#earzo7

[elfstuck]

Yeah, we don't know about the whole browser-crashing business.

My old computer has limited memory. This is not the first flash thing that has crashed Firefox on me. It’s nice when I can get it to do so consistently so I can remind myself, “Don’t do THAT.”

Can switch between Ctrl-T and normal. If I switch back in a place where John can’t move, trying to move him freezes the browser until I close the tab. If I keep trying to move him, it freezes more, and can lock up the whole thing.

[elfstuck]

Yeah, I'm going to have to say that Homestuck isn't just FAIRLY complex. It's VERY complex, but still easy to follow if you take it slow. You have to understand that it is just as easy for people who understand it to not think of it as hard as it is for people who don't to cry on the floor because they have no idea what's happening.

I… good to know? Why would people who have no idea what’s going on continue reading the story? (Rhetorical. Does not need an answer. Many people stick with “entertainment” they don’t understand or even don’t like; I don’t need a greater understanding of their reasons.) I am looking forward to the surreal aspects become complicated instead of just random.

[elfstuck]

Honestly, the thing about the sun being painted on the telescope sounds like something that would happen in the Egbert household. Or any other kids, for that matter.

I know I considered similar tricks when my kids were young. “Nope, no TV tonight; not working, see?” *covers TV screen with black construction paper*

Unfortunately, my kids were a bit smarter than John seems to be, and they saw through my tricks.

[elfstuck]

You know what a lathe is, correct? I can assure you, it does have blades. How else would the lathe lathe? Summoning the power of the Wood Carving Gods?

The lathe doesn’t have blades. (Or at least, a standard lathe doesn’t.) It has spinny bits, and settings for how fast it spins, and how much torque is involved, and possibly the height and so on. You apply blades to whatever’s stuck in the lathe (in this case, presumably a totem; hopefully that’s short for totem pole, because anything else would just be disturbing).

I am going to believe that John will not be the one applying the blades to the contents of the lathe. The universe, or at least tT, knows John should not be operating sharp and pointy objects, and will strive to keep them away from him.

Please do not attempt to convince me otherwise. I wish to maintain my delusions as long as possible.

[ask-lobac]

(inbox cleared)

[elfstuck]

I would honestly recommend that you don't ease up on spoilers. If something is meant to be spoiled, the story will tell you directly.

That’s the intention, but it’s possible I’ll change my mind about that later. I may decide “this particular topic, I want to be told everything about RIGHT NOW.” (And then I’ll google for the wiki and do a braindump of everything I found out.) But it’s more likely that I’ll continue to not want spoilers

[elfstuck]

Is there any chance we will get a rough guide to the kinds of things that are spoilers to Elf without giving out any spoilers? If the length of the story is a spoiler, then there might be other odd details that are spoilers, right? Such as stuff on the music page, and character names?

Character names are not spoilers. Not at this point; after several years of hearing friends squee about Homestuck, I’ve heard a lot of the names. The fact that there are trolls named Karkat and Eridan and Aradia… got that. Have some vague idea what they look like. Might have some idea of personalities, except I’ve worked to forget some of the details.

The fact that there are trolls would be a spoiler, except that that ship has sailed; that toothpaste is not going back in the tube. Some basics of troll biology are not spoilers, for the same reason… having had discussions about the purpose(s) of troll nipples and nesting habits of grubs, it is no longer a surprise that these things exist.

Lengths of sections are spoilers. I know there are several acts of varying lengths; I’d like to be as surprised as possible as I sort out which ones are longer and shorter. At this point, details about the structure are almost more spoiler-ish than plot and character details. Things like “Characters X and Y are romantically involved” are less spoilerish than “Character X talks with purple swirly text.”

I *know* there are romantically involved characters. (Or close enough.) I know there are characters who use drugs (although I don’t remember which), and characters who get into fights, and characters who are jerks to other characters. I *don’t* know that anyone talks with purple swirly text. I don’t know if anyone only appears in flash scenes and never in static drawings. I don’t know if there are particular sounds or tunes associated with some characters. The parts of Homestuck that are multimedia-esque are more likely to be surprising and intriguing than many baseline “plot” details.

The fact that something exists at all is more spoilerish, from my perspective, than the details about that something.

For example: I just realized I have no idea if there are vehicles in this story, other than Dad Egbert’s car. I have no idea if anyone drives, or rides a horse, or skateboards, or has a magical flying carpet. Finding out—even indirectly in a statement like “John gets tT to give him a ride to the mall”—tells me things I’d rather not know in advance. (Oddly, something like “they go to the mall” does not count as a spoiler at this point. The bits I’ve seen of John’s home life lead me to believe there could be malls in his life. They do not particularly lead me to believe any of his friends drives a car.) I would be more annoyed at “here is a list of the characters who drive” than “Character z’s car is a green convertible with yellow flames painted on the doors.”

I may ease up on the “no spoilers” idea, or the way it gets implemented, when some of the pieces start snapping together for me. I’m currently waiting for something to “click.” I’m not sure what, or how it’d happen, but I’m waiting for the story to stop being a random series of somewhat-wacky events and start feeling like an actual story. My attitude toward spoilers may change when that happens.

[elfstuck]

I just wanted to recommend that you don't describe the thing that's going on, but instead just occasionally post a picture of the event, it should save you some time, while still giving us an idea of what's happening.

I’ll try? Using pictures online is new to me. I still don’t have an account at any image-storage site (don’t want one; all of their terms of service make me twitchy) and I’m not used to using them. I’ve been doing some; I’ll try to do more, but I’m not likely to reduce the amount of text I use.

I mostly think in text, or at least words, not pictures. (My internal visualization skills are pathetic.) Looking at the pictures at all is a novelty to me; I have to force myself to remember that a good portion of the story is actually contained in the picture; it’s not just a reference point like a photo in a news blog.

I’m sure I’m missing several details that will be important later; I’ll cope with that. In the meantime, I’ll keep aware that I can screencap, crop & post pictures, and that I’ll probably get a better understanding of the story if I do so.