thepumpkintimeline

[thepumpkintimeline]

The Pumpkin Timeline

Roxy and Calliope glance at each other in confusion as you deliberate over what to eat. You suppose it’s taking you a while to choose, but each dish is appealing enough in certain ways. Each has its potential dietary drawbacks. You don’t want to make a decision you can’t stomach.

Meat or candy, John. Meat or candy?

You release your breath when you realize you’ve been holding it. You’re being ridiculous. What’s the sense of fussing over lunch? In the end, it really doesn’t matter. Whatever you choose, it’ll all be flushed down the toilet tomorrow.

Just go with your gut. Don’t sweat the small stuff. There are much more important things out there to fuck yourself up over.

You notice that a group of passing by carapacians have slowed and now watched the three of you. It looks like they were headed to their own picnic, basket in hand. It feels like you’ve been dwelling on this whole conundrum a beat too long. All these eyes, all this pressure…

Oh.

There’s a hard knot in your stomach sinking like a lump of lead as the thought clicks in your head. You look up from the meat and candy, glancing between Calliope and Roxy.

JOHN: i’ll die. won’t i?

Roxie and Calliope both stare at you. They know. Don’t they? You catch yourself holding your breath again in the beat of silence after you ask.

JOHN: that’s why everyone is being so… weird about this, isn’t it?

The silence from the two is growing unbearable. At this point it feels like you’re prolonging the inevitable. That’s all this picnic has really been anyway. It’s just a distraction, to make choosing your fate come to you more easily. Calliope’s hands lower the plates of food just an inch, but her expression never changes. You look back at the two plates of food. The candy has melted from sitting in the basket so long, some of it pooling out from their wrappers in thick messy globs. If it weren’t for that, you may have been deceived by the tidy wrappings. You don’t even have to look at the meat. You know you can’t stomach that right now.

CALLIOPE: john?

CALLIOPE: have yoU made a decision?

You’ve made up your mind. You know what you have to do, even if your heart and mind are at war with what it entails. Just as you’re about to speak- you see one of the carapacians hurrying over with their basket and have to do a double take.

JOHN: uh …

Roxy and Calliope both turn their heads to see what you’re looking at just in time to see the carapacian stop and present the basket in a sheepish manner, placing it in the middle of you three before hurrying off in... embarrassment? Roxy quickly looks to Calliope with a confused expression, Calliope sharing the same unknowing face looks to you. You’re rather surprised yourself, but all-in-all rather relieved to take your mind off the two choices before you. This should be a pleasant distraction.

>Open the Basket

Sure, why not. The pair lean forward as you open the flaps of the basket open to reveal a large gourd. No- not a gourd… It’s a whole pumpkin.

CALLIOPE: what.

ROXY: what

JOHN: it’s.

JOHN: it’s a pumpkin …

This is a test script of what I’m planning on starting off with in regards to the Pumpkin Timeline and how the whole Meat v Candy thing will start. Eager to know if this is a good start or not, honestly my first time writing a fan story

[thepumpkintimeline]

Regarding “Yiffy”...

Should her name be Tiffany Longstocking Harlonde-Maryam OR Ruby? (Ruby sans that middle name because the joke is gone)

I heard that her code name was Ruby and so I’m wondering if that would be better.

[thepumpkintimeline]

In light of the most recent update, 16 year old Jade from Meat is now under Callie’s control. So, ya know.. that idea is out the window ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I’m thinking either starting the “timeline” right after they enter the end-game house. I’ll have to do some thinking

[thepumpkintimeline]

Omega Kids and Their Parents

I’m going to preface this post in saying that these are my Omega Kids idea: Tiffany Longsticking Harlonde-Maryam, Vrissy (Not Vriska), Tavish Crocker, and Harry-Anderson. Last name of Harry-Anderson is.. in progress/non-existent.

So, I’m rethinking what relationships I want to include in this story line. A lot of similar “timelines” made by others have a Davepeta² x Jade relationship. I really enjoy this idea! A lot! However.. it won’t be a part of my story.

