#feferi and jade would both say and stretch with me

[gamzee-the-capricious-fanfic]

Chapter 4

Notes: Nothing really groundbreaking in this chapter lol, just that on average each chapter is 7 to 8 pages and if I put the big shit in this chapter it would be super long. Hope you enjoy it anyway!!

You wake up to someone shaking you quite vigorously. You blink sleepily and mumble. 

"'m too tired for this shit motherfucker." You glance over to see it's Karkat.

"Well get over it. It's your fault we ended up going to sleep so late." 

"That's harsh bro." You yawn and stretch out on the couch. Karkat is looking at you impatiently.

"You have an hour and a half to get ready so I'd get a move on if I were you." 

You nod lazily, all in motherfuckin time. Tavros walks in rubbing his eyes all sleepily. You can't help but to think he is damn cute when sleepy, well to be fair he is damn cute all the time but especially when he is sleepy. 

"Mornin T-dog" you manage a lazy ass wave. 

"Mornin Gamzee, d-did you uh fall asleep in here?" 

"Mhm, bed was just too damn far."

Tavros giggles. "Could of uh, just went to my bed if it uh, would have been easier." He immediately blushes profusely. "U-uh i mean, uhhh. G-gotta go, talk to you later!" He very quickly heads out into the hall, presumably going to the bathroom. 

You look at Karkat wide eyed, "uh.. did that.. make any sense to you? He wasn't like, I mean it sounded kind of like maybe…" you trail off. Best not get your hopes up on all that. He was probably just joking. 

"God you're such a fucking dumbass." 

"How so Karbro?" 

"Clearly, Gamzee, Tavros has red feelings for you and we all know how you feel about him. I swear you two idiots would be perfect together if you weren't so fucking stupid." 

"Wait.. really? No joke?" 

"Oh my god, yes Gamzee, no fucking jokes here." He gestures around wildly, "do you fucking see any jokes dipshit." 

Dave walks in. "I dunno dude, I think I see one joke in this room." He's looking at you. You growl a bit under your breath but you stop once you hear Karkat chuckle a bit. 

"Bro, are you siding with motherfuckin Strider over me??" 

"No, no, it's just, I mean it's kinda funny Gamzee." 

"Well I think it's motherfuckin rude." 

Dave interjects. "You're literally a clown. A walking joke, literally." 

You stand up swiftly, that pisses you off. "Oh? Want me to show you how motherfuckin funny I can be?" You growl threateningly. 

"Oh I'm so scared." 

You take a step forward but Karkat grabs your arm. "Gamzee. Shower, go." He points towards the door giving you a no nonsense look. You grumble a bit but you do as he says. As you get yourself all cleaned up and ready for the day you can’t help but to think about Tavros. Does he really feel the same feelings as you? I mean Karkat wouldn’t lead you wrong, and he does notice these kinds of things so… Maybe it is true? Should you make a move then? Before you can really consider that much more Karkat comes and shouts at you for taking too long. 

"I swear to God if you make me late for our first fucking class Gamzee. I mean fuck do you even know your schedule?" 

You give him a sweet lil smile. "Nope. But I know you do.~" 

Karkat sighs. "Yeah, you're not wrong. I fucking did your schedule cause I know you're a dumbass. It's the same as mine so just follow me around like a little quackbeast." 

You figured as much. "All right Karbro, I'm all up and ready anyway so lead away." 

"... You literally don't have your bag dipshit." 

"Uh.. aaallrriighhtyy I'm almost ready then." You look embarrassed, of course, the most important thing. You run to the room and grab it real fast then come back to Karkat. "Ok, now I'm motherfuckin ready." 

You give him a double thumbs up and a cheesy smile. He rolls his eyes at your antics and mumbles something about associating with idiots. Either way he grabs your hand and pulls you off towards your first class. You walk hand in hand across campus heading for the humanities building or so Karkat called it. All the buildings kind of look the same to you. As you walk you notice a few humans giving you guys weird looks, you wonder why but soon dismiss it as you enter the building. The halls are bustling with trolls you notice, you give Karkat a questioning look.

“There are a lot of classes about human culture here so of course there is going to be a bunch of trolls.” He gives you a look that suggests you should have thought about that. “Anyway most of our classes are here, Earth History, Human psychology, and English. We are going to English 101 right now.”

You sigh dramatically. You get the feeling that it is going to be a very boring day. And it is, once you got through with the humanities building you and Karkat had to walk all the way across campus to the science building to learn about Earth biology and such. Then again you had to walk a ridiculous distance to your final class. Human Health. It seemed to be a waste of a day honestly, each class went over boring “syllabus” shit and you learned nothing. 

However, throughout the day there was this uncomfortable atmosphere. Of the trolls attending the university the mid to lowbloods rarely glanced you and Karkat’s way. Unless they sat next to you where they looked very uncomfortable and your attempts to look all friendly like were not appreciated and they just looked more scared. Same with the humans. John, Jade, Rose, and Dave are so chill with you and your friends that you assumed other humans would be ok like that too but turns out that was a big resounding motherfuckin no. The case was very different with the Higher Castes. Blue and up were openly disgusted by both you and Karkat. With Karkat it was more understandable, he’s a mutant and we were taught that mutants shouldn’t exist and yada yada. You never really cared. 

You are not sure if they give you looks because you clearly associate with Karkat or if there is another reason. Other than your friends you never really associated to much with other High Bloods despite you being a purple blood of the faith. You were mostly high all the time so you didn’t get out much. But now you can see that your fellow purple blooded motherfuckers are MUCH taller than you and typically built heavier. You never really realized that you were so physically stunted in comparison. That said you still are much taller than most of your friends. Equius is taller than you, so is Feferi. Eridan and Vriska are about your height. And then the rest of your friends are shorter whether by a little or a lot. Nepeta being the shortest of them all yet still as fierce as she is cute. 

