homestuck meta

So we have universes procreating at the expense of all the life on a planet at a given moment, and in particular a sentient, technology-building species. Not a bad trade off, necessarily, since we already have cherubs going around blowing up planets anyway, and the planet gets seeded for future life which the universe can use to reproduce again.
The current implication is that the next form of life will arise from the carapacians, at least as evidenced on the kids' and trolls' planets. Are carapacians still around in some recognizable form when the next round starts? The comic states "millions of years" but there are species that have stuck around for dozens of millions of years essentially unchanged. The exiles on the trolls' planet have gotten a decent amount of technology up and running according to the intermission. If there's any parallel to our own timeline, it should only take a few decades to get from the period in the intermission to someone running Sburb.
If there are still carapacians around, are the kingdoms of the next set of players also filled with carapacians? What if a group of carapacians attempt to play the game? Or does the game only manifest once the exiles of the previous session have all died and gone to dust? Certainly a session with evidence of previous rounds in the form of carapacians or carapaces would require a different mythology than the ones we've seen.

Tie in with the fun theory that Condie is an older variant of troll, old enough that the species evolved beyond her, and that her black skintight suit is in fact keratin plates that the younger generations of troll no longer have (first encountered for me hwew: http://splickedylit.tumblr.com/post/117645859398/you-know-what-keeps-occurring-to-me-though-if-the)

 

I've had three endgame romance predictions since a bit after the alphas were introduced, and one has already come true!
1. Jake/Aranea. The foreshadowing hasn't been satisfactorily fulfilled imo and there's not enough time left for it to get fulfilled and then have something weird happen to undo it.
2. Vriska/Meenah Since according to 1, Meenah can't get with Aranea, who else is a ghost with a big, mean personality? Now confirmed, at least in one timeline.
3. Dirk/Karkat. I doubt Hussie would leave his only gay guy unpaired in the end, so which males are available and also gay? Karkat and Gamzee, and honestly I don't think it's going to be Gamzee.

 

I was involved in the glitch faq stuff since near the beginning, although going into more specifics would break my pseudonymity and I'd at least like to pretend that I still have something left of it, at least in the bits that are search-engine-visible.

Also, in RV I'm... Sage of Heart, I think. I will pull your heart out of your chest and make a sword forged out of your emotions, see if I won't. Also my plot chart will have shipping all over it and all the shipping will be accurate.

BTW, have you seen the bits of Replay Value AU that are on Tumblr? I know there's this one and also this one.

 

I am not even gonna bother being anon, if you like the glitch faq i am the one who is kinda running the rv drabbles and i flit around the rp it centers around. so hi yes people should babble at me and shit! (seriously i love this au it's my fav. but i am not a mechanics minded person, characters are my dealio)

 

I have to sadly observe that other people have already given their views on the two characters I actually CAN stan for while I was asleep. But If anyone is interested i can still wax poetic about my love for purple colored idiots who make lots of mistakes, I have a lot of feelings about Gamzee in particular.

I am a very avid reader of the SBURB Glitch FAQ and I kinda love the RV thing although I haven't read all of it by far and also don't really have a character I could participate with. Also I am always a Knight of Light. Always.

 

Well a lot of the RVdrabbles stuff is hella out of date and not really necessary to join the rp, we have actual resources for the rp itself haha. and we hang out OOCly all the time, you're welcome to drop by the irc. it's not just an IC place

 

So it's late and I have a few more hours to kill before I feel comfortable getting the first tap water of the day for Bealtaine (I live in a barren hellhole of a desert where there is no dew and definitely not a well). As such it is now time to ramble about the stupid jadeblooded religion I made for a roleplay character. Namely a young Dolorosa (who turned out to be a dead Dolorosa who was so traumatized by things she got stuck believing she was ten sweeps old again also one day she met Eridan's skyhorse and that was some shit).

