Discard and Draw

Sally ~ she/her ~ 30. Join me as I work through my first, rather ambitious liveblog project - a blind reading of Homestuck, right through to the end! | Just want to start reading? Click here! | | FAQ | Tag Guide | Recs List | Off-topic ask blog | Header image by @abysswarlock Trollsona design by @wickedsick

[thewertsearch]

Introduction

Welcome! If you want to skip the preamble and just get reading, click here to dive right in!

This is just a pinned post documenting the blog’s important links. I’ll also stick them in the bio, but I know that can disorient the mobile app sometimes, so I’ll put them here, too. 

If you have a question to ask, check out the FAQ!

If you want to know how the blog is organized, check out the tag guide!

Non-Homestuck asks are posted here!

Recommendations list (for fanworks, etc) is here! 

If you want to know my posting schedule: I don’t really have one. I used to link a schedule here, but keeping to one is more trouble than it’s worth. I post when I post, and unless I explicitly declare a hiatus, new posts could appear at any time! 

If I have more links to add, I’ll stick them here later!

[thewertsearch]

What's your number one media recommendation for people who like Homestuck, given what you've read so far?

I'm not aware of anything that captures Homestuck's general vibe; reading it is a pretty unique experience, in my opinion, and there isn't really another work that matches its energy.

That said, I do have a few recommendations based on what aspects (lol) of Homestuck you find most interesting.

If you're into the design and general characterization of its protagonists, check out Deltarune, an obscure indie game I doubt any of this blog's readers have ever even heard of.

If you're into the weird Classpect powers, you like the quirky feel of self-published webfiction, or you enjoy stories of Homestuck's scale, you might like Worm. There's a reason I can't shut up about it!

If you just really like Hussie's art and narrative style, do check out Problem Sleuth if you haven't yet. Hussie's other early work is pretty rough, but Homestuck's immediate precursor is a fun read in its own right, if you don't mind the cartoonish tone and lack of any real characterization. Problem Sleuth is just silly fun, but it's good silly fun.

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i miss aisha 'worm' laborn. do you miss aisha 'worm' laborn?

Who?

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play any good games lately?

I have locked so hard into Gregtech: New Horizons you have no idea.

Look at my base!

Look at it!

I am 400 hours deep with no signs of slowing down, baby!

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how are you feelin about transitioning in your late 20s? im pushing 24 but the possibility of hrt seems like its drifting off further and further into the future

It's going extremely well! There's this pervasive attitude, especially in online spaces, that transitioning after your early 20s is 'late' and undesirable, but I just can't get on board with the idea. A lot of people glorify their early 20s as this ephemeral period of 'youth' - that it's somehow uniquely more meaningful and real than the rest of your life, and that being 30+ represents some sort of diminished existence. It's not true, of course, but I suppose when you're navigating an online space where almost no one has experienced being thirty, it's a little hard to find counterevidence.

I promise you that we thirty-year-old trans women are having at least as much fun as the twentysomethings, if not more - and that yes, HRT is still extremely effective at thirty and above. Personal results will vary, of course, but every trans person I know is happy with the results they're getting, regardless of when they started!

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Do you know of Touhou? If so (Or even if not, I'd recommend giving them a quick look-over), who's your fave girlie/girlies? In design, lore, or whichever metric you deem appropriate.

I've only played a few of the really old Touhous, but I'd love to get into the series more at some point. I don't really know any of the characters, either - the only one I'd recognize on sight is my girl Reimu.

She's got style. I like her ball.

[thewertsearch]

I was wondering if you have any plans to host this liveblog anywhere else? Given tumblrs moderation choices as of late, I fear even for a blog as innocuous as this one

I've thought about this a lot.

See, the main problem with finding another hosting solution is that Tumblr is the only remaining social media platform I even slightly tolerate, and even that ice is getting a little thin. Could any force on earth really compel me to Homestuckpost on Reddit? Create a Bluesky account? Regularly use Twitter? I wouldn't bet money on it.

Plus, even if I can find a platform that works from my end, I'd also need to curate a space the readers can navigate. For all this website's faults, Tumblr's tag system works really well as a categorization system, and I don't think anything else in the current social media ecosystem offers the same functionality.

Honestly, if it comes to it, I might just host my own website for the project. It might legitimately be the only way to maintain a liveblog with the features I want!

[thewertsearch]

I've always wondered actually what your pfp is of, is it a reference to something?

Even I don't remember exactly where it came from. I was looking for a visually interesting symbol for the liveblog back in 2021, and I just screenshotted something that looked cool from one of my college lecture slides.

I've long since lost my college notes, so the Wertsymbol's true origin will likely remain lost media forever...

