Today I’m reading.
05/16/10- "==>” (/homestuck/1859) to 05/19/10 - "John: Press blue button.” (/homestuck/1886)"
Select this thingy to read my commentary
Many of the adventuring kids in this story are no longer bound to a computer, they’ve adapted their technology with the “alchemy”. This means they are not spending as much time in their bedrooms. You may remember much of this story started with the kids playing SBURB in their rooms. I think this scene shows this a little bit. Davesprite was outside of Daves room and since Dave wanted to talk with him he also left his room.
Now at this time we also know there is some crazy stuff happening with the Derseite Kingdom and the new rulers are up to some shenanigans. Jack noir has committed Regicide, killing both his king and queen. We know his 3 accomplices are out in the medium causing trouble. We saw a thwarted attempt from “Courtyard Droll” (CD) to steal the white ring of power. Jade managed to prevent that. As Dave leaves his room to go hang with DaveSprite the “Draconian Dignitary” (DD) sneaks into Daves room through his window.
Dave’s conversation with his future self is about how it's weird that he has a copy of a book Rose was told to destroy by the old old gods and how that can't possibly be a bad idea. This is just Dave being ironic though and him receiving affirmation that he needs to actually destroy that book and not be an idiot.
Of course upon returning to his room the book is now gone. He’d use time travel to see who did that but he notices his own bloody corpse laying on the ground. Not even his bedroom is safe anymore it seems. Fortunately being surrounded by a lake of lava he can just dispose of the corpse by chucking out the window.
John is in an ecobiology lab way out in the veil. Somehow this place is connected to his father, Rose's mother, Dave's brother, and Jade's Grandpa. John finds a terminal for displays which may be an Apperifier of some sort. We have seen these before but John has no idea what this is. He tries some buttons and sees a feed in the top right screen. This is a feed of a place John is familiar with as it’s his old neighbourhood. It's from a few months prior to his birth and there is a Betty Crocker factory there that he doesn't remember.
Zooming in, John sees his own father walking with his grandmother. The system targets his grandmother. Shortly after a meteor falls onto the Crocker Factory, the explosion narrowly misses his father and grandmother. If you remember way back on page 545 John accesses the family vault. There are newspaper clippings mentioning this exact event.
John hits the blue button. Normally this would take the targeted object out its place in the timeline and appearify it into the present. The Rose had used to take Jasper from her own past (page 931). But we also know that if this is attempted with something which would change the timeline the device will only create a green sludge copy. The DNA of that item can then be used. The one John is using goes a step further and places that sludge into one of 4 glass tubes.
John changes the view to 4, bottom right. This shows Jades island 2 days later. A large yacht near it, a boat named “Jade”. The story tells us that Jades Grandfather was the owner of the Croocker Factory that was just destroyed. Baby Jade is on the yacht somehow with Roses patchwork bunny. The system targets her grandfather. A meteor is seen in the distance but it's not near them. John creates another sludge copy this time of Jades grandpa. It is also stored in a vat.
John changes to view 3, bottom left. This shows the next day. A huge urban city in central america had been hit by the meteor that we just saw. Dave's Brother is next to the smoking crater. His favourite record shop is now gone. The system targets big bro. Another meteor flys over head. John presses the button again. Filling the 3rd vat of sludge.
John changes to view 2, top left. This one is on the day of his birth. April 13th 1996. There is still a huge crater where the Croker Factory was. South of that there is a strip mall (This are not common everywhere so I’ll link to what this means).
John's father is outside of “The Prankster's Gambit”. Roses mom walks nearby with baby Rose in her arms. The story tells us she is working for Jade's grandpa to investigate the “celestial anomalies”. A meteor crashes down onto the joke shop. Johns grandma was still inside. Roses mother flees the scene leaving her scarf. Johns father suspects the owner of the scarf knows something. We see Rose on a hill also playing with the bunny, though one that she hasn’t altered yet.
This means the bunny from Con Air, given to John by Dave on his 13th birthday, is somehow given to Rose as a baby. Later she will modify it with knitting, and it will somehow end up with Jade as a baby. The bunny exists in multiple places at the same time.
It also means that all of the guardian characters are linked by this mystery. John Presses the button. The 4th vat is filled with green sludge. The machine begins to execute a process.
Till tomorrow, keep your chin up, it’ll help you see any incoming meteors. Also, keep riding the pumpkin tide.