#bro coded

[mommy-mortis]

After you run a train on me please high five

[girlbowser]

updated bro-coded, my homestuck self insert/isekai. been a bit, so i'll summarize the premise:

Your name is EMMA, and you're having a Homestuck dream again. You find yourself entering your apartment on April 10th, 2009. Your shades look stupid as fuck indoors, but actually no they don't. You see your lil' bro Dave on the couch and acknowledge him with a nod. And then you get a phone call from Roxy, realize she's been isekai'd into by your friend Viri from real life, and the illusion shatters. Luckily... these bodies didn't exactly come as blank slates. But even with Roxy and Dirk's help..... can Viri and Emma somehow change fate?

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

and if you've never checked the fic out, start here!

[girlbowser]

that intermission was kinda sad because those kids looked at their guardians trying to be better and are like "What's your angle"

And it isn't even a change come from introspection and genuinely changing, their guardians got specifically replaced by different people.

God, the angst that's gonna cause them if they figure it out

there's a few big things about bro-coded that are worth noting.

one - obviously, this is operating under the thematic consequences of Act 1's reality. (really good post that informs a LOT of the philosophy of bro-coded, worth a read.) act 1's Earth is not a real place, it's not filled with real people. Early John, when Rose starts modifying his house, cannot give less of a shit about his sense of reality rapidly unravelling -- his sense of reality did not really exist as a coherent thing in the first place, because it's just a series of symbols, a series of ideas.

(click READ MORE, i. ended up writing a LOT)

part of that is that the guardians are ALSO just ideas, and not people. i can't find who said it, but there's a critique of act 6 that always stuck out to me. Bro Strider was never meant to be dave's biological father. he was meant to be a metaphor for the weird/aloof cool/shitty older brother that you don't see. he doesn't have a room, or a legal job, because it doesn't need to make sense -- he's dave's perception of a person.

like, the point that post was trying to make is that there were several evolutions of who/what bro was. there's the initial state, where he isn't a person -- he's an absent, aloof older brother, with hobbies you don't understand, who you worship nonetheless. then later in act 4 he becomes a cartoon ninjadad, throwing a baby across a roof in a way that i think was still not meant to be interpreted literally, but... it was a huge change. suddenly bro actually HAS an impact on dave's life. suddenly it matters what dave's home life is like.

then by act 6, all of these conflicting shades of bro coalesced under the rules of act 6's reality. and act 6's reality is very literal, y'know? you're meant to find tragedy in the alpha guardians. you're meant to mourn humanity on the alpha earth -- we spend SO much more time expounding upon humanity's fate on alpha earth than on beta earth. the boots-on-the-ground reality MATTERS, all of the sudden, and so Bro Strider coalesces into a really, really, really, REALLY shitty person.

and i think that that's compelling, if done right! it can be good. but you have to unpack those contradictions and layers.

bro strider was not, initially, a person.

and that's what bro-coded explores.

i think i forgot to use more numbers but whatever. yeah.

point two is basically just that the beta guardians aren't people. not in the way the alpha kids are, not in the way the alpha guardians are (since they're based on characters we spent 4k pages getting to know). and definitely not people on the level of Emma or Viri, who are real people from the real world. homestuck is a game of contrasts, and bro-coded is HUGELY interested in exploring those contrasts.

throwing all of those contradictory iterations of Bro (the ideatic Bro Strider, a post-game Dirk Strider, a real human being who's a dirk kinnie) into one body?

now you've got some interesting tension.

the other big part of this tension is that like. viri and emma are very much different kinds of homestuck fan, in the way that caliborn and calliope are, right? emma IS very much into that ideatic, early MSPA iteration of Homestuck's world. she likes bro strider because she likes that version of Homestuck, she liked it when he was in play because he was cool as shit and a fantastic symbol. she never really gave much thought to his abusive tendencies because she didn't consider the world under the lens of, like, realistic consequences that Act 6 applies. (this is NOT to say anything CLOSE to "all early homestuck fans are abusers" -- it's that Emma Specifically is letting a toxic closemindedness cloud her vision.)