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Do you watch drop out shows like game changer and make some noise? They ate pretty fun.

I haven't seen any myself! I've got a couple of friends who are into Game Changer, but I have a notoriously difficult time picking up any new shows. Ya girl's a chronic rewatcher, and always has been.

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youve mentioned linux before, do you use it?

I've been using Linux Mint as a daily driver on my laptop for a couple of years now! It's pretty beginner-friendly as distros go, and the laptop runs twice as fast without all of Windows 10's bloatware. I'm still using Windows on my gaming PC, but I'll probably switch to Linux there too before the year is out. Linux gaming has matured massively since Valve started sinking more resources into Proton, and my girlfriend's been high-end gaming on CachyOS for years now with no issue.

[thewertsearch]

Happy April 13th, all!

I don't have any huge updates for you today, I'm afraid - but I do want to take the opportunity to assure people that yes, I absolutely am going to finish the liveblog at some point - trust! I've received a good few asks recently that seem to be assuming the blog is dead forever. It's not, I promise - I just don't have a timeline for when it'll return.

Anyways! As a mini-event for 4/13, I'm going to host a little off-topic ask session. Send your non-Homestuck asks in today, and I'll post a comp this evening!

[thewertsearch]

howdy wert hope you're doing well. I had a dream I checked your blog and you had started liveblogging the magnus protocol podcast, with no announcement, still without having listened to the magnus archives

I'm still on hiatus, so I don't want to jumpscare people with notifications too often, but this is the funniest ask I've received in months. Could you fucking imagine.

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A few people in the notes were hoping I was alright, so I just wanted to reassure y'all that I haven't vanished from the internet without a trace!

I'm not doing too badly. Liveblog's still on indefinite hiatus, but I still fully intend to finish the fight someday. Don't expect it to be anytime soon, but rest assured, there is a nonzero chance that on any given day, a Wertpost will spontaneously manifest on your dashboard...

I've been vaguely following the latest Homestuck news, and I'm still reeling a little at the fact that it's apparently being adapted into an animated show? You don't need me to tell you that this comic's pretty famous for presenting itself in some rather unconventional ways, and I'm really interested in how they're going to handle adapting a story which is so married to the internet. I also have a tenuous understanding that there's been a lot of weird behind-the-scenes fandom drama, but that sort of thing was never my speed, so I don't really know any of the details, lol.

Anyways, I can't wait to watch Homestuck: The Movie with y'all in 2029 :3

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Really sorry, but I'm going to have to halt the liveblog again.

I've been in an extremely low mood lately (for personal reasons - but don't worry, I'm fine) and it's currently more than I can handle to keep posting updates. I know this blog's notoriously inconsistent, and the last thing I want to do is keep disappointing people, but it's just not something I can maintain at the moment.

I don't really have a timeline on when this will change, which I know is frustrating to hear - but I do promise that if and when I'm feeling up to it again, I'll be back.

~Sal

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TT: I should probably warn you. GG: About what? GG: Yet another exploding game trap? […] TT: She already sent it? GG: Yes. GG: But to be fair, she warned me not to run it. TT: That's weird. GG: Why? GG: She was probably just trying to protect me from the Batterwitch's latest assassination attempt. […] TT: No, it's weird because Lalonde was the one who rigged it to explode.

What the fuck?

But what could possibly motivate her to-

TT: To accomplish exactly what it sounds like got accomplished. TT: You narrowly averting the "fake" threat to your life, then getting your shit all hot and bothered at the Baroness over it. TT: Then you abdicate your heiress throne or something, and give up on this game as a big fuck you to the genocidal cake alien.

That's fucking unhinged! Not least because the bomb could easily have killed her for real!

Plus, the virus employed Roxy's fucking typing style! Wouldn't it have been obvious that she was the one behind it?

TT: She's working through some problems right now.

Ya think?

I mean, let's be real, here - this plan was probably conceived and carried out in a drunken haze. Drunk coding is messy enough without bringing ~ATH into it.

GG: Now that I think about it, she was probably going to disarm it or such when she got back, seeing as her objective had essentially been accomplished already by an ACTUAL assassination attempt. […] GG: But then I went ahead and ran it anyway like a doofus. GG: I think she just wanted to be believed. GG: Shucks. GG: Am I an awful friend?

Y'know, I think I'm just gonna let Dirk answer this one.

She rigged! Your PC! To explode!

TT: Just heard about your assassination on Prospit. […] TT: I read it in a newspaper. […] GG: Are you being ironic again? TT: No. TT: I just picked up one of the sleazy Dersite tabloid rags. TT: Sometimes they'll feature some pretty entertaining gossip about the royalty or whatever.

