Goodness it's been a long month between upd8s. I'm almost glad Homestuck has been so quiet to give us all time to breathe with TA:DC and Deltarune CH5 and such. I've been a bit worn down much of the month and still am, some illness/recovery (and some good HRT effects!) but I'll be doing better as time goes on. Definitely Tiredposting right now.
Last month's Artist/Writer Commentary caught up with present Beyond Canon, and now we have an update continuing from this conspicuous Baby Is You reference. Coverage start. ((EDIT: Slightly more information has been revealed about what we saw in the latest HS:BC Bonus Comic on Patreon, added to the bottom of my post.))
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Oh, are we moving on from Del'fi at that dramatic pre-battle standstill? I expected a scene-change but-- wait, from the next link, this may or may not still be Del'fi-- or wait, maybe Ly'lac, I didn't recognize her home arch and spires here at first, right next to Ly'lac's home:
> Be the baby.
OMIGOSH IS THAT A BABY NYMPH?!??!????
Did they seriously make proto-baby-squiddles even CUTER than squiddles??? Of course they did, oh gosh they're geniuses.
You cannot be the baby. Why in the world would you want to be a baby?
Especially one so unfortunate to be born during THE GREAT LOSS.
Oh, something bad might also be about to happen to this baby, especially because now that I think about it we don't know any with brown upper-organons yet. And this says it's happening during "The Great Loss", which is... lemme check the previous mentions of it:
(p819) Recently, the mere mention of it triggers a major vibal nosedive, and vaguely reminds you of the PROPHECY FORETOLD REGARDING YOUR "BIRTH". Something about a global calamity, THE GREAT LOSS or whatever.
(p1075) Some simply desired to be a part of something greater, while others saw it as a way to possibly circumvent prophecy; if only a few were destined to endure THE GREAT LOSS, the subsummation of their species all but guaranteed their participation.
Okay, so "THE GREAT LOSS" absolutely refers to The Reckoning coming down on Deltritus, and the meteors on the last page and this page are present day meteors. Meaning this is a present-day doomed baby. Ouch.
We've really gotta be closing in on our first Shurb Entry fast with the meteors getting this conspicuous. Isn't Ly'lac ages away from her house, and AA's present she still ought to retrieve from it somehow? Wait never mind, I'd forgotten that the second present landed right on her and she captchalogued it without opening it. So considering she already prepared for a long journey, Ly'lac might end up Entering from wherever she can next get to or concoct a computer that lasts long enough. (And Meemaw's definitely coming with, I hope, as a Kernelsprite or Guardian or otherwise.)
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Holy shit those doomed babies are so adorable.
What the fuck is that conspicuous damn Narwhal horn doing.
Her sisters seem to have unanimously agreed to take a doze in the middle of their shared birth. And on such a calamitous day!
Not that they have many thoughts about current events.
The lone fry, faithful to her instincts, makes her way to the sea, even as it begins to ache from the first percussive impacts of the song that will end the world.
Whoa holy shit, an [S] page!!! We couldn't be getting her entry so soon, could we? Unless that other present contained a working Farsphere or she has a spare unexploded computer at home and makes it there? Is she going to be carried back up from the depths on a Narwhal's back? Fuck, I'm nervous-excited, I'm not sure I'm awake enough to react to an [S] today but I'm gonna do it. No wonder the tweets said there was a newspost but I couldn't see it on the main page, it might be about the flash, unless this whole [S] is for a cartoonish drop sound effect.
FUCK IT WE BALL LET'S GOOOO
> [S] Ly'lac: Descend.
Oh my fucking god, her freaking out about this now-leisurely Meemaw descent is so fucking adorable.
Oh, is she falling asleep? Dream sequence upcoming?
WHO THE FUCK IS THAT FLYING PEGATULP FIGURE OF CHAOS
WHY DOES THAT LOOK LIKE A STRIDER-GLASSES MEEMAW-ALIKE ASCENDING OUT OF THE OCEAN ABOVE THE NYMPH DELEGATION
WAIT THAT'S THE CAGED UP OVERGROWN UNINYMPH AFTER ALL THESE YEARS ISN'T IT? THE NYMPHS MADE A DEAL TO TAKE HER HIM BACK AND THEN LOCKED HER HIM UP IN THE NEARBY DEPTHS ALL THESE YEARS.
Holy shit that was a beautiful little flash. Let me grab some screenshots...
The uni-nymph grew up incognito among the Satyrs after being given a headdress with fake (or actually not?) Satyr ears and tail. A spy that looks winged, possibly a Nymph (unless it's the later Pegatulp with grinning eyes, preparing to make an entrance having found out the secret), is hiding behind a pillar, presumably verifying his location for his further abduction. (I forgot until I checked back that Del'fi described the "Uni-Nymph's chronicle" using he/him for the figure. Possibly just the depiction of the figure in "OURAN GYMNASIKKOU HOST CLUB" and the actual figure used different pronouns, but from the wording of the page I assume Del'fi was talking about the actual historical figure.) There's also a Light aspect symbol highlighting this ancestor in this one shot, whether significant or not, possibly referring to his secret being observed or his truth being divined from afar alike. Could Rose have been involved? Would she orchestrate something so cruel? I don't particularly think so-- I'd assumed their race had simply been left to it. Light symbols are bound to be used in preponderance surrounding the race that Rose created, even as deeply connected to Void as the race may be, as per the allure Void has always held for Rose.
And then there's THIS ASSHOLE. It's clear from the cadence of the flash that this cheery Pegatulp, probably an Ancestor of one of our Satyrs, sparked off the announcement of the presumably mutually agreed deal between the Satyr and Nymph factions to capture the Uni-Nymph back into Nymphkind's custody-- from Del'fi's abridged retelling:
Despite being a largely popular anime, the show was ended after only one season, though a part of you was grateful for that. There's no way she could have translated The Council's "reclamation" of the Uni-Nymph and the slaying of Barley Frat in a school AU.
From the way this figure is flying in as a dark, cheery avatar of descending death, I'm also reminded of one of Swiss's book covers:
--Oh shit, and BOTH mention the Barley Fraternities!!! So that possibly-upside-down flying asshole in the top of that book cover is definitely the SAME Pegatulp asshole. For some reason the [S] Peruse Librarium page isn't loading properly for me on any browser, so I'll pull the text of Swiss's description of the book from the Wiki:
Rise and Fall of the Barley Fraternities
The Fraternity System, historically, has been composed of 3 tiers. Honey tier fraternities are the highest-achieving, highest-funded, and highest-power communes your society has to offer. Oat tier fraternities are one tier below, but still quite respectable institutions. Some of history's finest have been oat-tier dark horses. Grass tier fraternities are... well. You want to keep things diplomatic, so you'll just say that if you were only able to make it into a grass-tier fraternity you'd have to perform steppuku.
For a brief period, there was a fourth tier; a reclusive, monastic order of socially anxious isolationists. They spent the majority of their existence in unremarkable obscurity, contributing basically nothing, but their final decades were marked by a profound change: a commitment to revelry so infectious that it went on to fundamentally change the nature of satyr society, prompted by the appearance of a man who flew across the sea from the uninhabited Cursed Land, Australia. He catapulted their order to the highest echelons of power and influence, which you always found weird because he was just a savage degenerate.
At any rate, that didn't last long, because at some point their so-called "revolutionary" danced them all into the sea. So you guess maybe he wasn't such a fucking cool guy after all.
