#light and void

===>

Oh, are we moving on from Del'fi at that dramatic pre-battle standstill? I expected a scene-change but-- wait, from the next link, this may or may not still be Del'fi-- or wait, maybe Ly'lac, I didn't recognize her home arch and spires here at first, right next to Ly'lac's home:

> Be the baby.

OMIGOSH IS THAT A BABY NYMPH?!??!????

Did they seriously make proto-baby-squiddles even CUTER than squiddles??? Of course they did, oh gosh they're geniuses.

You cannot be the baby. Why in the world would you want to be a baby? Especially one so unfortunate to be born during THE GREAT LOSS.

Oh, something bad might also be about to happen to this baby, especially because now that I think about it we don't know any with brown upper-organons yet. And this says it's happening during "The Great Loss", which is... lemme check the previous mentions of it:

(p819) Recently, the mere mention of it triggers a major vibal nosedive, and vaguely reminds you of the PROPHECY FORETOLD REGARDING YOUR "BIRTH". Something about a global calamity, THE GREAT LOSS or whatever. (p1075) Some simply desired to be a part of something greater, while others saw it as a way to possibly circumvent prophecy; if only a few were destined to endure THE GREAT LOSS, the subsummation of their species all but guaranteed their participation.

Okay, so "THE GREAT LOSS" absolutely refers to The Reckoning coming down on Deltritus, and the meteors on the last page and this page are present day meteors. Meaning this is a present-day doomed baby. Ouch.

We've really gotta be closing in on our first Shurb Entry fast with the meteors getting this conspicuous. Isn't Ly'lac ages away from her house, and AA's present she still ought to retrieve from it somehow? Wait never mind, I'd forgotten that the second present landed right on her and she captchalogued it without opening it. So considering she already prepared for a long journey, Ly'lac might end up Entering from wherever she can next get to or concoct a computer that lasts long enough. (And Meemaw's definitely coming with, I hope, as a Kernelsprite or Guardian or otherwise.)

===>

Holy shit those doomed babies are so adorable.

What the fuck is that conspicuous damn Narwhal horn doing.

Her sisters seem to have unanimously agreed to take a doze in the middle of their shared birth. And on such a calamitous day! Not that they have many thoughts about current events. The lone fry, faithful to her instincts, makes her way to the sea, even as it begins to ache from the first percussive impacts of the song that will end the world.

Whoa holy shit, an [S] page!!! We couldn't be getting her entry so soon, could we? Unless that other present contained a working Farsphere or she has a spare unexploded computer at home and makes it there? Is she going to be carried back up from the depths on a Narwhal's back? Fuck, I'm nervous-excited, I'm not sure I'm awake enough to react to an [S] today but I'm gonna do it. No wonder the tweets said there was a newspost but I couldn't see it on the main page, it might be about the flash, unless this whole [S] is for a cartoonish drop sound effect.

FUCK IT WE BALL LET'S GOOOO

> [S] Ly'lac: Descend.

Oh my fucking god, her freaking out about this now-leisurely Meemaw descent is so fucking adorable.

Oh, is she falling asleep? Dream sequence upcoming?

WHOA, UNINYMPH BACKSTORY WHAT? METEOR CHILD CONFIRMED???

WHO THE FUCK IS THAT FLYING PEGATULP FIGURE OF CHAOS

WHY DOES THAT LOOK LIKE A STRIDER-GLASSES MEEMAW-ALIKE ASCENDING OUT OF THE OCEAN ABOVE THE NYMPH DELEGATION

WAIT THAT'S THE CAGED UP OVERGROWN UNINYMPH AFTER ALL THESE YEARS ISN'T IT? THE NYMPHS MADE A DEAL TO TAKE HER HIM BACK AND THEN LOCKED HER HIM UP IN THE NEARBY DEPTHS ALL THESE YEARS.

Holy shit that was a beautiful little flash. Let me grab some screenshots...

The uni-nymph grew up incognito among the Satyrs after being given a headdress with fake (or actually not?) Satyr ears and tail. A spy that looks winged, possibly a Nymph (unless it's the later Pegatulp with grinning eyes, preparing to make an entrance having found out the secret), is hiding behind a pillar, presumably verifying his location for his further abduction. (I forgot until I checked back that Del'fi described the "Uni-Nymph's chronicle" using he/him for the figure. Possibly just the depiction of the figure in "OURAN GYMNASIKKOU HOST CLUB" and the actual figure used different pronouns, but from the wording of the page I assume Del'fi was talking about the actual historical figure.) There's also a Light aspect symbol highlighting this ancestor in this one shot, whether significant or not, possibly referring to his secret being observed or his truth being divined from afar alike. Could Rose have been involved? Would she orchestrate something so cruel? I don't particularly think so-- I'd assumed their race had simply been left to it. Light symbols are bound to be used in preponderance surrounding the race that Rose created, even as deeply connected to Void as the race may be, as per the allure Void has always held for Rose.

And then there's THIS ASSHOLE. It's clear from the cadence of the flash that this cheery Pegatulp, probably an Ancestor of one of our Satyrs, sparked off the announcement of the presumably mutually agreed deal between the Satyr and Nymph factions to capture the Uni-Nymph back into Nymphkind's custody-- from Del'fi's abridged retelling:

Despite being a largely popular anime, the show was ended after only one season, though a part of you was grateful for that. There's no way she could have translated The Council's "reclamation" of the Uni-Nymph and the slaying of Barley Frat in a school AU.

From the way this figure is flying in as a dark, cheery avatar of descending death, I'm also reminded of one of Swiss's book covers:

--Oh shit, and BOTH mention the Barley Fraternities!!! So that possibly-upside-down flying asshole in the top of that book cover is definitely the SAME Pegatulp asshole. For some reason the [S] Peruse Librarium page isn't loading properly for me on any browser, so I'll pull the text of Swiss's description of the book from the Wiki:

Rise and Fall of the Barley Fraternities The Fraternity System, historically, has been composed of 3 tiers. Honey tier fraternities are the highest-achieving, highest-funded, and highest-power communes your society has to offer. Oat tier fraternities are one tier below, but still quite respectable institutions. Some of history's finest have been oat-tier dark horses. Grass tier fraternities are... well. You want to keep things diplomatic, so you'll just say that if you were only able to make it into a grass-tier fraternity you'd have to perform steppuku. For a brief period, there was a fourth tier; a reclusive, monastic order of socially anxious isolationists. They spent the majority of their existence in unremarkable obscurity, contributing basically nothing, but their final decades were marked by a profound change: a commitment to revelry so infectious that it went on to fundamentally change the nature of satyr society, prompted by the appearance of a man who flew across the sea from the uninhabited Cursed Land, Australia. He catapulted their order to the highest echelons of power and influence, which you always found weird because he was just a savage degenerate. At any rate, that didn't last long, because at some point their so-called "revolutionary" danced them all into the sea. So you guess maybe he wasn't such a fucking cool guy after all.

Connecting these two sides of the same historical events, it's unclear EXACTLY what the Pegatulp's appearance had to do with selling out the Barley Frat to be dragged into the ocean and drowned by the Nymph Council, and whether he was culpable or as much of a victim as the rest of the Frat, though the [S] we just watched definitely implies some sort of culpability. (Pegatulp-ability.) Though the hidden Nymph from the earlier panel implies The Council already had eyes on the Uni-Nymph before the Pegatulp's arrival. Did the Pegatulp trade the Uni-Nymph away from Satyrkind and sacrifice the Barley Frat for the sake of further fame and influence with Satyrkind in general? Was undermining and destroying the Barley Frat perhaps an intended goal of his, even?

Whose ancestor was the Pegatulp? (Tentatively "The Revolutionary", or was that more sarcastic?) He was too important to not be one of them, and was smiling too wide to be a disguised Dirk. In the running are Swiss's (catapulting their order to power and influence), and TC's (always shown in shadow, giving into mirthful revelry, hailing from an unknown/isolated land, Australia being "down under"). Insubstantial, possibly specious ties, frankly, not enough for firm conclusions. Either one sounds weird, as these Ancestors were clearly VERY different from their descendants, even if there's a chance they share an Aspect like Del'Fi and The Great Combiner seem likely to do-- we don't know enough of the story of this Pegatulp ancestor to say for sure, nor have enough hints of the other Ancestors to narrow it down. We know The Grey Rain was brought about by a Satyr "tyrant king" and Nymph "enchantress" working together, who now that I'm looking for mentions of the same terminology is possibly the same one who brought down The Great Combiner:

But when all seemed lost, the neptunian golem of a certain long excommunicated enchantress appeared. Then apparently she just wagged her finger, shooshed her to sleep, and tossed her back into the freaking ocean.

--and is certainly the same pair of Satyr "omnicidal madman" and Nymph "megalomaniacal heretic" who invented the ~PTH programming language together. This gives the Grey Rain pair parallels to Ly'lac and TC which may mean the Tyrant was TC's ancestor, not this Pegatulp despite the mirthful characteristics. I wouldn't be incredibly surprised if the ~PTH/Grey Rain ancestors weren't precisely Ly'lac and TC's, though. We need a little more information to suss it out.

