#s153

VRISKA: […] I am the Thief of Light. VRISKA: You really expect me to lose a simple COIN FLIP? VRISKA: I've got AAAAAAAALLLLLLLL THE LUCK, remem8er? >:::)

Oh, Vriska. Haven't you forgotten?

Luck doesn't actually matter.

TEREZI: 1 D1D NOT FORG3T

Luck doesn't actually matter, because Terezi's the Seer of Mind, not of Light. She knows you can rig the coin - and, thus, she's letting you chose the outcome of this confrontation. The coin is an ultimatum.

She’s not reading your fortune, Vriska.

She’s judging your decision.

We don't get to see that decision - but do we really need to? We know she's not backing out now.

The High8loods surely intended to make a spectacle of my conviction. They filled the court8lock with peasants ravenous for the comeuppance of a 8lue 8lood. I wasn't a8out to deny them what they came for.

It was kind of the authorities to supply me with phalanx of such impressiona8le spect8ors. […] It was simple enough to nudge the hostility of the low8loods from one aristocrat to another. The su8juggl8ors could not have 8een pleased, 8ut nor could they have 8een altogether unamused, I would expect. I wonder if this was part of their unfathoma8le game? I'll never understand their riddles.

Certainly smells like a set-up to me. I wouldn't put it past Gamzee Senior to arrange this on purpose, in order to neutralize a dangerous dragonrider who was getting a little too big for her britches.

Much like his descendant, the Grand Highblood is proving to be a lot more cunning than you'd expect. Gamzee's currently employing similar manipulation tactics, so I wouldn't be surprised if he, too, was following his ancestor's advice.

Had my escape not necessit8ed her demise, she would have made a lovely rival. If she'd only discarded her childish preoccup8tion with justice, we might have made a striking scourge. Had we inched 8lacker we'd have torn red miles across the land and sea. Unfortun8ly, the only miles to 8e found through her 8ureaucratic calling were those of red tape. When so ensnared, one is eventually 8ound to 8e choked.

This girl's writing continues to be more flowery than Rose's literal purple prose. Could you imagine Mindfang giving Homestuck's next recap?

With the court8lock cleared, all that remained to o8struct my freedom was His Honora8le Tyranny himself.

And who the hell is this?

Is this what a highblood looks like, after living for untold millennia? Perhaps this is the emperor of trollkind, Her Imperious Condescension's consort. Their titles do seem to match....

Though I was free, I had no fleet. No matter. With the gam8lignants decim8ed, I'd em8raced the turn in fortune and pledged to put my seagrifting ways 8ehind me. […] 8ut first, I was in need of temporary refuge. I sought it with the expatri8. He owed me for the sweeps of protection I provided after his 8razen defiance of the High8loods. It was perhaps the only such courageous stand ever taken against a superior 8y one of his supercilious pedigree, and I'd not have 8othered sticking my neck out for another. […] I wonder if he still 8elieves she was worth it?

Here comes Equius Senior - who, it seems, actually had the guts to defy his superiors. 'She' is guaranteed to be another Player ancestor, and Leijon seems like she'd be the obvious choice.

Now, this is interesting, because it means Equius, who didn't raise a hand to protect Nepeta, hasn't been following the example set by his ancestor. Was he aware of his predecessor's small rebellion?

Attention is drawn to the prodigiously long lifespan of the Condesce - the empress of Mindfang's time, and Feferi's probable ancestor. I used to think that the modern Empress was a different troll, but now that we're aware of fuchsiablood longevity, I'm pretty sure the two are one and the same.

Based on a line from Feferi's introduction, I was assuming that she was the only fuchsiablood in the universe - but let's take another look at the way that line's phrased.

You are 'the only of your kind' known to possess this blood.

That doesn't necessarily mean she's the only fuchsia troll, does it? For example, it might just mean she's the only Alternian with fuchsia blood, because the Empress doesn't actually live on the planet.

I really want this to be Mama Peixes, because the existence of a living Ancestor has so much story potential. Just how much does she know, and what's her agenda?

Nevertheless, I take the prediction as truth, and find it amusing that a homeworld domin8ed 8y children will 8e the gr8 summoner's legacy. One of them, at least.