When you guys finally head back to the dorm building you make sure to keep Karkat close to you. You don’t think anyone will try anything at least while they are under human supervision but you’d rather be safe than sorry, you would never forgive yourself if something happened to Karkat. You almost laugh, first Karkat was worrying over you and now you are doing the same to him. Karkat was oddly silent for the walk. You weren’t adding any commentary yourself but typically Karkat is almost always going on about something. Neither of you guys speak until you enter the room.

“Wow, maybe this is going to be harder than anticipated.” 

You glance at Karkat then hum in agreement. “I don’t think you are the only problem Kar.” You gesture to yourself. “I’m pretty sure I got some dirty looks too. Never really realized how short I was compared to others of my blood. Then add up the both of us together, the mutant and the druggy.” You sigh dramatically. You had hoped your dramaticism would lighten the mood but Karkat still looks insecure. 

“Look, despite me being all up a short motherfucker I’m still more than strong enough to protect my best bro.” You stick your tongue out at him and flex your arms comedically. It works, Karkat gives a soft chuckle. 

“You look ridiculous, please stop I swear to god I am going to throw up at this display of idiocy.”

You laugh and oblige. “Besides, the humans aren’t all happy with violence and all that. Any troll who does shit will be booted from Earth most likely.” Karkat nods and looks a bit better, reassured by your words. “Now how about we get our comfort on on the couch and watch some shitty romcoms.”

“Fuck you they are NOT shitty!” You just laugh. 

A few weeks pass relatively uneventfully. The humans started relaxing a bit in the trolls presence and some of the highbloods appear to have gotten bored of giving you and Karkat menacing looks. That doesn’t mean all of them have quite their shit but it is way better and both you and Karkat feel much more relaxed about it. The only interesting thing that has been happening has been you and Dave continuing your fued. If you didn’t know better you would assume he was black flirting with you, but as a human you doubt he would understand the concept. The other three don’t seem to. Well, maybe Rose does, she is pretty smart but appears to have no interest in any of the other romances. So there you are, head in Karkat’s lap on the couch complaining about Dave. 

“Ugghhh, Dave is such a motherfucking asshole.” you practically growl each word your frustration quite evident.

“He’s not that bad Gamzee.” Karkat mutters a slight blush on his face.

“Kaaarrrrkkkaaattt, stop defending him! Can’t you see I am suffering? The black feelings in my blood pusher are almost too much for this motherfucker to bear.” you say this very dramatically. 

“Well, maybe stop fucking flirting with him and do something more productive. For example, you still haven’t made a move regarding Tavros. Even though I literally told you that he feels the same as you do. I swear everyone is just waiting with bated breath for you two bulge fondlers to just do something already. The tension between you too is almost palpable. If one of you guys don’t say anything we are all going to start frothing at the mouth starved for the sweet sweet release that you two getting together will bring us.” 

You blush profusely. “Well it’s not like it is easy to just up and confess to your red crush. What am I supposed to say? What if I fuck it up?? You know I’m not good with words when I am nervous!.” 

“Uh, no I am not, for one I don’t think I have ever seen you nervous. You have idiot confidence, which is to say that it’s a lot of confidence because you are stupid as fuck.” 

“..Uh.. Point taken? Still, I don’t know, should I take him on a date? What if he thinks it is just a friendly outing?” You groan with frustration, hiding your embarrassed face with your hands.

“Well Gamzee, you don’t know until you try dumbass. Tavros is probably too shy to make a move so it’s kind of on you bud.” 

You groan again. And of course Tavros just happens to walk into the dorm room. 

“Uh.. Are you alright Gam?” 

You stutter and stumble over your words. “I uh, f-fuck, uhhh, just great, fantastic, um, never better! T-totally wasn’t talking about you or anything! Like hah! Why would I be talking about my cute- u-uh I mean cool! Rap buddy. Yeah.” Your face feels like it is on fire. 

“Um, o-ok, and uhh, thanks m-maybe? I uhh, j-just remembered that I t-totally forgot that I have a class I need to be at uh, so b-bye!” He rushes out of the dorm room as fast as possible. He doesn’t have his bag. Also It is like 8 o’clock and you know he doesn’t have night classes. 

“Well, that was a fucking trainwreck.” Karkat sighs. That is an understatement. 

“Uuuuuuuuuugggghhhhhh!” you groan for the damn third time. “I told you I would motherfuckin fuck it up”

“Yeah, I stand corrected. I didn’t realize the full extent of how socially incompetent you two are. Look, how about you just ask him to a movie or something and you know, don’t be an awkward fuckwad. Just act fucking normal and then just make a move, you know, like the classic stretch and arm over his shoulder thing. If he has literally any braincells he is sure to figure out the meaning of that at least. Look, how about we watch some movies and you take fucking notes on how to actually fucking do this shit.” You are 99% sure this is just an excuse to just watch romcoms. But you just roll your eyes with a smile and just go with it. 

Even later that night when Tavros finally returns to the room you are on the couch trying to look suave and cool but you are probably failing. “Uh, hey Tavbro, sorry about earlier. Um, sooo by chance would you be down to see a motherfuckin movie or maybe um just chill the fuck out somewhere, get some food or whatever. If you want to.” You look away avoiding eye contact. 

“Uh, yeah, that um, sounds like fun. I’d be uh, down to see a movie with you.” In your peripheral vision you can see he is biting his lip. He says the next thing really quickly. “Imeantotallyinafriendwayofcourse!” Your smile falters a bit before you force it back on your face. “..cool, great, yeah, of course..” Your voice sounds a bit strained. Wow this is going badly. 

