#BUT ITS FUCKING ERIDAN WHO STARTED IT

[bananonbinary]

sometimes i remember that one of my favorite lines in all of homestuck, arguably the thesis statement for the entire comic, came from fucking eridan bitching about how no one wants to date him despite being a Nice Guy(tm)

#'its hard. being a kid and growing up. its hard and nobody understands.' #like its just this quiet and understated Thing #like its not even whining its just stating a fact #and meta bullshit about narratives aside its literally the entire point of everything #is these poor kids trying to grow up without guardians and how badly it fucked them up #BUT ITS FUCKING ERIDAN WHO STARTED IT #maybe that is fitting #but i still hate it

[caligvlasaqvarivm]

Love is Stored in the Cat: A Nepeta Leijon Character Study

I guess these are a series now! I also have a request for Feferi in my inbox that I'll get around to eventually.

SO! Dear, sweet Nepeta.

Nepeta is the troll that is most against the existence of the hemocaste.

I believe the Ultimate Self speech was originally going to be from her, not Davepetasprite^2.

She's bad at shipping.

These all make her extremely impurrtant!!!

So furst of all, I'm going to start with the same disclaimer as my Eridan essay (go read that first!!! It sets up a lot of ideas that I'm expanding on here), which is that the things Hussie says are going to be lowered in value, because he likes to play coy about plot stuff. I'm also not counting anything but the actual text as canon, and even with in that text, I'm counting everything after GAME OVER as soft canon - a suggestion of what would have been, often truncated for time, often a deliberate middle finger to the shitty fandom.

Okay, so with that squared away!

Nepeta Says Fuck The Hemocaste

I'm not going to bother doing a deep dive on Nepeta's characterization, because fur the most part, I think the fandom more or less gets her right - she wears her heart (h33h33) on her sl33ve, after all! She's a very sweet little catgirl who loves roleplay and shipping, who is also a vicious hunter of wild beasts and lives in a cave. She's very nice and friendly, but has a tough streak and a spine.

She also says fuck the hemocaste, why does that even exist:

CT: D --> Your fraternization with the base classes have 100sened your morals, can't you see this AC: :33 < no! i dont care, they are fun AC: :33 < and i dont know anything about classes or bases or blood color, it doesn't matter! AC: :33 < what does gr33n blood even mean! it doesnt mean anything to me and it shouldnt mean anything to anyone else!

This is a radical stance not outright shared by any of the other trolls. Aradia calls highbloods "hateful sn0bs" that she and Tavros shouldn't have "ever had anything t0 d0 with", the highbloods are, of course, all casteist to varying degrees, and even Karkat seems fairly accepting of the class divide, at one point taunting Vriska that her rejection from the blue team is "ANOTHER INFURIATING VICTORY FOR GUTTER BLOOD OVER ARISTOCRACY". Not to mention his long-held dream of becoming a threshecutioner.

Even Feferi, despite saying to Eridan that "W-E AR-E NOT B-ETT-ER T)(AN ANYBODY!!!!!", is actually perfectly comfortable with the caste system's existence, comparing having to stop using her royal typing quirk to "peasant-IFICATING" herself - and let's not forget that a Beforus under her rule had its caste system 100% intact.

This means that Nepeta is the ONLY troll who has said, in no uncertain terms, that the caste system should not exist. It's stupid, it's bad, and it doesn't meowtter!

AND SHE'S RIGHT.

But she's never able to fully express this opinion, which brings us to:

A COMPLICKATED RELATIONSHIP WITH EQUIUS

Now, before I say anything, I must insist that I do believe these two work as good moirails. That does not, however, stop them from being 13, and therefore, being poor to each other the way 13-year-olds sometimes are. I don't think they should break up; I think they should re-examine certain dynamics, and I think they need some space to breathe apart from each other.

Equius has a lot of problems, which I won't get into overmuch here, because... that's a whole essay on its own (are you people seeing a trend yet). But with regards to Nepeta specifically, he's extremely controlling and protective, to the point where she's a little scared of him before the game begins:

AC: :33 < well it does sound like it will be a lot of fun but i think i should get purrmission first GC: BL4R!!!!! GC: TH4TS SO STUP1D GC: H3S NOT TH3 BOSS OF YOU AC: :33 < i know! AC: :33 < but still im kind of scared of him and i think purrhaps its best to just run it by him first so there isnt a kerfuffle about it or anything

She's also afraid to tell him about her crush on Karkat, since she knows he doesn't like Karkat:

AC: :33 < well AC: :33 < i have never told anybody this not even my moirail AC: :33 < heh, actually hes the LAST guy i might tell, he so wouldnt appurrve X33 AC: :33 < but yes i have liked somebody for quite some time, but alas he doesnt know it

By the time they end their game, she's gotten over this fear, seeing as she spends many hours curled up with Equius in a pile of robotics parts, but it still must be noted that they have some issues in their relationship that were never resolved, primarily on Equius's end. What this means for Nepeta, however, is that in addition to setting her up as the most outright anti-classism troll, the comic sets her up to be socially isolated due to her moirail's paranoia about letting her associate with both lowbloods (seeing them as bad influences) OR other highbloods, seeing them as dangerous.

He's not entirely wrong - his refusal to allow her to participate in FLARP kept her from winding up entangled in the horrible chain of revenge, as Tavros alludes:

AT: iT'S PROBABLY FOR THE BEST, AT: tHAT YOU LISTEN TO HIM, AC: :33 < i dont know AC: :33 < you think so? AT: wELL, AT: iF YOU DIDN'T LISTEN TO HIM BEFORE, AT: yOU MIGHT HAVE PLAYED GAMES WITH US BEFORE, AT: aND SOMETHING BAD MIGHT HAVE HAPPENED TO YOU, AC: :33 < hmm purrhaps

But he's still wrong. And it's probably an uncontrolled manifestation of his Heir of Void abilities - he's both consciously and unconsciously hiding her from other people.

This isn't to say she doesn't stand up for herself! Many of her discussions with Equius are pseudo-arguments, and she does get her way often enough, managing to get him to roleplay with her, and managing to get him back in the roboti% pile to talk about his feelings about Aradia. She also talks to the humans explicitly against Equius's orders, although she's keeping it a sneakret from him:

NEPETA: :33 < but equius already furbid me from doing that :(( NEPETA: :33 < not that i am listening to him, but shhhhh! :33 KARKAT: WAIT, HE DID? KARKAT: OK, THEN AS YOUR LEADER I ORDER YOU TO RP WITH THEM AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE. BE AS OBNOXIOUS ABOUT IT AS YOU CAN. NEPETA: :33 < yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!

But the fact that she has to tiptoe around him like this speaks to them having issues in their relationship that go unexamined and unresolved, especially since it's clear that Nepeta really would like to be friends with more people, were Equius not getting in her way. So, even though I do think they are good moirails for each other - they clearly genuinely, deeply care about one another. But they could use some relationship counselling.

In fact, Jasprosesprite^2 outright calls her lonely:

JASPROSESPRITE^2: Or the girl who likes ships! Cause they made her less lonely. ;3

So, she's anti-hemocaste and lonely, two character traits that were set up and never resolved. And beclaws this is Nepeta, in her honor, I'm going to talk about a third:

Her Unrequited Crush On Karcat

She has the BIGGEST flushed crush on Karkat. It's seen on her shipping wall twice, once with the word OTP on it.

And, despite never discussing it with her moirail, Nepeta mentions it once to Jaspersprite, and once to Jasprosesprite^2.

Now, I'm not really here to debate on the validity of KatNep - I think it's fine, even if I don't personally ship it, and don't personally think it would work out (there are lots of indications that they wouldn't work out, including Jasprosesprite^2 outright saying so). However, her crush on Karkat is both complicated and creates some interesting setups for her character. I am going to discuss it fairly critically either way, so KatNep shippers have been warned.

A lot of her feelings about Karkat - and about shipping in general - wind up being heavily interlinked with her status as a Hero of Heart, so I'm going to expand on it more there. But what I will note in this section is the fact that, despite Nepeta insisting twice that she doesn't think Karkat knows about her crush on her:

NEPETASPRITE: :33 < it was karkat NEPETASPRITE: :33 < but i never told him and im pretty sure he never found out how i felt!

He tooootally did:

KARKAT: OK, BUT TO BE FAIR, I'M PRETTY SURE SHE'S STILL OBSESSED WITH ME. KARKAT: IT'S A VERY UNFORTUNATE, VERY RED AND VERY UNREQUITED SITUATION I'VE BEEN TRYING TO TIPTOE AROUND FOR A LONG TIME, OK?

Interpret that how you will for shipping purposes, but I want to propose that this is a reflection of their statuses as Heart and Blood players. Heart, despite its players' obsessions with romance, is not the romance aspect, Blood is. Karkat displays this very same romantic acumen when he tells Dave that he's known Terezi and Gamzee were a thing for a long time, despite everyone else on the meteor trying to keep it a secret from him. Heart is, instead, about identity, feelings, motivations, souls, and self. In other words:

Nepeta Is Kind Of Bad At Shipping

Let's take a look at those shipping walls.

Let's break this down a little. Nepeta's ships are not entirely wrong, but even the successful ones are kind of wrong. Here's what I mean. We've already discussed how Equius and Nepeta's moirallegiance has some... issues in it. If we go down her list of ships that actually do happen, most of them have some issues in them!

Aradia expresses her regret for getting together with Equius in the Ministrife. Kanaya and Rose suffer some major relationship problems when Rose starts drinking, to the point Karkat feels a need to step in as an auspice. Karkat and Gamzee fail, as Karkat is not calmed by Gamzee, and Gamzee stops listening to Karkat. And while Sollux and Feferi seem to be fairly healthy, after they both wind up in the Furthest Ring, he's pretty much always next to Aradia - he and Feferi don't even get to exchange words with each other once they're in the Furthest Ring. Purrsonally, I think he and Feferi are meant to end up as moirails, but shhhh.

