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#frankly I feel like an imposter in even claiming my own damn identity because of how distant I feel from my heritage
beanmaster-pika · 1 year
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You ever think about traditions that died on your birth
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abundantchewtoys · 4 years
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Homestuck Candy p17-23 (holy shit)
So, yeah, this baby coming up.
I wonder if there's going to be callbacks to Dirk's art for Caliborn in any form. ("jake no, what are you doing - to our baby?")
John can't erase this baby in any case, since no retcon powers.
I wonder if we're going to learn its name. I kind of like one of Blaperile's theories, that he would name a boy after his Dad... It would reveal one of those long hidden mysteries in Homestuck.
Otherwise... Liv? :P
Theresa, after Terezi?
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Page 17
Oh wow.
OH WOW.
Yeah, now we're getting to the juicy bits.
The candy is turning into diabetes around John. Details about the past are getting vague for his friends, the harmony trumping the validity of their experiences. It's all turning out a lot more existential for John in this path than I thought!
"Harry Anderson Egbert", heheh. But yeah, John has a good point. He wants his wife to have some identity, but it's like she's ... malleable, or something. Everything shapes around each other and forms the least offensive shape.
On the one hand, I want to imagine Vriska Lalonde-Maryam and Harry as childhood friends, growing up together.
On the other hand, I wonder what there is in store for this John. He's lost his retcon powers. But he says Terezi is the only thing that still makes sense to him. So maybe, if he rejects this reality, he can escape it again?
It all is going to depend a lot on what Terezi has to offer. (Going by the assumption it really is Terezi, by the way, not an imposter.)
It would really be something if this John, a twenty-four year old now, crosses back into the Meat timeline. He'd be leaving a lot behind, and frankly, be a shitty husband and father by going through with it. But yeah, Meat John is dead, has been for some time.
Jegus, John keeps filling his own dead self's shoes. Alternate John who dated Vriska. (Okay, in fact, in that situation, it was more of an inversion as the other John continued his developing relationship. On the other hand, for Davesprite, alpha John must've felt like the replacement John in the beginning.) Post-Retcon John who was killed by Typheus. Even Poppop Crocker, when he met up with B2 Dad.
The Candy path is definitely shaping up to be quite suspenseful, all expectations be damned!
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Page 18
Wow.
Jake's so much more mature here. I want to see more of this man.
So yeah, it had occurred to me that part of the reason Gamzee hooked up with Jake and Jane could be because he was somewhat thinking of a) the other Page he was attracted to, and b) the Hope and Life players in his session, who were close to him on the hemospectrum?
But... I hadn't imagined Gamzee being Jane's kismesis. But it works so well. Got to say, it brings back memories of him on her land during the session.
So Jake and Jane had a baby! The first cross-species naming, then. After Tavros.
It's remarkable, isn't it? Dad, GCATavrosprite, Jasprosesprite^2, Nannasprite, Nannasprite*2... They fell on the wayside, we have no idea what happened to them. The sprites could've dissolved, we didn't seem them in the official credits after all, only the extra possibly outside-of-canon snaps, explaining why Jake would name his firstborn after Tavros. But Dad?
As for Jade and Davekat. Wow. Well, I guess, I really want to know now whether this revelation is also canon.
Cause Jade is either intersex or trans now, after fusing with Beq. (Also, it might be a dog penis, but capable of transferring human DNA? *Shudder.*) I can understand this would make her uneasy in exploring sexual options with Dave.
Wow. Yes, it seems that things are, in a very different but equal sense than in the Meat path, very raw and heartwrenching in this timeline as well.
At the start of the page, I started thinking for a minute that Gamzee would also find something off about the timeline. It would have been something for him to join John in pursuit of relevance, truth and all that. But no, it was just to bait Jane, it seems. If anyone, it would be Jake who might go through something similar as John.
Guess we'll have to wait and see.
Still said to see Jake getting the small end of the relationship stick, once again. Boy has no luck in love.
It was interesting to get Jane's honest take on politics on Earth C. If she and the others had just been honest with each other, they might have been able to struck an accord. Alas, through Dirk's meddling, it was not to be.
Also, it was funny to have Gamzee refer to the 5000-year skip in sweeps. Yeah, that... That doesn't convert well.
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Page 19
Wow that took a turn!!
I thought it might have been time for them to discuss their relationship. How Jade has turned into the third wheel stopping the Davekat bicycle from taking off.
(Those references to Jane and Jake, I could've gone about.)
But then.
Something hit.
I thought instantly it would've been the other Jade. A moment or two I thought an ecto baby or First Guardian infant, for these three to take care off in lieu of a biological child. But no.
It's really REALLY the Postscriptum Jade!! (Well, I hope it's her, and that the Postscriptum doesn't take place on Future Candy Earth C.)
She "escaped" the black hole, into relevance, the PS said. So... It seems... As if...
Dirk was very much wrong.
Candy Earth C is going to play an important part in what's to come, yet.
Unless this Jade has only come to lift some of the people here away, like the mentioned Blue Fairy.
But in any case... It seems Davebot and Aradia can't be far behind.
This idyllic fantasy, who's already shown cracks, is about to be shattered.
What hit Jade, though, it almost seemed like those shards from the Furthest Ring, though it was called massless, here.
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Page 20
Wow.
So, this Jade is suffering from a metaphysical poison. Just like John was from Lord English's tooth. Only... This Jade went into the black hole, and last we saw she was okay.
Is it because she's back in the "real" world that it's affecting her now?
For a minute there I thought Jane and Kanaya and Karkat could actually *explain* their grievances to each other. But no, alas. Karkat, validly I must say, just exploded with everything he's pent up.