Mainly, this is because of their sacrifice in the Meat timeline. “In canon” Davepeta went into the black hole, without a shard of reality embedded in them so I don’t think they’d have a chance of escape. (However a Jade did, similarly to Vriska).

I already made a post elsewhere about this, but I think regarding Jade she will be paired with Kanaya and Rose. Jade is of course MtF and not... doggified.

Now comes Vrissy. I’ve been thinking about Vrissy for a while, and I don’t dig the whole clone thing. If anything, Vrissy would be a descendant of Vriska. Even then... why would you just name her Vriska? It seems a bit weird to me in the way that Kanaya once was into Vriska and whatever. So, I’m not sure if Vrissy would be related to Vriska or if she should be her own troll. I like her design so I want to keep it relatively similar. Right now I just changed her horns a bit (and her last name to reflect her parents). Another idea is if she would even be a Harlonde-Maryam..?

Now Jake... I’m not at all sure how to write him if I’ll be honest. There’s lots of debate about Jake and his attractions. Mostly because of (from what I’ve seen) people headcanoning him as autistic and aromantic. I personally find it very hard to identify myself with a label, and I think that Jake also feels it’s difficult from certain text conversations. Having Jake explore/realize his identity will be important, but with me also not understanding myself, I feel that would be hard to write. Some links here about people’s thoughts on the topic as well as confusion with aromanticism and autism I’ve been looking at. (Which kinda sounds on par with Jake)

But as I think about it, Jake having a relationship with Dirk or Jane isn’t healthy for him. He’s got very low self-worth and wants to distance himself from everyone because he sees himself as a burden. Which... a relationship he’s on shaky ground with could exacerbate. I don’t think he should be in a relationship with Jane. Whether he is aro or not.

Speaking of Jane, I want to do a lot of work with Her. Along the lines of not being a fascist dictator. I want to get more into her friendship with Roxy. But if I decide to go down a route that has Jake as just friends with her then where would that leave Tavish? Without re-reading, I have a pretty good idea that Jane wants a child, and while she wanted one with Jake maybe that wouldn’t be best. So adoption could be a possibility, or Jane has a child with... someone else completely. Who would that be? I don’t know. But Tavish will come from somewhere. And if anyone has suggestions I’m glad to hear it.

Now, Harry-Anderson won’t be the child of John and Roxy. Previously I toyed with the idea of Harry-Anderson being the ecto-baby of John and Roxy while Roxy is with Callie. But... thinking about it? I feel like Roxy wouldn’t have wanted a child. It seems somewhat out-of-character for them. If Harry-Anderson lived with Roxy and Callie, I think there would have to be a good reason. Perhaps they took him in from some other situation..? Acting like his (piblings?). I’m not quite sure. Hell, if he’s taken off the streets they could be seen as more of a cool elder sibling relationship rather than taking parental roles.

I’ve also seen people grabbing a kid from Dave and Karkat’s relationship to replace another. But I’m not sure how I feel about that either. I think they like each others company, but I personally don’t feel like they’d want to start their own family. With both of their issues, no offense, but they might not be good parents. Karkat I could see helping in the caverns, he has a soft heart. But I’m not sure Dave would be comfortable raising a kid.

[thepumpkintimeline]

(Long Post) Where to Start...

So, in terms of starting this “Pumpkin Timeline” project there are a few time frames I’ve thought about as well as a few worries/mysteries.

1. In act seven, the team at the Victory Platform is waiting to enter the red door. After the House juju is emptied, the appearance of the red house on the pad FLIPS to match the juju and creates a handle. After (what seems like) the kids all talk/discuss what it will be like in the new world they create as they speed up time for it? To allow the world to grow anew.

They then enter into the white house and that’s it for Homestuck. It kinda makes me think they only got “Home stuck” again into “Beyond Canon” as they’re kinda just.. sent out of canon? 

