[network] @librarian; Evening 309; video/text [open]

[cahooted]

[Flynn would actually prefer to keep this text only but his disdain for touchscreen applications and his love for talking out loud get in the way, as per usual.]

So I hope everybody is doing okay, in a more or less okayish manner or some variety thereof. We had a bit of a difficult time lately with the memory twists and confusion and, you know, usual side dish of general horribleness going around. I'm just gonna assume that the demand for distraction is high and I am happy to announce that there have been some new additions to the library, especially our somewhat scarce fiction section.

Hello to all our newcomers, too. You have already received the important guides and information at this point, I'm sure. For those of you I haven't had a chance to speak with yet, my name is Flynn Carsen and I'd like to add some of the more leisure-oriented material to your reading list – but please, put a particular emphasis on your immediate survival, thank you.

As you will soon realize the evenings after lockdown can get long and tedious and there is not much going around in terms of entertainment, so: There is a joint effort to compile an e-library of reading material people have found during their travels or have brought with them into the city.

[He switches to text at this point, if only for convenience's sake.]

You can access the current collection here.

Among our newest additions are:

• A story about a seagull. Very post-modern, very disjointed symbolism. For fans of Ulysses, House of Leaves and Dadaism, not necessarily in that order.
• A novel about two rivals, seeking the fountain of youth to claim immortality and infamy. Predictable but fun.
• A story about a haunted house coming alive. Might hit a little close to home in this deathtrap of a city but the writing's of decent quality. Don't read when you're traveling alone.
• A bunch of manuscripts from an unknown Norfinbury author. Particularly happy about this one. There's even some screenplays in the mix. Some are already up, more will be added over the next couple of days.
• A billiard magazine. Lots of pictures. A little depressing, the rooms are very nice. Good for a cry if you miss spacious lounges, velvet couches, scotch tumblers or being rich.

I'm also happy to announce an original tale by our very own Hans Christian Andersen about a [cannibalistic animal murder mystery] badger.

As per usual, stay safe and warm and and try not to die.

Comments

[cahooted]

Thanks. [Casually glossing over your trolly pottymouth here, mister.]

Sure, I'll do that. Maybe there's something in the collection she's interested in.

Oh hey! She said you guys are royalty, is that true?

[quadrangle]

[.....................]

WHAT.

[cahooted]

Yeah, she said you're of... Prospit and Derse? I think those were the ones?

[quadrangle]

OH. OH *WOW*, FUCK, I FORGOT ABOUT THAT.
NOT PROSPIT AND DERSE, I MEAN THE... UGH. NO WE'RE NOT ROYALTY, THAT'S SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT.
LOOK IT'S COMPLICATED AND I'M NOT SURE THAT I WANT TO GET INTO IT BUT SHE WAS PROBABLY FUCKING WITH YOU. ROSE DOES THAT A LOT.

[cahooted]

Oh.

[Well. It's not exactly the first time this has happened to him but he bristles nevertheless, clearing his throat and crossing his arms self-consciously.]

Well then. That's good to know, I was wondering where you guys could possibly keep your crowns.

screams and throws things at this goddamn canon

[quadrangle]

[... This guy. Karkat's going to sigh at him even if he can't see or hear it.]

LIKE I SAID, IT'S COMPLICATED. *AND* I HEARD MOST OF IT SECONDHAND BECAUSE I ONLY EVER WOKE UP ON PROSPIT IN TIME TO DIE HORRIBLY, WHICH DOESN'T HELP MATTERS.
LIKE IT'S... FUCK. YOU HAVE TO UNDERSTAND THAT THE KINGS AND QUEENS OF PROSPIT AND DERSE WERE TOTALLY SEPARATE FROM US. LIKE WE WERE VENERATED AS SHIT, BUT MOST OF US WERE SLEEPING ALL THE GODDAMN TIME. LIKE I WAS.
AND THEN AS WE PROGRESSED, THE AGENTS OF DERSE SURE AS FUCK DIDN'T CARE WHAT ANYONE'S STATUS WAS. THEIR WHOLE GOAL WAS TO SABOTAGE OUR EFFORTS.
SO WHEREVER WE STOOD IN THAT GENERAL HIERARCHY WAS ULTIMATELY MEANINGLESS? EXCEPT FOR THE FACT THAT IT ALSO SIGNIFIED THAT WE WERE PLAYERS.
I STILL DON'T GET WHAT MADE SOMEONE A DERSE OR PROSPIT DREAMER. MAYBE IT WAS ARBITRARY.
AND THEN THERE'S THE WHOLE FACT THAT ON MY TEAM AT LEAST, SOMEONE *WAS* AN ACTUAL TITLED PRINCE ON TOP OF BEING ROYALTY ACCORDING TO MY SPECIES'S TOTALLY FUCKED UP RECKONING, AND THEN THE PERSON WITH THE HIGHEST STATUS AMONG US WAS CALLED A WITCH.
SO BASICALLY YEAH SURE, ROYALTY OF DERSE AND PROSPIT, BUT IF YOU'RE TRYING TO DRAW SOME CONVENIENT PARALLEL BETWEEN THAT AND YOUR HUMAN CONSTRUCTS OF WHATEVER THE FUCK THAT MEANS, YOU'RE DOING IT WRONG.

