Aranea, Meenah and Vriska!

But still, Vriska immediately went after LE... Even if Terezi has aged as much as John, that is just... Is John going to find 23-year-old doomed versions of his human friends somewhere?

"JOHN: but... couldn’t you all just come along anyway?

ROSE: We could. But it wouldn’t serve any purpose.

ROSE: It wouldn’t plug up the remaining dark spots in canon."

Yes, but, the commentary. Rose, think of all the things Dave could be commenting on!! Don't deprive us of that!

"ROSE: You’ll need a group of active players. Those still stuck inside the stream of canonic karma."

Like OCs? I mean, or the people I mentioned earlier.

Though Blaperile has a point, maybe he'll revisit LOMAX and pick his friends up there. Still, age difference!

"ROSE: Nothing too extravagant. Just different versions of us.

ROSE: Younger versions, from a particularly dysfunctional impasse in our journey.

ROSE: I can point out the exact moment in canon you should be disrupting, and how you should disrupt it.

ROSE: In fact, I’ve already written it down to spare you the trouble of remembering."

... I don't think he'll go and 'save' the people from the Game Over timeline, but then again...

Hah, Blaperile points out how this must be like Terezi's scarf, all over again. :P Nice.

... Wait just a goddamned minute. If he goes back and changes the Game Over timeline, there's an errant Aranea Serket he'll surely encounter!

Wow.

That.

Hah, that's actually very fitting, since it's John's native timeline.

Roxy's too, though. So he might just have her tagging along! :D

Blaperile's right, Game Over went as it did because of the absence of John!

I think that, if he can return and re-relevant all those doomed selves, a lot of people would really, REALLY like that development!

"

JOHN: huh.

ROSE: Is anything confusing about my instructions?

JOHN: no, i remember all this. it shouldn’t be a problem.

JOHN: it’s just weird to think about revisiting this. it seems like an eternity. like... we were all completely different people back then.

ROSE: I assure you we are all still fundamentally the same bunch of losers."

Heheheheh, that you are.

"Rose is ultimately right about that, the way she is about most things. You continue to scan the letter, and grimace slightly.

JOHN: should i really punch her in the face?"

That would be just so sweet, for Rose to get that kind of comeuppance through John. After all, she might have Jasprosesprite^2's memories from when she still lived now, too.

And Aranea killed her.

That would be the second time John comes in retconning a timeline, punching a Serket.

"JOHN: i felt kinda bad about it, last time i did that to someone.

ROSE: Yes. You absolutely should, and must, punch her in the face."

Oh yes, so essential. I'm just casually going to ignore John punching a younger woman. For one, she was at least 1 sweep older than the A2 trolls, and a millenia-old ghost besides.

"You exhale and turn the paper over in your hands. The other side is blank. You flip it back over, having fully processed the instructions drafted in the polished purple handwriting. You like how Rose still writes in purple, after all these years. Some things never change."

Awww.

"JOHN: alright. this seems straightforward enough.

JOHN: i mean, aside from the part where we all have to fight an invincible monster.

ROSE: He isn’t entirely invincible. He will be vulnerable to Dave’s weapon. I believe other gambits should present themselves as well."

Return of the eggsword! Nice!

And okay, the other supposedly "ultimate" weapons to kill LE with will still play a part too, cool!

(Spades Slick has dips.)

"ROSE: I don’t think it would serve the mission well for me to tell you exactly how it will go.

ROSE: But at least I can offer this bit of encouragement.

ROSE: If you follow my instructions, English will be defeated.

ROSE: It is an absolutely essential outcome.

ROSE: And essential, if you’ll remember, is the word we should be using instead of good."

So... What, LE won't really make a heel face turn, but does that mean that... :/ The fate of the other kids might not be pretty, is what I'm getting from this.

Quick John, engage your Dad mode! Protect them!

"JOHN: i see you’re advising we go after him when he’s young...

JOHN: i guess that makes sense.

