HS^2 bloggin’ mainline 2020-09-29More Homestuck time!  Continuing on the outside-canon pl

HS^2 bloggin’ mainline 2020-09-29More Homestuck time!  Continuing on the outside-canon plot.  Livebloggin’ starts now…> CHAPTER 14. The Best Laid Plans Wait, who’s house is this?  Was this Roxy’s?  (When I saw a glimpse browsing my twitter feed during the debate, I saw Yiffy on the ground accosted.)> (==>) THEY’RE JUST HOME?!?!?????HOW???  HOW could the heat be off so badly?Jane’s arrogant, but one of the CHARACTERISTICS of her arrogance is that she underestimates the character and capability of her political opponents.  How would she NOT consider the possibility that these kids would return home again even while the heat was on??  How would she assume that JOHN would be too smart to come back to–…oh right, she may not know John is involved or willing to do anything.  That’s fair.  But the kids??I’m sure there’s going to be SOME sort of explanation of why the heat is off.  Also, I wonder who made that anti-Jane battle plan chart?  John himself, or Karkat or something?  Karkat’s usually the chart-er.JOHN: wow, i feel like i’m barely keeping myself sitting.JOHN: if it weren’t for keeping you kids safe i’d be out there right now!Hm.  Are they counting on the fact that Crockercorp would KNOW that John and Vriska are both there to intimidate them from moving in against them?  From a sheer difference-in-firepower standpoint after Vriska’s big display?HARRY: and some of us aren’t gods and shit.JOHN: i’m detecting a hint of judgement in your voice, there, harry andersonJOHN: don’t you enjoy being a part of all this? finally getting to be in the thick of it all?HARRY: i mean i was having a fine time at school, if i’m being honest.HARRY: all this tear-assing back and forth between my home and various points of interest over the past few days has me pretty beat.Yeah, most kids don’t appreciate being involved in war.  Even Vrissy immediately showed some regrets no matter how much she liked to think of herself as wanting to get out there.HARRY: also i wouldn’t call this “the thick of it all”JOHN: oof, getting air quotes’d by my own son.JOHN: we had to hide in a forsythia bush on the way back here when that drone flew by!JOHN: that’s the thick of father-son hijinks if i ever saw it!JOHN: well, modern day war hijinks, but i’ll take what i can get, you know??(Be more considerate, John!!)  Hm, so they DID sneak their way back in here?  I mean, John’s powers may have helped them get through unnoticed, but this is still a big stretch.HARRY: i’m not knocking the old adrenaline thrill, or helping out Vrissy’s moms or anything.HARRY: i’m just saying i was literally just here and you told me to leave, so i hope this is where we’re gonna park it for a minute.HARRY: a boy’s gotta breathe.JOHN: yeah, well, this wasn’t my plan, either.JOHN: but rose sent out some false intel about us heading toward my house, so technically this is the safest place we can be right now, since they cleared the area and everything.JOHN: i guess.Ahhhh.  Okay.  Yeah, a Seer of Light can float an attention lure and know it’ll be an effective enough distraction.HARRY: hmm.JOHN: what?HARRY: now YOU look like you’re hiding some extra commentary.JOHN: oh, i don’t need to burden you with all the bureaucratic stuff, it’s boring.HARRY: well now hold up, dad.HARRY: a minute ago you were all “we’re in the fight together,” and now you’re backing out of sharing the details?JOHN: it’s not really-HARRY: am i a part of this or not?JOHN: well i’d sure say you were!JOHN: but i guess maybe my thoughts on what is or isn’t right for the operation aren’t up to snuff.JOHN: because here i am, sitting in the dugout, same as you.HARRY: in the dugout?Mhmm, John’s sore about Rose not counting on John as a heavy hitter.  He got back INTO this in part because he missed all the action and relevance, and now they’re telling him to stop and stand still?  That’s never been a command John’s easily agreed with.  For now, protecting the kids (Blood!) is enough to keep him sitting, but if they (and Vriska) start encouraging him…HARRY: plus i wouldn’t have been able to get your measurements for some clothes that actually fit you if we hadn’t come back here where all my sewing stuff is.Thank god, we might get a non-embarrassing god-pajamas John backHARRY: you were getting pretty into everything back there with rose and them? getting to be with the old crew and everything, like the stories you told me about the game?JOHN: yeah.HARRY: that sucks.JOHN: i had a good plan, too!JOHN: it just wasn’t good enough for karkat, i guess.JOHN: i’m just not “experienced enough in combat strategy”Oh huh, so that’s John’s discarded plan he’s holding.  