Homestuck Re-read Part 34: NON-LINEAR.
All things that go up must come down. As much as I am enjoying Homestuck and writing this blog posts about it, I must admit that I enjoyed the shorter upd8 yesterday. I got to claw back a few extra hours of my life which I then squandered feeling kinda aimless. Which, isn't really a thing isolated to reclaimed Homestuck time. I don't know. I have goals and ambitions I want to try and achieve but I struggle to start them to an extreme degree and then feel awful about my lack of progress. I have so many videos I've tried to make that have gone nowhere. There is a writing project living in my head I cannot bring myself to start for reasons I cannot verbalize even within my own mind that I am scared will rot on the vine back into nothingness like so many others.
Oh well, at least I can bring myself to begin reading today's upd8. 335 pages stand between me and finishing this post.
homestuck
We need to make a visit to Doc Scratch. We need him to repair Disc 2. At least this time around he's making it a bit more comfortable. A new green felt-green background makes his text a lot more readable. There's also an image along the top of the page. We need to make sure to pay attention to it, there'll be some very important action up there.
Scratch does his usual omniscient shtick. He's gonna have the disc ready in time to view a critical event, intertwined events snapping under tension to resolve themselves all in one swoop. [S] Cascade.
He's gonna show us the quick version while we wait. Vriska influenced the coinflip to let her go. Naturally, Terezi knew that and was simply going to cut her down anyway. The bet wasn't on the coin, but if Terezi had the stomach, Vriska felt she herself didn't so why would Terezi? At least this time around, fanaticism doesn't lead to carry through. Fans can be dangerous, but they can also be impotent. For every killer there's an squealer who breaks.
Scratch likes to keep us on tenterhooks. Conclusions to the Thief and the Seer will come later, now is the slayer and the other seer. Rose won't win the fight, she dies. John however rises again. Being stabbed in the back by a threat to reality itself is not heroic nor just. Scratch reminds us of these details, while we watch what events unfurl from John's first meeting with Karkat. Just as Scratch assures us via images of the future that are not new to us that John doesn't die, I can also assure you Rose won't either. I have no images of the future to remind you of, but mentions of blossoming love mentioned in previous posts. Our sparkly vampire girl wouldn't fuck a corpse.
We're left to watch the conclusion to Vriska's excursion as Scratch prepares to greet a guest. Back to the platform on Skaia where the ultimate reward was in reach. Bec Noir is alight in flashing green flames and awaits his challenger. Scratch is greeting his guest too, but we've seen that before. It's Spades Slick. Instead of picking the fight, Noir flies off. Terezi was right, Vriska's pixie trail lead him right to them. We're reminded of his other guest, us. A bit over a hundred pages ago, I'd guess.
A breakdown in narrative mechanics. Circumstantial simultaneity. We've seen this before. The same song, different instruments. The same play, different actors. Mindfang and Redglare, Vriska and Terezi. Vriska and Noir, Rose and Noir. Not played at the same time, but the conditions line up. The crowd always goes wild, but the ending isn't always the same. Synchronicity by another name. Make sure to look out for your angel numbers.
Terezi and Karkat are killed by Jack. Motivation. Spades Slick is dousing Scratch's office in oil. Meanwhile, Jack is pulling out the ol ~th HONK honk book full of pictures for us. He's set ablaze as he pulls out a picture for us. Vriska vs Bec Noir. She rolls 8s on all 8 of her dice. It's an intense fight and Vriska is winning. One of the felt's goons is putting out the fire until Spade starts beating him. Unfortunately for her, she'll never get that far. What good of an outcome is Vriska living if everyone else dies. Where is the justice that she is allowed to fulfil her self appointed purpose by defeating the cause of a tragedy she bought on everyone around her.
Unfortunately for our top panel story. Spade's Slick looks like he's having a bad time. Riddled with lead.
A lot is happening now. Karkat, Kanaya, Sollux and Gamzee all arrive at the roof. In our top panel, we see sn0wman fade out into the background. She gives our boy slick a helping hand. We see Vriska's last message to John. Instructions for him to stand up and stop being dead. She's right, he doesn't die a heroes death and he's not a villain either. His clock stops in the middle, so he's alright. Vriska however, is expecting a heroes death if any. Martyred by Bec in the defense of Paradox Space itself. She passes on the code for Mindfang's dice to him. Sn0wman and Spade embrace for a kiss while John reads his instructions. Some of Vriska's last words to him are about how she isn't jealous of Rose for getting his kiss. The rest of them are sad, longing for a life where she isn't under the pressure of her cerulean blood's social status. A desire to try out a life under different rules.
Her very last words on the matter, before she's cut down.
AG: If my outrageously gr8 luck has any say in the matter, we will 8e meeting up in no time!