“Well, um, does tomorrow night sound up and good with you?”

“Y-yeah, uh, sounds great.”

“Wicked. Um, anyway I’m just going to uh..” you gesture towards the bedroom. “..sleep and, yeah.” You abruptly stand up and quickly yeet yourself up into your bed and burrow into your blankets with amazing speed. You bury your face into your pillow to hide the shame written all over your face. You really dicked this up huh. After a few minutes Tavros eventually comes into the room and heads to bed. At least you assume that as your face is buried into your pillow at the moment. It takes you a while but eventually you drift off to sleep. 

#chapter 4

[fantroll-purgatory]

Hey, as someone who’s still going through the slow process of conceptualizing a bunch of Pride trolls, I can vibe with this guy! I’m going to put a big ol’ trigger warning up top here since I openly discuss issues of homophobia and transphobia in the review below. Please stay safe!

(tw: mentions of homophobia and transphobia)

Universe:Beforus

Hmmmm. If he’s Beforan, I might even say that his outfit is too conservative! While a sample size of 12 isn’t that big, what we’ve seen of Beforus is that trolls will take the aesthetic of a subculture and hit it HARD.

Name:Gaeiiy Ryggtz

Hah. Okay so this is obviously a fun name. If you wanna go a little bit more subtle, I would suggest Getran (gay/trans) Ynemak (backward surname of Frank Kameny, who was one of the first folks to file a claim against orientational discrimination in a U.S. court)

Age: 6.5 Sweeps

Theme: Colors and everything related to it,like rainbows or prisms

Got it! As I said before, Beforan trolls tend to have a specific subculture around which they’re based rather than a more nebulous theme, and based on the original name you gave him it’s pretty clear what that would be. That said, since the rainbow is for the entire LGBT community, I would consider possibly making your troll trans/nonbinary!

Goal and story: He is a mutant who likes being a mutant and would fight against the hemospectrum hierarchy and make every caste to be equal in power,for this, he must spread the love to make Beforus a beautiful place.

Quick note: the goal is for what you want us to do in our review! Since you haven’t specified, I am assuming that this is a general review of everything you’ve submitted.

Before I dig into the meat of the rest of your bio, I want to address this part, because based on what we’ve seen of Beforus, it does not broadcast its oppression as clearly as Alternia does. Where Alternia is an out-and-out fascist dictatorship, Beforus’s Condesce (if she is indeed called that) is an adult Feferi Peixes, whose views on the hemospectrum have more to do with coddling those who sit below you on the hemospectrum. How might your troll fight against that system?

If we want an example of how such a society might look in regards to gay and trans rights, let’s look at common criticisms of liberal politics with regards to the LGBT community, which includes support for trans people if(f) they “pass” completely as the “opposite” gender to their assigned one (a standard which is much stricter than for cis people), and support for same-gender attraction so long as it’s tucked away and isolated from straight society (a standard which can be further evidenced in biphobia towards multi-gender attracted people for “muddying” what should be clear-cut waters). All of this tied up with a biiiiig heaping of disdain for gender non-conforming people.

So how might we translate these norms to Beforus? Perhaps trans people are, once again, only accepted if they “pass” completely as the “opposite” gender to their assigned one, such that nonbinary people and trans people with a more complex understanding of their presentation are pushes either to stop identifying as trans/nb or to allow a better-versed highblood to “help” them fit into such gender norms.

Sexuality tends to be trickier since it’s stated (though not implied 🙄) that trolls are largely bisexual and preference for only one gender (though lbr it’s mostly for one’s own gender) is considered odd. I will get to that a little bit later in this review!

Strife Specibus: Flag Specibus,he uses a flag to fight.

Love it. 🏳️‍🌈

Fetch modus: Help, I have no ideas.

If he’s rainbow themed, how about a Colorblock Modus that captchalogues based on predominant color? Only problem is that whenever he wants to retrieve something the modus ejects *everything* of that color. I can also see it being weaponized in a fun way!

Blood Color: Rainbow =D

I still don’t really know how to *do* rainbow, since I feel like it would show up as sludge in his veins? What would it mean in terms of psychic abilities or resistances or strength or even his place in society? We assume that he wouldn’t be killed for being a mutant, but being a rainbowblood stretches the bounds of Beforan rules that if find difficult to incorporate into this review.

Based on the sign you gave him below, it looks like you wanted him to be a mutant limeblood, basically. Which works, but I also feel that that is a common choice when people want to justify their mutantbloods to us, if only because Karkat and Kankri are our obvious examples.

So here’s where I wanted to get back to the same-gender attraction thing, because I think it plays well into how to make this choice.

You say you want a mutant, you say you want someone who works toward justice, and you say you want a gay man.

We can do all of that if you’d allow me to make him a jade/teal cuspblood.

Teals are very strongly about justice, and it fits well for his theme as someone who is working to make Beforus a more inclusive place across the spectrum.

Jades are also a good pick since they’re associated with rainbowdrinkers, which gets you a stone’s throw from this blood color. THey are also heavily heavily coded as gay-equivalent, especially when we consider the Friendsim info that jadebloods are forbidden from pailing by tradition on Alternia, which is pretty obviously a direct parallel to gay marriage. Given that we’re on Beforus, it’s likely that such pailing is accepted, but even in today’s society we can see that the right to marry is often brandished as a sign that we’ve “won” and no longer need to fight for our rights.

As a cuspblood, where does that leave your troll? Where does he fit within the codified hierarchy of Beforus?

Symbol and meaning: Canpio, sign of the effervescent.