So what's happening here? Well, this goes back to her identity as a Heart player. Heart is concerned with feelings and motivations.

They simply want to understand the one thing we all are stuck with for our entire lives, i.e. our own minds. Forging an identity is extremely important to the Heart-bound, and every decision and action goes toward building a coherent narrative of their own story. That isn't to say Heart-bound don't care deeply for their friends and allies; they just have a tendency to assume that everyone is as concerned with identity as they are.

Nepeta's shipping has also been associated with her isolation and loneliness. When you put this together, it implies that Nepeta's shipping is about her desire to understand others, and much of her ships are based on one of the parties having feelings, regardless of compatibility, feasibility, or broader implications. After all, despite the fact that she has pretty terrible romantic acumen, she IS able to instinctively identify that Eridan's advances toward her were insincere:

NEPETASPRITE: :33 < well ok i guess eridan hit on me a few times NEPETASPRITE: :33 < but his advances always struck me as cr33py and insincere

And that Karkat secretly LOVES and RESPECTS his friends:

JASPROSESPRITE^2: On the contrary Nepeta. You deserve someone who will RESPECT and ADORE you. NEPETASPRITE: :33 < well... yes NEPETASPRITE: :33 < i always hoped to find someone like that some day NEPETASPRITE: :33 < i dunno maybe youre right but in spite of whatever problems he might have i always felt like i saw something in him that made me think he could be that purrson!

Or knowing that Equius loves to play games, and still feels sad about Aradia exploding:

AC: :33 < i s33 right through your stupid act, who are you trying to kid! AC: :33 < look how you go out of your way to use words that have x's in them so that you can use your silly purrcent signs AC: :33 < or use these absurd words that you can shoehorn a '100' into, even if its not strictly replacing 'loo'!!! AC: :33 < you are so transpurrent AC: :33 < i can tell you like to play games, d33p down you are a guy who likes to play games! AC: :33 < i can smell a guy who likes to play games from so fur away with this nose, you have no idea X33

NEPETA: :33 < she was so happy, just like she used to be, and she said she would s33 you soon! EQUIUS: D --> That's a nice thought, and thank you for sharing it EQUIUS: D --> But it was only a dream, and will surely have no consequence in reality NEPETA: :33 < equius? NEPETA: :33 < are those f33lings i an detecting with my wiggly whiskery nose? EQUIUS: D --> Maybe

Because feelings, and not relationships, are her actual domain.

And speaking of Heart powers...

Nepeta and the Ultimate Self

So from this point forward, I'm going to assume you're more or less agreeing with my take that at some point after Game Over, Hussie - for whatever reason - gave up on his original ending, and wound up truncating his ideas so he could finish the comic faster. I go more into detail about that here.

So, in this hypothetical original ending, I firmly believe that the speech about the Ultimate Self would have come from Nepeta. First, let's take a look at what the "Ultimate Self" entails, as it appears within the comic:

DAVEPETASPRITE^2: B33 < everything that ever happens to every version of you is an important part of your ultimate self... like a superceding bodyless and timeless persona that crosses the boundaries of paradox space and unlike god tiers or bubble ghosts or whatever, it really IS immortal DAVEPETASPRITE^2: B33 < but in your physical form there are all these partitions in your mind that prevent you from remembering any of that which makes your existence f33l totally linear DAVEPETASPRITE^2: B33 < which is probably for the best! DAVEPETASPRITE^2: B33 < in a regular body s33ing all that would be too overwhelming ... DAVEPETASPRITE^2: B33 < and after it sinks in for a while you start coming to this understanding of a greater self DAVEPETASPRITE^2: B33 < maybe i "got it" quicker though because of the two people i was and their aspects DAVEPETASPRITE^2: B33 < understanding heart is all about the nuances of a distributed self DAVEPETASPRITE^2: B33 < nepeta never got to make much headway with her aspect but shes finally gettin the chance DAVEPETASPRITE^2: B33 < the time aspect is all about running into different versions of yourself so you kinda get confronted with it in a really literal way that can be disturbing DAVEPETASPRITE^2: B33 < obviously davesprite stuggled with that too, but now its fine DAVEPETASPRITE^2: B33 < hes fr33 from worrying about it all and what it means for his place in reality DAVEPETASPRITE^2: B33 < because he can s33 now all his selves have relevance in painting the full picture of who he truly is DAVEPETASPRITE^2: B33 < im not COMPLETELY sure because im not like some sort of ASPECT MASTER but DAVEPETASPRITE^2: B33 < my avian slash feline intuition tells me that all roads will lead you here eventually DAVEPETASPRITE^2: B33 < gaining the d33pest possible understanding of any aspect will bring you to the same final conclusion about your ultimate self

Now, I believe - and I hope you'll agree - that it's kind of lame, narratively, for Davesprite to have been set up with so much angst about not being the "real Dave," and for Nepeta to have all her issues with loneliness and shyness, and for these two specific iterations of each other to have never interacted, but suddenly getting double-prototyped fixes all of their problems, and they achieve Ultimate Selfhood despite being two total strangers to each other. So let's instead break down the more salient points about what Ultimate Selfhood entails, divorced from the fact that it's Davepetasprite^2 doing the narrating:

Every player in the game possesses an "Ultimate Self," an ultimate culmination of all their experiences and memories, specifically referred to as a "persona"

Normally, people are not aware of this, because it would be too overwhelming to deal with so many memories and iterations of each other.

Everyone will achieve Ultimate Selfhood eventually as the final culmination of their understanding of their aspect.

Heart is all about the nuances of a distributed self.

Let's talk about that last one some more, and by that I mean, let's see what Calliope has to say about it:

TT: I don't know why it had to be this way for me. Juggling these two waking selves at once. TT: I guess I'm used to it, but it still makes for a pretty intense existence. TT: Do you even know what the deal with that is? Like is there any precedent in your readings? UU: i don't know aboUt precedent, bUt it makes plenty of sense to me as the type of path one might expect for a hero of heart. UU: a path rUled by the heart aspect can be a joUrney of splintered self. UU: that is, the player's being may exhibit the same kind of fragmentation which certain classes coUld caUse in others. UU: i think this is what has triggered yoUr dUal-awareness between waking and dream selves, thoUgh it woUld not sUrprise me if the symptoms manifested in even more ways than this.

Now, Dirk has a clawmplicated relationship with his alternate selves, given that he's a Prince, but Nepeta wouldn't have the same struggles, or at least, not to the same degree. The problem is, hampered by Equius and her own shyness about discussing her thoughts and feelings with others:

NEPETASPRITE: :33 < i get so shy and worried what people might think of me if i say how i f33l NEPETASPRITE: :33 < im always so scared that they wont f33l the same way or just think im stupid or pathetic or something

She never actually gets to explore this part of herself.

But What If... She Did?

The way I imagine the original ending going is that each troll that gets saved by John's interference in the timeline then asks John to help them fix their own mistakes, thereby saving somebody else. Each successive trip through the meteor brings new character development, and also riddles the comic with progressively more password pages, which I think would be really funny. And throughout all this the Game Over team is searching for Vriska, Meenah, and the treasure, and resolving their arcs that way, so it's not like they would be replaced - they're the ones who get to kill LE. The process, in my mind, goes like this:

Terezi asks John to save Vriska, and prevent her from getting too spades with Gamzee, as these are her two greatest regrets.

Vriska obviously had great regrets about killing Tavros, both pre- and post-retcon, so she asks for his death to be prevented.

Tavros staying alive means that he and Gamzee wind up hashing out some stuff - Gamzee mentions that he feels "So aT ChIlL WiTh yOu" while talking to Tavros, and Tavros reciprocates the friendship and also - interestingly - acknowledges Gamzee's religion, calling it beautiful even if he doesn't necessarily believe in it. This is interesting because Karkat's inability to do so is explicitly one of the reasons their moirallegiance broke down. So having Tavros back, alive, means that he and Gamzee would likely end up in some sort of relationship, probably pale despite flushed leanings, and would bring Gamzee back into the fold.

Gamzee would then be like, yeah, wow, that time I killed Nepeta and Equius was pretty bad, huh? Especially since his decision to hang onto his friends' bodies and prototype them is often interpreted as him genuinely feeling bad about his dead friends (he tells Kurloz to shut up when Kurloz mentions all the dead friends, and his religion seems to be about a paradise he wants to share with his friends anyway). So he'd ask John to prevent him from killing them, resulting in the two of them getting to live.

Things get much more hypothetical from here, since so much of the character dynamics would have changed, but I think by this point, Equius might command ask John to let him say goodbye to Aradiabot before she explodes, which he expresses feeling very sad about. However, in doing so, John and Aradiabot end up in the same room, and when she realizes that he has the ability to change the timeline without repercussions, she'd seize him by the arm and demand that he take her back in time, to before she died. After all, she expresses regrets about her reckless actions, and how she always felt like it was all one big setup.

She would take Aradia's place in the Vriska revenge chain, being once more freed of her robot chassis, and from there, would trick Doc Scratch and the Handmaiden into thinking everything was still going according to their designs. Meanwhile, Alive!Aradia would be hanging out at Equius's place, borrowing his void powers to avoid notice, coordinating a new timeline that keeps the beats of the original (too much deviation causes unpredictability, and an paradox'd timeline offshoot without John's direct interference would still become doomed), but allows them greater freedom and the ability to overcome the machinations of Doc Scratch and associates.

This would also prevent Sollux from becoming so self-loathing, since it's no longer "his fault" that Aradia dies, although he winds up in that hole again after Feferi gets killed. Now that his Aradia is alive, he wouldn't feel like he might as well stay in the bubbles because his closest companions are there, so he'd make it to the end, and would ask John to prevent Feferi's death.

Eridan still dies; he's so disconnected and isolated from all his friends that his course of actions is largely unaffected even by everybody else's timeline tweaks. But before Feferi can suggest bringing him back, Karkat would butt in.

