Homestuck Re-read Part 18: I was busy yesterday sorry
I spent yesterday working on something for my owner and got really engrossed in it and by the time I realized I hadn't done my homestuck upd8 it was 3am and I wanted to go to bed.
I also managed to break my old and kinda decrepit bed and spent the night sleeping on the couch, which sucked. I feel like shit and mentally thats, upsetting. I thought I was getting better.
|There is 213 pages in this update. I guess it's a good idea I started early. We're going all the way to the end of act 4.
[S] Rose and Dave: Shut up and jam.
They have crows on Derse? Rose throws Lil Cal out the window. We get to see what Rose's mother has been up too. We last saw her killing minions in [S] Jack Ascend and now we can see the spoils of that battle here. Maplehoof and Rose's mother descend further into the dungeon shortly before we switch focus to catch up on John's dad; or well, his hat which quickly goes to meet him. Carried from a Parcel Pyxis by The Breeze to meet him. He turns to see the man carrying Colonel Sassacre's text before following him.
John makes a fancy new hammer that Davesprite told him about. Rose wakes up just in time to be observed by Kanaya. John flies off with Mutie!! Oh no!! Casey is promoted to Viceroy.
That fucking bastard landed on a hoverboard. It takes him to an appearifier staircase/telepad/thingy whatever you'd call it and Authority Regulator follows.
ROLLUP
This is where all those parent/strange colonial men/puppet plotlines we just established link up. John unknowingly follows in Rose's mother's footsteps to the appearifier which ends up taking him to one of those labs in the veil Karkat mentioned. He finds Sassacre's text, Maplehoof, Lil Cal and his dad's hat there. Along with some weird fucking equipment. The room is dominated by a dais upon which giant chess pieces are suspended in vats, encircled by other vats growing Carapacians(? The black and white citizens of Derse and Prospit). The walls are lined with banks of reel-to-reel tape machines with an unknown purpose. It was mentioned that the soldiers are grown/cloned but this is such an unusual manner.
EXILES TO BE
Authority Regulator is hoverboarding around the veil. Parcel Mistress prepares to leave to find the white king A thief plunders the most precious of cargo while she proceeds with her mission.
Jade fucking clobbers him. Gotta make a print of this panel.
[S]WV? Rise up.
We get to see the battlefield at 3 4ths of it's progression. It is infact a genuine straight up fight. There is no metaphor, it's just an actual planet where the Dersites and the Prospitians are fighting to the death under the command of their respective kings.
It doesn't seem like it has to be this way, however. The WARWEARY VILLEIN is disillusioned with the rule of kings and unites both sides under his banner to march on the Black King. The proletariat have united against their masters and are throwing off their chains! Glorious revolution is upon us.
The white king abdicates his power to the Parcel Mistress. There is a fight for the scepter between her and an agent of Derse before it is lost down a waterfall.
The militia of the people arrives to confront the black king only to see him cut down by the Sovereign Slayer.
NORMAL AND CALM STUFF HAPPENING CONCURRENTLY
Rose makes a plushy for the Viceroy and channels the power of the horrorterrors of the furthest ring. Jade builds Dave's house up while some prospitians(?) watch. Dave also goes on an alchemy montage He discovers multiple items that are literally worthless; although the last one does possess anti-gravity properties. I think these come back later as a money making scheme. There's also a captcharoid camera. This is interesting, a new way to gain codes and interact with the current mechanics.
I want to take a shot at making a homestuck ttrpg again, ugh.
This one is literally worth less then nothing. Creating it gives you grist.
Dave creates copies of Rose's journals. One just contains meows and the other contains wizard fiction.
Rose has taken up following the will of eldritch creatures from outside of creation. Dave may have been ignoring their summons, hiding behind his shades. Davesprite makes some inquiries because this didn't happen last time. Rose isn't now future Rose, although she seems to have gained some of her memories.
I am genuinely kinda struck by how much more tragic Davesprite seems this time around. It's not entirely clear how long from his perspective he spent in the doomed timeline with just Future Rose, but it was somewhere between months and a year I think. They were the only two people left, John and Jade were dead and the trolls were unable to contact them. He had clearly started to break down some of his irony-poisoned shield and matured, but we never see how much. It's not a lot when it's in the present but I can't help but think that that's only because he's slipping back into old habits now other people are around and the one person he had no longer really exists. A non-ironic and sincere Dave wouldn't fit in with these guys so he has to just be Irony Dave again.
JOHN: DO METEOR THINGS
John witnesses the destruction of a Betty Crocker factory at the hands of a meteor on the screen of the terminal. The device is calibrated to target his grandmother; A button press produces a paradox imprint of the woman. It's residual sludge is sucked into some type of apparatus stacked up against a wall of micro-cassette like devices.
The device is switched to observe an island in the pacific. A young Jade stands on the bow with her grandfather, holding the mangled-yet-repaired bunny Rose would later create. Bec watches a meteor fall from the sky towards the US. The process is repeated with Jade's grandfather.
Screen 3 shows the crater and Dave's brother standing at the edge of it, tiny but awesome shades in hand. An imprint is created and sucked into the machine.
The last panel shows a meeting between John's father and Rose's mother. John's grandmother is obliterated by a meteorite. His father learns Rose's mother's scent like a blood hound. Rose is carrying the burned bunny. A final imprint is created.
Four babies are created. Though young, they are clearly similar to but not the kids we have been following. Another button press reconfirms this: John has just created himself and his friends as babies. The strange causality of homestuck in full display; the beta kids have just been created in the present by one of them to be sent back in time to propagate their own existence. The other four will be sent back further to raise the later four so that one can create all 8 from the older four. It's very confusing. Who raises them?
GUARDIANS
Jade's grandfather sails nearby. His warship glides between the meteors of the veil and at it's lookout post John's father unites with Rose's mother. They look out over the medium together, finally hand in hand.
I want to make a print of this panel too. If I can work out a two or even three colour process that would be an excellent panel. I've recently looked into a process called Gum Printing I'm interested to try out.
Authority Regulator Again
He's found that fucking illegal frog shrine out in the void. Some equipment inside lets us see Jade's grandfather's arrival on Earth? Where he accidentally kills Colonel Sassacre who is caring for John's grandmother. The device targets the colonel's faithful companion, his dog Halley. The abandoned children later split up, the boy goes on adventures with the dog and the girl lives with Betty Crocket the baking empress.
The draconian dignitary arrives. He carries with him Dave's sburb discs and Rose's journals. The discs are discarded into the time capsule and the wizard fiction left on the floor. The clock is set for a long time from now, but not too far in the past.
Karkat reveals the reckoning is upon us. Papa John eat your heart out.