#s139

AA: i believed the fragment was gibberish from a lunatic AA: after completing his rampage through our session

I guess Gamzee’s rampage wasn’t a one-off, then. He’s turned to murder in other timelines, in what appear to be substantially different circumstances.

Is this LOPAH, or Alternia? Just how early can Gamzee snap?

Edit: She does say he rampaged through the troll session, so I'm assuming the former, given that Karkat was the first one to Enter.

AA: and discovered the text which the code was recorded in AA: i decided to return to the alpha timeline with the text […] AA: in the alpha timeline this text was destroyed AA: in an explosion caused by a computer virus AA: this explosion did not take place on my timeline AA: i identified this event as the difference prompting the offshoot

Why would Karkat’s virus affect Gamzee, though? As far as I can tell, its only material effect was to kill the lusi, and I don't see why that'd cause him to snap.

...hmm. Let's see if we can work this out, actually.

OK. In this hypothetical timeline, Goatdad didn’t die at sea. He would have returned to Gamzee’s hive, and, ...potentially done something that caused him to snap early, I guess. But what?

It is still piping hot but you can't help yourself. You sneak a taste of the SOPOR SLIME PIE. You aren't supposed to eat that slime. It does funny things to a troll's head. But you were never taught that on account of a lousy upbringing. Your custodian was always out to sea.

...aww, man.

Gamzee was on the slime because Goatdad was an absent father. Maybe, in this world without the curse, Goatdad returned to his hive, decided to be a parent for once, and cut him off.

It fits extremely well, but I really don't want to dwell on the possibility. It would mean that this Gamzee became a killer because someone cared for him - and that his first victim was probably the old goat.

‘Hey, that’s a weird colour palette. Why did he....

...oh.’

This is.... I don't know what to call this. Gamzee took out all of his team's heavy hitters, completely solo. He killed Sollux, he killed Kanaya, he killed Vriska...

How? How is this guy so ridiculously fucking dangerous?

I see Snowman w-

Oh, it's just Tinkerbull writing MEOW.

Unlike Rose's lavender cipher, Tavros isn't authoring this sequence in his signature color. Instead, his code is Doc Scratch white - a bad omen, if I ever saw one.

AA: an incomplete fragment consisting of four symbols AA: comprising the first word of a binary refrain

A binary refrain, implying the existence of a TOCK Player. Does each code constitute half of MEOW, or has Doc Scratch's genome been spliced with something else entirely?

AA: a pair of sounds emerging from the belly of a fabled tyrants menace

That would be the crocodile from Peter Pupa Pan.

Come to think of it, The story of Hook's crocodile draws some possibly-unintentional parallels to Homestuck's current arc. In the movie, it constantly circled Hook like a buzzard, the ominous ticking in its belly serving as a constant reminder that he was living on borrowed time.

AA: but you authored only one sound of the pair AA: i would write the other

Breath and Time, T1ck and T0ck.

What have you got cooking, Team Charge?

AA: completing the phrase of legend AA: the persisting sounds said to accompany the ultimate demise of the tyrant less an arm and an eye

These legendary injuries again. Just like in the original story, it seems that Pupa’s Hook also dies to the ticking of a clock.

In the context of the comic, this might actually be a prophecy about the death one of our Hook cosplayers – namely, Slick, Jack and Vriska. Perhaps the real reason these injuries are so common is to ensure we can't tell who this prophecy's actually about. Tyrant currently suits Jack best, but a lot can happen in four thousand pages.

AA: but even these eight characters AA: the scrawlings of charge AA: were still but half the code

Charge provides half the code, and Scourge undoubtedly provides the other. The nascent Doc Scratch is composed of four sequences, supplied by the progenitors of this group's bloodiest conflict.

It seems this code was implanted in three Prospit dreamers, and only one Derse dreamer. Sgurb's mechanics are almost universally balanced by moon, so I find this a little odd.

Immediately after the cueball incident, Vriska subconsciously authors break.

What does Terezi get, then? R3P41R?

‘BR8K H34DS.’

AA: our first guardian was brought to life on the seed to pass through skaias final gate of defense AA: the first to find alternia

Well played, Scratch. You rat bastard.