The Friendship Troll should be the one to demand that ALL of their friends be revived, especially if they had everyone except only one guy, and Karkat and Eridan are heavily implied to be moirails anyway. The course of Karkat's fixes are so comprehensive, and primarily romance-based, that the end result of this final loop is everybody not only being alive, but god-tiered, with appropriate character development.

Now, where Nepeta's Heart powers would play into all of this is that she would start to notice something going on. After all, Heart players are sensitive to their splintered selves, and (Nepeta) is probably much closer to Nepeta than regular doomed timeline offshoots. As the loops continue, and Nepeta has more and more time to talk to people, and meets her dead alternate selves, and even meets (Nepeta), she starts to awaken to her Ultimate Self - to come into possession of alternate memories.

And if the Ultimate Self is a very soul-y kind of concept, such that Heart players have a natural advantage in coming to understand it, then isn't it a natural fit that a Rogue of Heart - one who steals from Heart or steals Heart for others - would be naturally inclined to share the wisdom of her alternate selves, and even the very concept of the Ultimate Self, with her friends?

Because the Ultimate Self is actually, in my opinion, a pretty good narrative device. It turns the sadness of the dead and doomed timelines into something littersweet instead, and makes it so any weirdness regarding time travel and not really knowing your friends anymore will eventually be resolved, even if off-screen.

It's not really narratively satisfying when Davepetasprite^2 suddenly comes into being and reaches enlightenment, but imagine if instead it's a post-character development Nepeta comforting Davesprite on his relevance, or Jade on her loneliness, or John on not really knowing these new post-retcon versions of his friends? It would feel a lot better, since in this hypothetical, she would have reached that point after on-screen character development. Being able to share her true self with her friends on the meteor - by necessity, since what else are they going to be doing for three years - leads to her finally being able to fulfill her role as a Rogue of Heart.

Also, at some point during these repeated meteor trips, she dates Karkat (whether that's successful or not, I'll leave to reader interpretation - you already know where I stand), fulfilling Jaspersprite's musing that she might only be able to date Karkat after she dies.

So that's two out of thr33 of her outstanding plot hooks resolved... okay. So, I try not to make these essays into ship propaganda, but hear me out:

Hate Is Stored In The FefNep

Okay, so, remember that thing about how Feferi is actually a huge casteist hypocrite? Well, let's also note that the comic, post-Murderstuck, seems to put Nepeta and Feferi together a lot - they're a Commodore and Rear Admiral in the ghost pirate army, respectively, and they also wind up as Fefetasprite. So I think it's not entirely out of left field to say that these two were implied to have SOMETHING going on.

And that something... is a difference in political views.

I mean, let's be real, there's a reason Fefetasprite is the most explode-prone after Tavrisprite. Miss "The Hemocaste is Stupid and Shouldn't Matter" vs. Miss "I Love Being A Princess And Call Jade Hornless and Finless (Derogatory)"? Come on, tell me you don't see it.

Without getting too much into Feferi, this hypocrisy, and unwillingness to check her privilege (so glad I found an excuse to use that term unironically), are probably her greatest character flaws - ie, the things you would expect the story to address about her. Meanwhile, one of Nepeta's flaws, which she laments to Jasproseprite^2, is that she feels too shy to talk about her feelings to other people, leading to her having never expressed her views on the hemocaste to anyone but Equius.

I think that they initially think they'd be friends. Each one of them would go "oh man, this other girl is soooo cute, I wish I could talk to her more often!"

And then, once they do, they realize they fucking hate each other. Nepeta would go "X00 < you are such a hypocrite who f33ls like youre better than all of us!!!" and Feferi would go "You're suc)( an uneducated glubbing P-EASANT! 3X0" and then they'd claw each others' eyes out. It would be so funny, and if a homestuck ship isn't extremely fucking funny, then why are we even here.

But more importantly, this would further them along into resolving each others' arcs - Feferi would be forced to grapple with the greater implications of classism, and Nepeta - who is shown having a spine the most in defiance of somebody else - would grow more aggressive about being open about her feelings in defiance of Feferi. Even Equius would get roped into it in a positive way - you can just imagine him going "D --> Can I really believe my auricular sponge clots D --> Nepeta, you are finally taking interest in politi%" and be 100% on board with teaching her so Feferi won't be able to call her uneducated.

And then for flushed, I dunno! Karkat's an option, and Jade and Jake also both love the fuck out of furries, and Tavros seems nice. But yeah I'll die on the fefnep hate ship. Guys it would be so funny.

Thank you as always for reading! Let me know if there's a troll you want to hear me ramble about next.

#homestuck #nepeta leijon #feferi peixes #equius zahhak

[cure-typhoon]

please please please talk more about the beta troll’s friendship 🙏

You have summoned me in my favorite subject: 🎉🎉🎉🎉 FRIENDSHIP!!! 🎉🎉🎉🎉 Take a sit because this is going to be long, so long i may end up dividing into different posts!

Okey so sadly we don't have a lot of info of the full group dynamic besides some clues and what we know is them literally at their worst thinking they we're going to die in a meteor,after a full one month campaign in the game they had won yet was taken from them being chased by an undefeatable enemy that destroyed their planets and probably their lusus too. And at the end three of them going on a rampage and killing the rest of the team

So not the most reliable info of how their normal dynamic as a friendgroup would be, but tbh it could never be "healthy friendgroup" in a human sense because, well, they live in Alternia.

But even in hell, the flower of friendship can blossom, so lets talk about the fucked up friendship between these kids:

We know little about how their friendship started, contrary with the Beta Kids that we know because of June's birthday presente for Jade arriving in the past to young Jade with her pesterchum and her probably looking at the clouds in Prospit and seeing there the pesterchum of Rose and Dave following suit

Because the Beta Trolls are a much bigger group and we dont really know if they actually celebrate their wriggling days, as none of the trolls mentioned it but it could also be in part because of Karkat's disdain for the celebration or them maybe not knowing because he is a very private kid after all

Maybe Kanaya was the first troll that befriended all of them, like Jade was and both of them being the assigned Space player of their group and the first ones to wake in Prospit, but i also doubt that considered she didnt went through the birthday gift shenanigan that young Jade went through

So what most likely happened: The trolls who we're closest to eachother (Equius and Vriska, Eridan and Feferi, Aradia and Tavros, Terezi and Vriska* (not totally sure about that one) and maybe Sollux and Aradia/Feferi) befriended eachother first and meet the rest (Karkat, Nepeta, Gamzee, Kanaya) online and just shared their info between eachother.

I honestly wonder who thought of the idea of all sharing their Trollian between eachother, maybe Feferi? maybe it just happened overtime? but what matters right now is the

F R I E N D S H I P

So today we will talk about the underrated friendships between the group

Starting with Aradia and Tavros! Both members of Team Charge, i see very few people talk about them as friends even though they were obviously very close considering they we're part of a Flarp campaign together.

Both seem to match pretty well personality wise, both adventurous and wanting to have fun in the game, Aradia knows that Tavros picked a hard class for himself yet she still encourages him and tries to cheer him on and advice him in the case of Vriska trying to get under his skin.

When Vriska starts to surrond him, she tries to communicate with her first, but sadly she and terezi where distracted by Doc Scratch, so he gets paralized

Side note: After Aradia and Terezi, his third option for asking for help is Karkat, which is...interesting, they dont talk a lot but when they do its Tavros trying to get advice/help from him (2 out of 3 convos), so either Karkat and Tavros have more convos besides the ones showed (very likely) or Karkat just having a reputation of helping with issues that he is the first one who comes to Tavros's mind

also Karkat calling him bro is so fucking funny cdbhd, idk if its sarcasm or if its genuine like with Eridan but he seems worried for a little before going on a rant about how stupid this is, only to come back trying to advice him to do this in private (also he winks at him as GTavrossprite but thats smt for the Tavkat shippers)

Anyway, back to Aradia, after her death we dont know about their relationship that much, we know that the whole reason that this whole revenge cycle was because Aradia wanted to avenge Tavros

But after her death, we don't know if they talk or if Tavros even knows she is dead, as it was mostly secret that only Sollux, Vriska, Terezi and Equius seem to know,

What we know is that Aradia keeps Tavros close to her heart, as the only reason she didnt straight up kill Vriska is

Because he was there to see it

And thats all the info we have of their relationship while Aradia was a robot, is more than likely Tavros confronted Vriska (besides creating Bec Noir) because Aradiabot had just exploded and he was blaming her for that too (especulation)

Their post-death/revival shows them having the same relationship pre-aradia's death, after they find eachother in the afterlife

Theyre big pals :)

Staying with Tavros, another friendship people dont seem to talk a lot about is Kanaya and Tavros, which tbh, we dont have a conversation on screen between them, but we know they talk and Kanaya tries to mediate to help him when Vriska is bullying him

And also, even after she cut Vriska out because of the whole ''Having a crush on her but finding out she has a crush on Tavros'' (probably because she was sulking) she seems to have a fine relationship with Tavros, as she made a Tinkerbull plushie for him

To other friendships, Kanaya and Feferi! Another group of trolls with very few coversations, but we can easily tell in those that they cared for eachother

They have a lot in common, being of the few trolls who woked up in their moons before the game, having a huge responsability as their lusus can either kill or revive their entire civilization, being in a unhappy moiralliagance (with their cases kinda mirroring eachother, with Feferi not wanting to be in any quadrants while Eridan wants to change them, while Kanaya wants to change quadrants while Vriska seems to be fine with where they are) and knowing their lusus were going to die when they were 13

Feferi and Kanaya seem to have very a similar relationship as Karkat and Eridan, where they advise eachother about their moirals + possible romantic relationships. And their very contrasting personalities helps them balance eachother out

Feferi is even comfortable enough to invite Kanaya to the horn pile and knowing Kanaya's expressions enough to guess that she is nervous about coming off as meddling with them

After Feferi gets killed off, Kanaya is already ready to attack, only waiting to see what Eridan is planning to do, attack her first or trying to escape

If it weren't for Kanaya distracting herself with the matriorb, and Eridan inmediately picking on this opportunity

To piss her off enough to set her off and attack him first

So she is an easier target that he can kill her off without a fight

Speaking about this two, next time we will to talk about the complicated (annoying) friendship between these two, why next time? because this post is already getting to fucking long!

