HS^2 bloggin’ mainline 2025-11-11
(Previous post - current page 914)
We're continuing with Swiss on faithful Homestuck Act 6 arc date 11/11! In the interim we also got unexpected Writer Commentary confirmation that CC is the female-identifying friend that sent Ly'lac the D.N.Alkyrin Satyr anime to ship about, and thus goes by she/her with her and not just he/him in the group chat or with CT (further solidifying their spot as our genderfluid-and/or-roleplaying third Nymph). Anyway, reading momentarily:
But before we get started I wanted to outline three potential theories for the thematic reasoning behind Swiss Elysi's always-left-facing "<==]-" sword-with-smile-and-horn-variants emoji quirk, the first I'd already outlined and another two creditable to others' excellent ideas.
First there was the Light-accumulating guess I made in my 2025-10-13 liveblogging, presumably suitable for a class like an Heir, annotations in square brackets:
Did Swiss just use part of a sword emote as a smile emote? That’s adorbs. It’s probably significant that Swiss’s sword emote of choice contains a “==>” in it, one of the most significant symbols in Homestuck. [Importance = Light] It IS consistently pointing backwards though (<==) the way he uses it. Is that meant to point at himself sorta? Like an aggrandization point where important events [Light] are meant to converge on him?
Second is from user coinagefission in Taz's Discord Server (optimisticDuelist) which I've only just begun to visit, a fresh change of pace when I have the bandwidth because usually I only rely on the addendums, theories and suppositions that y'all send in directly to this blog from yourselves or elsewhere, or direct friends do directly:
I submit that when taking into account Swiss’ awful opinions on nymphs and general worldview, the fact that his sword emoji faces that way isn't meant to point at his handle specifically it’s Go Back “Go Back” in direct opposition to homestuck’s insistent “Forward”
This'll be especially true if as he joins the Game, Swiss continues to be a... recidivist? No no, what's the word... conservative? Traditionalist? Someone who wants to stubbornly cling to the past glory of Satyr history instead of moving forward. ;) Arrows are critically important Homestuck symbols especially when they have only two equals signs, but they've always had even greater Time significance-- We should keep a hard eye on the direction of his emotes because they've pointed CONSISTENTLY leftward without exception so far, and if he starts pointing any rightward/forward later, it could indicate character growth and a willingness to evolve with the new situation and new world.
However, my favorite is probably this third one, from Tumblr user @hellstobetsy in my Inbox:
I can't help but notice that Swiss is visually all about Julius Caesar (betrayed and killed by his best friend, via knife to the back), his handle is named after Agamemnon (betrayed and killed by his wife), and that one of his quirks is making ASCII daggers pointing at his own name, most notably on page 893 where he posts an ascii knife at TC and a drawn out "HIT. ME. BACK." Could this be just TC making the game, or do you think he'll literally kill Swiss? Sorry for the second ask but I only just now realized that "Swiss" is the type of cheese famous for having holes in it. I think our beekeeper's getting stung pretty bad at some point. <==]-
I'm sure the manipulative TC is one of the most liable to get Swiss killed if nobody else, possibly even to get Swiss to God-Tier, but the idea of Swiss's theming and very typing quirk being advanced foreshadowing of someone filling Swiss with the swords of betrayal (literally or metaphorically) is frankly delicious.
Keep in mind that more than one of these definitions can coexist; Homestuck is fond of exploiting multiple meanings of layered puns, especially when it comes to anything approaching Aspect symbology or foreshadowing, and Beyond Canon hasn't disappointed much since their team has taken up the mantle. So for example, my Light-accumulation idea and HellsToBetsy's Julius Caesar idea could both be intended.
Anyway, on to the upd8 and its very likely to be subverted next-page title:
> Swiss: Revel in tranquility.
You are not Swiss. And revelry is about the furthest thing from your mind.
