#s163

From Vriska’s perspective, John basically just confirmed that humans reproduce asexually.

GT: anyway, this thing is kind of a death trap, and i haven't ridden it for years. GT: i think my dad had it installed as one of his ridiculous ways of making a man out of me. AG: Sure. AG: My custodian had her ways of making me tougher too.

:(

It’s probably asking a little much of Vriska to tell John about Spidermom twice in one day - especially when he's going to remember it later anyway.

I don't think Spidermom's ghost should be haunting the dream bubbles, but it'd be just Vriska's luck if she was.

GT: these are my neighbors, who live in a lot of same looking houses as mine. GT: i never see them. i think they're all really busy people with a lot of serious business to attend to.

This is the first time we’ve been given any insight into John’s old neighborhood. It’s funny – his neighbors probably were just busy, but it’s still a little eerie that John never saw them.

Like, I know it’s because they’re irrelevant to the story, but John's comment makes it sound like he's the only person in his town who ever actually existed. I guess that’s true, on a meta level – he and his family were the only actual characters who ever lived here.

GT: hey, your clothes switched suddenly. GT: was that some kind of alien wardrobe warpifying technology? GT: such as a warpdrobe, if you will?

Nah, that'd be crazy.

Skaianet actually patented the Warpdrobe back in 2003, and even the Empress knows not to fuck with their legal team.

GT: you look pretty cool in more normal clothes. not that your space boots and pixie outfit weren't neat. […] AG: So, is this how humans 8egin an earth d8? AG: With simple acts of flattery and kindness? […] GT: is this a date? […] AG: Not until you remem8er something, at least. GT: ok, that's probably for the best. GT: i would probably be pretty nervous on a date with a normal girl, let alone on a… GT: DATE WITH AN ALIEN SPACE GHOST!!!

You really are a sheltered kid, aren’t you?

I can easily see how the whole 'June Egbert' thing would have caught on. There's quite a lot to talk about, there, and I might compile my musings on the idea into their own post later.

For now, I'll just give the tl;dr, which is simply that John's giving enough 'small-town teenager who'll transition in college' energy to power a small continent.

GT: this is my green slime ghost pogo ride, in all its glory. GT: in my childhood, it was hours of fun, and hundreds of painful injuries. AG: Hey…….. AG: This thing isn't slimy at all! What the hell.

Vriska’s chilling out extraordinarily quickly, isn’t she?

I’m starting to think that some time in the Bubbles is exactly what she needs. It’s not like she's even really dead here – not by any measure of mortality that matters. She's still conscious, she's fully capable of thinking, learning and growing, and she even has a sort of 'body' here.

I’m really enjoying these composite landscapes that make up the Dream Bubbles. The way they blend multiple memories like this is really neat, and also hints at the mental state of their occupants.

John’s slowly remembering the game, so his Land is gradually encroaching on his Bubble.

GT: this lake here did not used to be a lake. a long time ago, before i was born, there was a factory here. GT: my dad says there was a huge explosion. he was walking by with my nanna when he saw it. GT: then a little later, my nanna died. my dad never told me how, except that it involved a big joke book.

You really have to wonder what Dad was thinking about all of this.

What was it, exactly, that led him to withhold the truth from his son? Was it simply that he didn’t want John to blame himself for his grandmother’s death?

Personally, I think there was more to it than that.

Dad did have access to Nanna’s joke book, after all, so he must have understood the bare bones of what John’s future held. He always knew that John had some grand destiny in store, but he had no way of knowing when or where it would call him.

This was something Dad had probably been waiting for ever since John arrived – or even earlier, if Nanna was willing to spill the beans - but the moment it actually happened, his capture rendered him completely incapable of helping his son.

Not exactly the same way, mind. Karkat’s Veil appeared to clone each troll from three parents, rather than two – but each of the trolls looks basically identical to the Ancestor who shares their sign, so it's unclear if they have three parents, or one.

I’ve gone back and forth on this, but I currently think the most likely explanation is that the Veil tried to mix troll DNA the same way the Mother Grub does. In other words, each troll might technically be cloned from three genetic parents, but they have only one Ancestor, and the Ancestor contributes the vast majority of that Player’s DNA.

GT: what's happening? AG: We are going on an adventure. GT: where? AG: Through your memories. AG: Through mine too. AG: This would 8e a really fun thing to do on a d8, I think!

Would it? For you, specifically, Vriska?

I can’t think of a single experience you had on Alternia that wasn’t in some way traumatic.

AG: That is my hive, which is a thing that you refer to as a house. AG: It's where I grew up.

GT: holy shit, look at these glittering space riches! AG: Yeah. I was really into treasure hunting for a while.

Which is weird, because I don’t think an Alternian troll has any reason to treasure-hunt.

We don’t know anything about Alternian economics, but I’m not sure we really need to. Alternia functions under an extremely rigid caste system, where your social class is determined exclusively by the biology that you’re born with. Eridan isn’t rich because daddy made some nice investments; he’s rich because he has violet blood, and that’s that.

It’s not like a rustblood can win big at the races, and purchase a hive of Vriska’s caliber – and similarly, it’s not like Vriska will ever be able to purchase indigo status. No matter what treasure she obtains, she can’t actually trade it for a meaningful upgrade to her quality of life, the way you'd be able to on Earth.

Now, I know why Vriska collects it – it’s a status symbol, and serves as proof that she’s a winner – but still, it’s an interesting aside.

GT: is that a rocket car stuck in the web over there? GT: what's that about? AG: Don't worry a8out it! Man, this would 8e such an awkward moment on a d8. Again, if it was one. GT: there's something really familiar about that rocket…

I'm pretty sure John never saw that rocket, but he does own a jetpack with the same theming, thanks to Terezi’s machinations and Sollux’s leet hax.

GT: it's a castle!!! […] AG: As a 8lue8lood, I was entitled to 8uild such a home. Something to set me far apart from the commoners. GT: you built it? AG: Of course not. Ro8ots 8uilt it for me when I was very young. AG: 8ut I was allowed to dict8 instructions. Expected to, in fact.

How young is very young, exactly? She couldn’t have been more than seven when she found Mindfang’s journal, but it’s hard to tell if she'd moved into her hive by then. Her lusus was apparently living in a cave and eating infant trolls, which makes it sound like they were just hanging around the brooding caverns for a couple of years. Was Vriska, for all her bluster, scared to venture out into Alternia?

I mean - if so, I don't exactly blame her. It's just interesting to imagine a younger, more timid spidertroll, who was less gung-ho about throwing herself into danger.

Also, I’d just like to highlight the fact that Alternian carpenter droids are advanced enough to design and assemble custom-built hives dreamed up by toddlers, presumably with zero supervision or direction. That's incredible technology, and there are a million ways you could leverage it to make your citizens’ lives easier - but instead, the bots just build your house and leave.

Alternia could have been looking after its children; it would be trivial for it to have done so. It simply chose not to.

Kill the motherfucker, John!

Tear the thing apart with a tornado, or something!

Nice.