Anyway, the Summoner - the boy who could fly - is the reason Alternia is a planetary Neverland, making it clear that he was the original inspiration for Pupa Pan.

It's also notable that we've only just started delving into Alternian history, and we've already learned about two massive rebellions against the social order. Contrary to what Alternians have been led to believe, this oppressive culture clearly isn't natural to them, and they've been fighting it every step of the way.

They don't want to be a murderous empire - they're forced to be, again and again and again.

More importantly, and less amusingly, his legacy will 8e my demise. You see, I first learned his name when I asked who would 8e the one to kill me.

And here's yet another layer to the Quest Cocoon Incident. Vriska wasn't content with living like Mindfang - she wanted to die like her, too.

Given that Vriska knew about the Summoner, one can only imagine how weird she must have been around Tavros. Not only was she constantly berating him, she was also putting him on this bizarre pedestal, comparing him to someone I'm damn sure he never knew existed.

And she'd never tell Tavros about the Summoner, either, because that would allow him to derive confidence from something other than her tutelage. No - she just silently compared him to a legendary hero, and he constantly failed a test he didn't know he was taking.

Seems like something's going very wrong in the Veil.

This seems like a sign that the session is on its last legs, and we're running out of time before it completely turns to static. We're entering the endgame.

The oracle I will resolve to part with. I will conceal it in a crypt 8earing the sign of the expatr8, with a map to its loc8tion hidden in this journal.

The cueball was sequestered in an Expatriate chest, which makes me speculate about whether Equius ever got his hands on it.

He can't see inside it himself - but like Mindfang said, it shouldn't be too hard to find a technological workaround, and Equius is a roboticist. I wonder if either Zahhak ever used it for themselves?

To whomever finds it, 8e wary, for the truth it tells may leave its new keeper 8lind as I was. Though no more.

She warned you, Vriska.

She told you it would leave you as blind as she was.

So pacified, he listened to what I had to say, a8out my recent travails with the law, and Pyralspite, and what I'd come for in truth - the treasure he'd 8een keeping safe for me.

There's the fucker.

I cradled the oracle in my synthetic hand, as if appraising 8y w8 the mystic qualities it still concealed. With my vision 8fold seared away, I was as 8lind to its secrets as the old Doctor was to its present wherea8outs. I'd learned to keep it cloaked from the awareness of the man who once called me his protege, a 8ackhanded term of endearment from a smug manipul8or. Loc8ing his so called dark pockets was the only gam8it I had in countering his milktongued dou8lespeak.

Milktounged is such a great descriptor for Scratch's bullshit. I'm willing to bet that the Expatriate came up with that one.

I wonder what Scratch's plan was for Mindfang? Perhaps she was just another vector for manipulating Vriska - a particularly effective one, too, since she's serve as a mouthpiece her descendant would naturally trust.

The expatri8 for indiscerni8le reasons seemed naturally surrounded 8y such a void in the Doctor's awareness, and so was uniquely fit to inherit the or8. The Doctor could not see his treasure, nor I into it.

It's been implied a couple of times that the ancestors have access to Aspect powers. The Expatriate appears to have some sort of passive Void ability, and Mindfang's (presumably) effective use of the Fluorite Octet suggests that she, too, can manipulate luck. She also referred to Redglare as a 'true seer' in her journals, implying that that each Guardian might also share their offspring's Class.

This is a pretty interesting idea. The Guardians are children of Sburb, same as the Players, so there's nothing really stopping them from having pseudo-Player status themselves. They don't seem to have Dream Selves, but it's not out of the question that they could even ascend to God Tier, if they died on a Quest Slab.

It also means that the human Guardians probably had powers, too. Could their advanced knowledge of Sburb be derived from Mom Lalonde's status as a pseudo-Seer?

I guessed exploiting some technological means of gazing through its surface may have 8een simple enough, 8ut I hesit8ed. Every expedient granted 8y its counsel, though never instantly, came at a price. Knowing his n8ture, I'm surprised I only now recognize it as yet another instrument of his spurious 8enevolence, dangerous 8y way of selective divulgence. The sense of infalli8ility his oracle 8rought me was superficial, and in hindsight weakened my readiness.

