Aspects As Auxiliary Verbs

ROSESPRITE: I kind of relish the idea of being a "less relevant" party member.

Rose always has gravitated toward Void more than Light.

UU: it is the day whereafter the legendary octet of mUtUal progenitoriety will come together and heal a great breach in paradox space. UU: a day delivered throUgh eighty billion years and foUr distinct Universal instances worth of Unfathomable tUrbUlence. UU: and while the emerald eye of this storm is fixed in the abyss forever UU: today yoU are poised to escape its scowl once and for all. UU: by skaias gUiding light, yoU may leave behind its tUrning arms of bright coloUrs and mayhem, and secUre peace for yoUr cosmic progeny for all dUration.

The emerald eye of the storm---the storm of “Unfathomable tUrbUlence“ and “a great breach in paradox space“!

About your Beforus First Guardian post, I think it's super cool but impossible, as the A1 session never had an ectobiology lab meteor in order to create a first gaurdian, or the players themselves for that matter, which is why they had to scratch in the first place.

Oh, interesting point. Hmm…

Although, if that’s the case, wouldn’t the same be true of the Alpha Kids’ session? Yet they managed to make GCat.

I mean, I suppose they could have used the ectobiology equipment from the Trolls’ meteor, but…

I don’t think it was so much that the Beforus trolls lacked an ectobiology lab as it was that the trolls originated from the post-Scratch (Alternia) session instead of the pre-Scratch (Beforus) one, so they needed to scratch in order to ensure their existence.

This is what Doc Scratch said on the matter:

Though they could not recognize it for the bad omen it was, this session was not the one in which they had been spawned. Such is the symptom of a subtle glitch affecting certain sessions, an error designed to trigger an unfathomable cascade of misfortune throughout paradox space. This glitch is the calling card of the one I serve.

It says nothing of ectobiology equipment or lack thereof, just in which session the trolls were spawned.

Also, Beforus would have had a first guardian regardless, because:

Every planet destined for intelligent life has such an entity meant to protect it, and facilitate the planet’s ultimate purpose.

So yeah.

This can’t be coincidence.

I realize I haven't posted anything in quite a while, and I apologize. I haven't been as active on Tumblr lately, but I'm still around.

I have some upcoming ideas and theories that slowly have been coalescing. Some projects include a Class wheel (and theories expanding upon it), MBTI personality and/or psychological disorders of the various Homestuck characters, and ideas relating to a third Scratch. And of course I have other post ideas, as well. No ETA on any of these, though.

I also have a few asks in my inbox I've been meaning to answer. I haven't forgotten, and I intend to respond to them.

On another note, I've delved into Steven Universe and Undertale. Now, this blog's primary focus is Homestuck, but considering how much the fandoms overlap, I'm considering including posts related SU and UT, too. Making separate blogs is another possibility, although it kind of sounds like a pain. I haven't decided anything yet, though.

Feel free to shoot me any questions or thoughts.

Thanks, everyone, for your support and patience. :)

Comments on [S] Collide

Better late than never, I suppose. This ended up taking me longer than I thought. Plus I procrastinated on posting it. >_<

So, a bunch of battles take place:

The Condesce vs John, Roxy, Rose, and Kanaya (+ Jasprose, Nanna, and Jane)

The Felt vs Jake (+ Jane and undead army)

Cans vs Arquius (+ Dad)

Clover vs Karkat

Jack English vs Spades Slick vs Dave, Terezi, and Dirk

Bec Noir vs PM vs Jade

Yaldabaoth vs Caliborn

Hussie vs Vriska

Lord English vs the Ghost Army (including Meenah, Tavros, Aradia, and Davepeta)

The Fraymotifs are awesome! I love the Zazzerpan tornado callback from [S] Enter, and also Kanaya reading a book and applying lipstick while the others attack!

I’m guessing Kanaya never bought any Fraymotifs, or she would have used them. (They are insanely expensive, and I think Vriska and Terezi were the only ones who earned tons of boondollars. Plus Kanaya was focused on frog breeding.)

Roxy’s Void attacks are glorious. I have no words.

Wait, when and how did Die get his doll back?

Arquius attacks Cans by summoning robo-horses and bashing him repeatedly with the fridge containing Gamzee.  Hilarious yet ominous!

Cans does his fourth wall-breaking attack by punching everyone out of the panel and onto LOFAF.  Remember, Karkat was last here in Echidna’s lair, and he woke up when LE did the Rainbow Death Laser on his dream self. So now he can battle! ...With Clover. XD

So Crowbar kills Jake, and apparently the Condesce kills Rose and Kanaya, because Jane does the Lifey Thing on all three of them.

