You may have noticed that my posting frequency has gone down quite dramatically over time, and that my sentences have tended to get simpler. (If you haven't, trust me, my inbox has.) I have some symptoms that have been making it increasingly difficult to write and to read, and until recently I'd been thinking of them as short-term problems that were sure to go away soon. ("I'm just having one of those days," "I'll just wait until this headache goes away," that sort of thing.) However, they're actually happening more frequently instead. Sometimes I'll feel like I know the word I want, but be completely unable to produce it no matter how long I try; sometimes I come out with the wrong word instead. I also misread words frequently enough that reading tends to become an exercise in frustration. Without going into unnecessary detail, this doesn't seem to be something I can wait out. For the moment, at least, it's something I'm just going to have to learn to work around where I can, and live with where I can't.
I'm telling you this for a couple of reasons.
- When I don't post, people ask me when I'm going to post, and when I do post, people ask me when I'm going to post again. The only answer I can give you is "when I can."
- Some people have asked me to read things for them. For the time being, I really can't. Reading more than a few sentences by anyone whose writing style and word choice habits I'm not familiar with is just not something I have the energy for. I'm sorry.
[Please assume that I've already been given any medical advice you can think of, and that any sort of sympathy or reassurance you might want to give me is going to come across as patronizing right now. The thought is appreciated, but the actual action is not something I feel able to handle just now. Thank you.]
I don't think I understand what you're asking - it doesn't actually matter how Earth is moved, or when, or why, or by who. We already know that it will be / was moved, that it was Calliope and Caliborn's birthplace, and that Caliborn brought it into his own session. Besides, the Condesce controls the god cat and thus has access to teleportation powers, and Jane already said she intends to resurrect Jade. (There's also a nonzero chance Jake is going to end up with Jade's riflekind card [favored by his alternate adult self] so he can wield Ahab's Crosshairs.) I'm afraid I'm not sure why you expect there to be an obstacle, or what you think it is.
I also think you read a thought experiment and thought it was a prediction. I don't really do predictions, but that would have been an extra silly one, because it began from the assumption that Calliope is really and truly dead, and she isn't. (Yet.)
It didn't occur to me that I needed to point that out, because the source of the idea that she's dead is Caliborn (and Hussie narrating from Caliborn's alleged point of view, which seems, if anything, even less reliable.) There are many things Caliborn does not understand.
Calliope's dream self died, but do you have any idea how many dream selves we've seen die? We know exactly what happens to the waking self of a person whose dream self has died.
They don't die. They just end up in a dream bubble when they go to sleep, which doesn't conflict with the things Calliope says about her situation.
Calliope does not knowingly lie, but she does intentionally make statements she knows her friends can't help but misunderstand.
Looking back, we can find more specific examples of her 'deception through honesty' so we can see how she accomplishes it, and how we might recognize it. The easiest-to-notice technique involves making separate statements that are individually true, knowing that her audience will try to connect them and come up with an understanding that is false.
And now we have enough information to recognize that trick when she resorts to it.
But those are her trollsona's eyes, not her own real ones. Those aren't the blank white eyes of a ghost or the ordinary eyes she says a ghost will have before they remember their death. Calliope's eyes mark her as having a separate kind of problem.
Calliope's situation is more precarious than an ordinary ghost's, but she isn't trapped in her dream bubble because she's plain old dead. She's trapped there because she can't wake up.
I meant to write a post tonight, but then Vual reminded me that today is Persona Announcement Day and then nothing else mattered for a little while. Or, in his words,
If you even knew his name, you would understand terror no human ever has.
Caliborn isn't a very scary name. Neither is Lord English, honestly. I don't think those are the names we're meant to be nervous about, though.
This, on the other hand....
Let's talk about computer programming for a second. Don't panic if you don't know anything about the subject, though, because for our purposes it's best to keep things incredibly vague.
A "destructor" is invoked at the end of an object's lifetime. (This might already be beginning to sound a bit familiar.)
It is an extremely simple ~ATH program. Its main loop is tied to the lifespan of the universe. When the universe dies, a mysterious subprogram will be executed.
Lord English can only enter a universe upon its death.