Come here for Part 2 -> Here! (when its done this will get updated with a link lol)

#i need to name this saga as it will be multiple posts #The unspoken friendships #good enough ig #homestuck #beta trolls #aradia megido #tavros nitram #kanaya maryam #feferi peixes #eridan ampora #karkat vantas #jade harley

[thewertsearch]

GA: Im Not Sure Which Depresses Me More GA: The Sabotage Of Our Session Or The Futility Of Theirs [...] CG: YOU'RE BEING REALLY WEIRD ABOUT THIS. GA: Well I Havent Asked What I Wanted To Ask [...] GA: Its About TentacleTherapist CG: YEAH. THAT'S THE ROSE HUMAN. CG: SHE'S APPARENTLY PRETTY SARCASTIC. CG: IT'S IN MY NOTES.

I love that Karkat prepared dossiers on the kids' personalities, presumably to harass them as efficiently as possible. We've never seen him talk to Rose, so I like to think he learned about her sarcasm from her passive-aggressive games with Mom.

GA: You Have Notes On Them [...] GA: Thats Why Youre Our Leader Karkat CG: NO, I'M YOUR LEADER BECAUSE OF MY INCREDIBLE TACTICAL SKILLS AND MY ABILITY TO MOBILIZE AND MOTIVATE A BUNCH OF USELESS PEOPLE TOWARD A COMMON GOAL, AND BECAUSE I'M EXTREMELY AMBITIOUS AND INTREPID. ALSO BECAUSE LEADERSHIP IS IN MY BLOOD. WE'VE BEEN OVER THIS.

I'm actually with Karkat on this. Uniting the trolls was an achievement, and he managed it better than most of his friends would have.

The only other trolls who might have had a shot were Terezi or Kanaya - but Kanaya was distracted by quadrant shenanigans, and Terezi likes causing problems on purpose. Plus, she wasn't interested in being the leader.

Karkat doesn't exactly give off 'inspiring leader' vibes, but he rose to the occasion magnificently. He got trolls like Vriska, Equius and Eridan to act as a unit, and it's frankly astounding that it worked as well as it did.

GA: Have You Talked To Her CG: WHO GA: The Rose Human GA: Also GA: Do We Really Have To Say Things Like The Rose Human CG: OF COURSE WE DO. CG: IT SOUNDS SUITABLY DISDAINFUL. CG: I MEAN, IF A BUNCH OF ALIENS STARTED HASSLING YOU, YOU WOULD EXPECT THEM TO ACT REALLY HIGH AND MIGHTY, AND SUPERIOR IN EVERY WAY, RIGHT?.

Humans are, basically, cousins to the trolls - and the first thing the trolls did was try to obfuscate that fact. I think Karkat's motive was to make them sound intimidating, but they ended up just sounding like cartoon characters. Not that I'm complaining.

CG: DID YOU WANT TO TROLL HER? ARE YOU VOLUNTEERING? [...] GA: Im Not Sure If Ive Got It In Me Right Now CG: COME ON. YOU'LL BE GREAT AT IT. CG: PLEASE JUST DO THIS ONE THING FOR ME. WE'VE GOT TO STAY COORDINATED ON THIS. CG: TOO MANY OF THESE FUCKS ARE GOING ROGUE.

Karkat may have united the trolls, but I think his leadership died with the Black King. He said it himself - his strength was in motivating the trolls to a common goal. Out here in the Veil, there is no more goal, and things are rapidly unraveling.

CG: I'LL EXPECT A FULL REPORT SOON. GA: A Report About What [...] CG: HOW HASSLED YOU GOT HER TO BE CG: BUT LESS STUPID SOUNDING THAN THAT. GA: Is There A Metric For That Concept [...] CG: WE CAN GAUGE YOUR RESULTS WITH THE "FLIGHTY BROADS AND THEIR SNARKY HORSESHITOMETER".

And I don't think Project Trolling was just a way for Karkat to vent his frustrations, either. I mean, that's definitely what he thinks it is, but if it was just that, he'd be doing it alone.

GA: That Seems Just As Disparaging To Me As It Is To Her CG: YEAH WELL CG: USE IT AS MOTIVATION

He's doing it to motivate the other trolls. A part of him has realized that his team has lost direction, and he's subconsciously trying to provide them a new goal - something new to unite them.

Because what happens if the trolls aren't united?

Blood, mostly.

And Karkat hates blood.

#homestuck liveblog #full liveblog #act 5.2 #s61 #2694

[davekat-sucks]

the implication i got was that kanaya realized that rose was just her rebound from vriska all along and she never got over her, which is why she started to sympathize with jade's first world issues. also rose said that this wasnt the first time she used her dead mother in an argument, but it doesnt matter because rose knows kanaya is an enabler and will forgive her anyways. its all so fucking foul on both sides.

also funny how both kanaya and karkat used the humans as rebounds.

Yep. Kanaya using Rose as a rebound was kind of a thing back in the old fandom days. It's noticeable in Act 6 too because of how much she tries to be close with Rose becoming alcoholic and not doing a single damn thing to address the issue. It makes it worst by Post Retcon since Vriska is alive and now Kanaya can have TWO girlfriends still around. And it got worse when she adopted a cerulean to name her VRISSY. People paint Kanaya at that point as still not getting over Vriska. Fans of Kanaya want her to move on from the bad girl phase. She should be around people that are actually good like Karkat. Because the last time she had trusted someone who is awful, she got KILLED for it. Eridan was the final straw that she began to have trust issues. Kanaya using Rose as a rebound is now seen as bad. But you know it will never be said the same for Karkat with Dave. Because homosexuals are better than women. The nu-fandom doesn't think Rosemary is progressive as it used to be. They now prop Davekat as the true LGBT symbol. Sorry folks, but there are other lesbians that people like more and Rosemary ain't one of them. They aren't even top contenders like Bubbline, Garnet (Ruby and Sapphire), Poison Ivy x Harley, Undyne x Alphys, Utena x Anthy, or even recently Chaggie. Some could argue it's because those series are at least big named compared to Homestuck. But isn't this the same fandom that praised the comic for Rosemary being one of the few LGBT ships in a WEBCOMIC? Especially when it was around 2009-2012, way before LGBT was accepted in places like America and other countries. That the Internet was one of the few places to express whatever you want without consequence. So why isn't it talked about like the other ships? Because Homestuck is irrelevant and not important as it was.

#Homestuck #Homestuck fandom #Rosemary #Rose x Kanaya #Rosenaya #Kanaya Maryam #Rose Lalonde #Vriska Serket #vrissy maryam lalonde #Post Retcon #Davekat #Dave Strider #Karkat Vantas

[parasiteking]

RANTSONASTUCK

Doc Scratch does Mr Beast Squidgame 5 days a week

Terezi does legal videos. She's dating Vriska and drama came out of that but people liked Terezi so much they just let it slide

Aranea [blank] explained, Tumblr drama

Vriska does callout posts, starts shit, lies about other people. People hate Vriska. Doxxes people in her videos.

Gamzee does Slime ASMR.

Rose does fic reviews & witch discourse

Calliope and Caliborn share a channel (Yuri Review, Yaoi Review.) They keep unlisting eachother's videos. Popular because viewers think its a ARG (its not)

Aradia ask a mortician, collabs with Dave (arcade craniacs) on halloween and everyone is confused

Feferi is fishtuber with rantsona sprites who makes a video on Seaworld twice a year

Jane baking reviews, bad book reviews, gets into discourse for having billionare mom

Tavros makes videos on like. Peta n shit. Pokemon nuzlockes.

Jake does shitty movie reviews. Makes videos on selfshipping discourse. Turns into eboy thrist tiktoker after breaking up with Dirk. Sometimes Minecraft Youtuber.

Karkat twitter discourse explained for tumblr users, book rants, movie rants, makes apology video once every 3 months

Roxy makes the stock image animation videos. Made go kitty go. Doesn't use her rantsona anymore after she went to rehab.

Kankri defends SJWs but like in the worst way possible. has beef with Dirk.

Hal makes shitty unfinished ARGs, shits on Dirk, subscribers are bots, probably rants about a movie twice a year

Dirk makes videos about Brony drama and anime reviews. MLP Hypnosis

Porrim makes videos about feminism. Alot of people found her after Kankri made avideo on her and people were like "actually Porrim was right"

Kanaya makes videos on closed species, fashion blogging, celebrity fashion analysis

Dave makes like. newground animation review, shitty webcomic reviews, gets a genshin sponsership once but the videodoes so fucking bad he never gets it again.

Jade is a furry with a gun.

Nepeta does ship war videos and ship analysis videos. Does like, opposite of cringe comps where she shows the "cringy" video then is positive about it.

Eridan defends Harry Potter, make cringe comp reaction videos. Calls out "forced diversity"

John makes movie reviews. Point & Click games. Magic tricks. Danny Gonzalez collab

Sollux does coding tutorials, gets subscribers aafter he collabs with Roxy on a video about Yandere Simulator's code and people dig and find his channel

Equius makes videos about like. Body builder drama. Collabs with Nepeta to talk about Wrestling RPF.

