Homestuck Re-read Part 73: SPRITE^2.
I have continued to progress my balatro run, finally beating blue stakes on the green deck. This sounds a lot less impressive then the fact I've beaten all the challenge decks but I guess I just found those more interesting. Anyway, I'm planning on getting more work done on my game today. I've had some ideas about the aesthetic that I want to try (ink printed textures, scanned real-world items, newspaper cutout font(ish? I have an idea for including full words / phrases)) and I read some helpful advice about not getting too bogged down in formal system design and just focusing on what I actually need. After today's upd8 I'm gonna try and get a bunch done.
HOMESTUCK.
We are starting out back in Calliope's black hole as Jane suggests that she and Jade need to wake up and help their friends soon. Before they can finish their goodbyes the stage they're all on vanishes and the bottom falls out of the black hole. It deforms into a slide and then a path for them to follow. It leads to Echidna's lair.
ARQUIUSPRITE: Abra cafiddling dabra you silly shootnerds
ARQUIUSPRITE: My e%ceedingly STRONG work as the party's premier bodybuilding hacker is done
Roxy is finally reunited with Roxy. Rose, Roseprite and John watch while discussing the fate of the Viceroy.
ROSESPRITE: I sense he's been... scheming.
ROSESPRITE: Plotting.
ROSESPRITE: Biding his time.
ROSESPRITE: Accruing dark legions.
Jane is introduced to everyone. They continue to refer to each other as someone's hot mom. They start catching John's hot mom up on the current happenings and such.
SPRITE^2
Jaspersprite attempts to hug/nuzzle Rosesprite, who was still only singly-prototyped. Creating, JASPROSESPRITE^2.
JASPROSESPRITE^2: Meow meow motherfuckers.
ALT!CALLIOPE
The memory of Echidna's cavern they entered was the hiding place of the Calliope who predominated over Caliborn. The pair of Cherubs went to meet in private.
Calliope had prepared and intended to set out in search of the muse of space for so long, but had no plans for when she met her. The muse tells her the story of her own death.
CALLIOPE: i began the same as you.
CALLIOPE: vulnerable, weak, but without the comfort of others, to whom those flaws would endear me.
CALLIOPE: so i became strong, and killed my brother.
CALLIOPE: i wore him down. i ate his soul. i dressed my words in his blood to hear victory every time i spoke.
CALLIOPE: i consumed his strength, too. it was always in me, just as yours was in him.
CALLIOPE: but being strong was not enough.
Her session was rigged from the start. The challenge favoured the time aspect, and only a lord of time could complete the challenge of a dead session. She failed, and having reached god tier, she was doomed to either spend an eternity wallowing in failure or take the choice from her denizen. Death, followed by a long, long wait for this current moment. The rest of her bargain was still to be upheld. The muse is the important one who must serve the greater good, Calliope is ultimately inconsequential from this point forward.
CALLIOPE: you don't need to do anything.
CALLIOPE: be who you've become, and who i didn't.
CALLIOPE: consume the fruits of an existence i could never understand.
CALLIOPE: live.
The memory fades but someone lurks in the darkness. The eyes are filled with the soul again. Callioe no longer fears scaring her friends with her appearance, as she is too filled with joy.