and like, both girls have both perspectives inside of them! sure, viri's the kind of person who'd use blorbos in her narration unironically. she's huge on the alpha kids, and on thinking about shipping, and all the tumblr calliope stuff you'd associate with her. she thinks her understanding of rose would help her win her over. but it doesn't. because her worldview is also incomplete without Mom Lalonde, who IS that same exact extremely symbolic persona that Emma likes. and on the flipside, Emma's conscience is being driven by post-act-6 Dirk Strider, an Alpha Kid, a character TONS of people hate. viri loves Dirk, but Emma's indifferent... at least until it matters.

both girls have an act 1 guardian, barely a person, more of a symbol, in their heads. both girls have an act 6 strilonde, a fully realized character, an angst machine dialed up to 12, chattering away in their heads.

for all that emma's chapters are sharp and quick and cutting and focused, and viri's chapters are slower and meandering and talky and more sentimental...

emma and viri are two sides of the same person. it's a self insert.

emma and viri are both me.

in conclusion i kinda didn't answer your question and just talked about emma and viri forever asjlfdgsdghsdsg BUT it was fun to talk about some of my ideology stuff for bro-coded!!!!

[girlbowser]

Bro-Coded: Chapter 9

Now with 100% more adorable sparkly pink flying kittycats.

Yeah! Pretty proud of this one. Has some neat twists and turns, and I think the Jaspersprite convo is very cute.

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

as always, enjoy!!! leave a comment or a kudos too, it brightens my day and puts fuel in the tank of my motivationz

[girlbowser]

Bro-Coded - A Homestuck isekai

This is a fic I've been writing for the past month or so, and it just hit 10k words! It's a dual-OC-isekai inspired by @kolbietheaggrievedwriter's fic Jumpstart (which you don't need to read before reading this fic, but it might help explain the premise).

Emma, a Homestuck fan in her early 20s, thinks she's dreaming. Bro Strider's a weird perspective to be dreaming from, but she's had weirder. Dirk Strider commenting on her actions in her head? Pretty damn weird. Her best friend Viri calling her on Bro's phone, saying that she's been isekai'd into Homestuck, and is stuck with her own brain ghost Roxy in the body of Mom Lalonde? That's when she starts shutting down, hard. With only three days to go before the meteors, a non-zero amount of troll girls pestering them, and two Strilonde kids who are about to have their lives changed forever, can Emma and Viri get it together to save their unexpected charges... and themselves?

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Check it out, and don't forget to leave kudos and a comment! I'm always down to hear reader feedback, it's the only way to improve.

[girlbowser]

hang on...are YOU the one doing the weird plush sockpuppet accounts????????

THIS IS THE FUNNIEST POSSIBLE QUESTION I COULD HAVE RECIEVED BUT NO IM NOT THE GUY.

i just have a fic about bro strider porn bots from last year thats . relevant.

[girlbowser]

Just wanted to drop in and say I love the way you write Roxy and Viri.

Take care

viri is my name irl and viri is me irl :3 (so is emma obviously, but viri is what people call me)

viri is also roxy lalonde in a trenchcoat irl ...

i haven't made much progress on chapter 6 (which will be a viroxy chapter) yet, but i have a rough outline... in the meantime, i wrote some very silly crossover shitposts between a few of my fics!

here's A Bed of Roses x Bro-Coded:

Rose stared at the two girls in front of her. Both of them stared back, blinking eerily in-sync. The girl on the left - that was familiar ground. That was her mother, displaced in time (well, really, she was the one displaced), wearing a gaudy pink cat t-shirt underneath an unbuttoned coat. She stared at Rose with something like wry, knowing amusement, even though Rose was sure her mother knew about as much as she did. The other girl was the unknown factor. Sure, she'd known that the Quad-Wizard Tournament would require participants from four schools, and one of them was from America. And sure, she knew that the odds of strangers looking like familiar people wasn't nothing, all things considered. She'd seen the front page of Imgur once or twice -- "this stranger could be my secret twin" posts weren't unheard of. But the other girl blinked at Rose with delicate bright pink eyes, and some part of her wanted to stab the impostor dead on the spot. "You look like you wanna stab me," said the other girl lightly, thick Texan accent reminding Rose of the Striders. "An' I'm not sure what I did to deserve that." Was there another paradox clone John had just lost track of? Did it make any sense at all for there to somehow be two Roxies? ...Come to think of it, it didn't make sense for there to be two Roses, either, assuming she was going to be born later this year, but -- "I love your robes, bee tee dubs," said Roxy to the other girl. "I'm, like. So fucking jealous. I fucking LOVE wizards." The other girl smiled. "Same," she said. "Was pretty goddamn happy about the letter, lawl." God, they even talked similar, accent or no. Rose cleared her throat. This madness had to end. "What's your name, anyway?" she asked the second Roxy. "R--" said the other girl, before stopping herself, sending Rose's eyebrows sky-high. After a moment, she opened her mouth again. "My name's Viri." "I'm Roxy," said Rose's mom, and oh goddammit, was she making FRIENDS with the impostor?!

and here's ABOR x Bro-Coded x Worm!

"I'm Seer, from the Brockton Bay Wards," said Rose, blandly. "Rogue, from New York," said a very familiar voice. Rose's breath caught. Without even thinking, she had grabbed the other girl, running over to a corner. "Mom?" she asked, shakily, pulling down her mask. "It's me, Rose." She was sure. She had to be right. The other girl's expression was unreadable, but Rose's breath caught in her throat when she saw the pink eyes. It had to be her. "My name is Viri," said Rogue, and Rose felt her whole world start to shatter apart. "But..." She bit her lip, and Rose just stared. "I used to try the name Roxy for myself, when I first started transitioning. Does that... mean anything to you?" "It does," said Rose, breathless. "It is you." A hand on her shoulder. She turned around. Dean. "Not that I want to interrupt whatever is happening here," her fellow Ward said, voice muffled by his helmet. "But we are in the middle of an event, Seer." He gestured at something, and Rose numbly followed the motion to find her mask still in her hands. "Oh," she said. With one last look at Roxy-- no. Viri-- no, they were on the clock, call her Rogue-- She took a deep breath, put her mask back on, and walked back over to join her team. We'll be talking more went unspoken, as she glanced back at Rogue. Rogue nodded, as if she'd gotten the message. God. This was like finding Dave all over again.

:3

i have one other secret snip... i'll post it if you leave another ask :33

[girlbowser]

Really enjoyed the latest chapter of your bro fic, I can't wait for the Roxy upd8 next chapter when it's ready to go.

Hey, thanks for enjoying Bro-Coded!!!! Asks like this make my day (and as i am currently sick in my apartment with bronchitis this is VERY appreciated).

As thanks, here's a bonus interlude I meant to release that takes place between chapters 3 and 4.

-- tentacleTherapist [TT] began pestering turntechGodhead [TG]. -- TT: I have the inexplicable urge to inform you on my relationship with my guardian. TG: oh wow hell of a coincidence i was just about to describe my urge to do the same TG: hows your mom TT: Inscrutable. She simply cannot be scruted. TT: She made a big proclamation about quitting drinking and that the world was going to end. TG: so TG: the usual completely uninterpretable momlondian horseshit TT: She did leave after I yelled at her, which is an improvement over me having to shove her out of my room. TG: well there we go TT: And your guardian? TG: fell asleep on the couch TG: didnt set any traps this morning TG: i think hes got a vitamin deficiency TT: Is that all? TG: training went same as it always does TT: I find you calling your narratively-mandatory strifes "training" to be funny on some existential level. TG: yeah well TG: bros awesome TG: and thats all there really is to say on the matter TT: I suppose it is, then. TT: This was a delightful little interlude. TG: it sure was TG: did you learn anything TT: Your brother should eat more Flintstones gummies. TT: But that aside, TT: No. TT: Thank you for your time. TG: always a pleasure -- tentacleTherapist [TT] ceased pestering turntechGodhead [TG]. --