JOHN: go get him before he gets all big and strong.

JOHN: like, kind of a surprise attack?

ROSE: Sure."

Let's go with that, says Rose.

"JOHN: that dude sucks.

JOHN: he was taunting me a while back.

JOHN: like, i think he WANTS me to come fight him?

JOHN: anyway, i just ignored him obviously, because i’m not a stupid idiot.

JOHN: but i guess today will be his lucky day."

So, if we assume Caliborn spent the same amount of time waiting for John, he's already an adult, but a scrawny one.

"Her eyes are closed and her hands are folded in her lap. She’s not asleep, but she looks wasted—like all the life in her has been sucked out through a straw. Like she’s insubstantial."

"You can’t believe how sick she looks. How did this happen to her?"

I'm... getting some very worrying signals here.

"JOHN: i should probably get going and let you rest.

JOHN: we can talk all about it when i get back. i’ll fill you in on how it went, hopefully you’ll be feeling better by then.

ROSE: Oh. Um."

:/ I hope she isn't going to die on him now, this is supposed to be the victory state!

Blaperile thinks John might not come back, but that would be a dick move for Rose to pull on him. Even if he can force another victory state from all this!

"ROSE: Yeah.

JOHN: is something wrong?

Rose opens her eyes and looks at you, but she says nothing. Just looks.

JOHN: i’m not scared, if that’s what you’re worried about.

JOHN: you already said we’re going to defeat him. so, nothing to fret over, right?

ROSE: Yes. You...

Something flickers through her eyes, almost too quick to catch. When she smiles at you, it’s warm and sincere.

ROSE: You’re going to do great.

Rose slides her arms around you. After a while, she releases you from the embrace and gets up to fetch her bottle of pills. She pauses at the bedroom door to look at you one more time.

ROSE: Goodbye, John.

She closes the door behind her."

... That is REALLY not comforting.

Bathrooms & pills are NOT a good combination in any type of fiction.

"> Look at the letter.

Your run your thumbs along the edge of the paper. Is this really it? One hug from Rose and you’re off to face your destiny? The instructions in the letter are clear, but you aren’t sure precisely what to do next. Inertia and indecision keep your feet planted firmly on the carpet.

Then, as if directly answering your quandary, your phone buzzes in your pocket. It’s a text from Roxy."

So, I'm going to park how I feel about Rose's... condition, and what she might think to do with it.

And I'm going to go and be glad that Roxy texts John at this time, as I hope that she, at least, will join him on the journey.

"> Read text.

It sounds important. You get up to go without even thinking about it. You exit through the sliding glass door and leave it open behind you."

Eep, so the situation at her end is dangerous to? ... Don't tell me that it has only now just happened that Jane was kidnapped by the Felt, and Roxy & Calliope went out to get her.

---

So, this chapter definitely wasn't all shits 'n giggles, that's for sure.

I'm going to have to process this a little.

At least it was great to have Rose & John interact again.

[momestuck]

Let’s read Hiveswap Friendsim - volume 5

Eight friends carefully placed in glass jars, and our protagonist is on to their next conquest. So who do we have today?

This time, we have Polypa with olive blood - compare with Nepeta - and Zebruh with indigo blood, the first time we have a repeated blood colour in the game so far, same as Equius.

Going off their looks, I think Polypa is gonna be a Fighting type, and Zebruh is probably some kinda chef...

Polypa

Polypa’s another creation of Ayshah U. Farah. Come to think of it, Ayshah Ufarah would work as a troll name...

We’re walking through the city, and we find a bunch of people fleeing a night market. And then we meet... this person!

I’ve definitely heard this BGM somewhere else in the Homestuck soundtrack... think this is a slightly different mix though. I can’t remember which track off the top of my head ><

Anyway, yellow eyes... two circles... not sure of significance. The major cult/secret organisation we know about in Homestuck canon is that of the Signless/Sufferer (see: ancestors), so that’s something.