Alternia’s First Guardian was created from an omniscient cueball, the physical manifestation of a child’s terror, and mutant DNA from the mind of a madman - and if that doesn't just track perfectly. The guy is literally a puppet, created to be a vessel for English's will in Alternia's universe. In lieu of his master, he commands the Felt, a gang which I'm pretty sure he named after his own skin.

Lil' Cal is dead. Long live Big Cal.

And here he is, ready and waiting to gloat.

...the fucking bow-tie! He's wearing Cal's Alternian clothes! The proof's been staring us in the face this entire time, and we were none the wiser!

[...] I think it would be for the best if I commandeered the narrative completely for a while. [...] I am expecting a guest to arrive shortly. [...] And if I did have a doorbell, you would have just witnessed it ring. He is already here.

I get it, ya smug fuck. You won before we'd even started playing.

My door is not fitted with a peephole either. Those without eyes or without limits to their knowledge have no need for peeping, and I am without either. I have never once peeped at or through something, and I doubt I ever will.

And - ooh, I'm so wonderfully mad right now - and you know you’re showing up right after the Cal reveal, don’t you? That’s why you’re playing up the smarm.

I can feel the smugness emanating from every thread. Are you going to start laughing, too?

Pardon me while I let Jack inside. Did you not believe it would be Jack? Who else would it be? Someone who would have suspected anyone else is a person I would also describe as a sucker.

Well, Bec's code was originally implanted in a Seer, so maybe Terezi’s brain is just better-suited for carrying gene sequences. It is one of the most obviously cerebral classes.

Four codes, each born from a separate Vriska Incident.

This is why Scratch was egging Vriska on so much. He was contributing to his own creation.

AA: each fragment would be transcribed in our rulebooks AA: sealing the collaboration between rust bloods and blue bloods AA: completing the code for our sessions architect

I still can't tell if each code is a fragment of MEOW, or if MEOW is only one of the four sequences that created Scratch. I certainly hope it's the former, because if Scratch's MEOW has been tampered with, his abilities might differ from those of a normal First Guardian. We'll have no idea what he's truly capable of.

This isn't the first time I've been confused by Scratch's origins, either. There's a small discrepancy in the comic, concerning the nature of the cueball he was (presumably) spawned from. I haven't brought it up before, but since this scene appears to leading into Scratch's creation, it may be my last chance to speculate.

So - the cueball. The magical little orb that Scratch is a dead ringer for. Barring the surprise introduction of a second white sphere in this infodump, it's the only item in the comic which would create a cueball-headed First Guardian. Franky, if he's not made from the thing, it just raises further questions, and I think it's essentially confirmed.

And it makes sense, doesn't it? The cueball can answer any question, so it clearly has access to some wellspring of absolute knowledge. Clearly, it's the reason for Scratch's omniscience... right?

Well, no! That's the problem! The cueball's omniscience is completely redundant, because the MEOW code already contains an omniscience gene!

According to the Scratch loredump, any 'intelligent' host for the MEOW code will be granted near-omniscience. Scratch didn't need the cueball, provided his humanoid component was sufficiently clever. Considering Scratch's own analytical personality, this was obviously the case.

Like - you get what I'm saying, right? Scratch's omniscience has two completely independent origins. It's an extremely strange discrepancy, and I'm not sure what it could mean.

The best theory I currently have is that Scratch arranged this himself, to give himself an advantage. Maybe having two sources of omniscience makes him even more knowledgeable than his peers? It would be very Homestuck for some characters to be 'more omniscient' than others.

AA: there was another fragment […] AA: an additional eight symbols AA: from a wild card source i suppose AA: it came from a timeline not meant to happen

Wh- Gamzee interfered in the creation of Scratch?

...fuck.

This is why Scratch is so uniquely malevolent - because Gamzee injected some foreign DNA into his sequence, creating a mutant First Guardian, with motives transcending the planet he was ostensibly made for.

