#s147

[thewertsearch]

Oh my god.

Oh, we’re really dragging this one out, aren’t we?

In defiance to my expectations, Rose actually seems fairly lucid. Her expressions and body language make it clear that she's trying to explain the situation, but the Horrorterror magic coursing through her body has rendered her as incomprehensible as her patrons.

I spent a couple of minutes trying to translate her Horrorspeak, but I didn't make any progress. I'll probably run some more analysis after the flash.

He's entirely unbothered by Rose’s transformation - which, to be fair, is entirely in keeping with what we know of him.

You might want to savor that feeling, John...

...because there's still something terrible on the horizon, and you can't outrun it forever.

Yeah, this is pretty clearly "John, our parents are DEAD!"

I'm really tempted to pause the liveblog, and try to use this as a mini-Rosetta Stone for Horrorspeak, but I'll resist the translation.

The - the velvet pillow?

One of the greatest bits that you and your mother ever shared?

You’re still holding onto it?

Pardon me while I bawl.

[overwatch-kinconfessions]

I miss my husbands so much. We had a sweet little wedding in a half-broken chapel a week after jack got the all clear from the medics - there, they didn’t care who you loved or how many, so long as you were all equal and consenting. I miss the weight of them by my side, jackie putting off metric tonnes of heat and Gabi the opposite. I miss curling up in bed between em, feeling tiny between these two masses of muscle despite that I was too. I love em so much. My dumb beautiful boys. -S147

[thewertsearch]

So we're playing Rose here - or at least, that's how things are starting out. Considering her current state of mind, I wouldn't be too surprised if she pulled a Kris, and broke free from our control.

Rose isn't capable of acknowledging what she's seeing. If she wasn't tunnel-visioning on Jack right now, she'd be curled up on the floor - but she's not allowed to grieve until she's made him pay.

Jack's really just messing around here, isn't he? Instead of simply nuking the castle, he's strolling around, disemboweling the scattered remnants of the Prospitian army. It seems he actually listened to DD, and is keeping the collateral damage to a minimum.

Were these soldiers allied with WV, or loyal to the Sovereign Slayer?

I have no idea - and in all likelihood, neither did Jack.

Harness the Breeze, and liberate LOWAS.

Weave a universe from the frogcicles of LOFAF.

Restore life to the barren oceans of LOLAR.

Dave likes rap.

[thewertsearch]

She is apparently swooning over a hero of lore shared by the two kingdoms. A great man who united opposing sides against his tyrannical king.

Talk about a working-class hero. The fact that WV was prophesized by both kingdoms was probably how he was able to unite them as effectively as he did.

His status as a pan-Carapacian legend is probably fairly unique. When both sides of the Battlefield hailed the Vagabond simultaneously, something probably clicked in a lot of their brains.

Wait a minute. We're the same, aren't we?

...hey, I just realized something.

Those murdered Dersites can't have been part of WV's army, because Jack killed his entire goddamn army. The Dersite above might revere WV now, but she and her companions remained loyal to their kingdom during the battle.

And yet... here, in this room, with the apocalypse at the door, everyone's thrown their old allegiances aside, and they're peacefully sharing space. For the little time they have left, there is no more war.

And at the end of the day, that's all their hero really wanted.

[thewertsearch]

Oh, please tell me we're getting a SBaHJ-styled recap.

Uh... no. That's not a question I'd thought to ask.

Based on what Karkat said about the Fourth Wall, I've been assuming that the Hussie character was going to stay non-canonical - and for good reason, too.

The author interludes only work because they're clearly not part of the story. If Hussie turns into a real character, then the nonsense above will bleed into the comic, and we'll just be watching Looney Tunes. Now, I like Looney Tunes, but Looney Tunes couldn't pull off a Descend or a Make Her Pay. It doesn't have the right tone.

In short: a Homestuck where Hussie starts interfering with canonical events is a Homestuck without dramatic stakes. How can it have stakes when the author's in the room, reminding us that this is all fake, actually?

The fact that this is being brought up at all is making me a little worried...