I'm not entirely sure where to start with this because things so I will just start with cosmology and cosmogeny. Sadly I've still yet to work out the exact specifics of the actual creation myth, so to speak. There is stuff though. However it is not a creation myth in the sense that, say, God creating the world in seven days is. There is no way to find the ultimate point of beginning. The First Cause is something that can't be found and may in fact not even be real. Even if it is, which is highly doubtful to the jadebloods, there is no point in questioning it.

Instead there is a cycle of death and rebirth of the universe itself. The world is brought into being by the Sound, a great loud sound that reverberates through all reality. Everything in reality is the Sound and the Sound is also God. As a result each and every last thing alive is God. Or more accurately parts of God. The goal of religion is to seek becoming whole and part of God, thus losing this fake self and taking up real Self. Following which you are freed from the shackles of ceaseless becoming.

Now nothing can last forever and that includes reality. So at some point universes are brought to a cataclysmic end as the two Great Serpents have a battle. Both serpents are the Sound because everything is. One is dastardly and is a serpent of death. The other is a merciful serpent of life. The outcome of their duel only matters in how the next universe will end up. The then current universe will still be consumed in their great war, and they will be consumed in it. Eating themselves. Because that is just a thing that happens.

And then the Sound rings out once again very clearly and from that all life and reality begins again in a new fashion.

Now the Sound is very important and everything is composed of it as I've said. Rejoining the Sound can be done in many ways, and even the purplebloods with their clown religion of wtf are working towards that in their own way. The jadebloods are just privileged enough to have the best possible way of becoming one with it. Namely through vampirism. The Sound is most clear in the blood and it is the purest expression of God in reality as we can normally reach. Hence a religious focus around blood drinking. Prior to the whole "DIES HORRIBLY AND BECOMES A RAINBOW DRINKER" thing instead other things are substituted and believed to become blood literally and thus the purest expression of God. These things happen to be wine and wafers for reasons that are not at all suspicious what are you talking about.

There's other things to it as well. Including many forms of meditation. Lots of forms of meditation. A variety of jobs basically end up being treated as very specialized forms of meditation, like the trolls who get picked to ring bells to keep time since there's a lack of celestial bodies in the caverns for obvious reasons. Also time isn't real. It just isn't and even if time were real time is meaningless in an absolute sense. The only reason time is being kept is for conditional relative truths, from a religious perspective. From a functional standpoint it's kept because wow scheduling is important yo.

And boy is life in the caverns one of schedules. Everyone is on a very tight schedule with only a few periods of free time. The basic schedule being meditation, first meal, class, another meal, chores/work/whatever the fuck your role in the caverns are, free time, more meditation, probably more class (which may be meditation), cleaning time, MORE MEDITATION IN YOUR RESPITEBLOCK (unless you are a bad girl and don't fucking want to)/brief free time period, sleep. REPEAT.

Also the whole everyone being potentially immortal thing causes a problem. Namely there is always a risk of overpopulation. The jadebloods are very paranoid abut heresy, schism, apostasy and so on. Claims of these things will get flung about on occasion and trials will be held. Sometimes those end in execution followed by corpse burning. At other times when the population really is too big the caverns basically go through Joseon-esque literati purge type things. Just lots of people dying because of some religious or political dispute.

Male jadebloods are exceptionally rare. They're viewed as being as like some sort of super special hermaphroditic piece of the Sound made flesh. They hold the highest positions in the caverns' political structure and the religious one too. Everyone's capable of spiritual attainment, but the male jadebloods are capable of the highest and purest reaches of it.

THERE WAS MORE TO THIS. IS MORE. But I will stop rambling here for the time being before this gets too long.

 

Oh man, @Aondeug, I need to here more.

Also, been thinking about pre-Scratch ancestors a lot, and I have a bit of a headcanon for pre-Scratch Aradia. She, like her Alternian counterpart, died young, but in this case, it was a martyr's death of some sort, and she became renowned for facing it with dignity and acceptance. Like the Handmaid, she gained a reputation as a supernatural figure--in this case an angel of death (obligatory eight-letter title: The Shepherd), guiding the dying into the great beyond and teaching them there's nothing to fear.