John uses the Fear No Anvil hammer! Nice callback!

It looks like Nannasprite attacks the Condesce with heavy objects from John’s house? But it doesn’t seem to affect Condy, and instead hurts John and Roxy?

Jake. Jake what are you doing. XD

Casey’s undead army! Hooray! I can mark that on my bingo card!

Dirk uses a Zilly Santa weapon!

When Dirk dies, Terezi and Dave use an amazing Fraymotif. From what I can tell... Terezi does the Mindy Thing, and envisions (at least) four alternate paths.

Then Dave selects the most favorable path’s timeline? Or he merges the most favorable choices into one timeline? It results in there being three splintered, living Dirks who then seem to merge.

And Slick somehow has two cuestaffs, one in staff form, another in gun form? I’m guessing the Slicks merged, too, then. So a timeline merger makes the most sense. Either way, nice callback to Slick riding the horse hitcher!

Dad is so powerful and strong, he intimidates Cans and Arquius! That really says something!

The battle between the dogs makes a nice parallel to a Cherub mating ritual, with PM as the Cherub heroine.

Interesting, though, how PM has a red background, while Jack has a green one.

Glimpse of Yaldabaoth’s face:

Vriska vs Hussie. This is hilarious and ridiculous! Also I guess this is a Problem Sleuth allusion? (And also looks like Caliborn’s art style, haha!)

As the interlude of “Eternity, Served Cold” (song from [S] Caliborn: Enter) plays, Alt!Calliope approaches the Green Sun, the processional cracks in Paradox Space are nearly complete, Lord English faces the ghost army, and Caliborn defeats his denizen and obtains the house juju and God Tier clock. This is... incredibly ominous, to say the least.

Also, the God Tier clock is stopped dead center with the Time symbol, I suppose indicating Caliborn’s earned immortality?

Serenity brings hope to the heroes! (I assume this is Serenity flying to different locations, rather than multiple fireflies?) Interesting how it first focuses on her body spiral, especially because [S] Caliborn: Enter ended on the red sun spiral right before this part of the song could begin. (Post on this here.)

Another callback!

The Mayor and Serenity reuniting is so adorable and heartwarming! :’) <3  (They’ve been separated since sometime before Year 2 of the meteor journey)

Tavros’ lance is made of Fiduspawn host plush bears, haha! (Apparently he had this weapon in [S] Make her pay.)

Aradia uses her Time spell while she, Meenah, and Tavros attack Lord English. Hehe, I love Aradia, and also I love all these callbacks!

Looking at it closely, it looks like Aradia makes Time for them, freezing LE in time, like she did before with Bec Noir. Meanwhile Meenah attacks very similarly to Dirk’s soul destroying spell; she must be stealing his Life force. (Shouldn’t it be cyan, though, like Jane’s Lifey Thing? Although, actually, Feferi’s Life powers are fuchsia, too. I suppose the color depends on the Life player’s color.)

Then it looks like LE tries to speed up the time Aradia made? Or otherwise do some sort of Timey Thing that resembles Dave’s record being scratched and then repaired. And then he breaks free.

Okay, this looks familiar, like a callback. But I can’t place where it’s from. This is bugging me!

This scene from [S] Game Over is the only similar reference I can think of, but it’s too different:

Ghost Army attacks! And also Shrek with his son Eridan ...who does not have ghost eyes? Hahaha, what even?! (Hello there, god tier Sollux and Latula ghosts! Nice to have sprites of Mage, Doom, and Mind garb!)

Davepeta! Undertale reference! THIS. IS. THE GREATEST. THING. EVER! I love this so much I am giddy!

I mean, Heart+Time basically IS Determination! So perfect! Also Davepeta has 33 HP, with reference to Nepeta’s number and how Davepeta uses the B33 emote.

A pink dream bubble next to a shrinking green bubble. More foreshadowing of the Green Sun’s destruction and the creation of a Pink Sun?

I’m really worried for Jane. I hope she’s not dead. We barely got to see her fight, and her showdown with the Condesce happened offscreen. This isn’t right.

Heir of Grief is such a lovely song! As is the sequence with the Beta Kids.

On LOTAK, Gamzee’s still in the fridge and crying. I never thought I’d say this, but... I... actually feel bad for him. :(

Love Crowbar’s stunned reaction to Jake defeating the felt. Also, victory for Karkat! He defeated the smallest, yet MOST DIFFICULT Felt member! Also Clover’s so kinky! XD (More on Karkat and Clover here.)

Jade auspisticizes Bec Noir and PM! But PM is so furious, she overcomes her Bec loyalty instincts and KO’s Jade, favoring her goal (Breath) over her bond (Blood).