Karkat’s faction hasn’t quite succeeded the bloody (heh) way so far, perhaps he needs John’s Breath to add some inspiration to it for the most success but they’re not giving him enough credit?  It’s hard to blame them for doubting him, though.JOHN: that is a plus of being here, at least.JOHN: it’s been really nice to get to spend so much time with you.HARRY: um. yeah, it’s not so bad.HARRY: anyway, before you ruffle my hair or anything, it looks like things are getting a bit heated between the vriskas over there.HARRY: maybe we should offer them a snack to bring the mood back down?JOHN: me, mess up your hair when you’ve worked so hard on that look? i do know you at least that well, harry andersonHARRY: thank god.Cute!VRISKA: So you actually want to know what I’m thinking now? You want my opinion?VRISSY: Um…Yes?VRISSY: I’m not Really Sure what’s going on right Now.VRISKA: What?VRISSY: I just was wondering why you’re so pissed off at me.VRISKA: What the fuck are you talking about?VRISKA: I’m not pissed at you, you haven’t done shit 8asically at all since i’ve been here.VRISKA: I just can’t 8elieve I’m 8ack stuck in this tacky rumpusblock after all of that! Both Vriskas are constantly assuming the other Vriska is thinking about them because they’re both Vriska, when they’re really both self-cente– no, that’s not quite true.  Vrissy constantly assumes Vriska is thinking about her when she isn’t, and Vriska is somewhat grated because Vrissy belongs in this universe and she isn’t? Or–Gosh they both have so many issues going on and firewalls up that I can’t actually make heads or tails of it.  Usually what’s on Vriska’s mind is painfully obvious from her dodges, but Vrissy is so oblique with her OWN weird thought processes that– god I dunnoVRISSY: We could do Something if You Wanted.VRISKA: Huh?VRISSY: If you’re 8ored.VRISSY: This isn’t my House, but Harry has video games and Movies and shit.VRISSY: Actually, we’re pro8a8ly 8etter off not watching his movies.VRISSY: His taste is Worse than His Dad’s.VRISKA: AGGGHHH!!!!!!!!They’re from two different worlds, yeah.VRISKA: No, I don’t want to watch a fucking movie! How the fuck can you think a8out movies?????????VRISKA: How are you okay with any of this?VRISSY: Any of What?VRISKA: 8eing left at home like a couple of dri88ling of wigglers! Vriska invests all of her self-worth in what she can bring to the table relevance-ways.  Her self-esteem couldn’t survive the sidelines.VRISKA: How are you so calm right now? Your lusii were training you, right? And you’re a troll, you’re definitely five times stronger than a human! And if you’re my clone, you are way more 8adass than little miss Fussy Fangs.VRISKA: I can’t 8elieve you just stayed 8ehind?!??VRISSY: Well…they told me to. And they’re my Moms. COMPLETELY different lives.  Vriska has never really accepted, never really KNEW what “peaceful life” is actually supposed to be, nor how alluring and satisfying it is.VRISKA: Clearly not a good plan, 8ecause then I would 8e part of it!VRISKA: What’s the point of me even coming to this shitty fake reality if I’m not supposed to fix it? hahahahahahahahaVRISSY: Yeah, they told me about That stuff, but a Lot of the Shit that Happened in the Session if just not in the History Books.VRISSY: You weren’t Really mentioned that Much.VRISKA: Excuse me?VRISSY: People know who you Are, ‘cause we had to Memorize the names of Every one of the Players, Even the ones who didn’t last very Long.VRISKA: You’re trying to tell me that there’s a whole recorded history of SGRUB, and I’m not in it?  VRISSY: You’re not not in it.  VRISSY: I guess they Mostly Focused on the Creators who Ascended, you know? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA–hm, what if some of the pre-retcon timeline where Vriska WASN’T as involved DID fold its way into this one?  