I know for a fact people made the Grey Rain Couple -> ~PTH Couple connection earlier, but I wonder how many made the Barley Frat / Uni-Nymph Incident one since a couple updates ago, tying it together with that Rise And Fall bookshelf book? Either way I'm glad I've at least belatedly hit on it now with these more blatant hints.

There was another screen that showed the one member of the Frat shaking hands with a Nymph to seal the deal while other frat members who hid him amongst them being subdued and pinned to the ground, but I'm not fetching every frame, and in terms of what I want to analyze... On to the last big relevant screenshot of something that went by too quickly:

Is that the Dirk Strider glasses-moon in the distance visible above the shoreline, or a darkly-glaring slightly-less-ancient Meemaw? Or maybe even some Orb-like robot of Strider's / The Exemplar's overseeing the events? It's genuinely difficult to tell. Also the Nymph guards leading the Uni-Nymph back to the sea look just like the crystallized Abyssal Anchoress, which makes me wonder how they all got their Upper Organons in that shape or if they're wearing some sort of Shell over them; their "hair" below the helmline actually looks like hair more than tendrils, in this shot, though I'm probably reading too much into that.

Then Uni-Nymph's betrayed eye, teary.

Finally, no need to screenshot it, but we ended the Flash sequence on the present-day absolutely gigantic Uni-Nymph behind bars, his Narwhal-like horn thrust so high that the tip is obscured by the ceiling and possibly drilled into it. It could even be drilling and thrusting up and out of the ocean somehow, though if that's the rising spire on the previous page it'd have to be even bigger than I thought. Oh, and he's DEFINITELY awake and observing Ly'lac and Meemaw's arrival, which makes me damn well hope Meemaw wasn't the one in that earlier screenshot overseeing his "reclamation".

Gosh we got so much more out of that [S] page than I was expecting, especially in proportion to its length and complexity. Incredibly well done. Now then, on to the next page:

===>

OH HAHAHAHAHAH OKAY MEEMAW IS WIDE AWAKE AND KNOWS THIS MIGHT BE BAD NEWS UH OH XD

Fucking hilarious. Gee, I really really hope you weren't a part of that delegation, Meemaw! You don't want to be made all dead and Kernelsprite-Ready so soon!

Gosh I never expected the Uni-Nymph to get so much relevant play so soon as to be ACTUALLY RIGHT HERE about to be discovered. Never saw that coming.

===>

OH GOODNESS. She died of shock!!! D:

Those Xs above her eyes-- were her "eyebrows" her upper organon's extra eyes all along?

Poor, sweet, dear, precious, Meemaw. She was so damn old. All that's left is to honor the deceased with a tradition that's been passed down for generations.

NOOO, DON'T EAT HER YET! KERNELSPRITE, KERNELSPRITE! Augh, none of you have any way of knowing about that yet! D:

I hope the Uni-Nymph is going to interrupt them before, well, feasting is done. Though Ly'lac looks a little too small to eat an entire Meemaw in one sitting, so maybe that'll save her for the kernelsprite (I want Meemawsprite so bad).

===>

OH COME THE FUCK ON

I miss Meemaaaawwww!!!!!!! (T o T)

(It's so Homestuck to mix such a tragedy with such an ace visual gag, I'm upset but I'm also dying this is too perfectly hilarious.)

On another dark note that just occurred to me... I wonder if creating an entire race who immediately eats their own dead was, in part, a morbid way of reflecting Rose's childhood-bred distaste for Funerals by averting the practice altogether.

> Ly'lac: Turn around.

THE NARWHAL wants to speak with you.

As suspected from the flash/[S], Ly'lac's long-dreamt-of Narwhal and the imprisoned Uni-Nymph are one in the same. I suppose he's taken a "seahorse" form in Nymphian wild adult-build variety. Holy shit.

That's all! What a banger update!!! Holy shit that was... SO good. So many disparate pieces coming together, so early, and giving us just enough of a taste of the lore to be craving even more to come. I'm still busy mourning the loss (barring regurgitation) of any Meemawsprite chance, but The Narwhal being (potentially!) prototyped would lead to some significantly more visually interesting and intimidating prototyped monsters.

Before I go I ought to find that news post they tweeted about...

Yup, I should've expected more warning and explicit preparation before the Big Probably Ly'lac's Entry Flash/[S]. Oh, and cool, they'll be offering more Patreon benefits than just the monthly Commentary and Art, possibly some streams?? Asking people to contribute if they can so they can do more for us and with the comic. Happy Pride, etc-- you can read the news post yourself. If they post any bonuses on the Homestuck Discord like they promised there, feel free to tell my askbox or replies, or even maybe add me on Discord and let me know. (The Homestuck Discord gives me a headache so I prefer to check only when absolutely necessary, get content exported from there to me by others in screenshots instead of natively, etc.)

See you for the likely beginning-of-month Patreon Commentary that'll likely go into even more juicy details on the flash we just watched!

The shadow figure remained silent and motionless, save for the few little wisps of pitch black smoke along the edge of his form that moved as if swayed by a breeze.  He held the vague shape of a human, but the features he possessed were hidden in his darkness.  The only feature that was distinct was the shape of his eyes, outlined by threads of starlight. 

He floated and hid in the interstellar medium, bent forward to watch everything going on below with sharp eyes.  Debating on if it was safe to hide in this universe.  One good thing about the multiverse was that it provided a lot of places to avoid unwanted attention.  Using the power he possessed, he searched for a particular life signature among the billions of residents on this timeline’s version of Earth, and his mouth watered at the sight of such life, which only angered him.  It had been so long since the shadow consumed anything that this part of him was practically starved.

A fitting punishment, he thought.  He deserved to starve.

Ignoring his power’s demands to consume the energies below him, he continued to scan the life signatures until he found what he was looking for, to his dismay, causing the smoky shadow to stiffen and growl his disapproval.

Nate’s down there.

One bad thing about the multiverse was there were a lot of variants of the same being, and when the variants were not only aware of each other but in contact with each other, one’s hiding places dwindled significantly.  Even in the multiverse.

The shadow figure huffed out a sigh before extending a clawed hand out to grab something only he could see, and in an instant, he was far away from that universe timeline, slinking in and out of the shadows the stars cast to travel through neighboring timelines.  Looking for another potential place to dwell should not be this difficult or take this long.  

Why couldn’t Kang be the entity who had no variant instead of him?  

Being on the run was exhausting, and he craved peace.  If only the Kangs would leave him be.  If only– he shook his head, willing the thoughts to subside.  He didn’t have the energy to mentally fall down that rabbit hole yet again.  It didn’t matter anyway.  The outcome was still the same.  The Kangs would not leave him alone, and depending upon which one you asked, his fate would vary.

The crash had been a disaster of unprecedented proportions, and the hospital had been overwhelmed by the number of injured. It had taken several days for other hospitals in the area to get up and running again, and in the meantime, this hospital had been the only one available for miles around. The staff had done their best, but they had been stretched thin, and the patients had suffered for it.

In the aftermath of the crash, the hospital had become a makeshift command center, with military personnel and emergency services personnel coming and going at all hours of the day and night. There had been press conferences and briefings, and the hospital staff had been called on to provide updates on the injured and to give details about the crash.

Now, seven days later, the hospital was finally starting to return to normal. The debris had been cleared away, and the bloodstains had been scrubbed clean. The staff had a chance to catch their breath, and the patients were starting to be discharged. The ventilator was removed from Vaerin, the doctors optimistic his body no longer required the assistance. 

Aspects work into a general dichotomy, but can also been organised into a wheel. Like a compass, with the cardinal aspects acting as N and S. One of my favourite theorists, bladekindeyewear, organised this Aspect Wheel to demonstrate how they flow together.

Now, the wheel is very theoretical, but it is an excellent perspective on the relationships between aspects, and the application of it is fun.

I’ll be constructing a more in-depth post on the Aspect Wheel at another time.

But speculative wheel aside for now, back to the dichotomy. It may not be stated explicitly in canon, but aspect dualism is pretty certain theory at this point (feel free to disagree, but most seem to subscribe to it). Each aspect has a pair, intertwined so intimately that they essentially define each other in photo-negative - the shadows of one is filled by the other. Within every pair is a more, let’s say, optimistic half and a pessimistic half - like yin and yang. Neither is any better or worse than the other, but they are the inverse of each other.

(Aspect dualism discussed at length by BKE)

The general trend is between creation and destruction. The creation vs destruction dichotomy is pervasive in every piece of Homestuck lore, but particularly in aspect dualism. Space and Time embody it the most literally, making them the two cardinal aspects. Between the two of them they represent physical reality.

You’ll notice on the wheel referenced above that the rest of the aspects are divided into two halves around Space and Time, aligning themselves with one while their inverse aligns with the other.

The Archive

Links and keywords for a quick overview of each aspect

Note: if anyone knows of other posts discussing particular aspects, I’d love to add them to my archive. This list will continue to be a work-in-progress and I always accept more additions.