#homestuck

[lesboygamzee]

beta troll headcanons but i have headcanons on how alternian gender works ( its not that complex dw )

aradia - fully agender . seperate from everything . didnt really care until it godtiered and then was like ohhh i dont have to do anything anymore im free now ok ^_^ and was pretty chill with it forever tavros - Fairy Girl and transfem . i imagine that Fairy Genders are like completely caste nonconforming I HAVE LORE I HAVE LORE LISTEN TO ME NOW BOY anyway . has known for like .. Awhile but shes in proximity to vriska and vriska is like your average reddit transfem and tavros is like ok maybe i should just repress this and pretend its not something i think and dream about extensively . and it works for awhile and then she lives as a girl on her own on earth c but it still takes forever for her to actually Come Out but it happens .. eventually ... ok im getting sad my girl has problems SHES ALSO BUTCH sollux - gold bigender what the fuck else . very repressed transfem who fits all the gamer trasnfem stereotypes hes kind of real . again Very Repressed and like halfway an egg halfway Aware ( haha duality ) . starts being herself after prolongued proximity to godtier aradia she stole its fucking girl ness #thetransagenda . doesnt really like the association he has with her caste but accepts it as part of his identity nontheless karkat - agender cis guy no assigned caste but identifies with his assigned gender on the technical level . he has a weird relationship with it but like its chill overall nepeta - olive trans guy . nondysphoric and is fine being a girl but one day he was like hey somethings off and he ripped his tits clean off and started living as a he and went about his life as normal <- joke but probably not far off . i dont think he was unhappy as a girl hes just chill with whatever feels right in the moment i think and right now its Boy kanaya - jade trans girl but in a gnc way because female jadebloods are meant to be very cold i think people forget that but kanaya genuinely cares about motherhood and wants to nurture the matriorb because she cares about the next generation of her race and like thats a significant part of her character guys you know that right . i think her both being badass AND having a desire for motherhood is good writing actually guys .g . anyway . has known since she was very young and would be relatively normal about it if it wasnt for her Proximity To Vriska ( see Reddit Transfem ) terezi - teal trans guy whos also nonbinary whos also a dyke . ill be honest i dont have anything super in depth for this one sorry terezi fans vriska - cerulean trans girl . i think nows the time to clarify what i mean by reddit transfem umm . she will not shut the fuck up about how horrible and mannish she looks and acts forever and like its not her fault she feels like this but shes saying this in direct proximity of other transfems namely kanaya and tavros . i also think shes a transmed . umm has known from a young age but only becomes fully comfortable in her identity like .. a loooong time from canon equius - indigo transfem . i dont have a lot of thoughts on this but i think shes very repressed for a long time but Nepeta Proximity helps her a little . doesnt really transition shes just A Girl Now gamzee - Dyke . incredibly strange relationship with everything but like .. i think hes identifying as a trans guy at 13 if only because he thinks its the easiest to explain i dont think hed care . Until It Does . has a crisis about it for exactly a week before getting normal . hard to explain more for multiple reasons rips arm off eridan - violet cis guy but like theres gender fuckery going on . thought he was transfem for awhile and went on e and was like this is awesome but i think im a guy still . does drag as a fuschia woman feferi - fuschia multigender . another one that is hard to explain sigh but i think hes an egg at 13 but he doesnt have a whole thing about it hes like oh im more than just Girl cool ^_^

#homestuck #beta trolls #aradia megido #tavros nitram #sollux captor #karkat vantas #nepeta leijon #kanaya maryam #terezi pyrope #vriska serket #equius zahhak #gamzee makara #eridan ampora #feferi peixes #headcanons

[555-95472]

so two different people have asked me about #18. Favorite Beta troll? and it was already getting long, so. here we go 🎉

i won't sugarcoat my garbage opinions here: its eridan fuckin' ampora. welcome to my ted talk on why i love this terrible idiot.

so for context. i read homestuck when i was 14 and it like 6-12 months before my egg would crack. i was starting to be drawn toward male characters in a way i had never before. and my favorite types of characters were (still are?) under-discussed secondary characters with big "i can fix him" energy. so, naturally, eridan really caught my eye.

i liked the contrast between his tactical skill and his interpersonal ineptitude. b/t being kinda badass and being truly pathetic. b/t his attitude of supremacy and his endlessly deep self-loathing. and, yes, i definitely woobified him Big Time back then.

now coming back to the fandom like 13 years later, i see something more? those contrasts still draw me, but now i think about him in terms 1. what it means to be Villain in homestuck (both in his actions and his beliefs), and 2. erisolsprite

since this became an Essay, im putting the rest below the cut

tldr: examining eridan as a villain shows that some Really interesting choices were made in his creation and show how effectively he fills his narrative role. while erisolsprite forcibly hands someone else's perspective to an endlessly self-centered character.

with regards to villainy, in 2011 we had a totally different perspective on timelines and doom and free will and shit? looking back. and its so clear that eridan Had to be what he was, both narratively and meta-narratively?

what got me thinking about it was actually kanaya's sylladex releasing the matriorb? her fetch modus only releases objects when its The Right Time. and The Right Time was for eridan to fucking destroy it. and i realized that shit would've probably been pretty fucked if they got to the condesce with the matriob (something she wants Badly) and feferi (the heiress she was meant to kill).

narratively, eridan was predestined to destroy the matriob, and had he done anything differently, it would have doomed them. and i know this is the case for literally every decision, but idk something about that perspective hits different for eridan, who acts on his worst impulses and almost never has a positive impact on anything

like, goddamn, his classpect is prince of hope, and his planet is wrath and angels. people talk about whether or not he fulfilled his mythical arc or whatever? but it seems like LOWAA was meant to push him to that place of furious tension and volatile fear. it needed to happen and his planet made it so.

(plus i think there's some really interesting post-canon au stuff to explore with eridan learning to redefine prince of hope from "i destroy with my conviction" (meaning "i kill with magic/science") to "i destroy my conviction" (meaning "i deconstruct the things i once considered my core beliefs"))

and meta-narratively, eridan is Useful and also pretty interesting? imo there needed to be some representation of what the expected hemocaste beliefs of alternia were like. specifically someone representing the intersection of hyperviolence and bigotry that forms that backbone of their culture. eridan, as a war-tactic-obsessed seadweller, does a really good job of that.

but what twists him into something more is his role as an orphaner. in homestuck, eridan is the voice of his society's most violent and genocidal beliefs, and he is uniquely placed in a position to enact them. but he doesn't.

if eridan's bigotry is thought about as a narrative necessity for the arcs of other trolls (♋, ♉, ♐, etc.), it becomes more clear that some really clever choices were made to show a complex version of that (while still not overshadowing how Terrible he is). eridan is meta-narratively given infinite opportunities to do unspeakable violence that he Does Not Take. which serves to both undermine how dangerous he is, and to call into question the depth of those beliefs.

and with all that in mind: holy shit erisolsprite. eridan joined in mind and memory with sollux, a powerfully psionic goldblood who grew up in the shadow of helmsmanship. erisolsprite is so united in their self-loathing that they find unshakable common ground (as opposed to sprite-sploding like others do). its arguably The most stable relationship we see eridan have and the most stable sprite made of 2 trolls, and thats so wonderfully fucked up.

for eridan specifically, who is almost defined by being self-centered, he suddenly has the full memory of growing as sollux, who lived his life in the shadow of his own doom and was endlessly willing to sacrifice himself for others. eridan is literally is shoved into sollux's shoes and given memories of every previous step, all while sollux is still wearing those same shoes.

and while being erisolsprite definitely Sucks Ass, i can't stop thinking about how much that would affect eridan (Positively) if he ever got out of the sprite. tbh im also curious what sollux would walk away from erisolsprite with, but thats a post for a different time. i could go on, but it would probably just turn into a fanfic about it

ok my eridan rant is over. i hope this made sense. thank you for coming. here's a little bonus lowres eridan 💚

(also i havent played pesterquest yet so idk anything about that. ive been meaning to but its dubiously canon so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯)

#homestuck #eridan ampora #mspa #five writes #lmao this is almost 1k words #and tbh im just scratching the surface #theres SO MUCH to talk about

[6yuns]

( 💤 anon ) ok but what if reader is yuzurus brother and ibara has a crush on reader??? 😊my silly little brainworms are exploding but i forgot how is yuzuru and ibara relationship

ok but . ibara with a crush on reader leads to. gay sex!!!!!

GAY SEX. ERIDAN PLEASE WRITE THIRSTS ABOUT GAY SEX I BEG YOU

I LOVEGAY SE !!!!!

OK so basically from what I remember ibayuzu are rivals who hate each other for some reason anyways this cheered me up.. Also get ready for an angst fic... hehe

TITLE : WINE PON YOU, Doja cat

Pairings : ibara x male reader, tiny ibayuzu..

warnings/info : Smut, squirting (hehe), Cursing, Gay people, ibara. probably badly qrotten because eim bore

music 2 listen 2 : wine pon you - doja cat, taste - skz, I can love you - Mary j. Blige

notes : tbh I've been watching alot of gay japanese porn w squirting in it and its.... very hot. oh shit I ant even realize you said thirts... why is the word dick so funny, going over this makes everything funny because it's Christmas eve... anyways merry Hanukkah Christmas or whatever your religion is!!!! Holy shit I love RM. Tbh I'm not even following the chart I made for ibara cause he's my fav.. I hate the word towel

Ibara couldnt keep his eyes off of you. He always had his mind on you, he was hypnotized by you! You looked amazing In his eyes, even if you hadn't had your hair done yet. Even if you wore your dirty band t-shirt. Yet yuzuru was your brother, and he couldn't deal with that. ibara had brought you to the mall to get your hair done, You really wanted [style]. once you were done, You immediately thanked him with a big hug and a Tiny kiss.

ibara swore he saw the light, bro felt like he was levitating . "thank you so much! I really reeaally needed this.. yuzurus gonna be so happy now that he know' I got my hair done!" You always talked about your brother, and he wanted you to talk about him instead. "so.. How about we.. Uh" Ibara never was this nervous, his palms were clammy, and he was sweating way more. " ibara? what were you sayin'?" you asked, and ibara Just played it of as nothing and dragged you somewhere nervously. before you knew it you and him were infront of a fountain, a very special one.