She asks us to pretend to be on a date with her.

So her typing quirk is... a markdown list?

We get the choice of playing along or ‘letting the purrbeast out of the bag’, and well... I’m definitely down for troll black bloc shenanigans here.

We ask a few questions, and we learn the commotion is because a highblood troll was killed... and our new friend was the assassin! She’s not got a problem with defying the ‘natural order’. I like her already.

Polypa changes out of her disguise - which includes a filled in notch on her horn, as well as the fake blood colour - and her chatbox changes colour accordingly.

She asks us to pick a hideout. Well, we have a number of friends with hives... but no, it’s either to hide in an apartment or get ‘soft serve grubcream’ and a movie.

The movie sounds amusing, let’s do that one first.

We find a troll mall. Unlike an Earth mall, it’s fully automated.

...’grubcream’ was our idea, though!

Sadly there doesn’t seem to be any background drawn for the mall. There is one for the movie theatre though...

Not having to watch trailers? Wow, that makes up for all the dystopian elements of this world. When do we move?

Polypa, it turns out, has opinions on movies (and she’s read the book). The movie features a Jadeblood in the standard ‘female love interest’ role, in a love triangle with a blue- and bronzeblood, and consequently a bunch of hemospectrum class stuff. Sadly we don’t get a massively long troll movie title joke.

Polypa drops that she used to run a relationship advice blog. But a bunch of trolls broke into her hive, killed her lusus, and left her for dead... she was saved by ‘some teal’ who...

Will we meet this katana-wielding nerd?

Someone tells us off for talking in the theatre and that we should get a room if we want to be all pale. (For those not familiar with Homestuck, ‘pale’ relationships between moirails are non-reproductive relationships, involving emotional support and checking the other’s violent impulses.) We get to see a papping...

So, trolls will go on moirail dates, I guess.

Outside the theatre, Polypa starts freaking out over her partner in crime who was caught by the authorities.

So what do we do when a troll starts freaking out? We play moirail...

And she’s into it and accepts us as her future assassin partner! ...as bait, but still.

So that’s the good end. Now the other routes.

If we don’t play along at first...

...she bugs out.

If we hide in an apartment building (do some trolls not have hives?)... ah, that’s answered. Apparently lowblood trolls get a rental market from ‘hivestems’.

Accordingly, she’s happy to break into one of the apartments. We kick in a door...

This time, unfortunately, we get the news that her contact has been culled sooner. Polypa explains a little about assassin work on Alternia...

Apparently the troll she killed was a seadweller - so a properly high highblood. To kill him, she had to go to some lengths...

The protagonist, needy asshole that they are, takes the opportunity to make an overture as partner. She’s like... lolno

Unfortunately, we can’t finish this discussion, because the occupants of the apartment return. There’s a cute meta joke...

Why is it so bad? Because the guy who lives here is friends with...

...a subjugglator. (If you haven’t read Homestuck, that’s a purple-blooded troll, highest among all land trolls, follower of the Insane Clown Posse-themed religion, and generally very powerful and violent.)

We get away, and it’s mentioned that the subjugglator is the burgundyblood troll’s matesprit, but Polypa’s had about enough of our bullshit plans.

And that’s that. “At least your ass didn’t kill her”, indeed!

I think there may be some kind of John Wick joke here with Polypa? I don’t know, but I wish we could have gotten more time with her.

Zebruh

Now, Zebruh. Zebruh is written by Cee L. Kyle.

We go to the ‘larger, more McMansion-style hives’ part of the city.

The music involves... a xylophone I think? This guy’s quirk seems to be emojis representing the different quadrants associated with what he’s saying. First hearts for a kind comment, then diamonds for an offer to help us.

Auspisticism - a three-way relationship in which a troll third troll mediates conflicts between two other trolls. Though why it’s relevant here I’m not sure.

Then he insults us, and it’s spades. I feel like an Oblivion NPC.