HOLY FUCKING PERSPECTIVE CHANGE OMG :D
So the Nymphs ARE almost certainly all Derse dreamers (unless Ly'lac's Doom aspect lets her pull a Sollux and have both), and the Satyrs are Prospit dreamers, to throw the Dirk=Prospit=Orange=Light vs Rose=Derse=Purple=Void broader conflict into starkest contrast!! She did always SEEM like a Derse dreamer type, my only distant doubt of that before now had been that Ly'lac has been said to be our John-analogue for the Delta Players and is our likely first entrant / Player One, and we've never STARTED with a Derse dreamer before.
Except, something's wrong with the outfit. Why is it glowing so brightly? It doesn't look like dark purple standard Dersewear, it looks like Jasprosesprite^2's blinding white-pink variant. Compare with above:
Freeze-frame on the pinkest in the gif:
And Ly'lac's Derse Princess outfit is even PINKER AND BRIGHTER. Her dark Nymph skin color isn't even an excuse, as Troll Derse clothing never lightened to contrast their gray skin, nor did the dark aura around Dream Rose as Rose accumulated Grimdark power in their initial session change her outfit.
If we were right about this potentially being the session where Satyrs and Nymphs first CREATE THE GAME, fusing their technology and magic(/alchemy)... then it's very possible this is our first sign that the session is gonna be weeeird. Potentially unfinished, or potentially STRANGELY more complicated.
===>
Something is whispering to you.
Good spritework. GOD that's an eye-searingly bright outfit; those look like normal zero-prototyped Dersians though (I cross-referenced with Act 6 pre-entry Prospitans from Dream Jane's funeral dream, though I could have been more thorough).
Is this really Ly'lac's first time Waking Up on Derse? Not TOO surprising since it appears more likely as the Game approaches if Act 6 is anything to go by, but I guess all Ly'lac had to do was get exploded the fuck out of her house. Which is definitely not the first time she's ever exploded herself.
What's whispering to her? The Voice, the Horrorterrors if Derse is at max orbit, or yet a different voice she has to contend with now?
Also why isn't she in her tower, if she has one-- oh, duh. If she was thrown out of her tower-house, maybe she was Dream-thrown out of her Dream-tower too.
If something's whispering to her, are they the ones issuing these commands or her, because I can't think of who else but her would ask this:
> Where the hell is this?
YET MORE of a confirmation that we have 10 players. Three Nymphs, three Satyrs and four Candy Kids-- five Derse Dreamers and five Prospit Dreamers.
Ly'lac indeed exploded herself out of her Dream tower too-- I forget if there is any correlation between Tower Order and player entry order. If anyone else could validate this I'd be grateful.
Also... is it just me, or just a rendering artifact from this image being scaled down... or on full-size view and zoom-in are the middle and right towers conspicuously more color-saturated than the other three? As if the human Derse Dreamers' towers might look different from the (presumably all) Nymph ones? ...It's probably just a reduction rendering artifact.
===>
Now who the fuck harpooned a gray rope directly up to Ly'lac's explosion hole while she was knocked out? That was fast. It has to have been one of the Midnight Crew who can't fly, right? Don't their towers have stairs up though!? (Unless Ly'lac sleep-booby-trapped her DREAM stairs with explosives too, which come to think of it, she almost certainly did.) Her Dreamself can fly, so there's no possible reason the explosion would have made her create a harpoon route down even if she was sleepwalking down to where she woke, and it seems carefully shot to reach the still-smoking-last-panel EXPLODED section moreso than her naturally-open Derse window. This is a very immediate and important mystery.
===>
Oh shit, she got distacted from the harpoon-rope mystery. Dammit, Ly'lac! You're supposed to be paranoid of intruders!!
I can't admit I don't badly want to know this too though. It'd be funny if this were our first glimpse at a new Nymph:
> Ly'lac: Examine other rooms.