AG: Just please consider what I said.
AG: Ok........
AG: L8r! <33333333
Slick bashes the clock at the last second, leaving the hand stuck on Just. Scratch gets his gun belt on. Meanwhile on our top panel, A knight and a witch prepare to fight a dog/god. Slick takes a beating and pictures fly out of the book. John replies a second too late and gets Karkat instead. He instructs John to get to the land of Heat and Clockwork. Slick is ejected from the building. Karkat did, something to Gamzee. Rose is alive on Derse. Scratch is about to execute slick, gangland style. Fitting. Dave is accidentally gunned down, human shielding Jade from her own spray'n'pray. She kissed him. Dave and Rose await the arrival of the tumor on Derse, ready for one last suicide mission. Scratch hands his revolver to Slick. There is a lot of detail explained about the plan. Yellow yards, suicide missions, inappropriate touching.
Scratch is tidying up. The end game of the plan is for everyone to meet up in the rebooted session, with the trolls taking a detour to the green sun along the way. They have "PEOPLE ON THE OUTSIDE" to meet up with.
We're given a selection of a few points to pick from.
DELINEARIZATION
Nepeta and Jaspersprite
We finally get to see them talking, but sadly it's right before the end. Nepeta is saying goodbye to her, but Jasper's is a brave cat and isn't scared. They talk about Nepeta's crush on Karkat, and she encourages Nepeta to tell him. We learn that after Jasper vanished, she re-appears somewhere else. Another woman was there, and Jasper loved her too.
SPRITES
Jadesprite wanders the battlefield, and comes across Davesprite. She is getting along with him a bit better then alive Jade. He puts her mind at ease about not being able to help her. She didn't have the choice to come back or not, alive Jade took that from her. He starts to explain how the denizens work. This is the first time we learn about The Choice.
We also see how the sword ended up in Derse's moon's anchor. She did the space-y thing.
Rose and Davef
Rose used to live within 45 minutes of a Burger King establishment. Dave dreamed of watching himself die from the vantage point of a crow. No matter what he tries, dead Daves would pile up. Unfortunately, before we can divine any true meaning. We find out it's a dream bubble.
He's starting to remember. Dave was going to go on the suicide mission, but it looks like he didn't. He remembers the bunny delivering the tumour. They were working out how to detach the moon to use as a ship. But at some point, Rose knocked him out. He's rather annoyed Rose stole his suicide mission. He decides to accept it, and not pursue her. He also decides to stay and keep her company. He gets woke up anyway, when Diamond Droog shows up. The agreement to not chase goes out the window the moment she might die from not killing herself.
Vriska and John.
I think this is their first interaction. Or at least a memory. Vriska notices it first, but John is in denial. Until he looks out his window. A blue blooded fairy stood in the snow on his lawn. This version of John doesn't remember anything. No matter how hard she tries. He's still John, though. He doesn't even like Vriska at this point; He seems to dislike her, but he still brings out a jacket for her. He doesn't want to leave her out in the cold like that. It's not a human d8, though. Not until John remembers. The weather is a bit warmer. He doesn't see a lot of his neighbors, they're all busy. Lots of serious business. They visit her hive as they wander around the bubble. Her big castle on the sea that got lonely when she grew up. Empty rooms she would never use and that hosted no guests.
John recognizes his father's bedroom, and knows there are gifts waiting for him. They climb down his spire until they reach Vriska's land. Walking around for a bit, he starts to remember.
This is the John who died from Terezi's interference. John who's death created Davesprite. He's never going to remember Vriska, but he's starting to understand at least. Vriska finally introduces herself, and they decide they might try to get to know eachother. We get to see what happened to John after he went through his last gate. He didn't fight Typheus, he spoke with it.
Fedorafreak
A strange one, we see a serious businessman from a separate session. He's in a bad way, his water supplies are low and does not appear to be being sustained by the medium. In his state, he has taken rest upon a quest bed. Nanasprite tells him a story of two children, raised by a witch. The witch being betty crocker, naturally. This is a song we've heard before, but for once the instruments remain the same. This is the other side of the story of Jade's grandfather, following the girl who stayed behind. Raised by the baroness. Ultimately we learn something important. Betty Crocker is not human.
JADE AND KARKAT (AND KANAYA)
He is very upset about the password system. The beta kids seem to be having a lot better of a time with their Denizens then the trolls ever did.
Kanaya opened up a memo for them to talk about frog duties. Karkat's input is required. But there is the slightly more pressing worry of sad puppydog Bec Noir following him around. They're almost done, just one frog left. Echidna's help was sought by Jade on Kanaya's advice. Jade has made an impossible deal to find it. The frog was never in the medium, it was on earth. Before she woke on Prospit. It killed itself in her hands.