That look of defeat on both Dirk and Dave... They know what must be done. :c

I am reminded of Dirk’s “shoulder to shoulder and to shoulder” line. Also Dave breaks Dirk’s Unbreakable Katana. For the first time since his death on LOFAF, Dave time travels to create stable time loops.

I already commented on the black hole with 2/3 of LOTAK and Gamzee, which is incredibly ominous.

PM slices off Bec Noir’s arm, KO’s him, and take the ring! This is not the first time a Jack has lost an arm to a kismesis who’s a queen.

Roxy takes down the Condesce?! Doesn’t Condy have an conditional mortality curse that her killer should inherit? Or was that transfer unique from the Handmaid to the Condesce? I guess it’s unclear. I’m incredibly skeptical of Condy being dead for good, though, considering her curse and how Terezi survived impalement (at least for a while).

It feels like Jane really got shafted in this upd8. She didn’t have much action or screen time, and basically her battle with the Condesce happened off-screen. If anyone should have taken down the Batterwitch, it should’ve been the heiress to Crockercorp. I guess we’ll have to see if Condy’s certainly dead.

That ending, though... That eerie ringing sound, the screen freezing and going static...

The clockwork mechanism being completely still and then fading to black on a white background... This is incredibly ominous. Not to mention those curtains didn’t close. (Compare Collide’s act closing to Cascade’s. In Cascade, the window curtains, though shredded, still closed.)

Some follow-up questions:

Where did Sollux go?

What happened to DD and CD?

How is it the comic went straight from A6A6I5 to A6A6A6 with no curtains closing to indicate the Intermission’s end?

But yeah, I am left with the strong impression this is a false victory. Lord English isn’t defeated, anyway, after all.

Wonderful flash, though! Major applause to everyone involved with making it! Looking toward to, yet incredibly uneasy and anxious about the upcoming finale.

Special thanks @hzapping for showing me how to make animated GIFs (ended up in the Clover post) and for helping me locate a bunch of reference links.

For anyone interested to know more about me, I finally got around to making an About Me page on my personal/reblog blog. Not a whole lot there, but at least it’s something.

From Clover’s perspective, the fight between Karkat and Clover is a leprechaun mating ritual.

Instead their charms comprise a spectral continuum of more su8tly varying types of relationships, most of which are esta8lished in mutual chicanery, such as the exchange of pranks, coy riddles, slapstick shenanigans, and games of chance.

ARANEA: No charm is specifically tied to procre8tion, though any type of relationship could 8egin waxing concupiscent if lady luck should so decide. Certain charm com8in8tions are known to 8e more conducive to fertility than others. If the leprechaun pair has 8een so 8lessed, they will 8egin an ela8orate coupling procedure culmin8ting in a lively m8ting jig. The jigs are specific to the charms of course, similar to how different kinds of music lend themselves to various styles of dance.

A sta8le relationship consisting of three or more charms is called a trove. These advanced relationships are often viewed as the ideal end result for a romance, much the way certain pairing rituals are for humans.

Clover’s eyes even flash the star-heart-horseshoe charm when Karkat hogties him.

Karkat is a Blood player, the aspect of bonds and relationships. Even though Clover is extremely lucky, and thus generally unbeatable, Karkat defeats him by unknowingly forming a bond with Clover (and literally binding him).

Classpect Profile Guide

In my previous post, I posited a theory that all standard classes and aspects can describe an individual, beyond the Hero Title and subrole.

Here's a step-by-step process of how to determine a Classpect Profile, all 12 roles. I will use myself as an example.

1) Divide the aspects into 6 complementary pairs/opposites:

Space & Time

Light & Void

Hope & Rage

Heart & Mind

Breath & Blood

Life & Doom

2) Look at each individual aspect, and consider how you typically interact with it. (See Aspect Keywords post for reference. bladekindeyewear and infinitywhale go into more depth here and here.)

For interactions, here are some keywords for class types:

Manipulate/Change (Witch/Heir)

Understand (Mage/Seer)

Destroy (Prince/Bard)

Create (Maid/Sylph)

Redistribute (Thief/Rogue)

Apply (Knight/Page)

You can also use these keywords for individual classes:

Control (Witch)       Influence (Heir)Experience (Mage)       Study (Seer)Demolish (Prince)       Deconstruct (Bard)Generate (Maid)       Mend (Sylph)Take (Thief)       Share (Rogue)Exploit (Knight)       Empower (Page)

3) Next to each aspect, write the class keywords you think might fit. You should be able to narrow each aspect down to a few potential keywords.