Explaining Jane remembering Gamzee showing up early in her session to sell her troll blood when that was (if we’re remembering right, correct me if I’m wrong) erased by the retcon in favor of Vriska time-traveling in in his place?VRISKA: Whoever was schoolfeeding you was a complete 8ulgesucker, because I “ascended” 8efore any of the humans did!!VRISKA: Literally 8illions of years 8efore, since our session was the one that created theirs!!!!!!!!VRISKA: I was the 8ne who 8uided John’s 8uffoonish 8lue ass all the way through his first 8ew days in the Medium!VRISKA: I m8de all the plans to take down the J8cks!VRISKA: I SINGLE H8ND8DLY!VRISKA: CURED YOUR MOTHER’S FUCKING ALCH8LISM!!!!!!!!JOHN: uh, vriska, everything okay over there?VRISKA: EVERYTHING’S FINE, J8HN!JOHN: okay.JOHN: do you girls want a snack?VRISKA: AAAAGGH! HA!HARRY: vriska, eat whatever.HARRY: just not the zebra cakes, those are mine.(Zebra cakes are kinda Barbasol-bomb-like, right? Doom thing, because black-and-white stripes like most of the black-and-white-striped explosives in Homestuck? –Nah that’s a stretch.)> (==>) –That’s not Jane’s head, that’s JOHN’S head giving a thumbs up.  Wow.…Your plan prominently features Yiffy even though you didn’t know she existed until a couple hours ago?JOHN: so anyway, as you can see, this would have worked just fine!HARRY: no i think karkat’s right. this looks like shit, dad.JOHN: you know, me letting your earlier use of the word “fuck” slide wasn’t a blanket approval for all cursing in front of me.HARRY: sorry.HARRY: try not to make such a shit plan, and i won’t call it that.JOHN: haha wow.Harry really is his son, wowHARRY: i mean, i still can’t believe i told vrissy and them to bring a dead celebrity to school.HARRY: what was i THINKING.JOHN: you were thinking it sounded hilarious!JOHN: but yeah, in hindsight, maybe not the best call.JOHN: maybe it’s genetic?HARRY: yeah.Harry really is his son, wowHARRY: i kinda can’t believe we’re all still alive, actually.HARRY: and how did YOU make it this far, being so bad at this?JOHN: i had my friends with me, i guess.Pretty much!Plus, they haven’t really had time to talk about what happened with Dave, yet, and he doesn’t want to tank the mood by bringing him up.Glad John’s taken some time to deal with that offscreen, so he can keep being cheery here.He’d spent so long seeing mostly the best parts of Roxy in Harry Anderson. He forgot, he guesses, to look for himself in there, too. And if what they have in common right now is a lack of strategic foresight, hey, he’ll take it.Hah, fair enough!JOHN: speaking of friends, i will say the snacks were a good call, at least!JOHN: i don’t hear any more screaming, anyway.JOHN: see, that’s one good plan between the two of us!–they left, didn’t they.> (==>) HARRY: oh, that was definitely them leaving, wasn’t it.JOHN: ah. –So was Vrissy peer-pressured along, or practically abducted?> (==>) –Oh, this was the picture I glimpsed and scrolled past on Twitter!  She’s not on the ground, she’s running– good.> (==>) –ALREADY!  Fuck yes!  :D(and those cute paws on jade’s gloves wow)> (==>) –Oh I thought that was an air-lift! No, they were just diving to the ground with her.Man, the pacing of this panel-to-panel composition throws me SO much.  Stuff happens without being properly established, and we’re shown the wrong keyframes to internalize it easily.  (I hope I don’t have to keep mentioning how much I miss Andrew’s talent at it, even though the art WITHIN panels is better here.)So Jane is confronting them with soldiers.ROSE: Oh, is this one of those rare and marvelous beasts, the “villain speech”?ROSE: I’ve written one or two in my time.ROSE: I’m on the edge of my seat. I hope it’s better than your political material; I’ve always found that rather trite.JANE: I haven’t given a political speech in years, Ms. Lalonde. I don’t know what you’re referring to. I’m just a simple business woman.JADE: right with her own talk showJADE: and multi billion dollar merchant company and lobbying groups!JANE: That’s what a business woman is, Jade, dear. –ah, in this perspective maybe Jane DOESN’T have the resources to be “everywhere” yet.  Makes more sense that they could’ve left the home unguarded.JANE: But enough of that. I’ll skip straight to the point.JANE: You are on my territory, in the presence of my secret police, laying your hand on my investment. QUIT DEHUMANIZING THE GIRLJANE: You think I come anywhere unprepared? I haven’t left the house without an armed guard in years.ROSE: Is it the libidinous power rush that comes from snapping your fingers at men with guns, or are you worried that you might accidentally do something heroic? Rose usually has decent snapbacks I guessI don’t think Rose’s plan was to admit themselves into custody like Jane is asking, but I’m not ruling it out.