Connecting these two sides of the same historical events, it's unclear EXACTLY what the Pegatulp's appearance had to do with selling out the Barley Frat to be dragged into the ocean and drowned by the Nymph Council, and whether he was culpable or as much of a victim as the rest of the Frat, though the [S] we just watched definitely implies some sort of culpability. (Pegatulp-ability.) Though the hidden Nymph from the earlier panel implies The Council already had eyes on the Uni-Nymph before the Pegatulp's arrival. Did the Pegatulp trade the Uni-Nymph away from Satyrkind and sacrifice the Barley Frat for the sake of further fame and influence with Satyrkind in general? Was undermining and destroying the Barley Frat perhaps an intended goal of his, even?
Whose ancestor was the Pegatulp? (Tentatively "The Revolutionary", or was that more sarcastic?) He was too important to not be one of them, and was smiling too wide to be a disguised Dirk. In the running are Swiss's (catapulting their order to power and influence), and TC's (always shown in shadow, giving into mirthful revelry, hailing from an unknown/isolated land, Australia being "down under"). Insubstantial, possibly specious ties, frankly, not enough for firm conclusions. Either one sounds weird, as these Ancestors were clearly VERY different from their descendants, even if there's a chance they share an Aspect like Del'Fi and The Great Combiner seem likely to do-- we don't know enough of the story of this Pegatulp ancestor to say for sure, nor have enough hints of the other Ancestors to narrow it down. We know The Grey Rain was brought about by a Satyr "tyrant king" and Nymph "enchantress" working together, who now that I'm looking for mentions of the same terminology is possibly the same one who brought down The Great Combiner:
But when all seemed lost, the neptunian golem of a certain long excommunicated enchantress appeared. Then apparently she just wagged her finger, shooshed her to sleep, and tossed her back into the freaking ocean.
--and is certainly the same pair of Satyr "omnicidal madman" and Nymph "megalomaniacal heretic" who invented the ~PTH programming language together. This gives the Grey Rain pair parallels to Ly'lac and TC which may mean the Tyrant was TC's ancestor, not this Pegatulp despite the mirthful characteristics. I wouldn't be incredibly surprised if the ~PTH/Grey Rain ancestors weren't precisely Ly'lac and TC's, though. We need a little more information to suss it out.
I know for a fact people made the Grey Rain Couple -> ~PTH Couple connection earlier, but I wonder how many made the Barley Frat / Uni-Nymph Incident one since a couple updates ago, tying it together with that Rise And Fall bookshelf book? Either way I'm glad I've at least belatedly hit on it now with these more blatant hints.
There was another screen that showed the one member of the Frat shaking hands with a Nymph to seal the deal while other frat members who hid him amongst them being subdued and pinned to the ground, but I'm not fetching every frame, and in terms of what I want to analyze... On to the last big relevant screenshot of something that went by too quickly:
Is that the Dirk Strider glasses-moon in the distance visible above the shoreline, or a darkly-glaring slightly-less-ancient Meemaw? Or maybe even some Orb-like robot of Strider's / The Exemplar's overseeing the events? It's genuinely difficult to tell. Also the Nymph guards leading the Uni-Nymph back to the sea look just like the crystallized Abyssal Anchoress, which makes me wonder how they all got their Upper Organons in that shape or if they're wearing some sort of Shell over them; their "hair" below the helmline actually looks like hair more than tendrils, in this shot, though I'm probably reading too much into that.
Then Uni-Nymph's betrayed eye, teary.
Finally, no need to screenshot it, but we ended the Flash sequence on the present-day absolutely gigantic Uni-Nymph behind bars, his Narwhal-like horn thrust so high that the tip is obscured by the ceiling and possibly drilled into it. It could even be drilling and thrusting up and out of the ocean somehow, though if that's the rising spire on the previous page it'd have to be even bigger than I thought. Oh, and he's DEFINITELY awake and observing Ly'lac and Meemaw's arrival, which makes me damn well hope Meemaw wasn't the one in that earlier screenshot overseeing his "reclamation".
Gosh we got so much more out of that [S] page than I was expecting, especially in proportion to its length and complexity. Incredibly well done. Now then, on to the next page:
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OH HAHAHAHAHAH OKAY MEEMAW IS WIDE AWAKE AND KNOWS THIS MIGHT BE BAD NEWS UH OH XD
Fucking hilarious. Gee, I really really hope you weren't a part of that delegation, Meemaw! You don't want to be made all dead and Kernelsprite-Ready so soon!
Gosh I never expected the Uni-Nymph to get so much relevant play so soon as to be ACTUALLY RIGHT HERE about to be discovered. Never saw that coming.
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OH GOODNESS. She died of shock!!! D:
Those Xs above her eyes-- were her "eyebrows" her upper organon's extra eyes all along?
Poor, sweet, dear, precious, Meemaw. She was so damn old.
All that's left is to honor the deceased with a tradition that's been passed down for generations.
NOOO, DON'T EAT HER YET! KERNELSPRITE, KERNELSPRITE! Augh, none of you have any way of knowing about that yet! D:
I hope the Uni-Nymph is going to interrupt them before, well, feasting is done. Though Ly'lac looks a little too small to eat an entire Meemaw in one sitting, so maybe that'll save her for the kernelsprite (I want Meemawsprite so bad).
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OH COME THE FUCK ON
I miss Meemaaaawwww!!!!!!! (T o T)
(It's so Homestuck to mix such a tragedy with such an ace visual gag, I'm upset but I'm also dying this is too perfectly hilarious.)
On another dark note that just occurred to me... I wonder if creating an entire race who immediately eats their own dead was, in part, a morbid way of reflecting Rose's childhood-bred distaste for Funerals by averting the practice altogether.
> Ly'lac: Turn around.
THE NARWHAL wants to speak with you.
As suspected from the flash/[S], Ly'lac's long-dreamt-of Narwhal and the imprisoned Uni-Nymph are one in the same. I suppose he's taken a "seahorse" form in Nymphian wild adult-build variety. Holy shit.
That's all! What a banger update!!! Holy shit that was... SO good. So many disparate pieces coming together, so early, and giving us just enough of a taste of the lore to be craving even more to come. I'm still busy mourning the loss (barring regurgitation) of any Meemawsprite chance, but The Narwhal being (potentially!) prototyped would lead to some significantly more visually interesting and intimidating prototyped monsters.
Before I go I ought to find that news post they tweeted about...
Yup, I should've expected more warning and explicit preparation before the Big Probably Ly'lac's Entry Flash/[S]. Oh, and cool, they'll be offering more Patreon benefits than just the monthly Commentary and Art, possibly some streams?? Asking people to contribute if they can so they can do more for us and with the comic. Happy Pride, etc-- you can read the news post yourself. If they post any bonuses on the Homestuck Discord like they promised there, feel free to tell my askbox or replies, or even maybe add me on Discord and let me know. (The Homestuck Discord gives me a headache so I prefer to check only when absolutely necessary, get content exported from there to me by others in screenshots instead of natively, etc.)
See you for the likely beginning-of-month Patreon Commentary that'll likely go into even more juicy details on the flash we just watched!
((EDIT: I won't embed the image of the latest HS:BC Bonus Comic on Patreon, since you have to either pay to unlock it now or see it publicly once it's been 57 days since release, but it shows The Narwhal / Uni-Nymph still looks back somewhat fondly upon the absurd always-grinning character that was the psychopomp/Hermes-dressed Pegatulp "revolutionary", which may or may not point against intentional betrayal on his part. It also shows The Narwhal experiencing the tragedy of losing his fingers into hooves as he reached advanced Nymph age and transformed into a locked-in form.))
New Beyond Canon update, which isn't just a Beyond-Canon-inside-Beyond-Canon update! Back to the show! Liveblogging under the cut. (EDIT 1: Figured out a title/nickname I realized what was meant by, edited in right near the end.) (EDIT 2: Another clarification on re-read about that character.) (EDIT 3: Added info from @shoutyourporpoise in the replies!)
The tweet said "øpdate" so I wonder if we're getting any of TC this time. I suppose Del'fi was about to finish back-hexing him...
