#pumpkin track

I was a day late for Cherubs day, but here's my post for @alphaweek! Featuring Ultimate Roxy and Ultimate (Meat!) Calliope, from my Epilogues Sequel Pumpkin Track.

I also loved your youtube videos btw

Thanks! It means a lot to read this. As to your question:

The main project I've been managing since the Epilogues got posted is Pumpkin Path/Pumpkin Track, a sequel to the Meat and Candy epilogues focused primarily on Pumpkins and Vegetables as an alternative form of fan consumption.

The first installment of this arc is THE APOCRYPHON OF JAKE ENGLISH (2019), which follows Meat Jake immediately following Ultimate Dirk's desertion of Earth C. Brain Ghost Dirk declares Dirkjake cancelled and (trigger warning) self-destructs, unleashing the inner barriers in Jake's psychology that he always used his inner Dirk voice to maintain.

Thus Jake's own mind begins to lead him down a rabbit hole of speculatory metaphysics, esoteric spiritual symbolism, and esoteric magic theory that ultimately leads to his ascension to Ultimate Self as Prince English: Himself wearing Dirk's shades and orange hat and essentially larping as a Prince in imitation of Dirk proper.

Through the power he gains from this, he blasts off from Earth C and tracks down Ultimate Dirk for a no holds barred 8eatdown in which he reclaims their lost love and makes Dirk his prisoner with chains of love and mercy, cancelling his ability to die and comitting to becoming the vill8in of Homestuck, as well as its Her8, if it means he can keep Dirk safe and alive.

In the process he finally establishes Dirkjake as indisputable endgame canon, and becomes the equivalent of the I AM Christian God, the new existential equivalent to Lord English himself, with a will that predominates completely over everything else in Paradox Space. There may be some surprises that happen along the way, too.

Now, That much of the story has been written and published since 2019. You can read it on A03 right now and always could. In fact, I'd encourage you to do so and @ me, as well as maybe tag it with #Pumpkin Path, #Pumpkin Track, or just straight up #Homestuck for all I care. I want eyes on this thing, and I wanted them 4 years ago.

That said:

I am now nearing completion on the follow-up to the Apocryphon as an intermission piece between the Epilogues and Pumpkin Track proper, with what is essentially ACT 1 of Pumpkin Track: W(1)LDSCR1PT-B4R0QU3STUCK, a high-drama spectacle driven continuation of the plot of the Epilogues centering on a confrontation between Ultimate Jake English and Meat Jade Harley, who must duel for the right to decide if Dirk Strider dies.

In the process of their battle and Jade's necessary Ascension to Ultimate Selfhood in order to Rise uP to the level necessary to compete against a being like Prince English, deeply hidden truths will be unveiled; about the lives of Jade and Jake, about the moral logic that rules Earth C, and about the very nature and purpose of Paradox Space itself.

If I have it my way, if all goes as I Hope, then nothing in Homestuck will ever be the same once it's posted. The Apocryphon was setup. Now it's fucking Sh8wt1m3, and I can't w8.

The first half of Wildscript is written and has been being beta'd for several months, and I have a full outline written for the rest. Anyone who gets their eyes on the thing seems to come away pretty excited. Sometime in the near future, I'll post the first four Chapters of Wildscript on Ao3 or some other platform, and update the rest as I go. And once Wildscript is finished, I have future Acts and Intermissions planned for the foreseeable eternity, tackling off the top of my head: Ultimate Ascensions for Rose and Kanaya, Vriska and Terezi, Roxy and Calliope, Jane Crocker, and Nepeta Leijon and Tavros Nitram as they lead the twin charges of Nepetaquest 3033.

There is no endpoint to my ambition for the future of Homestuck save simply: 8. The only question is whether the fandom wants to come along for the ride with me in the long run. I think Hope Remains that we'll have a great time here if they do.

If not, I hope they have even more fun elsewhere.

that clown has always been motivated by just the simple fact that this story hates tavros so much the kid she loves would never ever be allowed to even live, let alone be happy--and that's not Vriska's fault, it's fucking LE's!

and also it turned out the paradise the Sufferer dreamed about--which Gamzee clearly just internalizes as being part of the Mirthful Messiah cults' worship when it's not--turned out to be just a joke. We might be tempted to make that Andrew's fault because it feels easy, but again my explicit position is Everything Is Terminally The Fandom's Fault Forever.

That said, I was working towards a way to render it Not A Joke in Hs^2 but this fandom drove me so nuts and miserable I couldn't keep working on it, and so i have no clue what'll happen there now. Time to try again in a different way in Pumpkin Track.

Yeah it's sort of a mess I'm actively editing right now tbh, as I go through the midst of this Self-Realignment Ritual/Public facing Rebrand?

Its been a long time since I edited Tumblr themes so I'm doing a sloppy job of it. TBH I'd suggest people interested in my Homestuck content just use my blog as a link to the Apocryphon right now, since it's the most relevant and interesting thing I've done by far atm. Like I've said previously, I'd be happy if people just started talking about that with the #Pumpkin Path or #Pumpkin Track tag. As far as Im concerned, everything else on my blog ATM is a distraction.

Alternatively if they're looking for my analysis work, I'd suggest peeps try checking out my Medium profile. That was always where my best work was hosted; I never managed to port it all to Youtube practically and Tumblr just wasn't as good at letting me use images to supplement arguments.

I have major essays on Rose and Kanaya, Dave and Karkat, Jane Crocker and Gamzee Makara, Dirk Strider, the whole Active/Passive Class system, and Homestuck's influence from stuff like Gnosticism, The Neverending Story, and Earthbound/Mother 3 on there. Heck, there's even an essay or two on non-Homestuck subjects, like my ZEAL-published piece on BOKTAI: THE SUN IS IN YOUR HAND (2003) Of course there's also always the Youtube channel, and content should be getting started up again there relatively soon as well. By nature its also a bad idea to change branding too much on youtube, so fans of optimisticDuelist specifically can expect that house style to mostly stay the same, with maybe a surprise or two inside the framing of Youtube videos themselves (;3)

My tumblr is not exactly in a state for public consumption yet and I'm mostly using it as personal catharsis/to mess around and cope. I'm not even reblogging/posting much Homestuck, i seem to be defaulting to reblogging Boktai and other stuff like that instead atm! I don't expect that to change very much for the time being unless I start engaging with Pumpkin Path discussion or fanart, but that hasn't manifest on Tumblr basically at all yet.

So for now this Tumblr is a messy in-transition personal blog of SOME Homestuck but mostly random fandom content of stuff I love. Well. And Plenty of dude/achillean love-centric 18+ content on my sideblog that is now just for giving me an outlet to reblog stuff like that, as well.

...

To counter the Herovillain of W(i)ldscript Baroque, Prince English, the Meat iteration of Jade Harley has graciously accepted the invitation to step into the dueling arena and claw her way up the rungs of Ultimate selfhood through her holy Rage at Dirk Strider and the noble practice of divine savagery, as she and Jake fulfill the FAMILY STRIFE BATTLE they have always been denied.