May ex kasi ako. Matagal rin kami. Siya nga lang yung umabot ng ganon katagal sakin. Yung isa kasi, wala pang isang taon. Siya dalawa e. Magtatatlong taon na nga sana kami. Kaso umayaw ako. Maraming nagalit sakin pero tinanggap ko. Nagalit sakin yung mga kaibigan niya. Araw araw akong nakakatanggap ng hate pero tinanggap ko kasi alam ko may dahilan ako. Ito yung storya namin.

3rd Year HS ako nung umamin siyang may gusto siya sakin. Nagpatulong siya manligaw sa bestfriend ko na may gusto rin pala sakin (Yes, lalaki). Hindi inamin sakin ng bestfriend ko yung sa nararamdaman sakin nung lalaki. Kaya lumaon. Ang akala kong nanliligaw sakin, yung bestfriend ko. Pero nalaman ko na niloloko lang pala ko nung bestfriend ko. Dun nagalit yung lalaki kasi nagpaubaya siya tapos sasaktan lang pala ko. Hanggang sa inamin sakin nung bestfriend ko na si lalaki talaga yung dapat na manliligaw sakin. Mula nun, hindi na ko pinabayaan ni lalaki. Pinakita niya na mahal niya talaga ko. At lumipas ang ilang buwan, naging kami. Masaya ko sakanya. Masaya kami. Alam kong kahit anong mangyari, magtatagal kami. Naiinggit pa nga yung iba samin. kasi pag nakikita kami, “cute” yung naiisip nila, hindi nakakainis. Hanggang sa grumaduate ako at naiwan siya sa school. Mas matanda siya sakin pero nauna ko ng isang taon. Sa Manila ko nag aral. Tapos dun na rin siya nagsimulang magbago. Nawala na siya. Nag ffade na. Pero ginagawa ko lahat para wag lang mawala yung kung anong meron kami. Pumupunta ko sakanila kahit gabi na ko nakakauwi. Ang layo ng Manila dito samin pero pumupunta pa rin ako sakanila.

Hanggang sa grumaduate na rin siya ng HS at nagsimulang tumira sa Cavite. Dun ko naramdaman na tuluyan na nga talaga siyang nawawala sakin. Pero pinaglalaban ko pa rin siya. Hanggang sa nahuli ko na siyang nambababae. Ilang beses akong umiyak sa harap niya. Ilang beses akong nagmakaawa na wag niya na yun gawin ulit pero ginawa pa rin niya. Hanggang sa naulit. ng naulit. ng naulit. Pero hindi ako umalis kasi umaasa ko na magbabago siya.

Hanggang sa yung pinakahuli, nalaman ko, nakipag sex siya sa iba. Nagalit ako. Dahil ba ayaw kong ibigay? Dahil ba ayaw kong isuko yung bataan? Ang dami kong sakripisyong ginawa sakanya. Minahal ko siya ng sobra. Hindi ko matanggap na magagawa niya yun sakin. Hanggang sa umayaw ako. Sinuyo niya ko. Dahil mahal ko pa rin siya, hinayaan kong patunayan niya na magbabago na talaga siya hindi katulad noon. Hanggang sa namatay yung lola niya. Andun ako sakanila. Respeto na rin kasi kilala ko ng lola niya. Pero habang natutulog ako, muntikan na niya kong pagsamantalahan. Buti na lang tumigil siya nung nakita niyang umiiyak na ko. Buti na lang walang nangyari saming dalawa. Sobrang takot ko nun. At don ko naisip na tama na talaga. Hindi na ko babalik. Hindi na namin aayusing dalawa.

Isang taon ng walang “kami” pero yung sakit na binigay niya sakin, hindi pa rin nawawala. Hindi ko na siya mahal. Alam ko yun. Pero yung sakit? Yung sakit nasakin pa rin. Hanggang sa lately, nalaman kong hindi lang pala siya sa babae nakikipag sex. Pati rin sa mga bakla tapos binibigyan siya ng pera pagkatapos. Kaya pala may pambili siya ng mga luho niya. Pero pag sakin, palagi siyang walang pera. Nandiri ako sakanya. Sa dami ng sinakripisyo ko para sakanya. Lahat ng iniyak ko. lahat ng pagmamakaawa ko. Naiyak na lang ako nung nalaman ko.