He goes back to hearts to ask us what colour our blood is. Is he gonna keep cycling quadrants constantly? We get our first choice: lie and say it’s a high blood colour, or tell the truth.

Let’s see what happens if we tell the truth...

We get hearts again, and he starts leaning into hitting on us.

Again, I don’t really understand how this is spades. And this...

Wouldn’t this be hearts? I thought I understood quadrants but I guess not!

He invites us back to his hive (diamonds), and we learn that apparently the day is ‘flushed affirmation day’, during which a lot of trolls go about with their matesprits.

This guy's really horny huh. We misunderstand, and remark that we’d be happy to share, and he’s like... yeah I’m totally poly.

I find it interesting how blood caste in this world is taking on a similar role to gender in ours - ‘one dick poly’ and all that.

And this guy’s basically a troll Nice Guy(TM)/chaser fuck.

Like did a trans woman write this? wow lol

This is pretty on the nose lol.

We meet Zebruh’s lusus, which is... a zebra.

As we explore his hive, we see most of the ‘guests’ have been made to work to keep the mansion clean. But oh, this is just how ethical he is...

We get the choice of staying in Zebruh’s little slave colony, ahem, “sanctuary from the harsh injustices of the outside world”... or going out on a date with him. Frankly, neither option seems hugely appealing! But let’s stay in for now.

Noticing that spades come out pretty much whenever he negs us. And maybe clubs come out when he says something reassuring after the neg? No quadrant marker for straight up boasting:

They’ve done a very good job of making this guy skincrawlingly awful.

Anyway our decision hardly mattered, and we’re going out anyway.

We ask him what he’s about and we get some stuttering about ‘social justice and oppression and stuff’ follow by a ‘get on my level’ neg. Yeah... this is razor sharp lol.

Then he hits on us and we have to get him to explain quadrants.

We tell him we just want to be friends. Of course, he’s still very pushy.

Even the narrator comments on how hypocritical he’s being.

We get word of a culling, and Zebruh gets ready to leave. The protagonist has enough of a backbone to object to him not telling anyone...

And then, omfg...

And after we escape...

So yeah, “actually one of the most incisive critiques of scene-leftism comes from the homestuck tie in visual novel...” guess it’s a matter of Know Your Audience, huh.

And then he hits on us again.

The narrator manages to keep saying no, extolling the benefits of friendship...

So I guess that’s how we gain a matesprit matesprit “friend”. We also promise to be an ally for lowblood rights, which is to say, ourselves.

Eeesh. I wonder how much Polypa charges to take out a hit on this guy?

And in the background, the drones are busy culling the lowblood concert. Yeah.

On the nose, sure, but I think this was pretty fucking on point.

Unfortunately, we still have more branches to explore.

First, if we pretend to be a highblood around Zebruh.

“I only want to fuck people I have social power over.” (And yes, that is how heterosexuality works...)

What if we actually ask to go out?

If we ask to go out, he decides he’d rather stay in. I see how it is.

So I’m not sure they’re going to just put us in a rape scene, but they’re definitely making it look like it at this point.

That is, of course, the point he wanted to make.

Ha. That’s a pretty good metaphor, considering the trident is the symbol of the ruling class...

The danger of being quite this on the nose is that those targeted by the critique can shrug and say ‘well I’m not that bad...’

Anyway, we get concerned about one of the ‘guests’, who is clearly sick.

And before long...

A__ and E___ saw some of this text and both of them went ‘eurrgggh’ and shuddered, so this is pretty apt lol.

Honestly I’m only screenshotting about half of this. Honestly they should have led with this guy... this is pointed in a way most of the others aren’t.

Then he starts blaming us for denying the agency of the malnourished troll we saw earlier, and ranting about how he’s oppressed for not getting his quadrants filled. Maybe we can add incel to the list.

So if you’ve read far enough into Homestuck, you’d have met Kankri, who represents a similar critique... but rather misses the mark, and tends to read in a ‘punching down’ rather than ‘punching up’ way, I think. This, however, is spot on.