When they leave the session, everything comes with them. Lands, Denizens, Consorts. The whole deal must leave with them.
DOC SCRATCH AND DAMARA
She is making a big racket, bashing against the fifth wall. He shuts down the fifth wall. She then starts to bash him. It looks good but it's rather ineffective when applied to someone who can teleport you into the vacuum of space.
Oh look, this story is the main one.
ARADIA AND SOLLUX
Sollux, having one foot in the grave and one foot out, can apparently leave his dream bubbles. She's waiting for Rose and Dave and the surviving trolls. It's the first time we learn about her desire to hold a funeral or as she explains it
AA: a big corpse party
JUST KARKAT
I guess this must be the time Jade makes an exception in the password system for Karkat. I would, he';s scared and alone and being hunted. He thinks all of this is ultimately his fault. Gamzee hunting them like a xenomorph is his fault, Bec Noir is his fault, everything. He thinks he fucked up the final frog in the breeding.
We see red miles grow across the sky over the exiles on Earth. As Karkat admits he thinks he gave the genesis frog cancer. The preconditions for Jack's existence in his mind rest entirely upon a single one of his failures.
Luckily for him, he isn't in a doomed timeline
DAVE AND GAMZEE
Gamzee fuckin, did the clown shit just through pure force of will to John? What? This one I am genuinely lost on.
LINEARIZATION
Ah, back to a single stream of pages. We're going to learn about Damara and her 'employment opportunity'. Although he doesn't notice her turning the fifth wall back on. Such a small blindspot in omniscience.
We're going to learn the story of the sufferer. But first we learn about a different version of Alternia. A version where the trolls were peaceful and not part of an interstellar genocidal war machine. A group of 12 players on this version also played sgrub, but they failed. They were unprepared by society. They were aberrations, a marker that a universe was to be taken by Lord English. They were offered the choice. Extinction and peace, none placed in harms way. Or personal oblivion and a do-over. A scratch. They created the universe our trolls come from, with Doc Scratch to guide their race to produce heroes capable of winning. The losers became the ancestors of these winners, stripped of memories and never to play the game. One, however, did not. He began to remember.
Mutant, candy blood. A born pariah, with visions of a world at peace. He knew alternia did not need cruelty or eternal war. Equality, forgiveness, compassion. He truly was troll jegus. Revolution followed and failed, and he was captured. At the top of the page, Hussie looks through the cracked fifth wall.
Unlike human Jesus however, he didn't maintain the compassion. If you're a christian, Jesus chose to give his life after seeing the culmination of all human sin in the gardens of Gethsemane after the last supper. Despite witnessing the depths of evil humanity was capable of he chose willingly to suffer for us and to give his life to save our immortal souls and relationship with god out of pure compassion. The suffer in his time of execution did not, however. Tortured by the imperial Alternian government, his compassion festered into hate. Hussie has broken through the fifth wall and re-entered the narrative.
His followers did not completely disappear. Like the crucifix, they appropriated his irons. The sign for cancer in the zodiac. Another signless will come one day, a herald of the end times. He will lead Alternia to glory beyond their realm. This one would have a lusus and a sign, unlike his ancestor.
The sufferer was raised by a Jade blood, the Dolorosa. His first follower. Others would follow, The Psiioniic and the Disciple. Yellow and olive bloods. Terrible fates befell them. The disciple barely escaped execution, living the rest of her life dedicated to the sufferer's message. The dolorosa was sold into slavery. The Psiioniic,merged with the Condense's personal ship. His life extended by her touch, like maintenance on a car engine.
The Condense currently pilots her ship back towards Alternia at near light speed. Arrival is 612 sweeps after the extinction of her race. Little remains, beyond employment.
The handmaiden, last of the ancestors, arrived at a strange time. After the destruction of Alternia, she would be 'raised' by Scratch. Locked in a room in his strange mansion on the moon. Forced to serve Lord English, an agent of eternal terror, forced to raise bigotry and tension. Her final act is to recruit the Condense. A life in service for taking a life.
Hussie has been slowly sneaking up on that bastard Scratch and starts beating him with a fucking broom. Dmarah takes the opportunity to fucking get on out of there. Although, concerningly, in the top panel the hover text seems to be talking to her like a big green angry exile with flickering pool ball eyes.
Scratch had already fixed the damn disk. Everything goes back to normal following a quick jaunt through sbahj territory. Just in time to insert disc 2.
SHOWDOWN 5X COMBO?
Are we gonna see shit go down??? The highblood approaches the four other survivors atop the meteor.Karkat stands his comrades down, and somehow...
He pacifies Gamzee. Safety for all.