> (==>) (this image is so cute)JADE: wow could you be any more full of yourself??JADE: shut the fuck up for a minute and look up! > (==>) Ahwhoops.  Jane misunderstood who’s in control of the situation.> (==>) Ooh!  That’s threatening.  :)(Tavros is playing along, but he doesn’t HAVE to fake that sweat.)KANAYA: If You Make One Single Move I Will Bite Him Directly On The Exterior Shout TunnelKANAYA:  I Will Turn Your Son Into A Rainbow DrinkerKANAYA: Then You Will Have A Rainbow Drinker SonJANE: That’s not how troll vampirism works, don’t treat me like an imbecile!JANE: You think I don’t know everything there is to know about your disgusting biology?KANAYA:KANAYA: Okay Then I Will Just Break His Fucking Neck HAHYeah, mutual child-threat standoff.  Jane isn’t going to make that sacrifice, AND can’t be SEEN making that sacrifice.> (==>) Jane Crocker hesitates. This is something that she used to do regularly. Hesitate. Stop and think and weigh her options. Talk out every possible scenario and the impact they might have, morally and optically and socially. What would the political apparatus think? What would her social media followers think, her friends? As the years went by and she honed her instincts, she found herself doing this less and less.Yeah, the difference between deserving a Just death or not is whether you’re willing to check yourself and allow another’s will to override your own.  To allow someone who ISN’T you to have a say in how reality unfolds, to consider that what you want may not be right.The impact that her words made became lessened when spread out across such a wide and thirsty audience, as public sentiment began to swing her way. She stopped thinking about how she would be received, and more about how she could play to the people she knew would receive her favorably. Yeesh.  Topical.Looking up she sees Tavvy with tears in his eyes. Rage and guilt surge inside her. This situation is not her fault.Anger is based in fear.  Jane is not just afraid for Tavros, but afraid that she’s at fault.  And the more she fears and has to deny that, the angrier she’ll get.Is it angry enough to make a rash decision here?> (==>) JANE: This situation is not my fault! Jesus, she even said it out loud?JANE: I’m the only one who has taken any interest in her upbringing or education!JANE: Or have you forgotten who has been paying for her schooling and taking charge of her introduction into society?JADE: i never asked you to do that!JADE: you offered!JADE: so stop calling me ungrateful for not sucking your dick over things i never asked for! Taking something that was a clear, ostensibly-selfless gift and using it as a transactional club.  I hate that.  Nothing shows how transparently little you actually believed in the “selfless thing to do” than that.> (==>) She can’t just stand here and let herself be humiliated, allowing two architects of the insurgency mess her around like this. If they were to kill Tavros, the entire world would see them commit this war crime. And weighed in the balance, Lalonde and Harley would be off the playing board. Saving your daughter certainly counted as a heroic death, and with the damage they’d done to humanity, it would also probably be just. Tavros has not called out for her once. Perhaps he knows what her choice was always going to be. Whoa you made that choice pretty easily, psycho-Jane.  Are you actually gonna try it???> (==>) JAKE: Tavvy! Oh shit, the plan!  :D–if Jake isn’t just.  Um.  Taking the threat to Tavvy seriously, not having realized this was a bluff.  Um.  Jake?> (==>) That looks like he’s taking it seriously.  Shit.At least Jane will look like even MORE of a monster if she gives the order this way.> (==>) JANE: Stand down!I don’t think Jake’s gonna listen to you when it comes to Tav’s safety anymore.> (==>) JANE: Get out of my sight. Oh.Is she letting Jade, Rose and Yiffy go?  –probably, but it’s unclear.Damn this panel-to-panel framing not conveying what’s going on properly.Guess that’s it for now!  Patreon Commentary……. I’ve been putting off the commentary backlog for a long time, but I think the Homestuck Commentary coverage deficit still has to wait a while longer because the World Is A Fuck and I have to devote more time to stress relief than usual.  Take care y’all EDIT: extra bit on gamzee corpse here -- source link
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