…This is a first, but I’m not sure I agree with any of the three things you combined to get your sign! Firstly, I did change his blood color, so that’s on me. Secondly, as someone who’s trying to change the hemospectral hierarchy, he’d be a Dersite for sure. Finally, I don’t know that he’s a Light player? I think I see where you’re coming from since his theme was rainbows and prisms, but you haven’t built a character particularly hellbent on collecting information.

That said, I don’t particularly want him to be a Blood player, lest he become dangerously Karkaty. So how about we invert the difference and see how he fits as a Breath player? Someone who pursues his own individual freedom, but incidentally gives others the strength to move forward as a consequence?

If we go with that, he’d fall somewhere between Libun, Sign of the Escapist, and Virun, Sign of the Eager. Vlibrun, Sign of the Eagcapier no wait that doesn’t sound great.

Trolltag: chromaticJusticer

Tips the hand a little too readily, in my personal onion. May I suggest prismBreak [PB], like prison break, both in terms of destroying the hemospectrum and it terms of freedom from the unjust?

Quirk: wr1te2 1n ^ll 12 c^2te2 ^nd u2e2 pr12m2, ^l2o nub2 (=B.

That is a lot! But then again TEREZ1 PYROPE SUR3 4S H3LL EXISTS so who am I to judge. That said I’m finding the quirk a little bit hard to read, so if I may suggest it be A Lot in a different way:

WR1TE2 1N △LL C△P2 △ND U2E2 PR12M2 TO CONVEY HI2 MULT1CHROM△TIC 2PLENDOR

The introduction of caps and the change of the carat to a triangle makes it harder for the eye to skip over the quirk when it appears.

Special Abilities: I was thinking of him having the abilities of all castes while still looking like a canon mutant (Karkat or Kankri) but I don’t know if this would be a lot.

I think it would indeed be a lot, and you would have to figure out how such a being would change things in Beforus! Beforus is still based on a fairly rigid caste system, and they wouldn’t see a rainbowblood and think “oh shit let’s just let this dude be in charge of everything!” He would be coddled by his “superiors!” How do you think your supposedly peaceful troll would get out from under that thumb while maintaining his pacifist leanings?

Lusus: I don’t know what kind of Lusus would fit him,but it’s also rare for mutants to get chosen by one,so I can stick with him being Lususless.

Sure! I will say that if he’s a jadeblood cusp he could possibly just like. Grow up in the caverns with some lusii that haven’t picked grubs.

Interests: Gaeiiy likes to experiment with lights while he isn’t fighting highbloods,he collects prisms and has a big collection of LEDs,lasers, flashlights and other things that emit lights.

Personality: He is the center of the universe and others find him interesting and kind,he is full of joy and cheerfulness,he is also peaceful and it’s hard to make him cry or make him mad.

So why, then, is he fighting for anything? His soul is not at unrest. Perhaps this speaks to a personal failing, but I find it deeply difficult to fight for things that don’t upset me on some level. I also don’t quite understand the “center of the universe” thing – are other trolls content to let him do as he please? Again, why is he fighting if he faces no opposition?

If you wanted to swing this in one direction, it could be that he’s so unplugged from the real-world oppressions thrust upon other jadebloods (thanks in part to his tealblood status) that he is complacent. This would definitely make him likable! He’s like, a jade, but not one of those jade jades. He’s actually cool about it and stuff. And while such an attitude may cost him the friendship of fellow jadebloods, who needs ‘em? Look at all the friends he has! He’s colorblind, he doesn’t see blood, he doesn’t understand why people want to rock the boat. (Note: if you take this tack then you may need to change a whole lot more about the character because this is no longer someone who is interested in fighting the status quo! That version of your troll would be a Prospitan for sure.)

On the other hand, how can we take someone joyful and likable and give them reason to fight highbloods? Well, they could be someone who joyfully fights highbloods when they try to stomp them down! There are some revolutionaries who might like that very, very much! And while it’s true that he’d need to feel very strongly about the cause to fight someone, it doesn’t have to be the driving force behind his actions! He can fight highbloods because he loves having his own independence, away from coddling bluebloods who think they know what’s best for him! And this makes him likable because people are inspired by his gumption and his brazenness in flaunting the rules!

Lunar Sway: Prospit.

Like I said above, I have reasons to believe he’s Derse unless you think he’s okay with the current system.

Title: ??????? Of Light?,but I also get some heart vibes from him.

And as above, I think he’s actually a Breath player! If I had to guess, he might be a Knight of Breath, fi you want to write an arc for him where he initially *doesn’t* want to rock the boat to take his freedom, but eventually grows into it.

Land: Land of LEDs and Storms.

A land full of Christmas like decorations and full of clouds that are telling you to give up on your quest,but Gaeiiy knows that even being stroke by a ray won’t stop him from ascending.

This one doesn’t need to change the name even if your Aspect does, since Storms can absolutely be a Breath thing. I do wonder what his quest would be, though…maybe he needs to part the clouds just enough that Skaia can reflect a rainbow against the torrent? It doesn’t necessarily mean your troll needs to *do* the quest; it just needs to be there.

Let’s get to this young man’s redesign. As always, we’re going top to bottom!

The most important design note I went into this redesign with was “LGBT solidarity,” which meant trying to hit that very fun “plausible deniability” look where strangers can ascertain that you’re *some* type of LGBT but have no real way of telling exactly which of those letters apply?

Horns - I edited these from Equius’s robot horns because there are some headcanons that these represent the “ideal” troll horns. I added a hook at the end of the rear horn for that signature jadeblood flavor! Also I added a piercing to the right horn similar to how gay men in the 90s/00s had one in the right ear to signify their gayness. (Which was fun because I was googling “which ear is the gay ear” like I was in 7th grade again lol).