That's actually pretty clever. Not even Rose paid much attention to Carapacian culture - it was probably too mundane for her. These guys know a lot more about the game than you'd think, and we should probably be learning as much about them as possible.

GG: Dersite? You mean the other planet? The evil one? TT: Derse, yeah. TT: Not evil, necessarily. That's a bit simplistic. The kingdom represents the forces of opposition to Prospit and the four heroes. Us.

Specifically, Derse is opposed to frogs - in other words, they're opposed to the idea of creating a universe. That might initially sound evil - but remember, these universes destroy entire planets when they're created, so Derse.... kind of has a point, actually.

TT: It was also reported your tower exploded. They couldn't find the body to give it a proper funeral. Probably incinerated.

Wait, is Jane's dream self on the move?

I guess if anyone's Aspect Powers could allow their dream self to exist independently, it'd probably be a Life Player. After all, that's basically an Awaken spell.

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Alright, this looks fairly incredible.

Honestly, this is exactly my kind of humor. It's hilarious, seeing Dirk extract this modern style of comedy from something so twee - there's just something about the juxtaposition between these two cultural lenses that really tickles the funnybone.

...yeah, OK, so this is just a masterpiece.

[...] about halfway through the book, rather than see the gag through to the bitter end, Strider began pasting over entire pages of original text with his own completely rewritten version of the story, while keeping all the chapter titles. His revision is a tough, emotionally draining read. But it's cathartic, in all the worst ways possible.

My kingdom for a full transcript of this novel. That's probably what the Pony Pals fanfiction purports to be, so I can't wait to check it out.

The launcher's in fucking ~ATH?

That's just what we need - another Mobius Virus, ready to curse another team. It really would be the cherry on top of this whole clusterfuck.

Wait, is Roxy hacking into Jane's PC to stop her playing early?

Good work, I guess - but girlie, you were just talking about trust!

Wait, are we about to run another virus? The last one did blow up Karkat's computer, so...

I take it this is another assassination's attempt - but if so, how did Roxy the hacker not realize the file was boobytrapped? I refuse to believe she wouldn't verify the code, mistrustful of CrockerCorp as she is.

lmao, for a second I thought the GCat was holding up the couch by his tail.

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Damn it Jane, take that fucking thing off!

(Watch her immediately stop believing Roxy's claims.)

TG: k lets get busay TG: what you want 2c me disappearify GG: The baking chest, maybe? TG: too big TG: i got size restrictions here TG: bigger stuff takes huge amount sof power to swipe TG: so this gizmo i have has a built in size cap TG: like somethin as big as you for insance TG: i cant take TG: believe me ive triiiied

Who hasn't wished they could teleport directly to their online friends, and hang out in person? This comic’s just filled to the brim with lonely kids.

GG: Well, what immediately catches my attention is this enormous book. GG: I wonder how it squares with your size restriction? TG: wut book GG: My Unabridged Sassacre's! GG: It's a very rare edition, and a precious family heirloom, so I don't know if it would make an ideal candidate for the journey. TG: no no r u kidding that shit is perfect […] GG: But what if it gets damaged!

Jane's genuinely worried about damaging the book, which is proof to me that she's not just humoring Roxy anymore. A part of her really is starting to believe her friend.

GG: Couldn't we send Wise Guy instead? GG: At least it can be easily replaced. TG: jane GG: ? TG: jaaanae GG: HM?? TG: FUCK wise guy

Seconded. We want to appearify some real shit.

Welcome to a wonderful new world, Jane.

By the way, just how accurate are this appearifier's crosshairs? Roxy might not be able to summon Jane, but perhaps she can nab that pesky tiara.

GG: It worked! GG: The book is gone! TG: oh no TG: aaaawwwww shit

Welp.

Maybe Roxy's experiments have tripped some sort of alarm, and the Condesce is coming for her?

TG: the book itself is topes fine :* […] GG: Then what's the problem? TG: fffff TG: im so stupid :( TG: so stupoid so stupud soos tupob :((( GG: Will you tell me what happened?? TG: gotta go bbl TG: well talk abt important stuffs l8r tipsyGnostalgic [TG] ceased bothering gutsyGumshoe [GG]

That would certainly fit here, because this crisis sounds urgent. Maybe it's unrelated to the appearifying experiments, and we're simply a victim of unfortunate timing.

TG: on last thing jane TG: DO NOT RUN THEFILE I SENT U BEFORE I GET BACK

Good call, that. Roxy needs to be there to accept Jane's Sburb connection - and if she's not, Jane might connect to someone else and inadvertently doom the timeline.