The destructor's main job is to free up the resources the object was using, now that its lifetime is ended.
When executed, the subprogram will summon an indestructible demon into the recently voided universe. This monstrous being with the power to travel through time is inconvenienced very little by his arrival upon THE GREAT UNDOING. He has the entire cadaver of the expired universe to pick apart at his whim. From its birth through its swelling maturity and tapering decay. In a reality he is known to have marked for predation, he will go about assembling followers through various epochs, even going as far as personally establishing the parameters for his future summoning.
In C++, a tilde placed in front of the name of a class is the name of its destructor. 'U' is the name used in ~ATH programs for universes.
[T]he danger he poses is sanctioned by paradox space.
It is a known quantity. His very existence in a universe will mean it will inevitably be torn apart.
But there are rules to his entry, and his grim procession through paradox space is rather orderly. The present equilibrium has accounted for him, and will continue to.
uu: I THINK PART OF MY PERSONAL QUEST. IS TO BECOME AT EASE WITH THE FORCES OF INEVITABILITY.
uu: INEVITABILITY THAT ALL THINGS SHOULD AND WILL FALL IN MY FAVOR. THAT ALL CAUSALITY ANSWERS TO ME. AND THAT ALL OUTCOMES NOT ONLY SERVE ME. BUT CONSIST OF MY BEING.
~U: Universe Destructor. That's what Caliborn's purpose is. That's what Caliborn is.
(Bringing about the deaths of countless universes isn't actually what makes him evil, though.
UU: all Universes die at some point. some sooner than others. it is all part of the cycle, and sometimes things like this mUst happen for reasons beyond oUr Understanding.
Despite what Calliope fears, her friends haven't forgotten about her.
Nor have they given up on her.
And there is a certain amount of foreshadowing to the effect that Calliope will be brought back to life at least once. As an example, there's this drawing depicting Calliope's body among those of her friends:
(Incidentally, look at the relative positions of the heads on the Dirk and Roxy squiggles. I've never been able to see this as anything but an overhead view of a corpse pile.)
And there's this fucking frog!
Just look at this garish trickster-eyed thing! If this doesn't look like a cherub Hero of Space's frog, I don't know what would. And, just in case you don't remember how Jade stumbled across it...
Send-
To recap: Jade was asleep, abruptly woke up
and some unknown party used a Transmaterializer to sendificate her a frog. (Didn't we know someone who had a Transmaterializer they used to send things to Jade...?
Located, handily enough, right next to the portal to Derse I'll be talking about later in this post!)
***
So far, only Roxy has managed to come up with a plan that might bring Calliope back: give the ring of life to her ghost. I do think that the ring is ultimately meant for Calliope, since its attributes suit her perfectly, but I don't think she's likely to take possession of it any time soon even if Aranea was willing to part with it. Also, this plan is so reasonable it can be explained in a single sentence, and that's pretty boring if you ask me. The ring is only one of a number of possible resurrection methods, though.
Let's get hypothetical.
Jane has her Life majjyks:
It seems as though she needs to target a corpse in order to perform a resurrection. Isn't is lucky that Calliope's corpse is within her reach? Of course, the kids don't actually know that yet - but between them, our protagonists have almost every piece of information they would need to piece together this puzzle.
--
What they know:
Calliope's dream self is dead.
At least three of the Nobles know. Calliope told Jake
and Roxy.
Caliborn told Dirk.
Jane probably knows, too, but if she doesn't, quite a few people could tell her.
The carapacians of Prospit have funeral processions for the bodies of dead Prospitian dream selves.
This seems to be a constant; Caliborn certainly expects it to happen to his sister's remains.
And Jane witnessed part of dream Jake's funeral procession herself.
She woke up before the procession arrived at its destination, but the procession began on Prospit's moon, where Jake's dream self died.
The mourners were carrying the dead Page towards the chain connecting the moon with its planet. It would seem that the bodies of dead Prospit dreamers are laid to rest somewhere on (or within*) the main body of Prospit itself.