Baseball cap - This one is adapted from @emspritesblog, which is unfortunately kind of dead now. I liked the fact that you had a rainbow on his shirt and I wanted to pay tribute to it somehow, so I added it to the back of the baseball cap using the blood colors closest to those of the original Pride flag!

Hair - I used a template from @fantrollartroom and made it curlier, because the asymmetrical undercut is like *the* look as far as I know.

Eyes - I wanted to nod back to the fact that you wanted a Karkat-adjacent design, so I edited his eyes for your troll.

Mouth - …and the mouth. But I added some fangs for that jadebloodyness

Binder/tank and symbol - I took the jade and teal symbols I suggested and tried to smoosh ‘em together a little bit! 

Flannel - ahhhh the flannel of plausible deniability. I made is a jade/teal gradient to emphasize the cuspiness. It’s Vriska’s jacket but with all the colors swapped out.

Overall outfit - I use @fan-troll sprites quite liberally to make coherent outfits, and cannot recommend the sprite sheet enough! Since the clothing doesn’t *quite* fit a standard sprite it kind of forces you to learn some spriting as you go, which is a pretty good way to get incrementally better over time.

That concludes my review of young Gay Rights [sic]! I hope my suggestions were helpful, and thank you very much for sharing him!

-TR

#t3o-ya1r-th4-noble #gaiiey ryggtz #gaaiey #ryggtz #mutantblood #review #redesign #tr review #submission #getran ynemak #getran #ynemak #cuspblood #tealblood #jadeblood

[inquisitivewordsmith]

Messy Thoughts on the Homestuck Epilogues

The Writing Gods made it so I don’t work tonight. So, here are my messy thoughts on the Homestuck Epilogues. Don’t say I didn’t warn ya, and SPOILERS FOR BOTH AFTER THE CUT

* So, overall, I actually liked them. Actually, this is probably the most invested I’ve been in any Homestuck thing in a while. The Snapchats didn’t do much for me, and Hiveswap was cute, but again, it didn’t really grab me. Side note: I should actually finish up episode one. I wanted to do it for 4/13, but I got busy. Maybe I can play a bit tonight? 

* I think I probably enjoyed the John segments the most. I don’t want to delve too much into my life, but I could kind of relate to some of the stuff he went through. Depression, regrets, the occasional existential crisis, etc. 

* Speaking of that, the Epilogues actually addressed a lot of stuff I was disappointed the ending and everything leading right up to it just kind of handwaved. John’s depression, Terezi’s unhealthy attachment to Vriska, Jake being constantly used and abused (and *gasp* someone actually showing concern for him), Vriska’s lack of development because John ended up saving her, seeing the actual fight from Caliborn’s Masterpiece. Some of it is still not perfect (Tavros), but I was surprised at how a lot of my concerns or doubts actually got addressed. Like I hinted before, this felt vindicating. 

* Honestly, Dirk becoming the villain didn’t surprise me that much. It was one of those aspects that was built up in the story proper that we didn’t really see much. And now reading about him fusing with his other selves and the whole Ultimate Self thing, it makes so much sense, too. I do feel for the people that got invested in him, though, particularly when Dave reassures him that he’s not a villain. 

* Jane seemed like more of a reach as another villain, but I’ll be honest, I was never really that invested in her character, so I wasn’t that broken up about it. I mean, she was kind of raised as the heiress of an evil corporation, and she never experienced the consequences of such organization the way Dirk and Roxy did, so it sort-of makes sense. Again, my sincere sympathies for those that felt bonded to her. 

* Speaking of that, the only bit of “OOC”ness that kinda bugged me was Roxy being so complacent over what Jane was doing. I mean, Dirk had his reasons for doing what he was doing, but Roxy should know exactly what a Crocker empire looks like. I get that was one of John’s worries and it fueled his doubts over whether Roxy was “real” or not, but still. Not a dealbreaker, though. 

* Actually, I’m surprisingly cool with where a lot of characters ended up, even if it wasn’t pretty or ideal. I guess it’s kind of a more realistic take on where a lot of the characters would end up. I don’t think it’s inherently dark, “edgy”, or nihilistic, just kind of...there. Not everyone grows up to be great people, and as you grow up, your view of the world can get darker and more cynical. That doesn’t mean you HAVE to be cynical, but I guess a lot of people reacted in shock due to the massive change between regular HS and the Epilogues. Even if HS always had some darker or sexier moments, it was nothing compared to this. I felt the shock myself, but I didn’t feel it was bad or anything. 

* Of course, that doesn’t mean I thought the Epilogues were perfect, either. There are some personality changes that I thought were kind of a stretch. Killing off WV and ignoring the other major Carapacians and sprites (besides Davepetasprite) seemed like a needless gesture to make it more “adult”. And as much as I am genuinely invested in the story and where it goes next, I’m also annoyed at the obvious sequel bait. I mean, you could assume it’s an “And the adventure continues..” kind of deal, but I think the letters John left in the Meat timeline were way too specific not to warrant follow-up. 

* The one element I genuinely loved was the dialogue, though. A lot of it felt very Homestuck. Dave and Karkat had a lot of great dialogue. So did John and Rose, but they didn’t really get to interact that much. 

* Which Epilogue did I enjoy the most? I dunno, I’m kind of leaning more towards Meat, but I’ll have to reread it. There’s a lot of events that I like in both, though. Like, I’m iffy on Davebot and would prefer Dave and Karkat together, but I’m also so damn glad to see Karkat as a rebel leader flourishing as the badass he always was. Also, the hilarity of Meenah co-leading the rebellion. Roxy’s whole plot in Meat was also so interesting, but so was her talk to John near the end of Candy. I also really liked the little we saw of the kids (Harry Anderson, Vriska Lalonde, Tavros Crocker/English). Ugh, it’s hard to choose. 