"y-yn. I have something to tell you. I, Ibara saegusa. has a crush on You, The yuzuru fushimis little brother." he explained, Ready to get rejected. but he didn't, all he could feel was your lips on his, Your arms around him. "I love you ibara.. I love you so m-much!" You didn't think you would get this emotional because of a small confession, maybe it's because ibara is your long time crush? Just maybe... after the whole.. scenario, You got in his car, smiling underneath your hands. You didn't know where he was taking the both of you, all you could think about is how you were no longer single!!!!

after you and ibara got there, To his house. He let you out and parked the car, coming back and picking you up like a gentleman.. I guess. ibara immediately brought you to his bedroom, not even saying hi to anyone. you can guess where this is going

he layed you down and immediately asked for consent ( consent is 🔑) and you nodded your head, slowly becoming hard in your pants. You started to pull of your shirt as ibara worked down your pants, taking them off. Then he got to his own clothes, Taking them of slowly, teasing you. You moved your hand down to your cock, Starting to stroke it to hardness. ibara admired your face, smirking. Once he was finished he walked over and basically pinned you onto the bed. Motioning for you to lift your legs, and you obliged just wanting him to fuck you already. ibara slowly stuck his middle finger inside of your hole, making sure to not hurt you

once he was done preparing you, he eased himself inside of you. making sure to move slowly to make you feel every inch. " please... please just fuck me- ngh..! " Ibara shived the rest of his dick inside of you, Letting you adjust once he was fully inside. praising you for how well you take him. it hasn't even been a whole minute and your already grinding on him, Begging for him to move. ibara wanted to give you everything you needed, you ask, he delivers. he thrusted into you at a comfortable pace, Praise was thrown around, moans were heard and soon enough, you were cumming.

"a-ah wait wait cummin' ! I'm cumming- N-ngah...!" You moaned loudly, Squirting all over your stomach is that d that good?? Ibara immediately stopped and laughed, because he thought this thing only happened In porn, To women.. You layed there embarrassed because... you literally just squirt, Ibara Continued to move, just a little bit faster. Goddammit it felt so good, all you could do was moan and grind back into him, begging for him to just cum inside of you already. But again, you were cumming. "yn, is it- ngh.. Is it okay if i cum inside?" As soon as you heard that, you nodded so fast, If you were a dog your tail would be wagging at the speed of light, It was cute. Ibara lifted your leg over his shoulder and continued his assault on your hole, making sure to hit your sweet spot. Finally stilling his hips and cumming inside of you, moving with shallow thrusts. And that triggered your orgasm, you squirt again, but farther this time. The amount was larger too, your eyes rolled back into your skull as you came. Whining and moaning

After ibara stopped moving his hips he grabbed a spare towel he had before the session started and wiped you down, once he was finished ibara gave you a short kiss on your forehead. You shifted slightly, wiping sweat from your face. Whiny voice asking for ibara to cuddle, because who doesn't love After sex cuddles?!

Falling asleep in ibaras arms, As he whispered sweet nothings in your ear.

Finished dthsi while crying😹😹😹😹 also the ending came from my fucking ASS!!

#enstars #ensemble stars #enstars fanfic #enstars x reader #ensemble stars x reader #enstars x male reader #enstars smut #ibara saegusa #ibara smut #ibara saegusa smut #saegusa ibara #enstars ibara

[landoffreaksandfrogs]

Anonymous Bloodswap Headcanons, parts 1 through 3. I am not the source, all ideas presented are from an anonymous user.

the best thing about being a creative is that you can inspire others, and im so so happy that someone wanted to share such a great interpretation of my bloodswap. it has so much great stuff going on that i can really appreciate, so if anon ever sees this, PLEASE keep writing!! you obviously have a lot of talent. :]

transcript under the cut

okay so terezi is like. Raised in the courts, she’s always playing around online “judging” people’s crimes. This is how she comes across the others — she meets vriska first, talking about the annoying things highbloods do, and decides she likes this girl, takes pity on her, meets her friends, proper scourge sisters courtship and all such shit

vriska really loves to flarp. her favorite thing is to flarp pirates with eridan and kanaya (although eridan always makes her do the dirty job of killing the trolls they round up while kanaya takes their lusii for tz, so vriska mildly resents him for it ig? eridan doesn’t notice, just figures that vriska’s doing what she’s naturally meant to do — become more powerful so that maybe one day she’ll be able to be in his presence not as a flarper but as a hatefriend. yes he’s still racist in my head.)

sollux and aradia are in a cave system one day when they hear the sounds of some trolls running. sollux, lil guy that he is, gets involved, while aradia stays for backup but doesn’t really want to deal with this. sollux finds eridan and vriska hunting down the two trolls. he challenges eridan to a duel, dismissing vriska. vriska is. rightfully pissed and retreats (terezi will hear about this). eridan loses the duel — he didn’t know that his powers wouldn’t work to their full extent on sollux and sollux therefore has time to take him out. eridan’s never been a very physical fighter, always relying on vriska to do the dirty jobs for him or on his mind powers to take people out so he didn’t know how to deal with this.

eridan is lost broken he just lost to a dirty little hemonymous upstart who somehow evaded his powers? shit’s getting real man idk. anyway he looks into who sollux is, finds out who his friends are — and oh, fuck, he’s red courting fef. eridan is fucking livid at this. but fef manages to calm him down for now. keyword.

anyway in the meantime karkat is having fun exploring his caves and figuring out his ancestral legacy when he discovers this weird one with his sign on it, only it’s not only his sign its also nepeta’s sign and sollux’s sign?? he looks into it. there’s a statue of what looks like an older version of sollux, sweeping a hand out dramatically over the empty cave. karkat’s ancestor is behind him, hand on S.A (sollux’s ancestor’s) shoulder. N.A is sitting at his feet, grinning devilishly, eyes glowing and air sparking around her as her hair floats wildly in the air. intrigued karkat spends some long weeks fucking around in there until he discovers his ancestor’s diary. he reads through it, uploads it to goregle storage and sends it to sollux and nepeta. 

nepeta when she gets this is absolutely fucking enraged. what the fuck, karkat. you dont just share anti empire shit like this on goregle! youre not part of the fucking warthunder fandom for heavens sake! anyway she gets mad at him, kind of ends up blowing some shit up with her psionics (she always had too much power and not enough control) and starts a fire in her hivestem. this takes so long to put out and is during the day. at least six people die, and nepeta suffers severe third degree burns both from the fire and from running out of the burning building into the sun. sollux finds out, yells at karkat, they’re not friends for the next few sweeps. anyway karkat, trying to make amends, takes nepeta into his cave system, where they spend the next couple of sweeps until sgrub charting ships and talking romance and ancestral legacy and healing their friendship. theyve got a really fuckin cute pale thing going on by the time they enter sgrub. 

gamzee gets wind of what nepeta did. he of course has no idea what karkat did. so he starts cyberstalking nepeta, carefully gathering evidence on his murderer friend. she notices but decides not to say anything — he’s a teal, she can’t challenge him. aradia might like her but aradia’s also stoned most of the time on weird highblood weed so she’s not sure how well the trial would go. anyway gamzee collects this evidence, and, once he’s got enough (or, thinks he does), he sends it to aradia. 

aradia finds this amusing, that he would put so much time into a seemingly petty grudge against a lowblood 

“what kinda crush you got on her, gam”

he takes offense, arguing that she murdered five people and commited arson! she obviously isn’t right in the head, should be culled or at the very least punished and put in her place! aradia takes this moment to point out that she’s a fucking clown. she doesn’t care if someone kills another person. as long as there’s not a political motive, she isn’t there for it. gamzee resignedly leaves it alone. 

however! then we’ve got aradia and tavros discussing this stuff. tavros ends up spilling the beans to terezi. he’s always liked nepeta, found her super awesome but like shit if he’s going to lie to the heiress

terezi ponders it for a while, lets it sit. 

before you know it they’re all six sweeps old. the game starts. shenanigans ensue. 

not going to go into this stuff but: 

vriska and terezi break up, leaving terezi mentally fragile and vriska mentally and socially vulnerable

karkat and nepeta also break up when nepeta starts pitch courting gamzee (karkat cant deal with it because he doesn’t understand why and everything is changing and nep can’t keep up w him and and and and . teenager stuff.)

erinepquius moirails maybe? 

eridan definitely figures out their gender sometime during this, thanks to kanaya (they’re in some sort of quasi-romantic relationship — not quadranted but not entirely platonic)

gamzee keeps a close eye on nep. whenever she starts to get angry, he records it. whenever she steps out of line, he’s onto her.

terezi keeps a close eye on the records gamzee keeps. she doesn’t approve of this — of what he’s doing — but nep might be dangerous,. she’s constantly fighting with herself and the otehrs, and keeping them off balance. 

karkat fucks up the frog because he’s so on edge, so paranoid. terezi’s affecting everyone, and it doesn’t help that he doesn’t have a moirail anymore. 

they finish their game, but then bec noir comes and yeets it. 

escape to the meteor. 

ill finish these tomorrow lmao

#ask #anonymous #lofaf bloodswap #it wouldnt be right of me to steal these ideas but i do feel really inspired #you obviously put a lot of love and care into these and it makes me happy my au gave you such original and interesting ideas for the story

[dual-fantasy]

GUESS WHOS BACK . Anwyays half homestuck fandom rant again half headcanon . i think people underestimate the amount of input eridans lusus(going to refer to him as seahorsedad. following the early fandoms lead) had in him ending up the way he did. given how young he wouldve been when he had to start seahorsedad either wouldve been neglectful enough to not realize his son is going out every day and coming back traumatized and covered in blood, or (more likely) being the one teaching him how to kill lusii. even in the best case scenario where he does genuinely care about eridan in some way, and eridan craving any kind of attention Desperately has some other factor, he still subjects eridan to extreme violence that hes obviously way too young to be exposed to(considering the role lusii have in troll society, compared to nepeta hunting actual animals. and it being her choice & hobby to hunt, with her lusus' support and help, compared to eridan being forced into it since he was a kid) going Back to eridan craving attention, i feel like thats another thing that gives away seahorsedad isnt The Best. hes said(Multiple Times) that he doesnt care if people genuinely want him dead and hate him(in a Not Kismesis Way) because at least someones thinking about him. it just Doesnt make me think he gets enough of Anything at home. he is like chase to me he absolutely drops insane shit all the time. yeah he couldnt hang out cause his dad was teaching him a more effective way of blasting holes through lusii with his gamer guns but its ok because hes saving the world from dying to his girlfriends mom. yea his dad left him to fend for himself in the ocean as a baby but its alright it did not do shit to him(canonically has spent 5 days underwater his whole life. seadweller who does not live in the sea but hes fine it has nothing to do with the survival exercises he did with seahorsedad when he was barely old enough to actually hold the guns) GRAVE DOG

Jesus Christ. he's going through it. i don't have much to say but like holy shit. that is so much he's been through. seahorsedad has put that poor dude through it. he's so fine and ok though it didn't effect him. he was too busy shooting guns to learn how to count. don't even worry about it. it's fine. also sorry I couldn't get this earlier Ive been fucked by school ngl :/ but you're so real

#homestuck #eridan #hs eridan #homestuck eridan #eridan ampora #🪦🐕

[caligvlasaqvarivm]

Has anyone asked you about erisol?