i never enjoyed being canonblind more

[cahooted]

[Wow. That was a trip from start to finish, it's almost like a riddle in itself. A bizarre, absurd riddle but alright, maybe he'll give it a try. Flynn reads Karkat's explanation several times and...

No, he has absolutely no idea what Karkat just said.]

I'll... take... your word for it?

[May or may not read through it another time.]

So you guys had teams and slept a lot?

yes god please never read homestuck save yourself it's too late for me you must go on

[quadrangle]

[... Wait. Wait, what.]

YOU MUST BE JOKING. I REFUSE TO BELIEVE IT.
HAS DAVESPRITE *NOT* TALKED YOUR HUMAN EAR OFF ABOUT SGRUB, SBURB, AND THE END OF THE UNIVERSE? HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE.
I'M NOT EVEN GOING TO START ANSWERING YOUR QUESTIONS UNTIL WE CLEAR UP THIS BASIC PREMISE BECAUSE GOD THERE IS TOO MUCH TO COVER. AND EVEN THEN!
WE'LL BE HERE FOREVER AND BARELY SCRATCH THE SURFACE AND FRANKLY I DON'T WANT TO GO INTO EVEN THAT MUCH DETAIL. SO JUST
TELL ME WHAT YOU ALREADY KNOW AND WE'LL MOVE ON FROM THERE.

[cahooted]

Sbu... how do you pronounce that? Sburb?

Gotta admit, I haven't really talked to him about his world... But the end of the universe doesn't sound very good.

[He really is absolutely clueless.]

[quadrangle]

OH MY GOD.

[He doesn't know how to handle this. Or, okay, fine, he absolutely knows how to handle this, he just doesn't want to. Fuck, if not Davesprite, why couldn't Rose have said something?]

REALITY-ALTERING VIDEO GAME. ONLY THE GAME ACTUALLY *IS* REALITY, AND THE END GOAL IS PROPAGATING REALITY AS A WHOLE. OR AT LEAST ONE NEW UNIVERSE.
PROSPIT AND DERSE, THEY'RE LIKE... PART OF THE SETTING, LORE, SOMETHING LIKE THAT? AND THE BLACK KING AND QUEEN, BOTH OF DERSE, ARE THE END BOSSES.
PLEASE TELL ME YOU AT LEAST KNOW A LITTLE ABOUT VIDEO GAMES BECAUSE THIS IS GOING TO BE A REALLY SHORT CONVERSATION OTHERWISE.

[... also no. No he is not going to pronounce it for you. He don't wanna talk, you can't make him (except you probably can if you ask but still shh).]

[cahooted]

Of course I know what video games are.

[He has Snake on his flip phone, okay? ... He doesn't have his flip phone but back home he was getting pretty good.]

So you're playing the game but the game takes place in real life? Okay, that's fascinating.

How does it work? Magic?

[quadrangle]

AGAIN, THE GAME IS REALITY.
SO REALITY IS ALTERED WHENEVER YOU DO THINGS. LIKE REMODELING A HIVE? THAT SHIT ACTUALLY GETS REMODELED.
OR HOME. HOUSE? HIVE IS THE SAME THING AS HOME OR HOUSE.
THE SERVER PLAYER IS THE ONE WHO GETS TO ALTER THINGS AROUND YOU. AND THE CLIENT PLAYER, THEY RUN AROUND DEFEATING MONSTERS AND GETTING BUILDING MATERIAL FOR THE SERVER TO REARRANGE THINGS WITH.

[cahooted]

Oh! So it's a bit like Dungeons&Dragons? [That he knows!]

One is kind of like the game master, setting the world, and the other one does the quests?

[quadrangle]

[... holy shit, Flynn really is a nerd.]