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This is... they invented an entire old internet pseudocode language that sounds like Del'fi. Having a whole team lets them really go all-out on each upd8 doesn't it.
Anyway, you don't have to think about that anymore because it seems like the leet hex finally managed to get a few hooks into cha.OS!
Wait... what are all these hidden functionalities? Full remote viewing? Temporal tracking? This is... really advanced. And really, really invasive. Ugh!
Yeah, if it has a Trollian-like viewport, Del'fi has every incentive to find a way to block that function for themselves before they get into the game together. Not that Del'fi knows they'll be "in" the game together.
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What's even the use for these?
Is that-- no that couldn't be Rose, it's not a match even for her Candy haircut and she's still either a robot or something transcendant of it... is that Dirk Strider from behind? No dog ears or Satyr ears. It's not the strictest match of any Dirk's silhouette we've seen so far. Harry's hair seems like it'd be more curly from behind... does Roxy have a new haircut we haven't seen yet?
Honestly the closest match is Tavvy's hair swoop, maybe it's black hair that the viewing glow just makes LOOK like white from this stylized angle. But it's definitely brighter than Vrissy's hair was from a similar angle. Because it's reflecting a white human face in front of it? ...Yeah it's... probably Tavvy despite the discrepancy making it unclear.
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UGH, he's SO… speak of the devil.
TC's chat bubble appears, and a Hazelog! Looks like now that he's outed, the very-possibly-if-my-earlier-guesses-were-right Seer of Void might want a chat.
- tinnitusChakra [TC] began hazing cloisteredConnoisewer [CC] --
TC: whats pøppiiing!
TC: cøuldn't help but nøtice that yøu just snuck thrøugh the first gate øf cha.OS' waterfall!
TC: that's sø sick.
TC: nøbødy's managed that in the whøle 2 day histøry øf the prøgram, pretty sweet møves.
TC: i've been fucking arøund with leethex myself and i think i'm really starting tø get the hang øf em, but tø see them depløyed sø expertly...
TC: that's wassup.
TC: hønestly, keep up the gøød wørk. there are a few deeper layers of psychersecurity i think yøur current hex might have søme trøuble with but hey, if yøu can break it yøu can take it.
TC: always gøød tø get anøther pair øf eyes frøm sømeøne whø actually appreciates the delicate interplay between the løwer mysteries and high løgics.
Waterfall gates and locks as like... a metaphor for layers of the afterlife or something. I'm shit at mythological references, but I've seen fictional series like Abhorsen that dealt with that, huh. (EDIT 3: As @shoutyourporpoise points out and I somehow didn't realize in TC's previous conversations, he talks a lot like a surfer as a personality characteristic-- so continuing to use Oceanic and water-rich metaphors like Waterfall gates, along with his association with ~PTH and surfer-ness, has FURTHER symbolic Void associations with water and the pull of the ocean depths, like the Fallingwater house Mom Lalonde owned and many other associations with Ocean-plunging and irrelevance or dislocation throughout original Homestuck.)
TC: aaactually, høw many eyes dø yøu have?
TC: twø?
TC: møre, right?
TC: it's tøugh tø tell thrøugh the webcam!
CC: oh hai!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
cc: how keeee~wl
CC: can u even c mah lit sign
TC: hell yeah i can!
TC: and in turn alløw me tø raise yøu a particularly righteøus shaka.
TC: if yøu wanna see it, gø ahead and hack my cam back.
CC: hehehehehehehe
CC: no thats ok
CC: so didya get ur uppernet hooked into our orb tech?
CC: i waz wonderin wat lylac waz helpin u cook up but she must of been rl helpful for that
TC: øf cøurse!
TC: she øpened up a whøle new wørld when she intrøduced me tø løwmys.
I know I'm biased as fuck, but even as much of a challenge it sounded like for TC to tell Del'fi to hack him back, this definitely sounds to me like a Seer who can't wait to expound on all his understanding.
CC: does she knoes ur using it to put ur lil horsey snoot all up on her homegrls?
CC: kinda wack of her to leave me outta the peep party
CC: a real misdemeanor on her part
CC: is she mad at me? do she hate me badly?
CC: shud i kms?
TC: yøu shøuld chill yøurself.
TC: my ly'ly wøuld never leave a friend øut in the cøld.
CC: MY LYLY?
CC: hahahahahahaha
CC: except she ttlly would
TC: løl!
TC: true, she wøuld.
TC: but nøt because she was trying tø harsh anyøne's vibes, yøu knøw what i mean.
Del'fi seems to be feeling this out, cautiously trying to determine just how much of a threat TC is and to whom, waiting for the other shoe to drop on what could be a potent blackmail situation among many other things... TC clearly has a lot of power over Del'fi and their friends right about now.
TC: yøu're øne øf her cløsest dørmies.
CC: rlly?
TC: ch'yeah dude.
CC: ur so fr rn?
TC: the realest.
CC: idk... *kicks rock*
TC: øh fuck yes, øur very first røleplay.
TC: [i catch the røck with a fetløck and start juggling it like a høøfball.]
TC: [after a bit øf høity høøfwørk i pass it back!]
CC: dang
CC: so anyways she doesnt know at all?
TC: øh, she knøws.
TC: øn the real i just døn't think she cares, løl.
CC: i mean dats wat she says until she starts lobbin nades at u
CC: u gotta keep a close eye on dat btw
Del'fi seems easily distracted by talk of their friend and how much Ly'lac cares... even though it's hard to read because, from Del'fi's point of view, this is definitely a hostage situation.
If Del'fi is indeed a Bard of Blood, they might be naturally doubtful of the true strength of their own relationships.
CC: i dont have to tell you how the trope goes
CC: upstandin satyr givin in2 the call of mysticism
CC: repercussions must b served
CC: not hard 2 c how when u saddle ur seahorse 2 a grl who blows herself up
CC: or turns on any1 dat gets a bit 2 bossy
CC: r u a bossy alpha boy TC?
CC: keepin command
CC: smacking away our greasy sneak fingers from ur spankin new hybrid toy
TC: i døn't knøw abøut greasy.
TC: thøugh yøu knøw lac-attack always keeps that slime øn her.
So far, at every turn, TC is CONSISTENTLY deflecting any negative statement about any of the Nymphs, Del'fi included, and declining to frame anything SO FAR as a threat. He's being extremely positive and not OVERTLY threatening.
Void, however, is the aspect of submission, and getting people to know when they have to yield, like he did in his conversation with Swiss...
TC: anyway, the general scryware is limited tø admins (me), ør ambitiøus hexxørz (cøuld be yøu!) før nøw, but i get the feeling what yøu're really asking abøut is thøse advanced features i saw yøu scrølling thrøugh.
TC: thøse are møre experimental.
TC: hønestly, kind øf dangerøus, thøugh that's the fun part, isn't it?
TC: i've døne my fair share øf playing with singularities but remøte spatiøtempøral quantumødulation is particularly tøuchy stuff, sø i løcked it før everyøne but an especially select few.
TC: still, pretty neat, right?
CC: me no know
CC: is it?
TC: yeah.
TC: it is!
CC: oh...
CC: but bringing in strangers...
CC: from da ITERNET?
TC: frøm sømewhere!
CC: oh noes
CC: dats the worst place u can b from
CC: i hates em
Right, it's unclear whether Del'fi has any real inkling that Ly'lac's "enigmatic fictional maiden" is real.
TC: they wøn't be strangers før tøø much lønger.
TC: i mean, løøk at us.
TC: we've been talking før twø minutes and we're basically like best brødeøs.
CC: rite!