*(Aradia is the only example we have of player whose dream self might have been laid to rest by carapacians, and [S] Wake makes it clear that her dream self, and her Sacrifice Slab, were inside Derse rather than its moon. However, Aradia's dream self was very weird - she never even had a tower on Derse's moon - so I have no idea whether her case is in any way relevant.)
The B2 session's Prospit and Skaia were connected to B2 Earth's frog temple.
Prospit and its portal are gone now, but Derse's would be intact; only its moon was destroyed. Gamzee has pretty obviously been using them to travel between Caliborn's session and the Nobles'.
Caliborn and Calliope grew up on the same Earth as the Nobles, far, far into its future.
Aranea knows this; it was part of the cherub exposition she subjected John to.
(Fortunately - and rather amazingly - John actually seems to have retained a lot of this exposition!
I have to say, John's really been on top of shit lately.)
Caliborn knows, as well. I'd be surprised if Gamzee didn't too.
What they don't know (yet):
Caliborn's home planet - Earth - is inside his session.
That's the only detail they'd need to learn, somehow, in order to realize that Calliope's body is much, much closer than they realize. Of course, Jane would have to be on board, but I think she'll get there.
There's even an obvious place to start! After all, there's a version of Jane, somewhere in the Medium, who neither evil nor loyal to )(er Imperious Condescension...
And the good guys have at least a hint of the old Jane left to work with.
If Jake is going to be fighting Caliborn, as Caliborn has implied, then it's probably only a matter of time before they find out that he can travel to their session, and vice versa.
And if Jake is maybe even going to win, that might be all the distraction they'd need for someone to sneak into Caliborn's session...
There can be no doubt that Caliborn hates Calliope - intensely, viciously, murderously - and yet his feelings about her are rather more complex than he'd like us to think.
On this page Caliborn is obviously talking about Calliope, whether he realizes it or not. What's interesting is that there's little emphasis on their differences ("AS WELL AS A GIRL.") Instead he's concerned with common ground and common interests...
She hasn't died forever yet.
IS SHE PARTLY A ROBOT. SORT OF LIKE ME.
Of course she is.
OH, SHE SEEMS TO BE AN ARTIST TOO. ALSO LIKE ME.
CONSIDERING SHE IS FICTIONAL.
Homestuck is a work of fiction.
SOME OTHER VERY SKILLED DRAFTSMAN MUST HAVE DRAWN IT.
Calliope is a Muse. Where Caliborn has vassals and puppets "carrying out his work in the places he cannot reach," Calliope has those she inspires - like this guy.
We can thank the above very skilled draftsman for drawing (and writing) on his Muse's behalf. Thx, Hussie.
DID SHE DRAW HERSELF??
The contents of the locked capsule were ultimately intended for Calliope; if she were to regain control of their shared body, one of the first things she'd do is turn caps lock off. Hussie left her those books for when he wouldn't be able to draw her story for her anymore. (Oh, and do please note the wings.
we sproUt them Upon ascension, as you may recall.)
Let me remind you of Calliope's plan.
Learn kindness and compassion?
Become more like yourself?
Here is all the shit Caliborn asked on just one page:
Calliope thinks her plan was a failure. I'm not so sure...
Barely qualifying is still qualifying. Time and time again, Caliborn hints that somewhere in his twisted, hateful heart, well buried, he felt something besides loathing for his "sister."
(If the word for "friends" should be "flaws," then wouldn't that meant the word for "flaws" is friends...?)
Calliope is particularly associated with serpents. Jake turning against his friends is compared to shedding the dry skin of a serpent.
Caliborn calls affection 'debauchery.'
And he attributes his interest in affection to allowing the seductive serpent of debauchery to slither into his sarswapagus. He may have convinced himself he feels nothing but pure, unalloyed hated for Calliope , but he has yet to convince me.
It is important to remember that Caliborn/Calliope are very atypical cherubs. They are the only cherubs who have ever had friends, the only cherubs who were exposed to anyone except their polar opposite, their "sibling," while they were growing up. No other 'good' cherub has ever met, let alone befriended and trusted, other non-destructive beings; no other male cherub has ever been exposed to the idea of "bros."