When the time comes, I will interact directly with the events of this narrative. But this moment will be responsibly confined to a passive intervention. [...] My window of influence, end to end, will be exactly ONE YARD.

...and hearing the explicit statement 'I will interact directly with the events of this narrative' is doing nothing to reassure me.

Maybe I'm not giving Hussie enough credit. He is the one who wrote Karkat's Fourth Wall misgivings, so he's clearly aware of the thin ice he's standing on here. So far, Homestuck's meta shenanigans haven't interfered with the plot, and I'm just going to hope that this state of affairs continues.

I don't know what's up with this 'yard', either - but since it's coming directly from Hussie, I'd be a fool to take it too seriously. Hopefully, it's just some extended joke, and doesn't actually represent Hussie jumping into the story.

Please.

So that’s the Tumor. It certainly appears organic, and the tendrils extending from its edges make it look like it's slowly spreading throughout Skaia. Maybe it just keeps growing forever, until it collapses into a star-destroying black hole.

There's also a clear yin-yang theming, which could represent multiple dichotomies - but since we're on the Battlefield, I think it's symbolic of the struggle between Prospit and Derse. This struggle has been 'corrupted' by Jack's interference, and can no longer conclude the way it's supposed to.

The walls also bear the sigils of the Players, which makes me wonder what this chamber was originally for. It's located at the exact center of the session, which seems like it'd be important.

I doubt it's solely intended to house the Tumor. Rose isn't sure whether theirs is unique, but both of her hypotheses imply that it wouldn't exist in a non-doomed session.

Ten hours, eh? That’s significantly more time than I was expecting, especially since the Veil’s timeline is down to less than three.

[thewertsearch]

There you are.

Better rev up those wands, Rose.

We seem to have a set of curtains for every Act...

Apart from the current one, which is instead split into Curtain 5 Act 1 (Threadbent) and Curtain 5 Act 2.

Finally, we reach the true ending of Act 5, and begin the Scratch.

Then, it seems the reboot session will feature six green Acts. The old colors were representative of the story's two main universes, so does this color change imply the existence of a third relevant universe?

Anyway, I'm thinking that these Acts will feature remixed versions of their predecessors' events - with Scratched!John entering the session at the end of Neo-Act 1, and so on.

Oh, dear.

I'm sorry, John - but I think it's time to rip the band-aid off.

Really?

We're really going to do Rose like this?

The first thing she ever says to her bestie is *really* going to be 'your father is dead'?

[thewertsearch]

It's weird. This really isn't any more violent than Slick was in the Intermission - but the framing makes it so much worse. We were in Slick's head when he was killing Felt members, and most of his actions were petty, and played for comedy. This is more like a hunt.

Plus, the Felt weren't helpless victims. They were a rival gang who were trying to kill him, but these are just terrified bystanders. Like I said, the War has long been forgotten, and all its deserters wanted to do was live.

A tiny light in the darkness. All this destruction, but he can't even harm a symbol of Jade.

Wow, John. Props to you for finding the worst possible moment to bring this up. I'm not going to pretend it isn't darkly hilarious that this is when you broach the topic, but... hot damn, man! You can't even understand her!

...yup.

At this point, there's nothing I can even say. It is what it is.

[thewertsearch]

This is so twisted. He needs to know, but Rose's only option is to show John, even though she'll have no way to prepare or comfort the poor guy. All she can really do is be there.

It does mean that John will join Rose on her warpath, though - so I think it's time to see what a God Tier can really do. He's probably safe from dying, too, since 'arriving too late to save your father' could hardly count as heroic.

Rose isn't a God Tier, though - and Jack has to get that bloody arm from somewhere. She'd better be careful, or the Tumor will have lost its pilot.

Continuing the environmental foreshowing from earlier, this area presumably represents the podium which forms at the end of a successful session. Unlike the trolls' podium, this one contains a frog - confirming that, at the end of Homestuck, we will get our universe.

...or, at least, that's what's supposed to happen. This is the path the Alpha has charted, etched in stone for our heroes to follow. But after everything the kids have been through, are they really going to march meekly to their fate?