KIND OF? BUT THE SERVER PLAYER ALSO HAS QUESTS TO DO BECAUSE
UGH, MAYBE I SHOULD START FURTHER BACK. SO ON ALTERNIA, MY FRIEND SOLLUX ADAPTED THE CODE FOR THE GAME FROM SOME RUINS ARADIA FOUND. I WAS THE FIRST PERSON TO PLAY, BUT THERE'S A CRITICAL JUNCTURE AT WHICH YOU ARE LITERALLY TRANSPORTED OUTSIDE OF YOUR UNIVERSE AND TO A NEW, PERSONAL PLANET THAT ORBITS SKAIA. THAT'S WHERE THE QUESTING HAPPENS.
FROM THERE YOU *HAVE* TO FORM A CONNECTION CHAIN SUCH THAT YOUR ENTIRE TEAM IS TRANSPORTED TO THE MEDIUM WITH YOU AND DOESN'T DIE TO THE METEORS WHICH ARE NOW RAINING DOWN ON YOUR HOME PLANET.
WHOEVER CONNECTS FIRST HAS TO BE THE SERVER PLAYER FOR WHOEVER CONNECTS LAST. SO MY SERVER PLAYER RAN THE CLIENT PROGRAM FOR HERSELF, SOMEONE ELSE BECAME *HER* SERVER PLAYER, AND ON AND ON UNTIL I BECAME SOLLUX'S SERVER PLAYER.
SO EVENTUALLY EVERYONE'S DOING QUESTS ACROSS EVERY SINGLE PLANET, BLAH BLAH, BLAH, WITH SERVER PLAYERS MAKING ADJUSTMENTS TO THEIR CLIENT PLAYERS' HIVES MOSTLY IN TERMS OF INCREASING THEIR HEIGHT. FOR REASONS I'LL GET TO LATER.
ARE YOU WITH ME SO FAR.

[cahooted]

[The

longest

pause.]

... I guess.

[quadrangle]

[Sigh.]

DO YOU WANT ME TO BREAK DOWN THE REST OR ARE YOU GOOD? BECAUSE IF YOU'RE NOT GOING TO GET IT ANYWAY AND LALONDE IS TAKING OVER, I'M PRETTY MUCH DONE HERE.
I TOLD YOU IT WAS COMPLICATED. THIS IS WHY I USUALLY JUST STICK TO EXPLAINING SHIT ABOUT TROLLS INSTEAD OF GODDAMN TIME TRAVEL AND PARADOXES AND FUCKING GENESIS FROGS.

[cahooted]

Genesis fr--

[He bites down on his lip, unsure if he wants to open up another can of potential confusing weirdness worms. Or frogs.]

Hey, I'm trying, okay? [It's really not his fault your world is so weird, Karkat??] But yeah, sounds, uh, very complicated.

[quadrangle]

I GET THAT, YES.
SO DO YOU WANT ME TO KEEP GOING OR ARE WE DONE HERE?

[cahooted]

[...]

Okay, I'll bite. What are Genesis Frogs?

[quadrangle]

[... Nngh. You can't see him, but he's rubbing his forehead.]

UNIVERSES.
I MEAN THAT EACH ONE IS LITERALLY A WHOLE UNIVERSE. PART OF PLAYING AND BEATING THE GAME INVOLVES BREEDING A NEW GENESIS FROG WITH A VERY SPECIFIC GENETIC SEQUENCE.
YES I KNOW IT SOUNDS ABSURD. TRY ACTUALLY LIVING IT.

[cahooted]

You're breeding a universe. That is also a frog.

[He regrets asking. Just a little.]

Oookay.

@tentacleTherapist; text

[knitpick]

Don't get too caught up in the technical details.
To put it simply, the game is reality's mechanism for self-propagation.
All universes will eventually expire, and when that time comes the game will manifest within it.
Those that play have the chance to create a new universe of their own should they beat it.
The server and client setup, Prospit and Derse, building up the houses and everything else are all just mechanics of the game.

video

[cahooted]

I'm trying really hard not to.

So where does it come from? The game, I mean. Or is that like the big theological question in your universe? ... Universes?

[This is so confusing.]

[knitpick]

Something like that.
I'm afraid I have no solid answers for you.
It's an unseen hand that writes this story, creates the game and decides our titles and lands and whether a death is just or heroic and everything else.
I imagine it's more a cosmic force of reality itself than anything tangible or truly sentient, but I doubt we'll ever really know.

[cahooted]

... I have to admit that from an outsider perspective it all sounds rather fascinating.

Can't be easy to live it, though.