CC: tru besties
CC: tbh ive been wanting to talk to u 4evaaaaaaaaaaa~a
CC: everyday i go to the bathroom and jus read up about u on social media
CC: wonderin if ur also going to the bathroom
CC: or wut brand of shampoo u use
CC: putting mah hand to the mirror
CC: dreamin of the day ud let a lil ole wretch like me kiss ur krusty stinker (//3^)/
CC: and then
CC: the ink flows til the tubs black
TC: yøøø.
TC: that's different!
Sounds like Nymph reproduction is potentially pretty messy!
It's still so delightfully unclear whether TC's assertions of friendship are optimism or a dominance display.
TC: let's nøt talk abøut me anymøre, yøu flatterer.
TC: let's get back tø yøu.
TC: and what i need yøu tø dø.
CC: oh... *SHUDDER!*
TC: døn't shudder.
CC: dont ever tell me what to do
CC: understood?
TC: that's the fuckin spirit dude!
Whiplash! Did TC deliberately provoke them, then give them props for not submitting?
TC: yøu mentiøned feeling left øut earlier?
TC: well, i'm here tø fix that.
TC: hasty-style.
TC: there's a game ly'ly and i have been cøøking up før søme time nøw, which yøu knøw, and i knøw yøu knøw.
TC: and i'm gønna need yøu tø høp øn.
TC: yøu've been døwn there førever, and believe me i knøw høw that is.
TC: all cøøped up, nøbødy tø rave with.
TC: thing is, when yøu finally take matters intø yøur øwn hands and step øut intø the light?
TC: fuuuck, it feels gøød.
TC: sø that's what i'm asking yøu tø dø.
CC: zang wow r we like kindred souls?
CC: u got my whole heckin number tattooed on ur sleeve?
CC: bro ur lyke crawling around n my head and we havent even nuptulized yet
CC: get out of there!!!!!!!!!
CC: cant a nymph keep sum secret dang
Ah I see TC's game here, he's using the blackmail he has on Del'fi to strongarm them into playing Shurb, smoothing things along. Quite smart use of secrets without being too bullying, though it's still extremely invasive.
TC: can yøu løck in før a sec?
CC: UWAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.
CC: but but but but but!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
TC: hey, why døn't we level with each øther?
TC: this game is gøing tø be fun, but it's alsø extremely necessary.
TC: AA knøws that.
TC: (super funny chica, btw, can't wait tø get intø søme mischief with her later.)
TC: a few laps agø, i came acrøss søme pretty mindbløwing intel while i was scraping the øld man's servers før shits and giggies.
Which old man? TC is supposedly close to the Big Kahuna according to Swiss, but I'm not sure whether or not that would mean being in the presence of Dirk Strider directly or his servers.
TC: i wøn't børe yøu with the deets, because they're patchy and cryptic and required a løt øf extrapølatiøn and we frankly døn't have much røøm før størytime, but the løng and shørt øf it is that this game we're abøut tø play is all that stands between us and the cømplete annihilatiøn øf øur søcieties, øur species, and øur wørld.
TC: if that wasn't trippy enøugh, check this shit øut:
TC: we're MEANT tø play it.
TC: me, ly'ly, AA, CT, AT.
TC: and yøu.
TC: he was TRACKING us.
TC: well, tracking the satyrs, anyway.
TC: yøu three were møre øbfuscated, but i was able tø intuit that yøu'd be cøming intø play eventually by kind øf like... triangulating via the blind spøts.
TC: and there were a løøøt øf blind spøts.
TC: i døn't knøw why he didn't just tell me, but i'm kind øf glad he didn't, because finding øut øn my øwn was way møre fun.
So TC found out that either Dirk Strider, or whoever his "old man" is in their parentless society, was tracking all six players. As would naturally be the case. But lemme roll back the conversation just a bit:
TC: yøu three were møre øbfuscated, but i was able tø intuit that yøu'd be cøming intø play eventually by kind øf like... triangulating via the blind spøts.
TC: and there were a løøøt øf blind spøts.
TC: i døn't knøw why he didn't just tell me, but i'm kind øf glad he didn't, because finding øut øn my øwn was way møre fun.
TC: blind spøts are where i thrive. :)
ABSOLUTELY a Void player, a hundred percent. Whether my assertion of Seer or not, we'll have to see, but doesn't it fit better than much else so far?
TC: that said, meeting ly'lac was an actual straight-up certified cøincidence.
TC: and thrøugh her, yøu and AA came intø the picture.
TC: again, BY CØINCIDENCE.
TC: is that nøt FUCKING CRAZY?
TC: i think it's FUCKING.
TC: CRAZY.
TC: :D
CC: crazy?
CC: ...
CC: thats a regular ole nymph tuesday
CC: nothin moar special than wut i alrdy got goin on
Yeah I suppose Rose Lalonde's doom-foretelling Nymph race wouldn't find cosmic coincidences like Shurb arranges especially out of the ordinary.
TC: the shit we're facing is gøing tø make the grey rain løøk like a dainty little dewdrøp.
TC: and anyway, what is it yøu actually DØ have gøing øn?
CC: i save the world everyday
CC: yadda yadda grey rain blahblahblah listen dude
CC: i hang w the Great Combiner
CC: surrounded by beautiful ladies
CC: in my own city of riches
CC: p grt by nymph standards hm?
TC: yøu're surrøunded by ruins and echøes and sleeping cørpses and yøu deserve sø much møre.
TC: that has tø be sø børing, man.
TC: it makes me sad.
Who or what exactly is the Great Combiner? ...does it have something to do with the Alchemy magic Ly'lac practices?
TC: are yøu scared?
CC: lmao
CC: r u?
TC: maybe?
TC: i'm anxiøus, but dø yøu have any idea høw løng it's been since i had anything tø be anxiøus abøut?
TC: it feels amaaazing.
TC: we're øn the precipice øf sømething cømpletely beyønd øur science, beyønd yøur magic.
TC: sømething NEW, past the banal tøtality øf wørldly knøwledge i've had møre ør less figured øut since i was five.
TC: i føund ~PTH at exactly the right time, but it ønly just barely scratched the surface øf what's pøssible here, i can feel it.
TC: we're abøut tø be free.
TC: døn't yøu wan't tø be free?
It's true. And this thrill-seeking, it's the sort of thing someone who wants to Understand the Unknown might find irresistible. Even if it means a potentially dangerous fascination with something he may very well KNOW could be the cause of civilization's downfall as much as it is a way out of it, it's difficult to tell just how aware he is of that but the way he talked about apathy consuming him to the point that ANXIETY was EXCITING makes it sound like he'd find a sick thrill from this all being responsible for the inevitable apocalypse too. A Seer of Void can potentially be extremely dangerous, even in optimism-- he looks to view the good AND the bad of this to be so exciting he can't wait to see it.
TC: i dø!
CC: "i do~!" shut up
CC: there aint a prophecy or tech thats gonna give me wut i want
TC: nøt if yøu never dø anything.
CC: mang
CC: its so cute how satyrs all think they matter
CC: strivin and fightin to make a little dent in the world or whatever
CC: but its just… so cringe too
CC: so much struggle to do nothing rlly new or special
CC: and then turning around acting all proud of urselves
CC: totally unaware that all ur doing is exctly wut u were meant to do and unlike us ur too stupid to realize ur walkin a fixed path
CC: its a sorry sight
CC: u cant even appreciate how lucky u r
CC: if things were different and nymphs were even a fraction as gullible as u guys r
CC: we wld have wiped u out at the get go
TC: pøint blank man i refuse tø accept there are ønly twø øptiøns here.
TC: hide frøm each øther førever ør die screaming?
TC: cøme øn.
TC: that's silly.
TC: we can dø better than that.