(And just as I headcanon Aradia as having heard the Handmaid, I think Damara would have heard the Shepherd. We can assuming hearing the dead is a Megido trait, so it makes sense that Damara would be in the same boat Aradia was.)

 

i have beforan ancestors based off tarot. aradia is temperance. the martyr thing again, too.

i should finish those posts, it included vriska as a revisionist historian gone rogue and tavros, equius and aradia in some reverse rufioh-horuss-damara situation. and sollux killed vriska based on eridan triggering his psionics, then asked eridan to beforus-cull him and take his psionics away. gamzee and karkat were moirails but it was gamzee who was supposed to keep karkat in check, and he failed and karkat got beforus-culled by feferi. and gamzee was ashamed and joined a religion set up by nepeta for shipping purposes or something.

it was awesome is the point.

 

TAROT YOU SAY. PLEASE GO ON.

 

I am here for this. I am here for this very much. Chinhands are probably involved. Please tell me there is fic.

Wiwaxia already stanned for Gamzee about the fact that we genuinely don't know how much agency he has, considering everyone and their demon puppet has mind-controlled him. But I'd like to add: he's basically Calliope's dad. And Calliope is relatively well-adjusted for a kid who has lived most of her life with her abusive brother. Someone has given her art supplies and books and stuff and developed a way Caliborn can't wreck her belongings out of spite.

Gamzee could just supply her with bare necessities (clothes and food, basically), because he is facilitating Lord English and she is not going to become him. But he didn't. I'm pretty sure that he actually cared for her. And he certainly took care of her, even though it could be considered wasted effort.

I mean, look at these faces.

#I am not actually a Gamzee stan #someone who is could do a better job probably #but I think this does prove he wasn't horrible 110%?

 

@Silvereye: I don't think there's fic, but there should be. I might write a one-shot...

 

Okay I am not officially a Gamzee stan but I care about the goofy kid a lot and it broke my heart in a million ittybitty pieces to see him spiralling out of control like that for no discernible reason

And by god am I going to argue that this is probably not the way he was originally.

Spoiler: longish ramble, also spoilers if you aren't completely caught up yet?

Gamzee is a kid that is horribly neglected by his primary caregiver and varying levels of tolerated and actively ridiculed by his social circle. He filled the void of his parent by religion and by substance abuse and he filled the void of not having friends by becoming a genuinely gentle person in a society that focuses on interpersonal aggression and competition. Gamzee never once shot back when people made jokes on his expense, the most we see from him in canon is a sad smiley upon an especially mean line. He didn't even fight the monsters in his land, he befriended the imps around his house and shared his pies with them.
To understand Gamzee's deterioration it is telling what happens beforehand. One: He runs out of pies and thus is leftin withdrawal, which he seems to manage. Two: Dave not only insults his religion but makes Gamzee confront it's fakeness, which Gamzee already doesn't deal very well with. Those two things have been his coping mechanisms ever since he was introduced.
Then he runs off and stares into Lil Cal's eyes. We know LE uses Lil Cal to hypnotize/mind control people. Even more importantly, we now know that Lil Cal contains exactly half of Gamzee's soul. It has been theorized by some people (I'm sorry I'm bad at names so idk who sadly), that this produced a stable time loop permanently JuJuing half of Gamzee's personality. The part that was sucked into Lil Cal was returned to Gamzee the second he stared into Lil Cal's eyes post-meltdown. The malicious part of Gamzee is an artifact, permanently and irrevocably poisoned by its proximity and origin with Lord English, not only bringing out the most negative of his traits, but isolating him permanently cutting his soul into good and bad, benevolent and malevolent, calm and angry, Someone his friends can rant at and seek out for emotional support (notably Karkat and Eridan do) and someone who abuses others, kills his 'friends' without any visible remorse and who ultimately brought the existance of Lord English about.
And his evil side seems to dominate his personality by the same method as the sucker absolutely dominates the personalities of Jane, Jake and Roxy. But as with Dirk's extreme case there seem to be moments in which Gamzee's kind self resurfaces in some moments (the Kar<>Gam scene, the upbringning of both of the Cherubs but especially Calliope as noted above, the seemingly docile, albeit creepy 'helpfulness' he displays towards the Alpha Kids (okay arguable, but still), the way he sells 'potions' similar to how he sold access to his pile of horns during the early meteor scenes) and so it seems that his horcrux'd personality is very strong, but his original personality is not completely extinguished yet.
Maybe we will see the cute kid who shared his pie with imps who tried to attack him soon again. I sure hope so :(