One way i thought of using this is with 16 year-old Jade. As we know, after Vriska was impaled by reality, she was sucked into the Black Hole and ended up in the Candy timeline. Presumably ripping through reality, possibly with the shard that was sticking out from her. After Meat!John went back into canon, a similar fate happened to Canon!Jade. It seems like Vriska was sent to a place where she would be relevant, so I was thinking that this Jade could be sent somewhere relevant. The Victory Platform. Somehow perhaps she stops this by tearing through into some new timeline? I don’t know about Davepeta... I’m not sure if sprites^2 can die(I think the Troll’s sprites had died? But First Guardians are a bit different...), or if they would tear through the fabric as they weren’t stabbed through by it.

The details would need to be worked out. But I believe since the Genesis Frog holds the new universe then the doors would normally act as a gateway into it. The Epilogue world is described as feeling artificial, perhaps because of the change to white the Victory Gate changed to. Perhaps they never went to the new universe? The shard of literal space that pierces her can perhaps enlighten her and she begins to become a bit of her own Ultimate self, albeit not in the same way as Rose or Dirk. Since.. Calliope speaks to her through it, even though it feels like negative potential. Her connection with the black hole could possibly be the catalyst? Jade wasn’t necessarily replaced by Alt!Calliope by what the narration suggests, but she was used to get Alt!Cali to a different vantage point. 

This would be a story that takes its own direction with new adventure if an Ult!Jade takes them all into their true new home. But.. that would be a lot as well, lots of potential. I’d want everyone from the platform to be there really. I’m not sure what would happen with Terezi trying to find Vriska, but as we’ve seen. Canon!Vriska is now in Candy. And she will stay there from my story point, as I don’t want to alter Candy or Meat, just expand on what we know.

2. Snapchat Updates. This generally means that the project will take place instead of the Epilogues. Even before the Prologue where John “dreams in anime”

This can completely change a lot of things. It can either pick up before the snapchats, or after with varying results. Before would mean that I basically have the project start when John is still 18. Rather just turning 18? But this would also be quite ambitious, but lead to lots of growth and expand upon what’s there and give characters more “screen time.” Less work than the previous one, but still lots of writing!

3. The Prologue. At the infamous Meat v Candy choice, something happens that’s.. different. Perhaps he chooses meat but his retcon powers don’t work? Since Meat!John already left? Perhaps not. But something different happens that prompts him to realize that there is always another choice and so things go a bit differently. This will also have a John that isolated himself for all that time still, possibly leaving more development for him on that front. 

This is mainly where I would differentiate a lot of things. Perhaps this world isn’t perfect, but it’s not manufactured, it’s real. and so there isn’t some Ult!Self pulling the strings and characters can develop. I want the Omega kids to be a part of this project, but the shipping dynamics will be... different. As I’ve re-read the Epilogues, I realized some characters just don’t have chemistry like I thought they would. So, that is a change!

The big problem now is that I have to figure out where to start! I’m excited, but this is definately... something new! If anyone has suggestions feel free to let me know!

[thepumpkintimeline]

Hello! I’ve started a slow-moving fanproject that I’ve dubbed The Pumpkin Timeline! This will be a Homestuck fanfic basically that starts sometime after Act 7.

I’m not yet sure the full format, as this is a big work in progress that will likely take a lot of time to develop. This is more of a passion project for myself but I figured I could share my progress with any and all who want to observe. My original thought process was to shove in a third option to the dichotomous choice that we all know. But that proved somewhat difficult in the way that the narrative has established itself in the Epilogues before this. In theory, it could work, but I feel like it would need more work.

So I’ve decided to just ursup a portion of canon and see what happens. This will provide a lot of room for character interaction and more potential to allow certain characters to... not turn out the same way?

I’ll be tagging most of my work as “pumpkin timeline” but I want to make it clear that I’m not claiming this name as an exclusive provider of content surrounding “Pumpkin timelines”, as I’m in no way original in the way I named this project. (I know other people had to have thought of this concept) And I am aware of other projects that are happening in regards to alternatives to Meat or Candy, they just don’t pique my fancy as much as this idea that I have. I’m happy for any questions, comments, ideas!