TC is talking about Blood somewhat, uniting the races, in a way it seems as if Nymphkind might be avoiding because of (potentially) specific (and true) prophecies that their cooperation would end the entire world in a firey apocalypse. Del'fi, perhaps more than Ly'lac, has embraced the Nymphian sense of futility of their situation and life in general. I wonder how Del'fi's going to act once they indeed eventually realize they've been freed from the prison Deltritus represented for themselves specifically.
TC: sømetimes sømething is sø cømpletely beyønd yøu that yøu'd never have a shøt at figuring it øut øn yøur øwn.
TC: ly'lac shøwed me shit that changed my life førever.
TC: SAVED my life!
There's some backstory here behind TC's seemingly-easygoing personality being hinted at here, something that what Ly'lac and ~PTH brought TC helped him out in a low point of his life.
TC: and yøu have sømething sø beautiful gøing with CT.
TC: whatever the fuck it is.
TC: dø yøu knøw høw rare that is før him?
TC: før anyøne?
TC: it MATTERS.
CC: OML CAN U BACK OFF 4 1 SECOND U FRUIT LOOP
CC: i dont get wut ur trying so hard to do rn!!!
CC: i knew u were sum kind of sicko but this is jus somethin else
TC is trying to psychoanalyze and help Del'fi right now, and even if Del'fi weren't a Bard of Blood, at this stage of Del'fi's being and beliefs I'd know it can't help but backfire. At the moment, anyway. TC 'sees' a better future for Del'fi, but they aren't willing to accept that at the moment.
CC: i EXPECTED u were going to lord CT over my head sure
CC: but this is GROSS!!!!!!!!! now he has 2 crappy backstabbers spittin on the bro code
CC: playin in his face
CC: n u dont even have an excuse!
TC: what's wrøng with playing?
TC: playing is fun as fuck, and cømpletely within acceptable brø cøde parameters if yøu ask me.
CC: ur jus a bad friend TC
CC: we both r
TC: [i grab yøur face.]
TC: listen.
TC: yøu're nøt a bad guy, big d.
TC is actually calling Del'fi "big D" which could double for "Dagger".
TC: i knøw yøu CARE abøut him.
TC: i've been actively følløwing the chrønicle øf the møuntain and dagger tartarus før søme time, and brø.
TC: that kind øf hearts-wrenching cøllab døesn't just cøme aløng every day.
TC: that's special.
TC: it tøuched me.
TC: deeply.
TC: that private server yøu twø wørked intø the pløt? that's søme real multimedia artistry.
TC: even if the security øn it was kind øf a jøke.
TC: but let's put it this way.
TC: yøu cøuld keep dancing arøund it and cøntinue yøur rp før anøther høwevermany laps, and it'd prøbably be super sick.
TC: hell, i løve a gøød dance.
TC: but aren't yøu ready tø MEET him?
TC: that can HAPPEN.
TC: that WILL HAPPEN.
CC: wait
CC: u read our rp doc?
TC: yeah dude.
TC thinks that breaking into everyone's secrets, he can just expose how they really feel about each other and they'll be able to accept it, heal, and do what's best for themselves. But people don't work that way. When you crack them open for their secrets, no matter how badly you want them, you deal damage. When you lay out something inside someone bluntly when they're not ready to hear it, they can deny it and retreat further.
TC: yøu twø are gøing the fuck øff in there at all høurs øf the damn day ør night ør whatever sø sømetimes the backløg gets thick as all hell but the møst recent arc? the warden's gambit was sø viciøus, brø.
TC: i løve høw yøu wørked in all these hints abøut it during the cøurt saga, that was fuckin CINEMA.
TC: yøu guys are fantastic writers.
TC: but just sitting at øppøsite ends øf the planet førever is such a stupid waste, før bøth øf yøu.
TC: i'm nøt gønna bløw up yøur spøt and take that leap før yøu but i am gønna prømise yøu that it's a leap yøu need tø make if either øf yøu are gøing tø survive.
TC: his life is in yøur hands.
TC: …
TC: yøur cam's glitching øut øver there and i've gøtta gø, but i'll leave ya with this.
TC: if we døn't figure øut høw tø wørk tøgether øn this, we're all fucked.
TC: but if we dø?
TC: paradise.
TC: the files are øn yøur ørbs.
-- tinnitusChakra [TC] ceased hazing cloisteredConnoisewer [CC] --
He's not even threatening them! He's explicitly saying he isn't going to expose Del'fi to CT -- unconditionally -- and that they should all work together just because it's what's best for Del'fi if nothing else.
But he's giving a premature moral message of camaraderie to a, theoretically, Destroyer of Blood who clearly isn't ready to accept it this early in their character arc.
...While I was browsing the log for some earlier silhouette reference links I may have accidentally glanced at an upcoming link that looked like "React to this in a completely reasonable manner" or something, which is kind of tilting my analysis but like. Yeah, Del'fi-splosion would be a reasonable reaction... setting off some form of sick sabotage.
===>
He read it.
OH. Or... that. That part would be the part one latches onto, yes. Have I mentioned lately that cracked and broken glass is a Void symbol?
This is what I meant, in part, about the damage that breaking into people's secrets can do. Especially secrets one considers core to one's identity, whether one realizes it or not. Del'fi often OFFERED to share SELECTED logs with Ly'lac, or writings, mostly knowing she wouldn't accept or read them, but... having someone you DON'T KNOW having broken into EVERYTHING, read all your smutty roleplaying, even the stuff you never would have voluntarily shared outside your currently-only-CT-and-you comfort zone????
That's devastating. Brutal. Terrifying. TC is going to have to learn to do better by people than this.
And, there's that link title I peeked:
> Del'fi: Have a reasonable reaction.
Literally growing more mouths to scream with-- hey wait, Del'fi can actually lift their upper organon off their lower pair of eyes??? (Oh hey, does Del'fi usually go for eye-tongue instead of mouth-tongue like Ly'lac or the crystal-person?)
You've left him alone all this time for your friends' sakes, but this is too far.
You have to make him pay.
...AND THERE SHE GOES DEMANDING YOUR ATTENTION AGAIN!
"WAH WAH WAH, intruder alert, come protect my lightstone, you don't have time to cast a death spell on that popular pompous prick!!!"
Oh god, Del'fi's out-screamed. Are those screaming mouths metaphorical or are the grasping looping hands that make up this sanctum partially alive??? Excessively demanding of a possibly-Caretaker.
YOU GET IT!
FINE!
FREAKING, FINE!!!!!!!!!!!
YOU WILL CHECK THE PERIMETER.
Is this revenge interrupted, or will this be sufficiently out-of-the-ordinary to mean revenge indefinitely deferred? ...Even if they get in the game and they suddenly find themselves "free", I'm not sure it'd quench Del'fi's need for revenge over plundering and browsing their private RPs here, regardless of his praise.
> Del'fi: Scope out the situation.
Oh, wow. Ok, you see what her problem is now.
That's actually a LOT of intruders.
Driven down to the far depths by the beginnings of a meteor apocalypse maybe? Or prophecies concerning such coming to fruition?
===>
You'll have to act fast if you hope to cast your DEATH CURSE in a timely fashion. Whatever you choose to surrender will have to be a SIGNIFICANT BARGAIN if you hope to pull off this level of vengeance.
Unlike before, you see instantly what your only true option for this spell is.
Del'fi has to surrender things of personal value just to cast a Death Curse??? This sounds more and more like it happens to be a unique specialty to either Del'fi's nature or interests as a potential Bard of Blood, giving up that which they hold dear to catalyze Destruction.
They're looking at the Lightseed, though, aren't they? Aren't they protecting that for a reason? Or is their Caretaker also there to sacrifice, or something?
===>
After all, what could be stronger than LOVE?
Seriously, is anyone still going to tell me that Bard of Blood isn't incredibly likely here? "SEVER"ing bonds and proof of love?
I hope it's just those three dearly important artworks, and not like, something out of their own heart.
