Homestuck

We’re back to the main story finally! We last left John leaping through the first gate. We got a peek of this place in the last act when granny tossed a copy of Sassacre down below the clouds. A dark and cloudy planet we now know is the Land of Wind and Shade (LOWAS). Our intro to this act is a big interactive segment where we play as John exploring this land.

– tangent –

This segment has a really great song playing in it called “Doctor”. This theme will come up a lot mixed into many later works. I’ll mention here again that in the original experience we didn't get the handy music credits for these. The band camp also only credited the artists on a whole album so I had no idea who made what song. This means I didn't learn about who Buzinkai was until long after my initial read. I didn't learn that we had lost them or why. I won't tell their story here. I feel those stories are best told by those close to the subject and not some internet rando’s like me. But I will mention that I think this is a really great song as are the others composed by them. So let’s appreciate it and the artist that made it.

— end tangent –

We can start by chatting with Nana who is our guide to this. She suggested we need to chat with the locals of this land. He asks if Nana was always a prankster or if the prototyping with a harlequin doll made her this way. Nana just gave him a sass answer. It's also worth noting that the player in that case Isn’t known yet. But they seem more polite than our Wayward Vagabond.

The Imps have changed. Some now have elements of princess, cats, and squids. Nana tells us this is because Rose has prototyped her sprite. It seems other players in the session will alter the entire world. John asks if he can get to Rose but Nana mentions he can't yet.

It’s shown at one point that by jumping through the first gate John got warped to the surface. Nana explains John now needs to find a gate on the surface. She doesn't really explain where that gate goes.

The locals are cute salamanders calling themselves the “Consorts” of the land. They seem to eat glowing mushrooms. But they really hate farming them. They also speak the language of bulbs.

They are pretty much bullied by “agents” or “underlings” the imps and ogres John has been mashing up. The title of “Archagent” that Jack Noir has now makes more sense. The agents are causing issues for the consorts. The land's covered in pipes and some are now clogged with crude oil. They’ve also been damaging sacred monuments. The monuments are to frogs. Nana tells us that frogs are very important to John's quest.

The Consorts speak of a hero “the Heir” who's meant to come and save them. They heavily imply that John is this hero.

The Consorts also speak of “the slumbering one”. This slumbering one can make the wind blow again and free all the fireflies who are stuck in the thick clouds. There is a big open pipe with a river of oil flowing into it. John mentions he hears something sleeping within it.

Again, the land is covered in pipes. The wind blows through them creating a pleasant sound. Many got clogged with oil from the agents. Some stick out of the ground like mailboxes. The Consorts call these Parcel Pyxides (vessels). These act as a delivery system like phemonic tubes. You're able to drop stuff into them and find items in them. These include

• Serenity! The bug friend of our wayward vagabond. But this is in the past so they are still stuck in amber.
• a jar of bugs
• 3 mini tablets. These are stone Captchalogue Cards one is blank the others have a fedora and a shoe. Apparently dropping these into a Parcel Pyxis means you are asking for this item. If you receive a carved one your duty is to provide that item.
• one oily cog
• a cruxite dowel, this is just given to you by a salamander
• an exquisite pipe
• an elegant pipe
• “Illegal contraband” which seems to just be a frog
• a bunch of rocks and mushrooms not sure if John canonically took these.

Other things of note about this sequence.

• one of the Consorts has the harlequin doll that fell below clouds way back on page 266. He offers to sell it to you for 5 Million boondollars. This shows that these are actual currency.
• I remembered what trickster mode was when doing this thing. It just makes John shrug here. Also, I've gone back and commented on some of my older logs. These have strange effects in some of the interactive sequences.
• There's a glitch with one of the Parcel Pyxis that when an item pops out from it the item will float up endlessly.
• you can use the Barbasol bomb, and attacking with your inventory works in the game.
• you can throw the box of gushers around and shale will come out
• One notable Consort is CrumpleHat. He has a crumpled hat and claim to have dishonored his ancestors by wearing it
• Another notable Consort is a wizard. Though really he is just wearing John's oily bed cover as a robe. John was too weirded out to ask for it back.

The interaction ends when you leave a path. It just hard cuts to black. I thought it was broken or something.