* I’ll have to reread Meat at some point, though, to catch on some stuff I didn’t before. Like, I only just found out that Meat Calliope was drawing (Vriska) and Gamzee’s disgusting make out session, which I didn’t notice back then. Also, the fact that both Johns ended up interacting with the same Terezi. If Terezi had her conversations with Candy John first, then met up with Meat John, it would explain why she grew that attached to him despite not spending much time with him. It was kind of fun reading Meat first and seeing how everything there affected Candy. 

* I guess that’s all. There’s tons more I want to talk about (Jade, Rose and Kanaya, Gamzee’s entire role, etc.), but I think I got enough. DM me if you’re curious about my thoughts on those, I guess.  

Just a few questions:

* Did anyone else get a post-credit vibe from both postscripts? 

* Didn’t Eridan already apologize to Feferi? Or was that from the Game Over timeline? I genuinely don’t remember. 

* Where the fuck was Equius this whole time? Even Nepeta got to be the butt of Karkat’s jokes (again). 

#iw's thoughts #homestuck #homestuck epilogue #upd8

[inverumlibertas-blog]

===> Nights in the past, but not many...

|Terezi Megido|

It's barely been 48 hours since your lusus returned with no letter from your dearly beloved Kanaya, and you've more than raised hell about it. After taking your motorcycle down to the collective's local dim season location and beating the hell out of their toughest bruisers for information, you proceeded to curse them with plague, throwing down a smoke bomb that scattered nanobots all around the area that would seek out trolls and cause rashes. 

 You only refrain from killing them because you know Kanaya's still out there. She would hate it if you killed them, she was always a softie like that. Brutalizing animals but having the naivety to trust a troll. 

 You hoped to glean something from those disgusting layabouts in the forest, but apparently they had all been too busy pissing on each other's unkempt beards and crying about Troll Facebook to actually pay attention to whether they had killed your closest friend, whether she had escaped, or which direction she had run off in. Your hand hovers over your left pocket, where you keep your crystal dagger, and you take a deep breath as you board your hoverbike, boots locked in and a pack strapped to your back with your walking stick. 

 You wanted to stay off grid as much as you could. Gamble online here, pawn some things there, pick up basic necessities now and then -- cash is king, and you always kept it handy. You wonder if information is something you need a line of credit for -- you wonder how well that information is guarded. You're prepared to do anything, but you're still hesitant about that.

Your broker agreed to deal with you, but they seemed incredibly wary about it, not having much of any information on you. Megido, maroon, 5'4. Information you could get from a sweeps old biometric scan rudimentary enough to be used as login information for an online game. Your contact is nearby -- in an alley by the flickering advertisement for Stay Neon cosmetics that always causes your scanner to fumble while parsing it. You requested no recorded surveillance, but you really have no idea if they'll honor that. You'll have to trust that the information at least won't leave the broker's husktop, though you don't want to. Even if you took your glasses off, you probably wouldn't be able to notice a surveillance device. You're a good judge of character, not cameras. 

You park your hoverbike and lean it against a dingy wall that smells like dusty plaster, stepping into the alleyway. You can't see it, but you can feel the damp shadow cast over your body by the lack of moonlight when you pass through. A faint, sour odor, though you can't place it, and don't want to. "Gee, I sure hope I don't get jumped in this alleyway all by myself!"

A fantastic code phrase for identification, engineered by yours truly.

|Feferi Serket|

“I know,” you tsk mournfully, “I know it’s hard, in this night and age, to find someone to be with, who wants to be with you. And to think you had something real, only to find this? I- I know, but those are the facts.” 

 You’re sitting at your desk, where you’ve been stuck for the past thirty minutes with your hand heavy over your eyes, keeping a headache at bay. Thirty minutes!! Thirty whole damn minutes. You could have planned a murder and been done with this whole mess in that time, but no. No, this emotional Blueblood was clearly more interested in whining to you because his Boyfriend was seen across town with someone else. Of course you’d had them looked into, and this wasn’t the first time it’d happened, but you’ve decided to keep that to yourself. He’d only paid for last night, after all. This, however, did not assuage his sudden grief. Your hand drops against the hard exoskeleton of the desk and you roll your eyes at the communication device in your ear, glancing over at it as though it – or he – could see you. 

 “I can't release everything to you without proper clear- Yes. Yes, I’m aware, but I did not cause your partner's infidelity, sir. This company is not liable for that, we just found it out for you. Yes. Sir, yes, I know. Not without proper clearance, as you well know when you signed your papers, it’s in the agreement. I know you’re sad. I know it hurts, dear, I am sorry for your loss.” You keep your voice just cheerful enough to slide through the thin wall of polite empathy and non-offence. You’re just floating, now, trying to get him off the line. You weren’t a therapist if you could help it and he hadn’t paid you nearly enough to care about this for much longer. 

 “Well, if you do decide to follow through with that, I know an excellent crematorium. Yes! Yes, I’ll have it forwarded. It was good to speak with you too. Mhmm!! You have a good night now.”

You hear the call line end in your ear and your head drops to your desk dramatically. Ugh!! Ugh. You stand up to stretch a little after that, eyes unseeing of the bright white room that was your office, already focused on your glasses screen, sending data packets to some of your operatives and making notes to get the crematorium’s number to your now – thankfully!! – ex-client. You pause, considering just how serious he might have been about killing the jade for his indiscretion. You roll your eyes again, listing to one side and pulling a face. God, if he was willing to whine to you for that long, he’d probably go through with it. Fine, whatever, you send a message to Anisce to send the boy a warning. It was out of your hands now, better or worse. 