Gotta say, if the trolls are getting antsy in this timeline, just imagine how it was going to pan out in the Meat timeline! I'm reminded of the troll rebellion that was referenced in the non-canon snaps.
Also, of course. OF COURSE, these Vriska and Tavros would clash on their first meet. Everyone should've seen this coming.
If anything salvages this scene, it must be Jake being able to placate the two toddlers. It's that sort of attention that Joey and Jude deserved to get from their Pa.
It's interesting to note how Rose is no longer sure about their situation. Maybe that's the influence of this corpse and its heavily-dripped-in-canon origin.
Roxy keeps being almost a vanilla version of herself, although the intent to hold a corpse party is horribly in character for her. Still, she feels less *real* than the other characters, who all seem to be kind of recovering from their diabetes-filled state.
John and Roxy, and Dave, Karkat and Jade are in dire need of some therapy, in any case. It was nice to see Karkat telling Gamzee off though. And weird to see Jane and Roxy keep jumping to his side. Like, they have no idea of the history here, and seem to think anyone can redeem themselves if they try hard enough. It kind of shows how they're not really all that streetwise.
Oh, forgot to mention - John has a moustache now. A manly one. Dear god, he's gone full Sassacre :P
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Page 21
WHAT THE SHIT.
WHAT THE SHIIIIT.
WHAT THE SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIT.
Roxy was right. The chances of all of them coming together like that, with all the stuff going on between them, are so infinitesimal.
But then she got into labor, and I thought that was that.
But
But
So, Aradia and Sollux turn up, and when I heard Jade had the shard still in her torso....
It would seem that this Jade isn't Postscriptum Jade... Yet.
Aradia and Sollux found a way out of the Furthest Ring on their own??? And somehow ended up on Earth C without explanation. Just when last page I almost thought as if all missing trolls mentioned in the epilogues' ToC were going to end up appearing as babies to the characters.
Karkat and Jane are in dire need of an actual debate.
Rose's lack of a good consolation was hilariously described.
But of course, the meat (Meat) of this page.
Is that Alt Calliope found a way through the Black Hole into the Candy path, and sent Reload Jade's corpse through it.
And just like in the Candy path, alpha Calliope is scared off. But it bears mentioning that Calliope herself was acting kind of weird, and was weirdly absent for a lot of the pages. It almost seemed to set her up as the narrator of this path, trying to give everyone what she thought they wanted. The fact that she and Roxy "broke character" for a moment was one of the things pointing in this direction.
But now Alt Calliope is here.
The narration is about to force everyone to confront who they really are. For better or worse.
I wouldn't be surprised if this ends with Candy Earth C as the battlefield seen in the Postscriptum. But what does that imply for Meat Earth C, where Alt Calliope ALSO put her influence to work.
She may claim not to influence, but even when she retreated into the narration, the atmosphere wasn't just magically improved over there.
Aradia and Sollux talking with Gamzee was... weird, but funny. I wonder if they are supposed to have aged some sweeps in the meantime. We know Gamzee must be about 8.5 sweeps now, while Karkat and the other trolls are about 11 sweeps.
I guess it's time we learn what Alt Calliope understands under "protecting" a world. I don't think Meat Dirk is coming over there, though I'm unsure what his grand design really is.
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Page 22
Oh my god.
what is happening.
So Alt Calliope's influence didn't really do anything at that point but upset the group.
And now a 3 year time skip took place. So... wow. They're all 27 now.
And the troll ghosts that were sucked into the black hole are appearing everywhere now. The government is going bananas, but in fact, it must all be repetitions of the same 24 trolls, how weird is that.
I'm sure that in due time, some human ghosts will be appearing too. But this is just getting ridiculous.
Karkat went underground and into the resistance. Jane, as the shadow president, is secretly maneuvering things to invade the troll kingdom. This was supposed to be the Candy path, I thought it was going to be all shits 'n giggles!!!!
I do like that John, finally, after years, is starting to realize Terezi doesn't share anything about her at all. He asked for a picture, which I guess is nice. But, just like in the Meat path, he's torn up about the girl that he didn't stay with.
This has "disaster waiting to happen" written all over it.
Calliope seems to hunker after Roxy, but she still doesn't act on those feelings. It's like a twisted inversion of the Meat path.
It's like, all the sugar we started with has been turned into energy, and the rush has dissipated, and now there's only a tummy ache.
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Page 23
Wow.
What the shit.
I could only root for John and Tavros' relationship. Seems like the little man is very sharp for his age. Since Harry is into atomic clocks as well, it seems that the tradition of children being into adult subjects like philosophy and psychology and science, continues.
But alas, it was not meant to be.
John finally couldn't take it no more, he had to scream what he'd internalized for so long. But it turned into something really messy, towards Jane and Jade. All valid points, but by losing control he most importantly scared Tavros and Harry Anderson.
The reaction of the other people was so... empty, though. Non-confrontational to a fault.
And I agree with John, Gamzee has apparently set himself up as Jane's subjugglator.
For all that Alt Calliope was saying, she sure seems to have NOT used any influence, though. And things very much have gone to shit here.
It was very cool to get to know Tavros and Harry Anderson as people, though. Tavros is indeed a kind of brother, biologically, to John (and Jade, and a half brother to June and Joey) in appearance. But it's like, personality-wise, he's more like a sad but smart version of Tavros. While his speech is colored in Gamzee's purple, ugh.
And Harry Anderson... A prankster in the making, for sure.
So, what is Terezi going to talk to him about? Is she talking to him from the end of the Meat path, just before she left Earth C? Or is she talking to him just after the other John died. :(
I can say this: I didn't think for a millisecond I would get THIS attached to people from the Candy path.
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