First, some masterposts discussing all aspects (including those linked above):

Ultimate Classpect Post - infinitywhale

 Aspect duality - bladekindeyewear

Aspect Wheel - bladekindeyewear

aspect related concepts/keywords - creative-classpect

aspects and philosophy - the worst person in the world

the aspects as in SKRUB - Project SKRUB

aspect ‘personalities’ - classesandaspects

Aspects - 2classpect4this

A Guide to Classpect - gaytog

Space - physical matter, forces and dimensions, physics, literal space and the fabric of reality, distance, creation, evolution and change/variation, uniqueness/originality, physical appearance

Time - time, progress, inevitability, mortality, uncertainty, death, beginnings and endings, entropy, patterns, repetition

Rhythm and Variation - creative-classpect

Life - energy, growth, optimism, rebellious, change, power, reckless, wealth & luxury, consumption

Doom - order, rules/laws, pessimism, restriction, sacrifice, consequences, limitation, entropy/decay, caution, conservation

Life, Doom, and one large fence - sepulchritude

Breath - freedom, movement, direction, questing, disconnection, individuality, motivation

Blood - bonds and relationships (of all kinds), duty, commitment, obligation, promises and pacts,

Breath, Blood, and the Flow of Reality - bladekindeyewear

Heart - self, soul, desire, emotion, internal self, sentiment, irrationality, morals, passions, individuality, identity, intuition and impulses

Mind - logic, choice, decisions, external self, facade, justice, ethics, identity, reason, rationality

Mind v Heart - 2classpect4this

Mind and Options - taksynator

Mind - lotarclasspects

Hope - belief, possibilities, open-mindedness, positive emotions, optimism, trust and ideals, willpower, worldview

Rage - conviction, determination, negative emotions, absoluteness, passion, ambition and willpower, worldview

9′s guide to Rage - creative-classpect

important to remember about Hope and Rage - Dahni

more keywords for Hope/Rage - creative-classpect

Light - perception, knowledge, clarity, circumstantial significance, agency and will, illumination, sight

Void - mystery, secrecy, irrelevance, insignificance, darkness, absence, incomprehensibility, nonsense

Light and Void - bladekindeyewear

A Page of Light on Light - taksynator

Void as anything - Dahni

if you’re really curious about Void just. listen to the podcast Welcome to Night Vale. it embodies Void. Night Vale IS Void, narrated by Seer of Void, Cecil Palmer.

And always remember;

http://creative-classpect.tumblr.com/post/158071367105/not-one-aspect-is-more-powerful-than-others

https://classpect-nation.tumblr.com/post/158727614998/as-i-like-to-say-it-its-you-who-define-your

The tweet said "øpdate" so I wonder if we're getting any of TC this time. I suppose Del'fi was about to finish back-hexing him...

===>

This is... they invented an entire old internet pseudocode language that sounds like Del'fi. Having a whole team lets them really go all-out on each upd8 doesn't it.

Anyway, you don't have to think about that anymore because it seems like the leet hex finally managed to get a few hooks into cha.OS! Wait... what are all these hidden functionalities? Full remote viewing? Temporal tracking? This is... really advanced. And really, really invasive. Ugh!

Yeah, if it has a Trollian-like viewport, Del'fi has every incentive to find a way to block that function for themselves before they get into the game together. Not that Del'fi knows they'll be "in" the game together.

===>

What's even the use for these?

Is that-- no that couldn't be Rose, it's not a match even for her Candy haircut and she's still either a robot or something transcendant of it... is that Dirk Strider from behind? No dog ears or Satyr ears. It's not the strictest match of any Dirk's silhouette we've seen so far. Harry's hair seems like it'd be more curly from behind... does Roxy have a new haircut we haven't seen yet?

Honestly the closest match is Tavvy's hair swoop, maybe it's black hair that the viewing glow just makes LOOK like white from this stylized angle. But it's definitely brighter than Vrissy's hair was from a similar angle. Because it's reflecting a white human face in front of it? ...Yeah it's... probably Tavvy despite the discrepancy making it unclear.

===>

UGH, he's SO… speak of the devil.

TC's chat bubble appears, and a Hazelog! Looks like now that he's outed, the very-possibly-if-my-earlier-guesses-were-right Seer of Void might want a chat.

- tinnitusChakra [TC] began hazing cloisteredConnoisewer [CC] -- TC: whats pøppiiing! TC: cøuldn't help but nøtice that yøu just snuck thrøugh the first gate øf cha.OS' waterfall! TC: that's sø sick. TC: nøbødy's managed that in the whøle 2 day histøry øf the prøgram, pretty sweet møves. TC: i've been fucking arøund with leethex myself and i think i'm really starting tø get the hang øf em, but tø see them depløyed sø expertly... TC: that's wassup. TC: hønestly, keep up the gøød wørk. there are a few deeper layers of psychersecurity i think yøur current hex might have søme trøuble with but hey, if yøu can break it yøu can take it. TC: always gøød tø get anøther pair øf eyes frøm sømeøne whø actually appreciates the delicate interplay between the løwer mysteries and high løgics.

Waterfall gates and locks as like... a metaphor for layers of the afterlife or something. I'm shit at mythological references, but I've seen fictional series like Abhorsen that dealt with that, huh. (EDIT 3: As @shoutyourporpoise points out and I somehow didn't realize in TC's previous conversations, he talks a lot like a surfer as a personality characteristic-- so continuing to use Oceanic and water-rich metaphors like Waterfall gates, along with his association with ~PTH and surfer-ness, has FURTHER symbolic Void associations with water and the pull of the ocean depths, like the Fallingwater house Mom Lalonde owned and many other associations with Ocean-plunging and irrelevance or dislocation throughout original Homestuck.)

TC: aaactually, høw many eyes dø yøu have? TC: twø? TC: møre, right? TC: it's tøugh tø tell thrøugh the webcam! CC: oh hai!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! cc: how keeee~wl CC: can u even c mah lit sign TC: hell yeah i can! TC: and in turn alløw me tø raise yøu a particularly righteøus shaka. TC: if yøu wanna see it, gø ahead and hack my cam back. CC: hehehehehehehe CC: no thats ok CC: so didya get ur uppernet hooked into our orb tech? CC: i waz wonderin wat lylac waz helpin u cook up but she must of been rl helpful for that TC: øf cøurse! TC: she øpened up a whøle new wørld when she intrøduced me tø løwmys.

I know I'm biased as fuck, but even as much of a challenge it sounded like for TC to tell Del'fi to hack him back, this definitely sounds to me like a Seer who can't wait to expound on all his understanding.

CC: does she knoes ur using it to put ur lil horsey snoot all up on her homegrls? CC: kinda wack of her to leave me outta the peep party CC: a real misdemeanor on her part CC: is she mad at me? do she hate me badly? CC: shud i kms? TC: yøu shøuld chill yøurself. TC: my ly'ly wøuld never leave a friend øut in the cøld. CC: MY LYLY? CC: hahahahahahaha CC: except she ttlly would TC: løl! TC: true, she wøuld. TC: but nøt because she was trying tø harsh anyøne's vibes, yøu knøw what i mean.

Del'fi seems to be feeling this out, cautiously trying to determine just how much of a threat TC is and to whom, waiting for the other shoe to drop on what could be a potent blackmail situation among many other things... TC clearly has a lot of power over Del'fi and their friends right about now.

TC: yøu're øne øf her cløsest dørmies. CC: rlly? TC: ch'yeah dude. CC: ur so fr rn? TC: the realest. CC: idk... *kicks rock* TC: øh fuck yes, øur very first røleplay. TC: [i catch the røck with a fetløck and start juggling it like a høøfball.] TC: [after a bit øf høity høøfwørk i pass it back!] CC: dang CC: so anyways she doesnt know at all? TC: øh, she knøws. TC: øn the real i just døn't think she cares, løl. CC: i mean dats wat she says until she starts lobbin nades at u CC: u gotta keep a close eye on dat btw

Del'fi seems easily distracted by talk of their friend and how much Ly'lac cares... even though it's hard to read because, from Del'fi's point of view, this is definitely a hostage situation.

If Del'fi is indeed a Bard of Blood, they might be naturally doubtful of the true strength of their own relationships.

CC: i dont have to tell you how the trope goes CC: upstandin satyr givin in2 the call of mysticism CC: repercussions must b served CC: not hard 2 c how when u saddle ur seahorse 2 a grl who blows herself up CC: or turns on any1 dat gets a bit 2 bossy CC: r u a bossy alpha boy TC? CC: keepin command CC: smacking away our greasy sneak fingers from ur spankin new hybrid toy TC: i døn't knøw abøut greasy. TC: thøugh yøu knøw lac-attack always keeps that slime øn her.

So far, at every turn, TC is CONSISTENTLY deflecting any negative statement about any of the Nymphs, Del'fi included, and declining to frame anything SO FAR as a threat. He's being extremely positive and not OVERTLY threatening.

Void, however, is the aspect of submission, and getting people to know when they have to yield, like he did in his conversation with Swiss...

TC: anyway, the general scryware is limited tø admins (me), ør ambitiøus hexxørz (cøuld be yøu!) før nøw, but i get the feeling what yøu're really asking abøut is thøse advanced features i saw yøu scrølling thrøugh. TC: thøse are møre experimental. TC: hønestly, kind øf dangerøus, thøugh that's the fun part, isn't it? TC: i've døne my fair share øf playing with singularities but remøte spatiøtempøral quantumødulation is particularly tøuchy stuff, sø i løcked it før everyøne but an especially select few. TC: still, pretty neat, right? CC: me no know CC: is it? TC: yeah. TC: it is! CC: oh... CC: but bringing in strangers... CC: from da ITERNET? TC: frøm sømewhere! CC: oh noes CC: dats the worst place u can b from CC: i hates em

Right, it's unclear whether Del'fi has any real inkling that Ly'lac's "enigmatic fictional maiden" is real.