 Your wrist starts to vibrate in pulses, and you turn your wrist up to look at your watch. Ah. You’d been waiting for this. Your other wrist flicks out and you finger down the holo-display, the bright whiteness of the tile fading down to blacks and blues, dimming the whole thing. You press something else, as you sit back down, to lock the door. The display outside flickers from a light blue smiling crocodile to a red one, sunk up to its eyes in digital water, eyeing everyone who passed suspiciously. It was, frankly, one of your more favorite customizations.

 A low grumbling noise vibrates the floor, and you smile softly. “Give me another hour, and ill have your food sent up.” You say to no one in particular, and you’re answered with the sound of sloshing water as she slips back under the pool.

“Eyes on.”

Your glasses display flickers, and suddenly you’re staring at a troll in an alley, under one of many Stay Neon Cosmetics signs peppering the City floor.

A short troll walks out of the shadow and into the hollow buzzlight of the sign. She’s young, probably just off of the nursery continent. She’s covered head to toe in white leather, white helmet, White mask covering the lower half of her face. 

 She points to her left eye, and the inner circles of its cybernetic iris bring the other troll into focus. 

 “The broker will see you now.”

|Terezi Megido|

Most of the aesthetic is lost on you, your scanner reading back to you simple things. Cybernetic eye, white leather, simple biometrics - height, species, things that don't matter too much to you. You give a thumbs up, you're sure there was some kind of mysterious pageantry you just missed out on, and you like to pretend to be in the loop. 

 "Well, let's get to it, then. You have resources, I have funds. I need someone found, and time is of the essence." 

 You doubt she's in any pressing danger, but she's always in possible danger. It's the price of living in this world, augmented or not. You pull a holographic card out of your wallet and hold it out in the palm of your hand. In it is a picture of Kanaya, a bit younger, cropped from a selfie you took together on the nursery continent. You tilt the card slightly and the hologram shifts, showing slight angles from 3D facial mapping. 

 "She usually tries to stay out of cities, but I need information on any sightings or surveillance footage possible." 

 Saying this much makes you uneasy. If you could track her yourself, you would, but nobody notices a grimy oliveblood slinking around in the gutters unless you offer financial incentive.

|Feferi Serket|

The Small Troll doesn’t respond, doesn’t move at all, really, until she’s presented with the holocard. Then she’s slow, deliberate, between looking at the face of this maroon, to moving forward slowly, to staring pointedly at the card in her hand. 

 She doesn’t move or speak, without your say so. You’ve already got colorful displays emanating from your desktop and your wrist projectors, both of the troll in front of you – er-the troll in front of the proxy - and the woman on the card. You’re running facial recognition on the card, and aging it it up and down at least five sweeps to cover your bases. You flick a finger and set it to keep the line to Vriska on hold, just in case you needed the Nursery Database files. Meanwhile, the Proxy stands there, staring at the card, awaiting your instruction. 

 Your fingernails tap on the edge of the chair. That’ll take a minute or two to run through and triple check itself. You refocus on the proxy visuals. You could do a lot with a few minutes. 

 “Look at her again. Prepare to speak.” 

 The Woman in White stands straight again without word or warning, staring at your client, unblinking. You take her in through your secondary set of eyes. Something doesn’t set right. Shes almost familiar, but you comb through so much on a nightly basis, that hardly tell you anything. Still…. Something beeps on your right and you glance over, and smile satisfactorily. It wasn’t a full facial match, and it was from sweeps ago, but the probability of you being right was high enough, you’d take the risk. Best case, you intimidate her, worst case, you’re wrong and you play it off, and she lets down her guard. Or, you know, spooks and knifes the proxy, but you like to stay optimistic. You open your mouth to speak, and it comes out of your proxy’s mouth. 

 “Hello, Miss Megido, It’s a pleasure.”

|Terezi Megido|

Panic descends on your frail little lowblooded heart, like a skeletal hand squeezing a hopbeast to death. Outwardly, though, you just take a breath. Your hand twitches slightly; you want to place your hand over your crystal dagger again, but you know better. Worthless little underling that proxy may or may not be, you can't just go around stabbing people to get what you want - or escape from what you don't. You're not well-bred enough for that. 

 Instead, you tilt your head slightly to one side, flip the hologram off, the card back into your pocket, and the LEDs on your sunglasses display little blinking inquiry hooks where it normally displays fake eyes. 

"So can you do it or not?" 

 You're scared out of your mind, but you can't afford to piss yourself in an alleyway. You wouldn't be able to live with yourself if you contributed to this stench.

|Feferi Serket|

You’re sitting comfortably, legs crossed petitely under and to the side of your chair. You’re relaxed, all the displays hovering above the desk now, leaving your hands free to fold over one another just in front of your chin. You grin over them, eyes alight with the rush of near victory at the ways she tenses, the ways she challenges you. You’d been right.

Your words continue to ghost through your much less reactive operative. 

 “I can, and am. And you can calm down, Megido, if I turned in every Off Grid troll that asked after my help, I wouldn’t have a very interesting clientele, would I?” 

 Your head tilts with the question, but the Woman in White remained stoic as ever. As pleased with yourself as you generally where when even small gambles paid off, something still wasn’t in its place. Your eyebrows pinch lightly, and you send a command to re-run Megidos known features in conjunction with the name. 

“And I do like interesting. Now, About payment. What exactly did you have in mind?”

|Terezi Megido|

You steel your nerves, roll your shoulders a little. 