> Del'fi: Sever.
No, that'd be too far. You're still going to hit him with a little NIGHTMARE IMPRECATION, but you'd hate going to sleep beneath the space they'd leave behind.
There are some things even you can't live without.
Oh phew, the beloved statuary instead. Del'fi's still bound by Blood, like Jack (the theoretical Prince of Blood) often was. But those cherished artworks are potentially a SERIOUS time bomb for Del'fi to detonate to power a curse sometime later in the plot. That or they'll be able to sacrifice something even more precious, like whatever/whoever their Sprite turns out to be or something.
TC is going to be cursed with nightmares, but given the way Dream Bubbles work, that could essentially be to the team's collective advantage.
You're a bit more like her than you'd want to admit.
Like "her"? Their Caretaker/Warden maybe? What? What does this mean? Being unable to sacrifice something that ought to be...? Couldn't sacrifice Del'fi maybe?
> Del'fi: Resist urge to think about what she did to you.
Wait, is that the Lightseed? With the stem propping it up, from this angle... it looks like a Sburb-generated near-Frog-Temple tower house.
You fail terrifically.
To the point you can't help but recount the legacy of loneliness that tethered you here in the first place.
A very long time ago, the wisdom of the tides brought about a cultural wave of nymph apathy, fueled by the knowledge that the entire planet would be wiped clean within a few generations, leaving naught but a select DESTINED FEW.
They know it's coming, to some extent, AND when. TC wasn't saying much about the incoming apocalypse that surprised Del'fi, even if they didn't know the shape of it.
This caustic lethargy led to large scale egg abandonment; hundreds of little frys dropped into trenches left to fend for themselves in the depths.
So Nymph eggs aren't always abandoned the way Ly'lac described or?... no, wait, rereading it... ah, they're usually laid on the BEACHES to give them hope, and SOME were cast into the depths due to this racewide spike of apathy Del'fi is referring to.
The lurid tangle of striping stars that surrounds you was sewn together by one of those sad little orphanites once upon a time. She was armed with nothing but a doctrine of unabashed purehearted nymph love and a terribly horrific weapon of mass destruction, callously cast away into the trenches like so much radioactive waste, corrupting all it touched; in this way, she and the weapon were very much alike.
OH. This "weapon of mass destruction" may very well have been carried down with Del'fi's caretaker on a meteor. Not necessarily, not quite. But this very well could have been their ectobiological ancestor, who could also have been a Blood player given all the holding-hands environmental design they engineered, a non-Destroyer potentially.
Not confirmable yet though, it's hard to say, what with the Gray Rain and ~PTH being presumably the work of ancestors too from the vibes we've been getting.
===>
WHOA HOLY SHIT
Hand hair! Hand throne! She grew all that! And a seed from her heart?!?
Unmistakeable Light symbol too, hair like a gripping claw around her face...
In her early fryhood she was alone, but as she bloomed with maturity she found herself surrounded by suitors and supplicants. She had decided that neither she nor anyone else would ever know the touch of isolation ever again.
Thousands upon thousands came to her of their own volition, desperate for the safety of her bosom, her cruel tolerance, the lack of pretense in her all encompassing embrace. Some simply desired to be a part of something greater, while others saw it as a way to possibly circumvent prophecy; if only a few were destined to endure THE GREAT LOSS, the subsummation of their species all but guaranteed their participation.
I know there's a Light symbol on her forehead, but the whole race are Rose Lalonde's progeny. From the story of her history, this does read like a Blood-bound Ancestor, one who wasn't necessarily Destroyer-class oriented. (EDIT 2: Wait, they were SUBSUMED? Like the Subsumation Curse Del'fi cast in Cha.OS general chat earlier and has on their desktop? So amalgamated or eaten up? I missed that on first read, so this maybe-ancestor was eating everyone in some ways or incorporating them literally rather than just forming a community.)
Many, however, did not lust for assimilation.
I could be speaking too soon about the non-destructive part, but it sounds like the destruction probably was done UNTO her rather than FROM her.
Del'fi also just compared themselves to her and said they were "more like her than you'd want to admit", full of love and desperate to not be alone.
===>
Countless nymphs and satyrs alike were consumed in their intimate and tender grazing, and with them, their homes and history. All were made piecemeal and dragged into herself as she became a writhing museum of extinction. With each addition to her alluvial labyrinthine form so grew the power of her inkstone. It grew so incredibly dense and impossibly dark that it began to shine bright as the morning star.
Consumed? Grazing? What??? (EDIT 2: I'd missed "subsumed" and that the assimilation was literal on first read, as covered.)
So this city of their was like a roving, consuming city-state? These bonds she extruded into a city captured places they roamed over and conquered and fed upon? Was this potential-ancestor perhaps some sort of Thief of Blood, gaining power from all that she bound to herself? Is that's what's collected in her inkstone seed?
Drawn toward some unknowable peak, she and her supplicated constituents stretched west. They took to land, and took the satyr's capital with them. In a rare display of interspecies collaboration, THE COUNCIL OF HIGH PROPHETS, THE PLAYTORIATE, and THE EXEMPLAR himself combined forces in an attempt to protect what little world had remained after her passionate rampage.
"Playtoriate" like "horseplay" and "Praetorian Guard", or something.
For several tides they fought in vain, struggling helplessly against her love. But when all seemed lost, the neptunian golem of a certain long excommunicated enchantress appeared.
Rose wouldn't have been excommunicated... would she? Is this a different ancestor? Rose might get a perverse kick out of being in exile from her own species, but... the "golem" of an enchantress? A robot?
Then apparently she just wagged her finger, shooshed her to sleep, and tossed her back into the freaking ocean.
We actually know for a fact that Rose has exhibited this power, able to infuse dark/Void power into a ball of yarn to knock Dream Dave to sleep. As an Ultimate Self in command of presumably a wide spectrum of the Light/Void axis, putting someone to sleep is very possible.
Alternatively... if not for the 'neptunian golem' line, for all we know, it could have been Vriska, lending the pair a hand under some pact. Knocking someone asleep psychically with a boost from her powers and casting them down into literal dark oceanic depths is very Thief of Light -> Plunge someone Down into Void.
Where she's remained in this seemingly insurmountable slumber to this day, with the only notable action being when she grabbed a meteor out of the sky carrying a baby on it some several thousand tides ago, before promptly falling back to sleep.
And that baby was you.
They couldn't resist the "the baby is you" phrasing, could they. XD
Chances of this being an Ancestor definitely ramped up with this deliberate act of hers. It's pretty wild that Del'fi actually KNOWS they're meteor-born, unlike (presumably) Ly'lac. I wonder who else knows? This is one of the biggest instances so far of Nymphkind proving their doomsaying/foretelling chops by having foreknowledge of this apocalypse within generations.
I can't say this is an Ancestor for sure, or that the Enchantress was Rose for sure (controlling any number of remote bodies of any given potential size as part of whatever plan she hinted at having to transcend her human-body-and-robot-body arrangement)... It could have been some other Golem-piloting Ancestor... and I definitely can't say what the Lightseed is capable of, what the weapon of mass destruction was or if it allowed her to extrude this city, or what any of this is capable of. This slumbering Nymph and her heart seem eminently Prototypable, and if they contain some sort of immense power they've gathered, what effect would that have on the enemies and structure of the Session? Is this the equivalent of prototyping Becquerel for them? Do Dirk and Rose have long-laid plans to use the Prototyping process to construct something out of key pieces they've seeded around the world like this? Wild things are bouncing around my head like the Lightseed becoming Skaia of all things, given AA doesn't seem to have noticed the Satyrs joining them in their session in Skaia's clouds for some reason, and my old theory that the purpose of this session was to create the workings of the Game in the first place. Hmm.