(Note: I recommend starting with the 6 class type keywords instead of the 12 unique ones because it paints a larger picture of the class themes, but if you’re confident (or feel lazy), feel free to start with the 12. You can also mix and match, but just be sure to distinguish types from individual keywords, or it may become confusing down the line. For the purposes of this guide, I’ll start with the 6.)

Possibilities, in my case:

4) Eliminate any keyword that doesn’t have an inverse under an opposite aspect. Inverse keywords are Manipulate & Understand, Destroy & Create, and Redistribute & Apply.

For example, in my case, Manipulate and Redistribute Space don’t have inverses—Understand and Apply—for Time, Space’s opposite, so I can remove them as possibilities.

Narrowed results:

5) Split the class type keywords into individual class (–/+) keywords.

For example, Apply, keyword for Warrior classes, divides into keywords Exploit (Knight) and Empower (Page).

(Note: If you started with the 12 individual keywords, Steps 5 and 6 aren’t necessary.)

6) Narrow your results by removing any class keywords that don’t fit your interactions with an aspect.

7) From there, eliminate class keywords without an inverse keyword for its opposite aspect, just as before. Inverses are Control & Study, Influence & Experience, Demolish & Mend, Deconstruct & Generate, Take & Empower, Share & Exploit.

For example, in my case, Mend Space doesn’t have an opposite Demolish Time, so I eliminate Mend.

8) Use the process of elimination to figure out the rest. No duplicate keywords/classes are allowed, so remove any duplicates of those already solved.

(Note: All class keywords will be used, so if you’re missing any, you’ll have to go back and reconsider your options.)

For example, in the previous step, I narrowed Light and Void to Influence and Experience. That means I can’t use Influence or Experience for Hope and Rage, which narrows Hope and Rage to Mend and Demolish. Likewise, I narrowed Heart and Mind to Empower and Take, because those were the only instances I had of those class keywords.

Simple process of elimination narrowed my results considerably! Most of them are solved!

That just leaves two classpect pairs I’m unsure about, or 4 total.

9) For any remaining pairs left to solve, look at each class description more closely…

…And figure out which descriptions most accurately fit your interaction with each aspect.

In my case, I feel like Knight fits better than Maid for Space, which narrows Space and Time to Knight and Rogue, respectively.

I still can’t determine Breath and Blood, as Maid and Bard both seem fitting. I use dahniwitchoflight’s Aspect posts as a guide, looking at descriptions for all four. Bard of Breath sounds especially like me, and Maid of Blood more than Bard of Blood.

10) Convert the keywords back into classes, and that’s it! You’ve now determined your full Classpect Profile!

I like using my Classes Chart and Aspect Keywords to create a brief description of each of my 12 roles.

Example:

Seer of Life: Invites understanding of/with/through Life (life force, energy, growth, power, persistence, wealth, boldness, enthusiasm, efficacy), guiding others.

All 12 seem pretty accurate to me!

How to determine a Hero Title and subrole Look at which aspect pair has the strongest influence on your actions and perspective. Most likely, it will also match the dual class pair that most accurately describes how you naturally operate in general. Both class and aspect are important to consider, especially if you have difficulty narrowing either down to one pair.

One of those classpects will sound like you at your best; it’s your area of greatest potential and method of having a maximum impact on reality. Its opposite/inverse classpect is your primary focus when you are stressed and in an unhealthy frame of mind, yet it’s also something you can put to good use. You’re probably naturally skilled with both classpects.

Your Hero Title is your best, ideal, and healthiest state, and your subrole is the stressed-but-useful state. Sometimes it’s easier to figure out your subrole first and invert it to discover your Title.

As for me, I am a Seer of Life! My subrole is Witch of Doom.

Alternate possibilities? If you’re not fond of your Hero Title, go with the alternate roles that have the next strongest influence in your life. Most likely, these will be the classpect pairs in which you can easily distinguish a “healthy” role and an inverse “unhealthy” role.

In my case, Heir of Light Mage of Void and Sylph of Hope are strong alternate Hero Titles. (Ugh, why do my top three aspects have to be the color schemes I most dislike? Void is awesome.)

Using an alternate role won’t be as ideal as your primary role, but it’s still a useful option.

Now what? After you’ve determined your Classpect Profile and Hero Title, I highly recommend learning more about each of your 12 roles in Dahni’s Aspect posts. Then use your Classpect Profile however you like!

I hope this guide was helpful and informative!

Happy 4/13!

My friend @musings-and-moldwork and I made a cake in honor of this day. She made and baked the cake, while I made the frosting and iced/decorated the cake. We had several hiccups (e.g. the frosting being too soft), but all things considered, it turned out pretty well (and it was delicious :9).

Happy birthday to Homestuck, John, and Jane!