Homestuck Re-read Part 21: It wasn't yesterday the day is today.

Having just finished the previous upd8 a few hors ago, I've been waiting for the next one to drop. Partially so I can finish with Homestuck for today; but mainly because if yesterday wasn't the day, today will be the day. I've even confirmed this by accident. Every upd8 I start by checking how many pages there are to read on the log page. While checking today (123 pages) I saw a title that confirmed it. She will be introduced today.

But for now...

BACK TO TAVROS

He talks about his FLARP(?) games where he practices jousting, he also has an overly edgy group he wants to join too: The CAVALREAPERS. We get to see that in the future Tavros will gain robotic legs after uh. Kanaya does a little bit of work on him. While a currently unintroduced Equius watches in the background. Menacingly. He goes to open trollian and at long last.

She's here. Spider8itch.

It's definitely an introduction to a character. Her first on screen act is making fun of Tavros for being disabled and then Terezi for being blind. She tries to further isolate Tavros by insinuating Kanaya is making fun of him and not earnestly trying to help. I genuinely forgot how actually mean she is in this. Then you have to remember that like, this level of casual cruelty is from a child. This won't even be the worst thing she does.

We learn about Terezi's dragon Lusus and how it taught her to see without eyes but with other senses. Either loosing her sight or her dragon's influence awoke her dreamself early. The creature is immediately shot down by a meteor. A clock counts down, not from 4 minutes and 13 seconds this time, but from 6 minutes and 12 seconds.

ARADIA

We're introduced to Aradia Megido. Able to hear voices of the dead (as opposed to the soon-to-be dead), she is aware of an impeding apocalypse. Her lusus is already dead; but since this is a re-read we know we see signs of it in her too. The solid white eyes betray her state of spectral post-life. Lead by voices of those who came before her, she gathered technology from the ancient frog ruins and convinced Sollux to make sburb (or as I somehow forgot, sgrub) from it.

There is a somewhat hostile and stilted offer of cooperation made from Kanaya. Spider8itch makes a second appearance, literally cloaked in shadows. I wrote that and it twigged that her classpect will later turn out to be Thief of Light. Her first on screen introduction is in silhouette (compared to Equius earlier being the Heir of Void and being blended into the background). She's even stealing the limelight at this point! No one else has had such a dramatic and drawn out introduction including so much betrayal and cruelty in such a short amount of time that it's hard to imagine readers not fixating on what her deal is. She's stolen focus from Aradia in a paragraph about her under a heading with her name.

Although in fairness I don't tend to stay on topic very well.

There was seemingly some kind of bad blood between Spider8itch and Aradia. It's not clear what.

She even rejects focus to continue drawing it out. We're back to Aradia and Sollux talking.

We get our first mention of the blood caste system and it comes from Sollux, surprisingly. Aradia puts him to sleep, face down in mind honey. This leads to Sollux joining the game last and being Karkat's client. There is a reason you don't eat the mind honey.

NEPETA AGAIN

Time to get to know this silly cat girl! She pets her kitty cat lusus. Iconic Nepeta panel. Karkat wants her to get Tavros into the medium since Kanaya is insisting on waiting. We get to talk to Equius for the first time. I think I only just remembered his trollian handle is essentially "horse man balls". Great. Why did I write that down. I also forgot how much of a racist he is. I guess it would be colourist? Hemophobe?

CT: D --> Your fraternization with the base classes have 100sened your morals, can't you see this

Measurehead type statement. Although again this is just what Alternian society builds him to be. Same with Spider8itch and all the trolls, really. We do also see that apparently Equius is also co-captain of the blue team with Aradia. I wonder if Vriska knows that yet.

We get to see that playing games for some of the trolls has lead to bad outcomes before. Infact, we're going to see it. I think just seeing that Tavros has working legs and Aradia seems happy and excited about something is all the foreshadowing you need really. There are gaming abstractions set loose and then we skip forward. Spider8bitch antagonizes Tavros at a cliff edge. She projects herself physically, we see her with 8 additional spider eyes and seems to be stopping Tavros communicating with Terezi or Aradia. She is, apparently, of the mind controlling variety.

It's a quick fall down a long cliff. All for well, no real reason. Cerulean blood and her Lusus in particular trained her for this kind of behaviour in life. Back in the present she tries to defect to the red team.

FEFERI

First Feferi panel! She's such a cutie.

ARADIA

Following the orders of the dead, she prototypes her sprite with the frog head. A tactical decision to aid the trolls in the medium. She enters the medium into a strikingly beautiful radiant-blue land THE LAND OF QUARTZ AND MELODY. Following some exposition, she self prototypes. Merging with the frog effects her typing quirk strangely; she now ribbits.

VRISKA SERKET

Spider8itch has a name. We learn the source of the cruelty: she must kill to feed her lusus. She stands alone in a room full of broken eight balls, mysterious doomsday devices and flarp character sheets. Her flarp character is Marquise Spinneret Mindfang, someone who is definitely not real. Funnily enough for someone who stole so much spotlight earlier, but appropriate for all the bad luck accrued, someone even more mysterious is going to puncture hers. Their text alone raises questions, he sends messages that are not preceeded with a chat handle and his text is pure white. Reading it on the website's background requires highlighting it for more contrast. The matter of fact tone and format break creates a sense of authority that draws you in, this isn't a troll or a human or anything we've seen before. Whatever they are, they've got priors and even Spider8itch is afraid.

We do see something though. Trolls seem to suffer from abuse in similar ways to humans.

EQUIUS

Oh it's Equius time properly okay I forgot trolls can regrow teeth. He's so strong that trying to be gentle results in physically injuring his lusus. Jegus theres another line

But when all was said and done, you are quite sure you convinced your good friend to stay on the right team. Not the team full of degenerates with swill coursing through their veins. You're starting to get worked up again.

I do feel like I should point out that Equius is not at the top of the hemospectrum, and does know this. He acts submissive and defers to Gamzee who is of a higher caste then him, going so far as to apologize for speaking out of turn in anger completely unprompted.

CT: D --> I was completely out of of line, and I'm sorry

CT: D --> I have no right to talk to you like that, or tell you what you can't do

TC: aWw, No WoRrIeS!

CT: D --> It's not my place

CT: D --> Your habits notwithstanding, I am lesser than you

CT: D --> An inferior

TC: hAhAhA. oK.

CT: D --> Don't you understand that you're better than me

CT: D --> Can you please act like it

Equius builds backdoors into his robotics. Surely that is not foreshadowing at all.

A beating leads to a series of unfortunate consequences. A doomsday device is activated and fails and falls, killing Vriska's lusus. There's so much bad blood between Vriska and Terezi.

A followup scene to earlier, after Tavros took a fall. Aradia is upset the highbloods hurt Tavros purely for sadistic fun and is seemingly plotting revenge. We do find out that Vriska wasn't blocking Tavros' pleas for help though; they were genuinely not answering. Some unknown 'he' who they believe was in league with Vriska distracted them. Terezi seems to know that they aren't friends though, and that whoever or whatever they are they're playing eachother like fiddles. Terezi and Aradia swear off Vriska and Flarp.

Thats today's upd8 folks, thanks for reading. I haven't had anything to eat for 10 hours so I'm gonna go fix that.