And I wonder if this slumbering ancestor IS Del'fi's caretaker, and part of how the rest of that otherwise "one munch lunch" disappeared is that the very STRUCTURE OF THE PLACE ate it! In fact I'm actually pretty certain of this, given the middle fingers she was throwing the Lightseed afterwards! She's giving orders to Del'fi and controlling the very bones of this place in her sleep! (EDIT 1: Oh... oh duh, SHE'S the "Great Combiner" mentioned earlier, that's the perfect name for her creating and such a place and is even more Blood-bound a name than I expected.)
I'm not sure I can say any more about this that wouldn't be even MORE wild speculation than I just threw around. We'll just have to take more as it comes.
See you for more Artist/Writer commentary start of the month (probably vastly abridged compared to my usual coverage of it), and then whenever our next upd8 is!
May's posts covering the artist and writer Patreon commentary for the April AND May 2026 pages of Homestuck^2 Beyond Canon are up. As I alluded to last month, I want to do a better job NOT spoiling fun bonus content you can get 60 days early by subscribing to the Homestuck Patreon, so this is going to be even more abridged than usual. I'm going with a bulleted-list format where I'm ONLY going to cover my plot-relevant takeaways as I read, trying for paraphrasing as opposed to direct quotes wherever possible, and skimming even more lightly than I typically do in my Commentary liveblog coverage without describing what else they show off or what else I'm looking at. I was already trying to respect the paywall to encourage people to fund Beyond Canon, but I want to take that respect a little more seriously than I was doing before.
Maybe I'll decide that this actually advertises the Patreon content worse than my previous abridged-liveblog format of it did, but I want to try it this way for at least a month or two of Patreon Commentary and then if it works for people probably stick to it. It'll also be easier and more relaxing for me I hope. Let's go! Also I'm switching from the "Satyrical ⍺/β/⍵" tag to the "Satyrical A/O/B" tag moving forward.
Artist commentary takeaways:
Oh, they wanted to do Second Life for Trench2Peak screenshots but instead worked with modders to heavily mod Sims 4 for screenshots. Hilarious. There's lots more raw screenshots in the Patreon post.
The BINDING CURSE was originally art-conceived as binding Karkat's wrists to Jake, putting their hands together rather than their whole bodies. It just turned out easier to reuse the terminal panel and their sprites. Still on-theme Blood of course IMO.
The creative quirky coding style for Del'fi's use was inspired by LOLCODE and they put a lot of thought into making the subject of the code relevant, the Ion Cannon resemble famous DDOS tools of yore, etc.
The hand-around-the-head mantle for the Great Combiner was wanted early on. (Great design choice!) Merged with the idea Haven had for "an undersea nymph city that was on/inside a massive sleeping nymph, for a child who lived literally inside their caretaker."
The night sky theming all around Del'fi's home architecture, the stars and moons et cetera, is to environmentally reinforce the theme of "(HAVEN:) Del’fi waiting for a morning that will never come. Which paired with the child's blanket/crib mobile to allude to feelings of arrested development."
The intentionally-styled "drool" line on their sleeping caretaker is actually a gap cut in their lips. Confirmed the body is (they think) "(HAVEN:) largely vestigial [...] a body-shaped dilapidated pulpit for the Lightstone".
Next to a sketch of the baby Great Combiner they refer to her as "baby GC", which I didn't realize fit the kid shorthandle pattern, further amplifying the chances this is a Meteor-sent Nymph ancestor.
Writer Commentary takeaways:
Trench2Peak intentionally further advances the theme w/ Del'fi of "(MILES:) the aforementioned need to use the internet/online space as a way to learn more about things that you might not really be able to encounter or act out in your own personal life." Mentioning the Outernet and Uppernet aren't flush with each other but rather have a "vaguely interconnected frontier-like nature of the interstitial zone that bridges the two separate satyr and nymph internets [which] leads to spaces like this becoming small oases of mutual understanding between two cultures that are otherwise almost entirely cut off from each other". They note that the drive in young people to seek these spaces out, IRL, is properly reflected here and in Del'fi and means a lot to the creators. Gosh, I love that the Beyond Canon writers care so much about these themes that are so close to the original Homestuck's, the ways we grew up and connected to each other as kids online, the motivations and struggles behind and inherent to those ways. (Y'all should really read these Writer Commentaries, they're consistently great.)
Satyr Romance and Values. They wanted to avert some Omegaverse traits like making roles biologically determined, "experience-based" rather than another layer of gender/sex/race which is already quite a busy space in this Deltritan story. A "mandate determined from birth" wasn't as interesting for them. (I'm also guessing this is part of why Betas aren't excluded from the mpreg of the relationships, etc.)
They go back to Swiss's shipping chart and mention how unlikely it is that Swiss actually ends up being an "obvious alpha", which all of us could clearly see anyway. They mention it's "(FLORAL:) a welcome difference from quadrants because it’s less focused on unconscious emotions", and it "feels very true to the new age of yaoi we are in that is very focused on playing with expectation/dynamics [...] playing with the idea of dominance and desire outside of simply dom top and sub bottom." They have a lot more to say on this and how the writers were educating each other on tropes in the (rapidly evolving) traditional omegaverse space, while also outlining how their A/O/B formula creates an inherently different sort of space with its own nuances that, unless I wanted to quote it all, you're probably better off reading from them. (Either by subscribing or reading in two months when it unlocks!)
Note about Dirk they make: "A lot of how satyr society is set up is a fairly telling portrait of a busy, ambitious desire for things to Work Out, Make Sense, and Feel Empowering. There’s a very utilitarian and goal-oriented fixation [...] personal ambition [...] productivity-minded-positivity[...] seems like the kind of thing a certain someone would really be into."
There are some backstories for the Beyond Canon Inside Beyond Canon cast that Del'fi drew about. Lots of funny stuff here, but to stick to the potentially relevant stuff... Calliope's "favorite food is twin", Alt!Calliope/AL is "Lunch that packs a punch", and Roxy is Rose's "greatest rival". Jade is not even mentioned, even though Kanaya IS even though she isn't shown yet.
Davebot MIGHT have just needed more balls and chains because he's stronger, because Haven mentions: "[T]he only real design note I had going in was they [Aradia and Davebot] needed to both be Alkyrins. [...] But each shackled metal ball added to Davebot made me laugh harder and harder. I had to stop myself from adding a 5th." This doesn't rule out that they might have had some sort of Jade is the balls-and-chains symbology going on here, or at least the SINGLE ball-and-chain for Dave initially, but it does make the extended metaphor of Davebot having "more baggage" in Jade-or-family form represented by the multiplicity of chains potentially less likely.
The biggest portion of the Writer Commentary is about the TC / Del'fi conversation, which they have SO MUCH to say about. I'm only going to touch on a few of the things they say.
The invasiveness of what TC is doing here is of course highlighted, as is his request and how he's trying to seemingly "speedrun" what he may see as a "natural friend[ship]" between himself and Del'fi. And they've intentionally left it ambiguous whether or not he even picked up on the fact that his overture didn't work all that well. (My own thoughts, TC identifying with the one of them who's secluded in THE ABYSS and darkness, not to mention reclusive hacker etc, is also very Seer of Void.)
Mirrored themes in TC and Del'fi of a "real dissatisfaction with their circumstances that’s reflected in very different ways".
Del'fi telling TC "dont ever tell me what to do" in harsh terms met with TC's "that's the fuckin spirit dude!" as: "(MILES:) genuine delight of not only seeing Del’fi stand up to meet what he sees as circumstances trapping them both, but Seeing Del’fi, period." FLORAL: "It’s almost as if to TC being seen could only be liberating." (I think this adds further points to my Seer of Void theory, or at least him being any sort of Seer, but especially one who understands and loves to understand who people are IN SECRET under their layers and masks.)