TC: they wøn't be strangers før tøø much lønger. TC: i mean, løøk at us. TC: we've been talking før twø minutes and we're basically like best brødeøs. CC: rite! CC: tru besties CC: tbh ive been wanting to talk to u 4evaaaaaaaaaaa~a CC: everyday i go to the bathroom and jus read up about u on social media CC: wonderin if ur also going to the bathroom CC: or wut brand of shampoo u use CC: putting mah hand to the mirror CC: dreamin of the day ud let a lil ole wretch like me kiss ur krusty stinker (//3^)/ CC: and then CC: the ink flows til the tubs black TC: yøøø. TC: that's different!

Sounds like Nymph reproduction is potentially pretty messy!

It's still so delightfully unclear whether TC's assertions of friendship are optimism or a dominance display.

TC: let's nøt talk abøut me anymøre, yøu flatterer. TC: let's get back tø yøu. TC: and what i need yøu tø dø. CC: oh... *SHUDDER!* TC: døn't shudder. CC: dont ever tell me what to do CC: understood? TC: that's the fuckin spirit dude!

Whiplash! Did TC deliberately provoke them, then give them props for not submitting?

TC: yøu mentiøned feeling left øut earlier? TC: well, i'm here tø fix that. TC: hasty-style. TC: there's a game ly'ly and i have been cøøking up før søme time nøw, which yøu knøw, and i knøw yøu knøw. TC: and i'm gønna need yøu tø høp øn. TC: yøu've been døwn there førever, and believe me i knøw høw that is. TC: all cøøped up, nøbødy tø rave with. TC: thing is, when yøu finally take matters intø yøur øwn hands and step øut intø the light? TC: fuuuck, it feels gøød. TC: sø that's what i'm asking yøu tø dø. CC: zang wow r we like kindred souls? CC: u got my whole heckin number tattooed on ur sleeve? CC: bro ur lyke crawling around n my head and we havent even nuptulized yet CC: get out of there!!!!!!!!! CC: cant a nymph keep sum secret dang

Ah I see TC's game here, he's using the blackmail he has on Del'fi to strongarm them into playing Shurb, smoothing things along. Quite smart use of secrets without being too bullying, though it's still extremely invasive.

TC: can yøu løck in før a sec? CC: UWAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. CC: but but but but but!!!!!!!!!!!!!! TC: hey, why døn't we level with each øther? TC: this game is gøing tø be fun, but it's alsø extremely necessary. TC: AA knøws that. TC: (super funny chica, btw, can't wait tø get intø søme mischief with her later.) TC: a few laps agø, i came acrøss søme pretty mindbløwing intel while i was scraping the øld man's servers før shits and giggies.

Which old man? TC is supposedly close to the Big Kahuna according to Swiss, but I'm not sure whether or not that would mean being in the presence of Dirk Strider directly or his servers.

TC: i wøn't børe yøu with the deets, because they're patchy and cryptic and required a løt øf extrapølatiøn and we frankly døn't have much røøm før størytime, but the løng and shørt øf it is that this game we're abøut tø play is all that stands between us and the cømplete annihilatiøn øf øur søcieties, øur species, and øur wørld. TC: if that wasn't trippy enøugh, check this shit øut: TC: we're MEANT tø play it. TC: me, ly'ly, AA, CT, AT. TC: and yøu. TC: he was TRACKING us. TC: well, tracking the satyrs, anyway. TC: yøu three were møre øbfuscated, but i was able tø intuit that yøu'd be cøming intø play eventually by kind øf like... triangulating via the blind spøts. TC: and there were a løøøt øf blind spøts. TC: i døn't knøw why he didn't just tell me, but i'm kind øf glad he didn't, because finding øut øn my øwn was way møre fun.

So TC found out that either Dirk Strider, or whoever his "old man" is in their parentless society, was tracking all six players. As would naturally be the case. But lemme roll back the conversation just a bit:

TC: yøu three were møre øbfuscated, but i was able tø intuit that yøu'd be cøming intø play eventually by kind øf like... triangulating via the blind spøts. TC: and there were a løøøt øf blind spøts. TC: i døn't knøw why he didn't just tell me, but i'm kind øf glad he didn't, because finding øut øn my øwn was way møre fun. TC: blind spøts are where i thrive. :)

ABSOLUTELY a Void player, a hundred percent. Whether my assertion of Seer or not, we'll have to see, but doesn't it fit better than much else so far?

TC: that said, meeting ly'lac was an actual straight-up certified cøincidence. TC: and thrøugh her, yøu and AA came intø the picture. TC: again, BY CØINCIDENCE. TC: is that nøt FUCKING CRAZY? TC: i think it's FUCKING. TC: CRAZY. TC: :D CC: crazy? CC: ... CC: thats a regular ole nymph tuesday CC: nothin moar special than wut i alrdy got goin on

Yeah I suppose Rose Lalonde's doom-foretelling Nymph race wouldn't find cosmic coincidences like Shurb arranges especially out of the ordinary.

TC: the shit we're facing is gøing tø make the grey rain løøk like a dainty little dewdrøp. TC: and anyway, what is it yøu actually DØ have gøing øn? CC: i save the world everyday CC: yadda yadda grey rain blahblahblah listen dude CC: i hang w the Great Combiner CC: surrounded by beautiful ladies CC: in my own city of riches CC: p grt by nymph standards hm? TC: yøu're surrøunded by ruins and echøes and sleeping cørpses and yøu deserve sø much møre. TC: that has tø be sø børing, man. TC: it makes me sad.

Who or what exactly is the Great Combiner? ...does it have something to do with the Alchemy magic Ly'lac practices?

TC: are yøu scared? CC: lmao CC: r u? TC: maybe? TC: i'm anxiøus, but dø yøu have any idea høw løng it's been since i had anything tø be anxiøus abøut? TC: it feels amaaazing. TC: we're øn the precipice øf sømething cømpletely beyønd øur science, beyønd yøur magic. TC: sømething NEW, past the banal tøtality øf wørldly knøwledge i've had møre ør less figured øut since i was five. TC: i føund ~PTH at exactly the right time, but it ønly just barely scratched the surface øf what's pøssible here, i can feel it. TC: we're abøut tø be free. TC: døn't yøu wan't tø be free?

It's true. And this thrill-seeking, it's the sort of thing someone who wants to Understand the Unknown might find irresistible. Even if it means a potentially dangerous fascination with something he may very well KNOW could be the cause of civilization's downfall as much as it is a way out of it, it's difficult to tell just how aware he is of that but the way he talked about apathy consuming him to the point that ANXIETY was EXCITING makes it sound like he'd find a sick thrill from this all being responsible for the inevitable apocalypse too. A Seer of Void can potentially be extremely dangerous, even in optimism-- he looks to view the good AND the bad of this to be so exciting he can't wait to see it.

TC: i dø! CC: "i do~!" shut up CC: there aint a prophecy or tech thats gonna give me wut i want TC: nøt if yøu never dø anything. CC: mang CC: its so cute how satyrs all think they matter CC: strivin and fightin to make a little dent in the world or whatever CC: but its just… so cringe too CC: so much struggle to do nothing rlly new or special CC: and then turning around acting all proud of urselves CC: totally unaware that all ur doing is exctly wut u were meant to do and unlike us ur too stupid to realize ur walkin a fixed path CC: its a sorry sight CC: u cant even appreciate how lucky u r CC: if things were different and nymphs were even a fraction as gullible as u guys r CC: we wld have wiped u out at the get go TC: pøint blank man i refuse tø accept there are ønly twø øptiøns here. TC: hide frøm each øther førever ør die screaming? TC: cøme øn. TC: that's silly. TC: we can dø better than that.

TC is talking about Blood somewhat, uniting the races, in a way it seems as if Nymphkind might be avoiding because of (potentially) specific (and true) prophecies that their cooperation would end the entire world in a firey apocalypse. Del'fi, perhaps more than Ly'lac, has embraced the Nymphian sense of futility of their situation and life in general. I wonder how Del'fi's going to act once they indeed eventually realize they've been freed from the prison Deltritus represented for themselves specifically.

TC: sømetimes sømething is sø cømpletely beyønd yøu that yøu'd never have a shøt at figuring it øut øn yøur øwn. TC: ly'lac shøwed me shit that changed my life førever. TC: SAVED my life!

There's some backstory here behind TC's seemingly-easygoing personality being hinted at here, something that what Ly'lac and ~PTH brought TC helped him out in a low point of his life.

TC: and yøu have sømething sø beautiful gøing with CT. TC: whatever the fuck it is. TC: dø yøu knøw høw rare that is før him? TC: før anyøne? TC: it MATTERS. CC: OML CAN U BACK OFF 4 1 SECOND U FRUIT LOOP CC: i dont get wut ur trying so hard to do rn!!! CC: i knew u were sum kind of sicko but this is jus somethin else

TC is trying to psychoanalyze and help Del'fi right now, and even if Del'fi weren't a Bard of Blood, at this stage of Del'fi's being and beliefs I'd know it can't help but backfire. At the moment, anyway. TC 'sees' a better future for Del'fi, but they aren't willing to accept that at the moment.