If no, then what's your opinion on them! :-)

I feel like people will be upset at me for this, but a completely platonic and completely lukewarm mutual dislike... they don't really like each other, but take no great issue with each other either. The boys are not fightingggg

So like. A common thing in fandoms is taking things at face value and not really reading any deeper into them. You see this a shitton with Eridan in general - lots of people take it 100% at face value that he's a casteist genocide liker, when it's pretty clear upon further examination that he's pretty much lying about being casteist and doesn't actually want to murder his friends. So, at face value, Eridan hates Sollux, and either wants to do spadesies with him, or go ashen with him. And so this has become a really popular ship, but the thing is... at basically every turn, the story kind of goes out of its way to point out that there's actually nothing between them. At least romantically.

See, Eridan does not actually hate Sollux, at least not to the level of pitch/ashen. TWICE before Sollux and Feferi start hanging out all the time, we see Eridan commenting on Sollux in a fairly neutral-negative way - the first time calling him "a drama machine" and noting that "it is fuckin pathetic," and the second time as "the dead guy who saved [Feferi]". And let's be clear about the former, Eridan is just kind of Like That, he's rude as fuck even about people he LIKES (calling his BFF Karkat an "assblood" and sarcastically referring to Feferi by her royal titles), so that's actually one of the less nasty things he's said about someone.

Meanwhile, on Sollux's end, he LITERALLY says "not interested" to what he perceives as pitch/ashen advances from Eridan. Like, actually just says those words out loud. Not even in a pesterlog, he actually just says those words with his mouth.

So it seems to me that there's a pretty clear case to be made here that Eridan and Sollux kind of just... don't really give a shit about each other, and probably wouldn't have interacted in any substantial way if not for Feferi's involvement. Especially because Eridan's chosen method of hitting on Sollux is with casteism, something he's already faking in the first place.

If we really want to dig into this, though, it's kind of - in my eyes - a lukewarm case of the hedgehog dilemma. They're a bit too similar, and it winds up causing them both mild pain to get too close.

They're both nihilists that kind of hate themselves. Sollux's mutated brain causes him a not-insignificant amount of discomfort, his visions of the future and of the "imminently doomed" have made him lose a lot of hope, and he blames himself for killing Aradia, something so painful that he didn't tell anyone else she died, to the point where most of the team - including Terezi and Tavros - had to find out after entering the game. Meanwhile, Eridan struggles with the perceived inevitability of a lifestyle that causes him nothing but distress, and his constant, overwhelming anxiety about it leads to constant stressing over whether or not he's "good enough"; whenever he's in severe emotional distress, he starts beating up on himself.

They also both front at being more okay with their problems than they actually are. Sollux has his 1337 hacker, two cool for you persona that he puts on, and Eridan is always trying to be the big bad sea dweller. For example, Sollux goes "I'm not trolling the humans, it's beneath me," but he's in Jade's trollslum, so the implication there is that he totally did try trolling, it went badly for him, and now he's pretending that he was always better than that. And I don't think I need to tell you how hard Eridan works to try and present himself as badass and scary and totally not deep in the throes of emotional anguish at all times.

And these are the similarities that ultimately make Erisolsprite so stable. Erisolsprite speculates that maybe the reason he hasn't exploded yet is that deep down, he loves to suffer. The truth is, there's nothing between the two that's really so objectionable that they would ACTUALLY hate each other; Eridan isn't actually casteist, and Eridan never really hated Sollux in the first place.

Neither would they bring each other any comfort or joy - Eridan doesn't have any sympathy for Sollux's baggage, since, like, what, he only killed ONE person, and was even under mind control, so it's not like it was really his fault. He's a drama machine. And Sollux wouldn't have sympathy for Eridan's problems, partially because they manifest in such cringeworthy, embarrassing ways (and Sollux is highly sensitive to not being cringe, seeing as he's always commenting on other people being embarrassing or overly earnest), and partially because - I mean, fuck it, he's a rich-ass sea dweller who doesn't need to worry about being harvested to be a battery for a living ship. And also he's an idiot.

That's kind of what their relationship is to me, you know? A tepid and lukewarm dislike. They're just similar enough to each other to understand the other, and just different enough to be like "ugh, but that guy suuuuuuuucks". It's very funny, but not really a ship, hahaha.

So what you really get from that is two guys that just kind of dislike each other. Not vehemently or diametrically enough for pitch or ashen, and not a trace of the requisite pity for flushed or pale. When you throw the two together into one sprite, it won't shut up about how much it hates itself, how each part of itself is flabberghasted by the other, and how much practically the only reason it doesn't explode is a resounding "meh."

Eridan likes to validate his despair; ironically, since it's all he's ever known, it's where he feels comfortable - and nobody would provide better doomscrolling material than the doom player. Similarly, Sollux likes to torment himself, suffering his guilt in silence, and Eridan has SO MUCH to feel guilty over. Combine them into one entity, and you have a guy who can reach SUCH levels of revelling in his own misery, you don't even KNOW.

Not that it's healthy or positive for either of them... just that it would be incredibly stable. It's their worst tendencies being satisfied by each other. Maybe that's a form of leprechaun romance, but it's certainly not a quadrant.

#homestuck #eridan ampora #sollux captor #admittedly sollux is one of the trolls i'm still working on grasping #and this post should also in no way be taken as 'stop shipping them' because idfc #ship what you want who cares hussie has already been driven away with jeering and sneering #i just was always kind of fascinated by the endurance of the ship #despite pretty much every piece of canon involving these two pointing to the fact that they just. kind of dont like each other #but in a platonic way

[cure-typhoon]

For your superhero au:

Which of the cast is the most enthusiastic about superheroics and is happy to call themselves a superhero? Who's the least happy about it and resents the label?

HMMM i would say that Aradia is the least excited about becoming a hero and probably Vriska the most excited tho its more complicated

The ones more excited are mostly the ones who know the least, but its not always the case. Vriska has some knowledge that the company itself is corrupt, she knows something is wrong with Aradia, she caused it

But she is not totally aware of what it is, yet, because she has been hearing stories about her mom, this great antihero, since she was young, she has set on her mind that she could become the greatest superhero and surpass Mindfang and do Good . Aradia on the other hand is very much aware of the corruption of the company, her being alive would be great if it werent for all the fucking codes that stop any type of ''behaviour'' they seem inappropiate for the future of their image as superheroes.

The cast that is excited of becoming superheroes are mostly excited of starting to go to the outside world more frecuently, saving people and getting praise by the public, after all theyre teens who have been cut off from the world and who's interactions with other humans have been more to be trained to become the ''Greatest Heroes''

Not all of the ones who are excited dont know shit, Feferi is happy to finally debut as a superhero but she also knows theres something wrong with the company and that her Mom is a bad person, but she thinks that this way she can help more and maybe even change the way the company

While others who dont know, like Sollux, hates the way he is going to get into the ''public'' and not just save people in the dark, and is realizing that the whole process is more like theyre publicity for the company and how theyre getting stripped of their atonomy as people

Anyway, here is a least from who is excited to who's not

Excited: Vriska, Eridan, Karkat, Kanaya, Nepeta, Tavros, Feferi

Not excited: Aradia, Sollux, Equius, Gamzee, Terezi

#homestuck #superherostuck #my art #vriska serket #aradia megido #beta trolls #superhero au

[thewertsearch]

Hey, I’ve seen that gun before!

I spent the other day trying to figure out what the bunny’s other weapons were alchemized from, so their appearances are fresh in my mind. This is, uh...

Well, I think it’s this thing. That second word looks like ‘crosshairs’ to me. Ababo Crosshairs, maybe? Xhahe Crosshairs?

Edit: Never mind! I searched ‘crosshairs’ on the Homestuck Collection, and it turns out the gun’s name was confirmed in Hussie’s second recap as Ahab’s Crosshairs. Fitting, given that it’s about to kill a white whale. 

Either way, I don’t think CA is the enigmatic pen-pal - their speech patterns are too different. He might know the pen-pal, though.  

Your name is ERIDAN AMPORA.

For once, a pronunciation doesn’t immediately spring to mind. 

UR-ih-dan, maybe? Eh-REE-dan? AIR-ee-dan? 

A flying whale lusus? Are you kidding me? That’s sick as fuck!

We knew the bunny weapons were endgame, but I didn’t expect a Kamehameha Launcher. Eridan’s going to have an even easier time with Underlings than Equius, and we’re starting to run out of trolls who aren’t cheating at Sgrub. 