OH she's just peeking in to barely tease us the silhouettes-- aaaaand that's a hoofed leg sticking up. So, could be CC's cosplay, nymph-shapeshifting or imagination, or it could be CT from the color, throwing off my Derse-Nymphs theory. "Love Rivine", who's that? Searching it up it could apparently mean maiden / young lady, derived from root words for a bank or river (which would make it Nymph-connected) or could be a language variant of "Devine" (similarity of which to Divine would make it like Elysi (Elysium), a potential Satyr surname). So... a poster of a Satyr (based on a celebrity I'm sure SOMEBODY recognizes and can tell me in the replies) ((EDIT: I'm DUMB for misreading it, the R is a D, it's Divine, the famous drag queen (my friend V mentions "Lady Divine is also the inspiration for Ursula's character design in The Little Mermaid (animated), which may have some interesting nymph-y connotations")-- I think this all including the drag bit (and how V reminded me The Little Mermaid includes transforming to go from Sea to Land) increases the chance this is CC's room... also check more we figured out in the Replies to this post)) likely sent to CT by CC, or CC by CT, signed by either the depicted celebrity or by one of them? Ly'lac looks mildly confused seeing whoever it is or their room. (Wait I have to keep remembering that her Upper Organon eyes aren't eyebrows. COMPLETELY unrelated by the way, someone I was scrolling past made the point that the six spinal INTENDOCRINE glands of Satyr Stallions correspond to all of the Chakras EXCEPT the seventh chakra ((that image practically reminds me of the Sburb spirograph and a flower simultaneously!)) corresponding to enlightenment / higher consciousness, which could be said to correspond with the Upper Organons of Nymphs. I thought that was a cool insight someone else put together, who was it... oh it was coinagefission in Taz's server again who mentioned it!)
Gosh, we're only a handful of pages in and this upd8 has had me opening SO many goddamn tabs. Searches, wikis, past Homestuck and Beyond Canon pages, switching over to Discord, etc. ...There's no way we're getting a deeper peek in this room yet are we, we'll be left with the silhouette teaser and move immediately on, I just KNOW it. (One more thing-- reading back up from the next page, this person is on a BED, not in a Clam, so if it's CC and not CT, they are seriously dedicated to their cosplay/transnymphhood.)
===>
THAT'S A CLAM, NOT A BED! Ly'lac's clearly happy to see this person so points in favor of it being auguryAside. Weird statues but would be an obvious gift from any Satyr friend, or any Satyr interests the Nymph has... is that Satyr Ryu?
Oh my GOSH the next one is an [S] page, it HAS to be her peeking in on one of the Candy Kids' dreamselves (I hope). Time to see at least one of their alignments (I hope), I've been too afraid to guess!!!
> [S] Ly'lac: Look.
...... HECK YES IT'S VRISSY MARYAM-LALONDE! Bucking the trend of Vriska's moon alignment too, not just her classpect! Cute Mother Grub doll she's sleeping with! All to Ly'lac's obvious mild shock, possibly at being so close to her friend Vrissy or possibly having never having seen one of her species at all depending on whether Vrissy ever sent pics (I'd find it odd if she didn't), much less seen one in-person. (On rewatch-- Vrissy has a NORMAL-COLORED Derse Dreamer outfit (and so does her doll), meaning the blindingly bright pink Derse Dreamer outfits are at minimum a uniquely Nymph thing! How come?? Too many possible reasons to know for now, thematic or otherwise (with the overarching Rose/Dirk conflict, the Nymphs' ties to Horrorterrors and/or a Light-player creator, etc), even just aesthetic artistic fiat to clash less for all we can guess.)
Wait what now? Zoom out to the Horrorterrors... is this who or what was whispering to you?
A particular dream bubble, freshly-blown and still in a Horror's grip? Nymphs would be especially attuned to these... she's looking up and zooming into the dream like many Derse Dreamers have seen from a distance--
...and we see the giant Monohorn (Alkyrin horn? Unicorn horn or Uninymph horn?) from the dream of another sleeping player (unless Dirk?), rising behind her and above her head at once, whinnying noises in the background.
AAAND the upd8's over. Holy shit!!!!
Dunno what that last part meant. (No, I don't think Ly'lac's going to be the next legendary victim UNI-NYMPH. ...Probably.) Amazingly surreal, mysterious and atmospheric tension-building music leading up to the Vrissy reveal and subsequent Dream Bubble absurdity, props to the composer MEMODEMO (track name "Purple")!