They grow to detest one another, and develop a view of social interaction centered entirely around animosity and confront8tion. For good cheru8s, this readies them for a long life of isol8tion, as they will prefer to avoid the sort of conflict that comes with social interaction as they have 8een conditioned to understand it. 8ut for evil ones, the contentious up8ringing only serves to fuel their inclin8tion to harm others.
8eing an asocial species, they spend virtually no time in each other's presence at all. Aside from when it is time to m8, they may go their entire lives without encountering another.
And Caliborn's way of "winning" by killing his "sister" is not only abnormal, it could not possibly result in anything like a normal predomination!
One half will prove to have a stronger will than the other. The less dominant half will then weaken over time, and it will eventually 8ecome clear to 8oth that one will not survive. The dominant personality will then completely consume the other, integr8ting it in such a way that only one is left. The cheeks will 8ecome solidly colored, and the cheru8 will grow to maturity as a single 8eing, endowed with the alignment of the dominant half, and with all his or her personal qualities at the forefront of the union.
Caliborn did not consume and integrate Calliope's personality traits. He killed her instead, and allowed the essence of her being - her soul - to escape into the dream bubbles. He didn't grow to maturity by integrating her soul into his; he just evicted her from their shared body. Their game isn't over just yet.
For the love of all that is sacred or profane, PLEASE stop asking me questions about Breath.
I'm going to finish dealing with the last few months' accumulated half-finished posts
before I even consider addressing this ravening nightmare.
But I just read four messages and three were about Breath.
I don't like any of the Heroes of Breath and don't find their dialogue memorable. I also think it's more or less a given that certain details about the title of our original POV character's aspect are being intentionally obscured for much the same reason we weren't told what a Prince was before Eridan picked up his science wand. Given that right now I can guarantee I wouldn't have the slightest bit of fun writing a post on the subject, and that there's going to be narrative payoff for the partial mystery of Breath somewhere down the line, I'm not planning to talk about it any time soon.
The 'lowest' hemocaste's lifespan is "just a dozen or two sweeps." Taking one sweep as 2.2 Earth years, twelve sweeps - the lower end of the age range where rustbloods die of old age - is 26.4 years. Some of the source of Beforan highbloods' patronizing attitudes towards lowbloods makes a lot of sense in light of this; if a rustblood might die of old age before finishing their Ph.D., why should they even aspire to higher learning? Iain (M.) Banks - who is probably my favorite author - died a few days ago; he didn't publish his first book until he was 30. Why expect lowbloods to accomplish anything much, when they have so little time to do it in?
And yet it isn't any of the lowbloods who has the most obvious issues with how unfair the extremes of troll longevity are. It's the highest of highbloods, the Tyrian would-be tyrant, who is decidedly not okay with the situation.
When they first meet in the dream bubbles, Meenah is really rather rude to Aranea, who had been waiting to see her for longer than I care to imagine.
But then Meenah catches herself, and she remembers that Aranea wouldn't have lived anywhere near as long as she would have.
If the Beforans had decided to just live out their natural lives in their null session, then Meenah would have watched everyone she knew die before her, one by one, until she had nothing left but thousands of years of solitude stretching out before her... And then, quite abruptly, Meenah's attitude changes.
Because, abrasive as she is, Meenah must love her friends. After all, she threw away thousands of years of life rather than live them alone.
Her touch could extend life, but never restore it, to her lament.
In that instant, her empire was gone. Gl'bgolyb's swan song wiped out her entire race, save the Condesce and her lone heiress, leaving the empire nothing more than a galactic necropolis of floating tombs.
The price for her service - the Condesce's side of the bargain - must have entailed her race's restoration. Of course, as a Life player (not to mention a Thief of that aspect), )(er Imperious Condescension was inclined to search for loopholes and ways out of her bargain...
The Condesce clearly cares about, and misses, her species (even genocidal tyrants with incredibly tacky taste in glitter and clowns can have some redeeming qualities, I guess.) And I can't imagine that she hasn't seen her lusus killing her newly cloned trolls every time she's tried to restore her race without it being burned into her mind that as long as she's the only fuchsia blood, and as long as only fuchsia bloods have immunity to the Vast Glub to complement their very long lives, then the trolls will always be at risk of dying the same way her Empire did.