CC: i EXPECTED u were going to lord CT over my head sure CC: but this is GROSS!!!!!!!!! now he has 2 crappy backstabbers spittin on the bro code CC: playin in his face CC: n u dont even have an excuse! TC: what's wrøng with playing? TC: playing is fun as fuck, and cømpletely within acceptable brø cøde parameters if yøu ask me. CC: ur jus a bad friend TC CC: we both r TC: [i grab yøur face.] TC: listen. TC: yøu're nøt a bad guy, big d.

TC is actually calling Del'fi "big D" which could double for "Dagger".

TC: i knøw yøu CARE abøut him. TC: i've been actively følløwing the chrønicle øf the møuntain and dagger tartarus før søme time, and brø. TC: that kind øf hearts-wrenching cøllab døesn't just cøme aløng every day. TC: that's special. TC: it tøuched me. TC: deeply. TC: that private server yøu twø wørked intø the pløt? that's søme real multimedia artistry. TC: even if the security øn it was kind øf a jøke. TC: but let's put it this way. TC: yøu cøuld keep dancing arøund it and cøntinue yøur rp før anøther høwevermany laps, and it'd prøbably be super sick. TC: hell, i løve a gøød dance. TC: but aren't yøu ready tø MEET him? TC: that can HAPPEN. TC: that WILL HAPPEN. CC: wait CC: u read our rp doc? TC: yeah dude.

TC thinks that breaking into everyone's secrets, he can just expose how they really feel about each other and they'll be able to accept it, heal, and do what's best for themselves. But people don't work that way. When you crack them open for their secrets, no matter how badly you want them, you deal damage. When you lay out something inside someone bluntly when they're not ready to hear it, they can deny it and retreat further.

TC: yøu twø are gøing the fuck øff in there at all høurs øf the damn day ør night ør whatever sø sømetimes the backløg gets thick as all hell but the møst recent arc? the warden's gambit was sø viciøus, brø. TC: i løve høw yøu wørked in all these hints abøut it during the cøurt saga, that was fuckin CINEMA. TC: yøu guys are fantastic writers. TC: but just sitting at øppøsite ends øf the planet førever is such a stupid waste, før bøth øf yøu. TC: i'm nøt gønna bløw up yøur spøt and take that leap før yøu but i am gønna prømise yøu that it's a leap yøu need tø make if either øf yøu are gøing tø survive. TC: his life is in yøur hands. TC: … TC: yøur cam's glitching øut øver there and i've gøtta gø, but i'll leave ya with this. TC: if we døn't figure øut høw tø wørk tøgether øn this, we're all fucked. TC: but if we dø? TC: paradise. TC: the files are øn yøur ørbs. -- tinnitusChakra [TC] ceased hazing cloisteredConnoisewer [CC] --

He's not even threatening them! He's explicitly saying he isn't going to expose Del'fi to CT -- unconditionally -- and that they should all work together just because it's what's best for Del'fi if nothing else.

But he's giving a premature moral message of camaraderie to a, theoretically, Destroyer of Blood who clearly isn't ready to accept it this early in their character arc.

...While I was browsing the log for some earlier silhouette reference links I may have accidentally glanced at an upcoming link that looked like "React to this in a completely reasonable manner" or something, which is kind of tilting my analysis but like. Yeah, Del'fi-splosion would be a reasonable reaction... setting off some form of sick sabotage.

===>

He read it.

OH. Or... that. That part would be the part one latches onto, yes. Have I mentioned lately that cracked and broken glass is a Void symbol?

This is what I meant, in part, about the damage that breaking into people's secrets can do. Especially secrets one considers core to one's identity, whether one realizes it or not. Del'fi often OFFERED to share SELECTED logs with Ly'lac, or writings, mostly knowing she wouldn't accept or read them, but... having someone you DON'T KNOW having broken into EVERYTHING, read all your smutty roleplaying, even the stuff you never would have voluntarily shared outside your currently-only-CT-and-you comfort zone????

That's devastating. Brutal. Terrifying. TC is going to have to learn to do better by people than this.

And, there's that link title I peeked:

> Del'fi: Have a reasonable reaction.

Literally growing more mouths to scream with-- hey wait, Del'fi can actually lift their upper organon off their lower pair of eyes??? (Oh hey, does Del'fi usually go for eye-tongue instead of mouth-tongue like Ly'lac or the crystal-person?)

You've left him alone all this time for your friends' sakes, but this is too far. You have to make him pay.

Oh yeah, it's industrial strength sabotage time. Destroyer time.

===>

...AND THERE SHE GOES DEMANDING YOUR ATTENTION AGAIN! "WAH WAH WAH, intruder alert, come protect my lightstone, you don't have time to cast a death spell on that popular pompous prick!!!"

Oh god, Del'fi's out-screamed. Are those screaming mouths metaphorical or are the grasping looping hands that make up this sanctum partially alive??? Excessively demanding of a possibly-Caretaker.

YOU GET IT! FINE! FREAKING, FINE!!!!!!!!!!! YOU WILL CHECK THE PERIMETER.

Is this revenge interrupted, or will this be sufficiently out-of-the-ordinary to mean revenge indefinitely deferred? ...Even if they get in the game and they suddenly find themselves "free", I'm not sure it'd quench Del'fi's need for revenge over plundering and browsing their private RPs here, regardless of his praise.

> Del'fi: Scope out the situation.

Oh, wow. Ok, you see what her problem is now. That's actually a LOT of intruders.

Driven down to the far depths by the beginnings of a meteor apocalypse maybe? Or prophecies concerning such coming to fruition?

===>

You'll have to act fast if you hope to cast your DEATH CURSE in a timely fashion. Whatever you choose to surrender will have to be a SIGNIFICANT BARGAIN if you hope to pull off this level of vengeance. Unlike before, you see instantly what your only true option for this spell is.

Del'fi has to surrender things of personal value just to cast a Death Curse??? This sounds more and more like it happens to be a unique specialty to either Del'fi's nature or interests as a potential Bard of Blood, giving up that which they hold dear to catalyze Destruction.

They're looking at the Lightseed, though, aren't they? Aren't they protecting that for a reason? Or is their Caretaker also there to sacrifice, or something?

===>

After all, what could be stronger than LOVE?

Seriously, is anyone still going to tell me that Bard of Blood isn't incredibly likely here? "SEVER"ing bonds and proof of love?

I hope it's just those three dearly important artworks, and not like, something out of their own heart.

> Del'fi: Sever.

No, that'd be too far. You're still going to hit him with a little NIGHTMARE IMPRECATION, but you'd hate going to sleep beneath the space they'd leave behind. There are some things even you can't live without.

Oh phew, the beloved statuary instead. Del'fi's still bound by Blood, like Jack (the theoretical Prince of Blood) often was. But those cherished artworks are potentially a SERIOUS time bomb for Del'fi to detonate to power a curse sometime later in the plot. That or they'll be able to sacrifice something even more precious, like whatever/whoever their Sprite turns out to be or something.

TC is going to be cursed with nightmares, but given the way Dream Bubbles work, that could essentially be to the team's collective advantage.

You're a bit more like her than you'd want to admit.

Like "her"? Their Caretaker/Warden maybe? What? What does this mean? Being unable to sacrifice something that ought to be...? Couldn't sacrifice Del'fi maybe?

> Del'fi: Resist urge to think about what she did to you.

Wait, is that the Lightseed? With the stem propping it up, from this angle... it looks like a Sburb-generated near-Frog-Temple tower house.

You fail terrifically. To the point you can't help but recount the legacy of loneliness that tethered you here in the first place. A very long time ago, the wisdom of the tides brought about a cultural wave of nymph apathy, fueled by the knowledge that the entire planet would be wiped clean within a few generations, leaving naught but a select DESTINED FEW.

They know it's coming, to some extent, AND when. TC wasn't saying much about the incoming apocalypse that surprised Del'fi, even if they didn't know the shape of it.

This caustic lethargy led to large scale egg abandonment; hundreds of little frys dropped into trenches left to fend for themselves in the depths.

So Nymph eggs aren't always abandoned the way Ly'lac described or?... no, wait, rereading it... ah, they're usually laid on the BEACHES to give them hope, and SOME were cast into the depths due to this racewide spike of apathy Del'fi is referring to.

The lurid tangle of striping stars that surrounds you was sewn together by one of those sad little orphanites once upon a time. She was armed with nothing but a doctrine of unabashed purehearted nymph love and a terribly horrific weapon of mass destruction, callously cast away into the trenches like so much radioactive waste, corrupting all it touched; in this way, she and the weapon were very much alike.

OH. This "weapon of mass destruction" may very well have been carried down with Del'fi's caretaker on a meteor. Not necessarily, not quite. But this very well could have been their ectobiological ancestor, who could also have been a Blood player given all the holding-hands environmental design they engineered, a non-Destroyer potentially.

Not confirmable yet though, it's hard to say, what with the Gray Rain and ~PTH being presumably the work of ancestors too from the vibes we've been getting.

===>

WHOA HOLY SHIT

Hand hair! Hand throne! She grew all that! And a seed from her heart?!?

Unmistakeable Light symbol too, hair like a gripping claw around her face...