The conversation unsurprisingly also reflects the Satyr/Nymph cultural mindset difference of striving vs fatalism.
Mentions TC's invasion is, as much as he seems to appreciate 'seeing' Del'fi, "(MILES:) with very little thought for perspectives outside his own."
That despite admiring Satyr culture, the writers note that readers have noticed that Del'fi still has enough internalized skepticism about interspecies cooperation to reflexively reject the idea of ACTUALLY coming together as TC proposes, that (FLORAL:) "despite admiring parts of satyr masculinity, Del’fi’s feelings aren’t so simple as we may assume".
They go into The Great Combiner as Caretaker for Del'fi, noting their relationship is much like "(HAVEN:) Knuckles' relationship with The Master Emerald." Also talks of the Combiner as having "a childhood bereft of attachment" leaving them to grow up so disturbed, which again, explicit Blood language being used.
The apathetic generation that saw The Combiner's childhood seems to have been recovered from somewhat: "(HAVEN:) AA’s earlier comment about Nymph Culture makes it seem like after this very scary era [that almost led to the entire planet's destruction(?)] they tried to make a big turn around, and that’s the culture she’s been proudly raised in." Even though they know the prophecy still has to come true sooner or later, which colors much of their society still.
They also cover the danger of knowing in advance that only a drop of their race's ocean will make it off-world, because if all Nymphs know that, then it makes sense that many would conspire to BE one of those Nymphs, perhaps by joining into The Great Combiner or such.
They keep referring to the Great Combiner as "GC"!
HAVEN: "A few things here sound familiar. And the language used seems quite specific. Let’s keep this in the back of our minds, chums." Yeah we have to keep the language in mind to be sure of exactly the person being referenced here, in case it's an Ancestor Nymph and not Rosebot, because even though it sounds a whole lot like Rosebot we have to cross-reference it with other examples that'll use the same language to be sure. And it'll be an interesting detail if it were to turn out that ROSE were indeed "excommunicated" from her own race, willingly or otherwise.
Okay, so reading back I... certainly used a lot of quotes, though still only a bare fraction of the full articles... and I may not have typed substantially LESS than I did in like, the supposedly-larger Artist/Writer Commentary posts I used to make. But I liked this format, and that just shows you're not losing much! Again, if you love Beyond Canon like I do, consider supporting the Homestuck Patreon and reading these for yourself! :D Talk to you next upd8!
Do I need a tag for The Great Combiner? I'll add one just in case.
Feel free to let me know in the replies what your opinions are on this more-abridged Patreon-Commentary-only paywall-preserving liveblog format moving forward?
June’s combined post of Patreon commentary for the end-of-June [S] upd8 is up. (Homestuck^2 Beyond Canon) Same as last month, I'll be covering this in a very abridged format to do a better job NOT spoiling fun bonus content you can get 60 days early by subscribing to the Homestuck Patreon. Bulleted-list format, only my plot-relevant takeaways as I read, mostly paraphrasing, etc. Respect the paywall and fund Beyond Canon if you have the financial leeway and willingness! (Or wait for the public unlock.)
But if you want my takeaways and some plot-relevant tidbits from the commentary regardless, see my impressions under the cut. (It's also worth noting that the latest HS:BC Bonus Comic on Patreon (visible if you’ve paid to unlock it or in 57 days otherwise) gives us more information and context on what we saw in the latest [S] page, and I’ve edited in details about it to the end of my latest liveblog post. The Bonus Comic is also alluded to in this Commentary too.)
Of course, they're combining the artist and writer commentaries this time because the update in question is "pretty short, but stuffed to the gills with meaning".
Omfg there's great concept art of the Nymph Babies here. EXCELLENT concept art. Like there's a confused Yiffy playing with one, it's so fucking cute.
Birth and impending death in the same frame. (Definitely some meaning in that juxtaposition, especially in likely-Doom-player Ly'lac's proximity IMO.)
It was going to be a pretty goofy nothing Flash until they decided to bump up the drama and stuff more in, but they kept the goofiness alive in the first half. (Personally, I think it was a wonderful bait-and-switch IMO, my only practical complaint is that I had to watch that long goofy first half of the sequence SO many times rewatching the flash to make sure I caught all of the last part.)
Omfg there's a bunch of great unused concept art.
Into the flashback: The commentary is giving us a LOT of explicit context into the likely history of the matter, alongside some riffs of course.
They're using he/him pronouns for the Uni-Nymph. So that was intentional historical pronoun-use by Del'fi.
His ears and hooved feet might have been more of a permanent thing, less shapeshifted-on-demand like Del'fi does.
.........................their prayer/devotion self-hugging gesture is meant to form the shape of Dirk's glasses across their chests. God damnit.
No answers on the mysterious pillar spy, just a wink and a nod.
The pegatulp's arrival, confirmed to be connected to the Barley Frat as alluded to by both Del'fi and by Swiss's bookshelf. They were going for much more happy than ominous. (Though I think they managed to accomplish both.)
I'll direct quote here because this is crucial: "MILES: Floral got into this already a little bit in the previous 4koma [Bonus Comic], but it looks like this pegatulp and the Narwhal were very, very close for a while. He’d never stand for this kind of betrayal, but his struggles were in vain... Also, if you look closely, you’ll see his wings resemble those of an albatross! Wonder what that means..."
I'm pretty sure that the background in that one panel of the Abyssal Anchoresses taking him into the sea was showing the Dirk Strider Moon in the far back, but they don't give any specific clarification in the Commentary, so they probably didn't think we'd misinterpret it. (The glasses-shape DOES poke out of the sides in a way a glaring Meemaw face wouldn't, thinking about it they would have drawn it differently, so I'm even less confident in my earlier theory; they would have mentioned it here if Meemaw was even a possibility.)
HOOOOOLY SHIT. THEY'RE SHOWING US ORIGINAL CONCEPT ART FOR THE YOUNG NYMPH ANCESTORS, AND ARE SHOWING US TWO OF THREE (the third is blacked out for now), both very similar to and somewhat different from what we eventually got!!! Even some excerpts from their initial backstory concepts.
Their backstory gives the Ancestors full names, blacked out. Unknown if they have "Last Names" or just the obfuscating Epitaphs hiding them, or both. The first name of the one who put The Great Combiner to sleep is blacked out-- short enough that it COULD be Rose, but I'd still put heavy odds on the Third Nymph Ancestor being the culprit.
The backstory concepts list The Great Combiner as the head of the "MALEFIC NORTHWESTERN POLYCRUEL", a pun which I think reinforces the (in-my-opinion) Blood-like idea (possibly Thief-of-Blood) that everyone subsumed into her was considered part of an enormous relationship, as well as Instrumentality or whatever other analogues there were.
Even more later concept art and fanart, including a cropped art piece showing all the kid Nymphs and ancestor Nymphs together.
The spiral horn poking out of Ly'lac's Shubhurb actually IS The Narwhal's horn, trapped through the ground. The concept art shows the logistics of how this makes sense.
"Haven: Unfortunately Meemaw’s fate was determined before Ly’lac was even finished being designed." T_T Haven insisted on the one-munch gag which I agree was super fucking funny.
"FLORAL: It’s so funny people realizing she never had eyebrows." I'm glad they're amused that we caught that.
"[ANDI:] Nymph morphology is a result of their environment", and The Narwhal's evolving form is influenced by his upbringing, his confinement, and his nymph nature all together.
Regarding the ink-filled pipes we saw, "He’s already being used for his blood as a type of fuel, an energy."
I was pretty explicit on much of the relevant text minus some non-relevant lore details and gags, but they still have value to read for yourself and the concept art is FASCINATING and revealing, if you want to take a look once the Patreon post is unlocked (or if you pay to unlock it early). Talk to y'all next time!
