Homesuck: Vriska Rising

[Bard The 5th LW]

Don't get mad at me

[Arcanum]

Originally Posted by Locke cole

Alternia recognizes 48 zodiac signs.

Probably.

Since the trolls correspond to the zodiac signs of Earth (i.e. the seed planet in the universe they created) I figured the 48 Alternian zodiac signs was an offhand reference that the session that created Alternia's universe had 48 players.

[rpgdemon]

Why 48? That's never made sense to me.

There are 3x the number of kids as there are trolls. 12 Trolls, four kids.

Wouldn't 36 make more sense?

[Marc v4.0]

Originally Posted by rpgdemon

Why 48? That's never made sense to me.

There are 3x the number of kids as there are trolls. 12 Trolls, four kids.

Wouldn't 36 make more sense?

Not if there isn't a correlation between the number of astrological signs and the number of players in the next session.

Just saying, it doesn't have to mean anything.

[Art of Hilt]

Originally Posted by rpgdemon

Why 48? That's never made sense to me.

There are 3x the number of kids as there are trolls. 12 Trolls, four kids.

Wouldn't 36 make more sense?

12*4=48.
Hussie probably didn't care about the number, just that there was a number and that MAYBE but not necessarily it was divisible by four.

[Revising Ocelot]

Originally Posted by Loyal

...really, Bard? Really?

For that matter, really, RO?

What I was implying was Scratched trolls, but don't mind me, I'll go stick my head down a toilet and flush for being a GIGANTIC FUCKING RETARD. AGAIN.

[Locke cole]

I believe that I once saw someone link to a list of real constellations that added up to the right number.

Included stuff like Draco, which made me wonder why Terezi didn't have that sign. (the reason is obvious, but still)

Oh, by the way, big updates on Hussie's Formspring. Including some info about the nature of Gamzee's power.

[Kerensky287]

I sort of wish he'd stop acting like it was so self-evident.

Gamzee made an angry face and then a clown appeared. How the fuck are we supposed to infer:

Originally Posted by The HussSpring

It's not clear that he is getting in touch with his in-game powers, like John did with the windy thing, or whether withdrawing from his sopor slime haze is bringing out psychic powers he would have had anyway.

The latter would make sense for his bloodline though. If this were a common ability among subjugglators, it would help explain why they're able to hold power over all lower classes.

It's implied that they're very strong and dangerous, in addition to being insane and unpredictable. But this by itself doesn't necessarily explain why they'd be able to keep power over such a huge population of similarly dangerous trolls, which also have many deadly powers. Especially since, also implied, the higher the blood, the longer they live. This means lower classes must be much more copious than higher classes. The lowbloods die off much more quickly, and so must be spawned in greater numbers. Those with high longevity can't afford to be spawned in such numbers, or the population would be out of control. At the top of the hierarchy is the Empress, who lives for thousands of years. There is only one of her class, discounting her successor.

For the subjugglators in their small numbers to keep such a large population under their control, it would be very useful to have the ability to psychically amplify fears through dreams. They may have directed their chucklevoodoos on every susceptible mind in the population. Each lowblood may have a little highblood voodoo doll lurking in their subconscious, making them too terrified to organize any sort of rebellion.

Additional notes:

Now knowing he had this ability, we can wonder whether he used it during his rampage, in addition to using it on John/Dave. Did he use the ability to befuddle Terezi into pinning the crime on Vriska in spite of laughably overwhelming evidence to the contrary? Turning Terezi against Vriska was likely the only way he could kill Vriska, due to her cerebral "luck neutralizing" ability. Did he exaggerate Karkat's fears to destabilize the team? What about Equius? Maybe he exaggerated his fear of failing to show a superior deference, to the point of incapacitation.

Originally Posted by The HussSpring

He didn't add Jack.

He amplified John's fears in his dream to take the form of a voodoo doll that looked somewhat like Jack and was dressed like a clown.

This made him subconsciously scribble clowns all over his wall, which made his dad think he was into clowns. So his dad began collecting harlequins believing he was sharing in John's interests.

He then got him the big harlequin doll for his birthday. The doll was maimed, lost an arm and an eye, and was prototyped.

The clown prototyping caused Jack to become especially angry at the queen over the new dress code. All of this lead to big problems.

from what we saw?

[POS Industries]

He doesn't seem to be acting like it's particularly self-evident at all there, though. In fact, even his response regarding whether this is a natural psychic ability or part of his in-game power set is a tad vague, though it obviously leans more toward the former. I mean, yeah, he acts like a smug douchebag in most of his formspring posts, but I don't really see him doing so here.

Also, I realized why the "Aradia" we saw in this update wasn't Aradia: Her hair is different, and everyone in this story has the same haircut from the day they're born to the day they die. And after they die. And become a robot. And then are alive again.

[BitVyper]

Edit: Oh you mean the thing about it being his troll powers. Nevermind then.