Oof.

The zebra kicks us out in the end.

So yeah. Huh. Frankly I’m happier with this outcome than the one where we have to be “friends” with Zebruh. Pretty sure this ending’s coming either way!

I would have liked a bit more time with Polypa, but Zebruh is extremely on point, so respect for this episode for that. (And tbh I’m getting some anxiety about whether, and to what degree, I might be a person like Zebruh. But that’s not for this blog.)

[zwoelffarben]

@anomalous-heretic, homestuck is a now concluded(?) web comic that ran between the years of 2009 and 2016. It was written by Andrew Hussie (he/they (?)) and follows reproductive cycle of a cosmic frog so large its cells comprise of universes.

Characterwise, there are 8 humans (plus additional side characters), 24 trolls, 1-2 cherubim, a robot bunny, the most evil puppet in all existance, the avatar of the author himself, 15 leprechauns, several members of other sapient species, and countless alternate versions of the characters listed above, both as in alternate timelines and as in ghosts.

No, I’m not diving into the plot, let’s just say, a lot of shit happens, and if you want to know what that entails, set yourself aside a weekend or two and read the damn thing. Yes, this is an unofficial ‘rom-hack’. Yes, it is the best way to read homestuck after the death of flash. Yes, you will never be able to truly experience homestuck the way original fans did because its now concluded, and a lot of the hype was built on actively particapiting in the fandom during the publication process, but you can read it if you desire.

But, relevant point to this post is that trolls are an alien species, and being an alien species they do not experience attraction the same way humans do. Human (reproductive) attraction for all its nuance and depth, and its capacity to create an endless amount of stories about love, can for the sake of analogy be boiled down to one type of attraction. Trolls experience four types of attraction, each associated with one particular suite in a deck of cards.

Matespriteship (Red Hearts)

The easiest for humans to understand, matespriteship is pretty well identical to the human experience of attraction: it is the attraction to the positive traits of a subject, and the desire to have babies with them (which is reductive of human attraction, but we’re focusing on trolls right now; I can only attend to the nuance of one species at a time). I will not be going into the specific mechanics of how trolls make babies for everyone’s sanity.

Kismesitude (Black Spades)

The hardest for humans with healthy happy relationships to really understand and grok is Kismesitude, as it runs counter to everything humans understand about love. Kismesitude attraction to negative traits, love built on contempt and hatred. Think Lizzy Bennet and Fitz Darcy from Pride and Prejudice, as the best readily available human example of something resembling kismesitude. 

Unfortunately for trolls, kismesitude is one, necessary for the survival of their species because [redacted mechanics of troll reproduction] but two, really difficult to navigate because attraction to the bad parts of someone’s personality is the fast track to a neglectful and/or abusive relationship. That’s where the other two quadrants come into play.

Moirallegiance (Pink Diamonds)

Moirallegiance is a semi-platonic relationship between two trolls in which each provides the other with support in order to mellow out the harsher aspects of their personality. This is necessary because trolls as a general rule tend to be little shits, and having a healthy moirallegiance is a good way for them take the edge off and act like functioning members of troll society. 

The closest human equivalence is something along the line of Platonic Soulmate. Some queers might recoginze the description of a moirallegiance relationship as being queer-platonic, and yeah, that works as an analogy, but moirallegiance is attraction based on the qualities that would make a good partner in that capacity, where as queer-platonic relationships aren’t typically built on attractive feelings.

Auspisticism (Grey Clubs)

And lastly, auspisticism is a relationship had between three trolls, in which one troll acts as a stablizer in what would otherwise be either an especially volitile couple, a couple that’s not attracted to each other deeply enough, or in the case of kismesitude specifically, a couple that would be an (potentially mutually) abusive hellscape. The job of the auspice is to make sure kismesitudes are healthy, and make sure that only the most deeply felt matespriteships and kismesitudes are consumated for the good of the species.