Unsurprisingly, the cueball's answers have the same asterisk attached to them as Scratch himself. It doesn't lie, but you'd be a fool to think that means it can't manipulate you. Like all of Scratch's games, it's rigged as hell; you can't win, and you probably shouldn't even try.

…mind you, there might be a way to keep its answers unambiguous. If you restricted your queries to yes/no questions, then it couldn't phrase its responses to give Scratch an advantage.

At the same time, though, there's nothing forcing it to answer a given query with a single word. It'd probably just insist on answering in full sentences.

The gr8est mistake I have ever made was asking the or8 when I would die. 8ut as I revisited the prophecy surrounding this unfortun8 query, something struck me. I thought of the man I would have as a m8sprit centuries from now, who was said to command an army of 8easts. The one it called the summoner.

Mindfang dated Primordial Tavros?

The instant Vriska tries to tell her about Gamzee, the game conveniently falls apart.

I'm onto you, Makara. We've already seen you screwing with the fourth wall, and now the game interface itself is keeping Terezi in the dark. It doesn't take a genius to figure out who's responsible.

At least these lines are uncorrupted - so at the very least, Terezi's now aware that there's more than one murderer in play.

I'm sure she'll still want to avenge Tavros, but we should probably table that discussion for now. Gamzee is right behind them!

See?

He places Cal's hand on Terezi's head, and a section of the conversation is immediately erased - from Terezi's awareness, I suspect, as well as ours.

Tavros, who dreamed of flying, came from a line of winged trolls.

I have thought of the summoner often. I have 8een trou8led to know that as one so common 8looded, he could not possi8ly have hatched yet, nor will he wriggle from the caverns for many sweeps.

As has been implied before, troll lifespans are correlated with blood color. The 'higher' your blood, the longer you live.

Actually, it's possible that the causal link worked in the opposite direction, since longer-lived trolls would naturally accrue more power and influence than their compatriots. Maybe troll society used to be more egalitarian, but over time, more and more power became concentrated in the castes that exhibited more longevity, until we eventually arrived at the current status quo.

Hey - what does this mean for Karkat, actually? He's not on the hemospectrum, so it's difficult to guess how long he might live. Best-case scenario, his lifespan follows Zodiac ordering, which puts him somewhere between Nepeta and Kanaya.

He would rise through the ranks of the cavalreapers and assume command, having proven the most skilled and fearless of them. He would exhi8it a remarka8le pup8tion, the sort only recorded in myth, growing, or perhaps simply revealing, a striking pair of wings.

...which means that Tavros, too, could have flown under his own power, had he lived just a little longer.

He never knew just how damn close he was to achieving his dream. Would you call that a tragedy, or a kindness?

His army thus inspired would spearhead a major re8ellion. Surely one at least on the scale of the sectarian revolt crushed 8y the High8loods, who thereafter for8ade its mention, or any invoc8tion of the heretical sym69ls at all, even in private journals. Which is why I will stick to the fa8le of the summoner, and not risk another execution with even o8lique reference to the compelling tale of the sufferer.

Damn it, Hussie. You're telling me Karkat's ancestor was history's greatest revolutionary, and you're just going to leave me hanging? Go back, damn it!

I can certainly see how this might have come about. If Vantas was another mutant, he'd definitely have 'suffered' under the Alternian regime - and someone with Karkat's personality wouldn't have taken that lying down. I imagine the Sufferer adopted his descendant's leadership style, and essentially bothered people into fighting for social change.

Things are really falling apart.

It's almost reminiscent of Jade's brief, barely-comprehensible jaunt through an unstable Dream Bubble. Everything is just... losing cohesion, as though the session's internal reality is no longer able to assert itself against the Ring's garbled static.

This is decent psychological warfare on Gamzee's part, but it should really be tripping alarm bells for Terezi here. This is absolutely not Vriska's style.

What'll it be, Thief of Light?

Will the God Tier scales tip in your favor, or is this the night you die?

All rise for the Grand Highblood. Court is now in session.

Terezi answers to the name Redglare, which is enough to convince me that she's fully aware of the history here.