#s175

Let's watch those dominoes fall.

Cassiopeia Constellation 

When a Denizen make a request of you, think twice before assuming it’s impossible.

The wall? The fucking Fourth Wall?

What, are they escaping into Problem Sleuth?

Scratch is the one who directed Gamzee's actions. Sound off, is literally anyone surprised by this development?

Get real. The only surprising thing about this is that Scratch is manipulating a boy for once.

Eh?

Wait, what?

DID THEY MAKE IT?

DID THEY MAKE THE GREEN MOTHERFUCKING SUN?

...no.

...NO!

Scratch! Scratch, you rat bastard! You set everyone up perfectly, and you really, actually never lied about it!

You said the Tumor could destroy the Sun!

You never said it would!

Doc Scratch has just kickstarted every session in existence.

Every First Guardian in the entire multiverse owes their life to him, and who the fuck knows what sort of exploits he implanted into the Sun.

The absolute gumption of PM, squaring up against this version of Jack.

It seems the Queen chose her successor well. This woman has balls of neutron degenerate matter.

...he can’t do it.

Even with everything at stake, the Authority Regulator can’t sacrifice his new friend.

And the reward for his mercy, of course, is death.

AR, I will never forget you. You were really only a bit character, but you were an S-tier Carapacian.

A shiver's starting to run down my spine, because I think I've just figured out what the Frog Room is for. It's obvious, really.

..Jack, how the fuck did you know about this?

Wayward Vagabond you need to vomit right fucking now

NO!!!

BAD DOG! NO!!!!

This one.... this one hurts, guys. He did nothing wrong.

And that was how he moved sessions. Alright, now I completely understand why these stations needed to be destroyed.

Finally.

Oh, nice - we're actually getting to see the summoning code, then? Am I going to be dusting off my ~ATH theory posts for the first time since 2022?

Oh, for fuck's sake. I can't read that, it's in some sort of ... English language. Bleh.

Is this... Scratch's mansion? Inside the Green Sun?

Am I to understand that the Sun actually contains the remains of the Alternian universe? I know Cascade depicted the two universes as through they were 'inside' the Tumor bomb, but I didn't think it was quite this literal.

Uh, Scratch?

Scratch, are you good?

Oh, god.

Scratch is English, isn't he?

They're the exact same entity - or perhaps two facets of the same entity, like Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Scratch was never really summoning English, he was fulfilling the requirements to become him. That's why he's so fanatically loyal to the guy.

And what’s the God Tier clock’s role in all this?

Is English making use of God Tier revival, somehow? Is he a God Tier Player himself, but one who's managed to cheat the normal Just/Heroic resurrection rules?

Great - he's still got his First Guardian powers, too.

Both Derse kids were sure they were going to die, so they clearly had no idea that the Quest Slabs were an option - nor did Aradia appear to inform them. This was purely an incredibly lucky break.

So, it turns out every Player in this session is destined to be a god. How often does that happen, I wonder?

The Tumor is apparently a machine, which is news to me. Looks like the bomb is powered by the session’s universe of origin, as well as its creator universe... for some reason.

I don't know what to make of any of it. Does every session in the kids' universe have a Tumor containing such a device?

Two lovers have ended their deadly dance.

...or, perhaps this is the dance, concluded.

So ends a world recently liberated.

I really do think the place had story potential, but that's for the fanfic authors to figure out.

The Ring, PM! Get the White Queen’s Ring!

It’s yours, by right of succession, and you don't have the same baggage that WV does! Wield the Ring, and make Jack regret sparing you! Shit, make him regret meeting you! Make him regret being born!

A very special God Tier Player is about to be born.

It’s nice that these two got to reunite, in the end.

I guess the kids could also escape through the Temple’s time capsule, but they’d really just be trading a dying session for a dying world. It's not really worth it.

I didn’t think Jack even knew what a Quest Bed was. He killed John on his, after all, but didn’t bother to teleport to the Battlefield and finish the job.

Anyway, this has to mean that she can merge with Jadesprite. We’re about to meet the strongest being that Paradox Spade can conceive of: a fucking God Tier First Guardian!

The kids might not be using the time capsule, but our villain is happy to take advantage of it. He seems to know a lot more about the game’s mechanics than I ever gave him credit for.

Now we know how he left the session – but this still only gets him to Earth, which feels even farther from the Alternian session than he already was.

Looks like it’s time to clean house for the Exiles. :(

I hope he at least got to finish Complacency before everything went to hell.

WK and WQ have both been slain.

If we were still keeping score, this would have been an official win for Derse...

...but the White Queen yet lives.

Enjoy your new session while it lasts, kids. Given everything we know now, I can't imagine it'll go particularly well.

Yup, it looks like this guy is even more immortal than normal. No conditional deaths for our Lord English, methinks.

Scratch's head seems to be connected to the God Tier clock in some way - but which came first? Did Scratch create the God Tier clock for some purpose, or did he mold himself in the image of an already existing artifact?

What the fuck is up with this clock?

...it's fucking Cal.

Of course it's fucking Cal. Of course the final boss of Homestuck is a supercharged Lil' Cal.

It makes a lot of sense, too, that Cal's face was what was hiding behind Scratch's cueball. This was probably a major reason why we never saw English's face until now - because doing so too early would have tipped us off to Cal's role in Scratch's creation.

The Vast Honk has been released.

The juggalo prophecy was about Lord English all along, then. They are, and always were, a doomsday cult, presumably founded by the Handmaid in times long past.

Alternia was raised by Scratch, and consumed by English.

It’s joined to these bastards at the hip.

And that’s that, then. Scratch’s grand plan has finally came to fruition, spawning an instance of English out of his own body.

As we move into Act 6, we should hopefully learn how this arrangement came to pass, how it works, and how to disrupt it. For now, though, I'm still just reeling - mostly at the fact that we're going to be fighting Cal.