― ― ― ― ― ― ― ― ― ― ― ― ― ― ― ― ― ― ― ― ― ― ― ― ― ― ― ―

So, this post, has drawn the dynamic between each of the four quadrants of attraction experienced by hussian trolls, in the orientation typically associated with them, in the colors typically associated with them. It was from the beginning and will continue to be in perpetuity a homestuck post.

And that’s homestuck as it relates to this post. I’m sorry and you’re welcome.

Ship dynamics :-)

[existentialspiral]

On Mages

While doing my analysis on the Mage of Hope, I ran into the immediate issue that Homestuck only has two mages, and neither have ever been shown directly using their powers. As such, I found myself having to dive down these characters’ histories, possible class relations, and several other sources of speculation and theory. After a fair amount of work, much of which I could probably have skipped by using other blogs as resources (not that I would; I prefer to do my own analysis from the ground up, and only read others analysis of things for entertainment), I was finally able to derive an, admittedly highly theoretical, answer to the basic questions of what, exactly, a Mage is, and how would they fight. Unfortunately, in doing all this, I found that adequately explaining my conclusions made the Mage of Hope longer than it should have been, and broke both pattern and flow of the article. As such, I have included an edited version of the original Mage analysis below. The class of Mage is, quite possibly, the most difficult class to speak of in any way, with almost everything being the result of theory and conjecture. As a class with only 2, technically 3 users, with neither of them showing any display of God Tier powers or even particular amounts of exceptional direct ability, anything I could say would be nothing more than derived possibilities implied by possibly-misinterpreted information. Obviously, I still intend to do exactly this, but I felt it best to warn of it. Our Mages, Sollux Captor (Mage of Doom) and Meulin Leijon (Mage of Heart) have rather little in common outside their class. Only one seems to have any extraordinary abilities pre-game, and while both of them do gain disabilities, the exact nature of these disabilities and their presentation presents little, if anything, in the way of situational simultaneity. No, the only actual things I have been able to find in common of them, is that both of them have a great knowledge and suffering of their aspect; Meulin has her dancestor’s obsession with shipping, but actually has a great degree of success in her shipping (according to Aranea) albeit without any real success herself, her only personal romance having fallen apart over the years/ages. As for Sollux, he has a great deal of skill in the use of the programming language ~ATH, a language whose very name connects it with his aspect (both in pronunciation, and the fact that John Egbert’s book on the language is “~ATH – A Handbook for fhe Imminently Deceased), and which is implied to be less a language created by people/trolls, and more the method Paradox Space uses to define the inevitable. As well, Sollux has quite the degree of suffering his aspect, both in his hearing of the voices of those soon to die, his constant pain from his mutant brain being incompatible with his body, and even his habit of dying, repeatedly, only for it to never stick (refusing even to grant him the sweet release of death). However, things become more complicated when you also take into account Meulin’s post-Scratch counterpart, the Disciple. As the Disciple, Meulin experienced a unique form of romance unknown to trolls, falling into every quadrant simultaneously with a single person, experiencing both the full-spectrum of troll romance and the human concept of monogamous romance, as well as the cherub idea of devoted kismessitude; in summary, it could be said that Meulin’s post-scratch self was able to experience every possible type of romance at once, a sort of soul-fulfilling relationship no one else has ever been shown to even be able to comprehend, aside from (possibly) the Sufferer, her romantic partner. With this additional information, we can draw a new association: experience. In addition to suffering personal doom, Sollux was able to experience Doom in a way no other character has, having had a total of 5 possible lives, as opposed to the usual 2. Meulin herself, meanwhile, must have had quite the long list of past romances for her to be notably unlucky in love. With this new association of experience and knowledge, possibly better defined as comprehension, we can posit that Mage is the active counterpart to Seer, experiencing what the other observes, and enacting what the other foresees. This is made more likely by what Caliope said regarding the manifestation of abilities when a player is either resistant to their calling