In her early fryhood she was alone, but as she bloomed with maturity she found herself surrounded by suitors and supplicants. She had decided that neither she nor anyone else would ever know the touch of isolation ever again. Thousands upon thousands came to her of their own volition, desperate for the safety of her bosom, her cruel tolerance, the lack of pretense in her all encompassing embrace. Some simply desired to be a part of something greater, while others saw it as a way to possibly circumvent prophecy; if only a few were destined to endure THE GREAT LOSS, the subsummation of their species all but guaranteed their participation.

I know there's a Light symbol on her forehead, but the whole race are Rose Lalonde's progeny. From the story of her history, this does read like a Blood-bound Ancestor, one who wasn't necessarily Destroyer-class oriented. (EDIT 2: Wait, they were SUBSUMED? Like the Subsumation Curse Del'fi cast in Cha.OS general chat earlier and has on their desktop? So amalgamated or eaten up? I missed that on first read, so this maybe-ancestor was eating everyone in some ways or incorporating them literally rather than just forming a community.)

Many, however, did not lust for assimilation.

I could be speaking too soon about the non-destructive part, but it sounds like the destruction probably was done UNTO her rather than FROM her.

Del'fi also just compared themselves to her and said they were "more like her than you'd want to admit", full of love and desperate to not be alone.

===>

Countless nymphs and satyrs alike were consumed in their intimate and tender grazing, and with them, their homes and history. All were made piecemeal and dragged into herself as she became a writhing museum of extinction. With each addition to her alluvial labyrinthine form so grew the power of her inkstone. It grew so incredibly dense and impossibly dark that it began to shine bright as the morning star.

Consumed? Grazing? What??? (EDIT 2: I'd missed "subsumed" and that the assimilation was literal on first read, as covered.)

So this city of their was like a roving, consuming city-state? These bonds she extruded into a city captured places they roamed over and conquered and fed upon? Was this potential-ancestor perhaps some sort of Thief of Blood, gaining power from all that she bound to herself? Is that's what's collected in her inkstone seed?

Drawn toward some unknowable peak, she and her supplicated constituents stretched west. They took to land, and took the satyr's capital with them. In a rare display of interspecies collaboration, THE COUNCIL OF HIGH PROPHETS, THE PLAYTORIATE, and THE EXEMPLAR himself combined forces in an attempt to protect what little world had remained after her passionate rampage.

"Playtoriate" like "horseplay" and "Praetorian Guard", or something.

For several tides they fought in vain, struggling helplessly against her love. But when all seemed lost, the neptunian golem of a certain long excommunicated enchantress appeared.

Rose wouldn't have been excommunicated... would she? Is this a different ancestor? Rose might get a perverse kick out of being in exile from her own species, but... the "golem" of an enchantress? A robot?

Then apparently she just wagged her finger, shooshed her to sleep, and tossed her back into the freaking ocean.

We actually know for a fact that Rose has exhibited this power, able to infuse dark/Void power into a ball of yarn to knock Dream Dave to sleep. As an Ultimate Self in command of presumably a wide spectrum of the Light/Void axis, putting someone to sleep is very possible.

Alternatively... if not for the 'neptunian golem' line, for all we know, it could have been Vriska, lending the pair a hand under some pact. Knocking someone asleep psychically with a boost from her powers and casting them down into literal dark oceanic depths is very Thief of Light -> Plunge someone Down into Void.

Where she's remained in this seemingly insurmountable slumber to this day, with the only notable action being when she grabbed a meteor out of the sky carrying a baby on it some several thousand tides ago, before promptly falling back to sleep. And that baby was you.

They couldn't resist the "the baby is you" phrasing, could they. XD

Chances of this being an Ancestor definitely ramped up with this deliberate act of hers. It's pretty wild that Del'fi actually KNOWS they're meteor-born, unlike (presumably) Ly'lac. I wonder who else knows? This is one of the biggest instances so far of Nymphkind proving their doomsaying/foretelling chops by having foreknowledge of this apocalypse within generations.

I can't say this is an Ancestor for sure, or that the Enchantress was Rose for sure (controlling any number of remote bodies of any given potential size as part of whatever plan she hinted at having to transcend her human-body-and-robot-body arrangement)... It could have been some other Golem-piloting Ancestor... and I definitely can't say what the Lightseed is capable of, what the weapon of mass destruction was or if it allowed her to extrude this city, or what any of this is capable of. This slumbering Nymph and her heart seem eminently Prototypable, and if they contain some sort of immense power they've gathered, what effect would that have on the enemies and structure of the Session? Is this the equivalent of prototyping Becquerel for them? Do Dirk and Rose have long-laid plans to use the Prototyping process to construct something out of key pieces they've seeded around the world like this? Wild things are bouncing around my head like the Lightseed becoming Skaia of all things, given AA doesn't seem to have noticed the Satyrs joining them in their session in Skaia's clouds for some reason, and my old theory that the purpose of this session was to create the workings of the Game in the first place. Hmm.

And I wonder if this slumbering ancestor IS Del'fi's caretaker, and part of how the rest of that otherwise "one munch lunch" disappeared is that the very STRUCTURE OF THE PLACE ate it! In fact I'm actually pretty certain of this, given the middle fingers she was throwing the Lightseed afterwards! She's giving orders to Del'fi and controlling the very bones of this place in her sleep! (EDIT 1: Oh... oh duh, SHE'S the "Great Combiner" mentioned earlier, that's the perfect name for her creating and such a place and is even more Blood-bound a name than I expected.)

I'm not sure I can say any more about this that wouldn't be even MORE wild speculation than I just threw around. We'll just have to take more as it comes.

> Ah, shucks… Then who the heck can I be?

That's a 10-player monitor, six for the Deltritans and four for the Omega Kids. Weird setup for that number. (TC and Ly'lac were the most responsible for figuring out 'TilDepth and coding or decoding Shurb it sounded like, is that giving them pride of place? Are those two going to be the team-leaders of their respective races?) AT's monitor (the one I thought might be our third Nymph) is fizzing out, are we choosing them or is that Void-related? Also, as noted before, auguryAside's (AA's) symbol is very Hourglass (Time), but it's not entirely clear what aspects or traits the other symbols I've seen so far like here might allude to, and unless Ly'lac's symbol is the one that blooms above and below her eye shaped like her house when she uses magic/transformation, we might not know her symbol yet, nor TC's (though I'd expect something ø-related as per his null-set quirk).

Possibly more importantly, WHO has pale skin and light-blue-painted fingernails?! Jane wouldn't be at a control monitor, Terezi is gray, Rose has a robot body unless she needed a younger bio-clone for some reason we've yet to guess-- is this one of the Omega Kids, someone we know using a different style, or someone else we haven't been introduced to? It looks like a child's hand, not an adult's, but that could be perspective. Harry, Tavvy? Harry might go for nail styles.

===>

You can be this guy. Remember this guy? From the group chat?

Oh, it was just being selected, we're choosing agamemnonsTheory (AT), who is a Satyr and a "guy". Wait, that's all three Satyrs accounted for... doesn't that mean CT, THE MOUNTAIN, is a NYMPH?! I'd never have seen that coming. (We've glimpsed CC already with horse ears.)

Fuck, it's only been a couple weeks and I'm already forgetting any and all of the genders we did or didn't deduce. Let's just, move on to AT who CAPS random WORDS for EMPHASIS out of PLACE.

> Be this fellow, then.

Heh. You've chosen well. You couldn't hope to have been able to be a fellow better than this.

Much cheerier than I expected from the group chat. Unicorn horn, toga, little Roxy-like swirl in back. Thin square-shades, VERY grinny, hanging out somewhere VERY pale.

> What's this fellow's name?

AAAA WHO THE FUCK IS THAT BUST OF??? JUST PUT IT IN THE REPLIES I DON'T EVEN WANT TO KNOW

(cute tail/pouch wiggle)

Your name is SWISS ELYSI, and you're not just some "fellow". You're a SATYR, a shining scion of a PROUD WARRIOR RACE, and- you're facing the wrong way.

Swiss is a very cute horse name.

Your full, government official moniker is SWISS ELYSI, WARD OF THE EIGHTH REGION (01ST DISTRICT), COHORT CAPTAIN OF HONEYFALL GYMNASIKKOU'S CLASS OF 4005, but that's pretty long, so just SWISS is fine. For now. Until you get your MANTHRONYM. Hey, turn around.

"MANTHRONYM" oh god. Potentially a patriarchal society sign unless that's a male-specific thing and there's a different name for it for female Satyrs, assuming female Satyrs exist outside of Anime.

> Swiss: Turn around.

I don't like these blindingly white busts. Pleasant color scheme otherwise though. Loads of weaponry-- exercise ball instead of a computer chair to stay fit. A few signs of higher technology like some mecha poster on the wall and the engine downstairs, then some sort of conspiracy corkboard between open curtains hidden from view. The Satyr anatomy poster thing depicts wings to go with the horn Alicorn style. ...Is that a fucking carrot instead of an apple on the laptop brand? Of COURSE it is.

You'll turn around when you damn well feel like it. You're busy practicing your WINNING SMILE; it takes incomprehensible precision to tilt one's mouth just so. There's no denying what a chill, easygoing guy you are. Just look at those aristocratic shades... Perfection.