 

So far in the past I wanted there to be a Homestuck epic poem. This project was abandoned and nuked into non-existence. However I have been working on the setting behind the hypothetical poem though. Basically the idea was that the epic was a religious text of a specific people in a specific world.

The basics of said world is that there is the world of Skaia and on it exist trolls and humans. Trolls and humans all have their various cultures and religions and history. The poem itself was supposed to be a religious text for the humans of the Kingdom of Prospit and it was about how Rose Lalonde made Odysseus look like a loser and also she got a hot troll woman who cut people in half because that was cool as fuck.

Rosemary saving the world is not the subject here though. It is the Handmaid.

Spoiler: HANDMAIDISM

The Handmaid is one of the few religious figures that I can say definitely actually exists beyond a shadow of a doubt in the setting. Like in the comic the Handmaid pops in and out of things and causing havoc and death in her wake. Given that she's most involved with troll history and that of the Alternian Empire most especially the Alternians tend to be the ones who've mentioned her most in non-religious texts. She appears in their history books and is generally viewed as a very real fucking person. Humans meanwhile generally feel that the Alternians are crazy and what is this Handmaid you're all crying about anyway. Silly trolls.

Now even assuming you do believe she exists your thoughts on what she is and why probably vary a lot from the other guy's. The two troll empires both have state religions born from the same singular tradition and the Handmaid does factor into the cosmology of said religions. However all that is really said about her is that she mysteriously appears to tempt trolls and also fuck shit up. So basically she gets treated like Satan.

So it's up to individual groups to be making up the rest of what she is. For many the Handmaid is a god. For some she is a god just. Because. She was born a god and lives a god and will never die because she's a god. God. For others she instead was formerly a mortal who died and reached godhood because godtiering is a thing in this silly thing. Still others say she was granted or had godhood forced upon her by her boss. Her boss who is variously Doc Scratch or Lord English himself. On that note not everything thinks she even has a boss.

There's a lot of folklore and folk tradition that has sprung up around her even beyond just that madness. There are a number of bad omens and small rituals centered around her. Trolls by and large don't raise sheep. At all. Some even go so far as not wearing anything involving sheep's wool. Instead it is all about alpacas, dammit. The Handmaid is believed by many to have a fondness for sheep and that her lusus may well have been the mystical mother of all sheep lusus. Enslaving or possibly mistreating her beloved sheep. Or maybe she just actually really fucking hates sheep. A lot. Either way sheep are bad news and you don't want to piss her off. Also bad news is Aries the constellation and symbol, Aries trolls, trolls with ram horns regardless of their color and so on. This has led to the unfortunate murder of Aries trolls and trolls with horns like hers.

The Handmaid is believed to be warded off by the color white. Small bits of white can and will chase her off and this at times the folk explanation to why lusii happen to be stark white. It's to protect their charges from the Handmaid. Other than that you can paint specific symbols in white on your hive (the element dodecagon is a common choice as is the symbol of the element of Space). That or collect white clothing or small white balls and orbs.