or corrupted by outside influence. Both Rose Lalonde and Sollux were extremely resistant to their callings, Rose resistant to Light as an aspect and an active enough person to have issue with the passive role of Seer, and Sollux being apathetic to his role as Mage, and outright hostile to his aspect. This notably manifests with Rose and her connection to the Outer Gods and Noble Circle of Horrorterrors and Grimdarkness, but most interesting is something mostly ignored about Sollux: he heard the voices of those soon to die. Being that foresight is a Seer ability, and death is governed by the aspect of Doom, it can be implied that Seer and Mage are a knowledge-based active-passive pair. This is then furthered by actually examining the actions of Rose during her time spent rejecting her role: rather than passively using Light to observe the world around her, she used her connection with the beings of the Farthest Ring (Void powers, possibly) to actively and physically tear her planet and session apart in search of information, before outright experiencing the Grimdarkness of the Noble Circle of Horrorterrors; in effect, Rose can definitely be stated to have acted entirely opposite to a passive Seer, instead functioning as an active learner. With this direct connection between passively observing an aspect vs. actively experiencing and learning through an aspect, it is extremely probable that Mage and Seer are an active-passive pair, with one focused on observation and the other on experience. As such, we may finally give a (possible) definition to Mage: “One who experiences and comprehends their aspect.” As for the abilities of a Mage, once again, actual information on the combat abilities of ANY Mage stands at a sum total of nil. However, there is an inlet to allow us to guess at the standard abilities of a Mage: the actions of Rose Lalonde prior to accepting her role as Seer of Light. Assuming that the above paragraph is correct and that Rose’s rejection of her class and aspect both caused her to invert entirely, this would make her abilities at this time comparable to those of a Mage of Void, allowing us to now infer the abilities of a Mage. As such, the following paragraphs will continue based upon this assumed connection. Firstly, as an active knowledge class, it may be posited that Mages function on a very simple, very old concept: skill and experience are worth more than strength and power. While they might not be the most powerful of classes, possibly being some of the weakest in raw ability, Mages are better able to understand their aspect than any other class and, thus, can apply their power in ways no other class can replicate. In this, it would be akin to the difference in between a 20-pound sledgehammer at full swing (25635 joules) vs. the force of a 12.7mm bullet with a 52 gram powder load (20195 joules); while the hammer obviously has more power, the bullet is more dangerous because of how its power is applied. As such, I would expect that, at lower levels, a Mage would have a fairly comprehensive understanding of their aspect, something which would allow them to actually accomplish things with it even where others would find it useless, such as Sollux’s use of the impossibly-difficult-to-use Turring Tarpit that is ~ATH, or Rose’s use of the Zoologically Dubious. Also, it is likely that Mages specialize in “special-damage” for combat; that is to say, it seems likely that a Mage would deal damage through magic or other esoteric powers, rather than by hitting things with shaped pieces of metal, like how Sollux used his psychic abilities instead of an actual weapon, or how Rose so heavily invested in her Thorns of Oglogoth. This, though, does come with the qualifier that we have never actually sees Meulin fight, and while it is possible that she fights with the same weapons as her Dancestor, it isn’t ever actually evidenced. After reaching God Tier, though, I expect Mages to be an interesting class, acting as a sort of, “Jack of All Trades, Master of None,” type, having the experience and comprehension of their aspect to affect any actual effect they want with it, but lacking the specialization or raw power of other classes. As such, they could be expected to actually wield their power in ways no other class could even dream of, having the fine control and understanding needed to do almost anything, but would probably lose in a straight up fight to another class unless they specifically leverage the fight against their opponent. To give an example: between a Prince and a Mage, the prince would be far better at destroying things, so an actual fight would end in the Prince’s favor; however, while the Prince has more raw power, the Mage would be able to, say, specifically protect themselves better, or manipulate their aspect more freely, while the Prince only has destruction to his name.