But she might just be able to do something about that.
The Condesce once became fond of a lowblood, and, upset at the knowledge he would die long before she would, she didn't just write a poem about the ephemeral nature of life. She's a Thief - she 'steals' and 'redistributes' - and her aspect is Life. She did something about it.
Because while the Condesce could extend a single life on her whim, she could just as casually cut short that of millions.
She grew so enamored of her Helmsman and his power, she would use her touch to extend his lifespan to match her own.
And her service must be gradually drawing to a close - everything else is.
The Condesce has also persisted for ages beyond her time.
And it's possible that she knows it. One reason to name an heiress might be to prepare for the eventuality of your death. And if she were to learn that the loop that allowed her to live long past her time was inevitably going to be closed - well, until that happens, she remains in the service of a Lord who will not allow his servants to die until they've earned it. You'd need a lot of lifespan if you wanted to redistribute some to every troll lowblood, but until Lord English releases her, her lifespan must technically be very long...
Personally, though, I'd put my money on the Beforan (only-moderately-evil and antiheroic) Meenah rather than the Alternian (genuinely, deeply evil and genocidal) Meenah. I won't try to guess at how she'd do it. I'll just point out that she's proved to have something of a self-sacrificing streak...
When someone asks a question like "what are Welsh things doing in this game," Homestuck has trained me to immediately wonder "what were things from this game doing in Wales?"
You can't separate the question "why is this legendary Welsh sword in this Sburb session?" from the question "why is a legendary weapon from a Sburb session cropping up in Welsh folklore?" Dave's sword and King Arthur's sword have meanings that are inextricably intertwined, somehow.
I can't remember if there's a good name for this mechanism somewhere in canon. For the time being I'm going to call it "resonance." This "resonance" is the reason that some nameless ancient Greek looked up at this part of the sky:
(taken from here)
and decided "That looks just like a man/horse! Oh, and the man/horse also likes archery."
Resonance also explains why humans would tell stories about fairies that actually describe trolls fairly well on a number of points. Here's the second paragraph of the Wikipedia entry for "Fairy," with a few annotations:
Fairies are generally described as human in appearance and having magical powers. Their origins are less clear in the folklore, being variously dead,
or some form of demon,
[Her recurrance in history would earn her the reputation of a demoness, more feared than even her master]
or a species completely independent of humans or angels.
Fairies are otherworldly in appearance but can be attractive to humans, not to mention attracted to humans. They are said to be ruled by a Queen, who is beautiful, regal, and seductive, but also powerful and dangerous, and whose husband is much weaker than her or else is absent altogether. They can be harmful or helpful (or both) to humans, and they sometimes steal human children to raise, whether out of love or malice or simply a desire to have them as a servant. Sometimes there were two distinct courts of fairies, one relatively benign towards humans and one relatively malicious. Within the context of Homestuck, many features of fairy folklore resonate with the things we know about trolls - in other words, resonance is my name for what's happening when Little Red Riding Hood's grandmother is replaced by the big bad wolf who's swallowed her whole.
Resonance is this:
Sburb uses 'hyper flexible mythology' tailored to each player group to help them realize their destinies; a sword in a stone pillar called Caledfwlch derives its meaning from the mythology of the "real world," not from a story one of Dave's consorts told him or from any other source within his session. But the Earthly myth about Caledfwlch? That isn't inherently meaningful either - it's bullshit, crafted from elements that rose from the abyss of some storyteller's consciousness - and it contains truth despite that. It's yet another mobius strip puzzle.
Sburb uses the Arthur story as part of the 'hyper flexible mythology' it tailors to Dave, but what is true in the Arthur story is true because Dave inspired it. Hephaestus the denizen is influenced by Hephaestus in our mythology, but our mythology's Hephaestus was influenced by some ancient storyteller who spun a tale of the ultimate craftsman and had a ray of Light strike him when it was time to give his creation a name... ("Hephaestus, that sounds right. The forge-god is named Hephaestus. And his forge is.. in a volcano? Yes Im Completely Certain Of That Suddenly")