Purple blood. Looks like Eridan’s killing his own lusus, before the Mobius Double Reacharound can do its dirty work. 

I guess it has to die somehow, and a mercy kill is one of the kinder options. 

Your name is FEFERI PEIXES.

You hear that, guys? That’s the sound of every troll officially being named! Time to pop the champagne!

Feferi is strong enough to tow a whale, which puts her solidly in the same tier as Equius. I can only assume that having the highest blood on the list has its perks. 

I’m not going to pull out my calculator, but scaling from the whale, this thing is gargantuan. Judging by its design, it’s probably a lusus - but definitely not a lusus as we know it. 

It looks like a kraken, which I speculated to be Feferi’s lusus. I don’t even want to know what it’s going to do to the Underlings. 

That should keep her quiet for a while.

Another reference to the dangerous ‘voice’ of Feferi’s lusus. I’m not aware of any lore about the voice or ‘whispers’ of a kraken, so I’m not sure what’s going on here. 

The whispers, at least, might be metaphorical. Feferi is getting Sgrub lore from her lusus in the same manner as Terezi, whose dragon communicates with her telepathically. Maybe every mythical lusus is telepathic in this way. 

That should keep her happy for a while. And make a freshly orphaned troll somewhere pretty sad.

Eridan’s actual lusus must be his flying seahorse - which is slightly less cool, but still nothing to sneeze at. 

Anyway, what the fuck does krakenmom's voice do that necessitates this kind of slaughter? 

#2408 #homestuck liveblog #full liveblog #act 5 #fe-FAIR-ee PECKS-izz #s38

[davekat-sucks]

Vriska is my favorite character in homestuck because she did nothing wrong. Jokes aside, the real reason is because I find her to be a pretty interesting character, and its not even because shes particularly complicated. Its the fact that she feels like a real troll. One of my biggest criticisms of Homestuck and Hussie himself is that he went to great lengths to create an entire fictional species with its own culture, way of reproduction, relationships, etc. All as a joke to make fun of shippers and then completely fucking abandon this golden ticket of world building. Literally all of the surviving trolls are human-lite at this point and most have been ret-conned to not even really liking the troll way of doing things anyway. All except Vriska. Shes the only one who felt in-between worlds. She was constantly on the verge of leaning one side or the other, especially because of the influences of John and Terezi, and even her own death. The "You dont have to be a good person to be a hero" is one of the best speeches of homestuck and a phenomenal characterization point for Vriska, so naturally in a later update, that same Vriska trash talked it because Hussie cant hold a serious idea for a fucking second.

It speaks to how Vriska has to adapt from being, as Dave so eloquently puts it "hell murder world" to playing nice and not murdering people on a whim like she was conditioned to, and would be expected of, on Alternia. Vriska and Eridan were really the only two highbloods that acted as highbloods were characterized to act. Feferi was a weirdo, Gamzee was high, and Equius was a pussy. Eridan was a side character turned brief villain who was then killed and never mentioned again. But then we had Vriska, who stuck around for awhile, and was relevant as a ghost then came back to life and we all had to deal with her. I feel like Vriska's journey of dealing with troll shit combined with human sensibilities should have been what all of them went through, but Karkat, Terezi and Kanaya really had no fucking problem going with the human ways of romance. Oh sure, Terezi tries to do a blackrom with John but he himself admits he doesnt really feel that way about her, since its not in humans to feel that way. The quadrants are dead, and its unlikely they'll make a return. Oh, sure there were spades in Vrissy's eyes when Tavros kissed her cheek (Or was it harry? I dont fucking care) but its not going to go anywhere.

Trolls as an alien species whose moral views are fucked up compared to humans, is way more interesting when it first started. It what makes them ALIENS. Foreign. That's what people loved about them. Now, people just make grey humans and slap troll horns on it and call it a day. Sure there is the whole rebellion this and that, but what about trolls that embrace being bad and awful people? Where are the gold diggers? Where are the cannibalists? What about a troll scientist that raises the dead and experiments body parts for their interest in science? Because in Alternia, that type of shit is seen as normal thing to do and justified. Vriska was interesting that she was like "yeah, I'm 8ad and DAMN proud!" I don't remember if she knew that Doc Scratch was the being that made trolls violent in nature. If she did, I would bet you she would be happy it happened because she wouldn't be where she was. And people who abandon that kind of nature don't deserve to be as awesome as her. Would have been interesting to see that kind of narrative of trolls that knowing their origins are fucked up, but damn proud. Whether they take time to change or don't as they use it to their advantage to keep rising up, would be interesting to explore in fanventures or fanfics. Part of me wants the latter since change is hard and I like my trolls being bad people. But that's just me. And if people say that the violent nature was only there because Doc Scratch made it so, doesn't that apply to quadrants? So there is no reason for anyone on Earth C to commit it. Not trolls, humans, or Carapacians. So Vrissy and Tavros should not be in one. I also mentioned before that Vrissy and Tavros are technically cousins in some way. So not only they are kismesis, but incest? So incest is fine on Earth C? Or only if one party is a troll? Earth C makes it vague what troll customs are allowed that isn't the caste system.

#Homestuck #Homestuck fandom #Alternia #fan trolls #fantroll #MSPFA #mspfanventures #Homestuck 2 #HS2 #HS^2 #Homestuck Beyond Canon #HSBC

[classpect-crew]

The Bard of Time, In Brief(s)

Let’s be fair: the Bard gets a bad rap, and I’ve already expanded upon the Destroyer Classes a bit here, but today I want to dive into a specific Bard to show you just how many interpretations you can spin off of one Classpect. Remember: Sburb loves wordplay and irony when assigning Classpects, and the strongest associations of each half of your Title (outside of the established abilities of your Class and Aspect) are generally ones that inspire a particular turn of phrase. A Maid of Time who has a lot of time on her hands is, quite literally, “made of time.” Of course, Aradia already beat me to the punch with this joke, but it’s a good example of what I mean.

This speaks to me on a personal level, because after diving into what it could actually mean to be a Bard of Time, I think this might be the funniest, most self-referential Classpect I’ve ever identified with—which means it’s perfect. Naturally, since brevity is the soul of wit, I will be brief: I am a musician of no small talent with an impeccable sense of rhythm, as well as an amateur poet. Beyond that, I gave myself the middle name Taliesin after the timeless bard—Shakespeare wasn’t the first to hold that title—because I have an ego the size of Jupiter and I love the romance and drama of setting myself up with a legacy to fulfill. So, let’s take a deep dive into the Bard of Time, from both my personal perspectives and a more general analysis. To hell with brevity—on with the show!

On a surface level, the Bard of Time is “one who inspires the destruction of death, certainty, and Time itself.” However, we can expand this list ad nauseum by interpreting many different functions and associations of Time—but I’m getting ahead of myself. The two Bards we’ve seen in the comic start out with an unshakeable faith in something that shapes their personalities and worldviews. Now, this could simply be a function of the Aspects of Hope and Rage, which are represented by enduring faith and eviscerating doubt, respectively. We really only have two Bards to analyze, and their Aspects are direct opposites. Still, it’s something to consider. Bards are a Passive Class, and their interactions with their Aspect usually come in the form of inspiring the Aspect itself, or its destruction, in others. I truly believe that the word “inspire” is as crucial to understanding the Bard as “destroy,” and this also has many, many possible interpretations.

The Bard can be considered a Buff/Debuff Class, though this is a bit misleading. As we’ve seen with Gamzee in particular, the Bard can become deeply affected by the whims of their Aspect. Destroyer Classes seem to be spawned into sessions with far too much of their Aspect; unlike Rogues, their purpose is not to diffuse their Aspect to areas of low concentration, but rather to destroy it outright and make room for its opposite to reign. We see this very clearly with the Princes: Dirk was part of a session rife with romantic drama and one identity crisis after another, which would have prevented anything from getting done until he intervened. Eridan’s destruction of the Matriorb, the symbol of the session’s Hope, broke the trolls out of stagnant passivity and ultimately led to the joint creation of the new universe. Bards tend to have a more subtle effect on their sessions. Their influence ripples out in unpredictable ways that can be the catalyst for, in ironic Homestuck fashion, both the failure and success of a session.

The Bard of Time will be part of a session with far too much Time. This could indicate a lack of urgency in other players that leads to a cascade of unproductive and damaging choices, since there’s “plenty of time,” or it could mean that the Bard’s allies are far too wrapped up in the implications of fate and certainty, leaving them paralyzed by inaction or even determined to spend the session fucking around based on the assumption that they’re already Doomed. They may assume, incorrectly, that their Will has no bearing on the session, much like Aradia before her maturation arc. It’s helpful to note here that the Maid is the Active inverse of the Bard. The Maid begins as a subservient to their Aspect, and then grows to heal their relationship to it, culminating with the ability to create it for themselves. The Bard starts out heavily influenced by their Aspect’s opposite, and later inspires the destruction of the most negative relationships of their Aspect in others, and in their session at large.

In addition to correcting these broken relationships with Time, the Bard would also be well-equipped to invite the destruction of damaging patterns, which can range from unhealthy habits and addictions to karmic cycles spanning time and space. Perhaps they choose to get sober, and that choice ripples out and inspires others to do the same. (This has happened in my own life, and I’ve had at least half a dozen people reach out to tell me that speaking publicly about my sobriety encouraged them to break their addictions, too.) They may also invite the destruction of the “Doomed” label given to both individuals and broader Timelines, which could be extremely beneficial to others—but could also, in theory, lead to a Timeline cursed by everlasting stasis, like a terrifying form of limbo. Given enough power, they may even be able to invite the destruction of Death itself. I’ll leave this power’s implications, both awe-inspiring and horrifying, to you, dear reader.

“That is not dead which can eternal lie,

And with strange aeons even death may die.”

#classpect #classpect analysis #homestuck #bard of time #bard class #time aspect #wow this took about…3 hours or so #i should probably eat something