 "Obviously I prefer not to pay through a credit company. I have old world gold coins that would fetch a pretty price placed in the claws of a collector or reclaimer, gems, paper money, hexes. It's a noob move, perhaps, but for such a simple operation, I'm sure you can afford to give me a reasonable price." 

 You have a feeling the broker is going to deny your payment capabilities and demand something stupid, but you really hope it's just a feeling. Only an idiot would turn down old world coinage -- it's worth a fortune if you can peddle it to the right old money alcoholic with their claws desperately digging at the past. Or a salvage op. Maybe it's a little radioactive, but the tumors wouldn't show up for decades!

|Feferi Serket|

“Oh I can afford it, to be sure, but I think  you and I both know you don’t want to wait on me to verify the values of all that." The Woman in white hasn’t moved since she started looking at Megido. 

You, however, are flipping through displays rapidly. Something had clicked, seconds ago. Some phrase or word, or. Something. Bells were ringing, and you needed desperately to shut them up. To know. 

The more you pulled up, trying to trace this downright ghostly line of though, the more you were realizing that it was stirring up old memories you hadn’t really wanted to hold onto, but, apparently, weren’t willing to give up yet. You tried not to care about that. You just had to verify. Dig, and verify. You wave away your view of her, the womans eye shifting with the pause, so you could refocus. 

 A few moments later, you lean back against your chair heavily, disbelieving. You rub your eyes.  It really was such a small fucking world,  wasn’t it. The iris rings spun again in their reawakening as you look through them, trying to take this woman in. What you could see of her, anyway, as your hands now gripped the arms of your seat.

 And sure enough, there it was. The memory clicked into place, flickering like a bad projector. Your bubbly exterior sweeps away with it, and you’re left bitter, and angry, but, to the benefit of her general well being, not at her. 

 You take a deep breath, and sit straight-backed, as your desk finally beeps a match at you. Fine. Time to end this. 

 “I’ve found pictures of Kanaya, Surely a little bit of cash and the promise of a favor or two would suffice?”

|Terezi Megido|

"You wanted that in modern cash or old?" 

 You bristle a little at the mention of Kanaya's name, but it's only natural that she'd be able to find that out if she had yours. She probably has info on the nursery island. That has to be it. Still, you slip your backpack off of one shoulder and pull it to the front -- a pair of shimmering, holographic dragonfly wings burst forth momentarily and flutter before dispersing. 

 Your claws hover over several different parcels, waiting for confirmation.  You have no idea what kind of a favor she could ask of you -- you doubt she believes in your hexes. 

 "What would I need to pay you to update me if new information becomes available?"

|Feferi Serket|

You watch her impatiently, as she pulls off her dirty pack and starts to rifle through it without putting up a fight, and you pull a face of minor disgust. She didn’t want to negotiate; she wasn’t asking questions about what you’d found…For all she knows you could have photos from sweeps ago, entirely useless.  She’s over eager, She’s dirty, scared…and She’s, frankly, desperate. God. You close your eyes, and allow yourself the smallest sigh. Thinking about that time in your life was usually something akin to lighting a slow burning fuse that only ever ended with a pile of rubble and regret. But, somehow, you can feel that coal in your gut start to quench itself before it ever gets to really burning, and, confused, you remind yourself that it was Eridan you hated, not her.

But this sudden calm was more than that. 

She used to be kind of arrogant, in that way that people who know what they’re doing are. That is to say, not terribly boastful, but definitely accurate. Dangerous, in that way, and you’d liked that about her. She got what she wanted, dealt fair, and played her odds. It wasn’t something one was often given due credit for, as anyone could run a FVRRP guild bank, but to run Aradia Captors Guild Bank and make it dance the way she used to – That. That was a skill. That was a whole subset of skills. That Megido would have given you a run for your money, but you pull yourself from your memory. She was somebody you could have, maybe, looked up to, once.

This is not the Terezi Megido that you remember. You shake your head. 

But, then, who of any of you were.

“Modern Cash will do, and two favors you owe me. I don’t know what they will be, or when I will ask them of you, so do keep in touch. The Money will be a Third of my usual asking price. You may entrust it to the woman you see before you." you pause, considering her second question. 

“…On second thought, give me those coins, and I’ll add you to the mailing list. The data is streaming to you now.” 

 The Woman in White, reaches up behind her right ear to pull out a memory insert, blinking green to signify it’s been filled, and holds it just beyond what Terezi could reach.

“My Proxy will handle the rest. You know how to contact me. “ 

 Your finger hovers over the display, ready to end the connection. Everyone had changed, and you were no exception. You didn’t do friends, anymore, and besides. You had a reputation to keep. 

 “I’m sure I’ll be seeing you, Terezi.” 

 You end the call, and turn the lights back up. You had a lusus to feed.

|Terezi Megido|

Again, calling you your first name. You shake your head, squinting a little -- it doesn't show up on your glasses, but your nose scrunches up a bit. You hate the idea of owing a favor to someone like this, let alone two favors. Impersonal, smug, detached. Your lusus comes to life around your neck from where she had been hanging like a limp scarf, darting out to fetch the insert, delicately between sharp teeth. She's always had a pretty good sense about playing along with you, almost like she can sense what you want. She coils back around your neck easily and drops the info right into your waiting hand, and spirits above, a part of you wants to just dart off; hop on your bike, sand your horns down and get a new anonymity schtick. 

 The other part of you is a cynical witch who values her life and knows not to double cross someone whose sinister aura manages to shine despite not even being physically present. 

 You count out what you need and hand over your payment to the proxy, along with little hex bag. "For good luck," you say, and you don't wait for a response from the Woman in White before you're back on your bike and heading away, somewhere, anywhere that isn't that alleyway.

#long post #narrative #plot #dylidae