Homestuck 1: Stuck at home with the horror
So I began this process staring into the gaumless eyes of this fucker.
I was asked to name him, but any hope of choice proved to be illusory. No matter. I guess I’m John Egbert. What followed was a feverish traipse through his (my?) 13th birthday, which began with a quest to acquire arms. I don’t remember ever actually acquiring the arms (only the fake ones), but the fucker used a computer several times after this part. He was never drawn having arms except when using the computer, but I digress.
A quick use of the chatroom (called ‘PesterChum’, which can only be described as lovingly annoying. Given what online social platforms have become, this is a prescient glimpse into the mind-curdling miasma of modern social media) sets us on a quest to steal some mail from our dad, who is apparently an eldritch force of nature.
Exploring through the house felt like, well, you know what Chekhov’s Gun is? This felt like browsing Chekhov’s fucking Armory. Or maybe this is just a bunch of goofy one-offs (probably not, but I dunno). All of it felt sliiiightly off, and I was surprisingly on edge for much of the exploration through John’s house.
Anyway, a fight with Dad and some slapstick gets us the mail, and we retreat back upstairs, where we have a sudden existential moment where we feel hopelessly stuck… at home. I wasn’t expecting this sort of emotion right out the gate. Also, I don’t think this sentiment hit quite the same in 2008 as it does in 2020.
Now a quick non-narrative note: this comic is set up so much like it has some sort of gameplay. It has this interesting inventory management system, and during the fight with dad, there are options on the screen to click like in a JRPG, but, at least so far, I’ve never had any luck accomplishing anything any way other than by clicking the ‘next’ button.
JTS signing off. Remember to keep scrounging