They (he?) didn't seem pretty chill and easygoing in group chat, at least in the brief glimpse we got. Is this all a façade? The preening focus on appearance could be very Light since Mind is taken by Vrissy, and would fit with the blinding brightness of the room and character theme.

As previously mentioned, you are a member of a trimorphic species of equine muscle-men known as SATYRS - a MONOCORN, to be exact. You are nearly 8 LUNAR LAPS old, a measure of time that, if one was forced to compare it to some other hypothetical and certainly inferior chronological standard, would equate to 16 EARTH YEARS old. Not that you know what the fuck an "EARTH YEAR" is, nor do you care to know. They sound almost as stupid and unwieldy as TIDAL TURNS.

So Satyrs ARE actually an all-male race like I'd initially suspected?!? But D.N.Alkyrin had what looked like some female Satyrs... or were they just busty guys?? Are Nymphs all female too like I'd guessed/hoped? Seriously, it's the sort of contest power move perfectly befitting Dirk and Rose's egos, and the term Nymph usually has female connotations.

"Trimorphic" and "Monocorn" implies horned, hornless, and a third kind (horn and wings? bicorn?).

You have a variety of INTERESTS, carefully cultivated over the laps to ensure your development into an unimpeachably fine young man. First and foremost amongst these interests is the ACQUISITION AND SUBSEQUENT WIELDING OF POWER; you are a natural POLITRICIAN. It's like if a politician was a patrician. One of the many benefits of your savvy maneuvering is your coveted role as COHORT CAPTAIN of the illustrious HONEYFALL GYMNASIKKOU's 4005th cohort.

The Life slot is taken by Tavvy most likely, so Swiss's political power likely falls under Light too, which could make sense if I had to guess.

You are also interested in the ACQUISITION AND SUBSEQUENT WIELDING OF BLADES. The blade is, after all, a kingly weapon. Not that satyrs have had kings in a very, very long time, but still. If it didn't fly in the face of your entire society's meritocratic democracy, you might even consider reluctantly carrying the burden of monocratic rule. Though, of course, you never would. You'll gladly settle for the esteemed position of GRAND PRANCELLOR and take your rightful place at the head of the Senate, when your time comes. After all, that kind of power is best shared with friends.

This sounds like either an Heir or Knight of Light, maybe. I wouldn't completely rule out a Page or even Maid though. They're proud of and refine what they have but they're not above sharing, very martial but it's supposedly typical of the race, as makes sense with a Dirk-created one... hmm.

Speaking of friends, you have a small but dear inner circle of them who have been COMPLETELY IGNORING YOU for the past few hours. You have been using a complex and mystically enhanced chat client called HAZR to try and get in touch with them, but to no avail. Your hazetag is agamemnonsTheory, and you speak DEFINITIVELY, to EMPHASIZE your AUTHORITY. <==]-

So, authority and definitiveness. Could definitely fall under Light's agency and importance definitions. They sure like swords.

Answer the door? Where did we see evidence of anyone knocking?

> Swiss: Answer the door.

More Greek themes with those wrist wreathes (oh, that's a Samurai Satyr poster, not a gun-strapped mecha-- wait they might be gun-strapped anyway, I'm sure we'll get a closer look), just like the toga, martial/fitness/olympic focus, "ELYSI" as in Elysium, etc. Now gym-bro-ing it up for martial/fitness purposes.

You are not going to do that. It's almost certainly the COHORT COUNCIL, come to harass you for skipping today's meeting. Normally, of course, you'd never dream of missing a chance to flex your administrative agency, but you were told today was going to be an imperative opportunity to further strengthen the ties between you and your closest brethren… one more loop in the magnificent triple knot of your fates. It's been kind of pissing you off that they haven't responded yet. You'd better look at some of your cool stuff to calm down. You don't feel like doing any more calisthenics.

Yeah, Swiss's "chill" seems a pretty thin façade if the lack of attention gets to him this easily (going with "him" from all the "guy" and "fellow" and "man" business, for now). Attention-seeking, Light, hm.

> Swiss: Examine poster.

It's a wall-scroll, actually. This is the SATRUVIAN ALKYRIN, which portrays a figure demonstrating each of the morphotypal traits of your species.

Very concerned with exact definitions. (I know Satruvian references Vitruvian which refers to the Da Vinci drawing like this, but "ALKYRIN" has appeared twice now and I'm not sure how to translate it to some Satyr-like reference to something else other than "valkyrie" which doesn't feel like it completely fits here.

MONOCORNS, the morphotype you belong to, are horned, and possess limited telekinetic abilities. The raw force most monocorns can produce with their telekinesis is a far cry from the quite prodigious strength of even the most average satyr, but the enhanced spatial awareness it provides is an excellent boon to feats of physical precision, such as swordplay. Or table stickball.

A mild spin on Friendship Is Magic magic-horn rules. "Spatial awareness" and "physical precision" might come into play for whichever of these is the Space player, and I'm guessing it's more likely The Mountain than him.

PEGATULPS are winged, and can use those wings to, you guessed it, fly. They're known for their excellent endurance and also for flying. With their wings. Pretty simple, really.

More FiM categorization.

STALLIONS are visually the least remarkable morphotype, but what they lack in aesthetic distinction they make up for in biochemical flexibility. All satyrs possess an INTENDOCRINE SYSTEM, a series of six organs running up the spine and central nervous system that work together to produce powerful hormones such as CHILLATONIN, ABHORTISOL, ANDRENALINE, and more, but stallions are able to exercise a level of conscious control over this system.

That sounds like the sort of drug-like endocrine regulation tinnitusChakra (TC) was practicing earlier, apparently not necessarily by imbibing restricted substances (but not necessarily NOT by doing so).

An ALKYRIN is the synthesis of all three morphotypes, heavenly warriors spoken of in your species' earliest cultural legends. To be clear, there is no historical evidence for the existence of Alkyrins. They are as mythical as HORSES, and anyone who believes in them is kind of a sucker, but you do suppose they make a very potent symbol for satyrkind as a whole.

Interesting-- it SOUNDS like Alicorn a bit, but I'm sure there's a punnier etymology going on here. Also, makes sense they'd be heavily featured in Anime. (And could be a God-Tier evolution they all might share if/when they achieve it?)

Oh please don't--

> Swiss: Examine BUST.

Someone tell me who this Adam-Carolla-ass motherfucker is so I don't have to look him up, I know I've seen that horrifying mug somewhere. Adam Sandler? These had better not be correct guesses, I have a hard enough time recognizing celebrities I don't care about to not be embarrassed to have accidentally recognized one.

Caught your eye, has it? If it wasn't obvious, you have a fondness for SATYRICAL ANTIQUITY. You've gone so far as to decorate your entire DORM with the busts of your favorite POLITICAL FIGURES. You've got a few more downstairs. This one is a personal favorite, the crown jewel of your collection: a genuine BUST OF SENATAUR STEPHEN THE OSTENTATIOUS. His wild theories on ZONING REFORM really shook up the political landscape of the day. He was a founding member of a ragtag group of CIVIL SERVANTS, known for their EXTREME CONGRESSIONAL JACKASSERY, but he still carried himself with… such decorum. Those who knew him well called him STEVE-O, but you'd never be so presumptuous.

Fucking STEVE-O?!?!?

Those downstairs busts had better not be Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos or something.

> Swiss: Slice BUST OF SENATAUR STEPHEN THE OSTENTATIOUS to ribbons.

I still love that Roxy-swirl in back of his hair... I feel like that's going to be important or tie him to the Callie/Roxy duo's efforts somehow but that's probably too optimistic.

What the hell? No! You'd never do that to STEVE-O. Besides, it'd be terrible for the edge of your BLADES. Which are NOT cheap. You only draw your blade when ORDER demands it. Or when you're training, or when you have the answer in seminar.

ORDER specifically. Order as he's defining it can be viewed from the perspective of Doom or Light, and this individual seems inclined to the Light side of the aspect wheel still, if I had to guess. Which might mean tinnitusChakra (TC) and his Cha.OS app even further align him with Void?

Have I mentioned lately by the way that exaggerated old-style Greek ideals of Masculinity have been core to Dirk Strider's affectations since his introduction, as my history-buff friend taught me, and how they coalesce into toxic masculinity that both echos what we identify as toxic masculinity today and also many of the elements of being "cool" or philosophically or physically above one's peers? I just thought I'd mention that if I haven't lately, what with all these seminars and senataurs and feats of martial prowess going around with Dirk's homebrew alien race, etc.

Also, where are the initial commands coming from right now? Blue fingernail person? The apology from the narrative seems rather personal:

> My apologies, young man… give STEVE-O a kiss on the cheek.

You're also not going to do that. You don't do that anymore.

Why not? The pains of growing up and taking on responsibility for your appearance past your youthful indiscretions?

Oh, I just noticed all of these commands have CAPITALIZED EMPHASIS somewhere.

> Swiss: Examine BLADES.