Others try to appease her instead of trying to scare her off. Appeasement of the Handmaid can involve offerings of food stuffs and drink (especially rum). Alternatively you can go for music or poetry. She's believed to be very fond of music and thus if you show some degree of talent at the art she may not kill you. Same with poetry.

Feats of daring and martial skill can appease/scare her off as well. Be big and tough and don't lie and she might allow you to exist because you aren't a coward. Cowardly trolls get Handmaided.

In addition to murdering people and setting things on fire the Handmaid is believed to wander about the world doing other things. Like getting drunk as fuck or singing. Other times she plays pranks and tricks, and makes jokes making her an especially grim sort of trickster. You'll fear for your life but by god it will be the best fucking joke ever. There's also an entire tradition of stories based around romancing her or at the very least sleeping with her. Most of these stories end in DEATH.

Let's look at her title though. She has two titles as well as a personal name, which no one knows. The titles are the Handmaid and the Demoness and much like the title of Satan they're less indicative of a single being than they are of a number of beings who fit a specific role. These titles are also one of the easier ways that people differentiate between their views of her on the fly. The title of Handmaid implies a belief in her having a master, who as stated may be Doc Scratch or Lord English. The title of Demoness though implies elsewise. She is just a Demoness of her own will doing whatever the fuck.

Also like Satan she's managed to get herself a number of religions based around her. We effectively have theistic and atheistic traditions honoring her. Atheistic Handmaid religion tends to be something practiced solely by humans though a few more skeptical trolls practice it as well. Here the Handmaid isn't believed to be real, but instead is being used more as a symbol of specific traits that are highly valued in the faith. Things like bravery, autonomy, rule breaking, artistic ability and passion and so on.

Theistic Handmaid faiths meanwhile very obviously worship the Handmaid herself as a god. The reasons for individuals choosing that vary but it's always based out of respect. The respect might be born out of pity for her being stuck with her master as she is. Or maybe out of hatred because she's so completely awful but she still does great and miraculous work. The Handmaid gets shit done. She gets shit done and ensures that only the strongest and best trolls get to move along spiritually. Others still worship her more out of a belief that they're going to get something good out of it. The most fun ones are the people who don't think they are but venerate her regardless just because she's that fucking worth it. Eternal damnation or annihilation? Fuck it bitch is still worth it.

Handmaidism is considered a huge problem in the troll empires. In that it's viewed as being SCARY and EVIL WITCHCRAFT. For a variety of reasons. Such as what the Handmaid is recorded as doing. Then there's other things. See the troll Handmaid faiths (which are theistic by and large) share the same cosmology and rules as the main troll faith. They simply reject most of the premises made and instead pick something entirely different. The hemospectrum means dick and all as do the empresses. While most trolls tend to be very collective in their orientation, Handmaidists are encouraged to be self sufficient individuals who do their own fucking thing. That is scary shit, yo. They fucking raise sheep and think the hemospectrum is dumb and useless. HOW IS THAT NOT WORRYING.

 

As a knitter: sheep's wool snaps back when you stretch it. Alpaca wool *sags*.

...then again this is actually a good explanation for why Kankri is wearing a hideously oversized sweater.

 

They fear sheep so much they will let fashion die. DIE. Those alpacas don't piss off the Handmaid like the sheep do. Maybe. No one's really documented her killing sheep farmers but well.

You see.

THEY HAVE. HORNS. THAT SWIRLY.

 

@jacktrash i feel like it has something to do with aranea in some way. just a feeling. i couldn't describe why. maybe, since vriska was alive this go around, she had more chances to talk with aranea in the dream bubbles? and they're conspiring together instead of aranea trying some crackpot scheme all alone. i don't think ANY iteration of mindfang would give up so easily, and she had all kinds of screwy irons in the fire before the retcon. would that have changed?

although that theory is really coming from nowhere i think. sometimes i'm right about this stuff though, and it surprises me every time i am.

 

So does anyone here have some good Mage meta?
Because really what the fuck even are Mages?

Also the Rage denizen is totally Dionysus.