NUBBY KNOBBY TAIL WAG IT'S LIKE A RABBIT TAIL CUUUUUTE

This is your BLADE STAIRWAY, where you keep most of your BLADES. Your VAST COLLECTION OF BLADES has been described as many things by your fellow students and academic advisors... EXORBITANT, EXPENSIVE, ARGUABLY AGAINST COHORT COUNCIL POLICY. They are all this, and more. They are your everything. The finest in your collection is, of course, this REPLICA OF THE FRATERNAL BLADE, which you keep in a place of high honor close to your bed so you can look at it while you fall asleep. It was said to be an UNBREAKABLE PIECE OF ART wielded by an ANCIENT PROGENITOR GOD, and even getting your hands on a recreation was a real pain in the rump. But it was all worth it. This thing is SO cool. God, you love blades.

An indeed-fake (most likely) replica of Dirk Strider's Unbreakable Katana, too straight and flat to be accurate. (Well, maybe it wasn't as curved as I remember, but it still looks like a shiny paper cutout here.)

> They're knocking quite loudly...

(Are they??? We aren't in a sound-based medium at the moment to tell, and you haven't thrown up any knock onomatopoeias onscreen yet, artists! *Clicks...*)

Swiss's ears wiggling here could be considered the first visual indicator that any knocking has taken place here unless I missed something obvious.

They certainly are. Practically scraping at the door, in fact. Hungry for your guiding hand, no doubt. You can't deny that it feels good to be needed, and you almost feel guilty for abandoning them. Perhaps you've led them TOO well, but they won't be able to rely on you forever. What will these frosh do when you graduate? Honeyfall will always be your beloved ALMA PATER, but you can't mill around this academic middleground forever; you've got more momentous moves on the horizon.

Can't have a bro-themed culture and a "hazing" pester client without frat brothers.

> Swiss: Examine bookshelf.

This one has to be different from DEATH'S gaming cabinet right? Too much filigree, I feel like, and I'm not talking about the greek pillar next to it. Too lazy to double-check though.

You hustle downstairs to your PERSONAL LIBRARIUM, which you keep stocked full of CLASSICAL TEXTS, DECREES and DOCTRINES, many of which outline the core tenets of COMBAT, PHILOSOPHY, and, you know, the other two. Satyrical society hinges on the twin principles of MERIT and FRATERNITY, and as such you've taken it upon yourself to ensure your education is as comprehensively stacked as your social life. To be blunt, you are always on that grind.

Yup, there's definitely a reason this was the first Satyr we were comprehensively introduced to in order to get an idea of the frat-bro slash Greek masculinity culture.

Whoa, an [S] page??

> [S] Peruse Librarium.

[ Click a book to start reading. Duh! That's how books work! Or just stay on this page to listen to some chill beats to Peruse a Librarium to. ]

(I'm not gonna screenshot these, just discuss the selections broadly.) So their progenitor and species' direct teacher Dirk Strider (evidenced by the shades) is called The Exemplar, huh.

Honey? "His bees respect him"? Feels out of place, this isn't quite like Doom and Sollux's mind-honey.

Past crimes of Satyr society? "You're not a nympathyzer or anything, but"? Yeah, even while expressing empathy for victims of infanticidal war strikes, Swiss/AT is definitely very up his own ass about Satyr society, which would fit for MOST typical members of Satyr society if they were created by Dirk most likely but ESPECIALLY would fit certain kinds of Light player. I'm still sticking with that aspect assumption for now.

Of course they blame the worst periods and atrocities in their history on "the periods least influenced by the Exemplar's guidance". Was that his guidance from what he set down in writing/teaching in the distant past alone, or did Dirk take an active time-traveling role in getting his society on track at times instead of just lecturing their culture into place during its initial setup?

Nightly horn polishing guide, the innuendo was inevitable.

"Rise and Fall of the Barley Fraternities"? Okay, so honey is important because of social class, with tier top-to-bottom of fraternity being Honey, Oat, and Grass... that's some serious societal stratification going on there, and he seems to buy wholly into it. Then there was a...

Fuck, fuck fuck this is definitely relevant, like, aspect or ancestor or TC or something-else related, so I've no choice but to transcribe the last half in full manually just so I can search for it later on my blog once we have a clue what it means, FUCK. Okay, doing that. Something about a revolutionary inculcating a commitment to revelry into all Satyr society... dammit, are we going to have ANCESTORS for the Delta Kids? Because we are DEFINITELY not pulling a fucking Scratch again. Anyway, transcribing:

For a brief period, there was a fourth tier; a reclusive, monastic order of socially anxious isolationists. They spent the majority of their existence in unremarkable obscurity, contributing basically nothing, but their final decades were marked by a profound change: a commitment to revelry so infectious that it went on to fundamentally change the nature of satyr society, prompted by the appearance of a man who flew across the sea from the uninhabited Cursed Land, Australia. He catapulted their order to the highest echelons of power and influence, which you always found weird because he was just a savage degenerate. At any rate, that didn't last long, because at some point their so-called "revolutionary" danced them all into the sea. So you guess maybe he wasn't such a fucking cool guy after all.

THIS NEEDS SOME DECODING AND MY BRAIN IS TOO EXHAUSTED TONIGHT TO PARSE IT. AAARGH!!!

Okay I have to post a screenshot of it too in case that warped figure in front of the sun is decodable as literally anyone's possible silhouette:

--is that an Alkyrin or Pegatulp drunkenly flapping wings? The Satyr equivalent of a Juggalo? Some reference to that continuation of Bard's Quest I haven't bothered to read? That is meant to be a PERSON flapping awkwardly in front of the sun, I swear to god. Whatever it is it'd better not be Gamzee-related. I don't know whether to blame Dirk, Rose, or both for naming a continent on Deltritus "Australia", it's almost making me think this was Saxton Hale / Mann Co / TF2-related. Someone probably also knows what the book cover is referencing and might put it in the replies if they're feeling generous... dammit, I am WAY out of my depth with this one right now. ON TO MORE BOOKS BEFORE MY BRAIN BURNS OUT FOR THE NIGHT.

The Slama Sutra being about rap battles, hah.

"HOW TO FAKE FRIENDS AND INFLUENCE SHEEPLE", about deliberately manipulating people to "introduce a little order to the whirling chaos of the adolecent political landscape", apparently a formative reading experience for Swiss. That could be construed as Mind, Light, or even Rage related. (I'm still behind Mind being "taken" by Vrissy's Witch of Mind slot in the session though.) Vriska also showed that manipulating others, pulling the wool over their eyes to the advantage of your own agency and effectiveness, can be very Light, especially if you're willing to control or steal the Light and agency of others. Maybe an Heir, the theoretical passive pair to the Witch, could be a fit for Swiss? Hopefully not a Prince or Bard, I don't THINK so but we'd have to see the way he wields Light against others/situations to be absolutely sure.

Grey Rain... apparently "The Examplar" did INDEED personally intervene to prevent some sort of cross-race-engineered nearly mass extinction event, possibly by ancestors, and to avert it "you guess maybe some bullshit nymph cult did too, though you have doubts about their contributions". And one of the heaviest parts of the read isn't just the near planet-wipe but "because you simply cannot fathom the thought of a satyr EVER working together with a nymph." So, yeah, Swiss/AT's straight-up bought into the bigotry where TC hasn't, as the next paragraph goes on to say how he wishes his friend didn't dabble with Nymphs (like Ly'lac) in his "ruthless pursuit of knowledge" -- hm, our first Seer or Mage in TC? or just Void's relation to the forbidden knowledge especially of the Nymphs? -- in his friend (knockama, hardy har) which at least "keeps him away from the hard drugs and mosh pits for a while, you guess". Yeesh. I'm definitely buying into TC's vibes and cross-cultural ambitions much moreso than Swiss's obvious bigotry, as it's being revealed here. I have to admit that it's fitting that the character possibly steeped in Light relegates the Nymphs and lower classes as unimportant and unremarkable, callously dismissable, consigning their contributions to the Void of unimportance in ways that are obviously shortsighted and incorrect, blinded by the Light of his own high society's supposed importance. (Wonder how he'll handle the impending apocalypse wiping out his entire freakin' race except for those who made it into Shurb sessions.)

Aaand a copy of Whetstones Weekly. Phew I'm through all the books-- OH, and there's no next page button, sweet.

I figure there's like a METRIC FUCKTON TO TALK ABOUT THOUGH hidden in some of that lore and those references that I simply haven't penetrated far enough into. (Also I read the news update but there's nothing important for me to remark on. A reminder that buying merch from the Homestuck Pilot could get it turned into a formal show if you liked it, and "Aiming for a minimum of 2 updates a month" sounds reasonable from my naive end of things.) Like, if any update is going to blow up one of my liveblog post's Replies with insights from smart folks like y'all who might happen to get the references I missed it's probably going to be this one, of late. So um... yeah, do that, and when my wits are about me I'll reply to y'all's replies and try to integrate good insights into my knowledgebase for future speculation. Guh, I'm yawning. Goodnight y'all! This update was dense with lore, frat/horse/guy puns I refused to remark on, and unresolved mysteries. Welcome to the plot, smug, smiling Swiss Elysi! (WHO IS AT THE MONITOR CONSOLE WITH THOSE SKY BLUE NAILS??? It can't just be June or something, it's too soon! WERE THOSE FEMALE LOOKING FOALS IN THE ANIME COVER REAL OR ARE ALL SATYRS MALE?? DO MALE SATYRS SOMETIMES HAVE BREASTS?? THESE ARE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS THAT WILL HOPEFULLY BE ANSWERED SOONER OR LATER.)